Review: Fifty Shades of Grey (Fifty Shades #1) by E. L. James

I decided it was time to indulge to my inner curiosity about the wildly popular series Fifty Shades of Grey by E.L. James. After all, what kind of book reviewer would I be if I didn’t at least glance at the best seller list once in a while?

This book has been burning up the Amazon bestseller list and the NY Times….to mention I get asked a million times a week if I have read the book. From the other reviews I had read, it seems as though you either like the book or you hate it.

There is no denying that writing a book like the controversial Fifty Shades trilogy takes guts. This book was disturbing yet oddly intriguing. I had to wait a couple of days to digest that book, I want to give it a fair review, but I was so bothered by the content that I needed to think on it for a bit.

Anastasia Steele (Ana) gets tasked with interviewing billionaire, Christian Grey for her college newspaper when her friend falls ill. As luck would have it, Grey is good looking, sexy, witty, and rich….and a total control freak. Continue reading “Review: Fifty Shades of Grey (Fifty Shades #1) by E. L. James”

Review: The Winter Sea by Susanna Kearsley

All things have a way of coming back to us in the end. Even if just as a memory from long ago, they are still with us….always.

Memories are a funny thing. How accurate are your memories? Has your subconscious twisted your memories and changed the from what really happened to what you remember? How much can you truly trust your memory? Those little moments of déjà vu, was it just that or perhaps you had really been there before in a past life. What recalls a memory most to you, scent? Sound? A place?

There is much that science doesn’t know about memory and much that simply cannot be explained. What if memories could be passed down, like DNA from generation to generation and you just inherit them the same way you do eye color? That is the question that Susanne Kearsley explores in her book The Winter Sea….could time travel through Jungian theory be possible? Continue reading “Review: The Winter Sea by Susanna Kearsley”

Review: Pierre and Luce by Romain Rolland (a short story)

On the war torn streets of Paris 1918, two lovers meet by chance on a subway. Pierre is a modern day ‘Hamlet’….depressed, hopeless, and disillusioned by the world in which he lives–in his reality, he is an 18 year old middle class boy who has just received his conscription papers.

But when he sees Luce on the subway, she is his ray of hope–a promise of  a better life than the one destine to be his future.

But does she see him? Does she know? Does she feel it too? Why would a girl so full of hope and life look twice at him? Before he can make his introduction, she exits at the next subway stop and the train departs before he can follow.

He spends the next couple of days searching for her–longing to see her again. He doesn’t know what it is about her that draws him in but she is his destiny–of that he is sure. Continue reading “Review: Pierre and Luce by Romain Rolland (a short story)”

Review: The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern

How do you escape the reality of your mundane existence? Do you come home from work and sit mindlessly in front of the telly? Do you listen to music on your iPod? Watch the latest flick at the movie theater? Surf the internet for hours searching for the perfect picture of a white sandy beach (my personal fav!). Or do you get lost in the inky lines of your favorite book?

Whatever your day dream is, it should be magical….a place where anything is possible….a place where dreams merge with reality….a place like The Night Circus.

Erin Morgenstern’s novel, The Night Circus, is a mysterious anomaly–a story that is fragile and captivating. Enchantment cloaks every page of The Night Circus, enveloping readers in a plush, velvet like prose that is sure to bewitch even to the most reluctant reader.

This book made me believe again and again in the power of imagination. It was like discovering Alice in Wonderland as an adult….I felt like a kid all over again….anything in this book is possible.

I could totally see it being a Tim Burton movie by the way–I would love to see this book be a Tim Burton movie with Johnny Depp and Helena Bonhem Carter :)….but a lass, I digress….

Le Cirque des Reves (The Circus of Dreams) arrives without warning. All you see is a sea of black and white. No color. No announcements or advertising precedes it . It is simply there, when yesterday it was not. This mysterious enchanting circus opens only at the bewitching hour….only at night.

Review: The Temptation of the Night Jasmine (Pink Carnation #5) by Lauren Willig

The exotic scent of night blooming jasmine fills the pages of Lauren Willig’s latest Pink Carnation series installment, The Temptation of the Night Jasmine.

Robert, the entailed Duke of Dovedale, has  returned to England after being abroad in India for 12 years. Though it’s not his nostalgia that draws him home….it’s revenge.

There is one debutant that threatens to derail Robert’s revenge….his distant, twice removed ‘cousin’ Charlotte. Charlotte is the granddaughter of the Dowager Duchess of Dovedale–think Maggie Smith from Downton Abbey :).

The Duchess rules her family and relations with an iron fist–a duchess to the core. She is strong, ruthless, and stubborn to a fault….Charlotte on the other hand is innocent and bookish, a far cry from her ancestors. Her whole life has been spent in a fairy tale world. Her reality has been filled with tales of courtly love and romance found in her favorite novels.

Charlotte has carried a torch for Robert since childhood and when he returns…the trumpts blow and her knight and shining armor dismounts his white horse burlesquely to plan a kiss on the fair maiden’s hand as she tosses him her handkerchief…or so the scene goes in her mind LOL :). Continue reading “Review: The Temptation of the Night Jasmine (Pink Carnation #5) by Lauren Willig”