Book Review: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson

Series: Millennium (book #1)

Publisher: Knopf

Release Date: 16th Septembe 2008 (originally 2005 in Sweden)

Read Date: 9th January 2016

Tagged Under: 2016 read, adult fiction, mystery or thriller, book review, 4

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Book Summary

Mikael Blomkvist, a once-respected financial journalist, watches his professional life rapidly crumble around him. Prospects appear bleak until an unexpected (and unsettling) offer to resurrect his name is extended by an old-school titan of Swedish industry. The catch - and there's always a catch - is that Blomkvist must first spend a year researching a mysterious disappearance that has remained unsolved for nearly four decades. With few other options, he accepts and enlists the help of investigator Lisbeth Salander, a misunderstood genius with a cache of authority issues. Little is as it seems in Larsson's novel, but there is at least one constant: you really don't want to mess with the girl with the dragon tattoo.

Book Review

Book Review: You Were Here by Cori McCarthy

You Were Here by Cori McCarthy

Standalone novel

Publisher: Sourcebooks Fire

Release Date: 1st March 2016

Read Date: 21st February 2016

Tagged Under: 2016 read, 2016 favourites, book review, review copy, YA fiction, 5, favourites, romance, contemporary

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Book Summary

Grief turned Jaycee into a daredevil, but can she dare to deal with her past? 

On the anniversary of her daredevil brother's death, Jaycee attempts to break into Jake's favourite hideout - the petrifying ruins of an insane asylum. Joined by four classmates, each with their own brand of dysfunction, Jaycee discovers a map detailing her brother's exploration and the unfinished dares he left behind. 

As a tribute to Jake, Jaycee vows to complete the dares, no matter how terrifying or dangerous. What she doesn't bargain on is her eccentric band of friends who challenge her to do the unthinkable: reveal the parts of herself that she buried with her brother.

Book Review

The Re-Read Experience: Throne of Glass by Sarah J. Maas

Throne of Glass by Sarah J. Maas

Series: Throne of Glass (book #1)

Publisher: Bloomsbury USA Childrens

Release Date: 7th August 2013

(Re)read Date: 13th January 2016

Tagged Under: 2016 read, book review, fantasy, YA fiction, 4

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Book Summary

After serving out a year of hard labor in the salt mines of Endovier for her crimes, 18-year-old assassin Celaena Sardothien is dragged before the Crown Prince. Prince Dorian offers her her freedom on one condition: she must act as his champion in a competition to find a new royal assassin.  

Her opponents are men - thieves and assassins and warriors from across the empire, each sponsored by a member of the king's council. If she beats her opponents in a series of eliminations, she'll serve the kingdom for four years and then be granted her freedom. Celaena finds her training sessions with the captain of the guard, Westfall, challenging and exhilirating. But she's bored stiff by court life. Things get a little more interesting when the prince starts to show interest in her... but it's the gruff Captain Westfall who seems to understand her best.  

Then one of the other contestants turns up dead... quickly followed by another. Can Celaena figure out who the killer is before she becomes a victim? As the young assassin investigates, her search leads her to discover a greater destiny than she could possibly have imagined.

Book Review

Book Review: The Assassin's Blade by Sarah J. Maas

The Assassin's Blade by Sarah J. Maas

Series: Throne of Glass (0.1-0.5)

Publisher: Bloomsbury Childrens

Release Date: 4th March 2015

Read Date: 13th January 2016

Tagged Under: 2016 read, 2016 favourites, fantasy, favourites, novella or short story, book review, YA fiction, 5

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Book Summary

Celaena Sardothien is Adarlan's most feared assassin. As part of the Assassin's Guild, her allegiance is to her master, Arobynn Hamel, yet Celaena listens to no one and trusts only her fellow killer-for-hire, Sam. In these action-packed novellas - together in one edition for the first time - Celaena embarks on five daring missions, where she fights to liberate slaves and seeks to avenge the tyrannous. But she is acting against Arobynn's orders and could suffer an unimaginable punishment for such treachery. Will Celaena ever be truly free? Explore the dark underworld of this kick-ass heroine to find out.

