Book Review- I'll Give You the Sun by Jandy Nelson

Title:   I’ll Give You the Sun by

Author:  Jandy Nelson

Series:   N/A

Published:   2 April 2015 by Walker

Length:  416 pages

Source: library

Other info:  Nelson has also written The Sky is Everywhere

Summary : Jude and her twin brother, Noah, are incredibly close. At thirteen, isolated Noah draws constantly and is falling in love with the charismatic boy next door, while daredevil Jude cliff-dives and wears red-red lipstick and does the talking for both of them. But three years later, Jude and Noah are barely speaking. Something has happened to wreck the twins in different and dramatic ways . . . until Jude meets a cocky, broken, beautiful boy, as well as someone else—an even more unpredictable new force in her life. The early years are Noah's story to tell. The later years are Jude's. What the twins don't realize is that they each have only half the story, and if they could just find their way back to one another, they’d have a chance to remake their world.

Review: Jude and Noah are close twins, both aiming to get into art school, both falling in love. Then their mum dies, and the bond breaks.

From everyone else's reviews, I was hoping I'd liked this. The first chapter starts well, introducing us to a thirteen year old artist who frequently envisions paintings in his head. We learn of his aim to get into art school, an aim shared by his twin sister. The second chapter is narrated by said twin, age 16, frustrated with her art projects, and frequently referring to the advice her grandmother gave her. From then, I don't really know.

It's hard to get in to. Literary-wise, I appreciate the character consistency of painting titles and advice. Reader-wise, I found it annoying. It also took me time to work out  the  thing with Grandma and ghosts. Was it supernatural? Was it Jude's personal beliefs? I knew nothing about this book before I started beyond the near universal love from bloggers. It was quite confusing.

I didn't connect properly to the characters. This  then had a knock on effect on my overall experience of the book.

I didn't mind reading about all the interactions between Jude, Guillermo, and Oscar, and Noah and Brian. But I just didn't really care. Also, if you asked me to describe chronologically what happened, I would be totally unable to do so.

To be honest, I only had three reasons to keep reading this. One: because so many people enjoyed it, and I felt I needed to persevere. Two: I really wanted to know why Noah hadn't made it into the art school, when from the (admittedly biased because it's narrated by him) first chapter. Three (when we found out why): It was so far in to the book I may as well finish it.

Overall:  Strength two tea to a book I was hoping to enjoy, but sadly couldn't.

Links: Amazon | Goodreads | Author website |

Book Review- We Were Liars by E. Lockhart

Title: We Were Liars

 Author: E. Lockhart

Series: N/A  

Published:   13 May 2014 by Hot Key Books

Length: 240 pages

Source: library

Summary : A beautiful and distinguished family.
A private island.
A brilliant, damaged girl; a passionate, political boy.
A group of four friends—the Liars—whose friendship turns destructive.
A revolution. An accident. A secret.
Lies upon lies.
True love.
The truth.

Review: Cady is one of the Liars, the younger end of a family that meets every summer to spend the holiday at the summer home. At some point, she loses her memories.  Two years later, she wants to find out what happened.

I was really looking forwards to this and everyone really enjoyed it and watching somep ople's reactions during the liveread made me think it was going to be amazing. Sadly for me it wasn't.

I think I missed something at the start but I really don't get why everyone loves this. It's slow. The writing, while stripped back in places, seems boring too. The story doesn't seem to go very fast, and the forbidden love aspect is not my favourite as a trope anyway and this book didn't change my mind on it.

I didn't connect or like any of the characters. They seemed too detached from me and I didn't really care what happened to them. Cady is a bit whiny and the rich WASP background comes through and she comes off as pretentious in places, something I'd had enough of with Leo from The Go Between which I read at the same time.

I really enjoyed Gat's comments on race and racism, being Indian and surrounded by white people. The repeated retellings of fairy tales were also really good.

I also think that the style, full of metaphors and winding around, is the kind of thing that could be praised in a literary sense. It just wasn't my kind of thing.

The ending is good, I suppose. It didn't seem like a huge thing to me though, and when it was revealed, I just shrugged and read on. I think it's because I disconnected with the whole story so I didn't really care.

Overall:   Strength 2 tea to a book I didn’t get into at the start which meant I didn’t enjoy the whole thing.

Links: Amazon | Goodreads | Author website | 

Book Review- Run by Gregg Olsen

Title: Run

 Author: Gregg Olsen

Series:  Vengeance #1

Published: May 2014

Length: 256 pages

Warnings: off-stage past rape and killings

Source: publishers

Summary : What if you discovered that everything you thought you knew about yourself was a lie?

Rylee is fifteen. She comes home from school one afternoon to find the most shocking thing possible - her father dead, with a knife through his heart, and a key clutched in his hand. Her mother's purse is on the counter, but she appears to be long gone. A message in blood is written on the floor... RUN.

With her brother in tow, Rylee begins a dark journey, one that will uncover horrific and chilling crimes and lead her to an unexpected and gruesome discovery about her real father and what - or who - is behind his insatiable desire to kill. By the journey's end Rylee's childhood is a long way behind her...

RUN is the first title in the new Vengeance series, following Rylee as she begins to piece together the story of her life and to avenge unpunished crimes - starting with her own. This is DEXTER with a feisty female protagonist unlike any other in contemporary young adult fiction.

Review: Rylee, having come home from school to find her father dead, her mother missing, and message that just says “RUN”, gets her brother and runs.

I was excited to read this because I’ve read bits of Olsen's Envy, and liked it, and the trailer that HKB made was quite good (music win).

It starts off very quickly, the set up from the summary happening in the first chapter, and the running happening in the second. This pace is kept up throughout, which was good, and I read this in one sitting.

The mystery as to what happened is quickly partially  revealed in favour of a thriller story, which I didn't mind. I liked the fact that we get to meet lots of characters as Rylee tries to discover how things happened to others that fits into her current situation (not very well worded in comparison to the book, but I can't explain it better without spoilers), who each brought clues to the table. The way it developed was good, but the twist at the end was predictable.

The  main reason I didn't enjoy this was Rylee. I don't know why I disliked her so much, but I just didn't care for her or her story or the way it turned out. Maybe it was her narration; there's some interjections and thoughts which are kind of obvious. Maybe it was her, she seems a little too conveniently prepared to know what to do, and I didn't think she developed. It was probably the romance; there's a short flashback and a facebook conversation with a guy in the middle of the book (and why are you even worrying about facebook when all this is happening?) and the ending just comes out of nowhere and the book could have easily done without it because it just seems like an afterthought that wasn’t properly explored.

Overall:  Strength 2 tea to a turny fast thriller, that I didn’t get into as much as I’d hoped.

Links: Amazon | Goodreads | Author website |

Book Review- Love Letters to the Dead

Title: Love Letters to the Dead

 Author: Ava Dellaira

Series:  N/A

Published:  1 May 2014 by Hot Key Books

Length: 327 pages

Source: publisher

Other info: This is Ava’s debut

Summary : It begins as an assignment for English class: write a letter to a dead person - any dead person. Laurel chooses Kurt Cobain - he died young, and so did Laurel's sister May - so maybe he'll understand a bit of what Laurel is going through. Soon Laurel is writing letters to lots of dead people - Janis Joplin, Heath Ledger, River Phoenix, Amelia Earhart... it's like she can't stop. And she'd certainly never dream of handing them in to her teacher. She writes about what it's like going to a new high school, meeting new friends, falling in love for the first time - and how her family has shattered since May died.

But much as Laurel might find writing the letters cathartic, she can't keep real life out forever. The ghosts of her past won't be contained between the lines of a page, and she will have to come to terms with growing up, the agony of losing a beloved sister, and the realisation that only you can shape your destiny. 

Review: Laurel's sister died. Laurel is told to write letters to someone dead as an assignment. Laurel writes to Kurt Cobain. And then  to Elisabeth Bishop. And then to Amelia Earhart. And then to lots of other dead people as she tells the stories of ger life and those of others around her.

I was expecting this to be good because I'd heard lots of people say how brilliant it was.

This is very similar to Perks of Being a Wallflower, which kind of make sense considering Chbosky is "a dear friend and mentor" of Dellaira. And considering Perks broke me with its beauty and feelings, I should have enjoyed this.

sadly,  I didn't. It's repetitive. Laurel goes on a lot about what X dead person is doing or what their family is doing or what a situation would be like if that person was involved. it's ok to start, boring by the end.

The writing style goes from really simple like the part where she describes getting dressed and eating lunch at high school, and random words and metaphors and things to describe something that is being made to seem much more important than it actually is.

The Perks similarities. Oh my gosh they were endless. Coming of age angst? Check.  Epistolary form? Check. Queer friends in hiding? Check. Even the thing with Billy, which  while I understand it's important to not gloss over these things, didn't work for me because I just wanted to scream "this is a female led attempted copy of Perks and it isn't working at all."

Why didn't it work? For one, it's hard to imagine it happening in these modern times, at least since Amy Winehouse died, and there's something about the tone that puts it in a weird time setting. Then there's the fact that the plot didn't hold my interest.

The romance was of the "he's cool and doesn't talk but he will to me" variety, and ugh no. I didn't feel like anyone really developed. I just didn't care for the characters and felt no emotions for any events at all.

Overall:  Strength 2 tea to a book that had everything I should have loved, but just didn’t work for me.

Links: Amazon | Goodreads | Author website |

Mini-reviews- Tainted by A E Rought and Blood Magic by Tessa Gratton

Title: Tainted

Author:  A E Rought

Series:  Broken #2

Published:  October 2013 by Strange Chemistry

Source: Netgalley

Review: Post events of Broken, Alex and Emma should be able to get back to their normal lives. These plans gets scrapped when Hailey Westmore turns up—Alex’s ex-girlfriend who we are quickly introduced to as a “manipulative, spoiled witch”. People start dying and it’s clear there’s more secrets that may come out.

This book is told from Alex’s POV as opposed to Emma’s which was a nice change because it helps  you understand the Alex from Broken a little more too. It also means the narrator knows things that everyone else doesn’t, a feature I like sometimes in mysteries.

The beginning was good. Something big happens in a car which really changes the dynamics, which I liked, and the way that scene was written kept me gripped. Later, it wasn’t quite as good-it’s quite predictable and the villain, while being beautifully crazy, isn’t very deep at all.

It’s very over the top with use of tropes and lots of romantic lines that you’ve heard before. There’s a lot of focus on the romance, which I found less interesting than all the action going on. Alex also goes a bit broody and annoying at times.  I liked Emma just as much as in Broken.

There’s still bits of Frankenstein in here, but there’s bits of Doctor Jekyll and Mr Hyde in here too.

I liked the fact that the deers were still a thing. 

Overall:  Strength 3 tea to a book where we saw different parts of other characters.

Links: Amazon | Goodreads | Author website | 

Title: Blood Magic

 Author: Tessa Gratton

Series:  Blood Journals #1

Published:  26 April 2012 by Corgi

Warnings: cutting (for magic, but still cutting), lots of gore

Source: borrowed from friend

Review:  Ever since her parents were murdered, Silla’s been mentally scarred. Nick’s the new boy in town with past experiences of magic. When he finds Silla experimenting with magic, they form a bond, and romance happens. And then there’s a journal kept by Josephine, a girl from years past whose experience with blood magic will highly shape theirs.

From the start, you’re pulled in. The magic and intrigue starts pretty quickly, and promises to build.

The story is narrated by Nick and Silla in alternating turns. They’re two very contrasting characters that work together well. The writing is intricate, gothic and a bit longwinded in places.

I must admit, I didn’t read all of this. The copy of  Blood Magic that I got had journal entries in copperplate, which I looked at and thought “Eyes broken enough anyway. Not even going to try decoding that.” *bases view of plot on characters’ reactions to this*

The magic system is good. Due to it all requiring blood, this book isn’t for the faint hearted!

I didn’t really get into this for reasons unknown. I got characters mixed up a bit every now and again, it took a while for Josephine’s relevance to become clear, but the main thing is that it didn’t have that spark of awesome for me.

Overall:  Strength 2 tea to an atmospheric magic story that I didn’t get into.

Links: Amazon | Goodreads | Author website | 

Book review-Ink by Amanda Sun

Title: Ink

 Author:  Amanda Sun

Series:  The Paper Gods #1

Published:  21 June 2013 by Mira

Length: 356 pages

Warnings: one scene which could be read as attempted rape

Source: ARC from publisher

Other info: There is an ebook novella prequel, called Shadow. Rain is the sequel coming in June.

Summary : Ink is in their blood. On the heels of a family tragedy, Katie Greene must move halfway across the world. Stuck with her aunt in Shizuoka, Japan, Katie feels lost. Alone. She doesn't know the language, she can barely hold a pair of chopsticks and she can't seem to get the hang of taking her shoes off whenever she enters a building. When Katie meets aloof but gorgeous Tomohiro, the star of the school's kendo team, she is intrigued by him…and a little scared. His tough attitude seems meant to keep her at a distance, and when they're near each other, strange things happen. Pens explode. Ink drips from nowhere. And unless Katie is seeing things, drawings come to life.
Somehow Tomo is connected to the kami, powerful ancient beings who once ruled Japan—and as feelings develop between Katie and Tomo, things begin to spiral out of control. The wrong people are starting to ask questions, and if they discover the truth, no one will be safe.

Review:  Katie Greene is forced to move to Japan to live with her aunt. There, she meets Tomohiro, a boy whose drawings come to life. with runins with the Yazuka and working around attraction to Tomohiro, Katie learns about his connections to the Kami, Japanese gods of old.

I had a period of really really loving Japan. I’m not totally obsessed any more, but I still like it. When I heard about this series, I was just “aww hell yes. Must read. Excited.”

Katie is still finding her feet in Japan. You get bits of Japanese and snippets of random culture, some of which I recognise from things written by Japanese people, so I’m assuming that the other things were all correct to. It was certainly fully built and different to the Western school settings.

The random Japanese phrases are nice to start with, but they get annoying quickly, because even though it comes with Katie’s translations (mainly), they interrupt the flow with their frequency and make you feel like you need to have a working knowledge of Japanese to understand this book in the way it flows. Oh, and the constant “ne”s got on my nerves. Because they indicate a question. And then are followed by a question mark. And at one point there was an explanation of this when you could infer what they meant. Unnecessary in written stories.

Characters, I liked Katie to start with because I relate to her difficulty at fitting in. However, once we met her and she got a few friends, she got a a bit boring and didn’t move on. Tomohiro, I didn’t care for at all. He moodswings a lot and is mysterious in a boring way. And then he’s really really creepy.   There’s a sweet guy whose name I forgot. I liked him. Minor characters were mainly forgotten when Tomohiro shows up.

 I loved the inclusion of the Kami, using mythology other than Classical Greek/Roman. Don’t get me wrong, I love Classical Greek and Roman, but it’s used so much, and the use of Japanese mythology was wonderful. The originalness and the description of the creatures added awesomeness to the book.

It’s very stereotypical YA paranormal romance, if you ignore the fact that it’s set in Japan and has Japanese gods. Badboy who wants you to stay away? Check. Instalove? Check. See him once, can’t get him out of your head? Check. I could go on, but I won’t.

Unrelated to the writing, the illustrations are gorgeous. 

  Overall:  Strength 2 tea to a book with a wonderful different mythology, but lots of drawbacks.

Links: Amazon | Goodreads | Author website |

Book Review-Last God Standing by Michael Boatman

Title: Last God Standing

 Author: Michael Boatman

Series: First in series.  

Published:  April 3 2014 by Angry Robot

Length: 400 pages

Source Publishers:

Other info: Book 2, Who Wants to be the Prince of Darkness comes Spring 2015

Summary : When God decides to quit and join the human race to see what all the fuss is about, all Hell breaks loose.Sensing his abdication, the other defunct gods of Earth’s vanquished pantheons want a piece of the action He abandoned.Meanwhile, the newly-humanised deity must discover the whereabouts and intentions of the similarly reincarnated Lucifer, and block the ascension of a murderous new God.How is he ever going to make it as a stand-up comedian with all of this going on…?

Review:  Yahweh, aka the Abrahamic god, has decided he's had enough of being God.  Therefore, he quits, joins the Human Race and tries to live life as a stand-up comic. However, with gods of old pantheons trying to take his place, and a now-human Lucifer to deal with, this isn't going to be easy.

I was really looking forwards to this. Multiple pantheons, all the myths, all wrapped up with a big dose of comedy? Right up my street.

It starts off well. The dramatis personae sets up an interesting c premise, featuring my favourite gods from various mythologies, plus a few more I was less familiar with.

Lando has a good voice. I liked him and his comedy could be good if it wasn't wrapped up in a whole load of other stuff. I also liked Yuri, Lando's family, and Suhrabi. I love the way the gods are presented-Zeus and the Morrigan especially.

The thing that let it down most was the plot, and the way it just went ways I don't really get. The bit with Hannibal got good at the start, then relaxed a bit earlier than I  was expecting. The whole thing with Lucifer, Gabriel and the angels was very predictable, but turned out well. But then there's this whole bit in the middle where I think Lando swaps bodies or something with another guy. I say I think. I honestly don't know what happened there, but it changed Lando for the last quarter of the book. Also, the god battles, while fun, were also a bit confusing in that they went everywhere in time and space and were hard to follow.

Also, I didn't get the comedy that I was promised, apart from in small bits ie  introduction of the gods. Or maybe it just wasn't my kind of humour. Either way, sadness from that. 

Despite this, I will read book two. Just because  Hell. And game shows.

Overall:  Strength 2 tea to a book with a really good premise that just wasn't put together as well as I was hoping.

Links: Amazon | Goodreads | Author website |

Book Review-Red by Alison Cherry

Title:Red

 Author: Alison Cherry

Series:  N/A

Published: 2 January 2014 by Quercus

Length: 320 pages

Source:  publishers 

Summary :

Top student. Beauty queen. Girlfriend of the hottest football jock: Felicity's got everything. And it's all down to her red, red hair.
Felicity lives in Scarletville, the world's only redhead sanctuary, where red hair is celebrated, protected - and the key to sucess.
But Felicity has a secret. A red hot secret. And if anyone finds out, she's finished.
Because Felicity's actually a natural blonde.
And in Scarletville, blondes need not apply.

