The Roar (The Roar #1) by Emma Clayton BOOK REVIEW

The Roar by Emma Clayton
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I picked this book up at the Bookfair thinking it would be something my kids would like, and of course that means that I am going to read it before I pass it on to them. I like to know what they are reading and to be able to discuss it with them.

The Roar takes place on Earth in a future time when all the people on Earth live on 1/3rd of the planet behind a huge wall because of something called the Animal Plague. The world is all concrete and buildings and depressing really, and this is just the way it has to be, or so they think.

Ellie, Mika's twin sister disappears one night, and the family is told she died, while being her twin Mika refuses to believe that. We follow Mika as he tries to carry on, and we learn that he is right, Ellie is alive, but life isn't any more fun for her.

It's a young adult, teen book in that the main characters are 12 to 13 year olds. They are dealing with issues of life that are probably older than they should be dealing with, but they have grown up in a strange world. It is well written for that age group, and I definitely think anywhere from the 8 to 15 age range can read this and enjoy it.

As a parent reading it, I was able to understand it, I also was able to remember my childhood and the distrust of adults that lead to some of the issues that we see in the book, but I think everyone has done that at some point in life, and I think it makes the book real and believable. I got the story and understood it.

It has a message beyond the story about life and character and what we do with what we have, morals and values and friendships. And I thought it was kind of a bummer of an ending until I got on to do the review and found there is a second book. I think it is well worth letting your child read.

I have already passed it on to my kids.

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City of Bones Giveaway

So I bought this book on a whim, read it and loved it, and now am working on the rest of the series. When I like a book, I tend to go "whole-hog" and read the entire series of it and everything else that author has written. Which is what I am doing, and since they are making this book into a movie, which I highly doubt that i will see, because the movie is just never as good as the book, I thought I would give away a copy of the book to get someone else interested in the series. I love to read, it is my favorite thing in the world. As much as I love to read, I love to review the books I have read and share them with people. which you can clearly see from my blog, so what better thing to do, than give away a copy of a book on my blog, especially one I liked! Look for my full review of the book coming soon, here and on Goodreads.com!

Death by Sudoku by Kaye Morgan (A Sudoku Mystery, #1)

Death by Sudoku by Kaye Morgan
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I love a good cozy mystery and something little to read, so I picked up this book at a local discount store as we were headed to the airport for a trip to New York, figuring this would be good lite reading for the plane.

Death by Sudoku is billed as the first book in a brand new series, and after reading the book, I am not sure how the series can or will continue, but as the first book it was pretty good.

We met, Lisa, who has been a publicist in Hollywood for a number of years, but after the recent death in her family, she has left her estranged husband, moved back to the family home, and begun writing sudoku puzzles and articles about the craft of solving the puzzles, under an assumed name in that small town. She is lured back to Hollywood by a friend to compete in a Sudoku tournament, where she runs into a "washed up" actor friend, and finds that he believes someone is sending messages in a certain papers sudoku puzzles, when the guy turns up deceased the next morning, Lisa feels she has to take him seriously and discover what has happened and why.

The story is pretty well written and it does use more brain power to figure out the sudoku angle, and for plane reading i was great, especially since we were stuck in Baltimore on the way to New York and the way home both. If I find the second book, I would have to give it a try, but at the moment, I am happy with it as a single book.

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HGTV's Green Home Sweepstakes

Anyone else love HGTV as much as I do? If the tv is on, and the kids aren't in front of it that is, I have either HGTV or DIY on. If you watch then you know that through June 4th you can register to win the HGTV Green Home.

http://www.hgtv.com/hgtv-green-home-2010-tour/package/index.html

That is the link to a tour of the home.

Now, I would LOVE to win a Green Home, the solar panels are probably my favorite. I have wanted solar panels on a house for years now! And so of course i have entered, but you know the likelihood that I win is slim to none, which is probably a good thing.

I was looking at the house yesterday, and I realized that for this nice big home, it only has TWO bedrooms. Granted that one is a hugh master suite, but that only leaves one other bedroom, listed on the tour as the kids bedroom. Well I can tell you right now that my three kids would refuse to have to share one bedroom, and who would want them to! You would think, that for such a large house, and all the things they are talking about in the home, it would have more than two bedrroms. Although there is a sitting room off the upstairs that I guess could beturned into a third bedroom if you needed it to be.

Oh well, it's fun to enter the contests, and fun to dream about a luxury green home, but it just wouldn't fit my family, so time to come back to reality and get on with the laundry. Oh, what I wouldn't give for those new big load washer and dryers, and a dishwasher!! Maybe in another life!