Book Review

Book Review: The 5th Wave by Rick Yancey

The 5th Wave by Rick Yancey

Series: The 5th Wave #1

Publisher: G.P. Putnam's Sons Books for Young Readers

Release Date: 7th May 2013

Read Date: 25th December 2015

Tagged Under: 2015 read, 2015 favourites, favourites, book review, 5, science fiction, YA fiction, dystopian

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Book Summary

After the 1st wave, only darkness remains. After the 2nd, only the lucky escape. And after the 3rd, only the unlucky survive. After the 4th wave, only one rule applies: trust no one. 

Now, it's the dawn of the 5th wave, and on a lonely stretch of highway, Cassie runs from Them. The begins who only look human, who roam the countryside killing anyone they see. Who have scattered Earth's last survivors. To stay alone is to stay alive, Cassie believes, until she meets Evan Walker. Beguiling and mysterious, Evan Walker may be Cassie's only hope for rescuing her brother - or even saving herself. But Cassie must choose: between trust and despair, between defiance and surrender, between life and death. To give up or to get up.

Book Review: Ten Thousand Skies Above You by Claudia Gray

Ten Thousand Skies Above You by Claudia Gray

Series: Firebird (book #2)

Will need to read the first book prior to this one

Publisher: Harper Teen

Release Date: 3rd November 2015

Read Date: 5th December 2015

Tagged Under: 2015 read, 2015 favourites, 4, fantasy, romance, YA-fiction, book review

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Book Summary

Ever since she used the Firebird, her parents' invention, to cross into alternate dimensions, Marguerite has caught the attention of enemies who will do anything to force her into helping them dominate the multiverse - even hurting the people she loves. She resists until her boyfriend, Paul, is attacked and his consciousness scattered across multiple dimensions. 

Marguerite has no choice but to search for each splinter of Paul's soul. The hunt sends her racing across a war-torn San Francisco, the criminal underworld of New York City, and a glittering Paris where another Marguerite hides a shocking secret. Each world brings Marguerite one step closer to rescuing Paul. But with each trial she faces, she begins to question the destiny she thought they shared.

Book Review

Book Review: Winter by Marissa Meyer

Winter by Marissa Meyer

Series: The Lunar Chronicles (Book #4)

Publisher: Feiwel and Friends

Release Date: 10th November 2015

Read Date: 28th November 2015

Tagged Under: 2015 read, 2015 favourites, fairy tale, favourites, romance, science fiction, YA fiction, book review, 4

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Book Summary

Princess Winter is admired by the Lunar people for her grace and kindness, and despite the scars that mar her face, her beauty is said to be even more breathtaking than that of her stepmother, Queen Levana. 

Winter despises her stepmother, and knows Levana won't approve of her feelings for her childhood friend - the handsome palace guard, Jacin. But Winter isn't as weak as Levana believes her to be and she's been undermining her stepmother's wishes for years. Together with the cyborg mechanic, Cinder, and her allies, Winter might even have the power to launch a revolution and win a war that's been raging for far too long. 

Can Cinder, Scarlet, Cress and Winter defeat Levana and find their happily ever afters?

Book Review: All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr

All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr

Standalone Novel

Publisher: Scribner

Release Date: 6th May 2014

Read Date: 28th August 2015

Tagged Under: 5, 2015 read, 2015 favourites, favourites, historical, literary, book review, adult fiction

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Book Summary

Marie-Laure lives with her father in Paris near the Museum of Natural History, where he works as the master of its thousands of locks. When she is six, Marie-Laure goes blind and her father builds a perfect miniature of their neighborhood so she can memorize it by touch and navigate her way home. When she is twelve, the Nazis occupy Paris and father and daughter flee to the walled citadel of Saint-Malo, where Marie-Laure's reclusive great uncle lives in a tall house by the sea. With them they carry what might be the museum's most valuable and dangerous jewel. 

In a mining town in Germany, the orphan Werner grows up with his younger sister, enchanted by a crude radio they find. Werner becomes an expert at building and fixing these crucial new instruments, a talent that wins him a place at a brutal academy for Hitler Youth, then a special assignment to track the resistance. More and more aware of the human cost of his intelligence, Werner travels through the heart of the war and, finally, into Saint-Malo, where his story and Marie-Laure's converge.

