Insurgent, by Veronica Roth

Format: Kindle Edition, 545 pages

Published: May 1, 2012

Publisher: HarperCollins Children’s Books

Back cover blurb:

One choice can transform you—or it can destroy you. But every choice has consequences, and as unrest surges in the factions all around her, Tris Prior must continue trying to save those she loves—and herself—while grappling with haunting questions of grief and forgiveness, identity and loyalty, politics and love.Tris’s initiation day should have been marked by celebration and victory with her chosen faction; instead, the day ended with unspeakable horrors. War now looms as conflict between the factions and their ideologies grows. And in times of war, sides must be chosen, secrets will emerge, and choices will become even more irrevocable—and even more powerful. Transformed by her own decisions but also by haunting grief and guilt, radical new discoveries, and shifting relationships, Tris must fully embrace her Divergence, even if she does not know what she may lose by doing so.

New York Times bestselling author Veronica Roth’s much-anticipated second book of the dystopian Divergent series is another intoxicating thrill ride of a story, rich with hallmark twists, heartbreaks, romance, and powerful insights about human nature.

My review:

Wow! Veronica Roth never ceases to amaze me, especially given her young age. Insurgent is an emotional ride, and at times I had to put it down because the heartfail got a bit much. I love Tobias/Four, but sometimes I just wanted to shake him for being so clueless. Typical teenage boy, really. This book is missing the delicious UST of the first because they have become a couple, yet their relationship is seriously tested by communication issues right to the end.

Tris, although only 16, seems to get stronger as she fights on bravely to find what truth there is left in their world. I was genuinely afraid for her most of the story, but she really is a fantastic heroine. Regardless of heartfail, I could not put down the last third of this book. That ending was amazing, and I cannot wait for book three (which Roth is very amusingly calling Detergent as she is writing it). This series is a must-buy and I cannot recommend it enough!

My rating: 5/5

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• Free Four: Tobias Tells the Story, by Veronica Roth (mrsaubergine.wordpress.com)
• Divergent, by Veronica Roth (mrsaubergine.wordpress.com)

Sacrificial Magic, by Stacia Kane

Format: Kindle Edition, 370 pages

Published: March 27, 2012

Publisher: Del Rey

Back cover blurb:

When Chess Putnam is ordered by an infamous crime boss—who also happens to be her drug dealer—to use her powers as a witch to solve a grisly murder involving dark magic, she knows she must rise to the challenge. Adding to the intensity: Chess’s boyfriend, Terrible, doesn’t trust her, and Lex, the son of a rival crime lord, is trying to reignite the sparks between him and Chess.Plus there’s the little matter of Chess’s real job as a ghost hunter for the Church of Real Truth, investigating reports of a haunting at a school in the heart of Downside. Someone seems to be taking a crash course in summoning the dead—and if Chess doesn’t watch her back, she may soon be joining their ranks.

As Chess is drawn into a shadowy world of twisted secrets and dark violence, it soon becomes clear that she’s not going to emerge from its depths without making the ultimate sacrifice.

My review:

Another great installment with lots happening, but this time I could easily see whodunit from early on, which was a little disappointing. Still, there were plenty of other twists and lots of creepy ghosts and interesting new characters with ulterior motives.

Chess’s drug problems seemed to be worse, despite her supposedly happy relationship with Terrible, and then the serious heartfail in the middle almost had me not wanting to read on. However, I needed to make sure Terrible was all right so I persisted. He says just the right things sometimes, and the ending was just lovely. It will be interesting to see how the Chess/Terrible/Lex triangle evolves in the next book, given Lex’s new role. Luckily, we don’t have to wait very long for book five, out next month.

