Book Review (22).

The Scorpio Races

by Maggie Stiefvater 

Publication: 18th October 2011

Publisher: Scholastic Australia

Pages: 404

Genre: Fantasy/Mythology

Age Appropriate: Young Adult

It happens at the start of every November: the Scorpio Races. Riders attempt to keep hold of their water horses long enough to make it to the finish line. Some riders live. Others die.

At age nineteen, Sean Kendrick is the returning champion. He is a young man of few words, and if he has any fears, he keeps them buried deep, where no one else can see them.

Puck Connolly is different. She never meant to ride in the Scorpio Races. But fate hasn’t given her much of a chance. So she enters the competition — the first girl ever to do so. She is in no way prepared for what is going to happen.

My Thoughts.

Every November The Scorpio Races are run, men on water horses that come out of the sea, but these aren't normal horses as well as living in the ocean, they are violent creatures who if not watched carefully will tear a human to pieces.

For the last 4 years horse trainer Sean Kendrick 19 who is sort of a horse whisperer (and the only person who can seem to control the water horses has won the race on the horse Corr , who he wants to buy but the owner who Sean works for won't sell him.

Kate 'Puck' Connolly lives with her two brothers after their parents were killed by the water horses, money is tight and they have to scrape to get by, Puck learns that they're overdue on the house payments and they will be evicted if they don't come up with the money so she joins up to take part in The Scorpio Races riding her actual horse Dove , Puck is the first and only female to ever do so, and the men aren't happy about it.

Puck and Sean end up meeting and training together and a romance between them slowly develops.

The water horses are taken from mythology and I was a bit hesitant at first cause it didn't really sound all that interesting even though I've loved every book Maggie Stiefvater has written, but I loved it was original and exciting and I didn't want it to end.

I loved the characters and Maggie has a way of bringing words to life, you forget for a while that water horses aren't real.

Unfortunately this seems to be a stand-alone novel, I only wish there was more.

I give this 4/5

A big thanks to Nicole @Scholastic Australia

Feature And Follow Friday (6).

Question: It's Thanksgiving Day in the U.S. so we want to know what you are Thankful for - blogging related of course! Who has helped you out along the way? What books are you thankful for reading?

Living in Australia we don't celebrate Thanksgiving, however I am still thankful for all of my follower's I'm grateful for each and every one of you, I'm also thankful to know that there are people who love reading as much as I do (I'm the only one in a house of 5 that really reads).

I'm grateful for the 'Twilight Saga - Stephenie Meyer' for getting me out  of my reading slump and introducing me to my favourite book genre Paranormal.

And I'm especially thankful for 'sparkly vampires'.

Australian Vs. U.S.A Book Covers.

Starcrossed (Starcrossed #1)

by Josephine Angelini 

Australian.

American.

I definately prefer the American cover it's sooo pretty.

Am I The Only One?

I'm so excited once I get my cast off I have 2 bookcases that I have to assemble, while that's not exciting what is, is putting all my books on them.
I don't know about anybody else but there's nothing I like better than rearranging books on my bookshelves, and alphabetizing them by author and I get to do this with 2 bookcases.
I don't know why but I find it really relaxing.
Anybody else enjoy doing this as well?

Book Review (21).

How to Survive the Titanic or the Sinking of J. Bruce Ismay

by Frances Wilson

Publication: 1st September 2011

Publisher: Bloomsbury Australia

Pages: 328

Genre: Historical, Non-Fiction

Age Appropriate: 15+

When the Titanic sank, J. Bruce Ismay, the ship's owner and inheritor of the White Star fortune, jumped into a lifeboat with the women and children and rowed away to safety. Hated for being a coward, his reputation never recovered. 

Author Frances Wilson explores the reasons behind Ismay's jump, his desperate need to make sense of the horror of it all, and journey to find a way of living with lost honour.

My Thoughts.

Before I start this review I have to say that I'm a huge Titanic fan, if I ever see a book I don't have I buy it even if it's the same story over and over again.

I was so excited when I received this book to review it was about the Titanic and I was always interested to know what happened  to Ismay after the sinking of the Titanic and the American and British Inquiries into the sinking.

Unfortunately I wasn't a big fan of this book at all, the parts about the Titanic and Ismay were good, but then for some unknown reason the author decided to compare Ismay's life to some story called 'Lord Jim', and then proceeded to it seemed, put the whole story into the book (which I wasn't even remotely interested in) then after as if that wasn't enough, then decided to give us the life story of this guy who wrote the 'Lord Jim' story and after that his bibliography, everytime it came to one of these bits (and they're spread out throughout the book, so it's not like you could skip a chapter or whatever) it got to the point where I was like not this again, it was too much and didn't really have anything to do with the story.

But there were some good bits, I learned Ismay grew up in a household with a Father who didn't like his kids, and subsequently Ismay treated his own children the same way, he had fallen out of love with his wife after the death of their oldest son and while on the Titanic, seemed to fall in love with one of the 1st class passengers Marian Thayer.

We read about how he contradicted himself quite a few times at the inquiries and after never ever spoke of the Titanic again.

It's hard to say whether Ismay deserved to be the scapegoat that he became after the sinking, he says he got into the lifeboat because there were no other women or children around, other's say he was forced into the lifeboat but we do know around 1,500 people died that night and he could I'm sure easily have found women and children somewhere on the ship to take his spot in the lifeboat.

But it's something we'll never know, only the people there that night knew the truth, it's something that will forever remain a mystery.

