Friday Reads: #TMGReadAlong - The Witches by Roald Dahl!

Hello there again!

As my second review for this week's Friday Reads I have this month's book for The Midnight Garden Classic YA & MG challenge and readalong!

This month's book it was a very apt & Halloweenie book that I think I would have enjoyed more as a child than I did as an adult.

The Witches by Roald Dahl

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


I ended up really enjoying this book but I was so very put off by the beginning and the insistence on the evil of witches and them being ONLY women... It rubbed me the wrong way and it really took me a while to get into the story!

Once I managed to get past my irritation and dislike of the insistence on the evilness of women as witches (I think this is an issue of me reading this one for the first time as an adult and not as a kid) I found this one a really endearing and creepy book!

I loved the relationship between our main character and his Norwegian grandmamma and how they both found comfort in each other and how she tells him about the witches and how they become partners in crime in both adventures and fights against the witches!

The creepy factor in this book is quite high and I liked it, making it perfect as a Halloween read and as October's book for the #TMGReadAlong! The description of the witches, the presence and evil from the High Witch herself, little boys turned into mice!

I also enjoyed how the ending was hopeful and full of planning and plotting and fighting the evil witches for our boy and his grandmamma, even if it is a very open ending, since we don't know what will happen despite their plans.

All in all, I give it 3 stars because I ended up enjoying it, I loved the grandmamma but I really hated the characterization of witches and women-witches from the very beginning.



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Friday Reads: Nice Dragons Finish Last & A Good Dragon Deserves Another by Rachel Aaron!!

Hello there guys!

Happy Friday and even more to those of you that don't have to work the weekend (unlike me)! And for those like me that have to work... well, make the most of it anyways!

For this week's Friday Reads I have another pair of mini reviews because backlog... I really get too caught up on reading and end up ignoring the reviewing and it's not pretty!

These two books I read while ARC August was going strong but I needed a break from reading ARCs! They were exactly what I needed and I totally binge read them both in a day! I have to thank the awesome Kim from The Midnight Garden for highly recommending (aka book pushing) these to me! KIM YOU WERE SO RIGHT! If you want, you can read Kim's reviews HERE and HERE!




Nice Dragons Finish Last by Rachel Aaron

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


4.5 stars for this amazing urban fantasy with what might be my favourite take on dragons ever! Thank you so much Kim from The Midnight Garden, I owe you one!!

Julius, our main character is an unusual dragon, not just to any fantasy novel standards, but more importantly to his own family standards. Why? Well, he's a nice guy! Not a scheming, coniving and plotting evil kinda dragon, he even hides from the rest of the family in his room!

He finds himself in a very hard situation because his mother decides to give him an ultimatum to learn to behave like a "proper" dragon or die. And he ends mixed up with more ruthless dragons and also finds a rather unlikely ally in a mage called Marci, that has a soul sucking cat as a sort of... companion, pet?

My absolute favourite part of this book, aside from the fantastic characters, not just the main ones, but also the brilliant secondary characters that at no point felt two dimensional or flat, or the fantastic mix of urban fantasy & postapocalyptic sort of world building, or the action filled plot, with more than a few surprises, was the humour!! I adoooore the humour in this book! It's sort of everywhere without being ridiculous at any point, it makes you snort, giggle and laugh out loud alternatively!

There's a lil bit of romance here, but for the most part is a very very slow burn that made me look forward to how it'd play out in the next book! And it never overtook the rest of the book, plot or character development!

If you like dragons, urban fantasy and love when books can surprise you and make you laugh and make you turn pages like there's no tomorrow... Give this series a try!!




One Good Dragon Deserves Another by Rachel Aaron

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Another 4.5 stars!

I adore Julius and Marci and I must confess of a soft spot for the Superpowerful Seer Dragon with the Most Mundane name ever: Bob! A fantastic, game changer of a sequel!

The second book in the series takes off very closely where book 1 left us, with Julius and Marci working together as curse breakers, trying to stay out of the way of Julius' family but not being too successful... Blame the seer dragons meddling with everything!

This is exactly what a good sequel should be, with character growth and more than a few surprises that our dear Julius would have never had a clue about, an expanded world building that goes beyond what we had seen in the first book, with extra information about dragons and their past, and not only their present.

And things change, things do change a LOT! New alliances are made, we meet new characters (there are quite a few Heartstriker sibling to meet and some of them aren's half as bad as one would have expected!) and we find out the truth about some characters that we wondered how important they'd really be.

Julius and Marci keep being their awesome selves, Marci in particular keeps on being an awesome kick arse mage that manages to make the best of everything, avoiding falling into traps and manouvering herself like an absolute pro! Julius is his adorable self and discovers that doing things his own way is being a dragon in his own way (redefining dragoness, so to speak!).

And the ending... oh boy what an ending! The final was quite epic with a battle, a regime change and then some quite unexpected appearances and disappearances, waking ups and dyings and BAM! I just need the next book STAT!!

VERY VERY RECOMMENDED series!!



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Friday Reads: Firewalker by Josephine Angelini and The Girl with the Silver Eyes by Willo Davis Roberts!!

Happy Friday guys!

I've been reading loads as of late, which is great of course, but I've been really remiss at writing reviews, and now I have a backlog of reviews to write and publish, but hopefully I'll manage to sort that out!

I'm starting with two reviews for this week's Friday Reads! I'm having an ARC review that counts towards my ARC August goals first!

Firewalker by Josephine Angelini

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Last year I read and loved Trial by Fire, so getting my hands on an early copy of Firewalker was one of my top priorities at BEA, the fact that I met the author and got a signed ARC were one of my highlights of the event!

Firewalker starts pretty much where Trial of Fire left us, and so you might expect some spoilers for the first book in this review but I will try my best to avoid spoilers for this one.

Lily and Rowan are back in Lily's own universe and her own version of Salem, having escaped Lillian... more or less. Being back means having to deal with the consequences of her disappearance and having to explain a lot of things to her family and friends, the first one Rowan and her burns, even if her mum does help with everything in very unexpected ways.

But the respite of reality does not last long, and Lily find herself facing some really tough choices and keeping secrets from everyone, even from Rowan, which she knows is a very bad idea, but once started doesn't how to stop or explain.

Firewalker was a brilliant sequel because it takes us in a direction we really weren't expecting to go, with Lilly finding herself a new coven and being able to be who she really is with her family and friends.

