The Hunter's Moon

Title: The Hunter's Moon (The Chronicles of Faerie, book 1)

Author: O.R. Melling
Publisher: Amulet Books
Year: 2000

Gwen travels to Ireland to visit her cousin Findabhair, expecting a summer of backpacking, late nights, and the usual road trip adventures. But when Findabhair is kidnapped by the King of Faerie, Gwen must race to save her cousin before the rise of the Hunter's Moon, when the fairies need a human sacrifice.-Summery from Goodreads


I've had this book on my shelf for a couple of years now, I've just never got around to reading it until now. It was a fun read, there are a lot of problems I had with the book, but still it was fun. It took me a while to realize that it was written like a fairy tale(yes, I do realize that I am reading a tale about fairies but I'm talking about Fairy Tales, you know, the Grimm kind). There were tests that Gwen had to pass, random friends along the way who helped, people filled with courage and bravery willing to die for something they loved. Nevertheless the down sides to fairy tales were also apparent such as lack of believability, cookie cutter and underdeveloped characters, boring dialogue, and sudden professions of love.
One of my favorite things in the book was the constant adventure Gwen was on traveling around to a lot of Ireland's best Faerie places. And the best part had to be when the Leprechaun was giving Gwen his tour of Dublin, I couldn't help but laugh at his renaming of the statues, like Tart-with-the-Cart.
The thing that makes people like this book, I think, is that it's steeped in legends and folktales. Miller sure did put her B.A. in Celtic Studies to use, every place Gwen went there seemed to be a story to go along with it, everything in the book seemed connected to Faerie in some way. There were so many legends woven into this one story. Like I said, It was a fun read.

Feature & Follow Friday

Feature & Follow Friday is hosted by: Parajunkee and Alison Can Read. This week's question:

Q: Go count the number of unread books sitting on your shelf. How many?

I have 52 unread books in my bookshelf(and on the floor and on top of the dresser). I'm kind of shocked. It's not as many as a lot of people on book blogs have, but considering I only buy books twice a year and I usually stick to the books I know, it is a fairly large number. I need to start reading them. Does anyone else have trouble reading books on their shelf vs books from the library? Or is that just me? I can always make time for a library book but it takes me months to decide to read a book that I own.

Blogging About a Blog Post/Contest Entry

Maggie Stiefvater is having a Giveaway at her blog here. To enter you are supposed to blog about one of your favorite posts she has made. So, that is what I'm doing.... Well, I'll get around to it sometime in this post. She has a ton of really good posts. If you read author blogs have you every notice that YA Author = Funny? It seems that every YA author blog I've been to they always have a sense of humor. Just an interesting point I thought I'd point out.

As previously mentioned Maggie has a lot of posts. It took me a really long time(10 minutes. Oh shut up, it felt like a long time) to track down the one I was looking for.

Why We Love Authors Who Treat Us Bad

Be forewarned, there are spoilers for Twilight #4 and Harry Potter #5, #6, and #7. The thing that I love about this post is that at first you are shaking your head going 'that's not me' and then by the third paragraph your nodding your head going 'oh yeah, I forgot, that really is me. I'm actually like that.' I think this line really puts the point of the post in a nutshell "hell hath no fury like a reader who actually gets what they think they want."

The Priest's Graveyard

Title: The Priest's Graveyard
Author: Ted Dekker
Publisher: Center Street
Date Published: April 19 2011
Pages: 360

Two abandoned souls are on the hunt for one powerful man. Soon, their paths will cross and lead to one twisted fate. Danny Hansen is a Bosnian immigrant who came to America with hopes of escaping haunted memories of a tragic war that took his mother's life. Now he's a priest incensed by the powerful among us who manipulate the law for their own gain, uncaring of the shattered lives they leave behind. It is his duty to show them the error of their ways, even if he must put them in the grave. Renee Gilmore is the frail and helpless victim of one such powerful man. Having escaped his clutches, she now lives only to satisfy justice by destroying him, regardless of whom she must become in that pursuit.But when Danny and Renee's paths become inexorably entangled things go very, very badly and neither of them may make it out of this hunt alive.--Summery from Goodreads

I picked this book up at Barnes and Noble a month ago. I've heard of the author before and the storyline sounded interesting enough, if not a little disturbing, so I decided to read it. The strange thing about it was that it is written in both first and third person. I liked Dekker's writing style well enough but his characters seemed a little stiff. After a while I came to like Danny, but I despised Renee. Have you ever seen a movie called Boondock Saints? In my mind Danny was cast as one of the Saints and Renee was cast as Rocco, the idiot who says, "we could kill everyone." Nevertheless, Rocco was a likeable character. The same really couldn't be said about Renee. Okay, maybe I'm being a little too harsh, she wasn't TOO bad, but she just really got on my nerves.
I confess, I almost put this book down after the scene where they cut up the body into pieces, but I was too far into the book. So, despite all things previously mentioned I decided I was going to finish it, and I am mostly glad I did. The last 100 pages or so were amazing! It raised the book from a 2 star rating to a 3 star rating. I was sitting on the edge of my seat wondering what terrible thing was going to happen next. One thing can be said about Ted Dekker he can write the twisted stuff. That is a complement by the way.

