Title: Dead Silent
Series: Poppy Sinclair #2
Author: Sharon Jones
Genre: Young Adult (Mystery)
Publisher: Orchard Books
Publish Date: February 6th 2014
Pages: 329
Goodreads link: http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18073726-dead-silent
Author link: http://deadjealous.blogspot.co.uk/

Book blurb: A snow angel etched in blood. An elite society. A secret dying to get out.

When Poppy Sinclair and her boyfriend visit snowy Cambridge, she doesn't expect to discover the body of a student - arms outstretched in the act of smearing bloody angel wings on the chapel's floor.

Suddenly, Poppy is faced with the possibility that the one closest to her heart might be the one committing the most malicious of crimes.

Dodging porters and police, dreading what she might find, Poppy follows the clues left by a murderer bent on revenge...

Overall rate: ★★★★☆ (4 out of 5)

Book cover: 4/5

Story plot: 4/5

Characters: 4/5

Language: 4/5

Favourite excerpt from the book: 

He grinned, and before she knew what was happening, he'd pushed her up against a shop window, his lips were on hers, and his hands seeking her body through the padded waterproof.

All the breath that was in her disappeared, creating a vacuum; a need stronger than she'd ever felt for anyone or anything. It made her head whirl and her heart dance. Don't stop, she wanted to tell him. Don't ever stop. But he did.

Michael broke the kiss and stepped back. His eyes were wide and just for a second, she thought she saw the same need in him, and like a black hole it sucked her back towards him.


Dead Silent is the second book in the Poppy Sinclair series by Sharon Jones. I don't know if I'll ever get the chance to read the prequel, Dead Jealous, but I'd love to do so.

I'm not really a person who reads much mystery books, but I'm willing to make a change to that. The deaths that happened in Dead Silent chilled me, and I'm grateful to say that Sharon Jones provided a lot of suspense in there too. I had to fight back the urge to flip through the last page just to know what exactly was happening. The prologue is one of the best story starters that I have ever read in my entire life. The suspense was already too much from the start when the first man died. (I think I enjoyed too much stories that involves blood and deaths, oops)

Poppy initially followed her boyfriend, Michael to Cambridge for his interview to enroll in a university there. But when one day, she found her father in a chapel with a bloodied body. She was traumatised by the incident, and started seeing the ghost of the dead man. I love how Sharon Jones added a touch of paranormal in the story, when Poppy was able to see and hear what the dead says.

Even though Poppy could be quite stubborn at times, but I like that she's still innocent but strong-willed all at the same time. She's independent, and she solved the with her own effort even after Michael and her father were taken away. She's also smart and brave! I couldn't have survived and saved everyone else if I were Poppy, haha. And Michael, well, let's just say he's the kind of guy that deserves to be swooned over. He's very protective over Poppy, and I like that side of him.

Overall, I totally love this book. I don't think I'd mind if Sharon Jones releases a third book for the Poppy Sinclair series, because I wouldn't hesitate to buy it. I'm kind of regretting my decision not to buy Dead Jealous during my last trip to the bookstore. I think it's worth knowing what exactly happened to Poppy before this.

I'm recommending this book to people who reads mystery, and enjoys the killing parts as much as I did (ha ha ha)


Till next time ♡ Love, Aishah Humaira'

Title: A Case of You

Initial release: April 21, 2013

Director: Kat Coiro

Running time: 1h 31m

Music composed by: Mateo Messina

Screenplay: Justin Long, Keir O'Donnell, Christian Long

Cast:

  • Justin Long as Sam
  • Evan Rachel Wood as Birdie
  • Sam Rockwell as Gary
  • Sienna Miller as Sarah
  • Brendan Fraser as Tony
  • Vince Vaughn as Alan
  • Peter Dinklage as Gerard
  • Keir O'Donnell as Eliot
  • Busy Phillips as Ashley


Synopsis: A young writer tries to impress a girl he meets online with an embellished profile, but he finds himself in a real mess when she falls for him and he has to keep up the act.


I don't really have much to say about this movie though. I do enjoy watching it, but it's probably just to kill time. Sam is a writer that writes books based on already released movie, and he's pretty much socially inept. It's about good enough that he had Alan as his friend. Sam met Birdie at a coffee shop where Birdie worked as a waitress. He tried to talk to her, but their conversation turned rather awkward.

After Birdie was fired from her job, Sam started opening her Facebook page (more like stalking) and learned about the things that Birdie loved. He followed and did everything and anything that she mentioned; from reading the books that she read, learn how to cook, learn to play guitar, drink bourbon, and basically claimed that he's interested in everything that she liked.

When they started going out, Birdie started getting closer to him and he was dumbfounded when Birdie confessed that she's in love with him. He got mad at her instead and blamed her, when clearly, it was his fault from the start? Who even told him to act and pretend to be someone who he's not?

