Monday 2 September 2013

Book Haul #6 - August 2013


So in the month of March I managed to obtain a collection of 24 books! Below is a list of all the books I got and how I got them.

Sunday 16 June 2013

Review: Sever by Lauren DeStefano

Title: Sever
Author: Lauren DeStefano
Publisher: Harper Voyager  
Release Date: 14th February 2013
Format: Paperback (320 pages)
Series: The Chemical Garden Trilogy 

Synopsis from Goodreads:
With the clock ticking until the virus takes its toll, Rhine is desperate for answers. After enduring Vaughn’s worst, Rhine finds an unlikely ally in his brother, an eccentric inventor named Reed. She takes refuge in his dilapidated house, though the people she left behind refuse to stay in the past. While Gabriel haunts Rhine’s memories, Cecily is determined to be at Rhine’s side, even if Linden’s feelings are still caught between them.

Meanwhile, Rowan’s growing involvement in an underground resistance compels Rhine to reach him before he does something that cannot be undone. But what she discovers along the way has alarming implications for her future—and about the past her parents never had the chance to explain.

In this breathtaking conclusion to Lauren DeStefano’s Chemical Garden trilogy, everything Rhine knows to be true will be irrevocably shattered.

If you thought FEVER was bad, prepare to meet it's maker. SEVER by far has to be the worst conclusion to any book series I have ever read. There aren't enough offensive words in the english vocabulary to describe just how much I loathe Rhine. She is definitely one of the worst female protagonist's in YA and let's be honest the women of YA aren't that cracking. WITHER, at least the first half was an interesting book with a strong premise but it ultimately fell flat. I read FEVER purely out of curiosity as to where DeStefano would take the story and all I read was a load of nonsense, that was purposeful for SEVER but was still dull to read. SEVER is not worth your time or money, only read if you're willing to waste precious hours of your life. 


I didn't truly despise the series as whole otherwise I wouldn't have read on and I'm not slating it (well, maybe a little.) Lauren DeStefano is a talented writer with interesting prose that at times can be engaging and beautiful it's her actual story and ideas that let this series down. If she had taken the series in a different direction it could have been phenomenal but unfortunately we're left with this ... mess. Overall I really regret reading this series and wouldn't recommend it.  

1 Star

Wednesday 5 June 2013

Review: What Happens Next - Colleen Clayton



Author: Colleen Clayton

Publisher: Poppy
Release Date: 9th October 2012
Format: Hardback
Rating: 5 stars. (6 if I could)


Synopsis:

Before the ski trip, sixteen-year-old Cassidy “Sid” Murphy was a cheerleader (at the bottom of the pyramid, but still...), a straight-A student, and a member of a solid trio of best friends. When she ends up on a ski lift next to handsome local college boy, Dax Windsor, she’s thrilled; but Dax takes everything from Sid—including a lock of her perfect red curls—and she can’t remember any of it.

Back home and unable to relate to her old friends, Sid drops her college prep classes and takes up residence in the A/V room with only Corey “The Living Stoner” Livingston for company. But as she gets to know Corey (slacker, baker, total dreamboat), Sid finds someone who truly makes her happy. Now, if she can just shake the nightmares and those few extra pounds, everything will be perfect... or so she thinks. (via Goodreads.com)

Review: 

I just want to stand on the roof and scream to the heavens about how much I LOVED this book.  Never before have I been left feeling quite as blown away, heartbroken and uplifted all at the same time. Colleen Clayton has managed to write a brilliantly and heartfelt book about one of the most terrible things that can happen to a person.
It was so easy to fall head over heels in love with the characters and they’re stories- that were so well written and really reached out and left a long term impression on me. It’s not an easy book to read, the emotions are so raw and powerful and so realistic because these things could quite easily happen to anyone. But despite that, the book is also about learning to trust again and finding love and light in the most unexpected of times. You really get sucked into the book and the impression it left on me will last for a very long time. As much as it is heartbreaking and achingly real- I cannot stress how BEAUTIFUL the book also is. For anyone who has been through difficult and traumatising situation I hope you find this book and let it be a beacon of hope.  But for anyone else, I also urge you to read it because it’s a real hidden jem. Witty, poignant and toughing, What Happens Next is a beautiful book that has left a mark on my heart and will stay with me forever.

 K x 

Monday 6 May 2013

Book Haul #2 - April 2013


I've been reeling the books in again! I've managed to gather up a mass of 18 books this month, which is pretty cool considering I turned 18 this month too.

No ARCs/Proofs this month, everything has been bought.