We learn more about Lillian and her motivations for her despicable actions, and although we might still not agree with her genocide and killings, we do understand better her reasons and the fear behind what she's doing. Things stop being clearly black and white for Lily and for us, and she has to make her choices in what's clearly more in the grey spectrum and finds herself having to choose between the lesser of two evils. And she finds herself keeping more and more secrets, some with the power to break those she love.

But Lily proves that she's herself and not Lillian, no matter how she can understand the tough choices she made, and she finds herself trying to find an answer to the Woven to try and save Lillian's Salem and that reality from turning into a cinder world with her friends and some of her old allies, but not all of them.

Firewalker has plenty of new information, loads of unexpected twists and some hints at even more baffling reveals to come. Plenty of heartbreak and jarring revelations. The world building is expanded in many ways, the characters are challenged in different ways, the plot moves forward in unexpected ways and we are never sure what will happen next.

The ending was shocking, heartbreaking and a proper game changer and although I'm not a fan of cliffhangers, I have to say that Josephine Angelini really managed to left me both speechless and excited, shocked and intrigued and quite a bit shaken!




And then as my second Friday Reads review, I have August's book for The Midnight Garden Classic MG & YA challenge!

The Girl with the Silver Eyes by Willo Davis Roberts

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


This month I read the #tmgreadalong book on time and I really enjoyed it!
I keep on thinking how much I would have liked to have read this one as a young girl and how I would have dreamed that I could also move things with my mind, like Katie does.

Katie has just moved into a new place with her mum and she's having to adapt to the new place and living with her mother and a new place and new people. Something that might be hard for any kid, but Katie has never been a normal kid, and adults tend to be wary of her.

She finds herself dealing with unwanted babysitters, nice neighbours and others that are certified jerks and she makes some friends, and finds some acceptance to her oddity but still finds herself very much alone.

It was hard for me to read about how alone Katie really was, not able to confide in her mother or having her support, but instead feel like she was judged weird and held at arms lenght. She entertained herself and even if she tried to hide how she was "peculiar", she still felt like she shouldn't have to be ashamed of it.

I loved to see how resourceful she was once she found a hint of answers for her being different and how determined she was to finding someone else that would maybe be like her and would understand how she felt.

Seeing Katie use her powers for both good and mischief was a lot of fun, and I kept rooting for her to get rid of the babysitters and instead hang out with her neighbour, who would lend her books and was kind and understanding for a change. And once more silver eyes enter the fray, it was a lot of fun to see them understanding each other and working together.

It was quiter heartwarming seeing Katie's mum proving herself reliable and a better mother figure than appearances led us to believe at first, even if something dramatic had to happen to shake her into it.

All in all, a great read, both fun and with enough depth to hold its own well with younger and older readers alike! Well deserved 4 stars!



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Saturday Pages: Hatchet and The Secret of the Mansion for The Midnight Garden Readalong!!

Hello there guys!

Things are getting crazy once again because juggling everything with very few days off is complicated and I cannot wait till I get some more days off soon so I can do stuff at the apartment and have time to post a bit more!

Today for Saturday Pages I have two mini reviews for two books that are part of The Midnight Garden Classic MG & YA Readalong Challenge! They're May and July books (because I haven't yet managed to finish June's book...).

Hatchet by Gary Paulsen

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


3.5 stars. The narrative style and Brian's voice threw me a lil bit at first and it took me a while to get used to it and to his stream of consciousness mixed with his narration of current events style of writing. Even when I thought I had managed to get into the book, sometimes an event will jar me out of it because it was a bit difficult to keep events and feelings separate and making sense of both.

But I really liked how he was resourceful but nothing that he did seemed too far-fetched or impossible with some knowledge of basic survival, even if I know I'd fail at starting fire with the hatchet as Brian did!

His small failures and triumphs felt very well balanced but also made you think about for how long can he keep up with his limited supplies and knowledge? Small in a scale, but such a big thing because they could be the difference between life and death.

There was quite a strong message about how very poorly prepared we are to deal with the outdoors and how frail humans are left to their own devices and having to confront wild animals, not even counting the carnivores!

And even if it was a bit obvious, the message about appreciating what we have and thinking about where our food comes from would be a good message for all of us, food doesn't come in neat wrappers at a supermarket only, and we ought to remember what's behind it all!

The Secret of the Mansion by Julie Campbell

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


This was such a fun sweet book! And it reminded me of one of my fave series as a child, The Happy Hollisters! Oh, how I devoured their adventures!

A perfect summer read and even if it'll be a bit of a different read for younger kids these days, given how old timey it can read at times, it was full of charm and reminded me a lot of both very loved books I read when I was Trixie's age and also of the summers of my childhood, that I also spent under very little supervision, safely roaming and playing around in a small village, far from the rest-of-the-year-life-in-the-city!

Trixie was both an endearing and irritating character at the same time, because she was sweet and enthusiastic but could also be a bit too quick to judge and rather prone to act first and think later! Often rash and always determined she was also a very honest and open girl that was the best kind of influence for the very city girl and sheltered Honey (also, that name?).

They both form a team that keeps each other on balance and once they find a very unexpected friend that they want to help and a mysterious inheritance to find. I was expecting a lil bit more of the house mystery but I wasn't really disappointed because the book was full of summer goodness and the mystery was just another part of it!

3.5 stars to this one and I'm curious to give a try to more books in the series, if I can get my hands on them!



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Friday Reads: A Ring of Endless Light by Madeleine L'Engle!!

Hello there guys!

I shall be putting the blog on hiatus after this weekend, although there will still be some scheduled posts since I had some blog tours and interviews and posts that I agreed to do and I've already worked on them and have them ready so now I can stop worrying about my blog and focus only on worrying about my apartment, getting the damned keys already and pack for BEA!

Today, I have a late review to start this Friday Reads, because I'm talking about April's choice for The Midnight Garden's Classic MG & YA challenge! I was a bit late to start reading it because April truly got away from me!

A Ring of Endless Light: The Austin Family Chronicles, Book 4 by Madeleine L'Engle

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


I finished reading this one on my last night shift at work and holy hell, was that a bad choice... If you’re wondering why it was a bad choice for me to read this one at work? Well, I was feeling pretty down with all the death and with Vicky’s reaction to it all and did I mention all the death and accidents? A real bummer to go and try to smile at my patients while I wake them at 6 am for meds and blood tests.

