The Choice by Nicholas Sparks

No one has any idea how happy I am to finally find a book that had me reading through the night. I haven't read a book like that since the Deathly Hallows (the last Harry Potter book). I just couldn't help falling in love with Travis Parker and Gabby Holland just as fast as they fell in love with each other. I'm used to Nicholas Sparks' romance stories and used to the same old thing that he always does but The Choice was different. Maybe it was because I felt really connected to Gabby because she was very relatable to me, or maybe it was because I was completely attracted to Travis. All I know is this book was so sweet, so romantic, and so uplifting that it just made me smile and of course eventually cry throughout the book. I even had to restrain from laughing out loud in some really great moments. For all romance lovers out there, this is definitely something that you should pick up. It would lift up your spirits and truly make you believe in true love again. This was an amazing read and I thank Nicholas Sparks for sparking my love for books once again.

Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen

I am a huge fan of Jane Austen's work, especially Pride and Prejudice. That book was absolutely amazing for me and such a touching story. Her first work though didn't catch my attention as much. It took me three tries to even get to pg. 120 of Sense and Sensibility and I'm sorry but I can't go on any longer. I'm sure the rest of the book is fantastic but keeping up with 1811 language is tiring. Austen's use of big words and fancy ways of saying things is something that I expect but this was too much for me. I would find that I spent 10 minutes on a piece of Elinor's dialogue just trying to figure out what she was trying to say. I love my classics and I love Jane Austen but this book just wasn't enough for me. I even feel bad feeling this way but I do. It pains me that this wonderful classic just isn't for me (which by the way rarely happens). If you love this book then hats off to you but for readers who have a short attention span, don't even bother buying this book, you won't even last past the first page.

On a better note, I loved the characters, well from as much as I got to know them at least. Elinor and Marianne were absolutely marvelous and I couldn't help but fall in love with Willoughby as much as Marianne did. I'm sure if the language was simpler and there was just a little more oomph, like in Pride and Prejudice, I would have liked this book just fine. Unfortunately that wasn't the case. I still love Jane Austen and applaud her writing but this book wasn't her best work. Then again, it was her first and as Pride and Prejudice showed me, she got better with age.

Evil Star by Anthony Horowitz

Okay, I promise this is my last post for today but I really wanted to catch up on things. This book by Anthony Horowitz is pretty good. It had cool tricks and some fantasy but I definitely like the Alex Rider series better. Now don't get me wrong, the book was good but there were so many grammar mistakes. Now I know that isn't exactly Anthony's fault but I just had to put that out there. Also the book took to long to get exciting for me. Normally I can pull through a book that doesn't have a lot of action but this one was different. This book did have action but not enough to keep me reading. It wasn't until the last 50 pages that I actually got interested and didn't want to put it down. But who knows, you actually might like it.

Here is the synopsis on the back of the book: Matt thought his troubles were over when he closed Raven's Gate... but, in fact, they were just beginning. Evil forces will stop at nothing to track him down and destroy him. There's no choice but to fight back. Matt's fate - and the fate of the world - is tied to four other kids across the globe. The second is a street kid in Peru. He and Matt have never met; they don't even speak the same language. But destiny is going to throw them together as the threat of the Old Ones grows, a strange and insidious villain beckons, and another Gate suddenly comes into play....

The Notebook by Nicholas Sparks

Now I am sure many of you have seen the sad romance movie version of the book but frankly this was the first time that the movie was better than the book. I mean the book itself was cute and close to the movie except for the end. I'm not going to say the ending but it really destroyed me. I wanted the sad but happy ending that the movie had but as I continued reading I couldn't help but be more disappointed. I am a huge Nicholas Sparks fan and a fan of his out of this world romances that probably never happen in real life but that was what I was looking forward to in The Notebook. I have to say that I was sadly disappointed in this novel.

Atonement by Ian McEwan

Hey everyone! I know I haven't updated my blog in such a long time but I barely have time to breathe, let alone read. But I did squeeze in some time for this amazing book called Atonement by Ian McEwan. I was first introduced to Atonement through the movie starring Keira Knightly and James McAvoy. The movie was absolutely amazing and so touching that I just had to read the novel. If I thought the movie was good, the novel is even better and fills me in on Robbie Turner's life. Plus seeing how one little mistake can truly rip apart a family and two lovers forever is heart wrenching in every way.

The story is pretty much about Briony Tallis, a 13 year old aspiring writer, who with her wild imagination sees something and lets just say deciphers it wrong. Briony witnessed her older sister, Cecilia, and family friend Robbie Turner have a little "flirtatious" moment. Not understanding the adult world, Briony thought it was an attack on her sister and with a series of events following this incident sent Robbie to jail thus ripping him and Cecilia apart. This story is one of love, crime, war, and friendship and I truly recommend this book to anyone who loves a good love story, even though it might not have a happy ending.

Shout Out to Daisy!!

OK I know this has nothing to do with books or anything related to them but I just thought this was really cool so I just had to blog about it. One of my friends, Daisy, heard about my blog and it inspired her so much that she had to start one of her own! If you check out her blog you can see that she owes it to me and I just thought that was super cool. As a writer my life's dream is to inspire people in anyway I can and to inspire Daisy really touched me. If you're reading this Daisy I just want to say that I love you and thank you for loving my blog and being inspired by it!

I'm glad to see that someone other than myself loves books and loves to write about them. Hopefully more people can see the goodness of books and writing and realize that a whole new world is just a page away.

I Couldn't Help Myself!!!

Okay I know I promised no more Twilight for a while but I just couldn't help myself!! First of all for those who do not know, director of Twilight, Catherine Hardwick is not doing the next film, New Moon. Instead a new director, Chris Weitz, was hired to do both New Moon and Eclipse movies. Also despite many rumors, Taylor Lautner was signed to reprise his role as Jacob Black in New Moon and has to gain 30 lbs in muscle to play the part.

The Twilight 2-Disc Special Edition DVD is also available for pre-order at Amazon.com. This DVD includes five extended scenes, audio commentary from Catherine Hardwick, Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson, three music videos (Muse, Linkin Park, Paramore), five deleted scenes, seven part documentary "The Adventure Begins: The Journey From Page to Screen", Comic-con Phenomenon featurette, and a lot more. If you're a Twilight lover I suggest you seriously pre-order this amazing DVD. I sure did!!!

P.S. New Moon begins filming this March and is due to come out this November!!!! Check out these fan made trailers for New Moon, Eclipse, and Breaking Dawn. They're pretty good! They contain spoilers so if you haven't read the book don't watch them!

New Moon: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AsghUBi81qY

Eclipse: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eKPVGg95vb0&feature=related

Breaking Dawn: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1l71UXPtBng&feature=related