The Revenge of Seven by Pittacus Lore

Title: The Revenge of Seven

Series: Lorien Legacies #5

Author: Pittacus Lore

Release Date: 26th August 2014

My Rating: 3/5

Blurb:

The worst was supposed to be over. We were reunited after a decade apart. We were discovering the truth of our past. We were training and getting stronger every day. We were even happy...

We never imagined the Mogodorians could turn one of our own against us. We were fools for trusting Five. And now Eight is lost forever. I would do anything to bring him back, but that's impossible. Instead, I will do whatever it takes to destroy every last one of them.

I've spent my entire life hiding from them, and they've stolen everything away from me. But that stops now. We're going to take the battle to them. We have a new ally who knows their weaknesses. And I finally have the power to fight back.

They caught Number One in Malaysia.

Number Two in England.

Number Three in Kenya.

And Number Eight in Florida.

They killed them all.

I am Number Seven.

I will make them pay.

In A Nutshell:

Plot twists, unlikely allies and old characters return. The battle begins...

My Review:

*** Please note this review contains spoilers. Do not read if you have not read The Fall of Five ***

Here’s a little recap from The Fall of Five…

Following Five’s betrayal, Eight’s death and the attack on the Garde’s penthouse in Chicago, the surviving Loriens and their human friends are in disarray and unable to contact each other.

In Chicago, Four awakes from his sleeping nightmare to find the penthouse under attack. With Sarah, Sam and Malcolm fighting the Mogs, Four makes a decision based on the vision to let the Mogs take Ella to Setrakus Ra, knowing she will not be harmed, while he saves Malcolm and the others. While gathering their chests, Four is almost killed except he is saved by Adam, a ‘good’ Mog who helped Malcolm rescue Sam earlier on. Four agrees to accept his help, although is still wary of him. After Five kills Eight in Florida, Six, Nine and Marina escape Five and the Mogs using Six’s invisibility. However they have to leave Eight’s body behind.

* * * * * *

The Revenge of Seven starts with the Chicago Garde driving to Washington DC while the Garde in Florida try to find their way out of the swamp without Five or the Mogadorians spotting them. With no idea that the penthouse has been destroyed, they focus their anger on Five and try to figure out how to get Eight’s body back before the Mogs can begin experimenting on him.

Meanwhile, Ella is on Setrakus Ra’s spaceship. With no way of getting a message to the Garde and while Setrakus Ra politely attempt’s to convince her of his vision, things quickly turn nasty and Ella is put in danger in a way never expected.

Separated and with no way to communicate with each other, things only get worse for the Garde when the Mogadorians war ships land on earth. And then all hell breaks loose. The final battle has come, and no one is prepared for it so soon.

I don’t think anyone was more surprised than me to discover how much I have loved this series. I usually reject sci-fi books, particularly ones that have aliens, but right from the beginning I have been sucked into the Lorien stories and have stuck with the series all the way through. Admittedly, I kind of hoped everything could continue on as it has been and I wouldn’t have to get involved in reading about alien invasions. But the time has finally come and while I have started to waver a little, I’m still interested to see where the storyline will go, particularly now that we have been left with a few plot twists at the end of The Revenge of Seven and the introduction of unlikely allies. It’s also interesting to see some old characters show up and see how they contribute to the current plot. In any case, I’m sticking with the Lorien Legacies and I hope you will too.

Past Perfect by Leila Sales

Title: Past Perfect

Author: Leila Sales

Release Date: 4th October 2011

My Rating: 3/5

Blurb:

All Chelsea wants to do this summer is hang out with her best friend, hone her talents as an ice cream connoisseur, and finally get over Ezra, the boy who broke her heart. But when Chelsea shows up for her summer job at Essex Historical Colonial Village (yes, really), it turns out Ezra’s working there too. Which makes moving on and forgetting Ezra a lot more complicated…even when Chelsea starts falling for someone new.

Maybe Chelsea should have known better than to think that a historical reenactment village could help her escape her past. But with Ezra all too present, and her new crush seeming all too off limits, all Chelsea knows is that she’s got a lot to figure out about love. Because those who don’t learn from the past are doomed to repeat it….

In a Nutshell:

Past Perfect was a quick, light-hearted and fun novel that I read in an afternoon. It’s the kind of book that makes you grin and while there is a bit of teenage drama, it does end the way you want it to. And everyone needs a happy romance novel from time to time.

