Review for Fateful by Claudia Gray

Fateful by Claudia Gray
Publisher: HarperCollins
Release Date: 29th March 2012
Genre: Young Adult, Historical Fiction, Paranormal, SteamPunk, Romance
Rating: 3.5/5 stars
Source: Received from the publisher for review

Amazon Summary:
"A tragic tale about falling in love on the world’s most infamous ill-fated sea voyage as heroine, Tess, discovers darker secrets that lie beneath the doomed crossing… and a hidden brotherhood that threaten to tear her lover from her forever.

The RMS Titanic is the most luxurious ship ever built, but for eighteen-year-old Tess Davies it’s a prison. Travelling as a maid for the family she has served for years, Tess is trapped in their employ amid painful memories and family secrets.

When she meets Alec, a handsome upper class passenger, Tess falls helplessly in love. But Alec has secrets of his own… and soon Tess is entangled in a dangerous game. A sinister brotherhood that will do anything to induct Alec into their mystical order has followed him onboard. And Tess is now their most powerful pawn.

Tess and Alec fight the dark forces threatening to tear them apart, never realising that they will have to face an even greater peril before the journey is over…"

Review
When I first heard the synopsis for Fateful I thought a book about the Titanic with werewolves was going to go either way. It would either be absolutely fantastic or just plain ridiculous. So I was surprised to find after reading this book that I fell straight down the middle and had mixed feelings about it.

The main thing that I found with Fateful is that it read like two completely different stories. There’s the historical fiction side, which I loved, that gives an in-depth look at a young servant girl named Tess’s time on board the Titanic, making plans to escape the ghastly family she works for to start a new life once the ship docks in America. One thing Tess isn’t banking on is falling for the rich and respected heir to a fortune Alec Marlowe. And just as I was enjoying this gorgeous blossoming romance between opposing society members that you just know is going to end in tragedy one way or another BAM the werewolves would come along and jolt me out of that story line and vice versa. I did however enjoy both aspects of the story, but the problem? I just didn’t feel like they worked well together. So much so that at times it felt like I was reading two separate books at once. The werewolves and the Titanic just didn’t complement each other at all and I found that some scenes with the wolves were in bad taste and overall gave the book a fun and entertaining feel which just didn’t sit well with the sense of foreboding and impending doom of the tragedy that was the Titanic.

That being said I did like this book it’s fun, enjoyable and exciting- things I never thought I’d say about a book about the Titanic but there you go! I did feel like the fun of having werewolves on board the ship did take away from the seriousness of the situation. I went into Fateful expecting an epic weepy romance but really didn’t get that from it at all. In short I would have preferred if Claudia wrote this as two separate books, a historical romance on the Titanic, and a historical- or even modern- paranormal featuring the werewolves.

One thing that I did love about this book was the characters. I thought Tess made a fantastic and courageous heroine and I loved reading about her growing relationship with Alec. I loved Alec’s complete disregard for the rules of society and how he treated everybody equally and with respect. I also loved a lot of the secondary characters like Irene, Myriam, George and Ned who make up Tess’s friends and are all so warm and hugely likeable. Each character has a different place in society and I loved reading about each of their journeys and experiences on the Titanic.

Overall I found Fateful to be a bit of an odd combination but enjoyable all the same. If anything it has the fact that it’s like nothing else out there going for it. If you like your steampunk and don’t take it too seriously then you may very well enjoy this book.

Review for The Disenchantments by Nina LaCour

The Disenchantments by Nina LaCour
Publisher: Dutton
Release Date: February 16th 2012
Genre: Young Adult, Contemporary, Romance, Coming of Age, Summer
Rating: 4.5/5 stars
Source: Bought

Goodreads Summary:
"Colby and Bev have a long-standing pact: graduate, hit the road with Bev's band, and then spend the year wandering around Europe. But moments after the tour kicks off, Bev makes a shocking announcement: she's abandoning their plans - and Colby - to start college in the fall.

But the show must go on and The Disenchantments weave through the Pacific Northwest, playing in small towns and dingy venues, while roadie- Colby struggles to deal with Bev's already-growing distance and the most important question of all: what's next?"

Review
The Disenchantments had everything you could want in a contemporary story. There’s a summer roadtrip, travel, music, art and best of all a loveable male protagonist who’s been in love with his long term BFF Bev practically forever. A roadtrip touring with Bev’s awful yet alluring girl band The Disenchantments before jetting off across Europe on the trip they’ve been planning since they were kids seems to Colby like the perfect time for him and Bev to finally become more than friends, but unfortunately for Colby, Bev has other ideas. Bev is wild and untameable and is becoming more and more distant. At this amazing point in their lives that they’ve been so excited for Bev seems to be pulling away from Colby, and then as the final kick in the crotch lands the bombshell that she’s not planning on going to Europe with him after all and oh did she forget to mention? She’s also starting college in the fall. As a result Colby’s left not only without a plan for the summer but for the rest of his life, is stuck as designated driver on a tour with the worst girl band in history Bev included (awkward much?) all the while trying to figure out what other secrets Bev’s been keeping, what lies she’s told and most importantly why she’s pulling away from their friendship. And so begins a coming of age story from a male point of view on finding your place in the world and the all-important heart wrenching goodbyes that come along with change. The sick to the stomach feeling of letting go of the railing and free falling into the unknown. Of letting go of what you are to become what you might be.

I absolutely loved this book. A contemporary summer coming of age story told from a guy’s perspective is a rare book indeed and I loved Colby’s voice. Despite being a guy I think that both sexes can relate to Colby. He’s just graduated from high school and is on the brink of the rest of his life, he thinks he has it all planned out and then BAM life happens and John Lennon’s quote “life happens when you are busy making plans” has never been truer. I could totally relate to Colby’s feelings of feeling like you’re the only person in the world without a plan, who doesn’t know what he wants to do with his life and being scared senseless because of it. I think we can all relate to Colby’s friendship problems and unrequited love and every single person definitely knows how terrifying it is to be venturing out into the world on your own for the first time, to grow up, and that’s why I think this book will be a hit with absolutely anyone who reads it.

Despite having a male narrative this book is far from short of female characters in fact Colby’s travelling with three of them Bev, Meg and Alexa who make up the musically awful but hugely likeable The Disenchantments. In the beginning Bev really grated on my nerves I couldn’t understand why she was being this way with Colby but towards the end as we get to know the secrets Bev’s been hiding and learn how she’s feeling I could forgive her for that a little- but not entirely- what can I say? I really love Colby and felt very protective of him. Dumb Bev. ANYWAY Meg and Alexa the kooky sisters by far made up for Bev’s sucky behaviour. I loved them both so much! They're definitely the sort of girls I would be friends with in real life and their bright and eccentric personalities made them a joy to read about.

The way Nina LaCour writes is sharp and witty and some parts of the book where just SO fun and full of life where as other parts were gritty and raw, her way with words even made me tear up on occasion. Basically Nina’s writing hits you on a straight line from the page to your heart like the best kind of stories always do.

The Disenchantments is a book that made me feel ALL THE THINGS! This story has everything you could want in a contemporary novel and is essential reading for fans of the genre.

In My Mailbox!

In My Mailbox is hosted by Kristi at The Story Siren

Review Books

The Immortal Rules by Julie Kagawa (Already read and LOVED this one!)
Unrest by Michelle Harrison
The Last Echo by Kimberly Derting
Changeling by Philippa Gregory (ARC)
The Gathering Dark by Leigh Bardugo (ARC)
Ghost Flower by Michele Jaffe
The Out of Office Girl by Nicola Doherty (ARC)

Bought

A Game of Thrones by George R. R. Martin (Recently watched and loved the first season of the show so I just had to buy the book!)
The Repossession by Sam Hawksmoor
Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein
Skin Deep by Laura Jarratt
Au Revoir, Crazy European Chick by Joe Schreiber
Welcome To Rosie Hopkins' Sweetshop Of Dreams by Jenny Colgan

These are the books that I've received and bought in the past few weeks. I'm excited for all of these but particularly Unrest, Changeling, The Out of Office Girl, Skin Deep and Welcome To Rosie Hopkins' Sweetshop Of Dreams and can see myself getting to them ASAP! The Immortal Rules was a fantastic read and I'll be taking part on the blog tour and posting my review on that soon so stay tuned for that! As always HUGE thank you’s to all of the lovely publishing people who have sent me these books to review. If you’ve read any of the books I got and want to leave me a comment letting me know what you thought please do and make sure you leave me a link to what you got in your mailbox. Here’s to another week of fantastic reading ahead!

Review for the Warner Bros. Studio Tour London: The Making of Harry Potter

On Friday 6th April 2012, only 6 days after opening day, I was one of the first people to go to The Warner Bros Studio Tour: The Making of Harry Potter. For those of you outside the UK or for anyone who simply doesn’t know Warner Bros have opened the studio’s that they filmed the Harry Potter films in to the public for the first time. The tour itself consists of the actual sets, props, costumes etc. that were used in the films, along with behind the scene’s secrets being revealed for the very first time on how the films were made, a chance for you to try Butterbeer, Chocolate Frogs and numerous other Wizard sweets and treats, go crazy in the gift shop that sells legit Harry Potter merchandise and even take a ride on a broom and/or the Weasley’s car! Me, my friend Rachel and her sister Beth booked our tickets wayyy back before Christmas in 2011 so needless to say this is something we’d been excited about for a very long time! I had a fantastic time and thought I’d share my experience and a little bit about what you can expect and generally just talk about if it’s worth a visit and the price to give you an honest opinion if you’re thinking about going.

outside the studio

Firstly the studio itself is just outside London in Watford. At first we got a little bit lost as there are no signs for the tour until you’re literally only a few minutes away. However we called the tours customer service for help and they were brilliant in giving us directions from where we were (turns out ten minutes away, typical huh? Fun Fact: Whilst waiting they spew you with random Harry Potter trivia, nice one!) Anyway we soon found the place and in the end it wasn’t hard what with the HUGE Harry Potter posters on the outside and all. Then we did all the boring stuff like collecting our tickets and that really impressed me there wasn’t a long queue at all and they seemed to move everything along really quickly which was a bonus. A word of warning you have to have booked your tickets in advance they don’t sell tickets at the studio and you actually won’t be allowed into the car park unless you have your booking confirmation. A standard adult ticket is £28 or for diehard fans like myself you can pay an extra £10 more for a souvenir guidebook and a digital guide which is basically a mini tablet and headphone set that you can listen to as you go around the tour that gives you extra info, this isn’t something you get to keep though so bare that in mind. I went for the Guidebook/Digital Guide ticket and to be honest if I was to go again I probably wouldn’t bother. As a total fan girl I was running around like a loon and couldn’t really be bothered with listening to the extra’s so that was a bit of a waste of money and you can always buy the Guidebook there which again is alright but basically shows you everything you see on the tour with nothing new to offer and is a keep sake more than anything.

When you go into the building you have an allotted time as to when your tour will begin. What I really loved though was instead of waiting in one long queue for ages you could stop in the café to get a bite to eat or visit the gift shop until it’s your turn. And then when you do queue up for your slot it doesn’t take long at all I think we were waiting for around 15 minutes if that and there are plenty of props and pictures around to get the tour going already.

waiting to go in!

The tour itself begins with a screening in a cinema talking a little bit about the making of Harry Potter and then includes a message from Dan (Harry Potter) Rupert (Ron Weasley) and Emma (Hermione Granger) basically introducing the tour and saying this is their second home, the place that they grew up, which I thought was a really nice touch and really amps up the excitement in the room to bursting point. Brilliantly, when the clip finishes, the screen lifts up to reveal the door to the famous Great Hall. The tour guide gives a true to story “Welcome to Hogwarts!” and then the doors open and you step into the Great Hall itself.

door to the Great Hall

The Great Hall was a highlight of the tour for me and a brilliant way to kick things off. You don’t have a tour guide for the whole of the tour just this first section as he tells you a little bit about what you can expect from your visit and the general rules. Fun Fact: Our tour guide was asking some little kids at the front the names of the Hogwarts houses, they seemed like the shy kind and they weren’t really biting so I holla out from the back “Ravenclaw!!” (my favourite house) and had the embarrassing moment where everyone turned to look at me and the tour guide looked kind of bewildered, what can I say? I was excited! A similar situation also happened when he asked what everyone’s favourite moment in the Great Hall was, again tough crowd, although I do think someone mentioned the Yule Ball so I belted out from the back again “When Mcgonagall duelled off with Snape!” yeah…

inside the Great Hall

Anyway I’m not going to tell you about every single part of the tour because we’d be here forever. The tour takes around 3 hours to look around in general and heck I’m 900 and something words in and I’ve only reached the beginning! I will however tell you about the parts that stood out to me.

