Review: Genuine Fraud - E. Lockhart

Genuine Fraud by E. Lockhart, published by Hot Key Books on 31st May 2018

Goodreads synopsis:
Imogen is a runaway heiress, an orphan, a cook, and a cheat.
Jule is a fighter, a social chameleon, and an athlete.
An intense friendship. A disappearance. A murder, or maybe two.
A bad romance, or maybe three.
Blunt objects, disguises, blood, and chocolate. The American dream, superheroes, spies, and villains.
A girl who refuses to give people what they want from her.
A girl who refuses to be the person she once was.  

Review:
Deceptive and deliciously dark and twisty, this is a fiendishly good YA psychological thriller.

The story focuses on two friends - Julie and Imogen.  Imogen is an adopted child and an heiress. She's gifted with everything she could ever want. Used to having everyone fall at her feet and fawn over her, she has never had to struggle for anything. Julie is her opposite. She's had to become tough. She's survived on her own and is a fighter but after so long trying to become something more, she finally sees another way forward.

The timeline for this book is so clever. It skips around a lot between 2016 and 2017 and the story almost unfolds backwards. My advice to you is don't trust everything you read because appearances can be deceptive and E. Lockhart has thrown in so many brilliant twists that you are constantly kept on your toes. The locations change too, with the story moving from Mexico, to New York, to San Francisco. It's important to try to keep track of the place and time because this helps when all the puzzle pieces begin to fall into place.

This was a blisteringly good read. I definitely loved it more than 'We Were Liars' and I've been recommending it to everyone ever since. I'm almost jealous of anyone getting to read this for the first time because it's so clever and unique that reading it is such an immensely enjoyable experience.

Review: Glass Town Wars - Celia Rees

Glass Town Wars by Celia Rees, published by Pushkin Press on 1st November 2018

Goodreads synopsis:
Tom and Augusta are from different places and different times, but they meet in the virtual world to combine forces in battle, to save a kingdom, escape a web of deceit and to find love. In a place where fictions can be truths and truths fictions, learning who to trust is more than friendship, it is about about survival.

Review:
'Glass Town Wars' is Celia Rees first YA novel for over 6 years. She returns with an imaginative and inventive tale which is inspired by the early writings of the Bronte siblings.

The plot focuses on a boy called Tom who is in hospital in a coma. Cut off from the real world, Tom's friend Milo makes him a test guinea pig for a new virtual reality gaming device that draws him into a dizzying world, far from the one he lives in. Tom meets Augusta who is fighting to save her kingdom and becomes part of the on-going battle. The story switches between this world and that of London in the present time, where his family and friends are desperately trying to bring him back, meshing together imagination and reality.

I enjoyed parts of this book but I found other bits confusing and I wasn't entirely sure I understood everything that happened or the meaning behind certain events in the story. It was incredibly unique and had such an interesting concept but some of it didn't make any sense to me. It's definitely an ingenious idea to take the fictitious world written about by Emily Bronte and co and bring it alive on the page. Rees embellishes it with her own flourishes and gives it a beating heart which draws the reader in. However, although I find the Bronte juvenilia fascinating, I'm not entirely sure the novel as a whole worked.

At times it was very slow and it also took me quite a while to get into the story. I kept having to go back to read sections again and even then I felt like I was missing something that would have helped everything click into place. I actually enjoyed more, the parts of the book that were set in the hospital, rather than in the virtual world, where Tom is being read 'Wuthering Heights' by another character called Lucy, who is trying to bring him out of his coma.

The book itself felt very experimental and although I wanted to love it because it combines Celia Rees and the Brontes, it ended up falling short of my expectations.         

Review: Girls of Paper and Fire - Natasha Ngan

Girls of Paper and Fire by Natasha Ngan, published by Hodder and Stoughton on 6th November 2018

Goodreads synopsis:
Lei is a member of the Paper caste, the lowest and most oppressed class in Ikhara. She lives in a remote village with her father, where the decade-old trauma of watching her mother snatched by royal guards still haunts her. Now, the guards are back, and this time it's Lei they're after--the girl whose golden eyes have piqued the king's interest.

