#readersofthebooks

Rating: ★★★★★

*This ended up being longer than I thought and it has some spoilers under the cut.

Where do I even begin? Celaena Sardothien is the character I've been waiting for my whole life. A strong, badass assassin, who happens to be a pretty girl and likes dresses. I just needed this in my life!

5/5 Stars!!!

I read Stolen in January of 2014. I read it in one day and the book effected me so much that I haven't been able to open it since then. The writing, the plot, the characters were all so amazing!! I can't properly review this book as I literally cried for 4 hours when I was done. 

I feel like Stolen really does an amazing job at showing people how effective Stockholm Syndrome is. Lucy Christopher attempts, successfully, to give it to most of her readers. By the end you can't help but love Ty, or at least feel bad for him, regardless of everything he's done. He risked and gave up his entire life to save Gemma, the one and only person he's ever loved. 

**contains slight spoilers**

This book sounded exactly like my kind of book. I was ready to have my heart torn out, to cry and swear at the pages before me as I read on. I expected it to be utterly amazing, since the movie trailer gave me chills and brought me to tears. Unfortunately that is not what happened. Not even close.

The premise was promising and this book could have been amazing. I was ready to explore death in a whole different way, but the book fell short on that one. I feel like the author tried too hard, you know? I also thought Mia was a selfish girl for the better part of the book. I know this sounds awful and I don't mean to step on any toes of the many (many!) fans this book has, but come on. She doesn't think to wonder about why both of her grandparents are there to see her, when her brother's in a completely different hospital supposedly fighting for his life. Her flashbacks don't make her grow on my either. The way she treated Kim the day they met, for instance, or how she's always thinking about what she wants to happen, what she needs in her life. It really started to annoy me at some point. For instance; she desperately needs her best friend to "love" her boyfriend and vice versa, which just seems plain weird to me.

Adam's another thing. Levi kind of saved fangirl for me, but Adam left me completely cold. Frankly, I didn't see the appeal. (Also the snogging scenes where she plays him like a cello and he plays her like a guitar, made me outright frown in embarrassment for both characters. Who does that and how awkward is that?!)

There were things that redeemed the book in my eyes though. Teddy, the little brother, was absolutely adorable and he made me smile whenever he appeared. Mia's father was absolutely awesome and I adored him. He seems like an awesome person to get to know. Mia's grandpa's speech broke my heart. It was the only moment I had during the book that I actually felt touched. Adam's sentence "Don't make me write song about you" in reference to him only writing songs about things that made me sad, was beautifully done. Kim! I loved Kim!

In conclusion, I give the book 3 stars for the potential it had. The emotional loss Mia experienced could have been dealt with a lot better. I mean, I know she said that she didn't feel anything, but really? She could feel everything else but the loss she endured? This could have been dealt with a lot better. I am, however, really looking forward to the movie! This is the kind of book that is probably going to be better as a movie than it was as a book.

3.5/5 stars!

I watched this movie in theatres when it came out however many years ago. I remember not liking it and I recentlt watched it again and I still wasn't a fan. Reading the book made me realize that what I don't like is that I was left unsatisfied. I realize the realities that killers don't always get caught and there aren't always leads, but still, I wanted more. So reading I had hoped reading the book would change that for me.

I really love the story of The Lovely Bones. I love the premise and all the characters. I love Susie's voice and I love the descriptions of her heaven. I was still left a little disappointed but it didn't bother me so much in the book. I just really wish that Alice had told the same story in a different way, it was good, but I would have liked it to be a little different.