Vivian Marie Aubin du Paris

Talk about your guilty pleasure! I just wanted to curl up in bed with this book, a cup of tea and stay there forever. When I had finished reading I really missed it!

Annabelle is the 'in' crowd in school. The type of group that would remind you of the movie Mean Girls. I have to say Vivian really nailed the characters and the group dynamics on the head. Having gone to an all girls boarding school myself, I know the kind of people that she included in her book. They may seem like loyal, fun loving friends, but if you step out of line they will turn on you so fast and you can say goodbye to your 'friends'. This is what poor Annabelle has to deal with every day. The fear that she will be kicked out and left alone. But when she starts dating Trevor she finally feels like things are going her way.

Annabelle is too naive and soft at times, but I could still relate to her. I was that girl who got worried when my friends climbed trees and made me join them. I was always the one who worried about how we were going to get down. So I saw bits of my younger self in Annabelle which was nice. It bothered me how often she cried. Sometimes I just wanted to shake her and tell her to man up and enjoy her time with Will.

And then there is Will, *sigh*, mysterious, charming, secretive, gorgeous Will. Every scene with Will (and there are many) left me grinning like a lunatic at my laptop. Will is a true swoon worthy character. He has a bad boy reputation but around Annabelle he is kind, considerate and her knight in shining armour.Will and his shirts definitely earned a place in my heart! He is the strongest character in book and he brings out a side of Annabelle that no one else has seen. Some of the scenes (ahem...the lake) between Will and Annabelle are completely thrilling and beautiful.

What the story boils down to is which brother will Annabelle choose? Which path will she take? Will she stay with her perfect, kind and popular boyfriend Trevor, securing her place in the 'in' crowd? Or will she choose bad-boy Will, and risk losing everything she has worked for? What would YOU choose?

The Wrong Path is not solely a love story, but a coming of age story, where a young girl is struggling to discover who she really is and what she wants out of life.

I really enjoyed reading this book, I found it difficult to tear myself away from it. If you want a romance that you can *SQUEE* along with then this is for you. I'm giving it 4 out of 5 stars.… (altro)

The Wrong Path is a story about learning to be yourself and opening yourself to reality instead of seeing what you want to see. Annabelle is the girl that everyone wants to be. She’s gorgeous and is part of the ‘in’ crowd, and the guy of her dreams is beginning to express interest in her. Then she gets her first real talk with Will, and soon she’s beginning to see him everywhere, causing her to question what she really wants in life.

Annabelle is a really sweet girl. You wouldn’t think that such a gorgeous and kind girl as her would have self-esteem problems that keep her dependent on being part of the ‘in’ crowd, but her fear of alienation keeps her following Claire’s lead. To give her credit, she genuinely believes that these people are her friends, though sometimes her naivety seems a little too overdone.

Will’s character is a little more believable. Despite being a misunderstood character, he understands how the world around him works. Mostly, his outsider status is because people don’t bother to learn about the guy beneath the surface, even his own brother. He has very valid reasons for acting the way he does. Plus, he’s TDH (tall, dark, and handsome), the kind of guy I love. I tell you. I read the book for Will alone.

Some technical details did taking away from the reading experience. The story was overly predictable, and there wasn’t as much plot development as I would have liked to see. Annabelle’s life is seemingly focused around the moments she’s with Will and her group: being herself versus pretending to be someone else. The rest of her life and her other relationships remains blurred to the reader.

Other than Annabelle and Will (and maybe Trevor and Ebony), the other characters were flat for the most part, and the whole forcing yourself to be part of the in crowd is clichéd. The author often relies on adverbs to elaborate on the details instead of imaginary, which ended up making the reading more awkward.

This novel is a short read and makes a nice summer read if you like chick flicks, romance, and bad boys.… (altro)

This book is something else. Really. It reminds me a little bit of the show for Legend of the Seeker, not that it’s the same in it’s content, but the feeling is the same. The kingdoms and the overall feel of the book translates into the same general feeling of the show, and for this reason I am quite convinced that Sci-Fi (sorry, Syfy) should really pick it up for a show. It totally could work! I could watch it right after Warehouse 13 and Sanctuary!

I loved most of the characters, Dai was a little .. ermm.. over dramatic for my tastes? I understand completely that she wants to go home, and she wants to go back to her life, but if she’s stuck, she’s stuck. So it got a little grating how she snapped at people sometimes when they hadn’t really done anything. I was also mildly annoyed at how much she questions herself in the beginning of the book, and how she compared herself so much to Adele (her best friend). I really liked her otherwise, she was a very strong and smart character set in her ways and her personality. I loved seeing her grow throughout the book as well, where she stops comparing herself so much, and becomes somewhat confidant in herself and her abilities. I also liked Westly, and the dynamic him and Dai have although they’re both convinced the other hates them. They still try, which is a lot more than I can say for a lot of people nowadays. The side characters are interesting as well, I love Grandma and Galen, and most of all Spencer – I think he’s my favourite character by far, and I can’t wait for the possibility to get to know more about all of them.

As for the plot, it was a little shaky for me towards the end, but otherwise very fun and fast paced chalk full of knowledge. About half way through the book we meet someone named Connor, and Connor has something with him that is very important. All we ever learn about it though is that it’s a ‘pouch’, we don’t learn what is so important about the pouch, or why they end up risking their lives for it! We also don’t learn HOW Dai was brought to the alternate world. We learn that she HAS been, WHY, and WHAT she has to do, but there is no HOW. Which is maybe only important to me?! We learn that it’s her destiny, but I’d like to know why that day/time.. was it because she was in the cabin, in the right place, or would it have happened no matter where she was? If she had never entered the cabin would she had never been brought to the other world? Other than those two issues I really liked the world that we get to see, where ‘chivalry’ is a word that people actually know the meaning to, and where there’s more of a forest than there is of a highway. I also liked when we found out how what Dai is going through ties into her past, and her family. I really hope that we learn later on why it’s her family, and why it’s their mission to do this, and what happened to her grandma that made it okay for her to leave even though she obviously didn’t defeat the Malo.

The most impressive thing about the characters and it’s plot, other than Westly being the ‘bad boy’ is that there aren’t really a lot of cliche’s. And by ‘aren’t really a lot’ I mean I can’t think of any. At all. Which is always a plus when someone can come up with something unique enough they don’t have to use elements that have been used a hundred times before.

Overall I loved the plot, I loved the characters, I honestly love the world that Vivian managed to create, and I absolutely cannot wait to read the next book in the series!… (altro)

Reviewed by Marta Morrison for TeensReadToo.com

What would you do if when you woke up in the morning, you were in another world? A world where you didn't know the rules. A world where dangers lurk in every corner.

And then you find out that you are the key to saving this world and you need to pick a side.

This is what happens to Diamond "Dai" Gold.

When the story opens, she is going to prom with her best friend and a hunky date. After prom, they go to a cabin in the woods and she goes to sleep. The next morning she is in a different world.

There she meets the Eroe, a group of warriors who have many different talents. And they are all CUTE! She is dressed in silks and satins just like she was a princess. Adventure takes over and Dai finds herself in many dangerous situations where she is rescued by a boy who she finds irresistible - Westly.

Now she has to decide who she can trust and who to love.

This was a good book but is very long. It reminded me a lot of TWILIGHT, in that it has the adventure and the romance. This would be a great book for a hot, lazy summer day. So read it and escape into the world of Dai and Westly.… (altro)