The Warrior Heir

Title: The Warrior Heir

Series: The Heir Chronicles - book 1

Author: Cinda Williams Chima

Rating: 4 stars

Genre: Young Adult, Urban Fantasy

Number of Pages: 426

Publication Date: 2006

Publisher: Disney Hyperion

Summary: Before he knew about the Roses, 16-year-old Jack lived an unremarkable life in the small Ohio town of Trinity. Only the medicine he has to take daily and the thick scar above his heart set him apart from the other high schoolers. Then one day Jack skips his medicine. And it feels great - until he loses control of his own strength and nearly kills another player during soccer team tryouts.

Soon Jack learns the startling truth about himself: he is Weirlind, part of an underground society of magical people who live among us. At their helm sits the feuding houses of the Red Rose and the White Rose, whose power is determined by playing the Game - a magical tournament in which each house sponsors a warrior to fight to the death. The winning house rules the Weir.

As if his bizarre heritage isn't enough, Jack finds out that he's not just another member of Weirlind - he's one of the last of the warriors - at a time when both houses are scouting for a player.

I found this book to be an interesting and unique read. The world that is created within this book is complex and well thought out. For every possible question you could ask, you can guarantee that their is an answer, not that any of the characters like to share any important information. Clearly a lot of work has gone into building this world as it continued to expand and become even more impressive and detailed. The Weir and their world is one of a long history of bloodshed, betrayal at the ultimate cost and a world steeped in tradition.

As complex as the world is, the characters are even more so. Every character you meet has some important role to play, some trick or treachery they are meant to fulfill. Just when you think you have the devious characters distinguished from the good guys, you find out you couldn't be more wrong. As I was reading this book I couldn't help but imagine myself in Jack's shoes. The way this story is written meant that I was just as confused and lost as Jack was feeling. The sense of hopelessness, betrayal and fear he feels are so easy to get drawn into.

I must confess that as much as I enjoyed this book I did struggle with it quite a bit. First of all as I mentioned earlier the world and the characters are complex. Each and every time I thought I has it all figured out, I found myself having to start over. The story is also not particularly fast paced, in fact it's slow. The first half of the book is simply Jack learning that he is a warrior and that he must train, with a few hit and miss fight scenes thrown in for luck. The last half of the book is all about him getting ready for the actual 'Game'. And when I found myself with only about 50 pages to go and no Game so to speak, I was seriously beginning to wonder if I had brought a book that was missing part of the story and within a couple of pages you find yourself at end and its game over.

As for the main character Jack, while I found myself getting caught up in so many of his emotions, there were also quite a few times that I was left wondering what the hell he was thinking and why he was feeling the way he was. But overall I did enjoy the premise of this book and the unique world and will continue with the second book. I feel that The Warrior Heir is the kind of book that you appreciate it more the second time, when you know a bit more about what is going on. So if you love betrayal, and a little bit of mystery, I would recommend this book.

An Ember in the Ashes

Title: An Ember in the Ashes

Series: An Ember in the Ashes - book 1

Author: Sabaa Tahir

Rating: 4.5 stars

Genre: Young Adult Fantasy

Number of Pages: 448

Publication Date: 2015

Publisher: Harper Voyager

Summary: For years Laia has lived in fear. Fear of the Empire, fear of the Martials, fear of truly living at all. Born as a Scholar, she's never had much of a choice.

For Elias it's the opposite. He has seen too much on his path to becoming a Mask, one of the Empire's elite soldiers. With the Masks' help the Empire has conquered a continent and enslaved thousands of Scholars, all in the name of power.

When Laia's brother is taken she must force herself to help the Resistance, the only people who have a chance of saving him. She must spy on the Commandant, ruthless overseer of Blackcliff Academy. Blackcliff is the training ground for Masks, and the very place that Elias is planning to escape. If he succeeds, he will be named deserter. If found, the punishment will be death.

But once Laia and Elias meet, they find that their destinies are intertwined and that their choices will change the fate of the Empire.

I absolutely loved this book. The premise, the world building, the whole thing. This book is set in a Roman Empire type world with magic, betrayals and death around every corner. Everything about this book worked. In fact I found this book so good, I read it all in one sitting. There was always something happening that meant I couldn't put the book down, I just had to keep reading.

Despite the fact that this book is set in a fantasy world with magic and supernatural creatures, you don't get thrust into a new world that is confusing and distant. Sabaa Tahir mixed this strange and magical place in with a Roman Empire feel making it easy to get drawn into.

I loved the idea of the Masks, the soldiers of the Empire, trained from the age of six to twenty, who are taught one thing: obey. Obeying usually involves a horrible death of those that are considered a threat to the Empire. So much detail has been clearly put into creating the Masks and in no way can they be confused as anything other than deadly and dangerous.

This book is told from the perspective of the two main characters Laia and Elias, with alternating perspectives given for each new chapter. At no point in this story did it not work. Despite the constant perspective change, the story flowed in a way that it never would have been able to if only one of them had been narrating.

The characters also contained an unbelievable amount of back story and depth. Just when you think you have the characters all worked out, they get infinitely more complex and well thought out. The pain, the fear and the anger that these two characters feel is so real at times you will feel like its your own. Both Laia and Elias go through an incredible amount of character development. Both, despite being two very different characters, learn to stop letting the world go by and to stand up and fight for what they believe in. 

This book ends at the cusps of a new and dangerous era and I can't wait for the next book to be released in April 2016.

Ignite Me

Title: Ignite Me

Series: Shatter Me Trilogy - book 3

Author: Tahereh Mafi

Rating: 4

Genre: Young Adult Dystopia Sci Fi

Number of Pages: 421

Publication Date: 2014

Publisher: Harper Collins

Summary: With Omega Point destroyed, Juliette doesn't know if the rebels, her friends, or even Adam are alive. But that won't keep her from trying to take down The Reestablishment once and for all. Now she must rely on Warner, the handsome commander of Sector 45. The one person she never thought she could trust. The same person who saved her life. He promises to help Juliette master her powers and save their dying world...but that's not all he wants with her.

What a fantastic conclusion to the Shatter Me Trilogy. This final book is action packed, fast paced, and brings the series to a nice close. By the end of this book I had well and truly fallen in love with the characters and was sad to know that their story had come to an end.

May contain spoilers...

The character development in Ignite Me was perhaps my favourite part of this book and this series. I originally found the characters to be very two dimensional and I couldn't really love them. But by the end of this book I found myself understanding who the characters were and the difficult decisions they were making. Juliette had a huge amount of character development in this book. When I read Unravel Me I thought that she was finally the character she was meant to be, but after Ignite Me I realised that only the surface of the strength and determination she possessed had been revealed.

Warner also makes huge changes in this book. While in the previous books and novella we have slowly been revealed to the human side of Warner, it is in Ignite Me that I fell in love with him. In the previous books Warner, while having genuine and redeeming qualities, had ultimately done what he needed to survive. But in Ignite Me he learns to be a strong individual who not only does the right thing, but isn't scared to do so. Warner also learns to do things for others, and I don't just mean doing things for Juliette because he likes her.

The character development that I loved the most, however, was that of Adam. Why?.. because he went kinda backwards. I loved seeing the petty, angry and not-so-perfect side of Adam. Previously I had found him to be too perfect, too flawless and lacking any realistic dimensions. But seeing him crumble and failing to be this perfect crutch that would help Juliette and the rest of the world onto the right path was a refreshing sequence of events in the book.

I was also pleased to see a more active role of the Reestablishment in this book. This series is meant to revolve around the destruction and corruption of the world and the Reestablishment, but in many ways it was lacking in the first two books. There was a lot of talk of the Reestablishment but no real action. While a large portion of the beginning of this book did continue in this same fashion, the big epic battle at the end did make up for this. 

Fangirl

Title: Fangirl

Author: Rainbow Rowell

Rating: 4.5 stars

Genre: Young Adult, Contemporary

Number of Pages: 460

Publication Date: 2013

Publisher: Macmillan

Summary (from the back of the book): Cath and Wren are identical twins and until recently they did absolutely everything together. Now they're off to university and Wren's decided she doesn't want to be one half of a pair any more - she wants to dance, meet boys, go to parties and let loose. It's not so easy for Cath. She would rather bury herself in the fanfiction she writes where there's romance far more intense than anything she's experienced in real life.

