comacalmya

At the Sign of the Sugared Plum is a very quick read about a young girl's experiences in London, during the Plague. It's told in the usual Mary Hooper fashion, a lot of attention to detail with a very rich, vivid storyline and a very likeable heroine. Hannah did annoy me at first because she was a very stereotypical, 'fresh from the country' girl, she's very naive and the only things on her mind are getting rid of her freckles and the latest fashions. However, after seeing all the horrors of the Plague - Plague pits, dead and dying lying in the street and being trapped in London - only people with signed papers stating they're healthy can leave, and they aren't cheap - Hannah starts to see how the world really is and she starts to be more like her sister, despite still having a weakness for the latest fashions! The cover is an eye-catching one too - if you look closely at Hannah's eye you can see a skull in it, which I find pretty creepy! There's also a newspaper style background with larger words like 'Plague' and 'Prayers' really standing out. It's a brilliant cover. As I said, the storytelling is magical. There's enough gruesome detail to really get a picture of what it was like there (I swear I smelt a house full of rotting bodies at one point) but not so much that you'd want to hide it from your 13 year old sister. A perfect balance really! I would have liked the book to have been longer so we could have found out what happened afterwards with some of the characters and I'm not sure why this wasn't done, after all, the book is only 163 pages long so another chapter shouldn't have hurt? Review Update: Since writing this review I've learnt that there is a sequel, Petals in the Ashes, which I'll be doing everything I can to get my hands on!

Worldshaker is a Teen Steampunk story of an upper-class boy who falls in love with a girl from the Lower Classes, and the consequences of his actions. Worldshaker is the name of the massive ship that Col lives on, and it's powered by the 'Filthies' below, who the Upper-Classes just assume are little more than animals. Col discovers Riff around the same time that he learns the truth of his World, and together they start a war that will change the lives of everyone onboard. Col is a character that I didn't really like too much at first, same as Riff, but I liked them more and more as the book progressed. The main problem I had with Col was when he realised he loved Riff, and had many different childish daydreams about her, which didn't really reflect on his personality. I think with Riff was that she comes and goes very quickly, so it would have been good to read a chapter or so on her thoughts to connect with her better. The other characters are very colourful and my particular favourites were Col's crazy teacher, Mr Gibber and a girl who we get to know better later in the book, Sephaltina. They were completely crazy! Mr Gibber in particular, who was constantly ranting and raving about immoral angles and various other bad things, when he wasn't whacking desks or himself with his canes. Sephaltina seemed to want to be the perfect partner, wondering if she should turn her head one way or the other and fainting on cue. Some of the other crazy characters were less funny and more horrifying though. Ebinolia, Col's Grandmother, was probably the most mentally disturbed. I think I'll have nightmares of her! The book is quite a slow read though, and I did have to drag myself through some parts. There's a large section dedicated to Col's schooling, which was boring at times, although Mr Gibber kept me entertained! After that section, things do pick up a lot and I really enjoyed the rest of it. The sequel, Liberator, sounds promising so I'm looking forward to reading that!

Will contain spoilers of the first book if you haven't read it yet! As with Deception, the title of Betrayal fits perfectly with the story, which I think is a brilliant idea. The plot is just as strong and made me giggle a lot throughout! My favourite moments are when the characters talk in a different language to each other - and the translations are in the footnotes! The story introduces two new characters, Simon and Lukas, and they're great additions. Simon is the strict father-figure, who has them up late training and eating rather bland food and Lukas is your typical teenage boy, he reminds me of a less-uptight version of Harry. The obvious attraction between Natalie and Lukas made for even more hilarious moments. Harry, and Sara are in this too - but they blame Emma for Coby's death, and want nothing to with her. Emma herself is just as awesome as she was in Deception, but you do have to put up with her thinking about Bennett all the time! Personally, I'd tell him where to go if he chose his Ghostkeeping abilities over me. Bennett has more substance in this but I'm not sure I like him as much as I did in the last book. He's less of a protective, sexy-older-guy figure and more of an asshole, to be honest! There's some great twists and turns too, that kept me guessing right until the very end and the sneak peek of Surrender just made me want the third book even more! Is it December yet?

