The Cortlandt Boys by Laura Vanderkam

Book Blurb (from Goodreads):
A small town high school basketball team wins the Pennsylvania state championship with an improbable last second three point shot. The Cortlandt Cavaliers celebrate their unlikely victory, but good fortune changes the boys’ worlds in unpredictable ways. This story revisits the characters 10 and 20 years later as the ramifications of their youthful success play out over the course of their lives, forever linking them and the people around them to this little town that has its ways of not quite letting you go.








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

Wow, I really didn't expect this book to be this awesome.
OK, so the basic plot of the book: in a very small town, where everybody knows each other. During winter time, the basketball championship was going on.  The Cortlandt basketball team called the Cortlandt Cavaliers made it into the finals and had to play against the Harrison Warriors. It was a close game and the Warriors were in the lead. Then, miraculously, the Cavaliers made a last second three-point shot and they won by one point. Then all the boys in the team were known as the Cortlandt Boys. The story is talking about how the boys evolved after having wonn the basketball championship.
The book is divided into four different parts. The first part is the prologue told by Max, in 1993-1994. The next part is ten years later in 2003-2004 again told by Max. Part three is told by Janie in year 2013-2014. The epilogue is told in Janie's perspective in year 2014.
I really liked Max's perspective. I don't know why, but I felt a kind of connection to Max, which I didn't feel towards Janie. I think this is because I liked the plot more during the first half of the book because there was more mystery and you kept on wondering what the meaning of the actions of the characters were. I also liked Max's personality. She is very curious, active, ready to help, cheerful and generally has a positive attitude. She looks towards the future, wanting to do something with her life, in comparison with the Cortlandt Boys, KC, Lawrence, James, Mickey and Leroy. They seemed to be stuck in the moment of their victory and they didn't really seem to care what they do with their lives. When Max came back to Cortlandt, I felt sorry for the boys and also a bit nostalgic when Max described Cortlandt as timeless.
The writing style also somehow made me want to continue tearing through the book. You instantly had a connection to the characters and the book.
I was a bit confused at the beginning though because there were so many characters introduced at once because there wasn't any world building needed, that I had to check many times to refresh my mind who was who but I got to know all of them well enough later on. I also didn't know any basketball terminology, but I slowly got the hang of it.
I really loved this book, it is definitely worth reading. I give it 4 out of 5 stars!

The Blood of Olympus (Heroes of Olympus #5) by Rick Riordan

Book Blurb (from Goodreads):
Though the Greek and Roman crewmembers of the Argo II have made progress in their many quests, they still seem no closer to defeating the earth mother, Gaea. Her giants have risen—all of them, and they're stronger than ever. They must be stopped before the Feast of Spes, when Gaea plans to have two demigods sacrificed in Athens. She needs their blood—the blood of Olympus—in order to wake. The demigods are having more frequent visions of a terrible battle at Camp Half-Blood. The Roman legion from Camp Jupiter, led by Octavian, is almost within striking distance. Though it is tempting to take the Athena Parthenos to Athens to use as a secret weapon, the friends know that the huge statue belongs back on Long Island, where it might be able to stop a war between the two camps. The Athena Parthenos will go west; the Argo II will go east. The gods, still suffering from multiple personality disorder, are useless. How can a handful of young demigods hope to persevere against Gaea's army of powerful giants? As dangerous as it is to head to Athens, they have no other option. They have sacrificed too much already. And if Gaea wakes, it is game over.

My Review
What do you do when Percy's and Annabeth's perspectives aren't in this book? You add other awesome characters' perspectives.
In this last book of the series, the demigods have to stop the Earth Mother from awakening and also prevent a war between the Roman and the Greek camps. Meanwhile a certain goddess of victory is foreseeing the death of one of the seven demigods...
Let's start with the dedication again. This time it was a kind of apology for the apology in the last book. Yeah, he better be!
The story is told out of two more new perspectives. One of them is Nico di Angelo! He is always acting so mysterious, now we can finally find out what he is thinking and while the story is progressing, you can see character development happening. Nico is finally becoming more confident. Another new perspective is Reyna's. This is interesting because you don't know anything about her past. The other perspectives are Jason's, Piper's and Leo's. We are also meeting a lot of different gods. especially when you meet an Olympian, you can see how they have suffered from the dispute between the Romans and the Greeks.
In the last few chapters, you grow more and more frustrated, because the perspectives always changed in the most critical moments (Rick Riordan!!!!). Also, the ending of the second last chapter was so depressing! And then the final ending. You can't end a book like that! There are still so many other stuff that needs to be solved! So much still needed to happen! I need another book! Another prophecy!
This was an awesome book, and I really recommend reading the whole series. I give this book 5 out of 5 stars!

Animal Farm by George Orwell

Book Blurb (from Goodreads):
Tired of their servitude to man, a group of farm animals revolt and establish their own society, only to be betrayed into worse servitude by their leaders, the pigs, whose slogan becomes: “All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others.” Published in 1945, this powerful satire of the Russian Revolution under Stalin remains as vivid and relevant today as it was on its first publication.









