Review : Awal Mula Segalanya (Cradle and All)

Author : James Patterson
Translator : B. Sendra Tanuwidjaya
Kategori : Misteri, thriller
Format : Paperback (376 halaman)
Penerbit : PT. Gramedia Pustaka Utama (Juni 2007)
Bahasa : Indonesia
ISBN- 10 : 9792229353
ISBN- 13 : 978-9792229356

Deskripsi Goodreads :

Berbagai bencana melanda kota-kota di dunia. Wabah penyakit, kekeringan, kelaparan, banjir, dan berbagai malapetaka lain. Semuanya menandai kemungkinan datangnya bencana yg lebih besar.

Di Boston, gadis muda ditemukan hamil dalam keadaan perawan. Di Irlandia, seorang gadis muda juga mengalami keadaan yang sama. Salah satunya mungkin mengandung Juru Selamat yang akan membebaskan dunia dari bencana. Dan salah satunya mengandung putra Iblis.

Anne Fitzgerald, mantan biarawati yang menjadi penyelidik swasta, disewa Keuskupan Agung Boston untuk menyeliliki kasus kehamilan perawan ini. Bersama Anne, Pastor Nicholas Rosetti mendapat misi dari Vatican untuk menemukan siapa di antara kedua gadis ini yang mengandung Juru Selamat. Mereka pun harus berpacu dengan waktu dan mempertaruhkan nyawa mereka saat berhadapan dengan legiun Setan yang berniat menguasai dunia.

Review :

Ini merupakan pertama kalinya saya membaca buku karya James Patterson dan rasanya memang tidak mengecewakan membaca buku ini. Kisah dalam buku ini berawal dengan munculnya berbagai bencana-bencana misterius di berbagai daerah di belahan dunia. Bencana-bencana itu bukanlah satu-satunya keanehan yang tejadi di dunia ini. Kathleen Beavier dan Collen Galaher adalah dua orang gadis yang masih perawan dan hamil secara tiba-tiba. keanehan ini mendapatkan perhatian dari berbagai pihak. Mereka mempercayai bahwa salah satu perawan itu mengandung juru selamat yang akan menyelamatkan mereka dari bencana. Pastor Rosetti dan Anne mendapat tugas untuk memecahkan misteri itu dan mencegah kelahiran anak iblis yang dapat menghancurkan dunia. 

Buku ini merupakan perpaduan yang sangat menarik antara kisah misteri yang kental dengan nilai-nilai keagamaan dan dibumbui dengan sedikit kisah percintaan di antara tokoh-tokohnya. Saya menyukai gaya bercerita penulis. Penulis dapat membuat pembaca tetap tertarik untuk membaca buku ini dengan misteri-misteri yang di hadirkan di sepanjang cerita. Pembaca diajak untuk berpikir dan memecahkan misteri yang ada. Walaupun demikian, akhir dari buku ini tetap dapat memberikan kejutan bagi pembaca. Setelah membaca buku ini, saya merasa masih ada beberapa pertanyaan yang tidak terjawab.

Cerita yang dibagi menjadi 3 bagian ini ditulis dari berbagai sudut pandang. Sebenarnya hal ini merupakan kelebihan sekaligus kekurangan. Kelebihannya karena kita dapat mengetahui isi cerita dari sudut pandang yang berbeda. Sedangkan kekurangannya karena menurut saya sudut pandang yang ditampilkan di dalam buku ini terlalu beragam dan ada hal-hal yang menurut saya tidak terlalu penting untuk ditampilkan. Di luar semua itu, saya sangat menikmati buku ini. Untuk pecinta cerita misteri, buku ini sangat layak untuk dibaca.

Saya memberikan empat dari lima bintang untuk buku ini.

Review : A Gift for My Sister by Ann Pearlman

Author : Ann Pearlman  
Category : Chick Lit
Format : Ebook (288 pages)
Publisher : Atria/Emily Bestler Books (1 May 2012)
Language : English
ISBN-10 : 1439171386
ISBN-13 : 978-1439171387


Goodreads Description :

Ann Pearlman's The Christmas Cookie Club enthralled readers everywhere with a heartwarming and touching story about the power of female friendship. Now, in A Gift for My Sister, she once again explores the depth of the human heart, and this time it’s through the eyes of two sisters. Tara and Sky share a mother, but aside from that they seem to differ in almost every way. When a series of tragedies strikes, they must somehow come together in the face of heartbreak, dashed hopes, and demons of the past. The journey they embark on forces each woman to take a walk in the other’s shoes and examine what sisterhood really means to them. It’s a long road to understanding, and everyone who knows them hopes these two sisters can find a way back to each other.

Review :

The story is quite heartwarming. Sky and Tara are half sister. As sisters, they're never close because they're so different. Sky is the good girl and Tara is the rebel one. Sky always plan her life, but sometimes reality are not always the same with what we want. Along the way, Sky lost some people she loves so sudden and tragic. When her husband died, she can barely function. In her depression, Tara steps up and help her sister moving back to their hometown. In the journey to their hometown, they have to deal with their issues and resentments to make their relationship better.

The book is about family, tragedy, love and loss. The story has a good plot. I like the author writing style. Through the flashback, the author makes us know more about the characters and see the reason behind their problems and resentments. It makes the story feels stronger. When I read the book, I actually cry in some parts.

