March Wrap-Up!

The second book in the Divergent trilogy was almost as good as the first! There wasn't quite as much action, but it fit well with the tone of the book. There was a lot of character development and I felt we really got to know Tris. I gave it five out of five stars and very much enjoyed it. I really want to know if Veronica Roth is planning any more books beside the Divergent short story collection. I realised in Insurgent that my favourite character was Uriah, he was just so fun and attractive! I LOVE URIAH. Can't get over him not being in the film.

 

Compared to the other two book I was a bit disappointed with Allegiant, I felt there wasn't enough action, it was a bit confusing and some parts didn't seem to have much of a point. I did like it though and I did cry a tiny bit but not at the part you'd expect me to, I cried at the part most people had come to terms with already. I found myself really shipping Caleb and Peter, Christina and Uriah as well as Christina and Tobias. That's really strange for me because I almost never ship non canon!              

I was expecting this to be quite slow and boring but it wasn't! I was hooked the entire time and read it in about two days. It was a facinating world with some amazing, real, relatble characters. My personal favourite was Chritian. Oh my god I love Christian! I didn't see the huge fuss about Dimitri though, which was sad. I gave it four stars and if it's true what they say and that the series gets better than bloody hell I can't wait.

  Panic was the first of Lauren Oliver's books I ever read and I read it for the #DONTPANIC read-a-long it was so good and you can  find a proper review on the "book reviews" section of this blog!

I read Paper Aeroplanes for the second time this month and enjoyed it nearly as much. I liked how truthful it was as I find British YA often is. I'm going to a signing tomorrow night and I can't wait to meet Dawn O'Porter. She has the sequel to Paper Aeroplanes "Goose" coming out in a few days which is very exciting.

Panic by Lauren Oliver|Review

Title: Panic
Genre: Contemporary

My Star Rating: ★★★★☆

Blurb:

Panic began as so many things do in Carp, a dead-end town of twelve thousand people in the middle of nowhere: because it was summer, and there was nothing else to do.

Heather never thought she would compete in Panic, a legendary game played by graduating seniors, where the stakes are high and the payoff is even higher. She'd never thought of herself as fearless, the kind of person who would fight to stand out. But when she finds something, and someone, to fight for, she will discover that she is braver than she ever thought.

Dodge has never been afraid of Panic. His secret will fuel him, and get him all the way through the game; he's sure of it. But what he doesn't know is that he's not the only one with a secret. Everyone has something to play for.

For Heather and Dodge, the game will bring new alliances, unexpected revelations, and the possibility of first love for each of them—and the knowledge that sometimes the very things we fear are those we need the most.

 

Panic is the first of Lauren Oliver's books that I have ever read. It was BOOKSPLOSION's book of the month and on twitter we have been using the hash tag #DONTPANIC it is killing us grammar Nazis that twitter doesn't allow apostrophes in hash tags. Click here to go to the BOOKSPLOSION twitter page. 

Panic is told from two points of view: Heather and Dodge. It was very interesting to have two completely different characters with completely different motives share there views on the same thing as well as share their views on each other.  

Heather was a really great character you can tell she's not very happy at the minute, she's just been through a break-up and her family life isn't going so well. So when she jumps off the cliff to enter panic it's kind of an impulse thing. She realises that she needs the money to get out of Carp, leave the place she hates so much and just start again. 

Most people preferred Dodge as there was a bit more too him and his motives were very interesting and throughout Panic you always felt like there was more to find out about him and more him to find out about himself, however he was a bit frustrating at points and sometimes I even found myself scared by his thirst for revenge.

A lot of people say they didn't like Nat because she was very shallow but I felt there was more to her than just a pretty, popular girl. I could tell that like the rest of the characters she was having a hard time and was very unsure about herself.

I found it really strange yet intriguing how in this town panic is everything, everyone one knows panic. They take it so seriously and there are all the unspoken rules and mysterious judges that can never be revealed. 

I thought the air of mystery and suspense was brilliant and it was the intensity of the book which kept me gripped the whole time.

