[Rezension] Leah Rae Miller: The Summer I Became a Nerd

After a traumatic and humiliating childhood experience Maddie decides to keep her love for anything nerdy secret and she became the prototype of a cheerleader (on the outside) and dates a football player. But when the anniversary issue of a comic book series she loves is not available in her beloved (as it leaves no physical evidence) digital format she has to go out to a comic book shop to buy it, even if it means risking people seeing her and shattering her clean aka unnerdy image. The last edition of her desired book is taken but the son of the comic book shop owner lends his copy to her. Finally being able to be herself with another person she falls for him but having her secret world not kept completely hidden anymore, her two worlds threaten to collide.

I loved the enthusiasm and love that dripped off the pages for anything nerdy. The chemistry between the protagonists was great and I loved how she also fell for his quirky side. The story is told in a pretty fast paced way, which kept things from getting boring, but I would have loved to read more of certain scenes.

My problem was that I never bought the basic assumption that you can’t be popular and liked because you love comic book heroes. So I cringed with every unnecessary lie by the heroine and suffered badly when this led to hurting people she loved. I found the character development of her a bit too staged.
I also never got her cheerleader side, so I had problems to see the benefits of the face she showed to the world other than „not being made fun of“ and „fitting the stereotype of a popular girl“.
The title is catchy and really got me hooked to the book right away, but to me it seems to be telling to much.

I really enjoyed the book overall though. It is light and nice entertainment.

(I received a free digital copy of this book via NetGalley.)

[Monatsstatistik] April 2013

051 01 Half Blood Jennifer L. Armentrout *****
052 02 Daimon Jennifer L. Armentrout ****
053 03 Rise Anna Carey **
054 04 Sever Lauren DeStefano ***
055 05 Life before Legend Marie Lu ***
056 06 Amy and Roger’s epic detour Morgan Matson ****
057 07 Override Heather Anastasiu ***
058 08 The Fox Inheritance Mary E. Pearson ***
059 09 Dead and Buried Kim Harrington ***
060 10 Born at midnight CC Hunter *
061 11 Black City Elizabeth Richards ****
062 12 Dare you to Katie McGarry ***
063 13 Escape Jennifer Rush *****
064 14 The Elite Kiera Cass ****
065 15 Breathe Sarah Crossan **
066 16 Game Barry Lyga *****
067 17 In Search of a Love Story Rachel Schurig ***
068 18 Anomaly Krista McGee **

Leserunden/ Buddy Reads:
Amy and Roger’s epic detour
The Fox Inheritance
Born at midnight
Dare you to
Breathe
Game

Der April war ein guter Lesemonat, ich hatte mal wieder richtig Spaß am Lesen und konnte einige Reihen auf den neuesten Stand bringen bzw. abschliessen.

Mein Flop des Monats:
Größte Enttäuschung war „Born at midnight“, mit dem ich einfach nicht warm geworden bin, dicht gefolgt von „Breathe“, auf dieses Buch hatte ich mich sehr lange gefreut und war dann extrem enttäuscht. Tolle Idee aber miese Umsetzung.

Mein Highlicht des Monats:
Endlich konnte ich die Fortsetzung von „I hunt killers“ lesen. Hat mir sehr gefallen, wenn auch das Ende für meinen Geschmack viel zu offen war. Sehr gut hat mir auch Half Blood gefallen, was zunächst ein fast reiner Coverkauf war.

[Rezension] Krista McGee: Anomaly

Thalli lives in a future society under ground. After a world war the surface of the earth is uninhabitable and since emotions have been deemed the root of what went wrong they were genetically removed from the citizens.

Thalli is different from the others, as she feels things and asks questions, tries to protect her friends from harm. Soon she is seen as a threat to the harmony of the society and she is supposed to be annihilated. But an old friend, who is a scientist now intervenes and convinces those in charge to experiment with Talli to find out more about her anomalies.

She meets an old man, who survived the nuclear war and who introduces her to the world of Christianity.

The book starts out with Thalli having 15 minutes left to live there is a countdown, aberwards the story that leads to this moment is described which to me took away most of the suspense during the novel, although it was a catchy opener.

I liked the way the society was described and I was fascinated by the way it was structured.

I generally have my problems with books that come across as normal fiction but are deeply religious and seem to be just „some story“ with a modern and popular theme but are basically trying to sell a religious idea.
I also had my problems with Thalli questioning her society and what had been told to her all her life but embraces the idea of a „Designer“ (God) surprisingly fast.

I particularly disliked the way „science“ was deemed as a bad thing, scientists were taking away the ability to feel and believe in God, they were generally cold and basically took away human traits from humanity. It was simplified in a way it hurts. („Science is bad, religion is good.“)

The very end holds a certain twist that ignites curiosity for book 2 in the trilogy. The story itself wasn’t bad, it sounded pretty amazing in the beginning but in the end I was quite unimpressed.

(A free digital copy was given to me via NetGalley.)

