My Bookshelves (2 of 2)

to be read bookshelf

So last week I showed you the bookshelves from downstairs, in my living room. This week I want to show you the ones from my bedroom... I wish I could have these shelves on show like the ones in my living room but no such luck as my house is teeny, I need a huge living room!

First up is a small pic of my tar bookshelf. The whole three shelves here are unread. I have books that I bought using a voucher from Christmas 2010 on this shelf and it mocks me every time I pass it! I try and cycle my books and take some of these downstairs for my Billy every now and then but I'm not great at doing that!
Amongst this collection is Maggie Stiefvater's Shiver and The Scorpio Races, books three and five of the Gallagher Girls series, Book one and two from the Scott Westerfeld Leviathan series and the entire Michelle Zink Prophecy of the Sisters series... I really need to start some of them!
On top of the shelf I have my Nightmare Before Christmas 'Sally' doll and my 'Bride' doll from Corpse Bride... I love Tim Burton... and Peter the pterodactyl and a pic of me and the other half!

Over in the other corner of the room I have a further two shelves... As you can see one is nicely empty except it seems to have become over run with dinosaurs! The other is jam-packed. This is the only shelf that I share with my other half, but don't be fooled, most of the books are still mine! This is my corner of the bedroom, my other half is a bit of a neat freak (love you if you read this!) and does't like clutter so this is my organised clutter space! The guitar is his though... mines in its bag somewhere else in the house!

My book corner

The first shelf obviously hasn't got a lot on it, the bottom shelf is all unread books from various sources. The review books that I have got months in advance have been put on here until closer to publication date and other books include the second in the Inkheart series and Other Words for Love which I really hope to get to soon! The next shelf up is read books that I have finished upstairs, or haven't taken to be homed on the YA shelf downstairs yet but as you saw last week I am running low on shelf down there so I'm thinking that these books will probably stay upstairs.

The next one tucked away in the corner is one of the strangest collections of books you will probably ever see. Most of these are adult books, there's a few YA books mixed in, especially on the top which has my Malorie Blackman Naughts and Crosses series, the first couple of books from the Stravaganza series and Inkheart held between bookends which I think I got when I was born... As well as being adult and YA books there is a crazy mix of genres, and you will find textbooks, novels, reference books and comics/graphic novels on this shelf.

Classics, feminism and Language reference books

The top two shelves are double stacked so you can hardly see the books by just looking at the shelf. The top shelve holds my small collection of typically 'chick lit' type books, including my Cecila Ahern books. However you find Atonement by Ian McEwan, some Ian Banks and a few of the Adrian Mole books here and also my feminism books, including Germaine Greer's The Female Ennuch.

On the shelf below at the back you find a lot of my classics and other books that I read for uni. I did English Language and Literature at uni and you can really tell when you see this shelf. I have a beloved collection of Jane Austen's novels which my sister bought me for my 18th birthday a variety of Shakespeare plays, two copies of Wuthering Heights even though I can't stand it! You can also find my English Language reference books here including Mother Tongue by Bill Bryson which I thoroughly recommend, David Crystal and a collection called The Dictionary Series which has a book on Adverbs, Proverbs, Word Origins and 'English through the ages'... need any more proof I'm a geek?

geekery very visable on this shelf! 

I cover the above up with just as geeky books to be honest, at the from of the top shelf you will find my Lord of the Rings trilogy (third book still unread), my other halve's Halo and Mass Effect books, a few Irvine Welsh books, a nearly complete set of nick Hornby books and David Nicholl's books. The next shelf down has more classics, including Charles Dickens, more Shakespeare plays and more modern classics like Catch 22, 1984 and The Graduate, some belonging to the other half... then there's yet more English Language books, like Lynne Truss's Eat, Shoots and Leaves.

The final shelf at the bottom is yet another mis-match of books like the bottom shelf of my Billy downstairs. Most of these books belong to my other half, including some computer related books, but my dictionaries (yes plural) are there, along with my Creative Writing Coursebook (I wanted to do creative writing at UEA for a while), a couple of books about Dreams and my complete Oscar Wilde book. some of the skinnier books are comics and graphic novels. I have the first in The Sandman series by Neil Gaiman on this shelf, along with my OH's copy of Johnny the Homicidal Maniac and Squee by Jhonen Vasquez (Invader Zim creator) plus more. Some of my graphic novels are downstairs and I keep meaning to put them all together up here, that may be a job for the weekend!

