Book Review: Card Captor Sakura Vol.2 (Omnibus Edition) (Speed Date)

The Deal: Sakura Kinomoto has been gathering the Clow Cards for a while, her magic is growing stronger, her rivalry with Shaoran Li is turning into something that feels a lot more like friendship, and she still has the world's biggest crush on her brother's best friend Yukito. 

But new challenges are coming her way, particularly after the arrival of Kaho Mizuki, a beautiful substitute teacher that shares a past with Toya (Sakura's brother). Oh, and she also has strong magical powers. 

And, as Sakura races to catch the rest of the Clow Cards, these tangle with the people she loves the most in the world.

My Thoughts: Card Captor Sakura Vol 2 picks up right after the ending of Volume 1 and it goes all the way till The Judgement - where it will be decided if Sakura is worthy of the cards or not - and it's just so cute!!

I've talked about the story before, so I won't go into deep detail. Mostly I want to talk about the edition. I once again went and bought myself the Omnibus/Dark Horse edition, and it's lovely. Great quality in the paper, brand new translation and some full color illustrations. 

I so love this story, and I love seeing it in such a lovely format. 

More on Speed Date, in Mary @ Book Swarm's words: Thursday is Speed Date Night around here. What's a Book Speed Date, you ask? It's a quickie review--about 150 words or so--of any genre book (variety is the spice of life, after all).


If you want to join in or just read other speed date reviews, check out The Book Swarm

Medusa the Mean Giveaway Winner!

Hey guys!!
Thanks so much for entering the giveaway!!

The Winner is....

Ashley!

I've already contacted her and I hope she answers me soon.

Thanks so much, again and I hope y'all get a chance to read the lovely Goddess Girls Series.

Book Review: Life is But a Dream by Brian James

The Deal: Sabrina has always been "Special" and she used to think that was a good thing, like she was something precious or delicate... until 'Special' became the label that landed her in the Wellness Center. 

She has always seen the world in a different way, seen things that others can't see. And as a child, that was fine, she was even encouraged to use her imagination, but as she grew older and kept on being unable to turn off her daydreams, the people around her began to realize something wasn't okay.

Hence, the Wellness Center. 

There, time passes in a bit of a blur, sometimes fast, sometimes slow, but she seems to be making some progress. And then she meets Alec. Alec who is alsk Special. Who seems to understajd her, and who is convinced that the medication they need to get better will take away the very thing that makes her creative and unique. 

My Thoughts: I have to confess that I'm always a bit... worried when I read books that deal with any type of mental illness - in this case, Sabrina is a schizophrenic - because I've struggled with anxiety for a long time, and there are certain places that I'm not very comfortable visiting in fiction. 

That being said, I actually found myself quite pulled into Sabrina's world in Life is But A Dream. She's an artist and sees the world in a way that's breath-taking - I thought the parts where Sabrina described the things she saw, were gorgeously written. And for all of that, I thought that Brian James did a good job portraying how, no matter how beautiful the world where Sabrina went was, it still scared her sometimes. 

And I liked Sabrina, over all. 

But I did have some problems with the book. Mostly, sometimes I found hard to follow Sabrina's narrative, particularly when it came to a timeline - she goes back and forth in time, and because of the way the story is told, I found it a little confusing - and because I was never very clear on the event that prompts her parents to send her to the Wellness Center in the first place. 

Also, I didn't always like Alec.

1/2

Tune in Tuesday (33) - Lonely No More by Rob Thomas

This meme is hosted by Ginger at GReads and music. Each week you can post an old or new song so that it gains more interest! So head on over and link up.

I simply love this song, and I actually quite love the video too.

So, what song plays for you?

Book Review: Getting Caught by Mandy Hubbard and Cyn Balog

Love this Cover!

At First Sight: Once upon a time, Jess Hill and Peyton Brentwood were the best of friends. But everything changed when they entered high school and now the only thing that links them, aside from their shared past, is the prank war that has been raging between them for almost four years. 

There are few rules to the war, the most important being that it only ends when one of them gets caught, and as senior year enters the homestretch, Peyton and Jess are racing to out-prank each other before its too late. 

On the side, Peyton is on a single-minded race to get into Harvard - which has been her dream since she was in the third-grade - and get out of her house where she's the overachieving black-sheep of the family. 

And Jess is just trying to get to the end of high school, without a fixed plan in mind and doing little else other than work at a Pet Store and try to out-prank Peyton. Until her forever crush, Dave, starts showing some interest in her. 

Second Glance: Getting Caught is an ebook-only book by Mandy Hubbard and Cyn Balog - which I got all the way back in September of last year*, and I feel bad it took me this long to read, not only because of the time but because I actually ended up loving this story. 

When the story opens it's just after winter break of senior year, and Jess and Peyton are as different as two girls can be. Jess is a loner and a rebel and has an "I don't care attitude" and Peyton is a bit of a neurotic mess, an all around 'perfect' student and it's hard to imagine these two were ever friends but, as the story progresses, you see how much of their past they shared. 

And I thought it was very realistic how their friendship deteriorated so fast, how one misunderstanding lead to another and then it just took off. I think the book is very honest about that because when you are 14 and so vulnerable everything feels so big and it's easy to get carried away, and that's in part what happens to Jess and Peyton until they reach a point where their war is kind of the only thing that makes sense to them. 

The pranks were evil but creative, so I'm giving the authors props for that. These two girls really knew how to hurt each other. And I also appreciated that, while both of them were angry at each other, they sounded so different and approached their anger in different ways.

Getting Caught is a short book (about 200 pages) that packs a punch. It covers so much time for it's length and I really felt like I got to know both Peyton and Jess. And I really liked both of them - though I do have a favorite. 

Bottom Line: I found Getting Caught to be a fun, addictive type of read. I read it all in one afternoon because I just wanted to know what had happened between Peyton and Jess and how everything was going to end. And I loved how it ended. I thought it was a lovely read. 

1/2

*Thanks to Mandy Hubbard for the chance of reading this story :)