The Descendant by Kelley Grealis a review

I received this book to give an honest review. (Thank you Kelley Grealis!)

The Descendant by Kelley Grealis
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I am a huge paranormal fan, so when I saw this book, I just had to read it.
I have read lots of vampire stories and I have to say this book is very refreshing. The biblical elements work really well and give you a whole new look on vampires. I also liked the fact that Vampires are not romanticized. She even describes that they only look good to lure in prey. There are so many vampire books out there that describe vampires as heroes. I like the fact that she had a different idea about this.

There are some parts that feel a bit like loose ends to me. Like the house she lived in. When she got in the accident and Jenna took her home, Jenna told her that she had moved in the last three years. Later we learned that Vincent placed these memories in both their heads. So where is the first house? The house the story started with? I think some of the storyline got a bit too complicated for these details. The other little thing that had me wondering was the fact that she calls the other vampires her siblings. But that would make Vincent her sibling too? This seems a little strange since she has a very different relationship with him.

Nevertheless because of her refreshing ideas and because Kelley Grealis is a very good writer I do hope we will be able to read a lot more from her.

View all my reviews

Planet Urth - Book review

Planet Urth by Jennifer Martucci
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

A nice post apocalyptic book. I thought it read fast and although some things were not exactly believable (the giant spider, why didn't anyone see it before?) I did enjoy the story and I will be reading the rest of the series.



 The Savage Lands by Jennifer Martucci
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Like the first book, this one is a fast read. I finished this part in two days. Although sometimes the story leaves big questions, like why were sully and Jericho at that arena just when avery and her family had to fight there and why did they save them and not the other humans. This seems a little strange to me. I think that the writers had no other option to get them out of the arena and got a little to creative about it. But if you do not care to much about these things, the book is entertaining.

;Planet Urth: The Underground City by Jennifer Martucci
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

So in just two weeks, I read the three books of planet urth. This last one is a bit different than the others. The first two books are post apocalyptic, this one is more dystopian.
The book was (like the first two) an easy read. A lot of things are happening so it never gets dull. On the other side, some things feel kind of rushed, like the last battle. One moment she is in prison and the next moment she is battling the urthman, with all residents of new washington supporting her. This seems a bit strange to me. These people lived years and years in a dystopian like city and just because one girl spoke to them for like 10 minutes they were free from the president?? Speaking of the president, where is he?? Once they start their battle against the urthman, he vanished.
So there are a lot of gaps in the story, but because it never gets dull and I liked the concept of the urthman I still think you should read the book, if you are into dystopian novels.


View all my reviews

Finally a new pattern!

Finally i finished a new pattern!
This little duck is so shy, he likes to hide in the flowers in the garden.
He makes a cute pencil topper but is also a great decoration for your home this spring!
He is for sale in my etsy shop

last minute st patricks day decorations.

Hi there,

Tomorrow it is St. Patricks day and ofcourse I realised this way too late. So yesterday I made some last minute decorations ;)

Happy St Patricks day to you all!!!!

The Testing a review

The Testing by Joelle Charbonneau
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This book was just not original at all. It was the hunger games all over again. The only difference was that when they finished the test they would go to university so maybe, just maybe the next books will be interesting.
The choices they had to make, the life or death test (games), the dystopian setting (colonies that specialize in things like food, fabric, mining etc.) even the love part. A boy who does not leave her side and wants to do everything to get her to safety.
When someone beyond the fence threw in a bag with food to help her, I almost fell of my chair. Katness was the one getting all the things she needed the most and now chia is the only one receiving gifts?
These small details made it feel like the book was an exact copy.
I still award three stars, just because it is very easy to read and it is entertaining. I do think she can write, I would love to read a book written by Joelle Charbonneau that has an original story.

View all my reviews

Projects I have been working on and a review...

Okay so these last few weeks I have not been very productive, I have to say. I have been working on some paracord projects and I have made spinsels.

