‘Mistress of Rome’ by Kate Quinn – Book Review

Four Out of Five Stars! ****

Link to this book on Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/8493409-mistress-of-rome

Synopsis:

Thea is a slave girl from Judaea; musical, wary, and passionate. Purchased as a toy for the spiteful heiress Lepida Pollia, Thea and her mistress will become rivals for the love of Arius the Barbarian, Rome’s newest and most savage gladiator. His love brings Thea the first happiness of her life – quickly ended when a jealous Lepida tears them apart.

 

Review:

This review is probably going to be me fangirling over this truly AMAZING BOOK! The Mistress of Rome totally sucked me in! I literally couldn’t put this book down! Execpt…when I had to put it down. Huh.

What do I like about this book so much? Let me give you a list!

The Characters!
Thea, the slave girl. Even though she was fifteen(same age as me), I couldn’t relate to her. And usually, thats a bad thing in books. But in The Mistress of Rome it was perfect. In the first part of the book, Thea was treated badly by her mistress, Lepida, and was generally abused and made to feel worthless. By the middle of the book when she had changed Masters a few times, the tough side showed through. She wasn’t a slave girl anymore.

Arius, or The Barbarian. I fell in love right away. He just reeked masculine power and Alpha Male. Of course, he was a Gladiator so what can you expect? You can tell, during the book, that he really did love Thea. And she in return. It was lovely to watch. Or read. O_O When they were seperated, it really made me what to jump into the book and set things right. Which is also a good sign 🙂

Vix, son of Thea and Arius. What a devil he is! Although he is only thirteen, I just loved him! Him and Sabina! Yes! Please! Can’t wait to read the sequel ‘Empress of Seven Hills’, I reserved it! **squeak** <Fangirling.

Lepida, the slut. Offensive title, I know. But seriously! Her husband (oh yes! Did i not mention? She’s married and has a tweleve year old daughter!), made a list of the men she has had affairs with. Almost a paragraph. Let’s think about that for a second. A paragraph is quite a large piece of text when it contains the lovers that you have kept over the past, does it not?

The Descriptions and General Scenery!
The way in which Kate Quinn described Rome, you could have been there. At the Games, breathing in the sand, smelling the blood and swaet from the Gladiators as they fought to the death. Brilliant. Well, brilliant descriptions…not the actuall games. They were brutal.

The Mistress of Rome really played with my emotions. It made me want to cry, I laughed at the things Vix said. A brillinat read. The only reason that I gave it four marks instead of five is because I wanted Thea and Arius to have had more of a relatioship. More love. More kissing!

Looking forward to reading the sequel but honestly don’t think that I’ll be reading the prequel 🙂

Feels like I haven’t done a review in ages!

Star 😛

 

 

 

Bookhaul!

Here goes! I have taken the Synopsis’ and cover art  from Goodreads.

1): Synopsis: According to Anna’s best friend, Frankie, twenty days in Zanzibar Bay is the perfect opportunity to have a summer fling, and if they meet one boy every day, there’s a pretty good chance Anna will find her first summer romance. Anna lightheartedly agrees to the game, but there’s something she hasn’t told Frankie–she’s already had her romance, and it was with Frankie’s older brother, Matt, just before his tragic death one year ago.

2): Synopsis: Humans and androids crowd the raucous streets of New Beijing. A deadly plague ravages the population. From space, the ruthless lunar people watch, waiting to make their move. No one knows that Earth’s fate hinges on one girl. . .

3): Synopsis: It’s 1996 and very few high school students have ever used the internet. Facebook will not be invented until several years in the future. Emma just got a computer and an America Online CD. She and her best friend Josh power it up and log on – and discover themselves on Facebook in 2011. Everybody wonders what they’ll be like fifteen years in the future. Josh and Emma are about to find out.

 

4): Synopsis: Mara Dyer doesn’t think life can get any stranger than waking up in a hospital with no memory of how she got there….It can. She believes there must be more to the accident she can’t remember that killed her friends and left her mysteriously unharmed. There is. She doesn’t believe that after everything she’s been through, she can fall in love…..She’s wrong.

