Sunday 1 July 2012

Review: Blood Moon - Alyxandra Harvey

Title: Blood Moon
Author: Alyxandra Harvey
Series: The Drake Chronicles
Format: Paperback
Pages: 357
Genre: YA, Paranormal
Published (UK): 5th July 2012 (Bloomsbury)
Previous Books in Series: My Love Lies Bleeding, Blood Feud, Out of Blood, Bleeding Hearts

"I can still smell his blood, Lucy. I can smell it everywhere. It's in the grass, in the air, on me. I'm not safe."

When the vampire tribes convene for the rare Blood Moon ceremonies, Solange Drake is plunged into a battle with her feral nature. The Drake brothers have been raised knowing they had to protect their younger sister at all cost. But forbidden magic and a mysterious stranger have put all of them in terrible danger.
Nicholas is going to have to make a difficult choice: between his girlfriend, Lucy, and his little sister, Solange - blood or love?

The Blood Moon is starting, Solange is struggling to cope with her blood thirst and Lucy's finding that her connections to the Drake's and her enrolment in the Helios-Ra academy a tough combination to deal with.

This fifth book of the Drake Chronicles series gives a different feel to the previous ones, being darker and concentrating more on the action and drama where as the earlier books tended to be more light-hearted and bigger on the romance. I think this one was the first without a new view point as well, concentrating mostly on Lucy, Solange and Nicholas.

My only slight disappointment was that there wasn't much of Hunter and Quinn, but that's just because they're my favourite pairing, rather than real criticism of the book.

The book ends on a fairly big twist and a bit of a cliffhanger, leaving you really needing to read the next one. It's going to be a tough wait for it to come out.

Tuesday 19 June 2012

Review: Burn Mark - Laura Powell

Title: Burn Mark
Author: Laura Powell
Format: Uncorrected Proof
Pages: 416
Genre: YA, Paranormal
Published (UK): 7th June 2012 (Bloomsbury)

Glory is from a family of witches and lives beyond the law. She is desperate to develop her powers and become a witch herself. Lucas is the son of the Chief Prosecutor for the Inquisition — the witches’ mortal enemy — and his privileged life is very different to the forbidden world that he lives alongside.

And then on the same day, it hits them both. Glory and Lucas develop the Fae — the mark of the witch. In one fell stroke, their lives are inextricably bound together, whether they like it or not . . .

Gloriana Starling Wilde, grand-daughter of one of the famous Starling Twins, has the Fae in her blood and in her heart. Growing up in the East End of London at the centre of the Cooper Street Coven, Glory just can't wait for her powers to develop.

Lucas Stearne, son of the Chief Prosecutor for the Inquisitorial Court, couldn't be any more different to Glory if he tried - with his private school education and well-to-do family, Lucas' future lies in the Inquisition, following in the footsteps of his ancestors.

Lucas and Glory's lives become entwined when, on the same day, both get the Fae and turn Witchkind. Glory is delighted; Lucas is filled with dread.

Burn Mark is set in a modern day London, in a world where witches are very much real and while common knowledge, generally untrusted by many. There are some good witches of course but the witch covens are heavily linked to criminal gangs, using their fae for illegal activity. While steep in history and proud of their traditions, The Inquisition are now less about witch burning and more about registering and policing those with the Fae.

This book is an excellent combination of both modern and ancient worlds and I loved the story world that the author created. It's highly detailed, throwing in witch politics and undercover investigations along with more personal mysteries such as what happened to Glory's mum and exactly what is Charlie Morgan up to.

The characters are great to and Glory especially as she is so unlike the type of girl usually found in YA books. She's first described at "the one with big hooped earrings and bare legs mottled with cold" and Lucas' friend calls her a chavvy little hag. Glory wants her Fae to develop and she doesn't want to use it to make herself pretty or get the boy of her dreams. Heck, she doesn't even want to use it for something heroic like defeating evil. Her plans are more of the criminal variety and one of the ways we see the coven using witchwork is to pull of a jewellery heist.