Well, I give this one 4 stars, even if I have some serious issues with some parts of the book, but Vicky being a rather wonderful almost 16 year old girl, that felt realistic and rather sensible even being a dreamer and poet and one that didn’t feel like she had to do or give in or feel guilty-ed (not a word, I know, forgive me, I slept lil today!) into doing what any of the boys would want her to do, from Zachary pushing her (for goodness sake, HE’S BLOODY 20!?!), to Leo wanting to be more than she wanted and Vicky being very clear that she just wanted to be friends, and Adam… Adam pushing her away and also needing her and Vicky being mature enough to know she what she wanted but also respecting the boundaries as long as she was treated as someone mature enough to talk to and not a child to be condescending. I was very glad to see that Vicky was more into thinking than simply swooning…

But what really made me give this book the 4 stars was the dolphins! All the dolphin interactions, the swimming, the mind-melding/telepathy with them, Norberta, Basil, baby dolphin… and everything about them really! I adore every interaction, every way in which dolphins are shown as interesting and intelligent creatures with perhaps a different intelligence & understanding from ours. I just couldn’t help but hum “So long and thanks for all the fish” sometimes in my head, and my Hitchhikers fangirl was squaling a bit at all the dolphin-ness. I need to go swimming with dolphins somehow, it’s always been on the bucket list, but boy have I been reminded of HOW MUCH I WANT TO!!

The dolphins also bring me to another favourite part of the book, because I loved how characters discuss and talk about why’s, how’s and science and philosophy and how to figure out your questions about life, the universe and everything (sorry, had to do it, again) and how to figure out yourself. Vicky’s demands of being treated like mature enough would have been rather more annoying if her main demand was caused because she wanted to be treated as someone that can talk about complex issues and will bother to learn and understand and be open enough to new ideas, not just as “someone old enough to kiss” which unfortunately is more the focus on more recent YA’s.

I really liked the Austins, even if I felt some of the Bible talk and quoting and discussions about God felt a lil preachy at times for me, but never too much to make me want to stop reading, only a bit of frowning now and then. And they were what I call the good kind of Christians, if you allow me to use that qualifier. They are kind, inclusive, eager to talk and learn and to help people and not think they are better than others or have all the answers. A bit preachy or not, they’re a family I probably wouldn’t mind spending time with, if I can duck having St Agustin quoted at me! ;)

Going back to the three boys… if this would have been another book I would have totally said “hell no!” but it was done so very well! More in a way of exploring friendships and attraction and relationships, and not simple indecision back and forth of declarations of love. Vicky is clear with them all and the boys are more or less clear too. And quite frankly, the only one actively trying to woo her and taking her on dates is Zachary, since Leo and her seem to be hanging out as friends mostly, even if he tries to push the boundaries and Vicky is clear and upfront with him all the time. And Adam… well, he’s the one with the most genuine connection and that spend more time with Vicky talking and interacting with the least “date” scenario, and he ends up being the best option, even with the age difference. I was shocked and rather appalled when Zachary was revealed to be 20!! O_o I felt bad about Zachary but I was bothered that he was made such a “broken bad boy” cliché. And that the non-Christian option was represented so cartoony, and with the most shallow characters, like Zachary and his dad.

And last but clearly not least given the importance and how overwhelmingly present the theme was all over the book: death. It made me wonder if the author had suffered some loss recently when she was writing? Because sometimes it felt like a way for her to go through the stages of grief and how to get yourself together! I feel like the illness and clearly upcoming death of Grandfather and the dolphin baby would have been rather enough, but there’s so much of it! Yes, I know quite well that life can suck like that sometimes, but oh boy! The way Grandfather’s illness progression and treatment and deterioration and how that affects the family as a whole and each one of the differently was done brilliantly, and that would have been more than message enough, I feel. Some of the added deaths felt a bit like kicking us in the gut when we were already down, you know? I am someone used to death surrounding her and it took me a while to kick the gloominess after finishing the book!

Still, this is a very recommended book for teens to try and make them stop and think about life, and for adults too, because we all might need a reminder now and then. And dolphins make everything better!



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Saturday Pages: The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett!!!

Hi there everyone!

The weekend is here and I have to work, but I had a lovely lazy and full of reading day off yesterday, so I will not complain!

Today as my first Saturday Pages review I have The Midnight Garden's Classic YA & MG challenge book for March! As per usual (except for last month) it was a book I had not read before and as per usual, I thoroughly loved and enjoyed it! As usual I will be taking part in their discussion post and writing my usual looong babbling novel of a comment, and I have my own review up here!

The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


Another gem of a book discovered via the #tmgreadalong. I really am extremely happy that I decided to join the ladies at The Midnight Garden in their classic middle grade & young adult challenge last year, and I do plan to continue to be part of as it as long as they have it!

I was intrigued by the beginning and despite our lil Mary being quite contrary I felt immensely bad for her. She was ignored and spoiled and unloved and she didn't even know what she was missing, which is the worst part of the whole thing.

Then she is taken to England and gets stuck in another grand house where she might not lack anything except love again, but thankfully for her she doesn't have the same kind of servants attending her, but a young pure Yorkshire girl that takes no nonsense from her. I simply loved the change in Mary as she was first a lil forced and then allowed to play on her own and explore and be a child outside!

And I absolutely loved her determination to find the Secret Garden and to make sure it was kept alive! I adored how she was so different with Dickon and Martha and how she loved everything about them and their family and how she stopped thinking herself as above them and never acted like she would have before. She might have been acting out of selfish reasons, but she was kinder that you could have expected her to be!

I was quite surprised when we got introduced to Colin, the small Rajah, and the biggest tyrant you could imagine. I could barely conjure any sorry feelings for him at first, and I was beyond happy when in one of his "fits" Mary came to him and confronted him with her own "spoiled girl" manners! Who would have thought that Mary could be such a great influence, along with Dickon, the red breasted robin, Dickon's menagerie and loads of fresh air!

I just loved how important family was in this book, and how it showed the influence of good examples and encouragement can be. It's also quite a tongue in cheek dig at the way children in afluent families were raised, primed & pampered but without real affection, and it's a wonder how those kids grew to be even half functioning adults!

