The Kari AnnAlysis

Archive for December, 2009

Hello All! I received an extra copy of The Duty of Love! I received my copy of this book from the Kelley and Hall Publishing Company last month and REALLY liked it. Click here for the review.

Here’s what the back of the book says:

“What Would You Do If…

You were a lovelorn wizard with a rat that lived in your hair (your trademark in the very competitive business of wizardry)? Would you turn it into a human to spy on the damsels for you? What if you were a little Princess, and no one would listen to you when you tried to warn them about the murderess who was trying to take over the kingdom? Would you go looking for the wizard of Fandonwhom no one had ever seen, but had the best fireworks of all, and so, was surely the greatest of all the wizards? And if you were her brother, the Prince, would you try to rescue her from certain death?

What if you were a real life little girl, dying of a mysterious illness, and had an equally mysterious and deadly creature living in your closet? And what if you were her little brother? What would you promise the creature in return for saving the life of your sister?

The story starts with Father, a gifted storyteller, telling a fairy tale to his son, Charles, a troubled loner, and his daughter, Tanya, who is very, very ill. Each night Father tells more of the fairy tale, but later at night and during the day Charles and Tanya have real life problems of their own. Charles must fight his own descent into hellish darkness and Tanya must confront her coming death and the mysterious noises, scratches and bumps that echo every night from her closet.

The Duty of Love is about a girl who is dying physically and a boy who is dying spiritually. It’s about rats that become humans and humans that become lizards. It’s about a wizard who becomes wise and a wizard who tells lies. It’s about well-meant little compromises that turn deadly, and heroic stands against all odds. It is also the story of a mysterious maiden, who is sure she knows the deepest and greatest secret of all. But most of all, it’s about what it means to love and what it means to be human.”

This is really great story within a story. You learn about the Wizard through a story being told to a little boy and girl. If you are interested, all you have to do is two things:
1. Leave me your email.
2. Promise me you will do a review of this book. All you have to do when you are done reading it is send me the link to your blog and I will forward it on to the company. If you do not have a blog, just email me what you thought about the book. I promised the company that I would make sure whoever read this book would do a review.

Easy right? You have until January 20th to get your names in!

It’s Teaser Tuesday and I promise I am not posting from work I wrapped presents all morning which ate away at my blogging time, so while I have a few minutes before I need to get REALLY busy, here’s what we have for this week.

pg1 of Silver Bells by Fern Michaels: “The mansion was festive to the nth degree, and she hated every bit of it. She could hardly wait for midnight, when she handed out the gifts and bonus checks, at which point the guests would make a beeline for the door, having done their duty by attending the festivities.”

I imagine that after moving to her hometown and out of Hollywood, Amy will definitely change her feelings on Christmas.

What are you reading this week?

Release: October 1, 2007

You guessed it, this is part of my Christmas Reading Challenge. This is my 4th book in the challenge. I am having so much fun with this. While the books haven’t been as great as I’d hoped, I am still glad I’m taking part.

In Secret Santa, we delve into the lives of a group of high schoolers. And, as you can tell by the title, the whole school takes part in Secret Santa. They all draw names from a hat and while some are happy with their choices, others make sure theirs are pre-chosen.

Noelle is our main character. She is a sophomore and has a HUGE crush on her neighbor Charlie. He’s a senior and one of the most popular players in the school. Although Noelle picks Charlie’s brother’s name out of the hat, she still buys gifts for Charlie. Ryan (Charlie’s brother), on the other hand is doing some great things for the person he picked, they are just a little confused about who is buying for whom.

Lily is Noelle’s best friend. Over the summer, she suffered a really bad breakup but is working really hard to make her Secret Santa happy. Lily is buying presents for Connor, who is the boyfriend of the second most popular girl in school, Shawna. But Lily keeps getting her wires crossed and buying presents that Connor is not a fan of.

Instead, Lily’s presents are more suited for Simon. He is the boyfriend of the most popular girl in school, Amber. But Amber isn’t sure if she still wants to date Simon, so she pre-chooses someone who is uber hot in hopes of getting a date.

And finally, we have Celia. Celia moved from California and somehow got stuck being friends with Amber and Shawna. She doesn’t really “like” them per say. She does as she is told, dresses as she is told and likes as she is told. Until now. She drew Jake’s name out of the hat and is bound and determined to get a date. But one of Jake’s co-workers, who is sadly named Froggy, gets gifts for Celia. He feels the way for her that she feels for Jake.

Ok, as confusing as that is - it is much easier than the confusion in the book. The Secret Santa swap sounded like a good idea when I first got the book, but the more I read into it, the more I realized it wasn’t that great of an idea. People were getting mad about their boyfriends and girlfriends getting gifts from others, some were trying really hard to get the perfect gifts and others just left theirs out completely.

Every couple of pages the main character changed. Right as soon as you’d get into the presents that Noelle was getting, you’d be thrusted into the crappy presents that Connor was getting. You’d be pulled out as soon as your got sucked in.

I thought this book had promise and you always knew who you were reading about, but there were so many characters, it was very easy to get confused. And while it ended happily for most, there was just so much drama and confusion throughout, it didn’t end happily with me.

I give Secret Santa two bookmarks.

Christmas Reading Challenge:
1. Ex-Mas
2. Snowed In
3. The Christmas Sweater

This tease comes from another one of my Christmas Reading Challenge books.

pg43 of Secret Santa: “I asked Mindy Yee to pull the names of the three hottest seniors out of the bag ahead of time,” Amber explained.  “They’re great boyfriend material. And we can’t be Secret Santas to just anyone!”

“B-b-but that defeats the whole purpose of being a Secret Santa!” Celia Sputtered.

Now Celia may have other reasons for not wanting to be set up with a Secret Santa, but I like her thinking. I’m a great fan of the holiday spirit.

What are you reading this week?

I got The Christmas Sweater last year for Christmas, but of course, the season was done by then, so I had to wait until this holiday season to start! Also, this is part of my Christmas Reading Challenge.

The Christmas Sweatertakes us to Eddie’s Christmas when he was 12. All he wanted was a red Huffy with a black banana seat. But, that’s not quite what he got. Instead, he was given a hand-knitted sweater from his mom. Although she spent many hours putting it together, he hated it. And he hated her for it. That evening, he is still mad and when his mom wants to stay at his grandparents house, he decides they should leave. What he doesn’t realize is this will be his last trip with his mother. After this trip, his life completely changes. He moves in with his grandparents, meets a new best friend who is uber rich and also meets Russell, the man who Eddie keeps bumping into at his neighbor’s house. Through Eddie’s bad attitude and lack of faith, he eventually learns what is really important in life.

This book is loosely based on Glenn Beck’s childhood. I always have a hard time with these books that are somewhat based on fact. Throughout the entire book, I am very curious which parts are real and which parts are made up. At the end of the book, Beck explains the real parts and how the other parts came along, but I hate waiting that long

I enjoyed this book. It’s the second one I’ve read lately that deals with a child searching for faith. I have always been religious, but have expressed it in different ways throughout my life. I haven’t always gone to church and my faith has fluctuated, but now I am attending a local church with my mom, mother-in-law and husband and am very happy with it. The more I attend church, the more these books appeal to me.

I think the thing I liked most about this book was the ending. It was definitely not what I expected, it exceeded everything I believed it would be.

Other than the fact/fiction part of this book, I have a hard time reading books about boys. LOL I know that may sound crazy, but it’s just really hard for me to relate to the life of a 12-year-old boy. I went through the 12-year-old phase with my brother and he’s been cranky since then, but when I was 15, I didn’t really care about his attitude, I had older boys to worry about. Yes, a girl could have gone through this, but I think it would be different. And I got a little angry at Eddie because I just wanted him to give in. It would have shortened the book and made it drastically different, but I wanted to smack him silly!

All-in-all, this book was just ok for me. I enjoyed the writing and the end of the story. I give it 3 bookmarks.

Christmas Reading Challenge
1. Ex-Mas
2. Snowed In