First Date by Krista McGee

book: First Date
written by: Krista McGee
genres: romance, chicklit, religious
pages: 322
own / library / netgalley
release date: January 10th, 2012
series? nope
publisher: Thomas Nelson


note: thanks to NetGalley and Tomas Nelson press for letting me read this book, I loved it. It was slightly out of my comfort zone, but that did not make me hate this book!

the book:
Meet Addy Davidson, a normal teenager who is happily living with her uncle, in a normal American town. But her life is about to be changed dramatically. She is asked to be one of the hundred girls who are participating in The Book of Love, a new reality soap in which they look for the prom date of the president's son, Johnathon Jackson. Addy does not want to participate in it, but in the end she goes. Immediately she finds out she is not like all the other girls that are participating. She wants to be smart, instead of popular, and is not as pretty as the other girls. Her #1 mission is to go home, as soon as possible. But when she gets to know some of the girls and the presidents son better, her opinion changes.
In this story you will get to know the importancy of religion and how it can affect parts of your life!

my review:
I would call this book: 'The Bachelor' meets 'America's Next Top Model' meets God, which is a very strange mixture, which turned out to be pretty good. This great debut novel of Krista McGee was nothing like I espected a religious book to be, and that is a good thing, because I espected all religious books to be kind of boring, but it was not boring at all.
Addy is the normal girl. The one that says she does not want to be famous, but finds out she actually has to, because god wants her to. The whole book is based on a TV reality show, 'The Book of Love' which seems kind of boring, but also seems like some show lots of people would love to watch, and that makes it a fun book. I loved the whole 'normal but actually not' thing :D
The plot of the book sounded pretty interesting, whit the whole TV-show thing, but it did not sound as something special. And I was completely wrong on that. This book was not some book you could call normal, maybe that's because of the whole religion thing, and maybe it is just about the book, but it's just the way I felt after reading it.
The characters in this book were pretty good. I would not say that I could perfectly relate to them, but they were not bad! At least the girl was not one of the stupid girls that fall in love with someone on the first sight, and the boy seemed pretty nice.
This book is also like America's Next Top Model in some ways, mainly because of the girls that compete agains each other, they are all so ANTM-like. Addy is the one special girl you always have, also with ANTM, the one that just does not fit in the group, and the one that wins in most cases. But I'm OK with the fact that it is like ANTM, since I love that show :D
There still are points that could be improved on this book, but this is a great start!


A wonderful debut novel of an author we definitely should keep an eye on!


I would recommend this book to: girls who love YA contemporary romance, they'll love this book!


my rating:
3/5 stars!


xo Mar

about the author:
Krista McGee writes for teens, teaches teens, and, more often than not, acts like a teen. Along with her husband and three kids, Krista has lived and ministered in Texas, Costa Rica, and Spain.

An abundance of Katherines by John Green

book: An abundance of Katherines

written by: John Green

genres: romance, drama, humor

pages: 227

own / library / borrowed

release date: september 9th, 2006

series? nope

publisher: Dutton Juvenile

note: holy crap I loved this book. I would change my name to Katherine for you, Colin <3

the book:

Colin is not like any other boy, he is a child prodigy. He speaks lots of languages, and is very good at mathematics. Actually he is good at everything, including getting dumped. There is something special about his type of girl. He only dates Katherines, he always likes Katherines. But also, Katherines never ever like him. Colin is heartbroken after Katherine XIX broke up with him, and decides to go on a roadtrip with his best friend Hassan. They end up in a small town, Gutshot, Tennessee, where they start to live. Colins starts working on a theorem, which should be able to show a relationship, and also predict the future. Will Colin succeed in doing this or will he fail, for the first time in his life?

my review:

Holy sh*t!!! John Green, you are genius! The characters you create are real, the stories you write are unusual, which makes them new in their category, and with that special and awesome! Colin is a very, very smart boy, but you will see that he is also just a normal teenager, who will be left heartbroken every time he is dumped *which was quite an amount of times, btw* and has the same problems as everyone else has with friends and being popular.

I think the cover may scare the hell outta people, because they see all the math signs. I, as a math nerd, immediately fell in love with the book, only after seeing the cover. The book was full of math, but that did not make it more difficult to understand or boring.
Also I loved all the anagramming in this book. I, as one, love to anagram, but am just not very good at it. This book made me want to improve my anagramming skills, and that's a good thing. right? Dingleberries! (a word with lots of possibilities to anagram, try yourself)

The book was written and edited very well, not very hard to read, just an average level of difficulcy, which made it readable for people like me, whose English is not very good.

