Review: The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight by Jennifer E. Smith

Who would have guessed that four minutes could change everything? Imagine if she hadn't forgotten the book. Or if there hadn't been traffic on the expressway. Or if she hadn't fumbled the coins for the toll. What if she'd run just that little bit faster and caught the flight she was supposed to be on. Would it have been something else - the weather over the Atlantic or a fault with the plane? Hadley isn't sure if she believes in destiny or fate but, on what is potentially the worst day of each of their lives, it's the quirks of timing and chance events that mean Hadley meets Oliver... Set over a 24-hour-period, Hadley and Oliver's story will make you believe that true love finds you when you're least expecting it.

Oh my god you guys, I loved this book.
I’d heard really good things about it, and then I read Angie’s review (and regular readers know that it only takes Angie saying she loved a book and I’ve bought it off Amazon before I’ve finished the review) and I was sold.

Set over twenty four hours, it’s the perfect combination of humour, grief, joy, and squishy cute moments. I’m all about the squishy cute moments.

I loved that this wasn’t just a romance though. It looks equally at Hadley, her family and the break-up of her family unit leading up to this point – the night before her father’s re-marriage.

It was such an honest look at the breakdown of relationships, as well as the forming of them, that for once I didn’t get grumpy over a portrayal of the breakdown. I actually empathised with every character, and found it fascinating as we were allowed deeper insights into Hadley’s life both before and after.

That said, I really loved the squishy moments…
Oliver was such a genuinely nice, refreshingly human boy. There was no insta-love. There was attraction, sure, by the bucket load, but I didn’t ever feel like this spark was being pushed or rushed or rammed repeatedly into a brick wall. The reader almost falls for Oliver along with Hadley, we laugh, we cry, we cheer, and are so swept up in this beautiful tale that’s full of endings and beginnings and false starts. It was so realistic, so full of life without being cloying or false.

I don’t want to ruin it, although I could quite happily chatter on about it for ages. I just want to say how brilliantly written it was. How much of a breah of fresh air, and how carried away by their story. I loved Hadley, she’s so likeable, so friendly despite the grumps attached to the circumstance. I loved the banter between her and Oliver, and the fact that he was so deliciously imperfect. Gotta hate those flawless boys.

I loved the twists and the turns, and the fabulous happenstances that so often lead to brilliant things in life. But most of all I loved the interweaving of the family relationships and drama into this beautiful romance. Everything was pitched perfectly, and I fell in love with it.

There was one glaring error which gave me a mild case of the grumps, which is that the American custom is for the bridesmaid’s to precede the bride down the aisle, whereas the English custom is for them to follow the bride. So why, in an English wedding, where the bride is English, are American customs being employed?
You can argue it any which way about the bride choosing to be different, but the fact remains that in an otherwise flawless book, I was suddenly (and frustratingly) jolted out of it with something as trivial as that.

However, it was ultimately such a small thing that it hasn’t affected my overall rating, because really you guys, this book? Awesomeness in a small and brilliantly written package. It’s stayed with me long after reading – I keep going back and thinking about different moments, and re-reading passages. And yeah ok, we’re only half way through the month, but I think I might have just read my book of the month…
Any other book I read this month is going to have a lot to beat.

Check out other Fabulous Reviews!

Angieville

Two Short Story Reviews: Cat Calls & Haunted Love by Cynthia Leitich Smith

Two brief reviews on two short stories by Cynthia Leitich Smith.

Cat Calls

Tiffany's grandma sees something wild in her future -- but is Tiffany prepared for the powerful shape it will take? CAT CALLS is a short story by New York Times Bestseller Cynthia Leitich Smith -- set in the same dark universe as her novels Tantalize, Eternal, and Blessed.

I’m curious about this author because I’m really excited about her other novels, so I wanted to get a taster of her writing style with her short stories first.
I think it could just be that I’m not a huge fan of short stories, but it really didn’t do it for me. I like the premise, I liked the characters, and it sure was enough to get me intrigued enough to read her books, but it still fell a bit flat.
I think because of the length there isn’t enough plot or character development which leave me feeling a little grumpy, and like events sometimes happen for no reason at all, or without enough explanation for them to draw me in.
It was still enough to intrigue me because I like her writing style and the premise, but it wasn’t enough to make me like this particular story.

Haunted Love

Spirit, Texas, is a town of secrets, and as the new owner of the local haunted movie theater, Cody Stryker is juggling more than his fair share. When a mysterious new girl comes to town and runs afoul of the ghost that lives in his theater, Cody’s caught in the middle and needs to figure out exactly who he can trust. HAUNTED LOVE is a short story by New York Times Bestseller Cynthia Leitich Smith -- set in the same dark universe as her novels TANTALIZE, ETERNAL, and BLESSED.

The same goes for ‘Haunted Love’ – not enough development for the events to make sense. Maybe after reading her books I’ll come back and enjoy them more, because the world and characters will mean more to me, but based on their own it wasn’t enough.
I loved the start of this story, it really drew me in, in a way that I didn’t find with the first one. However, then things get weird, we get an ax and a crazy lady and I just kind of stared blankly at the page going ‘really?’
So yeah, the writing makes me want to go and read her full length novels, but hasn’t done anything to convince me to like short stories any more than I already do.

Review: The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

In the ruins of a place once known as North America lies the nation of Panem, a shining Capitol surrounded by twelve outlying districts. The Capitol is harsh and cruel and keeps the districts in line by forcing them all to send one boy and one girl between the ages of twelve and eighteen to participate in the annual Hunger Games, a fight to the death on live TV. 

How have I not read this book before? Ok let me rephrase that – why on earth have I steered clear of these books??

I have a terrible habit of seeing a cover that I’m not fussed on, and hearing the title over and over because everyone’s talking about it, and I can’t seem to get away from it, so I decide to wait and pick them up at a later time.
More fool me.

Finally, about three years after most of the hype, I saw the trailer. Youtube it, it’s absolutely awesome. And I suddenly realized I’d made a huge mistake and immediately went out and borrowed a copy off one of my friends. And then I didn’t surface for four hours…

I was hooked from the first page, I didn’t put the book down once from start to finish, just sat and read it straight through. Katniss is such an incredibly real and likeable character. Tough because she has to be, but with a real and honest personality that I couldn’t help but find engaging.

We’re thrown straight into the action, with a lot of backstory about Panem and the Districts, but none of it felt overloaded or too much – Collins sets it up in such a way that I was desperate to know more. I wanted everything and I wanted it now.

The pacing is absolutely spot on. There’s a crushing sense of inevitability that dogs the characters and I was equal parts desperate to find out what happens, and hoping to prolong it so I didn’t have to say goodbye to anyone.
But when the goodbye’s came, oh my word they sure packed a punch. Tears. Lots of tears.

I know that there’s supposed to be a love triangle going on between Katniss, Peeta and Gale, but I honestly didn’t feel it. This will be something I talk about more in my reviews of the final two books, because it’s something that comes to the fore in those, but for me there was no contest – particularly in this book. I was for Peeta all the way. For once I was rooting for the good buy – the nice guy who would do anything to protect the girl he loves, even sacrifice himself. Too often I find myself rooting for the bad boy, you know the ones, they usually sport a fair amount of black and do their fair share of bad things as well as good things, but I was completely swept away by Peeta. Guys, I think I have a new fictional crush.

I don’t really want to talk about the plot, because it’s one of those books that I’d hate to ruin for others, just know that it tears you apart and doesn’t let you go and you are in for one hell of a ride once you pick this book up.

I love how much time is taken up with the prep, and the secondary character’s we’re introduced to – Cinna for one was an absolute favourite, but they all stood out in some way or another. Every detail is beautifully crafted into the whole, and the world stood out for me as one of the best constructed I’ve read in a while – with such a level of history and backstory that unravels over the course of the three books.

Even well after finishing reading it, this book has stayed with me. I keep thinking about it and slipping back inside it. Analysing different moments and remembering odd pieces of the games – I have a feeling it won’t be long before I pick it up to read again.

