Top 3 books by Melina Marchetta!

Hello book Lovers! 

I've just finished reading Red Queen by Victoria Aveyard... and it was amazing! I recomend it to any YA reader. I will post a review about it soon, so keep an eye on that, it will probably be my first post of May.

So, let's get on with Melina Marchetta. 

Melina Marchetta is a great author. She has written 3 of my fovourite books, which are Looking for Alibrandi! , The Piper's Son! and Saving Francesca! They are three breathtaking books. They are all based in Australia and in Australian life, so if you read them and something sounds weird, it's probably because Aussies are awesomely weird, by the way, I do live in Australia; I'm not just saying that because I think so. 

Looking for Alibrandi is my favourite book in the world. It is about a girl that lives with her mum and really across the street from her Grandmother. She has to spend lot of time with her granny because her Italian backround kind of makes her have to be close to her family... And because she doesn't know who her dad is, she is really close her mum and tries her best to be nice to her grandmother. She tries really hard, but it's difficult when she keeps blaming her poor single mother for everything. 

She falls I love with an Australian boy, they really like each other, but the rest of the Italian women don't accept the fact that she is dating an Australian boy instead of an Italian one. When the Italian ladies start talking about her behind her back, she hears rumors, like: "it's all her mothers fault, she is a single mother." "I'm sure the father wasn't Italian either" ... And so on, so the father thing get into her mind, she starts asking questions about him to her mother, but she doesn't get many answers. After a lot of time looking for her father, she finally finds out he lives in Sydney. But, during all the time she has been obsessed with finding her dad, she hasn't realised that she has been drifting away from her boyfriend. 

What is she going to do? Look for her father? Wait until her m gives her more information about her dad? Should she stay with her Australian lover? Why does her granny always judge her own daughter?  

There are so many question to be solved, and you can find the answer by reading this amazing book. 

Saving Francesca is so amazing! "Saving Francesca" is the story of sixteen-year-old Francesca Spinelli's coming-of-age during a time when her mother, previously the rock of her life, is bedridden with depression. As her family falls apart around her, Francesca falls in love with an unattainable boy, makes new friends, and learns to appreciate what truly makes her unique. 

The novel opens with the sorrowful line, "This morning, my mother didn't get out of bed". Francesca Spinelli is used to her mother's ridiculous antics waking her up in the morning, used to her mother's controlling presence in her life, used to her mother's seemingly unattainable expectations for Francesca to live as an individual at all times. Now, her mother is like a ghost, completely bedridden and practically unresponsive to the world around her. Recently, Francesca's mother transferred Francesca from St. Stella Academy to St. Sebastian's - which used to be an all boys' school - for tenth grade. At this new school, there are thirty girls to seven hundred and fifty boys. For many teenage girls, this sounds like a dream come true, but for Francesca, it's a nightmare. She misses her old friends and is forced to hangout with nerdy girls who transferred from her old school with her. As a result, Francesca feels isolated at school and wishes things in her life were different. 

One of the major problems in Francesca's life is the fact that girls are treated so differently in school than boys, so some of the ex-Stella girls create a list of demands and nominate Francesca to deliver their request to the house head, a no-nonsense twelfth-year named William Trombol. Even though William is gruff and sometimes rude, Francesca slowly realizes that she's falling in love with Will, and she believes Will might have feelings for her, too. At a party one weekend, Will locks eyes with Francesca from across the room, makes a beeline toward her, and kisses her hard on the mouth. They spend the rest of the party making-out, so Francesca feels blindsided when, the next day, she learns that Will has a girlfriend. Faced with a broken heart and a mother too depressed to get out of bed, Francesca feels as if she's falling apart. Slowly, she begins to bond with her fellow ex-Stella girls and forms friendships stronger than she ever could have imagined. These three girls, Siobhan, Tina, and Justine, never question Francesca's swinging moods: they love her unconditionally, which is more than Francesca can say about her previous best friends, who abandon her in her time of need. 

As the novel progresses and Francesca's mother goes from bad to worse, she is forced to lean on her new friends for strength in both her familial and social lives. She learns that being "cool" isn't the most important thing for a teenager - being surrounded by those who love and support you is. As Francesca comes out of her shell, embracing extracurricular activities like dancing and singing in the school musical, she learns to love herself and to surround herself with friends who love her for her she is, not what she represents. The more Francesca heals, the more attractive she becomes to Will Trombol, who soon breaks up with his girlfriend (although he doesn't want to date Francesca right away). Francesca learns that healing is not an overnight experience, for herself or for her mother, but when given the space to truly be themselves, both characters express the strength and determination to survive. 

The Piper's son is such an amazing book. It's kind of like a prologue of Saving Francesca becuase it has the same characters, and it is what happens after school, but Thomas is the main character instead of Fran. Even though he went to Francesca's school and they had the same friends becuase they were in the same frienship group, Thomas' life is very different and a bit more difficult. After high school, everything gets harder, Tom somehow they end up alone and  has to work out what he has to do with his life without anyone there to support him. 
This is a short summary:
 Thomas Mackee wants oblivion. Wants to forget parents who leave and friends he used to care about and a string of one-night stands, and favourite uncles being blown to smithereens on their way to work on the other side of the world. But when his flatmates turn him out of the house, Tom moves in with his single, pregnant aunt, Georgie. And starts working at the Union pub with his former friends. And winds up living with his grieving father again. And remembers how he abandoned Tara Finke two years ago, after his uncle’s death. And in a year when everything’s broken, Tom realises that his family and friends need him to help put the pieces back together as much as he needs them.


