Book Review

Review: The Hero’s Guide to Saving Your Kingdom by Christopher Healy

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The Hero’s Guide to Saving Your Kingdom by Christopher Healy, UK edition.

Title: The Hero’s Guide to Saving Your Kingdom
Author: Christopher Healy
Genre: Fairy Tale, Fantasy, Middle Grade
Publisher: Harper Collins (7 June 2012)
Blurb:

PRINCE LIAM. PRINCE FREDERIC. PRINCE DUNCAN. PRINCE GUSTAV.

You’ve never heard of them, have you?

These are the princes who saved Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella, Snow White and Rapunzel, but you probably just know them all as ‘Prince Charming’. Well, all that is about to change as the hapless princes stumble upon an evil plot and get a second chance to prove themselves true heroes.

Rating: ***** (5 stars)
Review:

The Hero’s Guide to Saving Your Kingdom is Christopher Healy’s debut novel. It tells the story of the ‘Prince Charming’s from the Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella, Snow White, and Rapunzel fairy tales.

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Review: 13 by Kelley Armstrong

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Women of the Otherworld #13

13 by Kelley Armstrong, UK edition cover.

Title: 13 (Women of the Otherworld #13)
Author: Kelley Armstrong
Genre: Paranormal Romance, Urban Fantasy
Publisher: Orbit (24th July 2012)
Blurb:

13. The breath-taking, explosive finale to the Women of the Otherworldseries.

War is coming to the Otherworld. A sinister cult known as The Supernatural Liberation Movement is hell-bent on exposing the truth about supernaturals to the rest of the world. Their violent, ruthless plan has put everyone at risk: from werewolves to vampires, from witches to half-demons.

Savannah Levine – fiery and unpredictable – stands at the heart of the maelstrom. There is a new, dark magic inside her, granting her the power to summon spells of terrifying strength. But whether this magic is a gift or a curse, no one knows.

On the eve of battle, all the major players must come together in a last, desperate fight for survival – Elena and Clay; Adam and Savannah; Paige and Lucas; Jeremy and Jamie; Hope, Eve and more . . . They are fighting for their lives. They are fighting for their loved ones.

They are fighting for the Otherworld.

Rating: **** (4 stars)
Review:

13 is the final book in Kelley Armstrong’s brilliant Women of the Otherworld series. This book brings to an end a brilliant series that has featured witches, sorcerers, demons, angels, vampires, ghosts and necromancers – just to name a few. After 13 books I am really sad to see the series draw to a close.

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Review: Insatiable by Meg Cabot

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Insatiable by Meg Cabot

Title: Insatiable (Insatiable #1)
Author: Meg Cabot
Genre: Paranormal Romance
Publisher: Harper Voyager (21st June 2012)
Blurb:

SICK OF HEARING ABOUT VAMPIRES? SO IS MEENA HARPER.

Meena Harper is familiar with the supernatural. After all, she knows how you’re going to die. (Not that you’ll believer her. No one ever does.)

But while she’s always been able to see everyone else’s destiny, she’s never been able to look into her own. Maybe that’s why when she meets Lucien Antonescu – a modern-day prince who also has no destiny she can foresee – she’s instantly attracted.

The trouble is, when an ancient society of vampire hunters shows up  at Meena’s door looking for Lucien, she’s forced to face the truth: that her dream boyfriend might turn out to be more of a nightmare.

So now would be a good time for Meena to start learning to predict her own future . . . if she has one.

Rating: **** (4 stars)
Review:

In Insatiable the brilliant Meg Cabot has decided to tackle vampires. Insatiable tells the story of Meena Harper who has the ability to see how people will die, and a little bit of a hero complex because of it.

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Review: Pushing the Limits by Katie McGarry

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Title: Pushing the Limits
Author: Katie McGarry
Genre: Contemporary, Young Adult
Publisher: MiraInk (3rd August 2012)
Blurb:

THEY SAY BE A GOOD GIRL,
GET GOOD GRADES, BE POPULAR.
THEY KNOW NOTHING ABOUT ME.

I can’t remember the night that changed my life.
The night I went from popular to loner freak.
And my family are determined to keep it that way.

They said therapy was supposed to help.

They didn’t expect Noah.

Noah is the dangerous boy my parents warned
me about. But the only one who’ll listen.
The only one who’ll help me find the truth.

I know every kiss, every promise,
every touch is forbidden.

BUT WHAT IF FINDING YOUR DESTINY MEANS BREAKING ALL THE RULES?

Rating: ***** (5 stars)
Review:

Pushing the Limits is Katie McGarry’s debut novel. It tells the stories of Echo and Noah who are both going through difficult times in their lives when they collide.

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Review: My Soul to Steal by Rachel Vincent

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Soul Screamers #4

My Soul to Steal by Rachel Vincent

Title: My Soul to Steal (Soul Screamers #4)
Author: Rachel Vincent
Genre: Urban Fantasy, Young Adult
Publisher: MiraInk (21st October 2011)
Blurb:

SOMETIMES DREAMS
DO COME TRUE . . .
AND THAT’S THE LAST
THINK KAYLEE NEEDS

Working things out with Nash – her maybe boyfriend – is hard for Kaylee. She’s already coping with being a teenage banshee. Worse, Nash’s gorgeous ex-girlfriend just transferred to their school.

Sabine’s no ordinary girl. She’s a mara, a real-life walking nightmare. Draining people’s energy through their darkest dreams sustains Sabine . . . and makes her Kaylee’s top suspect in a cluster of sup-creepy deaths.

To win back Nash, Kaylee’s determined to unearth the truth. But Sabine knows the deathly secrets of Kaylee’s subconscious – and she’s not afraid to use them to get whatever and whoever she wants . . .

Rating: **** (4 stars)
Review:

My Soul to Steal is the fourth book in Rachel Vincent’s brilliant Soul Screamers series. It continues the story of Kaylee and her friends as they struggle against the forces of the Netherworld.

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Review: Paranormalcy by Kiersten White

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Paranormalcy by Kiersten White

Title: Paranormalcy (Paranormalcy #1)
Author: Kiersten White
Genre: Paranormal Romance, Young Adult
Publisher: Harper Collins (date)
Blurb:

VAMPIRES
WEREWOLVES
FAERIES
SHAPESHIFTERS

Evie’s always thought of herself as normal. Sure, her best friend is a mermaid, her ex-boyfriend is a faerie, she’s falling for a shapeshifter and she’s the only person who can see through paranormal’s galmours, but stil. Normal.

Only now Paranormals are dying and Evie’s dreams are filled with haunting voices and mysterious prophecies. She begins to suspect there is a link between her abilities and the sudden rash of deaths, and even worse, that she is a the centre of a dark prophecy promising destruction to all paranormal creatures.

Rating: *** (3 stars)
Review:

Paranormalcy is the first book in Kiersten White’s Paranormalcy trilogy. It tells the story of Evie, who thinks she is as ‘normal’ as every other human being – except for being able to see through paranormal’s glamours .

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Review: Throne of Glass by Sarah J. Maas

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Throne of Glass by Sarah J. Maas

Title: Throne of Glass (Throne of Glass #1)
Author: Sarah J. Maas
Genre: Sword and Sorcery, Young Adult
Publisher: Bloomsbury (2nd August 2012)
Blurb:

MEET CELAENA SARDOTHIEN.
BEAUTIFUL. DEADLY.
DESTINED FOR GREATNESS.

In the dark, filthy mines of Endovier, an eighteen-year-old girl is serving a life sentence. She is a trained assassin, the best of her kind, but she made a fatal mistake. She got caught.

Young Captain Westfall offers her a deal: her freedom in return for one huge sacrifice. Celaena must represent the prince in a to-the-death tournament – fighting the most gifted thieves and assassins in the land. Live or die, Celaena will be free. Win or lose, she is about to discover her true destiny. But will her  assassin’s heart be melted?

Rating: **** (4 stars)
Review:

Throne of Glass is Sarah J. Maas’s brilliant  debut novel. In it we are told the story of Celaena Sardothien, an assassin, who is offered the chance of earning her freedom by entering in a tournament that could mean her death.

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Review: Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins

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Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins

Title: Anna and the French Kiss
Author: Stephanie Perkins
Genre: Contemporary, Romance, Young Adult
Publisher: Penguin USA (4th August 2011)
Blurb:

Can Anna find love in the City of Light?

Anna is happy in Atlanta. She has a loyal best friend and a crush on her coworker at the movie theater, who is just starting to return her affection. So she’s not too pleased when her father decides to send her to a boarding school in Paris for her senior year. But despite not speaking a word of French, Anna meets some cool new friends, including a handsome Étienne St. Clair, who quickly becomes her best friend. Unfortunately he’s taken – and Anna might be, too. Will a year of romantic near misses end with the French kiss she’s been waiting for?

Rating: ***** (5 stars)
Review:

Anna and the French Kiss tells the story of Anna Oliphant; an American teenager sent to Paris by her father to go to boarding school for her senior year.  Stephanie Perkins relates a brilliant tale of contemporary romance for Young Adult readers in this book.

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Review: I’d Tell You I Love You, But Then I’d Have To Kill You by Ally Carter

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Gallagher Girl's 1

I’d Tell You I Love You, But Then I’d Have To Kill You by Ally Carter

Title: I’d Tell You I Love You, But Then I’d Have To Kill You (Gallagher Girls #1)
Author: Ally Carter
Genre: Spy, Young Adult
Publisher: Orchard Books (6th May 2010)
Blurb:

“Do you ever feel like you’re invisible? I know I do – just call me Cammie the Chameleon. But at my [blank] school, that’s seen as cool. Why? Because Gallagher Academy might say it’s for geniuses, but it’s really a school for spies.”

Cammie Morgan might be capable of killing a man in seven different ways, but she’s about to begin her most dangerous mission yet: falling in love.

Rating: ** (2 stars)
Review:

I’d Tell You I Love You, But Then I’d Have To Kill You is the first book in Ally Carter’s Gallagher Girls series. The series is about a group of girls who go to an all-girl boarding school, where they just happen to learn how to be spies. The series stars, and is narrated, by Cammie Morgan.

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Review: Fire by Kristin Cashore

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Graceling Realms, #2

Fire by Kristin Cashore

Title: Fire (Graceling Realm, #2)
Author: Kristin Cashore
Genre: Sword and Sorcery, Young Adult
Publisher: Gollancz Fiction (6th January 2011)
Blurb:

HER BEAUTY IS A WEAPON – AND FIRE IS GOING TO USE IT.

Fire’s exceptional beauty gives her influence and power. People who are susceptible to it will do anything for her attention, and for her affection.

But beauty is only skin deep, and beneath it Fire has a human appreciation of right and wrong. Aware of her inability to influence others, and afraid of it, she lives in a corner of the world away from people – not only to protect them, but also to protect herself from their attention, their distrust, and even their hatred.

Yet Fire is not the only danger to the Dells. If she wants to protect her home, if she wants a chance to undo the wrongs of the past, she must face her fears, her abilities, and a royal court full of powerful people with reason to distrust her.

Rating: **** (4 stars)
Review:

Fire is the second book in Kristin Cashore’s Graceling Realms series. In it we are introduced to a new world and new characters; it tells the story of Fire, a girl born with incredible beauty who sees it only  as a curse.

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