Monday 27 April 2015

Grim Tuesday (The Keys to the Kingdom #2) by Garth Nix

Book Blurb (from Goodreads):
Arthur doesn't think he will ever have to return to the strange house that nearly killed him on Monday -- the house that contains an entire world. But Tuesday brings new challenges -- in the form of an enemy named Grim Tuesday, who threatens the well-being of both Arthur's family and his world. Arthur must retrieve the Second Key from Grim Tuesday in order to save everything -- an adventure that will include stealing a Sunship, surviving a very weird work camp, befriending a bearlike spirit, fighting the voidlike Nithlings, and traveling to the scary Far Reaches for the ultimate showdown.






My Review
An amazing sequel to the first book.
I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book, I absolutely loved it. The plot of this book is, that Arthur has returned home and it is Tuesday on Earth. Then he gets a phone call from the Will, saying that the Trustee, Grim Tuesday, is working against them. Apparently he found a loophole in the agreement made with the rest of the Morrow Days and is now laying claim on the Lower House. He wants to force Arthur to hand over the Lower House and the First Key by putting Arthur's world into a terrible financial crisis.
I think that the plot was thought out very carefully. The solutions to the problems or dangers in the book were always logical and weren't based entirely on luck as some books I know. I also liked that not everything went well in this book. There were some major problems and not everything went as expected. I liked finding out and exploring the new demesne of the House and meeting new interesting characters. I think that part of the fun is to find out how the new Part of the Will looks like, seeing how annoying and uncooperative it can be and also how the next Key looks like. I enjoyed reading the whole book (I read it in a day) except that I think that the part when Arthur was going to the Pit was a bit dragged out too much. Besides that, the pacing was very good and not too rushed. I just found that the plot of the book was a bit too repeated from the previous book.
I really liked all of the characters, except for the Will and Dame Primus. I will talk about them first. I didn't mind Dame Primus when she was a frog in the first book, but in this book, both she and the Second piece of the Will were really starting to get on my nerves. The Second Part of the Will was especially annoying because it was almost as sleepy and careless as Mister Monday! Is that even possible!? Anyway, Arthur was still a very likable character. He is smart and brave and really does care a lot for his family. Somehow, he always finds a solution to every problem, but as mentioned, the solutions were logical. Suzy was a really fun character though. She doesn't have a care in the world and she always appears at the right place, on the right time. She always says what she is thinking and is a daredevil kind of person. I wished that some of the old characters would have appeared in this book as well or gotten more lines.
The writing style especially made this book really enjoyable. Everything is written in an excitable way and I never got bored reading it. It is so good!
This book was amazing but I cannot give it a full rating because the plot is repeated. I give it 4 out of 5 stars!

Friday 24 April 2015

Frozen Charlotte (Red Eye) by Alex Bell

23357071
Book Blurb (From goodreads)
We're waiting for you to come and play. 
Dunvegan School for Girls has been closed for many years. Converted into a family home, the teachers and students are long gone. But they left something behind...Sophie arrives at the old schoolhouse to spend the summer with her cousins. Brooding Cameron with his scarred hand, strange Lilias with a fear of bones and Piper, who seems just a bit too good to be true. And then there's her other cousin. The girl with a room full of antique dolls. The girl that shouldn't be there. The girl that died. 








My Review: 
This review took me almost a week to write causing me to miss my usual Friday review. I am not so sure if that is a good thing or a bad thing but this book defiantly played with my mind. 
The plot in this book was fast paced most of the way through with only a couple chapters here and there where it slowed down. The chapters where the plot slowed down were usually the chapters where we got crucial information to help progress the story further and give it more depth. As you go deeper and further into the story it gets creepy and makes you question exactly what you know about the character because no one is ever as they seem. The second last chapter in this book where you find out what happened to the characters something like six months later was rushed and crammed with information. It defiantly was not as well written as the other chapters.
Sophie was a slightly curious character, although her curiosity sometimes made her stupid as it does with most main characters in horror books. Here a bang on the door which is probably the creepy dolls? Let's go check it out? They are probably a mad person that likes to kill and hurt people? Tea party time! Seriously. The sub characters each had their own background and were complicate and hard to understand on so many levels. I don't even feel like I know them now after I finished the book. 
All in all I give this book four out five stars.


Monday 20 April 2015

Mister Monday (The Keys to the Kingdom #1) by Garth Nix

Book Blurb (from Goodreads):
Aurthur is supposed to die an early death, but he is saved by a key shaped like the minute hand of a clock. A stranger named Mister Monday will stop at nothing to get the key back, and Arthur must unravel the secrets of the key and discover his true fate.












My Review
This was an amazing first book.
I originally picked up this book because it is written by Garth Nix and I already read the Old Kingdom Series by him and I absolutely loved it. I totally expected this book to be as good, especially after reading the back. 
This story is about an asthmatic boy called Arthur Penhaligon who was given a key in the shape of a minute hand. But now his world is being plagued by the disease brought by the dog-faced Fetchers called the Sleepy Plague. Now he has to save his world by going into the House and defeat Mister Monday to find the cure.
Now, I found that I was pretty confused because this book is high-fantasy and has a lot of its own terms. I will therefor give you a brief back-story and explanation of the House. Basically, the House is the epicentre of the universe and is build upon Nothing by the Great Architect. The Architect created everything, all the other worlds as well as Earth. These mortal worlds are called the Secondary Realms. When the Architect left the House, She left the Will there to look after the workings of the House and stick to the Original Law. One of the rules was to not interfere with the Secondary Realms. There were Trustees in charge of different parts of the House and they broke the Original Law by interfering. The Trustees broke the Will into seven parts and hid the parts. This story follows the first part of the Will escaping. And you guessed it (or didn't, this isn't a spoiler): Mister Monday is one of the Trustees.
I really loved the plot of this book.I love fantasy books in general and this book is extreme high-fantasy, even for me. But I loved it. Everything was well-thought out and the solutions to sticky situations were rational and didn't just appear out of thin air. The book was full of action and you literally never got bored reading it. I found that, since there was a lot of world-building required to make the story good, there was a lot of confusion and more explanations were needed at the beginning. But gradually everything got explained, but there were still some terms in the book which I didn't understand until after I finished the book and thought about it.
Arthur was the kind of character who you like even though you don't know him. He is likable and, considering the circumstances, very brave and selfless. Suzy was a very interesting character and nearly made it to my favourite character for this book. Suzy is very adventurous and says anything that's on her mind, sometimes causing trouble (a lot of times). But she is still very friendly and does manage to help Arthur a lot. She never thinks things through and just does them while Arthur always considers everything. My favourite character might be a strange choice, but I settled for Monday's Noon. If you noticed who my other favourite characters were for other books, you would notice that a lot of them are sometimes evil. I don't know why I like the evil characters! Something about Noon's personality somehow just made me like him.
The writing style was very good. I did not get bored reading this book and I could relate to the feelings of the characters. Garth Nix also manages to write with a sense of humour. It isn't outright laughter, but if you look closely, you will definitely feel a sense of amusement at some parts.
Despite the confusion at the beginning due to all the world-building required, I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book. I don't recommend it to people who don't really like fantasy, because this book is high-fantasy (and that is saying something coming from me). I really love fantasy though and this story was very good so I am giving it 4 out of 5 stars!

Wednesday 15 April 2015

Colleen Caitin - "Leeway"

Hey! I got a chance to ask Colleen Caitin some questions. She is the author of "Leeway", the book which I recently reviewed.

1) What inspired you to write "Leeway"?
I always loved fairytales and when I started to watch the ABC series Once upon a time, I was so fascinated by all the new tells of the stories that I started to write some ideas down which later on turned into Leeway.
2) What made you want to start your writing career?
I love everything about books and for me, writing is a way to deal with my feelings and emotions and writing everything down and turning it into a story helps me figuring some stuff out and I hope it can do the same for my readers. And I couldn't imagine anything better.
3) What did you learn from writing books?
I have a hard time showing my emotions, so writing helps a great deal with that. I also learned that there is always more than one perspective on everything, depending on a situation and a person and that there isn't necessarily only one right way in life.
4) What would your reaction be if you were in Mila's situation?
Well, to be honest there is a lot of myself in Mila and the book is extremely personal, so it's safe to say that a lot of her reactions are what I hope I would do in a situation like that, especially at the end. I probably wouldn't be as bitchy as she is in the beginning, because I'm addicted to harmony and pretty sweet-tempered, so I would probably do my best to fit in without making any trouble, but I hope that I would have the same courage as Mila does when it comes to the end.
5) What are you working on now? What is your next project?
Currently, I'm pretty stressed out with university and work, so I don't have a lot of time to write. But I do work on the follow up to Leeway where I try to discover a bit more of Lian's and Mila's backstory and parallel to that, I also work on something completely new. I don't have a lot of details yet, but it's going more in the fantasy direction, also discovering other life-forms apart from human beings. There is a short sneak peek available on my website should you be interested.

