Friday, 6 April 2012

Book Review (71).

Blood Red Road (Dust Lands #1)

by Moira Young

Publication: 7th June 2011

Publisher: Scholastic Australia

Pages: 492

Genre: Dystopian

Age Appropriate: Young Adult

In a lawless future land, where life is cheap and survival is hard, Saba has been brought up in isolated Silverlake. She never sees the dangers of the destructive society outside. When her twin brother is snatched by mysterious black-robed riders, she sets outon an epic quest to rescue him. The story's searing pace, its spare style, the excitement of its fabulously damaged world, its unforgettably vivid characters, its violent action and glorious lovestory make this a truly sensational YA debut novel.

My Thoughts.

I absolutely loved this book, when I first started reading it I didn't think that I would because of the writing and the misspelling but once you understand that it's because of the way the characters talk you sort of get into it a bit more and after the first chapter or so I barely noticed it.

Saba and her twin brother Lugh live with their father and younger sister Emmi in the middle of dusty wastelands with no one around for miles, they are suffering through a drought and their father who hasn't been the same since his wife died giving birth to Emmi spends his days performing rain dances which don't come into fruition.

One day five men on horseback arrive looking for Lugh and kidnap him, in the struggle to save him their father is killed and Saba sets off with her sister in tow to find and save Lugh.

Along the way they come across a couple who drug them and hold them hostage so that they can use Saba as an entrant into cage fighting where they get to keep the money that she wins.

While Saba is entered in the cage fighting she is kept in a cell and let out for exercise in a yard each day, next door is the boys yard and it's there that she meets Jack a male cage fighter and straight away I knew I was going to love him his flirting was just funny and the chemistry was great.

With help from a fellow fighter a Free Hawk a band of female warriors they escape and Jack joins up with them and after Saba is reunited with her sister they set off again to find Lugh with the aid of Jack and some of the Free Hawks.

My highlight of this book is the banter between Saba and Jack, I loved them together and was highly anticipating the time that they both realised they were in love with each other and admitted it to one another, I was really intrigued with Jack I have a feeling that there's more to his character than meets the eye and I can't wait to find out what that is.

I'm interested to know where the next book will take us and I hope we get to know Lugh more and hopefully there'll be a whole lot more of Saba and Jack who have become one of my favourite couples.

This is a fantastic debut novel the dialogue is different and sets it apart from all the other dystopian books around and it's one I didn't want to put down so fascinated was I by the world brought to life in this story.

Loved it, loved it, loved it now bring on the next book.

I give this 5/5.

A Big Thanks To Jodie @ Scholastic Australia.

Thursday, 5 April 2012

Cover Reveal.

Alice in Zombieland (White Rabbit Chronicles #1)

by Gena Showalter

A new series featuring a teenage girl who loses her family in a crash, only to wake up to a world of zombies and zombie slaying, as well as a bad boy who could save or destroy her.

Expected publication: September 25th 2012 by Harlequin Teen

To say I'm excited for this book is an understatement, I love Gena's books and have had this on my wishlist since it first appeared on Goodreads.

I will definitely be buying this.

Feature And Follow Friday (22).

Q: Have you ever bought a book BECAUSE of a bad review?

I've never brought a book because of a bad review, I have however brought books that have bad review's because I really wanted to read them anyway.

Tuesday, 3 April 2012

Waiting On Wednesday.

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly event hosted by Breaking The Spine where you can spotlight an upcoming release that you're eagerly anticipating.

This week I'm waiting on....

Iced: A Dani O'Malley Novel (Fever World #1)

by Karen Marie Moning

30th October 2012 Delacorte Press

"I'm currently working on a trilogy that features Dani, Christian MacKeltar, Ryodan, and the mysterious 'Dancer,' set primarily in Fever-Dublin. Each installment in the trilogy is a stand-alone mystery, however there are larger plot arcs unfolding in the background...

..For those of you who have been worrying—the trilogy is not YA. If I had to categorize it, I would say it straddles the line between YA and adult uneasily. ...Many of the questions I left unanswered in the FEVER series are addressed in this new series.

Exciting news: I’ve agreed to write two more books after that. Once the new trilogy is complete, I’m returning to the core story begun in the FEVER series, and will resume writing about Mac, Barrons, V’lane, Cruce, the Unseelie king, the concubine, the Song of Making.

All in all, there are five more books coming about the Fever World!"
Karen Marie Moning

Ironskin (Ironskin #1)

by Tina Connolly

2nd October 2012 Tor Books

Jane Eliot wears an iron mask.

It’s the only way to contain the fey curse that scars her cheek. The Great War is five years gone, but its scattered victims remain—the ironskin.

Now Jane returns to the war-torn country to help a fey-cursed child. Helping the unruly Dorie suppress her curse is hard enough—she certainly didn’t expect to fall for the girl’s father, the enigmatic artist Mr. Rochart. But her blossoming crush is stifled by her own scars, and by his parade of women. Ugly women, who enter his closed studio—and come out as beautiful as the fey.

Jane knows he cannot love her, just as she knows that she must wear iron for the rest of her life. But what if neither of these things are true? Step by step Jane must unlock the secrets of her new life—and discover just how far she will go to become whole again.

