The Iron King by Julie Kagawa

Summary (from book):

MEGHAN CHASE HAS A SECRET DESTINY--ONE SHE COULD NEVER HAVE IMAGINED...

Something has always felt slightly off in Meghan’s life, ever since her father disappeared before her eyes when she was six. She has never quite fit in at school...or at home.

When a dark stranger begins watching her from afar, and her prankster best friend becomes strangely protective of her, Meghan senses that everything she’s known is about to change.

But she could haver have guessed the truth--that she is the daughter of a mythical faery king and is a pawn in a deadly war. Now Meghan will learn just how far she’ll go to save someone she care about, to stop a mysterious evil no faery creature dare face...and to find love with a young prince who might rather see her dead than let her touch his icy heart.

Review:

Once again I picked up The Iron King because of all the great things I had heard about it. It seems that these days that’s the only thing that comes into play when I choose what book to read. And like for many of my recent reads, I am glad I picked up the book. It was a really good read and yet another take on the Faerie world, this time adding some new elements. The fact that I am a sucker for Faerie stories probably makes me biased but it was a really good book.

Meghan Chase has always been the invisible girl in school, sometimes even at homes. The only people who really know her are her best friend Robbie and Ethan, her four-year-old half-brother. But on the day of her sixteenth birthday weird things start happening. Ethan who was afraid of monsters essentially becomes the monster and Robbie reveals his true identity as he takes her on a trip to the Nevernever, the land of the Faerie. Between being shot at by the Winter Prince and abused by the Queen of Faeries, Meghan discovers a whole new world she may be closer to than she thinks.

Meghan slowly grew on me. At first I wasn’t really sure about her but then when the action really started I began liking her more and more, especially her determination in finding Ethan. There is just something about someone doing whatever they need to do in order to save someone she loved. I also liked that she wasn’t too quick to accept the whole Faeries exist thing, for the longest time she was denying her origins. What really got to me was how much she was willing to give to help those she cared for, even if she had only known them for a short period of time. By the end of the book, I was totally sold on Meghan and I was rooting for her all the way.

The other characters had me highly amused. Robbie and Grimalkin had me laughing throughout the book. Robbie was always playing tricks on everyone and in a cheery mood regardless of the situation. He would be in the middle of a duel with someone and all of a sudden cracking jokes at the same time as he was attempting to stab his opponent. Grimalkin’s humor was more subtle but there all the same. There is just something about having every word that comes out of a cat’s mouth being ironic, he had me smiling and laughing many times. And then there was Ash. Like for Meghan, I wasn’t too sure about him at first but then you realize that it’s all just a front he’s putting up. By the end of the book, I wanted him to be mine, let’s just leave it at that.

I have read so many Faerie stories and it was fun to see one that added a court that had never been talked about before. What made it even better was that, a totally logical explanation for its existence. The only thing I have to say about the story is that at first it sort of drags on. As much as I loved the book once I was done reading it, it took me a while to get into it at first. Once it picked up, I couldn’t put the book down and the story moved at an incredible pace. Like I said, when I finished reading, I loved the book.

The Iron King was an amazing read and such an interesting take on the Faerie world and how it came to exist. Now I’m (im)patiently waiting for the second book, The Iron Daughter, to arrive in my mailbox.

Also, can anyone tell me how the actual Faerie courts work and who rules what. I’ve read so many different stories with so many different combinations of rules and courts. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Infinite Days by Rebecca Maizel

Summary (from book):

“Throughout all my histories, I found no one I loved more than you...no one.”

Those were some of Rhode’s last words to me. The last time he would pronounce his love. The last time I would see his face.

It was the first time in 592 years I could take a breath. Lay in the sun. Taste. Rhode sacrificed himself so I, Lenah Beaudonte, could be human again. So I could stop the blood lust.

I never expected to fall in love with someone else who wasn’t Rhode. But Justin was...daring. Exciting. More beautiful that I could dream. I never expected to be sixteen again...but then again, I never expected my past to come back and haunt me.

Review:

On one of my numerous trips to the bookstore, I decided to pick up Infinite Days by Rebecca Maizel. Even though I have a pile of books waiting to be read, I decided to read this one right away simply because I had heard so many good things about it. As it turns out, all those good things were very true and I really enjoyed reading this book. It was great to read a vampire story where all the focus wasn’t on vampires, if that makes any sense.

Lenah Beaudonte has been a vampire since the fifteenth century, but when she wakes up in the twenty-first century she finds out that she has become human once again. Now she must learn to live like a normal sixteen-year-old while dealing with losing Rhode, her lover for the past 500 years. Fitting in at her new boarding school doesn’t appear to difficult but when she meets Justin Enos, things might turn out more complicated than they looked. Lenah never expected to fall in love with Justin, but that love may just be what will save her.

I absolutely loved Lenah. She was such a great character and I loved getting to know her. It was always so fun to see her discover things that to me are things I’ve been doing my whole life, like breathing and having a heartbeat for instance. It was always funny to see her accept to do things without knowing what they are and have her turn around to Tony to ask what she just signed up for. She really didn’t have things easy though; as much as she wanted to enjoy life and have fun she always had to worry about her old coven coming after her. Every page I turned I was hoping that she would be able to just be happy with Justin and not have to worry about her coven. Lenah was just a great character.

I have mixed feelings about Justin. Sure he’s super cute and every girl wants to be his girlfriend but beyond that I wasn’t entirely sure what more he had to offer. But then something happened that just made me completely changed my mind about him, but I’m not going to say what (so I don’t ruin it for anyone). After that, I could really tell that he truly cared about Lenah and saw a whole other side to him that I didn’t really expect. By the end of the book I was totally sold on Justin and I was totally rooting for him.

I wasn’t sure about the whole concept of the story at first. Vampires just seem to be everywhere these days and I didn’t really feel like reading another story like that again. But then I started reading and saw that vampires weren’t actually the main focus of the story. The story was really about a teenage girl learning to live and love life and doing new things. Even this aspect didn’t seem overdone either. The mix of the two together made for a story that was something new, different and quite enjoyable.

Infinite Days was a really good book. It’s a refreshing change from all the other vampire stories that are available out there. Now that I’m done reading it, I can’t wait for the sequel, Stolen Nights, which is coming out in March 2011.

Book Blogger Hop (8)

The Book Blogger Hop is a weekly event hosted each week by Jennifer of Crazy-for-Books. Every week I've met new bloggers who came to visit me and found some pretty awesome blogs that I now visit regularly.

This week's question:

DO YOU USE A RATING SYSTEM FOR YOUR REVIEWS AND IF SO, WHAT IS IT AND WHY?

I actually don't use a rating system since I find they can sometimes be misleading. Personally, I just like giving my opinion and letting people make their decisions based on that. I guess ratings are really subjective and in the long run it get be hard to know what they mean, for the simple reason that a perfect score may not mean the same thing to different people. So yeah, all that to say that I don't use a rating system for my reviews but I don't have anything against them in theory.

Happy hopping and enjoy your weekend!

One Lovely Blog Award

The lovely Alissa from The Grammarian's Reviews has given me the One Lovely Blog Award. So I would like to thank her and say that her blog is very lovely as well. It's going to be 1 month old tomorrow and you should all go check it out.

So here's how the award works:

1. Accept the award, then post it on your blog with the name of the person who has granted the award and his or her blog link.

2. Pass the award to 15 other blogs that you’ve newly discovered.

3. Remember to contact the bloggers to let them know that they have been chosen for this award.

Hopefully I'm not going to be giving the award to blogs that have already received, but if I do all the better from them. So here goes:

Flippin' Fabulous - A Reader's Record

Bookish in a Box

Books Obsession

Debbie's World of Books

Imagination in Focus

Pages of my Life

Read-a-holic

Reading Addict

Reading Angel

Super Librarian

Super Reader Girl's Book Reviews

Supernatural Snark

Under A Star Studded Sky

The Crescive Library

The Book Scoop

Waiting on Wednesday (4)

Waiting On Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted by Breaking the Spine where we share what future releases we are looking forward to.

Over the past couple of months I have discovered Simone Elkeles and I absolutely love her books. I've read and reviewed Leaving Paradise, Perfect Chemistry and Rules of Attraction. I really enjoyed each one of them and now Return to Paradise, the sequel to Leaving Paradise, is coming out next week on September 1st.

So here is the cover and the summary (from publisher's website):

Caleb Becker left Paradise eight months ago, taking with him the secret he promised to take to his grave. If the truth got out, it would ruin everything.

Maggie Armstrong tried to be strong after Caleb broke her heart and disappeared. Somehow, she managed to move on. She’s determined to make a new life for herself.

But then Caleb and Maggie are forced together on a summer trip. They try ignoring their passion for each other, but buried feelings resurface. Caleb must face the truth about the night of Maggie’s accident, or the secret that destroyed their relationship will forever stand between them.

So I'll be making at least one trip to the bookstore next week in order to get a copy. And it definitely won't be my only trip what with all the great books coming out next week!

Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins

Summary (from book):

MY NAME IS KATNISS EVERDEEN.

WHY AM I NOT DEAD?

I SHOULD BE DEAD.

Katniss Everdeen, girl on fire, has survived, even though her home has been destroyed. Gale has escaped. Katniss’s family is safe. Peeta has been captured by the Capitol. District 13 really does exist. There are rebels. There are new leaders. A revolution is unfolding.

It is by design if Katniss was rescued from the arena in the cruel and haunting Quarter Quell, and it is by design that she has long been part of the revolution without knowing it. District 13 has come out of the shadows and is plotting to overthrow the Capitol. Everyone, it seems, has had a hand in the carefully laid plans--except Katniss.

The success of the rebellion hinges on Katniss’s willingness to be a pawn, to accept responsibility for countless lives, and to change the course of the future of Panem. To do this, she must put aside feelings of anger and distrust. She must become the rebels’ Mockingjay--no matter what the personal cost.

***THIS REVIEW CONTAINS NO SPOILERS***

Review:

There was so much hype surrounding the release of Mockingjay, the final book in the Hunger Games trilogy. After reading it, I will say this: the book most definitely lived up to the expectations I had and went even further. I’ll try to give as little away about the book in this review, and I apologize if I do know that I am not doing it on purpose.

The Hunger Games and Catching Fire were never two of the lightest and happiest books but Mockingjay goes even deeper than the previous books did. As you may know, it talks a lot about war, which is far from being a topic handled lightly. Suzanne Collins manages to write close to 400 pages without making the book extremely dark and depressing. Throughout, there are moments of hope, happiness and laughter that manage to make up for all the darkness and war that’s also present. I loved those moments, and at times they were what got me through the pages that were darker and more depressing.

Suzanne Collins really tackles the issue of war and all that it entails. She really looks at the effects it has on people, and how there is always more than one side to every story. Often there will be the sides of opponents and the truth, and even then not everything is necessarily explained. She also looks at how war can take its toll on people; almost every character in the book doesn’t see the point of going on at one point or another and questions their motives for doing what they are doing. There is really one main question asked throughout the novel: is it really right to take revenge on people by doing the same thing to them they did to us? Katniss asks herself and others this question many times during the book.

It’s really hard not to give anything away and I now that if I do people won’t be too happy with me. I’ll leave it at this so if you’re not done reading I won’t have spoiled anything.I’ll leave you with this: while I was reading I laughed, I smiled and I cried and went through a whole range of emotions.

Also, if you haven’t heard of the Hunger Games books you’ve obviously been living under a rock and if you have heard of the books but haven’t read them you are really missing out on some awesome books.

If I Stay be Gayle Forman

Summary (from book):

On a day that started like any other...

Mia had everything: a loving family, a gorgeous, adoring boyfriend, and a bright future full of music and full of choices. Then, in an instant, almost all of that is taken from her. Caught between life and death, between a happy past and an unknowable future, Mia spends one critical day contemplating the only decision she has left--the most important decision she’ll ever make.

Simultaneously tragic and hopeful, this is a romantic, riveting, and ultimately uplifting story about memory, music, living, dying, loving.

Review:

I picked up If I Stay following the recommendation of different people around me. I didn’t really know what to expect but from the summary I was expecting it to be a bit of a depressing read. But it turned out it really wasn’t. Of course there were parts that had me reaching for my box of tissues but there were others that had me smiling and almost laughing. I really enjoyed reading it, which is something I didn’t necessarily expect.

Mia thought that the day she woke up to a snow day would be just like any other day. She was supposed to go on a trip with her family and there was barely any snow on the roads. But apparently that didn’t stop something coming on the road and forcing her dad to swerve...resulting in a trip to the ICU for Mia, among many other things. Now in a coma and barely surviving on her own, Mia has to decided is she’s going to stay or if she’s going to go while watching a parade of her loved ones coming one by one to see how she is doing. But ultimately the decision comes down to her and how she feels about one person, Adam.

I honestly expected this book to be really depressing. I mean it deals with a girl deciding if she’s going to come out of a coma or if she should just let go and die. But it wasn’t depressing at all. Mia was a great narrator. Despite everything that was going on she still found a way to look at things positively, through all the different flashbacks. You could tell that it hard for her to decide what she should do with her life by the way she reacted to everyone coming to talk to her. But then all the flashbacks were there to not only cheer her up but to cheer the reader up, I really needed those at times.

It’s really hard to really say anything about the other characters because there really isn’t that much given away about them. I could obviously tell that Mia’s person were pretty awesome as far as parents are concerned, Teddy is completely adorable, Kim is a kick-ass best friend and Adam is the best boyfriend you could wish for. But beyond that and the fact that everyone wants Mia to live, there isn’t much I can say about them. The point I am getting to is that the way they are works perfectly for the story, if they were more developed I don’t think the story would have the same effect on people.

I was pleasantly surprised by If I Stay in the end. I really enjoyed reading it, and despite the subject matter it’s quite fast paced and a quick read. I would recommend it to anyone who’s looking for a read that will make them both laugh and cry.

Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins

Summary (from book):

Against all odds, Katniss has won the Hunger Games. She and fellow District 12 tribute Peeta Mellark are miraculously still alive. Katniss should be relieved, happy even. After all, she has returned to her family and her longtime friend, Gale. Yet nothing is the way Katniss wishes it to be. Gale holds her at an icy distance. Peeta has turned his back on her completely. And there are whispers of a rebellion against the Capitol--a rebellion that Katniss and Peeta may have helped create.

Much to her shock, Katniss had fueled an unrest she’s afraid she cannot stop. And what scares her even more is that she’s not entirely convinced she should try. As time draws near for Katniss and Peeta to visit the districts on the Capitol’s cruel Victory Tour, the stakes are higher than ever. If they can’t prove, without a shadow of a doubt, that they are lost in their love for each other, the consequences will be horrifying.

In Catching Fire, the second novel of the Hunger Games trilogy, Suzanne Collins continues the story of Katniss Everdeen, testing her more than ever before...and surprising readers at every turn.

Review:

Since I was slightly hazy on some of the details of Catching Fire I decided that while I was waiting for Mockingjay to come out, I should reread the book, and while I was at it I figured I might as well write a review. I just love the Hunger Games books and by rereading Catching Fire I just fell in love with them all over again. Suzanne Collins writes such a captivating and engaging story, it makes putting down the book very difficult. I could seriously just go on forever about how much I love this book, but I’ll spare you and just get to the point.

Katniss Everdeen never thought she could win the Hunger Games, much less win the year that for the first time in history there are two victors. Little did she know that pulling that trick with the berries to save Peeta would be seen as an act of rebellion by President Snow and the Capitol. Now with the Victory Tour coming up, Katniss and Peeta need to prove to the world that they couldn’t be more in love because if they don’t their loved ones will be in grave danger. And then because that isn’t enough, there are more surprises out there for Katniss, some she definitely never saw coming and others she may have played a part in without even realizing it.

I love Katniss, she is just such a great character. Despite some lapses in judgement sometimes, she knows what she wants and just what she needs to do to get that. Even though she’s always had to take care of her family but sometimes she can be a little naïve, especially in the love department and where Peeta and Gale are concerned. But beyond that Katniss is a pretty kick-ass heroine. She just seriously needs to make her mind as to who she wants to be with: Gale or Peeta. If that can finally be decided in Mockingjay I will be a happy reader.

Peeta...I think this is the part where I admit that I am Team Peeta. There is just something about him that you cant’t help but love. He is just so great with Katniss, no matter how many times she turns him down or is just plain rude and mean to him. What I like most about him is that despite his soft and devoted side, he also has a pretty cool tough guy side too, especially when it comes to protecting Katniss. And he’s also not always what he appears to be, just look at how well he can play his part when he’s in front of an audience. So yeah, I love Peeta and I am totally Team Peeta.

I won’t get too much into detail about the story so that I don’t ruin it for people who haven’t read the Hunger Games or Catching Fire but the story is just completely captivating. When I started rereading, I told myself that I wouldn’t read it too fast that way I would actually remember the details this time. But as much as I tried to pace myself, within 24 hours I was finished reading (but I do remember the details this time around). Suzanne Collins just has a way of writing that makes it so you just can’t help but read on even if you don’t want to.

Now that I’m done rereading Catching Fire it makes me that much more anxious to read Mockingjay. You can be sure that I will be at the bookstore before it even opens just so I can get my copy and start reading right away!