Tuesday, April 30, 2013

The Sea of Monsters by Rick Riordan


Descripton

Percy Jackson's seventh-grade year has been surprisingly quiet. Not a single monster has set foot on his New York prep-school campus. But when an innocent game of dodgeball among Percy and his classmates turns into a death match against an ugly gang of cannibal giants, things get... well, ugly. And the unnexpected arrival of his friend Annabeth brings more bad news: the magical borders that protect Camp Half-Blood have been poisoned by a mysterious enemy, and unless a cure is found, the only safe haven for demigods will be destroyed.

In this fresh, funny, and wildly popular follow-up to The Lightning Thief, Percy and his friends must journey into the Sea of Monsters to save their camp. But first, Percy will discover a stunning new secret about his family--one that makes him question whether being claimed as Poseidon's son is an honor or simly a cruel joke.

Percy has made it a full year in a school without being kicked out, when on his last day a group of Cannibal giants ruin everything. Annabeth shows up to save the day and to take him back to camp. Only to find out that the entire camp is in danger! Percy and his friends must partake in a quest to save the camp through the Sea of Monsters.

The Sea of Monsters is book two in the Percy Jackson & The Olympians. It is a great follow up to book one. There are many twists, turns, and new greek monsters and gods that are brought into this book to keep you interested. I will say that this book definitely had my attention the entire time. A great book for all age groups.

Tuesday, April 16, 2013

The River of No Return by Bee Ridgeway


 Published April 23rd 2013 by Dutton Adult

Description
In Bee Ridgway’s wonderfully imaginative debut novel, a man and a woman travel through time in a quest to bring down a secret society that controls the past and, thus, the future.

“You are now a member of the Guild. There is no return.” Two hundred years after he was about to die on a Napoleonic battlefield, Nick Falcott, soldier and aristocrat, wakes up in a hospital bed in modern London. The Guild, an entity that controls time travel, showers him with life's advantages. But Nick yearns for home and for one brown-eyed girl, lost now down the centuries. Then the Guild asks him to break its own rule. It needs Nick to go back to 1815 to fight the Guild’s enemies and to find something called the Talisman.

In 1815, Julia Percy mourns the death of her beloved grandfather, an earl who could play with time. On his deathbed he whispers in her ear: “Pretend!” Pretend what? When Nick returns home as if from the dead, older than he should be and battle scarred, Julia begins to suspect that her very life depends upon the secrets Grandfather never told her. Soon enough Julia and Nick are caught up in an adventure that stretches up and down the river of time. As their knowledge of the Guild and their feelings for each other grow, the fate of the future itself is hanging in the balance.
I was sent an advance copy to review and I'm so glad I got to read it! I am a fan of time travel concepts and this book had a really interesting take on the idea. Time is like a river... it flows in one direction. Except it isn't. That's just what the Guild tells people that jump forward in time. The truth behind it is much more complicated.

Nick and Julia's relationship feels more real to me than the obsessive loves I've read in other books (like in A Discovery of Witches, for example). Julia is able to discover what she can do on her own. I was happy to read something with such a strong female character. No, she isn't perfect and made choices that kept her from finding things out earlier, but it was all her. She is independent and strong and pretty awesome for a woman from 1815... no shrinking violets here.

There were pieces of poetry scattered throughout the novel and I was able to pick out a couple of my favorites, though they weren't directly mentioned. It was like an Easter egg placed just for me to find. The main thing that I had a hard time with (and it was only minor) was that the Guild would just give people that much money every year to do whatever they wanted. Certain people would be able to be used by them but it seems a little extravagant.

I hope there will be at least another book coming, because there was so much of the story left to tell! I am going to be suggesting this to family and friends!


Monday, April 15, 2013

Bag of Bones by Stephen King


Description:
Here is Stephen King's most gripping and unforgettable novel—a tale of grief and lost love's enduring bonds, of haunting secrets of the past, and of an innocent child caught in a terrible crossfire.

Four years after the sudden death of his wife, forty-year-old bestselling novelist Mike Noonan is still grieving. Unable to write, and plagued by vivid nightmares set at the western Maine summerhouse he calls Sara Laughs, Mike reluctantly returns to the lakeside getaway. There, he finds his beloved Yankee town held in the grip of a powerful millionaire, Max Devore, whose vindictive purpose is to take his three-year-old granddaughter, Kyra, away from her widowed young mother, Mattie. As Mike is drawn into Mattie and Kyra's struggle, as he falls in love with both of them, he is also drawn into the mystery of Sara Laughs, now the site of ghostly visitations and escalating terrors. What are the forces that have been unleashed here—and what do they want of Mike Noonan?
 I am a fan of Stephen King, books or movies I love his work. I read Bag of Bones because I watched the movie on Netflix and decided that, even though I liked the movie, the book HAD to be better. It's a bit creepy but nothing really scary.

Mike's love for his wife is evident and his inability to write without her was a little sad. The weird thing about it is, it isn't just writer's block, it's more of a severe phobia. Just attempting to write has him breaking out into panic attacks. But, somehow after some trying, he is able to start writing again at Sara Laughs.

Part of the plot that I never really got was why Max Devore (the villan/Kyra's grandfather) wanted Kyra and all of the rigamarole behind it. It's kind of a weak plot, but the little girl was cute and I liked Mattie. Not the best King book ever, but I read it while I was on vacation and it was a good read for a long car ride.

Wednesday, April 10, 2013

Looking for Alaska by John Green Book Giveaway!

I was chosen as a giver for World Book Night this year (squee!) and am giving away copies of Looking for Alaska by John Green. I fell in love with John Green books after reading The Fault in Our Stars (I know, I'm late to the party).


Description

Before. Miles "Pudge" Halter's whole existence has been one big nonevent, and his obsession with famous last words has only made him crave the "Great Perhaps" (François Rabelais, poet) even more. Then he heads off to the sometimes crazy, possibly unstable, and anything-but-boring world of Culver Creek Boarding School, and his life becomes the opposite of safe. Because down the hall is Alaska Young. The gorgeous, clever, funny, sexy, self-destructive, screwed-up, and utterly fascinating Alaska Young, who is an event unto herself. She pulls Pudge into her world, launches him into the Great Perhaps, and steals his heart.

After. Nothing is ever the same.
I love the characters so much and it is a great read!

If you would like to win a copy, comment with your email address. If you want to avoid the spam bots you can post your email like this: name (at) website (dot) com.

Sharing on twitter with the hashtag #lolaloopgiveaway gets you a second entry if you leave your twitter handle in your comment! The winner will be chosen randomly on April 30th, 2013. The winner will be contacted via email on May 1st. *Open to US only... sorry Canada (and everyone else)! If you're on a US military base it counts as US because you're awesome! Yay!

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Monday, April 8, 2013

The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan

 

Description

Percy Jackson is about to be kicked out of boarding school...again. And that's the least of his troubles. Lately, mythological monsters and the gods of  Mount Olympus seem to be walking straight out of the pages of Percy's Greek mythology text book and into his life. And worse, he's angered a few of them. Zeus's master lightening bolt has been stolen, and Percy is the prime suspect.
Now Percy and his friends have just ten days to find and return Zeus's stolen property and bring peace to a warring Mount Olympus. But to succeed on his quest, Percy will have to do more that catch the true thief: he must come to terms with the father who abandoned him; solve the riddle of the Oracle, which warns him of betrayal by a friend; and unravel a treachery more powerful than the gods themselves.

The Lightning Thief is book one of the Series. Percy Jackson has been kicked out of many different schools, because bad things tend to happen when he's around. In this book he finds out who he is, who is long lost father is, and how far his mother will go to protect him.

I really enjoyed this book and how much greek mythology they put into it. There are instances throughout the book that will make you laugh, get angry, or want to jump right in and help. It is a good read for both children and adults!

Sunday, April 7, 2013

Switching Things Up (Domain-wise)

I've decided to make my life easier (or more difficult... depends on how you look at it) by only using one domain name for everything (I'm currently using 2 right now). To save myself a few bucks a year I'm going to only use the domain name from my main blog Lolaloop and make Book Worm Corner a sub-domain. So if you remember this as Book Worm Corner it will soon be known as Lolaloop Books (books.lolaloop.com).

I'm mostly hoping to expand what is "Lolaloop" to include all of the things I love... books, entertainment and me just being me.

If you're only here for book reviews and don't really care about that then sorry to bother you. Read on!