Switched by Amanda Hocking (Trylle Trilogy #1)

This goddamn book is so stupid.

It has an interesting idea... BUT the charcaters.

THE FILLPIN' CHARACTERS HAVE NO PERSONALITY OR ARE REALLY UNLIKEABLE.

This book could have been amazing, but instead it was almost worse than Twilight (almost.)

I suppose I should start off with the plot and the whole idea of this story. This story could have been so interesting if the pot was written better, instead it was all about 'how to be princess' and guess what? That's right you guessed it! We have another love triangle going on people *groan*. The reason I did not immediately cast the book to the side was because this book is about trolls, there are no books about trolls, so I picked it up and started to read... Big mistake.

Even if learning about the trolls and how they live was interesting, and it did capture my imagination; the whole plot just didn't make sense. Nothing exciting happened, we just read about the Wendy whining how she didn't want to be a princess, how she wanted to keep her name at the christening, how she didn't want to be a Changeling (which is sort of a nice idea) and wanted to go back to her family who she never treated right in the first place (I can carry on if you would like?)

And that's another point, her and one of her love interests (Finn) are probably two of the most boring and dislikeable characters I have ever read about. Wendy just whines and acts like a spoil brat all the time, she even admits this but does nothing to change it or treat others better, and she even admits she treats her Auntie and brother (who she lives with since her mother tried to kill her knowing Wendy wasn't her child, shame she didn't do a better job...) unfairly but does nothing to try and treat them better. Then we have Finn he's supposed to be mysterious and sexy - he's actually bland, creepy and boring, he literally had no personality. NONE. I could go on and on about all those bloody characters, but I'm going to try and keep it reasonably short.

And then there's the stupid love triangle, firstly who the hell would fall in love with Wendy? She's a whiny brat. Secondly, we don't need another love triangle thank you very much. Thirdly, there is no connection between any of the characters. Even though we're made to believe Wendy likes Finn and Rhys, but honestly, none of them have any solid connection with each other - it's so stupid.

So, did I finish this book? Yes. Yes I did. Even though this book is unbearably stupid, it is also very hard to put down and is a quick read; plus, you can't no hope that it will get better because of the interesting idea of the whole plot with trolls... But it doesn't. I can't imagine I'll carry on with this series, but I may give it another go with the sequel - I'm not sure.

Have you guys read it? If so what did you think?

Rating: 1.5/5 cookies

My Sister Lives On The Mantelpiece (by Annabel Pitcher)

I feel like my heart has been stomped on.

And then cut into lots of little pieces.

And then burnt in the pit of emotions forever.

I think Annabel Pitcher is secretly John Green...

This book is beautiful in so many ways I will never be able to describe, it deals with: terrorism, racism, how losing a loved one can affect a family, death, courage and bravery, and crying.

It tells the story of James and how broke and destroyed his family is over his sister's death (Rose), and how they all must come to terms with death and what is morally right and wrong throughout the story. At times it can be hard to read, this is not helped by little James' innocence (who is a major cutie by the way).

As well as James' innocence, it's hard to read as how sad it can be a times - the neglect and the battle within himself for James is hard to sit back and take, all you want to do is hug him; and you even start feeling sympathetic for his other sister who has to deal with the broken home and James, whilst dealing with her own teenage problems - love (which I'm sure most of you can relate to - even if I can't...)

There are happy times though, and I do love Girl M who I'm sure you will all think is pretty badass and amazing too - a true icon to all little girls everywhere; and she's so cute with James! Honestly guys, they may be ten but you can tell they're so going to end up together. Girl M is probably the funniest ten year old I've ever met (besides my ten year old self).

However, I started balling like a baby at the end, and I had to stop reading because I couldn't see the pages through my tears (this is why I think she's secretly John Green...). Was there really any need for that? Was there really any need to make James cry for the first time in five years? What happened broke my heart, because it's so god damn relatable.

Honestly, I read this book in about twenty four hours - I could not put it down. It was a true masterpiece and those of a 13+ age should definitely read it.

Rating: 4/5 cookies 

Me Earl and The Dying Girl (by Jesse Andrews)

Holy brownies.

That was different.

I was smiling and laughing for 90% of this book.
Even though, this is the cringiest thing I have ever read.

Where do I even begin with this book?