Poison Princess (The Arcana Chronicles #1)

by Kresley Cole

2nd October 2012 Simon And Schuster Books

Poison Princess centers on 16-year-old Evangeline "Evie" Greene, a privileged teenager from Louisiana. When an apocalyptic event decimates her hometown, killing everyone she loves, Evie realizes the hallucinations she'd been having for the past year were actually visions of the future — and they're still happening. Fighting for her life and desperate for answers, she must turn to her wrong-side-of-the-bayou classmate: Jack Deveaux. As Jack and Evie race to find the source of her visions, they meet others who have gotten the same call. An ancient prophecy is being played out, and Evie is not the only one with special powers. A group of teens have been chosen to re-enact the ultimate battle between good and evil. But it's not always clear who is on which side…

Dark Star

by Bethany Frenette

23rd October 2012 Hyperion

Audrey Whitticomb has nothing to fear. Her mother is the superhero Morning Star, the most deadly crime-fighter in the Twin Cities, so it’s hard for Audrey not to feel safe. That is, until she’s lured into the sweet night air by something human and not human—something with talons and teeth, and a wide, scarlet smile.

Now Audrey knows the truth: her mom doesn’t fight crime at night. She fights Harrowers—livid, merciless beings who were trapped Beneath eons ago. Yet some have managed to escape. And they want Audrey dead, just because of who she is: one of the Kin.

To survive, Audrey will need to sharpen the powers she has always had. When she gets close to someone, dark corners of the person’s memories become her own, and she sometimes even glimpses the future. If Audrey could only get close to Patrick Tigue, a powerful Harrower masquerading as human, she could use her Knowing to discover the Harrowers’ next move. But Leon, her mother’s bossy, infuriatingly attractive sidekick, has other ideas. Lately, he won’t let Audrey out of his sight.

When an unthinkable betrayal puts Minneapolis in terrible danger, Audrey discovers a wild, untamed power within herself. It may be the key to saving her herself, her family, and her city. Or it may be the force that destroys everything—and everyone—she loves.

Book Review (70).

Fever (The Chemical Garden #2)

by Lauren DeStefano

Publication: 21st February 2012

Publisher: Simon And Schuster

Pages: 341

Genre: Dystopian

Age Appropriate: Young Adult

**Warning Contain's Spoilers From The Previous Book**

Rhine and Gabriel have escaped the mansion, but danger is never far behind.

Running away brings Rhine and Gabriel right into a trap, in the form of a twisted carnival whose ringmistress keeps watch over a menagerie of girls. Just as Rhine uncovers what plans await her, her fortune turns again. With Gabriel at her side, Rhine travels through an environment as grim as the one she left a year ago - surroundings that mirror her own feelings of fear and hopelessness.

The two are determined to get to Manhattan, to relative safety with Rhine’s twin brother, Rowan. But the road there is long and perilous - and in a world where young women only live to age twenty and young men die at twenty-five, time is precious. Worse still, they can’t seem to elude Rhine’s father-in-law, Vaughn, who is determined to bring Rhine back to the mansion...by any means necessary.

In the sequel to Lauren DeStefano’s harrowing Wither, Rhine must decide if freedom is worth the price - now that she has more to lose than ever.

My Thoughts.

I loved the first book in this series Wither and was excited to start this book as soon as I'd finished the first one, unfortunately although I really liked this book I felt it was lacking something that I can't quite put my finger on.

The book takes up straight after the ending from the first book and Rhine and Gabriel are on the run, and straight away run into some bad luck in the shape of a carnival (a cover for a brothel type establishment) and it's owner , Gabriel spends his whole time there drugged while Rhine is enlisted by the owner to entice the gentlemen in.

It's not long before the awful owner figures out that she can make a lot of money by selling Rhine off to the Gatherers, but Vaughn finds her there and after a close call she and Gabriel escape again.

They eventually make it back to Rhine's home to find it destroyed and Rowan nowhere to be found, Gabriel has become addicted to the drugs he was given at the carnival and they have taken charge of a mute and deformed girl Maddie a daughter of one of the prostitutes from the carnival who while trying to escape got captured.

Rhine starts to get really sick and starts displaying the same symptoms that afflicted Jenna in the first book and nothing seems to help until the arrival at an orphanage they're staying at of Vaughn, who threatens to burn the place down with everybody in it if she doesn't go with him.

So let's just say Rhine gets a personal tour of Vaughn's dungeon below the mansion and ends up as a guinea pig for his experiments, she does reunite with Cecily, Deidre and Linden.

And the ending was really good but having to wait till next year to find out what happen's next will not be fun.

This book didn't have the suspense of the last book while in the first one you were wondering how she was ever going to find a way to escape from the mansion there was also the interaction from the other characters whom barely appeared in this book and I didn't find the parts at the carnival or the orphanage all that exciting and I didn't really like Gabriel in this book at all.

But I will definitely be buying the next book and I hope I like it better than this one.

I give this 4/5.

Teaser Tuesdays.

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
• Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

Lover Reborn (Black Dagger Brotherhood #10)

by J.R. Ward

And now here he was, empty just like the dress, because what had filled both him and this gown was gone.

The tears that came out of his eyes were silent, the kind that seeped out and soaked the pillow, traveling over the bridge of his nose and falling free to drop one after another like rain from the lip of a roof.