Review on Shades of London #2 The Madness Underneath

After her encounter with the Ripper copycat, Rory has been living with her parents in Bristol, recovering from both mental and physical trauma. However, Rory misses her friends, both her classmates at Wexford and the Shades, a group of young people who like Rory, are able to see ghosts. The cover up story means that Rory can never tell her parents or her therapists what truly happened. Rory is desperate to get back to London, so when her therapist suggests she go back to school, she doesn't hesitate to leave. The Ripper may be gone, but there are now a new string of threats. A pub owner has seemingly been killed by his employee, and a woman was seen falling to her death from a window. Could these cases be coincidences, or is it the cause of something more supernatural? Rory and her friends must find out what really happened before it is too late.

I loved the first book in this series and was eager to get onto the second. Although the Ripper is gone, there is definitely no lack of excitement on the streets of London. I loved the new cases and was eager to find out how the Shades would solve them. I loved how Rory was leading a double life, trying to keep up with her school work and her relationship with Jerome, while also sneaking out with Stephen, Callum and Boo to investigate the cases. I loved how Rory's relationship with the shades progressed, especially her relationship with Stephen. Although I loved Jazza and Jerome in the first book, I found that they were starting to become less significant to the main plot, and was drawn a lot more to the Shades, particularly Stephen. I also loved that Rory was needed a lot more in this book, as with the terminus being destroyed, Rory is the only one who is able to force the ghosts to move on. I found the ending really shocking, as the first book was overall light hearted with only a few darker parts. I was not expecting the book to end this way at all, and it has been left on a major cliffhanger which makes me extremely excited to get my hands on the new book once it comes out. I will definitely be continuing to follow this series.

My New Layout!

So my new layout is now complete! I may tweak a few things or add some gadgets but it will more or less be staying like this for a while.

I must thank my best friend Katie for creating the header for me and finding the layout. I'm really bad at these kind of things. She also runs a book blog so you should all go check it out by clicking HERE!

My contact details and review policy are once again in a place where they can be easily located, so make sure to check those out! In the meantime I shall get back to what I do best which is reading and reviewing books.

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So my old layout messed up for some reason and I am currently searching for a new one. This is going to mean that the site is probably going to look strange for a little while but bare with me while I try to find the perfect layout! I will be functioning as normal however, but contact information etc may not be available until I've figured this out so if you need to contact me for review requests etc then email me at rachelsreallyrandomreviews@gmail.com

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Review on 'The Covenant #1 Last Light Falling'

Fifteen year old Arena and her twin brother Gabriel are orphans. After they survived the car crash that killed their parents when they were just nine years old, they were taken into foster care, and have been living with their foster parents ever since. However, everything changes when Arena receives a letter, seemingly from their uncle Finnegan. After learning about her fate, Arena must use the combat skills she has been taught to fight against the corrupt government and bring justice to the thousands of innocent citizens that are being abused, beaten and raped.

I loved the idea of this book and found the idea of a post apocalyptic America with a corrupted government to be quite similar to the Hunger Games which is one of my favourite book series. Arena is a very strong female protagonist, and has had years of combat training, along with the use of bow and arrows, guns and knives. She has no problem in taking out armed soldiers, and it destroys the age old idea of females being weaker than men and not being able to fight as efficiently. I thought the biblical element was interesting, but as I am not religious myself I found it slightly strange that these characters were putting so much of their faith into a God. I also found it hard to believe that everyone Arena and Gabriel came across believed in God, and therefore it felt as if they were forcing their own beliefs on others, as they often tell them to pray for forgiveness. The book is action packed, and although I loved the fight scenes I felt that it would have been more exciting if there were more breaks from the action, as towards the middle of the book, almost every chapter contained blood shed. I felt that characters such as Juliana could have had more input, as I would have loved to have seen characters with no combat training also making more o a difference. There are quite a few disturbing scenes including strong violence and rape, so I would recommend it to older teenagers. I would love to continue reading this series, as there are a few plot points left hanging, such as what happened to Arena's step sister.

Last Light Falling can be purchased HERE

Review on 'The Witch and the Baby Princess'

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Mirabelle is born into the life of a Witch, meaning her only purpose in life is to make others miserable. She is able to perform spells that Witches double her age can not, and her parents, Antipathy and Gorgon have high hopes for her. However, Mirabelles life is set to cross with another, a girl named Claudette who was born on the same day as Mirabelle. As Mirabelle is commanded to make this girls life full of misery, she is drawn towards her simple life, and after years of torturing her, they finally speak. Will Mirabelle be able to continue doing her parents bidding, or will her new found friendship with Claudette change her life path?

I thought this was an interesting prequel to Cinderella, and I always love reading interpretations of what happened before a story took place. I thought it was quite similar to Wicked with the two girls becoming friends when everything went against that happening. I loved Mirabelle's progression from being a witch and obeying her mothers orders to disobeying and deciding what she wanted to do for herself. Although this wasn't entirely original, it was well written and the character development was well thought out. Some of the characters that we know from Cinderella were given their own back story and I thought this was brilliantly done and the continuity into the Cinderella story made sense, making it easy to believe that the story was really what happened prior to the Cinderella story taking place. Mirabelle is a likable character, and there is a good moral to the story, as it gives the message that anyone can set their own life paths even if someone is trying to lead you down a certain one. I recommend this book to anyone who likes Cinderella, or fairytales in general.


You can purchase The Witch and the Baby Princess HERE

Review on 'Ascension series #1 Impervious'

Fifteen year old Fran has lived her whole life in Impervious, an underground city build for the survivors of the War. Although the residents have everything they could ever need, a sickness lies in the shadows, known only as The Beast. With each generation, the citizens of Impervious are living shorter and shorter lives as the illness takes over. But what is causing this illness, and how can it be stopped? Promises of the Epoch seem like empty words, and the outside world as inaccesible as ever. Fran sets out along with her friend Pete to find out the truth about Impervious, and if the world outside really is inhabitable.

I have been reading quite a lot of Dystopian novels lately and thought Impervious was definitely on the higher end of the spectrum. I loved the idea of humans surviving the post apocalyptic world by living underground, and not knowing if it was safe to go back outside. I thought Fran was a brilliant protagonist and loved that she was trying to figure out her world rather than going along with what the leaders told her. I thought their advanced technology was interesting, particularly that the majority of shops and food chains were ran by holograms rather than humans. I wasn't too keen on the romantic aspects, as I thought that the romance between Fran and Pete seemed slightly awkward and I would have preferred if they had just stayed friends, as I would love to see a friendship like theirs without the romance in a YA novel. I loved the idea of real people stuck inside a video game, but I thought that this seemed quite random and didn't fit in well with the rest of the story. I liked the idea overall, but I did not feel that it was the right way to progress the story. Finding out what happened to the members of the community after they got sick was really interesting and surprising, and I found myself wanting to carry on reading to find out the truth about the outside world. I would love to continue reading this series and find out what happens to Fran, Pete and the rest of the Impervious community.

You can purchase Impervious HERE