Book Review: Blood and Chocolate By: Annette Curtis Klause

I just finished reading Blood and Chocolate. It was pretty short, it only took me part of the day...and I hear there is a movie as well.

Rating: 3.5 stars out of 5
Genres: Fantasy, Romance, Werewolves...

Vivian is not what you would call an ordinary girl. Or, for that matter, an ordinary human. For generations, Vivian's family has been a family of werewolves. Together, with their pack, they migrate from rural area to rural area to live as they wish. However, after a series of events which leave the pack without a leader and Vivian without a father. It is for this reason that they move to the suburbs.

Tired of hanging with the Five, Vivian begins to feel lonely and craves companionship of others. Then, she meets Aiden and falls in love with him. Aiden likes magic and werewolves and Vivian finds herself wanting to tell him about her. But, there is trouble in the pack as well and Vivian has a part in it. Confused by emotions and what she thinks is right, Vivian must decide her fate.

Blood and Chocolate was an interesting and fast-paced story. Annette Curtis Klause intricately spins a web of feelings of a young woman/werewolve. Although I found some of the other characters bland, the main characters were developed well. While I don't mind a cute romance story, I am not really big on werewolves, so I guess I'm a bit bias when I say this wasn't my favorite book --as there was quite a bit of werewolve action going on. But overall, Blood and Chocolate is a real engrossing story which I would recommend for those who love a good werewolve romance.

The Golden Compass By: Philip Pullman

Also known as The Northern Lights, I originally read this book in 2002 and loved it, now that I have found out they are making of movie out of this book I went back to see if this book was as good as I remembered (i remembered it was good...not the plot) and it was just as great. Can't wait for the movie to come out!

Can you imagine living in a parallel world to ours where people have a part of themselves outside of them, but connected to them in the form of an animal? Well in Lyra's world, they do. They are called daemons and every person has one. Lyra is a young girl living in Oxford, growing up in Jordan College among the scholars. Her life involves playing with her friend Roger and the kids throughout the town, and every few months has to clean up nice for a visit from her uncle, Lord Asriel. But when children start disapearing around the country and eventually Roger does too, Lyra knows she has to do something. Using the special device that the Master of Jordan College gives her, she goes off to rescue Roger on what comes to be an adventure.

The Golden Compass, Philip Pullman's first novel in his trilogy His Dark Materials is fantastic. It doesn't matter at what age you read it, its just as great. Pullman manages to draw Lyra through and extraordinarally large amount of people throughout the story, and still make it easy to remember who all the characters are. The parallel world where this story takes place is a very believable place, yet really different. The book is well written, and very interesting. I'd recommend this book for anyone who likes some fantasy combined with a bit of the real world.