Unforgiven

Last week I did a bookswap for the third time in my life! I never had people around me that liked books until this year, weird right?! So it's only been this school year that I swapped books with Fien, my niece and last week with Nina. She's a good friend of mine and somehow we started talking about books. In the last holiday we went to Ghent and bought books let's just say it like that... So we started talking about the books we bought and I talked about Red Queen and then we decided to swap books. It's as easy as that really! So that's the story behind reading the book: Unforgiving by Lauren Kate.

Someone made a bet with the devil. Cam has 15 days to make sure a girl, he has lost sight of for decades, falls in love with him again. I say decades ago but it's actually 3 millennia, then he broke her heart and ever since that she's being punished because of the crimes he committed. She hates him but who wouldn't hate the person that you loved most when he or she made sure you'd be punished? 
With the deadline and the devil looming around and his love's high school prom is just around the corner, Cam has everything to play for. If he succeeds and makes her fall in love with him again, she'll be set free from this pain she's been living in. They'll be reunited in their love for one another. But if he fails, there's a special place in Hell waiting for him and it won't be the throne. 
Heaven is being with the one you love, Hell is being kept apart. Where will Cam fall?

First things first: it's about Angels and Demons. More importantly the Devil. I can't say how good that already was for me and then we had the cover... God help us! First time you'd look at it, it just seems some pretty boy but then if the lighting is right... Man! He has wings! I hope you guys can see it on the pictures, I wanted both wings to come out but one of them is always half there, half gone.
So for me, I was already excited and I didn't even start yet.

It only became better actually. I was at chapter 3 and I had officially fallen for Cam, he's adorable when he wants to achieve something and he's driven. I guess everything we seek in boys, pity that I only met guys like that in books. So I liked Cam, not only because he's special but also because he wants to achieve and make her fall in love with him again.
As for the Devil, I hated him in this book. I guess it's only because of which part he was fulfilling because a Devil is a Devil and they're bad. I just didn't like the way he made events go, he's a bastard which is what a Devil should be so he's doing his job.
The girl was very intriguing, she loved music. Some way I also could connect with her for some parts which I don't want to get into too much before I spill things. I liked her but I also could tear someone apart because of how she acted toward Cam. That's all because of the Devil so I can't blame her directly but still. 

The story was also amazing, Cam has a deadline and the book makes use of that. Also, it has flashbacks to millennia ago to show what exactly happened between the lovers. Above that there are scenes that were absolutely stunning and cute and I just loved those! What I liked most about the book though was that it had parts where the girl's point of view was explained and then parts where Cam was the voice behind the story. I've always been a fan of books like that because it also gives you the thoughts about the other protagonist.

So the verdict is that I liked the book, the story was good, the characters even better. I've never read a book by Lauren Kate but now I'm eager to find more stories written by her. She has an easy writing style that's still intriguing. I'm curious to what other stories she has to tell but I'm pretty happy with how she wrote this one. She showed that 'every love story has a dark side' which I'd connect with the words 'up and downs' because that's how love stories go. 

"Tick-Tock." 

Dance on My Grave

So every year we get a list of books out of which we may choose to read for school. This year for my Dutch class, we're assigned to read 4 books of the list. The first one was from the author Floortje Zwigtman and I enjoyed it. My second book was Dance on My Grave by Aidan Chambers. 

It's about two boys, Henry Robinson and Barry Gorman. They meet at some rather weird circumstances. Let's just say Barry comes to the rescue. They immediately get along and grow a strong friendship. But Barry wants more and Hal (Henry's nickname) already knew it from the start. And they fall in love. It's simple but! Yes there comes a "but".  
One of the two dies and the book concentrates on the thoughts about the one that's left behind. These observations, thoughts and sometimes heartbreaking feelings are revealed in the book by little sketches, his own writings, press clippings and scattered noted of the social worker that has come to observe him. Why? Because he danced on the grave of his beloved one and is now being sued.  These various perspectives contribute to an extraordinarily sensitive portrait of the intensity of first love.

