Eyes Like Stars by Lisa Manchtev

Publisher: Feiwel & Friends
Pub. Date: July 2009
Pages: 368

Synopsis:

For all her life, Beatrice Shakespeare Smith—her friends call her Bertie—has lived in the Theatre, a magical and entrancing place filled with every character ever written in a play, who are all controlled by The Book. Bertie is content there, but her happiness is about to come to an end when the Theater Manager threatens to throw her out of the Theatre for being so destructive. She has only one chance to stay: she must make an invaluable contribution to the Theatre.

But kind of invaluable contribution can she, an ordinary girl, make to the majestic Theatre? More than she thinks. As Bertie begins to understand the extent of her writing powers, Ariel, a dazzlingly persuasive spirit from the play The Tempest, sets out to gain his freedom by wrecking the The Book and the Theatre. Bertie will have to set aside her self-doubts if she intends to save the Theatre and unravel the mystery of her past.

Review:

Holy cow, this book was outstanding. Bertie was such a fun, free character and I loved how she was always herself. Also, a few weeks ago I finally dyed the under part of my hair violet, which I've been wanting to do for SO long, and when I heard of all of the colors she'd dyed her hair, I was like "HEY! I want to do that to my hair!!" Then my mom and I proceeded to argue about why I want to and can ("Normal hair is uber boring and it's my hair!" That would be me.) and why I shouldn't and can't (My mother. "All of your hair will fall out and because I said so!") Guess who won? No one. BUT, because I was so stubborn (Like mother like daughter.) she agreed to allow me to cut my hair and dye it a little darker before school starts. YAY! :-D

Okay...back to the reason I'm typing in the first place...

*clears throat* I loved the faeries because they were so funny and kept me entertained throughout the entire novel, even when it was a serious scene. Possibly also because they remind me of my unbelievably annoying, but loving nephews. :D Nate was so sweet and protective and while Ophelia wasn't the most liked character, she was sweet and I knew she was somehow important to the book when I first began reading it and was proved correct. Now Ariel, he was just the hot bad boy of this book. Amazingly dreamy, amazingly dangerous. ; ] The whole storyline was super original and kept me guessing until the very end even though I had a few ideas myself. None of which were correct. =/ Haha. This was the first book in quite a while that I read without having to try hard to picture the setting. All of Bertie's surrounding where written on the page, all I had to do was read and let them create themselves on my mind. Hm, do I sound crazy? :P

Cover:
Warning: I may get started again!

I LOVE THIS COVER! I'm not quite so sure how I would have imagined Bertie without seeing the cover though because when I see the person face on the cover, I am forever picturing them like that. I love the faeries flying around her (at first I was like "What are those things? Dragonflies?) and the font really went well with the entire picture. What really made me bite down hard on the bait was the girl. She was super beautiful and her hair had my staring at the book for hours and telling all my sister's that "Look! This is the color I wanted to dye the bottom of my hair!" I got back many "Yeah, that's a nice color"s and "You should have"s. I also really like the dress she is wearing and how it makes the girl look very elegant.

Characters:10/10
Plot:10/10
Writing:10/10
Originality: 10/10
Cover: 10/10
Overall: 50/50

!!!
:D

-Kailtyn