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Sex & VIolence by Carrie Mesrobian

Posted in reviews, Uncategorized on June 9, 2013| Leave a Comment »

Sex & Violence by Carrie Mesrobian
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is not the book to read if you are looking for something uplifting and happy. And I guess the title kinda gives that away.
To begin with, I didn’t really feel anything for Evan. He was just a guy who liked having sex with girls and whose father moved him around to lots of new schools. But then he got the shit kicked out of him, and he changed. Throughout most of the book I just felt an overwhelming sadness for Evan. He was going through a traumatic time after what happened to him but also, it really came to light that he didn’t have anyone. His father was absent so much of the time, his mother was dead and because of all of the moving that him and his father did, he didn’t have any friends. He had no-one.
After his father brought him to Pearl Lake for the summer to try to heal, it was refreshing to see Evan starting to form relationships with other people, to see him start to trust people and to also trust himself to do the right thing. It didn’t end with rainbows and good times, but that wouldn’t have suited the story. I did like the way it ended though and it made me feel that finally, Evan might have started to be kind to himself.
Thanks to NetGalley for the copy of this book.

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The Madness Underneath by Maureen Johnson

Posted in Uncategorized on April 25, 2013| Leave a Comment »

The Madness Underneath by Maureen Johnson

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I quite liked the first book in this series, ‘The Name of the Star’, but I REALLY, REALLY LIKED this one. And I don’t want to take anything away from the story but I think one of the reasons I enjoyed it so much was the narrator. Nicola Barber is without a doubt one of the best audio book narrators that I have ever listened to and I ended up even doing housework just so I could listen to this book!
Rory, who survived a Jack the Ripper attack has been sent away to Bristol with her parents but ends up back at school in London at Wexford and finally back with the Shades gang – Stephen, Boo and Callum. Rory has discovered that she has new talents but she is just not sure that she wants to use them. We still get to see a bit of Jerome, Rory’s kind-of boyfriend and then there is the addition of a new character – Jane the therapist.
I really enjoyed the story line and definitely got caught up in it… I felt that Rory made some bad decisions but then when I think about it, she is a 16 year old and her behaviour was what any 16 year old would do.
And then onto the ending… at first I felt happy and shiny and couldn’t stop smiling but then…… the other thing happened. And now I just have to wait to book three to find out……. ARRGGHHHHH…….

………………………………………………………………………………………….

I managed to avoid all reviews before I read this, and now having finished it…. That ending! OMG! Wasn’t expecting it all and now I don’t know how to feel.
More words to come when I have had time to think.

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The Hunt by Andrew Fukuda

Posted in Uncategorized on August 29, 2012| Leave a Comment »

The Hunt by Andrew Fukuda My rating: 3 of 5 stars


This was an interesting book to read.  I must admit, I didn't connect with any of the characters but I did really like the story and was flipping through the pages thoroughly enjoying the experience!  I have read many books that include humans and vampires and this one was slightly different with Gene, a human, who has been pretending to be a vampire so that...well basically so that the vampires don't rip him to pieces.
One drop of blood would turn the vampires into a frenzied bunch of animals.  And did I mention that Gene is the only human left.  Apart from a bunch of humans that have been kept hidden away, locked in a dome, awaiting The Hunt.  And also the vampires don't call themselves vampires, they are called people.  And humans are called 'hepers'. And The Hunt is where a few lucky people(vampires) get to hunt the bunch of hepers(humans).
This book was fun to read, (not a funny book) and it certainly kept my attention and at times I was holding my breath just hoping that Gene's humaness wouldn't be found out.  I did feel sorry for Gene, who had to hide his emotions, couldn't laugh or cry and I was definitely on his side, cheering for him as the story went along.  There were a few little twists and surprises and a whole lot of action..like vampire/sunlight action!
A good read and I will be looking out for the next book.

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The Golden Lily by Richelle Mead

Posted in reviews, Uncategorized, tagged swoon, Vampires on June 22, 2012| Leave a Comment »

The Golden Lily by Richelle Mead
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Updated, 22/6/2012
Well damn, damn, damn…I just can’t cope with endings like that one! The second book in the Bloodlines series did not disappoint. The characters I love are all back…Eddie, Jill, Sydney and Adrian (of course). There are some support roles from characters from VA including Dimitri and Sonya and everything just fits in nicely. When the story started I was asking myself why I had thought that I liked Sydney from the first book. She was prickly, super organised, not much fun…I couldn’t work it out. But the same thing happened in this book as it did in the first, she just grew on me and I fell in love with her again. I always liked Rose from VA – her boldness and brashness, saying whatever she thought and also her kick ass fighting skills. In The Golden Lily, Sydney shows us what she is made of. She is super smart, loves research and information (that must be the librarian in me coming out!!) and she takes control of situations without even breaking a sweat. Plus she has a soft spot for Adrian.
I must admit, the first half of the book I was wishing it would hurry up and get a bit more of Adrian in the story but by halfway I was totally hooked on the story – there are lots of little bits and pieces going on and I was trying to pick up on clues about who might be part of the ‘vampire hunters’ and were the alchemists involved and just who is this Marcus character – hope he makes an appearance in book three!! The last 100 pages just flew by and I loved the action scenes, my eyes were tearing across the pages as I was holding my breath to see what would happen.
And if I haven’t made myself clear, I am an Adrian fan. a BIG Adrian fan. Any scene that included Adrian and Sydney was just delicious to read and some of those scenes..well….they got my heart pounding.
Bring on Book Three!!

18/6/2012 Sorry to the other book I am reading.. But…. This one has Adrian. That says it all really!

