Helena Christodoulo
‘Earth's End' is the third novel of the ‘Air Awakens” series written by Elise Kova. In this novel, Vhalla, and the rest of the army has finally reached the warfront in the North. The war is explored throughout this novel.
Throughout this novel, the relationship between Vhalla and Aldrik leaps forward, as Vhalla's character grows even stronger as a person and as she starts to control her elemental abilities even more. There are new characters that are introduced in this novel. The novel ends with a cliff-hanger that is just as great as the second novel. I gave this novel 5/5 Stars.
‘Fire Falling' is the second novel of the ‘Air Awakens” series written by Elise Kova. In this novel, Vhalla, marches off to war in the North with hopes to bring victory to the Solaris Empire and to win her freedom, as she is now property of the Empire.
The second novel was just as fast and fun as the first. The characters that were introduced in the first novel, had some good character development. The romance became much more developed as the novel progressed. There were scenes where I shed a few tears. But all in all, the novel was better than the first, I gave the second novel 5/5 Stars.
‘Air Awakens' is a novel written by Elise Kova, book one of the ‘Air Awakens' series. This novel is a fantasy, romance story about elemental magic and a library apprentice named Vhalla who's powers are awakening, which leads to the crowned prince to take an interest in her, as she also helped save his life.
The novel was a fast, fun read, that I enjoyed. Vhalla, the main character was frustrating at first, but her character developed as the novel progressed. The other characters were also very interesting, including the crowned prince and his younger brother.
Overall I enjoyed the novel in its entirety. I gave this novel a 4.5/5 Stars.
“Descender” is the first in a graphic novel series, written by Jeff Lemire, and art by Dustin Nguyen, with lettering done by Steve Wands. The first volume follows a young robot boy named TIM-21 and his robot friends trying to survive in a universe where androids have been outlawed. TIM-21 is being hunted, because one, he is a robot and two, he has a code which is identical to the mysterious robots called the Harvesters, who attacked humans, and TIM-21 with the same code could help save lives and defeat the Harvesters.
I really enjoyed the story and the art of this graphic novel, so I gave this volume a 5/5 stars.
Crystal Crowned is the fifth and final novel in the ‘Air Awakens” series written by Elise Kova. There is a new battle that the characters need to fight, but this fight will be the last, where Vhalla fights for peace within the kingdom.
This novel was a pretty good conclusion to the novel. Vhalla and Aldrik's relationship has reached the next stage, where they are fully committed to each other and they accept each other. The villain of this novel was a surprise, overall I love the conclusion, I gave this novel a 5/5 Stars.
‘Water's Wrath” is the fourth novel of the ‘Air Awakens” series written by Elise Kova. The war in the North is over and Vhalla has won her freedom along with the war.
Vhalla and Aldrik's relationship is explored after the events of the third novel. Aldrik and Baldair's brotherly relationship grows throughout the story and in this particular novel it peaks. This novel made me cry at some parts. I gave this novel a 4/5 stars.
“Reign the Earth” is the first novel in “The Elementae” series, written by A.C. Gaughen. The novel follows Shalia is the proud daughter of the desert and in order to ensure her people's safety and to keep the peace, she is willing to trade her own freedom for her people, so she becomes the Queen of the Bonelands by marrying Calix, who is motivated only by his desire to eradicate the Elementae, who are mystical people who can control the four elements which includes, earth, wind, air, and fire. Shalia beginnings to have feelings for her husband's brother, which unleashes a power over the earth she never knew she possessed—a power that could get her killed. As rumours of a rebellion against Calix spread, Shalia must choose between the last chance for peace and her own future as an Elementae.
I really enjoyed the novel, as the novel contains elemental magic, which is always great. I also thought that the romance was quite interesting. The novel did have some heavy themes. I gave the novel 3/5 Stars.
The ‘Undying' is the final novel in the ‘Unearthed' duology written by Amie Kaufman and Meagan Spooner. The novel starts off, where the first novel ended, where both Mia and Jules are trapped abroad the Undying's ancient spaceship.
They are in a desperate race to warn Earth about the danger humanity has unleashed, but being surrounded by Undying saving Earth will be a lot harder than expected.
The novel follows the characters finding out who and what the ‘Undying' are. The characters go on a journey to find Jules fathers. The final novel was an enjoyable read, I gave it a 3/5 stars.
‘My Hero Academia' is a manga series written by Kohei Horikoshi. This manga is set in a world where 80 percent of the human population manifested superpowers, that are called “Quirks” at the age of four. Within this world Heros and Villans are battling it out everywhere. Those who are born with the quirks and want to become Heros need to be taught how to control their powers they go to a Hero school.
The manga follows Izuku Midoriya, who is born quirkless, and dreams of being hero more than anything else. Izuku wants to get into the prestigious U.A. High School for budding heroes, but an encounter with All Might, the greatest hero of them all, gives Izuku a chance to change his destiny, and be the hero he wants to be.
I really enjoyed the start of the story. I really enjoy the characters that we meet in the first volume of the manga. I really felt for Izuku when he found out that he had no quirk, and that he couldn't fulfil his dreams, but that all changed with meeting All Might, who trained him, and passed on his own quirk to Izuku. I gave this volume a 5 out of 5 stars.
“Always and Forever, Lara Jean” is the final novel in the trilogy written by Jenny Han. Within this novel, Lara Jean is still in a relationship with Peter, and now she is trying to organise her father's wedding to Ms. Rothschild, while she is applying to colleges and completing high school.
I really enjoyed this novel due to the college problems that Lara Jean faced within the novel, as I related to these exact problems that she faced. This novel was very relatable. I quite enjoyed the romance within this novel, and the discussion on whether Lara Jean and Peter should breakup before college. I also liked the family relationships within this novel. This novel was a pretty good conclusion for the trilogy, so I gave this novel a 4.5/5 stars.
“P.S. I Still Love You” is the second novel in Jenny Han's trilogy, which continues the story from the first novel. In this novel we see Lara Jean and Peter, in their real relationship. But another recipient of the five letters shows up and his return brings up problems for Lara Jean and Peters relationship, as Lara Jean has feelings for both John the new boy and Peter.
There was a love triangle in the first novel, but in this novel the new love triangle was better. As Lara Jean having feelings for both Peter and John, do make sense. John is a very nice character and he would be a great boyfriend, especially after Lara Jean finds out the Peter had been keeping secrets about him and his ex, from the last book, which causes problems. Though Peter was still a nice guy, but I did not like him putting his ex first. I liked Peter much more when he starts to fight for her. The novel was just as fast paced and fluffy as the first novel, I gave this a 4.5/5 stars.
“To All the Boys I've Loved Before” is the first novel in a trilogy written by Jenny Han. I re-read this novel when the Netflix movie came out this year. This novel follows main character Lara Jean, who writes letters to boys whom she had feelings for, and places those letters in box. One day those letters have been mailed out.
There were five letters that were sent out, and Lara Jean has to deal with the outcome of this. Though out of the five letters, only three recipients of the five letters, are seen throughout the first novel, but of those three, one is gay, one is her sister's ex-boyfriend - Josh -, and the other is the boyfriend of Lara Jean's enemy - Peter. Peter and his girlfriend break up, and he suggests after getting the letter, that he and Lara Jean pretend to be in a relationship, to make his ex jealous, and so that Josh, will think that Lara Jean has no feelings for him any more. Throughout the novel Lara Jean starts to halve real feelings for her fake boyfriend.
I liked the relationship between Lara Jean and her two sisters, and how Lara Jean, does not like having feelings for her older sisters boyfriend, as she does not want to hurt her siblings. I also liked the fake relationship between Lara Jean and Peter, and how that relationship turns to a friendship then eventually into an actual relationship, near the end of the novel. I also liked the baking aspect. The novel was fast paced and fluffy, which I really enjoyed, I gave the novel a 4.5/5 stars.
“The Chalk Man” is a standalone mystery thriller written by C.J. Tudor. The novel is set in two contrasting years. The first being 1986 and the second being 2016. The novel follows the same character, Eddie, in both years. Eddie tells the story of the Chalk Man (Mr. Halloran), a murderer who gave Eddie the for the chalk drawings which was a way to leave secret messages for his friends and it was fun until the chalk men led them to a body, this was in 1986. But thirty years later, an envelope slips through the letterbox. It contains a stick of chalk and a drawing of a figure. So is Mr. Halloran the real killer, or is the real one still walking free?
