Elixir by Hilary Duff (again)

Elixir by Hilary Duff
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Pages: 327
Rating: 3/5
Series: Elixir Series

A soulmate for life...or death.

     Seventeeen-year-old Clea Raymond has felt the glare of the spotlight her entire life.  The daughter of a renowned surgeon and a prominent politician, she has become a talented photojournalist who takes refuge in a world that allows her to travel to many exotic places.  But after Clea's father disappears while on a humanitarian mission, Clea begins to notice eerie, shadowy images in her photos of a strange and beautiful young man - a man she has never seen before.

     When fate brings Clea and this man together, she is stunned by the immediate and powerful connection she feels with him.  As they grow closer, they are drawn deep into the mystery behind her father's disappearance, and they discover the centuries-old truth behind their love triangle and haunted by a powerful secret that holds their fates, together they race against time to unravel their pasts in order to save their lives and their futures.

I've read and reviewed this book previously, almost two years ago, but I always feel the need to reread a series when a new installment arrives.  I still enjoyed Elixir on the second go, but I found more faults in the writing though I still loved the story and when it's right it's really good.

Clea is rich, famous and a fantastic photographer trying to live after her father's disappearance. Coming home from a trip through Europe, she sorts her pictures and finds the same man in many of them.  In one, he's floating on air! Clea begins to have scarily realistic dreams about this man, but she’s never herself.  She’s another girl in another decade with him.  Scared and confused, Clea, with the help of her friends Ben and Rayna, travels to Rio to try and solve the two mysteries.  She is soon involved in a 500 year old feud and torn between love and a painful death.

I couldn't connect with Clea and that's a problem.  She's just too rich, famous, pretty, kind of a Mary Jane.  In fact most of the characters were like that which makes it me think well why the hell do I like the book then? And the truth is, I have no clue.  Sometimes I read a book that I don't really love but there are parts which I am ecstatic about.  That's what happens in Elixir.  I love the descriptions of Clea's past life and when she discovers Sage in her photos, but the romance and the drama I couldn't careless about.

The dependency and romance eerily echoed Twilight which made me question my taste even more.  If I find Edward watching Bella sleep super creepy why does Sage inspire different feelings?  He’s in the picture of her birth!  Also, both Bella and Clea will do anything to keep their love alive, no matter the consequences.

I don't know how this worked but I disliked all the characters, loved the story and can't wait to read Devoted.  It's like Reality TV.  I don't know why I love Dance Mom's but I come back every week to see the next episode.  I think this book is worth reading for parts of the novel, but not if relate-able characters are a necessity for you.

Dash & Lily's Book of Dares by Rachel Cohn and David Levithan

Dash & Lily's Book of Dares by Rachel Cohn and David Levithan
Publisher : Knopf

Pages :  260

Series : N/A

Rating: 3/5

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 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 it's 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 possible connect as well as their notebook versions?  Or will they be a comic mismatch of disastrous proportions.

In Dash & Lily’s Book of Dares, when Dash looks up his favorite author he is surprised to discover a red moleskin notebook hidden away.  He is ever more surprised to find dares in the notebook.  These dares lead him to picking up books like The Joys of Gay Sex and Fat Hoochie Prom Queen.  Once he’s finished the dares he leaves the mysterious Lily with a dare of his own creation.  Soon Dash and Lily are trading dares and learning about each other.  But will their romance work in real life or is it restricted to the written word?

This is only one adjective to describe this book, adorable.  That one word perfectly sums up how I felt about this book.  It wasn’t sexy, hot, fantastic, amazing or cute, it was adorable.

Dash & Lily’s Book of Dares was much more innocent and contained then Nick & Norah’s Infinite Playlist.  In my mind, Nick & Norah’s is a huge rollercoaster that you rip right through with lots up ups and downs and circles where as Dash & Lily’s is more like the Jungle Cruise ride at Disneyland, calm, serene, thought provoking, and has a few surprises.

By far my favorite aspect of Dash & Lily’s Book of Dares was the setting.  I loved the feeling of Christmas time in New York, especially because you get to see it through two very different sets of eyes, Lily who loves Christmas and Dash who couldn’t care less.  I loved everything from the Santa at Macys to the street of crazy decorated houses.

In the end, I liked Dash & Lily but didn’t fall in love with it.  It was adorable and real, everything it should be but it was missing the spunk I’d be expecting from Rachel Cohn and David Levithan.  If you’re looking for a cute, young novel, give Dash & Lily’s Book of Dares a try.

