Beautiful Creatures - Kami Garcia & Margaret Stohl

This book had a lot of potential when I first heard of it, enough to make me buy it and want to read it. But then it sat on my bookshelf for the next 3 years. Each time I finished another book and had to choose my next one to read it always looked a little less enticing, especially when I read the back jacket. It has a blurb the similar as Twilight, where it doesn’t really tell you much about the book and so doesn’t pique your interest.

To be honest, what made me take it off my shelf and finally read it was the fact that the movie was coming out. I had to read it before I saw the movie, otherwise if the movie was bad it would deter me from reading the book to see if it was any better.

I started on it in the hope that I would remember the reason for buying it in the first place. The beginning was a little slow and seemed disjointed. I put that down to there being two co-authors on this book. Being as it was my first co-authored experience, I decided to try to not put as much emphasis on this as I normally would a disorganized novel. However it still did annoy me. Further into the book I was either more into the book that I didn’t notice as much or there was a better flow.

The story started to pick up and I grew to like the characters. Like, not love. I felt I didn’t get enough of them to love them; no history, no in depth explanation, no quirky humanising character flaws. But the story continued and I kept reading for its potential.

At some point after the middle something must have changed without me being aware, as I found myself wanting to continue reading when I really had to go to bed. The last quarter of the book was very good, it had a nice pace to it but I would have preferred the climax to be a little more long winded than it was. It seemed to me that the end was planned but rushed in it’s execution. More in depth descriptions would have been appreciated to make you feel like you were there, not just reading about it. That’s it, I felt for the whole book that I was reading about the story rather than experiencing it.

Then there was that ending, that last paragraph/stanza that made me so angry. It’s sort of the like the end of a big budget movie when you are satisfied with the story, but they add this little lose end in there to make a sequel possible if it makes enough money. Exactly how I felt about the ending of the book. It left me with a huge sour taste in my mouth. Not happy Jan. However I have found myself today researching the sequels and adding them to my to-be-read list on Goodreads. I just hope that they live up to the potential of the story.

Rapture - Lauren Kate

While this book did have an ending that was easy to spot from book 2 (Torment), it was still very entertaining and a great read. I sped through it very easily as it was written well and easily. All the characters I had grown to love over the last three books featured and all had their own part in the story. 

There was a slight twist near the end that I didn't see coming until just a little while beforehand, and that is just another reason to love this book and the author. Even when you think you have it all figured out, there is a little bit more to add.

Rapture neatly wraps up the series, while still leaving it open for tangent series to be made from it (which I personally would love to see happen as I enjoy the world the books are set in). Also what is great is that you don't have to have read Fallen in Love the novella 3.5 that come out after Passion but before Rapture to help tide fans over and it also gave more history into some of your favourite characters.

A solid 4 stars, great for a weekend read along with the entire series. 

Fallen in Love - Lauren Kate

Great book. I love that Lauren Kate let you into the Fallen world just that little bit more with an addition to the story. As it is 3.5 in the series, it doesn't continue the main story line but it does give you insight into a few things that you being to wonder about it the main books.

I loved learning more about Arriane and Cam, what was behind the choices they made and the explanations of how things came to be in the main series.

Mainly this book just whet me appetite for the fourth book in the series, Rapture. Unfortunately I will have to wait an entire 2 more months for it. But at least I had this jaunt back into the Fallen world as a reprieve from the long break between books three and four.

Last night at Chateau Marmont - Lauren Weisberger

I thought this was quite a good book. Like all of Weisberger's books they draw you in and make you want to keep reading. The idea of this book was really good, it showed you behind the curtain of what it would be like to catapult to fame very quickly and how someone would deal with that. Weisberger has a great way of going on depth into a world that most people don't get to see, in Devil wears Prada it was a fashion magazine, Everyone worth knowing showed the PR world.

The only big downfall of this book was the ending. It felt very rushed and rolled together too easily. I found myself wishing for a different ending just to make it more interesting and what I feel would be more realistic.

Lauren Weisberger is still one of the authors I like enough to read whatever she writes and I look forward to her next book

A New Year!

Well it's a new year and this blog needs updating (desperately). 2011 was pretty bad in terms of reading. I set a challenge to read 61 and only ended up reading 22. That is appaulling! So this year I am determined to meet my quota (60), not only in the number of books read, but also in the type. This year I will be reading 12 of the following:

• 12 classics
• 12 from the shelf
• 12 borrowed from friends (or the library)
• 12 purchased
• 12 reviewed books

I'm feeling pretty good about this challenge ... I have placed Goodreads widget for the 2012 challenge down the left hand side of this blog if anyone is interested in following my progress.

2012 Reading Challenge

Nadine has


read 2 books toward her goal of 60 books.

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2 of 60 (3%)

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So far I have read two books; The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald (1 classic down, 11 to go) and The Way We Were by Elizabeth Noble (1 reviewed, 11 to go).

Reviews for those will be coming soon, however I will say that I thoroughly enjoyed the Great Gatsby and The Way We Were completely surprised me.

Author Event: Lauren Kate

So, last week I listened to and met Lauren Kate, author of the fantastic Fallen series and The Betrayal of Natalie Hargrove .

Attendees waiting for Lauren Kate.

This was the first time I had ever met or heard an author speak before (mainly because the only "authors" that have events here are ex rugby or cricket players who are writing their biographies and let's face it, that's not exactly my cuppa tea).

Lauren Kate was pleasantly fascinating to listen to. She spoke of how she came to write the Fallen series and how she got into writing itself.  She also read a chapter from her latest novel, Passion, which was amazing. She read it so well and effortlessly - it was more like watching a performance.

She ended the event with a signing session. I waited a bit to let the masses have their turn, and because I couldn't be bothered standing around for 20 minutes when, instead, I could sit for those 20 minutes and then wait in line for 5.  When I finally got to the front of the line I asked Lauren how she was enjoying NZ, thanked her so much for going to Dunedin and complemented her on her necklace (two angel wings - simply gorgeous).  She was then gracious enough to pose for a photo with me.

Me with Lauren Kate.

The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde - Robert Louis Stevenson

This book, while being very short, was one of the longest I have read. It is written with what is now such a dated style of speech that it takes more time to get through each paragraph and then sometimes a few seconds is needed to decipher what has just been read.

I found half of what was written to be polite waffle and totally unneeded, but as it is such an old book I was content that it is still written in it's original format. For I'm sure I would have complained more if it had of been butchered and modernised so that every lay-man now days could understand it.

The crux of the story though was a good idea, but the first half of the book was so slow I had no desire to continue. However I found that, similar to "The Graveyard Book", I liked the last third of the book when something actually happened, in this case an explanation was given.

I do not profess to be a literary expert or have great knowledge into what makes a 'classic' book, but as a reader who enjoys a good story written well, I don't understand how this book is classified as a 'classic' and held in such regard.

All I can say is I am happy it was a short book.