Christopher Paolini – Eldest

• Publisher: Laurel-Leef Books
• number of pages: 1016
• Part of a series: Yes – it is the second out of four parts (Inheritance Cycle).
• Contents:
  The story of Eragon and his dragon Saphira continues. He goes to the Elves for further training of his abilities and to learn more about magic. At home in Cravahall his cousin Roran starts his fight against the Ra´zac  and makes his people join to the Varden.
• Review:
  I liked this book, too. Eragon becomes older, he falls in love and has to manage many different adventures and he learns that not everything is the way it seems to bee.  But  I think the first volume is a little bit better. Because the story is very long and sometime a little bit boring, we take a break from the “Inheritance Circle“ now and read another book (or two) before continuing with the third and fourth part. Sometimes I think the book had been better if it hadn’t been so long. I’d think, maybe half as long as it is. But the story is still great — big themes: Love, friendship, good and evil, loyalty are big words and the story tells much about them. I can understand that many people love it and I will surely read the last two  parts of this series.
  
• Evaluation: 

Cornelia Funke – Reckless

• Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
• number of pages: 400
• Part of a series: No
• Contents:
  Jacob Reckless found a mysterical mirrow in his fathers room, when he was a child. Since this time he often vanishes into the world behind the mirrow, in which fairy tales are alive. Everything is okay untill his little brother Will followes him and is attacked  and infected with a curse, which makes him transform into a Goyl – a brutal species made of stone. Jacob wants to stop his transformation and to rescue his brother from the dangers of the world behind the mirrow. He ist not alone: Clara, Wills girlfriend and Fox, a shape-shivting vixin acompany him on his way, but there are many enemies and other dangers…
• Review:
  Actually, I had planed to read this book in German, but than I made a mistake and ordered the book online without checking if it has the correct language. So I took it as a sign and decided to read it in English together with my boyfriend. Although I liked the books of the “Tintenwelt-Trilogie” more, “Reckless” was a really good book and very exciting to read. Sometimes the English fairy-tale-themes were hard to recognize in the book, but I much liked to be reminded of many of them while reading “Reckless”. I loved all the different characters of the story, but most I liked Fox and how she acts to help Jacob. I think the story is wonderful for children as well as for adults, who like the world of fairy-tales. You can live with Jacob in the story and try to rescue his brother together with him and while you do, you can learn much about love and which power it has and how important your family can be. I hope there will be a continuation of the story one day.
• Evaluation:  

Stephenie Meyer – The Host

• Publisher: Little, Brown Book Group
• number of pages : 617
• Part of a series:  No
• Contents:
  The main character is Melanie Stryder. She is one of the last human beings, who have not been invaded by one of the alien species, that take over the minds of the humans they live in. But one day she is implanted with a “soul” inside her body, too. The “soul’s” name is “Wanderer” and she is special, because she learns from Melanie herself, who hasn´t completely vanished and maintains a mind of her own about what it means to be a human being.The thoughts of the two individuals in one body mingle and so after a while they both fall in love with Jared. But it isn´t easy to share your body with someone you don´t really like and to be still yourself. And step by step they try to find a way how they both can be happy.
• Review:
  It  was a book, which I had read in German before and I decided to read it in English again to practice my English. And fortunately it worked, the language was good to understand. The story is wonderful and it was no problem to read it twice – so I could discover new details of the story which I hadn´t noticed when I read it for the first time. Melanie and Wanderer are two very lovely persons and I like it very much how they interact. The story is very exciting and I almost couldn’t put the book away when I had to do something else, even thought I remembered what comes next. I love the many lovely details of the lives of the characters, which are so wonderfully invented by Stephenie Meyer. It is impressing how strong love can be and how it finds its way. But the most incredible thing was, that Wanderer helps the others to get “souls” out of human bodies – even herself out of Melanie’s. Many parts of the book make me cry a little bit because they are so sad and so wonderful at the same time. But the absolute highlight is the end – how it all becomes nearly perfect. I love it! And I think this book is much better than the Twighlight books everyone first remembers when you think of Stephenie Meyer. Everyone should read this book, too, I think.
• Evaluation:  

• Publisher : Dutton Adult
• number of pages : 985
• Part of a series:  Yes – It is the first part of a trilogy.
• Contents:
  Billy Twice (his real name is Billy Williams)  is a thirteen-year-old boy, who goes to work in the coal mine underneath the fictional Welsh town of Aberowen in June 1911 for his first time. This is the beginning oft the novel. Three years later the main story begins: Earl Teddy “Fitz” Fitzherbert of Aberowen, gives a party with many powerful people from around the world as his guests. For example there are Maud Fitzherbert, Fitz’s liberal sister, the German Graf Walter von Ulrich, his Austrian cousin Graf Robert von Ulrich, the Amrican Gus Dewar, a close adviser to the President Woodrow Wilson, Bea Fitzherbert, Fitz’s wife, a Russian Princess an King George V and his wife. Their lives and those of their families are followed by the reader during the coming  years. Other important characters are the two Russian orphans Gregori and Lev Pushkov, who work in a railway factory, and have good reason not to like Bea an the rest of her family. The book ends in January 1924, so it plays during the time of World War 1, the Russian Revolution and the woman´s suffragette movement.
• Review:
  I liked this book very much. It is brilliant, how Follett brings in the five families an combines their lives. So history becomes alive and you can understand how it all fits together.  I like it that Follett explains the time from the different perspectives of the five families, which each belong to a different country: America, England / Scotland, Germany and Russia. I am impressed how he manages to mix their lives and makes the reader understand how difficult life was in this time. The big, exciting, historical narrative is told by telling many little personal and individual stories of the people. I like the love-stories between Ethel an Fitz as well as the one of Maud and Walter most. I love the many little details of their live and the way Follett tells them in a lovely way. It is a good mixture of love and war and I, who normally isn´t very interested in history, likes the way  it is presented here as well as in many other books by Ken Follett. Although it was a very long book, especially for persons like me, who are not as good in the English language, I am happy I decided to read it, because it was easily understood and a wonderful story. So I am locking forward to read the next part of the trilogy and experience, how the stories go on and the families come together again.
• Evaluation: