eBook Review: A Grimm Warning (The Land of Stories #3)

Title: A Grimm Warning
Author: Chris Colfer
Publisher: Little, Brown Book for Young Readers
Edition: I/eBook English Version
Published: July 8th, 2014
Page: 448
ISBN: 978-0-316-40683-3
Genre: Children, Young-Adult Fiction, Adventure, Fairy Tale Retelling

Synopsis: Conner Bailey thinks his fairy-tale adventures are behind him until he discovers a mysterious clue left by famous Brother Grimm. With help from his classmate Bree and the outlandish Mother Goose, Conner sets off on a mission across Europe to crack a two-hundred-year-old code. Meanwhile, Alex Bailey is training to become the next Fairy Godmother but her attempts at granting wishes never go as planned. Will she ever be truly ready to lead the Fairy Council? When all signs pint to disaster for the Land of Stories, Conner and Alex must join forces with their friends and enemies to save the day. But nothing can prepare them for the coming battle or for the secret that will change the twins' lives forever. The third book in the bestselling Land of Stories series puts the twins to the test as they must bring two worlds together!

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eBook Review: The Time-Traveling Fashionista at the Palace of Marie Antoinette (The Time-Traveling Fashionista #2) by Bianca Turetsky

          Title: The Time-Traveling Fashionista at the Palace of Marie Antoinette
          Author: Bianca Turetsky; Illustrator: Sandra Suy
          Publisher: Poppy
          Edition: II/eBook English Version
          Published: September 2012
          Page: 272
          ISBN: 978-0-316-20295-4
          Genre: Teenage Life, Young-Adult Fiction, Fashion

Synopsis: What if a beautiful dress could take you back in time? Louise Lambert's best friend's thirteenth birthday party is fast approaching, so of course the most important question on her mind is, "What am I going to wear?!" Slipping on an exquisite robin's egg blue gown during another visit to the mysterious Traveling Fashionista Vintage Sale, Louise finds herself back in time once again, swept up in the glory of palace life, fancy parties, and enormous hair as a member of the court of France's most infamous queen, Marie Antoinette. But between cute commoner boys and glamorous trips to Paris, life in the palace isn't all cake and couture. Can Louise keep her cool-and her head!-as races against the clock to get home?

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eBook Review: The Enchantress Returns (The Land of Stories #2) by Chris Colfer

Title: The Enchantress Returns
Author: Chris Colfer
Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
Edition: I/eBook English Version
Published: August 2013
Page: 517
ISBN: 978-0-316-25237-9
Genre: Children, Young-Adult Fiction, Adventure, Fairy Tale Retelling

Synopsis: After decades of hiding, the evil Enchantress who cursed Sleeping Beauty is back with a vengeance.
Alex and Conner Bailey have not been back to the magical Land of Stories since their adventures in The Wishing Spell ended. But one night, they learn the famed Enchantress has kidnapped their mother! Against the will of their grandmother, the twins must find their own way into the Land of Stories to rescue their mother and save the fairy tale world from greatest threat it's ever faced.

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eBook Review: The Wishing Spell (The Land of Stories #1) by Chris Colfer

         Title: The Wishing Spell (The Land of Stories #1)
         Author: Chris Colfer
         Publisher: Little Brown Books for Young Readers
         Edition: I/ eBook English Version
         Published: July 2012
         Page: 448
         ISBN: 978-0-316-20491-0
         Genre: Children, Young-Adult Fiction, Adventure, Fairy-Tale Retelling

Synopsis: Alex and Conner Bailey's world is about to change, in this fast-paced adventure that uniquely combines our modern day world with the enchanting realm of classic fairy tales. The Land of Stories tells the tale of twins Alex and Conner. Through the mysterious powers of a cherished book of stories, they leave their world behind and find themselves in a foreign land full of wonder and magic where they come face-to-face with the fairy tale characters they grew up reading about. But after a series of encounters with witches, wolves, goblins, and trolls alike, getting back home is going to be harder than they thought.

