The Betrayal of Natalie Hargrove - Lauren Kate (2009)

I read this book because my co-blogger lent it to me because we love Fallen, Torment, and Passion by Lauren Kate and thought this would be good as well. Assumptions were wrong.

The only character I liked in this book was J.B and he died after the first 100 pages. This book was written well, just the plot wasn't any good. It is a modern remake of Macbeth by Shakespeare, I read the plot summary of that before this book to know what to expect and after reading this book I thought it was just plain weird. On reading Mac's blog on this book I thought she was being a bit harsh, however after reading it I completely agree with her. If you want to read this book I suggest you give it a miss and read Fallen instead.


For plot summary; see Mac's previous blog.

Airman - Eoin Colfer (2008)

Although I've never read artemis fowl, I have read the supernaturalist and I really enjoyed that so when I saw this in an op shop for $2 I bought it.

I really enjoyed this book, although it was slow in places and talked a lot about the mechanics of aeroplanes, it had a nice story and it does that thing where it could be true but you're not sure. I really liked the character of Linus Wynter, who was always determined to stay optimistic even in the darkest times.

Conor Broekhart was born in a hot air balloon, leaving many people thinking he was born to fly. As he grows up with his best friend Isabella, he learns about the science of flight from his much loved teacher Victor Vigny with funding from King Nicholas, Isabella's father. However, when Conor is fourteen and he and his teacher are on the verge of being the first people to fly, Victor and King Nicholas are murdered by the evil Bonvilain. Conor witnesses this and Bonvilain then sends him to the little saltee prison and tells his family and Isabella, to whom he had just professed his love, that he died trying to protect them. However as a form of psychological torment, Bonvilain tells Conor that his family and friends hate him and think he killed the king. Eventually Conor breaks out of Little Saltee and saves Isabella and his parents from being poisoned by Bonvilain by building and flying the first plane in history. An adventure story with an emotional twist, if you liked Eoin Colfer's other works or any adventure type stories this is a book for you.

Queen of Babble in the Big City - Meg Cabot (2007)

This is the sequel to Queen of Babble by Meg Cabot, and it was part of the omnibus that contained the first novel that I blogged about earlier today. Once again it is similar to all of Meg Cabot's other books that I've read, however it is still pretty good.

I enjoyed this book just as much as the previous one, however I didn't find the plot as interesting as the original. It is still written in Meg Cabot's humourous fashion I just found that the plot wasn't as good as the first novel, however if you enjoyed the first book you will enjoy the sequel.


Lizzie Nichols has moved to New York with her new boyfriend Luke and is now living with him. She gets a job after weeks of looking, at a wedding repair shop however she ends up working for free by accident. Because she doesn't have any money Chaz offers to put a word in for her at his father's law firm as a receptionist in the morning. During the rest of the novel Lizzie fantasises about marriage to Luke and convinces herself that he bought her a ring, obviously that fantasy goes horribly wrong and ends in a break-up. There are many other twists and turns in the novel but it ends up with a marriage proposal from Luke to Lizzie which goes unanswered as it is the last line in the novel. If you enjoyed the first novel you will ceratinly enjoy this one and I'm sure you'll be reading about the third book from me sooner or later.

Queen of Babble - Meg Cabot (2006)

I bought this book because Meg Cabot is one of my favourite authors and I have enjoyed many of her books, including the princess diaries, missing and size 12 is not fat. Fortunately I bought the omnibus of this and the sequel because it was only $9 at an Angus and Robertson closing down sale.

I enjoyed this book like I enjoy all of Meg Cabot's books, most tell the story of a girl, with some sort of individuality, that loves a boy who she thinks doesn't return her love and never would. This book is a nice light read with a happy ending (I love happy endings) and if you like Meg Cabot's other books or rom coms in general, you will enjoy this one.


