In 1899 New York City, Elizabeth and Diana Holland rule the social scene. They have mountains of money, doting servants, and handsome men to fawn over them. That all changes when their father dies and leaves their family penniless. Per her mother's orders, Elizabeth becomes engaged to one of New York's wealthiest bachelor in order to save the family name. Will Elizabeth and Diana be able to bring honor to their family or will they decide to follow their hearts even if huge consequences are inevitable? No matter the choice, drama and scandal are sure to follow.
Yum. This book was positively delicious. I had heard many good things about it and it did not disappoint in the least. In fact, it exceeded all of my expectations. I mean, any book that has such a gorgeous dress on the cover has to be good right? Man, I want that dress so bad! :P It's fluffy, silk, intriguing, and meant to impress; just like the book. Woah! So yeah, this book is truly amazing. It is full of lavish details and sumptuous plot twists. I could not put it down. I think I actually lost about three hours of sleep over this book. One of the things I really liked about it was that it showed that yes, historical fiction can be good. I've never been a reader of historical books, but reading The Luxe changed my viewpoint entirely. If anything, historical fiction is more thrilling than urban and modern books because of all the rules and etiquette people had to follow and then all the drama and scandal that ensued because of that. Over on the Compulsive Reader's blog, she has people give her reasons why they liked historical fiction. They were all so true; you can check them out here. The Luxe was really an example of a great historical fiction boo. It was fast-moving, clever, and immediately drew me in. I would highly recommend it to anyone. It'll be sure to please you.
The Earth, My Butt, And Other Big Round Things by Carolyn Mackler
Virginia Shreves is living a tough life. Being overweight in a family of perfect, popular, and fit people is hard. She is constantly being pressured to change who she is to please those around her. To make it worse, her best friend just moved across the country leaving Virginia to fend for her own in the vicious world of highschool. And her brother was found guilty of date rape. Her perfect, flawless brother let her down. Virginia's world is crashing down around her and if she doesn't do something fast, she's going to be lost in the tidal wave of lies, expectations, and troubles that are filling her life. Can she find a way to be herself and assert who she is in an unaccepting world?
Yes, I finally finished this book. It's not that it was hard to get through or anything, it's just that I listened to it on audiobook. I find it so much harder to listen to books than to read them because to listen to them, you have to have no distractions. I usually listen to music in the background and it's hard to have to focus completely on listening to something. On the other hand, I'm able to read with tons of distractions. I can tune out the world and get lost in a book so much easier, so I think I'm going to stick with that from now on. :) Anyways, this was a really good book! I really loved Virginia's unique voice and her cynicsm. I think the author approached the difficult topic of obesity in a great way. You could really get into the main character's mind and see the world through her eyes. The media definitely presents a distorted picture of the perfect body and I think that this book really proved that you don't have to look perfect to be happy. I especially liked Virginia's doctor. He was so open and didn't pressure her at all. He said that it isn't about having the perfect body, it's about feeling good about yourself, which I think is a great viewpoint. I enjoyed seeing Virginia discover who she was and showing her family and friends that she was unique and special and that she wasn't going to let anyone push her around. I think that everyone should think about themselves that way. I think that the ending was really satisfying also. I liked that Virginia used her own experiences to help others. Overall, this book was very good. I would highly recommend this as a book that will change your thinking on a difficult subject. It really opened my eyes.
Yes, I finally finished this book. It's not that it was hard to get through or anything, it's just that I listened to it on audiobook. I find it so much harder to listen to books than to read them because to listen to them, you have to have no distractions. I usually listen to music in the background and it's hard to have to focus completely on listening to something. On the other hand, I'm able to read with tons of distractions. I can tune out the world and get lost in a book so much easier, so I think I'm going to stick with that from now on. :) Anyways, this was a really good book! I really loved Virginia's unique voice and her cynicsm. I think the author approached the difficult topic of obesity in a great way. You could really get into the main character's mind and see the world through her eyes. The media definitely presents a distorted picture of the perfect body and I think that this book really proved that you don't have to look perfect to be happy. I especially liked Virginia's doctor. He was so open and didn't pressure her at all. He said that it isn't about having the perfect body, it's about feeling good about yourself, which I think is a great viewpoint. I enjoyed seeing Virginia discover who she was and showing her family and friends that she was unique and special and that she wasn't going to let anyone push her around. I think that everyone should think about themselves that way. I think that the ending was really satisfying also. I liked that Virginia used her own experiences to help others. Overall, this book was very good. I would highly recommend this as a book that will change your thinking on a difficult subject. It really opened my eyes.
