Blood of Eden

3.5 stars

As much as I love Julie Kagawa's Iron fey series I was a bit hesitant to try this. There are hundreds of vampire books out there, why should this one be any different? And I just hate that cover. Seriously, it doesn't look anything like the girl's crying more like a kid drew a line with a red marker. Anyways I read the book thinking Julie Kagawa wrote this, how bad can it be. And WOW, I was impressed.

Why I like this book

It presents Vampires as the blood thirsty monsters they really are, not as cute, cuddly, sparkly teddy bears.

I love Allison as a character. I'll admit she annoyed me at the beginning but she proved to be a fierce, loyal and strong person.

The world building was pretty good. I have a clear understanding of how everything works in this post apocalyptic world & The idea of vampires ruling the world just seems so awesome.

I really like the love interest Zeke. I know he seems like a flat character and it's irritating that he doesn't have any flaws but it's a pleasant change. He's not like the usual smirky arrogant jerks dominating YA these days.

Why it didn't get 5 stars

As good as this book is it lacks originality. We see the idea of vampires taking over the world in a lot of movies and books.

I'm glad Allie is not a soft Mary Sue but sometimes she just seems too tough and that is annoying in it's own way.

Allie, the main girl is a really developed character but the book could've been much better if the side characters were developed too like Kanin, Ruth and Jackal- the three just seemed so flat

The first part of the book really bored me. I acknowledge that all those explanations about vampire cities and Allie's human life were necessary but still they were boring.

But it was an entertaining read and I'm looking forward to the sequel:)

The Hobbit

The Hobbit is the first one of Tolkien's book that I've read; I haven't even read the Lord of Rings (a fact because of which I constantly suffer criticism). Anyways before I get into a triology I decided to give The Hobbit a try and let's just say I'll be reading LOTR soon.

If I was asked to define this classic in a sentence I would say 'a charming tale about friendship, adventure, treasure and discovering oneself, with beautiful poetry'. I think I might love the little poems this tale has more than the actual book itself. Here's an excerpt

Far over the misty mountains cold
To dungeons deep and caverns old
We must away ere break of day
To seek the pale, enchanted gold

The dwarves of yore made mighty spells
While hammers fell like ringing bells
In places deep, where dark things sleep
In hollow halls beneath the fells

Do you get what I mean? Look at the pretty, rhyming prose!

Anyways, the story is about a hobbit who lives a comfortable, ordinary life but then gets swept away in a quest for stolen treasure. At first the dwarves (who are hunting back their treasure) don't care much for small, fat Bilbo but along the way they have many little adventures and Bilbo proves himself to be a clever little fella. Truth be told I really don't know what to say about the book. I liked the story, it's the kind of book both adults and kids can enjoy. There's a lot of subliminal meaning behind the text e.g. Bilbo's greeting of 'good morning'.

But all the same I didn't quite enjoy the story as much as I thought I would. Tolkien was the one who discovered the whole world of high fantasy and I owe the guy a lot for all the books I've enjoyed. But after him there have been many high fantasy books and I'm sorry to say some of them may actually be better than the hobbit. The three main things that ruined the book for me were :

1) The lack of female characters. Except for a small mention of Bilbo's mom. there were absolutely no women int he story.

2) The info-dump. I felt that there was lot's of information being thrown around and I like the modern method of subtly providing the reader with information.

3) The descriptions. Tolkien's descriptions helped me picture the surroundings properly but most of the time they just made me confused. The countless descriptions of the land, trees, rocks, mountains began to annoy me and I found myself either rereading the paragraphs or just skimming the descriptions.

So it was a good book but not that good.

Child of the Prophecy

4 stars

Juliet Marillier is an amazing author. She's one of the best fantasy authors in the whole world. This book had all the good things Marillier's other books had. The same beautiful, poetic prose. The wonderful setting. The slow, complex romance. The high involvement of religion and family. And the unbelievably real characters.

Fainne is quite different from Liadan and Sorcha. She's not as selfless or brave or good. Rather she's awkward, shy and some of her actions are simply evil. Though I guess we can't blame her because she was under Lady Oonagh's influence but, it's still frustrating when your protagonist is going around lighting fires and hurting little kids. After Fainne finally sees the light the speed of the book picks up. The amazing thing about Juliet Marillier's books is that whenever you think you've reached the climax you find out there's still a whole adventure left. I'm still not exactly sure what the climax of the book was.

The male lead, Darragh is another awesome character. He may not be a vampire or sexy werewolf but he's loyal and loving and faithful and that just counts a lot more. His love for Fainne is so admirable. She tells him to leave over and over again, she's rude and mean to him but still he doesn't give up on her and keeps coming back. I just found the romance so sweet and touching.

The book was five star worthy but I just didn't like the ending. (spoiler ahead)  Living all alone on an island that has vanished from the face of the earth is just not my idea of a happy ever after. Plus I could see the plot twist from light years miles ahead.

The Warrior Heir

The warrior heir started of a bit slow for me but it quickly turned into the intriguing story it was meant to be. One reason I was really looking forward to reading this was because of the male lead, these days you don't find much YA with male leads and I was hoping it would be an adventure story without too much romance. The warrior heir fulfilled both these categories. The characters were likable, the pace was good though I believe this book is for a younger audience (of about 11-14?) . It has a little depth but not much intricacy. Good if your looking for a break after reading complex fantasies. The reason I really enjoyed this book however was because the author has set and amazing fantasy story in the contemporary world while still retaining the charm of second world fantasy.
All in All a great book.

The Magicians

I like to think of The Magicians as a combo of Harry Potter and Narnia. The world Grossman has created is intricate and the world of Fillory and the story of the Chatwins has this beautiful, magical feel to it. The pacing was a bit slow in the beginning but in Parts 2 and 3 the book speeds up and  became just so involved in finding out the mysteries of magical worlds. The last part is filled with surprises and all these plot twists that are just impossible to guess. The ending was great and all the loose ends are tied up but it still leaves you craving for more adventure.

 Even though I felt 'The Magicians' borrowed lots of stuff from other books, it was unique as well. For the first time I'm reading a book in which magicians are not portrayed happy people who wave their wand and get what they want. Rather they are miserable. They can get EVERYTHING with magic and so there is no purpose to their lives. They don't have any goals. Most of them just waste away their whole lives partying.

You may be wondering why I gave this book 3.5 stars if it was that awesome? The reduction in stars is owed to Queintin, our main character. He is a really flawed and miserable person, never content with all the things he has. He completely forgets his family and friends after becoming a magician, he's proud, selfish and arrogant and cheats on his smart, loving girlfriend. Even though I understood his actions and could sympathize with him, I never really liked him.

Dark Visions

Oh God, I can't believe I actually own this!

L.J Smith has long been a Paranormal YA author and I thought I should give her a try. I could've read her vampire diaries series but I hated the show too much to even try to read the book, so that's how I picked up Dark Visions. The premise wasn't interesting but the cover was. Stupid me, fooled by the pretty cover. What's really disappointing is that Dark visions had potential. It could've been an amazing book with the crazy Mr. Zetes and greedy for fame Joyce. I actually found the whole thing pretty creepy, especially what Mr.Z did to Sasha and Petre. But then there were all these glitches that kept annoying me and I couldn't ignore them either.

In the beginning we come to know that Gabriel accidentally killed Iris and the police were after him. A dead girl was found and they just automatically assumed that the kid present killed her. Even if he did kill the girl how could the police prove this? There were no bruises or blood. She was just dead. Child killing cases are pretty serious business. Lots of stuff is done to prove that the kid actually killed the person and even then lots of things are done to protect the child from going to jail/ mental hospital. The author's lack of research and lack of general knowledge is pretty disappointing.

Kaitlyn has to be one of the most annoying characters I've ever had the bad luck to read. She is completely bland/flat/no personality. She's the most characterless character I've ever read about. She doesn't feel any regret or self loathing when I think it's appropriate that she should. She claims to hate all guys because of a bad experience with one, but then immediately (less than 12 hours) falls in love after arriving at the institute.

And what's the deal with Gabriel? I have a feeling that he's suppose to be the cool, desirable bad boy but he's projected as a vulnerable, hypocritical little person with serious mental issues.

The prose was horrible. The author needs to take creative writing classes. The same words are used over and over again. Kait thought, Kait felt etc. The author has FIXED a set of words for for each character. For example whenever she mentions Anna there's always the phrase 'Anna's serenity'  Whenever she mentions Rob there's also the phrase 'Rob's honest face. His warm, golden glow'. By the time the book finally ended I was imagining Rob as a freaking light bulb. ( see left. My opinion of Rob)

I don't recommend this book to anyone though if you're a fan of Fallen or Hush Hush Hush you might as well read it. It got two stars from me because it had potential. It could've been better.

Wither

I have serious issues with this genre and I wonder why I keep torturing myself reading dystopian books in the vain attempt that I might actually enjoy them. The world building in all dystopian books is the same. A carefully controlled society, a huge amount of regional disparity and there's also some ridiculousness unique to each dystopian book.  But after seeing the amazing ratings Wither was getting I decided to give it a try, though for me it turned out to be a complete waste of time.
Despite the obvious problem of the super bad world building the main characters weren't likeable either. First let's talk about the world.

The world in Wither is so jumbled up. All the continents are dead except North America? Now this makes no sense to me. There are three generations of humans. One's perfect while the second and third die in their twenties. OKAY, I'll try to ignore how ridiculous this sounds. No, seriously reread that! It's absolutely absurd. But if things are really that bad why are people just going on with their lives. Why isn't there any panic and chaos? Sure some terrorism was mentioned (like the lab blowing up) but all this is in the background. The wealthy people just go on to live in their pretty estates, attending festivals and wedding and parties. That is just so unrealistic.

The main character, Rhine was also really flat. We know NOTHING about her except that she wants to escape from Linden's mansion. Gabriel and Linden, the two major male characters also got the same reaction from me. I did not like them, I did not hate them. They were just there.
However I'll give the author credit for creating two awesome, believable and relate-able characters Jenna and Cecily. There were times when I was annoyed at Jenna's melancholy but she proved to be a completely selfless person. Same goes for Cecily. At the beginning I hated her and her childish ways but as the story went on I really came to love her and in the end actually felt sorry for the foolish little girl that had been lost.

Another problem I had was the lack of action in the story. It just went on and on about how they were living in the mansion. The dress ups , makeovers , the parties. It was just so boring.
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Shadow and Bone by Leigh Bardugo

 According to the author this book is suppose to be inspired by tsarist Russia, and that was one of the main reasons why I read it. However except for the misuse of a few Russian words I found absolutely NOTHING in the story that said tsarist Russia. But I did find an amazing book which I absolutely love.

The prose flowed smoothly, no odd, short sentences which YA authors of today love to write. The plot was awesome. Even though it was of one of the usual types i.e ordinary girl turns extraordinary type, I found myself enjoying it. Maybe it was because Alina was a character people can relate to. She was a good character though not exceptionally strong or brave.
There's also Mal, who is equally likeable (alright, maybe a lot more likeable). I loved how their romance blossomed from childhood friendship into beautiful love. Usually in book the girl meets the new guy while the childhood friend remains forgotten behind. So the romance was a pleasant change.
(picture by bookaholic, deviantart)

Another thing that I admire about Shadow and Bone was The Darkling. He is ,after Voldemort,my favourite villain. He actually has motivation for the evil things he does other than "Muahaha, look at me! I'm Evil!"
I loved the surprising way in which the Darkling's identity was revealed. I often guess the plot twist after getting into the story but here the plot twist was MIND BLOWING!

Lots of reviewers gave this book pretty bad ratings because of the misuse of Russian words. I can understand their annoyance. It's clear that the author did not carry out any research. Even the editor and the publishers simply published this book without checking if Russian culture had been correctly portrayed. But my knowledge of Russia is very limited and I learned about the misuse of words problem after finishing the book so it didn't really affect my enjoyment of the whole story. All in all a great book the book. :D

Ship Breaker by Paulo Bacigalupi

Ship Breaker is one THE BEST dystopian I've ever read. While The Hunger Games was good it wasn't great and it was far from realistic. Ship Breaker on the other hand shows an imaginable future. With the hiking oil prices, global warming and economic crisis I can actually imagine a future like this.

The world in Ship Breaker is dark, bleak and dull. The divide between the poor and the rich is tremendous. And our hero Nailer's lived a pretty tough life but he's managed to find himself some truly loyal friends like Sedna and Pima. The characters are all amazingly developed and the author has taken great care to show that the world is selfish, greedy and completely lacking in humanity. Nailer was just like the rest of the people in shipbreaker's world and the author emphasizes how it is his near death experience that makes him different.Nita is an equally likable character, though she is a rich, spoiled brat I like how she quickly adapts herself to the poverty stricken world she's thrown in.

The story is fast paced and action packed, there isn't a boring moment. The plot's great and the writing is amazing with vivid descriptions. I love how there is absolutely no info dumping. We haven't been told anything, from the very first chapter we get to SEE how Nailer lives.
This book is recommended for everyone. Even if your not a dystopian lover I'm sure you'll find Ship Breaker an enjoyable read. However there is only a hint of romance in the story and if your a fan of romance novels you may not find Ship Breaker that fun. But still it's an amazing book. (less)