Bloody Jack

Title: Bloody Jack: Being an Account of the Curious Adventures of Mary "Jacky" Faber, Ship's Boy

Author: L. A. Meyer

Pages: 278

Days took to Read: 3

Cover Rating: 3/5

Character Rating: 4/5

Plot Rating: 4/5

Overall Rating: 4/5

I LOVE this book. I have already reviewed it on this site once, but I do not think I did it full justice. I read it this second time because in my book club we are to read the squeal to it, and I wanted to refresh myself (anyway)... I love the plot, with the whole, "I am really a girl pretending to be a boy" kind of thing.... (Side note: Is in not funny that a girl can pretend to be a boy without to much "I CANT BELIEVE THAT!!!!" Going on, and without it being perverted in anyway.. (back then anyway) yet a boy could not have dressed as a girl without being thought a total pervert.... hehe I find it funny, and I think the guys probably could not have dealt with being a woman... hehe... well anyway..) I also loved the nautical theme of this book, even if it was not a pirate book. I really liked it... and I recommend it!!!!

Plot:

Jacky Faber is used to fighting for survival. For an orphan on the streets of eighteenth-century London, every day starts with begging and ends with an empty stomach. But now luck is finally on Jacky's side-- a departing warship is taking on ships boys, and Jacky jumps at the chance to pursue pirates and riches beyond imagination.

There's only one problem: Jacky is a girl. And she will have to use every bit of her spirit, wit, and courage to keep the crew from discovering her secret. This could be the adventure of her life--- If only she doesn't get caught....

Pirates!

Title: Pirates!

Author: Celia Rees

Pages: 380

Days took to read: 5 days

Cover Rating: 5/5

Character Rating: 4/5

Plot Rating: 5/5

Overall Rating: 4.5/5

I deeply love this book!!! This is my second time reading it... And I love it just as much the second time. I originally read this about a year ago, and loved it immediately. I think the true test of weather a book is really great is when you read it a second time. The second time you are not as caught up in all the hype, because you know what is going to happen, so it is not nearly as exciting. This book was still AMAZING!!! I loved the depth of the characters and I really loved the plot. It kept you reading. I deeply recommend this to anyone who likes a good adventure novel!!!

Plot

Nancy Kington, daughter of a rich merchant, suddenly orphaned when her father dies, is sent to live on her family's plantation in Jamaica. Disgusted by the treatment of the slaves and her brother's willingness to marry her off, she and one of the slaves, Minerva, run away and join a band of pirates. For both girls the pirate life is their only chance for freedom in a society where both are treated like property, rather than individuals. Together they go in search of adventure, love, and a new life that breaks all restrictions of gender, race, and position. Told through Nancy's writings, their adventures will appeal to readers across the spectrum and around the world.

The Princess Bride

Title: The Princess Bride: S. Morgensterns's classic tale of true love and high adventure

Author: S. Morgenstern (Abridged by William Goldman)

Pages: 317 (without Buttercup's Baby") 399 (with Buttercup's Baby)

Time took to Read: 3 days

Cover Rating: 5/5

Character Rating: 5/5

Plot Rating: 5/5

Overall Rating: 5/5

(2009 rating)

I don't know how to stress how much I love this book.... It is defiantly my favorite work of Fiction ever... The characters are timeless and perfect.... in the way that they all of major flaws.... The book is defiantly not a happy go lucky book. That I can say. If you read my quote from the book in the post bellow, it basically is the theme of the book. Life is not fair. If you watched the movie, and are thinking "Everything seamed to go just great for them, what are you talking about?" My simple answer is READ THE BOOK!!!!! It is wonderful, even though the characters are flawed, which makes it even more perfect... All in all, it is wonderful sublime and just perfect....

Plot:

(the back of the book only gives this much information, so if you want more, just go to my second post on this blog, for a full summary.)

