April Blog Challenge: R is for Reviews

Book reviews that is. I have a few quick books to review. Can't get behind on letting you know the awesomeness of which you should be reading. (Other than my blog of course)

I'm first going to tell you how much I loved the other two Hunger Games books. The Hunger Games was recommended to me by Jewels, who basically cornered me and forced me to read it. (just kidding about the cornering and the forcing) If you haven't read these books, you definitely should. There's always a twist, usually one you didn't necessarily see coming. You become vested in the characters and their safety and thank God that you don't live a world like this. Seriously captivating books!

Catching Fire

Against all odds, Katniss has won the Hunger Games. She and fellow District 12 tribute Peeta Mellark are miraculously still alive. Katniss should be relieved, happy even. After all, she has returned to her family and her longtime friend, Gale. Yet nothing is the way Katniss wishes it to be. Gale holds her at an icy distance. Peeta has turned his back on her completely. And there are whispers of a rebellion against the Capitol - a rebellion that Katniss and Peeta may have helped create. Much to her shock, Katniss has fueled an unrest she's afraid she cannot stop. And what scares her even more is that she's not entirely convinced she should try. As time draws near for Katniss and Peeta to visit the districts on the Capitol's cruel Victory Tour, the stakes are higher than ever. If they can't prove, without a shadow of a doubt, that they are lost in their love for each other, the consequences will be horrifying.

 

 

 

Mockingjay

Katniss Everdeen, girl on fire, has survived, even though her home has been destroyed. Gale has escaped. Katniss's family is safe. Peeta has been captured by the Capitol. District 13 really does exist. There are rebels. There are new leaders. A revolution is unfolding. It is by design that Katniss was rescued from the arena in the Quarter Quell, and it is by design that she has long been part of the revolution without knowing it. District 13 has come out of the shadows and is plotting to overthrow the Capitol. Everyone, it seems, has had a hand in the carefully laid plans - except Katniss. The success of the rebellion hinges on Katniss's willingness to be a pawn, to accept responsibility for countless lives, and to change the course of the future of Panem. To do this, she must put aside her feelings of anger and distrust. She must become the rebels' mockingjay - no matter the personal cost.

 

 

 

I recently read Jennifer Weiner's Best Friends Forever, and thought it pretty good. It's the first book of hers I've read, and I'd be happy to read her other works. This book follows two girls, who grow up as best friends, have a falling out, and through a twist of fate, have to come back together to get out of a sticky situation. The first part of the book has a lot of flashbacks to their childhood, through Addie's eyes, as the book is told from her point of view. Addie seemed to have to drawn the short stick in the game of life, while Val seems to always be one sandwich shy of a picnic. But it does convey that sometimes, though life has gotten in the way, one girl gets the lemons and the other brings over the vodka.

Addie Downs and Valerie Adler will be best friends forever. That's what Addie believes after Valerie moves across the street when they're both nine years old. But in the wake of betrayal during their teenage years, Val is swept into the popular crowd, while mousy, sullen Addie becomes her school's scapegoat. Flash-forward fifteen years. Valerie Adler has found a measure of fame and fortune working as the weathergirl at the local TV station. Addie Downs lives alone in her parents' house in their small hometown of Pleasant Ridge, Illinois, caring for a troubled brother and trying to meet Prince Charming on the Internet. She's just returned home from Bad Date #6 when she opens her door to find her long-gone best friend standing there, a terrified look on her face and blood on the sleeve of her coat. "Something horrible has happened," Val tells Addie, "and you're the only one who can help."

 

 

The last book I'll show you is Emily Giffin's Heart of the Matter. The book is told from two women's point of view, in the wake of a tragedy that intertwines their lives. Right or wrong,  you see each woman's point of view, and wonder how their lives may straighten out. This was definitely a good read, and would recommend it.

Tessa Russo is a stay-at-home mother of two young children and the wife of a renowned pediatric surgeon. Valeria Anderson is an attorney and single mother to six-year-old Charlie - a boy who has never known his father. Although both women live in the same Boston suburb, they are strangers to one another and have little in common, aside from a fierce love for their children. But one night, a tragic accident causes their lives to converge in ways no one could have imagined. This is the moving, luminous story of good people caught in untenable circumstances. Each being tested in ways they never thought possible. Each questioning everything they once believed. And each ultimately discovering what truly matters most.