Tag: young adult

RECENT READS | #6-10

27/02/2017

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Hello! This is a new feature on my blog where I’ll be briefly talking about the books I’ve read this year. I did quarterly wrap up posts last year, but I decided that I wanted to do these wrap up posts with a little more frequency. Really, I’d just like to get into the habit of saying something about every book that I read, and I don’t always have enough to say about a book to warrant a full length review.

I’ve read 11 books so far this year — if you’re wondering why this post is starting at #6, it’s because I talked about the first four books I read this year in my #DAReadathon Wrap Up post back in January, and I’ve also written a full length review of Heartless by Marissa Meyer. I’ve had a great reading year so far, I honestly don’t know that I’ve ever read over ten books before the end of February before. Plus, I’ve given every book I’ve read a pretty good rating, so let’s get into it!

Covers = Goodreads.

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BOOK REVIEW | Heartless by Marissa Meyer

09/02/2017

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Read: January 2017

UK Release: 9th February 2017

Rating: ★★★☆☆

Genre: Young Adult, Fantasy, Retelling.

Synopsis: Long before she was the terror of Wonderland, she was just a girl who wanted to fall in love. Catherine may be one of the most desired girls in Wonderland, and a favorite of the unmarried King of Hearts, but her interests lie elsewhere. A talented baker, all she wants is to open a shop with her best friend. But according to her mother, such a goal is unthinkable for the young woman who could be the next queen.

Then Cath meets Jest, the handsome and mysterious court joker. For the first time, she feels the pull of true attraction. At the risk of offending the king and infuriating her parents, she and Jest enter into an intense, secret courtship. Cath is determined to define her own destiny and fall in love on her terms. But in a land thriving with magic, madness, and monsters, fate has other plans. Goodreads.

I was provided with a copy of this book by Pan Macmillan Children’s Books UK via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. 

I’d been anticipating the release of this book for quite some time, as I’m already a fan of Marissa Meyer’s Lunar Chronicles. I really enjoy how she interprets and adapts popular fairy tales in that series, so I was excited to see her take on Carroll’s Wonderland. This, and the fact that I really enjoyed her last foray into a villain backstory—Fairest—meant that I was intrigued to see how she’d go about the villain origin story for the notorious Queen of Hearts. Overall, I did enjoy this book, but I found it lacking on certain points, so I gave it 3 stars. This review is spoiler free, for the most part. Really the only “spoilers” are things you already know are going to happen if you’ve ever seen or read Alice in Wonderland.

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#DAReadathon Wrap Up

20/01/2017

 

 

 

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It’s time for my (belated, as always) wrap up for the #DAReadathon! I managed to read a total of four books for this readathon, and so completed four of the challenges. I did get partway through my fifth, but ended up losing steam. Despite not hitting my seven book target, I’m not in the least disappointed. I really enjoyed all of the books that I read, so without further ado, let’s get into the books!

As always, the covers will take you to the Goodreads pages.

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BEST BOOKS OF 2016

03/01/2017

bestbooks2016

Hello! I’ve been somewhat absent. Again. I’m trying very hard not to make this a habit, though I’ve really no excuse for my lack of posts. Obviously Christmas happened, and I work in retail, so I’ll let you imagine exactly how fun that was. I’d hoped to get this post up on Monday, but then New Year’s Eve happened and I was, perhaps, a touch hungover on New Year’s Day. Mostly, however, I was very full of cold, so my plans for a productive New Year’s unraveled very quickly. I promise I’ll be better at this (it is, actually, one of my goals for this year).

Anyway, it’s time to talk about my favourite books that I read in 2016! Much like my 2015 favourites, there’s not one single reason all of these books are on the list. Frankly, some of them are poles apart in terms of content and tone. This list basically consists of all the books I gave five stars this year, and some I gave four stars to (I’m remarkably stingy about five star ratings, for some reason). These books aren’t in any particular order, and there’s roughly ten books overall. This is very likely going to be a lengthy post, so I’ll get right into it!

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Dumbledore’s Army Readathon TBR

15/12/2016

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The Dumbledore’s Army readathon is being hosted by Aentee @ Read at Midnight. This readathon aims to encourage people to read more diverse books. The readathon will take place between 1st-15th January, and you can join in by using the hashtag #DAReadathon on Twitter and Instagram. You can find out more information over at the original sign up post.

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I’ve decided to give another readathon a go! I participated in Lauren @ Wonderless Reviews’ Halloween readathon, which was my first ever readathon, and loved the whole experience. So when I saw this readathon I knew I had to give it a shot.I have absolutely no idea how many of these books I’m going to get to. Reading 7 books in 2 weeks is quite the undertaking no matter how you look at it, but it’s also my birthday on January 9th, so we’ll see how that goes!

One of my reading goals for next year is to read more diversely so I’m really looking forward to getting involved in this readathon and making my way through at least some of these books.

All the banners were made by Aentee @ Read at Midnight. The covers will take you to Goodreads.

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Top Ten Most Anticipated 2017 Releases

13/12/2016

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Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by The Broke and The Bookish, and this week’s theme is top ten books I’m looking forward to in the first half of 2017. I’ve gone by the UK dates for these, and I’ve tried to get the dates down as accurately as possible (if there are books without a date, it’s because Goodreads and Amazon were giving me completely different ones).

As always, the covers will take you to each book’s respective Goodreads pages.

STRANGE THE DREAMER BY LAINI TAYLOR

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Expected UK publication: 28th March 2017.

I’m a huge fan of Laini Taylor’s Daughter of Smoke and Bone trilogy, so I’ve been excited for this book ever since it was first announced. I’m not even too sure what this new series is entirely about, but really I’d like to keep it that way. I think Laini Taylor’s writing is beautiful, and so absorbing. The world she created in her trilogy was so rich and imaginative that I have such high hopes for this book. In a way, I’m kind of glad that the publication was pushed back because it means that I can actually make time to read this book!

A CONJURING OF LIGHT BY V.E. SCHWAB

31671570Expected UK Publication: 21st February 2017

I read both A Darker Shade of Magic and A Gathering of Shadows this year and really, really enjoyed them. I’m so excited (and nervous!) to see how this series is going to finish and where the characters will end up!

 

 

 

RELEASE BY PATRICK NESS


Expected UK publication: 4th May 2017

I’m automatically on board for anything Patrick Ness writes. His Chaos Walking trilogy ranks among my favourite series of all time, and More Than This is also one of my favourite books. Release sounds like it’s sure to be another favourite of mine as its partially inspired by Mrs Dalloway. It follows one character, Adam Thorn, during one day of his life. I’m really, really excited for this one—and I’m also excited to see what the cover will look like because I’m…shallow…

THE LOVE INTEREST BY CALE DIETRICH

31145148Expected UK publication: 16th May 2017

This book just sounds so cool. Not only is about a secret organisation of teenage spies, it seems to lightly poke fun at the common YA trope of the love triangle by making it a literal life or death situation. To top it all off, one of the boys starts to fall in love with the other, and honestly, I’m 100% here for LGBT romances.

 

 

CARAVAL BY STEPHANIE GARBER

30964236Expected UK publication: 31st January 2017

I feel like I’ve been seeing this book absolutely everywhere, and all the hype has definitely got me interested. I’ve seen it compared to The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern, which I read last year and really enjoyed. It definitely sounds like a lot of fun, so I’m really interested in picking it up.

 

 

A COURT OF WINGS AND RUIN BY SARAH J. MAAS

23766634Expected UK publication: 2nd May 2017

Okay, so while I didn’t enjoy A Court of Mist and Fury as much as most people, the ending successfully sold me on picking up the next book in the series. I’m really looking forward to this new plot direction, and I definitely prefer this series over the Throne of Glass series, which I’ve indefinitely put aside. I find the world in this series to be wonderfully described, and I’m kind of invested in Feyre and Rhys’ relationship.

 

THE INEXPLICABLE LOGIC OF MY LIFE BY BENJAMIN ALIRE SAENZ

23447923Expected UK publication: April 2017

Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe is one of my favourite books, but for some reason I’ve never read anything else by him. Seeing that this book was being released has thankfully reminded me that I need to check out his other work!

 

 

GILDED CAGE BY VIC JAMES

26168646Expected UK publication: 26th January 2017

This is another book that just sounds really, really cool. It’s the first book in a fantasy series set in modern Britain, wherein the country is run by magically gifted aristocrats, and those below them must serve them for ten years. It sounds like an interesting mix between a fantasy novel and a dystopian novel, so I’m really intrigued by this one!

 

 

SAGA, VOL. 7 BY BRAIN K. VAUGHAN AND FIONA STAPLES. 

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Expected UK publication: April 2017

Honestly, there’s not much I can say about this. Saga is my favourite comic book series, and I start anticipating the next volume as soon as I start reading the one that came before it. I love the characters, and the plot always surprises me. I know that I could read these as single issues, but that doesn’t really work for me, and there’s something to be enjoyed about waiting for each release!

 

 

THE HATE U GIVE BY ANGIE THOMAS

32075671Expected UK publication: April 2017

This is a YA contemporary book inspired by the Black Lives Matter movement, focusing on the protagonist, Starr after she witnesses her unarmed friend, Khalil, get shot and killed by a police officer. I feel like this is going to be an important, powerful book, and I’ll definitely be picking it up as soon as it comes out.

 

 

So those are my most anticipated books! I’m probably missing quite a few, but honestly I tend to be quite bad at keeping up with new releases, so more often than not I end up being surprised when I see a book is out.

