Books I'm Squeeing About in December

Another year almost done, and one last month of bookish releases before the 2019 beauties start arriving. It's been a truly excellent year for books, but it's not over yet!
Here are some of the December releases I'm really excited about, including quite a few fresh discoveries that I know almost nothing about, but just look super intriguing!

Queen of Air and Darkness by Cassandra Clare
December 4th 2018
What if damnation is the price of true love?
Innocent blood has been spilled on the steps of the Council Hall, the sacred stronghold of the Shadowhunters. In the wake of the tragic death of Livia Blackthorn, the Clave teeters on the brink of civil war. One fragment of the Blackthorn family flees to Los Angeles, seeking to discover the source of the blight that is destroying the race of warlocks. 

Meanwhile, Julian and Emma take desperate measures to put their forbidden love aside and undertake a perilous mission to Faerie to retrieve the Black Volume of the Dead. What they find in the Courts is a secret that may tear the Shadow World asunder and open a dark path into a future they could never have imagined. Caught in a race against time, Emma and Julian must save the world of Shadowhunters before the deadly power of the parabatai curse destroys them and everyone they love. 

I realise that the fact that I haven't read the first two books in this series yet is a slight hinderance... But I'm looking forward to getting the final book in my hands and then just binge reading the entire series. Sometimes I like the suspense waiting for the next book, sometimes I just need a good binge.

Fire & Heist by Sarah Beth Durst
December 4th 2018
In Sky Hawkins's family, leading your first heist is a major milestone--even more so than learning to talk, walk, or do long division. It's a chance to gain power and acceptance within your family, and within society. But stealing your first treasure can be complicated, especially when you're a wyvern--a human capable of turning into a dragon.
Embarking on a life of crime is never easy, and Sky discovers secrets about her mother, who recently went missing, the real reason her boyfriend broke up with her, and a valuable jewel that could restore her family's wealth and rank in their community

With a handpicked crew by her side, Sky knows she has everything she needs to complete her first heist, and get her boyfriend and mother back in the process. But then she uncovers a dark truth about were-dragon society--a truth more valuable and dangerous than gold or jewels could ever be. 

Now I love a good heist book. I'm a little bit thrown by the fact that she's a wyvern... But I'm imagining something akin to Abraxos, so WHAT COULD POSSIBLY GO WRONG? I'll report back when I've read it.

Strange Days by Constantine J Singer
December 4th 2018
Alex Mata doesn’t want to worry about rumors of alien incursions – he’d rather just skate and tag and play guitar. But when he comes home to find an alien has murdered his parents, he’s forced to confront a new reality: Aliens are real, his parents are dead, and nobody will believe him if he says what he saw. On the run, Alex finds himself led to the compound of tech guru Jeffrey Sabazios, the only public figure who stands firm in his belief that aliens are coming.
At Sabazios’ invitation, Alex becomes a “Witness”—one of a special group of teens gifted with an ability that could save the Earth: they can glide through time and witness futures. When a Witness sees a future it guarantees that it will happen the way it’s been seen, making their work humanity’s best hope for controlling what happens next and stopping the alien threat. Guided by Sabazios, befriended by his fellow time travelers, and maybe even falling in love, Alex begins to find a new home at the compound -- until a rogue glide shows him the dangerous truth about his new situation. 

Now in a race against time, Alex must make a terrible choice: save the people he loves or save the world instead.

I'll admit, I nearly was put off by the alien incursions (I'm not a big fan of aliens) BUT the rest of the blurb is super weird and crazy awesome sounding. Intrigued? Definitely.

An Assassin's Guide to Love & Treason by Virginia Boecker
December 6th 2018

When Lady Katharine's father is killed for being a practicing Catholic, she discovers that wasn't the only secret he'd been hiding. He'd also been involved in a plot to overthrow Queen Elizabeth. With nothing left to lose, Katherine disguises herself as a boy and travels to London to fulfill her father's mission, and take it one step further--she'll kill the queen herself.Katherine's opportunity comes in the form of William Shakespeare's newest play, Twelfth Night, which is to be specially performed in front of Her Majesty. But what she doesn't know is that the play is not just a play. It's a plot to root out Catholic insurrectionists and destroy the rebellion once and for all.The mastermind behind this ruse is Toby Ellis, a young spy for the queen with secrets of his own. When Toby and Katharine are cast opposite each other as the play's leads, they find themselves inexplicably drawn to one another. But the closer they grow, the more precarious their positions become. And soon they learn that star-crossed love, mistaken identity, and betrayal are far more dangerous off the stage than on.

Intriguing title? Check. Intriguing blurb? Check. I am very much on board for this one, despite knowing next to nothing about it. This looks like it's going to tick a lot of my favourite bookish boxes.

