Sandy
I didn't want to read this book because I knew it was going to be SAD (capital letters there) and would have me in tears but then I saw the wonderful trailer which made me want to see the movie (despite knowing that would make me SAD too) so I decided I could not see this movie unless I read the book (I did this for The Maze Runner too) and so I bought the book and read it in a matter of days and I was right it was SAD, it had me in tears but my tears didn't land on the pages like I told my friends it would, they landed on my pillow and shirt.
This book though isn't just a SAD book that will hurt you it's a funny book that will make you laugh and a heart WARMING book that will well warm your heart.
Hazel took a while to like but I did grow to like her and I loved Augustus and Isaac and the parents, the poor parents were grand as well as Ms. Lidewij.
And there are so many “quote du jour” moments in this book. These are some unbelievably eloquent teens I tell you (more eloquent then I will ever be). I was pretty much in disbelief reading a good portion of the dialogue or Hazel's POV but boy are they quotable. Put them all on a t-shirt!
“My thoughts are stars I cannot fathom into constellations” - Augustus Waters
Unsurprisingly fun and funny. Loved that we got to see Tanith's background and I enjoyed the contrast of her past and who she used to be with who she is now as a Remnant. Made it quite sad in some parts. My favourite part had to be the team of good guys, both teams were funny but the good guys didn't actually try to kill each other so yay for teamwork.
I started off really liking this story. It was fast pace and I was zipping through it eager to find out what was going to happen next and then I reached around 67% and realized the writing wasn't all that impressive. A lot of explaining and telling coming from the MC. Around 76% was when I started getting bored and stopped caring about the male lead and wanted the MC to not care about him either. I then skimmed the last 10% of the book, eager to just get it over with.
Just noticed I never posted my review for this book here :o
The Hardscrabble children are a peculiar lot. Otto the eldest doesn't speak and always wears a scarf, Lucia who looks just like her name is bold and does not suffer fools who ask idiotic questions, and Max is the youngest but is the cleverest of them all. In their small and boring town the siblings live with their peaceful, artistic father who often leaves them for days or weeks at a time to paint portraits of poor and forgotten royals and when he leaves them they must stay with the horrible Mrs Carnival because their mother is not around. Years ago she disappeared and although Max believes she is only missing Lucia is convinced that she is dead. For his latest job Casper Hardscrabble decides to send his children to London instead to stay with a cousin since the school year is almost over but soon what should just be a few days of fun and change in the city quickly becomes an adventure filled with danger and mystery in a seaside town.
This novel was not a paranormal or a fantasy but it had magic, the kind of magic you find in stories like The Little Princess or The Secret Garden. It shone a light on the courage of children and on the bond and love of siblings who may bicker and fight but are there for each other when it really counts. It was as I said filled with adventure and so many different and delightful characters. From the children themselves to the many different people they encounter who were at times awful, amusing, intimidating, enigmatic and intriguing.
The way Ellen Potter writes is simple but charming, and the way she had her narrator tell the story was both amusing and filled with self-awareness. She has made a story I feel that would appeal not only to its target audience but also older readers looking for a middle-grade read that is stimulating for all ages.
When I finally read the last page of The Kneebone Boy it left my heart feeling lighter despite the bitter-sweetness to the ending because this story was not only delightful and clever but it was honest. Ellen Potter is a writer who knows how to make reality, fantastic and she knows how to do it while still treating readers with respect. I can't wait to read her other books.
In my review of volume 1 I said I would pick up volume 2 because I wanted to see a happy ending and that is definitely what I got. Just like volume 1, volume 2 of Sorcerers & Secretaries was sweet and filled me with warm fuzzies.
Josh and Nicole have finally met on level ground and Josh knows about Nicole's dream log/story and becomes instantly supportive and urges her to finish it by telling her she should enter a fantasy writing contest and Nicole agrees. What starts off as a great time of these two spending time together and Nicole focusing on what she loves soon becomes a situation where Nicole needs to make a choice. She either needs to pursue her dream or continue down the path she is on of being a business major. In the meanwhile Josh is falling in love with Nicole but is afraid of expressing his true feelings despite the signals Nicole keeps sending him.
