Tag: book review

Review: Paper Hearts: Some Writing Advice by Beth Revis

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27226670Paper Hearts by Beth Revis
Genre: Writing Advice, Non-fiction
Published by: Patchwork Press
Pages: 342
Format: e-book
Rating: Helpful! 

Bee and I both study Creative Writing at university, but the nature of our course means that we don’t get to look into writing genre fiction until our third year. I’m always up for listening to writing advice, especially if it comes from a published author like Beth Revis, who wrote the Across the Universe series, and The Body Electric. Getting to read this book gave some excellent specifics about what is need when writing a young adult book, and it’s definitely geared towards YA, as that’s what Beth writes herself. It was basically all I wanted to read about writing YA that was missing from my university course!

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Review: The List by Siobhan Vivian

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10866233The List by Siobhan Vivian
Genre: Contemporary
Published by: Harlequin
Pages: 336
Format: ARC e-book
Rating: ★★

We were really looking forward to reading this book because it deals with eight different perspectives, much like our beloved Clearwater Crossing. Also Siobhan Vivian has co-authored the Burn For Burn trilogy with Jenny Han and I liked Siobhan’s character a lot more than Jenny Han’s. Basically, the book had a lot of promise.

Unfortunately, dealing with multiple perspectives can have it’s down side, mostly that one character can become more prominent, or all characters could be underdeveloped. While the characters themselves weren’t under developed – they all had their own issues! – their storylines came to an abrupt end. A lot of the conflicts were left unresolved, and we found ourselves waiting the whole time for that ‘something bug’ to happen.

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Review: What I Thought Was True by Huntley Fitzpatrick

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28756160What I Though Was True by Huntley Fitzpatrick
Genre: Contemporary, Romance
Published by: Electric Monkey
Pages: 418
Format: ARC e-book
Rating: ★★★
Note: This book was given to us by the publisher in exchange for our honest review. 

I read My Life Next Door in 2014 and wasn’t blow away because I’d heard a lot of over-hyped reviews. With What I Though Was True there seemed to be a lot more mixed reviews, so I felt a lot more prepared. I was pumped to be reading something contemporary with lots of summery feelings, and I wanted to give Huntley Fitzpatrick a second chance. The first half was SO GOOD but the second half, well…

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Review: The Square Root of Summer by Harriet Reuter Hapgood

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27420164

The Square Root of Summer by Harriet Reuter Hapgood
Genre: Contemporary, Romance
Published by: Macmillan
Pages: 336
Format: ARC e-book
Rating: ★★.5

Now is the perfect time to start reading contemporary romances, and I’d heard a few great things about The Square Root of Summer. I was looking forward to a fun UKYA, with an ambitious time-travel element, after reading and being disappointed by Passenger by Alexandra Bracken. While I enjoyed the writing style, and the first 10% was really gripping, something about this book seemed to taper off towards the end.

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Review: Demon Road by Derek Landy

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23253921Demon Road by Derek Landy
Genre: Supernatural
Published by: HarperCollins
Pages: 507
Format: e-book
Rating: ★★.5
Note: I received this book from the publishers in exchange for an honest review. 

I really appreciate this book in terms of it’s genre. I think if you’re looking for the perfect mix of Percy Jackson and the TV show ‘Supernatural’ then you’ll probably love this book! It’s pacy and a little gory, but if you’re up for that, then I would definitely give it a go. However, I don’t think Demon Road was my cup of tea. I like a lot of the elements individually, but putting them all together didn’t suit my tastes.

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Review: Lady Midnight by Cassandra Clare

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25494343Lady Midnight by Cassandra Clare
Genre: Paranormal, Romance (kind of?)
Published by: Simon and Schuster
Pages: 669
Format: Paperback
Series: The Dark Artifices
Rating: ★★

Since hearing about Lady Midnight, we haven’t been as excited as a lot of people. The Mortal Instruments series was the best thing, and after Bee didn’t enjoy The Infernal Devices trilogy, we wondered how we’d get on with this sequel series. When we read City of Heavenly Fire,  getting chapters about Emma and Julian was just distracting us from the baes we really cared about. But, we’d already read about them, so why not get their story, five years on?

Maybe we should have trusted our instincts on this one… Continue reading “Review: Lady Midnight by Cassandra Clare” →

Review: Book Of Lies by Teri Terry

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25370363Book Of Lies by Teri Terry
Genre: Paranormal
Published by: Orchard Books
Pages: 352
Format: ARC e-book
Rating: ★★★.5
Note: We received this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

I really love Teri Terry’s writing. The Slated Trilogy was such a standout read for me in 2013, and the whole series brings a new voice to the dystopian genre. Then, last year, I read Mind Games, which had the same techno-fantasy vibe as my favourite book of all time, Fearsome Dreamer.  So, I had expectations when it came to Book Of Lies and they were definitely met! It was a great reading experience, and really made me appreciate the previous books of Terry’s I’ve read.  Continue reading “Review: Book Of Lies by Teri Terry” →

Review: Dreaming of Antigone by Robin Bridges

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dreamingofantigoneDreaming of Antigone by Robin Bridges
Genre: Contemporary
Published by: Kensington
Pages: 304
Format: ARC e-book
Rating: ★★.5
Note: We received this book from the publishers in exchange for an honest review. 

I waned to read this book mostly because of the beautiful cover, but also in hope that it would help me understand the Antigone story a lot more. Dreaming of Antigone follows Andria and her heart-broken family. Her sister, Iris committed suicide six months before the events of the novel and Andria suffers from seizures resulting in an overly protective mother. The premise sounded really intriguing and I was looking forward to that “heartfelt and emotional” journey promised by the blurb on the front, but I don’t think it lived up to my expectations. Luckily, unlike like the Greek tragedy that Andria relates her life to, there is a happy ending, otherwise it would’ve been too depressing!

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Review: Head Over Heels by Holly Smale

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26094860Head Over Heels (Geek Girl #5) by Holly Smale
Genre: Contemporary, FUN
Published by: HarperCollins
Pages: 416
Format: ARC e-book
Rating: ★★★★★
Series: All That Glitters (Geek Girl #4)
Note: We received this book from the publishers in exchange for an honest review. 

Head Over Heels is one of our most anticipated releases of 2016, and if you known us, even just a little bit, you know we LOVE the Geek Girl series. It’s one of the best things to come into existence because I think there’s a Harriet Manners in all of us. She’s such a relatable and funny character, you can’t help but fall head over heels for her. SO, we had great expectations for the fifth book, and BOY were they met! Let’s fangirl about it! Continue reading “Review: Head Over Heels by Holly Smale” →

Review: Red Witch by Anna McKerrow

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26200465Red Witch by Anna McKerrow
Genre: Supernatural
Published by: Quercus Books
Pages: 416
Format: ARC e-book
Series: Crow Moon (#1)
Rating: ★★★
Note: We received this book from the publishers in exchange for an honest review. 

I jumped straight into Red Witch after finishing Crow Moon. Once again, I knew practically nothing about the sequel and was pleasantly surprised to find it was from Demelza’s point of view. I thought she was an under appreciated character in the first book, but her POV meant that I lost the small connection I had with the characters from Crow Moon. I’ve just read 400 pages of Danny, at least tell me what happens to him and Saba! Red Witch did pretty much everything I felt was lacking for the first book, so now we have a pretty interesting climax ready for the third and final book in the series, which I will definitely be reading! There will be spoilers of Crow Moon in order to talk about the events of the second book, so if you haven’t finished Crow Moon, I highly suggest you do that first.

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