Allegiant

Wow. This week has made my eyes really tired. I have read 3 different books since Saturday. This girl probably needs to go get her eyes checked.

I know what you are thinking.... since when did Juju Eat Cake become a crappy book blog?!

Yeah, I am kind of thinking the same thing, but for once in my life I am actually reading. Something that I find so much happiness in yet never seem to find time to actually do it.

It has been so lovely to read....

Is anyone else out there on the Divergent wagon?!! This week has been an exciting/disappointing/emotional week for those of us who have been following Veronica Roth. According to the Amazon reviews for her newest installment Allegiant, you are all a bunch of raging lunatics ready to burn her at the stake. However, I had a slightly (more than slightly, actually) different view than the majority of the readers thus far.

*(IF YOU HAVE NOT READ THE BOOK I WOULD NOT ADVISE YOU TO READ AHEAD. THERE ARE NOT OUT RIGHT SPOILERS EXCEPT WHAT IS IN SMALL FONT, BUT YOU CAN INFER A LOT OF THINGS THAT HAPPENED BY WHAT I HAVE TO SAY. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!)*

Am I shocked? No

Am I sad? Yes

I feel like the book stands. Perfect. Unblemished.

Why you may ask?

The decisions and actions of everyone involved was true to each person's true character. To a tee. I don't quite understand how everyone is so flabbergasted. I understand that it was gut-wrenching, but it was also beautiful beyond belief.

Did I ball my eyes out? HA of course!

But all in all, it was the perfect sacrifice and the perfect ending to an amazing trilogy. My hat TRULY goes off to Veronica Roth on this one. You have taught us (well, some of us) that life isn't perfect. Because guess what, folks? It just isn't. Period. Especially when there is so much war and violence involved.

Tris was truly a hero through and through in this series. I know it is hard for some of us to wrap our minds around what happened, but the choices she made were COMPLETELY in character for her! I cannot say that enough. I think you have to know someone with an Abnegation personality in real life to truly realize this. Don't read the next line if you haven't read the book, ***SPOILERS*** but only the good die young. Only stars that shine that bright can only burn for so long. That is life. Period.

Favorite scene in the book? When Four goes to his home and shaves his head...etc.,etc.,etc....
You know what I am talking about! O.M.G. Such an amazing scene, Ms. Roth! I think a little part of my heart died during that scene.

I did think the book was a little slow, yes. However, I am not sure if it was because it was actually slow, or because I was agonizing over the possibilities of how the book was going to end.

I also thought the POV switches were confusing for the most part. I would be talking with Tris' voice in my head and realize it was Four's perspective. Talk about confusing.

So, although there are flaws in this book just like every other book in the world, over all this book will go on my shelf next to all my favorite series. Sorry Suzanne Collins, but Veronica Roth blew your series out of the water. Whomp whomp.

If you haven't read the series I HIGHLY advise that you do. It has everything from violence, to romance, to betrayal, to forgiveness, to hatred, to love, to tragedy, to comedy, to most importantly amazing characters that will make an impact on your life. Gotta love it! :)

Also I am going to go ahead and advertise for Veronica Roth here and say that if you haven't already, check out her Divergent series novellas!! Probably my MOST favorite piece of the trilogy... Free Four. This little tiny piece of gold makes my heart melt into rushing waters. I truly love this scene from Four's perspective. This part of Four was never exposed throughout the entire series until the last book, but it was such a breath of fresh air before the last book came out.

Also from Four's perspective, check out The Transfer. Not as good as Free Four, but still brings so much light onto Four's past, present, and future. Ms. Roth is going to continue to release these novellas until next year. There will be 3 more.


Alright so I have some projects in the works and some posts that are LONG overdue, so I am going to promise that the next few posts are NOT about books! Maybe.... :)

Steampunk?

OKAY! After this one, I will not post about another book until I do something else with my life! Trust me! I hear you screaming!

I just have to tell you, I am SUPER pumped about doing a review for this(ese) particular book(s). 

In May, I stumbled upon this book on Amazon (best way to find a book these days, right?) with a no-name author, with decent reviews, and a more than decent price (99 cent, baby!).

