Review || "Alfie: The Doorstep Cat" by Rachel Wells.

(this one is kind of an old review, I'm currently in the process of writing and editing a Star Wars novel review but it's kind of hard to write about as it could offend a lot of people if I write it wrong and it also seems dumb that I, a person with no knowledge of Star Wars before that book or even science-fiction novels, would be writing a review/book talk on something like that...anyway, irrelevant, sorry if you hate the late upload posts but at least it's getting uploaded at all, right?!)

This book is basically about a little cat named Alfie who's owner dies from old age. Her daughter comes around and says that she wants to put Alfie in a shelter because they can't stay with her, and Alfie decides to take his life into his own hands and runs away. He lives in a harsh homeless cat world for a short while, before he comes across a street that needs him as much as he needs them. Alfie doesn't want to dedicate his time to one owner because that's going to be hard if he has to go through it all again, so he decides to have multiple owners. 

Lets just cut right to the chase. I DNF'd this book. It wasn't even bad, I actually found it very interesting from the start but Wells gives away so much information that the curiosity that kept me captivated throughout it was lost and I had no drive to finish it. I barely even passed halfway, and I wasn't going to write this review because I was still sure I was going to finish it...but I just can't. Sorry, Rachel, I think you can do better.

The writing was dull. It was dull from the very first page. Usually, this isn't a make-or-break for me. Sometimes, the plot line or the characters or something can be strong enough to keep me reading. After taking English Literature for three years, at this point, I'm just used to reading boring books that I ended up being pretty happy about reading. This book had an interesting premise, and that was enough for me to think this book would be worth it.

So, you get some interesting characters here. A girl who is heartbroken because of a divorce, a man who is lonely after moving away from his life in Singapore, a woman with a husband and a newborn with depression, and a small, sweet little family from Poland. Problem? Their stories were told practically instantly. This book should have been half the size it was. I'm kind of curious about the ending, but I can just look it up. The story had seemed to be told by halfway through the book. The characters also had no personality. I'm aware that this was written from the perspective of a cat, but it was written by a human - the development could have been better. They were also the kind of people I had seen before, I was expecting more of an in-depth explanation to them, but it just didn't happen. Characters really are a make or break for me.

There was also no plot line whatsoever! 
The plotline really was as simple as Alfie becoming homeless, finding a street, and they all warm up to him and that's that.

The premise of this book could have been something a lot better then what it was. Instead, you have something mediocre that I guess would be okay to read if you were into these types of things, but I'm not. I expected more.

Sorry this wasn't up to my usual standards, in the topic of cats I received a two month old kitten for my birthday as my aunts' cat, Sybil, has some kittens and they couldn't keep them. She needs a lot of attention, I barely had time to sleep and write this (is this like a taster of how parents' feel?!). But, thank you for reading, I'll see you all next time.

- Loz x

Monday Missions #8

Hey!!

So, I haven't been reading anywhere near as much as I should be since I got my new laptop, I haven't used a laptop in so long. It's just gaming, gaming, gaming lately. I mean, come on, Minecraft servers are wonderful, they should be embraced for their perfection.

Getting off the point, this week I am going to continue reading what I have been reading for the past few days. Oddly enough, very unusual for me at least, I am reading two books at once! (wow, whoa).

Book one, "The Diary of a Young Girl" by Anne Frank. We should all know what this book is about by now but if you don't, let me fill you in. Anne Frank is a beautiful, intelligent and wise young girl who lived during WW2 in Germany (I believe). As you may or may not know, this was also the period of time in which the Holocaust happened, an event which killed millions of Jews. Anne Frank was one of them. When she was thirteen, her and her family were whisked away to live in a secret annexe in her fathers' workplace (I think, I always get confused on that part) with another family, and a man named Mr Dussel. They lived there for quite some time in secrecy before she was taken away to a concentration camp. Her father, Otto Frank, was the only survivor and had saved Anne Franks' diary, the thing she held most dear to her. It had been edited frequently over the years (as the original content contained information about her sexuality, etc., which wasn't seen as okay to talk about so openly in her time period, something like that), but I am reading one of the most recent copies.

As far as the enjoyability goes, this is the second time I am reading the diary. Obviously, it's going to be slow in places and uninteresting in parts, blah blah blah, but it's a diary and was never written with the intention of it becoming a book. More to the point, it is the diary of a young girl, this is more well written then probably any other diary you would find of any other person her age. But, the fact I am reading this a second time should tell you how much I am enjoying it. She is so, so wise and smart.

Book two: "Alfie: The Doorstep Cat" by Rachel Wells. This follows a very adorable, young and cuddly cat, Alfie, who's owner had died from old age and who's roommate kitty 'sister' had died from sickness, he was left homeless. His owner's daughter said she wanted to send dear Alfie to the shelter, but he wanted to take it into his own paws and left. He had a traumatic time in the streets until he reached a road that was very much in need of an equally troubled, lovely kitty!

It's from a cats perspective, which is quite interesting, I can't remember the last time I read a book from an animals' perspective. I avoid them, as they're usually said, and this book is no different but I will save the details for when I finish it, it's either going to be a mini review or a full review, but it will be talked about, mark my words!

I doubt I'm ever going to get on to reading more books this week and, if I do, it's going to be a complete spur of the moment decision to see what book I go for. I have been eying up "Fangirl" by Rainbow Rowell recently, but also the forth book in the "Gone" series by Michael Grant, "Plague", we'll see what I pick!

Thank you for reading and *gasp* we have a photo, for once!
See you for my next post (don't forget to follow ;) ) bye!