Leviathan by Scott Westerfeld
Genre: Steampunk, Historical Fiction, Action/Adventure
Published by: Simon & Schuster Children’s
Pages: 434
Format: Paperback
Rating: ★★
Where to Find: Goodreads | Amazon
Leviathan is an interesting blend of contextually accurate historical details and fabricated alternate histories. What if the Archduke Franz Ferdinand had a son? What if Darwin had developed his Theory of Evolution even further? If you are unsure on the contexts of these ideas, then conveniently Westerfeld has explained them in the back of the book!
Tag: teen fiction
Review: The Iron Traitor by Julie Kagawa
The Iron Traitor by Julie Kagawa
Genre: Fantasy, Adventure, Romance
Published by: Mira Ink
Pages: 342
Format: Paperback
Rating: ★★★
Series: The Lost Prince (#1)
Where to Find: Goodreads | Amazon
After the whirlwind adventure of The Lost Prince, I knew there was no way I’d be able to leave it there. Was Annwyl safe? What will happen to Ethan and Kenzie? And again, what do these Forgotten fey want? The Iron Traitor starts in the human world, but, of course, the story only really picks up when we make our way back to the Nevernever, this time to stop Keirran from doing something really stupid.
Review: The Lost Prince by Julie Kagawa
The Lost Prince by Julie Kagawa
Genre: Fantasy, Adventure, Romance
Published by: Mira Ink
Pages: 377
Format: ebook
Rating: ★★★
Series: The Iron Traitor (#2)
Where to Find: Goodreads | Amazon
The Lost Prince is the first book in the spin off series/continuation of the Iron Fey series. This time we follow Ethan Chase, remember him? Meghan’s little brother, the one that got kidnapped right at the very beginning. Well, it’s him, but he’s a lit different to how I remembered as the little boy with eyes full of wonder. Ethan’s seventeen and he’s ready to go on his own adventure into the Nevernever.
Review: I Was Here by Gayle Forman
I Was Here by Gayle Forman
Genre: Contemporary
Published by: Simon & Schuster
Pages: 288
Format: ARC E-Book
Rating: ★★
Where to Find: Goodreads | Amazon
At first I thought ‘Oh no, this is going to be terribly similar to If I Stay‘ and I was right…to a certain extent. There were the same basic plot points from If I Stay: Someone dies, main character questions whether they can carry on, musically gifted love interest. But this time there was an added road trip, because it’s not a contemporary romance if two people don’t spend an extended amount of time together in a car. However, I wasn’t completely right, because there were new original characters, and a deeper message embedded in all the drama, which made for an interesting read, but I wouldn’t say I enjoyed it more than Gayle Forman’s other works.
Review: The One by Kiera Cass
The One by Kiera Cass
Genre: Romance, Dystopian
Published by: Harper Teen
Pages: 323
Format: ebook
Rating: ★★★★.5
Series: The Selection (#1) | The Elite (#2)
Where to Find: Goodreads | Amazon
I was unbelievably excited to start reading The One, I had such high expectations for the final book in the series, and I was not disappointed! We all knew the ending, I mean the title of The Heir will pretty much tell you all you need to know, but I still anticipated every moment. Even though I knew the resolution: America had to be the One, I was still on the edge of my seat in every rebel attack, and whenever Aspen was in the room.
Review: The Elite by Kiera Cass
The Elite by Kiera Cass
Genre: Romance, Dystopian
Published by: HarperTeen
Pages: 311
Format: ebook
Rating: ★★★.5
Series: The Selection (#1) | The One (#3)
Where to Find: Goodreads | Amazon
I was pleasantly surprised by The Selection and I was pleasantly surprised by The Elite! Who knows what’s going to happen in The One but I am so excited to read it!
I’d heard plenty of bad things about America as a character, normally in reviews you never see America without ‘was really annoying’ straight after, and yes, I thought she was a little whinge-y at times, but she was far less annoying than I thought she’d be. Good. Now that’s out the way, onto the review.
