Eleanor and Park by Rainbow Rowell

Yes, I know. I'm rather late in hopping on the Rainbow Rowell band wagon, but better now than never. Right?

Eleanor is the new girl in town, and with her chaotic family life, her mismatched clothes and unruly red hair, she couldn't stick out more if she tried.

Park is the boy at the back of the bus. Black T-shirts, headphones, head in a book - he thinks he's made himself invisible. But not to Eleanor... never to Eleanor.

Slowly, steadily, through late-night conversations and an ever-growing stack of mix tapes, Eleanor and Park fall for each other. They fall in love the way you do the first time, when you're young, and you feel as if you have nothing an everything left to lose.

I was 85% positive that I would not like this book, in fact I was so sure that I bought it just to prove myself right. Well, I was wrong. Sometimes books are just so hyped up that when you finally get the chance to read them you just feel so remarkably underwhelmed that you want to sob in a corner. Not Eleanor and Park. Oh no, the characters are constructed so eloquently that you're with them for their journey, as if you were their closest friend.

I swooned over Park, I wanted to hug Eleanor, her siblings and her mother, and I really wanted to punch Tina in the face for the majority of it. It's a book that gets under your skin in such a way that has you thinking about it for many days later.

To put it simply, I felt all of the feelings. To put it in an even simpler way, it is a masterpiece.

If you have yet to discover this fantastic piece of literature, then please head out to your favourite bookshop or Amazon and buy it. Honestly, this story of first loves and 80's references will make you fall in love with reading all over again.

Throne of Glass by Sarah J. Maas

taken from goodreads

After serving out a year of hard labor in the salt mines of Endovier for her crimes, 18-year-old assassin Celaena Sardothien is dragged before the Crown Prince. Prince Dorian offers her her freedom on one condition: she must act as his champion in a competition to find a new royal assassin. Her opponents are men-thieves and assassins and warriors from across the empire, each sponsored by a member of the king's council. If she beats her opponents in a series of eliminations, she'll serve the kingdom for three years and then be granted her freedom. 

Then one of the other contestants turns up dead... quickly followed by another. 

Can Celaena figure out who the killer is before she becomes a victim? As the young assassin investigates, her search leads her to discover a greater destiny than she could possibly have imagined.

Lets just establish something, if the bad ass cover doesn't immediately draw you in and the bad ass synopsis doesn't immediately  draw you in then hopefully this review will do what the previous two failed to do.

First, I would like to say that the fantasy genre is the marmite of the book world for me. It's not often that I feel neutral towards these books, I either love the book or hate it. In this case, if you haven't already established, I freaking loved this book. Although, I found that at points it was pretty obvious what was going to happen, it doesn't draw away from the overall effect that this book has on the reader.

Celaena could possibly be the strongest female protagonist I have encountered in the YA world - she has her eye set on her freedom and she will stop at nothing to gain this and whilst she may be an assassin, she isn't emotionally detached from life like you may expect a killer to be. Not only is she an assassin, she is an avid reader and she could take you down with words in a matter of seconds. One of my favourite quotes from the entire book is one from the end, during the final fight and well, maybe you'll understand why it is my favourite once you've read it: “My name is Celaena Sardothien. But it makes no difference if my name's Celaena or Lillian or Bitch, because I'd still beat you, no matter what you call me.”  I cheered so hard when she said that, it definitely highlights her strength and complete bad-assery. 

The description in this book is wonderful, Maas wastes no time in plunging us into the world of Adarlan and the Glass Palace. There is one point when Celaena is stood looking out onto the city and I felt like I was stood right next to her. It's easy for writers to fall into the trap of telling rather than showing but Maas has not fallen down on this aspect, rather she has strode at least 10 ft past the trap. A well built world is one of the greatest things in literature.

Every single time I read a new book, I try desperately to not fall in love with the characters but with Dorian and Chaol it was too difficult. They are polar opposites which is why it is okay to love them both and I will not envy Celaena when it comes to choosing which of the two will be her endgame guy. Dorian is sassy, kind, hilarious and adorable that at times he seemed so much like Will Herondale that I found that I had to remind myself that I was not reading The Infernal Devices. However, I have been informed that this was written long before The Infernal Devices series so obviously this kind of guy is the archetype for YA. Chaol on the other hand is distant, strong, a warrior but there are times when his emotions slip through his cold exterior. The first time he tried to slyly smile at something Calaena had done was the point of no return for me.

Overall, I give this book a very solid 5 stars out 5. You can find the book on Amazon at: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Throne-Glass-Sarah-J-Maas/dp/140883233X/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1379884156&sr=8-2&keywords=throne+of+glass

Angelfall by Susan Ee

Now, I'm sure everybody has already heard of Angelfall- the internet phenomenon that has taken the book world by storm- but just in case you haven't or have but don't know what the hell it's about, here is a quick run down: Picture this, you're living in a world where everything is in ruins. You don't know what's going on but you do know that the Angels are more vicious than even Supernatural made them out to be. Next thing you know, they've snatched your sister away from you and you're left to help a wounded but sassy angel named Raffe whilst trying to hunt down your baby sister.

As you now have the general jist of the story line I shall proceed to review it and hopefully persuade you to read this book.

I normally avoid stories about Angels at all cost as I find them tedious and quite frankly cheesy, however Angelfall was not that kind of story. The angels are not made out to be fluffy, loving yet slightly avenging types. Oh no. These Angels will rip your throat out without a second thought, they are not nice and they actually follow the bible's lore on them. Susan Ee very clearly did her research and for that I give her all of the awards. Raffe is sassy, he is handsome but he is also quite badass and has a more humane side than the other Angels which is pretty cool as well. I know I just contradicted myself there but he still follows the general Angelic lore of being vicious when need be.

Penryn Young. She is our protagonist and she is a little bit similar to Katniss Everdeen. You know- protective over her little sister, untrusting and when she has her sights set on something she will stop at nothing to get that something. It's quite inspiring. Penryn is also different to Katniss in that she hasn't grown up in this desolate, dystopian world so she has had to be able to adapt to a lifestyle that is completely different from a first world style life. She is one of the female protagonists that I find myself actually liking as she is intelligent and is quick to adapt and survive her surroundings.

Susan Ee also built up the world pretty well. Sometimes that is where dystopian novels falter as they don't spend enough time building up the setting, but Susan has apparently found the perfect ratio between character development and location development which thus allows the reader to connect more to the story.

If you're one to normally avoid Angel novels at all costs, try to push that aside and read this book as the story is fantastically structured. The narrative gives us just enough time to get used to one part of Penryn's journey before we are yanked away by our hair and thrown into a completely new part of the journey and it works so well. What continued to be one of my favourite moments in this book was Penryn's mother turning up all over the place, she is slightly insane and it's absolutely great.

I, like thousands of others, rate this book 5 stars out of 5 just because it is so amazingly, fantastically awesome and you should check it out for the sheer amount of stupid adjectives that I have used to describe this novel. Seriously, check it out: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Angelfall-Penryn-End-Days-Susan/dp/144477851X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1378072910&sr=8-1&keywords=Angelfall