Silver Shadows by Richelle Mead

Review may contain small spoilers for the Bloodlines series
If you haven't read the Bloodlines series (or Vampire Academy) I highly recommend them!

Silver Shadows by Richelle Mead
Synopsis:
Sydney Sage is an Alchemist, one of a group of humans who dabble in magic and serve to bridge the worlds of humans and vampires. They protect vampire secrets—and human lives.
In The Fiery Heart, Sydney risked everything to follow her gut, walking a dangerous line to keep her feelings hidden from the Alchemists.
Now in the aftermath of an event that ripped their world apart, Sydney and Adrian struggle to pick up the pieces and find their way back to each other. But first, they have to survive. 
For Sydney, trapped and surrounded by adversaries, life becomes a daily struggle to hold on to her identity and the memories of those she loves. Meanwhile, Adrian clings to hope in the face of those who tell him Sydney is a lost cause, but the battle proves daunting as old demons and new temptations begin to seize hold of him. . . .
Their worst fears now a chilling reality, Sydney and Adrian face their darkest hour in this heart-pounding fifth instalment in the New York Times best-selling Bloodlines series, where all bets are off.

Silver Shadows is the 5th instalment in the Bloodlines series and it is by far the most intense, heart wrenching book out of the five. I was expecting some heart stopping moments after the cliff hanger at the end of The Fiery Heart but I wasn’t quite fully prepared to feel so terrified for both Sydney and Adrian. Silver Shadows is very different from the other four books, mainly because of the different settings and the interactions with different characters. Even though I love reading about the little group in Palm Springs, it was nice to move away from that setting. I found it interesting seeing Court through Adrian’s eyes as Lord Ivashkov but also seeing Sydney’s experiences in the completely different world of re-education.

Speaking of re-education, I never imagined it to be that bad! It was completely horrific and I couldn't believe the methods that the Alchemists used on "corrupted" souls. You have to hand it to Sydney though, she was amazing throughout this book and I was constantly in awe at her strength. Even though she was going through a lot in re-education, she still wanted to help her fellow prisoners which made me admire her even more. I love how far Sydney has come throughout these books, from the time we first met her in Blood Promise when she was petrified of Rose to now when she's in a relationship with a vampire, the development she’s gone through as a character is remarkable.

Just like Sydney, Adrian has also grown so much as a character. I was expecting him to fall apart in this book and even though I love him a lot he did frustrate me slightly a little and in the first half of the book I just wanted to shake some sense into him. But to give him credit he does pick himself back up which shows how far he has come, and his use of spirit in this book, as worrying as it is, was pretty cool and heroic.

Even though Adrian and Sydney aren’t together for a majority of this book, Silver Shadows definitely focuses more on them and their relationship than the other characters in the story. They both have to deal with a lot in this book and they are tested both as individuals and as a couple, which shows in the end how strong they are.

Overall Silver Shadows was a captivating and pulse pounding read. Richelle Mead manages to balance the dark and the light moments perfectly and the character development that happens throughout these books is phenomenal. I am very excited to read the last book, The Ruby Circle, which comes out next year as the ending to Silver Shadows has left me wondering what will go down in the last book and how the series will conclude.

Fire & Flood by Victoria Scott

Fire & Flood by Victoria Scott
Synopsis:
Time is slipping away.... 
Tella Holloway is losing it. Her brother is sick, and when a dozen doctors can't determine what's wrong, her parents decide to move to Montana for the fresh air. She's lost her friends, her parents are driving her crazy, her brother is dying—and she's helpless to change anything.
Until she receives mysterious instructions on how to become a Contender in the Brimstone Bleed. It's an epic race across jungle, desert, ocean, and mountain that could win her the prize she desperately desires: the Cure for her brother's illness. But all the Contenders are after the Cure for people they love, and there's no guarantee that Tella (or any of them) will survive the race.
The jungle is terrifying, the clock is ticking, and Tella knows she can't trust the allies she makes. And one big question emerges: Why have so many fallen sick in the first place?

When I first picked up this book I thought it would be a copy of The Hunger Games, and in some ways it was similar but in others it was totally original and creative. Before Fire & Flood I had never read a book by Victoria Scott so I wasn’t really sure what to expect, and boy was I in for a surprise. I really loved this book and I thoroughly enjoyed reading it, as its such an exciting, compelling story with an interesting plot and fantastic characters.