Review: In Scarlettville, red hair is  prized. If you have redhair, you'll win beauty pagents, be wildly successful and have a good life. Felicity has been enjoyting this, and is going for the title of Miss Scarlet. But she can only do this if she can keep her secret: she's naturally strawberry blonde and gets her red from a secret  salon. 

When I read the summary for Red, I was hoping  for a critique on the way that society judges people on appearance, race, general unfounded discriminaton, viewed through the lens of a reversed society. I didn't get this as much as it could have been, which was a  little sad, because there could have been a really good message going through this, instead of just at the end.

Felicity is really shallow, and i'm not sure whehter that's more to her mother's influence or herself. She's not that bright, and she doens't really do much.  I really liked Gabby, brunette, main “antagonist”, who is trying to change the views of those in Scarletville and is essentially campaigning for equality. She didnt go about it in the best way-full of bitchiness and backstabbing, but her intentions I liked. Ivy, who doesn't really care, is an ok character.  Haylie may have been interesting. Jonathan was interesting, but he dind't get that much development.

The plot, I didn't really get with that much at all. The ending, i'm not entirel sure what just happened.

Overall:  Stregnth 2 tea to a book that should have been satire, but wasn't.

Links: Amazon |  Goodreads | Author website | 

Book Review-Shadows by Ilsa J Bick

 

Title: Shadows

 Author: Ilsa J Bick

Series:   Ashes #2

Published: 27  September 2012 by Quercus

Length: 518 pages

Source: publisher

Other info: Review of Ashes here

Summary : Alex has escaped from Rule - but what new horrors face her in the ravaged world outside?
Tom is safe - but what will he risk to find Alex?
Chris - how much does he really know about the terrible darkness of Rule? And what are his true feelings for Alex?
Ellie - where is she? 

Review: I remember Ashes. The electromagnetic pulse, Alex with the enhanced sense of smell, the zombies/Changed and the cliffhanger of 2012. Now out on her own, and surrounded by a pack of Changed. Also, the elders in Rule may be hiding secrets and Tom is looking for Alex. Fun times!

Yeah, when I started this, I knew I had a basic rememberance of the features of Ashes. So I went into Shadows ready for action. After a bit of Tom, and then the conclusion to the cliffhanger, we follow each of the others in turn, which would be ok..but I’d forgotten most things . lots of characters turn up that I don’t remember meeting in Ashes.

In terms of plot for this, it all seemed very scattered. Normally. I like multiple perspectives, but for this one, I was lost from about page 100 onwards. We flick between groups of characters a lot, with quite a lot of smaller cliffhangers, quite quickly, and I just didn’t keep up with it all. `                       

The zombies, changed, chuckies in this got a bit more development in this one, as did the characters in Rule.

In terms of action, it was amazing. The action scenes are written  so well, you feel like you’re there with all the gory details that mean you can see it all happening in your mind.

I like the fact that humans are evil comes up in this book. It’s a good contrast to the OTT zombies tearing people apart, but just as creepy.

The writing is once again third person, but following a character at each point. the focus changes along with the switches of plot also stopped me really following this throughout. As the action scenes are  so frequent, being randomly thrown from one  to another scene, it’s confusing and slows it down for me.

Overall:  Strength 2 tea to a book with a lot of action but is one of the hardest things to follow I’ve read for a long time.

Links: Amazon | Goodreads | Author website | 

Book Review-Boy Meets Boy by David Levithan

Title: Boy Meets Boy

 Author: David Levithan

Series:  N/A

Published:  September 2003 by Knopf

Length: 192 pages

Source: publisher and netgalley

Other info: David Levithan co-authored Will Grayson, Will Grayson with John Green.

Summary : This is the story of Paul, a sophomore at a high school like no other: The cheerleaders ride Harleys, the homecoming queen used to be a guy named Daryl (she now prefers Infinite Darlene and is also the star quarterback), and the gay-straight alliance was formed to help the straight kids learn how to dance.
When Paul meets Noah, he thinks he’s found the one his heart is made for. Until he blows it. The school bookie says the odds are 12-to-1 against him getting Noah back, but Paul’s not giving up without playing his love really loud. His best friend Joni might be drifting away, his other best friend Tony might be dealing with ultra-religious parents, and his ex-boyfriend Kyle might not be going away anytime soon, but sometimes everything needs to fall apart before it can really fit together right. Review: Paul, who's known he's gay his entire life and lives in essentially a utopia for the LGBT community, doesn't have any problems. Until he meets Noah and falls in love.

I read this because everyone's just like “Yay! David Levithan!” and I wanted to know what all the fuss is about.

I think this would have been so much better if someone other than Paul was the main character.  Hopefully Tony, whose religious household means that he has to hide his feelings for other guys, or Kyle,  whose struggling with his sexuality. (I think) Both of them have much more interesting storylines than Paul, whose seems to be “I met a guy. I messed up. I want him back.” Paul himself isn't that interesting either, so having him as our main character didn't make me care too much for this book.

As I said, this is a utopia of sorts. The gay and straight scenes got mixed up. The only opposition to the LGBT community is from the overly religious, and there's none of the  outright or casual homophobia that is often seen in highschool environments. The star football player is a drag queen, and there's a small subculture. I'm reading it thinking “this is lovely and all, and I love the fact that there's very little discrimination and such, but it's just a bit too  optimistic; I can't see this happening in a contemporary, modern day setting”.

Apologies for the shortness of this review but I just sat there thinking “this is boring. Boring. Bored.” And couldn’t really formulate many thoughts past that.

Overall:  Strength 2 tea to a book where the side characters and plots make for much better stories than the main one we have.

Links: Amazon | Goodreads | Author website |

Book Review-Switched by Amanda Hocking

Title: Switched

 Author: Amanda Hocking

Series:  Trylle #1

Published:  5 January 2012 by Tor

Length:335 pages

Source: bought

Other info: Other two in the series-Ascend and Torn. Amanda has also written My Blood Approves, The Hollows and Watersong.

