Five Favourite Opening Lines

One of the classes that sticks most vividly in my mind from my university years, was one about first sentences. Whilst they are not the be all and end all of whether a book is going to be good, it’s always interesting to see how quickly a book can reel you in. Some take a few chapters where you’re unsure but are willing to give it a shot, some a few pages, but the best – the very, very best, have the first sentence down to a fine art.

I have plenty of books on my shelves that have perfectly lovely first sentences, not the attention grabbing awesome I’m talking about right now, and they are still my favourite books, but there is something very special when an author manages to pitch is so perfectly that they have hooked you within a line.

So I started looking at my favourites and why they’re my favourites and what it is about them that pulls me in, and I noticed that whilst they all have fantastic first lines the second and third one usually follow on so that it turns into a first line paragraph that draws me in to the point that I literally cannot not read the rest of the book and find out where the author wants to take me.

The first line magic is a rare magic that some authors have perfected, and I have found five of my favourites to share with you a little bit of why they’re awesome and why I love them so much.

My first will come as very little surprise to any of you who have read my review of this book, ‘The Night Circus’ by Erin Morgenstern. Her whole opening section gives me goosebumps every time I read it. Every, single, time. And I’ve read it, a lot. There is something very magical about it, almost as if the author is whispering the words in your ear as you read them. It feels as though she’s letting you in on a secret, something that isn’t commonly known, that is passed from person to person.

'The Circus arrives without warning.
No announcements precede it, no paper notices on downtown posts and billboards, no mentions or advertisements in local newspapers. It is simply there, when yesterday it was not.'

Like I said, there’s something secretive, something magical, and yet entirely matter of fact. It’s a statement, but it sets up a whole host of questions about what the circus is and where it’s come from, and why it appears, and why it doesn’t need any announcements – it demands and commands attention. The whole book feels like an illicit tale of whispers and secrets and magic that the reader has stumbled into and this opening sets the scene beautifully. It tells you everything and nothing at all and reminds me each time I read it, that the circus is back again.

This next one isn’t so much the first line, as the combination of the first two, but they set each other up so fantastically that it almost feels like only one line. ‘The Demon’s Lexicon’ by Sarah Rees Brennan is a fantastically witty and emotionally twisting ride of awesome, and her first sentence manages to convey the oddities of this world she’s plunging us into so effectively.

‘The pipe under the sink was leaking again. It wouldn’t have been so bad, except that Nick kept his favourite sword under the sink.’

It makes me snigger, right off I have the tone of the book, the humour shines through immediately, and I also have that juxtaposition of the normalness of a leaking sink and the absurdity of a sword being kept under it. Like I said, it sets the tone of the book, and indeed the series perfectly, and is something that Sarah keeps perfect for the opening of each book in the series. However I have a special spot in my heart for the start of a series, it’s where the magic and enchantment first set in, so I’ve only included the first book in my list. Whilst it in no way prepares me for the journey I’m about to embark on by reading this book, it sets the idea, the tone and the style off fantastically, and remains a favourite that is guaranteed to make me smile.

‘Warm Bodies’ by Isaac Marion is a rare gem of fantastic writing, absurdly brilliant content and a startling romance. I was unsure about it when I first picked it up, but the opening line sealed it for me.

“I am dead, but it’s not so bad. I have learned to live with it.”

It just made me sit up and blink and take notice. You immediately get an idea of the voice, of the tone and the slightly crazy path you’re about to go down by reading the book. It’s such a different opener to so many books that feature the un-dead, and gives a blunt opening into R and the tale he’s about to take us into. It’s just such an odd sentence when you consider it, the irony of the being dead but learning to live with it. It’s a clever and simplistic opening line that sets up Marion’s writing style.

‘It was the first day of November and so, today, someone will die.’

It gives me shivers. Like we had with ‘The Night Circus’, the opening line of ‘The Scorpio Races’ takes statements of fact in a whole new direction. It’s said with complete authority, you don’t ever question the narrator, and yet it is such a startling opening to a novel. Why? So many questions immediately crop up on reading it. It’s the sort of opener that really jolts you, it’s unexpected, it’s simple, and above all, it’s incredibly effective to persuade me as a reader to carry on.

And now, one of my all-time favourites, I don’t think a list of awesome would be complete without her on it, Deanna Raybourn’s opening line for ‘Silent in the Grave’ the first book in the Lady Julia Grey series.

‘To say that I met Nicholas Brisbane over my husband’s dead body was not entirely accurate. Edward, it should be noted, was still twitching upon the floor.’

It’s just so fantastic. Deanna really delights in dropping her readers right in the middle of scene – go and look at the opening of every single one of her novels, and you’ll see what I mean. If the characters aren’t dropping dead in the first line, then they’re in the middle of an argument that was going long before the reader first opened the book. It’s a fantastic way to draw the reader in and completely engross them in the action. There is no slow warm up as the reader and the author get going, they’re there right in the action, right from the start.

In fact this opening line was what persuaded me to buy the series in the first place – it’s used on the blurb to very great effect, as shown from the crazed way I bought every book of Deanna’s I could lay my hands on. It gives an idea of the narrator, of her dry wit and humour, the language indicates the time period and setting, and it’s just so absurdly comical that you can’t help but be intrigued and want to know what will happen next.

But now on to you – what makes a good first line for you? And what are some of your favourites?

Review: Snow White and the Huntsman by Lily Blake

A breathtaking new vision of a legendary tale. Snow White is the only person in the land fairer than the evil queen who is out to destroy her. But what the wicked ruler never imagined is that the young woman threatening her reign has been training in the art of war with a huntsman who was dispatched to kill her.

Let me start by making it incredibly clear that this review relates to the book, not the film ‘Snow White and the Huntsman’ – despite the two being linked, I loved the film. My feelings for the book however are on the other end of the scale.

I usually make it a rule that books based on a screenplay/new film are to be avoided. The other way around and I don’t mind, I love seeing how a book has been adapted to make a film, but for some reason when you reverse the process everything goes a bit pete tong.
However, as I said, I love the film, to little pieces in fact. Little pieces I will be sharing in a separate review coming soon. So I thought I’d put my pre-conceptions aside and give the book a shot, and I really wish I hadn’t.

First off having characters and a plot ready made and waiting apparently makes a writer sloppy. There is no real characterization, no development, no build up, no tension, no justification, rhyme, reason, or in fact anything very much, apart from an incredibly bland script for the film with a few adjectives thrown in for good measure. If I was coming to this book without having seen the film first I wouldn’t have had any idea really about any of the characters except for the fact that Ravenna likes to laugh evilly a lot, which in itself made me want to throw things. In the film Ravenna is portrayed incredibly – the performance is subtle with so many layers to peel back, so much emotion and so much in play, and most definitely no evil laughing.

It was like the author took all the fabulous thing, layers, brilliance and symbolism from the film and then stomped all over it. For example in the film the White Hart is used for a really beautiful and symbolic moment – yet in the book we have a white stallion and a complete blank on any symbolism.

As I’ve touched on, the completely brilliant and nuanced performances of the leads and the layers they brought to their characters were completely squashed here. It was an exercise in telling the reader everything, from the way Ravenna sits on her throne, to bad descriptions of her costumes, to how characters feel about each other. Fantastic ideas and imagination were crushed beneath heavy and uninspired prose. It was a brutal massacre of what could have been an incredible companion to the movie, that could have used the ideas and layers brought together on screen and developed them into a complex and beautiful novel. But instead we were offered this, which quite frankly is a bit of an insult. To throw a really good retelling of an age old fairy tale away on a slap dash effort of writing was a wasted opportunity. All you have to do is look at some of the films, tv shows and books being released right now to see that fairy tales are making a come back, they are everywhere, and now is a prime time to throw in with that and produce some written companions to the screen versions.

I did enjoy some little details that were not explained so well in the film, and putting them into words really added to the story. For example the depth of Finn and Ravenna’s connection and a little more of their backstory. I also quite liked the lengthening of the courtship between Ravenna and the King – on the one hand it gave more time for everyone to fall under her spell, whereas on the other the suddenness of the marriage in the film worked really well juxtaposed against the King’s grief.

On a completely personal note one of the little details I loved about the film was that we never learn the Huntsman’s name (unless I had a complete blank, in which case feel free to correct me.) Whereas in the book instead of maintaining that fabulous air of mystery he is called… Wait for it… Eric. Now I have nothing against the name Eric as a rule, I think it’s a lovely name, but really? This big, epic Huntsman, in a world inhabited by Ravenna’s and Snow White’s is called Eric?... No. Just no.

Maybe part of the problem for me is this idea of ghost writing books. We've got it with The Vampire Diaries and Stefan's Diaries, and with other movie books as well - at least this time we got the name of the writer. But there does appear to be a decidedly second rate, in my eyes at least, approach to ghost writing books like this. Is it that they are on a tight time frame when writing? Are they given too many constrictions to work with? Or even what brief are they working with? Maybe there a lots of extra factors at work with books like this that make the finished product come out at such a low quality. Whatever factors are at work, I really find that books written in circumstances like this never seem to have the same level of content as novels written to stand alone.

So if you dislike writing and fancy wasting four pounds I strongly suggest you read this. If on the other hand you’d like to see some fantastic examples of fairy tales I recommend seeing the film ‘Snow White and the Huntsman’, ‘Mirror Mirror’, the TV show ‘Once Upon a Time’ and the books ‘Entwined’, and ‘Enchanted’

Review: The Girl in the Clockwork Collar by Kady Cross

In New York City, 1897, life has never been more thrilling - or dangerous. 
Sixteen-year-old Finley Jayne and her "straynge band of mysfits" have journeyed from London to America to rescue their friend Jasper, hauled off by bounty hunters. But Jasper is in the clutches of a devious former friend demanding a trade-the dangerous device Jasper stole from him...for the life of the girl Jasper loves. 
One false move from Jasper and the strange clockwork collar around Mei's neck tightens. And tightens.

The Steampunk Chronicles and I appear to have a bit of a love hate relationship. On the one hand there are some things that are truly appalling about the books, and yet there is something incredibly compelling about them as well, for no matter how peeved I may get with elements of it, and the number of times I chuck the book across the room, I have to finish it, I have to know what happens, and as a result I have to read the next book.

I had a lot of issues with the first book in the series ‘The Girl in the Steel Corset’ and thankfully some of my grumps were address in this book – thank god Emily’s hair is only referred to as ‘ropey’ once in this book, as opposed to the three times a page in the last book. The writing has, by and large, improved. Yes there were still awkward passages and some threads of the story that were incredibly weak (they did fit into the whole, but I was thoroughly underwhelmed by Tesla’s thread of the story.) But for the most part this was a much stronger book than the first one.

The biggest frustration for me was the characterization. There’s a lot of telling instead of showing going on throughout the book, and the characters remain two dimensional for the most part, which is tragic because there are some truly stunning ideas and concepts that are attempted. I love the idea of the characters, but they never truly came alive for me. The secondary characters remained weak at best, and I never really felt like they became real, they were just a backdrop and provided plot devices. I’d love to see Sam developed, at the moment he is the weakest character for me, and I want to see more of the relationship between Sam and Emily. Finley and Griffin remain very stiff for me, there’s no real spark between them, and very sudden and abrupt changes in mood and feeling towards each other. I want to love these characters, I want to root for them, I want to cry and laugh with them, and really feel what they’re going through – there is something so completely captivating about the story, but it never really takes off in my eyes.

I liked the change of setting and pace, this book was a lot faster in pace and really kept things ticking along at a great speed. I liked that there was less of a push to describe some of the steampunk aspects like the clothes, and leave that to the readers imagination, because that was one of my big problems with the first book. As far as I’m concerned, Steampunk books have to have a solid foundation in the reality of the era before branching out into the weird and wonderful stuff, and that includes clothes. There has to be some basis in reality, some real and believable shift that would cause changes in clothing, like goggles and weighted dresses and hair-muffs for dirigible travel (see Gail Carriger’s ‘The Parasol Protectorate series.’) And Cross took a few too many leaps in the first book with women’s clothing that were a bit beyond the stretch of imagination. To go from the Victorian era where even showing ankle was a shocking thing, to Finley effectively wearing a Victorian style of hot pants and a corset were really a bridge too far in my eyes… So it was really nice to have that side of things left to the reader’s imagination. I loved a lot of the technology we saw, although again, I would have loved a little more of a scientific explanation about how these things were possible, but that’s just something I personally love seeing. I really felt that a lot of the things that I love about Steampunk books are not really looked at, or stretched beyond all reason.

Whilst I loved the conflict, I really, really truly loathed Mei. And not just because of her name… In fact can we take a moment to look at that name. I wouldn’t have spotted it ( or at least not for much longer) if Finley hadn’t made a big deal about pointing it out. Why call a character such a ridiculous name and then make a big deal about pointing it out? Mei Xing. I’m sorry but from the point that her name was revealed I couldn’t take her seriously, I wanted to scream every time her name was mentioned. Now maybe this is just me, maybe other readers will see that, have a chuckle and move on, but for me to name a character like that, deliberately, and with no real purpose behind it except that one moment of Finley noticing it and thinking it’s ridiculous, is just asking for your character to not be taken seriously from that point on. Any further characterization was, for me, ruined because I just wanted to throw things at her every time she entered a room.

However, despite my grumps, as I said there is something very compelling about this series. You want to read on and find out what happens. You want to see how they’ll get out of this, and what sort of world building excitements are coming up. The premise is fantastic, the writing is much better than the first book, but there are still some weak moments. My only real problem now is the characterization, so I’ve got all my hopes pinned on this next book that maybe the third time really will be the charm for me, and the third book and I will finally hit it off. At that point it will all have been worth it.

Review: Black Heart by Holly Black

Cassel Sharpe knows he’s been used as an assassin, but he’s trying to put all that behind him. He’s trying to be good, even though he grew up in a family of con artists and cheating comes as easily as breathing to him. He’s trying to do the right thing, even though the girl he loves is inextricably connected with crime. And he’s trying to convince himself that working for the Feds is smart, even though he’s been raised to believe the government is the enemy.
But with a mother on the lam, the girl he loves about to take her place in the Mob, and new secrets coming to light, the line between what’s right and what’s wrong becomes increasingly blurred. When the Feds ask Cassel to do the one thing he said he would never do again, he needs to sort out what’s a con and what’s truth. In a dangerous game and with his life on the line, Cassel may have to make his biggest gamble yet—this time on love.

Holly Black is one of the triumavate of authors at the top of fantastic young adult urban fantasy (the other two being Cassandra Clare and Sarah Rees Brennan) and she just doesn’t disappoint – in fact I think her books just get better and better the more she writes.

I have loved the Curse Workers series since the first book ‘White Cate’ graced our shelves and each book has been consistently even more awesome. In fact the only reason that I didn’t want to read ‘Black Heart’ was because I didn’t want this series to ever end. Unfortunately all good things more, or so I’m told, come to an end, and Cassel’s story goes out with a bang.

This series is genius – absolute genius I tell you, because it has kept me guessing at every single turn. I never know how things are going to play out, who might be double crossing who, and who is secretly double crossing everyone else for their own agenda. Normally with a book I can see roughly where we’re going with it, so I find it especially exciting when there’s a book that genuinely keeps me hanging until the very last moment when everything drops into place.

Cassel. Oh Cassel baby where would I be without you? He is one of my favourite young adult male protagonists, and Black Heart has done nothing more than cement his position in my heart. He’s brooding, he’s tortured, but he’s funny and snarky and always tries so hard to do the right thing, to protect those he cares about and he’s in this constant battle against everyone and everything, including himself and his inner demons. But he doesn’t wallow in his brooding torturedness, he’s no Heathcliffe wandering the moors. Instead he goes out and does everything in his power to try and keep the upper hand and protect his friends, and above all his family. He’s in this eternal guilt and power struggle, but it’s been fascinating to see his arc through this series, to see how he’s matured and developed and come into his own power and discovered himself. It’s been an incredible journey full of twists and turns and double crossing and sneaking and I’ve loved every moment of it.

Speaking of double crossing and families, can we take just a moment to also appreciate the audacious badassery of Barron? He’s been a bit of a fabulous loose cannon ever since the start of the series, but I’ve really loved to see his character develop – no he’s probably never going to adopt a kitten and help old ladies across the street, but he has grown and developed over the course of the books so we established by the end that he may even have a heart and a core of goodness hidden in there somewhere. I have to say I’ve found Barron’s story incredibly intriguing right from the start. To be able to work memories but lose your own in the process, to have to leave notes and photographs all over the place in preparation for the next memory you might lose – it’s heart breaking and twisted and brilliant and I would totally be on board of a Barron spin off… Just saying… I’ve also loved seeing how Barron and Cassel’s relationship has developed. It’s never going to be hugs and brotherly love in the traditional sense, but their loyalty and bond was one of the most fascinating things for me in this series.

The other of course being Lila and Cassel’s relationship. I have loved watching these two dance around each other – they are so bad at communicating it isn’t even funny, so to finally have some progress and communication between them was a payoff well worth waiting for. It’s steamy and tender and bittersweet and I just adored their relationship.

“Falling in love with them is like falling down a flight of stairs. What no one told me, with all those warnings, is that even after you’ve fallen, even after you know how painful it is, you’d still get in line to do it again.” 

I have loved the concept from the start, the idea of the blowback, of the mobs and the gangs and the undercover workers – the whole idea is seamlessly brilliant. I wholeheartedly recommend this series to, well, pretty much anyone actually. Fans of magic, of urban fantasy, of crimes and mobs and smooth talking bad boys, of family dynamics and romance will all love this, but ultimately anyone who’s a fan of a fantastically written and crafted book should pick up this series because you won’t be disappointed.

“But now I wonder--what if everyone is pretty much the same and it's just a thousand small choices that add up to the person you are? No good or evil, no black and white, no inner demons or angels whispering the right answers in our ears like it's some cosmic SAT test. Just us, hour by hour, minute by minute, day by day, making the best choices we can.
The thought is horrifying. If that's true, then there's no right choice. There's only choice.” 

Review: The Springsweet by Saundra Mitchell

Heartbroken over the tragic death of her fiancé, seventeen-year-old Zora Stewart leaves Baltimore for the frontier town of West Glory, Oklahoma, to help her young widowed aunt keep her homestead going. There she discovers that she possesses the astonishing ability to sense water under the parched earth. When her aunt hires her out as a "springsweet” to advise other settlers where to dig their wells, Zora feels the burden of holding the key to something so essential to survival in this unforgiving land. Even more, she finds herself longing for love the way the prairie thirsts for water. Maybe, in the wildness of the territories, Zora can finally move beyond simply surviving and start living.

I absolutely adored ‘The Vespertine’ last year – it was one of my top reads of 2012 and as a result I couldn’t wait to read ‘The Springsweet’ for a number of reasons.
Firstly, Saundra Mitchell’s writing is exquisite. She brought a hauntingly lyrical quality of writing to The Vespertine that swept me up with the story and took me away to Baltimore and teas and balls and the illicit love affair of a touch and the decadence of the visions that came to Amelia in the dying light of the day. And secondly because I loved Zora in The Vespertine, and was utterly heartbroken for her by the end of the first book. So there were a lot of very high expectations as I went into ‘The Springsweet’.

There is something so incredibly beautiful about Saundra Mitchell’s prose – it has a lyrical poetic quality that wrap the reader up and sweep them away with gossamer descriptions and sensations. It’s delicate and breath taking, yet also resilient and powerful and incredibly well-crafted with simple twists of words and phrases that together provide such an incredible effect.

I adored Zora. I loved the girl she was in ‘The Vespertine’ but I also loved watching her transform into the woman she was meant to be in ‘The Springsweet’. As Zora comes to embrace the wilderness around her, she comes to embrace herself, conquer the grief that has plagued her, and use her newfound gifts to create new possibilities. She is such a wonderful character, full of grief but desperate to try and keep going and find some part of a life that she can keep living. Full of desperation and heartache that she battles to supress to start with, but as she comes to accept that it’s now a part of her she matures and grows into this incredible young woman. She feels absolutely of her time, but all the while is incredibly vibrant and easily relatable for a modern audience.

Part of the incredible beauty of the book is in its fine balance of realism and magic, but this is handled so deftly that it doesn’t stand out as being a fantasy book. Mitchell naturalizes the magic so that it feels like a skill, a beautiful extension of the persons soul manifest in physical form. It was so good to see more elements at play after the fire and air of the first book, and the earth and water completely complement each other – it was incredibly beautiful to watch how the magic was handled and written, and in turn how Zora and Emmerson interacted. It provides an ethereal undertone to the book, but in no way does it take away from the main themes shown, of the thrill and freedom of frontier life, of the desperation and heartache of losing someone you love, and ultimately a coming of age story as Zora learns to find and accept herself for who she is.

Every character is deftly constructed, lovingly detailed and an integral part of Zora’s story, no matter how briefly. Mitchell has a rare gift, a multiple gift almost with her ability to construct breathlessly beautiful prose, believable and complete characters and incredible settings. She has quickly moved into not only my favourite authors list, but the ones to watch as well. I am desperate to see where she goes from here, not only in the third book in the series, but also following this. Such incredible gifts can only produce exquisite stories, and I cannot wait to read them all.

Review: Burn Mark by Laura Powell

Huge thanks to Bloomsbury for sending me a copy to review.

Release Date: 7th June 2012

Glory is from a family of witches and lives beyond the law. She is desperate to develop her powers and become a witch herself. Lucas is the son of the Chief Prosecutor for the Inquisition—the witches’ mortal enemy—and his privileged life is very different to the forbidden world that he lives alongside.
And then on the same day, it hits them both. Glory and Lucas develop the Fae—the mark of the witch. In one fell stroke, their lives are inextricably bound together, whether they like it or not…

When I first saw the blurb for ‘Burn Mark’ I was incredibly excited – it sounded like it would be an East End London version of Holly Black’s Curse Workers series with some alternative history thrown in for good measure. What it turned out to be was a slow paced, loosely strung narrative that left me bored for the majority of the book.

The concept was absolutely fantastic – but unfortunately it wasn’t particularly well executed. Whilst I don’t demand vast amounts of action to keep me enthralled in a book, I do at least require a little bit of something to keep me interested, and that was where one of the biggest problems came in – there was literally nothing happening for around two thirds of the book. Neither Glory or Lucas were engrossing enough for me to want to just read a book about their day to day existence with the Fae, which was a shame because there were some fantastic ideas contained within the book. Finally when we do get to some momentum with the plot it’s jolting and I actually found it quite unbelievable. By the time we get to teenagers saving the day, I’m usually involved enough in the plot that I don’t care that they are teenagers going in against the big bad, but I was enough on the outskirts of plausibility already with Glory and Lucas that I just sat there shaking my head and bemoaning the fact that they didn’t appear to have a brain cell between them. I wanted to root for them, I wanted to see what awful plots and devious plans they’d uncover, but in reality it was a lot of bumbling around making accidents and them stumbling into plots that weren’t explained or brought in early enough for me to grasp and/or care.

Which actually leaves me feeling quite depressed. I don’t like disliking a book. I don’t like pointing out failures in a review, I want to love it, but when a plot is held together with such unlikeable characters and flawed plot points it leaves me feeling cold.

As I’ve said, I never really warmed to Lucas and Glory which is where a lot of the problems lay. Lucas was an ass. Not so much when we read from his point of view, but from everyone else in the narratives perspective. But he wasn’t an ass for any real reason, he just came across as a spoiled rich boy who had failed to achieve the dynasty set out for him since birth. On the other hand we had Glory, a chav with a grating personality, who never became even remotely likeable for me as a reader. We did have moments of vulnerability between her and Lucas, but they actually seemed completely out of character from the rest of the book. The biggest problem was the lack of drive. If there had been more of a driving force behind the plot then the two main characters would have had less of a hard time of it under the reader’s scrutiny, but was it was with such a slow plot there was very little for them to hang on to.

Part of what slowed the book down so monumentally was the sheer volume of extra information the author was attempting to cram into the book. It was obvious that her research and planning and world building had been truly incredible, but unfortunately instead of then paring down the information into what the reader actually needed to understand the world and the history it was all crammed in as one massive info dump. For example,  a walk down a corridor could turn into not just a walk, but a talk about how that particularly corridor was the setting for one of the biggest witch crimes which brought in the ruling of 1954 and in turn led to revolts up and down the country… When all we really wanted was for the character to get to the other end of the corridor and find out what was going on. (That’s not an example taken from the book but it does give you an idea of the sheer overuse of information that has been crammed in.) It was so frustrating because all that extra information was genuinely interesting, but completely useless in context.

However let’s end on a good note and have a look at the things that I did enjoy. I really loved this idea of witches being treated as second class citizens, of the subtle differences in a world where magic is rife and is blamed for every problem – in a world where the Inquisition rules with an iron fist. Coming on from that I loved the ideas of the Coven’s turning into mobs and the seedy underworld that magic had been forced into. The politics and the intrigues and the rang of jobs available and options to those who had become witches – the idea of it almost being a disease that people were tragically struck down with. It was a really fascinating flip side to the books we’re used to seeing where magic is the coveted prize – the thing that sets people up and apart from the masses. I really loved the world building and the history and I would be genuinely interested to see another book set in this world, but with more of a drive and a focus. There was so much that was good about this book, it was just unfortunate that a lot of it became buried under superfluous extras.

As a book about magic seen from the flip side, with an alternative history and some truly fantastic world building I would definitely recommend it, just be aware of some of the pitfalls going in.

