Review on Midnight, Texas #1 Midnight Crossroad

When Manfred Bernardo moves to Midnight, a small town in Texas, he thinks he has found the perfect place to work on his online business from home. That is, until he meets his neighbours, who are far from normal. First there is Fiji, a self proclaimed witch, and Lemuel, a mysterious man who only comes out of his apartment at night, and who seems to have the ability to take energy from other people. Manfred soon becomes aware that all is not as it seems in Midnight when the body of his landlord, Bobo's girlfriend is found. Could Bobo really have killed his long term girlfriend, or could one of the other residents of the small town be responsible? Manfred must help his new friends find out who is responsible for this crime.

Being a fan of previous works by Harris, I was excited to find an email in my inbox asking me if I wanted to review a book in a new series by this author. Midnight Crossroad follows Manfred Bernardo, a young psychic who has recently moved into the small town of Midnight. Although the story had a slow start and was verging on the edge of being boring, I started to enjoy the book more once the murder mystery had started. I always love reading “whodunit” type books, as I love trying to guess who the culprit is. 'Midnight Crossroad' did not disappoint in this aspect. Usually I am able to correctly guess who the perpetrator is, but with this novel, I had no idea who it was until it was revealed.

The characters had potential, but unfortunately I felt that they were under developed. Although Manfred was in his early twenty's, he seemed mature for his age and not very interesting. His psychic abilities never really come into play, so it is unclear if he genuinely has these abilities or if he is just a fraud. I found Lemuel to be an interesting and mysterious character, and I would have loved to have known more about the reasons why he had stayed in Midnight for so many years. I also found Fiji to be one of the more interesting characters, and I would love to see the extent of her powers in future books in this series. As these characters in particular interested me the most, I would love to see more of the Supernatural side to the series.

I loved that every character seemed to have a secret that they were hiding from the rest of the town. Once I thought that I had a good idea what a certain character was about, they would always come back and surprise me. I found the majority of the characters to be unpredictable, and I loved that some of the characters were able to hide big parts of their lives from their unsuspecting neighbours.

Although little happens in the terms of plot, I still found the book an enjoyable read. I would have enjoyed it more if Harris had put more thought into the personality of her characters, as although I found some of the side characters interesting, I didn't particularly care about any of them, and didn't form any type of fondness or hatred for any of them. However, it is definitely worth a read if you enjoy a good murder mystery with a side helping of the supernatural.

Midnight Crossroad is available to purchase HERE, along with all good high street book stores

Review on 'My Side of the Story'

After 16 year old Jarold's parents discover that he is gay, they force him into attending family therapy sessions. As he rebels against his parents by visiting the local gay club, he discovers the guy of his dreams. But things are more complicated than they seem. Jaz is still in high school, and relationship problems are the last of his worries when the school bully is torturing him, and his former best friend has seemingly turned psycho killer. With the help of his friend Alison, Jaz decides he needs to leave home, but things don't go quite to plan.

I found this book while browsing in my local library, and after reading the blurb I had to check it out. It's rare to come across a YA book with a gay protagonist, so this immediately drew me in. Jaz is a sixteen year old boy who, like all teenagers just wants a bit of fun in his life. He suffers from being the target of the school bully, and also has to deal with his homophobic mother and sister. Although Jaz was quite whiny, I found him funny and relatable. I sympathized with him for having to deal with his homophobic mother, as every time he tried to explain himself to her she started yelling at him.

Alison was a brilliant character who stood by Jaz no matter what, even agreeing to run away with him. She was the reliable best friend who Jaz could always count on, and she seemed to be the only person who genuinely cared about Jaz and didn't care about him being gay.

