Moonlit Pages

I've loved books since I was a child, and spent so many hours in my local Library. 
I love many genres and am willing to read many others.

Pride and Prejudice

Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen I first want to say to anyone thinking about reading this book, or anyone who read it or tried to read it and didn't like it that you ABSOLUTELY CANNOT read this book as a modern reader.

When Jane Austen wrote Pride and Prejudice I'm almost certain she didn't expect it to be a classic read even over 200 years later. So you have to keep in mind that YOU the modern reader was not it's intended audience. If you have trouble with the long sentences and fancy words, I highly suggest listening to an audiobook at the same time you're reading and using a website like Schmoop to read chapter summaries. It helps a lot. Also keep in mind that some of the things that happen in this book like.....( SPOILER: Lydia running away with a man) seem so very horrible and dramatic to the characters.
If you read it as a Modern reader you'd be thinking "omg...she just went to live with a guy unmarried, it's not the end of the world, why is everyone freaking out? this book is stupid."
But you have to realize in the regency era this would have been catastrophic for them because reputation was everything and if you had a bad reputation, you would be shunned and have no opportunities for advancement. It would be like getting sentenced to a life of loneliness and financial ruin and being publically shamed for the rest of your life. If you keep these things in mind, read it with the mindset that it's not 2016 but the early 1800's then you'll be good to go.

On that note. It can be difficult to read if you focus on single words instead of full sentences but I found by the time I was at the end I had grown comfortable in the language and found it easier to understand. The story is way ahead of its time and so beautiful. I love and adore it.

The Turn of the Screw

The Turn of the Screw - Henry James Couldn't do it. The writing style is so painful that even though I tried to tell myself it was short I couldn't make myself endure anymore. I quit after only 5 chapters.
The author will take an action that could be described in a short sentence and make it 4 paragraphs long.

The House Next Door

The House Next Door - Anne Rivers Siddons Gosh, where do I start?

The Bad
1. The book starts incredibly slow. The first half of the book is rich woman sitting on a patio drinking and gossiping. Most of the characters in this book or snobs, horrible friends, horrible people, and generally annoying and very hard to relate to.
2. The ending is incredibly unsatisfying.
3. The main characters Walter and Colquitt are described to be in their Mid 30's but are referred to as middle aged and frequently talk as if they are in their 50's or 60's and have people treat them as if they are around that age too.
4. A lot of the people in this neighborhood act as though they've led such perfect happy lives, in their perfect happy bubbles that they don't know what REAL LIFE DRAMA looks like because they treat every single "tragedy" the same. They are complete Drama queens about the smallest things.
5. Claire. She's such an awful character, I think she's the real villain of this story, not the house. She is incredibly pretentious and snobby, she is such a gossip. Actually, most of the characters in this book are the real villains of the story. But this quote from claire just haunts me.
“Because I went back over there when I got home and threw a load of sand over…everything,”
Yeah, she's referring to the neighbors miscarried baby. 7 months gestation. That's 3rd Trimester. Far enough along that if a baby is born at that point It could live outside the womb with medical help.
She doesn't ask "Hey would you like to bury your child? Maybe have a funeral?" nope. Let's just kick some dirt over it, it'll be alright.
I dislike her so much.
6. One of the houses terrible acts was to turn a couple of straight men gay. Oh, the horror. I almost wet myself right then and there.

The Good
It was a little creepy in places
It's over
Stephen King thinks it's great. I have no idea why....
This isn't a good thing but more a "To be fair" thing. This book was written in the 70's. I just believe the world is too different for this book to hold the same meaning and value today as it did then. It's too dated. The change in the world makes this book more intolerable than enjoyable or scary.
The idea that a house could make you "catch" gay might have been terrifying in the 70's but today it's just offensive.

Clockwork Princess

Clockwork Princess  - Cassandra Clare So I reviewed Clockwork Angel and talked about how I despised Will for being a jerk and for being a Jace clone. But by the end of this series I was proven wrong on the jerk account (he is still a Jace clone though). It has been a very long time since a book made me cry, but this book made me cry. Not "teary" but full out weeping. This book is amazing despite the characters being clones and has revelations and emotion and action. I just really have issues with Cassandra Clare and the issues that surround her and her unwillingness to address them in any mature fashion. She also seems to just re-write the same characters. She gives them different names and faces but the same personalities. So for this reason, I couldn't bring myself to give that extra star. With that said James "Jem" Carstairs will probably remain one of my favorite Characters of all time.

