review of temptation by Karen Ann Hopkins

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Blurb from Goodreads

Your heart misleads you.

That’s what my friends and family say. 

 

But I love Noah.

And he loves me. 

 

We met and fell in love in the sleepy farming community of Meadowview, while we rode our horses together through the grassy fields and in those moments in each other’s arms.

 

It should be 

 

ROSE & NOAH 

 

forever, easy.

 

But it won’t be.

 

Because he’s Amish.

And I’m not.

Temptation by Karen Ann Hopkins is a captivating and thrilling story about forbidden romance. It is about first love and its beauty. Sixteen-year old Rose and her family move to Meadowview where the local community is Amish. When she locks gazes with Noah, a young man who happens to be Amish, they both feel a magnetic attraction to each other.

Just Imagine if your Mr. Right is right in the eyes of old fashioned values, but wrong in every sense of the modern word because of the world he lived in. When Rose and her family move to the quiet town of Meadowview, they are all still grieving from the death of her mother. The move was supposed to give this family a fresh start, nobody could have guessed that love would tear them apart.

Rose and Noah have to keep their relationship as a secret because they will get in trouble if they were ever found out. First love should be simple and romantic, but when you’re English and your love interest is Amish, everything could be a bit more than just complicated.

Author Karen Ann Hopkins is a wonderful writer. She spins her tale with the dual narration. It was intense, informative and also very emotional. The descriptions were vivid and I can easily imagine everything that happened. The end of this story was full of suspense and made me wants to read more of this story. After all, this book is perfect for a thoroughly satisfying read.

I RATE THIS BOOK 5 OUT OF 5

Publisher- Harlequin Teen

Publication date- August 2012

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review of the girl in the steel corset by Kady Cross

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SUMMARY FROM GOODREADS

In 1897 England, sixteen-year-old Finley Jayne has no one…except the “thing” inside her.When a young lord tries to take advantage of Finley, she fights back. And wins. But no “normal” Victorian girl has a darker side that makes her capable of knocking out a full-grown man with one punch….

 

Only Griffin King sees the magical darkness inside her that says she’s special, says she’s one of “them.” The orphaned duke takes her in from the gaslit streets against the wishes of his band of misfits: Emily, who has her own special abilities and an unrequited love for Sam, who is part robot; and Jasper, an American cowboy with a shadowy secret.

 

Griffin’s investigating a criminal called The Machinist, the mastermind behind several recent crimes by automatons. Finley thinks she can help–and finally be a part of something, finally fit in.

 

But The Machinist wants to tear Griff’s little company of strays apart, and it isn’t long before trust is tested on all sides. At least Finley knows whose side she’s on–even if it seems no one believes her

 

As a Young Adult book avid reader, there is nothing I enjoy more than fascinating backstory, especially when it accompanies a book I have found particularly engaging. It is a feeling that the story behind the story could add certain richness and texture to my own reading experience.
“The girl in the steel corset” had all the tools to be great: good writing and an awesome new concept. This is a gorgeous, wonderful book. This book brings a new concept in the steampunk genre. It has all that I look for in this genre (alternate history/steampunk) – mad scientists, detectives, general paranormal activity, feisty females, and of course romance. However

This book starts off with the main heroine character called Finley. She is our protagonist. She is strong and has this dark side who love adventure that gives her super-strength as well as the ability to heal fast. I hope that the author could explain more about her because she is our narrator.  However, the author did not give any explanation about her dark side and where her powers come from which I think is quite confusing.  We JUST know that her father is no longer in the picture, though no reason is given, so she was raised by her mother and step-father.

I can’t reveal much about the plot of this strangely compelling novel. It is so enjoyable because it is so unexpected. There are a lot of characters that have been thrown at us very quickly. The author jumps from one character to another which in my opinion is a bit confusing at first but once I adapt with the author’s writing style, I am quite enjoy it. I can know more about the other character .

The author ‘Kady Cross’ does a fairly good job in teasing out of the clues in  the  Victorian times, automatons (creepy), and Steampunk fashions. I enjoyed learning about the world of Steampunk and all the details. The beautiful outfit worn by a character was described in complete detail, as also were the Steampunk inventions.

I give this book 3.75 out of 5 stars

About the book:

Review of Manda Collins’s book How to Romance A Rake

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Manda Collins’s spellbinding second novel is the kind of book that you can describe with words such as ‘beautiful’, ‘enticing’, and ‘tender’.

 

 

Here is the blurb of this book from macmillan.

