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Currently reading: Vulture by Bex Hogan.

Wednesday 8 July 2015

The Death Code by Linsday Cummings [Review]

Written by: Lindsay Cummings.
Published by: Greenwillow.
Format: Hardback.
Released: 26th May 2015.
Rating: 4.5/5.

Official synopsis: "With short, fast-paced, alternating point-of-view chapters, The Death Code starts several weeks after The Murder Complex ended. Zephyr keeps the secret about Meadow close—that if she dies, The Murder Complex will be destroyed, too. Meadow, desperate to find her brother, father, and little sister, is determined to fearlessly fight to the end, even if it means sacrificing herself and her friends, new and old. The Death Codeintroduces a memorable cast of secondary characters and delivers a vivid and scary thrill ride read."

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Oh lordy! Oh lordy lordy lordy lordy LORDY!!! This book! Oh gosh I do not know where to start. Really, honestly and truthfully I don't! This book has been like something of a myth to me for so long. It was supposed to be coming but it felt like the wait just got longer and longer and longer, to the point where I wondered if it would ever come. That was how much I wanted, no... NEEDED this book in my life! I first read the first book in this two-parter, The Murder Complex, over Christmas 2013 and having to wait 18 months to see what would happen next and how it would all wrap up was so painful! But it came! It finally came and the book was everything I hoped and dreamed it would be.

Just as explosive and bloody as it's predecessor, The Death Code sees our heroine, Meadow, on the run from the Initiative again, but now, things are worse. Way worse. They have installed a metal box on the back of her skull - they call it a regulator, and torture Meadow in ways she never thought possible. But she is just a determined as ever, if not more so, to find and rescue her family, and her search will take her beyond the Shallows and deeper into a country in complete and utter turmoil.

Personally I enjoyed the book. There were however some aspects I didn't like, just as much as I loved. The ending did seem pretty damned rushed. The book, while fast paced by most books standards, felt slower than its predecessor, and it wasn't really until the last 100 to 150 pages that the pace really amped up and started to get exciting. But then BAMN. It was over. I was left begging for more, I tell you. Absolutely begging. There had to be more! There had to had to had to! Alas, there is not. My hopes for this becoming a trilogy have been dashed, as while the ending is open, it is clear that Meadow and Zephyr's story is finished the time being, and the fact that the acknowledgements confirm this saddens me greatly.

I just wish this series never had to end. I have fallen head over heels for these characters and their ways. Meadow is really pushed to her limits in The Death Code. Her health is failing but she still goes on, fighting harder and harder, pushing on harder than she has the rest of her life, knowing that she is running out of time to do what she has to do before it is too late. Her fearlessness really shines in this book and proves just how much of an influential character she is. And Zephyr is struggling to be honest with Meadow and feels like he is losing her. This aspect of their relationship was fun to read, to see how their dynamic has been changed by the events they have faced together and the things they need to do in order not just to save their lives but the lives of everyone they love.

This book, obviously being a closing chapter, has some very sad moments that made me want to put the book down so I didn't have to accept what was going on, and there is a twist near the end that made me reel before I forced myself to pick my copy up again and continue and thank god I did because that ending happened and I liked it, although it is very very open, WIDE OPEN, and it leaves me with hope that Lindsey might one day pick the characters up again. I beg you Lindsey... PRETTY PLEASE!! More Meadow and Zephyr please! More Koi! More Peri. Even Sketch... More Sketch, please!

The writing, as ever with Lindsey, is top notch. So fluid and fast and immersive and totally faultless. It draws you in so deep that you cannot get enough, falling deeper into the world of the Shallows and the secrets of the Murder Complex and what Meadow's connection to the system means and the consequences it brings. Overall the book is a satisfying conclusion to what has been an, albeit too brief, fantastic series. I cannot praise Lindsey enough, or thank her for such an amazing reading experience over the last few years - I cannot wait to see what the future holds and finally get around to reading the Balance Keepers books too! I also cannot recommend these books enough. If you want a fast paced, high-octane read that you'll speed through and fall totally in love with, then The Murder Complex, and The Death Code are for you!

