Book Review: The Martian by Andy Weir

This book follows Mark Watney an astronaut who is one of the first to walk on Mars and will be the first to probably die there. An unexpected dust storm comes he get injured and his crew is forced to leave him thinking he is dead but he miraculously survived. Not that it will do him much good being on Mars with a very limited food supply.

So in the synopsis on the book it says its a mix between Apollo 13 meets Cast Away and they should add the fact that this guy is FREAKING Macgyver (If You Don't Know Who That Is, I Weep For You) on Mars.

THIS IS Macgyver in action:

Need I show more? I think not.

If you wish to continue with the Richard Anderson (He Played Macgyver) theme then you can cross him with Jack O'Neill (Have You Not Seen Stargate either? The Horror. I Weep For You More) if only because of the space and actor connection.

First Off I loved Mark. Even though he's in this difficult (Understatement Of The Year) situation. He manges to keep a sense of humor. There are moments of course where he can't help it but he refuses to let the darkness swallow him whole. He tries to hold on to hope no matter what.

And for fear of spoilers I can't say much more other then this is VERY fast paced there is always something going on and there's not really any dull moments. Unless of course you're not a Math/Science person. There are points where he's explaining stuff and I barely get it but it didn't ruin the enjoyment of the book for me.

All in all I gave it 5/5 Stars and For full disclosure I got this book for review in exchange for honest review from "Blogging For Books".
http://www.bloggingforbooks.org/

I hope you guys go get this book and read it and let me know what you thought if you've read or if you plan on reading it anytime soon.

Book Review: Black Ice by Becca Fitzpatrick

This book follows Britt. One day while she and her friend Korbie on their way to Korbie's parents vacation home in the mountains, it starts to snow unexpectedly. They get trapped on the road and decide to try and find shelter... which they do. But, the people who occupy the cabin are wanted fugitives and take them as hostages.

So let me start out with the pros of this book... Amazingly, I do have some.

1) The cover: I love it
2) I liked the writing style.
It was fast paced read in the way of a train wreck: you can't tear your eyes away from it. Those are basically the only nice things to say about this book.

Now for the cons:

The main character Britt, is a self-proclaimed daddy's girl, who expects the men in her life to do everything for her. It's quite annoying.

Britt is the absolute worst - I mean, she spent more time thinking about her love life then anything. I mean, it's not like she even really had one considering the fact that Calvin (her ex) who she kept dreaming about dumped her 7-8 months prior. I'm not saying that he's not going to rescue you but you need to be realistic. In between day dreams of Calvin, she begins falling for Mason - one of her kidnappers and I'm just like >_< How can you be so ready to start your life with this other guy and yet be oh so in love with this guy who you've known for a day and who kidnapped you and don't give me anything about "Stockholm Syndrome" okay because I think it takes more than one day to manifest and a whole lot more personal time with your kidnapper.

Don't even get me started on Korbie (who is Calvin's little sister and Britt's best friend), who I give the title of the Stupidest Character in this book and believe me that is quite the achievement considering all the stupid people in this book... Which is everyone. There is not one smart person.

Then there are the kidnappers: Mason and Shaun.

Let's start with Shaun, who may be one of the least stupid people but that's because he may be more unstable than stupid.

Then there's Mason who is Britt's quote-unquote love interest... Though with the way she was drooling over Calvin and flirting with Shaun, it's hard to find a guy in this book who is not Britt's love interest. Mason is just so stupid - which is nothing new. The most that I can say about him is that he runs hot and cold with Britt but considering he's a kidnapper and he can act pretty much anyway he wants, there's really not much I can say about him... Except that he seems to like Britt but he's trying to force himself not to like her. There's more going on underneath the surface but see, the thing that we should all remember is - Britt, he's a kidnapper so him liking you in a romantic way might not necessarily be a good thing for various reasons...

There is more that I have to say but I can't without having spoilers... so, I'll probably leave a link to my Good Reads so you can read my spoiler review(Whenever Its Up) if you wish. I gave it 1 star in the end and that's being nice.

GoodReads Link:
https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/2580135-ke-sha
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Bonus:

She talked about wanting the old Mason back more then she wanted Calvin when Mason was being cold to her.
*My eyes are rolling out of my head*

Book Review: The Chaos Of Stars by Kiersten White

This book follows this teenage girl Isadora. Her parents are the God and Goddess, Osiris and Isis respectively. While they are immortal beings she is not and this knowledge is basically the problem of the whole book. It's just teenage angst with some mythology thrown in.

That's not to say I didn't like the book or more accurately grow to like the book. I say that because the main characters is annoying and listening to her yap the whole book was no fun in the least.