And I love how doing something with your hands, making things grow and watching and interacting with others that are different from you can be both eye opening and sobering. It's not like planting a flower or two and interacting with someone with a different upbringing will solved every problem for spoiled kids... but it will make them confront themselves with different realities and with some luck make them think about what they have and what other's have and not.

I adored the descriptions of the moor, the gardens, the secret garden and all the food that they were getting! It made long for some warm oatmeal and buns and scones and tea time... *sigh*. It was a wonderfully visual book! I could clearly picture myself in every room and every part of the gardens, and even at the cottage in the moor!

If I had to pick a favourite character it would be Susan Sowerby, even if we don't get to have her in the flesh in the pages till the last part of the book, she's very much present at every turn of the page, with her advice, her observations and her considerable common sense wisdom! She is the archetype of a mother figure and I loved when we finally got her to interact directly with Mary and Colin!

A wonderful book that made me long to visit the moor, skip around the secret garden, have some buns and scones with my tea and made me long for the Magic. Well deserved 4.5 stars!



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Friday Reads: Mrs Frisby and The Rats of NIMH!!

Hey there guys!

Happy Friday! This week's Friday Reads is once again this month's The Midnight Garden Classic MG & YA book! I'm so very happy to continue with this challenge and even more since this month for the first time, it was a re-read for me too!

Mrs Frisby and the Rats of NIMH by Robert C. O'Brien

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


I continue to take part of the Classic MG & YA challenge hosted by the ladies of The Midnight Garden and this month's book was for the first time since I joined, a re-read!

I read Mrs Frisby and the Rats of NIMH when I was still in primary school and I think it was one of the first books I got from the public library as opposed to getting it from my school's library.

To be perfectly honest I didn't remember all that much about the book, to my shame, even if of course I knew I had read it and a very general idea. But once I started reading it I kept remembering the feelings that the book evoked in me, all those years ago!

Our main character is Mrs Frisby, a widowed mouse that is taken care of her four children on her own, and finds herself in a very tough position, where she needs to find a way to move to her summer house without it costing her the life of her younger & frail and sick child, Timothy. She finds herself getting help from unexpected allies, like a crow and an owl and finally the most unique and intelligent rats.

I remember being extremely fascinated by the rats and their past and I was equally fascinated this time around! It's fantastic how based on reality the whole labs of NIMH were, with the trials of different serums, the control group, the learning techniques with the mazes. How they were rather smart animals to begin with and how they began to improve and become more and more intelligent, plotting and planning and learning to read. I have a serious soft spot for characters in books that love reading!

I loved how strong a character our Mrs Frisby was! She was tough and kind and brave and knew how to get over her fear to do what she felt was right! The book was full of wonderful lessons like how kidness can be returned to you tenfold, how you need to make something of your own instead of simply taking the easiest way out, and it never felt preachy, which is quite an achievement!

This book really made me cheer for the rodents and hope for an alternative society of intelligent beings that were not humans. I must say that thinking about it now, this book is plenty dark and scary with the themes it deals with, but the main feelings I remember were of fascination and wonder!

A great book that was a lovely re-read for me! 4 well deserved stars!



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Friday Reads: Tuck Everlasting by Natalie Babbitt!!

Hello there guys!

It's Friday and I have the day off and the weekend off!! *does happy dance*

To celebrate the long weekend off I'm having my review of Tuck Everlasting for Friday Reads, since I'm very happy to continue taking part of the Classic MG & YA challenge from The Midnight Garden ladies and their readalong and discussion!

Tuck Everlasting by Natalie Babbitt

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


I had not read or even heard of this book before it was chosen as part of The Midnight Garden's Classic MG & YA Challenge for January. After that I started seeing more about it everywhere given that its 40th anniversary was coming.

I had planned to start reading the book last night at work, but I ended reading it start to finish. It was a fast and endearing read, but also one with plenty of food for thought.

This is the story of Winnie Foster and the Tucks and the choice of what to do to defend what you think was right. And also what would your choice be if you had immortality within your grasp? We see almost everything develop from Winnie's POV, although we also get a few other POVs.

Winnie is an only child that feels smothered at her house and one morning decides to go on a small adventure that turns into the biggest adventure of her life. One that gets her to meet a most interesting family, the Tucks, and that makes her grow quite a bit in a lil over 24 hours, making her change her opinions about the world and what she thought she wanted.

I found really sweet how the Tucks dealt with their immortality, each one of them in a different way, but how none of them were turned into something different by greed or ambition, they remained essentially who they were, even if not all were unhappy about their unlimited time.

Winnie showed a certain amount of both childish choice and wisdom beyond her years. Her toad was her first friend outside the house, the one that made her take a step outside and into a larger world, and she wanted to make sure her friend was safe. That way she once again gave power to someone/something that was not likely to misuse it!

This is one of those books that can be read by children and adults alike, and that will provide food for thought for both and that can spark many interesting debates and conversations. Very well deserved 4 stars to this one!



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Mark This Book Monday: The Luckiest Girl by Beverly Cleary!!

Hello everyone!

A new week starts, and hopefully one full of good news! It's also the week of Xmas, so Happy Holidays to you all! We won't be celebrating too much over here in the family, but please keep your fingers crossed for me while I continue to try and get my apartment!

For this Mark This Book Monday I have another classic YA book that will be my 8th, allowing me to count the Classic YA & MG Challenge & readalong at The Midnight Garden as completed and not flunked! This one was March's book so I'm a bit late to the discussion, but better late than never!

The Luckiest Girl by Beverly Cleary

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


This is another of those classics that I never had heard of before and that I missed originally on the Classics challenge at The Midnight Garden when I was the readalong book in March.

But wanting to complete the challenge and not fail it, I decided I needed to read a book that wasn't too long, and went for this one!

Shelley was a very sweet teenager but her mental processes being so taken up with boys did manage to annoy me on occasion. But the moment she started arguing with her mum about the slick vs the raincoat and reacted by destroying the roses... I decided that I liked her more! I was never too explosive as a teenager but I could really understand the frustration and the differences between mother and daughter. I still have them today with my own mother, but I am the kind that doesn't really argue but end up doing whatever I want... ;)

Shelley moves to California for a school year with her mum's college roommate, which seems like a fantastic adventure for a sixteen year old girl that had never travelled on her own or spent time away from home. I really loved that she appreciated everything and looked at her trip and all the differences as wondrous instead of comparing them and finding them lacking with what was "back home". Her enthusiasm popped from the page and was quite contagious too.

