Lament, by Maggie Stiefvater

Title: Lament

Author: Maggie Stiefvater

Reading Level: Young Adult

Pages: Paperback - 356

Chapters: 22

Genre: Romance / fantasy

Person: First

Tense: Past

Rating: 10/10

Blurb (quoted):

“Sixteen-year-old Dee is a cloverhand – someone who can see faeries. When she finds herself irresistibly drawn to beautiful, mysterious Luke, Dee senses that he wants something more dangerous than a summer romance.

But Dee doesn’t realize that Luke is an assassin from the faerie world.

And she is his next target.”

Opinion:

Okay, so perhaps this is a common sort of storyline – killer and victim fall in love, etcetera, but this is a whole new spin on ‘romance’. Having always been a dreamer, this book has certainly spoken to that inner child of mine that says ‘maybe they do exist…’

This novel was another page-turner, and is yet another of my favourites. This author – my god can she write romance! If you loved her novel Shiver, you’re going to adore this.

Maggie weaves magic into her writing so well, and her descriptions are oh-so-believable. This is a story you won’t want to take your nose out of – I was so disappointed at finishing it!

Highly recommended, especially for faerie-heads.

City of Glass, by Cassandra Clare

Title: City of Glass

Author: Cassandra Clare

Reading Level: Young Adult

Pages: Paperback - 541

Chapters: 21

Genre: Fantasy / Romance

Series: The Mortal Instruments:

1-City of Ashes, 2-City of Bones, 3-City of Glass, 4-Cit of Fallen Angels

Person: Third

Tense: Past

Rating: 10/10

Blurb (quoted): “Amid the chaos of war, the Shadowhunters must decide to fight with the vampires, werewolves and other Downworlders – or against them. Meanwhile, Jace and Clary have their own decision to make: should they pursue the love they know is forbidden?”

Opinion:

I was propelled through this book by anticipation; I could hardly put it down. There were so many pages that had me so involved I lost track of time.

This book is an amazing read, the characters have amazing personalities, there’s humour, despair, romance – everything.

There are so many twists and turns to the story line, you’re constantly asking ‘what next’. It builds so well on the two previous books from the series, the plot is solid.

It has me antsy for the next one.

City of Ashes, by Cassandra Clare

Title: City of Ashes

Author: Cassandra Clare

Reading Level: Young Adult

Pages: Paperback - 411

Chapters: 21

Genre: Fantasy / Romance

Series: The Mortal Instruments:

1-City of Ashes, 2-City of Bones, 3-City of Glass, 4-Cit of Fallen Angels

Person: Third

Tense: Past

Rating: 8/10

Blurb (quoted):

“With her mother in a coma and her father hellbent on destroying the world, Clary Fray is dragged deeper into New York City’s terrifying underworld of werewolves, demons and the mysterious Shadowhunters. Discovering the truth about her past was only the beginning. Now the fate of the word rests on Clary’s shoulders, but can she master her new-found powers and control her feelings for a boy who can never be hers?”

Judgement:

It’s hard to review this book.

I absolutely loved reading it, and it was amazingly detailed and descriptive, it drew me in, it made me laugh, it made me hold my breath.

But it also annoyed the hell out of me. First, near the beginning, I noticed that the way it was written or the writing style… was cheesy and it got on my nerves. Secondly, this is the second book in the series that has ended in a way that frustrates me, though this time it’s just because of the very last page that make me need the next book – which of course is probably what the author wants, but I hate it.

There is definitely a mystery aspect to the story, which makes it a page-turner, but my favourite parts are the ones that made me hold my breath or laugh. The story line pulls on all your stings, it has every emotion.

This book would have a 10/10 if a few things were different, but even as is, I’d recommend the series to anyone.

City of Bones, by Cassandra Clare

Title: City of Bones

Author: Cassandra Clare

Target Audience: Young Adult

Pages: 442

Chapters: 24

Genre: Fantasy / Mystery / Romance

Series: 1-City of Bones, 2-City of Ashes, 3-City of Glass, 4-City of Fallen Angels

Person: Third

Tense: Past

Rating: 8.5/10

Blurb (quoted):

“It’s after dark in New York City, and Clary Fray is seeing things. The best-looking guy in the nightclub just stabbed a boy to death – but the victim has vanished into thin air. Her mother has disappeared, and a hideous monster is lurking in her apartment. With her life spiralling into darkness, Clary realizes that she has stumbled into an invisible war between ancient demonic forces and the secretive Shadowhunters – a war in which she has a fateful role to play.”