Summary : When Wendy Everly was six years old, her mother was convinced she was a monster and tried to kill her. Eleven years later, Wendy discovers her mother might have been right. She’s not the person she’s always believed herself to be, and her whole life begins to unravel—all because of Finn Holmes.

Finn is a mysterious guy who always seems to be watching her. Every encounter leaves her deeply shaken…though it has more to do with her fierce attraction to him than she’d ever admit. But it isn’t long before he reveals the truth: Wendy is a changeling who was switched at birth—and he’s come to take her home.
Now Wendy’s about to journey to a magical world she never knew existed, one that’s both beautiful and frightening. And where she must leave her old life behind to discover who she’s meant to become…

Review: Wendy Everly has always been different, and she’s known it since she was six and her mother tried to kill her because she wasn’t her child. Eleven years later, Finn shows up at her house ,and takes her away to Forerning, the home of the Trylle (trolls, but spelt differntly because they’re special).She learns that she was switched with her mother’s real child, that she’s the princess of the Trylles and that there’ll be a lot of things resting on her in the future.

This was hailed as an ebook sucess, and noticable enough to be picked up by a major publisher. So if millions of people like it, then I should too, hopefully. On another note, I was around for Amanda’s signing and I picked up a copy and got  a hug.

Forbidden love, boring to “special”, this book takes a lot of YA paranormal romance cliches and mixes it with trolls, which I like for the differentness of the creature, but in the grip of paranormal romance, doesn’t work.

Wendy doesn’t do much. She gets pushed into a new world, and I get that she’s confused and getting used to new things, but she’s not a kickass protagonist. Finn is a bit more actiony, but of course there’s the class divides that make their romance illicit. Max and Rhys, the two human boys, are the most grounded, real, and nice characters.

The Trylle world is built up through lessons and questions. It’s interesting, with the royalty and the magic, but  I got a little bored in places.

Looking back at the blurb, there’s a bit about “the fate of Forening rests in Wendy’s hadns and the descisions she and Finn make could change all their lives”. I’m sorry, I kind of missed that. There’s a lot of Trylle-world politics and romance and building up things for further books.  

In the same way, the Vitra (evil band of trolls) make an appearnce at the start and an appearance at the end. I didn’t feel any sense of threat through them, and when I  they came back it was just a “meh. Them.”

Overall:  Strength 2 tea to a paranormal book that’s a bit samey.  

Links: Amazon | Goodreads | Author website | 

Mini-reviews- Ghost busting and vampire hunting!

Today, quick reviews of Hamlet II-Ophelia's Revenge by David Bergantino, Butterfly vol 1 by Yu Aikawa and Hard Spell by Justin Gustainis.

Title: Hamlet II-Ophelia's Revenge
Author: David Bergantino

Series:  Bard's Blood

Published:  4 February 2003 by Pocket Books

Warnings: sex and gore

Source: bought

Review: Cameron’s father was murdered, his ghost tells him his aunt did it, and he randomly inherits Elsinore Castle, which he’ll get control of when he turns 21. He and his friends go to Elsinoret o celebrate. So, bunch of young adults, alcohol, and fun times. But there’s a problem-the ghost of a girl who drowned centuries ago is back, and she wants her Hamlet.

I love Hamlet so much. This was an impulse buy because it was Hamlet and it was cheap. I wasn’t really expecting much.

Part of this is a straight adaptation of Hamlet shoved into a modern day setting, which I am not against in the slightest. The names got adapted ok (Laertes becomes Larry, Gertrude becomes Geri, the theatre players become rock band The Playaz) apart from Cameron, which is seriously random compared to Hamlet.

Ophelia in this, is a  ghost who leads to some very big things happening. She’s interesting as ever, and is the one who develops most as she possesses various people.

The writing isn’t amazing, and some parts of the book seem a bit forced.

Overall:  Strength 2 tea to a quick, spooky redo of Hamlet.

Links: Amazon | Goodreads | Author website | 

Title:  Butterfly

 Author: Yu Aikawa

Series:   Butterfly #1

Published:  1 March 2011 by Tokyopop

Warnings: suicide, violence

Source: bought

Review: Ginji is highly against anything to do with the occult, due to the fact that he is haunted by the ghost of his brother, who killed himself. When he gets into an fight at a haunted mansion, which leads to them demanding bills and reparations, he has no way to pay up. Until a child called Ahega shows up and asks him to help out. Ginji can earn 20000 Yen a job-with the job being ghostbusting!

 This was  cheap at the Tokyopop stall. I got it not knowing what to expect. It was better than I thought it would be. There’s some humour from the awkward train of thought that Ginji has when wondering about the job,  and other little spots here and then. Ginji and Ahega complement each other well in terms of abilities (destroying and creating illusions respectively). Ginji shows more depth now, but I’d like Ahega to have more development later-there’s an interesting backstory coming. The characters in the short-bit-mystery (the swimming chapter) were also well developed.

Overall:  Strength 3 tea to a supernatural manga with promise.

Links: Amazon | Goodreads | Author website | 

Title:  Hard Spell

 Author: Justin Gustainis 

Series:  Occult Crimes Unit Investigation #1

Published:  26 July 2011 by angry Robot 

Warnings: violence, suggestive situations, 

Source: bought

Review: Detective Stan Markowzi is on the Scranton’s Police Department’s Occult Crimes Unit. He does exactly what you’d expect him to do-run around dealing with it when vampires, werewolves, faeries and the like mess up. The main plot starts when someone gets killed with mysteriokus symbols carved on him. That someone is a vampire. As more killings happen and some guy shows up claiming to be able to tell them everything, Max 

 I remember trawling round the internet and finding someone describing this as pararnormal investigations taken to the extreme end of fun. definitely my thing.

Rachel was my favourite character-she was sensible, and did a bit for plot development (pace advancement really). Stan was a good narrator and had a tragic backstory that motivates him.

It’s definitely fun, though maybe not my kind of fun. it takes a lot of cliches, like lesbian vampires and the white witch, which I like in moderation but got a bit overdone in parts.

The writing  plays with sarcastic humour in places. I have huge love for the hellhound on the police team. Called Daisy.

Overall:  Strength 3 tea  to a... unique pararnormal investigation. I’ll definitely read on in the series.

Links: Amazon | Goodreads | Author website |

Mini Reviews-The Age of Satan and The Wasp Factory

So I sometimes read shorter books or just don't have the things to say about a book. Here, small reviews. For books that aren't for little people/  

Title: The Age of Satan (Pantheon series)

 Author: James Lovegrove

Published:  February 2013 by Solaris

Warnings: suicide, rape, violence. Very not for children.

Source: publisher

Review: Guy  Lucas, throughout his life has had multiple run-ins with Satan. There’s theistic Satanists at his school. After a Ouija board session, his girlfriend kills herself. Later, he finds another group of theistic Satanists who try and drag  him into their cult. Then he meets Petra.

I didn’t really know what I was getting into with this. I just saw that it was an offshoot of a series mixing modernish day settings with panthenons and religions of old, and I thought, yeah, go for it.

Guy, I didn’t really relate to. He was a good enough character to make the journey with, but I didn’t really enjoy him. He did develop a bit, after meeting Petra. Throughout, most of the characters blended in to one another, aside from Petra, who was by far my favourite character. Her view on philosophy is essentially the same as mine, and she’s also cool.

The pacing was ok, just touching on important events in Guy’s life. The writing was descriptive in all places, even in places where you probably didn’t want one. 

 The end bit seemed a bit rushed, with a timejump from pre-Thatcher to present day. The summary of what happened was more a setup to another book, not really an ending.

Overall:  Strength 3.5, more a 3, to an interesting novella. I will give the main series a try.

Links: Amazon | Author website |

Title: The Wasp Factory

 Author: Iain M Banks (RIP)

Published:  February 1984 by Macmillan

Warnings: murders, gore, squick, animal cruelty

Source: bought

Review: Frank is a killer, but he’s stopped on people now. He now just uses his Wasp Factory, a device which makes the wasp die in whatever way it happens to, and kills other things like seagulls. Here he is, relatively happily, and his brother Eric breaks out of an insane asylum, and starts making his way home and Frank must deal with secrets surrounding his family and himself.

Anne recommended this to me and I really was looking forwards to reading it. When I started it, I was intrigued. I soon found myself not really caring about Frank, mainly because of the way he acted towards everyone else. The book went slowly, I’m not sure whether it was because of the plot or the writing, but both were hard to get through. The last few chapters just came out of nowhere, turning my view on my head and leaving me really confused.

It did deal with interesting topics, ie death, identity and who you are, in a frank, brutal way.  

Overall:  Strength 2 tea to a story that I just didn’t get the point or plot of.

Links: Amazon | Goodreads| 

Book Review -Blackwood by Gwenda Bond

Title: Blackwood

 Author: Gwenda Bond

Series: N/A

Published:  4 September 2012 by Strange Chemistry

Length: 416 pages

Source: Publisher

Other info: This is Gwenda’s debut.

Summary : On Roanoke Island, the legend of the 114 people who mysteriously vanished from the Lost Colony hundreds of years ago is just an outdoor drama for the tourists, a story people tell. But when the island faces the sudden disappearance of 114 people now, an unlikely pair of 17-year-olds may be the only hope of bringing them back.
Miranda, a misfit girl from the island’s most infamous family, and Phillips, an exiled teen criminal who hears the voices of the dead, must dodge everyone from federal agents to long-dead alchemists as they work to uncover the secrets of the new Lost Colony. The one thing they can’t dodge is each other.

Review: Many many years ago, 114 people disappeared for no reason from Roanoke Island. Modern day Roanoake, anotoehr 114 people have gone. Miranda and Phillips are two random teenagers, both outcasts due to her connection to the island and his hearing voices of the dead, who take on the task of finding out what happened to them, both the many years ago and today.

I love books with modern takes on history and legends. Especially legeneds that I haven’t heard of. It’s set up really well. The opening scene tells both the legend and gives a quick view of Miranda. The whole opening was really exciting, and a fantasy/mystery book was starting to come along well.

Miranda, I liked. She’s determined to find out what happened, mainly because her father got killed at the same time as these new people disappeared. Phillips, I found a bit annoying and I’m not sure why. Roswell and Bane, I really didn’t get at all.

I t was all about the two thirds mark when things srarted happening that weer really weird. I liked the introduction of John Dee and the alchemists but we get told things and go in multiple ddirections that didn’t always make sense and were quite hard to  follow. The ending, I was just...what.

The writing was ok. There’s a lot of Fraks, which makes the actual F word look really out of place.  The pacing is good to begin with, but towards the end, it’s hard to understand.

I’ve read a few things with Dee and Elizabethan-era magic crossed over with contemporary things. I like this mix, both in general, and here, and the mystery and the setting works.

Overall:  Strength 2 tea to a book with really nice ideas that I couldn’t get into.

Links: Amazon | Goodreads | Author website |

Book Review-Summertime of the Dead by Gregory Hughes

Title: Summertimeof the Dead

 Author:  Gregory Hughes

Series:   N/A

Published:  30 August 2012 by Quercus

Length:304 pages

Warnings: really graphic violence, mentions of prostitution, suicide, lots of things

Source: publisher

Other info: Gregory also wrote Unhooking the Moon, which won the Booktrust prize

Summary : Yukio's two best friends are dead. Tormented and blackmailed by the Yakuza - the Japanese mafia - they have taken their own lives.
Yukio is a kendo champion and he knows all the stories of the samurai. Heartbroken and furious, he is determined to avenge the deaths of his beloved Hiroshi and Miko.
And so begins a deadly struggle between Yukio and the Yakuza, and between Yukio's capacity for love, and his thirst for revenge.

Review: After being blackmailed by the Yazuka, Miko and Hiroshi kill themsleves. Yukio, their best freidn, is determened to avenge them. As a result, he goes out to kill all those he holds responsible for their deaths.

First thoughts on Yukio-whoa, overreaction much? Yes, you do kendo. I understand you’re upset. But actually killing someone? You’re fourteen.These honour things are a bit outdated (not living in 21^st centuryJapan, I don’t know how common it is for a teenager or anyone to hold the views that someone messes with your friends you mess them up even more). And even if you are going to live by the way of honor, you have gone much too far. And yeah, you’re fourteen. How the heck did you guys get into that club that started it to begin with? And then casually get hold of swords and bikes? I had issues wth the age in this. Also, issues  with Yukio. He needs someone around him.

Mikazuki aka The Lump, Yukio’s cousin, is a really sweet but a little annoying. It’s nice seeing her tryand keep Yukio from going completly batcrap insane, but it doesn’t really work.

I suppose you could call it a coming of age story. There’s a few firsts for Yukio, some very big firsts. After a certain amount of kills, it got a bit boring.

You really can see Yukio go off on his own spiral of depravity in the killings, and I liked getting inside his head.  It doesnt’ really bother him, which I find an interesting point. a fourteenyearold, whose first experience with death is traumatic and sudden, going off and killing more people, and not getting too worried could have been really interesting. but t wasn’t.

The writng style was quite simple, but got across the story well. I liked the way the setting of gangland Japan was brought together.

Overall:  Strength 2 tea. A nonsympathetic main character and a bloodbath that went too far.

Links: Amazon | Goodreads | 

Book Review- Throne of Glass by Sarah J Maas

Title: Throne of Glass

 Author: Sarah J Maas

Series:  Throne of Glass #1

Published:  2 August 2012 by Bloomsbury

Length: 404 pages

Source: netgalley

Summary: Meet Celaena Sardothien. Beautiful. Deadly. Destined for greatness.
In the dark, filthy salt mines of Endovier, an eighteen-year-old girl is serving a life sentence. She is a trained assassin, the best of her kind, but she made a fatal mistake: she got caught.
Young Captain Westfall offers her a deal: her freedom in return for one huge sacrifice. Celaena must represent the prince in a to-the-death tournament—fighting the most gifted thieves and assassins in the land. Live or die, Celaena will be free. Win or lose, she is about to discover her true destiny. But will her assassin’s heart be melted?

Review: After a year in the salt mines, Celaena is finally out. Once the country’s most notorious assassin, she is now offered her freedom and the position of Champion...if she can beat 23 other warriors, thieves and killers, all vying for a job. The competition takes the form of tests on getting around, shooting, poisons etc, with duels for those who remain at the end.  However, being a competition to be the national face of death, things aren’t going to be fair. Some contestants start showing up dead, so Celaena takes it upon herself to find the killer, and win the competition.

I read a lot of rave reviews about this, and I was really excited to read this. Magic, killings and assassins make a great combination on paper, and the three on their own I tend to enjoy...all three should be great, right?

Throne of Glass is one of those books I couldn’t get into. My first annoyance was Celaena. She’s cocky in the way that irritates me, and she is VERY immature and impulsive. Example: She’s playing snooker/pool/billiards with Prince Dorian. Her first shot doesn’t go in. She snaps the cue (I think) and has a fit. Or similar. This is a shame because she’s also a bit smart and talented at what she does.

The majority of the cast isn’t standout good or standout bad. Dorian was a bit boring and samey, which was a little upsetting for someone with that name, Chad is your obligatory initial arsehole, but I didn’t mind him quite as much by the end of the book.

My favourite character was Nehemia, princess of another land, because she was interesting, had depth, and was more care-worthy than the others. I also liked some of the assassins, but I can’t think of anything else to say about the.

I looked forwards to the trials, but they were a little bit disappointing. The shooting one was typical (Chad: Don’t give yourself away as great. Celaena: *gets bullseye*) and the poisons thing was a joke (Best assassin ever only stays safe because poisony guy to the left subtly indicates to her what to do). They were well described though,

The magic was done really nicely. The mystery was built up and the fantasy element was a little bit  random after the relative realisticnesss of it all, but a welcome relief. The writing quality was good, with a world built in my head very well.

Overall:  Strength 2 tea to a generally underwhelming book, especially after so much hype.

Links: | Goodreads | Author website | 

Book Review- Alice in Zombieland by Gena Showalter

Title: Alice in Zombieland

 Author: Gena Showalter

Series:  White Rabbit Chronicles #1

Published:  5 October 2012 by Mira

Length: 404 pages

Source: Publisher

Summary : She won’t rest until she’s sent every walking corpse back to its grave. Forever.
Had anyone told Alice Bell that her entire life would change course between one heartbeat and the next, she would have laughed. From blissful to tragic, innocent to ruined? Please. But that’s all it took. One heartbeat. A blink, a breath, a second, and everything she knew and loved was gone.
Her father was right. The monsters are real….
To avenge her family, Ali must learn to fight the undead. To survive, she must learn to trust the baddest of the bad boys, Cole Holland. But Cole has secrets of his own, and if Ali isn’t careful, those secrets might just prove to be more dangerous than the zombies….

Review: When I first saw the title, author and cover, I got REALLY excited. Having highly enjoyed Intertwined, (review here) and with a name and cover like that, you’d think that you were getting a reimagining of Carroll’s original, but with zombies involved. Not so. Instead, there’s a contemporary paranormal story with a heavy dose of romance. And (as I remember) no chance to wear that dress (I don’t mind pretty dress covers as long as they’re relevant to the plot). The only connections with Carroll’s story are the fact that Alice is called Alice and the chapter titles are quotes with undead spins. Now we’ve cleared that up, we can move on.

It’s Alice’s birthday when their car crashes. Alice is the only  survivor, and as she wakes, she thinks of her now dead family. And the monsters surrounding her car. She starts a new school, where she is accepted by part time hospital buddy Kat into the friendship group and introduces her to the group of tough guys, with the likes of Cole, Frosty and the others. There, she is told what actually happened: It was zombies! Alice decides that she will eradicate all zombies ever. That’s once she’s trained with Cole.

After being disappointed at the lack of Alice in Wonderland, I got a bit disappointed by the way the plot of Alice in Zombieland panned out too. It’s really heavily romance orientated, which is fine if you like this. It’s just really not my thing, and I don’t feel it was done amazingly. Luckily, there is a good amount of zombie slaying, which is more up my street.

Alice could have been a great character, but I felt there was something a bit lacking around her. My favourite character is Kat-she’s cool, witty, and a good friend. Close second comes Alice’s grandparents and their failed attempts to be cool.