You can lead a wallflower to the ball, but you can’t make her bloom—unless one daring young bachelor turns up the heat…

 

What’s a nice girl like Miss Juliet Shelby doing at a place like Lord Deveril’s ballroom? With her shy demeanor, she’s a total stranger to the dance floor and a source of mockery for the ton. So imagine her surprise when Deveril gallantly comes to her defense—and offers to teach her to dance! Juliet can hardly believe the most handsome bachelor in London would notice her, until he takes her in his arms and sets her heart ablaze…

 

Lord Alec Deveril has never felt such a spark of attraction for an unmarried lady before. Unlike the “fashionable” ladies he’s accustomed to, Juliet possesses a generous spirit, a fiery intelligence—and an explosive secret. Deep in the London underworld, a dear friend has vanished, and Juliet fears the worst. Deveril insists on helping, escorting her through the darkest alleys in town. But he too is hiding a shocking secret—and the only way he can defeat the devil in his past is to seduce the angel in his arms…

Lord Alec Deveril has never felt such a spark of attraction for an unmarried lady before. Unlike the “fashionable” ladies he’s accustomed to, Juliet possesses a generous spirit, a fiery intelligence—and an explosive secret. Deep in the London underworld, a dear friend has vanished, and Juliet fears the worst. Deveril insists on helping, escorting her through the darkest alleys in town. But he too is hiding a shocking secret—and the only way he can defeat the devil in his past is to seduce the angel in his arms…

 

 

From the books opening pages , I fell into the world of Lady Juliet Shelby , whose lives are upended when she got a carriage accident which cost her left foot. She was shunned by society and dubbed as ‘the ugly duckling’ because of her unfortunate condition.

 

Lady Juliet Shelby is a lovable but flawed heroine, like we all are. I love her despite the fact that she is very unlike any other lady. She is a very strong heroine character. She cares about others. In the beginning of this story, Lady Shelby was concerned over the mysterious disappearance of her friend lady turner. Her efforts to unsolve the mystery surrounding her friend brings her closer with the hero ,Lord Alec Deveril.

 

I loved the character of Lord Alec Deveril because he has a blunt way in dealing with people. He has two younger sisters to support and he is a very lovable older brother. He wants to protect those he loves and his personality quirk gives the author plenty of scope to note peculiar historical facts throughout the story.

I give this book 5 stars

 

Cheerio

Aretha zhen

Sophie mixed up magic review and the power of postive thinking

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I give this book 4 stars

Favourite quote: the power of positive thinking could make just about anything happen

Life can be easy if you are determined to make the best of a situation; but if you are a genie , well  it can make life a little tougher to get where you want.

Positive thinking and that is the powerful words i found while reading this novel.

Enter sophie a sixth grade who is about to enter her school. Her life is just the ordinary girl’s lives , that is until she entered malik a certain genie who trapped her to become a genie. Sophie is the character that i like so much. Her father left her and her family, but to her it is not a reason to be gloomy, instead she find the power in her heart to change her life and get what she wants. In a l9ot of time while i read this book, I kept repeating the words. Yeah! You go girl!:)

To be honest I did not like Malik’s character, the genie who trapped sophie to become a genie, which later on became her ghost mentor. He is very selfish,though he was portrayed as the handsome Zac Efron, well it did not give him any point in my eyes.

I also love the sophie’s little sister meg, she is funny and cute and the other character such as Sophie’s first crush Jonathan and her two best friends Kara and Harvey is the perfect icing on the cake. Though i wish that the author Amanda could tell us more about them:).

cheerio

aretha zhen

jackie and the beanstalk

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Long ago, in a faraway land, well not too long ago maybe around 10 years ago and ok, maybe not too far away. There lived a girl called Jackie (12 years old) and her mom in a small farm. They were very poor and the only valuable thing they had was one cow called Milky White.

Since they needed food to survive, Jackie against her mother very good judgement decided to sell their only valuable thing (the cow).

On her way to the market, Jackie stumbled upon a very beautiful looking pawned shop called “Fe fi fo fum”.  There she met an old man offered to trade her five magic beans for the cow.

“There you are ,girlie, wondering if you know how many beans make five?”

“Is that an insult, well since you are an old man, I will forgive you for your sexist remark,” said Jackie.

“Just so you know two in each of my hand and one inside my mouth,” says Jackie, very harsh and impolite.

“There you go, correct answer,” says the old man, “and see look here they are , he pulls five strange-looking beans from inside his pocket. “As you are very brave let’s swap my beans with your cow!”

“Yes, why not?” so it is Jackie swap her cow with five beans.

So, it should come as no surprise that her mother felt angry toward Jackie and throws the beans outside into the garden and banished her from having any dinner that night.

Then Jackie woke up and saw the sun was shining but the rest of the world looks quite dark and shady. There she saw a huge beanstalk, because she was very rude with the old man, he did not bother to explain to Jackie that the beans are magical.

So, Jackie climbed up, and she climbed, and she climbed, and she climbed till she saw the giant castle. There she was greeted by the giantess. Learning from her experience with the old man before now Jackie was very polite to her.   There she saw so much gold money. She wanted to steal it and then she heard the Giant come home  singing

Fee- fi-fo-fum

I smell the blood of an Englishman,

Be he alive, or be he dead,

I’ll have his bones to grind my bread

 Jackie already on her way to steal the money, and she mocked the giant by saying “I am an English woman not an English man.”

She climbed down the beanstalk and the giant soon run after her, but in the middle Jackie remembered that no matter how poor she is honesty is the most important thing. So she went back and returned the gold money to giant. The giant felt very impressed with her attitude, adopted her and raised her as his daughter. Jackie then went to college, and became a rich lawyer, and she and her mother lived happily ever after.

Moral : From this story, one learns that as a kids we have to be polite towards the elderly besides

Honesty is very important to gain others’ appreciation toward our character. If we want to become rich person we have to work hard to gain our success and not just steal it from others.