Tag: young adult

Review: Under the Never Sky by Veronica Rossi

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Under the NeveUnder the Never Skyr Sky by Veronica Rossi
Genre: Fantasy, Supernatural, Romance
Published by: Atom
Pages: 374
Format: Paperback
Rating: ★★★★★
Series: Through The Ever Night (#2) | Into the Still Blue (#3)
Where to Find: Goodreads | Amazon

This book has definitely made its way on to my favourite shelf (the hypothetical one on GoodReads because this is actually Bee’s book!) ‘Under the Never Sky’ definitely fulfilled the expectations I had for it after seeing that people were labelling this series as addictive as a class B drug.

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Review: Blood Wars by Brenda Pandos

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BloBlood Warsod Wars by Brenda Pandos
Genre: Supernatural
Published by: Obsidian Mountain Publishing
Pages: 96
Format: E-Book
Rating: ★★
Where to Find: Goodreads | Amazon

I didn’t actually realise that ‘Blood Wars’ was a continuation of a series that Brenda Pandos had already written called ‘The Talisman Series’, so in that respect, I can’t write a lot about this book because it wasn’t the first time readers were supposed to have met the characters or the situation.

However, the events of the series were explained throughout in bite sized chunks that didn’t make the continued series feel to laboured. I was able to grasp what was going on fairly quickly and didn’t have too many questions. Good.

The plot unfolded quickly, with motives behind each character’s actions easy to understand. The relationships between the characters, especially Julia, Phil and Nicholas were obvious, which was definitely a great thing, as I hadn’t read the series. Personalities were simple to read as well, which made this book an effective short story.

I’d definitely call this book a short story, as it was under one hundred pages, but no less enjoyable than a three hundred page book. If anything, I enjoyed it more because it was too the point. With a short story, there’s not a lot that you, as the reader, feel needs to be cut out because of irrelevance. Everything was relevant, everything was explained: the perfect package.

The book completed one of its functions in making me want to read the original series, although I’m pretty spoiled on what happens! 🙂 One of my only complaints, as an unqualified reader, was the lack of vampires. More vampires. (Of course, that was the plot for there to be no vampires in a previous vampire world, but more subtle hints of their continuous existence would have been nice!)

Overall, I’d give this book 2 stars, because it did have substance, but having not read the original series, I could not become as attached to the characters and the romances as I’d have liked to. Also props for the dramatic cover. Blood red was a nice touch.

Review: Dangerous Creatures by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl

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Dangerous CreaturesDangerous Creatures by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl
Genre: Supernatural, Contemporary, Romance
Published By: Little Brown Books
Pages: 368
Format: Paperback
Rating: ★★.5
Where to Find: Goodreads | Amazon

It’s been a little while since I’ve read ‘Beautiful Redemption’, the last in the Caster Chronicles series. OK, it’s been eight months, so it was safe to say that I found myself to be quite lost at the start of this book, especially since I wasn’t willing to pay £1.99 or so for the novella ‘Dangerous Dream’ that came before this full length novel.

Nevertheless, I powered through. Was it the right decision?

Yes?

When authors come out with a new series, featuring the same characters of their previous series, I just have to read it. You know, for a sense of closure. Even if I didn’t completely fall in the love with the predecessor series (and believe me, I didn’t) I still feel the pressure to continue reading the authors’ works. And, if I was unwilling to pay £1.99 for a novella, I sure wasn’t paying £7.99 for the novel.

Perfect solution: a library read. Should I take it as a good or bad sign that I was the first to take this book out?

On with my opinions.

Despite my initial confusion, I managed to get into the story. Ridley and Link were going to New York. As a couple. Or not a couple? Are they a couple? (I hate non-explicit romances.) But already thinks were looking dangerous for the two of them, and my enjoyment of the book. (Did you see what I did there? Heh.)

My pet peeve is when authors have characters that are described to have ‘a terrible secret’ or ‘a hidden past’. The clichés just come rolling in and even though the descriptions are meant to be ambiguous and develop intrigue in the reader, it makes me roll my eyes, sigh and not care. Sorry. Not sorry.

Apparently, Ridley went to Europe and got herself in trouble (because trouble follows that girl like a creepy stalker). You know what else she got?

Another love interest.

Love triangle? Yipee!

This was about as unnecessary as when John was introduced as a rival to Ethan. A good YA book can exist without a love triangle. But, let’s be honest, did Link really deserve Ridley? Weren’t they only together for the convenience of Ethan and Lena? Ridley breaks hearts and doesn’t care. I got the same feeling with her and Link, that there was no real love there.

The plot I found confusing to follow and hard to really like. I didn’t feel like I connected to any of the characters, or understood any of their feelings. Maybe it’s just because I wasn’t that invested in the ‘Caster Chronicles’ but halfway through I wondered why I’d bothered reading it. That sounds bad.

On a positive note, I did like the setting. It had a very ‘Percy Jackson’ feel, using existing issues within a landscape and linking them to the existence of a supernatural world. It was very succinct and easy to imagine.

But when it comes to the villain…is anyone else confused? I thought Abraham died. (Let’s not even mention the garden shears ridiculousness. If only Harry Potter had had some garden shears the night Voldemort came knocking.) Dead is dead, right? So, what’s going on? What’s the threat? The undead?

???

And if I thought the garden shears were the last straw, what about the ending? Now I’m going to have to read the next book in this series (my guess for the title is ‘Dangerous Darkness’ – ooh, how suitable.) It felt like Ridley and Link’s relationship was resolved for the sake of it, not because of any evidenced feelings. Still, Garcia and Stohl have done what they set out to do: made me what to continue reading.

And isn’t that what its all about?

Overall, I give Dangerous Creatures 2.5 stars. Room for improvement. Lots of room.
I promise to use less question marks in my next review.

Review: Day 21 by Kass Morgan

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Day 21

Day 21 by Kass Morgan
Genre: Dystopian, Sci-Fi, Romance
Published by: Little, Brown Books
Pages: 320
Format: Paperback
Rating: ★★★
Series: The 100 (#1)
Where to Find: Goodreads | Amazon

‘Day 21’, like ‘The 100’, had a lot going for it. Sarah, the super-fan if you remember, was of the opinion that the two books should have been combined into one. On that note, I agree with her. As I read the books so quickly one after the other, like with the ‘Shatter Me’ series by Tahereh Mafi, I found it hard to separate what happened in each book. Neither stands out to me as a showstopper, more of a signature bake. (Excuse my profound love for The Great British Bake-Off)

So the ending of ‘The 100’ set us up for a wild ride in ‘Day 21’. Unfortunately it felt like the ride was closed for repairs. The concept of other humans, on an Earth that was strongly believed to have been uninhabited, was not played up to its full potential. Sure, the humans were a threat, but we all saw that coming. OK, they didn’t have to kill someone to prove that they were dangerous but I certainly expected the other humans to play less of a background role.

Instead, we were focusing on the cyclic romances of the now 95 or so human delinquents. Excellent?

For this book, the 95 have kidnapped one of the human born. Sasha. I’d say it’s pretty convenient that she’s a girl so that Wells, our heartbroken leader, can have a love interest now that Clarke has up and left him for the allure of Bellamy. I saw their romantic involvement coming a mile off, though that didn’t mean I didn’t enjoy it. When you’re in a kingdom of isolation, it’s better to have a soul mate.

However, the kidnapping works both ways. Octavia was also kidnapped by the Earthborns, although not many were mourning her loss after the scandal surrounding her within ‘The 100’. Of course, Bellamy gets his bravado on and has to be the hero. Clarke follows. Together they try and find Bellamy’s lost sister as well as work on trusting one another in their relationship.

When will they learn its better just to tell the truth straight away? It would lead to a lot less break-ups and inevitable make-ups.

Meanwhile, on a spaceship far, far away, Glass is encountering a lot of problems, you know, like not being able to breathe. She chooses to stay with Luke, which was cute, but then has to do something risky to get them both back to the safe side of the ship…the part with the high levels of oxygen in it. It turns out that lack of oxygen means the ship is failing (whose fault is that, eh chancellor’s son?!) and the spaceship colony is being shipped down to Earth. There’s a bit of a Titanic situation, in that there’s not enough escape pods for everyone. Glass said she’d never let go of Luke, but we all know what happens to Leo…I mean Luke.