This novel is fast and has some ‘taboo' things happening in 1986, and all these led to a murder. The story was interesting, especially learning about the town and all its secrets. I found the main character strange and weird, especially at the end of the novel. It was a good mystery I didn't guess who the real killer was, so I gave the novel a 3/5 stars.
“The Book of M” is a standalone novel written by Peng Shepherd. The novel is set in a near future world, where people are losing their shadows and with that they also start to lose their memories. The novel follows Ory and his wife Max, they are living an as normal life as they can after the ‘forgetting', but everything goes wrong when Max loses her shadow, and eventually, she runs away to protect Ory as, the more she forgets, the more dangerous she will become. Ory goes after her, hoping to find her before her memories fade completely.
The novel was interesting, with the shadows disappearing, and that causing peoples memories to fade as well, it was very interesting, I really enjoyed the first part of the novel, but I started not to care for some of the characters. We also don't find anything out about why the shadows were disappearing. So, in the end, it was a good novel, so I gave the novel a 3/5 stars.
“The Loneliest Girl in the Universe” is a standalone novel written by Lauren James. This novel follows main character Romy Silvers who is the only surviving crew-member of a spaceship that is travelling to a new planet, on a mission to start a second home for humanity amongst the stars. Romy is alone in space, she is the loneliest girl in the universe until she hears about a new ship which has launched from Earth and aboard the ship is a single passenger, a boy called J. Romy and J's only communication with each other is via email which is due to the distance between them, their messages take months to transmit across space. And yet Romy finds herself falling in love.
This novel was fast paced. I, at times felt bad for Romy, due to her being alone, having lost her parents and that she has no new tv series and movies, which must really suck. Romy is somewhat annoying at times. I also had a feeling that J was not really who he seemed to be. It was a pretty average book, so I gave the novel a 3/5 stars.
“To Kill a Kingdom” is a standalone novel written by Alexander Christo. This novel follows two perspectives, Lira a siren princess who kill's princes and takes their heart while the second character is Elian a human Prince who hunts sirens and kills them. Lira's mother turns Lira into a human and is tasked with bringing Prince Elian's heart to her mother. After Lira becomes human, she is saved by Elian, and she promises him that she can help destroy the siren's. They both go off to find something that can kill the siren queen, and during this adventure Lira and Elian fall in love with one another.
The novel was okay. I felt that the characters were fine. Though Elian trusted Lira way to fast after he saved, her from drowning. Lira was meant to be ruthless and bloodthirsty, but I did not get that from her character. I only got the ruthlessness when Elian caught that other siren and Lira was okay with helping him kill one of her own kind. I gave the novel a 3 out of 5 stars.
“Love and Other Train Wrecks” is a standalone novel written by Leah Konen. The novel is a twenty-four-hour romance about two teenagers who meet on a train ride in the middle of a snowstorm. The novel follows two perspectives, one being Noah, who is heading home for one last chance with his first love, whom he broke up with when he went off to college. The second character is Ammy, she leaves her mother to attend her father's wedding, that is happening in Upstate New York.
The train the two are on suddenly breaks down due to a snowstorm and desperate to make it to their destinations, Noah and Ammy have no other option but to travel together. What starts off as a minor detour turns into the whirlwind journey of a lifetime, and over the course of the night they fall in love.
The novel was fast-paced, sweet and cute. Noah was also sweet, romantic and nerdy, while Ammy was a smart and loyal character. I gave the novel a 3/5 Stars, due to the fact that I didn't love the novel, and thought that it was just sweet and cute.
“White Trash Zombie Unchained” is the sixth book in the white trash zombie series. Angel pulls herself back together after the events of the previous novel. Angel and her friends have to go on a hunting to find and stop the new type of zombie that has emerged in town. These new zombies are mindless, infectious and ravenous, with these wondering around, a pandemic could start, and that is not good.
This novel was as good ad the previous novels. Angel was not as annoying as the last two novels, she has grown over the series as a whole. The novel had zombie alligators, which was pretty cool, which made the novel better. I liked the action within the novel, so I gave this a 4.5/5 stars.
“The Kiss Quotient” is a romance standalone written by Helen Hoang. The novel follows Stella who has Asperger's and she thinks that she can learn how to date, and to have physical relations with a man, by hiring an escort named Michael.