The book is divided in 4 parts, to be honest I really started to enjoy the book from part 3. It's not that I didn't enjoy the first two parts but it just went slow. Too slow in my opinion. He wasn't to the point but talked a lot around what he wanted to say. That changed in part 3 which I'm glad it did.

As for both of the boys, I loved them. You had Henry, who doesn't like his name so he wants everyone to call him Hal. He's insecure about himself, doesn't know what to do with his life and isn't that adventures. Whereas Barry is totally different, Barry's dad died some years ago and ever since then he's working in his father's shop with his mom. Barry is confident, knows how to sail and ride a motorcycle. He loves to go fast and go on adventures. But you know what they say, opposites attract each other and that's shown in this book. 

Another character in the book is the social working. We see her notes in the book too and I liked that they were there. If they weren't there it wouldn't have mattered but the book from is told from past events and then evolves to the present. And her notes make sure you know how she and the judge, teachers, parents think about the situation in the present. How he's doing, how he's coping with it and everything. It gave me as a reader some room for thought. Is it normal how he behaves? Isn't he overreacting when he did that? Is she doing the right thing? Or should she try to talk with him on a different manner? And as I already said there are also sketches in the book, room for detail? Excellent. The sketches are often used to show what he means with what he says and sometimes I found that come in handy because he uses terms I didn't understand. The author also makes use of explanations from dictionaries and gives more information about for example: the Thames. No it's not there likes a lesson, it's presented elegant and plain.
And something I loved the most in the book were the press clippings. There were two press clippings, one where was being told why the character was being sued and at the end, where was explained what was said at the jurisdiction. So you know how it ends, will he go to prison? Will he go to a psychologist? Will he go into an institute? Does he just get help and get supervision? You'll know at the end of the book and I like that. You'll know if all of his hard work (saying what happened and why he did what he did while it was hard for him to talk about it), will have payed off. 


But I do have something negative about the book. The first thing that it went slow but the second thing is that I found it rather weird how the next chapter was indicated. If you entered a new chapter, there was the number of the chapter just at the begin of the first sentence. And it was in the same character size and that did cause irritation within me because I'm the kind of reader that can't stop in the middle of a page. I need to finish a chapter and start with a new page. Here the new 'page' started in the middle of the page and I often didn't know if I was already in a new chapter because I basically read over the number. 

Though if you have this book on your reading list for school or reading list in general: the story is beautiful. I did have an emotional moment because you know he has to dance on the grave but he just has a mental break down while he does it. But I do like the story because it shows you how people react after someone dies, especially when it's your beloved one. A nice book with room for thought and details but with some remarks, not that bad! 
The cover that you see now on the picture isn't the most beautiful one I know, but it's from the library and it seems like it's been tortured by a lot of readers. There are other covers that I liked more but it is what it is. Take what you can get, right? So don't judge the book by it's cover. It's better than that. 

"No matter which one of us both dies first, the other one promises that he will dance on his grave. No but. Just promise it."

Beautiful Disaster

It’s been waiting on my reading list for half a year and I finally dared to buy it. I heard positive things about it but the most comments were negative which is why I waited so long. I have no idea why I waited so long because it was such a good and addictive book: Beautiful Disaster by Jamie McGuire.

It’s about a girl, Abby and a boy, Travis who meet in a very awkward moment. There’s blood, a smile, a stunned expression and it all begins. They meet again and it’s pretty obvious Travis likes Abby. He won’t take no for an answer but Abby only  wants him to leave her alone. He’s a bad boy and she can’t fall in love with him. Everything in her head tries to keep the defenses up while her heart is only growing closer to Travis. Who can resist a bad boy whose so good looking, has tattoos and a motorcycle? He’s the only person she thinks about. It only leads to frustration, anger, despair, love, broken hearts. Especially when the past comes knocking on Abby’s door. The only question is will it bring them even closer or only rip them further apart?

The feels in this book are just huge. I never felt the same emotions through this book, I felt everything the main character felt and above that more emotions. One emotion that kept coming back were frustrations. I’m so team Travis! I guess I have the feels for bad boys ha! I just love books where I can pull my hair out one moment but totally melt inside the other, only to be angry 20 pages later. It just makes sure the book isn’t boring. 