Book Review: The Princess Diaries by Meg Cabot

The Princess Diaries by Meg Cabot

Series: The Princess Diaries (Book #1)

Publisher: HarperTrophy

Release Date: 30th May 2000

Read Date: 20th September 2015

Tagged Under: 5, 2015 read, book review, audiobook, book to film adaptation, romance, YA-fiction

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Book Summary

Mia must take princess lessons from her dreaded grandmere, the dowager princess of Genovia, who thinks Mia has a thing or two to learn before she steps up to the throne. 

Well, her father can lecture her until he's royal-blue in the face about her princessly duty - no way is she moving to Genovia and leaving Manhattan behind. 

But what's a girl to do when her name is PRINCESS AMELIA MIGNONETTE GIRMALDI THERMOPOLIS RANALDO?

Book Review: The Narrow Road to the Deep North by Richard Flanagan

The Narrow Road to the Deep North by Richard Flanagan

Standalone novel
Publisher: Vintage Australia
Release Date: 23rd September 2013
Read Date: 9th July 2015
Tagged Under: 2015 read, 2015 favourites, 5, adult fiction, favourites, historical, literary, book review
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Book Summary

A novel of the cruelty of war, and tenuousness of life and the impossibility of love. 

Richard Flanagan's story - of Dorrigo Evans, an Australian doctor haunted by a love affair with his uncle's wife - journeys from the caves of Tasmanian trappers in the early twentieth century to a crumbling pre-war beachside hotel, from a Thai jungle prison to a Japanese snow festival, from the Changi gallows to a chance meeting of lovers on the Sydney Harbour Bridge. 

Taking its title from 17th-century haiku poet Basho's travel journal, The Narrow Road to the Deep North is about the impossibility of love. At its heart is one day in a Japanese slave labour camp in August 1943. As the day builds to its horrific climax, Dorrigo Evans battles and fails in his quest to save the lives of his fellow POWs, a man is killed for no reason, and a love story unfolds.

Book Review: Spinning Starlight by R.C. Lewis

Spinning Starlight by R.C. Lewis

Standalone Novel (semi-companion to Stitching Snow)

Publisher: Disney Hyperion

Release Date: 6th October 2015

Read Date: 20th August 2015

Tagged Under: 2015 read, 2015 favourites, fairy tale, review copy, YA-fiction, science fiction, 4, book review

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Book Summary

Sixteen-year-old heiress and paparazzi darling Liddi Jantzen hates the spotlight. But as the only daughter in the most powerful tech family in the galaxy, it's hard to escape it. So when a group of men show up at her house uninvited, she assumes it's just the usual media-grubs. That is, until shots are fired. 

Liddi escapes, only to be pulled into an interplanetary conspiracy more complex than she ever could have imagined. Her older brothers have been caught as well, trapped in the conduits between the planets. And when their captor implants a device in Liddi's vocal cords to monitor her speech, their lives are in her hands: one word and her brothers are dead. 

Desperate to save her family from a desolate future, Liddi travels to another world, where she meets the one person who might have the skills to help her bring her eight brothers home - a handsome dignitary named Tiav. But without her voice, Liddi must use every bit of her strenght and wit to convince Tiav that her mission is true. With the tenuous balance of the planets deeply intertwined with her brothers' survival, just how much is Liddi willing to sacrifice to bring them back?

Book Review: Yes Please by Amy Poehler

Yes Please by Amy Poehler

Standalone Memoir

Publisher: Dey St

Release Date: 28th October 2014

Read Date: 26th July 2015

Tagged Under: 2015 read, 2015 favourites, audiobook, non-fiction, memoir, 4.5, book review

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Book Summary

In Amy Poehler's highly anticipated first book, Yes Please, she offers up a big juicy stew of personal stories, funny bits on sex and love and friendship and parenthood and real life advice (some useful, some not so much), like when to be funny and when to be serious. Powered by Amy's charming and hilarious, biting yet wise voice, Yes Please is a book full of words to live by.