This mini-series is a cute romantic comedy that I recommended to anyone looking for something light to put a smile on their face.
This was a...strange story, which isn't surprising considering that this is a spin on Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, strange seems to be the norm when it comes to retelling Lewis Carroll's most famous work. I usually don't mind strange as long as the story is still well written and the characters interesting and I am not sure if that was the case here. I am sort of on the fence with my assessment of this manga. Do I like it, do I not like it? I don't know but I will be picking up the second omnibus to find out.
The story begins with Alice Liddell being awaken from her nap in the garden by a white rabbit carrying a pocket watch and telling her that she should be chasing him right now. Alice, thinking she is dreaming, can't be bothered and tries to go back to sleep but the rabbit won't accept this. He quickly changes into a man with white rabbit ears, picks up Alice and runs away with her down a dark hole. Once their fall ends, the man whose name is Peter White mentions something about a game and force feeds Alice a small vial of medicine and quickly abandons her. Now Alice is lost in Wonderland with nothing but an empty bottle. You think this would be bad enough but it turns out there is a sort of war happening in Wonderland between three territories - a Mafia gang called The Hatters, the Queen of Hearts, and an Amusement Park (o.O).
There were characters that I was familiar with like Peter White, who is very much in love with Alice and is always annoying her with his overtures of romance. Blood who is actually the leader of the Hatters mafia gang and the Queen of Hearts, Vivaldi, who may seem like the most normal of them all but always, refers to herself as “we”. Then there were new characters like Ace, a knight of the Queen of Hearts and Julius a keeper of the Clock Tower, both of them, like almost everyone else in Wonderland or not exactly what they seem and carry big secrets. All of them seem to carry guns or swords and aren't afraid to use them on each other and in some occasions on Alice herself.
In this first omnibus instalment of Alice in the Country of Heats, our main character meets a whole host of trigger-happy characters and slowly learns the ways of the country she has been taken to (or is dreaming of because she thinks she's still dreaming). And it seems the more time she spends with the characters and learning about Wonderland the closer she is to finishing “the game”. The problem is the more Alice learns the more invested she becomes in this strange world and the more the characters seem to become attached to her. Not a good thing when all Alice wants to do is go home.
Scary School is not for the weak or those of you who think just because you die or already dead you are excused from attending school or handing in your homework because you are not. As a ghost or zombie or another member of the undead you can still continue receiving your education along with the rest of your classmates, in fact now that you are dead you have a slightly better chance of surviving the school year than those other students who still carry a pulse...but only slight. However, don't think Scary School is all student eating teachers and evil school nurses, there is actually fun to be had and excellent cafeteria food to be eaten.
For the first time ever Scary School has been accepted to participate in the Ghoul Games, in fact not only will it be able to participate but it has been chosen as the host school. Unfortunately, what Principal Headcrusher first believes to be a long awaited acknowledgement of the school being a prominent source of education in the monster community is a plot to shut Scary School down permanently.
Scary School was a humourous, entertaining and cute read comprised of standout characters, enjoyable storylines, and wonderful illustrations. The pace of the novel was quick and constant, the narrator - Derek the Ghost a fresh choice who was both self-aware and matter-of-fact. And the school itself, though told in a light manner really is quite frightening; you could literally die at any moment and none of them are really pleasant. I am not the novel's target audience but I really think my little brother and those this book is meant for would enjoy it as much as I did if not more.
A story I finished mere hours after I started it; to call This is Not a Test by Courtney Summers gripping would be an understatement.
The world has ended or at least it seems that way, for unknown reasons the dead have risen and they are seeking out the living, to kill them, to eat them and with every bite more dead rise. In Sloane Price's mind, however, the end of the world is exactly what she needs. While the group of fellow students, Sloane finds herself barricaded with, try their best to stay alive Sloane prays for the dead to come bursting through the doors to take her and end her life. Because ever since Sloane's older sister Lily abandoned her to escape their abusive father, Sloane can't see what there is left to live for especially now that the rest of the world is joining the dead.
