Review: The Glass Spare by Lauren Destefano

Wil Heidle, the only daughter of the king of the world’s wealthiest nation, has grown up in the shadows. Kept hidden from the world in order to serve as a spy for her father—whose obsession with building his empire is causing a war—Wil wants nothing more than to explore the world beyond her kingdom, if only her father would give her the chance.

Until one night Wil is attacked, and she discovers a dangerous secret. Her touch turns people into gemstone. At first Wil is horrified—but as she tests its limits, she’s drawn more and more to the strange and volatile ability. When it leads to tragedy, Wil is forced to face the destructive power within her and finally leave her home to seek the truth and a cure.

But finding the key to her redemption puts her in the path of a cursed prince who has his own ideas for what to do with her power.

The Glass Spare was a book of two halves for me.

The first half of the book is world building, and it's done so well. This fantasy world with modern technology but classic fantasy elements and a power-hungry king and his four kids. That first half of the book simultaneously had me addicted and had me growing to care about Will and Gerdie and Owen and the queen and this world that was built in front of me. Still, as the pages turned and the time passed, I began to crave adventure.

Enter the second half of the book, our heroine is cast out into this crazy wide world and she meets the bad guy/love interest and becomes part of something a whole lot bigger than before. Yet through all of that, I wanted to be back in the castle with the brothers and the queen and the crazy king.

Never happy, am I?

It just felt for me like both halves of the book were slow paced, but the second half - with Zay and Loom and all of that - just dragged, and I'd really loved how this book started and I wanted to go back there.

I really liked Wil as a character, but she worked best as a princess not an outcast. She seemed to take a backseat for so much of the last quarter of this book and I wanted her to do more because I knew she could. It's like as soon as she fell for Loom she became a melted mess of mush.

I did enjoy The Glass Spare, don't get me wrong. I am so excited to see where the sequel goes because there are so many secrets to be revealed and so many loose ends to be tied up... this was an okay introduction to a world which can only get better. 

Book released 24th October 2017 by Balzer+ Bray

Book received from the publisher/author in exchange for an honest review

Review: The Clockwork Bluebird by Ravven

London, 1897: Maia and her brother Tyler find themselves in the midst of a war between the Faerie Courts on Christmas Eve. Accompanied by a talking dog, a clockwork kitchen servant and Fox the stable boy, they embark on a quest to save their lost parents and find the Bluebird.

The palace of Night and the Land of the Dead. Skyships. The Goblin Market. A black wolf and the Huntsman who pursues him. A gang of clockwork-enhanced children living in the lost Underground tunnels under the city.

What do you get if you mix the fantasy adventure of Alice in Wonderland, add in some clockwork and airships and put in some fairy queens and talking animals? The answer is The Clockwork Bluebird... this book is a mixture of all the things I would have loved to read when I was twelve years old and reading this book took me back to that age where I didn't need any romance, all I needed was a good adventure with some fun characters and a slightly scary bad guy.

I felt a little bit out of the loop with this book because I haven't read the children's book that this was based on, so I think that I missed out on a few references and stuff that made it a tiny bit less awesome for me. I did really enjoy the story on it's own though, it was short and a complete story and the writing and descriptions were absolutely beautiful, I was really impressed by how Ravven managed to combine the whole steampunk and the fantasy together in this amazing London setting.

Maia and Tyler were both tough, adventurous characters. I loved spunky Maia from the start, but by the end she was such a tough fighter, the type of character I really would have connected with as a younger reader. Tyler started out more meek and mild, but he got a lot braver during this story - I loved him to pieces. The other characters were also fantastic - the treacherous Zazu, the loyal Pip, the faithful Bread and the cunning Fox - every single one of them added a dynamic to the story.

Overall, fans of classical children's books by Lewis Carroll and C.S. Lewis and Enid Blyton will love this book, it will take you back to your younger years. This is one book that you would like to read and then give to your kids in the future.

Book released 4th June 2013 

Book received from the author in exchange for an honest review 

Review: The Exile's Violin by R.S. Hunter

Why hire mercenaries to kill an innocent family just to obtain one little key? That question haunts Jacquie Renairre for six years as she hunts down the people responsible for murdering her parents.

