7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Emotional! Heartbreaking!, March 20, 2010
This review is from: Sing Me to Sleep (Hardcover)
Sing Me to Sleep was heartbreaking, raw, and original. It was a retelling at it's best. Now I haven't seen Beauty and the Beast in a long time, but the connections were definitely there. Beth was made fun to no end, and some of the teasing took an extreme turn, and her nickname was "The Beast". From the first page, Beth's personal look into her life drew me in and I was cringing while Beth held her head high when the bullying got particularly fierce. Beth was a very strong and likable main character. The reader felt for her, and her raw narrative made me like the book that much more. Morrison has a fantastic writing style that doesn't hold back. The descriptions were amazing, and transported me into the book, I could picture everything that was happening. I loved the song lyrics as well, I'm even more impressed by Angela Morrison's writing ability after reading the lyrics! The choirs added so much to the novel, I loved reading about Beth's adventure's with the choir and the girls in the choir.
The romance in Sing Me to Sleep was amazing. Torn between Scott and Derek, Beth is forced to make a choice. I really liked Scott, he loved Beth even when she supposedly looked like "The Beast" and he stuck by her side through all the teasing and tormenting. I also liked Derek, too. He was a real and sweet. I never saw the ending coming, but wow! I cried my eyes out!
There are a lot of tears shed throughout this novel. It's an emotional read, that draws you in and spits you out at the end in complete shock. I've never read anything like Sing Me to Sleep and I'm really looking forward to reading Morrison's debut novel, Taken By Storm, which is eyeing me from my TBR pile right now! I'd highly recommend this book to anyone, but be prepared with a box of tissues! Great writing, great characters, and an excellent plot- Sing Me to Sleep is definitely making my favorites list of 2010. I know I didn't really do this novel justice in my review, but all I can say is, come March, this is one you need to rush out and buy on its release date!
Rating;
Plot: 9.5/10
Characters: 9/10
Ending: 9.5/10
Enjoyment: 10/10
Cover: 10/10
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Overall: 48/50= 96%
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Katie's Book Blog Review, April 27, 2010
This review is from: Sing Me to Sleep (Hardcover)
Sing Me To Sleep is Angela Morrison's second novel and so far, my favorite. It was such a beautiful story and amazingly well written. Taken By Storm was good but Sing Me To Sleep was out of this world!
Beth is the Beast. She has accepted that her voice will be the only pretty thing about her. All that changes when she is chosen to be her choir's soloist for the Choral Olympics in Switzerland. Beth gets the makeover of a lifetime and suddenly everyone wants her. The only one Beth wants, though, is Derek. Derek is a member of one of the boys choirs they meet in Switzerland and with him, everything changes. The only problem is that Derek is keeping something from her and it could change everything, for the worse.
I don't normally pity characters but at the beginning of the book, I felt so sorry for Beth. Her life sucked at school. She only had Scott as her one real friend and she didn't know how to handle her changing feelings for him. He was cute but once I got to the part with Derek, I stopped thinking about Scott. I absolutely loved Derek. He was just what Beth needed. He helped her see herself in a new light. He was perfect.
Obviously, I am not going to tell you what Derek's secret is. It was not a happy secret, though. I bawled my eyes out while reading Sing Me To Sleep. It was so touching and beautiful. The only thing I didn't like was how passive Beth was when it came to finding out Derek's secret. I felt that she should have tried a lot harder to get him to tell her, but oh well. In the end, she found out.
Overall, Sing Me To Sleep is an extraordinary book that I recommend for absolutely everyone! I don't even really know how to put into words all the reasons why you should read it but if you do, you will understand.
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Touching Story, April 21, 2010
This review is from: Sing Me to Sleep (Hardcover)
Heartbreaking, sad and touching, that's what Sing me to Sleep is. In this beautiful and powerful story we get the chance to meet Beth aka The Beast. She's ugly, damn ugly, she has only one friend, Scott, and some guys in school always bully her.
Her only escape is choir, not the school choir, something bigger, something better, a girl choir in Ann Arbor, and there she can be who she wants, an amazing singer with the voice of an angel.
Beth feels and thinks she doesn't deserve to be loved, not even by her father, who thought she was ugly from the minute she was born.
But the music is her world; she stands there, sings and forgets everything else.
And then she ends up being the main soloist, and everybody notices she's an incredible singer. And that's how the transformation starts.
Now she's a new Beth, different hair, different skin, different look, but the same old Beth in the inside, insecure. When she travels with the choir to Switzerland, to an international choir competition everything changes because she finds what she wasn't looking and doesn't know if it's even real.
Him. Derek, so gorgeous, so sweet, so fantastic, she thinks she doesn't deserve him, but he wants to try even when they are miles away. However, there are secrets between them that are better not to say, or at least that's what Derek thinks and Beth is dying in the inside. And Scott, poor Scott, who could she not noticed what was going on?
I don't usually like stories with love triangles like Edward-Bella-Jacob, but Angela manages it in such a touching way that you totally get the characters.
Like I said before, SMTS is a very powerful, gripping book, Beth's insecurity is something a lot of girls can relate to, not to feel worthy of being loved. And while the story develops you are with the lump on your throat for a lot of reasons and in the end is nearly impossible not to cry or at least sniff, a lot.
The story is very well constructed, I loved the entire choir world thing, and I wish I could be there listening to them singing. It also has very well developed characters and the final part is very beautiful.
Something I really liked is that you can see the pureness of a magic love rising in front of your eyes, and that makes it unique, is very romantic, but no mushy, just enough to feel compelled by the story.
I highly recommend it, is a great book you should not miss.
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