Ireland Rose

What a nice story this turned out to be. I got for free on my Kindle and sometimes those free books can be...well for lack of a better word AWFUL. But they are free and worth trying.

By the end of this book I wasn't madly in love with it, but I didn't hate the fact that I spent my time reading it either. I wanted to know what happened to the characters in the book and although I could predict who fell in love with who I wanted to know how and when that all took place.

Ireland Rose is a young teenage girl in the late 1800's her parents decide they want to return to their beloved homeland (Ireland) to die. But they want their daughter to remain in America to live a better life (interesting right?). So they ask a wealthy man who owed them a favor to marry their young daughter. This is where to story starts.

The poor girl has everything she could ever want, except to be in love. Over time her husband dies, she falls in love with serving in an orphanage, and a young pregnant girl enters her care leaving her with a baby that carries a HUGE secret as well. Oh the drama. I kind of felt like the author (I really enjoyed her style of writing) got tired at the end of the story and just ended it quickly. It felt like BAM it was over.

It is a sweet story and 100% clean which is refreshing. Although I am a little on the mediocre side of things I will look for other books by this author and read them (if they are free or in the library).

Grade: C+

Water for Elephants

I have already returned this book and for some reason once I do that I feel like I have lost the ability to right a good review. Weird. I think it is because I like to check to make sure my facts are right and things are in order.

This was a terrific story. It starts off with an elderly man in an assisted living home. His body is well on it's way to not working very well but his mind is still pretty sharp...until recently he seems to be forgetting things and slipping into the past.

The circus has come to town and has set up across the street from the old folks home and this sends (oh shoot I forgot the main characters name...see I need the book) into the past and thus the story unfolds about his time in the circus. It is such an interesting story to read about. I know nothing about the circus of those days and about the era that this takes place in (the depression). More than once I had to force myself to STOP reading since Ryan had fallen asleep and if I didn't go to bed I wouldn't be able to get up with him in a few hours.

It is interesting that I have this fantasy that people in this time were all very virtuous and chaste and lovely. Men were gentlemen and women were ladies. And I am always disappointed when I learn that just like today there are some real losers among the gentlemen and ladies. It is the same with this story. There are some people who are crude, rude and vulgar. As a result there are some foul words (some bombs) and some sexual scenes. Awful I know. They are mostly in the first half and they have little to do with the story. So if you think one of those nasty scenes has started skip to the next page and know you didn't miss anything important.

It is a great story. I think I will watch the movie...at some point in the future although I am a little nervous to watch something with Robert Patteson (the vampire guy). We will see.

GRADE: B (for language and those scenes).

Feeling Oh So Good!

Tonight I have been playing around on the Internet...spending time on Facebook, looking around Pinterest, hoping that someone wrote me an email (which I kind of think is a lost art like letter writing). Guess what? I actually had a few emails...most of them were junk mail but ONE was from blogger notifying me that someone actually left a comment on my blog.

NO ONE EVER DOES...you people who look at this really should...it would boost my self-esteem greatly.

So who left this greatly appreciated comment? None other than the author of The Story Siren. It is one of the main book blogs I follow and really enjoy. So the fact that she would somehow find me and actually leave a comment makes me smile from the inside out. go HERE to see for yourself

Just saying...I am feeling oh so good right now!

This Time Forever

First off...the cover on the book I read was way better than this one. I know we shouldn't judge a book by it's cover...and I agree with that. I have read a lot of pretty books that were awful BUT it does help. Just saying.

I wasn't sure I wanted to read another Rachel Ann Nunes book...I haven't been too impressed with the last few that I have read. But I am not going to lie...this was a great book. I knew which characters would fall in love, but I wasn't 100% who would fall for who and how long it would take. I liked that. But it did have forever long chapters...oh well I can't have it all.

This is a story mostly about two women. One is a married woman with 2 children. She is in a verbally abusive relationship and is realizing the power she does actually have in her situation. The other is living in France and realized that the man she has loved since she was a young girl is actually in love with her mother. Weird huh? Once she learns this she decides it is time to leave, she runs away to America where the two women never really meet, but their stories are intertwined with a few of the same people.

It is a nice story, an easy read that is just enjoyable to read in the middle of the night with a wide away baby.

Grade: C

Same Kind of Different As Me

What a powerful story. I am not a HUGE fan of churchy stories. I don't know what it is. This was a little different to me since it wasn't an LDS author and it is a true story...or at least I am assuming so since the authors are also the characters in the book.

This book is about two men in VERY different circumstances. One is dirt poor, living on the streets, while the other is rich and successful. The first half of the book is really just about their separate lives leading to when they met and became unlikely friends.


This is about serving others and not judging them. I think this book also teaches that no matter our situation in life we have a lot to offer those around us. I think this story shows that when we put away our first impressions and get to know a person for who they are rather than what they look like and what we think they will be like great things can and will happen (WOW LONG SENTENCE...I am the queen of run-ons!).

I am glad I read this book, it wasn't gripping, or intense. But how many real life stories are? There were a lot of great life lessons to be learned from this story and I am glad I read it on my kindle...now I have them all highlighted forever and ever!

GRADE: C
Some of my favorite quotes:

*What we call "dinner on the ground", white folks call a picnic. (made me laugh)

*I cannot see into a person's heart to know his spiritual condition. All I can do is tell the jagged tale of my own spiritual journey and declare that y life has been the better for having followed Christ

*When you become precious to God, you become important to Satan. Watch your back...

*Our limitation is God's opportunity

*That's the good thing 'bout God. Since He can see right through your heart anyway, you can go on and tell Him what you really think.

Persuasion

Last year I had dreams of reading all of Jane Austen's book in a row. Have you ever seen the Jane Austen Book Club. I love this movie. It is one of those movies where at the end you wish there was a part two to see how the characters lives are going after the book club. Before you run out to watch the movie now there are a few scenes that go too far. In fact this probably isn't a movie I would want to watch with my mom...if that is any idea. BUT in the movie they read all 6 of Austen's books in a row. I thought that would be so fun.

Man, Oh Man! It is hard stuff to read through Jane Austen without a break...thus the BIG LONG break I took.

Also keep in my that I started Persuasion about the time Ryan was born...so lots of this book was read in the middle of the night with droopy eyes.

Anne is the daughter that is never really seen. The oldest daughter, Elizabeth is daddy's favorite and the beauty queen that everyone fawns over. Anne's little sister is self-centered whiny pants. Anne is sensible and smart and plain and easily forgotten by her family. So sad. As a young woman she fell in love with another young man but was advised by her family and her dear neighbor (a sort of mother figure) that it isn't a good match. So she turns this suitor down. During the next 8 years all other men are measured against her first love and no one can match up. Finally the young man returns and now they are both older and wiser and both a little more ready to take the next step. But it isn't so easy.

This isn't the easiest book to read through, but still a good book. I wanted to yell a few times at the characters because I knew what they should do and say and they were too stinking proper to do so. It was a a good book and I am glad I read it. But I am not going to lie...it helped put me to sleep more than once.

Grade:C+

A Million Suns

You might recall (you know if you study and memorize the books I read and write about here...yeah right) a few months ago I read Across the Universe I wasn't completely impressed with the first book...it was the kind of story that left me kind of wanting to know what happens, but not itching to read the next book. You can read the review if you want. But when I heard that part two of this three part saga had come out I just couldn't help myself.

Oh man...this book was far better than book 1. I had bought this book since it wasn't in my library yet and I was so excited to buy a book for my new Kindle. I was nervous that it would be a waste of moola...but it was so worth my dollars. Since it did cost money I made the most of it by only letting myself read a chapter...or so at a time.

It is for sure a book that must be read after reading book 1 in order to get the characters and what is going on. This book continues on the Spaceship Godspeed as Elder tries to become a leader and Amy discovers a secret that could lead them to all the answers. There are a lot of lies on board the ship and it is up to these two teens to figure them out.

That is really all I can say without giving something away. It is interesting to see the way their government is set up compared to ours now and where we are possibly headed.

Grade: A
(remember this is a YA book)