review

The Sea of Monsters (Percy Jackson and the Olympians #2)

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The Sea of Monsters (Percy Jackson and the Olympians #2) by Rick Riordan

Synopsis from Goodreads:

The heroic son of Poseidon makes an action-packed comeback in the second must-read instalment of Rick Riordan’s amazing young reader’s series. Starring Percy Jackson, a “half-blood” whose mother is human and whose father is the God of the Sea, Riordan’s series combines cliff-hanger adventure and Greek mythology lessons that results in true page-turners that get better with each instalment. In this episode, The Sea of Monsters, Percy sets out to retrieve the Golden Fleece before his summer camp is destroyed, surpassing the first book’s drama and setting the stage for more thrills to come

My thoughts:

I’m glad I persevered after reading the first one and not loving it, because this the second book in the series is awesome! For one I feel it’s faster passed with more action. Our hero’s Percy and Annabeth have to try and save one of my most loved characters from the first book Grover! Riordan also gives us another character to fall in love with in the form of Tyson! Of course at the end of the second book Riordan gives us a cliff-hanger ending propelling us into wanting to read the third instalment. The second is a much more engrossing book, but you would need the first to feel so.

Five Stars!! For young and old.

The Lightning Thief (Percy Jackson and the Olympians #1)

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The Lightning Thief (Percy Jackson and the Olympians #1) by Rick Riordan

Gosh dang! Where to start!

Synopsis from goodreads.com:

Percy Jackson is about to be kicked out of boarding school… again. And that’s the least of his troubles. Lately, mythological monsters and the gods of Mount Olympus seem to be walking straight out of the pages of Percy’s Greek mythology textbook and into his life. And worse, he’s angered a few of them. Zeus’ master lightning bolt has been stolen, and Percy is the prime suspect.

Now Percy and his friends have just ten days to find and return Zeus’ stolen property and bring peace to a warring Mount Olympus. But to succeed on his quest, Percy will have to do more than catch the true thief: he must come to terms with the father who abandoned him; solve the riddle of the Oracle, which warns him of betrayal by a friend; and unravel a treachery more powerful than the gods themselves.

My thoughts:           

I made the fatal mistake of seeing the movie adaptation of this book before reading it! Hence I roughly knew what was going to go down and kept trying to place the parts of the movie into the book. The movie was good, the book was better, but I knew too much so it didn’t really pull me in at first.  Luckily I know nothing of the other four in the series and don’t intent to find out until I’m reading them. Also seeing the movie first, I had figured the main character to be around fifteen/ sixteen (forgive me it has been a couple of years since I’ve seen the film) and in the book he is only twelve. I found Percy being only twelve and doing the things he was doing a bit hard to swallow, I had to keep reminding myself Harry was only eleven at the beginning of his adventures. I had to get my head in the right mind space to enjoy this book, I struggled but by the end it had got me and I will go on to read the next book. So while seeing the movie made this book less impressive, it did introduce me to the series and that’s a good thing.

I would recommend this book to a younger audience and those still in touch with their inner child. While I rate this book a three I think I could have been a four or five if I hadn’t seen the darn movie.

Most of the time if I see a movie I like the look of and see that’s it’s based on a book, I read the book, that’s only fair to the original story and that’s how I found Lee Child and Jack Reacher (now there’s a movie that DID NOT live up to its book) I read all the twilights before I saw the movies etc etc. In fact bar the Harry Potter series this is the only time I saw the movie first, I watched all the Potter movies before I opened the first book, but they were so good that the movies and the books stand up as awesome on their own. Never again my friends will I watch the movie first, always always read the book first.

Close Call: A Doris and Jemma Vadgeventure

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I’ve just finished reading Close Call: A Doris and Jemma Vadgeventure by Eloise March.

Close call is an amusing story about a young women and her vagina, I giggled the whole way through, then got to the end and went ‘I want more’.

I would highly recommend this book to anyone who’s ever been a woman with a vagina on the dating seen (I’d say that covers most of us) and any open minded men wanting a light, funny and refreshing read.