Others have said far more eloquently what I’m attempting to say – that this book is one of the best I have had the pleasure of reading in a while, and the standard of books out there at the moment is insanely high as it is. If you’ve already read it, you’ll know what I’m talking about, and if you haven’t? Don’t make my mistake, go and pick it up now.

Oh and get excited for the film, that trailer looks pretty epic… 

Review: Velvet by Mary Hooper

Velvet is a laundress in a Victorian steam laundry. With both her mother and father dead, she is an orphan and has to rely upon her own wits to make a living. The laundry is scalding, back-breaking work and Velvet is desperate to create a better life for herself. Then Velvet is noticed by Madame Savoya, a famed medium, who asks Velvet to come to work for her. Velvet is dazzled at first by the young yet beautifully dressed and bejewelled Madame. But soon Velvet realises that Madame Savoya is not all that she says she is, and Velvet's very life is in danger... 

There was nothing bad about this book, great writing, fantastic research that really set you down right in the middle of the period, and believable and well-constructed characters – yet it didn’t really do it for me. I’m not sure if it was just that I wasn’t fussed on the storyline, the idea of scamming vulnerable people out of their money is always enough to set my teeth on edge.
Or maybe it was just that I never particularly warmed to Velvet. I wanted to shake her for being so naïve, yet at the same time if she hadn’t been so naïve she wouldn’t have been as believable. Catch 22.

So yeah, not a favourite for me, but still a well written, engaging and driven book.

As I said before, the research is really well done, and allows you to feel that you’ve really entered the 1900’s, right down to the gritty, darker, nastier side. This is always a bonus in a books favour when the research is so good that you really feel and experience it as Velvet would have done.

The writing is brilliant, just the right tone and style for the lower class working girl who rises above her station. I would have liked a bit more about Velvet, about how she reacted to it, little moments that really would have made it seem even more believable. As it was I felt like we just skimmed the surface of her mind which meant I wasn’t as attached to her as I otherwise might have been.

Again we have a case of insta-love, but with a twist! I did occasionally want to shake Velvet for her naivety, but as I’ve said, if she hadn’t been so naïve then she wouldn’t have made successful and believable character of the period.

I did find the breaks where we got to see what happened in some of Madame’s private sessions a bit hit and miss. Whilst I understood why they were there – they provided some much needed insight into Madame’s character, I found they broke up the story quite a lot and really dragged it when the pace could have been higher.

It does provide a really interesting insight into the way mysticism and spirits took hold of the Victorian’s and shook them for all they were worth. I loved seeing all the different mediums and the séances, and the reactions of others at hearing their loved ones speak again. It was fascinating, but at the same 

time horrifying to see how easily manipulated these people were.

It also showed a lot of other aspects of day to day life at the time that aren’t necessarily touched on. It’s normally a lot more of the pretty elegant aspects that we get to read about, so some of the horrifying parts about the workhouse and the baby farms were grisly to read, but fascinating in context.

So all in all, if you like some psychics, ghosts, mysteries, and Victorian’s all mixed up into one book, this is the book for you!

Review: Dearly Departed by Lia Habel

A huge thank you to Harriet at Random House Children's Books for providing me with a review copy.


Love conquers all, so they say. But can Cupid’s arrow pierce the hearts of the living and the dead—or rather, the undead? Can a proper young Victorian lady find true love in the arms of a dashing zombie? 
The year is 2195. The place is New Victoria—a high-tech nation modelled on the manners, mores, and fashions of an antique era. A teenager in high society, Nora Dearly is far more interested in military history and her country’s political unrest than in tea parties and debutante balls. But after her beloved parents die, Nora is left at the mercy of her domineering aunt, a social-climbing spendthrift who has squandered the family fortune and now plans to marry her niece off for money. For Nora, no fate could be more horrible—until she’s nearly kidnapped by an army of walking corpses. 
But fate is just getting started with Nora. Catapulted from her world of drawing-room civility, she’s suddenly gunning down ravenous zombies alongside mysterious black-clad commandos and confronting “The Laz,” a fatal virus that raises the dead—and hell along with them. Hardly ideal circumstances. Then Nora meets Bram Griswold, a young soldier who is brave, handsome, noble . . . and dead. But as is the case with the rest of his special undead unit, luck and modern science have enabled Bram to hold on to his mind, his manners, and his body parts. And when his bond of trust with Nora turns to tenderness, there’s no turning back. Eventually, they know, the disease will win, separating the star-crossed lovers forever. But until then, beating or not, their hearts will have what they desire.
The first book in the ‘Gone with the Respiration’ series.