It’s another cycle of I-love-you-now-I-don’t-love-you-oh-wait-I-love-you-again. Not great.

Now, there’s another big reveal at the end of this book to do with the connection between the characters. If you read too much into the flashbacks, then you will figure this out in about a minute. I wasn’t at all surprised by what was revealed and, therefore, it didn’t deliver the shock factor that was promised.

Overall, I’d give ‘Day 21’ 3 stars. I enjoyed it more than ‘The 100’ because at least each character’s plot line varied slightly. Maybe it’s because I read them one after the other that I became more involved in the second book? That said, if this series continues, then I would be very interested to see if it gets better and where Kass Morgan takes the 95 delinquents next.

Preview Review: My True Love Gave To Me Anthology

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My True LoMy True Loveve Gave To Me Anthology
Genre: Contemporary, Romance, Anthology
Published By: Macmillan Children’s
Pages: 320
Format: ARC E-Book
Rating: ★★★★★
Where to Find: Goodreads | Amazon

From the two stories I’ve read from this anthology, I can just say that October 14th could not come fast enough. In the excerpt given, I got the chance to read Rainbow Rowell’s and Stephanie Perkins’ editions to the holiday short story collection, ‘My True Love Gave To Me’.

I’m guessing, because they’re romantic stories, the main characters get a kiss, but I’m hoping that someone gets six geese.

There’s nothing I love more than a good holiday themed short story. I read ‘Let it Snow’ by Maureen Johnson, Lauren Myracle and John Green last year and loved how the stories were all interwoven. However, with this collection I’m expecting the stories not to be connected. (12 authors in contact at the same time about their characters? A dream come true, though highly unlikely.)

I imagine the culmination of these stories happened in a boardroom, similar to ‘The Apprentice’, with Stephanie Perkins at the head of the table, delegating work to her eleven author elves that must churn out stories for Christmas.

So, Rainbow Rowell’s story was obviously written by Rainbow Rowell. There’s definitely not some Christmas ghostwriter out there, dictating what the authors write. In a similar style to ‘Landline’, the story takes place through flashbacks to previous New Year’s Eve parties. We get to see the friendship between Mags and Noel as it develops from just acquaintances to please-be-mine-forever lovers. It was adorable. I love it when a story line is quite circular, where things that were planted, earlier on in the story, grow into something constant and recurring. This was also the shorter of the two stories, but because it takes place over three years, it feels a lot longer. Heck, I would have been happy to read about Mags’ and Noel’s New Year’s Eve parties for a whole novel. Can that happen?

As for Stephanie Perkins’ edition to the anthology, I was equally impressed. It held her usual romantic and humorous style within fewer pages and managed to deliver a very satisfying story that gave my cheeks a warm glow. I loved that the main character, Marigold, and her mother were struggling with their bills and general living – it’s nice to see that these issues and real life situations are still being dealt with in short stories. Even though these stories are romantic, they are not romanticized.

Marigold and North were both adorable characters, on par with Anna and Etienne. Perkins’ characters are so quirky and loveable it’s hard not to enjoy whatever she writes.

I need more short stories from this collection ASAP. These ladies have definitely set the standards high and have done what they do best. It looks like my true love gave to me a five star book.

(Mild Spoiler) Review: The 100 by Kass Morgan

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The 100

The 100 by Kass Morgan
Genre: Dystopian, Sci-Fi, Romance
Published by: Little, Brown Books
Pages: 323
Format: Paperback
Rating: ★★.5
Sequel: Day 21 (#2)
Where to Find: Goodreads | Amazon

‘The 100’ is probably the first legitimate science fiction I’ve read. Of course, all the dystopian novels I’ve completed could also be categorized as sci-fi, but this story takes place in space. My very first space opera. (I wonder if there’s a card for that?)

This was the first book in a series about a colony of humans that had been evacuated from Earth to live in the safety of a spaceship. Because I’ve read ‘Cress’ by Marissa Meyer, I could guess something would go wrong with the ship. I wasn’t disappointed. Therefore, one hundred juvenile delinquents (because ninety-eight just doesn’t have the same ring to it) are sent to Earth nearly a century later to see if Earth had become inhabitable.

Written in third person and following the storylines of four characters, who are very well linked together, ‘The 100’ has a lot to offer. There’s always something going on, even if it is only for a sentence at the end of the chapter. My general opinion was that each story line could have been told in a much shorter timespan, or with lots more detail.

Let me set the scene.

So, Clarke was in love with Wells, and Wells committed a felony just to go to Earth with her, but it turns out Clarke isn’t in love with Wells anymore, she likes Bellamy. Bellamy likes Clarke too, but he has to protect his sister Octavia. Later he doesn’t like Clarke, and then he does again, then Clarke likes Wells, and then settles for Bellamy…. meanwhile aboard ship, Glass, Wells’ best friend, loves Luke but Luke doesn’t love her, he loves Camille, but then he actually loves Glass and Glass still loves him.

Is anyone else thinking these characters are completely unable to make up their minds?

When it came to the romantic relationships between the characters, the same cookie-cutter pattern was followed: one person in the couple is unhappy because they are hiding a HUGE secret that could tear their relationship apart. When the secret finally comes out, as it inevitably will, the relationship fails because of mistrust and dishonesty. I can read about this once, but not on eight separate occasions.

I’d definitely say that the romantic relationships drove the plot more than I thought they would. I know ‘The 100’ has been made into a popular TV show, though haven’t seen an episode. My friend, Sarah (‘The 100’ super-fan) says that the show focuses more on the survival element of the book because that’s actually quite interesting. Just under 100 teenagers, (about ninety three after a few deaths to prove the scene was important) with no experience of Earth, trying to survive without many resources? That sounds killer! I can see why it didn’t chose repetitive romance to draw in the viewers.

So you know what I said about no survival experience? Well, it turns out Bellamy is a dead shot with a bow and arrow, without any earlier practice and having only read about hunting in books. If only Tudor History was that easy to master!

The book ends in quite a cliffhanger, but let’s see if you can guess it! A colony of humans think they’re the only people alive and that Earth is uninhabited. They stress this fact quite a bit. What are they completely not expecting to find on Earth? Other humans.

What do they find on Earth? You guessed it. Other humans.

I severely hope this conflict is played up to it’s full potential in the second book. (More on that later!)

Overall, I’d give ‘The 100’ 2.5 stars. It didn’t impress me as much as I wanted it too because I was expecting something more like the TV show and what that offered. However, Kass Morgan has left the story relatively open ended so it could get better. Fingers crossed.

Review: Vampire Academy by Richelle Mead

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Vampire vampire academyAcademy by Richelle Mead
Genre: Supernatural, Romance
Published By: Razorbill
Pages: 332
Format: Paperback
Rating: ★★★★★
Series: Frostbite (#2)
Where to Find: Goodreads | Amazon

I can’t even coherently describe how excited I was to read Vampire Academy. Bee read the whole series before me, in cute little bind-ups on her Kindle, and really recommended it, saying that she wasn’t expecting much for the books but was blown away by how completely absorbed she was by the story.

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Review: Deep Blue by Jennifer Donnelly

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Deep Blue by JennDeep Blueifer Donnelly
Genre: Supernatural, Romance, Middle-Grade
Published By: Disney Press
Pages: 340
Format: E-book
Rating: ★★
Series: Rogue Wave (#2)
Where to Find: Goodreads | Amazon

The Waterfire Saga: Deep Blue is a book that I would recommend to girls of around ten to twelve years old. Although marketed as a young adult book, after researching the author’s website, her intention was to write for her ten year old daughter. With those criteria, I think she’s succeeded.

This book has a lot of elements within it that are important when writing books for children, for example, friendship and self belief. Set under the sea in a very developed (though not entirely explained) mermaid world, it’s perfect for girls that want a tame introduction to fantasy before they try their hand at ‘A Song of Ice and Fire’ (A recommended reading age of at least 14.)

However, I found that the first 25% of the book (accurate due to Kindle) had a completely different feel to the rest of the story. Seraphina, the main character, is worried about fulfilling her duties as a princess and whether the guy she’s betrothed to still likes her. All trivial stuff, right? Then, wham bam, both her parents die in an assassin’s attack and suddenly it’s all ‘the-fate-of-the-world-is-on-your-shoulders’ type stuff. What?!

Although the book moved at a fast pace, with a new thing happening (and a new character being introduced) basically happened on every page, nothing was explained to its full extent, leaving me feeling at a loss for what was happening.

So, I got that the two main characters were on a quest, suddenly changing from weak willed to strong females in a matter of seconds with no real gradient of change, and they had to find four other girls to go and fight down this monster. The execution of this quest wasn’t exactly Rick Riordan standard. Although the girls were strong in their own way, they relied a lot on getting rescued and other people taking the bullets (or poisoned arrows) for them. They moved from place to place, in a constant state of ‘flee-the-bad-guys’ without any attempt at facing their problems.

When it came to finding the other girls, it happened very abruptly and clumsily. Ling, the first girl to join Seraphina and Neela, was just sat nonchalantly in a café! The other two girls, Ava and Becca, who at first I could distinguish between, were found together getting attacked by evil ghosts and the last girl, Astrid, was your classic non-believer and slightly evil one. Everything was just too quick and…

Convenient.

That’s the only word to describe this book. The girls discovered hidden powers at just the right moment, with camoflauge spells only working at the last seconds and guards wouldn’t do a full sweep of their hideout.

The ending also had a sense of convenience. How was it the six girls, barely able to use magic, were able to fight down the biggest threat and win as soon as they joined forces? Of course, the threat couldn’t be completely diminished, as this is only the first book in a series. The threat will return but in the meantime, what do all the girls have to do? You guessed it.

Flee.

Overall, I’d give this book 2.5 stars. Not impressed. I didn’t feel for any of the characters, primary or secondary, as we basically only learnt their names and the colour of their tails. Not much to get emotionally attached to. However, perhaps it was the fact that I’m seventeen, and not ten that stopped me from enjoying this book to the maximum.

Review: Landline by Rainbow Rowell

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LandlineLandline by Rainbow Rowell
Genre: Contemporary, Romance, Family
Published by: Orion
Pages: 310
Format: ebook
Rating: ★★★.5
Where to Find: Goodreads | Amazon

‘Landline’ by Rainbow Rowell fits more perfectly into the ‘New Adult’ genre of literature. Due to there being no characters in the book between the ages of 15-20, ‘Young Adult’ may have been an understatement.

However, the fact that the characters were parents didn’t take away from my enjoyment of the book, although I felt I couldn’t relate to the characters as well because I hadn’t experienced a lot of what they were going through…like marriage. (It’s unfortunately impossible to propose to book characters.)

The story follows Georgie, a mother of two that has a time consuming career of writing scripts for TV shows. That was super interesting to read, as I never really imagine the people behind the jokes of sitcoms. Georgie is married to Neal and it’s safe to say their marriage is on the rocks because of Georgie’s job and the strain of having kids. (Wow, family life suddenly seems way more difficult than I thought!)

Although this is all quintessential to the plot, the really interesting idea is that Georgie has a phone in her present that can connect to a phone in Neal’s past. Through this magical device, she is able to talk to a younger Neal, who is contemplating proposing to Georgie. As anyone would, older Georgie takes this opportunity to smooth over younger Georgie’s mistakes and put right her relationship with her husband.

This doesn’t quite go to plan.

The scenes where Georgie was on the phone to younger Neal were quite repetitive. They’d follow the pattern of younger Neal, not knowing older Georgie’s downfall’s, convincing her that he loves her while the older Georgie tries to convince him that they’re not right for each other. I could read about this struggle once, but three times was kind of a push.

There are also parts of the book that are flashbacks to Georgie and Neal’s relationship at its roots, when they were first getting to know each other. These were the cutest parts, but as we were only reading from Georgie’s perspective, we didn’t get to see that Neal really really liked Georgie, though he wasn’t very good at showing it.

In a way, their relationship was unequal from the start, with Georgie thinking that she loved Neal more than he loved her, and with Neal thinking the other way around. The problem was definitely communication. They definitely needed to talk more. Thank goodness for this magical phone! If only Georgie would stop being so negative about herself.

The other problem with time travel is messing up the future. Georgie was under the impressive the phone worked in a ‘Back to the Future’ or ‘Meet the Robinson’s’ system but really, we were looking at your classic ‘Prisoner of Askaban’ contingency system, where every action is predetermined to make the future. Nice one.

All is resolved at the end, which is nice for the McCool family, but in my opinion, the whole book could have told the same story in a lot less pages, with less emphasis on Georgie’s life and more emphasis on her ability to fix her broke relationship (successfully, I might add!) For this reason, I’m going to give this book 3.5 stars, because although I liked it, the characters were much older than me. I couldn’t sympathize with them well and the story felt a little drawn out. Nothing to make me stop reading completely, but nothing like ‘Fangirl’.

Review: To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before by Jenny Han

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To All The Boys ITo All the Boys‘ve Loved Before by Jenny Han
Genre: Contemporary, Romance
Published By: Simon & Schuster
Pages: 288
Format: Paperback
Rating: ★★★.5
Where to Find: Goodreads | Amazon

I got everything that I was expecting with this book, except the promised plot. We were sold on the idea that boys would be receiving love letters from a girl who doesn’t love them anymore, but there were only five letters. Two boys didn’t bother to confront her about it. One boy was sweet about it, but fleeting in the story, and the other two guys ended up in a fight for Lara Jean’s affections.

What I wasn’t expecting was the classic ‘be-my-fake-boyfriend’ plot that steered the majority of the story. And what normally happens in this scenario? They actually fall in love. Did that happen? Is it really a surprise if I say yes?

Although I’m a fan of the fake bf/gf story line (like a good love triangle, when does it ever happen in real life?) I didn’t really get the purpose of this one. The explanation for it in the book was to ‘save face’. What does that even mean?!

The main character, Lara Jean, doesn’t really stand out for me as a character with much backbone. She’s super dependent on her sisters and kind of babyish. This naivety hinders her from doing things and speaking out when, really, that would make her a lot happier!

That said, I loved the relationship she had with her sisters. It was very equal and realistic and though I don’t know what it’s like to have older or younger sisters, I do have a sister and I know what it’s like to be angry with her! My favourite sister was probably Kitty, the youngest. She was adorable, determined and great at plaiting hair. I’d of much preferred a book from her perspective! J

The relationship between Lara Jean and her boy-next-door Josh went unresolved. He was one of her loves but the problem was, he was dating her older sister Margot. (Pronounced Mar-go or Mar-got?) They broke up. Both LJ and Josh were single. Did they get together once LJ knew Josh liked her too? NOPE! LJ did the fake bf routine with the most popular guy at school, Peter. WHYYY?!

Peter and LJ’s relationship was cute. I liked how they both were unsure and adorable to each other, with Peter really trying to impress LJ and Kitty. Josh faded into the background at this point, which was down right inconsistent, but he popped back up at the end of for the classic sister-betrayal fight.

A lot of clichés in this one. Sorry about that.

I originally thought that this was going to be a stand alone, but just discovered it was going to be a series. That’s good, otherwise I would have complained about the complete lack of satisfying ending. What happened with Josh? What happened with Peter? What happened with Margo? I had questions. A lot of them. Now, I guess, I wait for them to be answered.

Overall I’d give this book about 3.5 stars. I did enjoy it once it got going, but was surprised and the change of plot line from what was promised. Jenny Han has such a lovely way of writing family life and simple day activities, with a lot of emphasis put on food. LJ baked a lot in this book that made me crave cookies.

Generally cute, fluffy read with some substance. Definitely needs a sequel to tie up some very loose ends.