Friday 22 August 2014

BOOK REVIEW | DOON BY CAREY CORP & LORIE LANGDON

Title: Doon 
Author: Carey Corp & Lorie Langdon
Publisher: 
Zondervan / Blink
Publication date: August 20, 2013
Genre(s): Young Adult Fantasy, Romance
Pages: 368

My Rating★★★★★

Veronica doesn't think she's going crazy. But why can't anyone else see the mysterious blond boy who keeps popping up wherever she goes? When her best friend, Mackenna, invites her to spend the summer in Scotland, Veronica jumps at the opportunity to leave her complicated life behind for a few months. 
But the Scottish countryside holds other plans. 
Not only has the imaginary kilted boy followed her to Alloway, she and Mackenna uncover a strange set of rings and a very unnerving letter from Mackenna's great aunt—and when the girls test the instructions Aunt Gracie left behind, they find themselves transported to a land that defies explanation. Doon seems like a real-life fairy tale, complete with one prince who has eyes for Mackenna and another who looks suspiciously like the boy from Veronica's daydreams. But Doon has a dark underbelly as well. The two girls could have everything they've longed for...or they could end up breaking an enchantment and find themselves trapped in a world that has become a nightmare.

Doon follows the story of two best friends who are spending their holiday in Scotland as one of the girls has inherited her late Aunt's cottage in Alloway. The other girl, Veronica, keeps having hallucinations of a handsome blonde boy in a kilt and he seems to be calling to her to follow him. The girls start to uncover some strange secrets about Kenna's Aunt and they find themselves crossing the Brig o' Doon and stepping into another world with castles and handsome princes and magic. 

The setting is definitely one of the things that made this book so fantastic because I could clearly picture everything in this world and it was all so magical and enchanting! It was honestly like I was stepping through the pages and entering this magical kingdom myself! 
At first I was hesitant because I found out that this book is published by Blink, which is a Christian YA publishing group stemming from Harper Collins and I'm an Atheist. However, I was so pleased to see that the story isn't trying to push religious aspects across and it was just honestly giving us a fantastic and magical story. It has elements that I wouldn't expect from a Christian book as there were mentions of sex and cheating and all sorts of contemporary aspects that are usually found in YA books. So don't let this put you off, because there were only two instances where I thought the 'Christian' aspect was coming through, and that was when Veronica recalls going to Church as a child and misses the community, and when she prays to God to save someone she loves. I'm sure that you could try and tie the story to Christianity like people have done with Narnia and the Lord of the Rings and such, but to be honest, I'm just in it for the story. 

The two main characters were really relatable and had personality traits that I personally loved. Kenna is a musical theatre girl, and I absolutely LOVED that. It had a lot of contemporary aspects that balanced out the fantastical elements and it was just PERFECT. It honestly has everything I could ever want from a YA fantasy and I am so glad that I picked it up! The authors have also created a playlist to go along with the book which I will link down below but it is so perfect and I highly recommend listening to the songs while reading or after you finish the book! 

The plot was really interesting and it kept me hooked the entire way through and also had some surprising twists that I honestly didn't expect! The ending wasn't too abrupt and left me wanting the next book desperately! It also almost reads like a contemporary (especially at the start) which made it so much easier to get into the story and it made it so relatable. What a fantastic start to a series! I can't wait for the next book!  

Doon Series Website: http://www.doonseries.com/
Doon Playlist: http://www.doonseries.com/doon-series/doon-playlist/

Saturday 2 August 2014

BOOK REVIEW | GRACELING BY KRISTIN CASHORE


Graceling by Kristin Cashore

Genre: YA Fantasy

My Rating: ★★★★★

Click here to go to this books' goodreads page!

Goodreads Summary:
Katsa has been able to kill a man with her bare hands since she was eight - she's a Graceling, one of the rare people in her land born with an extreme skill. As niece of the king, she should be able to live a life of privilege, but Graced as she is with killing, she is forced to work as the king's thug.
When she first meets Prince Po, Graced with combat skills, Katsa has no hint of how her life is about to change.
She never expects to become Po's friend.
She never expects to learn a new truth about her own Grace - or about a terrible secret that lies hidden far away...


OH MY GOSH, THIS BOOK. I was not expecting to love this as much as I did! It has a pretty high rating on goodreads (4.11) but a lot of mixed reviews saying that the start of the book was too slow. I can see what these reviewers are saying, but to be honest, I loved every second of the book because the world was SO RICH and the beginning just solidified all of the elements of this world and these characters. Because of this slow (but still incredibly enjoyable) beginning, the world was crystal clear in my mind and the characters were really well developed and I just loved everything about it!

In this world, some people are born with graces, which are essentially special talents, some useful such as fighting, mind reading, etc. and then some not so useful such as being able to twist your torso 360 degrees. The main character Katsa is graced with killing, and because of this, the King (her Uncle) uses her for his personal gain to stay in power. But Katsa is starting to rebel when she meets Prince Po, a stunning boy with a grace for fighting and they embark on an exciting and fast paces journey together and OH MAN. IT'S SO GOOD YOU GUYS.

Everything about this world is so well developed and the writing is on point. I became so attached to the characters and the entire storyline just sucked me in completely! I adored the sense of adventure and all of the relationships between characters and I can't wait to continue on with the series! I absolutely loved it! Highly, HIGHLY recommend!

BOOK REVIEW | MAKING FACES BY AMY HARMON

Making Faces by Amy Harmon

Genre: New Adult Contemporary

My Rating: ★★★★★

Click here to go to this books' goodreads page!

Goodreads Summary:
Ambrose Young was beautiful. He was tall and muscular, with hair that touched his shoulders and eyes that burned right through you. The kind of beautiful that graced the covers of romance novels, and Fern Taylor would know. She'd been reading them since she was thirteen. But maybe because he was so beautiful he was never someone Fern thought she could have...until he wasn't beautiful anymore.
Making Faces is the story of a small town where five young men go off to war, and only one comes back. It is the story of loss. Collective loss, individual loss, loss of beauty, loss of life, loss of identity. It is the tale of one girl's love for a broken boy, and a wounded warrior's love for an unremarkable girl. This is a story of friendship that overcomes heartache, heroism that defies the common definitions, and a modern tale of Beauty and the Beast, where we discover that there is a little beauty and a little beast in all of us.


This book is absolutely perfect in every single way. I honestly don't have a negative thing to say about it. 
It starts off following the story of four very different people: Fern, a tiny redhead who has always been ugly; Bailey, Fern's cousin who has Cystic Fibrosis and is confined to a wheelchair; Rita, a beautiful girl who is friends with Fern; and Ambrose, a star wrestler with a face that makes girls swoon left, right and centre. The story starts while they're in high school during the year 2001 and the effect 9/11 had on them. Alternately, it follows another storyline a couple of years later when Ambrose comes back from serving in Iraq with a severely disfigured face. It's almost a backwards Beauty and the Beast tale, where Ambrose used to be beautiful, but now he's forever stuck with half of his face severely disfigured. From then, it's a beautiful story of loss, love and learning to accept and love yourself. 

This honestly blew me away, even though I already had high expectations seeing as the Goodreads rating for it is 4.50 and thousands and thousands of people have read this beautiful book! The writing is honestly flawless and immediately draws you in. Because there are flashbacks to when they were children and also flashbacks to 2001, you get so much backstory with these characters that you immediately draw a connection with them and they feel so real. I also love the backstories given in regards to all of their families. Everyone's family is shown throughout the book and the families play a really important role in the story, which as we all know, parents and families often get overlooked in YA & NA contemporaries. 

There are so many important aspects that are shown throughout this book that are so important to be highlighted in literature such as abuse, pregnancy, war, death and chronic illnesses and diseases and all of these things are so common and happen to so many people and it enhances the messages of this story so much. I could honestly keep going on about this story but I'm afraid I won't stop!

All of the characters are so unique and there are so many important messages conveyed through this book that will stay with you for years to come, at least I know that's how it's going to be for me! I will forever cherish this beautiful book that has given me so much to think about and to be grateful for. I will never stop recommending this book. GO READ IT.