 (Spinnen is the dutch word for purring.) These little stuffed cat toys are made of fleece and have catnip in them. They were a huge hit among our cat friends ;)
Today we watched a kill bill marathon at a friends house and I made them a little card to say thank you!

And ofcourse I have been reading a lot, my last book was the The Other Life written by Susanne Winnacker. I have read this book for my both challenges. You can read my review about the book here.

Vampire Academy a review

Vampire Academy by Richelle Mead
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

I heard a lot about this book, so I wanted to read it. I was a little scared though because most of the books that are a huge success are not the best ones. After I finished this one, I am sorry to say, this one also falls into that category.
It was hard to get into the story, because of all of the names, families, etc.Also because you do not know right away, why the two main characters had fled the academy, it is hard to understand why they do the things they do.

I thought the whole mind bonding thing between the two girls was annoying. I mean every time Rose tries to enter Lissa's mind, Lissa is in the middle of something exciting, or is in the middle of something she needs help with. Not one time she enters her mind, while Lissa is doing something boring like reading. It's just not believable.

The whole book just felt a lot like harry potter meets Twilight.The school, forbidden love, vampire feeding problems, psi dogs..... Nothing is new, nothing is original.

I finished the book, because once I got into the story it was easy to read and even though I did not like the main characters I still wanted to know what would happen to them. That was (so sorry) the only good thing about the book.

View all my reviews

Married with Zombies

Title: Married with Zombies
author: Jesse Petersen
Genre: Zombie, apocalyptic, Paranormal, Dystopian, Fantasy, Humor
Published in 2010
Read for: TBR-pile 2014 and the Dystopian 2014 challenges

This was a fun little book to read. (It only had 241 pages.)
It was funny but it still had some emotional elements to it.And ofcourse like any other zombie book it was action packed.
 The first part of the book was hillarious I thought. They were still fighting and on the verge of divorce and in the same time they had to figure out everything about zombies and the apocalyps.

" I don't know what came over me as I looked down at our fat, piece of shit of a neighbour lying half in my toilet, the offending seat Dave had left for me still flipped up overhead I certainly didn't think about what I was going to do, I just did it. Dropping down, I started slamming the toilet down against his skull.
'Put.The.Toilet.Seat.Down.David!' I accentueted each word with a crushing bang of the seat."

Later on the book gets a bit more dark. They have to do lots of things, including slaying friends and family to survive. Also hope fades away especially with the government creating a dystopian by bombing every infested town there is, without looking for survivors. I thought adding this element made the book a lot more real and interesting and kept it from being just a funny book about zombies.

There were a lot of cliches in the book and there were no refreshing elements to the zombie apocalyps part.
But because the book was not that long and because of the fact that funny, emotional and action balanced each other, I really enjoyed reading it.

Fire, a review

My first review this year and the first book I have read on my TBR pile reading challenge list!

Fire by Sara B. Elfgren and Mats Strandberg

Fire is part two of the circle series.
It is written by two Swedish authors, Sara B. Elfgren and Mats Strandberg. I loved the setting in a little town in Sweden en all the references to Stockholm and the Swedish names.

Fire is written in a real and down to earth kind of way. With books about witches it can be a bit harry pottery (as I like to call it), but this was not the case with Fire.
It is about 6 teenage girls and one boy that found out they were witches in the first book.  They are called the chosen ones. Since than they had to battle two deaths among them ,demons, the council that watches every move they make, boys, friendships but above all being a teen. It is very refreshing to see a young adult that is not about a girl that falls head over heals in love with a boy. Also the fact that these five girls are not friends, is new and makes an interesting read.

You get to know all five of the girls and all of the chosen ones are different. Because they write from the point of view of all of them, you have an opinion about all of them (mean, sweet, insecure, irritating) which makes it a lot more interesting. I really liked the fact that one of the girls was in love with one of the other girls and how this played out and how this effected their friendship. I liked Ida the least of all, but once the story progresses you get why she is this way. She certainly spices up the groups dynamics.

