City of Glass

Title: City of Glass

Series: The Mortal Instruments - book 3

Author: Cassandra Clare

Rating: 5 stars

Genre: Urban Fantasy

Number of Pages: 540

Publication Date: 2009

Publisher: Walker Books

Summary: Clary must travel to the City of Glass, the anscetral home of Shadowhunters, to save her mother's life. Clary begins to uncover truths about her family and her past with the help of Sebastian, and Valentine begins to muster the full force of his demon army.

 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?

This is probably my second favourite book in the series. This book was originally written as the final book of the trilogy before Cassandra Clare came to her senses and wrote more books. For this reason it is one of my faves. As an original ending to a series, this book tidies up a lot of loose ends, which is good when you consider that this series is now six books, as it means no story lines begin to drag. It also means the characters get a moment of finality before the next stage begins.

In this book we really get to see some character development. In this book the effects that the previous two books have had on the characters really begins to show. We begin to see the characters breaking round the edges and fighting to not crumble into thousands of tiny little pieces and just give up. Jace in particular is really pushed to his limits. As a character who has always been taught to be strong and unbreakable, it's humbling to watch him slowly break down and rebuild himself.

Cassandra Clare is a brave writer. She writes her stories as they happen. Rather than being an author who writes and smothers their characters so they all come out okay at the end, Cassandra Clare's writing is almost brutally honest. In many ways it's almost as if she is writing about what really happened. If the characters should be suffering, they will be. Happy moments are happening at the same time that the world is being ripped out from under the characters feet and thrown in the deep end of hell.

Stone Guardian

Title: Stone Guardian

Series: Entwined Realms - book 1

Author: Danielle Monsch

Rating: 4 stars

Genre: Urban Fantasy, Paranormal Romance

Number of Pages: 266

Publication Date: 2013

Publisher: Romantic Geek

Summary: Gryphons flying past skyscrapers? Wizards battling it out in coffeehouses? Women riding motor cycles with large swords strapped to their backs? All normal sights since the Great Collision happened twenty-six years ago.

Well, not normal for everyone. Larissa Miller may have been born after the Great Collision, but as a history teacher who lives in the human-only city, she has never come into contact with any other race or species. That is, until one day she walks out of her apartment only to be attacked by a mob of Zombies, but then is saved by a Gargoyle.
Leader of the Gargoyles, Terak has been watching over the human woman for months because of a cryptic prophecy. Gargoyles trust no one outside their Clan, but something about this woman stirs every protective instinct within him. When he realizes the danger to her is real, he refuses to allow her to explore this new world without him at her side.
In the course of their investigation Terak becomes entranced by his little human. But when he discovers why Necromancers want her and the great reward that awaits him if he betrays her, he must choose between the welfare of his Clan and not only Larissa’s life, but the fate of this new Realm as well.

It's not very often you stumble across a book where the main character is a gargoyle, so naturally this is what drew me in the most. However, I felt that this idea of gargoyles was sort of glossed over, despite their importance. In the entire book we only get three or so scenes, which show only a small portion, of what the gargoyles are like as a society and the rest of the book is spent saying that all the stories made up about gargoyles are grotesquely false, yet no real answers were given as to who they 'really' were.

The romance in this book was well done, especially from the point of view of Terak. Terak as a character in general was well done and very believable. We first meet Terak as a strong independent character who will do anything for his clan. As the book progresses we see Terak become more and more open to fighting for what he personally believes in and watch as he struggles to balance he wants with his responsibilities. He does a lot of growing as a character and it was enjoyable to read from his perspective.

Larissa in comparison as a character was not as well developed. I found at times she was weakly written, her reactions a little unbelievable at times and was far to quick to trust and love Terak. While it was interesting reading from Larissa's point of view as it was her story. I feel that the story would have been more compelling if it was told more from Terak perspective.

The world created for his story was perhaps the thing I loved the most. In the book, our world has collided with another realm that contains magic. As a result you get a mix of normal human lives with those of magical creatures and societies. I loved the way that the vampires in this book were not your typical vampires but were a mix of vampire and necromancer magic (which fits considering they are the living dead) and they didn't sparkle. Hopefully in later books we will see more of the other paranormal races.

This is only the first book in a series and there is heaps of room for this world to grow and develop with multi perspectives through this first book it has set itself up to contain a vast foray of characters and story lines with each promising to be more impressive than the last.