I originally wasn't going to read Shimmer - I didn't enjoy Radiance much - I found a few plot holes and thought that it was a bit too childish altogether. However I received a copy for review of Shimmer, and decided it would be worth the read - after all, it's pretty short! I'm pleased to say that I made the right decision as the plot, once it gets going, is pretty unique and much stronger than the one in Radiance. Riley's character isn't as irritating and a found myself liking her much more. She reminded me very strongly of a younger Ever. This one follows a tougher subject - the slave trade. I would advise some caution with really young readers as there's a few moments that aren't pretty but I believe the author handles them and the whole subject very well and it seemed very believable. We also get a glimpse of Bodhi's past but he doesn't feature too heavily. I found this particular section rather intriguing and I'd love to know more of his past. As well as that we also see the past of a new character, Rebecca, who's been blinded my rage after her death, trapping people in her bubble. Riley's unassigned task this time is to get to the root of the problem and rescue Buttercup and Bodhi in the process. Thankfully she has help in the shape of Prince Kanta, one of the slaves. If he hadn't have been there the book would centre of Riley banging her fists against a bubble for the entire book and I don't think that would sell nearly as well! Needless to say, I hope this isn't Prince Kanta's last appearance.

This historical novel, set mostly in Spain in the 15th century, follows the journey of two very different characters, whose lives are strangely connected. Zarita is a very spoilt girl who unwittingly causes the execution of Saulo's father. Saulo himself is sent away on a ship, and as he grows up he plots his revenge against Zarita's family. The story is told from both points of view, Zarita tells of the horrors of the Inquisition and Saulo's of his life at sea. With this, the idea of the two different stories should have been really interesting to read about but I found Saulo's half rather boring, and just dragged myself through it. No offense to Saulo but I didn't really want to know about life on a ship when the other tale was of the Inquisition and public punishment, every day more terror! I think this could have quite easily been just one story - Zarita's. I definitely would have enjoyed it more if it had. Zarita's half involves a wicked Step-Mother, the loss of her mother and of course, what it's like to questioned by the Inquisition. Zarita, although spoilt, is a very likeable character for me because she does her best to help others, just like her Mother. When Saulo is sent away after his Father dies she goes out of her way to find his Mother and look after her in her final days. Her character just gets stronger throughout the book. Saulo, on the other hand, I can't really say much about. He's sold for some wine and then spends his next few years on a ship. It seemed like he kept forgetting that he was supposed to be blinded by revenge until it suited the author. The last 150 pages just seemed to get get sillier with some rather ridiculous plot twists and an ending that made me groan aloud, it was so cheesy and sloppily written. I felt like I'd won a 500 mile race to be rewarded with a cheese sandwich. A mouldy one.

I received a copy of this from Bloomsbury and as I hadn't heard if it before, it was pretty intrigued! After seeing other bloggers positive comments I decided to read it as soon as possible, and I'm really glad I did. I couldn't stop reading! I read 100 odd pages before I went to bed and then read the rest of it the next afternoon. You do have some stereotypical elements - main character has stronger powers than everyone else, forbidden love, etc - but I enjoyed them just as much as the rest of the book as they were well written and fit in really well with the story. I enjoyed the potential romance between Bennett and Emma a lot and found myself enjoyably frustrated every time there was a potential kiss and then something else happened! Bennett is a great love interest, all moody but with a sweet side too. The addition of ghosts with actual personalities was really appreciated as there doesn't seem to be many YA ghost books with a real presence of ghosts these days. I loved the little boy with the Tetris obsession the best, he was really sweet. Second favourite had to be the Rake, Although I found it a shame he couldn't be a potential love interest too as I found him rather appealing! Emma herself is one of my favourite main characters, she's really goofy and hilarious when drunk. A particular conversation about catapults had me showing my OH the paragraph! This book does remind me a lot of Hourglass by Myra McEntire, which I think is great as I loved that one too. I'm really looking forward to reading the next book so I can find out what will happen with Emma and Bennett next, and see if her parents turn up, as there were some interesting events that happened at the end of the book...