Everything, Everything - Nicola Yoon (2015)

3.5 stars

I heard about this book because the movie rights had been bought before the book was even published so I really wanted to see why it was so popular.

This book is told from Maddy's perspective, often with pictures or poems from her diary or instant messaging or email records from her account. I thought this book was super cute, it was really easy to read and had a super surprising twist that had me freaking out over a book that for the majority had me just thinking it was a cute teen romance. My favourite character in this book was Maddy, I thought she was incredibly strong in every situation she had to go through and I found her quirkiness made this book really easy to read. I would recommend this to anyone who like YA romance and loves a good plot twist.

Maddy has a rare disease where she is allergic to everything and she has stayed inside her sealed house with only her mother and her nurse Carla who comes over every day since she was a baby and her father and brother died in a car accident. When they get some new neighbours she starts a friendship through her window with Olly who has the room opposite her, they exchange emails and message back and forth until Maddy convinces Carla to let him come in one day and meet her. One time when he's over they kiss and nothing bad happens to Maddy. Another night she is watching them from her window when Olly's abusive father tries to hit him when they're outside and Maddy runs to protect him. He makes her go back inside but she can't forget the experience. She then lies to him and tells him that she has some experimental pills that allow her to go outside so they take a trip to Hawaii together. She doesn't tell her mother and after a day in Hawaii together she wakes up in the middle of the night unable to breathe. Her mother then cuts off all contact between her and Olly and Olly convinces his mother to leave his father and they move. Maddy is too heartbroken to stay in contact even though he continues to message her. She then gets an email from her doctor in Hawaii who believes she was misdiagnosed and he says that she merely has a heart condition and an incredibly weakened immune system from living like she was allergic to the world her whole life. Maddy then looks up her medical records and sees that her mother diagnosed her without a second opinion, and when she confronts her mother she realized that she is psychologically damaged after the accident that killed her father and brother. She then goes to New York and finds Olly.

The Indigo Spell - Richelle Mead (2013)

3.5 stars

My friend lent me this book after she learned that I hadn't read past The Golden Lily and I immediately remembered how easy this series was to get invested in and read.

This book is told from alternating perspectives of Adrian and Sydney, and reading Adrian's perspective is so much fun it was mainly what drove me to continue reading knowing that he had another chapter coming up. These books aren't anything super amazing or life changing, but they are always fun and I remembered that as soon as I started reading it. I'm not sure if it was because it had been so long since I'd read the last book but it seemed like the Adrian and Sydney romance was much more prominent in this book than the last, which I had no problem with. My favourite character was unsurprisingly Adrian, he just wants to be a good person and to be able to love Sydney without consequences and I find it very endearing and cute whenever he's around. I would recommend this series to anyone who just wants a fun easy read and like YA paranormal books.

The book starts with Sydney being woken by Ms Terwilliger because she says she's in danger and they must practice her magic more intensely than they had before. Sydney then goes to Sonya's wedding where she dances with Adrian in front of other alchemists and then uses her magic to find Marcus Finch, the name she heard from alchemists as someone who left the organization. When she finds Marcus she learns that he heads up a rebel organization for alchemists and warriors who want to leave their groups. Marcus says in order for Sydney to join she has to betray the alchemists in some way and he wants her to break into one of their facilities to get some information about the alchemists and the warriors working together. She uses one of the alchemist's crush on her to get him to let her into the facility. The danger that Ms Terwilliger was warning Sydney about was her sister Veronica who is also magical and finds young witches to steal youth and power from, Sydney uses her magic to find where Veronica is staying but her and Adrian only find a young receptionist who interrupts them when Adrian was about to get Sydney to confess her love for him in Veronica's old room. Sydney must then face off with the receptionist, Alicia, once she finds out that she stole Veronica's power and was going after Ms Terwilliger next. Sydney then decides to go with Marcus to Mexico to break her tattoo but Adrian leaves her coordinates if she decides to stay, she ends up going to find Adrian and profess her love for him and they decide to date in secret. They return to school and Zoe, Sydney's little sister, has arrived to stay with her.

Rebel Belle - Rachel Hawkins (2014)

3.5 stars

I bought this book because it sounded like it would be heaps of fun to read, and I was pretty right in my assumption.

This book is told from Harper's persective, she is a southern belle obsessed with cotillion and dances and is very unlike me so I think it's pretty amazing that I still loved reading her perspective considering the strong possiblity she had to be annoying. I found this book surprisingly hard to put down and even though I thought it would predictable, at times it definitely wasn't and I always wanted to know how everything would turn out so it kept my interest. My favourite character was David, there's not even a question. Asides from my weakness for the love interest, I thought he was probably the most relatable character in the book and I found the parts of the book without him a lot less interesting then the parts he was in. I would recommend this book to people who liked The Selection or people who like a girly heroine.

