In the aftermath of a forbidden moment that rocked Sydney to her core, she finds herself struggling to draw the line between her Alchemist teachings and what her heart is urging her to do. Then she meets alluring, rebellious Marcus Finch–a former Alchemist who escaped against all odds, and is now on the run. Marcus wants to teach Sydney the secrets he claims the Alchemists are hiding from her. But as he pushes her to rebel against the people who raised her, Sydney finds that breaking free is harder than she thought. There is an old and mysterious magic rooted deeply within her. And as she searches for an evil magic user targeting powerful young witches, she realizes that her only hope is to embrace her magical blood–or else she might be next.

Populated with new faces as well as familiar ones, the Bloodlines series explores all the friendship, romance, battles, and betrayals that made the #1 New York Times bestselling Vampire Academy series so addictive—this time in a part-vampire, part-human setting where the stakes are even higher and everyone’s out for blood 

ISBN #9781921518911

Sydney takes a huge leap into the world of magic in this third instalment of the Bloodlines series. This is directly against everything she has been taught as an Alchemist.

In book 2, she was told a rumour about a rogue Alchemist, Marcus Finch. It’s absolutely unheard of in her world for anybody to leave the group and she finds herself wanting to find Marcus. He just may have some of the answers she has been looking for. But in the meantime, she has been pulled into the world of magic by one of her teachers, and this has put her in danger. There is somebody out there killing witches and growing stronger by taking their power.

One thing that has been a constant in the writing of this series is the pacing of the novels. They all have a gradual build up to a big event and a surprise ending to enter into the next story. The relationships between the characters is growing stronger with each book as well. Although now that Sydney is not Jill’s main protector, some of the school friends are not seen as much in this book as the first two. The focus of the story is on Marcus Finch and her growing relationship with the vampire Adrian – yet another thing that is frowned upon by the Alchemist group (fraternizing with vampires).

The growing relationship between Adrian and Sydney is just part of the character growth that we see within Sydney. In The Indigo Spell Sydney shows the most developed and biggest changes to her character. Not only questioning what she really believes in (as opposed to what she has been taught) and she learns to follow her heart over her mind. She has a huge tendency to over-think things because she is unsure and scared of the consequences. She really is at college age at this time and I was very happy to see her discover her truths.

Just as the Vampire Academy Series is highly addictive, this book as made this series addictive for me. In the first two books I was exploring the world and who the characters are, but now we see a huge leap of faith in our main character Sydney, and I’m rooting for her. I find her very strong and becoming more determined each book. They are fun, with great pacing and I love the suspenseful build up to see where each book will take us.

This stunning debut captures the grotesque madness of a mystical under-land, as well as a girl’s pangs of first love and independence. Alyssa Gardner hears the whispers of bugs and flowers—precisely the affliction that landed her mother in a mental hospital years before. This family curse stretches back to her ancestor Alice Liddell, the real-life inspiration for Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. Alyssa might be crazy, but she manages to keep it together. For now.

When her mother’s mental health takes a turn for the worse, Alyssa learns that what she thought was fiction is based in terrifying reality. The real Wonderland is a place far darker and more twisted than Lewis Carroll ever let on. There, Alyssa must pass a series of tests, including draining an ocean of Alice’s tears, waking the slumbering tea party, and subduing a vicious bandersnatch, to fix Alice’s mistakes and save her family. She must also decide whom to trust: Jeb, her gorgeous best friend and secret crush, or the sexy but suspicious Morpheus, her guide through Wonderland, who may have dark motives of his own.

Hardcover, 371 pages  Published January 1st 2013 by Amulet Books  ISBN  1419704281 (ISBN13: 9781419704284)

I dare you to read this book and not have the imagery of great movies from Tim Burton (The Nightmare Before Christmas) and Henry Selick (Coraline). This is definitely not a re-telling of Alice in Wonderland. This is a re-imagining. Everything that you have grown up knowing about the world from the tales of Lewis Carroll are so far from what this book represents that you will question everything you thought you have ever loved about the tale.

Alyssa is the great, great, great grand-daughter of Alice Liddell, the once naive young girl who recounted stories to Mr Lewis Carroll. Since Alice’s first venture into Wonderland, and her finding her way home, all of the females in her family have become cursed. It’s on one of Alyssa’s visits to her mother in the Asylum that things go wrong. Alyssa decides that once and for all the curse must be broken. She returns to Wonderland to release them from it.

Alyssa has always heard the insects talk to her; she collects them for her artwork. But when she sees a huge moth and decides to research it, she inadvertently calls it’s interest to her. It’s name is Morpheus, from Wonderland itself, and it has come to guide her. But before Alyssa can enter the mirrored gateway, her love interest and long-time neighbour Jeb shows up at her door. Never in her wildest dreams did she think that Jeb would jump after her into the hole. And now they must work together to break the curse and get home safely.

The creatures of A.G. Howard’s visions of Wonderland are very Gothic and more evil than I expected. The rabid rabbit (known by Alice as the White Rabbit because of his skeletal figure), is just one of the creatures that we think we know as readers of the original story – but with a difference. The creatures in this world are unique, horrific and sometimes enticing.

Alyssa must complete several tasks –  from quenching the hunger of the great Walrus, to fixing the watch at the tea party. Each task will take her and Jeb into more danger, especially because he doesn’t trust Morpheus. Morpheus seems to have another agenda.The danger is that Alyssa is strangely attracted to Morpheus and Wonderland is beginning to feel more like home.

This novel had more twists and turns than a roller coaster. As soon as I finished it, I picked up the audio-book, just because I felt like I missed too much the first time through. The imagery is amazingly eerily. When trying to compare it to the original work of Alice in Wonderland you can see how a young child might have construed these much darker characters and it makes sense. And it’s kind of scary. And there are more plot twists and story lines so that the ending makes for a huge “wow” moment. It’s going to make an amazing movie someday, great visuals and I highly recommend if you like dark twists to your stories.

Everything Aoife thought she knew about the world was a lie. There is no Necrovirus. And Aoife isn’t going to succumb to madness because of a latent strain—she will lose her faculties because she is allergic to iron. Aoife isn’t human. She is a changeling—half human and half from the land of Thorn. And time is running out for her.

When Aoife destroyed the Lovecraft engine she released the monsters from the Thorn Lands into the Iron Lands and now she must find a way to seal the gates and reverse the destruction she’s ravaged on the world that’s about to poison her.

Hardcover, 417 pages Published February 14th 2012 by Delacorte Books for Young Readers

ISBN  0385738315 (ISBN13: 9780385738316)

In the first book The Iron Thorn, Aoife destroyed the Lovecraft engine, setting war about all the lands. The gates that have always been closed, have been opened and creatures have set an all-out war amongst each other. Aoife is taken to the Mist lands to stay safe from the danger with her brother and friends, but soon finds that even they are not welcomed there. The more the portals are opened, the easier the Proctors can find them. Aoife cannot fall into the hands of the Proctors because it just may mean death for her, her friends and her family.

Aoife knows that she is the only one who can save their world, by setting all the things right, but everybody is advising Aoife that what is done is done. They must fight and make due with what has happened. When Aoife gets the opportunity to be with her father again, she is more unhappy than ever and has to be true to herself. The Proctors soon get to her, and use her for their own advantage, with the threat of keeping her boyfriend jailed until she completes her tasks. But all Aoife can think about is finding her mother, to see if the the rumors of the Clock are true. And to do that, she must betray her father, her family and head out on her own.

What we have come to know about Aoife in The Iron Thorn is challenged a bit in the beginning of The Nightmare Garden. The once strong, determined and very stubborn Aoife becomes more timid when confronted by her father – a man she has not seen since she was a child. She is confronted with those emotions of being abandoned by him and his newly formed authority over her. But this doesn’t last for long. Aoife could not have gotten as far as she has in her travels, without the tenacity that we have come to know and love in her.

Aoife has to experience a lot of sad, hard times in this novel. It is heartbreak after heartbreak and each time she is having to force through another blockade she grows stronger and harder than ever. She is one of my absolute favourite heroines. A girl that doesn’t know what it’s like to have it easy. She spends her whole life knowing that she is going to become crazy or contract her “weird” as they refer to it in this book. But unlike the stories of the weird she has heard about, she overcomes and learns to wield it, magically. She becomes stronger and pushes harder.

There is a lot of travelling in this series and each new land brings a whole new dark, mystical adventure. The descriptions of the mists/ether/ open starry skied lands are completely mind blowing and visually engrossing.  I loved every minute of the book. It’s going to get you thinking, especially the ending, about what kind of repercussions the actions of one world can have on all the others. I cannot wait to read the next instalment.

