The Season

The Season is a YA Regency-era romantic mystery by Sarah MacLean.

It is time for seventeen-year-old Lady Alexandra Stafford’s first season – and she is not pleased about it.

Less than thrilled about dress fittings, balls and the generally encouraged feminine pursuits, Alex’s opinionated independence sets her apart.

And she is not in the slightest bit interested in finding a husband.

However, she and her close friends Ella and Vivi are thrust into the London season and manage to keep each other amused enough to prevent from being bored to death by the safe, respectable suitors being pressed upon them.

Yet behind the scenes of the glamorous gowns, dances and dinner parties, there is espionage and murder occurring.

Unintentionally finding themselves caught up in the intrigue, Alex, Ella and Vivi find their season turning far more interesting – and dangerous.

And most unexpectedly yet – perhaps some true romance is around the corner also…

The Season was a fun read!

It’s not Jane Austen – but it’s also not the type of cringe-worthy attempts at being Jane Austen that I’ve seen before.

This is a light, entertaining, diverting novel that mixes in a decent setting of the Regency era, Regency gowns and customs with some, at times, quite good dialogue - and then mixes in some mystery!

Not a combination I can complain about!

The Season was a fast, easy read that had a likable romance, likable characters and a vibe of appreciate for the period.

Was it a book I’m going to jump up and down about? Not really.

Did I think it was spectacular literature or incredibly unique? No.

But The Season did exactly what it meant to do – provided a frothy, pleasant distraction with a few relatively decent twists.

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Antebellum Awakening

Antebellum Awakening is the second book in the YA fantasy Network Series by Katie Cross.

I would strongly recommend that readers read Miss Mabel’s School for Girls before this – and warn that this review will contain inevitable spoilers for the first book. Therefore I recommend not reading this review until you’ve read Miss Mabel’s. Feel free to read my review of that first book here.

Half numb from the events at the end of Miss Mabel’s School for Girls and in deep mourning for her mother, Bianca finds herself suddenly at Chatham Castle – her father’s break in tradition in having a family known by all – and many not with a favorable outlook.

Though she’s surrounded by her friends, nothing can distract her from the uncontrollable chaos her powers have become since her mother’s murder. She’s putting everyone is danger by just being present.

Yet the most daunting thing is that she only has six months left before her seventeenth birthday – the day that her Inheritance Curse will kill her, as it’s killed others in her family.

Unless she can somehow break the contract with the cunning, powerful woman who killed her mother – her former teacher, Miss Mabel…

Miss Mabel’s School for Girls was very impressive to me – a suspenseful mix of intrigue, danger and magic. It was included on my Stand-Out Books of 2014, as you lovely bibliophiles know.

Antebellum Awakening was still good… but didn’t stand out to me as much.

It was still good and intriguing, the Network world is fascinating and I always want to know more about it, but the setting of Chatham Castle just wasn’t as gripping as the school in book one.

Whereas in the first book Bianca was in a sort of espionage position, confronting her enemy head on and having to be very sneaky to get away with it – this second novel is more focused on Bianca’s grief and education on controlling her powers.

This doesn’t mean it wasn’t good – it was! Great character development, definitely sympathetic and it’s realistic that Bianca would need to go through this – rather heartbreaking, really.

It just wasn’t edge-of-your-seat exciting and nerve wracking like Miss Mabel’s School for Girls was.

So, don’t expect the same level of suspense – but some relatively good development on the overall plot and a few new details about the Network and what was around before the Network came to be.

I’ll still be interested in book three.

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Book Review - Cakes in Space

Title: Cakes in Space
Author: Philip Reeve
Publisher: OUP Oxford
Release Date: 4 Sept. 2014
ISBN-13: 978-0192734563

Synopsis
Astra's family are all snoring in their sleeping pods, but Astra is WIDE AWAKE. With her friend, Pilbeam, she goes off exploring and soon finds out the ship is in deep trouble. It's been knocked off course and invaded by a gang of Poglites, an alien salvage crew searching for spoonage.
But even the Poglites need Astra's help when they discover something far more sinister lurking in the canteen. Sure, they're cakes; but no one would describe them as sweet. 
My Review
It's that time of year again in our library service - 'Children's Book Day'. This is an annual event where staff at the library are given a set of books to read, we go through them over the next few months and then all meet up for a big day of book discussions, author visits and idea sharing. It's the high point of my year and is a great way for staff to expand their knowledge of current books and discover new books. This year I believe we have 4 Teen/YA titles, 4 children's titles and 6 picture books. If you have followed my blog before you will have seen write ups of the books the last couple of years. It's always a great mix.
I try to review from both my point of view and that of the target audience although that can be hard to do.
So Cakes in Space was the first one I picked up. Partly because I know Sarah McIntyre who has illustrated this book- (I met her when she did an event at our library last year and she was totally awesome.) But I also took it because it was the only one left at the time :P
Astra and her family are going on a journey to a new planet for a fresh start, but it's going to take a hundred years to get there so everyone has to go into a pod and enter a frozen sleep to preserve their bodies. But something goes wrong and for some reason Astra wakes up early. Everyone else is still sleeping soundly but her pod has failed, she then discovers that more than that has gone wrong with the ship - it's been invaded by aliens called Poglites, the systems are crashing and worse than that the ship is being over-ridden with giant man eating cakes. With vicious frosting, wicked cream-cakes and killer cupcakes. 
The illustrations are of course fabulous and match the story perfectly, but I have to admit it that I found the story rather annoying. It turned very silly very quickly and seemed to try and focus on too many aspects at once. It wasn't just the cakes, but the computers and the aliens and the spaceship. There were too many problems and a lot of messages hidden in there that it seemed a little jumbled to me. 
But it is a very simple read which only took me about 45 minutes in total and it is fun. Astra has a very spunky attitude and is fun and feisty. She doesn't shy away from trouble and faces problems head on. Her robot friend Pilbeam is quite funny and cute and the Poglites don't seem all that bad.
I can see kids loving this book and the mash of nonsense and fun with the illustrations to bring it to life more. But I have to admit it just wasn't for me- it was just too hectic and silly but I can admire the charm in it.

My Rating

    

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Book Review - Au Revoir Crazy European Chick

Title: Au Revoir Crazy European Chick
Author: Joe Schreiber
Series: Perry & Gobi (Book 1)
Publisher: Electric Monkey
Release Date: 5 Mar. 2012
ISBN-13: 978-1405259439
ASIN: B007QUYF0I

Synopsis
Fasten your seatbelts for a quirky, rapid-fire joyride through the streets of New York.

‘You shot him. You totally just shot that guy back there. I think I’m gonna throw up.’

One ordinary guy.
One female assassin.
When Gobi lands in Perry’s life, she rips is apart like a bombshell... 

My Review
I actually listened to this on audio book in my car. The cover for that was so much cooler, I have to admit:

I actually knew nothing about this when I ordered it, I literally wanted something to listen too so just searched for YA Spoken word and started with 'a'. this came up and I thought it sounded funny- the title was unusual and that is all we still on our library catalogue (well, title and author). I requested it because with that title I assumed it would be like Louise Rennison or Cathy Hopkins - kind of chic lit, fun. Obviously when it arrived and I saw the cover I realised I judged the book by it's title and was certainly not what I expected. But i thought I might as well give it a go anyway.
We meet Perry, a typical high school boy but one who is also very focused and goal reaching. His dad is a big shot lawyer who expects Perry to follow in his footsteps. The only outlet Perry really has is his music - he belongs to a band 'Inchworm' and he's good. He has a big show coming up soon and it could be their chance to make it.
His mum sets up a chance for a foreign exchange student to come and live with them for a year. She is Lithuanian and goes by 'Gobi', mostly she seems quite, shy and fairly unattractive. She's more of a background noise and inconvenience - not the foreign babe Perry was hoping for. But then everything changes, Perry's mum makes him take Gobi to the Prom but things don't go to plan and they end up in New York. But Perry doesn't realise that this is what Gobi planned all along, and soon Perry is caught up in something he could never imagine. He witnesses murders, fights and high speed car chases. Gobi is certainly not what she seems. Perry just hopes he'll make it home in one piece with a clear conscience.
It took me a while to get into this and for the first half hour or so I had to stop myself from giving up and turning it off, but I wanted to give it a fair chance and the further I got, the more intrigued I became. I wanted to know who Gobi was and why she was doing the things she did. It wasn't the best story I had listened to and I wasn't desperate to hear more but I did enjoy it overall. Perry is a good character, he's a typical stroppy teenager but he also has morals and he certainly develops as a character as the story progresses and I actually began to like him towards the second half. 
Gobi was a bit of a mystery and I found her rather annoying, especially her changing attitude, one minute she would be nice and friendly and the next quite psychopathic. And it took me a while to believe that she really was this assassin, it just didn't seem to fit for a while.
I think if I had been reading it I may have given up earlier but listening to it in my car meant I didn't have to give it my full focus and by the end of it I did sort of enjoy it. I wasn't quite sure how to feel about it but it was mainly positive. It was very weird overall but a different concept and  quite well written.
It isn't suitable for younger readers as it contains a lot of violence and some references to more adult content and if I remember correctly some use of swear words.
If you like a good action mystery then this is worth a go for sure.

My Rating

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Violet Eyes

Violet Eyes is a YA retelling of The Princess and the Pea, one of the Once Upon a Time books, by Debbie Viguie.

Contented, simple farm girl Violet’s life is made more complicated when she and her family take in a wounded stranger – who turns out to Prince Richard of the realm.

Once he is returned to full health, he’ll have to head to the kingdom after a year abroad locating princesses for his parents, the king and queen, to enter into a competition for his hand in marriage.

Reluctant to do such a thing, Richard instead finds himself intrigued by Violet’s straightforward, strong personality and they quickly fall in love.

Yet in order to have a chance to be together, Violet will need to compete against the many princesses in odd, enigmatic tests that range from the ridiculous to the dangerous…

Violet Eyes moves swiftly, as it sort of has to since it’s just shy of 200 pages.

I’m never a fan of love at first sight – finding it superficial, improbable and irritating – but for the case of a little book like this, I set that quibble aside to enjoy it for what it is. Thankfully the characters aren’t hopelessly mushy about their feelings.

The interesting twist, where the princesses have to compete for the prince’s hand rather than the other way around, made me more willing to play along. It definitely becomes increasingly fun to read as the competition begins!

There were a couple smile-worthy little allusions to Viguie’s other books in the series – Midnight Pearls and Scarlet Moon – when mermaids and werewolves are referred to.

Violet Eyes happily shows that there is more to the strange royal competition than you initially think – making for a good little story with a decent plot and execution.

If you want to divert your attention for a short period – maybe after an emotionally draining novel – this could be an affable choice

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Book Promo - She Dreamed of Dragons

Title of Book: She Dreamed of Dragons

Blurb:  

Trina is more likely to set the palace on fire with her powers than be a princess – could a dragon mage be the next ruler of the magical kingdom of Dorlith?

Synopsis: 

 Trina is a fifteen-year-old dragon mage in a kingdom ruled by witches and wizards – the same people who have brought dragons and other magical creatures near extinction. Trina can barely control her fire powers and is desperate for an apprenticeship, but finding a fellow dragon mage to be her teacher is proving more difficult than coming across an actual dragon. 

Then there’s the Royal Tourney – a competition presented by the Queen to find a successor to the throne. Trina heads to the competition in the hopes of sparking some interest in the mage society and earning herself an apprenticeship. 

She never intended to be a frontrunner in the competition. 

She never meant to catch the attention of the evil witch trying to take over the throne. 

She never expected to fall for a wizard. 

Now Trina must face tough decisions about who she is and who she could become. Trina must ask herself: Can she really win the Royal Tourney?

Author Bio:  

Elizabeth J. M. Walker has published zines for over a decade and lives in her hometown of Windsor, Ontario, Canada. She Dreamed of Dragons is her first novel.

Links of Where to Buy:

Musa: http://musapublishing.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=810

Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/She-Dreamed-Dragons-Elizabeth-Walker-ebook/dp/B00N4923OU

Barnes&Noble: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/she-dreamed-of-dragons-elizabeth-j-m-walker/1120223680?ean=2940150539914

Author website: elizabethjmwalker.com

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The Page Turners

The Page Turners is a YA contemporary horror novel, and the first in a trilogy, by Kevin T. Johns.

Nate, Danny and Spenser are outcasts – and they’ve found that this is far more apparent and dangerous now that they are freshmen in high school.

Daily they are victims of ridicule and, at least in Nate’s case, violence. For Nate, his home life is not much better.

One of the only bright moments the friends look forward to is their self-made club – The Page Turners.

Essentially they meet in the library to discuss their mutual passion for fiction – whether literature, movies or television – and present their opinions and thoughts in an organized, official manner.

It’s during one of these meetings that Nate happens upon a strange book in the library – something old, handwritten and brimming with mystery. He’s sure that it is real magic – but when they speak the incantation they find in English – nothing happens.

…or does it?

The Page Turners is a quickly paced book that is easy and fast to read – as well as surprisingly intriguing!

I felt that the rather creative plot – which I’m not giving away much of in the synopsis I wrote – was relatively well done, too. At times, the writing came across perhaps a little more self-important than needed – maybe a tad more serious than necessary…

Yet the characters were presented with having some rather dark family and personal issues, which gave the fantastical plotline a huge dose of realism as it was grounded in that edginess.

Sometimes I felt that the boys argued too much and I would’ve liked to perhaps see more bonds of friendship – but overall I felt The Page Turners was a very good contemporary horror book that didn’t skimp on character development!

I will be interested in what happens next, for sure.

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