Tuesday 7 July 2015

Red Queen by Victoria Aveyard [Reviews]

(NOTE: I don't know why this wasn't posted earlier, it's been sat in my drafts section for god knows how long?! I honestly thought I had posted this! Oops! Oh well, here it is now and I've updated it with the title of Book 2.)


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Written by: Victoria Aveyard.
Published by: HarperTeen (US) / Indigo (UK).
Format: Hardback.
Released: 12th February 2015.
Rating: 5/5.

Official synopsis: "This is a world divided by blood – red or silver. The poverty-stricken Reds are commoners, living in the shadow of the Silvers, elite warriors with god-like powers. To Mare Barrow, a 17-year-old Red girl from the Stilts, it looks like nothing will ever change. Then Mare finds herself working at the Silver palace, in the midst of those she hates the most. She quickly discovers that, despite her red blood, she possesses a deadly power of her own. One that threatens to destroy Silver control."

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You know that feeling you get sometimes when you've finished a book, almost like you're in a coma? You just can't pick anything else up. You can't do anything else. Think about anything else. You just want to lie there and weep or think about the wonder you have just read. Well, Red Queen is that sort of read folks. You definitely need to buckle your seat belts because once you start reading this book you are in for one hell of a bumpy ride, let me tell you!

From the very beginning Red Queen is bloody, feisty and heart-racingly addictive. It'll have you gasping at every twist and turn and racing through it at break-kneck speed! It is literally non stop. Every page, and I mean every page, will have you desperate to read on. I just could not get enough!

The world of Red Queen is so utterly unique and high-octane that you cannot help but fall in love and wonder what life would be like if you lived in it. There are the Reds. Lowlife. Dirty. Disposable - only there for the pleasure and enjoyment of the Silvers. And of course the are the Silvers. The elite. The powerful. The desirable. There's no love lost between both bloods, the Reds suppressed by the Silvers for centuries, treat as slaves and nothing more. I found this so interesting as it was another way of looking at race and the way people are towards one another, just because they are different. The world itself, the palace in particular is so beautifully described and conceived. I almost wanted to be a Silver for a day, just to get to see it for myself!

We meet Mare. She's going to be conscripted, she knows it. She doesn't have a job or a trade like her sister, and she knows that like her brothers before her she will have to go and fight in a war that the reds shouldn't even be involved in, but then she meets a mysterious man who she tries to pick-pocket before he realises what she is doing and catches her in the act. The next thing she knows she's being whisked away to serve the Silver royal family, the people she despises most in the world. But things do not go smoothly and soon it turns out that Mare is a special type of Red. A unique Red. She exhibits Silver powers which she should not and soon she finds herself wrapped up in more danger than she knows how to handle and to hide herself from her enemies she must masquerade as a Silver. The Queen loathes Mare but tolerates her as she is taken in to become a consort to the prince, Mavern, but it isn't Mavern she is interested in. It's his older brother, Cal, their heir to the throne and the very same person she tried to pickpocket in the first place.

Danger is aplenty as Mare tries to fit into a world with which she doesn't want to be a part of. She must play the game carefully, but she cannot help but make enemies in the process, it just happens. But not only is she making enemies, she's making powerful allies to, and with a rebel group, the Scarlet Guard, growing in power and profile Mare is putting more than just her life on the line as she helps them get an establishment inside of the palace.

The book builds to an electrifying crescendo with a twist that will leave you reeling and absolutely gagging for book two, which we now know is titled Glass Sword and has an absolutely stunning cover, just like Red Queen! The book is beautifully written and the prose just draws you in so completely that the book has this major cinematic feel, no wonder there are whispers of it being made into a movie and not that far away! I honestly cannot get over just how much this book captured me and took me over completely. I just could not get enough of Mare, and Maven and Cal, and of Reds and Silvers. It was just so wonderful and something I think everyone needs to experience. When it was released, Red Queen went straight in at number 1 on the New York Times bestsellers list and it is clear to see why and to say that it is totally deserved! I cannot wait to see what Glass Sword, and indeed Book 3 have in store for us, and with some novella's due in September 2015 and January 2016, it looks like there is plenty more to enjoy within the world of the Red Queen. I cannot wait!