News Round Up! 23rd March

Welcome to my News Round Up! I've decided to make this a weekly feature with a new news post every Saturday, which recaps that week's news. Here's what's grabbed my attention this week!

There's one story dominating the YA world this week and that is the release of Clockwork Princess, the final book in Cassandra Clare's Infernal Devices trilogy. I'm yet to get my hands on a copy but I'll be borrowing from a friend as soon as she's done! Is this a book you'll be reading? Are you sad to end the trilogy?

Another end to a trilogy came in the form of Requiem  Lauren Oliver which was published in the UK on Thursday. To celebrate the release, Lauren visited Waterstone's Piccadilly this week. You can find pictures of that event over on the UK Delirium Facebook page. And there's more great news for UK YA fans as Marissa Meyer will be visiting Waterstone's Bromley on the 26th March to talk about her latest novel Scarlet, the second book in The Lunar Chronicles. And Maggie Stiefvater (author of The Raven Boys) added a second UK date and will be visiting Waterstone's Finchley Road in London on the 24th, on top of her Manchester event today.

Because it's impossible to go a week without somebody being cast in something - more casting news! And it's a big one. This has been strong rumour for a while but we've finally had the confirmation we've all been waiting for that Shailene Woodley will be playing Hazel Grace in the film adaptation of John Green incredible The Fault in Our Stars! Read more about the story here on EW. What do you make of this casting choice? First Divergent, now The Fault in Our Stars - us YA fans will be seeing a lot of Shailene in the future!

The winners of the Waterstone's Children's Book Prize 2013 were announced this week. In the
5-12 catergory the winner was Wonder by R. J. Palacio - a book I adored and am very happy to see recognised! In the teen catergorie the winner was Ketchup Clouds by Annabel Pitcher. I'm yet to read that one but I really loved her previous book My Sister Lives on the Mantelpiece so I'll definitely be checking out this one. You can find out more about those books and the other nominations over on the Waterstone's website at this link.

If (like me) you missed Beautiful Creatures whilst it was in cinemas then there's good news! The DVD is now available for pre-order on Amazon UK with a release date of 17th June.

Now for a blog related news story. There's been lots of talk about Google Reader after Google announced it was shutting down the service in July. You can read my post on that here and find out more about what it means over on TechCrunch here.

Which news stories have got you excited this week? Let me know in the comments!

New book releases:
Requiem by Lauren Oliver
Buy: Amazon|Waterstone's|Book Depository

Clockwork Princess by Cassandra Clare
Buy: Amazon|Waterstone's|Book Depository

Review: Forever (Wolves of Mercy Falls, #3) by Maggie Stiefvater

 

Spoiler warning! This is the third and final book in the Wolves of Mercy Falls trilogy. Do not read this review if you haven't read the first two books! It will contain spoilers. You can read my review of book one - Shiver - right here and book two - Linger - here. You have been warned!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Forever by Maggie Stiefvater

[Goodreads page]

Author: Maggie Stiefvater. Website|Twitter
Published: 13 July 2011 (Scholastic)
Format: paperback
Pages: 448
Amazon: paperback|Kindle
Waterstone's: paperback|e-book
Book Depository: paperback

Source: Bought

Plot Summary (from Goodreads):
Sam has always loved Grace. As a wolf, he watched her from afar. As a boy, he held her in his arms.

Now facing the possibility of a life without her, he will do anything to keep her safe. Even if it means facing his demons. Even if it risks everything he has.

Anything, as long as their love can survive...

My Review:
I adored the first two books in the trilogy. I've had Forever on my shelves for a while now and finally got round to reading the conclusion to this trilogy. The book picks up where Linger left off with Grace struggling to adapt to her new situation. She's having to spend more time apart from Sam, whilst Isabel is fighting a losing battle with her father who wants the wolves out of Boundary Wood for good.

I was drawn right into this book from the beginning. Reading this trilogy has been a bit like settling down with a comfy pair of slippers and a nice warm blanket, and it felt so good to get back into this world. The pace was pretty gentle but not once did it lose my attention. My heart really went out to Grace. She's become another girl who just disappeared, and it's taken its toll on her, her family and friends as they don't know the truth and the constant threat of the lives of all the wolves meant there was plenty of tension and suspense.

One of my favourite parts of this book was Grace and Sam's relationship, which steps up a notch. I've been waiting for the intensity and connection between these two to be explored a bit more and this book definitely goes deeper into it. I loved it! The tension between Isabel and Cole was a great contrast as well. Both relationships made this book feel a lot more grown up. The trilogy and the characters themselves have definitely developed.

