Novel Nerds *

Flashback Friday #6

Hold your heart guys, I’m only going to talk about ROMEO AND JULIET <3

So this week, I picked up a play. Upon re-reading, it’s interesting how you notice things differently. I still totally love Romeo and Juliet’s love story. I was discussing it with some people in my seminar [we had to read it for a module at uni this wekk] the topical question of whether the love between Romeo and Juliet was real came up.

Is it possible to fall in love in a few days? Is it right that Romeo goes from Rosalind to Juliet? Is Romeo fickle? Is Juliet independent or submissive?
I guess we’ll never know but speculating and discussion is fun! What do you think?

Some favourite quotes:

“Don’t waste your love on somebody, who doesn’t value it.” 

“O teach me how I should forget to think.”

“Love is a smoke raised with the fume of sighs;
Being purged, a fire sparkling in lovers’ eyes;
Being vexed, a sea nourished with loving tears.
What is it else? A madness most discreet,
A choking gall, and a preserving sweet.”

“My only love sprung from my only hate.” 

Flashback Friday: #2

[Was meant to #3 today but I had exams to prepare for this week so I couldn’t post last week!]

Flashback Friday is an original meme hosted here at Novel Nerds, posting a favourite old love for the day.

And my book to go back in time with is ‘To Be Sung Underwater by Tom McNeal’!

There’s a line on the back of the book that sums it up pretty well:

To Be Sung Underwater is the surprising and heartbreaking love story of a woman trying, almost too late, to remember, and the man who never forgot.

I loved reading through it again! Here are some favourite quotes:

‘For you, I was a chapter- a good chapter maybe, or even your favourite chapter, but, still, just a chapter- and for me, you were the book.’ 

“You know, for a while there we kept horses for the boys, and we had a mare that had broken down. Couldn’t ride it… You could feed it and brush it and water it and all. Sometimes, I’ve thought that’s what most marriages get to. A horse you still care a little about but cannot any longer ride.” 

I blame Nicholas Sparks for my high expectations of love and romance.

OMG ME TOO

(Source: julissa-xo)

Book Review: Julia Karr’s “XVI”

This book was suggested to me by a follower (who I can no longer find the name of :( if it’s you let me know for a free plug!) and took me a while to figure out if it was worth buying. I read the synopsis online on Amazon and whilst it seemed interesting, nothing really grabbed me enough to want to buy it really badly.

I did eventually end up buying it as a side purchase, but as my initial thoughts suggest I didn’t fall irrevocably in love. (If you’re reading this follower I’m sorry if my review isn’t what you want to hear!) The synopsis pretty much tells you what happens in 70% of the book, which is a shame because I had hoped for a lot more but on the other hand the book is definitely a quick read at 272 pages.

I enjoyed the romance aspect of the novel - first loves are always adorable to read! It was especially interesting since as you can tell from the synopsis; any non-family relationship between a teenage girl and boy is an extremely big deal in the world of XVI; especially for Nina who is completely against turning into a traditional sex-obsessed sixteen year old girl. I also liked the use of “media” and “advertisements” as brain washing instruments used by the Government. It’s not something unique since a lot of writer’s use the media as a form of control in dystopian fiction, but I felt like it worked really well here.

On the other hand, I felt like there were too many coincidences in the book. The problems in the book all got solved ridiculously easily and because of this the events in the book all happened rapidly. I guess rapid pacing should be seen as a good thing, but it annoyed me because I felt like the author could have spent time on telling us more about the other characters. I was also surprised by the ending - which I hated. Everything happened in a matter of pages and whilst I just found out that XVI will have a sequel called Truth (which will be released January 19th) I’m still not happy. Most of the loose ends were tied in the ending, leaving nothing for your imagination whatsoever. I’m guessing the author will be introducing brand new problems into the sequel but I don’t really see the need for it considering the ending.

All in all, I’d recommend the book if you’re bored and want to kill a few hours without thinking too much. I’d also suggest buying it from Amazon because in no way would I have been happy to pay full price for it.

The Last Song- Nicholas Sparks Review

(Couldn’t take a picture of the front cover because of glare problems.)

Can I just start off by saying I’ve never cried so much reading a book. Usually when a book makes me cry I tear up, gulp a few times and soldier on. But The Last Song made me hysterical.

See, I’d watched the film last year so I already knew what would happen when I read the book. The film made me bawl like a baby –yeah, I cry a lot at sad films: My Sister’s Keeper; I cried throughout the whole damn film – anyway. I knew what to expect. Or so I thought.

Ronnie is a seventeen year old girl with a lot of Daddy issues and is living the rebel phase of her teenage life. When he parents split up three years ago, her dad took off from New York and Ronnie hasn’t spoken to him since until this summer when her mother drops Ronnie and her little brother Jonah off to their dad Steve for the holiday. Ronnie doesn’t want to be with her dad and so spends a lot of her time away from the house getting soda spilled over her and meeting Will. Will is taken by Ronnie as soon as he spills her soda on her by hitting a volleyball at her accidentally. Ronnie is not so impressed.

The summer for Ronnie turns into a holiday of trouble, tests and realisations. The novel alternates between Ronnie, Steve and Will’s point of view. There are a lot of secrets in the story that break the reader’s heart. By the end of this novel you will have fallen in love, recognised the need for forgiving quickly and the rare beauty of second chances.

I can’t think of what I didn’t like about the novel… just maybe that it made me cry so much. At times I wanted to slap Ronnie for being such a bitch to her dad. But it was necessary for the plot.

A must-read for all Nicholas Sparks fans and anybody who wants to believe in/read about love, second chances and forgiveness again!

Order a FREE Romance Novel from Mills and Boon

Mills and Boon are offering a free book to anyone over the age of 18 living in the UK for a limited time.

All you have to do is pop over to this website and order one now by signing up! Once you’ve done that, you are given the option of downloading an eBook or of having the paperback sent to you.

Additionally, you’re given the chance to win £500! Once you’ve read the book you can sign back into the website and rate your “date” with Mills and Boon. Which is essentially just a review of your impression of the book and Mills and Boon overall. :)

Adorably, the first question looks like this:

I’ll admit, it was a bit of a confusing sign up and I’m not exactly sure if you get to pick your book or not. The email they sent me referred to my “chosen book” but I’m not sure if I somehow chose it or if they chose it for me. Lol.

But I did somehow manage to order Surf, Sea and a Sexy Stranger by Heidi Rice which looks like it’ll be entertaining. I do love taking a break from complicated plots, settings and characters sometimes to read cheesy romance novels  and Surf, Sea.. definitely sounds like it fits!

I love a free book, don’t you? :)

Whenever I read a book I always read the last page, because I won’t read it if there isn’t a happy ending.

livefasttdieyoung:

LOL I used to do this when I was younger or if I was getting frustrated in the middle of the book and wanted to at least know things ended well ^^

(Source: shady-spits-his-flow)