Book Review: The Fiery Heart (Bloodlines #4) by Richelle Mead

Between her witch classes with Ms T and tip-toeing around Zoe, Sydney doesn't have much time for her relationship with Adrian, but they make do. However, when new discoveries are made about restoring Strigoi and what's really in Marcus' tattoos, the couple find themselves on dangerous paths...

Book Review: Angel Fever by LA Weatherly

Willow, Alex and Seb have escaped from Mexico City and the angels, and now they've set up shop in Nevada, training new AKs and planning for the end of angels. But then a spanner's thrown in the works and Alex finds himself on a mission that he can't tell Willow about. Will he survive it -- will Willow?

Review: The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

Yes, I'm back again with a lovely book that I don't really have the credentials to review. Enjoy!

Review: Heroes by Robert Cormier

So this one was for my ENGLISH LIT EXAM! You'd think that meant I hated it, but no, so therefore I am reviewing it.
 PS, this review will be just edging on the spoilery, especially if you're good at reading between the lines.
 Francis Cassavant has just come back home from the War and he has no face. But that's how he wants it to be. The War -- and the events that occurred before he left to fight it -- have taken their toll, and he doesn't want to be recognised. Not before his final mission is complete.

Review: Angelology by Danielle Trussoni

Yes, I am back. But only because I need to vent/procrastinate/...alright, I'm too scared to go get the revision book for Physics back off my twin brother because he's an arse, okay?
But really, I needed to vent about this one.
Evangeline has lived at the convent for half of her life, but soon it will no longer be safe: her meeting with a seemingly innocuous art historian, Verlaine, have started wheels turning that should never be turned. A treasure will be unearthed, and life might just go to Hell. Literally. Sort of literally.

Reviews on Amazon and Why You Should Not Take Them as Gospel If You Value Your Reading Experience

Welcome to the world of rants, rants and more rants. Yes, this is the low down on Amazon reviews! Hurrah!

I hate Amazon reviews with a passion. The only reason I ever write them myself is when I have to. I've heard along the Internet grapevine (so it might not be true) that Amazon have been deleting some reviews. Not in a control-the-press kind of way, but in a stop-authors-bad-mouthing-the-competition and friends-of-authors-giving-them-completely-false-good-reviews kind of way. If that is the case, then they darn well haven't been deleting the right reviews.
 I may have moaned before about how my Kindle is registered to my mum's account from before I had my own and how I can't send books to it and swapping it to my account would mean losing the 150 or so books I've read (and the good hundred or so that I haven't). Well, it means that my mum has to buy books for me.
 And that's where 'the good hundred or so I haven't' bit comes in. See, a lot of them are just books by Austen or Stoker or someone old which I just haven't yet had the willpower to get through. But a large amount are books with rave Amazon reviews.
 "Why won't you read it?" my mum will say. "It's got forty five-star reviews on Amazon!"
 Fact is, Amazon reviews lie. I don't know if that's because the idea of reviewing only appeals to people who, like me, hate to be harsh, or if the general public really are that easily pleased, but I've found that even the worst books are praised to within an inch of their lives. In fact, you're more likely to find a good book in the deep dark hole of 'mixed reviews' than the shining temple of 'five stars'.
 Which is why, occasionally, I'll write an Amazon review. Not because I loved the book, nor even because I love cutting the souls out of fellow writers in a fit of jealousy. No, I write the review so that maybe, just maybe, someone about to buy that book, that stupid book with no punctuation, the whole love-at-first-sight-with-no-explanation gig and a strange view of racism towards Native Americans, will realise that there's at least one bad review, and it's logical and cutting enough that it might possibly be true. And then they'll stop themselves from buying it, at least until they've harvested reviews from the farther reaches of the Internet.

I just thought I'd warn you. Sorry for the mini-rant, but, hopefully, not taking Amazon reviews as Gospel may just save your life one day.

Yeah, I wouldn't count on it either.

Reader out!

Music Review: Paramore by Paramore

I love music, and while it doesn't really fit under the 'Eat My Book' remit other than as that thing what you do while writing and reading what also has words in it, it's music. It's another art form, and one most readers and writers love, and it can be inspirational. What you're listening to can determine what you write, from the themes of its lyrics to the mood of its sound. So I've decided that every now and then I will sort of review an album.

Book Review: Slated by Teri Terry

Kyla was a criminal in her past life, but now? She's been Slated: her memory has been taken away and she's been given a chance to be someone different. But Kyla isn't like other Slated kids, and as time goes on, she wonders whether she wants to be...

Series review: Weather Wardens by Rachel Caine

I have finally finished reading all nine books of the Weather Wardens series, and I thought I'd tell you what a gem it is just in case you've never found it before.
Because, Darlin', this is the best thing that will cross your TBR shelf.

