My True Love Gave To Me by various authors!

Hey, guys! I'm back with another review!
Enjoy!

                               Basics

Title: My True Love Gave To Me
Authors: Holly Black, Ally Carter, Matt de la Peña, Gayle Forman, Jenny Han, David Levithan, Kelly Link, Myra McEntire, Stephanie Perkins, Rainbow Rowell, Laini Taylor, Kiersten White

Release Date: October 9^th 2014
Publisher: Macmillan Children's books
ISBN-13: 978-1447272793
Number of Pages: 368
Genre: Young Adult, Romance
What's special? 12 cute Christmas stories!

Summary + Opinion

'My True Love Gave To Me' contains 12 festive short stories by various authors.

I'll rate every story in the book but only talk about the best and the worst story.
They are called:
- Midnights 4.5/5

- The Lady and the Fox 3.5/5

- Angels in the Snow 3.5-4/5
- Polaris Is Where You'll Find Me 2.5/5

- It's a Yuletide Miracle, Charlie Brown 5/5
- Your Temporary Santa 3/5
- Krampuslauf 2/5
- What the Hell Have You Done, Sophie Roth? 3/5
- Beer Buckets and Baby Jesus 3.5-4/5
- Welcome to Christmas, CA 4/5
- Star of Bethlehem 3/5
- The Girl Who Woke the Dreamer 3.5/5

So, I'm going to talk about:
1) Midnights by Rainbow Rowell
2) Krampuslauf by Holly Black
3) It's a Yuletide Miracle, Charlie Brown by Stephanie Perkins

'Midnights' by Rainbow Rowell
I'm a huge fan of Rainbow Rowell's work (I adore Fangirl) and I wasn't disappointed.
Both Mags and Noel are loveable characters and I really wish I had more to read about them.
We meet the characters in several years but always on December 31^st.
Every year since they've met, they go to a New Year's Eve Party and -actually, I can't really tell you more of the plot because there's not much more.
As always, Rainbow's writing is wonderful and you feel as if you stand right beside the characters. And every feeling Mags has during the years – I feel it, too.
Even though it's only a short story and you don't get too much information on the characters, I found a lot of myself in Mags. That's probably the reason why I love this story so much.

'Krampuslauf' by Holly BlackThis short story is about Hanna. She and her best friends take part in the so called 'Krampuslauf', where you have to dress up, to figure out if Penny's boyfriend really has another girlfriend besides her.
There Hanna meets a very good-looking boy with a perfect costume but he disappears really fast.
One thing leds to another. The girls spot boyfriend with other girlfriend and invite them to their spontaneous 'New Year's Eve Party'.
As a result, they now have to plan the party.
And things happen...

I didn't really like a) the writing. It confused me as compared to the other stories a lot.
You all know that English isn't my first language but normally I understand it pretty well.
And b) I didn't like where the story went. I'm not a huge fan of magical short stories, which I noticed while reading this book, just because I think it takes more than 20 pages to introduce the magic elements and solve everything happening at the end.
And right that went totally wrong in this shortstory. The supernatural elements were only shortly introduced and never really explained.
Everybody human around just accepts it and the reactions after a certain

incident were absolutely unrealistic.

'It's a Yuletide miracle, Charlie Brown' by Stephanie Perkins
This one is it, guys. My absolute favourite story of this book.

Marigold Moon Ling is visiting the Christmas Tree Lot out of a certain reason. The same reason she was visiting the lot the last whole month. And it's not searching for the perfect Christmas tree but searching for the perfect voice.
She creates animated videos and she has designed a new character who needs a voice. She already knows who should voice the part but she's afraid of asking him. It's the young worker named North of the Christmas Tree Lot.
More or less accidently she buys tree and he has to help her bring it home.
On the way home or rather at Marigold's house they get closer even closer – but not in the 'sexy time' meaning of closer but in the talking-a-lot-and-understanding-each-other-kind of it.

Stephanie Perkins. You genius.
The writing is absolutely fantastic! And North – oh my God *swoon* I'm in love. The story is only 36 pages long but it's enough to fall in love with him. Still: I NEED MORE PAGES.
But not only easy to fall in love with him but with Marigold, too. She's a really cool female character and I just love her name!

The town they live in has something hippie-like about it. So that's why they have such unique names.

North is a really kind guy. He's not one of these I-act-like-a-shitty-brat-but-I'm-hot-so-everybody-still-loves-me-dark-men which seem to be very popular right now but just a caring boy with a veeerrry deep voice.
And I love deep voices.
Have you watched 10 things I hate about you? Not the movie (it's great, too) but the series?
Patrick has such a deep voice! Sadly, he hardly speaks.

Rating

So even though, I didn't 'love' most of the stories, I will recommend this book to everyone who doesn't want to let the Christmas feeling pass or who needs a book for next Christmas season.
Rainbow Rowell and Stephanie Perkins contributed wonderful stories with adorable characters and they totally make up for the other short stories.3.5/5 stars

Have you already read the book? Tell me in the comments, how you liked it or rather which stories were your favourites!

Have a nice week and stay healthy.
Franzi

Fanart Friday "The Lovely Bones"

Hey, guys! I hope you had a nice Christmas!
Unbelievable that it's already over, right?
And thanks again to my family for the wonderful presents I got. I love you!
I'll soon make a post about all the books I've got during the Christmas days and in December in general. Stay tuned for that!

I hope you all have pleasant last days and a great start in year 2015!
What are your hopes/wishes for 2015? Tell me in the comments!


I only found a few Fanarts of 'The Lovely Bones', so I'll post pictures of the movie instead.

I don't know who drew this but it's beautiful!


Susie Salmon drawn by Pink--Mist (http://pink--mist.deviantart.com/)


Another one of Susie done by GarasudamA (http://garasudama.deviantart.com/)




And here are the actors/acresses!

Saoirse Ronan as Susie Salmon


Rose McIver as Lindsey Salmon


Mark Wahlberg as Jack Salmon



Rachel Weisz as Abigail Salmon


Stanley Tucci as Mr Harvey


Susan Sarandon as Grandma Lynn



Michael Imerioli as Detective Len Fenerman



Reece Ritchie as Ray Singh


Carolyn Dando as Ruth Connors


Andrew James Allen as Sam Heckler


And the movie poster:



And I found a lot of really nice covers:



This one (SO PRETTY) was made by melito (http://melito.deviantart.com/) :






This one was done by Lindsay Sinclair:



That's it for today, guys.
See you tomorrow with a new review!
Have a nice day!
Franzi

The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold

Hey, guys! I'm back with another review.

Have fun!            

Basics

Title: The Lovely Bones
Author: Alice Sebold
Release Date: 2002
Publisher: Little, Brown and Company
ISBN: 9780316044400
Number of pages: 400
Genre: novel

Summary

The main protagonist is called Susie Salmon. She's 14 years old. In December 1973 she is raped and killed by her neighbor Mr Harvey. She ends up in „her own heaven“ where she keeps an eye on her family, on her friends, on her murderer – well, actually she can look down on everybody.
Her father goes soon single-handed after her murderer because the police has no clue.
But Susie can only find her inward peace when her family has it, too.

My opinion

Now it's time to pick it to pieces.
I thought a bit about how I would review this book and I decided to divide it into three sections:

- The first 40 pages:
I liked the book in the beginning. I even had goosebumps while Susie talked about her death.
The topic appeared really interessant to me. A girl which observes her family, friends and her murderer from above? Risky topic! I didn't really bother with thinking about the plot.
My only thought was that maybe there would be this huge showdown during which Susie gets back to earth and helps her family to capture her murderer.

- The next 300 pages:
Where's the plot? Where's the excitement? At least a little twist? No?
Honestly: It was boring. Susie watches her family chapter after chapter, narrates about events from the past and never really operates as a character.
I found 6 points I didn't like:

1) the impossible conclusions

Susie's father talks to her murderer – he's their neighbor after all – and he knows right away – he is the guilty one. There was no evidence. Mr Harvey acted really innocent during the conversation and suddenly Mr Sloan, Susie's dad, says: You are her murderer. Only 200 pages later (I paid attention) it was clarified why her father came to this conclusion. Before that, I always thought the author forgot to mention it.

2) Susie and Mr HarveyAs I've already said: Susie keeps an eye on her murderer, too. Wouldn't it be 'natural' that she feels some kind of anger or hate against him? No, not in this book. She really thinks about him in an almost impartial way. She actually never really has an opinion. Exception: her crush Ray and her sister Lindsey. She even accepts some events surrounding her mother without rage or disappointment. All I could do was shake my head.

3) Couldn't connect with anyoneIn this book I couldn't connect with any of the characters. That would have been okay, but I couldn't relate to the decisions of most of the characters either.
The mother? Nope. Ruthe? Nah. Susie. Not even a little bit.4) insufficent explanationsIn my opinion Mrs Sebold forgot to mention basic information at times.
How does Susie watch the humans from her heaven? I know that she's in a pavilion. And?
Moreover, sometimes Susie thinks something like 'blablabla, thought Dad.' How does she know that?5) change of settingIt frequently happened that the setting changed without a space between the paragraphs.
Of course that could have been a mistake by the German publisher but still, it hinders the reading flow.6) terrible comparisonsI think I've never read a book with as strange comparisons as in the lovely bones.
I picked out some quotes but they are no good because they are from the German version.

I'll try to translate them:
This scene takes place while Susie watches her sister having sex.
„In the walls of my genital were terror and blood, in the walls of hers were windows.“
Blood and terror are kind of logical but windows? Because you can open them and Lindsey opened her 'windows' (=legs). God, I have no idea.

Watch out, the next one is a spoiler! But this is, like, the most confusing one, so I'll write it down anyway.
„(...) my mother turned to my father and asked: „Have you ever loved someone in the sea?“ And he said: „No.“
„Me neither“, said my mother, „let's pretend as if it's the sea and I'm going away and we'll never see each other again.“ (...)“

What? I really thought about this one a lot, but I still came to no conclusion. Have you an idea?

Another nice quote:
„Her glanges met each other, and in the hot wire which formed between them, I saw it, I swear, like a undigested rat which wich bloated the interior of a snake"
Good one, Mrs Sebold

- And the ending: No. No. No. No. I don't accept that.
I'm honeslty shocked. I don't know how you see it but for me the event near the ending equals rape.
It does not only equals rape: It is rape.
Susie takes control over Ruth's body (she's an old friend) and has sex with a boy she (SUSIE) is in love with! After that, Ruth gets her body back
I can't believe it!
Mr Harvey is after Lindsey, Susie's sister, and she sleeps with her old crush!
He, of course, knew it's her right from the beginning and he didn't even feel guilt for her using Ruth's body.

I would have never guessed that Susie, who seemed like a really nice girl, could do something like that. She didn't spare a thought on how Ruth could feel afterwards. It's especially inexplicable when you remember that Susie was raped herself!

All in all, it wasn't worth my time. It had a terrible ending and shallow characters. I've heard so much good about The Lovely Bones, but I haven't really found anything.

Rating

1 out of 5 stars

That's it, guys!
See you next week.

Franzi

Fanart Friday "Scarlet" and "Cress"!

Hey, guys!
I'm back with another Fanart Friday - enjoy!


So this one was done by candy8496 (http://candy8496.deviantart.com/)
I love how Scarlet and Cress look!







Sadly, I have no idea who drew this gorgeous one...



This was done by lierymell (http://lierymell.deviantart.com/)
I especially love Winter and Scarlet!


Wolf looks just too cute! Again, I don't know who drew this, but please tell me if you do!






One of my favourite scenes in Cress! Haha!

It was drawn by lostie815 (http://lostie815.deviantart.com/) who also did these absolutely stunning pictures!

They are just -gaaah! I want to draw like that!



This one is my favourite so far - the artist drew Wolf just as I picture him!




It was done by Hizome (http://hizome.tumblr.com/)


This one, too! Haha, Jacin!

kitkatsgalore (http://kitkatsgalore.tumblr.com/) drew an extremely beautiful Scarlet!


And Cinder and Thorne - haha! Done by princesstoudou (http://princesstoudou.tumblr.com/)


And now, a few covers from all over the world!

Russia

Thailand (I really like this one!)

Portugal

Spain (this looks really creepy!)

Germany

Italy


The last Scarlet cover was fan-made but I love it the most!
It was done by CassiusOS (http://cassiusos.deviantart.com/)


France (this one's perfect!)


Korea


Germany

Czechia

See you tomorrow!
Have a nice weekend, guys!
Franzi

Cress (The Lunar Chronicles #3) by Marissa Meyer

Basics

Title: Cress
Series: The Lunar Chronicles (book #3)
Author: Marissa Meyer
Release date: February 6^th 2014
Publisher: Feiwel & Friends
ISBN-13: 978-0141340159
Number of pages: 550
Genre: Fantasy, Sci-Fi, Dystopia, Young Adult
What's special? Rapunzel is the best hacker in the universe. Her tower a satellite.
Her prince is a self-centered criminal. Could it be even cooler?

 

Summary

Again, I can't say much because I would spoiler you. But here are the basic plot points:
We have a new main character, Cress, a Lunar shell. She was imprisoned by her own people when she was around ten and became the Queen's hacker. She knows everything about Scarlet, Wolf, Cinder, Kai and especially Throne. In her imagination they are destined to be lovers.
Meanwhile, Cinder and her crew decide to free Cress, who Cinder has met in the first book in the Lunar chronicles.

But the rescue goes as wrong as it could and the group is separated.
Cress and Throne fall into the desert.
Scarlet is captured by a Lunar thraumaturge.
Cinder is alone with a Lunar guard and a wounded Wolf who is worried sick about Scarlet's whereabouts.

And Queen Levana is still determined to become empress and never was it easier for her.

 

My opinion

An amazing book!
Even though I still have a lot of exams this month, I flew through Cress. It's the biggest book so far, and I really hope Winter will be even bigger!

I really loved the new protagonist.
Again, Cress is a completely different character. She's naive, terrified, really sweet and creative, absolutely lonely and totally in love with Throne.
But that's what I love about Marissa Meyer's writing. We have a big range of characters, every one with own, special traits. I really had my problems with Quentin, Miles and Colin in John Green's books, for example.
And every one in TLC is just so lovable in his own way.
Exept Levana and Mira. They are assholes.

But not only Cress is new. There's also Jacin! I'm not quite sure how to pronounce him. Is it French? Like Jac-uhn? He's a Lunar guard and I still have to get to know and understand him better.

The writing is as usual wonderful and there's a lot to laugh. Especially when Iko, finally, gets her Escort-droid body!

And, oh my God, I just noticed something. Besides, Cress AND Rapunzel being types of lettuce, remember that Cress's 'prince' is called THORNE. Just like thorn. And now think of the prince in the original fairytale! Oh my God!
You'll get it when you read it, I promise. 

For Scarlet and Wolf Cress was a hard book. Especially when we read from Scarlet's POV, we get a way darker insight. But I'm so proud of my girl!
And Wolf:

Even though, I really had to laugh while reading the part with the tomato can. Haha!

And there's Kai. God, I just want to hug him.
He has probably the heaviest burden in the whole story (sorry, Cinder, your burden is heavy, too)
and he is so adorable!

And towards the end of the book we got some glimpses on Winter, name giver of book four in the series. I already love her! I'll only say that she is nothing like I imagined her to be. Can't wait, can't wait, can't wait!

These gifs are perfect!

 

Rating

5 out of 5 stars

And again, they are so pretty. So pretty, guys. 

 

I could stare at them forever.