Book Reviews Archives - Page 105 of 115

Book Review: Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor

Dec 27, 2013

First Published: January 1st 2011
Pages: 418 (paperback)
Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton
ISBN: 1444722638
Book Depository – Amazon UK – Amazon US – Amazon AU

Synopsis

Around the world, black handprints are appearing on doorways, scorched there by winged strangers who have crept through a slit in the sky.

In a dark and dusty shop, a devil’s supply of human teeth grown dangerously low.

And in the tangled lanes of Prague, a young art student is about to be caught up in a brutal otherwordly war.

Meet Karou. She fills her sketchbooks with monsters that may or may not be real; she’s prone to disappearing on mysterious “errands”; she speaks many languages–not all of them human; and her bright blue hair actually grows out of her head that color. Who is she? That is the question that haunts her, and she’s about to find out.

When one of the strangers–beautiful, haunted Akiva–fixes his fire-colored eyes on her in an alley in Marrakesh, the result is blood and starlight, secrets unveiled, and a star-crossed love whose roots drink deep of a violent past. But will Karou live to regret learning the truth about herself?

Review

I have really mixed feelings about Daughter of Smoke and Bone at times I loved it to bits and just could not put it down, but then at some times I wanted to scream and throw the book across the room. Not because the book was bad but because I was just getting so frustrated with it.

I decide to read Daughter of Smoke and Bone not only because I had been told to by one of my friends whose book recommendations I listen to, but because it had been on my to be read shelf for quite a while. I am very glad she gave be the final push to read it because I really did enjoy, even though I did have a few dislikes.

I was really confused at the start of the book, for the first about 100 pages. I just didn’t get what was going on at all. I think maybe because the world building especially at the start wasn’t the best. I felt it lacked it. We were just brought into the world with a bang and it wasn’t really explained enough for me to grasp it. In saying that as the novel moved on I grasp the world pretty easy and understood more about it.

Daughter of Smoke and Bone is beautifully written. Laini Taylor utilised language that is simply lovely. Reading it was an absolute pleasure. I love Taylor’s style I wanted to savour the words and make it last I think this is why it took me a while to read, I just took it slow but devoured it at the same time.

I really enjoyed the main female protagonist Karou. She was lovely to read and her personality was something completely different to what I have read before. The fact that she has hair growing out of her head blue is pretty epic. She is someone to admire in a way. She is living two lives, feeling like she doesn’t belong in either but she stays strong. Karou is fully devoted to both her best friends and her unique family but she cannot introduce them to her best friend for some very interesting reasons.

The plot of Daughter of Smoke and Bone was something that intrigued me to read it from the start. Come on, black hand prints starts appearing on doorways all around the world and no one can explain why. Then you put a gorgeous, mysterious and otherworldly stranger named Akiva who Karou doesn’t know if he is going to kill her, or if he likes her, well then you have trouble. I wasn’t disappointed with the plot at all, it was the two “I” words interesting and intriguing.

As we get to know Akiva, I know that my heart started to break for him. He is so full of grief and anguish, he is truly tormented, and yet I cannot help but understand why Karou is so conflicted about her feelings for someone she thinks she shouldn’t trust. I know I was in that situation I would feel the same way. Akiva is very intriguing in both a good and bad way. In reaction to meeting Akiva, Korou’s worlds collided and she finds more about her past, which I think I found really interesting. We find out more about Akiva and Karou’s past as the novel goes on and I couldn’t help but to feel sorry for them both.

I also liked that it was not heavily relying on romance. As much as I do love it, I also like when everything else matters much more then the romance. It was simply there nice and light but again beautifully written.

I also found it somewhat gruesome in some parts, which I totally loved. I don’t really like with authors sugar coat horrible events or things that happen. Yet another reason as to why I adored Daughter of Smoke and Bone.

Daughter of Smoke and Bone is truly an original piece of writing that is utterly beautiful, the worlds dance from page to page. It takes the normal Angel stories and throws them in the bin. It is so different from anything that I have read before and I suggest that you pick it up and give it a go because it will take your breath away.