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Book Review: A Dash of Magic (The Bliss Bakery Trilogy #2) by Kathryn Littlewood

Judul: A Dash of Magic (The Bliss Bakery Trilogy #2)
Pengarang: Kathryn Littlewood
Penerjemah:Sujatrini Liza
Penerbit: Nourabooks
Edisi: I/Bahasa Indonesia
Diterbitkan pada: Agustus 2013
Jumlah Halaman: 312
ISBN: 978-9-794-33811-7
Genre: Fiksi remaja, sihir, keluarga

Sinopsis:

Rosemary Bliss rela melakukan apa pun untuk mendapatkan kembali Buku Resep ajaib milik keluarganya. Maka, dia menerima tantangan Bibi Lily untuk mengikuti kompetisi masak internasional di Paris. Jika Rose menang, Bibi Lily akan mengembalikan bukunya. Jika tidak, maka buku itu akan hilang selamanya. Didampingi keluarganya, kakek buyutnya, seekor kucing sarkastik, dan tikus Prancis, Rose berjuang demi menciptakan masakan spesial yang bisa membuatnya jadi pemenang. Bersama Ty dan Sage, Rose pun berkeliling Paris demi mendapatkan bahan-bahan ajaib: Rahasia Senyum Monalisa, Dentang Lonceng Notre Dame, Bisikan Kekasih, sampai Hujan Murni dari Puncak Eiffel.

Rose benar-benar tidak boleh kehilangan Bliss Cookery Booke untuk kedua kalinya!

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eBook Review: The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

Synopsis:

It is 1939. Nazi Germany. The country is holding its breath. Death has never been busier, and will become busier still.

By her brother's graveside, Liesel Meminger's life is changed when she picks up a single object, partially hidden in the snow. It is The Grave Digger's Handbook, left there by accident, and it is her first act of book thievery. 

So begins a love affair with books and words, as Liesel, with the help of her accordion-playing foster father, learns to read. Soon she is stealing books from Nazi book-burnings, the mayor's wife's library, wherever there are books to be found.

But these are dangerous times. When Liesel's foster family hides a Jew in their basement, Liesel's world is both opened up and closed down.

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eBook Review: Peter Nimble and His Fantastic Eyes by Jonathan Auxier

Synopsis: Peter Nimble and His Fantastic Eyes is the utterly beguiling tale of a ten-year-old blind orphan who has been schooled in a life of thievery. One fateful afternoon, he steals a box from a mysterious traveling haberdasher—a box that contains three pairs of magical eyes. When he tries the first pair, he is instantly transported to a hidden island where he is presented with a special quest: to travel to the dangerous Vanished Kingdom and rescue a people in need.

Along with his loyal sidekick—a knight who has been turned into an unfortunate combination of horse and cat—and the magic eyes, he embarks on an unforgettable, swashbuckling adventure to discover his true destiny.

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eBook Review: Book of a Thousand Days by Shannon Hale

Synopsis: When Dashti, a maid, and Lady Saren, her mistress, are shut in a tower for seven years for Saren's refusal to marry a man she despises, the two prepare for a very long and dark imprisonment.

As food runs low and the days go from boiling hot to freezing cold, it is all Dashti can do to keep them fed and comfortable.

But the arrival outside the tower of Saren's two suitors—one welcome, and the other decidedly less so—brings both hope and great danger, and Dashti must make the desperate choices of a girl whose life is worth more than she knows.

With Shannon Hale's lyrical language, this forgotten but classic fairy tale from the Brothers Grimm is reimagined and reset on the central Asian steppes; it is a completely unique retelling filled with adventure and romance, drama and disguise.

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eBook Review: Breadcrumbs by Anne Ursu

Synopsis:

Once upon a time, Hazel and Jack were best friends. They had been best friends since they were six, spending hot Minneapolis summers and cold Minneapolis winters together, dreaming of Hogwarts and Oz, superheroes and baseball. Now that they were eleven, it was weird for a boy and a girl to be best friends. But they couldn't help it - Hazel and Jack fit, in that way you only read about in books. And they didn't fit anywhere else.

And then, one day, it was over. Jack just stopped talking to Hazel. And while her mom tried to tell her that this sometimes happens to boys and girls at this age, Hazel had read enough stories to know that it's never that simple. And it turns out, she was right. Jack's heart had been frozen, and he was taken into the woods by a woman dressed in white to live in a palace made of ice. Now, it's up to Hazel to venture into the woods after him. Hazel finds, however, that these woods are nothing like what she's read about, and the Jack that Hazel went in to save isn't the same Jack that will emerge. Or even the same Hazel.

Inspired by Hans Christian Andersen's "The Snow Queen," Breadcrumbs is a story of the struggle to hold on, and the things we leave behind.

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eBook Review: Splintered by A.G. Howard

Sinopsis:

This stunning debut captures the grotesque madness of a mystical under-land, as well as a girl’s pangs of first love and independence. Alyssa Gardner hears the whispers of bugs and flowers—precisely the affliction that landed her mother in a mental hospital years before. This family curse stretches back to her ancestor Alice Liddell, the real-life inspiration for Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. Alyssa might be crazy, but she manages to keep it together. For now.

When her mother’s mental health takes a turn for the worse, Alyssa learns that what she thought was fiction is based in terrifying reality. The real Wonderland is a place far darker and more twisted than Lewis Carroll ever let on. There, Alyssa must pass a series of tests, including draining an ocean of Alice’s tears, waking the slumbering tea party, and subduing a vicious bandersnatch, to fix Alice’s mistakes and save her family. She must also decide whom to trust: Jeb, her gorgeous best friend and secret crush, or the sexy but suspicious Morpheus, her guide through Wonderland, who may have dark motives of his own.

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Book Review: Spells (Wings #2) by Aprilynne Pike

Sinopsis: Enam bulan lalu Laurel menyelamatkan gerbang peri menuju Avalon, dan sekarang ia harus menghabiskan libur musim panasnya disana, mengasah keahliannya sebagai peri Musim Gugur. Tapi keluarga dan teman manusianya masih dalam bahaya-dan gerbang menuju Avalon juga semakin terancam. Ketika harus melindungi orang yang dicintainya, akankah Laurel bergantung pada David, pacar manusianya? Ataukah ia akan berpaling pada Tamani, peri yang juga tertarik pada Laurel?

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Book Review: Wings by Aprilynne Pike

Sinopsis:

Laurel benar-benar terpesona. Itu luar biasa indah-terlalu indah untuk digambarkan dengan kata-kata. Laurel berbalik menghadap cermin lagi, matanya menelusuri kelopak yang melayang di kedua sisi kepalanya. Itu terlihat seperti sayap.

Sepasang sayap yang mirip kelopak bunga tumbuh di punggung Laurel. Sejak itu dunianya berubah. Ia bertemu dengan Tamani. Pria itu melihat Laurel mengembangkan sayapnya di dekat sungai, lalu berbicara dengannya seolah sudah mengenalnya sejak lama. Tamani mengatakan sesuatu yang sangat tidak masuk akal. Dia bilang Laurel adalah peri, sama seperti dirinya. Tapi Laurel berada di dunia manusia untuk mengemban tugas penting, yaitu menjaga gerbang masuk Avalon, dunia peri, dari makhluk-makhluk jahat seperti troll. Sementara menghadapi takdirnya yang baru, Laurel pun terbagi antara cintanya pada Tamani dan David, sahabat manusianya...

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[Early] December's Book Haul

Hi readers!

Nggak terasa sekarang sudah di penghujung tahun 2013 ya. Anyway, sudah nge-haul apa aja nih di bulan Desember? Pasti macam-macam ya. Emm, kalau aku sih udah nge-haul beberapa novel baru, hihihi.

O ya, sebelum lanjut ke main topic untuk post kali ini aku mau sedikit cerita soal hobi baruku yaitu mengkoleksi novel. Aku sebenarnya sudah sejak SD tertarik dengan yang namanya membaca buku, tapi dulu aku jarang membeli buku bacaan, palingan cuman pinjam di perpus atau pinjam di tempat penyewaan komik dan novel. Tapi karena sekarang sudah tamat kuliah dan sudah jarang ke perpus apalagi males buang-buang uang buat nyewa novel (yang palingan cuman dijatah 2 hari sewa per novel) jadi aku memutuskan untuk mulai tekun mengkoleksi novel-novel. Niat buat mengkoleksi novel ini dimulai bulan Agustus lalu, setelah aku selesai sidang skripsi. Untuk saat ini sih baru terkumpul sekitar 30an novel (masih sedikit banget), tapi aku berjanji pada diri sendiri untuk terus menambah koleksi novel-novelku di rumah.

Untuk jenis-jenis bacaannya sendiri, secara keseluruhan, aku lebih suka dengan novel atau buku cerita yang mengarah ke genre fantasi dengan sedikit bumbu misteri dan supernatural. Aku suka dengan novel yang mengulas kehidupan kerajaan-kerajaan, dunia peri, penyihir, dongeng, legenda, dan perjalanan lintas waktu. Tapi tidak menutup kemungkinan aku juga suka membaca novel-novel berisi tentang roman, fashion, detektif, dan action.

Nah, di bulan Desember ini aku membeli sekitar 6 novel baru. Kenapa aku golongkan dalam "Early Haul" karena aku masih bermaksud untuk membeli beberapa novel lagi nanti. Hehe. Yuk, cek novel apa saja yang aku beli.

New Year's Wishlist

Berhubung bulan Desember ini sudah beli banyak buku (besok akan saya update di sesi "HAUL"), maka beberapa buku inceran saya akan saya masukkan ke dalam "Wishlist" tahun baru. Ada cukup banyak sih buku atau lebih tepatnya novel fiksi yang saya pengen punya beli sebelum tahun 2014. Berikut salah banyaknya, haha.

1. The Hollow

Pengarang: Jessica Verday

Penerbit: Gramedia Pustaka Utama

Harga:Rp64.000

2. The Haunted (The Hollow #2)

Pengarang: Jessica Verday

Penerbit: Gramedia Pustaka Utama

Harga: Rp68.000

3. Beyonders (Beyonders #1)

Pengarang: Brandon Mull

Penerbit: Noura Books (Mizan)

Harga: Rp74.000

Book Review: The Time-Traveling Fashionista - On Board the Titanic by Bianca Turetsky

Judul: The Time-Traveling Fashionista - On Board the Titanic
Judul Asli: The Time-Traveling Fashionista: On Board the Titanic
Pengarang: Bianca Turetsky
Penerbit: Bentang Belia (Bentang Pustaka)
Cetakan: I/September 2013
Penerjemah: Mery Riansyah
Tebal: 256hlm
ISBN: 978-602-7975-53-8
Genre: Novel Remaja

Sinopsis:

Bisakah sebuah gaun vintage membawamu pergi ke masa lalu?

Bagaimana bisa semua orang memanggilku Alice Baxter?

Dalam kebingungan, kuamati gaun indah yang kukenakan, kupandangi sekali lagi sekelilingku. Suasana ini sangat menakjubkan! Sebuah kapal pesiar mewah nan klasik. Aku bukan diriku lagi, bukan Louise Lambert!

Kucoba menikmati peranku sekarang. Berbaur di antara wanita-wanita bangsawan dengan gaun gemerlapan. Mengagumi interior kapal yang membuatku terpana. Aku tenggelam dalam dunia glamor yang mengejutkan, sampai kusadari sesuatu. Ternyata, kapal ini Titanic! Itu artinya, kami semua akan mengalami peristiwa mengerikan yang terjadi seabad lalu! Aku diserang kepanikan. Bisa apa gadis belia sepertiku? Mungkin, hanya keberanian yang kubutuhkan dalam situasi ini! Bagaimanapun, aku harus melakukan sesuatu!

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