A Girl Named Digit by Annabel Monaghan

Name: A Girl Named Digit by Annabel Monaghan.
Pages: 192.
Publication: 5th June 2012/Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.
Rating: ✮✮½✩✩✩
Buy It: Amazon | Kennys

"Farrah “Digit” Higgins may be going to MIT in the fall, but this L.A. high school genius has left her geek self behind in another school district so she can blend in with the popular crowd at Santa Monica High and actually enjoy her senior year.


But when Farrah, the daughter of a UCLA math professor, unknowingly cracks a terrorist group’s number sequence, her laid-back senior year gets a lot more interesting. Soon she is personally investigating the case, on the run from terrorists, and faking her own kidnapping—all while trying to convince a young, hot FBI agent to take her seriously. So much for blending in..."

Review.

Farrah, yes, she was named after the Charlie's Angel actress, is smart. Super smart. Genius smart, as in already accepted to university smart. However, she is more ashamed than proud of her achievements. She hangs with her friends but does not truly get to know them or open up to them. One evening while watching TV with her friend, Farrah or as her old classmates used to call her 'Digit', notice a numerical code at the bottom of her screen. But this good turns out to be so much. Now, she is holed up with the hottest FBI agent ever, while faking her own kidnapping. 

A Girl Named Digit is fun. It has a crime plot but is in no way tense. It is both predictable and a little under-researched in terms of the CIA and FBI.

The book is well written and the characters have realistic traits and problems which occur when you are super smart. I would know but I am LIKE SUPER DUPER SMART. That was a lie by the way.

The main aspect which put me off this book is the insta-love. You know how much I hate insta-love. This was insta-love at its best where the guy gives up his dream job for a girl he has known for a week and a half. I was disappointed with the last few chapters of the book where Farrah's personality changed. It was irritating and predictable to read.

Final Thought.

A fast read with action and romance. However, A Girl Named Digit truly holds nothing special within the pages.

July Releases: Part 1

Here are just some of the July YA releases. More to come. Click the cover to be sent to the novel's Goodreads page.

Insurgent by Veronica Roth

Name: Insurgent (Divergent #2) by Veronica Roth.
Pages: 525.
Publication: 1st May 2012/Harper Teen.
Rating: ✮✮✮✮✩
Buy It: Amazon | Easons |

"One choice can transform you—or it can destroy you. But every choice has consequences, and as unrest surges in the factions all around her, Tris Prior must continue trying to save those she loves—and herself—while grappling with haunting questions of grief and forgiveness, identity and loyalty, politics and love.

Tris's initiation day should have been marked by celebration and victory with her chosen faction; instead, the day ended with unspeakable horrors. War now looms as conflict between the factions and their ideologies grows. And in times of war, sides must be chosen, secrets will emerge, and choices will become even more irrevocable—and even more powerful. Transformed by her own decisions but also by haunting grief and guilt, radical new discoveries, and shifting relationships, Tris must fully embrace her Divergence, even if she does not know what she may lose by doing so.New York Times bestselling author Veronica Roth's much-anticipated second book of the dystopian Divergent series is another intoxicating thrill ride of a story, rich with hallmark twists, heartbreaks, romance, and powerful insights about human nature."

Review.

Insurgent picks up where Divergent finished. This caused me a little hassle because I had not read Divergent since the week it was released sometime last year and I had forgotten the details. So, I would warn you that if you do not remember too much from Divergent you may or you may not be a little confused. Do what I did, Google or Wiki the plot, just in case. ;)

At the beginning of Insurgent I did not find myself too engaged in the story but I think that was because I was hesitant that Insurgent would be a disappointing follow up, like how Ally Condie's Crossed was for Matched. That was not the case though and I after a few chapters I found myself immersed in the civil war between factions.

Insurgent focuses around decisions. Decisions on who to believe, decisions on who to save, decisions on with whom to side and the decision whether to live or die. Believe me, Tris has a lot of tough decisions to make and some of these decisions may break Tobias and her apart.

