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2012 Annual End of Year Book Survey!

So, I know it's not the end of the year yet, but let's be honest, I'm probably not going to be reading that many more books this year! I've been in a bit of a slump recently but I want to get back to blogging before the year is out so I thought I'd post something fun instead of just another review... So, here's my End of Year Book Survey for 2012! Hosted by The Perpetual Page Turner. 1. Best book you read in 2012? I'll be doing a top book of 2012 soon, but I think my top number one is The Diviners by Libba Bray :D 2. Book you were excited about and thought you were going to love more than you did? Hmm... I'm not sure. The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky, probably! I wanted to absolutely love it like everyone told me I would, and while I did really enjoy it, it wasn't anything special... Maybe because I had expectations that were far too high? I don't know. The film, on the other hand, was excellent! 3. Most surprising

Book Review: The Diviners by Libba Bray

Title:  The Diviners Author:  Libba Bray Series:  The Diviners, #1 Pages: 592 Publisher:  ATOM Date of Publication:  18th September 2012 Source:  Borrowed from Cicely * Synopsis from Goodreads: It's 1920s New York City. It's flappers and Follies, jazz and gin. It's after the war but before the depression. And for certain group of bright young things it's the opportunity to party like never before. For Evie O'Neill, it's escape. She's never fit in in small town Ohio and when she causes yet another scandal, she's shipped off to stay with an uncle in the big city. But far from being exile, this is exactly what she's always wanted: the chance to show how thoroughly modern and incredibly daring she can be. But New York City isn't about just jazz babies and follies girls. It has a darker side. Young women are being murdered across the city. And these aren't crimes of passion. They're gruesome. They're planned. They bear a st

Book Review: Breathe by Sarah Crossan

Title:  Breathe Author:  Sarah Crossan Series:  Breathe, #1 Pages: 373 Publisher:  Bloomsbury Children's Books Date of Publication:  11th October 2012 Source:  Publisher* Synopsis from Goodreads: Inhale. Exhale. Breathe. Breathe. Breathe . . . The world is dead. The survivors live under the protection of Breathe, the corporation that found a way to manufacture oxygen-rich air. Alina has been stealing for a long time. She's a little jittery, but not terrified. All she knows is that she's never been caught before. If she's careful, it'll be easy. If she's careful. Quinn should be worried about Alina and a bit afraid for himself, too, but even though this is dangerous, it's also the most interesting thing to happen to him in ages. It isn't every day that the girl of your dreams asks you to rescue her. Bea wants to tell him that none of this is fair; they'd planned a trip together, the two of them, and she'd hoped he'd d

Book Review: Finale by Becca Fitzpatrick

Title:  Finale  Author:  Becca Fitzpatrick Series:  Hush, Hush #4 Pages: 454 Publisher:  Simon & Schuster Children's Books Date of Publication:  25th October 2012 Source:  Publisher* Synopsis from Goodreads: Will love conquer all? Nora and Patch thought their troubles were behind them. Hank is gone and they should be able to put his ugly vendetta to rest. But in Hank's absence, Nora has become the unwitting head of the Nephilim and must finish what Hank began. Which ultimately means destroying the fallen angels - destroying Patch. Nora will never let that happen, so she and Patch make a plan: lead everyone to believe they have broken up, and work the system from the inside. Nora will convince the Nephilim that they are making a mistake in fighting the fallen angels, and Patch will find out everything he can from the opposing side. They will end this war before it can even begin. But the best-laid plans often go awry. Nora is put through the paces in her ne

Book Review: The Lost Prince by Julie Kagawa

Title:  The Lost Prince Author:  Julie Kagawa Series:  The Call of the Forgotten, #1 Pages: 379 Publisher:  Harlequin Teen Date of Publication:  23rd October 2012 Source:  Publisher via NetGalley* Synopsis from Goodreads: Don’t look at Them. Never let Them know you can see Them. That is Ethan Chase’s unbreakable rule. Until the fey he avoids at all costs—including his reputation—begin to disappear, and Ethan is attacked. Now he must change the rules to protect his family. To save a girl he never thought he’s dare to fall for. Ethan thought he had protected himself from his older sister’s world—the land of Faery. His previous time in the Iron Realm left him with nothing but fear and disgust for the world Meghan Chase has made her home, a land of myths and talking cats, of magic and seductive enemies. But when destiny comes for Ethan, there is no escape from a danger long, long forgotten. My name is Ethan Chase. And I may not live to see my eighteenth birthday. My

Book Review: Poltergeeks by Sean Cummings

Title:  Poltergeeks Author:  Sean Cummings Series:  Poltergeeks, #1 Pages: 320 Publisher:  Strange Chemistry Date of Publication:  4th October 2012 Source:  Publisher event* Synopsis from Goodreads: 15-year-old Julie Richardson is about to learn that being the daughter of a witch isn't all it's cracked up to be. When she and her best friend, Marcus, witness an elderly lady jettisoned out the front door of her home, it's pretty obvious to Julie there's a supernatural connection. In fact, there's a whisper of menace behind increasing levels of poltergeist activity all over town. After a large-scale paranormal assault on Julie's high school, her mother falls victim to the spell Endless Night. Now it's a race against time to find out who is responsible or Julie won't just lose her mother's soul, she'll lose her mother's life. My Thoughts: Poltergeeks is pure fun. It was my second read from Strange Chemistry books, a new YA impr

Happily Ever Endings... Across the Universe by Beth Revis

Happily Ever Endings... was born out of sheer frustration. You know how when you read a series and you love it but the last book takes a little while to come out and then you sort of forget parts of the novel? That's what these posts are going to serve to remedy. Happily Ever Ending... is a short post about what happened at the ending of each book that is going to be in a series for people who need a quick reminder of what happened in the previous installment. It's really annoying when you can't remember what happens and don't have time for a reread, so this hopefully will be a huge help! __________ Synopsis from Goodreads:  A love out of time. A spaceship built of secrets and murder. Seventeen-year-old Amy joins her parents as frozen cargo aboard the vast spaceship Godspeed and expects to awaken on a new planet, three hundred years in the future. Never could she have known that her frozen slumber would come to an end fifty years too soon and that she wou

Book Review: Alice in Zombieland by Gena Showalter

Title:  Alice in Zombieland  Author:  Gena Showalter Series:  White Rabbit Chronicles, #1 Pages: 404 Publisher:  MIRA Ink Date of Publication:  5th October 2012 Source:  Publisher* Synopsis from Goodreads: She won’t rest until she’s sent every walking corpse back to its grave. Forever. Had anyone told Alice Bell that her entire life would change course between one heartbeat and the next, she would have laughed. From blissful to tragic, innocent to ruined? Please. But that’s all it took. One heartbeat. A blink, a breath, a second, and everything she knew and loved was gone. Her father was right. The monsters are real…. To avenge her family, Ali must learn to fight the undead. To survive, she must learn to trust the baddest of the bad boys, Cole Holland. But Cole has secrets of his own, and if Ali isn’t careful, those secrets might just prove to be more dangerous than the zombies…. I wish I could go back and do a thousand things differently. I'd tell my sister no

Book Review: The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky

Title:  The Perks of Being a Wallflower  Author:  Stephen Chbosky Series:  Standalone Pages:  213 Publisher:  Simon and Schuster Date of Publication:  30th August 2012 (reprint) Source:  Publisher* Synopsis from Goodreads: The Perks of Being a Wallflower is a story about what it’s like to travel that strange course through the uncharted territory of high school. the world of first dates, family dramas, and new friends. of sex, drugs, and the rocky horror picture show. of those wild and poignant roller-coaster days known as growing up. My Thoughts: So many people have been telling me to read Perks for about a year now, and with the movie coming up soon, I thought it was finally time. I mean, it looked quite good, and you have to read the book before the film, right?! Anyway, I decided I would read it on holiday when I had nothing else to do so I could read it all at once, and as it's really not very long this was pretty easy. While it didn't quite live up to my

Strange Chemistry Launch Party Giveaway Winner!

