Sunburnt - M. D Keating

2/5 stars

An unemployed alcoholic writer, coping with the death of his father, is unwittingly drawn into a scandal of EPIC proportions, when his estranged childhood best friend, now a very successful offshore banker, disappears with BILLIONS of dollars that don’t belong to him … Follow our unlikely hero through a collage of rogue characters into a dangerous world of CORRUPTION, GREED, DRUGS, ARMS, and WAR

I don't know what to say about this book. I read it while I was off college with a Kidney infection and was happy because it didn't take to long to read which I like because it means I can read more books.

The book is in script format (first time I had seen one like that), which I found easy to follow as sometimes I forget who is speaking but I sometimes forgot where I was up to because there are no chapters. Nothing really happened in the book that kept me on edge I didn't feel a connection between the character, and me, which is what I need to keep me interested in the story. I don't think I will read this book again (but my cousin is borrowing it) but maybe one day if I don't have anything else to read (which is unlikely) I will probably read it again.

But this is my opinion and you might like it.


Currently Reading: My Life Undecided - Jessica Brody
Read in 2012: 4/20

Then They Came for Me - Maziar Bahari

2/5 Stars

When Maziar Bahari left London in June 2009 to cover Iran’s presidential election, he assured his pregnant fiancée, Paola, that he’d be back in just a few days, a week at most. Little did he know, as he kissed her good-bye, that he would spend the next three months in Iran’s most notorious prison, enduring brutal interrogation sessions at the hands of a man he knew only by his smell: Rosewater. 

For the Bahari family, wars, coups, and revolutions are not distant concepts but intimate realities they have suffered for generations: Maziar’s father was imprisoned by the shah in the 1950s, and his sister by Ayatollah Khomeini in the 1980s. Alone in his cell at Evin Prison, fearing the worst, Maziar draws strength from his memories of the courage of his father and sister in the face of torture, and hears their voices speaking to him across the years. He dreams of being with Paola in London, and imagines all that she and his rambunctious, resilient eighty-four-year-old mother must be doing to campaign for his release. During the worst of his encounters with Rosewater, he silently repeats the names of his loved ones, calling on their strength and love to protect him and praying he will be released in time for the birth of his first child. 

A riveting, heart-wrenching memoir, Then They Came for Me offers insight into the past fifty years of regime change in Iran, as well as the future of a country where the democratic impulses of the youth continually clash with a government that becomes more totalitarian with each passing day. An intimate and fascinating account of contemporary Iran, it is also the moving and wonderfully written story of one family’s extraordinary courage in the face of repression.

I  gave it 2 stars because I thought it was OK considering it wasn't something I would normally read but I gave it ago anyway. There isn't really anything else I can say about the book other than read it if you are genuinely interested in what the story is about I thought that it might give me more of an insight as to what went on.

Currently reading: My Life Undecided - Jessica Brody

Read in 2012: 4/20

Night Star - Alyson Noel

4/5 Stars

LOVE AND HEARTBREAK BELONG TOGETHER......

There are some secrets you're better off not knowing.  But once Ever Bloom is given a glimpse of what Damen is keeping from her, she has to find out more - Whatever the cost.

Their past together is not what she thinks - and only he remembers everything.  Until now, when a vengeful friend lets her in on his secret, and it may just push Ever into someone else's arm's......

Book five in THE IMMORTAL series.

Yet again - apart from the one thing I have wanted since book three - Alyson hasn't let me down. 

In Night Star I think Ever has started to act more like an adult.  Ever and Damen are still after the cure for the curse that Roman put on Damen in Blue Moon but Haven stands in her way.  The potion is to help her and Damen be together properly forever the only problem is the potion is on the shirt Roman was wearing the night he was killed and Haven has it and give it to Ever. 

The Novel starts with Damen and Ever training to fight Haven who is now a mad, crazy immortal out for revenge on Ever because she blames Ever for killing Roman when in fact Jude was the one who killed him.  Haven starts to make life miserable for Ever and they get into a fight at school where ever discovers that Haven is a lot stronger than she thought because of the immortal juice.

Not only has Ever got trouble with Haven in this book she has trouble with Damen who has been keeping secrets about her past lives from her.  Damen has been editing all the footage of Ever's past lives until she catches him doing it.  I hate the fact that when she find out he has lied to her it looks like things are over for them and that Jude will finally win Ever because her feelings for him show up in every one of her past lives and she begins to think that maybe Jude is her soul mate and not Damen.

Ever makes a wish on the night star for the strength to she needs to beat Haven and to help her decide who she should be with Damen or Jude.  Ever is not just fighting with Haven but she is fighting with herself because she can't decide who she should be with Damen or Jude.  

Towards the end Ever confronts Haven they have the final showdown but this is not the only thing she has on her mind, Haven burns the shirt that Ever wants and Haven get's killed.  Ever knowing it is too late tries to save the shirt.

I have noticed that in Night Star the imagery is immense I think this is because it is filled with action from the start.  Night Star was full of suspense and I was shouting at Ever on a number of occasions telling her that Damen was the one she was meant to be with for a while she didn't seem to hear me haha.

I actually liked book 5 more than book 4 and it has left me knowing that Ever and Damen will be together no matter what or who stands in there way.  I can't wait to see how Alyson brings this series to an end.  Hopefully Ever, Damen and I will have the happily ever after we so want hehe.

Dreamland - Alyson Noel

4/5 Stars

ALL I WANTED, ALL I'D EVER DREAMED OF, WAS TO BE THIRTEEN, BUT THEN I DIED.

Riley Bloom's after life is about as good as it gets, except she'll never be a teenager.  Riley desperately wants to speak to her older sister, Ever, to ask her advice.  Ever is still alive and the only way Riley can reach her is to search Dreamland - a place where ghosts can jump into dreams and talk to their loved ones.  But when she finally gets there Riley discovers that Dreamland isn't as heavenly as it sounds.  In fact, it's a total nightmare.

The third book in the witty, moving and heart-warming RILEY BLOOM series.

Dreamland is another fabulous read.  Alyson Noel is one of the best writers around these days and knows how to keep her readers get lost in the book and unable to put it down.

It's all happening in book three, and after completing a task that she was not assigned to in the last book she is told that she has to take a break from Soul Catching for a while but because Riley's 'glow' has changed she thinks she can handle harder jobs and once again Riley finds herself in trouble again but it is good to see her doing things on her own and even though she has made plenty of mistakes she is always there to help people.

Riley learns how to dream jump with a former Hollywood director Balthazar who is now the dream jump director, who puts on productions to expand the dreams of those who are still alive to help give them comfort and happiness from those who have crossed the bridge into the Hear and Now and to let them communicate with the living.  Riley wants to dream jump so that she can go into Ever's dreams to get her advice and Balthazar is there to help her do that.

Riley just learns to dream jump when Dreamland closes for the night which Riley finds strange because there is people dreaming all over the world at different times of the day, but she leaves with the other dream jumpers and when she gets outside Riley being Riley doesn't follow the rules and says that she has left something important to her inside and goes back in and later regrets it because a lingering spirit boy named Satchel a dreamweaver tricks her and turned her experience into her worst nightmare.

Riley ends up being forced into working for Satchel who creates nightmares to teach a lesson to the ones he thinks needs to be taught that lesson.  Riley eventually gets into her sisters dream but at first Riley finds it hard to talk to Ever because Ever keeps having nightmares which wake her up and Riley tries hard to help her sister but the lessons Satchel is trying to teach Riley are not easy and after a while she finally gets to talk to Ever she gets some answers as well as help Ever.

Riley couldn't get Satchel to stop dreamweaving and because she interfered in trying to get him to stop the High Council took away Riley's 'glow'.  After finding out her 'glow' was fading Riley finds out that turning thirteen isn't just about crossing Souls over its about what she learn's while she's doing it.

The book ends with Bodhi telling Riley that they are going to Italy on a Soul Catch of a stubborn ghost that has been haunting the Colosseum for a long time and he tells Riley that there going because the Council knows she wants a challenge.

I am excited to read Whisper book 4 in the series when it comes out because it is the final book and I want to know if Riley becomes a teenager or not and knowing Alyson I will have to wait till the end of the book to get my answer.

The Boy with the Koi Tattoo - Rochelle H. Ragnarok

2/5 Stars

The Boy with the Koi Tattoo is the second novel in the Boys in Love Series. It starts immediately where the last book finished and now Dai Uie is wandering the streets alone when he stumbles into Kabukicho, a well known red-light district in Tokyo and is confronted with a gang of Yakuza thugs who drag him into “The Red Building” an infamous gay brothel in 2-chrome. 

Dai soon meets Shi, the beautiful and mysterious 19 year old Adonis of the place and the two form a near unbreakable bond; trapped in an inescapable fate Dai’s new love carries the weight of a dark past and deadly ambitions. 

With the emergence of the latest drug “CHi”, a destructive motorcycle gang called the “Grim Riders” led by the wild and terrifying Miki, a jealous lover, and a brewing war between the street gangs with the Yakuza thrown into the mix makes life and love difficult to grasp.

I have only rated this as 2 stars mainly because I haven't read book one so I wasn't fully gripped to it like I like to be when reading.  It is a well researched novel giving insight into a life not many people know about or understand fully.  All in all, a good read, but if you liked the first one then it’s probably the perfect book for you. 

Currently Reading: My Life Undecided - Jessica Brody

Read in 2012: 4/20