Book Review: Losing Elizabeth by Tanya J. Peterson

PG-13, 2 stars

Elizabeth is starting what she hopes to be the best junior year ever.  She made the varsity tennis team which is not that common for a junior.  Unfortunately, her best friend, Meg, just missed the cut and is only on junior varsity.  However, everything is overshadowed by one guy wanting to date her--the captain of the football team, Brad.

Ecstatic, Elizabeth accepts a date with Brad.  He becomes her boyfriend.  She's dating the captain of the football team!  What could be better?  This is every girl's dream, right?

Not when the guy wants to control every aspect of the girl's life.  Elizabeth convinces herself it's because Brad loves her and wants to spend all his time with her.  But, will all this controlling cause everyone to lose the real Elizabeth?

It's a nice story, but very cliche.  Elizabeth and Meg come off as the stereotypical giggly high school girls that aren't really found in a real high school.  It felt very made-for-TV teen movie.  Everything went as predicted from the get-go.

I read this as a review requet using the Kindle app on my laptop.  All opinions are my own.

 

We have a winner!

The Midsummer's Eve Giveaway Hop has ended and with that there is a winner!  Congratulations!


a Rafflecopter giveaway

Teaser Tuesday

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading.  Anyone can playing along!  Just do the following:

• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) "teaser" sentences from somewhere on that page
• Be careful not to include spoilers! (make sure that what you share doesn't give too much away!  You don't want to ruin the book for others!)
• Share the title and author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR lists if they like your teasers.

"Go back to the Stares, rest, see the doctors, shake this bug and be back here at the end of August to take the Zaire project."  His boss's words still rang in his ears.
        p.257 God's Gift by Dee Henderson

This is the second book in the two-book set I started last week.  I believe the connection these two books have is that they are the first two published by Henderson.  She did attach a letter after the first book saying it was her first one published. 

Book Review: Sarah Smiles by Seanpaul Thomas Cairns

PG-13, 2.5 stars

The new kid in school, that's who Paul is.  With his dad in the British Army, his family ends up in Cypress in the 1990s.  He has to deal with the usual, including an unstable bully named Michael.  Paul meets an outcast, Sarah, and they become fast friends.

Paul first meets Michael during break at school when he is invited to play soccer or football as they call it with the guys.  Michael is high strung and everything has to be about him.  Pass the ball to him.  He will be the one to score.  Paul not doing that sets Michael off.  Michael and Paul hang out after school.  Michael shows Paul some of his secrets, like the cave he hides his stash of alcohol.  As they walk around a park, the boys get peed on by a younger boy.  Making Michael angry, he sets off to beat the boy up.  His attitude and anger force Paul to join in.

As it turns out, the boy is Sarah's brother and on apologizing the next day Paul and Sarah forge a friendship, a friendship forbidden by her abusive father as well as bully Michael.  Michael wants nothing to do with Paul when he's at school or with his friends, but after school, he wants to hang out.  Paul does not like this.  He gives Michael up and only hangs out with Sarah and her brother.

I appreciated the plot reading about Paul's relationships with different people--Michael, Sarah, Sarah's brother, as well as the other kids who play football with Michael.  The way certain events unfold seem too incredulous, too deus ex machina.  A bad thing happens and then two seconds later the person is on his or her knees apologizing.  It's unrealistic as is the ending.  It's a great ending.  I'm happy for what happens and all that, but it's too pretty, too nice and neat.  I don't feel that things would really go that way as easy as it comes in the story.

My favorite character is Sarah.  I like that she's a good mix of girl and boy, if you know what I mean.  Many times girls are written as one of the extremes--girly girl or tomboy.  She doesn't fit in either category, which I believe is how the majority of females in the world are.  We have characteristics of both and it's great to see a girl written that way.

I read this review request using the Kindle app on my laptop.  All thoughts and opinions are my own.  I was not compensated for this review in any way.

Midsummer's Eve Giveaway Hop

This is my third ever blog giveaway hop!  I think I'm slowly getting the hang of these things.  This one is to celebrate my favorite season of the year--summer!  I love summer so much.  I love the warm weather, baseball, swimming, shorts, my birthday, my neice's birthday, vacations...it's so much fun.  I am a summer girl.  I am giving away one book from The Book Depository that is $10 USD or less.  Just fill out the rafflecopter below!


a Rafflecopter giveaway

Teaser Tuesday

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading.  Anyone can playing along!  Just do the following:

• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) "teaser" sentences from somewhere on that page
• Be careful not to include spoilers! (make sure that what you share doesn't give too much away!  You don't want to ruin the book for others!)
• Share the title and author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR lists if they like your teasers.

The pain tore into her gut, and her heart stopped beating momentarily, held in the grip of a tight fist.  Her composure already shaken, the encounter was enough to tip the balance.
        p.92 The Marriage Wish by Dee Henderson

The copy I'm reading is actually two Dee Henderson books published together: The Marriage Wish and God's Gift.  They're not a two-parter or sequels or anything like that.  They're just two love stories written by Dee Henderson.  I saw it online at a great discount.  I love Dee Henderson and hadn't read these two so I knew I had to purchase the book.

Book Review: The Sun Zebra by Rolando Garcia

PG, 4 stars

Collection of short stories based around Nell.  Four were originally posted on Scribd and this collection introduces a new one.  Nell is a little girl, a little curious girl with a great imagination.  She sees the world differently.  It creates such wonderful stories like that of The Sun Zebra.  What is the Sun Zebra?  Read the story to find out.  I'm not spoiling it for you!

 One sees a lot and learns a lot through Nell's eyes.  She teaches through her experiences.  She touches people in such a way that we are able to learn new things.  I know this is a short review, but I can't think of anything to say that is different than what I've already said!

Read as a review request using the Kindle app on my laptop.

Book Review: Super Suprise (Zig Zag Kids #6) by Patricia Reilly Giff

G, 4 stars

Young, new chapter book readers will definitely enjoy the Zig Zag Kids series by Patricia Reilly Giff.  I read a few of her books as a young kid so when I came across the book Super Surprise on Netgalley I knew reading it for review would be a good choice.  Unfortunately, I forgot about the review I started two months ago!  But, here it is now in it's full finished form.

Before the start of the story is a drawing of the characters.  It's nice as an introduction in case, as it was for me, this is your first time stepping into a Zig Zag Kids story.  Plus, I think it's fun for little minds to have something to help them envision the characters.

The story starts off with the students, especially Destiny, discovering something exciting is going to happen that week at the Zig Zag Afternoon Center.  Destiny is not good at reading so she does not read the poster correctly and is embarrassed when she calls out the wrong answer.  That week the students will be creating poetry.

Destiny also uncovers an awful secret.  There's no room for her teacher, Mrs. Katz!  What is Destiny to do?!

It's a great story with a great ending.  I think most children will enjoy it!

I read this as a review request from Netgalley using Adobe Digital Editions.  All opinions are my own.

No posts!

Been baby-sitting my 22 month old niece the past two days and have not had time to post a Teaser Tuesday or Monday Funny (I do keep those scheduled a month in advance, but I didn't realize I didn't have one scheduled for yesterday!).  I apologize to anyone looking forward to those posts!

Book Review: The Mercy (Rose Trilogy #3) by Beverly Lewis

PG-13, 4 stars

As any Amish Fiction, this is a clean story, but the aspects might be lost on someone with a reading level of younger than 8th grade, I think.

**Spoilers if you have not read the first two books in the trilogy**
The Mercy is the conclusion to the Rose Trilogy.  Rose has lost her love and her best friend.  She doesn't know what's going to happen to her.  She believes she'll be a madel forever.  Along with Rose's troubles are her sister's.  Her sister "ran away" from her English husband back to her Amish life along with her daughter.  Her husband had asked for a divorce and then suffered an accident causing temporary blindness.  While he dealt with the blindness he livedwith his wife in the Amish home he wanted nothing to do with.

Again, Rose finds love and heartache.  Her sister struggles with an unbelieving husband who wants to leave her.  Her mother deals with her back injury causing more pain than she ever imagined.  Her dad deals with having to take care of his family.  The bishop has to deal with the loss of two sons and possibly his ministry!

In this story, the unexpected happen and they show that running away from God is never the answer.  As Rose stated in the book, "You throw everything on the mercy, on His purpose for your life.  Trusting that He knows best is the hardest part of all." The story shows that trusting in His will is the best thing as He truly does know best.

I read this book for pure pleasure.

Teaser Tuesday

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading.  Anyone can playing along!  Just do the following:

• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) "teaser" sentences from somewhere on that page
• Be careful not to include spoilers! (make sure that what you share doesn't give too much away!  You don't want to ruin the book for others!)
• Share the title and author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR lists if they like your teasers.

   

 Cody stared at the man's back and clenched his teeth.  He didn't need anyone's permission to ride a bull.
          p.19 A Thousand Tomorrows by Karen Kingsbury

I didn't forget this week!  I'm getting my mind straight, I hope!  Book reviews, I've got plenty sitting for me to do.  Now that my mind is straight I'll actually get to them!