Wednesday, 22 May 2013

Wishlist Wednesday #89

Wishlist Wednesday is a book blog hop where we will post about one book per week that has been on our wishlist for some time, or just added (it's entirely up to you), that we can't wait to get off the wishlist and onto our wonderful shelves.

So what do you need to do to join in?
  • Follow Pen to Paper as host of the meme.
  • Please consider adding the blog hop button to your blog somewhere, so others can find it easily and join in too! Help spread the word! The code will be at the bottom of the post under the linky.
  • Pick a book from your wishlist that you are dying to get to put on your shelves.
  • Do a post telling your readers about the book and why it's on your wishlist.
  • Add your blog to the linky at the bottom of this post.
  • Put a link back to pen to paper (http://www.pentopaperblog.com) somewhere in your post, and a note saying that Pen to Paper is the host of the meme.
  • Visit the other blogs and enjoy!


The Raven Boys
by Maggie Stiefvater

Goodreads synopsis:
“There are only two reasons a non-seer would see a spirit on St. Mark’s Eve,” Neeve said. “Either you’re his true love . . . or you killed him.”

It is freezing in the churchyard, even before the dead arrive.

Every year, Blue Sargent stands next to her clairvoyant mother as the soon-to-be dead walk past. Blue herself never sees them—not until this year, when a boy emerges from the dark and speaks directly to her.

His name is Gansey, and Blue soon discovers that he is a rich student at Aglionby, the local private school. Blue has a policy of staying away from Aglionby boys. Known as Raven Boys, they can only mean trouble.

But Blue is drawn to Gansey, in a way she can’t entirely explain. He has it all—family money, good looks, devoted friends—but he’s looking for much more than that. He is on a quest that has encompassed three other Raven Boys: Adam, the scholarship student who resents all the privilege around him; Ronan, the fierce soul who ranges from anger to despair; and Noah, the taciturn watcher of the four, who notices many things but says very little.

For as long as she can remember, Blue has been warned that she will cause her true love to die. She never thought this would be a problem. But now, as her life becomes caught up in the strange and sinister world of the Raven Boys, she’s not so sure anymore.

From Maggie Stiefvater, the bestselling and acclaimed author of the Shiver trilogy and The Scorpio Races, comes a spellbinding new series where the inevitability of death and the nature of love lead us to a place we’ve never been before.

I'm yet to read anything by this author, despite owning five books by her (two from the Wolves of Mercy Falls series, two from the Books of the Faerie series, and The Scorpio Races - all of which I picked up cheap, or was given). I've not picked them up yet because I keep hearing really mixed reviews, and other books seem to come higher up on my to-read list than these.
But I've heard some really great things about The Raven Boys - especially from a couple of reviewers over the past fortnight or so - so I'm really interested in this one at the moment. I might give one of the books I already have a go, and if I like it, then I'll get this one off the wishlist and onto my shelves!

Have you read The Raven Boys? Or anything else by Maggie Stiefvater? What did you think? Let me know in the comments :)

What's on your wishlist this week? Let us know in the comments below, or link to your own Wishlist Wednesday post in the Linky :) 






Sunday, 19 May 2013

Showcase Sunday #28

Showcase Sunday is a weekly meme hosted by the wonderful Vicky at Books, Biscuits & Tea, where we will show off the books and eBooks we received each week.



Physical Books
Interworld & The Silver Dream by Neil Gaiman & Michael Reaves
Unbreakable (Unravelling #2) by Elizabeth Norris
Dead Ever After (Sookie Stackhouse #13) by Charlaine Harris
Me and Earl and the Dying Girl by Jesse Andrews
Blood Bound by Rachel Vincent
The Look by Sophia Bennett
Revolution by Jennifer Donnelly
The Complete Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

eBooks
 photo Storm_zpse4d07b7f.jpg  photo Fangirl_zps3b24b176.jpg  photo GoneGirl_zps74f5839b.jpg


Storm by Brigid Kemmerer:
This one was down to just 76p on Kindle, during the week, and I've heard so many good things about it, that I couldn't really say no for that price! I almost started reading it the other day, but decided on another book instead, but fingers crossed I'll read it soon!

Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell:
I heard about this from a Wishlist Wednesday participant's post this week, so I requested it on NetGalley, when I saw that it was on the site, and I got accepted for it! It sounds like a great read, so I'm really looking forward to it.

Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn:
This one is really making the rounds at the moment. It's adult crime fiction, so not something I would usually go for, but so many people are talking about it at the moment, that I thought I would see what the fuss is about for myself. Plus, it went down to the cheapest price I've seen it for so far, earlier this week, so I grabbed it! Looking forward to seeing what I'll think.


 photo Born_zpse4e71da5.jpg  photo iD_zpse88020e9.jpg  photo RunningonEmpty_zpsfe5a1585.jpg

Born by Tara Brown:
This was a Kindle freebie that I thought looked pretty good. Can't really remember too much about it, but I'm hoping I'll be able to read it soon anyway.

iD by Madeline Ashby:
This is the second book in the series, and I'm yet to read book one - but I'm planning on reading them both back to back, when I'm done with my current eBook series! Thanks to Angry Robot on NetGalley for accepting me!

Running on Empty by L. B. Simmons:
This was another Kindle freebie, and it looks like a perfect read for summer. Looking forward to it!



Thursday, 16 May 2013

Lies by Michael Grant **Review**


This is the third book in the Gone series. If you haven't read books one or two, do not read the synopsis to this book, or my review, as they will contain spoilers for the previous books.
Click the following links to read my reviews of the previous two books:


Lies by Michael Grant
Series: Gone #3
Pages: 472
Publisher: Egmont
Release date: 5th September 2011
Buy: Book Depository | Amazon UK | Amazon US | Waterstones

Add to Goodreads

Goodreads synopsis:
This is the third book in the Gone series. If you haven't already read the first two books, do not read this synopsis or review, as they will contain spoilers for the previous books in the series. See the top of the post for links to my reviews of books one and two.

66 Hours, 52 Minutes

Suddenly, it's a world without adults and normal has crashed and burned. When life as you know it ends at 15, everything changes.

Tensions are growing in the FAYZ. The mutants are under attack. Food is scarce. Sam's gone AWOL.

At night, a solitary figure roams the streets-- the ghost of a boy with a whip hand, haunting the dreams of those he has tormented.

Then the town is deliberately set on fire... And through the flames, Sam sees the figure he dreads most--Drake. But that's impossible: Drake is dead.

"A blood-pumping, white-knuckling sci-fi thriller of epic proportions."

Wow. Wow. Wow. That's all I can think of to say, having just finished this third instalment in the Gone series. I have seriously been enjoying reading these books - they're action-packed, exciting, edge-of-your-seat, thrilling reads, crammed full of loads of seriously great characters - both good and evil. But this book blew the other two right out of the water for me. It is, without a doubt, my favourite of the series so far!

Wednesday, 15 May 2013

Wishlist Wednesday #88

Wishlist Wednesday is a book blog hop where we will post about one book per week that has been on our wishlist for some time, or just added (it's entirely up to you), that we can't wait to get off the wishlist and onto our wonderful shelves.

So what do you need to do to join in?
  • Follow Pen to Paper as host of the meme.
  • Please consider adding the blog hop button to your blog somewhere, so others can find it easily and join in too! Help spread the word! The code will be at the bottom of the post under the linky.
  • Pick a book from your wishlist that you are dying to get to put on your shelves.
  • Do a post telling your readers about the book and why it's on your wishlist.
  • Add your blog to the linky at the bottom of this post.
  • Put a link back to pen to paper (http://www.pentopaperblog.com) somewhere in your post, and a note saying that Pen to Paper is the host of the meme.
  • Visit the other blogs and enjoy!


The Sound
by Sarah Alderson

Goodreads synopsis:
When aspiring music journalist Ren Kingston takes a job nannying for a wealthy family on the exclusive island of Nantucket, playground for Boston's elite, she's hoping for a low-key summer reading books and blogging about bands. Boys are firmly off the agenda. What she doesn't count on is falling in with a bunch of party-loving private school kids who are hiding some dark secrets, falling (possibly) in love with the local bad boy, and falling out with a dangerous serial killer...

I stumbled across this one a couple of days ago, and it immediately struck me as something I think I would seriously love. It's got a kind of contemporary romance storyline going on, but with a bit of mystery and dangerous thrown into the mix - it sounds absolutely perfect.
I've also heard really good things about this author, so although I've not yet read the two books I own by her, I'm really excited about the release of this one later in the summer!

What's on your wishlist this week? Let us know in the comments below, or link to your own Wishlist Wednesday post in the Linky :) 






Monday, 13 May 2013

Hunger by Michael Grant **Review**


This is the second book in the Gone series, so this review may contain spoilers for the first book. Read my review of Gone (book one) HERE.

Hunger by Michael Grant
Series: Gone #2
Pages: 586
Publisher: Egmont
Release date: 6th September 2010
Buy: Book Depository | Amazon UK | Amazon US | Waterstones

Add to Goodreads

Goodreads synopsis:
This is the second book in the Gone series. If you haven't read Gone, but intend to, don't read this synopsis or review, as it contains spoilers for the first book.


It's been three months since everyone under the age of fifteen became trapped in the bubble known as the FAYZ. Things have only gotten worse. Food is running out, and each day more kids are developing supernatural abilities. Soon tension rises between those with powers and those without, and when an unspeakable tragedy occurs, chaos erupts. It's the normals against the mutants, and the battle promises to turn bloody. But something more dangerous lurks. A sinister creature known as the Darkness has begun to call to the survivors in the FAYZ. It needs their powers to sustain its own. When the Darkness calls, someone will answer -- with deadly results.
I was so impressed by the first book in this series, Gone, that I knew I had to pick this book up straight away when I'd finished it. I'm so glad that I'd decided to continue with the series, because this was even better than book one.
The book begins three months after the end of Gone, and not a lot has changed - except the supply of food, which is dangerously close to running out, and kids are starting to starve. When we catch up with Sam and his friends, they are out, attempting to find food growing in various places in the FAYZ that is still okay to eat. They find a field of cabbages ripe for the picking. But things were never going to be as simple as just walking out and picking them.
The Coyotes and the Seagulls were not the only animals to have mutated along with some of the kids, evolving in strange and unexplainable ways - so are the worms. They have become territorial eating machines, and they will not let the kids get their hands on the cabbages. They've sprouted razor sharp teeth and an improbable sense of sight. E.Z., a kid we haven't met before, pays the price for this new discovery.
This is how Hunger begins, and it soon gets a whole lot worse.
I really enjoyed how the book started - straight into the action, and into the heart of the biggest problem the kids are currently faced with - hunger. The kids are starving, and they're looking for someone to blame - and because he's in charge, that someone is Sam. I honestly don't know how he managed to cope as well as he did throughout this instalment of the series - he was under some serious stress even at the beginning, and problems were just about to start piling up and getting out of control. I really felt for him, and I know I definitely couldn't have done what he did, if I found myself in that situation!

The story is alarmingly similar for Caine, and the other kids up at Coates (except we don't feel sorry for them, because they're the bad guys - boo!). They are nearly out of food, and have problems of their own to deal with. After being pretty much defeated by Sam in the battle at the plaza at the end of the first book, Caine goes missing, wandering off into the desert with Pack Leader - the head Coyote - and doesn't return for several days. When he finally reappears, he is dehydrated, and apparently mad - having nightmares, hallucinating, and destroying things (and people) with his powers in his madness. This has gone on for the three months that separate Gone and Hunger, but now Caine is starting to return to his senses - but his mind is still not entirely his own. The creature, the monster - the Darkness - that lurks in the mineshaft in the abandoned town has found a way into his head, and it seems to have sinister plans to use him for its own evil will.
In Gone, I hated Caine (which makes him a great character). He was the bad buy - not as bad as Drake, but still pretty bad - the one that caused all the trouble for Sam and the other kids of Perdido Beach. But in Hunger, he isn't quite himself, and by the end of the book, I almost felt sorry for him. I loved how Coates kids' story changed in this book, and the power dynamic of their group seemed to shift slightly - it was interesting seeing how quickly things could change, and I'm looking forward to seeing how it will change again in book three, Lies.

Like in Gone, the point of view that the story is told from switches from character to character, and there are quite a few that we get to see. Obviously Sam and Caine are two of them, but we also have Lana, Astrid, Edillio, Drake, Diana etc, and then we have some new characters, Zil, Duck and Brittney, and I loved learning about all of these new characters - especially Duck and Brittney, considering what happens to both of them. We meet Duck when he's lying out in a swimming pool he found and cleaned for himself, relaxing away from the mayhem that the rest of the kids seem to cause. He likes peace and quiet. But that is soon shattered when Zil and his little group of bullies arrive and try to take the pool away from him. He gets mad, and that's when his extremely strange power starts to emerge. I think Duck's power is one of my favourites so far - not because I'd want that power, because I really wouldn't - but because it's one of the strangest and most intriguing, and eventually, he uses it in a few creative and cool way. Brittney also seems to have developed a power, but it's not one that any of the other kids are going to know about - she has no way of telling them, and it seems, by the end of the book, that she may never be able to (but that's all I'm saying - I really don't want to give it away!).
I really enjoy that the books in this series switch between so many characters, and so often. I don't think that using so many different characters' points of view usually works, but in these books, it really does. It makes the story fast-paced, more gripping and much more interesting, as each switch to a new character gives us a glimpse of a different story line, and it has kept me glued to the page all the way through both books.

I have to say, at the end of Gone, I wasn't entirely sure where the story would go next, and if I would be as gripped by it. The story in the first book is really clearcut - everyone over the age of 14 has disappeared and the kids have to learn how to work together to survive. But there is a rivalry between the kids of Perdido Beach and Coates Academy - between Sam and Caine - and the unknown danger of what happens on your fifteenth birthday.
The story in Hunger, although there is obviously the problem of starvation, is not as immediately obvious. However, once a tragic accident occurs in Perdido Beach, things start to get ugly between the 'freaks' (those with a power), and the 'normals' (those without), and the threat of the creature, the Darkness, in the mine, soon becomes very prominent and all-too real.  It was just as thrilling - if not, more so - than the conflict between Sam and Caine in the first book.

I loved every moment of Hunger - it was fast-paced, action-packed, nerve-wracking and hugely exciting. I can't wait to see what's going to happen in the third instalment of the series, Lies!
If you haven't already picked up these books, or if you've only read book one, I really urge you to pick them up. It's like nothing else I've ever read.

4.5 stars


Wednesday, 8 May 2013

Wishlist Wednesday #87

Wishlist Wednesday is a book blog hop where we will post about one book per week that has been on our wishlist for some time, or just added (it's entirely up to you), that we can't wait to get off the wishlist and onto our wonderful shelves.

So what do you need to do to join in?
  • Follow Pen to Paper as host of the meme.
  • Please consider adding the blog hop button to your blog somewhere, so others can find it easily and join in too! Help spread the word! The code will be at the bottom of the post under the linky.
  • Pick a book from your wishlist that you are dying to get to put on your shelves.
  • Do a post telling your readers about the book and why it's on your wishlist.
  • Add your blog to the linky at the bottom of this post.
  • Put a link back to pen to paper (http://www.pentopaperblog.com) somewhere in your post, and a note saying that Pen to Paper is the host of the meme.
  • Visit the other blogs and enjoy!


The Drowning
by Rachel Ward

Goodreads synopsis:
What happens if you've done something terrible? But you can't remember what. And you don't know how to put it right ...When Carl opens his eyes on the banks of a lake, his brother is being zipped into a body bag. What happened in the water? He can't remember. And when he glimpses a beautiful girl he thinks he recognizes, she runs away. Suddenly he knows he must find her - because together they must face the truth before it drowns them.

I keep hearing really good things about this book, and it definitely has me intrigued! The synopsis doesn't really give much about the novel away, and I really like going into a book knowing only a little about the story, because it means that more of it is a surprise.
I'm really interested to learn more about the situation the characters find themselves in, so I will definitely be getting hold of this book very soon!

What's on your wishlist this week? Let us know in the comments below, or link to your own Wishlist Wednesday post in the Linky :) 






 
Blog design installed by Sweet Dreams Design