Sunday 14 April 2013

Review: Reached by Ally Condie


Author: Ally Condie

Publisher: Penguin

Release Date: 30- November-2012

Format: Paperback

Synopsis: After leaving Society to desperately seek The Rising, and each other, Cassia and Ky have found what they were looking for, but at the cost of losing each other yet again. Cassia is assigned undercover in Central city, Ky outside the borders, an airship pilot with Indie. Xander is a medic, with a secret. All too soon, everything shifts again. (Copied from Goodreads.com)

Rating: 4.5 stars. 

Review: I had thoroughly enjoyed Matched and Crossed so I was naturally excited for the last instalment of the book.  What I love most about this trilogy is Ally Condie’s writing, she spends a lot of time building up her characters and their development throughout the novel. By the end of the 3 books you feel as if you really know them inside and out. Although there are several big plot arcs in the book a lot of it is character focused and although this is evident in her other books, it can be slow going at times- especially if you’re looking for an “explosive” ending. Each chapter is in the point of view of Cassia, Ky and Xander, the narrations give the reader strong and powerful reactions to the situations they go through. 

As the life they once knew continues to change dramatically, Cassia, Ky and Xander have to each make decisions that will decide their future. The conclusion to the Matched trilogy does the whole series justice, it’s poetic and gives such a strong message. If you loved the first two books you should have no worries about the last one. Ally Condie’s writing allows you to get sucked into that world so that even if you’re not the biggest fan- I don’t think you’d have a problem finishing the last book.

It may not be as enthralling as some of the other YA books about but it’s poignant, powerful and the writing is beautiful. Well worth a read.
Kathleen x          

Review: Lengend by Marie Lu


Title: Legend
Author: Marie Lu
Publisher: Penguin  
Release Date: 2nd February 2012
Format: Paperback (295 pages)
Series: The Legend Trilogy 

Synopsis from Goodreads

What was once the western United States is now home to the Republic, a nation perpetually at war with its neighbors. Born into an elite family in one of the Republic’s wealthiest districts, fifteen-year-old June is a prodigy being groomed for success in the Republic’s highest military circles. Born into the slums, fifteen-year-old Day is the country’s most wanted criminal. But his motives may not be as malicious as they seem.

From very different worlds, June and Day have no reason to cross paths—until the day June’s brother, Metias, is murdered and Day becomes the prime suspect. Caught in the ultimate game of cat and mouse, Day is in a race for his family’s survival, while June seeks to avenge Metias’s death. But in a shocking turn of events, the two uncover the truth of what has really brought them together, and the sinister lengths their country will go to keep its secrets.

Cover: For once I’m actually glad they changed the covers. The original UK cover had a girl on a rooftop and everything was all golden. Then the covers were changed so that they were pretty much exactly what the US covers looked like, which is good because I actually prefer them as they are a lot more simple and make me think of the DIVERGENT covers in the context of the symbols. Also that and the fact that I hate models on covers. 

Friday 12 April 2013

Review: Light by Michael Grant


Title: Light
Author: Michael Grant
Publisher: Egmont UK 
Release Date: 28th March 2013
Format: Hardback
Series: The Gone Series #6

Synopsis from Goodreads:

It’s been more than a year since every person over the age of fifteen disappeared from the town of Perdido Beach, California. In that time, countless battles have been fought: Battles against hunger and lies and plagues and worse, battles of good against evil, and kid against kid. Allegiances have been won, lost, betrayed, and won again; ideologies have been shattered and created anew, and the kids of the FAYZ have begun to believe that their new society is the only life they’ll ever know. But now that the Darkness has found a way to be reborn, the tenuous existence they‘ve established is likely to be shattered for good. Will the kids of Perdido Beach even survive?

WARNING! - I will go on quite a bit about how much I love this series and it may be slightly spolierific. Don't say I didn't warn you!  

Tuesday 9 April 2013

Book Haul #1 - March 2013


So in the month of March I managed to obtain a collection of 24 books! Below is a list of all the books I got and how I got them.

Tuesday 2 April 2013

Haulin' in the books

So Kathleen and I have decided to a regular feature on the blog, A Book Haul, in which on the first Monday of every month (with the exception of this week) we will show you all the books we got in the month before hand. My March book haul will come later in the week.

P.S. It's massive, 20+ books!