The Great Hall

The rest of the tour is self-guided a nice touch as there’s nothing worse than being ushered along by a tour guide. Heck I would probably grab hold of the nearest prop and refuse to be moved until I was finished looking (who am I kidding? I would have refused to move at all and would hide out and live there if I could! “This isn’t a concrete block this is HOGWARTS!” Yes I was THAT girl the one that the people who work there really earned their money with that day.) The whole tour was fantastic but here are some of my highlights in no particular order.

where it all began...

The outdoor section was AMAZING! Privet Drive, Godric's Hollow, The Hogwarts Bridge, The Knight Bus, Hagrid’s Motorbike, The Weasley’s car, The Riddle Grave, the huge Chess pieces and Butterbeer all at the same time?! Yes please! My other favourite part was walking down Diagon Alley which is an actual street! The Great Hall, Diagon Alley and the outdoor area are defiantly the parts that make you feel most like your actually in the Harry Potter Universe and I loved that feeling more than anything else.

Knight Bus

Diagon Alley

Props and set wise my favourite pieces were the Yule Ball ice sculpture which was just absolutely stunning in real life.

so pretty! Yule Ball ice sculpture 

Neville’s cardigan, that his gran knit him, that he challenged Lord Voldemort in, do I need to say anything else about THAT Cardigan!?

THE CARDIGAN!!!

The Invisibility Cloak actually has a lot of detail to it and is designed beautifully which you don’t get to see in the films, what with it, you know, being invisible most of the time.

Cloak of invisibility 

so awesome! Tom Riddle's Diary

Dumbledore’s office was an incredible set and again made me feel like I was actually in Hogwarts. As did Snapes potion room which was suitably creepy and dark. I loved seeing some of
the smaller props like the Horcruxes, The Philosophers Stone, Neville’s remembrall, the golden snitch etc. And I found a nice touch was that some of the sets had things that were moving on their own just like magic! The Burrow had to be my favourite for that with Mrs Weasley’s washing up and knitting going by themselves! There were so many impressive props but the thing that actually made me gasp out loud was the Hogwarts Castle model something you don’t get to see until right at the very end of the tour. It’s huge and beautiful, and you can just see how much work and love and care went into it. It absolutely just took my breath away; in a word it was magnificent. And I loved how the lighting changed from night, to dawn, to day, to dusk so you could see Hogwarts in all its glory. It was just so impressive and definitely one of the biggest highlights of the trip.

just a small part of Hogwarts model

After finishing the tour the last section ideally leads out straight into the gift shop where you can buy SO MANY THINGS!!! And if you’re a crazed fan girl like me can actually end up spending a fortune! You can buy anything from the Harry Potter sweets, to Wands – literally any character you can think of they have their wands available to buy, to the books and DVD’s, to cuddly toy Headwigs and Buckbeaks and Unicorns, to outfits and costumes, to mugs and keyrings and stationary there is everything you could think of. I spent just over £70 on The Marauder's Map, a The Marauder's Map mug which says “I Solemnly Swear That I Am Up To No Good” on it which I love, a Time Turner Keyring, A Chocolate Frog, and a Pink Pygmy Puff cuddly toy. But I could of easily spent so much more if I didn’t stop myself I really wanted the Elder Wand but alas I already have Hermione’s wand which Rachel brought me back from The Harry Potter resort in Florida so I called it a day right there. I’d say the things are fairly priced considering, I mean of course they’re overpriced, but at places like this what isn’t? Basically I think they could have charged a lot more if they wanted and Rachel and Beth told me that some things were actually cheaper over here than the resort in Orlando so considering I didn’t think it was too bad personally, as an ultimate fan girl, but parents of children wanting a chocolate frog for £7 each might disagree! What I like about the tour though is that you can pay a standard ticket price which for an adult at £28 I think is really good and you can build on your experience from there, parking is free, you can bring your own food and drink, so if I wanted I could have spent £28 on a ticket and came away happy after a wonderful day, how much you spend on top of that is entirely up to you.

stuff of dreams!

Dobby!

My only regret about the trip is that I didn’t get to have a go at flying on a broom. When queuing you can expect to wait an hour and at the time of day we went we just didn’t have that spare time to wait before the studio closed. I think a lot of people who visit at a later time will have that problem as the flying is right in the middle of the studio you can’t really judge how much time you’ll have left to look at everything else. I personally think it would have been better to place the flying separately like the gift shop as something to do either whilst you’re waiting if you get there early or something to do after, that way you’re not worrying about time or what else you have left to see. Despite the hours wait though it did look fun you get a good few minutes riding over London and Hogwarts in a cape and can of course buy pictures at the end. It was really fun to see that adults were just as eager to have a go at flying as the kids!

never realised Helena is so tiny!

So that was pretty much my experience visiting the Warner Bros. Studio Tour London: The Making of Harry Potter and already I want to go again! If you’ve made it to the end of this mammoth review I salute you! I wanted to try and edit it down but there was just so much that I wanted to talk about and I hope you found it helpful. For more information about the tour you can visit their website here. Please note that I am not in any way affiliated with the tour and this review is simply an honest opinion from a huge fan of everything Harry Potter.If you’ve been to visit the tour let me know what you thought and if you’re planning on going I hope you have as much fun as I did!

P.S This!

me (left) and Rachel (right)

and this!

I SAT WHERE RON WEASLEY SAT A MERE FEW DAYS BEFORE!!!!!!!!!!!!! *cough* that is all.

Explanation For Unexpected Blog Hiatus and What’s Been Going On With Me

So for those of you who follow me on Twitter you may have seen my tweets about my Grandad. But for those of you who don’t know I decided to do this post with a little bit about why I’ve been MIA from the blog this past month. Basically my Grandad was taken into hospital and doctor’s told us he probably wouldn’t make it through the night. He was put on open order and we expected to lose him that night. My Grandad’s a total trooper though and made it through, however he’s not out of the woods yet and is still in hospital in a critical condition. Honestly, it could go either way at any time, and so my whole family has been on edge in a sort of limbo just waiting for something to happen. That horribly anxious limbo place actually made me quite poorly both mentally and physically and for a while I wasn’t doing that great myself which is why I haven’t been blogging.

In the last week or so I’ve been feeling a lot better and although the situation hasn’t changed we’re all just trying to get on as normally as we can. And so here I am easing myself back into my blogging which is something that I’ve really missed. I’ve never spent this long away from the blog before in my near 2 years of blogging and it actually surprised me with just how much I missed it so here I am. Although I’m trying to get back to normal please understand that if my Grandad takes a turn for the worst I might disappear again or my posts might not be as regular.

That being said though for now I’m back and on a permanent base I’m not going anywhere so no need to worry about that! I might just be a little scattered because of my personal life. I have got some exciting things coming up for you guys which I’m going to list below I’ve had a few requests on Twitter as to what people want to see first (I have a lot of catching up to do!) So if you really want to see something sooner rather than later put your requests for me in the comments.

• Review on the Harry Potter Studio’s Tour in London (Requested)
• The Hunger Games Movie Review
• Reviews for
The Disenchantments by Nina LaCour (Requested)
Fateful by Claudia Gray (Requested)
Anna Dressed in Blood by Kendare Blake (Requested)
Fever by Lauren DeStefano
The Calling by Kelley Armstrong
172 Hours on the Moon by Johan Harstad
A Walk in the Park by Jill Mansell
Wanderlove by Kirsten Hubbard
All These Things I’ve Done by Gabrielle Zevin
Touch of Power by Maria V Snyder
The Immortal Rules by Julie Kagawa

Right I think that’s about it, which is exciting I was actually kind of dreading writing this post but felt like I owed you guys an explanation. I’m excited that I can get on to the fun stuff now and start talking about books again. Oh also on a fun side note I’m tinkering around with the idea of doing some Vlogs mainly for In My Mailbox but maybe some other things too so hopefully I can figure that out because it’s something I’ve been wanting to venture into for a while now. Anyway that’s it big thank you’s to everyone for being so understanding you guys are the best! And even bigger thank you’s for those who have sent me lovely tweets and well wishes on Twitter it really means a lot. I’ll be back with some booky stuff soon and remember to get those requests in either in the comments or you can tweet me them @JessHeartsBooks again for anyone who follows me on Twitter I was formally known as @Chicgeekrambles but changed it to the blog name just to make me easier to find on there I guess and to stop any confusion. Right I really am going to shut up now, love you guys, speak soon!