Even the smaller characters got their chance to shine in this book which I really liked. Both Officer Koenig and Rachel's roles throughout Forever were those that stood out for me. It felt like everyone got one last chance to shine.

I was waiting and waiting for the book to reach its climax and it was brilliantly done. When I finished I just didn't want to part with the characters! It managed to wrap things up nicely but left you wanting that bit more as well which was a perfect ending. I'll be re-reading this trilogy in future to get my fix again! Forever is definitely up there with the first two books for me. A must read trilogy!

Rating: 5*
What to read next: The Scorpio Races by Maggie Stiefvater
Books like this: Nightshade by Andrea Cremer

Review: The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater

The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater

[Goodreads page]

Author: Maggie Stiefvater. Website|Twitter
Published:
Format: paperback
Pages: 454
Amazon: paperback|Kindle
Waterstone's: paperback|e-book
Book Depository: paperback

Source: Borrowed from library

Plot Summary:
Blue has spent the majority of her sixteen years being told that if she kisses her true love, he will die. When Blue meets Gansey's spirit on the corpse road she knows there is only one reason why - either he is her true love or she has killed him.

My Review:
The Raven Boys tells the story of Blue, a girl who has always been told that if she kisses her true love he will die. She lives in a house full of psychics and is used to their vague but accurate readings. We also meet Gansey, a student at Aglionby, and his group of friends also known as "raven boys".

This book wasn't quite what I was expecting. With the other books I've read by this author, the connection was instant. This book took me a little longer to get into. The pace was quite slow which made it a different kind of read. There's lots of beautiful descriptions and the writing was wonderful, but the action scenes were quite spread out, meaning you had to wait a while for anything to really happen.

As this book deals with psychics and spirits you'd expect it to be a bit strange. It's very quirky, both the characters and the way they're written, Blue's family in particular. They were very likable in their quirkiness, though. There were definitely some funny, lighthearted moments between the characters. Blue had a bit of fiesty-ness to her as well, which I loved. I think the book was at its strongest when Blue and the "raven boys" were together. The book alternates between perspectives and when the characters were apart, not a lot really happened.

Gansey and his friends reminded me very much of characters from a John Green book. They were kind of geeky and awkward. Gansey has this fascination with a Welsh king which is all a bit strange, but kind of geeky strange. The book did become a lot about the characters which I didn't always like.

Overall, I found it really hard to decide whether or not I liked this book. I could see the writing was good, and the characters made me laugh at times, but I think the pace throughout was just a bit too laid back and I found myself becoming bored in places. Blue's dilemma of not being able to kiss her true love seemed to take a bit of a backseat as well. I was expecting it to be more of the focus of the story.

There were some great twists, though, which I didn't seem coming. Those moments really drew me back into the story. I think the main problem with this book is that it kind of reminded me too much of other books. I've mentioned John Green in the review already, and it also felt very like The Spell Book of Listen Taylor by Jaclyn Moriarty in that Blue's family felt very similar to the characters in that book.

I think it had potential as a series but it doesn't come close to Shiver. Overall The Raven Boys has some brilliant twists but it's just too slow the rest of the time. It's worth a read but it just didn't live up to the hype for me.

Rating: 3*
What to read next: The Scorpio Races by Maggie Stiefvater
Books like this: The Spell Book of Listen Taylor by Jaclyn Moriarty

Review: Linger (Wolves of Mercy Falls, #2) by Maggie Stiefvater

Spoiler warning! This is the second book in the Wolves of Mercy Falls trilogy and so this review will contain spoilers from book one - Shiver. If you haven't read Shiver then look away or check out my review of Shiver instead, right here!

Linger by Maggie Stiefvater

[Goodreads page]

Author: Maggie Stiefvater. Website|Twitter
Published:  21 July 2010 (Scholastic)
Format: Paperback
Pages: 432
Amazon: paperback|Kindle
Waterstone's: paperback|e-book
Book Depository: paperback

Source: Bought

Plot Summary (from Book Depository):
Grace and Sam must fight to be together. For Grace, this means defying her parents and keeping dangerous secrets. For Sam, it means grappling with his werewolf past ...and figuring out a way to survive the future. But just when they manage to find happiness, Grace finds herself changing in ways she could never have expected...


My Review:
I was such a huge fan of Shiver that I've been dying to read the sequel! Linger is the second book in the Wolves of Mercy Falls trilogy and carries on the story of Grace and Sam.