Judgement:

First and foremost, I must say I absolutely loved this book, and the only reason it didn’t get a higher rating is because I was incredibly frustrated with the ending, which I can’t go into more detail about without spoilers.

The story line is exactly my cup of tea; it’s got an amazing fantasy aspect fused into the world as we know it, and the storyline is captivating (though I wasn’t sure what genre to class it as…). The plot is well constructed, consistent, and mysterious, though I have to say the drastic twist near the end was upsetting and I am now eager to read the second and pray something is not as it seems…

Descriptions aren’t lacking in this book and it became a movie screen in my mind – definitely a page-turner.

I loved this book, I’m keep for the next, and I definitely recommend it.

The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer, by Michelle Hodkin

Title: The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer

Author: Michelle Hodkin

Genre: Mystery / Romance

Target Audience: Young Adult

Pages: 452

Chapters: 59

Rating: 9/10

Person: First

Tense: Past

Blurb (Quoted):

“When Mara Dyer wakes up in hospital with no memory of how she got there, or any explanation as to why the bizarre accident that caused the deaths of her boyfriend and two best friends left her mysteriously unharmed, her doctors suggest she start over in a new city, at a new school, and just hope her memories gradually come back.

But Mara’s new start is anything but comforting. She sees the faces of her dead friends everywhere and now she’s started to see other people’s deaths before they happen. Is she going crazy? As if dealing with all this isn’t enough, Noah Shaw, the most beautiful boy she’s ever seen, can’t seem to leave her alone. But does he have her best interests at heart, or another agenda altogether?”

My Summary:

After Mara is left unharmed from an accident that she can’t seem to remember which killed her boyfriend and two friends, she and her family move to Miami, Florida for a new start. But Mara, suffering from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder is haunted by her friends’ faces.

When people start dying after Mara imagines it, she’s positive she’s crazy and struggles to discern hallucinations from reality.

To complicate things more, Noah Shaw, the boy with a reputation, won’t leave Mara alone and she’s swept along in a current she can’t control. But when crazy gets dangerous, Mara discovers a shocking truth.

Judgement:

The story line (coming out of an accident / coma and life being different forever) seems to be becoming pretty main-stream and common – but to say that this book is ordinary would be a lie.

First, I loved this book because not only was it addictive, but it kept me grinning the whole way through – and I’m not just saying that, I seriously had a grin plastered on my face for almost every page.

It’s witty, sarcastic, teasing, even embarrassing… Everything to spark interest and keep you page-turning. I wish I could say this book was a comedy for how much I laughed, but it really isn’t in any way – which doesn’t even make much sense. Point is, I was hooked and found myself up late as well as pulling it out at school.

I have to say, it has quite a twist towards the end and just the last few chapters of the book completely changes the story line. It sort of threw me and that made me a little irritated, but didn’t make it any less enjoyable.

There are a lot of questions to be asked throughout this novel: who was that? Was that real? What does it mean? What’s going to happen next? WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON? All of which are answered in due time – well, almost all.

The ending leaves it open for a sequel, though it doesn’t actually hint at one (if that even makes sense?) so there could be another, but I can’t see the storyline for it.

I found this quite an enjoyable read, and I applaud the author as this is her debut novel.

Bleeding Violet, by Dia Reeves

Title: Bleeding Violet

Author: Dia Reeves

Target Audience: Young Adult

Pages: 454

Chapters: 36

Rating: 5/10

Genre: Fantasy / Romance

Person: First

Tense: Past

Blurb (quoted):

“Love… can be a dangerous thing.

Hanna simply wants to be loved. With a head plagued by hallucinations, a medicine cabinet full of pills, and a closet stuffed with frilly violet dresses, Hanna’s tired of being the outcast; the weird girl, the freak. So she runs away to Portero, Texas, in search of a new home.

But Portero is a stranger town than Hanna expects. As she tried to make a place for herself, she discovers dark secrets that would terrify any normal soul. Good thing for Hanna, she’s far from normal. As this crazy girl meets an even crazier town, only two things are certain: Anything can happen and no one is safe.

My Summary:

Hanna is nowhere near what you would term normal. Hallucinations, pills – and purple, everywhere. When she gets sick of her aunt checking her into the mental wards every few weeks, she escapes and makes her way to Portero, Texas, to find her birth mother.

But things aren’t much better here. Her mother doesn’t seem to want her and she’s an outcast in a school of secretive students all in black.

But with a romance brewing as Hanna discovers the town has secrets crazier than her, Hanna may just find she fits in better than she thinks.

Judgement:

Without thinking about it, I would say I enjoyed reading this book – but with a second thought? I really don’t know.

It’s incredibly disturbing in a sense and…. Well, somewhat psychotic – which I suppose is the point of a crazy main character, but it has such a… careless attitude towards murder which doesn’t sit well with society.

Also, it’s quite confusing – towards the end (now I have to try not to give anything away here), it hints that Hanna isn’t crazy at all because one of her hallucinations becomes tangible and affects other people for real…

I’ve read a few other responses to the book and discovered a mass of people gave up before the end out of confusion or irritation. I can totally understand this, but the book still keeps you page-turning.

It was “sort of fun” to read, and kept you page-turning, wondering what was going on or what would come next – but then it also is a scramble of events and ideas. It’s just a mess of scenes and half of them don’t even make sense… I would say there isn’t any structure to this book – maybe that’s the best way to put it.

And then I can’t help but want to say that it was a good read, which just confuses me. I can’t make up my mind about this book to be honest.

In conclusion, if you are a “surface reader” (only interested in words and storyline) you’ll probably enjoy this book, but if your analyse sequence, sense, messages, etc. and really look into it then you might want to steer clear.

I’d say read it yourself and make your own opinion.

Demon in My View, by Amelia Atwater-Rhodes

Title: Demon in My View

Author: Amelia Atwater-Rhodes

Target Audience: Young Adult

Pages: 176

Rating: 7.5/10

Genre: Vampire Romance

Person: Third

Tense: Past

Blurb (quoted):

(None)

Summary:

Jessica Alodola has been writing novels about vampires and witches for a few years before one is accepted for publishing and soon comes out under a pen name.

What Jessica doesn’t know is that her ideas that come from her dreams are all real and the vampire’s who’s lives she’s allowed humans to read about aren’t happy about it. It’s not too long before there are bids for her blood and Jessica comes face to face with her favourite fictional character: Aubrey, a decidedly dangerous vampire.

Aubrey is supposed to be hunting Jessica. Instead, he finds himself fascinated by her unexplainable knowledge and obvious ignorance about the world she writes about without a missing a single detail.

But when the attacks start on her life, both Jessica and Aubrey are forced to make some tough decisions – and along the way discover a few new things about both themselves and the past.

Judgement:

I owe a lot of credit to this book; I first read it when I was thirteen, when I was only beginning to discover my book-worm-ish nature, and have since read it several more times. However, this time I found out that the author was around fourteen when she wrote it and decided it would be interesting to reread it, this time in a critical manor, and noticed that the writing style and form is noticeably young-minded, though it sure didn’t affect my enthrallment or adoration of the book.

There are a few poems in the book that were fun and interesting to read and attempt to comprehend, which makes me smile.

The story is a mystery, the puzzle coming together piece by piece as the story progresses, so your mind is continuously flitting around the information to try and figure it out before the author wants you to (which is at the end). The characters have very strong personalities, and there is a bit of development and change by the end.

Though quite typical, it’s an enjoyable read and I loved it – even now, after three or four years and reading it eight times.

It’s a great read probably for more beginner-novel-readers, rather than those who are more mature – though I still enjoyed it, but I might be a little biased because I’ve always loved it.

However, I have to say that the book hasn’t done itself any favours by not including a blurb on the cover.

Persistence of Memory, by Amelia Atwater-Rhodes

Title: Persistence of Memory

Author: Amelia Atwater-Rhodes

Target Audience: Young Adult

Pages: 356

Rating: 6.7/10

Genre: Adventure

Person: Third

Tense: Past

Blurb (quoted):

(None)

Summary:

Erin Misrahe isn’t your average sixteen year-old high school student. Having spent most of her life checking in and out of mental institutions, she is in constant fear that her violent alter-ego, Shevaun, will pay her body a visit after almost two years of being symptom-free.

But as it turns out, Erin isn’t the only one with a wacky story – she soon discovers that not only is her new best friend Marissa, and best-friend-from-the-institution Sassy, are shapeshifters – and that maybe Shevaun doesn’t exist only inside her schizophrenic mind, but is actually a vampire who is none too happy to have a human attached to her mind.

Now her life is more of a mess than ever and Erin finds she doesn’t know who to trust – only that whoever she believes, it shouldn’t be herself.

Join Erin in a topsy turvey word of secrets and lies that is no place for a girl who doesn’t know what’s real from what’s not.

Judgement:

The first thing I have to say about this book, is that this was the second or third time I’ve read it – I say this because, I think it just goes to show how good it is, to have me coming back over and over.

Secondly, I think it’s very original – and I know I’ve been saying that in a lot of reviews, but I’ve honestly never read or heard of anything remotely similar to this one.

It’s multi-POV, which means it has parts written from the point of view of a range of characters; I thought this was effective for the plot because it meant the reader was able to have a lot more information that some of the characters, which meant I wasn’t in the dark about half the things that were going on and I had most of the puzzle pieces.

It has interesting ideas, like different clans for different types of shapeshifters, and it also has this sort of idea of… imprinting on the mind – and I know that I probably made no sense just now, but I have no idea how else to explain it without extreme spoilers.

I liked the characters in this novel; the main characters all had severely different personalities which made conflict as well as spiking interest. They were somewhat developed, though there were holes in a few of their personalities but the great thing is that with the writing style and the way it was done made it so you just didn’t need or even think about the extra information – you only had what was vital to the story, which I suppose can be both bad and good in different ways.

I do however think that it… average. The original ideas weren’t really enough to make it WOW and even though it did hold my attention and put me in the moment, it just doesn’t stand-above-the-rest, it doesn’t stick in your mind like a sore thumb, and it didn’t get my heart racing.

Even so, it was an entertaining read, and good to curl up with on the weekend.

I also found the length was just right; it didn’t drag on, and it’s good for those who like a long read or just a short one – it slips right in the middle.

A Hunger like No Other, by Kresley Cole

Title: A Hunger like No Other

Author: Kresley Cole

Target Audience: Adult

Pages: 356

Rating: 7/10

Genre: Romance

Person: Third

Tense: Past

Blurb (quoted):

“A mythic warrior who’ll stop at nothing to possess her…

Lachlain MacRieve, leader of the Lykae Clan, is enraged to find the predestined mate he’s waited millennia for is a vampire. Or partly one. This Emmaline is small, ethereal half Valkyrie / half Vampire, who somehow begins to soothe the fury burning within him.

A vampire captured by her wildest fantasy…

Sheltered Emmaline Troy finally sets out to uncover the truth about her deceased parents – until a powerful Lykae claims her as his mate and forces her back to his ancestral Scottish castle. There, her fear of the Lykae – and their notorious dark desires – ebbs as he begins a slow, wicked seduction to sate her own dark cravings.

An all-consuming desire…

Yet when an ancient evil from her past resurfaces, will their desire deepen into a love that can bring a proud warrior to his knees and turn a gentle beauty into the fighter she was born to be?”

Summary:

Emmaline Troy, half Valkyrie, half Vampire, has only just left the nest to search for information on her ever-missing parents when she is suddenly taken hostage by a savage man that terrifies her. When forced to help him return home, Emma doesn’t realise that going with him means changing her life forever – and along the way discovering new things, not only about herself, but about the parents she never knew.

Lachlain MacRieve has been trapped and tortured for longer than he can track, doomed to burn alive repeatedly thanks to his immortality. But when he senses the presence of his mate, the soul he’s been waiting for all his life, it gives him the strength to escape – only to find, to his horror, that she is a vampire, the same species that had tortured him.

But with both of them keeping secrets and a dangerous opponent hunting for Emma, can they possibly survive the trip to the safety of Lachlain’s home? More troubling, can they survive each other and the roiling turmoil inside them both?

Judgement:

First of all, I have to say I had no idea what I was getting into when I picked up this book – I’d never heard of the author before or anything, and I was in a rush, so after the library computer search turned out this books name, I swiped it up and left… Only to discover later the amount of detail in the sex. With nothing to compare it too, I’m not really sure if this one counts as erotica, but honestly I’m seeing a trend – anything in the adult section that involves vampires always seems to have a bunch of sex involved… So I warn you now, this is for a MATURE audience.