Now Cath has to decide whether she's ready to open her heart to new people and new experiences, and she's realising that there's more to learn about love than she ever thought possible...

I absolutely adored this book. If you love living in books and have gone to university, you will really be able to relate to Cath's experiences. This book is very much a coming of age story; finding who you are and more importantly accepting who you are. On top of finding out who she is, Cath also faces the problem of dealing with her social anxiety. Something that I found Rainbow Rowell handled really well.

I found this book to be a fun, light read that is very realistic and for the most part couldn't find any faults with it. But at the same time I can't say I found anything overly amazing about it either. This book just was. Yet despite this I would recommend it to anyone. One of the reasons I personally think it lack the wow factor is that I do prefer fantasy to contemporary.

This probably explains why my favourite parts of the book were the events surrounding Cath writing her fanfiction and the inserts both from the fictional Simon Snow books and the fanfiction that Cath has written. And I must say, I am really interested in reading Carry On after reading the small snippets throughout the book.

This book is very dialogue based, which I personally love. I find that dialogue is what brings any story forward. It is one thing to be able to write and describe a story but to have characters that can talk and communicate between each other and effectively is what I love and more importantly, it's what I remember. Another thing about a good dialogue driven book, is that the things that aren't said have such a greater impact.

This book is one of the best stand alone's that I have read this year and I can't wait to read something else that has been written by Rainbow Rowell.

Unravel Me

Title: Unravel Me

Series: Shatter Me Trilogy - book 2

Author: Tahereh Mafi

Rating: 4 stars

Genre: Young Adult Dystopia

Number of Pages: 461

Publication Date: January 2013

Publisher: Harper Collins

Summary (from the back of the book): Juliette is still haunted by her deadly touch. But now she has teamed up with other rebels with powers of their own, she'll be able to fight back against the Reestablishment to save her broken world. With the help of these new allies, she will learn the secret behind Adam's-and Warner's-immunity to her killer skin.

I didn't particularly like the first book in this series but I had heard that it gets better as you go along so I picked up Unravel Me and I'm really glad I decided to. Everything that I didn't like in Shatter Me seems to get sorted out in this book and everything that I was uncertain of, was cleared up. It's not often you come across a second book in a series which is the one that holds it all together. 

The main thing that I disliked in the first book was the relationship between Adam and Juliette, and Warner and Juliette. It all felt a little forced. After reading this second book and watching the characters develop I began to understand why the characters came across like this. In Shatter Me all the characters seemed to be going through the motions, doing what they thought was expected of them. But in this book they start to see that maybe they need to think a little of themselves and do what they want. But not quite as much as the reader realises how much they need to rethink a few things.

I was also glad that who the Reestablishment was and their goals were brought more into this story. Once again I did, however, find that the role of this corrupt group did play a slightly less significant role than Juliette working out who she is and what her abilities are, and her boy issues.The ending of this book has set up the Reestablishment to play a huge role in the final book and I hope I won't be disappointed. 

Que some minor spoilers....

In this second book we learn why it is that Adam and Warner are immune to Juliette's powers...but more importantly we see Adam stop being immune to Juliette's power. Something which brings a staggering amount of reality into the story. When Juliette and Adam realise that he is not quite as immune to her powers as they thought, they are forced to seriously reconsider their relationship and whether or not it is wise for them to keep seeing each other. When Juliette pulls away to protect Adam, we also get to see a darker side of Adam. Especially when he is put in situations involving Warner.

Without Adam acting as a crutch on reality for Juliette, she is forced to be a little more independent and we begin to see her learning to live and not just existing. Juliette begins to make friends and with Warner a prisoner at Omega Point, we get to see her interact with someone who actually understands what she has been through. It is through Juliette's interactions with Warner that as a reader you begin to understand how badly Juliette has been forgetting to live her own life, how much she has been relying on others and doing what she thinks is expected of her. And much like the first book, Warner pushes all her buttons and makes her react and feel. Something that Juliette has spent a large chunk of her life trying not to do.

