News: Anthony Horowitz and the Christmas Surprise

Christmas has just come 9 days early for me, thanks to Anthony Horowitz who, yesterday (yes I'm late again...) released the first chapter from the long awaited (and eagerly anticipated, I should add), fifth and final book in the incredible The Power of Five series. The book is called Oblivion and is out October/November 2012! So that for me is a big one to look out for too!

Now, the chapter is a gift from Mr. Horowitz, but he's not just going to post it up for you, is he? Oh no! You have to work for it - trust me, it's worth it! Just follow the clue on the following link (Anthony's Christmas Blog And Surprise!) and you should hopefully find it. If not, well it's only another 10 or 11 months until the books actually out! Not that long of a wait?! (Yeah, right!!)

I'm not going to lie, this chapter has me very excited for what is to follow! Bravo Anthony! Can't wait!

2012: Books of Interest (Part 1)

So with just over 2 weeks left of the year, the time has come to look forward to what 2012 has in store for us! One thing that spings to mind instantly is The Hunger Games movie which I for one am DYING to see! I'm also looking forward to all the little companion things, including the official guide written by Suzanne Collins herself! But anyway, this is about books... So, here are some books that have me salivating at the mouth, all due to be published throughout 2012!

Kickstarting the year, there are a few titles I'm looking forward to in JANUARY! First up, The Fault In Out Stars by John Green. Much to the dismay of some of my fellow bloggers, I have never read any of John's previous work (I shall prepare for some abuse, most likely from Iffath... I'm watching you!) but this sounds so good and I love the cover. Have a copy on pre-order thanks to The Book Depo and it sounds a little like this...

Official synopsis: "Diagnosed with Stage IV thyroid cancer at 12, Hazel was prepared to die until, at 14, a medical miracle shrunk the tumours in her lungs... for now. Two years post-miracle, sixteen-year-old Hazel is post-everything else, too post-high school, post-friends and post-normalcy. And even though she could live for a long time (whatever that means) Hazel lives tethered to an oxygen tank, the tumours tenuously kept at bay with a constant chemical assault. Enter Augustus Waters. A match made at cancer kid support group, Augustus is gorgeous, in remission, and shockingly, to her interested in Hazel. Being with Augustus is both an unexpected destination and a long-needed journey, pushing Hazel to re-examine how sickness and health, life and death, will define her and the legacy that everyone leaves behind."

Having lost family members (Total count so far of 4) to cancer, this sounds like it's going to be a heart-wrencher!

It also sees the publication of the second Casper Candlewacks adventure. It's called The Claw's of Crime and I can't wait. I loved the first book, Death by Pigeon (which I should be reviewing soon) and recently read it again. It's only a little book and it is aimed at younger readers (it says 9+ on the back... I'm only 10 years older... it's okay...) but it is so funny and such a good read! 

Official synopsis: "Most villages have an idiot but Casper's village is full of them. So being bright makes poor Casper something of an outsider. An infamous cat burglar has struck in the village of Corne-on-the-Kobb, stealing a precious jewelled sword and kidnapping Casper’s baby sister. To make matters worse a gaggle of amateur detectives are on the case, questioning the villagers and getting in the way. Armed only with his wits, an egg-boiling lie-detecting machine and his best friend Lamp, can Casper rescue his sister and save the day?"

FEBRUARY will see the release of Hollow Pike by James Dawson, courtesy of Orion Children's Books. I've raved about how much I want this book both here and on twitter, and as soon as I actually do get a copy, you will all know... You'll hear me shout with joy, I believe. If not, there'll be a twitpic with lots of !!!!!!!!!! marks... And such a beautiful cover. I hope it's shiny and has foil!!! (You hear me, Orion?!!)

Official synopis: "Lis London moves to Hollow Pike looking for a fresh start. She's intrigued by the town's sinister history of witchcraft, ritual and witchfinders. But when a fellow teen is murdered in the woods in what appears to be a ritual killing, Lis starts to wonder whether the witches are really history after all... Who is the mysterious figure caught on camera in the trees at the time of the murder? Could he be the killer? And do Lis's ominous nightmares of being murdered in the forest mean that she might be the next to die?"

Marvelous!

