Review on The Mortal Instruments #2 City of Ashes

Clary’s battle against Valentine continues, as he gets hold of the second of the instruments, the Soul Sword. Valentine is planning to use this sword to create an army of demons, but first he must change the swords alliance from angelic to demonic. To do this he needs the blood from four different types of downworldly children, a child of Lilith, a child of the moon, a child of the night, and a child of the faerie. Can Clary, with the help of the other Shadowhunters stop him before it’s too late, or will Clary and her friends be faced with a battle that they can not win?

After reading City of Bones, I knew I had to continue with this series as I was hooked on the shadow world. The second book did not disappoint and lived up to the expectations I had from reading the first one. The book is action packed with never a dull page, as Clary and Jace’s battle against Valentine to save the world as they know it. The author has done a good job with the portrayal of characters, as I ended up hating characters such as the Inquisitor and Valentine, but falling in love with characters such as Jace and Magnus Bane. I also found myself caring about the feelings and relationships of the characters, which to me always shows that they have been well thought out and all have their own personalities. The plot itself was also amazing and the book was very difficult to put down once I started reading. Whereas the first book took a while to get into the action, as it had to explain all the different terminologies, City of Ashes got more or less straight into the action, combining imagery with action to create a beautiful and exciting world. Overall a very good read and I can’t wait to get the next book to find out what happens next.

Review on 'Me Before You'

Louisa Clark has an ordinary life. She has lived in the same small village all her life and enjoys her job at a local café. However, thinks begin to change for her when the café closes down causing her to lose her job and forcing her to get a new one to support her family. Her small world collides with Will Traynor’s, a 35 year old man who got hit by a motorcycle, causing him to become paralysed and live out his life in a wheelchair. However Louisa finds out the shocking truth of the reason why she has only been signed to a six month contract. Will is planning on ending his life at the end of this time. Louisa is forced into a battle of helping to save this mans life by trying to get him to change his mind before the six months is over.

Firstly let me point out that the cover is deceiving. When I picked up this book I thought it would be fluffy and romantic. How very wrong I was. The story is about a quadriplegic man who is tired of life, as he can no longer do the things that he used to enjoy before his accident. I will admit that I cry at movies, but it is very rare that I cry at a book. This however was an exception, as the ending of this novel had be bawling my eyes out. If you want a lovely, happy, romantic read, then this book is definitely not the right choice. There was a certain direction that I thought that this novel was going in, and when it turned in a completely different direction I was both shocked and upset. However I always enjoy novels which have a shocking twist, so although the ending was upsetting I thought it was better than what I had originally thought the ending would be. Although I rarely read this type of book, as I prefer young adult adventure stories, I was surprised at how much I enjoyed this book, and I am glad that it didn’t turn out to be the sappy love story that I was expecting.

Review on The Mortal Instruments #1 City of Bones

Clary is just an ordinary teenage girl living in Manhattan. That is until she meets Jace Wayland, a demon slayer, known as a Shadowhunter. After her mum goes missing, Clary slowly starts to learn the truth, that her mum was a Shadowhunter too, and that she must learn to see the Shadow world. Clary is in a race against time with Valentine, a Shadowhunter who had been believed to be dead, but is now back with a vengeance. Clary must reach the mortal cup, a special cup which allows the user to turn mundane children into Shadowhunters, before Valentine uses it to create his own army.

Even though a friend who I trust to give me good book recommendations told me to read this, I was a bit sceptical at first as the first thing I seen on my edition upon looking at the cover was a review by Stephenie Meyer. As I’m not a fan if the Twilight series, I was worried that this book would be full of sparkling vampires and werewolf boys who ripped their shirt off every five minutes. I was not disappointed however. The vampires did what vampires are meant to do and the werewolf clan were not portrayed as being sexy men. The plot itself was brilliant, with lots of twists and turns. Although some of the plot themes were obvious to me from the start, there was also a few that shocked me. The only bad thing I can say about it is it’s not completely original, as I was constantly comparing various plot themes to Star Wars and Harry Potter. With that said however it’s very rare to come across a completely original book nowadays, so overall it was a very good read, and I will definitely continue reading the rest of this series.

