I could not for the life of me put my kindle down while reading this. I read it in a day because of the length of it but the second I finished it I wanted the second part. The cover art of this book is also incredible and really does suit the story.
The story is centred around Andi who is a space pirate who is on the run from the government. She is known by many as the 'Bloody Baroness' and 'one of the most notorious criminals in all of Mirabel' but has more than one level to her personality. She cares about her crew who are both her comrades and her family. It really is something totally different to a lot of Sci-fi adventures, especially with it being split up into different parts. This part is a great introduction to what is to come and also to the characters that are to be involved in the coming adventures.
The reason I picked up this book was really based on the fact that Sasha Alsberg (abookutopia on YouTube) was co-writing it. Lindsay Cummings is also an incredible author so my anticipation for this book was very high.
I really did enjoy this the story and I am not only saying that because of who it is written by. You would never know that this book was written by two people because the whole story flows so seamlessly together. Sasha and Lindsay really should be proud of this first installment of their story.
This book is far from what I expected it to be. I went into this book expecting a big, lovey-dovey romance, and although there was romance involved in the story there was more too than that. I know that sounds really cliché but it really is the truth. This is a book that I am stating now I would recommend to anyone.
Ok, so the story begins with one of the main characters, Louisa Clarke, losing her job. Now, a little back story on Louisa.She was working in a little café in the small town she lives in. This small town is her whole life, it's where she was born, grew up and lives as an adult. She still lives with her parents in their small four bedroom house on a council estate. She was in a long-term relationship with a guy she wasn't entirely sure she was in love with and unbeknown to her, she was stuck. She is then offered a job as a carer for quadriplegic Will Traynor. Will was the complete opposite to Louisa. He was a well-off businessman who basically had everything he could ever have wanted until his accident left him paralyzed.
The pair bicker and moan about everything the other does until eventually they realise that they are bonding. The begin to discuss current events and books and films and music. They are the perfect combination of friends and two people who are slowly and unknowingly falling in love.
Alongside the love story there is a lot of controversial topics in this book. The main one being assisted suicide. I am not looking to get into a long debate about the pros and cons of the whole thing but I do believe it was portrayed beautifully in this novel. That sounds crazy I know but it is true. It showed the mental state of someone who is debating the scenario and that even for them it is not an easy decision to make.
Like I said at the beginning this book is one that I would recommend to anyone. It is funny, witty, beautiful and amazingly written. I would like to state though this book does require a large amount of tissues towards the end. I will definitely be picking up After You, the sequel to this book just to see the aftermath of the things that took places in this book.
The accident season is set in Ireland during October, just before Halloween. It is centred around a family and some of their close friends as they navigate their way through what they call The Accident Season. This is when, in the month of October, every year they are more accident prone than usual and their accidents are more serious than they are throughout the rest of the year.
This particular accident season is predicted by Bea, the witchy best friend of the accident prone family, to be the worst one yet. In the past there were deaths of close family members along with many serious injuries to those who survived but the one that the characters experience in the book is meant to be worse.
The book on a whole is full of mystery and secrets. The characters are all hiding things from one another and are all trying to solve the mystery that is the accident season. The story is full of twists and turns and questions which get answered in the final few chapters of the book.
Overall I found that this book was very easy to read and the story was very interesting. It did lack excitement in some areas but it definitely made up for it in others. Moïra Fowley-Doyle is amazing at describing the characters' surrounding to the point where you lose yourself in it. You really do seem to get lost in this book, in more ways than one, but I think that adds to the mystery and atmosphere that the book creates.
I was able to guess a lot of the twists in this book but that may be because it reminded me of We Were Liars by E. Lockhart. The secrets and the deceit were all very similar but I didn't mind that. It was good to see how two authors can write about two different plots, both containing accidents, and weave similar twists into them but still allowing the book to be unique in its own right, such as the fantasy element that Cara brought into the world of chaos that she was living in.
I did enjoy this book and loved how Moïra described and explained things. I think this is a book that I could read again too because of all the different elements. I could probably pick up more of the smaller details in the book now knowing all of the aspects of the story.
The Sin Eater's Daughter is not a book I had heard anything about when I picked it up. It was almost a relief having heard nothing about it because it meant that this was a book I was going into with an open mind.
When I first picked up this book I was very intrigued about the story. It is about a girl who is taken to live in the palace under the persona of the reincarnated daughter of two Gods that are worshiped in this particular kingdom. Under this persona, which she herself believes to be true, she becomes the personal assassin of the Queen for those who commit treason. There is one twist to her assassinations though, she kills them simply by touching them... or so she believes. The book follows Twylla as she learns the truth about the Queen, her true intentions and the truth about herself and her abilities.
Before being taken into the palace however, she was the Sin Eater's Daughter (hence the name of the book). The Sin Eater is a woman who comes to eat away all of the sins of a deceased person. The sins are represented by different foods that the Sin Eater must consume in order for the deceased to "move on to the next world". Being the Sin Eater's Daughter has some set backs for Twylla as she automatically associates certain foods with the sins they represent.
The story also tells a love story. Throughout the book Twylla slowly falls in love with her new guard who knows secrets about Twylla that not even she knows. The love story is quite cliched in a way that Twylla does not seem to like her new guard at all until something happens and she begins to realise he is not as bad as he seems. That is until the concluding action when Twylla discovers the truth behind his actions and the betrayal of her trust.
With their being almost two parts to this story it is quite difficult to understand and follow on occasion. The stories never truly seemed to merge until the last few chapters when the story began to pick up a bit. There also seemed to be a fair amount of information that wasn't all that necessary when it came to telling the story. That being said the book was incredibly well written and Melinda Salisbury did a really good job with the creation of this world and the characters in it. I will definitely be picking up the next book to this one just to find out where Melinda takes the story and the characters next.
This book is phenomenal! I thought the other books in this world were good when I read them but this one takes it to a whole knew level.
From the very start of this book we are thrust into the world of Shadowhunters and Demons and Warlocks and Werewolves and Vampires...the list goes on. The action is introduced right from the beginning and continues all the way to the end. Lady Midnight is full of mystery, romance, fighting and lots and lots of plot twists.
I loved getting to know all of the characters that were introduced in City of Heavenly Fire in more depth and getting to see how the Dark War really effected them.
I thought that it was really interesting to see the way that Julian had adopted the role of their father. I liked how it wasn't an immediate thing, that it developed over time with him knowing that they needed someone who would look after them like that. I love the different relationships he has with each of his siblings and how well he knows each of them individually. I also loved to read about how much he adored them.
I loved learning more about Emma too. It was interesting to see how the death of her parents fueled everything that she did. It fueled her desire for revenge and it fueled how deeply she cared for the Blackthorns. It also fueled her impulsiveness and her carelessness, much like Jace from The Mortal Instruments series. The deaths of her parents, along with the events of the Dark War, very much shaped her into this kick-ass Shadowhunter.
It was good to get to know the rest of the Blackthorn children better too. They were all so young during City of Heavenly Fire that they were almost pushed to the side a little. None of them were old enough to fight or fully understand what was going on so nobody really considered how everything would effect them. Now they are all older and three of them are teenagers they understand everything better.
I think the Blackthorn who the war has most noticeably effected is Tavvy. Though he was only two years old during the war, and his siblings tried to hide it from him the best that they could, he still wakes up, five years later, having nightmares of it. He doesn't seem to understand a lot of what is going on around him but I think that is from his siblings still treating him as the child he was during the war. I think this is most noticeable when he solved the Lady Midnight riddle with his children's book. It was never something that crossed the minds of the older children so it was not something they thought to check.
The main premise of this book is the hunt to discover a murderer but in the background Emma is also searching for the person who killed her parents. Her parents were believed to have been killed by Sebastian Morgenstern during the Dark War but Emma has never believed that story. She knew that something more sinister had happened to her parents. As it turns out she was right. At the end of the book when the young group of Shadowhunters tracks down the murderer, they also unknowingly track down Emma's parents' killer. While confronting the killer, Emma learns that her parents deaths were the result of a failed experiment to see if a spell worked. If anything this left Emma feeling more heartbroken than ever. Her parents deaths had been the result of being in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Another underlying story is that of Mark Blackthorn, the half-faerie, half-shadowhunter boy. At the beginning of City of Heavenly Fire Mark Blackthorn is taken by Faerie and forced to become part of the Wild Hunt. At the beginning of this book, Mark is given back to his family to help them with their investigations of the killings. All the way through the book Mark struggles to readjust to the Shadowhunter world. He cannot decide if he truly belongs with his family of Shadowhunters or with the Faeries of the Wild Hunt. He is pressure by both sides to be part of their world and both sides have things that he wants. Through the whole book Mark refuses to have ruins put upon him but when he finally decides that he is a Shadowhunter he asks Julian to give them to him for the sake of saving Tavvy.
Not only do I love the world that Cassandra Clare has created with The Shadowhunter Chronicles but I love how she incorporates certain topics into her books without making them an issue. She has written about different sexual orientations all the way through the chronicles but in this book I noticed that she added in a little part about mental illness and learning difficulties. She wrote about how those who had them were treated differently than everyone else for it and how it was just that little bit harder for them to do things. They are very much ignored by the Clave and their families feel that it is necessary to protect them from the names and the humiliation they could face if their differences are discovered. I like the way Cassie described it and explained it with relevance to the story she was telling. She wrote in a way that drew your attention to it but also did not take you away from the story.
Also, the story at the end with all of the original characters in it absolutely made my day. I am so happy that Cassie added in an extra little bit to allow readers to find out what happened with all of the characters after the Dark War and after the stories in the Tales of the Shadowhunter Academy. It was good to know that they were all happy and enjoying life together with minimal disturbances.
This book well and truly left me with a book hangover. I never wanted the story to end and as soon as it did I just wanted to have the next book in my hands ready to continue on. This book hangover has now turned into a book slump to the point where nothing I read seems to keep my attention. I guess that is just the sign of a good book and an even better writer to leave you longing after characters after you have turned the last page.
How pretty is this cover?!?! I love it so much!!
The story in this book is one that I have grown up loving. I have seen every film adaptation and even the stage show. The only problem is I have never actually read JM Barrie's book. The only Peter Pan book I have read is the Disney one and I was about 5 or 6 when I read that. I thought it was about time that I read the original version of the story and I have to say, it was a good decision.
If you don't know the story of Peter Pan then 1. have you been living under a rock?! and 2. it is about a boy called Peter, his fairy friend Tinker Bell and the Darling children. There is one thing that is different about Peter though, he never grows up. Peter lives in Neverland. Neverland is a land of magic. It is full of Fairies, Pirates, Indians and some magical creatures. Most children only go there in there dreams but one night Peter takes the three Darling children there. That one simple act is the basis for the most amazing adventure any child could wish for.
This book had me hooked, no pun intended, from the first line. This line is simply "All children, except one, grow up." I love the concept of Peter never growing up and keeping his innocence forever. I know that in a way it is quite sad that he will never get to experience the world in all of the new ways that everyone else will but in a lot of ways it is amazing. He will forever get to play make-believe and have fun in ways that would only make people call you childish.
I think that everyone goes through a stage where they want to be Peter Pan. Where they want to live in a world with fairies and mermaids and crazy pirates who are scared of a crocodile who ticks like a clock. Where they want to run around all day having crazy adventures with their friends and for someone to tell them a bedtime story every night. I know I went through that stage. Peter Pan though, I think, is supposed to represent your childhood. Peter is innocent and care-free and loves nothing more than going on an adventure, much like a child.
I also know that Wendy is meant to represent something too. Wendy knows that she cannot stay in Neverland with Peter forever because she has a life and her family to get back to. She knows that there is more to learn about the world and that she is expected to grow up one day. She knows that one day she is supposed to fall in love and have her own family. She also knows that one day her time with Peter Pan will be nothing but a distant memory while for her own children it could be just beginning. What Wendy represents, or so I have come to discover, is a stage of acceptance. That acceptance is that you will have to grow up one day. cannot possible be a child forever no matter how much you wish it and one day you will eventually have to grow up.
With these two representations being stated, I found that when Wendy leaves Neverland and Peter at the window she is really saying goodbye to her childhood. She has realised that although she may wish to be a child forever she knows she cannot. She promises Peter that she will never grow up and in a way this may be true. She may be grown on the outside but on the inside she is still the same little girl that went on the adventure through Neverland with the boy who plagued her dreams.
The ending of this book is both heart-breaking and wonderful. Though it could have been different I do think it is one that is worthy of such a brilliant story. In a way it is almost like JM Barrie himself is saying to you that each generation should get their chance to meet Peter and put themselves in the adventures that he has on Neverland.
JM Barrie really did know how to bring a story to life. His words were written so wonderfully that they still touch the lives of so many children. and adults, almost 80 years after his death. The way he brings the characters to life is tremendous. You can really picture them and their adventures in ways that are special in their own way. I can only dream of being able to tell a story the way he could and for it to have such an impact on the lives of so many. This book really did not disappoint me in any way, if anything is surpassed my expectations of it. The tale of Peter Pan truly has a special place in my heart and I think it always will. It is the kind of story that you share with your children in the hope that they will love it just as much as you.
I do believe in fairies, I do, I do... I also believe in Peter Pan.
This is another book that I picked up because of the movie. Unfortunately I was a bad reader and watched the movie before I picked up the book. I am actually glad I did it this way around because of how different they are.
Both the book and the film are centred around 17 year old Bianca Piper and her struggles involved in her being labelled as the DUFF. While the film focuses on Bianca trying to solve the problems in her love life, the book is different. Bianca's love life does play a large role in the book but it also involves her issues at home and with her friends. In the book Bianca is characterised as a teenager better than in the film. The book allows her to go through more teenage issues that can be related to on a broad scale.
While reading this book I noticed a few topics that it brought up were ones that I had never really taken the time to think about.
One of the topics that this book brought up was labels. Specifically labels given to teenagers in high school. This book made me realise that everyone is given a label no matter how hard you try to run from it. Nowadays the labels given to people when they are in high school are getting more and more creative and are also getting a lot more personal. This book though helped me to realise that you don't need to let these labels define who you are. I know that this is easier said than done and sometimes it doesn't work but trust me, they don't all last forever. The only way you can stop seeing yourself as the label that others have given you is to stop seeing others as the labels they have been given.
Another topic that came up was distracting yourself from your problems. This is the topic that I related to most in the book. It made me realise just how often that I did things as a distraction from my real problem. I have allowed problems to get continually worse until I cannot avoid them anymore. This is something that Bianca goes through in the book. She continually uses Wesley to keep her mind off of the problems with her parents and her friends until she can no longer avoid the problems.
Overall I enjoyed this book. I liked how Kody Keplinger was able to make readers laugh and think at the same time. I liked her writing style and her characters and would love to pick up another of her books.