If I was Birdie, I'd paste a huge paper on his face that says: IDIOT. Because that was how he was acting. Like an idiot. Birdie would have liked him anyway even if he's different from her. She did, because she knew he wasn't exactly like what he wanted her to know.

It's a pretty sweet story, sort of, but it's still creepy that Sam stalked her page. I'm taking a mental note not to post too much about what I liked online. I definitely don't want this to happen to me.

Overall rate: ★★☆☆☆ (2.75 out of 5)



Till next time ♡ Love, Humaira

Title: 17 & Gone
Author: Nova Ren Suma
Genre: Young Adult (Fantasy & Paranormal)
Publisher: Penguin Group (USA)
Publish Date: March 21st 2013
Pages: 353
Goodreads link: http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13132403-17-gone
Author link: http://novaren.com/

Book blurb: Seventeen-year-old Lauren is having visions of girls who have gone missing. And all these girls have just one thing in common—they are 17 and gone without a trace. As Lauren struggles to shake these waking nightmares, impossible questions demand urgent answers: Why are the girls speaking to Lauren? How can she help them? And… is she next? As Lauren searches for clues, everything begins to unravel, and when a brush with death lands her in the hospital, a shocking truth emerges, changing everything.

Overall rate: ★★☆☆☆ (2.5 out of 5)

Book cover: 2/5

Story plot: 2.5/5

Characters: 2.5/5

Language: 4/5

Favourite excerpt from the book: 

I have his voice in my ear, and it's not a phantom, not a demon, not a hallucination. His voice that I lock on to so it's all I'm hearing.

"It's okay," is what he's saying. "Look at me. Lauren, look at me. They're not real. They're not real. I'm real. I'm right here."


I'm really a fan of paranormal stories, and I actually even chose this book for my sister when she asked for my help to pick new books to buy. I expected this one to be mind blowing, judging from the blurb at the back, and also because I've heard a lot saying that Nova Ren Suma writes real good stories. But I had a rather hard time finishing this book. It could be because of my reading slump lately (even though I still buy loads of books), but the storyline was one of the reasons too.

When I opened the first few pages, I almost got intrigued by the story. Almost. But I didn't. Even from the start, the story was dark already. I had a hard time trying to get into the story, and Lauren's characteristics didn't help me like the story either. There were so little information about Lauren, and all that was told were how Lauren started seeing the spirits of the missing girls, starting from Abigail Sinclair.

Just like how I had a hard time getting into this story, I had a hard time liking Lauren too. I know that Lauren was forced to change after she started seeing Abby (Abigail), but I feel like most of the time, she's making rather selfish decisions for the sake of people that she didn't even know. She wanted so badly to help the girls that she neglected Jamie, her boyfriend, and even distant herself away from her mother. But I guess there's a good thing in keeping this secret, because when her mother found out about the girls, she was sent to get therapy.

It upsets me that there's not much part where Jamie is around. I like Jamie, he's much more likeable than Lauren. And it relieves me that Jamie still sticks around Lauren when he found out the truth behind her actions.

I couldn't keep up with all the missing girls though. It would have been enough with just a few, but there's just so many names and stories that I give up trying to keep up with them. The only ones that I can still remember well are Abby and Fiona. Fiona was Lauren's neighbour when she was little, and Fiona's spirit was my favourite. There's just something unique about her character. And hair.

This story was rather slow paced. Because there's just too many girls, and the way the story was told, I often get confused. The ending wasn't something I predicted, but it wasn't what I liked either. I'm still confused about the reason why Lauren knew all these girls. Because not all of them died. Some of them went back home, and were still alive. I'd say that I am rather disappointed with the ending.

Even though I didn't enjoy this story as much as I wished, I think that Nova Ren Suma does write well. Her other book, Imaginary Girls, catches my attention too. If I have the chance, I'd love to read that one too.

I recommend 17 & Gone to readers that enjoy paranormal stories, but without much touches of horrors in it.


Till next time ♡ Love, Humaira

New York Times bestselling author Lauren Oliver delivers a gripping story about two sisters inexorably altered by a terrible accident.

Dara and Nick used to be inseparable, but that was before the accident that left Dara's beautiful face scarred and the two sisters totally estranged. When Dara vanishes on her birthday, Nick thinks Dara is just playing around. But another girl, nine-year-old Madeline Snow, has vanished, too, and Nick becomes increasingly convinced that the two disappearances are linked. Now Nick has to find her sister, before it's too late.

In this edgy and compelling novel, Lauren Oliver creates a world of intrigue, loss, and suspicion as two sisters search to find themselves, and each other.

"Alarming and uplifting, a rare psychological thriller that has a kind heart at its center. Read it with all the lights on." -- E. Lockhart, author of We Were Liars.

Overall rate: ★★☆☆☆ (2.5 out of 5)

Book cover: 3/5

Story plot: 2.5/5

Characters: 2.5/5

Language: 3.5/5

Favourite excerpt from the book: 

Weird how you can confuse two feelings so different. Cold and hot.

Pain and love.

But I guess that's the whole point, isn't it? Maybe that's why I kept thinking about that time with the lighter. Here's what nobody tells you: 90 percent of the time, when you fall in love, somebody gets burned.


I actually had to read this book two times: first, without knowing the real plot, and second, after knowing the ending and the whole plot. To be honest, I'm pretty much disappointed with this story, even though I read it twice. I don't understand why the title is Vanishing Girls, because no one actually vanished—or even disappeared. 

He, I'd like to emphasise my dis-likeness over stories that go bank and forth from present to past events. They always confuse me, and makes my reading pace slower. I couldn't relax while reading them, it's harder for me to really appreciate the story. And Vanishing Girls is no exception. To make it worse, the point of view came from two characters; Nick and Dara, which made this issue worse. 

When I first got hold of this book, I imagined a story about a very close-relationship between two sisters. I have two sisters of my own, and we're closer than anyone that I know of, so I had a really high expectation for this story. But alas, disappointment is what I got. Sure, Nick and Dara used to be extremely close, before Dara started flirting with Parker (Nick's best friend), and somehow Ariana came. Nick and Dara's relationship may seem close on the surface, but deep down, it's obvious they have different thoughts. Dara constantly hated Nick's supposedly nice and good behaviour, while Nik hated that Dara always leave a lot of mess wherever Dara went and had to clean up after Dara. That's not a close relationship, that's pretending to have a close relationship. Inseparable? As if.

Nick. I have a little problem liking her. Sure, she's the good sister, but if she knew she's good, what's the point constantly comparing her good self to her wreck of a sister. She often complained—not sure if she told her friends or not—how she had to clean up Dara's mess. If she really love Dara, she would have tried to help Dara instead of keeping everything silent, as if she respected Dara's opinions or behaviour. No, she read Dara's diary anyway. Okay, fine, maybe Dara was stubborn enough that there's nothing for her to do, but to the point letting her friend say bad things about Dara, which almost labeled Dara as a slut, that's just too much. You don't let anyone say bad things about your own sister. I would have slapped anyone who talked rubbish about my sisters. But Nick didn't, even though Dara heard it. She merely pretended Dara wasn't there. What kind of a good sister is she?

Dara. I actually pitied Dara. I always pitied problematic teenagers, they don't have enough consciousness to realise that partying, getting drunk, sleeping with anyone they possibly could, drugs and other things that they do were useless and would only make everything worse. And in Dara's case, she also had to deal with a perfect sister in the family. I know that feel, having to cope with a perfect older sister that is loved a lot by the parents. But instead of hating Nick and protesting how she's forced to become the bad sister every time, wouldn't it be better to use Nick as a guide to become a better person? 

Parker. This is probably one of the rare occasions where I dislike the male character. I often found myself swooning over the male characters, because they're almost perfect and unlikely real in a good way. But not Parker. Totally not Parker. The first time he appeared in the story, when he saw "Dara", instead of coming out of his car and greet her properly like the best friend he supposed to be, he didn't. He just said holy shit to her when he saw her. That's just plain rude, you don't say that to a girl, no matter how supposedly close you are with her. I don't mind him having a relationship with Dara, but it's just too much that he kept giving her hope when he never even loved her more than just like a sister! And he didn't even explain to Dara first, but just went to Nick and confessed his feelings and kissed her when he's still somehow having a relationship with Dara. It doesn't matter if their relationship is over, Nick is Dara's sister, for goodness sake. How stupid can you be to pretend to like one when you actually know you're in love with the other one? 

I don't want to talk about the whole story since they're just disappointment. I read this, expecting a sudden twist in the end, and yes, I did get a twist at the end. But in a very bad way. It turned out that Dara died in the car crash, and the whole story is about Nick having a DID (Dissociative Identity Disorder) or previously known as multiple personality disorder. Because of the accident itself, and the fact that she couldn't accept Dara's death, her mind started alternating between being herself and being her sister the next moment. It would have been okay, but nowadays, there's a huge load of stories telling about people suffering DID, it's just not that good of a plot any more. And Madeline Snow wasn't even kidnapped. (Which confirms my thought that Vanishing Girls is not at all a suitable title for this story.)

The fact that Nick and Dara's fight before they got involved in the accident was about Parker, and Nick ends up getting Parker anyway are just too much. Nick caused the accident and gets Parker. Well, congrats Nick. You could say that the accident was bound to happen and it was not all Nick's fault, but not having the guilt to be with Parker after everything happened?

I'll leave the opinion to you.


Till next time ♡ Love, Aishah Humaira'