Book Review: Losing Elizabeth AND my first book giveaway!!!

I received a copy of the book Losing Elizabeth from the author Tanya J. Peterson. The book follows the story of Elizabeth as she enters into an abusive relationship with a popular athlete at her school, Brad. Throughout the novel she begins to forget the things she once loved: friends, sports and school work. The story also follows Elizabeth's best friend, Meg, as she struggles to get her friend back. The story talks about a lot of issues that young people face: friendships, relationships, identity, self-esteem and abuse.

I read the novel on a flight from Toronto to Regina. It is a really quick read. The story is very simple but still incredibly powerful and speaks to a lot of things that young people are starting to deal with. The characters are all very interesting and you can definitely relate to a lot of them at different times in the story. I think it would be a great book for schools to adopt.

A GIVEAWAY!

I have a giveaway this week as well for a copy of Tanya J. Peterson's Losing Elizabeth. To enter all you need to do is leave a comment on this post and tell me what book you are reading right now! The contest closes on August 1st and I will randomly draw a name from the entries.
Good luck everyone :)

Book review: 50 Shades of Grey

I need to preface this blog post by stating that this is NOT A YA NOVEL.

I picked up E.L. James' 50 Shades of Grey because I had heard a lot of buzz about it. I was not entirely sure what it was about but I knew that it was created from a piece of fan fiction written about the main characters from Twilight. I am a sucker for all things that are the new pop culture fades. I don't know why but I just can't resist getting caught up in it all. I also have a huge problem giving up on a book part way through. I figure that if I start it, I need to finish it or I am a huge failure as a reader. I know this is ridiculous and I waste a lot of time reading terrible books.

As for 50 Shades of Grey, if the character of Bella took female power down a notch Anastasia Steele drops it down another 10. Ana meets a high powered, young and attractive business man when she interviews him for her roommate's newspaper. She is immediately drawn to him and it appears that he is just as infatuated with her. After he aggressively pursues her she decides to enter into a rather indecent relationship with him. That's the PG rated version. The book itself is NC-17.

None of the characters are likeable. They are all terrible exaggerations of people I would never want to meet. I am all for a good looking main male character that totally disarms the female character but this was not enjoyable at all. It really shocks me how popular this book has become because it is so poorly written with a story that leads no where. I also cannot believe that this book is getting make into a movie - I can't see how it could possibly be done but apparently Ian Somerhalder is dying for the role.



Anyway, I have recently moved to Regina for the next 15 weeks so that is why I haven't written this sooner. I will post many more reviews in the coming weeks!

Happy reading :)

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