December's Book of the Month, 2011's Book of the Year and Yearly Round Up!

Hi guys! I’m back from my holiday blogging break now and in that time managed to read SO many good books to finish the year off in style. I caught up on some of those must reads for 2011 and so choosing my December book of the month has been very difficult! First of all I’d like to give an honourable mention to Clockwork Prince, Divergent, and Starcrossed they were all amazing books and if read on separate months could of stood as book of the month’s themselves. But there was one book in particular that I read during my break that just surpassed all of the above. In fact it’s got to be at the top of my very favourite books of the year but we’ll get on to that later…without further ado I announce that…

December’s BotM is The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern!

The Night Circus was such a magic, whimsical story that reads very much like an adult fairytale. I defy anyone to read the first couple of pages of this book and NOT carry on with it. This was such an amazing book and was the perfect magical read.

Now moving on to my absolute favourite book of 2011! I read so many amazing books with plenty of 5 star ratings this year but this book for me is like nothing else out there. It’s romantic, heart stopping, tragic and just an all-round wonderfully imagined, fantastically written book with a stunning cover to boot. I’ve raved about this book to pretty much anyone who’ll listen and have already persuaded so many people to give it a go but in case you missed out on any of my raving’s then know that 2011’s book of the year comes with the highest of recommendations from me.

2011’s Book of the Year is Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor!

In case you missed my review for this book and want to find out more you can check out my thoughts here!

Here’s my list of each book of the month in order of awesomeness!

1.) Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor (August)
2.) The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern (December)
3.) One Day by David Nicholls and Lola and the Boy Next Door by Stephanie Perkins (tied in September)
4.) Where She Went by Gayle Forman (March)
5.) A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness (May)
6.) Wonder by R.J Palacio (November)
7.) Other Words for Love by Lorraine Zago Rosenthal (January)
8.) We'll Always Have Summer by Jenny Han (April)
9.) Angel Fire by L.A Weatherly (October)
10.) Ultraviolet by R.J Anderson (July)
11.) Paranormalcy by Kiersten White (February)
12.) The Truth About You by Melissa Hill (June)

Awards
Best Plot: Daughter of Smoke and Bone
Best Writing: The Night Circus
Best Cover: The Night Circus
Best Characters: Lola and the Boy Next Door
Best Ending: A Monster Calls
Best Romance: One Day
Most un-put-down-able: Ultraviolet
Most Memorable: Daughter of Smoke and Bone
Best Moral: Wonder

If you missed out on any of the books mentioned in this post in 2011 I would whole heartedly recommend you checking them out in 2012! This past year’s reading has been fantastic and I’m looking forward to seeing what books 2012 brings my way!

What were some of your favourite books of 2011? I would love some recommendations!

The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight Blog Tour! Character Interview with Oliver!

To kick things off for 2012 I’m very excited to be bringing to you today the first stop in The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight Blog Tour! I was lucky enough to be able to read this 2012 debut early last year and I absolutely loved it here’s a little bit about what it’s all about…

Synopsis

"Who would have guessed that four minutes could change everything?

Imagine if she hadn't forgotten the book. Or if there hadn't been traffic on the expressway. Or if she hadn't fumbled the coins for the toll. What if she'd run just that little bit faster and caught the flight she was supposed to be on. Would it have been something else - the weather over the Atlantic or a fault with the plane?

Hadley isn't sure if she believes in destiny or fate but, on what is potentially the worst day of each of their lives, it's the quirks of timing and chance events that mean Hadley meets Oliver...

Set over a 24-hour-period, Hadley and Oliver's story will make you believe that true love finds you when you're least expecting it."

Character Interview with Oliver!

1.) What made you approach Hadley at that first meeting in the airport?
She just looked so flustered and out of sorts, and I was feeling a bit like that myself. Her bag had spilled all over the floor, and the woman sitting next to her was giving her a hard time, and besides all that, she was cute too. I couldn’t resist coming to her rescue.

2.) When you first met Hadley you quickly learnt that she has a lot of fears besides claustrophobia. What are your biggest fears?
Well, there are the usual things. Snakes. Certain kinds of bugs – especially the ones with those little pinchers. I don’t love the ocean either, to be honest. And I used to be afraid of the dark when I was younger. But I guess the biggest one is just saying how I feel. I’m working on that though. And Hadley – she helps.

3.) You and Hadley are both fans of Dickens what are some of your other favourite books?
There’s nothing like Dickens, it’s true. And I’ve managed to fall in love with his books despite a lifetime of being called Oliver Twist. I also love The Great Gatsby and The Catcher in the Rye. And anything by Hemingway. (I’m sure I’d never have been teased if my name was Nick Adams).

4.) Do you always make a habit of kissing people you've just met?
Why, yes. Yes, I do.

No, I’m only joking. I’m not nearly charming enough for that sort of thing. But with Hadley, it felt different. I couldn’t help myself.

5.) How about stealing on a first date?
That was definitely a first. But can you blame me? I needed a little bit of Dutch courage to help with that last phobia of mine…

6.) Okay so tell us what are you *really* studying?
If I told you that I’m studying the feeding habits of a rare species of Amazonian tree frog, would you believe me?

7.) Do you believe in fate after the way you and Hadley met?
You could chalk it up to fate, or you could chalk it up to the fact that Hadley was somehow disorganized enough to miss her flight by four minutes. But whether it was something as big as destiny or as small as timing, I feel very lucky that she ended up in my path. Girls like Hadley don’t come along very often.

8.) How about love at first sight?
I do now.

9.) What's next for you and Hadley?
We’re taking it twenty-four hours at a time.

For my US Counterpart head on over to http://mundiemoms.blogspot.com/  today where they will be running an interview with Hadley!

Next stop tomorrow is with http://www.wondrousreads.com/ for the UK post and http://www.thestorysiren.com/ for the US post. For the names and dates of everyone else on the tour check out the tour button here!

The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight by Jennifer E.Smith is published by Headline on 5th January 2012. Check out the trailers here  and here and for my thoughts you can check out my review here. Big thank you’s to the publishers and Jen for putting this wonderful tour together!

Holiday Blogging Break!

Just a quick announcement to let you guys know that I will be taking a break from blogging as of today for Christmas and New Year. I'm going to use this time to relax and enjoy the festivities as well as cramming in as many Christmas books and those 2011 must reads before the years over. I'll be returning in early January and will be setting things up on the blog for 2012 with 2011 summaries, reviews for 2012 books and even the first book tour of the year! January will be a month with a lot of conclusions from 2011 and setting up for the year ahead. It's also my birthday month and I know I'm going away late January so please bare with me if posts are a bit all over the place.

February will see things getting back to normal around here and the return of some of my features like Readers Choice and the re-launch of Covers So Lovely We'd Lick Them with the new name Covers So Lovely They're Lickable! As co-creator and my best friend Rachel over at In the Library of LadyViolet has kindly handed the reins over to me solely so I'm bringing it back as I know how many of you used to enjoy those.

So this is goodbye for now my lovelies, I hope you all have a wonderful and book filled Christmas and New Year if you celebrate and for those who don't heck everyday should be wonderful and book filled so same goes to you. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year and I'll see you all in 2012 for book news, reviews and plenty of bookish awesome.

Jess x

In My Mailbox!

In My Mailbox is hosted by Kristi at The Story Siren

Review Books

The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight by Jennifer E. Smith
Torn by Cat Clarke
Fracture by Megan Miranda
Night School by C.J Daugherty
Stolen Away by Alyxandra Harvey

Gift/ Bought

The Scorpio Races by Maggie Stiefvater (early Christmas present from my lovely friend Ellie over at Musings of a Bookshop Girl)
The Chaos Walking Trilogy by Patrick Ness (I got all three of these for only £7.99 at The Works! I absolutely loved A Monster Calls so can't wait to check out more of Patrick's books!)

