The Drowning World By Brenda Petereon

I won't lie to you, I honestly never read a book about mermaids (exempting the books about The Little Mermaid, I read as a child.) This novel was surprisingly amazing. I was stunned by Brenda Peterson's imagination.

This futuristic novel tells the story of Marina and Lukas, two different people from differnt worlds. Marina, a mermaid priestess of the sea world called Aquantis, who is on her first mission to SkyeWorld in the year 2020. In this polluted SkyeWorld Marina must choose between love and home.

This novel did take me a few chapters to get into. I was quite bored with Marina at first, but once it got to Lukas' POV, I became quite facinated with them both. Marina and Lukas, to be quite frank, almost sounded like the same person. There was little I could detect that was different about them...at first. I loved the romance between the chacters, and the new technologies were presented. In fact it is quite advanced. I'm not realling going to go into much more detail than that. I need to leave you some surprises.

I absolutely love how Brenda uses real world problems in this novel. It's not one of the (now) typical sci-fi novels. The recent ones now deal with corrupted governments, and horrifying futures. While I do love those novels The Drownint world was like a breath of frest air. From beginning to end, this novel was like nothing I have ever read before.

The ending left room for the sequal. Wow. It was a fantastic ending, that left me wanting more. The whole novel left me wanting more. It is a capivating tale, that I would highly reccomend.

4/5 stars for me.

A book I severely regret purchasing

                                                          From the Start by Molly Doyle



Let me get this out: I had somewhat high expectations for this book, especially after reading the reviews on Amazon, those four, five star reviews that she had. Let me tell you, they must have been teenage girls. Now I'm also seventeen - soon to be eighteen, and I'm not an amazing writer, far from it, but she took the story to the next level. Not only were her characters unbelievable, they were also slightly annoying. I found myself wondering, when the characters would finally have redeeming qualities, towards the end they got halfway there, but not quite all the way.

Then there is the fact that it seems desperately similar to A Walk To Remember. In fact in A Walk To Remember In both the book and movie Jamie specifically says: "Promise that you won't fall in love with me." And in From the Start, Alex specifically says: "But promise that you won't fall in love with me.

On page 665 Rosalie states: "...I give you my destiny, I'm giving you all of me. I know now, for real this time, that you're my only hope."

Does that sound vaguely familiar? Lets go back to Mandy Moore's song "Only Hope" in A Walk To Remember.

Taken from the end of the song Only Hope by Mandy Moore:

I give You my destiny
I'm giving You all of me
I want Your symphony
Singing in all that I am
At the top of my lungs I'm giving it back

So I lay my head back down
And I lift my hands and pray
To be only yours
I pray to be only yours
I pray to be only yours
I know now you're my only hope

Eh, sound familiar?

I think that borders on the line of plagiarism.


Now on to other things, not related to A Walk To Remember. Why was this book not properly edited before she published it? What I mean is, why didn't she look through it and at least tried to catch many of the grammar mistakes that plagued her story? I get that she self published this, I really do. I also get that she is a teenager but still, and she couldn't afford it, but towards the beginning there wasn't a chapter that wasnt filled with, spelling mistakes, or capitalization mistakes. I feel like the grammar, also made me not exactly favor this book. But there was also the repetitive words: intense and emotional. Which can basically be found at least five times in every chapter.



I know that it may sound harsh, but this is my opinion and I wish for you to respect it as I will also respect yours. This book just was not for me. Maybe when it is edited, and rid of the 'A Walk to Remember' elements, I would give this book another shot. But for now I give it two thumbs down.

A story that will stay with me forever

"The girls were as pure as flowers."

-Natasha Preston, The Cellar





                                                                      The Cellar Review




This novel tells the story of sixteen year old Summer Robinson, who was searching for her friend, and was kidnapped by a terrible man, on the hunt for the perfect family. He locked her in his strategically hidden cellar, with three other girls, his 'flowers'. No one believed it could have happened, not to anyone they know, not to their best friend, their girl friend, their sister, their daughter. Until it happened. So tells the story of a girl desperate to escape the man who calls himself 'Clover' and her vanishing hopes of ever escaping his cellar.




I finished reading this novel an hour ago. It was one of those bittersweet moments. I absolutely hated the ending, but I also loved it. I cannot say it shocked me, but it frightened me. It might be a leap to say this, but honestly I don't care. Natasha Preston is by far one of my favorite authors of all time. I didn't think that it was possible, but she actually surpassed John Green. So far she has not disappointed me, and I honestly do not feel that she ever will. The story in general was haunting, and frightened me to death. It made me relive the day we found out, that those girls in Ariel Castro's house were saved. It is frightening that this can actualLy happen. Natasha Preston made it even more so.



I'm not exactly sure how she managed to do it, but she got into the mind of a serial killer. Colin's (Clover's) erratic behavior was so believable, it was hard to imagine he was not real. He was like Ted Bundy, as scary as that may seem. As much as I hated the man for what he had done - although he is fictional - I loved his character. Without the erratic, and unpredictable Clover, this story might as well not exist. It is very rare to find a novel so horrific, that I had to keep my cell phone in my hand as I walked out in the dark tonight.



As for Summer, she was very well written. A perfect character some (me) might say. We could sympathize with her, and not just because she was kidnapped. The characters are what make a book remarkable. If we can feel anything for them, whether it is hatred, love, sympathy, you know - as an author - that you have done your job. The main character is the most important, and I rooted for her through out the whole story.



"What about Lewis?" Now that is a very good question. I know that some of you did not like the chapters that were told by Lewis, but I personally adored them. I believe that in some stories, especially ones where they re kept in a room and it is basically the same every day, that it is important to have outside perspectives. Having Lewis tell us what was going on outside the cellar, and outside of Colin's world was refreshing, and horrifying. As much as I just wanted to know more about Colin, I couldn't help but become captivated by Lewis's never ending search for the girl that stole his heart. He along with every other character in the book stole my heart, and I'm afraid I will never get it back.



Even if Tasha does not reach her fanfunding goal, I will do whatever I can to support this wonder author. If that means buying every book she ever makes, than so be it. Not that I haven't bought all three of the books she has out out so far, already.







                                                

                                                     My Letter to Natasha Preston

                                             (My initial reaction after finishing her novel)

                                                  Note: It is very unprofessional.



"I literally just finished The Cellar like 30 seconds ago.... Oh my God! I swear even if you do not reach your goal, I will buy the book. I read 22 chapters today. It killed me. You kept me on edge the whole time. I hate you for ending the book like that, but I love it at the same time. I'm hooked. I cannot wait for this book to come out, I just. I don't even know what to say it was absolutely incredible. I have to say, it is your best book yet. P.S. I absolutely loved the Lewis POVs. I might be the only one, but I love him. I can't believe he got in trouble like he did. Well done. I can say, without doubt, you are my favorite author now. I didn't think anyone could beat John Green, but you did it. The Cellar is now my favorite book ever, and trust me there was a high reach for that, as I read all the time, and have found so many amazing books. Yours is by far the best, it will be even better once it is edited, and I don't have to keep reminding myself Heather is Violet."



It breaks my heart to not have this wonderful friend in my hands, or on my bookshelf (though I will one day). But I still have a story that will stay - captured like a photo - in my brain forever.



The end of my post for today.

-Leah