Thursday 20 November 2014

The Almost Truth by Eileen Cook

The Almost Truth by Eileen Cook
Published: Simon Pulse, December 4th, 2012
Pages: 246
Source: Paperback, library
Genre: Contemporary
Rating: 3.9/5 (79%)

How I Felt: Ok, there needs to be a universal law that no standalone book can end like this! There's just too much left unclear. Recently for me, many contemporaries have been ending in this "loose string" fashion, so the rest is left up to the reader. I don't like this technique one bit, if I get to the end of a story it's because I've grown to love the characters (or at least tolerate them) so I'd like to see how their story ends, not make up one of my own. If I wanted to fill in the pieces of the ending myself, I would've wrote the book. All that being said, don't get me wrong, I really enjoyed this book. I had a great time reading it, it actually got me out of a slump. I just would've liked to see how the characters solve the problem we were left with to think about.

I really like the concept of this book, it takes place on an island where there are distinct social class differences. The rich all stick together and the same goes for those with less or almost no money. I originally picked this book up because I read that it was about a girl who was a con artist; this intrigued me because I never read a book about a character like this before and the whole premise was new and exciting. Not quite so surprising with contemporaries, but this book turned out to be much more than a poor girl looking to make money faster, this book was deeper than that, and this added a new element to the story I really enjoyed seeing play out.

If this book had anything it's amazing character development! We went from reading about Sadie who thought she had her whole life planned out; in the fall she'd take all the money she saved and move off the small island where she grew up to attend Berkeley and make a new name and life for herself. All her plans were ready to be set in motion until her mom used her funds to pay for a lawyer to get her father out of prison. After this point things start falling apart for Sadie. This story is all about Sadie trying to figure out who she really is, and her trying to come to terms with her life and move forward. A lot of development was shown by Sadie's parents and herself. In the beginning of the novel Sadie had almost no respect for her parents whatsoever, she wanted to leave them and her life on the island behind as soon as possible. But by the end of the book you could see how much her love for her mom and especially her dad has grown, and the same goes for her father because he didn't like to show her any sort of love.  Out of everyone in this book my favourite character would have to be Sadie's best friend, Brendan. He was always there for Sadie when she really needed him and I admired him for that, I also admired him for his wit and his ability to always know what to say to Sadie to put her at ease (which comes with being friends for so many years).

The reason I didn't give this book a four or five star rating was because I didn't think the plot was well executed or written/planned out. It was a little choppy, especially towards the end. I also couldn't give it the full rating because of how it ended, everything I wanted to happen was finally falling into place and then the book just ends.

Overall, I really enjoyed this book, it was entertaining, funny, and just all around sweet.  I recommend it if you like contemporary or mystery books. I look forward to reading more by Eileen Cook in the future!

Wednesday 12 November 2014

Top 5 Wednesday: Top 5 Couples

Top 5 Wednesday was created by Lainey or GinerReadsLainey on YouTube. This week's topic is top 5 favourite fictional couples. This is such a fun topic I couldn't pass up the opportunity to make a post about it. It's pretty hard to choose couples because I don't want to spoil any love triangles going on in any series, so I'll do my best, enjoy!

5. Cath and Levi from Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell. I found both of them so cute! I couldn't get enough of their relationship!
Book Rating: 5/5





4. Lola and Cricket from Lola and the Boy Next Door by Stephanie Perkins. I loved these two so much! While reading this book I couldn't help but cry every time Cricket was in a scene or even mentioned. I don't know what it is about these two but they've just stuck with me.

Rating: 4.8/5



3. Hermione and Ron from the Harry Potter series. I was a big shipper of these two from the beginning of the series. I love Ron's wit mixed with Hermione's smarts, I think they're perfect together and I wouldn't except it any other way!




2. Augustus Waters and Hazel Grace Lancaster from the Fault in our Stars by John Green. I love their relationship, they're so adorable together, I had the best time reading and seeing their relationship grow and progress. This is one of the most heart warming/breaking books I've ever read, and I thank Gus and Hazel for sharing their journey.

Rating: 5/5




1. Day and June from the Legend series by Marie Lu. They are just the ultimate power couple. They are both so independent and strong, but they work so well together. I love them both separately, but I love them even more when they're together because they become unstoppable!








Those are my top 5 favourite couples! This was a really hard decision and a lot of my other favourites were cut out. Some honourable mentions will have to be: Aria and Perry from Under the Never Sky, Katniss and Peeta from the Hunger Games, and Katy and Daemon from the Lux series. Thanks so much for reading!
~Birdie

Sunday 2 November 2014

Top 7 Favourite Book Covers

This was a topic for Top 5 Wednesday a few weeks ago and I really liked this idea so I decided to dedicate a whole post for some of the most beautiful book covers (in my opinion). There was also too many gorgeous covers to pick only 5, so I narrowed it down to 7. These novels are in order: 1 being the prettiest out of the 7.

7.  Crewel by Gennifer Albin

















6.  Incarnate by Jodi Meadows

















5.  Black City by Elizabeth Richards

















4. The Ring and the Crown by Melissa de la Cruz

















3. Splintered by A.G Howard
















2. Entwined by Heather Dixon
















1. The Heir by Kiera Cass




















All these covers are stunning! Of course there are many more covers I think are beautiful as well. To see a list of some other ones I love I'll leave a link to the books I voted for on the Goodreads list.
https://www.goodreads.com/list/user_vote/3023289
Let me know what your favourite book cover is! Thanks for reading! ~Birdie






   

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