Harper Price is about to be crowned homecoming queen when she goes to the bathroom to put on lip gloss and is given the powers of a paladin from the janitor after he is murdered. She kills his murderer with the heel of her shoe and her new apparent strength and agility. She eventually learns that she is a paladin, a guard to the oracle who she learns is her childhood nemesis David Stark. His aunt Saylor explains that she is a mage also assigned to protect David as male oracles can be extraordinarily powerful and the last one was the one who created the paladin in the first place. They soon find the other mage, Blythe, who is crazy and wants to do a ritual that will make David super powerful and crazy like the last male oracle and David has a vision that shows that everything will go down at cotillion. Blythe manages to put a spell on the punch at cotillion so everyone who drinks it wants to kill Harper so she has to knock out many of her family and friends before she can get to David. She is too late and Blythe has already performed the ritual so David is supercharged and has accidentally turned all the debutantes into paladin. Blythe goes to leave with David but he refuses so she takes Bee, Harper's best friend who was just turned into a paladin, with her. David removes the powers from the rest of the girls and they go downstairs to find Ryan, Harper's ex, with Saylor's dead body. He tells her that she transferred her powers over to him before she died, meaning he has to work with Harper to protect David, who she just broke up with him for.

The Bride Wore Size 12 - Meg Cabot (2013)

3.5 stars

I bought this because I loved the rest of this series, as well as basically all of Meg Cabot's other books, and it lived up to my expectations.

This book is just like the others in the series except with the added benefit of Heather being engaged to Cooper, it makes everything so much more fun and Heather extra neurotic at times. Although I find all of Meg Cabot's books to be pretty similar, sometimes finding it hard to differentiate between the love interests between each book, I still find them all really fun to read and this book was no exception. I also loved how she put Lizzie Nicholls in it, even if it only was for a few pages I thought it was a great idea and it makes me so happy when authors connect characters between their books. My favourite character in this book was Gavin, he constantly cracks me up whenever he is around and I think his banter with Heather often lightens up the situations. I would recommend this series to you if you like lighthearted mysteries and don't mind romance.

Heather is busy planning her wedding at the start of a new semester when one of her RA's, Jasmine, ends up dead in her bed. She learns that she was communicating with the editor of the student run paper and was about to give him something big, she assumes on their  new resident, Price Rashid. It turns out that she was recording a party that Prince Rashid was throwing because the majority of the RAs were there and drinking, while many of the underage students also were. Heather eventually finds out that Howard Chen, another of the RAs who couldn't afford to go to school there if he wasn't also an RA, was the killer. She then marries Cooper at a ceremony with basically everyone she knows attending due to Cooper's sisters.

The Rosie Project - Graeme Simsion (2013)

3.5 stars

My friend lent me this book because we kept seeing stuff about it everywhere and she thought I'd enjoy it, I was a bit surprised by how much I enjoyed it and I can understand why it's so popular.

The book it told from the perspective of Don Tillman, who it is implied has some from of Asperger's or autism so it is quite interesting in that respect. That's really the only thing that makes this book any different to other romance novels though, instead of it being overly romantic it is usually quite funny in most of the situations Don and Rosie get into. My favourite character in this was either Don on Rosie, Don is adorably cute when he's thinking about Rosie, and Rosie was just plain old hilarious most of the time the best parts of the book are definitely when they are together. I would recommend this book to anyone who likes a quirky romance.

Don Tillman wants a wife, so he creates a questionnaire to help him easily eliminate bad candidates and find good ones with the help of his friend Gene. Gene sends Rosie to Don for something unrelated, however he mistakes her for a wife candidate and takes her out to dinner. He discovers that she is trying to learn who her biological father is and because he is a professor of genetics he decides to help her, even though she is not a suitable candidate to be his wife he likes her and wants to spend more time with her. After many different situations together Don eventually realizes he wants to marry Rosie despite her not fulfilling any of his criteria and he proposes to her. She rejects him because she says he doesn't feel love like everyone else and he doesn't really love her, this causes him to realize that he does in fact love her and he convinces her to marry him and they move to America together.

The Mime Order - Samantha Shannon (2015)

3.5 stars

I bought this book as soon as I saw it because I was interested to see where the story could go after the last one, and I was pretty happy with it.

I think this book was on par with the last book but I found the first half kind of hard to get through, I was enjoying it when I was reading it, but when I wasn't I didn't have any desire to keep reading. It's similar to the last book in that it takes a while to remember what all the words and slang of that world mean, but once you're in it it's a bit weird when you're back in reality. I feel like this book was kind of unneccessarily long, a lot of the first half was really long and explanatory and when I reflect on the book I can't remember anything significant happening in the first half. My favourite character was once again Warden, I find his part of the story so much more interesting and unpredictable than anything that Paige is doing, and his history of the rephaite and ranthen was probably the most interesting part of the book apart from the final battle. I would recommend this series to people who like high fantasy series like Eragon.

Paige is back in London and although she doesn't want to she must go back into Jaxon's gang as he can protect her. She wants to expose the rephaite and government's corruption to the entire syndicate, but Jaxon won't let her. Soon the Underlord is murdered and his mollisher disappears so Jaxon applies for the position, and Paige considers fighting for the position herself but she doesn't have the money. She is approached by Errai and Pleione, two rephaite that were helping them in Sheol I and they tell her that if she finds Warden then they would consider an alliance to help bring down Nashira and the other rephaite. Paige uses a substance that Warden left her to find where he was captured - in the Rag and Bone Man's territory wherer she must go to and break him out of. Once she does that Warden gets her an alliance with the ranthen and she has their bankroll so she can go for Underqueen. She manages to defeat everyone in the battle for Underqueen, including Jaxon by taking control of his dreamscape and making him concede instead of killing him. In the process she learns that most of them were working for the Rag and Bone Man, including the temporary Underqueen herself, The Abbess, and they were all, including the old Underlord Hector, selling voyants to the government. She tells the syndicate this and is dubbed the Black Moth, Nashira however gets the government to hold some of the other Sheol I survivors hostage and broadcast them on TV to try to get her to turn herself in. She goes into a guard's dreamscape and uses him to go to talk to Nashira, but before anything can be decided Nashira brings out her new ally, Jaxon.