This is Not a Test is an intense and heart twisting novel that reads more normal than paranormal despite being filled with merciless, man eating corpses. Don't get me wrong, the zombies are there and they are scary. Not only can Courtney Summer's zombies run fast, but they are strong and smart. There was one particular scene in this book that had my mouth dropping open and eyes bugging out because even though I wanted the characters to make it, there was no denying that the zombies had just made a brilliant move. They aren't the focus of the story however; the focus is Sloane and the other characters because although it's hard not to think about zombies banging on your door it's the characters that carry the story.
Now almost always, for me to love a story I need to love the characters but in this case I did not like anyone from This is Not a Test, not even Sloane but I did find them all to be realistic and enthralling. I would never want to meet any of them, not even kind hearted Grace or considerate Rhys but all of them kept my eyes glued to the pages and anxious to find out what would happen to each of them. How far would each of them go to survive and what they would do to each other because when it comes down to kill or be killed even the sweetest person can turn into a monster. And some of these characters do some unspeakable things.
If you're looking for a novel with pure action and carnage then this isn't the book for you, but if you want a book that's deep, intense, and provocative, a novel that doesn't gloss over the gritty parts of death or human nature then read This is Not a Test by Courtney Summers because it'll be exactly what you are looking for.
Werewolves, I love me some werewolves. I love them more than vampires but strangely enough if you compare how much werewolf books I actually love to the number of vampire books I actually love then you would be quite confused because the ratio or pie chart you are looking at would not support the first sentence of this review and you would then ask me to explain myself. My explanation to why I love more vampire novels than werewolf novels is that I am extremely picky when it comes to reading about werewolves, but only in YA. When it comes to adult books I love my Kelley Armstrong and Patricia Briggs but when it comes to YA the werewolf books I come across most of the time are too tame or saturated with romance for my blood thirsty and cynical heart. I voiced some of these thoughts while standing in one of the many lines at BEA this year and someone (I think it was Kristen [you don't who Kristen is dear reader]) asked me if I had read Hemlock, I said no and she recommended it. So I picked up Hemlock or downloaded it from amazon to be precise and quickly began reading.
In the world of Hemlock it is public knowledge that werewolves exist and the world has adjusted to this knowledge the way it always does when confronted with something it does not understand and fear – with hate and prejudice. If you are a werewolf you have no human rights. If you are a werewolf you are no longer allowed to live in normal society because you are a threat to normal people. If you are a werewolf you are taken from everything you know and are forced to live in a “camp” with others of your kind for the rest of your life; that is if you aren't killed during the transfer or before the authorities can get to you by your neighbours. Hell, if you are suspected of being a werewolf you have no rights until it's proven you are not a werewolf.
In the small town of Hemlock Mackenzie's best friend Amy has been killed by a werewolf and she was not the only victim. However, she was the victim who gained the most media attention because she was the granddaughter of a politician. Unfortunately the white werewolf in question was never captured and after months of peace it seems the white werewolf is back and killing again or is this one completely new? What could be more dangerous than a werewolf roaming around, however, are the group of Trackers who have been invited to the town. The Trackers are a radical group of extremists who have been given free rein by the local police to do pretty much whatever it takes to find the killer werewolf no matter who gets in the way.
Hemlock was a mystery filled with high-stakes action scenes, compelling drama and a whole cast of unique and diverse characters. Mackenzie is a strong MC who is determined to find out the identity of Amy's murderer, keep her friend Jason from falling to the wayside, and figure out the mix signals she keeps getting from her long time best friend Kyle. Unfortunately for Mackenzie the more she discovers about the night Amy died the more dangerous her life becomes and the more she realizes how little she knows about those closest to her.
I didn't fall irrevocably in love with Hemlock but I did enjoy myself as I read it. There was romance but it wasn't painted throughout all the pages and had me choking on sentiment, there was danger, drama, and many different levels of conflict. There were also twists popping up at every turn and if there is something I love more than werewolves it's a good twist.
I wasn't too interested in Pushing the Limits, one I don't read much contemporary fiction and two the cover kind of screams romance but I got the ARC at BEA and so much people who had read advanced copies were giving Pushing the Limits positives reviews, including one of my favourite authors so I decided to give it a shot. This novel is so much more than a romance.