My Harry potter books with Dino bookends and glow in the dark dinos! 

Just going back to my shelves downstairs, I was asked last week for a close-up of my dinosaur bookends by Sarah at Feeling Fictional, so I've included it into this weeks post! I hope you like Sarah, my other half bought them for me for christmas from ebay I think!

I hope you have enjoyed my tour around my bookshelves, I've enjoyed showing them off!

FrostFire - Zoe Marriott

“In my dreams, the wolves come for me. I hear their voices echoing from the far-off mountains and the frost-bright stars. They sing of the hunt, and hot blood spilled on snow, and the scent of their prey’s fear on the wind. My fear.”

Frost is alone. Her father was killed many years ago and her mother spent her time watching Frost and crying herself to sleep at night because of what her daughter is, until she herself died. Frost is cursed, she has a wolf living inside of her, a wolf that rears its ugly head when a drop of blood falls from Frost’s skin. A wolf that doesn’t know friend from foe, that Frost is deathly afraid of. She is bound to be alone forever. 

But then Frost mets Luca and Arian in the woods. After attacking the bandits they are looking for Frost is hurt and the wolf appears, attacking them. The men manage to fight back and imprison her, but Luca understands there is more to her. Arian and Luca are part of the Royal Hill Guard, trying to protect the people of Rua and Frost sets out to become a part of the group. Getting closer to both of the men Frost finds herself torn between them and fears that she won’t be able to protect either of them... from herself.

***

If I’ve said it before, I’ve said it a thousand times. Zoe Marriott’s writing is a breath of fresh air. It flows amazingly and you can just feel your eyes glide over the page. You start reading and soon realise that over 100 pages have gone by and you’ve been sat in a trancelike state for the past. Thankfully FrostFire did exactly what Zoe’s previous books have done to me, sucked me in completely, ripped open my heart and stitched it back up again, just to do it all over again. 

The story was heartbreaking. Frost is an amazing narrator and character and right form the start you can tell she is a sweet, lovely person who is terrified of this thing inside her. The story right at the beginning about when the wolf first appeared from her was so sad and really makes you warm to the character straight away. She tries to refrain from getting close to people because of what she is and what can happen to them and that really comes across in her personality. Once she is within the Hill Guards camp the story really gets going and you get more of her background, and the backgrounds of both Luca and Arian. 

The characters were amazingly well developed and they really jumped off the page at you, I could visualise them all so well, but especially Arian, he was so vivid in my mind it was scary at times, I could sense facial movements and everything! Other characters were quite minor but you get to know the three mains, the healers Livia and Rani were amazing, especially Livia as she really came round for Frost and you could tell how much she cared for her. Hind was a mentionable character and I really liked what she added to Luca’s character, especially towards the end. The other characters were all very minor except for Ion who really scared me, like seriously, I felt a full on shadowy presence when he was on the page!

The pace of the book is just right I reckon, some people may find it a bit slow going at the beginning and the main plot has a lot of build up, but it works and you find out more about the characters in the way that it works. With the writing following as well as it does too you will hardly notice that not a great deal happens within the first 100 pages, you will enjoy them anyway! 

The main thing I was worried about in FrostFire was the love triangle aspect of it. I don’t do well with love triangles and I was worrying so much about it but I needn’t have done. At first for a few pages I did think that maybe the love triangle was different in the sense that Arian had a thing for Luca but when I realised that they were practically brothers I got worried again! Then the story went on and the way the love triangle aspect was done was actually different, it was less ‘oooo which boy should I choose’ and more ‘he’s a really sweet guy but I like the other one more, maybe if the other one wasn’t around’ and I preferred that. 

FrostFire was almost perfect for me, honestly it was, when I spoke to Zoe about this book she mentioned she was worried that the book was too emo and to be honest, it is a little emo, but when you read what Frost has been through and what she has to live with, you really understand it. I loved Frost’s narration and how descriptive FrostFire is without being over bearing. I like how certain things are picked up on but not made a big deal of, especially sexuality and I loved the ending, even though it broke my heart and made me cry on my lunch break at work! 

I really couldn’t recommend FrostFire highly enough. It’s an amazing fantasy with fantastic characters and brilliant writing. I wish I was half as talented as Zoe is, she will be a favourite of mine for a very long time. 

FrostFire was published on July 5th by Walker Books. My copy was purchased online. 

