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Talonsphere
The Picture of Dorian Gray
Does My Goldfish Know Who I Am?: and hundreds more Big Questions from Little People answered by experts
The Night Circus
The Fellowship of the Ring
Claimed (101 Nights, Serial No. 1)
There are no words to say how bad this was. To quote Natalie, "Double shit." Very original. Hmmm... I wonder what other female protagonist in a "porn" book series uses this kind of swearing?
Oh, Anna, didn't see you there. What did you just say? Oh, "Double crap." I see.
By the way, I didn't read 50 Shades, but I've read enough reviews to know to stay away from it. However, I did read good erotica and S.E.Reign is a pen name for an author whose previous books I enjoyed.
To sum it up a little (because I don't have the time or the patience for this book anymore), Natalie agrees to be some billionaire prince's personal whore in private and his fiancee in public because this guy has some issues with his daddy who wants to see him married. Why does she agree to do that, you ask? Well, she was blackmailed. She thinks she's doing a good job because she's saving the building where her family and other poor people live. In fact, she enjoys this whole situation a lot more than she's willing to admit. Because of course, you can't not like a man who treats you like a slave and uses his money to manipulate you.
One particular scene that pisses me off is when "Natty" has an orgasm so strong that she loses consciousness. Guess what he does to her when she wakes up? Oh, yeah. He fucks her again. Really...
Let's not forget when during foreplay he appears to have three hands to play with her.
SEEMS LEGIT.
So... no. Don't read this. Unless you like reading books with terrible sex and no story whatsoever.
Popular: Vintage Wisdom for a Modern Geek
Video+concurs cu 4 exemplare: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7mrsUe_YtKwCe inseamna sa fii popular? Poate oricine sa devina popular? Acestea sunt intrebarile care o framanta pe Maya in timpul experimentului ei. Tatal tinerei de 15 ani a gasit intr-un anticariat ghidul de popularitate scris de Betty Cornel, un model adolescent de acum 50 de ani. Dar acesta ramane uitat o vreme, pana cand e regasit, iar mamei ii vine o idee, cum zice Maya, de genul acelora "care-ti vin o data in viata". Asa se face ca Maya incepe sa tina un jurnal in timp ce experimenteaza in secret, sprijinita de familia ei: parintii, fratele mai mic si surioara autista. In fiecare luna, Maya aplica sfaturile lui Betty, pe capitole corespunzand fiecare lunilor anului.
In timp ce capitole de tipul imbracamintei au nevoie de actualizari, majoritatea raman valabile. Maya isi schimba treptat stilul de viata si incepe sa inteleaga ca popularitatea nu vine din postura perfecta sau dieta pe care o urmeaza. Acest lucru pare sa nu-i fi scapat nici lui Betty Cornel. Atat vechiul ghid, cat si cartea Mayei surprind un adevar mult mai profund, dincolo de moda si eticheta, o lectie pe care poate unii am invatat-o deja, dar pe care nu strica sa o repetam.
Alaturi de Maya, in cele 3 zile cat am stat cu ea prin intermediul acestor pagini, am zambit, am ras, m-am intristat si chiar m-am emotionat pana la lacrimi la un punct. As da orice sa fi avut cartea asta cand aveam varsta ei, cred sincer ca m-ar fi ajutat enorm sa trec prin gimnaziu. Cu toate astea, e o carte ce poate fi citita la orice varsta. Pe mine m-a ajutat sa imi amintesc ceea ce conteaza cu adevarat pana la urma: sa te simti bine in propria-ti piele si sa incerci sa devii o versiune mai buna a ta.
Ca si design, echipa editurii Epica a facut treaba buna. Ma bucur ca s-a pastrat coperta originala, iubesc paginile de inceput albastre cu bulinute albe si mi se pare ca albastrul e o alegere superba pentru citatele din cartea lui Betty. Nu sunt sigura daca asa a fost si in original, dar GOOD JOB.
Twitter Girl
The inevitable has happened. When you hate the main character so much, what can you do other than DNF the book?Cassidy Shea is famous on Twitter because of her "sarcastic tweets". But sometimes people just don't have a sense of humour and one of her little Twitter jokes was to much to handle. She gets fired and while at first I though "Gee, that's so unfair," Cassidy showed me what kind of a person she is and I switched to "The bitch deserved it."
So what is the plot of this Chick Lit? Presidential candidate Will Becker hires her as help for his campaign. And what do you think miss Cassidy does at this job? Oh, well, other than occasional mean Tweets that were not funny at all (at least not for me) she is much more preoccupied in what hot man at her workplace to get her hands on.