I suppose I should start with: 1. You will punch yourself repeatedly in the face over this book (my face hurts and is very bruised); 2. Do not read in front of your parents (unless you want them to see masturbation with pillows jokes); 3. If you are kinda getting fed up of deep meaningful books (still love John Green and everything - just there are too many books like that at the moment) READ THIS BOOK.

Jesse Andrews is a genius. End of. This book makes you feel so many things but at the same time makes you giggle every couple of pages (at least); and it's flippin' relatable (not in the crumbling family with Earl and weird eating habits of Greg's father sort of way), but it in the way of: embarrassing mums, high school sucking ass, not knowing what you're doing with friends, college life looming and screwing up life in general.

All the characters are brilliant, they just play off each other so well and it adds this kinda bizarre humour with Greg's inner monologue, who doesn't love a good inner monologue? And the author, looking back and writing the scenes cursing and threatening to punch himself (which is what I was tempted to do to him - but did to me when it got really cringy), just adds to the wit of the whole book.

Another thing I loved about Jesse Andrews, is that he is so lazy/bored sometimes he just changes the style of reading, sometimes you reading paragraphs of speech, sometimes bullet points, and sometimes you read it like a script. This was really quite brave actually and I must congratulate them - they pulled it off really well.

As well as this, it kinda just shows us the whole media bullshit with books now, they're always romanticizing them - this book takes the mick out of that. This book just kinda goes: 'oh jesus no feelings, ew, I'm not going to fall for the girl with cancer cliche' (which is very refreshing to see). It was kinda great to see two characters so unaffected by a cancer girls' death and for them both to kinda go: 'we barely knew her' instead of crying about how 'beautiful' she was of a person, and for Earl 'you can't let her death guilt you into doing shit you don't wanna' do.' (does this make me a bad person? Lets not look into that...)

So overall, I don't really feel like I've given this book the sort of review it deserves... But please, just don't take it from me and research it, because it is amazing - you will all love it, trust me. Why will you love it? Because it's so cringy and bad that it's actually funny, I mean, if I met High School Greg and Earl now I would probably avoid them and think Greg was a total dick, and Earl was a freakin' physcopath - but you know what? They doesn't exist and they're hilarious to read about. 

This book doesn't get half the praise and talk that it deserves.

Rating: 4.3/5 cookies (woo! That's high!)

Clockwork Princess (The Infernal Devices #3)

Oh wow, I am so excited to write this.

I love this trilogy and this book... And this was probably my favourite out of the trilogy.

And guess what? Guess who owns a Collector's Edition? Uh huh. This girly does.

This book. This freaking book. It made me: angry, happy, sad, want to curl up in a ball and scream, coo constantly at all the characters, and go kick some ass with Charlotte.

But seriously though, Charlotte is kick ass and she's just my favorite character.

I like really like the plot to this book and how the Lightwood family were incorporated into it - it was just beautiful guys (so are Gideon and Gabriel actually); and the demise of Benedict Lightwood made me laugh, honestly, what a brilliant way to kill off a character people hate (you just have to WORMIFY them.)

And let's not forget Tessa's story line and history, am I the only one who wasn't expecting it? And found it really quite clever? I probably was probably the only one who didn't see it coming. BUT STILL, I wasn't expecting it and found myself smiling for her when Aloysius offered up his home.

Also, the new Infernal Devices are so clever, birlliant and deadly that I wanted one - is that bad? But I mean, they are pretty cool , even if they are demons - ITS JUST SO CLEVER. Let's not forget, Tessa's clockwork angel, which was just a beautiful way to explain it all - even though I had guessed this one (FINALLY).

The only things that may have tinted the greatness of this book are the fact there are too many romances and how quickly Mortmian was deafeated, I mean all Tessa had to do was change and pick him up, thus killing him and all his clockwork creatures; it sound's like Cassandra Clare was running out of ideas. Even though the romances were adorable (especially Gideon and Sohpie - my heart sings at the thought of the two of them), there were far too many and I felt it became too much like a romance novel at the end of it.

I'm a also a bit disappointed with the Collector's Edition - all I can find that is different is the size (slightly annoying), and the fact it has a family tree at the back - did I miss anything?

Overall, I did love this book and series. Even though I find this hard to believe, if you haven't read the trilogy, do it now - it is phenomenal (and maybe slightly better than the Mortal Instruments?)

Until next time lovely readers.

Rating: 4/5 cookies

January Book Haul

Hello wonderful people!

So... I was a little naughty lost month.... I bought 11 books *gasp*

I know... It was really bad of me, but hey ho, on with life.

