Friday 9 December 2016
Thursday 8 December 2016
Book Review: Ashen Winter - Mike Mullin
Author: Mike Mullin
Publication Date: October 16th 2012
Publisher: Tanglewood Press
Pages: 594
Link to Goodreads: Here
Part of a Series: Book 2 of Ashfall
Plot: It’s been over six months since the eruption of the Yellowstone supervolcano. Alex and Darla have been staying with Alex’s relatives, trying to cope with the new reality of the primitive world so vividly portrayed in Ashfall, the first book in this series. It’s also been six months of waiting for Alex’s parents to return from Iowa. Alex and Darla decide they can wait no longer and must retrace their journey into Iowa to find and bring back Alex’s parents to the tenuous safety of Illinois. But the landscape they cross is even more perilous than before, with life-and-death battles for food and power between the remaining communities. When the unthinkable happens, Alex must find new reserves of strength and determination to survive.
Reading Period: May 6, 2016 - May 12, 2016
Book Review: A Bond of Venom and Magic - Karen Tomlinson
Author: Karen Tomlinson
Publication Date: October 14th 2016
Publisher: Smashwords Edition
Pages: 324
Link to Goodreads: Here
Part of a Series: Book 1 of The Goddess and The Guardians
Plot: The Wraith Lord is hunting; his prize, the key to unleashing darkness and Chaos upon the eight Kingdoms.
For Diamond Gillon the war raging in the south seems a remote danger until her home is brutally attacked. Having lost everything she holds dear, Diamond is catapulted into a terrifying new world in which legendary beasts arise, magic is condemned and half blood fae, like her, have no rights. Despite her growing feelings for her saviour, Commander Hugo Casimir, he remains a paradox – not only is he a heartless killer, he is owned by the cruel immortal fae queen; a queen who will murder her own people for magic.
As Diamond’s circumstances become ever more perilous she is drawn deeper into Hugo’s world and discovers the lengths to which he will go to save what he holds dear. Will Hugo become her friend, her protector, or – an enemy not worthy of her trust?
A Bond of Venom and Magic is a tale of two people bound by magic and secrets, but trapped in the complexities of love and betrayal. It is the beginning of an epic journey, one that will test Diamond’s resolve and determination to battle an evil that threatens not only her world but that of Eternity, the land of The Goddess and The Guardians.
Reading period: November 18, 2016 - December 08, 2016
Monday 25 April 2016
Book Review: Ashfall - Mike Mullin
Author: Mike Mullin
Publication Date: October 11th 2011
Publisher: Tanglewood Press
Pages: 476
Link to Goodreads: Here
Part of a Series: Book 1 of Ashfall
Plot: Under the bubbling hot springs and geysers of Yellowstone National Park is a supervolcano. Most people don't know it's there. The caldera is so large that it can only be seen from a plane or satellite. It just could be overdue for an eruption, which would change the landscape and climate of our planet.
For Alex, being left alone for the weekend means having the freedom to play computer games and hang out with his friends without hassle from his mother. Then the Yellowstone supervolcano erupts, plunging his hometown into a nightmare of darkness, ash, and violence. Alex begins a harrowing trek to search for his family and finds help in Darla, a travel partner he meets along the way. Together they must find the strength and skills to survive and outlast an epic disaster.
Reading Period: April 08, 2016 - April 16, 2016
Sunday 10 April 2016
Book Review: Glass Sword - Victoria Aveyard
Author: Victoria Aveyard
Publication Date: February 9th 2016
Publisher: HarperTeen
Pages: 444
Link to Goodreads: Here
Part of a Series: Book 2 of Red Queen
Plot: If there’s one thing Mare Barrow knows, it’s that she’s different.
Mare Barrow’s blood is red—the color of common folk—but her Silver ability, the power to control lightning, has turned her into a weapon that the royal court tries to control.
The crown calls her an impossibility, a fake, but as she makes her escape from Maven, the prince—the friend—who betrayed her, Mare uncovers something startling: she is not the only one of her kind.
Pursued by Maven, now a vindictive king, Mare sets out to find and recruit other Red-and-Silver fighters to join in the struggle against her oppressors.
But Mare finds herself on a deadly path, at risk of becoming exactly the kind of monster she is trying to defeat.
Will she shatter under the weight of the lives that are the cost of rebellion? Or have treachery and betrayal hardened her forever?
The electrifying next installment in the Red Queen series escalates the struggle between the growing rebel army and the blood-segregated world they’ve always known—and pits Mare against the darkness that has grown in her soul.
Reading Period: March 04, 2016 - March 24, 2016
Saturday 9 April 2016
Book Review: Morning Star - Pierce Brown
Author: Pierce Brown
Publication Date: February 9th 2016
Publisher: Del Rey
Pages: 524
Link to Goodreads: Here
Part of a Series: Book 3 of Red Rising
Plot: Darrow would have lived in peace, but his enemies brought him war. The Gold overlords demanded his obedience, hanged his wife, and enslaved his people. But Darrow is determined to fight back. Risking everything to transform himself and breach Gold society, Darrow has battled to survive the cutthroat rivalries that breed Society's mightiest warriors, climbed the ranks, and waited patiently to unleash the revolution that will tear the hierarchy apart from within.
Finally, the time has come.
But devotion to honor and hunger for vengeance run deep on both sides. Darrow and his comrades-in-arms face powerful enemies without scruple or mercy. Among them are some Darrow once considered friends. To win, Darrow will need to inspire those shackled in darkness to break their chains, unmake the world their cruel masters have built, and claim a destiny too long denied - and too glorious to surrender.
Reading Period: March 24, 2016 - April 03, 2016
Thursday 24 March 2016
Book Review: Forget Tomorrow - Pintip Dunn
Author: Pintip Dunn
Publication Date: November 3rd 2 015
Publisher: Entangled: Teen
Pages: 400
Link to Goodreads: Here
Part of a Series: Book 1 of Forget Tomorrow
Plot: Imagine a world where your destiny has already been decided…by your future self.
It’s Callie’s seventeenth birthday and, like everyone else, she’s eagerly awaiting her vision―a memory sent back in time to sculpt each citizen into the person they’re meant to be. A world-class swimmer. A renowned scientist.
Or in Callie’s case, a criminal.
In her vision, she sees herself murdering her gifted younger sister. Before she can process what it means, Callie is arrested and placed in Limbo―a prison for those destined to break the law. With the help of her childhood crush, Logan, a boy she hasn’t spoken to in five years, she escapes the hellish prison.
But on the run from her future, as well as the government, Callie sets in motion a chain of events that she hopes will change her fate. If not, she must figure out how to protect her sister from the biggest threat of all.
Callie herself
Reading Period: February 24, 2016 - March 03, 2016
Thursday 25 February 2016
Book Review: Uglies - Scott Westerfeld
Author: Scott Westerfeld
Publication Date: February 8th 2005
Publisher: Simon Pulse
Pages: 425
Link to Goodreads: Here
Part of a Series: Book 1 of the Uglies
Plot: Tally is about to turn sixteen, and she can't wait. In just a few weeks she'll have the operation that will turn her from a repellent ugly into a stunning pretty. And as a pretty, she'll be catapulted into a high-tech paradise where her only job is to have fun.
But Tally's new friend Shay isn't sure she wants to become a pretty. 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 a choice: find her friend and turn her in, or never turn pretty at all. Tally's choice will change her world forever...
Reading Period: February 14, 2016 - February 25, 2016
Thursday 4 February 2016
Book Review: The 100 - Kass Morgan
Author: Kass Morgan
Publication Date: September 3rd 2013
Publisher: Little, Brown and Company
Pages: 323
Link to Goodreads: Here
Part of a Series: Book 1 of the Hundred Series
Plot: No one has set foot on Earth in centuries -- until now.
Ever since a devastating nuclear war, humanity has lived on spaceships far above Earth's radioactive surface. Now, one hundred juvenile delinquents -- considered expendable by society -- are being sent on a dangerous mission: to recolonize the planet. It could be their second chance at life...or it could be a suicide mission.
CLARKE was arrested for treason, though she's haunted by the memory of what she really did. WELLS, the chancellor's son, came to Earth for the girl he loves -- but will she ever forgive him? Reckless BELLAMY fought his way onto the transport pod to protect his sister, the other half of the only pair of siblings in the universe. And GLASS managed to escape back onto the ship, only to find that life there is just as dangerous as she feared it would be on Earth.
