The Best Moments In Reading Are When You Come Across Something- A Thought, A Feeling, A Way At Looking At Things- Which You Had Thought Special And Particular To You. And Now, Here It Is, Set Down By Someone Else, A Person You Have Never Met, Someone Who Is Even Long Dead. And It Is As If A Hand Has Come Out, And Taken Yours.

Alan Bennett

The History Boys

Saturday, December 5, 2015

Everything Everything

Title: Everything Everything
Author: Nicola Yoon
Publisher: Corgi
Publication Date: August 27th, 2015
Genre: YA, Romance.
Length: 311 pages
Where you can get yours: Book Depository, Waterstones , Barnes & Noble.

Live life in a bubble or risk everything for love? Maddy is allergic to the world. She hasn’t left her house in seventeen years. Olly is the boy next door. He’s determined to find a way to reach her. Everything, Everything is about the crazy risks we take for love.

Maddy has never left the safety of her house since she nearly died after having an allergic reaction outside. She lives alone with her mother and spends her days reading, drawing, and online studying. She has tutors who come to her house and her loving nurse Carla. Maddy knows she's different but doesn't want to be after her mom (who is a doctor) diagnoses her with SCID "a disease as rare as it is famous" (quote from the book), which doesn't allow her to leave her house as she's literally allergic to nearly everything. It can be strong perfume or a type of chemical, the worst thing about it being that no one knows what exactly triggers it at a certain moment.

You may not agree with me and I'm completely okay with that, but this book, this book, made me feel that the Fault in Our Stars was way overrated and just gave me so many feels. I love John Green, I love his work and all of his books (which I all read btw, yes including Zombicorns), but this book was just so much deeper, so much more heartfelt that I had to think about the book, the story, the characters for another twenty more minutes after I finished. It usually takes me a long ass time to make my final decision about a book I read so that's why it takes me so long to write posts. I want to feel about the post on a book the same way in five years. However about this book I had my decision made straight away. This book is amazing, is underrated, is beautiful, is heartfelt, and most importantly is a must-read. I envy your amazing writing Nicola Yoon, and the intricate illustrations and texts made it so much more real. Every few years there's that book that you realize is your special favorite, and there will never be a book like that ever again, and it's just super hard explaining how good the book was. Also has the arguably best plot twist ever! If you ever read this Nicola Yoon, thank you for making my day so much more bearable! And, to all the bookworms out there, please, please read Everything Everything so we can fangirl over it together!
The Teen Page Turner
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Monday, October 19, 2015

The Duff

Title: The Duff
Author: Kody Keplinger
Publisher: Hodder Children’s Books
Publication Date: September 7, 2010
Genre: YA, Romance, Comedy.
Length: 345 pages
Where you can get yours: Book Depository, Waterstones, Barnes and Noble.

Meet Bianca. Hamilton High’s resident duff. Apparently.
Seventeen-year-old Bianca Piper knows she’s not the hottest girl at school, but when school jock and man-slut Wesley casually refers to her as a DUFF- Designated Ugly Fat Friend -the gloves are off! But then before she knows it, Bianca finds herself in a secret enemies-with-benefits relationship with Wesley. If there’s a thin line between love and hate then Bianca has crossed it. She just never thought she was capable of breaking anyone’s heart.

The Duff is about Bianca, an independent sassy teen who doesn't believe in real teen love. Except maybe Toby… He’s smart, cute, and extremely polite. It’s everything one would want in a boy. But she constantly falls for Wesley, a man-slut and total idiot who calls her a designated ugly fat friend. She doesn’t understand, but she soon realizes that being with him helps her forget. Her alcoholic father, and a motivational speaker mother that wants to divorce him and keeps running away from reality (like Bianca) by traveling.


