The Night Circus

Title: The Night Circus

Author: Erin Morgenstern

Rating: 5 stars

Genre: Historical, Fantasy

Number of Pages: 490

Publisher: Vintage Books

Publication Date: 2011

Summary: The Circus arrives without warning

No announcement proceeds it...

It is simply there, when 

yesterday it was not

Within the black-and-white striped canvas tents is an utterly unique experience full of breathtaking amazements, and it's only open at night.

But behind the scenes, a fierce competition is underway - a duel between two young magicians, Celia and Marco, who have been trained since childhood expressly for this purpose by their mercurial instructors. Unbeknownst to them, this is a game in which only one can be left standing, and the circus is but the stage for a remarkable battle of imagination and will. Despite themselves, however, Celia and Marco tumble headfirst into love.

True love or not, the game must play out, and the fates of everyone involved, from the cast of extraordinary circus performers to the patrons, hang in the balance, suspended as precariously as the daring acrobats overhead.

In part one of The Night Circus we meet the main characters of the story over the expanse of several years. We get brief glances of our main characters from the age of 5 in 1873 till their late teens 1886. The story starts off with introducing lots of intriguing ideas and establishes much of the story. Usually these long wind up stories will bore me and I give up but this book has such an enchanting feel to it, that even if there was no plot line for the entire book I probably would have kept reading. Never have I read a book that the writing and story dazzle in perfect synchronicity.

In is in part two that we are introduced to the Circus...and what a Circus it is. The entire circus is a work or art and incredible imagination. Le Cirque des Reves, the Circus of Dreams,  is only open at night and is entirely decked out in black and white and the best performers. But this is no ordinary circus, hiding in plain site , the circus is the platform of extraordinary magic not the illusions that the audience believes it is seeing. Marco and Celia are pitted in a game where they don't know the rules or how to win, all they know is that they must out do each other in feats of breathtaking imagination.

But as the years go by Celia and Marco find that they no longer compete against each other but instead build their magical creations for each other. But the competition must come to an end and Celia and Marco must find a way to end the competition without the drastic consequences that threaten the circus and their love.

But Celia and Marco aren't the only characters to tell a story, born under the strange and unique circumstances of the circus' magical opening night, the Murray twins, Poppet and Widget are two key players in the survival of the circus with their unique abilities and the help of a farm boy, Bailey with big dreams.

In short, I loved this book! It was magical and enchanting and was a world that I would love to see come to life. The book doesn't have the most compelling story line but it is written beautifully and I couldn't put it down.

Lady Midnight

Title: Lady Midnight

Series: The Dark Artifices - book 1

Author: Cassandra Clare

Rating: 5 stars

Genre: Young Adult, Urban Fantasy

Number of Pages: 669

Publisher: Simon & Schuster

Publication Date: March 8th 2016

Summary: In a secret world where half-angel warriors are sworn to fight demons, parabatai is a sacred word, A parabatai is your partner in battle. A parabatai is your best friend. Parabatai can be everything to each other - but they can never fall in love.

Emma Carstairs is a warrior, a Shadowhinter. She lives for battle. Alongside her parabatai, Julian Blackthorn, she patrols Los Angeles, where vampires party on the Sunset Stripe, and faeries - the most powerful of supernatural creatures - teeter on the edge of war with Shadowhunters. When the bodies of humans and faeries are found murdered in the same way Emma's parents were when she was a child, an uneasy alliance is formed. This is Emma's chance for revenge and Julian's chance to get back his brother Mark, who is being held by the Faerie Courts. All they have to do is solve the murders within two weeks... and before the murderer targets them.

Their search takes Emma from sea caves full of sorcery to a dark lottery where death is dispensed. And each clue she unravels uncovers more secrets. What has Julian been hiding from her all these years? Why does Shadowhunter Law forbid parabatai from falling in love? Who really killed her parents - and can she bear to know the truth?

Lady Midnight is an action packed and intense and for the first book of a series that is promising to be spectacular one. I hadn’t realised how much I missed a new Cassandra Clare book. Going into Lady Midnight, the assumption is that you already know the structure of the world that Cassandra Clare has created and as a result we don’t have to get a whole lot of world building allowing us to get straight into the story and learn the characters, and there is quite a few new characters to learn. Unlike previous books the characters grew up in the Shadowhunter world.

In the previous Shadowhunter books while adult presence has been limited, it is almost non-existent in Lady Midnight, the adults that are present have fleeting appearances and little sway and guidance over Emma, Julian and the rest of the Blackthorn children. As a result some of the old fashioned beliefs that the Shadowhunter’s hold onto do not apply to our characters. There are two obvious examples of this. The first is in the behaviour of the characters. All Shadowhunter’s grow up fast, it is a given, they grow up and fast because they die young. But our main characters have had to grow up more than others. They are this odd mix of having had to grow up too fast and still holding onto their child like dreams and ambitions. This helps to make the story both compelling and heart wrenching.

The other way this lack of adultness is seen, is in the presence of technology. Without adults forcing the Blackthorns and Emma into thinking that mundane technology is useless they have thrived under its influence. The characters make references to movies and use computers in a way that would stump our previous Shadowhunter characters, even those of the Mortal Instruments.

Cassandra Clare is a no-holds-bar author, you have no idea who can trust, or who is going to live; even the main characters are up for grabs. But so as to keep spoilers to the minimum I will just look at main characters.

Emma is very much a combination of Clary and Jace. She is reckless and stubborn, and constantly getting into trouble. Above all else Emma is loyal and driven with a need to find answers and work out who she is. Emma is slow to trust and care for others but when she does, it is final. Emma needs nothing more than to close the final chapter of one part of her life so that she can learn to live in the next.

Julian on the other hand is a mix of Will and Jem, he is quiet and reserved but rather than music we get art as his passion. But like with Will you never see the real him, you get his protective side that shows through and the absolution that he will put his family and Emma first but keeps secrets. He keeps secrets in the same way that Will does, they are perfectly put together but are the story progresses we see these secrets begin to unravel and pull him apart at the seams.

This book is neither slow nor fast despite its bulking size (669 – and it’s just the first book) it was a well paced and well written book. This is the best book Cassandra Clare has written so far and as her writing has grown and become even more amazing I am sure that her books will one day kill me. Cassandra Clare forces you to feel so much for her characters and then she rips your heart out with betrayals, lies, secrets and deaths.

Glass Sword

Title: Glass Sword

Series: Red Queen - book 2

Author: Victoria Aveyard

Rating: 5 stars

Genre: Young Adult, Fantasy

Number of Pages: 442

Publisher: Orion Books

Publication Date: 2016

Summary: Mare's blood is red, but her unique Silver ability - the power to control lightning - has turned her into a weapon that the Silver court will do anything to control.

As Mare escapes the cluthes of Maven, the prince - and friend - who betrayed her, she discovers something shocking: she is not the only one of her kind.

Pursued by Maven, no a vindictive king, Mare sets out to find and recruit other Red-and-Silver fighters.

But Mare is treading a deadly path, at risk of becoming exactly the kind of monster she is trying to defeat. Will she shatter under weight of the lives that are the cost of rebellion? Or have treachery and betrayal hardened her forever?

Glass Sword begins right where it left off. The last sentence of Red Queen and the first sentence of Glass Sword follow each other almost as if you have started a new chapter not another book. Not many authors do this but I found that I loved it. Rather than waiting for the story to pick up again so I could get back to the amazing world that Victoria Aveyard has created, it was like I never left.

I want to say so much about this book but I won't because I don't want to spoil this for anyone. 

Glass Sword has one very interesting theme that runs through out it, especially towards the end. A theme that is often touched in many books which involve uprisings but never in quite this much clarity and detail. 'At what point do your actions stop becoming that of saving others and instead become the first steps that your enemy once took themselves with the same ideals'. This is something that is really clearly seen and something that the characters struggle with. A lot of thought and planning has gone into how the characters will face such a challenge.