Manga Classics: Pride & Prejudice Softcover
I know a great series when I see it. The first "Manga Classics" book I read was the adaptation of Les Miserables, which at the time had very few reviews and was yet another risky choice of a title to review, especially since I had previously been dissapointed by other graphic novels from NetGalley. But it exceeded my expectations and I requested their second title - "Pride and Prejudice" - another classic I'm planning on reading but never got around to. And once again I am pleased to rate it no less than 5 stars. I waited for the release date to actually review it, and I am amazed to see almost 2 thousand ratings for each of these titles, and an average of over 4 stars. Excellent!
The story mainly focuses on Darcy, Elizabeth and their famous love story. We also have a little insight on Elizabeth's sisters lives and her family in general.
Pride & Prejudice has another illustrator than Les Miserables, a very different style might I add, but it still reminds me of those old, amazing mangas I have loved in the past. The story is your classic historical romance, but having not read the original, I cannot comment on how closely it follows the book.
I can however guarantee you're in for a great read, and having it beautifully illustrated can only be a bonus.
One is Enough
Matsumoto-kun is a sixteen-year-old high-school student who, upon bumping into an older, mysterious guy, Mizushima-kun, learns he is actually attracted to boys instead of girls.Matsumoto falls in love at first sight, but is at the same time ashamed of himself, confused about his feelings, and the fact that Mizushima has past love scars and plays with his feelings certainly does not help.
One is Enough manga tells a cute story about accepting yourself the way you are, about friendship and love.
While I found it to have been fast-paced and overall enjoyable, I couldn't help not being slightly irritated about the cliche story and the unhealthy relationship between the two. Mizushima is always acting cold towards Matsumoto, probably because of his own past and his trouble accepting he is also gay. Matsumoto ends up being hurt a lot because of this, and it didn't make sense that he would always go back and get hurt again, confessing his love for someone whose first name he doesn't even know, let alone his personality.
So even though the drama the two boys have to live (understanding and accepting their true nature) feels very real, the rest of their story together doesn't. This would've been better if the love story wasn't so rushed, in my opinion.
Manga Classics: Les Miserables Softcover
I have actually always wanted to read more classics, "Les Miserables" being one of the books included in this huge list of novels I am ashamed to not have read. So when the manga adaptation popped up in my NetGalley newsletter as being available to read now, I didn't second guess my choice to click the button. So here I am, a few days after having finished it, and let me just say: wow!First of all, turning an almost 1500 pages novel into a 336 pages of manga obviously needs a lot of work and cutting many scenes, so I was impressed how good it was, without feeling rushed or not making sense in places. Wonderfully thought out!
And the graphics! Oh, "splendid" doesn't even begin to describe it. Just the way I like my mangas. Really, really great!
I'm not sure how faithful it all is to the original book, but I am pretty sure it was the best that could have been done given the length it has. The story was amazing and it makes me want to forget about my huge TBR pile and just run to the store and buy a huge copy of "Les Miserables" by Victor Hugo and read it. That's how good it was!
This manga tells a dramatic story during the French Revolution, about Jean Valjean, a former convict who redeems himself, falls in love with a prostitute and ends up adopting her child after she dies. Jean Valjean has to always hide his identity because he is to be arrested if found, but he is a changed man, giving money to the poor and helping anyone in need. The second half of the book focuses on the child, Cosette, who has grown up and fell in love with Marius.
I really enjoyed this a lot, and I would recommend it to anyone who is not sure if they would enjoy the original book.
Preview chapter 1
Recipes for the Dead: Issue 1
What a great thing to have found an amazing comic book at the point where I almost lost my interest in graphic novels and all after so many consecutive disappointments!The beautiful art in this comic is done by Ein Lee and it was the main reason why I decided to donate 5$ to a Kickstarter project for the third issue. My reward was a .pdf of this first issue, and I will also get the next 2 once they are ready. And boy am I excited!
Naja HC
Naja hates everything and everyone. She is the number three assassin of the organisation she works for. She doesn't know who her boss is, doesn't question why she has to kill, doesn't feel anything... other than hate. Well guess what, Naja? 
Other than "loving" the main character, I got to a point where I lost my interest in the story too, and it's really a shame since I loved it at first. Nothing is explained in the first half, it all seems very random and while I am sure it gets explained (hopefully) later on, at that point I couldn't have cared less.
Flowers on the Water
I have made it a habit to read on the tram, on my way to college and back home. For this, I think it is quite obvious why I usually choose short stories, novellas or shorter books. I only have around 30 minutes a day and other books are waiting for me at home. I also try to choose something sweet, with not a very complex storyline so I can focus even if there is a lot of noise.Flowers on the Water was an exactly such book and I'm very happy I picked it up. It was free on Amazon at the time when I got it, and it's not very expensive now either. It tells the story of Lucy, whose little boy died by drowning years before. Every year, she goes to the same beach-house she stayed then and throws flowers in the sea to commemorate her son. But this year is the 10th one since he died, and Lucy stumbles upon her ex-husband. It appears there was a mix-up and they both payed for a week at the beach-house and now have to stay together after many years of being apart.
Lucy can't forgive her former husband for writing a book about the tragedy of their son's death, while he blames himself for the accident. However, neither wants to give up the commemoration, and they end up sharing the house after all.
It was a very sweet story about coming to terms with grief, of forgiveness and love that never dies. I definitely recommend it.
Also published on my blog, here: http://vanillamoonblog.com/2014/05/17/review-flowers-on-the-water-by-helen-scott-taylor/
The People Inside
I jumped when I saw this book in NetGalley's Read Now list, up for review. An ARC of a stand-alone graphic novel? 24 relationships explored in sequential arc clouds? What could go wrong? (You probably see it, I didn't when I hit the request button) I'm gonna tell you in case you haven't anticipated it: everything. Yeah, it was that bad.Don't get me wrong, maybe you will love it, the concept is really intriguing and that's what brought my attention to it. But I'm gonna explain a little about why it didn't work for me and I had to drop it after reading 60%.
Well, the first reason would be that it is going to be archived in 2 days and I:
1. have no motivation of finishing it today, nor tomorrow
2. definitely not buying it, that would be called masochism
Anyway, I was expecting the story... actually the stories to be somewhat intertwined with one another - and maybe they were and I just didn't realise it because it was so confusing at times! Every art cloud showed different characters and different stories and after some time you realise they are actually 24, entagled. But when you read those stories like that... how can I put it? It's like reading 24 different books, a page from each one and then you go to the next one and next one until you get back to the first one and so on until you eventually finish all those books.
Maybe I don't see the bigger picture. Maybe the actual story, the message the author was trying to convey is that our lives are not so different from each other, that pieced together they form the puzzle that is humanity. I'm just saying. Because maybe, just maybe, I wanted to like this book so much that I'm trying to come up with anything to save it. But I will say that it would've been much, much better if all the characters were more uniquely drawn, so that you could tell one from the other (because it's all black and white) and obviously, add a splash of colour if we are on this topic.
After all, what this book tried to do is really unique, but it failed in my eyes. I do think though that some of you will really enjoy it. As for me, I can see the potential this could have as a short animation.
Between the Land and the Sea
Video-recenzie: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1l7iCSrRruE&feature=youtu.be
Dear Life
Nope. Just... not the right moment to read this maybe. I might try again some other time. Now I want more action :)
Emily and the Strangers #1
I must say I missed Emily and her adorable, lovable strangeness. Reading this comic made me want to go back and read the third and fourth book as soon as possible, but that's an entirely different story and you're here to read the "Emily and the Strangers" comic's review... I suppose.
So without further ado, the plot in one sentence: Emily is trying to create her best rock song to win the haunted guitar of legendary Proffessa Kraken. I know, it sounds epic. And it is!
The first thing that I noticed was that Emily looks a bit different, like in a different drawing style, but it wasn't at all a problem for me, I actually found it quite refreshing. And while I have only read one of the other Emily the Strange comics out there, I was excited to see Raven for the first time, a very colourful and unique and totally unexpected Raven that is just sooo cool! And the cats? Oh my goodness! You gotta love those crazy cats. We also get to meet some new amazing characters ("the Strangers") but I don't want to go into details as it might spoil this comic for you.
The song Emily creates made me want to listen to it so badly I actually tried to sing it inside my head but I'm sure nothing my mind could imagine would be as great as Emily's.
"Emily and the Strangers" made me feel the same thing the novels did, which that one other comic I read a while ago didn't manage to, so that was clearly a pleasant surprise. What are you waiting for, Emily the Strange fan? Get your hands on a copy now. :)
Unravel Me
"It’s the kind of kiss that makes you realize oxygen is overrated."
Almost perfection... if it weren't for Juliette's personality (which you all know can be a little annoying sometimes.
