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Showing posts from April, 2011

Review of Finding Sky by Joss Stirling

When Sky catches a glimpse of Zed for the first time, lounging against his motorbike at school, she is drawn to him just like every other girl in Wickenridge. But Zed sees something special in her that the other girls don't have. Zed tells her they are both Savants - people with special powers like telepathy and the ability to see into the future. Not only that, she is a Savant too, and his soulfinder - meant to be together.

When a soulfinder speaks telepathically to her partner, it's like all the lights coming on in a building. You lit me up like Vegas. But for Sky it's just not that easy - she's a mystery to herself, haunted by nightmares from her past before she was adopted, and riddled with doubt and insecurity. Just when Sky is slowly coming round to the idea of being with Zed she is kidnapped by a family of criminal Savants. In a chilling twist, Sky and Zed's relationship is put to the ultimate test and the fate of those she loves lie in Sky's hands. Will Sky have the strength to embrace her power and be brave enough to control her own destiny, or will the dark demons of her past prevent her from realising her true potential?

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I really enjoyed this book at the beginning. You meet Sky, who is a character that's easy to connect with and she's a British girl who's just moved to America with her foster parents due to some art thing. You follow her as she starts to fit in with school and makes new friends and it's a really sweet story. Sky has a 'difficult' past - she was found sitting by herself somewhere and didn't speak for years until her current adoptive parents helped her talk again. At the end of chapter 8 however, everything just gets a bit silly.

Sky meets this guy called Zed and she's fascinated with him because he's got the hot mysterious bad boy thing going on. However whenever she bumps into him he seems annoyed with her (is this ringing any bells?). All of a sudden in chapter 8 Zed has a complete personality change, tells Sky he's meant to be with her and that she's his Soulfinder. Oh and she's a Savant, she can like, move food and stuff. Did I mention Zed can read minds? Oh and his brother can manipulate emotions and some others can see the future...

I really hate to compare any book to it and I usually go out of my way not to but this book reminded me so much of Twilight... except Twilight was a tad less boring. When I finally learnt about Sky's past I just thought, 'Oh, that's it?' and the plot just seemed to get sillier as it went along. When Sky's not thinking about Zed she's still the same funny sweet character that I loved in the early chapters, which is what probably kept me reading. One of the other problems with the book was that Sky is sweet. The Author felt that we kept forgetting this however so added a sentence or two about her sweet she was on practically every page.

3/5
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Review of Pastworld by Ian Beck

Pastworld is the greatest theme park ever devised. It's London - the real London - transformed into a living, breathing recreation of the Victorian era.

To Eve, a lifelong resident of Pastworld, horse-drawn carriages and gas lamps are modern technology. Eve doesn't even know she's living in a simulation - until she is forced to flee the only home she's ever known, and to confront the truth about her city and herself.

To Caleb, a tourist visiting Pastworld, the theme park is the perfect antidote to the stifling conformity and regulation of 2048. The gritty wildness of the past is thrilling - until he finds himself at the scene of a murder, holding the knife, and suddenly becomes a fugitive from an antiquated justice system.

And in the midst of it all, in the thick London fog, a dark and deadly figure prowls, claiming victim after victim. He's the Fantom, a creature both of the past and of the future, in whose dark purpose Caleb and Eve will find their destinies combined.

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 Pastworld is amazing. A steampunk world set in a dystopian future? My kind of novel! You see Pastworld from many POV's, from Eve, who's spent her whole life in Pastworld to Cabel, who is visiting with his Father. The settings are rich, full of life and easy to imagine. Indeed, I feel like I've just been running around Victorian London!
This book makes you think too. Can you imagine if London was turned back into it's Victorian ancestor? Would you want to visit - or even live there!

One particular character I loved was the Fantom. I have a sick fascination with Jack the Ripper and the Fantom is just like him - all clocked and mysterious, removing heads and hearts. No prostitutes though, this time as the Fantom's motives are different. The Fantom is the dark heart of this story and very important. Why is he so obsessed with finding Eve?

One thing that did disappoint me - Pastworld is fascinating yes, but it's in 2050 (okay, 2048 TBE) - I wanted to see what life is like outside of Pastworld! It certainly gave me the feeling of being trapped in there but I think the story really needed to move out of Pastworld and let the reader view life outside of it.