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Timepiece by Myra McEntire

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged swoon, time travel on May 21, 2012| Leave a Comment »

Timepiece by Myra McEntire
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Wow..I loved this book!! I really liked the first one in this series, Hourglass, and I enjoyed Timepiece even more. As with the first book this one was full of mystery, intrigue with action and adventure thrown in for good measure. The characters relationships were perfect and while in book one I fell in love with Emmerson and Michael, in this book it was Kaleb and Lily that stole the show, although Em was still fantastic. I couldn’t read this one quick enough and my brain was working the whole time trying to work out what was really going on, who to trust and even who was real. A great book to get lost in…

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Red Glove by Holly Black

Posted in reviews, Uncategorized, tagged magic on April 3, 2012| Leave a Comment »

Red Glove by Holly Black
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Oh my Holly Black, I sure do like your writing!! Red Glove, the follow on from White Cat was everything that I was expecting and even a little bit more. Again, like with White Cat, I do love the story line of people that are workers (who have a certain type of ‘magic’ and can curse people…memory workers, death workers, transformation workers) and then the people who are not workers who don’t particularly like the workers… but that is just one part of the story. The mystery and intrigue throughout the story just kept me going… My mind was flipping through so many different scenarios to try to work out what was going to happen..and who was the murderer!! And the characters…I LOVED all of the characters….Cassell, Sam, Danika and Lila..I just really loved all of them. I found them funny and loyal and caring and annoying…. just like real people.

And I have to say, I listened to this on audiobook and Jesse Eisenberg was the perfect voice for my Cassel.

Am very glad that the third and final book in the series has just been released!

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Blood Red Road by Moira Young

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged dystopia, swoon on March 4, 2012| Leave a Comment »

<a href=”http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/9969742-blood-red-road” style=”float: left; padding-right: 20px”><img alt=”Blood Red Road (Dustlands, #1)” border=”0″ src=”http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1305546612m/9969742.jpg” /></a><a href=”http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/9969742-blood-red-road”>Blood Red Road</a> by <a href=”http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/4487674.Moira_Young”>Moira Young</a> 
My rating: <a href=”http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/183341649″>4 of 5 stars</a> 
I have been wanting to read this for ages, I was holding back because of the size of the book (490 pages or so) but when I actually picked it up and started reading it, I just couldn’t put it down. It took me a few pages to get into it, mainly because of the language. Anyone who has read the ‘Chaos Walking’ series will be familiar with this type of language, written exakkly (exactly) as it is spoken. But I am getting away from the actual story.
 The action and adventure seemed to be non stop, 18 year old Saba and her 9 year old sister, Emmi, head off to find their brother, Lugh (Saba’s twin) and they seem to just be finishing one little adventure when the next one pops up and grabs them. From the beginning I found Saba to be tough, and someone who doesn’t need anyone else – or so she likes to think. She doesn’t want anyone to help her in her journey and the last half of the story, watching her soften was really enjoyable. Jack, didn’t pop up until nearly half way through but he was a welcome addition (as was his shirtless chest!) and it was good to see his relationship with Saba develop – it was definitely not insta-love! There were quite a few moments when my heart was in my chest and I was flipping the pages as quickly as I could to find out what happened. All of the characters worked well together and there quite a few background characters who left their mark on the story, and some who made me cry.
 I really loved this book and am now waiting for the second book to come out later this year.
 
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Legend by Marie Lu

Posted in Uncategorized on January 23, 2012| Leave a Comment »

Legend by Marie Lu
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Well eighteen months ago I don’t think I had ever read a dystopian novel and now I just can’t seem to get enough. Legend did not disappoint. I picked it up and after getting through to page 50 or so, I was totally hooked and could not put it down (hence my not going to sleep until around 2am!)

I had a great time reading it, I found it fast paced with lots of action, some twists and turns and I found the characters interesting and enjoyed watching them learn things about themselves, each other and the world they both lived in. June and Day were both very similar but because they came from opposite backgrounds (June – rich, privileged and Day – from the slums, poor, a victim) they worked well together.

And the swoon factor (which I just can’t get enough of!!) was nice and just enough 🙂 And now to wait for book two…

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Falling Under by Gwen Hayes

Posted in Uncategorized on January 15, 2012| Leave a Comment »

Falling Under by Gwen Hayes
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

‘Everything changed the night I saw the burning man fall from the sky.’

What a great first line – I read this and thought, here we go, this is going to be a great read. And I did enjoy it, the story and the characters were enough to keep me reading, but I just didn’t love it. I liked the MC Theia but I didn’t really connect with her. Haden was OK, but again, I didn’t connect with him and I didn’t find myself swooning either! I like the idea of the story and some of my favorite parts were when Theia fell asleep and then…’went under’ and I do have to say, some of the characters from ‘under’ really gave me the creeps (I do get the creeps and scare very easily) and I had images of Tim Burton characters and scenes from the Corpse Bride in my head. And I am curious about Theia’s mother and wondering if she will make an appearance in book two or if I am reading too much into it. I would have to say to this book, ‘its not you , its me’. I just don’t think I was in the right place to love it but it was still an OK read.

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Reading Challenge of 2011

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged books, faves, reading on December 27, 2011| Leave a Comment »

Earlier this year I entered a reading challenge on GoodReads, to read 150 book in 2011. And I did it! I am up to 161 books, and I still have 4 days left! If you want to have a look at the books I have read in 2011 – here you go:

Goodreads – books read in 2011

And out of those, I am going to pick some of my faves….. on second thoughts, Even if I did just pick some of my faves then I would still have a list of about 70 books so it would be better if you just checked out the whole list from the link above! I will limit myself to ~~five~~ six GREAT books (and three of them are Aussie authors!) that I read in 2011: