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

Tuesday, March 24, 2015

Twelve Minutes to Midnight (book 1) by Christopher Edge


Title: Twelve Minutes to Midnight
Author: Christopher Edge

Publisher: Nosy Crow

Publication Date: February 2012

Genre: children’s mystery, historical thriller

Length: 253
where I bought mine: Bought for me as a wonderful gift from Amazon
Back cover:
It’s 1899. Every night at twelve minutes to midnight the inmates of Bedlam, London’s notorious hospital for the insane, rise from their beds and begin scribbling strange words on any surface they can find- scraps of paper, the walls of their cells, even their own skin.
What can it mean?

Penelope Tredwell, thirteen-year-old owner of the bestselling magazine, The Penny Dreadful, is intrigued. She’s always seeking sinister stories to fill her magazine’s pages but she’s never encountered anything as chilling as this.

Soon she’s ensnared in a venomous plot, and Penny realises that this isn’t just a story, it’s the future.

And the future looks deadly…

Everyone has a couple of favourite books, and this is one that definitely belongs to my personal favourites. It has everything I like in a book: a strong heroine and a set of great characters, a mysterious and wonderful plot, and lastly an unexpected ending. I really do not like horror, or extremely scary books, but this was really not as scary as I expected it would be, and I thoroughly enjoyed every chapter. I do not like re-reading books, because I know what it is going to end like, so I always try to make the best of it. However, I re-read this book about four or five times and I still enjoyed it, mainly tracing back my steps and looking for the clues over again. The thing about books like this is that every person feels different about them, since this book is completely different than any other of my other favourites. To write a enjoyable book, you must have strong main characters and Penelope was perfect. She reminded me a lot of Hercule Poirot (definitely my favourite detective) since she seemed like an adult and still, there was something childish about her. By childish I do not mean acting like a small child, I mean she acts like an adult, and you don't realize she is actually only thirteen until she is scared or insecure.

Penny is a thirteen and is very smart for her age, and actually has her own magazine which publishes creepy stories she makes up. However, she has to keep secret the fact that she really is still a child, because no one would buy the magazine if they knew she was only thirteen. That is why she hires an actor to play her and she calls the author of the magazine Montgomery Flinch. While she writes the stories, he acts as her and performs live on stage. Everything is fine, until Penny sees a news article talking about a near by hospital for the insane called Bedlam in which people wake up in the middle of the night and scribble predictions of the future everywhere. The problem is that everyone thinks that since they are all insane, they are making it up. In reality they are real predictions for example one talks about television, and another talks about “huge metal birds” or airplanes. To the people living there it seems crazy and possibly very dangerous. |The story is set in the Victorian times, and the setting is and seems very real. Some of the characters are even victorian writers like Charles Dickens, and Rudyard Kipling. It is a must-read for anyone who get’s bored very fast with a book and want’s a good story and a fast moving plot, and people who like to enjoy every moment of their book alike. I very recently found out that two new additions came out to this brilliant book, and sadly they aren't avaible in my country just yet. But, as soon as they come out in a year or two I will definitely read and review both.

Monday, March 23, 2015

The Raft by S.A. Bodeen

The Raft 
Title: The Raft
Author: S.A. Bodeen
Publisher: Square Fish
Publication Date:
Genre: Adventure, thriller.
Length: 250 pages 
Format: Paperback
Buy the book ( Barnes and Noble) | Buy the book (Book Depository)
 

Robie is an experienced traveler. She’s taken the flight from Honolulu to the Midway Atoll, a group of Pacific islands where her parents live, many times. When she has to get to Midway in a hurry after a visit with her aunt in Hawaii, she gets on the next cargo flight at the last minute. She knows the pilot, but on this flight, there’s a new co-pilot named Max. All systems are go until a storm hits during the flight. The only passenger, Robie doesn’t panic until the engine suddenly cuts out and Max shouts at her to put on a life jacket. They are over miles of Pacific Ocean. She sees Max struggle with a raft. And then . . . she’s in the water. Fighting for her life. Max pulls her onto the raft, and that’s when the real terror begins. They have no water. Their only food is a bag of Skittles. There are sharks. There is an island. But there’s no sign of help on the way.

