Book Review: The Iron Trial ARC by Cassandra Clare and Holly Black

August 4, 2014August 4, 2014Leave a comment

This review is based on an advanced reader’s copy of the novel obtained through Scholastic at the American Library Association Conference for free. This is in no way had an effect on the integrity of my review. Please note that published novel will differ from this ARC.

Genre:

Middle Grade, malady Fantasy

Pages:

295

Part of a Series?:

This is the first novel in the Magisterium series, viagra 100mg of five planned novels.

Release Date:

September 8, medications 2014

You Can Find the Book At:

Cassandra’s Website / Holly’s Website

GoodReads Summary:

From two bestselling superstars, a dazzling and magical middle-grade collaboration centering on the students of the Magisterium, an academy for those with a propensity toward magic. In this first book, a new student comes to the Magisterium against his will — is it because he is destined to be a powerful magician, or is the truth more twisted than that? It’s a journey that will thrill you, surprise you, and make you wonder about the clear-cut distinction usually made between good and evil.

My Review:

When I heard that Holly Black and Cassandra Clare were releasing a new book together, I knew immediately that I had to read it. When I found out it was a middle grade, I was slightly deterred because I feel like I just getting older and older but I adore both of these authors and still felt the desire to read the book. I got my hands on an ARC at ALA in July and it was one of the first books that I knew I wanted to read.

That being said, it took me a couple weeks to read it. I started it, got about half way through and then had to put it aside for a bit. I read 8 other books, including my Bloodlines reread, before picking it up. Once I picked it up again, I sped through the last half and thoroughly enjoyed it. I think I was used to YA and the sort of adult stories in that and it took me a second to adjust to a middle grade story. Once I was able to do that, I immediately fell in love with the stories and the characters.

This is perfect for fans of Rick Riordan and his Percy Jackson series, JK Rowling’s Harry Potter series and John and Carole Barrowman’s Hollow Earth series. It’s obviously influenced by the first two. Its full of adventure and magic and humor and the uncertainties that come with being a tween. Callum Hunt has all these insecurities, hidden behind a pretty thick veil of sarcasm and dry humor, added in with the fact that he is handicapped too. He’s brought to the Magisterium to learn magic and it feels like Harry going off to Hogwarts or Percy arriving at Camp Half Blood. Its a whole new world and you get to experience that will Callum and its so fun. Throw in his mentor, his two new best friends and a pretty awesome animal that becomes a kind of an unusual pet.

But what I love about it is the depth that comes from that. What could be a silly story of magic and spells actually holds a lot of depth. I mean, don’t get me wrong: this story IS fun. Callum makes me laugh and his friends are awesome, and there’s just a lot about it that’s just so whimsical and really makes me think of Harry Potter. But, like HP, there’s a deeper story there, one that is very unexpected. It actually threw me quite off guard and when it happened, I knew immediately that I needed to keep reading. The story is twisting and turning and I honestly hope that it will make its way into plenty of middle grader readers because I think its a great book. There’s magic and adventure and friendship and insecurities, and doubt and learning and growing up and so much that I would want in a book at that age and even now, and that’s what made it so good.

I do believe that the beginning lagged a bit but whether that was because I wasn’t feeling that sort of book at the moment or it could be that the beginning honestly lagged. Only a reread of the book would tell me the answer completely but I do feel like the beginning lagged a bit due to the lessons that Callum and his companions were learning. As time went on and the story progressed, it made sense but I did struggle with the beginning, definitely.

In the end, it became a truly good novel, and it is a definitely one of the few middle grade series that will remain on my radar in the next couple years.

Rating:

4 out of 5 Stars

Book Review: Silver Shadows by Richelle Mead (Spoiler Free)

August 4, 2014August 4, 2014Leave a comment

Note: There will be a spoiler filled review uploaded on YouTube within the next couple days.

