How to Break a Dragon's Heart (How to Train Your Dragon Bk #8) by Cressida Cowell

(books cover and synopsis from goodreads.com)

Can Hiccup complete the Impossible Task, battle Berserks, save Fishlegs from being fed to the Beast AND discover the secret of the Lost Throne? What's a Hero to do?!

I have been saying from the beginning how these books always leave me with a kind of thoughtful sad pang. The different with this one is that it was like that from the beginning. 

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We are given more insight into the Viking culture and how they go about things (e.g. if you want to live, don't fall in love). We also find out why Fishlegs would have been found adrift as sea and why Hiccup is call Hiccup (admit it, you have been desperate to know too). Several bits and pieces that were dropped in through the other books were also drawn together here. 

What I love is that although these books are written for pre-teens and up they are not dumbed down at all and are actually getting more serious as the series goes on. 

Dragons with eye beams! I don't know if this little fact has been in another book and just went over my head at the time but what a brilliant idea. They have head lights!

More insane 'hero types' are introduced and we get to see a whole new island. 

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This whole book seemed to have a big fat cloud hanging over it. From the beginning there is this haunted feel to things. The first chapter is call 'The Lost Child' after all. 

Slight spoiler - Me reading the first few pages : What do you mean Camacazi is MISSING?

There was more than one point that I found down right unsettling and Alvin is back *groan*.

All in All
Although the black cloud hovered over this book the sun did break through to keep up the laughs. 

Favourite Quotes

"T-T-Toothless NOT go in your father's study...Toothless N-N-Not play with the funny magic stone. Toothless somewhere else at the time..."

Valhallarama of the White arms and Chunky Thighs

How to Ride a Dragon's Storm (How to Train Your Dragon Bk #7) by Cressida Cowell

(Book cover and synopsis from goodreads.com)

Hiccup has three months, five days and six hours to discover America, get back to Berk, save his father, battle Polarserpents, and win the annual Inter-Tribal Friendly Swimming Race. Can he do it?

Hiccup, Camacazi and Fishlegs are taking part in the 'Inter-Tribal Friendly Swimming Race' obviously in full viking spirit the last one to return to the beach wins! Of course, someone cheats and the adventurous trio end up in trouble and on a ship bound for America because of it.

I love the three friends. At the beginning of the book they set of on the race to gears of the crowd because Fishlegs can't swim but they stick together and Camacazi and Hiccup don't leave him alone. In fact, they were willing to return to the beach and lose the race. 

More species of dragon are introduced as they sail to America also. 

And as always the epilogue from Hiccup is just as thoughtful and melancholy as the other books. 

This is a fun read and a brilliant addition to the series. It is different from the other books as this one is set - for the most part - on a boat (well...until it sinks).

Favourite Quotes ---

"Why are you shooting at me?" howled a sprinting Hiccup. "Haven't I got enough problems?"

"how can you make a fresh start in a New World when you are carrying with you on your boat all of the same problems, the same frustrations and inequalities of the Old World? Lets face it, any country ruled by Norbert called 'the Land of the Nutjobs' would have turned out to have the same problems as the Barbaric Archipelago quicker than you can say the words 'half crazed lunatic carrying a double-headed axe'"

The Storybook of Legend (Ever After High Book #1) by Shannon Hale

At Ever After High, an enchanting boarding school, the children of fairytale legends prepare themselves to fulfill their destinies as the next generation of Snow Whites, Prince Charmings and Evil Queens...whether they want to or not. Each year on Legacy Day, students sign the Storybook of Legends to seal their scripted fates. For generations, the Village of Book End has whispered that refusing to sign means The End-both for a story and for a life.
As the daughter of the Evil Queen, Raven Queen's destiny is to follow in her mother's wicked footsteps, but evil is so not Raven's style. She's starting to wonder, what if she rewrote her own story? The royal Apple White, daughter of the Fairest of Them All, has a happy ever after planned for herself, but it depends upon Raven feeding her a poison apple in their future.What if Raven doesn't sign the Storybook of Legends? It could mean a happily never after for them both.


I love the Ever After High series on YouTube so when I saw this on the shelf in the shop I was like : "Oooooo there's books!" *grabby hands*

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I love Raven the daughter of the Evil Queen from Snow White and I really enjoyed getting to know a bit more about her home life and her home life. I was a bit confused about just how the reliving their parents stories actually works but maybe that'll be explained later on.
Maddie the daughter of the Mad Hatter was also a highlight of the book and her little discussions with the Narrator who she can hear where something to look forward to. She's great!
Basically Raven doesn't want to fill her mother's roll in the Snow White story and spends the whole of this book proving that she won't vanish/die if she doesn't vow to be the next Evil Queen. This made it a fun little mystery.

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I HATE Snow White's daughter, Apple White. I dislike her in the series and there was nothing in this book that made me change my mind, in fact I think it only cemented it more. As soon as she showed up I just wanted her to go away again.

All in All
Really interesting because of the background information.

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Alice in Wonderland & Through the Looking Glass by Lewis Carroll - Review

Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass by Lewis Carroll
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I have meant to read this book for years, after all it is a 'classic' and I have felt a bit of a fraud for not having read it. But I have now. Yay!

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Crazily wonderful.
I don't really know what I was expecting when I picked up Alice in Wonderland but I know for sure that I wasn't expecting to enjoy it as thoroughly as I did.
It was brilliant.
Thanks to the many different films adaptations I knew generally what was going to be happening as far as the story line went but there was so many bits and pieces that have been overlooked or changed it was a suprise from beginning to end.
The characters were all larger than life and completely mental in the best of ways. From the talking animals running caucus-races to the hookah smoking caterpillar.

