Between the Lines by Jodi Picoult and Samantha van Leer {book review}

UK cover

I am on Twitter!!! (@unitedcakedom) I am stating that because that is how I learned about the existence of this book. I follow Jodi Picoult and she was re-tweeting peoples responses! 


I picked up a copy at my local grocery store, in hard back! It is rare for me to buy a hardback. I love books, but I have to really want it not to wait until it comes out in paperback. 


Just a flip through the book it had my attention. There are pictures! Well drawn pictures! 


I like the idea of the characters of books having their own world (between the lines) after the book closes. The story was handled very well, for such a complex story line. There are so many questions to be asked about the world in the book and I think most of them are answered! What happens when a character in a book wants more? 


I enjoyed reading this book it's labeled as young adult, but I think today there are so many books that sit on the borderline of young adult and adult. I am nearly 30 and I enjoyed it and I think a young person the age of  10 or so would enjoy it as well. 


It was an entertaining light read that I would suggest to anyone who loves fairy tales! 

I have a couple of niggles; I wanted a few more examples of why Delilah and Oliver liked each other. It felt a bit forced, it's one of my gripes about fairy tales in general. Tangled: Rapunzel was locked in a tour for 16 years! Yet she marries the first guy she meets! I know at the end there is the disclaimer when Eugene says "after years and years of asking I finally said yes" so it implies that she didn't marry him the second she got home. But still! Anyway off track again........ where was I? 


My other niggle was after all this build up (not going to spoil it) it just ends. I guess that is a sign of a good story that I didn't want it to end, but I was physically looking for more pages thinking "is that it?" Maybe there is a sequel? I've never know Jodi Picoult to do a sequel, but there is a first for everything! 


To find out more about what this book is about click here! 
~LiSa

Changeless and Blameless {Book Review} The Parasol Protectorate

Alexia Tarabotti Novels Changeless & Blameless by Gail Carriger

When I first read Souless, I wasn't sure what to think. The style of writing was a bit different and  I wasn't sure about it being a series. I have said before how I don't really like series. It's just that by book 5, or if we're lucky book 7 or 8, the story tends to get repetitive. Or worse the characters change so much you don't recognize them anymore ~coughanitablakeseriescough~!! 

All the books are stand alone stories, but they do follow a timeline. So, if you are curious you can  start with Souless and stop if you want. Which is what I did, until after I reread it and wanted to know what happened next. So, I picked up Changeless (2) and Blameless (3) I also just ordered Heartless (4) and Timeless (5). Will be updating shortly on those! ;0) 

Changeless starts with all the supernatural folk becoming human, which is greatly concerning. Oh, to go back a second Alexia Tarabotti is souless and lives in a Victorian England with scientific advancements (aka Steam Punk) and where supernaturals have been given rights (in England). Souless people are rare; when they touch a supernatural they become human. Which vampires and werewolves don't like very much. So, when everyone becomes human they think she has something to do with it. To prove her innocence she goes on a search to find out what is going on! 

I have to say about all the books so far is they are very funny and clever! 

Then in Blameless she is forced to leave England to Italy to find out more about herself and her father's history. What I find frustrating is when there is a character who could answer her questions, but won't. Her butler, Floote, was her dad's butler and knows stuff!! Yet, he won't tell her things that would be useful to her! This was less satisfactory then Souless and Changeless as the other two had more interesting insight! 

I am stuck into book 4 at the moment and will let you know how it goes! 

I highly recommend this series and that's a lot coming from me, who doesn't like series'! 
~LiSa

Eesoo by Kathleen Boettcher: A Review and Comparison!!

Melanie reviewed this book a while back, but it took me a while to hunt a copy down. It’s out of print, published first in 1990. On the last page there is a form so you can be contacted when the next book was published. It’s ironic because no following book was ever published. Someone somewhere knows why, but we the masses will never know. In the front of the book the author claims there were to be 7 books to follow.


