Book review: Cinder

Cinder by, Marissa Meyer

4.5 stars

Goodreads  summery:
Humans and androids crowd the raucous streets of New Beijing. A deadly plague ravages the population. From space, a ruthless lunar people watch, waiting to make their move. No one knows that Earth’s fate hinges on one girl.

Cinder, a gifted mechanic, is a cyborg. She’s a second-class citizen with a mysterious past, reviled by her stepmother and blamed for her stepsister’s illness. But when her life becomes intertwined with the handsome Prince Kai’s, she suddenly finds herself at the center of an intergalactic struggle, and a forbidden attraction. Caught between duty and freedom, loyalty and betrayal, she must uncover secrets about her past in order to protect her world’s future.

My note: Doesn't sound very interesting right? That's what I thought when I put it on hold at the library. The summery doesn't do it justice trust me.

What I liked:
     I read this book about a month ago and I have wanted to do a blog post ever sense, but I've been scared to because I wasn't sure how to capture just how great this book was in a blog post. I only made it a 4.5 instead of a 5 because I know how it compares to the other books in the series.  But here we go.....
     The plot line is wonderful. It's based loosely on Cinderella, but the author added twists that I would never have thought of. I have no idea how she made Cinderella being a cyborg and the villains coming to Earth from the moon work but she did it and it was amazing. Whenever something bad happened in the characters lives than it hit me really hard, the books Prince Charming was a really interesting character, not the normal nothing prince who all the girls have to fall in love with because reasons at all, and I could really imagine living in the world the story was set in even though it was dystopian. I liked how even though it's a fairytale novel, the author set it up so it could easily be fun for both guys and girls unlike most novels like this one. The story really pulled me in and I couldn't set down the book for the rest of the day. And best of all is it's a NaNoWriMo novel which all my readers should appreciate!

What I didn't like:
     There wasn't much in this book that I didn't like, but there are a few things. At a few points in the book the characters would do something that drew me away from the story and didn't make any sense. Then I had to spend a few pages getting back into the plot line. A few of the plot twists were taken lightly by the main character and that seemed to twist my view of who I thought the character was.

Am I glad I read it:
      Yes. These are my new favorite books, and I don't change favorites very often. I rarely get so wrapped up in a book that I physically miss the characters when I'm done and practically start crying when I see how long the wait list is at the library. This book made me cry and laugh. I stayed up the night of reading it for hours rereading my favorite parts and going back over the plots in my head. I read a lot, and so it's hard or a book to make a lasting impression on my lately, and this one I've been obsessing over for months. There are still three books in the series that I still need to gather up the bravery to write a blog book review for, so beware! You should definitely clear a week to read these books and gather them all so you can read them one after another without stopping, that's what I did.

Help meeeeeee!

My story is dying a horrible death, and I need help saving it. AKA: I need editors. Badly.  Any volunteers would be greatly appreciated. Comment, and I'll send you my story. Just be warned, it's the first draft and really really really bad. I'll also critique other people's story's in return.

Art

I call myself an artist. I sew, knit, glue, cut, crochet, etc, but I don't draw or paint. Correction, I can't draw and paint. I think I may actually be physically incapable of it judging by my attempts. But I do many, many other forms of DIY. But when you think of an artist, you think of a painting or a sculpture,  not a purse someone sewed or a room that someone decorated. I make some of my own clothing and jewelry, is that art? I decorated my room, is that art? Or is art just a mash or colors on a canvas or a clump of clay. If modern colleges are art, is my gum wrapper bracelet? They look the same! I think anything creative you make is art, and that means I'm an artist. And I love that. What do you all think? What makes art, art?

Would you go back?

      I've been noticing more and more blog posts and story's about children and there lifestyles written by the people I know. Everyone is seeing how different we are now than what we were when we were little. Our values have changed, our idea of fun, most everything.
     Little kids seem so free compared to what life is for us now. Remember when the biggest worry in your life was that you didn't get the doll you wanted, or that you had to take a nap when you didn't want to. Now our worries are much bigger, much more different, but seem just as real to us as the little ones did when we were toddlers.
      But at the same time, we have so much more freedom, and so much more knowledge. When you were little and asked to walk down the road by yourself, the answer was always no. Now you can go down the road and even farther. You know so many more things, some good and some bad.
     So here's my question, if you could somehow go back in time and be a little kid again, with all the little worries but loose the things you have now, would you go back? I don't think I would. What about you?

Expressing yourself

First, happy Easter all!

     The next time you go out somewhere, look around you. You'll see different hair styles, people listening to music, shirts advertising a sport. People all over are trying to express themselves. Each person out there had a different view on who they want to be, and every person out there is different than the person standing next to them. You and your sister might be very close, almost the same person even! But there are little things that keep you different from each other, one of you likes bright colors and the other likes dark, one person likes pop music, and the other likes country. Every person out there is different in there own beautiful way.

First, happy Easter all!

     The next time you go out somewhere, look around you. You'll see different hair styles, people listening to music, shirts advertising a sport. People all over are trying to express themselves. Each person out there had a different view on who they want to be, and every person out there is different than the person standing next to them. You and your sister might be very close, almost the same person even! But there are little things that keep you different from each other, one of you likes bright colors and the other likes dark, one person likes pop music, and the other likes country. Every person out there is different in there own beautiful way.
     One of the ways I most express myself is through my art. I love to make things, and I show who I am through what I make. For example: I like funky things that I can still use, and hopefully pull together an outfit with them! Right now I'm making a zebra stripe beach bag. I draw, although not very well:), and each drawing that I do is expressing myself. You see a person walking around with flower decals that they ironed onto there shirt, or a bright pin or button that they made and you think of them differently than you do of the person that's cut up there shirt or the person that sewed a fancy collar onto there shirt.
     Music is another way. It's not something that you can always show to other people, but it's something that you can show yourself and express yourself with, show yourself who you are. I like people like Lana Del Ray and Vicky Lawrence. Again, there both a bit different than the beaten path. If a person likes country for example, they might be telling themselves that there old-country-down-in-the-dirt-people. And they are!
     The biggest outside way to show who you are is in how you dress. I wear dark colors a lot, with earrings down to my shoulders and cuffs, boot cut jeans, and combat boots. I wear these things instead of jeggings and lacy shirts first because I like them, and second because I'm showing that I like to do things differently. If a person is wearing flare jeans and a floral shirt you get one impression of them, if there wearing super skinny jeans with a dress over top you get another.
     But the biggest way people express themselves is in how they act. I won't use myself as an example for this one, because I honestly don't know how I act around other people! But I do know that if I come to buy something and the cashier barely looks at me I end up thinking he's a rude, surly person and I don't like him. But if I go up and the cashier smiles at me and talks to me the whole time I walk away thinking that she's a nice person that I like.
      Everyone is different in there own wonderful way, no one is ever the same! How do you all express yourselves? Leave a comment!

One more day

  Tomorrow is Easter. Last week at my church we read the story from the bible of Jesus being crucified. One man played the "narrator" and read the story well another person played the voices and our paster was Jesus.  Then when they got to his death we all kneeled. 

 So many people just think of dying Easter eggs and the Easter Bunny, and even though these things are great and fun, that's not the real reason we have Easter. It's turned into something that everyone can celebrate and that's good, but it's sad that the real reason has been taken away.

 Jesus died to save us. We've sinned and are still sinning and as sad as it is, we will always. But Jesus helped us in a way only God can.  He took our sins upon himself and carried them like he carried the cross. He died to save us from our sins, to take them and die for them. He died for us. 

  When I was looking up pictures to put on here I saw a story on the internet. I didn't read the whole thing, only the beginning as the page I needed opened, but it made me sad. The question that sparked the story was " should Christians celebrate Easter?" Ummmm, why wouldn't we? Because Easter is all about something worldly now not godly? Why would anyone let people take away the beauty and celebration of Jesus?

 

 This Easter, open your basket, hunt for eggs, have fun. But don't let anyone drive you away from the real reason we're celebrating, don't let anyone take you away from God who saved us. 

 

" Then Jesus cried out in a loud voice 'Father, into your hands I commend my spirit', and when he had said this he breathed his last." 

Romance

Before I even start this post I want to clarify something: this is about fictional romance, I'm not going to talk about myself here. :)
     In traditional fairy-tales they have the story, then the prince comes and saves the day for like, twenty seconds. There isn't much actual romance in the story's but it's still sweet and you will forever remember Prince Charming.
     You also have Hunger Games and Divergent. Both of these books are mainly about the main charrie fighting for there lives and all that, but romance is a huge factor in both books. It blends into the story line and makes it smooth.
     There's also the story's where the main characters are together all through the book but aren't " in love". I mean they both interact a lot, but they don't get together until the end of the book. But through the book you're shipping the two because how cute is that?
     And then there's Fault in our Stars novels. There romances so obviously the book is chalk full of romance. And that's ok, you shouldn't have picked up a romance novel if you didn't like romance! :)
     In my book I put in romance * gasp*. The main charries are like my third example, but I'm not sure if my readers will even get the two are together by the end! It's really hard to put in a little bit of romance, but not to much so it's not a romance novel.
     So what do you all think? How much romance is to much romance when the book isn't a romance? And do you think I said the word romance enough in this post? :)

I haven't blogged in so long!

Wow, it's been 11 days! What tragedy! My internets down right now so I can't blog much, and I can't check my friends blogs, so I'm sorry for not commenting! I will post more in a few days, and probably a book review, but right now I'm just seeing if this will even go through!