Goodreads | Amazon

Letterbox Love (#13)

Hey! Welcome to Letterbox Love, this is a UK meme, hosted by the lovely Lynsey at Narratively Speaking and inspired by The Story Sirens In My Mailbox, where we highlight the books we got in the post and beyond!!

I got some awesome things in the post this week!! (all links go to blogs or goodreads)

For Review:

Breathe - Sarah Crossam 

Dark Eyes - William Richter 

League of Strays - LB Schulan

Thank you to Bloomsbury, Penguin and Abrams for these books! I cant wait to read the Sarah Crossan one as I loved her debut book earlier this year. The League of Strays book I'm not too sure because it sounds and looks a bit like a twilight rip-off but I'll give it a go and Dark Eyes has been noted as being similar to The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo for teens so I'll be interested in seeing what that ones like! 

Gifted:

An awesome zip brooch from the lovely Georgie at Diary of the Average Teenager

The Wizarding World of Harry Potter bag with goodies including a Harry Potter postcard, dinosaur sticker book, dinosaur mazes book, a spaceman postcard and a lego keyring (not pictured as its on my keys!) from the awesome Laura AKA Sister Spooky from her trip to the states! 

Bookish and Bloggish news (#10)

Hello everyone! This nice weather has me thrown off. I might actually dare to venture outside my house today! Before I do thought I wanted to let you know about an awesome thing thats happening for the UKYA folks at the minute. I haven't got much else to tall you this week but nevermind!

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NPR top 100 YA & UKYA's top 100 UKYA

Have you heard about NPR's mission to find the top 100 YA books? Well If not head on over to their website and vote now for your favourites!

On a related note, the wonderful Keris Stainton thought that the UKYA website should try and do something similar, they want to find the top 100 UKYA books, not because there aren't any UKYA on the NPR list but because they love to celebrate UK based authors.

There is no long/shortlist yet but you can head on over to UKYA and nominate books that you think should be on the UKYA Top 100. I'm so nominating mine this morning!

The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of her Own Making - Catherynne M Valente

“Once upon a time, a girl named September grew very tired indeed of her parents’ house, where she washed the same pink-and-yellow teacups and matching gravy boats everyday, slept on the same embroidered pillow, and played with the same small and amiable dog.”

When the Green Wind turns up at Septembers kitchen window offering her an adventure she doesn't think twice, hops on the back of The Leopard of Little Breezes and flies away to Fairyland. She doesn’t wave goodbye to the factory where her Mother works or give her Father a second thought when they fly over Europe where he is fighting in the war. September is expecting fun and laughter but Fairyland is in crisis and confusions, the villainous Marquess is ruling the kingdom with an iron fist and September has to find the key to stop her awful rule. Off she goes with her new friend A-through-L, a Wyvern, and a blue boy named Saturday to fight the fears and save Fairyland, but can she do it in time and stop her friends from getting hurt? 

***

When I saw the cover and name of this book it was instantly on my wishlist. It sounded brilliant and crazy and something that we haven’t had in a very long time. When I started watching it I was giggling within the first chapter and I knew I was going to love it. 

The story is surreal, once September finds her way to Fairyland she comes across witch sister who are married to the same wairwulf and her friend A-through-L (Ell) who believe he is part Wyvern and part Library. The witches, Hello and Goodbye, and their husband Manythanks tell September about the Marquess and how she stole Goodbyes spoon when Goodbye refused to tell her how she would die. September sets off on a quest to rescues Goodbyes Spoon and that’s where the adventures really start. I loved Septembers travels across Fairyland and all the characters she met, I liked how everything links in, from her losing her shoe right at the beginning of the book to her getting new ones later and wanting rid of those. The whole world was really well put together and I was really impressed with the world building. I liked the rules and regulations around Fairyland and how strange and random they seemed. 

September was an amusing character to follow and I think thats because the book was told in a third person perspective with the narrator even cutting out to speak to the reader sometimes. Because of this September appeared to be a loving, caring little girl with a big heart but perhaps one in the wrong places. She was a great 12 year old with the attitude of one from many years ago. I have a feeling that the book was set in one of the World Wars, possibly the second, but my history isn’t great, and because of that September isn’t a typical girl from modern times but you still feel a connection to her. Ell was an amazing companion for September and I loved his personality, he was so excited about things but also very shy and second-thought-ish. When Saturday is added to the group I was a bit unsure about him but I soon grew to love him. Saturday was a lovely character and he was very unsure of himself. I think my favourite characters were the Farthings and I loved the way they rode the wild bicycles. 

