Showing posts with label Tyne O'Connell. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Tyne O'Connell. Show all posts

Saturday, July 7, 2012

Week 27 Review: Dumping Princes

From Goodreads:
Dating Britain's Prince Freddie is bliss as far as Calypso Kelly is concerned. Which is why she is appalled when her friends at the posh St. Augustine's School for girls decide to chuck their boyfriend and concentrate on their "studies"? Then Freddie does the unthinkable--he breaks up with Calypso--setting off a chain of events that includes a school-wide plan for a Counter Dump. But with her first international fending competition coming up in Italy, and a captivating new boy showering her with attention, Calypso will have to search her heart to decide whether to give her prince another chance, or to give him up for good.

My Review
:
This was a great ending to this series! And Calypso finally, finally, finally! Gets over Freddie. He was OK, but yeah, he didn't treat her very well, so I'm glad that while he was the one that dumped her, that she didn't take him back!

I've enjoyed reading this series, and while romance is a good part of this book, and series, other elements are the day to day life of school and the politics there, and for Calypso, fencing, which is a pretty big part that heated up in this book!

And OK, this book isn't as funny for me as Dueling Princes, but yeah, it was really great and funny and entertaining! But humour changes as you grow up, so yeah, it was a bit to be expected. I just kinda missed it though!

Really great ending to the series, though it means that we have to say goodbye to to the characters. They had a really great run though, growing up and changing, and making friends with those that they didn't think they could, and it was really great!

Really great book, great ending to the series!

Author: Tyne O'Connell
Series: Calypso Chronicles #4
Read: July 6th, 2012
Source: Library
Reason Why: Had to finish this amazing, hilarious series!
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
Published: September 29th 2006
5/5 Hearts
3.5/5 Books
3.5/5 Stars

Saturday, June 16, 2012

Week 24 Review: Dueling Princes

From Goodreads:
Dating Britain's royal Prince Freddie has made Year Eleven at St. Augustine's the best one so far for Calypso Kelly. Together with best friends Star and Georgina, and new chums Portia and Indie, LA-born Calypso at last seems to have everything she's dreamed of or does she? With the national fencing trials coming up, balancing school, friendships, and a royal romance is a lot harder than she imagined. Something will have to give, but what--or whom--will it be? Picking up where "Stealing Princes" left off, this funny, fast-paced third book chronicling the life and times of Calypso Kelly will not disappoint.

My Review:
This was a really awesome book! Things are picking up, and while these books are pretty short, they are very entertaining! Oh, the situations that Calypso gets into! And now that the animosity between Calypso and Portia and Indie is over, well, yeah, now to move onto other conflicts!

So the title is pretty obvious, if you've read a book in this series. Fencing is taking a bigger and bigger chunk of the story, and yeah, that's great to read, that Calypso is growing up, though she's still getting into some pretty bizarre and hilarious situations!

These books are really quick, they just speed right on by! And as someone that loves reading as much as I do, I like variety! So yeah, that was really great! And with the humour in these books, well, I can't help but fall in love with them!

This is the 3rd book in the series, and Calypso is in grade 11. So yeah, she's growing up, and things are getting more difficult. So I think that she deals with these things pretty well, and considering what she gets into, yeah.

Really great book, can't wait to read the last one!

Author: Tyne O'Connel
Series: The Calypso Chronicles #3
Read: June 12th, 2012
Source: Library
Reason Why: I enjoyed the first 2 books.
Published: Bloomsbury Publishing PCL
Published: November 29th 2005
5/5 Hearts
3/5 Books
3/5 Stars

Monday, July 4, 2011

It's Monday! What Are You Reading #4, July 4th

It’s Monday! What Are You Reading is a weekly meme hosted by Book Journey where we share what we read this past week, what we hope to read this week…. and anything in between! This is a great way to plan out your reading week and see what others are currently reading as well… you never know where that next “must read” book will come from!


What happened in the past week:

Weekly Memes:
It's Monday! What Are You Reading #3
Teaser Tuesday #12
WWW Wednesday #12
WOW #7
Will the Time Come #5
A-Z Reading Challenge Update
In My Mailbox #4
I Have An Update #3

Week 26 Reviews:
This Charming Man
Pulling Princes
Stealing Princes
The Lovely Bones
Lucky
Starcrossed
Bait

Tours:
Singular: Review and Giveaway
Four Hundred Days: Review

Random:
What is A Writer? I'd Really Like To Know
Camp NaNoWriMo Anyone? And JulNo
Netgalley Month Declare Post
 
Ok, well, this was a pretty productive week! Lots of posts, and some nice random ones, too, I hope! I was quite happy with it, and since I'm now posting everyday, I feel much better!

For Week 27, I'm hoping to read Vanished, Pursuit, Plague, The Devil Colony, Alter of Eden, and The Ugly Duckling. More PDFs, and again, the nano books. Poor nano books, you're getting neglected!

Currently Listening Too: Doctor Who Episode Talking
Currently Reading: Pursuit by Karen Robards
Currently Watching: Doctor Who

When she receives a call from a child who sounds exactly like her missing daughter Lexie, Sarah Mason turns to her closest friend in the world, P.I. Jake Hogan. Jake is convinced that someone is deliberately tormenting the grief-stricken mother. But as their friendship explodes into passion-and the torment escalates into murder-Jake is the only person who can keep Sarah safe in their horrifying search for the truth...
When rookie lawyer Jessica Ford gets the call from her boss, John Davenport, the senior partner at the illustrious law firm for which she works, she can tell he is well on his way to being drunk. He needs Jess to meet First Lady Annette Cooper, for whom Davenport is a personal lawyer, at a Washington, D.C., hotel. Jess is thrilled: this high- profile assignment must mean that she's earned her boss's trust and she's on her way to bigger things. But unfortunately, bigger isn't always better.

Jess doesn't remember much, only that in the course of the late-night meeting with Annette Cooper, she ended up in the backseat of a car, speeding off into the darkness. All Jess knows is that the car crashed en route, and the other three passengers were killed, including the First Lady. Badly injured, Jess is the only survivor of what is trumpeted around the world as a tragic accident.

Although she has no memory about the events leading up to the accident, Jess is still bothered by one question: Was it really an accident? The Secret Service agent on the case, Mark Ryan, gets the feeling that Jess is hiding something. As his suspicions grow, Jess's world starts falling apart. First, she is brutally attacked in the hospital, barely escaping with her life. Then her boss dies under questionable circumstances. In fact, everyone who might possibly know the details about the First Lady's last few hours starts turning up dead. And then Jess understands: If she remembers that night, she’ll be dead too.

Terrified and certain that the First Lady's death was no accident, Jess has only Mark Ryan to turn to. . .
It's been eight months since all the adults disappeared. GONE.

They've survived hunger. They've survived lies. But the stakes keep rising, and the dystopian horror keeps building. Yet despite the simmering unrest left behind by so many battles, power struggles, and angry divides, there is a momentary calm in Perdido Beach.

But enemies in the FAYZ don't just fade away, and in the quiet, deadly things are stirring, mutating, and finding their way free. The Darkness has found its way into the mind of its Nemesis at last and is controlling it through a haze of delirium and confusion. A highly contagious, fatal illness spreads at an alarming rate. Sinister, predatory insects terrorize Perdido Beach. And Sam, Astrid, Diana, and Caine are plagued by a growing doubt that they'll escape - or even survive - life in the FAYZ. With so much turmoil surrounding them, what desperate choices will they make when it comes to saving themselves and those they love?
Deep in the Rocky Mountains, a gruesome discovery — hundreds of mummified bodies — stir international attention and fervent controversy. Despite doubts to the bodies’ origins, the local Native American Heritage Commission lays claim to the prehistoric remains, along with the strange artifacts found in the same cavern: gold plates inscribed with an unfathomable script.

During a riot at the dig site, an anthropologist dies horribly: burned to ash in a fiery explosion in plain view of television cameras. All evidence points to a radical group of Native Americans, including one agitator, a teenage firebrand who escapes with a vital clue to the murder and calls on the one person who might help: her uncle, Painter Crowe, director of Sigma Force.

To protect his niece and uncover the truth, Painter will ignite a war across the nation’s most powerful intelligence agencies. Yet, an even greater threat looms as events in the Rocky Mountains have set in motion a frightening chain reaction, a geological meltdown that threatens the entire western half of the U.S.

From the volcanic peaks of Iceland to the blistering deserts of the American Southwest, from the gold vaults of Fort Knox to the bubbling geysers of Yellowstone, Painter Crowe joins forces with Commander Gray Pierce to penetrate the shadowy heart of a dark cabal, one that has been manipulating American history since the founding of the thirteen colonies.

