Throne of Glass - Sarah J. Maas (2012)

4.5 stars

I'd heard a lot about how good this book is online and then one of my friends was amazed when she found out I hadn't read it, I decided to eventually get around to it but when yet another friend just brought it to me one day when we were hanging out because she was sure I'd love it I finally read it.

This book is told mainly from Celaena's persective but it often has snippets from Chaol, Dorian and occaisonally Kaltain. This book actually took me a long time to get through which I think is weird because it was really good, I loved Celaena and I loved the plotline but for some reason in the middle of the book I found it pretty slow. This book does have a love triangle, and although Celaena is written as a strong individual who wants love rather than is fought over like an object (my favourite kind of love story), I also find both boys equally as loveable and I don't want either of them to be heartbroken (my least favourite kind of love triangle) so I ended up very conflicted and worried about who she will pick in the end. My favourite character in this book was Celaena, she was amazing, strong and independent but still lonely and in need of a friend, also she loves dogs. I also really enjoyed Chaol, I thought his slow development of feelings for Celaena was so well done and I found scenes he was in were always more fun with his wit. I would recommend this to anyone who likes fantasy and to anyone who loves a stong female lead.

Celaena Sardothien is the most famous, and best, assassin in Erilea except she was caught and has been working in the dangerous salt mines for a year. Prince Dorian arrives and wants to sponsor her to become his father's, the King's, future champion. She must participate in tests and then win a final duel between her and the other possible champions and if she wins she will have to serve four years for the King and then she will be freed. She agrees because her only other option is the salt mines and once in Ardalan she develops a friendship with both Chaol, the captain of the guard, and Dorian, both of whom she starts to develop feelings for as well. She also has a develops a close friendship with Nehemia, the princess of Ellwye who is rumoured to be a rebel and who tells her that the strange marks around the castle are called wyrdmarks. Something in the castle is murdering champions in a very brutal way and after a while Celaena starts to suspect Nehemia. Celaena discovers a secret passage in her room that contains Elena's, the first Queen of Ardalan who was half fae, tomb among other passages including one that leads outside the castle past the gates. She chooses to stay because Elena's spirit tells her she must win and defeat the evil that is killing people in the castle, a few days before one of the last tests Celaena goes into the tunnels and finds Cain, the other champion who has been gaining strength the entire competition, summoning a ridderak, the creature that has been killing champions. Celaena defeats it but is wounded and when she returns to her room Nehemia saves her. She also starts kind of dating Dorian, who is madly in love with Celaena and can't see a future without her, so Kaltain poisons Calaena before her final battle with Cain. Calaena would have lost except Nehemia summons Elena who destroys all the spirits Cain has gathered to help him and all the extra strength he has gathered from them. Calaena then wins and Chaol stabs Cain after he tries to stab Calaena in the back after she's already won. Caleana then breaks up with Dorian as she doesn't think they can be together if she's the King's champion and she doesn't want to get attached to him because she's going to leave when she's granted her freedom.

The Martian - Andy Weir (2014)

4.5 stars

I bought this book because I saw so many good reviews of it and then when the trailer came out I decided I had to read it before I saw the movie, I was definitely not disappointed by all the hype.

This book is told mainly through journal entries from Mark, but it also has chapters that focuses on the people back at the NASA base, or wherever the relevant people are in each situation. The chapters from outside perspectives start once they realize that he is still alive which I thought was pretty cool, but it does take a good third or so of the book for the outside perspectives to start and it got kind of boring as Mark went on alone for so long which was really the only problem I had with this book. There is a lot of science in this book, which didn't bother me or was hard to understand in any way but I'm not sure if that's just because I was studying science at the time or because the author made it really engaging as part of the story and easy to understand in the context, I'm pretty sure it was the latter though. My favourite character in this was obviously Mark, his humour made the story compelling and easy to continue reading and everyone else was kind of just part of a huge ensemble that worked well together and made for a nice change from the stress that was Mark's everyday life. I would recommend this to anyone that enjoyed the movie, or to any sci-fi fans.

Mark Watney is left on Mars by his crew when they think he dies in a storm that caused them to evacuate the planet. He is in fact still alive and has to manage to stay alive until the next Mars mission arrives in approximately 4 years. He manages to grow potatoes and contact NASA who want to keep him alive until the next Mars mission picks him up, but in order to do that they have to send a supplies probe by a certain date which ends up failing. Mark's original crew ends up having to turn around and pick Mark up off of Mars which they manage to do after he'd been stuck 549 sols.

The DUFF: Designated Ugly Fat Friend - Kody Keplinger (2010)

4.5 stars

I bought this book after I saw the movie and loved it, and reading this book in one day gave me the same feeling.

Part of the reason that I loved this book may have been due to picturing Mae Whitman and Robbie Amell as the characters the whole time, but I think even without that excellent visual it is still a really fun read. Bianca is such a relatable narrator that it makes this book very easy to read and it's easy to understand her decisions without heaps of unneccessary or extra explanation. I also really love the swearing because teenagers swear, I hate it when you read a book about teenagers and they're constantly saying damn or theres just no expletives at all, it makes me feel like I'm just reading about my friends rather than fictional people. My favourite character in this book was Bianca, she was so sarcastic and loveable and insecure and I think the book wouldn't have been half as good with a different main character. I would definitely recommend anyone who liked the movie to give the book a try, and otherwise if you like a good teen romance then give this a try.

Bianca reluctantly goes to a party with her friends Casey and Jessica where Wesley Rush talks to her because she is the DUFF, the designated ugly fat friend, and if he talks to her it will give him a better chance with Casey and Jessica. A few days later she overhears her dad begging her mum to come home over the phone and then when she goes out she kisses Wesley as a distraction from it. A few days after that she comes home to find her dad had started drinking again after being sober for 16 years because her mum had sent divorce papers over in the mail, Wesley calls because he is supposed to be coming over to work on a group project but she goes to his house instead and she starts having sex with him as a distraction from her home life. Her and Wesley become friends with all the time they're spending together and one night he comes over to her house but her dad comes home early so they play scrabble all night. When Wesley goes to leave Bianca's dad calls her a whore and hits her after she tries to take the whiskey from him so Wesley punches him in the face and takes Bianca home with him. She wakes up the next morning and realizes that she's in love with Wesley, the biggest womanizer in school so she tells him she can't sleep with him anymore and leaves. She returns home, her dad stops drinking and she starts dating her long time crush Toby Tucker but she is often comparing him to Wesley, who bursts in on them making out a week later. Bianca tells him he couldn't possibly have feelings for her when he constantly calls her duffy and is really just sleeping with girls to try to fill the void his parents leaving made. He then stops sleeping with girls and sneds Bianca a note that says (my favourite part): Wesley Rush doesn't chase girls but he's chasing you. Her and Toby end up out at the underage bar and he tells her that she's clearly in love with Wesley and to just go be with him, which she does.

