Violet

• Rated 4 stars

“Gina Covello wakes up in a coffin after she dies in an accident. To her horror she realizes she is a Vampire and the boy who made her one, Bobby, is one of the geeks turned dashing and handsome vampire too. Bobby is kidnapped by Mellisande and Gina is sent to a dungeon like place where she finds many of her classmates, apparently turned into vampires too.

Now Gina has to discover Mellisande’s purpose in building a teenage vampire army. And also why Bobby is singled out by her? What exactly does Mellisande want?

Gina is such a likable vamp. She cares about her manicure, brands, her hair, but yes, she also has a conscience which makes for interesting conversations with herself.

This book was so much fun, I thoroughly enjoyed it. The author, Lucienne Diver, has a sarcastic and snarky sense of humor and a very fresh voice.

If you want to read a chic, cool and fun vampire story, you should definitely read this one. If you want to read something different than the hordes of dark vampire books, Vamped is definitely it.

The only problem with the book was that the action was a little difficult to follow at times. As there is one POV to the story, Gina’s, the reader is left as confused and in the dark as Gina is. You kind of discover and understand what’s going on along with Gina. The end is open ended so I am guessing there is a sequel? I have read this book being compared to Buffy, but I wouldn’t know as I haven’t seen a single episode yet. Sad, I know.

If you like Young Adult or Chicklit, this book is definitely for you. Vamped could be a perfect beach read.

One of the passages just to give you an example of the writing style:
Superhuman strength or no, by the time I broke through to the surface, my manicure was totally shot, my nails were split, and I was covered in dirt. And I mean covered. I was about to wig out when I realized just what I was brushing off-and one shock kind of cancelled out the other. My parents had me buried me in a truly heinous dress of white eyelet, which made me look like a stylistically challenged child bride. I had a vague repressed memory of being forced to wear it to my first communion years ago and marveled that it still fit. Not that I’d grown out, except for, you know, up top. Sadly, I hadn’t done much growing up either; I’d maxed out at, like, five foot nothing. Anyway, if anything deserved to be covered in grave dust, it was this old rag.
(Any mistakes, in spelling or grammar, are all typos from my side)

First posted at http://violetcrush.wordpress.com/2009/07/01/vamped-by-lucienne-diver/”

Violet wrote this review Wednesday, July 1, 2009. ( reply | permalink )

• Rated 3 stars

“Someone, no actually many people had told me that Stephen king is the Master of Horror. So last to last weekend when I went to the book fare again; I thought I could try one of them. So I bought ‘The Eyes of the Dragon’. And out of all the horror books that he has written, I picked a fantasy book by mistake. Now what is the probability of that happening?

Did I like the book? Yes.
It’s fantasy and it reads like a fairy tale. There’s very little chance of me not liking it.

So what’s it about?
The king of Delain, Roland, has 2 sons, Peter and Thomas. While Peter is smart, intelligent and handsome, Thomas is exactly like his father, short, bow-legged, dumb and confused. The closest advisor to the King is a magician called Flagg, whose real age is not known to anybody. He is rumored to have lived for ages, yet he looks only 50.

When the King is poisoned by Flagg and Peter send to a dungeon for murdering him, Thomas takes the throne. And that’s exactly what Flagg wants, to have a weak boy as a King so that he can control the entire Kingdom and eventually destroy it.

The end is pretty obvious when you are half way through the book. I felt it was more like a Children’s book, I found the language too simplistic and way too many explanations of why a certain character was behaving in a particular way.
Take for e.g.
Why was he so excited simply to be looking at an old man picking halfheartedly at a piece of cake? Well, first you must remember that the old man wasn’t just any old man. He was Thomas’s father. And spying, sad to say, has its own attraction. When you can see people doing something and they don’t see you, even the most trivial actions seem important.

But otherwise, such lovely characters. I especially liked Thomas, the younger son. He strived to get attention from a father he loved; he was confused and knew he wasn’t as intelligent and smart as his elder brother. Finally the guilt of what he had done broke him. Flagg was the typical cruel, dark magician we have come to love in fairy tales.

