Highly Anticipated: Da Vinci's Tiger by Laura Malone Elliott

Hey guys, today I'm here with a new feature of the blog called Highly Anticipated. As the name says here I'll talk a little about new tittles that are still months away to being released and were highly anticipated by me - so much that I couldn't help myself and read them way before the released date. Hope you enjoy these "sneak peeks" of some new books!

Da Vinci's Tiger by Laura Malone Elliott
To be published on November 10, 2015 by Katherine Tegen Books
[This book was given to me by the publisher, this in no way affected my opinion.]

Young, beautiful, and witty, Ginevra de’ Benci longs to take part in the artistic ferment of Renaissance Florence. But as the daughter of a wealthy family in a society dictated by men, she is trapped in an arranged marriage, expected to limit her creativity to domestic duties. Her poetry reveals her deepest feelings, and she aches to share her work, to meet painters and sculptors mentored by the famed Lorenzo de Medici, and to find love.

When the charismatic Venetian ambassador, Bernardo Bembo, arrives in Florence, he introduces Ginevra to a dazzling circle of patrons, artists, and philosophers—a world of thought and conversation she has yearned for. She is instantly attracted to the handsome newcomer, who admires her mind as well as her beauty. Yet Ginevra remains conflicted about his attentions. Choosing her as his Platonic muse, Bembo commissions a portrait by a young Leonardo da Vinci. Posing for the brilliant painter inspires an intimate connection between them—one Ginevra can only begin to understand. In a rich and enthralling world of exquisite art, elaborate feasts, and exhilarating jousts, she faces many temptations to discover her voice, artistic companionship, and a love that defies categorization. In the end, she and Leonardo are caught up in a dangerous and deadly battle between powerful families.

The strength of this book is its history accuracy, its beautiful descriptions and love for art. It's clear reading it that Elliott is a lover of history (or at least of Italian Renaissance) by her through research of the facts and possible facts, I know this is fiction but there is something magical when reading a historical book and seeing that this stories could actually have happened. The descriptions of Florence were breath taking, everything felt really vivid and oh, how I wish I could go there right now and see all the places that are sited on the book. If you love art this book will be a treat, we have Leonardo da Vinci and Verrocchio as main characters and get to see they creating, as well of a lot of other artists and works being mentioned - I specially loved the fact that Elliott took some of Leonardo lines from his actual diaries so yeah, that was cool.

But where this book felt short for me was on its characters. I never really got attached to Ginevra, I understand her inside fight but she never grew on me as a strong carrier of this book. The other main characters hardly were worth mentioning based on their character growth, it just lacked a more emotional connection to me. The one character that amused me to no end was Leonardo, every scene that he was in was a good one, but unfortunately it had very few of those (for me).

In true this book is a dedication to the Italian Renaissance of the XV century, it's a imaginative version of historical facts and of works of art.

Don Tillman Duology by Graeme Simsion

The Rosie Project by Graeme Simsion
Series: Don Tillman #1
Published on October 1, 2013 by Simon & Schuster

I don't know why I waited so long to read this book, it's an amazing! Don is kind of a Sheldon Cooper, in the way that he doesn't perceive the world around him the same way most people do. Now Don thinks its time to settle down and find someone to have a romantic relationship with, on the course of the story he finds Rosie, a girl that doesn't check any of his requirements for a good partner but still manages to make him care and fell - something that had never happened before.

Don is a great main character, his narrative way is unique and reading about the way he sees the world made some moments hilarious and others very heartfelt. I'm not very sure about the romance, Rosie is pretty crazy on her own, maybe that's why Don is such a good fit for her with his schedules and everything organized, and her for him making him loose himself a little.

This was a one sitting kind of read, a can't stop reading cause is so good since page 1. Super recommended to everyone but specially to lovers of chick lit or adult romances.

The Rosie Effect by Graeme Simsion
Series: Don Tillman #2
Published on December 30, 2014 by Simon & Schuster

I absolutely loved the first book but something of that first spark was lacking on this book.  The plot seemed to be moving from one check point to the other without real time for seeing Don's growth as in the first book, turning this more in a entertainment to see what crazy thing Don would do next time than making me care about its characters. Also in the first book there was some major changes on Don's character and in this I just didn't felt like there was much difficulties for him, except of course for Rosie. Rosie was different on this book, she suffered from something like the maniac pixed girl syndrome, she just came in to tell the news of the baby and them was practically gone for the entire book, except when she needed to turn up and give cryptic messages to Don.

What I did liked was the group of friends that Don created, these four boys are completely different but still managed to be friends because of Don putting them together on the same table, drinking every week, it was nice and I felt like they are genuinely friends.

Overall I feel like this book was nice and entertainment but didn't live up to the emotional connecting that I had with the first book, also it was less hilarious.

Geek Girl: Model Misfit - Holly Smale

Geek Girl: Model Misfit by Holly Smale
Series: Geek Girl #2
Published on July 21, 2015 by HarperTeen
[This book was given to me by the Publisher but that in no way affected my opinion].

You can make a geek a model, but you can’t make her chic. Hilarity and high fashion await in the sequel to the #1 bestselling UK hit Geek Girl!

Harriet Manners is now an international fashion icon—but at home, she feels even less popular and more awkward than she did before. So when the famous designer Yuka Ito offers her a summer modeling job in Japan, it sounds like the perfect vacation.

She may have to bring along her crazy, free-spirited grandma Bunty, and she may run into Nick, the gorgeous model boyfriend who dumped her two months ago. But no one is going to ruin Harriet’s fabulous Tokyo adventure—unless she accidentally ruins it herself. . . .

Holly Smale’s first novel, Geek Girl, burst onto the scene in the UK as the year’s #1 bestselling YA debut. It was shortlisted for several major awards, and won over readers’ hearts with its fabulous shenanigans and loveably awkward heroine. With all the humor of Louise Rennison’s Confessions of Georgia Nicolson and Meg Cabot’s The Princess Diaries, the Geek Girl series is perfect for any girl who’s ever felt like a geek.

I read Geek Girl last year and enjoyed it immensely so it was a no-brainer to read this as soon as I could, this series continues to show that when I'm on a slump or/and needing a light read this is the series to go but I did had more troubles with this one than the first. On this volume Harriet is going to Japan to a new campaign, her heart is broken because of Lion boy and also she doesn't seems to get anything right on this trip - of course all of this will get a resolution with a lot of craziness on the way.

The main plot on this one was even  over the top than the first one, it was that kind of thing that you see on a tv show drama from CW (this would totally happen on Gossip Girl) and of course I enjoyed it all the way. Harriet's bad lucky and her ways of always getting herself into confusion made this hilarious, we have a few new characters too that were good additions but at the same time I missed a lot Harriet's family and friends, they were such a great group on the first one.

Other minor pet peeves were the romance, which continues to be not for me and this time around they have a "conflict" that is so not a conflict at all and was one of those problems that could have been solved if they just sit and talked instead of avoiding each other. I could have been okay with that because they are young, but Harriet is continually portrayed him as her savior and that she could only do her job right if he was there to save her and this is not okay. Other was the fact that Harriet supposedly is a major fan of Japan and always wanted to go there, so I mean if she wants so badly to go there she probably would have searched all about it, but still she didn't knew that is a disrespect to enter a tatame with high heels - it just didn't seemed right that a "geek girl" would have let that pass.

Overall it was still a fun read, with less content as the first one for me but still worth it and it managed to me continue to wanting to read the rest of the series. Recommended to fans of the first book and younger reads.