This book is a brilliant example of what a difference a cover can make. The cover is usually the first thing I see, it’s the point of contact where the book grabs me and says ‘look at me! I’m awesome! You’ll never regret getting me!’ either that or ‘steer clear, you’re being judgemental’. I’m bad, very very bad, I do judge books by their covers. I try not to, but as I said, first point of contact!

U.S. Cover

So I first saw this book with the American cover, and I thought ‘hmm, self this looks like a good book, but it is not nabbing my attention enough to get it now, I shall keep browsing.’
Until the other day, the fabulous Harriett over at Random House Children’s Books sent me a copy with the UK cover, and before I even realised it was the same book I was shrieking with joy and saying ‘self, this cover! This book is going to be fabulous! Look at that tag line! Look at the gone with the wind southern belle aspect, and the pasty brooding guy! And the lamps! And, hey look! Are those zombies staggering around in the background?! Dear god this is fantastic!’ And I promptly started reading it. Just like that, perception changed, the book became an immediate I must read this now.

And it was such a good read! I love it when an author has a sense of humour, and is genuinely just having fun and this comes across throughout the book. 

There are moments of genius and moments of sheer ridiculous, and some sharp and witty banter that had me giggling aloud. The sense of fun and amusement on the part of the author comes across so strongly through reading it that it made it an even more enjoyable read for me. Just look at the series title – ‘Gone with the Respiration’ that alone was enough to make me laugh out lout and demand more.

It had a similar feel to some of Gail Carriger’s work, the same humour, the same elegant wit, and parasols, don’t forget the parasols. But because it’s set in the future there was a lot more room to manoeuvre and play with the language and setting. I was a bit hesitant to start with, but actually this worked out incredible well. Take the parasols that have a gas lamp on the top to indicate whether a woman can be dated, is married, or is more interested in other women – genius.

I loved the characters. Nora was a breath of fresh air – she actually freaks when confronted with undead monsters. It takes her a long time to start to trust and be ok with the idea, and when she first emerges from behind her safely locked door, the first thing she demands is guns. I love her for this so much you wouldn’t believe. But as well as being smart and sassy and a little bit pouty at times, she’s incredibly loyal and fights for those she cares about which made her an all round fabulous heroine.

And Bram, oh baby I do not normally like zombie’s but you have to be the most gentlemanly and lovely of them all. And very little decomposing going on, which is always a bonus… I’ll talk a bit more about the romance in a moment, but suffice to say he was intelligent, sharp, gentle and again, fiercely protective (without any stalker aspects, which is always a bonus.)

The host of secondary characters were on the whole pretty awesome. A little more could have gone into making Bram’s crew more distinguishable earlier on, I found myself a bit confused at points who was who, but that does sort itself out part way through.

Even the characters who only got a bit of main time were really well written and believable, for the most part very funny, and a fantastic array of the different facets of society both alive and dead, in this whole new world.

And Pam. Oh boy did she get awesome. I am so excited to see more of the Pam that emerges when everything falls apart. She was actually more interesting than Nora at points, just because of the strength and determination she showed when it came to protecting those she loved, and even those she barely knew that she wanted to help.

Let’s talk about romance – more specifically zombie romance. I’m not a fan. The idea of someone shambling along with bits decomposing and dropping off who would quite like to eat your braaaainssss, and a live human having a romance has filled me with a slightly shuddery feeling in the past, so I’ve steered well clear of zombie romances until last year. Then I read ‘Warm Bodies’ by Isaac Marrion, and my perception changed. All of a sudden it didn’t have to be this slightly disturbing zombie half eating human weird romance. It could be based on more than making out (shock, horror) and be more about the connection between two individuals.

