Book Buyer, Book Blogger

I got my copy of this book from applying to be a World Book Night 2013 book giver and decided that since I hadn't read the book myself, that I would keep a copy and give it a go myself. From the synopsis, I expected some sort of horrifying world with lots of adventure and to say I was disappointed is quite an understatement. The introduction of a female character, although highly predictable, ruined how I felt about this book, and this wasn't the only problem I had with this book.

Much like other first books in trilogies, I completely understand that it focuses on setting scenes, introducing characters and setting up the plot and so on, but I was still pretty disappointed on how these features were dispersed across the book. I didn't like how much time was spent on the characters and how little was spent on the world building, considering that's what the synopsis focused so heavily on. The descriptions in the book were limited and only gave the basics in comparison to other books I'd read quite recently, and affected just how much I could imagine and envision, however, this could have been something very personal and nothing against the writing and Patrick Ness himself. The amount of travelling the characters endured only gave me more to dislike about this book, and the more they travelled, the more I began to disengage with the story and feel anything for the characters. Only within the last 60 pages did I really begin to feel anything, and remotely enjoy the story. However, I did like the style of writing the further the story progressed. It said a lot about our main character Todd and helped portray how much he learnt and how he thought throughout. The idea behind the plot was good, but sadly didn't make up for the world building, in my opinion.

I also felt quite conflicted when it came to the characters too. Too many random and unnecessary characters frustrate me and this book had a lot of them. The fact that animals and creatures in this book could talk only added to the amount, as those animals then became characters in their own right. There's only so many times you can read about sheep saying 'sheep' before it gets a little boring. However, I did like two characters especially, Viola and Manchee. Viola was a strong and independent character who didn't rely on Todd throughout the story; she actually proved she was intelligent and was worth the same, if not more than Todd, which really highlighted the difficulties women go through to be heard and respected in todays society and there's. Manchee however was my favourite hands down. He was a loyal friend towards Todd and was anything and everything Todd needed him to be. He was trustworthy and respectful and in the end, was so much more than just a talking dog. I appreciated what Patrick Ness did with Manchee, as I really began to understand the messages of sacrifice and friendship.

There were other smaller features I didn't like about this book, and the main of these were just how many unanswered questions I had once I'd reached the end of the book. Questions about the Army, Todd, the infamous book, these questions really frustrated me once I'd finished reading and they didn't help my mood any once I'd began to think about the review. In some cases, leaving unanswered questions encourages a reader to read the next installment, but in this case, it really hasn't, and neither did the predictable cliffhanger ending; it actually only increased my negative feelings towards this book, which was sad, as I don't enjoy disliking a book so much. Another feature I didn't like was Aaron. Just Aaron. His character was interesting, and I couldn't help but love his personality enough though it's such a strange one, but I really began to get pretty bored of his recurring appearances.

However, there were features of the book I did like. The reference of Noise and Silence being creatures themselves, and personifying them both really gave an edge to the story. It provide a great stage for the relationship building between both our main characters and probably was the most interesting part about the plot and the story. I also liked how young our main character, Todd, was. He was the first main character that I'd read about that was younger the age of 16, and this was a great change, as this meant there were less hormones in the air, less romance involved throughout and just a much better connection between both Viola and Todd. Another feature I liked a lot was the constant referring to the names of other titles in the series and the series name itself. I love continuity through books and this was just a lovely touch the series.

I really don't know if I was just in a negative mood whilst reading this book, or whether it's how the book made me feel, but I don't think it lived up to it's hype for me. I expected so much from this book, and it just failed to deliver. I can only hope that the copies I gave away on World Book Night went to people who enjoyed it more than me. I doubt I'll be continuing with the series, but if everyone loved the same things, the world would be a very boring place.

3 Stars (just about)

I'd like to first start off by thanking the author Amanda Gray for a digital arc copy of this book via NetGalley, my first ever digital arc copy of anything, and I thoroughly enjoyed being one of the may chosen to review it. It's only with much sadness that I didn't actually get out of the book what I feel the author put in, but I'll get to that later.

First, I'd like to congratulate the publishers and designers on, possibly the most beautiful cover I've seen these year. I feel that the cover's design goes so well with the story within, especially that of the cold and wintery feel you get from looking at it. The beautiful clip art style details top and tailing the title and on each of the chapter starting pages was also a lovely touch, and I feel that all these details, even that of the girl on the front looking and feeling lost all came together to create a breathtaking cover, which truthfully, was one of the two reasons I wanted to give this book a go. Once again, I had a case of 'I want it because it's pretty' which feels a little stupid considering I don't have a physical copy to look at, and I probably never will. Of course, the other reason I decided I wanted to give this book a go was that it was free, and I absolutely love anything that's free.

Plot wise, I feel that Endless just wasn't my thing at all. I struggled a lot with the fact most of it was based strongly on Russian and history and a family called the Romanov's, and while this was covered quickly on the synopsis, I didn't think it was going to be a huge disadvantage to not know much about it while reading. Turns out I was wrong, and while I could have done research both during and after reading, I don't think it would have made much of an improvement on my own personal enjoyment from reading Endless. While I did also like the idea of time travel and the whole romantic, if you can call it that, aspect of doing anything for the one you love and 'belong' with, I just couldn't take to the plot, or the characters very much at all. One of the biggest problems I had was just how Ms Gray seemed to try and paint over (pardon the pun) the insta-love she created between our main protagonist and potential love interest by creating a twist that meant they were in fact long lost lovers. I just couldn't get past this aspect through all 269 pages of my copy. (My digital copy had 269 pages, yet paperback copies seem to have 384. I hope the digital copy didn't lose some chapters along the way.)

Yet, even though I had a lot of other problems with Endless other than those I've already mentioned, I did however enjoy the character development between our main protagonist and another character, who may or may not look like a love interest depending how you interpret the story. Both of these characters became more confident with themselves and risked a large number of things for the two people they both cared for most, and I liked this feature. Another aspect I was pretty happy about was the way the author included a lot of 21st century family issues that people go through, especially that of abusive family members and deaths of close family members. These good points however just weren't enough for me to balance out the negatives, yet I do believe that in the right readers hands, this book could be beautiful and from the writing format and feeling I got, it could also be a beautiful series, just one I shan't be continuing with.

2 Stars.

I had no idea how this book was going to pan out or whether I would even like it when I first picked it up at my college library, but I did know instantly that the size of Out and the synopsis made my decision easy to make, and so I chose to take it out and give it a go. My first guess on this book was that it would be a short little emotional book, with some honest truths on the subject inside and maybe a little lesson learning, but whether this was down to my out of proportion expectations or whether it was just what I would have prefered, who knows, but Out didn't deliver on that front, at all, and that possible made my enjoyment for the book a lot less than it could have been.

This was not only my first time reading about the subject of being gay, but was also my first short read, and I really feel that even with my limited amount of knowledge on the GLBT genre that there are much better, longer books that cover the subject so much better than Out does. To me, Out felt like it was targeted at much younger people than myself; in age ranges from 12 - 15, and while I didn't know this at the time, I think it's fair to say if I did know this, I more than likely would not have picked it up. While this is not the books fault and is more the fault of my college for placing it in the young adult section, it was still a problem I couldn't get past. I also feel that the synopsis was extremely misleading. Whether this is my naiveness considering the style of the cover or whether it genuinely is misleading, but the use of the word 'love' really seemed to annoy me as I made my way quickly throughout the story. While the synopsis spoke about our leading lady 'loving' the her best friend, and said best friend 'loving' someone else, I think the word they were looking for was actually fancy, or like, or even the phrase find attractive, but they most definitely were not meant to use love. I feel this is reason I expected some genuine relatable emotions and just got lot with a lot of shame and memories of days at my secondary school.

