Angelfall by Susan Ee
My rating: 1 of 5 stars

Didn't finish this, which is a shame as I've been waiting for this to be released in actual book form for ages. Yes, I was mostly drawn in by the cover (as I think a lot of people probably are) but the story sounded pretty interesting too.

It's not.

The writing was pretty average and in some places quite amateurish, which I would expect from a self published ebook, but not from a book picked up by a big publisher, but I guess they just wanted a piece of the action and by action I mean money.

There was just no excitement. The plot just plodded along, dragging it's knuckles and grunting every now and then. I very rarely not finish a book, but I don't read that much any more, so my patience runs out so much faster when my attention isn't grabbed within the first few chapters. In fact I didn't just not finish, but I gave up halfway through a chapter, halfway through a page!!! That's just crazy!!!

Plus, I can't say I was overly fond of the characters. They were dull and blah really. The love interest was glaringly obvious. The author wasn't very good at subtlety. Gah!!!! I'm having real trouble with trying to get out what I mean, but the main character just came across as stupid because she kept questioning her motives, when it was obvious that at some point the revelation would come that actually, he's an enemy, but 'oh, how I love him so!!', blah, blah, blah...After they had teamed up, the first night they spent together, the angel dude actually gets up in the middle of the night and cuddles up next to her, which made no sense because they're ENEMIES!!!! No effort was put into building the relationship, it's like the author wanted to get to the lovey dovey stuff as quickly as possible.

And the mother?!!! WTF?!!! How was she not committed?!!

Yeah, so, not good I'm afraid. Which is a shame because the cover is very pretty. This then, is a lesson in that we shouldn't judge a book by it's cover!!! Or by it's Goodreads rating. I honestly don't understand why so many people love this.

Ok, my review is crap, but that's because it's poo and I just can't be arsed to write any more. However there are a truck load of 1 star reviews that explain PERFECTLY ALL THE THINGS THAT ARE WRONG WITH THIS BOOK!!! So go read them!!!

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It's the April Wrap Up and May Haul/TBR

The Pledge by Kimberly Derting
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I do so like being surprised. I have been buried under an abundance of sub par literature and books that can be summed up by one simple sound...meh!!! So imagine when my joy when I began reading this, when slowly and steadily it began drawing me in. It took a little while, but soon the well formed, fleshed out characters and intriguing story had me hooked.

I will admit, I wondered at the idea of this being a mix of both Fantasy and Dystopia. In all honesty this is more of the latter, the only hint of fantasy coming from a few brief displays of magic, and an antiquated culture missing the gleam, polish and advancement of many books boasting to be Dystopia. It was really rather refreshing. No futuristic pomp, just good old fashioned story telling.

The romance got dangerously close to tumbling off the edge and plunging into the realms of cheesiness, but thankfully kept it's balance and remained the right side of classy. There were characters you could believe in and get behind, with an all important strong female lead that carried the plot well.

All in all, a thoroughly enjoyable read >.

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Insurgent by Veronica Roth
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

After the awesomeness that is Divergent I was expecting so much of this...but alas, I was to be disappointed. Maybe that was the problem, I hyped it up too much.

To me this felt like a filler. A brief reprieve before the next book, where I hope, we'll get a bit more story. There wasn't really any advancement in the plot, just a lot of Tris' inner battles with herself. Self reflection isn't a bad thing, as it helps us get to know a character. Usually though, there is other stuff going on to buffer all that woe and angst and general-feeling-like-a-terrible-human-being-and-wondering-why-anyone-wants-anything-to-do-with-you-because-you-are-just-an-awful-person type stuff. It goes, action, relationship, battles-with-inner demons, revelation then rinse and repeat. In this it was just all fighting inner demons stuff. Even the relationship built up between Tris and Four felt like a shadow of it's former self and I didn't get that giddy feeling I got when I read Divergent.

Focusing now on the story, there seemed to be a lot of talk, and not a lot of action. There were no moments that left me gasping with shock. To be honest, most of the time I had trouble keeping up with what was going on. Perhaps for most people, events were sufficiently explained, but for me I'd be left scratching my head wondering what the hell the characters were on about. You'd get a piece of information, but it wouldn't be explained. It was like joining a conversation half way through but no-one bothering to fill in you on what you'd missed. I don't think I'm that stupid, but I just found it frustrating. The amount of times I'd flick back through the pages wondering if I'd missed anything. I vaguely remember feeling that way when I read the first one, but then there was so much awesome going on, it didn't really bother me. Unfortunately there were no such distractions in this one.

