Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs {Review}

Publisher: Quirk

Publish Date: June 7, 2011

Source: Library

Goodreads

A mysterious island. An abandoned orphanage. And a strange collection of some very curious photographs. It all waits to be discovered in Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children, an unforgettable novel that mixes fiction and photography in a thrilling reading experience. As our story opens, a horrific family tragedy sets sixteen-year-old Jacob journeying to a remote island off the coast of Wales, where he discovers the crumbling ruins of Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children. As Jacob explores its abandoned bedrooms and hallways, it becomes clear that the children who once lived there -- one of whom was his own grandfather -- were more than just peculiar. They may have been dangerous. They may have been quarantined on a desolate island for a reason. And somehow -- impossible though it seems -- they may still be alive.

Is it in bad taste to say that I found Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children peculiar? I suppose it is, but it had to be done :P

I rather enjoyed the idea of a story that was assisted by the use of pictures. In reality, though, it ended up being a hit and miss for me. All the pictures themselves were great, but sometimes they didn’t quite work with the story. Sometimes the pictures were a nice addition to the story and sometimes it felt like the story was working just a little too hard to incorporate them.

The story itself, on the other hand, was fantastic. I loved the originality of the storyline. Riggs has some serious craziness up his sleeve. Going in I was just thinking there might just be some peculiar and creepy ghosts of children, but boy was I wrong. This story has some serious depth.

The Nutshell: Looking at the cover and reading the description you can imagine that Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children has the creep factor going for it, but there’s a lot more between the covers as well. There’s a crazy fantastical story, a little mystery, a smidge of romance, and lurking-in-the-shadows nightmares. If you’re looking for a strange, slightly spooky original story then Miss Peregrine’s is worth looking into.

Pages: 352

Series: Miss Peregrine #1

Rating: Hit

Let It Snow by Maureen Johnson, John Green, and Lauren Myracle {Review}

Publisher: Speak

Publish Date: October 2, 2008

Source: Gift/Own

Goodreads

The weather outside is frightful, but these stories are delightful! When a huge blizzard (that doesn't show signs of stopping) hits, Gracetown is completely snowed in. But ven though it's cold outside, things are heating up inside, proving that the holiday season is magical when it comes to love. In three wonderfully (and hilariously!) interconnected tales, YA stars John Green, Lauren Myracle, and Maureen Johnson create a must-have collection that captures all the spirit of the holiday season.

Let It Snow is basically the most perfect holiday book ever. Could you really expect less from 3 amazing authors, though? First, I'll break it down into the tree stories.

The Jubilee Express by Maureen Johnson

Take hilarious shenanigans, Christmas, and romance; mix them thoroughly and what do you end up with? Magic, I tell you, magic. I can't even count how many times I laughed out loud while reading this. I could read a whole book about Jubilee because she's unintentionally hilarious. Plus, she's the type of girl who'll trudge through 5 feet of snow by herself to go to a Waffle House and that's the type of girl I like to read about.

Her relationship with Stuart is good even though they had a lot of unnecessary miscommunication at the end. They start out as strangers (Stuart seeming a little more strange upon first glance) in a Waffle House then progress to friendly jabs at each other, and finally they realize that being together is kind of nice. Basically what I'm saying is that it all felt really natural except, you know, for the fact that the first night they met she slept on his couch...

A Cheertastic Christmas Miracle by John Green

Mr. Green presents a familiar situation: guy friend and girl friend both like each other but neither realizes. Part of me was always going “Tobin, you idiot! Can you not see the googly eyes Duke is making and the massive elphant-sized hints she's dropping?!” But no, because I've totally been there. Before my (now) husband and I started dating I'm pretty sure everyone in the entire town knew we liked each other but could we see it? Hah, not a chance. So Tobin and Duke's relationship was predictable, but that didn't diminish its cuteness.

I liked that even though there were three (well, technically four, but he was mostly just on the phone) friends the third didn't just become a third wheel left out in the cold. JP (said third friend) was hilarious and had a great relationship with both Duke and Tobin and the story certainly wouldn't be the same without him.

The Patron Saint of Pigs by Lauren Myracle

Myracle's story wasn't the laugh-out-loud hilarious type like the other two, but it kind of ended up balancing everything out. Now, it's pretty obvious within the first couple pages that this will be a coming-to-terms-with-the-fact-that-you-need-to-change type of story, but again, predictability isn't always a bad thing.

I didn't really understand Addie. All the people closest to her are telling her she's self-absorbed and she refuses to listen and just rattles off all the problems with her life instead. Plus, why in the world would you break up with someone if YOU are the cheater and your other half DOESN'T want to break up? I just don't get it. That's kind of the point of Addie, though. She's dramatic and just does things but you get to see her grow into a better person by the end.

One of the best things about this little trio of stories is the way you get to watch them all come together. At first it's just a few references to people or happenings you heard about before, but then it all builds up into this giant avalanche of crossing paths and you see how everyone affected everyone else. It's pretty neat and (for the most part) believable too.

The Nutshell: If you want a cute, funny winter read by some awesome authors then you simply must pick up Let It Snow

Pages: 352

Series: No

Rating: Direct Hit

Across the Universe by Beth Revis {Review}

Publisher: Razorbill

Publish Date: January 11, 2011

Source: Bought/Own

Goodreads

Seventeen-year-old Amy joins her parents as frozen cargo aboard the vast spaceship Godspeed and expects to awaken on a new planet, three hundred years in the future. Never could she have known that her frozen slumber would come to an end fifty years too soon and that she would be thrust into the brave new world of a spaceship that lives by its own rules.
Amy quickly realizes that her awakening was o mere computer malfunction. Someone -- one of the few thousand inhabitants of the spaceship -- tried to kill her. And if Amy doesn't do something soon, her parents will be next.
Now Amy must race to unlock Godspeed's hidden secrets. But out of her list of murder suspects, there's only one who matters: Elder, the future leader of the ship and the love she could have never seen coming.

GAH! That ending! It was perfect in the way that it wrapped things up, but it just left me with such a bittersweet feeling.

So here’s the deal: Across the Universe is brilliant. So all those people that have been telling you to read it? They weren’t lying.

If I had to pick out one thing about the story that was my favorite, it’s that there’s not really any romance. When I saw that (gorgeous) almost-kissing cover I just knew Amy and Elder were going to get it on. It just so happens that I was wrong, though. Oh sure, there’s a spark there, but the story isn’t about the romance and I loved that. The non-romance means I can go around waving this book in everyone’s faces without having to worry if they’re romance haters or not.

Which leads me to what the story is about: secrets. Lots and lots of secrets. And mysteries galore! Sure, I knew about the whole “Godspeed is a ship built on lies” tagline, but I didn’t fathom just how many lies Revis was going to manage to shove into it. Every time I thought I had something figured out I was faced with another plot-twist or mini-mystery. I admit that for a while towards the beginning I was like “MORE secrets?! When do I get some answers?!” but I assure you that they’ll come and in the meantime there’s plenty of crazy stuff to keep you occupied.

I’m really hoping we get to see more of the science behind Godspeed in book two. It didn’t really have a place in Across the Universe because of everything else that was going on, but I still love learning about (fictional) science.

And can I just say that the Season seriously creeped me out? Because it really, really did.

The Nutshell: Across the Universe is a fantastic read. If you’re looking for something with minimal romance, fantastic characters, and a great story full of mystery then you’ll definite find it in AtU.

Pages: 398

Series: Across the Universe #1

Rating: Direct Hit

Have Your Cake and Read it Too (4)

Have Your Cake and Read it Too is a weekly feature that will take a book and pair it with a food whether it be savory or sweet.

Book

1 Concert
2000 Miles
3 Ex-Best Friends
Alice, Summer, and Tiernan are ex-best friends.
Back in middle school, the three girls were inseparable. They were also the number one fans of the rock band Level3.
But when the band broke up, so did their friendship. Summer ran with the popular crowd, Tiernan was a rebellious wild-child, and Alice spent high school with her nose buried in books.
Now, just as the girls are about to graduate, Level3 announces a one-time-only reunion show.
Even though the concert’s 2000 miles away, Alice buys three tickets on impulse. And as it turns out, Summer and Tiernan have their own reasons for wanting to get out of town. Good thing Alice’s graduation gift (a pea-green 1976 VW camper van known as the Pea Pod) is just the vehicle to get them there.
But on the long drive cross-country, the girls hit more than a few bumps in the road. Will their friendship get an encore or is the show really over?

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What's the one thing a road trip needs? Snacks, of course! Gas station junk food is good (believe me, I love it as much as the next person), but if you're looking for something a little more healthy then making your own snack mix is a great option.

Recipe:

Sweet & Salty Caramel Snack Mix

Recipe from Our Best Bites

Ingredients

Source

6 cups graham cracker cereal (like Honey Grahams)
1 cup honey roasted peanuts
1 cup salted cashews or macadamia nuts
1/2 cup butter
1 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1/4 cup light Karo syrup
1 tsp. vanilla
3 cups Pretzel M&Ms (about 1 large bag)

Line a baking sheet with aluminum foil or wax paper and lightly spray with nonstick cooking spray. Set aside.

Toss together the cereal and the nuts in a large bowl and set aside.

In a medium saucepan, combine the butter, brown sugar, and Karo syrup and cook over medium heat, stirring frequently, until it begins to boil. Allow to boil for 2 minutes (3 if you’re at a high elevation) and then remove from heat. Add the vanilla and stir until combined. Drizzle the caramel mixture over the cereal/nut mixture and stir quickly to combine. Transfer to the prepared baking sheet. When the caramel mixture has cooled but isn’t solid yet (just a few minutes), add the Pretzel M&Ms and toss gently to combine. Allow to cool completely before serving.

Kill Me Softly by Sarah Cross {Review}

Publisher: EgmontUSA

Publish Date: April 10, 2012

Source: Library

Goodreads

Mirabelle's past is shrouded in secrecy, from her parents' tragic deaths to her guardians' half-truths about why she can't return to her birthplace, Beau Rivage. Desperate to see the town, Mira runs away a week before her sixteenth birthday -- and discovers a world she never could have a imagined.
In Beau Rivage, nothing is what it seems -- the strangely pale girl with a morbid interest in apples, the obnoxious playboy who's a beast to everyone he meets, and the chivalrous guy who has a thing for damsels in distress. Here, fairy tales come to life, curses are awakened, and ancient stories are played out again and again.
But fairy tales aren't pretty things, and they don't always end in happily ever after. Mira has a role to play, a fairy tale destiny to embrace or resist. As she struggles to take control of her fate, Mira is drawn into the lives of two brothers with fairy tale curses of their own...brothers who share a dark secret. And she'll find that love, just like fairy tales, can have sharp edges and and hidden thorns.

Looking at the cover of Kill Me Softly you probably aren’t imagining the story inside to be so dark (despite the blood), but it is. Oh, by golly, it is. Incredibly, deliciously dark.

The first third of the book wasn’t so awesome for me. I spent it being astounded by Mira’s stupidity and unwillingness to question things. I mean, I understand Felix has magic working on his side, but come on. He’s 21, you’re a few days shy of sixteen and you just crawl in bed with him after a few hours spent together? Where is your brain, Mira?! And then when everyone is telling her he has a curse she’s all “but this is true love and you wouldn’t understand!” instead of digging a little deeper to find out exactly what this curse is.

BUT, then things start to clear up. Then we start learning about the curses and the fairytales, and let me tell you, it’s pretty gruesome. It’s one thing to read the fairytales and think they’re dark, but it’s another to think about applying it to life today. And I absolutely love how Cross weaved the fairytales into modern life.

Then there’s Blue. Oh, Blue. I kind of loved him from the start even though he acted like a complete jerk for a while. The poor guy is just so tortured and selfless. If you’re looking for a noble knight in hiding, look no further than Blue.

Felix, on the other hand, always just felt a little slimy to me. And, in my opinion, he is, but I’ll let you make that decision for yourself without ruining anything ;]

Mira became a much more complex and likable character by the end of the story which I greatly appreciated. Instead of continuing on the lovesick puppy path she starts to actually question things and search out answers.

Spoilers 

I’m feeling pretty torn about the ending, though. On the one hand, I loved it. On the other, well, let’s break it down:

-- Umm, hello, what about Felix? It alluded to the fact that he’d need to be killed, but we’re just going to end the story with him wandering around with his head intact? Not cool. I was really looking forward to seeing a fight with him.

-- What about our poor knight, Freddie? I know he already knew Mira didn’t like him that way, but what is he supposed to do with his life now? He’s spent years looking for his princess and when he finds her she runs straight into the arms of another guy. That definitely deserved some follow up.

-- The elusive parents? I know it’d be long and complicated to build a relationship between them and Mira, but all I’m asking for is one little meeting. I just wanted to meet them!

-- What’s up with her fairy godmothers saying something about fairy prison? They act like we should know what rules they broke and what trouble they’d get in instead of just telling us. Not cool.

I know I can’t have everything, but that’s a lot of stuff to introduce only to leave unanswered.

End spoilers

The Nutshell: If you love your fairytales dark then you’ll definitely like Kill Me Softly. The story is complex and fascinating and it’ll really make you question right and wrong (at least, it did me).

Pages: 336

Series: No

Rating: Direct Hit