Showing posts with label tbr goal. Show all posts
She could save the world—or destroy it.
Sixteen-year-old Evangeline "Evie" Greene leads a charmed life, until she begins experiencing horrifying hallucinations. When an apocalyptic event decimates her Louisiana hometown, Evie realizes her hallucinations were actually visions of the future—and they're still happening. Fighting for her life and desperate for answers, she must turn to her wrong-side-of-the-bayou classmate: Jack Deveaux.
But she can't do either alone.
With his mile-long rap sheet, wicked grin, and bad attitude, Jack is like no boy Evie has ever known. Even though he once scorned her and everything she represented, he agrees to protect Evie on her quest. She knows she can't totally depend on Jack. If he ever cast that wicked grin her way, could she possibly resist him?
Who can Evie trust?
As Jack and Evie race to find the source of her visions, they meet others who have gotten the same call. An ancient prophesy is being played out, and Evie is not the only one with special powers. A group of twenty-two teens has been chosen to reenact the ultimate battle between good and evil. But it's not always clear who is on which side.
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What's common between the Tarot cards, zombies and the end of the world? One of these doesn't seem to belong, but Kresley Cole has created just such an incredibly unique story. Wow. What else can I say? The book was just amazing, even though most of the time I was totally baffled. The story is told in such way that you realize what's going on just almost at the end. I just had to read and read in order to know more one piece at a time. This was another one of those books that messed with my sleep, because I just could not put the book out of my hands.
Tarot cards have always been fascinating and everything about mysticism has always fascinated me. Now I regret that I don't have my own Tarot deck, I would have really liked to see those cards myself and imagine character behind them. This book was amazing start to this series. The next book is sure to be something at least as great, maybe even better (I hope). Impatient reader might get a little frustrated with this book, because the plot and meaning behind everything is revealed in very small pieces and I have to admit that I was really baffled a lot. But after this book, my expections are really high, because I believe that the next book will be really exciting and full of action now that the plot and idea behind everything is finally revealed.
I don't know what else to say about this book. It was awesome, gorgeous and one of a kind. Mysticism, superpowers and the end of the world is geared up together into a seamless story, which, at least in my opinion, was something completely unique. The next book is already in my shelf and I can't wait to begin reading it.
(tbr goal 16/200)
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Sixteen-year-old Janelle Tenner is used to having a lot of responsibility. She balances working as a lifeguard in San Diego with an intense academic schedule. Janelle's mother is bipolar, and her dad is a workaholic FBI agent, which means Janelle also has to look out for her younger brother, Jared.
And that was before she died... and is brought back to life by Ben Michaels, a mysterious, alluring loner from her high school. When she discovers a strange clock that seems to be counting down to the earth's destruction, Janelle learns she has twenty-four days to figure out how to stop the clock and save the planet.
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“Apparently this month is full of surprises. No one is as dumb as I thought they were.”
Does anyone remember the TV series Roswell from somewhere around 1999? That series was one of my favorites at the time and my opinion is that it still is one the best series ever. This book, and escpecially the beginning of the book reminded me a lot of Roswell. Janelle and Ben reminded me of Liz and Max and the beginning where Ben saved Janelle's life was a bit similar like when in Roswell's pilot episode Max healed Liz's gunshot wound. There are so many similar elements, that I could almost swear that the author was either consciously or unconsciously influenced by that TV series. This could also be my own imagination, but the feeling is really, really strong.
I wasn't very excited about this book when I started reading, but this book's been in my tbr-list for a long time, and my goal this year is to shorten that list and read as many books as possible from that list. I was between 3 and 4 start a long time and my real opinion would probably be 3.5, but I'm gonna round it up, so 4 stars. The was not bad, but it wasn't great either. It was well written, but it reminded of lot of Roswell. Bit too much maybe. I loved that series, but this seemed a little like copying it. And there was something missing. For some reason, something just didn't "click".
The ending was absolutely heartbreaking, but I kinda liked it. On the other hand, the story was complete, but there is still possibility of next book. And I know there is another book. I'm going to read it, even though this book did not make it to my favorites, 'cos it sounds more promising than this one, at least based on summary it seems really interesting. But my conclusion about this book is that it was nice, and probably many will really like it, but for me something was missing. It wasnät complete waste of my time, but I could've live with myself even if I hadn't read this at all. Sometimes I really regret when I hadn't read some book before, but this time I didn't feel like I'd missed anything important.
(tbr-list 14/200)
Maddie lives in a world where everything is done on the computer. Whether it’s to go to school or on a date, people don’t venture out of their home. There’s really no need. For the most part, Maddie’s okay with the solitary, digital life—until she meets Justin. Justin likes being with people. He enjoys the physical closeness of face-to-face interactions. People aren’t meant to be alone, he tells her.
Suddenly, Maddie feels something awakening inside her—a feeling that maybe there is a different, better way to live. But with society and her parents telling her otherwise, Maddie is going to have to learn to stand up for herself if she wants to change the path her life is taking.
In this not-so-brave new world, two young people struggle to carve out their own space.
“Don't worry about hurting me, if that's what you're afraid of. I want to get hurt. At least I´ll feel something for a change.”
Katie Kacvinsky's debut novel, Awaken, takes us to the year 2060, where people's lives are almost entirely online. People go to school online, meet friends online and go on a date online. Real trees and grass are very rare and have been replaced with plastic ones. There are no more physical books; people read them in digital format. People no longer cook food, but eat tasteless energy bars, where they receive all the nutrients needed. People do not even know what their neighbors look like, because they have never met them face to face.
That is the world where Maddie lives and she is relatively satisfied in life, until she meets Justin, who shows her a different way to live, in the real world. Justin is in fact one of the rebels, who are fighting against the ever increasing digital live. But everything isn't that simple, as Maddie's father is the developer of digital school, and the largest of its advocate. Maddie is confused and does not know what would be the right way to live. On the other hand, she enjoys her digital life, but at the same time misses real people and real life. And Maddie's past isn't absolutely spotless either. Nearly three years ago, she hacked her father's computer's secret information and gave them to the rebels, with catastrophic consequences. Maddie is on probation until her 18th birthday, and if she makes even one wrong move, she is at risk of going into a detention center where people go to "rehabilitation".
I think this book is an incredibly great example of what our society is perhaps going. A rather frightening example. In Maddie's world, people's whole life is online; we are luckily not quite there. The reality, however, is that Facebook and other social media are pushing our society toward it all the time. We pay bills online and without e-mail address life is almost impossible. For example, many of the bills come in there, and no longer physically in mailbox or post office. We order stuff online and I myself have studied online. At least in Finland it is possible to carry out the whole high school online, so that only the tests will take place at the school doing them physically. In fact, I did not even know what my teachers looked like, because I never met them. I'm not complaining about that, 'cos at same time I was studying also elsewhere, so it would've been impossible to be in two places at once, but it's frightening to think that maybe in the future it's the only way to go to school.
The story was well written and the characters are extremely interesting. The plot was written nicely, so that, for example, Justin and Maddie's past and motives are not revealed at once, but bit by bit and new aspects of the story unfolds, and the outcome or the reality was not quite what it seemed at the beginning. The back-story, the events and characters hatched into something completely different, what you first thought. There was also some gaps and questions left without answer, which I hope will be revealed in the following books. I myself have at least some theories and a guesses, and I look forward reading the next book to see if I guessed correctly. And, in particular, what Justine's and Maddie's future holds, and if they have any hope to eventually be together.
