Bloodspell

***

3 Stars/5

Thanks to Netgalley and Langdon Street Press for giving me this book to review.

Victoria Warrick has always known she is different from everyone at her school but when a boy takes his bullying to far, she somehow but them both in hospital. On her 17^th birthday she is given a journal that belonged to her grandmother which tells her about an ancestor of hers and discovers that she is a witch with dangerous blood powers. Victoria does not know who to trust her familiar or the mysterious Christian, and she has to find a way to control her bloods desires before it destroys all that she is and whose who she cares about.

Bloodspell is a likable YA paranormal novel with has witches, vampires and warlocks, however it did seem at times that it was trying too hard to be like Twilight as there are quite a few similarities between them.

The characters are all well rounded especially Victoria as she comes as a normal and friendly girl. However it was very annoying how Victoria and Christian would back and forth between wanting to be together and thinking they cannot as it would be too dangerous, this happens awful lot in this book.  

While Bloodspell was very predictable, it is an enjoyable book which I would recommend to people who like Twilight and Evermore. 

Blood of Dragons

***

3 Stars/5

Thanks to Edelweiss and Harper Voyager for giving me this book to review.

The young dragons and their misfit keepers are finally settling into Kelsingra, along with Alise and her lover, Captain Leftrin. Reyn and Malta are traveling down river with their sickly baby to see if the Dragons can help, whilst worrying about the welfare of Malta’s brother Selden who has not been seen since setting off on a voyage.  Tintaglia is struggling after receiving wounds from the Chalcedeans who are under orders to bring back Dragons blood in his quest for immortality.  Alise’s estranged husband, Hest has also been caught up in the Dukes quest through his greed for profit at any cost.  We also get to follow the ongoing story of the Keepers of the Birds in Bingtown and Cassarick.

Blood of Dragons is the final book of the Rain Wild Chronicles series and I like this book because I enjoy Robin Hobb’s writing style and stories.  This book follows the steady pacing of the previous books in the series, though it didn’t feel like the final book in the series as there still seemed to be quite a lot of threads left unfinished and I felt that it needs another book after this one to conclude it all.

The author is very good at exploring the characters’ thoughts and motivations, though they tend to be either good or bad, not much in the way of middle ground.  You end up with quite an in depth understanding of each of them, and how they justify their actions.  One minor niggle was as the convenient way in which Hobb dealt with Hest.

I really hope Robin Hobb writes more books set in this universe and especially ones where we find out more about Selden and the Chalcedean Duchess and Malta’s baby’s as he grows up.  I would recommend Blood of Dragons, and the rest of the Rain Wild chronicles to people who have enjoyed Robin Hobb’s other series, and people who like the Earthsea Quartet by Ursula LeGuin.

Black Swan Rising

**

2 Stars/5

Thanks to Netgalley and Bantam for giving me this book to review.

After the bad day of finding out that she is neck deep in debt, jewellery designer Garet James stumbles into an unusual antiques store. The shop keeper commissions her to use her jewellery making skills to open a silver box which has the same swan symbol that is on the deceased mother’s ring. After managing to open the silver box Garet discovers that the world is full of Fey, Vampires and fairy-tale creatures and that she is a Watchtower, a person whose job it is to keep the balance between the humans and magical creatures. Now with the help of a vampire called Will and Oberon, King of the Faeries, Garet must stop the alchemist John Dee from summoning the demons of Despair and Discord, and destroying New York and the world.

Black Swan Rising is an ok urban fantasy book with faeries and vampires, but I found it really to get into, even though there seemed to be lot of elements in it that I should have liked. That pacing of this book is really slow especially the middle as it seemed not much was happening.

I could not get on with any of the characters, even Garet, and I could not really care what happened to them or what happened next. Black Swan Rising is an ok paranormal novel but I wouldn’t recommend it as it was not as good as it could have been. 

