Wish

\ by

Wish by Alexandra BullenWish by Alexandra Bullen
Publisher: Point
Number of pages:  336 pages
My copy: Kindle edition, free

For broken-hearted Olivia Larsen, nothing can change the fact that her twin sister, Violet, is gone… until a mysterious, beautiful gown arrives on her doorstep. The dress doesn’t just look magical; it is magical. It has the power to grant her one wish, and the only thing Olivia wants is her sister back.

With Violet again by her side, both girls get a second chance at life. And as the sisters soon discover, they have two more dresses-and two more wishes left. But magic can’t solve everything, and Olivia is forced to confront her ghosts to learn how to laugh, love, and live again.

* * *

I’ve been seeing this book for a long time, but I wasn’t into investing on hardbound books when I first saw it. I was very glad that I didn’t get it then, because I found that the book was free on Kindle a year later. I never say no to legit free books. :)

Wish tells the story of Olivia Larsen, who moved into a LA shortly after the death of her twin sister, Violet. Olivia fades into the background, feeling that her life would never be as colorful as her sister’s. When forced to attend an event for her mother, Olivia finds a beautiful gown delivered to her with magical wish granting powers…and suddenly, Olivia has her sister back. As it turns out, Olivia is suddenly a part of a “Wish Club”, with two more wishes in two more dresses. With the help of these dresses and her sister, Olivia finds just how much she’s missing and how she can get her life back after the loss that she went through.

This book had so much interesting premise – dealing with grief, magical wishing dresses and sisterhood. The idea, the cover and everything just gave me a vibe that I’d like it, and the stars were a plus. Olivia was truly a sad character, and I couldn’t really empathize with her sadness because I don’t have a sister and I’ve never experienced grief that way. I remember writing a story with a character whose twin passed away in an accident, but I always treated it lightly because I couldn’t really write what she felt. I felt sad for Olivia here, and at the same time I wished she could pick the pieces of her life by not fading into the background. I don’t think her sister would have wanted her to be like that.

The overall plot was okay, and I kind of liked the twist at the end. It’s really pretty cute as far as the premise is concerned…but that’s it. I would’ve liked this book more if it wasn’t so…bland. I don’t know. I never felt enchanted with it even if I felt it was supposed to have that vibe. I never felt any true connection to any of the characters, like I was only watching them from a distance. I found some parts of the book a little cheesy and sometimes trying hard to be witty but failing. I also found the lack of stirring conflict that to make me want to know more about what would happen — I can’t pinpoint a real villain in the story, and even Olivia’s internal struggle wasn’t even much of an antagonist. It just really fell short, and frankly, boring.

It’s not bad, really, but just okay. Nothing to squeal about. Wish worked well as an in-between book to cleanse the palate after reading some deeper books, but it’s far from being mind-blowing.

Rating: [rating=2]

Other reviews:
Steph Su Reads
The Bookologist
Books Love Me
Lauren’s Crammed Bookshelf

Posted in: Reviews \ Tagged: , , , , , ,

Happy Birthday Giveaway Winners

\ by

My birthday week has come and gone and I can definitely say that has been one of the best birthdays I’ve had. thanks to everyone who made it special. :)

Those people who made it special includes everyone who joined my birthday giveaway. Thanks so much for your greetings and your recommendations. I love how some of my friends who are usually quiet online even left comments just so they could greet me and help raise the amount to donate. There were 44 comments (43 actual comments, 1 pingback) by the end of the contest period. Rounding it off to 45, That means I get to add $9 to my donation. But since 9 is a bit of an odd number, I decided to make it $10 instead, making my donation $35. Again, I know that isn’t much and I don’t think it can hardly buy gold coins, but every little bit counts, right?

I made the donation today, much thanks to Paypal for making it easy. :)

Donation receipt

Thanks again to everyone for helping me with this. :) Let’s keep on praying for Japan, and for the world, too.

