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Lindsay (1807 KP) rated The Christmas Gate 2 in Books

Aug 30, 2018

The Christmas Gate 2

T.A. Cline | 2017 | Fiction & Poetry

10.0

(1 Ratings)

Book Rating

The Christmas Gate 2 opens up with Bob wanting to talk to his publisher. Once he does he makes deal that get him the lovely farmhouse where he could write his stories. Well things get a little more interesting once he moves in to his new farmhouse.

Once things get close to Christmas and plans are made for him and Patty. Patty get a knock at the door. Once does she find out her husband is alive and in the army hospital. What will happen with Patty and Bob?

Bob meets an woman and tell her his story. She get him advice and once she is gone for a bit he does do something inside the book she has. She doe not know until she opens it. He never mentions it either.

Bob make a decision to help Patty out by making it easy for her. Patty does not know this when he leaves after seeing her and getting the message from her friend Lucy. It seem that Patty has to do her own journey as to go on.

She finds a poem or letter addressed to her after Jim and everyone thinks Bob has pass away. Jim does his deal that the farmhouse is to go to Patty if something happened to Bob.

She reads something that Bob wrote at the end of the journal. “The Christmas Gate is not Fiction” and this get her attention and she goes to find the box and she does and she opens it. She think will get 7 visions and what will happen. The journey begins. You will not believe it but her candles and messages are different for her but her journey is bit different then Bobs. Will she find Bob? Will she be able to bring him home?

I really like the theme and plot of the candles. It really well written. The messages were different for each person on their own journey. You will not know until the end who the light form might be. It a fast read and enjoyable as well.

Kudos

Sophia (Bookwyrming Thoughts) (530 KP) rated Twerp in Books

Jan 23, 2020

Original Review posted on <a title="Twerp by Mark Goldblatt" href="http://bookwyrming-thoughts.blogspot.com/2013/05/arc-review-twerp-by-mark-goldblatt.html">Bookwyrming Thoughts</a>
Original Rating: 3.5 out of 5 Owls

Note: Formatting is lost due to copy and paste

<i><b>Disclaimer:</b> I received an ARC copy of the book from the publisher via Netgalley. My review is not influenced in any way.</i>

     In the 1960s of Queens, New York, 6th grader Julian Twerski takes an incident too far with his group of friends and gets suspended as a result. He's asked by his English teacher to write a journal about the incident just to get out of writing a report. Instead, he writes about other incidents because he isn't really ready to talk about the incident that gets him a suspension.

     Julian and his group of friends, Lonnie, Quentin, Sholomo, Eric and Howie, tend to get away with a lot of pranks after doing them. I love how Goldblatt writes Julian's life in a very realistic way that Twerp reminds me a lot of my 6th grade year in some way. It's pretty dramatic, with people holding grudges longer than necessary and when you look back, it somehow just reminds of some decisions where there was more than just one route... I feel pretty naive looking back now. If I could go back in time and rethink things through, there are just some things I probably wouldn't have done, even if I don't get in trouble for it.

     Twerp is basically about taking responsibility for your actions. When you mess up terribly, sometimes apologizing is the right thing to do to make up for your actions (and sometimes, even apologizing doesn't work).

     While I can't go back in time myself to rethink awkward/funny moments and situations, I'm really glad Julian finally realizes how far he took the incident and con fesses about what really happened instead of lying just to get out of it. I'm also really glad that he convinces his friends that what they did was wrong and they should, at the least, apologize about the incident. It's nice to know that after evaluating the situation and actions, it lifts a burden off someone's shoulders.