Clockwork Prince

Clockwork Prince - Cassandra Clare So I was kind of harsh with my review of "Clockwork Angel", especially on Will's Character and I have to say he has completely redeemed himself in this book!
I'm not eloquent and my reviews are usually to the point, so here it goes.
I liked this book a lot! more than the first for sure!
I have become very attached to the characters and It had me interested from the first page to the last!
I would definitely recommend this book!
SPOILER ALERT!

Clockwork Angel

Clockwork Angel  - Cassandra Clare I have heard about the plagiarism controversy and I know many people say that the characters from The Mortal Instrument series as well as The Infernal Devices series are all carbon copies of the characters in her fanfiction. I wouldn't know about that because I haven't read her fanfiction, However, what I do know is that some of her characters from this series are copies of the characters in The Mortal Instruments series (which I have read). The biggest of these is Jace/Will. You take Jace from The Mortal Instruments and crank his personality up a little and you have Will. I found it incredibly annoying just how much like Jace he was. His personality was exactly the same just intensified with some cruelty thrown in. By the end of the book, I couldn't stand Will. I do have to say, though, that I really like Tessa. I disliked Clary so much I couldn't stand that she was the main character so it's nice she didn't just copy Clary and gave Tessa her own personality.
I gave this book 3 stars because Will was just annoying to the point of wanting to beat him senseless and......

********SPOILERS AHEAD********


He was such a Jerk to Tessa and yet she is just so in love with him. Why? because he's pretty, because he's handsome. That's the only reason I can gather because he treats her like dirt. I considered abandoning the series but then I decided not to because the other characters such as Charlotte, and Henry, and Jem are very worth reading about.

Winter

Winter (The Lunar Chronicles) - Marissa Meyer This was amazing! It had way more action in it then I thought there would be. So many moments I was left holding my breath, wondering what would happen next.
I absolutely ADORE Winter. I think she is one of my favorite characters of all time!
Scarlet really got on my nerves in this book. She was so mean to Winter and never missed an opportunity to mock her or call her crazy. I thought it was terrible and ugh I wanted to smack her so many times. Maybe I got too attached and protective of sweet Winter.
SPOILER ALERT!

Fairest

Fairest - Marissa Meyer I have to admit that in the beginning I was shocked by how much I identified with Levana. That feeling of having to sit by and watch everyone around you get everything you've ever wanted. The bitterness, anger, sadness and envy that threatens to swallow you whole. I enjoyed this book, though.

Cress (Lunar Chronicles, #3)

Cress (Lunar Chronicles, #3) - Marissa Meyer Wow! Just Wow!
This is the best installment yet! I couldn't put it down. It had action, romance, adventure, and suspense!

The Haunting of Gillespie House

The Haunting of Gillespie House - Darcy Coates image

The Good:
It's a very creepy, atmospheric story set in an old house with secrets, which I mean what more could you want? The writing is great, and the suspense is wonderful in places. It's a decent read. Why only a decent read?

The Bad:
The ending is kind of lame. At least it was for me, I hoped for something more, something different and some of the questions I had weren't answered. At the end, I was left feeling slightly unsatisfied. Not majorly so but just enough to make me wish there was a little more.

A super creepy, edge of your seat kind of read that I would recommend. It had its disappointments but overall I really liked it.

The Stand: The Complete & Uncut Edition

The Stand: The Complete & Uncut Edition - Stephen King Jennifer's scorecard:
5) Essential purchase
4) Recommended purchase
3) Recommended purchase during a sale
2) Not recommended unless heavily discounted and/or is being used as decor
1) Not even recommended as decoration.

