Tuesday, July 21, 2009

Falling For Romeo Falling For Romeo by Jennifer Laurens


My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Nice chic lit. John and Jennifer have been next door neighbors since they were young. Despite being inseperable when they were younger, they've grown apart during junior high. It has always been somewhat of a race to the top, or a "whose better" competition for them. Everybody thinks John's perfect and when he decides to go out for the school play, which has always been Jennifer's forte, and gets the lead which makes Jennifer furious. Not only that, but they have to play Romeo and Juliet and actually kiss in the play! Jennifer and John deal with pride, jealousy and the tension between each other. Not to give too much away, I will stop there. How do they survive the drama production? Read on... yourself.


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Friday, July 17, 2009

Blue Ice and Other Stories from the Rink Blue Ice and Other Stories from the Rink by Frank Ewert


My rating: 2 of 5 stars
This is a slim collection of 6 short stories based on ice hockey. Great for middle school readers or higher and for the English student interested in writing (you can see the structure of story writing). You don't have to know much about hockey to enjoy the stories.

I'm not a huge hockey fan hence the low rating.


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Hate List Hate List by Jennifer Brown


My rating: 5 of 5 stars
This is a must read! A cautionary tale of mis- and non- communications. Do we really know others completely, or can they surprise us? Partially for fun as well as out of anger, Val creates a hate list of things and people she hates at school. Her boyfriend, Nick, joins in and it becomes their working manuscript...... until Nick starts shooting those on the list.

How does Val react? How do the students and community deal with the trauma?

For those popular students and those on the periphery this novel indicates what can happen through bullying, ignorance, superiority etc. A thought provoking story. Val survives; the story is rooted in her inner strength and willingness to search for answers within herself - others are not so lucky. The one 'far-fetched' aspect is the introduction of Bea - just a little too fairy taleish in an otherwise realistic haunting novel.


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Saturday, July 4, 2009

The Hunter's Moon (The Chronicles of Faerie: Book One) The Hunter's Moon by O.R. Melling


My review


rating: 3 of 5 stars
I am overdosed on fairy - vampire - magic books. If I had read this 6 -12 months earlier I may have given it more stars. Now, being Irish I genuinely enjoyed the banter and collquialisms throughout the novel and pictured the geographical sites as they were expertly described. The story was interesting and woven with finesse. A good read for those of you who delight in faerie stories and like to escape from reality. I'm just ready for a bit of realism now.


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