City of Lost Souls - Cassandra Clare

This book was much better than the Mortal Instruments Book 4 City of Fallen Angels. Where that book bored my to tears following characters that were so boring and predictable with their choices, Lost Souls actually had a storyline and made me want to continue. After the last book I wasn't sure if I wanted to continue with the series, but I'm happy I did.

Lost Souls had a lot of teen angst mixed in with the action as well as the story line. I will say however, what does Cassandra Clare have with incest. It seems to be a common thing in the Mortal Instruments series. First Jace was Clary's brother and they were torn about the feelings they had for each other. Now in the latest instalment Clary's real brother 'Sebastian' wants to be with Clary citing the great Egyptian royal families as examples of how it makes it okay. It is not okay folks! So wrong in so many ways.

There were a few parts of the story that I was not expecting to happen and was happily surprised that there were twists and turns and not just the blah story from book 4. Leaving the ending as a big cliffhanger.

Waiting for the next book to be available on audiobook so I can listen to it. In the meantime I will read the Infernal Devices trilogy.

The Assassin's Blade - Sarah J. Maas

Awesome. These five novellas give you all the stories that occurred before Throne of Glass that you hear about throughout the book. It was great to have a little more explained about Celaena's past and what lead up to her being captured and sent to Endovier in the first place. I would still love to read a story about how Arobynn found Celaena as a child and then began to train her to become the worlds most famous assassin.

Here while Celaena is a little younger her arrogance is startling and almost her "fatal flaw" as most characters need. I found myself wanting to slap her every now and then due to her unwavering arrogance in the face of every situation. Interesting how Sarah J Maas could make you really annoyed at a character you love but without turning on them completely, it's more realistic that way as everyone has annoying traits.

A must for anyone who love the Throne of Glass series, especially while waiting for the third book to come out.

The Assassin and the Princess - Sarah J. Maas

What a beautiful insight into the relationship between two such amazing friends. Just a girls day out in the city. I loved the true friendship that is depicted in this short little story that made it miss my best friend.

The Assassin and the Captain - Sarah J. Maas

A little fun exchange between two of the main characters when their relationship was still forming. A love the banter back and forth between Celaena and Choal.

Throne of Glass - Sarah J. Maas

I loved this book. The story had just enough intrigue, action, and even romance. Celaena the main character is great. She is strong willed, opinionated and cunning. However she is only 17 and she acts just like a 17 year old, which is not a problem except that she is supposed to be the worlds most feared assassin and apart from the fighting, she is a gushing young kid. Putting that aside though, she was a fun character that I enjoyed following. 

I have discovered that I definitely have a "type" of book that I love reading. They don't have to be in the same genre but there are similar themes that run through them all. This book seemed to be all of them combined. All the way through the book I had déjà vu moments and memories of previous books flooded back.

Even though reading this book remind me of all the others before it, I still loved every part of it. 

We were liars - E. Lockhart

This story is brilliant. It is written in a very distinctive style that I have never experienced before, but I really liked it. The story is told from the point of view of Cadence, and is exactly how I remember a teenage girls mind working. The narrative flits all over the place in short spurts. A little information here, a little there, then back to the original information that was being told. I can see how that would be super annoying to many people, as I have seen in many reviews, however I liked it.

This book as just a normal story of a girl trying to remember her past, that is until she does start to remember and then it changed to an entirely different book. It was one of the most emotional books I have ever read. I was crying uncontrollably as I read each page but I had to continue. I had to know more, I had to finish.

Amazing, truly amazing. 

Double Black - Wendy Clinch

I really enjoyed this book. The subject matter (the ski life, not the murder) really appealed to me being an ex ski bum myself. The snow town lifestyle was very accurately described down to the nicknames for equipment, and groups of people. 

The characters seemed very real with faults and all. Even the form of speach in the book was as it is between people in real life, not long monologues that are never interrupted by others. Some people may have found that frustrating but I found it refreshing as I have not seen it in a book before. It made the whole experience more true to life for me and left me day dreaming of my own time on the hill.

The story itself was good and moved at a nice pace with just enough description of everyday life that happened to have a mystery going on around it, rather than a mystery story with only a little peripheral storyline. But that was exactly what I was looking for after all the books I have been reading lately. I can't wait to read the next book in the series. I'm just a little bummed that I can't get it from Amazon on Kindle as I'm travelling and that is all I have access to at the moment. At least there is something to look forward to when I get home instead of falling into the post travel depressive state.

The Kill Order - James Dashner

As this book is a prequel, of course there are all new characters. I must say I'm found it hard to feel any attachment to them. I didn't feel that they were written in a way that the reader was suppose to feel any form of attachment to them. 

This book is just loosely based on the Maze Runner trilogy. The story itself is not something I would have read normally. In fact it isn't even that interesting. I hoped it would be a lot more interesting than was. Bummed I've wasted my time and money on it really as I'm not finding it fun. Valuable reading time has been stolen from me on a story that isn't that good.

However it is an easy read, as the original trilogy was. While I was still not super interested in the story I am one of those people who has to finish a book. It's not bad enough to make me put it down and give up on it, but it still erks me that I don't like the storyline especially after The Maze runner was so great. 

Thomas' first memory of the flare - James Dashner

What was the point of this? It had no bearing on the story (again as did all of the other flash backs). I can see why it was edited out of the book.

The Death Trials - James Dashner

There was to much in this book. It was over the top with action and death and didn't have any of the originality that the first book had. I compare this book to a Michael Bay movie, where you just want to turn the noise level down to protect your sanity and not try to focus on the screen as everything moves too fat to be seen. 

The ending was predictable and not fulfilling at all. Although I could see that the story was going in that direction from the start of book two. There was so much potential for what could of become if this story, that it was sad to see it wasted in the way that it was. 

The most annoying thing to be throughout the whole trilogy was that Thomas was getting flash backs and learning things but never seemed to piece things together on this own. Most people were always one step ahead of him, even those without any memories of what was going on. Why show the reader pieces of a past that you are never going to explain or use in the story, it just frustrated the hell out if me.
Not all that happy I continued to read this series and it had just put a dampener on the greatness that was the first book.

The Scorch Trials - James Dashner

The sequel to The Maze Runner was almost as good as it's predecessor but to me it lacked a certain amount of suspense and action that the first book captured perfectly. Perhaps it was because after the Maze Runner the reader expected that anything that could go wrong probably would go wrong. However even though the Cranks were slightly frightening and the scene at the very start of the book in the common room illicit some pretty disturbing images, the rest of the book was just missing a certain off key element that was in the original.

The book is divided into three parts of the adventure, 1 the common room and tunnel, 2 the scorch and the town, and 3 the mountains and safe zone. While the first two parts were described in detail and had most of the action occur there, to me it felt like the end was rushed. I remember thinking as I was reading it that there were not many pages left and according to what the characters said in the book there was still a long distance to go. It felt rushed and condensed so that the book would not be too long or so that a big portion of the book didn't need to be described. That let it down for me.

It had been a while since I read the original book so some of the characters were a little unfamiliar at first to me, but after a small chunk of the book all was good again and the new characters introduced in this book are interesting and I look forward to reading more about them I the future books. Now on to The Death Cure and then Kill Zone. The Maze Runner has been made into a movie and will be out later this year. I'll definitely be in line for that one.

When you reach me - Rebecca Stead

This book was for an audience a lot younger than I was expecting. Many times during the book I paused to wonder why I was reading such a simple story. However the story was an interesting one. The concept is great but I had a very hard time believing that a bunch of twelve year olds would be discussing such high level concepts. I wish that this story was re written as an adult novel as it has so much more potential that was is in this book. 

However it was a quick read and a nice easy story. I read it in just under six hours with no trouble in taking breaks breaks between reading sessions. 

Desires of the Dead - Kimberly Derting

I found this book better than the first in the series, The Body Finder, as it didn't get caught up continually having to explain Violet's gift of hearing the dead's echoes. I found that this book flowed a lot more and was a better read. The first book took many reading sessions to get through whereas this one flowed more, enough that it only took a few reading sessions. 

The story was engaging and while it did have the element of the supernatural and the far fetched to it, it was an 'every girl' story that any reader could relate to; the fight of a young girl to find her way through all the complications of a new relationship as well as life as a teenager. 

I really enjoyed this book and will continue to read the series, which is a shock even to myself, as I nearly wrote the series off after book one.