Happy Easter....

Happy Easter everyone! Hope your day is filled with maximum chocolate and minimum nausea!

Review: The Kissing Booth by Beth Reekles

Author: Beth Reekles

Title: The Kissing Booth

Release: Available on ebook now - Available in paperback from 25th April 2013 by Random House.

From goodreads: 

Meet Rochelle Evans: pretty, popular - and never been kissed. 

Meet Noah Flynn: badass, volatile - and a total player. And also Elle's best friend's older brother... When Elle decides to run a kissing booth for the school's Spring Carnival, she locks lips with Noah and her life is turned upside down. Her head says to keep away, but her heart wants to draw closer - this romance seems far from fairy tale and headed for heartbreak. But will Elle get her happily ever after?

The Kissing Booth is a very modern twist on the classic tale of a girl who falls in love with the bad boy. She knows she shouldn't do it, and the reader knows that she doesn't do it... but somehow you find yourself willing her to go ahead an fall head over heels anyway! 

The main characters were the thing I liked the most about this book - Rochelle (Elle), Noah and Lee were all so easy to like. Even Noah - the bad boy - was extremely likable  And cute. However, the secondary characters were plentiful and I did find it a little difficult to try and remember who was who, and who else was dating who else (although - the book is set in a high school and there are parties aplenty, so the author could hardly be criticized for creating a busy social scene). 

The events that happen in this book are sweet, shocking and they will definitely bring out the romantic in you,  and whilst it does touch upon some eyebrow raising antics (sixteen years old's drinking and having sex!) there are also some good underlying morals in it too. Especially surrounding Elle and Lee's friendship.

Would I recommend this book? Definitely. It's a teen fiction book and it hits that spot perfectly. The main character is sixteen years old, and I've no doubt that sixteen year old girls will like reading about her. 

I think it helps that the book was written by seventeen year old Welsh wattpad sensation; Beth Reekles. Beth originally published this story on wattpad, and after the story received 19 million reads and 40,000 comments - Random House snapped her up and they're about to publish the story in paperback. It's a teenage book, written from a teenage perspective... and teenagers will love it!

 

Throwback Thursday

Little Women by Louisa May Alcott... The 80s version!

Waiting on Wednesday: 'Fractured' by Teri Terry

By: Teri Terry

Publication Date: 4th April 2013.

From goodreads:

How do you know where to go when you don't remember where you came from?

Kyla's memory has been erased,
her personality wiped blank,
her memories lost for ever.

Or so she thought.

Kyla shouldn't be able to remember anything. But she can - and she's beginning to realise that there are a lot of dark secrets locked away in her memories. When a mysterious man from her past comes back into her life, she thinks she's on her way to finding the truth. But the more she learns about her history, the more confusing her future becomes...

Set in a disturbing future world, FRACTURED is an engrossing, fast-paced read that establishes Teri Terry as a master thriller writer.

Fractured is Book #2 from Teri Terry, and follows on from the brilliant 'Slated'. 

What are you waiting on this week?

Motivation Monday...

Throwback Thursday

Found some of my 1980s Roald Dahl books! I used to LOVE reading these when I was a kid! #throwbackthursday

All things Oz...

WARNING CONTAINS SPOILERS!

Believe it or not, it's been almost 113 years since L. Frank Baum's novel - The Wizard of Oz - was first published. Seriously! That's the kind of longevity that most authors could barely dream of. I could still walk into my local bookstore and pick up a copy of this children's classic today, and today's generation would still love it. How amazing is that?

What's even more amazing than the ongoing popularity of the original classic is the amount of things that have been born from it.

Of course, there was the 1939 Judy Garland film.

And then there is 'Wicked' - the Wizard of Oz prequel written by Gregory Maguire, and it's hit musical.

And now, of course, is the Disney Blockbuster turned book; 'Oz - The Great and Powerful'.

And those are to just name a few. So, if we just take a look at the books, how similar are they? Is there a need for three versions of the same story? And can these newcomers even come close to the original story?

Of course, 'The Wizard of Oz' is the tale of Dorothy Gale, a young girl who is whisked away on a tornado to the land of Oz; a place filled with munchkins, scarecrows seeking hearts, tin men seeking brains and cowardly lions. A place that is home to the Wicked Witch of the West, Glinda the Good Witch and the Wonderful Wizard of Oz - the man they all seek to answer their prayers.

'Wicked' is a book that predates all of that. It starts with the Wicked Witch of the West (who's real name is Elphaba) being born and it provides us with an explanation as to why she's green and why she's terrified of water. It offers a debate on whether Elphaba was born evil, or whether her evilness was created as a result of the things that happened to her in her life. The books skips forwards to her university years and her original meeting of Glinda (or Galinda as she is known originally) and it describes how they were once friends. But then events occur that send Elphaba into a life of solitude, and for a while she leaves her life, her friends and her sister Nessa (the Wicked Witch of the East) behind. When a storm arrives in Oz - it brings with it a young girl named Dorothy, who's house falls upon Nessa and kills her. Elphaba attends Nessa's funeral - hoping to reclaim Nessa's ruby slippers. When Glinda advises Elphaba that she has given the ruby slippers to Dorothy - Elphaba is furious. And, well, we know how that ends!

'Oz - The Great and Powerful' also predates the original book, but instead of telling the story from the viewpoint of the Wicked Witch of the West -it focuses on the tale of the Wizard of Oz himself. A man named Oscar arrives in Oz after his hot air balloon is caught in a storm. he is found by a witch - Theodora - who thinks that he is the wizard that has been prophesied to overthrow the Wicked Witch. Theodora takes Oscar to the Emerald City and they fall in love along the way.

Once in the Emerald City, Oscar meets Evanora (the real Wicked Witch) who misleads Oscar and send him to kill Glinda the Good Witch. Cue a lot of misrepresentation, flying monkeys, witches turning green, poppy fields and Oscar using a hologram of himself and a curtain to portay the mighty Wizard of Oz... and you've got yourself a book!

But are three books necessary? Do they fill in the blanks around L. Frank Baum's creation? I'm gonna say yes! I loved the books. I loved the stories. I love that fact that you get to see the world of Oz through different eyes. I like that you get to see that there is more to a Wicked Witch than meets the eye, and that the Wizard came to Oz in the same way that Dorothy did - he just chose not to leave. I just wish that they hadn't tampered with L. Frank Baum's original too much, and that they would all stick to the same names!

Whilst 'Wicked' calls the Wicked Witches Nessa and Elphaba, 'Oz - The Great and Powerful' call them Evanora and Theodora. In the original they didn't even have names! Only Glinda has an element of consistency. And, of course, in the original book the ruby slippers were actually silver. And the Emerald City was only Emerald because the Wizard made everyone wear green tinted glasses. I think that these are certain things that they should have stayed true to L. Frank Baum's vision. And by creating so many deviations they have actually made certain things confusing to an avid Oz fan. I found myself trying to figure things out along the way; "who is she again?", "who would she be in the original?", "she wasn't in Wicked!". I know you shouldn't really do that - but when you're reading different variations of the same story - it's hard not to do that.

So, would I recommend you read them all? Absolutely! Should you watch the films and see the shows? Of course! Just don't expect them to represent each other, and leave any thoughts of the other versions at the door. It'll only confuse you!

The power of positive thinking...

Get through Monday with the power of positive thinking. Here's a little inspiration...

The book versus the film

It happens to me all the time. I read the book, I love the book and then they decide to make a film out of it. 

I should be happy, right? Right?


Well, I usually am happy. I'm usually beyond happy. I'm usually the girl who pre-books her tickets and stands in the queue for the film for an hour before the screen opens just so I don't get rubbish seats (even longer in some cases - but the Twilight Saga was worth the extra wait!) 

Is it worth it? Is it actually worth all that trouble?

To be honest... not always. There is nothing worse than sitting through a two hour film that does not even remotely resemble the book. Or one that has a different ending. Or one that renames the characters. If the book has done well enough for them to want to make a film version of it... why do they change it? 

Now, I'm not talking about the little irrelevant changes or alterations that are necessary to make things cinematic, I'm talking major plot twists. Major adaptations to the outcome (I'm looking at the likes of you; The Other Boleyn girl). It's a serious question, and if anyone knows the answer - I'd like to know. 

Now, not all films are guilty of doing this - some of the film versions are amazing. Look at The Hunger Games; the differences between the film and the book were minimal. And the Twilight Saga - they didn't change things around too much there (I shall choose to ignore the battle scene at the end of Breaking Dawn, Part two - given that it wasn't real). But sometimes the film makers go all out and the book gets completely lost in translation. It makes me wonder if the screenwriter even read the book? Or did they flick through a few chapters and think, "That'll do!"

As a reader, it's utterly disappointing. 

So I applaud the films that stay true to the book. That stay true to the thing that made them successful in the first place. They are the reason I still bother.

As for the rest of 'em; Shame. On. You.

A blog is born...

I can't believe it! After deliberating, deciding, creating and not throwing my computer out of the window even once - my blog is here! Yay!

So, here we go... I dub this book blog OPEN!