Give It A Miss
Anything To Have You
Written by Paige Harbison
Contemporary, Mature Themes
Contemporary, Mature Themes
Published in Australia February 1st 2014
304 Pages
Thank you to Harlequin Australia
Nothing should come between best friends, not even boys. ESPECIALLY not boys.
Natalie and Brooke have had each others backs forever. Natalie is the quiet one, college bound and happy to stay home and watch old movies. Brooke is the movie, the life of every party, the girl everyone wants to be.
Then it happens, one crazy night that Natalie can't remember and Brooke's boyfriend, Aiden, can't forget. Suddenly there's a question mark in Natalie and Brooke's friendship that tests everything they thought they knew about each other and has both girls discovering what true friendship really means.
The Lost Boys
Written By Lilian Carmine
Published 24 / 10 / 2013
512 Pages
Thank you to Netgalley and Random House UK
Fate has brought them together. But will it also keep them apart? Having moved to a strange town, 17 year old Joey Gray is feeling a little lost, until she meets a cute, mysterious boy near her new home. But there’s a very good reason why Tristan Halloway is always to be found roaming in the local graveyard. Perfect for fans of Stephenie Meyer and Lauren Kate, The Lost Boys is a magical, romantic tale of girl meets ghost.
The Shade Of The Moon (The Last Survivors: Book Four)
Written By Susan Beth Pfeffer
Published 13 / 08 / 2013
304 Pages
Thank you to HMH Books and Edelweiss
It's been more than two years since Jon Evans and his family left Pennsylvania, hoping to find a safe place to live, yet Jon remains haunted by the deaths of those he loved. His prowess on a soccer field has guaranteed him a home in a well-protected enclave. But Jon is painfully aware that a missed goal, a careless word, even falling in love, can put his life and the lives of his mother, his sister Miranda, and her husband, Alex, in jeopardy. Can Jon risk doing what is right in a world gone so terribly wrong?
When the world ends, can love survive?
For Scarlet, raising her two daughters alone makes fighting for tomorrow an everyday battle. Nathan has a wife, but can’t remember what it’s like to be in love; only his young daughter Zoe makes coming home worthwhile. Miranda’s biggest concern is whether her new VW Bug is big enough to carry her sister and their boyfriends on a weekend escape from college finals.
When reports of a widespread, deadly 'outbreak' begin to surface, these ordinary people face extraordinary circumstances and suddenly their fates are intertwined. Recognizing they can’t outrun the danger, Scarlet, Nathan, and Miranda desperately seek shelter at the same secluded ranch, Red Hill. Emotions run high while old and new relationships are tested in the face of a terrifying enemy, an enemy who no longer remembers what it’s like to be human.
Set against the backdrop of a brilliantly realized apocalyptic world, love somehow finds a way to survive. But what happens when the one you’d die for becomes the one who could destroy you?
In the year 2086, Camp Eden promises summer “the way things used to be,” back before the oceans rose, the sun became a daily enemy, and modern civilization sank into chaos. Located inside the EdenWest BioDome, the camp is an oasis of pine trees, cool water, and rustic charm.
But all at Camp Eden is not what it seems.
No one will know this better than 15-year-old Owen Parker. A strange underwater vision, even stranger wounds on Owen’s neck, and a cryptic warning from the enchanting lifeguard Lilly hint at a mystery that will take Owen deep beneath Lake Eden and even deeper into the past. What he discovers could give him the chance to save the tattered planet. But first, Owen will have to escape Camp Eden alive.
In a desolate world ravaged by the sun, the future is bleak for fifteen year old Owen Parker, until he secures a spot at the Eden Dome. During his first day at camp, Owen drowns, underwater for eleven minutes and far longer than anyone could possibly hold their breath. Except, Owen is dragged into shore, very much alive. Plunging down through the murky depths, Owen recalls the pale blue pulsing light, a haunting female voice to find her, in the temple beneath the Aquinara. With the parting wisdom, this is just the beginning.
Lilly is a lifeguard and Councillor in training at Eden, having found Owen at the bottom of the dome lake. As she warns him not to tell anyone about the close call, clearly she knows more than she's willing to admit. Maria the camp physician cleats Owen of any physical harm, apart from the delicate wounds he obtained across his neck as it's suspected he tangled with the lake ecosystem. The wounds are incredibly itchy, almost pulsing in waves. Owen never wanted to attend the camp, but finds himself a resident for the summer, only to please his father. Back home in the underground lair, Owen lives with his father, his mother had left when before Owen had turned ten. The world is in ruins, sea levels had risen and wiped out billions. In a cruel survival of the fittest, the wealthy were cryogenically frozen in time, and reanimated after the domes, known as Eden, were completed. Camp Eden, previously referred to as Camp Aasgard, is overseen by a director who now after Owen's accident, is treating the seemingly unscathed boy as if he were a prized possession.