Okay, so I did not expect this book to be what it turned out to be… It seemed promising at first, and I didn’t regret buying it either. But, there is a few things you should know about this book before reading.

First of all the chapters are super short, I mean most chapters are like a page or two long. I understand the author’s intention, in trying to make it seem like the days on the raft are super long and divided into parts, but later on into the book it just starts to get annoying. Like, really really annoying. Example: Robie gasps as the shark starts towards her, and then she… (annoyed sigh) “great, so now I have to read the next chapter to find out if Robie gasps some more or just faints straight away.” Okay, maybe I am exaggerating a little, but thats exactly what it seems like to me. And, second of all it kind of ruins the suspension if you are reading something just so exciting and… “BOOM!” you have to read onto the next chapter, which kind of reminds me of goosebumps but with longer chapters. Second of all Robie. I mean she is fine in the first chapter or two, but the farther I read, the more annoying, extremely whiny, and possibly a bit spoiled she seems. (I mean what aunt buys her 16 year old niece a diamond stud, and then let’s her niece pierce her nose without her parent’s permission?” Robie actually says in the book that she does it only to annoy her parents. Robie is also very selfish, and does everything in order to save herself. I would be a lot happier if the author gave us a sympathetic character we can actually feel sorry for?! Robie wasn’t all bad, I sometimes felt with her and understood why she felt some things were so hard for her.

Robie's parents are researchers, working on a couple of very tiny islands, and that’s why Robie usually stays at her aunt’s, in Hawaii. However Robie’s aunt has to leave earlier than she expected to go to a different country because of her job. After a lot of persuading (on Robie’s side), Robie’s aunt allows Robie to stay at her house completely alone. Except occasional visits from Bobbi, who as I understood it was a friend of Robbie’s aunt AJ. Except, Bobbi’s car breaks down and she is not able to come and check on Robbie each day. Robbie first thinks it’s no big deal, but when she gets attacked by a creepy stranger after grabbing dinner from mcdonalds, she decides to take the next flight in the morning back home. Throughout the night Robie hears strange sounds and is very happy to leave to the airport with a taxi in the morning. From the airport she flies to Midway Atoll, in a tiny private cargo plane. Somehow, the plane’s weight limit is too big, and the plane crashes in the middle of nowhere. The huge problem is that no one knows Robie was on the plane since her aunt thinks she is at her house, and so do her parents. The only person who survives the flight is Max the co-pilot, of the plane. (spoiler warning) Even though Max seems like he is with Robie the entire time, Robie pushes him off the raft (only thing they saved from the plane) to save herself, since the raft was not made for the weight of two people. This means that Max is dead most of the story, and Robie imagines him talking to her. (regrets her choice?) Basically Robie has to survive on no water and a pathetic bag of skittles, until she is found.

Overall I thought the book was sort of okay, the plot was fast moving and there was always action, ensuring you don’t get tired of reading it. I don’t think it was really my style, but it’s fine for entertaining yourself during a long car, train ride or flight. (Maybe not the flight though at second thought...) 
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Sunday, March 22, 2015

Model Under Cover: A Crime of Fashion (book one) by Carina Axelsson


Title: Model Under Cover: A Crime of Fashion
Author: Carina Axelsson
Publisher: Usborne
Publication Date: 1st February 2014
Genre: Mystery, fiction, children’s
Length:368 pages
where I bought mine: Usborne
Back cover:
Despite her long legs and fashion obsessed family, all Axelle wants to do is solve mysteries. So when star designer Belle La Lune vanishes, Axelle seizes the chance to go undercover as a model to crack the case -even if it means  being tortured with eyelash-curlers and teetering on sky-high heels. Aided by the distractingly gorgeous Sebastian, Axelle races against the clock to solve the mystery at the heart of Paris Fashion Week…

To be completely honest, the first time I picked up Model Undercover, it looked like something my 10 year old pink and glitter obsessed cousin would like. Luckily, I was wrong and while the first chapter was a slightly boring, it picked up pace and soon I could not put the book down. It is full of twists, revenge, and a family curse. (Note to myself: Don’t ever judge a book by it’s cover again.) The ideal book for summer vacation. It was even slightly funny, and I found the main character: Axelle, very sympathetic. The plot was certainly not boring, and I have to say the ending was great, and there is no way I would have guessed who the kidnapper really was.


