Review: Warprize (The Chronicles of the Warlands #1) by Elizabeth Vaughan

Xylara is the Daughter of the Warrior King, Xyron. With her father dead and her incompetent half-brother on the throne, the kingdom is in danger of falling to the warring Firelanders.

Before she was old enough for a marriage-of-alliance, Xylara was trained as a healer. She can't usurp her brother or negotiate a peace--but she can heal the brave ones injured in battle.

But not only her countrymen are wounded, and Xylara's conscience won't let Firelander warriors die when she can do something to save them. She learns their language and their customs and tries to make them as comfortable as possible, despite their prisoner-of-war status.

She never expects that these deeds, done in good faith, would lead to the handsome and mysterious Firelander Warlord demanding her in exchange for a cease-fire. Xylara knows must trade the life she has always known for the well-being of her people, and so she becomes...

I actually only bought this book because it was very cheap on Amazon, so i wasn't really expecting much from it. From the blurb, I was expecting magic and romance - basically a rip-off of Robin McKinley's The BLue Sword.

I will be the first person to admit that, yes, I was wrong.

The storyline for this book is fantastic, and it wasn't really a cheap rip-off of The Blue Sword, some of the aspects are the same; the main character is taken by a desert population and becomes one of them, but the way they are executed are different.

I loved the characterisation. Xylana is a strong character, strong enough to give herself up as little more than a slave to save her people. What I loved about the way Xylana's character developed is that she already had a trade; healing. In many books, our lead will just suddenly learn a new skill and be fantastic at it, whereas Xylana's trade has come from years of practice. She isn't a spoiled brat, like many female leads are, while she can be whiny (the end of the book :( ) she is also strong and determined. I liked this. Her love interest, Keir, is lovely, strong and kind but with a temper, he will kill anyone who tries to harm his Warprize, he is the complete opposite of what I expected from a Warlord but I liked it that way. I also loved the way their relationship progressed, it was slow, but not too slow, and it didn't take over the whole book. There was other things going on.

There is a very entertaining set of side characters, from Joden and Simus, two fighters who take Xylana on and help theach her the way of their people, they crack plenty of jokes and serve as a sort of comic relief, to Marcus, who plays a Mother Bear role, and cares for Xylana, reprimanding her when she misses meals, which is quite funny.

If I had a problem with anything at all, it is Xylana's half brother Xymund, who is the ruling king of Xy. I couldn't understand why he disliked his sister enough to lie to her about what she would be to the Warlord. I do with Vaughan had better developed this plot as I'd like to be able to understand his behaviour a little better.

I have to point out right now that this is not particularly suitable for young people. There are adult scenes in it and while they are not particularly descriptive, if you don't want to read some sex scenes, don't read this book! I am 17 (18 in 11 days!!!!!) and had no problem with it, but it's really about what you are comfortable reading.

Overall rating: A -

Stand alone/series: First in a series

Released: October 31st 2005 (Paperback)

Publisher: Tor Books

Pages: 314

Book obtained via: Bought!

Review: Eyes Like Stars (Theatre Illuminata #1) - Lisa Mantchev

All her world’s a stage

Enter Stage Right

Beatrice Shakespeare Smith (Bertie): Our heroine. Nate: A dashing pirate who will do anything to protect Bertie. Cobweb, Moth, Mustardseed, and Peaseblossom: Four tiny, mischievous fairies, and Bertie’s loyal sidekicks. Ariel: A seductive air spirit. Disaster follows in his wake, but Bertie simply cannot resist him.

Welcome to the Théâtre Illuminata, where the characters of every play ever written can be found behind the curtain. The actors are bound to the Théâtre by The Book, an ancient and magical tome of scripts. Bertie is not one of the actors, but they are her family. And she is about to lose them all because The Book has been threatened, and along with it the Théâtre. It’s the only home Bertie has ever known, and she has to find a way to save it. But first, there’s the small problem of two handsome men, both vying for her attention. The course of true love never did run smooth. . . .

Why did I buy this book? Well, I've read a lot of rave reviews and it sounded magical and beautiful and so I decided I really needed to read it. So glad I did.

Bertie is a strong character, the first time we catch her she is dying her hair blue and in trouble for doing something bad the previous day, she is strong and funny and witty and we really see her develop over the course of the story - from a girl who doesn't know her past, who has few feelings for people, a pretty bland character really to somebody with loyalty, trust and strength. I did feel like her romantic choices were pretty bad, but hopefully Mantchev fixes that in the next book!

