Who wouldn’t want to be part of the cool crowd? Who wouldn’t want to be well known and looked up to by everyone? And who would rather go to parties with celebrities than sit at home?

But what would you do, and what would you be willing to risk, to become popular and a part of this crowd? Turn your back on your only friend, lie to both your parents and boyfriend, break into school and tepee the principal’s house; Brooklyn did that, and much more.

What the Spell follows Brooklyn, a not so normal teenage girl, on her journey to popularity and to becoming a member of The Elite in her high school. Never having stuck out, never having done or been anyone special, Brooklyn has always looked up to The Elite – the cool crowd of kids at her high school. But Brooklyn isn’t just the normal outcast girl you read about in every other story, she’s a witch and has just recently received her powers.

All witches receive their powers once they are born, but not Brooklyn. Brooklyn’s parents wanted her to live a normal life, and learn to cherish her powers once she was old enough. Brooklyn has always known she was a witch and has spent many days online researching and chatting on forums with other witches about spells. Brooklyn already knew which spell she would cast first as soon as she got her powers – a beautifying spell.

After changing almost her entire appearance, Brooklyn is finally noticed by The Elite; exactly what she was hoping for. But looking good and eating lunch on stage with The Elite isn’t all Brooklyn has to do to become an official member. She has to prove her worth. To do this, Brooklyn is asked to tepee the principal’s house, and to break into the school and get The Elite members the chance to look at their files (which happen to be in Brooklyn’s only friend’s office).

After doing anything and everything they ask of her, Brooklyn realizes that The Elite aren’t the kind of people she wants to be friends with anyway. And that becoming a member isn’t as important to her, as it was in the beginning of the story.

The characters in What the Spell were kind of irritating… in a good way, if that makes sense. Brooklyn is this girl who doesn’t really know what she wants or who she is yet. She’s just got these butt kicking witch powers, but quickly uses them for the wrong reasons. She has always looked up to this “cool” group of kids, just to discover that they aren’t that cool after all (I could have told her that all along!).

The Elite is comprised of a few wealthy kids, who spend their lunch time eating on a stage, their weekends partying with celebrities, and any other time bullying or mistreating other people. While I can see why Brooklyn would want to become a part of The Elite, I can also see why her boyfriend constantly denies their invites to any social events.

Brooklyn’s only true friend is her councillor, who I can easily say I really liked. But I do feel that she could have spent more time talking to Brooklyn about The Elite and why it wouldn’t be a good idea to become a member.

The ending wasn’t anything too crazy or unexpected which I didn’t mind. For this story, I actually liked it. There was already so much to learn and so much going on throughout the story, that I felt a twist or unbelievable ending wasn’t needed. In the end, everything is made right.  Throughout What the Spell, she discovers herself and the person she really wants to be, which is a good daughter and a loyal friend.

Overall, What the Spell was a fun and light read (listen, since I had it on audio!). Though I found myself wanting to grab Brooklyn by the shoulders, give her a good shake and to tell her to open her eyes, I really enjoyed the story. What the Spell did start off a little slower than I would have liked but it quickly picked up with the different tasks The Elite required Brooklyn to accomplish. Also, the relationship between Brooklyn and her boyfriend kept this interesting and sweet. I would recommend this book on audio to anyone who is looking for something light and quick. This isn’t exactly a beach read, but it would be good for a relaxing day on the front porch in a comfy hammock.

Dan Wells introduces his readers to a world in complete shambles with only a small percent of humans left. Cities are wild and over grown, and the population is continuing to dwindle with no babies surviving more than three or four days.

Kira is interning at the hospital, hoping to somehow help this epidemic. She wants to find the reason why these babies aren’t surviving and to then find a cure. It’s only been a few weeks, and Kira has already witnessed more than enough babies and mothers go through this pain of losing another life. But when Kira’s best friend is pregnant, she knows she has to do something, anything, to save that baby, and fast.

The only thing Kira can think of, is to go out of the city limits, and capture a partial to do some testing. But will she actually be able to find one? People haven’t seen a Partial since the war ended over ten years ago. And how will she know what she is looking for?

