Witch Song (ARC)

From the wonderful ARC tour site, Around the World Tours (link at the end of the post) I received Witch Song by Amber Argyle. CAUTION: Lots and lots of singing, your ear drums will feel very, very sore after finishing... with that side effect let the review begin!

Summary:The world is changing. Once, Witch Song controlled everything from the winds to the shifting of the seasons-but not anymore. All the Witches are gone, taken captive by a traitor. All but Brusenna. As the echo of their songs fades, the traitor grows stronger. Now she is coming for Brusenna. Her guardian has sworn to protect her, but even he can't stop the Dark Witch. Somehow, Brusenna has to succeed where every other Witch has failed. Find the traitor. Fight her. Defeat her. Because if Brusenna doesn't, there won't be anything left to save. I thought this book had terrible characters but a good plot, that's really the only reason I finished it. This book takes place in the Renaissance (my guess, it is never stated) and there's a lot of hatred in the world for witches. The book begins with our heroine (one of the lamest ever I might add) so timid she won't stand up to a cheating village merchant. A chapter later we find out that she's the one who's supposed to free the "W.W.W. (World Wide Witches)" and bring normality back to our world. Like we were thinking the first time we meet Harry -- glasses, bad hair, and all -- we think "Wait? This is the guy that's supposed to save the world?" and shrug our shoulders.

You might be thinking that, like Harry Potter, she'd surprise us all and actually be a classy hero who never stops fighting. Instead we have a very timid, frail hero who's afraid to lead, follow or get out of the way. Instead she just goes around preaching uncertainty.

In fact, I didn't really like any characters in this except of course for the adorable frog man Pogg, who was pretty awesome, I mean how can you be something called a frog man and not be?

From reading above you'd think I didn't like this book, but stop right there! That was just the character analysis! Though it was hard to get into. After a day I was able to dive in and finish it a day later. The plot was pretty unique besides the everyday, YA run of the mill fantasy romance qualities. Argyle had a rather good idea, take the stereotype idea for a witch, add singing, and change them from "evil" to "good" was all a pretty good idea.

This book did feel like the start of something big, that cannot be denied, and the entire time it felt like Argyle was holding back the best book she could write.

I thought the best part of this book was the build-up towards the final battle and the final battle was just a bit of a letdown because all they did was sing and throw seeds. But just to let you know three-quarters through the book the plot changes completely, but I won't spoil what happens for you.

Witch Song is an exciting, musical, novel that will appeal to readers of books like Ella Enchanted.

3.5/5

Book Battle Update: This is my 16th book read in the book battle, Maddz has read 17, one to go!

Princess Bookie Around the World ARC Tours

This book willed be released September 1, preorder it on Amazon.

My Thoughts and Experiences of Last Night's Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows Part Two Midnight Showing

CAUTION: THIS POST IS INCREDIBLY SAPPY AND INCLUDES SPOILERS FOR THOSE INCREDIBLY ABNORMAL PEOPLE WHO HAVEN'T READ THE BOOKS OR SEEN THE MOVIE YET.

So last night my friends Glen, Rowan and I (Rowan pretended he didn't know us cause we were acting too geeky) went to Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows Part Two at our local theater. Unlike most theaters, The Uptown gave the true midnight movie experience. With a costume contest (I got second place and won a poster and tickets) and a cheering crowd every time something dramatic happened (which was a lot seeing how it was a Harry Potter movie after all). So it was really fun!

Now onto the part you've all been waiting for THE ACTUAL MOVIE.

This is the epic poster I won last night; yeah, being a geek has paid off!

I've been a Harry fan ever since I was five or six when I read the first book and after that moment the Harry Potter books have a big part of my reading life. I'm really sad to see this end and this was truly a parting is such sweet sorrow moment. Now on to the movie.

I was surprised about the start of this one, even though I know the first part covered half of the book it seems like it cut right to the climax, and I was surprisingly okay with that. All the actors definitely cared about the production and put everything into it.

I loved how much Neville has manned up so much and has become so badass and cool, compared to the first movies where it was all "oh no! I've lost Trevor" and he plays a huge role and is instrumental in the battle and performs an epic rallying-the-good -side speech.

In this one Ron and Hermoine have to start having romantic interests (and eventually have kids) and I think Emma Watson and Rupert Grant have wonderful chemistry even though we all wanted Hermoine and Harry to fall in love but of course if they changed that for the movie it would be a TOTAL outrage!

I loved Ralph Fiennes' performance as Voldemort, and it's so great 'cause you love to hate him, something few actors can really achieve and when he dies I was sorta sad because it couldn't be over! It just couldn't! But yet it is and now I will have to see it again and again and again just because I don't want it to end, in fact I'm considering having my brain washed just to think it's not over.

I wasn't sure if they were going to do the "19 years later part" and if they were going to have different actors play everybody. As it turned out they did include it and had the same actors as the characters in the rest of the film. And personally I thought that was a failure, the only ones that were actually believable was Bonny Wright (Ginny Weasley) and Rupert Grant (Ron Weasley). I thought the one that looked the least believable was Daniel Radcliffe (Harry Potter), who looked exactly like the 17 year old version of Harry.

Well I guess all good things must come to an end, and Harry and the crew go out on a real high note that will leave you in tears (of joy and sadness), cheering and yelling "WHY DID IT HAVE TO END SO SOON?! WHY!".

AND NOW SOME EPIC KEEP CALM HARRY POTTER PICS:

Fablehaven: Secrets to the Dragon Sanctuary

So I was home sick [AGAIN!!!!] yesterday so I decided to pick up the fourth book in the epic Fablehaven series by Brandon Mull. The Sphinx has already discovered two of the artifacts needed to open the Demon Prison, on the trail of the fourth Kendra, Seth, and The Knights of the Dawn travel to the dangerous and mysterious Wyrmroost, a dragon sanctuary. Will the two siblings succeed or have they finally gotten in too deep?

This book was truly epic, Brandon Mull is such a good writer, in this book every goes up a level; it's more intense, they're is a lot more on the line and that brings a lot more suspense and fun to the novel. The characters have all matured and gotten smarter, except for maybe Seth, which is the fatal flaw in this book, he could still be adventurous without being so stupid and always running towards danger; but I guess if he didn't the plot wouldn't move along and it would get boring. Brandon Mull really has evolved since the first novel. The world choice has gotten a whole lot better and more descriptive.

Brandon Mull is a wizard with words, Fablehaven is the next big series. Don't hold your breath for the next Harry Potter novel [P.S. it won't happen], just pick up the Fablehaven!

5/5