However, I didn't give Out no stars, so there must have been something, if not things I liked, right? Right, there were, but they're extremely personal, so no getting your hopes up. I personally have been through the difficulty of being unaccepted in secondary school; I was bullied for being bisexual after I came out at 13, which in the school I went to, was almost like a fashion statement, and while some of the girls and guys said it and then claimed it was a 'stage', I was honest and after awhile it all died down and no-one ever questioned me on it because they had considered my 'coming out' as a 'stage' too. While my school past is different to how the story in Out panned out, both the book and my experiences crossed paths on more than one occasion. The examples of rumours and myths in this book reminded me of those we had in school, and the instant harshness and generally repulsive behaviour from the other teenagers in the book really took me back to a time when people I used to know where just as ignorant and uneducated as these characters. While I didn't particularly like how short and almost too simple the story was, I did like how it made me remember an attitude I'd almost forgotten existed.

I do think that if this book had much more recognition in the younger parts of libraries, both at school and in the public, then it would be a great way to teach some of the children that the rumours and myths they think they know, that their miseducated knowledge and attitudes, that there general behaviour towards a brave step of actually stepping out, is all untrue. I also feel that if there more books, maybe a little bit detailed and descriptive, but similar to Out where out there for younger teens, then sexual and personal attitudes in our society would change. I'm glad I spent the 20 minutes on my bus journey reading this, however I doubt it'll be in my memory for longer than 2 weeks.

2 Stars.

My blog post on Out.

Having never read any of Stephenie Meyer's work before, the most likely of possibile reasons being that I've been doing my utmost best to avoid the Twilight series, but also because I'm always generally wary of marmite authors, I was really conflicted about even reading The Host in the first place. For months it had been on my bookshelves, intimidating me with it's size, making me wary of how long it could take me to read, having just finished a reading marathon of about 13 books in August, but I bit the bullet and chose to at least attempt this book, and once again, I found myself between a rock and hard place, a feeling I hadn't experienced until not that long ago, with The Knife of Never Letting Go.

The book started off pretty well, diminishing some of my automatic assumptions of the style and format of the book; I had prepared myself for split narration between both female characters and for a much more abrupt and violent style of 'alien', both of which I was pleasantly surprised I didn't get. For such a large standalone book, I had also expected The Host to have a balance between world building and character building; much of the world building to be scene setting and then used more throughout, while the character building would, as you would assume, take part throughout the book, but I personally didn't like the balance between the two. I remember feeling quite elated within the first 100 pages, full of excitement and being proud of myself for finally picking up this book. I was more than happy to give the characters time and for the story to unravel, and I was so certain that I would love this book. So Amanda, what happened for you to feel so differently 100, 200 pages later?

Now I'm not going to rip this book to smithereens as I have in the past, as it's not necessarily the author or the plots fault that I haven't gotten out of it what the author has spent time to put into it, and for that reason, I can't completely and utterly slate the writing or the style, or specific qualities and features I myself didn't enjoy, while others might, but I can mention what I didn't like and why, so here goes. The actual plot implied on my copy of The Host had me feeling intrigued and amazed, and I was all but more than ready to be on an adventure with our main character(s) to find this 'man they both love', but I began to see that this wasn't really much of a plot at all as they find said man near enough a quarter of the way through the entire book and this actually frustrated me much more than I had expected. If this wasn't bad enough, the book felt as though it had slowed down completely, almost as if it were not moving at all. I couldn't have cared any less about the characters baking bread, or eating bread, or if they'd been making love to the bread; I reached a point where I stopped eating bread altogether while I continued reading because I was fed up of the mention of it. After around 200 pages, I seriously felt like I was dragging my heels through the sand and forcing myself unhappily to read this book. I felt that both Meyers and the publishers gave me false excitement, and encouraged me to spend money I could have spent elsewhere on more honest and truthful books, but as I mentioned earlier, these negatives are purely personal.

It was when I reached a state past 450 pages that I realised I really wasn't enjoying this book. I had begun to feel nothing but irritation for most of the characters by this point, not to mention annoyance surrounding the so called 'three person, two bodied' love triangle, which to me, was actually a three person, one soul, three bodied lust/love four sided shape with absurd mentionings of ownership, false feelings and generally, a lot of your general emotional angst and I almost couldn't physically finish reading it, as I'd lost almost all of my motivation to do so.

However, there were aspects I enjoyed, such as the concept. The idea of having 'aliens' or 'souls' take the body and use them for their own reminded me a lot of being possessed in horror books or programmes, so the actual method was easy to take to, having watched numerous episodes of the television series 'Charmed' when I was about 6 years old. The other concept of an individual human having enough strength to teach another species how to be human in their actions, in their learning and their thoughts also reminded me of another human/alien relationship that was around way before I was born, the one between a young boy and an alien in the film ET. While I'm not ET's biggest fan, The Host itself had a lot in common with the film, from that of learning to love those who are around you like your own family, to learning what it meant to be human, I felt the similarities between these two features made it easier for me to like certain areas of the book.

Overall, The Host didn't feel like an adventure/sci-fi book to me, it felt like it would have belonged better in a 'journey to finding yourself and where you belong' genre. It makes you step back and take a look at your own values, your loyalties, what makes you strong, what makes you weak and what makes you fight for what you feel is the right course of action. I wanted excitement and adventure, and I was told in other reviews that I would get that, but having read it myself, I can see now that that's much more of a personal interpretation and not a given. This actually leaves me pretty afraid to read Twilight next year after having heard that this book was a 'huge improvement' on the for-mentioned series. I fear that Meyers may have just disappointed me a little too much.

3 Stars.

I read this series over a period of a month, and so reviewed each book individually in order to give them all a fair chance individually.

A Chalice of Wind
A Circle of Ashes
A Feather of Stone
A Necklace of Water

And so the Balefire story has ended, finiteod, much like my patience and genuine enjoyment for this series. But my lack of enjoyment is nothing new to those who have followed my reviews for this entire series, and it actually saddens me to say that out of the four of them, this was quite possibly the worst, which for a finale, is both gutting and disappointing. The synopsis promised great things, even; 'a shocking turn of events that no one will predict', those of which were pretty darn predictable if you don't mind me popping that bubble for you, and after some of the final events took place, that was it, I was glad to never have to pick up any of this series ever again.

Unlike some of it's previous books in the series, A Circle of Ashes and A Feather of Stone, which actually improved one after the other, even if only by a small amount, A Necklace of Water just fell pretty short of the same excitment I'd previously felt, and while this wasn't the fault of the writing nesacarily, or the way Ms Tiernan decided to include much too large and complicated words which after 3 and a half books, did eventually come to frustrate me considering her style of writing is much more of the simpler style, no it wasn't these issues that really resulted in me just feeling nothing more towards the book, that was all down to Clio, which I most definitely will be getting to shortly, mark my words.

I did have another couple of issues, which probably isn't that much of a surprise anymore, but even so, they should be mentioned and discussed, so here they are.
The constant referring to events to have either already happened, or reminders of who the characters were, what they'd done or how they were related to those more important characters. I had previously mentioned this is my review for A Feather of Stone, so finding it was happening again wasn't so much a surprise, but so much more fustrating. If your readers have made it through to the last book in your series, chances are, they remember the pretty importants events that happened earlier, and who all the characters are in relation to one another, and this made me reach a point past annoyance and so in the end, I just scanned past these areas, which of course ruined the reading experience, but hey ho, can't have it all.
The second was the seriously bad, no, absolutely terrible ending. After a good nights sleep, I still can't comprehend what on earth the author was thinking pairing characters off with people I felt they didn't belong or deserve to be with, or what made her want to leave so many unanswered questions, or give so many unclear answers, especially those concerning who was attempting to murder to twins after Richard, which is interpretable but not defined, what actually happened to Melita during her vanished years and in the quickest ending to a story I've probably ever experienced, and just how unplanned the ending felt. It felt quick, rushed and unexciting, and it didn't leave me sad that I'd finished the series. In truth, I felt very little at all.

