Review: Pride & Prejudice & Zombies: Dreadfully Ever After by Steve Hockensmith

Received by Publisher for an honest review.

Publisher: Quirk Books

Release Date: Already Released.

(Click this link to go to P and P and Z: Dreadfully Ever After's Goodreads page.)

I'm a big zombie fan, so when I first saw Pride and Prejudice and Zombies in a book store a couple of years ago, I knew I had to have it! I absolutely loved how the zombie storyline was woven into Jane Austen's words. It was beautiful, and zombielicious! Since then I have read the prequel, Dawn of the Dreadfuls, and now the sequel, Dreadfully Ever After, both of these were written by Steve Hockensmith, but P&P&Z wasn't. I thought he did a fantastic job at making the prequel and sequel mesh with P&P&Z! I loved Dawn of the Dreadfuls, where you get to see the Bennet sisters being trained by their first master, Geoffrey Hawksworth, there's a crazy doctor dude, and you see the dreadfuls return to England. If you decide to read Dreadfully Ever After, I suggest you read Dawn of the Dreadfuls and Pride and Prejudice and Zombies beforehand! You definitely don't want to miss them! :D

Now onto Dreadfully Ever After!
I absolutely loved it! Since Jane Austen never wrote a prequel or sequel, Dawn of the Dreadfuls and Dreadfully Ever After are completely Steve Hockensmith's work, and while most of the characters are from Pride and Prejudice of course, Steve also introduces his own characters. His characters are just plain awesome, he has masters of the deadly arts, and soldiers who are basically stumps because of the bites they sustained while fighting unmentionables (zombies, it is improper for one to call them zombies), he has Scottish doctor dudes, and a guy named Bunny! All of these characters were nothing like the ones that you would have seen in a Jane Austen novel, yet they totally fit right in with Austen's characters, who make pretty awesome slayers of the undead!

These books are entertaining, hilarious, action-packed, and surprising fast-paced! I say surprising because personally, classics or books written with that kind of writing style usually take me a while to read, but I just fly through these ones...that might be because of the zombies though! I also love that these books have illustrations! Seriously,who doesn't love pictures?! Right? :D

I recommend Dreadfully Ever After, and the previous two books, to anyone who wants to read something that will make them laugh, and to anyone in need of some action in their life! Jane Austen fans, who like to read modern twists on their favourite classics, would also love it! And if you love zombies, you should definitely check these books out! But beware...they are not for the squeamish! ;P

Get yourself a copy of Dreadfully Ever After on The Book Depository

Now I have a couple of questions...
Do you like zombies? I like zombies...zombies, zombies, zombies!...sorry, I'm under control now. ;P
Are you a Pride and Prejudice fan? What are your thoughts on the zombie spin on P&P?
Have you read any of Quirk Books classic adaptations?

Happy Reading!!!

♪♫ Ambur

Review: The Big Crunch by Pete Hautman

Source: Received from publisher for an honest review.

Publisher: Scholastic Press

Release Date: Already Released

(Click this link to go to The Big Crunch's Goodreads page.)

The Big Crunch is a story I think most people can relate to. It shows how you don't choose who you fall for, and that sometimes you can't even control the situations around you. One of the main characters, June, moves around a lot, so she usually keeps her distance and she goes for guys that she knows she won't get too attached too. She usually even ends up with similar friends in each school that she goes to. I've honestly never had to move, I went to the same Elementary School from Kindergarten to Grade 6, and to the same High School from Grade 7 to 12, I had the same kids in my class that whole time, so I've honestly never had to go through the same things that she did, but I still found her easy to relate to. I thought that she was funny, and kind of awkward, which I could definitely relate too. ;)

Wes, definitely wasn't the typical heartthrob, he wasn't too smart or too handsome, he was average, which again, was totally easy to relate too. I think that was my favourite part about The Big Crunch, how real the characters were, they weren't the popular cliched characters, or the nerdy outcasts, they were the ones that are average, that are rarely the focus in books, yet are the ones that readers can often relate too. Again I have to say something about my background, I'm from a super small place, not even a town really, technically it's a village, we have under 1000 people living there, so my class was pretty small. We didn't really have cliques, sure we had the ones that took general courses and the ones that took academic courses once we got into high school, but that was as far as cliques went, so I'll be honest, I find cliques in stories really hard to relate to. I don't know if anyone else feels that way, but I do, and because of that The Big Crunch was refreshing. There were slight mentions of cliques, but nothing that made me go all 'huh?' or 'interesting...' and I really liked that. :)

This book does involve some romance, but it's definitely not your typical boy meets girl story. June and Wes' love is really gradual and they honestly resisted it for as long as they possibly could. The tension was incredible between the two, and once they finally got together it was awesome, yet also sad...but I won't ruin that for you. This book alternated POV's between June and Wes, and sometimes it was a little abrupt because both of their sections would be really short, but all in all, I thought that the alternating POV's worked really well. I also loved that the story was separated in sections according to the season of the year and that the book had the pictures from the cover on the pages separating the sections, it looked fantastic and I thought it was a really neat touch.