But can he discover the truth — one that could topple governments — before it destroys all he holds dear?
Following the fall of Baghdad, two Iraqi boys stumble upon armed men looting the city zoo. The floodgates have been opened for the smuggling of hundreds of exotic birds, mammals, and reptiles to Western nations, but this crime hides a deeper secret. Amid a hail of bullets, a concealed underground weapons lab is ransacked—and something even more horrific is set free.

Seven years later, Louisiana state veterinarian Lorna Polk stumbles upon a fishing trawler shipwrecked on a barrier island. The crew is missing or dead, but the boat holds a frightening cargo: a caged group of exotic animals, clearly part of a black market smuggling ring.

Yet, something is wrong with these beasts, disturbing deformities that make no sense: a parrot with no feathers, a pair of Capuchin monkeys conjoined at the hip, a jaguar cub with the dentition of a saber-toothed tiger. They also all share one uncanny trait—a disturbingly heightened intelligence.

To uncover the truth about the origin of this strange cargo and the terrorist threat it poses, Lorna must team up with a man who shares a dark and bloody past with her and is now an agent with the U.S. Border Patrol, Jack Menard.

Together, the two must hunt for a beast that escaped the shipwreck while uncovering a mystery tied to fractal science and genetic engineering, all to expose a horrifying secret that traces back to humankind's earliest roots.

But can Lorna stop what is about to be born upon the altar of Eden before it threatens not only the world but also the very foundation of what it means to be human?

Plain, soft-spoken Nell Calder isn't the type of woman to inspire envy, lust, or murderous passions. Until one night when Nell's life, dreams, and futures are shattered by a spray of bullets and the razor edge of a blade. Though badly hurt, Nell emerges from the nightmare a woman transformed, with an exquisitely beautiful face and a strong, lithe body, while Nicholas Tanek, a mysterious stranger, givers her a reason to go on living. But divulging the identity of her assailant to Nell might just be the biggest mistake of Tanek's life. For he will find his carefully laid plans jeopardized by Nell's daring to strike out on her own. And Nell will find her mission imperiled by Tanek's dangerous magnetism, a temptation to which she cannot afford to surrender.

Saturday, July 2, 2011

Week 26 Review: Pulling Princes, Stealing Princes


From Goodreads:
When Calypso returns from Los Angeles to her English boarding school for the summer term, she is determined to fit in with the popular crowd. Her plan is to pretend her mother's gay assistant back home is her boyfriend. And to her surprise, the trick works...at least at first. She makes a whole batch of new friends, and even finds herself winning the unwritten contest to woo the prince at the boys' school next door. But one girl, Honey, undermines all her efforts. When Calypso and Prince Freddy end up in the tabloids and everything seems set to go down the drain, it's Calypso's parents and sense of humor that save her from utter humiliation.
A fast-paced, laugh-out-loud-funny look at fitting in while still standing out...

From Goodreads:
How many fit boys can Calypso handle?

Calypso has decided that Prince Freddie is the one for her, but does her new roommate, the privileged Lady Portia, also have designs on him? To make matters worse, Calypso's best friends Star and Georgina are no longer her roommates; they are living instead with Indie-a new student and a real princess! Poor Calypso is feeling left out. How could her plans have gone so horribly wrong? Readers who have been anticipating the next installment in the Calypso Chronicles won't be disappointed as Calypso takes on more boys, bunnies, and Brits in her hilarious and inimitable style!

My Review:
I quite enjoyed these books. They were funny, light, and just really good reads. They had this quality of, sometimes, 'I don't want to read/see this because I know it's going to be embarrassing or something, and I want to spare them and myself that pain by not reading it' feeling. I have this weird quirk of not wanting to see the characters go do something embarrassing or walk into such a scene.

Anyways, Calypso was really funny, she knew what she wanted, and she went for it. I wish that the second one had more of her friends, but yeah.

It was really funny, and there were great parts, and I'm just kinda wondering why the fencing master left, but I think that might be covered in a later book, there's 4 in all, so I'd better find the last 2!

All in all, good books, you'd better check them out!

Author: Tyne O'Connell
Series: Calypso Chronicles #1, 2
Read: June 27th, 27th, 2011
Source: Bought
Reason Why: Sounded really great and funny!
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
Published: October 13th 2004, July 1st 2005

Pulling Princes:
4/5 Hearts
4/5 Books
4/5 Stars









Stealing Princes:
4/5 Hearts
4/5 Books
4/5 Stars