Review: Graceling by Kristin Cashore

Katsa has been able to kill a man with her bare hands since she was eight—she’s a Graceling, one of the rare people in her land born with an extreme skill. As niece of the king, she should be able to live a life of privilege, but Graced as she is with killing, she is forced to work as the king’s thug. When she first meets Prince Po, Graced with combat skills, Katsa has no hint of how her life is about to change. She never expects to become Po’s friend. She never expects to learn a new truth about her own Grace—or about a terrible secret that lies hidden far away . . . a secret that could destroy all seven kingdoms with words alone. 
With elegant, evocative prose and a cast of unforgettable characters, debut author Kristin Cashore creates a mesmerizing world, a death-defying adventure, and a heart-racing romance that will consume you, hold you captive, and leave you wanting more.

When I first read Graceling several years ago, I didn’t enjoy it. Having re-read it again now I can’t understand how on earth not. Ok yes there is one thing that peeved me ever so slightly, but I don’t understand how that managed to colour my entire perception of the book for years, however I’ll get to that in a moment.

Let’s start with how much I love this book and how irritated I am that my younger self didn’t appreciate how fantastic it was the first time around.
The premise is fantastic – it has a mixture of everything I love in books. We’ve got a strong heroine who is most decidedly kick ass but at the same time completely human and compelling. I found myself drawn into Katsa’s life and caring about how the decisions of those around her impacted her and her desperation to try and make a difference and not be who she perceived herself to be. She was such a complex and emotionally drawn character that I couldn’t help falling in love with her and her story. She embodied everything I love in a heroine, strength, determination, mild pig headedness, but also compassion and love and understanding – even when it hurt and cost her to try and feel and understand for others.

We have a fantasy world that has enough sword wielding and tyrannous Kings to keep even the most bloodthirsty readers happy, a beautiful, tumultuous romance to sweep everything along and a terrifyingly real cause to fight for.
It was that beautiful blend of everything in a seamlessly brilliant story that sometimes comes out of nowhere and embraces you in its brilliance, and for a debut novel this is always particularly stunning and exciting, because it means that chances are the author is just going to keep getting better and better, and that is definitely exciting.

We have a host of secondary characters that were just as fascinating and intriguing as Katsa herself. I was very aware that all of my perceptions of them were going to be coloured by how Katsa felt about them, so I'm particularly looking forward to seeing some of them from other view points in later books. I fell in love with Po - he was just so brilliantly handled. A fantastically yummy love interest with so many facets and aspects to explore. I never really wanted it to end- I just wanted to keep on living the Katsa and Po adventures for the next few months...

I loved this idea of the Graces - of them being a mixed blessing and not just for truly awesome things like Katsa and Po's - to be able to hop on one foot without ever getting tired, or be able to eat entire pies in one go... It mixes it up so that it isn't this whole new race of super heroes, it makes it more human, more of a mixed bag. And the idea of them belonging to the King, of never having that freedom for themselves and to be used as tools their whole lives... I found the premise absolutely fascinating and I want to find out more over the coming books to sate my curiosity about this fantastic idea.

The one thing that peeved me the first time, and only mildly irritated this time, was Katsa’s realization of her feelings for Po. It was building so beautifully, and then in the space of a paragraph she suddenly realizes that she loves him. I think I’d been reading a lot of books that went down the insta love route the first time I read this, and that coloured my perception so that all it took was that and I ended up dismissing the book. However this second time through, yes it niggled a little bit, but it didn’t grate on me nearly as much as I was anticipating. It was a lot more subtle than I remembered, and I think I find it even less sudden having now seen the development of Katsa and Po’s relationship throughout the rest of Graceling and now into Bitterblue.

I fell in love with Graceling in a hard and sharp kind of way that I wasn’t expecting at all. It very quickly not only proved itself but found a way into my favourite books of all time and my bookshelf of favourites. It was poetically beautiful, fresh and invigorating, terrifying and stunningingly written. It surprised me and drew me in and made me wonder why on earth it’s taken me so long to get round to reading it again – and on that note, why on earth haven’t I gone on to read the second book in the series ‘Fire’ yet? It’s on my bookshelf waiting, and I think I know precisely what I’m going to next…

Books I'm Squeeing About in June

There has been a sudden influx of Truly Awesome Books and from the looks of things, it's just going to keep getting better and better. I only have a select few on my list for this month, but that doesn't diminish how excited I am about them - that and it helps save for the next few months when there will be a positive flood of fantastic books...

7^th–  Now is the Time for Running by Michael Williams
Just down the road from their families, Deo and his friends play soccer in the dusty fields of Zimbabwe, cheered on by Deo's older brother, Innocent. It is a day like any other . . . until the soldiers arrive and Deo and Innocent are forced to run for their lives, fleeing the wreckage of their village for the distant promise of safe haven. Along the way, they face the prejudice and poverty that await refugees everywhere, and must rely on the kindness of people they meet to make it through. But when tragedy strikes, Deo's love of soccer is all he has left. Can he use that gift to find hope once more?
Relevant, timely, and accessibly written, Now Is the Time For Running is a staggering story of survival that follows Deo and his mentally handicapped older brother on a transformative journey that will stick with readers long after the last page.


A truly heartbreaking book about brotherhood, sacrifice, and the desperation of trying to find a better life. A story based on real life stories, Now is the Time for Running broke my heart into little pieces and didn't even attempt to mend it afterwards. Thought provoking, terrifying, poignant, at times breathlessly funny and others heart breakingly sad, a step away from my usual fare in books but utterly brilliant.


7^th– Burn Mark by Laura Powell
Glory is from a family of witches and lives beyond the law. She is desperate to develop her powers and become a witch herself. Lucas is the son of the Chief Prosecutor for the Inquisition—the witches’ mortal enemy—and his privileged life is very different to the forbidden world that he lives alongside.
And then on the same day, it hits them both. Glory and Lucas develop the Fae—the mark of the witch. In one fell stroke, their lives are inextricably bound together, whether they like it or not . . .


I'm so excited for this new tale of witchcraft and the Inquisition set in East End London - it's a fantastic new debut from an incredibly promising new author. Full of intrigue, romance and the thrillingly forbidden Fae.


12^th- For Darkness Shows the Stars by Diana Peterfreund
Generations ago, a genetic experiment gone wrong—the Reduction—decimated humanity, giving rise to a Luddite nobility who outlawed most technology.
Elliot North has always known her place in this world. Four years ago Elliot refused to run away with her childhood sweetheart, the servant Kai, choosing duty to her family’s estate over love. Since then the world has changed: a new class of Post-Reductionists is jumpstarting the wheel of progress, and Elliot’s estate is foundering, forcing her to rent land to the mysterious Cloud Fleet, a group of shipbuilders that includes renowned explorer Captain Malakai Wentforth—an almost unrecognizable Kai. And while Elliot wonders if this could be their second chance, Kai seems determined to show Elliot exactly what she gave up when she let him go.
But Elliot soon discovers her old friend carries a secret—one that could change their society . . . or bring it to its knees. And again, she’s faced with a choice: cling to what she’s been raised to believe, or cast her lot with the only boy she’s ever loved, even if she’s lost him forever.
Inspired by Jane Austen’s Persuasion, For Darkness Shows the Stars is a breathtaking romance about opening your mind to the future and your heart to the one person you know can break it


I know very little about this book except what I've seen in the blurb, but that hasn't stopped me being incredibly over excited about the entire thing. A modern day take on Persuassion? Hell yes please.

12^th– Serpent’s Kiss by Melissa de la Cruz
Just as things have settled down in the off-the-map Long Island town of North Hampton for the magical Beauchamp family, everything gets turned upside down once more when Freya's twin brother Fryr, or "Freddie" as he's called now, returns from Limbo with shocking news - that it was none other than Freya's fiancé, Killian Gardiner, who set up his downfall.
He begs Freya to keep his presence a secret, even from their own family, but somehow the irascible Freddie is still able to conduct many affairs with the town's young lovelies from his self-imposed exile. Until he falls for the wrong girl.
While Freya tries to keep her brother from exacting revenge on the man she loves, Ingrid has her own problems. Her human boyfriend, Matt Noble, becomes entangled in a complicated investigation, and when the magical creatures at the center of it come to Ingrid for help, she has a difficult choice to make.
To top it off, a dead spirit is trying to make contact with Joanna - but does it mean to harm or warn the witches? All hell breaks loose at the family reunion over Thanksgiving, and much mayhem ensues, but when the culprit behind Freddie's imprisonment is finally revealed, it may already be too late to staunch the poison that's been released by the serpent's kiss. The spells cast by the bestselling Witches of East End continue in this bewitching follow-up that Melissa de la Cruz's many fans won't want to miss.


I was suitably captivated by 'Witches of the East End' and I've been looking forward to this sequel ever since - and if the blurb is anything to go by and is going to be an absolutely fantastic follow up to an already extremely good series.