The Lost Crown

The Lost Crown

Sarah Miller

This is a brilliant portrayal of the last years of the Russian royal family in the 1916-1918. It is written in the perspective of the grand duchesses (Tatiana, Olga, Maria and Anastasia); the writer, Sarah Miller, keeps your full attention the whole time, and builds up the anticipation. She knows how to capture the emotions of the princesses and pulling you into their world. Following them in their imprisonment, their insecurities, being separated from their parents and in the end their death.

I became interested in the Romanov family when seeing the 1997 Disney film Anastasia, I wanted to find out more about them and if it could be true that one of them escaped. When I read about this book, I knew I must find it and read it. Several searches later I finally found it on Amazon and couldn’t put it down. 

This is worth the read. A Brilliant book

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Thr3e - Ted Dekker

Thr3e

Ted Dekker

As promised, I finished Ted Dekker’s book called Thr3e, this was an amazing book, and it kept me hooked until the end. I literally could not put it down once I started. I loaded the book onto my Kindle when we had to read it for book club; I did the unthinkable, and put down all the other books, focusing only on this one book... I know shocking stuff J

The book is about Kevin, a seminary student, who gets a phone call as he is driving home from school, informing him there is a bomb in his car, and that he has three minutes to confess a sin and solve a riddle. He sees an open parking lot with an open area next to it. He then barely escapes the car before the car blows up.

Suddenly his world is turned upside down; he needs to find out what the sin is he needs to confess before the psycho Slater destroys everything that is close to him. Slater knows things about Kevin, which he didn’t even tell Samantha, his childhood friend. Slater demands Samantha should also join his little game.

Jennifer is a FBI agent on the track of the “Riddle Killer”, and as Slater’s work looks to be the same as the Riddle killer she is assigned to the case. Slater’s riddles all involve opposites and works in multiples of three’s. Jennifer feels she is getting too involved with Kevin.

The book builds up and draws you, as reader in; you feel Kevin’s anxiety at having to reveal his past to Samantha and Jennifer. You get mad when Slater stays one step ahead, you feel Jennifer falling for Kevin. You feel sorry for Samantha when she “hands-over” Kevin to Jennifer. You want to help Kevin. The book is brilliantly written, and the ending is so unexpected.

Since Kevin is a seminary student, you can feel his trust in God, his inner conflict. This is a great novel written for Christians. This is a great book and Ted Dekker really did a fantastic job.

I heard there is a film version of the movie might try it out soon.

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Hunger Games

Hunger Games

I finally finished The Hunger Games trilogy. I must say it took me longer than I thought but I am glad I read it.

For those who don’t know The Hunger Games is a young adult novel by American television writer and novelist Suzanne Collins. It is written in the voice of 16-year-old Katniss Everdeen, who lives in the post-apocalyptic nation of Panem, where the countries of North America once existed. The Capitol, a highly advanced metropolis, rules over the rest of the nation. The Hunger Games are an annual event in which one boy and one girl aged 12 to 18 from each of the twelve districts surrounding the Capitol are selected by lottery to compete in a televised battle to the death until only one person remains.

The hunger games originated after district 13 had an uprising against the Capitol and then after destroying 13 the Capitol instated these “games” as a lesson to the rest to ensure that they don’t also start an uprising.

In the first book titled The Hunger Games, Katniss takes her sister, Prim’s, place when her name gets called in the Reaping. The other tribute from 12 is the baker’s son Peeta. The tributes are then placed on a train and they are then transported to the Capitol. On arrival they get a prep team who has to redo the tributes and make them spectacular. They also have a mentor who was a previous victor, the drunken Haymitch. On the first day of the games nearly half of the tributes are killed and Katniss depends on her hunting skills to survive. While Peeta is spinning the story of the star crossed lovers who will never be able to be together thanks to the games.

The gamemakers announce that if the tributes can survive with their district tribute both of them can survive. Katniss and Peeta join forces and fight to the end. Until the shocking revelation that they won’t be spared. Katniss gives Peeta and herself a handful of poisonous berries and they make to eat them, when the gamemakers intervene and lift them out of the arena. They are treated to a hero’s welcome, but this has also flamed the unrest already spreading through the districts.