So I thought I would show you what I bought

Here we go! 

So these are the eleven books I bought: The Divergent Trilogy, The Inheritance Cycle Series, The No.1 Ladies Detective Agency, The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole 13 3/4, Of Mice of Men and The Sherlock Holmes Handbook.

The No.1 Detective Agency by Alexander McCall Smith, Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck and Adrian Mole 13 3/4 by Sue Townsend.

Admittedly, I have not had time to read the first book so I can not comment on that; but I have read the other two before. We read Of Mice and Men recently in English and I enjoyed it so much I just bought a copy, I know what you're thinking... That was really bad of me, but this is the first time I've ever liked a classic! I read Adrian Mole when I was eleven and haven't read any of the series since (really funny by the way, because Adrian is a douchebag who you want to punch), so I'm looking forward to possibly starting that up again. 

The Sherlock Holmes Handbook by Ransom Riggs (hardcover - and what a cool name guys)

I've flicked through the pages of this is Waterstones in the clearance section and and... *sigh* fangirled in front of everyone there, this is honestly the coolest book though. It tells you how to: fight like Holmes, analyse finger prints, deduce who Moriarty is and fake your own death. I recommend that all sherlockians buy and read this, you can find it here.

The Inheritance Cycle Series by Christopher Paolini (all are paperback apart from Inheritance)

I have been wanting to read this series for a long time, and finally find a hardcover Inheritance in the clearance section of Waterstones, I immediately picked it up for £8 (can you believe that???!!!) I got the rest of the series online, unfortunately in paperback so they don't match. I really can't wait to read this series, but it may take me a while to get around to it. 

 The Divergent Trilogy and The World of Divergent Booklet (all hardback apart from the booklet)

So this is something I've been dying to buy since I bought the first two books on my Kindle Fire, and had a nice little surprise when it was delivered and found that it had an exclusive booklet in it to (which has quizzes about what sector you would be in and other cool stuff). I'm really pleased with these because they're so pretty (mum voice: don't judge a book by it's cover!), and you can read my review on Allegiant here.

Well, that's all I got really, and I can't wait to read and review them! Bye bye for now!

Allegiant (Divergent #3)

Hello Everyone!
Yes, I am sorry for not posting for so long.
I know it's been a month, and I'm trying not to cringe at my lateness of this now... I am failing...

So yes! I finally read this big beautiful book of mine; after having it sit on my beside table for three weeks... oops?

First off, LOOK AT HOW PRETTY THIS IS

*Cough* he hem...

Sorry.

So this book was a mix of feelings for me, I'm not really sure if I enjoyed it or not.

In a way I felt kinda disappointed with what was outside of the fence because there wasn't really any action, and it was the same old Nazi point of view that I've seen revisited a few times by different authors before. Plus, lets not mention the plot holes in this - it was just a little too convenient for me for Bureau not to have any any mics with their cameras, if they had it would have caused Tris and Tobias a whole lot more problems when they were scheming with the others.

Also, I am just sick of the whole troubled relationship with Tris and Tobias, I mean, couples are going to fight and have problems sometimes; but it seems like these two are constantly fighting, bickering and disagreeing and I've had enough of it. AND when they're not bickering they are kissing - there were no real cute couple moments for me shared between the two. I wish they were wrote like they were in Divergent, when their relationship was more fun to read - even when they had their ups and downs.

And then there was the killing of off characters, I mean was Uriah's death really necessary? I felt like it just came out of nowhere and wasn't needed at all, especially with the growing bond between him and Christina (which was really cute and I LOVED IT - more than I loved Tris and Tobias' relationship in this book, sorry, had to be said.) But Tori's death was just a shock for me, I had to go back and read the page a couple of times, I just wasn't expecting it; and to be honest, I still don't know how I feel about it now.

The only thing that redeemed this book for me was the ending and Tris' death. I really wasn't expecting it, and it takes a lot of guts to pull of a main character's death like that. I mean, of course I cried when she died, even though I didn't like the relationship she had with Tobias, I liked here as a person and felt like I could relate to her. Also, the way she died she was great for me, she sacrificed herself for people who may not have even liked and forgave her brother (which by the way was heartwarming - until she dies and then it was HEARTBREAKING)

So overall, if you're hooked on the series then read it, but you know if you were unsure when you finished the second book then don't bother. I found it a bit boring times and repetitive, I didn't really start to enjoy it properly until Tris died... that sounds really cruel, doesn't it? Sorry Tris!

Rating: 3.5/5 cookies

His Last Vow (BBC Sherlock) - Review

Okay, so this episode was both brilliant and probably the worst of the season for me, and I'm trying very hard right now to figure out why, but I suppose it's because there's a couple of things that are really ticking me off with this episode.

So I suppose I should go through what I thought of this episode and blah de blah de blah...

OKAY. So this episode was brilliant and clever for the first half really (up until Christmas day for me). I really enjoyed Mary's story line and how she was a trained assassin, and Amanda played it brilliantly (along with both Benedict and Martin with the reactions). I really have to praise her for that one because it couldn't have been easy to carry off, but she did, and she made it look so effortless.

Also, I was heartbroken (no, really guys, I started sobbing) when we discovered Redbeard was Sherlock's childhood pet, because we can all relate to this as most of us have lost a pet we loved throughout our life, which I'm sure left most of us sobbing for two hours. It also showed us that he is capable of strong compassion and love, enough love in fact to still be effected by the death years later, decades later... Completely erasing any doubts on Sherlock's ability to love, and it proves to us maybe we don't know the consulting detective as well as we think we do; that maybe he is capable of showing and giving more love than any of us will ever be.

As well as all this, we got to see Sherlock's mind palace again, which was probably my favourite thing about the whole episode, it was like we got to explore it. But to top this all of, we saw that Sherlock had excepted that a part of  him was like Moriarty, but, he had locked that part himself away. That's character development  guys. In season 1 and 2 we got to see how similar they are, but this season we got to the see the differences, and how Sherlock is changing BECAUSE OF JOHN.

Now, let's get onto the Johnlock in this episode. Surprisingly, it was very disappointing. I picked up on so many moments where Sherlock displayed affection to John , e.g coming back to life for John (which caused me to cry even more), crying on the plane, and even after he said "Sherlock is a girls name" (or something along those lines) because the look on his face was ugh.... it was no. But John, John I was so disappointed with. I mean, he got bak with his wife who SHOT HIS BEST FRIEND AND LIED TO HIM ABOUT EVERYTHING. There whole relationship was a lie. How can John trust her? How can even put up with her? If my partner shot my best friend, hell, I would have filed for a divorce before Sherlock could finish his deductions on my reactions.

The THING THAT REALLY TICKED ME OFF THOUGH, was that Sherlock shot a man. Sherlock shot a man. No. It's so out of character. I know it was to protect John and Mary, but even so, I mean, come on Sherlock; where's your brilliance now? The whole plot made him seem so naive after Christmas Day and I hated it, because Sherlock's not naive, he's: brilliant, cunning, funny, witty and always a surprise; I never thought he would take the obvious way out. As well as the shooting, Sherlock should have considered that all the files were in his head after the glasses incident, even I guessed after that that Augustus had a mind palace too. To be honest, that just kinda dragged the whole episode down for me, which has landed it in my least favoruite of the series (even though everything up to Christmas day was brilliant and I loved it, and it had the potential to be my favourite.)

NOW we have to talk about Jim Moriarty. I forgot to breathe for a good ten second after the fist "did you miss me?", I then proceede to have a mini heart attack... I think... All in front of my family as well, so thanks BBC, they know think I'm mental, so really, thank you for that. But, what a brilliant plot twist, it was the perfect way to end the series, and will give us fangirls another whole bout of Reichenbach theories to work on (but just hurry up with season 4, please?)

So overall, a great episode up until... yep, you guessed it.... CHRISTMAS DAY (even the dinner was pretty funny though with Mr and Mrs Holmes), and the cliffhanger at the end really did save it in so many ways. I'm just left scared for John now, I have a feeling we can't trust Mary.... (maybe a part of the Moriarty's network that Sherlock missed? Nah, too obvious.)

(not mine by the way, but I reckon it was

 feelsy enough for this post Stolen from:

 http://johanirae.tumblr.com/post/73193445811/louisemortimer-221beemine-hiddlestalker.)

So, season three was brilliant, and probably may favourite by far because of the character development from pretty much EVERYONE. But, mainly because we learned more about Sherlock as a person, and we can now relate to him so easily (which was really hard before); also, I know feel like if I was in the same room as Sherlock that I wouldn't punch him after five minuted, but I would hug him or comfort him or befriend him,a nd try to reassure him that John won't leave him fully, ever.

See you with another one of these reviews in 84 years Sherlockians!