Book Review: The Lying Game by Sara Shepard

I had a life anyone would kill for.

Then someone did.


The worst part of being dead is that there’s nothing left to live for. No more kisses. No more secrets. No more gossip. It’s enough to kill a girl all over again. But I’m about to get something no one else does—an encore performance, thanks to Emma, the long-lost twin sister I never even got to meet.

Now Emma’s desperate to know what happened to me. And the only way to figure it out is to be me—to slip into my old life and piece it all together. But can she laugh at inside jokes with my best friends? Convince my boyfriend she’s the girl he fell in love with? Pretend to be a happy, carefree daughter when she hugs my parents good night? And can she keep up the charade, even after she realizes my murderer is watching her every move?

From Sara Shepard, the #1 New York Times bestselling author of the Pretty Little Liars books, comes a riveting new series about secrets, lies, and killer consequences.

Let the lying game begin.

I always wanted to read The Pretty Little Liars, but quickly my sister and my friend spoiled the whole ending for me, so I just stuck to watching the television show which I love.

When I heard that Sara Shepard was coming out with a new book series, I automatically wanted to read it. I knew that I was not going to find out who exactly was the killer in this book and such, but I had high expectations for this book.

It was a good book. It basically just introduced all the characters and all the different situations going on in Sutton's life. I did expect it to make me want to keep reading and me being on the edge of my seat, but it was not really like that for the most part. There was only one or two parts that really creeped me out, but that was about it.

I thought Emma was the only character with a true personality and the rest of the group of friends were just bland. I did find it werid how Emma tried to pretend to be Sutton as some parts. Like one minute she was acting like her normal self and then the next she tried too hard and called her friends bitches. That was a little weird for me, but I digress.

The ending part did make me want to continue the series, though. What we find in the beginning of the book to be the main concept of it really wasn't at all and that kind of threw me off knowing that there was something entirly different behind the scenes. So, I did enjoy it and I will continue the series and hopefully the books get better along the way.

Oh and I give it a 3.5 out of 5 stars. :]

Book Review: Matched

Cassia has always trusted the Society to make the right choices for her: what to read, what to watch, what to believe. So when Xander's face appears on-screen at her Matching ceremony, Cassia knows with complete certainty that he is her ideal mate . . . until she sees Ky Markham's face flash for an instant before the screen fades to black.

The Society tells her it's a glitch, a rare malfunction, and that she should focus on the happy life she's destined to lead with Xander. But Cassia can't stop thinking about Ky, and as they slowly fall in love, Cassia begins to doubt the Society's infallibility and is faced with an impossible choice: between Xander and Ky, between the only life she's known and a path that no one else has dared to follow.

All over the blogsphere, everyone was raving about this book and how good it was, but when I came on goodreads - not many people liked it. In some ways I can see how and in others I really liked it.

In Matched we are introduced to a new society where everything is decided for you. It's not completely bad to the point when it makes you cringe at just reading, but you can tell that we have way more freedom then they do. Now, it's not like Cassia starts a whole new rebellion or anything like that. The true rebellion that occurs in this book was basically in her thoughts. She is matched with her best friend Xander meaning she is expected to marry him and live the rest of her life with him, but when she sees the possibity of Ky - she can't stop thinking about him which is completely unheard of to her.

She soon comes to the realization that she wants to be with Ky and wishes she could really choose who she wants to be with.

This is the basic idea of this book. It's not action packed like the Hunger Games, but it doesn't get as boring as people potray it to be. It basically just introduces the characters and the new world to us and how everything works in this society. I do admit that in the beginning the characters didn't seem to have much of a personality to me. People even prefered Xander over Ky because they thought that Xander was much more developed than Ky. I kind of disagree with this. I felt that Ky had more personality and depth to him than Xander who was just some cookie cutter of a perfect boy. We learn much about Ky through his stroies to Cassia and not much through him talking and such and I found that much more interesting than just Xander and his boyish charms.

I'm sure that we will see much more personality and raw feelings in the books to come because not Cassia is really started to trust her inner self and do what she cooses to do. I really look foreward to the next book andf I hope all of you give this book a chance. :]

4 out of 5 stars!
;D

2011 Book Challenge!

Guys. I'm freaking out. I don't know if I'm setting the bar to high for myself.

Anyways, I will be doing a 2011 book challenge if its not already obvious. I will try to read 50 books within the year and hopefully I can get through with it. I pretty much set it out and how many books for a month and such, so hopefully it won't be a problem.

Please support me guys and I will keep a list on the side for my blog so we can all keep track! xD

Woohoo ~

Wish me luck. ;]

In My Mailbox! (1/2/2011)

Ah, it feels so weird writing 2011 besides 2010. Oh well. I got to get used to it. Nonetheless - I stepped outside today and headed to Barnes&Noble and grab some things. This is what I picked up:

Matched by Ally Condie

Cassia has always trusted the Society to make the right choices for her: what to read, what to watch, what to believe. So when Xander's face appears on-screen at her Matching ceremony, Cassia knows with complete certainty that he is her ideal mate . . . until she sees Ky Markham's face flash for an instant before the screen fades to black.

The Society tells her it's a glitch, a rare malfunction, and that she should focus on the happy life she's destined to lead with Xander. But Cassia can't stop thinking about Ky, and as they slowly fall in love, Cassia begins to doubt the Society's infallibility and is faced with an impossible choice: between Xander and Ky, between the only life she's known and a path that no one else has dared to follow.

The Lying Game by Sara Shepard

I had a life anyone would kill for.

Then someone did.


The worst part of being dead is that there’s nothing left to live for. No more kisses. No more secrets. No more gossip. It’s enough to kill a girl all over again. But I’m about to get something no one else does—an encore performance, thanks to Emma, the long-lost twin sister I never even got to meet.

Now Emma’s desperate to know what happened to me. And the only way to figure it out is to be me—to slip into my old life and piece it all together. But can she laugh at inside jokes with my best friends? Convince my boyfriend she’s the girl he fell in love with? Pretend to be a happy, carefree daughter when she hugs my parents good night? And can she keep up the charade, even after she realizes my murderer is watching her every move?

From Sara Shepard, the #1 New York Times bestselling author of the Pretty Little Liars books, comes a riveting new series about secrets, lies, and killer consequences.

Let the lying game begin.

I'll be reading Matched first, even though I'm sure everyone else in the world has read it already. :P

Please look foreword to my review first ! ;]

Book Review: Beautiful Creatures

First of all - I would like to say sorry for the big delay and my absence. This book took me foreverrr to finish and you will find out way. Nonetheless - I have not forggoten about my blog and I will continue doing book reviews. :]

There were no surprises in GatlinCounty.
We were pretty much the epicenter of the middle of nowhere.
At least, that's what I thought.
Turns out, I couldn't have been more wrong.
There was a curse.
There was a girl.
And in the end, there was a grave.
Lena Duchannes is unlike anyone the small Southern town of Gatlin has ever seen, and she's struggling to conceal her power, and a curse that has haunted her family for generations. But even within the overgrown gardens, murky swamps and crumbling graveyards of the forgotten South, a secret cannot stay hidden forever.

Ethan Wate, who has been counting the months until he can escape from Gatlin, is haunted by dreams of a beautiful girl he has never met. When Lena moves into the town's oldest and most infamous plantation, Ethan is inexplicably drawn to her and determined to uncover the connection between them.

In a town with no surprises, one secret could change everything.

I give Beautiful Creatures a 3.5 out of 5 stars.

I was really excited to read this book and I thought the beginning was great, but after that things started going very flat.

The whole idea of seeing a girl in his dreams and things appearing from his dreams appearing when he woke up was both creepy and cool. I was very excited when he finally met Lena and I thought she was a cool character. I thought she was sarcastic and a loner which I thought would make the book more interesting.

Truth is - she was just a little over sensitive. I felt like Ethan and Lena fell in love too quickly for my taste and it just made it very unrelistic to me. I also thought that Ethan just took it a little too lightly when finding out Lena's secret.

I felt like some of the characters were just added in there for the hell of it and didn't really make me like them. The only charcaters that I truly like were Macon and Boo.

Despite all this - I liked the idea of the story and the ending really caught my attention. Hopefully Beautiful Darkness will be better.

Book Review: Crescendo by Becca Fitzpatrick

Feisty teen Nora Grey somehow survived the crises of Hush, Hush!, but dangers just as frightening loom in this standalone sequel. Patch, her guardian angel and love interest, appears to have a dark side and a wandering eye. Worse yet, he seems intent on obstructing Nora as she hunts for the truth behind her father's mysterious death. Even better than the first.

Okay guys. Sorry about a late review. School work was getting very much in the way. But I finally got through to it.:]

I give Crescendo:
☼☼☼☼
4 out of 5 stars.

I really liked Crescendo even though I do admit that it was no Hush, Hush. Maybe because I didn't get a lot of Patch like I hoped for. Haha.

I really did like how a lot of secrets were unraveled and we got a lot deeper into stuff. I just wish that we could get a little more paranormal. I feel like these books are just mysteries and such.

I would really like to see more of the whole fallen angel concept and deal with more stuff like that.

I feel the ending was very rushed and eded to abruntly. I understand that Becca Fitzpatrick wanted a cliffhanger, but that was too much of one.

It makes me wonder how the next book will start.

Nonetheless, I really liked Crescendo and loved the thrill it gave me. I will deffinately get the next book. ;]

Look what I found ! (11/10/2010)

“I’ve left some clues for you.
If you want them, turn the page.
If you don’t, put the book back on the shelf, please.”

So begins the latest whirlwind romance from the New York Times bestselling authors of Nick & Norah’s Infinite Playlist. Lily has left a red notebook full of challenges on a favorite bookstore shelf, waiting for just the right guy to come along and accept its dares. But is Dash that right guy? Or are Dash and Lily only destined to trade dares, dreams, and desires in the notebook they pass back and forth at locations across New York? Could their in-person selves possibly connect as well as their notebook versions? Or will they be a comic mismatch of disastrous proportions?

Rachel Cohn and David Levithan have written a love story that will have readers perusing bookstore shelves, looking and longing for a love (and a red notebook) of their own.

Yes, this is something I started myself.

Haha. I usually find my books on blogs of people I follow, but this on I found on my own.

This is Dash & Lily's Book of Dares. It's by the same authors of Nick and Nora's Infinite Play list. I didn't read the book, but I did see the movie and I looooved it. I read the first couple of pages of this book and liked it immediately. It's very funny and you can already tell its going to be awesome.

So, if your looking for a book out of the whole paranormal genre, then I suggest picking it up.

:]

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P.S. - I'm half way down with Crescendo and I'm loving every minute of it. Besides, Nora. She's peeing me off.

Haha. Please look foreword to my review on that.

:]