The second book is called Catching Fire. Both of them receive considerable wealth and are living in the affluent Victor's Village of the district; however, they have rarely spoken since winning the Games, as Peeta realized that Katniss's proclaimed love towards him was exaggerated at their mentor, Haymitch Abernathy's, request in order to receive life-saving gifts from sponsors. Katniss struggles to understand her feelings about Peeta and her best friend, Gale, who kissed Katniss upon her return to District 12. As part of their duties as victors of the Hunger Games, they are preparing to embark on a "Victory Tour" to all districts within Panem. President Snow announces that, for the 75th Hunger Games, as part of the "Quarter Quell", a special edition of the Games every quarter-century, tributes will be reaped from a pool of all living Victors of past Hunger Games. Desperate to prepare, Katniss, Peeta and Haymitch begin training and studying the winning tactics of past victors. Being the only living female victor from District 12, Katniss is chosen for the Quarter Quell by default. When Haymitch is chosen as male tribute, Peeta volunteers in his place to protect Katniss. The new Games arena is a beach and jungle terrain with the Cornucopia located on a small island in the center of a miniature sea. The arena resembles an analog clock with one lethal event occurring every hour on a twelve hour cycle. At night, the group splits to prepare for the plan, but is attacked separately by the remaining tributes. Katniss is knocked out and has her tracker removed by Johanna. Johanna then leads the two remaining careers away from Katniss. An injured Katniss comes across Beetee, holding a knife tied to the wire and appearing to have planned to direct the knife into the force field. Katniss realizes the plan all along was to destroy the forcefield, and she directs the lightning at the force field's control panel with an arrow tied to the wire, destroying the force field and temporarily paralyzing her. When she awakens, Katniss discovers she is being transported to District 13: a place widely believed to no longer exist. But to her horror she realises Peeta was taken by the Capitol.

The last book is called Mockingjay, After her rescue by the rebels of District 13, Katniss is convinced to become "the Mockingjay": a symbol of the rebellion against the ruling Capitol. As part of a deal, she demands that the leader of District 13, President Coin, grant immunity to all of the Hunger Games victors, including Peeta, and that Katniss receives the right to kill President Snow, the leader of Panem, herself. Katniss watches Peeta on television, and is unable to cope with her guilt. Finally, District 13 leaders decide to rescue Peeta, realizing that Katniss' guilt is impeding her role as "the Mockingjay." After the rescue, it is discovered that Peeta has been brainwashed into believing Katniss is the enemy, and he attempts to strangle her during their reunion. Peeta gradually improves after much treatment and therapy, including cake decorating. His childhood friend, Delly Cartwright, helps with his recovery by retelling happy events in District 12. Soon, Peeta recovers fully enough to train. The rebels and Katniss eventually set off on a mission to the Capitol, and President Coin later sends Peeta with them in replacement of another soldier, although his many scarred memories fuel his rage. After the rebels conquer the Capitol and place President Snow on house arrest, he informs Katniss that the final assault that killed Prim was ordered by President Coin. Katniss realizes that if this is true, the bombing may have been the result of a plan originally developed by Gale Hawthorne; however, Gale denies his involvement. Katniss remembers a conversation with Snow, following the 74th Annual Hunger Games, in which they agreed not to lie to each other. Her suspicions plaguing her, Katniss banishes Gale from her life. When she goes to execute Snow, Katniss realizes he was telling the truth and kills Coin instead. A riot ensues and Snow is found dead, having possibly choked on his own blood (laughing) or been trampled in the crowd. Katniss then tries to commit suicide by swallowing a suicide pill sewn onto her suit before the campaign to conquer the districts began (in case the Capitol captured her during one of her missions), but Peeta stops her.

In the epilogue, Katniss speaks as an adult, twenty years later. She and Peeta are married and have two children. The Hunger Games are over, but she dreads the day her children learn about their parents' involvement in both the Games and the war. When she feels distressed, Katniss plays a comforting but repetitive "game," reminding herself of every good thing that she has ever seen someone do. The series ends with Katniss claiming that "there are much worse games to play."

This was one of the best books a read.

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A World Without Heroes by Brandon Mull

A World without Heroes

Brandon Mull

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A couple of weeks ago, a good friend of mine listened to me complaining that I am looking for a book to read that is different from the ones that I usually read. Since I was stuck on a World War 2 period and all the books I have read lately was based on that time.

