The Scorpio Races- Review

On the island of Thisby, the Scorpio Races occur on the beginning of every November where riders struggle to keep their waterhorses, or rather, capaill uisce, to the finish line.

Puck Connolly's parents have died from a capaill uisce attack. Now, her and her brothers live alone. Money is scarce, and with the eldest off to the mainland, they are in desperate need of money more than ever. She enters the race in attempt to win cash- and to keep her family together.

Sean Kendrick has won the races four times, and is predicted to win the next. Through the races, a romance blossoms between Puck and Sean, and he seems willing enough to help her win the money. The only thing is, Sean needs to win the races in order to save the thing he loves most in the world.


__________________________________


When I first heard that Maggie Stiefvater was going to write another book, I was like, "Yesh!!! Another book!!!". Then when I heard that the book was to contain water horses, I was basically like:



And then , I heard that The Scorpio Races had a romance in it, and I was like:



I MUST HAVE THIS BOOK!!!!

So after I issued this book out of the library, merrily skipped all the way home and channeled all quietness out of the room (which meant a whole lot of bribing to my sister) to experience the predicted awesomeness of The Scorpio Races , I sat down on the comfy Lazy-Boy and finally began to read.

As I read, I waited, and expected, and waited some more. But... nothing.

After a number of pages (and, some flicking to the back pages- one of my annoying traits, blossomed by my impatience), I realised that the whole book was just a build- up to the end, the actual Scorpio Races. And then I got annoyed. And sad. And disappointed.



And bored.

But this is the part where I want to applaud Maggie Stiefvater. Because without the way she has written Thisby and all the people that came with it, and, not to mention, the capaill uisce I wouldn’t have read on, and I wouldn’t have read the amazingness that is The Scorpio Races.

The way Stiefvater writes her characters, with so much soul and so much personality, it makes her characters seem so real. Every character, whether major or minor, seem like she's invested so much time in creating them, that they're effortlessly believable.

I have to say I liked Puck the best though. I liked her from the moment I read the part where she told Brian Carroll that she'd spit on his grave if he died. Enough said.

And Sean Kendrick.



Ah. His devotion to the horses and his love for Corr.... Lordy. Who does not want a guy like that?

The entertaining cast of characters would make every single reader welcome to Thisby, despite the warning of killer water horses. I could actually go on about the characters for forever, but I won't and instead I shall move on to the world building.

Sweet and short, the world building was perfect. Thisby is... comfy to me, and living there would make me very certain about what I'd do every single day. I'd go to mass in St Columba's with Father Mooneyham then go have lunch at Palsson's then look around at Fathom and Sons. Which is to say, while reading The Scorpio Races , I felt like I lived there.

In conclusion- ooh. I sound like I'm writing an essay for English-, the charming characters and the spot on world building over-powered the- what would otherwise be a boring- build up to the Scorpio Races. So, according to the Goodreads rating system, I "really liked it".

I'd also like to say that I am quite upset that there is no sequel to this book. Would very much like to know what happens to Puck and Sean and Finn and George Holly. Please, Maggie! I want a sequel!!

Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor- Review

Karou lives two lives. She is a normal art student in Prague who is known from her detailed sketches of  chimaera. Most people think these drawing come just from her imagination, but little do they know that they are the ones who have raised her as a child, the closest thing she has to a family. Because Karou also lives her life as an errand girl in 'Elswhere'  for a chimaera that collects teeth, known as Brimstone.

Then black handprints appear on the doors of many everywhere in the world and Karou is suddenly cut off from 'Elswhere'. As Karou tries to return to her only family, she also finds many answers she'd asked from her past.
_______________________________________


Rating: 4.25 out of 5 stars

That was some pretty intense stuff I just read.

This was basically what was going on in my head while I read Daughter of Smoke and Bone :

The excitement


Then...

The confusion


Then...

The frustration


And Then...

There were tears


Over and over again, especially towards the end. Oh, the bitter and tragic end!!! Brimstone!!! Are you dead? Is Issa dead?? Yasri? Twiga? Are they really dead or just stuck in 'Elsewhere'? The confusion! The frustration! The tears!

And the cycle goes on again....

Breath, Ela. Calm down. You need to write something productive.

Okay. Let's try this again.

...

Now that my brain has recovered from its brief moment of delirium, I want to warn people that this book contains Instalove.

What?!? you say. Is it... deadly?

Well, no, actually, it wasn't deadly. In fact, I didn't bother me at all.

Whaaat?!?!

Okay, I lied. Yes, fine, it did bother me, but only in the beginning. Naturally, when Akiva and Karou first laid eyes on each other and confessed their unexplanatory love, it practically stabbed me in the heart, with me being an Instalove hater and all. I mean, up until that point, I thought the book had a fantabulous story. I would've stopped reading, I think, because it just got so unrealistic and rushed. But I wanted to know what had happened to  Brimstone (and Zuzanna helped too; she remained as funny as ever during these parts).

I just realise now that I've been blackmailed. I kept reading because of Brimstone, and I never actually find out what happened to him, just a "They're dead" from Akiva. I don't believe the guy though. I want to hope for the best.

Sneaky Laini Taylor....

Anyways, the Instalove matter was resolved in the end and there was actually a fairly legit reason why it had to take place (unlike the other Instalove cases out there where their reasons are just rubbish).

Which brings me to my next point:

When things get too boring, or too rushed or too.... Instalovey, do not stop. Keep reading and you shall be rewarded.

Yes, this is true. You have no idea how confused I was during the middle of the book, especially during the change from Karou to Madrigal. I was actually pondering the three star rating I was going to give this book, not once, but several times. But I read on, again in pursuit of the knowledge for Brimstone. When I finally got to the end, the story felt whole. I wasn't left with any questions (except for the Brimstone one I keep asking :D) and the story felt concluded.

So that is a lesson my dear readers, read on. Let the patience wash over you....

Moving on....

I loved all the characters. They were all unique and original and all relevant to the story. Karou was kick- ass. I loved that chick. I also liked Zuzanna especially. In the times when I got bored, or when things got to intense, Zuze always lightened up the mood with her humor and made me want to read on. I also loved the chimaera family. I love the way Brimstone loves and protects Karou. I found him annoying in the beginning, and it was only until the end, when I found out his deal with Madrigal and Karou that I understood him.

The world building was magnificent. In a space of only 400 or so pages, Taylor fit in not one, but two worlds, both Prague and Eretz (and 'Elsewhere' if you'd want to include that :D). And both of them were described very vividly and detailed, that I am very much impressed.

In the conclusion, I advise you fellow impatient readers to keep reading on although it my get confusing at times. You will not regret it. Promise :)

Blood Red Road Review

  Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

 

What we thought when we read the first line of Blood Red Road was, "woah, what the hell?!"
The sentence, "Lugh got born first", surprised us. But we read on, thinking it was just some random typo (everyone makes mistakes, right?) Then we started to notice other mistakes like 'an' instead of 'and' and 'jest' instead of 'just'. That's when we realised that these mistakes were intentional. Then both of us did the whole hand smacking on the forehead thing 'cause we freaking went on for a whole fifty pages or so thinking Moira Young had a really messed up editor.

When we got to the end though, the different language became one of the things we loved about the book. Both of us thought it added further to Saba’s personality and added further information to Saba’s world. Young’s style of writing is simple, which wasn’t a bad thing in this case; it made most of the scenes- especially the action ones- fast paced and all the more exciting. We was so used to this style of writing that we went around saying that Blood Red Road "warn't as bad as I wus sayin it wus" and that it was really "innerestin", accent and all.

The characters were awesome, each one unique, funny and relevant to the story. We would also like to say that we loved Tommo. He was so cute especially when him and Emmi were doing some bonding. Maybe a romance will develop? Hope so :D

We found the romance between Jack and Saba... cute, although sometimes their remarks and so called "hatred" for each other felt forced. And the way he just left in the end?! We can tell this won't end well.

The world- building was very well done- oh, God, we sound like we're talking about meat here, "would you like your steak well done, medium rare, or rare?". Scratch that then. The world building was really good (better, now?), very vivid and very... deserty, if we can say that.

In short, Blood Red Road was a fun intense read that both of us enjoyed very much. Five Stars!!

'Clockwork Prince' Teasers

Here are teasers from “Clockwork Prince” posted by Cassandra Clare: Enjoy. :)
Teaser #1:

He flinched away from her, and Tessa dropped her hand, hurt. “Jem, what it is it? You don’t want me to touch you?”
“Not like that,” he flared, and then flushed even darker than before.
“Like what?” She was honestly bewildered; this was behavior she might have expected from Will, but not from Jem: this mysteriousness, this anger.
“As if you were a nurse and I were your patient. You think because I am ill I am not like —” He drew a ragged breath. “Do you think I do not know,” he went on more quietly, “that when you take my hand, it is only so that you can feel my pulse? Do you think I do not know that when you look into my eyes it is only to see examine my pupils, to see how much of the drug I have taken? If I were another man, a normal man, I might have hopes, presumptions even; I might -—” His words seemed to catch; either because he realized he had said too much or because he had run out of breath.
She shook her head, feeling her plaits tickle her neck. “This is the fever speaking, not you.”
His eyes darkened, and he began to turn away from her. “You can’t even believe I could want you,” he said in a half-whisper. “That I am alive enough, healthy enough —”
“No.” Without thinking, she caught at his arm. He stiffened. “James, that’s not at all what I meant —”
He curled his fingers around her hand, where it lay on his arm. His own scorched her skin, hot as fire. And then he turned her, and drew her toward him.
They stood face to face, chest to chest. His breath stirred her hair. She felt the fever rising off him like mist off the Thames; sensed the pounding of the blood through his skin, saw with a strange clarity the pulse at his neck, the light on the pale curls of his hair where it lay against his paler throat. Prickles of heat ran up and down her skin, bewildering her. This was Jem — her friend, steady and reliable as a heartbeat. Jem did not set her skin on fire or make the blood rush fast inside her veins until she was dizzy.
Did he?
“Tessa,” he said. She looked up at him. There was nothing steady or reliable about his expression. His silver eyes were dark, his cheeks flushed. As she raised her face, he brought his down, his mouth slanting across hers, and even as she froze in surprise they were kissing.

Teaser #2:

They slowed finally at the southeastern corner of the church. Watery daylight poured through the rose windows overhead. “I know we are in a hurry to get to the Council meeting,” said Jem. “But I wanted you to see this.” He gestured around them. “Poet’s Corner.”

Tessa had read of the place, of course, where the great poets and writers of England were buried. There was the gray stone tomb of Chaucer, with its canopy, and other familiar names: Edmund Spenser, who had written The Faerie Queen, “Oh, and Milton,” she gasped, “and Coleridge, and Robert Burns, and Shakespeare —”
“He isn’t really buried here,” said Jem, quickly. “It’s just a monument.”
“Oh, I know, but —” She looked at him, and felt herself flush. “I can’t explain it. It’s like being among friends, being among these names. Silly, I know . . .”
“Not silly at all.”
She smiled at him. “How did you know just what I’d want to see?”
“How could I not?” he said. “When I think of you, and you are not there, I see you in my mind’s eye always with a book in your hand.” He looked away from her as he said it, but not before she caught the slight flush on his cheekbones. He was so pale, he could never hide even the least blush, she thought — and was surprised how affectionate the thought was.
She had become very fond of Jem over the past fortnight; Will had been studiously avoiding her, Charlotte and Henry were caught up in issues of Clave and Council and the running of the Institute —even Jessamine seemed preoccupied. But Jem was always there. He seemed to take his role as her guide to London seriously: they had been to Hyde Park and Kew Gardens, the National Gallery and the British Museum, the Tower of London and Traitor’s Gate. They gone to see the cows being milked in St James Park, the fruit and vegetable sellers in Covent Garden, had watched the boats sailing on the sun-sparked Thames from the Embankment. And as the days went on, Tessa felt herself unfolding slowly out of her quiet, huddled unhappiness over Nate and Will and the loss of her old life, like a flower climbing out of frozen ground. She had even found herself laughing. And she had Jem to thank for it.
“You are a good friend,” she exclaimed, and when, to her surprise, he said nothing to that, she said, “At least, I hope we are good friends. You do think so too, don’t you, Jem?”
He turned to look at her.

'City of Lost Souls' Teasers

Here are teasers from City of Lost Souls, which will be released on May 8, 2012, posted by Cassandra Clare:
Enjoy. :)

Teaser #1:

“Magnus made a soft, pleased sound, and he gripped the back of Alec’s shirt.”

Teaser #2:

“He is a Shadowhunter,” said Jocelyn. “His loyalty will be to Clave and Covenant.”
“He’s my friend,” said Magnus coldly. “His loyalty is to me.”

Teaser #3:

“Well, hello there, Mother,” Sebastian said in a voice like silk. “Surprised to see me?”

Teaser #4:

“You think I’m gone, but I’m not. I’m still watching you. All of you. Especially you … Simon.”

Teaser #5:

“I need Jace,” said Sebastian. “But in his heart, he’s not like me. But *you * are.”

Teaser #6:

“You have a dark heart in you, Valentine’s daughter,” he said. “You just won’t admit it. And if you want Jace, you had better accept it. Because he belongs to me now.”

Teaser #7:

“I don’t do false reassurances,” Izzy said, and pushed the tequila bottle away from her. Her eyes, on Jordan, were lively and dark. “Come here, werewolf boy.”

Teaser #8:

“Warlock,” he said. “I know who you are.”
Magnus raised his eyebrows. “You do?”
“Magnus Bane. Destroyer of the demon Marabas. Son of——”
“Now,” said Magnus, quickly. “There’s no need to go into all of that.”
“But there is.” The demon sounded reasonable, even amused. “If it is infernal assistance you require, why not summon your father?”
Alec looked at Magnus with his mouth open.

Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater Review

Ever since Grace was attacked by wolves when she was younger and a yellow eyed wolf came to save her, Grace had always been watching him, and he has always been watching her. 

 

One day, Grace finds a bleeding boy in her backyard with the same yellow eyes as her wolf. Her wolf, it turns out, is a werewolf named Sam that turns into a human every summer and a wolf every winter. And this bond, turns out to become a romance. But winter is coming, and Grace and Sam must fight to stay together.

_____________________________________________


Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater has to be the most saddest and sweetest book ever.

First of all, We'd like to applaud Maggie Stiefvater. *cue clapping*

We know from experience how hard it is to distinguish each character when your book has multiple points- of- view. This is especially hard if the characters are of different sex. We've read books where the guy sounded so much like a girl that we thought he was going to open up about his sexuality at some point.

This was not the case for Shiver.

Sam Roth was very much a boy, a guitar playing, poem loving boy at that. He has experienced a very painful past that still haunts him and endures a present with no hope of a human future. Enter Grace Brisbane(boo! *thumbs down* Just kidding :p). She too has experienced a traumatic childhood attack by werewolves. But before things got worse, a yellow- eyed wolf morphed into a human to carry her out of the scene. Fast forward several years and Grace still remembers the mysterious yellow- eyed boy who carried her out of the woods. A fateful meeting and Grace and Sam are reunited, sparking a romance between them.

We loved Sam. Unlike the rapey "bad boys" we get nowadays in YA books, Sam is just the freaking bomb. The way Sam wanted to do things the right way with Grace was so sweet. He has a way of saying things that are totally romantic but really sad. If only the guys in our tiny town are like him. It would make us very happy girls. We even wrote it in our letters to Santa:

Dear Santa,

I hope I've been a good girl this year and I hope you make my wishes come true.
I would really love a real- life Sam Roth (you, know. From Shiver?)....

Loved our little sneak peak of our letter to Santa? Yeah, we thought so.

Moving on....

We actually liked Grace. We mean, we hated that she stole Sam from us, but as we liked how Grace wasn't like some of those really annoying girls you find when reading some other Y.A novels. She wasn't "nothing" without Sam; she was still very much functional and still thought of herself with a future. And with Sam, she still made plans about her future, like going to a decent college, getting a red coffeepot, things like that (unlike someone we know, who'd go to Alaska and lie her own dad just to be with her vampire boyfriend). we felt sorry about her relationship with her parents, though. Poor thing.

The way the book swaps from Grace's and Sam's point of view makes you know have everyone is dealing or feeling with each scene. It really adds a lot more depth to the characters.

The world- building was excellently done; we would very much love to live in Mercy Falls. And the werewolf thing's pretty much what we’re looking forward to. Who wouldn't love some hot werewolves? Except Shelby. She's just a psychotic bitch (ha, ha).

We really enjoyed Shiver, and we are very much looking forward to the sequel. We hope all you other fellow readers will find Shiver an amazing read too.<3

P.S: Wanna know what we miss the most?

 

An Excerpt from Lauren DeStefano's Fever

An excerpt from the second installment of the Chemical Garden Trilogy. Enjoy!

***

 A breeze rolls up from the water, and I realize at once how numb the cold air and wet clothes have made me. We should find someplace to stay, but where? I sit up and take in our surroundings. There’s sand and rocks for several more yards, but beyond that I can see the shadows of buildings. A lone freight truck lumbers down  a faraway road, and I think soon it’ll be dark enough for Gatherer vans to start patrolling the area with their lights off. This would be the perfect place for them to hunt; there don’t appear to be any streetlights, and the alleyways between those buildings could be full of scarlet district girls.
Gabriel, of course, is more concerned about the blood. He’s trying to wrap my palm with a piece of seaweed, and the salt is burning the wound. I just need a minute to take this all in, and then I’ll worry about the cut. This time yesterday, I was a House Governor’s bride. I had sister wives. At the end of my life, my body would end up with the wives who died before me, on a rolling cart in my father-in-law’s basement, for him to do only he knows what.
But now there’s the smell of salt, sound of the ocean. There’s a hermit crab making its way up a sand dune. And something else, too. My brother, Rowan, is somewhere out here. And there’s nothing stopping me from getting home to him.


Anybody else excited?? Why can't 2012 come any sooner??

In Progress

Hey, if any of you guys are wondering, we are currently in works for a review of Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater. Working hard to get it finished now.... :)

NEW TEASER- City Of Lost Souls

Here is a new intense teaser for Cassandra Clare's next book in The Mortal Instruments series. City Of Lost Souls.


“Kill me, little sister. Kill me and you kill Jace, too.”