Month: December 2015

Posted in Children Books

The Truth About Cinderella

Posted on by Little Bee

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The Truth About Cinderella, by Steven Goodwin, Narrated by Ian Barker

Goodreads Rating: 5 stars

Narrated Rating: 5 stars

 

I received this Audiobook in exchange from Audiobook Blast Dot Com by the author/publisher/narrator in exchange for my honest review.

The book lasts about 12 minutes. It is about Ella and her trickery.  No one was safe from Ella’s antics, including her sisters, the Prince, and Paul (another boy she fancied).  The sisters were trying to get even with Ella for all the problems she causes for them, but then they messed up and decided they really couldn’t kill their sister. In this story, the sisters are good and Ella is bad.

It was wonderfully narrated, and the rhyming was really fun. It was a very short book/quick listen.

Posted in YA Book Reviews

North Pole High: A Rebel Without a Claus

Posted on by Little Bee

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North Pole High: A Rebel Without a Claus by Candace Jane Kringle (aka Candycane Claus)

This story follows along Candycane Claus’ Junior year at North Pole High. Candy is one of the popular kids, dating the cutest guy, having the most powerful father, and being the one teen who is expected to have the utmost amount of Christmas cheer at ALL times.

But Candy is 16. She is going through changes. Her father, the head honcho, Santa Claus himself, should be able to handle his baby girl growing up right? Only those of us who live in the “inbetween” of the poles experience fathers who can’t accept their only baby girl dating boys right? Only the inbetweener fathers can be blinded by rage and misplaced judgment right? Nope!! Candycane Claus goes head to head with her father in this story of love, betrayal, and growing up.

Sometimes, the words that are used in the book to describe things are a bit much. Though, I do like the phrase “he is so hot chocolate” when describing the looks of the boys in the school. Other than that, it can sometimes be a little much.

I did enjoy this book, and I got a little teary at the end when Santa realized he was a jerk and almost ruined Christmas for EVERYONE in the world!

I don’t think I will give any more than that. If you decide to give it a look, be mindful that it is written from a “16 year old boy crazy” girl’s perspective and you have to place yourself in that mindset. It was the perfect Christmas love story for the holidays!

Posted in Book Reviews

The Girl On the Train

Posted on by Little Bee

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The Girl on the Train, by Paula Hawkins

Goodreads Rating: 3 stars 

 

Even though I have given this book a rating of 3 stars, for me, it is more of a 2.5.

I have been wanting to read this book for a while, however, I felt myself having to push through it. I almost quit reading it. The writing style is not my type. I couldn’t get into Gone Girl for very similar reasons.

I figured out who the killer was, even though the author tries to throw you off. I figured out what ailed Morgan to end up getting her killed. It was, to me, predictable…which is a big reason I stopped reading mysteries.

This book was very slow and very hard to get into. I know a lot of people have given it rave reviews, and maybe my review will get tossed to the side and ignored. However, I read this with a few friends and we all felt the same way.

I don’t want to give away any spoilers, but this is a story about a drunk who rides a train to a job she no longer has so her roommate doesn’t start to worry about rent. The train stops outside houses where drunk used to live. Every day said drunk sees one couple at their home (sometimes just the woman). Every day train goes by, and drunk creates a life for the people she sees at that happy home. Then one day, drunk sees something else. At first, I the reader, thought maybe she witnessed the attack, but no, that is not it. The drunk also has many black out episodes, and she struggles hard with sobriety trying to figure out what exactly she saw during her last blackout. Did the drunk see something on the day that Morgan went missing and was killed? Will people believe her? Who do you think did it? The husband? An ex? The therapist? Some other random person in her life? Can you figure out who it was?

My least favorite character was Anna, the new wife of the ex-husband of the drunk. Rachel (the drunk) and Anna were at odds. The man in question, Tom, cheated on Rachel with Anna during the marriage and then Anna got pregnant, Tom divorced Rachel, and moved Anna in and got married rather quickly. Rachel tried stealing their baby once. She will call in her blackout states, email, etc. Struggling to hold on, struggling to let it go. Anna and Tom live on the same block as Megan, the girl who ultimately goes missing.

You will have to give it a try for yourself to see if it is enjoyable. If this is your kind of writing style, then there should be no problem. But if you need some excitement, through the whole story, and not just the last 50ish pages, then this book may miss it’s mark completely.