Over weeks of training in the opulent but stifling palace, Lei and eight other girls learn the skills and charm that befit being a king's consort. But Lei isn't content to watch her fate consume her. Instead, she does the unthinkable--she falls in love. Her forbidden romance becomes enmeshed with an explosive plot that threatens the very foundation of Ikhara, and Lei, still the wide-eyed country girl at heart, must decide just how far she's willing to go for justice and revenge.

Review:
I went into this book not knowing what to expect at all. I loved Natasha Ngan's previous book 'The Elites', so that was my main reason for picking this one up. I was absolutely blown away by it. It was a sensational read that I couldn't be prised away from. It was original, unique, enchanting and one of the best books that I've read this year.

It's described as having similarities to 'Memoirs of a Geisha' which is a book that I love. I can see why comparisons have been drawn, as both stories focus on the lives of concubines. However, 'Girls of Paper and Fire' veers away from historical fiction and instead goes down the path of being an exquisite fantasy. It's beautifully written and was such a joy to read that I now want to press a copy into the hands of everyone I know.

The main character Lei is a member of the Paper caste. At the beginning of the story, she is taken to the Demon King to become one of his concubines, along with eight other girls. Along with Paper, there is also Steel and Moon. These two castes are different because Steel is a mixture of human and demon with animal characteristics and Moon is demon animals. Each are afforded differing statuses in the Kingdom with Paper being considered the lowliest. It took a while to get used to people being half-animal but after a while, I adjusted to this and found the unusual mixture of characters fascinating.

Lei was a wonderful character who is devoted to her family and believes that she is protecting them by being in the King's possession. She bonds with the other girls and they almost become a second family of sorts. However, although they are all in the same situation, they react differently to their roles and some see it almost as a rivalry. I enjoyed getting to know all of the girls and seeing how Lei's relationship with them evolves throughout the course of the book. Ngan also does a brilliant job of creating a female romance which I truly believed in. It develops gradually and is wonderfully real in its depiction of a love which burns slowly but brightly.  

There are some truly shocking moments in the book and it does touch on powerful themes, such as female oppression, rape and assault. However, these are sensitively written about and aren't just there to be sensationalist. It's a brutal world but one in which true love can still flourish.

Definitely a five star read and one for which I will be eagerly awaiting the follow-up.

Review: Heart of Thorns - Bree Barton

Heart of Thorns by Bree Barton, published by HarperCollins Children's Books on 31st July 2018

Goodreads synopsis:
In the ancient river kingdom, touch is a battlefield, bodies the instruments of war. Seventeen-year-old Mia Rose has pledged her life to hunting Gwyrach: women who can manipulate flesh, bones, breath, and blood.

Not women. Demons. The same demons who killed her mother without a single scratch.

But when Mia's father suddenly announces her marriage to the prince, she is forced to trade in her knives and trousers for a sumptuous silk gown. Only after the wedding goes disastrously wrong does she discover she has dark, forbidden magic—the very magic she has sworn to destroy.

Review:
'Heart of Thorns' is the first book in what I assume is a planned trilogy. The story centres around Mia Rose who wants to avenge the death of her mother at the hands of a Gwyrach. Within the kingdom, Gwyrach are hunted down and killed for being half god, half human and capable of manipulating the flesh, bone, breath and blood of their victims - sometimes leading to them inflicting death on others. While Mia only has revenge in mind, her father has a different fate for her in store. He wants her to marry Prince Quin and in the process protect her younger sister Angelyne. As Mia prepares for her wedding, she discovers that she is also a Gwyrach and this revelation turns her whole world upside down and makes her question everything she thought she knew.

I really liked the character of Mia. She's feisty and independent and carves her own path, even when she's being forced into certain situations by those around her. She also never backs away from danger and instead confronts it head on. She's a heroine who I could definitely get on-board with. I loved the inter-play between her and Quin, particularly when they are outside of the Palace walls and I enjoyed the slow burn of feelings between them.

I initially found some of the world building a bit confusing and I'll admit that I felt slightly lost at the beginning but things picked up when the action moved beyond the Palace. It was intriguing finding out more about the Gwyrach and their history.

The book is an intriguing blend of fantasy, romance and adventure. It doesn't fit neatly into one genre but that's a quality that I really liked about it. It kept me on my toes. It kept me guessing. It kept me wanting to know more. There's a huge jaw-dropping twist near the end of the story that I did not see coming and that's made me doubly excited for the next book in the series, 'Tears of Frost'.

Review: It All Falls Down - Sheena Kamal

It All Falls Down by Sheena Kamal, published by Bonnier Zaffre on 28th June 2018

Goodreads synopsis:
When Nora Watts is approached by a man claiming to know her late father, she is thrown into turmoil. Struggling with the imminent death, from cancer, of her friend and mentor Sebastian Crow, she is unprepared for the memories that this encounter brings back. What happened to her father that made him kill himself and abandon Nora and her sister?

Heading to Detroit to try and find some answers about his life there, Nora expects to discover a reason behind his suicide. Instead, she finds more questions than answers.

But trouble always follows Nora, and it's found her in Detroit, a city that is as broken as she is.

 

 

Review:
Firstly, my fault I know, but I had no idea that this was the second book in a series. Yes, it can be read as a standalone but I think it would have made a lot more sense if read in the right order. Previous events were often referred to which I found confusing.

I was also under the impression that this was going to be a tense, exhilarating and fast paced thriller. Possibly in the same vein as a Simon Kernick book - unputdownable. Unfortunately I found it incredibly slow, very un-thriller-like and extremely forgettable. It seemed so drawn out that by the end I wasn't sure I even cared about the eventual outcome.

The series is based around a female character called Nora Watts who is trying to find out the truth about her father's suicide which happened 30 years ago, as well as her mother's disappearance. The main plot is interspersed with a side story about an investigator called Brazuca who is tracking a trail of drugs. I didn't connect with Nora at all and I suppose that didn't help in terms of my interest in the story.

Overall, I thought it was extremely slow and the story didn't seem to really go anywhere at times. This is a series that I definitely won't be continuing with.

When We Caught Fire - Anna Godbersen

When We Caught Fire by Anna Godbersen, published by HarperCollins Children's Books on 2nd October 2018

Goodreads synopsis:
It’s 1871 and Emmeline Carter is poised to take Chicago’s high society by storm. Between her father’s sudden rise to wealth, and her recent engagement to Chicago’s most eligible bachelor, Emmeline has it all. But she can’t stop thinking about the life she left behind, including her childhood sweetheart, Anders Magnuson. Fiona Byrne, Emmeline’s childhood best friend, is delighted by her friend’s sudden rise to prominence, especially since it means Fiona is free to pursue Anders herself. But when Emmeline risks everything for one final fling with Anders, Fiona feels completely betrayed.

As the summer turns to fall, the city is at a tipping point: friendships are tested, hearts are broken, and the tiniest spark might set everything ablaze.

 

Review:

I've only read a few of Anna Godbersen's previous books but this one caught my eye when I discovered that the story was an imagining of events leading up to the Great Fire of Chicago. Although I don't read a huge amount of historical fiction now, this used to be one of my favourite genres so I thought I would give it a try. I read it in one sitting but finished with mixed feelings about it.

 

Godbersen has crafted a love triangle which takes centre stage in the book. Emmeline, Fiona and Anders are childhood friends whose paths have taken them in different directions. Emmeline is now engaged and has risen through the ranks of Chicago high society, while Fiona is employed as her maid and Anders has been left behind in the old neighbourhood. It was always a given that Anders and Emmeline would one day be wed but that all seems behind them now. That is until Emmeline decided that she must see Anders one more time and a terrible sequence of events is set in motion.

 

I'm not a big fan of love triangles so that was a mark against the story from the start. It's well written but I felt like it wasn't hugely original and has been done so many times before. I really liked Fiona who at times seemed like the only sensible character in the book but I wasn't keen on Emmeline at all and the way that she only ever thought about herself and what she wanted. She didn't seem to care that in the process she was ruining other peoples' lives. She was also rather shallow and flighty and constantly changed her mind which grated on me.

 

The best part of the book was the last third. Although it was almost a given what was going to happen, there were still some surprises in store and instead of meandering along, as it had done for the start of the story, the pace of the plot picked up and there was a lot more action to enjoy.

 

A bit of a mixed bag for me unfortunately, although I liked the original concept.   

 

 



 

Review: