BOOK REVIEW: Night School: Legacy by CJ Daugherty

Night School: Legacy by CJ Daugherty is the second book in the Night School Series. Night School is a YA Suspense series that started with the first book in the series Night School (paperback 1^st published on 5 January 2012). The ISBN is 1907411224 and the novel was published on 3 January 2013 by Atom. I purchased this book in paperback.

PLOT

In the last year, Allie's survived three arrests, two breakups and one family breakdown. The only bright point has been her new life at Cimmeria Academy. It's the one place she's felt she belongs. And the fact that it's brought the dreamy Carter West into her life hasn't hurt. . .

But far from being a safe haven, the cloistered walls of Cimmeria are proving more dangerous than Allie could've imagined. The students, and faculty, are under threat and Allie's family - from her mysterious grandma to her runaway brother - are at the centre of the storm.

Allie is going to have to choose between protecting her family and trusting her friends. But secrets have a way of ripping even the strongest relationships apart . . .

WHY I BOUGHT IT

The first book really spoke to me even if it wasn’t what I expected. From the cover and the blurb at the back it screamed paranormal but it turns out this is an example of the somewhat less known genre of YA thriller.

WHAT I THOUGHT

This book continues on the riveting story from the first book in the series and we see Allie change in some ways but stay the same in others. There are things I like about this book and things I dislike but the book keeps me coming back and I think it is safe to say that I will be sticking around until the end of the series unless the quality of the writing falls off a cliff.

For all of us that read a large number of books that are part of a series we know that the problem with the first instalments in many of them that the plot has to be established and that characterisation especially of the supporting cast really suffers, this doesn’t happen every time but it does happen a great deal.

Night School: Legacy gives us a greater insight into some of the other students of the Cimmeria Academy and the series is improved as a result, we start to see into the motivations of characters like Carter and Jo which for me made me give them a little slack and makes me less hostile to them. This helped me with my enjoyment of the book for sure and let me concentrate on trying to figure out who could be trusted.

We have to talk about Allie at the beginning of this novel I can understand her reasons for losing it and we know this is how she deals with trauma but the almost instant turnaround that happens came across as incredibly hard to believe at first but as the book goes on we see that Allie does love to flip flop on major decisions.

PROS: The suspense is palpable and the way that the story moves between Allie’s battle to survive the perils of school and the far greater conspiracy that lies behind Cimmeria Academy.

CONS: It is difficult to root for or even tolerate either of the two love interests because when you look at it really you have a date rapist who admitted to doing the same in the past and a guy who can best be described as self-destructive.

CONCLUSION

Despite that controversial aspect of the series I am still happy to recommend that people read this series as they will get sucked in to the intrigue and the burning desire that you along with Allie can learn the truth. If you’ve taken the splash with the rather long opening book in the series then this is more of the same thankfully with a few answers too.

BOOK REVIEW: Night School by CJ Daugherty

Night School by CJ Daugherty is the first book in a YA series and was published on January 1^st 2012 by Atom Books. The ISBN is 1907411216 and I purchased the paperback edition. This review does not contain any spoilers.

PLOT

Allie Sheridan’s world is falling apart. Her brother’s run away from home. Her parents ignore her. And she’s just been arrested.

Again.

This time her parents have had enough. They cut her off from her friends and send her away to boarding school, far from her London friends.

But at Cimmeria Academy, Allie is soon caught up in the strange activities of a secret group of elite students.

When she’s attacked late one night the incident sets off a chain of increasingly violent events. As the school begins to seem like a very dangerous place, she finds out that nothing at Cimmeria is what it seems to be.

And that she is not who she thought she was.

WHY I BOUGHT IT

I saw Night School featured on a blog a while back one of those special ones where they interview the author and I liked the sound of it. Boarding school mystery stories are usually quite interesting and I have particularly been let down by any I have read.