4/5
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Review of Firelight by Sophie Jordan

Marked as special at an early age, Jacinda knows her every move is watched. But she longs for freedom to make her own choices. When she breaks the most sacred tenet among her kind, she nearly pays with her life. Until a beautiful stranger saves her. A stranger who was sent to hunt those like her. For Jacinda is a draki—a descendant of dragons whose greatest defense is her secret ability to shift into human form.
Forced to flee into the mortal world with her family, Jacinda struggles to adapt to her new surroundings. The only bright light is Will. Gorgeous, elusive Will who stirs her inner draki to life. Although she is irresistibly drawn to him, Jacinda knows Will's dark secret: He and his family are hunters. She should avoid him at all costs. But her inner draki is slowly slipping away—if it dies she will be left as a human forever. She'll do anything to prevent that. Even if it means getting closer to her most dangerous enemy.


I kept hearing good things about this so I added it to my wishlist - then received it as an RAK! Thank you, Eleanor! The cover is beautiful, I don't usually go for covers that show a close up of a girl's face but this one really works and you can her Draki eyes and skin, which looks really unusual.

One thing I liked about Firelight was that it felt familiar - the plot reads similar to other Young Adult books and has a similar tone. For some reader's this may seem like a bad thing but after reading many novels that are out of my genre lately reading Firelight was like diving into a warm bed after a hard days work.

For once I actually liked the male character. Will is really sweet and still tries to be friends with Jacinda even after she annoying ignores him over and over. One minute she'll be all over him like a rash, the next day she'll be all, 'Oh but he's a hunter, he hunt's my kind, he's no good for me.' and then completely blanks him. So for him to still want her after that is pretty impressive.
That's the only bad point about Jacinda though. I really got into her story and felt like I could understand why she wanted to stay being a Draki (even though I've never stood on the end of a cliff, sprouted wings and flew...) and I was really annoyed at her sister and her mother. Her mother in particular, who sees it as a good thing to kill off Jacinda's Draki, even though it's a part of her and would kill her (non-literally) if it was no longer there.

Unfortunately for me, the book ends on a cliffhanger so I now have to wait until I can get my hands on the next one! Needless to say, I can't wait!

4/5
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Review of Carrie by Stephen King

Carrie White is no ordinary girl. Carrie White has the gift of telekinesis. To be invited to the Prom by Tommy Ross is a dream come true, and a step towards social acceptance by her high school peers. But events take a macabre turn on that horrifying and endless night.

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As you may know, Carrie is Stephen King's first novel and his most popular. Released in 1974, over 1 million copies of it was sold in it's first year and really kicked off Stephen's career.

So, is the book better than the movie? Well, I first saw the movie and it was fascinating. I really wanted to know Carrie's thoughts and opinions about the situations she finds herself in and see how it compared to the movie. A lot of things surprised me.

Firstly, Carrie herself - you know what Carrie is supposed to look like - a slightly malnourished blonde chick that looks a bit weird. Actually, Carrie is supposed to be overweight, from what I could gather from the book. That didn't make sense to me - Carrie mother doesn't strike me as the type that would let her daughter get fat, she seems to think everything is a sin. Another thing was Carrie's prom dress, which is white in the movie - but it's supposed to be red.


Another problem I found with the book was that it was clearly supposed to be written as a short story, so to flesh it out a lot Steaphen's added supposed extracts from Newspaper Articles, Books and Papers on 'The White Case', which, I have to be honest added nothing at all to the book. There were one or two things that did however and that usually came in the form of the main character's opinions. Sue Snell was a particularly interesting character for me and I would have loved to have read the entire book from her POV. You do get her POV but you also get the POV of just about every other character too.


Apart from that, I did really enjoy the story and think it's worth the read.

4/5
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Review of Hidden Child by Anne Cassidy

Thief. Liar. Fake? Lou and her mum Anna are best friends. It's always just been the two of them, so  Lou doesn't mind that Anna steals things - well not much, anyway. But what if Anna is a liar as well as a thief? What if she's a real fake? 