Dust City by Robert Paul Weston

Dust City by Robert Paul Weston

Published: September 30th 2010

Publisher: Razorbill

Pages: 304

Series: N/A

Rating:

3/5

Who's afraid of the big bad wolf? His son, that's who. Ever since his fathers arrest for the murder of Little Red Riding Hood, teen wolf Henry Whelp has kept a low profile in a Home for Wayward Wolves . . . until a murder at the Home leads Henry to believe his father may have been framed. Now, with the help of his kleptomaniac roommate, Jack, and a daring she-wolf named Fiona, Henry will have to venture deep into the heart of Dust City: a rundown, gritty metropolis where fairy dust is craved by everyone and controlled by a dangerous mob of Water Nixies and their crime boss leader, Skinner. Can Henry solve the mystery of his family's sinister past? Or, like his father before him, is he destined for life as a big bad wolf?

Dust City was not my favorite fairy tale retelling, not by a long shot. I’d much rather had reread any of Alex Flinn’s books.  But, the book wasn’t horrible. It was simply okay.  There were a few scenes and chapters that I really enjoyed but they weren’t enough for me to really like this book.

In the world of Dust City, fairydust is a drug.  It can do anything, from a concussion to raising the dead.  Everyone uses it and it’s very addicting.  But the fairies aren’t the ones with the dust.  The fairies disappeared when Henry was a pup and now a corporation called Nimbus is distributing the dust.  Henry breaks out of his wayward house to try to find out why the fairies left, if his dad is innocent and where Nimbus gets their dust.  He meets a whole cast of characters, many of them with their own traditional fairy tale background. For example, Jack;  Jack and the Bean stock; Detective White, Snow White; Skinner, Midas; Cindy Bella, Cinderella; among others.

One of the major problems for me was picturing the animalia.  In Dust City, many species of animals have evolved to stand up right, were clothes and talk.  Also, these animals are the size of humans. That means there are wolves, frogs, ravens, and foxes walking around as big as you and me.  This was incredibly hard to picture.  I pictured Henry and Fiona as humans all of the time.

On the character side of things, I thought the main characters could have been better.  They were a little flat.  I like the side characters much more, even the ones who are supposed to be Henry’s nemesis.  My favorite characters where Detective White and Tom.

What I can say positively is that I never guessed the twists.  They always surprised me. Also I LOVED the setting.  A city hooked on dust, it’s like a city hooked on drugs and what can be more interesting? I especially liked the gritty scenes when Henry was delivering dust to addicts.  I thought that seeing how hooked the city was on dust brought the story to a deeper level. However, I felt these parts should have been part of a different book.  One that delved deeper into the city’s connection to dust, because while Dust City did have these scenes they were never mentioned again and they would have been and should have been dramatizing to Henry.

If you have nothing better to read, and you find Dust City on your library shelf, I would say give it a try.  While very cheesy throughout most of the book, there are scenes that will make you think and wonder if our society is following the same path.  Also Dust City is full of non-stop action with a little wolfy romance slipped it.

This book is part of my Off-The-Shelf book challenge.

Reckless by Cornelia Funke

Reckless by Cornelia Funke

US Release Date : September 14th, 2010

Publisher : Little Brown

Pages : 400

Series  :  Book One

Rating : 3/5

"Beyond the mirror, the darkest fairy tales come alive...

For years, Jacob Reckless has enjoyed the Mirrorworld's secrets and treasures.

Not anymore.

His younger brother has followed him.

Now dark magic will turn the boy to beast, break the heart of the girl he loves, and destroy everything Jacob holds most dear....

Unless he can find a way to stop it.

If you're looking for happily ever after, you've come to the wrong place."

I, like many other people, fell in love with Inkheart and went on to read other great books by Cornelia Funke.  When I began this book, I thought it would become another book I would love but unfortunately this book let me down quite a bit.

In this book there is a mirror in our world which takes you into another world in which all our fairy tales are real. A young man, Jacob, finds the mirror and begins to hind in this other world when his parents die.  One day his brother, Will, follows Jabob into the world and gets scratched by a Goyl.  Goyls are at war with the humans.  The Goyls were aided by a fairy who cast a spell that said whenever a human was scratched by a Goyl they would slowly turn into a Goyl.  Therefore, Will begins to turn into a Goyl.  With the help of Clara, Will’s girlfriend, Fox, a girl who can turn into a fox with the help of a magic pelt, and a dwarf Jacob sets out on a quest to keep his brother from changing into a Goyl.