Posted in Middle Grade

The Shrunken Head

Posted on by Little Bee

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The Shrunken Head by Lauren Oliver, a Curiosity House Novel

  • Overall Rating:  3.91 Stars
  • Goodreads Rating: 4 Stars

 

Rating Breakdown:

  • Originality: 5
  • Character Development: 4
  • Plot: 4

Genre based ratings:

  • Middle Grade: 3
  • Fantasy: 3.5
  • Mystery: 4

 

The Curiosity House is a new series created by Lauren Oliver. It is set as a middle grade adventure, however, with the amount of death in the book, I am not sure middle grade is appropriate. It was still a good book.

The first installment of this series is surrounding a Shrunken Head, in which on the first night of the Curiosity’s show the Head was shown to the public, someone in the audience died later that evening. The Curse of The Shrunken Head spread in the news like wildfire shortly after. Suddenly, there are a multitude of mysterious deaths, which all get linked to the Head.

The police catch wind of the deaths rather quickly and are convinced it is murder, and attempt to figure out who the murderer is. The police are quick to accuse of Mr. Dumfrey of murder since he was the original owner of the Head and it went missing.

I believe, that though the 4 main characters were interesting, I felt that more could have been explained on who they are. You find out towards the end how they each ended up at the Curiosity House as a “sideshow” (pretty much). The story is told from each of the kids’ perspectives, however, you don’t always know who’s perspective you are reading right away

During the story, some of the characters had growth: Sam and Thomas mainly. Phillipa seemed more sure of herself at the beginning, but regressed through the book. Max remained the same “hardened” child through the whole story. I am hoping she starts to “break” in the next installment.

For originality, I gave this book a 5. I have not read many books that are based in Curiosity Houses (freak shows so to speak), so this was a good start. The story keeps you captivated, and can easily be read in 1 day. The fluidity of the story is so smooth, as a reader, it is easy to get through the story fast.
As previously mentioned, as a middle grade, there is a lot of death, but nothing too scary or inappropriate. The book had more mystery than fantasy as there was only 1 or 2 scenes for the Side Show, and the story as a whole is mainly surrounded by the children trying to solve the murders and save their Mr. Dumfrey. The children have a lot of adversaries, but tend to excel in whatever is thrown their way.

Posted in YA Book Reviews

Winter

Posted on by Little Bee

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Winter by Marissa Meyer, Narrated by Rebecca Soler

Goodreads Rating: 5 stars

Narrator: 5 stars

 

I will keep this review short and sweet, primarily because it was so long of a book and I don’t want to spoil anything for anyone who has not finished the series or even begun.

So here we are, to the very end of the series. It has been a great journey, and I have truly enjoyed everything about this series.

In this installment, the main characters are mainly apart doing their own things for the greater good of the overall mission, reinstating Cinder as the rightful queen of Luna.

My only qualm with Winter is that it was longer than necessary. There were parts you would think would be the climax, but then it would just keep on going. The audiobook was 23 hours long. The book itself well over 800 pages. I believe, overall, the series ended exactly the way that it needed to, I just felt there was a lot of extra going on that could either have made another book or not been in the story in the first place.

The narrator, Rebecca Soler, is amazing. She is so good, sometimes it sounds like there is a different person narrating each character. I really like that about a narrator which is why she received 5 stars. Cinder was among the first Audiobooks I ever listened to, and Soler made it truly wonderful and elevated the overall story to a higher level.

Posted in Book Reviews

Nice Girls Don’t Date Dead Men

Posted on by Little Bee

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Nice Girls Don’t Date Dead Men written by Molly Harper, Narrated by Amanda Ronconi

Goodreads Rating: 3 stars

Narrator Rating: 5 stars

 

This is book 2 in the Jane Jameson series. I read the first one in 2014, and enjoyed it immensely. I got my mom hooked on this series and pretty much every series written by Molly Harper and she has listened to every single audiobook out there in existence of Molly Harper’s.

I was a little disappointed with this book. I felt there was so much action and drama to get through, this book just kind of fell flat for me. I felt there was too much back and forth drama between Jane and Gabriel that was annoying and I would have given up on a LONG time ago. I felt what was going on with Zeb could have had a bigger impact or plot thickener than what it was.

I was also a bit turned off by Jane’s family and am HOPING this changes. I also felt it was unjust that the Grandma felt the way she did about Jane…but in light of the discoveries Jane made…Grandma wasn’t upset or dissuaded with her own life possibly on the fringe of ending. For most of the story being based on Jolene, I felt like there is still more to know about the family and I wished it would have gotten into it on a deeper level.

Amanda Ronconi is a great narrator and delivered again in the sequel to Nice Girls Don’t Have Fangs. I am looking forward to making my way through the rest of this series and I hope that the unanswered questions left dangling in this book, will be answered soon!