A word about the characters? God, where to begin. I could totally relate with Abby! She wants to be good, pay attention in class. She dresses as she pleases, is ugly when she wants to be. (With that I just mean that she doesn’t care about how she walks in her own room. If it’s with sweatpants and a messy bun or a dress that’s too short, she does as she pleases.). She does care when there are rumors about her which only makes her vulnerable and would keep her from doing what her heart really wants. She’s not only vulnerable at times where rumors spread but also when it comes to her past. She ran away from it, started fresh but her past decides to come visit and get her in trouble. 

Travis on the other hand, would do everything to get what his heart wants. He got a hard past with his family but now they’re pretty close. He doesn’t care what others think about him. But if it comes tho his pigeon, which is his nickname for Abby, it's different. If a boy even looks at her, he’s in a protective mode. You’d say he’s a bad boy because he’s covered in tattoos and does things that are irresponsible but when it comes to Abby he’s such a nice boy. Protective, sweet, concerned. I’m in team Travis, especially when we meet other boys in the book. Like Parker, he’s a Parker. Rich, sweet, predictable and he doesn’t make Abby feel like Travis can, in my opinion. 

Another boy I did like in the book was Shepley. He’s a cousin of Travis and into a relationship. He’s responsible, the good boy if we compare him with his cousin. He has a relationship with Abby’s best friend: America, Mare for short. And yes, I also liked her in the story. Why? Because she’s protective. She wants her best friend safe but sometimes knows better than Abby. Another positive thing about her is that she’s funny at times and says certain things that can only make you laugh out loud. I enjoyed her presence in the book. 

I liked the story because as I already said it gave me a lot of feels but also because of the theme. A bad boy, a good girl. Will they fall for each other? Will they not? You could say it’s such a cliche but it’s not. In cliche stories you can predict the things that come but I couldn’t predict what happened throughout the book. The good girl with a past catching up? The bad boy not being that bad after all but has a soft side for this girl. There are so many aspects that you can’t predict and which caused the many, many feels I got. 

I do have a negative aspect but it’s nothing major. At some point in the book it went a little fast. Too fast in my opinion because we didn’t have any background about what just happened. It just walked into the story without any warning or a little context that leads to it which I found a little disturbing. Especially if it ends as fast as it came, and that was that. It felt like it wasn’t anything important while it was. So in my opinion, the writer could’ve written a little more about that aspect to make a more smooth transition. Though the good aspects outweighs the bad one. I recommend the book and if it has been on your reading list for quite a while now, I’d say just go get it. It’s totally worth it, I promise! I’m even going to get the second book soon. (It’s the story but in Travis POV. I’m a sucker for the books with the POV of the boy. It just gives the story two sides and I like that.) 

“Good girl, bad boy. Imminent disaster? Or the start of something beautiful?”

Amy & Matthew

[This review CAN contrain spoilers!]

For all the booklovers of Eleanor&Park, I introduce you: Amy&Matthew from the author Cammie M’Govern. It’s also a love story and if I’m being honest, it has the same hair-pulling-out-of-frustration reactions as in Eleanor&Park (by Rainbow Rowell). When I first saw the book in the same store as I bought Bones&All, it was love at first sight. The cover of the book is amazing and has a special feeling! Which I’m totally fan of! I just love the two hands forming a heart, as well as the girly as boyish aspect.

It’s about being different. It’s about feeling alone. It’s about finding each other. It’s about falling in love.

And who does not fall in love when you read the backside of the book, right? And wait until you read the actual story because it makes you fall harder and the only thing I got in my mind was: Will the author break my heart at the end of this story? Because then there’ll be no love left!

We start the story with going back in time, seeing how they first met and under what circumstances. What’s wrong with both of them and what makes them different from each other. Matthew for example, was fine until his parents divorced and then he felt the urge to count even objects and tap locker doors. He was afraid of money, bodies, germs, hurting people unintentionally and without realizing he does. He has so many fears and his anxiety just consumes him. I loved this character, just seeing a boy that's having a hard time. In most books it's always the girl with these problems and now the author reflects that on the boy.