My rating: 5/5

Magic Bites, by Ilona Andrews

Format: Audiobook

Published: March 27, 2007

Publisher: Audible

Back cover blurb:

Atlanta would be a nice place to live, if it weren’t for magic…

One moment magic dominates, and cars stall and guns fail. The next, technology takes over and the defensive spells no longer protect your house from monsters. Here skyscrapers topple under onslaught of magic; werebears and werehyenas prowl through the ruined streets; and the Masters of the Dead, necromancers driven by their thirst of knowledge and wealth, pilot blood-crazed vampires with their minds.

In this world lives Kate Daniels. Kate likes her sword a little too much and has a hard time controlling her mouth. The magic in her blood makes her a target, and she spent most of her life hiding in plain sight. But when Kate’s guardian is murdered, she must choose to do nothing and remain safe or to pursue his preternatural killer. Hiding is easy, but the right choice is rarely easy…

My review:

Meh. Another first book where I lost interest because of too much world-building. I’m told the series improves – and Curran becomes hotter – as it goes on, but at the moment I’m in no hurry to read the rest. Also, the audiobook was OK, but it annoyed me greatly that the narrator pronounced “plait” as “plate”. Grr!

My rating: 3/5

A Test Of Mettle, by Kevin Hearne

Format: ebook

Published: December 2, 2011. Available from the author’s website:

http://www.kevinhearne.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/A-Test-of-Mettle.pdf

Back cover blurb:

This wee story, told from Granuaile’s point of view, takes place concurrently with the events of HAMMERED, book three of The Iron Druid Chronicles.

My review:

A nice little story allowing us a glimpse at what Granuaile is up to while Atticus is away fighting Thor. We get to find out a bit more about her and her upbringing, which is intriguing, and of course there are the usual hilarious Hearne lines and in-jokes. I particularly liked: “On a Creep Scale from Hello Kitty to Cthulhu, I award it a Freddy Krueger.”

My rating: 3/5

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Nice Girls Don’t Have Fangs, by Molly Harper

Format: Kindle Edition

Published: March 31, 2009

Publisher: Pocket

Back cover blurb:

Maybe it was the Shenanigans gift certificate that put her over the edge. When children’s librarian and self-professed nice girl Jane Jameson is fired by her beastly boss and handed twenty-five dollars in potato skins instead of a severance check, she goes on a bender that’s sure to become Half Moon Hollow legend. On her way home, she’s mistaken for a deer, shot, and left for dead. And thanks to the mysterious stranger she met while chugging neon-colored cocktails, she wakes up with a decidedly unladylike thirst for blood.

Jane is now the latest recipient of a gift basket from the Newly Undead Welcoming Committee, and her life-after-lifestyle is taking some getting used to. Her recently deceased favorite aunt is now her ghostly roommate. She has to fake breathing and endure daytime hours to avoid coming out of the coffin to her family. She’s forced to forgo her favorite down-home Southern cooking for bags of O negative. Her relationship with her sexy, mercurial vampire sire keeps running hot and cold. And if all that wasn’t enough, it looks like someone in Half Moon Hollow is trying to frame her for a series of vampire murders. What’s a nice undead girl to do?

My review:

This book was a laugh riot from start to finish. The snark was dialled right up to 11, and Jane made me snicker out loud so many times I lost count.

Set in a world very much like that of Sookie Stackhouse, where vampires are out in the open and drink synthetic blood products, children’s librarian Jane finds herself unemployed and undead all in one day, the latter thanks to a drunken hunter who mistakes her for a deer. She is “saved” by the hunky Gabriel, about whom I wish to know much, much more. He is a bit like Sookie’s Bill, a civil war-era gentleman who is deliciously naive in the modern manner of speaking (like another favourite character of mine, Leif in the Iron Druid series) but loves talking about books and knows how to please a lady, if you know what I mean.

Jane, though, is a bit of a walking disaster, having gained herself a nasty enemy on top of having a dysfunctional family and a best friend with a new, “different” girlfriend. The potential for humour is endless with material like that, and Harper capitalises at every turn. This was very close to a five-cupcake read for me, and only isn’t because I found the denouement a little unsatisfying and rushed. However, I’m very eager to read the sequels and find out more about yummy Gabriel.

My rating: 4.5/5

A sneak peek at Insurgent

Pretty British cover

Entertainment Weekly has given us an exclusive excerpt from the highly anticipated Divergent sequel, Insurgent, due out May 1!

I loved Divergent so much, and can’t wait for my pre-ordered copy to hit my Kindle! Read on for the teaser

View this document on Scribd

Touch the Dark, by Karen Chance

Format: Kindle Edition, 320 pages

Published: March 29, 2007 (first published June 6, 2006)

Publisher: Roc

Back cover blurb:

Like any sensible girl, Cassie tries to avoid vampires. But when the bloodsucking Mafioso she escaped three years ago finds Cassie again with revenge in mind, she’s forced to turn to the vampire Senate for protection.

The undead senators won’t help her for nothing, and Cassie finds herself working with one of their most powerful members, a dangerously seductive master vampire – and the price he demands may be more than Cassie is willing to pay.

My review:

Slow start, which made me put it down a few times, but once the running stopped and the dialogue began I was gripped by Cassie Palmer’s world. She is such a kickass heroine, and being surrounded by so many smoking hot men… what’s not to like?

Much of this book is world-building, which is necessary with such a complicated plot. I loved the way she incorporated famous historical figures into her vampire backstory; in my mind I went “well, that explained it – of course they were vampires!” Historical elements mix with vampires, mages, seers and weres but Chance writes so well and with such perfect pace that this complex story carries you along easily to the climax. That ending, though, only hints at what is to come, so it’s a good thing I have the next book on my Kindle ready to go!

I suspect Mircea may become one of my new fictional boyfriends. I’ll have to let you know after I read the next one. UF + UST = GAH!

My rating: 4/5

Hammered, by Kevin Hearne

Format: Kindle Edition, 336 pages

Published: July 5, 2011

Publisher: Del Rey

Back cover blurb:

Thor, the Norse god of thunder, is worse than a blowhard and a bully—he’s ruined countless lives and killed scores of innocents. After centuries, Viking vampire Leif Helgarson is ready to get his vengeance, and he’s asked his friend Atticus O’Sullivan, the last of the Druids, to help take down this Norse nightmare.One survival strategy has worked for Atticus for more than two thousand years: stay away from the guy with the lightning bolts. But things are heating up in Atticus’s home base of Tempe, Arizona. There’s a vampire turf war brewing, and Russian demon hunters who call themselves the Hammers of God are running rampant. Despite multiple warnings and portents of dire consequences, Atticus and Leif journey to the Norse plain of Asgard, where they team up with a werewolf, a sorcerer, and an army of frost giants for an epic showdown against vicious Valkyries, angry gods, and the hammer-wielding Thunder Thug himself.

My review:

Slower, more serious and downright sad in places, but still another great effort from Mr Hearne. The first third progressed really slowly for me, but once Atticus returned to Tempe and Jesus arrived on the scene it was all action until the amazing end.Although there were many sad parts, especially as the men out to kill Thor told their stories as part of their male bonding, and at the final showdown, the usual humour was still evident. Jesus – who looked like the Old Spice guy – had some great lines, and I loved Atticus trying to explain to Leif about “squeeing” in the presence of Neil Gaiman.

Leif is fabulous, as always, and when he told his story I really felt for him. Of course when he engages in word play with Atticus he is at his best. Oberon wasn’t in this book so much, but his riff on “bacon lattes” and the R&D department at Starbucks had me laughing out loud. Hearne also has a wonderfully inventive mind for rude epithets – I particlarly liked “monstrous f*ckpuddle”.

The ending had a chilling twist and, as the next book is called Tricked, I fear Atticus may now be in some serious trouble. I hope Leif will return to help him.

