Sonntag, 28. Februar 2016

Review: The Girl You Left Behind by Jojo Moyes

17572903Plot

In 1916, French artist Edouard Lefevre leaves his wife Sophie to fight at the Front. When her town falls into German hands, his portrait of Sophie stirs the heart of the local Kommandant and causes her to risk everything - her family, reputation and life—in the hope of seeing her true love one last time.

Nearly a century later and Sophie's portrait is given to Liv by her young husband shortly before his sudden death. Its beauty speaks of their short life together, but when the painting's dark and passion-torn history is revealed, Liv discovers that the first spark of love she has felt since she lost him is threatened...


My thoughts

This book was recommended to me by my sister, because she is a huge fan of Jojo Moyes. She said I would enjoy the book because it has a historical aspect to it, so I gave it a go, although this isn't my genre at all. But oh boy, am I glad that I read this!
The list of things I liked and disliked worked so well last time, so I'm going to do the same now:

Things I loved: 
The characters in the past. It took me exactly 10 pages to get attached to these characters and live in their world. We had ups and downs together, and I just felt like I was a part of it. It felt like I was in the story, because I liked the characters so much. One specific character seemed very interesting to me, and that was the Commander. I would have loved to read about his feelings and private life too! But still, I care for these characters so much, and I am not ready yet to let Sophie and Edouard go.

The writing. This kind of goes hand in hand with the characters, because they were just described perfectly, but also the world building was fantastic! The writing flowed so nicely with the rest of the story, so that you just kept reading and reading, not even realising that the book was almost finished. I am defnitely looking forward to reading more by this author!

The ending. I thought I already know how it is going to end, but oh man was I wrong. In a good way. I was prepared for pain and tears, and these things did occur, but in a different way than I expected, which was fantastic! When I closed the book I was overall just so satisfied with this book, the story, the ending, everything.

Things I didn't like so much: 
The plot (at some points). Although the whole book went by very fast, the middle part was kind of slow for me. The change of perspective was very sudden, so that I needed a few chapters to get adjusted to what's happening now. After that however, the changes were not as aprupt anymore, so I had more time to get used to the other people, which was great.

The characters in the present. Whilst I really just adored every character in the past section, the characters in the present weren't so great for me. I didn't like anyone in particular, and the romance between the two characters here was kind of ... I don't know how to describe it ... not really working for me? One of my biggest pet peeves is when characters miscommunicate or something, and I felt like this happened here sometimes. Other than that though, I was pretty satisfied with how everything turned out in the present too.


Conclusion:
Also if this book isn't your genre, please check it out! It is definitely worth a read!

Rating:

4.5 / 5 

Mittwoch, 10. Februar 2016

Top 5 most disappointing books of 2015



I actually didn’t want to make this post, because I do not like spreading negativity on my blog. However, every time someone posts a video about this topic, or writes a blogpost, I am excited and I really enjoy watching/reading it. Thus, and because we cannot like all books we read, I wanted to make this post in order to share my honest opinions with you guys.
As always, please remember that I do not want to offend anyone. This is just my opinion, and if you enjoyed any of the books I didn’t like, that’s completely fine!



#1: Red Queen
Let’s get the most controversial one out of the way. I mainly picked up the book because it was really hyped up on BookTube, and I usually trust my favourite bloggers. This one, however, didn’t work for me. If you are familiar with my blog you might know that I am not a huge fan of this book. I felt like it was just a mix of all YA books ever. I did not find the story appealing, it was very predictable, and the characters somehow didn’t stick with me, except one of them. I will read the second book in the series, only to know what happens to that one character I love. 


#2: Dreamless
This is the second book in the Starcrossed series; I started the series two years ago, and I didn’t particularly like the first book, so I hoped the second book would be better. However, my expectations were too high. I really don’t like the author’s writing style, and, same with Red Queen actually, I didn’t connect to the characters. I got spoiled for the last part in the series, and it was a spoiler involving my only favourite character in this series, so now I really don’t even want to force myself through the last book in the series. 


#3: The infinite sea
This is the second book in the 5th Wave series. First you need to know that I really loved the first book. I like the writing, most of the characters, everything was just fine. Then the second book came along. Whilst some of the parts in the books were great and really interesting, half of the book was written in THAT character’s point of view. You know, THAT character? The character you are just so annoyed with and whose chapters you just want to skip? Exactly that character. And thus, I didn’t like the book as much as I hoped to. I really hope that the third book will have POV’s I actually care for. 



#4: I’ll give you the sun
This book was probably the most disappointing out of all of them. I only heard good things about it before, so I was going into it with very high expectations. Sadly, this book wasn’t for me. The story wasn’t going anywhere interesting in my opinion, and the characters were a bit overdramatic at some points. Most problems could have been solved if they just talked to each other, but miscommunication is one of my biggest book pet-peeves and so, I didn’t like it. 



#5: Stolen
This book was recommended to me by a lot of people, and the plot sounded interesting and like something I’ve never read before. But again, I didn’t like how the story developed. I was expecting something like a love story, but all I got was pretty Australian scenery and a few nice scenes. Don’t get me wrong, I didn’t completely hate it, but still it didn’t stick with me. Actually, I already forgot half of what happened, so the story wasn’t very remarkable for me.





So there you have it: these were my top 5 most disappointing reads this year. I hope you enjoyed it. Again: if you loved any of these books that’s great! I really appreciate that people can give these books some love. Because after all, all books deserve to be loved!
I hope you guys enjoyed it! See you next time!