Resist - Sarah Crossan (2013)

3 stars

I really enjoyed Breathe and when I found this book I thought it would be interesting to see how all that got set up in the last book would be resolved in only one more.

My main problem with this book is that it all was too perfect, everything happened really quickly and always at coincidental times, anytime the group separated, they were immediately found by one of the other friends, and to avoid any consequences the head of the army had conveniently changed his mind and decided to help them. This book is told from four perspectives, the same three as the last book plus Ronan Knavery, Cain Knavery's son. I also find it really hard to understand how Vanya ran her base with so many oxygen tanks, but didn't have any trees or sources of oxygen like Petra did. My favourite character was probably Bea, she was so strong through everything she did and my favourite part of the whole book was when Jude said that "Bea Whitcraft turns boys into men". I would recommend this series to people who like dystopian novels and like the premise of having to pay for air.

Jazz is severely injured after the destruction of the Grove so Quinn has to leave her and Bea in a train station with many portable air recyclers that were left behind by drifters so they can stay put and be safe while he goes to get help from Sequoia. On the way there he meets Abel and Jo, who had previously left there and are headed back because Jo is heavily pregnant. Alina and Silas are already there and they learn that Vanya, the lady who runs the Sequoia rebellion is crazy, grows no trees and forces the people living there to breed as the thinks children raised in this environment can be immune to the low oxygen levels. When Quinn gets to Sequoia, Vanya refuses to send help for Bea and Jazz until she learns that it is Jazz, her child, that is injured. Ronan had been sent out by Jude to go find Quinn but instead he found Bea and Jazz, he radioed Jude and got him to take Jazz back to the pod so she could get medical assistance. When Quinn comes to find Bea and Jazz he talks to Bea and she tells him that she and Ronan have made a plan to get Jude to recruit and train auxilaries that are part of the resistance as part of the army so they can turn on the pod when they are ready. Quinn tells Bea to go back with Ronan and he will go back to Sequoia and tell Alina and get her to come back with him. Once Bea and Ronan are back at the pod, Quinn and Alin start they're escape with all of their other allies at Sequoia and on their way they learn that Vanya plans on destroying the recycling plants at the pod so they kill everyone inside. Chaos break out in the pod when Vanya's army attacks and the rebels aren't as prepared as they thought they'd be, Alina, Quinn and Silas saw Vanya's people headed to the pod so they ran there to make sure they could help fight. When there is one recycling plant left, Alina takes the bomb that Vanya has set in it and runs it out of the pod and dies. The rebels eventually subdue Vanya and her people and have one recycling plant left standing. The book ends a few weeks or months later, it's not really clear, where Bea, Quinn, Maude and Ronan are building a settlement a few hundred metres or so away from the pod with a giant nursery that Abel is constantly tending to.

Hollow City - Ransom Riggs (2014)

3 stars

My Aunty lent me this book as soon as she finished it because I had lent her the first one after I'd read it and although I enjoyed this book, I got the distinct feeling that the next one will be a lot better.

This book is told in the same way as the previous novel, Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children, from the perspective of Jacob and interspersed with many peculiar pictures from history that Ransom has collected himself or borrowed from other collectors. I enjoyed this book less than the first one I think because they were so focused on getting to one place the entire time that I thought it was a bit tedious at times, but I really enjoyed it whenever they ran into other peculiars and I'm excited to see how many more they will pick up in the next book. My favourite character was Bronwyn, I like how maternal and loving she is even though with her ability you think she'd be the opposite. I would recommend this series to anyone who likes fantasy with a bit of historical context.

The book starts with Jacob and the other peculiars rowing from their island to the mainland and then after realizing how many wights are after them hiding for a night. They then discover a loop that is full of peculiar animals that say that their Ymbryne, Miss Wren, is still alive and trying to help the other Ymbryne's in London. They also inform the children that Miss Peregrine only has two more days to get to another Ymbryne and change back before she'll never be able to again. They then leave the loop and head towards London and they eventually get there with the help of some Gypsies, but then they must find one of Miss Wren's pigeons to help them find her. They eventually catch a pigeon and get it to lead them into the loop in which Miss Wren is hiding and once there they find Miss Wren with a handful of other peculiar's she's saved. Once Miss Wren has convinced Miss Peregrine to turn back, it turns out to be her brother, a wight who also has the ability to turn into a bird just like his sister, and he informs them that he has them surrounded and has captured all the other peculiars that have sheltered them on the way and is going to steal their second souls which contain their abilities. As they are taking them on a train to wherever they are keeping all the peculiars and Ymbrynes Jacob and Emma manage to escape with the help of Addison, a peculiar dog they met in Miss Wren's loop, and Jacob learns that he can not only see the hollows but can control them and they head off to save the others.

