wingedcreature's reviews
1558 reviews

I think Anne is my favorite character- she’s so talkative and imaginative, and I couldn’t help but want things to go well for her. Being an orphan, and then coming to Green Gables only to find out that the Cuthberts wanted a boy…it was sad. But it all works out, because Anne gets to stay at Green Gables. Avonlea is a fictional town, but I so want to stay in a place like that. Anne did ramble on quite frequently, but since she talks all the time, it was to be expected.

I also had a soft spot for Matthew Cuthbert- he couldn’t bring himself to send Anne back, and they complement each other really well. While Anne talks a lot, Matthew is really quiet and shy. And the scene where he got Anne a dress with puffed sleeves is one of my favorites.

And when Matthew died, I was so sad! I loved that Anne decided to give up her scholarship by staying at Green Gables with Marilla, so she wouldn’t have to sell the farm. That’s devotion right there.

I give it a 3.5 out of 5. I liked it, and I can’t wait to read the rest of the books in the series.

I liked it slightly better than Anne of Green Gables- Anne is more mature in Anne of Avonlea, but still manages to get herself into some trouble. She still has a vivid imagination and is still talkative, although she’s not nearly as talkative or imaginative as she was in the 1st book.

I did like the Avonlea Village Improvement Society (or AVIS) which Anne herself had organized. There were questionable results at the start of AVIS, mainly when the town hall was painted blue instead of green. After the mix-up, AVIS flourished because the town blamed the Pye family, who had been given the job of painting the hall.

Having liked Anne of Avonlea so much, I can’t wait to read the 3rd book in the series, since the novel ends with Anne going off to college.

It gets a 4 out of 5. I loved it, and I can’t wait to see what sort of adventures Anne gets herself into.

Someone recommended this book to me about 4 years ago, and it’s taken me several years to get through it. I loved the stories and quotes scattered throughout the book. It was hard to get into, because the book is fairly dry, and read like a textbook at times.

A.A. and the 12 Steps/Traditions are mentioned throughout the book; at times, I felt like it was more like the spirituality of A.A., not the spirituality of imperfection. Kurtz, according to the author biography at the back of the book, has written several books about A.A., which would explain the focus on A.A., as well as the bias towards A.A.. I don’t have anything against A.A., but I felt like it was focused on too much.

I did find the book interesting, though, since it’s about how accepting imperfection is the 1st step towards spirituality, and how there’s meaning and joy within suffering.

I did like how the authors connected the stories to both imperfection and spirituality, and also how the stories illustrated the story of spirituality and imperfection. I also liked the organization of the book, which is divided into 3 sections- the roots of spirituality, how spirituality and A.A. are really connected, and how spirituality is beneficial.

It gets a 2.5 out of 5 because the quotes and stories were the only redeeming factor of the book. Everything could have been said more succinctly, and it was redundant at times, especially towards the end. While I did like the stories, they did start to sound the same about halfway through.

It was just okay for me. In the end, Cam goes off to the Otherworld to be the Fairy King, and Pip takes his place. No one remembers Cam except for Morgan, who’s immune to fairy magic.

I was kinda bored reading it, and I kept wondering why she was in love with Cam. She was so dependant on him, and the whole time, I wanted them to break up. It felt too forced, and we don’t see too much of Cam.

I wanted to like it, because the premise was so intriguing, but it was hard to actually like the book. Plus, we don’t really learn anything about the fairies, which is unfortunate, because that would have made the book so much more interesting.

It is her first novel, so I’m hoping that’s why it wasn’t completely amazing. I’m interested in what Balog’s future works, and hopefully they’ll be a little more developed than this one.

Rating: 2.5 out of 5. It wasn’t good, but it wasn’t bad either. It was a quick read and it did have a happy ending.

Like Fairy Tale, I was bored reading it, and I liked the premise of the book more than I liked the actual book. I loved the world she built, and I loved the idea of people being born with extreme skills and being feared and exploited and even shunned because of it.

It was very well-written, but I didn’t like the pace of the novel during certain parts of the book. I would’ve liked to have gotten into Katsa’s head a little more, and to see what she was thinking.

Katsa’s very independent and insisted that she would never get married. It was nice to see such an indpendent female.

For a debut novel, it was decent, and I’m hoping that her second book (which is a prequel to this one) is better.

It gets a 3 out of 5. I liked it, but felt there was room for improvement.

I love the whole premise of novel, and found the unusual forms of magic different from the few fantasy books I’ve read. It was a little slow in the beginning, but the pace picked up, and I found myself wanting to read more. I definitely want to read the rest of the books- at first I thought I wouldn’t like the book, but I’m glad I gave it a chance. The circle opens quartet is the sequel to her circle of magic quartet.

I found the character of Lark to be the most interesting and I wished she had appeared in the book more. The characters weren’t really developed in this one, although that’s probably because they were developed in the first series.

I do wish there were more details on how the dancing magic worked. How magic works may well have been covered in the first series, and it certainly seems like Pierce assumes the reader has read the first series. There were enough details for anyone new to her circle of magic books to understand what was going on…but not a lot. While it’s not necessary to have read the circle of magic in order to understand this one, it would be a good idea just to know how the characters came to be.

Rating: 3 out of 5. Interesting book, and the world she built is fascinating.

