Showing posts with label Sue. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Sue. Show all posts

Friday, 18 May 2012

Review - City Of Lost Souls By Cassandra Clare

Spoilers from previous books are possible

"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?"
taken from Goodreads


Where do I begin with this wonderful book......

Firstly the Cover, I really like this and think the models on the front really capture the likeness's of Clary and Jace, and if I didn't know of the books would of felt inclined to pick the book up just on the cover alone.

We start off immediately where City of Fallen Angels ended, in this the 5th book of her Mortal Instruments series but saying that all of Cassie Clare's Mortal Instruments book are excellent stand alone books, with cliff hangers if you want to read just one.

 In these books, for anyone that hasn't read the previous books in the Mortal Instruments series, we have Magic, Werewolves, faeries, Warlocks, all set in modern day America, plus various European countries. Also Young love, Mature love, Gay love, and even a bit of incest, but these are just a tiny part of this 539 page book.

I can't tell you anything of the book in any great detail, as I'd be giving you spoilers and literally this is such an action packed book, every couple of pages would bring a spoiler!!! We get to see more of the characters in depth, and find out why some are as they are nowadays. We also see more of Jocelyn in this book and we have some new characters.
Cassie has also written them in a more adult theme, and there were some scenes that made me go Oooohhhh!!!! Maia, Alec and Magnus, will never be quite the same in my eyes.

To me, Clary is my daughter District YA, Jace is her partner and Simon our next door neighbour (although I'd like Simon to be her partner) and I of course am Jocelyn. I read the stories and we become them, I'd love to give you a story that I can liken from my past that would emulate their story, but alas we really never had that much excitement. Mind you having said that when I was 10, we went to live in Australia and en route we stopped in Cairo, we were warned before leaving the ship on no account to go to the Cairo museum as in the last couple of months before we arrived, two people had been taken to the Museum by fake policeman and been murdered. I was sitting in an outdoor cafe with my parents and little brother when a policeman came up and started to speak in very good English, and said he would like to show us around the Cairo Museum!!!! My Dad told him to push off, with that a cab pulled up and the Policeman grabbed my Mums arm and tried to get her into the cab, with the cab driver trying to push my brother and myself into the back on the other side!!!! My Dad did no more than punch the Policeman as hard as he could in the  face, grabbed my little brother and told us too run, run, run. I had my Mums hand and we could of won the Olympics, we ran so fast. We had a number of people running after us, police, cab driver and a number of Egyptian men, but we got to the boat, and they were shouting and screaming at us.... Luckily the boat left a couple of hours later, and these men stayed on the quayside until we left. My Dad would definitely of been Nephilim. But that is the wonderful thing with Cassie, she writes so descriptively and with such enthusiasm that that you do become the characters or at the very least find ways to relate to them.

I'm going to meet Cassie on the 26th May, and really can't wait to tell her what a superb writer she is, I think she would be my perfect dinner companion, and I want to know if in real life she has as much energy as her characters. The only thing that would make her books better is if she brought them out chapter by chapter, so we didn't have to wait another year for the next edition.

In my opinion The Mortal Instrument books are my favourite books of all time, and she deals with various issues in such an enlightened way.

Rating 5 Out Of 5

Published In The UK By Walker Books

This Can Be Purchased HERE and from Good Book Retailers

Review By SUE

Monday, 16 April 2012

Review - Girl In The Steel Corset By Kady Cross

"She thought there was something wrong with her. She was right.  Finley Jayne has known for quite some time that she isn’t ‘normal,’ but when she beats up the son of her employer and is forced to flee, she stumbles into a world where there are bigger freaks than her. They take her in, treat her like family and demand her trust. How can Finley trust them when she can’t trust herself? And why is she drawn to the powerful Griffin as well as the dangerous Jack? She has to get herself under control before she gets into trouble she can’t get out of.

Griffin King is one of the most powerful men in Britain but he couldn’t save his best friend from almost dying. He is determined to save Finley and help her become the person he knows she can be, but there’s evil afoot in London. Machines have attacked humans under the orders of a nefarious criminal called The Machinist. He has sworn to protect his country against such a threat, but he’s never faced any foe like this. However, when he discovers The Machinist’s connection to his past, Griffin vows to end the villain once and for all — but he’ll need the help of all his friends, including the beautiful Finley Jayne – the girl in the steel corset.
"
taken from Goodreads

I was lucky enough to be invited to the very first Mira Bloggers event, which was so good. It was so friendly with the loveliest people, gorgeous cupcakes, and nibbles, what more could a girl ask for!!! What was even more awesome, was a red or black carrier bag on each chair! inside this marvellous bag were 7 Books, a few sweets, and a bottle of nail varnish, they know what we ladies like.

The first book that caught my eye, was a hardback copy of The Girl in the Steel Corset, by Kady Cross. It had to be my first read from the bag, I love Steampunk and the cover says it straightaway. The cover is a dark background, with various cogs and gears in the distance, and a slender girl in a gorgeous red satin dress with a steel corset stands against the background. In her hand she holds a locket, its a simple but powerful cover and it drew my eye in.

The story is of a young girl Finlay Jayne, who I came to think of as a female Jekyll and Hyde, set in 1897 in London. She doesn't know why she's like she is, but is very disturbed by the changes in her character. The book slowly unravels Finlays past, as well as going forward. We don't live far from the area's that are mentioned in the book, Commercial Street where I used to go to buy fabric for the business that I ran, The Princess Alice Pub, which is in my opinion The Ten Bells Pub, that Jack the Ripper is known for, and where I was a little while ago on a Jack the Ripper walk.

Kady Cross is in my opinion a very talented writer, she slowly uncovers the plot but not in a drawn out way, every page you become more engrossed, and at the end of each chapter you know that much more. In the book she covers Murder, Aether, Ghosts, Love triangles, Automons, history, family loyalties to name but a few. What I really enjoyed was Kady's description in each new day of the characters clothing, if only I could dress like that!!!! Also her description of London of 1897 but in a steampunk way, you could really picture it.

In my opinion the book is very well worth reading, and I would thoroughly recommend, the only thing in my case that was a negative was that I guessed who the Machinist was, but I'm one of those annoying people that have a talent for guessing the bad one, but in no way did it deter the book at all. In fact I finished the book last night, and will be purchasing the next book as soon as its available.

Many Thanks to the lovely ladies at Mira Ink for their kindness and hospitality.

Rating 4 1/2 Out of 5

Published In The UK By Mira Ink

This Can Be Purchased HERE and from good book seller

Review By SUE x

Friday, 30 March 2012

Welcome to my new Reviewer!!

Today I am pleased to be posting the first of hopefully many reviews from a new poster.  Some of you already know her, but for everyone else I would like to introduce you to SUE (aka my MUM!!!)

Me, Toni Trucks (from Breaking Dawn) and Sue


She is also a big fan of reading and can frequently be found delving into my rather large book pile, which happens to contain all YA.  Its a win win situation for us, as we already get on like a house on fire (literally we were once in a house on fire) but this just gives us even more to bond over.

I hope you will all join me in giving her a VERY Warm welcome......!