The Alchemist - Paulo Coelho (1993)

1 star

I bought this on a recommendation by one of my previous teachers, I should've known better than to trust someone who was blacklisted from Korea.

I was really disappointed by this book considering how much everyone always talks about it, I can see the appeal, it's a philosophical book that basically tells you to follow your dreams and not to be scared of failing or to settle for something that is only adequate. However I found that the storyline didn't have much happening and even the interesting parts were written very dry and it ended up taking me a week to read a 150 page book. My favourite character was probably Fatima, I wasn't particularly engaged or invested in any characters, but I liked how Fatima didn't beg Santiago to stay but instead just told him she would still be here once he finished his journey, it was also a nice change for a character to not tell Santiago what to do, which all the others pretty much were the whole book. I would recommend this book to anyone who likes philosophy and enjoys books with a journey or quest.

Santiago has a reccurring dream about finding treasure at the pyramids and a gypsy woman gives him the advice that the treasure is real. He then meets an old king who tells him that he shouls follow his personal legend, which most people don't do in life. Santiago eventually makes it to the pyramids where he learns gthat the treasure was back where he started all along.

The Choice - Nicholas Sparks (2007)

I bought this book because it was one dollar at an op-shop and it was Nicholas Sparks so it would probably be pretty good. However, I was very disappointed and thought it was extremely predictable.

The book is split into two parts, the first part, which is the majority of the book, is the weekend eleven years ago when Travis and Gabby fell in love. This is the first thing that annoys me, a weekend. That's two days. Two days with Travis convinces her to break up with her lovely boyfriend of five years to be with Travis. The second part is the present in which Gabby is in a coma and Travis must make "The Choice" as to whether to put her in a nursing home or remove her feeding tubes. 80 of the 90 pages is just Travis remembering Gabby and repeating the pros and cons of each choice. I wouldn't recommend this book to anyone, maybe Nicholas Sparks fans because they read all his books anyway.


Gabby is dating Kevin, and meets Travis, her next door neighbour a sexy vet who is good with kids. After a boat trip with him and his friends he invites her to dinner at his house where he kisses her and she pushes him away, despite this they spend the next day together and fall in love. Eleven years later Gabby is in a coma after Travis ran a red light in the rain, and he doesn't know whether to remove her feeding tubes because that's what she made him promise her a few years ago, or to move her to a nursing home in case she ever wakes up. He moves her to a nursing home and then nine weeks later she wakes up.

Prom Nights From Hell - Meg Cabot, Kim Harrison, Michele Jaffe, Stephenie Meyer & Lauren Myracle (2007)

I bought this book from an op shop because it was fifty cents and I like Meg Cabot. At first thought the pricing was a mistake because surely they could get more money for something with Stephenie Meyer's name attatched, however after reading the book I can see why it was so low.

This book contains five short stories, all about supernatural events happening at a prom. None of the stories were particularly compelling, they were all quite predictable and were nothing I hadn't heard of before. The exception being Madison Avery and the Dim Reaper by Kim Harrison. This story was probably the best idea of the five, however it didn't really have a resolution in the end and I think it would have been better as a full length novel.


The Exterminator's Daughter - Meg Cabot
Mary tries to kill Dracula's son the day before prom but fails. While doing this she meets Adam, a guy from her school who she's never really noticed before, they fall in love and defeat the vampire at the prom together.

The Corsage - Lauren Myracle
In an attempt to try to get Will to ask her to prom, Frankie takes him to a psychic who gives her a corsage that will grant her three wishes. Frankie then wishes that the boy she loves would ask her to prom so Will then climbs a water tower to spray paint the question on it and falls to his death. On the night of the prom she wishes for him to be alive again and his corpse comes to her house, she then uses her last wish to make him dead again.

Madison Avery and the Dim Reaper - Kim Harrison
At the prom, Madison is dumped by her date and falls into the arms of a handsome stranger. When driving her home, he drives her off a cliff and stabs her. Madison then wakes up in the morgue with two white (good) reapers arguing over who was responsible for not saving her. Madison is like a ghost unless one of the reaper's amulets are close by so she steals one off the black (bad) reaper who killed her in the first place and who came back to take her somewhere. A white reaper is then assigned to be her guardian angel for a year as she poses as a human while they work out why she's so important.

Kiss and Tell - Michele Jaffe
Miranda has superpowers and works as a driver on her day off from boarding school. On the day of her prom she drives a girl named Sibby to somewhere where people are trying to harm her. Miranda helps Sibby escape and then takes her to the prom so they can hide. While there Miranda talks to her crush, Will, who really wanted to go to prom with her. The prom is then evacuated when the police announce a "bomb scare" and the policeman who is leading them is the one who is after Sibby. Miranda then knocks out the policemen and saves Sibby, she takes Sibby to her safehouse and then goes to breakfast with Will.

Hell on Earth - Stephenie Meyer
Gabe is drawn to a mysterious girl called Sheba at the prom. Sheba is a demon who is causing havoc at the prom and when Gabe sees her she can no longer manipulate the people at the prom. She realises that Gabe must be half angel and has no idea, he is drawn to situations where he can help and is unkowningly trying to save Sheba.

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.