Bookworm Status

Hi Bookworms,

I know that I owe you a new book review and I am going to set a deadline for it. My deadline is next weekend, Saturday, June 4th. I have been really busy with school exams. I am almost done Distant Waves by Suzanne Weyn, and it is getting better page by page. I am at page 193 and there are 314 pages. I will review it the moment that I finish. I am very interested in the book and its story but it takes awhile to become attached to the story. I can't wait to review it (since it is getting better)!

My grandparents are coming to France to see me and they are going to bring two books for me. Both books are by the most amazing author Ally Carter. The first one is called Only the Good Spy Young and it is the 4th book in the Gallagher Girls series. The second book is called Heist Society and it is the first book in Ally Carter's new series (the series does not yet have a name). I can't wait to read them. They have only just come out!!! You should see my face if someone puts a new Ally Carter book in front of me. I freak out! Usually a 200 to 400 page book takes me two to two and a half weeks to read (I often read an hour every day) but I whip through Ally Carter books in about one week. I am in love with her books! To see Ally Carter book reviews click on Ally Carter's name in the 'authors' section on my blog.


Those are all the bookworm updates for now. You can enjoy bookworm news by clicking on the Bookworm News icon in the Book Genres box on the right side of the page.

Never forget...

Once a bookworm, always a bookworm. - Gia

Bookworm Update

Hey Bookworms,

Gia here. I hope that you guys are enjoying my reviews. I am in the middle of writing a review on Petals in the Ashes by Mary Hooper.  It is a sequel to At the Sign of the Sugared Plum.  It is about the great fire of London. I wanted to get the review out a few days ago but I have been super busy this week.

In addition, I'm in a bit of a book rut. Right now I am reading two books: Distant Waves by Suzanne Weyn and The Coldest Winter by Elizabeth Lutzeier, and I'm not liking either of them.  I will get through both of them, then review them (both hopefully).

This weekend I went to Shakespeare and Co. in Paris (For more information see Where I get my books). My dad told me that he would buy me one book if I found one I liked.  For me, finding only one book, in a bookstore full of books, was impossible! However, after a good 20 minutes in Shakespeare and Co. I found myself looking at my dad with my top three books in hand. We talked about them for a little while and I decided on Annexed by Sharon Dogar. It is a novel about Peter van Pels. He was the boy who Anne fell in love with during her time in hiding. I can't wait to read it because everyone knows about Anne Frank's time in the annex but not Peter's. I find stories better with two sides then one.

Thank you, thank you so much for staying with me during my book rut bookworms.
Never forget...


Once a bookworm, always a bookworm. -Gia

The Unrivalled Spangles

The Unrivalled Spangles

By Karen Wallace 

Summary:

In the Victorian era, not far from London, the two Spangle sisters, Ellen and Lucy, are living and working in their family circus. Ellen and her younger sister Lucy perform an act called the Incredible Scarletta Sisters. It is a dangerous act: it involves standing on horses, doing somersaults, and jumping off a horse to land on another. In their act Ellen is a sensational perfectionist.  Lucy is a daredevil and is always trying new tricks. Ellen and her sister have a good friendship and are the best performers in the circus, but Ellen hates being a circus girl. She doesn't want her future to lie in the circus because she knows  there is more to discover.   She also knows there is a world of experiences waiting for her outside of the circus.

After years and years at the circus, Ellen decides to take tutoring under a false name, behind her parents' backs, so that she might one day leave the circus and become a teacher.  Soon, however, she finds herself in love and must balance her new love and studying with preparations for the the end-of-season performance. Lucy is aware of her sister's lessons and her boyfriend but doesn't mind because it gives her more time to practice dangerous tricks on her horse.  Soon, however, Lucy finds herself in love -- but with the wrong person -- Joe Morgan, of a rival circus.

With Joe, Lucy becomes more reckless in her training and begins training for a backwards somersault on a moving horse -- the most dangerous trick ever known.  The trick could cost Lucy her life. When Ellen becomes aware of this, she knows that she must stop her sister at all costs.