We also get this little beauty! Advent by James Treadwell. It looks beautiful, and it currently sitting on my "to read" pile. It sounds fantastic and I for one can't wait to get stuck in!

Official synopsis: "For centuries it has been locked away. Lost beneath the sea. Warded from earth, air, water, fire, spirits, thought and sight. But now magic is rising to the world once more. And a boy called Gavin, who thinks only that he is a city kid with parents who hate him, and knows only that he sees things no one else will believe, is boarding a train, alone, to Cornwall. No one will be there to meet him."

Creepy!

Then in MARCH, another very exciting release! The second Department 19 book, by Will Hill! Titled The Rising, the cover is quite literally on fire! HarperCollin's design department have taken what was already a very striking image from the first book, made a few changes and then set it ablaze and made it even more eye-catching! Reviewed the first book in this series earlier today, and this is perhaps one of my most anticipated releases for 2012.

Official synopsis: "The pulse-pounding sequel to DEPARTMENT 19 – “The best action horror story I have ever read” according to Bookzoneforboys… DEPARTMENT 6 IS THE ARMY. DEPARTMENT 13 IS MI5. DEPARTMENT 19 IS ALL THAT STANDS BETWEEN YOU AND THE END OF THE WORLD. After the terrifying attack on Lindisfarne at the end of the first book, Jamie, Larissa and Kate are recovering at Department 19 headquarters, waiting for news of Dracula’s stolen ashes. They won’t be waiting for long. Vampire forces are gathering. Old enemies are getting too close. And Dracula… is rising."

Eep! What is going to happen next?! 

In April, Simon and Schuster UK will publish Michelle Harrison's first offering since she finished her Thirteen series/trilogy. It's called Unrest, and it's out right at the end of the month. Not much is known... there's no cover art yet, but we do have a synopsis and it sounds deliciously ghosty!

Official synopsis: "Seventeen-year-old Elliott hasn't slept properly for six months. Not since the accident that nearly killed him. Now he is afraid to go to sleep. Sometimes he wakes to find himself paralysed, unable to move a muscle, while shadowy figures move around him. Other times he is the one moving around, while his body lies asleep on the bed. According to his doctor, sleep paralysis and out of body experiences are harmless - but to Elliot they're terrifying. Convinced that his brush with death has opened up connections with the spirit world, Elliott secures a live-in job at one of England's most haunted locations, determined to find out the truth. There he finds Sebastian, the ghost of a long-dead servant boy hanged for stealing bread. He also meets the living, breathing Ophelia, a girl with secrets of her own. She and Elliott grow closer, but things take a terrifying turn when Elliott discovers Sebastian is occupying his body when he leaves it. And the more time Sebastian spends inhabiting a living body, the more resistant he becomes to giving it back. Worse, he seems to have an unhealthy interest in Ophelia. Unless Elliott can lay Sebastian's spirit to rest, he risks being possessed by him for ever, and losing the girl of his dreams..."

Join me in a chorus of "I WANT... RIGHT NOW!!!"

Department 19 by Will Hill [Review]

Written by: Will Hill.

Published by: HarperCollins.

Format: Hardback.

Released: 31st March 2011.

Rating: 4.5/5.

Official synopsis: "In a secret supernatural battle that's been raging for over a century, the stakes have just been raised – and they're not wooden anymore.

When Jamie Carpenter's mother is kidnapped by strange creatures, he finds himself dragged into Department 19, the government's most secret agency.

Fortunately for Jamie, Department 19 can provide the tools he needs to find his mother, and to kill the vampires who want him dead. But unfortunately for everyone, something much older is stirring, something even Department 19 can't stand up against…"

Late last year, some buzz began to grow within the bloggosphere about a book that was top secret and set to blow. Much like a timebomb, Department 19 came into my life. I first heard about it through twitter... saw some top secret (not really because it's twitter) tweets, had an email and then a book popped through my letterbox (I was invited to this really cool event but couldn't go due to just starting my current job...) with the following image.

No writing. Just the image. So simple and so intriguing. Well I decided to read the first chapter just to see what all the fuss was about - I'd heard several folk who had already read the book rave about it - and wish (in a good way...) that I hadn't started... Because what I read in the next 400-odd pages blew my mind.

