Tag: books

Posted in book reviews, bookit, Uncategorized

Bookit Review: The Cinderella Arrangement II

Posted on by sokorra

Title: The Cinderella Arrangement II*
Author: Vanessa Waltz
Release Date: May 2016*

*Apparently this book is actually two books being re-released as one.  I can’t find release dates for the original versions, and they aren’t listed as seperate anywhere I can find other then the introduction to this ebook.  Part One is located here.

My Review:

The second novella in this book was much better with follow through and character development then its predecessor but still made me think a good editor would have been handly.

Also she seemed to skip time in bits so it was sometimes startling to go from one scene to another, and noticing that some time had gone missing.  Sometimes it was explained away with a summery of what had happened in between but sometimes there was no explination.

However, it was not bad, just a little rough.  I think a good editor and perhaps some more attention to character development will make this book a good lazy sunday read.

Posted in book reviews, bookit

Bookit Review: The Cinderella Arrangement

Posted on by sokorra

Title: The Cinderella Arrangement*
Author: Vanessa Waltz
Release Date: May 2016*

*Apparently this book is actually two books being re-released as one.  I haven’t finished the second book, but I’ve decided to do a review for each one.  I can’t find release dates for the original versions, and they aren’t listed as seperate anywhere I can find other then the introduction to this ebook.

My Review:

I feel as if this novel had a lot of potiential but was finished before they got to it.  There were so many subplots that never got dealt with. In particular the main character Jessica’s past.  The author referenced it alot in the start.  Enough that I expected that there would be some input from that yet it was never fully developed.  Neither was Ethan (the love interest)’s family situation either.  We of course know he has a bad relationship with his father, but its never really dealt with well, and I was left just plan confused as to what was going on with the Uncle and the Cousins.  I felt like I was watching a movie and got up to go to the bathroom during important bits and missed the context.

So instead of it being a good story, it instead seems like everything is happening rather suddenly,and on the surface. It feels, frankly, like a first draft that needs someone to go over it and point out where it needs filled out.

I’m going to read the sequel, which is about Natalie, Jessica’s Best friend, and see how that turns out before I give the series a letter grade.  I’m hoping that there is more character development and not just hitting the romance novel checklist.

Posted in book vs Movie, film, movie reviews

Movie Review: Anna Karenina

Posted on by sokorra

Title: Anna Karenina
Release Date: 2012
Rating:
Staring:  Keira Knightley, Jude Law, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Kelly MacDonald, Domhall Gleensen, Alicia Vikander, and Matthew Macfadyen

My Rating C.

My Review:

Alright, I knew going in that this was going to be a weird movie.  Its Tolstoy.  The man doesn’t do simple happy ever afters.  I’m not entirely sure he does happily ever afters at all.  Plus I had read a few bits of the book before watching the movie.  I’m determined to go back and actually read the whole thing.  If I can read Game of Thrones, which is 900 pages long, I think I can stretch a little further and read Anna Karenina.

Anyway, why did I give this film a C.  Well, the casting was full of people I like (Matthew MacDadyen, Alicia Vikander, and Kiera Knightly especially), so I can’t complain about the acting.  The costuming was excellant No, I just thought the staging was weird.

And by staging I mean the whole movie is built like its the mutant child of a stage play and a film.  Sometimes you feel like you have the full screen depth of a movie, and sometimes you felt like you were watching a recording of a play.  Which I suppose could be seen as an inventive way of making this all out to be some theme about how society is play on image.

It just threw me off really.  I think if they had started it that way, and perhaps ended it that way it would have been sufficent, but they kept routing it through the whole movie.

Also I found I cared very little for Anna and Vronksky,  Wishing there was more of Stiva and his family, or Levin & Kitty more then there was Anna.  I’m not sure how much of that is because of the source material or the script itself.

Posted in book reviews, bookit

Bookit Review: Shadows Over Longbourn

Posted on by sokorra

Title:  Shadows over Longbourn
Author: Jann Rowland
Publication Date:  April 8, 2016

My Grade:  B-

Once again, I found another intriguing Pride & Prejudice Veriation.  In the case of this novel, Elizabeth’s father Mr. Bennet dies before any of his daughters are married, but before he does he manage to convince distant relative Darcy to take in his daughters so they aren’t left to his cousin Thaddeus (father of our familar Mr. Collins).

This novel is not a bad one, although I find the opening sequence of events hard to connect to the original material.  Match of the characters remain the same, although Mary ends up more outspoken, and Lydia more aware (although not by much).  Instead of Wickham, who appears only briefly, the main villian is the elder Mr. Collins.  Its an alright story if taken by itself, although I don’t think it works as a strong variation of Pride & Prejudice.  However, it is one of the better ones I have read, and at least stands in the vicinity of what the original materal gives.

Its major issue is not the content, but the formating.  I feel as if the novel could have used a run or two through the editor’s pen before it was published.  Often the story would change POV without a clear distinction like some empty space or a character line.  There were a few other mistakes that could have been caught by an editor.  This didn’t make the story unbearable, but was something that was noticable.

Posted in American History, book reviews, bookit, history

Bookit Review: John Adams

Posted on by sokorra

Title: John Adams: The Man From Massachusetts
Author: Sam Goodyear
Publication date: 2014

My Grade: …

My Review:

To be honest, I am not sure how to review this novel.  However, I told myself I’d review each book I read this year, even the previously reads, so here is a review.  I got this book as part of my goal to read a biography on each of the presidents so I can retain some knowledge of what they did other than be President.  I’ve been getting them through Kindle Unlimited which so far has given me odd results.

The George Washington biography I last year was an odd biography, clearly meant for textbook format or discussion.  But it was informative. This one however was a short story, done in Adam’s point of view.  It was short, and at the end of the time spent reading I sat there wondering what I had just read.  It’s not a bio, its a short story so I will just say don’t pick this up if you are expecting to learn something.  It might be a good book to start younger kids on however.

I didn’t give it a grade mostly because it was so far from my expectations that I felt I couldn’t adequately judge this book.  I am also going to search out another biography to satisfy my Adams bio.