Review: As you may know from my last review, I didn't enjoy the last book I read. When my mum showed me this book, I thought 'circus -- boring.'  And I felt that my bad book rut was going to continue.  However, The Unrivalled Spangles was great! It was a good book to put my reading interests back on track. It had a great story, cliff-hangers and was not boring! I haven't really read a lot of books about the circus, and that is because I am not a big fan of circuses. However, The Unrivalled Spangles made circus life interesting. I enjoyed reading about how people prepared their tricks for their acts, and I enjoyed reading about the life of people living in a circus.  It is a very different lifestyle.  Everyone is always practicing and performing new and difficult tricks -- even some you might not be able to imagine!  This book was also very appealing to me because I love horses and when Ellen and Lucy do their acts on their horses it is even better! I think that Ellen is a character that a lot of young girls (ages 9-14) could relate to. Ellen is a great role model because she is someone who always wants to learn about the world and help others, even when her parents forbid her. Ellen is also someone that girls could find inspirational because she is a very caring and loving older sister. Ellen always wants to protect and help Lucy and the two sisters are like best friends in the book. I think that a lot of girls who are older sisters (or even younger sisters) and are fighting with their sister (or brother) could maybe think of their sibling in a different, more kind, more supporting way after they read The Unrivalled Spangles. This book shows that your sibling could also be your best friend. 217 pages

The Pimpernelles, Book 1: The Pale Assassin

The Pimpernelles Book 1: The Pale Assassin

By Patricia Elliott

Summary:

The Pale Assassin tells the story of Eugénie de Boncoeur, a young aristocrat living in Paris in 1789 as the French Revolution begins.  Her mother and father are dead, and she and her brother are under the care their guardian.  With the help of Hortense, her governess, Eugenie lives the life of an aristocrat.

As the French revolution takes hold, aristocrats are being put the guillotine, and many are leaving the city.  When Eugénie's family home in Chauvais is destroyed and her guardian flees Paris, she is forced to leave her governess and live in a convent. Eugénie is safe there, or so she thinks. But she is being watched by the Pale Assassin, nicknamed Le Fantôme, meaning 'the ghost.'

Le Fantôme is a sinister, but very rich man who is involved in the revolution.  He has a team of people helping him keep the revolution going and also killing all of his enemies, one of his biggest enemies being the De Boncoeur family, because of their riches and his desire for revenge. He has no particular reason for revenge but he disliked Eugénie's father very much.  Unknown to Eugénie, her guardian betrothed her to Le Fantôme and she must marry him when she turns 16.

In the story, Eugénie tries to survive in an increasingly hostile city but also protect her brother Armand who is a aristocratic royalist. Armand is planning to help the Queen, King, Dauphin and Dauphine escape the Guillotine. Eugénie is urged by her brother to leave Paris and to go and stay with one of their English relatives in the English countryside. Eugénie will not go without her brother but Armand refuses to leave his beloved country.

Can Eugénie escape to England? Can she escape from Le Fantôme and his group of murderers?  Most importantly, can she survive?

Review:

I almost didn't write this review because I almost couldn't get through this book. I started it twice but the second time I got through the entire book. It was hard to read for 2 reasons:

#1 I didn't find the story very interesting and there were no cliff hangers.
#2 I found that there were a lot of typos.

This book was a hard book to read, but I thought that it was important for me to write a review for it. Here goes:

I have to admit that The Pale Assassin is not the best book I have ever read. As I said as above I didn't find the story very interesting or engaging.  Also Eugénie, I think, is not a character that you would want for a role model.  She always gets into trouble (that's normal for a teenager) but the worst thing is that she never gets herself out of trouble, it's always somebody else. So it is as if she doesn't try to help herself and sometimes doesn't think. She is a character who is smart but does not use her intelligence  at the right times. She doesn't pay attention to the important things in life,  just fashion and parties.

Also I found that the story starts fast but bit by bit it starts to slow down. Those are my only complaints.

On the positive side, I found the timeline (historical) really interesting, because I like reading about the French revolution. It is an interesting revolution because the people are fighting against the Royalists and that is not a common type of revolution.  The book had all the right historical facts and the dates in the right order.

Perhaps the author's other books are better and I hope to read another some day so that I can give them an other try . (In fact this is the first of three books in the Pimpernelles series).  I think that my choice fell on the wrong book this time.

Please note that this book is recommended for ages 12 and up.

424 pages