To The Lost Time...

That was a happy time
It provided me with memories fun
The gaiety is now sublime
The time,tragically forever gone.

Grandparents to love and care
Uncles,aunts,cousins numerous
Motley anecdotes and tales they'd share
Which without fail left me rapturous!

A stifling,numbing loneliness creeps
When a sense of nostalgia overflows
Within and without I weep
The memories in a haze even stronger flows...

O how bittersweet memories tease
In hours awake and in sleep!
They pour in without cease
Time I travel,in one big leap!

As I go through the faded foliage
Of a part well lived and better loved
That life now remains...an elaborate collage
In a secure corner of my heart forever stored...

REVIEW: Delirium by Lauren Oliver

SYNOPSIS: Before scientists found the cure, people thought love was a good thing. They didn’t understand that once love -- the deliria -- blooms in your blood, there is no escaping its hold. Things are different now. Scientists are able to eradicate love, and the governments demands that all citizens receive the cure upon turning eighteen. Lena Holoway has always looked forward to the day when she’ll be cured. A life without love is a life without pain: safe, measured, predictable, and happy.

But with ninety-five days left until her treatment, Lena does the unthinkable: She falls in love.

-from Goodreads

MY REVIEW: Delirium reinforced my love in dystopian. I had been interested in the book since I had first grazed its synopsis. A world without love? An extremely interesting and intriguing idea. But it had me thinking…would there be no pains if there was no love or would life without life be life at all? Would it be worth living? Wouldn’t we become robots only going through the regular, daily events without any feelings or emotions? Isn’t it love which separates us from the non-living, animates our heart and gives us ‘wings’??

Lena Haloway only wants to be ‘cured’ from ‘the deadliest of all deadly things’-love…until she meets Alex. Lena was a very relatable character. I am somewhat like Lena myself and so I could fathom her fears, apprehensions and ‘always staying on the guard’ nature. But she meets Alex and the inevitable occurs-she falls madly in love with him! Now she could do anything to defy the authorities in the hope that it guarantees a ‘happily ever after’ with Alex.

Alex,on his part was the most charming hero. A lover,who puts Lena’s needs ahead of his own. He understood Lena and was forever patient with her and her changing feelings and emotions. He understood the world they lived in and so took caution and hid his feelings for her so as not to put Lena in trouble by disclosing what he felt for her! So chivalrous!

The book also had a few surprises in store which made it so much more than only a love story! I loved the ending though it left me in tears. The ending totally knocked me off and was absolutely heart wrenching! I had tears by the time I finished the book…it was so unexpected and so beautiful…

However I did feel that the length of the story could have been smaller and that Lauren Oliver has exhausted many pages trying to establish Lena’s cautious nature. But that can not deter me from loving this book and I think it is one of the most romantic teenage love story I have ever read! Cant wait to know what happens next! Ready to shed some more tears!

MY RATING: 5/5

REVIEW: The Sapphire Talisman by Brenda Pandos

SYNOPSIS: With the local vampire coven decimated, Julia and Nicholas try to begin a somewhat normal life together. Bound by secrecy from a shape shifter determined to see Julia’s world-saving prediction come to fruition, Julia isn’t allowed to tell Nicholas the leader survived, ransacking her happiness with guilt. When Alora returns, bent on revenge, the reunion forces Nicholas and Julia to choose what they are willing to live and die for.-From Goodreads

MY REVIEW: Just when I started thinking vampires and vampire novels are passe and that they stink,I read this wonderful novel by Brenda Pandos-The Emerald Talisman. And I just longed more for it. I wanted to know what happened next! So indeed I was extremely excited about The Sapphire Talisman,book 2 in the Talisman series.

And what can I say?The Sapphire Talisman not only lived up to my expectations but was better than the first book. Its rare for a sequel to equal its predecessor but this book had me hooked from the first page! This book turned out to be a real page turner. The story well thought out,replete with complexities,enough twists and turns to shock the reader but not turn them off by claiming the twists to be unfathomable! I am a sucker for unpredictability and no wonder I loved Brenda’s book!

The characters were well sketched. However I felt Julia’s character should have been portrayed as someone stronger than how she has been drawn. I mean in the previous book,I really thought she is one who ‘looks before leaping’,has brains and maturity that surpasses her age but in this book she came across to me as a regular teenager who goes all mushy and loses her mind when in love! Nicholas on the other hand,really surprised me. His decisions,his dilemma,his pain,his love for Julia,his helplessness,his thirst,came across very well and it was Nicholas,who I felt made the story really intriguing,the plot more interesting.

Books belonging to a trilogy generally have a horribly frustrating cliff-hanger endings! But I like books which give me a decisive,conclusive ending yet makes me crave for more and leaves room for thought. Inconclusive ending frustrates me! I got exactly ‘my kind of ending’ in this book and am really looking forward to the next and last installment of the series. Brenda Pandos excels in her current book and I cant wait to find out what happens next!

MY RATING: 5/5

Contest Alert!

Callie is giving away Eleventh Grade Burns(hardcover) at her blog
http://callier.blogspot.com/2011/02/eleventh-grade-burns-hardcover-by.html

REVIEW:Whisper by Phoebe Kitanidis

SUMMARY:I’d love a cup of coffee. I wish she knew how pretty she was. I wish I could drop this kid in the dryer sometimes. I just want her to be happy. I hope she didn’t find out what Ben said about her. I wish I knew how many calories were in a bite of muffin…

Joy is used to hearing Whispers. She’s used to walking down the street and instantly knowing people’s deepest, darkest desires. She uses this talent for good, to make people happy and give them what they want. But for her older sister, Jessica, the family gift is a curse, and she uses it to make people’s lives—especially Joy’s—miserable. Still, when Joy Hears a frightening whisper from Jessica's own mind, she knows she has to save her sister, even if it means deserting her friends, stealing a car and running away with a boy she barely knows—a boy who may have a dark secret of his own.

MY REVIEW:I liked Whisper because it deals with protagonists whose powers are a little different.I really like books which deal with urban fantasy but not with the typical vampires,fallen angels and werewolves.Joy’s power of being able to hear the thoughts and desires of other people is a gift that I would have liked to have myself!So I want to give Phoebe Kitanidis full marks for inventing a relatively unique and creative power and attributing this gift to the protagonists and building the story around that!But as we proceed along the story Kitanidis actually explains to us through her character how the gift becomes a curse.I couldn’t connect with the character of Joy at the beginning because she was just a little bit too naïve for my liking but I began to like her as the story proceeded and she matured.Her romance with Jamie,a boy who has secrets of his own,was not too well developed but it might be due to the fact that it is only the first book of the series.More than the romance,what I enjoyed in the book was the relationship between the two sisters,Joy and Jessica.The past recollections of Joy about both of them added a beauty to the story.I really loved those bits in the book.Also,the way she used the two sisters with same powers as a foil,to bring out the personalities of one another,was excellent.So I would recommend the book to all those who enjoy reading YA.It is a gritty novel full of suspense and excitement.Phoebe Kitanidis has a strong voice and I like the way in which she brings the sisters together through the courseof the book and how Joy begins to empathize with Jessica and her point of view.

I really liked the book and loved the cover of the book and would like to recommend it to all those who enjoy reading YA paranormal.

MY RATING:4.5/5