Lucas comes across as a bit of an annoying posh idiot at the start of the book, kind of pretentious and up himself but as he starts to embrace who he is becoming he gets less obnoxious. While not the most likeable of characters to start with, he's a great one all the same and the further into the book I got the more I warmed to him

One of the best parts about the two main characters were that they genuinely hate each other when they first meet and not in a way that screams of potential love interest. It was a refreshing change that the book wasn't filled with a building romance between them.

The third character I have to mention is Troy Morgan - as I did have a little bit of a soft spot for him. Troy is the son of the boss of the Wednesday Coven and Glory's second cousin (I think anyway). He's a bad boy and plays a large hand in a lot of the criminal activity that goes on. There's a bit of a love-hate thing going on between Glory and Troy, essentially because they're kind of expected to end up together, in a "Let's join the covens" type way. While neither particularly likes the idea, they can see the benefits so it makes for a fun to read relationship, filled with bickering and banter.

My only one slight criticism of the book was that there was a lot in it in terms of world building. It's very details and at times it did slow down the plot a little, although without it the story would have been lacking so it's almost a catch-22 situation. Essentially I did like that the author clearly knows this world inside out and it was definitely interesting to read about, there were just a few moments when I wanted to get back to what the characters were doing. It did feel very much like a first book in a series though, so hopefully the author will be writing more - because frankly it would be a waste to have developed such an intriguing world to not use it again.

Sunday 3 June 2012

In My Mailbox - 3rd June 2012




In My Mailbox is a weekly event exploring the books received this week and is hosted by Kristi @ The Story Siren. What books did you get this week?

Stacking the Shelves is a new meme hosted at Tynga Reviews. It's all about sharing the books you are adding to your shelves, may it be physical or virtual.


For Review (from publisher unless stated)

Blood Moon - Alyxandra Harvey
So excited to get my hands on the next installment of the Drake Chronicles. I love this series!

For Kindle

Delirium - Lauren Oliver
I already read this when it first came out but didn't own a copy as I got it from the library. When I saw it was on offer on Amazon, I couldn't resist ... I just need to read book 2 of the series now, which I havne't gotten round to yet.

Mud, Sweat and Tears - Bear Grylls
Again, another Amazon bargain. I love watching Born Survivor on TV so I snatched this up.




Wednesday 30 May 2012

Review: Fever - Dee Shulman

Title: Fever
Author: Dee Shulman
Format: Paperback
Pages: 400
Genre: YA, Sci-fi, Historical
Published: 5th April 2012 (Puffin)

A fearless Roman gladiator. A reckless 21st century girl. A mysterious virus unites them . . .

152 AD. Sethos Leontis, a skilled and mesmerising fighter, is unexpectedly wounded and lies dangerously close to death.

2012 AD. Eva is brilliant - but troubled. Starting her new life at a school for the gifted, a single moment in the lab has terrifying results.

An extraordinary link brings Sethos and Eva together, but it could force them apart - because the fever that grips them cannot be cured and falling in love could be lethal . . . Can love survive when worlds collide and threaten time itself?

I really don't know where to start with this one. I really wanted to like this book, on reading the summary it sounded so promising. Alas, I found it a struggle to get through. Before I say any more I'd like to make it clear that the author of this book can really write, there was absolutely nothing wrong with the writing style, and even the character development was good ... I just really didn't like the characters as people.

Let's start with Eva. Eva lives in current times. She's super intelligent and basically a massive geek. That I can deal with. It's expected considering she's going to go to a school for gifted kids. That she didn't really fit in at her old school - again fair enough. However, if being a genius wasn't enough, Eva's also extremely beautiful (apparently boys throw themselves at her and this makes girls hate her) and is musically talented as well. Even her 'flaws' are irritating. Essentially, her family don't understand her. Which again, somewhat understandable. However, it seems to have been taken to the extreme that because Eva got in trouble for skipping school a few times and that she's maybe a little hard to deal with, her mother seems completely uncaring. It seemed a bit forced to me and the fact it was repeatedly mentioned in Eva's narrative made me just want to tell her to get over it. Maybe if I'd liked her more, I'd have cared more ... but I didn't.

Seth is pretty much similar to Eva in that he's essentially perfect. Yes he's a slave and doesn't have his freedom but again, I didn't like him enough to care about his issues. Plus his obsession with Livia was annoying to me rather than romantic.

The book spent a long time on Eva and Seth's back story - which isn't always a bad thing, I like to know everything about characters I'm reading about, for me though it dragged due to the above points. I was also a little confused by the explanations of things. The author was very good at throwing in random knowledge about things and while clearly well researched, often it seemed pointless. Especially as when it got to the parts that needed explanation there wasn't much. Such as the alternative world Seth finds himself in. I still don't really get the hows and whys of that. Neither do I really understand the 'fever'. Maybe this is just me wanting to know more about it - I am a Scientist after all - but I felt that it wasn't fully explained.

While I was disappointed with this book, I have read many good reviews about it, so it's clearly a personal preference thing. Like I said, the writing is good and the concept was intriguing. I was just caught up in disliking the characters and unsatisfied by the explantions of the plot.

Tuesday 29 May 2012

Review: Forgiven - Jana Oliver

Title: Forgiven
Author: Jana Oliver
Series: The Demon Trappers
Format: Kindle
Pages: 407
Genre: YA, Supernatural
Published (UK): 1st March 2012 (Macmillan)
Previous Books in Series: Forsaken, Forbidden

Riley Blackthorne. Kicking hell’s ass one demon at a time...

Riley has made a bargain with Heaven, and now they've come to collect.

Lucifer's finest are ruling the streets and it seems that Armageddon might be even closer than Riley imagined. But with her soul and her heart in play it's all she can do to keep herself alive, let alone save the world. Riley's not afraid of kicking some major demon butt, but when it comes to a battle between Heaven and Hell, she might need a little help...

As the youngest member of the Demon Trappers guild, and the only girl, life isn't easy for Riley Blackthorne. She's lost her father, her ex-boyfriend believes she's in league with Lucifer (and he's doing his best to convince the other Trapper's) and she fell for a fallen angel - which didn't turn out too good.

With her father being reanimated and her being handed into the care of one of the Master Trappers, Riley is starting to try and get as back to normal as possible. If only things were that simple. Someone's tampering with the holy water supply and the demons are just refusing to die.

The Demon Trappers series is one of my current favourites and this third book lived completely up to my expectations. I love Riley's character as while she's tough and independent, she's also scared and vulnerable. She'll never admit being scared, or that she may not be quite as capable (yet) as some of the more experienced trappers but there's also a little part of her that's relieved if she's told to stay behind.

One of my favourite parts of this book was the relationship between Riley and Beck. Riley spends most of her time frustrated with Beck because he's treating her like a little kid. She's starting to know another side of him though - the real Beck which he doesn't usually let anyone see. Beck's also coming to realise that he doesn't just see Riley as a substitute little sister and that his reaction to finding out about her and Sori wasn't just him being over-protective.

 For me the Demon Trappers series is a bunch of realistic, well written characters set in an exciting, if a little scary, world.

I'm a Bad Blogger

Okay, so I knew I hadn't blogged or posted any reviews or anything for a while ... I did not realise that it's been around 6 weeks. Wow! Time flies when you're having fun working stupid amounts of hours. Anyways, I figured it was time I started getting caught up so I'll hopefully be posting a bunch of reviews over the next week or so. Although, with limited time and brain power for reading, I've kind of fallen back on rereading old favourites so I'm not sure how many 'new' books I actually have to review.

Wednesday 11 April 2012

Teaser Tuesday - Fever




Teaser Tuesday is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should be Reading Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

* Grab your current read
* Open to a random page
* Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
* BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! Make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others.
* Share the title and author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

Fever - Dee Shulman
Sethos Leontis's hopes were limited. Although some irrepressible part of him hoped to live to see another day, he knew he had little control over his destiny. A gladiator lived and died by the will of others.

Monday 9 April 2012

It's Monday - 9th April 2012




It's Monday! What are you reading? is a weekly event to celebrate what we are reading for the week hosted at Book Journey, Post the books completed last week, the books you're currently reading, and the books to be read this week. Please comment or leave a link to let me know what you're reading this week!

Completed last week

I was away from home for part of the week, so didn't get much reading done. I did visit the Harry Potter Studio Tour though which was awesome! And finally went to see The Hunger Games as well!



Tomorrow Land - Mari Mancusi

Currently Reading



The Demon Trappers: Forgiven - Jana Oliver
The Queen's Governess - Karen Harper
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams (reread)

Up soon



The Death Cure - James Dashner

Sunday 8 April 2012

In My Mailbox - 8th April 2012




In My Mailbox is a weekly event exploring the books received this week and is hosted by Kristi @ The Story Siren. What books did you get this week?

For Review (from publisher unless stated)


The Death Cure - James Dashner (Chicken House)
Girl About Time - Kerstin Gier (Chicken House)
Stolen - Lucy Christopher (Chicken House)
Hitler's Angel - William Osborne (Chicken House)

Chicken House also sent me a limited edition book sampler, previewing some of their book releases for this year. Oh and a chocolate lollipop which unfortunately I ate before taking the photos *shifty eyes*

For Kindle



The Demon Trappers: Forgiven - Jana Oliver
CHERUB: The Recruit: Bk. 1 - Robert Muchamore
Mockingbird - Kathryn Erskine

Other stuff


These are the awesome things I brought from my visit to the Harry Potter Studio Tour this weekend - which was AMAZING! I'll post some pictures of the actual tour later in the week.



Monday 2 April 2012

The Fever Is Coming




Fever - Dee Shulman
A fearless Roman gladiator. A reckless 21st century girl. A mysterious virus unites them . . .

152 AD. Sethos Leontis, a skilled and mesmerising fighter, is unexpectedly wounded and lies dangerously close to death.

2012 AD. Eva is brilliant - but troubled. Starting her new life at a school for the gifted, a single moment in the lab has terrifying results.

An extraordinary link brings Sethos and Eva together, but it could force them apart - because the fever that grips them cannot be cured and falling in love could be lethal . . . Can love survive when worlds collide and threaten time itself?



Tuesday 27 March 2012

Teaser Tuesday - The Queen's Governess




Teaser Tuesday is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should be Reading Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

* Grab your current read
* Open to a random page
* Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
* BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! Make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others.
* Share the title and author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

The Queen's Governess - Karen Harper

The next morning, without seeing Cromwell again, I was off to Hampton Court on a royal barge, one stripped of it's hangings, crests and seat cushions, though loaded with wooden boxes tied down with straps. I intended to see the countryside sights all the way but a companion - a young, handsome man who leaped on at the last moment in the most brave style - took much of my attention.

Monday 26 March 2012

It's Monday - 26th March 2012




It's Monday! What are you reading? is a weekly event to celebrate what we are reading for the week hosted at Book Journey, Post the books completed last week, the books you're currently reading, and the books to be read this week. Please comment or leave a link to let me know what you're reading this week!

Completed last week



The Immortals: Evermore - Alyson Noel
Heist Society - Ally Carter
Variant - Robison Wells
Buffy the Vampire Slayer Omnibus Volume 1 - Joss Whedon

Currently Reading



The Queen's Governess - Karen Harper
Tomorrow Land - Mari Mancusi

Up soon



A Million Suns - Beth Revis

Disqus for A Trillian Books

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