Physical Books vs E-Books

Just a quick post!

I converted to Kindle a while ago, not because I wanted to but because its easier for reviewing for the blog. I also have an iPhone and iPad so I kind of just got into the routine of reading on a device. I never found myself missing a real book as I got so used to ebooks. It’s just a lot easier than sitting in front of the mac reading on a screen as most of our review requests come in via email so it makes sense!

Anyways, on Saturday I bought a real book and oh my gosh its sooooo weird. I don’t dislike it yet I don’t like it! I have found out that I read faster on an e-reader, It’s a lot easier to make bookmarks or notes and its a lot easier to read in bed! I have been struggling to read this real book in bed and I can’t get comfortable, my bookmark keeps falling out and it makes my handbag rather heavy! The only down side is I can’t read in the bath as I am terrified I will drop my device in it like I always do with books!

So there it is – I am officially a fully converted e-book reader!!

Which do you prefer?

Fifty Shades of Awesome!

I have written a little post about the awesomeness of Fifty Shades of Grey. However as some of you will know this is an adult book and I didn’t want to post about it on this blog, because I don’t want to promote it to younger people because I know their parents wouldn’t feel comfortable for them to be reading such a book, so I have posted it to my own blog Laus Life

Nuncio & The Gypsy Girl in the Gilded Age – Review by Dayna.

“Nuncio is a romantic thriller based on the intense and passionate relationship between Ezra, a composer and the insightful and lustful gypsy girl Neci. This graphic novel series is narrated by the magical African Grey Parrot, Nuncio and takes place at the turn of the Century.

Neci, the young and willful gypsy, is willing to risk everything to fulfill her need to be with Ezra, the object of her affection. She feels a calling to protect Ezra from his love, Marlene, a beautiful pianist. We hear her mental wanderings and feel her pain as she struggles to make a place for herself in Ezra’s world. She feels no connection to girls her own age and Ezra struggles to resist her allure. This drama and romantic thriller is based on real people and real events that take place between 1912-1960. Ezra interacts with Orville Wright, Charles Kettering and Elbert Hubbard, celebrities from the day.”

Having been quite some years since I’ve read a graphic novel (I used to read Buffy The Vampire Slayer graphic novels) therefore rusty, I was surprised at how fast paced it was but then had to remind myself that it IS a graphic novel, usually considerably shorter than your average novel, so it’s bound to be fast paced. As the story unfolds, the characters personalities really shine through and the amazing artwork does the rest of the talking. I found Neci (the gypsy girl) to be quite an intense and passionate character who is very insightful and you really feel for her as she worries about Ezra, a composer who comes to stay amongst the gypsies to learn more about their lifestyle, throughout the novel. She has fallen for him hook, line and sinker. Ezra, however, is concerned about the age difference between he and Neci though and I get the impression his feelings for Neci aren’t as strong as hers. She has her sights set on him though and, throughout the story, is determined to win him over. Ezra decides to leave the gypsies and return back to the new world to pursue his music career and, on doing so, he meets Marlene, a talented pianist. Marlene is quite devious and conniving though she is also driven and wants to help Ezra further his music career. I came to really dislike her especially as it becomes clear that she chose to keep something incredibly important from Ezra which leads on to an explosive ending. I love that Nuncio – the parrot – narrated the story and occasionally the snake, Coil, too. I thought it was a great touch!

The artwork is quite simple yet could also show great detail at times. Quite unusual artwork for a graphic novel I thought. It is something that I would normally see in paintings. There is a close up of Nuncio at the end of the story that just says it all! That picture really does speak a thousand words. It made me feel so emotional when I saw it.

The only bad point I have to say about the graphic novel is that although I love the artwork, I wish it had been a little more detailed at times. There were just a few occasions when it’d take me a moment to figure out what was going on in the scene. That aside, it was a fantastic read. I can’t wait to see what happens in the sequel.

 

I rate this 4/5.

Convention News! – Steph

Hey Everybody!

