Book Review - The Art of Wishing

The Art of Wishing
Author: Lindsay Ribar
Series: The Art of Wishing #1
Genres: Paranormal, Contemporary | Young Adult
Release Date: 21st March 2013
Publishers: Speak
No. Pages: 314
Source: Purchased
Rating: 

He can grant her wishes, but only she can save his life.

Margo McKenna has a plan for just about everything, from landing the lead in her high school play to getting into a good college. So when she finds herself in possession of a genie's ring and the chance to make three wishes, she doesn't know what to do. Why should she put her life into someone else's hands?

But Oliver is more than just a genie - he's also a sophomore at Margo's high school, and he's on the run from a murderer. As he and Margo grow closer, she discovers that it will take more than three wishes to save him.

A whole lot more.

Book Review - The Future of Us

The Future of Us
Author: Jay Asher, Carolyn Mackler
Standalone
Genres: Contemporary | Young Adult
Release Date: 16th October 2012
Publishers: Razorbill
No. Pages: 365
Source: Gifted
Rating:

It's 1996, and Josh and Emma have been neighbors their whole lives. They've been best friends almost as long - at least, up until last November, when Josh did something that changed everything.

Things have been weird between them ever since, but when Josh's family gets a free AOL CD in the mail, his mom makes him bring it over so that Emma can install it on her new computer. When they sign on, they're automatically logged onto their Facebook pages. But Facebook hasn't been invented yet. And they're looking at themselves fifteen years in the future.

By refreshing their pages, they learn that making different decisions now will affect the outcome of their lives later. And as they grapple with the ups and downs of what their futures hold, they're forced to confront what they're doing right - and wrong - in the present.

Series Review - White Rabbit Chronicles

  

The following is a full series review of White Rabbit Chronicles by Gena Showwalter.
Each installment is reviewed individually and given a rating reflecting my thoughts on only that installment.
The collection may later contain spoilers concerning events in previous installments. Proceed with caution.

Book Review - Rogue Wave

Rogue Wave
Author: Jennifer Donnelly
Series: Waterfire Saga #2
Genres: Fantasy | Young Adult
Release Date: 6th January 2015
Publishers: Disney
Pages: 320
Source: Review Copy - Disney
Rating: 
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Serafina, Neela, Ling, Ava, Becca, and Astrid, six mermaids from realms scattered throughout the seas and freshwaters, were summoned by the leader of the river witches to learn an incredible truth: the mermaids are direct descendants of the Six Who Ruled-powerful mages who once governed the lost empire of Atlantis. The ancient evil that destroyed Atlantis is stirring again, and only the mermaids can defeat it. To do so, they need to find magical talismans that belonged to the Six.

Serafina believes her talisman was buried with an old shipwreck. While researching its location, she is almost discovered by a death rider patrol led by someone familiar.. The pain of seeing him turned traitor is devastating.

Neela travels to Matali to warn her parents of the grave threat facing their world. But they find her story outlandish; a sign that she needs to be confined to her chamber for rest and recovery. She escapes and travels to Kandina, where her talisman is in the possession of fearsome razormouth dragons.

As they hunt for their talismans, both Serafina and Neela find reserves of courage and cunning they didn't know they possessed. They face down danger and death, only to endure a game-changing betrayal, as shocking as a rogue wave.

Book Review - Shadow Kiss

Shadow Kiss
Author: Richelle Mead
Series: Vampire Academy #3
Genres: Paranormal, Fantasy | Young Adult
Release Date: 26 May 2009
Publishers: Razorbill (Penguin)
No. Pages: 464
Source: Borrowed
Rating: 
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It's springtime at St. Vladimir's Academy, and Rose Hathaway is this close to graduation. Since making her first Strigoi kills, Rose hasn't been feeling quite right. She's having dark thoughts, behaving erratically, and worst of all.. might be seeing ghosts.

As Rose questions her sanity, new complications arise. Lissa has begun experimenting with her magic once more, their enemy Victor Dashkov might be set free, and Rose's forbidden relationship with Dimitri is starting to heat up again. But when a deadly threat no one saw coming changes their entire world, Rose must put her own life on the line - and choose between the two people she loves most.

Book Review - Darkness Becomes Her

Darkness Becomes Her
Author: Kelly Keaton
Series: Gods and Monsters #1
Genres: Paranormal, Fantasy, Mythology | Young Adult
Release Date: 22nd Febuary 2011
Publishers: Simon Pulse
No. Pages: 320
Source: Purchased
Rating: 
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Ari can't help feeling lost and alone. With teal eyes and freakish silver hair that can't be changed or destroyed, Ari has always stood out. And after growing up in foster care, she longs for some understanding of where she came from and who she is. Her search for answers uncovers just one message from her long dead mother: Run. Ari can sense that someone, or something, is getting closer than they should. But it's impossible to protect herself when she doesn't know what she's running from or why she is being pursued.

She knows only one thing: she must return to her birthplace of New 2, the lush rebuilt city of New Orleans. Upon arriving, she discovers that New 2 is very - different. Here, Ari is seemingly normal. But every creature she encounters, no matter how deadly or horrifying, is afraid of her. Ari won't stop until she knows why. But some truths are too haunting, too terrifying, to ever be revealed.

Book Review - The Girl Who Never Was

The Girl Who Never Was Author: Skylar Dorset
Series: Otherworld #1
Genres: Fantasy | Young Adult
Release Date: 1st June 2014
Publishers: Sourcebooks
No. Pages: 304
Source: Review Copy - Sourcebooks
Rating: 
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The Girl Who Never Was is the story of Selkie Stewart, who thinks she's a totally normal teenager growing up in Boston. Sure, her father is in an insane asylum, her mother left her on his doorstep - literally - when she was a baby, and she’s being raised by two ancient aunts who spend their time hunting gnomes in their Beacon Hill townhouse. But other than that her life is totally normal! She's got an adventurous best friend who's always got her back and an unrequited crush on an older boy named Ben. Just like any other teenager..

Wrong.

When Selkie goes in search of the mother she’s never known, she gets more than she bargained for. It turns out that her mother is faerie royalty, which would make Selkie a faerie princess - except for the part where her father is an ogre, which makes her only half of anything. Even more confusing, there’s a prophecy that Selkie is going to destroy the tyrannical Seelie Court, which is why her mother actually wants to kill her. Selkie has been kept hidden all her life by her adoring aunts, with the help of a Salem wizard named Will. And Ben. Because the boy she thinks she’s in love with turns out to be a faerie whose enchantment has kept her alive, but also kept her in the dark about her own life.

Now, with enchantments dissolved and prophecies swinging into action, Selkie finds herself on a series of mad quests to save the people she’s always loved and a life she’s learning to love. But in a supernatural world of increasingly complex alliances and distressingly complicated deceptions, it’s so hard to know who to trust. Does her mother really wish to kill her? Would Will sacrifice her for the sake of the prophecy? And does Ben really love her or is it all an elaborate ruse? In order to survive, Selkie realizes that the key is learning - and accepting - who she really is.

Book Reviews - Mind Games/Annie and Fia

Mind Games
Author: Kiersten White
Series: Mind Games #1
Genres: Paranormal, Fantasy | Young Adult
Release Date: 3rd December 2013
Publishers: Harper Teen
No. Pages: 327
Source: Won
Rating: 
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Fia was born with flawless instincts.
Her first impulse, her gut feeling, is always exactly right.
Her sister, Annie, is blind to the world around her -
except when her mind is gripped by strange visions of the future.

Trapped in a school that uses girls with extraordinary powers as tools for corporate espionage, Annie and Fia are forced to choose over and over between using their abilities in twisted, unthinkable way.. or risking each other’s lives by refusing to obey.

Book Review - Sister's Red

Sister's Red
Author: Jackson Pearce
Series: Fairytales Retellings #1
Genres: Paranormal, Fantasy | Young Adult
Release Date: 7th June 2010
Publishers: Little Brown Books
No. Pages: 328
Source: Purchased
Rating: 
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Scarlett March lives to hunt the Fenris - the werewolves that took her eye when she was defending her sister Rosie from a brutal attack. Armed with a razor-sharp hatchet and blood-red cloak, Scarlett is an expert at luring and slaying the wolves. She's determined to protect other young girls from a grisly death, and her raging heart will not rest until every single wolf is dead.