I have a lot of mixed feelings about this book. Sure the writing was great. I wanted to keep reading and find out who Bianca would end up with, but it was not one of the better YA novels out there. And, also Wesley is a pig, so why does it seem like it’s all overly dramatic and Bianca ends up kissing him in the end, even though he called her ugly and fat?! That seems like abuse, not romance… But he does change in the end to the better and it all ends well…(insert cliché comment) That, however, doesn't mean Bianca ends up with him right?;) Now you have to read it… Bianca Piper is a great main character, she’s honest and probably one of the realest YA characters well… ever. So in conclusion, guys if you really have nothing better to read this book is good. I don’t regret buying it (always a good thing), but I could buy better for the same amount of money. Loved the witty dialogues, though, worth reading if you have nothing better. (Argh hate repeating myself to make a point!)

Sunday, October 4, 2015

The Dolls

Title: The Dolls  
Author: Kiki Sullivan
Publisher: Usborne
Publication Date: 2015
Genre: YA, Romance, Fiction.
Length: 410 pages
Where you can get yours: 

Peregrine Marceau and Cloe St. Pierre are the dolls. 

Boys want them.

 Impossibly beautiful and dangerously powerful, they hold the city of Carrefour under their spell.

 Girls want to be them.

 Yet newcomer Eveny Cheval is not so easily swayed by their glamo- until she discovers she is a doll too. 

Someone wants them dead. And when a killer sneaks past the locked gates of Carrefour, only the dolls’ combined powers can stop the murderer in their midst. 

Sultry, seductive, irresistible… welcome to Carrefour.

Eveny Cheval is not your typical teen. The plot of the book starts the day Eveny and her aunt Bea (who has been caring for Eveny since her mother died) move to Carrefour, a small town in Louisiana from New York on the day of Eveny’s seventeenth birthday. That’s where Eveny finds out that she belongs to a group of beautiful witches that protect Earth, they are called the dolls. Her mother was the queen doll, and so is Eveny. But throughout the book she realizes that it might not be something she actually wants…



I just cannot help but point out that this is another great example of how the front cover of the book can be so misleading. I mean it’s not that it isn’t pretty, I really like the beautiful combination of pink and black, it’s just that it looks like something I probably wouldn’t normally read. I read this while I was on vacation, and I have to say that I just didn’t want to stop reading at all. I read it when I woke up, I read it during breakfast, when we were at the beach with my family, just the entire day. No surprise I finished in two days. The first few chapters were very well written, and you get into the story pretty fast. This is just one of those books that are so amazingly vivid you just feel like you're standing there if you know what I mean. I know a sequel called The Midnight Dolls is coming out soon and I really hope to find it somewhere and continue the fangirling. I think that there was only one problem I had with the book and that was the characters. The characters were well written and everything, I just didn’t feel them, not even Eveny. But hey, when I finished I was shocked because I was so into it, I didn’t realize I was almost done with the book. So, highly recommended, if you are currently reading it or already have, please comment down below and tell me what you thought.

Sunday, September 20, 2015

Bucket List

Bucket List
  • Go to YALC at least once. Not living in the UK makes it very hard to attend book  events, making me insanely jealous whenever I look at other bloggers’ pictures from YALC on Instagram. I mean come on!
  • Go to Disneyland. I know, I know I’m what, thirteen? But I just want to go so bad! I love most Disney movies, and my aunt even took me to a Fantasia concert with a real orchestra as a Christmas present, which is like on my list of ten most beautiful memories.
  • Meet Natalie Tran. (Did I mention that on my Christmas wishlist there is a Nat Made Me Lamingtons and an Unbohlievable shirt?) Yep, that explains it. She is hilarious, awesome, and most probably the best Youtuber ever! (It’s a tie between Nat and Grace Helbig.)
  • Go to the countries and states listed below. (Again or for the first time)
New York
California
Maine
Pennsylvania
Florida
Colorado
Washington
Connecticut
Texas
Hawaii
Alaska
Ohio
France
Japan
Australia
Brazil
Peru
Sweden
Madagascar
India
South Korea
Monaco
England
Canary Islands
Portugal
Costa Rica
Germany
Cape Verde

