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review: rooftops of tehran

book info: on sale: now copy from: public library pages: 348 review written: 21.12.17 originally published: 2009 edition read: Penguin NAL 2009 title: Rooftops of Tehran author: Mahbod Seraji In a middle-class neighborhood of Iran's sprawling capital city, 17-year-old Pasha Shahed spends the summer of 1973 on his rooftop with his best friend Ahmed, joking around one minute and asking burning questions about life the next. He also hides a secret love for his beautiful neighbor Zari, who has been betrothed since birth to another man. But the bliss of Pasha and Zari's stolen time together is shattered when Pasha unwittingly acts as a beacon for the Shah's secret police. The violent consequences awaken him to the reality of living under a powerful despot, and lead Zari to make a shocking choice... my thoughts: This book was first published in 2009 and I remember adding it to my list around that time but never actually reading it since I preferred checking out library books to ...

The Secret

Broken Hearts, Fences, and Other Things to Mend by Katie Finn

Broken Hearts, Fences, and Other Things to Mend (Broken Hearts & Revenge, #1)

Broken Hearts, Fences, and Other Things to Mend by Katie Finn
Series: Broken Hearts & Revenge, #1
Source: Netgalley (Thanks, Fiewel & Friends!)
Publisher: Fiewel & Friends
Publication Date: May 13, 2014
Summer, boys, and friendships gone sour. This new series has everything that perfect beach reads are made of!

Gemma just got dumped and is devastated. She finds herself back in the Hamptons for the summer—which puts her at risk of bumping into Hallie, her former best friend that she wronged five years earlier. Do people hold grudges that long?

When a small case of mistaken identity causes everyone, including Hallie and her dreamy brother Josh, to think she’s someone else, Gemma decides to go along with it.

Gemma's plan is working (she's finding it hard to resist Josh), but she's finding herself in embarrassing situations (how could a bathing suit fall apart like that!?). Is it coincidence or is someone trying to expose her true identity? And how will Josh react if he finds out who she is?

Katie Finn hits all the right notes in this perfect beginning to a new summer series: A Broken Hearts & Revenge novel.

Let's just be honest here: doesn't this just look like the cutest summer revenge read? It does. But it really fell short of it's potential for me. For me it's sometimes just a little too hard to understand the motivation for revenge, and BHFaOTtM just didn't have a very plausible plot for me. Why spend most of your life plotting revenge for something that happened when you were a kid? You should just build a bridge and get over it!

Once I finished reading it, all I could think was "bleh, this is a series? Why?" Because it seemed like this all should have ended in the first book, since it was stupid to begin with. But I digress. BHFaOTtM was pretty cheesy on top of being dumb... which kind of upset me. It was easy to guess what would happen next, and I found myself predicting everything before it happened.

And don't even get me started on the characters! BLEH. First, we have the boy that Gemma is hopelessly in love with - Teddy. Who is a crunchy hippy who keeps all of his ducks in a row, does everything right, and is the perfect person. Except he's boring as all get out, is one of those people who has to be involved in anything (even things that don't concern him), and has to have the perfect, sweet, innocent girlfriend. Ick.

I like him already, don't you folks? Besides the debatable love interest, we also have Gemma herself. I'll tell you straight up that she's a liar, and that she has to have everything her way... which I just couldn't stand. She whines too much, schemes a lot, and doesn't really appear to be very smart. Not only is she decidedly not-smart, she's also extremely dense.

Basically, Broken Hearts, Fences, and Other Things to Mend was really not for me. I couldn't get into the plot or the characters, and the revenge angle of the story seemed very one-sided to me. But who knows, this just might be your cup of tea!

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Stormdancer by Jay Kristoff

Stormdancer by Jay Kristoff Series:   The Lotus War #1 Source:  gifted hardcover Publisher:  Thomas Dunne Books Publication Date: Sep 18, 2012 Age Group: Young Adult A DYING LAND The Shima Imperium verges on the brink of environmental collapse; an island nation once rich in tradition and myth, now decimated by clockwork industrialization and the machine-worshipers of the Lotus Guild. The skies are red as blood, the land is choked with toxic pollution, and the great spirit animals that once roamed its wilds have departed forever. AN IMPOSSIBLE QUEST The hunters of Shima’s imperial court are charged by their Shōgun to capture a thunder tiger – a legendary creature, half-eagle, half-tiger. But any fool knows the beasts have been extinct for more than a century, and the price of failing the Shōgun is death. A HIDDEN GIFT Yukiko is a child of the Fox clan, possessed of a talent that if discovered, would see her executed by the Lotus Guild. Accompanying her father on the Shōgun...

topic: nasty or noble?

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topic: happy books or sad books?

This blog post is prompted by a discussion I had at lunch on Friday with my table of friends. We're all book lovers, so it became a passionate discussion. I make myself happy, even when I'm not. If someone were to ask me "Are you happy?" I wouldn't know what to respond. I think because I'm quite bubbly at school, people automatically assume that I'm just always happy all the time. I'd beg to differ: I'm not a very cheery person when I get home. It's because of my introverted-ness. I know you're thinking "What? Then why is she bubbly at school?" Because I like being friendly, but school usually drains out all my social-ness and I recover over the weekend by staying in room all by myself and doing things alone. Back on topic. We asked a question: "Which do you prefer, sad books or happy books?" I said, "I like sad books" And that fired off into passionate "argument". A friend (let's call her C) told...

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