Monday 3 December 2012

Book Review - Fall For Anything

Fall For Anything
Author: Courtney Summers 
Standalone
Genres: Contemporary, Death | Young Adult
Release Date: December 21st 2010
Publishers:  St. Martin's Griffin
No. Pages: 230
Source: Borrowed
Rating: 
Struggling to understand the reasons behind her successful photographer father's suicide, Eddie Reeves purses a dangerous relationship with one of her father's former students, who seems to know more about Eddie's father than she does.

Sunday 2 December 2012

Book Review - What Happened to Goodbye

What Happened to Goodbye
Author: Sarah Dessen
Standalone
Genres: Contemporary | Young Adult
Release Date: 10th May 2011
May 10th 2011
Publishers: Viking Juvenile
No. Pages: 402
Source: Borrowed
Rating:
Buy From: Amazon | Book Depository | Barnes and Noble | Waterstones
Who is the real McLean?

Since her parents' bitter divorce, McLean and her dad, a restaurant consultant, have been on the move-four towns in two years. Estranged from her mother and her mother's new family, McLean has followed her dad in leaving the unhappy past behind. And each new place gives her a chance to try out a new persona: from cheerleader to drama diva. But now, for the first time, McLean discovers a desire to stay in one place and just be herself, whoever that is. Perhaps Dave, the guy next door, can help her find out.

This story is set from Mclean's point of view. Mclean lives with her dad, Gus, after her parents divorce 2 years ago when her mum had an affair with the new coach to the Defriese University basket ball team, a team that both Mclean and her dad adore. Mclean and her dad have moved three times in the space of 2 years, and are making Lakeview their fourth. They move around a lot for her dads job at EAT. INC , in which is made to bring failing restaurants back to their former glory. Every town they have lived in Mclean has been someone else from the perky cheerleader girl to the drama student, but this time she's none other than just pan Mclean. Only problem is, after playing someone else for so long she's forgotten who she is.

Saturday 1 December 2012

Book Review - You Against Me

You Against Me
Author: Jenny Downham
Standalone
Genres: Contemporary, Romance | Young Adult
Release Date: December 2nd 2010
No. Pages: 413
Source: Borrowed
Rating:
Buy From: Amazon | Book Depository | Barnes and Noble | Waterstones
If someone hurts your sister and you're any kind of man, you seek revenge, right?
If your brother's accused of a terrible crime but says he didn't do it, you defend him, don't you?
When Mikey's sister claims a boy assaulted her, his world begins to fall apart.
When Ellie's brother is charged with the offence, her world begins to unravel.
When Mikey and Ellie meet, two worlds collide.

Let me first start of by saying that I had been waiting to read this book for what seems like years, even though in reality its only been 2. I remember first reading Before I Die by Jenny and being moved to tears while on the bus to work. Everything about that book touched me, and when I heard about You Against Me I couldn't wait to read it. Unfortunately it came out the year my little girl was born so I didn't have much time to haha. But while reading it, my partner asked me while I was smiling from ear to to ear, to which I told him - 'You know when you've been waiting for something for so long, be it a game or a book or a TV program, and when you eventually get to read/watch/play it you hope and pray before that its as good as you wanted it to be? Then you read/play/watch it and all the fears you had before vanish because not only is it as good as you thought it would be, but better? Well that's how I feel right now'.

Yeah...that says it all.

Thursday 22 November 2012

Book Review - The Reckoning

The Reckoning
Author: Kelley Armstrong
Series: Darkest Powers Trilogy #3
Genres: Urban Fantasy, Supernatural | Young Adult
Release Date: April 6th 2010
Publishers: Orbit
No. Pages: 392
Source: Borrowed
Rating: 
Chloe Saunders is fifteen and would love to be normal. Unfortunately, Chloe happens to be a genetically engineered necromancer who can raise the dead without even trying. She and her equally gifted (or should that be 'cursed'?) friends are now running for their lives from the evil corporation that created them.

As if that's not enough, Chloe is struggling with her feelings for Simon, a sweet-tempered sorcerer, and his brother Derek, a not so sweet-tempered werewolf. And she has a horrible feeling she's leaning towards the werewolf...

Definitely not normal

Saturday 17 November 2012

Book Review - Zom-B / This is Not a Test

Zom-B
Author: Darren Shan 
Series: Zom-b #1
Genres: Apocalyptic, Paranormal | Young Adult
Release Date: September 27th 2012
Publishers: Simon & Schuster
No. Pages: 214
Source: Borrowed
Rating: 
Buy From: Amazon | Book Depository | Barnes and Noble | Waterstones
Zom-B is a radical new series about a zombie apocalypse, told in the first person by one of its victims. The series combines classic Shan action with a fiendishly twisting plot and hard-hitting and thought-provoking moral questions dealing with racism, abuse of power and more. This is challenging material, which will captivate existing Shan fans and bring in many new ones. As Darren says, "It's a big, sprawling, vicious tale...a grisly piece of escapism, and a barbed look at the world in which we live. Each book in the series is short, fast-paced and bloody. A high body-count is guaranteed!


Saturday 10 November 2012

Book Review - The Awakening

The Awakening
Author: Kelley Armstrong 
Series: Darkest Powers Trilogy #2
Genres: Urban Fantasy, Supernatural | Young Adult
Release Date: April 28th 2009
Publishers: Harper Collins
No. Pages: 360
Source: Borrowed
Rating:
Chloe Saunders is on the run
and raising hell. Literally.

Chloe Saunders is not your average supernatural teenager. Genetically altered at birth by a sinister team of scientists, she can barely control her terrifying powers. Now the team that created her has decided it's time to end the experiment. Permanently.

Now Chloe is running for her life along with a charming sorcerer, a troubled werewolf and a temperamental young witch. Together they have a chance for freedom - but can Chloe trust her new friends?

Friday 2 November 2012

Book Review - The Summoning

The Summoning
Author: Kelley Armstrong  , 
Series: Darkest Powers Trilogy #1
Genres: Urban Fantasy, Paranormal | Young Adult
Release Date: July 1st 2008
Publishers: Harper Collins
No. Pages: 390
Source: Borrowed
Rating: 
My name is Chloe Saunders and my life will never be the same again.

All I wanted was to make friends, meet boys, and keep on being ordinary. I don't even know what that means anymore. It all started on the day that I saw my first ghost - and the ghost saw me.

Now there are ghosts everywhere and they won't leave me alone. To top it all off, I somehow got myself locked up in Lyle House, a "special home" for troubled teens. Yet the home isn't what it seems. Don't tell anyone, but I think there might be more to my housemates than meets the eye. The question is, whose side are they on? it's up to me to figure out the dangerous secrets behind Lyle House...before its skeletons come back to haunt me.

Sunday 28 October 2012

Book Review - What's Left Of Me

What's Left Of Me
Author: Kat Zhang
Series: The Hybrid Chronicles #1
Genres: Dystopian, Science Fiction | Young Adult
Release Date: September 27th 2012
No. Pages: 343
Source: Borrowed
Rating:
Buy From: Amazon | Book Depository | Barnes and Noble | Waterstones
I should not exist. But I do.

Eva and Addie started out the same way as everyone else—two souls woven together in one body, taking turns controlling their movements as they learned how to walk, how to sing, how to dance. But as they grew, so did the worried whispers. Why aren’t they settling? Why isn’t one of them fading? The doctors ran tests, the neighbors shied away, and their parents begged for more time. Finally Addie was pronounced healthy and Eva was declared gone. Except, she wasn’t . . .

For the past three years, Eva has clung to the remnants of her life. Only Addie knows she’s still there, trapped inside their body. Then one day, they discover there may be a way for Eva to move again. The risks are unimaginable-hybrids are considered a threat to society, so if they are caught, Addie and Eva will be locked away with the others. And yet.. for a chance to smile, to twirl, to speak, Eva will do anything.

I first heard about this book when Raimy of Readaraptor had given it high recommendation but even though her reviews have never stirred me wrong, I still wasn't sure. At the moment I seem to always be drawn to dystopia books over the ordinary YA fantasy but they have became what the majority of YA vampire books were after Twilight, predictable and unoriginal. I had it for a week or two and when stuck for something to read I decided to give it a go.