A Million Suns - Beth Revis (2013)

3 stars

I bought this book a couple months after reading Across The Universe because I was interested to see what happened to the crew and if they ever got to the new planet.

This is definitely my least favourite book in the trilogy, it doesn't have the new environment or the mystery of the first book and it doesn't have the urgency of the third book. I liked all the clues that Orion left for Amy, but apart from that I found it very hard to get into until the last hundred or so pages. Also once again I was incredibly confused between this series and the Sky Chasers series, especially with all the leadership quarrels that occurred in this book, so I was very happy when that was resolved. I also thought the main secret that Amy was searching for from Orion was kind of obvious so I wasn't really surprised when they found it out. My favourite character in this book was probably Orion, even though he wasn't really in it and he was technically evil in the last book, I just found myself waiting for his new videos and clues and that was what was keeping me reading a lot of the time. I would recommend this series to any sci fi fans.

Elder is struggling with maintaining control over the ship without using phydus and after Doc develops a med patch that immediately calms people because of it's high concentration of phydus, people on board start being murdered with overdoses of the patches with "follow the leader" written on them. People assume Elder is either doing the killing or having people kill them for him and they start rebelling against him as they want to lead themselves. Amy gets Orions old wi com that can go around her wrist and she finds a clue on it, she starts following the clues and learns that Orion had learnt a secret about the ship and that only Amy could decide what to do with that secret. Eventually she learns that the ship is stopped right next to the planet they'd been sent to and they could dock at any time. When Elder goes to show everyone the planet there is an explosion that kills all the shippers who knew how to dock the ship, it also destroyed the bridge with the controls that could land the ship. Elder and Amy then learn that the reason they hadn't landed on the planet before is that there are monsters there and they decide to go anyway when they learn that the whole cryo level can break away from the rest of the ship and can land. Doc tries to stop them however as he wants everyone to stay on the ship with Orion as their leader, Amy wounds him and then Elder and Bartie come to an agreement that anyone who wants to go can go with Elder and anyone who wants to stay can stay on the ship with Bartie as their leader.

Allegiant - Veronica Roth (2013)

3 stars

I was so very excited for this book to come out and find out the end of the world and the characters Veronica Roth created with Divergent.

This is the first book in the trilogy that is written from two perspectives; Tris' and Tobias'. I loved reading from Tobias' point of view because, as I've said many times before, he is the fictional love of my life, also I really love knowing his thoughts on his family and what they've put him through. I know most fans really disliked the ending, but I thought it was very true to the characters because when I think of Tris I think of when she used to say "I am selfless, I am brave" and those are the characteristics she was showing when she did it. I was kind of disappointed as I really love reading the story because it is set in the world of factions and although I know it was neccessary for them to leave that society to further the plot and end the story I didn't really enjoy them living in the real world for half the book. My favourite characters in this book were Tris and Caleb. Although I already loved Tris, this book made me really admire her as a heroine and see her as a role model (considering I already know that the movies are going to be a big hit). I still don't understand Caleb's previous actions, but I really enjoyed watching his character growth through this book and his relationship with Tris change. I would recommend this book to anyone that likes dystopian novels, or wants a really creative world to escape into.

For anyone interested, the first movie trailer was recently released:

The book starts with Tobias telling his mother that he broke up with Tris even though he's lying just to gain her trust. He then gets Tris, Christina and Cara's charges taken off them and they are free to roam in the new factionless regime Evelyn is enforcing. They then get tapped to go to a meeting of the Allegiant - the uprising that wants what was told to them in Edith Prior's video, factions back and divergent to leave. A small group of them then leave the city together with Tori being shot by one of the factionless in the process. Once they make it out of the city they are picked up by some people who explain they are from the Bureau of Gentic Welfare and that they were part of one of their most successful experiments after what is known as the Purity War. The Purity War started after the Bureau started fixing genes that had bad traits, low intelligence, cowardice, dishonesty, agression and selfishness, however it showed that removing those traits took away other traits like compassion, motivation, assertiveness and self preservation. This then split the population into two groups, those who were "genetically pure" and those who were "gentically damaged", it caused a  massive war and the Bureau then took most of the "gentically damaged" and put them into other societies like theirs so they could eventually breed out the damaged genes. The divergent are the genetically pure, however after some tests it is shown that Tobias isn't actually genetically pure, he merely could resist the simulations. Tris doesn't care about that but it clouds Tobias' judgement and he helps some GDs he meets with a terrible plan to take down the bureau and their bias againt GDs (who he discovers are being treated basically like animals) and part of that plan was to have explosions throughout the department as diversions, however one of them ends up putting Uriah into a coma. Tris then comes up with a better plan after the Bureau tell her that they are going to reset everyone in the experiments memories as they are about to kill each other with the war brewing between the factionless and the allegiant. She decides that they should reset everyone in the Bureau's memories so they won't be biased against the GDs and Tobias must go back into the city to reset one of his parent's memories so they won't have a war. Whoever has to release the memory serum into the Bureau has to die because the room is armed to release death serum if you break into it, at first Caleb volunteered to do this job, but at the last minute Tris does it instead of him and although she manages to resist the death serum, David, the manager of the Bureau shoots her and she dies, but she manages to release the memory serum first. Evelyn then agrees to stop fighting the Allegiant if Tobias will allow her back into his life which he does and they work out a treaty where Chicago is the first city free of bias against GDs.

I am Number Four: The Lost Files: The Legacies (2012)

3 stars

I really enjoy the Lorien Legacies series and I read something about "Adam" joining the main books at a point so I decided to read this book to understand what they were talking about.

This book is a collection of three of Pittacus Lore's Lost Files, it has the backstory of Six, Nine, and what happened to the other three Garde before the start of I am Number Four. My favourite story of the three was The Fallen Legacies, I liked learning about the Mogadorians and their lifestyle and I think Adam might end up with a pretty important role in the battle between the loric and the mogadorians. I thought Six and Nine's stories were kind of similar, the only difference being that Nine had to be rescued and Six made it out on her own. I do admit that reading this made me like Nine a lot more after knowing what he's been through, but my favourite character out of all three stories was probably Adam. I like that the author gave the mogadorian's a human aspect and I think the courage he showed to defy his kind was really inspiring to read. I would recommend this book to you if you really enjoy the Lorien Legacies and want to know more about the Garde.

I'll split the plot summary into each story:

Six's Legacy
Six and her Cepan Katarina are captured by Mogadorians while changing cities. Once they learn that Six is not the next number they can kill they torture Katarina in front of her to make her talk. She lies and tells them she is number eight along with a lot of useless information regarding their past movements so they think she's cooperating. Once she tells them they kill Katarina right in front of her. She is trapped inside their camp for another couple months before her invisibility legacy kicks in and she escapes that way.

Nine's Legacy
Nine has been living in Chicago with his Cepan Sandor for five years so when a mog shows up, instead of telling Sandor, he lures him into a trap and kills him. He then meets Maddy, a human girl who he instantly likes except when they're on their first date mogs show up and try to get him. He then goes to her house the next day and mogs attack him again, this time capturing him. He learns that Maddy was working with them so she could have her parents back, the mogs make Nine watch as they reunite her with her parents then set a Piken on them. They then torture Sandor in front of Nine for days until one day he overcomes the forcefield between them and kills Sandor out of mercy. He is trapped for about a year before Four and Sam free him.

The Fallen Legacies
This story is told from the perspective of a teenage Mogadorian, Adam, whose father is the general of the Mogadorian army. After they kill One, his father puts him in an untested device where he is supposed to see One's memories and he will be able to give them information on the rest of the Garde. Once he is inside One's mind they become sort of friends as they look through her memories together, and he starts to doubt his race's intentions. When he wakes, he learns it has been three years since he was first put in the device and he tells his father that it didn't work and he learnt nothing. Then on the way to kill Two, Adam learns her position first and tries to help her. They still manage to kill her and he goes unnoticed as a traitor. After two more years he gets to go along to the killing of Three, however when he tries to help him his brother discovers his intentions and he pushes him off a cliff, thinking that he killed him when he was still semi alive at the bottom of the ravine.

Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief - Rick Riordan (2005)

3 stars

I bought this book because I had heard so much about this series and when I told a friend that I thought the movie was kind of average she told me that the book series is so much better and I'm pretty glad I listened to her.

I think I would've enjoyed this book a lot more if I'd read it when I was younger, although I still thought it was good, it was written for a younger age group and it's really noticeable if you're 18 the first time you read it. I think that the premise of the story is really cool, a camp for demigods, of course you'd want to go to that. My favourite character was probably Chiron, I think I could really like Annabeth but the quest took up so much of the book there wasn't much room for character development or exploration asides from Percy. Chiron was just a cool dude who I thought was really needed as a guide for Percy and a bridge between the gods and demigods. I would recommend this book to anyone who likes adventure novels, greek mythology, and is either a teenager or doesn't mind reading a book aimed at 12-14 year olds.

Percy is a kid with ADHD and dyslexia who returns from his boarding school to a holiday with his mother. However when his friend Grover interrupts them talking about how the kindly ones are after him, his mother gets him in the car and drives him to camp half blood. Once there he learns he is a demigod, a son of Poseidon and he must undertake a quest to find Zeus' lightning bolt that was stolen from him. He travels to Los Angeles with Annabeth and Grover to go talk to Hades, who they assume has the bolt, into giving it back to them but once in the underworld Percy learns that he had been set up and he had the bolt in his bag that Ares had given to him. He manages to escape the underworld with the bolt and after defeating Ares in battle returns the bolt to Zeus. He is welcomed back to camp as a hero and then after learning that his friend Luke was the one who initially stole the bolt he decides to go home for the rest of the year and return to camp next summer.

Fuse - Julianna Baggott (2013)

3 stars

After I read Pure I was so excited to read this book and to see what would unfold after everyone had joined together with a common goal, but I was disappointed by this book and it's lack of overall plot acceleration.

This book is told from the same four perspectives as the last book; Pressia, El Capitan, Partidge, and Lyda. I really hope that in the next book I can read from Bradwell's perspective for a change and also to discover more of his feeling and personality. I can understand why nothing much reallly happened in this book because Pure had most of the initial events of a revolution and obviously the last book in the trilogy needs to have the final conflict and resolution so I think that's why it took me so long to read. My favourite character was Helmud, he was so much more than anyone gave hin credit for and I loved how his brilliance shone through subtlely until the very end when El Capitan finally acknowledged him and his validity as a person. I definitely didn't enjoy this book as much as the first but I know that it had a lot of important stuff that I need to know for the next book which I hope is more interesting or at least moves a bit faster than this one.

This book starts with Lyda and Partridge being taken care of by the mothers and Pressia, Bradwell and El Capitan looking after wounded and training new soldiers at OSR headquarters. The dome sends out robotic spiders that latch on to people and blow up and they won't deactivate them until Partridge returns to the dome. Before he returns, he and Lyda have sex and she tells him she's not going back to the dome with him. Once in the dome Partridge learns that his father will give him leadership if he erases his memory of his time outside the dome. Once he does that Iralene helps him remember everything he's forgotten and then he slips his father a poison pill and kills him. Pressia and Bradwell use the black box from Ingership's house to learn where the formula that regenerates cells without the side effects is kept and on the way there they tell each other that they love each other, El Capitan also confesses his love for Pressia but then realizes she'll always love Bradwell. When Pressia goes to retrieve the formula, Bartrand Kelly, one of the seven, sees her there but she runs from him and when she returns to El Capitan and Bradwell she sees Bradwell dying. She shows him the two vials of serum she still has and says she can save him but he tells her he wants to die pure. She decides to instead insert the serum into the birds on his back because if they live he lives. However once she does that the cell acceleration does it's job and even though Bradwell wakes, he has six black wings coming out of his back.

The Maze Runner - James Dashner (2009)

3 stars

I'd heard so much about this book and knew it was becoming a movie next year so I thought I'd read it and see if it was worth all the hype, I was a bit disappointed.

I think the best part of the book was the last fifty or so pages when they actually (finally) tried to escape the maze. Up until that point I thought it was a lot of build up and background information that is probably going to be helpful in the later books in the series, but was probably the main reason it took me so long to get through it. The end of the book was also where I really got invested in the storyline and it made me want to buy the next two, although I hope they give me more answers than this book did. My favourite character was Minho, I thought he was smart and nice and I hope he survives the rest of the trials. I would recommend this book to any dystopia fans, especially fans of The Hunger Games because I can see a lot of parallels and similarites between the two series.

Thomas wakes up in the Glade with no memories, only knowing his name. He learns that every month a new boy is put in the Glade and they have no way of getting out as they are surrounded by a giant maze that is filled with grievers, evil robotic creatures that can sting and kill people. Thomas learns the ways of the Gladers and almost immediately realizes he wants to be a "runner" someone whose job is to run the maze every day and look for an exit or a change. The second day he's there, a girl comes out of the box saying that she's the last one, everything will change. Thomas realizes that he knows the girl, Teresa, and thinks they were lovers in the past. Together they work out that the maze is a code and is repeating six words over and over, Thomas also decides to get stung by a griever so he can have memories and once he does he remembers how to get out. The other Gladers have to fend off grievers as he, Teresa and Chuck jump through the griever hole to type the code the maze was spelling out into a computer that shuts down the grievers. Once they've done that about 20 boys are left, and then as the leader of the operation they were part of is talking to them she is assassinated and they are taken to a building just outside of the "scorch" and told that they will be able to cure the disease that is plaguing the world. The epilogue is a letter from the leader of WICKED saying that all things are for a purpose and test group A results were very promising and her fake assassination and the groups capture was showing very good results, the next trials will show who their leader will be.

Big Boned - Meg Cabot (2007)

3 stars

I read the first two books in this series years ago and although I really enjoyed them, I could never find this book in any shops I looked in. I finally ended up ordering it online about a week ago, and as an avid Meg Cabot reader, I obviously read it in two days.

Because I read the first two in this series so long ago I can't really say whether I liked it better or worse than those two, however I do know that anything written by Cabot has excellent humour that constantly has me laughing out loud (sometimes in public places) and this book was no exception. I actually really love this series, the concept is really funny and I always like it when a girl in a book is "big boned" as the title puts it. My favourite character was Tom. Even though he was only in it for a few chapters, I thought he was hilarious and a good way to brighten up the more boring and complicated chapters with all the different staff members. I would recommend this series to any fans of Meg Cabot, or anyone who likes light mystery novels.

Heather's new boyfriend is a vegetarian maths professor who tells her that he has something to ask her when the time is right, of course, she immediately thinks it's a proposal and starts freaking out. When she gets to work that day she finds her boss, Owen Veatch, dead with a bullet through his head. Her assisstant Sarah's boyfriend is framed and has the murder weapon placed on him so Heather takes it upon herself to clear his name. After a confession from a student who had a meeting with Owen that morning she thinks it's the new reverend who has been sexually abusing students, however after she confronts him she works out it was really his ex-wife, Pam. When she goes to confront Pam, thinking she wouldn't have another weapon, Heather is almost shot before the police can get there and arrest Pam. She then breaks up with Tad when she learns that he wanted to ask her to go hiking with him and when she gets home, Cooper confesses his love for her and in between kissing asks her if October sounds good for a wedding.

World War Z - Max Brooks (2006)

3 stars

I wanted to read this book because of Kristina Horner's video. It was one of the only books I hadn't heard of that she listed and when I looked it up it sounded like it would be pretty good, I was a little disappointed.

I think the fact that I read the last half of the book in a day really affected how much I enjoyed it. Because it's a series of interviews, one or two at a time are really good, but lots of them packed together seems really rushed and it felt like I was being given too much information at once. Asides from having to pace yourself when reading this novel, I thought it was really good. Some of the interviews were really believable and emotional and I like that instead of staying with just a few people, hardly anyone was interviewed twice. There was a lot more wartime terminology and stories than I thought there would be (in hindsight that was kind of stupid of me) so if you want to read this book I hope you enjoy war battles and discussions of weaponry. I would recommend this book to anyone who is a big fan of zombie novels, or anyone who likes a believable wartime story.

This book is also set to become a movie starring Brad Pitt which comes out in June. It looks wildly different to the novel already, so I wouldn't read it just for that reason. Here's the trailer.

This story follows the zombie pandemic that sweeps the world and kills nearly everyone living in it. To kill a zombie you must destory their brain, any other injury and they will continue to attack you. The novel goes through the experience of soldiers, leaders, and victims and tells of how they eventually got the problem under control.

