Main Characters: Clary, Jace, Simon, Alex, Isabelle, Valentine

City of Bones (The Mortal Instruments #1)

When Clary and her best friend, Simon, go out to the teen club Pandemonium, Clary sees something suspicious, something she shouldn’t be able to see if she was a normal teenage girl. Turns out, Clary is anything but normal, and the people she saw were Shadowhunters, a special race of humans who track down and kill demons. Not only is Clary not normal, but neither is her family. Shortly after witnessing the Shadowhunters killing another teen, Clary’s mother Jocelyn is found missing, and their apartment is completely ransacked. From there, Clary is on a race against time to find The Mortal Cup – something only her mother knows the location of – before an evil group of Shadowhunters get their hands on it.

The descriptions of the other two books are under a ‘spoiler protection’ just in case you want to read them, wouldn’t want to ruin it for you :) Just select the text if you’d like to view the text!

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Main Characters: Beatrice Shakespeare Smith, Cobweb, Moth, Musterseed, Peaseblossom, Nate, Ariel, Ophelia, Stage Manager, Theater Manager, Mrs. Edith, Mr Hastings, Mr Tibbs

Summary:

Beatrice Shakespeare Smith is not an actress, yet she lives in a theater.
She’s not an orphan, but she has no parents.
She knows every part, but she has no lines of her own.
Until now.

Welcome to the Théâtre Illuminata, where the characters of every play ever written can be found behind the curtain. They were born to play their parts, and are bound to the Théâtre by The Book–an ancient and magical tome of scripts. Bertie is not one of them, but they are her family–and she is about to lose them all and the only home she has ever known.

Anna’s Thoughts:

Please no throwing of any type of rocks. Or cake.

I think there might be something wrong with me, just to let you know before I start this review. I have not out of the million of reviews I have read for this book, read a bad one. Yet somehow, despite how excited I was about it, and despite how much I wanted to luuurve it, after reading it, I’m left feeling ‘ehhh’.

First of all, let me start by saying I am not in any means exaggerating at the amount of main characters above. All of those people are quite important characters, and all have quite a few lines. This however is one of the reasons I will buy Act II (Perchance To Dream). She’s got 13 main characters, and yet none of them get lost in the story. Well, figuratively speaking. You don’t forget any of them either. The characters are so well made, and so unique that none of them are enough like the others to get them mixed up. Which leads me to the second reason I will buy Act II: Imagery. I’ll be damned if Lisa didn’t manage to create some of the best imagery possible. There was never once a time where I couldn’t picture what was going on. Never once where I wondered what a character looked like, or what a scene looked like. It was all there, every single detail.

I think the thing that put me off of the book the most was the ‘enter from stage left,’ ‘exit from stage right,’ ‘dim the lights,’ etc. I was never a Drama/Theatre person, I had friends that were, but never me. So some of the things were lost on me. Some of the references that were given might have been understood by others, but not myself. This however isn’t Lisa’s fault. I willingly purchased the book knowing what it was about (in fact when I saw it on the shelf, I think I even did a little dance in the middle of Borders. Maybe.) and I willingly read it. No one forced me to. So the two missing stars are less of a ‘this book is bad’ and more of a ‘this isn’t exactly the perfect book for me.’

Main Characters: Chloe, Tori, Liz, Simon & Derek

Summary:

If you had met me a few weeks ago, you probably would have described me as an average teenage girl—someone normal. Now my life has changed forever and I’m as far away from normal as it gets. I’m a living science experiment—not only can I see ghosts, but I can raise the dead without even trying. Trust me, that is not a power you want to have. Ever. I’m running for my life with three of my supernatural friends and we have to find someone who can help us gain our freedom back before the Edison Group finds us first. Or die trying.

Anna’s Thoughts:

Okay, I still have not read anything from Kelley Armstrong’s Otherworld series, but after this, I may just have to.

I don’t know what it is about the Darkest Powers series, but it has got me irreversibly hooked. So hooked that the Girl Who Doesn’t Buy Hardcovers (aka Me), well… bought a hardcover.

The absolute best thing about The Summoning and now The Awakening (and hopefully, The Reckoning), is that the action NEVER stops. Seriously. Any other book, some parts get boring, you’ve got filler. You get told things that aren’t really of any interest, and somethings that never end up being of any importance. The Darkest Powers though, I’m actually scared to put the book down, afraid that while I’m sleeping, or cooking, or writing, that I’m going to miss something. That something in the book is going to rewrite itself, and I will never know what really happened. There is absolutely never a dull moment.

The second best thing about the series, is the characters. I am definitely a ‘Plot and Characters’ type person, and these books have all of that and more. The characters in the books seem so real. They have attitudes, they don’t let anything slide, they bicker, they fight, they do stupid things. So many books have heroines who don’t do anything wrong, or when they do it’s not because of their own fault, but Chloe is not one of those people. She makes mistakes, she withholds information, her mouth gets her in trouble. All without being one of those I Know Everything, You Suck characters. Even Tori starts to grow on you eventually.

And I’ve just realized I’m rambling. Really, I’m surprised I’m able to form coherent sentences. That’s how much I loved this book. Just trust me, if you’ve read The Summoning, you will LOVE this book. If you haven’t read The Summoning (and therefore haven’t read The Awakening), you really are missing out on what I would seriously call one of the best books this year.

You can read the first ten (10) chapters of The Awakening on HarperTeen.