But my biggest problem with this book however was the characters, and much more than usual. As I mentioned earlier, Clio really took a beating not only character wise, but in my opinion and liking for her too. I wasn't a huge fan of how her character was deteriorating throughout the series, but after a snide and pretty horrible comment made by her character, that was it, I wasn't interested in her actions, anything that happened to her, how she felt; it genuinely reached a point where I didn't want to read any of the chapters from her perspective. I didn't have any feelings towards her at all, and not only that, I felt that her attitude towards herself and others had become selfish and stupid, her feelings towards her own family, especially Thais and Petra was shocking due to her being so self absorbed in her own quests and feelings that she didn't consider anyone else's, and in the end, I didn't care whether she was involved in the story or not, which made me feel pretty darn sad when she very rudely decided to die.
I also began to dislike Luc much more than I had throughout the series and this also disappointed me quite a lot. He became quite possessive over Clio and Thais, and threw claims of emotions around like confetti on a wedding day, and after a while, I began to notice that underneath his attractive exterior, he had no real personality, feelings or character within him, which in truth made him quite easy to forget and dislike, so while he didn't necessarily do anything directly for me to dislike him, I just ended up doing naturally instead.
With many of the other characters, I just felt that they were there and weren't doing much of anything throughout the book, if anything at all, and so very many of them just passed through my thoughts, other than two, Thais and Manon.
Thais was the only character to me, who improved with every book. She became a stronger person emotionally and much more grounded, she gained respect for both herself and her family, as well has a protective feeling over her friends and those who meant alot to her. She created herself a strong core and amount of courage that made her dangerous to those she had problems with, and this change in character, from starting off as a whiny teenage girl who'd been told she was moving to live with a stranger, to a confident, independent woman with answers to her heritage and past was just wonderful.
Manon on the other hand grew more confident and strong once she'd been betrayed, and while she wasn't quite as lovely in the end as I had once thought, she was however a great character on the grounds of her relationship with Sophie and the struggles she went through having become immortal and such a young age. In the end, her ending was possibly my favourite, as she had grown up and become the woman she wanted to be, whether Sophie was beside her or not, and I was proud of her short but important development in this book.

Overall, I was disappointed with how this series ended. I felt the overall story and plot was weak and rushed, taking place in too short a time period, I felt that the characters weren't developed enough throughout for it to make much of a difference and I can quite honestly say that I won't be picking up anymore of Cate Tiernan's work, even if it's absolutely out of this world. For a £4 deal, it wasn't so bad, but if you're going to pay full price, be certain you want it, as there are much better books out there for the same price.

Wibbly Wobbly 1.5 Stars.

If you haven't read this book because you think it's set out to be one very little over cheesy and way too cliché book, then you should seriously reconsider, as this may look and sound like one big 24 hour 'instant love' romance, but there is so much more to this little gem, and I'm glad I gave it a go myself. As far as I am aware, there are two paperback covers, one black and white, and another is the version I own. While the black and white cover screams whinny teenage emotions, the edition I have is a little more subtle and and childlike I feel, and touches such as the cartoon plane and the grass gardens really make it such a lovely cover to admire, and in truth, an even better reason to have it on your bookshelf.

As soon as I'd received this book last Christmas I was surprised to see just how small it was, little over 210 pages, and I began to doubt whether all the positive reviews of a sweet teenage whirlwind romance with messages of family, change and honesty were really true, and if so, how on earth can one person fit all that into so few pages. Well, I was pleasantly, no, more than pleasantly, I was utterly bamboozled and won over with this book, after around 30 pages. While the writing style was much simpler than other books I've read recently, it had a wonderful flow-like feel to it which took me away from the obviousness that I was reading, and just made me feel like I was seeing these events in person, right in front of my eyes, and very few books have ever given me that feeling, so definite brownie points for that Ms Smith. The overall style of the writing was so beautiful and relatable, it reminded me quite strongly of The Fault in Our Stars and while I understand that they're written by entirely different authors, I feel personally that my comparison does justice to both authors, as both of those books are beautiful, with an side serving of heartbreak and lesson learning.

On the topic of lesson learning, I actually really enjoyed just how many lessons I learnt in the two days it took to read this book, and while my personal circumstances are different in a number of ways, I could relate to the events that happened so easily that if I didn't know better, I'd think some of it were based on me. While I won't delve into my personal life, I could understand so clearly what Hadley, our main female character, was feeling towards her family life and how she'd lost a lot of her faith in romance and marriage, and while to others, this may have seemed like a constant episode of teddy throwing syndrome, I honestly felt that I learnt the same lessons that she'd learnt, but alongside her, which was quite nice for me. I quite possibly most of all loved how fate driven the entire story felt, and as I huge believer in fate and destiny myself, it was completely and utterly perfect for me, as when I wasn't smiling because of it, I was crying.* I also loved how both the book and their Fathers were the important features of this book, and how they both related to each other, whether it was how opposite the circumstances were, whether it was how mutual feelings for the book were, or whether it was just the changes of heart that both main characters went through, it was just wonderful.

The most wonderful part of this book was actually the characters, and while I've already mentioned Hadley in passing, I have more to say. Hadley's character development throughout this book was some of the best I've ever read, and whether that shows how little I may have read, or how easily swayed by I am by personalities, who knows, but for such a short book, I was really impressed. Her attitude became much more positive, her sense of humour and back-and-forth banter with Oliver was always keeping me smiling, her quirky yet, not that usual, fears were so wonderful and while I don't condone running out of your Father's wedding to meet for a guy, her reasons behind doing so were so honest and caring that I could seriously put her up with some of my alltime favourite characters.
Oliver too was a lovely character, and while I usually get pretty annoyed when British male characters are so highly glorified by the American female character, this one didn't feel as obvious. While comments were made about his accent, or how his use of words was different, it was used in a playful manner and in less of a romantic one, which just kept pushing this book higher and higher into my 'favourite' ranks. His conflicted feelings and deep emotional struggles made me really like Oliver, especially when it came down to his Father and their circumstances, and the pent up feelings he'd kept so hidden. I really felt for him. And of course, who wouldn't ask the attractive, young, and genuinely kind guy if he has a girlfriend? I know if there were a real life version of this Oliver fella, I'd be the one forming the line to ask.
Finally, we reach my third favourite character; the fly. People who've already read this book will already know what I'm blabbering on about, but that fly was probably the best and most hilarious topic of conversation throughout that entire plane journey, and the fact that it was remembered later on was just fantastic, utterly fabulous.
I truthfully enjoyed and loved all the characters in this book. There weren't too many, they were each so wonderful to hear about, in all honesty, there wasn't a character I didn't dislike, at all, surprisingly.

I loved this book. I loved how every ending and can bring a new beginning, and how things that may seem like the most terrible and worst things in the world can turn out be entirely different, and wonderful at the same time. There's no denying it, I honestly can't and won't find fault with this book.

5 Stars.

*Side note: I cry a lot over books. I'm an emotional person. Just because I cried, doesn't mean you will, I'm just really bad at keeping my emotions in check.

2nd September 2013

After having read The Night Circus over a year ago, and failing to provide a very good review for it, I thought that I could re-read it, not only to do a much better review, but also, because it is and always will be a favourite of mine.

Other than the Harry Potter Series, I've never read a book more than once, and so the experience of re-reading events that I already knew happened was both strange and exciting, and I fear that on this occasion, re-reading allowed me to see the problems I had previously shrugged away with this book, and while they were minor problems, they were problems nonetheless.
The first problem I had was with the introduction and dragging out of an almost attempted love triangle. I recall that when I first read this, I hadn't really noticed or appreciated the attempt, whereas a year on and a large number of books read since, I could, and while it was written in such a fashion that I didn't take a hating to one of the three characters, it did go on for, in my opinion, just a little too long.
The second of miniature problems I had was the constant use of 'he said', 'she said', 'they said' and so on. If life trudged along with just people 'saying', it'd be a pretty boring place, and sadly, parts of the book did become just that, a little boring. My only wish is that the characters weren't so laid back and actually put some feeling into to their words; then they may have started exclaiming, or been enthusiastic, or even angered just that little bit more, although this is probably another very personal thing to me.
My last little niggle was that with a lot of thought and a day or two to settle the matter, I feel that there wasn't that strong a plot. Yes, they have have a battle, a duel, to the death. No, they don't. They have a nice little comparison of talents over 15 odd years, find out they love each other after having met each other three times and been in each others company for a total of possibly 36 hours, before one finds out the other must die for the game/challenge to end. They have a good few years of being emotional and not wanting the other to die, and then they end up being able to be with each other, without dying. Having read some pretty fantastic books with really good plots, I realised I was a little disappointed the lack of a defined one in this book. I think previously, I'd been completely swept up in the elegant and mysteriousness of the circus; that I had paid more attention to the words and hadn't really taken much time to consider the structure. I fear that Erin Morgenstern focused too much on creating a wonderful world for you to imagine, rather than all the features that come together to make a book, a brilliant book. But, as with the other problems, this could be entirely personal and you might like a story that's just a story, that just flows as it reads and keeps you reading for hours on end through to silly o'clock at night, and that's perfectly fine by me.

