Forgive My Fins

This is a really nice book few people have heard about. I was browsing a list of books my friend recently read and the title intrigued me enough to go out and get it. The book is really one of a kind, an amazing read with a quirky likable main character. The book is filled with amusing sea vocabulary that draws you into the world the author has created. The cover is beautiful and completely appropriate for the mermaid romance.

Blurb from Goodreads.com:


Lily Sanderson has a secret, and it’s not that she has a huge crush on gorgeous swimming god Brody Bennett, who makes her heart beat flipper-fast. Unrequited love is hard enough when you’re a normal teenage girl, but when you’re half human, half mermaid like Lily, there’s no such thing as a simple crush. 

Lily’s mermaid identity is a secret that can’t get out, since she’s not just any mermaid – she’s a Thalassinian princess. When Lily found out three years ago that her mother was actually a human, she finally realized why she didn’t feel quite at home in Thalassinia, and she’s been living on land and going to Seaview high school ever since, hoping to find where she truly belongs. Sure, land has its problems – like her obnoxious, biker boy neighbor Quince Fletcher – but it has that one major perk – Brody. The problem is, mermaids aren’t really the casual dating type – when they “bond,” it’s for life. 

When Lily’s attempt to win Brody’s love leads to a tsunami-sized case of mistaken identity, she is in for a tidal wave of relationship drama, and she finds out, quick as a tailfin flick, that happily-ever-after never sails quite as smoothly as you planned.

My Review:


I loved this book so much! The Protagonist, Princess Waterlily of Thalassinia (or Lily for short ;P), is a half human, half mermaid who goes to a regular highschool. She has a crush on Brody Bennet, the popular swim team champion at her school. Quince Fletcher is her annoying neighbor who's been making her life miserable for the three years she's lived on land. When she accidentally kisses Quince (thinking he was Brody) they both get more than they bargained for since the kiss instigates a "bond" between them. Lily takes Quince on an underwater journey trying to get the bond severed before its too late and they're joined for life.

This book is amazingly detailed, with lovable characters, and beautiful descriptions. The only thing I didn't like about the book is the way the author describes Lily. She's really bad at schoolwork, she's shallow, and she's stubborn, and blind to what's right in front of her. She actually describes her using those words. Its one thing to perceive a character as being less than bright, but its another thing completely to have the author describe her as a love-sick fool, drooling over Brody instead of doing homework, Gossiping with her best friend Shannen for hours on the phone instead of studying. I'm not saying she should describe the studying in detail, but she mentions that Lily is bad at everything school related, and she's in a few extra-curriculars, but only the ones Brody is in. And then she's acts like a blind idiot. All in all, despite the fact that she's a very nice character, I was not impressed by Lily at all. I kept wanting to bang my head against the wall at her obliviousness. Quince is another thing altogether, he lives with his mother who struggles to make ends meet. Quince goes to school and has a part-time job to help his mother, he's also unfailingly polite to everyone but Lily, who he take great pleasure in annoying. Because of the bond, Lily gets to know Quince better, as they are finally forced to have a few real conversations. I spent the entire book getting anxious whenever their bond was in danger of being severed because as the book progresses you can see that they are perfect for each other.

The Second book "Fins are Forever" came out last June. Planning to read that soon.

As an added tidbit, This is how I imagined Quince looking like:

Brody, but he should have longer darker hair:

I couldn't find one I liked for Lily, but she has crazy untamable curly blonde hair and big brown eyes. I imagined her as really skinny and of medium/short height

Ever Yours~

The Know-it-all

Demonglass

The second book of the Hex Hall trilogy, Demonglass has been on my TBR list before it even came out. I love how they used the same theme for the covers of both books, and both covers are filled with symbolism that foreshadows what happens in the novels.

Blurb from Goodreads.com:
Sophie Mercer thought she was a witch.

That was the whole reason she was sent to Hex Hall, a reform school for delinquent Prodigium (aka witches, shapeshifters, and fairies). But that was before she discovered the family secret, and that her hot crush, Archer Cross, is an agent for The Eye, a group bent on wiping Prodigium off the face of the earth.

Turns out, Sophie’s a demon, one of only two in the world—the other being her father. What’s worse, she has powers that threaten the lives of everyone she loves. Which is precisely why Sophie decides she must go to London for the Removal, a dangerous procedure that will destroy her powers.

But once Sophie arrives she makes a shocking discovery. Her new friends? They’re demons too. Meaning someone is raising them in secret with creepy plans to use their powers, and probably not for good. Meanwhile, The Eye is set on hunting Sophie down, and they’re using Archer to do it. But it’s not like she has feelings for him anymore. Does she?


My Review:

 Now if you're a fan of mystery, action, romance, and fantasy all mixed into one book, you'll love the Hex Hall series. Demonglass is the second installment of the Hex Hall trilogy, and I must say that I enjoyed it much more than its predecessor. The first book struck me as a bit more fluffy than this one, if you read my review on Hex Hall, I mentioned that, at first, Sophie is very whiny and annoying, and we see her mature throughout the book. Demonglass is like a continuation of that, she is a lot easier to like in this novel. Archer, her love interest, returns, and we learn a lot more about him than we did in the first book. Sophie is suspicious of him, after everything he did, and he's trying to get back into her good graces, so we get to see quite a few satisfying scenes. Archer really went up a few notches in my estimation. He's more real in this book, we learn more about who he is, instead of Sophie's (frequent) monotonous "OMGZ, He's like so hot!!11!!!!1" monologues.

 The setting really pulled me in here, Sophie goes to London, and the description is amazing! I'd can almost see the creepy mansion she lives in. And we learn a lot more about her great-grandmother (resisting urge to give spoilers). Also, an interesting new love triangle is introduced, but the author doesn't really go into it much. In fact, she brings in a LOT of new story lines that she barely goes into, so there are a lot of loose ends at the end of the novel. So basically, she resolves some of the cliffhangers from the last book and introduces about a gazillion new ones, which she leaves unfinished. I wish I had just waited until all three books were out before starting this series, because, honestly, the suspense is killing me!

The last book of the trilogy "Spell Bound" is due to be released in March of 2012 (too long from now :()

Ever Yours~

The Know-it-all

Hex Hall

  So I read Hax Hall ages ago and hadn't gotten around to reviewing it yet, so, since I've read Demonglass since then, I've decided to write back-to-back reviews.


Hex Hall is the first book of a trilogy by Rachel Hawkins. Hex hall kind of reminded me of meg cabots novels with more action and fantasy. It was a pretty good book, and actually went quite a bit above my expectations. I'd gotten a lot of recommendations for this book, and I knew that it was a popular YA book so I put it on my to-be-read list. The summary and descriptions I'd read hadn't really pulled me in, that and the fact that the cover screamed "middle school" was why I wasn't really eager to start this book. Once I was past the first few chapters though it reminded me of a mixture of Meg Cabot and the House of Night series (which I am planning on reviewing soon). I loved the whole budding romance thing going on, but it was a bit creepier than I would have liked.

Blurbs from Goodreads.com:


Hex Hall:
Three years ago, Sophie Mercer discovered that she was a witch. It's gotten her into a few scrapes. Her non-gifted mother has been as supportive as possible, consulting Sophie's estranged father--an elusive European warlock--only when necessary. But when Sophie attracts too much human attention for a prom-night spell gone horribly wrong, it's her dad who decides her punishment: exile to Hex Hall, an isolated reform school for wayward Prodigium, a.k.a. witches, faeries, and shapeshifters.

By the end of her first day among fellow freak-teens, Sophie has quite a scorecard: three powerful enemies who look like supermodels, a futile crush on a gorgeous warlock, a creepy tagalong ghost, and a new roommate who happens to be the most hated person and only vampire student on campus. Worse, Sophie soon learns that a mysterious predator has been attacking students, and her only friend is the number-one suspect.

As a series of blood-curdling mysteries starts to converge, Sophie prepares for the biggest threat of all: an ancient secret society determined to destroy all Prodigium, especially her.

My Review:

This book was a surprisingly nice read, I went in expecting a fluffy YA book, with no depth. And much as I like fluffy books (light reading is always enjoyable) this turned out to be quite a bit more than that. With a perfect balance of romance, action, magic, and history, I was really impressed. The main character, Sophie, is a bit annoying at times, always whining about everything that happens to her. She really evolves in this novel, she tackles her problems head on and resolves them herself. No knight-in-shining armour to be seen. I love a novel where the heroine is actually a Heroine instead of the usual whiney damsel-in-distress, and Sophie is definitely a Heroine. Her main love interest, Archer, is a bit of a disappointment really, he's such a cliche, dating the most popular girl in school (who is, of course, a total witch), macho guy, handsome, and Sophie feels a "connection" with him and thinks he should be with her. Personally, I think she's too good for him. The book is about Sophie's journey of self-discovery, and I ended up liking her more and more with every page. A word to the wise, though, expect a cliffhanger, so don't start this book until you have the sequel(s) in hand. 

Ever Yours~

The Know-it-all

Back for the Summer!

Hey everyone!

I know it's been ages since I last posted, but I've FINALLY finished with exams and waiting for my results to come out etc.

I've also been reading up a storm in preparation for my return 

I'll be spending this entire week writing up reviews on all the books that I've read since I've seen you all last, including:

1) Hex Hall
2) Demonglass
3) Maximum Ride: Angel
4) Anna and the French Kiss
5) Graceling
6) House of Night: Burned
7) 13 Little Blue Envelopes

Those are the books I'm planning on reviewing, but maybe I'll add a few in there I hadn't planned on adding.

Ever yours~

The Know-it-all

What the BBC thinks you should read...

So I found this meme on Brooke's box of books and decided to try it out :)


I've finished 16 of these 100 books..I'm not counting the books I "read" for school because I most probably read three-quarters of the book myself (or less) and read the rest of the summary off sparknotes (guilty..but seriously..the books they assign SUCK) I've started or read an excerpt from another 14 of these...so that makes it 30 out of 100 that I've actually encountered...I think thats pretty good..especially since I have heard of and at one time planned to read a lot of the rest of the books on the list..


Conclusion:
The BBC are idiots..I'm betting the reporter who wrote this only read 6 of the 100 books on the list..bloody illiterate..dont make generalizations


Also, I am proud to say that most of the books I've read or tried to read on the list have NOT been school assignments, although I expected them to be..only 4 out of all of the books, read and not fully read, were school assignments.

The BBC believes most people will have read only 6 of the 100 books listed here. Click 'READ MORE'!!!

Instructions:
• Copy this list.
• Bold those books you’ve read in their entirety.
• Italicise the ones you started but didn’t finish or read only an excerpt.