Amy on her turn is totally different from Matthew, she is a disabled person. She can’t talk, that’s why she has this little machine where she types what she wants to say, and the machine speaks it out loud. She couldn't walk but learned over the years. She can’t undress and dress herself, she can’t eat like normal people and her left side isn’t her good side. Her left hand is cramped into a fist and she can’t undo it. Her body sometimes does things that she didn’t want it to do, which makes it harder for her to trust her body. From the beginning until 11th grade, she has this adults that were with her on school all the time, walking her to classes, helping her eat. She was the perfect student despite of her handicap. Wrote beautiful essays about how happy she was despite of her condition. But Matthew couldn’t believe it when he read it and in class, he spoke up in all honesty about what he thought. Something new for him since he barely spoke in class. Amy heard through other people what he has said and confronted him. He told her in her face what he thought. Which I liked because we saw a total other side of Matthew.

Because of that moment, Amy became interested in him and she now saw things differently. The teachers and adults that walked with her, her books have been the only friends she has had over the years. So she wants real friends, like Matthew. Secretly, she just wants to spend time with him so after she convinced her mother, students would be her helpers and get paid for it. She mailed Matthew himself to be her helper and he said yes to the proposal.

Throughout the book, we see Matthew struggle with his own sickness and anxiety to do something wrong. The more he spends time with Amy, the more it changes. He tells her his fears, something he’d never done before. And she was glad to listen to him, she even confronted him with his disease telling him he should get help. She starts giving him assignments such as going on a date in Taco Bell. The most disgusting place Matthew ever has been but the real challenge was: not going to the bathroom to wash his hands and eat his food out of the wrappers. They grow closer and both, especially Amy, started feeling things for each other. But as Amy’s mother planned her whole life, pressing her on collage, Amy will have to leave next fall. Above it all, Amy’s mother doesn’t like Matthew at all while Amy loves him.

Both friends struggle with themselves and with each other through the book and the only question that remains is if they’ll ever come clean to each other about how they feel. A true love story about finding each other and knowing nobody’s perfect.

Why I loved this book so much is simple: it contains everything that true life contains. Love, rows, differences, diseases: mental as well as physical, friendships that are hard to keep, friendships that are hard to start, family drama. It wasn’t some fairy tale it was something we all could imagine. The biggest part of the book we concentrate on people who are disabled and sick. And how they discover the consequences of it by themselves but also in this society. I love how Amy and Matthew grew closer but the author loved playing with my emotions and ripped them out of each other with every row they had which was so hard! Even after the terrible things that happen and Matthew starting over. Luckily Amy reaches out and things get ‘okay’ again.

What I might loved/hated about the book is the ending. I feel like it’s an open ending which makes me as well love as hate it. I know we can imagine now, let our fantasy throw a surprise but I don’t like open endings very much. Just because I don’t trust my mind with finding a good Happily Ever After. But forget the aspect of the open ending, this book was good if not excellent. It read easily which I like and has a nice style too. I loved the cover as already mentioned but also the inside of the book. I haven’t seen the style of emails or IM’s in books a lot which makes it all so much more real since nowadays we all just use email, Facebook and stuff. We don’t talk face-to-face all the time. This book shows real-life aspects and I really appreciated it in the book.

“This is the story of Amy and Matthew”

What happened to goodbye

I saw a cover and I was sold. Immediately. It was just love at first sight (and this phenomenon of seeing a book with a very nice cover, followed by getting that book happens a lot to me.) The book I found is in Dutch though but no worries because it’s an English book: What happened to goodbye by Sarah Dessen.

