Currently Reading

Currently reading: Vulture by Bex Hogan.

Thursday, 17 January 2013

James Dashner's new book gets a cover!

HELL YES!!!!! WAHOOOO!

Now I am officially excited!

I loved Jame's last trilogy, The Maze Runner, which consisted of The Maze Runner, The Scorch Trials and  The Death Cure and I am looking to get around to the prequel, The Kill Order pretty soon! But on to new things... James has a new trilogy that he's working on and the first book is out on 8th October in the US of A. No word on a UK release but fingers crossed. I shall just import a copy anyway! Good old Book Depo!

It's called The Eye of Minds and it is the first book in The Mortality Doctrine. What an amazing series name, eh? I love it! It looks like this...


Amazing! And it sounds like this...

"An all-new, edge-of-your seat adventure from James Dashner, the author of the New York Times bestselling Maze Runner series, The Eye of Minds is the first book in The Mortality Doctrine, a series set in a world of hyperadvanced technology, cyberterrorists, and gaming beyond your wildest dreams . . . and your worst nightmares. Michael is a gamer. And like most gamers, he almost spends more time on the VirtNet than in the actual world. The VirtNet offers total mind and body immersion, and it’s addictive. Thanks to technology, anyone with enough money can experience fantasy worlds, risk their life without the chance of death, or just hang around with Virt-friends. And the more hacking skills you have, the more fun. Why bother following the rules when most of them are dumb, anyway? But some rules were made for a reason. Some technology is too dangerous to fool with. And recent reports claim that one gamer is going beyond what any gamer has done before: he’s holding players hostage inside the VirtNet. The effects are horrific—the hostages have all been declared brain-dead. Yet the gamer’s motives are a mystery. The government knows that to catch a hacker, you need a hacker. And they’ve been watching Michael. They want him on their team. But the risk is enormous. If he accepts their challenge, Michael will need to go off the VirtNet grid. There are back alleys and corners in the system human eyes have never seen and predators he can’t even fathom—and there’s the possibility that the line between game and reality will be blurred forever."

Cannot wait!!

Wednesday, 16 January 2013

The Oathhreaker's Shadow cover unveiled!

I for one am very very excited about this book. I remember being sent the press release months ago and getting all excited and wishing 2013 would just hurry the hell up. Well now, we're just 5 months away from the release of what sounds like an amazing book! The Oathbreaker's Shadow comes out 1st June and looks like this...


HOW AMAZING IS THIS COVER? LOTS OF CAPS AMAZING, THAT'S HOW MUCH! So so so excited! Cannot wait to read it, and you should be excited to. Need anymore persuading? Here's the official synopsis...

"Fifteen-year-old Raim lives in a world where you tie a knot for every promise that you make. Break that promise and you are scarred for life, and cast out into the desert. Raim has worn a simple knot around his wrist for as long as he can remember. No one knows where it came from, and which promise of his it symbolises, but he barely thinks about it at all—not since becoming the most promising young fighter ever to train for the elite Yun guard. But on the most important day of his life, when he binds his life to his best friend (and future king) Khareh, the string bursts into flames and sears a dark mark into his skin. Scarred now as an oath-breaker, Raim has two options: run, or be killed. A gripping YA action-adventure fantasy, the first part of a planned duology"

And it's going to be a hardback! It's going to be one stunning book and one to look out for!

Zom-B 4 Gets a Title!!

2013 is one heck of an exciting year for fans of a certain Mr. Darren Shan. Four books from his current series, Zom-B, are due to be published every three months or so. We're already one down with the release of the awesome Zom-B Underground at the start of the month. So that leave's Zom-B City due in March, Book Four in June and then Book Five is out in October, with all the excitement starting again in January 2014 for Book Six... But back to the present... there's a title to announce! Oh yes!! Mr Shan today announced the title for Book Four and I for one love the title and can only begin to imagine the cover we're going to get (the cover is due to follow some time next month...)

So... the title... is...

Zom-B Angels


Ooh! Intriguing, right! Zom-B Angels is due out on 20th June!

Tuesday, 15 January 2013

The Tragedy Paper by Elizabeth LaBan [Review]


I would just like to point out that this is going to be an honest review... Okay... let's go...

Written by: Elizabeth LaBan.
Published by: Doubleday.
Format: Hardback.
Released: 10th January 2013.
Rating: 3/5.

Official synopsis: "Tim Macbeth is a 17-year-old albino and a recent transfer to the prestigious Irving School, where the motto is, “Enter here to be and find a friend.” Tim does not expect to find a friend; all he really wants to do is escape his senior year unnoticed. Despite his efforts to blend into the background, he finds himself falling for the quintessential “it” girl, Vanessa Sheller, girlfriend of Irving’s most popular boy. To Tim’s surprise, Vanessa is into him, too, and she can kiss her social status goodbye if anyone finds out. Tim and Vanessa enter into a clandestine relationship, but looming over them is the Tragedy Paper, Irving’s version of a senior year thesis, assigned by the school’s least forgiving teacher. The story unfolds from two alternating viewpoints: Tim, the tragic, love-struck figure, and Duncan, a current senior, who uncovers the truth behind Tim and Vanessa’s story and will consequently produce the greatest Tragedy Paper in Irving’s history"

Ugh. I don't even know where to start.

