Bookish Wonders #1

Bookish Wonders is a new series of posts I am going to be writing about books funny enough. As a little break from reviews I want to talk to you guys about the different things we love about books, for their cover art, how they make us think, feel or even change how we see the world. 

My first Bookish Wonder is all about where you read a book, and if a perfect sunny afternoon reading makes a better book than a wet weekend.

One glorious morning, my best friend and I sat on The Hoe in Plymouth, which is a beautiful grassy field which over looks the sea with the rest of town behind you, and set to reading our Kindles laid out on a blanket. At the time I was reading 'Hunt for the Phoenix' by the Byfords, and gave it a glowing review. I loved the books twists and turns and fantastic story telling, and although it had its faults I gave it full marks. But how was where I read this book and the memories I had attached to it affected my perception?

Keri Arthur, on the other hand, and the first book in her Dark Angel series: Darkness Unbound is the hardest review I have ever given a book. I read it in late January, as a relief from a pile of uni work and a truly stressed student budget after Christmas. I read it in my dull university bedroom, on my own at night, after night, until I finished it. Nothing remarkable. Nothing new. And very little done well. Yet if I had read this book on The Hoe, in Plymouth on a beautiful day would I have felt differently?


I think what is most important is where the book takes you. The best books you will read will transport you from where you lay, sit or stand and into their world. Books that when the house falls down around you, you fail to notice. This book for me has to be a book by Kelley Armstrong, that I haven't actually reviewed - Broken. I didn't stop until I finished this familiar yet surprisingly new book around my (still) favourite fictional couple, Clay & Elena. I have found it so difficult to review these books as so much in a series can be spoilers for the earlier books. However I think even without the other books in the series this stands out to be one of those reads that made me feel scared when they were scared, happy when they were happy, and 'fun' when they where having fun ;)! Sat here now, I cannot remember where I read it - in my opinion a sign of a truly fantastic book.

I want to know where did you read your favourite book? Do you remember? Do you think where you read a book matters?

Thanks for reading,

Love Rie x

Puzzlebook - Review

I have a review of something a bit different for you all today. A huge book worm you won't often find me doing anything else on my Kindle other than reading a book. But when I heard about Puzzlebook's on your Kindle I had to take a look.

Summary courtesy of Amazon:  This is Volume 2 of the Top Rated Puzzlebook series from America. In this brand-new puzzle collection you will find 101 pictorial, hand-crafted puzzle quizzes.

My puzzle book of choice was 101 Puzzle Quizzes by The Grabarchuck Family, an interactive puzzle book in colour, with you guessed it, 101 different puzzles. This delightful collection of brain teasers gets you to use your visual, spacial, counting, geometry and searching skills to solve the puzzles that get gradually harder.

Some of you might have noticed the catch already, I am the proud owner of the keyboard-less kindle which is in black and white, not the best for playing colour interactive puzzle books! The interface can also be a little be difficult to use on the actual Kindle device, with me taking a while to realise using the usual page turning buttons on the side of the Kindle taking you to the next puzzle, or answer depending where you are located. The puzzles lead you back and forward throughout the 'book' (a term than I use very loosely) as you follow links to the next puzzle. Navigating using the 5 way controller and the back button is possible, but my no means easy.

My recommendation instead is to download the Kindle app for your computer! Free to download and super easy to use it brings this puzzlebook to life. When I first got this set up on my little notebook whilst sat in the living room at home, the whole family had to get involved in every puzzle resulting in a lot of finger counting, voting and 'YEESSSS' 'Oh yeahs' and 'DOH's' at the outcomes.

Despite some logistical problems navigating back and forward between the puzzles, once you have got the hang of the controls (probably a lot quicker than me) this is a great bit of fun to kill some time. Taking a long train or car journey with some restless passengers? I think this has some great potential to make the time whiz by!

And with a wet Easter weekend forecast this might be a great way to spend some time with the family, and not just the kids (my brother of 19 even seemed to enjoy it!). There is also a special edition 20 Easter Puzzle Quizzes priced at only 77p great for some rainy day fun.

I rate it 7/10!

You can pick up your copy of 101 Puzzle Quizzes from Amazon for just £1.94.

Don't have a copy of the PC Kindle app, you can download it for free here, and for Mac here.

Happy Puzzling,

Love Rie x

This book was kindly gifted to me for review consideration, but all opinions are as always my own.

WWW - What are you reading Wednesday!

I saw this post last week on Should be Reading's blog and wanted to join in this week. You can play along with this little 'tag' (a.k.a meme) style post by just answering the following three (3) questions…

1.  What are you currently reading?
2. What did you recently finish reading?
3. What do you think you will read next?

I think I am going to do one of these 'tag' style posts a week, I have seen some good ones for Tuesday's and Friday's too. So let me know what you think and if you want to see more of them.

So lets get going!!

What am I currently reading?

I have been reading The Hobbit now for well over a month. It is one of the books I mentioned in one of my previous posts about books I have never got round to reading along with the rest of the The Lord of the Rings series, and was recommended to read this one first. I have to say I am enjoying it, Bilbo Baggins is adorable (in a Hobbit sort of way), and I know its considered a classic now, but I just can't commit to reading it. It is so different to the other more YA fantasy I have been reading, so I have been flicking back and forth reading a few pages here and there every few days. I also started this week Marked from the House of the Night series by P.C & Kristen Cast. I am only 7% (chapter 3) through on my Kindle as I type this post but I am already enjoying it. I even read a sneaky chapter whilst I was eating my breakfast this morning, which is when I can tell I am enjoying a book. Its a slightly different concept to the other YA Vampire (which is spelt Vampyres in this book), with the whole concept of being marked sounds like an interesting read!

What did you recently finish reading?

Over the weekend I work in my local Garden Centre, so don't have as much time to read as I would like. But as I was in between books (other than The Hobbit) I decided to read a few short stories which I could read in my tea or lunch breaks. This weekends entertainment was some of Kelley Armstrong's free online fiction which she gives away on her website. These accompany her adult fantasy series Women of the Otherworld, and her YA series Darkest Powers and Darkness Rising, and I read six just this weekend. I particularly enjoyed Checkmate, Case of the Half Demon Spy and Framed. However I warn those of you that have not read some or all of the series these shorts do contain spoilers to some of the later books. I am planning on doing a post about these soon so watch this space!

What do you think you will read next?

There is loads of books that I want to purchase which I have heard about recently, but I also have a very long TBR collection on my Kindle that I will be tackling first. It is a toss up between The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Steig Larsson or the second book in the Hunger Games series Catching Fire . Decisions, decisions!

Let me know what you are reading at the moment in the comments below, and what you think I should be reading next!

Thanks as always for reading,

Love Rie x

Impulse Control by Susan Bischoff - Book Review

I discovered this book for free while doing one of my regular Amazon free download trawls. When I mentioned it in one of my Spotted blog posts I commented that it sounded similar to one of the YA series by Kelley Armstrong and I was defiantly intrigued. One night when I was tired with long novels and struggling on what to read I chose this short story and was in for a little treat!

Summary Courtesy of Amazon: In the world of the Talent Chronicles, kids born with supernatural powers are taken from their families and forced into government research facilities called State Schools. At one such school, a dangerous experiment has killed two young inmates and threatens others. Ethan, a shape-shifter, is reluctantly recruited by his best friend Karen, a telepath, and Elle, the unique Talent he has a crush on, to thwart the faculty's plans. If they’re caught they face Detention, and Detention at a State School has a whole different meaning.

I must first reiterate that this is not strictly a book. Advertised as a short story, it is only 12,000 words long and I easily devoured it in one evening. It is drawn from Bischoff's series the Talent Chronicles, a YA supernatural series that focuses on 'talents', people born with supernatural powers. Feared by society they are destined to a life of hiding their abilities or institutionalised under the preconception they will be taught how to control their powers, but in reality are little more than lab rats.

Immediatly when reading the description I likened them to the Darkest Powers series by Kelley Armstrong, which I loved as an easy to read YA fantasy series, and was excited to find something similar. I was not disappointed by this short taster into this series but fear it may be targeted even younger than imagined. The titles of the second book 'Heroes before Curfew' saying a lot. This being said I did really enjoy getting drawn into the pubescent mind of young supernatural's, the pure escapism proving much more enjoyable than some more complex adult reads. The characters promised to be well developed and likeable whilst engaging in a action filled narrative with just the right amount of awkward romance. Ethan promises to be a perfect substitute for troubled Derek from the Darkest Powers series, in a way that is teasingly familiar.

I can't say this book offers something new or revolutionary but it is a taster to a series I want to read more of. The first book in the series, Hush Money priced at just 77p has been downloaded and added on to my Kindle's TBR folder, so watch this space for the review!

Overall I rate this a 7/10.

Thanks for reading,

Love Rie x

Guild Wars: Edge of Destiny by J. Robert King - Book Review

This book review is courtesy of my good friend Ross Phillips, a Guild Wars nut who reviewed the first book of the series Ghosts of Ascalon just last week. He enjoyed it so much he decided to jump straight into the the second book, but was somewhat disappointed, but I will let him explain why:

Summary courtesy of Amazon:  Destiny Called - They Answered.In the dark recesses of Tyria, elder dragons have awoken from millennial slumbers. First came Primordus, which stirred in the Depths forcing the asura to flee to the surface. Half a century later, Jormag awoke and drove the norn from the frozen climes of the Northern Shiverpeaks, corrupting sons and brothers along the way. A generation later, Zhaitan arose in a cataclysmic event that reshaped a continent and flooded the capital of the human nation of Kryta.The races of Tyria stand on the edge of destiny. Heroes have battled against dragon minions, only to be corrupted into service of the enemy. Armies have marched on the dragons and been swep aside. The dwarves sacrificed their entire race to defeat a single dragon champion. The age of mortals may soon be over.  This is a time for heroes. While the races of Tyria stand apart, six heroic individuals will come together to fight for their people: Eir, the norn huntress with the soul of an artist; Snaff, the asuran ge­nius, and his ambitious assistant Zojja; Rytlock, the ferocious charr warrior in exile; Caithe, a deadly sylvari with deep secrets; and Logan, the valiant human guardian dealing with divided loyalties. Together they become Destiny’s Edge. Together they answer the call. But will it be enough?

"Having finished Guild Wars: Ghosts of Ascalon and really enjoyed alot more than I thought I would I decided to read the second book in the series 'Edge of Destiny'

This book acts as a prequel to Ghosts of Ascalon and deals with the action of the Guild known as Destiny's Edge (something which is mentioned numerous times within Ghosts of Ascalon) as they band together to try and do battle with the evil all consuming Elder Dragons and their respective minions.

Its a good premise but suffers a fatal flaw, its too short.

This isn't like Ghosts of Ascalon which just felt like it could have done with being a chapter or two longer, this book could really do with being at least a third longer than it is, there's just too much plot and too many characters and not enough space.

There are huge holes where it just skips forward a few months between one paragraph and the next and some sub-plot elements are left with so little explanation and follow up that even a hardcore Guild Wars fans like myself are left confused.

It also leaves no room at all to evolve the characters and so they remain 'flat' and one dimensional right up until the end. and for a book with so little space to spare its seem to devote quite alot its word count to its frankly puerile to the point of vomit inducing romance. 

On the plus side though the beginning and the end are very good, and it did have a fair few funny moments and witty verbal stand offs between some of the characters but on the whole it just felt a little lackluster next to Ghosts of Ascalon which had exactly the same and yet so much more.

If I had to rate this book I would give it a 5/10. Quite disappointing"


Found this review intriguing? You can pick up the Kindle version for £3.99 on Amazon. However my recommendation would be to check out a second hand paper back which I have seen under £3 on Amazon private listings.
Thank you as always for reading, and I welcome your comments below on what you thought of this book? What do you think about in in comparison to the first one?


Love Ross & Rie x  

Wild Child by Mike Wells - Book Review

I first found this Author when for some reason I ended up following him on Twitter. When I read the behind the scenes story of how 'Wild Child' came to be published and the story behind its cover art I was intrigued, yet I was never converted to making the purchase. But when I then saw that it had become free on Amazon I downloaded it immediately and it moved faster than anticipated to the top of my TBR pile as I read more and more about the book. I have to admit this was not what I was expecting, but so much more.

Summary courtesy of Amazon: Briana Fox is the wildest girl in school. She and Kyle have been close for a long time...almost lovers. But Kyle is afraid that if he pushes her, he'll have his heart broken and lose his best friend. When Briana challenges him to a swim across the lake, she's injured in a horrific accident, but she discovers a mysterious substance in an underwater cave that saves her life. What seems to be a magical yet harmless "power drug" invokes superhuman abilities, and Briana soon becomes dependent on it for her very survival. When two government agents learn of the discovery, they will stop at nothing to find the source and turn Briana into a human experiment. Is Kyle willing to risk everything to protect his love?

When I started reading this I was expecting a novel, but instead I was presented with a perfectly formed short story. Taking me just over 2 hours to read this book sucked me into the murky depths of the lake with Kyle and Brianne (referred to in the book as Brie) and only came up gasping for air once finished. I had read reviews that it was gripping and fast paced but I didn't really understand what this meant until I began reading. The YA themes of teenage defiance of parental rules and awkward romances is over shadowed by a surprisingly thought provoking narrative, that developed into a fantasy science fiction themed focal point that is completly unexpected.

The character of Brie, although essential to the narrative, I felt very little connection to unlike the protagonist Kyle, who is fantastic! With his ability to both panic and stay calm under pressure, his devotion to Brie and the relationship with his Father creating a well developed and interesting character that I only want to know more about. What truly cemented my admiration for this fictional boy was the cliff hanger of an ending that left me with far more question that answers, and possibly the best reason to get my hands on the next book in the series!

The only downside however being the next book in the series. Now being a Kindle lover, I have become accustomed to only paying a certain amount for a eBook. Promising to be as 'lean' as the first one I am finding it difficult to bring myself to pay the £3.65 being asked for the rather unimaginatively named 'Wild Child Book 2' with the world 'Lilith' added on to the end almost as an after thought.

Overall I would give this book a 8/10.

You can book this short story up for free on here, but no promises you wont feel as frustrated as me when you are forced to pay for the second one!

Thanks for reading,

Love Rie x

The Hunger Games - Film Review

After finishing the book just last weekend, I was fairly late to The Hunger Games hype. However it did have its advantages, I didn't have long to wait for the movie to come out! I booked my tickets early this week, and was at the advance showing at my local Vue cinema in Portsmouth, dragging along the boyfriend, Terry.

As a late comer, but complete nut of the Hunger Games book, I understand that my review will be slightly biased, so I have also asked the Terry (who has not read the book) to add his comments at the end so you can get both perspectives. As always there is NO spoilers of the book or film in this review.

Summary courtesy of IMDb: Set in a future where the Capitol selects a boy and girl from the twelve districts to fight to the death on live television, Katniss Everdeen volunteers to take her younger sister's place for the latest match.  Based on the book by Suzanne Collins.

My first impressions were this was very well done. Anyone who has read the book will know that around 2/3rds of the content is dominated by the main protagonist, Katniss' inner monologue. Going into the movie I did wonder how they would over come this problem, and make the film interesting! It really is Kaniss' thoughts, feelings and knowledge of the wilderness that create the tension and drama within the book. Yet it was the inclusion of the reality television style panel (consisting of the blue haired TV host, Caesar Flickerman & Claudius Templesmith the games announcer) to give commentary and explain events that non-readers of the book would not otherwise recognise, namely what Tracker Jackers are and the symptoms of their stings. Other events are also played out very well, with shaking camera shots, ringing ears sound effects and extreme close ups all provide a great alternative to Katniss' thoughts.

Katniss, Primrose, Peeta & Haymitch

Jennifer Lawrence did a fantastic job of communicating a thousand words with the smallest facial expression.She brought Katniss' character alive in the most tangible of ways, and was really well cast. Willow Shields who plays Primrose Everdeen was also fantastic and looked exactly how I imagined in the book. Other castings however were a surprise. I had imagined Peeta (who I didn't realise until I saw the trailer of the film was pronounced Peter) to be a round faced and unimposing baker's son but in fact played by the rather attractive Josh Hutcherson. Haymitch was also portrayed as being a lot younger, and some what more civilised character than I had pictured him whilst reading the book. The biggest surprise to myself however was the casting of Clove, the female tribute from district 2, played by Isabelle Fuhrman who also played Esther in possibly the scariest horror movie I have ever seen, Orphan. Something of her previous role stuck with me to make her a truly horrifying character. 

This is a film made about a book however, so naturally I am more critical. Several scenes were shortened to almost extinction, while other aspects of the film, such as the origins of the Mockingjay pin were changed completely. However, this was also done okay! No key scenes were really left out, and the changes made from the book made logical sense to tie the narrative together. Although it is a YA book, there was a certain amount of censorship of the stories true brutality at times to make it a 12A, but we have been promised an extended DVD edition to bring back more of the action which will be bumped up to a 15.

The one thing that really did disappoint me is so small it is barely worth noticing. However the book did do a fantastic job at aiming itself at young girls (and 20 some thing's) by providing details such as hair, and nail art designs that girls could really latch onto and replicate. Although the signature side braid was included, my personal favourite girl on fire nails, which consisted of flames painted on the nails for the opening chariot ride to the games were completely absent! As I said, a very small detail, but disappointing to a nail polish fan like myself.

Picture of me, shamelessly copying Katniss' style with the signature side braid.
This photo was taken after the movie, but still 1hr and 41mins before its official release.... I'm so sad!

Perhaps the one thing I did enjoy about the film more than the book is the flash backs. The back stories of the characters were provided quite freely and frequently within the book, not making you wait for any relevant information. However in the movie these were peppered throughout  in a series of short black and white teaser clips until they built up to reveal the whole story.

Terry's Comments:

"I liked the film. It was alright, if not a little bit predictable. Even though I haven't read the book, I understood everything. Defiantly enjoyed it enough to watch the inevitable sequel, and not just because Marie will force me to come along regardless!"

Overall I felt that this film did a great job of portraying a fantastic book without resorting to 3D or IMAX sound and flashy effects. Instead it relied on good camera angles and minimal special effects to create a more tangible Panem. Terry and I whilst talking the movie on the way home both agree our mark, now out of 10, for this movie without any discussion.

7/10

Thanks for reading,

Terry & Rie x