Shannan's Review of "The Christmas Box"

I have wanted to read this book for some time. It seemed like I was always hearing about it. The Young Women's presidency gave this book and a cute necklace (which I am going to post as my craft tag soon!) for Christmas to everyone in Y.W. So I was finally able to read it.

It was a nice story. It wasn't very long, only about 85 pages, so it was a pretty quick read. And it was a little predictable and sad. But it has a good message about what Christmas is really all about. And also just life in general, what things are important, like our family, not making money and being successful. A good reminder of the Savior's gift to us at this holiday season. I would recommend it if you just want a feel good quick read for the season.

Merry Christmas!

Meghan's Review of "Breaking Dawn"

Ah, where do I begin? I thought Meyer shouldn't have even written this book. She should have ended the third book differently and just let the story be. I'm sorry, but I can't buy that Edward can't shed a tear but can father a child. How in the world does that happen? Also, the whole honeymoon just seemed...weird.

I really disliked the fact that she got pregnant, and that the baby was killing her. Honestly, I wanted them to take the baby out of her and kill it. I couldn't believe they all just sat back and didn't do anything. And then, while I was hating the baby still, everyone loved the baby! And what was with the name? Renesmee? How do you even pronounce that? And then it just made me even more mad that Jacob imprinted on her. It just kept getting better and better, or worse and worse. Although I was very glad that Jacob wasn't in love with Bella anymore so she couldn't keep hurting him. That was one of the good things about this book.

At the end I was all geared up for a big fight and was disappointed. It was like there was this big build up to nothing. At least Bella was a lot less annoying once she was a vampire, but it seemed like as soon as she became immortal that she was all mature and wise and wasn't Bella anymore. Don't get me wrong, I liked the vampire Bella better, but I just thought the whole book was unnecessary.

P.S. I did like the end of this book more than the beginning. I was skeptical at first, but I'm glad Meyer ended the story the way she did (even if it was a little too much like a fairy tale). I have also heard that she may write a story focusing on Renesmee so that would be interested to read.

Adrienne's review of "The Nanny Diaries"

To be honest, I wasn't planning on doing a review of this book because I wasn't sure if I wanted to admit to reading it. This is one of those books that I really enjoyed and hated all at the same time. I have to admit that I couldn't put it down and read it in under two days, which is pretty quick when you're a SAHM and can't read all day long ANY day. (This is one thing that I miss about having my time be my own - being able to curl up with a good book all day long.) On the other hand it was a little depressing and the f-word appeared more than I would like, which is not at all if I had my way. I just hate that word!

The book is about a nanny, who incidentally is named Nanny, who gets hired to work for the X's. Mrs. X is a very passive aggressive, self-centered, manipulative, etc. New York socialite who basically can't handle being alone with her four year old son, Grayer, for even an hour. (Think Emily Gilmore without any of her redeeming qualities, if you can imagine that. Sorry for the reference to those who don't know Gilmore Girls.) Nanny stays on as the nanny even though she is treated awfully by Mrs. X because she loves little Grayer and knows that she is really the only person in his life who really cares about him. Mr. X is basically absent from the family, and when he is there you wish he was absent again. It just broke my heart to imagine a little boy growing up with parents that only see him as another possession and are too selfish to give him any genuine love and attention.

Even though it was written really well and I couldn't put it down I would probably not recommend this book to anyone because it just really wasn't uplifting and because of the language issue. (Written by Emma McLaughlin and Nicola Kraus)

Adrienne's review of "The Enchanted Forest Chronicles"

I just finished this young adult series for my book club. There are four books in the series, "Dealing with Dragons", "Searching for Dragons", "Calling on Dragons" and "Talking to Dragons". I wouldn't say that these were my favorite young adult books I've read, but I thought they were really cute and easy to read. One thing I liked about them was that the main character, Cimorene, is a princess who is very un-princesslike. I love any book that teaches kids to not just go with the crowd. I'm all about nonconformity. Cimorene decides that being a princess is boring since it involves needlework and being prim and proper. She wants to fence and learn latin and basically do all kinds of things that aren't "proper" for a princess to do. To break away from this life she decides to go live with a dragon, which is considered respectable for a princess and will allow her to not get married to someone she doesn't like and give her the freedom to study and learn things that aren't considered proper for a princess to know. This puts her right in the middle of all kinds of trouble. The author, Patricia C. Wrede, creates a world that is very unique while pulling in a lot of traditional fantasy and fairy tale elements. The last book was my favorite in the series. It's actually about Cimorene's son and I felt like it had a little more depth and story line to it. These books are definitely a fun, easy read or something good to read with your kids since they're pretty light and don't really have a lot of romance or tragedy in them.

Meghan's Review of "Eclipse"

I think I liked this book the best out of the three so far. I liked the climax and action of this story more than I did in the other two books because it seemed like this story had the most tangible conflict. I still stand by my opinion that if James had a stronger reason for going after Bella in the first book that all three of these books would have had a stronger story line. I definitely didn't like how selfish Bella was. It really bothered me that even though she knew she was hurting Jacob, she did nothing to prevent from hurting him. She only cares about herself and what she wants, and even though she thinks about how her actions are hurting those she allegedly loves, she still does what she knows will hurt them. It's frustrating to read, and even though I can see that Meyer is probably trying to relate to her young adult audience (because most young adults are fairly selfish) it just makes me not like the main character very much. I want her to hurt the way she is hurting Edward and Jacob. And I don't know if I can completely buy the fact that she is in love with both of them. In the second book it's all about how she's nothing without Edward, and then when he comes back it's like she's nothing without Edward and Jacob. She is just never satisfied.

