It Takes a Witch by Heather BlakeMy rating: 5 of 5 stars I thought this book was absolutely super cute. The idea of combining the fantasy genre of magic and witches with the murder mystery genre is brilliant. Neither of the two very different genres ever overtook the story, nor was the magic kitschy.The setting of the village was adorable; a feel good little place the reader can easily escape to.The characters are believable and possess depth, although they are designed to be a bit stereotypical.I have to include a sentence or two about the author’s writing style, since I was quite impressed by the choices she made. Firstly, the…

Clockwork Princess by Cassandra ClareMy rating: 2 of 5 stars Oh, the tragedy. I am not referring to the plot of the book/series, but the unfortunate turn this series has taken with the third and final installment of The Infernal Devices.I am sitting here at my computer, fighting the urge to go into depth and detail about all that turned this series from a promising fantasy trilogy into a heaping mess of teenage angst and “wannabe” emotions. Although, a few quick remarks on plot, characters and general execution by the author will follow.Plot: being the last book in this series I expected more focus on the actual “action” part of…

Clockwork Prince by Cassandra ClareMy rating: 2 of 5 stars What in the world did I just read?The second installment of the Infernal Devices series seemed to have been just a filler or a bridge between the first and third. At least that is my utmost hope, since I cannot come up with a better reason as to why Clockwork Prince received better ratings than Clockwork Angel.To point out a few instances that annoyed the heck out of me without “giving” away much of the mostly lacking plot, I will start with the character of Tessa. I found her still very underdeveloped, although now she is adopting an air of…

Clockwork Angel by Cassandra ClareMy rating: 4 of 5 stars Actually, I am still on the fence about the rating: 4 stars, 4 1/2 stars, I really can’t decide at this point.Clockwork Angel was really good. It combined my love of Victorian London, its grime, its darkness and mysteriousness as well as Victorian literature with fantasy. Something I find difficult to come by and the author accomplished the merge of both splendidly.This book falls under the category of young adult fiction/fantasy, therefore it is not too heavy. The author creates a world that intertwines that of the humans, yet keeps it oddly and distinctly separate from those that are ordinary.There…

The Rosie Project by Graeme SimsionMy rating: 2 of 5 stars I really wanted to like this book. Moreover, I really wanted to enjoy reading this book. Unfortunately, I felt let down.I found the narration confusing and jumping too quickly from one scene to the next. The main character, who also acted as narrator was boring, since he lacked the foils of secondary characters to make his social awkwardness funny. The secondary characters were too far removed from the recount of his experiences and seemed flat.As the story progressed, the main character’s actions and the events described became more and more puzzling.I did not laugh or even smile once while…

Critical Terms for Literary Study by Frank LentricchiaMy rating: 1 of 5 stars Terrible. In my opinion it had no educational value at all. The editor claims in his introduction that the purpose of this collection of essays is to offer the reader an application oriented approach to learning the value and use of literary critical terms. Unfortunately, most essays in this collection wander so far off the actual topic of discussion that neither application nor even a simple definition of the term is ever given. In one instance, the author of an essay succeeded in giving away the ending to five works of fiction that I had not yet…

The Giver by Lois LowryMy rating: 4 of 5 stars Incredibly creepy and disturbing. Those are the first two words that pop into my mind when asked to describe this book.The Giver is a very short and quick read that took me three chapters to warm up to. I was convinced that it was just going to be a mediocre combination of Brave New World and The Hunger Games, but at the end I was racing through the pages to find out what would happen next, to learn more about this strange and controlled world and to get to know the main character better.Considering that this book was only less…

A Night Like This by Julia QuinnMy rating: 4 of 5 stars I have always appreciated the classic works that are set during the Regency period (i.e. Jane Austen) and have therefore sort of stayed away from “fan fiction” style romance novels that attempt to recreate life during that period with the addition of addressing topics that used to be taboo. I was afraid that these types of stories would be very cliched and more erotica than romance, specially after I saw what other books Goodreads recommended for me based on this book.But I was completely wrong about this story. Yes, it did address topics that were seen too vulgar…

The Thirteenth Tale by Diane SetterfieldMy rating: 5 of 5 stars I finished this book yesterday, but was too much in a daze to form one coherent sentence until now. From the very first page I was mesmerized, spellbound and led into a different world. The narration was so personal, it felt like the main character was speaking to you and only you; like this story was written only for the reader currently holding the book. The descriptions of the settings contained enough detail to provide a clear picture and invite the reader into the world of the story without being overwhelming.The characters were richly created and showed depth, but…

Writing Jane Austen by Elizabeth AstonMy rating: 3 of 5 stars I was quite on the fence about this book. I liked the main plot. It was cute, it was different and very easy to read. However, the main character was not very likable. At the beginning all I could think of was “how can a PhD recipient be so dumb?”, but then I realized that she was mostly shy and insecure. Throughout the story I found a few contradictions in her character that caused confusion and didn’t mesh with the overall main plot. These contradictions were also present in the subplots and supporting characters that broke the flow of…