5): Synopsis: It’s a brave new world. ‘My name is Kyle Straker. And I don’t exist anymore.’ So begins the story of Kyle Straker, recorded on to old audio tapes. You might think these tapes are a hoax. But perhaps they contain the history of a past world…If what the tapes say are true, it means that everything we think we know is a lie. And if everything we know is a lie does that mean that we are, too?

 

6): Synopsis: Juliette hasn’t touched anyone in exactly 264 days.

The last time she did, it was an accident, but The Reestablishment locked her up for murder. No one knows why Juliette’s touch is fatal. As long as she doesn’t hurt anyone else, no one really cares. The world is too busy crumbling to pieces to pay attention to a 17-year-old girl. Diseases are destroying the population, food is hard to find, birds don’t fly anymore, and the clouds are the wrong color.

7): Synopsis: Fifteen-year-old Virginia Shreves has a larger-than-average body and a plus-size inferiority complex, especially when she compares herself to her slim, brilliant, picture-perfect family. But that’s before a shocking phone call — and a horrifying allegation — about her rugby-star brother changes everything.

8): Synopsis: Before scientists found the cure, people thought love was a good thing. They didn’t understand that once love — the deliria — blooms in your blood, there is no escaping its hold. Things are different now. Scientists are able to eradicate love, and the government demands that all citizens receive the cure upon turning eighteen. Lena Holoway has always looked forward to the day when she’ll be cured. A life without love is a life without pain: safe, measured, predictable, and happy.
But with ninety-five days left until her treatment, Lena does the unthinkable: She falls in love.

The next few books are ones that I have received from my local library. I don’t own them 🙂

  9): Synopsis: Thea is a slave girl from Judaea; musical, wary, and passionate. Purchased as a toy for the spiteful heiress Lepida Pollia, Thea and her mistress will become rivals for the love of Arius the Barbarian, Rome’s newest and most savage gladiator. His love brings Thea the first happiness of her life – quickly ended when a jealous Lepida tears them apart.

10): Synopsis: Roots begins with a birth in an African village in 1750, and ends two centuries later at a funeral in Arkansas. In that time span, an unforgettable cast of men, women, and children come to life, many of them based on the people from Alex Haley’s own family tree.

11): Synopsis: The year is 1984 and the city is Tokyo.
A young woman named Aomame follows a taxi driver’s enigmatic suggestion and begins to notice puzzling discrepancies in the world around her. She has entered, she realizes, a parallel existence, which she calls 1Q84 —“Q is for ‘question mark.’ A world that bears a question.” Meanwhile, an aspiring writer named Tengo takes on a suspect ghostwriting project. He becomes so wrapped up with the work and its unusual author that, soon, his previously placid life begins to come unraveled.

 

Message me if you want me to review any of these books and I’ll bump it up on my TBR list!  More reviews next week!

Star 😛

 

‘Fifty Shades Darker’ by EL James – Book Review *Bonus*

Two Out of Five Stars **

Link to this book on Goodreads .

Synopsis:

Daunted by the singular tastes and dark secrets of the beautiful, tormented young entrepreneur Christian Grey, Anastasia Steele has broken off their relationship to start a new career with a Seattle publishing house. 
But desire for Christian still dominates her every waking thought, and when he proposes a new arrangement, Anastasia cannot resist. They rekindle their searing sensual affair, and Anastasia learns more about the harrowing past of her damaged, driven and demanding Fifty Shades.
While Christian wrestles with his inner demons, Anastasia must confront the anger and envy of the women who came before her, and make the most important decision of her life.

  *******

Review!
Fifty Shades Darker is so cliche. And i knew that before i read it. Let’s be honest here. I read it for the sex. Which was hilerious and not as good as Lora Leigh (Go Breeds!).

Anastasia Steele is so strange! Grey tells her at least a million times that he loves her but she doesn’t believe him. Not even when he pulls out a ring and asks her to marry him. Which, incidently, I expected. And when Gery said she was giving out mixed signals…he wasn’t wrong! So…first she likes the idea of BDSM. Then she doesn’t. Then she does. Then she doesn’t. Then she lets him…do BDSM stuff with her.
(I don’t know whether it’s because I’m a teenager and I don’t get the seriousness and appeal of this book…but the kinky stuff was hilerious. Seriously, i laughed.)

Chritsain Grey has multiple personality disorder. Anastasia and I agree on that one solitary thing. But…i don’t think it was intentional. EL James may have tried to give Christain some problems but it was the terrible use of her writing that made him this way.

Although, I enjoyed the eMails. They were good 🙂

I’ll be honest again. I don’t get why the world is so taken with this trilogy. The sex was good…but I only read this for one night. (Geddit??)

I don’t think that I’ll be reading the third book. Unless I get desperate. Again.

Laters!

Star 😛

 

‘Feather in The Wind’ by Madeline Baker-Book Review

Five Out of Five Stars! *****

Link to this book on Goodreads! http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/643934.Feather_in_the_Wind

Synopsis!

She saw his face in a faded picture, and his eyes, restless as the wind, seemed to call to her. It was said he’d been hanged nearly a century ago for kidnapping a white woman, yet his story seemed unfinished. To the writer in her he was an inspiration, but to the lonely woman within he was a dream come true who would lure her across the years to fulfill a love beyond time.

Review!

Okay. I know this isn’t a new-off-the-shelf book. It’s the same age as me. Although i consider myself to be in better condition. Nevertheless, I loved it and I want to review it. I received this book through ReadIt SwapIt, a UK based website that allows you to swap books with other users. Really cool. Check it out 🙂

Back to the book!

Madeline Baker could have been born in the 1800s. With 1800s Native Americans. This book was full of beautiful descriptions that could only have come from intense research.

Susannah was a brilliant heroine. She wasn’t a damsel in distress that cried all the time, she actually got on with her life and tried to make the best of it even though she was transported into a time over 200 years before she was born. Towards the end, Susannah became a bit annoying. She was just flinging everything at Black Wind, all kinds of information and trying to make him stay, it was a little OTT. But Madeline Baker redeemed her character with the ‘Dances With Wolves’ jokes and puns. Very funny!

Black Wind is exactly the kind of man I’m going to marry. (Please note: I’m fifteen and have never had a boyfriend, nor have I ever had a crush on someone in my league. Meaning that all the men i like are married. So marrying someone like Black Wind, a native american warrior chief from 1800 is totally going to happen.)
He cared for Susannah and was wonderfully protective.

The love(making) scenes were not overly descriptive, but still Adult with a captial A.

Feather in the Wind is just a fantastic romance read. It made me feel good after I finished it. 🙂 So happy that I got this!

Not the review part!

Yay! So now that the reviews over…I met this blogger over at Blogsot.com and she’s hosting a giveaway. She also helped me with MY blog. I suggest that you check her out!

If you want to be featured on my blog and maybe get some more followers for your OWN blog…then message me! I’ll be happy to help!

Star 😛

‘The Selection’ by Kiera Cass-Book Review *Bonus*

Five Out of Five Stars! *****

Link to this book on Goodreads! http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/10507293-the-selection  )

Synopsis!

For thirty-five girls, the Selection is the chance of a lifetime. The opportunity to escape the life laid out for them since birth. To be swept up in a world of glittering gowns and priceless jewels. To live in the palace and compete for the heart of the gorgeous Prince Maxon.

Review!

I think that this book. Was. Amazing! I would compare it to The Chemical Garden trilogy(which I also loved)because of the futuristic feel of the book although with the fact that there are multiple women each vying for the attention of one man. In this case, Prince Maxon. **swoons** NOT!

I will yet again compare it another book. Or series of books.(Funny how both of them are trilogy’s, huh?) The Hunger Games, mainly because of the cameras on them most of the time…not that there is much cause for bow and arrows in the Palace of Prince Maxon. Unless we’re talking Cupid. You’re right. I’ll get on with the review.

What made me give this book Five Stars?

1) The Cover. It is beautiful! It also makes you wonder whats going on because all of the girls have the same dress on. Or same colour anyway.

2) The Characters.
America Singer is just a normal girl who loves a guy but can’t have him. Although, in the beginning of the book she did go on about how she was normal and that she would never be picked. Guess what? She gets picked! America Singer was a bit of a Bella Swan in the first few chapters but soon regained her dignity by the middle of the book.

Aspen was Americas’ secret boyfriend. He broke up with her because of his male pride. Nice guy. Aspen didn’t appear very much in the book. Only at the beginning and the end, so we didn’t really see into his head as much as we did the Prince.

Prince Maxon is um…the Prince? The Prince (with a capital P) that 34 girls are in, varying kinds of, love. He seems kinda nice. Bit wimpyish. Don’t really understand why America likes him. Also full of male pride and wants to give his 34 girlfriends everything their hearts desire.

There are other characters obviously, but i don’t want this to become a cast list. Read the book if you’re so bothered!

3) The Numbers. Don’t really know what to call this one. Or explain it. Ummm. America and her family are artists, so they are Fives. (America becomes a Three once she has been Selected. Just to confuse you! Basically she becomes LADY America Singer.) Aspen is a Six. So he works with his hands and doesn’t earn very much money. Sevens are servants. See how it goes?

I thought that was cool. Very different. Bit like Divergent. They have …other things. Can’t remember. Different functions. :s May I remind myself that this isn’t a review for Divergent. It’s for The Selection. Yep.

4) The Author. Call me a a cheat but, I adore Kiera Cass! Have you watched her YouTube videos? So funny! And she likes the music as me! And probably 50% of her teenage readers have said that.

I am one of the people that like to read the Acknowledgments before they read the book. Yes. We really do exist. Cass actually thanked her readers! I thought that was sweet! Most authors don’t. Go ahead and check. Anyhow, the Acknowledgments were personal instead of author-y and robotic.

Thankyou for writing such an awesome book Kiera!

All in all, I would defiantly recommend this book!

Star 😛

‘Eyes Like Stars’ By Lisa Mantchev – Book Review

Three out of Five Stars ***

Description:

Book One in The Théâtre Illuminata Trilogy.

All her world’s a stage.

Bertie Shakespeare Smith is not an actress, yet she lives in a theater.

She’s not an orphan, but she has no parents.

She knows every part, but she has no lines of her own.

That is, until now.
Actual Proper Review.

This. Book. Was. Disapointing! To the CORE! I expected so much more, but when I finished it…I was left regretting having read it in the first place.
The only reason that kept me from rating this book lower, was the faries. Them, I loved. Adored! But the rest of this book was a bit of a failure in my eyes. Allow me to list some reasons.

Bertie the Main Character – Not only does the name remind me of the red bus in Thomas The Tank Engine, which was a bit distracting, but I also thought that she was a bit boring and predictable. Also, her reationship with Ariel and Nate was just WEIRD. At one point she was in a bath with Nate! Naked! And she supposed to be sixteen/seventeen…does she not know ?

Nate was actually kinda cool. As a lover of pirates, I have to say that I approve.

Ariel, I’m sure, is gay. Yes, he did show feeling for Bertie, but it’s deffinatly a ploy.

The faries were a little unexplained. I didn’t get that three of them were boys and one was a girl until the middle of the book. Rather confusing. Although, there were some funny scenes with the faries that made me laugh.

And what an anti-climax! Bertie was the daughter of some poor woman who continuously tried to drown herself. Nice.

The writing of the book was a good idea, if a bit unexplained. How come Bertie could do that?

Eyes Like Stars could have been a good book. If it had more back story, and more detailing. If the second and third books have good reviews then perhaps I’ll read them. I won’t mark the series off as a waste of time based solely on the first book. Maybe Mantchev’s storytelling will improve through the books 🙂

 

This bit isn’t the review.

I missed last weeks book review so I’ll be posting one on Saturday instead. Aren’t I good?

Star 😛