Cinder & Ella by Kelly Oram

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Cinder & Ella by Kelly Oram
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Summary:  It’s been almost a year since eighteen-year-old Ella Rodriguez was in a car accident that left her crippled, scarred, and without a mother. After a very difficult recovery, she’s been uprooted across the country and forced into the custody of a father that abandoned her when she was a young child. If Ella wants to escape her father’s home and her awful new stepfamily, she must convince her doctors that she’s capable, both physically and emotionally, of living on her own. The problem is, she’s not ready yet. The only way she can think of to start healing is by reconnecting with the one person left in the world who’s ever meant anything to her—her anonymous Internet best friend, Cinder.
…
Hollywood sensation Brian Oliver has a reputation for being trouble. There’s major buzz around his performance in his upcoming film The Druid Prince, but his management team says he won’t make the transition from teen heartthrob to serious A-list actor unless he can prove he’s left his wild days behind and become a mature adult. In order to douse the flames on Brian’s bad-boy reputation, his management stages a fake engagement for him to his co-star Kaylee. Brian isn’t thrilled with the arrangement—or his fake fiancée—but decides he’ll suffer through it if it means he’ll get an Oscar nomination. Then a surprise email from an old Internet friend changes everything.

It starts out like this: 

"The Problem with Fairy tales is that most of them begin with a tragedy. I understand the reasoning behind it. No one likes a pampered heroine."

It is 3:00 in the morning and I just finished reading Cinder & Ella. I just had to come post my review before I exploded with no one else to tell about this book! I have to admit this is my first Kelly Oram book and I was a little skeptical about it at first. But I was offered the chance to read it for review so I jumped on it!

This is NOTHING I thought it would be... Not even close. I kinda thought it would be a cheesy adaptation of Cinderella. But I was completely wrong! Sure the story of Cinderella was mentioned, but believe me, this was far more than a fairytale.

I fell in love with the Characters immediately with Cinder as my favorite (of course). A part of me is fascinated with young Hollywood and the lives they must lead, so Cinder was intriguing and his personality fit so perfectly with someone who was Hollywood. I'm not sure what kind of research Oram must have done on burn victims, but she did a great job bringing in Ella's life. Ella was a very believable character, with what life had thrown at her, she was all too human. That is a very important element for me in my reading. I need Characters who I can relate to and bring in not only emotions, but realistic elements to the story. The other, secondary characters, were fantastic! They all left enough of an impression that I will be thinking of them long from now as well as Cinder and Ella.

Of course I am a sucker for "fairytale endings" so this one worked out wonderfully. I didn't know how it would get to that point, but I knew there had to be that ending which I loved and wished for more!

Thanks to E-books for Review for the opportunity to get read this novel in exchange for an honest review.

This was a clean read and I recommend to anyone over 14.


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We Were Liars by E. Lockhart

We Were Liars by E. Lockhart
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Summary:  

A beautiful and distinguished family.

A private island.
A brilliant, damaged girl; a passionate, political boy.
A group of four friends—the Liars—whose friendship turns destructive.
A revolution. An accident. A secret.
Lies upon lies.
True love.
The truth.

We Were Liars is a modern, sophisticated suspense novel from National Book Award finalist and Printz Award honoree E. Lockhart.

Read it.
And if anyone asks you how it ends, just LIE.

I had heard so many things praising this book before it was even published. I am now beginning to rethink the general public's view of what is good. Is it the ending? The middle? Or is it how traumatic we can feel about a book?

As for this one, I would tell you that I enjoyed the writing. It was beautifully put together with words, but I also felt something very "off" about the story from the beginning. Things just didn't feel O.K. and as I went on through the book, I ended up putting it down and waiting a few days to keep reading because of those feelings that would come from my gut. I could never put my finger on it, or figure out what was really going on. So the breaks gave my brain time to recover and try to figure out what was so eery about it.

The ending was a gobsmack across the face! I wanted to throw it across the room and maybe even burn it. I am sure that is what the writer was looking for, but not me! I don't like books that leave me feeling kicked in the stomach or thrown off a bridge. Maybe it's just where I am in my life, but gut-wrenching trauma is not what I want to escape to. I have lived enough of that in my personal life, I would rather read something less emotional. So, if you enjoy the kind of book that throws you completely over an emotional cliff.... this one is for you!!!

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The Best of Me by Nicholas Sparks

The Best of Me by Nicholas Sparks
My rating: 1 of 5 stars

Summary: 

"Everyone wanted to believe that endless love was possible. She'd believed in it once, too, back when she was eighteen."


In the spring of 1984, high school students Amanda Collier and Dawson Cole fell deeply, irrevocably in love. Though they were from opposite sides of the tracks, their love for one another seemed to defy the realities of life in the small town of Oriental, North Carolina. But as the summer of their senior year came to a close, unforeseen events would tear the young couple apart, setting them on radically divergent paths.

Now, twenty-five years later, Amanda and Dawson are summoned back to Oriental for the funeral of Tuck Hostetler, the mentor who once gave shelter to their high school romance. Neither has lived the life they imagined . . . and neither can forget the passionate first love that forever changed their lives. As Amanda and Dawson carry out the instructions Tuck left behind for them, they realize that everything they thought they knew -- about Tuck, about themselves, and about the dreams they held dear -- was not as it seemed. Forced to confront painful memories, the two former lovers will discover undeniable truths about the choices they have made. And in the course of a single, searing weekend, they will ask of the living, and the dead: Can love truly rewrite the past?

I keep thinking that I will like something else from Nicholas Sparks. But this is NOT it. I guess I am just not the "martyr" type. All his books involves death, illness (usually cancer) and a sad ending. I guess I am just tired of his typical endings. I appreciated the first book of his that I read, Dear John, mainly because life doesn't always work out the way we plan. But for Sparks to keep focusing on this... ugh! .... Plus, I am very sensitive to the cancer subject, especially Pediatric Brain Cancer which this really didn't do anything but use it as another part of a "sad sob story". I found myself rolling my eyes and wondering why people keep buying into this kind of self-sacrificing, self-pittying, Lets-see-what-else-I-can-add-to-make-more-money.... OH lets add Childhood cancer as well!!! I'm sorry this is a pretty nasty review, but I just can't help it. Cancer is real and I am tired of people making money off of "romanticizing" it. Can an Author like this change up his writing? I guess if people are buying it and it sells.... then keep on writing!

Enough said.

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Trailer for Black Ice from Becca Fitzpatrick.

This looks spectacular!! I can't wait to get my hands... (or ears) on it!  If you have read it, I would love to hear what you have to say!!



Look for a review!!! I WILL READ THIS!!