One Day - David Nicholls (2009)

3 stars

This was another of the books that Mac bought me for my birthday earlier this year, and although I found it less engaging than Water for Elephants (the previous book she bought me) I think it would make a more interesting movie.

This book follows the relationship between Emma and Dexter by describing what happens to them every year on July 15th. Although it's an interesting concept, it does get quite boring for several of the middle years and if I hadn't had so much free time today it would have taken me a lot longer to get through those years to the last couple where they get interesting again. I liked how it just switched between the two perspectives with no markings or change of chapters because it made the characters more relatable and it seemed nice and informal, like they were two of my friends. I didn;t really have a favourite character in this book, not because I didn't like any, but because none of them really jumped out at me or added anything particularly special to the novel. I would recommend this to anyone who likes romance novels and doesn't mind a surprising twist.

Em and Dex meet the night of graduation and spend the enitre night talking. Although they both like each other and want to be more than just friends the timing is never quite right. Over the years they become best friends and stick together through many ups and downs in each others lives including Dex's mother dying, Dex's drinking problem and Em's affair with her boss. In their late thirties they finally start to date and are married and trying for a baby in after a little more than a year, however just before Dex's fourtieth birthday Em gets hit by a car and dies.

Struck By Lightning - Chris Colfer (2012)

 3 stars

There wasn't really much chance that I wouldn't read this as soon as I bought it, and my awe for Chris Colfer is still very much intact. I am quite excited for this movie to see how they do it, also for Lauren Lopez who has a tiny, but still legitimate, part in it.

I don't know whether he wrote the book first then turned it into a script or whether it was the other way round but either way I think this will work a lot better as a movie. Because the book is narrated in first person from Carson's perspective the book  has a natural stopping point where you can't really find out any more details which I was really curious about, I hope in the movie it's better explored. I think my favourite character was Malerie, but that may have been because I was picturing Rebel Wilson acting as her whenever she did anything and my love for Rebel Wilson may have influenced that decision. If it wasn't Malerie, my favourite character was probably Carson, maybe because no other likeable characters were explored enough, but I thought his humour made up for his angst and superiority complex. I would recommend this to anyone that wants an easy read, and likes teenage school drama.

Carson's only goal is to get into Northwestern and become an editor and writer, and this book follows his senior year in high school in his hometown of Clover. He will do anything to get into Northwestern which is why when they tell him to make a literary magazine at his school he blackmails his classmates so that he has submissions. He ends up with hilarious gossip on the whole student council and gets many submissions to the magazine however he doesn't get any letters from Northwestern. At the end of the year his Counsellor calls him in to tell him that because he didn't reply to his acceptance letter and his spot has been taken. He learns that his mum threw out his aceptance letter because "it's useless to dream" and on his way home from school the next day he is struck by lightning and killed.

Across The Nightingale Floor - Lian Hearn (2002)

3 stars

I had to read this book for my english class aand was pleasantly surprised by it.

The book is told from alternate perspectives of Takeo and Kaede, I prefer Takeo's perspective mainly because Kaede is a bit of a wimp for most of the book and Takeo's storyline is more interesting. I found the storyline interesting, but thought it was dragged out too long over the middle couple chapters. My favourite character was probably Shizuka, she was super cute but kick ass when she had to be. I would recommend this book to any fantasy fans, also people that enjoy intricate plot history.

Tomasu's tribe is wiped out by Iida, but before Iida can kill Tomasu he knocks him off his horse and runs away where Shigeru finds him and saves him from Iida's guards. He then changes his name to Takeo and gets adopted by Shigeru who trains him to read and write. He soon discovers that his father was from "the Tribe" so he has inherited many abilities like invisibility and super hearing, Shigeru then uses these abilities to train him to be an assassin. Shigeru is hung from the tower when they discover he was a traitor and Takeo kills him out of mercy then goes to kill Iida only to find that Kaede has already stabbed him in the chest. Takeo then leaves with the Tribe.

The Killables - Gemma Malley (2012)

3 stars

I bought this book because I absolutely adored The Declaration by Gemma Malley and I thought another dystopian novel by her would be just as good, unfortunately I was underwhelmed.

I thought the idea for this novel was good, although similar to many other dystopian novels I've read. I think because I've read so many dystopian novels it made it hard to read this book without getting bored because I found it predictable. I also found it irritating how there had to be a love triangle, I've had enough of them in popular novels lately and I think in this book it's obvious who she really loves. I liked how this book kept using the same memory, and as her journey progressed the memory grew then at the end she used the same pattern but changed it for the present situation. My favourite character was Lucas, he always knew what he was doing and I never doubted him, I really liked the parts from his perspective as well. I would recommend this book to any big dystopian fans.

Evie lives in the City, where evil doesn't exist because everyone that enters the City must undergo a "new baptism" where their amygdalas are removed so they are incapable of evil. Evie thinks she is evil as she is in love with Raffy, her childhood friend. However when Raffy is going to be labelled a K, for killable, his brother Lucas helps him and Evie to escape because killables are left outside the City to be killed by the "evils". Once they escape together Evie and Raffy are captured by Linus, who tells them that he started the City with the Great Leader and the Brother however he wanted to make it so everyones needs were taken care of by the system, whereas the Great Leader wanted to continue his experiments, which he did and ended up creating the "evils", people who are irreparably brain damaged. With Lucas' help, Linus and his men invade the City and disable the system. The book ends with Lucas and Linus staying in the City to restore order and reassure everyone of the truth about the Brother, and Lucas helping Evie and Raffy to escape after telling Evie he loves her.

Rapture - Lauren Kate (2012)

 3 stars

This is the fourth book in the Fallen series by Lauren Kate, and I was underwhelmed by the conclusion to the series.

This book was written from Luce's perspective like the other books, however unlike the other books when both the prologue and epilogue is from Daniel's perspective the epilogue in this book is from the angels and nephilim's perpective (minus Cam). I didn't like this book as much as it's predecessors mainly because I thought it was kind of predictable and although I liked the ending, it didn't really have much action or suspense like the previous books where I felt I had to keep reading. My favourite character was Arianne, she was cute and loveable as always and brought some lightheartedness to the darkness that Lucinda was feeling for most of the novel. I was frustrated by the mystery that surrounded Cam, the question of who he loved, what he was going to do for the rest of eternity, and where he was during the epilogue are things that could have made the book that much more interesting, and I can only assume that Kate was setting up for a spin off series based on him, which would probably be good because I always liked his character. I recommend this series to any paranormal romance fans.

For a plot summary see Mac's previous blog.

A Wizard of Earthsea - Ursula Le Guin (1968)

I had to read this book for my english class, I could choose between this and Pawn of Prophecy by David Eddings so I chose this, and I'm glad I did.

Although it isn't written as well or as interestingly as other fantasy books I've read I still quite liked the plot of this book. I think a downfall of the plot of this story though it that it drags on a bit too long, after Ged creates the shadow, he spend 100 pages trying to chase it down, which I think is a little overkill especially in the chapters where nothing but travelling happens. My favourite character in this book is Vetch, it's not like there are many characters to choose from, and this is probably the obvious choice but I liked his character without Le Guin needing to go into too many details, which I think is really clever. I would recommend this book to any fantasy fans, especially hardcore ones considering my teacher calls Le Guin the "female Tolkien" of the genre.

Duny is a little boy who learns he can do magic from his aunt, a village witch. When his village is attacked when Duny is twelve he performs great magic beyond his years to save them. Ogion is a sorcerer who takes notice of him and lets him be his apprentice, along with naming him with his true name; Ged. Ged however seems to be too curious to learn from the patient and Yoda-like Ogion so he travels to the island of Roke to learn at the wizard's school. When there he makes an enemy of Jasper and in a competition in which he is determined to beat him, Ged summons the spirit of a dead person, but in doing so he nearly dies and creates a shadow creature who will continue to follow him for the rest of his life and try to take his body. Once Ged graduates from the school of Roke and becomes a wizard, he starts to follow his shadow to try to defeat it, the shadow knows his true name however so Ged cannot perform any magic on it. Instead after travelling and battling with it many times, Ged realizes the shadow is part of him and accepts it as so.

Love You to Death - Meg Cabot (2000)

I read this book because I've read a lot of other Meg Cabot books and Mac told me these were good.

I thought this book was good, there are better Meg Cabot books than this one, but I still liked it. It was well written, and I thought the plot was pretty interesting. My favourite character was David, I thought he was very cute and I like how someone that has only known her a couple months could figure it out before her mum could.

Suze is a mediator, someone who can see and speak to ghosts. When she moves to a new house in California she finds a ghost named Jesse living in her room. She goes to school to find that her principal is also a mediator, the first one other than herself that she's met and he wants her help to get rid of Heather. Heather is the ghost of a teenage girl who won't move on until she kills the boy who dumped her so Suze is forced to exorcize her.

The Princess Diaries: To The Nines - Meg Cabot (2007)

When reading this book I always think it might be kind of unnecessary to write the last book because you could end the series with this one, but then I always remember how good the last one is, even though this one has quite a nice ending.

I love the plot twist in this book with the past princess storyline, it makes the book so much more interesting, and is a good way for Mia to accomplish something. I think what the author does in getting rid of Mia's oldest friend and replacing her with her oldest enemy is very clever and is written in a way that makes it seems plausible and seem like you would do the same. My favourite character in this book is definitely Boris, in this and the next book he shows his loyalty for Michael and really looks after Mia without Tina telling him to, I love the last two books partly because of Boris' character becoming more prominent.


Michael replies to Mia's email saying that it's probably best if they date other people and just go back to being friends. This causes Mia to become depressed and her dad forces her to see Dr Knutz, a psychologist, who gets her to try neew things including be friends with Lana considering Lilly won't talk to her after the JP media storm. Michael starts to email Mia occasionally and Mia deletes them because she doesn't think she can reply without begging him to take her back, while this is happening Mia discovers the journal of a past princess who only ruled for twelve days because she died of the plague. It turns out Amelie did accomplished a lot in her twelve days that helped minimize the plague in Genovia as well as constructing a document that made Genovia a democracy rather than a monarchy. Mia reveals this to everyone and then starts to date JP after his persistent efforts to go out with her ever since she broke up with Michael, Boris then tells Mia to reply to Michael so he knows she hasn't forgotten about him and she does.

The Princess Diaries: After Eight - Meg Cabot (2007)

This book marks a bit of a rise for the series coming out of the six and seventh books. It adds a bit of a twist to the storyline to make things more interesting.

This book starts to include samples of Mia's writing as well as her grades from her english teacher which acomplishes two things; it makes you hate Mia's english teacher along with her, and makes you realize how serious she is about writing. This book shows the events leading up to Mia and Michael's break up and in this book I'm sure it's not my future knowledge that makes me hate JP. I probably didn't have a favourite character because they all annoyed me in some way or other so because I just enjoy the little snippets of them I'm going to say Fat Louie and Rocky because they both are so cute and cheer Mia up, also they can't really talk so they can't say anything that will annoy me.


Michael has invented a prototype of a robotic arm that can be used in open heart surgery, he has been invited to Japan to get the actual machine up and running and will be away for a year or more. Mia decides that having sexx with him will make him stay, however the night before he leaves he tells her he isn't a virgin and has slept with Judith Gershner. Mia, of course, freaks out and throws his snowflake necklace at him, symbolising a break up. He comes to school to try to talk about things with her but he comes in when she is hugging JP who convieniently moves his head at the right moment so she kisses him, Michael walked away. She then realizes that she shouldn't have made such a big deal out of the Judith Gershner thing and chases him to the airport but misses him so she sends him an email saying sorry.

The Princess Diaries: Mia Goes Fourth - Meg Cabot (2002)

In continuing reading this series, I remembered how slow it can be at times, and this is a whole book about one date, that's the only plotline in this story, whether Mia will make it to her first date with Michael. Better than some of the later books in my opinion, but still kind of frustrating.

This is the shortest book in the series, although it probably spans a larger time period (three weeks) than most of the other books. I found Mia's inner monologue extremely frustrating in this book, I think it might be because I know she's freaking out for THE ENTIRE BOOK for nothing, but it was still pretty entertaining. My favourite character in this book was probably Michael, mainly because he's so lovely you can't help but love him.


Mia gets back from her first trip to Genovia as princess and is looking forward to her first date with Michael to give him his belated birthday present as well as just spending time with him. However Grandmere wants her to go to a black and white ball on the same night, Mia thinks that by cancelling on Michael he will eternally hate her and break up with her. She goes to the ball, then leaves at eleven and goes over to Michael's where he has set up the movie at his house. She gives him his present, a moon rock, and they enjoy their first date.