A Thousand Pieces of You - Claudia Gray (2014)

4.5 stars

My sister got me this book for christmas after I put it on my list because it was on my recommendations page on goodreads and I thought it sounded alright and had the coolest cover ever, it turns out it was much better than I expected.

The concept of this book is basically travelling through the multiverse which is so cool and interesting that whenever I was getting a bit bored of the story Marguerite would think about the ramifications or the ethics of all the dimensional travel she was doing and I would immediately be drawn back in. My only real problem with this book was that it was a little predicatable with the switch of Marguerite's feelings between Theo and Paul, and I found it really annoying that she only spent two or three weeks with Lieutenant Markov but then thought she had fallen in love with just that version of him. I really appreciate the fact that with some of the dimensions she travelled to it was only for a couple chapters, but the author was so good at giving them all distinguishing features that I can remember them all and what their differences were. My favourite character was probably Paul, surprise surprise I like the love interest, but I thought he was just super adorable and considering how few characters are in this book I thought his character was definitely the most interesting. But also I feel for Josie because everyone's in love with her sister, how annoying. I would recommend this book to anyone who like YA fiction, or who don't mind a bit of teen romance with their interdimensional travel stories.

The book starts as soon as Marguerite has jumped dimensions for the first time, explaining that her parents invented interdimensional travel between owrlds because they theorize that the multiverse is real,meaing every possible choice you could make creates a new dimension. You also discover that she jumped dimensions to try to avenge her father, who her family believes to have been murdered by Paul, one of her parents graduate students. The other graduate student Theo is the one who brought Marguerite the firebird (the device that allows interdimensional travel) so she could chase Paul across dimensions with him because Paul jumped dimensions after the murder and the police believe he did it. The first dimension they come to is more technologically advanced than their own, but Marguerite's whole family is dead. There she confronts Paul and learns that he didn't kill her father, but he has to keep jumping through dimensions to try to get to Wyatt Conley, head of the Triad corporation. The next dimension her and Paul jump to together except she falls when she jumps in and breaks her firebird, it is a 1900s technology type age where Marguerite is royalty and Paul is her guard, but before he can fix her firebird his is confiscated and without it he can't remember his true self. They are stuck in that dimension for a few weeks while Marguerite both falls in love with Lieutenant Markov and gets her father to rebuild her firebird for her. Lieutenant Markov dies in battle and Marguerite assumes that Paul also died, but he managed to retrieve his firebird and jump dimensions beforehand. She follows him into a dimension very similar to their own where Paul explains that they had already made interdimensional travel work and this Wyatt Conley wants to start a war. He has done this by making Marguerite the only person from her dimension to be able to travel into others and remember herself without needing a reminder, he then wants to use her against her family and Paul and Theo. They manage to evade him but Paul tells Marguerite that he must travel to another dimension but he won't tell her why, when they get there Marguerite works out that her father is actually alive and has been put in this dimension's body so Wyatt could use him as leverage. Marguerite tells Theo that he and Paul can build him a new firebird so he can come home, but then Theo convinces her to go in a submarine with him where she learns that he has been a spy Theo from Wyatt Conley's dimension for the past three months so she steals his firebird and gives it to her dad so they can return to their dimension together. The book ends with her and Paul tentatively together, Theo upset that the other Theo ruined his chances with Marguerite, and her parents happily reunited.

The Storyteller - Jodi Picoult (2013)

4.5 stars

Mac leant this book to me probably about a year ago because we love Jodi Picoult and she told me this one was a really good one, my only regret is that it took me so long to actually read it.

This book is told from four different perspectives, although Josef's is only once or twice and Minka's is a whole section on it's own, it's mostly from the perspective of Sage. Although I enjoyed this book, I found it kind of hard to keep reading in the first part, but once I got to the second part which was Minka's story I was hooked and I finished it in a day. I found this book really upsetting because Minka's story was so heartbreaking and I know that Jodi Picoult always researches the topics in her books really well before writing them so last night I just cried about how much people suck for like half an hour after I finished her story. I think it is super impressive that she could write a story within a story, because at the start of every chapter is a passage from the story that Minka wrote through her childhood. My favourite character was Leo, although I thought Minka was incredible, Leo brought a cute romantic feel to such a dark story and especially through the last part of the story he was constantly making me laugh. I would recommend this book to anyone who likes Jodi Picoult books and won't be upset by a holocaust based story.

For a plot summary see Mac's previous review.

Clockwork Princess - Cassandra Clare (2013)

4.5 stars

I read this book in two days and I really enjoyed it, I thought it was a really good end to the series and was probably my favourite in the series along with Clockwork Prince.

It is told from varying narrators like the previous books in the series, but this one probably has the least narration from Tessa out of the three which I like because just like The Mortal Instruments I start to care just as much about the side characters as much as the main ones. My biggest problem with this book was that the first third was really great and fun, the last third was really emotional and concluding, but the middle third was really boring and I found it really tedious to get through. My cousin, who had read these before me, said that she disliked this book because the end was really weird, and because this book ties in with City of Heavenly Fire a large plot point at the end goes unexplained and I can totally understand how having read this without reading City of Heavenly Fire first could turn you off the ending. The thing that was most annoying to me about this book was that the friendship between Sophie and Tessa had become like my favourite thing and all I wanted was for Sophie to tell Tessa she was engaged, but I was deprived of that beautiful moment for like no reason, the book was long enough, a few more pages couldn't have hurt. I would recommend this series to fans of the YA paranormal genre, but I'm pretty sure if you like this genre you've probably already read it.

The book starts with Gabriel Lightwood coming to the Institute to tell them that his father's demon pox has turned him into a demon, a giant worm to be specific, and he's tearing people apart at their house. Everyone goes to fight him together and after they kill him they return to the house with Gabriel, who was blackmailed by the Consul to spy on Charlotte and send him some evidence that she is unfit to run the institute. Jessamine is being returned to the institute from the silent city but when the silent brothers bring her, Mrs Black and an army of automatons also come in the gates and they kill Jessamine and take Tessa. Jem collapses after the battle and when Will goes to give him more yin fen he realizes there is next to none left because Jem needed more and more to keep his strength up recently, and Mortmain has bought up all the supplies so they can't buy any more. Will then works out where Mortmain is, and he wants to go rescue Tessa but he feels he can't leave Jem. Magnus convinces him that it is what Jem would want even though he doesn't know of Will's feelings for her and Jem wakes up and hears them. He talks to Will about loving Tessa and doesn't hate him for it, he insists he goes to rescue her and they say their goodbyes. Will then travels to his family's old house in Wales where Mortmain is keeping Tessa, on his journey there he feels through his parabatai mark that Jem has died but he continues on. When he finds Tessa, trapped in a cave, she has already been forced to change into Mortmain's father and give him the spell that binds demons and automatons so they can think on their own. The only way to defeat the automatons now is to kill Mortmain. Will and Tessa have sex, and when Magnus finds them the next morning because he helped Henry perfect the portal and they all travelled through it together he helps them get ready for the battle. The consul has a grudge against Charlotte because she's a woman and would not send any other Shadowhunters to her aid but three Silent Brothers are fighting with them when Tessa and Will arrive and they see that one of the brothers is Jem. Tessa is then taken by Mortmain, but before he can take her away she changes into the angel Ithuriel, who's spirit was trapped inside her necklace protecting her for her whole life, and kills him. Jem then tells says his final goodbyes to Tessa and Will and gives them his blessing to be together, Charlotte becomes Consul and says that Will will take over running the institute, Magnus takes Church with him to New York, Sophie ascends and becomes a Shhadowhunter and is engaged to Gideon, and Gabriel and Cecily start dating. The epilogue takes place in 2008 for Tessa and Jem's yearly meeting and after Tessa explains of her years of happy marriage to Will, Jem arrives, but not as a Silent Brother anymore, he has been returned to the normal Jem he was, but not sick anymore and he and Tessa kiss.

Clockwork Prince - Cassandra Clare (2011)

4.5 stars

I started this book straight after finishing Clockwork Angel and I just enjoyed it so much more than the last book and am now really interested to know how it ends (even though I kind of already know because of City of Heavenly Fire).

This book definitely focuses less on the plot of the series, defeating Mortmain, and more on the characters, especially Tessa, Jem and Will. I was surprised that I enjoyed all the character development and didn't mind the plot being a kind of a minor thing in this book, and although the love triangle is getting frustrating it's still being done very well and instead of being annoyed by the fact that it's a love triangle, I just feel really bad for Tessa and the situation she's in. I really enjoy Tessa and her narration, which I think is why a lot of people like this series better than the Mortal Instruments series because in that Clary is the narrator for the majority of the story and she can get so frustrating, but Tessa is really logical and she constantly either makes good decisions or has good reasons for her decisions, unlike Clary, and also she's just a really lovely and interesting character who I want to know more about. My favourite characters in this book were Sophie and Henry. Henry continued to be a very gentle character and in this book his love for Charlotte made me like him even more, and even though he must be around Charlotte's age, 23, I always think of him as like a middle aged kind of man because he's such a stabilising father figure to everyone. Sophie really surprised me with how much she was in this book and how important she became, but I really enjoyed learning more about her and I really just like her character and her appearances always make me happy. I would definitely recommend reading this, even if you didn't like the first book in the series because it is so different from it in many ways.

The book starts two weeks after the end of the last book at a Consul meeting where Benedict Lightwood challenges Charlotte for the leadership of the London Institute and the Consul then tells her she has two weeks to either find Mortmain or have strong evidence pointing to where he is or Benedict can run the Institute. Will tells Magnus that when he was twelve he opened a pyxis that his dad had kept from his shadowhunting days and the demon that emerged told him he'd put a curse on him where everyone that loves him would die, starting with his older sister who was helping him fight the demon off. His sister died that night and that's why he left his family and went to the Institute and that's why he's mean to everyone but Jem, who is already dying so he doesn't feel as bad getting close to him. He wants Magnus to find and summon the demon so he can get him to lift the curse so he can be with Tessa. They soon learn that Jessamine is seeing Nate and Sophie knocks her out when she was leaving for a party at the Lightwood's to meet him so Tessa changes into her and goes in her place. Once there she learns that Jessamine had been spying on them and reporting everything to Nate, who was telling the Magister everything, and that Benedict Lightwood was also working for the Magister. Will runs off after the demon who cursed him when he sees him at the party and then Tessa returns to the Institute and tells Charlotte what she learned, Charlotte then questions Jessamine with the mortal sword and then when they see Mortmain has placed blocks in her mind from telling them anything about him, she sends her to the City of Bones with the silent brothers. They get Jessamine to give them one of her and Nate's meeting places and Tessa changes into her again to go meet him but he already knows it's her and has an automaton nearby to take her. Will and Jem fight it off, but Tessa then changes into Nate and orders it to only listen to her and to pick up Nate, then she throws an invention Henry gave them to blow it up on it and Will dives on her and covers her with his body and gets impaled by shards of metal from the explosion. Nate then dies and Tessa faints after realizing she was also hurt in the explosion. Will gets a note from Magnus so he goes to see him and when they summon the demon, they learn that there was no curse on Will, the reason his sister died was because the demon got her with his stinger. The next morning Jem comes into Tessa's room and proposes to her and she accepts. Sophie tells them that she's been seeing Gideon Lightwood and that he knows what Mortmain has over his father, he has demon pox and Mortmain promises a cure. They learn that Lightwood's wife committed suicide because she had caught demon pox from her husband and they use that to blackmail him into giving up his challenge on the institute. Will tells Tessa of the fake curse and goes to kiss her, but she tells him of her engagement to Jem and when he tells her to break it off she realizes she can never do that, Jem thought he would die without love and even if he forgave her, she would ruin the bond between him and Will. The book ends with Will's younger sister Cecily coming to the institute to be trained as a shadowhunter.

Cress - Marissa Meyer (2014)

4.5 stars

I started reading this as soon as I finished Scarlet and I'm really upset that I didn't hear of this series later so I wouldn't have to wait so long for Winter to come out.

