Book Review - A Court of Thorns and Roses

A Court of Thorns and Roses
Author: Sarah J. Maas
Series: A Court of Thorns and Roses
Genres: Fantasy | New Adult
Release Date: 7th May 2015
Source: Review Copy - Bloomsbury
Rating:

When nineteen-year-old huntress Feyre kills a wolf in the woods, a beast-like creature arrives to demand retribution for it. Dragged to a treacherous magical land she only knows about from legends, Feyre discovers that her captor is not an animal, but Tamlin - one of the lethal, immortal faeries who once ruled their world.

As she dwells on his estate, her feelings for Tamlin transform from icy hostility into a fiery passion that burns through every lie and warning she's been told about the beautiful, dangerous world of the Fae.

But with an ancient, wicked shadow grows over the faerie lands, Feyre must find a way to stop it..
or doom Tamlin - and his world - forever.

This book and/or review may be unsuitable for people under 17 years of age due its use of language, sexual content, drug and alcohol abuse and/or violence. Please bare this in mind before reading.

Sometimes, books just don't impress you. No matter your expectations, nor the authors talent, the story itself can just feel, flat, and to me, that is what ACOTAR felt like. Flat. Unimpressive. A little, meh. Don't get me wrong, Maas' talent and writing still sings to me in a way many other authors couldn't even begin to dream of doing, and her talent of crafting stories in a way that always keeps me additively reading is commendable, if not fabulous, and yet ACOTAR felt miles away from any of my few expectations, and that's not a good thing. As featured with Deep Blue and The Rain, ACOTAR will be reviewed in the only way feels right to me..

Mini Reviews - My Secret Ella Remix

My Secret Rockstar Boyfriend
Author: Eleanor Wood
Standalone
Genres: Contemporary | Young Adult
Release Date: June 4th 2015
Source: Review Copy - Macmillan Children's Books
Rating:

Geeky girl meets famous boy.. what could go wrong?

Tuesday Cooper is happy being normal -doing her a-levels and indulging in her twin obsessions: buying weird vintage clothes in charity shops and writing her beloved music blog (which nobody ever reads). Her love for music started when she was thirteen and had a massive crush on Jackson Griffith, teen rock god and SUPER HOT LOVE OF HER LIFE. Now Tuesday's eighteen and has moved on to fancying boys in real life and Jackson went off the celebrity radar years ago.

So it can't be him that's messaging her on her blog, can it?

I think the thing that made me want to read this book is the fact that I just kept thinking about what I would do in the situation. When I was around 13 I was completely obsessed and in love with Marilyn Manson (he's gone downhill over the last few years but going back 12 years he was still good) and I had a blog where I would talk about my life and my 'struggles' as a teenager, I was pretty much the original emo, and I would mention him on there a lot because I listened to him all the time. Anyway I was trying to think what I would do and how I would react if I was Tuesdays (granted giving what Marilyn Manson was like I probably wouldn't sneak off to meet him because that would be silly, even at 18) so before I even read it I was already really intrigued with the storyline.

Book Review - The Raven Boys

The Raven Boys
Author: Maggie Stiefvater
Series: The Raven Boys #1
Genres: Paranormal, Fantasy | Young Adult
Release Date: 19th September 2012
Publishers: Scholastic
No. Pages: 454
Source: Borrowed
Rating: 

Blue has spent the majority of her sixteen years being told that if she kisses her true love, he will die. When Blue meets Gansey's spirit on the corpse road she knows there is only one reason why – either he is her true love or she has killed him.

Determined to find out the truth, Blue becomes involved with the Raven Boys, four boys from the local private school (lead by Gansey) who are on a quest to discover Glendower – a lost ancient Welsh King who is buried somewhere along the Virginia ley line. Whoever finds him will be granted a supernatural favour.

Never before has Blue felt such magic around her. But is Gansey her true love? She can’t imagine a time she would feel like that, and she is adamant not to be the reason for his death. Where will fate lead them?

Book Review - Made For You

Made For You
Author: Melissa Marr
Standalone
Genres: Mystery, Thriller, Paranormal | Young Adult
Release Date: 16th September 2014
Publishers: HarperCollins
No. Pages: 368
Source: Review Copy - HarperCollins
Rating:

When Eva Tilling wakes up in the hospital, she's confused - who in her sleepy little North Carolina town could have hit her with their car? And why? But before she can consider the question, she finds that she’s awoken with a strange new skill: the ability to foresee people's deaths when they touch her.

While she is recovering from the hit-and-run, Nate, an old flame, reappears, and the two must traverse their rocky past as they figure out how to use Eva’s power to keep her friends - and themselves - alive. But while Eva and Nate grow closer, the killer grows increasingly frantic in his attempt to get to Eva.

Made For You is a book that I had been dying to read for a long time but knew next to nothing about, the one and only thing I knew about it was that it was suppose to be a pretty creepy read (that and Amanda fangirled pretty hard over it). I purposely kept away from reviews or mentions of it because I've been wanting to read the Wicked Lovely series by Melissa Marr and I had read her Carnival of Secrets book but it was so long ago that I really cant remember much about the story of her writing style, so I really wanted everything to be a surprise. Right from the start I had a good feeling about it, it was creepy and mysterious just like I was hoping and I enjoyed the way the story was laid out. I loved that the killer had his own voice and it gave pretty much nothing away, but as the story went on little things just started to get on my nerves and that's why I sadly I only gave it a 3.5 stars.

Series Review - Spooks Apprentice: Books #2-4

  

The following is a three-book collection of reviews from The Spooks Apprentice series by Joseph Delaney.
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 - Starters

Starters
Author: Lissa Price
Series: Starters #1
Genres: Science Fiction, Dystopian | Young Adult
Release Date: 13th March 2012
Publishers: Delacorte
No. Pages: 384
Source: Gifted
Rating: 

You can’t get them out of your head.

Callie lost her parents when the Spore Wars wiped out everyone between the ages of twenty and sixty. She and her little brother, Tyler, go on the run, living as squatters with their friend Michael and fighting off renegades who would kill them for a cookie.

Callie’s only hope is Prime Destinations, a disturbing place in Beverly Hills run by a mysterious figure known as the Old Man. He hires teens to rent their bodies to Enders - seniors who want to be young again. Callie, desperate for the money that will keep her, Tyler, and Michael alive, agrees to be a donor. But the neurochip they place in Callie’s head malfunctions and she wakes up in the life of her renter.

Callie soon discovers that her renter intends to do more than party - and that Prime Destinations' plans are more evil than she could ever have imagined

Book Review - Vendetta

Vendetta
Author: Catherine Doyle
Series: Vendetta #1
Genres: Contemporary, Thriller | Young Adult
Release Date: 1st January 2015
Publishers: Chicken House Ltd
No. Pages: 384
Source: Review Copy - Chicken House Ltd
Rating:
Buy From: Amazon | Book Depository | Barnes and Noble | Waterstones

When it comes to revenge, love is a dangerous complication.With a fierce rivalry raging between two warring families, falling in love is the deadliest thing Sophie could do. An epic debut set outside modern-day Chicago.

When five brothers move into the abandoned mansion in her neighbourhood, Sophie Gracewell's life changes forever. Irresistibly drawn to bad boy Nicoli, Sophie finds herself falling into a criminal underworld governed by powerful families. As the boys' dark secrets begin to come to light, Sophie is confronted with stinging truths about her own family, too. She must choose between two warring dynasties - the one she was born into, and the one she is falling in love with. When she does, blood will spill and hearts will break.

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

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 - 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 - 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 - Defector

Defector
Author: Susanne Winnacker
Series: Variants #2
Genres: Paranormal, Fantasy | Young Adult
Release Date: 7th August 2014
Publishers: Hodder Children's
No. Pages: 312
Source: Review Copy - Hodder Childrens
Rating: 
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Tessa has made peace with her life as a Variant. She and longtime love Alec are officially a couple, and for the first time, she has everything she wants. But the air is tense at FEA headquarters. An agent has disappeared and rogue Variant organization Abel's Army is likely the culprit.

When Tessa is summoned for her second mission, she is unexpectedly launched into a massive conspiracy. Her best friend Holly is kidnapped, and Tessa knows it was meant to be her. But who is after her? And more importantly, why?

When the FEA's efforts to rescue Holly don't yield results, Tessa takes matters into her own hands. Desperate to save her friend and uncover the mystery behind Abel's Army, Tessa launches her own investigation - but nothing could prepare her for what she finds.

Finding the truth will take her out on the road and out of her comfort zone, with danger lurking at every turn. Summoning all of her courage and strength, Tessa must decide who can be trusted and what is worth fighting for. Her final decision will leave readers breathless.

Book Review - The 5th Wave

The 5th Wave
Author: Rick Yancey
Series: The 5th Wave #1
Genres: Science Fiction, Dystopian | Young Adult
Release Date: 7th May 2013
Publishers: Penguin
No. Pages: 480
Source: Borrowed
Rating: 
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After the 1st wave, only darkness remains.
After the 2nd, only the lucky escape.
And after the 3rd, only the unlucky survive.
After the 4th wave, only one rule applies: trust no one.

Now, it’s the dawn of the 5th wave, and on a lonely stretch of highway, Cassie runs from Them. The beings who only look human, who roam the countryside killing anyone they see. Who have scattered Earth’s last survivors. To stay alone is to stay alive, Cassie believes, until she meets Evan Walker.

Beguiling and mysterious, Evan Walker may be Cassie’s only hope for rescuing her brother - or even saving herself. But Cassie must choose: between trust and despair, between defiance and surrender, between life and death. To give up or to get up.

Book Review - This Is What Happy Looks Like

This Is What Happy Looks Like
Author: Jennifer E. Smith
Standalone
Genres: Contemporary | Young Adult
Release Date: 24th October 2013
Publishers: Headline
No. Pages: 404
Source: Purchased
Rating:
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If fate sent you an email, would you answer?

When teenage movie star Graham Larkin accidentally sends small town girl Ellie O'Neill an email about his pet pig, the two seventeen-year-olds strike up a witty and unforgettable correspondence, discussing everything under the sun, except for their names or backgrounds.

Then Graham finds out that Ellie's Maine hometown is the perfect location for his latest film, and he decides to take their relationship from online to in-person. But can a star as famous as Graham really start a relationship with an ordinary girl like Ellie? And why does Ellie want to avoid the media's spotlight at all costs?

Book Review - Uncommon Criminals

Uncommon Criminals
Author: Ally Carter
Series: Heist Society #2
Genres: Mystery, Contemporary | Young Adult
Release Date: 21st June 2011
Publishers: Orchard Books
No. Pages: 298
Source: Borrowed
Rating: 
Buy From: Amazon | Book Depository | Barnes and Noble | Waterstones

Katarina Bishop has worn a lot of labels in her short life. Friend. Niece. Daughter. Thief. But for the last two months she’s simply been known as the girl who ran the crew that robbed the greatest museum in the world. That’s why Kat isn’t surprised when she’s asked to steal the infamous Cleopatra Emerald so it can be returned to its rightful owners.

There are only three problems.
First, the gem hasn’t been seen in public in thirty years.
Second, since the fall of the Egyptian empire and the suicide of Cleopatra, no one who holds the emerald keeps it for long, and in Kat’s world, history almost always repeats itself.
But it’s the third problem that makes Kat’s crew the most nervous and that is simply.. the emerald is cursed.

Kat might be in way over her head, but she’s not going down without a fight. After all she has her best friend - the gorgeous Hale - and the rest of her crew with her as they chase the Cleopatra around the globe, dodging curses, realizing that the same tricks and cons her family has used for centuries are useless this time.

Which means, this time, Katarina Bishop is making up her own rules.

Book Review - Catching Fire

Catching Fire
Author: Suzanne Collins
Series: The Hunger Games #2
Genres: Science Fiction, Dystopian | Young Adult
Release Date: 1st September 2009
Publishers: Scholistic
Pages: 439
Source: Gifted
Rating: 
Buy From: Amazon | Book Depository | Barnes and Noble | Waterstones

Sparks are igniting.
Flames are spreading.
And the Capitol wants revenge.

Against all odds, Katniss has won the Hunger Games. She and fellow District 12 tribute Peeta Mellark are miraculously still alive. Katniss should be relieved, happy even. After all, she has returned to her family and her longtime friend, Gale. Yet nothing is the way Katniss wishes it to be. Gale holds her at an icy distance. Peeta has turned his back on her completely. And there are whispers of a rebellion against the Capitol - a rebellion that Katniss and Peeta may have helped create.

Much to her shock, Katniss has fueled an unrest she's afraid she cannot stop. And what scares her even more is that she's not entirely convinced she should try. As time draws near for Katniss and Peeta to visit the districts on the Capitol's cruel Victory Tour, the stakes are higher than ever. If they can't prove, without a shadow of a doubt, that they are lost in their love for each other, the consequences will be horrifying.

Book Review - The Hunger Games

The Hunger Games
Author: Suzanne Collins
Series: The Hunger Games #1
Genres: Science Fiction, Dystopian | Young Adult
Release Date: 1st December 2011
Publishers: Scholistic
No. Pages: 454
Source: Gifted
Rating: 
Buy From: Amazon | Book Depository | Barnes and Noble | Waterstones

Winning will make you famous.
Losing means certain death.

In a dark vision of the near future, a terrifying reality TV show is taking place. Twelve boys and twelve girls are forced to appear in a live event called the Hunger Games. There is only one rule: kill or be killed. When sixteen-year-old Katniss Everdeen steps forward to take her sister's place in the games, she sees it as a death sentence. But Katniss has been close to death before. For her, survival is second nature.

Book Review - Teardrop

Teardrop

Author: Lauren Kate 

Series: Teardrop #1

Genres: Mythology | Young Adult

Release Date: 22nd October 2013
Publishers: Delacorte Books for Young Readers

No. Pages: 441

Source: Purchased

Rating: 

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

Never, ever cry...
Seventeen-year-old Eureka won't let anyone close enough to feel her pain. After her mother was killed in a freak accident, the things she used to love hold no meaning. She wants to escape, but one thing holds her back: Ander, the boy who is everywhere she goes, whose turquoise eyes are like the ocean. And then Eureka uncovers an ancient tale of romance and heartbreak, about a girl who cried an entire continent into the sea. Suddenly her mother's death and Ander's appearance seem connected, and her life takes on dark undercurrents that don't make sense. Can everything you love be washed away?