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.

Jessica's Guide to Dating on the Dark Side

Title: Jessica's Guide to Dating on the Dark Side

Series: Jessica - book 1

Author: Beth Fantaskey

Rating: 4 stars

Genre: Paranormal

Number of Pages: 351

Publisher: Harcourt

Publication Date: 2009

Summary: The undead can really screw up your senior year...

Marrying a vampire definitely doesn't fit into Jessica Packwood's senior year 'get-a-life' plan. But then a bizarre (and incrediably hot) new exchange student named Lucius Vladescu shows up, claiming that Jessica is a Romanian vampire princess by birth - and he's her long-lost fiance. Armed with new found confidence and a copy of Growing Up Undead: A Teen Vampire's Guide to Dating, Health and Emotions, Jessica makes a dramatic transition from average American teenager to glam European vampire princess. But when a devious cheerleader sets her sights on Lucius, Jess finds herself fighting to win back her wayward prince, stop a global vampire war - and save Lucius' soul from eternal destruction.

The look of this book and it's description give off quite a cheesy feel, or at least that's the impression I got. In fact that is what I was hoping for when I picked this book up. Something that was a quick read and didn't require too much thought. Instead I got a book that wrote about the most normal and natural sounding vampires' I have ever read. Never in all the many books I have read about vampires have I read a book that didn't feel like they were cliched, forced or just plain ridiculous, even if it was only slightly. Instead the vampires in this book were every day people who just so happen to be vampires. I was quickly sucked into a flawless creation of vampires and wasn't spat out until I reached the end. Yup I read this book in one sitting...okay I stopped to grab snacks.

To me what made this book so well done was the unfolding of events. We start off by meeting Jess, who we believe to be an ordinary teenage girl. Soon, however, Jess finds outs she is anything but ordinary and that she has been betrothed to Lucius since she was a baby as a way of uniting two warring vampire families. Jess is a logical character that believes in what she can see and that science can explain. Because of this we aren't forced into the world of vampires, in fact the word 'vampire' almost doesn't appear at all for the first quarter of the book except for when Jess tells Lucius he must be crazy for believing he is undead and so is she.

From here Jess is slowly forced to accept that she is a vampire and so is Lucius but it is a gradual process. The change that we begin to see in Jess separates her from her everyone and as a character we get to see her grow, trust her instinct and fight for what she wants. Because the closer Jess comes to accepting that she is a vampire, the more Lucius wants to be an everyday teenager. Both characters face some tough questions to do with their identity and who they really are. And for the rest of the book we watch as they try and balance what they want with duty and what is necessary to keep each other safe.

The fight that Jess and Lucius have with trying to save themselves and each other actually gets quite dark, especially for Lucius. When Lucius fights for the freedom he had come to enjoy in his time in America, we are introduced to the Elders and more importantly to Vasile, Lucius' uncle. Vasile as a character is detrimental to who Lucius becomes at the end of the book and the person he will always fight to be. Vasile is cruel, unforgiving and believes in harsh discipline and Lucius faces the hard decision of whether or not his uncle is really on his side.

But the plot and character development aren't the only well done things in this book. The writing style itself was a perfect balance of descriptive and getting to the point. At no point did anything drag or go to fast. It was flawlessly written.

The only thing that prevents me from giving this book 5 stars is the fact that I'm a little bored with unassuming characters finding out that they are really someone special. Seriously, that's it.

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.

Beautiful Creatures

Title: Beautiful Creatures

Series: Caster Chronicles - book 1

Authors: Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl

Rating: 4.5 stars

Genre: Young Adult Paranormal

Number of Pages: 563

Publication Date: 2009

Publisher: Little Brown Books

I have been wanting to read this book since the movie came out in 2013. I saw the trailer for the movie and was hooked, then I found out it was a book and wanted to read the story first. So I FINALLY got round to reading it; it's been a slow at uni, so I also watched the movie.

Beautiful Creatures by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl is the story of boy meets girl. Ethan Wate lives in small town Gatlin where the same boring things happen day in and day out. That is until Lena Duchannes moves to town. Lena is the niece of the town recluse, Macon Ravenwood, and as an outsider to this small community Lena quickly becomes the target of small mindness and is accused of being a devil worshiping witch. But Ethan isn't concerned with what anyone in town has to say about Lena, all he wants to know is why he has been dreaming about her months...when he has never meet her before...

I loved the plot of this book, I found it unique and different. While the story is a little slow to begin with, the writing itself is fluent and easy to get dragged into. Once the story really got going I found this book impossible to put down and the last 100 pages completely flew by. The magic in this book was done in a fantastic way, it was different but not to the point that you got an information dump.

The characters in this book were well done as well and I loved the comparison that were made between the characters in the story and those of To Kill a Mockingbird because some of these characters definitely shared the small mindedness of this classic. The character development of Ethan was well done, he grew and learnt gradually and stumbled along a bit to, which was nice. It's no fun when the character just suddenly knows who they need to be. Ethan and Lena are characters that have definitely been given a lot of thought and filled with the right amount of background depth that all great characters share.

As for the movie adaptation, while parts of the story were different or outright changed, I still thoroughly enjoyed the movie and would recommend it if you liked the book.

I really loved this book so I am giving it 4.5 stars and I can't wait to read the rest of the Caster Chronicles.

The Queen of the Tearling

Title: The Queen of the Tearling

Series: The Queen of the Tearling - book 1

Author: Erika Johansen

Rating: 5 stars

Genre: Paranormal, Dystopia

Number of Pages: 434

Publication Date: 2014

Publisher: Bantam Press

Summary: It was on her nineteenth birthday that the soldiers came for Kelsea Glynn. They came to escort her back to the place of her birth - to ensure she takes possession of what is rightfully hers. But like many nineteen-year-olds, Kelsea is unruly, has high principals and believes she knows better than her elders. Unlike many nineteen year olds, she is about to inherit a kingdom that is on its knees - corrupt, debauched and dangerous. Kelsea will either become the most fearsome ruler the kingdom has ever known...or be dead within the week.

For the month of June by TBR Challenge was to read a book by a new to me author. So I went looking for an author I had never heard of and I didn't read any reviews, I simply picked the book up based entirely on its summary.

The Queen of the Tearling by Erika Johansen was a new and refreshing read and is filled with a good dose of realism. The story follows the journey of Kelsea as she becomes the Queen of the Tearling, a dangerous and difficult role as Kelsea is forced to fight for the lives of her people as well as herself.

When and where this book is set I'm not really sure. It is a dystopian world but whether it is set in our world or another I'm not 100% on. But this is one of the reasons I loved it. There is a small amount of paranormal to this book, and I suspect the second book will contain more, but is otherwise set in a medieval type setting.

Another thing I loved about this book was the lack of romance. Yes, that's right, lack of romance! While there is a handsome guy Kelsea likes, her thoughts and feelings and their interactions are only seen in a mere 20-30 pages throughout the entire book.

The main thing I loved about this book was that we got to see the political side of being a Queen, politics being a subject most authors seem to gloss over if possible, because lets face it, politics can go very wrong. But Johansen found a balancing point and managed to write a good deal of detail without causing anyone to drown.

I did have a few small issues with the book though. I felt there were a few incidents and details of the story that didn't seem to match as seemlessly as they could have. However, thankfully these details were usually a part of the back story and easy to overlook.

I look forward to picking up the next book in the series, The Invasion of the Tearling and I hope I can give the second book a 5 star rating as well.