Quotes;

“Once upon a time, an angel and a devil fell in love.It did not end well.”

“Hope can be a powerful force. Maybe there’s no actual magic in it, but when you know what you hope for most and hold it like a light within you, you can make things happen, almost like magic.”

I Give Daughter of Smoke and Bone 4 Stars out of 5.

Have you read Daughter of Smoke and Bone? What did you think of it?

Book Review: Perfect Chemistry by Simone Elkeles

Dec 24, 2013

First Published: 23rd December 2008
Pages: 257 (paperback)
Publisher: Walker Books
ISBN: 0802798225
Book Depository – Amazon UK – Amazon US – Amazon AU

Synopsis

When Brittany Ellis walks into chemistry class on the first day of senior year, she has no clue that her carefully created ‘perfect’ life is about to unravel before her eyes. She’s forced to be lab partners with Alex Fuentes, a gang member from the other side of town, and he is about to threaten everything she’s worked so hard for: her flawless reputation, her relationship with her boyfriend, and the secret that her home life is anything but perfect.

Alex is a bad boy and he knows it. So when he makes a bet with his friends to lure Brittany into his life, he thinks nothing of it. But soon Alex realizes Brittany is a real person with real problems, and suddenly the bet he made in arrogance turns into something much more.

In a passionate story about looking beneath the surface, Simone Elkeles breaks through the stereotypes and barriers that threaten to keep Brittany and Alex apart.

Review

To say that I loved Perfect Chemistry by Simone Elkeles would be an under statement. I adored this book, I don’t know if it was that one of the main characters was a bad boy or just simply the writing, it had me captivated from the very start. I read Perfect Chemistry quite a while ago, and while thinking about this book, while I am just so tempted to read it again, the only thing stopping me is the 22 books on my tbr shelf.

I really enjoyed the plot, the whole concept of the story intrigued me just form the synopsis and as soon, as I picked the book up I couldn’t put it down, I read the whole book in 2 days. I just couldn’t put it down. It wasn’t even the “forbidden romance” that really got my attention but everything else behind it.

I really loved the insight we got on gangs, just the way Elkeles wrote all about, and how she turned this character of Alex, that’s a gang member to be likeable, even loveable, someone that we could somehow admire. She gave has the insight about how, sometimes people don’t want to be in gangs that are forced to, in one way or another. When I think of gangs, it’s drugs, drive-by’s, you know what I mean, but I never really got what made people join gangs, why do they do the stuff that they do. And yes I know that books aren’t real, but still the concept behind the gangs is.

I really enjoyed Alex’s character, he was this ‘Bad Boy/Good Boy’ wrapped up into one. Bad Boy on the outside, good on the inside . He had this tough outside that was hard to break, but when he did, we got to know the real Alex.

I have different feelings for Brittany I both loved and disliked her. Her character was very complex, was a very real character but at some points I wanted to yell at her to slow down and take everything in. Don’t rush. She didn’t get that angry at the end and I know if that was me, I would be kinda furious but in saying that, if Brittany was just that little stronger, a little more fierce I would have loved her to bits.

I also enjoyed the dual POV’s. We got to know not only Brittany and Alex on the inside, but how they thought of each other, how they effected each other. How life affected them. It made me really think about them. I think I connected more with the characters this way, I felt for them. If it wasn’t in dual perspectives then I don’t think I would have understood Alex as much as I did. I wouldn’t feel for him as much, same going for Brittany.

Despite the differences between the two characters, they were so much more alike than I would have ever guessed. It still seems impossible and yet I’ve seen it! They were perfect for each other, they are like chocolate cake and ice cream, perfect. They could understand each other like others can’t.

Elkeles’ writing was captivating, it was smooth, one word just flowed into another, page to page. She didn’t just write a novel about a love strong, about a forbidden romance, it was so much more… it was about life lessons, the saying of ‘Don’t judge a book by it’s cover’

Perfect Chemistry made me laugh, brought me to tears, it pulled me into the world. It is a fantastic contemporary romance that relies not just on the romance.