 Since the divorce of her parents she hasn’t been one person. Living with her father was what McLean wanted because she hated her mother for what she had done. And she doesn’t care if that means she has to move 4 times in 2 years because of her fathers job. For her it only brought opportunities to start all over, with a clean sleeve and a new name. This time the new location is Lakeview, new location? New name. But things didn’t go as McLean had planned and that all because of her neighbor, Dave. She doesn’t know what’s happening to her: she’s being the real McLean, she has a desire to stay in Lakeview instead of moving all the time. She’s longing for a real home. Those feelings only get her confused, this isn’t like her. Not since the divorce but Dave intends to discover the real McLean, to lure her out. Will she let him?

This is how the book cover looks in Dutch

What I love and always have loved about Sarah Dessen’s books is the fact that the girls are always in a bad vibe. They think that they can’t be loved or aren’t supposed to fall in love. And Sarah let’s them follow a path each time which has a light at the end. Then they discover who they really are and what they really feel. Is it love or just friendship who knows with McLean. But I can tell you it only gave me so many pleasant moments in the book and so many cute parts where I literally melted. The end was totally different than I thought it would be, surprising factor? Check. It’s why it left me so stunned and excited at the same time. 
“It was amazing how you could get so far from where you'd planned, and yet find it was exactly were you needed to be.”

Can we just take a few breaths. I just finished this read and I feel so empty, like I have to start all over again. This is what Sarah Dessen does to me every time again. Though I also feel happy. I’m just so excited about this book!

McLean has had a rough time when her parents divorced, in her eyes all because of what her mother had done. She hates her mother and when she had the choice to go live with her dad she took it with both hands. The only thing that might be a negative point is that she has to move a lot because of her fathers job. Well Negative? This character takes these opportunities for granted. I’ve never read a book with such a character as McLean. Changing names and personalities each time she moves? Original? Check. We get to see McLean when she just arrives in a new town. She introduces us to all the other McLeans there were before and walks us through how this all works out. I liked the factor of that, of introducing us to her previous selves as if it’s normal and meanwhile we get a look into her head.

Until Dave comes along. How they meet is special if not very funny. Dave is a genius, handsome, sweet, understanding and can look right through McLean’s appearance. That’s why I love him so much! He doesn’t look just at the outside, he looks deeper and further than all that. He looks at the soul and he falls in love with everything about her. He wants to know the real McLean and intends to find her.

Another very interesting character which I loved was Deb. She’s a shy girl, hasn’t had any friends until McLean arrives and decides to make sure Deb has friends. From that moment we get to see Deb a lot more. You’d think this would be plain character but she’s not. She has so much experience with topics that aren’t even close to each which only makes her a very funny and versatile character and I loved her leading role so much. You saw her grow from shy to someone very open and discrete. 

This book was just as other books by Sarah Dessen, amazing and I surely recommend What happened to goodbye. It might start a little slow but at a point it gets so good and you want to know if Dave will be around and what McLean intends to do, that you keep reading. If you already read what happened to goodbye, I’m sure you’ll enjoy Along For The Ride by her too. So make sure to check both of them out! 

A fun fact that I discovered in this book is that miss Dessen makes a link to a character from one of her other books which I found a very nice touch.

“It was amazing how you could get so far from where you'd planned, and yet find it was exactly were you needed to be.”

Half-blood

Fans of Jennifer L Armentrout, brace yourselves for another good book. What am I saying? Excellent beginning to a series, those are the words I need to use to introduce you to Half-blood by, as I already said: Jennifer L Armentrout. A friend of mine and also a bibliophile, Fien recommended this book to me. Thanks for that, Fien! She also has a bookblog which you can find here:My bookish rambles

The Hematoi descend from the unions of gods and mortals, and the children of two Hematoi pure bloods have godlike powers. Children of Hematoi and mortals--well, not so much. Half-bloods only have two options: become trained Sentinels who hunt and kill daimons or become servants in the homes of the pures. Seventeen-year-old Alexandria would rather risk her life fighting than waste it scrubbing toilets, but she may end up slumming it anyway. There are several rules that students at the Covenant must follow. Alex has problems with them all, but especially rule #1:Relationships between pures and halfs are forbidden. Unfortunately, she's crushing hard on the totally hot pure-blood Aiden. But falling for Aiden isn't her biggest problem--staying alive long enough to graduate the Covenant and become a Sentinel is. If she fails in her duty, she faces a future worse than death or slavery: being turned into a daimon, and being hunted by Aiden. And that would kind of suck.