STARDUST: Gift Edition by Neil Gaiman

Tristran Thorn will do anything to win the cold heart of beautiful Victoria Forester—even fetch her the star they watch fall from the night sky. But to do so, he must enter the unexplored lands on the other side of the ancient wall that gives their tiny village its name. Beyond that stone barrier, Tristran learns, lies Faerie . . . and the most exhilarating adventure of the young man’s life.

From #1 New York Times bestselling author Neil Gaiman comes a tale of the dark and miraculous—a quest for true love and the utterly impossible.

Tristan, a young strong and determined man decides to win the heart of the fair, Victoria. To do that, he must cross the wall to get her a fallen star. This is a fairy tale story for adults, full of dark characters, some sexual relationships and a little cursing. The story pivots on Tristan showing his love for a girl by getting her a gift that she cannot refuse. His travels through the lands beyond the wall will not only test his true feelings for Victoria, but he will learn a truth about himself and his destiny.

Tristan Thorn, a naive and overly optimistic boy runs into the star-turned-girl, Yvaine. Yvaine has had a very rough landing. She’s in pain and kind of pissed off that she fell in the first place. Not only do several people desire her as their own, but she’s stuck with a young Tristan, a newcomer to the land. Together they have to endure many struggles before they can finally get back home.

This story is very imaginative, yet not as humorous as I suppose I was expecting. It has a darker fairy tale feel, closer to the Grimm Brothers than Disney. Although all aspects of the story work really well together, there are times when I wanted more from some characters. When the book came to a close, it certainly wasn’t with a happily ever after. It’s a very contemplative and melancholy ending, yet perfect for the characters in this tale.

William Morrow & Company has recently released the newest editions of this book both the special gift edition and the Signed Gift Edition. I received a copy of the gift edition which is has a gorgeous blue cloth cover with a gold stamped cover.

publisher: William Morrow & Company (October 30, 2012)

• Language: English
• ASIN: B00AU9CYZK

by Gregg Rosenblum Twenty years ago, the robots designed to fight our wars abandoned the battlefields. Then they turned their weapons on us.

Only a few escaped the robot revolution of 2071. Kevin, Nick, and Cass are lucky —they live with their parents in a secret human community in the woods. Then their village is detected and wiped out. Hopeful that other survivors have been captured by bots, the teens risk everything to save the only people they have left in the world—by infiltrating a city controlled by their greatest enemies.

Revolution 19 is a cinematic thriller unlike anything else. With a dynamic cast of characters, this surefire blockbuster has everything teen readers want—action, drama, mystery, and romance. Written by debut novelist Gregg Rosenblum, this gripping story shouldn’t be missed.

When Kevin, Nick and Cass were young, the adults worldwide were fighting wars using robots. The robots suddenly revolted against their commanders, and then upon all man-kind. They set up their own cities and put chips in the humans they chose to survive, re-educating them to fit into the society that the robots built. When Kevin, Nick and Cass’s guardians are taken by the robots to this city, they decide to go and rescue them.

The pacing of the novel is perfect. There is very little down time with the combination of several characters story-lines to follow. There is always something happening with each of them, giving the reader different angles to the story until they come together again. All the parts of the story are given to us as we read with no large info dumps and a good amount of dialogue. There are not many big or “wow” moments, but it’s constant and great for younger readers as well.

I haven’t read a book before where technology has completely taken over man-kind and is “retraining” them into a society that is suitable for them. I’ve seen mixtures of the two, but in this city, it’s the robots calling all the shots and handing out the punishment. I did find it interesting that the society they did build had similarities to our own, so it’s not very hard to imagine this happening.

This book is a good starter book for those that maybe nervous jumping into a futuristic, science fiction, robots world. It doesn’t contain a lot of uncomfortable events, and very little fighting. The story is pushed along by the main characters trying to outsmart the robots rather than physically overpowering them. I found it almost too easy for these kids to overpower them the way that they did. The main characters are stronger, more determined and strong willed than any of the adults and bots. It has a great storyline of personal empowerment and fighting for what’s right and not giving up.

Hardcover, 272 pages

Published January 8th 2013 by Harper Teen ISBN 0062125958 (ISBN13: 9780062125958)