Confronted with a savage land and haunted by secrets from their pasts, the hundred must fight to survive. They were never meant to be heroes, but they may be mankind's last hope.
Reading Period: February 1, 2016 - February 2, 2016
Sunday 31 January 2016
Book Review: Winter - Marissa Meyer
Author: Marissa Meyer
Publication Date: November 10th 2015
Publisher: Feiwel & Friends
Pages: 824
Link to Goodreads: Here
Part of a Series: Book 4 of the Lunar Chronicles
Plot: Princess Winter is admired by the Lunar people for her grace and kindness, and despite the scars that mar her face, her beauty is said to be even more breathtaking than that of her stepmother, Queen Levana.
Winter despises her stepmother, and knows Levana won’t approve of her feelings for her childhood friend—the handsome palace guard, Jacin. But Winter isn’t as weak as Levana believes her to be and she’s been undermining her stepmother’s wishes for years. Together with the cyborg mechanic, Cinder, and her allies, Winter might even have the power to launch a revolution and win a war that’s been raging for far too long.
Can Cinder, Scarlet, Cress, and Winter defeat Levana and find their happily ever afters?
Reading Period: January 04, 2016 - January 08, 2016
Saturday 30 January 2016
Book Review: Cress - Marissa Meyer
Author: Marissa Meyer
Publication Date: February 4th 2014
Publisher: Feiwel & Friends
Pages: 550
Link to Goodreads: Here
Part of a Series: Book 3 of the Lunar Chronicles
Plot: Even in the future. there are damsels in distress...
In the third installment of the Lunar chronicles, Cress, having risked everything to warn Cinder of Queen Levana's evil plan, has a slight problem. She's been imprisoned on a satellite since childhood and has only ever had her netscreens as company. All that screen time has made Cress a great hacker. Unfortunately, she's just received orders from Levana to track down Cinder and her handsome accomplice.
When a daring rescue of Cress involving Cinder, Captain Thorne, Scarlet, and Wolf goes awry, the group is separated. Cress finally has her freedom, but it comes as a high price. Meanwhile, Levana will let nothing prevent her marriage to emperor Kai. Cress, Scarlet and Cinder may not have signed up to save the world, but they may be the only hope the world has.
Reading Period: December 27, 2015 - December 29, 2015
Book Review - The Game of Lives - James Dashner
Author: James Dashner
Publication Date: November 17th 2015
Publisher: Delacorte Books
Pages: 352
Link to Goodreads: Here
Part of a Series: Book 3 of the Mortality Doctine
Plot: Michael used to live to game.
Now the games he was playing have become all too real. Only weeks ago, Sinking into the Sleep was fun. The VirtNet combined the most cutting-edge technology and the most sophisticated gaming for a full mind-body experience. And it was Michael’s passion. But now every time Michael Sinks, he risks his life.
The games are over. The VirtNet has become a world of deadly consequences, and Kaine grows stronger by the day. The Mortality Doctrine—Kaine’s master plan—has nearly been realized, and little by little the line separating the virtual from the real is blurring. If Kaine succeeds, it will mean worldwide cyber domination. And it looks like Michael and his friends are the only ones who can put the monster back in the box—if Michael can figure out who his friends really are.
Reading Period: January 13, 2016 - January 16, 2016
Friday 29 January 2016
Book Review: The Rules of Thoughts - James Dashner
Author: James Dashner
Publication Date: August 26th 2014
Publisher: Delacorte Books
Pages: 304
Link to Goodreads: Here
Part of a Series: Book 2 of the Mortality Doctine
Plot: Michael completed the Path.What he found at the end turned everything he’d ever known about his life—and the world—completely upside down.
He barely survived. But it was the only way VirtNet Security knew to find the cyber-terrorist Kaine—and to make the Sleep safe for gamers once again. And, the truth Michael discovered about Kaine is more complex than they anticipated, and more terrifying than even the worst of their fears.
Kaine is a tangent, a computer program that has become sentient. And Michael’s completing the Path was the first stage in turning Kaine’s master plan, the Mortality Doctrine, into a reality.
