Review: Breakfast at Darcy's by Ali McNamara

When Darcy McCall loses her beloved Aunt Molly, she doesn't expect any sort of inheritance - let alone a small island. Located off the west coast of Ireland, Tara hasn't been lived on for years, but according to Molly's will Darcy must stay there for twelve months in order to fully inherit, and she needs to persuade a village full of people to settle there, too. Darcy has to leave behind her independent city life and swap stylish heels for muddy wellies. Between sorting everything from the plumbing to the pub, Darcy meets confident Conor and ever-grumpy Dermot - but who will make her feel really at home?

‘From Notting Hill with Love… Actually’ was a true gem of a debut at the end of 2010 from Ali McNamara. It remains the best chick lit I have ever read – smart, funny, brilliantly written with a fabulously unique twist, and with beautifully swoon worthy romance.
As a result ‘Breakfast at Darcy’s’ – McNamara’s second novel, was always going to have to work incredibly hard to live up to her first.

And it comes so very close to perfection. Don’t get me wrong, it is a stunning book; truly brilliant romance, brilliant storytelling and some humour that had me laughing out loud. There were just a couple of things that niggled at me because I had such high expectations – but I’ll get to those in a moment, let’s talk about the awesome stuff first.

Darcy – talk about character growth throughout a novel! She starts off as someone completely hidden behind this persona of clothes and make up she’s created for herself, completely obsessed with the labels she’s wearing and how much of a bargain they were – constantly trying to justify her increasing mountain of debt to herself. But when she gets to Tara, everything changes. She shrugs off the person she was pretending to be and lets her true self shine through and she’s so strong and capable, and completely loveable. I loved watching her transformation from this slightly remote person into a heroine I could identify with, who took everything that was thrown at her and shook it firmly and told it to behave.

Dermot, oh my. This goes for Conor as well, but Dermot was really my favourite of the two boys. McNamara really knows how to create believable, flawed but loveable men that you just want to pull into a great big hug (or alternatively slap at some moments...) She really captures the romance, from the tiny little gestures right down to the overblown romantic ones, her romances are one of the big highlights of the novels for me, they're fabulous, blush worthy, awesomeness.

Whilst the set-up is all really good, the novel really gets going as soon as they get to Tara, she really is the centre of the book. Everyone comes together and develops and changes and bonds, and I could have quite happily read another thousand odd pages on life of the island, both during that year and beyond it. It was a brilliantly written place that completely drew me in and made me feel safe and comfortable and completely at home. Hell, I finished the book and debated upping sticks and moving to a remote island myself, it certainly seems the way to go. And if you can promise me an experience like Darcy’s I will be there like a shot.

I would have liked to see more of the islanders, I felt that we didn’t get to see them as individuals very much, it was more of a collective. For example, apart from the odd line and a tiny bit of description from Darcy’s perspective I didn’t feel like I knew any of them that were chosen to come and live on Tara apart from Niall, Conor, Dermot and Roxi. Whilst I liked the community spirit that definitely comes through, I wanted to learn a little more about the individuals and why they wanted to come to the island, it’s quite an extreme move, and I didn’t feel like they were really fleshed out without some of the backstory.

I did have a couple of problems with some aspects of the book. Firstly the title, which I know is probably just me personally. After the brilliant ‘From Notting Hill with Love… Actually’ I was expecting the title to mean more to the book. Aside from the obvious play on ‘Breakfast at Tiffany’s’ which is referenced briefly in the book, the title remained a little bit random for me, and I kind of expected it to have more relationship with the novel.

Secondly, the romance. We all know in chick lit that our heroine is going to have two yummy boys to  choose from (and potentially make out with) and that only one will turn out to be her one true love. McNamara uses this brilliantly, but I felt a little bit cheated out of the romance. Yes Darcy and her OTL have a few moments of really breathless anticipation, and they grow into friends in a way that most books miss out in the relationship process, but then it suddenly turns into ‘hey we’re in love!’ Where is the kissing? Where is the moment? I felt a bit cheated out of that, and as a result was left a little bit disgruntled, despite the gorgeousness of the final moment.

I also wished we could have had a bit more development of Darcy’s backstory. There’s a lot of her suppressing memories throughout the book, and forgetting parts of her childhood, and whilst there is a revelation of sorts part way through, I wanted something more, some moment where we find out more about her childhood and everything she’s fought down.
On the plus side I loved the reminiscing about Aunt Molly. I loved finding out more about her character despite her death, and she becomes almost part of Tara, an entity in her own right that we learn about and remember through Darcy.

But my few problems with it are just me being picky because McNamara’s writing is so good. Everything else is so deliciously brilliant that the personal niggles fade into the background and it remains a brilliant book, one you can sink into and really appreciate the writing, the characters, the humour and fabulous plot. McNamara marked herself as one to watch with her début, and she’s cemented her status with ‘Breakfast at Darcy’s’.

Review: Entwined by Heather Dixon

Azalea is trapped. Just when she should feel that everything is before her . . . beautiful gowns, dashing suitors, balls filled with dancing . . . it's taken away. All of it.
The Keeper understands. He's trapped, too, held for centuries within the walls of the palace. And so he extends an invitation.
Every night, Azalea and her eleven sisters may step through the enchanted passage in their room to dance in his silver forest.
But there is a cost.
The Keeper likes to keep things.
Azalea may not realize how tangled she is in his web until it is too late.

There have been a lot of retellings of well-known fairy tales over the last few years, but one of my childhood favourites has always been the twelve dancing princesses. I had a picture book as a child that showed the tale in such beautiful detail that it’s one that has stayed with me throughout the years.

However, ‘Entwined’ is certainly one of the best retellings of the tale that I’ve come across. Dixon takes the original fairy tales and puts an entirely fresh spin on it. Instead of the mother of the princesses being dead, we see her prior to her death and she is a constant presence throughout the book, both in the girls memories and thoughts but also in the very act of mourning and the magic of the castle.

The Princesses are left with the King, a parent who at first doesn’t seem to care about the girls now their mother has gone, and leaves them alone to go to war for the better part of the years mourning.
The King was a brilliantly well played character. At first he comes across as your stereotypical non-caring parent who has been left with children he doesn’t really want. However, Dixon takes that image and turns it on his head – he does care, he tries, he fails, he gets grumpy, and he tries again. He was one of my favourite characters because he started out not particularly nice, and grew and developed and came to appreciate all he still had, not all that he had lost.

And the dancing, Dixon describes it beautifully, you can see the movements in your head. The dancing springs out of a need to keep grief at bay, to keep the memory of their mother close and to hold the girls together as a family unit. There is no curse already in place at the start of the book, the magic ballroom is a place discovered to help them try to recover some sense of normalcy in a world that has been very much turned upside down.

Whilst the eldest Princess, Azalea is the main focus of the story, the rest of the sisters all get their own threads, personalities and traits. The hard part of this tale is usually trying to create a family of twelve princesses without leaving any as one dimensional flat cut outs. But Dixon manages to create a family unit that is so strong and so lifelike that that alone is a huge achievement – add to that the rest of the novel and this is the best fairy tale retellings I’ve read.

The magic involved is both beautiful and thrilling and terrifyingly horrible. The novel had some of the most frightening moments I’ve read in a while, and yet it could also be amusing and gorgeous as well. The final battle was incredibly well done, and I couldn’t have put the book down if I’d wanted to, it drew me in and gripped me entirely.

The writing is exquisite – it sweeps you up and carries you along in this world of dances, grief and trying to keep a family unit together. Dixon has a beautiful writing style and knows when to keep the words sweet and delicate, when to turn terrifying, and when to insert her very brilliant humour into the mix.

“Down with tyranny!' Bramble cried. 'Aristocracy! Autocracy! Monocracy! Other ocracy things! You are outnumbered, sir! Surrender!” 

I did have one tiny weeny grump. Why do characters insist on deciding they are in love. Sure ok after pages and pages of becoming friends and getting to know each other this is less frustrating because it is believable. However, when they haven’t had many scenes together or much time to get to know each other, to suddenly have this funny feeling and go ‘oh hey, I think I’m in love!’ really frustrates me. For that matter why do they have to have that ‘decision’ at all? Why can’t it just be left ambiguous and left to the reader to interpret? Take ‘The Scorpio Races’ – there is no wild declaration, no moment of hey I think I might love him. Just two people getting to know each other, who have an intense connection and take it further – there is no label. Anyway, this book just happened to do this and it peeved me, but this mini rant is aimed at a lot more books than just this one – it just happened to emerge here. Rant over.

 “He's around the twist,' said Azalea. 'Breaking all the windows? He's mad.' 
'Ah, no,' said the King. 'It's only madness if you actually do it. If you want to break all the windows in the house and drown yourself in a bucket but don't actually do it, well, that's love.” 

So if you like fairy tales, read this book. If you love dancing, read this book. If you love tales of princesses and dashing men and terrible magic, read this book. Hell, just read this book anyway, it’s fabulous in all the right ways and I am so glad I picked it up. So please Heather Dixon, write some more, this book was awesome and I would quite happily buy anything and everything you ever write. But in the mean time, I recommend checking out Heather’s blog, which had me crying with laughter at more than a few moments. http://story-monster.blogspot.com/

Review: The Swan Kingdom by Zoe Marriott

Shadows fall across the beautiful, lush kingdom after the queen is attacked by an unnatural beast, and the healing skills of her daughter, Alexandra, cannot save her. Too soon the widowed king is spellbound by a frightening stranger, a woman whose eyes reflect no light. In a terrifying moment, all Alexandra knows disappears, including her beloved brothers, leaving her banished to a barren land. But Alexandra has more gifts than she realizes as she confronts magic, murder, and the strongest of evil forces, and is unflinchingly brave as she struggles to reclaim what is rightfully hers. Fantasy lovers will be held in thrall by this tale full of visual detail, peppered with a formidable destructive force and sweetened with familial and romantic love.

I’d heard some amazing things about Zoe Marriott, and couldn’t believe I hadn’t discovered her books yet, so I settled down to start with her debut novel ‘The Swan Kingdom’ – and was completely captivated.

Marriott takes a very old style approach with both the story and the writing, it reads like some of the old fantasy’s and it’s an intriguing take on an old fairy tale. The backdrop of such a beautiful landscape with strong magic, evil step-mothers and kingdoms, princes and curses made me feel right at home. Whilst I love some urban fantasy most of the time, to step back into full fantasy reminiscent of Tamora Pierce is guaranteed to make me smile. 

Alexandra is a lovely protagonist, just the right blend of strength, naivety and love to make her a truly wonderful character to follow. I did become a little frustrated with her at times as it takes her an awfully long time for her to finally start doing something to set things right. On the one hand you could argue that she needs that time to grow, mature and develop into herself and her power, but if that is the case I would have liked a little more storytelling around that, instead of the period of inactivity before it all kicks off.

I love the romance that unfurls at the books heart, it provides a perfect complement to the familial love that already makes up the core. It was a refreshing change to see such a close knit family in fiction, usually in these tales the brothers are not so willing to listen or protect their younger sister, so I really loved seeing these relationships develop and watch how they drive the book to its inevitable conclusion.

The book does have a few errors and passages that dragged a little when they could have been tighter, but these are inevitable with a first novel, and in truth it just left me more excited to read her next books. If this is what she wrote in her first book, and she continued to develop over the next few books, her writing would be truly exquisite!

So because of the little flaws, it’s knocked if off a five star review, but is a solid four star. A beautiful retelling of an old fairy tale, with very well developed characters, a beautiful narrative and a huge amount of excitement to see what Marriott writes next.

Review: Tempest by Julie Cross

Amazon publication date: 5th January 2012

Jackson Meyer is hiding a secret. He can time-travel. But he doesn't know how he does it, how to control it or what it means. When Jackson, and his girlfriend Holly, find themselves in fatal danger, Jackson panics and catapults himself two years into his past, further than he's ever managed before, and this time he can't find a way back to the future. All the rules of time-travel he's experienced so far have been broken and Jackson has no choice but to pretend to be his younger self whilst he figures out a solution. Jackson is tearing himself apart with guilt and frustration, wondering if Holly survived. He's also become the target of an unknown enemy force and it seems even his dad is lying to him. Jackson is racing against time to save the girl he loves, but to do that he must first discover the truth about his family and himself.