John Green, of whom I read one other book, Will Grayson, Will Grayson, seems like the #1 writer I discovered in 2012. and I'm sure I'll read more of his books. Actually two of his other books *Paper towns and the fault in our stars* are already lying on my shelves, about to be read by me :D

The story was great, the characters felt like friends and I feel like I have actually learned something after reading this book. Did you know that in every shower there is a tiny little small whirlpool, that causes the shower curtain to move inwards? I did not before reading this book.

And John Green, the one Dutch word you used *paardenlul, p. 178* made my day. Really, it made me laugh that of all swearwords of the Dutch language you use this one, one I have never used before :D *no, I'm not gonna translate it, look it up on google translator if you're interested :P*

I guess I could go on talking about how much I loved this book for days, but I have to go change my name to Katherine :P *just kidding*

rating:

5+/5 stars FTW

xo, Mar

In my mailbox #3

Hi,


so I decided to start In my mailbox again :D Hope you like thie things I recieved, at least I did :D

I'd tell you I love you but then I'd have to kill you - Ally Carter

The Gallagher Academy for Exceptional Young Women is a fairly typical all-girls school—that is, if every school teaches advanced martial arts in PE, chemistry always consists of the latest in chemical warfare, and everyone breaks CIA codes for extra credit in computer class. So in truth, while the Gallagher Academy might say it's a school for geniuses what they really mean is spies. But what happens when a Gallagher Girl falls for a boy who doesn't have a code name?


Cammie Morgan may be fluent in fourteen languages and capable of killing a man in seven different ways (three of which involve a piece of uncooked spaghetti), but the Gallagher Academy hasn't prepared her for what to do when she meets an ordinary boy who thinks she's an ordinary girl. Sure, she can tap his phone, hack into his computer, and track him through a mall without him ever being the wiser, but can she have a regular relationship with a regular boy who can never know the truth about her? Cammie may be an elite spy in training, but in her sophomore year, she's doing something riskier than ever—she's falling in love.

The night circus - Erin Morgenstern

The circus arrives without warning. No announcements precede it. It is simply there, when yesterday it was not. Within the black-and-white striped canvas tents is an utterly unique experience full of breathtaking amazements. It is called Le Cirque des Rêves, and it is only open at night.


But behind the scenes, a fierce competition is underway—a duel between two young magicians, Celia and Marco, who have been trained since childhood expressly for this purpose by their mercurial instructors. Unbeknownst to them, this is a game in which only one can be left standing, and the circus is but the stage for a remarkable battle of imagination and will. Despite themselves, however, Celia and Marco tumble headfirst into love—a deep, magical love that makes the lights flicker and the room grow warm whenever they so much as brush hands.


True love or not, the game must play out, and the fates of everyone involved, from the cast of extraordinary circus per­formers to the patrons, hang in the balance, suspended as precariously as the daring acrobats overhead.

Going Bovine - Libba Bray

Can Cameron find what he’s looking for?


All 16-year-old Cameron wants is to get through high school—and life in general—with a minimum of effort. It’s not a lot to ask. But that’s before he’s given some bad news: he’s sick and he’s going to die. Which totally sucks. Hope arrives in the winged form of Dulcie, a loopy punk angel/possible hallucination with a bad sugar habit. She tells Cam there is a cure—if he’s willing to go in search of it. With the help of a death-obsessed, video-gaming dwarf and a yard gnome, Cam sets off on the mother of all road trips through a twisted America into the heart of what matters most.

If I stay - Gayle Forman

In a single moment, everything changes. Seventeen year- old Mia has no memory of the accident; she can only recall riding along the snow-wet Oregon road with her family. Then, in a blink, she finds herself watching as her own damaged body is taken from the wreck...


A sophisticated, layered, and heartachingly beautiful story about the power of family and friends, the choices we all make -and the ultimate choice Mia commands.

an abundance of Katherines - John Green

When it comes to relationships, Colin Singleton's type happens to be girls named Katherine. And when it comes to girls named Katherine, Colin is always getting dumped. Nineteen times, to be exact. He's also a washedup child prodigy with ten thousand dollars in his pocket, a passion for anagrams, and an overweight, Judge Judy-obsessed best friend. Colin's on a mission to prove The Theorem of Underlying Katherine Predictability, which will predict the future of all relationships, transform him from a fading prodigy into a true genius, and finally win him the girl.

thanks to my library (and Disney-Hyperion press) for these awesome books, I wish I'd have enough time to read them all in one week. 

I am currently reading An abundance of Katherines by John Green :D

What do you have in your mailbox? post your IMM in the comments :D

January recap

Hi reader,


January has come and left so quick this year. I just looked at the date and saw it was February already. Here's a short recap of the last month:


books I read and reviewed:

click the picture to go to the review :D

most read post:

#1 busting the newbie blues event post

#2 to kill a mockingbird by Harper Lee review

#3 Artemis Fowl by Eoin Colfer review

hope you all had a great January!

xo Mar