Looking For Alaska by John Green|Book Review

Title: Looking For Alaska
Genre: Contemporary
My Star Rating: ★★★★★

Blurb: "If people were rain, I was drizzle and she was a hurricane."

Miles Halter's whole life has been one big non-event, until he meets Alaska Young.

Gorgeous, clever and undoubtedly screwed up, Alaska draws Miles into her reckless world and irrevocably steals his heart. For Miles. nothing can ever be the same again.




Looking For Alaska is split into two parts; before and after. The title of each chapter is a number eg. one hundred and nineteen days before, so the entire first section is leading up to one big event. At first when there are still a hundred days left you're cool but when it gets to about eight days before, that's when you really go into panic mode.
I was pleasantly surprised to discover that was a boarding school story, however it wasn't quite Malory Towers. This group of friends didn't sneak out to have midnight feasts, they sat in the showers smoking and getting pissed.
One thing that I sometimes find a slight issue with John Green's novels (okay this one and Paper Towns) is that to me the main protagonist (in this case Miles, otherwise known as Pudge) was just okay and I much preferred his friends.
The Colonel was funny and unexpected, Takumi was hilarious in the prank scene and of course Alaska was just all round brilliant.
In some ways Alaska very much reminded me of my self: book obsessed; mysterious and very defensive of the female gender but in some ways we're completely different as I am neither addicted to smoking or sex.
I loved the scene when Pudge walked into Alaska's room for the first time and saw all her books. When he asked her if she'd read them all she replied with
"Oh god no!" I think we can all relate to that. Whilst we're on the subject of Alaska's love for books I noticed she had very similar taste to my dad. Gabriel García Márquez and Kurt Vonnegut are both authors he enjoys.
I liked the way they kept going back on the subject of the labyrinth and how they'll get out of it and I think it's good for a story to have a kind of question that it keeps going back to.
I thought it was really cool how they all had their weird little talents: memorizing countries, knowing last words, rapping and it got me thinking about what my weird little talent was. 
This book does have rather a lot of swearing and a sexualISH scene or two so not really a book for particularly young readers and it is terribly sad. Don't say I didn't warn you! Anyway it was great (hard to believe it was his debut) and you should definitely give it a go.
Love Always,
Freya

A Year A Thon February- Days 2 & 3

During days two and three I read up to page 240 which means I read another 185 pages. I have less than 100 pages to go so I hope to finish the book (Prisoner of Azkaban) today!

A Year A Thon February-Day 1

The theme for this month's Readathon was Harry Potter. I decided I was in the mood for some prisoner of Azkaban. I have managed to read 55 pages (4 chapters) and tomorrow I hope to read another 100 pages.
Love Always,
Freya.

Tomorrow When the War Began by John Marsden| Review

Title: Tomorrow When the War Began
Series: The Tomorrow Series
Genre: War
My Star Rating: ★★★★☆

 

Blurb: Ellie and her friends leave home one morning, wave goodbye to their parents and head to the hills to camp out. Returning home a week later, they find everything changed.

 

Their Homes Destroyed

Their Families Taken

Their Country Invaded

I thought that Tomorrow When the War Began was written in quite an interesting way. Our protagonist, Ellie, is writing this after it all happened so she keeps looking back and saying.

"These things seem silly now." etc. I feel this would have been stranger to a different reader as I had already seen the film so (like Ellie) I already knew what had happened.

I felt like in the film Kevin was portrayed as annoying and that character who wouldn't accept what they were saying and wanted to bring things that weren't necessities but in the book I really liked his character. Sometimes he did find things difficult to accept but he was a strong character that wasn't disliked. 

I loved that each character had their own unique personalities: Robyn- the devout Christian, clever caring one; Lee- the keeps-him-self-to-him-self musical one; Homer- the boyish, adventurous and outdoorsy one and Fi- the delicate beautiful princess (but she wasn't snobbish). Fi was my favourite character because I thought she was really cute and funny.

There were romantic elements to the story for those of you who love love!

I was reading Tomorrow When the War Began at school one day and the boy sitting next to me got bored and read the blurb. He was so exited by the story that he made all of his friends read the blurb and then he later went to find it in the library. He seems to be enjoying it and I'm sure you will too!

Love Always,

Freya

Montacute House - Lucy Jago|Review

For the first forty or so pages I wasn't impressed by this book and was close to giving up but I stuck to my "don't give up until fifty pages" rule and I'm ever so glad I did. Our main character ,Cess (Cecily), is the village outcast she is a bastard child and she is best friends with the other village outcast, William, who has a clubbed foot. I liked Cecily, she was a strong female protagonist working as a poultry girl. One thing that did annoy me however was that at the beginning of the book it said she had brown hair were as the girl on the cover is blonde. I have to admit I wasn't a fan of William. He seemed very, cheesy yet rude and ungrateful at the same time. I did like Jasper- a character Cess met along the way- and I ship him and Cess! I think this book would defiantly appeal to fans of Mary Hooper like myself. Like Hooper's work it is an exiting story but at the same time great for learning about the time period. It's a wonderful tale of friendship, courage and witchcraft with some very exiting plot twists! (I LOVE PLOT TWISTS) I loved that the creepy characters creeped me out and that I had a soft spot for the lovable characters. I loved that the story was so gripping I read it until late at night. Most of all I loved the cover ('Tis so pretty!). In conclusion I thought that Montacute House was enjoyable and I gave it 4/5 stars. Love Always, Freya

I'm Participating in Bout of Books 9.0!

The Bout of Books read-a-thon is organized by Amanda @ On a Book Bender and Kelly @ Reading the Paranormal. It is a week long read-a-thon that begins 12:01am Monday, January 6th and runs through Sunday, January 12th in whatever time zone you are in. Bout of Books is low-pressure, and the only reading competition is between you and your usual number of books read in a week. There are challenges, giveaways, and a grand prize, but all of these are completely optional. For all Bout of Books 9.0 information and updates, be sure to visit the Bout of Books blog. - From the Bout of Books team

Adventures with the Wife in Space- Neil Perryman (a review)

 I received this book quite some time ago from a website called netgalley and ever since I have been slowly reading it alongside all the other books I have been reading.
Ever heard of the blog adventures with the wife in space? Neil wrote a book! I have to admit I wasn't one of the blog's many avid readers but when I saw this book it caught my attention because I am a whovian.
This book was an interesting experience for me because I am a fan of the Doctor Who episodes and never have I seen an episode of classic doctor who. This meant I was learning even more about Doctor Who! Before this book I didn't know there was a sixteen year gap between Paul Mcgann and Christopher Eccleston (which explains a lot).
The first part of the book is like a Doctor Who autobiography. It explained how he got into the show and how he collected all the figurines and the weetabix cards. It even tells us how he had met his wife, sue, and how he had tried to get Sue's daughter into Doctor Who. I liked this part of the book as this was wear I did all my Doctor Who learning.
The second part of the book was when they started watching all the episodes together. Thanks to Sue's ratings I know which episodes to watch and which not to! In conclusion I thought the book was very enjoyable and I gave it a mice 4/5 stars.
Love Always,
Freya

P.S. If you want to check out this book click here
P.P.S If you want to check out the blog I mentioned click here