The book is written in 2 point of view (Sky and Tara). Actually, alternative point of view is a good thing but sometimes it also can be a problem. I found some inconsistency in the book. Sometimes, the same conversation is written differently when it's told from Tara and Sky's POV. For example : in Tara POV, Sky said “Apple doesn’t fall far, huh, Tara.”, but when when it's told from Sky POV, Sky said “Apple doesn’t fall far, does it Tara”. It also occurs on page 137 to144. Maybe for some people it's just a small thing, but it's a little disturbing for me. Apart from that, I enjoy the book. If you want to read a book about sisterhood, then I recommend the book to you.

I give A Gift for My Sister 3 out of 5 stars.

You can purchase the book at :

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Book Depository

Yay...winner!

Giveaway The Hobbit telah berakhir, saat mengumumkan pemenang! Setelah mengalami proses yang cukup panjang, akhirnya diperolehlah pemenangnya.

Faris Al Fatah

Selamat kepada pemenang dan bagi yang belum beruntung jangan khawatir karena masih ada giveaway-giveaway lainnya.

Blog Tour : Grace Doll by Jennifer Laurens (Review)

Welcome to the Grace Doll book tour. It's my first time doing this and I'm so glad to be a part of the blog tour. 

Author : Jennifer Laurens
Reading Level : Young Adult
Format : Paperback (220 pages)
Publisher : Grove Creek Publishing (20 August 2012)
Language : English
ISBN-13 : 978-1933963105


Goodreads Description :

Grace Doll had everything a girl could want: Fame. Fortune. Beauty.

Everything except, of course, her freedom. So when a powerful movie producer forces an experimental treatment on Grace--one that's purported to make beauty immortal--she stages her own death to escape him.

With the help of trusted friends, Grace slips into hiding. She's forever flawless, forever young and forever pursued by her past.

But when a stranger arrives on her doorstep, holding the key to a life she thought she'd left behind, Grace must decide between the safety she's known... and embracing the role she was born to play.]

Review:

At the young age, Grace Doll had everything a girl could ever dream. She was rich, beautiful and a famous actress in late 1940's. But she can't live her own life without Rufus's interference. Rufus is Grace's dominant and controlling husband. Rufus controlled everything in her life. One day, Rufus decided to give her a gift that could change her life forever : immortality. With the procedure, Grace would be forever young and beautiful. With the help of her friends, Grace managed to escape from Rufus and went into hiding

Decades later, Brenden, son of her friend, came into her life. She was forced to deal with her past. Would she managed to face her problem and find her happiness? Or would she choose to hide forever?

I love Jennifer Lauren's books and I'm really excited to read Grace Doll when I heard about it. So, when I get the copy of this book, I devour it immediately The cover is the first thing that catch my interest. It's dark and beautiful. It reflects the content of the book perfectly. I love the book. The story is very unique and original with Hollywood touch in it. The suspense made it impossible to put down the book.

Grace Doll was written in 2 point of view. I love to read a book from different perspective because it can help me understand the situation better. I enjoy the book from Brenden's perspective, it's quite interesting. The book also had interesting characters like Brenden, Grace and Rufus. Overall, I enjoy the book and I would recommend it to anyone.

I give Grace Doll 4,5 out of 5 stars.


Book Trailer:

You can purchase the book at :

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Book Depository

Grand Prize Giveaway

You can win a signed copy of Grace Doll and some awesome swag. To enter the giveaway and check the blog tour schedule, you can go here

Wishful Wednesday [3]

Hari rabu ini saya kembali berpartisipasi dalam Wishful Wednesday yang dihost oleh Astrid @ Books to Share. Untuk minggu ini, buku yang saya pilih adalah :

Deskripsi dari Goodreads :

It's been months since the ghost of Anna Korlov opened a door to Hell in her basement and disappeared into it, but ghost-hunter Cas Lowood can't move on. 

His friends remind him that Anna sacrificed herself so that Cas could live—not walk around half dead. He knows they're right, but in Cas's eyes, no living girl he meets can compare to the dead girl he fell in love with.

Now he's seeing Anna everywhere: sometimes when he's asleep and sometimes in waking nightmares. But something is very wrong...these aren't just daydreams. Anna seems tortured, torn apart in new and ever more gruesome ways every time she appears.

Cas doesn't know what happened to Anna when she disappeared into Hell, but he knows she doesn't deserve whatever is happening to her now. Anna saved Cas more than once, and it's time for him to return the favor.

Kenapa memilih buku ini?

Sejak membaca Anna Dressed in Blood, saya memang sudah jatuh cinta dengan seri yang satu ini. Jadi, sejak Girl of Nightmares rilis, secara otomatis buku ini berada di urutan teratas wishlist saya. Saya benar-benar penasaran dengan nasib Anna dan kelanjutan kisah cinta Cas dan Anna. Apalagi setelah membaca review dari buku ini (walaupun ratingnya bagus, tapi sebagian orang mengatakan bahwa buku ini tidak sebagus Anna Dressed in Blood), saya semakin tidak sabar untuk mendapatkan buku ini.

Nah... buat para blogger yang belum berpartisipasi, ayo tunggu apa lagi. Caranya mudah kok :

1. Silakan follow blog Books To Share – atau tambahkan di blogroll/link blogmu =)
2. Buat posting mengenai buku-buku (boleh lebih dari 1) yang jadi inceran kalian minggu ini, mulai dari yang bakal segera dibeli, sampai yang paling mustahil dan hanya sebatas mimpi. Oya, sertakan juga alasan kenapa buku itu masuk dalam wishlist kalian ya!
3. Tinggalkan link postingan Wishful Wednesday kalian di Mr. Linky (klik saja tombol Mr. Linky di bagian bawah post). Kalau mau, silakan tambahkan button Wishful Wednesday di posting kalian.
4. Mari saling berkunjung ke sesama blogger yang sudah ikut share wishlistnya di hari Rabu =)