The dome is assumed to be a replica of the way the world once was, the simulated sunshine, the storm clouds and to the animals and bugs found buzzing through the air. But when Owen discovers that a butterfly fluttering past is actually tracking his movements with a camera, he realises that the campers are being watched... But why? Rumor has it that the domes are failing, the brutal solar rays are destroying the structure, but camp director Paul shrugs off the innuendo. As camp life continues, Owen's wounds are healing remarkably fast. The itchiness and heat radiating from his bandages are almost too much to bare. Strangely, the only relief Owen can find is the thought of being submerged in the lake, the exact location in which he drowned... And he isn't the only one.
A group known as The Nomads who follow Heliad 7, and sun worshiping cult that is supposedly modeled on ancient religion, and they want in... While Owen is considering opting out. The dome was constructed on what was once the lost city of Atlantis, and Owen has finally come home.
The Lost Code has so much potential, in what is a unique fantasy, mythology, post apocalyptic, young adult science fiction with a touch of romance. The volatile world that the Earth had become was intriguing, and that the only true to life experience you can have, is it join one of the domed communities. The simulated weather, the surveillance and reproduced predisaster settings urged me to continue reading, despite the main character Owen. Owen felt as though he was more of a socially awkward, naive ten year old boy, rather than fifteen. The author seemed to have created a character that was a little too young and simplistic. I enjoyed the first half, parts felt beyond ridiculous and I have no idea what the Technicians were, Owen's inner voice I'm assuming... Or perhaps not. Are there actual little people inside his body? At one point, there seem to be several Technicians having a debated conversation, which made me wonder if Owen had an underlying mental illness. With so much going on within the story, with nothing actually happening, I wouldn't be surprised.
Once the mythology aspect was explored, that's when I lost interest. Where the first half was a simplistic storyline, the world is dying, a camp for children, boy meets girl, token bully and a dictator in camp director Paul. Then it morphs into a story about mythological skulls, flashbacks and DNA testing, underground tunnels to a lost underwater world and a blue pulsing Siren. There were too many ideas thrown together and I just felt as though it didn't work. I think it'll appeal to young teen readers, but sadly it just wasn't for me.
The Lost Code
(The Atlanteans: Book One)
Written By Kevin Emerson
Published 22 / 05 / 2012
448 Pages
Cath is a Simon Snow fan.
Okay, the whole world is a Simon Snow fan . . .
But
for Cath, being a fan is her life, and she’s really good at it. She
and her twin sister, Wren, ensconced themselves in the Simon Snow series
when they were just kids, it’s what got them through their mother
leaving. Reading. Rereading. Hanging out in Simon Snow forums,
writing Simon Snow fan fiction, dressing up like the characters for
every movie premiere.
Cath’s sister has mostly grown away from fandom, but Cath can’t let go. She doesn’t want to. Now
that they’re going to college, Wren has told Cath she doesn't want to
be roommates. Cath is on her own, completely outside of her comfort
zone. She’s got a surly roommate with a charming, always around
boyfriend, a fiction writing professor who thinks fan fiction is the end
of the civilized world, a handsome classmate who only wants to talk
about words... And she can’t stop worrying about her dad, who’s
loving and fragile and has never really been alone.
For Cath, the question is: Can she do this?
Can she make it without Wren holding her hand? Is she ready to start living her own life? Writing her own stories? And does she even want to move on if it means leaving Simon Snow behind?
Cather, otherwise known as Cath, is on the verge of her freshman year at college with twin sister Wren. The sister's have always shared a close bond... Up until now. While Wren is an outgoing party girl, Cath is a shy recluse, spending all of her free time writing fan fiction for the popular Simon Snow series. Now Cath faces the turmoil of college life alone when Wren wants her freedom, to be an individual and not seen as a twin. For introvert Cath, she's never felt more alone. She's always relied upon her single father and twin, but now all Cath has to keep her company, is Simon Snow... And the occasional text from not quite boyfriend Abel.
It's just Cath's luck, to be stuck with a surly and intrusive room mate. Bad mannered Reagan isn't interested in bonding with Cath, she has a life of her own... Including tag along boyfriend Levi, who's strangely, always smiling. Considering his relationship with the prickly Reagan, Cath isn't sure what the lanky boy has to smile about. She never dreamed that college would be so exhaustive, her successful fan fiction Carry On, Simon is pushed to the back burner, much to the frustration to Magicath's thousands of fans. It isn't long before Reagan realises how pathetic Cath's college life has become, her only regular meals are energy bars and jars of peanut butter, Cath has no idea where the cafeteria is located. Not to be mortified any further, Reagan takes pity on her and thankfully being her charity case only requires Cath to aide in Reagan's ridicule of other students.
The handsome Nick soon becomes a new fixture in Cath's life, he's a fellow student in the illustrious fiction writing class. Just when Cath's life seems to be improving, socially at least, her not quite boyfriend Abel meets someone else. Cath should have seen it coming, their three year relationship has never been real and explains why Cath doesn't feel heartbroken as she probably should. Regardless, Reagan sees it as an opportunity to broaden Cath's horizons, with Levi becoming the tag along, preferring to dote after Cath. Levi is captivated by Cath's fan fiction. He's never been much of a reader, finding that he can't grasp words on a page and absorb them. When his study partner Reagan is busy, with one of many boyfriends, Cath takes pity on Levi and reads through the night as a source of revision. The experience bringing the two closer than ever, both emotionally and physically, being her room mates boyfriend being momentary forgotten.
Just when Cath begins to live life as she should, twin Wren's, is spiraling out of control. She has distanced herself from Cath, binge drinking and losing control. When the girls were abandoned at only thirteen years old by their mother, who wasn't cut out to raise children, the girls and their father fell apart, and seemingly, their sense of abandonment has never been fully resolved. Now that their mother is back, the past brings up painful memories, Her father isn't coping again and Wren is drinking herself into a stupor. Cath's life begins to unravel while she attempts to hold onto the new world she's constructed. Her relationship with Levi, the approval of room mate Reagan, her father's mental breakdown and Wren's hospital admittance. She's not cut out for fiction writing, and can't stray from her Simon Snow fan fiction, and is determined to finish Carry On, two years in the making, before the eighth and final book in the series is released.
But Cath has more than just Simon Snow in her life, but will she be able to step away from the characters and see the story of her life that is waiting to be lived?
I was itching to get my hands on a copy of Fangirl, becoming a fan of Rainbow Rowell after reading Eleanor & Park, but I was so disappointed. I just didn't get it. It wasn't the quirky, offbeat romance that I had expected it to be. I kept waiting for it, the point where the book builds into a specific event that holds significance, but it never came. If it did, I missed it, thus missing the point entirely. Cath was dull, beyond nerdom which evidently may have provided her with a personality. For a girl who was surrounded by bright and brilliant characters, she was just too bland in comparison.
I found myself skimming though, especially the Carry On scenes. It was too much going from snippets from a Harry Potter fantasy world, back to the life of the monotonous Cath. I desperately wanted to love it, I needed to like it, but I ended up begging myself just to endure it.
Fangirl
Written By Rainbow Rowell
Published 10 / 09 / 2013
433 Pages
There’s something achingly familiar about Daniel Grigori.
Mysterious and aloof, he captures Luce Price’s attention from the moment she sees him on her first day at the Sword & Cross boarding school in sultry Savannah. He’s the one bright spot in a place where cell phones are forbidden, the other students are all screw ups, and security cameras watch every move.
Even Daniel wants nothing to do with Luce, he goes out of his way to make that very clear. But she can’t let it go. Drawn to him like a moth to a flame, Luce has to find out what Daniel is so desperate to keep secret... Even if it kills her.
Lucinda Price sees shadows, wisps of black smoke that have ruined her life. Luce has been uprooted from her elaborate private school education, and sent to the Sword & Cross reform school. The Sword & Cross is reminiscent of a maximum security prison, with the suggestion that Luce is in fact dangerous, and needs to be controlled. Luce isn't a criminal, but finds herself in a precarious position due to the suspicious death of Trevor all those months ago.
With first day nerves in abundance, Lucy finds herself with the slightly crazy, but entertaining Arriane as a personal guide. The school, a former Military academy during the civil war era, hosts only eighty teens, including Daniel Grigori. Luce feels a familiarity with Daniel, if they had almost met before both landing at the Sword & Cross. Daniel is arrogant, oozes charisma and confidence and doesn't seem interested in Luce's unexplained instant infatuation. But new student Cam is. Cam is the polar opposite to Daniel, smooth, sweet, charming and he has his sights set on Luce.
Luce wants to find out more about the aloof and intriguing Daniel and finds new friend Penn, more than willing to abuse her trusted role as school office clerk, for a little detective work. But a late night study session in the library turns fatal, when a spontaneous fire tears through the building, leaving casualties and Luce with the sinking feeling that Trevor's tragic death was no accident. The shadows that Luce cannot escape are becoming more brazen, increasing in intensity and Luce can't shake the feeling that they have been sent to destroy her
The intense battle for Luce's heart causes both Daniel and Cam to abandon all reasoning, and it quickly escalates into a physical altercation. Both boys are playing for keeps. When Luce discovers the Grigory ancestry, historians that specialise in fallen angel folklore, the dreams of a feathered angelic Daniel, take on an eerie meaning far greater than she realised. But Cam won't give Luce up, he wants her and Luce be damned if Cam can't have her... Literally.
Fallen brings out passionate discussions between readers, invoking emotions you perhaps never knew existed... And that isn't due to the book itself. Most readers who have discovered the Fallen series either seem to be delighted or repulsed, and I can safely say that I'm neither. It didn't invoke any emotion apart from a feeling of boredom. To put it in perspective, I would rate it slightly more favorable than Hush Hush, but even Twilight was far more entertaining.
The storyline was not only predictable, it dragged. Against my better judgement, I kept reading, wondering if perhaps there could have been a plot twist on the horizon. Sadly, no. The so called 'reveal' seemed to be what was already blatantly obvious within the first few chapters, and by then, I had no interest in any of the characters or the bizarre love triangle of good and evil.
If Luce had a backbone, a personality other than being a boy hungry doormat and stopped flinging herself at anyone who happened to make her feel special, it could have been far easier to read and tolerate. Whinging pyromaniacs who can list their hobbies as stalking, invading others privacy, able to watch fellow students die and feel it's unnecessary to intervene, and still find the time to be the poster girl for a junior Stepford Wife, have no place on my bookshelf.
Fallen
(Fallen: Book One)
Written By Lauren Kate
Published 08 / 12 / 2009
446 Pages
Fans of The Mortal
Instruments and The Infernal Devices know that Magnus Bane is banned
from Peru, and now they can find out why. One of ten adventures in The
Bane Chronicles.
There are good reasons Peru is off limits to
Magnus Bane. Follow Magnus’s Peruvian escapades as he drags his fellow
warlocks Ragnor Fell and Catarina Loss into trouble, learns several
instruments, dances, and disgraces his host nation by doing something
unspeakable to the Nazca Lines.
Magnus Bane was banned from Peru by the High Council of Peruvian warlocks. For the flamboyant, handsome warlock, Peru was one of his favourite destinations. Reminiscing, it may have been one of several incidents that have caused him to be ostracized, spanning almost two centuries before the secret meeting to determine his fate.
This is the story of Magnus Bane.
When Magnus called old friend Ragnor to join him in Lima, the City of Kings, he never expected that the hideously dressed, gloomy, green skinned warlock to be so grumpy as the two set out on an adventure. When Edmund Garcia, one of the richest merchants in Peru propositions the services of Magnus, he never imagined that the two warlocks would be asked to safeguard Peru's chief export, guano, bird droppings. But Magnus isn't to blame for Ragnor's tantrum on the high seas, sinking the boat with the precious cargo aboard. His wanton destruction of Peruvian property wasn't the reason he was banned from Peru.
Decades on, Magnus, Ragnor and Caterina find themselves back in Peru, searching for hidden treasure with Nayaraq, a mere mortal. Magnus had begun putting a price on his magic before he was but twenty years old, but never did he imagine that the treasure hunt would leave him a wanted criminal for decimating a temple. But that wasn't the reason that Magnus was banned from Peru.
After meeting the handsome young musician Imasu, Magnus decides to learn a new instrument in order to catch the young mortal's eye. He was discouraged from playing in public, by no less than a crying child, a city ordinance and a small riot. Sadly, the arrangement wasn't permanent, nor was the relationship. Leading to an alcohol fuelled rampage of epic proportions, enchanted flying carpets, decimating the Nazca Lines, and leading a guinea pig army after a medicinal ritual gone astray. But his night of drunken debauchery and crime was again, not the reason he was banned from Peru.
Kitty is a con woman that has captured the attention of the handsome warlock, and flee together on a whim. Stealing, spending on booze and useless trinkets while spending but one summer falling in love. But his sudden crime wave was not the reason he was banned from Peru by the Peruvian warlock High Council.
Then what really happened in Peru?
I loved Magnus Bane in Cassandra Clare's The Moral Instruments series, but unfortunately What Really Happened In Peru was not only incredibly dull, but borderline atrocious. The storyline spanned centuries, but delved into what he was wearing so often, that the actual memories were barely skimmed over. Fans of Magnus may enjoy his fleeting adventures, but it'll probably leave the general reading populous irritated at the few hours of their life that they've invested in this.
What Really Happened In Peru
(The Bane Chronicles: Book One)
Written By Cassandra Clare
Published 16 / 04 / 2013
(The Bane Chronicles: Book One)
Written By Cassandra Clare
Published 16 / 04 / 2013
133 Pages
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