Let's start with the world. Where in the modern world. It starts off in Egypt but most of the book takes place in America.

Isadora who feels like her parents don't love her or even care she exist. Desperately wants to leave and manages to do so when her mother is having a vulnerable time. She is I'm going to say once again. Annoying, Whiny, Self-centered, and at times arrogant. It's not like you don't see where she's coming from but at the same time it all could have been solved by I don't know actually talking to her parents but of course even though she's supposed to be smart this is a thing she actively avoids. Although the talking thing could be said about most plot lines in books in general but she really rubbed me the wrong way and I felt no sympathy for her. Her parents, siblings, and friends on the other hand I have massive sympathy for. Although how she even mange to get friends with that attitude is a miracle in and of itself.

Although towards the end she kind of pulls her head out of her...you know where I was going. It still didn't excuse the first half of the book where all I did was hope she would find a cliff and walk off of it. As you can tell I had strong feelings.

Now she manipulates/convinces her parents to send her to live with her brother Sirius who's in his 30's and married. He seemed nice and had a good relationship with their parents much to her surprise. She seemed to think that just because she did not have a good relationship with her parents (her own doing) that all her siblings had to feel and act the same way she did.

I can't say to much about the other characters because while Isadora had a little character development the others had none really.

There was Taylor who she meets when volunteering at the museum. She was perky and nice. So was her boyfriend Scott.

Then there's the love interest Ry who was interesting as well. They didn't go much into detail with anyone though and while I love the snippets of learning of Egyptian Mythology. The book was rushed. There was a mystery of some sorts that was wrap-up fast and could have been done better. This was more like a teen drama with misunderstandings around every corner.

All in all I did like the book but didn't love it. It had a lot potential but fell short and that saddens me. I will be checking out the authors other books Paranormalcy & Mind Games because I loved her writing style and just some of the quotes I had to update my Goodreads were amazing and Occasionally I really liked Isadora's humour. Those moments of liking her happened more the toward the end of the book though.

In the end I liked the book, But it didn't really deliver on some of the things it promised. So 2/5 stars.

Book Review: Lover Unknown by Ellie Kincade

I would like to say that I got this from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

This book follows this girl, Hadley, who gets a invitation to a mysterious yet well known sex club called Club Q.

I don't have much to say about this book. It was short and it was okay.
As far as erotica goes, I've read better but the plot was interesting - just not well executed.

Hadley seems like she's fun, down to earth, and willing to try new things. So this club invite is perfect for her in a way.

But, when we get to the end, we learn something that had me rolling my eyes a little bit.

I do wonder how this will turn out in the end, since this is a first book in a series. However, I felt like it probably would have been better as a long stand alone novel.

In the end, I gave it 2/5 stars. Maybe, once all the installments are out, I'll read them back to back. But it's not a priority.

Book Review: How I Live Now by Meg Rosoff

This novel is set in an a slightly alternate and futuristic world. This world has been on the brink of World War Three for at least the last 5 years. In this book we follow Daisy, whose father sends her away to go stay with her Aunt and cousins from her mothers side. Daisy has never met this family because of issues she has had between her and her stepmother

Fifteen-year-old Daisy travels from upsate New York to the Engligh country side, where her phone can hardly get any reception. She's greeted at the airpot by Edmond, one of four new cousins, and he also later develops into her love interest. When I first read the synopsis it was very obvious to me that this would happen between them. If that sort of thing (romance between cousins) bothers you then you probably don't want to read this book. Although the author doesn’t put too much emphasis on the romance, there is a whole family for the reader to meet and fall in love with.

There is Edmond twin Issac who doesn’t speak to anyone, and is really good with animals. He is so passionate about animals that their surrounding neighbours will bring their animals to him to take care of. There is also the youngest of her cousins, Piper, who has a personality mix between Edmund and Issac. She is also very good with animals, but lacks in the way of being able to connect the same way to people.

Then there is Osbert, who is the oldest brother. He has an attitude that portrays him as one who is “all high and mighty”. This is a guy who feels as though he is too old to hang around with his younger siblings and cousin, but also feels he has the duty as the older brother to take care of them. Finally, there is Edmond and when I think of him the word mysterious comes to mind. He seems to have a strong sense of what is going on and what everyone seems to be thinking.

Daisy, is a little lost at the start which can be understandable going fron New York to England and to go from being a single child to now living with a big family. Then the war that had been threatening to start for years finally happened, and the children end up being left alone in their house. They were mostly cutoff from the outside world, that is until the war lands right on the front steps and they can no longer ignore it.