I give this 2.5/5

A big thanks to Sonia @ Bloomsbury Australia.

Waiting On Wednesday (6).

Waiting On Wednesday Is A Weekly Meme Hosted Over At Breaking The Spine.

Blood and Snow (Blood and Snow, #1)

by Richard Denney

October 2012 CreateSpace/RPD

A retelling of Snow White with Witches, Vampires, Zombies, Plenty of gore, and Romance! Snow Whitley is turning seventeen and with her father's recent death she's not up for a big party. Sadly, her step-mother Delora has some other plans in store for her step-daughter. When Delora hires Adam a nineteen year old college student off of craigslist and pays him to take Snow into the woods where her murderer waits, things begin to take a different turn. While driving her out to the woods, Adam begins to fall for the girl and can't help but go back on his word. When Delora learns of his decision, she enlists a vicious Vampire and an army of Zombies to hunt down the two teens and destroy them both. Told in alternating perspectives, "Blood and Snow" takes you on a ride of horror, gore, romance & magic!

Vessel

by Sarah Beth Durst 

11th September 2012 Margaret K. McElderry Books

In a desert land where serpents made of unbreakable glass fly through the sky and wolves made of only sand hunt within storms, Liyana is destined to be a vessel, to sacrifice herself so that her clan's goddess can inhabit her body... but her goddess never comes.

The Sweetest Spell

by Suzanne Selfors

21st August 2012 Walker Children's

A lyrical and romantic reimaging of The Ugly Duckling for teens.

Emmeline Thistle has always had a mysterious bond with cows, beginning on the night of her birth, when the local bovines saved the infant cast aside to die in the forest. But Emmeline was unaware that this bond has also given her a magical ability to transform milk into chocolate, a very valuable gift in a kingdom where chocolate is more rare and more precious than gold or jewels. Then one day Owen Oak, a dairyman’s son, teaches Emmeline to churn milk into butter – and instead she creates a delicious chocolate confection that immediately makes her a target for every greedy, power-hungry person in the kingdom of Anglund. Only Owen loves Emmeline for who she truly is, not her magical skill. But is his love enough to save her from the danger all around her?

The Raft

by S.A. Bodeen 

21st August 2012 Feiwel & Friends

Robie, 16, lives with her family on the Midway atoll, a group of islands in the middle of the Pacific. Her parents are scientists; it’s an isolated life. Robie enjoys visiting her aunt in Hawaii – she gets back and forth on a cargo plane that brings supplies to Midway.

During a visit, her aunt is called to the mainland for a work emergency, leaving Robie to get home on her own. On her flight back to Midway the cargo plane hits nasty weather, and goes down. It’s just Robie, the pilot, and Max, a co-pilot she’s never met till this flight, on board. Robie is pulled aboard a raft by Max, who is injured and slipping in and out of consciousness. They have a bag of candy and very little water between them. When they finally reach an island that seems abandoned, Robie hopes they’ll be found quickly. But she’s not sure she was even on the flight manifest. Her parents must be looking for her…aren’t they?

In THE RAFT, S.A. Bodeen creates a hair-raising suspense story that will have readers agonizing over the same question as Robie -- how long can they survive?

The Taken (Celestial Blues #1)

by Vicki Pettersson 

12th June 2012 Harper Voyager

He’s a fallen angel. She’s a rockabilly reporter. Together they must solve a deadly string of murders plaguing the mortal and the immortal worlds.

Griffin Shaw used to be a PI, but that was over fifty years ago when gumshoes hoofed the streets . . . and he was still alive. Now he’s a Centurion, an angel who assists other murdered souls through their journey to the afterlife. But while Shaw might be an angel … he’s no saint. Haunted by the mysterious events surrounding his own death, he seizes a chance to wreak some vengeance when he witnesses a deadly attack on journalist Katherine “Kit” Craig.

Joining forces, the unlikely avengers take to the streets, hunting a killer whose trail of bodies stretches across Las Vegas and into an immortal netherworld. It is a dangerous trek that lead them into the darkest corners of Sin City and into the heart of an evil conspiracy extending beyond the lights of the Strip that could destory them both.

But destruction isn’t the only threat Griffin faces. The closer he gets to Kit, the more he finds himself bewitched by her mortal charms. Can he resist falling under her spell? And does he want to?

Devine Intervention

by Martha Brockenbrough 

1st June 2012 Arthur A. Levine Books

Heavenly writing, earthy characters, and humor that is wicked as hell.

Heidi is sixteen. Insecure. Unkissed. Unremarkable, she thinks, in every way but one: She has a guardian angel, Jerome, who whispers in her ear all day long, amusing her, confusing her, but hardly ever saying anything that might help her discover who she's meant to be.

Jerome is seventeen (for the seventeenth year in a row.) There is only one thing he needs to do to graduate from heaven's soul rehabilitation program for wayward teenagers: Follow the 10 Commandments for the Dead, and in doing so, keep Heidi safe.

Instead, he accidentally lets her drown.

Plucked from her body before she ever truly lives, Heidi wants more than anything to say goodbye to her family and best friend. Jerome, afraid he's going to be sent to the lowest level of Hell, wants to sneak her into heaven before he gets caught.

Neither realizes that Heidi has only 24 hours before her soul dissolves forever. And that might not be enough time for them to figure out how they were meant to live.

Australian Vs. U.S.A Book Covers.

Gone (Gone #1)

by Michael Grant 

Australian.

American.