Genre:

Young Adult, medical Fantasy

Pages:

380

Part of a Series?:

This is the 5th novel in the Bloodlines Series

Release Date:

July 29th, diagnosis 2014

You Can Find the Book At:

GoodReads Summary:

Sydney Sage is an Alchemist, one of a group of humans who dabble in magic and serve to bridge the worlds of humans and vampires. They protect vampire secrets—and human lives.

In The Fiery Heart, Sydney risked everything to follow her gut, walking a dangerous line to keep her feelings hidden from the Alchemists.

Now in the aftermath of an event that ripped their world apart, Sydney and Adrian struggle to pick up the pieces and find their way back to each other. But first, they have to survive.

For Sydney, trapped and surrounded by adversaries, life becomes a daily struggle to hold on to her identity and the memories of those she loves. Meanwhile, Adrian clings to hope in the face of those who tell him Sydney is a lost cause, but the battle proves daunting as old demons and new temptations begin to seize hold of him. . . .

Their worst fears now a chilling reality, Sydney and Adrian face their darkest hour in this heart-pounding fifth installment in the New York Times bestselling Bloodlines series, where all bets are off.

My Review:

Please note that while this review will have no spoilers for Silver Shadows, there will be spoilers for the rest of the Bloodlines series.

When I first picked up the Vampire Academy series just about a year ago, I didn’t know that it would lead to me to two incredible series that would literally change my life. The characters, the stories, all of it, means so incredibly much to me and in such a short period of time. I already have a VA tattoo because of it. After the end of VA, I felt empty, until I picked up a copy of Bloodlines, and literally sped through that series. To say that I was dying to read Silver Shadows at the end of the Fiery Heart would be a vast understatement.

I woke up on Tuesday, on release date, and immediately got ready and went out to buy my copy. I found it, clutched it to my chest and didn’t let it out of my sight until I got home. I then warned everyone that I would be disappearing for awhile while I read the book. I read it in less than four hours, which already goes to show you how much I enjoyed this book.

When I read Fiery Heart, I wasn’t a huge fan of the split point of view. I understand why she did it but it helped me keep my resolve as Indigo Spell as my favorite. Now in Silver Shadows, the split point of view was definitely necessary to the point of the story. Adrian and Sydney are separated, Adrian remaining in Palm Springs and Sydney in some unknown location as the Alchemists attempt to “re-educate” her. In this novel, I found myself eager for each of their points of view, hoping, with each turn of the page, that their stories would finally intersect and they would be back together. I really enjoyed the split POV and I hope she continues this in The Ruby Circle.

One thing that I really enjoyed about this novel, something that just kept me pushing page after page, until the end was Sydney Sage. I know that sounds weird because she’s the main character of the series but I’ve mostly read for Adrian more than Sydney. Don’t get me wrong, I LOVE Sydney but I think she really became one of my favorite characters, period, in this book. The strength that she shows, the resolve, the fact that she is determined and doesn’t stop trying. She is absolutely incredible in this novel. She blows me away, and I always kind of held her second best to Rose Hathaway but I think she’s her equal, just in a different way. I really began to truly appreciate Sydney in this novel.

I also liked the story of it. There was a lot more built into it than just the recovery of Sydney. It was a struggle for Adrian, handling his spirit and his vices and that sort of thing. He is miserable and he literally sends himself into a spiral. Its about his relationship to other people besides Sydney (and Jill and Eddie and Angeline), and his family, and even his friends back at Court, like Lissa, Rose and Dimitri. I love that Sydney’s story is more than just her own in the re-education center. We really get to see the person she’s become and what she’s willing to do to help not only herself but others as well.

And I mean, keeping this as spoiler free as possible, but there are some truly excellent Sydrian moments in this novel. Truly. There’s an entire segment with the two of them that I honestly thought I would be horrified by but instead, I was so full of joy and happiness, I could barely handle it. It made sense to the storyline, which is why I liked it. I don’t like things like this happening just for the sake of it. I know this is so vague and you can check out my spoiler filled review for more on that.

Loving all the appearances that Lissa, Rose and Dimitri make. My loves!