  • You know how there are shopping hauls? One day I want to have a book haul, just to have my loooooong ultimate list of books to read, and well spend my entire day in a bookstore or bookstores finding them. 
  • Try a Butterbeer in Starbucks. Explanation here: http://starbuckssecretmenu.net/starbucks-secret-menu-butterbeer-frappuccino/
  • Visit Cambridge University. I know this sounds really crazy but since I’ve been like 9, my dream was to one day attend Cambridge. It still is, but until I can actually attend I really want to visit.
  • Write a book. Sigh…
  • Go to the Harry Potter Wizarding World. Yes, please!
  • Get my own real logo for my blog. How cool would that be? Blue/black/purplish colours involved!

Thank you so much fellow readers for reading through, I’m sure I forgot a ton but these are on top of my list.
Yours Sincerely,

The Teen Page Turner

Wednesday, August 26, 2015

Japan Crate Unboxing

During my Summer vacation I discovered a very cool site while Googling for weird Japanese candy commercials (because aside from mostly reading, that's another of my hobbies), and ended up discovering Japan Crate. Many of you may have heard of it, since there are many Youtubers and Bloggers who have reviewed or talked about Japan Crate. If you haven't heard about them please do check out their site: japancrate.com. I got this crazy idea, what if I asked if I could review their candy, and I could try blogging about something different just to try it out!? I e-mailed them and got a response two days later saying that they would love to send me a Japan Crate! They were super friendly, and if I had any questions they responded within a day or two. My Japan Crate came a few days ago so without further ado, this is my review, and my completely honest opinion. (BtW I am using a very reliable system to explain much deliciousness or grossnes a product contained called snack stars. Here is the guide to snack stars:

5 snack stars: Something that should belong on a list of 1,000 things to eat before you die.
4 snack stars: Makes my mouth water thinking about it. Worth trying.
3 snack stars: Pretty good, except a bit average. Would still choose it if the shop was out of my 5 and 4 star snacks.
2 snack stars: Okayish, just did’t like it that much.
1 snack star: Never ever ever trying this again. Not worth it…

Crackling Cotton
Crackling Cotton tastes like a combination between Pop Rocks and regular cotton candy. When I opened the package the first thing I noticed was the fruity aroma of grape which just smelled so yummy. Anyways, I teared the light purplish/ pink cotton candy (which looked and had the texture of well, cotton) and when I did I noticed that there were tiny white and slightly larger purple pieces wedged inside the candy. The white pieces (which looked like slightly larger pieces of sugar) were very sour, while the purple pieces ( which looked like hollow crystals) popped when you bit into them like Pop Rocks. The cotton candy itself was really fluffy (fluffy unicorn!) and seriously tasted a lot like grapes in a Jolly Ranchers type of way. Four snack stars! I took one star away because while it tasted great, the candy itself was aesthetically a bit crumbly and I think it would be better if the cotton candy was in some sort of shape, like a bunch of Susuwatari (from My Neighbor Totoro, also my all time favourite Studio Ghibli movie) except in purple.


Japanese BBQ Scones
The mini Japan Crate magazine that came along with the crate said that these scones were better than Cheetos. I was a little skeptical at first, but oh were they right. Except the aftertaste was a tiny bit sweet. And they also should be called spare ribs flavour, because that's what they taste like. Also, I found the cat on the left side on the wrapping really cute (she was also eating BBQ Scones). My only question is what is the supr creepy creature standing on her right side?! Maybe a cat who ate too many scones and turned the same color as the scones themselves?! Hmmm... The texture itself is Cheeto like and it is true enought to say that the flavour is better than any other BBQ snack. Five snack stars!