Pride and Prejudice – Jane Austen
The Lord of the Rings – JRR Tolkien
Jane Eyre – Charlotte Bronte
Harry Potter series – JK Rowling
To Kill a Mockingbird – Harper Lee (NOTE:  STRONG dislike of this title!)
The King James Bible - (I think I read the lk prologue or something once..I've also read lk separate psalms and stuff if they quote them in a novel..mehh I'm not christian so I think even this amount is surprising enough)
Wuthering Heights – Emily Bronte 
Nineteen Eighty Four (1984) – George Orwell (assigned summer reading..never opened it)
His Dark Materials – Philip Pullman
Great Expectations – Charles Dickens Little Women – Louisa M Alcott (I think my moms been trying to encourage me to read this since I was about 7...I hated it on sight..even more so after I watched the movie )
Tess of the D’Urbervilles – Thomas Hardy
Catch 22 – Joseph Heller (I read the first 3 chapters of this last year..can I say depressing?)
Complete Works of Shakespeare- 
Rebecca – Daphne Du Maurier
The Hobbit – JRR Tolkien 
Birdsong – Sebastian Faulk
Catcher in the Rye – JD Salinger
The Time Traveler’s Wife – Audrey Niffenegger (does the movie count? I watched it in french AND english :P)
Middlemarch – George Eliot
Gone With The Wind – Margaret Mitchell
The Great Gatsby- F. Scott Fitzgerald  (This was actually pretty interesting...depressing though)
War and Peace – Leo Tolstoy
The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy – Douglas Adams
Brideshead Revisited – Evelyn Waugh
Crime and Punishment – Fyodor Dostoyevsky
Grapes of Wrath – John Steinbeck
Alice in Wonderland – Lewis Carroll (Also throught the looking-glass..wonderful, though sometimes confusing)
The Wind in the Willows – Kenneth Grahame
Anna Karenina – Leo Tolstoy
David Copperfield – Charles Dickens
Chronicles of Narnia – CS Lewis  (NOTE: I lovelovelove this series! I must have read The Horse and his Boy at least 6 times. I raved about it so much as a kid that my dad bought me the entire movie collection [the old  90's british one, not the new series..the old one didn't skip any of the books..*turns nose up at new movies*)
Emma -Jane Austen 
Persuasion – Jane Austen 
The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe – CS Lewis 
The Kite Runner – Khaled Hosseini
Captain Corelli’s Mandolin – Louis De Bernieres
Memoirs of a Geisha – Arthur Golden
Winnie the Pooh – A.A. Milne (do they mean the little kids books? I kinda doubt it..)
Animal Farm – George Orwell
The DaVinci Code – Dan Brown (can I say how much I admire Dan Brown's work??! I love reading his novels, I've also read Angel's and Demons, Digital Fortress and The Lost symbol..)
One Hundred Years of Solitude – Gabriel Garcia Marquez
A Prayer for Owen Meaney – John Irving
The Woman in White – Wilkie Collins
Anne of Green Gables – LM Montgomery 
Far From The Madding Crowd – Thomas Hardy
The Handmaid’s Tale – Margaret Atwood
Lord of the Flies – William Golding  (I hated this...)
Atonement – Ian McEwan
Life of Pi – Yann Martel
Dune – Frank Herbert
Cold Comfort Farm – Stella Gibbons
Sense and Sensibility – Jane Austen
A Suitable Boy – Vikram Seth
The Shadow of the Wind – Carlos Ruiz Zafon
A Tale Of Two Cities – Charles Dickens
Brave New World – Aldous Huxley
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time – Mark Haddon (my english teacher was reading this..when she told me it was about a down's syndrome kid I just couldn't bring myself to read the back cover...I hate hate HATE sop stories..)
Love In The Time Of Cholera – Gabriel Garcia Marquez (ON MY TO BE READ LIST!! I have the ebook uploaded onto my ipod! Something like 3 pages in right now :P planning on finishing it after my finals)
Of Mice and Men – John Steinbeck 
Lolita – Vladimir Nabokov
The Secret History – Donna Tartt
The Lovely Bones – Alice Sebold
Count of Monte Cristo – Alexandre Dumas (I actually played a "seek-and-find" PC game based on the story and got so engrossed that I downloaded it..sounds awesome..but my computer got formatted within that week :( )
On The Road – Jack Kerouac
Jude the Obscure – Thomas Hardy
Bridget Jones’s Diary – Helen Fielding
Midnight’s Children – Salman Rushdie
Moby Dick – Herman Melville
Oliver Twist – Charles Dickens
Dracula – Bram Stoker
The Secret Garden – Frances Hodgson Burnett
Notes From A Small Island – Bill Bryson
Ulysses – James Joyce
The Inferno – Dante
Swallows and Amazons – Arthur Ransome
Germinal – Emile Zola
Vanity Fair – William Makepeace Thackeray
Possession – AS Byatt
A Christmas Carol- Charles Dickens 
Cloud Atlas – David Mitchell
The Color Purple – Alice Walker (didnt oprah produce the movie version of this? its supposedly sucky...no thank you)
The Remains of the Day – Kazuo Ishiguro
Madame Bovary – Gustave Flaubert
A Fine Balance – Rohinton Mistry
Charlotte's Web- E.B. White
The Five People You Meet In Heaven – Mitch Albom (my friend read this for a report once...i dont like books about dead people either)
Adventures of Sherlock Holmes – Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (I dont know if mine was abridged...im pretty sure it wasnt, so I'll count it..)
The Faraway Tree Collection – Enid Blyton
Heart of Darkness – Joseph Conrad
The Little Prince – Antoine De Saint-Exupery
The Wasp Factory – Iain Banks
Watership Down – Richard Adams
A Confederacy of Dunces – John Kennedy Toole
A Town Like Alice – Nevil Shute
The Three Musketeers – Alexandre Dumas
Hamlet – William Shakespeare
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory – Roald Dahl
Les Miserables – Victor Hugo


Ever yours~


The Know-it-all