Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carrol

Three Stars

Weary of her storybook, one "without pictures or conversations," the young and imaginative Alice follows a hasty hare underground--to come face-to-face with some of the strangest adventures and most fantastic characters in all of literature. 

The Ugly Duchess, the Mad Hatter, the weeping Mock Turtle, the diabolical Queen of Hearts, the Cheshire Cat--each more eccentric than the last--could only have come from that master of sublime nonsense, Lewis Carroll. 

In penning this brilliant burlesque of children's literature, Carroll has written a farcical satire of rigid Victorian society, an arresting parody of the fears, anxieties, and complexities of growing up. 

Carroll was one of the few adult writers to successfully enter the children's world of make-believe: where the impossible becomes possible, the unreal--real, and where the height of adventure is limited only by the depths of imagination.

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Eyes Ever To The Sky by: Katie French

Three Stars

When Hugh wakes up in a smoldering crater—no memory, no clothes—a single thought echoes in his head…trust no one. Frightened and alone, with no memory of who he is, he stumbles upon a grisly murder scene and is fatally shot. He wakes, only to find he can heal himself. He has superpowers, and he’s going to need them.

Desperate and bleeding, Hugh stumbles upon fifteen-year-old Cece, who’s got enough troubles of her own. Between caring for her bipolar mother and trying not to get evicted from her run-down trailer, Cece may be the only person struggling as much as Hugh. Drawn to Hugh, Cece finds a love she’s never known. But when the real killer—a man-hunting beast—chooses another victim, Hugh and Cece realize they must unlock the clues to their past if they have any chance at a future.

To any guys reading this: Parts of this is a normal review. Other parts are strange. Very, very strange. And hopefully, you'll think I just have a cold or something, and that's great. But please note: I envy right now. Actually, I hate every male specimen for not going through the same torture as me. Including my shih tzu who adores me. So don't feel singled out.

I was going to change it from a three star to a four star rating because I'm nice like that, but the day I wrote this review (today), I remembered the exact reason why I hate Mother Nature. And now this lovely book is going to suffer for it. It won't suffer a lot. The exact rating was around 3.5 or so, and I was trying to decide whether or not to make it 3 or 4.

So while my body decides to recreate that bloody scene from Aliens, I'll be trying to write an understandable review.

Hugh wakes up in a crater completely naked. Oh, and with no memories except for a completely cheesy, "Trust no one." Naturally, he gets a little freaked out. And then he finds out he can heal fatal wounds almost instantaneously and is super strong. I had a tiny feeling he wasn't human when that was found out.

Cece has a bipolar mother who refuses to take her medication, and she lives in a trailer park. When she sees Hugo, she immediately is drawn to him. Definitely no like any other Young Adult Book.

A huge problem I had with Eyes Ever to the Sky is the impossibly unrealistic insta-love. Seriously, I've seen hundreds of guys in my life. Have I ever crushed on them the second I saw them? No comment on that. But did I trust them with my life? Absolutely not. The only person I trust with my life is me.  I don't care how pretty the guy is.

I would have loved this book if the romance didn't seem rushed. Even my annoying cramps would have understood that this book was worthy to get four or even five stars.

There were two point of views. Those were very well written, and a reader can clearly distinguish the difference between the Cece and Hugo.

There was also a victim's point of view, right before they died. I didn't find that distracting from the overall story at all. It actually helped it though.

Eyes Ever to the Sky makes you really annoyed, but in the compelling read sort of way. You get this itsy bit of information, and then you're left hanging. And it happens over and over.

Overall, the book was very fun to read. I look forward to more of the series.

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The Summer I Became a Nerd by: Leah Rae Miller

Three Stars
I received this book from the publisher. This in no way influenced my review.

On the outside, seventeen-year-old Madelyne Summers looks like your typical blond cheerleader—perky, popular, and dating the star quarterback. But inside, Maddie spends more time agonizing over what will happen in the next issue of her favorite comic book than planning pep rallies with her squad. That she’s a nerd hiding in a popular girl's body isn’t just unknown, it's anti-known. And she needs to keep it that way.