The book is about a teenage girl called Axelle who despite her family’s obsession with fashion, just wants some space to solve mysteries since as she says, she is “fashion impaired”. Her mother has the idea to make her go to Paris and stay with her aunt Venetia who is a famous fashion magazine editor, since she wants Axelle to become a fashion model. However as soon as Axelle sets foot into the city of fashion, the star designer Belle La Lune is kidnapped. Axelle immediately takes this opportunity to solve her first ever real mystery, and there are even some sparks of romance.

So, I have to say it pleasantly surprised me and I am looking forward to new additions to the Model Undercover series!

Review/Privavcy Policy

Please contact me with my email: teenpageturner@gmail.com. I will be very happy to review a book, however please check first if it meets my below listed criteria.

I Accept:
I accept dystopian, utopian,  mystery, romance, young adult, adventure, thriller etc. books.
I also accept novels.
I  also accept Kindle books.
I will read a book from a series but, the book must not be out of order in the series.  For example: I will not accept the second book from a series if I did not read the first book in the series. (I do make exceptions, but you have to contact me and I will decide based on preferences.)

I Do Not Accept:

Heavy religious books.
Horror or very scary books.

Formats of Books I Accept:

Paperback and Hardback.
Review copies and drafts.
Kindle E-Books 

I will be more than happy to do an interview, but I must have your books or book in advance. 

Review
If you want me to review your books email me (email listed on home page), but I will need your full name, short summary of the book, details about the book, and a copy of the book.
Thank you,
Nina.

Saturday, March 21, 2015



Divergent by Veronica Roth
Title: Divergent
Author: Veronica Roth
Publisher: Harper Collins
Publication Date: 2nd February 2012
Format: Paperback
Genre: Dystopian/ YA /science fiction
Length: 496 pages
Buy the book (Waterstones) | Buy the book ( Book Depository)


Three flying birds...one for each member of the family I left behind. Sixteen-year-old Tris is forced to make a terrible choice. In a divided society where everyone must conform, Tris does not fit. So she ventures out alone, determined to discover where she truly belongs. Shocked by her brutal new life, Tris can trust no one. And yet she is drawn to a boy who seems to both threaten and protect her. The hardest choice lies ahead.


I loved this book so much! It was so well written that about half way through the book I paused to write Veronica Roth into My Favourite Authors (in no particular order) list. I think that the thing I loved about Divergent so much was that it was super-realistic, since Roth described everything so well that it somehow seemed that a world like that could seriously exist. The only reason why I don't think I will give Divergent 5 stars is because I thought that some parts were slow paced.


It kind of distinctly reminded me of the Hunger Games, which was one of the reasons why I decided to read Divergent in the first place. The other reason was because all my friends had read the series and kept telling me how great it was.  When I was in London last summer, (a week after I finished the Hunger Games) I was looking for a Hunger Games similar sort of book. We of course stopped in a local Waterstones and I saw a section of the teen/tween section labeled “For Hunger Games Fans”. I stopped there and picked Divergent up and read the first five sentences. I realized it was the book I was looking for, and back at the hotel room I could not bring myself to stop reading. That is how I finished in about two or three days. However, honestly I think I could have finished sooner if some parts of the book weren’t so slow paced. So, when I was looking for something to read about a week ago, I stumbled upon it and re-read Divergent again.

I think, that part of why I liked Divergent so much was because the main character was very likeable. I wish I didn’t watch the trailer though, because it ruined some parts for me, for example the part where Four likes Tris, since in the trailer it was obvious for me. I also, liked Tris’s friends Christina and Al, and I was very disappointed when they started being mean to her. That made me dislike them a bit, towards the end of the book. I actually wished Tris would finally ditch them and be friends with Uriah and Marlene. I changed my mind about Christina but Al... I really didn't expect it of him. The author was also very good in making it clear which characters were good and bad. I very rarely changed my mind about any of the characters until the end of the book. I disliked Eric from the very beginning and I am glad I did after reading the ending. Divergent is a great book for anyone who liked the Hunger Games and likes dystopian novels. Overall I really liked Divergent and I decided to give it 4 stars, and I will definitely try to read the other books in the series.
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