Rosie March once felt her bond with her sister was unbreakable. Owing Scarlett her life, Rosie hunts ferociously alongside her. But even as more girls' bodies pile up in the city and the Fenris seem to be gaining power, Rosie dreams of a life beyond the wolves. She finds herself drawn to Silas, a young woodsman who is deadly with an axe and Scarlett's only friend - but does loving him mean betraying her sister and all that they've worked for?

Book Review - Deep Blue

Deep Blue
Author: Jennifer Donnelly
Series: Waterfire Saga #1
Genres: Fantasy | Young Adult
Release Date: 6th May 2014
Publishers: Disney Press
No. Pages: 320
Source: Review Copy - Disney Press
Rating: 
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Deep in the ocean, in a world not so different from our own, live the merpeople. Their communities are spread throughout the oceans, seas, and freshwaters all over the globe. When Serafina, a mermaid of the Mediterranean Sea, awakens on the morning of her betrothal, her biggest worry should be winning the love of handsome Prince Mahdi. And yet Sera finds herself haunted by strange dreams that foretell the return of an ancient evil. Her dark premonitions are confirmed when an assassin's arrow poisons Sera's mother. Now, Serafina must embark on a quest to find the assassin's master and prevent a war between the Mer nations. Led only by her shadowy dreams, Sera searches for five other mermaid heroines who are scattered across the six seas. Together, they will form an unbreakable bond of sisterhood and uncover a conspiracy that threatens their world's very existence.

Book Review -The Edge of Never

The Edge of Never 

Author: J.A. Redmerski

Series: The Edge of Never #1

Genres: Contemporary, Travel | New Adult

Release Date: 15th November 2012
Publishers: Createspace

No. Pages: 426

Source: Purchased

Rating: 

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Twenty-year-old Camryn Bennett had always been one to think out-of-the-box, who knew she wanted something more in life than following the same repetitive patterns and growing old with the same repetitive life story. And she thought that her life was going in the right direction until everything fell apart.

Determined not to dwell on the negative and push forward, Camryn is set to move in with her best friend and plans to start a new job. But after an unexpected night at the hottest club in downtown North Carolina, she makes the ultimate decision to leave the only life she’s ever known, far behind.

With a purse, a cell phone and a small bag with a few necessities, Camryn, with absolutely no direction or purpose boards a Greyhound bus alone and sets out to find herself. What she finds is a guy named Andrew Parrish, someone not so very different from her and who harbors his own dark secrets. But Camryn swore never to let down her walls again. And she vowed never to fall in love.

But with Andrew, Camryn finds herself doing a lot of things she never thought she’d do. He shows her what it’s really like to live out-of-the-box and to give in to her deepest, darkest desires. On their sporadic road-trip he becomes the center of her exciting and daring new life, pulling love and lust and emotion out of her in ways she never imagined possible. But will Andrew’s dark secret push them inseparably together, or tear them completely apart?

Book Review - Red

Red
Author: Alison Cherry
Standalone
Genres: Contemporary | Young Adult
Release Date: 2nd January 2014
Publishers: Delacorte Press
No. Pages: 320
Source: Review Copy - Delacorte Press
Rating: 
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Top student. Beauty queen. Girlfriend of the hottest football jock: Felicity's got everything. And it's all down to her red, red hair.

Felicity lives in Scarletville, the world's only redhead sanctuary, where red hair is celebrated, protected - and the key to success. But Felicity has a secret. A red hot secret. And if anyone finds out, she's finished.

Because Felicity's actually a natural blonde.
And in Scarletville, blondes need not apply.

Book Review - Impostor

Imposter
Author: Susanne Winnacker
Series: Variants #1
Genres: Paranormal, Fantasy | Young Adult
Release Date: 2nd January 2014
Publishers: Hodder Childrens
No. Pages: 320
Source: Review Copy - Hodder Childrens
Rating: 
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Tessa is a Variant, able to absorb the DNA of anyone she touches and mimic their appearance. Shunned by her family, she's spent the last two years with the Forces with Extraordinary Abilities, a secret branch of the FBI. There she trains with other Variants, such as long-term crush Alec, who each have their own extraordinary ability.

When a serial killer rocks a small town in Oregon, Tessa is given a mission: she must impersonate Madison, a local teen, to find the killer before he strikes again. Tessa hates everything about being an impostor - the stress, the danger, the deceit - but loves playing the role of a normal girl. As Madison, she finds friends, romance, and the kind of loving family she'd do anything to keep.