So, since i last posted i attended Eternal Twilight 7 – an unofficial convention for the fans of the Twilight Saga. At the convention the guests were:

Booboo Stewart

Bronson Pelletier

Noel Fisher

MyAnna Buring

Unfortunately due to Alex Meraz cancelling the day before the convention due to work commitments, there were only 4 guests at the event and only 3 on the sunday as MyAnna had to leave. Although a lack of guests was apparent, we still had an amazing time nonetheless. At ET7 Massive Events announced that there WOULD be an ET8 held later this year, however, it would be the last convention for Twilight alone. This news was horrific. These events have been a key feature of our year here at Secret Lives, with all of us attending. Although it will be very sad to say goodbye to these conventions, the line up for ET8 is proving vert strong from so early on in the planning. So far the guests confirmed are:

Peter Facinelli

Alex Meraz

Daniel Cudmore

Kiowa Gordon

Gil Birmingham

Justin Chon

Massive Events have promised us that these conventions will go out on a high.

In addition further bad news has surfaced. ‘The Games’,  a convention for the fans of ‘The Hunger Games’ has been cancelled due to lack of interest from both attendees and guests. This is sad news, more so because ‘The Hunger Games’ has been such a hit and has recently been constantly in the public’s eye. The Guests who were confirmed to attend the convention were:

Dayo Okeniyi

Leven Rambin

Although the event has been cancelled and the attendees will be fully refunded, the scheduled guests will now be appearing at a signing event – Collectormania, held at Milton Keynes. In addition, Jacqueline Emerson ‘Foxface’ has been announced to attend this event.

 

Have a great week!

S

Blog tour and review! Nuncio and the Gypsy Girl Kristin Alexandre and Tom Loepp

When Pavarti Tyler emailed us a while back and asked us if we were interested in reviewing a graphic novel we jumped at the chance as its something none of us has really thought about! I mean I know myself and some of the other girls own the Twilight graphic novels but I think that more of a collectors thing rather than something we enjoy reading – speaking for myself of course! Now this is a hard book to review for me, in particular – at Secret Lives we pride ourselves reviewing in a way that is simple and gets to the point as I for one read so many reviews that are too complicated, has tons of paragraphs with fancy words in that all boils down to whether to book was good or bad. So here is my review;

So here is the summary of what it is all about;

Intense, passionate, and thrilling—Nuncio is a romantic thriller series for anyone wanting a good read (or even perhaps a good television series). Come on this journey filled with drama and mystery. Nuncio is a romantic thriller based on the intense and passionate relationship between Ezra, a composer and the insightful and lustful gypsy girl Neci. This graphic novel series is narrated by the magical African Grey Parrot, Nuncio and takes place at the turn of the Century.

Neci, the young and willful gypsy, is willing to risk everything to fulfill her need to be with Ezra, the object of her affection. She feels a calling to protect Ezra from his love, Marlene, a beautiful pianist. We hear her mental wanderings and feel her pain as she struggles to make a place for herself in Ezra’s world. She feels no connection to girls her own age and Ezra struggles to resist her allure. This drama and romantic thriller is based on real people and real events that take place between 1912-1960. Ezra interacts with Orville Wright, Charles Kettering and Elbert Hubbard, celebrities from the day.

Check out the book trailer

After staring at the first page for over 10 minutes looking at the drawings I was quite excited to begin reading as I never read comics or anything when I was a child, so this was all new to me. I was worried that I just would not get this whole graphic novel business but I did! The drawings were fantastic and you could take everything needed from it. It didn’t take long to read at all, its brilliant for a a bit of light reading.

The story line was very easy to follow, it was interesting and had me asking questions to myself. It is full of love, symbolicalness of the animals (which I believe is strong to the Gypsy life style), jealousy, and a sense of darkness. I found as i carried on reading I was analyzing it a lot more, looking more at the pictures and being able to take what i wanted from it.

I actually couldn’t put this down, which really surprised me. I was enthralled by it! The plot was strong, full of emotion and it had me asking questions throughout! I felt every bit of emotion that Neci was possessing. I felt so sorry for her but towards the end I started to understand a bit more. Then bam! it was the end. In my mind and I was screaming NOOOOOO! Then I started to think about where the story would go next! I actually had no idea!! The illustrations were amazing! I mean they were messy in an artistic way, they showed love, romance, elegance and fear where appropriate.

So here is what I liked about the story in a few points,

• It was exciting, light and enjoyable to read.
• It has a good story line
• I can imagine this happening and I would like to watch it happen
• It is definitely re-readable
• The illustrations were fantastic
• It was entirely different to any other story line

Here is what I didn’t like about it;

• It just wasn’t long enough! But I can imagine how much work would go into this novel.

And so here is my parting words;

A picture speaks a thousand words!

By Lauren