My Review
We originally needed to study this book for English class as an example for an allegory (a kind of extended metaphor). To understand this book better, we also had to read about the history of the writer. George Orwell wrote this book during the Second World War and in that time, Russia had a change of leaders and Stalin was one of them. Orwell wrote this book as a parallel to the Russian Revolution. A series of events that happened in Animal Farm also happened similarly in Russia and certain attributes from people in the Russian Revolution were given to the animals. Like, pigs were the leaders (Stalin and Trotsky) and the rest of the animals were the followers. 
The overall plot of this book is that the animals wanted to overthrow the humans and the animals wanted to run their own farm independently. The pigs founded the rules of Animalism and that every animal is equal. While reading this book I started getting more and more annoyed at the pigs. I especially disliked Squealer because he was always bringing the news to the animals and fooling them, telling lies. While he was talking I was always thinking that the pigs could always find some kind of excuse for doing something forbidden. I liked Boxer and Clover though because they are so innocent and only want the best to happen.
The writing style was easy to read. It was mostly straightforward expect for when the writer didn't want to say that someone did something wrong in the book. As an example, Napoleon was left behind with the milk and all the Orwell wrote, was that when the animals came back, the milk was gone. Also the wording in the last paragraph of this book was kind of sad.
Somehow the writing style improved my final rating because I just couldn't put the book down and finished it in a day. I give it 4 out of 5 stars.

The Murder Complex (The Murder Complex #1) by Lindsay Cummings

Book Blurb (From Goodreads) 
Meadow Woodson, a fifteen-year-old girl who has been trained by her father to fight, to kill, and to survive in any situation, lives with her family on a houseboat in Florida. The state is controlled by The Murder Complex, an organization that tracks the population with precision.

The plot starts to thicken when Meadow meets Zephyr James, who is—although he doesn’t know it—one of the MC’s programmed assassins. Is their meeting a coincidence? Destiny? Or part of a terrifying strategy? And will Zephyr keep Meadow from discovering the haunting truth about her family?

My review: 

This book has been on my goodreads to-read list for such a long time that I just had to read it. It took me 3 days to finish it, and to be honest I didn't even realize how far I was into the book until I finished it. It was a really quick and exciting read. 

The plot was fast paced from start to finish. It was a tiny bit confusing at the beginning because it was hard to see what everyone's true intentions were. Nobody was who they seemed in this book, not even Meadow or Zephyr. The action in this book was well spread out, meaning that we never got a boring chapter. When there was not action we were getting important information to move the plot along. There was a great plot twist at the end which I love and that ending just kills you in a good but also really bad way. Cliffhanger. I cried so many times in this book. I can't explain how fast a read this book is, you really just have to experience it yourself to understand. 

The characters in this book felt so realistic. Meadow, to me, was easy to relate to. She was always trying to act so strong that I think that she sometimes forgot that he was human too. The parts of the book where she broke down were both touching and heartbreaking. Throughout the book you could see how dedicated to her family she is. She would die for them and almost does on countless occasions. At the beginning of the book she was so desperate to impress her Farther, although as the book progressed you could see her becoming even more independent and moving away from that need to impress him. Zephyr was a completely different story to Meadow. I don't think that he knew how to hide his feelings. You could see that he was so broken inside because of the people that he was forced to murder. He tried to be strong around other people but he was not fooling anyone. He was a strong, almost fatherly, role-model for Talan. Although I do think that sometimes he needed Talan more than anything to hold himself together. If it were not for Talan I think that he probably would of died years ago. It is, in my opinion, thanks to her that we got to see him throughout the book in one piece. The relationship between Meadow and Zephyr sometimes did feel a little rushed and at times forced. It took them 5 pages after they met to fall in love, two pages after that to hate each other but after that it felt well paced. 

Finally is seriously enjoyed this book and I give it 5 out of 5 stars: 

If I Stay (If I Stay #1) by Gayle Forman

Book Blurb (from Goodreads)
On a day that started like any other, Mia had everything: a loving family, a gorgeous, admiring boyfriend, and a bright future full of music and full of choices. In an instant, almost all of that is taken from her. Caught between life and death, between a happy past and an unknowable future, Mia spends one critical day contemplating the only decision she has left. It is the most important decision she'll ever make.

Simultaneously tragic and hopeful, this is a romantic, riveting, and ultimately uplifting story about memory, music, living, dying, loving.

My Review: 

 I was looking forward to finally picking this book up. I had heard a lot of praise for this book and I had pretty high expectations for it and it did not live up to them at all. I don't know  if this was because I was expecting too much (probably) but I did not enjoy it as much as I had hoped to. 

The plot of this book was extremely creative and fresh. I have never seen another book with a plot line even similar to this, or that plays with the ideas of the book quite the same as Gayle Forman did. There were memories spread throughout the book, along with the chapters of Mia contemplating if she should stay. These memories were interesting at the beginning but towards the end started to feel repetitive. It always came back to her problems with Adam or her problems with deciding if she should go to Julliard or stay in her hometown. There was another problem that I had which was that the moments in the plot which were suppose to be sad (and they were), did not manage to make me cry. I was annoyed by this because I felt like I was missing out on something that everybody had experienced whilst reading this book. I never understood how the 'ghost thing' worked.I think that it may be her subconscious wandering, but I am actually glad that we never got an explanation, it kept that small sense of mystery in the book. 