I’d love to know if any of these books also made your list! 🙂

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BOOK REVIEW | A Court of Mist and Fury — Sarah J. Maas

01/07/2016

17927395Read: June 2016

Genre: Young Adult Fantasy/New Adult Fantasy, Romance

Rating: ★★★☆☆

Synopsis:

 Feyre survived Amarantha’s clutches to return to the Spring Court—but at a steep cost. Though she now has the powers of the High Fae, her heart remains human, and it can’t forget the terrible deeds she performed to save Tamlin’s people.

Nor has Feyre forgotten her bargain with Rhysand, High Lord of the feared Night Court. As Feyre navigates its dark web of politics, passion, and dazzling power, a greater evil looms—and she might be key to stopping it. But only if she can harness her harrowing gifts, heal her fractured soul, and decide how she wishes to shape her future—and the future of a world cleaved in two.

After I read A Court of Thorns and Roses last year, I couldn’t wait for this book to come out. At the time, I was really enamoured by Sarah J. Maas’ writing, and was totally blown away by how much it had improved even from Heir of Fire. While I loved ACOTAR to begin with, I began to have some issues with it later on, particularly regarding certain interactions between Feyre and Tamlin, but I was still eagerly anticipating the sequel. After Queen of Shadows, however, I began to get worried. I really didn’t enjoy it, and thought there was a massive dip in both the writing style and the way Maas was handling her plots. I started to worry that perhaps A Court of Mist and Fury wasn’t going to live up to my expectations. Indeed, rather than reassuring me, the inundation of glowing reviews actually made me even more worried, because I’d seen the same thing happen with Queen of Shadows. When people who hated the first book said that they loved this one, it got my hopes up, and I got excited about reading it again.

I’m saying this because I’m really sitting on the fence with this book. There were parts I really liked, and parts I really didn’t. Really, I think it comes down to the fact that I’ve found that there are just things I don’t like about Maas’ writing more generally.  Because of that I know that I run the risk of sounding a little unfair in this review, and honestly, some of the things I didn’t like about this book are probably entirely petty on my part. But an honest review’s an honest review. I can completely see why people love this book, and there were a lot of things that I really liked about it. It’s just that unfortunately, the things I didn’t like distracted me from them. I’m going to start with the negatives, so we can end this review positively. There might be vague spoilers. I’ll try to flag them as necessary, but it’s worth bearing this in mind if you’ve yet to read the book and don’t want to be spoiled.

Continue reading “BOOK REVIEW | A Court of Mist and Fury — Sarah J. Maas”

BOOK REVIEW | The Winner’s Kiss — Marie Rutkoski

01/06/2016

28587801Read: May 2016

Genre: YA, Fantasy, Romance

Rating: ★★★★★

Synopsis:

Following the intrigue and danger of The Winner’s Curse and the revolution and romance of The Winner’s Crime, Kestrel finds herself in the tundra’s mines and Arin has sailed home. The empire seems unstoppable.

Lies will come undone, and Kestrel and Arin will learn just how much their crimes will cost them in this third and final installment in the heart-stopping Winner’s trilogy.

This book was easily one of my most anticipated books of the year. I read The Winner’s Curse and enjoyed it for what it was: a YA fantasy that was fairly heavy on the romance, light on the action. The series completely changed for me with The Winner’s Crime, which kept me up until the small hours with its constant twists. I had no idea where this series was headed, so I was actually incredibly nervous about picking it up.

Really, I was right to be nervous; this book was incredibly tense, and almost relentless in its pace. It wasted no time in preamble, picking up almost exactly where the last book left off.  It was incredibly hard to find a lull in the action during which I could actually out the book down. There are two kinds of tension in the book: that of the war, and that between Kestrel and Arin. For me, the balance between the two was struck almost perfectly. I enjoyed that the book was heavy on strategy, though the action was handled brilliantly too. Fighting wars is a lot more than a bloody skirmish, and I loved seeing these characters planning how they were going to outmaneuver the Valorian army. Nothing and nobody felt safe in this book either; life-threatening situations for these characters actually felt life-threatening. At no point did I feel that I could comfort myself in thinking that someone was going to be okay because they were a main character.

Ultimately, however, I think your enjoyment of the book—and the series more generally—comes down to how much you enjoy Kestrel and Arin’s relationship. Theirs is probably one of the only relationships that I’ve actively cared about in a long time. Usually I don’t really care who ends up with who at the end of the series, but I really, really cared about Kestrel and Arin. Because of that, it should be no surprise that I really enjoyed this aspect of the book. Given everything that’s happened to these two, it was nice to see them finally being honest with each other, and it’s refreshing to see a couple actually go through trials together, and to see their relationship develop and change over the course of the series. Not only are Kestrel and Arin more honest with each other, they’re more honest within themselves too. I liked that their character development came more in the form of making themselves more vulnerable, often I think we see “character development” as someone making themselves “stronger” in an almost entirely physical sense. I liked that this series moves away from that, and shows that there’s a kind of strength in vulnerability, too.