So, my contest ended on the 26th, and I completely forgot... Anyway, if you didn't read the post, I went to the launch party for the Strange Chemistry imprint back in August, and they gave me a goody bag containing some swag and a couple of their books to giveaway on my blog! You can read the post and read all about the prize  here . I've picked the winner, randomly using Rafflecopter, of course, and it is: CICELY ! Yay! Thanks to everyone for entering, and I hope to bring you more giveaways in the future! Cicely - if I haven't emailed you/DM-ed you already, I will do soon :)    

September 2012 Round-Up

I cannot believe it is October tomorrow! This year has gone so fast, as has this month, and it's time for another monthly round-up, yay! Haha, so if you don't know what these are yet, then basically it's just me, rounding up what I've read and telling you want my favourite was, what I didn't like (if there were any) etc etc. So, here's what I read!       1. Rage Within by Jeyn Roberts 2. Zom-B by Darren Shan 3. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen 4. Hold Still by Nina LaCour 5. Unspoken by Sarah Rees Brennan 6. What's Left of Me by Kat Zhang 7. Boys Don't Cry by Malorie Blackman 8. Alice in Zombieland by Gena Showalter 9. Poltergeeks by Sean Cummings (half) So, I'm still reading Poltergeeks while I'm writing this, but I want to hopefully finish it today, and if I do it will go into my September books so I've added it anyway... My favourite of the month is listed below, but some of my other favourites were Alice in

Book Review: What's Left of Me by Kat Zhang

Title:  What's Left of Me Author:  Kat Zhang Series:  The Hybrid Chronicles, #1 Pages:  343 Publisher:  HarperCollins Children's Date of Publication:  27th September 2012 Source:  Publisher* Synopsis from Goodreads: Imagine that you have two minds, sharing one body. You and your other self are closer than twins, better than friends. You have known each other forever. Then imagine that people like you are hated and feared. That the government want to hunt you down and tear out your second soul, separating you from the person you love most in the world. Now meet Eva and Addie. They don’t have to imagine. My Thoughts: I didn't really know what to expect from this book. What I'd heard about it was good, but there'd been no hype, as far as I'm aware, so I didn't really expect amazing things. It's always the books that I don't expect to get anything amazing from that blow me away. It really was so very, very good. At first, it's

Book Review: Unspoken by Sarah Rees Brennan

Title:  Unspoken Author:  Sarah Rees Brennan Series:  The Lynburn Legacy, #1 Pages:  370 Publisher:  Simon & Schuster Children's Date of Publication:  27th September 2012 Source:  Publisher* Synopsis from Goodreads: Kami Glass loves someone she’s never met . . . a boy she’s talked to in her head ever since she was born. She wasn’t silent about her imaginary friend during her childhood, and is thus a bit of an outsider in her sleepy English town of Sorry-in-the-Vale. Still, Kami hasn’t suffered too much from not fitting in. She has a best friend, runs the school newspaper, and is only occasionally caught talking to herself. Her life is in order, just the way she likes it, despite the voice in her head. But all that changes when the Lynburns return. The Lynburn family has owned the spectacular and sinister manor that overlooks Sorry-in-the-Vale for centuries. The mysterious twin sisters who abandoned their ancestral home a generation ago are back, along with their

Book Review: Zom-B by Darren Shan

Title:  Zom-B Author:  Darren Shan Series:  Zom-B, #1 Pages:  217 Publisher:  Simon & Schuster Children's Date of Publication:  27th September 2012 Source:  Publisher* Synopsis from Goodreads: Zom-B is a radical new series about a zombie apocalypse, told in the first person by one of its victims. The series combines classic Shan action with a fiendishly twisting plot and hard-hitting and thought-provoking moral questions dealing with racism, abuse of power and more. This is challenging material, which will captivate existing Shan fans and bring in many new ones. As Darren says, "It's a big, sprawling, vicious tale...a grisly piece of escapism, and a barbed look at the world in which we live. Each book in the series is short, fast-paced and bloody. A high body-count is guaranteed!" My Thoughts: Having just finished reading Pride & Prejudice for school, I needed something short and kind of silly to read to get back into reading YA properly again