The Mortality Doctrine will populate Earth entirely with human bodies harboring tangent minds. Any gamer who sinks into the VirtNet risks coming out with a tangent intelligence in control of their body.
And the takeover has already begun.
Reading Period: October 15, 2015 - October 20, 2015
Saturday 23 January 2016
Book review: The Eye of Minds - James Dashner
Author: James Dashner
Publication Date: October 8th 2013
Publisher: Delacorte Books for Young Readers
Pages: 308
Link to Goodreads: Here
Part of a Series: Book 1 of the Mortality Doctrine
Plot: Michael is a gamer. And like most gamers, he almost spends more time on the VirtNet than in the actual world. The VirtNet offers total mind and body immersion, and it’s addictive. Thanks to technology, anyone with enough money can experience fantasy worlds, risk their life without the chance of death, or just hang around with Virt-friends. And the more hacking skills you have, the more fun. Why bother following the rules when most of them are dumb, anyway?
But some rules were made for a reason. Some technology is too dangerous to fool with. And recent reports claim that one gamer is going beyond what any gamer has done before: he’s holding players hostage inside the VirtNet. The effects are horrific—the hostages have all been declared brain-dead. Yet the gamer’s motives are a mystery.
The government knows that to catch a hacker, you need a hacker.
And they’ve been watching Michael. They want him on their team. But the risk is enormous. If he accepts their challenge, Michael will need to go off the VirtNet grid. There are back alleys and corners in the system human eyes have never seen and predators he can’t even fathom—and there’s the possibility that the line between game and reality will be blurred forever.
Reading Period: August 17, 2015 - August 18, 2015
Review
Thursday 14 January 2016
Book Review: Scarlet - Marissa Meyer
Author: Marissa Meyer
Publication Date: February 5th 2013
Publisher: Feiwel & Friends
Pages: 464
Link to Goodreads: Here
Part of a Series: Book 2 of the Lunar Chronicles
Plot: Cinder, the cyborg mechanic, returns in the second thrilling installment of the bestselling Lunar Chronicles. She's trying to break out of prison--even though if she succeeds, she'll be the Commonwealth's most wanted fugitive.
Halfway around the world, Scarlet Benoit's grandmother is missing. It turns out there are many things Scarlet doesn't know about her grandmother or the grave danger she has lived in her whole life. When Scarlet encounters Wolf, a street fighter who may have information as to her grandmother's whereabouts, she is loath to trust this stranger, but is inexplicably drawn to him, and he to her.
As Scarlet and Wolf unravel one mystery, they encounter another when they meet Cinder. Now, all of them must stay one step ahead of the vicious Lunar Queen Levana, who will do anything for the handsome Prince Kai to become her husband, her king, her prisoner.
Reading Period: October 10, 2015 - October 14, 2015
Friday 8 January 2016
Book Review: Illuminae - A. Kaufman & J. Kristoff
Authors: Amie Kaufman & Jay Kristoff
Publication Date: October 20th 2015
Publisher: Knopf Books for Young Readers
Pages: 599
Link to Goodreads: Here
Part of a Series: Book 1 of the Illuminae Files
Plot: This morning, Kady thought breaking up with Ezra was the hardest thing she’d have to do.
This afternoon, her planet was invaded.
The year is 2575, and two rival megacorporations are at war over a planet that’s little more than an ice-covered speck at the edge of the universe. Too bad nobody thought to warn the people living on it. With enemy fire raining down on them, Kady and Ezra—who are barely even talking to each other—are forced to fight their way onto an evacuating fleet, with an enemy warship in hot pursuit.
But their problems are just getting started. A deadly plague has broken out and is mutating, with terrifying results; the fleet's AI, which should be protecting them, may actually be their enemy; and nobody in charge will say what’s really going on. As Kady hacks into a tangled web of data to find the truth, it's clear only one person can help her bring it all to light: the ex-boyfriend she swore she'd never speak to again.
Told through a fascinating dossier of hacked documents—including emails, schematics, military files, IMs, medical reports, interviews, and more—Illuminae is the first book in a heart-stopping, high-octane trilogy about lives interrupted, the price of truth, and the courage of everyday heroes.
Reading Period: December 04, 2015 - January 03, 2016
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