Category: Book Review

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Legend: Marie Lu

Now this is a fun Dystopian novel. The only bad thing is the world it is set in is really similar to a book I’ve been slowly writing over the last year. I think I missed my chance to get on the dystopian band wagon as the last year it has really hit hard. BUT oh well. I’ll finish my book.
ANYWAYS, this was a really great book! I really, really liked it! I kept seeing it come up in my Amazon suggested reading, but the description seemed so blah until one day I read the reviews and realized that people really liked it. I gave it a try and was so happy that I did. I just wish that it was longer.
I absolutely recommend! Read this book, you won’t be disappointed! (well, for arguments sake you might, but I wasn’t)

Amazon Description:
Los Angeles, California Republic of America. He is Day. The boy who walks in the light. She is June. The girl who seeks her brother’s killer. On the run and undercover, they meet by chance. Irresistably drawn together, neither knows the other’s past. But Day murdered June’s brother. And she has sworn to avenge his death.

  • Hardcover: 336 pages
  • Publisher: Putnam Juvenile (November 29, 2011)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 039925675X
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Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children: Ransom Riggs

This was such a fun book! It was a little creepy and a lot of fun. One thing that I thought was really cool was the way he incorporated all these true life vintage photos into the book (the photos were real, obviously the story is not). I was reading it on my Kindle so the photos definitely were not done justice, but I bet in hardback, the book is really awesome. I love how he incorporated the photos into the story. It did not distract in any way, but really added to it.
Anyways, I don’t want to give too much away because the story really unfolds sort of like an old school fairy tale. I give it 4 stars and totally recommend!

Amazon Description:
A mysterious island. An abandoned orphanage. A strange collection of very curious photographs.

It all waits to be discovered in Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children, an unforgettable novel that mixes fiction and photography in a thrilling reading experience. As our story opens, a horrific family tragedy sets sixteen-year-old Jacob journeying to a remote island off the coast of Wales, where he discovers the crumbling ruins of Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children. As Jacob explores its abandoned bedrooms and hallways, it becomes clear that the children were more than just peculiar. They may have been dangerous. They may have been quarantined on a deserted island for good reason. And somehow—impossible though it seems—they may still be alive.

A spine-tingling fantasy illustrated with haunting vintage photography, Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children will delight adults, teens, and anyone who relishes an adventure in the shadows.

  • Hardcover: 352 pages
  • Publisher: Quirk Books; Book Club edition (June 7, 2011)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 1594744769

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The Kane Chronicles Book One and Two: Rick Riordan

 Rick Riordan is just a great story teller. Specifically he is a great mythical storyteller. I’ve always been fascinated with ancient lore and mythology and his books have been extremely easy and enjoyable reads. If you haven’t read the Percy Jackson or the Lost Hero series yet, you’re missing out. They are very “young adult” (especially the first few of Percy Jackson) but as the heroes progress, so do the books in terms of being a bit more enjoyable for adults. 

This series is Rick’s take on Egyptian mythology and I loved it and am definitely going to be getting book three when it comes out in May. Again, it’s written for a YA audience, but at over 500 pages it keeps you engaged. I also love how all three series are referenced in each series… pretty cool how it’s all woven together.

4 stars and recommend.

Amazon Red Pyramid Description:
Since their mother’s death, Carter and Sadie have become near strangers. While Sadie has lived with her grandparents in London, her brother has traveled the world with their father, the brilliant Egyptologist, Dr. Julius Kane. 

One night, Dr. Kane brings the siblings together for a “research experiment” at the British Museum, where he hopes to set things right for his family. Instead, he unleashes the Egyptian god Set, who banishes him to oblivion and forces the children to flee for their lives.
 
Soon, Sadie and Carter discover that the gods of Egypt are waking, and the worst of them–Set–has his sights on the Kanes. To stop him, the siblings embark on a dangerous journey across the globe — a quest that brings them ever closer to the truth about their family, and their links to a secret order that has existed since the time of the pharaohs.

  • Paperback: 544 pages
  • Publisher: Hyperion Book CH; Reprint edition (August 16, 2011)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 1423113454
Amazon Throne of Fire Description:

In this exciting second installment of the three-book series, Carter and Sadie, offspring of the brilliant Egyptologist Dr. Julius Kane, embark on a worldwide search for the Book of Ra, but the House of Life and the gods of chaos are determined to stop them. 

  • Hardcover: 464 pages
  • Publisher: Hyperion Book CH (May 3, 2011)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 1423140567
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Prized: Caragh M. O’Brian

What a fabulous book, but I must say, it’s pretty dark and dreary for a good chunk of the book. I was like, “SERIOUSLY, WHEN WILL THIS CHICK CATCH A BREAK!?” I was pretty emotional during the parts of her newborn sister, but alas, I can’t give anything away. That’s not the point of these here recommendations. You just want the meat of it. Did I like it? YES! I just felt it could have been a bit longer. It wasn’t even 400 pages.
Great book, GREAT set up to book three (grrr) and 5 stars and I recommend!

Amazon Description:
Striking out into the wasteland with nothing but her baby sister, a handful of supplies, and a rumor to guide her, sixteen-year-old midwife Gaia Stone survives only to be captured by the people of Sylum, a dystopian society where women rule the men who drastically outnumber them, and a kiss is a crime.  In order to see her sister again, Gaia must submit to their strict social code, but how can she deny her sense of justice, her curiosity, and everything in her heart that makes her whole?



  • Hardcover: 368 pages
  • Publisher: Roaring Brook Press (November 8, 2011)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 1596435704
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Review of Clockwork Prince: Cassandra Clare

I’ve got to say, I love me some Cassandra Clare. I was hooked on the Immortal Instrument Series and love this series as well. It’s a Steampunk genre yet set in the same world, just a few hundred years earlier. This is the second book in a series, coming after Clockwork Angel.
This is a “Angel” book, or sort of. Has anyone else noticed the over saturation of Angel/Demon Paranormal romances out there? I’m not a huge fan and it’s getting old. HOWEVER, Clare and her Immortal Instrument series predated the craze and may have even started the craze in my opinion. Ok, I’m off track. Anyways, it’s a great second book in the series. Obviously you need to read the first one to make any sense of it. The lead girl is a little “angsty” if you know what I mean, kind of annoying at times. So I give this 4 stars and recommend it.

Amazon Description:

In the magical underworld of Victorian London, Tessa Gray has at last found safety with the Shadowhunters. But that safety proves fleeting when rogue forces in the Clave plot to see her protector, Charlotte, replaced as head of the Institute. If Charlotte loses her position, Tessa will be out on the street—and easy prey for the mysterious Magister, who wants to use Tessa’s powers for his own dark ends.
With the help of the handsome, self-destructive Will and the fiercely devoted Jem, Tessa discovers that the Magister’s war on the Shadowhunters is deeply personal. He blames them for a long-ago tragedy that shattered his life. To unravel the secrets of the past, the trio journeys from mist-shrouded Yorkshire to a manor house that holds untold horrors, from the slums of London to an enchanted ballroom where Tessa discovers that the truth of her parentage is more sinister than she had imagined. When they encounter a clockwork demon bearing a warning for Will, they realize that the Magister himself knows their every move—and that one of their own has betrayed them.
Tessa finds her heart drawn more and more to Jem, though her longing for Will, despite his dark moods, continues to unsettle her. But something is changing in Will—the wall he has built around himself is crumbling. Could finding the Magister free Will from his secrets and give Tessa the answers about who she is and what she was born to do?
As their dangerous search for the Magister and the truth leads the friends into peril, Tessa learns that when love and lies are mixed, they can corrupt even the purest heart.

  • Hardcover: 528 pages
  • Publisher: Margaret K. McElderry Books; 1ST edition (December 6, 2011)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 1416975888