While I did have problems with the book, everything else was pretty darn beautiful. As I was the first time, I was once again swept into this wonderful circus full of mystery and fascinating quirks, with the most undeniably gorgeous sounding food and drink, surrounded by the darkness and elegance of the night. Yes, I shall never stop blowing this books description trumpet. As with most other books, people have personal tastes to writing styles, and in this case, I feel it's a taste of a heavily descriptive style. If you're not someone who enjoys creating an entire area, a complete environment around that make you feel as though you're in there with the characters, in the tents, in the grounds, eating the food, then I'm sorry, but this book really isn't for you. That's it. Poor and simple. But personally for me, I thoroughly enjoy imagining surroundings and characters and the setting so vividly, that the image of the circus is always within my memory, and get ready for the cheesy part: whenever I'm genuinely feeling down, I always imagine what I'd be like to be there, and do those things, and it helps. You are now welcome to throw up.
The varied times and perspectives of the story are a little confusing the first time you read this, but by the time you've started re-reading it, you pay much more attention to the years in which the different perspectives are set and appreciate how the two main perspectives reach each other and overlap. I still had problems with just how many different character perspectives their were, while the time perspectives were fine with me. Some of the characters I felt were mentioned too often considering their personalities or importance in the story, where-as some whom I felt were much more important, received much less time and mentions.
While this did disappoint me, I was more than happy with the style, especially that of the present progressive. That's right kiddies, Mrs Morgenstern is into her varied tenses, but this one blew me away. It was written in such a personal way that allowed the reader to feel as though they were a part of circus, while not being involved or drawn into the story or history of the circus. I only have wonderful and positive things to say about the style of the writing in the way the whole setting, whether in the circus, or the apartment, or the Manor House, or whether it be the slight tie ins relating from game to circus; the colours of chessboards being identical to those of the circus, the reflection of each opponent, if you could call them that, being of each colour, the matching so well for both main characters so they fit almost too perfectly together, even with their different methods of teachings and backgrounds, the entirety of this book was overall, pardon the pun, magical.

Now, to the characters, to which there are only really a few I feel I want to mention, and how I feel are important enough to discuss. The following will contain a few spoilers, but if you've not read The Night Circus yet, tread carefully below.
Celia and Marco: I honestly don't feel I can discuss one without the other, considering how they're 'bound' together, like fate, which is both cheesy and cliché, but hey ho. Both these characters, I felt,were quite possibly the mirrored image of one another, Celia from having known both her parents, being taught practically, using her real name on almost every occasion, and of course, being of the female sex, while Marco knew very little, if anything about his parents, was taught via his literature and reading, using a fake name and being very much male, along with their difference in talents. I felt this was probably done to continue with the theme of opposites matching and complimenting each other extremely well. I did like these touches of style and theme, but I felt the relationship/love aspect of both Celia and Marco was a little, bland. I felt that once they'd met one another after years upon years and realised who they each were, the insta-love feature just became active and then there was no stopping the absolute obsessiveness eye staring, attention grabbing, 'I can't bare to be without' things that follow. In the end, I really felt very little for their relationship and for the love they shared. But I feel separately, they were both well built, defined characters who both showed their own qualities and skills, I feel it's just a shame that it feels almost impossible for there to be one without the other.
Isobel: Yes, I want to talk about Isobel because she was so important to the story, really, she was. She was the first person Marco had confided in about his talents and she took it all on-board. She sacrificed a future of endless possibilities in order to to help Marco with his challenge and join the circus as a spy. She'd previously escaped an arranged marriage and done everything she could to move on in her life, meeting Marco, and falling for him. She helped protect the circus and both Celia and Marco from themselves with her cards. She predicted how important Bailey would be the future of the circus. And yet through all this, through all the amazing strength Isobel had, she was still hurt by the man she'd chosen to trust after suffering at the hands of another. Then, just for the cherry on top, she still helps Celia and Marco be together. If that doesn't give this lady a reason to be mentioned and praised for her job well flippen' done, I don't know what does.
Bailey, Poppet and Widget: Now come on, these three were just glorious. The twins, Poppet and Widget brought an innocence to the circus, and I adore how they were born the day the circus started, and either sides of midnight, keeping with the theme of before and after, the black and white, along with their talents matching their personalities. The introduction of new life to the circus on the circus birthday felt quite representative too, and in some ways, even during my first time reading it, I knew the twins would play an important part in the circus in the future and was excited to see how. Can I also mention how bloody adorable all their kittens were please?! Bailey on the other hand was quite possibly my favourite of all the characters. I felt he was an honest depiction of being young and not knowing what you want from your future, but feeling so strongly for something, that in the end, it's all you want. His character growth and building was the most realistic and largest, and his bravery, his personality, and his seclusion made me love him all over again. His sweet sort of relationship with Poppet was also beautiful to read about, and possibly more interesting to me than Celia and Marco's. That may be harsh, but it's true. There was a small amount of fate involved in their meetings, but they were honest, they were pretty darn adorable, and the fact that Bailey travelled across America for Poppet with no way of knowing where she was heading, or how he'd get there, all because she was certain they were meant to be together, in one or another, is just sweet. Okay, just sweet.
Herr Friedrick Thiessen: There isn't much I can say about Herr, I just felt he needed mentioning as he was the character I felt I saw most of myself in. He felt to me, like a character based on what Erin Morgenstern wanted her readers to be like, mesmerized by the circus, to think of the circus whenever they can, to dream of the circus. I was so very sad when Herr left the story..

This book really make you think about how far you should dream, and just how much dreams can be dangerous. Dreaming too much and too hard can either make you crazy, or, it can result in something much bigger and better than you could ever have imagined. I felt his story highlighted that for me personally. Overall, I would take half a star off from my previous review, which makes me sad, but feels right considering the problems I had.

4.5 Stars.


20th August 2012

Although hard to to follow at first, with the shifts from 3 different times and perspectives, once at least a quarter way through, I was completely invested. A beautifully crafted story that had me in tears within the last few pages.

5 Stars.

First port of call with this review is how unattractive is that cover please?! I apologise to everyone who likes it, but really, it looks pretty, well, not pretty. I'm so glad I have the bind up edition with the twins front and centre on it, I can tell you that.
In other news, I was surprisingly really excited to read this installment of the series, which really confused me. Having previously given A Chalice of Wind 2.5 stars and A Circle of Ashes 3 stars, I really couldn't comprehend why I was suddenly so intrigued and excited to read about the characters, their individual and group devolopments, how the plot would hopefully improve and progress and have some answers to a large amount of questions and I had formed over the last two books. I couldn't help but hope to myself that this book wouldn't let me down, and in an unexplainable way, it both did, and didn't.

