City of Fallen Angels - Cassandra Clare

The fourth book in The Mortal Instruments series follows on the storyline from the original three books once our characters have returned from the Shadowhunter home country of Idris having defeated the evil Valentine. While I'm sure there are plenty of people out there that are stoked there are more books being written in this world that Cassandra Clare has created, I am not one of those super psyched people. Don't get me wrong I did thoroughly enjoy the trilogy that came before this book, but I felt that the story was done and I have happy to leave it there. This new extension and angle have put a twist on it all to keep it fresh but still lack a little for me.

Again having listened to this on audiobook I was truly disappointed by the two narrators, Ed Westwick and Molly C Quinn. The surprising thing, even to myself, is that I love Ed Westwick. I think he is amazingly talented and as soon as I heard him speak I was in a whirlwind trying to pin point where exactly I knew the voice from and when it clicked who it was I was so happy. However the excitement didn't last very long. I found that both narrators seemed to miss the beat and emotion of the text they were reading and their different pronunciation of names and places from all the previous books made me so furious that I found myself correcting them every single time throughout the entirety of the book. For me, this put such a downer on my listening experience, that I fear it has even dampened my feelings for the story itself.

This story took a long time to get anywhere and was mainly focused on the character Simon, who I thought was a little boring even if he is a downworlder now. Then once it did start to flow at a decent pace it felt to me like it was rushed with a few story lines being avoided so that there could be yet another book to conclude everything. The final few minutes of this story were so infuriating that it has made me seriously question whether or not I want to listen to the last book in the series.

There are good fun characters in this story, why didn't Clare follow them instead of making them bit characters who only appear when the main boring characters we follow need something from them. That especially would have made this post trilogy storyline a little more exciting and enticing. More Issy and Magnus to spice things up in the final instalment please.

Catching Fire - Suzanne Collins

The second book in the Hunger Games trilogy follows Katniss and Peeta in the year following their win in the Hunger Games. After her rebellious challenge to the Capital that enabled both of them to make it out of the games alive, Katniss finds herself as the poster child for the building of a rebellion throughout the 12 districts.

Starting out the reader gets to know what life is like back in District 12 for a Victor. Everything has changed for Katniss and her family, now with their own house in the Victors village and ample food that Katniss shares with as many people as possible. It seems that life could go on and Katniss and Peeta could forget about the games and continue on with life. That is until the announcement of the 75th Annual Hunger Games which have been made extra special by being a game featuring past Victors only. As Katniss is the only female victor from District 12, her fate is sealed.

I found this book to be almost as amazing as the first. While it does follow along the same idea of our main character going into the Hunger Games again, there is a new arena, new contestants and a new feeling of unrest within. The arena appealed to me more this time as it was designed for the purpose of the games, while the forest style area of the original Hunger Games seemed a little bland and pointedly there to help out the girl who climbs under the fence of her district to escape into the wilderness. Also putting characters who know what it takes to survive, into a purpose built arena adds a spark and intelligence to all that occurs within.

I ploughed through this book in one night, without sleeping as I couldn't put it down. I was so excited that a second book in a series could be almost as good as the first. I would say the only thing that made this book stand in the original's shadow was that a large part of the general story was very similar with Katniss being selected for the Hunger Games and going back into the arena. Still a very high quality for a second book, which puts so much pressure on the third and final book Mockingjay. Let's hope it lives up to the challenge.

City of Glass - Cassandra Clare

City of Glass was a fun brisk paced book. It was much better than the previous two in the series. I feel that was because there was a lot happening and the story all tied in together. I felt that it moved at the right pace without slowing down, and things weren't explained in great depth to slow the flow of the story down. It was a typical third book and end of trilogy where the story wraps up easily and the good guys win in the end, but not without cost.

I felt the descriptions of the fictional Shadowhunter home land of Idris and the city of glass itself, Alicante, were delightful with just enough information to give you a basic description but little enough to allow the reader to use their imagination to construct a remarkable landscape unlike anything I have read of before in any other novel.

Knowing that this book will be made into a movie in the coming future lifts my spirits. I just hope they can do it justice with the imagery. Watching the full story play out on the big screen will be something to look forward to.

This book is worth the read to finish the trilogy and get some closure on the world of shadowhunters. However I have just been made aware that there are two further stories in this series that I will be listening to very shortly, as well as a prequel trilogy set in Victorian England.

City of Ashes - Cassandra Clare

This being the second book of a trilogy was quite surprising to me.Normally the second book doesn't really do a whole lot except set up the story for the third and final part of the story, and while it does do that it also has its own story that hold its own weight. I actually found this book to be more interesting that the first one. I'm not sure if that was because I already knew the characters or the world in which the story was written, or even if I thought it was just a better story. All I know is that I enjoyed it more, I felt like more happened.

Sure the story did jump around from character to character to follow all the story arcs that were going on, but there weren't too many to follow that you lost track of what was going on. Plus I am used to that sort of writing style from other books I read. The introduction of new parts of the 'downworld' was great and interesting and even fun. Having now brought these characters and races into the mix there is so much potential in what can be done in book three City of Glass.