Tella, the main character, enters a race called the Brimstone Bleed, where the winner receives a cure for any illness which could save her dying brother. All the contestants in the race have a ‘Pandora’ which is some sort of animal with cool super powers that aids them throughout the different ecosystems they have to race through. In Fire & Flood the characters battle through two of the four environments that make up the race, the jungle and the desert. Both of these settings were brought to life and were incredibly vivid, making it so easy to envision and feel like a part of.

Tella is a typical teenage girl to start out with, she isn't much of an outdoors women but she’ll do anything to help her brother and that’s why she enters the Brimstone Bleed. Throughout the book you get to see her grow and become tough but at the same time she stays relatable. We meet a lot of other characters in this book as loads of people are given the opportunity to participate in the race. All the supporting characters were well developed and real, I enjoyed reading the interactions the characters had and reading about those that Tella befriended or fought along the way. I especially liked watching Tella's relationship with Guy, the love interest in the story, change and grow.

Whilst reading this book I was completely immersed in the world, constantly turning the page to find out what happens as it keeps you in suspense from the beginning to the end. I'm super excited to read the next book in the series ‘Salt & Stone’ which comes out next year as a lot of questions still need to be answered.

Overall though Fire & Flood was a fast paced action packed read with just the right amount of humour and romance that I highly recommend!

Slated by Teri Terry

Slated by Teri Terry
Synopsis:
Kyla’s memory has been erased,
her personality wiped blank,
her memories lost for ever.
She’s been Slated.
The government claims she was a terrorist and that they are giving her a second chance - as long as she plays by their rules. But echoes of the past whisper in Kyla’s mind. Someone is lying to her, and nothing is as it seems. Who can she trust in her search for the truth?

Slated is very different from any other dystopian I have read as it is set not that far in the future with a world similar to our own. From the moment I read the synopsis I found the whole concept of the story intriguing, I could easily see something like slating, wiping a criminal’s memories, happening in the future and that's what really made this book interesting.

Kyla, the main character, is a unique narrator as we don’t know anything about her and neither does she, and as the reader you are left wondering who she is and what she must have done to been slated. She is very intelligent and observant but at times she can be almost childlike as the world and everything in it is new to her. As she had been slated, she has no memories of her past – or doesn’t to being with – but she does have a distinct personality that makes her a very interesting character to read. She is completely different to the other slateds in the book and as the story goes on she begins to get whispers of her memories back she becomes even more intriguing and complex.

The romance in the book was a very minimal part of the story that didn’t interest me at all, I just didn’t feel there was any chemistry between the two characters. Ben, the love interest, was also slated but I couldn’t take to his character at all and compared to Kyla his lack of personality bored me. Aside from the romance the other thing that I had a problem with was that the number of questions I had weren't answered by the end of the book, we only know what Kyla knows, and because of this we don’t know why she was slated, why she is remembering things and we don’t know much about the world. So even though I whizzed through this book really enjoying it the ending was a little disappointing and didn’t do justice to the story.

The world being similar to our own makes the book a whole lot more frightening and very believable. The whole story is creepy and mysterious but at the same time fascinating and the regular visions and dreams Kyla has of her past life adds to the mystery factor.

Slated is a thought provoking novel with a very intriguing plot making it a very interesting page-turner, I didn’t find this book particularly mind blowing even though it had the potential to be but I still enjoyed it nonetheless and I love the whole concept of the story.

Half Bad by Sally Green

Half Bad by Sally Green
Synopsis:
You can't read, can't write, but you heal fast, even for a witch.
You get sick if you stay indoors after dark.
You hate White Witches but love Annalise, who is one.
You've been kept in a cage since you were fourteen.
All you've got to do is escape and find Mercury, the Black Witch who eats boys. And do that before your seventeenth birthday.
Easy.

Half Bad follows the story of Nathan who lives in a world where white witches, who are good, and black witches, who are bad, exist. Nathan is a witch, however he is half good and half bad, his father is the most powerful black witch alive and his mother who was a white witch is dead. Nobody knows what to do with him or what to expect, he faces constant prejudice from everyone and at 14 he's put in a cage. He has to escape before his 17th birthday so he can receive his 3 gifts in order to become a full fledged witch.

I really enjoyed this book, it took me a while to get used to the writing style but once I had I loved it! The first half of the book focuses on Nathan's back story, which really helped set the world up so it wasn't confusing at all. Nathan narrates the story, he is a fascinating character and also the sort that you can't help but root for as he goes through a lot in the book. The plot isn't particularly fast paced but it doesn't need to be as it is a very intriguing story with several important events that happen along the way. The only problem I did have though was the romance in the book wasn't very believable but hopefully it will be developed in the next book.

Overall though I found this book very interesting and I'm looking forward to the rest of the trilogy. Even though some people may be put off by the unique writing style it is an incredibly well written and compelling book that I would recommend to anyone who is looking for a different, slightly dark YA read.

A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness

A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness
Synopsis:
The monster showed up after midnight. As they do.
But it isn't the monster Conor's been expecting. He's been expecting the one from his nightmare, the one he's had nearly every night since his mother started her treatments, the one with the darkness and the wind and the screaming...
This monster is something different, though. Something ancient, something wild. And it wants the most dangerous thing of all from Conor.
It wants the truth.

I went into A Monster Calls not really knowing what to expect, I knew it was going to be good because of all the positive feedback it has had, but every review I read all said the same thing "just read it". I now understand why so many people struggled to sum this book up, it’s so hard to put down into words as it is so many different things but I'm going to give it a go.

This book was beautiful yet utterly heart-breaking, and I'll admit I did cry. The story follows a young boy, Conor, whose learning to deal with his mums battle with cancer. Conor’s compelling story is interspersed with the old stories that the monster tells, each of these stories have a lesson which definitely made me think differently about things.

This book is full of imagination and wonder but at the same time still very realistic. Each of the characters are well crafted and they all have a part to play in the story, they react just as people would do to the situation they are in making them very real which allows you to become involved in the story.

This book is everything at once and I loved how truthful it was. A Monster Calls is a beautifully written and illustrated novel and even though it is classed as a YA book I highly recommend it to all ages. All that’s left to say now is, just read it.

Throne of Glass by Sarah J. Maas

Throne of Glass by Sarah J. Maas

Synopsis:

After serving out a year of hard labour 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. 

Celaena finds her training sessions with the captain of the guard, Westfall, challenging and exhilarating. But she's bored stiff by court life. Things get a little more interesting when the prince starts to show interest in her... but it's the gruff Captain Westfall who seems to understand her best. 

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.

Before reading Throne of Glass I had never read a book centred around an assassin, so going into this book I wasn't sure what to expect even though I had heard a lot of great things about it. Let me tell you, it didn't disappoint, page after page I was pulled deeper into this incredible story and found myself engrossed by the characters and the world.

Throne of Glass was a truly amazing book that had me hooked from the very beginning. It was beautifully written with the perfect mixture of magic, mystery, romance and suspense that had me turning the pages to see what would happen next. The captivating storyline had numerous different plots all intertwined together and there was a wonderful balance between the light, funny moments and the dark, twisted ones.

The main character, Celaena Sardothien, is smart, funny and a major badass, but even though she is a deadly assassin she has a love for literature and fancy clothes, this definitely surprised me at first however it ended up being one of the reasons I liked her character so much as it made her seem a lot more real. Throughout the story you can almost forget that she is an assassin as you learn that she has a softer, caring side to her which is revealed through her willingness to help others. I love how she wasn't the typical tomboy heroine found in so many YA fantasy books these days, so okay she loves the feel of a weapon in her hand but she also loves the feel of the silk dresses she gets to wear when she's not trying to kill someone.

The potential love interests in this story are the other two main characters, the Prince and the Captain of the Guard. I really loved both of these characters, Dorian the prince is funny and flirtatious whereas Choal the captain is reserved, awkward and honest. I really enjoyed reading both of their interactions with Celaena but by the end of the book my favourite was definitely Chaol as I adored how you see him slowly falling for her throughout the story.

There was quite a lot of world building in this book and there is still a great deal more to learn, but I'm so excited to read the sequel to find out more about this world and the characters in a lot more depth.

I highly recommend this book to anyone who loves fantasy as it is such a fascinating story with a captivating story line and compelling characters.