Saturday, March 12, 2016

Singin' Saturday: Honeydukes - Joey Richter & Mary Kate Wiles

Title: Honeydukes
Artist: Joey Richter ft Mary Kate Wiles
Language: English
TTS: N/A

Wdebo's Notes: I watched the short, I Ship It, back in October when I was studying for my OATs and I loved it so much. It's a short, cute film that centers around Harry Potter, what more can a girl want? This song is absolutely adorable. It's the perfect love song to show to the awesome Potterheads in your lives!

Listen and Love!

Wdebo :)

Thursday, March 10, 2016

Book Review: Liv, Forever By: Amy Talkington

"I looked around-no one was coming-so I leaned on the well, trying to calm down. I looked into its blackness. Abyss. Something suddenly rushed up from the dark, and that cold chill slapped me in the face. My head whipped back from its force. And that's when everything went black" (87)

Title: Liv, Forever
Author: Amy Talkington
HARDBACK
Amount of Pages: 288
Publisher: Soho Teen
Release Date: March 11, 2014
Geared Towards: Teens
From: Publisher
I was not paid for this review




Summary (From book): When Liv Bloom lands an art scholarship at Wickham Hall, it's her ticket out of the foster system. Liv isn't sure what to make of the school's weird traditions and rituals, but she couldn't be happier-especially when Malcolm Astor, fellow artist and scion of one of the school's original families, starts falling for her. Fellow scholarship kid Gabe Nichols warns her not to get involved with a "Wicky," but things are finally going Liv's way, and all she wants to do is enjoy it. 

But Liv's bliss is cut short when she is viciously murdered. In death, she discovers she's the latest victim of a dark conspiracy that spans 150 years and many, many lives. Gabe, cursed with the ability to see their ghosts, turns out to be Liv's only link to the world of the living. 

Liv must rely on Gabe's help to prove to Malcolm that she's still present, lingering with the other spirits. Together, Liv, Gabe, and Malcolm fight to expose the terrible truth that haunts Wickham Hall before more lives are lost. 

Wdebo's Review: I am a giant fan of the supernatural and mystery genres so I was really excited to start the book once I received it. However, no matter how much I tried, the writing was just so hard for me to get into when I first started reading. I took a break from the book many times before I was actually able to complete it. In the beginning, the writing seemed like it was trying to hard to fit in as a teenager and just didn't seem to be pulling it off all that well.



Additionally, the story started out super cheesy. It begins with a scholarship student ending up at a prestigious school in which she miraculously catches the eye of super popular dreamboat and they start going on their own secret rendezvous.

However, towards the middle, the story started to pick up speed as the mystery is revealed piece by piece and you figure out what happened to the girls and also what caused the murders. This was the part of the book that really hooked me into the story and made me want to keep going and finish it. However, though there were lots of enjoyable parts of the story, it was very predictable. The ending of the story was very obvious and easy to guess from the beginning. And though I did like the idea of the story (I am a sucker for boarding school novels), it didn't have as much depth as I would have liked to have read.

As for the characters, though the main characters were enjoyable they were pretty flat. They all fit into a stereotypical box. We had the main character super sleuth, the dreamboat, and the quirky male sidekick. I was hoping for more dimension and interesting features but I just didn't see that.

Cafe Cover Chit Chat: I love the ghosty atmosphere that the cover is going for. (B+)

All in all, though this book did incorporate many interesting ideas that could have made for a great plot, the details and writing left much to be desired. However, if you are just looking for a paranormal story with a healthy dose of romance to help kill a few hours then this would be a nice book to pick up!

Grade: B

Wdebo :)