[Rezension] Rachel Schurig: In Search of a Love Story

After Emily’s boyfriend dumped her, her friends decide that her lack of knowledge in romantic movies or books is the reason that she keeps falling for the wrong guys, because according to them you have to read „Pride and Prejudice“ to know that you should go for the Mr. Dacys instead of the Mr. Wickhams of the world. So the lessons begin and finally Mr. Perfect shows up, true to form rescueing her from being hit by a truck.
This was a light and quick read, I loved the references to movies and books and the dynamics between Emily and her friends, being schooled in romance fiction however it is very clear for the reader from the start how things will end, I would have loved some twists and puns of the genre, some more self-irony.
The characters are loveable but the way the heroine (narrator) actually sees and describes all the hints about the guys in her life including her own feelings but doesn’t get them while the reader knows from her first stomach flip who is right for her was getting on my nerves at some point.
But it is a classic feel-good-book, which I overall enjoyed. This was only part 1 of a series, the next 2 parts will focus on Emily’s friends and I am curious to find out about their stories.
(A free digital copy of this book was given to me via NetGalley.)

[Rezension] Kiera Cass: The Elite (The Selection #2)

The competition to find a wife for Prince Maxon continues, only half a dozen girls are left and the tasks they have to prove themselves in are getting trickier. Also the competition between the girls is getting hotter.
America starts out as a favorite of Maxon and feels close to him but then she is utterly shocked by the cruelness his job demands of him and they grow apart.

I didn’t like part one, it seemed like a forced mix of popular themes like dystopian novels and „The Bachelor“ while the story was seemingly stopped after a third of the story to turn it into a trilogy. Meanwhile I made my peace with the themes and actually enjoy the silliness of them. So to my own surprise I actually enjoyed part 2 („The Elite“). We get to know Prince Maxon a whole lot better and he is really growing on me.

The thinning-out process is quite slow in this installment and a lot of the complications are just set up for the grand finale, but we get some hints about the way Illea was formed and about the rebel movements, which I enjoyed a lot.

„The Elite“ is written in a light and charming way, the characters are showing more depth than in part 1 in my eyes and made me really care about them. I am really looking forward to the final installment.

A digital copy of this book was given to me via NetGalley.

[Rezension] Katie McGarry: Dare you to (Pushing the limits #2)

After Beth got involved (again) into a fight between her mother and her brutal drug dealing sort-of-step-father, her uncle gets custody and blackmails her to follow his rules if she doesn’t want to see her mother go to jail.
She meets Ryan aspiring baseball star, who loves setting up dares with his friends. One of them is to go on a date with swearing and yelling Beth who is the clear opposite of his ex-girlfriend.

I did enjoy the book overall, especially the fights and flirts between Beth and Ryan, but all in all I was disappointed as I felt like the first part (Pushing the limits) was that much better. Here it feels like there are too many storylines started but only half heartedly finished. The relationship between Beth and her best friend from childhood days Lacey for example. The whole story seemed a bit unfocused to me. It felt like the author had made a list of teenager problems she wanted to work into her story and worked them bit by bit into the story and then it was mostly serving out clichés.
The main characters though are interesting, I really loved Beth, but everybody around them is painfully flat, full of stereotypes and after one paragraph about them you know exactly what their storyline and actions throughout the novel will be. There are zero surprises in character development.
But in spite of all the negatives I did enjoy the book, mostly because I liked the energy between the protagonists and their banter.
I definetely want to read the next installment, hoping it will have the spirit I loved about part 1 again.
(I received a free digital copy via NetGalley.)

[Lesestatistik] März 2013

033 01 Dschinnland: Sturmkönige Kai Meyer ***
034 02 Hate List Jennifer Brown ****
035 03 Lover unleashed J.R. Ward ***
036 04 Practice Cake Dalya Moon **
037 05 Haunting Violet Alexandra Harvey *****
038 06 Notes from Ghost Town Kate Ellison ****
039 07 Der Trakt Arno Strobel ***
040 08 Homeless Bird Gloria Whelan ***
041 09 Ulysses James Joyce ****
042 10 Lover Reborn J.R. Ward ***
043 11 Water for Elephants Sara Gruen **
044 12 Opal Jennifer L. Armentrout ***
045 13 Ender’s Game Orson Scott Card **
046 14 Dubliners James Joyce ****
047 15 The Mediator Meg Cabot ***
048 16 The ABC Murders Agatha Christie ***
049 17 The face on the milk carton Caroline B. Cooney ***
050 18 Lover at Last J.R. Ward ***

Leserunden:

In diesem Monat kamen ziemlich viele Leserunden zusammen:
Dschinnland: Sturmkönige von Kai Meyer
Hate List von Jenniffer Brown
Notes from Ghost Town von Kate Ellison
Ulysses von James Joyce
Water for Elephants von Sara Gruen
Lover at Last von J.R. Ward

Mein Highlight des Monats:

Mein Highlight in diesen Monat war “Haunting Violet” (mein einziges 5-Sterne-Buch. Ich mochte die Atmosphäre und die Geschichte sehr.
Weiterhin wurde mein Monat stark von “Ukysses” geprägt, mit dem ich mich 3 Wochen lang jeden Tag beschäftigt habe.

Mein Flop des Monats:

Mein Flop des Monats war wohl Sara Gruens “Water for Elephants”. Ich hatte den Fehler begangen, den Film zu sehen, bevor ich das Buch gelesen habe (Weil ich zuerst nicht dachte, ich würde das Buch überhaupt lesen wollen, aber nachdem mir der Film gut gefallen hatte, wollte ich gerne auch das Buch lesen.). Das Buch hatte für mich nicht den zauberhaften, bunten Zauber des Films, die Charaktere blieben flach und ich konnte keine rechte Verbindung mit ihnen aufnehmen.