The book reminded me a lot of Alice in Wonderland and The Wizard of Oz, its a similar kind of story and done in a similar way, The Girl Who is definitely modern classic material and I will be keeping my copy to read to my sons and daughters in the future. This is a bit of a good thing and a bad thing because I couldn’t help comparing it to the classics it reminded me of but I think it was still very original and I think it stands alone from the classics well. Each of the chapters were headed with an illustration and this really added to the story because I took a couple of minutes to look at them and then keep them in mind for the chapter and how the images fit in to the story. 

I really did love The Girl Who Circumnavigated and I would recommend it to many people. It is made from classic material and its very surreal so you have to give it a bit of imagination but if you have enough its well worth a read and I loved how it ended and I didn’t see a lot of it coming. The one thing thats not great with the book is with it is a bit difficult to read, its written in a strange style that we don’t get a lot of in modern day books but its still well-written, you just have to give it a little more time than you usually would give a book, its a difficult book to skim over. 

It has been quite hard for me to write a review on this book because I really did love it more than words can say. I really do think its one you have to read and gather your own opinion on it because it probably won't be for everyone but it was definitely for me! 


The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of her own Making was released on June 7th by Corsair. My copy was received in exchange for an honest review from the publisher. 

Goodreads | Amazon

Geek Girl – Cindy C Bennett

“’Think I could turn that boy bad?’

My two best friends – my only two friends really – Ella ad Beth follow my gaze and laugh. We’re sitting on the outskirts of the cafeteria, outcasts physically and socially. We’re proud of this. We strive for this.

‘Trevor Hoffman?’ Beth scoffs. ‘No way, Jen.’”

When Jen makes a bet with her friends that she can turn geeky boy Trevor into a bad boy, the goth girl thinks it’ll be an easy task which should complete just around the time she wants to get kicked out of her current foster home. The winnings will see her best friends pay for her new lip piercing, which is guaranteed to cause problems with the do-gooder foster family. However Jen may have bitten off more than she can chew with Trevor and soon becomes sucked into his sci-fi movie loving friendship group, family bowling nights and community centre volunteering. Can she change Trevor without changing herself and can she come to terms with the past which has haunted her for the whole of her fostering life.

***

I fully intended to love this book – it had snark, a goth girl and its fair share of geeks – what wouldn’t I love? So I started reading and soon found that, even with that winning combination, Geek Girl sadly wasn’t going to deliver for me.

Don’t get me wrong, there were parts of the book I loved. Jens background was brilliant developed and I really wanted to know what had happened to her to make her act in the way she did with her fosterers, it really added a lot of depth to the story. I really enjoyed the message it puts across about loving yourself and being yourself but I didn’t like Jens wat of dealing with things.

Jen isn’t happy – she’s had an awful life and is used to running away before anything bad happen out of her control. She goes from foster home to foster home making them give her up by doing something bad. The Clarks are different but she’s still not planning on staying with them and the plan with trevor develops well in time so that she can arrange a blowout for the end of the year.

Once Jen starts on her project she pretty much ditches her friends – that’s the first bit of the book I didn’t like. I understand that the point of the vook was that Jen changes herself to become a nicer and more rounded person but she changes in nearly everyway once she gets to know Trevor and that’s the second thing I didn’t like – she loses what she was for a boy and while I think Bennett tried to convey that Jen wasn’t happy with who she was in the first instance (which I’m not convinced was fully the case, there must have been aspects of the life and personality that she did enjoy) I didn’t like the way the changes came about. I also didn’t like the way the alternative lifestyle of her friendship group was put across or the way Jen dealt with her older friends. The book kind of put it across that the whole outcast ‘goth’ lifestyle was bad and wrong which is quite stereotypical and upsetting to me as that was my friendship group in college and there was nothing wrong with any of us or it.

I also wasn’t impressed by the writing and there was a few places when Jen would be talking or narrating and It just dint feel right – it didn’t sound right, like it wasn’t how the reader would expect her character or a teenager of that age to talk.

All in All Geek Girl isn’t highly rated from me – I liked some aspects and thought a lot of the story was interesting but the negatives far outweigh the positives. I’m sure other people would disagree though and some readers will enjoy it. What I can say for it though is that it would probably make a very good teen chick flick!

