Review of Horns by Joe Hill

                I must say that I love Stephen King and that his son, Joe Hill, has done an amazing job with his novels. I read this one because of my love for his father and because I liked a previous Joe Hill novel that I had read called NOS4A2. As with all dark fantasy stories this novel was a little out there but that is why I enjoy these types of novels.
               Horns tells the story of a man, Ig, who has tragically been blamed for the sadistic sexual murder of his long time girlfriend. Ig was found innocent and in the eyes of the town managed to "get away" with her murder. A year later and Ig goes on a drinking binge and can not remember anything from the night before only that he has these sharp horns growing out of his head. Strangely people unconsciously begin telling Ig their deepest secrets and desires. This was my favorite part about the novel. That people begin blurting out the truth whenever Ig is around whether you want to hear it or not. Also with just a touch Ig has the ability to know all the bad you have ever done in your life. Now Ig must navigate his life with these abilities and a pair of devil horns growing out of his head. What did Ig do the night before? Has Ig become the devil himself or is the devil the real murderer of his girlfriend? You will have to read the novel to answer these questions for yourself.
                   
P.S.  I would suggest anyone who is a fan of Stephen King to read his sons work. I look forward to watching the movie hopefully this weekend. I am interested to see how it compares to the novel.


                                                                      Until next time, Emmy.

Review of The Little Paris Bookshop by Nina George

           

               I was initially attracted to this book because of the main character's, Jean Perdu, love of books. Perdu is a literary apothecary prescribing books to people with many different issues. "I wanted to treat feelings that are not recognized as afflictions and are never diagnosed by doctors. All those little feelings and emotions no therapist is interested in, because they are apparently too minor and intangible. The feeling that washes over you when another summer nears its end Or when you recognize that you haven't got your whole life left to find out where you belong. Or the slight sense of grief when a friendship doesn't develop as you thought, and you have to continue your search for a lifelong companion. Or those birthday morning blues. Nostalgia for the air of your childhood. Things like that."  This passage is a perfect example of why I enjoyed the book so much the wording is so elegant and there is always a lot of imagery in the novel. The reader feels as if they are traveling with Perdu on a book barge. 
            I did have some issues with the book though. In my personal opinion I did not enjoy the fact that Perdu's lover, Manon was married to another man. There was also a lot of grief in the novel which made it drag for me making it difficult for me to finish the novel. However, by the end of the novel I grew an appreciation for the novel and understood that the grief had to be a major part of the novel. Only because of the times of grieving then did the enjoyable parts seem all the more better. 
                 This was a wonderful summer read. I would recommend it to anyone who likes romance novels in college or older. As Perdu prescribes to his readers, I would recommend reading it a little at a time so you fully digest the novel and everything that is in it. It is a beautifully written piece of work and I highly approve of Nina George's work on this novel. By the end of the novel it is easy to see why it is ranked on Germany's best seller list. 

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       I received this book from Blogging for Books for this review.

Review of Revealed #7 in the Missing Series by Margaret Peterson Haddix

             Revealed is the book readers have been waiting for in this series! As readers we finally learn the historical identity of Jonah Skidmore! This novel has been crazier than the previous ones and Jonah is basically the only one that can save the day. This novel's setting was in many different time periods. The characters trade times constantly in this novel. Jonah is the main character still but Charles Lindbergh is a major character in this novel meaning that main time period they went back to is the 1930's when Charles Lindbergh's son is kidnapped.
            I enjoyed this novel very much mainly because of how different it is compared to the others in the series. However, in that same breath that is also why I had issues with this novel. With the number of time period changes in the novel it makes it difficult to follow especially when you tie in paradoxes and different things that can happen with time. Even with all of that I enjoyed book seven thoroughly. I look forward to reading the conclusion to the series Redeemed when it is released on September 8th.

                                                                Until next time, Emmy
                                                                        Book overview

Review of Risked #6 in the Missing Series by Margaret Peterson Haddix

Risked

                In the sixth novel of the Missing series Jonah, Katherine, Chip, and two other missing children in history travel to 1918 Russia where they are supposed to save Alexei and Anastasia Romanov. This novel features characters from the first book that we haven't seen since the first novel. Jonah and Katherine come closer to harm in this novel than ever before. Which is why it was interesting. 

              In this one it is interesting that Chip joins Jonah and Katherine on their trip through time. Also Jonah begins researching missing children in history when he comes across the Romanov family. Discovering that 21st century DNA tests have proven that the entire family was murdered and that there were no survivors. Ironically, as Katherine and him are researching the living replica of Anastasia knocks on their door as Daniella McCarthy. She happens to be the only person out of the 36 missing children in history that does not know anything about her past or time travel. This makes for a interesting novel but nothing that we have not seen before from the Missing series. 

              My reactions to this book are average. It was a disappointment after reading Caught. The setting and the time period of this one did not appeal to me particularly. I am starting to get burned out with the series. I hope that in the next few Haddix has time frames and plot twists that keep the readers invested. I am already invested in the six books that I have read so far and because of that I plan to continue in the series. The next novel in the series is Revealed it happens to be about Charles Lindbergh. I plan on reading next and posting a review about it soon. However, I will have to wait until Sept. 8th when the conclusion to the series Redeemed is released! This novel was not bad by any means it just simply did not reach my expectations I had for it. I would still recommend this series for any middle school student to adults. 

