Book Review: Reunion by Jennifer Fallon

Rift Runners #2

Published by: HarperVoyager Australia
Pages: 496
Rating: 5/5

Ren of the Undivided and his half-Faerie companion Trasa must find a way to stop the Matrachai, who want to eliminate every magical race in existence. Only the Undivided hold the key to stopping them, and even the Faerie Brethren have turned to Ren for assistance. With the help of the Pete and Logan Doherty, the human twins stranded with them, Ren must find a way to save them all, especially his twin brother Darragh. Reunion is the third book in the fabulous Rift Runners epic fantasy series, following on from The Undivided and The Dark Divide, and switches through time portals between the contemporary world and a Celtic Druidic Britain.

*A copy of this book was provided by HarperVoyager Australia for a fair and honest review.

This book doesn't take off from where The Dark Divide finished. After the prologue, in which we are introduced to Pete and Logan's home reality, the story jumps ahead three years to set up the rest of the book before skipping a further seven years into the future. It is here, ten years after the events of the last book that a majority of the plot takes place.

Once I started this book I could not put it down, reading most of it in a day. There's just something about Fallon's writing that captures my attention and refuses to let go until the last word. Not to mention that there was never a dull moment in this book with secrets, lies and plot twists around every corner. I wish I could go into more detail but anything I would say would give too much away.

What was great to see is how all the characters have changed based on the situation they have been in for the past decade. Ren has matured so much since we first met him in The Undivided. There is something tragic about him, knowing he has to kill Darragh's children and doing everything he can to stop it, and eventually finding out that Darragh was not living it up with Kiva. He has to make some hard decisions but understands what needs to be done and the consequences that follow. Trása shows great development too, becoming a Queen in her own right.

Seeing how Pete and Logan had changed was great as well. From not believing in magic or different worlds, they had to deal with their adoptive mother drugging them, taking them to a new world and trying to kill them, and finding out they were more sidhe than human. There is a scene early in the book where Ren, Pete and Logan are in the "ninja realm" sitting near the palace moat drunk while making and throwing magic paper bombs in the water for fun. It was a fun scene and really showed how far they had come. There were also new characters to love. My favourite would have to be Nika. Not only was she the Merlin of her world - an awesome and interesting concept Fallon came up with - but she was just a little bit kickass. She was loyal, sneaky and willing to secretly poison her Queen into a Snow White sleep to escape.

There was, however, one character that annoyed me, Hayley. Marcroy finally gets tired of her and decides to send her back to her home world, the only problem is that she thinks only a week has passed since she left (thanks to the magic in Tír Na nÓg). However, in truth it has been ten years and while everyone else has grown older she has stayed the same. As she is still a teenager it's understandable when she got angry and started cursing Ren. After all it was Ren who sent her to get her eyes fixed with magic and told her she would only be gone for a short while. But it was her actions that followed that annoyed me. She took revenge before even finding out what his side of the story was and considering in her mind they were still close friends, I thought it was a bit unfair.

Overall, I really enjoyed this book. The ending was...well let’s just say I'm still trying to process it. In one sense I feel like the book finished the series well, with the story being told completed. On the other hand I feel like there needs to be another book or series to complete it properly (this will make more sense once you read the book). It feels like Fallon may have plans to return to this series in the future and I do hope she does.

In the mean time I'm excited for Fallon's return to the Hythrun Chronicles with The Lyre Thief.

Novella Review: Shadow by Amanda Sun

Paper Gods #0.5

Published by: Harlequin Teen
Pages: 75
Rating: 2/5

Meet two teens whose worlds are about to change forever in this paranormal Young Adult novella, a prequel to Ink by debut author Amanda Sun…

Katie Greene’s worst nightmare comes true when her mother dies, and she’s devastated to learn that she will have to leave the only home she’s ever known. Desperate to find where she belongs, she must decide if she has what it takes to start a new life across the ocean.

For Yuu Tomohiro, every day is a nightmare. He struggles to control his strange ability, and keeps everyone at a distance so they won’t get hurt—even his girlfriend, Myu. At night, a shadow haunts his dreams, and a mysterious woman torments him with omens of death and destruction. But these haunting premonitions are only the beginning…

Having read Ink my expectations for this novella were for the most part fairly low and unfortunately it didn't rise above my expectitions.

Shadow is written through the perpectives of both Tomohiro and Katie based on the events that lead to Ink. In my review for Ink I remarked that it could've benefited from doing just this rather than focusing only on Katie and after reading Shadow I feel like I was on to something. Tomo was far more enjoyable to read than Katie, although that might have had something to do with her being a whiny selfcentred brat for the first half of the novella. It was nice to get some insight into how Tomo thinks and it makes clear some of his actions in Ink.