Top 5 Wednesday - Buzz Words

This months T5W task is to pick your top five buzz words or words that guarantee you buy a book. T5W was created by Lainy from Gingerreadslainey.

5. Discover/ investigate - if a book has the word 'discover' or 'investigate' written by either the publishing company or in the books blurb I'm always interested. You can always guarantee a book with 'discover' or 'investigate' is going to have something new and exciting happening to a character.

4. Best selling author/ award winning - I think this is self explanatory. If a book is written by a best selling author or award winning then the book is probably going to be good... people don't generally buy or give awards to books that suck...like I said, self explanatory.

3. This isn't really so much a buzz word as a buzz question...books that contain rhetorical questions really sell a book for me...it makes me feel like they are speaking directly to me. Cheesy...yes, but also true. if a book has something like 'can she overcome the challenge?' well then I have to read to bloody find out whether 'she can over come the challenge?' 

2. Normal/ ordinary - I know what your thinking...really you see the word normal and you have to read a book?... well yeah, why? because if a book has the word normal or ordinary describing it, it has probably had something written about how it this book and it's story are anything but normal and ordinary. I'm pretty sure this classifies as reverse psychology.

1. Thrilling - I love books that pull you in and make you invested in the plot, the characters, the world and everything else in between. If a book is being sold as thrilling, and not just because they are a thriller or mystery, then I have to read the book to find out why this book is so thrilling. What is it that has dragged others in, and will it be just as thrilling for me.

City of Ashes

Title: City of Ashes

Series: The Mortal Instruments - book 2

Author: Cassandra Clare

Rating: 5 stars

Genre: Urban Fantasy

Number of Pages: 411

Publication Date: 2008

Publisher: Walker Books

Summary: With her mother in a coma and her father hell bent 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 world rests of Clary's shoulders, but can she master her new-found powers and control her feelings for a boy who can never be hers?

Like many books that are the second in a series, City of Ashes is not my favourite in the series. This book is very much about the changes that are happening rather than anything actually happening. This book is very focused on Clary and Jace and the rest of the characters learning about their new identities and how these new identities do or don't change who they are. I find this book to be very character and world driven rather than plot focused. We also meet the last of our main characters bar one other. 

Yet despite the fact that this book isn't so much a driving point in the plot, it is perhaps, in my opinion, the most important book in the series. It is in this series that we begin to see the importance of our main characters and get a feel for how much danger and chaos Valentine is going to bring to the world. We are also introduced further into the Shadowhunter world and meet even more of the downworlders and learn more about who the Clave is and what role they have. City of Ashes is very much Valentine's story. In this book we get to see more of Valentine and we begin to understand what he wants and how his mind works.

It is really hard to write a review on a book in a series you have read before, you can't write what you truly think and how you feel the book fits into the story objectively because you know what is going to happen next and when you have read the Mortal Instruments series as many times as I have you get to the point where you just simply can't fathom someone not having read the books.

And that is pretty much were I'm at...this book is not my favourite in the series but still I love it, I love the whole series and I highly recommend reading the series if you love fantasy, urban fantasy or paranormal books. For those of you who haven't read much fantasy, supernatural type books or want to forray into the magical worlds of such books, this series is a great place to start. With a main character who has always believed that they were human you get to learn about a new world along side them making it easy to follow and get lost it. This second book expands on the world and magical creatures that live in it and really brings them to life.

Witch Hunter

Title: Witch Hunter

Series: The Witch Hunter - book 1

Author: Virginia Boecker

Raing: 4 stars

Genre: Paranormal, Historical Fantasy

Number of Pages: 409

Publication Date: 2015

Publisher: Orchard Books

Summary: Elizabeth Grey may look harmless, but don't let that fool you. She can take out five necromancers with a single sword and slay a wizard at fifty paces.

But when she's found carrying witch's herbs, she is thrown into jail with no chance of escape. Only magic, which she's fought against all her life, can save her...

Now, with Elizabeth's chances of survival in the very hands of those she has been trained to fight, she faces an impossible choice.

This book has perhaps the most interesting premise I have come across in a long time. As soon as I picked this book up and read the back, I had to have it! The idea of reading a book where the main character is the witch hunter and the not the witch isn't that popular, not when the witches are in fact the good guys. Books where the main character is forced to reevaluate everything they have ever been taught are perhaps the books that I find the most appealing.

While the premise of this book was fantastic and the plot itself was interesting, I found that the writing itself let this book down. I didn't find Virginia Boecker to be have a particularly appealing writing style. She wrote in an almost simplistic or basic way. There were no lines that stood out, no creative metaphors and no impressive descriptions of scenes, characters or environments. However, Witch Hunter is her debut novel so it isn't surprising that there is room for improvement. Not many people can write a master piece on their first try.

My one complaint about the story line itself is in the way that Elizabeth Grey is described. Elizabeth is described as being a great witch hunter, the very best, an unstoppable force. Yet I found that we never quite got to see this in the book, Elizabeth seemed to be constantly run down, overwhelmed and only seemed to succeed when she had others to rely on or through the very fact that the author wrote the plot with her winning. However, because I did find the authors writing to be a little weak at times I feel that this would have come across better if she was a stronger writer.

I really look forward to seeing where this series goes next and how Virginia Boecker's writing improves.

City of Bones

Title: City of Bones

Series: The Mortal Instruments - book 1

Author: Cassandra Clare

Rating: 5 stars

Genre: Urban Fantasy

Number of Pages: 443

Publisher: Walker Books

Publication Date: 2007

Summary: It's after dark in New York City, and Clary Fray is seeing things. The best-looking guy in the night club 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 spiraling into darkness, Clary realises 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...

First of all I think I should start off by saying that the Mortal Instruments is my favourite book series and Cassandra Clare is my favourite author, therefore anything and everything written in this post is totally bias :)

I picked up this book to read for two reasons. First I want to re-read all the books set in the Shadowhunter universe before the release of Lady Midnight in March and secondly because this months TBR challenge was to read a book that was either a TV or movie adaption and this series is both. The TV show premiered today and the movie was released in August 2013.

Cassandra Clare creates a fun and sexy world of Shadowhunters. Her characters are diverse, her plot lines filled with brilliant minor and major story lines. Even in just this first book of the series each of the characters face some major challenges, challenges that shape and change who they always thought they were. While most of the character development that occurs in this book isn't really seen in until City of Ashes the ending of this book doesn't just leave you with the cliff hanger of what is going to happen next, but how the characters are going to cope. And I have never read a book that has invested me in the characters as much as Cassandra Clare's writing does. This book is driven forward as much by a compelling story line as it is by an amazing set of characters.

Cassandra Clare's writing style, however, is what I love the most about her books. Cassandra has such a creative way of writing. She balance show and telling well and fills her writing with creative, witty and just plain funny metaphors and similes that brings the Shadowhunter world alive and off and the page. In fact all her dialogue is written in a fun and enjoyable way that doesn't take from the seriousness of the situation nor make what is happening unbelievable (especially from Jace).

“It wouldn't be my move," Jace agreed. "First the candy and flowers, then the apology letters, then the ravenous demon hordes. In that order.” 

“The meek may inherit the earth, but at the moment it belongs to the conceited. Like me.” 

“Just because you call an electric eel a rubber duck doesn't make it a rubber duck, does it? And God help the poor bastard who decides they want to take a bath with the duckie. (Jace Wayland)” 

“Sarcasm is the last refuge of the imaginatively bankrupt.” 

“Sorry, are you telling me that your demon-slaying buddies need to be driven to their next assignment with the forces of darkness by my mom?”

And that is just a small taster of some of the good lines in the book - this list doesn't even include some of the best. Mostly because I couldn't chose.

If you love Urban Fantasy, High Fantasy, any kind of fantasy, adventure, kick butt characters and books about worlds colliding this is totally for you. 

Tigana

Title: Tigana

Author: Guy Gavriel Kay

Rating: 4 stars

Genre: High Fantasy

Number of Pages: 692

Publication Date: 1990

Publisher: Harper Voyager

Summary: Eight of the nine provinces of the Peninusla of the Palm, on a world with two moons, have fallen to the warrior sorcerers Brandin of Ygrath and Alberico of Barbadior.

Brandin's younger son is slain in a battle with the principality of Tigana, which the grief-stricken sorcerer then destroys. After sweeping down and destroying the remnants of their army, burning their books and destroying their architectures and statuary, he makes it so that no one not born in the province can even its name.