The great thing about Roth's sequel is that it is hard to figure out who is truly good or bad. It gives the books more layer and depth all while creating a mystery for the reader. People's loyalties may not really be as they seem. She shows the truth of human nature, that not everyone is truly good nor truly bad as well as people intuition to try to save themselves.

Tris is back. She in Insurgent is still the brave young girl yet her personality is a little more subdued, not that I blame her, of course. She has been through a lot and is holding a lot of guilt on her shoulders. Despite her more timid personality, her actions are far from it. She is fierce and determined to help the ones she loves and find the truth of what her parents were willing to die for. However, one person who is not happy about Tris throwing herself in selfless and dangerous situations is Tris's boyfriend Tobias, also known as Four. In Divergent we see him as a strong yet caring Dauntless guy who has issues. In Insurgent, we find out more about these issues. Tris's and Tobias's relationship however, is fraying but is Tris willing to give Tobias up to find out the truth? I find often that I do not like reading about couples once they get together in books but there is something different about Tris and Tobias that keeps me interested. I believe that is due to Roth's great writing.

Insurgent will leave you reeling and wanting you to get your hands on the third and final installment as soon as possible. Damn Roth and her cliffhangers.

Final Thought.

Insurgent is still as thrilling as Divergent which is rare in trilogies because more often than not the second book is the filler book. I believe Insurgent will have the Divergent happy.

A few quick reads

Here are four books I read this week but am not necessarily reviewing:
Name: Fitzwilliam Darcy, Rock Star by Heather Lynn Rigaud.
Rating:✮✩✩✩✩

My Thoughts: I felt like I have just read a 450 page piece of bad AU fan fiction. Did anyone else feel that way? It had so many repetitive scenes of people confessing their love to each other, that and a lot of repetitive sex scenes. I swear all the lovey dovey Jane and Charles scenes had me wanting to bang my head off a wall. That and do not talk to me about that epilogue.

Fitzwilliam Darcy, Rock Star, truly is not a retelling of Pride and Prejudice, the only thing Rigaud did was steal the characters names and a quote or two here and there. Anyway, a terrible book that I lost about four to five hours of my life on. Seriously, just read Austen's actual Pride and Prejudice.

This is for mature readers only as it contains sexual contents.

Name: Adorkable by Sarra Manning.

Rating: ✮✮✩✩✩

My Thoughts: I must say when the first third of the book was really good, like I laughed at the bike part but the book lost it's spark a few chapters in.

Also, Jeane has to be the most annoying female ever. I always hate that one person who is different so they can rub it in peoples faces that they are different. So, naturally, yes I did want to strangle Jeane. I did like Michael, however. He is a genuinely nice guy.

Name: Prom and Prejudice by Elizabeth Eulberg.

Rating: ✮✮✮✩✩

My Thoughts: Another Pride and Prejudice retelling I read this week. A fun book which deserves 3 and half stars. The writing is nothing spectacular.It's a quick, light read that opens up the story, characters and meaning of Pride & Prejudice to younger readers.

Name: Welcome, Caller, This Is Chloe by Shelley Coriell.

Rating:  ✮✮✮✩✩ 
My Thoughts: Welcome, Caller, This Is Chloe is a very good for people want a quick modern read that is both light hearted yet has substance. Coriell's novel shows how there is nothing wrong with laughing during the bad times to help with the healing.

Pretty Amy by Lisa Burstein

Name: Pretty Amy by Lisa Burstein.
Pages: 304.
Publication: 8th May 2012/Entangled Publishing.
Rating: ✮✮✮✩✩
Buy It: Amazon | Kennys


"Amy is fine living in the shadows of beautiful Lila and uber-cool Cassie, because at least she’s somewhat beautiful and uber-cool by association. But when their dates stand them up for prom, and the girls take matters into their own hands—earning them a night in jail outfitted in satin, stilettos, and Spanx—Amy discovers even a prom spent in handcuffs might be better than the humiliating “rehabilitation techniques” now filling up her summer. Worse, with Lila and Cassie parentally banned, Amy feels like she has nothing—like she is nothing.


Navigating unlikely alliances with her new coworker, two very different boys, and possibly even her parents, Amy struggles to decide if it’s worth being a best friend when it makes you a public enemy. Bringing readers along on an often hilarious and heartwarming journey, Amy finds that maybe getting a life only happens once you think your life is over."

Review.

Pretty Amy is a contemporary young adult novel that revolves around friends, family and how one decision can change your whole. I expected Pretty Amy to be more funny than it was. It is not intense per say, I suppose dramatic is the word.

Amy is a teenager who has little to no self confidence. She hides behind her two friends, Lila and Cassie. Lila, who seems to ooze self-confidence but feels the need to be told she is pretty. Cassie, on the other, is a bad-ass girl who is not afraid to say what she means. With two friends with such personalities, they are easy to hide behind. When they get arrested on prom night due to their plan on revenge on their dates that stood them up, Amy's life gets turned upside down. Now, Amy is no longer allowed to talk to her only friends, if you do not count her parrot AJ, and must make a decision to turn on her friends or go to jail. 

Amy as a character was a little tedious. Maybe because I did not connect with her. She is shy and will not speak one minute and the next she will come out with a snappy retort. This annoyed me because I just wanted to shout at her, tell them about Brian! Amy, however, is loyal to her friends and does not rat, well anyone, out. Maybe, even too loyal. Her innocence is shown in the book when she believes that people will do what she is willing to do for them which we all know in the real world is not true. People will use and abuse you, all to get what they want. 

Amy has a voice that makes you feel bad for her when you read her internal dialogue, she gets to you. Maybe because in her own way, she is like a lost little puppy, who finally has to make some decisions of her own. Although, I do not like Amy for her personality, I think her mother has a lot to do with it. What an annoying and paranoid woman. Like, seriously. Amy and her mother are quite similar in that Amy would not talk to her mother about the situation and Amy's mother just would not listen at all.

Amy's journey of self-pity ends pretty abruptly and all seems okay with the world again which was a little disappointing but Burstein ends the book on a lovely metaphor or simile, I cannot remember if the world like was in the quote! :P 

Final Thought.

Pretty Amy could have been better or it could have been worse. Despite that, an interesting read that shows how loneliness and insecurities can dominate young people and their decisions.

City of Lost Souls by Cassandra Clare

Name: City of Lost Souls (The Mortal Instruments #5) by Cassandra Clare
Pages: 534.
Publication: 8th May 2012/Margaret K. McElderry.
Rating:  ✮✮✮¾✩✩
Buy It: Amazon | Kennys | Easons


"The demon Lilith has been destroyed and Jace has been freed from her captivity. But when the Shadowhunters arrive to rescue him, they find only blood and broken glass. Not only is the boy Clary loves missing–but so is the boy she hates, Sebastian, the son of her father Valentine: a son determined to succeed where their father failed, and bring the Shadowhunters to their knees.

No magic the Clave can summon can locate either boy, but Jace cannot stay away—not from Clary. When they meet again Clary discovers the horror Lilith’s dying magic has wrought—Jace is no longer the boy she loved. He and Sebastian are now bound to each other, and Jace has become what he most feared: a true servant of Valentine’s evil. The Clave is determined to destroy Sebastian, but there is no way to harm one boy without destroying the other. Will the Shadowhunters hesitate to kill one of their own?

Only a small band of Clary and Jace’s friends and family believe that Jace can still be saved — and that the fate of the Shadowhunters’ future may hinge on that salvation. They must defy the Clave and strike out on their own. Alec, Magnus, Simon and Isabelle must work together to save Jace: bargaining with the sinister Faerie Queen, contemplating deals with demons, and turning at last to the Iron Sisters, the reclusive and merciless weapons makers for the Shadowhunters, who tell them that no weapon on this earth can sever the bond between Sebastian and Jace. Their only chance of cutting Jace free is to challenge Heaven and Hell — a risk that could claim any, or all, of their lives.

And they must do it without Clary. For Clary has gone into the heart of darkness, to play a dangerous game utterly alone. The price of losing the game is not just her own life, but Jace’s soul. She’s willing to do anything for Jace, but can she even still trust him? Or is he truly lost? What price is too high to pay, even for love?
Darkness threatens to claim the Shadowhunters in the harrowing fifth book of the Mortal Instruments series"

Review. HAS A FEW SPOILERS - BEWARE!

I was so torn between giving City of Lost Souls (COLS) a 3 and a half or 4 star rating. Then I looked at some other book I had given 3 and a half star rating and I realised I enjoyed COLS more than I enjoyed them so I decided on a 3 and three quarters stars. I cannot give the book four stars because Clary annoyed me a little too much and I also missed good old Jace.

A review is hard to write for COLS because the story has a good few subplots going. You have Simon's and Isabelle's subplots, Alec and Magnu's, Jordan and Maia's as well as Jocelyn and Luke's mini, minor subplot. That is a hell of a lot of sub-plots so I think I'm just going to write about the positives and the negative like I did for my Wings of the Wicked review.

Positives:

+Concept: The story within COLS is interesting and invigorating. You have Jace and Sebastian/Jonathan bound. What will hurt one will hurt the other. Clary has to make the toughest decisions of her life. That put everyone is quite a sticky situation if you ask me. You have the sub-plots, such as Simon coming to terms with his new life as a vampire as well as Isabelle coming to terms with having feelings, maybe even for a certain vampire. Alec is trying to get over the fact that his boyfriend is immortal and over two hundred years old and Jordan, well he is just is just a love lorn werewolf, who I actually forgot existed and I was all 'WHAT? WHO ARE YOU RANDOM BOY?'

+Simon: Simon, who is not actually my favourite character but my second favourite probably saves this book in more ways than one. His story, for me was the most interesting to read. Now that he is a day walking vampire with the Mark of Cain on his head, he has issues, especially with his family and with Jace kinda but not really being possessed, Simon steps up as a true friend to Clary. Will Simon be the hero after all? I think he deserves to be.

+Magnus: I just love Magnus. That is all. He had the best lines because I must say Jace's wit was not up to standard in this book at all. For example: “Even the trip through the Portal had not disarranged Magnus's hair spikes. He tugged on one proudly. "Check it out", he said to Isabelle. "Magic?" "Hair gel. $3.99 at Ricky's."

+Sebastian as an antagonist: Sebastian is a very good antagonist. You do not really know what he is up too. He is hard to figure out as he seems to always have an ulterior motive for everything which adds some thrills and mystery.

Negative:

-Less action: There is less fighting in the book which is a bit of a downer because the fighting scenes in TMI series's are often super cool with interesting creatures and demons.

-Over describing: The book is the second longest of the series at 534 pages. There is defintely a good few paragraphs that could be taken out mainly of description, which are mainly of Jace and his beauty.

-Clary: Girl, you got issues and not the good kind. As TMI has evolved as a well fleshed out series, Clary has devolved into a too stubborn, naive, rash and obsessive girlfriend. She does not understand that she is sixteen and that there IS more to life than Jace. She puts him ahead of her family, which is probably a no no and despite my love for Jace, I can see why Jocelyn dislikes her daughter's boyfriend. Clary, as a character has changed, she has lost her coolness and apparently her love for drawing and all she does now is whine and make stupid decisions. If you read the book, you know what I'm talking about. Towards the end, for about a page, she has an epiphany and does something heroic and then the next chapter, well, you see for yourself. Sorry, repetitive rant over. One good thing about Clary in this book is we finally see some of that Shadowhunter within her come to life. ABOUT TIME, I SAY! 

Also, since City of Heavenly Fire is not out until March 2014, Clare thankfully does not end with a cliff-hanger that will have you, well, hanging of a cliff. Oh, what a terrible pun. 

Final Thought.

Many series's by the fifth book are drawn out and boring but Clare has done a good job at keeping the series as fresh and eventful as she can. COLS is the game changer for these Shadowhunters and I have a feeling the real battle is just beginning.

Extra.

Here's a picture of me with the lovely Cassandra Clare, author of The Mortal Instruments series.

June Releases: Part 2

Here are some more of the June YA releases. Click the cover to be sent to the novel's Goodreads page.

June Releases: Part 1

Here are just some of the June YA releases. More to come. Click the cover to be sent to the novel's Goodreads page.