Wildwood Dancing by Juliet Marillier

Wildwood Dancing has renewed my faith that great books are still written. I just need to find more of them. This book has everything. Love, mystery, action, and fantasy. The book is set in Transylvania and centers around a household of 5 sisters who discover a portal to the Other Kingdom which they visit each full moon. The story is told through Jenica's perspective and I fell in love with her character. The book is whimsical and magical and feels like your favorite fairy tale complete with a talking frog, vampires, dwarfs, and gargoyles. Thankfully the author doesn't get bogged down in description and the story really moves along. Jenica's life outside of the Other Kingdom is just as interesting as her time spent there and the two stories connect is a really fun way. I can't think of one bad thing to say about the book and I don't want to tell you too much about it and risk giving something away. For me it is a must read and it moves to the top of my best books list.

Reader's Block

Is it just me, or do you ever go through stages where you just don't want to read. Or you just can't seem to get into any books? Well, that is what I have been going through lately. For some reason I have a low motivation to really read right now. I am always wanting to find an amazing book, like Twilight or Goose Girl. Where you can just get lost in the story and fall in love with the characters. I have slowly been reading "A Curse as Dark as Gold", and I like it so far but just can't seem to really get into it. So, should I just force myself to sit down and read, or should I wait until the reading bug bites?

I'm hoping this slump will get over soon, then I can get back to reading a book a day and writing fun posts. So bear with me while I go through my little moment.

The Host by Stephaine Meyer

I think I showed a great deal of courage reading this book after my utter disappointment in Breaking Dawn. The general gist of the plot is that Earth has been invaded by aliens that live in our bodies like parasites. Most of human kind doesn't know this invasion has happened until it is too late. Some "hosts" are resistant like, Melanie Stryder, and she refuses to fade away when her body is turned over to an alien named Wanderer. Melanie floods Wanderers mind with images of the man she loves and her brother. Wanderer finds she loves them too and the two set off together to reclaim them.

Wanderer and Melanie share a mind so the book consists of lots of internal dialogue which can be hard to tell who is talking. Meyer seems to love description just for the sake of description and I was bogged down it that A LOT so I did some skimming. Especially at the end. The book honestly could have been about 100 pages shorter and would have lost nothing. I enjoyed that it was an adult book but with Meyer you can expect no bad language or sexual content which is wonderful! I don't normally like science fiction books but the concept intrigued me and it was a good read. I did some crying, which surprised me greatly, but there were touching parts of the story that I didn't expect. I think Meyer is a masterful author to be able to create two distinct characters that share a body and mind. The book didn't suck me in so if you decide to read it then stick with it for about 150 pages if you aren't loving it. I give it 3 and half stars. All in all a good book.

*reviewed by Jessica