An interesting book, Hidden Child explores domestic abuse, kidnapping, first love and growing up. Lou and her mother Anna are constantly moving. They finally settle for a while near a hostel for abuse women, where Anna has a job. Lou meets Charlie there and quickly becomes interested in him. In between all of this, Lou starts to suspect that her Anna lied to her and that she might not be her real mother...

I found this quite an interesting story but predictable and a couple of things didn't really make sense.Unfortunately one of them I can't mention with spoiling the book. The other was Anna - she has a habit of stealing things and at the beginning of the book this was made a huge deal but after a while it just completely disappeared.

Lou seems a smart girl and I was surprised when she started being interested in Charlie. She was warned by Arthur that Charlie was a bit of a Ladies Man but somehow chose to ignore that. The women's hostel concept was more interesting and I would have liked to have heard more about that.

All in all, a short read that is perfectly enjoyable when you're bored!

4/5
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Review of I Am Number Four by Pittacus Lore

John Smith has just arrived in Paradise, Ohio, just another stop in a string of small towns where the 15-year-old has been hiding out from the Mogadorians. Those terrifying aliens are hellbent on destroying him and the other nine Loric children who have sought refuge on Earth. The Mogadorians are picking off the surviving kids in numerical order. The first three are dead and John's number is up. Will his Legacies, his defining super powers, develop in time for him to fight against the enemy? I saw this right back when it was first published and I wanted to buy it but never got round to it until last week. So, after 50 cover changes I can now say that I've read this! 


I didn't enjoy this as much as I was hoping to. The action goes right up and then just slows right down then speeds up again. I swear, I felt seasick when I'd finished. The action was good in places but the situations that Four/John gets himself into feel silly and not very believable. Indeed, it felt as if the Authors had just picked a situation out of a hat.

Characters wise, quite stereotypical. Sarah, the love interest, just wasn't for me. I'd prefer a girl that knows how to fight or at least is willing to learn. Unfortunately Sarah screams at everything, a typical girl-next-door character. She claims to hate Mark. her ex, who relentless picks on John from the first day but if she does then why does she follow him around everywhere and sits next to him in class? That makes no sense.

All in all, a good read if you've got nothing better to do and want to say 'I read this!'

3/5
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Review of Torment by Lauren Kate

Hell on earth. That's what it's like for Luce to be apart from her fallen angel boyfriend, Daniel. It took them an eternity to find one another, but now he has told her he must go away. Just long enough to hunt down the Outcasts - immortals who want to kill Luce. Daniel hides Luce at Shoreline, a school on the rocky California coast with unusually gifted students -Nephilim, the offspring of fallen angels and humans. 

At Shoreline, Luce learns what the Shadows are, and how she can use them as windows to her previous lives. Yet the more Luce learns, the more she suspects that Daniel hasn't told her everything. He's hiding something - something dangerous. What if Daniel's version of the past isn't actually true? What if Luce is really meant to be with someone else? 

First of all I'd like to clear a few things up. I hate it when a description is not accurate (taken from GoodReads) so: It's not just so that Daniel can hunt down the Outcasts and the possibility of Daniel's version of the past being untrue IS NOT MENTIONED. 
Anyway, for filler this is quite a good book. We get to meet new characters which, I admit, gets a bit confusion later on when they bring a few of the old characters back. We have a nice, new, shiny, upgraded setting - Shoreline, a very pretty, posh school with a really bland and stupid name. Shock horror, it's on a cliff. What we also have is a Very Annoying Boyfriend. Daniel was an ass before but at least he was a loveable one. In this he's quite controlling, demanding that Luce doesn't leave the school. Which would be fine but for the love of Fairy Cakes, Daniel, why don't you explain to Luce why it is you can't be bothered telling her about her past, the one thing that would keep her in school? Oh, that's right, if he doesn't tell her the Author can drag the story out to a third book and make even more money. Sorry Lauren but you know it's true.

When Luce starts questioning her relationship with Daniel I was like, 'You go girl! Go find some independence!' She does too, I'm pretty proud of her. Sneaking off all the time, going to the odd party, she's actually living, as she should be.