I wanted to love this book so much. When I first heard about it I was so excited. I loved the premise. I loved the cover - it just made me want to dive in - and when I got a copy I did a little dance and couldn't wait to read it. But then I did start to read it - and it was not what I expected at all.

One thing this book has taught me is not to make expectations so high. Whilst I did enjoy the book, it isn't terrible, far from it, I just didn't like it as much as I thought I would. I would find myself sometimes becoming disinterested with parts and just stopping altogether only to come back later and have to re-read because I had missed things. I don't know what it is, I don't know why but I just couldn't seem to focus on some of the book. 

At first, the idea of the Tragedy Paper itself sounded interesting, but it failed to capture me - the book became too much about education and school and I think that's what turned me off a bit. Everyone seems to excited about it - they look forward to this paper and learning in general. Now call my cynical, but I don't know that many people that actually enjoy school that much. I didn't exactly hate school but nor did I love it - I don't know if this is what irked me about the book or not - it's something I can't put my finger on if I'm honest. 

Tim is an albino, and this interested me. It was one of the reasons I wanted to read the book - it's different. In a world of vampires and perfection and God knows what else is out there on bookshelves it made a nice change and I was looking forward to probably learning something but all I really garnered was that Tim's eyes caused him a lot of grief. I felt for him when he said about people staring - I for one hate big crowds and being looked at so I got where he was coming from - but the relationship with Vanessa was a lukewarm one for me. I don't know what else to say on this point without spoiling the book - I know there will be people out there that will find it cute, lovely, but I am just not one of those people I guess.

I liked the idea of the CD's Tim left behind for Duncan, the next occupant of his room - a tradition is that the past Seniors leave a gift behind for the person who gets their room for the next year and this was interesting - and them telling his story.

The writing is great - fluid and engaging. It's just the plot that lets the book down for me.

I hate writing reviews like this one. Like I said, I wanted to love this book. But I do pride myself on my reviews being honest. It's a sad fact in life that some books are not for everyone, and this is just one of those books for me, I guess. It is contemporary  and it could just be that I don't read many books in the genre so don't get on with them so well. That said I know there will be people out there that adore this, and rightfully so. Please don't be put off reading it, I just have to give my honest reading experience. I've seen all the buzz, all the excitement  and lots of awesome reviews for this book so I know folks are loving it so definitely check it out and make your own mind up!

Would just like to say thank you so much to Harriet at Doubleday for my copy! You rock!

Monday, 14 January 2013

The Legend of Ellie Quin by Alex Scarrow [Review]

Written by: Alex Scarrow.
Published by: Grrr Books.
Format: eBook.
Released: 23rd December 2012.
Rating: 4/5.

Official synopsis: "A brand new series from the Author of TIMERIDERS! Welcome to a universe as you've never seen it before;- genetically engineered pocket pets, plant life with a crabby attitude, soda pops that fight back...and revoltingly slimy junk food. Ellie Quin's just a normal young woman. Bored with her life on a remote farm, staring up at the stars at night and wishing she was far away on another more exciting world.  She thought she was normal. Turns out she was wrong. It turns out she's the most valuable, the most dangerous, the most hunted-for human in the universe... and there are people already closing in on her. The Legend of Ellie Quin: a breathless pursuit across a colourful, madcap universe of shopping malls and space ships. Lip-gloss and lazer guns."

I am a big fan of Alex Scarrow, and I am damn proud of it. I love love LOVE his TimeRiders series - the tale of three teens on the cusp of death, pulled out of real life to police time and stop those that can also travel through the decades, centuries, millennia and further from causing world wide devastation - so when I heard that he was publishing a new book, exclusively electronic and that it was part of a trilogy I was quite excited. And I was right to be.

The Legend of Ellie Quin kicks off the Ellie Quin trilogy (the second and third books are also available already!) which follows, as you've probably guess by now, one Ellie Quin. Nineteen years old, she's desperate to stretch her wings and leave behind the dusty domes where her father harvests oxygen for the inhabitants of their newly colonised planet. She wants to go to the city, and then, if she can, off world to see what the other planets in the black expanse of space have to offer her. But things never seem to go Ellie's way. Her plans are scuppered, and not one to sit back and do nothing she takes matters into her own hands...

We don't see that much of the city, New Haven, in book one, but I feel like we've already got a good glimpse, and it's safe to say that it doesn't live up to poor Ellie's expectations. I can't wait to see more of it in the second book, The World According to Ellie Quin.

I loved this book so much. It took me a little while to read it due to it being over the Christmas period and family stuff taking up a lot of my time, but I liked that it was a slow read. It has this feel to it, a real Sci-Fi feeling, and just in general that you want to savour every last word. It's fun, exciting and very engaging. I didn't want to put my Kindle down for anything.