At first I thought she is crazy, this is not my type of book, since it was fantasy based and I usually like more real scenario books. Well except for Harry Potter and Twilight saga. I found it an easy read. Brandon Mull has the way to transfer you into this world. Where you want to get up and actually help fight Maldor, and protect all the people of Lyrian.

The book starts where a prince is captured and blinded by Maldor; the prince then utters a WORD. A magic word, that can destroy Maldor, but alas this was a decoy Maldor. The prince is offered a chance to join Maldor or be tortured.

Jason is a teenager from Colorado; he is bored by his predictable life. Until he has a not so predictable work day at the zoo. He falls into the hippo pool, and is swallowed. The next thing he knows he climbs out of a tree in a different world. On his quest to get back home, he meets the Blind King who introduces him to Rachel who is also a beyonder. They start the quest together to find the syllables to the WORD that can destroy Maldor.

They go through difficult tasks to find the syllables. They meet displacers who can lose their limbs, and still life. They meet seed people who carries around an Amar, their seeds, this means they can grow again after they died. Jason got invited to the eternal feast, where he had to duel to be able to leave. Jason then goes to Mador’s palace and requests an audience with him. He then utters to word to Maldor. It does not work. Maldor has deceived his enemies all those years. There is no WORD that can destroy Maldor. Jason is then thrown in the dungeons after refusing to join Maldor.

Ferrin one of the displacers Jason met on his voyage, who is one of Maldor’s henchmen, helps Jason to escape. He then shows him a way home, when Jason wants to go help Rachel and warn her, Ferrin pushes him into the pool, and Jason emerges back on earth, on a farm.

This is the first book of the series. I am currently looking for the next one. This was a good change of scenario for me. It did take me a while to get used to the style of writing since I am a dedicated Jody Picoult fan. But when it finally captured me, it was a great book.

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The Book Thief

The Book Thief

Markus Zusak

I have recently finished reading a wonderful book, The Book Thief by Markus Zusak. When I first saw the book at our local book shop I didn’t like the cover, so I must admit I do judge a book by its cover. When everyone in Book club agreed to read this book at first I was very sceptical, thinking I won’t like it. Then I opened the book...

It is set during World War 2 in Nazi Germany; Markus Zusak novel is told by Death, he remembers one girl that stood out over the years. The then tells the story of Liesel Meminger, a foster child living in a small town outside of Munich. Liesel travels with her mother and brother to their new foster family. On the journey her brother dies and they bury him in a small town she doesn’t even know the name. She then steals her first book, the gravedigger’s handbook. She arrives on Himmel Street where she is handed to her new mother and father.

She has terrible nightmares about her brother, and wakes up screaming, Hans her foster father then comforts her in the nights by sitting with her until she falls asleep again. After a couple of nights he decides they might as well do something productive with the waking hours and he starts to teach her how to read using the gravedigger’s handbook. This starts her love for books, and she starts stealing books, the second book she steals is from a bon fire made by the Hitler Youth burning books that belonged to Jews.

She shares her books with her neighbours during bombing raids as well to a Jewish man, hiding in their basement. The book is a wonderful twist on the usual World War 2 books, by using Death as the Narrator. There are a couple of quotes from the book that I love.  

“So much good, so much evil. Just add water.”

“I am haunted by Humans”

This was one of my favourite books and just proofs; don’t judge a book by its cover.

Do yourself a favour, go read it, if you don’t want to buy the book yet, download the Ebook and read it

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The Help

The Help

So I finally finished The Help by Kathryn Stockett, and I must say, I loved every word; this was one of the best books I have read. I stubbornly refused to watch the movie until I was done with the book, I don’t regret it. Don’t get me wrong, the movie is brilliant, there are some emotions you can’t imagine if you’ve never been in such a situation, and the movie helped with that, but the book has so much more of the maids’ perspective, and I loved the stories.

The Help is set in 1960 Jackson Mississippi, it is in the form where the story is told by three woman, Aibeleen, Minny and Skeeter.