Years later, a small band of survivors, lead by Alessan, last prince of Tigana's royal house, wages psychological warfare, planting seeds for the overthrow of the two tyrants. At the centre of these activities are Devin, a gifted young singer; Catriana, a young woman pursued by suspicions of her family's guilt; and Duke Sandre d'Astibar, a wily resistance leader thought dead.

Meanwhile, at Brandin's court, Dianora, his favourite concubine and - unknown to anyone, another survivor of Tigana - struggles between her growing love for the often gentle tyrant and her desire for vengeance. Gradually the scene is set for both conquers to destroy each other and free a land.

The thing that really stood out for me in this book was the world making. Mostly because rather than creating this great descriptive world, Gavriel Kay focused more on creating a culture, more so than any other book I have ever read. This book made you understand the importance of friendship, loyalty, oaths and religion to these people in such a way that it became as if you had actually seen it with your own eyes and encountered it rather than simply read about it. Very little was ever said about the physical world of the Palm outside of direct descriptions of where they were currently and to say that there were two moons.

The writing style of this book is extremely descriptive. Rather than saying what anything is, everything is told in an almost poetic way. While this made the writing give a lot more depth than a lot of books I also found that this made it difficult at times to follow the specifics of the story line. Because Tigana was written in a way that didn't always say what was happening you had to try and work much of the hints out yourself. While this is usually fine in a book as it helps bring creativity and a flourish to an authors work, at times I found there were too many descriptions and not enough direct writing that there was nothing to grasp a hold of and follow.

I also struggled quite a bit in the beginning of the novel, as I do with many high fantasy books, with the names. For some reasons fantasy authors always seem to pick one letter in the alphabet and give all the characters a name starting with this letter, the letter A in this case. Take into account that they are usually names that are not natural to us and they do begin to blur together. I was well passed half way in this massive novel before I could begin to fathom who was who.

The plot of this story moved very slowly. The first four fifths of this novel was Alessan and his rag tag group turning the western and eastern tyrants against each other. Alessan as a character is very intelligent and good at reading how others will react. While this makes most of his plans run smoothly and flawlessly in an entertaining read, it also caused the final battle to be rather anti-climatic. Of the 692 pages in this book the ending was a sudden turn around pages 620-30, all of a sudden everything went from a big lead up to the main event. Like all of Alessan's plan the final skirmish went off with few faults and at the end I kinda went 'is that it?'

But over all I have to congratulate Guy Gavriel Kay because this high fantasy novel is a stand alone. It isn't often you come across stand alone fantasies of any sort much less a high fantasy. Overall this book was fantastic. While its length was a little off putting especially when it was told slowly in a very descriptive and creative way, this only made the fact that it is a stand alone more impressive.

Top 5 Wednesday - Fandoms

For 2016 I have decided I will participate in as many Top 5 Wednesdays as possible. For January 6th the T5W topic is Your Top 5 Fandoms.

For me this topic started off relatively easy, two stood out more then any other but then things started to get difficult. How could I pick one over another when as fandoms by default I loved them all. So to make things easier on myself and not too unfair I figured I would go with the first 5 fandoms I every had.

1. This one was the easiest to pick and is perhaps on most lists and that is Harry Potter. I love all things HP whether it be books, movies, games, quizzes, or just hearing someone make a HP reference. HP fans are an unspoken unified group of people who bound instantly over a shared love of the series. Match J.K Rowling's great writing with a great group of fans and who wouldn't want to be apart of this fandom.

2. Heartland. This is probably a very different fandom than what most would chose (its not overly popular), and this series involves rescuing abused and neglected horses. Heartland is both a book series and a tv show (that is up to season 9). I started to read this series when I was about 11 or 12 and not long after I finished reading them the tv show began. Horses and books are my two great loves in life so its probably not surprising that a combination of the two made it onto my top 5.

3. The fandom which is probably the one that I am most greatly a fan of is anything relating to Cassandra Clare's Shadowhunters, specifically for me, The Mortal Instruments. These books were ultimately what made me discover that their was more to books, tv shows and movies than simply watching and reading them. After I finished the original trilogy of TMI I went looking for more anything of Cassandra Clare and that was when I discovered how far the love of a series can go through the creation of fandoms.

4. The Lord of the Rings quickly became a favourite of mine following the first 10 minutes of the first movie. After that I had to watch the next two and know about the books these fantastic movies were based off. Granted the books are little more slow but still the world and the characters are a great and unique bunch.