4/5
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Review of The Luxe by Anna Godberson

Pretty girls in pretty dresses, partying until dawn. Irresistible boys with mischievous smiles and dangerous intentions. White lies, dark secrets, and scandalous hookups. This is Manhattan, 1899. Beautiful sisters Elizabeth and Diana Holland rule Manhattan's social scene. Or so it appears. When the girls discover their status among New York City's elite is far from secure, suddenly everyone—from the backstabbing socialite Penelope Hayes, to the debonair bachelor Henry Schoonmaker, to the spiteful maid Lina Broud—threatens Elizabeth's and Diana's golden future. With the fate of the Hollands resting on her shoulders, Elizabeth must choose between family duty and true love. But when her carriage overturns near the East River, the girl whose glittering life lit up the city's gossip pages is swallowed by the rough current. As all of New York grieves, some begin to wonder whether life at the top proved too much for this ethereal beauty, or if, perhaps, someone wanted to see Manhattan's most celebrated daughter disappear... In a world of luxury and deception, where appearance matters above everything and breaking the social code means running the risk of being ostracized forever, five teenagers lead dangerously scandalous lives. This thrilling trip to the age of innocence is anything but innocent.


You know those books that you have to have and then they sit on your bookshelf until the pages are no longer white? This is one of those books for me but I've finally read it! It's quite an enjoyable read although not short at over 400 pages long. The Luxe has 6 narrators - Elizabeth, Diana, Penelope, Henry, Lina and some random commentator at the beginning.

Diana was easily my favourite character as she was the least stereotypical. She doesn't fit in well with society and finds the parties bland and uninteresting. When we first meet her she's snogging some guy at a party and that's also when she meets Henry With The Stupid Surname for the first time. His name is Schoonmaker. Anyway...
My second favourite character was Lina, at first, but then she steadily got more on my nerves as the story progressed. She thinks of herself as higher than she is and is quite snobby. She's also quite stupid. Another character that got on my nerves was Elizabeth. She just had no substance at all.

Plot wise, it's fairy basic and the ending felt a bit rushed, which, considering it's size was surprising. I enjoyed it though, having 5 (or 6!) narrators gave me a chance to see the world of Luxe from many varied perspectives, which was really fun.  I'm a sucker for period type TV programs and the descriptions of the scenes and characters in Luxe are really detailed so it felt as if I was watching it on TV. Although I mentioned the plot is basic, it still managed to draw me into the story and made me want to read more. So because of that I'm definitely buying Rumours and Splendour (I already have Envy). I'd recommend this to anyone who's a fan of stuff like The O.C, Gossip Girl, Pretty Little Liars, you get the idea.
4/5
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Review of Flat-Out Love by Jessica Park

Something is seriously off in the Watkins home. And Julie Seagle, college freshman, small-town Ohio transplant, and the newest resident of this Boston house, is determined to get to the bottom of it.
When Julie's off-campus housing falls through, her mother's old college roommate, Erin Watkins, invites her to move in. The parents, Erin and Roger, are welcoming, but emotionally distant and academically driven to eccentric extremes. The middle child, Matt, is an MIT tech geek with a sweet side ... and the social skills of a spool of USB cable. The youngest, Celeste, is a frighteningly bright but freakishly fastidious 13-year-old who hauls around a life-sized cardboard cutout of her oldest brother almost everywhere she goes.
And there's that oldest brother, Finn: funny, gorgeous, smart, sensitive, almost emotionally available. Geographically? Definitely unavailable. That's because Finn is traveling the world and surfacing only for random Facebook chats, e-mails, and status updates. Before long, through late-night exchanges of disembodied text, he begins to stir something tender and silly and maybe even a little bit sexy in Julie's suddenly lonesome soul.
To Julie, the emotionally scrambled members of the Watkins family add up to something that ... well ... doesn't quite add up. Not until she forces a buried secret to the surface, eliciting a dramatic confrontation that threatens to tear the fragile Watkins family apart, does she get her answer.

I'll start by stating that this is The Best Book I Have Ever Read, and I don't say that lightly - I have read a lot of books -  but none like this one. It made me laugh until I nearly cried. It's funny, sad, romantic and just simply fantastic (look Mom, I didn't say awesome!). I took longer than usual to finished this because I just didn't want it to end. I loved all the characters and I can honestly say that this is the first time that my favourite character is made out of cardboard.
There's a twist in the plot of course and I'm sad to say that I guessed it at the beginning. I don't know how I guess these so easily, although this twist isn't too difficult to guess.