Will's writing has something about it that's so engaging and yet at the same time you don't have the feeling that you're being told the story, more living it. Department 19 is one of those books where it feels more like watching a movie, or as I said a moment ago, with a little imagination you could be right there, in the thick of it all with Jamie. It's so effortless and second nature. So smooth.

The characters are well rounded. I'm only going to focus on one in the review as I don't want to give anything away within the book and some names would kind of spoil it unless you're reading it... He's a bit of a weird one. The social outcast at school. Everywhere really. And his mum is just as much of an outcast. Why? Because his father was a traitor - or so everyone believes. He obviously has some resentment towards his father and as he learns the truth about everything - the cover up's, oh the COVER UP'S! - things begin to get a lot clearer and we learn about Department 19 itself, a secret section within the UK Government who specialise in protecting the general public from vampires and other monsters.

The concept of a secret sector of the government defending us against the creepy crawlies of the night isn't exactly a new one, but it's the approach to this one that makes it completely original. The book doesn't let up for one second. Violence and rightfully so - these are vampires after all - lots of blood and gore. For a few moments when reading it, I forgot that essentially, this book is aimed at teenagers. It doesn't feel that way at all, when reading it. The book gave me everything that I needed when I read it and I felt like Will had actually written the book just for me. I felt that the book itself got me, and got inside my head. Like the pages were manipulating themselves just for me yet leaving me breathless to see what on earth happened to Jamie next. I know that Will did not write it with me in mind and not just for me... but sometimes when reading a book you just get that feeling, right?

For so long now books have been making promises. The next Harry Potter. The next Twilight. The next this, the next that. And they hardly ever live up to those expectations, although in some cases they do surpass... But with Department 19, there are no frills. You get it as it is. A raw and gritty novel that will shock, make you squirm, and yet make you laugh in equal measure - because there are funny moments too. In all honesty, the book doesn't take itself too seriously. And that's what I love about it so much. It doesn't say "ooh look at me, I'm going to look real cool and actiony and dark and then let you down... my bad." Whenever I look at the cover, which I love for its simplicity and yet being so damn eye catching, it says "take me as it comes... what have you got to lose?" For once we're not given false promises and we get a delivery worth waiting for. Wall to wall action. Sometimes in even the most thrilling of thrillers there can at points be an element or two of boredom, but not here!

And the monsters are actually scary for once! In recent output, in the vampire fiction market in particular, things have become watered down, second rate and romance fueled taking away from the fact that these are beasts, monsters who would rather rip your throat out than kiss it delicately! These are the stuff that real vampires, vampires as we know them and as they should be, are made of! This book reminded me of being small and being terrified of anything bloody, regardless of what it was.

Will has definitely set the bar with this one. Big time. I really don't know what else to say - what else I can say... Just make sure you do not miss out on this one. And with the release of the second book Department 19: The Rising is just under 4 months time, you don't have much time to waste! Trust me, I am gagging for book 2, and so will you be once you've read this!

My thanks to HarperCollins for my proof... and to Will for writing the book itself. You should definitely seek him out on twitter too. He's a very funny guy!

(N.B... And if you hear him speak on YouTube you'll understand when I say that he should narrate the audiobooks! Love his voice. Can you have voice envy? I do... so I'm going to say yes, yes you can!)

Buy from AmazonUK

Torn by Cat Clarke [Review]

Written by: Cat Clarke.

Published by: Quercus.

Format: Paperback.

Released: 22nd December 2011.

Rating: 5/5.

Official synopsis: "Four girls. One dead body. A whole lot of guilt. Alice King isn't expecting the holiday of a lifetime when she sets off with her classmates on a trip to the Scottish wilderness, but she's not exactly prepared for an experience beyond her darkest nightmares... Alice and her best friend Cass are stuck in a cabin with Polly, the social outcast, and Rae, the moody emo-girl. Then there's Tara - queen of mean. Powerful, beautiful and cruel, she likes nothing better than putting people down. Cass decides it's time to teach Tara a lesson she'll never forget. And so begins a series of events that will change the lives of these girls forever..."

Last September, I reviewed Cat's first book, Entangled, and the review began with the following sentence: "This book is amazing! There. I've said it. Entangled is amazing." And it's true! And unfortunately, I have to begin the review of Torn in exactly the same way. Because it also is amazing... So...