Summer is the only time Maddie lets her real self out to play, but when she slips up and the adorkable guy behind the local comic shop’s counter uncovers her secret, she’s busted. Before she can shake a pom-pom, Maddie’s whisked into Logan’s world of comic conventions, live-

action role-playing, and first-person-shooter video games. And she loves it. But the more she denies who she really is, the deeper her lies become…and the more she risks losing Logan forever.

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{Mini Review} The Athena Effect (The Athena Effect #1) by: Derrolyn Anderson

Three Stars

Country girl Cali has been kept a secret her entire life, raised in isolation by two very troubled people. Despite her parent’s disturbing fits, Cal is perfectly content, living at one with the nature that surrounds her, and finding adventure inside the pages of her beloved books. When an awful tragedy tears her away from her remote cabin in the woods, nothing she’s ever read has prepared her for a world that she knows very little about.

Girls and motorcycles are what bad-boy Cal’s life is all about. Brought up in a raucous party house by his biker brother, he’s free to do as he pleases, going through the motions on his final days of high school. Aimless, Cal stopped thinking about his future a long time ago.

Attacked by a gang of thugs while running an errand for his brother, Cal is in serious trouble until a fierce girl appears out of nowhere to intervene. She chases off three grown men, sparing Cal a brutal beating before disappearing into the night like a spirit. He can’t stop thinking about his mysterious rescuer, and when she turns out to be the weird new girl at school who goes out of her way to avoid him, he can’t contain his curiosity. 

He’s never met anyone like her before, and the more he learns about the unusual girl who shares his nickname, the more he wants to know. Cal can’t help falling for Cal, but can he keep her from falling victim to a dangerous enemy from her parent’s tragic past?

I received this book for free from the author in exchange for a honest review.

At the beginning, it was very interesting. I loved how Cali saw auras, but didn't complain a lot. She was very interesting to read, since she was an outsider. Add the fact that she liked to read, and I was hooked.

Cal, the love interest seemed a bit uninteresting at first. He wasn't focused on what to do after graduation. However, when Cali came into his life, he pretty became perfect.

There was some insta-love, which was annoying.

Some parts in the book dragged at times.

The writing was overall well done, but seemed forced at times.

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Reassigned (Codename Fairy Godmother #1) By: Tanjlisa Marie

Three Stars

Goodreads Summary: 

What do you get when you splice Tomb Raider’s Lara Croft with Tinker Bell? Meet Agent Thunder, a kick-butt Huntress with the Fairy Godmother Organization (FGO). Find out what happens when the FGO’s #1 bounty hunter encounters Earth’s most infamous villain and gets Reassigned for her own protection. While in her fairy godmother protection program, Agent Thunder is eventually tracked down by Ciaran, the alluring terminator-leprechaun that she went into hiding to evade in the first place. Ciaran, a seasoned seducer gains the fairy godmother’s trust and introduces her to experiences she’s never even contemplated He doesn’t appear to be as menacing as Agent Thunder was led to believe . . . or so she thought. As they spend more time together and feelings evolve she soon discovers the life-altering truth, not only about the villainy leprechaun, but about conspiracies surrounding the FGO, and everything she's ever held as gospel. If you like chicks that kick butt, conflicted villains, arbitrary fight scenes, nude fairy godmothers, terminator-leprechauns, pixies, conspiracies, or hot and heavy petting, then this book is for you.

This book was the first book I won as a giveaway on Goodreads. Naturally, I was ecstatic.

The idea of this book was very refreshing. I mean, fairy godmothers? Genius.

In this story, the fairy godmothers do grant wishes, but only to children between five and puberty. They also have to pay a price. Later in their life, they have to do something similar to another child what the godmother did to them. If they don't, they are hunted by the Huntresses. Really? I never thought the Huntresses would actually hunt something! Thunder is one of these Huntresses, if you couldn't guess.