Funnily enough, I can also relate to the story - I actually met my OH through Facebook but due to where we both lived at the time, I wasn't able to meet him until about 8 months later. I definitely remember staying up until about 4 in the morning just so I could talk to him...

I'd post all my favourite quotes here, but I'm not sure if Jessica would appreciate me pasting the entire book here. If you're looking for something uplifting, heart-warming and downright hilarious this year, buy this. 
 
5/5 
Received free from the Author in exchange for an honest review 
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Review of Sisters Red - Jackson Pearce

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 ax and Scarlett's only friend--but does loving him mean betraying her sister and all that they've worked for?

I wasn't entirely sure what to expect with this book but I loved the cover and the story sounded interesting, plus I kept seeing it in Waterstones, sitting there, whispering to me... 'Buy me... buy me...'

Insanity aside, this book is awesome. I liked that it would switch to the other sister in each chapter, that way I could see the point of view of both and when they argued, I could see both sides of the story. It was especially useful with Rosie's budding romance with Silas. I have to say, I preferred Rosie. I can understand where Scarlett is coming from but she makes really rash decisions and pretty much forces Rosie and Silas to hunt with her, so Rosie doesn't get much of a life. Silas sees this and makes her go to a Community College as part of his 'get-Rosie-a-life' plan. It's not much but it gets her out of the apartment.

There's a definite fairy-tale feel throughout this book and  the prologue which tells the tale of how Scarlett got her scars is written like a Fairytale. Plus, something most YA readers will enjoy - a bit a fairytale romance between Silas and Rosie, which I think is fantastically written (except for one thing - see quotes). More than once I was screaming at the book, 'Kiss her already!'
Scarlett could have done with someone to love her but in a way that person is in the hunt, it's what she lives for. I just hope that one day she finds someone...

5/5
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Review of Freefall by Mindi Scott

How do you come back from the point of no return? 

Seth McCoy was the last person to see his best friend, Isaac, alive, and the first to find him dead. It was just another night, just another party, just another time when Isaac drank too much and passed out on the lawn. Only this time, Isaac didn't wake up.
Convinced that his own actions led to his friend's death, Seth is torn between turning his life around . . . or losing himself completely.
Then he meets Rosetta: so beautiful and so different from everything and everyone he's ever known. But Rosetta has secrets of her own, and Seth soon realizes he isn't the only one who needs saving...

Although I don't usually read this genre (what it is called, contemporary?) I read a review of it somewhere and it sounded interesting, so I added it to my wishlist. Then a couple of weeks later Joli from Acting Up With Books gave it to me as an RAK. Thank you!

I didn't like Seth at first but Seth isn't a character that's made to be instantly likeable. When we meet him he's wandering around a party somewhere while his friend gets completely snowballed. I started to like him gradually more throughout the book as I learnt more about him and his life although the book felt a little slow in places.

A great thing about this book was that all the way through I could feel the ghost of Isaac shadowing everything Seth does, which was brilliantly written. He doesn't sound like a particularly pleasant character and what I did hear of hi reminded me very strongly of Daniel.

There's some romance here too - you follow Seth's thoughts and feelings as he falls in love for the first time with Rosetta which is really sweet and moving. On the other hand his friend, Kendall isn't helping his relationships as she's very full-on and as others say, slutty, but I found her strangely likeable. Like a puppy you just can't put down.
4/5
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Review of Darkness Becomes Her by Kelly Keaton

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.

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I started reading this with an open mind. The plot sounded really interesting and the cover is pretty. I was bitterly disappointed. I didn't enjoy this at all.Ari's character was one that I wanted to like but I just couldn't get past her complaining about how awful her life is. 'Oh, I'm going to die at 21!', 'My hair keeps growing!', 'My eyes are weird!' etc. Not actual quotes, that's was just the general feel of it for me.

The plot is also quite silly in places, especially when Ari experiences her first uber-headache. She wakes up in a restaurant and snogs Sebastian's face off. Then they're a couple. Then they're not. Then they are again. Then she tries to hump a Vampire...