But the thing I loved the most about this book and about Victoria Aveyard's writing is that she holds no punches. Victoria is a brave writer and if she wants to put something in her books she will. This means that certain parts of her books can get very dark, the characters can be shockingly cruel but most importantly she creates characters that are so uniquely diverse and different you actually feel like you are meeting truly different individuals and not just characters with slightly different personalities that give the illusion of different.

Glass Sword is perhaps the best sequel novel I have ever read and I can't wait to see what happens next...

Clockwork Angel

Title: Clockwork Angel

Series: The Infernal Devices - book 1

Author: Cassandra Clare

Rating: 5 stars

Genre: Urban Fantasy, Historical, Young Adult

Number of Pages: 470

Publisher: Walker Books

Publication Date: 2010

Summary: When sixteen-year-old Tessa Grey arrives in England during the reign of Queen Victoria, something terrifying is waiting for her in London's Downworld, where vampires, warlocks and other supernatural folk stalk the gaslit streets. Friendless and hunted, Tessa seeks refuge with the Shadowhunters, a band of warriors dedicated to ridding the world of demons. Drawn ever deeper into their world, she finds herself fascinated by - and torn between - two best friends and quickly realises that love may be the most dangerous magic of all.

The Infernal Devices series is a prequel series to the Mortal Instruments. As a result we get some of the names we know and love such as Herondale, Lightwood and Fairchild, but we also get introduced to some new ones. 

The first thing that I loved about this book is the world. Cassandra Clare has created a world that it both a historically belivable one and is also filled with magic and mechanical inventions. Like with the Mortal Instruments, the Shadowhunters of the 19th century live a secluded life from the mundanes and believe themselves to be better than the Downworlders. 

 While their are cross overs between both the Infernal Devices and the Mortal Instruments their is no repetition in story ideas. In both series we are introduced to the Pandemonium club, yet the two are unrecognisable, while being creepily the same in the different era's. In the Mortal Instruments the club is simply a club that is frequented by Downworlders, Demons and Shadowhunters...in the Infernal Devices the Pandemonium Club has a far more sinister role. In this version of the club it is run by varying levels of Downworlders and Demons who seek to exploit the naivety of mundanes; they draw in the unsuspecting and use them as pawns.

The other thing that I loved that has carried through on both series is the presence of Camille, Magnus and Church. Having a small select few of the characters from the Mortal Instruments present helped to create a connection between the two series and also to help solidify that some of the characters are actually immortal. Knowing that some of the characters will still be alive in 130 odd years and watching them love and hate really brings the loneliness of immortality to life. Getting to experience a character in two very different time frames brings a new depth to the immortality of characters that most authors are unable to portray.

The role of women in this book is also a big topic. There are three main women: Tessa, Charlotte and Jessamine, each are very different and have very different understandings of how women should act. Charlotte is a Shadowhunter first and a lady second. She goes into battle and has the right to give her opinion. Jessamine is pretty much a spoilt rich brat. She strongly believes that women should sit around and look pretty, take care of their husbands and raise their children. 

Tessa has very traditional views to begin with, men make decisions while women are more reserved. These views, however, do not suit Tessa's personality type and she lives in a world of fiction with strong female characters. When she meets the Shadowhunters she is originally put off by their casual and forward behaviour, yet at the same time she is fascinated with the idea that women can be strong and fight to.

It is the character of Will, however, that is the most fascinating. Will as a character is arrogant, rude and just plain unpleasant to be around. Yet he can also be prone to moments of true selflessness and kindness. Like with his descendant, however, his cruelty towards others comes from a desire to protect others from himself and to protect himself from pain and suffering. Will is by far one of the deepest characters I have read about. Everything about him contradicts. He can't stand anyone, doesn't believe anyone deserves pity but the one person he cares about the most is the person who most depends on him and has his unwavering devotion.

Even if you didn't really enjoy the Mortal Instruments, this series may still appeal to you.

Awakening

Title: Awakening

Author: Natalie King

Rating: 5 stars

Genre: Young Adult, Paranormal

Number of Pages: 272

Publisher: Penguin

Publication Date: 2014

Summary: When Zelie Taylor pulls a lost necklace out of the icy lake, she has no idea what the consequences will be.

