Review: Flawless

 

Title: Flawless

Author: Sara Shepard

Series: Pretty Little Liars #2

Published: March 15th 2007

Publisher: HarperCollins

SPOILERS IF YOU HAVEN'T READ PRETTY LITTLE LIARS!

Spencer stole her sister's boyfriend. Aria is brokenhearted over her English teacher. Emily likes her new friend Maya . . . as much more than a friend. Hanna's obsession with looking flawless is making her sick. And their most horrible secret yet is so scandalous that the truth would ruin them forever.
And why shouldn't I tell? They deserve to lose it all. With every crumpled note, wicked IM, and vindictive text message I send, I'll be taking these pretty little liars down. Trust me, I've got enough dirt to bury them alive.

                             - A

OK the second installment of Flawless was pretty amazing. The twists got better and so did the plot-line. OK I admit it I devoured this book in 2 hours of fast paced reading enjoyment. 

At the start of the book was a flashback to Aria, Emily, Spencer, and Hanna's seventh grade year, this one revealing what happened in the whole "Jenna Thing." A mystery that the girls kept bringing up in the first book. After the whole reveal we paced up to the lives of Aria, Emily, Hanna, and Spencer. They were still receiving notes from the mysterious A which seemed to be spilling even more personal secrets. She definetly musn't like them!

The only bad thing was that it seemed like we didn't get enough of some characters and too much of others so I wish that Sara Shepard could balance things out a little more!

All in all I really enjoyed Flawless and I rate it 4 STARS!

More reviews soon!

- Jocelyn AKA Crazy Writer

Follow Friday #3

So it's another Follow Friday. A day where everbody says HI! Today's question is,

Q. What is on your current playlist right now?

For me nothing is on my current playlist. Yes I have an iPod but all the songs on there are from  like 2007! No I don't listen to music. There I said it. Shocker huh?


So what's your playlist? I'd love to know!

Review for Flawless and Perfect coming soon!

- Jocelyn AKA Crazy Writer

Third Sentence Thursday

First of all I want to say sorry about not posting I've had a crazy busy week , as we're getting renovations done on our house, and we're staying in a little apartment for the time being. Anyways on to Third Sentence Thursday.

At the moment I'm reading the fourth book in the Pretty Little Liars, Unbelievable!

My reviews for the other PLL books will come up soon! But anyways on to the Third Sentence Teaser!

"Everyone - Hanna Marin's parents, Officer Wilden, Hanna's best friend Mona Vanderwaal, and Lucas Beatie, a boy in her class at Rosewood day - was staring at her."

I know. Super long sentence, but I hoped you liked it. It introduces a lot of characters that are mostly important to the story! So don't you want to know what's up with Hanna? Who is everybody staring at? Where they are? Why? Pick up the first Pretty Little Liars book now!

- Jocelyn AKA Crazy Writer

Review: The Lit Report

Title: The Lit Report
Author: Sarah N. Harvey
Publisher: Orca Book Publishers
Published: 2008

One great thing about Ruth is that she has a moth-flame relationship with catastrophe... Another great thing is that she's really creative, and I'm really pragmatic, so between the two of us we can usually figure something. I started with the facts. Ruth was pregnant.

Wow! I didn't imagine myself falling in love with Julia's story as much as I did. It started like this, Julia is that girl who's in love with books, has a best friend who hangs orange thongs on her wall, and is also christian. I know what your thinking... How could these three things actually be made into a story?! One sentence. 17 year old girl becomes pregnant who let me remind you is christian. The story ends up being about Julia and her best friend Ruth who's accidentally become pregnant, and how they cope with it without telling Ruth's parents.

Some of my favourite things about this book was how well everything clicked in place and by the end how the book had such a thrilling conclusion. I really liked orderly Julia, and swearing, pregnant Ruth who ended up becoming my favourite character. I also liked how as Julia tried to cope with Ruth's pregnancy, she was also balancing her step mother's baby, while getting tips about how to deliver Ruth's.

One thing I didn't enjoy though was how at the beginning of each chapter Julia talked about the quotes that were put at the beginning of the chapter for at least 3 pages. First of all she completely strayed away from the story at hand, and second of all the quotes had NOTHING to do with the story at all! It irritated me how the author just added those extra paragraphs for what seemed to be a higher word count!

Still this surprise hit made me want to know more about the author and I'm sure I'm going to be checking out some of her books soon! Overall I rate The Lit Report 3.5 STARS

- Jocelyn AKA Crazy Writer

Follow Friday #2

So brings another follow Friday. Follow Friday is a weekly meme hosted at Parajunkee's view. It's a day where we get to say HI and get lot's of Followers, along with answering a question. Today's question is,

Q. Do you have anyone that you can discuss books with IRL? Tell us about him/her.

Sadly no. My best friend would rather play sports then pick up a book any day, and everyone on my swim team obviously doesn't know the joy of going to book signing or else I would be listening to Cassandra Clare on Monday instead of swimming. So I am very sadly along IRL and all I have are my faithful book blogger friends and Goodreads!

Now I'm off to go follow people,

- Jocelyn AKA Crazy Writer

Review: Clockwork Angel

Title: Clockwork Angel
Author: Cassandra Clare
Series: Infernal Devices #1
Publisher: McElderly Books
Published: August 31st 2010

MAGIC IS DANGEROUS - BUT LOVE IS MORE DANGEROUS STILL.

When sixteen-year old Tessa Gray crossed the ocean to find her brother her destination is England, the time is the reign of Queen Victoria, and something terrifying is waiting for in London's downworld, where vampires, warlocks and other supernatural folk stalk the gas-lit streets. Only the Shadowhunters, warriors dedicated to ridding the world of demons, keep order amidst the chaos. Kidnapped by the mysterious Dark Sisters, who are members of a secret organization called the Pandemonium Club, Tessa soon learns she herself is a downworlder with a rare ability: the power to transform, at will, into another person. Whats more, the Magister, the shadowy figure who runs the club, will stop at nothing to claim Tessa's power for his own Friendless and hunted, Tessa takes refuge with the Shadowhunters at the London Institute, who swear to help her find her brother if she will use her power to help them. Soon she finds herself facinated by - and torn between - two best friends: James, whose fragile beauty hides a deadly secret, and blue eyed Will, whose caustic wit and volatile moods keep everyone at arms length... everyone, that is, but Tessa. As their search draws them deep into the heart of an arcane plot that threatens to destroy Shadowhunters, Tessa realizes that she may need to choose between saving her brother and helping her new friends save the world... and that love might be the most dangerous magic of all.

I admit this book let me down a bit, I suppose it just wasn't was I was expecting as the prequel to Cassandra Clare's Mortal Instruments phenomenon. Not that it wasn't a great, brilliant, awesome book, I just imagined to live more up to it's expectations. Anyways, on to the 'Pro's.' For one thing I loved the setting, whats better then to read a book in London, England? I loved how Clare described the setting and I could really imagine myself being there, it must of took a lot of research to get some of those details exactly right but it certainly paid off because I think Cassandra nailed it! Another thing I liked was how she really made it so the characters were in the 1800's of England, and not some spinoff of what she imagined it to be. So you could say I was pretty impressed with the layout of things.

Another thing that got me thinking at first was how different it was to be a girl living that age where as being a shadowhunter meant that you were wearing pants, and battle gear, something that greatly surprised Tessa, the main character. I liked how Cassandra Clare wanted the girls to be able to do things that most weren't aloud to do in the century, and I applaud her for that.

But there were also somethings that I think were done not as well, the plot line for one seemed to be going either too slow or too fast and I wasn't finding that harmony that I was able to find in The Mortal Instruments. Another thing was that I disliked some of her characters and thought that either they needed to have more depth or not be introduced. Jessamine for one was someone who I found quite confusing, and somewhat overlooked, she only did one brave thing, barely appears in the story, and doesn't really seem to be needed at all. I didn't understand her at all and I definitely disliked her, hopefully things will change in Clockwork Prince. Which I should mention is the next book in the series! The cover is currently no available but I will definitely update you when the release happens!

Overall I enjoyed Clockwork Angel and I rate it 4 STARS!

Third Sentence Thursday

Sorry about not blogging in awhile! My reviews for Before I Fall and Clockwork Angel are coming for sure tommorrow. But while you wait I've decided to participate in Third Sentence Thursday. A weekly meme hosted by Sniffly Kitty. For the rules look below.


1) Take the book you are reading now and post the third sentence
2) Review this sentence anyway you want (funny and silly reviews encouraged)
3) Post a link to your sentence here or if you don't have a blog, just post it in the comments!

At the moment I'm reading 5 different books, so I'll put the sentence from the book that is right by my side.

"I adore Dickens."

Only three words, fit for the third sentence. Short but simple. Though I've got to say this wasn't the sentence that hooked me. Yes my school might be named after the man himself but the books aren't at all on my top ten favourites list, nor my top 100 list. Yet I'm 143 pages into it so I definitely recommend it!

Anyways reviews coming soon and I hoped you liked my Third Sentence Teaser!

- Jocelyn AKA Crazy Writer

Upcoming Reviews

Sorry I haven't posted a lot of reviews lately! I've been busy devouring books to review.

New Reviews for:

City of Fallen Angels
Fablehaven Series
39 Clues Series
Percy Jackson Series
Infernal Devices #1
Heroes of Olympus #1
Kane Chronicles #1

I'm currently reading,

Beyonders #1
Before I Fall
Fablehaven #4
Making The Cut
The Wizard Heir

Any book suggestions?! Any books that I didn't mention that you want me to review?!
Remember I'm keeping it YA related!

- Jocelyn AKA Crazy Writer

April 2011 New Releases!

For those of you at a loss for books right now I decided to post a bunch of books coming out this April!

April 1st 

Geek Fantasy Novel By E. Archer
Alice in Time By Penelope Bush
Almost True By Keren David
The Blue-Eyed Aborigine By Rosemary Hayes
Eclipse of the Jaguar By Richard Trout
Sign of the Moon (Warriors: Sign of the Moon #4) By Erin Hunter

April 4th

The Abused Werewolf Rescue Group By Catherine Jinks 
The Year we Were Famous By Catherine Estby Dagg

April 5th (AKA You Should Book it to Barnes and Noble Day! Pun not intended.)

City of Fallen Angels (Mortal Instruments #4) By Cassandra Clare
Vespers Rising (39 Clues #11) By Rick Riordan
Red Glove (The Curse Workers #2) By Holly Black
Where She Went (Sequel to If I Stay) By Gale Foreman
Through Her Eyes By Jennifer Archer
Flip By Martyn Bedford
Stay By Deb Calletti
The FitzOsbornes in Exhile By Michelle Cooper
Where I Belong By Gillian Cross
The Ghoul Next Door (Monster High #2) By Lisi Harrison
Huntress By Malinda Lo
Faerie Winter (Faerie Series #2) By Janni Lee Simner
The Time Traveling Fashionista By Bianca Turetsky

April 12th


Enclave By Ann Aguirre
The Gathering (Darkness Rising #1) By Kelley Armstrong
In the Shadow of the Lamp By Susanne Dunlap
Insight By Diana Greenwood
My Unfair Godmother By Jannette Rallison
What Comes After By Steve Watkins

April 14th 

The Returning By Christine Hinwood
On the Volcano By James Nelson
Akata Witch By Nnedi Okorafor

April 15th 

Out of Shadows By Jason Wallaceb

April 18th 

The Betrayal of Maggie Blaire By Elizabeth Laird

April 19th 

The Coven's Daughter By Lucy Jago
The Black (Morpheus Road #2) By D. J. MacHale
Boyfriends With Girlfriends By Alex Sanchez
H.I.V.E.-Escape Velocity By Mark Walden


April 26th

Abandon (Abandon #1) By Meg Cabot
The Last Little Blue Envelope (The Little Blue Envelope #2) By Maureen Johnson
Bumped By Megan McCafferty
Family By Micol Ostow

April 28th 

Ocean of Blood (The Saga of Larten Crepsley #2) By Darren Shan
Back When You Were Easier To Love By Emily Wing Smith

April 29th


Fury of the Phoenix (Kingdom of Xia series #2) By Cindy Pon


Anyways... Just figured you'd be interested in that. For those of you who have no idea what to read...

- Jocelyn AKA Crazy Writer