The only reason I gave this book 4.5 stars and not 5 is because of the lack of Scarlet and Wolf in this book. They were so good in the last book and Scarlet is so far my favourite of the four protagonists and although I understand why there was little of them because she was setting up for the next book, I was still a little disappointed. This book is also told from varying perspectives like the last two books, but this time the main perspectives are Cinder and Cress because Scarlet is taken away pretty early on, but once again there are lots of random chapters from other characters like Kai, Dr Erland, Thorne and occasionally Sybil. This book has a lot less parallels to Rapunzel, the princess Cress is based upon, than Scarlet did to Little Red Riding Hood and Cinder did to Cinderella, which is understandable because the series is having to move on to focus on the overall plotline of stopping Levana, but the few that are in there, while not as clever as the ones in Scarlet, are pretty cool. I really love that there are no love triangles in this book, it makes me so happy that a fantasy book based on fairy tales, so there's a lot of romance, can be excellent and not have a single love triangle. It has four different main female characters and not a single one is conflicted and angsty about which man they love! They all know who they like, they think about it for varying amounts of time depending on the character, and that's it! I really want this series to become hugely popular with a movie adaptation so other authors can take note of this fact. It's possible to have a female teenager (or four) to fall in love with one person and one person only, while also focusing on the bigger plotline and ordeals they have to go through. This book is really just a giant setup for the next and last book in the series Winter, which doesn't come out till November 2015, because although it is the longest so far it doesn't really cover much time or have any giant plot surprises. They accomplish what they set out to do in the end of Scarlet and just build up for all that will unfold in the next book, including introducing the last princess, Winter, who seems like she'll be really interesting to read the perspective of considering she's going loopy. My favourite character in this book was Dr Erland, I thought it was really clever how he was connected to everyone in one way or another and I loved his little speech of rebellion to Levana in his last chapters. I would strongly recommend this book to any fantasy/dystopian fans that also, like me, have a soft spot for or enjoy fairytales.

Cinder, Scarlet and the rest of the crew contact Cress and she gets them to come get her so she can join them and help in their rebellion against Levana. Just before they come to get her Sybil comes to check on her and learns of her contact with them, when Thorne arrives she ties him and Cress up and then gets her pilot Jacin to fly them to the Rampion in the podship and sets Cress's satellite to plummet to Earth and kill her and Thorne. Once on the Rampion, Wolf wounds Sybil and Cinder shuts them off from the ship after a fight but then realizes that Sybil tricked her into thinking her guard Jacin was Scarlet, so Cinder has him and Sybil takes Scarlet to Luna. Jacin says he's loyal tohis princess so Cinder trusts him and gets him to fly them to Africa so they can meet up with Dr Erland and he can fix Wolf and help them. Thorne manages to free Cress in time for her to set a parachute to go off and save them from crashing, but he bumps his head in the process and when they land he realizes he's blind. He cuts of all Cress's hair because they were tangled together in it and they then have to walk through the Sahara desert and try to make it to civilisation. They encounter a group of travellers who help them make it to the next town, but they then take Cress because they realize she's a shell and they take her to sell to Dr Erland, who is trying to discover a cure for mutated Leutemosis that affects Lunars. Thorne follows after her and manages to pick up an escort droid on the way for Iko to have. They then break into the palace on wedding day and Cinder kidnaps Kai and Dr Erland manages to create a serum that will fix Thorne's eyesight before trapping himself in quarantine because he sees he has the plague. When the others come to take them to the Rampion Dr Erland explains why he's not going, apologizes to Cinder and Wolf (who he helped create) and then explained to Cress that he was her father and if he knew she was alive he never would've stopped searching for her. When they arrive at the ship Sybil and her guards are already there and Thorne kisses Cress after promising her in the desert that he wouldn't let her die without being kissed but then Cinder manages to break into Sybil's mind and torture her into insanity. All but Jacin and Dr Erland then make it onto the ship and Levana is so furious that her wedding was so close she declares war on Earth. Scarlet is forced to chop off her own pinky after not being able to answer any of Levana's questions about Cinder, but then before any other harm can come to her, Winter asks to keep her and she tells her that they're going to be friends. Kai wakes up on the ship and after Cinder explains everything to him, including her being Princess Selene, he kisses her and agrees to go to Luna with them.

Scarlet - Marissa Meyer (2013)

4.5 stars

Although I liked Cinder I didn't really understand the love for this series until I read this book. I've already started Cress and if the series keeps progressing like this I'll be so excited for Winter.

I was so excited for Cinder to rock out on her own without Kai, and when she found Thorne I was initially disappointed, until I fell in love with their rapport and bickering. Scarlet is a wonderful character, and the little red riding hood references are so good in her storyline that I'm constantly smiling whenever they happen. I really like that this story is told from different perspectives all the time, it's most often Scarlet and Cinder, but it's really cool that if there needs to be a chapter from Kai's or Thorne's perspective Marissa just throws it in. My favourite characters were Iko and Wolf. Iko is just a really good comedic character that lightens up the tense situations and is a good way of humanizing the androids in the story. Wolf is one of the great fictional loves of my life (yes I have a list) and although he was rocky in patches, my faith was rewarded in the end. I also like a good double agent where it's hard to learn where their loyalties lie for a while. If you were kind of unsure about the series after reading the first book I would definitely recommend reading this book before giving up entirely on the series.

Scarlet's grandmother goes missing and when she learns she was taken by a street gang, she enlists one of it's wayward members, Wolf, to help her find her. Cinder escapes from prison with Thorne, a military cadet who stole a ship and many valuables before being caught. Cinder and Thorne become allies and they fly his ship to go find Michelle Benoit, Scarlet's grandmother, because she was the one who had Cinder before she has her memories with the Linh family. Scarlet and Wolf start to develop feelings for each other and he tries to get her not to confront the pack that's taken her grandmother but when she does he turns on her and hands her over because it was his mission. Cinder and Thorne find Michelle Benoit's farm empty with Michelle's ID chip left on the table and they go to find Scarlet. Wolf gives Scarlet an ID chip so she can escape and then he goes and attacks the city because the pack is actually an army of medically enhanced lunar operatives working for the Queen, all controlled by different thaurmaturges. Scarlet escapes and finds her grandmother, who tells her to find Princess Selene, her name is Linh Cinder and to help her overthrow the Lunar Queen. Wolf's brother Ran then comes in and kills Michelle and is about to kill Scarlet when Wolf comes and kills Ran. Cinder and Thorne then help kill Wolf's thaurmaturge and take Wolf and Scarlet onto their ship to start a battle plan against Queen Levana.

City of Heavenly Fire - Cassandra Clare (2014)

4.5 stars

I loved this entire series and I was pretty excited to see how everything would end in this book, I was very happy with the end to this series.

Everyone knew this book would end with Jace and Clary together and with everyone happy in some way or another and despite the fact that I knew it was all going to be okay, I loved this book. It didn't beat City of Glass, which was the original final book and my favourite book in the series, but it did a good job of surprising me while wrapping up everyone's stories.The thing that annoyed me most about this book was how much it discussed the prequels, The Infernal Devices, although I haven't read them, I have wanted to and now I kind of know how they're going to end. I know it was probably really cool for people who had read the prequels to see how the characters ended up and how everything tied together, but it just annoyed me that now if I read them I won't really be surprised by anything that happens, and I think there could've been a way for her to do that without giving as much away as she did. I was really sad when I finished this book and for a while I couldn't work out why, because although it did make me cry near the end, the epilogue gave it a happy ending, but then I realized that I just really loved this series and it's characters that always had me laughing (I mean "salt my game and I'll stake you"? Iconic.) and I was just sad to know they wouldn't have any more stories. My favourite character in this book was Simon, I love every character, which can be seen in all my previous reviews of the other books, but I feel Simon really goes under everyone's radar and Cassandra Clare brought that to my attention loud and clear with this book. His love and compassion for everyone, his scene in the cave with Alec, his hilarious banter with Jace and his sacrifice in the end just showed how well rounded a person he is and made me realize how much I enjoyed his character's constant presence. I also really liked Emma and I'm going to read the Dark Artifices just to see what happens to her. I would recommend this series to anyone who likes young adult paranormal fiction.

Also if you live in Australia (or I hear also UK) you get a comic strip from the prequels and a cool poster included at the end of the book.

The book starts with Sebastian's attack on the Los Angeles Institute where Emma Carstairs, her best friend Julian and his younger siblings escape to Alicante from, but not before Sebastian turns all the others in the institute into endarkened ones. All the shadowhunters must then travel to Alicante so they can decide on what they are going to do against Sebastian and his growing army. Before all the Shadowhunters evacuate Sebastian tries to attack the London institute but is stopped by a force that many people didn't know about (and I assume it's a ghost or something from the prequels) and don't quite understand, so wanting to win a battle he burns down the Praetor Lupus headquarters and kills all the wolves in it. He then stabs Jordan in front of Maia and tells her to deliver his message of join with him or die to all the other downworlders and just before leaving says to her "your boyfriend's dead, by the way" and she's left clutching Jordan's dead body. Sebastian launches an attack at the Adamant Citadel and the Clave fall into his tricks despite Jace and Clary's warning that he no doubt has more soldiers than what they can see laying in wait so they run through the portal before the Clave can stop them and when Sebastian stabs Jace, the heavenly fire in him injures Sebastian and he and his army retreat. Brother Zachariah then tries to help heal Jace but the heavenly fire that is out of control in him latches onto Brother Zachariah and turns him back to his original shadowhunter state (another character from the prequels). The next night the downworlder representatives and Jocelyn are invitied to a dinner in the faerie court, but they are taken hostage because the faeries have allied with Sebastian. That night Sebastian comes to Clary's room as he knows she'll be alone and holds her in place with a spell while he tries to convince her to come rule with him, after she refuses he tries to force himself upon her similar to the last book but then Jace comes in and stops him. The next day, with the help of Emma, they realize that the reason no one can find Sebastian or his prisoners is that they're in Edom, the demon realm of hell, which can only be accessed through faerie court so Jace, Clary, Alec, Isabelle and Simon portal there together. They quickly realize that the faeries have betrayed them and Alec, mad that they've taken Magnus, shoots Meliorn in the heart before they get the Queen to show them the way to Edom. Once there they quickly take refuge in a cave for the night and realize that this world is a mirror to theirs except in this world the shadowhunters were defeated and demons scorched the earth. The next day Jace ventures out and encounters the ghost of the Iron Sister he killed when Sebastian was controlling him and she goads him to lose control of the heavenly fire and he blazes up the entire desert. Clary uses a fireproof rune to approach him and they control the fire in a way they won't tell the others. That night with the heveanly fire under control Jace and Clary sneak away from the others and (finally) have sex, which really prompts me to ask, why when they were going on a mission to kill Sebastian did Jace think to pack condoms? The next day when they reach Sebastian's headquarters, they split up and while Izzy, Alec and Simon find the prisoners Clary agrees to be Sebastian's queen if he seals off this world from theirs, saving everyone in it. He starts the process and it forces everyone into the room they are in and they see Clary on the throne and think she's betrayed them, until he asks her to kiss him to show that she's loyal and she stabs him with her blade that she had used the first rune she ever envisioned to trap the heavenly fire inside. While dying, the evil is removed from Sebastian and Jonathon tells them he was sorry and to throw the infernal cup in his runes to destroy the endarkened ones, which they do. They then must call upon Magnus' father Asmodeus to send them back to their world, but as he as a demon he won't do it for free and requests Magnus' immortality, which will kill him because his age will catch up with him. As Magnus is trying to convince them it's the only way, Simon offers himself up and Asmodeus takes him, but also takes all his memories of the Shadow world so he won't remember any of them. The epilogue is set six months later at Jocelyn and Luke's wedding where Alec's father finally tells him he is a good man and he and Magnus decide to stay together no matter what, Clary and Jace discuss their future wedding, Maia and Bat rekindle their old flame and Magnus manages to restore some of Simon's memories and he and Isabelle discuss him becoming a Shadowhunter.

Legend - Marie Lu (2011)

4.5 stars

I saw this book and though I'd check it out considering it has really good reviews, then I see it's based partly on Les Mis and I'm gone, there was no way I was not buying this book and of course I loved it.

Marie Lu has said that she wanted to recreate the conflict between Valjean and Javert in a teenage setting, and as soon as I read that I had no idea why anyone hadn't done it before, it was such a interesting and complex conflict that this reworking of it was equally as interesting and complex to read about. This book alternates chapters told from June and Day's perspective and I really enjoyed both of them a narrators and as the book moves along and there are more parallels between them it's really fun switching between them. Although I love a good villian, I found that Commander Jameson and Thomas were so ruthless and uncaring that they were way more scary than loathesome and I think I'll just be relieved rather than satisfied when they get their justice. The only real problem I had with this book was that I found the conspiracy, for lack of a better word, pretty predictable and June's refusal to acknowledge it until she thought Metias also thought it was true was a bit frustrating. My favourite character in this book was probably Day, if June wasn't so ignorant for part of the book it would've been her, but Day was kind throughout the whole novel and even after June betrayed him he never truly hated her which I really liked. I would recommend this book to anyone who likes dystopian fiction and to any teenagers that want to read a good rivalry/military vs. civilian type story.

June is a prodigy, the only person to have ever scored 1500, full marks, on her trial and at fifteen she has almost graduated to be a soldier. Day is an outlaw who makes trouble for the government and who was supposed to die five years ago when he "failed" his trial. When one of Day's brothers gets the plague he breaks into a hospital to try to steal a cure and when he's leaving, after learning they had no cures left, he throws a knife at Metias, June's brother, to get away. June is told by Thomas, her brother's friend and fellow soldier that Metias is dead and when she goes to see the body Commander Jameson says she'll speed up her graduating process and she can join her unit and start tracking Day, who supposedly was the one who killed her brother. June goes undercover on the streets and soon accidently starts travelling around with Day and his friend Tess, her and Day have mutual respect and attraction for each other but after they share a kiss June realizes who he is and turns in him and his family. He is then sentenced to death and June learns that all he told her about the "labor camps" where people who fail their trial are sent is true through her brother Metias leaving her a hidden message. She also works out that Day didn't kill him when he threw the knife at him, Thomas killed him later on Commander Jameson's orders because he knew that Metias was planning to rebel after learning all this information about the government. June then plans to help Day and his brother John escape, but when the Commander moves his execution up by a day she can't execute her original plan. Instead, when it's time for his execution she frees John and gets him to hide in an airvent until she comes back past with Day, before she can free Day Thomas tells her she's under investigation and he takes her down to the weapons lab where she'd stolen an electro-bomb, which disables all guns for two minutes, from but before he can do anything to her, Kaede sets off the electro-bomb and she runs to get Day. She and John are carrying him out but they don't have enough time before the guns reactivate to get to the door so John grabs the blindfold that was on Day and runs back towards the execution block to give them time. The patriots are waiting for them outside and they take them to the outskirts of town and leave them there and when Day wakes he learns that they executed his brother in front of the crowd and called it him for the public's sake. He and June then plan to go check on Tess before returning to save his other brother, Eden.

Saving Francesca - Melina Marchetta (2003)

4.5 stars

I've read most of Melina's other books and my cousin and I love her books. When she heard I hadn't read this she was shocked and immediately lent it to me, now I understand why.

This book seems like it is just about a girl going to a boys school with only a few other female comrades, but it also explores the fragile mental states of both Francesca and her mother and shows just how much the people in your life matter. I really didn't expect to get as addicted to this book as I did, reading it in just a few hours, but it was just so easy to slip into this world that not only had a relatable main character with a good plotline, but a character that had real problems and issues that I really wanted to be addressed or resolved. My favourite character in this book was Jimmy, I thought he was really loveable even though Francesca didn't really want him around at first I liked how he persisted and she got to know how funny he was, also he reminded me of a friend I had in high school who was also called Jimmy and was very similar to him. I would recommend this book to anyone who likes good fiction, it is a great book that doesn't necessarily take very long to read.

Francesca is starting college at a school that was up until this year all boys, she had to hang out with three girls from her old school that she never really talked to. She wakes up one morning and her mother won't get out of bed, she's had a mental breakdown and Francesca only wants to find out what caused it so she can help her get better but her father won't talk about it and her brother is only ten. She soon develops a crush on one of the school captains Will Trombal, and she learns that her new friends are better than her old friends ever were. She eventually tells her friends about her mum and they all support her and try to help her through it. She inadvertantly offends her friends when she mentions to her old friends that she did nothing for her birthday when they took her out. Then she has a fight with Will when he tells her he's going travelling next year, and on the way home she runs into one of her mum's friends who tells her that her mother had a miscarriage. She then gets home and screams at her father telling him it was all his fault because he never wants to talk about anything and maybe that's what her mother needed. She then jumps a train and sits at the last station for an indetermined amount of time until she decides to call her Dad, he comes and gets her and all her friends and Will are at her house when she gets back. The next day after school her mother comes to pick her and her brother up.

The Fall of Five - Pittacus Lore (2013)

4.5 stars

I really enjoy this series, I think all the books are really interesting and well written so you can't help but read them all in a few days, so of course I bought this book as soon as it came out.

The previous book in the series, The Rise of Nine, is still my favourite out of the four that have been written so far, but this one is probably a close second. I absolutely loved the first half of the book just reading about the group dynamic and all their relationships and training sessions together, reading those sections actually made me realize what an awesome movie it could be if the first one had done better. This book, instead of adding one new perspective to the existing three that were in the third book, they swapped Six's perspective for Sam's and kept alternating between him, John and Marina. I like Sam and understand why they needed to have his perspective in this book, but I hope that he gets swapped out for another Lorien perspective in the next book because I find those more interesting. I've read a lot of theories about Setrakus Ra actually being Loric or even being Pittacus Lore and although I'm skeptical I think it would be a cool plot twist in future books. My favourite characters were Eight and Nine, I've loved Eight since he was first introduced because of his easygoing nature and humour and in this book I loved him for his bravery. I've always just thought Nine was a stereotypical bodybuilder type but with each book he's getting more and more character depth and I'm loving him more and more, I especially enjoy his big brother kind of relationship with Ella. I would recommend this series to anyone who likes good fantasy and adventure, or anyone who likes x-men because they all have kick-ass powers as well.

The book starts with Sam being freed from the jail that the Mogadorians were torturing him in by his Dad and Adam, a mogadorian whose story you'll understand if you've read The Lost Files. The Garde has gone back to Nine's setup in Chicago to rest and recuperate after their battle with Setrakus in the last book. Five soon starts sending them ridiculously obvious messages as to where he is and John and Six find him and bring him back to Chicago with them after being saved by Sam and his dad, Malcolm, they learn that Five can fly and has the power of externa, where he can take on the qualities of whatever object he is touching. He immediately clashes with Nine, as his Cepan died when he was younger and he has been living on his own ever since and has terrible social skills. Ella has been having nightmares ever since the battle with Setrakus and she tells John that in them Setrakus talks to her and tells her to read a letter that her Cepan gave her before she died. When she reads it she learns she wasn't chosen to come to earth like they were, her dad was rich and sent her to earth to save her which the rest of the Garde don't care about but her nightmares with Setrakus intensify. Five knows where his chest is buried and the whole Garde are going to get it but the night before they leave Ella's nightmares paralyse her and she can't wake up, John tries to help and is similarly paralysed. Sam, Sarah and Malcolm then stay in the apartment to look after them while the rest of the Garde go to get Five's chest. Five is a traitor and it turns out the Mogadorians found him when he was very young and have brainwashe him to believe that the Mogadorians should take over the world, once on the island where his chest is buried he attacks the other Garde with a creature of his own creation and his legacies which are highly trained as he has been practising against the Mogs. He doesn't want to harm Marina and Eight as they were kind to him and he's sure they can be persuaded to see his opinion, however he immediately tries to kill Nine and just as he's about to deliver the killing blow Eight teleports in front of him and dies instead of Nine (I cried a river). Marina develops a new legacy in her rage whre she can create and manipulate ice and she uses it to pin Five down and stab out his eye, resulting in my favourite line of the book "If I see you again, you traitorous bastard, I''ll take the other fucking eye". John is taken into Ella's dream where she is Setrakus Ra's heir and they are killing the last of the Loric resistance (Sam and Six) he wakes up and the Mogadorians are attacking the apartment trying to get to Ella, they manage to take her but John can't stop them as he decides to heal Sam's dad who was dying. The book ends with Adam showing up to help John fight against the other Mogadorians.

Eleanor & Park - Rainbow Rowell (2012)

4.5 stars

I ordered this book because someone recommended the author to me and this got a higher rating than her other book and sounded more appealing to me. I'm happy I got it, even though I didn't like the ending very much.

The book is written from alternating perspectives of Eleanor and Park, and gives a really nice and believable look into young love. I feel like a reason I like this story so much it that the characters aren't the usual stereotypical teenagers that have a love story and even the bullies have some depth and development over the novel. Although the plot wasn't predictable, I knew something had to happen at the end and I found myself dreading it when I was reading the second half of the novel, knowing that there were fewer and fewer pages left in which a significant event could occur. My favourite character in this novel was probably Park, I have a soft spot for adorable boys, especially ones that listen to rock music and read comic books, and I loved how after a little while he got more complex and his true character emerged because of Eleanor's influence.

Eleanor is new to the neighbourhood, and on her first day on the bus, she ends up next to Park. At first they say nothing to each other but after a while Park realizes she's reading his comic books over her shoulder so one day he lends one to her to read. After that their relationship developments through music, comic books and mutual admiration. Park learns of Eleanor's abusive stepfather who kicked her out for a year, her four siblings and her mother. Eleanor learns of Park's cultural background, his strained relationship with his father and his inability to drive a stick shift. After about six months (I'm not really sure on the time frame for this book) Eleanor and Park learn that her stepfather was the one who had been writing disgusting sexual innuendo all over Eleanor's belongings and Park has to drive her to her Uncle's house in Minneapolis and say goodbye. He writes her letters and sends her parcels for months without a reply, then just after he's given up she realizes how much she needs him and can't just ignore him so she replies.

Boundless - Cynthia Hand (2013)

4.5 stars

Unearthly was one of the more enjoyable paranormal series I had read and the last book in the trilogy was no exception.

Unearthly and Hallowed were kind of odd for angel books because the characters try to live normal life and don't seek out adventures, dangerous love interests or danger in general. I really like that aspect of the story and this book was no exception in that aspect, because although Clara has grown since the first book and knows how to deal with her visions, she doesn't actively seek them out (until it's neccessary in the final few chapters). This book was written similarly to the first book, with a lot of detail in the first half of the book then the last half full of the drama and action you were waiting for. I understand now why the second book didn't have much of a drama, because all the information and details it was jam-packed with were neccessary for the trilogy to make sense and unfold nicely in this book. My favourite character was probably Christian, he was well written as a discarded love interest, but I found him one of the more likeable and stable characters in the novel. I would recommend this book to any fans of Fallen by Lauren Kate, or anyone who likes the young adult paranormal genre.

Clara is going to Stanford with Angela and Christian and after about a month of barely seeing Angela, she goes to see her to discover that she's pregnant. Her dad starts teaching her and Christian how to use a glory sword, a sword that they fashion out of their glory, and while he trains them they learn more about angels in general, like how there can only be seven triplare walking the earth at one time. They then work out that Clara, Jeffrey and Christian make three, and Asael, a black wing, also has three which means that the baby Angela is carrying, whose father is an undecided angel from Italy, is the seventh. Angela's vision was to tell somone in a gray suit that "the seventh is ours" so she tells Phen who tells Asael who takes Angela to hell till she tells him where Webster, her son, is. Christian and Clara decide to go to hell to save Angela, once there they find Jeffrey as well and take him out. Clara takes them to Tucker's barn by accident and Asael follows them and takes Tucker hostage, Clara swaps places with him and stabs Asael with her glory sword, but then Lucy, one of the evil triplare take Tucker and drops him to the ground from a great height. Clara tries to save him and ends up giving him a bit of her glory, turning him into a prophet. They get married and Angela raises Webster and Christian waits for Clara to love him.

Across the Universe - Beth Revis (2011)

4.5 stars

I bought this book from book depository because it kept being recommended to me by many websites and it sounded really interesting, I'm really happy that I did.

This book reminded me a lot of Glow as it was a futuristic romance set on a spaceship to a new earth. This book was written in chapters that alternated between Amy and Elder's perspective which I liked, both perspectives were well written, but I felt Amy's perspective when discussing being unfrozen and her feelings of isolation were excellently written. Although I worked out the murderer within the first 100 pages, the book still had lots of revalations and plot twists that surprised me, and the plot was so intriguing that I read it within about three days. My favourite character was probably Harley or Steela, they were both strong characters that didn't believe what they were told, and their small acts of rebellion made the population on the ship seem more lifelike and close to reality. I would recommend this book to any dystopian fans or science fiction fans that don't mind a romance side plot going on.

Amy is cryogenically frozen with her parents as they are going to colonize the new earth, however Amy is woken up fifty years early onto a ship that is full of mindless drones. Elder is the apprentice to Eldest, the leader of the ship, and when bodies that are frozen begin to be unplugged he and Amy try to work together to find out who did it. They discover that the ship hasn't been flying for 250 years like they thought but rather 350 years, and it's still going to take another 100 to get to the planet because the engine is having problems. They also discover that Eldest is drugging the people on the ship so they don't have strong emotions, and telling them every forty years that the ship will not land for an extra 25 years and that even though they won't get to see the new planet, their children will. It is then discovered that Orion is really the previous Elder and has been unplugging the frozens that have military experience because he thinks they will use the inhabitants of the ship as slaves when they finally land. He kills Eldest, then Elder freezes him and tells the population on the ship about the actual landing time and decides to stop drugging them.

Quintana of Charyn - Melina Marchetta (2012)

4.5 stars

I bought this book after reading the past two in the trilogy and needing to know what happened to Phaedra, because I love her.