Geek Girl was published by Ceder Fort in December 2011. My copy was obtained very NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Goodreads | Amazon

Burn Mark - Laura Powell

“The walls of the Burning Court were high and white-tiled, its ceiling one great chimney. It the young witch at the stake had been able to look up at the funnel, she might have glimpsed a distant pane of sky.”

Burning witches at the stake is a thing of the past, now they are drugged to become immobile, put into a glass box, doused in flammable liquid and a switch is tripped to light the fuse. This is only when a witch is accused of the most heinous crimes though, most witches are safe, so long as they give themselves up and are watched by the inquisition. Glory is a member of an East End coven, a group who are determined to be free of the restraints of legal witches. However there’s more to the coven life that meets the eye and Glory is soon mixed up in conspiracy and betrayal. When Lucas turned up Glory is immediately suspicious, with every right as he turns out to be a potential Witchfinder extraordinaire. But Lucas isn’t the one Glory has to be watchful of and the two of them must become allies to fight the wrong which has gathered in their worlds. 

***

I love a good witch book and Burn Mark was that, it had witchcraft in the medieval sense, with potions and amulets and all that jazz, but it also had inquisitors and Witchfinders, and burnings. There was a great mix of human and witch personalities within the book and it made it hard to put down, I must admit! 

The story was great, I was really interested in the idea that there was a coven hiding out in the East End of London. The coven was kind of like a modern day gang, those types that the police all know about but haven’t got any hard evidence of, I think thats the reason it seemed to work quite well. The idea that the government were happy with witches as long as they were legal was interesting and I liked the build up of the world with how the witches were dealt with, even i I didnt agree with it. There were a few bits that weren’t too well explained, especially to do with the coven and something at the end that I completely cant talk about but that kinda bugged me because it was completely not explained, but that might be me being picky! 

The characters were interesting and though Glory was pretty much a chav, I did enjoy her attitude and her distrust of people. It felt that her attitude was really well developed and made a lot of sense from her background. I really wasn’t impressed with her dad and the relationship the two of them shared, he seemed as if he couldn’t care less and didn’t want to see his daughter grow up to be anything. I much preferred Auntie A and Glory’s relationship with her, but even that was mixed up at times. I loved Lucas and his mixed up feelings about what was happening to him, his whole world had turned upside down and I was really in admiration of how he dealt with it. The way he and Glory dealt with a lot of the stuff that happened was really well done. The Morgans side of the book was interesting and I liekd the background but I didnt care much for the characters. Troy was easily the best out of the lot but until close the end I didn’t care much for him. 

The writing put me off a little at the beginning but I got used to it a bit more towards the end. I think it started off a little slow too and there were too many characters mentioned at the start that didn’t really come into play at all throughout the book, that made it a little harder to follow than I would have liked too. I think once you get half way through though you have invested enough time into the characters to enjoy their company and then the action starts, which is where it gets awesome. I can’t talk about it too much but the book got a faster pace to it after the halfway point and it got really good, there was more mystery, more crime, more violence and it really got my opinion of the book to grow rapidly. 

I really did enjoy Burn Mark and I think a lot of other readers will too, if witches are our thing do not let this one fall through the net, its well worth a read. If you are wanting romance though, don’t bother, I am quite happy to say that this is not a paranormal romance and the relationships built in it make a better book because of that in my opinion! 

Burn Mark was published on June 7th by Bloomsbury. My copy was received in exchange for an honest review from the publisher. 

Goodreads | Amazon

My Bookshelves (1 of 2)

Just to be a little different today I thought I'd share my bookshelves with you and talk a bit about how they are organised and stuff. I love seeing other peoples shelves so hopefully some of you guys out there do too! The idea is partly inspired by Kirsty's blog The Overflowing Library and the bookcase showcase post Kirsty hosts on a Saturday as well as various other posts Ive seen around the blogosphere.

So I have, erm, six bookcases, thats a lot right? but thankfully one hasn't got any books on it, just video games and dvds, so I won't show you that one! Another is one that the newest replaced and I haven't filled it up yet so it currently acts as the Dinosaurs home... yes I need one of those! ;)

First up are the ones in my living room. As you can see I have two bookcases here, one is a large Billy bookcase and its a little sparse at the minute but I've filled it with other things as well as books.
The other is what used to be my main bookcase and is now my pretty much YA only bookcase.

The shelves on my Billy bookcase are mainly filled with my to be read books. The top shelf is just photos and ornaments but then the shelf below has my to review pile on it, these are organised into date order and post-it noted with the date of publication.

Below that is my collection of Harry Potter books. I want this to grow and get other versions of these but for the moment I have the classic covers held together with my dinosaur bookends and mini glow in the dark dinosaurs that Laura from Sister Spooky got me!

TBR review pile

Below that is the next to read pile. which I try and sort out but fail. My kindle lives on this shelf too!

Then theres a CD and DVD shelf and the bottom shelf is a random shelf full of all my old uni books and language books.

On the smaller bookshelf all my YA and children's books are held. This also has my small collection of Manga on it. I try and keep my books together by author and genre. On the top theres more fantasy type books. Then the second shelf is all my contemporary YA that I cherish, to the right theres all the books that I read when I was younger that I don't want to get rid of like older Sarra Manning and Looking for JJ and The Opposite of Chocolate.Newer additions on the shelf include Cat Clarkes books (only ones on the pic because Torn is at my friends!) and Keris Stainton.

TBR-next shelf

Further down the bookshelf you can find my paranormal YA and dystopian books along with a couple of others mixed in like The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nightime. I may have to start moving these books to the Billy soon and put my tar on here because my YA collection is growing to extreme lengths. Thankfully half my YA collection is actually with my sister at the minute!

my manga, fantasy and contemporary reads!

So yeah, this is my living room collection of books. I have pictures of my bedroom collection of books (and I don't mean that in a rude way!) that I will be posting too if anyone appears interested at all!

Static - Tawny Stokes

“You belong to me...

I own you...

The hypnotic timbre of Thane’s voice surged through my body making me tingle all over. Like a rush of heroin injected into my vein, soothing me, exciting me, I was completely and utterly hooked.”

Salem has spent the summer following Malice around on tour with her best friend Chloe. This last show before schools starts again is in her home town and Salem has decided to give it up, her virginity that is. She wants to lose it to someone special and has decided to get into the after show party and seduce Thane - the bands lead singer. Salem takes on more than she can chew though and when she wakes up the next day in a dumpster with no memory of the night before she starts to worry about what happened. These worries, however, are nothing compared to those that come a few days later when things start happening to her body that she cant control. She needs to find out what happened that night, and whats happening to her now. 

***

When I picked up Static in the kindle store I didn't realise it was paranormal. I have a terrible habit of judging whats in a book by its cover and I just assumed that it was a contemporary about music and band-boys. I was pleasantly surprised once I realised that the paranormals in question weren’t vampires! 

I really loved the Incubi mythology in Static. I’ve heard of the demons before but not much and I don’t think I’ve read anything with demons like this before! I really loved this take on them and found it really interesting. The legend that linked into it was really cool and definitely kept me very interested! 

The characters were great and I loved how passionate Salem was about music and - well  everything. She was a strong character but did lack a little depth in places. I really loved her name though and her relationship with her mum too. 

I loved Trevor and really enjoyed his background in the story and how it had developed him into what we get in the book. However his cowardice cant go unnoticed and I’m glad Salem managed to help him get what he couldn’t on his own. 

The music/ band style importance of the book really made sense and I understood how it would be the perfect background for the incubi - the need to be in the public eye and appeal to many is exactly what they would need and being in a band or famous would increase their appeal. 

I really enjoyed the story and most of Static, however I thought that the pace was very off in places. It started slow then picked up, went a little slower and then the end was so fast it felt rushed! I would have preferred a bit more to go into the ending but I still liked the overall conclusion to the book. 

The mix of music/contemporary with paranormal in Static was great and I really think it will appeal to a wide range of people because of this. I also think that the cover will help the book pick up non-paranormal readers as its not typical of the genre.

Static was published in the US by CreativeSpace in August 2011. My copy was purchased via the Kindle store. 

Goodreads | Amazon

Letterbox Love (#12)

Hey! Welcome to Letterbox Love, this is a UK meme, hosted by the lovely Lynsey at Narratively Speaking and inspired by The Story Sirens In My Mailbox, where we highlight the books we got in the post and beyond!!

Not a lot of books this week but thats a very good thing as I seem to have been a bit slow at reading lately! (links go to Goodreads or Amazon)

For Review:
The Feathered Man - Jeremy de Quidt

Crusher - Niall Leonard

The Double Edged Sword - Sarah Silverwood


Thank you so much to Random House and Indigo for these books, I'm really looking forward to them all especially Crusher which I know the guys at Random House are gear for everyone to read because its apparently amazing! 

I can't wait to see what everyone else got this week! Happy reading! 

Bookish and Bloggish News (#9)

Ok, this feature is back.. maybe for a while maybe not! but never mind! I got a great deal of info this week so I thought I'd share!

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Trailer: Pushing the Limits - Katie McGarry

This one sounds and looks from the trailer to be a great contemporary read! I have it on my tar but haven't got round to it yet so I'll leave you with the summary below

SO WRONG FOR EACH OTHER...AND YET SO RIGHT.

No one knows what happened the night Echo Emerson went from popular girl with jock boyfriend to gossiped-about outsider with “freaky” scars on her arms. Even Echo can’t remember the whole truth of that horrible night. All she knows is that she wants everything to go back to normal.

But when Noah Hutchins--the smoking hot, girl-using loner in the black leather jacket--explodes into her life with his tough attitude and surprising understanding, Echo’s world shifts in ways she could never have imagined. They should have nothing in common. And with the secrets they both keep, being together is pretty much impossible.

Yet the crazy attraction between them refuses to go away. Echo has to ask herself just how far they can push the limits and what she’ll risk for the one guy who might teach her how to love again (taken from goodreads)

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Harper Collins signs three more books from Will Hill

The news came through this week that Harper Collins has signed another there books from Department 19 author Will Hill. Two of the books will be linked to Department 19 and its sequel The Rising and the third will be stand alone, you can read the press release from Harper Collins below! 

HarperCollins is delighted to be continuing its relationship with YA author Will Hill by acquiring three new titles. Fiction Editorial Director Nick Lake secured UK & Commonwealth rights to two final books in the Department 19 series, plus one untitled YA novel. The deal was concluded by Nick and Charlie Campbell at Ed Victor Ltd.
First launched by HarperCollins in 2011, Department 19 was the number one bestselling YA hardback debut of the year and the series has acquired more than 7,000 fans on Facebook (www.facebook.com/department19exists). The books have also enjoyed sales success as ebooks, with Department 19: The Rising becoming HarperCollins' bestselling children's ebook launch in April. Hill’s writing has also been acclaimed in the press. "High action, fast plot, original and gripping, this is vampire writing without the sparkle – but with lots of blood!" said the Sun, while the Telegraph pronounced that, “Bram Stoker can stop turning in his grave: his 21st-century legacy extends beyond Twilight.”
Nick Lake said: "Will Hill is an incredible talent and we’re tremendously excited to have these new books to look forward to. With The Rising, he achieved that rare feat - a sequel that is richer and more gripping than its predecessor - and the strength of his writing is certain to garner him many, many more fans over the coming years."
Will himself said: "I'm absolutely delighted to have signed with HarperCollins for three more novels - the experience of publishing the Department 19 books with them has been an absolute pleasure. I'm looking forward to continuing to work with my amazing editor Nick and the fantastic sales, marketing and publicity teams, and I'm so thrilled that the Department 19 series will finish where it started; on the best list in the business." 

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Anobii First Book Award nominations

The Anobii First Book Award nominations were announced a little while back and I wanted to share a few of them with you. The Award 'Celebrates the wealth of new writing included in the Book Festival programme each year. Every debut novelist and every overseas writer whose words are published in English for the first time is included in the award.' 


This award was brought to my attention because it has some fantastic authors listed as nominees, I'm really excited to see some of the below books on the nominations list but I can't say I'm that surprised at a few of them! 



Sara Grant - Dark Parties 

After the Snow - S.D. Crockett

The Other Life - Susanne Winnacker

Someone Else's Life - Katie Dale 

Slated - Teri Terry

15 Days Without a Head - Dave Cousins 

It is awarded at the Endinburgh book Festival in August and you can check out the full list of nominees, find out more and vote via this link.

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The censorship and age rating debate

After the article on the Gaurdian and the debate between GP Taylor and Patrick Ness on the BBC Breakfast show I was going to do a full blog post about this. However I didn't get time last weekend and I don't think I'll get chance anytime soon so I thought I'd link you to two great posts that I read last week that really reflect my thoughts on the matter and were really interesting. 
The first is by Non Pratt, the commissioning editor from Catnip Publishing, its great because it gives an editor's point of view on the subject as well as a readers! You can read it here. 
The second is by Andrew at The Pewter Wolf blog... I agreed with a lot of Andrew's points and the post made me think of other points too which I hadn't though of. Go here to read it. 


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Thats it from me this week. I hope you have a great weekend!! 

Passion (Fallen #3) - Lauren Kate

***Passion is the third in the Fallen series by Lauren Kate. Whilst I have taken care not to give too much away; if you have not read the first two books, Fallen and Torment, then this review will contain spoilers.***

“A shot rang out. A broad gate banged open. A pounding of horses’ hooves echoed around the track like a massive clap of thunder. 

‘And they’re off!’

Sophia Bliss adjusted the wide brim of her feathered hat. It was a muted shade of mauve, twenty seven inches in diameter, with a drop-down chiffon veil. Large enough to make her look like a proper horseracing enthusiast, not so gaudy as to attract undue attention.”

Lucinda Price has been through so many lifetimes that she’s lost count. Not that she can remember them all though. She only knows about the ones Daniel, her true love and the man she is bound to because of a curse. Even time they get too close Luce dies, and so she has decided that she has to find an end to the curse, she has to put a stop to it. Through the help of the Announcers Luce decides to revisit her past and find out if anything can be done. However not everything is simple and Luce may change the world forever just by changing one thing, so Daniel chases after her, can the pair of them fix things so that their present day lives are safe but the curse comes to an end? 

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Ok so this is the third book and if you’ve read my reviews of the first or the second you may wonder why I carried on reading to the third. Well, there’s something about this series, its dark and depressing and in all honesty I don’t know why I carried on with the first book but I did and the series is a great series, but you have to carry on reading. 

I enjoyed Torment more than Fallen, and carrying on that trend I think I preferred Passion to both of them put together, in fact I loved Passion! I couldn’t get enough of the book and read at every opportunity, even ignoring my other half when he was trying to talk to me, but we’ve all done that right? I had unanswered questions at the end of Torment and really wanted to know where Lauren Kate was taking the story to next but I never imagined this! Passion was so unique and amazing that I didn’t want it to end, I loved every second and I’m so glad that I could see something in those first two books which I liked but couldn’t pinpoint because I think I was foreseeing the awesome that is Passion. 

Passion is a strange one. You get to learn all about Luce and Daniel’s past lives together and a bit more about how the curse came about. Now the thing about learning about characters pasts is that you are usually told it by the character telling another character or another character telling them, either way its usually told. However in Passion you get to see it, Luce travels into her past and witnesses first hand the events which have transpired between her and Daniel, she even gets to feel some of the emotions and what life was like for some of the past ‘Luces.’ I loved the way this was done and I really enjoyed the way she travelled. 

Because of the events in the book a lot of the characters you meet are either the same ones you have met before or earlier versions of themselves... confusing huh? I know, there was one chapter in which Daniel is having a conversation with his earlier self and that really threw me off, it was easy to follow but mind-boggling and like, WOAH! Anyway I really enjoyed seeing the earlier versions of some characters and it helped me understand them. There was a really interesting bit with Cam which was well explained and I was really happy that that bit was in there. The new characters you meet are pretty awesome too and theres even a cameo appearance from Lucifer! I found Bill interesting and the whole idea about the Scale and their passages through the Announcers. I didn’t really trust Bill and thought there may be something about him that we weren’t being told but what came about was really well done and I must admit there were parts when I found him quite endearing. 

As you can tell I did really enjoy Passion. Luce was a little self-centred again which is something that has annoyed me in the past but you can kinda understand when she’s trying to find out why she seems to burst into flames every 18 years or so! However if did really annoy me that it took until page 250 for her to even worry about her parents and her best friend who she’d walked out on at the end of Torment at her smashed to pieces house, I think I’d worry about that earlier than 250 pages in! (sorry if that seems petty but I felt bad on her folks and best friend. It does transpire that the journey she goes on only takes a few hours of normal time but still!)

Anyway, this is a really good series and after a bumpy ride I’m really really impressed with the way things are working out for the Fallen series, Passion was awesome and I cannot wait to get round to Rapture! 

Passion is the third in the Fallen series and was published by Random House in June 2011. My copy was received as a gift from the wonderful Book Angel Emma, thank you!! 

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