Lizzie Nichols is going on a holiday to London to be with her long distance boyfriend, Andy, for the summer however once getting there she realises that Andy isn't very nice after all and just wants her for her money. As Lizzie has a non refundable ticket to return home after a month, she travels to France to spend the holiday with her best friend Shari who is staying with her boyfriend Chaz at his best friend Luke's vineyard. When she is on the train to France she meets a very nice American to whom she tells of all her recent troubles with Andy and who consoles her and is very kind to her, however little does she know that it's Luke, who owns the vineyard she is staying at. A humourous tale then follows which ends with Luke breaking up with his girlfriend so he can be with Lizzie. I personally enjoyed size 12 is not fat & size 14 is not fat either more than queen of babble as they had a little more meat to the storyline, but to each their own and I did still enjoy this book and would recommend it to any romantic comedy fans.

Starcrossed - Josephine Angelini (2011)

I bought this book at dymocks because I saw it on a recently released display and I thought it looked interesting. It turns out it was a pretty good decision.

I loved this book so much that I hate the author for not having the sequel released yet. It may have many similarities to twilight and other books of the genre, but it was still an excellent read with some nice humour and an interesting plotline that has me so excited for the sequel. It makes me really sad that it doesn't come out until May next year.

SPOILER ALERT
The story starts with Helen, a girl who lives in Nantucket and has always known she can do things that others can't, and her best friend Claire who has always just accepted her. They learn of a new family that is moving to Nantucket, the Delos family, who are famous around town for their wealth and good looks and although everyone on the island is excited to see them, Helen gets angry and grumpy when they are mentioned. When she first sees Lucas, one of the five Delos children, in the school hallway, she immediately attacks him to try to kill him. She gets attacked by a stranger a few weeks later and the Delos family fight them off for her, she runs away but then hears them catching up to her so she starts to fly by accident and in mid-air she realised what has happened and faints in the middle of the sky. Lucas catches her right before she hits the ground and breaks her fall and they lie together all night in the hole they've formed by crashing into the ground. When they wake, Helen realises the crying women urging them to kill each other are gone, and starts to fall in love with Lucas, she also becomes close with the Delos family and learns that she, like them, is a demigod. As the story continues Helen and Lucas fall further in love, however cannot be together as it will cause a war of epic proportions, soon Helen's mother Daphne, returns to keep Helen away from the Delos family and ends up telling her that she and Lucas are first cousins and can never be together, even though it is not true. A massive battle follows, in which many complicated things happen which are hard to explain if you haven't read the entire book, which I strongly recommend any people that enjoy this kind of fantasy/sci-fi genre do. Overall I thought this was a fantastic book and I would recommend it to people that enjoy complicated fantasy/sci-fi stories.

Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy (1877)

This was one of the hundred free books that came with my ereader, and last year when I was in Sydney and finished both my books I decided to read this as everyone tells me its a classic and is pretty amazing. It has taken me so long to read it because I found it so boring and hard to read so I read all my other books that I wanted to read before I finished it.

I can understand why this book is a classic, however I wouldn't recommend it to anyone these days unless they had nothing to read and a spare couple months to read it. I can see how it was so controversial in the time period it was written in, and why it became so popular, however I find Tolstoy's habit of putting thoughts in quotation marks confusing, as I never can tell if the character is speaking or thinking. I thought Anna Karenina was very annoying, and only continued reading the book for Levin's storyline.


