If I Stay...feelings after reading it

Well first of all the summary: (taken from goodreads.com)

In a single moment, everything changes. Seventeen-year-old Mia has no memory of the accident; she can only recall riding along the snow-wet Oregon road with her family. Then, in a blink, she finds herself watching as her own damaged body is taken from the wreck...

A sophisticated, layered, and heartachingly beautiful story about the power of family and friends, the choices we all make—and the ultimate choice Mia commands.

WOW! That's all I can say right now. This book...I just can't find the right words to describe it. I loved it, it "tug on my heartstrings" as some might say. And I'm not exaggerating the whole mood was sad, but in between there are the flashback's Mia has, remembering event's, which were important in her life and through which she tries to decide wether to wake up from her coma or if she should go, leave her life, her best friend, her love, the rest of her family.

So after the accident Mia is like a ghost wandering beside her body, seeing everything that happens around her and remembering past events, trying to make a decision about her life.

I loved Mia's and Adam's relationship, it seemed real and not forced, Mia isn't the kind of girl to gush over a guy, which is a nice change in between all the: "OMG he's like so perfect, and like so gorgeous, even though I don't know him I'm like totally in love."

I also enjoyed Mia's and Kim's friendship even though it had a bumpy start, it grew over the years and again it didn't seemed like: "ok every protagonist needs a friend let's just throw someone in" I could relate to it, to the conversations they had and to the things Kim did, because of Mia.

There were moments were I was about to tear up, but then I told myself: natalie don't cry, keep it together,blah,blah,blah well that was until different people come in to visit Mia and to tell her why she should or shouldn't stay and that it's all her decision wether to stay or to go. Yeah I teared up like a waterfall and while I'm thinking about it right now (20 minutes after finishing the book) I still get teary eyed! So all in all I think tears were rolling down for over a hundred pages and every time I thought I got a hold of myself there was another scene, which teared me up again and again. I think this was the first time ever for me crying while reading a book, actually I think the only time I ever cried about a story was while watching Titanic. The scene where the old couple lays on the floating bed hugging and the man giving his wife a kiss before going to sleep forever, just get's me almost every time!

But back to the book: It definitely is a must read! It broke my heart, but also made me fall in love with the characters. It made me wonder what will Mia choose, and it also made me question: What if I would be in this situation: would I stay or would I go?

Even though I don't get why USA Today says on the cover that "It will appeal to fans of Stephanie Meyer's Twilight". I mean the stories don't have anything similar about them, and no not even the love story, because Bella and Edward can't compare to Mia and Adam, because Mia and Adam's relationship seems to have more depth, but that's just my opinion.

So if you like a good story go and read 'If I Stay' plus: the second book called 'Where She Went' is coming out April 5th and I'm counting down the days!

I'd rate it 5 out of 5 points! :)

The Replacement

The Replacement: Review

Title: The Replacement

Author: Brenna Yovanoff

Published by: Razorbill (U.S.) , Simon and Schuster (UK)

Year: 2010

Pages: 375

Where I got it from: thalia.de U.S Cover->

<-U.K. Cover

I definitely like the U.S. cover better it’s just different from all the books that have people on their covers, which are recently a lot, and therefore it stands out. Even though I like the U.K. cover, it also reminds me a lot on the cover of Fallen by Lauren Kate.

Synopsis: (from goodreads.com)

Mackie Doyle is not one of us. Though he lives in the small town of Gentry, he comes from a world of tunnels and black murky water, a world of living dead girls ruled by a little tattooed princess. He is a Replacement, left in the crib of a human baby sixteen years ago. Now, because of fatal allergies to iron, blood, and consecrated ground, Mackie is fighting to survive in the human world.

Mackie would give anything to live among us, to practice on his bass or spend time with his crush, Tate. But when Tate's baby sister goes missing, Mackie is drawn irrevocably into the underworld of Gentry, known as Mayhem. He must face the dark creatures of the Slag Heaps and find his rightful place, in our world, or theirs.

Review:

Ok so first of all I love that this book is written entirely out of the PoV of a guy, which makes it special, but also the story is special.

Mackie Doyle is not human and he know’s it right from the start, but not only he knows it: his whole family knows that he isn’t their actual child. But nonetheless his “sister” Emma loves him like her own brother and he loves her back. I really adore the brother and sister relationship Emma and Mackie share and I also like the relationship between Mackie and his best buddy Roswell. But there are just some things in The Replacement that I just didn’t like and yes I’m also talking about the relationships between the characters, so let’s start with Roswell: I liked that he always tried to protect Mackie and stuck with him the whole time (yes even in bad times he was still there for Mackie) BUT when Mackie asks him to help with something really bad: don’t want to spoil it for other people so just highlight :) (grave-robbing) Roswell’s just doing it like it’s something normal, so yeah I think everybody else would’ve been like: WTH? why do you want me to do THAT? o.O (a.k.a. a normal reaction to Mackie’s request).

Next is the relationship between Mackie and Tate: well I can’t tell much about it without spoiling too much but let me tell you: They have a good chemistry but some things were just URGH! jeez Tate why are you doing that? spoilers for details: ( Like the scene where Mackie is at Tate’s house and she takes him up to her room to make out instantly and take off her clothes, well I just think that was way too fast, they’re not even really together at that point, so um yeah kinda slutty for me, but ok everyone has their own standarts :P)

Mackie and his “parents”: Their relationship seemed kinda cold to me and Mackie’s mom just made me shake my head a few times again spoilers: (jeez I swear this book just can’t be reviewed without giving away some bigger things -.- I’m sorry) ( So she knew that her child probably could be replaced by another creature so she hung iron scissors(!!!!) (explains the U.S. cover)above her child’s crib to keep the demons away. Um ok WTHeck???who hangs scissors above the crib of a baby??? Isn’t that kinda dangerous? o.O Oh and when Mackie wants to get Emma out of some trouble, in which she got to help him, his “mom” tells him it’s Emma’s own fault and he shouldn’t help her, because then it would endanger him. Wow that mom really likes her kids *sarcasm* I mean if your child is in danger you don’t act like it’s nothing -.-)

Ok enough relationship bashing and on with the story: I liked the book, I really did but still something was just missing. I liked Mackie's decisions and they made sense but in the end I was still confused about some things, they just didn’t get explained right and the end was good but a really fast one (almost too fast), while the middle of the book just kept dragging on. Some things the characters (especially the evil ones) decided to do didn’t really make sense (well some might just make sense in the mind of a crazy,mean person (like the evil one in this story))and when the Morrigan (the leader of the good “demons” (can you call them that?) tried to explain why they didn’t stop/kill the evil one (called The Lady) it didn’t make sense to me I mean I understand that they were scared but it seemed to me that they actually had more people on their side, so um yeah that just made me wonder.

But all in all I liked this book! And if you have the time you should definitely read it, I just want to tell you that it’s probably not everybody’s taste and there are some swear words in it plus the F-bomb get’s dropped (not only once!). So if you like dark tales and a new species of supernaturals (I still haven’t quite figured out what Mackie really is, so I’ll reread it someday and update you on this new species :P) go check out The Replacement, it won’t disappoint you.(Really: read it, it's definitely worth your time)

I would rate The Replacement: 3.5 out of 5

Nightshade Review

Sooo here it is the first book review (also the first one I’ve ever made so I would appreciate some comments on how to improve my writing :D). Enjoy! :)

Book Title: Nightshade

Author: Andrea Cremer

Published by: Penguin(USA), Atom(UK)

Year: 2010

Pages: 454

Where I got it from: thalia.de

<-UK cover U.S. cover->

Synopsis: (taken from goodreads.com)

Calla Tor has always known her destiny: After graduating from the Mountain School, she'll be the mate of sexy alpha wolf Ren Laroche and fight with him, side by side, ruling their pack and guarding sacred sites for the Keepers. But when she violates her masters' laws by saving a beautiful human boy out for a hike, Calla begins to question her fate, her existence, and the very essence of the world she has known. By following her heart, she might lose everything— including her own life. Is forbidden love worth the ultimate sacrifice?

I was really excited to get Nightshade in my mail.

First of all I looooove the cover. The UK version is slightly different than the U.S. version though (so I posted both covers), anyways I love them both.

Before each chapter of the book the is one dark page that has one phase of the moon in it’s corner, which I, personally, think is a nice idea.

The book get’s right into the action with a little fight between our Main Character Calla and a bear, which leads Calla to do the unforgivable: breaking one of her masters laws by saving Shay, a human. Calla hopes to never see Shay again, which is hard since he’s a new kid at Calla’s school. (oh OH!)

Shay and Calla seem to share an instant chemistry, well I’m not sure if I can agree with that. I mean sure it happens the same way in real life: girl sees boy she thinks is hot and instantly has an interest in him (well in some cases it’s like that), but it kinda didn’t work for me at first. One reason was Ren, who’s the one Calla is supposed to marry and who she has to lead a pack with after marriage, I mean sure sometimes he seems to be a real jerk, but then there are also times when he’s really sweet to Calla and you just have to like him. Another reason was that sometimes Shay seemed to be a little bit pushy when it came to Calla breaking her master’s laws. But in the end I must say that there were some moments where you could feel the chemistry between them and feel a little bit why Calla wanted him. I bet you know all these Love Triangles where you instantly know who the protagonist is supposed to end up with and that it’s definitely going to be that way no matter what the plot twist is *cough*twilight*cough*. I really thought, going out from the synopsis, that it would be the same way here but NOOOOO I was surprised(and a little shocked) to see that I just could not (and still can’t) decide wether I’m rooting for Team Shay or Team Ren they both have their Pro’s and Con’s and they both are ready to fight for Calla, plus there are some aaaaaaaawwwww moments with both and DANG IT! It’s just do hard to decide, so I’m really looking forward to find out more about this lovely Triangle.

As the story continues you start to wonder: What is the the truth about the history of the two main packs (the Nightshades and the Banes)? Who is Shay? Who will Calla choose? And why the heck do I have to wait till what? July???? Until I can continue reading about it?

Andrea Cremer is an amazing writer and I love her writing style. The story is written very well, and you understand the history the two packs share easily(it has to mean something if it comes from a girl whose mother language is German, right? xD).

The only two critics would be that I’m not sure if I liked one of the plot turns later in the book or not (I’m NOT going to spoil anything don’t worry :) ). I’m really torn at that plot twist because it kinda has a huge impact on everything, I understand that it was necessary but....oh who am I kidding there could’ve been another thing that would’ve been good in that situation, but I like it that Mrs. Cremer explained it really good so on one hand I can relate really good to the decision the characters make but on the other hand I’m just not sure if I’m liking it, I think everyone has to decide if he/she likes it or not. In the end we’ll see where this plot twist takes us.

Another thing I was that one of the twists was really obvious to figure out, but well as for me: I liked it to suspect this thing to happen (pretty close to the end) or not to happen? It was kinda this feeling: Am I right? Am I wrong? If I’m right what the heck will be happening and if I’m wrong what else will be going on?

With Calla, Andrea Cremer creates a great character who is independent, has her own opinions and is not afraid to do the things she thinks are right, mostly she decides things to help her pack and family, which are the most important thing to her!

All in all I loved this book, the ending was just right to leave me excited for the sequel Wolfsbane which is expected to be released on July 26th 2011.

I would rate it 4.5 out of 5 points! (Which basically means: Go read it! Buy it! Rent it from a friend/the library just go and read it, you won't be disappointed)