Book Review: Winter

Winter by Marissa Meyer

Winter by Marissa Meyer is the fourth and final book in the Lunar Chronicles series.  This story is a futuristic adaptation of the classic fairy tale, Snow White.  This book has a lot more action and is slightly more graphic with violence.  None that I thought would be inappropriate of the genre but the three previous books kind of gradually got to this point.  Because I felt that these books were aimed for older teens, the darker nature of this book wasn't to bad.

The novel becomes more of a focal point for Princess Winter, who all of the Lunar people admire her for her grace and kindness.  She refuses to use her glimmer which would hide the scars on her face.  And because of that, her mind is slowly going insane.  Because of the Lunar people's admiration of Winter, Queen Levana is jealous of Winter and tries to find ways to get rid of her (much like Snow Whites step-mother).  The crew: Cinder, Captain Throne, Cress, Wolf, and Emperor Kai come up with a plan to get Scarlet back and to destroy Queen Levana once and for all, but they must help the Lunars in a revolt so they can put the rightful Queen back in her place.

I loved this story and I was so sad to see the series end.  I fell in love with all of the characters, and they were very human despite being fictional.  The ending was quite nice but it was definitely a little open.  There is a resolution to the major conflict, including the characters minor conflicts, but you're left to come up with your own conclusion of Cinder and Emperor Kai.  I choose to believe that once all of the political things settle, they get their own happy ending between each other.  The action was intense, the personal story lines flowed well with the main story line and plot.  I had a very hard time putting this book down and I think I read this book in about a day and a half after I bought it.

The one thing that I hate about when I read books that I'm completely in love with is that I suck at reviewing them.  I seriously loved this book and this series.  And I'm definitely looking out for the next book and series that Marissa Meyer releases.  This would definitely be a series that I would recommend for my niece (who is almost 16).

RATING:
5 out of 5 stars

Book Review: Love, Lucy

Love, Lucy by Lucille Ball is an autobiography set from when Lucille Ball was a little girl to the early 1960's.  The book was published in 1997 (8 years after Lucille Ball's death), and was published by Berkley (both of Ball's children decided that this needed to be released.)

The biography starts off with a forward from Lucille Ball's daughter, Lucie Desiree Arnaz.  She talks about how she found the manuscript when she was going through some things that she had of her mothers.  She also mentioned how her mother never released this was because she didn't want to hurt her ex-husband, Desi Arnaz.  She talked about the love and respect that they both had for each other.  Lucille chronicles her earlier years from when her father died when she was 4, to moving to different relatives while her mother tried to figure out how to support her family to living with her grandparents as a big family.  She also talked about how she modeled but really wanted to be an actress and how she dealt with rejection before going out to California and her rise to stardom.

One of my favorite things about the autobiography, was how Ms. Ball looked at the hardships in her life and she would find the lesson in it.  When she went though a bad situation where a well known director was enthralled by her and wanted to leave his wife but Lucy decided to not pursue a relationship because it could have hurt his children, the wife found out about it and made it so that Lucy wouldn't get any parts in A movies (which led to her title the Queen of B) during that part of her career.  But what I found so interesting was that she never named names, she accepted that was going to happen in her career and instead of giving up she put her all in every roll that she got.  For about half of the book, was on her life with her first husband Desi, whom she did I Love Lucy with and a few movies.  She talked about the passion and love, but she also talked about their dysfunction and difficulties.  One thing, which I felt was important, was that Lucy didn't lay all of the blame on Desi, It wasn't all his fault, she looked at where they both went wrong, she didn't play the victim but she didn't make him out as the villain.  The last few pages talk about their divorce, and Lucy's marriage to her second husband, Gary Morton (whom she was with till her death).  I loved how she talked about how Gary and Desi would golf with each other, how they were all apart of their children's lives.  She said something that I just thought was so powerful, and that was, "I'd rather have my children grow up in two loving house holds instead of growing up in one miserable home."

I loved this book, when I finished it, it left me with such a wonderful warm fuzzy feeling that I couldn't help but be happy.  I honestly think that that this should be required reading for high school students, especially girls.  Lucille Ball is the definition of classy, funny, smart, witty, and just all around a great woman.  She didn't sing her praises she didn't place blame on anyone else.  It just made me happy to read about one of my favorite actresses and comediennes.  I recommend this book to everyone and anyone.  Even if you don't think that you'd like it because you're not a big biography reader, you will.  It was so easy to get through and really hard to put down.

Rating:
5 out of 5 stars

2016 March TBR/On Deck

Happy March.  This month I decided to do mostly kindle/e-books since I need to catch up on the physical books that I haven't made it to yet and I'm also going on vacation and it's easier to bring my kindle instead of 4 to 6 physical books.  So I plan on reading the books from last month:

1. Come Love a Stranger  by Kathleen E. Woodiwiss
2. Forever in Your Embrace by Kathleen E. Woodiwiss
3. One Virgin Too Many by Lindsey Davis
4. Perfect Evil by E.C. Sheedy
5. Dragonbane by Sherrilyn Kenyon
6. The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern
7. Stop in the Name of Pants by Louise Rennison
8. Are These My Basooma's I See Before Me by Louise Rennison

I'll Probably start on the Louise Rennison books next, mostly because they'll finish the series, but another reason is that sadly, Louise Rennison passed away recently.  I loved the Georgia Nicholson books when I was younger.  I remember staying up all night reading them, laughing my butt off. 

Next are 8 e-books that I have decided to read, again, I picked 8 because I'll probably read 4 to 8 (depending on the length) when I'm on vacation.

1. Deception of a Highlander by Madeline Martin
2. Under the Cowboy's Control by Lynda Chance
3. Half Bad by Sally Green
4. Flirting With Felicity by Gerri Russell
5. Jace by Kenzie Cox
6. The Ghost Bride by Yangsze Choo
7. Devil of the Highlands by Lynsay Sands
8. Play With Me by Anna Katmore

Well this is my March on deck/TBR.  I hope I can make a dent this month.  Wish me luck!  Next month I plan on only taking out physical books from my TBR.