I thought, "what the hay, I will try that for close to free!" In hindsight, I am so glad I put my faith in the reviewers on Amazon!

I read the first novel to be published by a girl who I am now very fond of. 

Introducing... A.R. Ivanovich.

Weird name, right? Partially why I was intrigued to read this highly acclaimed (per Amazon reviewers) book. 

First book... Haven.

Genre... Steampunk.   <----------- google'd it for ya!

What tha hell?

Yep. Steampunk. I had to google it too. And read the Wikipedia page.

Essentially, I would summarize so-called "steampunk" genre as modern-day Sherlock Holmes meets Bellatrix Lestrange.

No matter how you look at it, who wouldn't love a genre where the Victorian era meets Wild, Wild West? Give me leather, metal, big hair, and steam. Lots and lots of steam.

Now that you get the genre, let's get back to the book.

So, yes! Haven is the story of a young girl named Katelyn Kestrel, who is a citizen of a small place called Haven. Haven is basically a utopia. The weather is perfect, the people are perfect, life is perfect. Born on the idea of a teacher, Katelyn goes on a quest to find a way out of Haven (no one ever leaves or visits). No spoilers here, but I will tell you, Ivanovich's made-up world is fantastic! Her descriptions are beautifully prosed. I have not read a better book with those kinds of brilliantly described places in a looooong time! I will say that her dialogue could use some work (it is a bit corny at times and sometimes robotic), but her imagination is brilliant! The characters are lovable, even those that deceive the readers (plot twists!). I really enjoyed reading this book. 

The best part about finishing Haven was that I didn't have to wait too terribly long before I could read the sequel.

The sequel... Dragoon.

Once again, Ivanovich delivered! I would say it had the same pros and cons as the first book, but maybe by the end of the series her dialogue will have improved. 

As for Ivanovich, I would say she has started off nicely, with a great career of writing ahead of her. Check her out sometime! You will not be upset you did!

Images above via http://heatherlovedit.blogspot.com/2011/11/loved-it-rachel-mcadams-in-sherlock.html and http://harrypotter.wikia.com/wiki/Bellatrix_Lestrange.

Perks

Do you sometimes wish that your personal taste in books were different than your actual tastes?

I more than always feel like this is true. I always think, "but what if I read [insert classic novel here] instead of this cheesy, teeny-bopper, young adult novel." Most of the time, I just feel like I would be a whole lot smarter and I would sound more intelligent when talking about my most recent read. Then I think, "who wants to read those things, anyway?"

Okay, so I am not totally telling the truth. I love to read books, no matter how new, old, cheesy, intelligent, etc. I have been known to read classic novels exclusively on my cell phone, which is why my lovely mother-in-law bought me a Kindle as a gift a few years back. She couldn't believe I could read that many words on such a small screen. Beggars can't be choosers I guess, but now I love to use my Kindle with a bigger screen. :)

So yes, I do read classic novels, however, I also love books that would sit on the shelf of a 13 year old. Am I alone here? Maybe so, but I am not ashamed... well... at least for the most part.

My most recent read was inspired by my love for... wait for it... yep, you caught me...

Emma Watson, ladies and gentlemen.

Image via http://shakespearesolved.blogspot.com/2012/09/emma-watson-shakespeare.html

Yeah, yeah I get it. I am ridiculous. But who can help loving her?! She is Hermione in the flesh (which she probably hates by now), so how could you not love her? She also gained her stardom to fame as a dorky, crazy-haired, uptight nine-year old, which is pretty awesome. Who knew that she just scored one of the best roles in the history of filmmaking (my opinion)?!

Anyways, Ms. Watson inspired me to read a particular book because I have been dying to see her play a role other than the infamous Hermione Granger. 

Image via http://teaser-trailer.com/movie/perks-of-being-a-wallflower/

I knew that I must see this movie, but I refused to see it without reading the book first. So I did.

The Perks of being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky is a story about a boy named Charlie who begins writing letters to an anonymous receiver after a friend of his commits suicide. The story is told in the form of these letters. Charlie begins to tell the receiver everything about life as a freshman in high school: from what he does in a day, to rumors he hears at school, to secrets about his best friends, etc. All the while, you start to realize Charlie isn't all right. You find out why, but no spoilers here. For those of you that care, there is some graphicness (is that a real word?) to the book, but nothing I couldn't handle. I would say this book was 3.5-4/5 stars. Not the best book I have read, and not the worst either. It was an easy and super quick read. It did provoke some thought. Overall, it was good.

Now that I am finished with the book, I cannot wait to see the movie, although I have already prepared myself for the worst. We shall see.

Hope everyone is wrapping up their summers with a smile. Before you know it, we will be drinking pumpkin beer and wearing leather riding boots. 

Just keep on reading! :)

Love is a Many Splendored Thing, All You Need is Love!

You know those books that while you are reading them, you must make yourself stop reading because you are so sucked into them that if you don't make yourself stop you will either pee on whatever surface you are sitting on or you will die of hunger or thirst, or better yet, you will fail your class because you haven't even started looking over your syllabus and the class started a week and a half ago?!

Or have you ever read a book that completely takes over your body, your mind, your thoughts, your feelings? Almost like the characters and their stories come alive and they move you, and even change you?

I totally just got finished reading one of those books.

You probably have not read my previous reviews on books, so I will kind of start there. I was a big fan of The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins. I truly enjoyed reading the trilogy. So much so, actually, that when I finally dug myself out of the hole I had made with my body from sitting on the couch in one place for so long without moving, I turned around and re-read them all out loud to my husband. During the second read, I realized that they were good, but they weren't fantastic. They left my palate searching for something. For some reason, the right spice was not part of the list of ingredients. I was hungry for more.

I started browsing the web for something that could appease my ravenous appetite for a good book to devour. I ended up finding just what the doctor ordered. I found a blogger that did a blog post where she reviewed some of the books that she read status post the Collins' trilogy, which is when I found out about a trilogy in progress by Veronica Roth. So far, two out of the three books have been released (anxiously awaiting the third, can't wait!). I read Divergent first, a little too quickly, before reading Insurgent. For some reason, these books completely satisfied my need for an amazing book. These books really are AH-MAZE-ING, and I highly recommend you read them! Especially before the third and final book comes out in October! :)

Before the last 2 weeks, the only books I have read for the last 9 months have been filled with tedious information that makes my brain feel like mush after about 15 minutes of reading. When each chapter of said books takes 4-5 hours to read, that makes a real mashed potato of a brain! I had been DYING to get my hands on a book of choice for so long, I could hardly remember what it felt like to have my Kindle resting nicely in the palm of my good book greedy hand. I decided I HAD to read a book of my own choosing for the lovely but painful 2 weeks that I was off from school. I read one book during the two weeks, which is actually not the book I am reviewing today. That review will come soon. Even though school started last Monday for the summer, I could not help it. I started a second book of choice (big oooopppps)!


I began reading the Delirium trilogy by Lauren Oliver.

Image via http://laurenoliverbooks.blogspot.com/2011/06/delirium-makeover.html

Delirium is a book based in a dystopian society set in the U.S., where at age 18, all citizens are "cured" from a sickness called Amor Deleria Nervosa, which is love. The government believes that love is the source of all evil, and so all of the citizens are given a procedure to eradicate their ability to love.

Sounds interesting, right? It was spellbinding! Each chapter opened with a excerpt from an "approved" text (all texts that had love or anything to do with love were banned or changed) from the government. Each text showed the depth of cruelty of the government for getting rid of love! It was quite disgusting to read the excerpts, how twisted and reviling it would be to live in a world where love is a disease.

Any who, the story is told from the POV of the main character named Lena, who is 17 years old and just a few months away from having her procedure. At first, Lena cannot wait to have the procedure done - no love equals no chaos, no broken hearts, no pain, no feelings - she believes this is how life is supposed to be. However, her last summer of "freedom" makes her begin to think that maybe life with the ability to love is actually better than life with no love at all.

I don't want to go into any more details about the plot - spoilers make me want to puke! But I do want to show respect and appreciation of Lauren Oliver, whose writing style is exemplary! Each line in this book is beautiful! She really is a first-class writer! And there are plot twists you don't see coming - for the most part! All in all, I would highly recommend any of her works (now I want to read for debut novel, Before I Fall, which is also supposed to be a wonderful read).

