Tuesday, May 26, 2015

The Tragedy Paper by Elizabeth LaBan

"Tim Macbeth, a seventeen-year-old albino and a recent transfer to the prestigious Irving School, where the motto is “Enter here to be and find a friend.” A friend is the last thing Tim expects or wants—he just hopes to get through his senior year unnoticed. Yet, despite his efforts to blend into the background, he finds himself falling for the quintessential “It” girl, Vanessa Sheller, girlfriend of Irving’s most popular boy. To Tim's surprise, Vanessa is into him, too, but she can kiss her social status goodbye if anyone ever finds out. Tim and Vanessa begin a clandestine romance, but looming over them is the Tragedy Paper, Irving’s version of a senior year thesis, assigned by the school’s least forgiving teacher.

Jumping between viewpoints of the love-struck Tim and Duncan, a current senior about to uncover the truth of Tim and Vanessa, The Tragedy Paper is a compelling tale of forbidden love and the lengths people will go to keep their love."

Overall, I would have to give this book 4.5 stars! It's about a boy, Duncan Meade, that was involved in this problem and he's being told the story from Tim Macbeth's point of view through a video recording. That's not it though, it does describe in detail what happens to Tim while at Irving, it also describe's Tim's last year there also, in an uncomplicated way of course.

The plot of the book was an interesting one. It did not exactly say what was going to happen, but throughout the book it was describing how everything goes from order to chaos, and back to order again; slightly giving away that something was going to happen but not knowing just gave you the inspiration to continue reading it.


Wednesday, May 13, 2015

An Ember In The Ashes By Sabaa Tahir

"Laia is a slave. Elias is a soldier. Neither is free.

Under the Martial Empire, defiance is met with death. Those who do not vow their blood and bodies to the Emperor risk the execution of their loved ones and the destruction of all they hold dear.

It is in this brutal world, inspired by ancient Rome, that Laia lives with her grandparents and older brother. The family ekes out an existence in the Empire’s impoverished backstreets. They do not challenge the Empire. They’ve seen what happens to those who do.

But when Laia’s brother is arrested for treason, Laia is forced to make a decision. In exchange for help from rebels who promise to rescue her brother, she will risk her life to spy for them from within the Empire’s greatest military academy.

There, Laia meets Elias, the school’s finest soldier—and secretly, its most unwilling. Elias wants only to be free of the tyranny he’s being trained to enforce. He and Laia will soon realize that their destinies are intertwined—and that their choices will change the fate of the Empire itself.
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This book was entertaining.  It kept me reading for hours on end, personally I'd give it 4 stars. At first, this book confused me. I could not tell where it was placed. i eventually found out. Aside from the confusing part, this book is based in the past.

It's about a girl named Laia and she did not start out as a slave. All she really wants is her brother back. She is also willing to do almost anything to get him back; however crazy it may be. The plot could have been better but all the same, it was amazing.