WHAT I THOUGHT

Even if you aren’t particularly interested in reading this book I would ask you to check out the blurb at the back as one of the best examples of keeping spoilers out of a plot summaries I have ever read. It succeeds it giving nothing away while leaving enough there for you to think that maybe this book is worth a read.

As the summary suggests this story is all about secrets and lies, Allie is in this strange new world that she wants to like but it is made clear early on that everyone around her is not telling her the whole truth and that leaves her at a disadvantage to say the least whilst also alienating her. The common threads from most boarding school stories are here devilishly handsome boys falling over themselves to date the protagonist an envious social Queen who does her best to bully and belittle her but is done in a way that is tolerable and often entertaining.

Night School manages to do this by making the cast of characters around Allie the other students interesting and real. Too often in boarding school books the rest of the cast can be described simply as the quiet one, the spoiled one, the hot one, the nerdy one but Night School does its best to make sure that if you wanted to list the characters featured in this book and describe them you’d need a lot more than one word to describe them.

I read through Night School in four days and that was after forcing myself to stop after reading a chunk just to let the whole thing sink in a bit before continuing on, there is quite a number of characters to keep track of and their relationships are important to note.

There is a real feeling of paranoia that pervades this book when you look at things from Allie to describe most of the people as two-faced is probably being too nice. They have their reasons only SOME of which are revealed by the end of this the first book in a series but reasons don’t help when everyone is lying to you.

Night School is a great example of the boarding school YA premise often done but rarely executed as well as this book. The characters, the suspense and the sense of intrigue keep you from putting this book down, trust me.

BOOK REVIEW: Born At Midnight by CC Hunter

Born at Midnight is the first in the Shadow Falls written by CC Hunter. It was published on 29^th March 2011 by St Martin’s Griffin, its ISBN is 0312624670. 

PLOT

One night Kylie Galen finds herself at the wrong party, with the wrong people, and it changes her life forever. Her mother ships her off to Shadow Falls—a camp for troubled teens, and within hours of arriving, it becomes painfully clear that her fellow campers aren’t just “troubled.” Here at Shadow Falls, vampires, werewolves, shapeshifters, witches and fairies train side by side—learning to harness their powers, control their magic and live in the normal world.

Kylie’s never felt normal, but surely she doesn’t belong here with a bunch of paranormal freaks either. Or does she? They insist Kylie is one of them, and that she was brought here for a reason. As if life wasn’t complicated enough, enter Derek and Lucas. Derek’s a half-fae who’s determined to be her boyfriend, and Lucas is a smokin’ hot werewolf with whom Kylie shares a secret past. Both Derek and Lucas couldn’t be more different, but they both have a powerful hold on her heart.

Even though Kylie feels deeply uncertain about everything, one thing is becoming painfully clear—Shadow Falls is exactly where she belongs…

WHY I BOUGHT IT

It has been awhile since I have gotten my teeth into a really good YA series from the start, I have several ongoing series that I love (yay for more Bloodlines next month) but have been looking around for other series to add to the reading pile. Unravelling was a hot mess, Mythos Academy was uninspiring and after that I moved onto other genres in the pile, Born at Midnight is me taking a chance on a plot outline that sounds intriguing with the knowledge that there are already several more books if I want more.

WHAT I THOUGHT

Kylie Galen has done it, she stands at the top of the pedestal alone, she is my number one most unlikable main character far surpassing my intense dislike for one Rose Hathaway of the Vampire Academy series. She is just one of the most selfish and vile characters I have ever had the misfortune of following in a book. You know the most unfortunate thing about is that Kylie is only one of several things that make Born at Midnight extremely hard to read.

TOO MANY PLOTS

Teen pregnancy, unknown birth right, love triangles, divorce and family secrets and there are even more plotlines to be found in this first book. The result is that far too much is going on and the book suffers from having to jump between all these plots.

CHARACTERISATION

There is very little in the way of characterisation everyone just gets the go to adjectives, sexy, angry, scary and the like. The boys are attractive with broad shoulders and flat stomachs or they are creepy. Kylie’s cabin mates get fleshed out a little more but that seemed to be more as a result of the plot having to move forward than anything else. The love interests were nothing more than pretty cardboard by the end of the book which may or may not be worse than other multi-book stories but they didn’t feel very real or interesting.

This goes doubly for Kylie she starts the book proper denying that she is supernatural, and this manages to go on for 90% of the book though thankfully she is less of a cow about it as we move through the story and stops treating them like freaks even as they go well out of their way to be nice to her.

Born at Midnight is an amazing premise that falls badly in the execution, to put it simply there is much too much going on. I cannot recommend this book to fans of paranormal YA it feels like an unfinished exercise in writing. After I completed this book and was preparing this review I read that the author was switching over from romance so perhaps this could be put down to initial teething problems and we might see an improvement to later instalments. Still even allowing for that I think there are many YA books out there that are worthy of your potential time.

BOOK REVIEW: Clockwork Princess By Cassandra Clare

Clockwork Princess is the third and final book in the Infernal Devices Trilogy by Cassandra Clare. It was published on the 19^th of March 2013 by Walker and the ISBN is 1406330396. I purchased this book.

Cassandra Clare is better known as the author of The Mortal Devices series which has recently been turned into a film franchise; both series occupy the same universe with the events chronicles in the Infernal Devices having happened over a century before.

PLOT

If the only way to save the world was to destroy what you loved most, would you do it? The clock is ticking. Everyone must choose. Passion. Power. Secrets. Enchantment. Danger closes in around the Shadowhunters in the third and final instalment of the bestselling Infernal Devices trilogy.

WHY I BOUGHT IT

I bought Clockwork Angel on a whim and was rewarded with an engaging story with an interesting twist. Once I had finished that first book there was no doubt that I would be following the series to its conclusion.

WHAT I THOUGHT

I was late to the party with the whole Cassandra Clare thing. Of course I knew about her and The Mortal Instruments especially the whole trilogy being extended due to the runaway success of the first few books. Even as I was about to start this review people keep telling me to read the Mortal Instruments but it is just not for me. 

The reason I chose The Infernal Devices is at the time it made a change from my normal YA and the setting reminded me a little of Sherlock Holmes story plus the British setting is a hell of a change.

Clockwork Princess is the finale of the Infernal Devices trilogy and had a lot of things to tie up. Did it manage to do things well? It managed to do things excellently and I never had that feeling which all too often occurs when reading YA that one knows exactly where the plot is heading and that for me is a big plus.

Finally we have all of Tessa’s origins revealed which felt like a huge load off my mind I had been racking my brain especially with all the tiny slivers of hints over the past two books. Also I can’t really talk about this book without examining the central love triangle; the way it is handled is beautiful and touching. Other YA books should take note on how the triangle is handled it is elegant.

There is not much I can say about what goes on without it getting into spoilers so suffice it to say that this is the best trilogy that I can bring to mind at the moment and the books go flow together smoothly and the ending, definitely did not see that coming in anyway shape or form and it blew me away.

GIVEAWAY – 30 DAYS OF BOOKERY

No that is not me doing a Giveaway but someone else so read on for the details.

So I was checking out my friend’s Book Blog and she alerted me to this crazy giveaway to celebrate the release of City of a Thousand Dolls by Miriam Forster. Here are some details about the book which is released on the 5 February 2013.

Nisha was abandoned at the gates of the City of a Thousand Dolls when she was just a child. Now sixteen, she lives on the grounds of the isolated estate, where orphan girls apprentice as musicians, healers, courtesans, and, if the rumors are true, assassins. Nisha makes her way as Matron’s assistant, her closest companions the mysterious cats that trail her shadow. Only when she begins a forbidden flirtation with the city’s handsome young courier does she let herself imagine a life outside the walls. Until one by one, girls around her start to die.

Before she becomes the next victim, Nisha decides to uncover the secrets that surround the girls’ deaths. But by getting involved, Nisha jeopardizes not only her own future in the City of a Thousand Dolls—but her own life. 

You can either check this post by Miriam Forster at her Blog or read on for details.

Or read on for the details.

Starting on Sunday, January 6th, Miriam Foster is going to give away a book a day. Some will be adult, some will be young adult, some will be middle-grade. Some will be books that came out in the past year, some will be books that aren't out yet. Some will be hardbacks, some will be ARCs. But she will give away at least one book a day for 30 days.

Here's how it works.

--Every day Miriam Foster will post a new book giveaway.

--Each individual giveaway will last one week.

--All single book giveaways will be international. Multi-book ones will be US only.

--ON THAT DAY'S POST you'll enter by leaving a comment. You get:

+1 entry for commenting (commenting is mandatory to enter)

+1 entry for sharing on Twitter or Facebook

+1 entry for following the blog

+1 entry if you've never won a contest here before

+1 entry for adding up your own points

(Winners will be chosen randomly Maximum five entries on each contest.)

But wait, there's more!

If you blog about the 30 Days of Bookery, you get an automatic +1 to every giveaway on the blog that runs during that 30 days. Your post must:

-have a link back to this post.

-state the reason for the contest (to celebrate the City of a Thousand Dolls release!)

-include a picture of the City of a Thousand Dolls cover.

Leave the link to your blog post in the comments section of this post and you'll get an automatic entry to every giveaway for 30 days.

And yes, there is still more!!

Author Miriam Foster will also be wandering Twitter, Tumblr and Facebook for those thirty days and giving away random books over there. Those giveaways will be unannounced and quick, so if you're interested in them, you might want to head over to her official blog and follow her in any way you can.

So there you have it. 30 days of book giveaways.

BOOK REVIEW: Deadly Cool by Gemma Halliday

Deadly Cool written by Gemma Halliday was published by Harper Collins on the 11^th October 2011. It is the first in a series featuring the main character Hartley Featherstone. I purchased this book.

PLOT

Hartley Featherstone just found out that her boyfriend, Josh, is cheating on her with the president of the high school chastity club. So naturally she breaks into Josh’s bedroom after school, hoping to catch the cheaters in the act. Instead, all she finds is the fake virgin’s dead body in Josh’s closet. Now Josh is the prime suspect and as much as she wouldn't mind watching him squirm, Hartley knows he’s no killer. So she teams up with Chase Erikson, the unnervingly sexy editor of the school newspaper, to try and crack the case. Soon Hartley  is stumbling over more dead bodies...and all signs indicate that she may be the killer’s next target.

WHY I READ IT

Whenever I have the time I like to update my preferences on the Amazon site to reflect which books they suggest are ones I already own and take a quick look at the suggested ones, when Deadly Cool showed up I was immediately intrigued, what doesn’t sound compelling about a high schooler solving murders with her friends especially when you add in the fact that the murder was at the school.

WHAT I THOUGHT

JUST WHAT I NEEDED. This book is a very quick read but such an enjoyable one, the writing style is filled with humour but never goes too far in that direction, there is just enough of a hint of real danger surrounding the characters that you quickly become interested in to keep you excited and eager to see the plot unfold.

The thing about murder mysteries is that unless you are really knew to them which is unlikely given the proliferation of them in nearly all forms of media we know exactly how things are going to happen from murder to speculation over motive, to suspect one onto suspect two and so on until in the end the killer appears and we most likely never saw it coming. Well that is an example of a GOOD murder mystery sometimes you know who did it before the murder even takes place but without spoilers I think you’ll be reasonably happy with the resolution of this mystery and it features none of that nonsense like finding out that one of the principal characters is actually someone’s son in the summing up of why they did it, I always hate when they do that.

Hartley is an immensely likeable character right from the beginning and you totally begin rooting for her and hoping that she comes out on top because you can tell despite the things she is obviously very confused about she is strong, dedicated and incredibly loyal.

So if you like mysteries and your stories with a little snark and humour then you need look no further than Hartley Featherstone and Deadly Cool.