Books and Sensibility

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5 stars

Summer Of Sarah Dessen : Dreamland

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  • Release Date : September 1 2000
  • Publisher : Viking Children’s/Penguin
  • Genre : Contemporary
  • Pages : 256

Synopsis: Ever since she started going out with Rogerson Biscoe, Caitlin seems to have fallen into a semiconscious dreamland where nothing is quite real. Rogerson is different from anyone Caitlin has ever known. He’s magnetic. He’s compelling. He’s dangerous. Being with him makes Caitlin forget about everything else-her missing sister, her withdrawn mother, her lackluster life. But what happens when being with Rogerson becomes a larger problem than being without him.

Cassandra “Cass” O’Koren was the perfect high school student; she was homecoming queen, a star soccer player and Yale bound in the fall. That is until she decides to runawway to New York City with her boyfriend; leaving her friends and family behind.

Dreamland isn’t Cass’ story though; It is the story of her younger sister Caitlin.

After Cass’s hasty departure, her little sister Caitlin is  left to pick up the pieces. Her attempts at finding life after Cass come tumbling down the night she meet Rogerson Biscoe. He’s a dark brooding drug-dealer whose life is constantly in motion and Caitlin wants nothing more than to be in motion with him. Caitlin entwines her life in his moving  farther away from the person everyone wants her to be.

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Book Review : Leviathan by Scott Westerfeld

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Synopsis : Prince Aleksander, would-be heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne, is on the run. His own people have turned on him. His title is worthless. All he has is a battletorn war machine and a loyal crew of men.

Deryn Sharp is a commoner, disguised as a boy in the British Air Service. She’s a brilliant airman. But her secret is in constant danger of being discovered.

With World War I brewing, Alek and Deryn’s paths cross in the most unexpected way…taking them on a fantastical, around-the-world adventure that will change both their lives forever 

Deryn is a fifteen year old girl masquerading as a boy to join the airservice

Alex is a young prince who is on the run from a the threat of  The Great War

The Leviathan is a  living airship made from fabricated beast that brings the two together in a great adventure in this spirited re-imaging of World War I.

Leviathan is a high-flying adventure story filled with wonderment and discovery. I’m not sure why I picked this book up, I think it was because I wanted to see how the illustrations I’d glanced at related to the story. Either way from the first few pages I was sucked into this world Westerfeld has created with Darwinist, Clankers, Beasties, and Walkers.

What I really liked about this book was something very subtle about Deryn’s story. It’s hinted early in the novel that Deryn’s family (including her mother) while not supporting her scheme,  have decided not to stop her. Even her own brother is helping her pretend to be a boy.

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Book Review : Black Heart by Holly Black

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That’s family for you. Can’t live with them, can’t murder them.”

― Holly Black, Black Heart

 

Synopsis: Cassel Sharpe knows he’s been used as an assassin, but he’s trying to put all that behind him. He’s trying to be good, even though he grew up in a family of con artists and cheating comes as easily as breathing to him. He’s trying to do the right thing, even though the girl he loves is inextricably connected with crime. And he’s trying to convince himself that working for the Feds is smart, even though he’s been raised to believe the government is the enemy.

Our favorite coffee addicted charming anit-hero, Cassel Sharpe is back for a  Curse Worker’s finale where the stakes are higher than ever before for Cassel, his friends, and his family.…

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Book Review : Grave Mercy by Robin LaFevers

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“Why be the sheep when you can be the wolf ?”

 

Synopsis : Seventeen-year-old Ismae escapes from the brutality of an arranged marriage into the sanctuary of the convent of St. Mortain, where the sisters still serve the gods of old. Here she learns that the god of Death Himself has blessed her with dangerous gifts—and a violent destiny. If she chooses to stay at the convent, she will be trained as an assassin and serve as a handmaiden to Death. To claim her new life, she must destroy the lives of others. 

In the late 15th century the nation of Brittany is entrenched in mysticism, war, and treason. Ismae, a simple pig farmer’s daughter, is plucked from a life of hardship to serve Death as an assassin. In the midst of her training, she becomes involved in a clandestine plot and must serve the royal family and her country.

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Book Review : Cinder By Marissa Meyer

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  • Release Date: January 3, 2012
  • Publisher: Feiwel & Friends
  • Genre: Fantasy/Sci-Fi
  • Pages: 387
  • Audiobook hours: 10 hours 6 minutes

Synopsis : Humans and androids crowd the raucous streets of New Beijing. A deadly plague ravages the population. From space, a ruthless lunar people watch, waiting to make their move. . [Cinder is] a second-class citizen with a mysterious past, reviled by her stepmother and blamed for her stepsister’s illness. But when her life becomes intertwined with the handsome Prince Kai’s, she suddenly finds herself at the center of an intergalactic struggle, and a forbidden attraction. Caught between duty and freedom, loyalty and betrayal, she must uncover secrets about her past in order to protect her world’s future


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Book Review : Delirium by Lauren Oliver

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“Love: It will kill you and save you, both” 

  – Lauren Oliver, Delirium

Synopsis: Before scientists found the cure, people thought love was a good thing. They didn’t understand that once love — the deliria — blooms in your blood, there is no escaping its hold. Things are different now. Scientists are able to eradicate love, and the government demands that all citizens receive the cure upon turning eighteen. Lena Holoway has always looked forward to the day when she’ll be cured. A life without love is a life without pain: safe, measured, predictable, and happy.

Delirium tells the story of a world similar to our own with only one exception; Scientists have discovered a cure for the deadliest of all diseases—love, Amor Deliria Nervosa. And at age 18 Lena Holoway is ready to receive her cure.

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