Sort-of Book Review: Les Miserables by Victor Hugo

It's a sort of review because, people, I only got a quarter of the way through before 'taking a break'. This 'break' was going to be one book that I was reading. It became about five books. I will get around to reading it, I'm sure, but if I try to read it exclusively, this blog will slowly die from maltreatment and lack of posts.
 Why is it taking me so long? Well, apart from the fact that it's about 960 pages long, I blame the film.
Wait a second, I hear you say, the last time you posted about Les Mis you said that you could only read it because of the film.
 You're right, I think. Otherwise, I just said that in my head, and you've somehow been looking into my thoughts.
 I wouldn't have started to read it without the film, and I wouldn't have stuck with it after the first ten pages if I didn't know the film was amazeballs. But... I want the pacing of the film. I don't care about the ruddy Battle of Waterloo, Mr Hugo, I want to see Valjean go pick up Cosette, dammit!
 As I've said before, I don't have a very long attention span. And this doesn't grab at it. I think I spent an hour or two waiting for Valjean to storm into the courtroom.
Yeah. It was maybe a five-second thing in the film.

So. I'd still say that Les Mis is worth a read, and I'm definitely going to keep persevering. But don't try to stick to it like exclusive glue. It will do you no good, I can tell you.

Tired reader out!

Book Review: Poison Princess by Kresley Cole

( For those of you crazy folks who actually follow all my posts, yes, I have hit pause on the Les Mis reading. More on that later, hopefully.)
 Evie thought she had a lot on her plate with staying out of the teen asylum -- thanks to her mum and her visions. She was wrong, of course. Her visions came true in a shocking, apocalyptic flash, and now she's fighting for her life. Add a bad boy to the mix, and what do you get? Tarot cards.

Book Review: Silver Linings Playbook by Matthew Quick

I know, I know. Behind the times, again. You still love me, though, right?
Pat has just gotten out of the bad place. He's really eager for apart time to end. Instead, he's a thirty-something living with his parents being coddled, kept away from secrets that he should already know. And then there's Tiffany.

Book Review: Shadows by Ilsa J Bick

Alex had made it through the first few months of the apocalypse, but not unscathed. Is she really safe in Rule? And what about Ellie? Or Tom?
Only one way to find out.

Book Review: Ashes by Ilsa J Bick

 All Alex wants to do is escape from it all -- the doctors, the chemo...
 Sometimes you have to be careful what you wish for, because now Alex is trapped in a forest with no electrical goods and a stubborn eight-year-old who just watched her grandfather die, and, best of all, they're not the only creatures in the woods...

Review: Sanctum by Sarah Fine

Lela has dreamt of hell for years... and now she's going back there. Willingly. Lela is desperate to save her friend Nadia from her fate, but Malachi, Captain of the Suicide City's Guards, isn't as eager. He may be ruthless and necessarily dangerous, but he doesn't want Lela risking her second life.
 Unfortunately, she's the one other human in the city with a mind of their own.

Review: The Evolution of Mara Dyer

Yes, 18 days after its release, book 2 in the Mara Dyer trilogy came in the post! Yes! Then I read it in about six hours. Damn.
 Mara's family are even more worried about her mental health, but that's not Mara's biggest problem. Or at least, she doesn't think it is. That's before she's a prisoner in her own home, a home that is no longer safe. At least she still has Noah...

Review: Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater

Blue lives with a load of psychics, and she's known her whole life that if she kisses her true love, he'll die.
But that never seemed quite so close to happening until her half-aunt Neeve turns up at her door, announcing that this is the year. Now Blue is running with boys from the local posh school, despite her family's warnings. Because one of them is either her true love, or the man she will kill.
And he's not her boyfriend.

Review: Fracture by Megan Miranda

Okay, I now have a thing for psychological-paranormal-YA-stuff. Look:
 Delaney died. For 11 mins, she was under freezing cold water. Then her best friend and neighbour, Decker, pulls her out. But instead of being grateful to him and to the Universe that she's miraculously alive, she's too busy being drawn to the dying and trying to figure out the mysterious Troy. Her world is falling apart, and Troy seems to be the only one who understands... but is he?

Review: Revived by Cat Patrick

Yay! A book by one of my new favourite authors! Yay!
 Daisy has died five times; she has been Revived five times; she has changed her name and relocated to a new state five times. But this time, she doesn't want any of that: she wants life.

Review: Existence by Abbi Glines

 Okay those of you who have read this will know exactly why I was all OMFG when I read the blurb on my Kindle -- I love this type of guy character -- but for those of you who haven't read it yet (but definitely should), I won't ruin it the way it did for me, since you don't find out what on earth Dank actually is for AGES.
 Pagan has always seen souls; she's used to it. But when one unexpectedly speaks to her, her world turns upside-down... and that's before the kid without a body ends up enrolloing in her school as rockstar singer Dank out of Cold Soul. What will she tell her boyfriend?