Review on 'The Night Circus'

                ‘The circus arrives without warning. No announcements precede it. It is simply there,                                                                    when yesterday it was not'

The night circus is different to other circus’. For one it opens with the sunset and closes with the sunrise. Another difference is that instead of the colourful themes you expect with a circus, this circus is completely in black and white, from the black and white striped tents to the performers costumes and the white bonfire that burns in the middle of the courtyard. However, it is not only a circus but an arena for an ongoing game between Marco and Celia. A battle against each other which has been going on since their childhood before they had even met each other. There can only be one winner, but will their love for each other have an effect on the outcome of the game?

The one thing that stands out about this novel is the beautiful imagery. From the description of the white bonfire to the intricate details of tents such as the ice garden, Morgenstern creates a fantastic description of the circus, making the reader feel as if they can see the fantastic tents and smell the scent of the caramel and popcorn. Such details such as the clock that stands at the entrance of the circus stay in the readers mind, making them wish they could visit this amazing circus. However the novels downfall is the plot itself, as although at the start of the novel the thought of Marco and Celia having to go against each other in a game of magic seems promising, it turns out to be a disappointment when you find out that instead of a physical battle, the battle is more to do with who can create the best tents for the circus. The fact that the reader is promised that only one will survive is also not true at the end of the novel. It can also be confusing at times, as the narrative is not linear, constantly switching between two different narratives and years until the two come together. It is worth a read simply for the imagery, but the plot is somewhat lacking.

Perks Of Being A Wallflower review

The Perks Of Being A Wallflower tells the story of a teenage boy named Charlie, who stands on the edges of life, observing but rarely participating. Charlie, who is starting his first year of high school narrates his story along the course of a year, through a series of letters to an anonymous receiver, who he refers to simply as “friend.”  Along the way he meets new friends, tries drugs for the first time, attends his first house party and remembers the truth about his awful past. 

I decided to read this book as I knew it was being turned into a movie soon, and I always like to read the book that a movie is based on first. Although I usually prefer adventure stories, I really enjoyed this book although there was no particular plot other than sharing the life of a teenage boy. The novel has many twists and turns, including both humour and angst. The book also deals with many themes that the majority of teenagers experience, such as alcohol, drugs, bullying and sex. Anyone who was not popular in high school is able to relate to Charlie, as before meeting Patrick and Sam, Charlie does not have any friends. Although he does make friends during the course of the novel, he continues to stay on the borders, learning secrets about his new friends but not sharing his thoughts. I thought Charlie was a likeable character, as although his friends have different opinions and personalities, he does not judge them. Steven Chbosky has done a brilliant job of getting inside the mind of a sixteen year old boy and presenting him to the reader in a very believable way.

My Rating: 4/5

Summer Reading

So i've decided I'm going to keep this as my summer reading blog. Basically I read a bunch of books during the summer holidays as I don't really get the chance to during term time with the amount of university work I have. So basically I'm using this to keep a track on how many books I read over the summer break then check how many books I've managed to read. As I have done in the past I'll still be reviewing each book I read so in the unlikely case than anyone stumbles across this blog and decides to take a look then they will have some reviews to read instead of just a list of random book titles. I've started reading the perks of being a wallflower as I am planning on seeing the movie when it comes out and I always like to read the books first so that when I see the movie I can compare it to the book. Yes I have a sad life like that but it's something I enjoy doing, although anyone who is with me gets slightly annoyed. Anyway once I've finished the book I'll review it, move onto another book, review that etc. If you have any suggestions on books that I should read and review then please feel free to leave me a comment and I'll do my best to get hold of them and give an honest review on them. That's all for now =]