The first thing to mention about this book is that whereas with Shiver the story was golf from Grace and Sam's perspective in mostly alternating chapters, in Linger we get chapters written from Isabel and Cole's POV as well. It was really great getting to know more about Isabel and get inside her head as I knew she has the potential to be a fascinating character. She had a lot more depth and I felt myself drawn to her in this book. Learning all about Cole made for interesting reading, too.

The writing is still what absolutely makes me love these books. It's just so beautiful and poetic and feels like writing you just want to savour every moment of!

A lot of the plot revolves around what is happening to Grace. It's clear early on that something isn't quite right and there's plenty of mystery and suspense as you wait to find our more. I was completely gripped and wrapped up in all the characters' individual journeys.

Sam is still one of my all time favourite fictional characters. He's just so different from the male leads in other YA series that I've read.

A fantastic sequel that most definitely lived up to expectations! I completely agree with the quote on the back that describes is as the perfect book to curl up with. The characters, writing and plot are all brilliantly captivating and the book held my attention all the way through, and the climax to the action was incredible. If you still haven't checked out these books yet then I highly recommend you do!

Rating: 5*
What to read next: Forever by Maggie Stiefvater, the final book in the Wolves of Mercy Falls trilogy
Books like this: Hemlock by Kathleen Peacock

Teaser Tuesdays - 18th September

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!

"I looked away quickly as he turned back around, but I knew he had seen me watching. I wanted to scratch the cocky lift of his eyebrows from his face."

- page 99, Linger (Wolves of Mercy Falls, #2) by Maggie Stiefvater

Review: Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater

Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater

Author: Maggie Stiefvater. Website, Twitter
Published: 5 October 2009 (Scholastic)
Pages: 448
Buy: Amazon, Kindle, Waterstone's

Source: Bought.

Plot Summary: (from Amazon)

Grace is fascinated by the wolves in the woods behind her house; one yellow-eyed wolf in particular. Every winter, she watches him but every summer, he disappears. Sam leads two lives. In winter he stays in the frozen woods, with the protection of the pack. In summer, he has a few precious months to be human . . . until the cold makes him shift back again. When Grace and Sam finally meet they realize they can't bear to be apart. But as winter nears, Sam must fight to stay human - or risk losing himself, and Grace, for ever.

My Review:
This is the first book in the Wolves of Mercy Falls trilogy. I picked it up for a bargain £1.99 after I read the blurb and looked up the book on Goodreads. I hadn't read anything by this author but it caught my attention and for that price I couldn't resist!

The book tells the story of Grace, who has been fascinated by the wolves living in the wood at the back of her house ever since an encounter with them as a child. She's drawn to one wolf in particular - one with yellow eyes who, when human, is a boy named Sam. The story is told from both Grace and Sam's perspectives as they both search for each other after meeting for the first time when Sam was a wolf. When they finally meet as humans they develop a close relationship as they battle to keep Sam warm and human.

I really loved the unique twist on werewolves that forms the basis of this story. The wolves shift when their temperature drops too low (hence the title of the book!) and it was just a really interesting take on werewolves that made the story feel fresh. It leaves this threat hanging over the characters throughout the story - the fact that winter is approaching and it means that the wolves time as humans is limited, which made it a really gripping read.

The relationship between Grace and Sam was what absolutely won me over with this book. It was unlike any relationship I'd read before - totally in a good way! There was no "does he/she like me" or anything like cliched like that. These two were already so comfortable with each other and just utterly perfect together and had this amazing chemistry that made me adore reading about them. Their bond is so special and they fit so well together that it's just an absolute pleasure to spend time with the characters. It was one of those books I didn't want to finish because I was just so in love with everything about their story!

As individuals, too, Grace and Sam are great characters. I liked that you got the story told from both their perspectives so you could get inside both of their heads. I think Sam's chapters were my favourite because he's such a special character. He's so vulnerable and sweet!

The writing in this book was so beautiful, too. The descriptions of the wolves, the weather and the emotion between Grace and Sam was just breathtaking.

If you like supernatural stories with a twist, or just a really good, non-slushy, beautiful love story between two awesome characters then this book is a must. I adored it!

Rating: 5*
What to read next: Linger by Maggie Stiefvater, the second book in the Wolves of Mercy Falls trilogy.
Books like this: The Gathering by Kelley Armstrong, Raised by Wolves by Jennifer Lynn Barnes