Don't forget to read the review of "Leeway" here!

Monday 13 April 2015

Leeway by Colleen Caitin

Book Blurb (from Goodreads):
“Ye know sometimes people wanna tell ye how they feel, but they can’t.”
“Why not?” I ask sadly.
“Because they are afraid of what ye think about them.”
“When you love someone you should be able to say anything. No matter what.”
“Yeah, that’s the theory…”

What happens when a very young and charismatic pirate captain meets an unbelievably annoying and bitchy princess? All hell breaks loose!

Captain Lian loves the sea and the life he built for himself. No rules. At least he did before he ended up with the youngest daughter of the King on his beloved ship which couldn’t be more problematic. Everyone knows that a girl on board of a pirate’s ship brings bad luck!

Now he has to figure out how to get rid of her as soon as possible without incurring the King’s wrath on him and his crew. Easier said than done. While facing one heated argument after another with the royal pain in the ass, it turns out the captain and the princess have more in common than they would like to admit.

As both of their lives start to fall apart they see themselves making choices that could change their lives forever.


My Review

***I received the eBook free as a review copy from the author/publisher in exchange for an honest review***

If you look at certain passages in this book, it was a pretty philosophical and emotional read.
The plot of this books circulates around the main protagonists Pirate Captain Lian and the Princess Mila. Basically, Lian is living the life on the seas, that is until he fishes out a certain princess out of the ocean. Then we get to see their relationship progress from there on. As legend has it, pirates believe that a girl on a ship brings bad luck. So, Lian of course tries to get rid of the princess but he doesn't want the king to get angry at him. I said earlier, that the book might be philosophical at certain parts because this book is also focused a lot on the idea of acceptance. To accept someone just the way they are and to live your life for yourself.
All of the characters had an interesting back-story. Lian wasn't originally born to a family, which had a lot of connection to the ocean. His family was poor and he had to steal so that they can eat. I will not talk much about Mila's back-story because it is told near the end of the book and part of the fun is to find Mila's story. I will just give the basic information: Mila is the second daughter of King Aaron. Mila's sister is called Lila and she is the perfect girl, everyone likes her. Mila feels attention-deprived and lets a dirty rumour about herself circulate so that her father finally notices her. The rumour is, that Mila slept with several men.
I think that the writing style kept this story going. It has something to it, that makes you want to continue reading. I think that the depth of the plot could have been more defined and developed, because everything was pretty straightforward and simple. Which is alright, but I did wish for a bit more complexity. The story is told out of two switching perspectives, Lian's and Mila's. These perspectives are told out of the first person, which probably makes you relate more with the characters and their emotions.The writing style changed for each character, for Mila it was very sophisticated-sounding. Lian, being the wild and pirate-y type, swears a lot in thoughts and in speech. Personally, I do not swear but I normally don't complain when other people swear. I just get uncomfortable reading swear-words because I read the words aloud in my head. That was a downside to the writing for Lian. Otherwise I liked it.
I expected the climax to be longer and more dramatic and the plot was simple enough, but it enjoyable to read. I think that I give this book 3 out of 5 stars!
Please visit Colleen Caitin's official website here

Friday 10 April 2015

White Space (Dark Passages #1) Ilsa J.Bick

White Space (Dark Passages, #1)
Book Blurb (from Goodreads)
Seventeen-year-old Emma Lindsay has problems: a head full of metal, no parents, a crazy artist for a guardian whom a stroke has turned into a vegetable, and all those times when she blinks away, dropping into other lives so ghostly and surreal it's as if the story of her life bleeds into theirs. But one thing Emma has never doubted is that she's real.
Then she writes "White Space," a story about these kids stranded in a spooky house during a blizzard.
Unfortunately, "White Space" turns out to be a dead ringer for part of an unfinished novel by a long-dead writer. The manuscript, which she's never seen, is a loopy Matrix meets Inkheart story in which characters fall out of different books and jump off the page. Thing is, when Emma blinks, she might be doing the same and, before long, she's dropped into the very story she thought she'd written. Trapped in a weird, snow-choked valley, Emma meets other kids with dark secrets and strange abilities: Eric, Casey, Bode, Rima, and a very special little girl, Lizzie. What they discover is that they--and Emma--may be nothing more than characters written into being from an alternative universe for a very specific purpose.
Now what they must uncover is why they've been brought to this place--a world between the lines where parallel realities are created and destroyed and nightmares are written--before someone pens their end.


My Review: 
This book was very much as an impulse buy for me, the plot sounded interesting, and it was, but it was just confusing in the first couple of chapters.
The plot was like I said at the top, confusing for the first couple of chapters. You get thrown head first into this world, which isn't even the main world which you are going to be in, and more questions are generated in the first chapter then answers and it took us a long time to get those answers. Like around 200 pages later to get answers. For some people this may of been good and created suspense, but for me, because of all of these questions and confusions that were going on in my head I needed to be completely focused when I was reading this book so it made it much harder to get through. The plot took a while to speed up but all in all it was a generally slow moving book with some really fast parts and then some really slow parts as well. There were a lot of complicated explanations in this book throughout which you can sometimes not understand at first, and re-reading it sometimes does not help, but keep plowing through because usually the explanation will be repeated in a simpler way which is more easy to understand. 
This book has it's share of characters and each character gets their own point of view. Because there was so many point of views it was hard to keep interested in all of the characters story's so to keep this paragraph short I am just going to keep it to the main character Emma. Emma is a science nerd with some mental issues. If I understood it correctly her dad throw her against the wall as a child and her head became filled with head fractures so she had to have surgery and was put in another home. I found it easy to relate to Emma in certain situations when she started to talk about science but in other times not so much but that was okay most of the time. If I am honest I didn't really care about the characters much and found that when one of them died, which of course had to happen, I wasn't sad and really just wanted the story to go on. I think that it is safe to say that this is more of a plot driven book then a character driven one. 
All in all I give it 3 out of 5 stars. 

Friday 3 April 2015

Heir of Fire (Throne of Glass #3) by Sarah J. Maas

Book Blurb (from Goodreads):
Consumed by guilt and rage, Celaena can't bring herself to spill blood for the King of Adarlan. She must fight back...

The Immortal Queen will help her destroy the king - for a price. But as Celaena battles with her darkest memories and her heart breaks for a love that could never last, can she fulfil the bargain and head the almighty court of Terrasen? And who will stand with her?








My Review
Where. Is. The. Next. Book?
I am officially addicted to this series. I feel like I need to get my hands on the next book right now or I will die. And we wouldn't want that, would we? Read this book. I need someone to talk to. So much happened in this book it is unbelievable.
The basic plot of this book is, that Celaena was sent to Wendlyn on a mission to assassinate the King and Queen of Wendlyn so that the King of Adarlan can easily conquer Wendlyn.
This book could be separated into three different stories: Celaena's, Dorian's and Chaol's, and a witch called Manon. I will give a brief summary and explanation for each of them.
First Celaena's story. As I already said, Celaena goes to Wendlyn. While we are reading Heir of Fire, Celaena starts facing her fears, working on her magic and we learn a lot more about her history. At the beginning of this book, she was an arrogant young girl who was scared of her own destiny. Nearing the end of Heir of Fire, her personality completely changed and she truly becomes the Heir of Terrasen. There is some serious character development going on here. I must admit, that I was not that happy about Celaena being in Wendlyn. She doesn't belong there! That's why it took me a bit longer to get into the book than it was supposed to.
Dorian's and Chaol's story is taking place in Adarlan, in the palace. Dorian's life becomes terrible, the worst it could possibly get. Meanwhile, Chaol discovered who Celaena really is and is battling with his feelings for her. Their stories weren't that interesting until the last couple of chapters.
Manon on the other hand was an amazing character. As I said at the start of this review, she is one of the Ironteeth witches. There are three different clans of these witches: the Yellowlegs, Bluebloods and the Blackbeaks, the clan to which Manon belongs to. She is the heir of the Blackbeaks and also the leader of the cloven called the Thirteen. And Manon is just pure wicked, she has no soul. At first I was confused as to why the story was now told out of the witch's perspective but then I remembered the incident with Baba Yellowlegs from the last book and decided that Manon's perspective wasn't that irrelevant. By the second chapter, I couldn't wait to read more about Manon's story. Basically, all the witches were called together to perform in the War Games, so that the King of Adarlan could also have a witch army. As a bait, the King offered all of them to choose a beast for themselves called wyvern. Manon was a very interesting character and I really got to like her a lot.
I also love the writing style of the book. Sarah J Maas created a series, which never let you go, it never got boring and the way she writes is amazing. I found, that Sarah J Maas uses pretty dramatic verbs and adjectives to make the scene come to life. Action is literally exploding from every page and the plot twists are mind blowing. You try to anticipate what is going to happen next, but the story is unpredictable. Anything could happen.
The ending was so beautifully written, but I still need to know what is going to happen next. I am waiting for the next book! This book gets 5 out of 5 stars!

Crown of Midnight (Throne of Glass #2) by Sarah J. Maas

Book Blurb (from Goodreads):
Crowned by Evil.
Bound by Duty.
Divided by Love.


Celaena Sardothien, royal assassin, is the King of Adarlan's deadliest weapon. She must win her freedom through his enemies' blood - but she cannot bear to kill for the crown. And every death Celaena fakes, every lie she tells, put those she loves at risk.

Torn between her two protectors - a captain and a prince - and battling a dark force far greater than the king, Celaena must decide what she will fight for: her liberty, her heart or the fate of a kingdom...




My Review
I cannot get enough of this series. I need more!
I started this book as soon as I finished Throne of Glass and I finished Crown of Midnight in two days. I think that I went a bit overboard with reading it, but it is so good! This book was even more emotional for me than the last book!
So basically, after the last book, Celaena is getting ordered around by the King of Adarlan. She is now also torn between Dorian (the Crown Prince) and Chaol (the Captain of the Guards). Celaena pretty much continues her adventures from the last book (which was epic).
The characters in this book are just insanely amazing. Celaena is such a brave, sassy character. She does literally anything that could get her killed and she doesn't let the panic take over her senses. Gradually, if you didn't already, you feel like you are Celaena. Whenever she is happy, you are happy. Whenever she isn't coping well, you aren't coping well. Also the other characters are amazing. Dorian is still a very likable character, but Chaol is still my favourite. Team Chaol all the way! I like him that much because his personality is more similar to mine than Dorian's is to mine. I think I mentioned this before, but Chaol is serious but he can be humorous if he wants to be. And also, when he is alone together with Celaena, he can be so sweet and I totally ship Chaol and Celaena. 
I can't describe my feelings for this book. It was amazing. You need to read it now and I will not be responsible for loss of sanity, heart breaks, fangirling too much or any other symptoms of reading a book that is way too awesome to even sum up in words. The feelings while reading Crown of Midnight  were so intense! The feels were going up and down and then all over the place. Ahhh! I need the next book right now!
The writing style is magnificent. The book is written in such a way, that you never get bored and instead of reading the words on the page, you can actually visualize what is happening, like character's facial expressions, what they are doing, etc. Not only that: even the descriptions aren't dull in any way. I have read some books, where the descriptions are the parts you just want to get over and done with. But in Crown of Midnight, Sarah J. Maas has written a book, where you savour each and every word and can't get enough of it.
I seriously need the next book now, the feelings for this book are so intense, the characters are amazing, everything is amazing about Crown of Midnight! It has been a while, since I have found a book, in which I can truly immerse myself in and feel so deeply for the characters in the story. The whole Throne of Glass series is a must read. I give this book 5 out of 5 stars!

Der Pakt (Feuer & Glas #1) by Brigitte Riebe

Book Blurb (from Goodreads):
Venedig im Jahr 1509: Ein machtvolles Glasartefakt und die letzte Erinnerung an einen verschwundenen Vater … Eine uralte Fehde zweier verfeindeter Völker … Und ein Mädchen, das nicht ahnt, dass es den Schlüssel zur Rettung Venedigs in seinen Händen hält...
Für die sechzehnjährige Milla scheint die Zeit stehen zu bleiben, als sie an einem heißen Frühlingstag dem jungen Gondoliere Luca begegnet. Wie ein Aristokrat aus einer anderen Zeit gleitet er, gemeinsam mit einer Katze, auf einer blauen Gondel durch einen stillen Kanal. Milla ist verzaubert und kann den jungen Mann nicht vergessen. Als kurze Zeit später dieselbe geheimnisvolle Katze im kleinen Lokal ihrer Mutter und Tante auftaucht, folgt sie ihr durch die Gassen Venedigs. Sie gelangen zu einem reichen Stadthaus – und Milla sieht Luca wieder. Er ist jedoch nicht allein, und plötzlich wird Milla in den Strudel dunkler Vorkommnisse um das Ende der mächtigen Lagunenstadt gezogen. Stammt sie wirklich von den Feuerleuten ab, die seit jeher gemeinsam mit den Wasserleuten Venedig beschützen? Was empfindet Luca, einer der Wasserleute, wirklich für sie? Und hat all das mit dem Verschwinden ihres Vaters zu tun? Zwischen Liebe und Zweifel hin- und hergerissen, kann Milla niemandem vertrauen – außer einer Katze und ihrem Gespür für die Wahrheit...


My Review
This was one of the most tiring books I have read so far.
The story is taking place in Venice, Italy in the year 1509. There are two main kinds of people living there. The Firepeople, Milla belongs to them and they can blow glass, and the Waterpeople, to which Luca belong and they are mostly gondoliers. As their names suggest they can control their element and  they are currently at war with each other. But since Venice is a city of fire and water, they have to be united or it will fall. Milla has to seal the ancient pact between the two people with Luca, with the help of the glass gondola. But Milla and Luca aren't allowed to fall in love. Oh no.
Milla was in some ways an interesting character. She is very adventurous and always gets herself into trouble and she gets angry very easily. Like very easily. And she can hold a grudge against someone for a very long time. So wen you meet her, you better make sure that you get on her good side. Luca's personality was he complete opposite of Milla's. Luca was always the calm one and never rushed into things. He thought things through, but he also has a split personality because one time he can be nice and the other time he can be really mean to Milla. I never really liked him at the beginning. My favourite character in this book was probably Marco Bellino because... I don't really know, I just liked his personality.
Now, the writing style: I have so much to say about it, I don't even know where to start. Agh! Okay, I think I will start with the positive first. About half way through the book, when everything became really intense I started to get really into the book. I wanted to keep on reading, I don't know why but I really enjoyed reading the book once the action started. The real problem though, was the part before the action started which was nearly half way throughout the book. I found that the writing style was so over-dramatic and the way the characters spoke kind of reminded me of the Shakespearean style because they talked so dramatic, like the world was ending. The beginning was very dull as well, because nothing was happening and the world-building wasn't very well written (maybe it was just the choice of words by the author).
I think that after all, I liked the story and the action near the end of the book was satisfactory but I still nearly stopped reading this book about half way through because I was so bored, but I was glad I stuck around due to my motto to always finish a book that I started, no matter how much I dislike it and I haven't broken it so far! :D I think that this book can still get 3 out of 5 stars!

Red Queen (red queen #1) by Victoria Aveyard

Book Blurb (from Goodreads) 
The poverty stricken Reds are commoners, living under the rule of the Silvers, elite warriors with god-like powers.

To Mare Barrow, a 17-year-old Red girl from The Stilts, it looks like nothing will ever change.

Mare finds herself working in the Silver Palace, at the centre of
those she hates the most. She quickly discovers that, despite her red blood, she possesses a deadly power of her own. One that threatens to destroy Silver control.

But power is a dangerous game. And in this world divided by blood, who will win?
 





My Review
There was a lot of hype surrounding this book making me nervous to pick it up but I have to say that I thoroughly enjoyed it. I read it in about two day, and it as some of the best world building and complicated characters that I have ever seen. 
The plot in this book was... exciting.... confusing.... deceiving... and full out awesome. There I have summoned it up for you. I will admit that this is a very character driven book. Not only do the choices that Mare makes drive the book along but the choices of the sub characters had major impacts with consequences as well. It was kind of slow at the beginning and then it sped up and then there is something that you just don't expect and you come squeaking to a halt, re-read the pages a couple times to make sure that you understood what the hell just happened correctly and then the book just seems to be glued to your hands and you just can't put it down. 
Mare was a strong character in so many ways physically and emotionally. She could hold a lot of responsibly without breaking but if it became to much for her she wasn't afraid to seek help, making her more realistic. Her choices were sane, most of the time, although sometimes she could also be a bit naive. For the other characters I can't really talk about, just because I really don't know how. What I would give to go into just one of their heads for one chapter. Each sub-character had their own agenda. They each wanted something and had a consequence if they didn't get it or did get it, although some were more severe then others. I really do not trust anyone anymore apart from Mare. 
Overall I give this book 5 out of 5 stars and I cannot wait for it's sequel
  

Thursday 2 April 2015

Die Verschwörung (Feuer & Glas #2) by Brigitte Riebe

Book Blurb (from Goodreads):
In der uralten Lagunenstadt Venedig sind sie sich das erste Mal begegnet: die sechzehnjährige Milla, die von den Feuerleuten abstammt, und Luca aus dem Geschlecht der Wasserleute. Ihre Liebe zueinander ist seitdem nicht erloschen.

Als Milla nach Konstantinopel aufbricht, um ihren Vater Leandro zu suchen, begleitet Luca sie. Über Leandros Leben und Verschwinden liegt ein dunkles Geheimnis, das Milla nun endlich ergründen will. Die so lange herbeigesehnte Begegnung mit ihrem Vater verläuft jedoch anders als erwartet: Leandro scheint sich an nichts aus seiner Vergangenheit zu erinnern, auch nicht an Milla. Während das Feuermädchen verzweifelt herauszufinden versucht, was ihrem Vater das Gedächtnis geraubt hat, wird die Stadt von einem gewaltigen Erdbeben erschüttert. Fast zu spät wird Milla und Luca klar, dass nur der Bund aus Feuer und Wasser die Stadt am Bosporus retten kann. Ausgerechnet in der Stunde der höchsten Not wird ihre Liebe auf eine harte Probe gestellt, denn der gut aussehende Baumeister des Sultans scheint alles daranzusetzen, Millas Herz zu gewinnen ..


My Review
I don't think that this book is very different from the first one.
Basically, the plot of this book revolves around Milla, of the Firepeople, searching for her long-lost father and Luca, from the Waterpeople, is helping her because they love each other. They both realize that there is a great mystery surrounding her father's disappearance. They found a giant clue about his whereabouts in the end of of the last book, so they set off to Konstantinopel. This is where this story is taking place, still in the year 1509. But there are a lot of hidden dangers in Konstantinopel...
I don't think that I will have a lot to say about this book because I pretty much said everything about the characters and the writing style in the previous review of the first book. I will just quickly recap everything for this review. Milla is still the same as always: she is getting in trouble all the time and needs someone to rescue her. That someone is normally Luca. The question is why Milla always gets in trouble. The answer is that she gets angry really easily and has no patience whatsoever. Luca is the complete opposite though. He is the calm guy, he always thinks things through and doesn't let his anger show.
The writing style did not change at all. Everything was still written very dramatically and the sense of the writing style sounded kind of poetic. Brigitte Riebe used pretty long and unusual words to describe a simple situation. I think that I got used to reading this writing style because after a while the story started to outweigh the writing style.
I think that the ending could have been developed more because there was so much more that could have happened. There could have been a next book. I have a feeling that the ending was way too rushed and not everything was resolved.
These books were alright, but I don't think that I will read them again. If you enjoy historical-fiction and read German books I think that this book is worth a shot. I give this book 3 out of 5 stars.