Book of the Month! Featuring Spin Offs, Murder, and Love at 40,000 feet

Hi guys, welcome to August's book of the month and monthly round up! This is a feature to sum up for you my reading and recommendations for the past month and to share with you the exciting things that have been going on on the blog and books I’m looking forward to in the following month.

August's Book of the Month is...Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor

Daughter of Smoke and Bone is not only my favourite book read in August but by far the best book I’ve read all year. I adored this breathtaking magical love story and can’t wait for it to come out later this month so you guys can finally see what all the fuss is about! To find out more about Daughter of Smoke and Bone and why I loved it so much stop by my review here. I predict that it’s going to be HUGE!

Best Plot: Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor
Best Writing: Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor
Best Cover: The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight by Jennifer E. Smith
Best Characters: Bloodlines by Richelle Mead
Best Ending: Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor
Best Romance: The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight by Jennifer E. Smith
Most un-put-down-able: Bad Sisters by Rebecca Chance
Most Memorable: Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor
Best Moral: The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight by Jennifer E. Smith

Books read this month
50.) Outside the Ordinary World by Dori Ostermiller (4*)
51.) Eight Keys by Suzanne LaFleur (4*)
52.) Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor (5*)
53.) Bad Sisters by Rebecca Chance (4*)
54.) Bloodlines by Richelle Mead (4.5*)
55.) The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight by Jennifer E. Smith (5*)

Top 3 Most Recommended Books: Daughter of Smoke and Bone, The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight and Bloodlines

Bookish Highlights of the month
The most exciting thing for me had to be starting my new feature Readers Choice and discovering my favourite book of the year so far! The package I got from the lovely publishers at Headline for Statistical Probability was also lovely as it included some cute goodies (one being a very yummy heart shaped lolly!)

Bookish Lows of the month
writing my review for Forever I love that series so writing a bad review for the last book was hard.

Book’s I’m looking forward to in September
All my Christmas’s have come at once for September there are so many fantastic new books out that I’m looking forward to and this list could go on and on but here are a few of my must reads!

Fury by Elizabeth Miles
Lola and the Boy Next Door by Stephanie Perkins
The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer by Michelle Hodkin
Liesl and Po by Lauren Oliver
As I Wake by Elizabeth Scott
Sweet Venom by Tera Lynn Childs
Heist Society by Ally Carter
An Autumn Crush by Milly Johnson
The First Wife by Emily Barr

Yep, see what I mean?

So there you have it my August reading summed up for you guys. Have you read any of the books I’ve read this month? What were your thoughts on them? Leave me a comment and let me know and don’t forget to treat yourselves to Daughter of Smoke and Bone later this month! – You won’t regret it!

Review for Blood Magic by Tessa Gratton

Synopsis
"The murder of her parents has left Silla damaged and lost, and Silla's insistence that her father is not to blame only alienates her further from her friends and family. When a mysterious spell book arrives, Silla hopes it will lead to some answers about her parents' killer. In her first attempt at magic, in an old graveyard near her home, Nick, the new boy in town spies on her; he recognizes the magic that Silla is performing as the same magic his mother performed with him, before she went mad.


Before long, Silla and Nick connect, though Nick is unwilling to share his history with blood magic with Silla. When Silla's friends start showing signs of possession, Silla, Nick and Silla's brother, Reese, must contend with a deadly, immortal woman who will stop at nothing to take the book of spells from them."

Blood Magic is the kind of book that grabs your attention from the start and refuses to let go until the end. Despite Blood Magic being Tessa Gratton’s debut novel it certainly doesn’t read that way! Tessa already has established a strong, confident, voice that captures teen angst perfectly and woves around it a dark and delicious tale that will leave readers on the edge of their seat, Gratton’s writing is so deliciously creepy, gothic and suspenseful that the setting for the story becomes a character in itself, the magic, blood and murder hanging thick and heavy in the air.

Blood Magic is a fresh and original book with all of the blood, death and despair of the ever popular vampire genre without the cliché vampires. Instead Gratton spins a tale steeped in dark and dangerous magic and her use of blood, rituals and spells makes for some fascinating reading.

The book is told alternately between our main characters Silla and Nick. I really loved both of their personalities and found their growing attraction to be very believable. Silla is damaged and traumatized since finding her parents murdered and Nick is fiery, rebellious and angry after being brought up by his insane blood witch mother who would use him in her twisted spells. Both characters are realistic, broken and less than perfect and their romance is hot and passionate- just the way I like it!

Throughout the book there are mysterious passages from an old unfound journal belonging to a disturbed and powerful young witch called Josephine. At the start it isn’t really clear how her story connects with Silla’s but as you delve deeper into the book the more their lives become intertwined and I was really shocked and wonderfully thrilled by the conclusion.

Blood Magic has all the romance and darkness of a paranormal love story and all the intrigue and mystery of a thriller. This book is chilling, incredibly well written and unlike anything else out there. I really enjoyed it and was very impressed that this was a debut novel. I hope Tessa Gratton writes more books about Silla and Nick in the future and if you haven’t checked out Blood Magic yet I would highly recommend that you do!
My Rating 4.5/5 stars

Synopsis taken from Amazon

Thanks go to Random House for sending me this book for review

Review for Forever by Maggie Stiefvater

This is the last book in the Wolves of Mercy Falls trilogy. Although this review will contain NO spoilers from Forever by talking about the plot there may be unintentional spoilers from earlier books in the series.

Synopsis
"In Maggie Stiefvater's Shiver, Grace and Sam found each other. In Linger, they fought to be together. Now, in Forever, the stakes are even higher than before. Wolves are being hunted. Lives are being threatened. And love is harder and harder to hold on to as death comes closing in."

First of all I think I’m just going to put it out there that I was disappointed with this book. I’m a HUGE fan of this series and Forever was one of my most highly anticipated books of this year but sadly this final conclusion to one of my favourite series left me cold.

Everything started off well. I was quickly drawn back into this story thanks to Maggie’s ever beautiful writing and was once again caught up in Sam and Grace’s story. The start of the book was exciting and I couldn’t wait to see where Maggie took us.

Then half way through the book I got bored. The romance that I love so much in this series is very lackluster in Forever. Now I know that Sam and Grace had bigger problems to deal with but throughout the rest of this series despite all the crazy going on at these books heart was always Sam and Grace and this amazing love story that had the ability to make me laugh and cry. This book despite being the final goodbye to a world I love didn’t have me shedding any tears- guys I didn’t even get misty eyed. Compared to both Shiver and Linger where I would sob great big my heart is broken tears my lack of emotion towards Forever felt very strange to me and I think was largely because of the lack of feeling put into this book.

I felt that Maggie could easily have cut out 100 to 150 pages of this book as nothing significant really happens in the middle making the book drag on. Then at the end of the book Maggie does a complete U turn and everything ends so abruptly with so many things left up in the air. I’m someone who needs a good conclusion especially at the end of a series that I have loved and invested in so I can feel content and ready to let the characters go. I didn’t feel that Forever’s ending gave me proper closure as so much was left up in the air leaving the reader to interpret what they want out of it. I hate when books do that and to be honest felt cheated from the proper ending Sam and Grace deserved.

That being said overall Forever was a decent read the high point being Maggie’s beautiful writing. I mostly enjoyed the book up until the end and even then it’s not that I didn’t like the ending per se I was just frustrated mostly with the lack of it. If you don’t mind a bit of interpretation at the end of your books then you’re bound to have no problems with Forever but for me personally I wanted and expected more and hate that I have to leave this series with so many what ifs on my mind. Needless to say this book wasn’t great for me and will be looked up on my bookshelf as the ending that wasn’t, I’ll cherish and re-read Shiver and Linger for years to come and will pass over Forever with regret and sadness for what could have been.
My Rating 3/5 stars

Synopsis taken from Goodreads

Waiting on Wednesday: Fury

Waiting On Wednesday is a weekly event, hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine, that spotlights upcoming releases that bloggers are eagerly anticipating.

This week's pre-publication "can't-wait-to-read" selection is:

Fury by Elizabeth Miles
Publication Date: 1st September 2011
From Amazon UK
In book one of the Fury trilogy, Em Winters and Chase Singer discover that a little guilt isn't the only consequence of doing wrong. After Em hooks up with her best friend's boyfriend and Chase's secret harassment of a social outcast spirals out of control, three mysterious Furies-paranormal creatures that often assume the form of beautiful women-come to town to make sure that Em and Chase get what they deserve. Not everyone will survive-and those who do will discover there are worse punishments than death. But when Em befriends outcast Drea and learns more about who and what the Furies really are, she becomes resolved above all to take them down and stop their plans. Little does Em know that, by confronting the Furies, she could become inextricably bound to them for life.

This Wednesday I am waiting on yet another Greek Mythology book. I love the Greek Mythology trend in YA at the moment and am hugely excited because Fury merges together Contemporary YA and Greek Myth which are two genres I absolutely love. I’ve heard some mixed early reviews from my blogger friends who were lucky enough to receive it early but because it ticks all of my boxes I’m more than willing to give this one a try! With it out in just over a week here in the UK I haven’t got long to wait but regardless I’m counting down the days!

What's your "waiting on" pick this week?

Bookish News! Featuring Pandemonium Giveaway, Daughter of Smoke and Bone, Velvet and Tesco’s Book Blog...

What better way to start the weekend than by telling you guys about some exciting book news! All info was emailed to me from reliable sources so big thank you’s to the publishers who email me giving me juicy info to share with my readers!

So first up is something I myself am hugely excited about. With Delirium by Lauren Oliver now out in paperback the lovely people at Hodder are celebrating by running a competition exclusive to the UK where you can win one of the first five UK proofs of Lauren’s upcoming novel, Pandemonium, the follow on from Delirium. Exciting much!? Anyone can enter as long as you live in the UK for more info follow the link to enter here.

Also from Hodder we have the final cover reveal for the highly anticipated Daughter of Smoke and Bone. I love this cover almost as much as I loved the book itself and can’t wait for it to be released into the wild on September 29th. Here is also the new stunning UK trailer, for more information on Daughter of Smoke and Bone check out my review here.

Click on image to enlarge

For more September news Mary Hooper is releasing her new book Velvet a creepy sounding historical fiction from this much loved author. She’s planning on making some public appearances in September to promote the new book. Here are the details below. If you’re around the area you really should stop by!

6pm, Tuesday 20th September
Just Imagine Story Centre, 64-68 New London Road, Chelmsford, CM2 0PD
Tel 01245 267748
Tickets: £5
info@justimaginestorycentre.co.uk
http://www.justimaginestorycentre.co.uk/content/writing-children-group-mary-hooper

2pm, Sunday 25th September
Guildhall, High Street, Bath BA1 4BX
Tel: 01225 463 362
Tickets: £5
bathboxoffice@bathfestivals.org.uk
http://www.bathkidslitfest.org.uk/celiareesandmaryhooper.aspx

And for my last piece of gossip Tesco have launched a fabulous book blog! I tend to get a lot of my books from Tesco thanks to their amazing offers and Tesco Books are sure to offer up some really exciting posts with sneak previews, author interviews, giveaways and competitions. I and some fellow UK book bloggers are also set to participate in some posts so keep your eyes peeled for those! Click on this link to take you to the blog and you can follow them on twitter @TescoBooks

That’s all from me for now, have a fabulous weekend!

Jess x