My theory is that she changed her name to Diana Gabaldon While reading this book I just couldn’t help but feel I had read it before. The main characters are so similar to Outlander (book 1) or Cross Stitch (in the UK) it was like dejuvu. If you remember I hated Outlander, which is one difference, I didn’t hate Eesoo.

Here are a few of the similarities: There will be spoilers!!

The heroine: Claire-Nurse; Angela-Doctor (she only got interesting in the last few pages); Both-Spunky character who is a boring marriage. Is forced to marry an exciting adventurous type. Both females drove me crazy with they way they conducted themselves. The hero: Jamie-beat/raped; T’hur-beat/raped, which means they both have reasons for being guarded moody men who need to learn how to love/trust and be loved/trusted in return--by someone who can not only fix them, but understand them. Both are some form of royalty one is to rule the other a duke or something.
As for the story one is about space travel the other time travel, but it gives each story a fantastical feel. And both are slightly overly long. The main characters where one dimensional, but that is common in most romance novels/stories. Romeo and Juliet, Twilight etc… Yay I did it I just put Shakesphere and Meyers in the same sentence. If your main characters are plain they don’t alienate the reader. The reader needs to be able to insert themselves or relate to the main characters.

Going back to Romeo and Juliet it was the secondary characters that really made the story and that’s how I feel about Eesoo. Outlander was horrendous with silly things happening and on more then one occasion things that happened were unbelievable and the secondary characters were nonexistence. Eesoo has some amazing loveable secondary characters!!
Eesoo gives you exactly what it promises to give! Romance, adventure, and mystery! Even though my guesses were right in the end, I wasn’t 100% sure. Which is what I think makes a good story! It also made me laugh out loud sometimes. That's hard to do in a book I think. The writing was very witty! If you ever come across a copy of Eesoo I suggest you grab it up!!

It’s sad that the other books were never written/published. Yet, I hate sagas and series because it usually drags on too long. They ruin a good book. The other thing I like about this book is the name, Eesoo is a creature that looks loveable, but when pissed off becomes a scary monster. The lesson nothing is what it appears to be. That’s what this book is, it isn’t what it appears to be! Love it!!

~LiSa
note: all books were purchased by me and they are my own opinions and views and thoughts! If you disagree or agree with anything I've said please leave a comment I'd love to hear your thoughts!!

On the Road by Jack Kerouac a book review

On the Road swings to the rhythms of 1950s underground America, jazz, sex, generosity, chill dawns and drugs, with Sal Paradise and his hero Dean Moriarty, traveller and mystic, the living epitome of Beat. Now recognized as a modern classic, its American Dream is nearer that of Walt Whitman than Scott Fitzgerald, and it goes racing towards the sunset with unforgettable exuberance, poignancy and autobiographical passion.

..........hum?..........I'm not really sure where to start? I'm trying to put into words how this book made me feel and I'm having a hard time pin-pointing it. I read it with the understanding that is seen as an "American Classic" a book that changed lives (according to my back cover). I've actually owned the book for well over a year the first time I tried to read it I found it irritating as I felt it didn't say anything. I'm glad I've given it a second go and finished it because I have found that it says a lot.

A lot about life and how people really haven't changed in 50 years. But then it makes me ask: if people haven't changed than what has? Because something has changed...my daughter's new favorite movie is Cars. Sorry that might have been a bit random, but stay with me. In Cars Radiator Springs/Route 66 is left behind to the new shiny highway. Jack Kerouac's America has been left behind. The book made me sad. I think/feel that this was Jack's way of saying goodbye to a certain way of life. When he was traveling (1947) it was right when America was testing the atom bomb, the world was changing.

This book has been very controversial since it was published. Saying it glorifies immoral young men and how it justifies rebellious behavior and drug use. I guess I wouldn't want my kids reading it and treating it as their guide to life, but I wouldn't stop them from reading it. Especially as there are other things to gain such as an insight to another time and the acceptance of all people no matter their station in life and possibly that a simpler life doesn't always mean an unhappy one.  

