Review for The Iron Witch by Karen Mahoney

Donna Underwood isn’t your typical teenage girl, she knows secrets, secrets about magic, other realms, secret societies and faeries and to top it off when she was a kid she was in a freak attack with a fey monster leaving her with mangled hands and arms and a dead father. After excruciating magical treatments Donna’s arms are left healed with Iron tattoo’s, giving her inhuman strength and a powerful iron enhanced weapon against the evil wood elves that attacked her and her father. So when the fey start kidnapping the people Donna loves and replacing them with faerie doppelgangers Donna knows it’s up to her to save them, and so with the help of gorgeous half faerie half human Xan Donna sets off to put an end to the evil wood elves who have haunted her nightmares all of her life even if it costs her the ultimate betrayal… I’ve read a few faerie books and I have to say that none of them have really impressed me. I was pretty much ready to just accept that maybe faeries weren’t for me when I heard about The Iron Witch. It sounded completely original and not like any other fey books I’ve read with the alchemist element thrown in and so I decided to give it a go. The Iron Witch had me intrigued pretty much straight away. I’m a sucker for all things magical so the alchemist part of the story really interested me and I loved how Karen Mahoney connected it in with a faerie world. The books fairly short but it packs a punch and for a debut novel to a brand new series it definitely has me wanting to know more about this world. Karen Mahoney answers just enough questions to leave you closing the book satisfied but at the same time has developed this world that has so much potential that you can’t help but wonder what’s going to happen next. As for characters I really loved Xan from the moment I met him but that’s not to say that I didn’t like Donna’s best friend Navin too. Although the romance was fairly limited in The Iron Witch I can definitely see a love triangle developing in future books and I have a feeling that Donna won’t be the only one torn between the boys! I found Donna to be a really interesting lead character. Her Iron tattoos and the abilities that come with them fascinated me and was a really original concept to the story. She was a strong, clever heroine and I especially enjoyed reading her journal entries as they really gave an insight into how Donna was feeling and I felt like I got to know her a lot better during that time. I can’t wait to learn more about her and the alchemists and their magic in future books. Overall I would recommend The Iron Witch to fey fans looking for a new take on the faerie worlds they’ve come to know and love and even to those none faerie lovers like me there’s still an enchanting, dark, new world to discover making The Iron Witch an enjoyable read for everyone. My Rating 3.5/5 stars ***1/2 Thanks go to Random House for sending me this book to review

And the winner is…

Delirium- Sally Bolingbroke Matched- Sonya M

Congratulations winners! I have sent an email to both of you, you will have 48 hours to reply else another winner will be chosen. I’d just like to say a HUGE thank you to everyone who’s entered this giveaway and to who left me comments wishing me a happy birthday- I had a lovely day. This giveaway was hugely successful and has bumped me up to 347 followers so to say thank you I will soon be hosting a 300/350 maybe? Follower giveaway so stay tuned for that and until next time happy reading! Jess x

My 21st Birthday Giveaway!

Hi guys! As some of you may know it’s my 21st birthday this Sunday and to celebrate I’m going to be giving away 2 arcs of 2 of my favourite books Delirium by Lauren Oliver and Matched by Ally Condie. Want to enter? Of course you do! So let’s get on to the important stuff ^_^

WHICH FUTURE WILL YOU CHOOSE?

To find out more about Delirium read my review here

To find out more about Matched read my review here

Rules * Open Internationally * Followers of this blog only * Contest ends 25th January 2011 * Two winners will be chosen by random.org (unless you’re lucky enough to win both) * The winner will be contacted via e-mail, and will be given 48 hours to respond. Otherwise, a new winner will be drawn * Your details will only be used if you win Please note before you enter that these are Advance reader copies and are not the finished product. Now for your chance to enter please fill in the form, good luck! This giveaway is now CLOSED and winners have been announced here

Review for Other Words For Love by Lorraine Zago Rosenthal

"When an unexpected inheritance enables Ari to transfer to an elite Manhattan prep school, she makes a wealthy new friend, Leigh. Leigh introduces Ari to the glamorous side of New York--and to her gorgeous cousin, Blake. Ari doesn't think she stands a chance, but amazingly, Blake asks her out. As their romance heats up, they find themselves involved in an intense, consuming relationship. Ari's family worries that she is losing touch with the important things in life, like family, hard work, and planning for the future. When misfortune befalls Blake's family, he pulls away, and Ari's world drains of color. As she struggles to get over the breakup, Ari must finally ask herself: were their feelings true love . . . or something else?" Gosh…Where to start with this book? Love is not a strong enough word to describe how I feel about it. Ok let me start off by saying any girl who’s ever been in love should read this book and if you’re going through a break up- specially if it’s with your first love- this is the book for you. Reading this book was kind of therapeutic for me. Lorraine Zago Rosenthal captures the ups and downs of being in love so perfectly and describes them so honestly in her writing. From start to finish it was like reading one of my own diaries. I’ve never felt so personally connected to a character as I have with Ari. When she was happy I felt that happiness and when she was sad it was as though somebody had ripped my own heart out. I understood and connected with her on a level I never have with a character before showing what a powerful debut novelist Lorraine Zago Rosenthal is. Other Words For Love is a very character driven book. Whilst the plot if basically just the ins and outs of a teen girls first experience with love don’t be deceived because this book is so much more than that. The characters are the most real and complex characters that I’ve ever come across and whilst you read this book it feels so realistic like you are actually Ari living out her day to day life. Lorraine Zago Rosenthal has a real talent for making her characters as raw and humane as possible. So much so that you actually feel the emotions that their going through. Other Words For Love documents the most realistic account of falling in love that I have ever read. Lorraine Zago Rosenthal explores the euphoria of being in a relationship and the complete devastation when you’ve given your entire self to a boy only to find you have nothing left. Ari’s journey to mend her broken heart is endearing, hopeful and uplifting. This book made me cry happy tears and sad tears and I learnt so much from my time with Ari. This book is a real emotional whirlwind and I cannot imagine any girl not being able to relate to this book in some way. I feel like this is the ultimate coming of age story and the best fictional break up bible out there. Lorraine Zago Rosenthal has incredible talent as a writer, her voice is so strong that if I didn’t know beforehand that this was her debut novel I never would have guessed it. I’m so glad that I picked this book up because it touched me in such a deep way and it’s definitely up there with my favourite books of all time. Every girl needs to read this book, and it comes with the highest of recommendations from me. Read it, pass it on to your girlfriends and fall in love. My Rating 5/5 stars ***** Synopsis taken from goodreads