This was also the case with Bram and Nora, and I liked the two of them together, how their relationship and friendship developed. And Ms Habel neatly sidesteps the ick factor by creating a zombie boy who isn’t decomposing – not in the same way. All of a sudden we have a yummy boy (yes he’s still yummy, despite the eyes) who just happens to be dead. He’s still him, he still has a sense of humour and can fight and sing as good as the living boys – actually he seems to have a better moral code than most of the rest of the living boys. And at that stage, where he isn’t decomposing and shambling around screaming brains, where he is still in tact, merely dead, we have the same scenario as most of the human girl with a dead vampire boy books out there – and no one seems to have a problem with the ick factor there.
What I am trying to say (albeit not particularly eloquently) is that the romance, particularly the zombie un-dead element should not be something that makes you judge this book before even fully reading it.

It wasn’t all sunshine and roses though, I did have a couple of problems with the book which prevented me from giving it the full five star love. Firstly, the number of point of views. There were five. Now I would have been happy with just Bram and Nora, I think their story was fascinating enough just on its own, with the exterior elements being fed in through them. However then Pamela’s story line got really epic and we wouldn’t have seen that without her point of view, so I was ok with that one too. Wolfe’s and Dr Dearly’s were a bit much though. I didn’t find them as compelling, and I just wanted to skip back to the action. I felt that the things that were revealed through those point of view’s (actually I don’t think anything much was revealed through Wolfe’s) could have been fed into the story in other ways, cutting down the number of characters and points of view which made my head reel a little bit at times.

The other thing was the sheer volume. Don’t get me wrong, I love long books, there’s a lot more scope in them and a lot more can be included, but in some cases in this book I felt like there was just a bit too much. I realise that there was a vast amount of information to be covered throughout the book – there was so much back story and information to get the reader up to speed with the world, but it felt like some of that could have been cut down or cut out. Some of the situations were given time to amble along which meant that the road to epic showdown was a long one, and meant that I put the book down a lot just to have a break even though I was enjoying it so much.

So it was still brilliant, I still loved it, I will still look forward to the sequel with baited breath, but there were a few flaws that made it not quite so dazzlingly brilliant as it could have been. (Although if I did half stars this would be a 4.5 instead of a four.) However if you like Steampunk, humour and an incredibly brilliant plot then this is an absolute must read.

Release Day: Fracture by Megan Miranda and Tempest by Julie Cross

The day has finally arrived when two very exciting débuts hit the shelves!
'Fracture' by Megan Miranda and 'Tempest' by Julie Cross are both released today, and are the first two books of a host of awesome ones set to release this year.


One involves sensing death, and the other time-travel - what's not to love?!


So go out and buy them now! Available from Amazon and book stores.


And congratulations to both Megan and Julie for writing some of the strongest début novels to kick off 2012! Happy Release Day! 


Fracture by Megan Miranda

Eleven minutes passed before Delaney Maxwell was pulled from the icy waters of a Maine lake by her best friend Decker Phillips. By then her heart had stopped beating. Her brain had stopped working. She was dead. And yet she somehow defied medical precedent to come back seemingly fine
-despite the scans that showed significant brain damage. Everyone wants Delaney to be all right, but she knows she's far from normal. Pulled by strange sensations she can't control or explain, Delaney finds herself drawn to the dying. Is her altered brain now predicting death, or causing it?
Then Delaney meets Troy Varga, who recently emerged from a coma with similar abilities. At first she's reassured to find someone who understands the strangeness of her new existence, but Delaney soon discovers that Troy's motives aren't quite what she thought. Is their gift a miracle, a freak of nature-or something much more frightening?


