Book Reviews - Sweet Peril/Sweet Peril Extra

Sweet Peril
Author: Wendy Higgins
Series: The Sweet Trilogy #2
Genres: Paranormal, Urban Fantasy | Young Adult
Release Date: 30th April 2013
Publishers: Harper Teen
No. Pages: 371
Source: Purchased
Rating: 
Buy From: Amazon | Book Depository | Barnes and Noble | Waterstones

Anna Whitt, the daughter of a guardian angel and a demon, promised herself she’d never do the work of her father - polluting souls. She’d been naive to make such a vow. She’d been naive about a lot of things. Haunted by demon whisperers, Anna does whatever she can to survive, even if it means embracing her dark side and earning an unwanted reputation as her school’s party girl. Her life has never looked more bleak. And all the while there’s Kaidan Rowe, son of the Duke of Lust, plaguing her heart and mind.

When an unexpected lost message from the angels surfaces, Anna finds herself traveling the globe with Kopano, son of Wrath, in an attempt to gain support of fellow Nephilim and give them hope for the first time. It soon becomes clear that whatever freedoms Anna and the rest of the Neph are hoping to win will not be gained without a fight. Until then, Anna and Kaidan must put aside the issues between them, overcome the steamiest of temptations yet, and face the ultimate question: is loving someone worth risking their life?

Book Review - Keep The Faith

Keep the Faith
Author: Candy Harper
Series: Faith #2
Genres: Contemporary | Childrens, Young Adult
Release Date: 24th April 2014
Publishers: Simon and Schuster
No. Pages: 288
Source: Review Copy - Simon and Schuster
Rating: 
Buy From: Amazon | Book Depository | Barnes and Noble | Waterstones

Get ready for boy dilemmas, friendship dramas and madcap grannies - Faith is back!

Will Faith make up her mind between the gorgeous Finn and the lovely Ethan and manage to get herself a real-life boyfriend?
Will Mrs Cox finally get off her case and recognise Faith's true genius?
Will Faith's family learn how to be normal, non-embarrassing people?
Will Faith and her BFFs beat the world record for number of biscuits eaten in a minute?
All these questions and more will be answered in the hilarious next installment of this brilliant series!

Book Review - Don't Even Think About It

Don't Even Think About
Author: Sarah Mlynowski
Standalone
Genres: Contemporary | Young Adult
Release Date: 1st May 2014
Publishers: Orchard Books
No. Pages: 304
Source: Review Copy - Orchard Books
Rating: 
Buy From: Amazon | Book Depository | Barnes and Noble | Waterstones

This is the story of how we became freaks. It's how a group of I's became a we.

When Class 10B got their flu shots, they expected some side effects. Maybe a sore arm. Maybe a headache. They definitely didn't expect to get telepathy. But suddenly they could hear what everyone was thinking. Their friends. Their teachers. Their parents. Now they all know that Tess has a crush on her best friend, Teddy. That Mackenzie cheated on Cooper. That Nurse Carmichael used to be a stripper. Some of them will thrive. Some of them will break. None of them will ever be the same.

Book Review - Into the Still Blue

Into the Still Blue

Author: Veronica Rossi

Series: Under the Never Sky #3

Genres: Dystopian, Fantasy | Young Adult

Release Date: 28th January 2014
Publishers: Harper Collins

No. Pages: 392

Source: Purchased

Rating: 

Buy From: Amazon | Book Depository | Barnes and Noble | Waterstones

The race to the Still Blue has reached a stalemate. Aria and Perry are determined to find this last safe haven from the Aether storms before Sable and Hess do—and they are just as determined to stay together.

Within the confines of a cave they're using as a makeshift refuge, they struggle to reconcile their people, Dwellers and Outsiders, who are united only in their hatred of their desperate situation. Meanwhile, time is running out to rescue Cinder, who was abducted by Hess and Sable for his unique abilities. Then Roar arrives in a grief-stricken fury, endangering all with his need for revenge.

Out of options, Perry and Aria assemble an unlikely team for an impossible rescue mission. Cinder isn't just the key to unlocking the Still Blue and their only hope for survival--he's also their friend. And in a dying world, the bonds between people are what matter most.

In this final book in her earth-shattering Under the Never Sky trilogy, Veronica Rossi raises the stakes to their absolute limit and brings her epic love story to an unforgettable close

Bookish Musings - My Sudden Love For Graphic Novels

Bookish Musings is a feature here at Beautiful Bookish Butterflies that allows one of us to share our thoughts and opinions, talk and discuss things happening in the book and blogging community or share a personal book related issue we have. Today, Amanda is talking about the increase in reading graphic novels and how some people have asked about her suddenness of it all. Is it all really that sudden or have I been hiding a little secret?

