Review: Cress

Cress by Marissa Meyer
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

After reading the two books before this one, I have to say, this one was my favorite so far. I will say right now, that if you haven't read Cinder and Scarlet, you might want to read them first, as this book does have some continuation in it from the other two books.

Cinder, Scarlet, Wolf, Thorne, Kai, and Queen Levana are all back to help keep this book in the sequel. Cress is so much more of a faster pace, action filled, adventurous book, kept me glued till the end. I love that Marissa Meyer is able to do such a wonderful job in developing characters throughout the series.

All of the character's are in this book, but I did like the way the relationship of Cress and Thorne was developing. I know several people have stated in their reviews, they felt this was a boning part of the book, but when you think about it, the author had to do something for them to get to know each other, and for us to learn more about Cress, other than she was in a satellite station by herself for the past seven years, there really wasn't any way to get to know her and what she is actually capable of doing or thinking for that matter. She sat in the station by herself with literally no human contact, friends, her social skills aren't the best, but she still has a very sweet nature personality, yes sometimes her child like ways got on my nerves, but if you understood how she had to live you can overlook it.

Each of the other character's have grown also in this book, and Cress can learn a lot from them, and it warmed my heart as to how she finally had friends, people she could hang out with, asks questions, and she had some good ideas to help with the plans the others had as far as trying to stop the marriage of Levana and Kai.

By far I think Cress has been my favorite character. She funny, witty, child like, caring, and she warmed my heart and made me laugh. I realize I didn't say to much about this book, because it was like the other two books I reviewed, so there wasn't really anything new to report. There is one more book in this series, so we'll see how this is all wrapped up.




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Review: Arsenic and Old Books

Arsenic and Old Books by Miranda James
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This is the 6th book in this series. The character have become much more developed with each book. It's a light -hearted book. It's easy to figure out who the killer is, but it's more about getting to know the characters, and what's going on in their lives. It's like catching up with old friends.

The story takes place in Athena, Mississippi, librarian Charlie Harris is a widow, his two children are grown up and have moved on to careers of their own. His companion is a Maine Coon cat named Diesel, who loves chicken, fried, baked, stewed...any way chicken is made he loves it.

Mayor Lucinda Beckwith Long donates four volumes of her husband's ancestor diaries to the archive at Athena College. Before Charlie can get them catalog, the diaries are stole, and a history professor at the college, who is interested in the diaries in hopes that she will make tenure, is killed by a hit and run. When Charlie returns to work a mysterious fifth volume of the diaries suddenly appears on his desk.

The other fourth volumes find there way back to Charlie, but find there are ten pages ripped out of the diaries. Who is hiding a family secret, why is one diary not like the others as to how the ancestor is being portrayed in the other volumes, is this one diary a forgery? And who would kill the professor, was it an accident or a way to silences her? The answers are all in the book, that is entertaining.




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Review: Britt-Marie Was Here

Britt-Marie Was Here by Fredrik Backman
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This is the second book I've read by this author, and like the first book I read, it didn't disappoint in the least!

Britt-Marie can seem a little, hostile, nosy, sometimes what comes out of her mouth is taken the wrong way then what it's intended to be. The humor she portrays will have you literally laughing out loud, at times your heart goes out to her, other times you sit there and have the same look on your faces at the character's in the book are giving her. But underneath all this, there is a person who is just wants to be needed, to be wanted, to be noticed, to be loved.

Britt-Marie is early in her sixty's when she's finally had enough of her husband, basically treating her like a child, he hides the truth about the economy too her, he always puts gas in her car, doesn't want her to work, criticizes her by saying things like "Britt-Marie can't play with you, she has no imagination." and he cheats on her.

Finally Britt-Marie has had enough of his cheating ways, she seeks out employment and is offered a job in Borg, a broken down town who hasn't recovered from the industrial plant closing, houses are on the market, a pizzeria, pub, post office and a rec center, where Britt-Marie gains employment as the caretaker.

When she pulls into the town, her car breaks down and the local police officer, Sevn soon takes an interest in Britt-Marie. He finds her a place to stay at Banks' house. Bank is a woman who is blind, has a dog, and is also the auto mechanic. Britt-Marie is also introduced to some of the children who like to play soccer, but they aren't on any teams, until one day Britt-Marie is asked to be their coach so they could play in the Cup. Britt-Marie doesn't know anything about soccer let alone coaching children. She gets some help from Sami, the older brother of Vega and Omar, two of the children on the team, and from Bank's herself, who in her glory days was a well know soccer player herself.

Britt-Marie, for the first time in her life is finally feeling wanted, needed, noticed and most of all, loved. You see the changes from a broken down town, and a broken down Britt-Marie, to a town that starts to change, and so does Britt-Marie, she starts to stand on her own two feet, well with the help of the children and the other towns folk who accept her and actually like and care for her. No one knows for certain if it was Britt-Marie who helped the town or was is the town helped Britt-Marie.

This was a very heartwarming story, and at times mad me cry. The characters were very well developed and the story moved along at a nice pace. I laughed, I cried, I shook my head at some of the things Britt-Marie said or did, I cheered her on, and watched her change. Some of her quirkiness stayed with her, which is what made her Britt-Marie. This book also showed that no matter how old you are, you can still follow your dreams.

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Review: Remembering Diana: A Life in Photographs

Remembering Diana: A Life in Photographs by National Geographic Society
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This was such a wonderful book to commemorate 20 years since Diana has passed away. The pictures were beautiful, some of them I had never seen published before. It showed pictures of her in her younger days, leading up to the Royal wedding, her life as Princess Di, being a mother, traveling for her charities, as well as her royal duties, and the pictures of her funeral.

There are descriptions of the photos along with a short facts about her. This would be a good book to have around for younger generations that weren't able to see or hear about the Princess while she was alive or to know about her untimely death. Diana wasn't just a Princess in the Royal family, she wanted to be a Princess of peoples hearts, and that's what she became a Princess to the heart of people. She not only did good in this world, but she made the Royal family popular.

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