One redeeming factor for me was Violet, a little goth girl with sharp teeth and a pet alligator. Violet is really sweet, like the perfect kid sister - plus she has the handy fighting skills.

2/5
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Review of Strangers on the 16:02 by Priya Basil

It's a hot, crowded train. Helen Summer is on her way to see her sister Jill to tell her an awful secret. Another passenger, Kerm, is on his way back from his grandfather's funeral. They are strangers, jammed against each other in a crowded carriage. Noisy school kids fill the train - and three of them are about to cause a whole heap of trouble. In the chaos, Helen and Kerm are thrown together in a way they never expected. Catching a train? Read "Strangers on the 16:02" and you'll never feel the same way about your fellow passengers again.


Am I the only person who enjoyed this Quick Read? Apparently so. Flick through the reviews on GoodReads and the stars go no higher than 3, of people that bothered to review the book.

It's a pretty simple story, as you can guess from the description. You view the lives of three characters that meet one day on a train - Helen, who has just discovered a secret and is travelling to see her sister to talk to her about it,  Kerm, a Doctor, who's head is filled with thoughts of his Grandfather and his family, and Innocent, a boy who is angry with the world and due to his father, believes the World is against him because he's black.

There's a lot of stuff touched upon in this short book - Death, Domestic Abuse, Weight issues, racism. One thing I did find interesting was the weight issues - Helen is overweight and wearing ankle boots and, I believe, a skirt. Why do I mention this? Look at the girl on the cover. Also, Helen doesn't have a suitcase with her. Another thing that I found hilarious was Innocent and his friends - named Blessing and Comfort. No joke.
 
5/5
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Review of Delirium by Lauren Oliver

Before scientists found the cure, people thought love was a good thing. They didn’t understand that once love - the deliria - blooms in your blood, there is no escaping its hold. Things are different now. Scientists are able to eradicate love, and the governments demands that all citizens receive the cure upon turning eighteen. Lena Holoway has always looked forward to the day when she’ll be cured. A life without love is a life without pain: safe, measured, predictable, and happy. 
 
But with ninety-five days left until her treatment, Lena does the unthinkable: She falls in love.

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 So, what would happen if you took Scott Westerfeld's Uglies and Ally Condie's Matched, threw them in a pot and gave the a really good stir? This, and it's beautiful and heartbreaking.

Lena would never have done everything she did without the help of her friend, Hana. Hana was my favourite character throughout the book, she's the one who questions the world they live in first, who persuades Lena to go to an illegal party where she meets Alex for the third time. Without her, there would be no story.

At the heart of the book, there's a very sweet story about a boy and a girl falling in love for the first time. I went though all the emotions with her - the fear of being caught, first kisses and secret meetings. I couldn't help but feel that they should be running through the sunlight together, rather than hiding in the dark.

Pandemonium is out in 2012 and I can't wait for the next instalment in Lena's story. Delirium ended on a cliffhanger so it will be interesting to see what happens next.
Thankfully, I have never read Before I Fall. I'm glad of this because when reading through the GoodReads reviews, every negative review mentions it. I have no idea why, as Delirium is it's own book, completely unrelated to Delirium in any way, except that Lauren wrote both.
Pandemonium is out in 2012 and I can't wait for the next instalment in Lena's story. Delirium ended on a cliffhanger so it will be interesting to see what happens next. Can't wait!

5/5
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Review of Green Angel by Alice Hoffman

Left on her own when her family dies in a terrible disaster, fifteen-year-old Green is haunted by loss and by the past. Struggling to survive physically and emotionally in a place where nothing seems to grow and ashes are everywhere, Green retreats into the ruined realm of her garden. But in destroying her feelings, she also begins to destroy herself, erasing the girl she'd once been as she inks darkness into her skin. It is only through a series of mysterious encounters that Green can relearn the lessons of love and begin to heal enough to tell her story.


Short but sweet, I loved Green Angel. Green's character is simple but one we can all relate to, in some shape or form. Green Angel is essentially a Fairy Tale. The writing style is quite poetic and really draws you into Green's story.
In a way, self harm is touched upon here. Green (or Ash, as she renames herself) tattoos herself all over, everywhere she can find. She enjoys the pain it brings and doesn't care if anyone thinks badly of her. With the help of Ghost, a lonely dog, Diamond, a boy in search of his mother and Green's neighbour, she starts to heal, which she rebels against at first but slowly becomes who she was.

5/5
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Review of Hunger by Jackie Morse Kessler

“Thou art the Black Rider. Go thee out unto the world.”
 
Lisabeth Lewis has a black steed, a set of scales, and a new job: she’s been appointed Famine. How will an anorexic seventeen-year-old girl from the suburbs fare as one of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse? 

Traveling the world on her steed gives Lisa freedom from her troubles at home: her constant battle with hunger, and her struggle to hide it from the people who care about her. But being Famine forces her to go places where hunger is a painful part of everyday life, and to face the horrifying effects of her phenomenal power. Can Lisa find a way to harness that power — and the courage to battle her own inner demons?

Oh boy did I hate this book when I first read it. I get to around page 40 and thought it was utter tripe and I also thought that the Author has just found every stereotype that she could of Anorexia and used it. I even went as far as to want to read about the Horse's opinion and I don't do books from an animal's perspective. So I put it down, willing to read it another day.
So I started this again. It was the same as before but I was willing to stick with it and read it all the way through. And you know what? I'm glad I did. 

Lisa isn't a character that grew on me quickly. I didn't like her until the last couple of chapters. I thought that she was whiny and stupid. (It's just a cheese fry girl! Eat it already!) Whereas with he horse, I liked him immediately. Same with Pestilence and Death. Rage however, I felt she was stuck up and rude.

The book has some moments that I read with an open mouth. Page 108, that's the most haunting and descriptive tale of Bulimia I have ever read. I can imagine everything vividly. Skip to page 122 where Lisa finally confronts her Mother after years of mental abuse and was shocked and riveted.
4/5
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Review of Numbers by Rachel Ward

Since her mother's death, fifteen-year-old Jem has kept a secret. When her eyes meet someone else's, a number pops into her head - the date on which they will die. Knowing that nothing lasts forever, Jem avoids relationships, but when she meets a boy called Spider, and they plan a day out together, her life takes a new twist and turn. Waiting for the London Eye, she sees everyone in the queue has the same number - something terrible is going to happen.


I felt that this book was just back story, or a prequel before going on to the main story, Adam's, in the next book. It wasn't particularly exciting or interesting for me. 
A lot of the story centers around Jem and Spider on the run from the police. Which felt a bit silly. If they'd have just gone down to the police station in the first place and explained that Jem had a bad feeling about the London Eye they could have saved a lot of grief. And stopped quite a few people dying in the process.
The idea of a terrorist attack in London was never really touched upon, other than to suggest that the police might think Jem and Spider did it, which they quite clearly didn't.

In the middle of the book I almost lost interest completely and stopped reading it but I wanted to give it a chance. I'm not sure if I go as far as to say it was worth it, as the book just gets sillier from that point but at least I know what happened in it when I read The Chaos.

The last sentence is one to make you want to read the book and one that proves to me that Rachel just wanted to get to the main story but felt she needed to write this so we have some back story. There's plenty of swearing, death and a sex scene in this, even though the main characters are only 15, so it's very British...

3/5
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Review of Elsewhere by Gabrielle Zevin

Elsewhere is where 15-year-old Liz Hall ends up, after she has died. It is a place so like Earth, yet completely different from it. Here Liz will age backward from the day of her death until she becomes a baby again and returns to Earth. Is it possible that a life lived in reverse is no different from a life lived forward?

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I dug this out of my shelf after reading Memoirs of a Teenage Amnesiac, which I loved. I admit, I didn't enjoy this book as much. I'm trying to work out why, I know that at the start I nearly put it down when I was reading the thoughts of Liz's pet dog (I don't do books with talking animals) and there was various moments throughout the book where the dogs where talking. I've nothing against dogs. I just like them not to talk. Besides, I'm a cat person.


I think it might have been the story itself. It's a fantastic idea and it was written quite well but I got to the middle of the book and Liz is still obsessed with the Observation Deck and I'm like, um, can we move the story along a bit? Then after that it really picks up pace and that felt really rushed. It was really bizarre. 