At first the pendant is just freezing cold - unnaturally so - but then she hears a voice inside her head and thinks she must be going made. She's not. Seventeen-year-old Tamas' soul has been trapped in the pendent since 1918. His body is nearby, sleeping, and Zelie must help him awaken.

At first Zelie just wants Tamas' moody, enigmatic presence out of her life, but after a while she isn't so sure. And what is waiting for Tamas when he does emerge? The sinister force that trapped him has returned and is growing more powerful.

A hundred-year-old mystery steeped in dark magic will make Zelie question everything she thought she knew.

First of all let me start off by saying I want to kick myself for how long it took me to pick up and read such an amazing book. Secondly I want to kick myself for not realising that this book was written by a New Zealander. I really need to read more books by Kiwi authors.

Now that the negatives are out of the way, lets talk about the positives.

This book was spectacularly written. It was written in a way that I can't describe in words but it was perfect and it was faultless. The writing brought the world to life, gave the characters depth and moved the story forward in an effortless way. I knew from the first line that this book was going to be exceptionally good and by the end of the second I knew it would be spectacular. 

"Of all the emotions, guilt leaves the greatest mark. While fear and happiness can fade, guilt remains as heavy and harsh as the day it arrives."

This book is deep and thought provoking in a way that is all encompassing but without drowning you in unpleasantries. It was a perfect balance. As for the mystery side of this book it is weaved through the book, feeding you bits and pieces as you need them allowing you to draw your own conclusions.

My favourite character in this book was Tamas. Who he is in the beginning and who he is in the end is almost unrecognisable, yet at the same time Natile King manages to portray who he is fundamentally through all stages of his character development. Tamas starts off as a very angry character who has been mislead and betrayed. Just as Tamas begins to accepts this situation he is unexpectedly given the freedom he desires but at the cost of once again facing his demons and being forced to overcome his need for revenge.

While I didn't find that Zelie did much growing as a character, she did learn to act rather than simply feeling. Zelie isn't really shy but she is withdrawn and likes to blend in with the crowd. By the end of the book she isn't afraid to stand up and do what she needs to do to help those she cares. I suppose rather than learning and developing in many ways like Tamas does, Zelie learns one big lesson instead.

Awakening is also filled with a few minor plot lines that while do not directly alter the main story line they do nicely interweave with it and help to shape the overall book. Natalie King's writing style has in many created a new legend or myth. Everything was original and obviously had a lot of thought go into it.

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.

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.

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. 

Favourite Books of 2015

2015 has been a great reading year for me. My Goodreads Challenge started off at 50 books, then it was 60, then 70 and so on until I had it set for 100. In the end I reached 120 books and that's not including the books I have forgotten to add. The following is a list of my top 10 books of 2015. This list is in no particular order and only some of these books were published this year.

The Ruby Circle by Richelle Mead

This book which was released at the beginning of 2015 brought about the conclusion of the Bloodlines series and also brought about an absolutely fabulous ending to the Vampire Academy world. The ending of this book is one of those endings when you need more than 5 stars.

The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer by Michelle Hodkin

This book was an intense and mind boggling read. This is one of those book that will test you and hold onto you long after you have read the last page. You will question everything in this book as to whether what you are reading is reality or not. So if you love a book that challenges your sanity this is your kind of book.

Click here for my full review.

Outlander by Diana Gabaldon

Outlander (previously published as Cross Stich) is one behemoth of a historical novel. But don't let this put you off. This story is filled with history, action, romance and a little bit of time travel. This book will draw you into a dark past and make you wish you could stay there.

Click here for my full review.

Red Queen by Victoria Averyard

While I must confess that it was the cover that originally drew me in, the story itself was absolutely incredible. It took me a couple of chapters to get hooked into this story but in the end I read it in one sitting. This book is filled with betrayal and treachery around every corner.

Click here for my full review.

Beautiful Creatures by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl

This is the first book in the Caster Chronicles and is set in a small Southern American town. This book makes many references to To Kill a Mockingbird and the two stories share many similarities in the sense that both books are about overcoming prejudice with Beautiful Creatures being the paranormal take.

Click here for my full review.

All the Bright Places by Jennifer Niven

All the Bright Places is Jennifer Niven's debut novel. This book will make you cry and laugh as you are drawn into the intense and dark lives of Violet and Finch as they through each other they try and learn to find happiness. This book is an emotional roller coaster but well worth the read.

Click here for my full review.

Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Lani Taylor

This is the first novel in a trilogy and a book I can find no faults in. The characters, the plot, the worlds, the writing style. This book is like nothing I have ever read before.

Red Rising by Pierce Brown

This sci-fi book which is set on Mars was not what I expected. While I was intrigued I never believed I was going to be amazed. The characters are well thought out and the plot is well balanced. The book is filled with quite a bit of politics but this did not diminish the story.

Click here for my full review.

Cut & Run Series by Abigail Roux and Madeleine Urban

Cut & Run is the first book in a 9 book series which follows two FBI agents Zane Garret and Ty Grady as they struggle with falling in love with each other and trying to solve some of their toughest cases yet. Where Garret and Grady are involved things are bound to blow up, someone is sure to get shot and their may even be a big cat or two.

Queen of Shadows by Sarah J. Maas

Queen of Shadows is the fourth book in the Throne of Glass series. A series which is quickly forging itself a permanent spot on my favourites shelf. While many people feel that this book sees the characters developing some major character shifts, I personally felt that this book was the first time none of the characters had to pretend to be anyone else in order to survive.

Click here for my full review.

Dangerous Lies

Title: Dangerous Lies

Author: Becca Fitzpatrick

Rating: 5 stars

Genre: Young Adult, Contemporary, Thriller

Number of Pages: 384

Publication Date: November 2015

Publisher: Simon & Schuster

Summary: Stella Gordon's life is a lie. 

She does not belong in Thunder Basin, Nebraska. As the key witness in a murder trial, Stella is under witness protection, living a life she doesn't want.

No on can know who she really is. Not even Chet Falconer, her hot, enigmatic neighbour. But against her better judgement, Stella finds herself falling under Chet's spell.

Becca Fitzpatrick is one of my favourite young adult authors. She writes fast paced books that you have to read, cover-to-cover, in one sitting. The characters and situations they find themselves in, suck you in from page one and don't spit you out until you are well after the last page.

One of the things that I loved the most about this book was the idea of who you are and what your identity is. Fitzpatrick created a believable and heart wrenching situation in which Stella is forced to come to terms with the fact that who she really is, is someone she can't be. The emotional strain of having to lie and be someone else when all you want to be is yourself.

I loved Stella as a character, especially because she is not your typical main character. Many authors write characters that are strong and unbreakable, great heroes and heroines. Fitzpatrick writes characters who could be anyone...you, your neighbour, the guy who walks his dog down your street every day. Rather than creating a character who is strong and guaranteed to come out on top because of all the special skills they pertain, Stella is an everyday average person, who when put in a difficult situation has to hope that she comes out the other side with the help of others and perhaps a little dumb luck. 

My only disappointment in this entire book was that I wanted more about the murder Stella witnessed. I wanted more of the thriller side of Dangerous Lies. (Spoiler ahead) I wanted to hear more about Reed and if the cartel caught up with him? Was Reed really involved or was Trigger just being Trigger?

Like with the rest of Becca Fitzpatrick's books Dangerous Lies is very focused on the romance of the characters. The thing that I love the most about the romances that Fitzpatrick creates is that the characters always have a strong connection. Their isn't just some smouldering romance with no real substance - Stella and Chet are good friends, they talk and listen to each other and support one another. So many authors write romances that are based almost entirely off attraction and have no mutual ground that make them cheesy and unbelievable. Stella and Chet contain flaws and are far from perfect characters but this just makes them believable and real.

Illuminae

Title: Illuminae

Series: The Illuminae Files - book 1

Authors: Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff

Rating: 5 stars

Genre: Young Adult Science Fiction

Number of Pages: 602

Publication Date: November 2015

Publisher: Allen and Unwin

Summary: One moment Kady Grant and Ezra Mason have nothing bigger to worry about than each other. Specifically, avoiding each other in the wake of their messy break up. In the next second. their entire world falls apart.

The year is 2375 and one of the mega-corporations that control much of deep space has just fired the opening salvo in an intergalactic war, destroying Kady and Ezra's planet. Forced to flee on a small fleet of enemy warships chasing them down is at first all-consuming but soon becomes the least of their worries. A deadly plague is ravaging the refugees on the ships; the fleets AI, which should be protecting them, may actually be an enemy; and High Command is refusing to acknowledge that there may be serious problems. As Kady plunges into a tangled web of data in search of the truth, she realises that Ezra is possibly the only person who can help her save the refugees before it's too late.

This book is perhaps the most amazing and unique thing I have ever read. Even two days after I have finished this book I am still marveling at how well this book was done. When I first heard about this book I wasn't interested in reading it. I am not the biggest science fiction fan and the idea of reading a book written almost entirely in transcripts of interviews, IM's, emails and official documents sounded like it would be missing the fundamentals behind a good book.

I can safely say I am really glad I was wrong. The way this book is told isn't strange and weird, it's creative, unique and brings a whole new perspective to characters and plot. Despite the fact that you never have the story told from the characters perspectives, I never felt like I couldn't understand the emotion behind the characters or why they were doing what they were doing. Kaufman and Kristoff created such emotion and depth in the speech and actions alone.

My only complaint in the entire book was the twenty or so pages leading up the middle of the book. I felt that this part dragged a bit and lacked something. But in saying that, can anyone name a book that was entirely perfect?...

The thing I loved the most about this book was the commentary that was given by the Illuminae Group, especially when they describe what is happening on the surveillance videos; these moments bring a lot of humor and emotion in to the book.

This book is also filled with twists and turns that you don't see coming. Just as you are starting to work everything out, it all changes and you are thrown for a loop. This book gets a strong 5 stars and I can't wait for the second book to come out, because after the ending of the first book...well I need to know more.

The Winner's Crime

Title: The Winner's Crime

Series: The Winner's Trilogy - book 2

Author: Marie Rutkoski

Rating: 5 stars

Genre: Young Adult

Number of Pages: 416

Publication Date: 2015

Publisher: Bloomsbury

Summary: The engagement of Lady Kestrel to Valoria's crown prince means one celebration after another. But to Kestrel it means living in a cage of her own making. As the wedding approaches, she aches to tell Arin the truth about her engagement...if she could only trust him. Yet can she even trust herself? For - unknown to Arin - Kestrel is becoming a skilled practitioner of deceit: an anonymous spy passing information to Herran, and close to uncovering a shocking secret.

As Arin enlists dangerous allies in the struggle to keep his country's freedom, he can't fight the suspecion that Kestrel knows more than she shows. In the end, it might not be a dagger in the dagger that cuts him open, but the truth. And that happens, Kestrel and Arin learn just how much their crimes will cost them.

What a spectacular sequel to The Winner's Curse. This book picks up a month following the end of The Winner's Curse as Kestrel and Arin try to come to terms with the drastic changes their lives have gone through. In The Winner's Crime Kestrel and Arin are not only pushed to their limits but have to exceed them. They have to be smarter than ever and play the game harder than they ever have before. And all the while keep in mind that their actions drastically effect others.

The Winner's Crime is filled with even more deceit and deception than you can imagine. Just as you think one lie has been unspun you realise you have only found the tail end of it. As Kestrel and Arin work at discovering the same secret plot the two inadvertently find themselves working against each other as they go to great lengths to stay away from one another. But the further the two of them push each other away the more they want to fight for each other.

While the trickery in this book made it so incredible it also made it a struggle. There were a few moments in this book where Kestrel and Arin's lack of communication and trust dragged the story a bit. What made this difficult was that it is such a fundamental aspect of the book. In order for Kestrel and Arin's character to grow and learn from their actions they had to see just how destructive their lies and games were. 