Chocolate Pucca
Due to my Celiac disease I had an expert on all things sweet help me with this one, my nine year old brother. He said that the pretzel itself was sweet snd crispy, while the chocolate (which I scooped out of the pretzel and tried myself) was nutella like chocolate except a little more bitter. I can only say that the chocolate was preety good but I had better, also my brother said that the pretzel was kind of average. He concluded that you would probably be able to take a normal cracker spread nutella over it and it would taste the same. The shape of the Pucca however was very cute like five types of octopus. So, 3 and a half snack stars.


Crayon Shin- Chan Candy
The candy guide said that Crayon Shin-Shan had his own anime show, which was dubbed into 23 languages including English, and that I should check it out. Two minutes later I was browsing through Youtube when I found an episode called: Crayon Shin- Chan"Going Shopping". I think I expected the show to be a for very small kids kind of thing like the Teletubbies for example ( I used to love that show so much when I was like 2 or 3, but it's not like I actually remember what it was about anymore, I just get intense creepy giggling sun, and aliens doing elaborate dance routines flashbacks.) Maybe it was intended for adults like the Simpsons or Futurama, because Crayon Shin- Chan definitely had some PG content, even though my brother and I definitely had some laughs. Back to the candy: the candy looked liked sphere shaped smarties, except there were only five colors: yellow, orange, green, white and pink (the colors of of Crayon Shin- Chan's crayons perhaps?). At first they all tasted the same to me kind of chalky but with a fruity taste, but I kind of felt that there was some minimal difference. To test this my dad suggested that maybe he could give me three pieces of candy one by one, and I would have to determine whether there was a difference while being blindfolded. The first candy tasted like kiwi, the second was more subtle and I told my dad that the first was more sour, the third tasted like the first one. I told my dad and after putting the blindfold off, he told me that the first and third were indeed the same color (white), this meant that there was a slight difference between the candy. I give this candy 1 and a half star because while it was okayish, but the most fun part about it was probably testing whether there was a difference between them. On the other hand, it was also my least favourite candy.

Wow, Such Banana?!
Yes, Such Banana! I did like it a lot it just didn't actually taste too much like banana. The filling tasted like marshmallow fluff and there was a tiny bit of chocolate, although there was a lot less than shown on the cover. The chocolate had a banana tinge to it, but it mostly tasted like very sweet vanilla. Not bad though, four stars. 














Soy Sauce Pretz
My taste buds got very confused here! First I thought that this was supposed to be a salty snack as it had soy sauce inside, but then it got a turn, and it got sweet. Then you get this weird aftertaste which is something in between. After you get used to it you can actually really start to enjoy it! The only reason I'm not giving it five out of five stars is that I keep changing my mind about it, because I never ate anything similar before, it's like eating a soy sauce cracker and suddenly it's honey! No wait, it's soy sauce again! Four snack stars!


Chocorooms DIY
Completely honestly I had never had Chocoroms before doing this DIY kit, so I can not actually say whether or not it tastes like the original, but what I have to say is that it was way to creamy for me. However making it was so much fun! The kit included a tiny mushroom shaped chocolate form, three chocolate tubes each filled with a different type of chocolate (strawberry, white and milk chocolate), and lastly a tiny packet of about 18 biscuSince the instructions were in Japanese, the booklet had the same instructions in it except translated to English. First, it said to soak the chocolate in warm water until melted. There were two problems with this step: number 1, I tried pouring warm water from the tap into a bowl and then dipping the chocolate tubes inside it (even though, since there was air inside the choco tubes, they were lighter than the water and partly stayed on the surface of the water which meant I had to push them under the water with a fork) but I could tell the water wasn’t near warm enough to actually melt the choice tubes. This meant I had to put the kettle on and then pour boiling water into a bowl, then wait for it to cool down just enough so that it wasn’t boiling but still pretty hot to make this work. Number 2, after actually having the choc in the hot water I realized I had no idea how to find out when my chocolate was melted or not, since it wasn’t like it said the exact amount of time it should be dipped in water on the label. This meant, I ended up scooping the choco tubes out of the water with a fork (so I wouldn’t end up burning myself) approximately every four seconds. When I could (kind of) see that the choc was melted I snapped off one end of the tube and started filling the forms with the melted chocolate tasting as I went. While doing this DIY kit I was actually at my aunt’s house, so I decided I would also let my cousin and my brother try to do some Chocorooms to see if they liked it. They both loved it, except the chocolate kept mixing with the other chocolates because it was still a little runny due to the melting part. We made some mushrooms with and without the biscuit part (so I could try) and then put it in the freezer. I’m not even kidding when I say that the chocorooms were done under 7 minutes. I took them out of the freezer and (easily) by pulling at the biscuit part pulled them out of the forms. They and the process ended up looking like this:


