The Kari AnnAlysis

Books Read:
Poseur: Petty in Pink
One Amazing Thing
Definitely Dead
The Time Traveler’s Wife
LA Candy
To read the reviews for these books, click here.

Pages Read:
1653

Bookmarks Given:
1. 0 Bookmarks
2. 0 Bookmarks
3. 1 Bookmark
4. 4 Bookmarks
5. 0 Bookmarks

Favorite Book:  I would probably go with The Time Traveler’s Wife. I really enjoyed LA Candy, but The Time Traveler’s Wife was written very well. I am still wondering how she came up with such an awesome plot.
Least Favorite Book: This month this is tough, I really liked all the books I read, but if it goes by bookmarks, Petty in Pink only got 3. Every other book got 4.

Goals for March: FINALLY begin the Private series and finish up the books I have about Sookie Stackhouse. I am reading one and have one left on my shelf. Also, I am looking forward to adding some books to my YA Challenge. My goal for the year is 25. I have read 2

Looking forward to in March: Hopefully nicer weather so I can sit outside and read

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

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

Release: November 27, 2007

As much as I loved Ex-Mas, it set the bar REALLY high for the other holiday books I have on my shelf.

Ashleigh Snow is embarking on a new journey with her mom. They’re running away from the life they used to know. Ashleigh’s dad is getting remarried so they decide to start fresh. They move to the Great Lakes and buy a B&B. Ashleigh doesn’t realize until they get there how different it is. There are only 5 or 6 kids in each grade at her new school, in Texas there were over a thousand. It snows so much, for a couple of months, they have to close down the road to the mainland. One thing this town is not missing out on is the hotties. Within the first day, Ashleigh meets two. One she up a date with, the other makes her her pitter-patter. But, he’s not exactly available. Ashleigh tries to deal with this crush while making friends, fitting in and staying warm. In the end though, will she choose a new girlfriend instead of the hottie or risk her reputation for a couple dates? Because really, she never goes on more than 3.

When I started this book, I was in love! I could picture the town and I immediately wanted to move there. It sounded so quaint and beautiful and SNOWY! I mean when you don’t have to drive anywhere, who doesn’t love snow? By the way, there are no vehicles allowed on the island. How cool is that?

Well, after a great, promising start, the book didn’t really deliver. It was cute and VERY tweeny, but I have a hard time liking a book that says it’s ok to cheat. Yes, in Ex-Mas, cheating was also a topic, but that cheater was giving a bad name and a black eye. In this book, they said “Oh no, we’re bad” , but it still seemed like it wasn’t a big deal. I just don’t think that’s a great thing to ok when you’re gearing this book at teens who most likely will go through crushes on friend’s boyfriends.

I thought this book had great potential, and there’s really nothing I could think of to spice it up, it just didn’t do it for me. I will be dreaming of this town for the rest of my life though. But, I can only give it two bookmarks.

This is part of my Christmas Reading Challenge.
1. Ex-Mas

Released: October 6, 2009

I got this book for the Christmas Reading Challenge. It was my first book to read  for this challenge. I had it for a couple of months and had to force myself not to read it.

Meet Lila. She’s a high school senior – the most popular high school senior – at her school in California. She has the popularity, the friends, a boyfriend in college and plans for the perfect party to kick off Christmas break. Those plans don’t last long though. They all come crumbling down when her bratty brother intervenes. And to pay him back for ruining her perfect party, she “accidentally” drops the bomb about *gasp* Santa!

Well, 8 year old Collin is devastated. And to save Santa, he and his buddy Tyler head towards the North Pole. Lila and Tyler’s brother head on a coastal journey to get the boys home and save both of their butts. Along the way, they reunite their friendship, have a few fights, run into Lila’s boyfriend and try to find their bratty brothers. Oh yeah, did I mention that Lila’s partner in crime is her ex boyfriend Beau? Yeah, that complicates things.

I loved this book! It was fun and cute and as I’ve said before, I always give a book a good review when I think it’ll be a good movie and I can picture it.

From the get-go, I liked a number of things about this book. I liked the setting, Christmas in Cali. I’m used to snow and cold and they’re used to wearing mini skirts and putting out fake snow. I liked that while it’s still not a life I know, Lila’s family was down to Earth. Yes, she was the Queen Bee of the school, but she wasn’t necessarily spoiled. Her family wouldn’t buy her a car until they felt she earned it. I got my car a few months after I turned 16, but I can appreciate parents not giving children everything they want.

I like that in this book Brian did a great job of reaching out to her readers. She obviously knows who is picking up her books and wants to make sure they feel comfortable reading them and can relate. One of the first things in the book is a Gossip Girl reference. She doesn’t say Gossip Girl, but she doesn’t have to. Say Serena and Blair, and all the girls reading know exactly what you are talking about. Also, she mentions Twitter, but doesn’t explain what it is. I feel like a lot of times in movies and on TV when they talk about Twitter, they feel like they have to explain it. I feel like it dumbs down the reader, doesn’t give them anything to question if they don’t already know what it is. And if they do know what it is, they’re not wasting time saying “Duh, I already knew that.”

There really wasn’t anything about this book that I didn’t like. It kept me reading and it was well written. I give Ex-Mas 4 bookmarks.