FALLING FOR HAMLET

FALLING FOR HAMLET
Author: Michelle Ray
Publisher: Poppy ( July 5, 2011)
Ages: 14-up
368 pages
Rating: 5/5


FIRST COMES LOVE, THEN COMES MADNESS.

Meet Ophelia: a blonde, beautiful high-school senior and long-time girlfriend of Prince Hamlet of Denmark. Her life is dominated not only by her boyfriend's fame and his overbearing family, but also by the paparazzi who hound them wherever they go. As the devastatingly handsome Hamlet spirals into madness after the mysterious death of his father, the King, Ophelia rides out his crazy roller coaster life, and lives to tell about it. In live television interviews, of course.

Passion, romance, drama, humor, and tragedy intertwine in this compulsively readable debut novel, told by a strong-willed, modern-day Ophelia.


Falling for Hamlet is a modern telling of Shakespeare Classic. It is set in modern day Denmark, and Ophelia is the main character. In the original, Ophelia goes insane after her fathers death. But in Falling For Hamlet, she does not go crazy, Hamlet is the one who is going insane. After his fathers, the King of Denmark, death he is extremely distraught, seeking revenge on Claudius. His fathers ghost is visiting him, like in the original, and is telling him Claudius killed him. Of course nobody believes him, but his best friend who saw him too, and in the end Ophelia. So Hamlet was probably going crazy mostly because nobody would believe him.

Ray really makes the reader feel the emotions. Especially the lack of privacy. The public and paparazzi judges every little thing Hamlet and Ophelia did. It makes you never want to be famous. You also felt the heartbreak and the madness.

In Shakespeare's tragedies, all the main characters usually die. And the mood is very dark. In Falling for Hamlet, it is not always dark. I also didn't really like how the characters died in the end, I feel it could have been better told. In Ophelia's point of view, when she finds out they died, you really felt her sadness of it all. Again Ray's amazing work at putting the emotions in it.

This is a wonderful re-telling of Hamlet! I also believe it would make a good movie, that final death scene would come out so much better. This is a must read!

Fins Are Forever

FINS ARE FOREVER

Title: Fins Are Forever (Fins #2)
Author: Tera Lynn Childs
Published: June 28th 2011 by HarperCollins Children's Books

Summary:  "On Lily Sanderson’s eighteenth birthday she’ll become just a girl—still a mergirl, true, but signing the renunciation will ink Princess Waterlily of Thalassemia out of existence. That leaves plain old Lily living on land, dating the boy she loves, and trying to master this being-human thing once and for all.

Now that Lily and Quince are together, mer bond or not, she’s almost content to give up her place in the royal succession of Thalassemia. But just when she thinks she has everything figured out, the waves start to get rough. Lily’s father sends a certain whirlpool-stirring cousin to stay with her on land. What did Doe do to get herself exiled from Thalassemia and stuck in terraped form when everyone knows how much she hates humans? And why why why is she batting her eyelashes at Lily’s former crush, Brody?

The seafoam on the raging surf comes when a merboy from Lily’s past shows up—Telling asks Lily for something that clouds her view of the horizon. There’s a future with Quince on land, her loyalty to the kingdom in the sea, and Lily tossing on the waves in the middle. Will she find a way to reconcile her love, her duty, and her own dreams?

Tera Lynn Childs sequel to Forgive My Fins offers another tail-flicking romance with plenty of fun, sun, and underwater adventure."


I loved this. I think I finished it in one day, staying up late because I just couldn't put it down.
Now a lot of people don't trust that the sequel will be as good as the first book, I am one of them. While I like Forgive My Fins better, I have to admit it was still very good.

Tera Lynn Childs is an amazing writer. You can start her books and not really like it, and by the end you're wanted more and more. Same with the characters, you can hate 'em one minute and love 'em the next. That's how I felt toward Doe.

Sometimes it seemed to drag a little. With little nonsense, girl fights. And Quince and Lily weren't together as much. But other then those things it was a great book. My favorite mermaid series in fact.

And I must say I love the cover, I wish I could have hair like that.

Rating: 4/5 stars.