8/31/11

WWW Wednesdays (3)



WWW Wednesedays is hosted by Should Be Reading. To play along, just answer the following three (3) questions.

What are you currently reading? 


What did you recently finish reading? 


 What do you think you'll read next? 



What are yours? (: 
Rose.

8/30/11

Review: White Cat by Holly Black

I've heard of Holly Black even before I came across this book, (I mean, who hasn't?) I just didn't get the chance to read anything by her, it's not like it's waiting for me on a shelf in the library. (Unfortunately)
I got the audiobook for free download and that's how it all started..


White Cat is a book I needed to remind me why I love Paranormal so much. It reminded me why I love Jesse Eisenberg, as well. It was so much fun to listen to this book, to feel the story beyond its words.


White Cat (Curse Workers, #1)I wrote before "to remind me why I love paranormal so much," and almost regretted it. I wanted to deleted it, convinced it wasn't true. I had a lot of great paranormal books lately, why is this one so different? 


The first reason is the obvious, the male protagonist. I had read only one YA book with a male protagonist, you know how much it's rare.. It was refreshing, for once. It wasn't difficult to get into Cassel's head and I felt his character's point of view was great. His character was wonderful, full of flaws that made him so human. The things he goes through the book not only changing him but letting you know him better, to relate to him.Cassel's world is unique, his definition of wrong and right is different than most people's. However, If at the beginning I didn't understand him at all, as the time pass, I got to realize what his motives, to see the world through his eyes.  


The beginning. Wow, seriously, I don't remember when a book started so good, so differently. I mean it, I listened to the first part twice, tried to find what I missed. I didn't, I just thrown into the story without realizing it. The book gets to the plot at page 1, Holly doesn't waste any time, Cassel needs to deal with things already at the first line. Maybe it sounds a little confusing, it is, but it's good. It's dangerous move, but it turned out to be a genius one.  


The characters. It's hard to find a book which contains a lot of written-well characters, but here's one. I loved the variety and the differences between them, the easy building of each one. Even the characters I didn't like at all seemed great to me. Each of them was so natural, their personalities are seen perfectly. (Right now, one of my biggest problem about my writing is the characters, so I usually pay attention to that when I read. It is one of the books I'd like to learn about creating better characters.)


The plot is good, very unexpected and interesting. The curse workers is an idea which may sound known, but I actually can't remember I read anything like that before, I found the story really original. Cassel's family was nothing like I expected. The explanations were clear and the background details during the story were good, yet every time I get to find out more information that I didn't know was missing. 


Well, do you know these books when the last lines make you to want the sequels so badly? It was one of these. I NEED its sequel! I was shocked.. it was frustrating and so unfair to finish the book like that, but I have to admit it was a great ending! 


So this book was amazing, I loved it! It's going to be one of my favorites, for sure though I still can't explain why I found this one a little different than other paranormal books I've read. Moreover, Jesse's voice made everything sound even better, so far he's the best narrator I've listened to. (Out of 3, doesn't count, but he's good, trust me. ) I can't wait for getting Red Glove, I need the story to continue! 


BTW, a few days before I started this one, I heard it's going to be translated to Hebrew. I hope it'll be soon, I'll share the cover with you when it happens :D


Rose. 

Bout of Books Read-a-Thon Wrap-Up



Bout of Books Read-a-Thon was hosted by Amanda from On a Book Bender.
Total number of books I've read: 2 




I've read Flame of Surrender too, but I'm not done yet so I didn't include it. 
So, it wasn't the best week ever and without weekend, I'd not read even those. I haven't reached my goal but this Read-a-Thon was really fun! :D 
Reviews about these two will be published in the next days.. (: 


Rose. 

8/28/11

Cover Reveal

What's so special about my blog? Yep, you get to see Hebrew covers and trust me, they're really original and different. In the future, you may hear some complains that nothing good is being translated here.
I have a huge example:

I guess you all have heard about The Mortal Instruments. Even if you haven't read it, it's kind of the things you should know about. Anyway, surprisingly, in some places in the world; including Israel, there are teens who haven't heard about it! *Sigh* yeah, it's awful.

The first book in the series- City of Bones, comes out a first in Israel on October.
It's not the official cover but only a hint about what the cover should be:

Up to the publishing date, there is a kind of a mini-book we can find in the bookstores for free which contains the first two chapters in the books. It's actually its cover.

What do you think about it? I'd love to hear your thoughts!

8/24/11

WWW Wednesdays (2)


WWW Wednesdays is hosted by Should Be Reading. To play along, just answer the following three (3) questions.. 

What are you currently reading? 






What did you recently finish reading? 





What do you think you'll read next? 





What are yours? (:

8/22/11

Bout of Books Read-a-Thon








Hey everybody! I signed today to Bout of Books Read-a-Thon at On a Book Bender.

Me and my luck aren't getting along as usual. The previous Read-a-Thon I participated in didn't go so well since I wasn't home and had to study for an important exam. It's kind of like that this time. I can't not do my course's homework, the exam in a month and half away. Anyway, my goals are going to be modest and there's high precents I'll be not able to reach them.




Read-a-Thon Goals


Read at least 5 books.
At least 2 of them should be English books. (Need to learn more words for the exam!)


Books to Knock Out
White Cat by Holly Black
Flame of Surrender by Rhiannon Paille
The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown.
The Last Song by Nicholas Sparks.
Forgotten by Cat Patrick.


Other Books I’d Love to Get to
Bloodlines by Richelle Mead. (If it gets here before the end of the week, I'm going to read it instead of one of the books I mentioned above.)
The Girl in The Steel Corset by Kady Cross.
Paranormalcy by Kiersten White.

How Much Time I Intend to Read


No more than a few hours a day when I don't have homework. In the weekend, I'll read a lot more.


Updates


8/22

Number of pages I’ve read today: 2 chapters.


Number of books I’ve read today: -



Total number of books I’ve read: -


Today #insixwords: I could have done better.





8/23


Number of pages I’ve read today: -

Number of books I’ve read today: -


Total number of books I’ve read: -


Today #insixwords: I had no time at all.


8/24

Number of pages I’ve read today: 3 chapters. (audiobook)


Number of books I’ve read today: -

Total number of books I’ve read: -

Today #insixwords: My-mom-has-other-plans-shit.


8/25

Number of pages I’ve read today: 28 pages + half chapter.


Number of books I’ve read today: -

Total number of books I’ve read: -

Today #insixwords: Weekend-weekend-weekend-weekend-weeken. Oh, weekend.


8/26

Number of pages I’ve read today: 4 chapters so far (White Cat) + 15o pages. (Bloodlines)


Number of books I’ve read today: -

Total number of books I’ve read: -

Today #insixwords: It is barely a start.


8/27

Number of pages I’ve read today: 373 pages + 2 chapters.


Number of books I’ve read today:

Total number of books I’ve read:

Today #insixwords: Wow, it was the weekend! [=

8/28 — will go into a “wrap-up” post on 8/29 or 8/30

8/21/11

Review: Hush Hush by Becca Pitzpatrick


I've planned to read Hush, Hush for more than a year. It was on my wishlist for a long time.. however, I didn't get to order it. Then, as happened with Lock and Key, I found out it was translated. If you ask me, the English cover is great and the Hebrew one isn't (I'll add a picture in the end of this post) but I knew I needed to get the book so I bought it. 

Every person who read a book in his life knows that the beginning should be really good or it'll keep some people away from the book. I don't know how others felt about this beginning, but I felt something was missing.. Yes, the first chapter was good but the others weren't. I'm lucky I usually don't put a book down until the last word. 

I didn't like Nora, the protagonist. I felt like something in her character was contradictory; on my hand, she was pretending being the good girl while in the other hand, it seems she was looking for troubles.  Maybe her friend was encouraging her, but she still did it. In general, all the characters seemed odd, like their personalities are too radical. 

The plot was good. After a long time of reading and watching movies and series, you may predict things. I usually do, it's not so great when you only want to enjoy the story. Anyway, there were a few things about this book I couldn't predict and it was wonderful. I liked the mystery and the drama. The plot totally makes up for the things I didn't like in the book. It was really curious to find out what's going to happen and finished reading it in a couple of hours.  

The writing. It's a complicated issue since I need to do a difference between original version to the translated. I felt like there were better parts and less, sometimes I understood completly Nora (although I didn't like her most the time) and sometimes she made no sense and I couldn't related. I think the translation wasn't great but neither bad. It was fine, could have been a lot better. 

So Hush, Hush wasn't my favorites and I don't think it'll ever be, but it was nice book and I liked it. I'm going to recommend it and to read the next one as soon as it comes out in Hebrew.

8/19/11

Review: Lock and Key by Sarah Dessen


A few weeks ago, I was meeting with some friends in the mall. As usual, we walked into a bookstore (Technically, every bookstore we could find.) to see what's new. I wasn't going to buy any book until I saw this one, translated to Hebrew. My friends know who Sarah Dessen is, not because they read any book by her but because I couldn't stop talking about her since I've read The Truth About Forever, one of my favorites. 
Even before I read this one, I told everyone to get her book. I'm planning to get her popular here too lol. 

Lock and Key didn't disappointed me even for a second. After reading three books by Sarah Dessen, I've notice the familiar tone of her writing and her plot. It's like reading Harlan Coben, you just never get tired of that. 
I started reading the book when I knew I had only a couple of hours. I didn't plan to read more than 50 pages and found myself sinking into the story and reading 172. I probably would have read the whole book in one sitting, but my copy was damaged. Page 173 was missing, so do 176-177 and a couple of others. It was frustrating and the only reason I had to stop reading. 

One of the best things about Sara Dessen's books are the characters. As a writer I admire her ability to write characters like that, a variety of them whose each one is totally different. During the story, you learn about each of them including his history and presonality. They're never boring.  

The plot is another amazing thing about this story, one most of us would find it hard to believe when you're surrounded with your family members and having none of Ruby's problems to deal with. When you're in Ruby's shoes, her world makes sense and her choices don't seem unbelievable as they usually should. In addition, I loved the fact that you get to find everything, there's no missing information or some lack of details. Sometimes when I read, I feel like there are things that even the author doesn't know, here this is exactly the opposite: I feel like Sarah lived her story. 

The writing.. Well, as usual, Sarah's writing is beautiful. The story is written in a way that makes you get attached to everything that happen there. The scenes are powerful and light, as it needed. 

In fact, the book I've read is this: The Hebrew's translation. So I thought I'd talk a little about the translation. Luckily, I've read other book by Sarah Dessen before in English so I could feel when the translation was the cause that some of the sentences were clumsy and confusing. I knew it could have been translated better due to my past experience. Anyway, I don't regret reading it in Hebrew. It was great to know every word in this amazing book. I probably will read all Sarah Dessen's other books (that I haven't read yet) before the next translated book, but it'll be great to get all my friends to read them. I'll let you know when they'll fall in love with it. 

I'd like to hear what you thought about this one or if you're planning to read it! (: 


8/17/11

WWW Wednesdays (1)


WWW Wednesdays is a feature hosted by Should Be Reading.

To play along, just answer the following questions:

• What are you currently reading? 

Ashes, Ashes  

                                 Ashes, Ashes by Jo Treggiari -



• What did you recently finish reading?

Lock and Key Nightshade

Lock and Key by Sarah Dessen
Nightshade by Andrea Cremer


• What do you think you’ll read next?

The Lost Symbol (Robert Langdon, #3)      Hush, Hush (Hush, Hush, #1)

Hush, Hush by Becca Fitzpatrick 
The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown

Have a great day! Thank you for stopping by,
Rose. 

8/15/11

In My Mailbox (2)

Hey! I know I've not updated for long.. my life is killing me! I can't handle all the things I have to do- I started a course and I actually spend any minute of my time doing homework, I don't have any time left for writing:(
Anyway, I promise to update as soon as I can.. (:

In My Mailbox is hosted by Kristi from The Story Siren.

My mailbox this week- 


My copy of Anna and The French Kiss arrived a couple of days ago. I've waited so long for it because I wanted the paperback and now it's here! Yay! (: 
And a signed copy of Iron Queen from Heidi (YA Bibliophile), who sent me the some swag too! Thank you, Heidi!

Well, I got this free ebook of The Girl in the Steel Corset. I really want to read this one.  

The Girl in the Steel Corset (Steampunk Chronicles, #1)

Not much, but these seem amazing books and I can't wait to start any of them. (Right after I read the other I've not yet.)

Have a great week! :D 


8/9/11

Review: The Iron King by Julie Kagawa



Let me start with the cover: It's amazing. I loved it the first second I saw it and knew I had to get this book.. Well, I did.

The Iron King is one of the books I kept hearing about them since I first found goodreads and started visiting book blogs. After seeing the cover (I don't reject a book by its cover but a good one might attract me more, obviously) and hearing the recommendations, I decided to buy it. It wasn't easy, it spent a lot of time in my wishlist but it waited patiently until I did this amazing buying a few weeks ago and finally purchased it.

I'd like to say I was captured from the first page but it wasn't the case here. I found the first chapters cute and fun and I wanted to find out what's going to happen but I felt like it wasn't good as I hoped for.

Well, I ended up loving the book. It was great, hilarious, and full of actions. It seems you have no second to rest while reading this book- there is always place to get to and fast. It's not easy when the story doesn't leave you minutes to breath and that's part of its magic.

I loved the complex in the story, good and bad, new and old, known and unknown, paranormal against normal. Yeah, I was afraid this book wasn't good enough and as I kept reading, I totally changed my mind.

I think the characters are awesome, I could understand Meghan and the reasons she does everything- sometimes she was too reckless for me but I realized her motives. Puck was great; I loved his character from the beginning, he is so protective and kind, and absolutely funny. And there are Ash, Ethan and Grim which made the story so good, but I'd not want to tell spoilers so I stop here.

I'm glad I've read this one and not giving up on it in the middle, it was undoubtedly worth it, as I'm sure you all already know.   



side note: I don't include summaries in my reviews. I used to read them and find spoilers so I don't do that anymore, most the time I choose my books differently. My reviews include only my thoughts and feelings about the books. If you'd like to find the book's summary, I'd refer you to sites like goodreads or amazon.

8/7/11

Just an update.

I think I'm starting to get all the pressure bloggers are talking about. I tried to write a review a copule of times without any luck, just couldn't. I don't know what the problem is because I know perfectly clear what I want to write.. Well, I guess it's like writing, I will have to keep trying.

Anyway, not sure if I'm going to do IMM this week since all my books arrived last week and you saw them. I have nothing new but some audiobooks and ebooks.. And my paperback copy of  Anna and The French Kiss that should come these days, can't wait for this one! Bloodlines should be here in the end of the month, too : D Maybe I need to re-read Vampire Academy again? *Sigh* I wish, but I have too many books to read and I need to focus back on my story.. meaning, I have to read all of it again and fix what messed up. It's going to be tough, I know that but I have barely a month left before school starts and I have to do something useful. I gave it a little break and now it's time to find the lost parts and get back to work, right?

Yesterday I started reading Lock and Key. I read until page 194, which apparently was missing. I couldn't stop so I skipped this page and moved on.. only to find that pages 197-198 were missing too! Well, like if it weren't enough, I kept finding blank pages in the rest of the book. Of course I couldn't keep reading and now I have to go to the bookstore in order to replace my copy. How annoying is that?
I really wish I could find out what happens next!

Well, I've got a letter this week. My dad told me I got "English Letter" but he can't find it anywhere. I wasn't sure what it was but who can send me "English letter"? lol. Finally he found it, and I saw these inside...





Thank to Carla (from Library Mosaic) and to Beth Revis! Loved it!! I've never had a author's signature before! :D

8/4/11

Review: The keepers by Monique O'Connor James


When I started reading The Keepers, it seemed to me it was going to be a nice book to spend my time with. Now, after reading it, I feel it was more than that. The Keepers is a book about dealing with loss, pain and faith.

The Keepers tells us about Jess, a girl who finds difficulties on believing in God after her mother's death. She decides to run away, leaving her reality behind her in order to find a safe place, where she shouldn't have to deal with her issues.

I loved the characters, every each. Every one of them has his own story and acts by his beliefs. Jordan, Jess' brother, was one of my favorites. I liked the relationship between him and Jess, how they seemed to take care of each other in addition to their own problems.

Usually I hate many descriptions but this time, in The Keepers, I loved the city's descriptions. I felt like I could be there with Jess and see everything through her eyes even though I haven't been to New Orleans before.

However, sometimes I felt like I don't know enough. Yeah, I love the mystery part and wish every book had it, but not about important stuffs. It took me forever to find out what was Jess' age, and it was like none was clear about her past. Has she worked before, studied? Not clear. What about her previous friends? I felt like she had no life besides her family before the book started.

The paranormal part couldn't be separated from the story, and I truly loved it. I had a little problem with Jess accepting right away to things but she made up for that describing her fears and her history.

This book is a process about finding a goal. Not only did Jess lose her faith in God but in the lives themselves. It seems she is about to find another direction in her life, one she hasn't expected for.


Thanks to Young Readers and to Monique O'Connor James for the Ebook! (: