Book Review - Shadow and Bone

Shadow and Bone
Author: Leigh Bardugo
Series: The Grisha #1
Genres: Fantasy | Young Adult
Release Date: 5th June 2012
Publisher: Indigo
Pages: 358
Source: Borrowed
Rating: 
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Surrounded by enemies, the once-great nation of Ravka has been torn in two by the Shadow Fold, a swath of near impenetrable darkness crawling with monsters who feast on human flesh. Now its fate may rest on the shoulders of one lonely refugee.

Alina Starkov has never been good at anything. But when her regiment is attacked on the Fold and her best friend is brutally injured, Alina reveals a dormant power that saves his life - a power that could be the key to setting her war-ravaged country free. Wrenched from everything she knows, Alina is whisked away to the royal court to be trained as a member of the Grisha, the magical elite led by the mysterious Darkling.

Yet nothing in this lavish world is what it seems. With darkness looming and an entire kingdom depending on her untamed power, Alina will have to confront the secrets of the Grisha.. and the secrets of her heart.

Book Review - Spirit Bound

Spirit Bound
Author: Richelle Mead
Series: Vampire Academy #5
Genres: Paranormal, Fantasy | Young Adult
Release Date: 18th May 2010
Publishers: Razorbill (Penguin)
No. Pages: 481
Source: Borrowed
Rating: 
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Dimitri gave Rose the ultimate choice. But she chose wrong..

After a long and heartbreaking journey to Dimitri’s birthplace in Siberia, Rose Hathaway has finally returned to St. Vladimir's - and to her best friend, Lissa. It is nearly graduation, and the girls can’t wait for their real lives beyond the Academy’s iron gates to begin. But Rose’s heart still aches for Dimitri, and she knows he’s out there, somewhere.

She failed to kill him when she had the chance. And now her worst fears are about to come true - Dimitri has tasted her blood, and now he is hunting her. Only this time, he won’t rest until Rose joins him.. forever.

Book Review - Anna Dressed in Blood

Anna Dressed in Blood
Author: Kendare Blake
Series: Anna #1
Genres: Paranormal, Horror | Young Adult
Release Date: 5th July 2012
Publishers: Orchard Books
No. Pages: 373
Source: Borrowed
Rating: 
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Cas Lowood has inherited an unusual vocation: He kills the dead.

So did his father before him, until he was gruesomely murdered by a ghost he sought to kill. Now, armed with his father's mysterious and deadly athame, Cas travels the country with his kitchen-witch mother and their spirit-sniffing cat. They follow legends and local lore, destroy the murderous dead, and keep pesky things like the future and friends at bay.

Searching for a ghost the locals call Anna Dressed in Blood, Cas expects the usual: track, hunt, kill. What he finds instead is a girl entangled in curses and rage, a ghost like he's never faced before. She still wears the dress she wore on the day of her brutal murder in 1958: once white, now stained red and dripping with blood. Since her death, Anna has killed any and every person who has dared to step into the deserted Victorian she used to call home.

Yet she spares Cas's life.

Book Review - Perfect Scoundrels

Perfect Scoundrels
Author: Ally Carter
Series: Heist Society #3
Genres: Mystery, Contemporary | Young Adult
Release Date: 5th Febuary 2013
Publishers: Disney Hyperion
No. Pages: 328
Source: Borrowed
Rating: 
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Katarina Bishop and W.W. Hale the fifth were born to lead completely different lives: Kat comes from a long, proud line of loveable criminal masterminds, while Hale is the son of one of the most seemingly perfect dynasties in the world. If their families have one thing in common, it's that they both know how to stay under the radar while getting-or stealing-whatever they want. No matter the risk, the Bishops can always be counted on, but in Hale's family, all bets are off when money is on the line.

When Hale unexpectedly inherits his grandmother's billion dollar corporation, he quickly learns that there's no place for Kat and their old heists in his new role. But Kat won't let him go that easily, especially after she gets tipped off that his grandmother's will might have been altered in an elaborate con to steal the company's fortune.

Forced to keep a level head as she and her crew fight for one of their own, Kat comes up with an ambitious and far-reaching plan that only the Bishop family would dare attempt. To pull it off, Kat is prepared to do the impossible, but first, she has to decide if she's willing to save her boyfriend's company if it means losing the boy.

Book Review - The Infinite Sea

The Infinite Sea
Author: Rick Yancey
Series: The 5th Wave #2
Genres: Science Fiction, Dystopian | Young Adult
Release Date: 16th September 2014
Publishers: Penguin
No. Pages: 336
Source: Borrowed
Rating:
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How do you rid the Earth of seven billion humans?
Rid the humans of their humanity.

Surviving the first four waves was nearly impossible. Now Cassie Sullivan finds herself in a new world, a world in which the fundamental trust that binds us together is gone. As the 5th Wave rolls across the landscape, Cassie, Ben, and Ringer are forced to confront the Others’ ultimate goal: the extermination of the human race.

Cassie and her friends haven’t seen the depths to which the Others will sink, nor have the Others seen the heights to which humanity will rise, in the ultimate battle between life and death, hope and despair, love and hate.

Book Review - Sweet Peril

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: Borrowed
Rating: 
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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 - Splintered

Splintered
Author: A.G. Howard
Series: Splintered #1
Genres: Fantasy | Young Adult
Release Date: 2nd April 2013
Publishers: Amulet Press
Pages: 377
Source: Borrowed
Rating: 
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Alyssa Gardner hears the whispers of bugs and flowers - precisely the affliction that landed her mother in a mental hospital years before. This family curse stretches back to her ancestor Alice Liddell, the real-life inspiration for Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. Alyssa might be crazy, but she manages to keep it together. For now.

When her mother’s mental health takes a turn for the worse, Alyssa learns that what she thought was fiction is based in terrifying reality. The real Wonderland is a place far darker and more twisted than Lewis Carroll ever let on. There, Alyssa must pass a series of tests, including draining an ocean of Alice’s tears, waking the slumbering tea party, and subduing a vicious bandersnatch, to fix Alice’s mistakes and save her family.

She must also decide whom to trust: Jeb, her gorgeous best friend and secret crush, or the sexy but suspicious Morpheus, her guide through Wonderland, who may have dark motives of his own.

Book Review - Since You've Been Gone

Since You've Been Gone
Author: Morgan Matson
Standalone
Genres: Contemporary | Young Adult
Release Date: 6th May 2014
Publishers: Simon and Schuster
No. Pages: 449
Source: Borrowed
Rating:
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The Pre-Sloane Emily didn't go to parties, she barely talked to guys, she didn't do anything crazy. Enter Sloane, social tornado and the best kind of best friend - the one who yanks you out of your shell.

But right before what should have been an epic summer, Sloane just.. disappears. No note. No calls. No texts. No Sloane. There’s just a random to-do list. On it, thirteen Sloane-selected-definitely-bizarre-tasks that Emily would never try.. unless they could lead back to her best friend.

Apple Picking at Night? Okay, easy enough.

Dance until Dawn? Sure. Why not?

Kiss a Stranger? Wait.. what?

Getting through Sloane’s list would mean a lot of firsts. But Emily has this whole unexpected summer ahead of her, and the help of Frank Porter (totally unexpected) to check things off. Who knows what she’ll find?

Go Skinny Dipping? Um..

Book Review - Thirteen

Thirteen
Author: Tom Hoyle
Series: Thirteen #1
Genres: Mystery, Thriller | Childrens, Young Adult
Release Date: 13th February 2014
Publishers: MacMillan
Source: Borrowed
Rating: 
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Born at midnight in London, on the stroke of the new millennium, Adam is the target of a cult that believes boys born on this date must die before the end of their thirteenth year.

Twelve boys have been killed so far. Coron, the crazy cult leader, will stop at nothing to bring in his new kingdom.

Now he is planning a bombing spectacular across London to celebrate the sacrifice of his final victim: Adam.

Book Review - Everneath

Everneath
Author: Brodi Ashton
Series: Everneath #1
Genres: Mythology, Fantasy | Young Adult
Release Date: 24th January 2012
Publishers: Balzhar + Bray
Pages: 370
Source: Gifted
Rating: 
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Last spring, Nikki Beckett vanished, sucked into an underworld known as the Everneath. Now she’s returned - to her old life, her family, her boyfriend - before she’s banished back to the underworld.. this time, forever. She has six months before the Everneath comes to claim her, six months for good-byes she can’t find the words for, six months to find redemption, if it exists.

Nikki longs to spend these precious months forgetting the Everneath and trying to reconnect with her boyfriend, Jack, the person most devastated by her disappearance - and the one person she loves more than anything. But there’s just one problem: Cole, the smoldering immortal who enticed her to the Everneath in the first place, has followed Nikki home. Cole wants to take over the throne in the underworld and is convinced Nikki is the key to making it happen. And he’ll do whatever it takes to bring her back, this time as his queen.

As Nikki’s time on the Surface draws to a close and her relationships begin slipping from her grasp, she is forced to make the hardest decision of her life: find a way to cheat fate and remain on the Surface with Jack or return to the Everneath and become Cole’s queen.

Book Review - Girl of Nightmares

Girl of Nightmares
Author: Kendare Blake
Series: Anna #2
Genres: Paranormal, Horror | Young Adult
Release Date: 7th March 2013
Publishers: Orchard Books
No. Pages: 383
Source: Purchased
Rating: 
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It's been months since the ghost of Anna Korlov opened a door to Hell in her basement and disappeared into it, but ghost-hunter Cas Lowood can't move on. His friends remind him that Anna sacrificed herself so that Cas could live — not walk around half dead. He knows they're right, but in Cas's eyes, no living girl he meets can compare to the dead girl he fell in love with.

Now he's seeing Anna everywhere: sometimes when he's asleep and sometimes in waking nightmares. But something is very wrong.. these aren't just daydreams. Anna seems tortured, torn apart in new and ever more gruesome ways every time she appears. Cas doesn't know what happened to Anna when she disappeared into Hell, but he knows she doesn't deserve whatever is happening to her now. Anna saved Cas more than once, and it's time for him to return the favour.

Book Review - Blood Promise

Blood Promise
Author: Richelle Mead
Series: Vampire Academy #4
Genres: Paranormal, Fantasy | Young Adult
Release Date: 4th February 2010
Publishers: Razorbill (Penguin)
No. Pages: 322
Source: Borrowed
Rating: 
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Rose Hathaway's life will never be the same. The recent attack on St. Vladimir's Academy devastated the entire Moroi world. Many are dead. And, for the few victims carried off by Strigoi, their fates are even worse. A rare tattoo now adorns Rose's neck, a mark that says she's killed far too many Strigoi to count. But only one victim matters.. Dimitri Belikov.

Rose must now choose one of two very different paths: honoring her life's vow to protect Lissa - her best friend and the last surviving Dragomir princess - or, dropping out of the Academy to strike out on her own and hunt down the man she loves. She'll have to go to the ends of the earth to find Dimitri and keep the promise he begged her to make. But the question is, when the time comes, will he want to be saved?

Now, with everything at stake - and worlds away from St. Vladimir's and her unguarded, vulnerable, and newly rebellious best friend - can Rose find the strength to destroy Dimitri? Or, will she sacrifice herself for a chance at eternal love?

Book Review - Tin Lily

Tin Lily
Author: Joann Swanson
Standalone
Genres: Contemporary | Childrens, Young Adult
Release Date: 6th July 2014
Publisher: Cranky Owl Books
Pages: 235
Source: Review Copy - Cranky Owl Books
Rating: 
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Just because you survive doesn't mean you’re alive.

One moment fifteen-year-old Lily Berkenshire is sitting in her bedroom, favorite song blaring through her earbuds, history book open on her lap. The next, her alcoholic father is shooting and killing her mother. Then he’s pointing the gun at Lily and pulling the trigger. Click. He’s out of bullets.

For now.

When she moves to Seattle to live with her aunt, Lily retreats into peaceful, dissociative trances to escape the shattered nightmare that is her life. Soon, though, she discovers a beautiful boy who wants to take her out, a therapist who wants to help her heal and new friends who believe she can find wholeness again. But her father wants something else entirely. He is hunting her and unless Lily confronts and heals the devastation inside her, she’ll forfeit her life to a father determined to end it.

Book Review - Into the Still Blue

Into the Still Blue
Author: Veronica Rossi
Series: Under the Never Sky #3
Genres: Science Fiction, Dystopian | Young Adult
Release Date: 6th Febuary 2014
Publishers: Atom
No. Pages: 291
Source: Borrowed
Rating: 
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Their love and their leadership have been tested. Now it's time for Perry and Aria to unite the Dwellers and the Outsiders in one last desperate attempt to bring balance to their world. 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.

Meanwhile, time is running out to rescue Cinder, who was abducted by Hess and Sable for his unique abilities. And when Roar returns to camp, he is so furious with Perry that he won't even look at him, and Perry begins to feel like they have already lost. Out of options, Perry and Aria assemble a team to mount an impossible rescue mission - because 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.

Who Wore It Better #19 - Blood of Eden

Who Wore It Better is a meme created and hosted by Nitzan at The Book Babes Read and co-hosted here on Beautiful Bookish Butterflies by Amanda and Stacie. We don't talk about clothing or fashion and we definitely don't talk frills and spills, we talk books and their covers and who we think has the best. This week, Amanda's talking about the covers for the entire Blood of Eden series, since Nitzan is MIA. She's not the biggest fan of the series, but she's been wanting to talk about the whole collection of covers as a whole, so lets see. What will your favourite collection be?

Book Review - Antigoddess

Antigoddess
Author: Kendare Blake
Series: Goddess War #1
Genres: Mythology, Urban Fantasy | Young Adult
Release Date: 10th September 2013
Publishers: Orchard Books
No. Pages: 384
Source: Purchased
Rating: 
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He was Apollo, the sun, and he'd burn down anything that tried to hurt her..

Cassandra and Aidan are just your average high-school couple. Or so Cassandra believes. Blissfully unaware that she was once a powerful prophetess, Cassandra doesn't even know that gods exist.. Until now.

Because the gods are dying - and Cassandra could hold the answer to their survival. But Aidan has a secret of his own. He is really Apollo, god of the sun, and he will do anything to protect the girl he loves from the danger that's coming for her. Even if it means war against his immortal family..

Book Review - Armageddon Outta Here

Armageddon Outta Here
Author: Derek Landy
Series: Skulduggery Pleasant #8.5 (Series Novellas)
Genres: Fantasy | Childrens, Young Adult
Release Date: 3rd July 2014
Publishers: HarperCollins
No. Pages: 411
Source: Borrowed
Rating: 
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One amazing new novella.
Three gripping new stories.
The ultimate story collection.

We all know that doors are for people with no imagination so smash the glass, climb through the window and enter the awesome world of Skulduggery Pleasant with this ultimate story collection. For the first time, every Skulduggery Pleasant short story – plus The End of the World, the World Book Day novelette – is collected into one magnificent volume. But that's not all..

Written specially for this collection, there is an entirely new novella that will drag you into a nail-biting American horror story, Skulduggery-style, and three brand-spanking-new stories spanning the last 150 years. Join Gordon Edgley as he parties like it's 1985, watch Valkyrie Cain face a vampire in a fight to the death, and see the Dead Men as you've never seen them before.

Introduced by Derek, this is the hidden history of the skeleton who saves the world..
and the girl who's destined to destroy it.

Book Review - The Jewel

The Jewel
Author: Amy Ewing
Series: The Lone City #1
Genres: Science Fiction, Dystopian | Young Adult
Release Date: 4th September 2014
Publishers: Walker Books Ltd
No. Pages: 368
Source: Borrowed
Rating: 
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"Today is my last day as Violet Lasting.
Tomorrow I become Lot 197."

Sold for six million diamantes, Violet is now Surrogate of the House of the Lake in the centre of the Lone City, the Jewel. Her sole purpose is to produce a healthy heir for the Duchess – a woman Violet fears and despises.

Violet is trapped in a living death, her name and body no longer her own. She fights to hold on to her own identity and sanity, uncertain of the fate of her friends, isolated and at the mercy of the Duchess.

Series Review - The Kane Chronicles

The Red Pyramid
Author: Rick Riordan
Series: The Kane Chronicles #1
Genres: Mythology, Urban Fantasy | Childrens, Young Adult
Release Date: 4th May 2010
Publishers: Puffin
No. Pages: 516
Source: Borrowed
Rating:
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Since their mother's death, Carter and Sadie have become near strangers. While Sadie has lived with her grandparents in London, her brother has traveled the world with their father, the brilliant Egyptologist, Dr. Julius Kane.

One night, Dr. Kane brings the siblings together for a "research experiment" at the British Museum, where he hopes to set things right for his family. Instead, he unleashes the Egyptian god Set, who banishes him to oblivion and forces the children to flee for their lives.

Soon, Sadie and Carter discover that the gods of Egypt are waking, and the worst of them - Set - has his sights on the Kanes. To stop him, the siblings embark on a dangerous journey across the globe - a quest that brings them ever closer to the truth about their family and their links to a secret order that has existed since the time of the pharaohs.