These Broken Stars - Amie Kaufman & Meagan Spooner

3.5 stars

After reading the blurb of this book I didn't want to read it because I thought I'd read a couple books like this before but then I saw a couple different rave reviews of it and I decided to give it a try and I ended up being pleasantly surprised.

This book is told from alternating perspectives of  Tarver and Lilac, the two main characters of this book, with the start of each chapter having a snippet of an interrogation with Tarver that must be from when he is rescued. Although I found the first half of this book to be nothing special, once the whispers came into the plot I thought it improved greatly and although I found the end very weird and I still don't fully understand what happened, I was really interested in the story at the end and am now pretty excited to read the next book. When thinking back on it I'm pretty sure a lot of this book was the two of them just travelling across the planet, which says a lot about the authors that I could read probably over 200 pages of that and not give up on the book. My favourite character was Tarver, though I didn't really have a lot of choice as there were only really two characters in this book and I really did like them both, the tipover point was really that he came up with the my girl/my Lilac nickname. I would recommend this book to anyone who likes the show or book The 100, but probably not if you've read many more books like this one like Across the Universe or Glow.

Lilac La Roux is the daughter of Roderick La Roux, the most powerful guy in the galaxy and Tarver Merendsen is a decorated war hero. After Lilac blows Tarver off because of her father she is rescued by him when the ship they're on starts having extreme technical difficulties. Tarver and Lilac end up in a pod together and Lilac manages to get it released from the ship and they land on a planet with no people on it but has clearly been discovered and terraformed for human life. They soon see the Icarus, the ship they were on, crash onto the planet and when they make it to the ruins they find no survivors. Lilac starts having strange visions that when she tells Tarver about he thinks she's crazy but soon he starts having them as well and they start to think that there is some form of life on this planet helping them. The visions lead them to an abandoned communications station that they are unable to get into until Lilac rigs up an explosion that not only opens the station but also kills her. Tarver is distraught until the lifeforms create Lilac again after a few days who can remember all the time she spent dead. Tarver is determined to make her last permanently because everything else the whispers have created has been temporary, but Lilac only wants to get Tarver rescued. They learn that both the lifeforms and the communications array are in the basement with a password protected lock, they soon learn the password is Lilac and when they get in Lilac sets up a rescue signal but the lifeforms are also the source of the power for the base. Lilac becomes incredibly weak and Tarver realizes it's because the whispers are spread too thin, he grabs Lilac and jumps into the archway that is holding the whispers which both destroys them and the base and somehow makes Lilac permanent. La Roux industries then comes to pick them both up and when her father threatens Tarver because Lilac says she loves him she says that if anything ever happens to him she'll tell the galaxy about how he enslaved the first intelligent life that wasn't human in the galaxy.

Where She Went - Gayle Forman (2011)

3.5 stars

I ordered this book as soon as I'd finished If I Stay and found out it had a sequel, and this book is just as good as the first one and was really enjoyable.

I read the majority of this book in one sitting, just like If I Stay, because the author writes such emotional journeys that I feel like I'm going on them too and I don't want to stop in the middle of it. I actually think I found this book sadder than If I Stay which is really surprising considering it was about a girl deciding whether or not to die and be with the rest of her family. This book is told from Adam's perspective, not Mia's, which I really liked. It was a nice change to hear his experiences during the events of the first book and also to see how much it affected him. Also I think Adam's feelings gave some really good insight into people with anxiety, I know in his case it was clearly made worse by all his fame and success but the basic feelings he still had were the same as anyone with anxiety can feel. My favourite character in this book was Liz, I know she was barely in it but I just really like the idea of her character always keeping an eye on Adam and when she saw Mia again her reaction was so wonderful. I would recommend these books to anyone who likes romance and emotional journeys.

It's been three and a half years since the accident and three years since Mia went to Julliard and just stopped talking to Adam altogether. His band Shooting Star became a huge success after their album Collateral Damage, that Adam wrote all about Mia leaving him, became a huge hit. He's leaving for their next tour in a day and his manager told him to take that day by himself to calm down before tour. He sees a poster for a big recital Mia is giving that night and he manages to get a ticket, it's the first time he's been able to have anything to do with her since she left and after the concert she requests to see him. They spend the night going to all her favourite places in New York because she too is leaving for a tour in the next few days, and she ends up telling him that she stopped calling because she was so mad at him for making her stay. She leaves and he's on his way home when she comes back and explains that she started remembering what happened when she was in her coma, Adam breaks down with the weight of all he's been feeling for three years and then they go back to her house and sleep on her couch. When they wake up and Adam goes to leave she shows him a room where she's kept all the articles about him and his bands album, and reveals that she bought his old guitar that was auctioned off for charity. She tells him she eventually worked through her anger, and realized it never was for him, it was just easiest to blame him as the cause of it. They reunite and make arrangements to see each other on their tours, at the end of which Adam will leave his band. The book ends with an article three years later about Adam's release of a solo album that is apparently a work of genius and it mentions how his romantic interest Mia must be a good muse for him.

Clockwork Angel - Cassandra Clare (2010)

3.5 stars

I hadn't read this book earlier because my friend told me that it was just like The Mortal Intstruments but in a different setting, but after finishing City of Heavenly Fire and then reading lots of positive reviews about it I decided to finally read it.

I enjoyed this book, but didn't think it was significantly better than any of the books in The Mortal Instruments series which is how I've often heard this series referred to. I did enjoy it though, and if this book was just setting up the other two books in the series then I'm sure they'll be really good. I can see the similarities to The Mortal Instruments in that the basic starting plot is sort of the same, as a girl who doesn't know of her unique power in the shadowhunter world is found by shadowhunters and introduced to the institute where two teenage boys that are parabatai and one guarded female teenager live with two parents, but asides from that general setup it is a very different story. One thing I hope that continues with the other books is how the love triangle is playing out. I strongly dislike love triangles for the sake of love triangles but I appreciate that the one in this book seems important to the story, not just to have something for fans to fight about, and that it is done in a way that doesn't make me feel like I'm reading a love triangle until I reflect back on it. I thought that knowing the ending of this book from reading City of Heavenly Fire it would mean that I wouldn't enjoy the series, but I find it really interesting that so far it hasn't really bothered me and although it reveals who Tessa ends up with, and the outcome of Will, Tessa and Jem there are still a lot of plot points in the series that I don't know the outcome of. My favourite character in this book is Henry, he reminded me of Arthur Weasley which is probably why I like him so much, but he was also a really welcome change to all the other shadowhunters that are in this book and The Mortal Instruments series because he's so gentle.

Tessa Gray moves to London after her Aunt dies to live with her brother Nate but once there she is immediately taken captive by two warlocks known as the dark sisters, who teach her how to use her ability - to change into another person and access their thoughts - that she never knew she had. After six weeks she is rescued by Will Herondale and a few other shadowhunters from the London Institute. She agrees to tell them what she knows about what the dark sisters were doing if they agree to help find her brother who was taken by them. They soon learn that "The Magister" who the dark sisters answer to and who wanted to marry Tessa is DeQuincey, a vampire that is at the head of the Pandemonium Club, a club for downworlders and mundanes that hate Nephilim. For the Clave to act against him, they must witness him actually breaking the accords, so Tessa changes into Camille and she and Will go and see DeQuincey harming a mundane at one of his parties and the mundane turns out to be Nate. Nate then tells them that DeQuincey is binding the demon energies to his clockwork soldiers tonight, and when he gives them the address, the Clave rush off to battle him but leave Jem and Will behind as they are too young. Mortmain, Nate's former employer and the one that supplied the clockwork parts to DeQuincey, shows up at the Institute and tells Jem and Will that the dark sisters are at another address to DeQuincey doing the necessary spells to bind the demon energies so they leave to go kill them. The clockwork soldiers then break into the Institute and Nate turns against Tessa and tells her that Mortmain is the real Magister and he serves him. When Mortmain captures Jessamine and Sophie he tells Tessa that if she doesn't come with him he will kill them so she turns her knife on herself and tells him that she will kill herself if he doesn't answer her questions. He ignores her and she stabs herself, but when Will returns and finds Mortmain over her body covered in blood Mortmain disappears using a ring like the one Sebastian uses in The Mortal Instruments. When Will goes to cradle Tessa she is alive and tells him that just when she went to stab herself she changed into a girl the dark sisters made her change into who died of a gunshot wound and bled whenever she changed into her. Tessa then decides to stay at the Institute and help them, and Will goes to Magnus asking him for help with something unknown.

If I Stay - Gayle Forman (2009)

3.5 stars

I saw a lot of people freaking out when the trailer for this movie was released and when I saw it on sale I bought it, but I think my expectations were way too high.

This was a pretty quick read, I read it in a couple hours but I just kept expecting something really amazing to happen because of all the things I've seen about it and although it was a good book, it wasn't as phenomenal as I expected. I am really interested to see how they make it into a movie because it's told mostly through flashbacks as Mia lies in critical condition and thinks back on her life. This book is really good in the way it makes you think about death without actually being that sad, I mean it is sad, and I definitely cried numerous times, but I wouldn't really call it a depressing book. I know it isn't the point, but it also kind of makes me think that because I don't have a boyfriend if my whole family died in a car crash and I was on the verge of death this book kind of says that I wouldn't have anything to live for. I'm very excited to read the sequel though, because I really wanted to see Mia's reactions to everyone and the immediate ramifications she had to deal with, and I know that isn't what the sequel is about but it gets even better ratings than this book so I'm excited to see where it goes. My favourite character in this book was Nurse Ramirez, her attitude was really wonderful and I think she really helped move Mia's journey along. I would recommend this book to any people who like books with an emotional journey.

Mia and her family decide to go for a drive on a light snow day but a truck crashes into their car and Mia is the only survivor but is in a critical state. She is like a ghost in that she can see everything that's happening to her but she can't communicate with anyone. She remembers parts of her life through flashbacks that are relevant at the time, most prominent is her relationship with her boyfriend Adam. Her whole extended family, all her family friends, her best friend and Adam all come to the hospital and try to get her to wake up. She is ready to give in to death when Adam brings an ipod with Yo-Yo Ma loaded on it and puts it on her ears and she wakes up and squeezes his hand.

Prodigy - Marie Lu (2013)

3.5 stars

After loving Legend I immediately ordered this and Champion, the next in the series, but I think it's really hard to enjoy a sequel when the first book was so good.

I know sequels in trilogies are hard because you're over the initial plot of the first book and you have to set up the final book, and this book dealt with that really well, I just found this book a lot less enjoyable than the first for some reason that I can't quite work out. This book is narrated in the same way as the first, with alternating chapters from June and Day, which I actually find more intersting when they're together and experiencing the same things opposed to when they're apart, which for this book is about half of it. I really like how they discover in this book that there is no perfect utopia that they can have if they let one side win over the other, they have to change their republic to make it a place of hope and safety to live in a place like that. It's a really nice change from the books that have the protagonist rebel against one government so another can take it's place, or books where they take down both the rebel governement and the existing governement and just expect everything to work out fine. Day has a line at one point which is "I don't wamt to see the Republic collapse. I want to see it change." which made me realize how much I liked them doing that rather than starting a war. My favourite character in this book is June, I want to be her. She learnt from her mistakes of letting Jameson manipulate her in the last book and she is now the smartest, boldest warrior, who is flustered around boys and her wit around Day, even when she's collapsed with fever is one of the best things in this book. I would recommend this series to fans of dystopian novels.

June and Day have made their way to Vegas to try to contact the patriots to get them to help with Day's injured leg, make sure Tess is okay and then help them to get Eden. Once they are taken in by them they tell them that they will get Eden free if they help assassinate the new Elector which they agree to do. The head of the patriots, Razor, is a commander in the army and tells June that she has to turn herself in and then get an audience with the Elector to tell him that she learnt of a patriot attempt on his life, that will be a lie that is played out by the patriots to get him to trust her, they will then get Day to kill him and braodcast it when he changes route. June manages to get a meeting with Anden and convince him of the fake attack on his life, except he tells her of his plans to free Day's brother to try to make an alliance with Day so the republic will trust him and the changes he wants to make like getting rid of the trials. June signals Day on the cams that the patriots have recording her that something is up with the assassination and when the time comes they stop the assassination and escape into the colonies. Once there they learn that their society is just as bad as the republic in some ways and that Razor was a double agent recruited by the government to assassinate the Elector and blame it on the patriots. Kaede then steals one of the colonies jets and flies Day and June into Denver but gets killed in the process. Day then publicly announces his support for Anden and is then reunited with Eden. However after Day is treated for his injuries the doctors tell him that the testing they did on him after he failed the trials should've killed him and now he is dying. Anden offers June the highest position in government that isn't Elector and she tells Day she won't do it because they'll have no time together and he breaks up with her and tells her to do it, but doesn't tell her about his diagnosis.

Cinder - Marissa Meyer (2012)

3.5 stars

I bought this book based off the same tumblr post that had recommended The Selection and The Giver to me, and once again it did not disappoint me.

I didn't realize until I was a page into it that this book is based on Cinderella, and after further research I learned that the other three books in the quartet will be based on Red Riding Hood, Rapunzel and Snow White. It also set in the future where the Earth is going through difficult times against Lunars - people who live on the moon - due to their Queen wanting to manipulate and conquer the Earth. This book is told from varying perspectives based on who is central to the plot at that point, so about halfway through it is pretty much just alternating chapters of Cinder and Kai, but earlier on it is mainly Cinder and I think there was one or two from Dr Erland in there. I actually really enjoyed that because I got all the information straight away and it wasn't as confusing as switching perspectives can sometimes be. My favourite character was probably Iko, I thought she was really funny and I imagined her like Eve from Wall-E which was so cute when she did some things. I would recommend this book to anyone who likes fairytales and novels set in the future.

Cinder is a cyborg mechanic in New Beijing who has to work for her stepmother who never lets her keep any of the money she makes and always has more to demand of her. When Prince Kai comes to her shop to get her to fix his android they become fast friends and when she goes home and tells her stepsister, Peony, who is the only person in the family who she actually likes, and who likes her, she immediately insists she go with her on her trip to the junkyard to hear the details. Once there Peony contracts the leutemosis plague, a terrible fast-acting disease that means the person is taken immediately to quarrantine before they die within the next few days. Once Cinder returns home her stepmother Adri blames her for Peony's illness and gives her up to the draft, which is where one cyborg each day is recruited to test new leutemosis cures on. Once inside the palace medicinal ward Cinder becomes friends with Dr Erland who tells her she is immune to leutemosis, Prince Kai then runs into them and asks Cinder to come to the upcoming ball with him, she refuses because he doesn't know she's a cyborg but he says the offer's open is she canges her mind. The next day the Emperor, Kai's father, dies of leutemosis and when Cinder returns to the doctor's office she learns that she is a Lunar, a person born on the moon and can manipulate people into seeing her however she wants and doing things she wants them to do. Lunars with that ability were killed off by Queen Levana, the Lunar Queen, as she knows they are a threat to her power because they will realize she is holding her people's loyalty through manipulation. When Cinder fixes Kai's android she learns that someone had put a communication chip in it and had learned all the information that Kai had learned about the real heir to the Lunar throne who was previously thought to be dead. On the night of the ball Cinder makes contact with the person who had the communication chip and it turns out to be Cress (who the third book will be about) a girl who was forced into hacking the palace by her stepmother, the Queen's right hand woman, and she tells her that even if Kai marries Queen Levana she'll still wage war on Earth to get support of another planet. Cinder then goes to the ball to tell Kai the Queen's plans but once there he finds out she's a cyborg and a Lunar after she has a head to head with Queen Levana. She is then placed into custody until Levana can take her back to Luna but while she is in her cell Dr Erland comes to her and tells her that she is the lost princess and that she should escape before Queen Levana takes her and come meet him in Africa where they can work together to dethrone her.

The Bone Season - Samantha Shannon (2013)

3.5 stars

I saw this book in a discount book shop for eight dollars and after watching Carrie Hope Fletcher say wonderful things about it I couldn't pass it up, and I'm really glad I didn't.

I read so much stuff about people calling this series the new Harry Potter, but I think it's unfair to compare anything to Harry Potter as it will always recieve such harsh criticism that way. This series doesn't really have many similarities to it anyway, one is about wizardry and the other clairvoyants, the only similarity is just coincidental as both are a seven book fantasy series written by a british female. Andy Serkis has a production company that has also picked up the movie rights to this book, so it also might become a movie. I really enjoyed this book, even though it was a bit confusing for the first half trying to get used to all the new words and extra confusing for the first chapter before I discovered the glossary in the back. I really like intricate fantasy worlds so I'm looking forward to more books in this series and I'm really excited to see all the new things that can happen in seven books of this world. My favourite character in this book was Warden, not because he was the love interest, but because I thought that learning more about his character and reading the dialogue that Paige had with him was some of the best and most interesting parts of the book. I would recommend this book to anyone who likes fantasy worlds and big intricate series.

Paige Mahoney is a dreamwalker, a particularly rare type of clairvoyant who works for an association of other clairvoyants in a world where being found to be a clairvoyant is a sentence to death or a lifetime of torture. After accidentally using her gift to kill two guards on a train, she is captured and taken to Sheol I, a society run by otherworldly clairvoyant creatures known as Rephaites. She learns that once every ten years, the Bone Season takes place in Sheol I where they take all clairvoyant prisoners from the government and train them using any methods necessarily to become soldiers for them against the Emite, a vicious race that only Rephaite or well trained clairvoyants can defeat. Paige is taken by Warden Arcturus Mesarthim, who she learns is the blood consort (engaged to basically the queen of the Rephaite) and has never a human pupil before. She soon makes some friends and learns that escape is nearly impossible without Rephaite help and two years ago when the Rephaite did help, one human betrayed their escape plan and everyone was slaughtered except the Rephaite who helped, who were severly tortured as an example. Paige soon learns that Warden was one of the Rephs who tried to help the last time and he helps her escape, successfully, this time.

The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks - E. Lockhart (2008)

3.5 stars

This book was on the same list that recommended Memoirs of a Teenage Amnesiac so after being very underwhelmed by that book I wasn't expecting much from this one. However I was pleasantly surprised by this book.

Although this book seems like it's just a story about a girl pulling pranks at her boarding school, it is so much more. It is a powerful statement for feminists and it continually points out the double standard in her school and shows her feelings on it. It also shows how important independance and individuality can be to a person who is friends with a "lower class" of students and moves to a "popular class" of them when she starts dating one of them. The pranks and secret society storyline are also really interesting and really funny at times. My favourite character in this book was definitely Frankie, she was incredibly smart, she didn't want to be discriminated against, but she also just wanted her boyfriend to respect her, not only think she was adorable. I would recommend this book to anyone who likes good pranks or who likes coming of age stories.

Frankie Landau-Banks has a remarkable physical transformation in the summer between her freshman and sophmore year, she gets taller, she grows breasts, and she starts using some de-frizz conditioner in her hair. Back at school she is suddenly noticed by Matthew Livingston, one of the most popular senior boys at Alabaster and they soon start dating. After a few months of him often ditching their dates to hang out with Alpha, his best friend, or bringing his friends along with them when they're hanging out, Frankie follows him one night where he goes to a meeting of the Loyal Order of the Basset Hounds, Alabaster's secrret society. Frankie then finds their history book and learns that Alpha is this year's head, so when he leaves for four days over halloween leaving their planned prank in the hands of the rest of the society, Frankie creates a fake email account in his name and masterminds the society to perform a much better prank. Alpha returns and takes the credit anyway so Frankie continues organising such pranks until one day when Alpha gets caught cleaning up some evidence and is going to be expelled so Frankie admits to Matthew that she was the mastermind, and instead of being impressed he calls her psychotic and childish and even when she points out that when he thought it was Alpha he though he was a genius, he still breaks up with her. Frankie continues to go to Alabaster and realizes that they never would have respected her and she's smarter than they'll ever be anyway.

Percy Jackson and the Battle of the Labyrinth - Rick Riordan (2008)

3.5 stars

I bought this book at the same time I bought the second and third books in the series, it just took me a while to get into it.

I'd read a few comments from people saying that this book is their favourite in the series but I still think that Sea of Monsters is my favourite so far. When I was reading this book I kept forgetting what their goal actually was and what their quest was actually about other than just getting caught up in different fights in the labyrinth. My favourite character in this book was Dionysius, I think that he is always hilarious and lightens up the tense situations and I liked seeing a bit of his character depth in this book when one of his sons died. I also really like Rachel Elizabeth Dare and think she'll play abigger role in the last book in the series when I get around to reading it. I would recommend this series to anyone who likes greek mythology and adventure stories.