Book Review - These Broken Stars

These Broken Stars

Author: Amie Kaufman & Meagan Spooner 

Series: Starbound #1

Genres: Dystopian, Space | Young Adult

Release Date: 10th December 2013
Publishers: Disney Hyperion

No. Pages: 374

Source: Purchased

Rating: 

Buy From: Amazon | Book Depository | Barnes and Noble | Waterstones

It's a night like any other on board the Icarus. Then, catastrophe strikes: the massive luxury spaceliner is yanked out of hyperspace and plummets into the nearest planet. Lilac LaRoux and Tarver Merendsen survive. And they seem to be alone.

Lilac is the daughter of the richest man in the universe. Tarver comes from nothing, a young war hero who learned long ago that girls like Lilac are more trouble than they’re worth. But with only each other to rely on, Lilac and Tarver must work together, making a tortuous journey across the eerie, deserted terrain to seek help.

Then, against all odds, Lilac and Tarver find a strange blessing in the tragedy that has thrown them into each other’s arms. Without the hope of a future together in their own world, they begin to wonder—would they be better off staying here forever?

Everything changes when they uncover the truth behind the chilling whispers that haunt their every step. Lilac and Tarver may find a way off this planet. But they won’t be the same people who landed on it.

Book Review - The Year of the Rat

The Year of the Rat
Author: Clare Furniss
Standalone
Genres: Contemporary | Childrens, Young Adult
Release Date: 24th April 2014
Publishers: Simon and Schuster
No. Pages: 320
Source: Review Copy - Simon and Schuster
Rating: 
Buy From: Amazon | Book Depository | Barnes and Noble | Waterstones

I always thought you'd know, somehow, if something terrible was going to happen. I thought you'd sense it, like when the air goes damp and heavy before a storm and you know you'd better hide yourself away somewhere safe until it all blows over. But it turns out it's not like that at all. There's no scary music playing in the background like in films. No warning signs. Not even a lonely magpie. One for sorrow, Mum used to say. Quick, look for another.

The world can tip at any moment.. a fact that fifteen-year-old Pearl is all too aware of when her mum dies after giving birth to her baby sister. Told across the year following her mother's death, Pearl's story is full of bittersweet humour and heartbreaking honesty about how you deal with grief that cuts you to the bone, as she tries not only to come to terms with losing her mum, but also the fact that her sister - The Rat - is a constant reminder of why her mum is no longer around.

Book Review - Riot

Riot
Author: Sarah Mussi
Standalone
Genres: Dystopian | Young Adult
Release Date: 1st May 2014
Publishers: Hodder Children's
No. Pages: 352
Source: Review Copy - Hodder Children's
Rating: 
Buy From: Amazon | Book Depository | Barnes and Noble | Waterstones

It is 2018. England has been struggling under a recession that has shown no sign of abating. Years of cuts has devastated Britain: banks are going under, businesses closing, prices soaring, unemployment rising, prisons overflowing. The authorities cannot cope. And the population has maxed out. The police are snowed under. Something has to give. Drastic measures need taking.

The solution: forced sterilisation of all school leavers without secure further education plans or guaranteed employment. The country is aghast. Families are distraught, teenagers are in revolt, but the politicians are unshakeable: "The population explosion must be curbed. No more free housing for single parents, no more child benefit, no more free school meals, no more children in need. Less means more." But it is all so blatantly unfair - the Teen Haves will procreate, the Teen Havenots won't.

It's time for the young to take to the streets. It's time for them to RIOT: OUR RIGHT TO CHOOSE, OUR BODIES, OUR FUTURE.

Book Review - Have A Little Faith

Have a Little Faith
Author: Candy Harper
Series: Faith #1
Genres: Contemporary | Childrens, Young Adult
Release Date: 21st April 2014
Publishers: Entangled: Teen
No. Pages: 259
Source: Purchased
Rating: 
Buy From: Amazon | Book Depository | Barnes and Noble | Waterstones

Year Ten has just begun and I'm already in trouble. The way Miss Ramsbottom acts you'd think I'm always causing explosions or giving teachers' radical haircuts (whereas it was just that one time). And now she's separated me from my best friend, Megs, which means I have no one to give me a piggy back or check for dangly bogies.

At least the school is trying to make amends by bussing in boys for our choir. So I can stare at Dreamy Finn until he realises I'm the girl for him except he's singing a duet with my sworn enemy and her big head keeps blocking my view. Fortunately, I've got a plan to solve both problems; as long as I'm careful with the squeezy cheese and the underage driving everything should be just fine..

Bookish Musings - Reading 'Too Many' Books

Bookish Musings is a feature here at Beautiful Bookish Butterflies that allows one of us to share our thoughts and opinions, talk and discuss things happening in the book and blogging community or share a personal book related issue we have. Today, Amanda is talking about whether there is such a thing as reading 'too many' books. Can you burn yourself out? Is is possible? Surely not..

Book Review - Mortal Coil

Mortal Coil
Author: Derek Landy
Series: Skulduggery Pleasant #2
Genres: Fantasy | Childrens, Young Adult
Release Date: 2nd September 2010
Publishers: Harper Collins
No. Pages: 572
Source: Borrowed
Rating: 
Buy From: Amazon | Book Depository | Barnes and Noble | Waterstones

Skulduggery Pleasant and Valkyrie Cain are back - just in time to see their whole world get turned upside down! While they struggle to protect a known killer from an unstoppable assassin, Valkyrie is on a secret mission of her own. This quest, to prevent her dark and murderous destiny, threatens to take her to the brink of death and beyond. And then the body-snatching Remnants get loose, thousands of twisted souls who possess the living like puppets, and they begin their search for a being powerful enough to lead them.

Facing such insurmountable odds, Skulduggery, Valkyrie, Ghastly and Tanith can trust no one.
Not even each other!

Book Review - Don't Look Back

Don't Look Back
Author: Jennifer L. Armentrout
Standalone
Genres: Mystery, Contemporary | Young Adult
Release Date: June 2014
Publishers: Disney Hyperion
No. Pages: 385
Source: Review Copy - Disney Hyperion
Rating: 
Buy From: Amazon | Book Depository | Barnes and Noble | Waterstones

What if you had the chance to start again... but only if you promised never to look back?

Samantha is popular, rich, and seemed to have it all.. until the night she and her best 'frenemy' Cassie disappeared and only Sammy resurfaced, with no recollection of who she is or what happened. Sammy's a stranger in her own life - a life she no longer wants any part of. Losing her memory is a chance to start again. Then Sammy begins receiving mysterious notes warning her about that night, urging her to not look back. But she can't let it go. As she starts poking around in her past she begins to remember.. and something sinister begins to surface.

Book Review - No and Me

No and Me
Author: Delphine de Vigan
Standalone
Genres: Contemporary | Young Adult
Release Date: 23rd March 2012
Publishers: Bloomsbury
No. Pages: 256
Source: Borrowed
Rating: 
Buy From: Amazon | Book Depository | Barnes and Noble | Waterstones

At thirteen-years-old, with an unusually high IQ and a knack for observing things about other people, Lou Bertignac is not only the youngest in her class at school; she is also the most unusual. Painfully shy, she has few friends, save for Lucas, whose company helps her get through each day. At home, Lou's life is also difficult: Her mother hasn't left the house in years and her father spends his days crying in the bathroom. Lou's world is dark and sad...
That is, until she meets No.

No is a teenage girl that Lou befriends for the purpose of her school project on homelessness. Despite the different worlds that these two girls come from, a friendship is soon forged between them. Unable to bear the thought of No not having a home or a family to keep her safe, Lou persuades her reluctant parents into letting her new friend stay with the Bertignac family. No's addition to the household forces Lou and her parents to face the sadness that has been enveloping them for so long — but not without some disruptions along the way.

Bookish Musings - A Commitment to Series

Bookish Musings is a feature here at Beautiful Bookish Butterflies that allows one of us to share our thoughts and opinions, talk and discuss things happening in the book and blogging community or share a personal book related issue we have. Today, Amanda is extending her earlier conversation about her relationship with series and failing to continue them, as well as taking it a step further by making a commitment..

Book Review - Dark Days

Dark Days
Author: Derek Landy
Series: Skulduggery Pleasant #4
Genres: Fantasy | Childrens, Young Adult
Release Date: 1st March 2010
Publishers: Harper Collins
No. Pages: 415
Source: Borrowed
Rating: 
Buy From: Amazon | Book Depository | Barnes and Noble | Waterstones

It's the fourth Skulduggery Pleasant adventure! Only, Skulduggery Pleasant himself is lost on the other side of a portal, with only some evil gods for company. Can he possibly survive? (Yes, all right, he's already dead. But still.)

Skulduggery Pleasant is gone, sucked into a parallel dimension overrun by the Faceless Ones. If his bones haven't already been turned to dust, chances are he's insane, driven out of his mind by the horror of the ancient gods. There is no official, Sanctuary-approved rescue mission. There is no official plan to save him. But Valkyrie's never had much time for plans. The problem is, even if she can get Skulduggery back, there might not be much left for him to return to.

There's a gang of villains bent on destroying the Sanctuary, there are some very powerful people who want Valkyrie dead, and as if all that wasn't enough it looks very likely that a sorcerer named Darquesse is going to kill the world and everyone on it. Skulduggery is gone. All our hopes rest with Valkyrie. The world's weight is on her shoulders, and its fate is in her hands.

These are dark days indeed.

Book Review - Emma Hearts LA

Emma Hearts LA
Author: Keris Stainton
Standalone
Genres: Contemporary | Childrens, Young Adult
Release Date: 7th June 2012
Publishers: Orchard Books
No. Pages: 256
Source: Purchased
Rating: 
Buy From: Amazon | Book Depository | Barnes and Noble | Waterstones

Emma's not sure that LA's for her, but when she accompanies her sister Bex to an audition, a chance meeting with a teen TV star starts to change her new sunshine lifestyle for the better.. But what about Oscar, so far her only friend in LA, who's turning out NOT to be the idiot she thought he was?

Soon Emma begins to find herself torn between two boys and reconsidering her entire future.
Maybe LA's not that bad after all..

Personal Pickings - Being a Fan in a Fandom

Personal Pickings is a feature here at Beautiful Bookish Butterflies that allows one of us to approach subject personal to us that has no link or connection to our bookish endeavors. Today, Amanda is talking about hierarchy in fandoms between newer and older fans and how quite frankly, it's absolute rubbish.

Book Review - Panic

Panic

Author: Lauren Oliver 

Standalone

Genres: Contemporary, Adventure | Young Adult
Release Date: 4th March 2014
Publishers: Harper Collins

No. Pages: 408

Source: Review Copy - Harper Collins

Rating: 

Buy From: Amazon | Book Depository | Barnes and Noble | Waterstones

Panic began as so many things do in Carp, a dead-end town of 12,000 people in the middle of nowhere: because it was summer, and there was nothing else to do.

Heather never thought she would compete in Panic, a legendary game played by graduating seniors, where the stakes are high and the payoff is even higher. She’d never thought of herself as fearless, the kind of person who would fight to stand out. But when she finds something, and someone, to fight for, she will discover that she is braver than she ever thought.

Dodge has never been afraid of Panic. His secret will fuel him, and get him all the way through the game, he’s sure of it. But what he doesn't know is that he’s not the only one with a secret. Everyone has something to play for.

For Heather and Dodge, the game will bring new alliances, unexpected revelations, and the possibility of first love for each of them—and the knowledge that sometimes the very things we fear are those we need the most

Book Review - The Faceless Ones

The Faceless Ones
Author: Derek Landy
Series: Skulduggery Pleasant #3
Genres: Fantasy | Childrens, Young Adult
Release Date: 6th April 2009
Publishers: Harper Collins
Pages: 395
Source: Borrowed
Rating: 
Buy From: Amazon | Book Depository | Barnes and Noble | Waterstones

If you've read the previous Skulduggery books then you know what the Faceless Ones are - and if you know what the Faceless Ones are, then you can probably take a wild guess that things in this book are going to get AWFULLY sticky for our skeletal hero and his young sidekick. If you haven't read the previous Skulduggery books then what are you doing reading this? Go and read them right now, so that you know what all that stuff in the previous paragraph was about. Done? Good. So now you’re on tenterhooks too, desperately awaiting the answers to all your questions, and instead you're going to have to wait to read the book. Sorry about that.

Book Review - Goddess

Goddess
Author: Josephine Angelini
Series: Starcrossed #3
Genres: Mythology, Urban Fantasy | Young Adult
Release Date: 23rd May 2013
Publishers: Macmillan
No. Pages: 448
Source: Purchased
Rating: 
Buy From: Amazon | Book Depository | Barnes and Noble | Waterstones

Helen's powers are increasing - and so is the distance between her and her mortal friends. To make matters worse, the Oracle reveals that a dangerous traitor is lurking among them, and all fingers point to Orion. Still unsure whether she loves him or Lucas, Helen is forced to make a terrifying decision, or risk all out war.