Now, other than that surprise, this was a highly enjoyable novel – I liked the storyline, it was very original so far as I’ve read, and the characters have specific personalities that develop and change as the story progresses – though, I think perhaps a few of them change too much, especially the main character who could well be a new character entirely by the end; I’m not sure if I like that about it or not. And honestly, I think the rhetorical question in the blurb is cheesy, typical, and easily guessed, which almost made me not bother reading it, but once I started the novel was compelling enough to keep me reading.

I thought, once so many names started popping up, that I’d get at least a few of them muddled, but the way it was written made it so easy to keep them all straight in your head and always had a way to hint who’s who.

Admittedly, I have a couple of complaints. Firstly, I kept forgetting that Lachlain had a Scottish accent until I read him saying “no’” instead of “not” and then my mind’s voice would automatically jump into the accent again, only to die off when he stopped speaking – though I’m not sure this can be blamed on the author. Also, the names got a little confusing – not to remember, but to pronounce and I had to guess at a lot of them; for example, I had to decide to pronounce “Lachlain” as “Lack-lan”, even though I kept trying to think “Lock-lin” or “Latchlin” simply because the first one sounds normal and the second one is how it appears to be said…

It’s an entertaining read for sure – definitely has it’s highly laughable moments, it’s tension, and it’s romance plus adventure.

Tempest, by Julie Cross

Title: Tempest

Author: Julie Cross

Target Audience: Young Adult

Pages: 413

Chapters: 43

Rating: 8/10

Genre: Sci-fi / Romance

Person: First

Tense: Past

Blurb (quoted):

“Today: Jackson and Holly are in love.

Tomorrow: she will lie bleeding in his arms.

Yesterday: Jackson must undo it all.

A booming sound rang in my ears, followed by Holly’s scream. Then everything seemed to stop – my heart, my breath… time.

Jackson has a secret – he can jump into his own past. But when a shocking event propels him further back in time than he has ever been before – he finds he can’t return.

Now Jackson has to find a way to save the girl he loves before they have even met, and time is not on his side…”

Summary:

Jackson discovered he isn’t your average teenager when he was eighteen: he can jump into the past, but only a few days. Only his science-geek friend Adam knows his dangerous secret, but his life is turned upside down and inside out when two men kill the love of his live and something forces him two years into his past, where he is horrified to find he can’t escape.

Now, with secret after secret constantly limiting the number of people he can trust, Jackson must try and find a way to save his future-girlfriend Holly, who he hasn’t even met yet, while evading the growing number of people trying to kill him – which could include his own farther.

As the lies accumulate and the danger grows, Jackson fears he may never return to his own time – and not just because he can’t jump forward, but also because he might not live long enough.

Judgement:

I’m not used to reading books in a boy’s POV, and usually it takes me a little while to adjust, but in this book I was sucked in and nothing was foreign.

The plot and storyline were new waters for me, but I can’t say I’m not a fan! The theme of time-travel is only one of the countless mind twisters in this book, and it’s a puzzle you’re continuously trying to piece together in your head, but the puzzle pieces keep morphing.

The characters weren’t as developed as some I’ve read, though they definitely change and evolve throughout the story, and they had enough details to make them individuals – other than the main characters, there wasn’t much description on appearances and when there was, it was a once-of that I forgot a few pages later.

The emotional side of it is great too (I don’t know if it was just me or the books influence, but I kept thinking about my own boyfriend), and there were definitely a couple of moments when my eyes watered.

There are countless names, though it isn’t necessary to be able to remember all of them, but I do like to know whether a character was the driver or the agent in the last chapter… It also has a lot of dates (every chapter begins with a date and time), but I could never remember the last one I read, so they were a moot point for me.

It has a great writing style, and it kept my mind involved the whole way through, and dragged me right along with Jackson through time. I read the book in two days, and the ending leaves it open for a sequel, and I hope there will be.

My only complaint was slight confusion now and again about what characters were present and when the scene was – which is conveniently important in a book about time-travelling.

I also have to bring out the conspiratory feel to the novel; secret agents and the CIA? It's great.

About the Author:

Julie Cross has worked with children and teenagers for several years as a gymnastics programme director and running teen-writers’ workshops. But most of all she loves reading teen books, so one day in 2009 she decided she was going to write her own. And Tempest, her passionate and pacy debut novel, was born. Julie lives in Illinois USA with her husband and three children.

Fracture, by Megan Miranda

Title: Fracture

Author: Megan Miranda

Target Audience: Young Adult

Pages: 264

Chapters: 20

Rating: 9/10

Genre: Romance / Drama

Person: First

Tense: Past

Blurb (quoted):

“A lot can happen in eleven minutes. Decker can run two miles easily in eleven minutes. I once wrote an English essay in ten. No lie. And God knows Carson Levine can talk a girl out of her clothes in half that time.

Eleven minutes might as well be an eternity underwater. It only takes three minutes without air for loss of consciousness. Permanent brain damage begins at four minutes. And then, when the oxygen runs out, full cardiac arrest occurs. Death is possible at five minutes. Probable at seven. Definite at ten.

Decker pulled me out at eleven.

By the time Delaney Maxwell was pulled from a Maine lake’s icy waters by her best friend, Decker Phillips, her heart had stopped beating. Her brain had stopped working. She was dead.

But somehow Delaney survived – despite the brain scans that show irreparable damage. Everyone wants Delaney to be fine, but she knows she’s far from normal. Pulled by strange sensations she can’t control or explain, Delaney now finds herself drawn to the dying, and when she meets Troy Varga, a boy who recently emerged from a coma with the same abilities, she is relieved to share this strange new existence. Unsure if her altered brain is predicting death or causing it, Delaney must figure out if their gift is a miracle, a freak of nature – or something else much more frightening.”

Summary:

Delaney Maxwell was under the ice for eleven minutes. She was dead… or at least, she should have been. But when she emerges from a week long coma with no signs of brain damage despite brain scans claiming she should be ‘damaged’, she returns to her same old life – only everything is different now.

Everyone she knows is treating her differently, including parents and best friend, but only she knows that something really is wrong with her. After being drawn to strangers and friends who had later died, Delaney is forced to ask some hard questions: is she sensing death, or causing it?

When she discovers Troy Varga, a boy who emerged from a coma with the same ability, she’s relieved to feel less alien – but is the mystery man with a temper really to be trusted? Delaney begins to wonder what kind of friend she’d made after countless suspicious occurrences.

But most troubling is Delaney’s best-friend-since-childhood, Decker Phillips, is suddenly showing interest in another girl and Delaney doesn’t have a clue why that bothers her so much.

Judgement:

I’m not sure if it was because I had a lot of time on my hands, or if I was addicted to this book, but I found myself picking it up repeatedly over two to three days until I turned the last page.

The story line and plot is one I haven’t actually come across before (which is rare, considering the amount of books out there), which was great for a fresh spin on things. The characters had individual personalities and habits, which is always a must-have for me – I don’t want to be reading about a group of clones!

At first I found the length a little intimidating – not because I don’t normally read large books, but because I wanted to finish it before school went back (two days later), but I honestly flew through it. Also, I like that it was a book you really want to pick up and read, but it’s not going to keep you up all night or distract you from other tasks.

I enjoyed the setting (I live somewhere without snow, so the book being set in a snowy-winter was great). It really draws you into the setting, putting a stream of images through your mind.

However, I have to say the first few chapters were… they weren’t bad, but it wasn’t and instant hook that had you page-turning. The writing style didn’t get on my nerves either, which does happen with some authors, so I was glad when I found I was able to settle down into it.

Overall, it was a very enjoyable read and I recommend (though not HIGHLY) it to others.

About the Author:

Megan Miranda was a scientist and high school teacher before writing Fracture, which came out of her fascination with scientific mysteries – especially those associated with the brain. Megan has a BS in biology from MIT and spent her post-college years either rocking a lab coat or reading books. She lives near Charlotte, North Carolina, where she volunteers as an MIT Educational Counsellor. Fracture is her first novel.

Charmed - Season One

Title: Charmed

Season: One

Episodes: 22
Genre: Drama / Romance / Supernatural
Rating: PG

Opinion: 8/10

Created by: Constance M. Burge

Episode Length: 42 minutes
Starring: Shannen Doherty, Holly Marie Combs, Alyssa Milano

Synopsis (quoted from Wikipedia):

The Halliwell sisters discover that they are descendants of a long line of witches when they inherit a house from their grandmother and find the family's Book of Shadows. They learn that they each have a unique power. The strong-willed Prue Halliwell (Shannen Doherty) can move objects with her mind, reserved Piper Halliwell (Holly Marie Combs) is able to freeze time, and the uninhibited Phoebe Halliwell (Alyssa Milano) sees the future. Together they have the "Power of Three", which they must use to fight demons and warlocks, and protect the innocent.