The supplies found 
inside of the box
The Form close up 

Melting Chocolate


My Choc

My Brother’s Choc
My Cousin’s Choc


   


Friday, July 10, 2015

S.A. Bodeen's Author Visit

If you read my Compound review, you know about the author's visit at my school. The author visiting was the author of four YA books including the Compound and the Fallout. Anyways the event was organized into groups, so that she could read younger children some of her children's books, and then talk to the older kids and tell them about how she got to writing and where she got her ideas from. I even managed to get my copies of the Compound and the Fallout signed! (It took a really long time for The Raft to come, so I did not unfortunately have a chance to get it signed.) :(



Anyways, S.A. Bodeen was super friendly, and it was a wonderful experience meeting her. She talked about her childhood in Wisconsin, and how she got the idea to write the Compound. ( Which BTW was that when she was a child because of the threat of nuclear warfare she and her classmates had to hide in a bomb shelter.) She also talked about the time she spend in Africa where she got her idea to write Elizabeti's school. 







 


Tuesday, June 23, 2015

The Compound

The Compound by S.A. Bodeen
Title: The Compound
Author: Stephanie Stuve-Bodeen
Publisher: Macmillan
Publication Date: April 29, 2008
Genre: YA, dystopian, science fiction
Length: 248 pages
Format: Paperback
Buy the book (Waterstones) | Buy the book (Book Depository)
Eli and his family have lived in the underground Compound for six years. The world they knew is gone, and they've become accustomed to their new life. Accustomed, but not happy. For Eli, no amount of luxury can stifle the dull routine of living in the same place, with only his two sisters, only his father and mother, doing the same thing day after day. As problems with their carefully planned existence threaten to destroy their sanctuary-and their sanity- Eli can't help but wonder if he'd rather take his chances outside. Eli's father built the Compound to keep them safe. But are they safe- or sorry?

Sorry I didn't write for a long time and I could make up all these fabulous excuses like that I was in a country for a month so exotic and far away that the locals never heard of the internet thus making my task of writing a new post quite impossible, (the truth is I just had no time since it was the end of school and I had to finish all these exams, plus it was my birthday six days ago so we celebrated and my relatives came and I'm so sorry but I really had no time.) Anyways, to tell the truth the only reason why I started reading The Compound in the first place was because we were to have an author visit back at my school and the author visiting was the author of the Compound, S.A. Bodeen (more about the author's visit later). So right away I ordered three of her books right away from Book Depository (the Raft, the Compound, and the Fallout). First of all I just really wanted her to sign my books, and second of all since I never heard of S.A. Bodeen before I thought the Compound would really just prove to not be that good, after looking at the cover again and reading what it was about I suddenly wasn't that sure it would be my type of book. I just don't really like Sci-Fi that much overall except if it proves to be really good. When I started reading I found myself enjoying it a lot and I was suddenly really happy I bought it.

The compound is a book about Eli whose billionaire father mr. Yanakakis is building a super luxurious nuclear bomb shelter, because of his interest in nuclear bombs. However one day Eli wakes up to find himself being told by his father that nuclear attak really is happening and their entire family has to evacuate into the nuclear shelter called the compound. However Eli's twin accidentally get's left behind. Eli is left with guilty thoughts since it is his fault his twin got left behind. It's told from Eli's point of view making the story new and fresh. The characters change vividly over the chapters. The story is however about people trying to survive a nuclear war so there are some desperate and gruesome parts. Reader please be warned! No seriously some parts were disgusting. Overall book was great recommend it!



