From author Andrew Fukuda comes The Trap, the explosive finale to The Hunt trilogy—perfect for fans of The Hunger Games!

After barely escaping the Mission alive, Gene and Sissy face an impossible task: staying alive long enough to stop an entire world bent on their destruction. Bound on a train heading into the unknown with the surviving Mission girls, Gene, Sissy, David, and Epap must stick together and use everything they have to protect each other and their only hope: the cure that will turn the blood-thirsty creatures around them into humans again. Now that they know how to reverse the virus, Gene and Sissy have one final chance to save those they love and create a better life for themselves. But as they struggle to get there, Gene’s mission sets him on a crash course with Ashley June, his first love . . . and his deadliest enemy.

Hardcover, 320 pages

Published November 5th 2013 by St. Martin’s Griffin (first published October 24th 2013)

ISBN 1250005124 (ISBN13: 9781250005120)

This whole series has been a fast-paced and action-packed race for survival. In the first book, Gene has learned to control his human side and ‘hides’ out in the open among the vampires. In the second book, they run for their lives, but end up in the hills in the midst of a cult. Now, in the third book, everything must come to an end, but when they are surrounded by the millions, it’s a very close call.

I was actually surprised by how the series ended. The whole series was above and beyond my expectations and the ending was so different to what I imagined it would be. The plot comes full circle, but the story lives on inside you, open to your own possibilities–not set in stone. It was very fitting.

There are a lot of answers in this final book. Yet, there is also constant movement; it’s a race against time as increasing numbers of vampires catch up to them. I have become a huge fan of vampire stories. I have recommended this series from book one because of the great writing and constantly moving storyline. I have also become extremely fond of survival stories, especially ones where you think there is just no way that most people would find the strength to survive.

Gene, Sissy and Ashley June really make this story as much as the plot does. Ashley June is one of my favourites as every scene she was in kept me glued to the page. I do recommend this series, especially if you love vampires. This isn’t much of a romance read; it’s full of action, suspense and survival. The characters are smart and intelligent. I thought that it was different from other young adult vampire books I have read, and I found the whole series highly enjoyable.

You can also purchase The Trap in audio book.

Just One Year is the sequel to Just One Day…kind of. They take place at the same time, but in different perspectives and different locations!

If you don’t know what Just One Year is about, then here’s the quick rundown.

Allyson is on a boring tour in Europe. Not that Europe is boring, but the tour definitely is! When a boy she met the night before asks to take her to Paris for a single day, Allyson can’t help but say yes. She spends hours eating, exploring, and talking to Willem. Feelings start to form, but when Allyson wakes up the next morning, Willem is nowhere to be found.

Allyson is heartbroken and we witness the bruise that Willem has left on her heart and life in her first year of college.

Just One Year is the EXACT same thing! But instead of following Allyson’s side of the story, we’re witnessing Willem’s. Don’t get me wrong, I really wanted to learn more about Willem since he is such a mysterious character, but I was pretty upset that it was the ‘same’ story.

Allyson’s perspective started by focusing on the strange relationship between Willem and herself, and it continues with Allyson’s life and overcoming this heartache. Willem’s perspective, on the other hand, starts with a little bit of a bruise, and then continues on about his life, family, and friends.

I would have to say that I was a little disappointed two times in this story: the beginning and end. The beginning, because I was expecting the story from Just One Day to continue, so I could see what would happen next, and the end, because of the same reason. I was praying that the story would take the end much farther. I guess I was just a little heartbroken that I didn’t get to see more of Willem and Allyson together.

But even with that, I still enjoyed the story. It was a bit slower, but I think I really liked that the story didn’t COMPLETELY revolve around Willem thinking about Allyson, but more about discovering himself.

Just One Day is exactly that! It follows Allyson’s single crazy, adventurous day in Paris with a complete stranger named Willem. She meets him during a street performance while Allyson and her best friend are trying to get away from their boring Teen Tour across Europe. She doesn’t know much about him, except that he is a Dutch actor and takes parts in Shakespearean street plays.

Allyson is still disappointed about the Teen Tour cancelling their plans to Paris due to flight issues. But, having finished up the tour with her best friend, the two girls are getting ready to travel this last weekend of their trip on their own. But Allyson can’t believe her eyes when Willem is standing right next to her at the train station!

She also can’t believe her ears when Willem offers to take her to Paris, promising to have her back by the next day. And, finally, Allyson can’t believe herself when she agrees to go.

Allyson usually doesn’t do this kind of thing. Her mum practically controls her life, and has a colour-coded calendar planning out all her activities and events. Allyson has never done anything this crazy on her own…but it’s about time she does!

Allyson and Willem spend the afternoon sightseeing, eating, and roaming even the smallest streets of Paris. The two finally find a place to settle down and stay for the night, but Allyson can’t ignore the feelings that have started washing over her since the day before when she saw him perform. And throughout those hours of exploring together, those feelings have just multiplied for Allyson.

…she can only hope that he feels the same way…

But when Allyson wakes up the next morning, she wakes up alone. Willem is nowhere to be seen, and doesn’t answer when Allyson calls for him. She has no choice but to leave. She’s hurt and unsure of why Willem would take her to Paris, kiss her, and then just leave her like that.

Allyson might never truly know why…

My biggest worry about Just One Day was the layout. I had no idea how the author was going to write a whole story based simply on a single day. But, to my surprise, it didn’t work that way at all. Yes, about a third of the book is focused on the day Allyson and Willem share together, savouring the good moments. The remaining two thirds of the book speeds through the aftermath of this day.

I liked how it was organised. I was worried I would get bored quickly if the entire book took place in one day. But, in the end, we got the chance to let good parts of the story melt on our tongues while the sour parts were washed away!

Overall, I enjoyed the characters, especially Allyson! At first I didn’t understand why in the WORLD she would leave with a stranger and go to Paris for a day and night, but after meeting her mum it seemed like the obvious decision.

I don’t want to say anything about the ending, but if you plan on picking this book up soon, you have a truly AMAZING story ahead of you!

A general’s daughter and a defiant slave should be worlds apart, but as Kestrel and Arin are discovering, those worlds can touch all too easily.

In Kestrel’s world, war and marriage are the only options open to her. Her father, the revered General Trajan, expects her to follow in his footsteps, conquering territories for the Valorian emperor. She would rather play music and study the people around her.

Finding herself in the slave markets one day, she encounters a Herrani slave who seems as determined to escape his fate as she is to escape hers. One rash decision later, she is reluctant the owner of Arin. She becomes the talk of the town due to the ridiculously high price she paid for him, and this price may grow steeper over time.

This is possibly the hardest review I’ve written this year. I have such conflicting feelings about The Winner’s Curse that I’ve put off writing about it for far too long. The novel is getting amazing reviews online, and they are well-deserved. The world-building is wonderful, the writing superb, and yet…

About halfway through the book there is a massive world-altering event that shifts the entire dynamic. It’s stunningly brave writing to have a shift of this calibre, and there’s no way that the story would have worked without it. The shift isn’t the problem, but it’s the way things change after the shift that kills me.

A change of atmosphere is to be expected. It’s the change in the characters that I can’t come to terms with. Arin’s character development might be a bit heavily influenced by his romantic lead status, but it is otherwise believable. Kestrel, on the other hand, becomes someone that I don’t recognise. She’s initially intelligent and alert. She is a strategist who watches the people around her until she knows their weaknesses. Her strength isn’t in combat but in her mental prowess, and she knows it. Aside from playing the piano, it’s the one area in her life that she actively tries to improve.

Despite this, the moment that her strategic side is desperately needed, she stops using it. For maybe the last quarter of the book she stagnates, becoming the opposite of the dynamic character she was at the beginning. There’s more action here than in the rest of the book, but it just crawled for me. Every page I turned I was waiting for her to do something – anything – and it didn’t happen.

Strangely enough, the thing that I expected to bother me most didn’t bother me at all. I’ve rarely seen slavery written well, unless it has been written by someone who has been a slave rather than for purposes of entertainment. I actually hiked this book right up to the top of my reading list because I was so sure that I would dislike it and wanted to get it out of the way earlier rather than later. I should have had some faith. The slavery aspect is handled with the care it deserves. Kestrel has an interest in the Herrani people and treats them respectfully, so when she meets Arin there’s already a framework for friendship.

There’s a lot happening in The Winner’s Curse, but it is a love story at heart, and this aspect of the novel is handled brilliantly. There’s no insta-love in Kestrel and Arin’s story; they have to work hard to get there. Arin is full of anger at all Valorians; he initially makes no exceptions for Kestrel. It’s only when he realises that she isn’t out to break or conquer him that things start to change. For her, it’s finding someone who can match her mentally and someone who doesn’t expect her to fit the standard Valorian model.

After having finished The Winner’s Curse I’m desperate to get my hands on the second book in the series. Not because of the cliff-hanger ending, but because I need to see if Rutkoski can recreate the magic that I felt at the beginning of the novel without resorting to the unwarranted plot-devices at the end.

Winner’s Curse – Marie Rutkoski

Bloomsbury (March 4, 2014)

ISBN: 9781408858202

You all remember that scene from Mean Girls, where Janis is explaining the cliques in the school cafeteria?

Maya starts out below the bottom rung on the popularity ladder at the beginning of eighth grade.

In short, she rediscovers a book written in 1951 by a woman called Betty Cornell, and embarks on a year of experimenting with ideas from the book to see if the Teenage Popularity Guide could do the seemingly impossible–make Maya popular.

The chapters are broken into months and each one tackles a different ‘issue.’  So from top to tail ‘things’ are addressed, and Maya steadfastly battles to not cave in. She has small wins along the way, and to begin with, people react the way you would expect.

There are so many moments of snort-giggle inducing hilarity, that when Maya gets serious, it carries an impressive amount of weight. There are definitely more things going on here than learning how to wash your hair and how to have better posture.

I originally got this book hoping my daughter would read it, because she’s having difficulty connecting with the cliques at her school. Her initial thoughts were that Maya ‘changed herself for the expressed purpose of being popular’, which meant she wasn’t being her authentic self.  I’m still holding out hope she’ll change her mind and give it a chance. Maya is still Maya, but she’s just less fearful of what other people think of her.

There are some things in the book the average Aussie teen won’t be able to put into place at school like the dress code and the string of pearls. The majority of the other ideas will produce surprising results.

I believe Popular was more about blurring the lines chasms between the separate groups in a school, than it ever was about a person becoming more pleasing to the eye.

Maya is a really well spoken young woman, and I do hope she’ll continue writing, as she has a brilliant sense of humour and a fearless outlook on life.

The most important question that started it all was what does popular mean?

You’ll be astounded to read what Maya and her peers come to realise is the truth of Popularity.

I’d love to know what you consider to be the definition of Popular.

https://twitter.com/MayaVanWagenen

Paperback, 259 pages

Published April 15th 2014 by Penguin

ISBN 0141353252 (ISBN13: 9780141353258)