I was also glad for the arrival of the new characters such as the Emperor, the prince Verex and the more prominant role of Kestrel's father, General Trajan. The Emperor and Verex relationship offers Kestrel an example of how power games can push away they people who should mean everything to you. To put yourself so far above others you begin to forget how human others are. Kestrel's father, General Trajan allows Kestrel herself to feel the stinging blow of betrayal by someone you love and the loss of friends brings Kestrel into the reality of what it means to lose everything. 

And while Kestrel learns to experience betrayal and isolation first hand by her own deceit and games as well as by others; Arin learns how hard it is to love someone who not only doesn't trust you but who can also cause your own destruction. Arin is forced to learn to that in order to save himself and his people for now he must let Kestrel go.

This book is filled with dread, pain and suffering and it won't let you go until you have read to the last page. The Winner's Crime is a powerful and seductive read that will pull you in until you are just as invested in the plot as the characters are.

The Invasion of the Tearling

Title: The Invasion of the Tearling

Series: The Queen of the Tearling - book 2

Author: Erika Johansen

Rating: 5 stars

Genre: Fantasy

Number of Pages: 511

Publication Date: 2015

Publisher: Bantam Press

Summary: Kelsea Glynn is the Queen of the Tearling. Despite her youth, she has quickly asserted herself as a fair, just and powerful ruler.

However, power is a double-edged sword, and small actions can have grave consequences. In trying to do what is right - stopping a vile trade in humankind - Kelsea has crossed the Red Queen, a ruthless monarch whose rule is bound with dark magic and the spilling of blood. The Red Queen's armies are poised to invade the Tearling, and it seems nothing can stop them.

Yet there was a time before the Crossing, and there Kelsea finds a strange and possibly dangerous ally, someone who might hold the key to the fare of the Tearling, and indeed to Kelsea's own soul. But time is running out...

The Invasion of the Tearling is not a fast paced book nor does it cover a huge amount of time in the plot line. But this does not hold the book back. Johansen's story is told from multiple perspectives which allow you to fully understand the complexity of the world she has created for her regressive-fantasy future. Johansen manages to weave the web of a world that is familiar, yet unique with characters that are so complex and well developed you can't help but love them all.

While the first book in this series deals with Kelsea's journey to taking on her rightful position as the Queen of the Tearling, this book follows Kelsea's next major hurdle...how to deal with the impending doom that is coming in the form of the Mort army. In this second book we begin to get more details on who the Red Queen is, even a name...which I won't spoil...

Through the stress that Kelsea faces we are reminded that she is human, a major highlight for me. We get to see Kelsea make a few decisions she would not have made in the first book and begin to her unravel a little at the edges.

While all of this is happening, Kelsea starts getting visions of the past before the crossing over to what is now Tear. At first I must admit I really didn't like where the book was going with these and I was tempted to skip ahead, but as the story progressed it becomes more and more obvious that these flashbacks of soughts, play an integral role in the story's present. Johansen's ability to weave the past and future together seamlessly is astounding and brings so much to the overall story.

The only thing I really wished that this book had included was more of The Fetch. I absolutely loved him in the first book and I was dying for him to play an even bigger role in this book and he didn't. I hope we get to see a considerably more of him in the next book because the short moments we do get of him, one thing is clear, he knows a lot more of what is going on than everyone else.

I would totally love it if we got a novella or even better a entire book that focuses on the story of The Fetch.

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.

Red Rising

Title: Red Rising

Series: Red Rising Trilogy - book 1

Author: Pierce Brown

Rating: 5 stars

Genre: Science Fiction

Number of Pages: 382

Publication Date: 2014

Publisher: Hodder and Stoughton

Summary: The Earth is dying. Darrow is a Red, a miner in the interior of Mars. His mission is to extract enough precious elements to one day tame the surface of the planet and allow humans to live on it. The Red are humanity's last hope.

