Lili St. Crow - Strange Angels, Betrayals & Jealousy

Thanks to the awesome Lili St. Crow competition on Book Chick City's website, I won copies of the first three books in her 'Strange Angels' series.

I am super excited about this!  Reviews will follow as soon as I have the books in my possession. 

Here's the synopsis of book 1 in the series -

Goodreads synopsis:
Dru Anderson has what her grandmother called “the touch.” (Comes in handy when you’re traveling from town to town with your dad, hunting ghosts, suckers, wulfen, and the occasional zombie.)

Then her dad turns up dead—but still walking—and Dru knows she’s next. Even worse, she’s got two guys hungry for her affections, and they’re not about to let the fiercely independent Dru go it alone. Will Dru discover just how special she really is before coming face-to-fang with whatever—or whoever— is hunting her?

Review: Paper Towns - John Green

Goodreads synopsis:
When Margo Roth Spiegelman beckons Quentin Jacobsen in the middle of the night—dressed like a ninja and plotting an ingenious campaign of revenge—he follows her. Margo’s always planned extravagantly, and, until now, she’s always planned solo. After a lifetime of loving Margo from afar, things are finally looking up for Q . . . until day breaks and she has vanished. Always an enigma, Margo has now become a mystery. But there are clues. And they’re for Q.

Review:
To start off, this is the first book by John Green that I've read, so I wasn't quite sure what to expect.  On finishing it last night, I have to say that I've got really mixed feelings about it.  On the one hand, I did enjoy parts of it but on the other, there were a lot of things about it that made it far from my perfect book.  John Green writes extemely intelligently from the viewpoint of Q, who has spent almost all of his teenage life in love with his next-door-neighbour Margo.  After spending one perfect night of adventure together, Margo disappears and Q takes it upon himself to be the one to try and track her down.

I think my biggest problem with 'Paper Towns' was that I didn't care enough about what happened to the characters.  I found Margo quite a dislikeable figure and although Q was sweet and funny, I didn't understand why he felt like he had to abandon everything in his single-minded quest to locate her.  I really just wanted to shout at him to leave her to it!  Part of the reason why I probably didn't love it, is the fact that it had a male narrator.  It reminded me a little bit of 'Zoology' by Ben Dolnick.  Guy has huge crush on girl, girl doesn't return his feelings, guy spends entire book trying to fix things for her.  It's been done before.  I would have thought it would have been more interesting to write a book from the perspective of a boy, perhaps dealing with a girl who has a huge crush on him that he doesn't return.  How would be cope if her feelings for him were getting out of control?  What impact would that have on his life?      

I thought that the cleverest thing about the book was the way in which John Green linked a lot of  the characters feelings and emotions with literature and poetry (Whitman, Plath, Melville), helping to enhance our understanding of them.

I don't think that this is the sort of book that would appeal to everyone.  However, saying all that, I would still give John Green another chance to redeem himself.  'Looking For Alaska' is supposed to be very good, so I might try that one next.

Review: Jane Eagland - Wildthorn

Goodreads synopsis:
Seventeen-year-old Louisa Cosgrove longs to break free from her respectable life as a Victorian doctor's daughter. But her dreams become a nightmare when Louisa is sent to Wildthorn Hall: labeled a lunatic, deprived of her liberty and even her real name. As she unravels the betrayals that led to her incarceration, she realizes there are many kinds of prison. She must be honest with herself - and others - in order to be set free. And love may be the key...

Review:
What attracted me to this book originally was the lovely cover!  I hadn't heard of Jane Eagland before but the cover and the intriguing blurb was enough to get me picking this one up to buy.  I love trying out new authors.  The book is inspired by the stories of the women incarcerated in asylums in the nineteenth century.  As the latter is one of my favourite time-periods, I definitely had to read this.

Louisa Cosgrove is thrown into Wildthorn Hall after an accusation of lunacy.  Imprisoned in an asylum for the insane, she has to unravel the secret of the person responsible for her incarceration, whilst also finding a means of escape and a new path for her future.

I absolutely adored this book! Each chapter alternated between Louisa's present day predicament and her recollections of growing up.  This leads the reader with her on a journey towards discovering the acts that lead to her imprisonment.  I thought that this was a really clever way of narrating the story, because like Louisa, the reader has to only guess at why she's ended up in Wildthorn Hall and share her confusion over the behaviour of the people from her past.  When everything is finally revealed it's a shock to all parties. 

The book had wonderful characterizations throughout and an extremely likable heroine.  It had an intriguing and gripping plot and has introduced me to a fantastic new author who I am definitely going to keep an eye on.  It actually reminded me a little bit of 'Fingersmith' by Sarah Waters but for young adults, mixed-in with 'The Woman in White' by Wilkie Collins, for the overall gothic feel of the story.

The ending, in my opinion, was perfect, although I would love to read more about Louisa and find out what happens to her next.  I think Jane Eagland should write a sequel!

If you have read this and enjoyed it, like me, you will probably want to read Jane Eagland's second YA novel, 'Whisper My Name', which is luckily out now.

Review: Kristin Cashore - Fire

Goodreads synopsis:
Beautiful creatures called monsters live in the Dells. Monsters have the shape of normal animals: mountain lions, dragonflies, horses, fish. But the hair or scales or feathers of monsters are gorgeously colored-- fuchsia, turquoise, sparkly bronze, iridescent green-- and their minds have the power to control the minds of humans.

Seventeen-year-old Fire is the last remaining human-shaped monster in the Dells. Gorgeously monstrous in body and mind but with a human appreciation of right and wrong, she is hated and mistrusted by just about everyone, and this book is her story.
 
Review:
When I started this book I wasn’t sure if I was going to like it. I haven’t read Cashore’s debut novel ‘Graceling’ (although it is sitting on my bookshelf at home), so technically I guess I read these the wrong way around. However, I really don’t think it mattered because from what I’ve heard they’re more like stand-alone books than a series which follows on and has to be read in strictly the right order. I wasn’t sure if I was going to enjoy it because this was in the science-fiction section of my local library and I’m not normally a SF fan. In addition, after a quick perusal of the blurb, I was still unconvinced that this was going to be my cup of tea. How wrong I was!!

The book charts the story of Fire, a beautiful human-monster living in the Dells, who attracts the lust of all those around her and who is particularly tempting to other monsters. She has spent her whole life trying to protect the people around her and stay out of sight. However, when war threatens, she decides that she has to use whatever power and control she has for good, so sets out on a dangerous journey to the Kings City. One of the things I admire most about this book is the incredible world that Cashore has invented. What an imagination she has! Places and people are created vividly and seem so real at times that you forget it’s all made-up. There are some wonderfully descriptive passages throughout and the language itself is rich and magical, weaving a complex tale which never fails to surprise.

To begin with, I wasn’t sure about the opening prequel section of the book and I couldn’t really see how it was going to fit into the story. However, I think that may be due to me not having read ‘Graceling’ yet, and by the time I got about two-thirds in, everything did fit together. Cashore takes her time building up the layers of the story and the characters, presenting a number of ethical situations for her main protagonist, which really involve the reader and get them thinking.  The climax of the book was tremendous with several twists thrown in for good measure and I enjoyed seeing how it all unravelled.
 
For those who like a spot of romance, you won't be disappointed and I have to just say how much I adored the relationship between Fire and her horse Small.  When you read the book you'll see what I mean!
 

 
I would definitely recommend picking this book up and giving it a try, even if it doesn't initially look like your normal book fare.  Some of my favourite books are the ones that I normally would never ever have even contemplated reading and it's always a lovely surprise to find out how much you enjoy them after all.
 
The third book in the Seven Kingdoms trilogy, Bitterblue, is due out in 2011.  I shall be first in the queue to buy a copy :)

Kirsten Miller - The Eternal Ones

Yay!  I won a competition for a copy of 'The Eternal Ones' by Kirsten Miller, thanks to the lovely people at Bellaandedward.com

I have been eyeing this one up in Waterstones a lot lately, so I can't wait for it to arrive.  It's going to go straight to the top of my to-read pile.

Goodreads synopsis: What if love refused to die? Haven Moore can’t control her visions of a past with a boy called Ethan, and a life in New York that ended in fiery tragedy. In our present, she designs beautiful dresses for her classmates with her best friend Beau. Dressmaking keeps her sane, since she lives with her widowed and heartbroken mother in her tyrannical grandmother’s house in Snope City, a tiny town in Tennessee. Then an impossible group of coincidences conspire to force her to flee to New York, to discover who she is, and who she was.

In New York, Haven meets Iain Morrow and is swept into an epic love affair that feels both deeply fated and terribly dangerous. Iain is suspected of murdering a rock star and Haven wonders, could he have murdered her in a past life? She visits the Ouroboros Society and discovers a murky world of reincarnation that stretches across millennia. Haven must discover the secrets hidden in her past lives, and loves¸ before all is lost and the cycle begins again

Review: Malinda Lo - Ash

Ash by Malinda Lo, published by Hodder Children's Books on 4th March 2010

Goodreads synopsis:
In the wake of her father’s death, Ash is left at the mercy of her cruel stepmother. Consumed with grief, her only joy comes by the light of the dying hearth fire, re-reading the fairy tales her mother once told her. In her dreams, someday the fairies will steal her away, as they are said to do. When she meets the dark and dangerous fairy Sidhean, she believes that her wish may be granted.

The day that Ash meets Kaisa, the King’s Huntress, her heart begins to change. Instead of chasing fairies, Ash learns to hunt with Kaisa. Though their friendship is as delicate as a new bloom, it reawakens Ash’s capacity for love—and her desire to live. But Sidhean has already claimed Ash for his own, and she must make a choice between fairy tale dreams and true love.

Review:
Ash is a beautifully reimagined take on the classic Cinderella fairytale. I had heard so many amazing things about this book from other bloggers that I couldn’t wait to read it and for the most part I wasn’t disappointed. I love books that incorporate fairytales and twist them around to create something new and in ‘Ash’ this was done in such a clever and inventive way. I’ll probably never read Cinderella in the same way again!!

I thought that the pacing of the book could have been a little better.  I felt that the second half was better than the first. This was mainly because the narrative in the first part seemed a little drawn out and I was expecting more to happen, whereas the latter part focused on the relationships between the characters and the action really seemed to kick-off, so it gripped my attention more.  I think that's the only criticism I could have of it though! 

Malinda Lo’s writing is gorgeously eloquent, weaving cautionary tales throughout, which instead of being distracting, added so much more depth to the book. It was almost like stories within a story.

She has another book on the way, ‘The Huntress’, which I’m looking forward to reading next.  I believe it picks up where Ash left off, but it's not out until 2011.