Natasha Preston jest jedną z tych autorek, o których ostatnio słyszałam wiele dobrego. Postanowiłam sięgnąć po jedną z jej powieści. Trafiła mi się przez przypadek w bibliotece właśnie "Uwikłana", która na pierwszy rzut oka wydaje się nie dla nas, a potem zaczyna się ją czytać i totalnie się wsiąka.
Grupa siedmiorga nastolatków tuż pod koniec wakacji postanawia spędzić weekend w domku letniskowym, który należy do ich znajomego. Ten wyjazd miał być odpoczynkiem od codzienności, bez trudów, problemów i trosk. Całodniowe leniuchowanie, wieczorne imprezy i sporo alkoholu. Niestety, już pierwszej nocy dochodzi do tajemniczego i bardzo brutalnego morderstwa. Ofiarami jest dwójka przyjaciół, z których przynajmniej jedno miało obecnych tutaj wrogów. Jak się okazuje każda osoba, która przebywała w domku miała motyw. Motyw i sporo mrocznych sekretów, które nigdy nie powinny wyjść na jaw. Wszyscy kłamią, by chronić własne interesy, ale tylko jedna osoba zna prawdę. I jest nim morderca.
Momentami historia wydawała mi się mało wiarygodna, muszę przyznać, że pomimo to czytałam ją z przyjemnością. Każda kolejna strona powodowała u mnie coraz większe napięcie i zwiększała niepewność odnośnie tego co się wydarzy za chwilę.
Natasha Preston dobrze przemyślała sobie fabułę i poszczególne etapy rozwiązywania zagadki, dzięki czemu powieś okazała się bardzo spójna. Bohaterowie są całkiem dobrze wykreowani, chociaż autorka mogła poświęcić więcej czasu na przedstawienie charakterów i osobowości poszczególnych postaci.
Pisarka posługuje się prostym i lekkim językiem, dzięki czemu czyta się w błyskawicznym tempie i z ogromną przyjemnością.
Zakończenie to chyba najlepszy element całej książki. Jak już wspominałam autorka bardzo zaplanowanie prowadzi fabułę książki i nie sposób domyślić się kto i dlaczego. Jednak końcówka zupełnie mnie zaskoczyła, przez co historia zyskała w moich oczach.
Przy "Uwikłanej" można spędzić miło parę chwil, ale nie jest to powieść, do której wróciłabym ponownie. Raczej nie utkwi mi w pamięci na długo, jednak polecam ją jako lekką niezobowiązującą lekturę na wieczór. Bardziej dla nastoletnich czytelników.

I picked up this book in hopes of it being a nice little drama/thriller type story that would shock me.
It did the absolute opposite.

Right off the bat we meet Ivy and Iris as they're returning home from their mom's funeral.

Ivy is already in a way annoyed with the fact that she now has to live with her twin sister whom she hasn't shared a house with for nearly 6 years, and instead of trying to bond with her sister or comfort her, she runs off to her boyfriend's house and complains about it.

The plot took way too long to progress for me. It's nearly a 400 page book, and things don't get heated or exciting really until the very end.

Most of the book is nonsense filler material that just followed Ivy and her day to day life of going to school, swimming, being with her boyfriend etc.

However, slowly she is being made an outcase to everyone she knows. Her best friends are now following Iris around everywhere she goes and completely ignores Ivy, a bunch of highschool drama ensues.

A rift starts between Ty and Ivy after a photograph is leaked of her and another guy kissing at a party where they were drunk, (which in this story took place when Ivy was roughly 15?). I just couldn't relate or connect with any of these characters because the circumstances just became too bizarre to me.

From the get go there are dozens of red flags around Iris and her mental state, yet no one notices anything. Literally. Instead they all just fall under a "spell" and do things to her every whim without question.
There are plenty of times in the book where you see Ivy saying that everything literally went south the second Iris showed up, and NO ONE can wrap their head around it. Not even her dad, who solely raised Ivy for those 6 years and didn't really see Iris all that much. 
Having literally an entire cast of characters instantly become blind like that makes me so frustrated.

And when we finally get to our "twist", it's all just too predictable and yet again, insane.
Ivy gets in touch with an old friend of Iris's from her old school, and coincidentally, the exact same thing happened with her whenever she was friends with Iris.
Then shortly after Kat, Iris's friend, tells Ivy everything that happened, she just mysteriously ended up dead.

When finally accused of causing these deaths, Iris just follows along with it and admits it without care. Her and her sister end up getting into a fight in their house, after she admitted to the murder of Kat and her and Ivy's mother, which their father breaks up.

This is another thing I couldn't quite wrap my head around. Their dad basically works from home, and the girls had this huge falling out IN the house, where Iris said out loud all the things she's done. But the dad didn't hear anything until they were in a physical fight? And somehow still sided with Iris and not Ivy even though she was pleading for someone, anyone to believe her.

In the end, I think this plot could have had so much potential in being an amazing story. But it was too lackluster and anti-climactic for me. We just get a bunch of nonsense scenes that are unnecessary, and we have these characters that we end up not really caring about before we even hit the middle of the book.

For a couple of 16 year old girls, it's really hard to picture this even happening as the story goes on. They're just way too young for the amount of stuff that was going on, and it just really makes you question the parent's side more, than these kids.

I really wanted to like this author and like this book, but for the life of me, I could not take it... It is a huge disappointment to me.

by Preston Blair

This is a short book, just 46 pages, but a lot of practical information is packed in. It covers how to make expressions and depict movement as well as getting feature ratios into traditional cartooning perspective.

A few familiar characters show up among the drawings as well as some basic animal character shapes and variations. Altogether a very good resource for the beginning cartoonist.

You most likely definitely realize that getting fit is probably the best thing you can accomplish for your wellbeing. Normal exercise can assist you with controlling your weight, improve your cardiovascular wellbeing, assemble more grounded bones, keep your muscles sculpted and even prevent issues like Type II diabetes. Yet, the beginning can be overwhelming as you haven't practised previously, but this cannot be a huge issue with Gym Preston.

Probably the most ideal approaches to begin practising is to join a local wellness centre and begin on an exhaustive exercise program. Simultaneously, there are heaps of wellness revolves around, which makes picking the correct one somewhat precarious. Here are a couple of tips to assist you with beginning finding the ideal wellness community that addresses your issues.

Start by posting your needs in a wellness place, which can include: 

I. Location

II. Hours of administration

III. Fees

IV. Types of services offered including fitness coaches, classes, Gym equipment and more

When you've recorded your needs, ask your family, companions, associates, family specialist or other healthcare professionals as they can suggest a decent fitness centre. Next, have a go at doing an Internet search to discover a wellness community in your vicinity. The middle's site will have data to assist you in deciding whether it meets your needs.

Fitness Centers: A Place to Be Seen

Gym Preston like places are incredible spots to meet companions, make new companions or just appreciate a workout independent from anyone else. The focuses can be anything from your local YMCA to a proper wellness club to a movement community, like a senior place, that offers practice or oxygen-consuming projects or even serious games. Most focus' is enrollment driven and give the important structure a few of us have to keep a wellness plan on track. 

Fitness centres give its individuals proficient or affirmed coaches that will help individuals in setting up an activity program to meet the ideal objectives, regardless of what level of wellness you are at. Regardless of whether it is weight loss or maintaining weight, expanding quality or stamina or out and out old remaining dynamic, a fitness centre will give all the expertise required. 

While there is a lot of approaches to remain fit without the advantage of gear, like planting, yard maintenance, hacking wood or in any event, painting a house, a few people like utilizing a paddling machine or running on a treadmill to finish their activity program. In case individuals live in an atmosphere that has winter, a wellness place gives nature to customary exercises. 

An additional advantage to be an individual from a fitness centre is to be in the organization of others with a similar general objective and maybe working with an expert fitness trainer Melbourne is the inspiration that a person requires to have the objective.

When choosing a fitness centre to join there are a couple of things one should remember before settling on a definitive choice. Cost is most likely the main thing on your list. Ensure the participation expense fits in your financial limit. It won't benefit you in any way as you need to work after some time or take on a subsequent activity to have the option to manage the cost of registration. I don't think "running" from one employment to the next is the sort of activity you may anticipate from a registration. Ensure the objectives you have at the top of the priority list are reachable with the projects and gear the middle offers. 

Most focus' offer a wide assortment of projects for a wide assortment of objectives however I'm certain there are places that have practical experience in just certain territories of wellness. Area, area, area. Pick Gym Preston like Fighting Fit PT that is advantageous to where you work or live if possible. Ensure the coaches are able to do what they state they can do. We shiver to think about the possible result of working with somebody who may be more qualified to fix vehicular motors than assist tone with increasing a human body.

Numerous individuals today imagine that having their own one of a kind in fitness trainer is a luxury for those lone that is rich and renowned. We as a whole realize that big names like Oprah and Madonna have a fitness coach, yet we seldom stop to think how to moderate in fitness training truly is or that we also can have an extraordinary coach like fitness trainer Melbourne that will get remarkable outcomes. We surrender to the possibility that an exercise DVD or a fitness book will get us ready while applauding ourselves for the cash we think we saved, yet our fitness objectives never are come to and the book essentially is added to the rack.

These key segments will get you results, show you how to work out, and eat right while saving a large number of dollars through the span of a year. A fitness trainer professional with some huge organizations can cost several dollars per session.

>> A fitness coach comes to you, at your home, and on your time. For one value, they carry the hardware while giving you a remarkable one-hour exercise. By contracting a fitness coach, you forego the costly one-year agreement of a month to month rec centre participation, the underlying enlistment charge, and the additional cost of employing their on-location fitness coach. The vast majority imagine that it would be more affordable to join a gym, yet as a general rule, it is in reality progressively costly. Simply think 10 sessions with a fitness mentor at a limited cost could be as low as a negligible several dollars per session. Participations at a portion of the notable national corporate fitness center chains can run another part an immense enlistment charge in addition to every month on a one-year contract for a sum of several hundred dollars. The greater part of all, this is without the expense of having a personal fitness mentor to meet your objectives. In case you consider that also at a higher side of the amount per session for 10 sessions, you wind up paying an incredible several thousand dollars. At that cost, you could have a fitness coach for almost 50 sessions.

>> By having a wellness coach, you don't have to burn through cash on hardware that for the most part doesn't work. A great deal of us watch those shopping channels on TV to arrange the most recent rage gear that we hope to get us fit and it basically sits under the bed or gathers dust in a corner. Much more dreadful, for a few of us the treadmill we utilized once turns into an apparel rack and capacity unit. Set aside cash and space by having a fitness trainer Melbourne come to you, bring all the hardware, and once they are done leave with it. No more need to store costly bits of cumbersome hardware that you will never utilize, as they can tell you the best way to get a powerful exercise with only a dependability ball and a couple of bands.

>> Heading to the exercise centre, sitting in traffic, and driving back invests gas and waste valuable energy. The normal individuals live 10 miles from a local gym or fitness centre and in case you factor in the cost of heading to the exercise centre, sitting in long traffic and driving home after an exercise, it is as yet less expensive to contract a fitness coach to go to your home and give the service to you. In light of the normal of 20 miles to and from the health and wellness centre and keeping in mind that gas could cost you, by and large, several dollars per gallon, it might very much cost roundtrip each time. Even if you go for 3 days every week, over the time of one year, it will cost hundreds of dollars.

After thinking about the expense of setting off to an exercise centre and purchasing pointless gear, employing a fitness trainer Melbourne from Fighting Fit PT to meet your wellness objectives will set aside your cash. A couple of sessions with a fitness mentor can cost very less, which can show you a great deal while saving you a huge amount over the long run.