Books On My Growing List To Read: Stolen

Here is a novel that sounds frighteningly great, in one of those ‘so-creepy-it’s-compelling’ ways.

It is Stolen, by the new author Lucy Christopher  (http://www.lucychristopher.com/). This is a novel that I think will be good, becuase it just sounds so strange!

This novel was published May 4th 2009, so it is a newer novel. It was her debut author, and I think that is sounds just strange enough to be worth the read.

I came across this novel on Teenreads, where I go occasionally to find books that are coming out and what books are supposed to be really well done, and great for YA novels. The synopsis caught my eye; a girl stolen right out of an airport? Drugged? Hidden? Strange.

This is a stand-alone novel, and it explores a syndrome that happens when people who are kidnapped start to feel for their captors, sometimes even partly falling in what can be love. It is a frightening truth that does happen to people who do go through this hell.

Goodreads stats? Well, there are 179 ratings, the average rating is 4.23, and there are 64 reviews. So it is flying a little under the radar, considering that it has been out for a year, but we shall try it and see how this turns out.

Hopefully this will turn out to be a good novel. Can’t wait to get to the library this summer and get some books to read!

Told in a letter to her captor by 16-year-old Gemma, Stolen explores the influence that a really wild and remote space can have on the inner development of a young woman.

Gemma, a British city-living teenager, is kidnapped while on holiday with her parents. Her kidnapper, Ty, takes her to the wild land of outback Australia. To Gemma’s city-eyes, the landscape is harsh and unforgiving and there are no other signs of human life for hundreds of kilometres in every direction. Here, there is no escape. Gemma must learn to deal with her predicament, or die trying to fight it.

Ty, a young man, has other ideas for her. His childhood experience of living in outback Australia has forever changed the way he sees things. But he too has been living in the city; Gemma’s city. Unlike Gemma, however, he has had enough. In outback Australia he sees an opportunity for a new kind of life; a life more connected to the earth. He has been watching and learning about Gemma for many years; when he kidnaps her, his plan finally begins to take shape.

But Ty is not a stereotypical kidnapper and, over time, Gemma comes to see Ty in a new light, a light in which he is something more sensitive. The mysteries of Ty, and the mystery of her new life, start to take hold. She begins to feel something for her kidnapper when he wakes screaming in the night. Over the time spent with her captor, Gemma’s appreciation of him develops into what could be referred to as Stockholm syndrome.

-From http://www.lucychristopher.com/books.html

Author: Lucy Christopher

Published: May 1st 2010 by The Chicken House (first published May 4th 2009)

Page Count: 304

ISBN: 0545170931    (isbn13: 9780545170932)

Mulling on Monday #11

2 Stars

Late, I know, but here it is, another Monday.

And while I know that I banned myself from any Nicholas Sparks, this is from a while ago, and I just forgot to put it up. So there. Yet another reason as to why I should go on a Sparks boycott for the time being.

Alright, so I am back and have just finished yet another Nicolas Sparks novel, one that I was unsure if I wanted to read because of who it was half inspired by; yes that would be Miley Cyrus.
So this novel gave me mixed emotions. It was overall written well, as in the Nicholas Sparks brand, but it seemed to slug through certain parts, and yet in some chapters you were bewildered as to where the time went.

Then there was the story line itself.

I am not 100% sure of what story Sparks was trying to tell here. The different elements of the story could have been good plot lines themselves. However, they were all put together in a giant, emotional mixing bowl. It felt at times like you were reading three different stories, and you just happened to know the characters.

What was most disappointing for me was the fact that I was able to put down the novel after, and just read another book. It was a “yeah, okay, that books done.” moment, which is something no author should be looking for.

I also found it awfully predictable. I knew what was going to happen chapters in advance.
Overall, it was an okay novel, though I am glad that I only borrowed it and did not buy it as I had originally planned.

Ronnie’s life is a mess, and it just keeps getting worse.

A shop-lifter in New-York, with slipping grades and a blind hate towards her father, things cannot get any worse when she is condemned to spend the summer with him, in a small town. It’s her own personal hell, come to life.

Things don’t get better fast. That is, until she meets a guy. And from there, everything changes into a different angle.

From the award-winning author Nicholas Sparks, comes a novel that tell of the power of summer love.

Author: Nicholas Sparks

Published: September 8th 2009 by Grand Central Publishing

Page Count: 405

ISBN: 0446547565    (isbn13: 9780446547567)

Book of the Week: The Secret Garden

4 Stars

Oh, but it’s such a classic! To all of you who are protesting, too bad. This is the book of the week, as it is a classic, and I have not been able to visit my lovely local library or the book store to get anything I really, really, super badly wanted to read.

I like this book anyway. It has a beautiful story, and even if I like A Little Princess better, this one remains close to my heart as one of those children’s novels that you remember for years to come.