That’s just what the back of the book says and I’m already “This is so Jennifer!” and all hyped about the story. I like Jennifer’s books, it’s not to hard to read. She writes ‘simple’, in other words my brain doesn’t need to function. I’m from Belgium so English is not my mother tongue so some books just ask my brains to work and translate, with Jennifer L Armentrout’s books it’s not like that. I can enjoy it and I do. 

Back to the book! As explained Alex is a half-blood and the one she’s crushing on Aiden, is a pure. She’s been crushing on him for a long time while living under the protection of the Covenant. Though 3 years ago, Alex’s mother has taken her away from that protection for unknown reasons. And when certain things happen, Alexandra wonders why she ever decided to take her away from that safe place she ones called home, where she ones had dreams.  

3 Years later, Alex is back on the Covenant. Training, starting from the total begin to make sure she can start the academic year with her peers. But guess who her trainer is? Yes! Yes! Yes! The guy she has a crush on, the one she should never fall in love with, a pure. Aiden St. Delphi! Make sure you’re prepared to fall in love all over again with a reincarnation of Daimon Black. But more events start to reveal themselves: problems, forbidden love, people who are supposed to be death and even more! I recommend this book to everyone who loved other books from Jennifer L Armentrout but also to the ones who have never heard of her before. It’s time for all of you to get to know her! 

As always the characters all have their own personalities, nobody is the same even though some might be the same species. With that I mean that it's not because there are two half-bloods that that means they're the same. They all have their own strengths and weaknesses, so do the pures. You fall in love with how they act and how they are. It’s not only a ‘simple’ read, it has everything. Funny moments, romantic ones, frustrating ones, thrilling parts and if the end is near you only hope that the second book is already on your bookshelves. And I really don’t want to spoil anything which is why I’m not really going deeper into certain aspects, I want you to reveal the things. Discover everything there is about Jennifer L Armentrout’s books and most importantly: to fall in love with this series. My friend is two books ahead of me and she’s so thrilled about it, I can only imagine how good the rest will be and I know it’ll be better than I expected. 

If you read the Lux-series, then you sure know what I’m talking about if I say the ending of the series destroyed me. Like I literally felt lost, it was done. Over. Finished and I know this series won’t be any different feeling. But more updates about the following books will come! 

A fact about this book is that it’s apparently really similar to the vampire academy. So if you enjoyed those books, you might want to check it out! 

“People do the damnedest things when they’re in love.” 

How I live now

On most schools, teenagers need to read books for a subject. It’s, of course, the same on my school. I’ll have to read 4 books for Dutch, a book for French and 2 books for English. Now I never really liked the books that we had to read because we never got to choose which one. It’s always from a list and that list is boring and most of the time there isn’t any young adult. I love young adult, I only read young adult but this time for English we got something I really enjoyed reading: “How I love now” by Meg Rosoff.

15-year-old Daisy is sent off to her aunt and cousins in England. She doesn’t want to go simply because she doesn’t feel the need but also because she doesn’t know them. She never met them before and Daisy rather just relaxes by herself. When she arrives, she immediately regrets it. Her little niece just keeps asking her attention but so does one of her cousins: Edmund. There's just something about him but she can't put her finger on it.

Soon her aunt has to leave for business and Daisy is left alone in England with her cousins and her little niece. Daisy starts feeling better around her family, especially because there are no parents around, no adults. Until there’s a bombing in London by an unknown enemy and days later it is confirmed that a war has begun. The teenagers live on edge and try to make the best of it while they’re safe, thinking that the war won’t get to their little village. But soon it all changes when they get taken. Boys go to the war and the women go to a safer place. Edmund and Daisy have fallen fiercely in love only to be ripped apart from each other because of the war.  It’s everywhere, and Daisy and her cousins must lead each other into a world that is unknown in the scariest, most elemental way.