The opening chapter was a great starting point. It easily refreshed my knowledge of the series, although the constant referral to previous scenes did great on me, and I was impressed at just how easily fell back into the, all be it, still not highly descriptive world that Cate Tiernan has created. As with most of the creative spell casting scenes that the characters have, in most cases, Clio and Thais, I thoroughly enjoyed almost all of them throughout this book, as I felt they had improved, while the severity of each decision made was much more dangerous and the repercussions of these was intriguing to read, especially that of the scene between Clio and her neighbourhood cats. While the plot itself was and still is improving at a very slow pace, the writing style is frustrating me at an equally slow but continuous pace, and this is all down my new favourite bug beerer, the miniscule chapters. As I had mentioned in my review for A Circle of Ashes, the chapaters sizes really got my back up, with some spreading over good lengths and others at 3, maybe 4 pages a turn. Well, Cate Tiernan excelled herself in this installment, as I counted three, yes, three chapters, all less than a page in length. Not even a page. Less than a page. Starting at a third down the page and finishing at two thirds. A third of a 20cm height book. I'm sorry, but what is going on here? And yes, I do get that there are so very many characters in this series and that each need to be mentioned, but those extreme minimal chapters were not necessary in anyway to the plot or the characters at all, other than possibly one. As I suspected originally, these chapters are a problem still and I shall also predict that it will be through to the very end.
As for the other problems I had with this series, the length of each book is still upsetting me. I want them to be longer. I want more to happen in them. I want some independence between each book. I want a series, not a book quartered. Guess we don't all get what we want in life.
The last problem I had with the plot and story was just how many questions I still have, especially over who's trying to kill the damn twins. It's seriously beginning to look like Clio and Thais have been bagged up, closed up tight and every other character thinkable has been entitled to a kick here or a punch there or a lamppost on top of them. This isn't some sort of hero story, I'd like a little less 'escaped death by the skin of their teeth' and a few more answers Cate. Thank you.

However, I bring great and glorious news. There were improvements in comparison to the previous two. Hallelujah! While I felt the others concentrated a lot more on the other, less important members of the Treize, which in some places was greatly welcomed, A Feather of Stone was much more centred around Clio and Thais. I was finally thrilled to be getting some genuine perspectives from the twins, rather than some washed down, filtered out ones from what they'd heard or been told.
While I could appreciate why Clio's characters was on an ever going downwards spiral, I felt as a character, she'd be placed on pause. She'd suddenly become a hard character to feel anything towards or relate to her, and although her attitude towards being a sister changed in a positive light, her genuine personality and eagerness just seemed to have up and left. However, Thais' character just grew and grew and grew. Her attitude improved and became both more positive and much more authority of herself, her feelings became more mature and genuine, and her intelligence and knowledge just soared. I began to get excited over chapters in her perspective. I felt both her joy and her deflation. I could see how much her blossoming relationship was helping with her confidence, and how having a family and sister to support her only made her fight harder and much more strongly for what she wanted and believed in. I don't know if these huge character changes are in preparation for the final installment of this series or whether it's just been done for the fun of it, but my journey with Thais is a fantastic one.
As for other characters, only one has really grown alongside Thais, and that's Richard. I would like to say, I don't condone what he was trying to accomplish to begin with, but I genuinely like his character as a whole. He has mysterious traits that make him both alluring and dangerous, but he also, especially in this book, has a soft and caring side towards Clio with made him much more human to me. And in the scenes he shared with Clio, I seriously felt a lot towards his character; sympathy, jealousy, empathy, even annoyance on the odd occasion, whether it was a result of his feelings for Cerise, for Clio, or his anger and hatred towards Marcel, I felt for his character a tremendous amount.
Of course, though while some characters improved, other's only had further to fall. I was disappointed on how little we got to explore the past lives of the other characters, considering we're three books in and only know of mentionings of past feelings or relationships, rather than some good juicy reminiscing, or some genuine heart felt feelings, positive or negative. Once again, I'm left wanting more from this series.

Overall, the story did improve, and the cliffhanger was of an acceptable standard, even tempting me ever so slightly to start the last book right away, but I resisted. It still lacked enough descriptions and conviction and still continues to feel rushed and compressed to the minimum amount possible. I can only hope that Cate can answer all my questions, give me a good ending, and not palm the characters off into couples like a large number of series endings do.

3 Stars.

I got my copy of this book from applying to be a World Book Night 2013 book giver and decided that since I hadn't read the book myself, that I would keep a copy and give it a go myself. From the synopsis, I expected some sort of horrifying world with lots of adventure and to say I was disappointed is quite an understatement. The introduction of a female character, although highly predictable, ruined how I felt about this book, and this wasn't the only problem I had with this book.

Much like other first books in trilogies, I completely understand that it focuses on setting scenes, introducing characters and setting up the plot and so on, but I was still pretty disappointed on how these features were dispersed across the book. I didn't like how much time was spent on the characters and how little was spent on the world building, considering that's what the synopsis focused so heavily on. The descriptions in the book were limited and only gave the basics in comparison to other books I'd read quite recently, and affected just how much I could imagine and envision, however, this could have been something very personal and nothing against the writing and Patrick Ness himself. The amount of travelling the characters endured only gave me more to dislike about this book, and the more they travelled, the more I began to disengage with the story and feel anything for the characters. Only within the last 60 pages did I really begin to feel anything, and remotely enjoy the story. However, I did like the style of writing the further the story progressed. It said a lot about our main character Todd and helped portray how much he learnt and how he thought throughout. The idea behind the plot was good, but sadly didn't make up for the world building, in my opinion.

I also felt quite conflicted when it came to the characters too. Too many random and unnecessary characters frustrate me and this book had a lot of them. The fact that animals and creatures in this book could talk only added to the amount, as those animals then became characters in their own right. There's only so many times you can read about sheep saying 'sheep' before it gets a little boring. However, I did like two characters especially, Viola and Manchee. Viola was a strong and independent character who didn't rely on Todd throughout the story; she actually proved she was intelligent and was worth the same, if not more than Todd, which really highlighted the difficulties women go through to be heard and respected in todays society and there's. Manchee however was my favourite hands down. He was a loyal friend towards Todd and was anything and everything Todd needed him to be. He was trustworthy and respectful and in the end, was so much more than just a talking dog. I appreciated what Patrick Ness did with Manchee, as I really began to understand the messages of sacrifice and friendship.

There were other smaller features I didn't like about this book, and the main of these were just how many unanswered questions I had once I'd reached the end of the book. Questions about the Army, Todd, the infamous book, these questions really frustrated me once I'd finished reading and they didn't help my mood any once I'd began to think about the review. In some cases, leaving unanswered questions encourages a reader to read the next installment, but in this case, it really hasn't, and neither did the predictable cliffhanger ending; it actually only increased my negative feelings towards this book, which was sad, as I don't enjoy disliking a book so much. Another feature I didn't like was Aaron. Just Aaron. His character was interesting, and I couldn't help but love his personality enough though it's such a strange one, but I really began to get pretty bored of his recurring appearances.

However, there were features of the book I did like. The reference of Noise and Silence being creatures themselves, and personifying them both really gave an edge to the story. It provide a great stage for the relationship building between both our main characters and probably was the most interesting part about the plot and the story. I also liked how young our main character, Todd, was. He was the first main character that I'd read about that was younger the age of 16, and this was a great change, as this meant there were less hormones in the air, less romance involved throughout and just a much better connection between both Viola and Todd. Another feature I liked a lot was the constant referring to the names of other titles in the series and the series name itself. I love continuity through books and this was just a lovely touch the series.

I really don't know if I was just in a negative mood whilst reading this book, or whether it's how the book made me feel, but I don't think it lived up to it's hype for me. I expected so much from this book, and it just failed to deliver. I can only hope that the copies I gave away on World Book Night went to people who enjoyed it more than me. I doubt I'll be continuing with the series, but if everyone loved the same things, the world would be a very boring place.

3 Stars (just about)

After much deliberation, I decided I should dive straight into the dystopian genre, so I picked this book off my shelves and went into it with a completely open mind and was simply blown away. I had no idea what to be expecting with this book, other than a technology ridden world and a cute little 'does he like, doesn't he' romance, yet it became so much more than that.

To start with, the world. It was brilliant and beautiful and just completely mesmerising in every way. I have to admit, the descriptions were sometimes a little full on, almost over analysing the scene, but the way every moment, every millimetre of the world and the surroundings was emphasised gave me the most pleasant and enjoyable read I'd had in a long while. The whole idea and theme of was brilliantly thought out and so thought provoking there wasn't a moment where I wasn't made to think about their world and ours in comparison. We as people have so much and reply on so much technology these days, it's usually extremely difficult to distinguish what we need and what we want, what helps us and what makes us lazy as human beings. I had only ever really considered this in a small amount until I read this. This book really made me think about what I have that helps me, or hindrances me, and only once I finished it did I truly believe that our society, our technology, our advancements, are heading a scarily familiar direction. Simple questions like just how social are social networking sites? How much do we really communicate with each other? How well do we really know someone if we've never met them? This whole idea, the theme, the genre, I fell completely in awe and love with it, and I doubt it could have been any better if Katie Kacvinsky had tried. I've never had a book make me think about myself or my life before, and the things and people I have it, and it was so lovely to learn the truth about the world alongside Maddie, as a reader, and as a human being.

Speaking of Maddie, she's probably one of my favourite characters from a book, ever. Her character growth and development was so honest and realistic, her learning through her own actions, taking heed of her past and letting it lead her, not overcome her, the littlest of actions, touching, seeing, holding somebody, it was so easy to love Maddie in every way. Deep down, I could see she was an independent character, who with the help and support of friends, knows what she wants out of life, and she'll fight the right way to get it. And even though she knows it's her beliefs against her Father, she never agreed to forget about or leave her family. I loved this character trait, as too frequently in books do we see the lead character have to choose between her future and her family, and in this, she chooses both, no matter the consequences. She's brave, she's thoughtful, she's free spirited and she's not a selfish little teenage girl with a silly crush on a guy; she's one of the best characters I've had the pleasure of reading about.
Justin's character also impressed me so much throughout. He wasn't your typical well fitted, sexy main character that knocked you off your feet. He's a selfless, caring and attractive young man, who cares about others so much more than himself and has an aim to improve the world within this book. His ambition and thoughtfulness toward people he doesn't even know made me love his character even more. And not mention the pleasant and lovely the progression of their relationship was. It was nothing like some of the other insta-love romances you come across in other YA books; it was slow, it was a progression and it felt so natural, like watching two friends realise their feelings for one another and wanting and hoping they can see through the problems they face and be together. As you could probably guess, I loved them both and their romance. Completely, utterly, gorgeous.
Other characters I loved where of course, Maddies Mum, Justin's Mum and Maddies newest friend Clare. I seem to have a thing about characters Mothers, and these two didn't let the side down, if anything, they only confirmed it. They were both so similar and supported their children through everything that was happening throughout this book and supportive parents always make you stronger. And Clare, well, she was just such a bundle of of joy and optimism and just always made a scene so fun to read. She's most definitely the kind of best friend everyone needs and I was glad she became a more permanent fixture in Maddies' life through this book.

I particularly liked the odd occasion when we saw Maddies' journal extracts as I felt like these were a big part to her character growth and gave a great insight to her thoughts, her opinions she couldn't voice and how she felt about everyone around her. The lesson that you can say what you feel whenever you need to, because there are so many ways to speak was beautiful and really made the book much more enjoyable to read. So much happened throughout the book it felt like it was always a fast-paced adventure with so much to learn and so much to see, and the ending, well, I wasn't even aware it was the first of a series, so I was both elated and so gutted that I had to wait for the next installment.

Other than the odd grammatical error and odd word repeated, I couldn't deduct a star for that because the book as a whole was way to amazing and enthralling that I have no choice but to say this is most definitely one of my all time favourites, if not, in the top 3 I've ever read. Absolutely brilliant and there's no denying I'm going to buying the second installment of this series as soon as I can.

Complete 5 Stars.

This was quite a difficult book to rate, and I think it has a lot to with the genre and just how much competition there is out there within this genre. For this reason, rating and reviewing this was difficult, hence it's taken me almost a day to do it.

I'll start with the genre/theme. Yes, this is a fantasy book. Yes, it's about the offspring of angels and demons. No, this is not like The Mortal Instruments or The Infernal Devices series. At all. It's completely different, and that's why I found it more difficult to rate. I expected so much from this book, and as a series starter, I really wanted it to blow me away. I thought it'd be so much like Cassandra Clare's style, but it really wasn't. It's such a different, new take on the world and the species, and with much deliberation, it was also a great take. Wendy Higgins has taken such a well loved theme and made it her own. The concentration on the characters being much more demon orientated in comparison to many other angel/human species was a nice change, but it also reiterated the fact that all species, human or not, have light and dark in them. That was something I liked a lot.

Plot wise, I felt there wasn't much of a plot. Yes, they road-tripped. Yes, they had things to do and people to see; but maybe it was down to my high expectations, or the style of writing, but I really don't think going on a little highway drive to visit your demon father and collect a fancy hilt is much of a plot. Actually, I think it's a dry, uninviting and pretty lame structure. As you can probably guess, this was the feature that I had a problem with. Actually, it was probably my only problem with the entire book, but if a book doesn't have a clear plot to me, then we have a problem houston. I really feel this reflects my deduction of a star fairly, from a personal view.

Other than the lack of plot, the character building and the world was fantastic. I absolutely loved it. The world was relatable, from the struggles with being a young teenager in an ever changing world, to having a crush on out of your league guys, to having a demon daddy. Okay, maybe the demon dad isn't completely relatable, but even with this, the scenery wasn't too thoroughly described, yet it didn't leave you completely wondering on what to envisage. It left room for me to make my own decisions in my mind, and I like that. The other scenes, especially those that were passionate and bedroom orientated were also pretty impressive. Having written my own stormy scenes and short novels under this type of theme, I really felt that Wendy Higgins would have to impress me, and boy did she do that. The scenes were incredible, and characters in them were both spontaneous and reserved, and her style of fast paced and thrilling moments was just what those scenes needed, and I felt that this was a well welcomed extra that a lot of other fantasy books could learn from. And the character building, well, my my, how great was that. It's so rare to find characters that you love to hate, and I felt that way about most, if not all of the characters in this book. Their development through 450 pages worth was amazing. Never was a character not interesting, and never did I feel like one of them could have been unnecessarily involved. Every character had a part, and even from their first entry scenes, I knew whether I would trust them, or dislike them. For me, a book that does that is a brilliant book. Well done Wendy Higgins.

As always, I should probably mention my favourites, as I tend to with other reviews, and, as the amazingly predictable person that I am, I loved Patti. Everything about her; her concern and love for Anna throughout, her homelife skills, not to mention her own powers of authority and control over almost any other character in the scene with her. There's something about the women in books, especially the mothers and mother figures, that really amaze and please me. They may not always be full of magic, or skilled warriors, but they care for their children, for their daughters and their sons, and that makes them powerful, it makes them dangerous, and it makes them so likable that I beam with delight whenever they're mentioned. There's something about Patti, and I love that feeling I get when she's involved. Another absolute favourite is Kopano. Although he isn't mentioned until at least half way through the book, he intrigued me and left me with a wonderful feeling of perspective and opinion throughout. His character, to me, was the message that the choices you make define who you are, not what you're born as. Kopano's character chose to do work for good and takes a very keen and gentle interest in Annas innocence. His nature and his personality made me soften up to him straight away, and I really hope I haven't misplaced my trust in his character. Quite recently, I have only liked the main characters and not loved them. For me, their characters have to continue to grow throughout the series, and I'm prepared to wait to love them, but right now, their personalities are likable, and nothing more. Other characters I'm still fifty/fifty on, and that will only be likely to change when I read the second installment.

While I've mentioned the second installment, I would also love to mention how stupidly happy I am that covers in this series have some continuity within them. Using the same models to represent the characters is something most books series should do, but they don't, and it makes visioning a character and keeping them as that original image quite difficult. I love a bit of continuity me, and it's fair to say I am very impressed with this series so far. The ending, well, I wouldn't have missed the last chapter had it not been there, but hey, I'm a sucker for gripping cliff hangers.

Although it's both similar and so different to other fantasy books in the genre, Sweet Evil is just really great. It's captivating, it's intriguing and it's just got the right amount of mystery and passion to make me love it. After stupid amounts of toing and froing;

4 Stars.

As was nice to see, the second in this Balefire series was better than the first, A Chalice of Wind, and although I liked it more than it's predecessor, I still have some big issues with the series as a whole, and I think I've finally figured why I can't take to it.

The biggest and quite possibly the most important of issues is that I think the series may be aiming to please the young adult type of readers rather than a little younger, where I feel this series is perfect for. I have a sister of 15 years, and I personally feel that the writing style, the tone and the overall story would be much more tailored to a girl of her age, rather than that of my age, 18. I had never considered a 3 year age gap to be a huge deal within the reading world, but with this series, I think it is. For me personally, I always expect a good amount of world building, something that will make me feel like a part of the story, with the characters, and allow me to empathise better with them, but in this, there's what feels like a minimal amount of world building and way too much concentration of the quite slow and boring parts of the twins, Thais and Clio's lives. This is the biggest bug bearer for me, and it makes a huge difference to how much I enjoy reading it. Another problem I have with this series is it doesn't feel like a collection of books, more of a large book split into four parts to make more money. And I am aware that this seems a little petty and almost harsh, but it's an honest opinion. Unlike some other books I've read lately, especially those of a series, there's been a definite identification between the books, while making sure they're linked to one another. Each of them have an identity of their own, and I feel like A Circle of Ashes didn't. It just felt like a follow up from the first, and I was pretty disappointed in that. The last niggle I had, and compared to the others, this was quite minor, but it was the size of the books. 250 odd pages for a book I don't feel is quite enough if you're not including that many interesting and gripping scenes, and if you're not going to build the world, it just becomes slow and pretty unexciting. I feel if each book was longer, there'd be more room to be more descriptive and just make it a much more enjoyable read. I for one would probably enjoy them much more if they were larger.

Although I did have those quite large problems with the book, there were a few areas in which I felt the book had improved, and if not were better than others I've read. To start with, the personality of the characters have become more apparent as the story progresses, and the relationship between them all is both interesting and mysterious at the same time, especially the one between the twins. As Thais has taken to the whole 'you're a witch' so well, which is a little unbelievable, but hey ho, the relationship between her and Clio is stronger and lovely to read so effortlessly. The amount of characters in the book, now reaching within the 25 number, is a little off putting, as I don't like too many characters in such a weak world, but they each have something to give and there are some relationships, both romantic and platonic that I like;
Sophie and Manon. Their relationship is so wonderful, so honest and its just beautiful to read about when they have their sections in the book. It was also nice to read about a romantic gay couple for the first time as I hadn't gotten round to reading any other books with characters who were gay and it was written in a way that was natural and so accepted that it upset me knowing that in our society, it's still a taboo subject. I like how it was mentioned and brought up, and I hope that actions further into the series don't cause this wonderful couple upset.
Clio and Richard. As this relationship only began around half way through this book, there isn't much to mention, but I just feel the writing describing how their passion somehow takes over their logic and means that the two of them can't resist each other really impressed me. I like the odd steamy and passionate romance, full of regret and confusion, it makes for a great relationship building, and I really can't wait to see how these two get closer to one another.
Petra and Thais/Clio. Although this is a three way relationship, I feel that it still applies. I like how easily Petra has taken to Thais being in the family and how she treats both the girls equally, no matter how much difference there's been in time spent together. I can only hope my judgement on Petra isn't too dumbly founded and that she continues to care for the twins and not be the one trying the murder them.
Problems I do have with the characters continue to be there descriptions. As I mentioned with the first book, there's so many characters with just the typical features, and now, even with new ones introduced, they still have the same features and qualities, and to be quite frank, it's really frustrating. This is something I will not get over and will probably mention throughout the series.

Another quality I liked about the book was the different alternating chapters. I have read a few with specific chapters for main characters within books, and I like the style, and the same goes for this book too. I quite possibly like it more in this because it's in the perspective of twins, as as twins are usually the mirror of the other, it's great to see just how differently they view each other and the world they're in. As to be expected though, I also have a problem with it, and it's that minor characters seem to have their own chapter, and although it's nice, I'd rather have fewer chapters and have the characters share chapters than reach the end of the book to find there's been 27 of them. It's like a silly joke and is genuinely taking the mickey.

Although the book improved form the first, with improvements come more problems, and I still think it's not my kind of series, but I shall continue, and won't give up. Maybe it'll be good by the time it finishes.

2.5 Stars.

I didn't think it would be possible to love this book anymore than the first but I was pleasantly surprised. Right from the start this book left off from the first and the action leapt straight off the first few pages which made it by far much better than the first.

I much prefer the cover on this book than the previous. I feel that the blue's and faint whites go brilliantly against the redness of Clary's hair. It had a much more mysterious feel to it than the first, but also a more dangerous atmospheric style which I feel was much better than the first. Clary herself in the front I was a little disappointed that she was implied to be so slim, especially on her arms, but against the plot inside, the image matched perfectly with the few Marks she possesses, the similar length in hair and confident pose which was implied throughout to show how Clary is growing into her new talents and life. I insanely like the cover so much.

I thoroughly enjoyed the plot within this book, as even though it followed on from the first, it had it's own feel within it like it was a separate adventure from the first. As the plot grew, so did the amount of characters introduced, and I usually get easily irritated by large numbers of characters just appearing throughout series', but in this series, it seems each new character has a much more important role or is to become a larger character deeper into the series, which makes me extremely excited for the further books. Although the plot was centred around following up from the first, and helping bring down Valentine, the inner plot in this focused more on the different species coming together as one, along with all the characters.

I had many more characters that I enjoyed due to this, whether it was because the characters began to develop into someone I could relate more to or whether they were new. Throughout this book I really began to like Jace's character more than I had throughout the first. I enjoyed reading about how vulnerable and scared he was throughout the first 100 pages, which gave him a much more, pardon the pun, angelic side to him, making him look innocent and childlike within his warrior persona. Along with this change in his character's personality, his actions towards Clary surprised me so much throughout. He took on a very brotherly vole extremely quickly, and I was heavily shocked to see just how well the both he and Clary had taken the news of their suggestive similar DNA, and while a large number of reviews I had read mentioned they this book almost condoned the incestual romance, I really feel that it didn't and that it portrayed their feelings and their struggles so well that I really wanted them to overcome this problem. I also feel like I have to mention the absolutely terrible timing of other characters either entering scenes or dying before the true relationship between Jace, Clary and Valentine can be revealed, which is just personally frustrating to me now that I already know the truth.
Another character who seemed to do nothing other than improve from the first was Luke. I genuinely love his relationship Clary and how he has such a fatherly instinct towards her, even though he isn't her Father. To take on the responsibility of any teenager would be a struggle in normal circumstances, but to take on an entially rogue teenager with some mental skills is something else entirely. Through his love for Jocelyn, he shows compassion and nothing but love towards Clary, and to fight for something or someone you love is nothing but everything I love. For as long as their are people worth fighting for, you fight, and that is exactly what Luke does.
Simon is still an absolute favourite it this point, and I was highly distressed when Simon's circumstances change, but not once does his personality change. He is still the charismatic and humorous character he was in the first, if not more, and will stand by Clary through everything. I am extremely happy that he will be a continuous character through the series, as I think it would be a little bit duller without him.
New characters or characters that were featured a little more interestingly throughout this book that I really took to immediately were Maia, Max and Valentine. Maia was such a lovable character and after overcoming her initial reactions towards Simon, began to see him just as another person, as equal to herself, and I could tell near enough from the beginning that I loved her personality and shyness, and I really hope she features in more of the books further down the line. I was reminded of a character in another of Clare's books because of Max. His child ways and his persistence to be involved and help his family was so warming and heartfelt. His relationship with his siblings and Jace was something so innocent and beautiful that brought some light inside the book. I think he's the bond between the trio, Jace, Alec and Isabelle, and he's what they always strive to work for, his happiness and that shows a family who love each other dearly, which is lovely. I strangely began to like Valentine much more through this book, and I think his revengeful quality made him so intriguing. The characters language and general personality made him so dark and so interesting that I somehow really took to him and began to like him. No, I'm not evil, don't shoot me.
Another character that I enjoyed was less of a character and more of a message to the other characters and that was Agramon. The aspect of him being the Demon of Fear really gave an insight to what different characters feared the most and this gave a great vulnerability to them and made each of them almost relatable. I was almost quite upset when he was destroyed, as I felt he could have been a great weapon later in the series.
I also think that Alec and Magnus need a mention because they are so caring and considerate of one another, and their relationship is portrayed in such a beautiful way that I just want to see them being very much a cute cute couple.

The writing style became much more prominent in this book as well compared to the first. I found that the scenes involving the the faeries were beautifully described and mesmerising, while the demon and fighting scenes were so amazingly written that it felt like, as a reader, I was with the characters every step of the way, alongside them, within the scenes. Writing styles like this make me want to wake up in their world and dream of it all night, and that's what Clare's does.

I am so excited to read the following book in the series and am especially excited for the grand unveiling and for a well needed Mother/Daughter reunion between Clary and Jocelyn. And after hearing that City of Glass was originally the ending for the series, I'm expecting great things from it. Here's hoping it delivers.

Fantastic 5 Stars.

There will be some small spoilers ahead.

This book is a definite 'you either love it, or you hate it' book, and I think that explains the large number of negative reviews it's gotten. I think the largest selling point of this book is it's links to Greek Mythology, and if that really doesn't interest you, or you have trouble following, I seriously advise against you reading it, and for that reason in my opinion, it's a love/hate book.

As for me, I take a keen interest in Classic Studies and all things mystical and magical, especially Greek Mythology. I am always intrigued by the historic characters and the battles, both the physical and emotional ones they went through, and representationally wise, this book did exactly the same. I felt their was almost the right amount of balance between battle and emotions, sometimes intertwining in parts, and I like that it stuck with a lot of the mythical history it was aiming to be about, although I personally would have prefered more description throughout the battle scenes as they are portrayed to take place extremely fast. The setting too was fantastic; I really liked that essence of no escape with it being set on a island, although I did become slightly disappointed about that when I learnt our main female character could fly out from the island if she wished.

During my reading of this book, I was conflicted about how I felt. During the first 150 pages, I spent a lot of the time just reading; I didn't feel any empathy or emotion towards any of the characters other than Jerry, and I was quite disappointed with the book as a whole and thought this would be a no go for me with the rest of the series. But after persevering, it improved a lot. It had me laughing aloud on occasion, and I generally didn't want to put it down, even at 2am in the morning. It suddenly became much more intriguing and interesting and I was pleasantly surprised by just how much of a leaf turning this book did. There were also moments where I felt there was too much romance, or that there wasn't enough; I generally felt quite confused nearing the end, almost annoyed, that the 'oh know, you're cousins' card was being played again in a YA novel, but it annoyed me much more than with other books having done this because the reader knows the truth and characters know the lie, and that always personally frustrates me. I did however like the romance aspects when it was done well. It wasn't a sudden insta-love over a week or two for either of the relationships that are formed, it was extended over a longer period of time to let the characters learn and grow within themselves. I much prefered Claire and Jason's relationship, as I felt there's was much more believable and in a lot of ways, much less complicated, not to mention if they were real people, I'd constantly be jealous of how cute they are together.

As is different with some other YA novels, I didn't have a favourite character as the book went on, I rather just began to like a number of characters for different reasons, and because of this, I can't pick just one. Within the first 200 pages, I loved Jerry. I felt I could relate to his and Helen's relationship as a single parent and daughter, as I share the same with at home with my Mother. Their relationship was much more of a friendship, and the authority was mutually shared between them, as were household tasks and everyday life. I liked him so much for reminding me of my Mum, and I honestly have a huge hunch that he knows a bit about his daughter and her secrets. The other two characters I liked throughout were Claire and Cassandra. I felt that Claires humor and down to earth personality really lit up the book in those dull areas, and she fully accepted a number of things that were happening to her best friend and her family. I honestly think Claire was a wonderful representation of a best friend, the kind we should all have, and amazingly, the kind that I have, which is great. Cassandras character was a favourite for me due to her growth throughout the book. At the start, she was portrayed as a delicate young girl who needed to be watched and looked after, whereas during the book, she matured and her great knowledge and understanding appeared, alongside her confidence. Her character continued to grow through being the Oracle and I believe she will further prove herself a strong and independant character and not go back to a weak and frail child, and for this reason, I love her.

The ending however, I was disappointed in. I would have much prefered a cling hanger, something that would make me rush out and buy the next book like my life depended on it, whereas this ending didn't. It felt all to clean and almost depressing, considering the two main characters feelings and attitude toward one another. With this in mind, I also have a few things I hope to see in the next installment when I do buy it, such as: both well known and forgotten mythical creatures like hydra's, or much more use of the furies, as they were such a great aspect that was quickly forgotten once they had gone, along with improving Helen's character building, as I feel only in the last 100 pages did she really come into her own and believe in herself. I understand that her character is hugely linked to the romance aspect, but I really want her to be proud herself and her powers, and to embrace them without relying on her romantic partner to hold her hand.

I did really enjoy this book, and I will be reading the rest of the series, but won't be rushing out tomorrow to buy Dreamless.

4 Stars.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book, but sadly, little things really all became too much, and in the end, I couldn't give it the full 5 stars, even if I wanted to.

This was the first collaboration book I'd ever read, and I guess I was pleasantly surprised by the outcome. I had always imagined collaboration books to be slightly disconnected, and possibly not as free flowing as others written by one author, but this one was always at a steady pace, even slow at times, but generally, really consistent.

Having really broken into the fantasy genre lately with the last few books I've read, I felt quite at ease with this storyline and plot and felt that I could quite easily fall in and out of the story when I had to put it down. Where possible however, this book was not put down, and every spare minute of the day I had, was spent reading this. The storyline was surprisingly different to some others in the same genre and because of this, intriguing; the general ambience and atmosphere of the story was much stronger and darker than others of the same category, and I really liked it. Another feature that I enjoyed was the different perspective of the story, from a males point of view than a females. For the genre, and the synopsis, I really expected your typical 'girl falls in love with mysterious guy, things happen, they live happily ever after' and although this book does follow some of that trait, it was nice to experience it from the other viewpoint. It also made a lovely change for the male protagonist to be pinning over the female, rather than the other way round, but, I think because of said males characteristics and overall personality, I really felt no empathy towards him at all, throughout the story, which is both upsetting and disappointing, as I expected a little more considering the hype surrounding this book. As is the same however with a lot of other readers who've reviewed this, I do believe that there were too many pages for the story, and that if some hadn't been included, it wouldn't have been much loss, if any, to the plot itself.

The little things in the book that really niggled at me and honestly resulted in me deducting a star consisted of cliché attributes and the relationship between both the main characters. To start with, I really feel that authors in the fantasy genre are losing the ability to come up with a new physical appearances to their female characters. In the last 3 books I've read alone there's been at least one young lady, with jet black hair that covered an eye of either bright or emerald green colour, and another, with pure blonde hair and striking blue eyes. I completely sympathise with the authors only having access to a specified number of genetic outcomes, but really, must every book have these typical descriptions; I really don't think so. Along with new, fresh appearances, I feel changes must be made elsewhere, especially to surroundings. I honestly feel that environments are now being repeated too, especially the cliché 'haunted house', or the 'weird groupie neighbourhoods'. Can nothing just be used once anymore, or even twice, instead of time after time after time? I fear not. The final straw when it came to deducting the 5th star was just how often the relationship in this story was on and then off. I understand that all relationships go through rough patches, and arguments commence, but must every tiff result in a kissing frenzy on either teenagers bed, or cuddles so intermingled that it physically sounds uncomfortable to read, let alone be in? I am yet to find a relationship in the fantasy genre that isn't all about their tension, the 'electricity between them' or their aching to hold and be around and with each other, which is really disappointing.

Generally, I really enjoyed this book. It was likable, and story believable in the genre, and I intend to read the next installment of the series quite soon.

Solid 4 Stars.