Shannan's Review of "The Lightning Thief"

Dad and Sharon gave the first three books from this series "Percy Jackson and the Olympians" to Kaitlyn for her birthday last week. So I decided to read them first to see if I thought she would like them and mostly just because I wanted to read them. I finished the first book today "The Lightning Thief". They are written by Rick Riordan.

First of all, this book reminded me a little of Harry Potter. There is a young 12 year old boy who has black hair and sea green eyes. And he finds out there is something special about him. But the premise isn't wizardry, it is Greek mythology, which I have always really liked. The author writes the book so that even if you don't know that much about mythology, it is explained and makes sense. He also writes completely different from J.K. Rowling and it isn't quite as scary or dark as some of the stuff Harry Potter deals with, at least not yet. So I think that will be good for Kaitlyn. (I still don't think I can let her read Harry Potter until she is a little older.)

It is written for a young adult audience, but that makes it easy to read. And there are some twists in the plot that might fool a 12 year old, but I could pick out easily.

All in all, I liked the book and am ready to start the second one in the series "The Sea of Monsters". I would recommend this, especially if you wanted a Harry Potter like story, but with a different spin.

Meghan's Review of "New Moon"

Honestly, I finished this book last week and can't really remember what happened in it! That's so sad. Anyway, I guess I have the same gripes about this one as I did the first.

I really like Jacob but I don't like the way Bella treats him and how she wants him for herself even though she doesn't have romantic feelings for him. I think she is just being selfish, really. I did like that there was more action in this one, except for the fact that Edward acts like he could care less about Bella when he leaves and then the second he thinks she's dead, he runs off to get himself killed too. Couldn't he have waited a few days to make sure what Rosalie told him was true? But I guess that's just the nature of these books.

From the beginning of this book I thought she was going to be completely self absorbed with Edward gone, but I'm glad that she at least thought about Charlie and Jacob every once in a while. I still think she's too imature to really have found her soul mate, so I don't really buy that her and Edward's relationship is anything more than a "high school" relationship. I'll see if my opinion changes with these next books.

Oh, I just remembered the very first chapter of this book where Bella cuts her finger. I'm sorry, but I was laughing out loud when it described Bella being covered in blood with 6 hungry vampires surrounding her. Hah! It was just too much for me.

Public or Private?

Hi my sisters! I just noticed your comment, Adrienne, about having the blog public, not private. Is that okay with everyone? If it is, just say so and we can change it so it is back to public. I am fine with that, so I guess I am just asking Erin and Meghan.

Reading Slump

So we need a new post but I haven't finished a book yet. I am having a rough time getting through the two books I am reading. Neither of them are engaging enough to keep me from putting them down which is what I need right now. Otherwise I find more important things to do. I am supposed to finish Eat, Pray, Love for my book club next week and it is due tomorrow so that is probably not going to happen. Has anyone read a really really good book lately they can suggest since mine aren't really doing it for me?

Meghan's Review of "Twilight"

Overall I liked this book. I had read "The Host" first before any other Stephenie Meyer book so I think I was expecting a little more from "Twilight" than if I would've read this first. I thought Meyer did a good job of relating to any teenage girl- feeling like an outsider, self-esteem issues, and always thinking about boys. At least that's what I remember from being in high school (sad but true). I thought there was a good foundation to the relationship between Edward and Bella at the beginning, but their relationship changed too quickly for me once he realized she knew he was a vampire, although Meyer was going for the "Romeo and Juliet" type love, and those relationships always seems to be very dramatic. I liked the mystery that she tried to keep through the whole book about exactly what vampires are capable of and how you become a vampire. I didn't really like that most of the book was spent on developing all the relationships and then the last 1/4 of the book was the real action. I thought she could've come up with a better climax than just a random vampire wanting to kill Bella- something that maybe had more history to it, like if James and Edward had some encounter in the past. That would've seemed more reasonable to me and more intense. I did get a little tired at the end of the book with Bella always talking about how perfect Edward was and how he looks like an angel, and how every time he touched her, her heart stopped. I can understand all that at the beginning, but it's kind of like once you're with someone and you know they feel the same as you do, then you aren't constantly wondering how they feel about you and always feel like every touch is like the first touch. I'm hoping that aspect of Edward and Bella's relationship is a little toned down in "New Moon". For the most part, it was a fairly entertaining story, but I think it could've used some embellishments here and there, and Meyer could've helped the readers understand more why James acted the way he did or made it seem more urgent, if that makes sense. I will be very interested to see how the movie turns out. From the preview's I've seen, it looks like the vampires can fly rather than just run really fast. I also think the guy they cast as Jacob is more 'perfect' looking than Edward is, and from what I've seen of the girl they cast as Bella, she doesn't have any of the humor that Bella did in the book, which was one of the aspects of her and Edward's relationship that I liked. So, there's what I thought of "Twilight". It was good, but I thought "The Host" was far superior. Have you all read "The Host"? If not, I'll wait until you do to write what I thought about it- but I say it's definitely worth reading.

Rating Books

Would you guys want to keep a list also of the books that we finish, and then we can use a rating system from like 1 to 5 * or something? That way, if someone is looking for a new book to read, we would have a list right on the blog for reference. I will put an example on and tell me what you think.

Also, I saw you listed this blog as private on your blog, Erin. Did you want it to be private? That is fine with me, and I did the settings so it would be private. Just wondering.

Okay, I better go to bed now!

Welcome!

Okay, here we go! I am really excited about this. Ever since I finished the Twilight books, I have wanted to have somewhere to go and rant about it besides doing it on my blog. So this is it!

I am so happy we are going to do this together. I will give everyone administrative abilities so you can change whatever on the blog that you want. I thought it might be fun to keep a list on the side of the books that we are currently reading. And also, we can pick some books to read all at the same time, if you want. Anyway, I am really excited to hear about your thoughts on Twilight, Meghan, and I hope you post it right away!