Saturday 16 March 2013

Review: Wither by Lauren DeStefano


Title: Wither 
Author: Lauren DeStefano 
Publisher: Harper Voyager  
Release Date: 4 August 2011
Format: Paperback (320 pages)
Series: The Chemical Garden Trilogy 

Synopsis from Goodreads:

By age sixteen, Rhine Ellery has four years left to live. A botched effort to create a perfect race has left all males born with a lifespan of 25 years, and females a lifespan of 20 years--leaving the world in a state of panic. Geneticists seek a miracle antidote to restore the human race, desperate orphans crowd the population, crime and poverty have skyrocketed, and young girls are being kidnapped and sold as polygamous brides to bear more children. When Rhine is sold as a bride, she vows to do all she can to escape. Yet her husband, Linden, is hopelessly in love with her, and Rhine can't bring herself to hate him as much as she'd like to. He opens her to a magical world of wealth and illusion she never thought existed, and it almost makes it possible to ignore the clock ticking away her short life. But Rhine quickly learns that not everything in her new husband's strange world is what it seems. Her father-in-law, an eccentric doctor bent on finding the antidote, is hoarding corpses in the basement; her fellow sister wives are to be trusted one day and feared the next; and Rhine has no way to communicate to her twin brother that she is safe and alive.

Together with one of Linden's servants, Gabriel, Rhine attempts to escape just before her seventeenth birthday. But in a world that continues to spiral into anarchy, is there any hope for freedom?

Friday 15 March 2013

Review: The Declaration by Gemma Malley


Title: The Declaration 
Author: Gemma Malley
Publisher: Bloomsbury  
Release Date: 5th May 2008 
Format: Paperback (304 pages)
Series: The Declaration Trilogy 

Synopsis from Goodreads:

Anna Covey is a ‘Surplus’. She should not have been born. In a society in which ageing is no longer feared, and death is no longer an inevitability, children are an abomination.

Like all Surpluses, Anna is living in a Surplus Hall and learning how to make amends for the selfish act her parents committed in having her. She is quietly accepting of her fate until, one day, a new inmate arrives. Anna’s life is thrown into chaos. But is she brave enough to believe this mysterious boy?

A tense and utterly compelling story about a society behind a wall, and the way in which two young people seize the chance to break free.

Sunday 10 March 2013

Review: Gone by Michael Grant


Title: Gone
Author: Michael Grant
Publisher: Egmont Books Ltd. 
Release Date: 6th April 2009
Format: Hardback (559 pages)
Series: The Gone Series #1

Synopsis from Goodreads:

In the blink of an eye. Everyone disappears. GONE.
Except for the young. Teens. Middle schoolers. Toddlers. But not one single adult. No teachers, no cops, no doctors, no parents. Just as suddenly, there are no phones, no internet, no television. No way to get help. And no way to figure out what's happened.
Hunger threatens. Bullies rule. A sinister creature lurks. Animals are mutating. And the teens themselves are changing, developing new talents—unimaginable, dangerous, deadly powers—that grow stronger by the day.
It's a terrifying new world. Sides are being chosen, a fight is shaping up. Townies against rich kids. Bullies against the weak. Powerful against powerless. And time is running out: On your birthday, you disappear just like everyone else...

Sunday 3 March 2013

Coming Soon...

As you know we have literally just started this site so please be patient while we try to gather our reviews. We will post reviews in the coming weeks of books that we have already read and books that we are already reading. Occasionally if we had read the same book and had opposing views we will post two separate reviews but we will stipulate when we do so. The books that have already been read that we will be reviewing are;

  • The Noughts and Crosses Sequence by Malorie Blackman 
  • The Hush, Hush Saga by Becca Fitzpatrick 
  • The Maze Runner Trilogy by James Dashner 
  • The Matched Trilogy by Ally Condie 
  • The Hunger Games Trilogy by Suzanne Collins 
  • The Divergent Trilogy by Veronica Roth*  
  • The Chemical Garden Trilogy by Lauren DeStefano
  • The Mortal Instruments Series by Cassandra Clare*
  • The Infernal Devices Series by Cassandra Clare 
  • The Dustlands Trilogy by Moira Young* 
  • The Gone Series by Michael Grant
  • The Daughter of Smoke and Bone Series by Laini Taylor* 
  • The Caster Chronicles by Margaret Stohl and Kami Garcia*

*These series' are incomplete so the reviews will only be for the books that have been released.

Please note that even though all the books listed are part of a series we DO read standalone books and we will review these too.
 In a few weeks expect reviews of all the above books.

Thank you for your patience

 Symone x

Welcome!

Hello all and welcome to our brand new book blog! This blog will be run by me Symone and Kathleen. On this blog we will review YA books and occasionally Adult Fiction. Give us a couple of weeks to get set up while we sort out all of our reviews and you'll soon find out that you have a new favourite book review blog! Happy reading! Symone and Kathleen