And now, for the other and the most awaited part of this post: the winners! Put all the names in via random.org and clicked Randomize! First two names in the list are the winners. :) Wee~

(Of course I’m putting them under a cut. Suspense much. Drumroll…)

(Oh, and it should be winners not just winner. :D)

Continue Reading →

Posted in: Giveaway \ Tagged: , ,

Wither

\ by

Wither by Lauren DeStefano
Chemical Garden Trilogy # 1
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Number of pages:  345
My copy: ebook from Galley Grab

What if you knew exactly when you would die?

Thanks to modern science, every human being has become a ticking genetic time bomb—males only live to age twenty-five, and females only live to age twenty. In this bleak landscape, young girls are kidnapped and forced into polygamous marriages to keep the population from dying out.

When sixteen-year-old Rhine Ellery is taken by the Gatherers to become a bride, she enters a world of wealth and privilege. Despite her husband Linden’s genuine love for her, and a tenuous trust among her sister wives, Rhine has one purpose: to escape—to find her twin brother and go home.

But Rhine has more to contend with than losing her freedom. Linden’s eccentric father is bent on finding an antidote to the genetic virus that is getting closer to taking his son, even if it means collecting corpses in order to test his experiments. With the help of Gabriel, a servant Rhine is growing dangerously attracted to, Rhine attempts to break free, in the limited time she has left.

* * *

Wither is one of those books that the book bloggers have been abuzz with ever since the cover came out. And who wouldn’t be mesmerized by such a beautiful cover? I wasn’t much of a cover person then, but I knew that I took a mental note of this book and was thrilled to see it as one of the e-galleys available in Simon & Schuster’s Galley Grab.

This is the first book in the Chemical Garden trilogy, and it tells a dystopian world sometime into a future where diseases are removed through genetic experiments, producing a first generation of almost immortal human beings who can live their lives in full health. However, as soon as this first generation started to reproduce, they found a fatal flaw: the offspring of the first generation die before they reach their thirties. Specifically, males live up to twenty five while females pass away as they reach twenty. To keep the population growing, young girls are forced into polygamous marriages and some of their offspring were tested to find an antidote to to stop their children from dying.

Rhine Ellery is 16 and was captured by the Gatherers in a fake job interview and she was bought as a wife for Linden Ashby by his father, Housemaster Vaughn. Rhine gets married and becomes an Ashby by name but swears to find a way out and be reunited with her twin brother. However, as she tries to find a way to escape, she discovers disturbing things about the Ashby household, finds herself softening towards her husband and sister-wives and falls in love.

If I were asked to choose a word to describe Wither, it’s interesting. My initial attraction to the book came from it being classified under dystopia, and we all know how I’ve grown to love that sub-genre in the past year. I liked Rhine right at the start. Her voice is strong and clear and she was tough but not without being compassionate. She knows she’s doomed to die in four years but I liked that she still seemed to have little hopes and dreams, one that helped her survive her ordeal. Reading the story in Rhine’s point of view kind of reminded me of The Hunger Games, without the thundering background music and the immediate need to survive. Rhine’s background music would fall a bit on a classical piece that starts out as calm and languid at first then builds up to a crescendo as we get to the exciting parts. Rhine isn’t a Katniss, but there were some similarities in their personalities — particularly their resiliency — that reminded me of Suzanne Collins’ beloved character. Oh and I also found it really cool that Rhine had differently colored eyes — heterochromia, as they call it. I couldn’t help but shriek, “Graceling!” when I read that part. :)

However, as far as the dystopian aspect of Wither goes, I found it a bit lacking. I’m no expert in how dystopia should be unlike some people I know, but I wasn’t very satisfied with how Rhine’s world came to be. Sure, I understand there would be mass panic when they find out the flaw in their genetic experiments, but how could there be so much destruction that all the other continents were wiped out except for North America? I understand the population woes, so why kill the girls then? Why are there so many orphans? There were so many why’s and how’s that I found the world building a bit faulty, despite it being vivid. Perhaps my questions would be answered in the next two books?