I found Unravel Me to be the book where the story started. In many ways I have found Shatter Me to simply be the starting point, the book that sets the scene. But now the story has really begun.

The Clan of the Cave Bear

Title: The Clan of the Cave Bear

Series: Earth's Children - book 1

Author: Jean M. Auel

Rating: 4 stars

Genre: Historical Fiction

Number of Pages: 502

Publication Date: 1980

Publisher: Hodder

TBR Challenge: Read a book that was recommended to you

Summary (from the back of the book): Orphaned by an earthquake at the age of five, Ayla is left without a family or people. Until she is adopted by the Clan, a group of Neanderthal. Ayla inspires first surprise, then wariness and finally acceptance by the Clan. She is cared for by its medicine women Iza and its wise holy man Creb. Only their future leader, Broud, is not willing to accept this strange women. Consumed with hatred, he does all he can to destroy her. But Ayla bears the marks and the spirit of her totem, the Cave Lion. She is a survivor.

I used to see this book series in the library all the time but never picked it up. However, in my second year of university, one of my lecturers mentioned how the Earth's Children was one of her favourite book series. When I realised that the books I kept seeing everywhere were the same as the one's she had recommended, I figured I should probably pick up The Clan of the Cave Bear and give them ago. I was pretty excited when I got my TBR challenge this month because it gave me an excuse to move this book up to the top of my TBR pile.

This book did take a while to get into. One of the things that I struggled with was the way that the characters communicated. Rather than speaking with words to one another, the Clan (aka the Neanderthals) talk in a series of hand gestures and a few spoken words to help emphasis certain points. To portray this as well as what she did, would have been no small feat and shows just how incredible a writer Jean is. It does, however, take a while to wrap your head around, especially in the beginning but soon you find yourself getting use to reading someone gesturing a sentence as opposed to speaking it.

In line with this idea of a different communication style was the incredibly different cultural portrayals that Jean created. For example, because the Clan speaks with hand gestures, it is considered rude to look at others, especially when they are 'speaking', much in the same way that we consider eavesdropping to be rude. But I really enjoyed learning these social customs of the Clan through Ayla, who as an outsider or other, struggles to learn the new social customs. This was particularly obvious in how the Clan originally viewed Ayla's smiles as signs of hostility which they saw as bearing her teeth, like an angry animal would and Ayla crying when she was overly emotional which they saw as her having weak eyes.

Jean also created interesting parallels between the Clan and the Others. In particular the idea that the Neanderthal relied on memory and as a result were a stagnant people, unable to let go of their traditions and move forward, never creating. While Ayla's people, the Other, were forward thinkers, able to create and think ahead, as opposed to constantly seeing the past. Yet despite creating this parallel, at no point did she ever diminish the Neanderthal by giving them an unjust stereotypical unintelligent persona.

Through doing an archaeology degree I have both indirectly and directly looked at human evolution and I am amazed at the world Jean created 30 odd years ago. A lot of the ideas that Jean has presented in this book surrounding Neanderthal are ideas that have only recently been accepted as true. Sure there are some points that are questionable, but considering when The Clan of the Cave Bear was published, Jean must have done a lot of research.

Shatter Me

Title: Shatter Me
Series: Shatter Me Trilogy - book 1
Author: Tahereh Mafi
Rating: 3.5
Genre: Young Adult, Dystopia, Fantasy/ Sci-fi
Number of Pages: 338
Publication Date:November 2011
Publisher: Harper Collins
Summary (from the back of book): Juliette hasn't touched anyone in exactly 264 days. The last time she did, it was an accident, but The Reestablishment locked her up for murder. No one knows why Juliette's touch is fatal. As long as she doesn't hurt anyone else, no one really cares. The world is too busy crumbling to pieces to pay attention to a 17-year-old girl. Diseases are destroying the population, food is hard to find, birds don't fly anymore, and the clouds are the wrong colour. The Reestablishment said their way was the only way to fix things, so they threw Juliette in a cell. Now so many people are dead that the survivors are whispering war - and the Reestablishment has changed its mind. Maybe Juliette is more than a tortured soul stuffed into a poisonous body. Maybe she's exactly what they need right now. Juliette has to make a choice: Be a weapon. Or be a warrior.

The first thing I want to mention is the writing style of this book. You are either going to love it or hate it. Personally I found all the metaphors and crossed out to words, especially in the beginning of the book, difficult to get the flow of. It was a bit too stop and start for me. However, I do understand that this style of writing is essential for the book. Through writing from Juliette's perspective this style of writing provides an incredibly detailed line of sight in Juliette's mind. And the lack of stability that she is experiencing.

The second half of this book is a lot better than the first half, in fact the first quarter of the book almost made me put it down. For the first part of this book I was a little confused as to what was going on, especially the role of Adam and Warner. While I understand that Juliette is confused and therefore so is the reader, at times this caused the story to lack enough insight to hold my attention.

This next part will be a bit spoilery, so if you haven't read the book yet, divert your gaze:

The relationship between Adam and Juliette and even Warner's feelings for Juliette, leave me mildly annoyed and unhappy. To me, I found them both to be quite forced. The relationship between Adam and Juliette happens too fast, it almost insta-love. And I hate insta-love. While later in the book it is established that Juliette and Adam not only know each other from the past, but have always loved each other, this was not developed enough for me, and not developed early enough, for me to loose this feeling of insta-love. At first I questioned whether I had missed a page or two.

The potential for a relationship between Warner and Juliette was also something I struggled with. It is only now as I read the novella following the first book where I have gotten any idea of where a potential relationship between the two stems from. It is only near the end of Shatter Me that it is really hinted at that Warner has been following Juliette's live with interest, border lining obsession. And it is only in the novella that it actually becomes clear what Warner is thinking.

Once again I'm not sure if this is because Juliette thinks this way, so as a reader, so do I (after all, a larger proportion of this book is her internal monologue)...or if the relationships she has with these two boys is just something I find lacking. I will be persevering with this series as I have heard many people claim that the rest of the series is a lot better than the first book. I also feel that Shatter Me is a book you almost need to re-read once you get a better understanding of the series to fully appreciate it. The premise of this book really interests me as well and I am interested it seeing how the Reestablishment side of this series plays out.

The Elite

Title: The Elite

Series: The Selection - book 2

Author: Kiera Cass

Rating: 4 stars

Genre: Young Adult Dystopia

Number of Pages: 323

Publication Date: 2013

Publisher: Harper Collins

Summary (from the back of the book): America Singer is one of the Elite and Prince Maxon only has eyes for her. If she wins the competition for heart, she will leave her pre-destined life for a world of luxury. But the outcome is less than certain; the threat of rebel violence just beyond the palace walls is escalating into war and bitter rivals are ready to take her down. And America's feelings for Maxon grow stronger, ex-lover Aspen waits for her in the shadows. Where do her loyalties truly lie?

This book is far better than the first one. The plot in this book is more thought out and the characters have started to develop some depth. One of the reasons that I think this happens is because America is finally invested in the story line. In The Selection America spends much of her time wanting to be anywhere else, to be living a different reality - and reading about a character who doesn't want to be in her own story is hard.

Which is what leads me to the thing I love the most about this book. Kiera beautifully crafted the emotional labour that someone would probably be feeling going through an experience like the Selection. With a premise like this book you end up putting the characters in some pretty emotionally hard places. First there is the love triangle between America, Maxon and all the other girls in the Selection and then as Aspen so nicely puts it: "Sometimes I feel like Maxon and I are in our own version of the Selection...and...Maxon doesn't exactly know we're competing". Naturally anyone put in a situation like this begins to get a little stressed which I was glad to finally see. For a moment I was worried that the situation wasn't going to bother any of the characters, they were all just going to go with the unrealistic flow.

All though this also lead to thing I hate must in any book: angst! I hate angst, it puts me in a really bad space and when I read about it...well I just want to put the book down and walk away. However, I did persevere and I was glad I did. Because having a bit of angst was the only way that Kiera managed to get America and Maxon to finally talk to one another. If I could have reached through the book and shaken these two I would have.

