Book Review: Interrupted by Rachel Coker

Interrupted: A Life Beyond Words
by Rachel Coker
Release Date: March 5th, 2012
Publisher: Zondervan
Format: Paperback ARC, 247 pages 
ISBN: 978-0-310-72973-0
Get a Copy: 
      Barnes and Nobles
      Amazon

Goodreads Summary: Can love really heal all things? If Sam Carroll hadn't shown up, she might have been able to get to her mother in time. Instead, Allie Everly finds herself at a funeral, mourning the loss of her beloved mother. She is dealt another blow when, a few hours later, she is sent from Tennessee to Maine to become the daughter of Miss Beatrice Lovell, a prim woman with a faith Allie cannot accept. Poetry and letters written to her mother become the only things keeping Allie's heart from hardening completely. But then Sam arrives for the summer, and with him comes many confusing emotions, both toward him and the people around her. As World War II looms, Allie will be forced to decide whether hanging on to the past is worth losing her chance to be loved.

Cindy's Review: You see the word, love and you immediately think about romance between a guy and a girl. But this book is different. It talks about many kinds of love, and it also talks about how to love someone.

The Cover:
I don't know what I expected from this book. For some reason, I just thought about the Holocaust. I guess it's because the girl seemed sad, like it is in many other books about the Holocaust. I just saw the title Interrupted and decided it wasn't my book. It seemed too thin to read, but boy was I wrong. It is actually a really heart-wrenching book about love. Love may only have four letters, but don't take it as a simple word. Love have many depths in it not everyone can experience. 

The Characters: 
Alcyone, also known as, Allie is the main character of this story. She is mature for her age. She may be only 13 but she takes care of her mother instead. Her mother has brain cancer and randomly don't remember anything or just acts childish. 

Sam Carroll, at first, I didn't think anything about him. I just thought he was a side character or maybe so little annoying boys. But my perspective of him changed when he appeared in Maine. It totally changed <3

Beatrice is the women who adopted Allie. And Allie hates her. I really feel sorry for Beatrice. I cried for her numerous of times. Beatrice is a really, really nice woman who had been through life even harder than Allie. It's so sad that Allie takes out her anger at Beatrice. It's not even fair. But when I realized Beatrice's life wasn't as perfect as it seems, Allie also found out at the same time, so I couldn't exactly yell at Allie. 

The Plot: 
When Allie's mom died one night, Allie blamed it on Sam. She believed that if Sam wasn't knocking on the door, her mom would still be alive. Which is stupid because her mom will die anyways. Omg. I'm like getting mad at Allie. Because she doesn't realize how much people she had hurt and how much love she actually gets. I don't think her mom even deserved to be loved so much by Allie. Really. I like Beatrice better! 

The adoption agency moved Allie to Maine to live with Beatrice. Allie hated it there. For four whole years, she hated Beatrice, the house, everything there. And she still cried over her Mom. I mean, she was eighteen. And she still couldn't get over it four years later? Nope. Talk about not-forgetting. I mean, she didn't have to yell at Beatrice every night and cry in her pillow every single night. Gee. I'm starting to hate her. Omg. This is not my definition of a strong female character. Ugh. I get the pain, but 4 years is a little bit too much!!!

So when Sam Carroll came to Maine to visit her, Allie started to realize her surrounding  She actually started seeing who Beatrice was and she learned how to love someone who isn't blood-related to  her. It was heart-wrenching whenever she got mad at someone. I cried for Beatrice. Not her. I'm trying to act snotty, but the more I talk about how Allie acted, the more she gets on my nerves. 

Book Comparisons: 
The whole heart-wrenching part reminded me about Eight Keys by Suzanne LaFleur. In Eight Keys, the main character lost both her dad and her mom, and she didn't really think much about it until she received eight keys to unlock herself. I think Interrupted is also teach the main character to unlock her heart, so in ways, it's similar. Except Eight Keys didn't have any romance and the main character was younger. She was only 12. 

The Bad:
The main character before she learned how to love someone besides her true-blood related mom who didn't even help her as much as Beatrice had. It isn't that she's a bad main character, but like I said, she got on nerves, a lot. I just wanted to throw the book on the wall just to hurt her and make her feel the real pain she had caused everyone around her. But I wouldn't ruin my book like that. LOL. 

The Good:
Either way, I was a really good read with some nice romantic scenes. ;) And the Sam Carroll romance <3

Rating: (1-10): 8.8

Okay, I'm too lazy to do quotes today.....so maybe next time. 

Happy Reading~

Book Review: All These Lives by Sarah Wylie

All These Lives
by Sarah Wylie
Release Date: June 5th, 2012
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Format: Paperback ARC, 245pages
ISBN:9780374302085
Get a Copy: 
       Barnes and Nobles
       Amazon

Goodreads Summary: Sixteen-year-old Dani is convinced she has nine lives. As a child she twice walked away from situations where she should have died. But Dani’s twin, Jena, isn’t so lucky.  She has cancer and might not even be able to keep her one life. Dani’s father is in denial. Her mother is trying to hold it together and prove everything’s normal.  And Jena is wasting away.  To cope, Dani sets out to rid herself of all her extra lives.  Maybe they’ll be released into the universe and someone who wants to live more than she does will get one.  Someone like Jena.  But just when Dani finds herself at the breaking point, she’s faced with a startling realization.  Maybe she doesn’t have nine lives after all.  Maybe she really only ever had one.

Cindy's Review: Yep. Another one of my precious Teen Read Week reads. <3 Ohmergerd. I'm doing a book review when I have a district essay test tomorrow. ;(

The Cover:
Okay. I can't say the cover changed any of my opinion towards the book. At first, I thought the girl was facing a tank. I mean, her hair doesn't even look wet. Well, I don't know, but I know this was probably the scene where she was trying to drown herself. WHY? Keep on reading~

The Characters:
Dani is the main character. She's a normal girl who goes to high school until her twin, Jena, has cancer. That sort of changed everything. Her parents are constantly worried about Jena and Dani can't even get a good night sleep.

The Plot:
The book is separated into sections, counting down Dani's nine lives. You see, Dani believes she has nine lives, like a cat, because she was about/supposed to die three times, but she walked away alive. First was a car accident and two more I forgot what. When Dani learns that Jena has cancer and she only has one life, Dani isn't sure she wants to live on without Jena. 

So Dani decides to spend her lives. As in trying to suicide again and again, until she only has one life left. She tried to drown herself, taking a bunch of pills, running into a tree with a motorcycle, and then she decides to jump off a hill. I cried when she jumped. This reminds me of 6 Seconds of Life. You can find the review when you click the link. Since six seconds of life is basically the whole six seconds of the main character's flashback, while she is plummeting to her death. And All These Lives leads down to her death. And they both jumped off a ledge. And the ending is similar, also. 

Ending:
I don't want to ruin it to you, but I must say, I cried for her, despite every stupid thing Dani does to kill herself. I must say though, at the end, she learned a really really good lesson, the hard way. And yes, I know what this suggests. 

The Bad: 
I can't think of anything bad about it. I mean, it doesn't jump and grab on to me, but if all books did that, then no book will be special.

The Good:
I cried for it. It's that I like crying, but I totally feel Dani's pain. And also, thank goodness I'm almost done with this review. Gotta study for my freakin Friday tests. Ohmygawd.

Rate: (1-10): 8.5

Well, Happy Reading~

Book Review: Eight Keys by Suzanne LaFleur

Eight Keys by Suzanne LaFleur.
Printed@2011      216 pages
Book Summary: I wasn't going to use the key right away. I decided. I was going to hold on to it, just for the day. For now, the key had infinite possibilities  It would be nice to have a day of infinite possibilities...
For Elise, nothing has seemed right since middle school started. She gets tortured by her locker partner and can't get her homework done. A new baby moves into her house, interrupting her wonderful life with Uncle Hugh and Aunt Bessie. Worst of all, things with her best friend, Franklin, are just not the same as thy used to be.
Then Elise discovers a secret: a mysterious key labeled with her name. Could it open one of the eight door in the barn above Uncle Hugh's workshop, the ones that have been locked as long as she can remember? Could whatever's behind those doors be for her?
On a quest to make sense of  complex gift left for her by her father before he died, Elise discovers the heart of family and friendship, and begins to unlock the biggest mystery of all: herself.
The imaginative and touching Eight Keys fulfills the enormous promise of Suzanne LaFleur's debut, the award-winning and widely hailed Love, Aubrey.

Cindy's Summary: WOW! I have to say it. That book it me hard. It is a novel that teaches you about life, about love, and most importantly yourself. I cried in this book. I did. I cried at how Elise has to suffer through school and also think about herself, her past, her family at the same time. Let's just say that she had certainly changed from the beginning to the end.

In the beginning, Elise was quiet, friendly, and but not knowing how to stand up for herself and not knowing how to love herself. By unlocking these each and individual rooms, she learned that some things are very important in life that could never change. It's so touching.

When I first started this book, I thought it was a normal book about a girl suffering through middle school. I knew about the eight keys since that was the title, but I didn't know it had such a deep, meaningful story with it. I didn't know about Elise's life and much she had actually been through. And how discovering herself can change who she is.

I'm usually a person who would enjoy romance books, if you haven't known already. Like I would so love to enjoy a romantic story and all, but I haven't realize how a book like this could totally change my thoughts of other genres.

So one important thing I found that I felt like I have to share with ya'll is the moral, the things Elise learned. It's straight out of the book, so if you feel like this is a spoiler, feel free to skip those CAPITALIZED letters coming up.
QUESTION.
BELIEVE.
CHOOSE TO LIVE, CHOOSE TO LOVE.
KNOW WHAT YOU COME FROM.
SEEK TO LEARN.
UNDERSTAND THOSE YOU LOVE.
TREASURE YOUR LIFE.

 I know those were kinda hard to skip since it stands out so much. If I saw these words on the computer, I would be like 'oh yeah. that makes sense.' But I read the book. I know the sad story behind it. Then, I'm like 'those words, man. So meaningful. So true. I need to follow these rules too.'

Yeah. So I really suggest you read this book too. Even if you like a specific genre, like me. Even though it's to teach Elise a lesson, I'm sure it will end up teaching you a lesson too.

Rate:(1-10): 9.8
So super close to ten. Heartwarming. Sad. I had to put my hands over my heart and say 'oh my god'

So like the actual cover of the book I read was this:





 And there's other covers too. I think there's like four different covers, but I like the one I put in the beginning of this review the best. It seems so sad, matching the book, a little girl at the porch.

There was the one with Elise and Franklin staring at the barn. I totally get that cover.

   And there was this one which makes Elise seem so peaceful. Thinking under a tree.

   I just wanna say. I love all the covers. Because all of them have that deep meaning behind it. <3