Review on 'Shades of London #1 The Name of the Star'

After her parents decide to move from a small town in Louisiana to England, Rory Deveaux arrives at her new boarding school in London. Faced with a brand new culture and a large bustling city, Rory has problems fitting into this new way of life. However, there are more pressing issues at hand, such as the recent murders that mimic the style of Jack the Ripper, the most infamous murderer in all of England. Rory is sucked into the case when she sees a man in the school grounds on the night of one of the murders. But why did her friend Jazza, who was with her the whole time not see him too? There are people. People who only Rory can see. But who are they, what do they want, and why can only she see them? Rory must seek to find the truth of her new abilities, and along the way, solve the Jack the Ripper case once and for all.

I've always wanted to read some of Maureen Johnson's books, but have only recently done so. This first book in the Shades of London series is both fascinating and exciting. Rory is pulled into a world she never knew existed, where supernatural creatures roam the streets of London, unseen by all but a select few, including Rory. I really loved the characters, especially Alistair, as although he was not one of the main characters I found him funny and kind. I also really liked Stephen and overall just wanted to give him a hug. The plot is exciting and fast paced. I have always been interested in Jack the Ripper, so I found it really interesting that this story focused around a character claiming to be Jack the Ripper. There is a mixture of suspense, comedy and grief. There is some romance between Rory and Jerome, but the story does not focus on this sub plot too much, which I loved as many YA books seem to think that romance has to be a key plot point. I loved that there were some strong female characters, particularly Boo. I was surprised that my initial dislike of Boo disappeared as more information was revealed about her, which is rare for me as my first impressions of a character are usually what I stick by until the end. I liked the way that Boo introduced Rory to the world of the Shades, and how she had no choice but to adapt. I really enjoyed this book overall, and recommend it to any fans of YA fantasy.

Review on 'Looking for Alaska'

Miles Halter's life has been unextraordinary, but once he moves to Culver Creek boarding school to seek his "great perhaps" nothing will ever be the same again. When he meets Alaska Young, a smart and attractive girl who lives down the hallway, his life is turned upside down. From going down to the smoking hole to smoke cigarettes to pulling pranks and drinking Strawberry Hill wine in the barn. Miles, or "Pudge" as his new friends have nicknamed him, has a new and exciting life. However, tragedy strikes, and Pudge must pull together with his friends to try to find out what happened and why, and to try to pick up the pieces of his life. 

Once again John Green has managed to break my heart. I really enjoyed this book, although I have to admit not as much as I enjoyed reading The Fault in Our Stars. From reading John's later works first, it is obvious how much his writing has improved over the years, and how he has gone from a good writer to a great one. The book is split into two parts, “before” and “after”. I found this really interesting as this shows that a huge event happens about halfway through the book, and the whole time I was reading the “before” section I was wondering what was going to happen at this point. The first half deals with Pudge's new life at his boarding school, and the adventures that happen with his new friends. I found this similar to books such as the perks of being a wallflower, as Pudge has never smoked or drank alcohol before, but he decides to try it so that he fits in with his new friends. Pudge shows the desperate attempt to try to fit in with his peers that every teenager at a new school goes through, and also the bullying that can and so often occurs. The second half of the book deals with the tragedy that occurs, and how Pudge and his friends deal with it. Everyone deals with grief in different ways, and each character has their own unique way of dealing with what has happened. This half of the book had a completely different tone to the first half, and was a lot darker. However it was not completely doom and gloom, as I found the prank that Pudge and his friends play near the end of the book hilarious. The book covers a number of important themes that many young people go through or think about such as depression and suicide. This book is definitely not a light hearted read, but there is a good mixture of both humour and serious subjects. It may not be as good as The Fault in Our Stars, but it is still worth a read.

Review on 'Jaded'

Sixteen year old Jade Green has lived her whole life in a small knit community called Nirvana, where everyone must go through an eye colour surgery, the colour depending on which career path they choose. However, once Jade's Grandmother dies and leaves behind her diary, Jade learns that not everything is as perfect as it seems. Jade, along with her best friend Tyrian, and Peaches, the commune leaders daughter decide that they must escape to the outside world at all costs. If they are caught, severe consequences wait for them, including having their sight taken from them and being banished to the slave cabins. Will Jade and her friends manage to escape, or will they be doomed to live in a world of deceit and lies forever? 

I thought this was a really unique story line and I loved the idea of the eye colour depending on the career path chosen. I thought Jade was a wonderful character overall, although I did find her to be quite whiny at times, particularly when she wasn't sure about Ty's feelings for her. I also loved her relationship with Peaches and how it develops through the course of the novel. The explanation of how Nirvana came about seemed to be quite vague, and I would personally have liked to have known more details about that. There were a few plot twists in the novel that I really loved, and although there was a bit of foreshadowing going on, I did not pick up on one of the twists until it was revealed. I really loved Tyrian and thought he was a really sweet and kind character. He is the type of character who you instantly fall in love with and wish was real so that you could be friends with him. The characters names are all relevant to their eye colour, which I thought was really clever. It also cuts them off from the outside world, as although some of the names such as Jade and Ruby are actually used in the real world, others, such as Navy and Royal are not. I also found it interesting that outsiders who have come into Nirvana who do not need an eye colour change such as Steel still have their original name changed to be relevant to their eye colour. I'm looking forward to the sequel and finding out what happens to Jade and Peaches, and also if Ty finds a way to join them. If you love The Hunger Games then I definitely recommend this book!

