Book Review: Beautiful Creatures by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl

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Authors: Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl

Genre: Fiction (Paranormal/Romance)

Reading Level: Young Adult

Coping with his mother’s recent death, Ethan Carter Wate is sick of the small town life in Gaitlin and dreams of escaping into the world. On the surface, Ethan lives a normal life but he is troubled by terrible nightmares of a girl he has never met before in his life... until of course he meets newbie Lena Ducheness who moves into town to live with her reclusive uncle.  

Beautiful Creatures is written from Ethan’s point of view which is out-of the ordinary as most romance novels I’ve read are from the female’s point of view. The mysterious attraction between Lena and Ethan made the book a more interesting read but I can’t help feeling annoyed with Ethan sometimes. At times he comes across as the male version of Bella from Twilight, not the clingy part but the “I’m obsessed with the love of my life” part kinda made my eyes roll more than once. (My thoughts on Bella here by the way)

I absolutely loved the paranormal aspects of the book. It had a unique storyline and I found the characters especially the ‘Casters’ who each carry different powers or abilities quite intriguing to read about. Overall, the book had a slightly slow build-up but the unique paranormal premise was enough to substitute that.

I enjoyed reading Beautiful Creatures but I wouldn’t say that I absolutely head over heels loved it. It started off well but kinda moved slow after that. I do love the unique paranormal storyline and hope to read more about it in the second book, Beautiful Darkness.

Note: If you have a copy of today’s Star newspaper, check out the Stuff@school section which featured a review on Beautiful Creatures. There is also a 25% discount voucher in that section from MPH if you would like to purchase either Beautiful Creatures or Fallen (three guesses what my next purchase would be?).

Challenges: 100+ Reading Challenge, Young Adult Reading Challenge

Friday Finds, April 2

Gosh! This is my first Friday Finds post since October of last year. I've been out of action and I miss my blogging friends. Do give a shout out if you're reading this cause I miss everyone terribly! 

Anyway, I've compiled a long list of books that I've found to be of interest. Since this is my first Friday Finds post for 2010, I won't bombard you with too many but these are three books that I definitely want to get for myself sometime soon:

 

Friday Finds is a weekly event hosted by Should Be Reading

Book Review: A Clash of Kings by George R.R. Martin

Author: George R.R. Martin

Genre: Science Fiction/Fantasy

Sometime back I started reading A Game of Thrones which came highly recommended by a friend of mine. I absolutely loved it and bought the whole available series though finding the time reading each book is now proving to be a challenge.

Whilst I was on holiday at Lipe Island I had plans to read other books but at the last minute decided to read the second book from A Song of Ice and Fire Series, A Clash of Kings.

Firstly, I absolutely love and am truly amazed by George R.R. Martins's style of writing. I find it incredible that he has managed to write so many different characters with so many storylines in one book. A Clash of King is intertwined with multiple political agendas and each character has their own interesting journey and adventure which truly captured my interest as a reader. Though I prefer the first book more than the second, A Clash of Kings was still a good book to read. 

I hope to start the third book A Storm of Swords sometime soon. In the meantime, I found out that a TV Series is currently being developed based on the book. It'll probably take forever for the series to arrive in Malaysian shores but I'll definitely be one of the first to catch the show when it arrives.

Challenges: 100+ Reading Challenge

I've just discovered Studio Ghibli!

Ya. Ya. You can call me uncool, backdated, slow... whatever... for being the only person who has not heard about Studio Ghibli before but I guess its better late than never, right? Anyway, while I was on holiday with hubs at Lipe Island, the resort we stayed in kept repeating an animated film titled 'Howl's Moving Castle'. Of course, hubs and I were too busy exploring the island so we didn't really get to watch the whole movie but whatever we saw roused our interest enough to scout around town looking for a copy of the DVD the minute we got back to KL.

I managed to get a copy of the movie and I think the effort of looking high and low for the DVD was really worth it! Howl's Moving Castle is one in a million. It's the latest addition in my 'I Like' category on Get Glue (LOL) and definitely the latest on my list of things to rave about to my friends.

Howl's Moving Castle is based on a young adult fantasy book by British author Dianne Wynn Jones. The story revolves around Sophie Hatter who encounters a young wizard called Howl by chance. The chance encounter made the Witch of the Waste (who also has the hots for Howl) jealous enough to put a curse on Sophie and turn her into an old woman. With the curse upon her, Sophie embarks on a magical journey in her effort to break the curse.

I absolutely loved Howl's Moving Castle. The characters were unique, the storyline was one of a kind and Sophie's adventures were truly magical. If you haven't seen it yet, I highly recommend it. The voice-over cast has quite an impressive list of actors like Christian Bale, Billy Crystal and Jean Simmons. I intend to purchase a copy of the original book just to see the difference between the book and the movie. Here's a trailer of the movie if you're interested:

Since I liked Howl's Moving Castle so much, I decided to get copies of other movies produced by Studio Ghibli. The other movie that I've seen is Spirited Away. Personally, I thought that it was not as good as Howl's Moving Castle but it was still an enjoyable movie to watch. Here's the trailer for your viewing:

I can't wait to watch the rest of the Studio Ghibli movies. I hope all their movies are as good as Howl's Moving Castle and Spirited Away. 

If you've seen a Studio Ghibli production, which one is your personal favourite?

Book Review: The Railway Children, Usborne Young Reading Series

Author: E.Nesbit and Illustration by Alan Marks
Genre: Children's Classic
Reading Level: Ages 9-12

This is a retelling of E.Nesbit's classic children's story The Railway Children. Bobbie, Peter and Phyllis's life is transformed overnight when their father is mysteriously taken away. Forced to leave the city, the children embark on a variety of adventures in the surroundings of their new home. 

I've never read the actual book by E.Nesbit but I think the Usborne Young Reading Series provides a great introduction to the classic children's book. It's simple to read with only 60 pages filled with colourful pictures and easy to read text. I enjoyed reading this to pass my time at the bookstore. The Usborne Young Reading Series has a variety of titles to choose from and I think it makes quite a good collection to read to kids.

Travel: Koh Lipe, Thailand

I'm currently in between jobs and have taken about a week or so off before I start my new job on the 1st of Feb. So with some time to spare hubs and I decided to take a short trip to Koh Lipe, Thailand for our belated honeymoon. It's a beautiful island and I felt that it would not bring justice if I didn't brag a little about my trip :) 

We started from Kuala Lumpur to Langkawi by flight and then moved on to Telaga Harbour in Langkawi to take a speed boat to Koh Lipe. The website stated that the boat ride is estimated to be about 70 minutes but it actually took about 45 mins to an hour only to reach our destination. 

Koh Lipe is a very small island with three main beaches. It takes only about 15 to 20 mins to walk across from one end of the island to the other, that's how small it is. We arrived at Pattaya beach which is the main beach on the island. There is no jetty for the speed boat so you'll get a little wet trying to get to shore. The immigration is just a small hut by the beach side which also acts as the main office for the company providing the speed boat service.  

Once we had our passports sorted, we decided to take the taxi boat or long tail boat to our resort. You can opt to walk or take a motorbike as well but we kinda liked the taxi boat and decided to travel on water to our resort.

Hubs and I stayed at a fairly new and a very, very beautiful resort called Idyllic Concept Resort located on Sunrise Beach. Our room though indirectly facing the ocean still had an awesome view.

On the first day we arrived, we decided to chill by the beach. At night we walked out for dinner on the village stretch and had the best Tom Yum Goong ever at this restaurant called Konlae. The village road leads to Pattaya Beach which is the commercialized section of the island. There is a lot of food and small shops on the village road but if you're a shopping addict, Lipe Island is not for you. Though you should check out this shop on the Village stretch called Rainforest, it's my favourite shop on the island. 

 

We also enjoyed eating at a Thai Pancake Shop which had a delicious variety of deserts. It's one of the more popular spots to eat and hang out on the island. There is a variety of restaurants in Lipe with seafood buffets ranging from 100 baht and above but unfortunately we were not able to try out every restaurant seeing that we were there for only a short time. 

I absolutely love, love, love beach holidays but can you believe that I can't swim and I am terrified of the water? I normally waddle by the beach and never go deeper than below my shoulder line. Koh Lipe was different though, the water was so clear and beautiful that I managed to do a quick snorkelling exercise with hubs and we also went kayaking at the surrounding islands fronting our beach. It was just so beautiful. 

You should also check out the sunset. We were asked to go to Sunset Beach to catch the sunset but decided to take the long boat around the island instead. It's only about 300 baht to go around the island and trust me it's worth it. 

Hubs and I absolutely love Koh Lipe and we love the people there. The locals are really friendly and some of them can speak Malaysian (well with a strong Kedahan type accent). It's a popular spot for Europeans and hubs and I would play 'Guess which country they're from?' based on the language they spoke... :P

We enjoyed every second of the day at Koh Lipe and though we were there for four days and three nights, it just was not enough. Hopefully, we'll get to visit Koh Lipe again at the end of the year.