Having a different narrator on the audio book made a large difference too. I found the reader of this book more involving and I didn't feel as though the book went for the full 12 and a half hours, whereas City of Bones dragged on.

Very interested to see where the story goes as I have many questions that need answers. Starting the third and final book tomorrow.

City of Bones - Cassandra Clare

This book has been on my nightstand for the past 4 years.
I always wanted to read it by many other books were higher on my list and so I didn't ever get around to it. Then they made it into a movie which I saw before I listened to the book.

I must say from watching the movie there were many things that were confusing and not clear which I assumed must be explained more in the book. Similar of what people have said about The Hunger Games move compared to the book written by Suzanne Collins. However after listening to this book I found that some of the questions I had are still there. Not everything I wanted explained was explained.

However saying that I found the storyline to be interesting. I felt that so much more could have been done with the idea, but that may happen in the following books City of Ashes and City of Glass. While the writing was a little bland for my liking (reminiscent of Stephenie Meyers Twilight books) I did still find it engaging and easy to listen to. I'm sure that if you were to read this book it would flow well and be a fast read. I also found that if I stopped the recording and come back to listen to it after time had passed, I still know where I was and what was going on in the storyline, which makes for a good non thinking, easy-going, pass time book.

I feel for what this book was trying to be, it hit the mark and created a world that could be believable with only a little suspended reality. Fun but not a book I'd keep on my shelves.

Bitterblue - Kristin Cashore

This book was so great until the last 50 pages. I felt like the end of the book went in a totally different direction. I can see that it may perhaps set up another book to follow, but it made the end of this amazing book disappointing.  I was waiting for a huge climax to end it all and explain things and wrap it all up, but instead got what I feel is a shortened finish so that other new stuff could be included.

It didn't help that by the time I got to read Bitterblue I had almost forgotten everything that happened in Graceling and Fire. I know they can be read as stand alone books but there is so much info you learn in both of the previous books that is good to know.

There was so much intrigue, adventure and discovery in the majority of the book that kept me in suspense and wanting more but the ending seemed to dash that away. So I hope Kristin Cashore writes more books in this universe as it is so full of diverse and charismatic characters, but doesn't cut the endings too short.

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies - Jane Austen & Seth Grahame-Smith

This book was so much fun. I'm not sure if it made it better by listening to it on audiobook, but I was giggling to myself at work while listening to it. Seth Grahame-Smith has tied the zombies in so brilliantly and seamlessly that you can hardly notice the additions. I would say this is a great way to introduce someone to the great works of Jane Austin, who wouldn't normally read it.

While Pride and Prejudice is one of my all time favourite books, this version does not take away from the story at all, but alternatively enhances it for a different audience. I would advice anyone who loves the classics like Austen and Bronte to give this book a go.

I will definitely be listening to the prequel Dawn of the Dreadfuls, the end of the trilogy Dreadfully Ever After and other similar titles such as Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters.

Beautiful Creatures - Kami Garcia & Margaret Stohl

This book had a lot of potential when I first heard of it, enough to make me buy it and want to read it. But then it sat on my bookshelf for the next 3 years. Each time I finished another book and had to choose my next one to read it always looked a little less enticing, especially when I read the back jacket. It has a blurb the similar as Twilight, where it doesn’t really tell you much about the book and so doesn’t pique your interest.

To be honest, what made me take it off my shelf and finally read it was the fact that the movie was coming out. I had to read it before I saw the movie, otherwise if the movie was bad it would deter me from reading the book to see if it was any better.

I started on it in the hope that I would remember the reason for buying it in the first place. The beginning was a little slow and seemed disjointed. I put that down to there being two co-authors on this book. Being as it was my first co-authored experience, I decided to try to not put as much emphasis on this as I normally would a disorganized novel. However it still did annoy me. Further into the book I was either more into the book that I didn’t notice as much or there was a better flow.

The story started to pick up and I grew to like the characters. Like, not love. I felt I didn’t get enough of them to love them; no history, no in depth explanation, no quirky humanising character flaws. But the story continued and I kept reading for its potential.

At some point after the middle something must have changed without me being aware, as I found myself wanting to continue reading when I really had to go to bed. The last quarter of the book was very good, it had a nice pace to it but I would have preferred the climax to be a little more long winded than it was. It seemed to me that the end was planned but rushed in it’s execution. More in depth descriptions would have been appreciated to make you feel like you were there, not just reading about it. That’s it, I felt for the whole book that I was reading about the story rather than experiencing it.

Then there was that ending, that last paragraph/stanza that made me so angry. It’s sort of the like the end of a big budget movie when you are satisfied with the story, but they add this little lose end in there to make a sequel possible if it makes enough money. Exactly how I felt about the ending of the book. It left me with a huge sour taste in my mouth. Not happy Jan. However I have found myself today researching the sequels and adding them to my to-be-read list on Goodreads. I just hope that they live up to the potential of the story.