The Dance of the Red Death by Bethany Griffin (Masque of the Red Death #2) Indigo (June 2013) Paperback, 328 pages Young Adult, Dystopian After the shocking events of The Masque of the Red Death, which was one of my favourite reads of 2012, The Dance of the Red Death by Bethany Griffin marks the ending of this exciting duology. Young Araby Worth is struggling to come to terms with the fact that her own father was responsible for the virus that killed her brother Finn and has since spread…
Siege and Storm by Leigh Bardugo (The Grisha Trilogy #2) Indigo (June 2013) Paperback, 224 pages YA Fantasy Warning: contains spoilers for book one Picking up where Shadow and Bone (previously titled The Gathering Dark in the UK) left off, Siege and Storm follows the adventures of Sun Summoner, Alina as she struggles to remain hidden from the Darkling and protect her childhood friend, Mal. The close of book one left Alina and Mal on the run from the Darkling, endeavouring to escape as far away from Ravka as they can…
The Eternity Cure by Julie Kagawa (Blood of Eden #2) Mira Ink (May 2013) Paperback, 432 pages Paranormal YA At the end of The Immortal Rules, our lead protagonist Allison (Allie) managed to get her little human group to the safety of the only human city in existence, Eden. Of course Allie being a vampire couldn’t be permitted to stay and walked away from the only person she cared about Zeke, safe in the knowledge that he would be protected within the confines of Eden. The Eternity Cure is again written…
Blood Song by Rhiannon Hart (Lharmell #1) Random House Australia (Sept 2011) Paperback, 290 pages YA Fantasy I love vampire books so when Blood Song came up for review, described as Game of Thrones crossed with Twilight, I jumped at the chance to read it. What I found was a new twist on vampires in a dark fantasy world, but I don’t think it can be compared to either book. Blood Song opened in a typical fairy story fashion: widowed mother, Queen Renata, who had used up the family fortune, desired that…
Article 5 by Kristen Simmons (Article 5 #1) Tor Teen (Jan 2012) Hardback, 364 pages Dystopian YA There may be a multitude of dystopian fiction out there at the moment, but Kristen Simmons’ Article 5 is a game changer, and provokes a whole host of thoughts about what could happen in the world in the wake of a war and a change of government. We begin with an introduction to seventeen-year-old Ember Miller and her mother, a family struggling to cope in the aftermath of ‘the war’, although we are…
Fragments (Partials Sequence #2) by Dan Wells HarperCollins (Mar 2013) Ebook, 482 pages YA Dystopian Warning: contains spoilers for book one In Partials, Kira set out to find the cure for the RM virus and in finding it, she also found out that she was more than human. Fragments, starts out where Partials ended, with one viable cure procured and her best friend’s baby saved. Kira sets out to find the answer to why she was created, leaving a cure sample for her ex, Marcus, to work from and to…
Fire (Graceling Realm #2) by Kristin Cashore Audiobook, 13h 16m | Narrator: Emma Powell Orion Publishing Group (April 2012) | YA Fantasy I am fast becoming a rather big fan of Kristin Cashore’s writing. You could be forgiven for thinking that book two in her Graceling Kingdom series would have the same world building we’ve already seen in Graceling. But, Cashore has cleverly crafted an additional rich and exotic world layered onto the clever landscape she has already depicted. I think it’s also fair to say if you really don’t need to have read…
Partials by Dan Wells (Partials Sequence #1) HarperCollins (Mar 2012) Paperback, 468 pages Dystopian YA I have seen many great reviews regarding Partials which piqued my interest, so when I received a book voucher for Christmas I ran out and bought it. It has been sitting on my shelf for several weeks and I have finally managed to squeeze it in, hoping that I would not be left disappointed. Partials are half-human cyborgs and were built to fight in wars and do the dirty work humans no longer wanted to…
Leaving Poppy by Kate Cann Scholastic (Oct 2012) | Paperback, 364 pages YA Thriller | Horror Leaving Poppy by Kate Cann is one of those rare instances when a young adult novel doesn’t feel like other novels in its genre. It grabs you like a claw and won’t let go until you’ve devoured every page, and the plot takes you into the realm of thoughts which are often better left unsaid. It all begins with our heroine, Amber, who is desperate to escape the smothering clutches of her half-sister Poppy…
The Abused Werewolf Rescue Group by Catherine Jinks Quercus (Feb 2011) | Paperback, 397 pages Paranormal YA The Abused Werewolf Rescue Group by Catherine Jinks is a novel that aims to put a fresh twist on werewolf fantasy, taking place in Australia. Our story begins with Toby Vandevelde, a teenager who wakes up in hospital with no memory of what happened to him the night before. It seems that he was found naked in the dingo pen of the local wildlife park, which soon becomes a local news story. His mother is worried…
The Rebels of New Sun (Blending Time #3) by Michael Kinch Flux Books (Jan 2013) | Ebook, 277 pages | Dystopian YA The Rebels of New Sun is book 3 in The Blending Time Series and it’s the first book of this series that I have read. There are loads of characters and as such there is a helpful guide at the beginning explaining who they are and how they are integral to the story. For me there were too many characters to follow and it took me a while to get to…
Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children (Miss Peregrine #1) by Ransom Riggs Quirk Books (2011) | Paperback, 348 pages | YA Fantasy Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs is a young adult supernatural horror story that cleverly incorporates the use of vintage photographs into its pages. The story begins with sixteen-year-old Jacob Portman and the stories his grandpa used to tell him as a child. These stories are fantastic fairytales about the orphanage he grew up in during the Second World War, featuring children with strange abilities, such as…
Beautiful Creatures (Caster Chronicles #1) by Kami Garcia & Margaret Stohl Penguin Books (Feb 2010) | Kindle, 577 pages Paranormal YA BECS: With the movie being released shortly and a lot of hype surrounding Beautiful Creatures, for me this book was a must-read, as I have to finish the book before I can possibly watch the movie. A paranormal romance between a mortal and a witch set in America’s deep south, where voodoo reigns was enough to capture my interest. The writing grabbed my attention quickly and the build up…
Fangtabulous (Vamped #4) by Lucienne Diver Flux Books (US, Jan 2013) Ebook, 288 pages Paranormal, Young Adult Can a fanged fashionista take out a deadly Salem spirit? Being on the run from the Feds and the vampire council with no money is not as glamorous as it sounds, especially when I, Gina Covello, fashion queen of the undead, am forced to abandon my wardrobe. Salem, Massachusetts, seems like a great place to hide our supernatural gang. But who knew the city would be crawling with ghosts? The nasty spirit of George Corwin, infamous sheriff…
Creative Fire (Ruby’s Song #1) by Brenda Cooper Pyr, November 2012 Paperback, 400 pages Science Fiction, Young Adult Nothing can match the power of a single voice… Ruby Martin expects to spend her days repairing robots and avoiding the dangerous peacekeeping forces that roam the corridors of the generation ship The Creative Fire. Her best friend has been raped and killed, the ship is falling apart around her, and no one she knows has any real information about what’s happening to them. The social structure on board Creative Fire is rigidly divided,…
