wandering the streets of Seattle, when she sees a sticker slapped in a corner window - a figure with a gold crown, pink dress, red Chucks and a long katana sword... Princess X? Suddenly, May sees the princess everywhere: stickers, patches, graffiti - an entire underground world built around a webcomic at IAmPrincessX.com. The more May explores the comic, the more she sees disturbing similarities between Libby's story and Princess X online. And that means only one person could have started this phenomenon - her best friend, Libby, who lives. My Thoughts: Wow. Just wow. Okay, so I haven't read a book in a while (for school or for pleasure), and I decided to read this one. I had gotten this book from my library's summer program and I was really excited to read it. So when I started it, I was hooked. But it didn't exactly draw me back. Don't get me wrong, the beginning was a hooker, and the writing was lively, but I might've just been out of it or something, but I wasn't thinking about, "Hey, I really want to read that book. I should go and do that." Since that was the case, I didn't really read it at the beginning. Only while I was on the bus one day, reading the book because my iPod needed to be charged, did I give my full attention to this absolute masterpiece. I instantly loved May, our main character. She had such a unique personality. She wasn't that girl who'd just sit around doing nothing (though that was a portion of her summer before she found that Princess X sticker), but she wasn't that girl who was super crazy defiant who'd go and wreck havoc across the town. She was a girl who missed her best friend and defended her even when she was dead. She's got such a strong will, but when her friend died it broke. I don't really know how to explain it, but she was kind of in this limbo state with her life. I super loved Patrick. He. Was. Great. Though his book description didn't match with what I was thinking, it didn't matter! His personality fit and that's what mattered. He was such a troublemaker, but not, if that makes any sense. He did the wrong thing for.. the wrong.. reaso- OKAY. WELP. He's just a troublemaker! We're just going to stick with that But he was a good one. 'Cause he was a hacker. I already loved hackers (because of their skill, not what they do with that skill), and he wasn't the best hacker, but MAN! Was he serious about it and that was nice! There was a fabulous cast that were engaging, real, and had their own voice, which is really important to me. I like to be able to identify who is who and that book did it perfectly. There are other characters I'd like to spotlight, but that might be WAAAY too much of a spoiler because the guy in question doesn't come in until later. But when he does come in, that's where some of the young adult themes are presented. Nothing bad, at all! He's just queer and likes guys. It's kind of a statement that is there, is slightly referred back to and that's it. There is also some cursing and bad language, which is a slight turn off for me. They didn't curse a lot, maybe a max of 4 or 5 times throughout the whole book. There isn't much I have to say about the setting. They were in Seattle. I might've thought it was a bit too bright, but that's my mind's own fault. There were something that I didn't know about Seattle, like the Underground, which is, after googling it, is some tour about old Seattle...? I don't know, but you don't particularly need to know about it. I read it just fine. The antagonist is whHOOOAA!! H-He's something, he really is. He's smart, which I really, really, really appreciate. That is the one thing that I want from all antagonists. They need to be smart and ALWAYS 1 to 2 steps ahead of the protagonist. (And I also want them to be good looking with a good and innocent back story so that I can sympathize more, but that's not exactly a requirement...) And when he said he was going to do something, HE DID IT. LIKE WHO DOES THAT! IT'S PERFECT!!! I-I mean, that's not particularly good, but it's been a while since I've read someone committed to doing something and that commitment is so strong that their willing to TOW DOWN THE WHOLE WORLD to get what they want. So yeah. Good job for all dedicated antagonists. (That should be a celebrated day and featured on Google or something...) The plot was intense, I didn't know what was going to happen and because I didn't know, I was stressing, but that's good because that means the book has successfully sucked me in. After those few chapters on the bus, I was entranced. I wanted to finish so badly! And when I did, it was perfect. It ended wonderfully. Not exactly the way I had wanted (because I wanted Patrick and May to be a thing, but they're okay as friends), but it was fabulous nonetheless. It was fulfilling and wrapped it all up. All-in-all, this was a wonderful read. I would reread this book in a heartbeat! So I give this book 4 and 1/2 stars! Have you read this book? If so, did you like it? If you didn't read the book, would you want to? Tell me in the comments!
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But now a prophecy has come to light. Someone from Aileen’s island will gather a man from each of the three islands, bring down the magical barrier, and unite them with the fourth island again. And according to the king, that someone is Aileen’s Aunt – who insists on dragging Aileen along. AND the boy Aileen is sure she’ll marry (one day); the local boy with more brawn then brain. Someone seems to want to stop them too… someone with an interest in keeping the Islands apart. But still, with magic on their side, nothing can go wrong. Right?
My Review: Beautiful. Absolutely stunning. **PROS:** - The characters were absolutely magnificent. They were three-dimensional, they had human emotions, and they said the thoughts that I was thinking. Ivar, the son of the King of Skarr, was a snobby, arrogant child. But his transformation was beyond satisfying. Aileen, the daughter of Garth of Gallis, was quick to self-depreciation and criticism, but she turned out to be a very smart, capable individual with the ability to lead. Ogo, a Logran, seemed to be very stupid at the beginning of the story, but I found out that he was only misunderstood and that was actually incredibly observant and caringly blunt. Aunt Beck, the aunt to Aileen, was very... strange in my opinion. She was extremely blunt and was very rude every time she spoke, so I didn't like her as much as I wanted too. Every other character in this story just added color and spirit to the beautiful plot! - The plot was full of twists and magic, both of which I love. 1) The antagonist was so smart. I was in complete shock when the full plan of the villain surfaced to life. 2) The story got started immediately. Even though the first sentence sounds irrelevant, it was an instant reading hook. - The map. The hardcover that I got had a map in the book before the actual story began, and this was so helpful. With as many cities and islands they traveled through, I lost a sense of direction. But it was nice to see a physical image of where there were traveling. - Page 342. The story ends page 350. I have 8 more pages and this story is nowhere near being resolved. In fact, the intense fight scene hadn't begun yet! As the author slowly puts this story to a close, the characters are in such a dire predicament, my heart is pounding. As I continued reading, I found myself losing track of the page number and realized that the story ended perfectly, as well as with a perfect pace. - The love in this was brimming with fluff. It was absolutely beautiful. At the beginning, there was one pairing, but I didn't like it at all, but it soon changed towards the end of the middle. It was right there when two couples were formed and then two more. So, in all, there were four couples and my heart was bursting with satisfaction and happiness. It was so nice to see so many lovers in such a story! **CONS:** - There were many parts of the book that had grammatical errors. Usually, I'm one to skip over those, but these errors were in such important areas. - In the very beginning, they introduced two characters that weren't even talked about until the middle of chapter two and the other the middle of chapter three! I shouldn't have to wait that long to understand a single sentence in the first chapter. - For some parts of the book, I definitely felt as though the book hadn't gone past the first draft phase. That was partially disappointing to me as I realized that part of the plot, even though it was already amazing, could have been fleshed out more. - Closer to the end of the book, you could subtly tell that the writing style changed. It wasn't a bad change, not at all. But the fact that I had familiarized myself with Ms. Diana's writing style and it just changed to Ms. Ursula's was very surprising, still though, it wasn't bad. All in all, I would definitely recommend this book to others! I rate this book a 4 out of 5. |
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Reading Goal 2018Bianca &
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