Quotes;

“You are the one girl that made me risk everything for a future worth having.”

“We’re actors in our lives, pretendin’ to be who we want people to think we are.”

I Give Perfect Chemistry a 4.5 Stars out of 5.

Have you read Perfect Chemistry, what did you think of it?

Book Review: Autumn by Sierra Dean

Dec 20, 2013

First Published: June 11th 2013
Pages: 262 (paperback)
Publisher: Createspace
ISBN: 1490486674
Book Depository – Amazon UK – Amazon US – Amazon AU

Synopsis

Cooper Reynolds’s life is going to the dogs… literally.

As if being a high school senior in a small Texas town wasn’t hard enough, Cooper has bigger things to worry about than who he’ll take to prom and whether or not the Poisonfoot Padres will win homecoming. He has less than a year before his eighteenth birthday, when a curse placed on his family will doom him to live in coyote form forever.

The last thing he needs to complicate his already messed-up life is a girl, but fate has other plans in mind for him when it brings Eloise “Lou” Whittaker to Poisonfoot. She’s grouchy, sarcastic and has no love for her new Texas home, but she might be exactly the right person to help Cooper break the curse.

The clock is ticking, and Cooper will have to decide if he’s willing to let Lou in on his dirty little secret before it’s too late.

Review

I received an ebook copy of Autumn by Sierra Dean from NetGalley in return for an honest review, it in no means affects my review.

I did not know what to expect form Autumn at all, but I was highly impressed. Even though it was what I think a very short novel it was action packed. Autumn is an original story that took me by surprise.

I really enjoyed both of the main protagonist Cooper and Eloise, they were both likeable and I didn’t have a problem with them at all. Cooper, I just loved him, he wasn’t a jerk, even though he had all this baggage on knowing in just a few months he will be like the rest of his male family. He has accepted his fate and is determined to live his human life until his birthday with all he has. He still participates in football even though everyone ignores him off the field. I really loved Eloise, Lou as she likes to be called. She lets people know her opinion, she is spunky, even when she is a typical teenage girl that feels insecure on the inside. She doesn’t let anyone tell her what to do, or what to think of people especially Cooper. I really admire her, for that. She is a great female lead.

The fact that we already know what Cooper is meant to turn into a Coyote on his 18th birthday, that’s right I said Coyote, like it is totally different. It was mysterious, we knew some things but then at times it’s like we know nothing at all. I liked how that made me feel, it’s like I knew everything but nothing at the same time. The Twist, the real twist is figuring out how the curse came upon the Reynolds family in the first place and how much, or little, does the rest of the town really know about it.

The interaction between Cooper and Lou is just so cute, and sweet. I also feel that even though Autumn was filled with romance it was not heavily relied on it, which I quite enjoyed. Cooper knows he doesn’t have much time and tries not to get to close to Lou, he tries to stay away and ward Lou off knowing that it will hurt both of them when he turns 18, but he also craves the love she can give him, he craves her kindness,no one has acted the way Lou has to him before, everyone in the town avoids him like a plague.

Sierra Dean makes us feel for Cooper, we feel his pain, what he feels to be outcast, how he feels lighter when he is with Lou. We want everything just to go away and for him and Lou to be together forever. I really enjoyed Sierra Dean’s writing, the way she wrote really pulled me in and I couldn’t get enough of it. I read the whole book in a few hours.

The only thing I didn’t like was the ending, because well it was a major and I mean major cliff hanger, I loved it, but hated it at the same time, I just want the next book as soon as I finished it. I just cannot contain my feelings, my heart shattered for both Cooper and Lou. I cannot wait to pick up the next book which comes out pretty soon I think. I NEED to know what happens, I hope everything just works out.

Overall Autumn by Sierra Dean was an entertaining, fun, heartfelt read that I think that if someone is in the mood for different and suspenseful then this is your read. Well I think that anyone would like this but you get what I mean.

I Give Autumn 4.5 stars out of 5