There is little I can say about this book without giving you spoilers so in conclusion Panic is an intense and gripping novel which you should definitely pick up.

Love Always,

Freya

Vampire Academy by Richelle Mead|Review

Title: Vampire Academy

Series: Vampire Academy

Genre: Paranormal

 My Star Rating: ★★★★☆

Blurb: St. Vladimir’s Academy isn’t just any boarding school—it’s a hidden place where vampires are educated in the ways of magic and half-human teens train to protect them. Rose Hathaway is a Dhampir, a bodyguard for her best friend Lissa, a Moroi Vampire Princess. They’ve been on the run, but now they’re being dragged back to St. Vladimir’s—the very place where they’re most in danger. . . .

 Rose and Lissa become enmeshed in forbidden romance, the Academy’s ruthless social scene, and unspeakable nighttime rituals. But they must be careful lest the Strigoi—the world’s fiercest and most dangerous vampires—make Lissa one of them forever.

A lot of people are very sceptical about this book because when they hear "paranormal romance" or "vampire" their immediate thought is "twilight". Although both novels are about vampires other than that they have very few similarities. 
Vampire academy had much more exiting characters, an interesting and detailed world along with a gripping story line. At the start of the book we find out Rose and Lissa are on the run. They have been hiding in the human world for over a year after the ran away from St. Vladamir's Academy. Why did they run away? We don't know. The two girls are brought back to the academy and the moment they step through the school gates they are the height of gossip.
One of the things I loved about this book is that although they're vampires or guardians the characters are still ordinary teenagers with normal teenage problems, just vampire problems on top of that.

My favourite character would have to be Christian, he was amazing. I found he was the character I myself was most like and that meant it was easy to connect with him. Most people are obsessed with Dimitri and I was looking forward to seeing what all the fuss was about but to be honest I wasn't big on him, Christian was better.

I loved how complex and original the world was and I think Richelle Mead did a great job of describing the different types of vampires and which powers each possessed. There was also the royal system and the guardian system which was very interesting and detailed. 
You may hear a lot of people saying that the book was slow, it was a tiny bit slower than some books but I think it needed that. How was she meant to go into lengthy descriptions of this complex world in the middle of a huge battle scene. It wasn't as if there was no action, Rose is a very bad-ass character and what would be the use of a bad-ass character if you weren't going to have any action scenes? Rose was a little impulsive at times and so she is occasionally compared to Clary from TMI but Rose's impulsiveness wasn't nearly as annoying as Clary's could be at times.
The only thing that did annoy me slightly about Rose that she was quite vain. She was often going on about how appealing she was to Moroi boys and how Mason was "crazy" about her.
I thought Rose and Lissa's bond was a really clever way finding out what Lissa was doing without having to add another P.O.V, also that way as well as knowing what happened to Lissa you got to know what Rose's reaction to everything was which I loved.
Overall Vampire academy was a great novel which I would definitely recommend and I can't wait to continue with this wonderful series!
Love Always,
Freya

Catching Fire|Film Review

Title: The Hunger Games: Catching Fire

Genre: Dystopia

My Star Rating: ★★★★★

About five minutes ago I finished watching Catching Fire for the second time and once again I was blown away by how amazingly well it had been made. After the success of the first film Catching Fire had been given a much bigger budget than The Hunger Games and it really showed. The CGI was better and the editing was much less shaky. The detail put into the film was astonishing and I'm glad they kept it so faithful to the books.
Although at points it was very serious there were also some hilarious moments, particularly those involving Haymitch or Effie. His problem with alcohol was made clear in the books and Effie had some great moments. I loved the reaping scene when Effie reached into the bowl to pick out a name and they made a really big deal of showing us there was only one name. I have to congratulate the actress on her brilliant acting in that scene it was perfect, with Effie wearing her plastered smile but at the same time you could see a deep sadness showing through.
I was disappointed that at the party scene in though capitol when Katniss was speaking with Plutarch that he didn't flash her his watch as many people felt that was an important scene in the book.
Johanna Mason was portrayed perfectly, the scene in the lift when she strips off was done so well. Jennifer's face when she started taking off her clothes was absolute quality. Johanna showed really aggression and anger towards the capitol and wasn't afraid of letting the world know how she felt.
I remember when I went to see the film with my friends when it first came out, it was such a great experience, we would gasp at the intense moments we'd only ever seen written down and laughed together at moments when Katniss would do something so clever to defy the capitol.
The scene were Katniss and Peeta went out on the cart together in the opening ceremony was the bit we had all been waiting for. I can remember crossing my fingers hoping beyond hope that they had improved the crappy fire CGI that had been in the previous film and of course they delivered. Although it was still unrealistic it looked a million times more impressive. I loved the way it was all over their clothes and not just trailing behind them and the it went right up to the camera lenses looked magnificent!
I think it's amazing that as such a huge fan of the book I can only think of two tiny things I would have changed about this film and they are such small things that would barley make a difference. It is difficult to get over quite how good this film was and if you haven't already seen it would suggest picking up a DVD as soon as possible.
Love Always,
Freya

Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell|Review

Title: Fangirl
Genre: Contempry
My Star Rating: ★★★☆☆

Blurb:
Cath and Wren are identical twins and until recently they did absalutley everything together. Now they're off to university and Wren's decided she doesn't want to be one half of a pair anymore- she wants to dance, meet boys, go to parties and get loose. It's not so easy for Cath. She would rather bury hers;ef in the fanfiction she writes where there's romance more intense than anything she's experienced in real life.
Now Cath has to decide whether she's ready to open her heart to new people and new experiences, and she'd realising that there's more to learn about love than she ever thought possible...

To be completely honest I really didn't see the huge fuss about Fangirl. I'd go as far as to say it was good, but nothing special. I felt like very little happened and the things that did happen weren't massively exiting.
I thought I'd relate to Cath a lot as we both write fanfiction from a popular book series and we're both obsessed with the main characters school enemy but somehow I just didn't find her all that interesting, there wasn't much to her.
Because this book was a romance I should probably talk about the love interests. I thought Levi was a very likeable person which is strange for me because he is so happy and smiley and I am quite cynical (don't ask why the cynic is reading romance novels). I never much liked Nick as I thought his character was a bit weird and irritating.
One good thing was that Fangirl did encourage me to continue with a potter fanfiction which I had been playing with the idea of for a while. I definitely think this would be a lovely book for aspiring authors as a lot of the book is about fiction writing.
Please don't get the wrong idea and think I hated this book, it was just a bit overhyped.
Love Always,
Freya

February Wrap-up!

In the month of February I managed to read a whopping eight books! For me that is completely insane as usually four books is an achievement. Here are the eight books I read in February:

I participated in the first five days of the Harry Potter read-a-
thon and this was one of the books I chose to read. I absolutely adored it as per usual and it put me in the mood to read even more Potter in March!
If you haven't read Harry Potter yet then give it a try! I was apprehensive before I first read it three years ago and now these books mean the world to me.





This is the other book I read during the Harry Potter read-a-thon, another re-read. It is one of the Hogwart's Library books. It's a nice little book of wizard fairy tales and a very quick, light read.

The Tulip Touch was a book I read for English. Most of my class thought it was great but I didn't see the big fuss about it. The ending was disappointing and it was never particularly
exiting.








Such a good book! I found it very hard to believe it was his début novel as it was so well written. It was almost as good as TFIOS! You can see my review here








A nice little bonus book in the Ruby Redfort series. It was a really cool survival guide with loads of exiting tips and tricks for surviving some tricky predicaments
and even some everyday situations.









The second book in the Tomorrow Series, a little bit better than the first. A nice mix of romance, action and all that good stuff!







Amazing! Favourite book of the year (Harry Potter doesn't count because it's a re-read). Action packed, funny, romantic, everything you want in a YA book. Can't believe I waited quite so long to read it. See my review here.

To be perfectly honest I didn't see the big fuss about Fangirl, it was really nothing special. It was good but not that much happened and there wasn't any big moral to the story. Review coming soon!







Let me know if you would like to see more monthly wrap-ups in the future!
Love Always,
Freya