Review: A Kiss In Time by Alex Flinn

A Kiss In Time, by Alex Flinn, is a story about a girl named Talia and a boy named Jack. Jack is pretty normal by teenage boy standards, but Talia...

She's a princess from the 1700s.

Cursed by the evil witch Maldovia to prick her finger on a spindle before her 16th birthday and sleep until true love's kiss awakes her, Talia wakes up in the 21st century with Jack hovering over her.

"I couldn't help kissing her. Sometimes you just have to kiss someone. I didn't know this would happen."

I picked up A Kiss In Time at the library because the title caught my eye. Of course, my best friend (and kindred spirit) happened to be reading it at the same time. I think my subconcious saw it at her house and made me grab it at the library. Either way, A Kiss In Time was nothing short of AMAZING!

The concept is not only interesting, but very funny. Sheltered Princess Talia waking up in the 21st century. She actually takes more of a shock to the culture rather then the technology. Sure, busses are faster then the fastest carriage, but when Jack's ex-girlfriend yells at her over the phone, Talia thinks: "And strangely enough, she calls me a female dog." She is absolutely horrified about the way girls dress, and Jack is smart enough to take her to a modern 'party'. Talk about culture shock.

I loved it because Talia was far from perfect. She never shyed about how beautiful she is (maybe it's a princess thing?) and she acted... well, like a princess. Jack was also pretty awesome. Of course, he was a teenage boy, so he did do some stupid things. But he made up for them. They were both lovable as characters and I liked how it alternated points of view so that I could really get inside each of their heads. Plus, I loved how they fell in love.

I mean, spoilery aside, I really enjoyed the romance. It didn't make me want to gag myself with a spoon (and trust me, some books do). They fell in love at a pace teenagers would. Not like, a dark whirlwind of passion and darkness. I loved how when Talia got excited over something, Jack thought, "She's so cute. I wonder what it would be like to kiss her again." It seems more realistic.

Another reason, I think, why I was able to enjoy the romance of the book more was because it wasn't just about Talia and Jack's love. Jack had issues with his dad... and for some reason, watching him grow and having Talia help just made me so happy! It's the classic dad-wants-son-to-take-over-business situation, and Jack doesn't want to. In fact, he REALLY doesn't want to. And it's both funny and fascinating how diplomatic Talia is about everything. She's truly a princess.

I don't want to spoil the ending, but I LOVELOVELOVED the ending. It was nothing short of perfect (: So, I give this book 5/5 men swimming in bacon. Go read it!
EDIT: Blogger is being funky about letting me put in my little bacon swimmers. Apologies (:

Cover Spotlight: Wish

I was at the library yesterday, and this book cover caught my eye:

Isn't it just GORGEOUS? The book is about a magic dress, hence the sparkles... but I honestly ADORE the cover. I thought I might share. I didn't actually pick up the book (I had six in my arms already, and figured that was enough) but have you read it? It's lovely.

Books of Bayern: The Goose Girl

The newest cover (:

I'm spotlighting the Books of Bayern this month! The first book, the book that started it all, the Big Daddy (okay, maybe notsomuch the Big Daddy...) THE GOOSE GIRL! *insert children cheering here*

The Goose Girl is, as I said in my original post about the Books of Bayern, the story of Ani (who changes her name to Isi) who was the princess of Kilindree but was sent to marry a prince, then betrayed by her close friend and lady-in-waiting. She then had to disguise herself as a goose girl--tending to the palace geese--to save her own life.

Goose Girl is actually based off the Grimm fairy tale of the same name. If you're planning on reading it (WHICH YOU VERY WELL SHOULD) then you shouldn't look it up... it kinda spoils the ending (: Shannon Hale has taken a fantastic tale and woven it into the land of Bayern... a place so believable and cultured that I'd love to live there. Actually, I'd like to live in Tira... but that's in River Secrets and I'll get to that later.

This books is one of my favorite books for a couple of reasons. Isi (although in this book she goes by Ani, but she's Isi to me) is amazing. And she's blonde. I just have this thing about strong female heroines never being blonde. Is that just me? It probably is. But I adore Isi! And the way Shannon Hale writes... the language is GORGEOUS. It's positively WHIMSICAL. I could go on forever about how fantastic the way she writes is. It's a certain style that totally fits the fairy tale feel. The book is most definitely a fairy tale.

The original cover (my copy)

I also love how Shannon Hale mixes magic into the story. The interesting thing about how she did it is that it's not flat-out magic--it's more subtle magic. Basically, it's learning the language of things. I'm not sure how to explain it, but the first book focuses on how Isi learns to communicate with the wind. It helps her out many, many times but in the later books it becomes a problem... but more on that later.

This book also has one of my favorite love stories. I can't give away too much, I don't want to spoil it, but I seriously loved watching the love interests develop. I had my own guess the entire time as to who he was and such, and I actually squealed out loud at the end when there was a revelation about a certain character... it makes me giggle even thinking about it (: (: (: 

Although it's a relatively calm story, there is action and drama. Lots and lots of drama. Ooh, Selia, OOOH. She's one of those people who you just want to punch in the face. You have NO IDEA. OOOOOOH. That's all I'm going to say. I mean, she's such a horrid, nasty... well, I think I'm done. But honestly? I can't put into words how fantastic this book is! SO GO READ IT!

Paranormalcy Giveaway!

If you follow me on Twitter (WHICH YOU SHOULD!) (Kidding.) (Sorta.) you know that I'm really excited for Paranormalcy by Kiersten White to come out! And this snazzy site (which you should also subscribe to) is giving away Paranormalcy!

http://madeleinerex.com/2010/08/12/paranormalcy-pre-order-giveaway/

So... go get 'em, tiger!

LIBRARY HAUL! AKA - I'm going to FAIL summer reading.

So my mom took me to the library today to get the summer reading books. Of course, I'm a dundle-head and I took AP English so I have to read two books assigned by the school. But when my mom dropped me off (GAWSH I wish I had a car) I soon found out---my local library had EVERY SINGLE option for summer reading checked out! So I had to buy them cheap on amazon. *le sigh* Oh well. But on the plus side, after I found all of them gone, I picked up five books to read!

Stardust by Neil Gaiman - I'm sure everyone has seen the movie, and the book is probably better. I love the movie, so... I'm excited to read this.
Prada and Prejudice by Mandy Hubbard - I wanted to read this after seeing a review about it from someone else's blog... It took me 4.5 years to find, but I did :)
A Kiss in Time by Alex Flinn - The title caught my eye, and just now I realized it's by Alex Flinn... OHMYGOSH I loved Beastly! How did I not realize it was her? Silly, silly me. Now I'm even more excited to read it.
Anne of Green Gables by Lucy Maud Montgomery - I loved the movies, and Anne is my favorite person EVER. So... I have to read the book.
The Season by Sarah MacLean - My best friend LOVES this book and has been BEGGING me to read it, and I was so lucky to get it :)

That's it! :) Now I'm going to pass out on my bed because I'm so tired...

Review: Fairy Tale by Cyn Balog

Pip knows everything about fairies. Fairy thoughts. Fairy dreams. Fairy motivations. 

Fairy weaknesses.

And he doesn't know it yet, but he's going to tell me them all. He's going to help me find a way to save Cam.

Fairy Tale, by Cyn Balog, is a book about a girl named Morgan and her best friend (who is also her super hot boyfriend) Cameron. Morgan is a self-proclaimed psychic--her visions always come true. Cameron is the all around great guy, captain of the football team, and general hunk. They've been eating paste together since they were five, and now they're both fast approaching their sixteenth birthday. Morgan has been planning a joint sweet sixteen, and it's going to be perfect. That is, until a strange boy named Pip shows up with a feisty fairy named Dawn--whom Cameron happens to be engaged to. Say what? Dawn has come to take Cameron back to the fairy world--Otherworld--to become King. Morgan won't let that happen. She'll fight to keep Cam with her at any cost, believing that's the way it's meant to be. But could Morgan possibly be wrong?

I started reading Fairy Tale three weeks ago, but accidentally left it in a friend's car. Not only was that bad because it was a library book, but it was bad because I wanted to keep reading it. I randomly thought about it throughout the day, thinking about the situation and the characters. Just randomly, I started thinking of this book. It was to the point where I NEEDED to get it back. So when I finally did, I finished it easily throughout the day. I loved it!

It's not too bad of a length (248 pages) and it's relaxing to read. Not really a beach book, but more of a 'lounge-in-bed-for-hours-and-forget-to-feed-the-cat' kind of book. Morgan, the narrator, is enjoyable. She's so completely a teenage girl--she worries, she cries, she laughs, and I found it easy to connect. One of my favorite things about the book was Morgan's tendency to use comparison to describe things. For instance, as she's trying to sneak into her math class (where the teacher doesn't like her):

"The entire class was staring at me. [Mr.] Tanner's look could melt faces a la the last scene in Raiders of the Lost Ark, which is just perfect. I bet I could be Master of Pi from here on out and he'd still want to murder me."

She's a thoroughly entertaining narrator, and as she gets more stressed and emotional near the end of the book, I felt it too. I also like how the story was told in present tense. It gave more of a sense of, "I don't know where this is going to end, or how she's going to fix things." Because anything could happen.

This is the first book in a while that I've read that hasn't been part of a series, so the pacing was hard to get used to. One thing that Cyn Balog did that I really liked was end every chapter with a foreboding one-liner. I really liked it. Character-wise, I absolutely loved Morgan. I adored Cam. For some reason, Pip was hard to get used to. I think maybe because Morgan was resisting him so much, I was too. And I don't like his name haha. (This isn't the first time an awesome character has gotten a not-so-awesome name. In Kristin Cashore's novel Graceling, Po was AMAZING... I just couldn't stand his name). Pip WAS great, though. Watching the relationships between the characters change was certainly an interesting process.

All in all, I give this book 4/5 men swimming in bacon. I definitely recommend it!

With love, From Chelsea (:

Series Spotlight: Books of Bayern by Shannon Hale

She was born Anidori-Kiladra Talianna Isilee, Crown Princess of Kildenree, and she did not open her eyes for three days.

“She was born with her eyes closed and a word on her tongue, a word she could not taste. Her name was Anidori-Kiladra Talianna Isilee, Crown Princess of Kildenree, and she spent the first years of her life listening to her aunt’s stories and learning the language of the birds, especially the swans. And when she was older, she watched as a colt was born, and she heard the first word on his tongue, his name, Falada. From the Grimm’s fairy tale of the princess who became a goose girl before she could become queen, Shannon Hale has woven an incredible, original, and magical tale of a girl who must find her own unusual talents before she can lead the people she has made her own.”

The Goose Girl has to be one of my favorite books of all time. It’s right up there, next to Harry Potter. Yeah. It’s huge. There’s a funny thing about this series, the Books of Bayern… they’re just completely amazing! On a more personal note, imagine my surprise when I moved into a new neighborhood… right down the street from Shannon Hale, the author? Yeah, it was pretty amazing. I’ve met Hale on more then one occasion, and she’s such a sweetheart. And did I mention I love her books?

That’s why this week, they’re being spotlighted.

There are four books in all. The Goose Girl, Enna Burning, River Secrets, and Forest Born. Goose Girl follows the story of Ani (who changes her name to Isi, and it sticks through the rest of the series) and her journey. During The Goose Girl, you meet Enna.

“Enna’s life was not meant to be simple. When her brother, Leifer, brings home a mysterious piece of vellum that teaches him how to set fires — without a spark, without flint — Enna cannot decide if this power is one she wants for herself, or something that should be extinguished forever.

And when Bayern, their country, goes to war, the choice becomes nearly unbearable. Enna never imagined that the warm, life-giving energy of a fire could destroy everything she loves, but she must now save herself and Bayern before fire consumes her entirely.”

Enna is amazing, and it’s rare that I like a sequel better then I liked the first book, but somehow, it happened with Enna Burning. It’s interesting… well, I’ll save that for when I blog the individual book (:

The third book, River Secrets, follows Razo, another character you meet. Razo is one of my favorite characters ever. The whole entire book, I just want to squee and give him a hug. I have absolutely convinced myself that if Razo was real, him and I would be biffels (that means best friends… forever!)

“Razo–short, funny and not a great soldier–is sure it’s out of pity that his captain asks him to join an elite mission–escorting the ambassador into Tira, Bayern’s great enemy.

But when the Bayern arrive in the strange southern country, it’s Razo who discovers the first dead body. He’s the only Bayern able to befriend both the high and low born, people who can provide information about the ever-increasing murders. And he’s the one who must embrace his own talents in order to get the Bayern soldiers home again, alive.”

River Secrets was witty. And awesome.

The most recent (though I don’t think it’s the last, Hale has said: “I’ll never say never again when it comes to Bayern, but I am not currently writing one.”) book in the Bayern series is Forest Born, following the tale of Razo’s little sister. She’s not little, she’s in her teens… but still younger then Razo. Forest Born is most definitely darker then the previous books, but amazing just the same.

"Rin is sure that something is wrong with her…something really bad. Something that is keeping her from feeling at home in the Forest homestead where she’s lived all her life. Something that is keeping her from trusting herself with anyone at all. When her brother Razo returns from the city for a visit, she accompanies him to the palace, hoping that she can find peace away from home. But war has come to Bayern again, and Rin is compelled to join the queen and her closest allies–magical girls Rin thinks of as the Fire Sisters–as they venture into the Forest toward Kel, the land where someone seems to want them all dead. Many beloved Bayern characters reappear in this story, but it is Rin’s own journey of discovering how to balance the good and the bad in herself that drives this compelling adventure."

That’s it for the four Bayern books, and once a week till the end of this month, I’m going to do a blog/review for each of the books, in order. Have you read Shannon Hale’s books? She’s also written another one of my favorite books, Princess Academy, which is signed. Her website is:http://www.squeetus.com/

Adieu! -Chelsea

Saturday Spotlight Sblog

It’s SATURDAY! So it’s time to SPOTLIGHT a SBLOG! (the ‘s’ is so that it all matches. See? SEE? I call it letmatching!)

Since it’s my first Saturday Spotlight Sblog, I’m spotlighting TWO blogs! Caching!

Our first one is not just a blog, but a website as well.

http://www.myhungergames.com/ – a BRILLIANT Hunger Games fansite. They’ve got a bunch of stuff, like fanart, forums, and news! Hunger Games is all the rage at the moment with Mockingjay a mere 16 days away. Checkemout! They’re awesome 

http://thesecretadventuresofwritergirl.blogspot.com/ – This girl is snazzy, brilliant, and hilarious. Guaranteed to make you laugh out loud with her lyrical way of writing. She’s brilliant!

And so, with two new entertaining blogs to look at, this concludes Saturday Spotlight Sblog! Until next week!

*insert cheesy theme music here*

Review: Poison Study by Maria V Snyder

My mom convinced me to read this book, and I finally did after putting it off for a long time. Boy, was I missing out!

Choose: A quick death . . . or slow poison . . .
About to be executed for murder, Yelena is offered an extraordinary reprieve.
She'll eat the best meals, have rooms in the palace -- and risk assassination by anyone trying to kill the Commander of Ixia.
As Yelena tries to escape her new dilemma, disasters keep mounting.
Rebels plot to seize Ixia and Yelena develops magical powers she can't control.
Her life is threatened again and choices must be made. But this time the outcomes aren't so clear . . .

Poison Study by Maria V Snyder (which happens to be a really awesome name) is the first in a five book series, theStudy series. It follows Yelena, who is supposed to be executed for murder... and she's only seventeen. This book takes place in the alternate universe of Ixia. In the military of the north, it's set strictly. In the south, that's where the military hasn't set in.

Poison Study was absolutely amazing! It was thrilling, and Yelena is one of the strongest characters I've ever read. At first, I was thinking along the lines of "Um... this girl killed someone?" but as the story progresses and it ties together, I become amazed at how strong she is and the things she had to go through. So on my list of Favorite Fictional Characters, Yelena is VERY high up.

Another thing I loved about this book, other then the language (the way Snyder described everything totally pulled me in) was the romance. We're all secretly suckers for romance. Although it sounds strange, Yelena and (insert love interest's name here) had AMAZING chemistry. Sorry, trying to keep this as spoiler free as I can :)

All in all...

4 & 1/2 out of 5 men swimming in bacon.

Amazing book!

Now, any requests for books for me to review? That reminds me... I have three overdue library books. Snap.

Transferring Blogs, much?

Okay. I did it. I transferred blogs.

I really hope I don't regret this.

But it's just easier to keep track of everyone that I follow. Besides, Blogger seems like the prime choice. And I like the interface a lot :) It's very customisable. Right now it's boring, but my blog WILL EXPLODE with awesomeness. I have a ton to do tomorrow... but it will eventually.

I am leaving my wordpress blog up, but it won't be posted on anymore. I'm also transferring, by hand, all my posts to this blog.

*insert unenthusiastic cheer here*

Luckily, there's only nine.

Looove, Chelsea