The story moved pretty slow, but I really wanted to know why Rosalind was born with a dragon’s talon. It was indicated that Rosalind’s mother (the Queen) did something before/during her pregnancy which resulted in the dragon’s talon. It turns out that her mother sucked on a dragon egg in order to have Rosalind.

I didn’t particularly care for most of the last third of the book- she’s taken by Lord Faul (a dragon), and raises his children because it was a fair trade for the knights who killed his mate. She learns dragontongue, but one of the things I found most interesting was the Queen’s role in Rosalind’s dragon talon. We learned several chapters earlier that Demetra got a dragon egg that the Queen ate, which helped her become pregnant with Rosalind. The Queen also had a backup plan- her servant Aliss was also pregnant, and if the queen didn’t become pregnant, she’d pretend she was, and take Aliss’s child Kit, who later becomes a friend/servant to Rosalind.

The one thing I thought was odd was that no one questioned why Rosalind wore gloves all the time- even her father didn’t seem to notice. I get she’s a princess, and for all we know, it could have been a custom for royalty to wear gloves, but at the same time, I still find it slightly odd that no one seems to care that she’s constantly wearing gloves.

I still don’t completely understand the dragon talon thing- it seemed to be a curse for sucking the dragon egg in order to have a child…but did she have some dragon blood in her because of what her mother did, or was it really a curse? I want to know!

I give it a 3 out of 5. I loved the premise, but felt it could have used a little more work. Still, I enjoyed it.

It was really lackluster. I loved the storyline itself, but didn’t like a lot of the characters, especially the 2 main characters, Rose and Lissa.

Lissa is a Morai princess, and is a mortal vampire with a very strong bond to the earth’s magic. She needs to be protected from the Strigoi, who are your stereotypical vampire. This is where Rose steps in. She has both human and vampire blood, which makes her a Dhampir.

The Morai seemed more like glorified witches than actual vampires, because heaven forbid they become like the all-evil Strigoi. I felt like Mead didn’t think through the Morai/Strigoi/Dhampir very well at all. For a book set in a vampire school, you forget about the students being vampires (or the Dhampir, who protect the Morai). I like the idea of different kinds of vampires, and one group being more powerful. I also like the idea of the Strigoi hunting the Morai. However, the execution of it fell flat for me- almost like Mead didn’t think it all the way through.

As for the actual characters, Rose isn’t likeable at all, and seems to be more interested in getting drunk and making out with random guys. Plus, she has a tendency to get into fights, and seems to be very petty. I wasn’t impressed with the other characters either.

The writing was horrible! The transitions were horrible, and Mead kept alluding to some event that led Lissa and Rose leaving school, which we didn’t find out about until the last third of the book. The book was more telling then showing. An accurate description would be that it’s like a teen telling you a story, which, in a way, is true.

Then there’s the fact that it was really boring…there really wasn’t enough action to keep me interested, and sadly, the last 30 to 40 pages were the most interesting of the whole book. It’s too bad that it took nearly 300 pages to get so interesting…only for it to end.

Rating: 2 out of 5. It seriously sounds like a teen wrote it, and it definitely could have used a lot of work before being published.

I loved how it was set up as a diary found in a quilt from the 1600′s that was later published. It was really intriguing to see Mary’s thoughts on her grandmother’s death, and her escape to America in order to avoid suspicion that Mary herself was a witch. Just as she settles into her life in America, she once again faces suspicion that she is a witch, and it ends rather abruptly. I’m fine with the abrupt ending as it’s clear Mary can’t stay in the town she escaped to. There are a few pages after that which gives a brief account of what happens after Mary left.

I picked up, thinking that that it looked and sounded really interesting, and after I started reading it, I realized I had already read it! But I decided to keep reading it, and I loved it as much as I did the first time I read it.

The diary format worked really well, as did the abrupt ending. It was definitely set up for the sequel, but it really made you wonder what happened to Mary and if she was okay.

There is a sequel, which is next on my reading list, and I really want to see how Mary’s story continues.

Rating: 4 out of 5. Overall, it was really interesting, and gave a good look at what life might have been like for someone accused of being a witch.

I’ve been a fan of Laurie Halse Anderson ever since I read Speak in high school.

Wintergirls is about 18 year-old Lia, who is struggling to overcome anorexia. Her best friend Cassie dies in a motel room, alone, after her esophagus erupts.

I’ve never struggled with anorexia (or bulimia), but I have struggled with my weight since middle school, and I knew exactly what Lia was going through. Anderson captures it so well, and I felt like I was experiencing what Lia was going through. This is what I love about Anderson- her books are so realistic that I feel like I know what the characters are going through even though I’ve never experienced it myself.

It was really haunting, and I found myself unable to put it down. I loved the way it was written- text was run together, certain things were italicized, certain things were repeated and the blank pages…it definitely gave a lot of insight into Lia’s mind, and what she was going through. At certain times during the book, I felt like I was Lia.

There were a couple paragraphs I had trouble reading- Lia takes a knife, and cuts herself from her neck to her ribcage. The detail…it was definitely disturbing, but at the same time, I knew exactly how Lia felt.

Are you tired of hearing that? Really, though, that’s how realistic this book is. Yes, it’s slightly creepy, and a little disturbing, but very compelling.

Rating: 5 out of 5! It’s that good, and Wintergirls is definitely up there with Speak.