My First Contest!
So last night, I was lucky enough to go to a book signing of Meg Cabot's. I was so excited that she was visiting my chilly state of Minnesota. The whole night was very fun. She was upbeat, witty, and very funny. You could tell she really tried to connect with the audience which was great. And afterwards, I got to get my whole Mediator series signed (which is a very good series that I highly recommend, btw) as well as a copy of one of Meg's more recent books, Jinx. So therefore, I am having a contest to giveaway a signed copy of the book Jinx by Meg Cabot. I have read it and I thought it was very good so I'm sure you will all like it.Now for the rules:
1. To enter either leave a comment on this post that includes your email or just send an email to livsbookreviews@yahoo.com.
2. If you blog about my contest and help spread the word, be sure to send me the link back and I will give you two extra entries. How cool is that?
3. The dead line for entries is Saturday April 12 at midnight, central time.
And that's it! I hope you enter!
Airhead ARC
Yes, I know that mentions of contests are kind of taking over my blog right now, but this contest is just too good to pass up. If you head over to the Story Siren's blog you can enter to win an ARC of Airhead by Meg Cabot which is set to be released June 1st. I really, really, really want to read this book! It sounds very interesting, so you should all definitely go and check it out.
And I promise that I am trying as hard as I can to finish a Sweet Far Thing, but you can't blame me for taking a while; it's about 800 pages long! Yikes!
Betwixt by Tara Bray Smith
All their lives, Nix, Ondine, and Morgan have known they are different. They each have different "powers" that they don't know anything about and aren't in control of. When they go to a rave on the summer solstice, they each learn the startling truth about what they really are. The three of them are a ring of Fay who are guided by Moth, a local drug dealer, and whose main goal is to reach their exidis without having their human corpuses die. When Tim Bleeker, a Fay gone wrong, steps into the picture, he tries to use each of them to make a more powerful version of Fay so that he and his group of his "cutters" can have ultimate power. His aspirations put all of Nix, Odine, and Morgan's friends in danger. They must learn about themselves and about what their purpose is in order to keep "Bleek" from eliminating their race.
I had high expectations for this book. I really thought it was going to be good! The plot is complex and original and the characters are believable and easy to relate to, but overall, the story really failed to deliver. Throughout the course of my reading, I had mixed feelings. Some parts would be good and would move fast, but other parts were just plain confusing. I think it was a big undertaking for the author to write a story in which she has to create this whole new species and have an interesting plot line at the same time. I do admit, that the idea of the story is intriguing and interesting, but I think it was just a little too much. I felt that the author was trying to cram too much story into too little of a book. One of the redeeming qualities was that the characters were explored in depth. Each of the three main characters had creative, defining characteristics and their reactions and emotions were plausible. That's one of the few good parts of this book. Overall though, it was a drag to have to trudge through it and I'm glad it's over. I guess I will be reading the sequel when it comes out just to see if it can bring anything more to the table than its predecessor did; which I'm hoping it will. I wanted to like this book, but I wouldn't really recommend it because, all in all, it failed to draw me in and didn't hold my attention.
I had high expectations for this book. I really thought it was going to be good! The plot is complex and original and the characters are believable and easy to relate to, but overall, the story really failed to deliver. Throughout the course of my reading, I had mixed feelings. Some parts would be good and would move fast, but other parts were just plain confusing. I think it was a big undertaking for the author to write a story in which she has to create this whole new species and have an interesting plot line at the same time. I do admit, that the idea of the story is intriguing and interesting, but I think it was just a little too much. I felt that the author was trying to cram too much story into too little of a book. One of the redeeming qualities was that the characters were explored in depth. Each of the three main characters had creative, defining characteristics and their reactions and emotions were plausible. That's one of the few good parts of this book. Overall though, it was a drag to have to trudge through it and I'm glad it's over. I guess I will be reading the sequel when it comes out just to see if it can bring anything more to the table than its predecessor did; which I'm hoping it will. I wanted to like this book, but I wouldn't really recommend it because, all in all, it failed to draw me in and didn't hold my attention.
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