Friday 26 October 2012

Book Review - Delirium / Pandemonium

Delirium
Author: Lauren Oliver 
Series: Delirium #1
Genres: Dystopian, Science Fiction | Young Adult
Release Date: February 7th 2012
Publishers: Harper Collins
No. Pages: 441
Source: Borrowed
Rating:
Buy From: Amazon | Book Depository | Barnes and Noble | Waterstones
Ninety-five days, and then I'll be safe. I wonder whether the procedure will hurt. I want to get it over with. It's hard to be patient. It's hard not to be afraid while I'm still uncured, though so far the deliria hasn't touched me yet. Still, I worry. They say that in the old days, love drove people to madness. The deadliest of all deadly things: It kills you both when you have it and when you don't.

Monday 1 October 2012

Book Review - Looking For Alaska

Looking For Alaska
Author: John Green
Standalone
Genres: Contemporary, Coming of age | Young Adult
Release Date: December 28th 2006
Publishers: Speak
No. Pages: 256
Source: Borrowed
Rating:  
Before. Miles "Pudge" Halter's whole existence has been one big nonevent, and his obsession with famous last words has only made him crave the "Great Perhaps" (François Rabelais, poet) even more. He heads off to the sometimes crazy, possibly unstable, and anything-but-boring world of Culver Creek Boarding School, and his life becomes the opposite of safe. Because down the hall is Alaska Young. The gorgeous, clever, funny, sexy, self-destructive, screwed-up, and utterly fascinating Alaska Young, who is an event unto herself. She pulls Pudge into her world, launches him into the Great Perhaps, and steals his heart.

After. Nothing is ever the same

Friday 10 August 2012

Book Review - Palace of the Damned

Palace of the Damned
Author: Darren Shan
Series: The Saga of Larten Crepsley #3
Genres: Paranormal, Vampires| Young Adult
Release Date: September 29th 2011
Publishers: Harper Collins
No. Pages: 256
Source: Borrowed
Rating: 
Buy From: Amazon | Book Depository | Barnes and Noble | Waterstones
In the third instalment in the creepy, captivating Larten Crepsley series, Larten finds out what it means to love… but is he also damned to find out what it means to lose?

Lost in the arctic waste, carrying a baby whose love he could never deserve, Larten faces the darkest time he has ever known. But hope has a way of shining through even the smallest of cracks, and just as Larten reaches the end, a new beginning presents itself. The trouble is, for Larten, the violence of his youth is never far from the surface… and those he loves are the ones he hurts the most. As Larten experiences heaven and hell, and tries to save the soul of a child, the question is: can he save his own?

Wednesday 8 August 2012

Book Review - Ocean of Blood

Ocean of Blood
Author: Darren Shan
Series: The Saga of Larten Crepsley #2
Genres: Paranormal, Vampires | Young Adult
Release Date: April 28th 2011
Publishers: Harper Collins
No. Pages: 232
Source: Borrowed
Rating: 
Buy From: Amazon | Book Depository | Barnes and Noble | Waterstones
Free from their mentor Seba Nile, Larten Crepsley and Wester Flack join the Cubs – wild young vampires with little respect for human life, and a taste for mindless enjoyment

For the Cubs, everything is easy. But nothing has ever been easy for Larten, and soon fate throws his life into another spin. With dark paths to travel, Larten finds himself far from the Vampire Mountain and its rules. A long way from home, sick and alone, he must decide what kind of vampire he will be. Whether he will stand firm, be true to his master and his princples – or whether he will lose himself in blood…

Tuesday 7 August 2012

Book Review - The Fault in Our Stars by

The Fault in Our Stars
Author: John Green
Standalone
Genres: Contemporary | Young Adult
Release Date: January 10th 2012
Publishers:  Dutton Books
No. Pages: 313
Source: Purchased
Rating: 
Despite the tumor-shrinking medical miracle that has bought her a few years, Hazel has never been anything but terminal, her final chapter inscribed upon diagnosis. But when a gorgeous plot twist named Augustus Waters suddenly appears at Cancer Kid Support Group, Hazel's story is about to be completely rewritten.

