readingduckling's reviews
144 reviews

I was quite disappointed by this book. It’s the second book of the Disney villains book series. And I really loves the first book so I had very high expectations when I started this book. But sadly it couldn’t live up to my expectations. The Charme of the first book was that you were able to see how the evil queen came to be. The story of the book fit perfect in the movie and the writing was fantastic. 
In the second book was still fantastic, but Serena Valentino a amazing author so this was not surprising. But what really bugged me was the fact, the the book didn’t fit together with the movie. The time frame was completely off (and the timing wann’t great in the movie to begin with). But that was the main thing that prevented me from enjoying the book as much as the first one. Than there was also the fact that the Storytelling deviates so much from the movie. For example in the movies the enchanted servants help the beast to win Belles heart they help him get ready and give him advice. But in the book they can’t even interact with the beast they freeze every time the beast looks at them. 
And last but not least, what bugged me about the book was that the beast was never the main villain of the beauty and the beast. In the movies the beast is a mix of a very angry damsel in distress and an anti-Hero. Gaston is the villain in beauty and the beast! That makes this book the only Disney villains book (with a movie character on the cover) that doesn’t focus on an actual villain. (I have to admit I don’t know about the new Hercules book because I never really watched the movie. But the rest I’m shire of). 

This book is very nostalgic for me. I read and listen to it alot. It's a story about two animal secret agents (a cat and a raven) who have to spy on an evil Wicht and wizard (aunt and nephew) who they suspect are responsible for many environmental atrocities happening. 
They are right and now they have to stop the biggest atrocity of them all. 

Even tho the book was realised in 1989 it's still relevant and very well written. What I like the most about this book, is that it has a happy end.
The book is very well written, but Michael Ende is also a great author.

It's a great book for a quick read, because it has very simple language (children's book), and isn't that long.

I don't think, that I would have bought this book under normal circumstances, because I'm not big on horror/thriller story's. But I found this book, a bit beat up for one euro, and because I recognised the Author and liked the artwork, I decided to buy it anyway. And I am so glad, that I bought it, because the book was amazing. 
I know the book is connected to the movie pan's Labyrinth but I can't compare it to one another, because I can't watch horror movies. But the book is also amazing as a standalone. 
It's the story of a young girl in Spain douring the 2. World war. She and her extremely pregnant mother move in with her mother's new husband. Who is a very sadistic person, he isnt interested in his new wife, let alone her daughter, he is just interested in the baby she is growing. His child. 
The girl, Ofelia, is learning in the beginning of the book, that she is the princess of the underworld, who went missing many many years ago. 
Now she has to complete 3 challenges to come back. 
The book is incredibly well written. And filled with literary pictures, real pictures, emotions and so much more. I was a little bit sad about how much time I needed to read this book, would have preferred to just read it in one sitting it was certainly interesting enough to do that. But the book was also in parts triggering, so I needed breaks to process it. 
But I really loved this book and the messages especially the anti fashist one. It's so important to keep in mind how bad right wing politics are. 
The book is brilliantly written all characters who are ment to be likable are very likable and the villans in the story are not. 
It's definitely a book I will some day reread.

Well it was certainly a book full of poems. Maybe my judgement is a bit unfair because I'm not the biggest poem fan. But it was giving me "I am 14 and this is deep" vibes. 
But I was really able to relax while listening to it. 

I read this book last year, and had to DNF it because it was so boring. But I really wanted to read this book because (even though it's not canon) in a way it's the origin and conception story of Anakin Skywalker. But it was still soo hard to read, what you can see in the fact that I needed 22 Days to read this book. 
All in all is a cool story, with a cool cover and a cool idea behind it. But sadly it's written so boring that i can just give it 2 Stars. 

****First (DNF) Review****
It was a very boring book. The plot was very slow. And so I wasn't able to read it to the end.

At first I have to admit, that this was the first manga/comic I have read in about 5 years. I just don't vibe with this style of story telling anymore. But this book I had to buy because of Disney and Cruella. 
It was a nice little book to read and it was nostalgic because comics remind me of my mid teens, but the story didn't catch me and pulled me in I was just consuming it not really enjoying it. But it was still a nice little story and I think for a Disney and Comic fan this could be just the thing they are looking for, but not for me. 

I liked this book. It's a story about a young woman who not only wants to make it as a musician but also wants to escape her old life.

What I really liked is that there was a happy end. I'm not the biggest thriller fan, so it's important that it has a happy end so it's easier to process the book in the end.

My one and generally only critic point is that I wasn't totally happy with the writing style. Because it felt like it wasn't hinted that the main character had a traumatising past they really pushed it in your face. But to creat mystery they didn't tell anything about what it was what I personally found a bit annoying. And think that made the writing style feel a bit clumsy. But all in all it was a interesting story and I liked it very much. 

Well first the one good thing I have to say about it was it was not boring, it was tedious anoing and tiering but not boring. 
Every character in this book is absolutely toxic beginning with the main character, she seemed to like it to make everyones life difficult and provoce people in her proximity just to feel like the 'main character' I think the author wanted the reader to relate to this character but she was just a jackass. 
Every friend and love interest ist also toxic in their own special way and in very depressed need of therapy. 
Just like every adult mentioned in this story. 
The writing style was sloppy the author was repeating the same words in a sentence, except for using euphemism so at least the writing style wouldn't feel that repetitive. But I think this is to much to ask. The story it self was also repetitive every chapter/part of the story was the same. The main character fights with the main love interest, they fight they make up, they make up, they do something sexual and then the circle stars over again. I was more than annoyed reading this book because ist was the same thing 100x over and over and over again. 
If you are now wondering, why I didn't stop reading it, it was because some friends and coworkers recommended this book and wanted me to read it; 'because it's sooooo good'. It really wasn't! 
First I thought maybe I didn't like the book because it's young adult, but that doesn't make any sense, because I often read young adult books that I really enjoy (my first 5 out of 5 book this year was a young adult book). And about half of the people recommending this book to me are older than I am. 
In a way I am really shocked, that this bullshit, is a young adult book because I think it would be dangerous for young people to read this book (- series) they get the wrong idea of what a relationship in any definition of the word should look like. I don't have a a problem with toxic relationships being presented in books for teens/kids/young adults but than it should be clear that it is toxic. It doesn't happen in this book at all. 
And I have a problem with this book that resembles a problem with the 50 shades series, it has a relationship that resembles a Dom/sup dynamic but has nothing that is important in this kinds of relationships, especially no after care. 

All in all it is a disgrace that anyone was ever able to make money with this story, I will most definitely not read it again, I do not ever recommend reading it to everyone. And I will not read the other books in this series, or consume everything else realated to this. 

I liked this book very much. It was a nice, or maybe not so nice summary of Harry's life it helps to understand the whole royal dynamic more and why some things happy but I still think it's incredible that he (and his family) survived this life until now. 
And what was clear from the beginning (what should have been clear since 1997) is that paparazzis are a very evil people. Even though many people were criticizedin this memoir the press/paparazzi were always irredeemable. 
All in all a great book.

I liked this book very much, it was the first book in a long time that really touched and effected me after reading it. The way it's written it is really easy to feel what the main character is feeling. And I think it could be a great starting point to talk to adolescent people about the themes discussed in the book. Like underaged drinking/smoking, rebellion against authority figures, sexualitie, and of course death. While reading the first few chapters I was not sure about the book, but now after finishing it I'm absolutely sure I'll reread it. But it's important to note that it was a very emotional read, I cryed almost the entire second half of the book.