Mantchev introduced an amazing cast of backing characters, she brings play characters from a lot of plays to life, we see Ophelia and Hamlet argue, Gertrude and Lady MacBeth have a clash, it was fantastic really! I loved the character of Nate, a pirate for The Little Mermaid that has one line, he made me swoon, he is strong and protective and lovely and the perfect hero for a fairytale book.

Ariel is our sort-of-antagonist for the book, if you read it you'll see why I said sort of. To be honest, he scared me. A lot. Though I sort of liked him as well (strange as that is.) My problem with Ariel was personal though, after studying The Tempest in school, and performing a play of it in which I was Miranda :') I can't see Ariel as anything apart from the geeky guy who played him, so i didn't really swoon over him, hard as I tried.

Mantchev creates a fantastic world in Theatre Illuminata, where you can see it ran as a normal theatre, but you could also see the beautiful magnificence in the magic that she weaved into it, in a way it reminded me of Cirque Du Soleil, which I have an obsession with. I honestly have to say it is one of the most breathtaking book worlds ever created. There was so much going on as well! With a storyline about a sea-goddess, a storyline about The Book, a romantic storyline and Bertie trying to direct a play, it really was absorbing and I couldn't put it down.

Another fantastic thing was the writing! I loved the changes to script form every now and then, I loved the descriptions... descriptive but not overboard. I am honestly in love with this book.

I already have the sequel on first class order, even though I swore I wasn't going to buy any more books until I've caught up with my TBR err... pile.

Overall rating: A

Stand alone/series: First in a series

Released: April 13th 2010 (Paperback)

Publisher: Feiwel and Friends

Pages: 352

Book obtained via: Borrowed

Review: Cloaked by Alex Flinn

I’m not your average hero. I actually wasn’t your average anything. Just a poor guy working an after-school job at a South Beach shoe repair shop to help his mom make ends meet. But a little magic changed it all.

It all started with the curse. And the frognapping. And one hot-looking princess, who asked me to lead a rescue mission.

There wasn’t a fairy godmother or any of that. And even though I fell in love along the way, what happened to me is unlike any fairy tale I’ve ever heard. Before I knew it, I was spying with a flock of enchanted swans, talking (yes, talking!) to a fox named Todd, and nearly trampled by giants in the Keys.

Don’t believe me? I didn’t believe it either. But you’ll see. Because I knew it all was true, the second I got CLOAKED.

After reading Flinn's Beastly a few years ago, I was massively looking forward to reading Cloaked, I love the way Flinn manages to put numerous fairytales into one story and I was honestly expecting something amazing out of it.

DId I get what I was looking for?

In some ways, yes. I love how easy Flinn's writing is to read. It's the type of story you don't need to get too absorbed into, as it isn't that deep. For some people this may be a flaw but I think that easy reading is essential sometimes, and that is exactly what Cloaked is.

It incorporates a lot of fairy stories, such as The Six Swans, The Frog Prince, The Elves and the Shoemaker and a lot more, as well as having some fairytales that I don't know. I was so excited to see how Flinn would handle this. Problem was, I wasn't really captivated. Sure, I enjoyed the book well enough, I read it in a couple of hours, but I was more coasting, not absorbed, the writing was fantastic, kudos to Flinn for getting into the teenage male psyche, but that teenage male just wasn't interesting enough. Johnny was just too... nice for me to like. He wasn't funny, or snobby.... he didn't really have any addictive features at all, and all the quotes about shoes REALLY annoyed me. Yes Flinn, we are aware that Johnny is a shoemaker, don't keep shoving it in our faces.

Meg was a nice enough character, I think Flinn aimed for her to be a bit of a plain ol' action girl, but she just came across as the girl-next-door, and her storyline twist at the end was soooo predictable. I could see their romance developing slowly but it just seemed so... one dimensional? It's a typical unrequited love which turns out to be requited at the end, and I was expecting it so much I was barely even interested in the romance.

I think the only character I did like was Todd, the fox (hehe the Disney movie Fox and the Hound has a fox called Todd!), and even his *shock* twist at the end was soooo forseeable!

The storyline wasn't amazing either- a poor boy who works real hard is enlisted by a European princess to help find her brother who has been frognapped and is given a magic cloak with which he can teleport anywhere he wants to. On his way he meets a wicked witch and her son, a talking fox/rat/six swans, a kindly biker and finds love. Typical fairytale storyline and it wasn't convincing; granted, its a fairytale, it isn't going to be convincing BUT he could have made it a little bit more believable, considering it's supposedly set in contemporary times.

All together, a decent read for sitting and relaxing, but don't bother if you're after anything too deep.

Overall rating: D

Book was released February 11th 2011 by HarperCollins
I borrowed this book from the library.

Reviews for other books by this author:

Beastly

Review: Forsaken (The Demon Trappers) by Jana Oliver

Riley has always wanted to be a Demon Trapper like her father, and she's already following in his footsteps as one of the best. But it's tough being the only girl in an all-guy world, especially when three of those guys start making her life more complicated: Simon, the angelic apprentice who has heaven on his side; Beck, the tough trapper who thinks he's God's gift, and Ori, the strikingly sexy stranger who keeps turning up to save her ass. One thing's for sure - if she doesn't keep her wits about her there'll be hell to pay..

(This is the UK title, in USA it is published as The Demon trappers Daughter)

Forsaken is a fantastic start to what I hope will be an equally fantastic series, it was realistic enough to make me think “wow, yeah, I can relate”, but also had that fantasy element (obviously, with the whole demon thing) that gave me enough escapism. Set eight years in the future, the economy has failed so much that schools have shut down, as well as this, there are scary demons on the loose and only the demon trappers can get rid of them... but something is going wrong.

Our protagonist is Riley Blackthorne, daughter of a master demon trapper and an apprentice trapper herself, ridiculed and looked down on because of her gender, many people doubt her and Riley feels the need to prove herself, but things are going wrong. We are thrown straight into the storyline and the bigger events happen at the beginning, creating an interesting storyline from day one. This is effective and I never once wanted to put the book down, (stupid college, taking over my reading time!) I got completely absorbed in the book.

The boys... to be honest, I hate love triangles, there were three boys too so it’s even worse. There is Beck, who is extremely hot (EEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!), but his overexaggerated ‘southern drawl’ annoyed me a little. Simon is lovely, a real nice guy and perfect and yay, unfortunately, I can tell Oliver isn’t planning for him to be Riley’s guy at the end of the series (call it readers hunch), as well as this, I did think that their relationship developed without much background(“Hi” “Hi” “I like you, hottie” *tongue down throat*) Then theres Ori, who just seemed one dimensional for me, mysterious and nice and I can see the attraction but he is just so... boring? I’m rooting for even Simon or Beck, NOT ORI! PLEASE!

The book is written in dual perspective, switching smoothly between Riley and Beck, we can see Riley’s developing feelings for... three guys and Beck’s conflicting emotions as well. I’m usually not one who rates a book on narration but this stuck out to me and I really enjoyed reading both points of view.

While original in its own ways, the book reminded me of a few other titles; The Devil’s Kiss by Sarwat Chadda, Paranormalcy by Kiersten White and Strange Angels by Lili St Crow. It’s a good read but some parts seriously reminded me of one of these books or another.

Overall rating: B+

Stand alone/series: First in a series

Released: February 7th 2011 (Paperback) 

Publisher: MacMillan Children's Books

Pages: 448

Book obtained via: Bought!

Review:Siren - Tricia Rayburn

Vacationing in Winter Harbor, Maine, is a tradition for Vanessa and Justine Sands, and that means spending time with the Carmichael boys. This summer, Vanessa is determined to channel some of her older sister’s boldness, get over her fear of the ocean, and maybe turn her friendship with Simon Carmichael into something much more.

But when Justine goes cliff-diving after a big family argument, and her body washes ashore the next day, Vanessa is sure that it was more than an accident. She is more certain of this, when she discovers that her sister was keeping some big secrets and Caleb Carmichael’s gone missing. Suddenly, the entire oceanfront town is abuzz when a series of grim, water-related accidents occur, with the male victims washed ashore grinning from ear to ear.

Vanessa and Simon team up to figure out if these creepy deaths have anything to do with Justine and Caleb. But will what Vanessa discovers mean the end of her summer romance, or even life as she knows it?

Siren has the features to be an amazing book, unfortunately, it falls a little short. I wish I could say I adored it but I didn’t, I didn’t dislike it, I just didn’t love it.

As a paranormal reader, sirens are something I haven’t read much of, I’m not sure there are many books out there about them and I was extremely excited to read this book, so much so that when I found it in my local supermarket I begged my mother for the £7 and bought it there and then. I started it in the car ride home. It was a slow start, I couldn’t really get into it and I kept putting it down. I finally got into it around fifty pages in and it held my attention for most of my night.

What can I say? The plot is amazing, original but unfortunately, Rayburn doesn’t pull it off as well as she could do. I got a little confused at some places about what was going on, who was doing what and where things were taking place. It could have been simple but I think that Rayburn needlessly overcomplicated some parts of it.

The book flowed well, things led to another and clues were discovered, as should happen in a good mystery novel, I didn’t really think anything was a shock, I mean, she kept me on edge, but I never really had any *GASP* moments while reading (and I need a good *GASP*). Some parts of this book were downright scary though, the parts where Vanessa is sneaking round the house had me so scared for her, but the parts that could have been really frightening, like the action at the end, were overlooked, and I felt she rushed the end of the book.

Vanessa annoyed me slightly at the beginning, but I grew to like her as she developed, which is good because I doubt I could have bared to read the book if I had hated her but... Simon... oh Simon... this is one of the only YA boys that I have liked. I adored him, and I felt the relationship was natural, as he and Vanessa had been friends for years before, it wasn’t just “I METZ A BOI ‘N’ NOW I LUB HIM ETERNALALALLY!”, it was a natural development, and I loved that there was something in the way, my heart breaks for him at some points in the book. I really hope Rayburn keeps him as Vanessa’s love interest in the sequel, I would HATE her forever if she suddenly changed her mind and decided to give her somebody different.

All in all, the book isn’t terrible, not fantastic either though. It is a good start to a trilogy. I will be reading the sequel (Undercurrent, which is released summer 2011, I think), but I won’t have massively high expectations.

Overall rating: C

Stand alone/series: First in a series

Released: February 3rd 2011 (Paperback)

Publisher: Faber and Faber

Pages: 320

Book obtained via: Bought!

Review: Across the Universe - Beth Revis

Seventeen-year-old Amy joins her parents as frozen cargo aboard the vast spaceship Godspeed and expects to awaken on a new planet, three hundred years in the future. Never could she have known that her frozen slumber would come to an end fifty years too soon and that she would be thrust into the brave new world of a spaceship that lives by its own rules.

Amy quickly realizes that her awakening was no mere computer malfunction. Someone-one of the few thousand inhabitants of the spaceship-tried to kill her. And if Amy doesn't do something soon, her parents will be next.

Now Amy must race to unlock Godspeed's hidden secrets. But out of her list of murder suspects, there's only one who matters: Elder, the future leader of the ship and the love she could never have seen coming

I don't know what I was expecting with this book. I think that maybe I was expecting a little too much after reading some rave reviews online and it only just fell short of my expectations. In no ways was it bad, I still couldn't put it down and it did leave me thinking afterwards, however I still felt a niggling sense of dissapointment after reading it.

It is a murder mystery/political statement/romantic/sci-fi. Maybe a little too much to take on, but Revis does do it brilliantly. There is so much going on in the book sometimes I forgot about one storyline until it got mentioned again and I went... "Oh... yeahhhh..."

I must point out that the first chapter is extremely good. It is a little bit decieving because the rest of the book doesn't live up to that first chapter, I felt a little bit cheated, however Revis does manage to keep her writing flowing through the book and I was pleased with how easily the plot fell into place. Every event lead to another, which lead to another and it flowed fantastically to the last page, there was nowhere in the book where I wanted to put it down because there was no slow points. The... erm twist(s) at the end of the book were shocking but I did feel that one of them, Revis sort of just decided right at the end, because it doesn't really fit in with the rest of the book, I mean, how could that be hidden all the way through the book?

The book switches point of view between Amy and Elder. In some ways this is good, because we can see conflicting feelings between them, and we can see the relationship develop from both sides however the point of view switching can be a curse. I found that because we aren't following just one character all the way through, i couldn't really connect and empathise with either Elder or Amy, I would have preferred maybe jusy Amy's narration. But I can see why Revis did use switching, and it does work in most ways.

The romantic aspect is one thing I must say was perfectly written. It wasn't rushed, it develops slowly and sweetly and we can see how Elder is trying to keep her happy, but Amy is way too bitter to want to fall in love, it is a love story that you keep willing on, I absoloutely loved the way the two characters felt, but I couldn't really empthasise with them because of the point of view issue.

All in all, not a bad book, definately worth reading, but not absoloutely perfect. Don't set your expectations too high.

Overall rating: B

*NOTE: There are some scenes about 'mating' and some strategically hidden swearing, this book maybe a little mature for younger readers.*

Stand alone/series: First in a series

Released: March 3rd 2011 (Paperback)

Publisher: Puffin

Pages: 398

Book obtained via: Won!

The Bookish Type: Giveaways

Casey at The Bookish Type has this absoloutely fab-u-lous giveaway going on! Here's the link. please don't enter so I can win (joking) not.

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