Review: Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater

Synopsis:
Grace is fascinated by the wolves in the woods behind her house; one yellow-eyed wolf in particular. Every winter, she watches him but every summer, he disappears. Sam leads two lives. In winter, he stays in the frozen woods, with the protection of the pack. In summer, he has a few precious months to be human ...until the cold makes him shift back again. When Grace and Sam finally meet, they realize they can't bear to be apart. But as winter nears, Sam must fight to stay human - or risk losing himself, and Grace, for ever.





Review:
Oh My Gosh, I am afraid I am going to gush again. This book was just so AWESOME. I have read a few books since finishing this one and I can still remember it and how it made me feel. AWESOME!
OK, now to try to explain succinctly why I loved this book so much.

Firstly it is written in first person narrative with alternating perspectives of the male and female protagonists. Allowing the reader  to see both viewpoints working together seamlessly. The characters draw you in from the very first page. The only person I really did not like was Olivia and even that was resolved at the end of the book.

The writing is both touching and humorous. My heart ached for Sam, I just wanted to keep him warm. As his character develops you really get a sense of how he became the person he is. Dealing with a myriad of awful events from a really young age, and over analyzing his every move. Just thinking about the story still sets my heart aching.

The descriptions of the seasons was beautiful and the way in which people look can be compared to seasons was ingenious. I think I would be an autumn as I have red hair (although it is not my natural colour) but with greeny/blue eyes.

What season would you be and why?


All  the characters are well developed, lots of background information is given throughout the story so you are not left pondering the intricacies of the plot. You can just lose yourself completely in the imagery and details.

I hope I have made a clear point as to why I love this book and am keeping it on my bookshelf. A most highly recommended paranormal romance. I can't wait for the sequel Linger.
Just to give you added excitement it is going to be made into a movie.

Review: Beautiful Creatures by Kami Garcia & Magaret Stohl

Synopsis from Amazon:
In Ethan Wate's hometown there lies the darkest of secrets ...There is a girl. Slowly, she pulled the hood from her head. Green eyes, black hair. Lena Duchannes. There is a curse. On the Sixteenth Moon, the Sixteenth Year, the Book will take what it's been promised. And no one can stop it. In the end, there is a grave. Lena and Ethan become bound together by a deep, powerful love. But Lena is cursed and on her sixteenth birthday, her fate will be decided. Ethan never even saw it coming.






Review:
Firstly, I have to say I had a slight giggle to myself about the green eyes and black hair (I should really start a list to see how many paranormal protagonists we can find with green eyes and/or black hair).

The first person narrative is written from the perspective of the male protagonist (Ethan) something I did find hard to relate to being a girl and having three girls myself (J has to get in touch with his feminine side in our house or shut the door to watch sport).

There is dramatic tension almost from the first page. The background descriptions of the characters and the setting were fantastic and really fed my technicolor imagination.

The use of the Gothic convention of nesting (a story within a story) was deployed with great efficiency adding significance to the main plot.

There is clever use of the history of the civil war intertwining the story, although I can appreciate the detail and depth it added to the story it is probably easier to relate to if you are American and studied the Civil War. The references to To Kill a Mockingbird were intriguing and have certainly inspired me to read it.
I found  the description of Ethan's aunts an ingenious parallel to the mythical fates or even the witches in Macbeth.

The references to religion and voodoo were extraordinary and well written, the cross-over element between religions was enlightening. Although, I found the classification of all paranormal/supernatural beings as Casters was too much of a generalisation for me, I appreciate that all things contain good and bad elements, the yin and yang if you will, but I like my neat little categories Vampire, Witch, Shifter, etc but that is just a personal preference.

The Gothic imagery was fantastic, I especially liked the description of the libraries (I wonder why!). The use of Latin and Welsh (yeah! WELSH) was just fantastic (not that I am biased because I am Welsh).
The action is tightly packed towards the end of the book and the ending is a cliff-hanger.

However, there were some elements that bothered me, I found the relationship between Ethan and Lena to be very intense considering their ages (15 & 16) perhaps it is just he mother coming out in me as I do not think I would be very happy if one of my daughters was in such an intense relationship at that age. I guess the point is that soul mates/reincarnation has no age limits. I also found Amma's changing attitude to Lena to be a bit confusing.

On the whole an enjoyable paranormal romance/thriller with some terrific quotes.
This one made me laugh and I can picture any 6 year old doing it:

like I was 6 years old and had eaten all the dry jello mix out of the pantry

This one makes you think:

Darkness, real darkness, was something more than just a lack of light.

Lastly and more personal, this is how I feel about my mothers funeral where I had no say in how or where she was buried:

I still can't think about her being there. It doesn't make sense. Why would you stick someone you love down in a lonely old hole in the dirt? Where its cold, and dirty, and full of bugs. That cant be how it ends, after everything, after everything she was.

Review: Betrayals by Lili St Crow

Synopsis:
The second novel in the Strange Angels series picks up with Dru neatly tucked away in a Schola that's more like a prison than a secret training facility. Except for one tiny detail ...she's the only girl in the place and is totally surrounded by tons of cute boys. But a traitor in the Order wants Dru dead and she can't trust anyone except for Graves. Too bad he's being kept busy with a new crew of wulfen teens and doesn't have time for her. As she learns the truth about who she can and can't trust, Dru's only hope may be to save herself - although the one gift that makes her special is draining away, and she doesn't know how to get it back. Will Dru survive long enough to find out who is really after her? Or is she destined for the same fate as her murdered parents?



Review:
I really, really wanted some answers in the second installment of Strange Angels (review HERE) , did I get them, disappointingly NO!

There is a lot of repetition throughout this book, it rehashes the events of the first book quite a bit, making it really unnecessary to read the first book, (in my opinion) it is quite easy to pick up the threads of the plot and storyline with the constant references back to previous occurrences.

The only character  that seemed to develop within this book was that of Graves, I felt he really matured as a character without losing his depth. I found Chris to have had a complete personality change, which was disconcerting, confusing and sometimes creepy (or am I missing the point and that is how he is supposed to be portrayed) and I really did not understand the need for the Russian quotes. Nothing is referred to within the book as to why Chris has started to speak in Russian.

Again there is a lot of action scenes, but I did feel this was just dragging the story out rather than building the tension in the plot.

I  do think that the basic storyline is excellent I just wish more of the plot was revealed rather than the repetition. On the whole I was left irritated that the second installment of Strange Angels has left me with more questions and not answered any from the previous book. I know I am going to have to keep reading the series just to get my answers but I cant honestly say that I am excited about it.

Sorry and it is only my opinion, like I said I think the basic storyline is terrific.

Review: Wings by Aprilynne Pike

Synopsis:
An extraordinary faerie tale of magic and mystery, romance and danger, described by Stephenie Meyer as 'a remarkable debut'. Laurel is an ordinary fifteen-year-old high school girl. But something incredible is happening to her. She is changing. Now Laurel is about to discover that a deep and powerful magic holds the key to her destiny.
In  this enchanting tale of magic, romance and danger, everything you thought you knew  about faeries will be changed forever.







Review:
Beautifully written debut novel.
Aimed at tweens rather than YA but it still contains some adult sexual themes.
An unusual and creative  take on a faerie story. Lovely nature imagery which worked wonders with my technicolour imagination.
Clever use of science to reinforce the plot - it might even encourage tweens to study science ;)
Ingenious linking of Shakespearean characters with mythological characters added an extra dimension to the storyline.
A heart wrenching ending that lingers in your imagination long after closing the book. A truly enchanting story.

