Halo by Alexandra Adornetto

Title: Halo

Author: Alexandra Adornetto

Genre: Young Adult

Rating: DNF

Publishers Date: August 31, 2010

Hardback: 496  pages

Publisher: Feiwel & Friends

ISBN: 0312656262

FTC Disclosure: Local Public Library

Three angels are sent down to bring good to the world: Gabriel, the warrior; Ivy, the healer; and Bethany, a teenage girl who is the least experienced of the trio. But she is the most human, and when she is romantically drawn to a mortal boy, the angels fear she will not be strong enough to save anyone - especially herself - from the Dark Forces.

Is love a great enough power against evil?

DNF---Thumper Award Candidate. (see right sidebar for explanation)

          Did you have any books in 2010 that you would award The Thumper Award too? If so let me know, this would be an extra entry in the snowy day contest.

I don’t know what annoyed me worse, the book or the fact that I stuck it out till page 293 before I called it quits. I tried, I really tried to like the book and the longer I read the more I realized that it was a total waste of my time. I’m sure there must have been a plot as I heard this was a trilogy. All I can say is thank goodness I checked it out from the library as that way I did not throw it against the wall, no matter how many times I thought about it. The book was soooo  slow moving, I’ve watched paint dry faster than the plot progressed here. I was bored out of my mind. Yes, it’s a YA book and I’m hardly the targeted market, but usually I can find something I enjoyed about a book that I invest the time to read 293 pages of. Normally, I’d just give this book the “Thumper Award” and be done with it but  because I wasted my time please, please heed my warning and if you are at all tempted to read it, check it out of the library as I’m sure there will be a copy or 4 on the shelf.

The Crazy School by Cornelia Read

                THUMPER AWARD

Title: The Crazy School

Author: Cornelia Read

Genre: Thriller

Rating: unfinished

Review Date: 6/17/2010

Paperback: 352 pages

Publisher: Grand Central Publishing; (February 12, 2010)

ISBN: 044619820X 

FTC Disclosure: Won in a contest

At the start of Edgar-finalist Read's gutsy second Madeline Dare novel (after 2006's A Field of Darkness), Dare, a 26-year-old former debutante, takes a job in the fall of 1989 as a history teacher at Santangelo Academy, an unorthodox therapeutic boarding school in western Massachusetts dominated by its authoritarian cape-wearing headmaster, David Santangelo. When a student, Mooney LeChance, reveals that his girlfriend, Fay Perry, is pregnant, Dare keeps Mooney's secret while the couple is confined to the Farm, a punishment dorm in the woods. The book's first half focuses on character—the woefully misguided souls who teach at Santangelo, the students in all their dysfunctional glory—but the action picks up when Mooney and Fay die from drinking poisoned punch after a birthday party at the Farm, and Dare is arrested for her role in preparing the fatal beverage. While some characters, like the social-climbing parents who drop in between vacations, verge on stereotype, Read graphically depicts the depressing underside of a supposedly elite private school.

Okay, I really wanted to like this book. It had all the earmarks of a book that I’d thoroughly enjoy.  Teenagers, private school, dark secrets—what’s not to like.  Generally, if I’ve not connected with a book in 100 pages, I’ll quit. Well, I held out to page 136 and still no connection.  So I’ll have to leave this one unfinished, which I hate doing.  I think all the psycho babble (and hey I knew there would be some) look at the title already, “The CRAZY School” just left me crazy.

Series

Madeline Dare

1. A Field of Darkness (2006)

2. The Crazy School (2008)

Thumper Award- If You Can't Say Something Nice

What is the THUMPER AWARD you ask? Well, this is what I've decided to give a book that I did not finish. I'll always try to read at least 100 pages before I totally give up. And often, it may be a book that was just not my type or I may not have been in the mood to read it. If I've had lots of people tell me how good it was, it will probably go back on my shelf for a later try. If I complete it, no matter how much I struggled, I'll give it a star rating. As my moma always said, if you can't say something nice, don't say nothing at all. 

Rooms: A Novel by James Rubart

                         THUMPER AWARD

Title: Rooms: A Novel

Author: James Rupart

Genre: Christian Fiction

Rating: DNF

Publishers Date: 4/01/11

Paperback: 400 pages

Publisher: B&H Books

ISBN: 0805448888

FTC Disclosure: This book was obtained, free of charge, through Net Galley in exchange for my honest review. Many thanks to B&H Publishing for providing me the chance to read and review it.

On a rainy spring day in Seattle, young software tycoon Micah Taylor receives a cryptic, twenty-five-year-old letter from a great uncle he never knew. It claims a home awaits him on the Oregon coast that will turn his world inside out. Suspecting a prank, Micah arrives at Cannon Beach to discover a stunning brand new nine-thousand square foot house. And after meeting Sarah Sabin at a nearby ice cream shop, he has two reasons to visit the beach every weekend.

When bizarre things start happening in the rooms of the home, Micah suspects they have some connection to his enigmatic new friend, Rick, the town mechanic. But Rick will only say the house is spiritual. This unnerves Micah because his faith slipped away like the tide years ago, and he wants to keep it that way. But as he slowly discovers, the home isn’t just spiritual, it’s a physical manifestation of his soul, which God uses to heal Micah’s darkest wounds and lead him into an astonishing new destiny.

Read probably the first 150 pages of this book and was really getting into it, when all of a sudden the paranormal that I thought I was reading evolved into Christian fiction. Now don't get me wrong, I on occasion do read CF, but this wasn't promoted as CF on Net Gallery. I selected the book thinking it was one thing and it was actually another. The blurb I read was as follows-

 Debut author and professional marketer Rubart has created a suspenseful tale in the vein of Ted Dekker's House, in which inexplicable happenings take over and direct a character's life. Twenty-five-year-old Micah Taylor receives a mysterious letter from a great-uncle he never knew informing him of a home built for him by said uncle. His interest piqued, Micah, a wealthy software company owner, takes off for the Oregon coast to visit his newly acquired 9,000-square-foot house. What he finds is a shape-shifting, mind-boggling revisiting of his past that jeopardizes his future. With only a handful of letters as his guide, Micah tries to summon up the courage to face old wounds that somehow are connected to various rooms in the house itself. As soon as Taylor opens one door, in floods a sea of memories that he must choose to face or run from.

Does that say Christian Fiction to you?  Sounds more like a fantasy or paranormal than CF. Even though this was free, my time was spent reading a book that I probably wouldn't have picked up and I don't like the bait and switch. After reading the Amazon reviews, I realized that apparently others were sucked in the same way, which is sad because all the 1 star ratings that the mislead gave it made it an average 3 star book rather than the 4 or even 5 star rating that it might have otherwise had. Looks like whoever decided not to be totally upfront on the genre of the book should have read their Bible verses more.