The Friday 56 (21)

 The Friday 56 is a weekly meme hosted by Freda's Voice where every Friday you pick a book and turn to page 56 or 56%, and select a sentence or a few, as long as it's not a spoiler. For the full rules, visit the the page HERE

"I reach the wall and turn right, the sun beating down above us in violent waves. I wish he would have told me we were doing this today. I would have dressed in lighter clothes, like shorts and a tank instead of pants."--Hover Melissa West


What's on your page 56 this week?

Review: Hover by Melissa West

Title: Hover
Author: Melissa West
Source/Format: Purchased, Paperback
More Details: YA, Dystopian, Science Fiction
Publisher/Publication Date: Entangled Teen, August 13, 2013

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Summary from Goodreads...

On Earth, seventeen-year-old Ari Alexander was taught to never peek, but if she hopes to survive life on her new planet, Loge, her eyes must never shut. Because Zeus will do anything to save the Ancients from their dying planet, and he has a plan.

Thousands of humans crossed over to Loge after a poisonous neurotoxin released into Earth's atmosphere, nearly killing them. They sought refuge in hopes of finding a new life, but what they became were slaves, built to wage war against their home planet. That is, unless Ari and Jackson can stop them. But on Loge, nothing is as it seems...and no one can be trusted...

I don’t know if this is going to be a thing, but I have to say that the dystopian books that I’ve decided to read this year have been really good. Hover is a sequel to Gravity, which is a book I read a long time ago, so I was curious to see where the story was going. Some of the details I’ve forgotten about—but not too much to where I couldn’t get back into the story. I have to say that I really liked Hover.

Loge as a setting was interesting. The landscape was vastly different from what I remember of the setting from Gravity. The transition between the two books really highlights the differences between the two worlds, and it was easy to see where some of the characters got their motivation.

Ari Alexander’s life on Loge was immensely different from the one she lived on earth. I liked seeing how she dealt with the sudden changes. Jackson and Ari’s relationship was an aspect of the story that I really enjoyed. They worked well together, and I liked the dynamic of it. West did an excellent job conveying the emotional turmoil that they experienced the longer they were on Loge as Ari learned more about Jackson’s past. Every time Zeus would pop up I just…*glare.* Seriously, I didn’t like Zeus at all, he was manipulative, coldhearted, and it seemed like he ended up losing himself no matter if his original intentions were for the benefit of his people or not. Also, he was calculating…seriously, he was. But that was part of the suspense that surrounded the story—there was just no telling what Zeus was going to do next.

The plot, while slow at times, was nice. I’m not going to specify because I don’t want to reveal anything. But just know that I completely enjoyed Hover. And now, I’m curious to know how the trilogy ends.

Musing Mondays (21)

Musing Mondays is a weekly meme hosted by MizB at Should Be Reading, that asks you to muse about something book related each week.

My Musings for the Week....

This week I'm going to be answering the random weekly question: Do you enjoy debating / discussing the books that others are currently reading? Why, or why not?

My answer to this is going to be short. No, I don't enjoy debating/discussing the books that others are currently reading, because I think they should form their own opinion about it—especially if I've already read the book.  I don't want my opinion influencing how they view the book.  If they enjoy it, then they just do.  And if not, they're perfectly entitled to have that opinion. So once they do finish then we can have a discussion about it, even if our opinions differ.

What are you reading this week?

Review: A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle

Title: A Wrinkle in Time 
Author: Madeleine L'Engle
Source/Format: won, 50th Anniversary Edition
More Details: Science Fiction, Fantasy, Middle Grade
Publisher/Publication Date: Square Fish, first published 1962

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Before I get started, let me just say that I completely forgot that this review even existed. Its just been sitting unpublished for a few months and it wasn't until recently when I was going through my drafts that I realized this mistake. Anyway, moving on to the forgotten review. (This one only covers the first book in the edition I have.)

Before I won the 50th anniversary edition I never actually considered reading A Wrinkle in time by Madeleine L'Engle.  Despite the fact that I've heard about it I honestly didn’t think that it would interest me. But I’m glad to say that I didn’t pass it up because I actually ended up enjoying this book.

 A Wrinkle in Time is a deeply imaginative story about friendship, the bonds between family no matter how far apart you are, and absurdly cool science fiction themes that contrasted nicely with the story. The setting was numerous places and spanned across different, often times strange—sometimes drastically methodical—worlds that were so unlike the one we all know. It all began in a small town but gradually shifted once the Tesseract’s meaning was revealed. A Wrinkle in Time was easily an enjoyable, entertaining novel that’s one of my favorites. The characters were wonderful—they were well-written with a number of flaws to make them different from one another—and it was interesting to see how those characteristics would play into the events of the plot.

While I did find the beginning to be a little slow—as it did take some time to introduce the characters and setup the plot—things did pick up quickly after that and the pacing ended up having a nice flow. The ending was quick, but nice, and it wrapped up a lot of the plotlines introduced in A Wrinkle in Time. All in all, I look forward to reading A Wind in the Door.

Would You Rather Book Tag

So today I’m going to participate in the Would You Rather Book Tag created by RayKayBooks over on youtube. Link to the original video: CLICK HERE 

Read only trilogies or standalones?

While I do love series sometimes I’m just looking for a single story that’s completed in one book. So, I have to go with standalones.

Read only female or male authors?

I can’t choose between them, so I’m just going to have to go with both. Sure, it’s a cop-out answer, but I really can’t decide because some of my favorite authors are male as well as others that are female.

Shop at Barnes & Noble or Amazon?

I’m going to say Barnes & Noble because I enjoy going to the store to see what they have rather than browsing the selection online.

All books become movies or TV shows?

Sometimes I think that books with more information in them would do better as TV shows, not that I don’t like movies. However my answer for this one would be TV show.

Read 5 pages per day or 5 books per week?

5 pages per day, because I want to have time to do others things besides reading.

Be a professional reviewer or author?

N/A

Only read your top 20 favorite books over and over or always read new ones that you haven't read before?

I would actually read the books I haven’t read before, because rereading only my favorites would mean that I would be passing up all the other great books out there that I haven’t discovered yet.

Be a librarian or book seller?

My answer for this one is book seller.

Only read your favorite genre, or every genre except your favorite?

Oh man, this is a tough question considering that I would really want to read books in my favorite genre, but that would be kind of restrictive. So, I have to go with every genre except my favorite.

Only read physical books or eBooks?

Physical books all the way, because I still prefer them over ebooks.

Well those are my answers. I’m not tagging anyone specifically, but if you want to participate then I tag you. And don't forget to check out RayKayBooks on youtube. Happy reading!