Skeeter just returns from college and finds the maid that looked after her was gone, and no one answered any of her questions concerning Constantine. She starts writing for the Jackson Journal, as the agony aunt of household questions. She really wants to be a journalist and sends out her cv to big newspapers across the US. She then receives a mail from Elaine Stein a publishing house editor, which says that her writing is good but she needs to stretch herself and write about things that upset her. After watching her friends interactions with their maid’s she decides to ask them to help her with this book.

Aibeleen is a maid who works for Elizabeth Leefolt, she is the carer of Mae Mobley, Aibeleen keeps trying to teach Mae Mobley she is beter than what her mother thinks of her, Elizabeth is disappointed her daughter isn’t as cute as her friends daughters, from Aibeleen comes the now famous words: “You is kind, You is smart, You is important.” I love these words; Aibeleen kept repeating them to Mae Mobley.

Minny is the “sassy” maid, she speaks her mind and this gets her into a lot of trouble with her bosses. Especially Miss Hilly Holbrook, she fires Minny and tells everyone she steels, this causes no one to hire Minny, as a last resort Minny goes to Celia Foote and she gets the job as her maid, and she starts to teach Celia to cook, she is also keeping a secret for Celia.

Miss Hilly Holbrook can somehow be seen as the “villain” of the book, she keeps pressing the fact that whites are better than black people, she also has this issue with black people using a white toilette so she keeps pushing Skeeter to publish the home help sanitary system, where she wants all the whites to build a separate toilette for their help. This initiative is what triggers Skeeter’s idea of writing the book.

Skeeter’s friends stops including her in their plans as they think she is going against the grain of society, After several incidences more maids help Skeeter with the book, the stories told by the maids are funny, sad,  inspiring. That is why I prefer the book to the movie.

So do yourself a favour, get the book and read it!

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Twopenny Rainbows

Twopenny Rainbows

Anna Jacobs

I have read this book maybe 10 times, the story is amazing, and I love books set in the 1800’s so this book naturally fell in my category. To be honest before my aunt bought me this book on one of their many trips to the UK I have never heard of Anna Jacobs (well to be honest at that stage I was more interested in the babysitters collection). The book is set in 1863 when two Irish orphans Ismay and Mara are sent to Australia to live in one of the convents there. This was against their will since both the girls was promised by their older sister Keara that she will come and get them out of the orphanage. The girls were extremely mad at Keara since they started to believe she abandoned them.

They went unwillingly on the boat to Australia to their horror on arriving in Australia the sisters was separated, Ismay was sent to work on a farm as a maid miles away from her sister while Mara has to stay behind in the orphanage. Lonely and longing to be reunited they run away from their respective places. Ismay stumbles across an old man and his help, on their trading wagon; they agree that she can go with them. And this also has its own dangers.

Meanwhile older sister Keara arrives in Melbourne to find both girls have vanished and the trail might be cold. At this point you feel that nothing goes right for these siblings, but then a miracle happens, Keara’s fiance finds Ismay and after several further attempts they find Mara. Still danger lurks when they go and live with their sister Keara.

I am not going to give away anything further since I feel this is a must read for all book lovers.

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Weekend Update

Weekend update

So this weekend was great I enjoyed it thoroughly. On Saturday morning I worked as usual, and it wasn’t that bad a morning.

Saturday evening the boyfriend and I went to watch Puss in Boots, it was my second time but he really wanted to watch it, so I obliged. I must say I enjoyed it just as much the second time as I did the first. We then went out on the highway and stopped at the Wimpy and got ourselves an ice cream and just sat and chatted and watched the sun set.

My sister had to sit at home all alone that night, since she did not want to go with my parents to visit the family, I did somehow feel sorry for her, so we cut it short and went home to have coffee and watch Top gears Polar special.



On Sunday we spend the day at home, we just went to this great new place in town that sells plastic everything. So we got a bunch of new Tupperware and just enjoyed walking around in that major warehouse. Afterwards we went to one of our friends whose daughter turned one yesterday and had lovely cake. Forgot to take a picture, will get one from the proud mommy.

Now for those of you who don’t know me, I am one of those people that like to read several different books at once. At this very stage I have 3 that I am juggling, on my bedside table I have Lesley Pearce’s A lesser Evil, in the living room I have The Help and on my phone I have Pride and Prejudice. Sometimes it takes some I can’t understand why the book isn’t carrying on where I left it, but that’s how I like it, I am a total book collector, I haven’t got a lot on my bookshelf at the moment, but like all collections you have to start somewhere. (a review will follow)

I wish you all a wonderful week, and I hope all your dreams come true.