Not even accepting an assignment to investigate a conspiracy that aims to start a war can keep her from searching for the key. Armed with her father’s guns and socialite Clay Baneport, she continues her quest for answers abroad.

With the world edging closer to disaster, Jacquie is running out of time to figure out how the war, the key, and ancient legend are intertwined. The fate of the world hinges on her ability to unravel both mysteries before it’s too late.

If there is any genre that I tend to not get along with it is definitely steampunk, so whilst I accepted this book for review I did it very tentatively knowing that there was a massive chance I was NOT going to enjoy it. Thankfully I did actually enjoy this book though I didn't really love it. I think that what set's The Exile's Violin apart from the other steampunk books is that it is both geared towards slightly older readers and also steampunk-fantasy, as opposed to steampunk-historical so it has all of the normal features of steampunk with the airships and the classes but it also has a new world, a fantastic setting which makes this book a joy to read. I loved exploring all of the world with Jacquie and Clay and there was just enough action and intrigue to keep me interested.

This book was the perfect length for me, I feel like I would have felt like things were being missed out on if parts of the book had been taken out but if it had been much longer I would have started to get bored and the adventures would have seemed very repetitive. Plot-wise there were a few holes that I couldn't help noticing, one big question being how Jacquie's family came to have the key and the guns, a theory about getting it from a friend just doesn't cut it for me since the items are of such big importance to the plot.

One of the biggest faults with this book is definitely the main character. I understand that Hunter was trying to write Jacquie as a tough woman, as opposed to a meek society girl and I get that but I also wonder whether she could have shown some vulnerability as opposed to flipping out with violence every time somebody upset her. She was also very irrational, blanking her only friend for days when it wasn't even a big deal. I did really feel sorry for Clay because a lot of the verbal abuse that he got thrown at him was not deserved. That being said, Jacquie and Clay's interactions definitely made the book for me, especially Clay's jealousy over Gunslinger. The romance in this book is barely there, but it was fantastically written and well-developed nonetheless.

Overall, I did enjoy The Exile's Violin much more than I thought I would. It was a thrilling adventure with action and pacing that kept me reading but I was quite let down with Jacquie as a character and a few of the plot-holes that weren't massive but were still noticeable. Would I read a sequel? Definitely, but I'm not sure whether it would be RIGHT at the top of my pile. I'd have to be in the mood to pick it up.

Plus, I'm starting to feel like a big girl venturing into books with protagonists that are older than 18!

Book released 10th December 2012 by Hydra Publications

Book received from the author in exchange for an honest review 

Review: Dearly, Beloved by Lia Habel

Can the living coexist with the living dead? That's the question that has New Victorian society fiercely divided ever since the mysterious plague known as "The Laz" hit the city of New London and turned thousands into walking corpses. But while some of these zombies are mindless monsters, hungry for human flesh, others can still think, speak, reason, and control their ravenous new appetites. Just ask Nora Dearly, the young lady of means who was nearly kidnapped by a band of sinister zombies but valiantly rescued by a dashing young man . . . of the dead variety. Nora and her savior, the young zombie soldier Bram Griswold, fell hopelessly in love. But others feel only fear and loathing for the reanimated dead. Now, as tensions grow between pro- and anti-zombie factions, battle lines are being drawn in the streets. And though Bram is no longer in the New Victorian army, he and his ex-commando zombie comrades are determined to help keep the peace. That means taking a dangerous stand between The Changed, a radical group of sentient zombies fighting for survival, and The Murder, a masked squad of urban guerrillas hellbent on destroying the living dead. But zombies aren't the only ones in danger: Their living allies are also in The Murder's crosshairs, and for one vengeful zealot, Nora Dearly is the number one target. As paranoia, prejudice, and terrorist attacks threaten to plunge the city into full-scale war, Nora's scientist father and his team continue their desperate race to unlock the secrets of "The Laz" and find a cure. But their efforts may be doomed when a mysterious zombie appears bearing an entirely new strain of the virus-and the nation of New Victoria braces for a new wave of the apocalypse.

It's no surprise that after finishing this book I found myself in a total reading slump, not because this book was SO AWESOME that nothing could compare but because this book was slow and dreary and at times it also got stupidly complicated. It took me so long to finish this book and even the super cute ending couldn't convince me to read on in this series.

The one thing that seriously annoyed me in this book was the jumping narration. I could have dealt with two narrators but there was like... six? in this book. Nora was a good heroine and I still love Bram but then  it jumps to like Pamela who is so weak as a character and my interest in what was happening plummeted. I didn't care much for the rest of the narrators either, I would have been happy with Bram and Nora.

I also began to find the setting very awkward, I do like steampunk books and I did like how it was done in the last book but it's odd to have the very judgemental victorian society and phones and texting in the same book, it just didn't seam as well executed as in Dearly, Departed.

I totally regret that I didn't enjoy this book, but in all honestly I don't think I'll continue with the series.

Overall Rating: D

Book released September 25th 2012 by Del Ray
book received as an eGalley for review via NetGalley

Other books by this author:

Dearly, Departed (Gone With the Respiration #1)

Review: Innocent Darkness by Suzanne Lazear

Sixteen-year-old Noli Braddock's hoyden ways land her in an abusive reform school far from home. On mid-summer's eve she wishes to be anyplace but that dreadful school. A mysterious man from the Realm of Faerie rescues her and brings her to the Otherworld, only to reveal that she must be sacrificed, otherwise, the entire Otherworld civilization will perish.

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I like a good steampunk book, I like a good faerie book. I like a good faeriee book with steampunk elements in it, I was not sure whether I would like a book where both feature largely in it. I'm still not sure how much I liked this book.

This book took me a while to finish, I couldn't read it in one sitting, I was enjoying it but for some reason I had to push myself to pick this book up again after I had put it down. Yet when i was reading it I did enjoy it.

At times it seemed like the plot and characters were being made up as the author needed them to. Nothing seemed planned out, V's role in the story seemed completely random and unprecedented and Charlotte's circumstances seemed too coincidental and didn't mould well into the story. Parts of this book were messy and unpolished, the part where Noli is in Kevighn's house went on forever and basically was a repeat of the same cycle:

Noli: I want to go home
Kevighn: *Need distraction* Oooh... here's a flower!
Noli: Oooh pretty flower!

That brings me to the characters. I did like Noli to start with, but she justs tarted to annoy me as the plot moved on and she started to expect everyone to do everything for her... what happened to rebellious hoyden Noli? I was also so annoyed by her indecision in the love triangle, especially since she constantly repeats that Kev is just a rake and V is lovely and sexy. Yeah, V was my saving grace in this book, aside from the fact that his storyline is utterly ridiculous and cliche I found him refreshing and likable.

I'm also not going to get into the steamy scenes (which aren't graphic but are still a little serious for the 12+ age recommendation of this book) and all of the descriptions of opium dens and prostitutes.

I feel terrible for writing such an awful review, since I did like this book but it was just very jerky and didn't flow and had a very unfinished feel... gah!

Overall Rating: D

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Book released 8th August 2012 by Flux Books
Book received as an ebook via NetGalley for review

Review: The Girl in the Clockwork Collar by Kady Cross

In New York City, 1897, life has never been more thrilling - or dangerous.
Sixteen-year-old Finley Jayne and her "straynge band of mysfits" have journeyed from London to America to rescue their friend Jasper, hauled off by bounty hunters. But Jasper is in the clutches of a devious former friend demanding a trade-the dangerous device Jasper stole from him...for the life of the girl Jasper loves.

One false move from Jasper and the strange clockwork collar around Mei's neck tightens. And tightens...

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When I read the Girl in the Steel Corset in June, I said that it had piqued my interest in the steampunk genre, which is why when I went into this book I was expecting great things.


I really did get great things, in my opinion, this book was just as good as the first in the series. I loved Finley, Griffin, Sam, Emily and Jasper in the first book and the characters were just as fantastic in the second, I felt a bit sad because we were missing out on the cockney crook Jack Dandy, but at the same time I really enjoyed watching the slow development of the relationship between Finley and Griffin. Sam and Emily were also just as cute, and even Jasper has his own little it of a romantic storyline, which I won't get into because one of the main twists of the story comes with Jasper and Mei. The characters seemed much older than their own ages though, despite Finley being sixteen she acts like a twenty year old, I keep thinking that she's an adult, not a teen.


Whilst this book doesn't have a 'crime mystery' storyline like Steel Corset I was gripped by the plot of this book. There are plenty of twists and turns, there is action and a bit of a mystery, there are betrayals and romance and always something happening so the pacing was fantastic. I was blown away by the intricacy of this story and how well everything fitted together. I did feel like it was lacking the setting, I didn't really see anything showing us that we're in America, whereas in Steel Corset the authentic London setting really gave off this steampunk vibe.


The narration in this book was easier than in the first book, where I kept getting mixed up with what character I was following, maybe since the characters are more developed I found that I knew each characters voice and opinions.


Overall, I really enjoyed this book, though i missed Jack Dandy. the characters were fantastic but seemed older than their age and the setting was lacking. The plot was gripping and the slow burn of the romance was great to read.


Overall Rating: B

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Book released May 22nd 2012 by Harlequin Teen (US) and 
Book received as an egalley from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review
Other books in this series: The Girl in the Steel Corset (Book #1)

Review: The Girl in the Steel Corset by Kady Cross

In 1897 England, 16-year-old Finley Jayne is convinced she's a freak. No normal Victorian girl has a darker side that makes her capable of knocking out a full-grown man with one punch. Only Griffin King sees the magical darkness inside her that says she's special . . . that she's one of "them."

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Am I going to get a mob of angry people burning down my house if I say that, whilst most people seem to have caught the Steampunk bug, I haven't really got to grips with genre yet? Seriously, I like it and I've read a few alright steampunk books but I don't get what the big fascination with the genre is... that's the reason that I felt a bit nervous starting this book.


This is, probably, the most enjoyable steampunk book I have read, simply because I LOVED the storyline and I ADORED the characters.


The mystery aspect of this book really gripped me, even though I knew who the criminal was from pretty early on in the book (it's made kind of obvious) I had no idea what their plan was and so I was kept guessing about what was going to happen, but this book is so much more than a mystery; it's a romance and a paranormal as well... I say paranormal but you could also see it as sci-fi.


Anyway, Finley was a great character, I liked the way she struggled to keep control of her darker side, it's like we were getting to know the spunky but normal Finley and suddenly hr dark side comes in and the contrast between the two was great. I liked both of the 'love interests' for different reasons: Griffin was sweet and caring with a sense of roguish charm about him whereas Jack was dark and dangerous and spicy, I preferred Griffin but Jack was a great addition to the book. I also liked Jasper, who is a bit of an enigma, Sam even though he doesn't think things through before acting and Emily who is tomboyish and smart and the 'inventor' that every steampunk book seems to have.


The writing in this book was great and the pacing was spot on, but if I had to criticise anything it;s that the point of view skips around a lot. Instead of just following Finley basically every character get's their own 'screen time' and at times it was disorintating as I didn't know exactly who I was following. 


Overall, a very enjoyable steampunk book that may have piqued my interest in the genre. I'm looking forward to reading the sequel.


Overall Rating: B

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Released 24th May 2011 by Harlequin Teen (UK: Mira Ink)
Book bought by myself (eBook)

Review: The Peculiars by Maureen Doyle McQuerry

This dark and thrilling adventure, with an unforgettable heroine, will captivate fans of steampunk, fantasy, and romance. On her 18th birthday, Lena Mattacascar decides to search for her father, who disappeared into the northern wilderness of Scree when Lena was young. Scree is inhabited by Peculiars, people whose unusual characteristics make them unacceptable to modern society. Lena wonders if her father is the source of her own extraordinary characteristics and if she, too, is Peculiar. On the train she meets a young librarian, Jimson Quiggley, who is traveling to a town on the edge of Scree to work in the home and library of the inventor Mr. Beasley. The train is stopped by men being chased by the handsome young marshal Thomas Saltre. When Saltre learns who Lena’s father is, he convinces her to spy on Mr. Beasley and the strange folk who disappear into his home, Zephyr House. A daring escape in an aerocopter leads Lena into the wilds of Scree to confront her deepest fears.

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The Peculiars is one of those books that I enjoyed storyline and character wise but due to some issues with the pacing I'm definitely grading it down a little, because this book was so slow that I started it at the end of April and only picked it up again yesterday and I literally had to force myself into the book again. The pacing has it's moments where it gets exciting but suddenly it just drops again.


That being said, I loved so many aspects of this book that as soon as I got interested in the characters I knew that i was going to finish this book, no matter how long it took me. I like steampunk books but it's a genre that I only enjoy on occasion, I love the mix of steampunk and fantasy on this book... the manners and the characters are so believably Vixtorian but there is the aspect of the steampunk with aerocopters and science in there which doesn't overtake the books, I liked how well the author balanced the steam part of things with the historical aspect and the fantasy, it all worked really well for me.


I found that the characters well well developed, but the development took some time and the only character that I felt attached to for a while was Lena, who I think I came to like because of her seeing herself as an outcast, by the end I liked most of the characters, especially Jimson who is Lena's love interest, I really liked that the hints of romance were there but barely, so the sweet scenes were very cute!


I would have liked more on the peculiars and what made them that way, maybe that will come in the sequel, but all in all I liked the little bits of fantasy in this book, it made it a little bit creepy and obscure, giving the book a unique tone.


Overall, a fantastic storyline and amazing characters that i just loved, the blend of genres was done so well and the plot ran seamlessly, unfortunately this book isn't even close to perfect due to the massive problems with pacing, seriously I struggled with the pacing because it was so slow so...


Overall Rating: C

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Book released by Abrams and Chronicle on May 1st
book received from the publisher for review... thanks!

Review: Dearly, Departed by Lia Habel

Almost two hundred years in the future, Nora Dearly lives in a world of bustled gowns, fake manners, watery tea, and uppity lords and ladies.

Thank God the zombies came to rescue her.

Dragged into the night by the living dead, Nora soon finds herself fighting for the father she thought long gone, the friend she was forced to leave behind – and the love of a handsome, noble young army captain.

Who just happens to be a walking corpse.

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First, a note on thee cover. The copy that I read was an E-Galley using the US cover, however since I'm a UK reviewer and prefer the UK cover, it's that cover that I'm using.


Okay, now for the book. What was I expecting with Dearly, Departed? I was expecting to be overwhelmed with the world, I was so curious about how Habel was going to pull off the steampunk/zombie/romance genre that I heard that this book was. I needn't have been worried, the world was written so well and it was amazing to read this world with manners and tea and corsets and parasols as well as cell phones and holograms. It took a while to get my head around the setting because it was so new, but I still really enjoyed it.


I knew there was a romance aspect, I knew it was between a human and a zombie and to be honest I was not expecting to enjoy it - the whole undead guy and human girl thing creeps me out a little. good thing Bram is the most amazing book zombie ever. I totally loved him, and I loved that we read through his point of view and also Nora's, so the romance seems well developed. I also really liked Nora, she was a Victorian girl that didn't fit in with the Victorian ideal, the was strong and witty but vulnerable at the right times.


What really detracted from the novel was the narration - the writing was fantastic. Habel ties in modern day wit with the Victorian way of speaking. The issue was that there are about five narrators and some of them sounded the same, the narrator switched so often that i often got lost with whose story I was following. At times it was written well and built up tension, but most of the time it was just so distracting and pretty annoying.


As well as this, the zombies were a little inconsistant. At first, Habel is describing some of them as revolting, with bits hanging off all over but later she seems to forget this and pretty soon all of the zombies are cool and barely scary and I'd have liked the zombies to be a bit more... zombie-esque.


Overall, a well balanced but with amazing setting, plot and characters. The issues were with the narrative mainly, but this is something you may get used to. As well as this, pacing is slow at times.


Overall Rating: B

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This book was originally released in the UK by Doubleday on September 26th 2011, and was released in the US on October 18th.
this book was received for review through NetGalley.