Review ~ Requiem ~ Lauren Oliver

Title: Requiem

Author: Lauren Oliver

Published: March 5th 2013

By: Hodder and Stoughton

First line: I’ve started dreaming of Portland again.

Last line: Take down the walls.

Fave Line: The story of Solomon is the only way I know how to explain.




When this book, a gift from the fabulous Bungle, came through my letterbox it made my day! I have loved the Delirium series from the minute I laid my hands on the first book and since enduring the ending of Pandemonium, I have been desperate to get my hands on the final instalment. There are so many potential spoilers in this finale I really am treading carefully to make sure that nothing gets ruined for you. For those that haven’t read the blurb on the back, here it is!

Now an active member of the resistance, Lena has been transformed. The nascent rebellion that was under way in Pandemonium has ignited into an all-out revolution in Requiem, and Lena is at the centre of the fight.

After rescuing Julian from a death sentence, Lena and her friends fled to the Wilds. But the Wilds are no longer a safe haven—pockets of rebellion have opened throughout the country, and the government cannot deny the existence of Invalids. Regulators now infiltrate the borderlands to stamp out the rebels, and as Lena navigates the increasingly dangerous terrain, her best friend, Hana, lives a safe, loveless life in Portland as the fiancée of the young mayor. Requiem is told from both Lena’s and Hana’s points of view. The two girls live side by side in a world that divides them until, at last, their stories converge.

I loved the way in which this book is split, neatly telling you both Lena and Hana’s stories from their own POV. What stands out here is that even though they haven’t seen each other in quite a while, (and bearing in mind that in that time their lives have taken dramatically different paths), their old relationship still impacts upon the lives they lead. This is more the case for Hana than Lena, but then Hana is still living within the confines of Portland. Even that however, is not enough to truly guarantee her safety. Add in the guilt Hana feels for betraying Lena and her existence is really quite a lonely and tragic one. For Lena, she still carries the old feelings about her best friend, but there are more pressing matters such as her own survival and the cause that she has now signed up to. It is the aim of the resistance to bring an end to the oppressive regime that currently rules but even as they travel through the wilds the regulators are gaining on them and what was once a safe haven is now a threat to their existence. There are a lot of lives lost during their struggle some of which are pretty brutal and the ending is nothing short of explosive with Lena and Hana right in the middle of it. In the end it is the strength of Lena and Hana’s relationship that seals the deal for both of their futures, in ways they probably never expected.

There are some new characters in the finale (some of which I disliked through no fault of their own!) and we also see the return of some old favourites. There are also plenty of surprises. People aren’t necessarily what they seem in some instances whilst others are so honest and true it is at times heart-breaking, hence the favourite line. This book doesn't provide all the answers neatly wrapped up with a bow, however, a fair few things are resolved in ways that may or may not please the reader depending on your allegiances. (cryptic enough? ;-)).

So to summarise, I loved this book! It was a fitting end to the trilogy and I can’t wait for you all to get your hands on a copy. I don’t think you’ll be disappointed.

Rating: 5 out of 5. A perfect ending to a perfect series!

Stacking the Shelves #37

Stacking The Shelves is hosted by Tyngs's Reviews and is all about sharing the books you are adding to your  shelves, may they be physical or virtual. This means you can include books you buy in physical stores or online, books you borrow from friends or the library, review books, gifts and of course ebooks!

We love sharing our books with you each week but more importantly we loving see what you add to your shelves. All links added here will take you to goodreads.

Sally's shelves

Bungle has had a week off work this week so once again she has been an absolute angel and has managed to keep all of her pennies in her purse. Me? Not so much.

This week I bought Shadow of Night (All Souls #2) by Deborah Harkness.  The first one in this series took me a while to get through as a lot of the text refers to academic journals so I had put really put my brain in gear for that one.  It did leave me intrigued as to what might happen next though so job done I guess!  The second book I bought was Shards and Ashes which is a collection of short dystopian stories written by a heap (which I believe is the collective term) of my favourite authors including Melissa Marr, Beth Revis, Veronica Roth, Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl.  All those names in one book - it was too good to pass up! The last book I bought this week was Unravel Me (Shatter Me #2) by Tahereh Mafi.  I enjoyed the first in this series and am looking forward to catching up with Juliette, Adam and Warner...

I also got two books for review from netgalley this week.  I got my hands on Gift by Andrea Buchanan.  This one had me intrigued.  Here's the blurb:

High school sophomore Daisy Jones is just trying to get by unnoticed. It doesn't help that she's the new girl at school, lives in a trailer park, and doesn't even own a cell phone. But there's a good reason for all that: Daisy has a secret, unpredictable power-one only her best friend, Danielle, knows about. Despite her "gift" (or is it a curse?), Daisy's doing a good job of fitting in-and a cute senior named Kevin even seems interested in her! But when Daisy tries to help Vivi, a mysterious classmate in a crisis, she soon discovers that her new friend has a secret of her own. Now Daisy and her friends must deal with chilling dreams and messages from the beyond. Can Daisy channel the power she's always tried to hide-before it's too late? 

Sounds good  no? I also received a copy of Insomnia by J.R Johansson.  I love the sound of this one! Here's the blurb!

Instead of sleeping, Parker Chipp enters the dream of the last person he’s had eye contact with. He spends his nights crushed by other people’s fear and pain, by their disturbing secrets—and Parker can never have dreams of his own. The severe exhaustion is crippling him. If nothing changes, Parker could soon be facing psychosis and even death.

Then he meets Mia. Her dreams, calm and beautifully uncomplicated, allow him blissful rest that is utterly addictive. Parker starts going to bizarre lengths to catch Mia’s eye every day. Everyone at school thinks he’s gone over the edge, even his best friend. And when Mia is threatened by a true stalker, everyone thinks it’s Parker.

Suffering blackouts, Parker begins to wonder if he is turning into someone dangerous. What if the monster stalking Mia is him after all?

I'm really looking forward to reading that one!

That's it from me this week!  So tell me, what have you been up to?

Stacking The Shelves #36

Stacking The Shelves is hosted by Tyngs's Reviews and is all about sharing the books you are adding to your shelves, may they be physical or virtual. This means you can include books you buy in physical stores or online, books you borrow from friends or the library, review books, gifts and of course ebooks!

We love sharing our books with you each week but more importantly we loving see what you add to your shelves. All links added here will take you to goodreads.

Bungle's shelf.

I've been very good yet again and not bought a thing! I was sent 3 books for review though which sound brilliant! The first being Dead Romantic by CJ Skuse, I saw this about a lot the other week so requested it via work from Chicken House & it's going to be my new read today! I also requested The Extincts by Veronica Cossanteli which again sounds fab, must say a big thanks to Chicken House! And the third book I was sent last week was After Tomorrow by Gillian Cross which I think is a 9-12 title.

 

 

Sally's shelf

 



This has been a brilliant week for me, mainly because I received two of my most anticipated books for this year! The first book I received was Sever by Lauren DeStefano. This is the last in the Chemical Garden Trilogy and I've loved this series. I'm hoping that things work out for Linden as much as they work out for Rhine and Gabriel. The second book I received was The Evolution of Mara Dyer by Michelle Hodkin. This is shaping up to be an amazing series and Michelle writes the characters beautifully. The last book I received, my piece de resistance if you will is the rather fabulous second instalment of The Immortal Rules by Julie Kagawa. I got The Eternity Cure!! So
excited!! Will be starting on this today hopefully!! Lucky, lucky Sally!!


    

The Tide Blog Tour!

And so the Tide blog tour bus has rolled into town!  We loved Dreams, book one of the Sarah Midnight trilogy and so were really excited to take part in the promo tour for book two, namely Tide, the cover for which you see on my left next to a lovely picture of the wonderful Daniela Sacerdoti, author of the series.

The Tide blog tour will be stopping at loads of fantastic blogs along the tour, details for which are posted here.  For now however, it's out turn and today Daniela explains the importance of music in her writing process and the songs she listens to that inspire her stories! So, over to Dani!

Those of you who follow me on Twitter know that I’m pretty much obsessed with music – preferably the obscure bands that not many people know about. You might also know that my dream, had I had a scrap of musical talent, would have been to be a songwriter... and that the little poems at the beginning of each chapter are actually bits of imaginary songs.

The credits for both Dreams and Tide are a bit of a Who’s Who of Scottish and Irish folk. I can’t concentrate properly if I don’t have music on – the best for writing is either instrumental or in Gaelic, because otherwise I end up following the English lyrics and they interfere with the words I’m laying on the page. The artist who has had the most ‘air time’ while writing bothDreams and Tide is the lovely Julie Fowlis, a Scottish singer from the Isle of Lewis, whose voice has, in my mind, become Sarah’s. You can check her wonderful music out at Juliefowlis.com – do stop by, it’s worth it!

Because I tend to be obsessive with my music, I listen to the same CDs over and over again – they have to be the right ones for what I’m writing. Dreams’ and Tide’s CDs have been the Celtic Connection 2012 souvenir CD, a compilation of amazing artists from Scotland, Ireland, America, Africa and just about every corner of the world! Celtic Connections is a festival that happens every year in Glasgow and sees the best of the best of folk come from all over the world; I don’t often get to the concerts themselves but it’s great to find out about new artists and keep an eye on what’s happening. The real gems of the souvenir CD have been the Treacherous Orchestra, a folk ensemble with some amazing musicians who wrote a tune called “Sea of Clouds”. “Sea of Clouds” describes, for me, the Islay beach on which many scenes of Tide are set. As for my beloved Winter Shaw, the new character who appears in Tide, her song is “Song of the Mermaid”, sung by Sinead O’Connor in the Music of Ireland CD curated by Maire Brennan of Clannad fame. The chapter “Christmas at Sea” is inspired by a poem by Robert Louis Stevenson of the same name, which Sting has put into music with the splendid Mary McMaster. Sting’s rendition of the poem is woven with a lovely Gaelic song that talks about exile and longing, which I thought was perfect for Sarah’s state of mind.

But the one single song that had the most impact is called “Cruel Sister”, a traditional English folk song I came across a while ago while collecting folk lyrics for a project that is still to see the light. The version I love is sung by Pentangle, with the magical voice of Jacquie McShee. I can’t tell you what the song is about, because there’s a key bit of the plot that I would reveal by doing so...

I hope that you will want to check out some of her musical inspirations. If you want to know more, feel free to drop me a line!

We want to say thanks to Dani for stopping by today. It's always interesting to hear what inspires an author and how it can drive the plot and the characters!  If you're hankering after more information and want a sneak peek of Tide then look no further!  We have a preview of chapters one and two below! It's certainly left me with a few questions! 

Tide will be published by Black and White Publishing on the 21st February 2013.  Until then, enjoy this little teaser! 

Tide preview - Chapters one and two

Stacking The Shelves #35

Stacking The Shelves is hosted by Tyngs's Reviews and is all about sharing the books you are adding to your shelves, may they be physical or virtual. This means you can include books you buy in physical stores or online, books you borrow from friends or the library, review books, gifts and of course ebooks!

We love sharing our books with you each week but more importantly we loving see what you add to your shelves. All links added here will take you to goodreads.


Bungle's Shelf:

This week I didn't do too bad, I was a little naughty and bought one book though! So this week in work I was sent a preview book from Electric Monkey which includes sample chapters from Laura Jarratt's By Any Other Name, I loved Skin Deep so can't wait for this one! The Originals by Cat Patrick, Survive by Alex Morel and more. Electric Monkey also sent me a copy of Michael Grant's Light, I must get the other books in the series, it sells really well at the shop. I was also given How to Fall by Jane Casy and Skylark by Meagan Spooner this week at the shop both are from Corgi. Now here's where I got naughty! I bought I'd Tell You I Love You But Then I'd Have To Kill You by Ally Carter because I'm hearing so much about it, I was told it was Harry Potterish so that was all it took really!! I also got Etiquette & Espionage by Gail Carriger which I guess I technically bought because I swapped it with an unwanted item.

 

 

 

Sally's Shelf:

 



I was so so good this week and I didn't spend a penny on books! I did pre-order a huge piles of future releases though so I can't say I'm completely innocent. I did receive two things however, I got a copy
of Mila 2.0 by Debra Driza for review from netgalley. Love this cover! I also got a chapter sampler from Tide, book two of the Sarah Midnight trilogy by Daniela Sacerdoti. We'll be taking part in the
blog tour this week and I'll be adding the sample to the blog post so you all get a sneak peek! Share the wealth - that's my motto!

 

 



 

 

So that's it from us this week, we're off to see what you got because we're book nosey like that!

 

 





 

 

Review ~ Eternally yours ~ Cate Tiernan

Title: Eternally Yours

Author: Cate Tiernan

Published: November 6^th 2012

By: Hodder and Stoughton

First line: “Vali! Vali! Where is the girl?”

Last line: Hmm.

Fave Line: And just  like that the hills were alive with an overabundance of testerone.

And so we reach the end of another series! Eternally yours is the last in the Immortal Beloved trilogy.  I’ve really enjoyed these books as they added something new and refreshing with the use of magick and whilst there was a relationship in these books it wasn’t the main reason for the story.  The story here has really been Nastasya’s journey from a rather bleak past to the here and now. And what a journey it’s been!

In the second book, Darkness Falls, Nas ended up facing a few rather ugly home truths about Incy, her so-called best friend.  His attempt to take her power put only her life on the line but those of her true friends with whom she lives at River’s Edge.

At the beginning of Eternally Yours we find Nas back at River’s Edge trying to settle back into her own unique brand of normality as well as trying to find a purpose in life that goes beyond everything that has gone so badly before.  This book really takes us on a journey with Nas and it’s quite comforting to see her growing as an individual throughout this finale.  That’s not to say everything goes smoothly. Incy might be locked up, being forced to think about what he’s done but it seems he’s just a small cog in a big wheel.  There are greater forces after Nas’s power and it seems that they’ll do anything to get it.

This turn in events introduces us to a whole new series of characters and I have to say as much as I hated Ottavio, River’s brother, I loved him in equal measure just because he stirred things up.  Be prepared to juggle a lot of names in your head with this book. There are a lot and I mean a LOT of characters to keep tabs on. That also means there’s a lot of action. 

It always takes me a while to get back into the Immortal Beloved series as the writing is narrative in style.  This time around I found it easier to slip back into the format.  The only thing I found frustrating at times was Nas’s attitude.  All well and good to find humour in bad situations but there were times I felt that even she was being overly flippant.  Perhaps this was part of the whole growing process  but at times it felt more like arrogance than ignorance.  My only gripe aside the characters are as ever really well written, River in particular, and then of course there is the lovely Reyn.  What else can I say?  He is as ever, wonderful! I also liked new character Joshua who put a bit of fire in Reyn’s belly and bought out a completely new side to him.  Shove in a few paragraphs about Reyn caring for a puppy and that’s it – stick a fork in me, I’m done! There are the usual highs and lows between Reyn and Nas which I guess was to be expected, but again I think this is part of the learning curve for both of them, especially given their brutal past.

In the end, I got the finale I wanted.  There are a few shocks along the way but then it wouldn’t be a good finale if there weren’t. For me, Eternally yours ticks all the boxes and finishes the Immortal Beloved series off nicely.  I’m looking forward to seeing what Cate has in store for us next!

Rating: 4 out of 5. Reyn and puppies? What more could you possibly want?

Stacking The Shelves #34

Stacking The Shelves is hosted by Tyngs's Reviews and is all about sharing the books you are adding to your  shelves, may they be physical or virtual. This means you can include books you buy in physical stores or online, books you borrow from friends or the library, review books, gifts and of course ebooks!

We love sharing our books with you each week but more importantly we loving see what you add to your shelves. All links added here will take you to goodreads.

Sally's shelves

A fantastic week for me! I won a competition! Twitter users were asked to send questions to Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl as part of a Beautiful Creatures Q&A session.  All those that wrote a question were put in to a raffle and I was one of the lucky five to get picked! How cool is that?! My prize was this really cool Beautiful Creatures manga edition. The artwork in this book is amazing! The second book I got was Shadows by Paula Weston.  I'm still in the process of filling the gap that the Fallen series by Lauren Kate has left  in my life and I think this might do it! I also bought a copy of Scarlet by Marissa Meyer. I loved Cinder so I can't wait to get round to this one!  Lastly I also got a copy of Fragments, #2 of the Partials series by Dan Wells.  I loved Partials and the sequel which is due out at the end of this month looks just as good!

Bungles Shelves

I've finally bought my first physical book of the year!! As you all know I'm not buying new books unless it’s an e-book or a book from a series I already have. So this week my boyfriend bought me A Witch Alone by Ruth Warburton. I'm a bit behind and not read book 2 yet but plan to very soon!! I just love Ruth's writing style. And the book I bought myself is Scarlet by Marissa Meyer. I still haven't read Cinder but something tells me I'm going to love these books!!

So that's us for this week!  So what did you get? 

Tide blog tour!

So, last year we were thrilled to take part in the blog tour for Dreams by Daniela Sacerdoti.  Dreams was a brilliant start to the intriguing Sarah Midnight trilogy. You can read the review for book one here if you haven't already grabbed yourself a copy.

Now however it's time for book two and Midnight Reads will be taking part in the blog tour once again.  On 10th of February we'll be telling you all about Sarah Midnight's favourite tracks and there's plenty more going on besides.  The tour started a couple of days ago and continues into March on a heap of fantastic blogs! You can check out the full schedule here:

Come back soon for more information!