Booking Through Thursday #1

Booking Through Thursday is a weekly meme hosted by Deb at Booking Through Thursday.

This weeks question is:

Do you skip ahead in a book? Do you feel bad about it when you do?

My Answer

Originally my answer would have been yes. But I now read books without skipping. The reason why I have changed is I would feel so guilty that I would have to go back and the read the book from the very beginning again, which meant that I was taking longer to finish books.

This question was inspired by an article published in the Guardian.

Review: City of Bones by Cassandra Clare

UK Publication Date: 2nd July 2007
Publisher: Walker Books
Series: The Mortal Instruments #1
Type: Young Adult

Blurb from book cover

Clary Fray is seeing things: vampires in Brooklyn and werewolves in Manhattan. Irresistibly drawn towards a group of sexy demon hunters, Clary encounters the dark side of New York City - and the dangers of forbidden love.

My Thoughts

City of Bones isn't the first Cassandra Clare novel I have read. I previously read Clockwork Angel, a book that I loved from the very beginning. I hadn't seen or read any reviews about this book before I started it, and I will say that I am glad I didn't.

Having now read this book and the reviews for it,  I can say that I understand why people have a love/hate relationship with this book. OK I know that this was the first book that Cassandra Clare wrote, and it really shows in her writing style, but my biggest problem with this book is the ending. To me the ending seemed rushed, don't get me wrong I still liked the ending, but after everything else that had happened throughout the story the ending just seemed to fizzle out.

As I said earlier I loved the book. Did the Harry Potter/Star Wars undertones bother me? No it didn't. It must be hard to write a book that isn't going to use plot devices that have already been done.

Overall City of Bones is an exciting story with characters that I really want to find out more about.

Rating 4 out of 5

New Feature Idea

I am thinking about adding a new review feature to this blog. The new feature will be movie reviews. I am not sure if this is going to a monthly or weekly feature, and before I do this I wanted to get your opinion on it.

Would you be interested in having movie reviews featured on this blog or do you think I should have a seperate blog for it.

Please leave me a comment.

Its Monday, What Are You Reading?

Its Monday, What Are You Reading is a weekly meme hosted by Sheila at Book Journey. This meme is a list of the book(s) that we read last week, what book(s) we are currently reading and what book(s) we plan on reading next.

Book(s) I Read Last Week

I didn't really get much reading done last week. I spent two days helping a friend move and then I was busy organising my youngest daughters third birthday, when I did find the time to sit down and read I just couldn't concentrate.

Book(s) Currently Reading

Clary Fray is seeing things: vampires in Brooklyn and werewolves in Manhattan. Irresistibly drawn towards a group of sexy demon hunters, Clary encounters the dark side of New York City - and the dangers of forbidden love.

Hopefully I will get this book finished today. I have been reading it for well over a week now. Don't get me wrong I am absolutely loving the characters and story.


Book(s) I Plan To Read Next (this is subject to change)

Jenny is new in town. Her parents go away, leaving her alone in an isolated house. The mountains surrounding the town loom ominously, guarding the secret of what really happened the day of Diana Benson's accident. Then the phonecalls start...

Jenny has a secret admirer, who courts her with secret messages and flowers. But she also has an enemy, who chases her on a lonely road. Does she know too much about the 'accident' on the cliffs? And is there anyone she can trust? Jenny has no one to turn to. Except her secret admirer ... But who is he?

WWW Wednesday #1

WWW Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted by MizB from Should Be Reading.

To play along just answer the following three questions.

• What Are You Currently Reading?
• What Did You Recently Finish?
• What Do You Think You'll Read Next?

Here are my answers

What Are You Currently Reading?

I'm currently reading City of Bones by Cassandra Clare. I really loved Clockwork Angel so thought I would give her Mortal Instrument series a go and have to say that I am absolutely loving this book.

What Did You Recently Finish?

I really struggled with The Conjuror's Bird by Martin Davies. No matter how hard I tried to like this book I just couldn't get into the story, so stopped reading after 142 pages.

What Do You Think You'll Read Next?

I will definitely be reading The Clockwork Prince by Cassandra Clare. The main reason being that I loved Clockwork Angel and really want to see what happens next.

Feature & Follow Friday #1

Feature and Follow Friday is a weekly meme hosted by Parajunkie and Alison Can Read. This meme allows book bloggers to find and connect with each other.

Featured Blogs This Week:

Pawing Through Books and Book Den

This Weeks Question

Go count the number of unread books on your shelf. How many?
YA Books - 89
Adult Fiction - 238

Total Number Of Unread Books - 328

I had no idea it was that many. Oh well...at least I will have plenty of books to review.

How big is your unread pile?

Review: Ashes by Ilsa J. Bick

UK Publication Date: 29 September 2011
Publisher: Quercus Publishing
Series: Ashes #1
Type: Young Adult Dystopian

Blurb from book cover

Seventeen-year-old Alex is hiking through the wilderness when it happens: an earth-shattering electromagnetic pulse that destroys almost everything.

Survivors are divided between those who have developed a superhuman sense and those who have acquired a taste for human flesh. These flesh-hunters stalk the land: hungry, ruthless and increasingly clever.

Alex meets Tom, a young army veteran, and Ellie, a lost girl. They will fight together and be torn apart but Alex must face the most difficult question of all: in such a vastly changed world, who can you trust?

My Thoughts

Ashes by Ilsa J Bick is the first book in the Ashes trilogy and what a way to start. Ashes is a post-apocalyptic story told through the eyes of Alexandra or Alex as she's known in the book. Alex is a seventeen-year-old girl who, after enduring countless experimental treatments to control a brain tumour, decides that she's had enough and sets out to scatter her parents ashes at Lake Superior. Unfortunately for Alex things don't go according to plan.

After meeting a man named Jack and his granddaughter Ellie, a bratty eight-year-old girl, and Mina, Ellie's dog,  they experience, what Alex calls, the zap. The zap renders technology useless, kills millions of people, including Jack, within the first few minutes and those it doesn't kill it changes into fast, fierce cannibals. Alex also finds out that she has changed as well. Alex realises that her sense of smell, which the tumour had robbed her of, is back and more sensitive then ever, though this doesn't help her when she finds Rule, a small village which is hiding a deadly secret.

Through Alex we see the best and worst of humanity and it begs the question how far would you be willing to go if society broke down. Ashes is a gripping, and very dark read with memorable characters and a plot that is highly intriguing.

I have read some reviews that criticise the way the second half of the book is written, as it differs greatly from the first part. In the first half of the book we see a lot of violence and gore whereas in the second half it's very quiet and nothing much happens. I have to say that I really liked this, as it offered the reader a false sense of security which is quickly destroyed by the shocking cliffhanger at the end.

Ashes is definitely not for the faint of heart as some of the gore and violence is quite graphic.

I cannot wait to find out what happens next to Alex.

Rating 5 out of 5