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Book Review - As You Wish

 Friday, 19 November 2010

BOO! Bet you thought you weren't gonna see a single review this month eh? Nosiree! I decided to be a complete idiot and stay up reading and due to the severe adrenaline rush I got from devouring a 600 page chunkster in 3 and a half hours I am now simply staying up the rest of the night because I know that if I go to sleep now I will miss all my classes tomorrow - better to be there and half-asleep than not there at all.


But anyway you won't be getting the review of the aforementioned book for a couple of weeks yet so forget :P This is for a book I read last week.


Title: As You Wish
Author: Jackson Pearce
Date: 10/11/2010 AM
Source: Bought
Description: Ever since Viola's boyfriend broke up with her, she has spent her days silently wishing—to have someone love her again and, more importantly, to belong again—until one day she inadvertently summons a young genie out of his world and into her own. He will remain until she makes three wishes.
Jinn is anxious to return home, but Viola is terrified of wishing, afraid she will not wish for the right thing, the thing that will make her truly happy. (Description taken from GoodReads)


My Review
I'd had this on my wishlist for quite a while now since I saw a vlog review about it last year on Youtube. I was waiting to get the paperback partly because I'm cheap and I also *really* love US paperbacks (They're just so floppy!!). When I saw it in a bookshop last week I just had to get it and when I was needing some relief from severe brainache caused by Nanowrimo it provided the perfect mixture of light, fun gooey romance, fab concepts and a message.

What really makes a book awesome for me is when I really connect with the characters and Jackson really hit the spot on that front. Viola was such a wonderfully caring person and I really admired her sweetness and her whole attitude to the wish-making business. Instead of just dashing off three petty wishes she really tried to think about them and make them meaningful, a mature approach that I thought was awesome. She's the kind of person who'd be a brilliantly generous and loyal friend although I'd be slightly terrified of shocking her with my terrible penchant for swearing :P


Jinn is well -*hot*- exotic-looking, curly dark hair and has a fab sense of humour, he is so dang cute sometimes worrying about the seconds passing and his life getting shorter (by tiny amounts). There's a hilarious scene where he gets so fretful about his hair being "longer than it has ever been" that Viola offers to cut it for him. It's barely a cm or 2 longer so she's a little bewildered where to start, in the end Jinn decides to try out the long hair :P The waiting is rather agonising for Jinn (that's not technically his name but Viola wanted to call him *something*) since everyday he stays on earth he gets older and everyday he gets to know Viola better it's getting harder to want to leave.


I also loved Viola's best friend-turned-boyfriend-turned gay, Lawrence. Despite knowing that he broke Viola's heart he still cares about her a lot and how they manage to work as "just friends" is so amazing and I think Viola is so strong for it. Scenes with Lawrence and Jinn were freaking hilarious as well.


Oh yea and boy did I laugh out loud when Jinn said who one of his previous masters was- I *dare* someone to tell Keanu Reeves that he's only famous because of Jinn and his wishes :P Please someone do it.


Overall it was such a lovely story, with a fab fantasy concept and the message of "not needing 3 wishes to belong" doesn't feel hammy at all thanks to Jackson's awesome writing. Plus I got a massive craving to watch/read The Princess Bride when it finally clicked that the whole freaking title is a nod to Wesley (Just his eyes when he says "As you wish" *melts*). I have no idea if it was intended that way but I'd rather like to think it was :P


I can't wait to read Sister's Red now and I'm wondering if we're gonna get to see some more of Viola and Jinn in the future? *winkwinkprettypleasewithsparklesontop?* :P


My Rating: 4.5 Stars out of 5


Technically I started this review yesterday when I was tired out of my mind so apologies for general incoherency. Oh yea and I totally watched The Princess Bride again last night :P Sighed and giggled my through it- tis an awful shame that Cary Elwes just ain't that good-looking any more.


Will hopefully have more reviews swinging your way soon folks since I've pretty much given up on Nanowrimo now although I'm still saving a dash of hope for a last-minute charge of the rohirrim as-it-were to save my novel from complete disaster. Bah who knows?


LadyV

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Nanowrimo Day 16

 Wednesday, 17 November 2010

Ugh worst day so far! I literally had to squeeze blood out of a rock today to actually write something and I have no idea what I've done all day! All I managed was a pathetic 612 words and I've still not finished with Chapter 9. I just haven't been in the mood today at all, I'm too busy thinking about the uni work that is gonna bite me in the ass pretty soon although when you think about it how hard is it gonna be to write a 2,000 word essay on Balzac when I've already cranked out nearly 28K of a novel?

But I'm really hoping I get past this feeling of "ugh" cos I don't wanna fall behind and bugger up my chances of actually succeeding first time although I'm thinking that this weekend could be "Hang up Nano for a couple days so I can blitz my work weekend". Stressing about not writing is making me not do as much of my proper work as I really ought to :(

Gah but anyway it's late I have to be up tomorrow (*cough* today technically) morning for a 10am class - which I foresee being slept through because I fail like that.

Oh and tomorrow there is a *very* high chance that the MOST AWESOME BOOK OF THIS YEAR will arrive through my mailbox so forgive any squealing tweets, vlogs and blog posts that may appear.

That is all
LadyV

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Nanowrimo Day 15- Half Way Point!

 Tuesday, 16 November 2010

Well dang... we're now half-way through November! I dunno bout other folk but this month seems to be going much slower than October, maybe that's just cos I'm absorbed in my writing so time seems to be getting gloopier. Most likely the second November ends the whole world will start whirring at top speed and I'll end up splatting straight into Christmas.

I know that loads of people are feeling all christmassy already but dude I can't think that far ahead I'm more concerned about the precipice I'm creeping closer to everyday! That being that I've only outlined to the end of Chapter 11 and I'm half-way through Chapter 9 now! *gulps* So unless I take a day off from working on the story to outline at least briefly the next four or five chapters I'm gonna come to a grinding halt just after I hit 30K or thereabouts.

Today has not been terribly productive since my classes started up again after Reading Week (or Doss week as it should be known). But I have in the last hour or so managed to get at least 1K written. Earlier I finished the outline of Chapter 11 but didn't have the energy to carry on past there.

So at the half-way point of the month I am rather happy to have 27,234 words! If I can keep this up I may finish a day or two before the 30th! *crosses fingers*

Well it's once again rather late, I'm not gonna make the mistake tonight of picking up a book after finishing at 1am like I did yesterday. Yes the book I read was really intriguing and quirky, not to mention set in Paris (does it count as research?) but I don't think I should have read it all in one go :S

Bonne nuit mes amies
LadyV

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It's Monday What are you Reading (20)

 Monday, 15 November 2010

Sorry about the lack of post for last Monday but I hadn't read a single book in November until last Tuesday. With Nano munching all my time (not to mention my soul X_X) I have very little time for reading although I'm determined to not get to the end of this month with less than 10 books read (for me that would be horrifying cos I'm aiming for 200 books read this year).

Thankfully in the past week I've managed to get some stuff read :)

It's Monday What are you Reading? Is a weekly bookish meme where we get together to share what books we've read in the past week, what books we're currently reading and what new books we're planning on reading in the coming week along with any reviews or interesting posts. It's hosted by Sheila @Book Journey

Books read in the last Week
J.R.R. Tolkien: a biography by Humphrey Carpenter (Seriously awesome bio of a fascinating man. If you love LotR then this is well worth reading)
As You Wish by Jackson Pearce (Hopefully will review this soon - really enjoyed it!)
The Ambassador's Mission by Trudi Canavan 
Leaving Paradise by Simone Elkeles (Will be reviewing soon - SO AMAZING!)

Not Currently Reading Anything :(

Books I'm Planning on Reading This Week
Well my Awesome Bestie Jess is lending me her copies of Delirium and Boys Don't Cry so they will be priorities... that is until the Super-Duper-Top-Secret-book-of-Fantasmagorically-Awesomeness arrives. When that book hits my doormat *Everything* is gonna be dropped, I will not eat, sleep, study or write until I've devoured it and then of course I'll break down crying and read it again. :P

Delirium by Lauren Oliver

Boys Don't Cry by Malorie Blackman

Mystery Book of AWESOME!

So that's what I read this week, What are *You* reading this fine Monday?
LadyV

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Nanowrimo Day 14

Hi Everybody!! As you can already tell by the over-excited use of exclamation marks I am *very* happy today!
As of 1am on Sunday Night/Monday Morning (whichever you prefer) my novel is past the 25K point. *happy dances*

Today has been massively productive in terms of Nano (in other areas not so much :S) I was really excited about writing this particular chapter because it was the one that was easiest to visualise in my head and it's one of the most dramatic scenes in the first third of the book. I wrote over 1K for it yesterday and today I've done nearly another 3K and in record time as well! I was up so insanely late last night that it's a relief to have finished writing so early today! (lol like 1am is *Early*).

So yea as of now my novel is 26,083 words long! Going into this month I never expected to get even as far as 10K let alone 26K so I have to say that I'm thrilled beyond belief to be at this half-way stage. Now I just have to hope that going into the 3rd week I can keep up with my writing and get my Uni work done. I would so hate to have to quit because everything gets too much to handle especially when I'm doing so well for my first year doing Nano.

 A big thanks to the folk who've supported me thus far, let's see if we can take this all the way!
Bring me that horizon!
LadyV

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In My Mailbox #28 The Partly Educational one

 Sunday, 14 November 2010

Hey you lovely people! (Excuse me I'm jiving to the dulcet tones of Puck from Glee *sighs* )
Ahem anyways I'll try to contain myself and get on with things. (Song's finished now :( )

In My Mailbox is a weekly Bookish Meme hosted by Kristi of The Story Siren and inspired by Alea of Pop Culture Junkie

I gots a vlog for y'all this week!



Books Acquired this week
As you Wish by Jackson Pearce
Dreaming Anastasia by Joy Preble
Ferragus/Fille aux yeux d'or by Balzac
Pretty French Verb book :P

So yea I actually bought two books that are for my course so I think they absolve me of the other two books *pings halo* No? dang didn't think you'd buy it...

LAST MINUTE ADDITION!!

I just popped out to the shops for some food cos y'know I had pretty much nothing. So I may have wandered into the Works and lo! For a cracking £1.99 I have my own copy of 13 Little Blue Envelopes by the fab Maureen Johnson! Bargain!

Not a terribly significant week but I'm almost dying with anticipation for next week for several AWESOME reasons although I'm not sure if I'm allowed to talk about one of them *strokes metaphorical beard of ponderment*. Either way next week's vlog will be so god damn bouncy you'll think I've been stuffing my face with sweets (that's *not* what I'm doing now honest :P)

That's What I got in My Mailbox this week, What's in Yours?
LadyV

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Nanowrimo Day 13

Well bugger me, yea so it's 4am and I just finished writing for "today" supposedly Saturday but since I keep doing most of my writing stupidly late at night it's usually the day after that I should be counting the words towards. But what the heck?

I'm staying up later and later writing and subsequently waking up later and later in the morning, my reading week is pretty much over, I've done little to no work and my sleep pattern is shot to hell - just great really. I am gonna have a bitch of time getting back into the work routine although I think it will improve my chances of getting my word count done before stupid o'clock cos I can write in between classes up on campus. At home I just faff about all day and end up at 9pm with nothing done. Ugh I'm such a lazy git.

So I've now finished Chapter 7 and I'm a good chunk of the way through Chapter 8 (which I've been looking forward to writing - introduction of bad guys and shiz :P). If I can haul my carcass out of bed before noon I may try and get past 25K words and/or finish this chapter so I can do the uni work I have for Monday *sad times*.

I pass out sitting pretty on my 23257 words. I'm satisfied to stay just slightly ahead of the recommended target as I don't want to try and overachieve in my first year. Maybe next year I'll go crazy and aim for more than 50,000 over the month but for now I'm happy if I actually finish and don't quit when my uni work gets too manic :S

Night y'all here's hoping I wake up and stay up
LadyV

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