Did this book change my life? No, but it shows that we're not alone in our ultimate quest to find "it" -- the meaning of life. Would I recommend it? I think it would depend on the person for this one.

Click here to read more about Jack on wikipedia!

Lisa Recommends ~Pirate Latitudes by Michael Crichton

If you are a fan of Pirates of the Caribbean and Michael Crichton and gore and adventure then you must read this book! I have enjoyed all of the books I have read by Michael Crichton. Timeline makes my top 5 books of all time and Jurassic Park would make my top 20! The way it is different is it doesn't have the same science background. Most of his books have something to do with the way the humans are advancing themselves etc...

Pirate Latitudes by Michael Crichton
Synopsis: From one of the best-loved authors of all time comes an irresistible adventure of swashbuckling pirates in the New World, a classic story of treasure and betrayal.
The Caribbean, 1665. A remote colony of the English Crown, the island of Jamaica holds out against the vast supremacy of the Spanish empire. Port Royal, its capital, is a cutthroat town of taverns, grog shops, and bawdy houses.
In this steamy climate there's a living to be made, a living that can end swiftly by disease—or by dagger. For Captain Charles Hunter, gold in Spanish hands is gold for the taking, and the law of the land rests with those ruthless enough to make it.
Word in port is that the galleon El Trinidad, fresh from New Spain, is awaiting repairs in a nearby harbor. Heavily fortified, the impregnable harbor is guarded by the bloodthirsty Cazalla, a favorite commander of the Spanish king himself. With backing from a powerful ally, Hunter assembles a crew of ruffians to infiltrate the enemy outpost and commandeer El Trinidad, along with its fortune in Spanish gold. The raid is as perilous as the bloodiest tales of island legend, and Hunter will lose more than one man before he even sets foot on foreign shores, where dense jungle and the firepower of Spanish infantry stand between him and the treasure. . . .


The story is a short easy read as it was found after his death in 2008 so who knows how he would have changed it. Don't worry  it is a full story with action and adventure around every corner. What I like best is it doesn't romanticise pirates.

http://www.crichton-official.com/ go here to find out more about Michael Crichton!!

Recommendation: Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman

Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman
Under the streets of London there's a world most people could never even dream of. A city of monsters and saints, murderers and angels, and pale girls in black velvet. Richard Mayhew is a young businessman who is about to find out more than he bargained for about this other London. A single act of kindness catapults him out of his safe and predictable life and into a world that is at once eerily familiar and yet utterly bizarre. There's a girl named Door, an Angel called Islington, and Earl who holds Court on the carriage of a Tube train, a Beast in a labyrinth, and dangers and delights beyond imagining ... and Richard, who only wants to go home, is to find a strange destiny waiting for him below the streets of his native city.


What I have to say: This book is sorta like a modern day Alice in Wonderland. It has twists and turns, fantasy and charm, adventure and the things nightmares are made of. All the things that make a good story!
Neil Gaiman is becoming one of my favorite authors and I have another one of his books on my list to read!!


This was originally a TV series made for the BBC and this particular publication is the Authors Preferred text as it's been rewritten a couple of times.

Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card -- A Recommendation -- by Melanie

Another outing for the classic legend of the boy who journeys to the stars to defeat an alien horde and save the human race. Ender Wiggin is Battle School's latest recruit. His teachers reckon he could become a great leader. And they need one. A vast alien force is headed for Earth: its mission, the annihilation of all human life. Ender could be our only hope. But first he must survive the most brutal military training programme in the galaxy... With its explosive storyline, pump-action excitement and hugely engaging central characters, Ender's Game is a sure-fire winner. Orson Scott Card is the multi-award winning and bestselling author of a host of groundbreaking SF novels, and his storytelling acumen is well to the fore here.