And OHMYGOD that cliffhanger. I can’t handle that cliffhanger. Just when you think …okay, everything is going to be okay, I can handle this, Richelle leaves us literally panicking on the last page, wondering what on earth could possibly happen next. Literally, I would sell my kidney to find out what happens next, maybe even a lung or two. I mean, those aren’t important right? I’m just saying. With a cliffhanger like that, anyone would want to read the next book!

Stay tuned for my spoiler filled vlog coming soon!

Rating:

4.5 out of 5 Stars

Book Review: The Geography of You and Me by Jennifer E. Smith

June 23, 2014June 19, 20142 Comments

Genre:

Young Adult, viagra 100mg Contemporary

Pages:

337

Part of a Series?:

Release Date:

April 15th, and 2014

You Can Find the Book At:

GoodReads Summary:

Lucy and Owen meet somewhere between the tenth and eleventh floors of a New York City apartment building, illness on an elevator rendered useless by a citywide blackout. After they’re rescued, they spend a single night together, wandering the darkened streets and marveling at the rare appearance of stars above Manhattan. But once the power is restored, so is reality. Lucy soon moves to Edinburgh with her parents, while Owen heads out west with his father.

Lucy and Owen’s relationship plays out across the globe as they stay in touch through postcards, occasional e-mails, and — finally — a reunion in the city where they first met.

A carefully charted map of a long-distance relationship, Jennifer E. Smith’s new novel shows that the center of the world isn’t necessarily a place. It can be a person, too.

My Review:

Here’s the thing about me and my experiences with Jennifer E Smith. I’ve read everything up until this point and honestly, I just haven’t massively impressed so far. Its not that I think she’s a bad writer because I honestly don’t think she is. She’s a really good writer. But I just haven’t had a huge liking for her stories. They’re too cute, too unrealistic, too short. That’s not a bad thing, definitely not but its not to my taste. There are lots of people that are searching for those kind of stories so you should definitely pick up a Jennifer E Smith book. I just prefer my books with a bit more substance.

I will say this, though: I really liked this one. Its not mesmerizing and it won’t be a book that I’m constantly recommending to people but I thought that this was her strongest novel to date. I thought the story felt more real and I really cared more about these characters than I had in the past. They only met for a brief moment before being split apart and I genuinely wanted them to be together.

But here’s where things divert from in the past. Jennifer’s characters seem to always work out the right way, and it ends up happily wrapped up, with hope and all that but this book is so different and I think that’s why I like it. She really went realistic with this one. Two people, who spent a lot of time together, who obviously left a mark on each other, are separated and yet, they continue to live their lives. They see other people, they have fun, they live without each other. Sure, they think of each other, write each other, they’re always sort of in the back of each other’s minds but they continue to have lives and that’s what makes it beautiful. That we don’t stop living for others, but we keep going, even when they’re there in the back of your mind. I love that.

And I love that each and every interaction they have with each other is beautiful and realistic and it still makes you want to root for them, from beginning to end. You know its cheesy and a tad bit unrealistic that these two could ever really make it work but you want them to anyway and I think that’s a great thing. That’s the first time that Jennifer has really made me root for someone in her book and I was glad for that.

I have hope for, in the future, that she will write something that I truly love but for now, I’m really satisfied with this one and I honestly think that this book was very fun, and very cute and I hope to see more of Jennifer in the future. Never give up on an author, you never know what they’ll produce in the future.

Rating:

3.75 out of 5 Stars

Book Review: Noggin by John Corey Whaley

June 22, 2014June 19, 2014Leave a comment

Genre:

Young Adult, treat Contemporary, visit this site Light Sci-Fi

Pages:

356

Part of a Series?:

Release Date:

April 8th, 2012

You Can Find the Book At:

GoodReads Summary:

Listen — Travis Coates was alive once and then he wasn’t.

Now he’s alive again.

Simple as that.

The in between part is still a little fuzzy, but he can tell you that, at some point or another, his head got chopped off and shoved into a freezer in Denver, Colorado. Five years later, it was reattached to some other guy’s body, and well, here he is. Despite all logic, he’s still 16 and everything and everyone around him has changed. That includes his bedroom, his parents, his best friend, and his girlfriend. Or maybe she’s not his girlfriend anymore? That’s a bit fuzzy too.

Looks like if the new Travis and the old Travis are ever going to find a way to exist together, then there are going to be a few more scars.

Oh well, you only live twice.

My Review:

Look, its hard for me to give a 5 out of a 5 on a book. I used to just hand it out like it was free candy or something. But once I became a blogger, and really started reading books, not just for pleasure, but to really see what books were good, I started handing them out less. You have to earn that five out of five. You have to show me you deserve it.

John Corey Whaley did just that. I had seen him at a panel at the Festival of Books with Andrew Smith (literary god), Rainbow Rowell (the FEEEELS), E. Lockhart (I gotta get my hands on her new book) and Aaron Hartzler (can he be my best friend?). He was funny, his book sounded amazing and I was like, I gotta do this. I developed a massive crush on him that day.

And okay, he’s awesomely gay and has a boyfriend and whatnot, but whatever, people. I can so have a crush on him. I have a best friend crush on him. Or something. Moving on.

I saw him again at Ontario Teen Book Fest, and since I was the resident blogger for that, I was able to spend a bit of time with him, and he was just awesome. He was SO funny, and he told me that Godzilla was his fictional crush, and that Grasshopper Jungle would be the book he wished he had as a teen and I was like, this man is beautiful and I need to read his books.

So when my sister brought home Noggin from the library, I grabbed it from her, and proceeded to read it. She was angry because she’s the one that got it, but I told her I’d finish it before she would even crack it open and I was right.

This book is BRILLIANT. The whole time that I was in Travis’ head, I was a mess of emotions. This kid has it totally rough and I was on his side the whole time. So many people were getting angry and mad at him, getting upset at the way he was acting but they didn’t understand. He was pushing best friend and his girlfriend for things that seemed strange and wrong to them but it felt right to him. Imagine going to sleep tonight, and waking up, and everyone you knew was five years older, and had moved on without you. That’s pretty much exactly what happens with Travis. He never expects to wake up, and if he does, its going to be long after the people he’s known has been gone. He never expects to feel like it was a nap. He still wants his best friend in his life, he still loves his girlfriend incredibly and to have them moved on without him is so hard and I was on Travis’ side the whole time.

When you first read the synopsis, you’re thinking its a sort of science fiction book but its definitely not. Travis’ head is frozen, and they figure out a way to reawaken it on another body just a mere five years after his “death”. That’s where the science fiction ends. The story is of Travis struggling to find his place in the world where he is a rare thing, and where the world has moved on without him. He literally has to tackle this, without the people he’s always relied on, and they’ve done it already, they know who they are, they’ve moved past and its incredible and real. Corey writes this book so well, and there are parts when I want to laugh, and there are parts where I want to cry and there’s more than one part where I’m like, I would hate to be him. I would both love that idea of a second chance at life but hate that everyone had moved on without me. How hard, how emotional for anyone.

John Corey Whaley is an incredible author, and I have his first novel in my TBR pile, waiting for me to come and dive in soon. I can’t wait to read more by him because he tells a great story, and he has a way of balancing humor and romance and basic human emotion in one gigantic beautiful story.

Rating:

5 out of 5 Stars

Book Review: Don’t Look Back by Jennifer L. Armentrout

June 21, 2014June 19, 20141 Comment

Genre:

Young Adult, doctor Thriller

Pages:

384

Part of a Series?:

Nope

Release Date:

April 15th, decease 2014

You Can Find the Book At:

GoodReads Summary:

Samantha is a stranger in her own life. Until the night she disappeared with her best friend, approved Cassie, everyone said Sam had it all-popularity, wealth, and a dream boyfriend.

Sam has resurfaced, but she has no recollection of who she was or what happened to her that night. As she tries to piece together her life from before, she realizes it’s one she no longer wants any part of. The old Sam took “mean girl” to a whole new level, and it’s clear she and Cassie were more like best enemies. Sam is pretty sure that losing her memories is like winning the lottery. She’s getting a second chance at being a better daughter, sister, and friend, and she’s falling hard for Carson Ortiz, a boy who has always looked out for her-even if the old Sam treated him like trash.

But Cassie is still missing, and the facts about what happened to her that night isn’t just buried deep inside of Sam’s memory-someone else knows, someone who wants to make sure Sam stays quiet. All Sam wants is the truth, and if she can unlock her clouded memories of that fateful night, she can finally move on. But what if not remembering is the only thing keeping Sam alive?

My Review:

I love Jennifer L. Armentrout and she blows my mind over and over again. I read the Lux series and was massively in love, mostly with Daemon Black. Then I read the Covenant series and my god, that series is incredible. I just recently read The Return, which is the spin off new adult series to the Covenant series and there will be a review for that later. But when her standalone novel came out, and it was hitting bookshelves everywhere (literally, everywhere, taunting me and my wallet all the time), I knew I had to cave in and buy this. So I did.

And I read it in one night.

Which I realize is not exactly a hard thing for me to do. This is legit the girl who read a 750 page book in 5 hours and 45 minutes. If a book catches me, I can read it in mere hours. Which is what this book did to me, easily.

This was a very different book from Jennifer. For a moment, I forgot I was reading it by her because it just didn’t read the same as others I had read from her in the past. It was creepy and scary and literally had me turning the pages frantically to find out what happened next. Jennifer has always managed to make me laugh and to swoon but she’s never scared me before, not like she has in Don’t Look Back.

Don’t Look Back builds this mystery around the main character, Samantha, who is very nearly killed, and must figure out what happened to her, and her best friend. Problem is, she doesn’t remember who she is or who her best friend is, which, you know, makes things kind of difficult. Kind of. Then Sam starts to go…kind of crazy. She’s receiving cryptic notes and seeing things and hearing things that shouldn’t be there. Its incredibly creepy and Jennifer writes it so well. It reads like a horror movie, almost, a thriller, but its better than any movie I’ve watched. I’m not a huge fan of horror/thriller, I tend to find them lacking good stories, good characters, but this one was just perfectly chilling.

I also think its incredible that she’s able to weave such beautiful relationships throughout the book. Sam literally has to rebuild her relationship with everyone: friends, family, boyfriends, boys who are super cute who she wishes was her boyfriend instead, that sort of thing. And it all feels so incredibly authentic and confusing. So many of her relationships before her memory loss were frustrating and needed work, and now its even harder. These people remember what she was like, and she has to completely meld the two pieces of her together. Its confusing and that journey is taken so well through out the book.

There is also the conclusion of it, which obviously, as I write this, will be spoiler free. I hate ruining books for people. For awhile, I’d had a tiny inkling of what was going to be going on, but when it all came to an end, it was not the way I expected it. I knew the person responsible for a lot of the things going on, that part seemed to be creeping into my mind slowly. The why and how of it completely threw me off guard and I was wide-eyed all the way up until the last page. Way to go, Jennifer, for a completely surprising conclusion, and for scaring the crap out of me this entire novel. I was reading this at about 2 am and that probably wasn’t the best idea I’ve had.

Must read though. Seriously. If you like Jennifer Armentrout, you will like this very different novel from her. If you’re not a fan, read it anyway. If you’ve never read her books, then this would be a fun one to start with. Just remember to keep the lights on while you do so.

Rating:

4 out of 5 Stars

Book Review: Ruin and Rising by Leigh Bardugo

June 20, 2014June 19, 20141 Comment

Genre:

Young Adult, sales Fantasy

Pages:

417

Part of a Series?:

The finale book in the Grisha Trilogy

Release Date:

June 17th, stuff 2014

You Can Find the Book At:

GoodReads

Amazon

Barnes and Noble (Exclusive Edition)

Book Depository

Author Website

GoodReads Summary:

The capital has fallen. The Darkling rules Ravka from his shadow throne.