Or so it appears, until the day Darrow discovers it's all a lie. That Mars has been habitable - and inhabited - for generations, by a class of people calling themselves the Golds. A class of people who look down on Darrow and his fellows as slave labour, to be exploited and worked to death without a second thought.

Until the day Darrow, with the help of a mysterious group of rebels, disguises himself as a Gold and infiltrates their command school, intent on taking down his oppressors from the inside. But the command school is a battlefield - and Darrow isn't the only student with an agenda.

Red Rising was not what I expected. When I first heard about this book I was intrigued but was not expecting to be amazed. I figured that this was just another book in which the repressed attempt to overthrow those that are the oppressors. Instead I was faced with a book that does this while also pointing out the faults in human nature and looking deep in to the mind of what fundamentally makes a person who they are.

Red Rising follows 17 year old Darrow, a Red, a miner of Mars, attempting to make Mars inhabitable as Earth's resources dye out. But then Darrow discovers that Mars has had people living on it for hundreds of years, and his life has been a lie - he is nothing more than a slave to the system. Following the execution of his wife, Eo, Darrow finds himself involved with a group of rebels who want him to help take the Golds down from the inside by pretending to be one of them after some intensive transformations.

The characters that Pierce Brown has created are perhaps some of the most well thought out and in depth characters that I have ever met, even if you only see them for a page or two. Each character has got a clear back story that influences their decisions and actions in the book while not coming across as an over bearing backlog of information.

The characters also balance with the story line of this book. There is nothing worse than when you get stuck with a character who doesn't quite mesh with the plot. The characters of Red Rising always have a purpose, no character is just there to fill in space. Each character is there to show you the fundamentals of who the Golds are as a group or to teach the reader some detail about the plot.

But be warned this book can be incredible dark and gruesome at times. When I read the summary and it said that school was a battlefield, I must admit I figured it was the kind of battlefield where people try to out play each other mentally...in reality, it's a battlefield...as in the kind where people slaughter each other or risk being slaughtered themselves. Yet despite this the book is still absolutely amazing.

This book gets an easy 5 stars.

All the Bright Places

Title: All the Bright Places

Author: Jennifer Niven

Rating: 5 stars

Genre: Young Adult

Number of Pages: 378

Publication Date: 2015

Publisher: Penguin

Summary: Theodore Finch wants to take his own life. Violet Markey is devastated by her sister's death. They meet on the ledge of the school bell tower, and so their story begins. It's only together they can be themselves. But as Violet's world grows, Finch's begins to shrink. How far will Violet go to save the boy she has come to love?

All the Bright Places by Jennifer Niven is perhaps one of the most incredible books I have ever read. There is nothing better than when you pick up a book and it completely moves you...that it consumes your thoughts and makes you think. This is exactly what this book does. It fact I was stumped for days on how to describe this book. Conversations by me went a little something like this: "Have you read All the Bright Places? No, well you should its...I mean its just..." Words cannot describe the true incredibleness of this book.

The best way I can give a summary of this book is by saying that this is a story about "a boy called Finch and a girl named Violet."

To be honest you really don't need to know any more than that. In fact the less you know going in, probably the better.

The writing in this book is beautiful and moving, it draws you in and doesn't let you go until well past the last page. It will give you warm fuzzy feelings, make you role your eyes, laugh, and it will make you cry.

I'm not a fan of contemporary novels, I hate how they reflect that reality can suck - and lets face all books have something go wrong in them at some point, its what makes the story. At least when something goes wrong in a fantasy its usually because of magic or some other uncontrollable factor, not someones stupidity. I have little patients for self inflected stupidity; it makes me cringe.

All the Bright Places manages a work around this. Bad things happen, put thankfully for a change of contemporary pace, its not because one of the characters makes a poor decision based on an inability to let go of the past (some serious contemporary generalisation - but you get the drift); instead the bad stuff happens because the characters are trying do the right thing in a bad situation. That and there was no angst which I loved.

If there was a book that I could erase from my mind so I could re-read it, it would be this one. This book is not just a story but it is a piece of art. If I could give this book more than my 5 star rating I would, but I can't...so I reluctantly give it 5 stars because it deserves so much more.