News Round Up! 3rd August

News Round Up!

Every week I recap some of the latest YA news stories. And don't forget to check the end of the post for some fab new releases!

Great news for Artemis Fowl fans! A film adaptation of Eoin Colfer's series is in the works by Disney and Harvey Weinstein. Michael Goldenberg will write the script. You can read more about this story over on Hypable.

The synopsis for the highly anticipated climax to the Divergent trilogy, Allegiant, has been released. You can read the full summary over on PageToPremiere.

The book trailer for Night School: Fracture was released this week. Watch it below:

 The final new cover for the US Harry Potter series has been revealed this week. The cover to Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows was released on 31st July - Harry Potter and J. K. Rowling's birthday. You can see the cover below:

The new UK adult cover for Order of the Phoenix has also been revealed by Bloomsbury this week:

And in more cover news, the cover for Cress by Marissa Meyer was revealed on USA Today. See the stunning cover for the next book in the Lunar Chronicles below:

And the final bit of cover news comes from Holly Smale, author of Geek Girl. The cover to the sequel Geek Girl: Model Misfit was revealed on Twitter yesterday. See it below:

HERE IT IS!! THE COVER OF GEEK GIRL: MODEL MISFIT!!! What d'ya think? pic.twitter.com/CwJyxuYvxP
— Holly Smale (@HolSmale) August 2, 2013

The actors from The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones have been taking part in a mall tour in America this week. Sony has also released some movie extras, including a tour of the New York Institute. Read more on Fandomsnews. It was also revealed by the BBFC that the film would be a 12A certificate and that the running time for the film will be 129 minutes, 49 seconds. Read more at TMISource.

New releases:
The Testing by Joelle Charbonneau
Amazon|Goodreads

Cruel Summer by James Dawson
Amazon|Goodreads

Life in Outer Space by Melissa Keil
Amazon|Goodreads

All Our Yesterdays by Cristin Terrill 
Amazon|Goodreads

Canary by Rachele Alpine
Amazon|Goodreads 

The Sound by Sarah Alderson
Amazon|Goodreads

Angel Fever by L. A. Weatherly
Amazon|Goodreads

Control by Kim Curran
Amazon|Goodreads

The Glass Republic by Tom Pollock
Amazon|Goodreads

What I'm Recommending! (#1)

Before I started this blog, one of the things I loved doing was recommending books to friends. I've decided to turn that into a feature on the blog by sharing books I've been recommending recently to friends or people online, along with a brief explanation of why I'm recommending it. That way, hopefully people can discover a few new books without having to always trawl through reviews. I hope you enjoy this new feature!

What I'm Recommending:  

The Lunar Chronicles series by Marissa Meyer.

Why I'm Recommending it: 

I had a friend who loved retellings and sci-fi and another who loved dystopia so this was a great rec for them both! Book one in the series is Cinder (a Cinderella retelling) and book two is Scarlet (a Red Riding Hood retelling.)

What I'm Recommending:  

Legend by Marie Lu

Why I'm Recommending it:

 Loads of people are reading Divergent right now and I think if you like Divergent then you'll love this.  

What I'm Recommending: 
Hidden Gem by India Lee and Intangible by J. Meyers

Why I'm Recommending it: 

Somebody on Twitter was asking me for Kindle recommendations recently and these are two great self-published novels you need on your Kindle. Hidden Gem is a really fun contemporary with a great concept (girl leading a double life as a pop star!) and Intangible is one of my favourite urban fantasy books - plus the sequel just came out!

What books have you been recommending recently? I'd love to hear your recs in the comments. And check back soon for more of What I'm Recommending!

Review: Scarlet (Lunar Chronicles, #2) by Marissa Meyer

 Spoiler warning! This is the 2nd book in the Lunar Chronicles series and so this review will contain spoilers from the first book, Cinder. If you're yet to read the 1st book then you can read my review of Cinder here instead. You have been warned!

Scarlet by Marissa Meyer 

Author: Marissa Meyer Website|Twitter
Published: 7 February 2013 (Puffin)
Format: Paperback
Pages: 464
Amazon: Paperback|Kindle
Waterstone's: Paperback|e-book
Book Depository: Paperback

Source: Borrowed from library

Plot Summary (from Goodreads):
Scarlet Benoit’s grandmother is missing. The police have closed her case. The only person Scarlet can turn to is Wolf, a street fighter she does not trust, but they are drawn to each other.

Meanwhile, in New Beijing, Cinder will become the Commonwealth’s most wanted fugitive – when she breaks out of prison to stay one step ahead of vicious Queen Levana.

As Scarlet and Wolf expose one mystery, they encounter Cinder and a new one unravels. Together they must challenge the evil queen, who will stop at nothing to make Prince Kai her husband, her king, her prisoner . 

My Review:
I really enjoyed Cinder and I'd been constantly checking my library's catalogue to see when they would have this book available! Scarlet introduces us to a new character and a new twist on a fairy tale.

I was interested to see how this book worked because I was expecting it to largely be about Scarlet, the new character we're introduced to. What you actually get is a book that's 50% Cinder's story and 50% Scarlet's story and I really liked that. I was eager to find out what had happened with Cinder since the end of the last book and yet my curiosity was definitely peaked by Scarlet. I thought the two stories fitted together nicely with interweaving plotlines and chapters flicking between the two of them.

Scarlet's sections of the books take place in France and I loved seeing more of the futuristic world we were introduced to in Cinder. I really enjoyed the relationship between Scarlet and the street fighter Wolf who ends up joining in on her rescue mission. They were both so mysterious and I liked how they were trying to figure each other out and the way they bounced off each other. There was definitely a bit of chemistry there too! It was interesting to see how Scarlet reacted to Cinder (who is all over the news where she lives and works) because she showed a lot of sympathy towards her. I think that helped tie the two stories together even more and really helped endear me to Scarlet.

