Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein

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Source: Bookurious Blog It Forward program!
Publisher: Doubleday Canada, Hyperion (US)
Format: Hardcover, 339 pages
Release Date: May 15, 2012

Two young women from totally different backgrounds are thrown together during World War II: one a working-class girl from Manchester, the other a Scottish aristocrat, one a pilot, the other a wireless operator. Yet whenever their paths cross, they complement each other perfectly and before long become devoted friends.

But then a vital mission goes wrong, and one of the friends has to bail out of a faulty plane over France. She is captured by the Gestapo and becomes a prisoner of war. The story begins in “Verity’s” own words, as she writes her account for her captors.

Personally I am one of those few people in the world that is under the age of 20 and is completely obsessed with WW2, so when I got this book, I am pretty sure you can guess how excited I was.

I have to say that now that I have read the entire book, that my favourite thing to read was about the friendship. When before I read this book I thought that the part I would be more attracted to would be the historical factor. 

Even though it was not the thing that kept me into the book, as much as the relationships that we learn about, I like the fact that Elizabeth Wein chose to write about a woman who is more or less forced into giving away secrets to the Nazi’s, instead of a man, as that is what most of the historical fiction I have read is involving.

The only thing that I can say that I did not like was how the author used capital letters to express something that was important. For me it was a little bit distracting, but luckily I do not believe that it took away from the overall aspect of the novel.

Overall, this book is one of the few that I can say I will re-read it over again, how many times? I do not know, but this is one novel I can add to my favourites.

I rate this novel 4.5 out of 5 stars

 

Anna Dresed in Blood by Kendare Blake

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Source: Borrowed
Publisher: Tor Books
Format: Hardcover, 316 pages
Release Date: October 17th,  2011

Just your average boy-meets-girl, girl-kills-people story...

Cas Lowood has inherited an unusual vocation: He kills the dead.

So did his father before him, until his gruesome murder by a ghost he sought to kill. Now, armed with his father’s mysterious and deadly athame, Cas travels the country with his kitchen-witch mother and their spirit-sniffing cat. Together they follow legends and local lore, trying to keep up with the murderous dead—keeping pesky things like the future and friends at bay.

When they arrive in a new town in search of a ghost the locals call Anna Dressed in Blood, Cas doesn’t expect anything outside of the ordinary: move, hunt, kill. What he finds instead is a girl entangled in curses and rage, a ghost like he’s never faced before. She still wears the dress she wore on the day of her brutal murder in 1958: once white, but now stained red and dripping blood. Since her death, Anna has killed any and every person who has dared to step into the deserted Victorian she used to call home.

And she, for whatever reason, spares his life.

For me I have to say that this book is one of the best books that I have ever read, granted I just starting getting serious about reading early last year so to most people that doesn't mean much.

Pretty much this book took me on a roller-coster of questions ( I know it is supposed to be emotions, but I am not an overly emotional or normally emotional person)

The thing that really kept me invested in the book was mainly Cas. He intrigued me in ways that so many other male protagonist haven't, sure he has a dark and mysterious ways that apparently make him  oh so appealing, but you never actually get to know their past and what happened to make them so mysterious.

I personally think that anyone who loves to read should get a hold of this book.

 I rate this book 4.75 out of 5

Grey Eyes by Brandon Alston and Q. Ramey

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Source:  Purchased
Publisher: Brandon Alston (Self published)
Format: E-book, 351 pages
Release Date: March 27th 2011

 15 year old Anastasia Adams has spent her entire life on run. She and her mother have never spent more than 18 months in any one location, often times leaving with just the clothes on their backs. Despite the havoc that this is wreaking on Ana's social and academic life, her mother offers no explanation as to why it is they're constantly moving, or even what it is they're running from. But that all changes one night in the woods of Pelion, SC--the night the terror catches up with them.

Fearing her mother dead, and having barely escaped with her own life, Ana is whisked away to world of privilege and tradition. It’s a fairytale come to life. The poor girl used to living out of a suitcase is now a resident of one of the most exclusive addresses in the world. The people there adore her and she catches the eye of a young guardian who sees her as a refreshing change to the girls he’s grown up with.

