Book Review - The Martian by Andy Weir | ★★★★★

Mark Watney is an astronaut participating in the third manned journey to Mars along with five other people. The mission is planned to take 31 days on Mars´ surface, to observe the planet and make experiments, such as testing the ability of growing plants, etc. 

On day six, the Ares 3 crew gets caught in a massive storm and NASA gives the order to abort the mission. Unfortunately, Watney gets hit by flying debris during evacuation and is presumed dead by the rest of the crew. 

With very extremely big amounts of luck, he survives but has to way to tell anyone, because the communication system to get in contact with Earth or his crew, who is on it´s way home already, was destroyed during the storm.

Book Review - The One by Kiera Cass | ★★★

SPOILER ALERT! DO NOT CONTINUE READING THE REVIEW FOR THE ONE IF YOU HAVE NOT YET READ THE SELECTION, YOU MAY GET SPOILED!

Only four girls are left in the competition to win Maxon´s heart and the crown of Illéa; Competent Elise, sweet Kriss, gorgeous Celeste and of course, America. 

America still regularly upsets the apple cart of the Illéan monarchy and acts mostly impulsive and careless with no thought what her actions may cause and how that could change her fate with Maxon. As the bad rebels from the South start hurting people caste by caste, America advises openly the whole Illéan populace to fight back. This however, gets King Clarkson angrier about her actions than he was ever before. He wants her gone. 

“America, you are full of nothing but bad ideas. Great intentions but awful ideas.” 

The conflict between the Southern rebels and the royal family (especially King Clarkson) continue to grow more and more. Between America and Maxon everything is good and they seem to want the same thing: Peace.

Book Review - The Giver by Lois Lowry | ★★★

Jonas lives in perfect society - nothing of the bad things we know exist in that place. The motto of it is sameness; everything is the same for everyone. Children are no longer born in families, they are made in a laboratory and breaded by birth mothers. Everybody gets one year older in December, even if you were born in another month. Every year there is a ceremony that lasts two days, where each child gets one year older and where they get their new item for the next year. One year old get assigned to a family who requested a child, new nine year old get a bicycle, twelve year old get assigned a job which they have the rest of their lives. 

I´m Back! + Book Haul

Hallihallo my dear friends

Since you may noticed that my posts and my reviews have been a bit rare in the last few weeks, I´m here to apologise for that, to tell and show you what was going on. I hope you can forgive me :)

The past week I was travelling Europe. I was staying in Dublin and did a lot of sightseeing (I was the cliche tourist with lots of bags and my camera around my neck all the time!). I visited a lot of libraries which were filled with books who date back to the 15th century, it was truly amazing. I even sat at the same table where Bram Stoker and James Joyce (!!!!!) did there reading *heavy breathing*. But I also bought a lot of books in the many bookshops Dublin has. 

So here is my Dublin Book Haul:

• Extraordinary Means by Robin Schneider
• Don´t Even Think About It by Sarah Mlynowski
• The Children Act by Ian McEvan
• Endgame - The Calling by James Frey
• Endgame - The Complete Training Diaries by James Frey
• Everything Leads to You by Nina LaCour
• Magonia by Maria Dahvana Headley
• The Girl On the Train by Paula Hawkins
• Vampire Academy 1-6 by Richelle Mead
• Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind by Yuval Noah Harari
• Amnesia by Peter Carey
• The Martian by Andy Weir
• All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr
• Dracula by Bram Stoker

Before my trip to Dublin I celebrated my birthday, where I got also some books (and lots of gift cards to buy new books):

• The Silmarillion by J.R.R. Tolkien
• To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee

The weeks before that, I bought myself an e-Reader. During exam time. Shame on me! But because it is already filled with more than 100 books, I won´t bother to list them here.

Some long wanted books were also added to my shelf:

• Mind Games by Teri Terry
• Mindwalker by A.J. Steiger
• The City of Ember by Jeanne DuPreau
• Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas

Note: Mindwalker by A.J. Steiger was sent to me by one of my readers. Thanks again Sarah!

The Trip to Dublin was amazing and I hope that you have the chance to go there one day. Also, I hope The coming reviews will satisfy you enough to forgive me the lack of post the past weeks. I wish you a good time and reading. Let me know if you have any review wishes!

Love, 

Nathalie, a.k.a. Shonela

Book Review - The Elite by Kiera Cass | ★★★

SPOILER ALERT! DO NOT CONTINUE READING THE REVIEW FOR THE ELITE IF YOU HAVE NOT YET READ THE SELECTION, YOU MAY GET SPOILED!

America still lives in the royal palace and her daily routine now includes learning rules and how to run a country. She has never expected to last as long as she did and become one of the Elite. There are only six girls left and all of them compete for Maxon´s love and the royal crown. More and more America has come to realise that she may be in love with Maxon, but she does not want to become a princess and accept all the responsibilities that come with said crown. In addition to all that trouble, there still is Aspen who works as a guard in the royal palace. 

Book Review - The Selection by Kiera Cass | ★★★

America Singer is a five out of eight. That means she´s on the fourth lowest rank on Illéa´s, her country´s, caste system. Illéa is where the United States used to be and is now shaped by this futuristic society. America was born into the rank of artists and performers and has chosen to be a singer, playing the piano, violin and many other instruments. 

When the country´s prince comes of appropriate age, there will be a selection of his future wife and queen of Illéa. In the selection, 35 girls will participate to date the crown prince Maxon, and from all these girls, he has to choose one to marry. 

“Listen to me, kitten. Win or lose, you’ll always be a princess to me.” 

Book Review - Rebel Belle by Rachel Hawkins | ★★★

Harper Jane Price, 17 years old, has a wonderful life. Apart from her sisters death one year ago, she has a amazing boyfriend Ryan, wonderful friends, loving parents and a bright future. Harper is a southern belle and from the outside perfect. Perfect grades, school president, popular everywhere. But as she forgets her lip gloss in the night of her homecoming dance, her perfect world seems to fall apart. 

“Looking back, none of this would have happened if I’d brought lip gloss the night of the Homecoming Dance.” 

Harper borrows some lip gloss from her best friend and goes off to apply it in the ladies bathroom at school before her name is called for Homecoming Queen. While she is applying it, she is interrupted by the school´s janitor, Mr. Hall. He is mortally wounded and for his last breath, he grabs Harper and exhales inside her mouth. Her history teacher storms in and Harper figures out that he is the one who killed the janitor. As he notices Harper he tries to kill her too, but Harper finds herself with new abilities and fights her teacher, eventually kills him.