There were a couple things I didn’t like about this book.  The first is the changing perspectives.  At times it is really hard to tell who is telling the story.  Another problem is that I never felt like I got to know Jacob and Will very well.  I didn’t care about what they were doing and if they lived or died.  I was much more interested in what Fox and Clara were doing. 

That being said, there were parts of this book that I did LOVE.  The chapter about the tailor was terrifying!  I would love a whole story surrounding that character.  I also enjoyed the illustrations on the first page of every chapter.  I also loved Fox.  She was a strong female character who was used to protecting herself and Jacob.  She knows how to fight and can’t stand being left behind and out of the loop.

Reckless definitely has its flaws but it’s still worth reading if you enjoy darker retellings of popular fairy tales.  I, for one, would only reread it for the chapter on the Tailor and the character of Fox who I loved.

This book was part of my "Off The Shelf" book challenge.

I Don't Want To Be Crazy by Samantha Schutz

I Don't Want to Be Crazy by Samantha Schutz
Release Date: July 1st, 2006
Publisher: Push
Age Group: Young Adult
Pages: 280
Source: My library
Buy the Book: Amazon

Rating: 3/5

"The harrowing, remarkable true story of one girl's struggle with anxiety disorder.

This is a true story of growing up, breaking down, and coming to grips with a psychological disorder.  When Samantha Schutz first left home for collage, she was excited by the possibilities - freedom from parents, freedom from a boyfriend who was reckless with her affections, freedom from the person she was supposed to be.  At first, she reveled in the independence - but as pressures increased, she began to suffer anxiety attacks that would leave her mentally shaken and physically incapacitated.  Thus began a hard road of discovery and coping, powerfully rendered in this poetry memoir."

This book chronicles the author's struggles with anxiety disorder during her collage years.  It is written in a poem format with short choppy thoughts.  

Samantha leaves her home for collage and is instantly plagued with anxiety attacks.  She lives in constant terror of when the next attack will come.  When they do come there is nothing she can do but hide in the bathroom and wait it out. They follow her all through her life.  They come with her to Europe and new jobs.

I think that this book portrays anxiety really well.  The fear of never knowing when the next one will be and how it will tear you apart is pictured well.  But the book never really grabbed me.  In fact I found it boring.  I do understand that it is a memoir and everything is true but I was really craving the main character to do something.  It just seemed that the same thing was always happening and Samantha never did anything.  Sure she went to psychiatrists and got medication but thats all she did.  I know there isn't much you can do in real life but it made a really boring story.

If you want to learn more about anxiety attacks, what causes them, and how they affect people, I would recommend this book.  But if your looking for a new book like Ellen Hopkin's I wouldn't look here.

Wish You Were Dead by Todd Strasser

Wish You Were Dead by Todd Strasser
Release Date: October 13th, 2009
Publisher: Egmont
Age Group: Young Adult
Pages: 247
Source: Bought
Buy the Book: Amazon

Rating: 3/5

"No one at Soundview High takes the recent death wishes of an anonymous blogger seriously, until the very students talked about start mysteriously disappearing.  After dropping off Lucy following a night of partying, Madison is wracked with guild when her popular classmate vanishes.  And Madison makes it her mission to discover what really happened..."

This story is told through the eyes of Madison.  A popular, nice, rich school in a neighborhood where nothing ever happens.  So when Madison's friends start getting kidnapped, everyone freaks.  This kidnapper targets the elite 'mean' kids in order to show them what it feels like to be bullied and unpopular.

To say it bluntly, this book just didn't scare me.  I started it hoping to get scared and jump at each and every shadow I saw while reading this.  It never delivered on that front.  I went to bed after reading this book with absolutely no problem and I had to go sleep with my parents after watching Paranormal Activity.   

Another problem was the characters.  In the summary in the back it says "Madison makes it her mission to discover what really happened" and that is so untrue.  Madison never did anything except sit back and act afraid until someone else came up with a lead.  In fact all but two characters just acted afraid.  It was almost as if everyone in the book was so worried and scared that I didn't have to be.  I missed yelling at the character because they're doing the stupid yet brave act that will get them captured and/or hurt.

I have to give it props that I didn't figure out who the killer was before it was revealed.  Although there were other twists about the blog and the characters that I could pick out a mile away.

Overall, I think the only redeeming fact about this book is it's cover.  If you see it for less than $3 then get it other wise just let it sit.