However, there were characters I expected to see more of, such as the Dacran Queen, Prince Verex, and Risha, but I think the book benefitted from the focus on Kestrel and Arin. It’s possible that shifting the focus too much would have killed some of the tension, and weakened the book overall.  I was surprised by how present Roshar was in the book, though  I’m not in the least bit surprised that I loved him, he’s exactly my kind of character. I’m incredibly glad that he featured so heavily, and I loved his friendship with Arin, and his tentative friendship with Kestrel. While Roshar figures as comedic relief at times, he is a very well-written and developed character. Really, most of the secondary characters in this series are pretty well-developed.

Overall, I was very pleased with this ending.  The actual ending itself was very open, which is actually something I prefer. Often I think when an author attempts to perfectly tie up every loose end, or provide a satisfying ending for every character, it can come across as messy, so I liked that this didn’t have a definitive conclusion. If anything, it felt more like a new beginning, as cliché as that sounds. Realistically, dealing with the aftermath of a war is an entirely different story, and would probably need an entire series dedicated to it in and of itself, so I’m glad that this book ended as it did, instead of rushing to a “neat” conclusion.

The rest of this post will contain spoilers! So tread carefully if you’re planning to read this any time soon.

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BOOK REVIEW | Half Lost — Sally Green

17/05/2016

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READ: April 2016

FORMAT: Paperback

RATING: ★★☆☆☆

I’ve never felt more conflicted about a book than I have about Half Lost. I was wary about starting this series because of all the hype it was getting, but when I was finally convinced to read it, I was pleasantly surprised. Green took risks with her writing, and the world felt harsh and unfair, and Nathan was such a compelling character. I loved that Witch was a gender neutral term, it was such a small but clever decision to make. This, combined with the fact that it was White witches that were “bad” and Black witches that were “good” (while they aren’t racial codifiers in the novel, it would be a little silly not to suggest that we don’t see white/black as such, generally) it gave me a really good feeling about the series. It felt different from other young adult novels, and after finishing Half Bad, I was very excited to read its sequel, Half Wild.

Half Wild blew me away. I was one of my favourite books of last year. I thought that the series made incredible progress, and it took turns that I genuinely wasn’t expecting. One of the things I was most surprised by was the introduction of Gabriel as a love interest for Nathan. I was so, so pleased that there was a potential for an actual same-sex relationship in a young adult series that featured the main character. I’d barely come across it before, and only ever when I’d really been looking for it. After I’d finished reading, I was incredibly impressed, and I felt bittersweet about the series ending, because I wasn’t ready to let this world go.

Which is why I’m so conflicted, prior to the final book, I genuinely loved this series, and while I was really dissatisfied with the ending, I’m not sure that I want to warn people off it entirely.

I was initially a little concerned when I picked up Half Lost at a bookshop and noticed that it was considerably shorter than its previous instalments. I began worrying about how the series would be able to successfully conclude in what seemed to be so few pages.

These worries pretty much disappeared when I actually started reading. It was action-packed, and compelling as ever. Nathan’s morality is so complicated, and it was really interesting exploring this. I loved his relationship with Gabriel, and how Gabriel influenced him and made him want to try to be better, to be considerate, and not give in to his violent impulses. Nathan and Gabriel remain the strongest points of this series for me, the scenes between them were my favourites in the book.

I enjoyed probably the first 90% of this book. I had issues with a few things—Hunters in this world are mostly women, so this involved Nathan killing a lot of women (which made me uneasy, but moreso when a situation arose in which he could have killed male guards, and didn’t). Also, to say that Analise was barely in the book, Nathan thought about her all the time—more precisely, he thought about how he was going to get his revenge, and kill her, all the time.

Ultimately, this didn’t work for me because Green was writing a war story that didn’t feel like a war story. The White Witches never felt like enough of a threat, so while these characters were going through hell, it never felt like they were, which made the ending (I’ll get into this) feel like it was done for shock value, and little else. Really, it came down to people talking about war and how hard and unfair it is, without it ever really feeling that way. In regard to the ending, the trouble is, I can’t specify what made me so mad, and so disappointed without spoiling the ending. It engages with a really awful trope, and still, I can’t even tell you what that trope is without spoiling the ending (this is an issue! The name of this trope indicates exactly which character it effects). However, I do want to talk about it so the rest of this review will contain spoilers. If you’re interested in the series and don’t want to be spoiled, then skip this next part.

If you want the no-spoiler reason for my disappointment, it really comes down to the fact that the message at the end of this series seems to be that if you’re broken, you can’t be fixed, and if you’re different, you can’t be happy.

Continue reading “BOOK REVIEW | Half Lost — Sally Green”