It has been a long time since I read the first book in this series, Finnikin of the Rock, but I think this book is my favourite in the series. I really liked the world the series is set in, and how the political situation is important to the plot, but not the main storyline of the series. As shown by her other books, Melina Marchetta can write like the best of them, and in this book she makes me interested in the fate of Skulendore and all it's countries and provinces, which probably would have bored and disengaged me if it was written by anyone else. I tried to pick my favourite character in this book but it was too hard, I really loved a lot of the characters and grew to love some of the ones I didn't. A couple of the best ones in my opinion would probably be; Phaedra, who can kick some ass when she needs to, Perri, who developed a really nice sensitive side in this book, Quintana, who also developed her sensitive side, and Finnikin, whose character had a step up in this book compared to the last one which made me remember why the first book in the series is about him. This is an awesome fantasy series that I would reccommend to anyone who likes the magic, curses, kingdoms and rulers drama.

This book starts a couple weeks after Froi was attacked and Quintana hid away with Phaedra and the other girls. Froi is being looked after by Arjuro and soon leaves to go find Garagrin and Lirah, which he does, however when he finds them Finnikin is about to kill Gargarin. Froi convinces them to let him go and explains what has happened to him in Charyn, Finnikin, Trevanion and Perri then leave him to bring the news to Lumatere. De Lancey then approaches Gargarin and tells him they want him to be the King's regent once he's born, but Lirah can't live in the palace so Gargarin gets angry and leaves, but they threaten Arjuro and Froi goes to save him. Once together, Gargarin, Lirah, Froi and Arjuro decide to go to the Lasconian camp to use their army to save Quintana, once there they discover Bestiano's army is camped just across from them keeping watch. Soon the Turlans come to the camp to join forces as they want to help Quintana, and De Lancey and his army, who says that he has another massive army training in Desantos as the plague there is merely a rumour. Lirah then realises that Phaedra died of a plague that never existed, and realizes that Quintana would trust her because Froi did, their army then attacks Nebia's army and Froi goes to kill Bestiano. However Froi decides to hurt Bestiano first and his guards return and try to kill Froi, however Dorcas suffocates Bestiano instead. Meanwhile, Quintana and the girls were betrayed by Ginny, who told her husband Gies where they were and he and Donashe capture them and put them in a cave near the top of the valley. Everyone realizes that Bestiano's order was to kill Quintana once the baby was born so when Quintana goes into labour the girls put a peice of wood in her mouth to keep her form making any sounds to alert the guards. Nebia's army joins forces with the turlans, lasconians and De Lancey's men and they go to save Quintana. Isaboe gives birth to a stillborn boy, but tells everyone that he told her to go down to the valley, so she does and goes into the cave where Quintana's giving birth. They then tell the guards that Isaboe's gone into labour so she can take the little King to safety and Quintana can live till the army arrives. Once the army comes, Froi cries when he sees Quintana and the baby but he is told to stay in Lumatere until Gargarin writes. After six months, Quintana's consort is being chosen by the Provincari and Lord August and Lady Abain present Froi as their son and promise peace with Lumatere as their dowry, Froi is chosen and he and Quintana get to live together with their son.

Heaven Sent - Meg Cabot (2005)

This was the best book in the series, even if the idea of time travel seemed like it was a last minute idea. I enjoyed the plot of this book immensly, and I like how there wasn't an evil ghost in this one, as it would've have been a predictable ending, unlike the actual ending which was very surprising. My favourite character in this book was Paul, even though he was "evil" for the majority of it, I found him hilarious and very entertaining to read about.

Paul tells Suze that he can travel back in time and he decides to go back in time to stop Jesse from being murdered in the first place. Suze is outraged and when she complains to Father Dominic he suggests that that might've been why Jesse was still around. Suze follows Paul back in time and decides to save Jesse after seeing him alive, however after Jesse kills Diego there is a fire in the barn and Jesse tries to save Suze. When Jesse is holding on to Suze she shifts back to her normal time and accidently takes Jesse back with her. Once there he is in a coma, and the ghost Jesse comes to talk to Suze and is moved by what she has done for him. He then touches his body and he wakes up with all his memories including the 150 years as a ghost. Suze then takes him to her prom.

Paper Towns - John Green (2008)

When looking through dymocks I found another John Green book, I only have one to go now. Although I didn't like this one as much as The Fault in our Stars I still enjoyed it.

When reading John Green's books I always love finding little nerdfighteria references, my parents can't understand why I'm laughing so hard when someone is "editing the blue spotted anglerfish page". Green writes well, if a bit boring in the second part, but it still interested me enough to read it in five days, it would've been faster if I didn't have two tests to study for this week. But it was still an excellent book with a quirky plotline and main character that would interest most people that read the first couple pages. My favourite character was Radar, I thought his character was the perfect combination of funny and sensitive, although I may be biased towards the band geeks in any book, being one myself. I would recommend this to any teen, boy or girl, that likes this genre of book.

Quentin is a month away from graduating high school when his next door neighbour, and most popular girl in school, Margo Roth Spiegelman climbs into his window. She takes him on an adventure to get revenge on her enemies and Quentin has the night of his life and realizes how much he missed hanging out with Margo. When they return home the next morning she tells him that she will miss hanging out with him and then disappears on what everyone thinks is another of her road trips. Every time she leaves on her trips Margo leaves clues for her parents to find her, but they never do. This times she leaves clues for Quentin and he and his friends try to find her. The search ends on graduation day when they have 24 hours to travel to the "paper town" of Agloe to find her. Once they do Margo tells Quentin she's not coming back this time, she's going travelling but will keep in touch. They kiss then he says he'll visit her at the end of summer and she says she'll look forward to it.

The Princess Diaries: Third Time Lucky - Meg Cabot (2001)

I'm continuing reading this series, and originally it was going to be a trilogy so this book has a nice ending that ties up all the loose ends. This is probably one of the best book in the series.

In this book notes are included in the diary so you get to see a little bit of other peoples perspectives. Meg Cabot continues writing tremendously in this diary style and tries to wrap up all the storylines because she was originally only contracted to write three books. My favourite character in this book was Lars, he is usually hilarious whenever he is mentioned, but in this book he is a lot more prominent and included in the story at the perfect times. Anyone that likes the previous books will enjoy this book.


Mia is trying to break up with Kenny because she is in love with Michael and she is getting ready for the non-denominational winter carnival and dance, as well as her introduction to the Genovian people. She sends Michael anonymous love notes and he writes her a computer program, they then go to the dance together.