Partials has one of the most interesting cast of characters I’ve ever encountered in a book. This world has been destroyed by war, leaving a small percent of humans as well as a population of Partials – robots that were created by humans over a decade ago to fight for them in wars.

Kira is the strong leading female character that I love and search for in almost every book I read lately. I enjoy having a kick butt girl taking the lead in such a completely dangerous and destroyed world. What pulled me in, and caused me to like Kira from the start, was her character’s strength. Dan Wells showed this to the readers within the first few pages, when she asked her boss at the hospital if it was okay for the mother to hold her dead baby. This might not seem like much to us, but in the world Kira lives in, babies die every single day, the people don’t waste time by letting the mother hold the baby.

Another character that stole my heart was Marcus, Kira’s boyfriend. Even though we don’t get to know him or see him too often throughout the story, we get to learn right away that he cares a lot for Kira and wants nothing but to be with her. He was such a sweet guy and sometimes throughout Partials I found myself wishing that Kira would give him more of her attention, that she would love  and care for him, just as much as he did for her.

Samm is another one of the main characters, but unlike Kira or Marcus, Samm is a Partial. He sees the world and the destruction from a different point of view. Unlike many other Partials, Samm seems to want peace between his own kind and humans. While I don’t dislike him, he is kind of dark and mysterious, and I don’t yet know what to think of him. Samm seems honest, and seems to want what Kira and her friends want; peace.

While Partials had many twists, turns and unexpected events happen throughout the story, I do have to say that the end result was a bit predictable. Many other things that happened along the way that boggled my mind, but the overall goal Kira and her team had, was accomplished, which I felt like I knew would happen. If I hadn’t already read Fragments, I would be fan-girling to all of you right now, about how excited I am to read it!

Overall the story, the entire idea of Partials, and the characters made the book for me and was what pushed me to read the next book Fragments. I do have to say the one thing that let me down about this book was the predictable ending. It didn’t bother me that much, but I did wish for more of an explosive kind of end to Partials.

I received this audio book for review, from Simon and Schuster. Thank you! Just like What Really Happened in Peru, The Runaway Queen is a short story in the Bane Chronicles, following Magnus on an adventure.

While I did enjoy listening to What Really Happened in Peru, and learning so much more about Magnus, the actual adventure was a little bit boring. But even with that, I had high hopes for this second instalment in the chronicles, again to learn about Magnus and for a quick and fun adventure.

I am a little sad to say, that the Magnus in The Runaway Queen isn’t the same Magnus we are introduced to in the Mortal Instrument series or in What Really Happened in Peru. He just doesn’t say or do things that I would expect Magnus to do.

However, the concept of him actually helping Marie Antoinette escape during the French Revolution was a nifty idea, and I still found it very fun and enjoyable! I do plan on continuing and finishing the Bane Chronicles, I’m still very excited to see what else is in store!

The Maze Runner Trilogy was always one that was recommended to me over and over again, by my friends, by different bloggers, and even by my school librarian. When I purchased the box set, reading these books was long overdue, and I knew it was time to finally see what everyone was raving about! Besides having this trilogy recommended to me well over thirty times, another thing that caught my attention was that readers compared it to The Hunger Games Trilogy!

“When Thomas wakes up in the lift, the only thing he can remember is his first name. His memory is blank. But he’s not alone. When the lift’s doors open, Thomas finds himself surrounded by kids who welcome him to the Glade—a large, open expanse surrounded by stone walls.

Just like Thomas, the Gladers don’t know why or how they got to the Glade. All they know is that every morning the stone doors to the maze that surrounds them have opened. Every night they’ve closed tight. And every thirty days a new boy has been delivered in the lift.

Thomas was expected. But the next day, a girl is sent up—the first girl to ever arrive in the Glade. And more surprising yet is the message she delivers.

Thomas might be more important than he could ever guess. If only he could unlock the dark secrets buried within his mind.”

Is it sad that until I actually started reading The Maze Runner, I had no idea what it was really about? I had never read a review, I was just always told how amazing the characters were and how unexpected the ending was. I never knew that the characters were all boys, or that these kids were just dropped into this unknown place with no knowledge of who they are, or why they were there.

