SILVER SHADOWS | Richelle Mead

SILVER SHADOWS

Richelle Mead

source: own paperback

pub: July 2014

♠.♠.♠.♠

Silver Shadows is the fourth installment in Richelle Mead's Bloodlines series (itself a spin off from her best-selling Vampire Academy) and I have to admit it is one of my favourite series. I will try and be as unbiased as possible in this review however I cannot claim complete nuetrality.


Silver Shadows picks up where the Fiery Heart left off, with Adrian and Sydney separated by the Alchemists, and ultimately this book was almost everything I wanted from it. It features wonderful scenes of Sydney being strong-willed and ingenious, Adrian having what can only be classified as a nervous breakdown (which, let's face it, we saw coming because even though Adrian Ivashkov has gone through some magnificent character development he is still at the mercy of Spirit), and many cameos from beloved VA characters.


One of my favourite things about this series has been the depiction of mental illness, while the cause is very clearly cited as the magical element of Spirit, Adrian displays a range of symptoms experienced by people with mental illness and the treatment of these is approached in similar ways. Most of the instances that I am thinking of occur in the Indigo Spell and the Fiery Heart (and I did re-read the first four books of the series before I made it to the Silver Shadows) but there is some displayed in Silver Shadows.


As the fifth book in the series Silver Shadows maintains the strong pace and content of its predecessors, though there is one thing that bothered me in a major way. I'm about to discuss a major spoiler here so if you haven't read it I suggest you avert your eyes.

The thing that bothered me was when they got married, and Adrian made sure that Sydney had the perfect wedding, or at least as perfect as they could make it. It seemed in character for the flighty Adrian but very out of character for the pragmatic Sydney. Though it led to the end showdown of the novel it seemed very unnecessary. Unnecessarily complicated if you will. 

That being said, it definitely wasn't enough to ruin the book for me, and I eagerly await the final in the series.

FORGET ME NOT | Stacey Nash

FORGET ME NOT

Stacey Nash

source: netgalley

pub: Feb 2014

♠.♠.♠

Forget Me Not is the story of Anamae, most often called Mae, who finds a pendant and brooch combination that allows her to become invisible. She and her best friend Will are swept into the world of the Collective, and those who work against them, including attractive freedom fighter Jax.


It took me a while to get into this, but once I did I read through it very quickly. It was an intriguing concept initially but I think it definitely could have used more development of the world and the characters. Instead of connecting with new characters I very much felt like I was just connecting with old familiar ones. Jax in particular reminded me a lot of Jace Lightwood but with less snappy one-liners.



As a heroine Mae wasn't bad, but she was ordinary, and I did struggle with that. It also seemed to me like she made some very stupid decisions and was very trusting of people that she hardly knew. I will be reading the sequel because I was approved for both on Netgalley and I didn't hate it, it just wasn't all that memorable. I think that maybe it didn't quite know whether it was trying to be science fiction or fantasy... and that was problematic. I'll see how I go with the sequel, but my hopes are not very high.

ALMOST DEAD | Kaz Delaney

ALMOST DEAD

Kaz Delaney

(source: own paperback)

♠.♠.♠.♠

Almost Dead is the story of Macey Pentecost, a teenage girl in the suburbs of Sydney with a turbulent home life and a recently acquired ability to see ghosts. When the ghost of a boy who claims not to be a ghost appears in her room and tells her that she is in danger, she is catapulted into a fast paced adventure involved a stalker, a new sister, and a very attractive Surfer Boy.


I bought this book a couple of months ago having read Delaney's previous book Dead, Actually (which is a companion to this one though they function well enough independently) with the understanding that I had very few light-hearted books on my to-read pile. When I did pick it up it was in the hope that it would be a quick, easy read, and I can confidently say that Almost Dead served the exact purpose that I hoped it would.


There were times while reading that I found myself a little irritated by Macey as a heroine, but this was no because of the way she was written, it was because she was a teenager and having very natural teenage responses to things. That's the thing about YA fiction, many teenagers in YA fiction come across a little more as adults, or they come across as an exaggerated stereotype written by an adult who has no concept of what the modern teenager is like. Macey Pentecost fits into neither of these categories.


The things I liked about this book were;

• the love interest
  
• the writing style
  
• the plot (which had moments in which it seemed a little far fetched but the whole premise of this book is that a boy in a coma astral-projects into her room so the element of far-fetched-ness is established from the get-go)
  

the things I disliked about this book were;

• typos, there were repeated instances in my copy of the word 'focused' being spelled 'focussed'... and it was quite jarring from a reader's perspective
  
• lack of foreshadowing, while I understand that the book was told from the perspective of Macey the final twist came out of the blue a little bit, most of the book indicated the stalker's motives in one direction but then it turned out to be something else entirely
  
• too many characters not enough development... this is primarily because when we found out the identity of the stalker I had to go back and see where they had turned up in the book before... I had no idea who they were.

Ultimately, I did enjoy Almost Dead, it was exactly the book I wanted exactly when I needed it, and I definitely recommend it for people who like humourous teen lit with an element of the unbelievable.



EDIT: I've been informed that 'focussed' is the accepted spelling in the UK and is supposedly the standard spelling in Australia... apparently my education has failed me.

So here's what's happening...

I'm currently in the process of setting up this blog, so it's going to look a little sparse and a little haphazard for a few days, sorry about that. In the meantime, here's some quick information that you may find pertinent;

Hi, I'm Elspeth, co-owner and contributer of this blog, my partner in crime is Sophie, and we are both University students in Sydney, Australia. The content that we post here is going to be primarily YA based as Sophie wants to work in Children's Publishing and I want to be Laini Taylor a YA writer. We're still hashing out the details but Sophie is probably going to write primarily for contemporary YA and I'm going to write for speculative fiction.

Until we get this all properly set up you can follow us both on Twitter or Goodreads (just me) and of course at this blog though the content will be sporadic and sparse. (Elspeth & Elspeth's GR. Sophie.)

Here's a list of the sort of things you can expect from Quiet Worlds,

• Cover Lust
• Reviews of recent releases
• Reviews of older releases ("May Have Missed")
• commentaries on movies made from books
• author interviews
• giveaways (once the blog is up and running, hopefully)
• etc. etc.