The Big Crunch was a sweet and funny story, and if you're looking for something that isn't all fluff and paints life in a realistic way, then you should really check out The Big Crunch. :D

So any thoughts? Any comments? Did/Does your High School have cliques?

Happy Reading!!!

♪♫ Ambur

Dewey's Read-a-Thon

Hey everyone!!!

I'm done all my papers, and I've got a bit of time before finals start, so I thought now would be the perfect time to sign up for Dewey's Read-a-Thon. That link will take you to the site for the Read-a-Thon, where you can find sign-ups, FAQs, buttons, and lots of other awesome and helpful stuff!

If you want to join the Read-a-Thon, it's on April 9th, and each time zone has a different start up time, so be sure to check when yours is if you do sign up! And as you can see from the button below, it's 24 hours long! I'm not sure if I'll last the whole 24 hours, but I'll definitely try! :D

I haven't picked which books I'll read yet, but I've got a bunch to choose from! I'll make a post on Friday with the books that I plan on reading, and I'll keep everyone updated on my progress with the Read-a-Thon!


Hopefully I'll see you at Dewey's Read-a-Thon this weekend! :D
...okay it's not a location or anything, but I think you guys get what I mean :P lol

Happy Reading!!!


♪♫ Ambur

Teaser Tuesday (21)

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

• Grab your current read

• Open to a random page

• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page

• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)

• Share the title and author too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

My Teasers:

"The pages in Elizabeth's hands began to smoke of their own accord, and a split second after she dropped them, they burst into flame. By the time they'd finished their fluttering flight to the floor, there was little left by swirling ash and cinders."

-Pride and Prejudice and Zombies: Dreadfully Ever After by Steve Hockensmith, p.39

Ok, so I'm actually already finished this one, but I really wanted to share a teaser from it with you all, so I am anyways! :P

What about you, do you have a teaser you'd like to share too? :)

Happy Reading!!!

♪♫ Ambur

It's Monday, What Are You Reading? (21)

It’s Monday! What Are You Reading?, is a bookish meme hosted by One Person's Journey Through a World of Books, where we gather to share what we have read this past week and what we plan to read this week. It’s a great way to network with other bloggers, see some wonderful blogs, and put new titles on your reading list. So hop on over to Journey and join in...and leave a comment here so I can check out what you are reading. All links for books go to Goodreads. :)

Books I Read Last Week:

*Sean Griswold's Head by Lindsey Leavitt

I loved this book! It was just as adorable as I thought it would be. I was so into this story that I swear I was blushing for Patton sometimes. ;) I definitely recommend this book to anyone who's a fan of contemporary fiction, and for anyone who loves stories about cute and awkward first loves. :)

*Water For Elephants by Sara Gruen

I wanted to make sure that I read Water For Elephants before the movie came out, and I am so glad that I did! This story was unbelievable, and I was so hooked! I loved the characters, the settings, absolutely everything! I especially loved the way that this book was organized, it was a mix of the main character, Jacob's memories and his present. The two were interwoven in a really beautiful way and while I read this book before bed I was constantly telling myself...just one more chapter, eventually I had to go to bed though because I had class in the morning. ;) Anyways, this book was wonderful, and I definitely recommend it. :)

Reading Now:

*Pride and Prejudice and Zombies: Dreadfully Ever After

When I saw that this book had finally come in the mail this week I was kind of jumping for joy! I would've finished it this weekend if I wasn't working on my English paper, which is due on Tuesday...you can bet once I'm done that paper, I will sink my clutches into this book like a zombie, pardon me...an unmentionable, sink his teeth into brains! I hope that last part wasn't too graphic for anyone :S Anywho, I'm like half way through it, and I'm so enthralled with this book...but I must resist and finish that paper! gah!

*Safe Haven by Nicholas Sparks (Audiobook)

I won this audiobook a while back, and I've finally started listening to it. It's kind of slow going though because when I listen to music I usually am doing other things, and with audiobooks I feel like I should be doing that too, but then I don't really catch anything. I'm getting used to it though. :)

*Running From Secrets by Stephanie Void

I'm still reading this one, I haven't been feeling like reading on the computer lately to be honest. With all my school stuff, I kind of feel like putting the computer away after, but I'm going to finish it this week, I'm determined. It's a good story so far, so I do really want to get to it. :)

Books I Want to Read This Week:

I'm not sure about all the ones that I'm going to get to this week, but I definitely want to finish some that I've started.

A couple I'd like to read are:

*Num8ers by Rachel Ward

And:

*Clarity by Kim Harrington

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And what are you reading???

Check out One Person's Journey Through a World of Books to see what other people are reading. :)

Happy Reading!!!

♪♫ Ambur