Bite Size Books (4): Glitches, One Perfect Christmas and The Runaway Queen

Glitches – Marissa Meyer

Pages: 32

Publisher: Tor

Release Date: 5^th December 2011

Series: The Lunar Chronicles, #0.5

Edition: e-novella, Kindle freebie

Synopsis

Cinder, a gifted mechanic, is a cyborg. She’s a second-class citizen with a mysterious past, reviled by her stepmother and blamed for her stepsister’s illness. In Glitches, a short prequel story to Cinder, we see the results of that illness play out, and the emotional toll that takes on Cinder. Something that may, or may not, be a glitch...

Mini-Review

I’m always game for a foray into my favourite fictional worlds and the land of The Lunar Chronicles is definitely one of them! Glitches takes place before Cinder when Cinder is being placed with her new family in the Eastern Commonwealth.

Seeing her as a scared and bumbling eleven-year-old trying to get used to her new body was heart-breaking, but it also made me love Cinder I already knew even more. Her strength and capability is even more impressive when you see where she came from. Then you throw in the horrible Adri and sweet Peony and you’re left with a bucket full of emotion. Glitches re-ignited my excitement for Cress and made me glad I have one more e-novella from the series, The Queen’s Army, waiting for me!

One Perfect Christmas – Paige Toon

Pages: 100

Publisher: Simon and Schuster

Release Date: 5^th November 2012

Edition: e-novella, purchased

Synopsis

One Perfect Christmas picks up with Alice and Joe one year on... He’s a bigger star than ever, and Alice has managed to maintain her anonymity. But how long can that last? With this be their first – and last – perfect Christmas? And where is Lukas?

Mini-Review

One Perfect Christmas picks up with Alice and Joe being reunited after being separated by his filming schedule at the wedding of Alice’s uni roommates, Jessie and Emily. We get the answer to who Alice chose that was left on an evil cliffhanger at the end of One Perfect Summer and get taken through important moments in Alice’s relationships with Lukas and Joe in the past year: coming home from the Cornwall cottage, telling Lukas she wants  divorce and Alice coming to terms with Joe’s career.

It was lovely to be back in Cambridge as it was snowy and gorgeous and to be reunited with Alice and Joe as they start their new life together and plan for the future. I love knowing that characters I’ve fallen in love with will get their happily ever after with the love of their life; I’m such a sap sometimes!

One Perfect Christmas is a wonderful short conclusion to the novel and I’m already counting down the days until Paige Toon’s next offering.

The Bane Chronicles 2: The Runaway Queen – Cassandra Clare; Maureen Johnson

Pages: 60

Publisher: Margaret K McElderry

Release Date: 21^st May 2013 

Series: The Bane Chronicles #2

Edition: e-novella, purchased

Synopsis

While in France, immortal warlock Magnus Bane finds himself attempting to rescue the royal family from the French Revolution – after being roped into this mess by a most attractive count. Naturally, the daring escape calls for invisible air balloons...

Mini-Review

Oh, Magnus, how I love thee. I really loved The Runaway Queen. It was a lot less serious that What Really Happened in Peru – Maureen Johnson is one of the authors after all – and I just loved it. Revolutionary France, gorgeous aristocracy, a hot air balloon ride across Paris and Mary Antoinette wither head still firmly attached.

Maureen Johnson’s sense of humour really came through in The Runaway Queen and I think it fit Magnus perfectly. I liked this one a lot more than the first and hoping they carry on in such a fashion. Bring on Vampires, Scones and Edmund Herondale!

Sophie