Sunday 5 August 2012

Book Review - Birth of a Killer

Birth of a Killer
Author: Darren Shan
Series: The Saga of Larten Crepsley #1
Genres: Paranormal, Vampires | Young Adult
Release Date:  September 30th 2010
Publishers: Harper Collins
No. Pages: 253
Source: Purchased
Rating: 
When terrible events force young Larten Crepsley to flee his home he finds himself alone in the world. Then he meets the mysterious Seba Nile, who introduces him to the ways of the vampire clan. Travelling with Seba, Larten experiences the adventures he has always dreamed about. But will he turn his back on humanity?


Friday 3 August 2012

Book Review - Daughter of Smoke and Bone

Daughter of Smoke and Bone
Author: Laini Taylor
Series: Daughter of Smoke and Bone
Genres: Fantasy | Young Adult
Release Date: 5th June 2012
Publishers: Hodder
No. Pages: 418
Source: Borrowed
Rating:
In general, Karou has managed to keep her two lives in balance. On the one hand, she's a seventeen-year-old art student in Prague; on the other, errand-girl to a monstrous creature who is the closest thing she has to family. Raised half in our world, half in 'Elsewhere', she has never understood Brimstone's dark work - buying teeth from hunters and murderers - nor how she came into his keeping. She is a secret even to herself, plagued by the sensation that she isn't whole.

Now the doors to Elsewhere are closing, and Karou must choose between the safety of her human life and the dangers of a war-ravaged world that may hold the answers she has always sought.

Firstly let me just start of by saying that if I could have given this more stars I would have. This book was just perfection, there wasn't one thing I didn't like about it. I started it a few days ago but when I really had time to read I couldn't put it down!! I only heard about this book about a month ago. I was attracted to the cover at first and the fact that the average rating on goodreads was so high. I'll be honest though, that also put me off. Before I picked this masterpiece up I had just finished reading the Trylle Trilogy. That had also got a lot of great reviews and I heard nothing but good things. So I bought the whole trilogy only to be massively disappointed.

Thursday 2 August 2012

Book Review - Switched

Switched
Author: Amanda Hocking
Series: Trylee #1
Genres: Paranormal, Fantasy | Young Adult
Release Date: 12th July 2010
Publishers: CreateSpace
No. Pages: 304
Source: Purchased
Rating:
When Wendy Everly was six-years-old, her mother was convinced she was a monster and tried to kill her. It isn't until eleven years later that Wendy finds out her mother might've been telling the truth. With the help of Finn Holmes, Wendy finds herself in a world she never knew existed - and it's one she's not sure if she wants to be a part of.

I'm going to be honest , this book didn't wow me or move me. I know that there are a lot of people out there who love this book and will probably disagree with me but I didn't like it. The only reason I'm given it a two is because it was refreshing to read a YA that wasn't centered around vampires or werewolves, angels or magic. Yet even though it was refreshing it still lacked anything.

Tuesday 31 July 2012

Book Review - Hate List

Hate List
Author: Jennifer Brown
Standalone
Genres: Contemporary | Young Adult
Release Date: 1st September 2009
Publishers: Little Brown Books
No. Pages: 405
Source: Borrowed
Rating:
Buy From: Amazon | Book Depository | Barnes and Noble | Waterstones
Five months ago, Valerie Leftman's boyfriend, Nick, opened fire on their school cafeteria. Shot trying to stop him, Valerie inadvertently saved the life of a classmate, but was implicated in the shootings because of the list she helped create. A list of people and things she and Nick hated. The list he used to pick his targets.

Now, after a summer of seclusion, Val is forced to confront her guilt as she returns to school to complete her senior year. Haunted by the memory of the boyfriend she still loves and navigating rocky relationships with her family, former friends and the girl whose life she saved, Val must come to grips with the tragedy that took place and her role in it, in order to make amends and move on with her life.

