13 Little Blue Envelopes - Maureen Johnson

Catching a tube in London for the first time, noticing the yellow bollards at street crossings, the zigzag lines in the middle of the road, the craziness of Rome's drivers; these are but a handful of the wonders of this book. It takes me back to my first time travelling around England and Europe and all the things I think any foreigner notices when they first go there but is never normally or accurately described in books or focused on in TV and movies.

This book reminds me of P.S. I love you, by Cecelia Ahern,  with the whole premise of letters from a dead loved on leading the main characters on an adventure to get them out of their shell or comfort zone. Don't get me wrong, I do love the idea and it would be a ball to do in real life.

Though the main character, Ginny, was only 16 or so, I found that she was written as extremely naive and don't feel that I could relate to her in that respect, but her wonder at the places she was visiting was easy. Again, I listened to this as an audio book and i found the narrator was terrible at accents and wished the whole time she tried to use them that she would stop. It as very frustrating, like when a main characters name is pronounced wrong. Also the voice she put on for Ginny was annoying and sounded like a petulant 12 year old. I feel if Ginny was 18 or 19 instead of 16 the story would have been a little more interesting, plus its so far detached from reality that Ginny's parents would have allowed her to go to Europe for a summer by herself, with no money or contactable technology, based on a request in a letter from her dead aunt.

I feel this book is trying to be a coming of age trip around Europe where aunt Peg is trying to open Ginny's eyes to other places and perspectives, but unfortunately, it fall a little flat for me and i base that on the age of Ginny and her complete inability to explore, interact or ever speak. This book has shown me, for the first time, that I can dislike the main character in a book but still enjoy the book. However this is only if I take the book at face value as a fluffy holiday/summer read.

The Last Thing I Remember - Andrew Klavan

During the first half of this book I was very frustrated as it went so slowly and nothing really seemed to happen. Well it was that or the main line of the story didn't have enough to hook me into it. This did change a little as the story went on but it was more for the discovery of new information rather than what was going on, kind of like the TV show Arrow where you just want to know what happened on the island for those four years that Oliver was missing. I just want to know what happened during that year and leaving it open for sequels to get those answers left me quite upset. Now I have to read two more of these books to find that out. At least this one was a quick read and didn't require much thought and concentration to get through it, which I'm guessing the subsequent ones won't either.  

I must admit I'm not sure how, but I did know almost straight away that Charlie was older than he thought he was (although I thought it was a number of years older not just one). 

I found that I had to re read some lines as the writing was not amazing. It wasn't terrible and definitely didn't put me off the book, as I have experienced before with other authors, it just didn't seem overly polished. Or perhaps that is the way it was meant to be as it could be that is the way the character thinks, but it really annoyed me. However either I got used to it or it didn't occur much towards the second half of the book.

It seems to me that from the pace of this story, all three books could be the arc over one decent length book. It feels like the author presented a book to the publishers and they in turn said they wanted a trilogy instead, so the book was split in three. I'll see if it still feel like that after I finish all three books.

Thirteen Reasons Why - Jay Asher

This book is written in a very distinct style, one I don't think I have ever read before. It is told by the main character clay who is listening to cassette tapes sent to him anonymously. He listens to stories told by Hannah, a girl in his year at school who killer herself two weeks prior. She is telling her whole story.

Just the premise of this is amazing and as the whole point (or at lest I feel it is) of the book is to make people, especially teenagers, think about the repercussions of their careless actions, it makes Clay also questions his actions and reactions to each thing Hannah describes.
I found I was immediately drawn in to this book and I really wanted to know what could have happened to this young girl to make her want to commit suicide. Also to have have it told to you in this fashion, on audio suicide note, is transfixing.

The format of the cassette tapes and each 'chapter' being a side of a tape is a quaint and interesting way to go about telling the story. I must admit though that the jolting back and forth between Clay and Hannah's voices is very quick and at times extremely frustrating. Hannah is 'talking', so be quiet Clay, stop butting in to tell us stuff.

The second half of this book, from cassette 5 side A, gets a little dark and hard to listen to at times, although you are so engrossed there is no chance of pressing pause. Just a warning as it is very different to the first half where you can tell the characters are younger and things aren't as important.

This book has been on my to be read list for well over a year now and I'm so happy that I finally got around to reading/listening to it. It's very easy to listen to/read as it flows easily. I imagine the actual book with large spaces  between lines and large indents on all sides of the text. The narrators of the audio book, Debra Wiseman and Joel Johnstone, were great and Debra has a beautiful voice.

To think this book, which is told from a teenage girls perspective is written by a guy is mind blowing. He managed to get inside a young girls head so well that whilst listening to the book I was positive it must have been written by a woman.

How to train your dragon - Cressida Cowell

This book was so much fun. I wanted to read it after I discovered that the movie was based on a book, and I sure am glad I did. While the storyline of the book is vastly different to the movie, they both have the feel about them. 

Hiccup is just as loveable as the narrator, after all this is his book on How to Train your Dragon, to replace the exceedingly lacking previous book by the same title. His group of training buddies have the same contempt and disdained for the 'useless' Hiccup as they do in the movie, however I was a little disappointed that they were all male. That was a nice touch in the movie to have two girls in the group. However the dragons were a bit of a surprise. I was expecting them to be the huge dragon like creatures that initially come to mind when you think of dragons, so it was a shock when I read that they were quite small creatures more akin to Fire Lizards in Anne McCaffrey's Pern series. 

Being a children's book it made it fun to see drawings of the characters and events that occurred in the book throughout. There was even a basic replica of the original How to Train your Dragon book inserted so that the reader can "share the experience with Hiccup of opening that book for the first time". This sort of inclusion is what makes this book fantastic and would keep young readers involved and turning the pages.

Reading this book only took me a few hours, but it made me feel like I had just watched a half hour cartoon on a Saturday morning like I did when I was a kid. It was simple yet portrayed the story clearly and easily so that kids (and heck, even adults like me) would be hooked and want to read more tales of Hiccup, Toothless and their Viking friends, which is great as there are a further 11 books in the series.

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 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. 

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. 

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 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.

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.