Days of Blood and Starlight (Laini Taylor)

Title: Days of Blood and Starlight

Author: Laini Taylor

Publisher: Little, Brown and Company

Length: 517

Rating: 5/5

In this sequel to Daughter of Smoke and Bone, Karou has finally learned who she really is. But this revelation and the betrayal it exposes shatters her world. To avenge her people, Karou is pulled into a deadly war between angels and demons that has been raging on for centuries.

This book is both stunningly gorgeous and terribly tragic. I had the pleasure of meeting author Laini Taylor at a book signing, where she admitted that it took her a while to realize that this book had a completely different tone from the Daughter of Smoke and Bone, the tone of a war book.

This isn’t the magical, romantic world of Prague any more. Karou teams up with the monsters, but still struggles to find the clear line between good and evil, while the reader roots for it to never exist, because we love characters on both sides of the war. We get the same struggle from Karou’s angel, Akiva, and I loved seeing the world from his point of view.

The book was just so beautiful, and so well-written, and I’m so upset I have to wait for the third book in the trilogy to come out. Until then, all I can do is hope that Karou and Akiva can find some sort of peace, because I’ve come to love them and all their friends so much!

You can find a great interview with Laini Taylor here.  

Scarlet (Marissa Meyer)

Title: Scarlet

Author: Marissa Meyer

Publisher: Feiwel and Friends (Macmillan)

Length: 452 pages

Rating: 5/5

While Cinder tries to break out of prison and remain invisible to the entire Commonwealth, over in France, Scarlet is trying to find her missing grandmother.  Desperate, Scarlet teams up with Wolf, a mysterious street fighter. Their paths collide as their missions intertwine, and it’ll take both Cinder and Scarlet to stop the evil Lunar Queen Levana from taking over the globe.

I really liked Cinder, but I liked this installment even more. In fact, I’m throwing a small tantrum right now that I have to wait another year for the next book (there will be four all together- the last pair are called Cress and Winter). Such brilliant fairy-tale retelling! I love how the elements of the stories we love are reimagined and interwoven into the great story against the evil (ugh I hate her!) Queen Levana. The story gets deeper, the characters get better, and the world gets put in even more peril. What’s not to love?

Not to mention how much cute guy action we get in these books- a definite plus. Wolf is dangerously dreamy. The guy Cinder teams up with to break out of jail, Captain Carswell Thorne, doesn’t get to romance much, but he’s hilarious as he tries in his attempting-to-be-suave ways. And we could never forget about Prince Kai, who we get to see as he’s left with the mess Cinder leaves.

I’d eat this book up if the ravenous Wolf hadn’t gotten to it first!

A Hat Full of Sky (Terry Pratchett)

This review is dedicated to the Linwood Community Library where I've been the YA Intern the past four months. Thanks to my boss Dave for recommending this book!

Title: A Hat Full of Sky

Author: Terry Pratchett

Publisher: Harper Tempest (HarperCollins)

Length: 407 pages

Rating: 4/5

Tiffany Aching is a witch-in-training, away from home for the first time to learn about magic and witchly responsibility. But a sinister disembodied monster is after Tiffany, and it will take all her training, her bravery, and a little help from her friends the Wee Free Men (six-inch high troublemakers) and Mistress Weatherwax (the greatest witch in the world) to defeat it.

This book is the sequel to The Wee Free Men, in which Tiffany first befriends the small fairies and discovers she is a witch. Here, poor Tiffany is just learning to be a witch when she is attacked by one of the greatest threats in the world. Luckily, she has some amazing friends to help her out. The Wee Free Men were delightfully hilarious to read about, and all the other witches are quite peculiar and interesting (and often absurd).

I loved that this book made impossibilities happen and challenged my mind as I read. It takes place in a fantasy world where real rules don't apply and everything is turned on its head. Anything is possible, and the more absurd, the more likely it is to happen! But at the same time, everything is quite serious, because Tiffany's life is at stake, and in the end, only she can save it.

A very funny read that will make you wish the sky was your hat too!

Hex Hall (Rachel Hawkins)

Title: Hex Hall

Author: Rachel Hawkins

Publisher: Hyperion Books

Length: 323 pages

Rating: 3.5/5

Sophie recently discovered she’s a witch. Unfortunately, her spells never go right, and after one goes particularly wrong, she’s sent to Hex Hall, a reform school for naughty magical creatures. There, she becomes roommates with a hated vampire, pisses off three popular, pretty witches, and almost gets eaten by a werewolf, only to be saved by the (unavailable) hottest guy in school. Then people start getting attacked on school property, and Sophie learns that it might have something to do with her murky magical past. Surviving high school has nothing on surviving Hex Hall.

(what does this cute cover have to do with anything?)

The typical new school, crush on the hot boy who is dating the mean, popular girl, story but with Magical Twists (I capitalize these because I’m hungry and it would make a great name for a pretzel). So I’d heard parts of this story before. I still couldn’t put this book down. Who is attacking students? Will Sophie’s futile crush on the hottie ever amount to anything? Who is good and who is evil? Nothing is black and white as Sophie tries to keep an ancient society from destroying the magical world. Naturally, there are more books in the series to come. I will read on, with pretzels. 

Daughter of Smoke and Bone (Laini Taylor)

Title: Daughter of Smoke and Bone

Author: Laini Taylor

Publisher: Little, Brown and Company

Length: 418 pages

Rating: 5/5

In the human world of Prague, Karou is a talented art student with bright blue hair who creates fantastical drawings of monsters and storylines to go with them. She’ll tell you with a quirky smile that they’re real, and you won’t believe her. But the monsters are real, and they’re her only family. When scorched hand prints start appearing on doors all over the world, Karou is drawn into a brutal other-worldy war. Who is Karou, and what side is she on?

Everything about this novel is utterly gorgeous. The European setting, the characters- from chimera made of different animal body parts to winged angels- and especially, the writing. Beautifully crafted from the first sentence, I occasionally got lost in the words, but was scared to get too lost in Karou’s world, where there is no exact line between good and evil, and dangerous beings spilled from another world, pulling Karou into their battles.  

Karou, more than anything, desires is to know who she is. She feels like part of her is missing. The story is artfully constructed backwards, so that all is revealed as Karou discovers it- much like a mystery. One must read at least two-thirds of the book before the significance of the title and cover alone are revealed. Even though Karou and the reader don’t know who she is, we still love her. She’s smart, tough, funny, and flawed because nothing of the other world has been explained to her.

I WANT MORE (yes there will be a sequel). By far the best book I’ve read yet this year, and would have definitely been included in the Top Books of 2011 had I read it in time. Seriously, treat yourself and go read this book. 

City of Bones (Cassandra Clare)

Title: City of Bones

Author: Cassandra Clare

Publisher: Simon & Schuster

Length: 485 pages

Rating: 4.5/5

On a night like any other, Clary Fray and her best friend Simon go to the Pandemonium Club in New York City for some dancing. But then Clary witnesses a murder by a few tattooed teenagers, and Simon doesn’t see a thing. Next thing you know, Clary’s mom disappears and Clary is attacked by a huge, creepy demon. Modern New York City isn’t all that it seems as Clary is thrown into the world of Shadowhunters, warriors who rid the world of demons, in a search for her mother. Why can Clary see demons and Downworlders all of a sudden- iosn’t she just an ordinary mundane? Where is her mother and who is this evil Valentine everyone keeps talking about? And why is Jace, Shadowhunter extraordinaire, so hot?

I told you in my review of Clockwork Angel (first in the prequel series to this series) that I would do what was necessary to get my hands on this book. I suffered through almost five CDs (not because they were awful but because I’m incapable of actually paying attention to audio books) before finally flying to Michigan to borrow the book from a friend (okay, full disclosure, I was visiting said friend, CD player in tow, and she just happened to have the book). So while the first hundred pages or so are rather blurry on the details, the rest was pretty awesome!

It’s crucial for me to like the main character of a book. I loved Clary. She’s snarky and funny and just the right amount of clueless (much like Tessa…). When the going gets tough, she rises up to it, and never backs away from a challenge, whether it’s breaking into a hotel full of vampires or not sleeping for 48 hours (or more? Does she ever sleep?).

Clary’s world is completely turned inside out and what’s great for the reader, is that everything we know is turned inside out too. It's set in modern New York. Kinda cool to think of other-worlders running around behind our backs (also creepy, but that’s where Shadowhunters come in).

The Shadowhunters in this book are the coolest teens EVER. Jace, Alec and Isabelle are attractive and pretty much run around New York killing demons without parental supervision. Talk about teen empowerment. Jace is the epitome of awesomeness: he’s brooding, mysterious and great at killing demons and making Clary crazy.

And in case Clary’s world didn’t become crazy enough, things get crazier. I can’t wait to dig into City of Ashes, the second book in the Mortal Instruments series.

Also, movie? Yes please. Can't wait!

Spoiler alert!! Don’t go any further if you haven’t read this book.

Stop reading!

Have you read this book?

Okay, you can keep reading.

What, Star Wars, WHAT?

That’s all. Please tell me it’s a lie.

No, I’m kidding- don’t tell me anything!