The Readers Edition

Vicious by V.E. Schwab

 Published
September 2013
Tor
364p (Hardcover)

RATING : ★★★★★

Genre: Fantasy, Science Fiction

“A masterful, twisted tale of ambition, jealousy, betrayal, and superpowers, set in a near-future world. 

 

Victor and Eli started out as college roommates—brilliant, arrogant, lonely boys who recognized the same sharpness and ambition in each other. In their senior year, a shared research interest in adrenaline, near-death experiences, and seemingly supernatural events reveals an intriguing possibility: that under the right conditions, someone could develop extraordinary abilities. But when their thesis moves from the academic to the experimental, things go horribly wrong. Ten years later, Victor breaks out of prison, determined to catch up to his old friend (now foe), aided by a young girl whose reserved nature obscures a stunning ability. Meanwhile, Eli is on a mission to eradicate every other super-powered person that he can find—aside from his sidekick, an enigmatic woman with an unbreakable will. Armed with terrible power on both sides, driven by the memory of betrayal and loss, the archnemeses have set a course for revenge—but who will be left alive at the end?"

Not everyone with a super power becomes a superhero. Some powers just make you Vicious.

Vicious is a novel that not only lives up to it’s promising blurb but surpasses all expectations. V.E. Schwab, more commonly know as Victoria Schwab, creates a masterful tale of a world full of ambition, jealousy, betrayal, all set within a near-future alternative universe where the ability to get superpowers is available. Schwab introduces the readers to interesting characters, a thrilling plot and engaging, addictive writing.

Panic by Lauren Oliver was on my most anticipated new releases/reads of 2014 list. I have previously read Lauren Oliver's Delirium series and recognise that it takes awhile for there to be any characterisation depth and world building but I might have to admit to myself that I am not going finish this new book anytime soon.

I originally started panic more than a month ago now and I just don't see myself picking it back up. I'm a reader who doesn't like to DNF books as I feel like books can redeem themselves in the second half. But with Panic, I just don't have any motivation to carry on with. I don't want reading this book to become a chore I have to complete, but want to read it because I love reading.

I don't know, if anyone has read this please give me your thoughts on whether it does get better. 

Frost Burned by Paticia Briggs

Published
March 2013
Ace Hardcover
340p (Hardcover)

RATING: ★★★★☆

GENRE: Urban Fantasy. 

Frost Burned is the seventh Mercy Thompson book while I love the Mercy Thompson series, the past few books definitely slowed the series down, but I am Happy to say the Frost Burned picks it back up to its fun, action packed world. 

Synopsis:
Mercy Thompson's life has undergone a seismic change. Becoming the mate of Adam Hauptman - the charismatic Alpha of the local werewolf pack - has made her a stepmother to his daughter Jesse, a relationship that brings moments of blissful normalcy to Mercy's life. But on the edges of humanity, a minor mishap on an ordinary day can turn into so much more. After an accident in bumper-to-bumper traffic, Mercy and Jesse can't reach Adam - or anyone else in the pack for that matter. They've all been abducted. Through their mating bond, all Mercy knows is that Adam is angry and in pain. Outclassed and on her own, Mercy may be forced to seek assistance from the most unlikely of allies: the vampire seethe.

My hiatus from book likes became far longer than I expected it to. University is proving itself to be problematic with my reading life. 

Side Effects May Vary by Julie Murphy

Published
March 2014
HarperCollins/ Blazer + Bray
336p (Kindle Edition)

contempory.

80% of readers are not going to like Alice, she's not your typical protagonist who has redeeming qualities. Alice is mean, hateful and angry at the world. These attributes will have a a lot of readers exasperated, but for readers like me it makes you find Alice relatable. 

I have seen reviews saying they didn't like the book because they didn't like Alice, but you are never meant to like her. She is a horrible, horrible person and this book spectacularly portrayed someone who feels real. Someone who though infuriated you with their choices but made you sympathise with them, and not because of the cancer aspect of this book because while horrible, this book for me wasn't about cancer. It’s about realising everything you though you knew about your mum is wrong, and hating your ex-boyfriend and his new girlfriend (who happens to be your arch nemesis since forever), trying to figure out how live with you best friends/love of your life (which at that stage was very limited in time) and living with the consequences for your action. 

I enjoyed Alice being a little evil and mean, because I know if I was going to die, you better believe I am going to ensure I enact revenge to those people I believe have wronged me and deserved it. This did come across as a little immature at times. 

This is Julie Murphy’s debut novel and it excites me to think of what else she can write (Dumplin’ , her second novel set to come out in 2015). Julie Murphy’s writing both intrigued me and irritated me.

This story is told from two people perspective, Alice and Harvey, who have been best friends since they were young. But not only are there dual POV’s but also two different timeframes for the story. The “Then” timeframe focuses on Alice and Harvey pre and during cancer, while “Now” focuses on their lives in the present and how they deal with the consequences of their actions. 

The ‘then’ and ‘now’ didn't work for me. While it wasn't horrible, I would get caught up in the story line of one of the timeframes only to time travel to the other perspective.I would be half way though the page and realise my mind was still in the other time and that was why I was getting confused. I did like knowing the story lines but would have preferred the first half of the book to be ‘then’ and the second half to be ‘now’, Looking for Alaska style. 

Harvey. Harvey, Harvey, Harvey. Initially, he got on my nerves. the first half of the book all his point of view was how great Alice was, how much he loved Alice, all he wants is forever with Alice. For majority of this book, he puts up with Alice’s shit without a question. He probably didn't need as much screen time (book time?) as he got but he was an easy point of view to read from. 

The other characters in this all played their role very well. Alice’s Mum and Dad, Bernie and Martin, were like good cop, bad cop. Martin seemed very cool and goes with the flow, while Bernie and Alice have an almost hostile relationship. The ending of this storyline, Bernie finding out Alice knows she cheated on her father, seemed very unresolved for me. Im not sure what I wanted or suspected for this outcome, but we are introduced to this fact within the first chapters and the ending just seemed rushed.

This was such frustrating, refreshing (and a little amazing) read. Easily able to read in a sitting or two. If you want cute character that you love, then this book is not for you!! Read if you want characters that seem real, characters that you don't have to like in order to love them.

River Marked by Patricia Briggs

#6 in MERCY THOMPSON

Published
January 2011
Orbit
326p (Paperback)

Urban Fantasy

Overall I am going to have to say that this is my least favourite book in the series so far. I got to a part in this story right before the main climax in the story that made it hard for me to carry on and enjoy this. With that being said though, I still love this story Patricia Briggs has created. 

This story only predominantly features our favourite couple Mercy and Adam during their honeymoon. I commend Patricia Briggs for not dragging the wedding on, we read 4 other books of slow foreplay before Adam and Mercy became a couple, so it was refreshing to see that come to play at the beginning of the book before the plot was introduced. This book is definitely more romance orientated than the others in the series. One feature I feel the book could have benefited from would be a sex scene. I don't think it even needed to be explicit, but if you have read this book you might understand why I say this.

I loved seeing Mercy and Adam being in nearly every scene together. Usually we are given Mercy as a strong, level-headed heroine who is independent and don't need no man. This is still true within this story, she doesn't just submit to Adam, but she is more willing to take into account that she is in a relationship now and has another person feelings to consider. There are a lot of one liner/paragraph long of cute moments between the two that made me squeal with happiness. Although I had firm love for this relationship before this book, I have now become PROUD of it too. 

We learn a lot about Mercy’s heritage and are presented with the details of Old Joe and her mother. At times I found these parts to be slow and would have to go back and re-read these because I wasn't taking the information in. It was during this section in the middle of the book where I would take any excuse to put this book down. It became to the point where I would read a sentence or two and then stop reading. But once I picked the book back up, I read it all in one sitting. While I did enjoy the ending of the book once I read it, it was tarnished by the middle section and I couldn't get engrossed as much as I usually did with these books.

I love this series for the amazing dynamics Patricia Briggs has created within the pack. The wolves and their politics, while annoyed at time, are a strong part of this series as a whole and you miss that in this book. That being said, I did enjoy seeing Mercy and Adam in love and happy. 

With Adam and Mercy being removed from this setting and apart their cutesy moments, this book fell flat.

The Bone Season by Samantha Shannon

#1 in THE BONE SEASON

Published
August 20th 2013
Bloomsbury USA
466 (Hardcover)