This is my last IMM for 2011 and I think it’s been a pretty good one! As always big thank you’s to everybody who sent me books. For more information on any of the books featured just click on the title and the link will take you to it's goodreads page. If you’ve read any of the books I got this week and want to leave me a comment letting me know what you thought please do and make sure you leave me a link to what you got in your mailbox. Here’s to another week of fantastic reading ahead!

Review for Clockwork Prince by Cassandra Clare

WARNING
This is the second book in The Infernal Devices series. Although this review will contain NO spoilers from Clockwork Prince by talking about the plot there may be unintentional spoilers from the first book in the series.

Clockwork Prince by Cassandra Clare
Publisher: Walker
Release Date: 6th December 2011
Genre: Young Adult, Historical Fiction, Paranormal Romance
Rating: 5/5 stars
Source: Received from the publisher for review

Amazon Summary:
"Love and lies can corrupt even the purest heart... In the magical underworld of Victorian London, Tessa Gray finds her heart drawn more and more to Jem, while her longing for Will, despite his dark moods, continues to unsettle her. But something is changing in Will - the wall he has built around himself is crumbling. Could finding the Magister free Will from his secrets and give Tessa the answers to who she is and what she was born to do? As their search for the truth leads the three friends into peril, Tessa's heart is increasingly torn, especially when one of their own betrays them."

Review
I feel that The Infernal Devices trilogy really shows off how far Cassandra Clare has come as a writer since her debut City of Bones. Don’t get me wrong I’m a huge fan of The Mortal Instruments series but I feel that The Infernal Devices is so much stronger in characters, plot, and writing. I’m a sucker for well written historical fiction at the best of times but historical fiction with shadowhunters and all the paranormal creatures you can think of? Yes please!

I had a feeling after reading Clockwork Angel that I could possibly come to love this series even more than The Mortal Instruments and Clockwork Prince definitely tipped me over the edge. This has to be the most romantic of all of Cassandra Clare’s books to date, the majority of the book focusing on the complex relationships our leading lady Tessa has with shadowhunter parabatai brothers Jem and Will. Some huge plot twists get revealed about the boys in Clockwork Prince which literally changes everything for Tessa. Both Jem and Will have been through so much and in this book you get to see the extent of that and get to know the boys so much better. There are some very hot and steamy moments and I, like Tessa, spent much of the book totally convinced I loved kind hearted, silver fox, Jem only to look into Will Herondale’s blue/violet eyes and be undecided all over again. I love both boys so much and I almost don’t want Tessa to have to choose either of them, not if it will end up hurting the other one. Basically Cassie Clare has created the most intense love triangle I’ve ever read. I love it and I don’t even usually like love triangles.

What I love best about The Infernal Devices are the characters. I think Tessa is such a strong, smart and likeable heroine who I connect with way more than I ever have with Clary. Then there are my lovely- I mean bad-ass *cough* shadowhunter boys Will and Jem. But not only that the secondary characters stand out too and are so well developed.

Clockwork Prince takes a step back from the Mortmain storyline and instead focuses on lots of sub plots that are all essential to the overall story. Each character has something going on with them and the book flicks back and forth between storylines so there is constantly something exciting going down. Clockwork Prince doesn’t suffer from the dreaded middle book syndrome at all and instead reveals plenty of secrets and twists whilst creating new questions setting things up for an explosive final book.

Clockwork Prince blends together romance and none stop action seamlessly, Cassie Clare showing other Young Adult authors how paranormal romance is done. As for the book itself I really liked this exclusive collector’s edition as it includes a letter that Will writes in Clockwork Angel and a short story ‘Burning Bright’ which goes into Jem’s feelings during Clockwork Angel when he first meets Tessa. I was really excited to read Will’s letter but surprisingly found myself enjoying Jem’s short story more although both were fantastic and added a little something extra that fans will really appreciate. I think this book is my favourite out of all of Cassandra’s books so far and I absolutely cannot wait for Clockwork Princess, the final book in this series, for what promises to be a heart stopping finale.