Anna and the French Kiss : review

by: Stephanie Perkins

I was in the mood for a happy contemporary book. And so I picked up this book, and I found it to be great!
Before reading this book I had heard a lot of positive things, not too much to give extremely high expectations though so that was nice. It seemed like a perfectly cute summery read, and that it was.
The book started out very nicely and it made me want to read more and more and more and just swallow up the whole book. I didn't exactly read it in one sitting but during the course of one day yes.

So what is it about? Goodreads says this (I cut out the spoilery bits and added what I thought it needed:)
Anna is looking forward to her senior year in Atlanta, where she has a great job, a loyal best friend, and a crush on the verge of becoming more. Which is why she is less than thrilled about being shipped off to boarding school in Paris--thanks to her father.
She is miserable until she finds out that the people she has met there can be friends to her. Lets not forget about Étienne St. Clair. Smart, charming,beautiful, Étienne has it all...including a serious girlfriend. 

The writing style was both descriptive and not- leaving space to think for your own. So the writing style was to my liking and so were the characters and setting. I LoVeD that they were in France and I liked all the characters which was new to me! Even the ones I doubt everyone did... Anna became my favorite character even though at times I wanted to shout to her and show that what is happening isn't all bad.

This book is a first in a series. Well technically, see they are more like companion novels to each other. Even so I will definitely want to continue on on new adventures by Stephanie. I recommend it to all the contemporary romance book lovers, ones who like cute summer reads and those who are in want of expanding what they read. From this book you might find a new favorite :)

Love & Hugs,

Sally

Top 5 Wednesday

August 27
Book Spines

1. The penguin classics of Alice in Wonderland
2. Never Fade
3. Fathomless
4. Graceling
5. Ruby Red

Hugs,

Sally

Fairytale Retellings

Retellings pt.1
Top 5

I LoVe fairy tale retellings! I find people who write them to have such a creative mind, even though it has the same characters. It is kind of weird that I haven't had any that has been boring or similar to another so that is great :)
I couldn't decide on a order but I guess that's fine...

1. Snow in Summer
This was such an interesting take on Snow White!
2. Zel
I got it from my brother and oh my!
3. Cinder, Scarlet and Cress
Haven't read all, but I have them, and I'm planning on reading all three before the fourth one, Winter, comes out this year :)
4. Ella Enchanted and Fairest by Gail Carson Levine

5. All the Disney takes on Grimm
 & All the Disney takes on H.C. Anderson
I started thinking, is Snow Queen and the Little Mermaid the only ones?...

Any suggestions for other retellings?

Hugs,

Sally

Top 5 Wednesday

August 20
Worlds

1. The Mortal Instruments
2. Now the title says top not best so: Darkest Minds; was awesome to read about but I'd thinkk otherwise if I lived there...
3. Graceling
4. Imposter
5. And just because; Harry Potter

Hugs <3,

Sally

Oz : review

by: L. Frank Baum


The classic I chose for June was The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. I had seen the movie, ages ago though it was, and I had  no recollection what happened. So I decided to read it. Yep so that's an explanation.

If you have seen the movie you know bits of the book. And that's interesting since the book is only around 150 pages. The movie cut lots of bits and bobs from the book yet they still managed to do a movie without adding too much things. So I started reading it in thoughts of it having a little amount of description. I was surprised how it actually did have a lot of describing the characters. So not a lot of imagination was needed for the characters but regarding the places they traveled to and through you needed to have active thoughts on rebuilding everything.

So what is it about?
A girl named Dorothy gets swept away, from her home in Kansas, to a place she has never been to. She gets accompanied on her quest to find a way home by the Tin Woodman, Scarecrow, the Cowardly Lion and some other  fellas.

I really enjoyed reading this book and I will recommend it to those who like stories. Maybe to someone who loved Alice in Wonderland, like me. I am not sure if I will be reading on the series. I think it has 12 books in it, if I'm not mistaken, and I have a bind-up of the first three. I will be reading the other two and see if I'll continue on, but somehow I'm doubting it.

Hugs,

Sally

Top 5 Wednesday

August 13
Love Triangles

Now I don't think I'm alone in hating love angles of any kind. But I must say some have been nicer to read than others. So here it is this weeks list. And as always you can join by going to goodreads's group of T5W.

1. I think I'm cheating with this but, Imposter
2. The Mortal Instruments
3. Naturals
4. The Selection
5. Iron King

Hugs,

Sally

The Fault in Our Stars : Book vs Movie

Book and Movie thoughts (Pt. 4)

As you can probably read from the title: I went to the movies!
So to start off I really like this book. And I was scared to go see it because I don't know if they changed it and I wouldn't like it as much I guess. I hate it when that happens to a book I really like.
Well even so I went to see it, how could I not, and I enjoyed it. I didn't love it. But I wasn't disappointed either. I guess it was better than I expected and all.

I read it quite a while ago and have yet to read any other book by John Green (I really need to). I read this one because well I watch the Vlog Brothers on youtube... And I LoVe it!

To the Book Review itself:
So thoughts on the book first (other than liking it):
 The writing style John uses is lovely to read. It brings the characters to life and makes it feel like you are part of that story. It did this without being too descriptive which I often find annoying. I want to have space, while reading, for your imagination.
    The characters were some of the best I have read about in a while. They made by with what they had and I really appreciated that. Also the fact that it involved cancer was inspiring in itself and then you read it and you just feel all the feels!
   One negative thing I have to say, I'm sorry but yes. There was two moments in which I wanted the author to expand more than he did. Now I know usually it's a very good thing to not tell too much and let the reader ponder. But I couldn't help but think it was missing some filling. And don't get me wrong, they were both good scenes nevertheless and important too. I don't want to spoil the scenes so you can mail me if you want to know which parts. I just really don't feel like spoiling anything to anyone, even though most of you have read the book.

I will be recommending this to anyone who likes contemporary books with emotion and to those who want to expand the genres they read.

So Keep On Reading

Hugs,

Sally

Top 5 Wednesday

August 6th 2014
Blue Covers You Own

1. Fangirl
2. Bitterblue
3. Assassins Blade
4. Skylark
5. Cradturner

Hugs,

Sally

The Princess Bride : Book vs Movie

Book vs. Movie (Pt. 3)

After I posted the book review on The Princess Bride multiple of you asked for me to do another book vs. movie post, and so here it is. :) I am glad to have you guys mailing me even if it is simple hi or question. After some more questions I will probably do a Q&A too since you've been asking for something like that so do send more question :)
So I watched the movie and I must say they did a good job in trying to get it all together. I was happy to see they kept a lot of the same scenes without changing Too much, as we sometimes see.


You have probably seen the green cover of this book around but I have the 25th anniversary edition (in the picture) and I think it is gorgeous.

So if you haven't read my review on this book you might want to first :)
Then you'll know what it's about and all that jazz.

So as I briefly said I thought the makers did a good job with this movie, but as usual, other than the book being better, I have my more or less negative comments about the movie:
I didn't like how they made the plots order change a bit, but I definitely did like the changes they made to make things easier for the watcher. While reading the book it was slightly hard to understand what was going about but in the movie it was simpler. I guess it was seeing the characters and where they were going, but I find it nice in books to use imagination and reading their thoughts when they go about.

Also in my book review I wrote about not understanding the end, well the movie completely skipped the whole thing! So no solving my thoughts there either!

Hugs,

Sally