Told from alternating points of view Pushing the Limits is about Echo, who ever since an attack she can't remember that left her arm permanently scarred is trying not only to remember what happened to her so she can move on but is also trying to deal with the grief of losing her brother Aires who died overseas on deployment. It's about Noah, who after a fire kills his parents has been shipped from one foster home to another and only wants to be reunited with his little brothers again. It's about two people's struggles with overwhelming issues trying to find hope and happiness.
Pushing the Limits was both a deep and compelling read that had me glues to the pages and desperate to find out how the story ends. Katie McGarry knows how to create realistic characters and she knows how to get me to care about them. Both Noah and Echo are the reasons I did not want to put this book down, not only did I want to find out how their individual stories pan out but I wanted to see their relationship out and to find out what would become of it. Echo is a girl who was betrayed be someone she should have been able to trust above everyone else and because of the aftermath she hides herself from the world and has become a shadow of her former self. Noah is the result of the failings of the Foster Care system, there is barely anyone he will trust and he is both hurt and angry. It took me a while to like Noah; I could sympathize with him sure but because of his reputation for doing drugs and sleeping around with girls it wasn't until about one hundred pages in that I started liking him as a character but I eventually did and in the end he was the character that had me crying and wanting to comfort.
Pushing the Limits is not a fluffy light read but nor will it bog you down and fill you with angst. Pushing the Limits is both real and hopeful and a stand out début.
In J.A. Redmerski'sThe Mayfair Mooni both Adria and her older sister Alex Dawson are attacked one night but what is unmistakably a werewolf. However, fortunately for Adria she survives the night with nothing more than a few scrapes and bruises, unlucky for Alex she doesn't. After that night, the girls' injuries were blamed on their known-for-his-bad-temper stepfather and the girls are quickly shipped up north to live with their uncle and his aunt Beverlee, but just because the sisters have moved across country don't mean their troubles are over, in fact, their troubles have increased tenfold. Not only has Adria's once loving and outgoing sister become secretive but Adria is receiving unwanted attention from a local group everyone is telling her are bad news. What's worse is that Alex seems be the groups newest member.
As far as werewolf books go The Mayfair Mooni is an interesting and potential addition to the genre. J.A. Redmerski doesn't gloss over the violence and sexuality you would expect from this kind of read and her spin on the werewolf lore though not entirely original was unique enough to be my favourite part of the book. However, although I found The Mayfair Mooni to be a quick and fast pace read neither the storyline nor the characters have left me with a lasting impression.
Adria was a likeable enough character, I loved that she could stand up for herself and that she was a good friend and loyal sister but there was nothing very intriguing or compelling about her. I didn't really care about Adria and if I couldn't care about her I really didn't care about her sister Alex. The first chapter of The Mayfair Mooni shows and tells how great a sister Alex is but soon after due to circumstances beyond her control Alex changes and it was hard for me to sympathize with her because there was never enough time to get to know who she was before her change. Because of this I couldn't understand why Adria was trying so hard to “save” Alex when she clearly didn't want to be saved. This, unfortunately, kept me from becoming too invested in the story as well as the romance.
I am not saying the romance was bad, I enjoyed the beginning stages of it, the build-up and I like Isaac as a character but I am not a big romance fan as a main factor of a story. This probably makes me not the intended audience of this book because it's obvious from the cover and the description that romance plays a big part in this novel and I just didn't care too much for it. I can also tell its going to be an even greater factor in the next book, Kindred, and think its best I do not continue with the series.
If you are a fan of werewolf novels, books with fast pace storylines and dynamic action sequences, tense and dramatic scenes and romance than I recommend you give The Mayfair Moon a try, but if you are looking for a story to completely blow your mind with intriguing characters and a refreshing plot then you might want to look for a different read.
Posted @ Scribing Shadows
Before I even started Team Human I knew it was going to make me laugh, because it was going to make fun of the stereotypical teen vampire story lines. Story lines that I enjoy sure but also make fun of, you know what I am talking about, girl meets new hot guy in school who happens to be a vampire, knows him for two seconds and they fall madly-can't-live-without-each other love. And Team Human did make me laugh but what I didn't expect it to also do was make me cry. I also didn't expect the amount sleuthing the main character Mel would be partaking in and although I don't gravitate to much mystery books I really enjoyed the mystery in this one.
