Book Review: The Shining

The Shining by Stephen King
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

This was my first Stephen King novel. I was expecting so much from this book because everyone and their mother seems to think it's one of the scariest books of all time and maybe that is why I was so disappointed. The characters felt believable, everything they did and how they reacted was justified in my opinion. Nothing was thrown in our faces just to create an unnecessary plot twist, but I suspect all the hype surrounding this book ruined it for me. Maybe it was knowing the majority of the story before reading it, but I did not find it scary at all and I thought it dragged a little. However, I'm still planning to read other Stephen king's books because I've watch movies based on his books and his ideas are original and intriguing.

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Gaming: Sims 2 Castaway DS

Let me start by saying that when I bought The Sims Castaway for DS, I thought it would be like the other Sims games, but on a deserted island. It ‘s not. There are specific quests that you have to accomplish in order to advance, you can’t build whatever you want wherever you want, you can’t have babies, you do not have a job nor money and you trade food and objects with the other castaways to get what you need to survive on the island. I didn’t mind because I happen to love playing this kind of games, but I’m embarrassed to say, that I thought some of the quests were actually very difficult and on a few occasions I did have to search on the internet for help. Other than that, it was a fun game and I give it a a 3.5/5 only because I got so frustrated at times with the quests. I wanted to add that I watched gameplays on YouTube on the computer version and I thought it looked more fun so I’m considering buying it eventually. I suggest taking the time to watch gameplays of the game for both the PC and DS if you hesitate on which one to buy.

Nina xx

Book Review : Christmas at Tiffany's by Karen Swan

Synopsis: Cassie settled down too young, marrying her first serious boyfriend. Now, ten years later, she is betrayed and broken. With her marriage in tatters and no career or home of her own, she needs to work out where she belongs in the world and who she really is. So begins a year-long trial as Cassie leaves her sheltered life in rural Scotland to stay with each of her best friends in the most glamorous cities in the world: New York, Paris and London.

My review: I often fantasize of leaving everything behind and start a new life somewhere completely different and far away from home so when I stumbled upon that book on Goodreads, it immediately intrigued me. I was a little reluctant to buy it at first because I had never heard anyone else talk about that novel before but I’m so glad I caved and purchased it. That book made me dream like a little girl. I wanted to be Cassie and get to see all those beautiful places and meet new people from all over the world... You can relate to the protagonist because how she sees life, how she reacts to all that is happening to her, her relationships, it all feels real. She basically grew up being in a relationship and now that she is on her own, she’s completely lost and realises that she doesn’t know who she is anymore. With the help of her three caring best friends, she goes on a quest to find herself. We all have our moments when we look at our lives and ask ourselves if this is where we want to be and imagine starting over or turning your life in something completely different, but most of the time we just brush it off thinking this is real life, not a movie. Cassie had nothing to lose after her marriage ended so she did just that, she went as far away as possible from her old life. And by the way, if I had three best friends who lived in New York, Paris and London, husband or no husband, I would take a year off work and spend a few months in each City too. Throughout the book, Cassie grows a lot, she makes mistakes and life isn’t easy for her but she still gets up in the morning and carry on trying to be the best person she can be. I have to talk about the scenery, it was beautiful. I think the author did a great job portraying the different cities , the atmosphere in each places and the people who live there. It truly felt like she knew what she was talking about. You could almost feel the wind in New York and smell the food in Paris. And let’s not forget the romance. Ah the romance... It is a Chick Lit so you’ve probably guessed there is a love story, well more than one but it was not overdone, I didn’t find it cheesy and there was no insta-love which is refreshing. That is all I’m going to say about it because I don’t want to spoil anything. Overall, I loved that book, and I’ll definitely reread it someday.

I gave it 5/5 stars.

Nina XX

My Video Game Challenge!

The other day I was going through my video games and I realised that I did not complete most of them. You see, I love buying games as much as I love buying books but the thing is, it takes me a lot more time to finish a game than to read a book and I eventually lose interest in what I’m playing because of all the new games that are coming out.

I’m the kind of person who enjoy making lists because it motivates me and crossing things off a list is very satisfying.  So I decided to make one of all my video games and challenged myself to finish the games that I own before spending money on other  games. Honestly, I’ll probably fail that challenge but if it pushes me to complete half of the games I own, it’s worth it. The ones that are crossed out are games that  I don’t intend to complete or can’t finish. Either they have no storyline, or I only bought them to play online with friends and don’t want to do the campaign or they are games  that were given to me  but don’t interest me that much.

PS2	NEED FOR SPEED UNDERGROUND
PS2	RESIDENT EVIL CODE VERONICA X
PS2	RESIDENT EVIL OURBREAK
PS2	RESIDENT EVIL 4
PS2	CSI
PS2	SONIC MEGA COLLECTION PLUS
PS2	DANCE DANCE REVOLUTION
PS2	THRILLVILLE
PS2	GUITAR HERO 1
PS2	GUITAR HERO 2
PS2	GUITAR HERO 3
PS2	ROCKBAND (don’t have the guitar / drums anymore)
PS2	KINGDOM OF HEARTS
PS2	DESTROY ALL HUMANS
PS2	FINAL FANTASY X
PS2	CREG HASTING TOURNEMENT PAINTBALL
PS2	TOKYO XTREME RACERS
PS3	BIOSHOCK
PS3	BIOSHOCK 2
PS3	SILENT HILL HOMECOMING
PS3	OBLIVION
PS3	SAINTS ROW 2
PS3	SAINTS ROW 3
PS3	CALL OF DUTY MODERN WARFARE
PS3	SIMS 3
PS3 PS3	FINAL FANTASY REALM REBORN GRAND THEFT AUTO V
XBOX	GEARS OF WAR
XBOX	BORDERLANDS 2
XBOX	SKATE 3
XBOX	DRAGON AGE II
XBOX	LEFT 4 DEAD 2
XBOX	UFC 2009
XBOX	NHL 11
XBOX	RECKONING
XBOX	CRACKDOWN
XBOX	CALL OF DUTY MODERN WARFARE 3
XBOX	FABLES 2
XBOX	FABLES 3
XBOX	ALICE THE MADNESS RETURNS
XBOX	RED DEAD REDEMPTION
WII	ALICE IN WONDERLAND
WII	ZELDA TWILIGHT PRINCE
WII	JUST DANCE
WII	WII FIT
DS	SIMS CASTAWAYS
DS	FINAL FANTASY IV
DS	CLUB HOUSE
DS	PROFESSOR LAYTON CURIOUS VILLAGE
DS	CLUE/ PERFECTION/ MOUSETRAP
DS	NINTENDOGS
DS	MYSTERY CASE FILES MILLIONHEIR
DS	CROSSWORDS
DS DS	BATMAN LEGO CAKE MANIA HARRY POTTER LEGO YEARS 1-4
COMPUTER	SIMS
COMPUTER	A VAMPIRE STORY

Nina XX

The Forest of Hands and Teeth Trilogy by Carrie Ryan

** There will be no spoilers for the entire series in this review ***

Synopsis for The Forest of Hands and Teeth:  In Mary's world there are simple truths. The Sisterhood always knows best. The Guardians will protect and serve. The Unconsecrated will never relent. And you must always mind the fence that surrounds the village; the fence that protects the village from the Forest of Hands and Teeth. But, slowly, Mary’s truths are failing her. She’s learning things she never wanted to know about the Sisterhood and its secrets, and the Guardians and their power, and about the Unconsecrated and their relentlessness. When the fence is breached and her world is thrown into chaos, she must choose between her village and her future—between the one she loves and the one who loves her. And she must face the truth about the Forest of Hands and Teeth. Could there be life outside a world surrounded in so much death?