I am afraid to say, there was more that irked me, though much of it I can't go into detail about for fear of giving away spoilers. All I will say though is that for someone with an aptitude for Erudite, Tris was oddly willing to risk a lot for gaining information she was never actually given the details of, which to me seems illogical. Surely a smart person would want all the facts before charging off blindly, or is that just me?

There was also the authors strange habit of explaining things a number of pages later than she should, at least in my opinion. Ahhh, it's hard to explain without giving anything away. Basically something seemingly random would happen and I'd be left feeling completely confused until many pages later when we finally get the explanation. I explain it poorly, but if you've read the book and maybe get what I'm saying let me know >.< as I get the feeling most of what I'm saying may be down to me just being an idiot.

And now for the ending. I was really hoping this was going to be something epic that would wipe all my other gripes from my mind. Again, I was to be disappointed. Oh, there was a twist, but one that was very poorly executed. I think the author was going for the teaser. In not wanting to risk giving away too much and keeping up the suspense, she rather failed to really give us anything. I get a little bit of what was being insinuated, but I'm not 100% positive I've got the jist and I now get to spend the next year probably wondering what the hell it was all for, waiting for the next instalment to show itself.

Er positives...I read it reasonably quickly. If it had been really bad I would have just given up on it, though I think that was partly down to me waiting for the story to start happening and apart from the whole backwards explanation thing, her writing was still top class.

All in all, a rather unsatisfying and disappointing read. If I was sticking strictly to the Goodreads rating system, this should have got 2 stars, as for me, it was just ok, but in memory of Divergent I gave it a 3.

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So, I finally went to go see The Hunger Games - A movie review that 
kinda turns into a review of the books

So I went to see it last night. I've had a while to think about it and put my thoughts into order, lets see how I do.

I'm really not a huge fan of the Mockingjay pin design, mainly because the bird
looks like neither a Mockingbird or a Jay.

Ok, first of all, I need to stress how much I absolutely adore this series. I will never truly be able to convey with words what they mean to me, and how they made me feel. I was literally blown away by the depth of the emotions portrayed, the nerve jangling authenticity that Suzanne Collins managed to create an entirely fictional and futuristic setting, and the astounding realism that she was able to capture in her characters. Katniss will forever be one of my favourite leads, mainly for her constant conflicts with herself, against what was right and what was necessary. I love her for a flaws, her honesty and her humanity.  She isn't a hero. It is her actions that are heroic.

It's safe to say then, that the movie had a lot to live up to.  The burning question was, did it? The answer?  Yes and no. It succeed in being an adaptation of a high standard. It was slick, it was cool and it most certainly held my attention. I do not want to give away any spoilers for those that haven't seen it or read the books, but there is a certain scene in this movie that will stay with me for a long time, involving Katniss and a sign of solidarity she makes after a particularly moving event.  That completely and utterly ruined me and I blubbed like a baby.  So it's safe to say they managed to capture some of the raw emotion that the books have in abundance.  It also accurately conveyed the fear and desperation of all involved and the depravity and cruelness of those in control. 

What I was most afraid however, was not necessarily that the film would be bad; the sheer amount of positive reviews told me that this wasn't going to be another catastrophic book adaptation.  It was rather that I would no longer feel the same about the book series. That my feelings towards them would be forever tainted. I am pleased to report however, that the opposite is true. Because I could see how much they were not able to include, it made me love the books even more for the simple fact that you can feel so much closer to Katniss and all her fellow characters. You can explore better the relationships she has with Gail, Peeta, Rue and Haymitch, all of which I feel were not developed fully in the films. Trying to read anything now will be struggle as all I want to do is pick them up and immerse myself in the story once again and rediscover them in their awe inspiring brilliance.

If you are reading this, I am assuming you are a book lover and therefore will have read The Hunger Games series. If by chance, you haven't, then what are you waiting for? 

I envy all those who are reading these books for the first time. A part of me wishes I could wipe them from my memory, so that I could re-live, and re-love them all over again.

Thank you for reading >.<

March Wrap Up/April TBE

I knew I would be crap at blogging.  These videos have been up on Youtube for a while and I have only just remembered to shove them here. I thought I was a bad Tweete but jeez, that's got nothing on my appallingly sucky Blog skills.  So here they are, a little later than they should be.

March Wrap Up

April Book Haul/TBR

Under the Never Sky by Veronica Rossi
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

That's technically a 3.5 out of 5!!!

I am going to have to give Dystopia a break. I've been saying they're getting same-y for a while now, but it's getting worse. I think this would have been a pretty decent read if I haven't gotten to the point where I can sniff out plot points a mile off. In a time when Dyostopia is the new 'big thing' if you can't make a story original, you have to do something else to make your story stand out. There was just about enough of that in this one for me.