This book is amazing. There. I've said it. Torn is amazing! (Is this going to become a Cat Clarke tradition?!). I've said before that the pink-ness of the Entangled proof putting me off a bit, and to be honest the use of pink, did again have a little effect on me. Not really a fan of pink, and to be honest, pink doesn't fit the story, but, a cover is a cover, there to get attention, and no doubt, this cover will. But having read Cat's work already, the cover was the least of my worries! I was fretting about what was inside.

Entangled took things to a fantastic new level and I wondered whether Cat could do it again. 

Well...

With masterful skill, Cat takes us on yet another earth-shattering ride as Alice King fights with her conscience and her best friend. Does she do the right thing and compromise her relationship with Cass, or does she keep the secret, despite the fact that it's getting harder and harder to keep?

I knew Cat was amazing, but Torn, for me only proves that even more. The writing is so addictive and one-hundred percent teenage. Cat gets right into the mind of her characters - in particular those of a narrative nature - and never once does the voice of Alice faultier. It's constant and oozes along naturally. It doesn't read like "adult writing for a teenager from a teenagers point of view but obviously not written by a teenager..." If you didn't know Cat, you would think this book had been written by a fifteen year old, no doubt about it. 

The five main characters, Alice - who we've already spoken about.., Cass the best friend, Rae the girl that doesn't really speak to anyone because she's too into her music, Polly the girl that, sadly, rightly or wrongly, we all know - no real friends, a kind of outcast. And then of course we've got Tara. The popular girl. Queen Bee. This book could be real, because it takes five girls who could go to any school, anywhere in the country, no doubt in the world.

To be honest, saying anymore would really spoil the book. It's so finely woven and beautifully crafted that trying to tweaser out tidbits it so freaking hard and anything I say could give the game away, quite literally. Just know that from start till finish, you'll be hooked - addicted to every word from the North London, main setting, and the field trip in Scotland that kickstarts the terrible events that take place... Characters you can actually believe in, fall for, feel for, and at the same time dispse. Twists and turns. This whole book is an experience that should not be missed.

I just wish I could forget it all to read it again! More please!

My thanks to Quercus for my copy!

Buy from Amazon UK

And We're Back!!!

Finally I have WiFi again! Yay. 3 days after we were told it was meant to be going live it has finally, (AOL I curse you!) gone up and we can use our laptops and stuff again. Yay to no longer having to use 3G on my phone (which might I say is slow, annoying and... did I mention slow?).

Anyway! I have a review ready to go live tomorrow. It's of a book called Torn by the lovely Cat Clarke. Look out for that. And ooh! Christmas decs are up! :D Love Christmas!

Moving House - Silence To Follow!

Hey guys! So, if you follow my Twitter page, you might know that tomorrow I'm moving! This as some of you know is very exciting for me and my family as we don't really like the area we live in and have found a house pretty much like our old one. On it's own. Peaceful. Quiet. Private - which is a very big deal for myself! So as we are moving, there's a lot to do. I've already packed over 200 books and have around about 100-130 left to go. Wow. Way more than I honestly thought I had! Still! All in good fun! Over 100 CD's and same for DVD's. You don't actually realise how much stuff you have until you move!

Anyway, the reason for this post is that it's going to be a bit quiet around here. I've had this week off work and have done more reading in 2 days than I have in the last 2 months which for me is great! Work takes over lives far too much! And I have 2 weeks off around Christmas - HEAVEN!!! - so more reading to be done and reviews to be written. But yeah, as we're moving and have a lot of things to organise we might not have the internet for around 2 weeks while AOL sort it out and change it over - why it's going to take 2 weeks I do not know... It did last time too. Crazy really. They said it might be less but it's unlikely! Annoying!

So all I'll have to rely on is my phone, and I don't quite fancy racking up a massive bill, so I'll only be on Twitter for a bit. Annoying, but still. 

I am so so so excited to be moving and can't believe this is the last post I'll make here! I have been in a bit of a reading slump the last few months. Just can't seem to get the will to read loads and I think it's this place. I've never had it like this before! But it's a peaceful place we're going to and there's going to be a lot less noise - which does distract me from reading, I get so annoyed at noisy neighbors! :D Next time you hear from me, I hope for it to be a review. And it'll be in a new house!