The magical element sometimes is a bit too flat I think. In book one it was about how to deal with magic and how the girls struggled with this. In this part it seams to come natural to them, which is surprising since there is only one fictive summer between the two books. Halfway in the book the girls switch bodies and get to see into each others lives. While this is a nice idea, it was a bit confusing. I lost of track on who was who also because there are lots and lots of other characters in the book. Sometimes I literally had to go back some pages to understand things again.

Despite some of the things I talked about, I really enjoyed reading this book. I did not want to put it down, because I just really wanted to know how the story would end and who was responsible for the strange things happening in their town. I also liked the end of the book, now I just can not wait for part three to arrive!

One book down, lots and lots more to go!

Here is to new beginnings part two: Dystopian Reading Challenge.

2014 Dystopia reading challenge by the Blog of Erised

After I signed up for the first reading challenge, I stumbled upon this Dystopia challenge and I thought WOW! This is really cool!!!! I will add books as I go. I am planning on reading at least 6 books, which would make me a level 1 (but hopefully I will read more) Do you want to join this challenge yourself or you want to know more about the rules? Visit the blog of Erised I will add books with links to the reviews in this blogpost. You can always find this post by clicking on challenges in the top menu. Married with zombies - Jesse Petersen The other life - Susanne Winnacker The Testing - Joelle Charbonneau Silo - Hugh Howey Planet Urth: The underground city - by Jennifer Martucci, Christopher Martucci

Here is to new beginnings: TBR Pile Reading Challenge

Happy new year to all of you!!!!
This year I hope to blog a lot more than last year. I want to talk some more about other things I am passionate about. I mean you all know I love crochet, but there are some more amazing things in life right?

One of these amazing things are books! Just plain old paper books. I tried to read on an e-reader, but there is just something magical about a real book. Ordering it, waiting for the mailman to arrive and then the joy of opening the package and admiring the cover and back of your own new book. Most of the time I start to read right away, but sometimes my new beloved books end up on the to be read pile.

2014 TBR Pile Reading Challenge by Bookish


Today I was just reading through some blogs and found this amazing TBR challenge on Bookish. The perfect way to start the new year! It helps me to blog some more and about other things than just crochet and on top of it all I get to read! Okay so no ordering new books for me this year, first I have to go through my To Be Read pile :)

I am planning to read about a book a month so I will hopefully read

11-20 books (A friedly hug).

I have tried to put in all kinds of books and mythological creatures (except vampires, because come to think of it, I have read lots and lots of vampire books and it is time for different things. That is untill I find a new and hot vampire on the bookshelf somewhere;) ) But I have to admit most of the books on my list are dystopian. I just can't help myself, I just love those!

These are the first 10 I want to read:

Hystorical
1. The trouble with Harry - Katie Macalister
(the first and last non-paranormal/dystopian book on my list. I am a huge fan of Katie, but never got around reading this one.)

Dystopian
2.Fuse - Jaulianna Baggott
3.Pandemonium - Lauren Oliver
4.Breath - Sarah Crossan (this will be a re-read)
5.Allegiant - Veronica Roth
6.Article5 - Kristen Simmons
7.The other life - Susanne Winnacker (read)
8. The Testing- Joelle Charbonneau (read)
9. Silo- Hugh Howey

Dystopian/Zombies 
8.Married with Zombies - Jesse Petersen (read)

Mermaid
9. Sleeping with the fishes - Mary Janice Davidson

Bigfoot (just because I am a true believer and I do not care what others say ;) )
10. Nobody loves a bigfoot, like a bigfoot babe - Simon Okill

Witches
11.Fire- Sara B. Elfgren and Mats Strandberg (read!)

Vampires
12. Vampire academy - Richelle Mead (read)
13. The descendant - Kelley Grealis (read)

When I finished a book and written a review about it, I will add the link here. You can always find this post by clicking challenges in the top menu.

Do you want to join this challange yourself or you want to know more about the rules of the challenge, visit the BOOKISH page and sign up! It will be lots of fun!