What's In The Box?

I checked my mail box today. What was in there you may ask? Well, the fabulous people at Penguin Books Australia have sent me some wonderful goodies to review!

Watch this space in the coming weeks for their reviews :)

The Ring of Five by Eoin McNamee

Title: The Ring of Five
Author: Eoin McNamee

Release Date: 1st April 2010

My Rating: 3/5

Danny thinks he is on his way to boarding school when he is taken instead to a mysterious Academy. When he arrives, some of the students have otherworldly talents, and someone is trying to murder him...

Yet he finds friends: Les, an exceptional thief, Dixie, who has as unsettling ability, and Vandra, a Physick with unusual powers.

It turns out Danny is destined for a terrifying mission. As he embarks on his training, he is determined to be a brilliant spy and keep his friends, but he soon discovers that he can trust no one, not even himself...

This is an exciting story of deceit, action and espionage as we meet the kids at Wilson's Spy School. It questions loyalties and friendship and entwines good and evil as Danny tries to figure out his destiny. I would describe it as a mix of Harry Potter crossed with Cherub for ages 10+.

Read this if you liked the Percy Jackson series, the Charlie Bone series, The Mysterious Benedict Society, the Nightmare Academy series or anything where kids get up to mischief!

Beautiful Monster by Kate McCaffrey

Title: Beautiful Monster
Author: Kate McCaffrey

Release Date: 1st May 2010

My Rating: 4/5

It only takes a few blood-stained seconds for Tessa's life to change forever. She wants her old life back. She wants her mum and dad the way they were. She wants her brother.

If it wasn't for Ned, she'd be all alone. He's her greatest support and staunchest ally. He's privy to her deepest secrets, comforts her at night when she cries, holds her and makes her feel loved - when it feels like everyone else has gone. And he knows how to make things okay again. If Tessa can only be perfect, things will get better. The perfect daughter, the perfect marks, the perfect body. But there is a fine line between being in control and being controlled.

Wow where do I start?

Always tackling the important topics for young adults such as cyber-bullying (Destroying Avalon) and drugs use (In Ecstasy), Kate McCaffrey has done it again with Beautiful Monster, focusing on a young girl struggling through her teenage years who has developed an eating disorder following the devastating death of her younger brother.

Beautiful Monster not only deals with the primary issue of body image and eating disorders but also the grief of losing a loved one. As her parents suffer with their own pain, Tessa manages to slip through the cracks, hiding her own pain as she strives to reach her goal weight.

Told in three parts, two years separating each, we accompany Tess as she loses her brother, endeavours to be perfect and keep control over all aspects of her life, copes with her parents, hides her illness, suffers denial and isolates herself from her friends. Then, as her her secret is discovered, we see the aftermath of her treatment and the possibility of a relapse as old foes once again come to light.

Just like her previous books, Beautiful Monster is something every teenage girl should read.

Flyaway by Lucy Christopher

Title: Flyaway
Author: Lucy Christopher

Release Date: 1st April 2010 (Australia)

My Rating: 3/5

One cold, winter morning, while Isla and her father are out waiting for the yearly migration of swans, Isla's father has a heart-attack and goes into hospital. While Isla is at the hospital waiting for news about his condition, she meets Harry, a boy her age who she is surprised to find out has Leukaemia. Harry is the first boy to understand her love of wild swans and is genuinely interested in hearing about them. From his hospital window they watch a wild swan on the lake outside as she tries, and fails, to fly. There is something different about her, truly different, almost magical. As both Harry and her father's health deteriorates, Isla is sure that if she can help the swan, maybe she can help her father and Harry at the same time, and so she embarks upon a breathtakingly magical (not the hocus-pocus kind of magic) journey of her own.

This is beautifully written and I love how Isla throws herself into her school project to help distract her from the reality of whether her father will live, but also in an attempt to make him feel better, and how her sullen grandfather also joins in on the project as a welcome distraction to his own troubles. Even through we are never told how old Isla is (this did somewhat annoy me), sometimes I feel she could only be 9 years old, other times 13 or 14, I feel that her reactions are age appropriate for her state of mind and the events affecting her; the angry outbursts at her brother, running away in the middle of the night and not being able to face the reality of what could happen to her family.

This is the touching story about family, friendship, hope, a young girl, a sick boy and a damaged wild swan. Ages 10+

Before I Fall by Lauren Oliver

Title: Before I Fall
Author: Lauren Oliver

Release Date: 1st April 2010 (Australia)

My Rating: 5/5

'They say that when you die, your whole life flashes before your eyes, but that's not how it happened for me'

Sam Kingston is dead. Except she isn't.

On a rainy February night, eighteen-year-old Sam is killed in a horrific car crash. But then the impossible happens: she wakes up in her own bed, on the morning of the day that she died. Forced to live over and over the last day of her life - the drive to school, skipping classes, the fateful party - she desperately struggles to alter the outcome, but every morning she wakes up on the day of the crash.

This is a story of a girl who dies young, but in the process learns how to live. And who falls in love...a little too late.

I truly loved ‘Before I Fall’ and read it in one sitting. For a debut novel it is amazing! I laughed, I cried, it completely blew me away.

Each day, Samantha learns something new about the type of person she is/has been, as well as discovering new things about those around her. She has seven days to try and fix her own fate and those of the people around her and as she learns along the way that maybe the purpose of her do-overs are not to save her own life, but the lives of her peers.

I have seen in some other reviews that some people feel the book is too long, especially as Sam repeats her days, but I disagree. I find that each day gets told differently as Sam discovers new things and decides to play the day differently, especially day four.

This is a great YA book as it deals with issues that teens are constantly surrounded by; friends, bullies, awkwardness, high school, the highs and the lows, relationships, drinking, sex, drunk driving, drama, pain, love and hate, secrets and lies. It may also help readers dealing with their own insecurities, pain, or identity. It is a story that reminds us what really matters in life and that everyone has their own problems, even if they are not visible on the surface.

Sometimes the smallest action against someone can truly affect them and change their life forever.

**Major Spoiler Alert**
I would have loved a final chapter or epilogue to find out how the characters Sam helped along the way deal with her death. This is probably because when you find a story and/or characters that you really enjoy reading, you never want it to end, but I also recognise the fact that the aftermath is not what the story is about. Still, I would love a follow up book that comes from the perspective of Juliet, starting as she heads to the party (on Sam’s seventh day).

Wish by Alexandra Bullen

Title: Wish
Author: Alexandra Bullen

Release Date: 1st April 2010

My Rating: 3/5

For Olivia Larsen, nothing can change the fact that her twin sister, Violet, is gone... until a mysterious, beautiful gown arrives on her doorstep. The dress doesn't just look magical,it is magical. It has the power to grant her one wish, and the only thing Olivia wants is her sister back.

With Violet again by her side, both girls get a second chance at life. And as the sisters soon discover, they have two more dresses-and two more wishes left. But magic can't solve everything, and Olivia is forced to confront her ghosts to learn how to laugh, love, and live again.

At first I thought this would be a silly kind of fairytale book with magical dresses and wishes, but it actually turned out to be quite the opposite, as it has a good message and story line that I feel teenage girls can relate to. Olivia has to deal with moving to a new town, making new friends, and normal teenage girl problems with guys and a new school. She has to do all this while trying to move on with her life after the death of her twin sister, her best and closest friend. She is dealing with the effect Violet's death has had on her relationship with her parents as well as their relationship and the family dynamics.

Despite the sad synopsis of a tragic young death, the author has managed to probe the situation in a lighter way but still get a message of independence, pain, heartache, loss, love and family through to the reader without making the book depressing. This is an easy read, but not flippant and makes you as the reader question 'If you could wish for anything, what would you truly want?'

Ages 13+

Fury by Shirley Marr

Title: Fury
Author: Shirley Marr

Release Date: 1st May 2010

My Rating: 4/5

Let me tell you my story.
Not just the facts I know you want to hear.
If I’m going to tell you my story,
I’m telling it my way.

Strap yourself in...


Eliza Boans has everything.
A big house.
A great education.
A bright future.

So why is she sitting in a police station confessing to murder?

I've never had so much trouble trying to find the right words to review something before! I will do my best not to spoil anything.

I really enjoyed Fury. I sat down to read it one night and ended up finishing it that same night. Shirley Marr has created fantastic suspense with Eliza telling her story and leading up to the expolsive conclusion as to why she is covered in blood. It is a story about violence, friendship, the cruelty of teenagers, pain and vengeance.

Eliza is a spoilt little rich girl who is strong, opinionated and stubborn. And she can be an absolute bitch. But when it comes down to the nitty-gritty, she loves her friends (although in real life I can't see why someone would be friends with her in the first place, the way she treats them sometimes). At the beginning of the story I found it very difficult to like her and I just wanted to slap her, but throughout the book you get to understand the reason she is how she is and understand her actions. By the end I wanted nothing bad to happen to her and for her and her friends to get on with their spoilt lives.

I like that Marr got the inspiration for her book from The Furies, the personification of vengeance in Greek mythology and it sums up the story perfectly. It is probably my favourite thing about the book. I also really enjoyed that it was from Eliza's perspective and that it went back and forth from present time back to the events leading up to Eliza sitting in the police station. It gave it depth and suspense.

The only thing that bugged me about Fury, and while this may seem insignificant to everyone else but bugs me in anything I read, is that al ot of the characters names were either taken from famous people (Paula Yates, Ronnie Wood, the english teacher was named Mr Trollop - as in famous author Anthony Trollop, history teacher Mr Tolstoy and Brian Fadden, - as in singer Brian McFadden?) or they were rather cliché (Jane Mutton and The Dashwoods, you will understand these when you read the book). If it had just been one character it wouldn't have bothered me but it was significant enough through the whole book for me to notice.

Fury is Gossip Girl by Cecily von Ziegesar crossed with Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson crossed with the attitude of Rose from Vampire Academy by Richelle Mead.

Will Grayson, Will Grayson by David Levithan and John Green

Title: Will Grayson, Will Grayson
Authors: David Levithan and John Green

Release Date: 3rd May 2010 (Australia)

My Rating: 5/5

Will Grayson: What is your oldest, wildest, only best friend started writing a musical about your life...and it made you look like a joke? What if the girl you didn't think you were interested in started being interested in you? And who is this other guy called Will Grayson?

The other Will Grayson: What if you are technically depressed? What if you're in love with someone you've never met? And what's the story with the guy walking around with your name?

One cold night, in a most unlikely corner of Chicago, two teens - both named Will Grayson - are about to cross paths. As their worlds collide and intertwine, the Will Graysons find their lives going in new and unexpected directions, building toward romantic turns-of-heart and the epic production of history’s most fabulous high school musical.

I really can't put my finger on what it is that makes me love this book so much. I am a major fan of both David Levithan and John Green and was so excited when I heard they had done a book together. Will Grayson, Will Grayson is laugh-out-loud hilarious, heart-warming and at times heart-breaking, but also absolutely fabulous! I felt like I could really relate to Will Grayson, the first one, and I'm sure everyone will be able to relate to one of the amazing characters in this book in someway.

I have two favourite sentences, the first being in the very first paragraph of the book which I think sets the tone and the hilarity of the rest of the chapter and the book:

When I was little, my dad used to tell me. 'Will, you can pick your friends and you can pick your nose, but you can't pick your friend's nose.'

My other favourite sentence, because I can relate to it all too much, is:

You like someone who can't like you back because unrequited love can be survived in a way that once requited love cannot.

Do yourself a favour and read this book. It's fantastic.

When I Was Joe by Keren David

Title: When I Was Joe
Author: Keren David

Release Date: 1st March 2010

My Rating: 4/5

It's one thing watching someone get killed. It's quite another talking about it.

But Ty does talk about it. He names some ruthless people and a petrol-bomb attack forces him and his mum into hiding under police protection.

Shy loser Ty gets a new name, a new look and a cool new image. Life as Joe is good. But the gangsters will stop at nothing to silence him. And then he meets a girl with a dangerous secret of her own.

When I Was Joe is a very well written book about 14-year-old Ty, who witnesses a murder and then has to go into the Witness Protection Program. Ty becomes Joe. But things are never that easy.

This book deals with plenty of teenage issues from peer pressure, depression, self harm and bullying to friendship, relationships, fear, change, truth, lies and manipulation. And one hell of an emotional roller-coaster.

I am really, really looking forward to the sequel 'Almost True'.

When Life Gets In The Way

It's been a couple of weeks since I've posted a review and I find that depressing. I have been trying to find the time to finish my current read 'When I Was Joe' by Keren David for the past two weeks and I find this disturbing (not the book but my lack of reading!). I'm someone who reads books in one sitting or if it's during the week and I'm working then 2 or 3 days max. It's not that the book is bad, it's not and I'm really enjoying it, it's just that life gets in the way sometimes.

In honour of my dry spell, I thought I would share with you some of the books sitting on my book shelf waiting to be read. It's only a selection, I actually have an entire bookcase full of books that are waiting to be read, I just have to find the time. If anyone would like one of these reviewed before another, let me know.