Westley, the handsome farm boy who risks death (and much worse) for the woman he loves; Inigo, the Spanish swordsman who lives only to avenge his father's death; Fezzik, the gentlest giant ever to have uprooted a tree with his bare hands; Vizzini, the evil Sicilian, whith a mind so keen he's foiled by his own perfect logic; Prince Humperdinck, the eviler ruler of Florin, who has an equally insatiable thirst for war and the beauteous Buttercup; Count Rugen, teh evilest man of all, who thrives on the excruciationg pain of others; Miracle Max, the King's ex-Miracle Man, who can raise the dead (kind of); and of course, Buttercup . . . the princess bride, the most perfect beautiful woman in the history of the world!

Quote: The Princess Bride

Title: The Princess Bride

I really liked this quote. Even before I knew that the movie was a book, I fell in love with this quote. Though in the book, someone entirely different says it. It still has the same effect though. LOVE IT!!!! Tell me what you think!

pg. 144

"Life is pain... Anybody that says different is selling something."

My Yearly Tradition

Every year I read my favorite book, "The Princess Bride: S. Morgenstern's Classic Tale of True Love and High Adventure (The 'Good Parts' Version). I grew up watching the movie, and I just found out that it was a book, a few years ago. Ever since I turned the first page, it became my all time favorite book. I can't believe that I have not read it yet this year, and since it is getting late in the year, I figure that I should read it soon.... So I just wanted to let you dear followers know that I will be reading this soon. Unfortunately, I have recently let someone borrow my book from me, so I will have to read the one copy found at my local library. Oh well.... (I need to get a second copy so that I have one to lend, and one for myself...hehe) Well that is all for today dear reader....

Lain

(p.s. I always loved this map.)

A Brief History of Montmaray

Title: A Brief History of Montmaray

Author: Michelle Cooper

Pages: 294

Time Took to Read: 5 days

Cover Rating: 5/5

Character Rating: 3/5

Plot Rating: 3/5

Overall rating: 3.5/5

I really liked this book. It had a great story line. The characters were very believable, and I enjoyed learning more about them each, as the book went on. I also liked the plot... Any plot that takes place in a castle is AMAZING!!!! hehehe... Though I am more prone to like a more medieval time period, or at least 1800's, but this book was good, I liked the whole 1930's time period... I just had to keep reminding myself that it took place during this time. All in all, it is a good book, a little on the slow side, but good. I recommend it to anyone who does not mind reading just to read.... To someone who just loves books in general.

Plot:

I need to write down what has just happened. I need to set down the truth. If I write lies or if I write nothing at all, this journal is worthless. I must do this, in case anything happens.

All right. This is what happened tonight, every single terrible thing that I can remember . . .

Sophie FitzOsborne lives in a crumbling castle in the tiny island kingdom of Montmaray, along with her tomboy younger sister Henry, her beautiful, intellectual cousin Veronica, and Veronica's father, the completely mad King John.
When Sophie receives a leather-bound journal for her sixteenth birthday, she decides to write about her day-to-day life on the island. But it is 1936 and the world is in turmoil. Does the arrival of two strangers threaten everything that Sophie holds dear?

The Musician's Daughter

Title: The Musician's Daughter

Author: Susanne Dunlap

Pages: 317

Days took to Read: 2 days

Cover Rating: 4/5

Character Rating: 4/5

Plot Rating: 3/5

Overall Rating: 3.5/5

I really liked this book. I thought that it was very artfully written, with a good mix of drama and suspense. I really liked the characters, and I thought she did a great job at making them come alive. I loved the plot, and just the genre was amazing. I recommend it to anyone who likes a mystery in historical terms.

Plot:

Amid the glamour of Prince Nicholas Esterhazy's court in 18th-century Vienna, murder is afoot. Or so fifteen-year-old Theresa Maria is convinced when her musician father turns up dead on Christmas Eve, his valuable violin missing, and the only clue to his death a strange gold pendant around his neck. Then her father's mentor, the acclaimed composer Franz Joseph Haydn, helps her through a difficult time by making her his copyist and giving her insight into her father's secret life. It's there that Theresa begins to uncover a trail of blackmail and extortion, even as she discovers honor, and the possibility of a first, tentative love. Thrumming with the weeping strains of violins, as well as danger and deception, this is an engrossing tale of murder, romance, and music that readers will find hard to forget.

Saving Juliet

Title: Saving Juliet

Author: Suzanne Selfors

Pages: 241

Time Took to Read: 2 days

Cover Rating: 3/5

Character Rating: 3/5

Plot Rating: 4/5

Overall Rating: 3.5/5

I really liked this book. I thought it was a very original take on part of the story of Romeo and Juliet. I liked that it was not simply a retelling of the story, as some of the books I have read were, but the characters did live threw the story in a cretin way. I really liked it, and thought it very original. I might even read the original Romeo and Juliet!!! It would be interesting to see how they compare. All in all a good book. i do recommend it.

Plot:

(I thought the inside cover description gave to much away, so if you are going to read this book, please don't research it. Just read the plot from the following.)

"Quiet! You must listen to the prince," a man scolded. The crowd stilled and a voice burst forth from somewhere ahead. I couldn't see the speaker but he spoke familiar words.

"three rimes now, the Capulets and Montagues have fought in our streets, spilling their own blood as well as the blood of innocent bystanders. I will stand for no more. If either house disrupts the peace again, the punishment shall be death! That is the word of your prince."

The Capulets and the Montagues? Okay, this was getting stranger by the minute.

I didn't know if I should burst into tears or start giggling hysterically, so I did both. I stood there like a crazy person, in my mud-spattered dress. This was just like the opening of the play, when the price makes his proclamation. Just like the play that I was trying to escape. How could this be happening??

Crossing Stones

Title: Crossing Stones

Author: Helen Frost

Pages: 178

Time Took to Read: 3 days

Cover Rating: 5/5

Character Rating: 4/5

Plot Rating: 4/5

Overall Rating: 4/5

I loved this book!!! It was a wonderfully, yet very uniquely written bo0k. The whole book was written in different kinds of poetry form. It was beautifully written, though I do not recommend it to people who don't like poems. What I liked about these is that they were beautiful and short, yet they were very easy to understand, and gave you so much more information than normal words of that length ever could. All in all I loved the characters and the plot and HIGHLY recommend this book!!!

Plot:

Eighteen-year-old Muriel Jorgensen lives on one side of Crabapple Creek. Her family’s closest friends, the Normans, live on the other. For as long as Muriel can remember, the families’ lives have been intertwined, connected by the crossing stones that span the water. But now that Frank Norman—who Muriel is just beginning to think might be more than a friend—has enlisted to fight in World War I and her brother, Ollie, has lied about his age to join him, the future is uncertain. As Muriel tends to things at home with the help of Frank’s sister, Emma, she becomes more and more fascinated by the women’s suffrage movement, but she is surrounded by people who advise her to keep her opinions to herself. How can she find a way to care for those she loves while still remaining true to who she is?

Written in beautifully structured verse, Crossing Stones captures nine months in the lives of two resilient families struggling to stay together and cross carefully, stone by stone, into a changing world.

Homeless Bird

Title: Homeless Bird

Author: Gloria Whelan

Pages: 212

Time Read: 5 days

Cover Rating: 1/5

Character Rating: 4/5

Plot Rating: 4/5

Overall Rating: 3.5/5

I read this book a few weeks ago, but never got to put a review for it. I enjoyed this book immensely. I love how it drew you in with a simple story line, yet got more complex as things went along. I also liked that it had both sorrow and happiness within it. It was very realistic in what would happen in real life, and I liked it immensely. A good nice, easy read. I recommend it to all.

Plot:

(I did not know much about the book going into it, and I liked it best that way, so I will only tell you a few basic things you need to know.)

This story takes place in India and starts off with a girl of 13 years, who is about to get married. (yes that is all I am going to tell. If you want to know more, read the book!!)