Cinder also ends up in a bit of a double act with a prisoner she encounters along her journey - Captain Thorne. They're kind of stuck with each other and it made for some absolutely hilarious moments. Cinder makes me laugh anyway but the two of them together were so funny. I loved Cinder's part of the story and how she manages to take control of everything and discovers more about her past. You get to keep up with what's happening in New Beijing as well with Kai and Queen Levana. Those characters added some really dramatic twists to everything!

For a lot of the book I was trying to figure out just how the two girls and their plot lines were going to fit together. There were a few mysteries that needed unravelling and I was definitely hooked waiting for those revelations, and when everything started to click into place I just couldn't put the book down. Add in a whole load of action scenes that blew me away and I became totally immersed in it.

The only thing that really let this book down for me was Scarlet and some of the parts of her story. There were a few moments that felt far too convenient (a random memory appearing from nowhere that is, of course, vital to the plot) and her naivete when it came to things about Wolf. I definitely found myself more interested in Cinder's chapters and what happened to her, although I did like Scarlet and I could see a lot of potential for her.

I definitely enjoyed Scarlet as much as Cinder, possibly a teeny bit more! The writing and setting is fantastic and the characters are just awesome. I'm really excited to read more books in this series and if you're still waiting to pick up this one, then I'd highly recommend you do it soon!

Rating: 4*
What to read next: Cress by Marissa Meyer, the 3rd book in the Lunar Chronicles
Books like this: Legend by Marie Lu, My Name is Rapunzel by K. C. Hilton

Teaser Tuesdays: 16th April

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
• Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers! 


"Not for long though. Her grandma was out there somewhere and Scarlet was going to find her if she had to dig up dirt and blackmail every last detective in Europe."


- page 40, Scarlet (Lunar Chronicles, #2) by Marissa Meyer

Book Trailer: Scarlet (Lunar Chronicles, #2) by Marissa Meyer

I love book trailers and in the past week the book trailer for Scarlet, the sequel to the fab Cinder, by Marissa Meyer was released. Take a peek below! Is this a book you'll be checking out when it's released?

Scarlet is published on 7th February 2013 in the UK. Pre-order the book or add it on Goodreads via the following links.

Amazon

Waterstone's

Book Depository

Goodreads

Review: Cinder by Marissa Meyer

Cinder by Marissa Meyer

[Goodreads page]

Author: Marissa Meyer. Website|Twitter
Published: 5 January 2012 (Puffin)
Pages: 400
Amazon: paperback|Kindle
Foyles: paperback
Google Play: e-book
Book Depository: paperback

Source: Borrowed from library.

Plot Summary (from Amazon):
A forbidden romance.
A deadly plague.
Earth's fate hinges on one girl . . .
CINDER, a gifted mechanic in New Beijing, is also a cyborg. She's reviled by her stepmother and blamed for her stepsister's sudden illness. But when her life becomes entwined with the handsome Prince Kai's, she finds herself at the centre of a violent struggle between the desires of an evil queen - and a dangerous temptation.
Cinder is caught between duty and freedom, loyalty and betrayal. Now she must uncover secrets about her mysterious past in order to protect Earth's future.

My Review:
I was completely intrigued by this book and wanted to read it purely to satisfy my curiosity. Cinder is a modern re-telling of the Cinderella story, only set in a futuristic world where Cinder is a cyborg. I'm all for a modern twist on fairy tales and this sounded like a pretty interesting twist!

It took me a little while to get into this book. At first all the talk of cyborgs and androids left me thinking "really?!" and I wasn't totally convinced it was going to work. But as I read on, I settled into the book and started to get used to the world it's set in. It felt a lot like some of the post-apocalyptic/dystopian books I read so I sort of got myself into that frame of mind whilst reading and it seemed to help.

The fairy tale twist is interesting. There's Cinder herself, stepsisters, a prince, a ball (and even an orange carriage of sorts) so all the building blocks of the Cinderella story were there. There's an awful lot more to the book than that, though, and once I started to see the story as a standalone novel with its own plot I found myself able to enjoy it more. I almost wished it hadn't been linked to Cinderella in places so it could focus on the story Meyer has dreamt up, but it's still really fun to spot all the little fairy tale references!

I really enjoyed the plot, and felt that it had a little bit of everything to keep me satisfied: a potential love story, a deadly disease threatening the planet as well as the possibilty of war and conflict with a rival society. It definitely had the feeling that the story was really building to something, and I'm really glad it's the first in a series (Cinder is the first of the Lunar Chronicles) because I really want to read more of this world.

The story flits between several characters point of view throughout the book, but I enjoyed Cinder's POV the most. Her story had so many levels to it and she was a really fascinating character. I liked her relationship with stepsister Peony as well as with her robot buddy Iko. The love story element of the book didn't feel too overwhelming, and I think it was balanced well with everything else that was going on.

I was really enjoying this book by the end already, but then the ending absolutely blew me away! I was on the edge of my seat and totally didn't see the end coming. It really raised my opinion of the book as a whole.

I'd definitely recommend this book. It's worth persevering with, because any doubts about it I had at the beginning were obliterated by the end. It's a very, very high 4*.

Rating: 4*
What to read next: Scarlet by Marissa Meyer, book 2 in the Luna Chronicles series.
Books like this: Glitch by Heather Anastasiu

Related links:
Win a copy of Scarlet on Goodreads right here! (Competition open internationally - closes 30th Sept)

Be sure to check out some great extras on Marissa's website, too! Click here.