The angst did have one redeeming quality. It gave some really good insight into who America and Maxon were as characters. Obviously from page one it has been clear that America and Maxon come from two totally different worlds. America's family would go without adequate food and sometimes forfeit electricity and Maxon is a prince. There was never going to be a perfectly aligned relationship that these two assumed existed. America's fears are really brought into the light in this book. We see her struggle with not only her relationship but with her questioning if she is actually cut out for some of the hardships of being a future queen. With Maxon we see that being a prince isn't all charm and smiles but can sometimes be a cage of its own. We also get to see a not-so-perfect side of Maxon as well. The side that shows that he is an only child and a prince...so yes he is a little spoiled and good at hiding who he is really is.

The one thing that I would liked this book to have had more of was the rebels. It has been clear throughout both The Selection and The Elite that rebels are going to play some significant role. But as of yet, they haven't. I'm a bit concerned for how Kiera will play this out in the next book as I feel like all of sudden the rebel plot line could take over, when the fundamental story line is the Selection competition. I am also hoping that the next book looks a little more at the creation and structure of Illéa as I think this would give the book something more.

Queen of Shadows

Title: Queen of Shadow

Series: Throne of Glass - book 4

Author: Sarah J. Maas

Rating: 5 stars

Genre: Young Adult Fantasy

Number of Pages: 645

Publication Date: September 1st 2015

Publisher: Bloomsbury

Summary (from the back of the book): Celaena Sardothien is cloaked in her assassin's hood once more. She is back in Rifthold, but this time she is no one's slave. She must delve into her most painful memories and fight for her survival, while resisting a smouldering passion that might very well consume her heart. And she will face former master, the King of Assassins, again - to wreak revenge for a decade of pain...

I don't really know where to begin with describing how much I love this book...so I'll start with.. I LOVE THIS BOOK!! In fact I love this whole series, each book somehow manages to get better than the last.

I found this book to be a lot like Throne of Glass, that is more character driven than plot driven. But where I found Throne of Glass a bit slow for this, Queen of Shadows instead brought out some fantastic character development. 

The character that stands out in this book for most character development would be Lysandra. As we learn more about Lysandra's past we begin to see how similar she is with Celaena. The two become what would have been just one book earlier, an unlikely team, yet they work so well together and become and unstoppable driven force.

The second character that makes some serious changes is obviously Celaena herself. First of all she now goes by her real name Aelin. Aelin begins to accept that she is the Queen of Terrasen and that she cannot keep running from her past. In this book we get glimpses of the queen that Aelin has the potential to be.

Chaol also makes some serious changes as a character. First off, Chaol finally realises that he has been blindly following his King for too long, which thank god! Chaol also begins to realise that magic is actually a part of the world and that he needs to stop thinking of everyone with magic, aside from Dorian, as a monster if they do. I have already seen many comments about how people found Chaol to be really different from previous books, but I found that this book revealed the person he has always been - as if for the first time we are truly seeing who Chaol is.

As I mentioned earlier I did find this book to be more character driven than plot but I actually thought that this was the best way this book could have been told. Like with Heir of Fire, Queen of Shadows is told from multiple perspectives and with in seemingly unrelated sub-plots throughout, but once again Sarah J. Maas has managed to makes all of these moments a part of the larger story that you don't necessarily understand until you get to the end of the book. The way that Sarah tells her stories shows how talented a writer she is, that she manages to remember and include the smallest of details to give the story so much more depth and complexity. 

Despite the fact that this book is getting up there in page numbers at no point did this book feel long and daunting. I picked this book up and flew through it. In fact I picked it up and got so lost in it that I didn't even realise that two hours had past.

My favourite part of this book would have to have been the ending of this book. Sarah's book endings always leave me with a certifiably insane need for the next book and waiting for an entire year is likely to give me an eye twitch but this book was different. I am not saying that this book did not leave me needing the fifth book because it did and I do. But it also left me with a sort of completeness and happiness...why?...because for once Aelin gets a genuine happy moment. Minor spoiler alert: Aelin gets to return to Terrasen. In fact the books last line is: "And at long last, Aelin Ashryver Galanthynius was home." I mean after everything that has happened does that not give you the warm and fuzzies. With a line like that I will be able to survive until the next book comes out.