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Book Review Sarah's Key

Sarah’s Key by Tatian de Rosnay

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I have been obsessed with all stories surrounding the holocaust and everything that went with it. Maybe it is because I grew up in a world of technology, maybe it’s because I am still young (only 23), but I still can’t figure out how one man got away with killing millions of people and other countries didn’t realise it in time, I know in some countries it still happens daily that such acts of inhumanity occur, I just don’t fathom how someone can get away with it. So it was no surprise that when I stumbled across this book and read it was set in 1942 that I set my heart on having this book and reading it. Sarah’s Key is a book by Tatiana de Rosnay and I recommend this book to anyone out there who enjoys reading a thrilling and compelling book.

Now the book has two separate parts, the story of Sarah in 1942 and Julia Jarmond in 2002.

The part of Sarah is set in Paris, July 1942 and starts where the police is banging on the doors of homes rounding up the Jewish families during the French police Vel’ d’Hiv’ roundup. Sarah’s family was also round up and her father was hiding with other men, since rumour had it that the police will only be getting all the men in Paris. When the police came they took Sarah and her mother, but before she could be taken away she hides her brother in their secret cupboard promising him she will be back, she placed the key in her dress pocket and went with the police. When they got downstairs her mother started screaming for her father and he came out of his hiding place and went with them.

Now the thing is Sarah is a ten year-old girl, so she didn’t understand what was going on, she thought they will be back by the time the sun went down and she will get her brother out of the closet, she thought he was safe.

The story of Julia Jarmond is that she is an American who fell in love with a French man, she moved to Paris and they have a daughter together. Julia was responsible for writing a story for the newspaper, on the 60^th anniversary of the Vel’ d’Hiv’ roundup. And with her research she discovered shocking secrets in her husband’s family that connect her to Sarah. With Julia’s discoveries she feels compelled to trace Sarah’s steps all the way from the stadium where they were held to the concentration camps. With each new discovery Julia finds herself reassessing her marriage and her place in France.

This book is definitely one of the books that I recommend as a must read.

This is what my copy looks like

Book review - The Devil Wears Prada by Lauren Weisberger

So I decided I wanted to at least do something sort of productive with this blog, and I know there is a lot of blogs out there who proclaims to do the best book reviews, I don't want to be the best reviewer I just want to share a bit about me. So this past week I read The Devil wears Prada by Lauren Wiesberger.

I have watched the movie several times, and when I got to the book store about a week ago, I saw the book there, and I thought I must read this, and was I right, Oh my word! It's so much better then the movie, but I must say credit is due to Meryl Streep, her portrayal of Miranda is fabulous, she hit the nail on the head.

But anyway this is not the movie revue it's a book revue.

The book is about Andrea Sachs who is a recent Brown graduate, it is her life dream to work at the New Yorker and so she sends her CV to all the magazines in New York to get that jump start in life. She moves in with her best friend Lily, who is a doing her graduate studies in Russian at Columbia. After searching for what feels like forever she gets an interview at Runway to be Miranda's assistant, she has to learn that Miranda is the biggest figure when it comes to the fashion world and with that comes great respect for the woman. She is also told that if she can work for Miranda for a year she can have any job in publishing she wants. How hard can that be?

On the first day she is already shown what it means to work for Miranda, calls all day and night, Running errands, no spare time, she is also told directly that her wardrobe is not Runway material and she decides to turn to the Runway closet to help her fit in. Through this she is neglecting her boyfriend and does not realise what is going on in her best friends life. Lily turns to alcohol to help her cope with things and Andrea does not realise it.

When Emily the first assistant is sick in bed with Mono, Andrea gets the opportunity of going to Paris with Miranda, while in Paris Lily is in a horrific car accident caused from drinking and doing drugs, Andrea has to choose if she wants to go home or stay with Miranda, and this after Miranda tells her she reminds her of a young Miranda...

Well I finished the book and will not give away the ending, go out and either take it out from the library or buy it.

The next book on my list is Everyone worth knowing by the same author. Stay tuned will give you the review next week