I had serious problems with Katie in this novella. As I said above, she acted like a whiny selfcentred brat for half of it. Ok, so her mum died and while I haven't had to experience that loss I've lost many close family members so I can relate to it on some level. But seriously, Katie acts like she's the only one in pain because nobody else could possibly feel sad and hurt over her mum's passing, nobody understands how it feels like.

 

 

I just couldn't feel sorry for her while she was acting like that. People are just tring to help her and all she can do is complain. She even goes as far as thinking that her Grandparents don't want her or love her anymore because she can't go live with them as she wants. Grow up, you're not a little kid anymore!

 

 

 

However, she did get more bearable once she snapped herself out of it and began taking control of what she could.

 

I don't know what it was with this novella but some of the writing is just not that great. Some of the sentence structuring was just weird and made my head hurt, and the wording was rather odd.  There was this one line:

 

 

"The wind tangled and untangled her hair" p. 25

 

For me the use of the word tangled just didn't work because while wind can tangle hair I have never known the wind to be able to untangle it. I get the image Sun is trying to paint but I feel the wording was worng for it, maybe, the wind blew through her hair or something similar would've worked much better.

 

Bad use of words aside, the prologue gave me a headache. I think Sun was trying to set up some sort of feeling for the scene, maybe olden time....I don't know. The only reason I feel like she was setting the scene is because this type of wording really only came up in the prologue. Whatever it was she was trying to do didn't work well with me. The entire chapter I sat there restructuring sentences so that they flowed and made sense in my overworked brain. Just so you can get an idea, here is one of them:

 

 

"It towered above him, the huge Shinto entrance to Itsukushima Shrine" p6

 

If it towered above him we get the idea that it's huge, you don't need to show and tell in the same sentence. Also, I feel it would flow better if the sentence was switched with the latter part coming before the former.

 

Also just a note on the "earthquakes" or whatever. I'm kinda confused, I wasn't sure if it was meant to be used as a tool for foreshadowing or if they're actually meant to mean something. Nothing like them happened once in Ink so I think it was just foreshadowing. If this is the case I found it completely unessessary. It wasn't needed for foreshadowing - Tomo's dreams were enough - and if it adds nothing other than confusion as to why it's there then why use it.

 

Overall it wasn't a bad addition to the series. It did feel like it was trying to hard at times to create anicipation for Ink which is a shame becuase it did that without the extra effort. The insight into Tomo was great but Katie's behaviour in the first half makes it a little unbearable. People who like Ink are bound to enjoy this while those who didn't are bound to come into the same problems with this novella.

ARC Book Review: Ink by Amanda Sun

Paper Gods #1

Published by: Harlequin (UK) Ltd
Publication Date: 5 July 2013
Pages: 377
Rating: 2.5/5

Ink is in their blood.

On the heels of a family tragedy, Katie Greene must move halfway across the world. Stuck with her aunt in Shizuoka, Japan, Katie feels lost. Alone. She doesn’t know the language, she can barely hold a pair of chopsticks, and she can’t seem to get the hang of taking her shoes off whenever she enters a building.

When Katie meets aloof but gorgeous Tomohiro, the star of the school’s kendo team, she is intrigued by him... and a little scared. His tough attitude seems meant to keep her at a distance, and when they’re near each other, strange things happen. Pens explode. Ink drips from nowhere. And unless Katie is seeing things, drawings
come to life.

Somehow Tomo is connected to the kami, powerful ancient beings who once ruled Japan—and as feelings develop between Katie and Tomo, things begin to spiral out of control. The wrong people are starting to ask questions, and if they discover the truth, no one will be safe.            

*ARC provided by Harlequin (UK) Ltd via NetGalley

WARNING there is a spoiler ontained in this review if you understand the reference.

This book was one of my most anticipated for this year and has been on my to read list since I first heard about it last year. How could it not be? Both the UK and US covers are gorgeous, that synopsis promises a fresh and new take on magic, and it's set in Japan. Seriously, what's not to love?

You can see why when I found this on NetGalley I just had to have it and when I got approved it was like my birthday had come early.

And then I started reading it....

It just didn't quite hit the mark for me.

Meet Katie:

She's your typical YA mc: lack of original personality, boring, whiny and gives Luce Price a run for her money in the stalker stakes. She was just flat and there was something that blocked me from connecting with her. It didn't help that she was frustrating and the choices she made just dumb. Seriously, who follows/stalks a guy into a situation that she knows will be dangerous after being told not to. And that's not the only time she makes stupid decisions, throughout the entire book she makes decisions without taking anything but her wants into consideration. This was particularly the case at the end of the book when I thought she had finally grown up and developed as a character, but then she threw it all out the door with one choice. Seriously, there were times I just want to knock some sense into her.

Then there's Tomo:

Once agin he's your typical male interest: acts like a bad boy but really he's nice and sweet. At least he had more personality than Katie. He was far more interesting than Katie and I think the book could have benefited by changing to his pov sometimes. What I particularly liked about him was the fact that his actions made sense based on his past, Sun didn't make him tortured just because she wanted him that way. Even his friendship with Sato made sense. But what I liked about him was the fact that he realised that he couldn't keep his secret from Katie and protect her at the same time. Yay, a character with a brain!

The remaining cast were kinda wooden. Tanaka and Yuki were just there, nothing about them made them stand out or even feel fleshed out as characters. Sato worked in parts but in others I really wondered what his deal was and what part he actually played becasue the signals were a bit all over the place concerning his position in the Yakuza. Jun failed as a second potential love interest, coming across as creepy most of the time. I don't know why it took throwing it in her face for Katie to figure him out sooner. Then there was the complete 180 he took at the end of the book that came out of the blue and didn't make sense for his character.

 As for the plot, I had a love-hate relationship with it.

Overall, the plot for me moved way too slow for my liking. It took me over 250 pages until it really caught my attention, it might have had something to do with the first three quarters of the book involving Katie pining over Tomo and stalking him. Oh, and Katie got into trouble sometimes because she did stupid things. And then it got interesting, we were given information and action. I was really staring to enjoy the story and couldn't wait to see how it would all pan out and then bam, we were thrown this plot twist (well along the lines of anyway):

And I was like:

Really...le sigh.

But slow plot and twists aside there was a lot to like about this book as well. For one the setting was refreashing and based on my limited knowledge of Japan gained through watching anime it seemed pretty accurate. The customs, food and celebrations were a really nice touch and made me want to be there experiencing it. But what made it better was that Katie was stumbling her way through this new culture and you could imagine what it would be like. A part of this was Sun's use of the Japanese language. Throwing phrases and words in was a really nice touch and done in a way that you understood what was being said - most of the time anyway - without having to constantly flick to the translations and explanations at the back of the book.

The book was quite well written and from what we've leart so far the world building is pretty good. I loved how Sun came up with the Kami and the power they posses. It was particulalry cool when she tied it all in to historic events. This power was one of my favourite parts of the book becuase it was so original and intriuging. That being said we don't learn a lot about it and it's lost a little bit in the relationship centred plot throughout most of the book. I do really look forward to finding out more in the next book.

What truley makes this book special though is the artwork found throughout the book. It's beautifully done and complements the story. It is worth getting your hands on a copy just for this factor alone and I highly recommend buying the book over the ebook for this reason. Although, some ebook readers will allow the pictures to move but I don't know which ones will have this feature. I also recommend the book to allow easier access to the definitions and translations as the ebook does make it a bit more difficult to flip to and from pages to check this list when you need it.

This book had a lot of potential but fell flat in quite a few places but I do see hope that the next book may do a better job at living up to it.

Book Review: Sabriel by Garth Nix

The Old Kingdom #1

Published by: Allen & Unwin
Pages: 311
Rating: 5/5

For many years Sabriel has lived outside the walls of the Old Kingdom, away from the random power of Free Magic, and away from the Dead who won't stay dead. But now her father, the Charter-Mage Abhorsen, is missing, and to find him Sabriel must cross back into that world.

Though her journey begins alone, she soon finds companions: Mogget, whose seemingly harmless feline form hides a powerful—and perhaps malevolent—spirit, and Touchstone, a Charter-Mage long imprisoned by magic, now free in body but still trapped by painful memories.

With threats on all sides and only each other to trust, the three of them must travel deep into the Old Kingdom, toward a battle that will pit them against the true forces of life and death—and bring Sabriel face-to-face with her own hidden destiny.

I've lost track of how many times I have read this book. I loved it the first time I read it and I loved it this time. There is just something about the world Nix created that keeps drawing me back into it.

Sabriel is a wonderful piece of world building. From the technolgy using, magic-free Ancelstierre to the magic-wielding mages of the Old Kingdom, Nix thought through every part of his creation. What I did really enjoy is his take on magic. The charter system is quite interesting and is not something I have seen before. In particular, the distiction between the Abhorsen and other necromancers, and charcter magic and free magic was well done, as was the idea that magic could become corrupted.

Nix did a great job with the characters, allowing them to develop throughout their journey. Sabriel in particular starts off very young and naive but as the plot contuniues she grows into someone that is determined and brave. Yeah, she makes some silly mistakes that make you wonder what she was thinking but in the end she knows what she has to do and is willing to do what it takes to do it.

Touchstone is the love interest. He's kinda boring to begin with, although it is not without reason but he like Sabriel is willing to do what it takes to fix things. What I like about him is that he isn't the typical love interst that is saturating the YA world. He's not drop dead gorgeous, he's more ashamed of his past rather than tortured by it, he doesn't try to hide it and best of all there's no insta-love. In fact he barley talks to Sabriel when they first meet. He develops gradually and by the end of the book you can see the person he used to be and the person he's going to be in the future. And it's this growth in character that slowly makes Sabriel fall for him.

The two main characters aside, the secondary characters are well fleshed out and feel real. Mogget would have to be my favourite character out of all of them, he's just plain awesome.

Sabriel is a well written, entertaining read and I highly recommend it.

Now to re-read Lirael and Abhorsen  to get ready for the release of Clariel next year.

I'll leave you with one of the most poignant quotes from this book, it has stuck with me ever since I first read it.

"Does the walker choose the path, or the path the walker?" p41

ARC Book Review: Fall of Night by Rachel Caine

Morganville Vampires #14

Published by: Razorbill
Pages: 350
Rating: 4/5

Thanks to its unique combination of human and vampire residents, Morganville, Texas, is a small college town with big-time problems. When student Claire Danvers gets the chance to experience life on the outside, she takes it. But Morganville isn’t the only town with vampire trouble...

Claire never thought she’d leave Morganville, but when she gets accepted into the graduate program at MIT, she can’t pass up the opportunity. Saying good-bye to her friends is bittersweet, especially since things are still raw and unsettled between Claire and her boyfriend, Shane.

Her new life at MIT is scary and exciting, but Morganville is never really far from Claire’s mind. Enrolled in a special advanced study program with Professor Irene Anderson, a former Morganville native, Claire is able to work on her machine, which is designed to cancel the mental abilities of vampires.

But when she begins testing her machine on live subjects, things quickly spiral out of control, and Claire starts to wonder whether leaving Morganville was the last mistake she’ll ever make...

*ARC provided by Penguin Australia via NetGalley

I must say I have the greatest respect for Caine, for her to be writing the amount of books a year she has been doing recently while still maintaining the quality of writing that she has is inspiring. Not only that but here we are at book 14 of this series and she is still able to surprise me.

This book pretty much takes place entirely outside of Morganville without most of the usual cast of characters fans of this series have grown to love. I admit I was a bit dubious about this, after all the characters are such a large part in what makes this series a great read. But I am glad to say that it didn't suffer for it. Yes, Liz was really annoying and stupid but Jesse and Pete were awesome additions to the cast. I did miss Eve, Michael and Myrnin for a bit but I devoured the book so quickly that before I knew it they were back in the story with a newly exiled Oliver.

If  you thought it all went to hell in Black Dawn then prepare for it to get worse. Once more it appears Caine has written herself into a corner because I can't see a way that the story will end well in Daylighters after the events of this book. That being said, I'm not worried. Caine has never let me down and always seems to surprise me. And boy, did that happen in this book. I was so unprepared for that ending and Claire's choices totally put me off balance. There is very little in this book that is predictable.

Fall of Night is a fun ride and one I recommend to read. While I will be disappointed to come to the end of the last book I cannot wait to get my hands on Daylighters towards the end of the year!

Book Review: Clockwork Princess by Cassandra Clare



The Infernal Devices #3

Published by: Walker Books Ltd
Pages: 568
Rating: 5/5

Tessa Gray should be happy - aren't all brides happy?
Yet as she prepares for her wedding, a net of shadows begins to tighten around the Shadowhunters of the London Institute.
A new demon appears, one linked by blood and secrecy to Mortmain, the man who plans to use his army of pitiless automatons, the Infernal Devices, to destroy the Shadowhunters. Mortmain needs only one last item to complete his plan. He needs Tessa. And Jem and Will, the boys who lay equal claim to Tessa's heart, will do anything to save her.
This book was a stunningly beautiful end to the trilogy. From the beginning it was an emotional roller coaster and all the characters were put to the test, placed in positions where they had to make decisions for better or for worse.

Much of the plot was centred around the relationships of the characters. For me this was not to the books' detriment as from the first page of Clockwork Angel it was clear that it was these relationships that made up the heart and soul of the story, and gave it reason to exist rather than Mortmain and his army of automatons. To see how these relationships have developed was truly a wonderful experience and one that lovers of Cassandra Clare's work will immensely enjoy.

The plot arcs were finished well and in many cases I was surprised with how things turned out. The ending of the first part of the book was a wonderful surprise and I loved the character dimension this brought throughout the rest of the tale. The end of the Mortmain arc I didn't see coming but loved how Clare brought everything together and showed us what had been in front of our eyes the whole time. There was one part of the book that set off my suspicion radar and I'm glad that I was right, enough said about that.

I know a lot of people will say the ending was a bit of a cop-out and it was, but by the end of the book I didn't care. I had felt so much for these characters that I couldn't help but be overjoyed and sad all at once for the characters in the epilogue. Those last few pages had such an impact that I'm still reeling from it and extremely curious about what will happen in City of Heavenly Fire to allow this ending to occur.

Book Review: Firelight by Sophie Jordan

Firelight #1

Published By: HarperTeen
Pages: 323
Rating: 1.5/5

A hidden truth. Mortal enemies. Doomed love.

With her rare ability to breathe fire, Jacinda is special even among the draki--the descendants of dragons who can shift between human and dragon forms. But when Jacinda's rebelliousness forces her family to flee into the human world, she struggles to adapt, even as her draki spirit fades. The one thing that revives it is the gorgeous, elusive Will, whose family hunts her kind. Jacinda can't resist getting closer to him, even though she knows she's risking not only her life but the draki's most closely guarded secret.

Mythical powers and breathtaking romance ignite in this story of a girl who defies all expectations and whose love crosses an ancient divide.

Looking at the premise this book it comes across as being a potentially good read. I mean it contains dragons and who doesn't love dragons! But more than that the draki (dragonesque people) take centre stange, a mythology that I haven't yet read in a book. So it should've a breath of fresh air among the vampires, angels and mermainds. Unfortunately, rather than play to this point I felt that the mythology was a bit of tack-on. Don't get me wrong the mythology is actually very well thought out and detailed, you could really believe that there are communities of draki hidden among us but what got to me was it wasn't the focus of the book. For the most part it was a bad rewrite of a Romeo & Juliet story.

The main girl, Jacinda, is a draki but not just any draki she is the first fire-breather in hundreds of years and is slated to marry the pride (draki community) prince, Cassian, and make lots of fire breathing babies. One day she decides to go flying during the day, a big no-no in the pride as you know humans might see her. And of course she is seen but by the worst type of human in a draki's eye, hunters, people who find, trap and kill her kind for money. But just when she thinks she's a goner, the hunter who finds her decides to let her live and leads the others away. Can you see where this is going? Now in big toruble with the pride her mother decides to pack her and her sister up and leave the pride for good, taking her to a small dessert town near Las Vegas in the hope that the dry, hot conditions will kill her draki. Enrolled in the high school in the town who does she come across, the hunter that saved her, Will. Boy meets girl insta-love occurs, boredom kicks in and bye bye much of the draki storyline.

Jacinda is one of the most annoying female characters I have ever read. Seriously, she is a selfish whiny biatch. All she ever thinks about is herself and how much she hates her mum and sisterr for dragging her there and trying to kill her draki. How dare they?! But lets not forget that she doesn't tell them the town in swaming with a family of hunters, that she's in love with one, and oh Cassian has found their hiding spot and wants her to return to the pride with him. You know, no biggie at all, it's not like there's any chance of you being killed....oh wait. Other than being completely whiny and selfish, she also can't make up her damn mind. I love Will and I want to be with him but I can't because he's a hunter but oh well I'm going to make out with him anyway and secretly meet up with him. I hate the pride, my lack of freedom there and I want to get away from it but I want to be there again becuase that's where I belong. I hate my mum and sister for bringing me here but I can't hate them because they like it and finally fit in. Seriously girl, make up you god damn mind becuase at this point I want to slap you over the head and tell you to get your shit together.

Will is boring and quite frankly a bit stalkerish. I cared nothing for him and didn't think he had any chemistry with Jacinda what-so-ever. Really there's not much else to say. Oh he's kinda dumb becuase he's meant to have a spidey-sense for draki but can't tell Jacinda is one when she's sitting right next to him...must be the "chemistry" between them or it could be bad chicken, my bet is on the chicken though and that's the reason he's instanly fallen in love with her without knowing a damn thing about her. Ditto to you to Jacinda.

Really, the only saving grace was Cassian. He was kinda cool and much more interesting than Will.