New Release: Gimme A Call

I just got news about this new release by author Sarah Mlynowski. It look's really interesting, I want to check it out. Here's the summary:

Seventeen-year-old Devi is having a bad day. Her boyfriend Bryan broke up with her and she dropped her cell phone into the fountain at the mall.

Now it only calls one number. Her number. At age fourteen, three years ago!

Once Devi gets over the shock, she realizes that she's been given an awesome gift. She can tell herself all the right things to do...because she's already done the wrong ones!
Change #1: Do not go on that first date with Bryan.
Fourteen-year old Devi isn't so sure, though. She likes Bryan. She's happy. But who better to listen to than your future self...right?

Everything's at stake...when the future is on the line.

So are you intrigued? Find out more on Sarah's website or to buy it click here.

Teaser Tuesday

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
• Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

"As they walked through the maze of the casino floor, Kat couldn't help but notice a slight bounce in Simon's step as he chatted on about the lecture, the advance in technology. The geniuses and legends who'd given talks that morning at breakfast."
--Heist Society by Ally Carter

I'm reading two books right now really, does that mean I can do two teasers? I think I will. My second book is...








"This is Prostetnic Vogon Jeltz of the Galactic Hyperspace Planning Council," the voice continued. "As you will no doubt be aware, the plans for development of the outlying regions of the Galaxy require the building of a hyperspatial express route through your star system, and regrettably your planet is one of those scheduled for demolition."
--The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams.

You know I've often wondered why I put the title of books and authors when you can clearly see them in the pictures I put up. Oh well I've been doing it so long I'm not going to stop now I guess.

Scones and Sensibility: A Book Review

I just realized I keep forgetting to put what the genre is on my book reviews. Sorry about that. >_< Title: Scones and Sensibility

Author: Lindsay Eland

Genre: Comedy of Errors/Romance

Reading Level: 8 and up on the book but I'd say 10 and up because of the flowery writing that might drag for 8 year old's.

Summary:Polly Madassa is convinced she was born for a more romantic time. A time when Elizabeth Bennet and Anne of Green Gables walked along the moors and beaches of the beautiful land, a time where a distinguished gentleman called upon a lady of quality and true love was born in the locked eyes of two young lovers.

But alas, she was not.

This, however, does not stop our young heroine from finding romance wherever she can conjure it up. So while Polly is burdened with a summer job of delivering baked goods from her parents bakery (how quaint!) to the people in her small beach town, she finds a way to force…um…encourage romance to blossom. She is determined to bring lovers, young and old, together…whether they want to be or not.

My Review: This book is as fluffy as a pastry. ^_^Polly is a cute character, even if her constant flowery old fashioned speech can get grating at times. Her silly attempts at getting people together are very cute, and sometimes humorous. The only thing that really bugs me is her inability to really think about the personalities of the people she was getting together and whether they would be compatible together or not. She certainly lives in a fantasy world, unaware of how things really are around her. Which is okay really because after all where would the character development be if the character was already perfect. But I feel the book really didn't need to be as long as it was. The other character we're nice, but not as fully developed, so really I didn't care that much about them. I can't honestly imagine Fran and Polly as best friends, they just seemed far too different from each other. Fran also didn't seem to care that much about Polly and just went along with her antics because she had nothing better to do. The little boy Brad who chases after Polly brings an adorable, innocent little romance for the main character which I enjoyed.
Now about the writing, it tried to copy the eloquent old fashioned style of classic novels. But overusing the adjective dainty, and having the character describing everything around them as beautiful and charming just doesn't cut it, and I would have preferred the book to be written in 3rd person instead of 1st. Other than that it was a very nice lightweight effort.
Content: Nothing objectionable
Rating: 3 stars out of 5
Recommend: For young fans of fluff romance

Teaser Tuesday

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
• Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

"I imagined him pulling out my school portrait from within the pockets of his shirt, holding it close to his heart, and allowing but a few tears to fall down his ruddy cheeks over his unrequited love. Later, as the dark night settled over his cottage, he would sneak out of his room and place my picture within a glass bottle alongside a note that declared:
None other will I love, but this fair maiden."
--Scones and Sensibility by Lindsay Eland

So I know it's really late but I wanted to do my teaser all day and kept forgetting. I figured better late then never. It's still Tuesday for the next couple minutes . >_<

The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks

Title: The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks

Author: E. Lockhart

Reading Level: 13 and up

Summary: Frankie Landau-Banks rich and intelligent finally blossoms in her sophomore year. Which means she attracts the attention of her crush Matthew and is subsequently let in to his clique of friends. Finding herself growing deeply attached to them, Frankie is upset when she finds they are keeping secrets from her and won't let her join their all male society. Setting out to prove her worth to them Frankie begins planning and putting together the greatest pranks in the history of her school.

My Review: Truthfully I picked up this book in the library because the tag on the back cover calling Frankie a near criminal mastermind intrigued me and I was in the mood for a clever story that was girl empowering. Alas this was not to be. I'm not sure why Frankie is described as a criminal mastermind. She is clever that's for sure but mastermind? Not so much. She was just overly obsessed with her boyfriend and his friends, and getting into their club. Why? Because she is overly needy and has to be with them 24/7 even though she complains she never has any alone time with her boyfriend. Not because she's asserting her independence as a smart female. A smart female wouldn't care about being excluded and being with her boyfriend 24/7. She'd go on and live her life. The only other character that made an impression on me other than Frankie was Alpha, her rival, but he was pushed into the background to make room for her boring and uninteresting boyfriend Matthew. The the other characters were so one dimensional and unemotional it's not even worth to mention their names.
The narrating of the story tried to hard to be smart. In the beginning the use of big words was cute, and I felt would encourage teens to look up these words and heck maybe even start using them in real life. The explanation of "neglected positive" was interesting, but Frankie's use of them got annoying after a while. The conversations between the "basset hounds" were not as fascinating as Frankie or the author would lead you to believe. It's just a bunch of guys spouting nonsense, which is fine in real life but not so much in books. The pacing of the novel was slow, the interesting pranks that Frankie masterminded didn't show up until near the end, and then they were skimmed over so quickly you really didn't have time to enjoy them.
I did however enjoy finding out what a panopticon was, Frankie's suicide club essay, and the mentions of P.G. Wodehouse and his books.
Content: Actually I forget if there was any language or not in this book. Some sexual innuendo.
Rating: 2 stars out of 5
Recommend: No

The Lonely Hearts Club: A Book Review

Title: The Lonely Hearts Club

Author: Elizabeth Eulberg

Reading Level: 13 and up

Summary: After finding out the boy of her dreams is nothing but a liar and a cheat, Penny Lane Bloom has decided she wants nothing more to do with boys. So she starts The Lonely Hearts Club dedicated to swearing off dating, and spending the rest of her high school existence being true to herself and her friends. Soon the idea catches on and all the girls in school are following after Penny's example, just as she starts to realize there may be one boy in school who's worth her time.

My Review: I did enjoy Elizabeth Eulberg's debut. It was a sweet, humorous, novel about the trials and tribulations involved in teen dating, and how girls find a way to stay strong and confident in themselves. It was nice to read a book with such a positive message, for girls to not center their lives, and happiness around boys, and to be particularly careful in choosing a guy. After all every girl out there is a truly special one of a kind human being, and deserves an equally special guy.(because truthfully there are a lot of nice guys out there in the world, despite what you might think. ~_^) I feel many a girl will be able to find solace in the company of Penny Lane and her many friends.
Content: Some sexual references in the beginning
Rating: 3 1/2 stars out of 5
Recommend: For girls in high school