Ever

I am a pretty big fan of the book 'Ella Enchanted', so when I saw the book 'Ever' by the same author, Gail Carson Levine, circulate through the library I thought I should give it a try. This book is about the wind god who wants to join the mortals and becomes enchanted with one particular mortal. They quickly fall in love but meet trials on their hopes of being together.

I would recommend this book for anyone who is into mythology because this kind of had a Hercules and Meg love story feel to it. It honestly wasn't my favorite book, but she is still a good author in my eyes and I can see how some people would really enjoy this type of writing, I just wasn't one of them.

You'll just have to read it and judge for yourself.

Escape

'Escape' by Carolyn Jessop is about a woman who escaped from her very strict polygamy community to gain freedom for her and her kids. She takes you through her life of abuse, beliefs, and struggles of living in the FLDS church. This book had me completely captivated from the first page. I had no idea what goes on in the FLDS church, which is pretty sad since it's practically right in my back yard. I have seen polygamists of course, but I never knew what their lives were like on a day to day basis. The abuse that women and children face is appalling. My heart broke for Carolyn and her kids more than once during the telling of her story. I learned so much about the things that they are forbidden to do.  Their lives are not their own and freedom is a foreign concept for them, which is sad seeing as this is not a story of the past, but of modern day in America. I would highly recommend this book. Yes it is a tragic, heart wrenching tale, but fortunately it has a very happy ending. 

The Iron King

'The Iron King' by Julie Kagawa is an adventure story about a girl who feels like something has always been slightly off in her life. Meghan's best friend starts acting strangely protective of her and weird things are happening at home. Meghan finds herself on a quest to save her little brother in the faery world, a world that she never knew existed but strangely belongs to. It is a story of action, adventure, fantasy, family, and love.

I did like this book, the characters were well rounded, the plot was well written, and it was definitely a page turner. Having said that however, it was not my favorite style of writing. The story line went from one death defying situation to the next, over and over again, and for me personally it was a little too much action. It kind of reminded me of 'Leven Thumps' in that way. So although I am not going to read the rest of the series, I would still recommend this book to anyone who loves action-packed fantasy and adventure stories. 

Mary Poppins, She Wrote

I am a huge Disney fan.... HUGE! I love all things Disney. So when I saw two of my favorite actors starring in a new movie by Disney I was thrilled! I couldn't wait to see 'Saving Mr. Banks' and when I finally did I definitely was not disappointed! In fact I loved the movie so much that I started to read the book that the movie was based off of. The book is called, 'Mary Poppins, She Wrote' by Valerie Lawson. Unfortunately, unlike the movie the book did disappoint me... a whole lot. It was just soooo dry and factual. I honestly felt like I was reading a student's report that they handed into their teacher. And it wasn't even a good report. It was one of those reports that you find facts from google and then cut and paste words and sentences off the internet together to reach your assigned number of pages that had to be written. It was dull. It had no color. There was no magic whatsoever. I suffered through 25 pages before I gave it up. So my advice is to see the movie and skip the book, which NEVER happens!