SPOILER ALERT
This book follows two main characters, Anna Karenina and Konstantin Levin, over a number of years. From the very start of the book Levin wants to marry Kitty and he proposes to her at the end of the first part of the novel, however Kitty refuses as she is waiting for a proposal from Vronsky, who she has been spending time with and is in love with. Vronsky does not propose to Kitty, because he has met Anna Karenina, and has fallen into deep love and infatuation with her even though she is already married and has a child. Kitty is heartbroken when Vronsky doesn't propose to her and she falls ill becuase of it. Anna tries to refuse and ignore Vronsky's attention, however after spending time with him, she realises that she doesn't love her husband and never has and succumbs to Vronsky's charm. Anna tells her husband of her affair with Vronsky and he tells her to break it off and they can continue as if it had never happened. Anna becomes pregnant with Vronsky's child and continues her affair with him against her husbands wishes, then has his daughter, Anna, who her husband becomes attatched to. Anna's husband refuses to give her a divorce, and tells her that if she leaves she must leave her son, which she does even though it breaks her heart. Kitty then returns from abroad and meets Levin once again and after a discussion of the past they decide to get married. Kitty soon becomes pregnant and gives birth to Levin's son, Mitya, whom he does not love straight away. Anna does not love her daughter at all, she misses her son and is only staying in this terrible situation because of her love of Vronsky, however she soon becomes jealous and paranoid about Vronsky being with other women, even though he loves her more than anything. This paranoia and depression soon consumes Anna and she commits suicide by throwing herself under a train. Vronsky is then overwhelmed with grief after Anna's death and decides to volunteer to go to a rebel war in Serbia, and Levin finds his faith and realises that he loves his son. Overall this is a good book, but could be written in five hundred pages rather than one thousand, as there is way too much uneccessary political debates in the book that aren't relevant anymore, I'm glad I read it, however there are more interesting books that I would read instead of it.

The Replacement - Brenna Yovanoff (2010)

I bought this book at the same 40% off sale at borders that I bought bittersweet and this is a very different kind of novel to it. At first I thought it was yet another vampire novel, however after reading the recommendations by Maggie Stiefvater and Lauren Kate I decided to give it a chance. It turned out not to be a vampire novel, but an eerie science fiction novel that is very different to others in its genre.

Although it's not the best science fiction novel, it is still certainly worth a read. The Replacement is Brenna Yovanoff's first novel and I look forward to furture books by her to see her more of her quirky imagination and confusing writing style.SPOILER ALERT
This story follows Mackie Doyle in the town of Gentry where a baby will die every seven years and everyone just ingnores it. Every seven years a baby is taken from its crib and a replacement left in its place to die, Mackie Doyle is a replacement who survived because of the love of his sister, Emma. However as replacements are allergic to iron, blood and consecrated ground, Mackie is doomed and dying until the Morrigan helps him in exchange for him working for her. Mackie soon falls in love with Tate, a girl who's baby sister has just died, however Tate doesn't ignore it as she knows it was a replacement that died not her sister. Mackie soon goes to find Tate's little sister and decides to save her from being killed, which he does with the help of his three best friends and his sister. Overall this is a good book with an interesting plot and I would recommend it to any twilight fans.

Bittersweet - Melanie La'Brooy (2010)

I bought this book because there was a 40% off sale at borders because it was closing down. There wasn"t much left by the time I got there but this appealled to me because it was one of the top 50 books you can't out down" and that proved true. I read all 450 pages in one day, needing to know how every twist was resolved.

I would definitely recommend this book to any woman, it is written wonderfully, has many surpises and secrets in the plotline and to make me enjoy it and relate to it even more it is set in Australia. It is a family drama and romantic novel, however not in the kissy gushy way that you get sick of after a sentence, it's in a subtle way that makes you want to know what happens next. However the family drama is definitely the more prominent and better theme of the novel.

SPOILER ALERT
The story follows the journey of two sisters, Sabrina and Mimi Falks who have had a fight at their mothers funeral two years ago and have not spoken since. Now Sabrina, an Australian soap opera actress, is getting married and has to hire Mimi as her maid of honour. As the novel continues we discover about their dad; a drinker who beat Sabrina, about Mimi; a binge drinker herself, and about Sabrina; who has had anorexia since their terrible childhood and now as a consequence was infertile. Along with those main plot twists there are many more minor ones that occur almost every chapter in the last half of the book. Mixed in with all this family drama and hidden secrets is a lovely romance between Mimi and Nate, the best man, which, although predictable, is lovely and keeps my interest the whole way through the story. Overall, I think this is a good book if you like family drama and romance and is a nice holiday read.