So I’ve just entered a competition being ran by Kiersten White for the ARC to her upcoming novel, Endlessly, the finale to her Paranormalcy trilogy! This is my entry for the biggest disappointment if I were to meet a supernatural:
Finally got myself a genie but he’s so stingy he won’t give me all of my three wishes. How is one wish enough? He’s not even anywhere near as cheerful as the one from Aladin.
I loved Alex. He was like a young James Bond, only cooler and funnier. He went through a lot and this is obvious form the way the series evolved. When he was captured in the earlier books, he would always banter with the villains. Later though, it was far too serious for this and there was a much darker tone. The threats became much more sever. In the first book, he was threatened to have his face carved. In Ark Angel, he nearly faced having a finger chopped off. In Snakehead, he nearly had his organs removed. Very severe. But through it all, Alex has persevered and I very much like his character development.
Favourite villain: Yassen Gregorovich (first appearance: Stormbreaker)
Favourite vialliness: Julia Rothman (first appearance: Scorpia)
Favourite mission: Skeleton Key
I’ve blogged about the Wicked Lovely series before, but basically it is about the different faerie courts. This includes the Summer Court (mostly featured in book #1 and #3), the Dark Court (mostly featured in book #2 and book #4), the High Court (mostly featured in book #3) and the Winter Court.
What is unique about this series is that there is an ever changing multiple narrative throughout the series. This series will entice and grip you. Don’t forget to read Faery Tales & Nightmares, the companion novella!
Favourite character: Irial, King of the Dark court
Favourite couple: I’m caught between Leslie & Niall, and Aislinn & Seth.
Favourite book: Ink Exchange
Jess Mastriani is your typical 16 year old girl with anger management problems. Things take a turn into weird lane when she gets struck by lightning and gains powers to locate missing people through her dreams. Thinking that her new ability is a gift, she begins making anonymous calls to help the police find missing people, but then the FBI try to find her. Then she accidentally finds someone who didn’t want to be found. (Synopsis for the first book, When Lightning Strikes)
And of course there has to be some romance, so queue Rob Wilkins, bad boy extraordinaire. They met in detention! He helps her out through all the madness. But what with him being on parol, he doesn’t think that the two of them can be together. 🙁 Sad times.
This series is exhilarating and thrilling. With action, drama and romance all wrapped in one.
Favourite book: Sanctuary
Strange fact: The protagonist, Jess, and I BOTH play the flute!
Suze Simon is your usual ghost buster extraordinaire! So she’s basically not a typical 16 year old. When her mother remarries and moves them to sunny California, she has a lot of adapting to do, what with her new school run by nuns! Then there’s the hot ghost who’s been dead for over a 100 years living in her bedroom. I don’t know what she had to complain about. This six book series was engaging, and thrilling. There was romance and just a hint of horror (come on! I scare easily!). Read it before you’re undead!
Creepiest character: Paul Slater
Favourite villain ghost: Jesse’s ex
So Rick Riordan has ditched his toga for a crook and flail. In this amazing new-ish series (well, the last book was out May 1st 2012), brother and sister Carter and Sadie Kane find out that they are descendants of two great pharaohs. And that they are magicians! You’d think that would be awesome if not for the ancient gods that their father accidentally unleashed on the world. And now if they don’t stop Set, the evil god of Chaos, it’ll be the end of the world- no pressure! ( my synopsis for book #1, The Red Pyramid)
This series captured much of the same humour that made The Percy Jackson series so amazing. This one has two equally engaging narrators and it’s filled with adventures you’ll love to relive.
Favourite god: Bes (Anubis came REALLY close)
Favourite goddess: Bast
Favourite Carter quote: “Noble” I agreed. “That’s the first word that comes to mind when I think of pigeons”- The Serpent’s Shadow
Favourite Sadie quote:
Favourtie Horus quote-
Carter: “She’s almost as annoying as you”
Horus: “Impossible! No one bests Horus!”- The Red Pyramid
Favourite Ra quote: “I like Zebras… Weasels are sick”
Most detested villian: Setne
This is the grand finale to the epic trilogy that is The Kane Chronicles. It does not disappoint as Riordan has included a lot of action, drama, and of course, CHAOS! Once again, Carter and Sadie both narrate- and interrupt each other from time to time. They do a bit of travelling, although I would have to say that the travel in the other books was a bit more extensive. The travelling in this novel is mostly through the Duat rather that actual places that we know of, such as how they travelled to Russia in the previous novel.
Relax because Anubis does indeed make an appearance, thank the gods. I very much like him but Riordan does not focus very much on his character development, possibly because this is not a YA Romance novel. I guess we must all just leave the majority of his character to our imaginations… Similarly, Zia Rashid, Carter’s crush, is also here. I really like her and you will be happy with their ending, although there is a bit of an awkward chapter here. Read it and then you will understand.
At the centre of this novel is the struggle between good and evil- Ma’at and Isfet. I’m not a fan of Apophis, but I really linked Kronos from the Percy Jackson series. I’m not sure why. He was incredibly cruel and sadistic. Maybe more so than Apophis. This is rather typical of children’s novels but I like how sometimes the right choice does not seem obvious. Although the prophecy is not as clear as that of Percy Jackson, one thing is made clear from the beginning- Apophis will swallow Ra. So technically it’s not like I was giving you a spoiler.
I rather liked the opening to this novel, although I think it kind of gave away too much. Having said that, there is no way that they would have recorded their account of how they saved the world if they had not been there to do so. Therefore, it was already clear that Apophis failed but the novel is not so much about ‘Will the world fall?’ but the journey of how they saved the world.
My only actual criticism is that Riordan did not reveal very much about quite a few of the supporting characters. Jaz was in ‘The Throne of Fire’, making her seem fairly important but she did not do very much in ‘The Serpent’s Shadow’. Similarly, I was left wondering which god will Felix follow the path of?
I had expected the problem that arose from saving the world all along, what with the need for balance. This may not make sense right now unless you have read this book, so I advise that you do so immediately. This is me being pushy (haha!). Riordan also implies that whilst this may be the end of the series, you may be seeing more of the magicians in the future. I can’t wait!
Saying goodbye to Meghan was sad but there is going to be a spin-off series! With Ethan Chase!
There is not a lot I can tell you about this new series except that it will be called Call of the Forgotten. I will update when I get news, but for now please appreciate Ethan’s hotness.
Please excuse me whilst I wipe my drool.
So basically, if you’ve read the Wicked Lovely series, this is a MUST READ! But there are other non-WL stories that are good. I especially liked the Selkie story. I hadn’t expected such a happy ending, but I loved it.
Authors can write but not many of them can draw or paint. Here are a number of great digital drawings I found on DeviantArt on some of my favourite books:
For a person like me it normally takes about 3 days to read a novel. Sometimes a week. But for all my efforts, every now and again I come across a novel that I just cannot finish. Sometimes it’s because they’re boring; other times I’m reading two novels at a time and one just catches my attention more. Here some of the books I have started and am yet to finish:
Having read the entire series, apart from this one, I was thoroughly disappointed. I loved Arty and all of his adventures. I honestly think that Colfer should have quit whilst he was ahead after about the with book. Once he brought time travelling into the mix, it just got confusing. One Artemis Fowl is quite enough, and having him try and out-smart himself was bizarre but interesting. With The Lost Colony, Colfer introduced the demons, the over race of fairies. Did he really have to call them that? Why not ogres? But besides the name, the race seemed pretty cool and I really liked the new character, Number One.
I did my best to read The Atlantis Complex but I just didn’t things were the same without Commander Root. The events were somewhat confusing and watching Artemis deteriorate into madness was unbearable. Knowing that this book has something to do with Opal Koboi also irks me. I’ve seen enough of this pixie, and now I think that she should just die.
With that pleasant thought, I warn Artemis Fowl fans about this novel and future ones to be written. And Eoin Colfer, I still love you as a writer and I hope you redeem yourself.
I came SOO close to finishing this novel. I reckon I got distracted by another one, as I often do. It’s a pity because it was actually a good book. Set in a futuristic world where the old gods are still worshipped, it follows two very different girls whose worlds are entangled. It is a world where slavery is very prominent and those that are bound by it are called bondsmen, and freewomen and freemen rule. It is the perfect entanglement of the ancient and the futuristic. Unlike Riordan, Price has chosen to go for Norse Mythology.
Harry Potter & the Philosopher’s Stone by J.K. Rowling
Sorry to those millions of fans, but I don’t see the hype.