I also have a tiny beef with the ending, but it’s just me nitpicking. It’s not a cliffhanger, but I really wish there was more. I guess I was looking for more action in the ending? I kind of wanted something bigger, something more explosive to happen in the end. It may just be me and my expectations for dystopian novels. The ending for Wither felt a little too much…I don’t know, dreamy? That isn’t bad, but just kind of threw me off the loop. I was expecting  a little bit more action, and I wanted to know what happened to the other characters, too. But again, I guess that is why this is part of a trilogy. It’s kind of like how Carrie Ryan ended her zombie books — if you don’t know that there will be a next book in the series, you’d feel like you were cheated from an ending with closure.

Despite its faults and my nitpicks, Wither is still a good read, and I thoroughly enjoyed reading it. If dystopian novels had genders, this would definitely be a female — no battle scenes or gory deaths here, boys. :) It’s bleak and disturbing yet still romantic, emotional and somewhat hopeful. If you’re not into reading bleak and hardcore dystopian novels, then Wither may be the book for you.

Rating: [rating=3]

Other reviews:
bibliochic
Rex Robot Reviews
Bookalicious

Posted in: Reviews \ Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , ,

[Closed] Happy Birthday Giveaway!

\ by

You know, I meant to have a 30-day blogging thing going here at One More Page this month because March is my favorite month being that it is also my birth month. I also thought of having a month-long giveaway. I meant to do those things but March hit me with too much work and real life things that I didn’t have the time to set it all up. My reading is also slower compared to my January one, and it’s kind of frustrating because I really can’t do much about it (except maybe…not sleep).

ANYWAY. Being busy doesn’t mean I can’t hold a giveaway, even if it’s not as grand as how I planned it to be. So behold: my 25th birthday giveaway! :)

I’m keeping the mechanics simple. Just leave a comment in this entry and answer this question: What’s your favorite birthday read? Or if you don’t have a birthday read, what’s one book you’d like to read on your birthday? It doesn’t have to be a book, but if it’s a book, do share so I can see what it is! :) The giveaway will run as long as it’s March 17 somewhere in the world — that starts 8:00pm today (GMT+12 – as soon as this post is up) up to 6:00pm on March 18 (GMT-11). This is open to everyone, and I will pick 2 winners by Sunday, who can get any book of their choice worth $15 from Book Depository. :)

Image from cdryan.com

BUT WAIT, THERE’S MORE. I don’t want this to be just a simple giveaway — I also want to help. I’ve been planning to donate to Red Cross to help with the Japan Earthquake and Tsunami relief efforts. I’ve set to donate $25, but I thought you guys could help me raise that amount. For every five (5) entries I get for this giveaway, I will add $1 to the donation. So if I get 25 entries, I will add $5. I know it’s not much, but every bit counts, right?

One more time!

  • Leave a comment on this entry with your answer to this question: What’s your favorite birthday read? Or if you don’t have a birthday read, what’s one book you’d like to read on your birthday? One entry per person only. :)
  • This will run from March 16, 2011 8:00PM (GMT+8) to March 18, 2011, 6:00pm (GMT+8) — that’s how long March 17 is all over the world. Comments left beyond that will not be counted.
  • I will pick 2 winners on Sunday via random.org. The winners will receive a book of their choice worth $15 from Book Depository.
  • For every 5 entries in the giveaway, I will add $1 to my donation for Japan relief efforts on top of the $25 I will be donating.

Clear, clear? I’m not sure if I will be able to put up a post in the next few days since, well, I may be busy, so keep those comments coming. :)

Posted in: Giveaway \ Tagged: , , ,

Save the Date

\ by

Save the Date by Jenny B. JonesSave the Date by Jenny B. Jones
Publisher: Thomas Nelson
Number of pages: 320
My copy: ebook review copy from Netgalley

When Alex and Lucy pick out wedding invitations, they wonder if they can be printed in vanishing ink.

Former NFL star Alex Sinclair is a man who has it all–except the votes he needs to win his bid for Congress. Despite their mutual dislike, Alex makes Lucy a proposition: pose as his fiancee in return for the money she desperately needs. Bound to a man who isn’t quite what he seems, Lucy will find her heart on the line–and maybe even her life. When God asks Alex and Lucy to scrap their playbook and follow his rules, will they finally say, “I do”?

* * *

I wasn’t sure what to expect with Save the Date by Jenny B. Jones because if I were to judge this book by its cover, it didn’t give me the chick lit vibe. It gave me a romance novel vibe, sure, but not really chick lit. Am I the only one getting that? I want chick lit, but I’m not entirely sure if I wanted a romance novel — if you get what I mean. Nevertheless, I requested this from NetGalley because the blurb seemed interesting despite its familiarity, and I heard good stuff about the author on Twitter.

Maybe it’s the leftover February air that made me start reading this, and once I started reading, I couldn’t stop. Save the Date starts with Lucy Wiltshire dancing around her kitchen, preparing a meal for her boyfriend Matt, expecting a proposal coming very soon. However, she was crushed when Matt says he’s choosing his job over her, and he had to move away, just as when Lucy can’t leave her hometown because she was about to open her foster home for adolescent girls, Saving Grace.

Fast forward two years later, Lucy seems to be doing well, until life decided to throw her a curve ball: she loses funding for her foster home and she needs money, quick. Gold coins don’t grow on trees and Lucy is desperate. Enter old schoolmate and rich boy Alex Sinclair who was running for Congress. A chance encounter between the two gave Alex a good image for the election, so he proposes to Lucy: they would pretend to be a couple and get engaged to boost Alex’s image, and Lucy gets paid to be his fake fiancee, enough to fund Saving Grace for years to come. Left with no choice, Lucy says yes, praying that she wasn’t making a mistake. As they play along with the lie, demons from the past surface and they find out that God’s plans are higher than our plans and He can work His purpose even in our flimsy human plans.

I was pleasantly surprised by this book. This had the same vibe as  A Billion Reasons Why but it has less of the Southern drawl and more of real and sympathetic characters. I liked Lucy from the start — she’s a darling, but she was far from a weakling. She’s been toughened up by the hardships she experienced in her life and even if she suffers from a big inferiority complex, her heart is always in the right place. I admire her passion for the girls she’s caring for and her fierce loyalty to what she believes in, even if sometimes it comes off as stubbornness. While I’m not much taken by Alex’s described good looks and his charisma, I thought he was good for Lucy. He is far from perfect which I really appreciated, and I’m sure his faults and his growth in the story is something that other people have experienced. I liked how their relationship developed and how they saw each other in a better light despite the lie that they have built for their image. I lost count at how many times I sighed and wished that they’d realize that they were perfect for each other, and that one of them would make a move that would break the the pretend relationship they have so they could move into something real. Their banter was refreshing and witty, none of the gooey, over the top exchanges that didn’t feel natural. I liked that even if it seemed like an outrageous story, everything in the story still felt real, like it could happen to anyone.

This modern-day Cinderella/The Princess Diaries-like story by Jenny B. Jones is definitely worth the read. I can’t relate 100% with everything, but Save the Date shares important lessons on love, compassion, forgiveness and allowing God to work in our lives, and I think those concepts are pretty universal, anyway. While there’s nothing really new in the premise, the characters, their voices and the author’s humor shines through in the story, making this a very, very good read. :) I look forward to reading more of Jenny B. Jones’ books.

Rating: [rating=4]

Other reviews:
Michelle’s Book Review Blog
Novel Reviews
Backseat Writer
Bookworm Hollow

Posted in: Reviews \ Tagged: , , , , , , , , ,