Category: Books Read-2008

Title: Paraworld Zero
Author: Matthew Peterson
Date: 2008
Genre: YA/ Science Fiction/ Fantasy

This was sent to me by Matthew Peterson. Its a pre-release version DVD. It includes so many things such as: an ebook, audio book, interviews etc.

The book Paraworld Zero is the authors first book in the Parallel Worlds series. Its written for young adults. As an adult I enjoyed it. I have to admit that science fiction books aren’t really my genre to read but after reading the ebook I truly enjoyed it.

The story begins with the mysterious birth of Simon Kent. His birth mother had a disease and it was unknown. When she gave birth to him, something magical happened, and then she died. She left him a medallion. Simon is raised in a foster home.

We are introduced to Butch who is a bully who lives with Simon in foster care. Butch is set on making Simon’s life more miserable than it already is and will do anything to make it happen. Simon is physically abused by Butch. One day, Simon is trying to escape from Butch when a strange girl appears and her name is Tonya. Tonya is special and has hair changes color to reflect her moods. She believes that she is on another planet. This is when the adventure really begins. Tonya takes Simon off with her to a parallel world called PUDD. Simon and Tonya are taken in by a strange alien family whose mom cooks up some pretty disgusting creatures.

In the parallel world that Simon and Tonya are in there is two groups of people. The little people are the smart scientists and the big people appear to be unintelligent slaves. The little people treat the big people awful. In spite of the little people’s knowledge they don’t understand that its wrong to treat the slaves so poorly. Simon has visions of a beautiful woman appearing to him, who leaves him with special gifts, such as the ability to absorb poison. He learns that this world is about to be destroyed by lizard like creatures. He is given the tools to try to save the people, but he needs them all to work together. He also learns to feel better about himself.

I really enjoyed this book. It was totally outside my genre of books that I read but so happy to have read it. I can’t wait to read the other books in this series and see how Simon evolves.

Title: Reality TV Bites
Author: Shane Bolks
Date: 2006

The book is a woman named Allison. She is a reality tv junkie. She works in an Interior designing firm. Her boss signs the company up for a reality tv show. The show is sorta like the Iron Chef. Its two teams (them and a japanese firm).

They have 8 hours to decorate a room in a house. They have to do it in a bold design and use unorthodox materials (the first one is really funny-won’t say what it is in case anyone wants to read the book).

Then one of the producers (Nicolo) tries to seduce Allison. She finds out he is a prince. A real prince. He gives and shows her how the rich and famous live. There is this other guy in Allison life. His name is Dave. He is as equally good looking. But they have a love hate relationship. He shows her how the common people live with beer and basketball games. It ends up that Allison broke the contract with the reality show cause she was dating the producer and he makes her live a living hell to say the least. She is hounded by the press day and night cause the story was leaked thanks to Nicolo. She wonders if she will ever get her life back. She fights all the way though.

Will she get the Prince in the end?

Title: The Xmas Factor
Author: Annie Sanders
Date: November 2006

This is by a British author. Its about 2 women who approach the holidays very differently.

The first lady is Beth (stepmom to two grown kids–her step daughter basically hates her and tries to ruin the holiday) Beth lives in a neighborhood that is similiar to the stepford wives. The villiage she lives in throws a big xmas bash each year and up until 4 years ago it was Beth’s husbands wife that ran it (the wife died). Beth deals with having to do that as well has arrange xmas for the family at her house.

The second lady is Carol who is a magazine editor for a magazine that is on the verge of shutting down but she gets a huge story that brings the magazine out on top. She is in the midst of this huge story and forgets about the holiday approaching. She is panicked and wracked with guilt for not being better prepared…but she is determined to make this a perfect xmas for her son who broke his leg just before they left to go away for xmas. One of her writers (which turns out to be Beths step daughter) wrote an article about this cute little cottage so Carol ends up booking this place but its a total dump ….so things come to head when poor Beth breaks down cause of the storm the xmas party is a bust but Carol steps in the save the day and thats when she finds out who Beths step daughter is.