My Review:

Chelsea, aka Elizabeth Connolly, has spent every summer since she was six working at the Essex Historical Colonial Village with her parents. Now sixteen, she is ready to get a job where she doesn’t have to curtsey and dress in petticoats throughout the summer. But her best friend, Fiona, has other ideas. Caught up in the romanticism of a summer-long acting role, Fiona convinces Chelsea to return to the village for another year. But for Chelsea, it doesn’t look like it will be just another standard summer working as the silversmith’s daughter.

Much to her horror, Chelsea’s ex-boyfriend is now working at the village. And Chelsea has been nominated as Lieutenant of the annual secret War waged by the teenage summer casuals of Essex, against their counterparts at the Civil War Reenactmentland located across the street. While Chelsea takes the position seriously, as it is a great honour amongst the summer employees, it turns out to be more trouble than it’s worth when the enemy kidnaps Chelsea within a minute of her being appointed the position! Nothing is ever simple and Chelsea somehow ends up falling for the enemy, guitar playing, book nerd Dan, of the Civil War army. Unfortunately, both Essex and Civil take ‘War’ very seriously and Chelsea and Dan know their potential romance would mean all hell would break loose.

Past Perfect was a quick, light-hearted and fun novel that I read in an afternoon. It’s the kind of book that makes you grin and while there is a bit of teenage drama, it does end the way you want it to. And everyone needs a happy romance novel from time to time.

I really like the friendship between Chelsea and Fiona. They understand each other the way only best friends can and even in the middle of a fight they can still side-track to continue their rating of the best ice-cream on their summer mission to be ice-cream connoisseurs (apparently it’s all about the mint in choc mint, and there is no way strawberry ever beats chocolate!). Adding to this, the witty banter between Chelsea and Fiona, as well as the rest of the characters, was one of my favourite aspects of the story.

There was a good dose of American history, which is to be expected since the story is set in a historical Colonial village. I don’t know a lot about this subject, nor am I that interested in it to be honest, but I felt there was enough for people who like history, yet not too much that the rest of us felt like we were being bombarded with information.

I’d also like to point out that while I love the book’s cover, it has absolutely nothing to do with the story. Absolutely nothing...

Past Perfect would be the perfect summer read for fans of Jennifer E. Smith.

Notes From The Blender by Trish Cook and Brendan Halpin

Title: Notes From The Blender

Author: Trish Cook and Brendan Halpin

Release Date: 24th May 2011

My Rating: 3/5

Blurb:

Declan loves four things: Scandinavian death metal, violent video games, Internet porn, and Neilly Foster. He spends most of his classroom time wondering what it might be like to talk to her, date her, maybe even brush against her chest in the hallway.

Neilly is naturally beautiful and a fixture at all the best parties (to which Declan is never invited). But in one horrible day, she gets dumped by her boyfriend, is betrayed by her former BFF, and walks in on her mom with some stranger.

Turns out the stranger is Declan's dad. And he's marrying Neilly's mom. Soon. Which means Dec and Neilly will be siblings.

In a hilarious, smart, and seductive romp, Trish Cook and Brendan Halpin take us on a journey with Dec and Neilly as they discover the true meaning of family.

In A Nutshell:

Notes from the Blender is a realistic novel about forgiveness, lust, betrayal and embarrassment. It contains conflicting personalities, a full spectrum of emotions and explores the changing landscape of a family. 

My Review:

The blurb kind of says it all. Told in the alternating perspectives of Declan and Neilly, Notes From the Blender explores the rollercoaster ride that happens when two families join together, made that much harder considering Dec and Neilly didn’t even know their parents were dating!

It’s a whole lot of ‘new family’ for Neilly with a second stepbrother also on the cards as her dad is set to walk down the aisle with his business partner, Roger. As for Declan, he battles internally and lashes out at his dad at the thought of his mother being replaced, who died when Dec was nine.

Aside from the fact that Declan’s dad and Neilly’s mum sprung the whole relationship and marriage thing on the kids without any warning, I think they are terrific parents. I really like the interactions not just between each of them and their biological offspring, but also their future stepson/daughter.

Dec and Neilly’s interactions throughout the story are not entirely predictable which makes for a nice change. There is also the valuable life lesson about not judging people before getting to know them which occurs not just between Neilly and Dec, but other characters as well.

Notes from the Blender is a realistic novel about forgiveness, lust, betrayal and embarrassment. It contains conflicting personalities, a full spectrum of emotions and explores the changing landscape of a family.