I didn't really know what to think at the start of this book. I've only ever read one book where there's a high school shooting which was Nineteen Minutes by Jodi Picoult, she's one if my favourite authors so as you can tell this book had a lot to live up to in my eyes from the very beginning.

Tuesday 29 May 2012

Book Review - Dead To The World

Dead To The World
Author: Charlaine Harris
Series: Sookie Stackhouse #4
Genres: Paranormal, Fantasy | Adult
Release Date: 3rd May 2005
Publishers: Ace
No. Pages: 291
Source: Borrowed
Rating: 
Buy From: Amazon | Book Depository | Barnes and Noble | Waterstones
Sookie Stackhouse is a cocktail waitress in Bon Temps, Louisiana. She has only a few close friends, because not everyone appreciates Sookie's gift: she can read minds. That’s not exactly every man's idea of date bait – unless they’re undead; vampires and the like can be tough to read. And that’s just the kind of guy Sookie's been looking for.

Maybe that’s why, when she comes across a naked vampire, she doesn't just drive on by. He hasn't got a clue who he is, but Sookie has: Eric looks just as scary and sexy – and dead – as ever. But now he has amnesia, he’s sweet, vulnerable, and in need of Sookie's help – because whoever took his memory now wants his life.
The following review may contain spoilers concerning earlier books in the series.
If you have not read the previous installments, please proceed with caution.

It took me about a week and a bit to read this book. Firstly because I was dealing with family problems, had my partners little brother over for a half the week and because for the first time in what seems like forever, the sun is shinning, I've been out playing with my little girl. Another reason (probably the real reason) is I just got so frustrated with this book. I'm sick of the love triangle between Sookie, Eric and Bill. Bill goes to Peru at the start of the book to work on his research into vampire history, I thought that it would be a really good time for Sookie to be alone and maybe finally develop her character a bit more. Instead she was faced with the task of looking after Eric, who had lost his memory, and within days she had fallen in love with him.

Friday 18 May 2012

Book Review - Club Dead

Club Dead
Author: Charlaine Harris
Series: Sookie Stackhouse #3
Genres: Paranormal, Fantasy | Adult
Release Date: 1st January 2001
Publishers: Orbit
No. Pages: 274
Source: Purchased
Rating:
Buy From: Amazon | Book Depository | Barnes and Noble | Waterstones
Things between cocktail waitress Sookie and her vampire boyfriend Bill seem to be going excellently (apart from the small matter of him being undead) until he leaves town for a while. A long while. Bill's sinister boss Eric has an idea of where to find him, whisking her off to Jackson, Mississippi to mingle with the under-underworld at Club Dead. When she finally catches up with the errant vampire, he is in big trouble and caught in an act of serious betrayal. This raises serious doubts as to whether she should save him or start sharpening a few stakes of her own
The following review may contain spoilers concerning earlier books in the series.
If you have not read the previous installments, please proceed with caution.

Finally I'm liking the series. I had heard that it had picked up in this book but after the last 2 books I can honestly say I wasn't optimistic. From start to finish I loved the book, I felt like Harris had settled and was comfortable with where she wanted the story to go, and it showed. It didn't feel like it was all thrown together, the character development was spot on and I was hooked. I love Alcide. Like really love him. I did in the show and as most of my favourite characters have taken the back seat in the books I thought he would too. I'm glad to say I was more than pleasantly surprised. He was described just enough and for the first time I really felt like I knew one of the characters.

Wednesday 16 May 2012

Book Review - Living Dead In Dallas

Living Dead In Dallas
Author: Charlaine Harris
Series: Sookie Stackhouse #2
Genres: Paranormal, Fantasy | Adult
Release Date: 26th March 2001
No. Pages: 288
Source: Purchased
Rating:
Sookie Stackhouse likes living in Bon Temps, Louisiana, and she likes working as a cocktail waitress at Merlotte's. But she is having a streak of bad luck. First her co-worker is killed, and no one seems to care. Then she comes face-to-face with a beastly creature which gives her a painful and poisonous lashing. Enter the vampires, who graciously suck the poison from her veins (like they didn't enjoy it).

The point is: the vampires saved her life. So when one of her bloodsuckers asks for a favour, she obliges and soon Sookie's in Dallas, using her telepathic skills to search for a missing vampire. She's supposed to interview certain humans involved, but she makes one condition: the vampires must promise to behave, and let the humans go unharmed. But that's easier than done, and all it takes is one delicious blonde and one small mistake for things to turn deadly..
The following review may contain spoilers concerning earlier books in the series.
If you have not read the previous installments, please proceed with caution.

Sadly yet again I'm still waiting to be wowed. I think my biggest problem with the books so far is Charlaine Harris is trying to fit so much in such a small book. And due to that I feel like there are things just being brushed over when I (not sure if everyone else) would have loved to read more about it. In the book there's a group of people called The Fellowship of the Sun. They are stated to being like what the KKK are to African Americans but obviously to vampires, but there was hardly any back story to them and considering they were such a big part of the book (and still to be in the series according to Bill) I was left wishing for more.

Tuesday 15 May 2012

Book Review - Dead Until Dark

Dead Until Dark
Author: Charlaine Harris
Series: Sookie Stackhouse #1
Genres: Paranormal, Fantasy | Adult
Release Date: 1st January 2001
No. Pages: 292
Source: Purchased
Rating:
Sookie Stackhouse is a small-time cocktail waitress in small-town Louisiana. She's quiet, keeps to herself, and doesn't get out much. Not because she's not pretty. She is. It's just that, well, Sookie has this sort of 'disability.' She can read minds. And that doesn't make her too dateable. And then along comes Bill. He's tall, dark, handsome - and Sookie can't hear a word he's thinking. He's exactly the type of guy she's been waiting for all her life..

But Bill has a disability of his own: He's a vampire with a bad reputation. He hangs with a seriously creepy crowd, all suspected of - big surprise - murder. And when one of Sookie's coworkers is killed, she fears she's next..

The book is about a girl called Sookie Stackhouse from Louisiana. She works in a bar called Merlottes as a waitress, lives with her grandma and has a brother called Jason. And she can read minds. One night at work (after waiting forever) Merlottes finally gets its first vampire called Bill, and when Sookie reads a couple of vampire drainers mind, hearing what they planned for poor old bill, she has to save his life. Nearly getting herself killed in the process. After having to save her from death not long after Bill and Sookie start to date. After more than one waitress Sookie works for turns up dead its time to round up suspects. Jason, her brother and also someone who has spent the night with each of them. Sam Merlotte, the owner of the bar, the boss and landlord to one of them or Bill. The murders happened after he came into town and they all had old vampire bites on their body. Or is someone just trying to frame them?

Friday 11 May 2012

Book Review - Hush Hush by Becca Fitzpatrick

Hush Hush
Author: Becca Fitzpatrick
Series: Hush Hush #1
Genres: Paranormal, Urban Fantasy | Young Adult
Release Date: 1st January 2009
No. Pages: 391
Source: Borrowed
Rating:
Nora's never been particularly attracted to the boys at her school. Not until Patch came along. With his easy smile and eyes that seem to see inside her, she is drawn to him against her better judgement.

But after a series of terrifying encounters, Nora's not sure who to trust. Patch seems to be everywhere she is and knows more about her than her closest friends. And when she tries to seek some answers, she finds herself near a truth that is way more unsettling than anything Patch makes her feel.

For Nora is right in the middle of a centuries-old battle between the immortal and those that have fallen - and sooner or later, she's going to have to pick sides..

The book was is about a young girl called Nora Grey, who met a guy called Patch as a result of being forced to switch lab partners. Nora doesn't like him at first but Patch seems to mysteriously be everywhere she is, sometimes at the wrong time, and she starts to have feelings for him against her better judgement. She’s never sure if she should trust him so when bad things start happening and it seems someone is out to get her, Vee her best friend is adamant its Patch and leads Nora to question what she really knows about him . When Nora seeks some answers she finds herself near a truth that’s far more unsettling than the uneasy feeling Patch tends to give her and in the middle of an ancient battle between the immortal and the fallen.