Review and Apology

You know, February sucks. It's too short, and I always forget my entire life during it. I get sidetracked by the smallest things (SHINY!!).

And also, it really took me like, a week, to remember my password to the email linked to this blog. I fail. Bigtime. So. Here's a review!!

Title: Where I Belong

Author: Gwendolyn Heasley

Copyright date: February 8th, 2011
Publisher: Harper Teen
How many pages: n/a (read on Kindle)
How long it took me to read: 3 days
Category: Fiction
I learned about this book from: Debut Author Challenge!

This book was purchased at: Amazon.com (Kindle site)
This book is: a fish out of water kind of book

Other books by this authors: n/a.
Favorite characters: Corrine, I guess?
When and Where the story takes place: New York City and Texas, present time

Plot in a nutshell: Because of the recession, Corrine's family becomes 'poor' and she moves to Broken Spoke Texas to stay with her grandparents until things settle.
Main characters: Corrine mostly.
What I liked best: It was cliche without being too cliche.
What I liked least: It's hard to make a very annoying non-love interest into a love interest. I'm already really not liking said guy (no names to avoid spoilers) so why does he have to get together with the main character? Because that's how the cliche goes? Also, Corrine really was a bit of a brat.

Overall rating: It was an okay read. It felt a bit disjointed at times, and Corrine's changeover from NYC bitch to okay with her surroundings was believable in that she didn't completely change. But at the same time, it seemed to happen way too fast. And I couldn't stand her 'best friend' Waverly.  

Title: Other Words for Love
Author: Lorraine Zago Rosenthal
Copyright date: January 2011
Publisher: Delacorte Books for Young Readers
How many pages: n/a (read on Kindle)
How long it took me to read: 3 days
Category: Fiction
I learned about this book from: Debut Author Challenge!

This book was purchased at: Amazon.com (Kindle site)
This book is: a kind of coming of age, set in the 80s
Other books by this authors: n/a.
Favorite characters: Ari, Leigh
When and Where the story takes place: New York City, 1980s
Plot in a nutshell: Ari finds herself at a new school, with a new friend, and dealing with her life at home.
Main characters: Ari, Leigh, Summer, Evelyn.
What I liked best: It was nothing like I expected. I'd read two reviews and a plot summary, and they still didn't really do the book justice.
What I liked least: Evelyn was a hateful, selfish bitch of a sister, and everyone seemed to cater to her. She drove me nuts, and she just... ugh. I didn't want to read about her and I was hoping that, when you read that Ari has a crush on Evelyn's husband (no spoiler there, you know by the first chapter) that she sleeps with him and successfully takes him away from that whiny brat.

Overall rating: I really liked this story, but it wasn't what I thought it would be. I thought it was a drama about a girl falling in love with the wrong guy. Then I read another review and thought it was about a girl dealing with AIDs in the 80s. It wasn't that either. I'm going to give it an A because it stood up to what I wanted even though it wasn't anything anyone said it would be. That said, it did drag in parts, and sometimes I just got SO ANGRY with the other characters.

Review: Jane by April Lindner

Title: Jane
Author: April Lindner
Copyright date: October 2010
Publisher: Poppy
How many pages: n/a (read on Kindle)
How long it took me to read: 3 days
Category: Fiction
I learned about this book from: I think I heard about it on The Story Siren.

This book was purchased at: Amazon.com (Kindle site) / Christmas gift!
This book is: a modern retelling of Jane Eyre
Other books by this authors: n/a.
Favorite characters: Jane (obviously)
When and Where the story takes place: Nico Rathburn's home, Thornfield Park
Plot in a nutshell: Jane Moore, having dropped out from school after her parents' death, gets a job as a nanny for rock star Nico Rathburn's daughter.
Main characters: Jane, Nico.
What I liked best: I vaguely knew the story of the original Jane Eyre, so reading this was only a slight surprise to me. Jane was an awesome character to read about, and I didn't feel forced into reading about her feelings for Nico.
What I liked least: The problem with knowing what happens is the fact that I hated waiting for it to happen. I knew what happened at the end, but why did she have to futz around in the middle of nowhere Connecticut after leaving Thornfield Park? Maybe I'm just a hopeless romantic.

Overall rating: I really liked this story. Perhaps it's a test as to see whether or not I'm the type to read the original classic, or the remakes. Like the difference between Shakespeare retellings. Yet I loved reading Sense and Sensibility? I guess it just depends on the story itself? I give it an A.