Plus, the idea of dying at 15 and then steadily becoming younger freaked me out a bit. Growing old is one thing but growing young? No thank you. There was also a few flaws in this book and one really big one. I'm not sure if it was intended as a joke (I don't think it was) but Liz's Grandmother, Betty tell her that she's just went to an exhibit of new paintings by Picasso. This strikes me as impossible.

 4/5
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Review of Where She Went by Gayle Forman

~ Sequel To If I Stay 


It's been three years since the devastating accident ... three years since Mia walked out of Adam's life forever.
Now living on opposite coasts, Mia is Julliard's rising star and Adam is LA tabloid fodder, thanks to his new rock star status and celebrity girlfriend. When Adam gets stuck in New York by himself, chance brings the couple together again, for one last night. As they explore the city that has become Mia's home, Adam and Mia revisit the past and open their hearts to the future - and each other.
Told from Adam's point of view in the spare, lyrical prose that defined If I Stay, Where She Went explores the devastation of grief, the promise of new hope, and the flame of rekindled romance.

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Where She Went was exactly how I expected it to be. And for me, that's not a good thing. The story is told from Adam's point of view, who has gone from being My Favourite Character in If I Stay to an annoying, drugged up, washed up rock star who wines constantly about everything and who can't stop thinking about Mia.

Unfortunately I can't blame him. After Mia wakes up, a few months later she goes to Julliard, telling Adam that she's loves him... and never comes back. Angry and hurt, Adam tries to gain some control in life even though he can't stop thinking about Mia. Mia, I can't help but think, is rather shallow and bitchy for doing this. It's not that difficult to write an e-mail love.
Everyone else in the story is pretty background and there's not many people who really have a voice in this, except Mia and Adam. We learn nothing about Adam's band mates, which would have been nice.
I'd recommend this to someone who has read If I Stay and wants to read more of Adam's and Mia's story and find out what happens to them afterwards. I'd never recommend reading this before If I Stay though.
I dislike this cover for many reasons. Her head is at a strange angle but she does look like Mia, at least. However that's no excuse for really bad photoshopping. Check out her hair. I mean, really look at it. It just cuts off at odd angles. They could have done a much better cover for such a highly anticipated book.
3/5
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Review of Blue Moon by Alyson Noel

Things have changed for Ever since she met her beloved Damen - not least because she's got a whole new set of powers, courtesy of her new Immortal status. Just as she's getting stronger, though, Damen seems to be weakening. Panicked at the thought of losing him, Ever finds a path to the in-between world known as Summerland, where she learns the secrets of Damen's tortured past. But in searching for a cure for him, Ever accidentally discovers a way to twist time so she can save her family from the accident that killed them. It's all she's ever wanted - but so is Damen. And Ever must choose between them.

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 I'm not sure what to make of Blue Moon. At the beginning I felt that it dragged a lot  and quite frankly, Ever and Damen cooing over each other all the time was really starting to grate on my nerves. And then, Damen disappears overnight and when he comes back, he's not the person he was. After that, I was gripped. I couldn't put the book down. I wanted Damen back. I wanted to know who this new guy was, Roman, and what he done to everyone - all of the school was acting pretty weirdly, not just Damen. I finished the book within a few hours, as I couldn't stop reading.

As for the award for most annoying character, I'm not sure if I should give that to Roman, who's cockyness and arrogance (okay, that's the same thing) really started to grate, or to Ava, who is no longer a wise psychic in this story but more of an absent-minded Grandmother. Actually, I'll give it to Ava, for reasons I cannot state without listing spoilers. Sorry!

There were a lot of times in this book where I wanted to pick Ever up, smack her around the face and tell her to stop being so stupid. She's very, very blonde at times. But she has her awesome moments too, which is why I love her. From throwing Stasia across the hall in the first book to asking for some really bizarre herbs in this (I sure there was something awesome she did. I just can't remember), she's quite a strong character - when she's not thinking about Damen. Too much.

Ooh I also need to add something unrelated to the text. Every so often I had to stop reading and smell the book - it smells like Narnia! A long time ago my Aunt bought be a hardback set of Narnia books with a  really unique smell, one that I'd never smelt again - until I smelt these - I bought the first four Immortals as a box set. So yeah, they smell like Narnia!

4/5
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