I have one last note to make. If you have a weak stomach don't read this book. It's not pretty.

Fallen

Title: Fallen
Author: Lauren Kate
Pages: 464

Seventeen-Year-Old Luce is a new student at Sword & Cross, an unwelcoming boarding/reform school in Savannah, Georgia. Luce’s boyfriend died under suspicious circumstances, and now she carries the guilt over his death with her as she navigates the unfriendly halls at Sword & Cross, where every student seems to have an unpleasant—even evil—history.

It’s only when she sees Daniel, a gorgeous fellow student, that Luce feels there’s a reason to be here—though she doesn’t know what it is. And Daniel’s frosty cold demeanor toward her? It’s really a protective device that he’s used again . . . and again. For Daniel is a fallen angel, doomed to fall in love with the same girl every 17 years . . . and watch her die. And Luce is a fellow immortal, cursed to be reincarnated again and again as a mortal girl who has no idea of who she really is.

Ok, I'll be honest. The reason I read Fallen was because of the cover, it's just too cool to ignore. Well, you know what they say. "Never judge a book by it's cover."

It started out ok. I love Arianna and Penn, they are the reason I got through this evil book, Luce wasn't even that bad of a character. So what did I hate about this book? The storyline, and Daniel. I hated them both.

Don't read this book.

The Host

Title: The Host
Author: Stephenie Meyer
Pages: 619

'Melanie Stryder refuses to fade away. The earth has been invaded by a species that take over the minds of their human hosts while leaving their bodies intact, and most of humanity has succumbed.

Wanderer, the invading "soul" who has been given Melanie's body, knew about the challenges of living inside a human: the overwhelming emotions, the too vivid memories. But there was one difficulty Wanderer didn't expect: the former tenant of her body refusing to relinquish possession of her mind.

Melanie fills Wanderer's thoughts with visions of the man Melanie loves-Jared, a human who still lives in hiding. Unable to separate herself from her body's desires, Wanderer yearns for a man she's never met. As outside forces make Wanderer and Melanie unwilling allies, they set off to search for the man they both love.'

It has been described as "the first love triangle involving only two bodies"

I wasn't sure what to expect from The Host. I saw a book trailer for it on Youtube a year ago, and I thought it looked interesting, I just didn't read it until a few days ago.

What did I think of this book? Well, the first hundred pages are boring, that's for sure, but once you get past it the host is a really good book. The storyline was good. The caves were amazing, if aliens were invading the earth I would definitely want to have those caves nearby. The characters were interesting, my favorites were Uncle Jeb, Ian, and Jamie. And.... Drum roll please.....Stephenie Meyer actually wrote a romance novel that didn't make me cringe. YAY!!!

Side note: there are two blank pages in between page 594 and 599. The book does not end on 594, I promise. That would have made a terrible ending

All in all, it was a good book. And, great news, there is going to be a movie coming out sometime in the coming years. There are a lot of really great fan-made trailers on youtube, I thought I'd post my favorite here

Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring

Title: Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
Author: J.R.R. Tolkien
Pages: 398

After four weeks I have finally completed the first book in the LotR trilogy. yay me!!

I'm pretty sure most people already know what LotR is about, so I won't be posting the summery this time.

I remember the first time I saw the movie in theaters. It was not a pleasant experience, to say the least. I was seven years old, my mom was working that night and my sister and dad wanted to see the movie(they had no idea what it was about) so I decided to tag along. I spent almost the whole three hours in tears, and hiding my face beneath a jacket. I find it funny now that I'm old enough to watch, and enjoy, the movie.

When I read this book I was surprised to find just how different it was from the movie. You'd think because the movie was so long it would be fairly close to the book. Wrong. They left alot of stuff out in the movie(There was seventeen year between Bilbo's eleventy-first birthday and when Frodo left the Shire). And not only was the Story different from the movie, but the characters were different as well; especially Merry.

One of the thing's I love about the Fellowship of the Ring is the way it is written. It's written like a Fairy Tale; there aren't many books like that. On the other hand, the way it's written also makes it hard to relate to that characters.

It was enjoyable to book read, but you have to be a patient reader. Don't give up on it just because it is hard to get through.