#52 11 Missed Calls

11 Missed Calls by Elizabeth Carpenter

Firstly thank you to NetGalley for this free arc in exchange for my honest review!

This story follows Debbie who is married with 2 young children, when her second child is little over a month old the family go abroad on holiday with Debbies best friend Monica, her husband and their young son. On this holiday Debbie does not return and no one knows what happened the night she went missing.

The book is told from 2 perspectives, Debbies which is told in past tense and Annies/Anna's (Debbies daughter who was a month old when she diappeared) which is told in present tense. Anna never stopped wondering and looking for her mother, at certain points in her life it became an obsession and clearly messed her up. Debbies story begins when she has Anna and tells the indepth story of how she struggled being a new mum again and juggling 2 children. Her husband Peter seems to be a 'stereotypical husband' of that era (late 80's/early 90's) where he works all day and expects his wife to be a mum but also a chef and maid too, that irritated me to no end. Monica is also a big part of the story as not only is she the best friend but she also ends up marrying Peter and helping to bring up Bobby and Anna which in any thriller is very suspicious.

What this book does well is it makes you believe certain things as true such as we believe Nathan to be Leo's father so we never question that hes alive throughout nor is it ever mentioned that he too disappeared, i liked this twist as it was very clever! The ending was a but meh as Debbie was portrayed to be the loving mother who would do anything for her kids but the ending contradicted that for me.

I have so many mixed feelings about this book, im between a 2 or 3 star here but think im settling on a 2.5. It wasnt a bad book or terribly written i just think there are so many better thrillers out there like Gone Girl, Girl on the Train, The Girl in 6E etc

No i didnt guess the twist but i didnt really care that much either, yes i was intrigued and wanted to see it through until the end and im glad i did but how i know im loving a thriller is because i will constantly be thinking up what the twist is and thinking of my own conspiracies but i wasnt doing that with this book. It wasnt terrible and i did enjoy it but it doesnt stand out much as a UK thriller in my eyes.

#51 Children of Blood and Bone

Children of Blood and Bone by Tomi Adeyemi

<SPOILER FREE>

I LOVED THIS!! OMGGG!! GAHHHHH

I dont even really like fantasy much, ive never gelled with the stories, plot, writing styles, characters, world building... you name it and i will tear it apart. I havent liked a new release YA fantasy in yearssss but this blew me away!

I saw this on Amazon for the bargain price of £4 and i thought well why not give it a go plus the cover is completely stunning and the spine will look beautiful on my shelf. From the first page this had me sucked in, i love a good map!


Ok ill try to stop fangirling now and actually talk about the bloody book! So this is a high fantasy inspired by West African culture/legend. It is told from multiple perspectives chapter to chapter. Zelie is our main protagonist (and shes a badass) when the king kills her mother to destroy all magic in the kingdom Zelie embarks on a journey to restore magic to the land. The other main characters are Amari who is the Kings daughter, Inan who is the kings son and Tzain who is Zelie's brother.

So Amari was the stand out character to me, her character has so much growth and development. The first 50 pages or so shes sweet and innocent and if im honest a bit boring but she bacame a badass in her own right. She didnt rival Zelie but was badass in a different way. Tzain and Inan are slow burners as i wasnt bothered about either of them but as the story went on i grew to love them as much as the girls!

This book is 525 pages and ive heard a lot of people complain about the length but for me when im enjoying a story and im really immersed in it then i want it to be as long as physically possible so i was glad that it was a bit bigger as i got to enjoy the story for longer.

There were SO many twists and turns in this story and it keeps you on your toes every step of the way. Trigger warning for violence as it can be quite gory so if that isnt your thing then i would give this a miss.

Im really happy that the next book comes out soon(ish), im already on the countdown to March 2019!!

#50 LIES by TM Logan

LIES by TM Logan

Firstly thank you so much to Net galley for this free e-book in exchange for an honest review.

I enjoyed this story for a few reasons, the first and main one was SO many twists. I just love when you cant predict an ending and i really didn't call this one. Secondly, it is set in the UK and thats a rarity in thrillers so for me it was much more relatable and thirdly and most importantly i just love mystery type thrillers!

Ok, so this story follows Joe and Mel lynch a seemingly happily married couple that share a 4 year old boy together. When Joe walks in on his wife arguing with Ben Delaney who is Mels best friends husband the seeds of doubt form in Joes mind and he sets out to uncover the truth. When Ben goes missing Joe is prime suspect in his disappearance and must uncover the truth before the police arrest him for something he didnt do.

Bens wife Beth and 14 year old daughter Alice are also good side characters, i usually find side characters in books a bit meh but these 2 were introduced well and added to the plot without taking it over.

I found that the story had a nice flow to it and was a really fast read, it was descriptive which i like and the story was believable. Sometimes thrillers can be a bit outlandish and take the twists too far but in this book they were subtle and it was nice to see the story develop chapter by chapter!

All in all i really enjoyed it and would like to check out more of the authors work!

#49 After the End

After The End by Amy Plum

This book came out in 2014 so i'm a tiny bit late jumping on the bandwagon considering its been on my TBR for 4 years! Im a sucker for a post apocalyptic/dystopian type book. I think 4 years ago i would have enjoyed it a lot more but it was still pretty good!

Ok, so this story follows both Juneau and Miles in inter-changing chapters which i usually enjoy as its always nice to have more than one voice especially in YA.

Juneau as the name would suggest is from the wilderness of Alaska where she lives with her 'clan', shes been kept in a small clan under the pretence that the world is in ruins after world war 3 and there is no civilisation other than there own. Juneau has been raised to believe that some members of her clan Juneau included can 'read' and 'conjure' which is basically the ability to perform spiritual magic.

Miles in true YA contrast form lives a privileged life in L.A. where he is destined for Yale, his father is the owner of a large pharmaceutical firm  that believe a new drug for anti ageing exists within a clan in Alaska, they set out to hunt down Juneau as they believe she is the key to this new drug that will potentially make them millions.

Juneau and Miles cross paths when Miles decides to try and steal Juneau to impress his father but as he meets her and then begins travelling with her he is convinced that his father is wrong about her and that she is not the girl he is looking for. Throughout the story Juneau unravels a lot of lies about her clan and the world she thought she knew which conflicts her thoughts. Who should she believe? Should she continue her quest to find her kidnapped clan?

I didnt realise that this book was part of a duology, i realised towards the end when the story was no where near resolved. I cant see what more will happen that would warrant a whole other book but i will pick it up at some point to satisfy my curiosity.

My main criticism of this book is that there was no need for the romance between Juneau and Miles, there arent enough YA books with no romance element in my opinion. It didnt add anything to the story really and took it down a star rating.

#48 Our Dark Duet

Our Dark Duet by V.E. Schwab

This is the sequel and final part of the 'Monsters of Verity' duology. These 2 books have completed restored my faith in YA, there was a few months there when i thought oh god, im too old for this now but after reading these 2 beauties ive realised that im not too old for YA when its done right!

I haven't liked any of Victoria Scwabs writing since i read Viscous... I know her 'Shades of Magic' books were massively popular and i did read this first one but it just wasnt for me every chapter felt like an absolute chore and i just couldnt get into it at all even though id pre-ordered it and it was my most anticipated read of that year (sorry for the tangent) but this book blew my mind, it was paranormal which im normally verrrrrry sketchy about but i managed to read both books in the duology and simply put, i loved them!

Our Dark Duet picks up roughly 6 months from where This Savage Song leaves off. August has joined the FTF to somewhat make up for the loss of Leo and Kate has become a monster hunter in a different territory after leaving Verity. Kate makes a few blah new friends that seem to be a big part of the story up until half way through and then you never hear about any of them again... its a good thing i didnt get attached to any of them! Augusts storyline is a bit more complex, he no longer has the desire to be human and has instead imbraced being a monster. He spends all his time hunting and trying to make Verity a better place by ridding it of the sinners.