So it took me 7 weeks to read this book. It's massive but the number of pages wasn't the problem.
There is WAY too much padding in this book, way too much that SHOULD have been left out or stayed left out. I didn't read the original uncut version but my gosh this was absolutely ridiculously OVERWRITTEN. It actually put me in multiple reading slumps in which I just could not pick it back up again for days. Reading the first 70% was a massive chore in patience.
What bothered me the most is that pages upon pages would be written about the most boring, unimportant things I cared little to nothing about but then things I DID care about would be given half a page to a page. The perfect example of this being the ending itself! I mean you spend hundreds of pages building to this big stand, this fight between good and evil. HUNDREDS of pages! And it's all over in an anticlimactic, unexciting way that last's only maybe half a chapter. Half a Chapter in a book of 78 (over that really). Disappointed is an understatement.

Carrie

Carrie - Stephen King 3.5/5
I saw the original 1976 film adaptation of Carrie years ago, so long ago in fact that I really only remembered bits and pieces of the prom scene. As many times as I've watched a film or tv adaptation of a book and been disappointed I for some reason still thought "well....I saw the movie, the book being short couldn't possibly add that much to the story..."
But seeing as how I'm trying to read every novel Stephen King has written I had to read this.
I'm super glad I did because I was 100% wrong. It's easy to see why Stephen King found success with Carrie. It's a great book, with amazing characters. Her mother gives me the creeps and was super scary and poor Carrie, you couldn't help but feel heartache for her. It's powerful and well written.

City of Bones

City of Bones - Cassandra Clare 3.5 of 5 stars


First off, I did really enjoy this book. I loved the world and the story and I really don't even care if most of it was "Borrowed" or "Inspired" by other sources. But I did have issues with a couple of things which kept me from giving this 5 stars.

I don't mind books with multiple points of view, however, I do want it to be clear when the POV has changed. There are a few times when the POV will change and you won't know who the heck is thinking or talking until something specific is said. It doesn't happen a whole lot so it's a minor annoyance, however, the MAJOR annoyance for me was Clary.

She is so amazingly aggravating. I can't stand the overused angsty teenager with a bad attitude cliche. I just really dislike her character so much. She is a brat even when others are trying to care for her. As the book goes on she gets a little bit better but my gosh I wanted to strangle her. Her character made it really hard for me to fully enjoy this book.

With that said, not everyone is going to find her as annoying as I did. So I would most certainly recommend this book to anyone who loves paranormal.

11/22/63

11/22/63 - Stephen King Wow! I don't even know where to start!
It started off rather slow and seemed to drag on forever. Detail seemed to be given to things just to fill pages and I started to get a tiny bit bored until almost half way through. That's when this book got Awesome!
There were moments I cried, moments I laughed and moments I was glued to it, unable put it down. I was on the edge of my seat!
The Characters are amazing and very well written, you start to really care for them and hold your breath a little when they get into action. When I was a teenager I had a keen interest in JFK so this book was something I just had to read and I am very glad I did!

The Beaches: A Journey of Answers

The Beaches: A Journey of Answers - Rebecca Foster So this is really 1 and a half stars. I have had personal experience with Rebecca Foster.
For those who might not know, Rebecca Foster claims to be a psychic medium.
She's a fraud. Her "predictions" are just guesses. She was completely wrong in her predictions for me and after research I realize she is wrong a lot of the time.
Either way, once you see her for what she really is you realize you can't believe a single word of this book.
I ended up using the book as worm food for a worm farm.

Crimson Kiss

Crimson Kiss - Trisha Baker So I received this book years ago as a Christmas gift from my sister because she knew I loved vampires. I read it and It's one of my all-time favorite books!
It is so much better than another certain not-to-be-named Vampire book series that got super over hyped. The Crimson Series totally deserved that kind of hype and movies but instead enjoys a small cult following. I consider it to be one of the most underhyped books series of all time.
I enjoy the characters so much and they are so very well written. I love how I Both feared and loved (and swooned) over Simon. If you enjoy vampires and you think 50 shades of grey was awesome, boy is this going to rock your world.

Currently reading

Voyage on the Great Titanic: The Diary of Margaret Ann Brady, R.M.S. Titanic 1912 (Dear America Series)
Ellen Emerson White
The Intellectual Devotional: Revive Your Mind, Complete Your Education, and Roam Confidently with the Cultured Class
Noah D. Oppenheim, David S. Kidder