  Mia was interesting at times, but I also found that at the beginning she was a bit bland. Her personality was a bit of, but towards the end her personality had developed more and I could understand her train of thoughts better. I did find that she did sulk around a lot during the book, but that is something that I can not really complain about because she just lost her family, anyone would sulk around if that had happened to them. Kim was the cool best friend of Mia's. I wish that we saw more of her (actually I wish that we saw more of every character apart from Mia). She was funny throughout Mia's memories and I feel like she was the glue between them, and was Mia's other half. I found Adam okay. I liked the idea of a classical musician and an emo-core band member (as Kim put it) dating. It made it interesting and complicated and they were both good for each other and shared the same love for music. 

Looking at my review I think that I should be giving the book 3 stars but for some reason 3 stars does not fully fit with my opinion on the book. I do not think that I enjoyed it enough to give it those 3 stars so without really knowing the reason why, I am going to give this book 2 out of 5 stars. 

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: 
I was looking forward to reading this book the moment that I has bought it. After the ending of Crown of Midnight  the wait was torture.  
The book moved slowly at the beggining and I have to admit I did not really enjoy the wait until the action started. The action started around the last 200 pages. There were also some new characters introduced.  The main new ones were Rowan and Manon. Manon did not have anything to do with what had happened in the other books. Her story was not as interesting as I had hoped it would turn out to be and I found that it was a little bit difficult to read the chapters about her without drifting off. Although I do think that her story would be better as a novela to go along with the series. I do not see how her story helped move the plot along. That is my only complaint about this book.
Celaena at the beginning of this book was annoying in her grief. She was not herself and was often not thinking straight. The further through the book we got, we could see her develop into an even stronger character then she was at the beginning of the series. It was nice to see her not holding back for once. She was finally embracing who she was. She also developed aspects of herself which made her more relatable. We got to see a lot of Chaol in this book. He developed a strong rebellious side which was good to finally see in him. I was annoyed with him however, because he did not know what side he wanted to be on. Throughout the book he was on the fence between the two sides and loyal to two different people with different intentions and at the end he finally tipped. We did not get to see a lot of Dorian in this book. Although we did see enough of him to realize that he was developing into someone who would make a strong king for the land. He managed to get control of his magic with little explanation which I still find confusing and do not know how he managed it. He found a new romantic interest in this book, which was good for him. I think that it defiantly helped him through these tough times and to forget about his relationship with Celaena. Rowan is a new character that has come into the plot. I never knew what to think of him. Since he was Fae, he was unpredictable. One minute you hated him the next you liked him. He was hard on Celaena, but he always had good intentions. He is still a mystery, there were some precious moments when we saw from his perspective. Even then we didn't fully understand his actions (most of the time), but we did see what was going on in that head of his. Manon is an Ironteeth Witch, in the Blackbeak clan. She was suppose to be heartless and cold but as the book progresses you can see her soften and become more calm. She has anger built up inside her which she needs to let out, in order to fully embrace her less 'cold' characteristics. You could see that she cares deeply for those around her which is evident in her last chapters. Even though she is sometime interesting to read about, I am not sure if i would be happy to read about her in the next book though, because of her irrelevance to the progression of the plot, although this may change in the next book.  
All in all I give this book 4 out of 5 stars: 

The Son of Neptune (Heroes of Olympus #2) by Rick Riordan

Book Blurb (from Goodreads):
ONE CURSED DEMIGOD. 
TWO NEW HEROES.A QUEST TO UNLEASH THE GOD OF DEATH..... 
Percy Jackson, son of Poseidon, God of the Sea, has woken from a very deep sleep and come face to face with two snake-haired ladies who refuse to die.
But they're the least of his problems. Because Percy finds himself at a camp for half-bloods, which doesn't ring any bells for him. There's just one name he remembers from his past. Annabeth.
Only one thing is certain--Percy's questing days aren't over. He and fellow demigods Frank and Hazel must face the most important quest of all: The Prophecy of Seven. If they fail, it's not just their camp at risk. Percy's old life, the gods and the entire world might be destroyed.....


My Review
As soon as I finished the previous book, I hurried to get started on this book because finally, we get to meet our all-time favourite hero again, Percy Jackson!
In this book we get to join Percy on an adventure to save the Roman camp called Camp Jupiter and his new friends while battling memory loss. Percy doesn't remember anything except the name Annabeth. How sweet is that? Of course Percy also found some new friends called Hazel and Frank and the story is told out of all three perspectives.
The characters were very interesting and all of them had some sense of humour (some more than others) and most importantly, Hazel and Frank had some secrets that took some time to find out. Percy was as awesome as always and managed to deal with the memory loss pretty well. His perspective is always told in a snarky, sarcastic kind of way (just the way we like it). We also get to meet some important gods and in this book you can really sense the difference between the Roman and the Greek gods. My favourite  god was definitely Terminus, Roman god of boundaries. He is hilarious because he always gets so mad when demigods break the rules and he wants everything to be perfect.
This time I didn't feel like the story progressed without me knowing, like in the first book. Instead I already got used to the idea of Roman gods and just rolled with it. I must admit that I was pretty confused with the Roman Camp layout and the rules. I didn't understand stuff Like the Fifth Cohort or the daily routine of Camp Jupiter but I did get used to it after the book started explaining it in some more detail.
Overall, I was really happy that Percy was back and I don't have any real complaints about this book so I am giving it 5 out of 5 stars!

