Heaven, Hell and Purgatory

Blog Merger

2010-12-26T22:52:00.005Z

It's nearly a new year and I have some exciting news. Heaven, Hell and Purgatory and Rhiana_Reads are joining forces and merging our blogs. The address has finally settled down so you can head over to http://www.heavenhellandpurgatory-bookreviews.com/ now to follow us both there! We are still working on design/ pages etc so please bare with us for a little while.

We have some exciting things coming for the new year and I hope to see you guys soon! Any questions please get in touch through email or Twitter (@Fiction_Fan). Thanks everyone for your support!

Dark Flame - Alyson Noel

2010-12-22T00:30:00.000Z

Dark Flame is the fourth book in The Immortals series by Alyson Noel. It was published by Macmillan Children’s Books on 27th September 2010 and it is 336 pages long.

Plot
After not long being an Immortal herself, Ever is helping best friend Haven deal with the transformation. The power of being an Immortal is more than Haven truly understands though and is fully determined to make the most of her new found abilities but in doing so, she puts a massive strain on her friendship with Ever.

Friendship isn’t the only thing being strained as Ever’s relationship with Damon becomes even more complicated. As she delves a lot deeper into a world of magick that she doesn’t really understand, Ever manages to make things a lot worse than she ever thought possible. When she tries to cast a spell to take control over Roman and get the one thing she wants most in the world, it backfires, only to push them closer together. Too scared and embarrassed to turn to Damon for help, Ever spirals into a huge mess that she can’t get herself out of. The one person who can probably help her could also be the one person who pushes her further and further away from Damon.

What I thought
The Immortals is one of those series that even though I have certain problems with it, I am always really excited for the release of the newest book. Needless to say, I had this one on pre order and that doesn’t happen very much for me anymore.

As I just said, there are problems with this series as a whole. Maybe I should say problem because there is only really one thing that bugs me. Ever. I have had many conversations on Twitter about just how much she annoys me and why. It seems to me like Ever has no common sense whatsoever. She has had to make a lot of hard (and some not very hard at all) decisions throughout the series but no matter what, she always makes the wrong choice. In Dark Flame we see her making another stupid choice and not really thinking about what she is doing. After three books, I would have thought that she’d learnt from her mistakes by now. Damon is extremely reassuring when he says that he will always be there for her, no matter what, but does she listen? Nope! I guess I wish that Damon would either dump her already or Haven would give her a nice hard slap around the face.

Damon however, was just as lovely as he ever has been. Obviously I do think he’s being a little bit silly letting Ever getting away with being a complete crazy person all of the time. I guess you could say that he is the kind of boyfriend that girls would die for. Unconditional love. Always there for his girlfriend no matter what happens. Smoking hot! What more could you ask for apart from maybe getting rid of Ever? The thing is, no matter how many lives Damon and Ever have been through together, then are only in the current one now. Ever lies to Damon, goes behind his back and generally treats him like dirt. I don’t understand how he puts up with her.

When the third book in this series ended, Haven had just been turned into an Immortal due to a really hard decision that Ever had to make. As soon as I closed the book, I was dying to read Dark Flame to find out what was going to happen next with her. Haven is quite a feisty character anyway so add in immortality and you can bet that you are going to get one impossible teenager. As much as I wanted to slap Haven for being quite selfish for wanting to do as she pleased, I don’t really blame her. I would like to think that I could be sensible in her situation but I doubt very much that I could refrain from doing whatever I wanted.

Taking away my problems with the characters, I did really like this book. I felt like the twist of having Haven as an Immortal really shook things up a bit, instead of being all about Ever and which boy to choose. This new plot twist has set up the main storyline to be, what I think will be, much darker than what we have seen before. I really hope that this is the case as it will make book 4 stand out completely to the rest of the series. Haven went through an awful lot in Dark Flame and now has her life spread all over the place, not really having any stability so I think she could maybe end up going off the rails a bit and causing some trouble.

There were quite a lot of twists that I didn’t see coming at all and I loved where the plot was heading in certain areas. Getting to see Jude in different settings was one of my favourite parts and I’m hoping that we get to see more of this in future books. I think he is a really interesting character and has the potential to be someone amazing in this series. There is so much I don’t know about him that I would like to. The ending was a complete shocker and actually had me gasping. Overall, Dark Flame was entertaining throughout and I will still be waiting eagerly for the fourth book, Night Star.

Black Swan Rising - Lee Carroll

2010-12-21T00:30:00.002Z

Black Swan Rising is the first book in a trilogy by Lee Carroll. Lee Carroll is actually a pseudonym for the writing partnership between Carol Goodman and her husband, Lee Slonimsk. It was published on 25th November by Bantam Press and the book is 400 pages long. Thanks to the publisher for sending me a copy for review.

Plot

Garet is young, single and lives in New York but she has a far from an easy life. Her family has major money problems, their art gallery business is struggling due to the recession and her widowed father isn’t getting any younger.

On a weirdly misty day in New York, Garet finds herself not very sure of where she is. Deciding to ask for directions in an antiques shop could be the worst decision she ever makes. When the frail old shop owner asks Garet for help in opening a silver box that has been welded shut, she can’t say no. The box has the same crest as the one of the necklace that her mother gave her.

After taking the box home, strange things begin to happen, even if they are extremely hard to notice. New York is hiding a lot but Garet is different from everyone else. Opening the box unleashes a world of chaos and now Garet is stuck right in the middle of it all.

What I thought
I hadn’t heard about this book before receiving it for review but as soon as I read the press release, I knew that it was something that would interest me. The plot summary didn’t give away too much so I was pretty much going into this one blind, not really knowing what to expect. I got a lot more than I bargained for though with a complex plot, amazing characters and a fantastic mix of evil and fantasy.

Garet was far from perfect but those imperfections were a big part of what I liked about her. She wasn’t afraid to make mistakes along the way, even though deep down she knew she probably wasn’t doing the right thing. Not all of her bad choices were good though. She had a tendency to let people in too easily, people she really didn’t know very well, and that made me question her at times. On a positive note though, Garet had a fantastic sense of humour, was witty and fiery tempered. I think a lot of this was because she was an older protagonist than most in the YA genre and at 26, she had more life experience than teenagers as well as having a lot to deal with because of her family.

There were a lot of secondary characters to keep up with but the pace between meeting them was well done and I never felt like I was being introduced to too many people at once. Garet meets a lot of interesting characters along the way and they are all completely different to each other. Two of my favourites were Will, the vampire love interest and a little fairy that was extremely cute. Will isn’t your typical vampire though and is nothing like any other I have ever read about. Yes, he is still smoking hot and so smooth I don’t think anyone could resist him but there was something else behind all of that. There was something about Will that I couldn’t quite put my finger on, which helped add to the mystery in the rest of the story. I know I said he’s a love interest but the romance doesn’t overpower the overall story like it does in other YA books. I am hoping that this gets expanded on in the other books in the trilogy though.

I loved the amount of mystery in this book. As Garet has no idea what is going on herself, it always seemed as though I was right there with her, finding everything out at the last minute. Although this frustrated me a lot at times, I also really liked it too. The way that the story is told makes it possible to believe that anyone could be the good guy and anyone could be the bad guy. Black Swan Rising kept me on my toes throughout and I liked the how the suspense was kept up.

A lot of work was put into the history of what was happening as well as mythology. Characters from Shakespeare were involved as well as some extremely well known artists. This was something that I really loved about Lesley Livingston’s Wondrous Strange so I knew immediately that I was also going to love it in this book. I really enjoyed how these kinds of things helped fuse the story with the real world while keeping the fantasy aspects at the same time. It was very interesting to see how all of the different aspects fit together to make the overall story.

Black Swan Rising did take a little while to completely get in to but once I had, I was hooked and I couldn’t put it down. It is beautifully written but what else would you expect from a best selling author and a poet writing team. I cant wait to find out what will happen to Garet next.

Crescendo - Becca Fitzpatrick

2010-12-18T00:30:00.002Z

Crescendo is the second book in the Hush, Hush series by Becca Fitzpatrick. It was released in Hardcover in the UK on 14th October 2010 by Simon and Schuster and it is 432 pages long. The paperback will be released on 2nd May 2011.

Plot

Nora’s life is far from perfect. She has a fallen angel/ guardian angel as a boyfriend and recently managed to escape being murdered. Things aren’t getting any better either. Patch, her boyfriend, is beginning to shy away from her and distance himself from the relationship. What Nora can’t figure out is why. He’s either trying to protect her from something or he’s interested in her arch enemy, Marcie.

The mystery of Nora’s fathers’ death gets more and more complicated when she begins to see visions of him. Patch isn’t answering any of her questions and she begins to doubt everything he has ever told her. Without him to rely on, Nora turns to a mysterious newcomer and an old acquaintance. Is she trusting the wrong guy or was she right all along?

What I thought
After loving so much about the first book in this series, Hush, Hush, I was dying to read Crescendo but having to wait so long for it was a complete killer. Sometimes with sequels like this, I end up feeling a bit let down but that certainly wasn’t the case with this one.

I was so happy to get back to Patch. Oh how I had missed his brooding badboyness! Although he was missing from this story quite a lot more than I would have preferred, he more than made up for it when he was actually around. Sometimes I really hate how much I love the bad boys because if I was looking down upon him and what he was doing, I would have wanted to slap him…hard. Now, I never thought I would ever say this but…I really kind of felt sorry for Nora. Not all of the time though mind you. The reason I felt sorry for her was because she truly didn’t deserve to be messed around at all.

Nora goes through a lot of changes in Crescendo but it makes me wonder if it was too many. Her character went back and forth many times in relation to how she felt about different people and what she was going to do about things. It would have been nice to see her stick with one decision or one idea for longer than five minutes. I know I sound like I’m beating down on her a little bit too much here but I think she needed more sense knocking into her. Nora is slowly growing to be quite a strong character and I think she is really going to come into her own soon and really begin to believe in how she feels and what she thinks she wants. Best friend Vee was doing a pretty good job of trying to get that done though so I have to applaud her for her consistency and her ability to kick Nora’s ass into gear at times. I’m totally Team Vee!

The story barely has time to get started when there are some quite steamy moments between Nora and Patch. I was getting myself all excited when I thought I was going to be getting a sizzling YA book. Unfortunately, the passion doesn’t last for very long and the heat simmers down very quickly. I would have loved for this excitement to have been carried on throughout the story but I realise I can’t ask for everything. Even though the passion calms down very quickly, there was more than enough to keep me happy and I understood why the story had to be this way.

New guy Scott definitely gave Patch a run for his money in the bad boy department. Scott has just moved back to town but no one really knows where he and his mum have been or why they are really back. Scott’s return brings up a lot of questions and they’re mostly ones that he isn’t willing to answer. He has some of the same characteristics as Patch; arrogance and way too sure of himself at times. The difference with these two characters is that I was always unsure of whether or not Scott was putting on an act whereas I truly believe that Patch loves himself. Knowing a little bit about Scott as a child made me think of him as cute but misunderstood, making him extremely likable. I can’t wait to find out more about Scott in book 3. He had such a large presence this time around so I keep my fingers crossed that there are more good things to come from him.

What I loved most about this book was that it was so unpredictable. Crescendo has so many plot twists and characters that are extremely mysterious and this made me feel like I never knew what was coming next. Just when I thought I knew how I could trust and what was going to happen, something completely shocking happens and I end up right back at square one again. Hush, Hush had some massive shocks but Crescendo pushes everything to the limit.

I was really happy to see more of the Nephilim history brought into the story. I do love a good background and historical information added in so this aspect of the book was perfect for me. It was so interesting to find out more about the Fallen Angels and what had been going on behind the scenes. When The Black Hand appeared, it added much more mystery and depth to the story, with many possibilities as to who he really was. Along with The Black Hand, the hints at what really happened to Nora’s Dad were fantastic and a great addition to the plot. Although quite a lot was explained, I still feel like there is a lot more to come in book 3.

Becca Fitzpatrick knows how to write a bloody good cliff-hanger. I thought the ending to Hush, Hush was pretty awesome but this cliff-hanger blew the other one out of the water. I would never have seen this ending coming in a million years and I sat staring at the book for a good while after finishing it. I was in a little bit of a state of shock I think, wondering how Becca could have done this to us all. Trust me, you will not be prepared for this ending.

Crescendo is so superior to Hush, Hush that it is quite insane. I really enjoyed the first book but was 100% in love with Crescendo. It is a rollercoaster ride of emotion, throwing you in every direction possible with a heart plummeting drop when you least expect it. I’m a bit scared of thinking about what lies in store in Tempest (book 3) if I go by this one. Becca Fitzpatrick, you amaze me!

Giveaway! Arrow by R.J. Anderson

2010-12-17T16:05:00.002Z

Thanks to the wonderful people at Orchard Books, I have 5 copies of R.J Anderson's newest novel to giveaway. Arrow is the third book in her Knife series which is due for release on 6th January. The Knife series has been a favourite of mine for a long time, and it was also the first YA series that I started reading. Below is the trailer for Arrow.

Here is the synopsis for Arrow:
Rhosmari trembled as the Empress walked over to her. ‘Oh, do not struggle. There is nowhere for you to escape,’ the Empress said, her voice silken and sweet. Then she unsheathed a small dagger from her waist. ‘This will only hurt a little...’

Rhosmari has lived her whole life on a sheltered chain of faery islands. But with the Empress's power growing, and her desire to enslave the entire faery race becoming a reality, Rhosmari knows she must fight back...

To enter, just fill in the form below. The giveaway is open to UK residents only and I will draw winners on Boxing Day. Winners have 48 hours to respond and then I will pick another winner. Good Luck!

Firelight - Sophie Jordan

2010-12-16T00:30:00.000Z

Firelight is the first book in the trilogy of the same name by Sophie Jordan and it is her debut YA novel. It was released in hardback on 7th September in the US by Harper Teen and will be published in paperback in March 2011 by OUP. The paperback is 336 pages long.

Plot
From an early age, Jacinda knew she wasn’t like other girls, not even like her twin sister. Being a draki, a descendent of dragons, Jacinda knows that her every move is being watched and not always by her own kind. Hunters are constantly trying to get rid of the draki race and Jacinda knows that one wrong move could mean a whole lot of trouble. Not really thinking before she acts, Jacinda breaks the biggest rule and puts her life in extreme danger. A danger that a strange, beautiful draki hunter saves her from. Jacinda’s mother knows what kind of punishment the ‘pride’ are planning and decides that it would be best for the whole family to move away where Jacinda can begin to be 100% human.

Struggling to adapt to her new surroundings and deny everything she has ever known, Jacinda feels dejected. Then she meets Will, one of the hottest and most elusive guys in school. Will stirs something inside her and makes her feel more alive than she ever has done before. Jacinda knows she should stay away from Will because of how he makes her feel but she just can’t help herself. Something keeps drawing her to him. Unfortunately, Will has a massive secret that could threaten everything.

What I thought
As soon as I heard about this book, I was desperate to read it. After reading so many books this year on vampires and werewolves, I was ready for a change. I had never seen a YA book about dragons/ draki before so the initial plot summery drew me in immediately. Also, the cover is stunning and I’m a sucker for things like that when shopping for books.

I loved, loved, loved the protagonist, Jacinda. Very early on in the story, she is forced to abandon everything she has ever known to move away to the desert. Her mother doesn’t want her to be draki anymore but Jacinda refuses to let who and what she really is die. She really knew herself and I loved how sure she was of what she wanted and how she wasn’t going to let anyone get in the way of that. Jacinda had a lot of tough decisions to make and was often torn picking which way that she should go in. I felt like this was a pretty real way of dealing with things. I was thinking about what I would have done in her situation and I realised how hard it would have been to try to pick between being yourself and doing what you mum told you to. I don’t know if I would have been able to make the right choice either way.

Everyone who reads my book reviews know how much I love a bad boy or a boy who shows that he could be a bad boy. For Jacinda, Will is possibly the closest to bad boy that she is ever going to be able to get close to. If there is one person that she should be staying away from, then it should be him. I really enjoyed the twist on him, his family and made him different from everyone else. Upon meeting him early on in the book, I instantly knew that I was going to like him and that feeling didn’t go away throughout. It was made clear that Will had plenty of secrets and I thought that they were revealed at well paced intervals. I also liked how clear he was about his feelings towards Jacinda. He knew straight away that they shouldn’t be together and even warned her against coming near him but you know how things go in these books, the guy and the girl will nearly always end up together no matter what.

Secondary characters Cassian and Jacinda’s twin sister Tamra were just as fantastic. There was something about Cassian that I couldn’t quite put my finger on and I was never quite sure whether or not he had Jacinda’s best interests at heart. On one hand, I wanted to believe that he really did like her but then I also thought that he was just doing what the pride was telling him to. Tamra was interesting because she was the complete opposite to Jacinda in so many ways. Where Jacinda wanted to shy away and hide, Tamra wanted to excel at school and have a normal life for once. Although me and my sister are not twins, I could similarities to our own relationship.

Sophie Jordan completely transported me into the world of the draki straight from chapter one. I found it really interesting to see a mix of traditional dragon lore mixed in with this new draki race which I had never heard anything about. I loved finding out about why draki were so connected to the earth and why they did certain other things. A lot of effort and detail was clearly put into the origins of this story and race and that was plain to see in the writing. As Jacinda and her family move quite early in the story, not much time is spent with the pride. I would love to know more about how they operate and how their hierarchy system works. Maybe this will be something that will be explored in further books in the trilogy.

Firelight left me at a fantastic cliff-hanger and one that left me wanting a lot more. I am excited to see where Jordan will take the story next and how Jacinda, her family and Will can overcome all of the events from book one. I was slightly disappointed to see the action end quite so suddenly after it had begun but I think there is a lot more of that to come. Sophie Jordan had me hooked from page one and left me eagerly waiting for book two. If you fancy a change from the slightly overplayed vampire and werewolf novels then give this one a go.

The Eternal Ones - Kirsten Miller

2010-12-14T00:30:00.000Z

The Eternal Ones is the first book in a series by Kirsten Miller. It was published on 19th August by Puffin and the book is 416 pages long.

Plot
Haven Moore has always been different from everyone else she has ever known. At an early age, she began to talk about a place that she had never been to and a man she had never met. She has skills and talents that she never trained to learn. She also has visions of a completely different life and these visions cause her to black out. In the town where Haven lives, everyone is extremely religious and truly believe that her visions are a form of being possessed by a demon.

Haven’s visions are the result of reincarnation. The visions take Haven on a journey to New York, a place she can remember vividly to find Ethan, who now lives in the form of movie star Iain Morrow, the man from her past. Haven has to figure out who she really is and why she is so drawn to a man she has never met. Can she really trust what her heart is telling her or will she end up trusting the wrong man? One wrong move could land Haven in a serious amount of danger and a feud that has been going on for centuries.

What I thought
First off, a big thanks to Becky for giving me this book when we met at an OUP event in London. I had been dying to read it since I heard about it and had read so many good reviews for it. Even though my to be read pile is massive at the minute, I pushed this one up near the top as I had already waited a long time to read it.

Haven was such an annoying protagonist. She had me in two minds throughout the whole book. What bugged me the most about her was how indecisive she was. One minute she was completely in love with Iain and in the next, she didn’t trust him at all and went ahead to believe the worst possible things about him. Yes, she was somewhat sensible being guarded and trying to make rational decisions about what was going on around her. I did understand that she didn’t want to fully commit herself to Iain until she had answers to some serious questions and that maybe diving straight into a relationship with someone she could only half remember would have been incredibly stupid. The rationality behind her choices was what had me torn as to how I felt but in the end, the constant changing was just too much for me.

Iain wasn’t actually in the story all that much. There wasn’t enough characterisation for me to make a decision about him one way or another. Going back to Haven’s split decisions about him, I ended up feeling the same way. I didn’t get to see enough of him on his own or with Haven for me to choose between him being the good guy or him being a complete liar and a creep. If I do read the next book in this series, I hope that he will feature a lot more so that I can find out what kind of a man he really is. I get the feeling that he is really the good guy but I fail to see proof of this as of yet.

Considering Haven had been thinking about Ethan/ Iain for most of her life, the passion that should have been there wasn’t. There were a few moments where Kirsten Miller got my hopes up for something special but they were quickly squished and everything went back to being bland again. I think for me, a tale of a never-ending relationship, a tale of a love that will last forever should be passionate and exciting, especially if you can’t remember all of the details of the past. This may be something that is expanded upon in future books but for The Eternal Ones, this department was extremely lacking.

The beginning of the story was drawn out too much for my liking. It is nice to know about a protagonist’s history and their life, giving the opportunity to really get to know them but in Haven’s case, this wasn’t exactly what happened. A lot of the beginning of the book is about Haven’s visions and the people of the town in which she lives. There is a lot about religion here and this was part of the reason why I didn’t like it. I don’t think that this much time was needed to explain that everyone thought Haven was possessed by a demon. The time could have been put to a much better use by sending Haven to New York earlier and to have seen her have more time with Iain.

Something that I did really enjoy was learning about The Ouroboros Society, a society that helps people like Haven, people who have experienced reincarnation. There is a quite a lot of the history of the society explained and getting to learn about its past and present members was one of my favourite aspects of the book. A lot was covered about The Ouroboros Society and while I loved these parts, again, I think the time could have been put to better use. I always think that the first book in a series should be about setting the scene for the characters and really getting to know them, rather than focus on something else and end up not caring about the people you should.

Unfortunately, there just wasn’t enough in this book for me to love. There were hints that it could be fantastic but most of it wasn’t original enough or believable enough, especially in the romance department. If I happen to acquire the sequel when it comes out, I will read it in the hopes that the story and characters get better but I wont be rushing out to buy it. Although there was a lot that I hated about this book, there were also things that I really loved so I'm putting it in Purgatory.

Guest review - The Lost Hero

2010-12-13T00:30:00.000Z

Today I have a guest review from a fellow blogger. When Darryl asked about having a guest review on my site, I was excited to be able to post something different and to read something from a male point of view. You can find Darryl's details and how to find him at the bottom of the review.

The Lost Hero by Rick Riordan was published by Puffin and available from all good book stores. The hardcover edition is 560 pages in length and was released on the 12th of October 2010.

Here it is, the eagerly anticipated sequel to the Percy Jackson and Olympians series by Rick Riordan. That series was HUGE (just forget about the unspeakable movie adaptation) and I have been waiting for this for months after working my way through the entire Percy Jackson series in about a month and a half. Probably, the only good aspect of a coming to a series is late is getting to wolf down all the instalments with little to no waiting.

Plot
As the story of a new hero opens, all is not well at Camp Half Blood. Percy has disappeared without a trace and things just seem to be getting worse all around with the repercussions of the last Titan war still being felt by the campers. Three new Demi-gods are ‘discovered’ but one has a past so mysterious even he can’t remember it. These three Demi-gods Jason, Piper and Leo are quickly catapulted off on their first quest, reeling from the knowledge that Jason, who was supposed to be Piper’s boyfriend and Leo’s best friend, is in fact a total stranger to them and their memories were created by the Mist (a special magic that prevents mortals from seeing monsters and other magical phenomenon).

As the quest continues, it appears that there is a secret that threatens the future of all Demi-gods and the world alike. Will the heroes stay alive long enough to figure out this secret, will Jason retrieve his memories, will Leo and Piper exorcise the demons of their past all will be revealed in the Lost Hero?

What I thought
The book was quite a read. Let me first go on record as saying I am a huge fan of the initial Percy Jackson series so this book probably didn’t have far to go to impress me. It surpassed by expectations though as an exciting read and expanded upon a universe that I already loved. This book also adopts the perspective of the three main characters, each taking two chapters in a row. I have noticed a lot of series adopting this approach, allowing you to properly delve into the mind of the characters. The Twilight series did this although it was only in one book of the series.

At first this new approach annoyed me as I expected this series to be the same as the Percy Jackson series it followed on from. I then realised that there is no point in standing still and I now appreciate that Riordan wanted to pull out all the stops and make this series unique and for it to offer something more than say, just another adventure from the first series.

The story is as intricate as those usually in the Olympians series but as always, you the reader, will make the connections a little before the characters themselves. There is an underlying secret that makes this series unique, which took me half the book before to figured out but you might do it sooner.

Jason Grace
The leader of the quest and struggling to deal with his amnesia and his destiny. I liked him but found him very different to Percy Jackson, which is reflected in their circumstances perhaps. You can tell that he does not want to be the man with that much responsibility but that he is prepared to do so for the sake of his friends. As his own back-story gets some light shed on it, you understand the trials that he has gone through and begin to see that he and Percy Jackson are similar characters.

Piper McLean
A girl with a rebellious streak and a need to constantly seek her father’s attention. The trauma of the disappearance of Piper’s godly mother has left its mark on both Piper and her father. I was also interested by her and her father’s struggle with their racial identity it was not something you expect in a YA novel.

Leo Valdez
At first I was very worried that Leo came across as the stereotypical Latin American but the character grew in my estimation as more and more chapters were devoted to the telling of his story and his truly tragic past. Both Leo and Piper also serve to show us the reader that not all of the demigods of a particular parent are the same which sometimes seemed to be the case in the original series it is nice to step away from the idea of stereotypical children of Hephaestus or Aphrodite.

So to sum up I highly recommend this book and the series it starts with one provision. Reading this before reading the Percy Jackson and the Olympians would be a very bad idea as this series assumes that you have knowledge of the previous series and makes too many references back.

My name is Darryl and I have a blog at http://shaftsword.blogspot.com/

Where I discuss US TV, books, anime and manga and a whole lot of talk around World of Warcraft. You can also follow my ramblings @shaftsword on Twitter.

Last Sacrifice (VA #6) - Richelle Mead

2010-12-11T00:30:00.001Z

Last Sacrifice is the sixth and final book in the Vampire Academy series by Richelle Mead. It was published on 7th December 2010 by Puffin and is 608 pages long. Thanks to the publisher for sending me a copy for review.

Plot
After being wrongfully accused of treason and awaiting execution, Rose Hathaway needs a plan. Luckily, her friends have come up with one to bust her out of jail. Rose and Dimitri face a life on the run if they cant solve the mystery of who really killed Queen Tatiana.

Back at the Academy, a new Queen or King is about to be crowned but with Lissa thrown into the running, all hell breaks loose. Tensions are running high all over the place but among running for Queen and facing tests, Lissa must help clear her best friend of a crime she didn’t commit.

Rose, Lissa and their friends must turn to their enemies to find out the truth but what if it means not trusting the people you love anymore?

What I thought
So after reading the first five books in this series is quite a short period of time, I was extremely eager to get my hands on the final book, Last Sacrifice. I couldn’t wait to see where Richelle Mead was going to take the story and how she would end a bestselling series.

In each book of this series, Rose grows a lot and Last Sacrifice is no exception. Being accused of murder is a big deal to Rose and she knows that getting out of the situation is near impossible. Although she doesn’t actually spend too much time in her cell, it does give her a lot of time to think about her life and what she has been through so far, as well as the people around her who she loves. Also, her time spent away from the Academy while she is on the run gives Rose a lot of time to deal with her feelings for both Dimitri and Adrian although I can’t say that I was completely happy with the outcome of this part of the story. I understand why Mead wrote it this way but I have to say that I was more on one team than the other and I didn’t really agree with how one character was portrayed in the end.

I was really glad to see that even though Rose and Dimitri were on the run, all of the other characters that I had grown to love were included in the story just as much. Rose’s bond with Lissa makes it possible for us to know what is happening back at Court and how Lissa’s tests to become queen are going. Rose’s friends are also trying to help clear her name for the murder of Queen Tatiana. There is a lot of mystery and action when it comes to this part of the story as no one is really sure who actually murdered the queen. One character I did find myself missing a little bit was Adrian. He has always been one of my favourites and even though he is there in the background, it just wasn’t enough for me. I wanted him to feature a lot more but unfortunately, this wasn’t to be.

There are some great new characters in Last Sacrifice although some of the more interesting ones weren’t around for too long. Rose, Dimitri and Sydney meet a group of Moroi, Dhampir’s and humans that all live together outside of society. I found it really interesting to see how differently they lived from other vampires, especially those at the Academy and those from the royal families. I guess you could compare this to Twilight and how the Cullen’s differ from all of the other non ‘vegetarian’ vampires out there. That was a part of Twilight that I loved so it was only right that it was a part of Vampire Academy that I loved as well.

One of the best things about this whole series, apart from the amazing love story, is the friendship between Rose and Lissa. No matter what happens, these two girls stick by each other. Vampire Academy is a fantastic tale of a friendship that will withstand anything and I think this is a really important aspect of it all. As much as I like my YA books filled with romance, it is also really nice to see that a girl wont instantly drop her friends once she falls in love. I think that with this, Mead shows a good message for all readers.

As with the other books in this series, Last Sacrifice is action packed and I always felt like something totally unexpected could happen next. The story is intense for both plot and romance and although I really liked most of it, it still wasn’t my favourite book in the series. I was glad that so many questions were answered and nothing was really left unfinished. There is going to be a spin off series that focuses on some of the secondary characters and I know I will be buying the first book as soon as it is released. Vampire Academy is a fantastic series and I am only sad that it took me so long to get around to reading it.

Spirit Bound (VA #5) - Richelle Mead

2010-12-10T00:30:00.000Z

Spirit Bound is the fifth book in the Vampire Academy series by Richelle Mead. It was published on 26th May 2009 by Puffin and is 336 pages long. Thanks to the publisher for sending me a copy for review.

Plot
After Rose Hathaway’s adventure to Siberia, she has finally made it back to what should be the safety of St Vladimir’s Academy and best friend, Lissa Dragomir. Graduation time is fast approaching and even though Rose is unsure of whether or not she can actually finish school, she is looking forward to life in the real world. Before she can even begin to think of what she will do next, there is one massive thing that she must deal with. Dimitri.

After finally tracking down Dimitri and being given a choice, Rose now has to face the fact that he is far from dead and now stalking her, with the promise of finishing off what he started. What Rose learnt while being in Siberia could help her a lot but the choice she has to make first is whether or not true love is worth the risk? What is Rose willing to risk in order to be with Dimitri again?

What I thought
Rose grows more and more throughout each book in this series and in Spirit Bound, she did so even more. Not only does Rose have a lot to go through physically, she also has to deal with a lot emotionally. Probably more than she has ever has in the past and that is saying a lot, considering what she has been through already. She is still the kick ass girl that I loved to begin with but she also isn’t afraid to put herself out there for the people she loves. I really enjoyed watching Rose decide how she was going to approach her problems and what she thought were the right solutions. I didn’t always agree with her choices but I could certainly see why she did some of the things that she did.

My opinion of Lissa has completely changed after reading this book. I really thought that she was quite selfish before and being as she is a Princess, I guess some could say that she is entitled to act that way. I’ve always thought that she put herself before Rose all of the time and never really did anything to prove to me how much of a friend she really was. However, Lissa really proved herself as a best friend and showed just how much she was prepared to do in order to look after Rose and to help her be happy.

I really liked Adrian as soon as he made his first appearance in the series but I grew to love him so much more in this book. He has grown so much and maybe a big part of that was Rose leaving to go to Siberia, leaving him to think about what he really wants. I did kind of love his cockiness before but I was also glad to see that being tamed down a little bit and to now see a softer side to him.

Who could resist Dimitri? He was once a strong, powerful guardian and is now an even stronger, meaner Strigoi. Everyone who regularly reads my reviews will know just how much I love a bad boy so the moment I found out he had turned Strigoi, my heart kind of skipped a couple of beats. I instantly had ideas about how bad he was going to get and I wasn’t wrong. Maybe that is why I loved Blood Promise so much. Although he doesn’t feature too much in this book, a large amount of the story revolves around him. I’m still unsure if I liked the way that things turned out but I am looking forward to finding out what happens to him next.

I LOVED the cliff-hanger at the end. Although it probably wasn’t the best of the series, it was still shocking enough to make me want the next book immediately. Luckily, I didn’t have too long to wait before I got it, unlike a lot of people who would have read this book months ago. There were so many questions that I wanted the answers to and I wanted to know what was going to happen to all of the characters, not just Rose. Normally in a series, I don’t really care that much about everyone but as well as Rose and Dimitri; Lissa, Adrian and Christian have a lot going on and a lot that could happen to them and I wanted to know their stories just as much as Rose’s.

Spirit Bound was not my favourite book in the series but I did really like where the story was going, in the lead up to the final book in the series. Richelle Mead has set the scene perfectly for Last Sacrifice but in doing so, some of the fast paced scenes that I liked so much from the previous books were missing. I felt like some parts were rushed and towards the end of the book, the story slowed down massively. Even with this happening, I still enjoyed the story, just not as much as others in the series.

Blood Promise (VA #4) - Richelle Mead

2010-12-09T00:30:00.001Z

Blood Promise is the fourth book in the Vampire Academy series by Richelle Mead. It was published on 26th May 2009 by Puffin and is 336 pages long. Thanks to the publisher for sending me a copy for review.

Plot
The recent Strigoi attack on St Vladimir’s Academy was the largest and most dangerous that the school has ever seen. It forced everyone to take note of what is really happening after the deaths of students, teachers, Moroi and guardians. Facing a life worse than death is Dimitri, who was taken captive.

Rose and Dimitri promised each other a long time ago that they would both rather be dead than Strigoi so Rose knows what she must do. Forced to leave best friend Lissa, Rose takes off on a mission find Dimitri and save him from himself. Along the way, she must be the bearer of bad news when she meets Dimitri’s family and finds out that there is a lot more to life than St Vladimir’s. The biggest question of all on Rose’s mind is whether or not she will be able to do what is needed to keep her promise to Dimitri. Destroying the love of her life will be the hardest trial Rose has ever faced.

What I thought
I have to start by saying that Blood Promise is by far my favourite in the series so far. I have really, really liked each book that came before this one but if I had to give them a star rating, they would have all been 4 stars. This is a definite 5 star book.

I felt for Rose so, so much in this book. The love of her life was captured and awakened by the Strigoi and is now everything that she has been taught to hate. Even though Rose has been away from St Vladimir’s before, she had Lissa with her so this is her first time in the real world all by herself. If that wasn’t enough, she is travelling through places she has never been to and doesn’t speak the language, putting extra pressure on her mission. I really enjoyed visiting all of the different places that Rose went to and I thought that descriptions of a couple of places in particular, like Dimitri’s house, were fantastic. I could really imagine him growing up here and baking bread after his mother made him do it himself. This part of the story made it possible for me to connect with Dimitri a lot more.

Although Rose has gone off to Siberia, her friends back at the Academy haven’t been forgotten. Due to the bond that Rose and Lissa share, Rose is able to check in on everyone and find out what is going on. I would have missed finding out what Lissa was getting up to because she has been such a large part of the previous books. Another good thing about bringing in the other characters was Adrian being able to visit Rose during her dreams. I love the way that he acts, always so full of himself but he is slowly beginning to show his true colours and let the softer side of him come through.

I really enjoyed meeting Dimitri’s family and finding out where he came from. It was so nice to see that even though they had never met Rose, they instantly made her feel like one of the family, even before they realised just how much Dimitri meant to her. I think this gave Rose a lot of time to grieve and realise exactly what happened. If she had stayed at St Vladimir’s, she wouldn’t have had the chance to do this and it would have ended up doing her a lot of emotional harm. A lot of the characters that Rose met along the way were extremely interesting, especially Sydney, the Alchemist and Abe who I hope we find out more about later on. There was something about him that I just couldn’t put my finger on and I couldn’t quite decide whether he was going to turn out to be a good guy or a bad guy.

Dimitri was fantastic in Blood Promise. Obviously turning Strigoi means turning into a complete badass at the same time. As a guardian, Dimitri was hard but caring at the same time. It was clear that he cared a lot for Rose and wanted what was best for her and I really did like this side to him. On the other hand, I am a sucker for a bad boy and I don’t know if you can get much badder than a Strigoi. I was a little worried about how this was going to play out between Dimitri and Rose but I wasn’t disappointed at all. I could completely understand everything that Rose did while she was in the situation with Dimitri and I didn’t feel like it went beyond stupid at any point. The passion between the two was very believable and even though I knew what was happening was wrong, I couldn’t help but still want it to happen a little bit. During this part of the book, I felt my heart break multiple times and just when I thought everything was over, another turn would shock me.

Once again, Richelle Mead leaves us with a massive cliff-hanger. This time, the story was left quite open in terms of the possibilities for what could happen in the next book. I was pretty certain that one thing was going to happen but a lot of other things were quite vague, leaving me excited for the next instalment. I don’t think that there was anything that I disliked about this book and that is a massive reason why it is my favourite so far. There is loads of action, passion and mystery surrounded many of the characters. I hope this carries on for the last two books in the series.

Shadow Kiss (VA #3) - Richelle Mead

2010-12-08T00:30:00.001Z

Shadow Kiss is the third book in the Vampire Academy series by Richelle Mead. It was published on 26th May 2009 by Puffin and is 336 pages long. Thanks to the publisher for sending me a copy for review.

Plot
No matter how many times Rose Hathaway tells herself that it’s wrong, she can’t stop having feelings for her training instructor, Dimitri. As soon as Rose graduates from St Vladimir’s Academy and becomes a full guardian, both she and Dimitri will protect Lissa, Dragomir princess and Rose’s best friend. Lissa must always come first but if Rose and Dimitri fall in love, will that always be how it happens?

After killing her first Strigoi, Rose is quickly on her way to being an amazing guardian but she has bigger things to worry about than graduating. Lissa and Rose's sworn enemy, Victor Dashkov, is on trial for his freedom, Rose is having personal problems and is seeing ghosts. The ghosts are trying to warn her but no one else will listen. Everyone thinks that she is beginning to lose her mind. Even Dimitri doesn’t believe in ghosts. Will Rose be able to convince her friends that she isn’t crazy before it’s too late? Something bad is coming and Rose is going to have to choose between life, love and the two people who matter the most to her.

What I thought
After reading the first two books in this series, I couldn’t wait to read Shadow Kiss. After what happened in Frost Bite, I was extremely excited to see where Richelle Mead was going to take the story and what would happen to all of the characters I had quickly begun to love.

Ever since killing her first Strigoi, Rose has had some problems. She can feel a darkness surrounding her and she’s not acting like her usual self. Instead of being happy for Lissa and Christian, Rose begins to feel resentment towards them, knowing that she and Dimitri can never truly be together. She’s getting angry at the smallest things and has a hard time in controlling her temper. Also, she’s seeing ghosts. Everyone pretty much thinks that she’s insane but after seeing one particular ghost, Rose knows that they are there to help and warn her of immediate danger at St Vladimir’s. The addition of ghosts was one of the things that I liked the most about this book and a lot of thought was put into the reason why Rose was able to see them.

Rose and her other novice guardian friends go through their practical assignments, protecting a particular Moroi from surprise attacks from teachers and other guardians. I really enjoyed the twist that Mead put on this. Rose was so sure that she was going to be protecting Lissa that she was more than shocked to find out that she had to protect Christian. Everyone knows that her and Christian don’t get on very well at all so I was interested to find out how well both of them would cope. The assignment is far from easy though but not due to Rose and Christian’s feelings towards each other. I felt really sorry for Rose during this part of the book because no one would listen to her, people only added to the thoughts that she was losing her mind.

Rose has a lot going on in this book. Not only does she have to protect Christian, Adrian is still pursuing her, her mum is at the school and then there is her relationship with Dimitri. Although this could seem like too much in one book, it was done extremely well, giving enough time to each aspect. I never felt like one part overpowered another, except for maybe Rose’s relationship with Dimitri at times. Not that this was a bad thing of course. I love Dimitri so I was really happy to see their relationship finally develop and to see them happy for a while. Both Rose and Dimitri have a hard time dealing with their relationship, knowing that it is wrong and they shouldn’t be doing what they are but cant help themselves. What I like about their relationship is that even though there is so much going on, they still make time to talk and tell each other what’s been going on and how they’re feeling.

We get to see quite a lot from some of the secondary characters in Shadow Kiss. I really enjoyed seeing Christian and Rose put together for their field experience as well as getting to see a lot more of Adrian. I liked Adrian from the very beginning so it was good to see him getting a bigger part in this book. The bond that Rose and Lissa share makes it possible to see other parts of the story that wouldn’t be possible otherwise. Too many books tell a story from the perspective of multiple characters now so I think this is a great but different way to get that same effect.

I’m beginning to think that Mead is the Queen of cliff-hangers. A MASSIVE battle breaks out at St Vladimir’s and there are many losses on both sides. I certainly didn’t see this one coming and as I reached the end of the book, I felt my heart break into a million pieces. I actually cried. It takes a lot for a book to make me cry and it very rarely happens. It wasn’t just a little cry either, it was full on blubbering and not being able to see anymore because of the amount of tears. Damn you Richelle Mead for making me cry that much.

So far, Shadow Kiss has been my favourite in the series but I think that each book will just keep on getting better as the series goes on.

Frost Bite (VA #2) - Richelle Mead

2010-12-07T00:30:00.001Z

Frost Bite is the second book in the Vampire Academy series by Richelle Mead. It was published on 1st October 2009 by Puffin and is 336 pages long. Thanks to the publisher for sending me a copy for review.

Plot
After a massive Strigoi attack on the Moroi royal families, St Vladimir’s Academy is put on high alert, taking in help from notorious guardians like Janine Hathaway, Rose’s mother. The Strigoi attacks force St Vladimir’s to rethink the safety of their students and decide to make this years ski trip mandatory.

The bond Rose shares with Moroi princess best friend, Lissa, causes her to be able to see Lissa and Christian making out. A lot. Also, Rose has a huge crush on her instructor, Dimitri but one of her other best friends, Mason, has a huge crush on her. While at the ski lodge, another guy takes a keen interest in Rose. Adrian is Moroi royalty and isn’t used to not getting what he wants but is determined to do what it takes to get Rose to notice him. With all of this going on, the Strigoi attacks are just one more thing for Rose to deal with.

When a trio of students decide to take things into their own hands, Rose must join forces with Christian to stop them making a massive mistake only the mistake might actually be going after them. Both Rose’s life and heart are at risk but she sees no way to save both.

What I thought
Even though I thought that Vampire Academy was a little slow going for a while, by the time I reached the end of the book, I couldn’t wait for the second one, Frost Bite. I was so happy when books 2-5 came through the door because it meant that I could have a bit of a VA marathon.

Although I wouldn’t recommend starting with the second book in this series, Richelle Mead recaps what has happened at the beginning and throughout this book. I quite liked this aspect to begin with, thinking it was especially good if it had been a while since you had read the previous book. However, l felt as though some of the recaps went on a little too far in the main story and there were too many of them sometimes. The time could probably have been used better.

One of the things that I loved most about this book was being able to see how much Rose changed due to everything that she had to go through. As her feelings for Dimitri grow, she realises that he may be the one thing that she wont be able to have and that causes her to rethink things a bit. As well as having to deal with her feelings for Dimitri, she has to come to terms with the fact that he may not be her instructor for much longer and what impact this could have on her becoming a guardian and what will happen as soon as she graduates. I really liked the way that Rose’s guardian training came in to play a lot in Frost Bite because it really made me realise how much she has gone through to get to where she is now, after leaving the Academy for a while.

Having Rose’s mother in this book made it possible to see a completely different side to Rose. It had been made known before that her mother had never really been around for her and was quite quick to get on with her own career once Rose was born. In Frost Bite, many of Rose’s feelings that she had previously kept hidden begin to surface and this leads the way for some quite heated conversations between the two. I enjoyed these parts of the book because it meant that I got to see a different side to Rose, one where she wasn’t the girl who didn’t let anything bother her.

I was kind of glad to see that Lissa wasn’t a main feature of this book. I don’t totally dislike her but I was glad to see Rose on her own for a while and interacting with other people. It really wouldn’t be healthy for her to only have Lissa as a friend so I liked seeing her friendship with Mason grow, even if there were ulterior motives on his part. Some other characters that we get to see more of this time around are Christian and Mia. Another new addition to this book was Adrian, another royal Moroi. From his very first moment on the page, I loved him. He is so full of himself and sure of what he wants/ what he’s going to get but he also had a certain charm about him that I couldn’t resist. Adrian took an instant shine to Rose and I cant help but kind of want them to end up together. Their personalities would definitely make for an interesting relationship and I really hope that because of this, Adrian sticks around throughout the series.

I haven’t read a book that made me cry for quite a long time now but Richelle Mead has broken that now. There were a couple of times in throughout that I could feel myself welling up but I didn’t think I was actually going to cry, until I broke down and had a really good sob at one part in particular. Along with a fantastic ending, Frost Bite is an emotional ride that made me question what I thought about certain characters. I couldn’t pick up the third book in this series fast enough after putting this one down.

Vampire Academy (VA #1) - Richelle Mead

2010-12-06T00:30:00.002Z

Vampire Academy is the first book in the series of the same name by Richelle Mead. It was published on 26th May 2009 by Puffin and is 336 pages long. Thanks to the publisher for sending me a copy for review.

Plot
Hidden away, St Vladimir’s Academy is unlike other boarding schools. It’s a boarding school/ training school for vampires and half-human teens. Rose and Lissa, a Dhampir guardian and a Moroi Princess, managed to escape the Academy though and have been on the run for a while. That was until some big looking guy turned up and forced them to go back.

Back at the Academy, Rose and Lissa don’t feel like they fit in as well as they used to. Things have changed dramatically since they left and it seems like everyone is keeping secrets, including themselves. Caught up in romances, an ever changing social scene and a lot of intense training with a hot Russian guardian, Rose has he work cut out for her is she is going to keep Lissa safe from the most dangerous vampires around… the Strigoi.

What I thought
I do love a good Vampire series and a lot of people know that The Morganville Vampires by Rachel Caine is my favourite. I had put off reading anything in this series for a long time as I thought another quite long vampire series may be too much for me. I was also a bit worried that it wouldn’t be different enough to other books in the YA genre. I really had nothing to worry about though and now I wish I had picked it up a lot sooner.

I really liked Rose from the very beginning. As the story is told from her point of view, I got to find out so much about her and her personality. She’s a very feisty and fiery character even though she can be really fragile at times as well. I loved how she made herself seem invincible to everyone around her apart from Lissa. Due to the bond they share, it seemed to me like Lissa was the one person that she could truly be herself around and the one person who she would really let it. Although Rose did flit in-between different parts of her personality, I thought this was extremely well done. There were times when she acted very mature for her age but then other times when she realised that she was quite childish and petty around her peers. There were also times when she made it clear that she would do anything for Lissa, not only because that is her job as a guardian, but also because she is her best friend.

So onto the guys in this book. There were certainly plenty of talent to pick from and I found myself quite torn all of the time.

Dimitri - To be totally honest, I really didn’t like Dimitri at first. He was far too much of a soldier for my liking, being very stiff and boring for a large chunk of the book. Then I saw him soften up. Slowly, he begun to crack, little by little, and I started to see a different side to him. I completely understood why he acted the way he did towards Rose and that was one of the reasons that made me warm to him. Also, there are events towards the end of the book that completely changed my mind about him from slightly liking him, to loving him completely.

Mason - It was obvious from the start that Mason liked Rose. I felt quite sorry for him throughout the book though as it was made very clear that Rose just wasn’t into him in the same way. He was very sweet and obviously cared about Rose a lot as a friend as well as anything else. He’s the kind of guy that would probably do anything for her, no matter what the trouble. I’m not usually into the nice guys but I think I would have made an exception for Mason.

Christian - I love myself a bad boy and it seems as though they probably couldn’t get any more dangerous than Christian. He was a very interesting character because no one in the Academy really knew anything about him. Their was always an air of mystery surrounding him and I couldn’t figure out for a while whether I thought he was going to be good or bad for Lissa.

When it came to the different kinds of students at St Vladimir’s, I thought that I was going to get confused. Luckily, everything is explained extremely clearly and I found that I had quickly grasped who was who and what was going on. Rose is Dhampir which is half human and half Moroi. Lissa is Moroi which is a born, mortal vampire while Strigoi are immortal vampires who are extremely dangerous and violent. I also like knowing the history of a race when it comes to books like this so knowing who everyone was and why everyone didn’t/ couldn’t leave together peacefully was a big bonus for me. In many vampire books, drinking each others’ blood usually seems to be a big deal in a sexual way. In Vampire Academy, this is still a big deal but it is also used as a means to survival. I thought the distinction between the two was very clear and well explained.

For once, I wasn’t left with a massive cliff-hanger. Although some things have been left open for the second book in the series, a lot was wrapped up nicely and I didn’t feel frustrated like I usually do. The ending also wasn’t completely predictable. Sometimes, I feel like I can guess what is going to happen next but with this series, I feel like anything could happen and that Rose isn’t in for an easy time at all. I really wish that I had picked up this series as it is so much better than I first thought it would be. Vampire Academy has a darkness and tension that a lot of books in this genre don’t have, which sets it apart from everything else. This may be the first of Richelle Mead’s books that I have read but it certainly wont be the last.

Ghost Town - Rachel Caine

2010-12-04T00:30:00.000Z

Ghost Town is the ninth book in The Morganville Vampires series by Rachel Caine. It was published on 4th November by Alison and Busby. The book is 479 pages long and the UK version has an exclusive short story. I won this book in a blog giveaway.

Plot
After being allowed on a little trip out of Morganville, Claire Danvers and her friends finally start to feel like things are starting to look a little more like normal. As normal as things can look in Morganville anyway. Unfortunately for Claire, she finds herself right in the middle of a terrible situation and ultimately has to decide on taking a punishment herself of making her friends do it in her place.

Claire being the type of girl that she is, decides to take the punishment herself. Amelie forces Claire to work without sleep or rest until the town’s defence system is repaired. Even though Claire works until she hit’s the state of complete exhaustion, the defence system is up and running again, leaving her to get back to her friends. Upon leaving Myrnin’s lab and back into Morganville, Claire begins to think that everything is not quite right. People are losing their memories, going as far back as the past three years. As Claire starts to notice this happening more and more, she realises that anyone can be affected, including the vampires. Claire must figure out a way of restoring the town’s defence system before she forgets how to do it!

What I thought
I am a massive Morganville Vampires fan and would probably say that this is my favourite vampire series overall. A while back, I managed to buy the first eight books in the series on a 3 for £5 offer but as soon as I had finished Kiss of Death (#8), I was desperate for the next instalment. Ghost Town has probably been my most anticipated book of the year so far so I was so excited when I found out that I had won a copy.

I felt quite sorry for Claire this time around, more so than usual. The poor girl has been through so much and I’m really beginning to wonder how much more of it she can take. Just the thought of her all alone in Morganville if everyone around her forgot who she was made me sad. I didn’t want Claire to have to deal with everything on her own again or to be left working for an insane vampire. She really showed her maturity and level headedness when it came to the situation she had been put in. I love this side to Claire just as much as I like the side of her that wants to kick ass. As a character, Claire really goes through some big changes in Ghost Town due to how the story works out.

Myrnin has been one of my favourite characters since he made his first appearance in this series. One of the things that I loved about him this time was getting to see how he was before meeting Claire. It has been stated in previous books that he wasn’t always as sane (even though he isn’t completely sane at all) as he is now. Myrnin had quite a terrible past and was what most people would think of when the topic of vampires is brought up. I love how schizophrenic his character is normally and when the memory loss factor was added in, he just ended up being completely insane. I loved seeing how different the old Myrnin was compared to the current Myrnin and how his life/ personality had changed over the short space of three years.

Rachel Caine wastes no time in getting straight back into the story, picking up from where Kiss of Death left off. With a lot of big series, I have had to re read the latest book before reading the newest one so that I know what is going on. Even though it has been a couple of months since reading the previous books in this series, it all came flooding back to me very quickly and there was never a point where I had to think back and remember what had happened. There were little reminders throughout though as to what happened in a couple of the previous books so this will be a nice reminder for people who can’t totally remember everything. What I liked most about the story was never being able to decide on who was going to lose their memories next. It really could have been anyone and I liked the element of surprise here.

Ghost Town was a fabulous read and certainly worth the wait. Even though it isn’t my favourite book of the series, it did come extremely close. Obviously, if you haven’t read any of the previous Morganville books, you really wont know what is happening if you start with this one. The tenth book in the series wont be out for a long time yet but I know that it will be one that I will be buying on release day.

Shadowland - Alyson Noel

2010-12-03T01:00:00.000Z

Shadowland is the third book in the Immortals series by Alyson Noel. It was released in the UK on 1st July 2010 by Macmillan Children's Books and it is 368 pages long.

Plot

Ever and Damen have lived many lives together but Damen is the only one who has lived through them all. In each life, Ever has always died, leaving Damen waiting around until she is born again, believing that they are destined to be together. Now, Ever is an Immortal just like Damen and they finally have the chance of being together forever. Just when they think they are going to get their happily ever after, Damen is cursed and unable to touch Ever in any way…or he will die.

Shadowland sees Ever and Damen struggle with past choices and what the future could hold for them. When forced to get a job by her Aunt, Ever finds herself working in Mystics and Moonbeams with Jude, a seriously hot surfer. As they spend more time together, Ever has the strange feeling that she has met Jude before, but where? As they spend more time together, Ever realises that she and Jude share a lot of similarities. Jude may be the one who can help her find what she needs to save her relationship with Damen but also the one who could break it. Is Damen really her destiny?

What I thought
In the previous two book in this series, I quite liked Ever but now I’m not so sure. I felt quite disappointed with her for many reasons this time around and unfortunately, she has turned into one of those female protagonists that I just want to slap. I understood that she’s under a lot of pressure to fix her relationship with Damen and un-do the damage that was caused in Blue Moon but why doesn’t she listen to anyone? Damen has been around a long time and knows what he is talking about and then there is Romy and Rayne. They were witches and if Ever was going to listen to anyone about using magyck then it was going to be them, but she didn’t. She chose to ignore everything that they told her and did what she wanted to, not really thinking about the consequences. I think maybe I’m putting myself into her situation a little too much here and thinking about what I would do but if she really wanted to save her relationship then I would have thought that she would pay attention to the people with more experience.

I really, really hope that we get to see a lot more of Jude in the next book. I can see why the girls (and Miles) were so interested in him. Shadowland ended with a huge mystery surrounding Jude and I cant wait to find out what he is really all about. I feel as though Shadowland only barely scraped the surface of what is going on with him and the connection he has with Ever and I hope to see this expanded on. It was nice to see Ever have someone that she could talk to about her abilities, apart from Damen, even if she was cautious to begin with.

A big part of the story that I did really like though was Damen realising his mistakes for the past 600 years. A big theme in this book is people realising the consequences for the actions and decisions they make through life and this hits Damen like a brick to the head. After what happened with Roman, he realises that he has been far from a Saint and needs to do something to fix his Karma. I don’t know if I completely agree with the way that he did things but at least he tried. In this respect, I liked Damen in this book but there were also things that he did that annoyed the hell out of me. I didn’t agree with the way that he dealt with Jude being around. With all of the problems going on with him and Ever, he decides to leave her to fend for herself and knowing that there is a good chance that she will make some awful decisions. You aren’t the completely good guy that I thought you were Damen!

I really enjoyed the involvement of magyck in Shadowland. It was clear that Roman wasn’t going to help Ever and Damen at all so there had to be another way around the problem and this was the perfect solution. Although it may seem like the obvious choice, I thought it was a great way to bring the story back to some of the characters we have met previously. Two of these were Romy and Rayne who I loved from Blue Moon. These teenage twins added comedy to a quite serious story which broke it up nicely.

My main problem with Shadowland is that I didn’t get any closure concerning anything that had happened in the previous two books. Nothing was resolved in any way. Instead of working through some of the things that are already happening in the story, more mystery and drama was added. I think I would have been happy if just one thing had been solved. I will be sticking this series out as I think it has real potential to be everything that I want it to be in the next book. I hope that the characters go through some personal development in the next instalment and Ever finally realises that she doesn’t know everything and that she isn’t always wise in her choices. I far from hated this book but I didn’t love it as much as I did Evermore and Blue Moon.

Waiting on Wednesday (#24)

2010-12-01T00:30:00.001Z

"Waiting On Wednesday" is a weekly event, hosted by Breaking the Spine that spotlights upcoming releases that we're eagerly anticipating.

Ghost of a Chance - Rhiannon Lassiter

Publisher: OUP

Release Date: January 2011

Synopsis:

Last Chance . . . 'You know that girl, the one in my class? The one that died. She lived here.' Lost Chance . . . 'You're dead, Eva Chance. You died and nobody noticed. You died and nobody cared.' No more Chances left . . . They said it was suicide, but Eva knows she was murdered. Now she inhabits a sinister spirit world along with the tortured and malevolent ghosts of her ancestral home. Solving the crime could end her existence - but if the killer isn't found how many more will die?

After the OUP I went to and heard Rhiannon read from her book, I knew it instantly that it was one that I wanted to read. OUP have some fantastic sounding books coming out next year!

The Replacement - Brenna Yovanoff

2010-11-29T00:30:00.000Z

The Replacement is a debut novel by Brenna Yovanoff. It will be published by Simon and Schuster in the UK on 6th January 2011 and it is 384 pages long.

Plot
In the small town of Gentry, everything is not as it seems. Human babies are taken from their cribs and a Replacement is left in it’s place. Mackie Doyle is a Replacement, a faerie baby who was swapped sixteen years ago. Mackie has been getting sicker and sicker as each day goes by, not realising that his allergies to iron, blood and consecrated ground are slowly killing him in the human world.

All Mackie has ever wanted was to live a normal life, to not have to be careful of every move he makes. When Mackie’s crush, Tate’s little sister is swapped, he knows he has to help her but doesn’t want to give away his secret. He’s tried so hard to keep to himself all of these years but he doesn’t want the bad things to keep happening. The only way to get Tate’s sister back is for Mackie to venture into the underworld of Gentry known as Mayhem. The world in which he came is far from the life he knows and there are far worse things down there than he could have ever imagined.

What I thought
As soon as I heard about this book, I desperately wanted to read it. The idea of human babies being swapped with faerie babies really intrigued me even though it creeped me out at the same time. Once I got into the story and realised that the whole town really knew what was going on, but said nothing, I was creeped out even more. I was sat there wondering why anyone would let this happen or why they even stayed in that town. If that had been me, knowing what was happening, I would like to think that I would have been out of there as fast as my feet could carry me. The Replacement doesn’t explain everything that is going on or the reasons behind everything but I thought that it added to the mystery and eeriness of the story.

As much as I loved this book, I would have liked to have seen some bigger plot twists. I felt like as the story got into full swing, there was too much that was predictable. I didn’t really have much to guess at and there was a lot that was very obvious. The ending was also predictable but as far as I am aware, this is a stand alone novel so in that respect, everything was wrapped up quite nicely. The story itself though was exciting and very different from anything else I have read. It is most definitely original and unlike anything in the market at the minute.

The fey in this story are far from cute faeries with pretty wings. Think as opposite of that as you can get and you might be in the right place. The creatures underground and downright disgusting and scary. I would hate to be close to any of them. Although there are descriptions to some extent, no one is fully described and a lot is left to the imagination. This was really clever and gives the reader the chance to imagine their worst nightmares in these creatures along with what Brenna Yovanoff gives us. This was one of the biggest reasons why I found this book so scary and eerie. The kind of things that I were imagining were like those creatures in Pan’s Labyrinth. You wouldn’t want to see anything like that walking down the street would you?

Mackie was a really interesting main character. In many ways, he was just like any other teenager at his school, liking girls and wanting to go to parties. In other ways though, he is the complete opposite. He isn’t even the same race as everyone else. I could really sympathise towards him to begin with, realising how much he just wanted to live like everyone else and have a normal life. He did come across as extremely weak though at times but that was mostly down to his allergies and not being able to go to certain places. His character grew stronger as the story went on and I liked seeing how he developed into more of his own person, once he had truly come to terms with what was happening around him.

Emma, Mackie’s sister and his best friend, Roswell were amazing characters. I loved seeing how they didn’t judge him for being different and they didn’t give him any hassle over it. In fact, they were very much the opposite. Emma loved him unconditionally and would do anything for him. Roswell has got to be the best friend that anyone could possibly ever have. Even though he never acknowledged out loud that he knew what Mackie was, he was always there when he needed help and went to a lot of trouble to make sure he was ok. It was really nice seeing an outsider have such good relationships, even though they weren’t expected.

Brenna Yovanoff’s debut was hauntingly beautiful and I loved every single word. It was so much darker than I had expected it to be and I found myself with chills as I was reading it. I’ve read a lot of amazing debuts this year but The Replacement is right up there with the best of them!

The Body Finder - Kimberly Derting

2010-11-27T00:30:00.000Z

The Body Finder is the debut novel by Kimberly Derting. It was published on 11th November 2010 in the UK by Headline and it is 336 pages long. Thanks to the publisher for sending me a copy for review.

Plot
Violet Ambrose has been different from other girls since she was a child. When she was 8 years old, she discovered that she has the ability to sense the dead, whether it be in the form of taste, sound or smell. Violet can’t sense everyone that is dead though, only people or animals that have had their lives taken from them and she can also gets the same kind of sense from murderers.

After her first experience with a dead body, Violet could only really sense small animals that had been the prey of something else but her senses are getting stronger. As young girls begin to turn up dead in Violet’s town, she can’t help but have heightened senses, leading her to find more and more bodies. A murderer is on the loose and Violet may be the only one that can help the police. She knows that she has to use her gift for good but best friend Jay has a thing or two to say about it.

Jay is one of the very few people that know about Violet’s gift but her newfound romantic feelings towards him leave her feeling alone and unable to turn to him for help. Trying to catch a killer could lose Violet not only her best friend but her life.

What I thought
The Body Finder is so different from anything else around at the minute and it was refreshing to not read about supernatural beings like vampires and werewolves (although I do still love them). Even though I loved the sound of the plot before reading the book, I wasn’t sure if I was going to like the whole crime/ murder mystery side to it. Because of this book, I would now happily give anything along these lines a go now and give them more of a chance to begin with.

The story was fast paced from the start and that never stopped. There was always something happening, whether it be from Violet’s POV or from the killers’. I sometimes get a little bored with stories from multiple POV’s but not this time. I really liked the fact that we get to see into the mind of the murderer and what having this did to the story. Whenever the POV changed, the story went into a much deeper and creepier place which really made me skin crawl (in the best way possible) at times. Where some YA books are extremely predictable, this one wasn’t at all and there were plenty of twists to keep me entertained and guessing throughout.

Kimberly Derting gave Violet such a hard ability to deal with alongside wanting to be a normal teenager and I felt that this gave her character a lot of depth. High School has to be hard enough without having the added pressure of helping the police with a massive investigation and young girls going missing left, right and centre. Violet was extremely brave, making the decision to help the police and do something good. I guess most girls in her position would have run a mile and stayed well away so I applaud her for doing what she did. Violet was also really likable and real. I loved how she had a massive fight with her unruly and frizzy curls every morning and I loved how she felt about Jay but was too scared to say anything. There were so many parts of her character that I could relate to which made me want to give her a big hug at many different times.

I really enjoyed getting to learn about Violet and Jay’s friendship and some of the things that they had been through together over so many years. Their friendship was something that I would have loved to have had for myself. I did have a couple of problems with the way that Jay reacted at times but maybe I can just put that to guys being stupid/ frustration/ hormones or something. There were also times where I just wanted to slap the both of them and tell them to open their eyes a little bit.

I really, really hate to say it but I didn’t love Jay. It wasn’t that he isn’t a fantastic and lovely character, because he was, he just wasn’t one of my book crushes. A lot of people had really hyped him up to me and maybe this was part of the problem. Most of what I didn’t like was the fact that he was so nice! I know how strange that sounds but I guess I’m just more into guys with a bit of bad in them. Even though I didn’t love him in a crazy crush kind of way, I did really like his character. He was very sweet and loyal when it came to Violet, truly being an amazing best friend. I guess it was obvious what was going to happen in the romance department but I didn’t mind that at all. I would have been extremely upset if it hadn’t have happened.

The Body Finder is a fantastic debut and I can’t wait to find out what happens next in the sequel, Desires of the Dead, due for release in March 2011.

The Dead of Winter - Chris Priestley

2010-11-26T00:30:00.002Z

The Dead of Winter by Chris Priestley was published in hardback by Bloomsbury on 4th October 2010. It is 224 pages long. Thanks to the publishers for sending me a copy for review.

Plot
After the death of his mother, Michael Vyner is forced to spend Christmas with a strange man he barely knows who has vowed to be his guardian. A man who saved his father’s life once. Taken away from everything that he has ever known, Michael finds himself in a very strange house in East Anglia. He knows something isn’t right when he sees a strange woman alone in the marshes on a freezing cold night. His companion for the journey puts Michael’s vision down to exhaustion and grief but Michael knows what he saw was really there, even if no one else believes him.

After arriving at his new home for the season, Michael’s suspicions grow stronger. He is kept away from his new guardian, who is apparently extremely ill but none of the staff will say much about what is wrong. Forced to spend most of his time alone and with little conversation, Michael takes it upon himself to explore but he finds so much more than he bargained for.

This is Michael Vyner’s story of the events that have haunted him for the rest of his life.

What I thought
I really wasn’t sure what to expect before reading this book. I have never read a horror book before so I was quite apprehensive about what I was going to think.

Michael was a very interesting character because you never really know that much about him. At the beginning of the story, his mother has just died and we soon find out that his father is also dead. Even though his past is explained somewhat, nothing about Michael’s character or personality is explained. I really didn’t mind this though as it added to the mystery of the story. It was very strange that nothing much is ever revealed about him. Instead, the story focuses more on the house and its residents rather than someone’s personality which doesn’t make a difference to the plot.

I found this book a little hard to get into as it is unlike anything else I have read before and it is quite slow starting. There is a fair amount of build up to the time when Michael finally goes to Hawton Mere, the house in the countryside. As soon as Michael’s story began to unravel and the eeriness of the house became apparent, I was hooked. The first strange happening is Michael seeing a woman in the moors on a freezing cold night but no one else sees her. I instantly began thinking was she a spirit or was she just a figment of his imagination?

As the story continues, it gets even stranger. There is a lot happening around Hawton Mere but it only seems like Michael is the one experiencing it. The world that Chris Priestley created was so vivid to me that I could imagine myself walking through the corridors or being sat in the dining room not speaking to anyone. The whole story is extremely descriptive, which is why I thought it was so creepy. Instead of the horror being obvious and physical, Priestley gives us the chance to use our imaginations. There are things that go bump in the night that you don’t see and a lot of other things that are unexplainable at the time. The power of suggestion is a strong thing when it comes to horror and I found this book quite scary because of that.

The whole way through reading The Dead of Winter, I was trying to put each clue together to try to figure out what the house’s big secret was. I really would never have guessed the ending on my own but as the story approached the end, I found myself remembering little details from earlier on that helped me piece everything together. I couldn’t wait to find out if my suspicions were correct and what would eventually become of Michael. The ending really ties everything up nicely and I felt like I could put this book down and be at peace with everything that had happened.

After reading this book, I will definitely be wanting to read more horror. I didn’t think I scared that easily, not when it comes to films anyway but this book actually gave me nightmares. Having the flat all to myself and reading at 1am probably wasn’t the best idea though. The Dead of Winter was thoroughly chilling and haunting. I couldn’t put it down!

Waiting on Wednesday (#23)

2010-11-24T01:00:00.002Z

"Waiting On Wednesday" is a weekly event, hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine that spotlights upcoming releases that we're eagerly anticipating.

Across The Universe - Beth Revis

UK Release Date: 11th January 2011

Publisher: Razorbill UK

Seventeen-year-old Amy joins her parents as frozen cargo aboard the vast spaceship Godspeed and expects to awaken on a new planet, three hundred years in the future. Never could she have known that her frozen slumber would come to an end fifty years too soon and that she would be thrust into the brave new world of a spaceship that lives by its own rules.

Amy quickly realizes that her awakening was no mere computer malfunction. Someone-one of the few thousand inhabitants of the spaceship-tried to kill her. And if Amy doesn't do something soon, her parents will be next.Now Amy must race to unlock Godspeed's hidden secrets. But out of her list of murder suspects, there's only one who matters: Elder, the future leader of the ship and the love she could never have seen coming.

The Hunt - Amy Meredith

2010-11-22T00:30:00.000Z

The Hunt by Amy Meredith is the second novel in the Dark Touch series. It was released on 5th August 2010 by Red Fox (RHCB) and it is 272 pages long. Thanks to the publisher for sending me a copy for review.

Plot
Eve recently found out that she is a descendant of the Deepdene Witch and she actually has powers herself. The past couple of months have been a bit crazy and hectic for Eve with being forced to try to learn how to use her power and kill a few demons on the way.

Luckily, Eve has her two best friends to help out. Jess and Luke have stuck by Eve no matter what has been thrown their way and Luke hasn’t even known her for very long. It looks as though they are going to need to stick together again as people are being mysteriously murdered and being drained of all their blood. The trio know that there can only be one explanation for what is going on…demons are back! Eve is going to have to concentrate on the task in hand instead of concentrating on how hot Luke is, or something terrible could happen.

My Thoughts
If you read my review of the first book in this series, Shadows, you will know how much I disliked mostly everything about it. When the publisher sent me a copy for review, I was a little apprehensive about reading it, thinking that it would be the same as the first book. I am really glad that I took a chance and decided to read it anyway though because I was very surprised with what I found.

One of the biggest reasons I didn’t like the first book was because of how shallow Eve and Jess were. They were teenagers pretty much let loose with credit cards and had the most insane collection of designer shoes and handbags. Thankfully, these aspects of their characters was taken out this time around. Ok, I know that they’re still the same girls but their money wasn’t flashed at me every two pages. There were hints throughout but they were a lot more subtle and I actually liked the fact that Eve and Jess still managed to be extremely girly and take care of themselves while out hunting demons.

Eve really came into her own. I found myself liking her more and more as the story went on because some little hidden characteristics began to surface. I was finding out so much about what kind of a girl Eve was and what really bothered her apart from the obvious. I liked that she still acted like a true girl, worrying about what her crush thought about her and whether he actually liked her or not. This gave Eve more of a realistic personality and one that more people will be able to relate to, rather than be all about expensive shoes. Even though I’m sure I would have loved to have been in her position in that department.

Luke also becomes a lot more interesting because he doesn’t take as much of a back seat. Last time he was overshadowed a little bit by Mal (the old love interest) so it was nice to see that he got a much bigger part in this book. I was really hoping that he and Eve got it on because it seemed as though they would make a really cute couple. Neither he or Eve are really sure about each others feelings so the awkward chemistry was good and it was interesting to see how their feelings changed and developed over time. Luke is one of the best things about these books and I cant wait to find out what happens with him next time.

The plot was quite interesting and very action packed. I loved this about The Hunt and it always seemed as though anything could happen next. There are a few twists in the plot and I certainly didn’t see the main one coming. Some parts were extremely predictable but there was enough to keep me guessing throughout. Usually I don’t like books being as short as this one because I am always left wanting more but I think this one was the perfect length. Anything longer would have felt really drawn out and written for the sake of it and to just pad it out. The Hunt is kept to the point and moves along at quite a quick pace.

One thing that I did find to be missing was the history of the Deepdene Witch. This was expanded on but there was very little information and it is something that I would have loved to have seen more of. The addition of some new demon hunters was very welcome though and although they aren’t featured too much, I think they will be something that comes up again in future books in the series. I think they would be a massive help to Eve, Luke and Jess and maybe take a bit of the responsibility off of them.

If you was like me and didn’t really like the first book, give this one a chance because it is a lot better. There was so much that I liked about the plot and the difference in the characters that restored my faith in the series as a whole.

Matched - Ally Condie

2010-11-20T00:30:00.001Z

Matched is a novel by Ally Condie which is set to be part of a trilogy. It will be published on 2nd December by Razor Bill (Imprint of Penguin) and it is 384 pages long. Thanks to the publisher for sending me an proof/ ARC for review.

Plot
Cassia Reyes lives in a world where free choice is no longer an option. The Society chooses everything for every single person. What they eat, where they work and even who you love and when you die.

Up until now, Cassia has always trusted the choices they have made and not given it a second thought. On her seventeenth birthday, the time finally comes for her to find out who her Match is. She is so happy when she sees best friend Xander pop up on the screen but her happiness doesn’t last long. The brief flash of another boy on the screen makes Cassia wonder if she can really trust the choices The Society make.

It’s rare for anyone to get Matched with someone they know but the other face on the screen was also someone Cassia knows. The problem is, Ky, the other boy, is not someone who is looked well upon by The Society. Not knowing which boy is her real Match, Cassia is torn between long time best friend Xander and Ky, the mysterious boy who doesn’t seem as though he really belongs. A choice between following her heart and following what The Society tells her will be the hardest decision Cassia will ever have to make.

What I thought
I can’t tell you how excited I was when I got the email asking if I would review this book. I had heard so many amazing things about it and the idea was something that really interested me. The basic plot itself brought out so many questions about what I would do if I were living in that kind of world. Would I just be able to accept that I was supposed to love and marry someone who had been chosen for me? What would I do if there seemed to be a choice in who I loved? Would I be able to follow my heart instead of The Society? All of this was after only reading the plot outline.

Ally Condie has built a world so complex and interesting that I couldn’t help but be caught up in it right away. It quickly becomes apparent that The Society control everything. Can you imagine being told what clothes you had to wear or what job you had to have? Each person has personalised meals sent to them, every single art form has been cut down to nearly nothing. Paintings, poems, film etc are all extremely limited now due to the actions of The Society. Being such a big lover of books and music, I felt incredibly sad that anyone would have to live in a world like this. I couldn’t pick only 100 of each if I tried. It made me wonder who exactly made these choices and why. Why would one book get chosen over another? Even though I knew instantly that I would have hated to lived in a place like this, I couldn’t wait to find out how the characters dealt with their lives and the things that they were made to do. The characters are just as fantastic as the story itself.

I liked Cassia from the start. I think some people might call her naive because of how she never questioned The Society to begin but if you had grown up only knowing a life like that, wouldn’t you be the same? She never really knew that there were any other possibilities or any other ways to live her life so I think that she was just trying to get on with thing as best she could. Cassia slowly changes throughout the story as she begins to realise what is really happening around her. I really liked the fact that her realisation about The Society wasn’t one that was like a light bulb above her head. Everything slowly clicks into place and Cassia has to work out parts of the puzzle bit by bit. It was really realistic in this aspect for me and I think that was one of the reasons why I liked Cassia so much. She was very normal in a world that was a little insane and easy to relate to.

Oh the boys! Both Xander and Ky stole my heart (I also loved both of their names). Xander is the loyal best friend who you just want to give a massive hug to. All he wants is for Cassia to be happy and that was very clear to see but there were also pangs of jealousy. Xander was so pleased when he found out that Cassia was his match and I honestly don’t think that he would have been as happy with anyone else. To find out that you are going to spend the rest of your life with a childhood friend who you clearly love already must be a fantastic feeling so when everything is threatened to be taken away, it must be heartbreaking and this is where I really felt for Xander. Again, I wanted to hug him.

As much as I loved Xander, Ky has to be my favourite and I have to say that I was routing for him from very early on. There was something different and mysterious about Ky and I think that is probably why I liked him more. I can’t say that I’m totally into nice guys so Ky offered me something a bit more out of the ordinary and somewhat dangerous. He was sweet but strong and adventurous at the same time and he had so many personality traits that I would love to find in a man. Even though he obviously wanted to be with Cassia, he was a little unsure at times, not wanting her to get into trouble. Their friendship develops at a wonderful pace and one that felt perfectly natural. Neither Cassia or Ky felt totally comfortable around each other to begin with and it took them quite a while to completely trust each other. There was always the question in the back of my mind though of whether or not Cassia was going to pick Ky over Xander. I would have been happy with either I think.

When Matched reached the end, it felt as if my heart was going to burst right out of my chest. Condie can write one hell of a cliff-hanger. So much was left unanswered, paving the way for the second book in the trilogy. The writing throughout was beautiful and very poetic at times and was an absolute joy to read. Matched really has everything you could ask for: mystery, romance, passion and adventure. It really is a love story to die for.

Blue Moon - Alyson Noel

2010-11-19T01:00:00.005Z

Blue Moon is the second book in the Immortals series by Alyson Noel. It was released on 5th March 2010 by Macmillan Children‘s Books and it is 348 pages long.

Plot
After taking up her rightful place as an immortal, Ever and Damen are enjoying the honeymoon period of being a couple out in the open. In Summerland, Damen is teaching Ever how to use her new abilities although she is easily distracted and ends up mostly being a tease. Even though the two have been in love in many different lives (in Ever's case), they have never consummated their relationship. Obviously Damen is frustrated to say the least. Not remembering the past, Ever keeps pushing Damen to tell her about the other times they were together and anyone he had been with beforehand which doesn't ease her nerves any.

Back in the real world, they both still have to go to school to make them appear as normal as possible. Ever is doing fantastic in her classes while Damen thinks that they could be spending their time doing better things. He isn't feeling too well though, which isn't good as it shouldn't happen and he seems very distracted. Just before the planned 'big night', Damen mysteriously takes off, leaving Ever stranded.

New guy at school Roman is the one left to pick up the pieces and even though Ever has had a bad feeling about him ever since he started at school. Everyone loves Roman and cant understand why Ever has taken an instant dislike to him. He offers to take her home when she's acting like a crazy woman running around with no shoes on but all Ever cares about is finding Damen. A few days pass and he is no where to be found... until he turns up at school a changed man.

Damen completely cuts Ever, not even acknowledging that he has ever known her and she cannot understand what is going on. Will she be able to figure everything about before she runs out of the special red drink and loses her man for good?

What I thought
After absolutely loving the first book in this series I couldn't wait for the sequel to come out but after finishing it, I was left with mixed feelings. As this is going to be a series with a total of six books, I'm hoping that the next one will be just as good as the first, if not better.

For two thirds of this story, the things that happened to Ever made me want to cry and I felt so, so bad for her but when it comes to Miles and Haven, I think she had it coming. As soon as Damen turned up, she practically forgot about her real friends and slowly saw them less and less so their reactions were very real to me. I really like that Ever has a past (not the one with Damen) and that she never reverts back to being the popular girl that she once was. If anything, she chooses to be an outcast more than ever in this book. As soon as things start to happen, she goes back to wearing hoodies and constantly listening to her I-Pod, shutting her out more and more. I loved that Noel made Ever far from perfect because it makes her someone that is easier to relate to. All teenage girls have boy problems, especially when it comes to spending time with either them or their friends. As much as I felt for her for the most part, I wanted to slap her towards the end. She turned out to be a complete idiot. When it came to making an important choice, she didn't do it wisely. It made me question her whole character and why she suddenly changed.

I loved, loved, loved Damen in the Evermore but not so much in this one. Noel makes him out to be horrible and not the perfect boyfriend we all thought he was and he is written so well in context that it was totally believable. The car park scene alone made me hate him for what he did to Ever. I know if I was her then I would have cried my eyes out at the thought of being rejected at the last minute. Damen was beyond mean to Ever and I was surprised that she lasted at school as long as she did because I wouldn't have stuck around. He is mostly in the background for a big chunk of this book and I found that even at the end, I didn't want to forgive him for what he had done but he still has a chance to make it up in the next book.

Due to the nature of books in this genre, it is sometimes quite easy to tell what is going to happen. As soon as Roman turns up, I knew there was something wrong about him but I couldn't quite put my finger on exactly what that was. He is the opposite to Damen with blonde hair and blue eyes and is just too charming and nice for it to all be for real. It is one thing being able to guess the bad guy but if I can guess why he is bad then the book is a failure to me. Luckily, Noel doesn't reveal everything so quickly and kept me guessing for a good amount of the story. Roman just wasn't that much of a bad guy to me though. After reading the whole story though, I did realise that he will most likely turn up in the other books too and hopefully he will get meaner and nastier as the story continues.

The story itself was actually very interesting. There are a lot of different things going on all the time to keep the reader interested at all times. Just when you think you know what is going on, something else happens that shocks you. I definitely couldn't guess the ending and that made me more excited for the next in the series. When it comes to timelines, Blue Moon is all over the place, showing us the past, present and the future but that isn't a bad thing. I don't want to go into what happens though as it will ruin the plot. As this is a teen fantasy, sex was bound to pop up sooner or later. Ever and Damen do get a little bit raunchy as they decide whether or not they are going to have sex but it is still pretty tame.

Overall, I did enjoy this book but not quite as much as Evermore but I'm really looking forward to the rest in the series. There was more that I liked than disliked thought so will be putting this book in Heaven!

Boys Don't Cry - Malorie Blackman

2010-11-18T00:30:00.000Z

Boys Don’t Cry is a YA novel by Malorie Blackman. It was published by Doubleday Childrens (Random House) on 28th October 2010 and is 320 pages long. Thanks to the publisher for sending me a copy for review.
Plot
Seventeen year old Dante is eagerly awaiting the postman’s arrival. He’s about to deliver some much anticipated A Level results. Results which could change his life and give him the chance to make something of himself. Instead of the postman ringing the doorbell though, Melanie, Dante’s ex girlfriend does and she isn’t on her own.

Dante hasn’t seen Melanie since she left school and disappeared and he realises how much she has changed, especially since she has a baby with her. A baby she soon tells him is his daughter, Emma. Forced to look after the baby while Melanie goes to the shops, Dante is far from comfortable but he soon realises that Melanie isn’t coming back. Dante’s life is about to change completely but not in the way he had planned.

What I thought
Boys Don’t Cry is the first book I have ever read by Malorie Blackman but I would certainly read her others books after finishing this one. I had heard good things about it but really wasn’t all that sure what to expect because it didn’t sound like something I would generally pick myself. I was very surprised when I realised just how much I loved this book though and I couldn’t put it down. It is told from the points of view of main character Dante and his younger brother although there is no pattern to who has which chapter.

Dante was a wonderful character and one I could easily connect with. Although I didn’t have the same problems as he did, I did have a plan at his age but it wasn’t one that worked out. A long term boyfriend among other things go in the way of my plans so I could understand how it felt to have your world shattered. Dante is very smart and wants more out of life than what the town he lives in can offer. I loved how sensible he thought he was being and also how proud of himself he was when he worked so hard to pass his A levels a year earlier than he should have.

The way that he learns about his daughter, Emma, was very realistic and reacted exactly how I would have imagined. To begin with, all he can feel is shock but his feelings soon change. Dante has a lot to think about once he has Emma to think about but he isn’t so sure that he will be able to cope, especially considering that he has a hard time even looking at her sometimes. He was far from perfect from the very start and it was so nice to see his both his strengths and weaknesses.

Once Dante is left with Emma, the story begins to show just how hard being a single parent can be, even if you do have family to help and support you. Dante’s father, although being disappointed in his son, quickly learns to love Emma and accept her for who she is, as does Dante’s brother Adam. Dante can’t quite understand how these feelings of love can come so easily to the other members of his family because he is having such a hard time dealing with what is happening. Although I loved Dante, Adam was my favourite character. He brought a lot of humour and a different feel to his parts of the story. He also adds a lot of darkness at the same time though as he is dealing with his own problems. Adam goes through so much himself that it would have been nice to hear more from him or maybe for him to have a book himself. I would love to know more about what he does next about certain situations and generally.

What I loved so much about this book was the fact that nothing is ever sugar coated about being a teenage parent, let alone being a single teenage parent. I really liked the fact that this was told from a boys point of view as it isn’t something we generally hear about very much. So many issues like dating, sexuality, family relationships and dealing with your feelings are intertwined in the story and because of them, I think a lot of teenagers (and adults) could learn something from reading this book. It also really shows what it means to be a parent and take responsibilities for your actions. Although Dante starts off on shaky grounds, he certainly redeems himself with his actions later as the story goes on.

The ending is wrapped up very nicely, not leaving much unanswered. I say not much because there are always after thoughts when it comes to books about teenagers. Boys Don’t Cry works extremely well as a stand alone novel but also leaves room for there to be more books about what comes next. I really couldn’t fault anything about this book and I loved every single word. It made me laugh but also made my cry, bringing so many different emotions out in me. If you don’t think that this is your kind of book, think again and give it a chance. I wasn’t expecting it to thoroughly love it but I did.

Waiting on Wednesday (#22)

2010-11-17T01:00:00.001Z

"Waiting On Wednesday" is a weekly event, hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine that spotlights upcoming releases that we're eagerly anticipating.

Fallen Angel: Heather Terrell

UK Release Date: 28th December 2010

Publisher: Harper Collins Children

The first book in a dark, edgy new angel series about a girl who finds herself forced to choose sides in the battle between fallen angels, even if that means going against the boy she loves.

When Ellie Faneuil first sees Michael Chase she feels an instantaneous connection. But she does not realize how much they have in common, including the ability fly and to see what others are thinking - not to mention a taste for blood. Reveling in their new powers and their growing feelings for each other, Ellie and Michael are determined to uncover what they are, and how they got this way ... together.

But the truth has repercussions neither could have imagined. Soon they find themselves center stage in an ancient conflict between fallen angels that threatens to destroy everything they love. And it is no longer clear whether Ellie and Michael will choose the same side.

In this electrifying novel Heather Terrell spins a gripping tale of soul-mates, supernatural powers and a truth that will change Ellie and Michael‘s world forever.

Interview - Kimberly Derting

2010-11-15T00:30:00.002Z

Kimberly Derting's novel, The Body Finder, which was released over here in the UK on 11th November and has already had high praise in the US. In celebration of this recent release, I have an interview with the author herself on the blog today!

Describe your book in 5 words.

Dead bodies and new love.

Where did the inspiration for The Body Finder come from?

Oh boy, here we go….my husband loves it when I get this question. My husband will jokingly (I think!) say that he is “the wind beneath my wings” or “my muse” and sometimes even my “co-author” all because he was the one who first said: “What if there was a kid who could find dead bodies?” Of course, what he conveniently forgets is that his idea was for a middle-grade boy adventure…and that I’m the one who actually wrote the book!

Were any of the characters or their traits inspired by people you know?

The characters themselves aren’t actually based on anyone, although I may have stolen a trait, a mannerism, and maybe even an entire scenario (namely a situation with Chelsea in Desires of the Dead) from my friends and family. The best part is letting them all try to figure out what I’ve taken from each of them. I’ll never tell!

If you could have some kind of gift like Violet does, what would you want it to be?

I’m positive it would NOT be finding dead bodies! I’ll leave that to Violet because I’m more of the run-from-danger kind of girl. But, I’ve always thought it would be cool to fly. That way, I could be a fly-from-danger kind of girl, because, really, I hate running!

How did you go about researching for The Body Finder?

My research for the The Body Finder was mostly focused on how the local Police and Fire Departments would work together when someone went missing or if a dead body was found. Since I already had friends in the Fire and Police departments, it was a lot fun picking their brains. Plus, I named them in my acknowledgements so if I got any facts wrong, you can totally blame them!

Some authors do certain things while they write like listen to music etc. Do you have any rituals like this of your own?

Mine are less ritual and more addictions. I must have tea and Skittles (or some other handy sweet treat). Oh, and comfy sweatpants…which are just as attractive as they sound.

Are there any other YA authors that you admire?

The easier question might be: are there any that I don’t admire? I love this community so asking me to choose is almost as hard as asking me to pick a favourite child!

Fine, here are some of the people who I think are brilliant and are super-fab writers to boot: Melissa Marr (the Wicked Lovely series), Kami Garcia & Margaret Stohl (Beautiful Creatures), Kelley Armstrong (The Darkest Powers trilogy), Becca Fitzpatrick (Hush, Hush), Carrie Ryan (The Forest of Hands and Teeth), Aprilynne Pike (Wings), Sophie Jordan (Firelight)…and about 100 others.

What is your favourite book of all time and why?

This one is easy: To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee. Best. Book. Ever!

The sequel, Desires of the Dead is being released in 2011 but will there any more books in this series?

Right now, just the first two have been confirmed but who knows what might happen in the coming weeks! Let’s just say that I would love to continue the series. Trust me, if there are any concrete developments, I will be posting the news all over my website, my blog, Twitter, and Facebook! I may even tattoo it on my husband’s forehead!!

Thanks Kimberly!

In My Mailbox (#19)

2010-11-13T22:45:00.002Z

In My Mailbox is hosted by The Story Siren to show what everyone has been recieving or buying each week.

So I haven't done an IMM for a couple of weeks due to not really recieving anything. This week has been totally insane for the amount of books that I recieved. With the exception of the books gifted from Becky (at the bottom), everything else came this week.

For Review

Vampire Academy - Richelle Mead

St. Vladimir’s Academy isn’t just any boarding school—it’s a hidden place where vampires are educated in the ways of magic and half-human teens train to protect them. Rose Hathaway is a Dhampir, a bodyguard for her best friend Lissa, a Moroi Vampire Princess. They’ve been on the run, but now they’re being dragged back to St. Vladimir’s—the very place where they’re most in danger. . . .

Rose and Lissa become enmeshed in forbidden romance, the Academy’s ruthless social scene, and unspeakable nighttime rituals. But they must be careful lest the Strigoi—the world’s fiercest and most dangerous vampires—make Lissa one of them forever.

Black Swan Rising - Lee Carrol

Publisher: Bantam Press

Release Date: 25th November

Jeweller Garet James isn't the same as everyone else.

She just doesn't know it yet.

With her fair share of problems – money (lack of), an elderly father, a struggling business – Garet should be just like any other young, feisty, single New Yorker. If only it was that simple...

It begins with the old silver box that had been soldered shut. All Garet has to do is open it. A favour for the frail owner of the antiques shop. Who wouldn’t help?

Only it’s then that things start to change. Garet doesn't notice at first, the shifts barely perceptible. But the city in which she grew up is beginning to reveal a long-hidden side – darker, and altogether more dangerous: parallel world of chaos, smoke and blood.

And now it’s out of the box...and it has no intention of going back in.

Bright Young Things - Anna Godbersen

Publisher: Razor Bill

Release Date: 6th January 2011

It’s 1929 and Letty Larkspur and Cordelia Grey have escaped their small Midwestern town to chase big dreams and even bigger secrets. Amongst the glittering metropolis of New York City, they meet Astrid Donal, a flapper who has everything she could ever want, except for the one thing Letty and Cordelia have to offer—true friendship. Set in the dizzying summer before the market crash, against the vast lawns of the glamorous Long Island mansions and on the blindingly lit stages of Broadway, three girls will find scandal, intrigue, and romance. . .

The amazing people at Bloomsbury sent me the most fantastic package. I had been sent the last Harry Potter book a while ago but hadn't read any of the series so they sent me the rest of the series with the new covers! It was like Christmas Day!

You Against Me - Jenny Downham

Publisher: David Fickling Books

Release Date: 2nd December

If someone hurts your sister and you're any kind of man, you seek revenge, right? If your brother's been accused of a terrible crime and you're the main witness, then you banish all doubt and defend him. Isn't that what families do? When Mikey's sister claims a boy assaulted her at a party, his world of work and girls begins to fall apart. When Ellie's brother is charged with the crime, but says he didn't do it, her world of revision, exams and fitting in at a new school begins to unravel. When Mikey and Ellie meet, two worlds collide. Brave and unflinching, this is a novel of extraordinary skillfulness and almost unbearable tension. It's a book about loyalty and the choices that come with it. But above all it's a book about love - for one's family and for another.

Won

Ghost Town - Rachel Caine

The fragile peace between humans and vampires in Morganville is in trouble, and when Claire takes drastic action, she's put under serious pressure to re-establish the barriers that keep the town residents inside, and wipe the memories of those who leave. But working with her half-crazy vampire boss Myrnin means that things don't always turn out as planned ... and as the people of Morganville begin acting strangely, Claire and her friends must solve the mystery and try to put things right. But one by one, her allies are turning on her ... even the ones she trusts most.

Thanks so much to Chrissie @ Chrissie's Corner for this one. I was lucky enough to win Ghost Town in a giveaway when the original winner didn't reply in time. This has been one of my most anticipated books this year so I was rediculously excited when I got the email.

Borrowed

Naomi @ Supernatural Bookworm is made off all kinds of awesomeness this week. She was so lovely to lend me Firelight and 2 adult books which can all be seen below!

Firelight - Sophie Jordan

With her rare ability to breathe fire, Jacinda is special even among the draki—the descendants of dragons who can shift between human and dragon forms. But when Jacinda’s rebelliousness leads her family to flee into the human world, she struggles to adapt, even as her draki spirit fades. The one thing that revives it is Will, whose family hunts her kind. Jacinda can’t resist getting closer to him, even though she knows she’s risking not only her life but the draki’s most closely guarded secret.

Gentlemen Prefer Succubi (Succubus Diaries #1) - Jill Myles

Who knew an angel could get a girl in so much devilish trouble?

Jackie Brighton woke up in a dumpster this morning, and her day has only gotten weirder. Her breasts grew overnight, her sex drive is insatiable, and apparently she had her first one-night stand ever . . . with a fallen angel.

Of course, she only remembers gorgeous Noah’s enormous, er, package. And their steamy shower sex. Hmm . . . and the dark stranger whose bite transformed her into an immortal siren with a seductive Itch. With help from Noah and fellow succubus Remy Summore, Jackie adapts to her new lifestyle—until she accidentally strikes a deal that sends her lover into the deadly clutches of the vampire queen and lands Jackie, Remy, and the queen’s wickedly hot right-hand man into the middle of a fierce battle for an ancient halo.

But how’s a girl supposed to save the world when the enemy’s so hard to resist.

Succubi Like It Hot (Succubus Diaries #2) - Jill Myles

With a hot new figure, her dream job as an archaeologist, and two gorgeous boyfriends to scratch her seductive Itch -- an angel and a vampire -- Jackie Brighton is totally getting the hang of life as a succubus. Then she accidentally knocks the pizza guy unconscious with her touch. Great -- she's cursed. After striking a deal to get the curse lifted by a crafty demon, Jackie and her best friend Remy take a road trip to deliver a cryptic message to the nation's oldest succubus. Unfortunately, neither of her jealous lovers is talking to Jackie right now, and due to the curse, she's desperate to get her Itch scratched very soon. Their journey gets weirder with every mile -- demonic possession, a charming stalker, a cryptic warning -- and when they get to New Orleans, Jackie discovers a dangerous catch to her supernatural bargain. Someone wants her dead -- again. Can a brainy vixen in a miniskirt outsmart the forces of evil?

The lovely Caroline from Portrait of a Woman is hosting a week dedicated to HIV/ AIDS in YA Lit to go with World AIDS day on 1st December. Her week will run from 28th November to 5th December. When she asked me if I wanted to be a part of her feature week, I was extremely interested, having not read anything like this before. Caroline was nice enough to send me the book below to read and review. Go check out her site and grab a button to show your support!

The Beat Goes On - Adele Minchin

At fifteen shy Leyla looks up to her sixteen-year-old cousin, Emma. Beautiful, confident, and popular with boys, Emma seems to have it all. But when Emma learns that she's HIV positive after having unprotected sex just once, Leyla must be the strong one. Supporting her cousin through all the changes, even teaching music to kids in Emma's support group, Leyla promises to keep it "all" a secret. But when Leyla's gorgeous new boyfriend thinks condoms are optional, and Emma's health begins to decline, Leyla realizes people will never be safe unless they are aware. Will she find the courage to speak out and make people understand

Gifted

I went to my first event as a blogger a couple of weeks ago (the write up for that is coming soon, I promise!). Becky @ The Bookette was getting rid of some of her books and was nice enough to give me two of them!

The Eternal Ones - Kirsten Miller

Haven Moore can’t control her visions of a past with a boy called Ethan, and a life in New York that ended in fiery tragedy. In our present, she designs beautiful dresses for her classmates with her best friend Beau. Dressmaking keeps her sane, since she lives with her widowed and heartbroken mother in her tyrannical grandmother’s house in Snope City, a tiny town in Tennessee. Then an impossible group of coincidences conspire to force her to flee to New York, to discover who she is, and who she was.

In New York, Haven meets Iain Morrow and is swept into an epic love affair that feels both deeply fated and terribly dangerous. Iain is suspected of murdering a rock star and Haven wonders, could he have murdered her in a past life? She visits the Ouroboros Society and discovers a murky world of reincarnation that stretches across millennia. Haven must discover the secrets hidden in her past lives, and loves¸ before all is lost and the cycle begins again.

Passing Strange (Generation Dead #3) - Daniel Waters

Karen DeSonne always passed as a normal (if pale) teenager; with her friends, with her family, and at school. Passing cost her the love of her life. And now that Karen’s dead, she’s still passing—this time, as alive. Karen DeSonne just happens to be an extremely human-like zombie. Meanwhile, Karen’s dead friends have been fingered in a high-profile murder, causing a new round of antizombie regulations that have forced them into hiding. Karen soon learns that the “murder” that destroyed their non-life was a hoax, staged by Pete Martinsburg and his bioist zealots. Obtaining enough evidence to expose the fraud and prove her friends’ innocence means doing the unthinkable: becoming Pete’s girlfriend. Karen’s only hope is that the enemy never realizes who she really is—because the consequences would be worse than death.

So that's what I got this week. Anyone read any of them??

Warm Bodies - Isaac Marion

2010-11-13T00:30:00.001Z

Warm Bodies by Isaac Marion was released on 14th October 2010. It was published by Vintage and is 256 pages long. I was lucky enough to win this in a competition on Twitter.

Plot

The only thing R knows about himself is that he is a zombie. He has no memories of anything about his former life, not even his own name. Unlike the other zombies, he is able to dream even if he can’t make any sense of them. R knows what he has to eat to survive but that doesn’t mean he has to like it or want to do it.

Out on a hunt for food (humans), R manages to meet a girl who he refuses to eat. There is something about her and he just can’t bring himself to kill her. He goes against everything he knows, goes against surviving, just to save a girl he knows as Julie. In a world where they should be enemies, R befriends Julie and promises to keep her safe, taking her home with him. As he spends more and more time with her, R’s speech develops and he is able to say more and more by the day. He knows there is something different about Julie. She makes him want to dream. She makes him want to be alive. R is changing and he is no longer like the other zombies. Times are hard and everything is against R being able to spend time with the girl who is changing everything he known for a long time.

What I thought
I was so excited when I won this book because I hadn’t read anything about zombies and this was one that I was hoping to love. It sounded exactly like the kind of book that I would usually pick myself.

As much as I read books about vampires, werewolves and demons, most of which I love if they are the main characters, I really didn’t think that I would ever love a zombie in the same way. So they all have eating or killing people in common but for a zombie, there just isn’t anything sexy or hot about it. If anything, I think I loved the main zombie in this book ‘R’ so much more than any other hero I have read about in a long time. The whole story is told from R’s point of view and he had me from the first couple of lines.

“I’m dead but it’s not so bad. I’ve learned to live with it. I’m sorry I can’t properly introduce myself, but I don’t have a name anymore.”

R lives (or doesn’t live) in a world where zombies/ the infected are taking over and there are very few humans left. He lives in an abandoned airport and sleeps in an aeroplane. Even though he doesn’t really have feelings and can only speak the most basic words, he is different from the other zombies because he is more aware of what is going on around him. He wonders about who he was when he was alive and what kind of a life he used to have due to the fact that he gets snippets of the lives of the people’s brains that he eats. R doesn’t want to be a zombie and from very early on, it seemed that he would have done anything to be alive again.

When Julie enters the scene, R knows that it is wrong to save her, that the others of his kind are hungry and need to feed, but he can’t help himself. I instantly liked Julie because she seemed like the kind of girl that you wouldn’t want to mess with. She’s had a pretty bad time of it since the dead took over and she isn’t about to let the zombies take over her as well. Julie tries to see the best about her situation after R kind of kidnaps her. She takes it upon herself to try to talk to him and to find out more about the zombies, even though he has the most basic language skills. At times where R would shrug off an answer, Julie makes him talk to her instead. All of these little things added to R wanting to be alive again, remembering little bits at a time. Julie really brought out the best in R, making him want to be better in order to get what he wanted. There is a lot more going on between Julie and R that has a massive impact on the story but I don’t really want to say anything about that because it is too spoilery.

Isaac Marion created a world that I was fully absorbed in. The dead have pretty much taken over everything and there are barely any humans anymore. The humans that have managed to survive are all in hiding, trying to survive and make the best of what they have left. Not only are there zombies but something called The ‘Boneys’. As you can imagine from the name, they are skeleton like and are a hell of a lot more scary than the zombies. There was so much going on in this world that it would be hard to not have a million thoughts running through your head as the story goes on. I wanted to know why the dead took over because no one knows this. I wanted to know what was going on in the rest of the world and how the dead had spread. I wanted to know what human kind were doing to survive and if they were planning on just repopulating even though supplies were limited. There were so many questions I would have liked answered but the mystery of the story was one of the things that I really enjoyed. Normally I would class this as a bad thing, not knowing, but I can’t fault it this time around because it just added to making this story amazing.

Warm Bodies is far from being all doom and gloom and about the end of the world though. The story is exciting and action packed, moving along at a quick pace. There was always something going on, no matter how small the event, that kept my interest throughout. Warm Bodies is a heart warming love story about wanting to be better for the sake of someone else as well as yourself. Warm Bodies is witty and humourous and it had me laughing even when I didn’t think it would be possible. The characters suck you into their world and don’t let go until the very end. I can’t praise this book enough but I will say that it surpassed my every expectation. Not read about zombies yet? This is the book to start with!

Fallen - Lauren Kate

2010-11-11T01:00:00.002Z

Fallen is the first in a series of books by Lauren Kate. It was released on 8th December 2009 by Delacorte Press (RHCB) and it is 452 pages long.

Plot
After a terrible accident, Luce is sent to the Sword and Cross, a corrective school in an attempt to make her better. No one really knows what happened that day including Luce but she does know she wasn't responsible. Since she was younger, Luce has been followed by shadows and she has no idea why or if she is even sane. On her first day at Sword and Cross, she realises that the school is more like a prison than a school and the other students are either extremely strange or have been dangerous before. Arriane takes her under her wing and shows her the ropes but there is one girl, Molly, that takes instantly takes a dislike to her. Another thing that Molly notices is that most of the boys are extremely good looking, especially Daniel and Cam.

All Luce wants to do is keep to herself and get on with her time at the school but Molly doesn't make things easier for her. Luce is fascinated by Daniel and cant keep her eyes off him, having the feeling that she's met him somewhere before. While she is strongly attracted to Daniel, it is Cam that gives her attention and she cannot help but feel something for him as well. When Luce starts spending more time with Cam, Daniel always seems to be around to take her away and the two boys begin to fight over Luce and it turns into a war bigger than she ever could have imagined. Daniel has a huge secret and Cam isn't very pleased about it.

My Thoughts
I originally bought Fallen because Amazon recommended it to me. I loved the idea of a fallen angel being in love with someone over and over again no matter what happens. While the idea for the story seems original, there is also a Romeo and Juliet feel to it once you know what is going on.

The first chapter of the book is a prologue about Daniel and Luce. I really enjoyed this part of the book as it made it clear what Daniel goes through each time and how he does everything in his power to try to save Luce. Daniel is the sexy and mysterious hero of the story and everything about him and his actions makes you want to know more. The hero and the villain are very obvious but the reasons why aren't and I was quite shocked by the end of the book when everything was made clear.

I'm still not sure whether I liked Luce or not. Although right at the start we learn that she was part of some terrible accident which resulted in a boys death that is pretty much all we know about her. I didn't feel like there was enough character development and because of this I didn't feel the connection with her like I would other main characters. There are also flaws with her character. At one point it is stated that Luce had a 4.0 GPA (good grades in America) at her old school but she really doesn't show a lot of intelligence throughout the book and there isn't enough substantial evidence to back this up. Luce has a secret of her own but she doesn't realise how connected everything is. Although her characters isn't explained enough, all of the basics characteristics were there. She has her own problems and flaws which is what made her more interesting.

The build up towards the end of the story is extremely slow and drawn out but now that I know there is going to be a sequel, I can understand why. We don't get to learn much about anyone's past or what the outcome is for Daniel and Luce but I'm hoping that both of these will be explained in more detail in the next book. I did like the book but it wasn't the best I have ever read. I think I will grow to like it more after the sequel comes out and I read it again. My advice is to buy both Fallen and the sequel, Torment together so that everything will make a lot more sense.

Waiting on Wednesday (#21)

2010-11-10T01:00:00.003Z

"Waiting On Wednesday" is a weekly event, hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine that spotlights upcoming releases that we're eagerly anticipating.

Wake unto me - Lisa Cach

UK Release Date: 31st March 2010

Publisher: Speak

Synopsis

A haunted castle, a handsome young man dead for four hundred years, one heck of a scary portrait of a witch, and a treasure hunt - not to mention a princess for a roommate! -- all await 15 year old American girl Caitlyn Monahan when she earns a scholarship to a French boarding school. There are secrets behind the stone walls of Chateau de la Fortune, buried for centuries along with the mystery of who killed Raphael, the charming ghost who visits Caitlyn at night. But as Caitlyn unearths the history of the castle, nothing scares her as badly as the secret she learns about herself, and the reason she was chosen to come to the Fortune School.

And nothing breaks her heart as badly as falling in love with a dead guy.

Torment - Lauren Kate Trailer

2010-11-09T21:02:00.000Z

I know that this book has already been out for about 6 weeks but I meant to post the trailer for it ages ago and forgot. If you haven't seen it by now then here's your chance!!

I loved Torment and I am already eagerly anticipating the next book from Lauren Kate. You can find my review for Torment here!

The Splendour Falls - Rosemary Clement-Moore

2010-11-08T01:00:00.001Z

The Splendour Falls by Rosemary Clement-Moore was released on 4 Feb 2010 by Corgi Childrens and the book is 528 pages long.

Plot

Sylvia Davis used to be an amazing dancer. That was before she broke her leg doing a very simple move, a move that ended her career. Not only does she have a broken leg, he father is dead and her mother is about to get remarried. Nothing much is going right for her and it only gets worse when she gets drunk at the wedding. After running off to Central Park, she thinks she sees something strange going on but apparently it is only her that sees it. Maybe it was too much champagne and the pain killers or maybe she's going crazy.

As Sylvie's mum and new step dad go on their honeymoon, she is shipped off to stay with her real father's family in Alabama to a life that couldn't be further away from what she is used to. The heat immediately hits her as the plane touches the ground and instead of her cousin waiting to meet her, there is a very good looking boy called Rhys, who explains that Cousin Paula is waiting in the car for them both. Sylvie definitely likes the look of Rhys and cant believe that she's thinking about him in that way after only meeting him for a few minutes but she's going to have to get used to it because apparently he lives with Cousin Paula. The family estate is being turned into a B&B and Rhys and his dad are staying there, along with Paula's business partner and her daughter Addie.

Sylvie has never really known anything about her Dad's side of the family but when she arrives in Cahawba it seems like history is all around her. Everyone already knows who she is and seems extremely excited that she's there, which Sylvie finds really strange, especially when the most popular guy in town, Shawn, starts paying her a lot of attention. She can't deny that she's attracted to him but there is also something between her and Rhys. One of them seems too perfect and the other one is mysterious and secretive. Sylvie would love boy troubles to the biggest thing on her mind but she's also seeing and hearing things here, just like she did in Central Park. Is Sylvie about to lose her mind as well as everything else?

What I thought
Sylvie was a fantastic protagonist. Although this is more in the supernatural genre, there is a big deal about the romance in the story. Unlike a lot of other teenage girls in these kinds of books, she doesn't break down when she likes these two different guys and becomes a doormat. She doesn't do everything that they want her to and she doesn't back down when it comes to something she believes in. Sylvie is a very strong character, even when she thinks she is going crazy and she's determined to prove that what she is seeing is real. When Sylvie's dance career ends, she thinks her life has as well because she's put in so much time and effort but she realises that she has to find something else to do with her time and that's when she starts to work on the garden of the B&B.

Although Sylvie has two love interests, they don't really have that much time in the story. I would have liked to have seen her relationship with Rhys develop more because nothing really happened between them. Both of them know that the other is hiding something but is what the story concentrates on rather than how they feel about each other. I could tell that Shawn was the bad guy from the start because of his involvement with the TTC and especially when it was explained about his families connections with Sylvie's. Shawn was just a bit too perfect and that is normally too good to be true, as it was in this books.

The story moves at a nice pace most of the time although it does take a while to get to the answers that you'll want. Apart from Sylvie, you don't really get to know too much about the others characters as the main of the plot is about her family and the background but I thought this was really interesting. I loved the idea that everything that was happening to Sylvie was happening because of something that happened decades or centuries ago and was carried on throughout the years.

While I really liked this book, there was one thing that bugged me about it. Every now and again, a ? would turn up in the middle of a random word. I wouldn't have minded if it was a one off but it happened on at least 10 occasions. After the first one, this really stood out to me each time and made me want to put the book down. If I'm paying £6.99 for a book then I do not want it to be full of mistakes.

The Splendour Falls is a good book but it isn't great. There are small amounts of excitement at different times and it just wasn't enough for me. I thought that I would really like Rhys but his character wasn't developed enough to make me love him. Not a bad buy if you can pick it up as part of an offer.

Wondrous Strange - Lesley Livingston

2010-11-06T01:00:00.000Z

Wondrous Strange is the debut novel by Lesley Livingston. It was released on January 13th 2009 by Harper Teen and it is 352 pages long.

Plot
Actress, Kelley Winslow moved to New York City all on her own to pursue her dreams. She had a bit of a rough time at stage school and isn't doing much better out in the real world but she's managed to get a job as the understudy for the main female role in A Midsummer Night's Dream. That generally means that she is a stagehand. On the day that the book starts, the main actress has an accident and Kelley has to step up to really be in the play. The only problem is, she isn't very good once she gets on stage. Feeling a bit blue after her first rehearsal, she heads off to Central Park where Sonny hears her rehearsing her lines. Instantly taken by the words she speaks, he's drawn to her. Seeing the sad look on her face, he gives her a flower to try to cheer her up and then disappears.

As it got late in the park, Kelley hears a scream near the lake. She runs off towards the noise and sees a horse in the water, drowning. Not caring about the cold, she dives in and after a lot of struggling, she manages to pull it to safety and after blacking out, heads home. When she gets there though, she finds that she has an unexpected house guest. The horse has somehow followed her home and got comfortable in the bath tub, which freaks out both her and roommate, Tyff.

Sonny isn't exactly human. He is a guard of the gates in Central Park that lead to another world. The faerie world. Every 9 years, the gates begin to open and faerie from the other world begin to come through and it is Sonny's job, along with 12 other guards, to stop anyone coming through. Ever since he saw Kelley, he can't get her out of his head and when the Faerie King pays him a visit, he finds out a huge secret. Something that could ruin him, Kelley and both worlds.

What I thought
The story is written in the third person which was a nice change as most of the books I've read recently have been in the first person. I prefer reading books written this way because it makes it possible to know what is happening from all sides, without having different chapters dedicated to one character. Although the story does flit from Kelley and Sonny, it is blended together really well so that their stories eventually come together as one.

Livingston is very descriptive when it comes to the range of different characters and faerie folk that are involved in this story. Other books in this genre that I have read have generally one really had one baddie but this one had a lot. There are different sides and allegiances in the faerie realm and Livingston made a point of involving these to make the story more interesting and exciting. Sonny explains that different creatures do different things and that they have different purposes and I really liked this aspect of the book. It made it much easier to connect with the different worlds and why certain things happen, making me feel like I was really there.

No time is wasted in getting to the action as quite early on, Kelley saves the horse from the water, although it turns out that it isn't actually a horse. This part of the story was really funny and it made me laugh out loud. Both Kelley and Tyff are totally freaked out by what is going on and have no idea what to do about it, considering that the horse isn't moving an inch. There are quite a few fight scenes throughout, caused mainly by the nature of Sonny's job. He has to protect the human world from the faeries, which results in killing a lot of them, no matter what kind they are.

This book had everything that I could have wished for; exceptionally written characters, an interesting plot and it was written wonderfully. Everything about the way the story is written is magical and captivating that you just cannot help wanting to know more. I thought that the use of Shakespeare and A Midsummer Night's dream fit perfectly, considering that the characters from the play had been intertwined with the actual story. There were quite a few things that I really didn't see coming in Wondrous Strange but I don't want to mention what they were because it will only make you look out for them as you read the book. After looking up the next book in the trilogy, Darklight, I found that Kelley will be in the play Romeo and Juliet so I think that this will be a running theme throughout the trilogy which I am really excited about.

Kelley was one of the best protagonists that I had read about for quite a while. She is the complete opposite of everything that I normally read in a heroine and why I normally hate them. Kelley is written very much like a normal teenager, freaking out about normal things that any other girl would. The fact that she doesn't immediately bow down to Sonny was fantastic. Kelley isn't afraid to say how she feels, even if that means laughing in Sonny's face and telling him to leave her alone. She doesn't believe Sonny when he tells her about faeries and pretty much thinks that he is a crazy stalker. What I loved most about her was that fact that she wasn't perfect or absolutely stunning. Kelley has flaws like everyone else and this made her really easy to relate to.

Sonny was a really interesting hero. He isn't exactly human and he isn't exactly faerie. From the minute he sees Kelley, he knows that there is something special about her. He becomes very protective of Kelley and it seems that he will go to any length to keep her safe, even if that means ruining his own life. He doesn't think that he is able to love but it all comes too easily to him when it comes to Kelley. Sonny is a protector of Earth, stopping anything from the other world coming in and although it doesn't seem like he is the best fighter at times, you can see how hard he tries because he doesn't want to let anyone down.

I can't believe that I didn't want to read this book to begin with. I loved every word of it and the only thing that makes it better is the fact that it will be a part of a trilogy and I will get to follow Kelley and Sonny in their journey. I can only hope that some of my favourite minor characters will come back as well. If you haven't read anything like this before, especially a faerie story, then this is the one to begin with. It will definitely get you hooked.

Tempted (House of Night #6) - P.C. and Kristin Cast

2010-11-05T00:30:00.002Z

Tempted is the sixth book in the House of Night series by mother and daughter duo, PC and Kristin Cast. It is published by Atom Books and is 336 pages long.

Books in the series:
1.Marked
2.Betrayed
3.Chosen
4.Untamed
5.Hunted
6.Tempted
7.Burned
8.Awakened
9.Released 2011
10.Released 2011

For more information regarding the House of Night series, you can go to http://www.houseofnightseries.com/

The website has a lot of interesting features like leaning all about your favourite characters and creating your own vampyre tattoo (if you want to make believe a little bit). After reading the first book, I had a good look around the website and I think it's a nice companion to the series.

What has happened so far
Zoey Redbird recently got marked by a Tracker, meaning that she had to move to the House of Night in order to maybe become a vampyre. If she doesn't die first. Zoey is unlike any of the other fledglings though. She has been extremely blessed by the Goddess Nyx who gave her powers that she never expected. Zoey can has an affinity for all five elements: Earth, Air, Water, Fire and Spirit.

Zoey has her faithful friends, Stevie Rae, Shaunee, Erin, Damien and Jack to help her out. Zoey has had an array of guys on the go; human Heath, hot and talented Erik and teacher Loren the poet. Football players from Zoey's old school went missing and were murdered so she had to save Heath before he was killed as well. After best friend Stevie Rae died and came back as something else, a red fledgling who turned into a full vampyre. Neferet turned evil and reawakened an evil immortal called Kalona who took over the school with her but Zoey managed to banish them for a little while. New guy Stark pledged himself and Zoey's warrior after she saved him from himself.

Tempted
After banishing Neferet and Kalona, Zoey and her friends must figure out how to get rid of them both once and for all but things are far from simple. Neferet and Kalona are seeking help from the highest place possible, the Vampyre High Council and Kalona seems to be convincing them to follow his ways.

Everyone seems to be pulling together to find a way out of the current problem but Stevie Rae is keeping something from Zoey but what isn't she sharing? Zoey may have gotten around a couple of Aphrodite's visions but the most recent is one that could mark the end of the world. Zoey's boy troubles are extremely out of control this time as her past forces her to feel drawn towards Kalona as well as being imprinted with Heath and having Stark has her warrior.

Of course, it isn't going to be easy to kill an immortal fallen angel, even for the 'Nerd Herd'!

What I thought
Again, the events of this book are only set over a couple of days but this is something that I really like about the series. So much is packed into such a short space of time that there is never really any time to get bored with the story. There are a lot of conversations between characters but they are mixed in so well with the action and excitement that I was never annoyed by this. To begin with, I thought that maybe this would overpower the story in places but it only enhances it.

Knowing that Neferet has gone over to the bad side with Kalona, I was hoping for a little more actual action in this book. The war has been coming for a while now but nothing has actually happened yet. I thought that this was going to be the book full of fighting and magical happenings but unfortunately, it wasn't. That doesn't mean that there isn't a lot going on though because there is, just not in the way that I wanted. Although I was slightly disappointed with this aspect of the book, I still loved it and how the story is progressing.

Tempted is the first book in the series that is not solely told from Zoey's point of view. When I got to chapter 2 and found that it was going to be told by Stevie Rae, I wasn't sure what to think about this new idea as so many others do this in their books. In the other 5 books I had really liked that it was only told from Zoey's point of view. Rephaim, Heath, Stark and Aphrodite also get their own voice in Tempted but when I reached each characters own chapters, I realise that the story had needed to be written this way in order to really know what was happening. This format made it possible for me to find out what was going on behind the scenes and put all of the little pieces together to figure things out.

Zoey has a lot of doubt in herself this time around. There is very little of the determined and strong Zoey that I have grown to love over the series but I think changing her was justified enough. One of her biggest problems about facing Kalona is the fact that she knows of her past but also what she is right now. Zoey is still only a fledgling, not a full vampyre, even though she is acting as High Priestess. She knows that she isn't strong enough to conquer evil this time around, which is where her doubts come from. Although Zoey has never been full of herself, it was good to see her really realise that she cant do everything, no matter what her friends think she is capable of.

Finally, we get to see a different setting in Tempted as the gang go to Italy to meet with the Vampyre High Council and address the problem of Kalona and Neferet. I did find it a little bit silly when the private jet came into play but that was mainly because I had never really thought about how much money the House of Night really had. I would have liked to have seen a bit more interaction from the council members and to learn a little bit more about them but maybe this will happen in the next book, considering the outcomes of Tempted.

The ending came as a complete shock to me and I don't think that I would have seen it coming in a million years. A word of warning though, DO NOT read the synopsis for book 7 in the series before you have finished this one as there are major spoilers. This is the only book in the series with a real cliff-hanger. Some pretty bad things have happened towards the ends of the other books but they were nothing like this. As I read the last chapter, I gasped and shouted at the book because I just couldn't believe what was happening. Tempted left me speechless and unable to think because the ending was that good. I am so desperate to get my hands on the 7th book but I refuse to buy it until it is out in paperback so it doesn't look out of place.

Each book in this series gets better than the last which makes me wonder about how utterly fantastic Burned is going to be. I know I'll be buying it as soon as it comes out in paperback!

Halloween Night Out

2010-11-04T21:26:00.001Z

Ok so I know Halloween has been and gone (as well as Bonfire Night) but I promised that I would post pictures of the insane night that was Zombie Night! I know I have told a few of you that it was a pretty insane night, not getting in until stupid o'clock and also drinking WAY too much so you will have to excuse the state of us in some of the pics.

Kate and her boyfriend Si before and during getting ready.

Kate, Si and Cat

Me, Ben and Laura

Terrible group photos

Looking terrible again

Me and Kate

For my zombie look I decided to be a bit Victorianish or something along those lines. I just wanted to wear something with lace on it to be honest. My top got ran over with a car, splattered in blood, black face paint and then slashed with a knife. Attractive huh? Everyone apart from Ben piled round to my place before going out for pre drinks and for me to help with the make up. I am far from fantastic or trained but I used to do make up for weddings so they all wanted me to have a go. I did both Kate and Si's make up and my own of course but I was actually so impressed with myself. Si ended up with a head wound which looked pretty grewsome and some terrible black eyes. Kate had a gunshot wound in her neck and some very hollow looking eyes. Me...well I just looked awful I think. I had a head would, mouldy rotten arms and a gunshot wound in my chest. There was blood and a mixture of colours all over me and everytime I moved it seemed to spread. Can you imagine what I looked like at the end of the night? I'm glad I was too drunk to see it.

So there we go! I left out the ones where I look far too drunk for my own good though but that's me as a zombie! It took me a good 3 hours to look that terrible which I wasn't very impressed with as it takes me less time to get ready for a normal night out.

What do you all think of my zombie look??

National Non Fiction Day

2010-11-04T20:44:00.002Z

Today is National Non-Fiction day in the UK so the lovely people at Usborne sent me something to review. I hate cooking and baking so wanted a fun book to make it a little more enjoyable.

When I was looking through the Usborne Non-Fiction books, this one instantly stood out to me. What girl wouldn't want to make Fairy Christmas cakes and cookies?! I don't care that I'm 24, I still thought that this looked like lots of fun.

If I had been at home instead of my flat in Nottingham, I would have been working my way through the book with my sister as she likes things like this as much as I do. In my sisters' place, my flatmates Aaron and Lauren decided to give me a hand.

Some of the different items that this book shows you how to make are:

Snowball Truffles
Mini Raspberry Swirls
Snowflake Biscuits
Jewelled Fairy Muffins
Christmas Fairy Kisses
Iced Fairy Crowns
Snow Cloud Meringues
Frosty Fairy Fudge
Christmas Castle Cake

For each different item, the book gives clear and easy to follow instructions, along with a set of ingredients you will need and how many can be made out of them. Even though children will be following the instructions and baking with someone supervising them, the instructions are made simple enough that children should be able to follow them.

As you can see from the pictures above, each page is brightly colours and filled with pictures of whatever it is you are making at the time. I really liked being able to see what the end product should look like and how pretty they can be made. We made Iced Fairy Crowns and although they didn't look exactly like the pictures, they were close enough.

I really wish that I could show you all pictures of what we made but the baking kind of made us hungry. We let the biscuits cool down and then iced them with pink and white to make them look pretty but then as soon as they were done, we ate them all. They did taste really good though and because of that, I would happily make anything out of this book now.
Thanks so much to Usborne for sending me this book to review for National Non-Fiction Day. The flatmates and I had a lot of fun making extremely cute biscuits and are looking forward to working through the other recipies.

Book of the month - October

2010-11-04T19:51:00.006Z

I read so many fantastic books last month that I've had to have a couple of days to think about which I was going to choose as the best. It was such a tough decision but I finally decided to go with

Angel by L.A. Weatherly

Angel was something completely different to everything else I have read this year and brought a whole new take on Angels to the table. Willow and Alex have a fantastic story and I can't wait to find out what happens next.

L.A Weatherly has recently been touring and doing signings all over the country. I'm going to a signing in Leeds in December with Rhiana_Reads and I can't tell you how excited I am.

You can find my review here!

I also thought I'd show you all the trailer for Angel so if you haven't read it yet, you can get an idea of what the story is about. Enjoy!!

Waiting on Wednesday (#20)

2010-11-03T16:52:00.000Z

"Waiting On Wednesday" is a weekly event, hosted by Jill at Breaking The Spine that spotlights upcoming releases that we're eagerly anticipating.

Marie-Louise Jensen - Sigrun's Secret
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Release Date: 11th January 2011

Synopsis:
'Their garments are black as night. They carry torches in their hands, darkness and anger in their hearts. They are coming.'

When a dark family secret is exposed, Sigrun's peaceful life is shattered. Forced to pay for her parents' misdeeds, she finds herself exiled from all she knows - and from the boy she loves - for three long years. Yet more secrets lie ahead; not least the power Sigrun finds awakening in herself, seemingly passed to her from a mysterious amulet. Can she use her new-found gift to save herself and those around her from the dangers they face? And will true love wait until her return?

After going to an OUP event last week and looking through their upcoming releases booklet, this was the one that instantly stood out to me and I can't wait for its release date now!!

Paranormalcy - Kiersten White

2010-10-30T00:30:00.001+01:00

Paranormalcy is the first book in a trilogy by Kiersten White. The hardback was released on 31st August 2010 by Harper Teen with the paperback due for release in January 2011. Paranormalcy is 352 pages long.

Plot
Evie always thought she was normal. As normal as she could be working for the International Paranormal Containment Agency (IPCA), having a faerie as an ex boyfriend and being the only person in the entire world who can see through a paranormal’s glamours. Oh and her best friend is a mermaid. Completely normal, right?

When strange things begin to happen at the Agency and a strange paranormal gets taken into their custody, Evie immediately wants to know more but there seems to be things that everyone isn’t telling her. The new paranormal knows a lot and when Evie befriends him, she realises that she may not actually be as normal as she first thought.

What I thought
Paranormalcy has got to be one of the most original YA books that I have read for some time. Instead of sticking to conventional ideas when it comes to fantasy and the paranormal, Kiersten White used these idea but mixed them with things I would have never thought about. As much as I like reading about vampires and werewolves, this genre does need to be kept fresh and exciting and I think the author has achieved that with this book.

Evie was such a refreshing heroine because she was unlike anyone else I had ever read about. After watching the first episode of Nikita last night, it kind of reminded me of that. Evie has been living with and working for IPCA since she was 8 years old and has never really known any other life apart from the one she is currently living. IPCA is a pretty weird place to begin with as it is an agency that rehabilitates the paranormal. Then there is the fact that her best friend is a mermaid who can only talk through a computer. If that doesn’t sound strange enough then there is the fact that Evie goes to hunt the paranormal with her cute pink taser gun called Tasey! I really loved the fact that no matter what was going on around her, Evie tried to be as normal as possible and always make it home in time to catch her favourite show on TV, making her have extremely real teenager qualities. This was something that I was thankful for because sometimes authors seem to forget about normal, everyday teenager activities.

The only real reason that Evie works for IPCA is because she has a special gift. She is able to see through what paranormals really are and ignore their glamours, making them easier to catch. I felt really sorry for Evie having all this to deal with at only 16 and couldn’t imagine what I would have done with only TV shows for real entertainment. Evie is quite the kick ass heroine because of her job but I also really liked the way that she was so girly. Her room is full of pink things and she has high heeled zebra print boots, always wanting to look her best even if she is out hunting. I would have been going insane in her position but Evie tries to find the best in each situation and make the best out of what she has.

The story really starts to kick off when a new paranormal infiltrates IPCA who can take on the form of someone else. Even Evie has problems looking past his glamour and doesn’t understand what he is and what he can do. Even though she is the one who captures him, she cannot help but feel drawn to finding out more about him. The new paranormal, Lend, refuses to talk to anyone about what he is or why he was at IPCA in the first place but when Evie befriends him, everything starts to unravel and we get to see more of who Lend really is. I really enjoyed this part of the book because I love to know more about the main characters and this was a great chance to learn about both Lend and Evie. In many other YA books, the romance happens far too quickly for my liking, making it unbelievable, but this time around. I was so thankful for something to blossom from friendship and develop as time went on. More books should be like this.

The story itself was extremely interesting because the ideas were so new and original to me. It started off well from the first page and I never felt disappointed with it at any time. Paranormalcy starts off very funny and the humour is kept throughout, even though there is a lot of important and serious things going on. Kiersten White managed to make this book really fun, when it could have been more on the intense and dark side of things. I liked that the story was kept light-hearted throughout which gave an opportunity to get to know the characters well. I think this really helped to set the scene for the next book in the series which could probably end up being more action packed.

The plot had a lot of mystery and I really enjoyed this. I never fully knew what was happening or what was about to happen until things were revealed. I love to be kept guessing and for there to be multiple possibilities so in this aspect, Paranormalcy really did it for me. This will be part of a trilogy so not everything was answered but I didn’t mind that at all. I liked not knowing where the story was heading and not being able to really think too much about what the next book will have in store for us.

I had been looking forward to this book for quite a while and was so happy when I won it in a giveaway on a blog. I planned to only read a couple of chapters one night but next thing I knew, it was 1am and I was quite near the end so I just kept going. Usually even when I love a book, there are still things that bug me about it, whether it be a character or something to do with the plot. This was one of the first books in a really long time that I had no little niggles with at all. Everything about it was amazing and I would happily read it again tomorrow. Paranormalcy is such an amazing book that I just couldn’t put down and I would highly recommend it.

Evermore - Alyson Noel

2010-10-29T01:00:00.000+01:00

Evermore is the first book in the Immortals series by Alyson Noel. It was released in the UK in September 2009 by Macmillan Children's Books and it is 384 pages long.

Plot

Ever used to be everything that a teenage girl could possibly want to be, beautiful, popular and with a gorgeous boyfriend. That was until her family was in a horrific car accident and everyone died but her. Being the only one who survived had a strange effect on her though and now she can hear everything that people think and can see their auras. Now, living in Southern California, she is the complete opposite of what she used to be. Yes, she's still beautiful but hides under a hood all of the time so that she can go unnoticed and is pretty much never without her I-pod in so she can drown out other people's thoughts. Not only that, the ghost of her dead little sister stuck around.

When new boy Damen Auguste arrives at school, Ever's life totally changes. Everyone else is completely infatuated with him but Ever is determined to stay under the radar, considering that everyone apart from her two best friends thinks she's a freak. There is something about Damen that Ever can't quite figure out. He's able to make flowers appear out of no where and every time they sit together in English class, her mind goes blank. He seems to be the only thing, apart from loud music, that can silence the noise in her head. Something is drawing her to Damon and she doesn't know whether to run or to stay and see what happens.

What I thought
This was a book that was recommended by a friend but she didn't really tell me a whole lot about it. Luckily, she knows what kind of books that I like so I trusted her when she said this one was good.

Evermore is written in the first person and normally, I find these kind of hard to read at times but as soon as I started, I couldn't put this book down. Everything about the story had me hooked, from the funny and interesting characters to the mysterious plot. I started reading this at work one night (My night time job is pretty good to me) and managed to get half way through it and I couldn't wait to get home so I could read the rest. I ended up being awake until 2am just so I could find out what happened. Unlike a lot of books where you know what is going to happen quite early on, I didn't know what was going on until quite near the end which was a welcome change. There are little mysteries throughout the story which all link together in the end but you never see it coming until it actually happens.

In the introduction, we are lead through Ever's past and what makes her the way she is now. I really enjoyed this part of the book as it gave Ever a nice depth to her and instantly made me want to know more about her. I love knowing the background of a character so that I can grow to love them throughout the story. Ever was a very realistic heroine. Noel managed to bring her problems through really well and I could totally relate to her. If I had gone through something as bad as Ever did then I would probably act the same way. She feels responsible for the death of her family and that if she had been a different, less selfish person then it wouldn't have happened. I could really sympathise with Ever, especially because of her gift. Although it sounds pretty cool, I don't think that I could deal with hearing everyone's thoughts. It would drive me insane.

Damen is everything that I could want in a hero. He is dark, mysterious and extremely good looking. He seems like the bad guy for a while because no one really knows anything about him. When he and Ever start seeing each other, he disappears all the time and never lets her know what he was actually doing or where he went. It takes Ever a long time to trust him and when she discovers his secret, she isn't sure whether to stop seeing him or not. Unlike Twilight, where Bella instantly accepted Edward for what he is, Ever was the opposite. She doesn't know how to deal with this new information and decides that because of this, she can't deal with Damen either. I loved the idea that Damen was a bit magical and we get to see this from the start. It was interesting to find out about the different flowers and why he gave different people certain ones but again, you don't find this out until way into the book.

The secondary characters were just as good as the main characters. Ever's best friends, Miles and Haven were hilarious and extremely real. Miles is gay and brings some fantastic humour and campness at certain times. He also likes to make fun of Ever's name. Haven is a bit of an outsider, like Ever but the two are different. They are outsiders for different reasons and all Haven really wants is attention, unlike Ever. These two characters made the story a bit lighter at times and took the seriousness away from Ever and Damen's part of the story.

Riley, Ever's 12 year old dead sister was also a great character. Riley doesn't want to cross over to the other side because she wants to look after her big sister, who she knows is having problems. Riley doesn't always appear at good times and gets on Ever's nerves. I loved how, after the Halloween party, Riley always turns up in a different costumes, truly acting like a 12 year old would. Riley is also pretty jealous of Ever because she is a teenager, something that she will never be able to be. Although she seems like a pain a lot of the time, Riley is really there to help her sister.

In the twists and turns of the main story are also some pretty important issues. Ever turns to drinking A LOT when she realises that it can drown out her gift but the story also shows how teen drinking can destroy a lot of the good things in life. Friendship is also a big theme throughout as Ever, Haven and Miles all need to rely on each other to get through their problems.

I really enjoyed this book and was glad I listened to my friend. I will definitely be wanting to read the next book in the series.

Waiting on Wednesday (#19)

2010-10-27T01:00:00.005+01:00

"Waiting On Wednesday" is a weekly event, hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine that spotlights upcoming releases that we're eagerly anticipating.

Cloaked - Alex Flinn

UK Release Date: 1st February 2011

Publisher: Harper Teen

Synopsis

Johnny works after school in a shoe repair shop in a swanky hotel in Miami. He loves shoes and is talented; he even aspires to be the next Manolo Blahnik. But the real reason that he is working so hard is because his dad left when he was a baby and he needs to help his mom pay the bills. At least he has his friend, Meg, who works at the hotel coffee shop, to keep him company.

When beautiful Princess Victoriana comes to stay at the hotel, Johnny is thrilled when Victoriana invites him to her suite. There she tells him that her brother has been turned into a frog, and that she needs his help finding him in the Florida Keys. Johnny thinks she is crazy and does not believe her, until she gives him a magical cloak that immediately transports him to another location. Armed with the cloak and a magical earpiece that can help him talk to other transformed humans Johnny sets out to save the Prince ...

Out for Blood - Alyxandra Harvey

2010-10-25T01:00:00.000+01:00

Out for Blood is the third book in The Drake Chronicles by Alyxandra Harvey. It is released on 1st November 2010 by Bloomsbury and it is 304 pages long. Thanks to the publisher for sending me a copy for review!

Plot

Hunter Wild is a vampire hunter in training at the Helios-Ra academy and also one of the top students. As a new school year starts, she thinks it is going to be a good one, especially after attending the new vampire Queen’s coronation.

As the school year gets into full swing, it doesn’t take long for strange things to start happening. Students are getting ill left, right and centre and no one has any idea why but Hunter has her own suspicions. There is only one person that she seems able to trust and that is Quinn Drake who also happens to be a vampire. If Hunter’s Grandfather knew she was friends with a vampire he would probably have a heart attack. Quinn is stunning and Hunter has a hard time concentrating around him but will she be able to pay attention enough to solve the mystery and save her friends?

What I thought
The Drake Chronicles just keeps getting better and better. Each new book that I have read is so much better than the last that I keep changing my mind about which I like the most.

Hunter is really the ultimate female in this genre for me. I’m really against all of these silly names in books but for some reason, Hunter fits her perfectly and I couldn’t imagine her being called anything else. As a vampire hunter, she is strong, determined and independent with none of the whining that I hate. I think what I loved most about Hunter was the fact that she was able to be a part of Helios-Ra but still keep her feminine qualities. Hunter refuses to cut her long, beautiful blonde hair and she likes to be able to paint her nails with roommate Chloe. I really don’t see any reason why vampire hunters still can’t be beautiful and feminine at the same time as kicking some serious ass. Although Hunter has these qualities, they aren’t over the top or in your face at any time and I felt like this part of her personality was balanced really well with the more fierce side of her.

I don’t know if I am ever going to have a favourite Drake brother but I did really like Quinn. Each of the Drake brothers have different qualities that make them so different but so loveable at the same time. What I liked most about Quinn was the fact that he was extremely cheeky. He knows he has a certain way with the girls and he’s used to getting who he wants. It was also nice to see how different he is to his twin because of this. I was expecting Quinn to be quite cocky and arrogant, knowing how good looking he is and being able to have who he wants, but he wasn’t at all. He was very aware of himself and what he is capable of and funny with it at the same time and I think this is what made him so likable. Quinn has a certain charm that makes him quite irresistible.

Like the previous two books in this series, the story is told from different points of views which this time around are from Hunter and Quinn. I like the fact that we only get to hear from the two main characters because I like to know how people are feeling from both sides of the story. I think that this way of telling the story really made me connect with both Hunter and Quinn and get to like them both for different reasons.

A big part of the previous two books have been about the assassination of someone in the Drake family so it was nice to see that this wasn’t the case this time around. The main story revolves around Hunter and her friends at the academy. I liked the fact that there was quite a big mystery that didn’t really involve the Drakes. Yes, they do get involved but the story doesn’t begin and end with what is happening around them. I couldn’t quite figure out what was really going on or what exactly was behind the strange going ons at the Academy. I always like to be kept guessing so this was a good aspect of the book for me.

I’m excited to see which Drake brother’s story will come next and how book four will be different from the three in the series so far. I love Alyxandra Harvey’s series and would definitely read anything of hers from now on. I loved this book and highly recommend that you read the whole series!

Entangled - Cat Clarke

2010-10-24T15:20:00.000+01:00

Entangled by Cat Clarke will be published on 6th January 2011 by Quercus and it is 256 pages long. I was lucky enough to win a proof copy in a giveaway!

Plot

17 year old Grace wakes up in a completely white room. White bedding, white walls, white furniture. Completely white. The only other things in the room are the pens and paper on the desk. Grace has no idea where she is or even how she got there, all she knows is that Ethan is behind it and there is no way out.

With nothing else to do, Grace begins to write, pouring out the details of her tangled life. A life that she so desperately wanted to forget. She had a perfect boyfriend in Nat and an amazing best friend in Sal but where did it all go wrong and what was so bad about it that she cant remember? As Grace pours her heart out on a page, she tries to figure out what’s happening with her life and how she can get herself out of this massive mess and answer one simple question. Why is she stuck in the white room?

What I thought
I don’t think anything could have prepared me for just how amazing Entangled is. Ok, so many people had said how much they liked it but you never really know for sure until you pick it up yourself. Cat Clarke had me hooked from the very first line. She really doesn’t mess around when it comes to starting a story and I loved how strong and intense the impact of this opening was.

When I started to get into the story, I was feeling a little bit like I was reading a different book than what the synopsis said. My friend at university saw me reading the book and asked what it was about but when I tried to tell her, it ended up sounding nothing like what she was reading on the back of the book. It wasn’t until the story really got going that I realised what was going on and I was actually reading the story that I thought I was.

I wanted to hate Grace so, so much but I just couldn’t do it. She is loud and brash and quite full of herself sometimes but honestly, she reminded me of myself, not just as a teenager but also from only a couple of years ago. There was so much about her character that I could relate to and I was quite shocked at just how similar we were (I have never been locked up in a white room, just so you all don’t think I’m completely mental). I instantly *got* Grace, which is something I have never had happen in a YA book before. I have had that boyfriend that I would have died for, the one that I didn’t think I could ever live without and the one that I thought I was going to be with forever. I was also a pretty self destructive teenager, drinking all of the time to try to get rid of my problems, amongst a whole load of other stuff that I shouldn’t have been doing. Hell, I even had red hair like the girl on the cover of the book!

Something else that I really liked about Grace was the fact that she was so real. Cat Clarke has got a real knack for writing realistic teenage girls, which is something a lot of authors don’t get right most of the time (in my opinion anyway). Because of the way that she was writing everything down, her voice really spoke to me. She had nothing to hide and really poured her heart out on the page. The way that she told her story was consistent throughout and it never felt like someone else jumped in half way through. Grace must have had a firm voice in Cat’s head too for her to jump out of the page like she did. I can imagine Grace sitting in Cat’s head screaming ‘Let me out! Let me out!’.

Entangled is quite an intense read but also beautifully written. I felt so many emotions while reading this one. It made me laugh out loud so many times, due to Grace and her outspoken ways, but it also made me cry…a lot. I could truly feel everything that Grace was going through and experiencing as I turned each page. I felt happy when she was writing about times that she remembered were good ones and I was extremely sad when she began to remember what had really happened. It takes a lot for my to cry at a book but Cat Clarke really touched something in me with this one.

Something that really stood out to me and got me thinking was the fact that the smallest little change or piece of information could change everything that you thought you knew. It isn’t something you really think about on an everyday basis, or even at all sometimes but it made me realise how your actions could have such a big impact on someone else’s life and the decisions they make. Entangled really gave me a lot to think about in many different ways.

You would think that having Grace locked up in a white room would mean the story moving along at a quite steady pace but you would be wrong. There is so much happening throughout the story and moves well from Grace writing about the past to writing about how bored she is in her stupid room. Although I saw some of the plot twists coming, there were some big ones that I wasn’t prepared for at all. Entangled has mystery and dark times but there are also some quite happy times too. I loved the mix of different feelings Grace had because they added different elements to the story all of the time.

Entangled has got to be one of the best books I have read all year and there have been some pretty amazing ones to compete with. To start with all it said was ‘Amazing. Read this book’ because I just couldn’t find the words to say how much I loved it. I really don’t think my review has done it justice at all but I’m no writer so I did my best! Seriously though, Entangled is amazing. Read this book!!

In My Mailbox (#18)

2010-10-24T10:20:00.001+01:00

In My Mailbox is hosted by The Story Siren to show what everyone has been recieving or buying each week.

For Review

Carrie Jones - Entice (Need #3)

Publisher: Bloomsbury

Release Date: 4th January 2011

Zara and Nick are soul mates, meant to be together forever. But that's not quite how things have worked out.

For starters, well, Nick is dead. Supposedly, he's been taken to a mythic place for warriors known as Valhalla, so Zara and her friends might be able to get him back. But it's taking time, and meanwhile a group of evil pixies is devastating Bedford, with more teens going missing every day. An all-out war seems imminent, and the good guys need all the warriors they can find. But how to get to Valhalla?

And even if Zara and her friends discover the way, there's that other small problem: Zara's been pixie kissed. When she finds Nick, will he even want to go with her? Especially since she hasn't just turned. She's Astley's queen.

Kimberley Derting - The Body Finder

Publisher: Headline

Release Date: 11th November 2010

Violet Ambrose is grappling with two major issues: Jay Heaton and her morbid secret ability. While the sixteen-year-old is confused by her new feelings for her best friend, she is more disturbed by her "power" to sense dead bodies – or at least those that have been murdered. Since she was a little girl, she has felt the echoes the dead leave behind in the world...and the imprints that attach to their killers.

Violet has never considered her strange talent to be a gift, but now that a serial killer is terrorizing her small town Violet realizes she might be the only person who can stop him.

Despite his fierce protectiveness over her, Jay reluctantly agrees to help Violet find the murderer – and Violet is unnerved by her hope that Jay's intentions are much more than friendly. But even as she's falling in love, Violet is getting closer to discovering a killer...and becoming his prey herself.

L J Smith - Stefan's Diaries

Publisher: Hodder Children's Books

Release Date: 4th November 2010

Set during the Civil War, against a backdrop of grand estates, unimaginable riches, and deadly secrets, three teenagers in Mystic Falls, Virginia enter a torrid love triangle that will span eternity.

Brothers Stefan and Damon Salvatore are inseparable until they meet Katherine, a stunning, mysterious woman who turns their world upside down. Siblings turned rivals, the Salvatores compete for Katherine’s affection, only to discover that her sumptuous silk dresses and glittering gems hide a terrible secret: Katherine is a vampire. And she is intent on turning them into vampires so they can live together—forever.

(This one I got for emailing Waterstones extremely fast when they were giving away 10 copies on Twitter)

Borrowed from the awesome Emma at Asamum Booktopia

Brenna Yovanoff - The Replacement

Publisher: Simon & Schuster

Release Date: 6th January 2011

Though he lives in the small town of Gentry, Mackie comes from a world of tunnels and black, murky water, a world of living dead girls ruled by a little tattoed princess. He is a replacement - left in the crib of a human baby sixteen years ago when it was stolen away by the fey. Now, because of fatal allergies to iron, blood and consecrated ground, Mackie is slowly dying in the human world. Mackie would give anything just to be normal, to live quietly amongst humans, practice his bass guitar and spend time with his crush, Tate. But when Tate's baby sister goes missing, Mackie is drawn irrevocably into the underworld of Gentry, known as Mayhem, where he must face down the dark creatures and find his rightful place - in our world, or theirs.

So that's what I got this week? Are any of these your favourites?!

Hex Hall - Rachel Hawkins

2010-10-23T01:00:00.001+01:00

Hex Hall is the first book in the series of the same name by debut author, Rachel Hawkins. It was released in the UK on 1st April 2010 by Simon and Schuster Children’s and it is 336 pages long.

Plot

Sophie Mercer is a teenage witch, even if she isn’t a very good one. After a love spell gone terribly wrong after trying to help out a fellow classmate, Sophie finds herself in big trouble. Although she didn’t know it before, there is a place for people like Sophie who get into trouble with their powers. Hex Hall is a reform school for witches, faeries, shifters and one lonely vampire aka Prodigium.

On her first day, Sophie manages to make enemies of three of the most popular and powerful witches in the school, annoy a seriously hot boy and become the roommate of the only vampire enrolled. Students soon start being attacked and the number one suspect is Sophie’s roommate. There is more to these attacks than everyone thinks and it looks like Sophie has a lot to learn before she can figure out who is behind it all.

What I thought
I had been torn about buying this book for quite a while as I wasn’t sure that I was going to like it. Luckily, I managed to pick it up in a 3 for 2 offer in W H Smiths a few weeks back and there wasn’t really anything else that I wanted as my free book. Now, I wish I had bought it a lot sooner as it was better than I had expected.

It’s very rare that I truly like all of the characters in a book but Hawkins wrote them all so well that I couldn’t help but love them. Even the ones I was supposed to hate had something about them that made me like them that little bit more than I probably should have. There were a couple of teachers that I thought were pretty harsh to begin with but then I realised that they had their own reasons for being the way they were.

I really loved Sophie and I felt for her in the situation she had been forced into. When she arrives at Hex Hall, she really isn’t a very good witch and has a problem carrying out even the simplest of spells, which doesn’t go down well with the other witches in the school. Sophie was raised by her human mother who was no help with her magic at all so it wasn’t surprising that she didn’t know everything that she was supposed to. As she was completely out of her element, I couldn’t help but feel sorry for her and hope that she got better and quickly.

Another thing that I liked about Sophie was that she wasn’t about to bow down to anyone else and do what they wanted just so that she would fit in. Elodie and the mean girl witches tried their hardest to get Sophie to join their coven but knowing what they were like, she continuingly says no because she knows what kind of girls they really are. Jenna (the lesbian vampire roommate) is probably the most hated girl in school but Sophie is determined to stick by her and believe that she is innocent. Jenna was a great addition to the story and I loved how funny she was. A teenage vampire that is completely girly and addicted to pink (in any way possible) was a bit of a shock to me but she ended up being one of my favourites.

Archer Cross was a fabulous main male character. There was a certain air of mystery about him the whole way through the story and I was never completely sure what to make of him. His intentions seem real at some parts but then at others, he seems like a different person, making me not want to trust him. The end of the book saw Archer in a kind of purgatory and Hawkins left us guessing as to what happens to him. I really hope in future books he makes another appearance and that I finally get to know what he is really all about. Archer Cross is hot, mysterious and seems like he can really kick ass! What more could you ask for?

The story was so much better than I had been expecting and I was hooked within a couple of pages. Sophie and the world of Prodigium drew me in straight away and I wanted to know more about how all of these different people were going to get along, being forced in a school together. I was so happy to see that each different species I guess you would call it were like cliques in high school. The faeries didn’t like the witches and the witches didn’t like the shifters…you get my meaning.

The dialogue is witty and humorous throughout and exactly what I would expect from teenagers. Don’t take that as a bad thing though, even if I make it sound like it was too predictable. Hawkins managed to make these teenagers seem as real as possible while taking into account their special abilities and powers. I would definitely expect to see teenage witches trying to make the most beautiful dresses with their magic because after all, that is probably the kind of thing I would be doing.

Hex Hall is a fabulous debut novel and I cannot wait for more from Rachel Hawkins. I loved this book so much that I read it in one sitting because I couldn’t put it down. If you haven’t been sure about this one like me then I urge you to give it a try. I highly recommend this one!

Hush, Hush - Becca Fitzpatrick

2010-10-22T01:00:00.003+01:00

Hush, Hush is the debut novel from Becca Fitzpatrick. It was released in Hardback on 29th October 2009 by Simon & Schuster Children's and it is 400 pages long.

Plot

Nora isn't looking forward to Biology, especially when she realises that it is time for sex education. Luckily for Nora, she always sits next to her best friend Vee but today, her teacher has other ideas in mind. Everyone in the class must swap partners and Nora gets stuck with Patch, the transfer kid who never seems to get involved. Their task is to get to know as much as possible but Patch already seems to know a hell of a lot about Nora. In contrast, Nora has only just learnt Patch's name and he isn't willing to share anything else. Throughout the lesson, Patch tells Nora to call him, indicating that it is the only way that she is going to get any answers but she's freaked out by him and in her head, refuses to call him.

Later that night though, curiosity gets the better of Nora. She wants answers. Patch tells Nora that he's out playing pool so she takes it upon herself to go down there and talk to him even though she's terrified. Nora knows there is something different about Patch and she wants to know how he knows so much about her.

While all of this is going on, strange things are happening to Nora. She's hearing Patch in her head when he isn't there and Vee thinks that Patch is stalking Nora to try to scare her. Even though Patch comes across as the bad guy, Nora's instincts tell her otherwise and she begins to point the finger at another new kid in school. She's going to have to learn to trust Patch before he tells her everything.

My Thoughts
The cover of the book was what drew me to this one. It is silver with a picture of a falling angel with black wings. I instantly thought that it looked interesting and different to anything else I have read. With the paperback being released this year, I am glad that I got the hardback for once because it is a lot nicer looking.

Nora is really likable as the main female character. I don't normally like female leads because they are often whiney and get on my nerves but Nora wasn't like this at all and I loved her. Even though she is very smart and pretty from the sounds of the description, she doesn't have much self confidence. Her best friend, Vee, is stunning and Nora doesn't think that she can compare. She can be strong and confident when she wants to be though. Alarm bells immediately start to ring in Nora's head when she thinks Patch likes her and everything tells her to stay away from him but she just cant seem to help herself, showing her weaker side. I really liked when she starts admitting to herself that she likes Patch because it shows a different side to her character.

Patch is the bad boy that is arrogant, cocky and absolutely full of himself . You really don't want to like him but you just cant help yourself. There is just something about him that draws you in. That is how I felt to begin with anyway. Once the story started to reveal itself, I found myself really warming to him and thinking his cockiness was actually pretty hot. The only problem that I had with Patch was that he wasn't developed enough for my liking. I wanted to know a lot more about his past and what he had been through for him to act the way that he does. I think that this kind of information will come out in the next two books in the series so I just hope that there will be enough of it.

There is a huge amount of chemistry between Nora and Patch. I really enjoyed the banter between the two even though it was quite clear that Nora was going to give in sooner or later. The way that Nora pushes Patch away to begin with was great because it makes a change for the main female to not be so girly and soppy when it comes to a guy. Although this couple have a lot of chemistry, it felt like that's all it was at times. I never really felt completely convinced that it was going to be anywhere near love because their lust overpowered everything else at times. I would have liked their relationship to be a bit more tender and soft at times (never thought I would say that!) just to mix things up a little bit.

The story moves along at quite a quick pace all of the way through. There always seemed to be something exciting happening but each time, just when you think you know what was about to happen, it puts doubts in your mind. One of the best things about the plot for me was the amount of times that the setting changed. There are so many books where the setting stays the same most of the way through so I really liked this difference. The descriptons of these different settings were very clear and vivid, making me feel as though I was there myself. I'm not sure I would have liked to go to the sleazy pool hall but it still sounded exciting from a 'from afar' kind of view!

Hush, Hush was one of the first books that I ever read in this genre and one that made me realise just how much there was on offer. It has so much to offer; plot twists, turns, passion, and excitment. The second book in the series, Crescendo has just been released and I hope it is every bit as fabulous as Hush, Hush!

Waiting on Wednesday (#18)

2010-10-20T01:00:00.003+01:00

"Waiting On Wednesday" is a weekly event, hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine that spotlights upcoming releases that we're eagerly anticipating.

Of Witches and Warlocks: Blood of the White Witch (Book 3)

Lacey Weatherford

US release: Late Oct/ Early November 2010

Synopsis:

When love came knocking on the door of novice witch, Portia Mullins, in the form of handsome bad boy, Vance Mangum, she had no idea how quickly the attraction between them would escalate. Now she finds her relationship with Vance taken to a whole new level, in a way she had never dreamed possible at this point and time of her life. Yet even as the personal connection between them explodes, the two quickly find themselves in a world of shifting balances.

While searching for Vance’s missing mother, they realize they are suddenly unsure of who to trust, learning that sometimes things are not always as they appear. When Vance’s demon characteristics abruptly begin to resurface again without warning, the horrible truth comes out, crashing down upon them and shattering some of their most precious dreams. Once the deadly secret is uncovered, Portia and Vance find themselves hastily rushing against the hands of time in an attempt to stop an ancient ritual from being performed. But will they be successful before fate reaches out to twist them cruelly, possibly separating them and changing magic forever? Passion, loyalties, powers, and family ties, will all be tested when dangerous adventures abound in this third installment in the Of Witches and Warlocks series, Blood of the White Witch.

Lacey's series, Of Witches and Warlocks has been my favourite new series of the year and it is home to my all time favourite bad boy, Vance Magnum. If you aren't familiar with him yet then you should be! He isn't someone that you would want to miss out on.

I know I have already posted a review of this book but the reason I'm using it as my WoW is because I can't wait for the final finished copy!

Finding Sky Blog Tour - Interview with Joss Stirling

2010-10-20T00:30:00.034+01:00

Today is the first stop on the blog tour for Joss Stirling's Finding Sky. I am so happy to have an interview with Joss on the blog today. Enjoy :D

Where did your research for 'Finding Sky' take you?

Colorado and Las Vegas. I loved the first – the mountains are spectacular. I saw most of it from the train which crosses the Rockies from Grand Junction to Denver. Las Vegas I disliked intensely, though I admit to a horrified fascination with the artificial world created in a desert. Sky has picked up some of my feelings.

What was the most enjoyable part of researching abroad and where did you enjoy the most?

Meeting Americans on a ranch in the Rockies – we had cook-outs and hayrides and lots of riding right up above the tree line in the mountains. It wasn’t ski-ing season – which is just as well because I would be about as good as Sky at that.

You went white water rafting, did you put your own feelings into what Sky experienced?

No, because I loved the rafting, expertly led by our golden Viking of a guide, Travis. By contrast, Sky has a difficult time and comes out feeling very angry. I was inspired to write the episode of her going overboard as we did get involved in a serious rescue situation when another party of fairly elderly people capsized in a rapid. Our boat helped pull one lady out – she was shaken and grazed much like Sky.

During your research, was there anything that affected the way you wrote the story or where it ended up?

Definitely. I had sketched it out in my imagination before I went, but Las Vegas in particular felt different from how I had assumed it to be. My villain changed as a result – less mafia boss, more dodgy business man with an orange tan like some notable figures in Vegas that I could mention – but won’t – in case they sue!

Did you have any problems changing from the way British people speak to American and did you learn a lot about different sayings etc while researching?

I tried hard to get it right but I expect I hit a few bum notes. I always spot mistakes if I read a book by an American set in England so I don’t imagine I’ll escape as I’ve dared the vice versa scenario. One area of difficulty is that many English teens pick up US terms from TV so there is no absolute divide between the languages. I did ask an American friend about the rules and language of baseball so I think that is correct (‘inning’ not ‘innings’ Old Bean). Any help from real Americans is welcome so I don’t fall in to the same bear traps again! Guys, I tried – honest!

Did you take any character traits for Sky and Zed from people you met while you were researching?

I don’t borrow real people for my books – the characters were themselves from the start. Zed of course is the boy I would’ve liked to go out with at High School, but to be honest, I don’t think anyone to match him existed in Essex where I grew up!

I loved the idea of Savants and soulfinders. Where did the inspiration for this come from?

I knew I didn’t want to write about vampires, werewolves, angels – all done to death (and after death) at the moment. So what else leads in to those dark gothic areas that you need for this kind of story? I decided the hidden world of extra-sensory perception was the way to go for me as it has the intimate side of telepathy combined with the battle zone of extra powers where good can fight evil. It’s a kind of grown up magic, isn’t it?

And the idea of soulfinders plays on ‘the one for you’ idea that has been around as long as we’ve had romance in our souls. I liked the concept that you got a gift – your power – but with a massive price tag: your other half is out there somewhere but you had to find him or her. Not everyone succeeds and that leads to bitterness and some very dark places in the soul, but if love wins out, then the gains are even greater by contrast.

I was really interested in the different gifts that Zed's family had. Will we be hearing from any of Zed's brothers in the future?

Oh yes. Next one up is Yves – the hot Harry Potterish one. I’m looking forward to finding the wild child in our restrained bookish Benedict. His soulfinder is suitably out of control and in need of him – the fireworks are going to fly!

Massive thanks to Joss for answering my questions! I can't wait for the next book in this series and to find out more about Zed's brothers as well as meeting Joss on the 27th.

The next stop on the tour is at Girls Without A Bookshelf tomorrow (21st October) so be sure to check it out!

Beauty - Robin McKinley

2010-10-18T01:00:00.002+01:00

Beauty is a retelling of the classic tale of Beauty and the Beast by Robin McKinley. It was released on 4th March 2004 by Corgi Childrens and it is 259 pages long.

Plot

The Beauty in this story isn't actually called that. Her real name is Honour. As a child, she decided that she didn't really like her name and picked her nickname, Beauty, herself and it stuck. Unlike her sisters, she doesn't think that she is actually beautiful and thinks she is the plain sister out of the three. She is also not very girly and likes reading and horses rather than being interested in finding a man to marry.

When her fathers shipping business has problems, they family are forced to sell nearly everything they own. They put together their money with one of Beauty's sisters' fiancé and move away to the country. Although things are hard to begin with, everyone learns to cope but then their father goes away on a trip to make some more money. He is away for months and months but when he returns, he does so with treasures for everyone and the most beautiful rose for Beauty. As one of the petals falls, it turns into gold and Beauty wants to know why. Her father begins to explain to the family about his trip.

On the way back home, he got lost in the woods in the middle of a storm and stumbled across a huge castle. It seemed that no one was home but the doors opened themselves and let him in. There, he recovered for the night and set off to get home. As he is leaving the castle though, he sees the amazing garden, full of perfect roses and harmlessly picks one for his daughter. As he does, the owner of the castle, the Beast, roars and demands to know why. The Beast has shown nothing but hospitality and he is repaid with selfishness and greed. The Beast makes a deal that either he can give up his life for picking the rose or his daughter can come to the castle in his place in order to save his life. Beauty agrees to go to the castle in his place but when she gets there, she realises that everything is not as it seems and the Beast really isn't one at all.

What I thought
What I loved about this one was that we got to know about Beauty's family and the reasons behind why she had to go live with the Beast. She showed a lot of courage when she told her father that she would go to the castle to save his life. She is very determined to get what she wants and firmly believes that she is doing the right thing. Some have said that Beauty is too obsessed with how she looks but I don't think this was how it was at all. She doesn't think she is beautiful at all, she thinks she is quite plain and boring but she really doesn't mind. Beauty seems happy enough in her own world of books and learning that she doesn't yearn to be like her sisters. I would have liked it if at the end of the story, she gave up a bit more of a fight when she realises that her looks have changed but I wasn't too opposed to that part.

The Beast isn't the same as he is in the Disney film at all. The basics to his story are still the same, like the fact that he has a curse put upon him and it will take something spectacular to break it. He tells Beauty's father that he will never harm her so she isn't particularly scared of him at any point. He is very wary about spending time with Beauty at times because of what he is and the things that she believes in. It was so interesting to watch Beast grow and become more human by the day when Beauty makes him do things like turn his own pages of a book and eat things that she does.

I felt like this version of the story was a lot more magical than I had expected. Unlike in the film where the household items became enchanted too, they were invisible this time and that added a whole lot of mystery. You have no real idea who or what is doing everything around the house apart from when Beauty begins to hear the voices. She knows that something is going on but cant figure out what she has to do.

The only thing that I didn't like about the story was the fact that from the first time Beast meets Beauty, he asks her to marry him and continues to do so every single day. I understand that time was running out and he needed to get her to fall in love with him but he didn't even give her any time at all to get to know him. This would have annoyed me more than anything else and I would have wanted to spend less time with him instead of more.

Overall, this is an amazing story that has a lot more depth and wonder than the original. I'm not quite sure what age range this is aimed at but I am 24 and I loved it.

In My Mailbox (#17)

2010-10-17T11:27:00.001+01:00

In My Mailbox is hosted by The Story Siren to show what everyone has been recieving or buying each week.

For Review

Matched - Ally Condie (UK Proof/ ARC)

Publisher: Puffin

Release Date: 2nd December 2010

Cassia has always trusted their choices. It’s barely any price to pay for a long life, the perfect job, the ideal mate. So when her best friend appears on the Matching screen, Cassia knows with complete certainty that he is the one . . . until she sees another face flash for an instant before the screen fades to black. Now Cassia is faced with impossible choices: between Xander and Ky, between the only life she’s known and a path no one else has ever dared follow—between perfection and passion.

Won

Entangled - Cat Clarke (UK Proof/ ARC)

Publisher: Quercus

Release Date: 6th January 2011

The same questions whirl round and round in my head:

What does he want from me?

How could I have let this happen?

AM I GOING TO DIE?

17-year-old Grace wakes up in a white room, with table, pens and paper - and no clue how she got here.

As Grace pours her tangled life onto the page, she is forced to remember everything she's tried to forget. There's falling hopelessly in love with the gorgeous Nat, and the unravelling of her relationship with her best friend Sal. But there's something missing. As hard as she's trying to remember, is there something she just can't see?

Grace must face the most important question of all. Why is she here?

Bought

This one really needs no explaining. I found this in The Works for the bargain price of £3.99 and I couldn't not buy it. It will take me a long time to get around to reading this because I have so much else that comes first but I did have a quick flick through and it's very pretty!

Although I didn't get that much this week, Matched and Engtangled were 2 books that I was dying for. That easily makes up for not getting more books this week. If you have read either or both, which should I read first??

Finding Sky Blog Tour

2010-10-17T00:31:00.001+01:00

I am so excited to be a part of this tour that's starting in a couple of days time! I loved Finding Sky and can't wait to meet Joss at an event on the 27th October. Here is what's going on for the tour so make sure to check out the posts. It starts on 20th October right here on Heaven, Hell and Purgatory!

Infinite Days - Rebecca Maizel

2010-10-16T01:00:00.002+01:00

Infinite Days is the debut novel by Rebecca Maizel and it was released on 3rd September 2010 by Macmillan Children's Books and it is 400 pages long.

Plot
Lenah Beaudonte is a 500 year old vampire. She has no morals, no humanity left in her at all and doesn’t care who she kills to be able to feed. Along with Lenah is a powerful coven of vampires who she handpicked to join her. At least that’s who she was, until her lover Rhode performed an extremely dangerous ritual to turn her back into a human.

Now very much alive in the present day, Lenah is human once again and back to being a teenage girl. The life ahead of her is so very far away from any kind of life that she knew before and she’s going to have a lot to learn. Rhode enrolled Lenah in a prestigious boarding school and even though she isn’t a vampire anymore, she still gets a large amount of attention. While being buried, preparing to become human again, Lenah left behind her powerful coven and she knows the day that they will come looking for her is fast approaching. Will she be able to fit into this very strange life and hide away from the vampires she once called friends before they come to destroy her?

What I thought
The whole idea behind the story was a very interesting one and something I had never heard about before, which is what drew me to this book. In no other book have I heard about vampires being able to become human again so I was really excited to learn how this was done. It was good to see that not every vampire could do this and that it was extremely dangerous to try to perform the ritual. When Lenah becomes human again, she is a teenage girl who has been out of society for a very long time. There are some funny moments when it comes to Lenah figuring out new technology and what else is new in the world. I imagine it would have been very confusing for her, waking up and not having any idea about what is happening in the world. Not only that, but Lenah had never been to a modern day high school before so this was going to take a lot of getting used to.

Another thing that I liked about the vampires in this story was the fact that there was no good and bad side. All vampires are bad in this case and Lenah’s past is proof of that. The reasons behind the evilness were well explained and I thought they were very believable. These vampires lose everything about their human selves once they are turned so there is no humanity or soul to keep them away from being truly bad.

I really liked the fact that I got to learn about Lenah’s time with her coven and how she met Rhode and Vicken. These parts of the story were really interesting and gave me the chance to find out who Lenah really is, or was in this case. I love to know at least a little bit of history behind a character so this really worked for me. Lenah’s coven were made out to be extremely dangerous but when the time came to meet them, it was all over far too quickly and I didn’t believe they were that powerful after all. I would have liked to have seen a bit more action and conflict between Lenah and her coven to make this more believable.

I just didn’t love the relationship between Lenah and Justin. To me, it didn’t feel real at all and I couldn’t really believe what was going on between them. I think my main problem was that they didn’t really have any time at all to get to know each other. As soon as Lenah arrives at school, Justin is extremely quick to drop his current girlfriend who he seem to have been with for a while. This aspect of the book was one seen all too often. I really never believe that a couple can fall madly in love without even knowing the simplest of things about each other. I would have liked to have seen a lot more interaction between the two, rather than to read about the time Lenah spent with Tony. Although their friendship was nice, it didn’t seem all that important to the story at times.

One of my favourite characters was Rhode, even though he isn’t really around that much. The idea of him and his morals, even as a vampire, were really interesting and I would have loved to have seen what he would do in Lenah’s situation. I never thought I would say this about a vampire but Rhode is a true sweetheart and made me melt a little bit.

I hate to say it, because I was really looking forward to this one, but I didn’t love Infinite Days at all. There were quite a lot of good points for me but also quite a few bad points. The story moved along at quite a slow pace for a long time and I never felt like anything great or exciting was going to happen. Unfortunately, this book fell short of my expectations.