Good points were the characters. The heroin started out a bit naive and irritating but luckily grew out of that pretty quickly and the male lead had just the right mix of gruffness and sensitivity to make him likeable. The problem was that you knew they were going to end up together. Which just takes all the fun out of it and is a real flaw in these teen novels, the romance very often becomes the main story. I like a bit of romance, but I want it to be an added bonus not the entire plot!!

The story was ok, but not overly adventurous. There's the people living in relative safety and comfort on the inside, in Pods and the 'savages' that inhabit the wild of the outside. Girl from inside meets boy from the outside and inevitably sparks fly as they try to right wrongs and overthrow evil. I enjoyed a couple of the details, though I won't go into them for risk of giving away spoilers.

I'm sure there were a couple of bad points but unfortunately I have forgotten as this one has already joined the large collective of dystopian fiction that is swilling around in my head. After a while they just start to become the same book. I think the bad bits were only me being fussy anyway.

Suffice it to say there was enough to keep my interest and the author writes with a fair amount of skill, but it follows the same patterns as pretty much of the future set novels that have come before it. I blame the vast amount of Dystopian fiction for this not getting 4 out of 5.

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Starters by Lissa Price

Starters by Lissa Price
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This was was a bit of an up and down read for me. The story was really quite interesting, so I didn't have any real problems there, it was just the writing. I have an issue with authors who gunk up their novels with useless and flowery prose describing stuff that I really don't care about and usually ignore, and this book wasn't like that at all, which was great. In fact it was almost at the complete opposite end of the spectrum. The narrative was a bit on the sparse side, and rather than describing events, at points the author was just making lists, like 'we went here, I did this. This happened, then someone chased me, then I found this...' It felt a little clinical, which made it difficult to engage with the characters.

Luckily though, by the end the narrative picked up and the story got really interesting so I will almost certainly be continuing with the series. Although, there was a couple of bits right towards the end that I found rather frustrating. It was like the author wasn't sure whether she's done enough to convince her readers to read the next one when it comes out, so she went and threw in a couple of things that left me thinking...'what?!!! Why?!!' and 'what does that mean?'...so that was a tad annoying, but otherwise this was an original and engaging read!!

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Article 5 by Kristen Simmons
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

For some reason it seems like ages since I've read a good book, which isn't true at all, but still, Article 5 was a fantastic read and pretty much ticked all the boxes for me. There was an engaging and brilliantly delivered plot, world building that made you feel all the desperation, injustice and fear of the system the characters were up against. And speaking of characters, they were believable, perfectly flawed (that makes sense right?! >.<) and just looking to escape the corrupt and savage world they had been forced to endure.

The tumultuous and fragile relationship between Ember and Chase felt real and natural. Nothing seemed forced and all the emotions that riddled them through the course of the book were well portrayed and relatable. Whenever they came upon a new obstacle, whether it was physical or emotional, you could understand their actions, even if you didn't agree with them, all because the author was able to skilfully capture the mood of the moment.

The author's storytelling abilities also deserve a mention. She was able to create a compelling narrative without being either to clinical and literal or too over-sentimental and flowery. Every part of her story was perfectly balanced.

I am eagerly (and impatiently) awaiting the next instalment.






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Legend by Marie Lu
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I really wanted to like this more, as everyone else seems to, but I just can't give it more than three stars. It just didn't grip me as much as other dystopia set titles have, which is always going to be a problem when jumping on a bandwagon. And this is a category with a lot of awesomeness in it.

It's hard to pin point exactly what didn't quite click with me. There was no racing pulse or eagerness to read the next page or the next chapter. I also found the characters a little lacking. A bit too perfect in June's case, or maybe it wasn't that. Ah I don't know, for me it was difficult to empathise with her, or even really like her. The romance that blooms also felt a little forced, like it didn't quite come naturally. It could also get a bit cringe worthy at times, with all the talk of 'her lovely face', or his 'beautiful eyes'. Even the bad guy referred to the male lead as 'her beautiful boy'. It was like, ok, we get it, they're both stunningly, stupidly good looking, enough already.

That aside, there was a decent story in there, and it has piqued my interest enough that I will probably read the next one, whenever that decides to appear. There are some big changes in the future that Marie Lu has created and I would very much like to find out what happened. And who doesn't love cheering for the underdog?!!

So final thoughts. If you've not read many future-set YA novels, then I can almost guarantee that there'll be something in this that you'll love. For a seasoned vet like me though (wow, pretentious much?!!) I was looking for a bit more, excitement, emotion...? Can't say exactly what, which is frustrating, but there was just something missing for me.

There is nothing more annoying than not being able to describe why a book didn't really do anything for me. It feels plain wrong.

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