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!

Fissure Blog Tour

So today is my day of participating in the blog tour for Fissure by Marilyn Almodóvar. As I had not read the previous book, 'Interred', I will be posting reviews for both books.

As Baxter Jacobs' sixteenth birthday approaches, a strange visitor arrives in the middle of a snow storm who brings news that will change Baxter's life forever. Under the safe foundations that Baxter's mother has built to protect her there lays a dark family secret. Baxter is a Timebender, a magical being who has the ability to control time. As Baxter tries to come to terms with her new abilities, she is thrown into the world of Timebenders, Warriors and Healers. Baxter learns more about this world with the help of Declan, a boy who has been trapped in a time loop for 122 years who only Baxter can free, and Jack, a boy who Baxter has been told is dangerous. With the realisation that the Council is out to try to take control of her powers, Baxter must use her new found powers to help her friends to escape, and finally free Declan from his prison.

I thought that this story was interesting and unique. Time travelling stories usually require an object, such as the cases in Back to the Future and Doctor Who, so I found it interesting that Baxter was able to manipulate time and create portals to different places and times without the need of such objects. I found Baxter to be a likeable, strong female protagonist, although there were a few cases where I thought that Almodóvar was trying too hard to make Baxter sound like a teenager, and I found a couple of the word choices to be a little off. I adored the character of Declan, and although he was slightly cocky he became my favourite character in the book. I thought that Jack was slightly too full of himself, and although he is sweet and unselfish at times, I felt myself being drawn more to Declan's personality than Jack's.

I was slightly disappointed that some of the characters that I thought had potential were so short lived. As they were given their own personalities and character descriptions, I thought that they would become characters that we would hear a lot of, but sadly that was not the case. I loved the characters of Sydney and Arthur, and was intrigued by their relationship and how it would progress, so I was disappointed when this relationship was cut short. There are a lot of events that cause great trauma for Baxter, and I felt that there were not enough raw emotions from her. Baxter is constantly on the run, but I felt that in the parts where the action slows down slightly, Baxter's emotions should have caught up to her a bit more. I loved the fandom references that Baxter makes, particularly to Doctor Who, Harry Potter and Supernatural, as I am a fan of these franchises and found it amusing how she was relating them to her own life.

If you love stories of time travel and magic, then you will definitely love this book.

After being thrown head first into the world if the Interred and losing almost everything that mattered to her, Baxter Jacobs is ready for things to calm down and allow her time to grieve and figure out her new Time Bending skills. However, things aren't going to be so simple, as Baxter's Uncle Bryan is determined to take her away from the English Council and back to New York. Baxter is reluctant to leave her Healer, Jack behind. Along with being able to heal Baxter, Jack also has a link directly into Baxter's mind, allowing them to communicate telepathically. There is also the problem that after falling from the cliff top, Baxter's memories seem to have been wiped as to how she got there in the first place. She also has the note left by her mother to consider, "Fred and B." Could this mean that Bryan has intentions other than keeping Baxter safe? Baxter, along with the help of Jack and her other interred friends must work to find the truth. Can they really trust all of the members of the English Council? Secrets are revealed and old enemies fought as Baxter unravels Time to find out the truth.

After reading Interred, I was eager to find out what would happen next in Baxter's story. I felt that the book started off a little slow, but once Jack was back in action and Baxter was once again using portals to travel through time I started to enjoy the fast paced action that I loved in the first book. There are some new characters introduced in this book, and I particularly loved Nicolas and Dare. I found it interesting that Baxter had seemingly had some of her earlier memories wiped, as although Dare was her childhood friend, Baxter does not remember her. I found Baxter's memory loss to be interesting, as it means that as the reader, we know what has happened whereas Baxter does not. At first I wasn't too keen on Nicolas, as he seemed to be protecting Baxter only because he was asked to, and just carrying out his Warrior duties. However, as the book goes on his personality is revealed, and I felt that he was a good ally for Baxter to have. I loved that there were different versions of certain characters from different points in time, and the way Baxter comes in contact with these different versions. It was all a bit “wibbly wobbly timey wimey.” Speaking of Doctor Who, I loved the references to the show in this book, as in Baxter's situation, I would probably be making the same references. I also found it funny how some of the characters were oblivious to these comments and had no clue what she was talking about. I thought certain aspects of the story were similar to Doctor Who. For example, I felt that the relationship between Aaron and Baxter was similar to that of The Doctor and River Song, as Aaron explains to her that he keeps meeting her at different points in time, but she has never seen him before, so that although he knows her, she does not know him.

The climax of the book was very fast paced, and I was excited over the return of Declan, as I thought he was a very interesting character in the first book, and was initially what made me so interested in this series from the start. I felt that the book could have been slightly better if Declan had been a more active character, as I felt that he could have used the fact that Baxter still trusted him to his advantage. The book is left on a cliffhanger, and it took me a couple of minutes to realise that the book was actually over and it wasn't the page on my e reader refusing to turn. Although I wanted to keep on reading to find out what happened next, I feel as if it is a very interesting place for the next book to pick up from, and I look forward to reading it when it is released.

Make sure to check out the book trailer for Fissure!

Also there is a competition running to win an ebook of Interred, plus other merchandise related to the series! Feel free to try your luck below.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Interred and Fissure are both ready to purchase now in both ebook and paperback formats.

Find out more about this series at

Amazon Author Page | Facebook | Twitter | Website

Make sure to check out the other dates on the tour!