The Picture of Dorian Gray - Oscar Wilde - UPDATED REVIEW

The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde  Genre : Classics Blurb (on back of book) : Oscar Wilde’s only novel is the dreamlike story of a young man who sells his soul for eternal youth and beauty. In this celebrated work Wilde forged a devastating portrait of the effects of evil and debauchery on a young aesthete in late-19th-century England. Combining elements of the Gothic horror novel and decadent French fiction, the book centers on a striking premise: As Dorian Gray sinks into a life of crime and gross sensuality, his body retains perfect youth and vigor while his recently painted portrait grows day by day into a hideous record of evil, which he must keep hidden from the world. For over a century, this mesmerizing tale of horror and suspense has enjoyed wide popularity. It ranks as one of Wilde's most important creations and among the classic achievements of its kind. UPDATED REVIEW MY OPINION : ****** I would like to start out this review by stating that this is undoubtedly m

Breathe, Annie, Breathe - Miranda Kenneally - UPDATED REVIEW

Breathe, Annie, Breathe by Miranda Kenneally
Genre: YA Realistic Fiction

Breathe, Annie, Breathe by Miranda KenneallyBlurb (on back of book): From the bestselling author of Catching Jordan comes a contemporary YA you won't forget.
The finish line is only the beginning.…
Annie hates running. No matter how far she jogs, she can't escape the guilt that if she hadn't broken up with Kyle, he might still be alive. So to honor his memory, she starts preparing for the marathon he intended to race.
But the training is even more grueling than Annie could have imagined. Despite her coaching, she's at war with her body, her mind-and her heart. With every mile that athletic Jeremiah cheers her on, she grows more conflicted. She wants to run into his arms...and sprint in the opposite direction. For Annie, opening up to love again may be even more of a challenge than crossing the finish line.

old review

UPDATED REVIEW
MY OPINION: ****

I began reading this series solely to arrive at this one and reread it. I remember 2017-me loving this book with all my heart. I think I was going through my contemporary phase at that time and was kind of obsessed with young adult summer romances. I had not read any of the books prior to this one in the series so this year, I decided it was time to finish the series once and for all.

If you have been following my reviews, you'll know that I have not enjoyed the previous books in this series as much as I thought I would. They've all ranged from the two or three star level, besides the first one. However, this book merited a four-star rating because of how much more interesting it was compared to the previous books, despite it being a significantly lower rating than the raving five-stars I gave it previously.

Annie was considerably less annoying than all of the previous protagonists of this series. That was my main issue with most of the previous books. However, Annie's character was more emotional and real compared to the annoying, whiny, complaining babies of the previous books.

Annie is training for a marathon in honor of her boyfriend who had passed away about a year earlier before he could complete the marathon. Annie is an awful runner (like me) and could barely run a mile. However, she finds a coach (one of the characters from the previous books) and begins training.

During training, she meets the handsome, swoonworthy, adrenaline-junkie brother of her coach, Jeremiah. Annie tries to push him away because she isn't ready for a relationship after everything that happened with Kyle, her ex-boyfriend. We don't get to learn a lot about what happened to him until later on in the book; we just know that they broke up and got back together shortly before he died.

I think Annie was completely justified in her point of view about marriage. If you don't want to get married, then you shouldn't have to. I think it was unfair of Kyle to try to force that onto her because it gave her so much unnecessary guilt after he died. It wasn't her fault but she couldn't seem to see that through her guilt.

Annie is afraid to get involved with Jeremiah because of his adrenaline-junkie tendencies. He is often in the hospital due to injuries he gets from running, bungee-jumping, racing, etc. She doesn't believe she can deal with someone who is so close to losing his life just like her ex and she tries to stay away from him and force him to stop. However, he can't help it. I found it cute that the rush she gave him just with her presence was better than the rush he got from extreme sports, despite the fact that it wasn't the most realistic of storylines.

I liked this considerably better than the rest of the series. This book was also quite inspiring. While reading it, I wanted to go run a mile despite the fact that I am one of the worst runners ever.

I would recommend this book to readers looking for a cute, light summer read.

Main Character: Annie
Sidekick(s): Jeremiah, Matt, Kelsey, Vanessa, Savannah, etc
Villain(s): Death, guilt, etc
Realistic Fiction Elements: This book was all very real to life.

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