The pacing. Started out really nicely with awesome stuff happening. The middle was dragged out a lot and the ending could have been really amazing and emotional, but ended up over before it had really begun.

There was some good points though. The characters, that weren’t fitting the mean/tough girl/guy stereotype were  really good. And the zombies! While I don’t approve of the sparkling qualities, the idea of spirit form and the emphasis on spirit as opposed to corpses is generally awesome.

Overall:  Strength 2 tea to an underwhelming book with some good features, but not really my thing, despite first impressions.

Links: | Goodreads | Author website | 

Book Review- The Blessed by Tonya Hurley

Title: The Blessed

 Author: Tonya Hurley

Series:  The Blessed #1

Published:  2 August 2012 by Hodder

Length: 232 pages

Source: Publisher

Other Info: Tonya also wrote the Ghostgirl series!

Summary : Brooklyn teens Lucy, Cecelia and Agnes find themselves in the emergency room at Perpetual Help Hospital at the lowest point in their lives. Lucy, the superficial party girl; Cecelia, a drop out rock chick; and Agnes, a hopeless romantic. All rebels running from their lives and themselves, plagued by broken hearts and broken dreams. Enter Sebastian. Mysterious, compelling, seductive. He seems to bring each of them what they long for...But in the battle for his heart, will they lose their souls?

Review: Agnes, Cecilia and Lucy are three girls brought together by low points in lives. They meet Sebastian, who seduces them, makes them all fall in love with him. And then they find out that they’re not just three random girls brought together by failed lives. They’re reincarnations of saints Agnes, Cecelia and Lucy. and they’ve got jobs to do.

I really liked the idea. It wasn’t one of my “I must read this asap” books, but it was definitely intriguing. Saints, and religion to a general extent, don’t tend to get brought up in YA so I thought this could really work out nicely. I also kind of enjoyed the Ghostgirl series.

We start seeing the three broken girls arrive at a Catholic hospital following suicide attempts and drowning and whatnot. It takes a bit of time for me to care about them, despite their circumstances. We do get a lot of backstory which is nice, but at times I did just want the main story to move on.

Which it hardly did. A good deal of The Blessed takes place in a church. The three girls and Sebastian in a church.  They spend this attempting to be strong and failing, learning about the Church and Christian history, and flirting with Sebastian. I think. I only read this a few days ago and I’ve already forgotten what happened. The first thing I have a problem with is the way they all get htere. After being all together in the hospital, which I understand, I really don’t get why they’d just be casually out in a thunderstorm and happen to seek refuge in this particular church. And all three of them? I know they need to for plot working outness, but honestly.

The only character I really liked was Agnes, and even that was at a push. Still, she’s better than Cecelia and Lucy, two semi-famous teenagers with separate half-careers. Put all three of them together and you end up with a tonne of whinyness. Add in a boy and you get a lot of bitchiness too. Lucy in particular, I don’t like. she’s annoying, and she mucks around in the church in a way this is, quite simply, disrespectful.

The whole saints thing only comes in to play during the last eighth of the novel, which is too late to develop anything properly.  The rituals and the latin was nice, but the way they all suddenly gain the strength to do everything without needing time to adjust was unbelievable. The ending seemed rushed and it wasn’t a very satisfying end.

Good things...er...I liked the premise and the chapter titles and the cover.  Oh, and since I looked at the finished copy in a bookshop, I quite like the pictures of the saints. 

Overall:  Strength 2 tea to a book that had a really good premise, but didn’t work out for me.

Links: Goodreads | Author website | 

Book Review- Unravelling by Elizabeth Norris

Title: Unravelling

 Author: Elizabeth Norris

Series:  Unravelling #1

Published:  24 April 2012 by Balzar and Bray, 7 June 2012 by Harper Collins

Length: 445 pages

Age rating: 12+

Source: Edelweiss

Summary : STOP THE COUNTDOWN. SAVE THE WORLD…Leaving the beach, seventeen-year-old Janelle Tenner is hit head on by a pickup truck. And killed. Then Ben Michaels, resident stoner, is leaning over her. And even though it isn’t possible, she knows Ben somehow brought her back to life… Meanwhile, Janelle’s father, a special agent for the FBI, starts working on a case that seems strangely connected to Ben. Digging in his files, Janelle finds a mysterious device – one that seems to be counting down to something that will happen in 23 days and 10 hours time. That something? It might just be the end of the world. And if Janelle wants to stop it, she’s going to need to uncover Ben’s secrets – and keep from falling in love with him in the process…

Review: Janelle Tenner dies. And comes back to life. Mysterious Ben Michaels found her after being run over, and put her back together again. Obviously, she wants to know more about the guy who stopped her from being put into a coffin, but she soon has bigger problems-she discovers a countdown-but doesn’t know what’ll happen at the end of it all.

The thing that got me hooked was the countdown that started every (very short) chapter. It took me a little while to realise that the countdown started with days, because my brain doesn’t work like that, but still. It was a unique addition that got you gripped from the start.

Plotwise, I enjoyed it. Lots of things happen in a relatively short period of time, and there’s not many times when I don’t feel like I want to read on.

The mystery is built up quite well. Clues are continually dropped, letting you figure things out for yourself, but there were some really unexpected things that increased the urgency for Janelle and the interest for us.

Janelle was a rather annoying character. She takes on too much, does a lot, and never seems to tire..A bit unrealistic. She’s a good narrator, with no really distinctive qualities, aside from attempting to be smart Ben was and his lot are interesting. They’re all quite likable, aside from Ethan, but  it’s easy enouch to see why Janelle would fall in love with him. The other characters...where do I start and end? There’s millions of them.

It’s all rather stereotypical. The romance (instalove sprung from saving her), the strong heroine (who seems to be perfect), the stock characters (a***-holey boys, nice teacher) and so on.

I liked the idea of Ben’s healing powers. They’re very convenient at the beginning and a little useful at the end. Where he got them from-not quite as good. The explanation seemed to come out of nowhere, and I didn’t like the usage of parallel worlds in Unravelling. It’s just...why? How did you get to that conclusion? What’s the point of it?

Overall:  Strength 2 tea to something a little different, but not amazing.

Links: Amazon |  Goodreads | Author website |