Wednesday, June 10, 2015

And the super belated "Pick of the Month" book is


Okay.... this book was awesome! You know how you sometimes read or watch a super cliché book or movie and it just kind of ruins it for you that you know what will happen!? Yeah I hate that and since just so many detectives are like that I try to avoid them in general (except Agatha Christies) which I know is not good but I just can't help myself. Hmm... "Human frightened to death by detective story!" Sounds promising enough. Anyways I read the reviews after I ordered the book (always a great idea). I read the reviews and "BOOM!" It clearly said it was a detective style activity book. I pinky promise I almost burst out crying. I was actually a little sad all the way until the package came, and I was amazed at how much fun it was. I sat in my room for about three hours reading and finishing it. I highly recommend to anyone artsy or in need of some serious therapy only with a box of pencils and pens.

Monday, May 25, 2015


Let It Snow
Authors: John Green, Maureen Johnson, Lauren Myracle.
Publisher: Speak: The Penguin Group 
Publication Date: October 2, 2008
Genre: YA
Length: 352 
Buy the book (Waterstones)| Buy the book (Book Depository)

Sparkling white snowdrifts, beautiful presents wrapped in ribbons, and multicolored lights glittering in the night through the falling snow. A Christmas Eve snowstorm transforms one small town into a romantic haven, the kind you see only in movies. Well, kinda. After all, a cold and wet hike from a stranded train through the middle of nowhere would not normally end with a delicious kiss from a charming stranger. And no one would think that a trip to the Waffle House through four feet of snow would lead to love with an old friend. Or that the way back to true love begins with a painfully early morning shift at Starbucks. Thanks to three of today’s bestselling teen authors—John Green, Maureen Johnson, and Lauren Myracle—the magic of the holidays shines on these hilarious and charming interconnected tales of love, romance, and breathtaking kisses.

So I decided to pick this book up in the first place because a really good friend of mine was fangirling over it like: "It's the best book ever you have to read it! It's just the sweetest holiday romance ever!" The problem with me reading a "holiday" book is that I usually find it somewhere in my room with ten books on top of it a few months after Christmas. I actually decided that to fully experience this book I would wait until.... wait for it... next Christmas. And anyone who ever tried to do that knows it's impossible. I mean even telling myself that I will wait, I hear my subconsciousness yelling at me that there is no way that will ever happen. Anyways the whole point is that I could simply not resist and a week later I was reading Let It Snow. The first thing I noticed was that it was written by three authors, and okay I read John Green and I really enjoyed all the books I read so far from him(Fault in Our Stars, Looking for Alaska, and Paper Towns) so I thought it was impressive that he decided to collab with two other authors which were on my to-read list. I started the book and quite honestly I was really impressed, I mean I have to admit that originally I thought the story would be a little more intertwined but that might be because I just wasn't entirely seeing all the connections. Do you know that feeling that in the middle of a book there is a name of a character you recognize you just can't remember who exactly they are? Yep, that happened a lot in this book (one of those times when I'm also really happy to have built in X-RAY in my Kindle. 

Anyways, the book was amazing and seriously brought some Christmas atmosphere into my sunshine filled the-middle-of-May room. I loved how it was told from different perspectives of the characters (don't we all?) Each character brought some new life to the story making it more detailed and accurate, detangling the mess it used to be when I first started reading. I must admit I liked some stories better than others but I just cannot imagaine the book with a single story written by a different author. The reason why I am only giving it four stars, is because it was not that memorable and some parts of the book just seemed unecessary (hate when that happens, and the character just keeps talking about something we do not care about. I mean please I just want to know what happens next!) I have to conclude by saying it was an amazing Christmas chick flick.

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