Rebel Angels - Libba Bray

Rebel Angels - Libba Bray

Pages: 548
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Release Date: 2nd July 2007

Other Titles in the Series: A Great and Terrible Beauty, The Sweet Far Thing

It's the end of the year, and Gemma's looking forward to living it up in London. Balls, fancy gowns and dancing with the handsome Simon Middleton beckon. Best of all, it's time away from Spence Academy - and from the Realms.

But the lure of the enchanted world is strong, and the magic flows freely. Gemma's visions intensify - visions of three girls dressed in white, suffering horror and menace. Clearly not all is well in the Realms - or out of them.

Set against the rich backdrop of Victorian London, a place of shadows and light, in a time of strict morality and barely repressed sensuality, this compelling gothic sequel reveals that inside great beauty can lie a rebel angel...

I liked Rebel Angels a lot more than A Great and Terrible Beauty. This one was easier to get into because I knew the characters and the world. The characters really grew and came alive in this one. We were told about the things that make them who they really are which really fleshed them out. All of the shocking revellations, unexpected twists and turns kept my rapt attention throughout. I sat and read nearly all of it yesterday; that's how in to it I was. Now I can't wait for The Sweet Far Thing for which I am going to have to wait until it is released in paperback in May.

There isn't likely to be any reviews for a couple of days as I am going to read the first two House of Night novels of my sister's that she has already reviewed on here. She probably won't review for a while either as she is rereading The Twilight Saga and their amazingness doesn't really need to be written about does it? Everyone knows how great they are. My next review, however, will be Uglies - Scott Westerfeld early next week.

Have a great rest of the week.

Sophie

A Great and Terrible Beauty - Libba Bray

A Great and Terrible Beauty - Libba Bray

Pages: 403
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Release Date: 2nd May 2006

Other Titles in the Series: Rebel Angels, The Sweet Far Thing

It's 1895, and after the death of her mother, 16-year-old Gemma Doyle is shipped off from the life she knows in India to Spence, a proper boarding school in England. Lonely, guilt-ridden, and prone to visions of the future that have an uncomfortable habit of coming true, Gemma's reception there is a chilly one.She's not completely alone, though...she's being followed by a mysterious young man, sent to warn her to close her mind against the visions.

It's at Spence that Gemma's power to attract the supernatural unfolds, as she becomes entangled with the school's most powerful girls and discovers her mother's connection to a shadowy, timeless group called The Order. Her destiny awaits...if only Gemma can believe in it.

After reading The Hunger Games I found it hard to gel to this novel. It took me about a third of the way through for me to love it. And I did love it in the end. There is such a wonderful mix of characters and the writing only had subtle hints of the time that it was set in which I loved. I really identified with Ann out of all of the characters; looking in on a world that you would look to be part of; a world so close yet so far away. And anyway I'm a sucker for magic, though I didn't expect anything like what actually happened in it. I've nearly finished Rebel Angels now and I am completely absorbed in the world that Libba Bray has created.

Sophie

Betrayed - P.C. and Kristen Cast

Betrayed - P.C. and Kristen Cast

Pages: 375
Publisher: Atom
Release Date: 5th February 2009

Other Titles in the Series: Marked, Chosen, Hunted, Untamed

All any of us could talk about was Chris's disappearance and how bizarre it was that he had been seen so close to the House of Night. I didn't want to believe it. But everything inside me said that the kid would be found, but he'd be found dead...

Things seem to be going well for Zoey Redbird. She's settled in the House of Night finishing school and is coming to terms with her incredible new powers. It all seems to good to be true. And guess what?

Someone has begun murdering human teenagers, and all evidence points to the vampyres at Zoey's school. Which means her first assignment as the leader of the Dark Daughters is finding out which one of her classmates pr - gulp - teachers is a killer.

Sigh. And she thought her boyfriends (yes: plural) were going to be her biggest problem this year...

I thought Betrayed was really good. It made me cry. But I can not what for the next one Chosen.

Amy

Snow Day!

Today has been my first ever snow day and I've spent all of it (apart from now, obviously) reading. We're under an unheard of four inches of snow and England has ground to a halt. It's brilliant.

I decided to do a round up of bookish things from January so here are the books I've read this month:

1. Uninvited - Amanda Marrone
2. The Catalogue of the Universe - Margaret Mahy
3. The Luxe - Anna Godbersen
4. Rumours: A Luxe Novel - Anna Godbersen
5. Robert Pattison: True Love Never Dies - Josie Rusher
6. Everything Beautiful - Simmone Howell
7. The Bad Tuesdays: Twisted Symmetry - Benjamin J. Myers
8. The Burying Beetle - Ann Kelley
9. Who's That Girl? - Alexandra Potter
10. The Hunger Games - Suzanne Collins

It was a good book month but I think February will be even better because I just ordered 7 books of off Amazon that will arrive of the next three weeks. I'm pretty excited!

Sophie

In My Mailbox II

I've borrowed the idea of this from the amazing The Story Siren. If you want more information check out her blog.

From the library:
Soul Love - Lynda Waterhouse

Living with the past can be difficult, even at fifteen...

Jenna doesn't want to betray her friends and won't reveal the truth behind her exclusion from school. So she is sent away to live with her aunt in a sleepy countryside village.

It's here that she meets Gabriel, who seems so genuine and different from other people she knows. But she is wary of him at first - lately boys have been nothing but trouble for Jenna, and Gabe can be moody and withdrawn.

Despite her caution, Jenna can't help falling in love with Gabriel, and the longer she spends with him, the more deeply in love she falls. Could he be her soul mate? He seems to be the only one who understands Jenna and doesn't leap to conclusions. But then she discovers that Gabriel is living with a deep secret of his own...

Tessa in Love - Kate le Vann

Wolfie was totally scruffy…and totally sexy. It wasn't love at first sight, because I'd been aware of him for years and just hadn't noticed before. It was like really seeing someone for the first time. Then he waved me over! I looked behind me to make sure he wasn't beckoning to somebody else.

He laughed, and mouthed, 'Yes, you.' I pulled my skirt down as far as it would go and rubbed a bit of leaf over my trainers to make them seem beaten up, then made my way over - but on the way, I slightly forgot to how to walk. I was taking insanely big steps…'

Tessa has always been 'the quiet one', while her best friend, Matty, is outgoing and constantly has boys flocking around her. But when Tessa falls in love for the first time at sixteen, everything changes. Tessa finds a soulmate in Wolfie, a committed green activist, and she grows more confident and outspoken every day. She also begins to look at the world differently…

But just when their love is at its strongest, tragedy strikes. How will she ever be able to cope?

The Secrets of Love -Rosie Rushton

“Upon my word, I never saw a young woman so desperately in love in my life!” SENSE AND SENSIBILITY – Jane Austen

What would happen if you transferred the traumas of teenage love from Jane Austen’s Sense and Sensibility to the twenty-first century? How would Ellie, Abby and Georgie fare without the restraints of nineteenth-century England?

Will Ellie’s ever-sensible attitude towards life prevent her from ever snogging the gorgeous, but somewhat reticent, Blake?

Is Abby’s devil-may-care outlook destined to land her in big trouble with Hunter, who majors in being up himself?

And what about the baby of the family, Georgie? She’s a tomboy, with more male friends than anyone, and so strong-willed she’ll never take no for an answer!

From Waterstone's:

Betrayed - P.C. and Kristen Cast

It seems that (un)life is going pretty well for Zoey Redbird. She's settled in at the House of Night finishing school and is coming to terms with the vast powers the vampyre goddess, Nyx, has given her. She even has a boyfriend ...or two.

Best of all, Zoey finally feels she has found somewhere she belongs. Then the unthinkable happens. Human teenagers are being killed, and all the evidence points to the vampires at Zoey's school. While danger stalks the humans from Zoey's past life, she begins to realise that the very powers that made her so unique might also threaten those she loves.

Then, when she needs her new friends the most, death strikes the House of Night. Zoey finds herself facing a betrayal that could break her heart and jeopardise the very fabric of her world.

Rebel Angels - Libba Bray

It's the end of the year, and Gemma's looking forward to living it up in London. Balls, fancy gowns and dancing with the handsome Simon Middleton beckon. Best of all, it's time away from Spence Academy - and from the Realms.

But the lure of the enchanted world is strong, and the magic flows freely. Gemma's visions intensify - visions of three girls dressed in white, suffering horror and menace. Clearly not all is well in the Realms - or out of them.

Set against the rich backdrop of Victorian London, a place of shadows and light, in a time of strict morality and barely repressed sensuality, this compelling gothic sequel reveals that inside great beauty can lie a rebel angel...

Uglies - Scott Westerfeld

Everybody gets to be supermodel gorgeous. What could be wrong with that?

Tally can't wait to turn sixteen and become Pretty. Sixteen is the magic number that brings a transformation from a repellant Ugly into a stunningly attractive Pretty, and catapults you into a high-tech paradise where your only job is to have a really great time. In just a few weeks Tally will be there.

But Tally's new friend Shay isn't sure she wants to be Pretty. She'd rather risk life on the outside. When Shay runs away, Tally learns about a whole new side of the Pretty world - and it isn't very pretty. The authorities offer Tally the worst choice she can imagine: find her friend and turn her in, or never turn Pretty at all. The choice Tally makes changes her world forever.

I think we had a very good week this week and I can't wait to get stuck in. Let's hope next week is just as good.

Sophie