With the TimeRiders books, they're more focused on the past, stuff that has already happened and asking questions about what difference even a minute change would have on the present day. Whilst we do get little glimpses of futuristic elements, it's nothing on the scale of which we see in Ellie Quin. The fun Alex must have had inventing and thinking up some of the things we find in the book is evident! I mean, they're harvesting oxygen! Cool. I think that's what made this book so much fun to read, made it so enjoyable - you can tell that Alex has loved writing this, it shows.

This book however is a big tease! There are a lot of questions left open to take us in to book two, and I for one cannot wait to get stuck in!

(In case you were wondering, Book Two is called The World According to Ellie Quin, and then Book Three is Ellie Quin: Beneath the Neon Sky, and they're both available to download right now for your Kindle, along with book one! Just follow the link HERE!)

Saturday, 12 January 2013

The Rise of Nine gets a new look paperback cover!

Due for publication in June, the paperback edition of The Rise of Nine, the third book in the Lorien Legacies series by Pittacus Lore, is getting a bit of a facelift. Revealed yesterday by the official UK Facebook page for the series, run by publishers Puffin, it's totally different to the look of the hardback edition which was released last August and I for one like it. It's striking, that's for sure! I will be honest though, I prefer the hardback which was just too damn epic!



And it is definitely getting me excited for Book Four. Is it August yet? Wake me up when it gets here! Thanks!

Saturday, 5 January 2013

Zom-B Underground by Darren Shan [Review]

WARNING!!! If you have not read the first book in the series, Zom-B then please do not read this review. There are some HUMONGOUS twists that you do not want spoiling. Trust me...

Written by: Darren Shan.
Published by: Simon and Schuster.
Format: Hardback.
Released: 3rd January 2013.
Rating: 5/5.

Official synopsis: "Waking up in a military complex, months after zombies attacked school, B has no memory of the last few months. Life in the UK has turned tough since the outbreak, and B is woven into life- and battle- in the new military regime quickly. But as B learns more about the zombies held in the complex and the scientists keeping them captive, unease settles in. Why exactly was B saved? And is there anyone left in the world to trust?"

Where on earth do I start? Holy cow, Zom-B Underground is amazing. Zom-B was brilliant, but Underground is in a league of its own. With the real groundwork for the series already laid down for all to see (zombie's, B...) we get right into the thick of it in Underground

B is dead and has to come to terms with that. She's a zombie now. But she can think clearly, and with a little help from some eye drops and a file she can see and speak too. Kept locked away in a cell, all on her own, her mind is racing as she tries to piece together what is exactly that's going on. She soon learn that she is what humans in control now call a revitalised. She's a zombie who is still able to think as if she were living. Those who are less fortunate and are just brain-starved maniacs are known as reviveds. She has to adjust to life as a zom head and with what that entails. But being B, she isn't going to play ball that easy and begins to question her actions.

Soon, she learns that she and the other revitaliseds are nothing more than lab rats, and she isn't happy at all.

Zom-B was more story than gory, with only the opening and closing sections of the book dishing up the brainy goods, but with Underground it is riddled! It's gory, bloody, brainy. It's fantastic - with some of the most gruesome scenes I think I've read in a Shan book it made it an instant favourite and had me speeding through the book at lightning speed. I read it on my Kindle and barely even paused to look at the amazing drawings that appear periodically through the book - those had to be looked at in detail later. The thing about Underground and I find indeed with most of Shan's work, is that it draws you in and you just cannot stop until you've finished. Gasps. Cries of horror. Laughter even. All regular occurrences  and reactions that if you didn't have them whilst reading something by Mr. Shan you'd be a little disappointed! They work so well, he gets into your head so well. I love it.

We're also introduced to Mr. Dowling. The gentleman, or should I say clown, who adorns the cover for the third book in the series, Zom-B City, which is due for release in March. He's creepy, described in such a disgusting, gut wrenching way, and yet he's not exactly as he seems... WHAT?! WHAT?!! All I can say is I'm a little scared of what we'll find in City!

And those climatic scenes?!?! COME ON! You can't stop the book there... Keep going! ARGH!!!! Incredible.

It's so hard to review the book because apart from what I've said, anything would truly ruin the experience of reading this book for yourself. We're now two books into the promised twelve book saga, and you can feel that it's something special, that when it's all done and dusted in a few years time, it's going to be something you look back on and feel proud to have on your bookshelf. These books are thought provoking as well as just downright amazing. They make you question about bigotry  Racism. Hatred. You may think that they would appear to be nothing more than zombie fuelled fodder, but you would be far, far, FAR from the truth!

I implore you to check these books out. If you haven't already, you must. And if you have, I'm sure you love them too, right?!

Roll on Zom-B City!

Buy from Amazon UK


Tuesday, 1 January 2013

Happy New Year! RESOLUTIONS TIME!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Welcome 2013, I hope you're going to be nice to me. I'd prefer if you were nicer than 2012, which at times was a little mean, but we shall see!

FIREWORKS!!!!