Cover Release -- Just One Day by Gayle Forman

Title: Just One Day
Author: Gayle Forman
Series: Just One Day (1)
Publisher: Dutton Juvenile
Expected Publication: 08 January 2013

I bring you all another cover release.
Gayle Forman is one of my favourite authors. She's brilliant.  I loved all her other works. They're soulful, heart-breaking and full of realism that many readers can relate to. I'm sure this one won't be any different. I can not wait to get my hands on this one.

When sheltered American good girl Allyson "LuLu" Healey first meets laid-back Dutch actor Willem De Ruiter at an underground performance of Twelfth Night in England, there’s an undeniable spark. After just one day together, that spark bursts into a flame, or so it seems to Allyson, until the following morning, when she wakes up after a whirlwind day in Paris to discover that Willem has left. Over the next year, Allyson embarks on a journey to come to terms with the narrow confines of her life, and through Shakespeare, travel, and a quest for her almost-true-love, to break free of those confines.
(from Goodreads)

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Reivew: Shadow and Bone - Leigh Bardugo

Title: Shadow and Bone
Author: Leigh Bardugo
Series: The Grisha (1)
Publisher: Henry Holt and Co
Release Date: 05 June 2012
Date Read: September 2012
Rating: ★★★★★

I find it really hard to write coherent reviews for books I adored. I don't know why. But I'll try.

Shadow and Bone was utterly captivating. The prologue was a real hooker for me. I knew then that I was going to give the book at least 4 stars. I love that kind of writing style and the my interest was piqued with the mention of these orphaned children.

Alina Starkov holds incredible power that she had no knowledge of. She never fit in, not in the orphanage, not in the First Army where she serves as a mapmaker. The only time she feels comfortable is when she's with her best friend, Mal. But even Mal has started to spend less time around her, suddenly popular with his looks and tracker skills. One day, Alina's regiment is attacked crossing the Fold by terrifying flesh-eating monsters. Mal is about to be killed, and without knowing it, Alina saves him and the rest of the regiment. Her true powers shows itself, revealing Alina to be one of the most important and powerful Grisha the kingdom, Ravka, will ever see. As a result, she is swept up and taken  away to the Royal Court, where she must train and hone her powers to be the saviour Ravka desperately needs. She will discover secrets surrounding the ancient Grisha and the Darkling.

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Cover Reveal -- The Star Dwellers by David Estes

Title: The Star Dwellers
Author: David Estes
Series: The Dwellers Trilogy (2)
Release Date: 30 September 2012

I am happy to present to you the cover of David Estes' The Star Dwellers, the second book in the Dwellers Trilogy.

Ta-da! I am really excited to get my hands on this one. (I can't help but imagine that the roof of the cavern is actually embedded with tiny twinkling bulbs of light meant to be stars and the 'sky/roof' looks like those pictures of real night sky you see when there's no light pollution.)


After rescuing her father and younger sister, Adele is forced to leave her family and Tristan behind to find her mother in the cruel and dangerous realm of the star dwellers. 

Amidst blossoming feelings for Adele, Tristan must cast his feelings aside and let her find her own way amongst the star dwellers, while he accompanies Adele's father to meet with the leaders of the moon dwellers and decide the fate of the Tri-Realms.

Will Adele be able to rescue her mother and make it back to the Moon Realm before the President and the sun dweller soldiers destroy her family?

Can Tristan convince the moon dweller puppets of the error of their ways?

Was Adele's lost kiss with Tristan her one and only chance at love?

In her world there's only one rule: Someone must die.
Synopsis

Don't forget to grab a copy of The Star Dwellers- released on 30 Sept 2012

If you haven't read The Moon Dwellers (Dwellers Trilogy 1) there is an ongoing giveaway here.

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Review: Immortal Rules - Julie Kagawa

Title: The Immortal Rules
Author: Julie Kagawa
Series: Blood of Eden
Publisher: Harlequin Teen
Release Date: 24 April 2012
Date Read: September 2012
Rating: ★★★★★

I've got to admit. I was honestly not keen on reading this book. The cover looked cheesy to me. I am not that big of a fan of vampires. I read the first book of Kagawa's other series, Iron Fey, and I didn't enjoy it as much as I hoped. I put reading this book off as much as I could until about a couple of days before it was due back to the library.

You have no idea how much I'm kicking myself for not reading this sooner.

Vampires rule cities and humans, as a result of the creation of the Red Lung disease. This disease threatened, and is continuing to threaten both the human and vampire species. Those who are infected eventually became Rabids, plagued with a mutant version of the disease. As a human, you have the choice to become a Registered, a blood slave to the vampires, or an Unregistered, where you would have to struggle to survive, find food and shelter.

The Immortal Rules has excellent world building. It succeeds both as a dystopian novel as well as a paranormal. The idea that vampires are conquerors, instead of creatures of the night hiding their existence, is different. The atmosphere was set and it was subtle. Kagawa wasn't trying hard to impose her world, it was just there and it was easy to accept. The imagery was very good, so it was really easy to imagine the scenes in my mind.

Allie Sekemoto is the heroine, a great one, at that. She's had to survive as an Unregistered for a long while and it's toughened her. She's realistic and independent. She knows how to take care of herself and she can kick some serious butt, even before she gets turned into a vampire. Plus, she gets a killer katana, a Samurai sword, as her weapon. Her wit, sarcasm and dark humour only added to her awesomeness. Allie has to face the constant struggle of trying to keep the hold of her humanity in spite of her monstrous nature. I'm grateful to Kagawa for not getting Allie to just drink animal blood. I think Allie's inner conflict is much more interesting. It adds depth to the character.

And of course, the romance. Ezekiel Crosse. He is perfect- selfless, strong, generous, kind, funny, handsome. Good guy. (which is such a nice breath of fresh air after all the mysterious, broody bad boys paranormal/dystopian novels usually have) But he is extremely prejudiced against vampires. He believes them to be all soulless monsters, demons. I guess that's understandable considering the life he's had, the people he's had to see die because of the vampires. But it's ok. He changes, as all good characters do. The relationship between Allie and Zeke is realistic and so cute. (I was really worried that there was going to be a love triangle but it was avoided, in this one anyway. The second book holds lots of possibilities, including a *shudders* love triangle.)

The pace was perfect for me. Too often, authors try to get the action moving too quickly, throwing challenges at the characters without getting the readers to know them to be able to empathize with them. But Kagawa spent her time setting up the Allie's world- the vampires, the disease, Rabids, getting the reader to familiarize themselves with Allie and her world- and it paid off. By the time Allie gets herself in danger, I was so invested in her that the tension was agonizing.

So yes, I loved this. This was so different from the Iron King, and different from all the other paranormal novels I've read. I was surprised and impressed. Needless to say, I am eagerly waiting for the second book. More Allie! More vampires!

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Feature and Follow (5)

Feature and Follow is hosted by Paranjunkee & Alison Can Read every Friday. Complete Rules and Instructions are here: Feature and Follow

This week's question:

What book(s) are you reading right now? What do you think of it?

I am currently reading The Moon Dwellers by David Estes. I'm enjoying it so far, there are some things that annoy me but it's keeping my interest. I'm also reading Peter and the Star Catchers by David Barry and Ridley Pearson. I kind of stopped reading that one. It was interesting, but not interesting enough to keep my attention. Something about it put me off... Not sure what.

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Musing Mondays (3)

Musing Mondays is a weekly meme hosted by Should Be Reading.

This week's musing asks:
Have you ever considered writing a book before? What genre would you write?

Of course I have. I love reading books and I know all too well the power of the author's words, the wonder in delving into a new world, the love one would feel for a 'fictional' character. I want to be able to give myself, and the reader, all these things. But more than anything, I want to have the satisfaction of creating something wonderful and sharing it to the world.

If I do write, I would write something in the dystopian genre. It's among my favourite genres as I believe it would have the most possibility to contain the perfect mixture of action, strong characters, romance and humour. Or, possibly contemporary young adult fiction. The ones I've read are paricularly amazing and heartbreaking. I want to be able to command words and characters that would touch readers all over the world (and hopefully make them cry).

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Review: The Kill Order - James Dashner

Title: The Kill Order
Author: James Dashner
Series: (Prequel) The Maze Runner Trilogy
Publisher: Delacorte Books
Release Date: 14 August 2012
Date Read: August 2012
Rating: ★★☆☆☆

The Kill Order is the much anticipated prequel to the Maze Runner trilogy.

This novel takes place thirteen years prior the time initial time setting of the trilogy. This is a time before Thomas and the Gladers, before WICKED was even created. The sun flares struck the earth and mankind succumb to a deadly disease.

We follow a new set of characters; Mark, Alec and a group of teenagers, who were all there when the sun flares struck. It is a constant battle for survival in the desolate landscape left behind by the sun flares. But they've managed to build a settlement, one of the few places left on earth where something that resembles a normal life can be established.

But one day, a Berg flies in on their settlement from nowhere, shooting darts at people, many of whom died immediately. Others took days to die, some weeks. They soon realize that the darts contained a virus designed to kill everyone. But the virus is evolving. Mark, Alec, Lana along with a few other survivors set out to find the origin of the horrific Berg. They must find a cure to the virus.

I thought The Kill Order would be about Thomas, Teresa, WICKED and the creation of the Glade. I thought we'd get to see Newt, Minho even Alby before their memories got wiped. The only mention of the characters we were all familiar with was at the prologue, highlighting the moments before Thomas entered the elevator that would soon take him to the Glade. To be honest, I was a lot more interested in what exactly Thomas' parts were in WICKED, in the creation of the Glade. Why was he and Teresa so important? It's not like he was the only one immune to the Flare.

Instead, Dashner brings us the story of the origins of the Flare, the disease that started it all. New characters are introduced where Mark and Alec are the main characters. Mark barely has any personality and Alec is a retired military man, whose job is fight and keep them alive. Mark has a love interest, Trina, that he has to saveut their relationship wasn't established well enough for me to feel sympathy over these separated 'lovers'. I didn't feel a connection with Mark. Sure, I wanted him to survive but there is that gnawing feeling that he isn't going to survive this, in the end. There was honestly no hope in this book, for the reader and even the characters themselves. Mark didn't even believe himself that he was going to survive this new set of unfortunate events.

The Kill Order had complete lack of character development. There was no emotion. It was mindless action, action, action. They were well-written action scenes meant to keep the readers on their toes, flipping page after page determined to finish the book. But the thing was that it was all action. If the action scenes had nothing to contrast, then it's going to fall flat. I found myself glazing over the action scenes because it was too much and after a while it got boring.

The 'humour' that was supposed to be amusing and provide comedic relief, failed. I didn't even realize the characters cracked a joke until others laughed.


It's hard not to be disappointed when the trilogy had so much promise for a prequel and Dashner chose to do the Flares. I hope he takes another stab at this, and he might since there is that thirteen year gap between this book and the Maze Runner.

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