The Lost Hero (Heroes of Olympus #1) by Rick Riordan

Book Blurb (from Goodreads):
Jason has a problem. He doesn’t remember anything before waking up on a school bus holding hands with a girl. Apparently he has a girlfriend named Piper. His best friend is a kid named Leo, and they’re all students in the Wilderness School, a boarding school for “bad kids”, as Leo puts it. What he did to end up here, Jason has no idea — except that everything seems very wrong.

Piper has a secret. Her father, a famous actor, has been missing for three days, and her vivid nightmares reveal that he’s in terrible danger. Now her boyfriend doesn’t recognize her, and when a freak storm and strange creatures attack during a school field trip, she, Jason, and Leo are whisked away to someplace called Camp Half-Blood. What is going on?

Leo has a way with tools. His new cabin at Camp Half-Blood is filled with them. Seriously, the place beats Wilderness School hands down, with its weapons training, monsters, and fine-looking girls. What’s troubling is the curse everyone keeps talking about, and that a camper’s gone missing. Weirdest of all, his bunkmates insist they are all—including Leo—related to a god.

My Review
 I was actually putting off reading this book because I think I got a little to attached to Percy Jackson and didn't want to move on to new heroes, even though Percy will be here in the series. But I must admit that the new heroes were pretty cool. The plot was pretty good but ll the while when the basic world of gods and myth was being reintroduced to the heroes, I felt that too many things were suddenly added because this book is taking place just one, two months after the previous book. I mean, that suddenly you find out that Camp Half-Blood always had a mental, bronze dragon? When did that happen? My point is that a lot has changed and it took me some time to get used to that. This also influenced my final rating.
This book was written in third person, out of the perspective of our three new heroes: Jason (the odd one out), Piper (secretive girlfriend) and Leo (the joker and weird fire dude). I didn't really like Leo's perspective that much even though he was constantly making bad jokes and had a funny description, but his story wasn't really as interesting as Jason's and Piper's because they are keeping secrets. And (YAY!) the old characters we know and love like Annabeth are also mentioned. Besides that, a lot of other new gods were introduced, new friends and everything.
It also happened, that you get a bit too attached to creatures and when they die... yeah...
Overall though, I made some points above about the book that I didn't really like but I still loved it and give it 4 out of 5 stars!

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon

Book Blurb (From Goodreads) 
'Lots of things are mysteries. But that doesn't mean there isn't an answer to them'

This is Christopher's murder mystery story. There are also no lies in this story because Christopher can't tell lies. Christopher does not like strangers or the colours yellow or brown or being touched. On the other hand, he knows all the countries in the world and their capital cities and every prime number up to 7507. When Christopher decides to find out who killed the neighbour's dog, his mystery story becomes more complicated than he could have ever predicted.

My Review:

 My dad was with me in the book store and he took this book out of the shelf and told me that if I agree to read it he will buy it for me, because he wanted me to read a YA 'classic'. So obviously I agreed to read it next and review it so here is my review. I am also going to do this review a little differently. In this book Christopher made a lot of lists about things so that is how  I am going to present my review. In a list about things I did and didn't like about the plot, characters and writing style. 

The plot:

  likes: 

1. The mystery was different from anything else that I read because it was about a dog
2. About 150 pages in there were multiple mysteries
3. I liked the idea of some one writing a murder mystery book about someone writing a book about a murder mystery which had happened to them and were also giving us updates about the progress in the book in the final copy, confusing isn't it? You would get it if you have read the book

  Dislikes: 

1. I can not really find one to be honest.... 

The Characters: 

  Likes: 

1. Christopher was an interesting character to read about, especially with his disability. He had such an interesting perspective on the world
2. Christopher's dad always had good intentions for him, and I think that he would of made a good dad if the circumstances were flipped. 

  Dislikes: 

1. I had a hard time imagining Christopher as a 15 year old. I know that this is what was suppose to happen because that is what part of his disability causes but it didn't make it any less annoying to be imagining a 15 year old as a 10 year old.
2. Even though I said that Christopher's dad had good intentions for him, they were seriously flawed. He ended up being my least favoutrite character. 
3. I can't talk about anyone else because that would bring up spoilers about the second mystery 

I give this book 3 out of 5 stars, because:

1. Even though there were no flaws in the plot does not mean that I did fully enjoy it, it still took me a long time to read
2. the writing style did annoy me, even though that was how it was suppose to be.

Across the Universe (Across the Universe #1) by Beth Revis

Book Blurb (from Goodreads)
A love out of time. A spaceship built of secrets and murder. 

Seventeen-year-old Amy joins her parents as frozen cargo aboard the vast spaceship Godspeed and expects to awaken on a new planet, three hundred years in the future. Never could she have known that her frozen slumber would come to an end fifty years too soon and that she would be thrust into the brave new world of a spaceship that lives by its own rules.

Amy quickly realizes that her awakening was no mere computer malfunction. Someone - one of the few thousand inhabitants of the spaceship - tried to kill her. And if Amy doesn't do something soon, her parents will be next.

Now Amy must race to unlock Godspeed's hidden secrets. But out of her list of murder suspects, there's only one who matters: Elder, the future leader of the ship and the love she could never have seen coming.