I encourage everyone to read this three amazing books because they will blow you mind! They such great books, all three of them amazingly written by Melina  Marchetta, my favourite author, and have incredible story lines. 

A Booktiful Life

· Alienated by Melissa Landers book review ·

Hello Booklovers!

During the holidays I´ve read a few books such as the Fallen series, Throne of Glass, Osiris, Where She Went and a few others. They were all amazing and I really loved reading them; but I´ve read this one book that everyone was talking to me about, the book is called Alienated, and it was mind-blowing. I wouldn´t be surprised if you have heard about it, because it is so, so, good. 

This amazing book is about a girl, Cara, from Earth, and a boy, Aelyx, from L´eihrs, a planet that has just become "friends" with Earth. Earth and L'eihrs have made a deal, the deal is that 3 students from their planet would travel to Earth for a year and then the students from planet Earth who have been looking after the intergalactic students would go to their planet. It sounded like a great idea to the Government at first, but then all of the people that lived around the area in which Cara's house was, which was where Aelyx is staying for the year, started a club, against the aliens. Unfurtunatelly, it became really popular and a lot of people joined it. Their purpose was to kick the aliens out of their planet because they thought they are evil and were planning something behind their backs; because if you think about it, Why would a planet that is way more developed than Earth want to have anything to do with them? 

HALO, the club against the aliens, became more aggresive and the others students from Cara and Aelyx´s school keep treating them badly. Aelyx didn´t know what to do about all of this, plus he felt guilty because Cara was giving up all of her friends, who were trurning against her, becuase of him. Cara keeps standing up for him even though everyone gives her a hard time.

Even though, Aelyx didn´t really like it on Earth and was trying his best to go back home, he soon found a reason for him to stay, Cara.

So! I won´t give you any more because this is a spoiler free blog... most of the time. But, as you can see, this book has an amazing story line, the characters are so, so, so well developed. Infact, one of my favourite things about this book is how the author, Melissa Landers, describes their feeling towards each other throughout the book and how they change as time goes by and they get to no eachother better. Another one of my favourite thing about this book is that it´s a sci-fi  book!! That means the author can do anything with it, and she does, she twists, turns and changes the world and finds another prespective to look at aliens. She writes about a planet that has just started contacting Earth and has decided to exchange students. And, am I the only one that thinks that that is really cool and that you need a lot of imagination to imagine and write that? Because, yes, I am aware that a lot of authors have written about different galaxies, aliens, planet Earth and all that kind of stuff, but I had never heard of a book that talks about a planet such as L´eihrs. Because in this planet, the aliens aren´t green and with big eyes, infact they look just like humans, or nearly. There are only a few differences between the human race and theirs, they might seem insignificant, but when you read the book, you find out what a big difference a small difference between them can make. Some of their anormalities are that they are smarter, more developed, talk to eachother telepathically, they rather spend time in dark or/and grey places and full of nature, they don´t like the food from Earth, and so on. 

My favourite quotes are:

1.“He prepared the richest, most indulgent and disgusting dish imaginable - a bowl of fudge ripple ice-cream topped with chocolate syrup, semi-sweet chocolate morsels, chocolate sprinkles, and, for good measure, a chocolate brownie from the pantry. He even garnished it with a handful of M&M's.

 "Look what I made for you. A bowl of diabetes.” 

2. “It's common knowledge that shiny rocks are preferred among human females.”

3. “Can I borrow the car today, Mom? We'll get soaked if we walk-"

"Hmph," Dad interrupted. "When I was a boy-"

"Yeah, yeah," Cara interrupted back. "You walked to school naked in the snow or something. So can I?” 

4. “I don't like the way he looks at you."

"How does he look at me?"

"Like he wants to dock his ship inside your spaceport."

"You've cracked.” 

5. “To be honest, I don't know what qualities you ever saw in him. I can tell why he chose you, but-"

"Oh yeah?" Cara's spirits lifted as she sensed a compliment coming on. "Why do you think he chose me?"

"It's obvious." He swept a hand to indicate her loose curls. "Your long, shiny hair, healthy skin, and bright eyes show that you're well-nourished."

"Uh, thank you?"

"I'm not finished."

"Go on then."

"You're clearly intelligent." Then he felt the need to add, "For a human."

"Gee. That's so sweet."

"But Eric was probably most attracted to your wait-to-hip ratio." For a split second, Aelyx resembled a human boy as he leaned back and peered at her caboose. "Hips of that width are likely to pass life offspring without complication." 

Cara nearly swallowed her own tongue. She didn't have big hips did she?” 

 My very favourite one is:

“Friendship is one mind in two bodies."

Right. Until your BFF went out of her mind and after your ex-boyfriend's body.”  

I hope you read this book, becuase it is an amazing book and defenitely worth the read!

By AbooktifulLife