Harry Potter Puns

Recently, I've been seeing a lot of Harry Potter puns that are both hilarious and painful... or I guess you could say, Harry-iously painful! Okay, sorry, that was really bad. But here are the top five HP puns I've seen!

Which of these are your favorites? Do you know any great ones?

Partials: Review

Title: Partials

Author: Dan Wells

Release Date: February 2012

Published By: HarperTeen

Pages: 472

Goodreads Rating: 4.14 stars

Review: After a war with Partials - engineered beings that look just like humans - the human race is nearly extinct with only vestiges of previous technology left. And the worst part? Every child born dies within days from RM, a virus strain released by the Partials. Sixteen-year-old Kira, a medic at the front lines of the battle, makes a desperate decision, and in the process, discovers a connection between humans and Partials that has been forgotten - or perhaps never known about at all.

Like many dystopian novels, PARTIALS is part (pun not intended) thrilling adventure, part budding romance, part societal issues, and of course, part of a series. Some people mentioned similarities between Hunger Games and this novel, and while I do agree that this book includes many elements of other dystopians, that doesn't mean it lacks originality. This is a solidly developed novel with excellent writing and a vivid cast of characters.

Although this book explored ideas like the Hope Act, a law passed that requires women sixteen years old and up to be pretty much constantly pregnant in order to increase the chances of a RM-immune baby, much of it was packed with heart-racing action. There were bombs, battles, and nerve-wracking missions, and all of it was executed very well. In multiple places, I found myself unable to even put the book down because I had to know what would happen next.

If there was one aspect that I didn't like, though, it would probably be the extent of the development of Kira's relationships with people, especially with her boyfriend Marcus. It sounded like they were deeply in love in the past but there was no explanation as to why she was so ambivalent towards them now. To me, this seems like an important plot point and I wish it was explored to more depth.

All in all, PARTIALS is a well-written dystopian novel that, while borrowing some elements from other dystopians, has some original plot points to it. The intercharacter relationships could have been developed a lot more, but the ending wrapped up the story nicely while still leaving room open for future novels to come. I look forward to reading the next book in the series!


I received a free copy of this book from the publisher. This in no way affected my review.

Follow Friday (30)

This week's question is...

What book do you think everyone should read, and if you could, would you buy a copy for all your family and friends?

I think everyone should read Looking for Alaska by John Green because it's an incredibly moving, beautiful book of love, loss, and adventure. It's what made me fall in love with John Green's writing and to an extent, YA as a whole genre.

However, I wouldn't give it to ALL my family and friends. There is quite a bit of sexuality and profanity in the book, and as much as I think everyone should read it, I know that much of many family and some of my friends would not be comfortable reading it. For those that wouldn't, though, I would certainly give them a copy right away (and have!)

If you're new to my blog, welcome! :) Please drop your link in the comments so I can return the favor.

You Are My Only: Review

Title: You Are My Only

Author: Beth Kephart

Release Date: October 2011

Published By: EgmontUSA

Pages: 256

Goodreads Rating: 3.75 stars

Review: Emmy's only joy in her otherwise miserable life is her baby, but one day she turns around to find her gone. Fourteen years later, Sophie is being moved from place to place by her mother, running from what she knows only as the "No Good". It's only when she breaks her mother's rules and leaves the house to meet her new neighbor that she begins to uncover secrets about her past, and what she finds changes her life forever.

I was really looking forward to YOU ARE MY ONLY because I was hoping for a suspenseful, psychological novel, the kind I'm always on the look-out for. Unfortunately, I found myself rather disappointed by this book. This may be due in part to the high expectations I had for it, but there were several aspects I was quite unsatisfied by.

To start with, I didn't feel the dual perspective was done as well as it could have been. I agree that it would work just fine for a story like this, but I ended up preferring one narrator (Sophie) over the other (Emmy), so I was interested in one half of the book and not the other. This imbalance contributed in part to a feeling I had towards the whole story: some parts held my attention, and others couldn't.

There were several scenes where my attention was a hundred percent grabbed and I couldn't stop reading, and then there were times when I was bored by the book and started counting pages until the end. This gave me a general lukewarm feeling about this novel, but that's not to say that this was a bad book, or something I didn't enjoy at all.

I have to particularly commend the author on the story and how it was executed. Apart from the multiple point of view, the writing was done very well, and the story created was haunting and occasionally suspenseful. This book gave me an ache in my chest, and if only the story was adjusted to be gripping the whole time and not just some of the time, this could have been even more emotional.

All in all, YOU ARE MY ONLY had a great deal of potential and certainly lived up to some of it, but not all. The story itself was chilling at times and the writing was for the most part beautiful, but the dual perspective was imbalanced and didn't work as well as it could have. There were also too many places where the storyline dragged and my attention was easily lost. I'm not sure if I'd recommend this particular book, but I certainly look forward to reading other books by this author.


I received a free copy of this book from the publisher for review. This in no way affected my review.