The Cursed Sea by Lauren DeStefano
December 18th 2018
Wilhemina Heidle, the exiled princess of Northern Arrod, the girl thought dead by her family and friends, must return home. The only way to save Loom, the cursed prince of the Southern Isles, is to revisit the castle and discover the origins of her own curse.
But home is very different from how she left it—Wil’s unstable elder brother is now king, leading a war against the Southern Isles. And the rest of her family must reckon with the truth of what happened to lead to Wil’s exile. With time running out, Wil must navigate the dangerous secrets within her family if she’s going to find the truth and save the boy she loves.
When she’s finally able to reach Pahn, nothing goes as planned, and suddenly Wil and her allies are fighting for their lives, again and again, as the Southern King is out to punish his children for all they’ve done. Traveling across cursed seas and treacherous kingdoms, Wil, Loom—and his ruthless sister Espel—have to work to make peace with their own struggles if they hope to secure the future of their kingdoms.
But when their plans lead them right back to evil marveler Pahn, and to Baren—who is more dangerous than ever—can Wil and her friends outsmart their enemies, this time, for good?

Yes, yes, this is for the kindle version, the physical copy doesn't come out until next year, but I want this book so badly that I just don't care. Expect much shrieking when I get the physical copy as well though because I adore that cover. Basically anything by Lauren is a guaranteed buy for me, and also a guaranteed brilliant read.

So those are my last few books of the year, what are some of yours? Have any of these made it onto your wishlist?

Review: Because You'll Never Meet Me by Leah Thomas

Publication Date: July 2^nd 2015
Publisher: Bloomsbury
Length: 344 pages

MINOR SPOILERS

Thanks to Netgalley and Bloomsbury for sending me a copy in exchange for an honest review

Ollie and Moritz are best friends, but they can never meet. Ollie is allergic to electricity. Contact with it causes debilitating seizures. Moritz’s weak heart is kept pumping by an electronic pacemaker. If they ever did meet, Ollie would seize. But Moritz would die without his pacemaker. Both hermits from society, the boys develop a fierce bond through letters that become a lifeline during dark times—as Ollie loses his only friend, Liz, to the normalcy of high school and Moritz deals with a bully set on destroying him.
A story of impossible friendship and hope under strange circumstances, this debut is powerful, dark and humorous in equal measure. These extraordinary voices bring readers into the hearts and minds of two special boys who, like many teens, are just waiting for their moment to shine.

I was crazily excited about this book, and then I started to hear rumblings that the end suddenly went very different from the rest of the book and was this contemporary or was it sci-fi? So I went warily into this one, unsure of quite what to expect.

Unfortunately I didn’t get along with it. For starters I didn’t connect with or like Ollie at all. His letters were amusing to start with but quickly degenerated into mind numbing exposition that I had to really work to get through. Nothing really happened, he was incredibly self centred and utterly hung up over Liz (who I also didn’t particularly like.) and as a result most of his letters felt like upbeat whinging. Who knew that could be a thing? He comes across as very young, I know he’s meant to be fourteen, but he seemed even younger than that. And his obsession with Liz never really made complete sense to me. Ok sure, he doesn’t see many people and his only friend stops coming to visit him after a traumatic experience. But the traumatic experience, whilst a little traumatic, was not quite the crisis situation that Ollie was making it out to be. There was so much build up, so much dragging of his heels when writing to Moritz, so much procrastination where he doesn’t want to tell him about it. And then it happens and I kinda felt, well, is that it? Liz doesn’t strike me as a particularly good friend, I’m with Moritz on this one. She seemed determined to ‘fix’ Ollie, and anyone who feels that people with disabilities or illnesses need to be ‘fixed’ to be ‘normal’ automatically gets me incredibly irate.

So Ollie didn’t really interest or appeal to me, which left me with Moritz. Moritz and I actually got along a lot better. I still found him to be ridiculously verbose and depressive, but I found his story to be much more engaging. I still found his ‘disability’ frustrating. I’m blind! But I can see everything! So really I’m actually fine! I felt like the set up had been ‘hey look, two disabled teenagers’ and then the rug was being pulled from under as the author went ‘ha ha, not really!’

It was a mixed bag, I struggled to continue reading, to persuade myself to even care about some of Ollie’s letters, and then suddenly out of the blue at 75%, the ridiculous happened. What had been a perfectly ok  contemporary novel with a couple of interesting tweaks, suddenly turned into full on sci-fi with no warning. 

There was no build up, no sly clues along the way, just suddenly an info dump in one of Moritz’s letters that completely upended everything and made me do a double take. What was this novel? What had just happened? Had I missed something?

