My Book Reviews

Me And Mr Darcy by Alexandra Potter
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

The first book by Potter that I read was 'Who's That Girl', and I liked her witty style of writing. When I came across this book, I was intrigued as was about a topic of my interest; Jane Austen, Pride & Prejudice, and Mr Darcy. And who doesn't love Mr Darcy?
This book was interesting, with the little visitations by 'Mr Darcy' himself. However, what I wasn't too happy about was the ending. I had hoped for more 'closure' about the Mr Darcy visits, as well as the whole Mrs Steane thing.
And I dunno if Potter had intentionally done it so, but the eventual plot line for Spike, Ernie, and Emily had been a tad bit too obvious.
I really wish I could've given this book more stars, as it would have been a double whammy had the ending be a bit better.

Zom-B by Darren Shan
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I admit I've never heard of Darren Shan before. And on the front cover, they did not forget to put 'The Master of Horror' to remind readers who he is. I'll also admit that the descriptions are graphic, but not too much so. Maybe because it was not really a book for adults; rather, I'm guessing, maybe teens.

However, it touches on the subject of racism and domestic abuse, which I think deserves applause. It would have been a great story and probably deserves another star had it not ended in a cliffhanger. I like books to properly end, regardless if they've got a continuition or not. Otherwise, it just doesn't feel complete to me because there was no close.

Other than that though, I thought this was a good book. Darren described the hoards of zombies well, and their creepy characteristics. I really wish he'd have 'closed' the story of B, though.

The Time Keeper by Mitch Albom
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

It is common for me to feel attached to a book after I've finished it. It is also rather common for a book to make me cry. It is a bit common for a book to make me rethink my choices and path of life, but it is very rare for a book to affect me so much that I change my thought process completely.

I relate to Sarah Lemon. I think quite a few of us would be able to. Perhaps some would relate to VIctor instead. I'm not sure if Victor's story affected you as much as Sarah's story did to me, but either way, it is a lesson to learn.

As is common with Mitch Albom's books, I was left in tears towards the end. I won't go so much into detail here, but I will explain in my blog later.

The bottom line is, if you're not already a fan of Mitch Albom, I suggest you pick up one of his books. Now. Mitch is a brilliant storyteller and his books always has some brilliant lesson layered in it. His books also have the ability to touch your heart in a special way.

So 5 stars for this. Definitely a brilliant read!

Being Extraordinary: How to Live Life on Purpose by Ian Lock
My rating: 1 of 5 stars

Let me start off by saying that I love reading self-help books. Not because I need help, but more so because I'm always looking for more ways to improve my life. I bought Ian's book with the hope that it would add to that knowledge.

However, I was disappointed. A huge part of that was due to the amount of punctuation errors in the book. There were some passages I had to re-read because I couldn't understand it the first time. Reading the book also felt like reading someone else's blogpost, rather than a book about 'how to live life on purpose'.

Many times in the book when Ian asks to state our 'purpose' or our 'impact', for example, he gives readers examples by extensively writing about his purpose or impact. While that is good to some to serve as an example, it was not my cup of tea. In my honest opinion, people buy self-help books to be taught to think and explore their unique, different ideas, rather than be told how it should look like.

Then again, I may be wrong too, but that's just me putting my two cents in. If I had the choice, I wouldn't have bought this book. In the beginning, I tried scanning the barcode using Goodreads' app, and it couldn't detect the barcode or ISBN no matter how many times I scanned it. I even typed the title and author manually to no result. It was when I started throwing random keywords from the title that I even managed to come across this.

Anyhow, I have never given a book a one-star rating before, I think, but ah well... First for everything I guess, eh?

Seriously...I'm Kidding by Ellen DeGeneres

My rating: 3 of 5 stars



Let me start off by saying that I LOVE Ellen. I love her show and the way she exudes positivity and everything you could wish to be. To be honest, I didn't know she had 2 other books before Seriously... I'm Kidding. Heh. So shoot me. =p

Truth be told I kinda expected this to be some sort of inspirational book about her life and journey and whatnot. And it was far from it. The book turns out to be just random stuff that popped into her head (probably), laced with the humour she's so famous for. The first few pages already had me chuckling.

To be brutally honest, I was a liiiiiiiittle bit disappointed with it. If I was re-presented with the decision whether to buy the book or not, I probably wouldn't. No offense at all, but while I still would have wanted to read it, I'd have rather borrowed it from a library or something rather than purchase it.

Claws of the Macra by Trevor Baxendale

My rating: 2 of 5 stars



Yes, believe it or not; I'm done. (And I DID say it was light reading, did I not? ;) )
Though I admit I just followed where my choices led me in the story, when I would have normally read through all possible choices.

Also, there was supposed to be an online interactive thing as well that goes together with the book, but when I went to the url, it said that the Decide Your Destiny part has been discontinued, so that's a bummer.

But yeah, I found that this was a children's book anyway too, so no surprises that I finished it in record time.

The choices didn't go forward in the book as most decide-your-own-stories do; this one goes back and forth, which can be a wee bit tiresome after a while. Either way though, like I said, this makes for decent light reading.

Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë

My rating: 3 of 5 stars



I'm finally finished with it!

I must say, I've heard much about this book, but to be brutally honest, it hadn't really met my expectations. I still prefer Jane Eyre by far, to be honest.

As with most such books, I find myself having a bit of a difficulty in understanding it at the beginning, but then improved as I got along. The only thing that kept me going was my OCD habit in which I had to finish reading what I started, and the fact that I rather liked stories from that period of time.

There were so many deaths in this book that the only other book I've read that gave this a run for their money is the Harry Potter series.

I admit that I pitied Heathcliff in the beginning, but then grew to dislike him more and more. I was quite surprised at how it ended, too.

The Poetical Works of Robert Burns with Life, Notes &c by Robert Burns

My rating: 3 of 5 stars



There's nothing much I can say about this book that you wouldn't already have guessed. It is an 1888 first edition, and more than anything, it has a personal immense sentimental value for me.

But yes, it is basically a collection of all of Robert Burns' works, with little citations and notes explaining certain terms that non-Scots speaking people might be unfamiliar with. There's also backstories about certain works, which is nice as well.

Sanctum by Madeleine Roux
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Ok, so I was partially right in my review of Madeleine's first book in the series (Asylum).

Sanctum is more fast-paced, and by far creepier than the first book, which I liked. Before I read it, I couldn't see how you could possibly connect what happened in Brookline to a carnival. But yeah, I was proved wrong, and in this case, I'm glad I was.

Dan, Abby and Jordan are back at New Hampton to resolve what had happened at Brookline, because it affected them greatly to an extent. There's also some back story about Felix and what had happened to him since the events of the last book. This time, the finale got my pulse racing, and the scene with Professor Reyes and Micah left my eyes wide.

It was a good ending, but with a place like that, you can't really help but to wonder if it is all really over, finally, or if there is still some missing piece that the trio had overlooked.

Asylum by Madeleine Roux
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

The book was nice, I'll give you that. Sure, it has its 'OMG!' moments, but this book makes for almost a light read. I was surprised at myself that I took this quick to finish this book.

The adventures of the protagonists didn't go as deep as I thought it would, and Brookline's history was not completely revealed either (intentionally or not, I'm not sure). There were a lot of loose ends still surrounding the mystery of the sanitarium that Madeleine has also not covered in this book.

Also, the climax of the story wasn't really... well, climax-y. It ended a bit too easily and quick if you ask me. However at the end of the book, Madeleine proves that there will be more to come.

Let's hope that all loose ties will finally come together in her sequel, Sanctum.

How Life Works by Andrew Matthews

My rating: 5 of 5 stars



I would definitely recommend this to anyone who's depressed, not feeling too happy about themselves, or just needs a confidence boost.
Actually, I recommend this to EVERYBODY. I was actually going through a depression 'relapse' (if you could call it that), and this book really helped me cross over to the bright side again (no, I'm not exaggerating). Something about the way Andrew pens his book just makes things seem more... hopeful, I think is the word? Plus it's humorous as well, which is a plus.