Review: Ruin and Rising by Leigh Bardugo

Ruin and Rising by Leigh Bardugo (#3 in the Grisha trilogy)
Format: eBook
Published by Indigo on 19th June 2014
Pages: 368
Genre: YA, Fantasy
Rating: 
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The capital has fallen. The Darkling rules Ravka from his shadow throne. Alina will have to forge new alliances and put aside old rivalries as she and Mal race to find the last of Morozova's amplifiers. But as Alina begins to unravel the Darkling's secrets, she reveals a past that will forever alter her understanding of the bond they share and the power she wields. The firebird is the one thing that stands between Ravka and destruction - but claiming it could cost Alina the very future she is fighting for.

Thrilling and beautifully written, a stunning conclusion to the trilogy in my opinion and far better than the first two books. I know that not many people will agree with me, but damn, I was surprised at how much I enjoyed this book. Although I liked the first two books okay, I wasn't head over heels in love or anything – until this book happened to me. I wasn't expecting to be blown away because the first two hadn't impressed me hugely, but blown away I was.

Review: Days of Blood and Starlight by Laini Taylor

Days of Blood and Starlight by Laini Taylor (#2 in the Daughter of Smoke and Bone trilogy)
Format: eBook
Published by Hodder & Stoughton on 8th November 2012
Pages: 528
Genre: YA, Fantasy
Rating:
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Once upon a time, an angel and a devil fell in love and dared to imagine a new way of living - one without massacres and torn throats and bonfires of the fallen, without revenants or bastard armies or children ripped from their mothers' arms to take their turn in the killing and dying.

Once, the lovers lay entwined in the moon's secret temple and dreamed of a world that was a like a jewel-box without a jewel - a paradise waiting for them to find it and fill it with their happiness.

This was not that world.

This started out kind of slow (all the jumping around many different POVs took some getting used to), and then it just sort of... exploded.

It took a while for me to adjust to how much more... expansive this feels in comparison to Daughter of Smoke and Bone, and how much darker and more harrowing it is. Daughter of Smoke and Bone was about love. And this series will surely always be about love, and the things that love can achieve. But where Daughter of Smoke and Bone showed the brighter side of things, and was filled with sweetness and joy and happiness and hope, Days of Blood and Starlight introduces the reader to despair, and grief. The landscape of the book is bleak. There is so much death, and pain, and horror. This book shows us how complicated everything really is. It lays bare the realities of war. The despicable lengths that both sides, chimaera and angel, will descend to.

Review: The Glass Republic by Tom Pollock

The Glass Republic by Tom Pollock (#2 in the Skyscraper Throne series)
Format: eBook
Published by Jo Fletcher Books on 1 August 2013
Pages: 448
Genre: YA, Fantasy
Rating: 
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This review contains vague spoilers for the first book. Please stop reading if you haven't read the first book and would like to stay away from spoilers entirely! You can read my review of the first book, The City's Son, here.

Pen’s life is all about secrets: the secret of the city’s spirits, deities and monsters her best friend Beth discovered, living just beyond the notice of modern Londoners; the secret of how she got the intricate scars that disfigure her so cruelly – and the most closely guarded secret of all: Parva, her mirror-sister, forged from her reflections in a school bathroom mirror. Pen’s reflected twin is the only girl who really understands her.

Then Parva is abducted and Pen makes a terrible bargain for the means to track her down. In London-Under-Glass looks are currency, and Pen’s scars make her a rare and valuable commodity. But some in the reflected city will do anything to keep Pen from the secret of what happened to the sister who shared her face.

I HAVE SO MANY EMOTIONS.

ALL THE FEELS. ALLLLL THE FEELS.

I don't even know how to write this review? All I want to do is curl up in a corner and clutch this book to me (it's a pity I only have the Kindle edition) and cry about Pen. Wonderful, beautiful Pen.

Okay. Um. Let me just. Gather my thoughts. *deep breath*

Review: Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor

Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor (#1 in the Daughter of Smoke and Bone series)
Format: Paperback
Published by Hodder & Stoughton on 29th September 2011 (first published 27th September 2011)
Pages: 418
Genre: YA, Fantasy
Rating: 
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Errand requiring immediate attention. Come.

The note was on vellum, pierced by the talons of the almost-crow that delivered it. Karou read the message. 'He never says please', she sighed, but she gathered up her things. When Brimstone called, she always came.

In general, Karou has managed to keep her two lives in balance. On the one hand, she's a seventeen-year-old art student in Prague; on the other, errand-girl to a monstrous creature who is the closest thing she has to family. Raised half in our world, half in 'Elsewhere', she has never understood Brimstone's dark work - buying teeth from hunters and murderers - nor how she came into his keeping. She is a secret even to herself, plagued by the sensation that she isn't whole.

Now the doors to Elsewhere are closing, and Karou must choose between the safety of her human life and the dangers of a war-ravaged world that may hold the answers she has always sought.

Oh my god, this darling, beautiful, upsettingly lovely book, how do I even begin to talk about it?