Review of Caught Missing Series #5 by Margaret Peterson Haddix

Caught

           I have to say out of the five books I have read of the Missing Series this one (So Far) is my favorite! In the last novel Second really screws up time by splitting it in half. So naturally, Jonah and Katherine must save the day again. I honestly find it ironic that they are saving the day but yet their time travels send them away for great lengths of time. I enjoyed this book because of the time frame it is in Jonah and Katherine go back to 1903 to rescue 21st century, Emily, who happens to actually be Albert Einstein's daughter, Lieserl. 

Einstein is not thinking about the right things in 1903 he has found out that time split in 1611 and if Jonah and Katherine don't act fast Einstein will not create the ideas he is supposed to in 1903 ruining time even more. Their problems do not end there, Lieserl, has scarlet fever in 1903 and is in danger of dying. JB also happens to be trapped in a time hollow unable to help Jonah and Katherine at all. As if Jonah and Katherine do not have enough problems to fix already Albert's wife Mileva has discovered that Jonah and Katherine are not from 1903 as she starts to unravel the mystery of time travel! 

These challenges are what made for such a good novel in the series. I appreciate the fact that Haddix allowed for someone in the past to find out about time travel. I believe this decision has led to the overall benefit of the series. It also helped that she threw in a major plot twist by JB being Mileva and Einstein's son as well! I got a kick out of this information and it was a wonderful ending to the book in my opinion. As for time this means that everything that they know is not the case anymore. Does time follow fate or a person's free will? 

I look forward to continuing this series after reading Caught. I would recommend this series to anyone from middle school to adults that enjoy young adult fiction. This series mixes history with sci-fi for a wonderful combination. I will have my next review over book #6 Risked coming soon!

                                                        Until next time, Emmy

                                About the Author           ~           To purchase Caught

Review of The Missing Series #1-4 by Margaret Peterson Haddix

         Recently, I have been reading The Missing Series by Margaret Peterson Haddix. I am currently reading the fifth book in the series Caught however, this post will be reviewing books one through four in the series. Key note: It is important to read the author's notes at the end of each book because Haddix explains the accurate information of each historical event discussed within each book. It took a lot of research to write a fictional book with this much historical content.

Found

        This book was an instant page turner. It has the FBI, a vanishing plane, bad guys, and time travelers.  Jonah, Chip, and Katherine are the main characters of the novel they work together to solve multiple mysteries throughout the novel. They seem to find more questions than answers throughout the book but by the end of the novel they have learned:Time Travel is possible; Chip and Jonah are adopted and they appeared out of no where on a plane 13 years ago with 36 other children (subsequently ruining Angela DuPre's life); and Chip and Jonah as well as the other children that appeared are missing children from history. Thus, giving us a wonderful idea for a series. 

Sent

               To say that I really enjoyed Sent is a understatement. I sorta bought the book and finished it the same day. Which is a wonderful example of why I am broke because of books. Sent is set in the London of 1483 Jonah, Katherine, Chip and their new friend Alex face many difficulties.  This is the time period that Chip and Alex belong to. They happen to be the missing princes from the Tower of London! The whole situation is tricky when you realize that the characters have not had any time traveling experience, the original Chip and Alex are murdered in 1483, and one wrong move by Jonah or Katherine could ruin time for ever! (That last one seems to be a recurring theme in the missing series. No matter how much knowledge on time traveling they have one wrong move could ruin the rest of time! As you read the book after many mistakes and challenges the amateur time travelers successfully save time and are able to return Chip and Alex to their adoptive parents in the 21st century. Proving a fellow time traveler, JB, wrong allowing him to agree to taking back each of the 36 children to attempt to save time and successfully return the children to their adoptive parents in the 21st century. 

Sabotaged and Torn

             I am reviewing books three and four together because they have been the least interesting out of the series. In Sabotaged, Jonah, Katherine, a dog named Dare, and another missing child named Andrea go into the Lost Colony of Roanoke because Andrea is actually Virginia Dare. As they are traveling through time their elucidator(a time traveler's must have device) is lost and they don't know exactly what year they are in this time around. It turns out that they have been sabotaged by JB's time projectionist who now goes by the name Second Chance because he is changing history with second chances. This sabotage is huge and causes another book to be written just so they could solve all of mysteries.  This is also why Torn(#4) is my least favorite of the series so far. In Torn, Jonah and Katherine are sent to the year 1611 where they are apart of Henry Hudson's ship. Katherine is invisible the entire book and Jonah is forced to take on the persona of Henry Hudson's son, John Hudson! Second is actually also in a costume pretending to be another person on the ship. Jonah and Katherine do not actually figure this out until halfway through the book. In my opinion both of these books seemed to drag on and on. I did enjoy the fact that in Torn time is reversed letting Jonah and Katherine make new choices throughout the day to see if they can save their friends in the Roanoke Colony. This was a neat element to the book that I liked. Eventually, Jonah and Katherine save their friends in the Colony and for the moment everything is good.

However, this does not last for long...

               When Second allowed Jonah and Katherine to make different decisions than before he split time damaging it. He created damaged time meaning that no one should be traveling through time until they realize that time could be harmed even worse if Jonah and Katherine do not go back to save it! In book five which I will review next Jonah and Katherine are sent to the 1900's when JB goes missing. They have to successfully return Albert Einstein's daughter back to the 21st century! 

                                                  Until next time, Emmy.