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I don't think there was anything that I didn't like about this book. Some sections did seem to drag and I found less interesting than other bits but not enough for me to stop turning the pages.

All in All
I am so glad I have now read this book. I think it will be one that I'll be shoving at people for a while.


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Review - Holiday Heartbreak (Dork Diaries Book #6) by Rachel Renee Russell

It's the biggest dance of the year and Nikki Maxwell is hoping her crush, Brandon, wants to be her date. But time is running out. What if he doesn't want to go with her? Or worse - what if he ends up going with Mackenzie?!!

(Image and Description from Goodreads.com)

Why is Dork Diaries doing this to me? Why?

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The friendship between Zoey, Chloe and Nikki is just as strong as ever and Chloe and Zoey continue to be supportive and loving towards Nikki through all of her drama – on a wee side note I would love to have a book from their side of things (and it could touch on what they really think about Nikki and her pathological lying).

SPOILER – Mackenzie (evil-teen-villainess) ends up rooting through a dumpster.

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By the third time (it could have been the last too) she said ‘thingie’ I was ready to scream. By the first time (for this book) she once again fibbed to her ‘BFFs’ I was ready to drag her out of the book and yell at her. Because, yeah, telling porkies has totally worked well for her up to this point. Not. It stresses her out.

The majority of the girl/boy drama between Nikki and Brandon come mainly from a series of misunderstandings and Nikki not letting the poor guy finish a sentence.

All in All

I have loved the Dork Diaries books since I picked up the first one but the past two books have just been lacking that spark I loved so much in the previous books. Still enjoyable but I am becoming very irritated with them very easily and I don’t know if it is a change in me or a change in the books.

I don’t feel like Nikki is moving on at all as a character.

Has anyone else read these books? If you have I would love to know if it is me or the books. How have you found them?

Review - Daddy-Long-Legs by Jean Webster

Jerusha Abbott grew up in an orphanage but was sent to college by a mysterious benefactor she calls Daddy-Long-Legs. In college she falls in love with a young man who wants to marry her, but she refuses because she is an orphan. Finally, after Jerusha--now Judy--graduates, she asks to meet her benefactor.

(Image and descriptions from Goodreads.com)

Really enjoyable! I tried to read this book when I was in secondary school and it just didn’t click. But after watching the film (with Fred Astaire ;)), the anime and listening to the musical – lovely musical by the way – I decided to give it another shot.

I loved it.

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The whole book was wonderful fun and just what I needed at the time. Judy is refreshingly honest about what she thinks of things and this may seem silly but what I loved most was Judy being ‘friends’ with someone she isn’t really all that fond of. I don’t know about you but I could definitely relate to that.

The book covers a four year span of Judy’s life through college all told in letters and I didn’t once get bored or want the writing to change.

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The only thing I would have loved to have seen was a chapter from Jarvis’ side of things – mainly to see what was going on in his head when he made certain decision and what he thought about Judy’s reaction to them.

All in All!

A lovely story that as 187 pages is not all that long. Definitely worth a read.

“The trouble with college is that you are expected to know such a lot of things you’ve never learned”

The Bad Beginning (Book #1 in A Series of Unfortunate Events) by Lemony Snicket

In this first book, readers are introduced to the unfortunate Baudelaire children -- 14-year-old Violet, 12-year-old Klaus, and their infant sister, Sunny -- when they learn they've just been orphaned by a terrible house fire.

The executor of the Baudelaire estate -- a phlegm-plagued banker named Mr. Poe - sends the children to live with a distant relative: a conniving and dastardly villain named Count Olaf, who has designs on the Baudelaire fortune. Count Olaf uses the children as slave labor, provides horrid accommodations for them, and makes them cook huge meals for him and his acting troupe, a bunch of odd-looking, renegade good-for-nothings. When the children are commandeered to appear in Count Olaf's new play, they grow suspicious and soon learn that the play is not the innocent performance it seems but rather a scheme cooked up by Olaf to help him gain control of the children's millions. 

(Image and Description from Goodreads.com)

Eeeeeeaaaa…yeah. I really don’t know where to go with this one. I was giving it a try to see if A Series of Unfortunate Events could take the place of The How to Train Your Dragons books once my self-control snaps and I read the last available book.

Yip. That won’t be happening.

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There was only one thing that I really liked about this book and it was the bond between the Baudelaire siblings. These were children who would do anything for each other.

Thumbs Down!

It was the adults in this book that irritated me beyond belief and seriously got up my nose. Mr Poe – the banker who was a FRIEND of the children’s parents and the executor of their will – failed epically at protecting the children and then when they did go to him with their problems he does one of the ‘How to Be a Stupid Adult 101’ things and goes and tells the baddie that they had talked to him. IDIOT man.

And then there is the judge who lives next door to Count Olaf. Let’s just say that she could be WAY more perceptive.

Oh, and one more strike against Mr Poe. Dude, Count Olaf is so unsubtle about wanting the Baudelaire fortune and he makes one ‘Violet can’t access it until she comes of age’ comment and then just lets it go over his head…Yip…

All in All!

Not my cup of tea at all – although I do have a friend who read all of them and loved them. I slogged through it but I think I will be finding another series to replace How to Train Your Dragon. I can see how children would enjoy this series and it is brilliant for introducing the meaning of new words but it just didn't click with me.

Any suggestions for another series would be greatly appreciated. I am thinking of giving The Spiderwick Chronicles a try.