The premise of this sequel is that SPOILER ALERT Sloan is alive and out for revenge and that there is a new monster that seemingly is impossible to catch and makes humans turn violent towards each other. There is also another monster that Kate created at the ending of the first book called Alice and she basically follows Sloan around like a lost puppy. She wants both Kate and August dead.

Normally im not a massive fan of sequels and i thought that This Savage Song ended like a stand alone, it cleared everything up nicely so i had no idea where this story would go but it surprised me! it was actually really good and a very worthy sequel. What i loved most about the first book was that it was a YA with NO romance which literally never happens! There was a brief moment in this book where i thought ohhhh godddd shes making it into a romance but luckily for me it was only 1 page of the 400 odd page book.

All in all very enjoyable and it has reminded me why i love Scwabs writing so much. One bad series does not and will not put me off any of her future work :)

#47 Illuminae

Illuminae by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff

1

This isn't my usual go to genre or book generally, its the sort of thing i would have picked up and enjoyed in my early 20's but ive heard so much about this trilogy? so i thought why not! The cover art is very pretty which made it a very easy decision to buy a physical copy as lately ive been trying to read more kindle versions of books to save space



Right, so this story is a sort of sci-fi apocalyptic romance YA mash. At the very beginning of the story the protagonists Kady and Ezra a teen couple who have just split up are attacked by a war ship run by the corporation Bei tech and they must escape together to safety.

The unique thing about this book is that its told in a series of instant message logs, emails, memos, announcements etc. I enjoyed this style and layout as it broke up the story really well especially as the book is just short of 600 pages. If this was written in the usual YA novel  style i probably wouldn't have got through it as its a tiny bit generic.

There was a few twists and some enjoyable villains, most notably Aidan who is the computer artificial intelligence system. Aidans monologues were very well written and i enjoyed the dry humour of it. Kady and Ezra were a bit meh as characters and Kady was portrayed as your typical pink haired heroine that is pretty bad ass which is fairly standard in YA these days (and which i actually dont mind, girl power) whereas Ezra is a love sick puppy who would do anything for Kady (zzzZZZ) he had little to no substance at all and was generally quite difficult to like or even care about. There wasnt very many other notable characters really... So if you didnt like Kady or Ezra you were pretty screwed.


All in all it wasnt bad. A fairly average sci-fi YA book, they only thing that saved it for me was the layout which i found to be fairly unique. Im not sure if i would read the second or third book. Possibly but id probably have to nap them from the library as im not interested enough to splash any cash for them.

#46 This Savage Song

This Savage Song by V.E. Schwab

where do i even begin with this? It was amazing! It was back to the V.E. Schwab that i know and love and none of this Darker Shade of Magic crap. 

This book follows the story of August and Kate in a weird dystopian Romeo and Juliet like vibe. August is a monster and Kate is a human, they live on opposite sides of the city of Verity which currently have a truce meaning no war or violence. 

There are 3 types of monsters the violent harrowing Corsai, the blood draining malicious Malchai and the soul stealing Sunai. There are only 3 known Sunai in all of Verity, August being the youngest and his sister and brother making up the other 2. 

Kate's father Harker runs the north side of the city whereas Flynn who is Augusts human father runs the south side. Kate is desperate to prove to her father that she has his blood running through her veins and that she is a worthy successor. 

August is desperate to help his father maintain the truce and order within the south side and although he has been hidden for years and not allowed to leave the safety of their walled compound he has become restless and his need to want to help the way his older brother Leo does is too great. When his father plans for August to attend the local school in Verity Colton ultimately to spy on Kate and to get close to her so that they can potentially use her as leverage if the truce breaks.

This plot is obviously not the most original in the world of YA but the writing is outstanding! The characters are so diverse and life like you can imagine them all in your head. This would make an excellent movie (if it was done right)

One of the main high points for me was there was no romance at all! how unusual is that in YA, i applaud you Victoria! 

Im very much looking forward to reading the next book. I had no idea this was a duology as this book ended like a stand alone and didn't leave many loose ends which strangely makes me even more intrigued as to where the story will go next!

Watch this space!