My review:
 If you have seen Alecto's 5th wave review you will know about the reading arrangement the we made. If you haven't here is a brief explanation: We saw that we did not have many books in common that we both loved so we each chose three books from our favourites and the other had to pick one book out of the three to read. Alecto chose the 5th wave and I chose Across the Universe by Beth Revis, purely because it sounded like something that I would like. Do I regret my decision? Unfortunately yes...
I love dystopians, I love Sci-fi put them together and you have made the perfect book for me right? Wrong. The plot for me in this book, was to stretched out and boring. I could identify parts of the book which were suppose to be exciting but unfortunately were not. There was two chapters in this book (one after the other were something unnerving happened to Amy) which were exciting and got my adrenaline pumping. I finally thought that the book was going to get better but alas, it did not. It only lasted for two chapters and then everything calmed down again. I wish that Beth Revis had pulled out that section of the book a little bit more because it was the only part of the book which I generally liked. 
This next paragraph will contains a large spoiler! Please do not read this if you have not read the book!
Beth Revise had a attempt at a plot twist which is great, good for her, but I do not think that it worked out quite in her favor. At the end, we found out that it was in fact Elder who had taken Amy out of the chamber. This is all good and that, but my problem with it is that a secret was not hinted in the book. The was no guilt in Elder no should I tell her should I not. Not even a hint of remorse until the end of the book! That is not right. You can not just suddenly give the character a huge secret that has been there from the beginning. This probably frustrated me more than it should and I don't know why. Another thing that bothered me about this is when he does tell Amy about this 'secret' she is okay with it so fast. That would of been the perfect time for some good old conflict between characters but no. Unfortunately not. 
Okay spoiler bit is over you can read from here on!
I am going to talk about Amy and Elder at the same time. They are both so similar it was annoying. If you are going to make a book a duel perspective you have to do it right and give the two completely different  personalities and characteristics. I should be able to open the book to a random page and be able to go ah that its Amy's perspective or ah that is Elder's perspective. I was not able to do that. I sometimes had to go back to the beginning of the chapter to check whose perspective I was reading from. I found Elders character bland and although Amy had her brief sassy moments she was a bit bland and boring as well. 
Overall I would say that I would say that I am just one of those people that end up not liking a popular book. I am sure that it is a great book to some people and I would recommend that if the book blurb does sound interesting to you go give it a shot. Do not let my review put you of, it is just my personal opinion. 
I give this book 1 out of 5 stars.

Abhorsen (Old Kingdom #3) by Garth Nix

Book Blurb (from Goodreads):
When the ninth gate calls, who can resist its summons?

An old evil has arisen - freed from its subterranean prison and seeking to escape the binding silver hemispheres which prevent it from finally unleashing its terrible powers.

Lirael, newly come into her inheritance as the Abhorsen-in-Waiting, knows that the fate of the world is in her hands. With only a vision from the Clayr to guide her, and the uncertain help of her companions — Sam, the Disreputable Dog, and Mogget — Lirael sets out on her perilous mission.

Then answer must be found somewhere in Life or Death - but can a former Second Assistant Librarian possibly discover the means to defeat the Destroyer...before it is too late?

My Review
This time I wasn't that reluctant to start reading this book, because Lirael, Sameth, Mogget and the Disreputable Dog are all still in this book. This time, in the prologue, there is a major shock and the book jumps immediately into the action. Since the last book, Lirael, there has been a lot of character development taking place. Prince Sameth isn't the coward he once was, he is braver, fights more in battles and he even wielded the panpipes and bells when needed even though he was absolutely terrified of them ever since his incident with Hedge.
In this book, I also noticed that a lot of secret names were revealed and when I was sitting there, thinking about names in the book and I noticed that a lot of names ended in -ael or-el. Like Sabriel, Lirael, Astarael and many others.
The ending of the book was very, very sad! You can't end a book like that! It just breaks one's heart!
This book had a lot of action in it and I am giving this book 5 out of 5 stars!

Lirael (Old Kingdom #2) by Garth Nix

Book Blurb (from Goodreads):
Lirael has never felt like a true daughter of the Clayr. Now, two years past the time when she should have received the Sight that is the Clayr's birthright, she feels alone, abandoned, unsure of who she is. Nevertheless, the fate of the Old Kingdom lies in her hands. With only her faithful companion, the Disreputable Dog, Lirael must undertake a desperate mission under the growing shadow of an ancient evil.

In this sequel to Sabriel, winner of the Aurealis Award for Excellence in Australian Science Fiction, New York Times best-selling author Garth Nix weaves a spellbinding tale of discovery, destiny, and danger.



 

My Review 
I was slightly reluctant to start reading this book, because I really liked Sabriel and her personality, so I didn't really want to meet a new hero just yet. But I did end up liking Lirael. There are two completely different sites of her: first, she is timid, shy and quiet with other people like the Clayr. But with her friend the Disreputable Dog, she is brave, talkative and has some sense of humour. I am still very happy, that Sabriel and Touchstone are still in this book.
And of course, our favourite star, Mogget, is back with all his talk, comments and sneers, just a bit (a lot) more sleepier, because he is under the influence of Ranna. Now I also liked the Disreputable Dog because she is almost as indirect and painfully truthful as Mogget. She also stays cheerful, even in very grim situations. Prince Sameth was a bit annoying though, because he was always so meek and timid and so very weak. Now, I understand that part of his spirit was ripped away and he is scared, but I was just really annoyed when he acted like that.
The adventure started a bit late in the book, but it made up for it with all the magic, danger and numerous near-death-experiences.
Overall, I think that I can give this book 4 out of 5 stars!

Throne of Glass (Throne of Glass #1) by Sarah J. Maas

Book Blurb (from Goodreads) 
In a land without magic, where the king rules with an iron hand, an assassin is summoned to the castle. She comes not to kill the king, but to win her freedom. If she defeats twenty-three killers, thieves, and warriors in a competition, she is released from prison to serve as the king's champion. Her name is Celaena Sardothien. 

The Crown Prince will provoke her. The Captain of the Guard will protect her. But something evil dwells in the castle of glass--and it's there to kill. When her competitors start dying one by one, Celaena's fight for freedom becomes a fight for survival, and a desperate quest to root out the evil before it destroys her world. 






My review: 
Best high fantasy book out there? Most likely. Why do I always put of reading the best books?! That is a serious habit that I need to break really soon, like yesterday soon. 
The plot in this book was so existing that I was shaking from adrenaline about 200 pages in. I would close the book and 'try' to sleep but I was still so hyped up from the book that I felt like it was nearly impossible. It took its time to develop and never got boring. We went from one problem to the next with ease, even when things sped up and you could still see two clear paths and that allows you to pray with all you have that I does not go down the second. On a scale from 1-10 for creativity I give it an 11.
The characters were awesome. We had a nice cosy little group of 3 main characters and many sub characters. Celaena was an awesome kick-ass character with an interesting mind in terms of how she regarded people and different situations. She was fairly relatable in the terms of her hobbies (reading) but not much else. She went through different situations and came out almost laughing and I respect her for that. I wasn't sure what to think about Chaol. His intentions were sometimes unclear but by the end you could clearly see that he actually did have feelings for Celaena but never fully acted on them which made things interesting and sent mixed signals to her which is why she probably hated him for the first quarter of the book. Dorians intentions however were clear. He was not my favourite character but he did treat Celaena well (at the end). I liked how we continuously got a peak at his life a court which was always interesting and allowed us to get a better perspective on what was really going on inside the castle. I wish that Chaol and Dorian's friendship was better shown and we had a scene were that just talked together without it being about Celaena. It probable would have done them both good. Nehemia was defiantly 100% my favourite character. She was a mystery up to the very end and a great friend to Celaena. I honestly hope that we get to see so much more of her and learn more about her origin. 
I you want a seriously action packed book to read but have not read this one yet, get on it.
I give this book 5 out of 5 stars, it was amazing!

The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks by E. Lockhart

Book Blurb (from goodreads)

Frankie Landau-Banks at age 14:
Debate Club.
Her father’s “bunny rabbit.”
A mildly geeky girl attending a highly competitive boarding school.
Frankie Landau-Banks at age 15:
A knockout figure.
A sharp tongue.
A chip on her shoulder.
And a gorgeous new senior boyfriend: the supremely goofy, word-obsessed Matthew Livingston.
Frankie Laundau-Banks.
No longer the kind of girl to take “no” for an answer.
Especially when “no” means she’s excluded from her boyfriend’s all-male secret society.

Not when her ex boyfriend shows up in the strangest of places.
Not when she knows she’s smarter than any of them.
When she knows Matthew’s lying to her.
And when there are so many, many pranks to be done.
Frankie Landau-Banks, at age 16:
Possibly a criminal mastermind.
This is the story of how she got that way. 

My Review: 
I have never read a book almost purely about high school life, and as soon as I saw that it was by E. Lockhart the author of we were liars  which I adored and therefor threw against the wall (those of you who have read it will know why), I had to buy it. I had high expectations for this, they were probably a little too high because I feel a little short but I still thoroughly enjoyed the book. 
The plot in this book was well thought out and explained. We got a lot of Frankie's history and family life which would be harder to do if you are placing almost all the scenes in a boarding school. However it did take a little bit too long to get to the main plot which only really came around in the last 200-150 pages. This was a 360 (somewhere around that number) page book, that's a long time for a plot to really come into, for me, however it was worth the wait. The pranks in this book where funny, and I loved how each one had their own meaning. And may I just say that if Frankie doesn't end up being a spy when she grows up she will defiantly be a criminal. 
The characters in this book where, well just there. We got a lot of history on Frankie which was great and I loved her character because I could really relate to it, but that was it. I know that the whole book was about Frankie's development from cutsie girl to 'criminal mastermind' but I doesn't mean that you have to cut out the other characters back story. For example I really, really wanted to know more about Trish but the information never came. I felt like she could have been a really important character to Frankie and I wish that they had more girl time together so there could be some kind of best friend thing going on because that was one thing that this book was lacking. 
Mathew and Frankie's relationship, whilst cute felt a little inappropriate. It is a senior, so an 18 year old boy (something like that) dating a 15 year old girl. I know that it is not that rare-a-thing in the world world but still made me feel uncomfortable in their moments where I think they were suppose to be the cute couple. It just did not feel right to me. 
Okay, now for a quick rant about something that has been annoying me and I have been holding my frustration in. GRAMMAR, grammar lessons in a book? NO! You do not do that, that is not allowed. I get that it was part of Mathew's character and all, but we got a 5 page grammar lesson in this book, A 5 PAGE GRAMMAR LESSON! You can not put in a 5 page grammar lesson in a book. I does not work like that. The reader (or at least me) does not care about those kind of things in a book whilst reading. I just skip over it. It was thoroughly annoying that, that was in there. Okay i'm good. On to the stars...

I give this book 4 out of 5 stars (I actually really did enjoy this book despite its faults!): 

The Magician's Guild (The Black Magician Trilogy #1) by Trudi Canavan

Book Blurb (from Goodreads):
"We should expect this young woman to be more powerful than our average novice, possibly even more powerful than the average magician."

This year, like every other, the magicians of Imardin gather to purge the city of undesirables. Cloaked in the protection of their sorcery, they move with no fear of the vagrants and miscreants who despise them and their work-—until one enraged girl, barely more than a child, hurls a stone at the hated invaders...and effortlessly penetrates their magical shield.

What the Magicians' Guild has long dreaded has finally come to pass. There is someone outside their ranks who possesses a raw power beyond imagining, an untrained mage who must be found and schooled before she destroys herself and her city with a force she cannot yet control.

My Review
OK, I admit that I didn't really want to read this book in the beginning, even though my friend kept on recommending it to me, but it just didn't look interesting to me so I waved it off. But then I finally relented and I found that it was a pretty good book.It is pretty much about a girl, who found out that she has magical powers and the Magician's Guild has to find her before her powers destroy her and the city. I didn't really enjoy the part in the slums, when the girl (Sonea) hid from the Magicians. It was slightly boring, while the Magician perspective was more interesting. I also thought that the finding part of the book, where the Magicians had to capture Sonea, was to dragged out. They searched for her until more than half way through  the book. That was way too long. Otherwise, I liked the book, the characters were interesting. I liked Dannyl and Rothen, they had a sense of humour and were friendly.
Overall, I found the book satisfying and good and I can give it 4 out of 5 stars!

Sabriel (Old Kingdom #1) by Garth Nix

Book Blurb (from Goodreads):
Sent to a boarding school in Ancelstierre as a young child, Sabriel has had little experience with the random power of Free Magic or the Dead who refuse to stay dead in the Old Kingdom. But during her final semester, her father, the Abhorsen, goes missing, and Sabriel knows she must enter the Old Kingdom to find him. She soon finds companions in Mogget, a cat whose aloof manner barely conceals its malevolent spirit, and Touchstone, a young Charter Mage long imprisoned by magic, now free in body but still trapped by painful memories. As the three travel deep into the Old Kingdom, threats mount on all sides. And every step brings them closer to a battle that will pit them against the true forces of life and death—and bring Sabriel face-to-face with her own destiny.

With Sabriel, the first installment in the Abhorsen trilogy, Garth Nix exploded onto the fantasy scene as a rising star, in a novel that takes readers to a world where the line between the living and the dead isn't always clear—and sometimes disappears altogether.

My Review
The reason why I picked this book off the shelf was that the cover looked interesting, magical and I'm totally into stuff like that. When I read the back, I knew it was my kind of book.
It all starts with the prologue, where they gradually introduce the main characters: Abhorsen, Sabriel and Kerrigor, the antagonist. Then the actual story began. I didn't really enjoy the first 2 chapters or so that much, mostly because it was slightly boring and nothing was happening. Then realization dawned on me: this is taking place in a kind of modern age. The book had stuff like trucks, planes, tractors and whatnot. Now, the thing is that I expected this book to be set in ancient times, since the map on the front said "Old Kingdom". But the more I read this book, the more I enjoyed it and just couldn't put it down. I think that Mogget was my absolute favourite character. His aloof personality was so cool and his comments were funny. Touchstone annoyed me at the beginning, but I quickly warmed up to him. My only complaints were that it took me some time to memorize where everything was on the map and the names of the bells, so I always had to flip back to check what each bell does.
Overall, I really loved this book, it had an original idea with Death and Life. This book would be good for magic, adventure and fantasy lovers.
I give this book 4 out of 5 stars!

Shadow and Bone (the Grisha #1) Leigh Bardugo

                                                          Book blurb (from goodreads)
Surrounded by enemies, the once-great nation of Ravka has been torn in two by the Shadow Fold, a swath of near impenetrable darkness crawling with monsters who feast on human flesh. Now its fate may rest on the shoulders of one lonely refugee.

Alina Starkov has never been good at anything. But when her regiment is attacked on the Fold and her best friend is brutally injured, Alina reveals a dormant power that saves his life—a power that could be the key to setting her war-ravaged country free. Wrenched from everything she knows, Alina is whisked away to the royal court to be trained as a member of the Grisha, the magical elite led by the mysterious Darkling.

Yet nothing in this lavish world is what it seems. With darkness looming and an entire kingdom depending on her untamed power, Alina will have to confront the secrets of the Grisha . . . and the secrets of her heart.

Shadow and Bone is the first installment in Leigh Bardugo's Grisha Trilogy.