Happily Ever Endings... Vixen by Jillian Larkin (Flappers, #1)

Happily Ever Endings... was born out of sheer frustration. You know how when you read a series and you love it but the last book takes a little while to come out and then you sort of forget parts of the novel? That's what these posts are going to serve to remedy. Happily Ever Ending... is a short post about what happened at the ending of each book that is going to be in a series for people who need a quick reminder of what happened in the previous installment. It's really annoying when you can't remember what happens and don't have time for a reread, so this hopefully will be a huge help! __________ Synopsis from Goodreads:  Jazz . . . Booze . . . Boys . . . It’s a dangerous combination. Every girl wants what she can’t have. Seventeen-year-old Gloria Carmody wants the flapper lifestyle—and the bobbed hair, cigarettes, and music-filled nights that go with it. Now that she’s engaged to Sebastian Grey, scion of one of Chicago’s most powerful families, Gloria

Book Review: Losing Lila by Sarah Alderson

Title:  Losing Lila Author:  Sarah Alderson Series:  Lila, #2 Pages: 322 Publisher:  Simon & Schuster Children's Date of Publication:  2nd August 2012 Source:  Publisher* Synopsis from Goodreads: Alex and Lila are on the run, desperately trying to stay one step ahead of the Unit, which is somehow tracking their every move. While Alex is determined to keep Lila safe and her ability secret at any cost, Lila's only thought is of finding a way back to California so she can rescue her brother and mother from the military base where they're being held. Struggling to control both her growing power and her deepening feelings for Alex, Lila decides the time has finally come to stop running and start fighting. Together with Alex, Demos, and the others she's come to think of as family, Lila plans not only to save her brother and mum, but also to completely destroy the Unit and everything it stands for. But the plan requires Lila to return to California alone, and

Blog Tour: Imaginary Cast List for Rage Within

Hello! Welcome to my stop on the blog tour for Rage Within by Jeyn Roberts! It's the second book in the awesome Dark Inside series , and today I have a guest post from Jeyn for you to read. It's her imaginary cast for the four main characters in the book: Mason, Aries, Clementine and Michael! I think she's picked great actors and actresses for the parts, and I can't wait to hear what you think about each one! __________ After the earthquakes came the infectious rage, turning friends into deadly enemies. For survivors Michael, Aries, Mason and Clementine the battle to stay alive is about to get even tougher. The new world is organising itself, with camps that promise protection for the uninfected. But the reality of the sites is far more sinister. Besides, nobody is safe from the rage within their own soul... __________ Cast List Mason - Jeremy Irvine There’s just something about this guy’s expression that screams Mason to me. He's got a very

Book Review: Rage Within by Jeyn Roberts

Title:  Rage Within Author:  Jeyn Roberts Series:  Dark Inside, #2 Pages:  406 Publisher:  Macmillan Date of Publication:  30th August 2012 Source:  Publisher* Synopsis from Goodreads: After the earthquakes came the infectious rage, turning friends into deadly enemies. For survivors Michael, Aries, Mason and Clementine the battle to stay alive is about to get even tougher. The new world is organising itself, with camps that promise protection for the uninfected. But the reality of the sites is far more sinister. Besides, nobody is safe from the rage within their own soul... "The world may be broken, but hope is not crazy." ~ John Green  My Thoughts: Rage Within was very different to Dark Inside . It was still the same series, obviously, but the super frightening action of the first book was replaced by a more subtle and creepy undertone in Rage Within . The characters are hiding from the Baggers, and they risk their lives every single time they leave th