If you are into the dystopian stuff floating around, I highly recommend you read this series!

***P.S. I have been working on this post for awhile now, and I have actually completed the other 2 novels in the series, Pandemonium and Requiem. Pandemonium was really good. It was told from the POV of Lena again, however, every other chapter was titled Now, and the others were titled Then. Basically, you were reading about two different stories that ended up tying up together in the end. Very interesting. You really see Lena's character grow in this book. Her character becomes more complex and Lauren really digs deep into who she was and who she is now. Requiem is the last book of the trilogy. It is the first book where you see from someone else's POV. Every other chapter is from Lena's POV, while the others are from Lena's best friend, Hana's, POV. This book drives you crazy for a little bit. You just want to scream at everyone throughout the whole book (you know how those books are). There are some super twists in this book that I definitely did not see coming! There are a lot of reviews on Amazon for this book that are negative (which made me super unexcited to finish the really good series), however, after finishing the series, I was very happy with how it ended. People said in their reviews that there are a lot of loose ends and everything wraps up quickly, but I think it was perfect just the way it is.
I thoroughly enjoyed the series and was excited to find out that they are making the trilogy into a movie! It looks like Delirium will be a made-for-TV movie. It says on IMDB that it is in post-production, so it should be set to air somewhat soon! It shall be interesting with it being a TV movie, but hopefully it will be good (of course, not as good as the book!).

My next review will be for another book that I read with my time off! I am super excited to do a review for this book, because it is by a brand new author, who deserves some cred! I am currently reading her second book that JUST came out! Woot woot! :) (yay for reading and not doing school work!)

Recently Read

(I am FINALLY getting around to posting about these books. You will have to forgive my lateness, which is probably going to make for a pretty crappy post, but here goes nothin'...)

A few months ago I read a few books that I thought I would share about because I liked them so much. After reading The Hunger Games (HG) by Suzanne Collins, I have been itching for a good read. I really loved HG, however, the writing style was not up to par for me. I found my taste for "a book as good as HG" sad, because HG was not the best written book I have ever read. I had been doing some tootling around on some blogs and found a list of books recommended by the author of a particular blog that I frequent. I went out on a limb and just bought one of the books she recommended, hoping it would be good. The first book that I read was called Divergent by Veronica Roth.

Image via www.goodreads.com

The reason I was excited to read this book was because it is set in a post-apocalyptic Chicago, which intrigued me after reading my very first post-apocalyptic novel, HG. It is also about a young girl who is coming of age in this post-apocalyptic society, which divides its' people into five factions by distinct personality traits/characteristics: honesty, intelligence, peacefulness, bravery, and selflessness. In order to be apart of one of these factions, you must prove to the people in the faction that you belong there by a series of "tests" designated by each faction. If you don't complete the tests up to their standards (which you might not survive), you are placed into a group of people (more like the "untouchables" of the society) known as the "factionless." The main character is at the age where she must choose to either stay with the faction she was born into (stay with her family and everything she has ever known) or leave her home, reject her family, and choose another faction, even if it is where she thinks she belongs. Like HG, this book presents its' readers with many questions of social norms as well as ethical issues. It was a thrilling read for me (not for my husband, he made me stop reading it to him at the climax of the book, boo) and also, very thought provoking. I actually thought it was better than HG in most instances. My husband disagreed.

The other book that I read (as soon as I stopped reading this one) was Divergent's sequel, Insurgent.

Image also via www.goodreads.com

This book was just as good as the first (which HG did a bad job at). I gobbled it down in a short time, and was left wanting more and more! Unfortunately, the last installment of the trilogy is not to be released until next fall.

I highly recommend both of these books to anyone who liked/loved HG, or who loves good books, period. They are considered "Young Adult" reads, so if you are not into that, I wouldn't read them. 

Anyone read anything good lately? I am looking for some good books to read over the holiday once my semester is over with (yep, back to no pleasure reading books while in school, BOO!). I will also do another review if I read anything good (I have read a few books since then, but they weren't good enough to do an actual review on). 

Hope everyone had a good start to their week! Is anyone else as tired as I am at about 6pm once it is already pitch black dark outside?! Darn you, time change!