Cover to Cover.

This is a new weekly thing that I'm going to try out. If you want to the jist, it's:

One book. Two covers. XD

Cover to Cover is a post I'll do weekly -- what day, ohhh, who knows? -- to show one book and two different covers that it has, usually the U.S cover and then the cover that I own or have seen around, so the English cover.

Personally my favourite is the English cover. It's so pretty. I like the way that lots of things are surronding her head, like thoughts. And if you've read the book then you'll know that Annabell has a lot to deal with, lots of thoughts. And the U.S cover is so simple and I like the way the person on the cover holds their hands, it's very Anna.

Which cover do you like better and why?

The Rule of Won by Stefan Petrucha.

“Right,” I was thinking. “If the universe is really just a huge Wal-Mart and you’ve got unlimited credit, why doesn’t everyone already have whatever they want?”

Rating: 3/5.

Summary: The secret of The Rule of Won is simple, yet its power has been suppressed for generations. The universe is one of infinite abundance—ask, and you shall receive.
Umm, yeah right. Meet Caleb Dunne, slacker extraordinaire. Caleb prefers to glide through life with the minimal amount of effort, so he isn’t too jazzed when his overachieving girlfriend, Vicky, convinces him to join a new school club based on a controversial book, The Rule of Won. Slackers don’t join school clubs, do they? As The Rule gains popularity, though, the club members start to gain power within the school. From dark posts on the club’s online message board to all-out threats in the hallways, it becomes apparent that the group is getting out of control. For slacker Caleb, though, the only thing worse than doing something is not doing something.

Review: What I liked best about The Rule of Won is a little dorky. I really liked all the new things I learnt while reading the novel. The Rule, in which the novel is based upon I found interesting – though I certainly do not believe in it. Petrucha gave me a very thorough explanation of it and gave me room to develop my own opinion instead of being overwhelmed by the MC Caleb’s thoughts and ideas. The reactions, the following and how everything spiralled out of control was very well crafted. I enjoyed watching the rise and fall of The Rule.

Petrucha’s writing style is fantastic and suited Caleb wonderfully. When we first hear from Caleb in chapter one, I was very taken by the natural way his personality had been put to paper.

I liked how the prologue and epilogue were from Alyssa’s perspective. It gave enough intrigue (and started the novel nice and strongly) in the beginning and enough closure at the end. I do wish that we had heard more from her.

Now, a few little negatives. I thought that it was a good novel. The second half could have been done a little better. The end was a little cheesy, the epilogue saved the end of the novel. Sometimes I felt like the characters were too insane, I suppose that is what obsession of that kind does to you.

I’m giving this novel three out of five. I enjoyed it, but the second half could have been a little better. I would recommend this novel to anyone who wants to learn about something new and a little different.

--Allie.

Waiting on Wednesday (1)

This is my first one, let's see how it goes, eh?

Envy by Anna Godbersen. Hitting the shelves in May for me and other Aussie's.

Two months after Elizabeth Holland's dramatic homecoming, Manhattan eagerly awaits her return to the pinnacle of society. When Elizabeth refuses to rejoin her sister Diana's side, however, those watching New York's favorite family begin to suspect that all is not as it seems behind the stately doors of No. 17 Gramercy Park South.
Farther uptown, Henry and Penelope Schoonmaker are the city's most celebrated couple. But despite the glittering diamond ring on Penelope's finger, the newlyweds share little more than scorn for each other. And while the newspapers call Penelope's social-climbing best friend, Carolina Broad, an heiress, her fortune—and her fame—are anything but secure, especially now that one of society's darlings is slipping tales to the eager press.

Sorry about the tiny picture...anyway. I've recently devoured the first two novels in this series and now can not wait for Envy which isn't hitting the shelves in Australia until May. So I have to avoid spoilers for a couple of months. Trust me, it's going to be hard. I love the covers of these books as well, aren't they just amazing? Totally draw you in.

--Allie.

Happy Australia Day! (contest?)

Long time, no post, eh? I’m so sorry about that. You’d think that I’d have nothing but spare time in the summer, but I’ve been busy. I’m working on some reviews now. So you’ll be hearing more from me soon.

Anyway, I’m here to wish everyone, in and out of Australia a Happy Australia Day! Adele, from the awesome Persnickety Snark has a wonderful post, with links to Aussie authors and YA blogs, so I thought that I’d do something similar. You should defiantly check out hers though, it’s great.

To celebrate Australia Day I think that we should all have a look at some fantastic YA authors from Aus, like:

*Melina Marchetta (Review --Finnikin, review --Saving Francesca, interview).
*Julia Lawrinson (Review -- The Push)
*J.C Burke (Expect a review for The Story of Tom Brennan soon).
*Scot Gardner.
*Debrah Lisson.

*Simmone Howell (Review)
*Maureen McCarthy (reading Somebody’s Crying, review soon)
*Kate McCaffrey (Review)

Keep an eye out for these authors around the traps, there are some really great novels out by them, read the reviews. I believe that I gave them all a very good wrap.

Now, to celebrate I have one copy of The Push by Julia Lawrinson to give to the 15th person to post. Yes it's international, all the contests here are, no deadline, just the 15th person. Good luck and once again, happy Australia Day!

EDIT: It's taking longer than I thought to get to 26 posts, so how about the 15th person to post? Also, you can post more than once but not twice in row.

--Allie.

Blue is for Nightmares by Laurie Faria Stolarz

"I Know Your Secret . . ."

Rating: 3/5

Summary:Boarding school junior Stacey Brown has nightmares too real to ignore. Her nightmares come true. This time they're about Drea, her best friend who's become the target of one seriously psycho stalker. To try and protect her, Stacey's working with what she knows-candles, cards, incantations, and spells...

Review: This was my first novel by Stolarz and I plan to read many more.
Blue is for Nightmares is the first in the acclaimed fantasy/mystery series by Laurie Faria Stolarz. Blue is for Nightmares hooked me enough to buy the novel that precedes it: White is for Magic. Does anybody else really like the titles of these novels? Blue is for Nightmares has me very desperate to skip White is for Magic ahead in my reading pile. Though the novel does not end on a cliff hanger, the characters, the plot and the writing is gripping enough to make you want to go and get the next novel.
The characters are nothing to rave about. There’s nothing extraordinary about them. They could even be considered clichéd. I liked the characters enough though, I liked that they were human. Stolarz did a great job at keeping them that way. She made me care about them.
Something that a friend and I enjoyed about this novel was how she had the ability to make you doubt who you thought the guilty party was.
One of the great things about the novel was how some things that were seemingly random at the beginning all clicked and made a lot more sense in the end. That was what I really enjoyed about it.

I’m giving this novel three out of five. Though it’s a good book, I really think it could have been a little bit better. I do look very much forward to White is for Magic.

Hey, I'll be away for another week, so there won't be any reviews from me until next Friday. Hopefully. Sorry! But I'll read as much as I can and when I return update as much as I can.

Rumours by Anna Godbersen

Rating: 5/5.

Summary:(from amazon.com)After bidding good-bye to New York's brightest star, Elizabeth Holland, rumors continue to fly about her untimely demise.

All eyes are on those closest to the dearly departed: her mischievous sister, Diana, now the family's only hope for redemption; New York's most notorious cad, Henry Schoon-maker, the flame Elizabeth never extinguished; the seductive Penelope Hayes, poised to claim all that her best friend left behind—including Henry; even Elizabeth's scheming former maid, Lina Broud, who discovers that while money matters and breeding counts, gossip is the new currency.

Review: Rumours, Rumours, Rumours.

This is the time that I'll mention that this is a spoiler free review. To all of you have read it though, I say: what??? why?! That's all I'll say on the matter.

Rumours follows on very smoothly from The Luxe. Putting the devoted readers right into the thick of 1899's scandal and schemes of the devious characters. The end is somewhat shocking (more so if you don't read the last page *looks guilty*) and has me craving the third book in the series Envy, released January 29^th in the U.S and I believe (don't quote me on that one though) May this year for us Aussie's.

The young cast of characters once again capture your heart and make you want to turn the page, a few characters though, do not. That Godberson has characters out in her novels, that she does not mind them being disliked makes her a much more extraordinary writer in my eyes and her characters even more realistic. In my review for the The Luxe I spoke of my favourite characters and that has not changed. Maybe my distaste for Penelope has grown, and my love for Will as well, also my love for Henry. Diana remains my favourite because of her romantic heart and cheeky attitude towards life.

Of the two novels in the series, I believe that I enjoyed Rumours more. Instead of waiting for the drama, we are put back into it. We know the characters so much better, we know what they want, who they want and how badly they want these things. This made the novel that much more interesting and swifter.

I really do recommend this series of books to anyone who enjoys scandal and confusing love triangles (or squares or pentagons).

Yet another five out of five for this wonderful series. Envy. I am waiting oh so eagerly for you.

Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist by Rachel Cohn & David Levithan.

“I know this is going to sound strange, but will you be my girlfriend for the next five minutes?”

Rating: 2/5.

Summary:Nick is two things, a member of a queer core band that can never decide on a name and heart broken. He comes to the club to perform, to rock out but he finds much more.
Insert Norah, a fiery, sarcastic girl who is college bound – or so she thinks.
Two troubled teenagers have the most eventful night of their lives after one question is asked.

Review: I have no raving reviews for this novel, it was positively average.
The characters were fickle and annoying and that kind of irritating odd. Personally I thought that Nick was the easiest to put up with, he was cute. Norah, I thought she was cool at the start because she was sarcastic, but slowly that thought slipped away and I found myself…annoyed. The characters seemed to deteriorate through out the novel.
I had a few problems with this novel, some things that happened were too spontaneous and weird. I’m not going to ruin this book for people sitting at their computers deliberating whether or not to read this, but if you have read it: weren’t like…half the events in the novel just spontaneous and pretty much meaningless?
Something that could really bias my opinion on this novel is that: I’m not a fan of novels that stretch over one day or night. Too many coincidences and random events. For me to enjoy a novel that stretches over a night or not much more it has to be written very well. That, though, is not to say that this novel was written badly, Levithan and Cohn work really well as a team and I did like them as a combination.
The characters though (yes, back to the characters), seemed either too hurt about something at one point and then too okay with something the next. Their emotions were much too rash for me to enjoy.

I’m giving this novel, two stars. Really, it just wasn’t my cup of tea.

I’m going away today so I will be unable to post for the remainder of the week. I’ll miss you all, have a great week! See you Saturday.

--Allie.

Some Very Late New Years Resolutions.

Kelsey from Just Blinded book Reviews tagged me – ages ago, sorry about how long it’s taken. I’m supposed to tell you my New Years Resolutions. See, I hadn’t really thought about them much until I was tagged. This year really went fast (to my utter surprise) and though I did not achieve last years resolutions, I don’t feel like a complete failure because I (alright, are you ready for a huge dose of corny? Ugh, I hate corny, I can’t believe I am doing this) achieved a lot more and in some ways, it was better because I achieved some unexpected things like starting a book reviewing blog and completing nano and lots more stuff in my personal life.

Anyway let's shuffle away from the corniness. Moving on. My resolutions for 2009 are:

*Complete the first draft of one of my novels.
*Post more frequently on my blog.
*Make the blog more exciting.
*Take more photos.
*Be more spontaneous.
*Decorate my room.
*Put some money away for the future.

Also, something I would love to see happen is the "Just Listen" segment on here. I think that I'll try and make it more official and get back to you all. Any ideas about it, PLEASE email me at the address listed under authors/publishers. Thank-you to the one person who emailed me! I really appreciate it.

That's just a few of my resolutions. I’m looking forward to 2009 and to blogging with the rest of you. I’m hoping that 2009 will be easy, but I believe that it will be quite the opposite.
Good-luck!

--Allie.

Something in the World Called Love by Sue Saliba.

“for everything was how esma saw the world. everything and nothing. the world was bursting and full and forever, or it was blank and useless and dead.”

Rating: 4/5.

Summary: When Esma moves into 22 Starling Street, she knows she's come to the right place. A place to become someone new. A place to belong.
As the seasons change, she finds herself falling deeper and deeper in love. But not in the way she expects. . .

Review: The first thing that I noticed about Something in the World Called Love was that there were no capital letters. Not after full stops, for the names of people and places, none. At first I thought that that would really annoy me – and for a while it really did. Then I got really involved in the writing of the story.
It’s not so much the storyline and plot that kept me hooked for the 200 page duration of this novel, it was Saliba’s writing style. It was so poetic. The writing style suited the main character Esma – deep, quiet and true. A main character who I quite enjoyed.

“instead the words gave her a ground under her feet, a kind of false knowing that stopped her from stepping out into the reality of things, the truth of things where that there were no words, after all.”

Something in the World Called Love was a short tale of a girl’s need to belong after being hurt and how she and her roommates try to make a home for themselves. The title of this book will certainly catch the eye of romantics. The novel, though, is not as romantic as the title makes it sound, but that’s not to say that romantics won’t enjoy this. It ponders in depth about love, what it is, where it is, when you feel it and why. Being a romantic myself I enjoyed this because it wasn’t traditional. Maybe this novel won’t give a romantic their hit, but it could just change the way you think about love.

There are a lot of unanswered questions in this novel. I would say that it lacks closure, but for me, it gave me enough. The novel and it’s unanswered question gave me enough room to freely imagine what happens next. It allowed me to see why Esma felt the way she did and see that she had grown as a person and so did the majority of the characters around her. And that was enough for me.
As for the characters. Well, Esma was easy to like because she was so timid and realistic, Kara, was harder to like, Chloe was even harder. I was a big fan of Simon, personally.
One thing that I would like to know about this novel, is why there were no capital letters. I feel that there is a secret meaning behind them.
I recommend this novel to anyone who enjoys a short novel that has hidden meanings. To people who like books that make them think or to anyone wanting to read a very unforgettable writing style.

I’m giving Something in the World Called Love four stars. It was a beautifully written novel, really the writing style is amazing.

--Allie.