5. I was originally introduced to Stars Wars, begrudgingly, by my father who insisted it would be a great bonding activity to force his family to watch the movies with him. All six! We had to watch them in the original release order, you get the full effect that way, but by the end of the first one I had to know more. I am curious to see where the next set of movies go considering George Lucas once said that Star Wars was the story of Darth Vader, because Darth Vader isn't in the latest movies...but I guess I'll just have to wait and see.

Into the Woods

Title: Into the Woods

Author: Lyn Gardner

Rating: 4 stars

Genre: Children's, Fairy Tale Retelling, Adventure

Number of Pages: 428

Publication Date: 2006

Publisher: Corgi

Summary: Aurora, Storm and Any Eden are accidentally orphaned and left to fend for themselves, when they come under the unwanted attention of Dr DeWilde. The sinister Dr DeWilde is set on obtaining a pipe that Storm has inherited and the three sisters are forced to flee into the woods to escape him.

With Dr DeWilde close at their heels the three sisters are catapulted into a dangerous adventure to save their own lives and those of Piper Town.

Into the Woods is a mixed collection of fairy tale retellings combined into one story. This story incorporates Rapunzel, Red Riding Hood, Sleeping Beauty, Hansel and Gretel and many other favourite fairy tales to create a fantastical world filled with adventure and quick thinking heroines. Like all good fairy tales, Into the Woods is centered around a hero who must outwit the bad guy who is a threat to everyone by completing an adventure. As I started reading this story I was worried that all the characters and story lines they were introducing would never fit to together without losing the integrity of the original fairy tales, however, Gardner managed to subtly weave the different plot lines together and work each of the different fairy tale characters in a very believable way.

The thing that I loved the most about this book was one of the minor story lines that is carried throughout the book, which is Kit with his mixed personality. Kit is described as having one emerald green eye and one ice blue eye. Kit's eyes are the physical manifestation of the internal struggle he goes through. His green eye represents his want to be the hero or good guy while his blue eye represents the frozen portion of his heart that does more evil than good. Kit's situation gave the book a lot of emotional depth to the story line as well as providing much entertainment. While heroes are guaranteed to win in fairy tales, Kit's inner struggle left you questioning over which side would win. His character brought anguish and pain, and added to the depth of how real the characters over all were. As for entertainment; well every time Kit tried to do something good, his alter-ego would betray him and try to bring about the capture of the Eden sisters and when his alter-ego was beginning to corner the heroines, Kit would step in and reveal the path to freedom. It was like watching someone play chess against themselves...no one can win. My only wish for this book was that their wasn't more Kit.

Like all good fairy tales, Into the Woods has a moral to the story. In this case it is the balance between fun and work that Storm and Aurora learn through their adventures. Storm is wild in nature, she likes to make fire works and not do anything responsible. Aurora has always been the one given all the responsibility and as a result finds itemising the linen closet, dusting, and knitting and sewing to be highly entertaining endeavors. Throughout the course of the book the two sisters, while holding onto their wild and domestic personalities, learn to balance, They learn when it is ok to let go and have fun and when you have to take responsibility for whats happening.

If I had read this book as a children or early teen I would probably have loved this book and given it five stars, but being that little bit older I can only give it four.

2016 Reading Goals

Every year I like to set myself some reading goals. This year I have a reading goals of 120 books on goodreads, a part of this includes a list of 12 specific books that have been sitting on my bookshelf for a while and I need a gentle nudge to pick them up and read. The second part to my goals are specific challenges. Every month I draw one of these 12 specific books and one of my challenges to read. I find that these challenges help give me a variety of books to read and also force me to reach out and try books that I normally wouldn't.

Books to Read:

1. Into the Woods

2. The Last Seven Months of Anne Frank

3. Little Women

4. Catch 22

5. Kids Night in 2

6. The Young Adventurers

7. The Atlantis Complex

8. Dragon Rider

9. We of the Never-Never

10. The Aeneid

11. Under the Mountain

12. The Book Thief

Reading Challenges:

1. Read a book based on a true story

2. Read a book with a tv/ movie adaptation

3. Read a contemporary novel

4. Read something non-fiction

5. Finish a series

6. Read a book that has won an award

7. Read a book with 500+ pages

8. Read a new-to-you author

9. Read a classical novel

10. Listen to an audiobook

11. Read an emotional book

12. Read a book that's not a novel