I wasn’t entirely certain what to expect with ‘Tempest’ – I went into it with no preconceptions or knowledge of the basic plot. And I have to admit, I was pleasantly surprised.

First off, it’s narrated by a boy. There are far too few young adult books narrated by convincing boys at the moment, so it was a refreshing change to 

see something from a male perspective.

And second it was a really exciting, unique and fresh plot. And that in itself is impressive. It doesn’t follow the stereotype that you might expect from a book about time travel. Similar to ‘The Time Traveller’s Wife’ in some respects, it really took the time to develop Jackson as a person, giving him clear and well defined motives for everything he does. He’s a very believable, likeable character who really evolves over the course of the book as he’s subjected to more and more awful things as he’s trying to protect the people he loves.

The relationships were beautifully explored. Jackson and Holly, in all her different time lines was gorgeous. Whilst he was learning about the 2007 version of Holly (her younger version) and she was falling in love with him, we’re treated to not only him wooing her in that time frame, but how it happened in his own time frame in 2009. The flashbacks and moments between the two of them were beautiful and made for a really special and believable romance.

Jackson and Courtney, his twin sister, was another really well constructed relationship. We learn about her through Jackson’s memories but then we get to see him interact with her in some of his travels into the past. It’s a beautiful thread of the story that really pulled at me, and made me cry at several points.

And Ms Cross gets major points for the relationships, not just the two that I’ve mentioned but the others as well, because to create such a plethora of different types of relationships with the characters and to make all of them believable and realistic whilst making interesting storytelling is an impressive feat on its own.

However, this didn’t quite make the top rating because of a few problems. When Jackson starts to really develop his abilities, they all start manifesting very quickly with little to no explanation until later. All of a sudden he knows new languages, has a photographic memory and can use self defence and shoot weapons. It all just felt a little bit too convenient that it all came to him as he needed it.

Whilst the first half of the book develops quite slowly, the second half really goes to town. Now in a way this is good because the tension keeps getting notched up and the stakes are high. However, everything starts being splurged out and all of a sudden you have new rules, and you don’t know who to trust and who not to, and then look, more confusing back story! And then there’s some fight scenes and some more explanations and confusion and then hey, look, he’s a member of the CIA. It all just seemed too rushed, everything got tossed into the pot at once, and as a result I was left staring at the page going ‘what the hell just happened?’…

I wanted all of it to happen (although maybe some of it could be explained better because it does get awfully confusing in there) I just wanted it to unfold over a longer period of time. That way my brain doesn’t implode from an information overload.

So in all in all this is one of the ones to watch for the start of 2012. It’s got romance, beautiful relationships of the romantic, familial and friend kind. It’s got time travel, the CIA, and a mind boggling array of back story, plot and incredible story telling. I’d go pre-order it now, because Julie Cross is going to be one to watch.

Check out other fabulous reviews here!

Feeling Fictional

Fluttering Butterflies

Review: The Scorpio Races by Maggie Stiefvater

It happens at the start of every November: the Scorpio Races. Riders attempt to keep hold of their water horses long enough to make it to the finish line. Some riders live. Others die. 
At age nineteen, Sean Kendrick is the returning champion. He is a young man of few words, and if he has any fears, he keeps them buried deep, where no one else can see them. 
Puck Connolly is different. She never meant to ride in the Scorpio Races. But fate hasn’t given her much of a chance. So she enters the competition — the first girl ever to do so. She is in no way prepared for what is going to happen.

“It’s the first day of November and so, today, someone will die.”

How is that for an opening sentence – it gives you chills doesn’t it. And that feeling, of something magical unfurling in your hands, that grows the further into the book you get. This has tied with ‘The Night Circus’ as the best book I’ve read this year.

This review has taken me far too long to write, but it was simply that after finishing I wasn’t sure I could find the words to describe how beautifully brilliant this book was, and how much I had fallen in love with it in such a short space of time.

The book is beautiful, haunting and creeps over you with such elegant prose that it left me breathless. It has a timeless quality that is accentuated by Stiefvater’s vagueness on anything that would anchor it, and it is partly that that lends the book its otherworldly atmosphere.