Each episode contains a personal storyline alongside a magical one, showing the bond between the sisters and the troubles that being witches could cause in their 'normal' lives. These story lines often brought the sisters to an innocent in need of protection or a demon whom they must destroy. Several episodes also centred around the Halliwell sisters understanding and learning about their magical heritage.

Opinion:

Being my favourite show when I was a bit younger, I decided to watch the full Charmed series. My opinion and wow-factor has typically changed since I was younger so the programme is not as amazing to me as it used to be, but it’s definitely still good enough to have me hooked!

Having been made in the 90’s, the series’ special effects and such are somewhat less developed than that of present-day films, but it makes for an entertaining and humorous show! The demons look incredibly ridiculous, not at all believable, but it’s still a great watch.

The storyline is great too, it has romance, action, drama and everything in between with a witchy twist.

However, on the other side of the coin there is risk of offence to those who, like me, are pagan – if you take things seriously, then this perhaps is not the show for you. The representations of “witches” is good-natured, but it makes a freak show out of the wiccan religion implying that wiccans believe they’re psychic and that there are demons and such. It would be good to keep in mind that it is only a show meant for entertainment purposes and I’m sure isn’t making an attack on peoples personal beliefs.

Other than that, I’m thoroughly enjoying this old show, and am eager for more!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charmed_(season_1)

Shiver, by Maggie Stiefvater

Title: Shiver

Author: Maggie Stiefvater

Target Audience: Young Adult

Pages: 390

Chapters: 67

Judgement: 10/10

Genre: Romance / Fantasy

Person: first

Tense: past

Blurb (quoted):

“The Cold.

Grace has spent years watching the wolves in the woods behind her house. One yellow-eyed wolf – her wolf – watches back. He feels deeply familiar to her, but she doesn’t know why.

The Heat.

Sam has lived two lives. As a wolf, he keeps the silent company of the girl he loves. And then, for a short time each year, he is human, never daring to talk to Grace… Until now.

The Shiver.

For Grace and Sam, love has always been kept at a distance. But once it’s spoken, it cannot be denied. Sam must fight to stay human – and Grace must fight to keep him – even if it means taking on the scars of the past, the fragility of the present, and the impossibility of the future.”

Summary:

Grace’s friends aren’t only humans. The forest behind her house is home to a pack of wolves – home to a yellow-eyed wolf that watches back. Grace loves that wolf in particular – a wolf she feels she knows.

There’s more to Sam than meets the eye. He’s living a double life: in the summers, he is human; but in the winter he is forced to shift into a yellow-eyed wolf. He lives in among the trees during the cold, spending his time watching a girl who watches him.

But when the hunt is on a supposedly dangerous wolf pack, and Sam is able to become human again – and also able to speak to Grace. It’s the one and only time they’ve been together… and if they aren’t careful, it could be the last.

The fight has begun for love to survive in drastic circumstances.

Judgement:

Well… Only two complaint’s, so let’s get those out of the way first:

The blurb irritates me – I’m glad I didn’t base my choice on the blurb, because if I had I wouldn’t have read this book, thankfully it had been highly recommended. The blurb just… It doesn’t do the book justice at all. (Though admittedly, I don’t think my summary is much better).

The second complain is the ending! It’s not really a complaint of sorts I guess, but the way it end is infuriating – there just has to be more. It doesn’t feel like an ending at all. Which leaves me praying that there is a sequel.

Now that I have that out of the way:

I loved this book! It’s a going on my recommended list. It’s descriptive, it’s intimate, it’s everything I love in a novel. It’s not one of those ones that take half the book to get into, it’s just in the moment and it draws you in.

I didn’t sit there for hours on end, unable to put it down, I admit. But I think that has a lot to do with being busy and unproductive. There were definitely times when I couldn’t stop reading  but it wasn’t like that the whole way through – which I think makes the reading more enjoyable in a way, because it’s not the constant desperate for more and enables you to enjoy it in the moment.

Other than that, I don’t have much critique to give.

The story line is pretty original as far as I know; definitely not your average novel!

EDIT: It looks like there's a sequel! Linger, by Maggie Stiefvater.