What I love about it is the era; the writing is so classic as is the story. An orphan. A mysterious and depressed uncle. A strange secret boy. A forbidden garden. Honestly, it’s something that you can’t forget, and it has that pull to it that makes it so unique.

What I did not like was not due to anything but my age. It is written for children, so reading it again now made it a simple and light read. that’s okay.

Overall, I think that this is a great novel for any children to read, and if you have never read it, I think now would be the time to at least attempt this novel. It is interwoven into our history, and is as classic as any Jane Austen or Leo Tolstoy. It’s just for a younger audience.

“Mistress Mary, quite contrary, how does your garden grow? With silver bells, and cockle shells and marigolds all in a row.”

Mary Lennox is a sullen, spoiled child raised in India by her rich and fabulous parents. Her world is rocked though, when a disease rampages through the household, and Mary is suddenly an orphan.

She is sent away to London, then to her uncle’s house out on the cold, rainy moor. The house used to be luxurious, but all the rooms are locked, the household staff quiet, and the gardens tended by a old and cranky gardener. And Mistress Mary has nothing to do.

Slowly though, she starts to learn of the secrets of the house, what it means to grow up, and how much nicer people look when they smile.



Author: Frances Hodgson Burnett

Published: August 1st 1999 by Aladdin (first published 1909)

Page Count: 416

ISBN: 0689831412    (isbn13: 9780689831416)

Quick Review: Dear John

  2 ½ Stars

So I sat down with this novel after being promised that it was an amazing novel and that the movie was superb and that it had everything Nicholas Sparks had offered before.

  I should not have been surprised that after reading The Last Song, that I would not enjoy it.

  Sparks has veered off into a different realm, it seems, than the great novels like A Walk to Remember, and The Notebook.  Those were heart-wrenching romances.

  This was just…dull.

  I admit, the first part of the novel was promising, if not familiar to The Last Song. It seemed like it could work up to a steady, heart-pounding climax.

  Dull.

  Also, the novel promises a ‘life-changing decision’. Okay. Waited for that, and it was not untill I passed a few pages that I had to flip back and realize ‘oh. That was it’. See? So well hidden I missed it.

  And the ending. That was awfully dull too. And so easily foreseen. I guess, though that it was realistic, and therefore, it made the ending a little more down-played than a big shablam ending, but, I wished for a twist. Some sad twist of fate. A long lost-something-or-other. No. Just what he had and what he did. The end.

  This novel really, really let me down. One of my first thoughts after finishing was ‘I’m done with Nicholas Sparks for a while’. Sadly, this remains true, and will for a while. Though I suppose I could visit his old stuff, when it was actually good. But for now, I am going on a Nicholas Sparks ban.

  I liked the characters though. thoughtfully developed, and rounded out by the end, but they can only do so much in a story such as this.

  I think that everything just needs to be re-worked. A bigger climax (eh-ehm.  How about a more noticable one?), and a story that is way more deep than this.

John Tyree is an angry rebel wanthing nothing to do with school, planning or his Dad. And he is half-sick to death with the only thing his father will share with him in his boring, everyday routine; coins.

 So when he gets out of high-school, out of the party zone and into the real world, surfing and drinking is about the most he can see himself doing in this life.

Until two marines jog by.

Without much of a thought, John enlists in the army, with very little regrets. He is fit, he has good buddies, and he gets to see the world.

 But when he returns home from Germany on leave, all that changes when a girl drops her purse in the ocean.

The two young people soon find themselves falling for each other, their lives tangling, and love forming. But that all changes when John’s leave is up, and it’s time to go back to to Germany.

 However, the two write letters back and forth, love sealed into each of them, scalding, hurting, and John and Savannah are counting down the days untill John comes home.

That changes on 9/11.

In a story that is truthful and realastic, Dear John is a novel that seems heart-felt.

 

 

Author: Nicholas Sparks

Published: October 30th 2006 by Warner Books (first published 2006)

Page Count: 276

ISBN: 0446528056    (isbn13: 9780446528054)

Book of the Week: The Time Capsule

    4 Stars

  So, again another Monday…and the days are getting nicer!!! Spring is finally here in most of Alberta, and it’s great to see all the snow melting and the themometer hitting double digits. 23 degree Celsius (74 degrees Fahrenheit) today alone. Lets hope it’s here to stay.

  Now with summer on the way, I will have more time for reading!

  So…what book is it today? Well, I was looking through this her blog and was slightly confused when I say that for some unknown reason I have not reviewed very many Lurlene McDaniel novels. Crazy, consider she is partially what lead me to try Jodi Pilcout novels and explore the realm of other teen novels.

  So, while I was thinking about the sun, the cover of The Time Capsule popped into my head. Sunny, summery, a good summer read.

  I have always liked this book. It’s light, but once you get into it, it’s deep, scarring and will make you think.

  McDaniel’s novels have always been like that. They deal with real issues, and it deals with a real topic that most authors either blow out of the water, or make light of. She takes a topic that is either taboo or overdone, and makes it real.

 What I liked most about this novel was the sincerity and the pure honesety that radiates from her writing. It tells a unique story that may have acctually happened to somebody. It is well written in the ominscent tone, but the narrative does not really matter in a story so well told.

  What I did not like was the shortness…with a deep concern such as this, i felt that the story needed to be longer to more thourougly explore the topic. But no. Never happened.

  If you were super close with your twin brother, would you know if he had a secret? Would you know if your entire life was about to change?

Adam and Alix have always been close; after all, they were womb-mates for almost nine months. But their life have never been easy.

When they were young, Adam had cancer. It tore the family at the seams, straining, and continues to do so. And all Adam  wants to do now is have the senior year of his life with his sister and friends by his side.

But will that happen? Or is Adam hiding something that just might cause the family to re-evaluate what’s important and what’s not.

 

Author: Lurlene McDaniel

Published: May 10th 2005 by Laurel Leaf (first published 2003)

Page Count: 224

ISBN: 0553494317    (isbn13: 9780553494310)

Quick Review: A Little Princess

4 Stars

Yes, here is yet another classic for this lovely little project. A Little Princess is by Frances Hodgson Burnett, who wrote The Secret Garden, yet another classic in the realm of writing.

I remember reading this when I was about seven or eight, coming back from Manitoba. I loved it then, and I still love it now. The writing is just so classy, the characters just right for the intended audience. Sarah is such a strong character for a young girl to look up to, along with the fact that she can fight through what fate hands her.

I also ended up liking the bad characters in this. They were just so…Disney, even. They have a quality about them that makes them truly unique, but can still be put in the category of Ursula and Cruella De Ville. They have their own plan of action that still stings, but they are so focused on what is going on.

I could say that I did not like the writing, because it was too childlike, but one has to remember the intended audience, and it was never meant for a 16 year-old girl to read and proclaim it as a classic adult genius novel. No. The writing is perfect for the audience, with enough maturity for the kids reading it to be happy.

The one thing that did get on my nerves a little was the fact that Sarah is so self-sacrificing. But that’s also contradictory, because I also liked that about her.

Sarah Crewe is a princess. Or at least that is what many people see her as. Sarah is the daughter of a wealthy captain and merchant. She grew up in India pampered by her father and her servants. But she is also far from spoiled. She is mature and giving; she also loves to tell stories and make pretend. So when she is sent off to finishing school in London, she is treated truly like a princess. That all changes one day when her luck runs out, and all she has left is her imagination.

In a story that has stolen hearts for years, A Little Princess is memorable and lovable, sure to keep you reading about  Sarah Crewe, the girl who was a princess.

Author: Frances Hodgson Burnett

Published: December 20th 1987 by HarperTrophy (first published 1888)

Page Count: 245

ISBN:0064401871    (isbn13: 9780064401876)

Book Of The Week: A Walk To Remember

4 Stars

Ah, yes, I know. A Walk To Remember, by NICHOLAS SPARKS. A book that most people have heard of, if not have seen the movie. How predictable for a girl. A romance. Sigh.

I chose to do this one rather than The Notebook because, although I love them both dearly, and think they are a tie, I watched the movie this week, and immediately though of putting it up here.

So the book of the Week is a heart-wrenching romance, that, as Nicholas Sparks puts it “first you will smile, and then you will cry.” Oh, I forgot about how sad it is.

What I like so much about this novel is the fact that the twist at the end is so good, and the bad guy falls for the girl nobody even thought he would go for; even she warns him. Poor guy didn’t know what he was getting into.

I think that I also like how much better the book was than the movie; it transferred over nicely, but I find I still like the book that much better.

In 1958 Landon Carter is the average ‘cool guy’ teenager. He has the looks, the money, the style. And he is doing his best to get rid of the impeding adulthood hovering in front of his face. It all comes down to one dumb mistake that sends him to help out with the Christmas play. Then he gets roped into the lead role…with Jamie Sullivan.

Jamie is a nice, religious girl whose father is the pastor. She is also out of touch with style, even though she is pretty, and seen as a geek at school. But slowly, Landon is finding himself falling for her. But Jamie is hiding something; and that something to lead to the end of all.

In this beloved movie and novel, Sparks explores the meaning of kindness, and what true love really looks like.

Author: Nicholas Sparks

Published:  September 1st 2004 by Warner Books (first published 1999)

Page Count:  224

ISBN: 0446693804    (isbn13: 9780446693806)