In this book you not only get to hear Jemma’s side of the perils of dating life, but insight from her vagina Doris and the information that Doris gets from talking to Penises. You can’t help but want Doris to succeed in finding Jemma and herself a good man. You would be forgiven for thinking, oh! Ok… taking vagina’s and penises, no thank you, but really it was a funny and most enjoyable read.

 Five Stars

Bad Luck and Trouble

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Bad Luck and Trouble (11th of 18 Reacher Novels)

You do not mess with the Special Investigators – in this Reacher novel we see Reacher back together with his old team of elite army investigators.

Reacher finds out about the brutal death of a one of his old team mates and soon the remaining members reunite to solve a mystery that’s bigger than them.

I don’t know why I wasn’t as sucked into this book as much as the other three I’ve read. I’m assuming the reason was that in this novel you learn quite early on that this will be a revenge mission for the most part and you know Reacher will survive as Lee Child went on after this book to write another 7 Reacher novels. I guess there wasn’t anyone for me to care about him saving, no innocent man or pretty ladies. It’s strange because in the worlds current condition the ‘mystery’ should have meant more to me than any pretty lady, hmmmm.

Now don’t get me wrong I enjoyed it, it was still a page turner and I still want to read all eighteen and I still think Lee Child is an awesome writer but this one just didn’t grab me as much as the others – I’m baffled & would love to know what others thought.

http://www.leechild.com/

Reaching for the Moon

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Reaching for the Moon, By Regina Puckett.

This is only the 2nd straight poetry book I’ve ever read, but  I really enjoyed Regina’s poetry, so much so I’ve read it through twice and gone and purchased another of her poem compendiums “Here among the ruins” which I’ve added to my “To Read List” for later.

The poems in this book seemed to, for me sum up the emotions and thoughts we all go through. I found that her poems flowed beautifully and I could really connect with the emotions in most of them and enjoyed reading them all.

This book really is a bargain at $1.05 (kindle price) – you will read it more than once. Five Stars.

http://reginapuckettsbooks.weebly.com/index.html

Albert of Adelaide

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I have just read this book again because I love it and I know this won’t be my last time reading it.

Albert of Adelaide – Howard L Anderson

Albert is a platypus, fed up with his life in Adelaide Zoo, he manages to escape and we see Albert make his way through a tough wild west, bang bang shoot em up outback Australia with the help of some unlikely friends he meets along the way.

A Platypus is extremely out of place in the center of Australia and Albert gets into a lot of mischief with his friends, which of course makes for a very entertaining, funny and enjoyable story.

But the whole book isn’t fun and games, there are some deeper moments Mr Anderson managers to hide in there, through the inter-species friendships, alcoholic bandicoots and some rather spiritual Dingoes.

Howard L Anderson writes a fantastic story and you can’t help but fall in love with his characters, you will want to read it time and time again.

http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/740944.Howard_L_Anderson

“Albert had done all he could, and if it wasn’t enough, he’d worry about it in another life.”

― Howard L. Anderson, Albert of Adelaide

 

“Second Son” a Jack Reacher short story

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“Second Son” a Jack Reacher short story – Lee Child

Before I had read this story my Reacher familiarity had only been through One Shot (9th of 18 Reacher Novels) and Echo Burning (5th of 18) I read One Shot and thought it was the most amazing thing ever.

Before One Shot I’d never been into reading crime novels. Really before one shot I’d mainly read fantasy and romances, but Lee Child manages to write in a way that keeps me wanting more as opposed to making me feel sick from the pointless horror I’d come to associate with crime and thriller novels. I’ve only ever gotten the Oh My God that was awesome ‘buzz’ before from epic fantasy and thrilling romances.

I really liked this short story because it took you back to a 13 year old Reacher living with his parents and older brother. I liked reading about Reacher’s father and seeing the start of how his life turns him into the man he becomes. In this story he and his family have just had to move AGAIN, following his dad around in the service. It goes on to show what a tough not so little cookie he has always been, getting into fights and beating up the bigger kids on the base, solving perplexing mysteries and even getting himself a girl – same old Reacher as always – Pure Awesomeness!

http://www.leechild.com/