Random Ramblings (1) You don't read!...do you?

Random Ramblings is a new feature I’m starting on my blog. They may sometimes be book related, sometimes they might be personal. One thing for sure is there all going to be my thoughts and opinions on things and it should help you all get to know me better. So let’s get on with it! I hope you like them and I would really appreciate some feedback in the comments letting me know your thoughts on the feature as a whole or about the subject matter.

The other day I got to thinking about stereotypes and snobbery when it comes to books and reading. I still remember the day I bought my first serious boyfriend home. We’d been going out for 3 weeks and were still in that less talking more can’t keep our hands off each other new relationship faze. We really didn’t know much about each other at that point, anyway he came into my room and stared bug eyed open mouthed at the pile of books on my bedside table. His shock soon turned into confusion as he asked “ you don’t read!...do you?” in an amused voice. Truth was I wasn’t that surprised. I’d gotten it since high school. I went on to tell him that yes I loved books and reading and why should he be so surprised? He then answered that I didn’t look like the kind of girl who read books for fun. As I said this wasn’t the first time someone had said that to me but it’s the one in my memory that most stands out. As you can probably tell from my blog I’m very much a girly girl, always have been although it really came to a height of constantly wearing pink and loving anything glittery in high school. I was never one of the popular crowd but I wasn’t exactly a misfit either. I was in a fairly respected clique and whilst I wasn’t right at the top of the high school popularity chain I was still fairly high up. The popular girls would invite us to parties and things so I guess we were considered “cool” to some extent. So because I was one of “those girls” people always found it shocking when they learned that I was a big time nerd behind the perfume and pink. I had a brain and liked to exercise it regularly by reading.

Another time that stands out to me was when we were waiting for an English class to start, I noticed this girl who was considered really uncool reading a Harry Potter book. That kind of stuff never mattered to me and of course being a book worm I was hugely excited and went right up to her and had a good old natter about good old Harry and Hogwarts. It wasn’t until I got up to leave that I realised that *everybody* was staring at us, whispering, wondering why I was talking to this girl. Wondering what on earth we possibly had in common.

Although since high school my extreme legally blond faze has calmed down, I am still at heart a very girly girl. So even to this day if I meet a reader 90 per cent of the time they’ll look down their nose at me. Because I enjoy YA and Chick-lit there not “proper” books and so I’m not really a serious reader. How dare I try and talk about a classic? Surely I’ve only watched the TV adaption? Go back to your vampires little girl and let us real readers discuss books. I’ve been stereotyped my whole life and as a teenager that was hard. I never felt like I quiet fit in with any group of people. The “serious readers” would snob on me for not reading “proper” books and my friends just wouldn’t get why I liked to read full stop. People have never really understood how I could be into so many different things and I think it hurt a lot of peoples brains trying to figure out a label to put on me. It wasn’t until I found the world of book blogging that I discovered people who got me and didn’t turn their noses up at the fact that yes I read chick-lit and preferred YA to other genres but I also love historical fiction and classics and fantasy too. I’ve found people who love books from all over the world. Who have different races and interests and personalities, who read all kinds of books completely busting the geeky stereotype that goes along with a reader.

I feel that these days since the popularity of twilight reading has definitely become more accepted and I’m glad of that. I’m glad that more and more people are discovering why reading is awesome and that people are embracing the types of books they like to read without fear of judgment. It may sound trivial but not feeling like I fit in made a big difference to my confidence in high school and it makes me want to use my blog to change people’s perceptions on reading. Reading is fun and you should never feel ashamed for reading what you like to read. Read Young Adult and hold your head up high, heck read Mills and Boon and don’t try to hide the cover at the beach! Support the books you love because if you don’t show your love for them how is anybody else going to discover them? So here’s a note to anyone who’s ever asked me why I liked to read, who’s ever been either shocked that I could possibly enjoy a book or that I enjoy reading a certain type of book. I LOVE books! And you should really try it some time. Because it truly, freakin’, ROCKS.