However, I'm also the kind of person to buy most of my Christmas gifts during the last week before Christmas. So I guess it shouldn't be a huge surprise that when I went into Coles to pick out a few gifts, I came away with more stuff that is for me. I did buy two gifts, but... I ended up buying three gifts for myself.
I've never really been one to read books that I've never heard. I usually just read books that my older sister recommends and that passes her "propriety test". So it felt a little strange to buy books on impulse. I'm optimistic that they'll turn out to be great reads. However, I did some searching on Goodreads when I got home from shopping and I think I'll be returning one or two of the three books I got.
1. ENCHANTED:
"It isn't easy being the rather overlooked and unhappy youngest sibiling to sisters named for the other six days of the week. Sunday's only comfort is writing stories, although what she writes has a terrible tendency to come true.
When Sunday meets an enchanted frog who asks about her stories, the two become friends. Soon that friendship deepens into something magical. One night Sunday kisses her frog goodbye and leaves, not realizing that her love has transformed him back into Rumbold, the crow prince of Arilland --and a man Sunday's family despises.
The prince returns to his castle intent on making Sunday fall in love with him as the man he is, not the frog he was. But Sunday is not so easy to woo. How can she feel such a strange, strong attraction for this prince she barely know? What what twisted secrets lie hidden in his past --and hers?"
Well, other than the fact, that the author pretty much gives the entire story away in the description, I thought this might be an interesting quirky read. But I'm not so sure anymore. If I'm not won over by the end of the second chapter (and if I can find the receipt), I think this one will be going back.
2. A SEMESTER IN THE LIFE OF A GARBAGE BAG:
"When luckless Raymond Jardine becomes Sean Delancey's eleventh-grade-English project partner, he persuades Sean's grandfather to pose as a long-deceased, obscure Canadian poet, in an effort to pass the course and wind a vacation to a luxurious Greek island."
I've loved every Gordon Korman book I've read. From his Island series, Kidnapped series, and Dive series, to his individual books such as The Toilet Paper Tigers and my all-time favourite book of his: I Just Want to Go Home.
Even so, I was a little skeptical about this one. Maybe because my interest in book genres has shifted. Maybe because I know that Korman books are intended for a younger audience... I'm not sure. I'm still a little uncertain as to whether or not I'll keep this book.
"In the darkest places, even love is deadly.
Sixteen-year-old Juliet Moreau has built a life for herself in London --working as a maid, attending church on Sundays, and trying not to think about the scandal that ruined her life. After all, no one ever proved the rumours about her father's gruesome experiments. But when she learns he is alive and continuing his work on a remote tropical island, she is determined to find out if the accusations are true.
Accompanied by her father's handsome young assistant, Montgomery, and an enigmatic castaway, Edward --both of whom she is deeply drawn to-- Juliet travels to the island, only to discover the depths of her father's madness: He has experimented on animals so that they resemble, speak, and behave as humans. And worse, one of the creatures has turned violent and is killing the island's inhabitants. Torn between horror and scientific curiosity, Juliet knows she must end her father's dangerous experiments and escape her jungle prison before it's too late. Yet as the island falls into chaos, she discovers the extent of her father's genius --and madness-- in her own blood.
Inspired by H.G. Wells's classic The Island of Dr. Moreau, The Madman's Daughter is a dark and breathless Gothic thriller about the secrets we'll do anything to know and the truths we'll go to any lengths to protect."
I've been unconsciously drifting to darker stories, both in my reading and in my own writing. Books like Ripper (which I'm going to follow as a series) Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children have become some of my most read stories in my library. Although I am really looking forwards to this one, there a few things that are a bit off-putting.
First is the fact that Juliet is 16 years old. And there's a love-triangle. Even though I understand that it is a historical novel and based in a time when girls got married young, I find that she is still under the age limit to warrant a love-triangel... Hopefully it won't get too, er... passionate.
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