Book Review

Series Review: Fruits Basket by Natsuki Takaya

Fruits Basket by Natsuki Takaya

Number of Volumes: 23

Publisher: TokyoPop

Release Date: 1998 - 2006

Read Date: July 2015

Tagged Under: 2015 read, 2015 favourites, manga or graphic novel, 5, YA-fiction

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Series Summary

A family with an ancient curse... 

And the girl who will change their lives forever... 

Tohru Honda was an orphan with no place to go until the mysteriour Sohma family offered her a place to call home. Now her ordinary high school life is turned upside down as she's introduced to the Sohma's world of magical curses and family secrets.

Series Review

Book Review: A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas

A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas

Series: ACOTAR (Book #1)
Publisher: Bloomsbury Children's
Release Date: 5th May 2015
Read Date: 4th June 2015
Tagged Under: 2015 read, fairy tale, fantasy, new adult, review copy, romance, 4, book review
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Book Summary

When nineteen-year-old huntress Feyre kills a wolf in the woods, a beast-like creature arrives to demand retribution for it. Dragged to a treacherous magical land she only knows about from legends, Feyre discovers that her captor is not an animal, but Tamlin - one of the lethal immortal faeries who once ruled their world. 

As she dwells on his estate, her feelings for Tamlin transforms from icy hostility into a fiery passion that burns through every lie and warning she's been told about the beautiful, dangerous world of the Fae. But an ancient and wicked shadow grows over the faerie lands, and Feyre must find a way to stop it... or doom Tamlin - and his world - forever.

Book Review

Book Review: The Unbound by Victoria Schwab

The Unbound by Victoria Schwab

Series: The Archived (Book #2)
Will need to read the first book prior to this one
Publisher: Hyperion
Release Date: 28th January 2014
Read Date: 9th January 2015
Tagged Under: 2015 read, 2015 favourites, fantasy, YA fiction, book review, 4
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Book Summary

Imaging a place where the dead rest on shelves like books. Each body has a story to tell, a life seen in pictures that only Librarians can read. The dead are called Histories, and the vast realm in which they rest is the Archive. 

Last summer, Mackenzie Bishop, a Keeper tasked with stopping violent Histories from escaping the Archive, almost lost her life to one. Now, as she started her junior year at Hyde School, she's struggling to get her life back. But moving on isn't easy - not when her dreams are haunted by what happened. She knows the past is past, knows it cannot hurt her, but it feels so real, and when her nightmares begin to creep into her waking hours, she starts to wonder if she's really safe. 

Meanwhile, people are vanishing without a trace, and the only thing they seem to have in common is Mackenzie. She's sure the Archive knows more than they are letting on, but before she can prove it, she becomes the prime suspect. And unless Mac can track down the real culprit, she'll lose everything, not only her role as Keeper, but her memories, and even her life. Can Mackenzie untangle the mystery before she herself unravels? 

With stunning prose and a captivating mixture of action, romance and horror, The Unbound delves into a richly imagined world where no choice is easy and love and loss feels like two sides of the same coin.

Book Review [Spoiler Hidden As White Text]

Book Review: Vicious by V.E. Schwab

Vicious by V.E. Schwab

Standalone novel
Publisher: Tor
Release Date: 24th September 2013
Read Date: 1st February 2015
Tagged Under: 2015 read, 2015 favourites, paranormal, YA fiction, 5, fantasy, favourites, book review
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Book Summary

A masterful, twisted tale of ambition, jealousy, betrayal, and superpowers, set in a near-future world. 

Victor and Eli started out as college roommates - brilliant, arrogant, lonely boys who recognized the same sharpness and ambition in each other. In their senior year, a shared research interest in adrenaline, near-death experiences, and seemingly supernatural events reveals an intriguing possibility: that under the right conditions, someone could develop extraordinary abilities. But when their thesis moves from the academic to the experimental, things go horribly wrong. Ten years later, Victor breaks out of prison, determined to catch up to his old friend (now foe), aided by a young girl whose reserved nature obscures a stunning ability. Meanwhile, Eli is on a mission to eradicate every other superpowered person that he can find - aside from his sidekick, an enigmatic woman with an unbreakable will. Armed with terrible powers on both sides, driven by the memory of betrayal and loss, the archnemeses have set a course for revenge - but who will be left alive at the end?