Seeing San Sebastian and the new school through her eyes was quite refreshing, and although her obsession with Phil was a bit eye-rolling-inducing, she felt very genuinely a teenager, because at some point and in varied degrees... we were all obsessed with boys (or girls).

I loved how Shelley grew and learnt some lessons during the course of the book, how she became to understand herself better seeing Katie and her reactions, and how that gave her perspective to her past and current actions, making her understand her mother better.

Shelley also realized why she felt like she got tired of Jack and why she didn't feel like things were working out with her dream boy in San Sebastian and realizes that crushes when you don't have many things in common can get pretty awkward, and sometimes the guy you think of as a friend and enjoy sharing things with is the one you can be with and love in the end.

What I found extremely sweet and that dated this story more than anything else was the way Shelley thought about the boys and the relationships, how it was all "going steady" and there were so few kisses and dates were more doing things together and the boys going into the house to meet the parents (or responsible adults) compared to what contemporary books of today show, with more absent parents, more uninformed parents and loads more kissing! ;)

A very sweet read that I ended up liking more than I expected at first. 3.5 to 4 stars for thi one.



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Saturday Pages: Little Women by Louisa May Alcott!!

Today is yet another later than usual Saturday Pages, I was just hooked up finishing one book and starting another and it took me a while to part me from the books when I woke up after my morning-nap-after-night-shift-at-work, but I'm finally here and there's a review up!

This Saturday's book is December's book for The Midnight Garden's Classic MG & YA Challenge and Readalong, and it is yet another challenge that I've managed not to flunk and that I will continue with over in 2015, since I've already bought the books for Jan & Feb!

After or before reading my review of Little Women, don't miss dropping by the discussion at The Midnight Garden!

Little Women by Louisa May Alcott

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


I read the book for the first time when I was 12-13 and then saw the 1994 movie and I feel that most of my opinions on the story became influenced more by the movie than the original reading of the book, and that reflects very much on how heartbroken I was over Jo and Laurie.

But if there's something this re-read has showed me is that although some perceptions have changed from my first reading, some essentials have not changed: I adore Beth and suffer greatly for that sweet darling, I continue to understand Jo's struggle to be who she wants to be and her defiance of what is expected and proper, I still despise Amy with a burning passion, Meg is still a dear, Laurie is "a great chap" but he loses all points with his final choices and the social expectations and limits on women still make me see red with a white hot rage.

I appreciated in a different way the love and bond between the sisters and I found it to be quite probably the biggest highlight of the book for me. I didn't appreciate as much and was much more bothered by the moralizing in the book this time around. I don't mind some references to being a good person and being caritative and cheerful with what you have, but all the references to what a good woman should do or do not... again white hot rage. I know it's frame in its time period, but it always makes me happy that I was born on the age I was, despite the way still to go.

I wasn't happy how Amy seemed to get rewarded for sticking to the shape society chooses for women no matter how horrible a person she continued to be and that Jo being herself and not conforming to the square she was supposed to stay in, ended up being punished and had to try and settle somewhat with someone that will allow her a position but also some sort of freedom, but that doesn't seem like will make her really happy.

After the discussion at The Midnight Garden it also made me wonder if Jo's wants to be a boy were more than just her wanting the freedoms and choices that men had and she didn't have as a girl, or if it had a queer underside, with Jo feeling like she should have been a boy, therefore showing some trans qualities.

The book has gone a lil bit up on this re-read, from my upset 3 stars to 3.5 to 4 stars. A classic that has to be read.



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Friday Reads: Farmer Boy by Laura Ingalls Wilder!!

Hello guys!

I'm starting this week's Friday Reads with another wonderful MG & YA classic from the Midnight Garden's challenge and readalong!

This year I joined late, because I think I only started reading in June or July, but I do hope they will do the Classic MG &YA readalong challenge next year again, because I'm loving discovering some lovely books that I never read when I was younger!

Farmer Boy by Laura Ingalls Wilder

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


This is both a very sweet book and a lesson of history on the everyday work that pioneers in America did. And of course it's full of the most amazing descriptions of food ever!

I had never read any of the Little House On The Prairie books before but now after reading Farmer Boy, I feel like I really need to read them all! The writing is lovely, apt for both younger and older readers and the descriptions of the family life and the characters are absolutely charming!

Almanzo lives with his family in a farm and he's a little boy that is about to turn 9, and doesn't like much going to school. He prefers staying home and helping with the chores, wants to grow up and have his own colt to tame.

Reading this book kept making me hungry with all the wonderful descriptions of food, pancakes, pies, marmalades, jams, and anything and everything, and alternatively made feel like I wouldn't last a day working in a farm like the Wilder's, because chores start at 5 am and there was so much hard work! Still, it was done with some love, dedication and pride in their job, and Almanzo was so willing to prove his worth that it was never made feel like grueling and terrible work.

I was expecting the books to be a bit more preachy for some reason, but they never felt so. The kids misbehaved on occasion and they were never perfect and they simply sounded so genuine when they were a lil naughty and then repented. The time when they were left alone in the house and used up all the sugar making ice cream and almost ruined the parlor's wallpaper is the best example!

With plenty of details about genuine frontier living for the pioneers and a lot of love for that way of living in the way it's written this was a great book for me to read as an adult, and one that I'd recommend for kids nowadays to read for sure. Just a word of warning, you'll want to eat everything mentioned in the book for sure!

Well deserved 4 stars for this lil gem!



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Saturday Pages: Animorphs by Katherine Applegate - Invasion, Visitor and Encounter!!

Hello guys!!

Returning from vacation, dealing with a small case of jet lag (I'm back to being my night owl self though) means that the blog is still in a bit of a not really up to date case, and give all the drama that went on during the past week, I'm surprised at how motivated I am to keep blogging, even if I'm not at my most productive!

Today I'm starting with three mini reviews for the 3 books that were the Classic Middle Grade & YA readalong this past month of October at The Midnight Garden! I love discovering amazing books that I love now and that I know I would have loved in my younger years!

The Invasion by Katherine Applegate

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


Another series that I missed in my youth and that I got to read thanks to the ladies at The Midnight Garden Classic Middle Grade readlong!

