LIFE AFTER THEFT - APRILYNNE PIKE - REVIEW

Book: Life After Theft
Author: Aprilynne Pike
Publisher: HarperCollins
ISBN: 9780007515554
Rating: A

Kimberlee's dead. Has been for a while, actually. Stuck haunting the halls of her high school, she's doomed to an afterlife of boredom. That is until the new kid shows up. The first thing Jeff spots is Kimberlee lying on the floor as other students walk right through her. Pretty soon she's harangued him into helping her escape to the afterlife. Kimberlee guesses that once Jeff rights her mean girl wrongs she'll be able to move on. But nothing is simple in life after death...Clash meets sass in this uproarious modern-day retelling of Baroness Orczy's The Scarlet Pimpernel, by #1 New York Times bestselling author.

Well where do I start with this. This left me speechless. I loved Pike's Wings series so when I saw this I was excited. Not only because it sounded amazing but also because it was rather different from here previous series, as all to often authors stick to the same sort of thing! This book however is absolutely perfect and I couldn't fault it.

The story follows Jeff, a boy who has moved to a new place and has started seeing a ghost. She is Kimberly the ex, queen bee of the school, hated by most, loved by some and she has a problem. She stole too much and Jeff has to return it all. Now this book had the romance factor in it too but it wasn't just thrown in there for the sake of it. It was actually very clever and worked with the overall plot really well, adding an extra charm to it. In fact the plot was fantastic! It was nicely fast paced, making it a wonderful read, whilst being very real and grounded but still exhilarating me completely. I feel like when authors go down the route of ghosts there's a couple of ways to go but this ghost story was crafted perfectly, and don't let 'ghost story' put you off because it's a completely new addition to the sub-genre.

The writing is so beautiful and I think because Pike previously wrote such a stunning series her writing really hone through in this. The way she manipulated words makes for a very whimsical and beautiful read whilst still having punch and and good hit! The way the world and characters materialise in you mind is absolutely perfect. When I was reading i didn't feel like I was reading anything at all. I felt as if it was all natural and as if I was in the book watching the story unfold. This honestly is one of the most perfectly balanced books when talking about the balance between description and dialogue, that I have read in a long time and provided a truly magical prose.

I liked the characters in this because they were all so unique and independent. All of them, say for Kim, were strong alone but stronger in Unity. Another things that struck me as good, was the fact that we got a lot of back story to all the characters. Of course the characters were well formed anyway but backstories and true colours of characters aren't usually revealed till a sequel but in this we got too see everyones history which was a really nice addition. There were a small circle of characters in it but the main were 4 characters, with semi mains characters appearing every now and then. 

Honestly the works that strikes me about this book is: Perfect. I couldn't fault, not at all. Reading this book, it was nice to see a whole new side to Pike and I think she has proved herself as an incredibly worthy author. I will most definitely be reading anything she writes and I look forward to seeing whatever she brings along next. This book was bliss to read and I would do so a thousand times.

THE STONE DEMON - KAREN MAHONEY - REVIEW

Book: The Stone Demon
Author: Karen Mahoney
Publisher: Random House / Corgi
ISBN: 9780552565288
Rating: A

When the newly-released demons set the Order of the Crow an impossible ultimatum - deliver the Philosopher's Stone, or suffer fatal consequences - alchemist's apprentice Donna Underwood must recreate the mythical artefact before the world is plunged into a modern Dark Age. But will she succeed when she finds herself pitted against a vengeful demon king, not one but two Faerie queens, an immortal Magus with his own shadowy agenda, and her own dangerously unpredictable powers? Donna must be willing to make the ultimate sacrifice, but even death may not be enough.

I got this a little later than everyone else, because I didn't realise there was a book 3 in this series until it started popping up all over my twitter feed, but when i realised I had it quick as a flash and it's left me feeling pretty good.

This is one of those series that I just love. There doesn't have to be a reason because everything about it it totally lovable. For starters the idea is unique and... i just cant put into words how much I loved this. This book had me on toes the whole way through and explored so many different things i was continually entranced.
I guess I love escaping to Donna's world because whats not to love.

This book picks up a couple of months after the end of book 2 and It has a pretty dramatic beginning. The plot was seamlessly created and I loved every part of it! There was so much crammed into this book and I just loved it so so much! The events jumped from one to one, the action and romance balanced perfectly and even at time when it seemed to easy for a love triangle to be formed, Mahoney did the sensible thing and stayed away. The story was magical and captivating and I loved reading it every last word.

The settings were nicely balanced. This is the second YA book I've read this year set in England/London and that's really nice, just because YA is rarely set in england. Mahoney definitely knew what she was taking about when describing London, because as she described it my mind pulled up pictures of those areas from memory and placed Donna into those situation. Then we moved back to Ironbridge but during that we venture to many other realms/worlds which was really interesting but Mahoney doesn't dawdle on too much detail which is nice.

Writing. I don't know. I guess Mahoney just gets me. Something about her writing has just made me fall in love. Every since book 1 I have loved her writing so much. One thing I always love about her writing is 3rd person. Every time I read the next book in this series I always get so surprised that it's third person, because naturally you expect a book like this to be first person, but it s a nice change of perspective because not only do you get a better look on the other world but you are not limited to a single characters, which was another good point about this. We switched between characters, allowing us to venture into different parts of the story and piece puzzle pieces together. The description as i mentioned was beautiful and balanced just to the correct amount.

Characters. We didn't see to many new characters but where we did they were all so diverse and interesting. A new main characters was the involvement of Demian, the demon king and the romance that isn't quite a romance between Donna and him. Mahoney played it well though, because as the reader you want Donna to fall for him and for them to fall in love (or maybe it's just me) but nevertheless she stays true to Xan, who surprisingly we didn't see much of in this book. The characters in this focused onto the ones we haven't seen as much of so we can build on out knowledge base and connection to them.

Overall this was the perfect ending. I loved it so much and couldn't think of a better way to say goodbye to Donna and the friends. But I have to thank Mahoney, because, from page 1 I fell in love with this series.

HUNTRESS - MALINDA LO - REVIEW

Book: Huntress

Author: Malinda Lo

Publisher: ATOM

ISBN: 9781907411090

Rating: A+

"Nature is out of balance in the human world. The sun hasn't shone in years, and crops are failing. Worse yet, strange and hostile creatures have begun to appear. The people's survival hangs in the balance. To solve the crisis, the oracle stones are cast, and Kaede and Taisin are picked to go on a dangerous and unheard-of journey to Tanlili, the city of the Fairy Queen. Taisin is a sage, thrumming with magic, and Kaede is of the earth, without a speck of the otherworldly. And yet their two destinies are drawn together during the mission. As members of their party succumb to unearthly attacks and fairy tricks, the two come to rely on each other and even begin to fall in love. But the Kingdom needs only one huntress to save it, and what it takes could tear Kaede and Taisin apart forever..."

This is one of the best books I have read in ages. In fact it brings back memories of the old days, when Harry Potter was all the craze and YA fiction was barely known. I suppose Malinda Lo has managed to capture all the magical essence of a Childs book and weave into an amazing Teenage Fiction that I absolutely adored. I mean I finished this book within a day. I got it in the post, picked it up and was instantly gripped, and that’s not counting the beautiful cover.

The book follows two girls on a quest to restore peace and natural weather back to a magical world. They encounter many things along the journey and it all keeps you entertained. I remember at the beginning of every chapter I would think ‘This will be my last chapter’ but it never was. There was always something exiting or thrilling happening and I always had to read on. I mean the book didn’t disappoint me; in fact it was better than I thought. It’s a beautiful and magical tale filled with lore, ledged and love. That’s the other thing that strikes me about Malinda Lo’s books; they are all so unique in their own special way. They all have their special twist, which is a lesbian love. With Ash I was skeptical about a lesbian Cinderella and I was even more skeptical about it in this book but Malinda lo seems to have pulled it off.

The writing is so whimsical yet so deep. There are some very talented authors that have a certain way of describing things and Malinda can do that. Her descriptions are so vivid and clear. It’s almost as if you’re there. It’s the same with the emotions. Malinda doesn’t drone on and on about the emotion but you feel the same things that the characters do in the small amount of words allocated to how they feel. I suppose the main focuses of the story is the journey to the fairy kingdom and to save the land along with the love plot.

I’ve honestly never read a book quite like this. I have never come across a book with such an amazing world, that is so totally unique, and this book is something new. I suppose the book tells us one thing. Malinda Lo has an amazing imagination and what does that tell us? We can expect great things from her.

Out of the characters my favorites would have to be Con, Kaede and Taisan, only because as a group they have all the qualities main characters need. They are brave, strong, in love, and magical. That is why I like Tasian. She is this very meek little girl but if you get on the wrong side of her she’ll use her magic and blow you to bits. BOOM! Kaede I like because she’s adventurous. She kills the Fairy Queens daughter and gets the blood of a unicorn. I feel that world is unique but I recognize some of the mythology that has been pulled from other books. The other reason the mythology in this book is different is because it is very much Chinese which is nice to have a change from the general Greek myths or Vampires (though I can’t get tired of either of those genres).

The book is truly magical and Malinda Lo is one amazing author. I cannot wait to see what she has in store for us next, but I will get my hands on it!