The Maze Runner by James Dashner

Title: The Maze Runner

Author: James Dashner

Series: The Maze Runner #1

Release Date: 6th October 2009

My Rating: 3/5

Blurb: 

When Thomas wakes up in the lift, the only thing he can remember is his first name. His memory is blank. But he’s not alone. When the lift’s doors open, Thomas finds himself surrounded by kids who welcome him to the Glade—a large, open expanse surrounded by stone walls.

Just like Thomas, the Gladers don’t know why or how they got to the Glade. All they know is that every morning the stone doors to the maze that surrounds them have opened. Every night they’ve closed tight. And every thirty days a new boy has been delivered in the lift.

Thomas was expected. But the next day, a girl is sent up—the first girl to ever arrive in the Glade. And more surprising yet is the message she delivers.

Thomas might be more important than he could ever guess. If only he could unlock the dark secrets buried within his mind.

In A Nutshell:

A promising beginning but it didn't follow through to an ending that interested me.

My Review:

The Maze Runner is sort of like a cross between The Hunger Games and the TV show Lost. A group of about fifty teenage boys have been placed in an unknown area with no escape. They are given certain supplies each week and once a month, another boy joins them with his memory wiped clean. With no way of leaving, the boys send groups into the maze which is connected to the area they have been remanded to, in the hope of finding an exit and the possibility of a normal life and finding the families they hope are looking for them on the outside. But the maze appears unsolvable and has Grievers, mechanical monsters that patrol, ready to kill any boy that comes into contact with them.

Despite their undesirable circumstances, the characters have managed to form their own working community with a type of government and jobs to keep them busy. Everyone has a job to do, whether it be maintaining the vegetable gardens and caring for the livestock, cleaning the living quarters, taking care of the sick and injured, preparing meals or entering the maze. With the arrival of Thomas, and then Teresa, things start to change and as people begin to remember snippets of their former lives, the maze and the community they have created may not be all that bad after all.

I enjoyed the story and the characters for a large portion of the novel and I was really intrigued as to which way the plot was going to go. However, the direction the author took wasn’t for me and I began to lose interest in the final chapters. The last pages introduced a whole new mystery which did not appeal to me so I won’t be continuing on with The Scorch Trials.

Creepy and Maud by Dianne Touchell

Title: Creepy and Maud

Author: Dianne Touchell

Release Date: 1st October 2012

My Rating: 3/5

Blurb:

I am in love with the girl next door. Our windows are almost opposite each other's, over the side fence.

I call her Maud. That's not her real name but that's what I call her. She's sort of shortish and curvy. Titian hair. No freckles. A dark, smudgy birthmark on the back of her left calf. A nose piercing her dad knows about and a bellybutton piercing I assume he doesn't. All right, so I have spent a bit of time looking in there.

Am I sounding creepy? Love is sort of creepy. When you fall in love, you presuppose all sorts of things about the person. You superimpose all kinds of ideals and fantasies on them. You create all manner of unrealistic, untenable, unsatisfiable criteria for that person, automatically guaranteeing their failure and your heartbreak. And what do we call it? Romance. Now, that's creepy.

In A Nutshell:

Creepy and Maud is an off-beat novel with peculiar characters who view the world from a distance. The story is told in first person, swapping between the two title characters, although not evenly. The text is often blunt, but lyrically interesting, and matches the quirky and slightly odd characters who are just trying to make a connection with someone who understands them.

My Review:
Creepy and Maud is not your typical young adult novel. It is off-beat with peculiar characters who view the world from a distance. Both Creepy and Maud live lonely lives, ostracized by their peers for being ‘weird’ and kept at a distance by their parents who either don’t understand them, or are too caught up in their own lives to notice their children.

Creepy is quizzical. He spends his time reading and watching the girl next door through his window, who he has nicknamed Maud. His favourite possession is a dictionary, sorry, a Collins Australian Internet-Linked Dictionary (with CD-ROM), which aids him as his thoughts run off on tangents concerning any random thing he can recall. The kids at school think he is creepy, hence the nickname, and generally stay away from him, and that is how he likes it.

Maud is a sad, quiet girl who loves to draw but suffers from trichotillomania, a compulsive condition where the sufferer feels the need to pull out their own hair. Like Creepy, she has no real friends and an uncomfortable home life. When she first sees a note pinned to Creepy’s window, their solitary lives become intertwined.

We never find out the real names of Creepy and Maud. The story is told in first person, swapping between the two title characters, although not evenly. The text is often blunt, but lyrically interesting, and matches the off-beat and slightly odd characters who are just trying to make a connection with someone who will understand them and see past what the rest of their community sees them as; weird.

“We have our own place in the space between windows.”

