The Brightest Stars - connected

Brightest Stars #2

by Anna Todd

Stars need darkness to shine

Die leidenschaftliche und bewegende Liebesgeschichte um Karina und Kale geht weiter. Band 2 der großen Serie THE BRIGHTEST STARS.

Genres: Romance, New Adult, Fiction, Military Fiction, Contemporary Romance, Spicy, Young Adult

304 pages, Kindle Edition

First published June 4, 2020

About the author

ANNA TODD (writer/producer/influencer) is the New York Times best-selling author of the After series, the Brightest Stars trilogy, The Spring Girls, and the After Graphic novels. The After series has been released in 35 languages and has sold over twelve million copies worldwide—becoming a #1 best-seller in several countries. Always an avid reader, Todd began writing stories on her phone through Wattpad, with After becoming the platform’s most-read series with over two billion reads. She has served as a producer and screenwriter on the film adaptations of After and After We Collided, and in 2017, she founded the entertainment company Frayed Pages Media to produce innovative and creative work across film, television, and publishing. A native of Ohio, she lives with her family in Los Angeles.

Reviews

[Elsa Gomes (BookishAurora) · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not gonna lie, I'm a bit disappointed with this one.
First of all, that prologue had me so anxious and scared and the fact that we reached the end of the book not knowing who's funeral it was, arghhh.

And second of all, this book was all about the secondary characters. There was no freaking development when it came to the main characters. Only a bit in the end and that got ruined by two of the secondary characters, which was pretty predictable. But I know what happened will have a huge impact on everything for the MCs and a bunch of other people. And I'm and frustrated because watch it be another two years until we get the third book. :'(

I'm so invested in these characters though. I need them to work their way back to each other but it's not looking good in any way. And I'm curious to see how it will all happen.

[✰ Bianca ✰ BJ's Book Blog ✰ · Rating 4 out of 5]

Finally back with Kael and Karina.
It's only been two weeks since she found out that her twin brother is enlisting in the army. And even worse for Karina, Kael knew and helped him with things and didn't say a word about it to her. She will never be able to forgive him for that.
Or will she?
She can't stop thinking about him....

What will happen with Karina & Kael?
WILL THERE BE A HAPPILY EVER AFTER???
BUY THE BOOK TO FIND OUT!
Even though you won't yet find out - but book #3 will be with us ... one day sooni....sh.

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Well. That was a bit better than the first book.
I still like Kael and Karina. But I also don't like them for so many things.
They're so young but they're already in the middle of their lives, their jobs, their adultness, but especially Karina is so very naive and immature at the same time. No idea why and how!
And what already bothered me about the first book is back again... Elodie!
Why is she?
In the book? It's Kael's and Karina's love story. Austin - the twin - has a right to be in here a lot... I can live with that - even though it's way too much about him too.
But Elodie? She doesn't make any sense.
She destroys the whole love story between K+K because she needs too much screen/page time. Which she totally deserves - she's great - but only if this was her own book.
We barely get any Kael and Karina love story because of so many distractions in their lives. I hated that. Especially the end of the book. Ugh.
Also - the way K+K finally get back together? That happened just as quickly and weirdly as in the first book. She was all I HATE HIM - I WILL NEVER FORGIVE HIM and then bam they're naked in his truck. That was so weird and fast and without leading up to it somehow. So not good.

Another thing I don't love. The whole military thing. That's such a typical and only American thing. German people or so many others won't have any connection or feelings towards all that. The way American readers will. It's a bit too American for my tastes. Maybe if this whole story would've taken place in an international setting. Like on a US base in Germany, Italy wherever. That way we might've loved it a bit more.

I still liked reading this second book.
But I also fast-forwarded a lot at times. Like in the first book, there's so much redundant stuff in here. No idea why Anna felt she had to fill this series with so much stuff. At least this time there are a few interesting scenes and locations and happenings. But still - the book is too long and uneventful.
One single book with a great love story and some drama and whatnot would've been so amazing! But alas here we are - with three way too long books - with waayy too long to wait between books!
I will definitely read the final book. But I don't think this will ever become a favorite series of mine!
But I also have hope that Anna will come up with a new amazing book idea one day soon.
Now that she's living all happy and healthy and Avocado-y in LA! 🤣

THE BURNING was a great second book in Kael + Karina's love story. There's still so much more to tell. GIMME book #3!


💜 💜

[Michelle Martiniello · Rating 1 out of 5]

The story had an excessive amount of internal dialogue. It's been some time since I last read an Anna Todd novel, and I had forgotten her penchant for emphasizing every intricate detail in her narratives. While I appreciate her beautifully flawed characters and the worlds she crafts, I believe that such minute detailing can sometimes overshadow an already compelling story, which is unfortunate.

Kale and Karina's relationship began with promise and undeniable potential. However, after slogging through 215 pages with virtually no action, even my burning curiosity about the story's outcome couldn't keep me going. It was all talk and no action. Sadly, I had to put "The Burning" aside for now.

[Anastasia Bodrug · Rating 2 out of 5]

Asta e grav...De obicei, nu mă las influențată de personaje care acționează prostesc și nu au nici o logică, dar aici nu am rezistat. 50% citite din carte și îmi dau seama că dacă continui, kindle-ul meu va zbura în perete.
Dacă aș avea cartea în format fizic, aș duce-o până la capăt (ca să nu-mi pară rău de banii irosiți) și apoi aș scăpa de ea. Bine că cel puțin cartea nu e voluminoasă, dar dacă să mă gândesc mai bine, ideea de a scrie o trilogie a fost o decizie extrem de rea.

[eva · Rating 1 out of 5]

Złe. Nudne. Niepotrzebne. O niczym.

[Hannah · Rating 3 out of 5]

it was actually kind of disappointing 😞

[Summer Nelson · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read "The Falling" and really enjoyed it! This one is a slow burn. I listened to it via Audible, and I wasn't a fan of the male narrator. Going into it, I was looking forward to reading more about her brother's deployment and how Karina and Kael's relationship gets affected as he gets deployed himself, and she starts her new journey as an armywife. These things do get mentioned, but I feel the side characters seemed to be the main focus with their family life. When Karina & Kael did get mentioned, it was their internal thoughts regarding how they felt and what they were doing to improve their relationship. This one was lacking the emotional pull and raw connection I felt in the first one. I like "The Falling" more.The only thing I liked about this one was Karina, the strong female MC who knows what she wants and takes no sh*t from anyone, not even her father. The smut scenes are 🌶🌶🌶

[mariasbooklore · Rating 3 out of 5]

Hierbei handelt es sich um den zweiten Band der Reihe, in dem man einen besseren Einblick in die Welt der Protagonisten bekommt, die Begegnungen zwischen den beiden sind durch viel Dramatik begleitet. Doch leider passiert an tatsächlicher Handlung recht wenig, sodass die Beziehung der beiden nur minimal vorangertrieben wird.

Die Protagonisten, Karina und Kael, waren mir sympathisch aber mehr auch nicht. Die Beziehung der beiden entwickelt sich meiner Meinung nach nur sehr wenig, was ich wirklich sehr sehr schade fand, denn ich glaube es steckt viel Potential dahinter. Besonders hat mich gestört, wie wenig bereit die Protagonisten waren miteinander zu kommunizieren. Oft entstand ein Konflikt aus Situationen, die sich nicht lösen/nicht ändern lassen und als Leserin ging es mir häufig so, dass ich, ganz besonders die Protagonistin, gerne das ein oder andere Mal wachgerüttelt hätte.

Auch muss ich sagen, dass mich der Schreibstil der Autorin dieses Mal nicht erreicht hat. Irgendetwas war anders an diesem Buch, aber ich kann wirklich nicht sagen was es war. Ich fand es wirklich etwas enttäuschend.

[Laura Donovan · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’ve always been fascinated by Anna Todd’s story: she was a mom who wrote bestselling books on her phone. I’m not into romance or fan fiction, but I love the heart that goes into her books. I think this one paints a sad portrait of being in a military family and/or romance, and I love the way she builds up the tension between Karina and Kael. I hadn’t read any of her previous works, including this one’s predecessor, but I got right into the story. She writes beautifully and describes what it’s like coming from a broken home. It’s fiction, but so much of this feels real.

Thank you Net Galley for the arc copy.

[anna.makkonen ꨄ · Rating 3 out of 5]

j’ai mis énormément de temps avant de me mettre dans l’histoire, plus de la moitié. c’était long, trop long. tout se passe trop lentement et ça freine la lecture. par contre j’ai adoré la fin, le rapprochement entre Karina et Keal <33 et puis ce qui s’en suit. la fin nous laisse encore sur notre faim 🫠

[Viki · Rating 2 out of 5]

If I should be honest i really don´t like the book. Noting happened in the book and it got really boring and that´s sad in my opinion because I really adored the first book of the series.
I give the book two stars because I liked the last 50 pages.

[Vera Neves (Sinfonia dos Livros) · Rating 3 out of 5]

(...)Como não podia deixar de ser, muito por causa do passado de Karina e do irmão gémeo Austin, as coisas entre ela e Kael não estão nada bem. Neste livro conseguimos ter ainda uma noção maior do quanto Karina é uma jovem que sofreu demais para a idade que tem. Não tem amigos que se possam chamar assim, exceptuando Elodie, a jovem francesa emigrada nos EUA, que mora com ela e que é a grande confidente dela(dentro dos possíveis no mundo de Karina). Não tem confiança nas pessoas que a rodeiam, por mais que mostrem que ela pode contar com o seu apoio. É rancorosa e desconfiada e assim que percebe que as coisas estão a fugir-lhe ao controle arranja desculpas, foge e recolhe-se na sua concha protectora que não deixa ninguém aproximar-se.
É contra tudo isso que Kael tem de lutar. Ainda mais do que contra os seus próprios demónios pessoais que "ganhou" das suas missões no exército e a dor fisíca que sente na lesão que fez em terreno hostil.(...)

Opinião Completa no Sinfonia dos Livros
https://sinfoniadoslivros.blogspot.co...

[Naelle · Rating 3 out of 5]

J’ai pas aimé. Les 100 premières pages j’étais vraiment dedans mais après je me suis lassée et j’ai pas aimé ma lecture. Il n’y avait pas d’action, les chapitres étaient répétitifs et les personnages ennuyeux. À la fin je m’attendais à un plot hyper stylé, mais j’ai été hyper déçu car c’était vraiment nul et ça ne donnait pas du tout envie de lire la suite.
J’avais abandonné la lecture des after et je me suis dit qu’avec ce livre je me réconcilie rais peut-être avec l’autrice mais au final absolument pas, j’ai encore moins envie de lire des livres de sa part.

[Gitte Grootswagers · Rating 2 out of 5]

Ik vond het in het begin een beetje een vaag boek en kon er moeilijk inkomen. Later kwam ik er achter dat het onderdeel van een serie is 😅😅 uiteindelijk snapte ik het verhaal wel maar het werd vanuit twee personen verteld wat het soms ook verwarrend maakte. Ook had het een lange verhaallijn en was het einde heel abrupt wat ik jammer vond.

[Alina · Rating 4 out of 5]

3,5⭐️

[Kaity · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow

[Alba Amor por los libros · Rating 2 out of 5]

Estrellas lejanas ha sido una segunda parte de trilogía para mi del todo innecesaria.
No se me ha llegado a hacer demasiado aburrido o pesado porque la narración de la autora es muy ligera y se lee sola, pero en cuanto a trama y contenido este libro aporta 0 a la trilogía. No sucede absolutamente nada sobre la trama principal, pero cuando digo nada es NADA.
Se avanza algo más en algunas tramas secundarias (que tampoco...) llegando al punto que me interesaban más ciertos personajes secundarios que la historia de Karina y Kael. Ellos se me han hecho repetitivos y cansinos, sobre todo Karina.
Ni siquiera al final se ha activado la trama... Literalmente solo en la última escena del libro ocurre algo con un poquito de emoción, de cara a hacer que el lector se haga con la tercera parte. Y eso que yo suelo ser muy fan de las segundas partes de trilogía.
En definitiva, un libro que sobra por completo, solo de relleno y que da rabia que hagan al lector gastarse el dinero para no aportar absolutamente nada.

[lilindn_ · Rating 3 out of 5]

J’ai trouver que le tome 2 était plus long, moins captivant que le tome 1. Cependant, j’ai trouvé qu’avoir le point de vue de Kael était une bonne chose.

Je dois avouer que je ne m’attendais pas à autant de rebondissements ha ha mais c’était cool comme lecture.

J’ai hâte que le tome 3 sorte parce que cette fin est terrible ! 🥲

[Colombe Tgt · Rating 3 out of 5]

Je suis déçue, peut être parce que j'ai beaucoup attendu cette suite. Au final en fermant le livre aucune étape de l'histoire ne me marque. Il ne s'est rien passé de vraiment marquant à mes yeux 300 pages d'introduction pour la suite...

[Melissa Givens · Rating 1 out of 5]

Ugh. So boring. Made it to 16% and could not take another word in. Way to much internal dialog.

Merged review:

So boring to read. Too much internal dialog. Made it to 16%. Then put it into DNF. I could maybe do an audiobook but honestly I wouldn't pay money for it.

[Jackie Roberts · Rating 4 out of 5]

It’s been a while since I read the falling and the brightest stars. They were basically the same book but both had a slightly different ending. This picks up right where that left off. Karina finds out that Kael helped her brother Austin enlist in the army and she is very hurt about it. And no longer trusts him. They had a love building but she’s done with him now. Austin is ignoring her and ghosting her. Kael is a little jealous for how bad she wants to talk to Austin and not him. Her and Elodie live together. Elodie is from Europe and married an American soldier and moved here for him. Someone sent her parents a message saying he’s cheating on her and her parents have her stressed. Elodie has started going to more of the army wife events so I’m assuming it was one of them bitches. Elodie has a panic attack and Austin shows up. Austin and Karina take elodie to the base hospital. The baby is ok she just needs to reduce their stress. As she’s trying to leave they run into mendoza and Kael. Mendoza asks if she’s going camping with them this weekend for her and Austin’s birthdays and she tells him she was never invited. Kael doesn’t even look at her the entire time. She tells Austin about Nielsen stopping by the massage place and he freaks out saying Nielsen was one of the guys from his fight and how he has had issues. When Elodie shows her the screenshot of who messaged her parents about Phillip cheating it was neilson so what is he scheming. Karina goes and does a slight makeover of her hair and skin care and getting her nails done. Elodie invites her to a cook out with the platoon wives and she finds a flea market to go to instead. She falls in love with the place and buys 2 plants until she sees Kael and he tells her he comes every weekend and she realizes she can’t come here again. He helps her in multiple ways. Has the plant lady hold the plants til she’s ready to go and he swindles a lady down on a chair and helps her pay for it. He tells her he has to go to Elodie baby shower and she realizes when Elodie invited her to the cookout it was her baby shower. The platoon wives were surprising Elodie but never invited Karina which really hurt her feelings. Kael brought her chair and plants home for her but couldn’t convince her to go to the cookout she was too hurt. She was supposed to be Elodies best friend and they excluded her. The book has flashed between Kael and Karina. We know Kaels leg has really been bothering him but he’s eager to get on his disability and doesn’t want to do another surgery. Austin has been helping him fix up his house. When Phillip comes home him and Elodie will live in half of the duplex. We know Mendoza has really bad PTSD. He used to go to the market with Kael but has been kicked out. He used to help cut wood but went to leave one day and had the truck in the wrong gear and drove through multiple booths and freaked out and drove through trees and almost hit a vehicle when he panicked. He hasn’t been welcomed back since. We also know Mendoza punched the glass door at their house. His wife gloria and the kids have to cope with all this but Kael tries to help the best he can. At the baby shower Mendoza get a little drunk and him and some other boys start arguing about the president and not caring and it gets heated until Kael and Austin calm the situation down. Austin seems to really care about Elodie. Karina is re modeling her whole house and herself. She wants to erase Kael from everything and have a fresh start. Elodie is worried about her and tells her she’s going to their camping trip for her and Austin’s birthday. She is forced into this camping trip and then Elodie tells her she’s riding with Austin and that Mendoza and Gloria will be picking her up. But then she hears a familar truck, kaels bronco. He tells her he didn’t know she was going and she tells him she didn’t know he was going. He offers not to go and she tells him it’s fine and they ride together and then he tells her they’re picking someone else up, turner. Turner was a girl she knew liked him from the falling. So this upsets her. When they get to turners she sits in the backseat which upsets Kael. Turner tried making conversation. She asks about their past exes. Kael doesn’t talk but Karina talks about brien being her last ex which upsets Kael. When they get to the camp ground he questions why she’d say that and she tells him that him and her never dated and it was like a punch in the gut to him. At the fire she falls in love with Gloria and her kindness. Elodie and Austin are way late to the campground and Elodie doesn’t say why. Karina goes to find a bathroom and finds Kael in his bronco instead. He has a whole set up. He lends her a flashlight so she can pee in the woods. Turner is hooking up with someone in the bathroom which makes her happy Turner isn’t with Kael. He gives her a hoodie and asks if they can have a reset for the weekend and she agrees/ and then she kisses him. One thing leads to another and they hook up in the bronco. And then there are loud noises and they have to dress quickly, Mendoza is about to be in a fight. Karina sits with Gloria and gives her a massage while Kael takes Mendoza for a walk. When he gets back he takes Karina back to the bronco and they communicate with their bodies for the night and she sleeps so cozy beside him. She worries if this changes anything or if he’s still going to be going to Atlanta. After the camping trip her and Kael talked constantly and we’re exploring what this was. Her and Austin went to her dads for dinner and she noticed how buddy buddy they were and figured it was because Austin enlisted but when Austin talked it sounded like her dad had no idea and they were talking about how he’s been remodeling houses and his future. Karina realizes how much her dad doesn’t care about her life. Her Instagram pictures have been doing decent where she takes aesthetic pictures so I’m wondering if this will amount to something. Austin has Kael come get him which I wonder why he does this instead of having Karina drive him home. He has Kael come inside. The cake that Estelle had made is lemon, their dads favorite but Karina can’t eat lemons. Karina is worried how this will go since weeks ago hee dad and Kael had a screaming match in her house. And then Kael slips up and says how good of a help Austin has been before he leaves and his dad asks where he’s going. Austin hasn’t told his dad he enlisted yet. Karina assumed that’s why they were getting along so well. Austin’s dad did not take it well. He blew up upset that everyone knew but him. Made a comment about how many enemies he has. He’s putting Austin in danger with his enemies. Kael gets in between them. And that’s when her dad snaps and asks why his family is any of his business and he says Austin is a brother to him and he’s in love with his daughter. Karina is melting inside. Kael and Austin leave and she stays. Her dad snaps at her and she tells him she won’t come around anymore if he doesn’t change the way he treats her. Estelle finds her on the porch swing and tells her how her dad gets drunk and talks to her moms ghost. (Their mom left no idea where she is). She says how she always dreamed of the relationship she’d have with her and Austin but it didn’t work that way. When she got home Austin and Kael got there shortly after. Austin took a pie in for Elodie and her and Kael went on the porch to talk. They talked about them a little and how they wondered if it would hurt more to do this than If they didn’t try and he said he thought it would hurt either way. Then on the day before Karina and Austin’s birthday Kael came home and told him his discharge had been approved. It was going through way quicker than he expected. Karina wanted to be happy for him but she also didn’t want him to go. Elodie and Austin went to go to the grocery store. Kael and Karina talked. He asked her if she’d go to Atlanta with him and she doesn’t think she can sell her house and lose her stability even though she loves him she’d be to scared of the falling out. He stays the night and the next day he tells her her birthday present. He’s going to build her a porch and a porch swing since he knows how much she loves them due to her mom. He gets to work on it and she cooks him breakfast. After they eat they starting kissing and Mendoza calls him. She tells him to answer it and Mendoza sent him a picture of Elodie and Austin kissing in the parking lot the night before. And then a solider gets out of a black car, and she knows it has to be Phillip at the worst possible time. She doesn’t know where Elodie and Austin are. So this book ends on Phillip showing up, a picture of Austin and Elodie together, Kaels discharge being rushed and him leaving sooner than planned, his moms health declining, Mendoza sons health declining and he can’t seek help for PTSD in worry of getting discharged, the shake relationship of Karina with her dad. A LOT OF UNFINISHED BUSINESS. The burning is a good title because this was Karina and Kael burning for each other and not being able to resist the fire. And this was the burning everything is burning a little. So I’m really excited to see how it all pans out!!! 4 stars because I felt like there might have been a lot of useless info and like this story wasn’t that long but it almost seemed like it dragged on forever like everything that has happened in both books could have been one. Instead of a whole series. But still 4 stars because I love the plot and I love Karina and how fierce she is but also her anxiety I relate to. And I love her and Kael together. There is a lot going on that keeps you wanting more but like I said a lot of it seems almost useless but I did still really enjoy this book.

[Vero Exposito · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.78 Stars

Listened to this one via audible. Ok so, It was good but needed more Karl and Karina romance. I feel like the book was more about the other characters and I hope in the next one we get more romance between them.

I would like to add I probably I’m giving this series a higher rating because I listened to the books. If I had read them I probably would’ve been a bit bored but wtv.

Also, I knew Elodie and Austin’s had something going on. Honestly I wanna see the drama from that in the next book. And like what happened between Karina and Kael? Like why did they have a fallout. I’m ready to know in the next book. Toodles!

[Giulia · Rating 3 out of 5]

Bello, anche se mi ha fatto spazientire!
La storia tra i due personaggi è quasi fantasma!
Dietro al libro c'è scritto: "un'altra storia che vi farà emozionare".
A me non ha fatto per niente emozionare, la lettura è stata fluida solo in alcuni punti.
Solo negli ultimi capitoli si ha uno sboccio tra i due protagonisti.
La fine mi ha sorpresa, pensavo che finisse in un altro modo. Non in un modo così palese (Per me).
Ma sono curiosa di come andrà a finire la loro storia estenuante, quindi leggerò anche l'ultimo.

[Kaitlin · Rating 3 out of 5]

The only reason I read this was to find out the story line from the previous book which was a drag to get through. And this one did the exact same thing. 250 pages of story line that was dragged out. Only until the last 100 pages were the actual excitement and interest of the story. It was tough to get through but the last 100 pages made the book/plot worth it. I’m invested in finding out about Karina and Kael’s future.

It was extremely obvious to me (and any reader) that Elodie and Austen were hooking up. I’m hoping we get filled in on the pieces of that puzzle we are missing in the next book.

The cheating rumor and guy on Facebook story was drawn out and then gone. What happened there? I’m sure it will be addressed in the next book but I felt that went flat since Karina said she would help Elodie then nothing happened.

Anyone else get annoyed by Karina? She has a lot of self esteem problems.

And why did the soldiers have to talk about Trump (I know she didn’t mention his name but it was obvious). It was unnecessary and nothing to do with the plot. It’s not a political thriller or non-fiction piece. Stick with what you are writing and stop trying to go political or woke. Keep to the romance genre.

Overall, this book was just like the last one. Hard to get into and took 200+ pages for anything to happen that wasn’t filler. Of course with the appearance of Phillip as a cliff hanger, I’ll have to read the next one because at this point, I’m just in it for the characters and the plot as a whole. Ugh.

[Yamina -Women Who Stare at Books · Rating 4 out of 5]

Karina and Kael are back!!
Their relationship is complicated, tumultuous and you feel anger, sorrow for both characters.
While we get to learn more about their trauma/past , things are complicated and it’s a love/ hate relationship in a way . Both characters just need to find their way to each other …
I’m curious to see how this will unfold in book 3

[Barb · Rating 2 out of 5]

The female lead in this book is the most annoying character I have read in a while.
A story that is predictable and pretentious, with spicy parts thrown in to try get you interested and invested in Karina and Kael’s relationship but really it’s just kinda lacking.
There are some serious aspects to this story, that just get brushed over and ignored which is disappointing and really could have added more depth.

[Megan Evans · Rating 2 out of 5]

I really wanted to DNF this book but I loved the first book and wanted to know what would happen with the characters. I just so disappointed with this one. It was too much inner monologue and not enough storyline and events happening. Hope the next book is better

[Caitlin Bell · Rating 1 out of 5]

Pointless plot-line. Both main characters were insufferable for 80% of the book and way too much internal dialogue. Multiple spelling and grammical errors. Only enjoyed the last 40 pages. Pissed it ended on a cliffhanger and I want to know what happens but don’t want to read a whole new book.

[Ann Folino · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a good book but slow in its days. I think the first and second book are just 3 weeks maybe 1 month of what is going on with these two. Now I am going to read book 3 and see what happens with these two.

[Il confine dei libri · Rating 2 out of 5]

per leggere la recensione in blog cliccare qui: https://ilconfinedeilibri.blogspot.co...