Book Review: The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien

The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien

Series: prequel to The Lord of the Rings
Publisher: HarperCollins
Release Date: 7th November 2013 (first published 1937)
Read Date: 6th January 2015
Tagged under: 2015 read, 2015 favourites, fantasy, classics, favourites, book review, 5, book to film adaptation
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Book Summary

Bilbo Baggins is a hobbit who enjoys a comfortable, unambitious life, rarely travelling further than the pantry of his hobbit-holes in Bag End. 

But his contentment is disturbed when the wizard, Gandalf, and a company of thirteen dwarves arrive on his doorstep one day to whisk him away on an unexpected journey "there and back again". They have a plot to raid the treasure hoard of Smaug the Magnificent, a large and very dangerous dragon... 

The prelude to The Lord of the Rings, The Hobbit has sold many millions of copies since its publication in 1937, establishing itself as one of the most beloved and influential books of the twentieth century.

Book Review: The Archived by Victoria Schwab

The Archived by Victoria Schwab

Series: The Archived (Book #1)

Publisher: Hyperion

Release Date: 22nd January 2013

Read Date: 8th January 2015

Tagged Under: 2015 read, 2015 favourites, fantasy, YA-fiction, book review, 4.5

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Book Summary

The dead rest on shelves like books. Each body has a story to tell, a life in pictures only Librarians can read. The dead, called "Histories", rest in the Archive. 

Da first brought Mackenzie Bishop here four years ago, when she was twelve years old, frightened but determined to prove herself. Now Da is dead, and Mac has grown into what he once was, a ruthless Keeper, tasked with stopping often violent Histories from waking up and getting out. Because of her job, she lies to the people she loves, and she knows fear for what it is: a tool for staying alive. 

Being a Keeper is dangerous and a constant reminder of those she lost, Da and her little brother. Mac wonders about the boundary between living and dying, sleeping and waking. In the Archive, the dead must never be disturbed. Yet someone is deliberately altering Histories, erasing essential chapters. Unless Mac can piece together what remains, the Archive itself might crumble and fall.

Book Review: Reason and Romance by Jenn Young (Book Tour)

Reason and Romance by Jenn Young

Series: River Valley (Book #1)

Release Date: 9th December 2014

Read Date: 14th December 2014

Tagged under: 2014 read, 4, review copy, contemporary, romance, YA-fiction

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Book Summary

Being stuck in the godforsaken desert is Adrian Blake's worse nightmare come true. Senior year is all about making fun memories. It's not about starting over at a new school and navigating a new Brady Bunch family. It's really not about living with a sexy, arrogant would-be stepbrother who knows how to push her buttons. 

Alex Montgomery is the very definition of a player. The only thing he commits to is a one night stand. He's exactly the kind of guy she hates. When she sleeps with him, it's the biggest mistake of her life. Now she can't stop thinking about him. Not at school. Not at home. 

But sometimes the best mistakes are the ones that you make over and over again...

Book Review: Eleanor and Park by Rainbow Rowell

Eleanor and Park by Rainbow Rowell

Standalone novel

Publisher: St Martin's Press

Published date: 26 February 2013

Read date: 21 November 2014

Tagged under: 2014 read, contemporary, new adult, romance, book review, 4

Check it out: @Goodreads @Amazon @The Book Depository

Two misfits... One extraordinary love.

Eleanor... Red hair, wrong clothes. Standing behind him until he turns his head. Lying beside him until he wakes up. Making everyone else seem drabber and flatter and never good enough... Eleanor. 

Park... He knows she'll love a song before he plays it for her. He laughs at her jokes before she ever gets to the punch line. There's a place on his chest, just below his throat, that makes her want to keep promises... Park. 

Set over the course of one school year, this is the story of two star-crossed sixteen-year-olds - smart enough to know that first love almost ever lasts, but brave and desperate enough to try.