Book Review: Dream a Little Dream

By Cheshire

Wow, it has been a while since our last post, huh? Well, I’ve been on a book binge, so guess what blog is going to be suddenly and ridiculously flooded with book reviews! (If you didn’t guess, I meant ours. I mean, I’ll be writing reviews at least. Can’t make any guarantees for sweet old Blue.) Also, thanks to the Red Balloon bookstore for the opportunity to read this ARC. It was great!

Summary: Mysterious doors with lizard-head knobs. Talking stone statues. A crazy girl with a hatchet. Yep, Liv’s dreams have been pretty weird lately. Especially this one where she’s in a graveyard at night, watching four boys perform dark magic rituals.

The really weird thing is that Liv recognizes the boys in her dream. They’re classmates from her new school in London, the school where’s she’s starting over because her mom has moved them to a new country (again). But they seem to know things about her in real life that they couldn’t possibly know, which is mystifying. Then again, Liv could never resist a good mystery. . . .  

My Rating: FIVE STARS!

Book Review: The Archived

By Cheshire

Wow. This was kind of just a “wow” book. I can’t wait to get my hands on the second. But for now I have Dream a Little Dream by Kerstin Gier, The Young Elites by Marie Lu, and Afterworlds by Scott Westerfeld, plus Blue Lily, Lily Blue and all those other books on my shelf that I am just dying to read. Sigh. So many books, so little time.

Summary: Imagine a place where the dead rest on shelves like books.

Each body has a story to tell, a life seen in pictures that only Librarians can read. The dead are called Histories, and the vast realm in which they rest is the Archive.

Da first brought Mackenzie Bishop here four years ago, when she was twelve years old, frightened but determined to prove herself. Now Da is dead, and Mac has grown into what she once was, a ruthless Keeper, tasked with stopping often—violent Histories from waking up and getting out. Because of her job, she lies to the people she loves, and she knows fear for what it is: a useful tool for staying alive.

Being a Keeper isn’t just dangerous—it’s a constant reminder of those Mac has lost. Da’s death was hard enough, but now her little brother is gone too. Mac starts to wonder about the boundary between living and dying, sleeping and waking. In the Archive, the dead must never be disturbed. And yet, someone is deliberately altering Histories, erasing essential chapters. Unless Mac can piece together what remains, the Archive itself might crumble and fall.

My Rating: FIVE STARS!

Book Review: Ensnared

By Cheshire

I received this ARC from the program I participate in at the local indie bookstore. Thanks to the publisher (Amulet Books) and Red Balloon!

Summary: After surviving a disastrous battle at prom, Alyssa has embraced her madness and gained perspective. She’s determined to rescue her two worlds and the people and netherlings she loves. Even if it means challenging Queen Red to a final battle of wills and wiles . . . and even if the only way to Wonderland, now that the rabbit hole is closed, is through the looking-glass world–a parallel dimension filled with mutated and violent netherling outcasts. In the final installment of the wildly popular Splintered trilogy, Alyssa and her dad journey into the heart of magic and mayhem in search of her mom and to set right all that’s gone wrong. Together with Jeb and Morpheus, they must salvage Wonderland from the decay and destruction that has ensnared it. But if they succeed and come out alive, can everyone truly have their happily ever after?

My Rating: FIVE STARS!

Book Review: Her Dark Curiosity

By Cheshire

I actually have nothing to say except WE HAVE FIFTY FOLLOWERS NOW, THANK YOU ALL SO MUCH! I am actually so touched. We love you all! 🙂 Here goes.

Summary: Months have passed since Juliet Moreau returned to civilization after escaping her father’s island—and the secrets she left behind. Now, back in London once more, she is rebuilding the life she once knew and trying to forget Dr. Moreau’s horrific legacy—though someone, or something, hasn’t forgotten her.

As people close to Juliet fall victim one by one to a murderer who leaves a macabre calling card of three clawlike slashes, Juliet fears one of her father’s creations may have also escaped the island. She is determined to find the killer before Scotland Yard does, though it means awakening sides of herself she had thought long banished, and facing loves from her past she never expected to see again.

As Juliet strives to stop a killer while searching for a serum to cure her own worsening illness, she finds herself once more in the midst of a world of scandal and danger. Her heart torn in two, past bubbling to the surface, life threatened by an obsessive killer—Juliet will be lucky to escape alive.

My Rating: FIVE STARS!

Book Review: The Raven Boys

By Cheshire

I read this book a while ago, so my review probably won’t be super detailed. But I. Loved. It. 🙂 Not very often that you come across a book about Welsh mythology in the wild. Here goes.

Summary: It is freezing in the churchyard, even before the dead arrive.

Every year, Blue Sargent stands next to her clairvoyant mother as the soon-to-be dead walk past. Blue herself never sees them—not until this year, when a boy emerges from the dark and speaks directly to her.

His name is Gansey, and Blue soon discovers that he is a rich student at Aglionby, the local private school. Blue has a policy of staying away from Aglionby boys. Known as Raven Boys, they can only mean trouble.

But Blue is drawn to Gansey, in a way she can’t entirely explain. He has it all—family money, good looks, devoted friends—but he’s looking for much more than that. He is on a quest that has encompassed three other Raven Boys: Adam, the scholarship student who resents all the privilege around him; Ronan, the fierce soul who ranges from anger to despair; and Noah, the taciturn watcher of the four, who notices many things but says very little.

For as long as she can remember, Blue has been warned that she will cause her true love to die. She never thought this would be a problem. But now, as her life becomes caught up in the strange and sinister world of the Raven Boys, she’s not so sure anymore.

My Rating: FIVE STARS

Book Review: Neverwhere

By Cheshire

Okay, so I never even realized when I was starting this book that this awesome cast is on the BBC radio version of Gaiman’s wonderful, dark Alice in Wonderland-type epic:

And not only them, but Anthony Head voices either Mr. Croup or Mr. Vandemar (I couldn’t really tell) and the guy who plays Wilf from Dr. Who is Old Bailey. *squeals of delight* I must now purchase the CDs on Amazon. This makes me so happy. 🙂 Now you are all probably wondering what I am talking about. So here goes.

Summary: Under the streets of London there’s a world most people could never even dream of. A city of monsters and saints, murderers and angels, knights in armour and pale girls in black velvet. This is the city of the people who have fallen between the cracks.

Richard Mayhew, a young businessman, is going to find out more than enough about this other London. A single act of kindness catapults him out of his workday existence and into a world that is at once eerily familiar and utterly bizarre. And a strange destiny awaits him down here, beneath his native city: Neverwhere.

My Rating: FIVE STARS

Book Review: Cruel Beauty

By Cheshire

My apologies in advance, because I am going to be on hiatus until Labor Day-ish. But, on the bright side, we have received two ARCs for review! Yay! But I also wanted to warn all our lovely readers that the reviews will be coming a little less frequently starting early September. So… keep that in mind. Here goes.

Summary: Since birth, Nyx has been betrothed to the evil ruler of her kingdom- all because of a reckless bargain her father struck. And since birth, she has been training to kill him.

Betrayed by her family yet bound to obey, Nyx rails against her fate. Still, on her seventeenth birthday, she abandons everything she’s ever known to marry the all-powerful, immortal Ignifex. Her plan? Seduce him, disarm him, and break the nine-hundred-year-old curse he put on her people.

But Ignifex is not what Nyx expected. The strangely charming lord beguiles her, and his castle- a shifting maze of magical rooms- enthralls her. As Nyx searches for a way to free her homeland by uncovering Ignifex’s secrets, she finds herself unwillingly drawn to him. But even if she can bring herself to love her sworn enemy, how can she refuse her duty to kill him?

My Rating: FIVE STARS

Book Review: The Book Thief

By Blue

Since Cheshire reviewed I Am the Messenger, I thought it appropriate to post a review on another Markus Zusak book – The Book Thief. Personally, although Cheshire liked I Am the Messenger more, I actually liked this book more. Each to their own, I guess. Here goes!

Summary: It’s just a small story really, about, among other things, a girl, some words, an accordionist, some fanatical Germans, a Jewish fist-fighter, and quite a lot of thievery.

Set during World War II in Germany, Markus Zusak’s groundbreaking new novel is the story of Liesel Meminger, a foster girl living outside of Munich. Liesel scratches out a meager existence for herself by stealing when she encounters something she can’t resist: books. With the help of her accordion-playing foster father, she learns to read and shares her stolen books with her neighbors during bombing raids – as well as with the Jewish man hidden in her basement before he is marched to Dachau.

My Rating: FIVE STARS!

Book Review: The Name of the Wind

By Blue

I give up on matching the number of Cheshire’s reviews. It’s impossible. I’ll just stick to slowly and steadily cranking out a review once in a while, continuing with The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss. Here goes.

Summary: My name is Kvothe.

I have stolen princesses back from sleeping barrow kings. I burned down the town of Trebon. I have spent the night with Felurian and left with both my sanity and my life. I was expelled from the University at a younger age than most people are allowed in. I tread paths by moonlight that others fear to speak of during day. I have talked to Gods, loved women, and written songs that make the minstrels weep.

You may have heard of me.

So begins the tale of Kvothe—from his childhood in a troupe of traveling players, to years spent as a near-feral orphan in a crime-riddled city, to his daringly brazen yet successful bid to enter a difficult and dangerous school of magic. In these pages you will come to know Kvothe as a notorious magician, an accomplished thief, a masterful musician, and an infamous assassin. But The Name of the Wind is so much more—for the story it tells reveals the truth behind Kvothe’s legend.

My Rating: FIVE STARS

Book Review: Something Wicked This Way Comes

By Blue

As Cheshire is spicing up her reading over the summer, I guess I’ll add to that here on this blog by reviewing the ‘classic’ Something Wicked This Way Comes by Ray Bradbury. Here goes!

Summary: A masterpiece of modern Gothic literature, Something Wicked This Way Comes is the memorable story of two boys, James Nightshade and William Halloway, and the evil that grips their small Midwestern town with the arrival of a “dark carnival” one Autumn midnight. How these two innocents, both age 13, save the souls of the town (as well as their own), makes for compelling reading on timeless themes. What would you do if your secret wishes could be granted by the mysterious ringmaster Mr. Dark? Bradbury excels in revealing the dark side that exists in us all, teaching us ultimately to celebrate the shadows rather than fear them.

My Rating: FIVE STARS!