And then the end! Why oh why did Ollie suddenly have to be ‘fixed’, why did it suddenly have to become this thing that he’d grow into?! This goes back to my earlier point about ‘fixing’ people with illnesses or disabilities. It makes me feel like the rest of the book was obsolete, like I’ve been cheated somehow. That this novel that promised it would be about two teenage boys with disabilities had suddenly changed its mind and didn’t follow through at the end. That really frustrated me and left me with a bitter taste.

So this novel that I was crazily excited for felt like it wasn’t anything like the novel I was hoping for or expecting. I felt bored, frustrated and cheated and ended up not really feeling any sort of attachment to any of the characters.
I know plenty of people have loved it, have loved the characters and the writing style and the sudden change of pace at the end, but for me personally, this just wasn’t my cup of tea.

Review: Cinder by Marissa Meyer

Warning - Spoilers below. Do not read unless you've already read the book.

Humans and androids crowd the raucous streets of New Beijing. A deadly plague ravages the population. From space, a ruthless lunar people watch, waiting to make their move. No one knows that Earth’s fate hinges on one girl. . . . 
Cinder, a gifted mechanic, is a cyborg. She’s a second-class citizen with a mysterious past, reviled by her stepmother and blamed for her stepsister’s illness. But when her life becomes intertwined with the handsome Prince Kai’s, she suddenly finds herself at the centre of an intergalactic struggle, and a forbidden attraction. Caught between duty and freedom, loyalty and betrayal, she must uncover secrets about her past in order to protect her world’s future.

I was so excited about Cinder when I first saw it – cyborgs? Cinderella? Deadly plagues? It ticked all my boxes.

Unfortunately it didn’t quite manage to live up to my expectations, although it was still a really good book that I thoroughly enjoyed.

Let’s get what I wasn’t fussed on out the way first so we can end on the things I did love.

Firstly, by the time a book is in its finished form, I expect it to be completely proof read. I don’t expect to find words missing or random words thrown into sentences that make the whole thing make no sense at all. It worries me when I see errors like that in a finished book, because that means that in all the passes of the book no one has picked it up. Either that or I have eyes like a hawk and someone should hire me to be a proof reader.

Secondly, the big twist. I’ve already warned you and I’m going to again, do not keep reading if you haven’t read the book – spoilers lie ahead!
I worked out the twist a couple of chapters in, it really didn’t take long. And I spent the rest of the book torn between being incredibly bored that I’d already worked it out, and desperately hoping that I was wrong, and that the author was going to pull something spectacular out of the bag at the last moment. Unfortunately it turned out I was right, and because it was literally revealed in the last couple of pages it made me think that it was supposed to be this big shocking thing. And it really, really wasn’t.
I am however looking forward to seeing how Cinder develops now she has this knowledge, so I’m incredibly excited for the second book, despite the slightly let down-ish ending of the first.

Thirdly, the romance. There wasn’t enough time and development between Kai and Cinder for me to find this believable. If it had been that he was using her to try and get one up on the Queen like Cinder initially thought then I would have found it more believable, but as it was I really wasn’t convinced. Maybe in the next book there will be enough interaction between them that I’ll start to feel it, but as it was, not so much.

And finally, I was kind of disappointed that more wasn’t given to the setting. It’s set in ‘New Beijing’ and everyone has Chinese names, but nothing about it really suggests any connection to the cities roots, where it’s come from and how it’s developed. I would have found that fascinating to see more of that – we did see a little bit creep through in some of the ceremonies, and random pieces of description, but I would have liked more it.

Ok so those were the things that brought the book down for me, let’s talk about the awesome.
The plot. I absolutely loved it. It was a fantastic new spin on the traditional fairy tale, and that’s what made me pick up the book in the first place. The idea that Cinder was a cyborg was genius, it take the idea of her being a servant and physically belonging to her step mother to a whole new level which I found fascinating.

I loved Cinder herself. A smart, clever and well developed character that I couldn’t help but love and root for. I laughed at her humour, I wanted to cry at the injustices of her step mother, and be there to deliver a royal smackdown on the Queen. She really was fabulous, and it was so good to see this character who we’ve been shown in most depictions as this slightly weak princess to be, to be such a tough and independent young woman. She came across a lot older than she was as a result, and I want to see a bit more of her vulnerability, but I’m really looking forward to seeing her development in the next books.

I did like Kai, and I found some of the pieces from his point of view where we got to see the politics and outside the Commonwealth which we would have missed if we had been with Cinder the whole time, really interesting. It gave an idea of the stakes and the world outside of Cinder’s perceptions. Did anyone else have a brief moment of ‘oh, did she really go there?’ With ‘Queen Camilla’ of England?...

I did however find some of the stuff with Kai and Torin a little bit weird towards the end. I don’t know if it was just because it was seen from Cinder’s perspective, but it suddenly seemed a bit out of character. I did love Kai’s reaction to Cinder though when he found out what she was. Still wanting to protect her but at the same time unable to hide his disgust. I like it when characters are shown with their flaws, and to be unable (at least at first) to get over their prejudices.