Daughter of Smoke and Bone is a story about family and love, about war and pain and hatred. It's a story about magic, but most of all it's a story about hope – hope that is stronger than any magic.

I could give this book all the stars in the world and it still wouldn't quite express how much I was just enthralled, held tight in the sweet embrace of this gorgeous book for one delightful afternoon. I cried, I laughed, I melted.

Review: Pantomime by Laura Lam

Pantomime by Laura Lam (#1 in the Micah Grey series)
Format: Paperback
Published by Strange Chemistry on 7th February 2013 (first published on 5th Feburary 2013)
Pages: 416
Genre: YA, Fantasy
Rating: 
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R.H. Ragona’s Circus of Magic is the greatest circus of Ellada. Nestled among the glowing blue Penglass – remnants of a mysterious civilisation long gone – are wonders beyond the wildest imagination. It’s a place where anything seems possible, where if you close your eyes you can believe that the magic and knowledge of the vanished Chimeras is still there. It’s a place where anyone can hide.

Iphigenia Laurus, or Gene, the daughter of a noble family, is uncomfortable in corsets and crinoline, and prefers climbing trees to debutante balls. Micah Grey, a runaway living on the streets, joins the circus as an aerialist’s apprentice and soon becomes the circus’s rising star. But Gene and Micah have balancing acts of their own to perform, and a secret in their blood that could unlock the mysteries of Ellada.

Holy shitballs, this book is amazing.

I'm in love! I am so in love! I have already ordered a copy of Shadowplay (the next book in the series) and I can't wait till I can get my hands on it! I am just head over heels in love with this book and the world within it, and Micah. MICAH.

Review: Two Boys Kissing by David Levithan

Two Boys Kissing by David Levithan
Format: eBook
Published by Egmont UK on 27th March 2014 (first published on 27th August 2013)
Pages: 152
Genre: YA, Contemporary
Rating: 
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New York Times bestselling author David Levithan tells the based-on-true-events story of Harry and Craig, two 17-year-olds who are about to take part in a 32-hour marathon of kissing to set a new Guinness World Record—all of which is narrated by a Greek Chorus of the generation of gay men lost to AIDS.

While the two increasingly dehydrated and sleep-deprived boys are locking lips, they become a focal point in the lives of other teen boys dealing with languishing long-term relationships, coming out, navigating gender identity, and falling deeper into the digital rabbit hole of gay hookup sites—all while the kissing former couple tries to figure out their own feelings for each other.

Okay, this book was absolutely AMAZING, and it almost made me cry many, many times, despite the fact that it is a fairly short book, but first of all, I have a rant. One which I am sure is not remotely original, but one which I must nevertheless make.

Look at that cover.

Now look at this cover:

Now look at the first cover again, which is the UK paperback version.

And now look back at me.

I am not pleased with the UK paperback version.

The US hardcover version is making a statement that fits in perfectly with the message of the book. Look at that title and that beautiful image and how in your face it is: two real, live boys kissing, their faces filling up the entire cover. That gigantic title just slammed right on top of the image. You can't ignore it. The visibility is precisely the point.

The UK paperback version is just so feeble and bland in comparison. THEY'RE NOT EVEN KISSING. Nor are there actually any boys. Just some silhouettes made out of words. Nothing about the cover is eye-catching.

I'm very sad about this. (Actually I'm just not very fond of all the redesigns for Levithan's covers in the UK. They all look like this. They are all supremely boring.)

However, I'm here to talk about the actual book, and the book itself is wonderful. It's my new favourite solo Levithan, and it's one of my new favourite books ever.

Review: The Miseducation of Cameron Post by emily m. danforth

The Miseducation of Cameron Post by emily m. danforth
Format: Paperback
Published by Balzer + Bray on 28th May 2013 (first published 7th February 2012)
Pages: 480

Genre: YA, Contemporary

Rating: 
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When Cameron Post's parents die suddenly in a car crash, her shocking first thought is relief. Relief they'll never know that, hours earlier, she had been kissing a girl.

But that relief doesn't last, and Cam is soon forced to move in with her conservative aunt Ruth and her well-intentioned but hopelessly old-fashioned grandmother. She knows that from this point on, her life will forever be different. Survival in Miles City, Montana, means blending in and leaving well enough alone (as her grandmother might say), and Cam becomes an expert at both.

Then Coley Taylor moves to town. Beautiful, pickup-driving Coley is a perfect cowgirl with the perfect boyfriend to match. She and Cam forge an unexpected and intense friendship--one that seems to leave room for something more to emerge. But just as that starts to seem like a real possibility, ultrareligious Aunt Ruth takes drastic action to "fix" her niece, bringing Cam face-to-face with the cost of denying her true self--even if she's not exactly sure who that is.

This book is such a rare star in the YA genre.

I wish there were more YA books like it. The Miseducation of Cameron Post is incredibly well-written and beautifully crafted from start to finish. The prose is just stunning, breathtaking from the very beginning, atmospheric and detailed. After reading the first dozen pages or so from the free Kindle sample, I knew I wanted a paper copy of this book. So I got one, and I'm so glad. This is the kind of book you want to hug to your chest while you sigh happily.