Posted in Book Reviews

Daring

Posted on by Little Bee

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Daring by Elliott James

Goodreads Rating: 5 stars

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I want to first start by saying, I LOVE this series. This is the second book in the Pax Arcana series by Elliott James. For a sci-fi/fantasy/paranormal series, it is probably one of the single most entertaining reads I have read in a while. You can check out the review for Charming here: Charmed, I’m Sure

Unlike in Charming, the Knights Templar have a bigger role. You meet more Knights, including the very head honcho who puts John Charming up to an ultimatum: his life, and his friends’ lives be spared, if he infiltrated a wolf pack, and brought a human/knights killer to justice. And by justice…he means death.

Be prepared for just as much wit, fighting, betrayal, and humor as the first book. If you make time for the books, they are pretty quick reads due to their humor and story flow. There is not a lot of stalling in the story, and everything progresses at a normal, expected speed, with not really any filler or bits of information that if removed from the story, would not have altered it. Everything part in this story was necessary for story to progress appropriately.

And like the first book, I still picture that hunk John Charming being played in my head by Joe Manganiello! mmmm mmm mm!

Posted in Book Reviews

Ready Player One

Posted on by Little Bee

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Ready Player One by Ernest Cline, Narrated by Will Wheaton

Goodreads rating: 4 stars

Narrator: 4 stars

 

My boyfriend and I listened to this book together on the way to Mississippi from good Ol West Texas during the Thanksgiving holiday. It is not typically a book I would read, or be interested in, (Between what he had said about the book and others who have heard about it, I did ultimately put it on my TBR list for a later date,) but my boyfriend had been wanting to listen to it (he is not big on any books really), so I decided to listen with him.

I want to admit, the entire time I was listening, I kept thinking about Sheldon Cooper and Will Wheaton’s issues on Big Bang Theory.

This book, in case you didn’t already know, is about video games. And not just any video game, but a video game that pretty much took over Real Life. There were actual jobs that people could get in the Oasis video game, and when the work day was over, they simply left the simulation. When the game’s creator died, he left a challenge for the players, a way to inherit EVERYTHING he owned. This story was about the Main Character, Wade Watts’ journey through the game to his ultimate winning of the game (no this is not a spoiler, he even talks about it in the beginning of the book).

Even though I knew Watts would win, I found myself anxious in some parts because it just didn’t seem probable for him to win. Watts had everything going against him. Including multiple near death experiences.

I can’t really compare this book to anything else I have ever read, because I haven’t read anything quite like it. I enjoy Science Fiction/Dystopian novels from time to time, most are usually overplayed, but this one is completely different. I liked that it is a gamer’s dystopian and not just the normal run of the mill rundown country that destroyed itself. Yes, the world in 2045 is not the same we know today, but it is still functioning in some capacity. I am not much into video games, but I probably would have gotten into this hoopla found in Oasis. Sounds like my kind of game!

I don’t want to go much further into a review, one, I really don’t feel like I am capable of giving away much more than what I have due to possible spoilers; two, because I have never read this kind of book before, I am not sure how to address my feelings of the overall book. I enjoyed the book. I feel it deserves the rating provide by myself, but also the overall rating it has on Goodreads as well. I think Wheaton did a great job narrating it, made it worthwhile. I have been on the fence about another book Wheaton narrated, but now that I have heard his skills, I will give other books narrated by him a try.

Ultimately, it comes down to this. I enjoyed listening to this book with my boyfriend while we made the 30 hour round trip drive. It combined both of our loves, my love of reading, and his love of video games. It was something we could do together and talk about.

Posted in YA Book Reviews

The Naturals

Posted on by Little Bee

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The Naturals by Jennifer Lynn Barnes

Narrated by Amber Faith

 

  • Overall Rating: 3.78 Stars
  • Goodreads Rating: 4 stars
  • Narration: 4 stars

 

Rating Breakdown:

  • Originality: 4 stars
  • Character Development: 4.5 stars
  • Plot: 3.5 stars

Genre based ratings:

  • Young Adult: 3.5 stars
  • Mystery: 4 stars
  • Romance: 3 stars

This is a series by Jennifer Lynn Barnes about a group of teens that have special skill sets that are used by the FBI in a special group to help solve closed cases. Cassie is really good at reading people in ways that the average person cannot do. Cassie takes ‘profiling’ to a different level and the FBI are intent on honing her skills and making her stronger. She was offered the opportunity to come aboard this group of misfits, which she accepted (or we would not be having this book or review).

When Cassie was younger her mother was brutally murdered. The FBI  never found the body, nor the killer. Cassie accepted this offer for this elite group of teens in hopes that she would be able to see her mother’s file and finally have some closure. Not long after Cassie joins this ragtag bunch of teens, murders start popping up, murders similar to her mother’s. Cassie goes off kilter and trying to solve these murders in hopes that she can ultimately find her mother’s killer. Along the way, she attempts to get a feel for who she can trust, and who she should steer clear of, but, are her intuitions correct? Or is her feelings regarding her mother’s death clouding her ability to read what is going on? Dun dun duuuun!

So why did I only give the plot 3.5 stars? While I feel the book, overall, was a pretty decent story, I feel that it could have been further developed. I believe the relationships between the teens and FBI agents could have been more developed in their relation and how they fit into the story overall.  I also feel that the plot twist, though a FANTASTIC one that I did not see coming, could have been further developed to deliver a more meaningful punch to the story to have a more significant WOW factor and impact.

I gave the Character development 4.5 stars and while it may conflict with what I wrote a paragraph ago, I want to point out, that the character sketches for those in this story are spot on. Each character has their own personality, their own issues, that make them fit with the rest of the group and into the story. I feel that some characters needed more interactions in the story’s overall plot development. It felt like some characters were left out, and it primarily focused on Cassie, Michael, and Dean.  I am hoping to see more of Lia and Sloanne in the next book as they were funny, lively, and made each scene they were in, unique.

I gave this book 4 stars for originality, 3.5 for its categorization of Young Adult, 4 for mystery, and 3 for romance. Here is why, I do believe this to be an original storyline. I stopped reading mysteries a long time ago because I felt they were all done multiple times over and I could figure most of them out. This story was very unique, and I didn’t see the plot twist coming (which is why it received a 4 star for mystery). I am not sure why the subcategory includes romance. Cassie kissed Michael, secretly crushed on Dean, but there was not much more than that. Maybe in the next installment, Barnes will dive into the relationship a bit more.

Narrated by Amber Faith, this book was elevated to a more enjoyable level. Let me reiterate, though I love reading actual copies of books, every now and then, a narrator brings the book to a higher level of enjoyment. Faith did just that. However, her best narration was Cassie, the main character. I did enjoy the voices for her other characters, but I am sure as the characters develop in the story, the narration will as well.

Posted in YA Book Reviews

Red Rising

Posted on by Little Bee

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Red Rising by Pierce Brown

Overall Rating: 4.5 stars

Goodreads Rating:  5 Stars

 

Rating Breakdown:

  • Originality:  4
  • Character Development:  5
  • Plot: 4.5

Genre based ratings:

  • Young Adult: 4.5
  • Science Fiction: 4.5
  • Dystopia: 4.5

 

This book has been on my To Reads list for a long time, so I finally ordered myself a copy from Amazon and gave it a go. This book is a quick read.

Darrow was a young driller in the depths of Mars. He was married young, as is most of the society. Then one day, his wife is killed (not a spoiler). This made him angry and he did something that would also cause him to be hanged, only it didn’t work. He was altered by the Sons of Mars into a member of the Gold Society. He went into a special schooling that determines where a Gold fits into society. He is expected by the Sons of Mars to excel and “weasel” his way into the Gold Society in order for the Sons of Mars to come in and cause mass chaos and destruction.
It will be interesting to see how this manifests through the series…I have some inklings about what will happen based on some instances in the book, but you never know I suppose…

In regards to character and character growth, I gave this book 4.5 stars. Darrow was very annoying for me at first, however, I believe he had significant growth during the book. He was very cocky and arrogant for the better part of the story, up until the last few chapters. I found I enjoyed him more overall after he was knocked down a few pegs. (I wont go into more due to spoilers)

I had hope for a lot of the characters in the story, but some of them really turned into villains, so I am looking forward to reading more about them in the series. My hope is that, there is more character development and less of the arrogant ass behavior exhibited by various characters. I felt that Brown really villanized characters who would be a potential alley and I am hoping for some more growth in that area of story and plot development as the time goes on. 

In regards to originality, I give this book 4 stars. I think the concept is great, however, seen before, in different formats. Oppressed sector of Mars, lower levels are abused and kept out of the know of what is really going on, one person chosen as the one to bring the system down…catch my drift? Even if it has been used before, it is still a worthwhile and enjoyable read. There is a lot of blood and death in the book, so keep that in mind in the event that is not your thing.