Main Characters: Chloe, Rae, Liz, Simon, Derek, & Tori

Summary :

Chloe Saunders sees dead people. Yes, like in the films. The problem is, in real life saying you see ghosts gets you a one-way ticket to the psych ward. And at 15, all Chloe wants to do is fit in at school and maybe get a boy to notice her. But when a particularly violent ghost haunts her, she gets noticed for all the wrong reasons. Her seemingly crazed behaviour earns her a trip to Lyle House, a centre for ‘disturbed teens’. At first Chloe is determined to keep her head down. But then her room mate disappears after confessing she has a poltergeist, and some of the other patients also seem to be manifesting paranormal behaviour. Could that be a coincidence? Or is Lyle House not quite what it seems…?

Anna’s Thoughts :

To start off, let me say that I have NOT read any of Kelley’s other books, so whether or not this is like her Otherworld series, is not for me to judge.

Love. Love. Love! I hadn’t really heard of this book before happening upon it on GoodReads, but once I read the blurb for it, I instantly HAD to have it. It’s got just the right amount of YA, with the right amount of paranormal, and nowadays with everyone writing about people turning into werewolves, and vampires, it was nice to have a book that dealt with “old school” powers like Telekinesis, Necromancers and Pyromancers, which is something you don’t see all that often…. Not to mention the Poltergeist! When was the last time you read a really good story with a Poltergeist in it?

The story was fast paced, had a really good story line to it and very well developed characters. This book is the prime example at why I get upset when people don’t develop their characters! In The Summoning we learn a lot about Chloe, her past, where she’s at currently and bits of where she’s going. We also learn a lot about the sub characters, their pasts, and where they’re going! In only 390 pages you get a complete story with a great plot, great characters, and you learn tons about both on the way. There really isn’t more to ask for, is there? Well, other than great writing, which is certainly delivered as well!

You can read the first nine (9) chapters of The Summoning on HarperTeen.

Main Characters: Zara, Nick, Devlyn, Issie, Ian

Summary :

Zara White suspects there’s a freaky guy semi-stalking her. She’s also obsessed with phobias. And it’s true, she hasn’t exactly been herself since her stepfather died. But exiling her to shivery Main to live with her grandmother? That seems a bit extreme. The move is supposed to help her stay sane… but Zara’s pretty sure her mom just can’t deal with her right now.

She couldn’t be more wrong. Turns out the semi-stalker is not a figment of Zara’s overactive imagination. In fact, he’s still following her, leaving behind an eerie trail of gold dust. There’s something not right – and not human – in this sleepy Main down, and all signs point to Zara.

Anna’s Thoughts :

Need was a good book, although as few have mentioned, tails on Twilight a little too close. Girl moves away from mom & big city, to other family member in a much much smaller city. Has two choices in guys, neither of them which are exactly good for her, neither of them like the other. Strange things happen, girl does stupid things and gets herself in trouble. However it was by no means a bad book, I really liked the story, it was a decent plot, with a few interesting twists, that I didn’t see coming! Well, not completely anyway.

The only two things that I didn’t really like about Need was the non-development in the side characters. I would have loved to learn more about Devyn and Issie. Instead we learn very little about them, and the only time we do learn about them is at the last minute when something is reveled, kind of like it was thrown in at the last moment, without much forethought or afterthought.

Which brings me to my second issue with the story: the Phobia’s. To me, after reading the book, they didn’t serve much of a purpose. Sure, I found it cool learning about some of them, and then after a research that there is a name for Jenny’s high fear of clowns, Coulrophobia. (P.S. Did you know that there is a phobia of long words? It’s name? Hippopotomonstrosesquipedaliophobia. Whoa.) But the purpose they were in there, as I saw it was to calm Zara down, which never actually seemed to work.

Main Characters: Conor Broekhart, Hugo Bonvilain

Summary :

One dark night on the island of Great Saltee, fourteen-year-old Conor is framed for a terrible crime he didn’t commit. Thrown into prison by the dastardly Hugo Bonvilain, Conor is trapped in a sea swept dungeon and branded a traitor. He must escape and clear his name; he wants his old life back – his family, his friends . . . and his princess.

Conor knows there is only one way out. It’s an impossible task, which has never been done before. But Conor is determined to do it. He’ll have to fly.

Anna’s Thoughts :

Princesses, Pirates & Flying, oh my! Okay, so there aren’t really any pirates, but ‘greedy, sneaky, back-stabbing guards’, didn’t have the same ring. For me Airman was good, but slightly boring. Rightfully, this could be my own fault though. When I read a book I’m interested most in the progression of the story as well as the interaction between the characters, so when a book has sections – like this one does – where the character is by themselves for pages at a time, I get a little restless. Having said that though, the book and the story were solid.

Like most others the reason I know of Eoin Colfer is because of his very highly acclaimed series Artemis Fowl which I happen to LOVE, and like in Artemis Fowl he takes a world that we already know (Little Saltee & Great Saltee are real!), and transforms it into a world of imagination, be it gnomes, fae and the like (as in Artemis Fowl), or princesses, kingdoms and greedy guards (as in Airman). His worlds are always ones that I would find myself fortunate to live in!

The characters in Airman are well thought out and developed, we learn a lot about all of them, except one, and that’s the only downfall (other then the time the character spends alone) to the book. Isabelle is the King’s daughter, and Conor’s love interest, and through out the entire book we learn very very little about her. Towards the end of the book she even ends up defending herself in a great manor, but we never hear of her training or being taught anything that would incline that she’d know how to fight. But through the middle of the book, during the time Conor spends on Little Saltee, other then him remembering her we learn absolutely nothing about her. So it would have been nice to learn more about Isabelle, since she was in her way, a main character.