Review: Tiger Lily

Author: Jodi Lynn Anderson
Series: Standalone
Publisher: Haper Teen (Harper Collins)
Release: July 3rd 2012
Source: Purchased
Pages: 304 (paperback)
( Amazon | Goodreads )

Before Peter Pan belonged to Wendy, he belonged to the girl with the crow feather in her hair. . . .

Fifteen-year-old Tiger Lily doesn't believe in love stories or happy endings. Then she meets the alluring teenage Peter Pan in the forbidden woods of Neverland and immediately falls under his spell.

Peter is unlike anyone she's ever known. Impetuous and brave, he both scares and enthralls her. As the leader of the Lost Boys, the most fearsome of Neverland's inhabitants, Peter is an unthinkable match for Tiger Lily. Soon, she is risking everything—her family, her future—to be with him. When she is faced with marriage to a terrible man in her own tribe, she must choose between the life she's always known and running away to an uncertain future with Peter.

With enemies threatening to tear them apart, the lovers seem doomed. But it's the arrival of Wendy Darling, an English girl who's everything Tiger Lily is not, that leads Tiger Lily to discover that the most dangerous enemies can live inside even the most loyal and loving heart.

Peter Pan was never a favorite of mine, nor was I at all familiar with the myths of Neverland. Although adored by many of my friends, it seemed that I never cared enough to read this particular fairy tale, which also explained my initial hesitation towards Tiger Lily. Let me tell you now, my friends, I was such a fool. Tiger Lily was nothing like the ridiculous and predictive story I had expected. Instead, it was a grand display of fascinations and wonderments. I loved exploring Neverland in Jodi Lynn Anderson’s imaginations and the tale of Tiger Lily and Peter Pan is downright heartwarming and tear jerking all at the same time.

Review: The Elite (The Selection, #2)

Author: Kiera Cass
Series: The Selection, #2
Publisher: Harper Collins
Release: April 23rd 2013
Source: Purchased
Pages: 323 (hardcover)
( Amazon | Goodreads )

Thirty-five girls came to the palace to compete in the Selection. All but six have been sent home. And only one will get to marry Prince Maxon and be crowned princess of Illea.

America still isn’t sure where her heart lies. When she’s with Maxon, she’s swept up in their new and breathless romance, and can’t dream of being with anyone else. But whenever she sees Aspen standing guard around the palace, and is overcome with memories of the life they planned to share. With the group narrowed down to the Elite, the other girls are even more determined to win Maxon over—and time is running out for America to decide.

Just when America is sure she’s made her choice, a devastating loss makes her question everything again. And while she’s struggling to imagine her future, the violent rebels that are determined to overthrow the monarchy are growing stronger and their plans could destroy her chance at any kind of happy ending.

The Elite is the sequel to the #1 New York Times Bestselling novel The Selection by Kiera Cass. The series is set in a dystopian world and focuses mainly around the romantic relationships of the protagonist, America Singer, and the overall selection competition where the future queen of the country is chosen.

Review: The Ocean at the End of the Lane

Author: Neil Gaiman
Series: Standalone
Publisher: William Morrow (Harper Collins)
Release: June 18th 2013
Source: Purchased 
Pages: 259 (ebook)
( Amazon | Goodreads )

Sussex, England. A middle-aged man returns to his childhood home to attend a funeral. Although the house he lived in is long gone, he is drawn to the farm at the end of the road, where, when he was seven, he encountered a most remarkable girl, Lettie Hempstock, and her mother and grandmother. He hasn't thought of Lettie in decades, and yet as he sits by the pond (a pond that she'd claimed was an ocean) behind the ramshackle old farmhouse, the unremembered past comes flooding back. And it is a past too strange, too frightening, too dangerous to have happened to anyone, let alone a small boy.

Forty years earlier, a man committed suicide in a stolen car at this farm at the end of the road. Like a fuse on a firework, his death lit a touchpaper and resonated in unimaginable ways. The darkness was unleashed, something scary and thoroughly incomprehensible to a little boy. And Lettie—magical, comforting, wise beyond her years—promised to protect him, no matter what.

A groundbreaking work from a master, The Ocean at the End of the Lane is told with a rare understanding of all that makes us human, and shows the power of stories to reveal and shelter us from the darkness inside and out. It is a stirring, terrifying, and elegiac fable as delicate as a butterfly's wing and as menacing as a knife in the dark.

The Ocean at the End of the Lane is the first Neil Gaiman novel I have read so far. Although unfamiliar with his work, I have indeed heard a lot of praises regarding his other novels. I was very curious and excited about his style of story telling and the fantasy world he built for us fellow readers. And after finishing the book, I would totally say that I for one will be following closely with Neil Gaiman's future publishing activities.