I've always been a big fan of science fiction and this is classic science fiction with aliens and spaceships and a war between good and evil that spans galaxies and ends up at our doorstep.

The first book follows Jake's POV, he's one of the group of five kids that decide to take a shortcut through an abandoned construction area and end up being the first to establish contact with an alien, being warned of the invasion going on in Earth by another race of aliens and give special powers to try and fight them.

I loved how the kids' reactions were extremely believeable, they were scared and intrigued and fascinated and then even more scared. But they decide that whatever they witnessed can't be ignored and do whatever is in their power to help fight! Marco isn't very keen on the idea, Tobias is the most determined of them all, his past probably given him more reason to fight for something that will seem more worthy than what he has, Jake at first doesn't want to fight either but feels that it cannot be ignored and the same goes with Rachel and Cassie.

The aliens are insidiously taking over human hosts under the cover of a group/association called The Sharing, that just my name gives a "body snatchers" vibe to me, and the group decides that they need to free as many unwilling hosts as possible, once they discover a place where aliens can be vulnerable. They try to prepare as best as they can, but even with their morphing... they just cannot fight all the aliens and fail at rescuing people & barely make it out of there alive. And not only that, there's quite a tough consequence to their trying to do the right thing and that I wasn't expecting so early in the series!

A really intriguing first book, with characters that are flawed but likeable and that I think would be a perfect introduction to science fiction! 3.5 stars for this one!



The Visitor by Katherine Applegate

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


After the events in book one we have the 5 Animorphs reeling with Tobias plight and with the revelations of who all are working with the Yeerks, voluntarily or not. This one is on Rachel's POV and it made me love her character even more!

She's one strong and determined girl and one that doesn't like that anyone think that she can't do what others can do because she's a girl, and she's got quite some awesome sass in her.

The mission now for the Animorphs is trying to get intel and find out the new location of the Yeerks pool and to do so they need to spy on Mr Chapman, a human Controller, and the best way to do so in for Rachel to morph into the family's cat: Fluffy McKitty.

This book deals with the voluntarity of sacrifice and how not all hosts were passively accepting their Yeerk masters, and also details a lot more on the effects of morphing, not only during the experience and how you feel what the animal is feeling by instict and emotion but also how that affects you and how there's a fight for control between the animal mind and the human mind. I loved the descriptions of being a cat and how essential they're the most awesome animals, because even when scared, they take no crap from anyone!

I really liked that parents are shown in this book, trying their best to protect their kids as is within their limited means, and not simply be absent or dismissive. I understand that all the kids are unsure about talking to their parents or any other adults, cause you don't know who could be a host to a Yeerk.

Another really fast and gripping read with quite complex themes being addressed but with no preachy feel to it, well deserved 3.5 stars.



The Encounter by Katherine Applegate

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


This third book has Tobias as main POV and it was the most heartbreaking of the lot so far for sure!

This review will probably have a few spoilers for book 1 and 2 so please be aware of that, and read at your own risk!

The animorphs have survived another battle and have eluded Visser Three for the second time, but things are becoming more and more dangerous with every interaction, even more because they're suspected of being Andalites warriors and not human kids that can morph.

This one not only deals with being odds as the kids find some weaknesses about the Yeerks and how they depend on Earth to provision the mother ship but also with the consequences of not being able to come out of morphing in time and living as an animal permanently, since Tobias finds himself wondering if he's human anymore and gives into his hawk instict and mind. Reading about his struggles and how the relationships between the gang help him realize he's human not matter what his exterior shape might be was quite heartbreaking! He loves flying, he loves being free but it's like a case of "careful what you wish for" cause he misses all the things that he took for granted before.

The confrontation with Visser Three here is in an even bigger scale and the Animorphs really dealt with some close calls. I really loved this one and I cannot wait to read book 4 now! Well deserved 4 stars for this one!



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Saturday Pages: Harriet The Spy by Louise Fitzhugh!!

Hey there guys!

Today's Saturday Pages post is up considerably later than usual but not only I was massively tired and rather emotionally wrenched after a bit of tiring night shift at work, but also once I've been up and flaffing around the internet, I've been procastinating about a bit... but here it is!

After skipping last month's read cause I ended up being too busy, this month I've been back with the amazing ladies at The Midnight Garden and their fantastic Classic Young Adult & Middle Grade Challenge!

Harriet the Spy by Louise Fitzhugh

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Reading Harriet was once again part of the Classics Middle Grade & YA realong that the awesome ladies of The Midnight Garden have going on this year. I arrived late but I've loved joining and reading all these books that I missed on my own childhood. With some it's easier to see them with my own childhood eyes, but others are a lil more difficult and I end up reading them as my adult self only, and Harriet the Spy was one of those.

Harriet was a breath of fresh air if we discuss more usual characters in classic YA, because many of the ones that come to mind are too perfect children with their prayers, their chores and their telling the kids that are reading them to behave like that or else. Harriet felt more like a real child, like someone kids that aren't perfect can relate to in one way or another.

Harriet is girl that is different from all the girls I read about on most of my MG reads, she wants to be a spy and works very hard at it, keeping her notebooks full of her writings and observations, that hit me as mean without meaning to, born in a rather privileged family and with a nurse, Ole Golly, to take care of her. She loves her routines and will only eat tomato sandwiches for lunch at school.

When her latest notebook ends up in the hands of her friends and classmates she has to face the aftermath of all the mean things she's written about them, and is confronted with quite a few lessons about growing up at the tender age of 11.

Maybe I was a nicer kid back in my own childhood or maybe I was more prone to instrospection and self analysis on my own journals, but except for some very poignant comments here and there about life, most of Harriet notes on her notebooks came across as just nasty, without malice but showing a certain lack of empathy that could be simply part of growing up, but it seems to me that she fails to see how what she gets from her classmates and friends after the notebook is found is no more and no less but what she was writing in private.

I found this book to be a very fascinating read about the time period and the world that Harriet lived in, one of material privilege but of a lack of emotional support. Her parents though loving simply had left everything in the hands of the nurse and once Ole Golly leaves, they realize they don't know their own child.

Harriet in some aspects made me think of kids that although not fully, are somewhat on the autism spectrum with her difficulties of grasping other people's emotional responses or responding with empathy, her attachment & compulsion to write on her notebooks, her inordinate love of routines only broken when she's terribly upset and her tomato sandwich obsession. After talking to the ladies at Midnight Garden I also realized that there seems to be a certain queer subtext on Harriet's preferring her more boy-ish spy clothes to her more normal girly clothes. But all simply boiled down to Harriet being a character with which people that aren't exactly "normal" or "perfect" could relate to.