My review: The series takes place in the future, after the disease started to spread, the only thing in people’s mind was to survive and therefore, the cities became war zone, eventually there were no electricity, no cars, no phones, they had to live like our ancestors with no technology at all. Mary, the protagonist in The Forest of Hands and Teeth, is living in the woods with her family a few hundred years after the world as we know it came to an end. To be honest, I was far from being a zombie fan. Everything that had to do with them scared the crap out of me and that is why I usually didn’t like anything zombie themed . But after reading the series, I must admit I am now a fan. Don’t get me wrong,  those walking corpses still terrify me, but now I just can’t get enough of zombies. There are three books total in the series, the first book being The forest of hands and teeth, the second The Dead-Tossed Waves, the third The Dark and Hallow Places and there are a few novellas (which I will eventually review separately).The first book was a bit slow at first and I briefly thought of putting it aside and move on to something else but I hate not finishing a book so I gave it another chance and oh boy I am so glad I did! When the story picks up, it is amazing. I could not put it down. In each novel, there is a different protagonist but the stories are all intertwined in some way. Speaking of which, I highly suggest not reading the synopsis of book two and three if you don’t want to get spoiled. I got very attached to the protagonists in the first two books, but I had a little trouble caring for the third one. Maybe it’s because the girl was so different from the first two, she was cold and detached but then again if I had gone through what she has, I probably would try to detach myself from all this darkness. Rest assured, It doesn’t take away from the story . The supporting characters were well developed as well, they each had their own voice and you learn to care for them throughout the books. Apart from the zombies, there were despicable villains .  It was sad to see that even with the undead making it practically impossible to live a ‘’normal’’ life, the antagonists made it even harder for the survivors to live. As for the plot, I loved what the author did with the series. You can’t guess  the ending of any of the  books, there are twists and turns you really don’t see coming, and I just wanted to jump in the story and help them out because the things they went through... Let’s just say I wouldn’t wish this on my worst enemy..  On Goodreads I gave The forest of hands and teeth  4/5 stars, The Dead-Tossed Waves 5/5 stars, The Dark and Hallow Places 5/5 stars and  I am definitely planning on rereading The Forest oh Hands and Teeth trilogy someday.

Nina XX

LITTLE UPDATE

Hello, hello, hello! I know I've been MIA for awhile and I apologize, but you know... Let's just say, life happened. Anyhow, I have been doing a lot of reading and listening to audio books, but not so much playing video games unfortunately. Here's an update on what I've read and listened to recently and I'll eventually review them more in depth.

Books:

 Loved it!

    It was okay

              It was pretty good.

 Loved it!

      It was okay.

 Loved it!

   Loved it!

Audio Books:                                          

 Loved it!

                It was pretty good.

                               I was disappointed by this book.

 Disturbing...

Nina xx

                                                                 

                            

Book Review: Forever by Maggie Stiefvater

 ***** There will be no spoilers for this book in this review ******

Synopsis: In Maggie Stiefvater's Shiver, Grace and Sam found each other. In Linger, they fought to be together. Now, in Forever, the stakes are even higher than before. Wolves are being hunted. Lives are being threatened. And love is harder and harder to hold on to as death comes closing in.

Review:  Let me just start by saying that Forever was not as bad as Linger. The Wolves of Mercy Falls series was doing nothing for me so far and I didn't expect much for this book, but I actually enjoyed this novel by Stiefvater. It was definitely more action driven and the plot was  interesting! There are things that bothered me throughout the series, particularly the way people act when they found out ''wherewolves'' are real and the way most of the teenagers in this town seemed to know so much about science, chemistry and biology is just weird and a  bit to convenient. All of those aspects are definitely present in this book. Aside from that, I liked how time was a big part of the book, timing was everything. One would miss the other by seconds and it was so frustrating at times! I must admit though, my favorite characters weren't Grace and Sam but Isabel and Cole. To me, they felt real and believable (though the hole rock star thing kept reminding me that this was a story). I enjoyed reading about their rocky relationship and they both were full of surprises. Grace and Sam were...  they were dull and too soft and it got on my nerves. About the ending, now the ending of the series was satisfying for me, but I know not everyone agrees with me. It's pretty much all I can say without spoiling it for you guys. So overall, The Wolves of Mercy Falls  is not a series I would reread , I'm not saying I regret reading it but I do regret buying the books.   

Nina xx