This book! But the bad thing first. The book is divided in two parts. That first part was for me the worst part because there were literally no but really no speech marks. I was sometimes so confused with who said this sentence? Is this something someone says or is this Daisy thinking? It caused a lot of confusion with me. I’ve never had a book like this before which only made it more weird for me. That doesn’t mean I didn’t like what was said or how Daisy thought, I just would’ve enjoyed it more if it did have the speech marks. It would’ve been more structured.

But other than that... Daisy, is such an interesting character! From being really silent and distant in the beginning of the book, she becomes such an adult towards the end. It’s fascinating how you can see her change and that it is all caused by the war. She has to grow up fast in order to be safe and save her niece and herself from the cruel monsters of the war. 

I also liked the relationship between Edmund and Daisy. It’s soft and cute, the desperate need to be with each other but due to the war they can’t. They’ll have to fight (literally) for their love but also for their own lives. 

The book also reflects the situation, emotions, uncertainty,... that people must have felt during the war. Not knowing if they’ll ever get home is a big aspect that gets discussed in the book. It gave me as a reader more perspective in how they could have felt during those dark times. So hands down for this book! It’s good! Even though I had so many frustrations because there weren’t any speech marks, I do recommend the book. It’s not really a documentation of facts from the war but more a story during the war which makes it a nice read instead of a boring one.

A fun fact about this book is that the book is now a movie and I’ve watched it. There are so many things alike but also differences. I loved the actors who played the characters from the book and let’s be honest... Edmund is adorable, brave, sweet, mysterious. I love Edmund, especially in the film. I also recommend the film but I would read the book first. I had it in a different order, I first saw the movie and then the book but I think it's better if you read first and then watch it.

“Every war has turning points and every person too.”

Amy and Roger's Epic Detour

You know that feeling when you walk into a bookstore to only pick one book. Just one! And you walk out of the bookstore with two books? Well, dear bookaholics it’s the same in the library. I walked in to take the book “Dance on my grave” by Aidan Chambers for school and my eye fell on “Amy and Roger’s epic detour” by Morgan Matson. I just had to take it with me.

The story is about Amy whose father has died in a car accident. Her mother decided to go live across the country and left Amy home to make sure the house would be sold. But now, a month later, her mother wants Amy to bring the car to Connecticut because she needs it for her work. Though her daughter doesn’t want to, after the accident she hasn’t been behind the wheel and she isn’t planning on it. No problem, her mother just calls a friend of hers and now Amy’ll have to travel across the country with a family friend, Roger. 

When she first sees Roger, she notices that he’s very good looking and both of them feel a little bored when they see the planning Amy’s mother made for them. If they follow the plan they’d be in Connecticut in 5 days but that means visiting boring cities so the teenagers decide to take a detour and visit some other cities. In the days they’re crossing America, Amy and Roger become closer and get to know one another better. Will this epic detour create a brighter future? 

I read this book in a day! I have to say that this was one of those books that you absolutely can’t put away. There are so many reasons why I love this book! Honestly, the characters they are amazing! I can totally relate myself to Amy. She lost someone she loved, she’s grieving, doesn’t know how to live life or what the values of it are. She rather lives off the grid and watches other people. And now there’s someone in her life who can show her that after rain comes sunshine. In the book you see this character grow so much which is why I enjoyed the book.

As for Roger, well he’s sweet and smart, cute but also dorky. Let’s just say he has it all. He takes care of Amy, tries to make her laugh and do something adventurous. He’s just an amazing boy, different in some sort of way. Unique. 

But that is not the main reason why I loved this book… The book uses pages out of a “travel diary” that Amy got from her mother before they left. At first Amy didn’t want to use it but eventually she decides to take notes since they won’t visit the boring places but the mysterious, more famous cities. So the book shows her notes which basically shows the reader the following elements: photos from the state, information about the state which sometimes are really funny, playlists during the ride, little sketches and even maps! But throughout the book we also see coupons, receipts from where they have eaten, slept,… That made it, for me, so much more fun and original. It gave me a total other experience than just the normal books I read. I’ve never been to America and now I can see things, read things that are typical for a state. I recommend this book to everyone who wants a book with romance, adventure and just something funny and special. 