Percy and Annabeth learn that Luke is planning to use Daedalus' labyrinth to invade Camp Half Blood to kill all the heroes so Kronos has no opposition when he comes to power. Annabeth gets to lead a quest into the labyrinth and she takes Percy, Tyson and Grover with her. They eventually learn that they need mortal eyes to navigate the maze and get them to Daedalus' workshop so Percy gets Rachel Elizabeth Dare, who can see through the mist, to help them. Once they find Daedalus they learn that he has already struck a bargain with Luke and Kronos and given them Ariadne's string however as he is telling them this some of Luke's army come in and attack Daedalus, betraying him. Percy, Annabeth, Tyson and Grover return to Camp Half Blood to help defend against Luke's army, but not before Percy discovers that Kronos has taken Luke's body to control. A battle then ensues at camp, which ends with Daedalus coming in to help the half bloods against Luke's army and saving the camp. He then dies so the labyrinth will die with him and everyone returns home for the summer.

Percy Jackson and the Titan's Curse - Rick Riordan (2007)

3.5 stars

I ordered this book as soon as I finished the first one, it just took me a while to get around to actually reading it, but once I started I read it in about two days because much like the first two as soon as you get into it it's hard to put down.

I love Percy narrating these books, Rick write his perspective so well that I'm often laughing out loud at his little quips. I think the quest in this book went on for a bit too long as it got a bit boring in places, but I like meeting new Gods and demigods which there was a lot of in this book. I also like how each book is slowly having more and more little references to Percy and Annabeth (Percabeth to those in the know) liking each other. My favourite character in this book was probably Apollo, it was nice having a god with a sense of humour and a nice personality. Just look at my posts for the first and second book for who I would recommend this series to.

The book starts with Percy and Annabeth going to help Grover bring some new demigods to camp but when they are attacked by a monster Annabeth gets taken. The goddess Artemis then says she must go on a quest to find the monster that can bring down Olympus and leaves her pack of hunters with Percy and Grover to take back to camp. They then are granted acccess to go on a quest to save Annabeth and they find that Luke has taken her to the garden of Hesperides where he is forcing her to hold up the sky in Atlas' place. Artemis is then tricked into taking the sky from Annabeth and will miss the meeting of the Gods on the winter solstice if they don't save her in time. Once there Percy takes the sky from Artemis so she can help fight Atlas and Luke and almost dies under the weight before Artemis tricks Atlas back into holding it. Thalia also pushes Luke off a cliff and though Percy is sure he's dead Annabeth, then later his father tells him he's wrong. Thalia then decides to join Artemis' hunt which makes her immortal and stuck at fifteen forever, putting the weight of the prophecy on Percy.

Shine Light - Marianne de Pierres (2012)

3.5 stars

I was excited to learn how this trilogy would end after being really intrigued by book one and two, except I think after reading it it's my least favourite in the series.

I really liked Burn Bright and Angel Arias because they explored different worlds and creatures, but this one was focused more on Naif and how she was going to destroy Ixion. I still really enjoyed reading a story set in this unique world, but I think the end was very abrupt and confusing and I would've enjoyed an epilogue or another chapter giving an explanation as to what happened to everyone after the battle at Danskoi. I think my favourite character in this book was Lenoir, even though Naif thinks he has flawed logic and wants to hurt people, he never does unless he's trying to help Naif. I would recommend this series to people who like fantasy novels, espeially ones set in new worlds.

The book starts just after the end of Angel Arias with Naif and her friends on Ruzalia's airship telling her what they learned when the were in the Grave. They decide they need to take the books that are hidden in the Vank as they think they'll have the history of how Ixion was created in them. They also need to find where the ripers are keeping the uther queen as without the uthers they won't be able to look after themselves, also they think the uthers can reverse the badges so no-one will die of them. Ruzalia drops them back on Ixion and tells them of a way to send her messages while she's away. After they have retrieved the books, Naif learns that the ship that the ripers came on is sustaining the ever night on Ixion and she thinks it is right off the south coast of the island. The leaguers and the rest of Naif's friends are then taken by the ripers and she finds Rollo and Kero who help her find the uthers and then with one of them finds the uther queen trapped inside the riper's ship. Naif and Rollo send a message to Ruzalia to meet Kero at the ship and to tow it away so the ever night will disappear and the ripers will have to retreat to the caves or die. While they are waiting for Ruzalia to come and take the ship away, Naif and Rollo gather most of the people on Ixion to join them to go to Danskoi and once there they free the leaguers and just before a night creature is about to kill Naif, Ruzalia tows the ship away and the light returns to Ixion, banishing the night creatures and the ripers.

Every Day - David Levithan (2012)

3.5 stars

I bought this book because I thought the concept was really interesting and unique and I enjoyed Will Grayson, Will Grayson and wanted to see how a whole novel written by David Levithan would go.

This book was written wonderfully, even with it's predictable plot I had to keep reading just to see who A would inhabit the next day. This book also made me question my life; What would someone do if they woke up in my body? What would I do if I was in someone's body for one day? What if I fell in love with someone who was a different person every day? For that reason I loved this book, but the predictablility and sadness of the plot made me hate it a little bit. Because I didn't really like any of the central characters that much, I thought I would pick my favourite person A inhabited in the novel and the ones that stick out in my memory are Zara, Vic, Alexander and Kelsea. Zara was young and in love and just really likeable, Vic had faced his life with such conviction I don't know how someone couldn't like him and I know you're supposed to like Alexander the best but I actually just think he was a really likeable guy who I can imagine being one of my friends in real life. Kelsea wasn't my favourite personality A experienced in the novel, but I think her chapter was a lot more important than the rest of A's worries and I loved that he clearly helped someone with just one day. I would recommend this book to anyone who doesn't mind a weird premise and likes romance.

A wakes up as a different person every day, he's still himself, he just inhabits someone different. He usually tries to avoid attatchment and just try to not have anything go wrong, that is until he inhabits Justin and falls for Rhiannon. He can't stop think about her so he goes to visit her a couple times, once in the body of Nathan Daldry. On the way back from the party he went to as Nathan Daldry to visit Rhiannon he can't get back to his house before midnight so he pulls over to the side of the road to fall asleep so it won't hurt when he body jumps. Nathan then tells everyone he was possessed by the devil for a day and won't stop emailing A. Soon A explains to Rhiannon his situation and they start to kind of date. After a couple weeks Rhiannon tells him she can't get past his outside always being different and breaks up with him, he then replies to Nathan and meets him to explain to him what happened to him. Nathan then brings his reverend to talk to A and the reverend tells A that he is just like him and that you can spend longer than just one day in someone. A then wakes up in the body of Alexander Lin and calls Rhiannon. He sets them up for their first date and then tells Rhiannon that even though he can stay in a body for a long period of time he can't do that, it would feel too wrong and Alexander is a nice guy that she could love. The next day he makes his person move to a different city so he won't have to run into Rhiannon again.

Size 12 and Ready to Rock - Meg Cabot (2012)

3.5 stars

I bought this book because I really enjoy this series and if there was any chance I wasn't going to read this one, the book trailer/video clip they made to remind readers of the storyline would've changed my mind.

I think Cabot originally intended this as a trilogy, and I have no idea why she kept going with the series five years later, but I'm glad she did. Unlike the other novels in the series, the murderer turns out to be who Heather actually first thinks it is, also unlike the other novels it isn't just a jaded enemy of the victim. This time he's a deranged abusive perv who you grow to hate as much as all the other characters do. My favourite characters in this novel were Cooper and Tania. I found Cooper was a lot more involved in this book than the others and he was a good counter balance to Heather's character, I also found Tania to be surprisingly likeable and her strength in the final moments made me feel a bit like a proud mama. I would recommend this book or series to anyone who wants a funny read that is really more about following one woman's life than the murders or romance  surrounding her.

The book opens with Heather and Cooper finding Tania passed out in the penthouse of Fischer Hall. They learn that her bodygaurd was just shot so Cooper's father hires him as her bodygaurd until her old one gets better. Tania also insists that she move her upcoming rock camp for girls to Fischer Hall. Heather soon learns that Tania was married before, to her high school choir teacher, who abused her mentally and physically and since she left him for Jordan had been blackmailing her for money. When she stopped sending the money, he said he would hurt her and that's why when filming starts on the rock camp show, one of her producers eats a poisoned muffin and dies. Later Heather learns that one of the girls from the rock camp has been going over to Wasser Hall to meet her boyfriend and when she goes to get her, it's really Gary, Tania's ex, before she can get him, he jumps out the window and manages to get away. She then sees the girl had been using her scarf to hide the finger shaped bruises on her neck, which she says were her fault for not hitting the notes right. At the final show for the rock camp, Tania and Heather are left alone backstage when Gary comes in and tries to shoot Heather to get Tania to give him the money. Heather stabs him with a hair comb into his previous wound and as she's running away with Tania Cooper returns and shoots Gary in the chest.

The Secret Life of Bees - Sue Monk Kidd (2002)

3.5 stars

This is the last book that Mac bought me for my birthday this year and probably had the most interesting concept of the three, although it was kind of slow in places it was still enjoyable.

This book reminded me a little bit of The Help as it is set in the same kind of time period and racism is a major theme in the novel, however I found that the characters in this book were not quite as loveable as those in The Help and I didn't really love them like I do in most books. The books does get slow and drag on a bit sometimes, especially around the middle of the novel I found it very hard to want to read because it got so bogged down with the beekeeping details. My favourite character in this novel was Zach, he had strong morals and big dreams, and I liked how Lily's love for him wasn't a big deal. I would recommend this book to anyone who likes period dramas, books that overcome racism, or anyone who likes a quirky drama.

Lily Owens thinks she shot her mother when she was four. She is now fourteen and the only person who loves her is her housekeeper and nanny Rosaleen. When Rosaleen goes to register to vote, white men attack her and throw her in jail, Lily manages to break her out and runs away to Tiburion with her, a place that her mother wrote on the back of a honey label Lily keeps. Once there they stay with three African American sisters who make honey. After a month Lily asks them about her mother, it turns out August was her housekeeper when she was a child and when she was trying to take Lily away she was trying to bring her there. T. Ray, Lily's father, comes looking for her and she convinces him to let her stay with August but when she asks him whether she really did kill her mother he said that she did, it was an accident, but she did shoot her mother.