I liked Daisy because she was sarcastic, witty and strong no matter what happened. Yeah, she breaks down every now and then, but being in a war it is to be expected. She was always able to pick herself back up and keep going, which I liked. This novel started off kind of weird but interesting, and went on to completely capture me. That is all I am going to leave you with because it is so short and anything else might lead to spoilers.

I gave it a 5/5 stars and I’m hoping to see the movie soon because I heard good things about it. Just from watching the trailer I can see that there are going to be some changes made between the book and the movie, although with any adaptation I have learned to expect it.

Let me know if you have read this book and how you felt it about it, or if you plan on getting it. You can also let me know if you've seen the movie, what you thought, and if you now plan to read the book.

Trailer To "How I Live Now":

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RSaxm68PPT4

Book Review: A Song For Ella Grey by David Almond

First off, I would like to say that I received a copy of this novel from Netgalley in exchange for my honest review.


Book Synosis: Taken from goodreads.
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/22632889-a-song-for-ella-grey

"I'm the one who's left behind. I'm the one to tell the tale. I knew them both...knew how they lived and how they died."

Claire is Ella Grey's best friend. She's there when the whirlwind arrives on the scene: catapulted into a North East landscape of gutted shipyards; of high arched bridges and ancient collapsed mines. She witnesses a love so dramatic it is as if her best friend has been captured and taken from her. But the loss of her friend to the arms of Orpheus is nothing compared to the loss she feels when Ella is taken from the world. This is her story - as she bears witness to a love so complete; so sure, that not even death can prove final.
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After reading the synopsis for this story, I was instantly intrigued. A Greek retelling about Orpheus? Check. A tragic love story? Check. A beautiful cover? Check. These are all elements that I love in a story and for a book I would love to see on my shelf one day. Unfortunately, this book did not live up to my expectations for it, nor did it turn out how I expected.

This book takes place from the point of view of Claire, Ella Grey's best friend. We learn early on that she is in love with Ella romantically, however from what I could gather, Ella knows this but does not reciprocate those feelings.
The Bad:

The formatting of the kindle book was just cringe worthy. I’m usually able to ignore a lot of errors, but in this case it was just not happening. There were many grammatical errors such as “maybe" being spelled “mebbe”. Now, I know that this book takes place in England but I’m pretty sure that it is misspelled regardless of environment. Something else was that they kept saying "Biddy" a lot. After much confusion I looked it up, and apparently it is another term for “Bloody". I don't understand why they didn't just use “bloody" or if maybe they just misspelled this as well. I hope that most of these errors will be fixed in the finished copy.
The Good:

Despite everything, I did love the writing style and I found it to be very lyrical. Usually when there’s a Greek retelling it's about Posiden, Zeus, Hades,Hercules, Etc.Etc.Etc, so it was nice to see something about Orphesus.

Final Thoughts:

I liked Claire but didn’t fall in love with her character. There wasn’t anything really special that we learned about her nor significant character development. The most a reader could learn about her was that her parents lether do anything, she has a habit of leaving her homework untill the last minute and that she loves Ella.

Now, what we know about Ella is that she was adopted after being left on some steps as a baby, and that she's a dreamer, Claire's her best frined and she loves Orphesus.
Orphesus is a wander, and can sing so beautifully that nature itself wants to listen and he loves Ella Grey.
Some of these facts from these characters are interesting, but never really grow into anything. There were also a lot of secondary chracters that a reader might not care much for, and who did incredbly stupid things.

In the end I gave this book 2/5 stars because I generally liked it, although it could have been better. There were pictures included in the novel from time to time, that I am sure would have been better appreciated in a physical copy. I may pick up the physical copy somewhere down the line to see how I feel about it then.

*This book is not yet relased it comes out October 2nd 2014.

Book Review: Spring's Fall (Autumn Numbers, #1) by Harambee K. Grey-Sun

I got this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

The story of one young man crossing the burning bridge between innocence and experience, Spring's Fall is a narrative dramatic poem comprised of several stand-alone poems about fitting in and falling out, finding oneself and losing oneself, and discovering the meanings of life, love, and identity. An unusual but familiar coming-of-age narrative, Spring's Fall is a poem written in an unfashionable style that represents both the uniqueness and awkwardness felt by many adolescents trying to find their place in a world seemingly made for everyone else but them.

-Synopsis taken from goodreads.


This book is supposed to follow a storyline about someone growing up or thats what I gleamed from the synopsis.


Though out this book I catch fleeting glances of a storyline but I didn't grasp it. So it was very fortunate that the epilogues basically explains everything I read. Im torn between thinking that this is a good thing and a bad thing. On one hand Im glad that I know exactly what the storyline was and what happen but I felt like I should have been able to grasp this without needing the Epilogue.