Stolen Away

****

4 Stars/5

Eloise Hart had no idea that her family was connected to the world of the Faery until she was abducted by Lord Strahan, the king of the Faery, and was used as a hostage to lure his wife, Eloise’s Aunt Antonia out of hiding. Now Eloise and her best friends Jo and Devin must forge alliances with other Fae to recuse Antonia, including Lucas, a boy who has sworn to protect Eloise and Eldric, who may have feeling for Jo or may be planning to betray them all.  

Stolen Away is a new book by Alyxandra Harvey which has romance, action and Faeries. While I really liked this book, I felt there was something missing but I can’t put my finger on what.

I really like Eloise and Jo as they were both loyal and good friends but are also very different people. However I did feel the romance was lacking, very sudden and did not feel realistic, even though both of the couples had some very romantic moments.

Stolen Away is a very enjoyable YA faery story and I would recommend it to people who like the Fire Spirits series by Samantha Young or the rest of Harvey’s novels. 

Haunting Violet

*****

5 Stars/5

Violet has never believed in ghosts and people who can see them because of helping and living with her charlatan spiritualist mother. However, when Violet, her mother and Colin, an Irish orphan who helps out her mother and Violet has been getting strange feeling for him, visit Lord Jasper’s country estate, Violet keeps seeing a drowned girl everywhere she goes. Now with the help of Colin and her friend Elizabeth have to find out who this girl is and who killed her before they strike again.

Haunting Violet is another brilliant book by Harvey with everything I have grown to love about her work but instead of vampires it has Victorian’s and ghosts. I really like the mystery in this book as it kept me guessing about who the killer was and what was going to happen next.

I really like Violet because she is nice, down to earth and very loyal even when she does not really want to be. I also like the secondary characters as I felt they all had their own individual stories especially Elizabeth and Lord Jasper. I like the romance between Violet and Colin as it is sweet, romantic and had real depth to it.

I love Haunting Violet and I hope that there is another book; I would recommend this to people who liked Alyxandra Harvey’s other books.

Fragments

**

2 Stars/5

Thanks to Netgalley and HarperCollins UK, Children’s for me giving this book to review.

Kira has found a cure for RM but it is not easily accessible as it means using the partials, now she is on a search across the country with Samm, Heron and an unhinged computer expert called Afa for a cure for both the humans and partials as well as answers to who she is and who know about her. Meanwhile back on Long Island, Marcus and the rest of humanity are on the edge of war with the partials, a war which they know they cannot win, will Kira and Samm find the answers before it is too late for both races.

Fragments is the second instalment in the Partials series, which is a different but ok YA dystopia. This story does drag a bit as it focuses too much on the journey to find answers and less on the actual action.

More so in this book than the last I could not connect to any of the characters and did not really care about what happened to them. Also I did not like the love triangle developing between Kira, Samm and Marcus as I am so bored of them in YA books.

Fragments is an ok book and I hope it gets better in the next one. I would recommend this book to people who enjoyed the first book Partials. 

Partials

***

3 Stars/5

The human race is almost extinct, down to only tens of thousands, because of their war with the Partials, engineered organic beings, and RM, the virus which killed almost everyone and still kills every new-born child. 11 years after the war and the almost extinction the humans are living on long island but society is fracturing with no cure in sight and the mandatory pregnancy laws in the hope to produce a child that is immune. Kira is a 16 year old medic who is desperate to find a cure for RM, especially after she finds out that her adoptive sister is pregnant, but is she willing and able to go into New York and capture a living partial in time to save the human race.

Partials is a likable YA dystopian novel with an interesting plot but suffers from being rather slow as it focus a bit too much on science and not as much on the action.

While I liked Kira as she is very focused and really believes in what she is doing, I just could not feel any connect to her.  Also apart from Samm and Marcus I felt like all of the secondary blurred together. It also felt like there should be more romance in this book than there actually was.

This book has an interesting twist which I can’t wait to explore in Fragments even though it was a bit predictable. I would recommend Partials to people who like dystopian book whether adult or young adult.