Scavenger hunt!

It’s time for a scavenger hunt! Your first clue is somewhere on my blog. Let’s just say the place where it is found is appropriate. The winner gets… fame and glory! Sorry, no prizes, I feel creepy asking for home addresses. If you have an idea for a prize that doesn’t require me to get your address, please post it in a comment. If I find one I like, not only will the winner get the prize, the commenter with the idea will, too! So start looking. The competition begins… NOW!  I will post a series of password protected blogs; the answer to the previous riddle will be the password. Only lowercase letters.

Protected: 4th clue!

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Protected: 3rd clue!

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Protected: 2nd clue!

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The Scarlet Pimpernel

Set during the French revolution, The Scarlet Pimpernel tells the story of a brave band of men who rescue French aristocrats out of the revolutionaries’ clutches. These seemingly impossibly escapes make the man whose code name is the Scarlet Pimpernel an English legend and a thorn in France’s side. M. Chauvelin, an agent of the French government, arrives in an English pub in the opening scene of the book. He discovers information about the band and the activities of the Scarlet Pimpernel. Among this information is an incriminating letter showing Armand St. Just to be working with the Scarlet Pimpernel. Chauvelin shows this letter to his sister, Marguerite Blakeney, “the cleverest woman in Europe” and the leader of fashion and society in England. In exchange for information about the Scarlet Pimpernel, he will turn over the letter to her, and her brother will not be harmed. Through his spying at the pub, Chauvelin knows that the Scarlet Pimpernel will be visiting a party that Marguerite will be at. She finds out that the Scarlet Pimpernel will be in the dining room at one, information that she passes on to Chauvelin. In a twist of events, she regrets her decision to inform on the Scarlet Pimpernel and begins a mad chase in France trying to prevent his seemingly inevitably capture.

While I enjoyed this exciting story very much, I did anticipate all of the plot twists, which was kind of disappointing. However, this story is still entertaining, and in some places, more enjoyable, if you know something the other characters don’t. The ending did leave me with many questions as to the future of the characters now that their identities were exposed and a few other loose ends were never quite tied up. All in all, though, it was an entertaining, quick read.

Contact me!

Just a quick little update. I now have a Twitter, Facebook, and email account. Feel free to contact me about book review ideas, or just whatever you want. Unless whatever you want is creepy. In that case, find someone else’s blog…

Twitter username: writteningold
Facebook page name: Written in Gold
Email: writteningold@yahoo.com

The Spellman Files

The Spellman Files is the first book in a wonderful, hilarious set of four books written by Lisa Lutz. The star of the book is Izzy Spellman, the stubborn daughter of private investigator parents. The entire family, quirky father Albert, beautiful mother Olivia, Izzy, lawyer David, sugar addict Rae, and alcoholic Uncle Ray, are an extremely dysfunctional family, but not in the way you might think. They think nothing of spying on each other to discover secrets, and one family member in particular is no stranger to blackmail. Isabel narrates the book through smooth storytelling and lists from her files. She documents her former boyfriends with the same care she would a  suspect, and in the end, she inevitably scares them off. She quits working for the family business when she finds out her family has been paying Rae to tail her, but when Rae goes missing, will it bring them all together again?

Just as a warning, there is alcohol and drug use and brief strong language used in the books. Some of the subplots revolve around these issues. Also, when you read this book on a Kindle, some of the humor is lost because the footnotes are placed at the end of the e-book. However you can download them from http://lisalutz.com/spellman-files to reference when reading the book. I wish I knew this before I read the books.  It’s not billed as a “teen” book, but I’m sure it’s something all teens can enjoy.

Fading Twilight

What team are you on? Team Edward? Team Jacob? Or as many call themselves, Team Potter? For those who have not read the books, no, Harry Potter does not make a surprise appearance. Although, honestly, it might have improved the plot.

The book series revolves around a girl named Bella Swan who has recently moved to a little town named Forks in Seattle. Through a series of events, she meets a family of vampires and falls in love with one of them, Edward. Vampires from around the world become involved in their love story, whether for the challenge of hunting Bella or because they believe that it is not safe for a human to know too much of their world. Whether or not Bella will become a vampire herself to solve these problems is a conflict in the earlier books. Edward refuses to let her at first. He sees vampires as soulless creatures who are inherently evil. He also wants her to truly experience life as a human, something he thinks she will regret missing if she was turned. And then there’s Jacob. Bella has to decide between him and Edward. Who does she truly love?

First, positives. I read all the books in one night. Well, not the fourth; it wasn’t out yet. They are surprisingly entrancing. As extremely light reading, I liked them. If you think too much about them, well, I’ll cover that when I talk about the negatives. They are fast-paced for the most part, except for New Moon. I found the vampires’ back stories (I believe they are all found in Eclipse.) incredibly interesting, and they are probably my favorite part of the series.

Now, negatives. Well, I have to start out with the fact that these books have no real message to them. If anything, it presents bad role models to teenagers. Bella is a consistently depressed teenage girl who almost literally cannot live with her boyfriend. Edward is insanely jealous and protective of Bella. He hardly lets her out of his sight. Also, there is the creepy part where he sneaks into her room to watch her sleep at night. If you don’t just take the book at face value, you start to notice how weird the characters are, and no matter how sweetly Stephenie Meyers writes it, their behavior is not healthy, New Moon. One of my least favorite books ever. Most of the book was focused on how depressed Bella was because Edward was gone. Insanely boring! I skimmed through so many chapters.

Team Potter.

The Hunger Games

Well, there is a lot of hype surrounding this book. It’s being made into a movie set to be released in 2012, which honestly, I’m pretty excited about. It’s also in an extremely popular genre for teens right now- science fiction. The story starts on the day of the reaping, a time when two children, a boy and a girl, are chosen to go to the Hunger Games. The Games feature two children from each of the 12 districts fighting each other to be the last one alive while the nation watches on live TV. Katniss Everdeen’s sister is chosen in the lottery, but Katniss volunteers to go in her place. Peeta Mellark is the boy chosen. The two are already at a disadvantage because they have been malnourished their entire lives. To top that off, their coach is Haymitch Abernathy, a drunk trying to forget his experience at the Games.

I enjoyed the plot twist at the end very much. It wasn’t cliche at all, as many teen novels often are. This book does contain very graphic violence, but it’s not gratuitous. The violence is made even more painful by the fact that you become very attached to the characters, caring about what is done to them and even what they do to others. The character development is excellent and becomes more and more detailed throughout the book.  I really enjoyed this book even though I don’t usually like the genre.  I will say the time scheme in the book did not make sense to me. The Games are supposed to last several weeks, but the book made it seem like only a few days pass in the arena.  Maybe it’s just me. Did it feel like that to any of you guys when you read it?  This was a very small issue though. Another problem to some readers might be the abrupt narration in some parts of the book. I liked it as I felt it conveyed the tone of the passage and the thoughts of Katniss at that point.  To me, it wasn’t an issue.  If you haven’t read it yet, this is one book I completely recommend.

My rating? 4.6 out of 5 stars. I couldn’t put it down!

A Single Step

A journey of a thousand miles must begin with a single step. -Lao Tzu

I use the word journey very metaphorically. I am not much of a runner, and a thousand miles sounds more like torture than a rewarding experience. But this shall be my much more comfortable journey.  Anyways, I hate blog introduction posts. This first step will be short. So, enjoy!

Basically, I am going to review books on this blog.  Most of them will be directed at teens because I’m one of them! You are always welcome to comment about your views on the product and to ask me to review something you are interested in.