Review: Love Hurts by Malorie Blackman
Love Hurts by Malorie Blackman
Genre: Anthology, Romance
Published by: Corgi Childrens
Pages: 576
Format: ebook
Rating: ★★★
Where to Find: Goodreads | Amazon
Love Hurts is a collection of excerpts and short stories from popular authors that you’ve probably heard of before!
Here’s the list: Malorie Blackman, Maureen Johnson, Catherine Johnson, Philip Pullman, James Dawson, Jenny Downham, Patrick Ness, E. Lockhart, Lauren Myracle, Laura Dockrill, Gayle Forman, Markus Zusak, Susie Day, David Levithan, Lauren Kate, Tabitha Suzuma, Andrew Smith, Marcus Sedgwick, Bali Rai, Non Prat, Matt Haig, Phil Earle and Melvin Burgess.
Review: Let It Snow by John Green, Maureen Johnson and Lauren Myracle
Let It Snow by John Green, Maureen Johnson and Lauren Myracle
Genre: romance, contemporary
Published by: Speak
Pages: 352
Format: Paperback
Rating: ★★.5
Where To Find: Goodreads | Amazon
Let It Snow is the perfect wintery read to read during a snow filled pyjama day. The three stories are cleverly woven together through the character’s mutual friends. Not only that, but they are full of fun and they’re quick to read.
I’d say that I liked them in the order they appeared, first Maureen Johnson’s then John Green’s then Lauren Myracle’s. So I shall review each story individually.
The Jubilee Express was my favourite because although like the other it took place within a short amount of time the pacing was fast. I just wanted to find out what happened next, I couldn’t help myself from reading it quickly. Jubilee was my favourite of the three protagonists because she was believable and her story was humorous. Stuart was probably my favourite of the love interests too, because he was so dang nice, and his mother is the physical embodiment of Christmas spirit. I loved every second of this sweet romance! It set a very high standard for the other two stories, and I was perhaps a little disappointed with them because of this.
A Cheertastic Christmas Miracle was easily identifiable as a John Green creation. (See How To: Write a John Green novel) All the classic John Green elements were in there, and although I loved the writing style, and thought the (stock) characters were engaging, exaggerated, and hilarious. I couldn’t picture them as actual human beings. If there are people in the world like John Green’s characters then I would very much like to meet them, because they way they talk is enchanting and the construction of their humour is ingenious! I really liked the development of Tobin and the Duke’s relationship, it was heart-warmingly adorable. However, I didn’t really enjoy the actual plot of the story. The majority of it is a race to the Waffle House which last an indeterminable amount of time, if I’m honest, I was quite bored. JP’s reaction of the couple’s relationship redeemed my opinion by the end of the story, but I still think the middle was weaker than the rest of the novel thus far.
I really could not connect with the protagonist, Addie in The Patron Saint of Pigs. I appreciated Jeb as the character that linked the stories effortlessly, but whereas I appreciated him, I don’t think Addie did. The dramatic irony was entertaining, but I was unsympathetic towards Addie’s whinging, and felt that she didn’t deserve Jeb in the end! That may be slightly harsh, because by the end of the story I suppose she’d learned her lesson, but the first half was rather hard to read, because I didn’t want to put myself through the narrative. (Addie was incredibly self absorbed to begin with.) My favourite bit of the story was the end, where all the characters were reunited! It was so lovely to see Jubilee and Stuart again!
Overall, I’m giving Let It Snow 2.5 stars! If you’re in the mood for a festive read next year, definitely give this one a go!
Review: Where She Went by Gayle Forman
Where She Went by Gayle Form
an
Genre: Romance, Contemporary
Published by: Dutton Juvenile
Pages: 264
Format: Paperback
Rating: ★★
Series: If I Stay (#1)
Where to Find: Goodreads | Amazon
Where She Went by Gayle Forman, is the sequel to If I Stay – a book I really enjoyed. That’s not to say that I didn’t enjoy Where She Went, but I wasn’t the biggest fan of Adam in the first book so to have a book from his perspective didn’t improve my rating. Originally I hadn’t planned on reading the sequel, because I enjoyed the ambiguities of If I Stay’s ending. Now, I wouldn’t say I was disappointed with the ending, but I didn’t think I needed a sequel to come to the same conclusions that I’d already…concluded.