If only they could find her mother. If only she knew the consequences of being born a “conjurer.” If only she knew who that green eyed stranger was, the stranger who’ll tell her about a past too romantic, and too tragic to be real. In the end, she’ll have to choose between the boy who has captured her heart and the stranger she can feel down in her soul, assuring at least one of them an almost certain death.

 The first thing that came to my mind when I read the synopsis for Grey Eyes was that this book could either be horrible or really really good, and in this case it was the latter. 

  This book is like something I have never read. Sure there are some things that a lot of books have in common, like the romance aspect but this was just such a refreshing new experience for me.

As, I said before with the romance aspect, there are somethings that are similar to books we read today, but Brandon Alston and Q. Ramey were able to create and unexpected outcome, that  the reader can`t help but either love it or hate it.

 In Grey Eyes Ana is faced with so many new things in her life that in the next two novels, of the trilogy, could either break who she is as a person or change the world.


With this book there are some many twist and turns that you just don`t expect that, but for me I think they made the book that much better. 

I rate this book 4 out of 5 stars

Illuminate by Aimee Agresti

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Source: Won
Publisher: Harcourt
Format: Hardcover, 534 pages
Release Date: March 6, 2012

 Haven Terra is a brainy, shy high school outcast. But everything begins to change when she turns sixteen. Along with her best friend Dante and their quiet and brilliant classmate Lance, she is awarded a prestigious internship in the big city— Chicago—and is sent to live and work at a swanky and stylish hotel under the watchful eyes of a group of gorgeous and shockingly young-looking strangers: powerful and alluring hotel owner Aurelia Brown; her second-in-command, the dashing Lucian Grove; and their stunning but aloof staff of glamazons called The Outfit.

As Haven begins falling for Lucian, she discovers that these beautiful people are not quite what they seem. With the help of a mysterious book, she uncovers a network of secret passageways from the hotel’s jazz-age past that leads her to the heart of the evil agenda of Aurelia and company: they’re in the business of buying souls. Will they succeed in wooing Haven to join them in their recruitment efforts, or will she be able to thwart this devilish set’s plans to take the souls of her classmates on prom night at the hotel?

Illuminate is an exciting saga of a teen’s first taste of independence, her experience in the lap of luxury, and her discovery she may possess strength greater than she ever knew

The thing about this book that really grabbed my interest, in the beginning was the history behind the Chicago Hotel. 

This also ended up behind one of my favourite things about the book. But surprisingly enough there were many many different things about this book that held my interest other than the history.


I loved the difference between everyone and how they reacted to the situation they were put through. 
  
Another thing is that  this book is one of the few that I have read recently that has a real plot and kept me guessing throughout the entire book.

 I give this book a rating of 4 out of 5 starts

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Source: Blog It Forward
Publisher: Egmont USA
Format: Hardcover, 386 pages
Release Date: February 28, 2012

 Love The Hunger Games?  Action-adventure thrillers with a dystopian twist? BZRK (Berserk) by Michael Grant, New York Times best-selling author of the GONE series, ramps up the action and suspense to a whole new level of excitement.
 
Set in the near future, BZRK is the story of a war for control of the human mind.  Charles and Benjamin Armstrong, conjoined twins and owners of the Armstrong Fancy Gifts Corporation, have a goal:  to turn the world into their vision of utopia.  No wars, no conflict, no hunger.  And no free will.  Opposing them is a guerrilla group of teens, code name BZRK, who are fighting to protect the right to be messed up, to be human.  This is no ordinary war, though.  Weapons are deployed on the nano-level. The battleground is the human brain.  And there are no stalemates here:  It's victory . . . or madness.
 
BZRK unfolds with hurricane force around core themes of conspiracy and mystery, insanity and changing realities, engagement and empowerment, and the larger impact of personal choice. Which side would you choose?  How far would you go to win? 

When I first heard about this book i wasn't really sure how it was going to turn out, sure it peaked my interest, but I wasn't sure how I would like the book overall.

But then I started to read the book and I fell in love with it.

The book is filled with action (which I think is a good thing), but its not like normal action books or movies.

It is on a microscopic level , which makes it so much better. The book give you an idea of what life might be like if we watched everything from under a telescope.


Like in the book it said that lips look like wax, its that not cool, and kind of freaky, I would have thought that it looked like, well actually I don`t.


This is a book that I would recommend to ANYONE. It is action packed, filled with adventure, and there is even a little bit of romance.

I rate BZRK 4.5 out of 5 stars 

 

Give away The Story Siren  (Sorry i don't know how to put up the links for other people's blogs)


Source:   To Possibly Win
Add it: Goodreads
Release Date: Feb 28, 2012

Elyse knows what it means to keep a secret. She’s been keeping secrets her whole life. Two, actually. First, that she ages five times slower than the average person, so that while she looks eighteen years old, she’s closer to eighty. Second, that her blood has a mysterious power to heal. For Elyse, these things don’t make her special. They make life dangerous. After the death of her parents, she’s been careful to keep her secret as closely guarded as possible. Now, only one other person in the world knows about her age and ability. Or so she thinks. Elyse is not the only one keeping secrets. There are others like her all over the world, descendants of the very people the Greeks considered gods. She is one of them, and they have been waiting for her for a long time. Among so many of her kind, she should not be very remarkable–except for the prophecy. Some believe she will put an end to traditions, safeguarded by violence, which have oppressed her people for centuries. Others are determined to keep her from doing just that. But for Elyse, the game is just beginning–and she’s not entirely willing to play by their rules.

Okay so this is my first blog post for a book

Source:   Purchased
Publisher: McElderry Books
Release Date: December 6th, 2011
Format: Hardcover, 502 pages + Wills letter to his family and to Tessa in the Tale Of Two Cities book

Warning: I refuse to spoil anything I am just doing my opinion :)

So I have just finished reading this book and the first thing that I have to say WOW!

Cassandra Clare has really out done herself on this one.

In the magical underworld of Victorian London, Tessa Gray has at last found safety with the Shadowhunters. But that safety proves fleeting when rogue forces in the Clave plot to see her protector, Charlotte, replaced as head of the Institute. If Charlotte loses her position, Tessa will be out on the street-and easy prey for the mysterious Magister, who wants to use Tessa's powers for his own dark ends.

With the help of the handsome, self-destructive Will and the fiercely devoted Jem, Tessa discovers that the Magister's war on the Shadowhunters is deeply personal. He blames them for a long-ago tragedy that shattered his life. To unravel the secrets of the past, the trio journeys from mist-shrouded Yorkshire to a manor house that holds untold horrors, from the slums of London to an enchanted ballroom where Tessa discovers that the truth of her parentage is more sinister than she had imagined. When they encounter a clockwork demon bearing a warning for Will, they realize that the Magister himself knows their every move-and that one of their own has betrayed them.

Tessa finds her heart drawn more and more to Jem, though her longing for Will, despite his dark moods, continues to unsettle her. But something is changing in Will-the wall he has built around himself is crumbling. Could finding the Magister free Will from his secrets and give Tessa the answers about who she is and what she was born to do?

As their dangerous search for the Magister and the truth leads the friends into peril, Tessa learns that when love and lies are mixed, they can corrupt even the purest heart.

 Before I say what I thought of the book I want to put out their that in Clockwork Angel I loved Will, but I thought that Tessa and Jem should be together, mainly because of Will's actions. But now that i have read it I think that it could go either way.

In this book, Casandra Clare takes the readers farther into the journey of Tessa Grey's life. There are twist and turns all throughout the book and that is one of the things I like the most, you never know how it will end.

For this book the things that stood out to me to most was what Cassandra Clare did with the characters. We as the readers get to learn more about why Will acts the way he does, why he is more compassionate to Jem. To be truthfully honest I had been wondering what made Will tick.


We got to find out about Will's back story, it definitely was not what i suspected it to be, it was emotional and brought out a lot of pathos from me. It made us understand why Will constantly pushes people away. 


But this book was not just about Will, there was a lot of Jem. It still has our kind Jem that we all love dearly, but if there are any EXTREME Jem fans out there, like the people who believe that they could possibly marry him or other book characters, you may be a bit disappointed.


Even though, as you may know the most important thing for our young Shadowhunters was to find The Magister, I like the fact that it wasn't the only thing that was put into focus.


The only part of this book that I don't like is the fact that I have to wait until February 2013 :'( until the next book comes out, i want to read the next book but I don't want it to end. I'm pretty sure I'm not the only one.


I recommend this book for all book lovers :) 



                                                    4.5 Stars :D