Review on Bentwhistle the Dragon #2 A Chilling Revelation

After narrowly escaping the clutches of the evil Manson, Peter Bentwhistle is slowly recovering from the ordeal. However, things are far from over, as after as visit to the King, Peter, along with his friends Tank and Gee Tee are drawn into a plot involving a dragon named Flash, who narrowly escaped a mission in Antarctica that had gone horribly wrong. What is going on in Antarctica? Are there dragons who plan on committing reason? And most importantly, what has happened to Manson and the missing pieces of laminium? An evil plot is brewing, and it is up to Peter and his friends to stop it before innocent lives are lost. But will they be able to do it in time? The countdown begins as the friends race to save both humans and dragons alike

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I loved the first book in this series, and was looking forward to reading the sequel. This book is just as action packed as the first, delving even deeper into the realms of the dragon world. There are new and exciting characters, and even new creatures. I particularly loved Flash, an ex member of the Crimson Guard who Peter, Tank and Richie soon become good friends with. As he had been a part of the Guard his whole life, I found it interesting and funny that he got excited over simple dragon activities such as laminium ball matches. The laminium ball was one of my favourite parts of the first book, so I loved that this sport made a comeback in the sequel. I also loved the twist of events at the New Zealand match, making it that much more exciting and suspenseful. I thought that Peter's grandfathers story line was interesting, but I was slightly disappointed that this was left about three quarters of the way through the book to focus on Peter's story line. I felt that this could have been left in a more suspenseful place than it was, as Peter's story was left on a huge cliffhanger, but his grandfather's was not. 

I also felt that a lot of questions were put forward, but non of them were answered. I realize that these will probably be all cleared up in the next book, but felt that a couple of plot points could have been cleared in this book. This could potentially be confusing, as there are so many problems that need to be resolved in the last book that I felt Cude could have resolved some of the minor problems and only saved the bigger problems for the final book. That said, I loved the book overall, and as it reached it's climax, I found myself reading into the night, as the book was too suspenseful to put down. I look forward to the final book and seeing how everything is resolved.

Thoughts on The Fault in our Stars movie

So I realize I don't usually write movie reviews as this is meant to be a book blog, but I had had to write a review on the movie adaptation of one of my favourite books, The Fault In Our Stars. I'll admit, I was nervous about watching it. Although I had heard good things about it, I was still worried that it would not live up to my expectations. I have been disappointed with so many book to movie adaptations that I thought there would be at least one major point I would be annoyed at. However, this was not the case and I was extremely happy with it. Shailene and Ansel are literally perfect as Hazel and Augustus, bringing the characters I loved so much in the book to life. There were more comedy moments than I thought there would be which I loved. Isaac was also perfect, and I think Nat Wolff should be getting a lot more credit for his performance. After reading the book and knowing what would happen, I thought that I would not cry over the movie. However I started crying about 20 minutes before the movie ended and barely stopped until the end. The majority of the movie theater was in tears, which shows how well these actors portayed the story and the emotions of the characters. I highly recommend this movie to anyone who has not yet seen it, but of course, remember to read the book first!

My top five tips for authors sending review requests

As an author, you will be wanting to get as many bloggers as you can to review your book. I, like many other bloggers  get new review requests sent to me every day, and I have to reject a lot more requests than I accept so that I am not bogged down with requests that could potentially take me months to get to. So how do you make yourself stand out and be one of those that will be picked rather than discarded? I  can't speak for every blogger out there, but here are my top five things that I take into consideration while reading requests.

 Introduce yourself 

Tell the blogger a little bit about yourself. Be brief, but let the blogger know who you are. Don't send a request with no introduction. When an email contains nothing but a synopsis and a link to an amazon page, I am more likely to not reply to that request. Even if you have review request as the title of the email, I still want a sentence telling me who you are and a little bit about the book, e.g what the genre and intended reader age is. Try to personalise the email, such as mentioning the persons name or the blog name. Otherwise it will seem like you have just sent a mass email to multiple bloggers. Also, I prefer when a request is informal and friendly. Remember that bloggers are only human. Personally, an informal request makes me a lot more comfortable than a formal one. I am by no means a professional, so I feel slightly uncomfortable when I get addressed as one

Don't be presumptuous 

Don't just assume that the blogger is going to accept your request. By all means provide a summary and a link to your goodreads profile or website, but don't attach a copy of your book in the first email. Wait for the blogger to get back to you. They will let you know if they want to accept the request and what format they would prefer the ebook to be in.

Be Brief

Do not send more information than is necessary. I once received a request where the author had sent me the whole plot condensed down into one page. Why would I want to read a 300  page book if you just told me the entire plot? I enjoy plot twists and suprises. This can't happen if I already know exactly what is going to happen before I read the book.

Read the Review Policy

If a blogger has a review policy, make sure you read it before you send a request. If for example, a blogger specifically states that they don't review erotica, chances are they're not going to want to read your book about sexy times. Ignoring a review policy means that you're wasting both your own and the bloggers time. Doing this could also mean a blogger will not accept review requests from you in the future, even if future novels meet their policy.

Do not ask a blogger to buy your book

This does not happen to me often, but it has happened. A blogger is willing to take the time to read and review your book for free, so the least you can do is provide them with a free copy. You're not losing out on sales by doing this, as you are likely to gain them from readers liking the review and deciding to buy the book.

I hope these tips have been helpful and good luck with your requests!