Title: Song in the Dark
Author: Christine Howe
Publication: February 21, 2013 by Penguin Australia
Format, pages: Paperback, 216
Age Group: Young Adult
Genre: Contemporary
My Rating:  

From Goodreads:

Where do you end up when you have nowhere to go, and no one to turn to?

Paul isn’t thinking clearly. After destroying a series of relationships – with his friends, his flatmates, his mum – he finally hurts the one person he cares about most of all. And then he runs away.

An extraordinary and heartrending story of love, betrayal, addiction and hope.

Christine Howe’s debut novel Song in the Dark is a book of tough and mature themes definitely written for a mature young adult audience. It’s nice to know that some authors write to not squeeze into what’s popular within the age group such as young protagonists, cliched romances, and genre trends, but write matters that have meaning and levels of emotionality that you wouldn’t see elsewhere. Song in the Dark is one of those, but sadly for me, I didn’t quite connect with the book. I mean, it was good. But as it was written in third perspective it was hard to connect with our main character Paul as he hurts people he loves, family and friends, and runs away to recover at a rehab treatment centre for his marijuana addiction. I felt incredibly distant from him because of it; maybe it’s because I’m the polar opposite. If it were written in first there might’ve been a difference in the way I felt about this book. Despite it being short and a quick read I had skimmed about 30% of it and that’s really a shame.

Thanks to Penguin Australia via NetGalley for the egalley to review.

• • •

Title: Shadow Kiss, Vampire Academy #3
Author: Richelle Mead
Publication: November 13th, 2008 by Razorbill
Format, pages: Paperback, 348
Age Group: Young Adult
Genre: Paranormal, Romance
My Rating:  

From Goodreads:

It’s springtime at St. Vladimir’s Academy, and Rose Hathaway is this close to graduation. Since making her first Strigoi kills, Rose hasn’t been feeling quite right. She’s having dark thoughts, behaving erratically, and worst of all… might be seeing ghosts.

As Rose questions her sanity, new complications arise. Lissa has begun experimenting with her magic once more, their enemy Victor Dashkov might be set free, and Rose’s forbidden relationship with Dimitri is starting to heat up again. But when a deadly threat no one saw coming changes their entire world, Rose must put her own life on the line – and choose between the two people she loves most.

Richelle Mead has soooo many passionate fans the world over for her Vampire Academy series and I think I slowly am becoming one. I’ve taken my time – even if poorly – with this series and it’s a goal to finish the series this year. Shadow Kiss, the third instalment in the series, was packed with thrilling if not emotional moments, especially the ending between Lissa and Rose. It’s such a genuinely complex relationship between friends and one of the best I’ve read; there’s a lot of depth and history to their friendship that you don’t see anywhere else. It’s at that ending that it explodes and Rose and Lissa ricochet their own ways, and it’s funny how it’s both their faults. I look forward to reading the next three in this series following Rose and the path she takes to find Dimitri. This was a great instalment and the next books seem like they’re just going to cascade down on me.

• • •

Title: Pandemonium, Delirium #2
Author: Lauren Oliver
Publication: February 28th, 2012 by HarperCollins Children’s Books
Format, pages: Hardcover, 375
Age Group: Young Adult
Genre: Dystopia, Science Fiction, Romance
My Rating:  

“So what was your name before?” I say, and she freezes, her back to me. “Before you came to the Wilds, I mean.”For a moment she stands there.

Then she turns around.

“You might as well get used to it now,” she says with quite intensity.

“Everything you were, the life you had, the people you knew… dust.”

She shakes her head and says, a little more firmly, “There is no before. There is only now, and what comes next.”

After falling in love, Lena and Alex flee their oppressive society where love is outlawed and everyone must receive the “cure” – an operation that makes them immune to the delirium of love – but Lena alone manages to find her way to a community of resistance fighters. Although she is bereft without the boy she loves, her struggles seem to be leading her toward a new love.

The Eslites by C.M. Doporto
January 2nd, 2013
My Rating:  

The Eslites is about Miranda Mays who is recruited by an alien race known as the Eslites as she is a superior donor, and it is these donors that are required to help this non-human race from extinction. It is a quick short story, but I feel it was incomplete; it felt like there was much more to it that needed to be told. If it were a full novel I’d be intrigued. The Eslites shows potential as it gradually develops into a paranormal-based story from its science fiction set beginning despite the length of it. A nice introduction.

Thanks to C.M. Doporto for a copy to review.

• • •

The Search for Sam by Pittacus Lore
December 26th, 2012 by HarperTeen
My Rating:  

The Search for Sam is the fourth novella of Pittacus Lore’s Lorien Legacies: The Lost Files, which continues Adam’s (or Adamus’s) adventure after he was nearly killed and abandoned by his father at the end of the third novella, The Fallen Legacies. We follow his living in Africa (where Swahili is spoken – Kenya, Tanzania, Mozambique, Uganda – there somewhere), back to the Mogadorian estate and his home, and through to the army base in Mexico in which we were introduced to in The Rise of Nine as Adam resists against his race’s endeavours and save the Garde. Along the way we learn the whereabouts of Sam’s father as well as Sam himself. It was nice to see Sam appear again since he’s my favourite character in the series. As I said with the previous novella, the next instalment of the Lorien Legacies is sure to be a game changer with the professional debut of Adam in the series and I’m looking forward to seeing him interact with the Garde members he has yet to meet.

 • • •

Shadow Days by Andrea Cremer
December 10th, 2012 by Philomel
My Rating:  

Shadow Days follows Shay as he moves to his uncle’s (Bosque Mar’s) mansion in Vale, leading up to that bear attack which begins the events of the Nightshade trilogy. It was great to read from Shay’s POV and learn a bit about him before we meet him in Nightshade through the eyes of Calla. It was quick with Andrea Cremer’s signature writing and lines such as, ”Several hours of reading about Katniss Everdeen’s problems made me decide my life was pretty damn good.” However, it was pretty much filled with things we already knew and so much of the discoveries by Shay within the mansion weren’t that big. Still, it was a nice read and gave me another reason to return to Cremer’s world.