Wednesday, February 17, 2010

Emma


Title: Emma
Author: Jane Austen
Pages: 354
Time took to read: ?
Cover Rating: 4/5
Character Rating: 4/5
Plot Rating: 4/5
Overall Rating: 4/5

I deeply loved this book... How could I not?? Jane Austen is a master mind when it comes to weaving a plot and incorporating believable characters... This was a great book and I give it full marks for everything... I just wish I had read it all in a shorter period of time... But all in all I LOVED it... I recommend it to all Jane Austen fans..

Plot:
(this is not really a plot summary, but I liked it... so I thought I would put it here instead.)

Before she began the novel, Austen wrote, "I am going to take a heroine whom no-one but myself will much like." In the very first sentence she introduces the title character as "Emma Woodhouse, handsome, clever, and rich." Emma, however, is also rather spoiled; she greatly overestimates her own matchmaking abilities; and she is blind to the dangers of meddling in other people's lives and is often mistaken about the meanings of others' actions.

Hush


Title: Hush
Author: Donna Jo Napoli
Pages: 309
Time Took to Read: 2 days
Cover Rating: 4/5
Character Rating: 4/5
Plot Rating: 4/5
Overall Rating: 4/5

I really LOVED this book... Though some of it was kind of disturbing... It showed what life could have been like back in the 900's. I always loved Donna Jo Napoli, she has an amazing ability to transport you to the time and place that she is writing about... I thought that the plot was wonderful... You were never quite sure what was going to happen, and when it did happen you were sometimes so shocked that it was actually happening... You thought that somehow things would change... but often it did not... I LOVED the characters because they were very believable... The main character actually started off as quite a week one, but she grew which was important... Even though it took time... LOVED this book!! I highly recommend it... Though it is not for those who like books where everything goes to plan, and where nothing bad befalls the characters..

Plot:

I'm pulled into water. Up to my knees. Now my thighs. Waves lap at my belly. Deeper. I yank against the hand on my elbow. The man's fingers dig into me. They cut. Long fingernails. Claws. Deeper.

I won't be able to swim with my hands tied behind my back. I kick at him, but the water slows me and my tunic gets caught in my legs. I fall and swallow salt water and choke on this gag in my mouth.

I will die in a peasant's tunic. If anyone finds my body, they won't even know who I am. If Mother and Father live still, they will never know what became of me. I see nothing inside this blindfold; I strangle inside this gag.

Deeper.

(please do not read more of the plot... I think it gives to much away... and what ever you do, DO NOT read the summary!!)

Carlota


Title: Carlota
Author: Scott O'Dell
Pages: 153
Cover Rating: 3/5
Character Rating: 3/5
Plot Rating: 2/5
Overall Rating: 2.5/5

This book had absolutely nothing wrong with it (no flaws as to the writing)... Why such a low rating then? Well nothing really happened during the whole story really... and it was WAY to short... But I think this is manly because it was made for younger readers, which I did not find out until I received it (because I had ordered it threw my library). So all in all I was not really a fan of this book.... I can not find fault the way it was written in any way... I was just not a fan of the book... that is all.... Oh well... I figure that I am prone to read a book I am not CRAZY about ever once in a while! ;)

Plot:

Riding her stallion at top speed, racing and beating the neighboring rancheros, and branding cattle, Carlota proves herself again and again; she is courageous and strong, surely the equal of all her dead brother Carlos could have been. In the conflict between Don Saturnino's need for a son and the outraged sense of woman's place voiced by her proud grandmother, Carlota has always sided with her father. It is not until she rides out with the men to ambush Kit Carson and the Yankee army in what would bee later known as the Battle of San Pasqual, not until she wounds a young soldier with her lance, that Carlota comes face to face with her own feelings of tenderness and compassion and defies her father in defining herself.

(If I had read this description, I would not have read the book... I wish I had read the description... HORRIBLY written as it is...)

The Feathered Serpent


Title: The Feathered Serpent
Author: Scott O'Dell
Pages: 211
Time took to read: 2 days
Cover Rating: 3/5
Character Rating: 4/5
Plot Rating: 4/5
Overall Rating: 4/5

I don't know why I like this series so much... I don't know... But I LOVE them!!! This book was REALLY good, though I think it was shorter than I would have liked it... But I think it was like that so that it could leave room for the 3rd book in the series, which I CAN NOT wait to read!!!!! I really liked the characters in this book because they were very imperfect... Every single one of them was flawed... none were shown to be perfect... Loved the story line about the Mayas... All in all a wonderful book... (oh, and disregard the plot description... it is a lousy one, and if I had read it, I probably would not have read the book, so PLEASE don't base weather you are going to read it on it... )

Plot:
The young seminarian, Julian Escobar, finds himself trapped in the role of the legendary Mayan god Kukulcan, a captive of his own power and of his duties as lord of a great city. His only ally, the sly dwarf Cantu, cares only for the gold that can be plundered from the Mayan temples. Even amid the barbaric splendor of his own court, Julian fears the treachery of the high priest. Julian's travels take him to the palace of Aztec emperor Moctezuma, and before long he is caught up in the tragic encounter of Moctezuma and Hernan Cortes.

Friday, February 5, 2010

The Captive


Title: The Captive
Author: Scott O'Dell
Pages: 224
Time Took To Read: 2 days
Cover Rating: 4/5
Character Rating: 4/5
Plot Rating: 4/5
Overall Rating: 4/5

I LOVED this book!!! It is the first in "The Seven Serpents" trilogy... I originally picked this book because it was a story about the Mayans... they NEVER have actual novels about them.. and they fascinate me... So I really liked it... WONDERFUL book!!! Loved the characters, loved everything... I can't wait to read the next book!!! Till then!!!

Plot:
As part of a Spanish expedition to the New World, a Jesuit seminarian witnesses the enslavement and exploitation of the Mayas and is seduced by greed and ambition.
(sorry this plot is so short... that is all I found out when I read it... PLEASE DO NOT READ THE SUMMARY OF THIS BOOK!!!)

Sovay



Title: Sovay
Author: Celia Rees
Pages: 416
Time took to Read: 1 month
Cover Rating: 5/5
Plot Rating: 3/5
Character Rating: 3/5
Overall Rating: 3/5

I have to say I actually really liked this book.. but it took me forever to read because I was really busy and also it kind of got really slow during the middle... I mean I liked the whole idea of the book... but some of it, was a little slow... it lost my interest. I also did not like how in the book Sovay was supposedly SO beautiful... and yet she did not know it AT ALL!!! I found it kind of unrealistic.. because if you are beautiful you normally know it... even if it is just a little... I was also not so convinced with all the characters... These are the reasons that I could not give it a better rating... but all in all I liked it... If you have read other Celia Rees books you should read it...

Plot:
It’s England, 1783. When the rich and beautiful Sovay isn’t sitting for portraits, she’s donning a man’s cloak and robbing travelers—in broad daylight. But in a time when political allegiances between France and England are strained, a rogue bandit is not the only thing travelers fear. Spies abound, and rumors of sedition can quickly lead to disappearances. So when Sovay lifts the wallet of one of England’s most powerful and dangerous men, it’s not just her own identity she must hide, but that of her father. A dazzling historical saga in which the roles of thieves and gentry, good and bad, and men and women are interchanged to riveting effect.