My rating: 4.5/5

City of Ashes, by Cassandra Clare

Format: Kindle Edition, 464 pages

Published: July 5, 2010 (first published March 25, 2008)

Publisher: Walker

Back cover blurb:

Clary Fray just wishes that her life would go back to normal. But what’s normal when you’re a demon-slaying Shadowhunter, your mother is in a magically induced coma, and you can suddenly see Downworlders like werewolves, vampires, and faeries? If Clary left the world of the Shadowhunters behind, it would mean more time with her best friend, Simon, who’s becoming more than a friend. But the Shadowhunting world isn’t ready to let her go — especially her handsome, infuriating, newfound brother, Jace. And Clary’s only chance to help her mother is to track down rogue Shadowhunter Valentine, who is probably insane, certainly evil — and also her father.

To complicate matters, someone in New York City is murdering Downworlder children. Is Valentine behind the killings — and if he is, what is he trying to do? When the second of the Mortal Instruments, the Soul-Sword, is stolen, the terrifying Inquisitor arrives to investigate and zooms right in on Jace. How can Clary stop Valentine if Jace is willing to betray everything he believes in to help their father?

In this breathtaking sequel to City of Bones, Cassandra Clare lures her readers back into the dark grip of New York City’s Downworld, where love is never safe and power becomes the deadliest temptation.

My review:

I liked the story, and was probably gripped by it more than the first book, but it was put-downable, especially in the first half. So that means it wasn’t a five-cupcake read. The Jace/Clary/Simon love triangle didn’t have enough resolution for me (hopefully in the next book it will be revealed they aren’t really what we are led to believe), but the main plotline was satisfying and the action well-written. In my mind the Inquisitor seemed very, very similar to Dolores Umbridge – but this story did start out as HP fanfiction, so maybe that’s why. I did enjoy it, though, and will be reading the next book just to see what happens when and if Clary’s mother wakes up.

My rating: 4.5/5

Black Wings, by Christina Henry

Format: Kindle Edition

Published: November 30, 2010

Publisher: Ace

Back cover blurb:

As an Agent of Death, Madeline Black is responsible for escorting the souls of the dearly departed to the afterlife. It’s a 24/7 job with a lousy benefits package. 

Maddy’s position may come with magical powers and an impressive wingspan, but it doesn’t pay the bills. And then there are her infuriating boss, tenant woes, and a cranky, popcorn-loving gargoyle to contend with.

Things start looking up, though, when tall, dark, and handsome Gabriel Angeloscuro agrees to rent the empty apartment in Maddy’s building. It’s probably just a coincidence that as soon as he moves in demons appear on the front lawn. But when an unholy monster is unleashed upon the streets of Chicago, Maddy discovers powers she never knew she possessed. Powers linked to a family legacy of tarnished halos.

Powers that place her directly between the light of Heaven and the fires of Hell…

My review:

There was a lot going on with this book, and I really wanted to like it more than I ultimately did. The first half was really good. Making Maddie an agent who escorts recently departed souls to The Door is an intriguing premise, although I was a bit disappointed that she didn’t seem to know what was on the other side. If I was an agent I’d want to know if I was leading people to Heaven or Hell… actually, I probably would try to stop the deaths happening in the first place, since I knew they’d happen so far in advance. But that’s probably not good for population control.

Anyway, the storyline started off well and Maddie was instantly likeable, but by about half way I realised there wasn’t going to be a happy ending for her and Gabriel, and that was all I really wanted. The big fight at the end was over quickly with several loose ends still untied, which makes me think it is the beginning of a series. I have so many unanswered questions: Why is Lucifer a good guy? Who is JB’s mother and what is he, angel or demon? Why hasn’t Maddie asked? And shouldn’t the wards around her house prevent Antares from getting so close to her?

By the time I finished reading I was unsatisfied, so my rating dropped from four cupcakes to three. I’m not sure I will bother buying the next in the series, especially if Maddie and Gabriel can’t get it on.

My rating: 3/5