My Review: 
Shadow and Bone.... a book which I have never been able to get my hands on..... until now *evil laugh*. Okay no, I will not do the evil laugh but this is a expecionaly good book. 
You could get straight into the book right away. The way how the book started with the before chapter where you got to see Alina and Mal at the orphanage was a great way to introduce the characters and to get a bases of the story line and history of the book. Straight after that chapter and the 'real' story began it spread up at full spread. From going into the Fold and people dying in the first 50 pages? Lets just say that it was pretty epic. I loved to see how Alina's character developed just by the people she was surrounded with and where she lived and when she finally got the sense where she belonged. However I do agree with her on one thing, what good is she for apart from midnight picnics. After she has completed her 'destiny' she would be practically useless (in my opinion). 
I have allready talked about Alina's charater development so I will talk about other things. I liked how Alina was so stuborn and always managed to keep it together, even when she was falling appart inside. Sometimes though I wanted her to stop feeling so sorry for herself and get on with her life.
Mal was a interesting character which I would love to see more of. I went from loving him to hating him and back to loving his character all over again. I would like to have even more information about him and I don't often say this (well, actually I have never said this) I would like to see  the book in his point of view as well, because I really want to know what is happening in that head of his. His character can be a little confusing to understand. 
I saved the best for last. The Darkling. Can I take a moment to express my hate towards him? I know that most people like him even though he is a complete ******* but I am not one of those people and would be more than happy to get rid of him myself. I had a bad feeling about him from the start. When I started to think that he might be the love interest Leigh Bardugo showed me something that made me want to forget that I had even thought that. Okay enough said otherwise I am going to spoil the book. 
The world building in this book was well done, and that sometimes proves difficult for a lot of authors. Espectialy when you create your own Kingdoms, myths and languages. I applaud Leigh Bardugo for doing such a good job.
I give this book a solid 4 out of 5 stars. 

Silvertongue (Stoneheart #3) by Charlie Fletcher

Book Blurb (from Goodreads):
George and Edie are travelling through unLondon, a world of danger on the city streets, and they are quite alone.

Time is standing still, and the rest of London is unaware of their plight, unaware of the hidden world of living statues, of Shackleton and the Queen of Time.

In the concluding part of the breathtaking and critically acclaimed Stoneheart trilogy, Edie and George look deeper into Edie's past, and her future.






My Review
Overall, I really enjoyed reading this series. Sadly, I didn't get to enjoy this book as much, mostly because I was annoyed at one of the characters, but more about that later on. I think that this book has had some sense of humour, not a lot, but there was some. As I mentioned in the earlier reviews, I think that the idea was original and I found it amazing that Charlie Fletcher managed to give statues from our everyday lives a likable personality. In this book you also realize how much you like a character until they are fatally injured and you have no idea if they are going to survive or not. Charlie Fletcher also introduced a lot of new characters, with which you don't really bond with because you don't know their personality yet. My current favourite character list for this book now expanded to three characters: Spout, the gargoyle, the Gunner and Richard the Lionheart. The last one is new, but he is such a cool character.
There were some sad moments in this book, but not to sad although, when a character dies, any character at all, I always reread that section a million times, like, "Did that really happen?"
During the whole book,  there were (not so) shocking betrayals and shifting alliances. My only complaint was that I was so very, very annoyed at Edie. She got all of the Gunner's and Queen's attention and I felt that George was being neglected. She always gets hurt and then the others get concerned about her. All of them say that Edie is special and seemed to ignore George. Also at the end of the book, the author made it seem as if everything is alright, but there were still a lot of questions unanswered.
That's why I can only give this book 4 out of 5 stars!

The Perfectionists (The perfectionists #1) by Sara Shepard

                                                  Book blurb (from goodreads)

In Beacon Heights High, Nolan Hotchkiss is king. His charm, wealth and good looks are deceptively seductive, and many are the students whose lives and reputations have been ruined by it. All while Nolan continues to reign, unquestioned and undisrupted. Until now, that is.

Mackenzie, Ava, Julie, Caitlin and Parker seemingly don't have much in common. Each has their own friends, dramas and goals. But one thing they do share: they all have a deep hatred of Nolan Hotchkiss. And they all think it's about time he paid for what he's done. They come up with the perfect murder - a hypothetical murder, of course. It's all wishful thinking ... until they wake up one morning to find that their wish has come true. Nolan has been killed - in exactly the way they planned. The thing is, they didn't do it. So who did?

My Review: 

Hmmm, where do I start? The Perfectionists has been compared a lot to the Pretty Little Liars series also by Sara Shepard but since I have not read that series yet this review will be comparison free (yay!)

This book has a very interesting plot. I haven't read many murder books but this one has got me wanting more. At first it seemed like they actually did kill Nolan Hotchkiss but then you find out what had actually happened. The plot never got boring, the last 60-70 pages where super suspenseful and I actually thought that they where going to go to jail. The writing in this book flowed nicely and was extremely easy to get through. This book was defiantly a page turner from start to finish. 

Each character in this book had a back story of their own. Each back story was unique and you could really see how it affected the person that they became. I loved Parkers character the most. She came off as a really strong person who can get herself out of any situation. She had a hard family life and is 'damaged' physically and mentally, yet she makes it through every day. Not as in she is living life to the fullest but she still makes it. 

On the negative side of things I did find it a little hard to tell who was talking and had to always look for a name on the page. I think that it would have helped if every chapter had the name of the person who was speaking at the top. Just something for the people to consider when they make the much needed next book.

Finally I would like to say that it is not okay to end a book like that when the next book comes out June of next year!

I give this book 4 out of 5 stars: