Daphne (Winged Reviews)

What started off as wonder (and I admit, a bit of confusion) just became absolutely exceptional. What a spectacular book! I did try to resist as wartime books really aren't my cup of tea but I couldn't not love it. Full review to come.

What started off as wonder (and I admit, a bit of confusion) just became absolutely exceptional. What a spectacular book! I did try to resist as wartime books really aren't my cup of tea but I couldn't not love it. Full review to come.

A solid mystery read. I love a good boarding school book, and I enjoyed the story and Anne a lot. Perhaps too many peripheral characters. Full review to come.

2.5 stars. The bad writing and tedious info-dumping was balanced out once again by an interesting romp through beautiful European cities, and a thought-provoking philosophical theme. Plus points for making me want to read Dante's Inferno and sip espresso in Florence (and I don't even like coffee). And I really need to read more if I'm getting my philosophy from Dan Brown. Full review to come. Maybe.

2.5 stars. A little bit too much insta-love and not enough of the interesting part of the book. Needed more mythology/history and less fatalistic declarations of love. Ended really oddly as well. Not sure about reading the second book at this point, which is a HUGE disappointment as I was really looking forward to this series. Full review to come.

Cute contemporary that deals with some very real issues. Enjoyable read!

Insane ending. So much love for this book and the characters! Full review to come when I'm a bit more coherent.

This book made me swoon, laugh, cry and quiver in fear and loathing. Exceptional story and world-building, with characters to love. Full review to come!

Originally published at Winged Reviews

In trying to articulate my excitement for wonder that is The Screaming Staircase, I was going to write my shortest ever review and leave it at that, because it summarises the book so well: freaking brilliant. (Well, freaky and brilliant, really).

Then I thought it might help to elaborate. My expectations were set extremely high when I first heard about this book at the Random House Children’s Publishers blogger brunch. It ticked all the right boxes for me—great author, alternative London setting, a cavalier hero, smart female narrator. Plus, actually having Jonathan Stroud there demonstrating how to fight ghosts with a rapier, salt, chains and a teapot was pretty perfect.

In this version of England, there is a Problem—ghosts are everywhere and their touch can kill. You can feel them, but you eventually can’t see them. As people grow older, their ability to see ghosts fades away. Enter Lockwood & Co., a small agency founded by teenager Anthony Lockwood to help those with a Visitor problem. Unlike the big corporations with legacy adults running the show, Lockwood & Co. is solely run by our three young protagonists.

Our narrator is Lucy Carlyle, a trainee who possesses superior ghost ‘empathy’. She moved down to London due to an incident where she used to work and after countless applications (at other firms), ends up as the newest employee of Lockwood & Co. As luck would have it, one Lucy and Lockwood’s cases…goes up in smoke, which leads to the little company owing a lot of money and having to risk all by taking on a huge case potentially out of their depths.

This book had some seriously chilling moments. I brought this to read on my honeymoon and every time a wave crashed, I almost threw the book up in the air and hid under the covers. These are not friendly ghosts Lockwood & Co. deal with—they are vengeful, dark spirits that cause extreme terror and harm. When our heroes eventually face the titular screaming staircase, I was truly frightened, not to mention a certain encounter with a floating head (yes, I am a scaredy cat, but just wait until you read it).

That said, the book’s tone is generally light (yes, it’s light and scary, I don’t know how Stroud manages this brilliance). The banter between Lockwood, Lucy and the third member of the trio, the cynical researcher George Cubbins is extremely fun to read, especially as they live together and have to get used to each other’s odd habits. I love the humorous understatements in the face of true danger, something I’ve come to know and love from Stroud’s writing. Of course, there are the required tea and biscuit breaks, which adds to the British charm.

My only gripe about reading this book early is that I now have to wait even longer for the sequel. I excited to see the world-building get even deeper, learn more about Lucy’s abilities and discover the cause of the true mystery behind the Problem. Recommended for absolutely everyone, kids and adults alike will be enthralled by it.

I'm torn about what to rate this book. I didn't enjoy the plot, but OMG SO MANY FEELS! I also loved the love triangle, the characters and how it was all resolved. So many tears. Good times Cassie Clare, you redeemed yourself in the end. Even with the giant worm. Full review to come.

First love at its finest. A supremely well done book of feels and love and music. Full review to come.

Possibly less entertaining than the first. Full review to come.

My cousin is writing a YA book! SO EXCITING!

Originally published at Winged Reviews.

When time travel is done right, it is phenomenal and Cristin Terrill got it absolutely spot on with her sci-fi, time bending debut! All Our Yesterdays had me hooked from the start and took me on a heart-pounding, fast-paced dystopian adventure. I haven’t cared for characters’ survival this much since The Hunger Games—Em and Finn completely won me over and the ending absolutely blew my mind!

Em finds herself locked in a cell alone and next door to Finn, both of them being tortured for information. After finding a mysterious note hidden in her cell’s drain, Em decides there’s no other option but to break out, go back in time and do the unthinkable. The story took me on a rollercoaster of emotions! I want to heap more praise about the wonderful plot, but I think its best read not really knowing what’s going on and experiencing the wonder when it all falls into place.

The quality of the writing was superb, even more so if you consider that this is Terrill’s debut. Not only was it non-stop excitement (I had real trouble putting the book down once I got started), but the characters were all so incredibly likable. She managed to create someone real in Em, who I came to know and love within a very short space of time. I loved her tenacity, strength, and her ability to grow up and make near impossible decisions so quickly. I also loved sweet, kind Finn, who is just as brave, funny and most importantly, a good friend as well as a boyfriend. I loved seeing how their relationship grew ‘backwards’—knowing how they ended up and seeing their relationship dynamic change and grow. And their banter was glorious.

There were so many incredibly cool scenes in this book as a result of the way the plot was set up and it’s taking all my willpower not to hit you with CAPSLOCK giddiness, but in addition to that, it also had all the FEELS (ok, I hit you with one caps). I even cared about the supposed villain, but mostly I cared about Em and Finn throughout, future to past, even when they were essentially different people. This is what made it a winning combination for me. Also, Terrill really couldn’t have wrapped the story up any better. I was satisfied and a little hopeful, which is just how I love to be after reading a great book.

I highly recommend this book to anyone! You won’t be disappointed.

(Just wanted to say a quick thank you to Bloomsbury for my review being quoted in the UK paperback edition of the book! I'm extremely excited and honoured.)

4.5 stars. Delicious and utterly delightful. A must-read for anyone that enjoys dark humour, quirky characters and good food. Full review to come.

4.5 Stars, Originally Published at Winged Reviews.

Simply, this was a beautifully sad but uplifting tale. When I began reading, my heart ached with that familiar feeling when I know I’m reading something special. If You Find Me had me loving, laughing, crying and hoping nothing but the best for the girls. Big hugs to them both.

The book starts at what Carey considers ‘The End’. Home for Carey and her sister Jenessa is with their drug-addicted mother in a beat down camper van hidden away in a Tennessee national forest. One day, after her mother has been gone for over a month, her father and a social worker come to see the girls to introduce them back into ‘normal’ life. Carey has terrible memories of her mother taking them away from her father, and Jenessa has been mute for a year, ever since a faithful incident that haunts Carey’s conscience.

Seeing Carey and Nessa’s struggles with readapting back into society was beautiful. I was so touched every time they found joy in such mundane things, like taking a shower, or having food that wasn’t beans. I began to appreciate everything more, and realised how lucky we are to have all the comforts we take for granted like food, shelter and clean clothes. It was incredibly moving when Carey started to miss things from her life in the woods, like the wood smoke from their campfire and the sound of the trees, and this book is littered with so many other little glimpses of humanity.

I attribute this to Murdoch’s evocative writing. Carey is a wonderful narrator—her complexity of feelings and point of view is fascinating. Murdoch uses Carey’s unconventional upbringing to bring a beautiful lyricism to the writing and the quirks like Carey’s tendency not to pronounce ‘g’s or call everyone ‘Sir’ added a touch of realism. Apart from her unique voice, I just really admired Carey. She’s one of the bravest characters I’ve read in YA fiction, not because she’s jumping on trains or great with a bow and arrow, but for her sheer tenacity and ability to act and accept like she does, despite her horrible luck in life. She’s truly exceptional. I was so pleased for her when she made friends with Pixie and Ryan, who I thought was incredibly sweet.

I walked the line between happiness and heartbreak throughout the whole book. I wanted so much good to happen for the girls that I was on my toes the entire time, praying that nothing will go horribly wrong. I loved all the goodness that the girls experienced and how they were treated by their new family, but queasy with dread whenever I read about their life in the woods. My only qualm is that I didn’t feel the flashbacks were integrated smoothly into the story, and broke the flow.

Safe to say I cried at lot at the end. It was an incredibly moving book and one that will stay with me for a long time. A real must read!