 

All I Ever Wanted by Vikki Wakefield

Title: All I Ever Wanted

Author: Vikki Wakefield

Release Date: 27th June 2011

My Rating: 3/5

Blurb:

Rule Number One: I will not turn out like my mother.

Mim wants to be anywhere but home - in a dead suburb and with a mother who won't get off the couch.

She's set herself rules to live by, but she's starting to break them.

In nine days, she'll turn seventeen. What she doesn't know is that her life is about to change forever. And when it does, the same things will look entirely different.

In A Nutshell: 

All I Ever Wanted was a unique novel, distinctly Australian with likeable characters fighting to figure out who they are, and who they don't want to be.

My Review:

All I Ever Wanted is one of those novels that pretty much everyone raves about. I thought it was well-written and different to a lot of other stuff in the YA world. It had a distinctly Australian style to it with likeable characters in Mim, Lola and Kate. But I don't think I saw what everyone else seems to, even if I can't put my finger on why.

Our main character Mim feels like everyone is always waiting for her to screw up, for her life to never amount to anything more than a single teenage mum, hooked on drugs, or in jail like her brothers. So she has rules. Rules that she has set herself so she doesn't turn out like her mother or brothers, and so she can get out and get a new life. It is a heartfelt and desperate story about a girl who is stuck. Stuck in a world she doesn't think she belongs in and doesn't want any part of.

What she realises during the summer she turns seventeen is that there are bad, horrible people in the world, but there are also good people. There is no clear line though and if she stops pigeon-holing people for a moment, then sometimes, people can surprise you, for better or worse. She might discover that family is not always just blood, but the people around her, "your people", who will look after her no matter what. And she just might find her place in the world in the process.

Second Opinions

inkcrush

My Girl Friday

Shirley Marr

Hooked by Liz Fichera

Title: Hooked
Author: Liz Fichera

Release Date: 1st February 2013

My Rating: 3/5

Blurb:

When Native American Fredericka ‘Fred’ Oday is invited to become the only girl on the school’s golf team, she can’t say no. This is an opportunity to shine, win a scholarship and go to university, something no one in her family has done.

But Fred’s presence on the team isn’t exactly welcome — especially not to rich golden boy Ryan Berenger, whose best friend was kicked off the team to make a spot for Fred.

But there’s no denying that things are happening between the girl with the killer swing and the boy with the killer smile...

In A Nutshell:

Hooked is a nice story about overcoming adversity and finding, and rediscovering, people who care about you and just want you to be happy and get the most out of life.

My Review:

Set in Arizona and incorporating some Native American culture, Hooked tells the story of Fred and Ryan, who are from opposite sides of the cultural, social and financial fence, and what happens when they actually take the time to get to know one another.

The story is told from each of their perspectives which works really well because it allows people to see how easily things can be misinterpreted when people don’t communicate. If the story had only been told from Fred’s perspective, it wouldn’t have been quite as effective.

Ryan’s friends don’t like Fred, not only because she took the place of their friend on the school golf team, but also because she is Native American, and they do their best to make her feel uncomfortable and out of place. It is incredibly frustrating to ‘see’ how close-minded and mean people can be as well as how far they will go when they are blinded by hate or jealousy.

After spending forced time together, and then a little bit of their own time, Ryan and Fred realise they actually like each other. But they both doubt how the other one feels, even after spending a perfect day together, and at the tiniest hurdle, they let things disintegrate without asking any questions. I hate that neither of them trusts what they experienced and that they just give up so easily.

It takes a really long time for Ryan to stand up and do something about the way Fred is treated, not just by his friends, but also the way he treats her because he is too afraid to break away from his peers, even when he knows what they are doing is wrong. Eventually things get completely out of hand and Ryan finally stands-up and does what is right, garnering respect from unlikely places.

There are life lessons to take away after finishing Hooked. Communicate. No one is ever going to know what you think or want unless you tell them, there are too many ways that things can be misconstrued, especially if there is a third party involved that you don’t trust. Also, be the bigger person. Don’t follow friends blindly just because they are your ‘friends’. Do the right thing.

US Cover

All in all, I really enjoyed Hooked. I liked the Native American culture, the different themes addressed, and how Ryan and Fred’s lives slowly became better. It’s just a nice story about overcoming adversity and finding, and rediscovering, people who care about you and just want you to be happy and get the most out of life.

As a side note, I’m not sure about the Australian/UK cover, or the title. I don’t think either really has much to do with the story. The US cover is slightly better, but, as they say we shouldn’t judge a book by its cover. 

Thankyou to Harlequin Teen and Netgalley for this review copy.