Adam spends the majority of the book moaning about how much Mia hurt him – this book takes place about three years after the ending of the first book – by going to Julliard and living her dream. I was absolutely appalled by the time it took for Adam to recognize that he had told her he would let her go if she stayed. Because Adam was in an unhappy place in his life it didn’t make for very fun reading. The novel definitely picked up with the introduction of Mia, but even then it wasn’t until the very end that I felt what I’d read actually meant something to the characters.
Forman still effortlessly went back and forth in the timeline, and I enjoy how easy her writing is to read. There wasn’t as much music in Where She Went, but I didn’t feel like this made it any less identifiable as Adam and Mia’s story. In fact the lack of music references just showed how much these characters changed. One thing that I felt was lacking was a resolute message that change can sometimes be good. Also, I wasn’t particularly fond of how attached Adam was to Mia – a good relationship should be supportive, but not dependent, which is what Adam was.
I think regret is a strong word to describe how I feel about reading this book, because I don’t think it necessarily added or subtracted from how much I liked If I Stay. I will say that if you’re undecided on whether or not to pick up Where She Went, just think about where you would like Mia and Adam’s relationship progresses and assume you are correct. Overall, I gave Where She Went two stars, because I couldn’t connect with Adam’s PoV as much as I did Mia’s and it would be unfair to rate it the same as If I Stay.
Review: Are We There Yet? by David Levithan
Are We There Yet? by David Levithan
Genre: Contemporary, Family
Published by: Alfred A. Knopf
Pages: 215
Format: Paperback
Rating: ★★.5
Where to Find: Goodreads | Amazon
I picked this book up because I have been thoroughly enjoying David Levithan’s co-written works with Rachel Cohn, and I decided that in 2015 I wanted to read more of his novels. When I saw a wild David Levithan book appear in the library, one that I hadn’t heard of no less, I jumped on the chance to read it.
Are We There Yet? by David Levithan is the story of two brothers who really misunderstand one another. They’ve grown apart as they’ve gotten older, and when their parents send them on a holiday to Italy they don’t know how they’re going to cope.
The character development was progressively good. I didn’t like where the brothers started but I really liked how their relationship changed and evolved into something new. There was a lot of miscommunication between the brothers, and the age gap didn’t help matters, so it really made me thankful that I’ve grown up with a sister who’s the same age (high five, Maddie!) I don’t think I’ve read much about brothers before, there always seems to be sister relationships in novels, but you don’t often hear of two brothers – if you do please recommend the good ones! – and Levithan analyzed the differences between the different sibling relationships and it was really eye opening. I’d say that because of Maddie I don’t really know much about different gender sibling relationships. People always ask Maddie and I ‘what’s it like to be twin’ and we can only ever respond with ‘we don’t know any different!’ But those same people would then proceed to look at us strangely if we asked them ‘what’s it like to have a younger brother?’ or something along those lines.
I can’t say that I preferred one brother to the other, because it really depended on what either David or Elijah were doing. I wouldn’t say I connected with either of their personalities, but the relationship they shared was what made me keep reading! They were in Italy – Venice, Florence, Rome – and I really liked hearing about all the different landmarks. I was particularly interested in Florence as that is the focus of my History coursework that I start in January.
Apart from visiting a few landmarks, and getting their hearts broken there wasn’t too much plot. It probably isn’t the book for you if you like a fast paced adventure read, but if you like the family-centric novels then pick this one up straight away! It’s a great ‘brothers version’ of Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell. Are We There Yet? has not put me of Levithan’s writing at all, in fact I can’t wait to get my hands on more! However, I’m only going to give this book two stars comparatively to his other works.
Apart from visiting a few landmarks, and getting their hearts broken there wasn’t too much plot. It probably isn’t the book for you if you like a fast paced adventure read, but if you like the family-centric novels then pick this one up straight away! It’s a great ‘brothers version’ of Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell. Are We There Yet? has not put me of Levithan’s writing at all, in fact I can’t wait to get my hands on more! However, I’m only going to give this book two stars comparatively to his other works.
Heart Full of Books 