When Thunder meets a Leprechaun, one of the enemies of the fairies, she must be assigned. The Queen Mother decides to put her with the Wish Granters, which we call Fairy Godmothers.

Making Leprechauns and Fairies enemies was a brilliant idea. 

The queen was very fun to read. She was hilarious at times.

The setting was great. Fairies live on another planet. They can warp, or teleport to Earth. However, at times, I didn't think this planet was thought through enough, and was only used as a plot device.

In some incidents, Reassigned  was very funny.

At the beginning of this book, I thought I would love it. The Huntress, or Agent Thunder was epic. She knew how to fight and scare people. The nickname, Homosap, given to humans, was an awesome idea. 

There were some twists I didn't see coming, and some I did.

Now, for the parts I didn't like.

First, the way Thunder met Ciaran. He was a lawyer to one of the people Thunder had to hunt down. And he was, like, nineteen. Nineteen. Ciaran's boss was a rich guy, and he decided to hire a nineteen year old. 

Some of the fight scenes were stupid. For example, Thunder did a cartwheel towards a guy . A cartwheel. This isn't Xena, okay? And, Karate-chopping a guy's neck. I don't know why, but whenever I see karate-chopping in a book, I start laughing. I do martial art, and I don't Karate-chop anyone. They also screamed a lot during the fighting scenes. No. Not the "fighting" scenes. The actual ones. That annoyed me a lot.

Sometimes, Thunder was an idiot. For example, she didn't realize Ciaran wasn't human when he saw through lots of smoke. Also, in a burning fire, she thought about how hot Ciaran's face was.

There was also some insta-love.

There was some bad grammar. During the telekinesis thoughts, all the sentences seemed to run together.

I didn't like how Thunder kept on screaming, "Holy Fairy Dust!" Yes, I get what it means. It just bugged me a lot.

There was also that Twilight scene where the guy stares at the girl and the waitress is clearly lusting over him, but the guy doesn't see it.

Also, there was this Star Wars moment. Just saying.

All in all, this was a descent book. It was sort of light-hearted and fun. 

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Throne of Glass By: Sarah Maas

3 Stars: Mediocre

Goodreads Summary

After serving out a year of hard labor in the salt mines of Endovier for her crimes, 18-year-old assassin Celaena Sardothien is dragged before the Crown Prince. Prince Dorian offers her her freedom on one condition: she must act as his champion in a competition to find a new royal assassin. Her opponents are men-thieves and assassins and warriors from across the empire, each sponsored by a member of the king's council. If she beats her opponents in a series of eliminations, she'll serve the kingdom for three years and then be granted her freedom. Celaena finds her training sessions with the captain of the guard, Westfall, challenging and exhilirating. But she's bored stiff by court life. Things get a little more interesting when the prince starts to show interest in her... but it's the gruff Captain Westfall who seems to understand her best. Then one of the other contestants turns up dead... quickly followed by another. Can Celaena figure out who the killer is before she becomes a victim? As the young assassin investigates, her search leads her to discover a greater destiny than she could possibly have imagined.

I feel I should have liked this more than I should...  I waited and waited for this book to finally come out. And then I didn't like it as much as I thought I would.

The synopsis makes it sound like a huge mystery. And it might have been, if the author didn't try to put as many clues in there. There was way to much foreshadowing. There was one point in time when Maas gave us a red herring, but I saw through it.

The writing wasn't the best I've read, but it wasn't the worst. There were some weird wordings, but overall, it was pretty good. The narration was alright. The action scenes and dialogue were very well written.

Celaena had some very good comebacks up her sleeves. And they just got better as the book went on. But, she was way to cocky. She was also too good, and I knew she would win at the end. 

The love triangle was one of the things that wasn't written well. Neither the prince nor Westfall were very interesting to read about. I like Westfall better than the prince, though

Will I read the next book. Yeah. Definitely.

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