Tempest by Julie Cross


The year is 2009.  Nineteen-year-old Jackson Meyer is a normal guy… he’s in college, has a girlfriend… and he can travel back through time. But it’s not like the movies – nothing changes in the present after his jumps, there’s no space-time continuum issues or broken flux capacitors – it’s just harmless fun.
That is… until the day strangers burst in on Jackson and his girlfriend, Holly, and during a struggle with Jackson, Holly is fatally shot. In his panic, Jackson jumps back two years to 2007, but this is not like his previous time jumps. Now he’s stuck in 2007 and can’t get back to the future.
Desperate to somehow return to 2009 to save Holly but unable to return to his rightful year, Jackson settles into 2007 and learns what he can about his abilities.
But it’s not long before the people who shot Holly in 2009 come looking for Jackson in the past, and these “Enemies of Time” will stop at nothing to recruit this powerful young time-traveler.  Recruit… or kill him.
Piecing together the clues about his father, the Enemies of Time, and himself, Jackson must decide how far he’s willing to go to save Holly… and possibly the entire world.

City Of Lost Souls Cover Reveal

It's finally here! The cover we've been impatiently waiting for!


It was officially revealed today on the USA Today Online Book Blog the new cover for the next in the Mortal Instruments series: The City of Lost Souls


Feast your eyes on it, for it is truly gorgeous, as all of Cassie's covers have been in both series so far. It seems each one is better than the one before, which means that I cannot wait until 'Clockwork Princess' cover is revealed.


City of Lost Souls is released on 8th May 2012.


In the mean time go and check out Cassie's site for more teasers and titbits to tide us over until the release.


http://cassie-claire.com/cms/home


http://cassandraclare.tumblr.com/ (plus the prologue is now available for City of Lost Souls here!)

Review: Daylight Saving Edward Hogan

Release Date: 2^nd February 2012

A special thank you to Walker Books for sending me a copy to review, Jack for talking us through the cover design process, and Ed for coming and talking to us about the book.

This is a brilliant thriller ghost story by a new name in teenage fiction. When Daniel Lever is dragged to Leisure World Holiday Complex for some "time away" with his depressed dad, his expectations are low. Daniel is overweight, he hates sport, and his father has brought along his beloved tomato plant. But soon Daniel spots a girl swimming in the fake lake. Lexi is elegant and smart, but very mysterious. Why are her bruises getting worse each time she and Daniel meet? And is her watch really ticking backwards? A dark figure stalks the pair, and as British summer time approaches, Daniel has to act quickly. Their souls depend on it.

I have been so excited about this book ever since I was lucky enough to chat with Ed at the Walker Books book bloggers event at the end of last year. Everything about it was fab – the concept, the cover, the blurb, and then it arrived it was so shiny I had to stroke it for a few minutes before I even started reading it.

And it so didn’t disappoint.

One thing guaranteed to make me do a little happy dance is when we get strong male characters in fiction, and whilst Daniel isn’t your stereotypical macho male lead, he is strong and brilliant and fabulous all in his own way – despite the nose picking…

Daniel and his father arrive for a holiday at the Leisure World Holiday Complex to escape their world outside which is crumbling around them, and Daniel finds himself swept up in a strange and thrilling race with the girl that no one else seems to notice.

I absolutely loved Lexi. She was smart, funny and strong in ways that you wouldn’t normally expect from a 17 year old girl.

And she’s the perfect complement to Daniel, who just needs someone to actually stop, look at him, and care to bring him into all his fabulous glory. I loved that Ed had made Daniel how he had – a normal not perfectly chiselled teenager, who was a boy (but we can forgive him that) but despite certain moments of boyish weakness, is a morale, strong and incredibly courageous guy.

I loved watching him grow and mature, and watching the relationship develop between him and Lexi. It was a true representation of friendship and admiration, rather than the ‘insta-love’ you find in so many young adult books these days.

It was a thrilling book – I literally couldn’t put it down once I’d started reading it. The tension runs high throughout and the plot was brilliantly well written and constructed. Not your average fare, with plenty of twists and intrigues along the way to keep your interest, and just enough supernatural to make me squee like a small child.

It wasn’t just the relationship with Lexi that I found fascinating, but the relationship with his father and the small chunks of his past that Daniel reveals along the way that show how events culminated into the week we see. A brilliantly bittersweet look at the butterfly effect of the tiniest of moments and how they shape us.

A fantastic young adult debut from an incredibly talented writer, and one I cannot wait to see more of in the future.