When I was asked by Pan MacMillan Australia to review this book I thought, ‘why not?’

I didn’t really read too much into the background of the book, thinking it would colour my impressions, and apart from the duo of boot clad feet on the cover, and a comparison to John Green (whose books I haven’t read to date), I jumped in unaware of how charmingly disarming Fiona’s writing style is.

In the semi-tamed bushlands of a wilderness style campus of a boarding school in New South Wales, you will find a bunch of pampered, scared sixteen year old city kids about to lose themselves, only to find friendships, inner strength and the ability to camp on their own.

Sibylla finishes her school holidays by kissing the most desirable guy in the school, and now they’re going bush. She’s struggling to find her way in the uncharted waters of peer pressure and being true to herself. Lou and Michael are along for the ride, and though they are firmly land locked there isn’t a light house on earth that can steer the HMS Siby from disaster. Not even the advice of a life long friend can save her now.

Quite frankly I am not the camping type. Though I may hold tight to my brought up in the country ideals, there is a line I will not cross. BYO is for restaurants, not toileting habits. So reading about a place described as richly as this, allowed me to dip my toe into the water without the cold shock of the full on reality experience.

The emotions explored in amongst the eucalyptus trees is more than enough to tug at your heart strings and by golly if you don’t feel like punching Ben by week 2 I would like you to sign up to therapy because if that is your idea of a ‘healthy relationship’ you are waaaaaaay off (mumble mumble mumble mumble).

I thoroughly enjoyed the character arcs and I have a feeling I will be hunting down Fiona’s previous book, starring Lou, called Six Impossible Things, in the not too distant future. Lou’s a tough nut to crack but I’d like to see her when her guard is down. Perhaps it’s contained within that book or perhaps I will find it in future instalments.

However, it turns out I was thrilled to that I got to review Wildlife. A way to go bush from the warmth and safety of your favourite chair.

http://fionawood.com/

Paperback

384 pages

Expected publication: June 1st 2013 by Pan Macmillan Australia

ISBN13 9781742612317

How can such a lovely story stem from miscommunication?

Hollywood has done the mistaken phone connection before, and they’ve delved into the email realm as well. They never quite did it justice though. Meg, please.

This is What Happy Looks Like, begins with a typo and charms you from the first reply. Who’d have thought such a rampant bunch of clichés could be so comfortably nice.

Here’s what goodreads have to say about the blurb

“In This is What Happy Looks Like, Jennifer E. Smith’s new YA novel, perfect strangers Graham Larkin and Ellie O’Neill meet—albeit virtually—when Graham accidentally sends Ellie an email about his pet pig, Wilbur. In the tradition of romantic movies like “You’ve Got Mail” and “Sleepless in Seattle,” the two 17-year-olds strike up an email relationship, even though they live on opposite sides of the country and don’t even know each other’s first names.

Through a series of funny and poignant messages, Graham and Ellie make a true connection, sharing intimate details about their lives, hopes and fears. But they don’t tell each other everything; Graham doesn’t know the major secret hidden in Ellie’s family tree, and Ellie is innocently unaware that Graham is actually a world-famous teen actor living in Los Angeles.

When the location for the shoot of Graham’s new film falls through, he sees an opportunity to take their relationship from online to in-person, managing to get the production relocated to picturesque Henley, Maine, where Ellie lives. But can a star as famous as Graham have a real relationship with an ordinary girl like Ellie? And why does Ellie’s mom want her to avoid the media’s spotlight at all costs?”

This is a book in the same vein as The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight, though it isn’t the same characters or setting. It is however just as warm and fuzzy. 

Jennifer has a real knack for making deliciously consumable lovable books. I am in awe of how she sucks me in every time. Through all the light and airy, there are issues to be explored. The price of fame, and does being famous automatically mean you get everything you desire?

There are tissue moments and plenty of bits to giggle over. Dialogue is easy and believable.

It’s a bit of a thick volume, however you’ll hardly notice if sweet and fluffy is your thing.

Definitely one for a gloomy day, or a blue mood. Curl up with the cat, in a blanket, and keep the tissues and hot chocolate handy.

http://www.jenniferesmith.com/

Paperback, 224 pages

Published April 4th 2013 by Headline Book Publishing

ISBN 0755392280 (ISBN: 9780755392285)

I make no secret of how much I adore Brigid Kemmerer’s Elementals series. It’s so difficult for me to act my age with the thought of the Merrick brothers being involved in another chronicle in the not so distant future. I have also been exploring the new world (for me at least) of ebooks.

What better way to lure me in, Brigid, than putting out Elemental novelettes that are only in eBook/ Kindle format. So after I’d charged my new tablet, downloaded the Kindle app, and sat my butt down in a coffee shop (I don’t have wifi at home) the very next thing I did was download, book 0.5 otherwise known as Elemental, book 1.5, AKA Fearless and signed myself up to receive Breathless, which just happens to be book 2.5. And then between review books I delved into the luscious lives of the magnificent Merrik boys.

We are treated to bits and pieces that happen between the physical books, and though they probably aren’t mandatory reading to have things make sense, I feel these eBooks add even more depth to an already rich picture for each of these young men, who do their best to make it in the world.

Elemental follows Michael Merrick and his exploring new ground (Ha, he’s an earth elemental, get it?) with fellow elemental Emily Morgan. Typical parental units cannot keep their noses out of things and you’ll have to read it to find out more.

Fearless allows us to view the inner thoughts of Hunter Garrity, who, though he isn’t a Merrick brother, doesn’t mean he isn’t smoking hot in the broodingly powerful department (you may remember him from Storm as the guy with the dog). And you guessed it, you’ll have to read more to find out how and why he is the way he is.

Breathless blew my mind with its twist. You will now be forced to go back and reread every section of Storm and Spark with Nick Merrick in it. I promise it’s worth it.

So now having read all these delicious bite-sized pieces of plot from the well crafted characters and amazingly vivid world these stories take place in, there is little for me to do but wait. Wait until Brigid can take pity on us fan girls and throw us a brand new book to rip through in a matter of hours, only to throw our hands up in frustration that we now have to wait until the next time we shall wander along with the Merrick boys.

Sigh!

Elemental

Kindle Edition, 1st Edition, 50 pages

Published March 27th 2012 by K Teen (Kensington)

ASIN B006MLKZAG

Fearless

Kindle Edition, 44 pages

Published July 31st 2012 by K Teen (Kensington)

ASIN B0085TK5A8

Breathless

Kindle Edition

Published April 30th 2013 by Kensington Teen

ASIN B00B1UVSAY

We are scared of the unknown. Death is just the beginning for Wren and the other kids with KDH (a horrible disease that almost wiped out the human race) in their systems who manage to ‘reboot’.

They come back from the dead and are bigger, better, stronger from the process. Once the Human Advancement and Repopulation Corporation (HARC), steps in and offers to give the rebooted kids a purpose, it becomes standard practice for the kids to become super soldiers, keeping the human population safe from itself, and the spread of KDH.

But what happens when the kid who took the longest time to ‘reboot’ picks the kid who took the least about of time to ‘reboot’ as a trainee? Can they both survive his curiosity? Is this life with HARC all there is for them? Could the grass be greener on the other side?

The popping mint green and an eerie looking eye glaring back at you are just the beginning for design elements that stand this book apart from all the others. There are frames around every page, which, when the book is closed, create the image of the eye from the front cover on the page edges. It made me say holy cow.

With all this uber coolness going on even before I’d opened the book, I was curious as to just what lay in wait for me. I am over the moon to announce that the book was a-freaking-mazing. It made me question my habit of taking things for granted, and going with the flow because it’s easier, because it’s safer, because it’s all I’ve ever done.

Wren (178) and Callum (22) make a delightfully amusing odd couple. You really get the feeling that it’s them against the system. The adversities they must overcome, keep you on the edge of your seat and the tension has you turning pages so quickly that the last page jumps at you and makes you scream for more.

The setting is post apocalyptic Texas, and it works effectively to highlight the differences between the haves and the have nots. Amy’s description makes me completely positive I wouldn’t survive a day in Wren’s world.

I recommend reading Reboot if you are starting out in the dystopian/post apocalyptic genre, as it isn’t as brutal as others I have read; that being said, it is unflinching enough for a fan of Dark Angel to be able to read happily.

Book two is as yet untitled, but is expected hopefully at some stage in 2014. Which isn’t as far away as it sounds.

http://amytintera.com/

Paperback 384 pages

Published June 2013 by Allen and Unwin

ISBN13 9781743315507

This was another of my exploratory expeditions into eBooks. Anya had given me a copy for review, however, I wanted cover art so I also downloaded it from the Kindle store.

A statuesque young lady in an elaborate white gown draws the eye from the dark spooky looking woodland scene behind her, while curtains and a stage let you think maybe not everything is as concrete as first thought. It works well for the story and the ominous air of the trilogy.

The Goodreads Blurb reads…

“Fifteen year old Aisha disappears in the forests on a school hiking trip. She’s the latest in a string of children to vanish there over the past five years. The towns surrounding the forests are on edge and they demand answers. And wildboy Ethan—Aisha’s boyfriend—is on the run after he and his grandfather are blamed for Aisha’s disappearance.

Cassie is just about the only friend Ethan has left. She’s been secretly in love with him ever since her mother dragged her to the wilds of Australia from Florida six months ago.

Desperate to prove Ethan’s innocence, Cassie searches the forests with Ethan to find out what really happened to Aisha. But Ethan’s growing strangely silent, and Cassie’s left questioning if her feelings for him are clouding her judgement.

Cassie discovers a dark secret lurking in the heart of the forests; a secret world of nightmarish horrors—where nothing is as it seems, where the supernatural invades your soul, where the people she trusted most might be the people she can trust the least, and where escape exists only in dreams.”

We’re introduced to the story with a bunch of teenagers dealing with the aftermath of their classmate/girlfriend going missing. What starts out as a quite contemporary tale of kids carrying on when the adults have given up, continues into a story that throws you down the rabbit hole, makes you eat the cookies and drink the tea. Quite frankly it leaves you wondering which way is up.

I loved the build up to what I call ‘The big EEK’ because the dynamic within the group is quite convincing as a regular teenage drama. As for what ‘The big EEK’ is, think life-sized dolls and creepy carousels. Exactly… EEK!

I’m not normally a fan of spooky books, especially one where the spooky isn’t mixed with terrible humour and clichés coming out the wazoo. That being said I gritted my teeth (and read on in broad daylight) to get through the EEK, and found it was well worth it.

I think reading it during the cooler months would add an extra layer of goose bump inducing heebie jeebies for those who like to have the snot scared out of them. If not, the draw factors should be for the well written story and the left of field plot twists. Anya has done well to suck me (the big chicken) into loving her creepy portrayal of the wilds of Australia.

I’m sure I will be looking for book two Paperdolls in the near future. But if I read it it will be with the lights on, the doors locked, and the cats in the bed with me. Just Sayin’!

http://dollhousetrilogy.com/

Kindle Edition, 373 pages

Published 2012 by CreateSpace