The Maze Runner has a VERY interesting set of characters! While I usually like a strong female lead character, I didn’t find that in this story…I didn’t find any kick butt girls at all, expect for one who showed up at the Glades unconscious… so she wasn’t too kick butt.!Even though, the cast was filled with nothing, but boys, I actually really liked that. It made the story stick out, and unlike anything I’ve read before. It was what pulled me in and kept me reading!

Thomas’s journey of getting out of the Glades seemed never ending, whenever he seemed to get closer to the exit, somehow he always got farther away from it. As the reader, I felt like I was right there with him, trying to figure out what all this meant … why these boys and this one unconscious girl where put here, and how to get out. The Maze Runner had me wrapped around its finger, and wasn’t letting go; I loved it!

Just as I was told, what seemed a million times over and over again, the ending was something I would have NEVER expected! I couldn’t believe how things ended!! While The Maze Runner did leave us off with a bit of a cliff-hanger, but with such an unbelievable I didn’t really care!  All I care about is reading the next book and finding out what’s going to happen next!

It’s true, The Maze Runner is comparable to The Hunger Games; kids are thrown into a dangerous place to fend for themselves and survive. But other than that The Hunger Games and The Maze Runner are completely different. While The Maze Runner isn’t usually the type of book I grab for, James Dashner has sucked me in with his amazing story, characters, and cliff-hanger that left me wanting more! I’m really happy that I purchased the box set, so I can continue the trilogy right away! 

Phoenix by Elizabeth Richards was on the top of my TBR pile. After completely falling head over heels for Black City, the first book, I just couldn’t wait to read the second instalment.

Black City was one of those books that made me wish I could jump in between the pages and become part of the story! The story itself was action packed, the cast of characters were interesting and partially “inhuman”, and the ending was mind blowing, leaving my brain as mush!

With all of these fantastic qualities, I couldn’t go one day without starting Phoenix. But just like any other amazing first segment, I was wary of middle book syndrome; a disease that occurs when the first instalment of a series is mind blowing, jaw-dropping, and nothing less than perfect, but sadly the second book doesn’t contain the same level of awesomeness, causing it to simply be a stepping stone to the next book.

Phoenix takes places almost exactly where Black City ends off. Natalie and her sister are now living with Day and her family. It’s Natalie’s birthday and Ash has the perfect gift for her; an engagement ring! Is that not the BEST way to start off a book??

But things aren’t going as well as planned when Ash is stopped and asked to step into a carriage, where he finds himself sitting across from Purian Rose. Purian Rose threatens him and Ash is unsure of what to do. Should he vote for the rebellion and risk losing Natalie? Or should he vote for Purian Rose, against all the people that have supported him, to save Natalie?

I usually like to go into a more detail summary, but Phoenix starts off real quickly and doesn’t take any time at all to throw the reader back into Ash and Natalie’s world and the adventure. I don’t want to give too much away, so I think my summary will have to end there! You’re going to have to read the book yourself to see what else happens, and who Ash decides to vote for!!

One of my favourite things about this story is the amazing set of characters. I loved each and every one of them in Black City, and couldn’t wait to see them change, shift and develop when the going got tough. I couldn’t get enough of Natalie and Ash together, and had high hopes to continue that in the second book. While I still enjoyed reading about each character individually, I loved the two of them together.

Unlike in the first book, there were one or two small things that did bother me this time around. Whether they were wearing thick winter coats or were stuck in the middle of a desert, Natalie still wanted to always cuddle and be close to Ash. If he wasn’t always holding her hand, or right by her side, she assumed that he was mad, or upset with her. Natalie was just a bit more … clingy in Phoenix than she was in Black City.

Phoenix had an explosive and unexpected ending!! After being kidnapped and dragged into an air-plane, Natalie is sacred and confused. But when she finally gets the chance to calm down, and see who pulled her into this aircraft, she can’t believe her eyes! Someone who I would have never expected came along and did the unthinkable!

Phoenix was everything I wanted and so much more, it was action-packed, filled with love, and an amazing group of characters. The beginning was enticing, the middle was heart-wrenching and the ending was unbelievable! Elizabeth Richards did it once again, and I can’t wait to see what she throws at her readers in the third book!