Wednesday 16 December 2015

A Court of Thorns and Roses - Sarah J. MAAS [SPOILERS]

A Court of Thorns and Roses
Sarah J. MAAS
Bloomsbury
432 pages
Paperback


Plot
Feyre's survival rests upon her ability to hunt and kill – the forest where she lives is a cold, bleak place in the long winter months. So when she spots a deer in the forest being pursued by a wolf, she cannot resist fighting it for the flesh. But to do so, she must kill the predator and killing something so precious comes at a price ... Dragged to a magical kingdom for the murder of a faerie, Feyre discovers that her captor, his face obscured by a jewelled mask, is hiding far more than his piercing green eyes would suggest. Feyre's presence at the court is closely guarded, and as she begins to learn why, her feelings for him turn from hostility to passion and the faerie lands become an even more dangerous place. Feyre must fight to break an ancient curse, or she will lose him forever.


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Just one word: FANTASTIC !!!!!

Beauty and the Beast is my favorite fairy tale of all times and I've read many rewrites of it but I have to admit, none ever been so close to be as good as the original and being so different at the same time.

We find in this book everything we can possibly want in a book: action, mystery, romance, and all of that well-balanced. Perfect.

I loved how the roles were kinda reversed here, the true beast not being who we thought.
I also loved the dynamic between Feyre -who hates faeries- and her captor -a faerie Lord-, how she fights against her emerging feelings.

And then you have the curse. That part doesn't change, except that not only she would save him by breaking the curse, but also the Faerie world and by extension the Human world as well.

In sum, this book could please romantic girls as much as action boys (and the other way around ;) )

Good news is, this book is the first of a trilogy,
Bad news, we'll have to wait another 5 months before being able to read book two ^^

The Hunger Games - Suzanne COLLINS

The Hunger Games
Suzanne COLLINS
Scholastic
454 pages
Paperback


Plot
When 16-year-old Katniss's young sister, Prim, is selected as District 12's female representative, Katniss volunteers to take her place. She and her male counterpart Peeta, are pitted against bigger, stronger representatives, some of whom have trained for this their whole lives. , she sees it as a death sentence. But Katniss has been close to death before. For her, survival is second nature.

~~



After two years boycotting them, I finally made the move and read The Hunger Games, better late than never don't you think?

Again, its once I've seen the movie that I decided to read the book.
The movie itself is quite good but not as faithful to the book as I would have liked.

Usually the heroes I read all have powers, but not this time.

This time, the heroin is just like you and me, no powers and god she could use some with the life she has.
And as if her life wasn't bad enough, now she must go in this arena, fighting and killing for her life.

The story is well put together, I didn't get bored one second in this first book.

The universe we're living in through the story is really interesting though totally twisted.
It stays kinda realistic and totally plausible, I wouldn't be surprised if our world ended up like this in a few centuries (let's not hide, we are capable of the best as much as the worst)

Let's talk characters now. Katniss: I love her.Unlike the heroines we're seeing lately, who are passive most of the time (I will not talk about Bella Swan), Katniss doesn't act as a victim, she will fight for her ideas and what she thinks is right.

The rest of the characters stay quite interesting despite some stereotypes like Gail the best friend totally in love with her but she doesn't see it, or Haymitch the mentor nobody would even think of having but turns out to be Katniss' best ally.
Only one shadow for me: Peeta. I know, 90% of the hunger games fans are team Peeta but the only thing that comes to my mind in this first book is slapping him in the face.
He spent his time pitying himself, crying about his poor fate. That said, I did like his cleverness and his vice, he's far from being stupid.
Well, what also didn't help is the fact that at the first sight of Peeta we already knew how the romance between him and Katniss would ends.

Anyway, after all this boycotting it was at the end quite a nice surprise :)



Tuesday 6 October 2015

Poison - Sarah PINBOROUGH

Poison
Tales from the Kingdoms
Sarah PINBOROUGH
Orion
202 pages
Paperback



Plot
Poison is a beautifully illustrated retelling of the Snow White story which takes all the elements of the classic fairy tale that we love (the handsome prince, the jealous queen, the beautiful girl and, of course, the poisoning) and puts a modern spin on the characters, their motives and their desires. It's fun, contemporary, sexy, and perfect for fans of Once Upon a Time,GrimmSnow White and the Huntsman and more.


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Fairy tales rewrite...my favorites! And I have to say, this one is quite good.
In this first book, we meet Snow White and Prince Charming but in a way we we've never seen before, and that's why I love this book.
We have a Snow White not so innocent, an Evil Queen followed by bad luck and let's not talk about Prince Charming.
What I love about this book -apart from the twisted version of the characters- is that the story is not only from Snow point of view, we also see the Queen's one, so we finally got the two sides of the story.
Speaking of the Queen, I found the way the author pictured her quite interesting. We finally have a human queen, and what an unlucky one!
I also liked this Snow White, she's not perfect, and that makes her so more likable. The story with those two is really complicated.

The story is really good, being in the Queen and Snow's heads was quite clever and gives some rhythm to the story.
I really enjoyed this book and I have to admit, i'm quite disappointed about this series being only a trilogy but as we say, every good things come to an end!