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You can never get too much of faery novels. With the mention of a faery assassin, I could not get a hold of this book any quicker. It was alluring and captivating.
Sixteen-year-old Deirdre Monaghan is a painfully shy but prodigiously gifted musician. She’s about to find out she’s also a cloverhand—one who can see faeries. When a mysterious boy enters her ordinary suburban life, seemingly out of nowhere, Deirdre finds herself infatuated. Trouble is, the enigmatic and conflicted Luke turns out to be a gallowglass—a soulless faerie assassin—and Deirdre is meant to be his next mark. Deirdre has to decide if Luke’s feelings towards her are real, or only a way to lure her deeper into the world of Faerie.
I’ve read a number of books with faeries and faery-like creatures (Melissa Marr’s Wicked Lovely, Carrie Jone’s Need), so I knew it would take a lot to impress me. The novel was a masterpiece. It was lyrical and enthralling.
Starting very shy, I was worried that the faeries would chew Dee alive. Being very talented I could tell that she would be a very capable character. I was not surprised that she fell for look, the alluring flautist. Heck, if I met him we could make some sweet music too! He plays my instrument, the flute.
Stiefvater successfully captured the essence of faeries. Some were rather playful, such as the delightful Una, whereas others were simply deadly. They often showed up when you least expected and caused a lot of mischief and trouble in their wake. Dee handled most of these situations quite well and she still managed to some realistic. Every hero and heroine needs help from time to time and her close friend, James was just that. There were many twists and turns along the way and the novel was certainly not predictable.
Having said that, I did notice some similarities between Lament and Julie Kagawa’s The Iron King. Kagawa’s series is famous for it’s wonderful love triangle between the protagonist, Meghan, her best friend, Puck and the Winter prince, Ash. So of course Dee’s best friend, James reminded me of Puck. Both are funny guys with a close friendship with the protagonist. They help to give some comic relief to the plot and are unsurprisingly romantically interested in the protagonist. Luke Dillon, the assassin was rather much like Ash. They have the whole brooding handsome guy thing. They are both armed and dangerous and could become the protagonist’s demise. Yet there are differences. The underlining tone of Lament is altogether darker and creepier. With the strange red-headed boy who appeared, the cruel faery queen who has a hold of Luke, it highlights just how cruel faeries can be. So I don’t know who imagined up Tinkerbell, but I think they were rather inaccurate about faeries. The Iron King centralises more on the romance, whereas I think Lament had a protagonist who really growed as a character.
My next series was the Wicked Lovely series by Melissa Marr. Her faeries made Pike’s trolls look harmless. Its brilliance also make reading Pike’s sequel, Spells impossible! It was just nowhere nearly as good! I got halfway through and I just couldn’t go any further.
It’s true that Pike’s protagonist is more like me that any of Marr’s. A lot of the characters in The Wicked Lovely series seem broken in one way or the other. But Pike’s love triangle is typical and boring. I admire Laurel and it’s a great book for tweens but Marr’s novels are just simply more sophisticated.
Kiersten White’s Paranormalcy included creatures other than just faeries but the fey in this novel did stand out. Oh Reth… He is the kind of faery that seems closer to the ones that appears in Wicked Lovely. He is in it for personal game. He’s stunningly beautiful and knows it. He’ll claim to be your friend and then stab you in the back. Very far off from Pike’s goody goody faeries.
Then there was Julie Kagawa’s Iron Fey series, starting with The Iron King.
This novel was stellar. The cover art stood out to me and so I had to have it. Shallow, I know. But I read an excerpt online just to be sure and I was intrigued. There are some interesting characters in here, with Puck being my favourite. Yes, Shakespeare’s Puck. And a talking cat named Grimalkin. I’ll post a separate review on this book soon. It is action filled, with romance and utter brilliance. I already have my copy of the sequel, The Iron Daughter. Yes, I am fully aware that the fourth book was out last December. Unfortunately, no one tells me of the great books. I’m the one always recommending books to my friends.
So there was once the rise of vampire and werewolf novels, and then the time of the fey came. What is coming this year I wonder? A little birdy told me that it is the year of Greek Mythology. Well, I’m curious as to what will top Percy Jackson. Then of course, there are the dystopian and apocalyptic novels. The Hunger Games is terrific but I don’t know if I could find anything as brilliant as it for a long time.