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Showing posts with label 1/5. Show all posts
Showing posts with label 1/5. Show all posts

Tuesday, 20 March 2012

The Crystal Princess, by Kimberley Norton


With the war between good and evil looming, Kelly must find the strength to harness her magical powers and summon The Crystal Princess inside her. 

Kelly lives the life of a typical teen in the suburbs of Southern California with her football star boyfriend and loyal best friend. It’s her senior year, and she’s looking forward to her eighteenth birthday. But her life totally changes when she’s abducted by her birth family, a family she didn’t even know existed. Meeting her mother and two sisters for the first time is almost too much for her to handle. Kelly learns she is a witch born from a coven of witches with special powers. She’s called back to help her family fight the evil, power-hungry witch, Victoria, and the Wizard Council, who want to destroy all that Kelly’s family holds dear before the Immortality Ceremony, a ceremony that will seal the girls’ fate and powers for all eternity. 

To make things even more complicated, Kelly falls in love with an Indian named Max White Bear. But because of a longstanding tradition, their relationship is a hard sell to the chief of the Indian tribe. 

With the war between good and evil looming, Kelly must find the strength to harness her magical powers and summon 
The Crystal Princess inside her.
It seems pretty covers are always lying these days.

On goodreads, the only other ratings are five stars. I gave it one.

I’m not sure why this is. Well, actually, and I don’t want to be mean or anything, I don’t understand how anyone thought it was worth five stars. I feel really bad saying that, because I got my copy from the author herself, and for free (all internet of course, I don’t know her personally).

Right, so, the blurb pulled me in a bit. I was really excited to read it. From page one, it was evident that this would not live up to my expectations. Complications arose from the structure and content of the writing.
a)      1. It was a young adult concept. There were teenage main characters, a teenage romance and supernatural powers is mainly young adult.
b)     2It was written basic, flying between plot points without much explanation or description. Also, things happened incredibly fast and ridiculously cliché, which would only be acceptable for young kids, under ten years.
c)       3. The story was the length of a novella, but it was completely unsuitable. Novellas are for short stories that have a lot of points and characters to explain. Not for an idea that could have been a proper book.

Essentially, I loved the idea of the plot. However, it was completely ruined by the bad way in which it was written. I would have really liked to see this plot in a four-hundred-page book. In my opinion, expansion and extra writing skill would have been a huge improvement. There’s no need for specifics in this review; everything was underdeveloped.
I wouldn’t recommend this to anyone, personally, except possibly a ten year old girl.
My Rating: 1/5
P.S. If Kimberley Norton actually reads this, I don’t mean any offense, but this is my constructive opinion.

Wednesday, 13 July 2011

The Last Summer (of You and Me) by Ann Brashares


After I fell in love with the Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants, I looked to more of Ann Brashares' books to fill my time. I came across The Last Summerand thought I would be immersed in a story of love, friendship and emotion. The blurb led me to believe so. 

The blurb LIED. 

Certainly, you immediately got the feel of a laid-back beach town. It was sleepy and pleasant in the beginning and seemed the perfect place for the perfect teenage romance. I liked the way that Alice, Riley and Paul each told some of the story. I liked the way that Alice and Paul's relationship started to develop- slow, shy and magnetic. I liked the way that Riley was so self-absorbed and determined. 

After the illness, however, everything was different. The relationships became annoying and taut. The sleepiness of the island started putting ME to sleep. Riley wasn't allowed to be Riley any more. The writing style was dull and the plot was just too uneventful for too long. 

I couldn't finish reading this book. While I had it on loan from my school library, I lost it at least three times. I left it in the school hall, at my lunch seat in the school grounds and in one of my previous classes. I was bored and unmoved. 

I wouldn't recommend this, personally. I didn't feel the story or the characters. I was completely unimpressed. You can do better, Ann.


1/5