The plot did take a little while to get going and to draw me in (about 80 pages or so) but after the ending I am fully anticipating a fabulous dive straight into the second book.

The writing was really good (other than the errors I’ve already mentioned) and set the scene and developed the characters beautifully. The pacing really picked up, and I found myself dragged into the story fully after that initial slow build up, and I couldn’t wait to carry on reading and find out what was going to happen. It’s the sort of story that takes a little while, but then lodges itself firmly inside you, making you desperate to get back to it, and constantly thinking about the characters and what’s going to happen next.

The build up and set up were really good, I loved the elements of the original fairy tale woven in without dominating the story, and I cannot wait for the second book to see where Cinder is going to go now and what she’ll do next.


Edit to include a short review of 'Glitches'
I have to say I really enjoyed 'Glitches'. It was a really good example of how a prequel story can work well both before and after reading the book it's promoting. I've talked about this recently, and I have to say that Glitches was one of my favourites.
It's gives us immediate insight into the world and Cinder herself, so that even if I hadn't read the book it still would have made sense and drawn me in, and it was really good to be able to fill in some of those gaps about when she was first adopted. I loved seeing the father, and the interactions with her step mother and the two other children.
A really good short prequel that I would definitely recommend either to try before you delve into the full story, or as another taste of Cinder's world.

Review: A Long, Long Sleep by Anna Sheehan

A massive thank you to Jon at Orion Books for sending this book to me. However the review is entirely my own thoughts and opinions.

Rosalinda Fitzroy had been asleep for 62 years when she was woken by a kiss. Locked away in the chemically-induced slumber of a stasis tube in a forgotten sub-basement, sixteen year old Rose slept straight through the Dark Times that killed millions and utterly changed the world she knew. Now, her parents and her first love are long dead, and Rose- hailed upon her awakening as the long-lot heir to an interplanetary empire – is thrust alone into a future in which she is viewed as either a freak or a threat.
Desperate to put the past behind her and adapt to her new world, Rose finds herself drawn to the boy who kissed her, hoping that he can help her start again. But when a deadly danger jeopardises her fragile new existence, Rose must face the ghosts of her past with open eyes – or be left without any future at all.

This book was full of surprises for me. I started out really not liking it, then became hooked, and by the end was crying and absolutely smitten with it.

The first hundred and fifty odd pages were really off-putting for me. This is just me personally, but I felt like there was so much information to try and cram in to get the reader up to speed that it all was a bit too much. There was very little progression, just a constant info dump of explanations for Rose’s situation and her world. I also struggled with some of the slang speak – Rose struggles with it too, and I eventually picked up a rough idea of what it meant, but I would have found it really helpful if one of the other character’s explained some of it to Rose, or if a dictionary were included at the start of the book. The lack of understanding simply served to make me feel even more out of touch with the world than I already did.

However, somewhere along the way something really caught me. I think where things begin to unravel and Rose develops a little more of a backbone as she struggles to regain some form of her identity. She is an old soul trapped in a body that doesn’t work, appears young, and surrounded by incomprehension by those around her – apart from Otto who was one of the more fascinating constructs of the book. Her character development was really strong – starting out as a very weak and passive girl, but gradually learning about herself, about the things that have happened to her, and becoming stronger as a result.

And her story is simply tragic in places. The book starts out as a very innocuous sleeping beauty tale, but it quickly unravels to show a darker side to some of the characters, as truly horrific in their ideas of normal behaviour. The further we got into Rose’s story the more I wanted to pull her out of it and show her that this is not normal, and she shouldn’t just lie down and take it.
The characters are well constructed, offering a host of interesting avenues of information, and development – and I genuinely wanted to learn more about them in their own right, not just in relation to Rose.

And at the heart of the story is one of the most touchingly beautiful love stories I’ve read in young adult fiction. Very reminiscent of ‘The Time Traveller’s Wife’ – Rose and Xavier’s story is gently interwoven throughout the story. It’s Rose’s touchstone, her lifeline, the one constant in her life, and it’s fascinating to go back and watch their relationship evolve and develop. It explores all the different possibilities of love, how it occurs and proves that love really can concur all.

I hope, given the ending, that we can expect a sequel to this touching story, and perhaps without the need for backstory it will launch straight in and take hold of the reader in a way I didn’t feel with this story straight away.

It’s a Romeo and Juliet tale with a modern twist that keeps you guessing and constantly on your toes. Of all the books I’ve read this year, this has been the most surprising. At no point could I guess what would happen or how things would end, Sheehan has offered a fresh approach to storytelling, with an exciting new world and beautifully constructed characters, and a breath taking approach to love and how it can shape us, guide us, and offer hope at the darkest moments.