There are a few turn of phrases that I connected with and enjoyed. (Ill Link my good reads so you can read my updates)
 https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/980719380

Now I always believe with poetry novels that it's hit or miss. Poetry books are more subjective than other genres, but this story being told in verse just did not live up the hopes I had in it.
In the end I gave the book one star, as I did like the author's style of writing. I am hoping to pick up another of his works and read it soon.

Book Review: Cain's Blood by Geoffrey Girard

(After finishing Project Cain (which I loved and reviewed - the link will be below), I of course needed to know more. I specifically wanted to know more of the gory details and this adult version Cain’s Blood provided those aspects.


For those of you who don't know Cain's Blood & Project Cain are companion novels, and take place at the same time but through different points of view. Project Cain is a young adult novel, and tended to not get into too much of the gory details. On the other side, Cain's Blood is an adult novel and doesn't shy away from these things as much.

I won’t be spoiling either of these books in this review (in my opinion) so you may read on.

Now while in Project Cain we followed the story of the government cloning infamous serial killers and what they wanted to do with them. In this novel the government raised these clones in different environments and situations, in order to learn more about Nature vs Nurture. In Project Cain we saw everything solely through the eyes of one of the clone's of Jeffrey Dhamer.
In this book, Cain’s Blood, we get a far more reaching view of the events taking place.

We get to see the point of views of the victims, various clones, various scientist, and of course the higher ups. Mainly though we see things from Shawn Castillos point of view, who was hired to capture six runaway clones who are currently on a murder spree.

I enjoyed being in Castillos head and seeing what his thoughts and interpretations were going through his mind. He's a former black op's agent who thought he's seen everything, and was sure in his beliefs. He had come to terms with some of the things the government does in order to insure the safety of his country, but in this novel he starts to question a few things.

We follow him as he and the clone he found (who is not part of the runaway six) embark on a cross country journey and find that there are even bigger secrets that neither had imagined.

Now this is an adult novel and in Project Cain, while certain things were alluded to here, we get all the gory details so if your not okay with that then just read Project Cain.

In the end I gave this a 5/5 stars because loved his his writing style and I hope to read more by this author one day.

PROJECT CAIN REVIEW:
http://theforsaken707.blogspot.com/2014/04/book-review-project-cain-by-geoffrey.html

Book Review: Project Cain by Geoffrey Girard

This story follows Jeff Jacobson who's life is torn apart when his father sits him down and tell him he's a clone of Jeffrey Dahmer someone hes never heard of before now but he's apparently one of the most infamous series killer and then his father leaves him with a thousand dollars and drives away leaving him completely alone.

Now for the whole story were in Jeff's head and and we see everything through his eyes and we see him struggle with the knowledge of how he came into this life, his relationship with his father who just happened to be one of the scientist who made him and Shawn Castillo who works for DSTI the company behind his unusual birth.

While in the start I wasn't much of a fan of Jeff. Couldn't stand some of his decisions but since I've never been in such a situation what do I know.

 I ended up empathizing with him and what he was going through. I worried for his sanity though.
Kind of hard not to as we journey along and watch him struggle about who he is and if his genes will determine who he supposed to be.

For this book the only other person we really meet is Castillo who is hired to track down 6 runaway clones.

Now Castillo seems nice enough I guess but since this is from Jeff's Point of view we mostly have to guess from his interactions with Jeff what type of person he is and we don't fully know what hes motives are where Jeff is concerned.

Which is why I'm glad there's a Companion novel from Castillo's point of view.(Which I ordered soon after reading this)

Now there was a lot serial killer name dropping. Some we were given more details on. Others not so much. We mostly get backgrounds about the who the runaway clones DNA came from.

Nature Vs Nurture. This is part of the reason Jeff and various other clones were made in the first place.
 Even as he makes his own choices goes though his own up's and downs will his genetic's determine what he will become?

I gave this books 5/5 stars I really enjoyed this novel it was a quick fast read and I look forward to seeing things from Costillo's Pont of view.

Let me know if you've read it and what your thoughts are or if you plan to pick it up anytime soon.

P.S. I read the first Chapter aloud if you would like to listen:
Fragmented #5 - Project Cain by Geoffrey Girard:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iux4fLzYXnA

P.S.S. I plan to do a video review of Project Cain & Cain's Blood Hopefully sometime soon
Here's my YouTube Channel where it will uploaded to.
https://www.youtube.com/user/theforsaken707/videos?flow=grid&view=0

CAIN'S BLOOD REVIEW:
http://theforsaken707.blogspot.com/2014/05/book-review-cains-blood.html