*note: I've read the book in Dutch that's why the cover is totally different and it's Jake instead of Roger.

“The best discoveries always happened to the people who weren’t looking for them.”

Bones & All

So I finished the book Bones&all from Camille DeAngelis. I have to say it was something quite different from the books I normally read, let alone choose. I was in Paris, in this nice little, total English store named Shakespeare and company and took this book in my head, reading the back of the book and it said:

http://shakespeareandcompany.com/

Someday I’ll wake up and they will have built a maze around me. And I will be relieved. Sixteen-year-old Maren wants the same thing ever girl her age wants. She wants to be loved. She wants to be accepted. She wants to be normal. But she’ll never be any of those things. For Maren has dark urges. There is a hunger inside her she can’t control and no one is safe, not even the people she loves. Can Maren ever fall in love? Or is she doomed to destroy those closest to her?

When I read it I was like “I need this book in my life.” because it felt like something mysterious, yet paranormal stuff. Angelic or demonic alike so I decided I was going to take it with me. When I came home it was the first book I started reading and I was surprised that it wasn’t what I expected. The first chapter begins with explaining it and how she’s doing now, after all those years. Because what I didn’t knew and certainly didn’t expected was that Maren was a something other than what I expected. She picked her first victim when she was a little child, it was her nanny. And throughout the book we get to know more of her victims.

On her 16th birthday, her mother decides to leave her because she can’t do it anymore. Clean the mess after she did it again and then move, because that’s what they always did. “Because mothers can make things all better and good.” Move when she did it again. Her dad wasn’t in the picture but after she made a hopeless attempt to go back to her mom, she decides she wants to look for her dad instead. Find out if he is like her, and with alike I mean the thing she knows best: make victims. She meets new people, she hurts new people. But the most important question is if the friendships she made, would be strong enough to fall in love and another important question is if she finds her dad.

I loved this book so much, and I never expected I’d fall in love with it since it’s not something I’d choose if I knew what it was about. But I’m glad I didn’t know and let me surprise by the author. Although I didn’t really like the long chapters in the beginning, the things that happened in the book made all up for it.

I loved how Maren started to find people alike and gets to know herself a little better. She might be 16 years old but I find it stunning how she thinks and grows as an adult. But the thing I loved the most in the book was when Lee came in the picture. He’s 19 years old and also alike in the things he does, only he does it to certain people and not like Maren, to the ones that become close with her. In the beginning Lee was cold towards her, almost as if he hated her or thought she was a baby but near the end he starts to open up, even save her. I loved how their relationship grew from this distant to something very close.

That’s really the most important I can and will tell because I find the other aspects in the book far too valuable to tell when people didn’t even read the book yet. I know you might say now "What is she? I won't read it until I know what she is." but I was surprised by the author and I want to let you be surprised too. In case you were thinking or doubting to read this book, I tell you now GO. GET. THAT. BOOK. Like really, even if you think oh this isn’t what I read, I like more angelic or demonic. This will change your life (it changed mine). It’s amazing from beginning till the end and after a while I wasn’t bothered that the chapters were so long. This book definitely makes my Top 10.  

 “Someday I’ll wake up and they will have built a maze around me. And I will be relieved.”

Welcome!

Hello there!

I know it's still very empty on this blog and that the changes to the blog just keep coming. I opened this blog just today (12/10/2015) so it's still under construction and it'll be that way for some days probably!

That's also why there aren't any posts about books yet. I want my blog to be totally ready before I post some reviews or pictures from books. That doesn't mean you're not welcome on this blog, on the contrary: Welcome! I'm glad you found your way to bookwonderland.

Stay tuned because reviews will be coming soon and beware that some reviews CAN contain spoilers. Don't forget to follow me on Instagram, Goodread, Tumblr or here so you're always aware of new updates, pictures or reviews. Have a great day!

Oh and by the way, I'm Erica :)

"A reader lives a thousand lives before he dies."

- George R. R. Martin