Of the secondary characters some might have seemed more cookie cutter typical, like the main mean girls that seem to only want to emulate their mothers and have tea and play bridge, but there are also others that are great as contrast, such as Sport, a boy so young that still has to be the brains and common sense in his household with a rather made writer father. And Janie with her love for chemistry and experiments that also made her not exactly the kind of daughter her well-to-do parents would have expected.

This was one of those books that have left me with more food for thought that fuzzy feelings, but both are equally important for me and equally necessary. Very well deserved 4 stars for this one!



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Showcase Sunday #44!!

Showcase Sunday is a weekly feature hosted by Vicky of Books, Biscuits, and Tea where all book lovers can share with others what bookish goodness we got this week, be it purchased (physical or eBook), won, gifted or for review!

It's been a pair of weeks at least till I managed to work on a SS post and I have waaay to many eBook accumulated (SO MANY PREORDERS for August 5th and also for this past Thursday!!) so instead I will be focusing on all the amazing physical books and swag and other awesomeness that I picked up yesterday at the post office!!

Purchased (via The Book Depository)

I got 4 lovely books that I will be giving away, GoTaS giveaway will be up tonight itself and the other three will be part of my birthday giveaway!

The Art of Lainey by Paula Stokes

The Winner's Curse by Marie Rutkoski

Gates of Thread and Stone by Lori M Lee

A Mad Wicked Folly by Sharon Biggs Waller

Won In A Giveaway

I have been so very lucky as of late, winning giveaways and a few of the prizes arrived this week! I picked them all up at the post office yesterday. I won Guy in Real Life from Adriana at Reading Fictional and Unravel from its blog tour hosted by The Unofficial Addiction Book Fan Club. Thank you so much ladies!!

Unravel by Imogen Howson

Guy In Real Life by Steve Brezenoff

For Review (via the author)

I was also quite lucky to be sent the ARC of her upcoming new book by LeighAnn Kopans for review and I loved it to bits! Cannot wait for my signed copy to arrive!

First World Problems by Leigh Ann Kopans

For Review (via NetGalley)

A big thank you to Algonquin Young Readers and Spencer Hill Press for the approval for these one via Netgalley!

The Walls Around Us by Nova Ren Suma

Between by Megan Whitmer

Damsel Distressed by Kelsey Macke

Bookish Swag won in a giveaway

I was extremely lucky to win an international giveaway at The Midnight Garden for a Throne of Glass tote and a ton of swag! Some signed, some not and some super adorable TMG buttons and bookmark! Thank you SO MUCH Wendy!!

Purchased on Etsy

I've already told you about the very awesome hand painted bookish totes from Pivot Book Totes, and I want to show off the latest ones I got this week!

And this is all for this week! I was quite overwhelmed when I went to pick up everything at the post office, and I'm still missing some of my preorders, mainly Dangerous Boys by Abigail Haas.

What all did you guys get this week?

Friday Reads: The Girl With All The Gifts by M.R. Carey!!!

For my last Friday Reads entry of the week, I have yet another 5 stars review for today! I must thank Wendy from The Midnight Garden for her review, recommendation and book pushing to make sure I preordered this one!

And a big thank you and a hug to my dear canary and awesome fellow blogger Kristen from My Friends Are Fiction for buddy reading this one with me. If there is a book that need to be read with a buddy, is this one! Someone to discuss all the twists and to give moral support through the creepiest bits was extremely welcome!


The Girl with All the Gifts by M.R. Carey

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


This is one those books that you just cannot help but want to push into everyone's hands as soon as you're done reading it, even more... I started recommending it even while reading it!

Wendy from The Midnight Garden was the one that put this book on my radar, and conviced me to preorder it immediately! And boy am I glad she did! I read this one with Kristen of My Friends Are Fiction and it was the right thing to do! This is a wild ride of a book and having someone to talk to about all the shocks and turns you keep on getting!

I'm gonna try to keep this review as vague as I can because this book is best enjoyed with as little information as possible! Not without some warnings, of course. This is a disturbing book, with some really creepy moments, some extremely disgusting moments of violence (animal and children). But it is also full of food for thought and a lot of moral questions. And this is a zombie book, but really I should say that this is THE zombie book!

Now, you go and read the book! Never mind me babbling for a little longer here, because I cannot help it, since this was a fantastic book!

The summary is a bit vague and with good reason! We start the book wanting to know why Melanie is in a cell and then taken to a classroom at gun point. And it is not a mystery that is dragged along the book, not at all. I was actually very surprised how soon we got some of those answers, but then again... this book manages to throw you a curve ball every few chapters, completely unexpected and that leaves you reeling. And of course there are added creepy and disturbing moments all over the place!

And that ending... I had no clue how the book was gonna end because by then I was sure I was gonna get surprised not matter what theories I had made up on my own head. And yes, the ending got me completely by surprise. Once you think about it for a while, it is both a hopeful and still grim & hopeless sort of an ending and the most fitting sort of ending for this book.

This is a 5 stars book, and probably ALL THE STARS! I loved it to bits, how it made me squirm, how it made me think, how plausible is it, how science wasn't dumbed down but not confusing, how creepy and disturbing and how deep it was. A brilliant brilliant book indeed!



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Mark This Book Monday: All Four Stars by Tara Dairman!!

Hello everyone! How's Monday going? I'm starting the week working morning shift (ugh!) but I have a pair of reviews of books I loved to start the week right!

The first Mark This Book Monday post is all about one of the books I took on my unplugging weekend stack and one that I absolutely loved! It's another one of the MG recommendations from Wendy from The Midnight Garden, and another success! Thank you, Wendy!



All Four Stars by Tara Dairman

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


I hadn't been reading much MG as of late, not till I decided to join The Midnight Garden's Classic MG/YA reads challenge! And then I started reading a few more MG books and rediscovered my love for them! So when Wendy recommended I read this one, I preordered it immediately!

The moment I started this one I fell in love with Gladys and her love for food and cooking, and felt really bad for her and her parents' lack of worry about what they were feeding their daughter. Take out and microwave meals all the time? The way Gladys' parents talk about food and cooking made me wince, and I'm a bit lazy when it comes to cooking sometimes too!