The novel follows Stella having lessons with Michael, and eventually these lessons turn into dates and meeting the parents. The two who wanted a no-nonsense or no-attachments relationship start to care and having feelings for each other. The novel is cute and does have some graphic scenes. There are two points of views, which showed the two characters falling for each other. I gave the novel a 3/5 stars.
White Trash Zombie Gone Wild” is the fifth book in the white trash zombie series. This novel follows Angel trying to stop the exposure of zombies to the world, in order to stop her life that she has built, from being destroyed, and on top of this, Angel has gone back to her old ways with new drugs, made for zombies.
This was probably, my least favourite book so far, due to Angel having a drug problem, along with stealing drugs from those who needed the drugs, I found this annoying, because she been doing so well, then feel, back to her old habits, which ended up harming others. The romance with Marcus ended a few books previous, so the new romance within this novel kinda came out of nowhere. I gave this novel a 4.5/5 stars, due to the novel still being white as fast paced and exciting, even with Angel doing drugs.
“How the White Trash Zombie Got Her Groove Back” is the fourth book in the white trash zombie series. The story continues on from the previous novel. In this novel Angel is caught in the start of a war between the Saberton Corporation and the zombie mafia. Which is started when Saberton is abducting zombies, which includes Angels friends. Angel goes on a mission with the zombie mafia, to save the abducted zombies.
The beginning of this novel was slower than the first three, but near the end the novel did pick up, and was more exciting. There was some great female friendship between Naomi and Angel. I enjoyed this novel as much as the previous three, but Angel at parts was a bit annoying. I gave the novel a 4.5/5 stars.
“Sky in the Deep” is a standalone novel written by Adrienne Young. The novel follows Eelyn a female Viking warrior, who while fighting alongside her Aska clansmen, sees her older brother (who died five years ago) fighting with her peoples rivals the Riki clan.
Eventually, she gets captured by the Riki clan and must live and survive the winter in the mountains with her enemy. She stay's as a ‘slave' with her brother and his new family, basically, the guy who nearly killed him five years ago, they became best friends and the guy, named Fiske, his family, was okay adopting someone, who tried to kill their kid.
I found the fighting scenes cool and bloody, most of the time. But most of the book was learning about the different cultures, mainly the Riki culture from Eelyn's point of view, which was interesting. Near the end of the novel the two clan's unit and fight together against a common foe, which means that these two clans create peace. The romance was was slow, but nice. We learn why someone would turn their back on their own clan. I really enjoyed this book, so I gave it 4/5 stars.
“White Trash Zombie Apocalypse” is the third novel written in the White Trash Zombie series written by Diana Rowland. Angel is still dealing with her alcoholic deadbeat dad, her maybe-boyfriend, the zombie mafia and much more. Things get crazy when a zombie movie starts filming in her town, and with this movie, Angel starts fighting her way through mud, blood and bullets, as zombie both real and fake are prowling the streets.
The novel is great, and fun, though the beginning was slow, but the second half was much faster, I gave the novel a 4/5 stars.
“Even White Trash Zombies Get the Blues” is the second novel written in a series by Diana Rowland. The novel continues to follow Angel Crawford after she started her life anew as a zombie, and now she is used to her new life, but with getting used to the new way of life, there are more problems popping up, like her felony record and more zombie hunters, and there is even a zombie mafia.
The novel was just as fun as the first novel, I gave this a 4/5 Stars.
“My Life as a White Trash Zombie” is the first in a series written by Diana Rowland. The novel follows, Angel Crawford, who lives with her alcoholic deadbeat dad. Angel is a high school dropout with an addiction and a criminal record who's been fired from more jobs than she can count. Now on probation for a felony, it seems that Angel will never pull herself out of the downward spiral her life has taken. One day, she wakes up in the ER after overdosing, even though Angel clearly remembers being in a horrible car crash, but she doesn't have a mark on her. To add to the weirdness, she receives an anonymous letter telling her there's a job waiting for her at the parish morgue, while working at the morgue she starts craving human brains.
I love zombies, the novel is fun and interesting. There is a serial killer on the prowl, so the novel includes a mystery on the serial killer and who turned her. I also found the romance quite interesting and fun. I really enjoyed the novel, so I gave this a 4/5 Stars.