The romance is beautifully played out – something born slowly and out of familiarity, out of friendship and a shared interest, and it’s so beautifully realistic that my heart ached for them to be together.

Sean reaches out between us and takes my wrist. He presses his thumb on my pulse. My heartbeat trips and surges against his skin. I’m pinned by his touch, a sort of fearful magic.
We stand and stand, and I wait for my pulse against his finger to slow, but it doesn’t.

Stiefvater has taken an old legend of the water horses and put an entirely fresh spin on it, the water horses are at once both utterly terrifying and incredibly beautiful, and the island of Thisby is an incredible compliment to the legend. Stiefvater plays on all the senses, drawing them into the book until you can feel the wind and the salt spray, taste the November cakes, and smell the sea and sweat and blood of the races. Everything is heightened. Everything is beautifully expressed, even if those involved cannot speak the words, and the island life creeps inside you until you wish you could stay there forever.

The Scorpio drums pound a ragged heartbeat as I wind my way through the crowds that fill the streets of Skarmouth. The cold air smarts as I breathe is in; the wind carries all sorts of foreign scents. Food that’s only made during the race season. Perfume only women from the mainland wear. How pitch, burning rubbish, beer spilled on the stones. This Skarmouth is raw and hungry, striving and unknowable. Everything the races make me feel on the inside is bleeding up through the seams in the street tonight.

I think that’s a mercy of this island, actually, that it won’t give us our terrible memories for long, but let us keep the good ones for as long as we want them.

The reason I picked this book up in the first place was due entirely to Angie’s review – if I haven’t convinced you how beautiful this book is, go over and read her review. She’ll have you going on Amazon by the end… http://angieville.blogspot.com/2011/10/scorpio-races-by-maggie-stiefvater.html

Review: Fracture by Megan Miranda

Release Date: 5th January 2012

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?

This book had so much potential, but it ends up not quite reaching it. And for me most of that was due to one character - Troy, who I really disliked throughout the novel, to the point that I almost put it down. Congratulations to Ms Miranda for creating a character who elicited such a strong reaction from me, but unfortunately it did result in me not caring over much for the book by the end.

Delaney was a really interesting character who's put in this impossible situation. It's not clear whether her inability to communicate is as a result of the accident or whether she was like that before - but some of this communication does come across as cold and harsh towards those who are trying to show her affection. It also has the unfortunate side effect of making her seem very self absorbed, and I did wonder whether had she been a little less so whether a lot of the conflict could have been avoided.
She does have a few moments where her actions seem very random - and some changes of heart that seemed a little out of place, but for the most part she comes across as a strong character who is just trying to get back to normal when faced with some really difficult situations.
I really felt for her in some of the interactions with her parents, and I think that relationship could have had even more time devoted to it, as I found it to be one of the most interesting relationships of the book - seeing how her mother particularly handled her accident.


The secondary characters were a little flat and underdeveloped, with a lot of events and reactions seeming to be completely random due to lack of character development. I found the scene in the church to be particularly out of the blue and was shocked at the turn of events. The rest of the secondary characters felt a little stereotypical and I would have liked to see a little more development of them.

The only character I had a genuine connection with was Decker – who had a horrible time of it with Delaney, despite the fact that he’d saved her. I would have liked to have seen more of his and Delaney's story development, instead of it being put on the back burner against Troy and Delaney's story.

I really dislike this thing that quite a few young adult books have going at the moment, where the heroine feels that it’s ok for one of the male characters (usually a love interest) to treat her abysmally. It’s ok for him to frighten, intimidate and even hurt her, for a number of reasons usually along the lines of ‘he doesn’t know any better ‘he’s been starved of love’ or, my favourite ‘he doesn’t really mean it’. It’s such an awful thing to be saying ‘hey girls, this is ok.’ When it really, really isn’t, and this book unfortunately falls into that trap to a certain degree with Troy. Yes he gets his comeuppance, but for me personally, it was too little too late  compared to how he treated Delaney and reacted to her in the rest of the novel.

I don't know if you've guessed yet that I really disliked Troy. He was twisted and messed up, and abusive towards Delaney, yet she justifies it, and keeps on going back to him. This was one of the reasons that ‘Fracture’ didn’t grab me once he was introduced. Troy didn’t sell himself to me in any way shape or form, I felt like putting the book down every time Delaney went back to him and justified it all away.

I think that part of my disappointment lay in the fact that the book tried to take the plot in too many different directions. Too many characters suffering from guilt and rebuilding relationships – that would be enough to keep this book on a really strong level. But then we have the idea of sensing people dying, which is never truly developed or explored, and from there we get into the cycle of life and death and huge god complexes on Troy’s part. There’s just so much crammed into a 272 page book that nothing really gets truly worked on, it’s all rushed, when there are so many good points that could have been explored. If it had either been a longer book and taken time over all the different directions, or cut out a couple of the tangents then the book would have been absolutely brilliant.

However, I realize I am incredibly biased – mostly because of Troy. That single character was enough to make me want to stop reading, and truly put me off the book. However I really enjoyed the rest of it.

On the positive side, the ideas were all there, just not explored fully, it’s a very interesting concept and I would have liked to have seen more.
Ms Miranda’s writing is really strong, and I’d like to see what else she creates, because whilst this book didn’t do it for me, I’d love to read more of her work. 

All in all this was a book that could have been so good, and just ended up falling short. The writing was really good and I would recommend if the blurb interests you to give it a go.

Review: Touch of Power by Maria V. Snyder

Release Date: 20th December 2011

You can pre-order your copy HERE

Laying hands upon the injured and dying, Avry of Kazan assumes their wounds and diseases into herself. But rather than being honoured for her skills, she is hunted. Healers like Avry are accused of spreading the plague that has decimated the Territories, leaving the survivors in a state of chaos. 
Stressed and tired from hiding, Avry is abducted by a band of rogues who, shockingly, value her gift above the golden bounty offered for her capture. Their leader, an enigmatic captor-protector with powers of his own, is unequivocal in his demands: Avry must heal a plague-stricken prince—leader of a campaign against her people. As they traverse the daunting Nine Mountains, beset by mercenaries and magical dangers, Avry must decide who is worth healing and what is worth dying for. Because the price of peace may well be her life...

Maria V. Snyder is one of my all time favourite fantasy authors. She’s got a similar style to Tamora Pierce, but instead of teenagers, her heroines are closer to twenty, so deal with slightly different issues.

She has the perfect formula for a fantasy novel down; feisty heroine? Of course.  Gorgeous yet aloof and always slightly morally ambiguous bad boy love interest? Fabulous fantasy country with detailed monarchy, political structures, cultures and landscape as well as a ton of history? And a nail bitingly unpredictable and well written story? It’s all there.

I first fell in love with Snyder’s writing in her ‘Study’ series – particularly the first book ‘Poison Study’. In fact to this day, the relationship that springs up in Poison is one of my all time favourites. It’s slow, subtle, takes its time, and evolves into a beautiful equal thing, where the man would literally do anything to save his love. I’m a sucker for romance.
Snyder continued her winning streak with the ‘Glass’ series, taking on a minor character from the ‘Study’ series and giving her a story of her own, in the same universe.

And now we have an entirely new fantasy land to become acquainted with in the ‘Power’ series, and I for one am incredibly excited to see more. The level of detail, the plague, the wars, the cultures. It’s all there, it’s all incredibly slotted together, and I feel like the first book has only just scratched the surface. I am so excited to see more of this! 

Snyder has an incredible ability to create these landscapes and cultures and make them real, and it adds an extra level to her books that help lift them into the truly extraordinary.

I adore her heroines – they are strong and feisty and refuse to sit back and let life happen to them (or men order them around for that matter.) Even if it’s futile, even if they’re scared, they fight – for what they believe in, for those they love, and it is so refreshing to see that. They are such good role models, and I immediately fall in love with them and root for them all the way through.

And Snyder knows how to make a cast of characters that works. She has a way of making the hero not immediately seem like a hero – he has to work for it, for love, for the woman of his dreams. But it’s always worth it. He’s not your average ‘hey you’re lovely so I’m going to swoon now!’ it’s subtle, the romance builds out of friendship, proximity and experience, and always feels believable. Three cheers for believable romance!

And the secondary characters. They get no less attention for all their secondary status – Snyder creates a brilliant framework and dynamic that makes the ‘gang’ come together and work brilliantly. Everyone is flawed, everyone is real and human, and it’s fascinating watching them work together.
And even the bad guys are faceted – no one is perfect, everyone is flawed, and everyone has a good and bad side to show.

I don’t want to ruin the plot, suffice to say that it is up to Snyder’s usual incredibly high standard – not predictable and just a joy to sit back and enjoy being swept away into a new fantasy world.

She’s created a brilliant setting for intrigue and struggles for power, and added in magic! Which makes me happy, but not just any sort of magic, no the type that has consequences, which makes me even happier So instead of Avry wandering around healing people left right and centre, she heals them and assumes their injuries. It makes the whole process a lot more personal, and adds a whole new level of jeopardy.

The ARC that I read had a few grammatical and spelling errors which I am sure will be picked up before the final proof, but otherwise the structure and quality of writing is at her usual high standard.

It’s another brilliant novel by Snyder, and the start of another fabulous series, and will make a brilliant close to his incredible book blogging year as it’s released on 20^th December 2011, both in the UK and the US. 

Books I'm Squeeing About in November

How has October finished already?! I can’t believe that we’re already into November and almost at this site’s one year bloganniversary! I will be doing a give away on the 28^th November to celebrate, as well as other sekrit excitements to surprise you with throughout the month – but in the meantime here are three books you need in your life this month!

10th– The Vampire Diaries The Hunters: Phantom (UK release date)

Since meeting vampire brothers, Stefan and Damon Salvatore, Elena Gilbert has been to hell and back. Now that she and her friends have saved their hometown from a demonic spirit, everything can finally go back to normal.
But Elena should know better than anyone that Fell's Church will never be normal. In PHANTOM, a dangerous new other-worldly threat sets its sights on Elena. And this time she can only count on one Salvatore brother to protect her.

I’m not sure what I’m going to make of ‘Phantom’. Anyone who has read L. J. Smith’s blog will have seen that the last Vampire Diaries book was the last one by her. This one has apparently been written by a ghost writer, so I don’t really know what to expect from it. But I’m curious, so I’ll give it a go.

24th– Crossed by Ally Condie (UK release date)

Rules are different outside the Society.
Chasing down an uncertain future, Cassia makes her way to the Outer Provinces in pursuit of Ky – taken by the Society to his certain death-only to find that he has escaped into the majestic, but treacherous, canyons. On this wild frontier are glimmers of a different life and the enthralling promise of rebellion. But even as Cassia sacrifices everything to reunite with Ky, ingenious surprises from Xander may change the game once again.
Narrated from both Cassia's and Ky's points of view, this hotly anticipated sequel to Matched will take them both to the edge of Society, where nothing is as expected and crosses and double crosses make their path more twisted than ever...

I’m so glad that the sequel to ‘Matched’ is out this month. It was the first book I ever reviewed on this site, and I loved it. It was one of my first deliberate forays into dystopian fantasy, and whilst I wasn’t fussed on the first half of the book, the second half swept me away. I’m looking forward to seeing how Cassia’s journey continues in her search for love, life, and a world without rules.

24th– Breakfast at Darcy’s by Ali McNamara

When Darcy McCall loses her beloved Aunt Molly, she doesn't expect any sort of inheritance - let alone a small island. Located off the west coast of Ireland, Tara hasn't been lived on for years, but according to Molly's will Darcy must stay there for twelve months in order to fully inherit, and she needs to persuade a village full of people to settle there, too. Darcy has to leave behind her independent city life and swap stylish heels for muddy wellies. Between sorting everything from the plumbing to the pub, Darcy meets confident Conor and ever-grumpy Dermot - but who will make her feel really at home?

Ah, what can I say other than BUY THIS BOOK NOW. Ali McNamara’s debut novel ‘From Notting Hill with Love… Actually’ was again, one of the first books I reviewed on here, and one of my all time favourite chick lits. It was awesome in its fresh approach and brilliant plot, and I will wave my copy in front of everyone who will listen and shriek about how awesome it is.
And now we have a NEW BOOK from Ali! And I cannot wait, literally so excited for it, because it is going to be epic. I feel it in my bones. Pre-order it now, go on, I dare you.