Food is extremely important in this book, mainly cause it's Gladys' passion but we also get a look at Gladys' school life, where she deals with her own lack of friends and changes of status and popularity. It was lovely seeing her growing out of her own self-imposed limitations and finding her self coming out of her shell and not leaving behind her passion.

I loved reading all the descriptions of foods and recipes and restaurants, and it gave me a massive craving for carrot halwa, to the point of making me want to make it, since neither of the Indian restaurants here have it on their menu! The talk about different desserts made me itch for baking some, even with the damned heat!

Gladys find herself being offered a job after a bit of homework finds its way into the wrong paper pile. From then on she has to make sure she finds a way to juggle school, her newly appointed job and making sure she stays within the lines of the restrictions her parents put on her after the disaster of the créme brulee.

Adorable, sweet and delightful, a book that will brighten the darkest of days and that will convince the pickiest of eaters (maybe, hopefully?) that food is something to be enjoyed and trying new things is almost always a food thing!

Well deserved 4.5 stars to this one, and now I cannot wait to see what the author will have in stock for us in the next book, and what food I'll be craving madly after reading it!



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Friday Reads: All-of-a-Kind Family by Sydney Taylor!!

Hello everyone! Happy Friday! This Friday is a particularly happy one for me since I'm gonna be leaving for my parents cottage and gonna be there till Monday, spending my time relaxing, reading, playing with the puppies and sleeeeping!!

As my first entry for this week's Friday Reads I have yet another of the Classic Middle Grade books from The Midnight Garden monthly read-alongs! Today is also the day we're having the read-along discussion there, so drop by! I'm loving taking part of these read-alongs and discovering such lovely books that I had missed originally on my childhood!

All-of-a-Kind Family by Sydney Taylor

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


This is yet another book that I've read and loved thanks to the very awesome ladies at The Midnight Garden. As another of their middle grade challenge read-along books, this is a new discovery for me and yet again, a lovely lil gem!

All-of-a-kind family is the kind of lil story that would really help children see how different things were quite a few years back, and it works the same way with adults. Every description felt so genuine, so well done, and nothing in the narrative, not the descriptions of how the girls had to save their pennies for the dad's birthday or how the way some meals were reserved only as treats for certain days, nothing was written in the "woe is me" kinda way, but simply as a fact that it was like that. A family of limited means making the most of everything they had!

I knew I was going to love the book since it started with the five sisters going to the library! I could relate with Sarah's anguish of not finding her book! That has been a recurring nightmare for me, and it's been a looong time since I've taken books from the library! But as a young girl the library was one of my most favourite places to go, roam around and find my next read!

I loved the every day happenings of the family and the wonderful descriptions on the book. How each of the girls were their own person but never felt like they were too much of a stereotype! I loved their joy at finding books and at buying and making the most delightful games of eating their penny candy at night!

One of the episodes I felt that rang more closely to my own childhood was the one about Mama's rules about the food and how when Sarah refused to eat her soup, she wouldn't be given anything else to eat. That was pretty much my mother's rule, "if you don't eat this for lunch, you'll have it for dinner and if not, for breakfast". Only once I refused to eat my lentils for lunch, and let me tell you, lumpy re-heat lentils for dinner, I do not recommend! I loved how it portrayed the view from both the obstinate child that wants to give in but doesn't and the mother that worries but can't back down!

Another wonderful thing about this book is the descriptions of all the Jewish traditions and holidays and how the family included other non-Jewish people in their life and included them in their celebrations, like the library lady and Charlie! Every reference to them as gentiles seemed casual and never implied as a good or bad thing, simply what it was and that it was okay.

I might have been a lil bothered with some tiny things, like the importance of the girls learning to be good housewives, but I cannot fault the book given its age! It compensated with the immense love of the girls for books, so I forgave that.

A most delightful read, even after all these years since it was written! Very well deserved 4 stars!!



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Saturday Pages: The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin!!!

Hey guys!

This week has been a bit complicated and with two weddings, baking, events and work... my reading and my motivation has suffered a bit. And let's not talk about my messed up emotional state. I hoping to pick up my reading and be able to schedule a bit more in advance so I don't feel like I'm running around like a headless chicken.

After a massive book hangover when I finished Ruin & Rising, I wasn't even sure what to read, but then I remembered that I still hadn't read the middle grade classic chosen for The Midnight Garden's Classic's Read-a-long for June, so I decided to give it a try! So happy that I did, cause it was the right book to get me off that massive hangover! Thank you Wendy for suggesting this one! And after talking about it yesterday on the discussion post, today I have is as my Saturday Pages entry!

The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


The Westing Game is one of those classics that I hadn't heard of before the ladies at The Midnight Garden chose it as June's book for the read-a-long. And now that I've read it, I want to quick myself for not having read it a long time back! This is a book that I've loved and that I know a younger me would have adored too!

This is a delightful book, a murder mystery middle grade that is full of social comentary but that never once sounds preachy. That's one of the things that I don't seem to get over too easily on classic books like these, they sound way too preachy for the adult me.

The Westing Game starts with a bunch of new tenants taking their new houses in a new building, and right from the start we see something more is going on. There's a clear Agatha Christie feel to certain parts of the book, but not in a way to feel like it was bothersome and felt like a copy. Not at all, but it just gave you that feel of clever mystery and deep understanding of human nature.

It's a bit hard for most of the book to think of one character as the main character although I'd consider Turtle the main character. She's a young girl, very clever, very brave and with a big tendency to kick shins and to treat her braid as her defining point. She knows about the stock market and deals with lack of emotional connections.

All characters are somehow connected with each other and with Sam Westing, the man that is found dead and that wants his heirs to discover who killed him to claim their inheritance, and there starts the Westing Game. The game not only has us going after red herrings and suspecting people left, right and centre but also serves as a way to show us what makes each character tick and who are these people and what's going on in their lives.

I found myself turning the pages faster and faster, making new theories and throwing them away as some new details were revealed here and there, and I was right suspecting the right guy but I wasn't even close to discovering all that was behind everything!

The ending was great and that little epilogue was the right way to tie everything together and I loved knowing what happened with everyone.

A wonderful classic that I hightly recommend if you haven't read it yet! 5 well deserved stars!



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