So overall, I would say that although I liked it, I wouldn’t highly recommend it.

Wikipedia tells me that Flagg and the kingdom of Delain are directly related to The Dark Tower series and Flagg also appeared in The Stand. Also, that one of the possible titles for this book was The Napkins.

http://violetcrush.wordpress.com/2009/06/09/the-eyes-of-the-dragon-by-stephen-king/”

Violet wrote this review Saturday, June 27, 2009. ( reply | permalink )

• Rated 4 stars

“Reading this book was like reading a book within a book or reading about how the book was written. Well, kind of. Confused? Keep reading.

It’s a story about 4 friends, their happiness, their loss, their struggles, but most of all their friendship. Four women, Mallory, Tanya, Kendall and Faye meet in a writer’s conference 10 years ago when they were just aspiring writers. 10 years later each is successful in her own right. But even though they have been friends for so long they have things they have hidden from each other and other people closest to them.

Mallory is a New York Times bestselling author but as far as her life is concerned, she is a closed book. She has a compulsion of completing at least 20 pages of writing everyday no matter what. Tanya works 2 jobs, has 2 girls, is a single mother and in spite of being an author of multiple books, the income isn’t enough to support her family. She has always been so independent and the people in her life have disappointed her to the extent that she afraid of relying on anyone again. Faye is the wife of a Pastor and a famous evangelist. She writes inspirational fiction, but underneath all that happiness and success is a secret which will have the power to destroy her as well as her husband’s career.

Finally we come to Kendall. She is the connecting thread between all the individual stories. When her husband of 25 years leaves her for another woman and her career is going down the drains, her friends help her out in the time of need. What results is a book, Sticks and Stones, which had Kendall’s name on it but is ghost written by all her friends. It’s a book about 4 writers who are friends just like they are. As they write their own parts, they struggle with how much to reveal and how much to hide. Finally they end up writing about their deepest secrets, something they haven’t shared with their friends or even family.

When the book becomes a Bestseller, the scrutiny and analyzing that comes with it threatens to destroy their careers and their friendship.

What I liked most about the book was how it handled the individual characters as well as their impact on each other without confusing the reader. There are these 4 friends that are central to the story, but there is also an editor, the editor’s assistant Lacy, besides their spouses, love interests, children and grandchildren. Before reading the book I wondered about how Ms. Wax would keep everything clear and smooth flowing. But all I can say is that the execution is flawless. The publishing process, the life of a writer and the inside tidbits of a publishing house mentioned in the book are fascinating.

The process of writing a book, struggling through it all, making it to the bestseller’s list intermingled with the stories of triumphs and tribulations of four best friends and writers was entertaining, exciting, and unputdownable.

I would especially say that I LOVED the ending, everything neatly wrapped up with an upbeat or happy note, just as I like it.

Highly Recommended.

First reviewed at http://violetcrush.wordpress.com/2009/06/19/the-accidental-bestseller-by-wendy-wax/”

Violet wrote this review Saturday, June 27, 2009. ( reply | permalink )

1 of 1 members found this review helpful.

• Rated 4 stars

“Lilia is constantly running away, leaving behind places and people. She simply cannot make herself stay at one place; she has to keep moving. When the book opens, it's Lilia's last day with Eli in Brooklyn , her current boyfriend. Only Eli doesn't know that. After the first chapter Lilia kind of disappears from the book only to appear at the end. The rest of the book is about Eli's search for her and about Lilia's past.

When Lilia was 7 years old, she was kidnapped by her father from her mother's house on a snow covered night. Lilia and her father keep traveling from one place to another for the fear of getting caught by the police. Lilia is still traveling when she is 15 years old. She has got used to this life. She has blocked out her past before her kidnapping and is quite happy the way she is. Lilia knows that her mother is searching for her, but she does not want to be found. She leaves a note in the bibles she finds in hotel rooms. She asks everyone to stop searching her and leave her alone.

Christopher is a private investigator her mother has hired to search Lilia. He gets so involved in Lilia's case that he follows them for months leaving behind his crumbling marriage and his daughter who is more or less the same age as Lilia.

Eli reaches Montreal when he receives a note from someone named Michaela saying that Lilia is in Montreal and to come and get her as soon as possible.

For me this book was like a puzzle. Who was Michaela and how does she know Lilia? Why does she write to Eli? What happens to the detective? Does Eli find Lilia? Why does Lilia's father kidnap her? And finally, will Lilia will ever be able to stop traveling and settle down?

This book had so many layers and emotions that it's difficult to describe what exactly this book is about. All I can say is that I loved it. There is Eli who wants to find his love, Michaela who wants some answers and then there is the private investigator who watches his family fall apart in front of him but does not do anything about it. The writing is beautiful. For the sake of the review I was thinking about which sentences I should copy here. But then if I open to any page I am sure I will find something that I love. So I opened a random page and here it is. Something for you to see how beautiful and evocative the writing is.

He stopped at a Don't walk signal somewhere deep into Chinatown , waiting for the direction of traffic to change. A bottle had been smashed in the gutter. He stood staring at it for a while, the mesmerizing sparkle of broken glass. A van paused a beat too long in the intersection and was attacked by a blaring cacophony of car horns. The sound brought tears to his eyes. He stood on the corner while passersby streamed around him like ghosts and lights changed from green to red to yellow to green again and the stream of traffic before him continued unchecked. He looked down and flecks of glass on the pavement sparkled, like crystal, like ice, tears blurring the pinpoints of light. It was a long time before he could force himself into motion.
(Quoted from an ARC)

I do have a complaint though. There was constant switch between places, characters and time in-between chapters. Every chapter was a leap in some way. If in one, Eli was searching for Lilia in the present, the next chapter is when Lilia is say 10 years old. The only problem I found with this approach is that it made the novel very easy to put down. But 'Last night in Montreal ' has some memorable characters and even situations which will stay with long after you turn the last page. ”

Violet wrote this review Tuesday, April 28, 2009. ( reply | permalink )

2 of 2 members found this review helpful.

• Rated 0 stars

“All I can say is ‘WOW, what a book!!!‘

When I received this book in mail, my only intention was to scan the book, read a couple of pages and then keep it aside for future reading. I mean I do have a TBR pile and I would feel kind of guilty reading this book immediately. But honestly, once I read the first couple of pages I couldn’t stop. It was just that good.

3 woman-Ranya, Zahra and Rio. All 3 of them are from different backgrounds, have different problems and different ways of handling them. Somehow all land in Miami working together for the same firm.

Ranya is a rich woman from Middle East settled in Montreal with her parents. Just after one month of marriage she discovers that her husband is gay. Instead of going back to her parents she runs away to Miami to sort out her life. Zahra comes to Miami to be with the only person she has really loves, Georges. Although he has no idea about her feelings, she stays with his firm for many years just to be close to him and hopes that he would one day feel the same for her. Rio rises from the slums in Honduras, Latin America and builds a life for herself as an editor in chief of a magazine owned by the same company Zahra and Ranya work in. Rio is in love with Georges brother who is a Casanova and she knows they have no future together.

When these 3 women cross paths, I somehow imagined all of them forming everlasting friendships and helping each other find their destiny. But surprisingly that is not the case. All 3 of them have different stories but somehow their fate is connected to each other.

Ranya has to decide what do with her life. As a rich girl who never had to suffer even for a single day in her life, even finding a job is a huge challenge. Zahra has to take her life in control and think about her choices. Does she want to live in a city she hates and work in something that she does not love, just for a man who is pining for another woman? Will Rio will be able to leave the only thing she loves and the only thing she thinks is her biggest accomplishment, her magazine?

As the story progresses, all three of them find the courage required to cut loose their ties from the past, enter into a whole new and challenging territory, leaving something that is painful but familiar behind.

Call it woman’s fiction or multicultural fiction or even chick-lit, Cutting Loose has a great story, fantastic characters and beautiful writing. What more could you want in a book?”

Violet wrote this review Monday, April 27, 2009. ( reply | permalink )