Blog Hop #30

Book Blogger Hop is a bookish meme hosted by the blog Ramblings of a Coffee Addicted Writer.

 

This weeks question is:

Have you ever ended up reading a book with its last or last few pages missing? What book was it? And how did you manage to get to the end? 

 

 

Not with the last pages, but my brother ripped by Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire book when we were kids. I have since bought a new copy but have yet to read it in full.

 

 

 

Follow Friday #61

Follow Friday is a weekly event hosted by Parajunkee & Alison of Alison Can Read.

 

 

This weeks question:

 

 

If you could only have ONE – one book – for the rest of your life. Don’t cheat…what would it be?

 

 

Is there a Harry Potter bind-up yet? Choosing between the Harry Potter books would be absolute torture for me, so I am going to choose Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier which is my favourite classic.

Book Review #351 - City of Lost Souls (The Mortal Instruments #5) by Cassandra Clare

Jace is now a servant of evil, bound for all eternity to Sebastian. Only a small band of Shadowhunters believe he can be saved. To do this they must defy the Clave. And they must act without Clary. For Clary is playing a dangerous game utterly alone. The price of losing is not just her own life, but Jace’s soul. 

Clary is willing to do anything for Jace, but can she still trust him? Or is he truly lost?

What price is too high to pay, even for love?

 

 

My Rating: 4/5

 

 

This is my least favourite in this series so far. It had been around 3 months since I read book 4 and so it took me a while to get back into the Shadowhunter world.

 

 

Sebastian was the character that surprised me the most in this book. I actually felt sorry for him. Underneath his evilness, he actually seems quite vulnerable, innocent and very lonely. I wanted to believe that he had changed, but I knew that he would have had an ulterior motive.

 

 

Although I felt like the plot in this book was significantly weaker than the previous books, I still liked reading about the world and the characters.

 

 

I would have liked more interaction between Clary and Simon as I really like their friendship but am glad that Simon seems to have developed a romantic relationship of his own.

 

 

I didn't really feel the need for Jordan and Maia to be included. They were barely mentioned at all throughout, and whenever they were it felt like it was only to remind you that they still existed.

 

 

The ending of this book was completely not what I had expected. The cliff hangers in this series always seem to come out of nowhere.

 

 

Now while I am waiting for book 6 (City of Heavenly Fire) to be published, I might finally start reading The Infernal Devices series.

 

 

 

 

Book Review #350 - Of Triton (Syrena Legacy #2) by Anna Banks

Emma is half-mermaid: a freak in the human world and an abomination in the Syrena realm below. But she's in love with Galen - a gorgeous Syrena from the House of Triton, god of the sea. If Emma's secret is discovered by the Syrena, she risks being put to death as a Half-Breed.

Emma's heritage comes from her mother - a princess from the House of Poseidon who escaped the sea to live as a human. Aware of the danger her daughter faces, she is determined to keep Emma away from the Syrena. But her reappearance after so many years turns the underwater kingdoms, Poseidon and Triton, against one another.

How can Emma and Galen stay together when their two rival kingdoms, and two different worlds, just want to tear them apart?

Picking up right where Of Poseidon left off, this utterly irresistible story is full of humour, intrigue, and waves of romance.

My Rating: 4/5

I received this book for review from Hardie Grant Egmont. It is the sequel to Of Poseidon.


I decided to re-read Of Poseidon before I read Of Triton. Although I did not enjoy Of Poseidon as much as I did the first time I read it, I found that I still liked it more than Of Triton.


Of Triton was too heavily focused on the politics of the Syrena for my liking.


Given that I read both books in this series back to back, I liked that one started straight where the other left off.


All the characters developed considerably especially Emma. Even though I didn't particularly like the Syrena politics, I felt like that it aided world building immensely.


I found this book to be well paced, and I actually read the book cover to cover in about a 3 hour period.


Given the ending to Of Poseidon, I was looking forward to how Emma's mother would become part of the story. I wasn't disappointed as that question is answered almost immediately.

  

Book Review #349 - The Cuckoo's Calling (Cormoran Strike #1) by Robert Galbraith

A brilliant debut mystery in a classic vein: Detective Cormoran Strike investigates a supermodel's suicide. After losing his leg to a land mine in Afghanistan, Cormoran Strike is barely scraping by as a private investigator. Strike is down to one client, and creditors are calling. He has also just broken up with his long time girlfriend and is living in his office.  

 

Then John Bristow walks through his door with an amazing story: His sister, the legendary supermodel Lula Landry, known to her friends as the Cuckoo, famously fell to her death a few months earlier. The police ruled it a suicide, but John refuses to believe that. The case plunges Strike into the world of multimillionaire beauties, rock-star boyfriends, and desperate designers, and it introduces him to every variety of pleasure, enticement, seduction, and delusion known to man.

You may think you know detectives, but you've never met one quite like Strike. You may think you know about the wealthy and famous, but you've never seen them under an investigation like this.

 

 

My Rating: 4/5

I think everybody knows this by now, but Robert Gailbraith is the pseudonym of J.K Rowling.


J.K Rowling is my favourite author. I grew up on the Harry Potter books and I really enjoyed The Casual Vacancy. So my expectations for this book were massive.


I found this book really, really interesting. Crime is not a genre I have read a lot of, particularly in the adult genre.


I really liked the balance of all the characters. Strike, the protagonist was in a tough period of his life and Robin is young and naïve.


This book never rushes to a conclusion. The detective work is always the major focus. There was never any suspense or anything which I had expected but it works that way.


I am excited that this book will have a sequel as I am interested in seeing the characters develop and another story evolve.

W.W.W Wednesdays #1

W.W.W Wednesdays is a weekly meme hosted by Should be Reading.


What are you currently reading?

I am just about to start City of Lost Souls by Cassandra Clare. I just saw the City of Bones movie just under a week ago so it will be interesting to re-enter the Shadowhunter world now that I have a different visuals of characters.

 

 

What did you recently finish?

I just finished Of Triton by Anna Banks which my review of will be posted very soon.

 

 

What do you think you will read next?

I am planning on listening to the Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone audiobook.

Book Review #348 - The Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants (Sisterhood #1) by Ann Brashares

FOUR VERY DIFFERENT FRIENDS. ONE PAIR OF MAGICAL PANTS. AND A SUMMER APART ...

We, the Sisterhood, hereby instate the following rules to govern the use of the Traveling Pants:

1. You must never wash the Pants.

2. You must never double-cuff the Pants. It's tacky. There will never be a time when this will not be tacky.

3. You must never say the word "phat" while wearing the Pants. You must also never think "I am fat" while wearing the Pants.

4. You must never let a boy take off the Pants (although you may take them off yourself in his presence).

5. You must not pick your nose while wearing the Pants. You may, however, scratch casually your nostril while really kind of picking.

6. Upon our reunion, you must follow the proper procedures for documenting your time in the Pants.

7. You must write to your Sisters throughout the summer, no matter how much fun you are having without them.

8. You must pass the Pants along to your Sister according to the specifications set down by the Sisterhood. Failures to comply will result in a sever spanking upon our reunion.

9. You must not wear the Pants with a tucked-in shirt and belt. See rule #2.

10. Remember: Pants = love. Love your pals. Love yourself.

My Rating: 3.5/5

Before reading this book, I didn't really have very many expectations for it. Given the title, I thought it would be a little immature and not much depth.

 

 

If I had read this book ten years ago, I would have absolutely loved it. I did like it now, just probably not as much as the younger readers would have.

 

 

The characters were all completely different. They had such a broad range of personalities. They were all equally portrayed and I didn't prefer any over the others.

 

 

The only negative thing I can say about this book is that when I first started reading it, I found the writing style quite annoying. When I picked up the book after having put it down for a few months, the writing style didn't bother me at all and it became one of my favourite aspects.

 

 

During my break from the book, I watched the film version. Whilst it isn't the best, I do think it gave me the insight into the book that I needed.

 

 

Overall this book was completely different to what I had expected from a book called The Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants. I really liked the growth of the characters throughout the book as they struggle being apart from each other for the first time.

 
 

Book Review #347 - The Name of the Star (Shades of London #1) by Maureen Johnson

The day Louisiana teenager Rory Deveaux arrives in London marks a memorable occasion. For Rory, it's the start of a new life at a London boarding school. But for many, this will be remembered as the day a series of brutal murders broke out across the city, gruesome crimes mimicking the horrific Jack the Ripper events of more than a century ago.

Soon “Rippermania” takes hold of modern-day London, and the police are left with few leads and no witnesses. Except one. Rory spotted the man police believe to be the prime suspect. But she is the only one who saw him. Even her roommate, who was walking with her at the time, didn't notice the mysterious man. So why can only Rory see him? And more urgently, why has Rory become his next target? In this edge-of-your-seat thriller, full of suspense, humour, and romance, Rory will learn the truth about the secret ghost police of London and discover her own shocking abilities.

 

 

My Rating: 4.5

 

 

Given that I have an interest in history and am somewhat of an anglophile I was probably always going to love this book, but I was still surprised by how much I did.

 

 

Maureen Johnson is no new author to me, in fact I have read most of her other novels. This is probably my favourite of her books so far.

 

 

The only thing that kind of annoyed me, was the constant explaining of British things. As an Australian I thought that our cultures were similar enough for me to comprehend without the constant explanations.

 

 

This book pretty much had everything - action, suspense, mystery, romance and I could go on. The romance aspect was not as major as the other themes which I liked.

 

 

All the characters were well developed and had intriguing personalities.

 

 

The whole Jack the Ripper aspect was what initially drew my interest to this book and I thought that this helped it incorporate history into the story.

 

Book Review #346 - Haunters by Thomas Taylor

Eddie, Adam and David have the same gift. They can time-travel, appearing in the past as ghosts. But each of them wants something different...

 

 

Eddie is sworn to protect the course of history. Adam wants to change it for his own ends. And David must find a way to keep them apart - and save the future of the world.

 

 

My Rating: 3.5/5

 

 

I received this book for review from Scholastic Australia. I am seriously late in reviewing this, but am catching up on review copies now.

 

 

This book has a very interesting premise. I would describe it as a bit of a mixture of Back to the Future and Inception.

 

 

I am not really a fan of time travel books as I find them really confusing, but this book didn't have that problem. The only problem I had with this book was that it had the potential to be so much better that what it was.

 

 

I didn't really care for any of the characters as I felt like they weren't fleshed out enough, and just couldn't feel any connection with any of them.