I loved that the book was set in the UK, as the majority of YA books are set in America, so it was a change to read about a teenager in a British high school as opposed to an American one. The lack of quotation marks in the dialogue was slightly annoying and confusing, and there were a few instances where I was confused as to if a character was speaking or if it was Jaz's narration. The story was not linear, and I felt that there was not a good reason for this and just contributed to the confusion. I feel as if I would have enjoyed the story a lot more if it had been linear and had quotation marks. It did however seem more like how a real teenager would speak, and even though some people may find it annoying that Jaz says “like” instead of “said,” I thought it was interesting as it seemed as if Jaz was telling his story directly to the reader rather than setting it out as a novel.

This was overall a great coming of age novel, and although I initially only decided to read it for the gay protagonist, I liked Jaz as a character and also emphasized with his struggle of being bullied and unpopular.

I recommend this book to fans of The Catcher in the Rye and The Perks of Being a Wallflower.

Review on The Dreamwalker Diaries #1 Fifteen

Ashling Campbell seems like your average fifteen year old girl, except that she is a dreamwalker. Every night, she dreams about witnessing the public execution of her future self, where black eyed monsters have taken over the town. After breaking her dream catcher, Ash is no longer just a spectator in her dreams, and is able to astral project into the body of her thirty year old self. With the help of her future friends, Ash must find out as much information about the future as possible, and do everything she can in the present day to prevent this future from happening. Every action she takes in the present can have a huge impact on the future, and it's up to Ash to make the right decision and save her future self.

The idea of dream walking was interesting to me. I terrified myself as a child by watching Nightmare on Elm Street, but the idea of dreams having consequences in the real world has always interested me, so I was excited to start reading this book. I find lucid dreaming interesting, so combining this with the Nightmare on Elm Street idea made for an interesting story.

I felt that the characters were somewhat cliché, and could have come straight out of any cheesy teen movie. It was obvious who was meant to be the do no wrong protagonist, the nerdy best friend and the beautiful spoilt girl who we're all meant to hate. I was hoping that the characters would go outside of their comfort zones and break their stereotype, but sadly each character stuck to it for the entire novel. I initially felt that there had to be more to Nadette than being a rich, spoilt brat, but I disliked her more and more as the novel went on, and was surprised by the big reveal of who she was in the future. Although I didn't find the characters from fifteen year old Ash's life very original, I did enjoy the characters from her future, especially her future boyfriend Coop, who continuously risks his life to keep Ash safe. I loved the friendship between Ash and Tate, and was extremely disappointed when Ash started to develop romantic feelings for him. I would love to one day find a YA book where a strong friendship like theirs could remain strictly platonic on both sides.

Although I was initially able to keep up with the plot, I found it got a little confusing when it turned all out inception, and Ash started to have dreams within dreams. The use of italics was a clever way to show the reader when Ash was awake and when she dreamwalking, but I felt that going back to the normal font when she was still inside a dream was confusing, and I found myself wondering if she was awake or dreamwalking.

Figuring something out before the character does always tends to annoy me, and I had figured out who the Jumlin was way in advance of Ash's realization, so having to keep reading until she figured things out was quite tedious. I did enjoy the Jumlin story line however. I'm a huge fan of mythological supernatural creatures, so taking a legend and making it reality is always interesting to me. However, although the majority of the plot didn't surprise me, I was shocked to find out the true identity of Dr Dietz at the end of the novel. Although it was obvious he was not meant to be at the lab, as no one else who worked there knew him, I did not expect.

I overall enjoyed this book and loved the story line. I would love to read the sequel to find out if Ash is able to fix both her present and her future. I recommend it to fans of Supernatural and Doctor Who.

You can purchase 'Fifteen' HERE

Review on 'Theo and the Forbidden Language'

Theo is an ordinary rabbit, at least, that's what the residents of Willago think. After becoming the apprentice of Father Oaks, not only does Theo learn the art of healing, but also something far more forbidden. Theo becomes an omatje, a word catcher who is able to understand written language. Deemed long ago as sorcery, his fellow rabbits imprison him after finding out his secret. That is until he is rescued by a bear named Brune. Theo learns that bigger things are happening outside Willago, where humans are pacifying the animals, removing their ability to think and talk for themselves. With the help of Brune and the Princess Indigo, Theo must travel with his companions in an attempt to save his fellow animals, but Theo must keep the biggest secret of his life, or risk his friends turning against him.

I always enjoy reading fantasy stories that involve talking animals, and this book was no exception. I loved the idea of reading being a forbidden language, as it seemed like the animals had been brainwashed to stop them from making themselves smarter. Stories with an animal protagonist are usually intended for young children, but I loved that even though the majority of the characters were animals, the novel was overall quite dark, with themes of death, imprisonment and starvation. I l thought Theo was a brilliant protagonist, as although he was a fat little rabbit who had lived a peaceful life and had no idea how to use a sword, he took everything in his stride and was willing to step outside of his comfort zone to help the other animals. It also showed that being an efficient fighter is not enough to win a battle, and that knowledge is power.

Indigo was one of my favourite characters as she is a strong female warrior, and teaches Theo that just because they're rabbits doesn't mean that they can't be efficient fighters. As rabbits are usually prey, I loved the idea of a rabbit being able to fight creatures twice their size. Indigo is both fierce and patient, and I loved that although they were tired after travelling all day, she still took the time to teach him how to use a sword.

Although I loved Theo, Brune, Indigo and Manneki, I felt that there were too many characters for me to keep up with, and found myself forgetting the species of certain minor characters. As the books target audience ranged from middleschoolers to teenagers, I feel as if this could be a problem for them also, and think that less minor characters would have made the story easier to understand.

I found the pace of the story to be quite slow in places. The majority of the novel is a journey, and I found that at certain points, little was happening to push the main plot forward. However, there were certain sub-plots that I was eager to find out the reason behind them, such as what the tortoise shell that Theo was given was for. I loved that the story built up to a huge battle, and it was easy to get lost in the story once the action was underway. This last section of the novel was action packed, and it was easy to get lost in the story and feel like I was part of the battle. The author portrayed the feelings of the armies perfectly, which is something that is usually only touched upon briefly in battle sequences. The terror of the army knowing they were going to lose was portrayed perfectly, and I loved that even the pacified horses were too scared to go on the attack.

I recommend this book to fans of Watership Down and Lord of the Rings, and anyone who loves to read fantasy stories.

Theo and the Forbidden Language can be purchased HERE

Review on 'Crow Boy'

After the sudden break up of his parents, Tom Afflick finds himself being forced to move from his hometown of Manchester to Edinburgh to live with his mother and her new boyfriend. Tom misses his old friends, and despises his classmate, who bullies him relentlessly. When Tom goes on a school trip to Mary King's close, he gets transported to 1645 where the plague is terrorising the streets of Edinburgh. After Tom gives a young girl dying from the plague some antibiotics, the plague doctor decides to take Tom on as his apprentice. However, the doctor is not all that he seems, and charges his patients a large sum of money for his visits. Tom must show the doctor as the fraud he really is, while dealing with the most important matter of all, how is he going to get back to his own time?

I thought this was a really clever and interesting story. I enjoy both historical and fantasy novels, so putting both of these genres together was brilliant. I loved that the story was set in Mary King's Close, as putting a fantasy story into a location where the plague had actually happened in real life was a unique idea, as the majority of fantasy books are also set in a fictional location. Tom was an interesting character who seemed to quickly adapt to the situation he was in, as although he was getting thrown from 1645 back into an alternate reality of his own time and back again, he only ever seemed to be out of the loop of what was going on for a few moments. I also loved Morag, as she was a no nonsense type of character, and although she seemed skeptical about Tom's time travel story, she became a good friend to him and tried to understand what was going on with him.

I found parts of the story to be quite confusing. Although I loved the alternate reality with his parents, and certain aspects of 1645 blurring into it, I felt that the alternate reality of Tom arriving at the close on his school trip to not make much sense. I liked the idea of Tom being able to see things that his parents, who actually belonged in that reality couldn't, but I personally felt that it made no sense for Missie Grierson to be in an alternate reality with him and for other people belonging in that reality to also be able to see her.

Throughout the novel there is the on going question of “Is this really happening, or is it going on inside of Tom's head?” What we get told from a young age is to never write “it was all a dream,” and I found myself worrying that this terrible cliché would happen and ruin an overall great novel. I find this ending to be quite lazy on an authors part, so I was glad that some proof of it actually happening was given in the last couple of pages. I am looking forward to reading the next book in this series.

Fans of Harry Potter, Alice in Wonderland and Wizard of Oz will definitely love this book. 

You can purchase Crow Boy HERE

Review on Foundation #1 Pieces Of Me

Peyton Lane has struggled with her weight her whole life. She has never been popular, and has definitely never been in a relationship before. However everything changes after Peyton creates a rock band with her friends. Suddenly Peyton is popular, and has the confidence to turn her life around. With her new found popularity, Peyton is thrown into a difficult decision, who should she give her heart away to? After the boy she has had a crush on for years takes a sudden interest in her along with his twin brother and one of the members from her favourite band, Peyton must make the right decision.

I initially loved Peyton and the fact an overweight girl who wore glasses was the protagonist of a love story. With a small group of friends and having no boys who were interested in her, I could easily relate with my own experience of high school. I found the start of the novel with her initial meeting with Jace quite frustrating, as I thought it was obvious what was going on, but it took Peyton a lot longer to figure out what I had known from the start. I loved Jace and the fact that he wanted to get to know Peyton despite his popularity. I liked that Peyton pushed herself to lose weight so that it would make her happier, but what I disliked was the fact that the boys only became interested in her romantically once she had lost weight and started to wear contact lenses. As a glasses wearer myself I love the rare occasions when I come across a character who wears glasses, but as is often the case when a character goes through a change to make themselves more appealing, the glasses are always one of the first things to go. I look forward to the day when I find a book where glasses aren't seen as unattractive, but unfortunately this wasn't the one to change that.

Although I loved that Peyton was becoming more confident due to her weight loss and success with the band, I found myself overall disliking her more as the story progressed. I felt as if she was accepting any male attention she received just because she had boys who were interested in her. This was apparent with her relationship with Jax, who had relentlessly bullied her, and suddenly seemed to change his tone and became interested in dating her. I was disappointed that she decided to agree to go on a date with him after all the humiliation he had put her through.

Even though I didn't dislike him as much as I disliked Jax, I still wasn't a huge fan of Colton. Although he had known her for years, he suddenly became interested in her after she had lost weight. To me this seemed like he was only interested in her because he found her physically attractive, and I was frustrated that Peyton didn't see this too and went along with it.

I thought Noah was a sweet character, but I felt that he was better as a good friend for Peyton. I loved their friendship and was really hoping that they didn't develop romantic feelings for each other, so I was slightly disappointed when he got thrown into the mix of potential love interests too. I also found it quite unrealistic that she would go from never having kissed a boy to thinking about potential relationships with four boys who were all interested in her. Love triangles can sometimes seem realistic, but love pentagons seem a little too far fetched.

The only boy who gave her the time of day before she lost weight and set up her band was Jace, so to me he seemed like the obvious choice from the start. Although he was still far from perfect, Jace seemed to me from the start to be the best choice. I loved that he liked Peyton before she lost weight, but the fact that he cared more about his popularity than admitting his feelings for her sooner. It made me wonder if he would still have pursued her if she had not lost the weight and gained popularity.

I liked the ending as Peyton finally seemed to be in a place where she was happy with her life. After the struggles she goes through at the start of the novel and being self conscious about her body I was glad she was finally accepting herself. I loved that Jace didn't seem to care about her imperfections but decided to help her be more comfortable in her own skin. Although I wasn't as invested in the characters as I would have liked to have been it was still an overall enjoyable read.

Pieces Of Me can be purchased HERE