Now the nation’s fate rests with a broken Sun Summoner, diagnosis a disgraced tracker, and the shattered remnants of a once-great magical army.

Deep in an ancient network of tunnels and caverns, a weakened Alina must submit to the dubious protection of the Apparat and the zealots who worship her as a Saint. Yet her plans lie elsewhere, with the hunt for the elusive firebird and the hope that an outlaw prince still survives.

Alina will have to forge new alliances and put aside old rivalries as she and Mal race to find the last of Morozova’s amplifiers. But as she begins to unravel the Darkling’s secrets, she reveals a past that will forever alter her understanding of the bond they share and the power she wields. The firebird is the one thing that stands between Ravka and destruction—and claiming it could cost Alina the very future she’s fighting for.

My Review:

While this review will not contain any spoilers from Ruin and Rising, I cannot guarantee there will not be spoilers for Shadow and Bone and Siege and Storm.

Dear Ms. Leigh Bardugo,

I have been waiting over a year for this book to come out. When I first read Shadow and Bone, I could not believe that such a book could even exist. It was a beautiful blend of fantasy, power, politics, romance and so much awesome. I couldn’t wait to get my hands on Siege and Storm and that book blew my mind anymore.

When I headed out to your release event for Ruin and Rising, I had high hopes, dreams, expectations, apprehension, and so much more when I picked up my copy. I’ve read finale books in series recently that have been disappointing, have left me wanting more. I had high faith in you, Ms Bardugo. I believed that you could do this.

I got home, wanting to crack up the book right away but you threw such an awesome launch party that I immediately crawled up into my comfy bed and went to sleep. When I awoke the next month, I immediately reached for my book and spent the next few hours wrapped up in the world of Grisha and Ravka.

The first thing I thought of when I finished the novel was, wow. The second thing was…this is how you finish a trilogy or a series. This is exactly the kind of feeling that I want to be left with when I finish a series that means as much to me as this one does. I felt sad, and happy and bittersweet and overwhelmed but satisfied. I was so utterly and perfectly satisfied with the way that this series ended. It literally could not have gone any different than it went.

What you did right was this: you wrote the ending that we both wanted and didn’t. There were things that I wanted so badly and it happened and it made me happy. There were things that happened that I wanted to curse at, but felt right in the story. You knew how to make the right sacrifices, knew each direction that the characters were going in. Each ending felt right, perfect. Nothing felt forced. It seemed like the natural ending for each person. It made sense. I was happy for some, heartbroken for other but I was so satisfied.

Did I mention how incredible you are at writing fantasy? It blows my mind how you can create this beautiful, complicated world and make it feel so real and so addicting. Every moment in Ravka is important to me, and everything feels like its this whole different world. That’s the beauty of really great fantasy. You believe it. There’s nothing about it that feels fake or forced. Ravka is real and every character in this book is so real. I care so much about all of them. You’re an incredible writer. I could only hope to write like you one day. You are such an inspiration.

You can write action, you can write tension, you write beautiful romance, and you write politics and you write scary scenes and you do it all so well. All of these weave so well together into 400 pages of pure awesome.

Basically, thank you. Thank you for writing this book. Thank you for the entire series. It is incredible from the very first page to the very last page. All three books make so much sense together, flow perfectly, and tell a beautiful story. You left us with an epic cliffhanger in Siege and Storm and brought us in, answered our questions, wrapped up our story, and left this reader feeling incredibly satisfied. Its hard to let go of these characters but I’m anxious for anything and everything you write in the future because if they are even a fragment of what the Grisha Trilogy, and Ruin and Rising is, I know they are going to be epic.

Sincerely,

One Super Stoked and Happy Reader :)

Rating:

5 out of 5 Stars