It's the beginning of September and Mel and her best friend Cathy are starting their senior year, strange thing though so is a 100+ vampire named Francis, who may look seventeen but sure doesn't act like any seventeen year old in the 21st century. Cathy who has been obsessed with everything vampire since Mel has known her is instantly enamoured...Mel is not. Mel doesn't trust Francis, what kind of vampire wants to go to high school? Not to mention it seems the school's principal doesn't want him around either and Mel has made it her job to find out if it's because the principal's husband ran off with a vampire and she's prejudice to all of their kind or that something a lot more sinister is going on.
Team Human wasn't just a story about poking holes at a cliché. It was a story about looking past one's own prejudices and narrow minded beliefs and about accepting the decision and choices of those you love even if it goes completely against what you want. Team Human was about friendships and what it truly means to be a good friend, not just doing what you think is best for others but allowing others to do what they think is best for them even if you completely disagree.
This book was filled with so much character growth and development, not just for our main heroine but for supporting characters as well. Mel goes from being naïve and blinded by her own perspective to someone willing to seeing different points of views before stubbornly deciding that she knows everything. And Kit, a human raised by vampires finally steps out of the world of the undead and interacts with people with a pulse. It also showed the development of relationships between several different characters and not just in a romantic sense. Although, the drama and the mystery was what propelled the story along I enjoyed the character-side of things the most.
If I didn't know any better I never would have guessed that this book was written by two authors, the storytelling is coherent and consistent from beginning to end and I would never be able to point out which author might have wrote what. The style was smart and witty and this story had me giggling throughout most of it and shedding tears later on while still unexpectedly leaving me with a good, warm fuzzy feeling as I read the last line. If you've been on the fence about reading this book then just give in and get it, you won't regret it.
I will be frank here and say I did not enjoy Abandon by Meg Cabot. This novel gave off the impression of being a retelling or spin on the Persephone/Hades myth (and it sort of is) but it definitely was not what I was expecting and lacked the romantic chemistry and intensity I thought this kind of story would give. In short, I found the main character to be irritating and thoughtless, the male love-interest barely there, and the writing style lacking in coherency.
Pierce, our main character, died at the age of fifteen, a year before the novel begins and ever since her near death experience, life for her has been difficult. She does poorly in school, is anti-social, and lands herself in trouble she can clearly avoid. It also doesn't help that her almost permanently dying led to her parents' divorce and an incident at Pierce's old school leads to her being kicked out. Now Pierce is living in Isla Huesos (her mother's childhood home) and attending a new school and trying to make new friends but Isla Huesos was really where all of Pierce's problems began. Because here, years ago, in a cemetery when she was five year's old is where she met John. John who brought a dead bird back to life to appease a little girl, John who she met by a lake-shore in the Underworld when she died the year before, and John who she tricked and escaped from so she could come back to life. Now that sounds like the premise of story that should have you glued to the pages as it fills you to the brim with a heart-stopping scenes and out of this world story telling but in all honesty this story was a disappointing narrative.
Pierce has a tendency for getting herself into trouble whether it be by accidentally tripping on her scarf and falling into a pool or not quickly leaving a shop when the owner starts taking an unwanted interest in her necklace. She also has a tendency for picking on the male lead, John. I can't say too much without giving away spoilers but John does everything he can to protect Pierce and she constantly blames him for the outcome of what was initially her fault or something that wasn't his fault at all. She's not very nice to him to be honest and because of this I can't harp on him for his grumpy, mopy attitude whenever he's in a scene with her because I spent most of the book cursing her from my bed. Not to say that John makes up for Pierce's misgivings, he's not always very clear when he talks to her leaving her to jump to conclusions about his intentions and near the end of the book where he was having more of an actual presence he was becoming too controlling for my tastes.
Another thing that made it hard for me to read Abandon was the jarring transitions from present day to flash backs, it happens consistently throughout the book and without warning which would always pull me out of a scene as I tried to find my bearings and understand what was going on.
I will admit that Abandon has an interesting concept, retellings always need to have a unique spin and I think this one was distinctive enough to stand out but it just never had what it needed to take off.
Ever since she was a little girl there has been a prophecy about Blue Sargent, if she kisses her true love he will die, and this prophecy has been around for so much of her life that Blue has grown quite used to it, at times believing it and at other times thinking it's a trick from her clairvoyant mother to keep Blue from kissing any boys. Then one night on St. Mark's Eve in a church yard Blue sees a spirit of a boy who will die within the year. But Blue isn't a seer and the only explanations for her seeing a soon-to-be-spirit is: one, he is Blue's true love or two, she is the one that will kill him. Blue has never met the boy however and all she knows about him is that he is a student from Aglionby, a Raven Boy, and that his name is Gansey.
Gansey is a boy on a quest, sort of like Indiana Jones but with less bad guys to beat up and tombs to raid, though, he is looking for a tomb. For many years Gansey has been searching for Glendower, an old Welsh king, why? I'd tell you but then that would spoil you. Aiding Gansey in his quest are his three closest friends Noah, a shy boy who barely speaks and does less of everything else, Ronan an angry boy with a broken past who seems to want to destroy his future, and Adam who tries his best in school and has multiple jobs so that he can truly be free and never have to depend on or belong to anyone.
The Raven Boys is a story filled with ley lines, magic, and old Welsh mythology and it is a story about friendship, complex characters and their complex relationships. And although The Raven Boys focuses very much on the plot of Gansey's quest, the story also equally focuses on the lives of the characters, not only their back stories but their goals and motivations, their personal lives and their starkly different personalities that seem to mesh perfectly even though logic says they shouldn't.
When it comes to her writing Maggie Stiefvater has a very subtle style where she will say a lot but with very little words making almost every word you read vital. I like this because it kept me focus on what I was reading and kept my mind whirring as I worked out what a character was doing or not doing. I also had to be careful though because when I got caught up in a scene I would need to slow down, re-read it and make sure I understood what just took place, which I didn't mind because I loved reading this book.
In my opinion this is Maggie's best novel yet, not only is her writing wonderful but the story is unique and the characters intriguing. I've heard there will be four books total in The Raven Cycle series and I know it's going to be torture waiting for each one of them.
One of the main reasons I had enjoyed Clockwork Angel was because the romance, although present, wasn't a main part of the story or at least it didn't take over the story that unfortunately or fortunately (depending on what you are looking for) changes in Clockwork Prince. The love triangle that was only showing signs of starting in the first book, with Tessa being oblivious to Jem's feelings and Will doing whatever he could to scare her off him, changes in Clockwork Prince and becomes the main focus while the plot surrounding the Magister takes a back seat.
By the end of Clockwork Angel it's pretty obvious that Will has a secret, a secret that is behind the reason he always acts so callous and brash towards the people closest to him and I won't tell you what the reason is but in Clockwork Prince Will seeks out the help of Magnus a warlock, who I had enjoyed reading about in Clockwork Angel, to put a stop to what's plaguing him.
On the Institute side of things, the Clave has charged Charlotte with the duty of locating the Magister and if she doesn't find him in a specific amount of time she will be replaced as Head of the Institute, an action that could leave Tessa out on the streets and unprotected. Not only does Tessa have this to worry about but she still thinks about her brother, Nate, who betrayed her as well as her growing feelings for Jem and the mixed signals she's getting from Will.
If I thought Clockwork Angel was character-centric then Clockwork Prince is even more so. We get to learn a lot more about Will's past and why he became a Shadowhunter and Jem finally shows a side that isn't always calm and put together. We even learn a little more about the Magister and the reason behind his hatred of the Shadowhunters which shows these policemen of the Downworlders may not be so angelic after all. There is also a lot of mystery behind what Tessa really is and why she was created and at the end of Clockwork Prince we still have no idea what she is and with all this anticipation Cassandra Clare is building up it better be worth the wait.
I didn't love it as much as the first book, Tessa was too fickle for my tastes, but it was still a fun read and I can't wait for Clockwork Princess to be released.