Big Big Big Competition

In Maggie Stiefvater's Shiver, Grace and Sam found each other.  Now, in Linger, they must fight to be together. For Grace, this means defying her parents and keeping a very dangerous secret about her own well-being. For Sam, this means grappling with his werewolf past . . . and figuring out a way to survive into the future. Add into the mix a new wolf named Cole, whose own past has the potential to destroy the whole pack.  And Isabelle, who already lost her brother to the wolves . . . and is nonetheless drawn to Cole.

At turns harrowing and euphoric, Linger is a spellbinding love story that explores both sides of love -- the light and the dark, the warm and the cold -- in a way you will never forget.

Comes out in stores everywhere July 20th. Pre-order here.

Enter to win an advanced review copies of LINGER, Sisters Red, The Dead-Tossed Waves, and The Replacement on Maggie's blog.

Review: My Love Lies Bleeding by Alyxandra Harvey

Synopsis from Amazon:
The Blake's are rather different to your usual neighbours. They are vampires and some of the members of the family date back to the twelfth century. One of the children, Solange, is the only born female vampire known and, as such, she poses a direct threat to the vampire queen. Her best friend Lucy is human, and when Solange is kidnapped Lucy and Solange's brother, Nicholas, set out to save her. Lucy soon discovers that she would like to be more than just friends with Nicholas. But how does one go about dating a vampire? Meanwhile, Solange finds an unlikely ally in Kieran, a vampire slayer on the hunt for his father's killer.





Review:
A lively, entertaining read written from the perspective of the female protagonists. The storyline is well written with lots of interesting background information given adding depth and dimension to the story.

The story kept giving me flashes of Romeo & Juliet with the whole star crossed lovers theme.

The characters were well developed, I particularly liked Lucy and related to her well, she even has one of the best quotes I have read:

bravado was a karmic debt I had to work through....basically saying I'd been mouthy and obnoxious for several lifetimes now.

I really could not put this book down and read it in one day, it had everything action, romance, intrigue, double-cross and plot twists.

A highly recommended read for those who like paranormal romance (the male protagonists are hot, hot, hot). I cant wait for the next installment of the Drake Chronicles.

Review: Wondrous Strange by Lesley Livingston

Synopsis from Amazon:

Since the dawn of time, the Faerie have taken.....

For 17 year old actress Kelley Winslow, faeries are just something from childhood stories. Then she meets Sonny Flannery, whose steel grey eyes mask an equally steely determination to protect her.

Sonny guards the Samhain Gate, which connects the mortal realm with the Faerie's enchanted, dangerous Otherworld. Usually kept shut by order of icy King Auberon, the gate stands open but once a year.

This year, as the time approaches when the Samhain Gate will swing wide and nightmarish Fae will fight their way into an unsuspecting human world, something different is happening...something wondrous and strange. And Kelley's eyes a re opening not just to the Faerie that surround her but to the heritage that awaits her.

Now Kelley must navigate deadly Faerie treachery - and her growing feelings for Sonny - in this dazzling page-turner filled with luminous romance.

Wondrous Strange is a richly layered tale of love between faerie and mortal, betrayal between kings and queens, and magic...between author and reader.

Review:

Wow, after a synopsis like that how can anyone resist reading it.

I really enjoyed this story and can pretty much sum it up in one sentence (although I will embellish) this story provides a fantasy world to lose yourself in.

It is very similar to Wicked Lovely by Melissa Marr in respect of the build up of the Faerie courts however, Wondrous Strange concentrates more on the interaction of the courts with the seasons than Wicked Lovely and there is not as much interaction between the mortal realm and the Faery realm. There is also a parallel with the element of the Wild Hunt in both stories.

The characters are well balanced and their interactions believable. The story is beautifully written with enchanting & ethereal imagery. Shakespeare quotes and references abound, reinforcing the storyline, adding depth and dimension to the plot. Adding to my education via osmosis again! The plot twists are built up slowly and are believable, although I would not say the twists were predictable neither were they completely unexpected.

Although this book is part of a series it can be read as a stand alone story.

In conclusion, an entertaining story, an escape from reality, a fantasy world to lose yourself in. Enjoy.