Red-Headed Stepchild by Jaye Wells

Title: Red-Headed Stepchild

Author: Jaye Wells
Publisher: Orbit
ISBN: 978-1-84149-756-3
Pages: 325
Series: Sabina Kane #1
Type: Adult Urban Fantasy
Source: Purchased
Goodreads


Sabina Kane is an outcast in a world where bloodlines rule. Her mixed vampire/mage blood mean she is stuck as an assassin for the vampire council, the Dominae, led by Sabina's grandmother Lavina. So when the Dominae give her the opportunity to gain their favour by taking out Clovis Trakiya a mixed blood cult leader threatening their power base, she grabs the chance and goes undercover. But when Sabina is forced to work with mage Adam Lazarus she soon discovers her past is full of secrets and lies that threaten her very existence...

This is the first book in the now complete Sabina Kane series and is a great urban fantasy with perfect mix of light and funny with dark and gritty. The whole series has a really unique premise where all vampires are descended from Cain and Lilith (yup the ones from the Bible), whilst mages come from the goddess Hekate. They aren't the only two races here though as there are also demons and fairies each with their own unique varieties. Despite the depth to the world building there is no info-dumping and the only sign of this being the first in a series is the sense of opportunity in the ending.

The storyline is tightly plotted with good pacing, a rare factor in undercover books. The book starts with a bang, moving from action packed scene to action packed scene before the main plotline kicks in when the pacing stays pretty solid interspersed with intense scenes. There are a host of unexpected twists and turns and the underlying manipulation adds a high level of tension, especially as Sabina is never sure who is actually manipulating her at any given time. The book has a very low romance level and is more about Sabina discovering the truth about herself and her life.

Sabina is a great lead character and although she seems unlikeable to start, it soon becomes clear that she is a product of her upbringing. This means that the distance from her grandmother and the rest of the Dominae-led vampires leads Sabina to discover a lot more about herself and it's great to have this revealed to the reader as she goes. Adam is the ideal hunky friend/foe and, as a mage, someone Sabina resists her attraction to from day one. Clovis on the other hand is seriously creepy and disturbing with a weird cult-leader-buying-into-his-own-hype vibe making him the ideal villain.

My favourite character though has to be Giguhl who is a mischief demon who accidentally ends up bound to Sabina, and then through a series of mishaps gets turned into a hairless cat. He has some absolutely hilarious lines and quickly becomes Sabina's best friend/protector/foil. I also have a soft spot for Vinca who is an irrepressible fairy Sabina rooms with while undercover. She's girly but with a core of steel and I can see why Sabina finds herself becoming friends with her despite her best intentions.

One really unique thing I love about these books are Sabina's "Things to do:" checklists that look paperclipped to the back covers. This installment has:
     1. Infiltrate rival vampire cult and assassinate leader
     2. Get rid of demon houseguest
     3. Ditch the hot mage stalker
     4. Betray family

All in all, this was a great read and I'm looking forward to The Mage in Black.

Plot: 10/10
Characters: 9/10
Ending: 10/10
Enjoyment: 10/10
Cover: 9/10

Overall: 48/50

Shelf Candy Saturday (19)

Shelf Candy Saturday is an awesome weekly meme hosted by Five Alarm Book Reviews where each Saturday bloggers defy the saying "never judge a book by its cover" and showcase one that really catches their eye. Covers play a huge role in the books I choose so it's great to have the opportunity to showcase the pretties :)

One of the greatest love stories ever told, beautifully repackaged for a modern teen audience.

Cathy and Heathcliff, childhood friends, are cruelly separated by class, fate and the actions of others. But uniting them is something even stronger: an all-consuming passion that sweeps away everything that comes between them. Even death.

"My love for Heathcliff resembles the eternal rocks," said Cathy. "I am Heathcliff."

My shelf candy this week was inspired by The Windy Pages who featured the Twilight series as their shelf candy last week. I absolutely adore the Twilight inspired covers for classic novels, and I've picked out the Wuthering Heights cover as my overall fave. I love the dramatic lily on the cover with the creepy shadowy stairs behind, and the cover is the reason I've actually read Wuthering Heights.

The other Twilight-esque covers are:

I usually loathe the covers for classics as they are generally a case of find a painting from a somewhat accurate time period and just stick it on the front. A lot of the time the paintings aren't a good match and are frequently irrelevant to the storyline.

These on the other hand might be simple but they actually feature tiny details from the books themselves. Tess (from Tess of the D'Urbevilles) is a strawberry picker and a fire is caused by the careless use of a candle in Jane Eyre.

These are the first time I looked at a classic and thought "cool cover - I'd read that" and I can't be the only person. Strangely if you look at reviews on amazon a lot of people hate these covers due to the association with Twilight, and most of them claim you can't like Twilight and be capable of reading classics! Talk about judging people!

But I think classics need to be repackaged to make them look accessible to people and I adore these. The only one I don't own is Pride & Prejudice, and that is only because I have a gorgeous set of matching Austens which I'm hoping to feature in another Shelf Candy post.

So what's your shelf candy this week?

Teaser Tuesdays (29)

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by Miz B at Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
• Share the title and author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers.

My teaser:

"I almost said a very naughty word. Actually, I might have said it aloud if the shocked looks on their faces were any indication."

~ Page 29, Red-Headed Stepchild by Jaye Wells

The Other Side of Dawn by John Marsden

Title: The Other Side of Dawn

Author: John Marsden
Publisher: Scholastic
ISBN: 978-0-439-85805-2
Pages: 329
Series: Tomorrow #7
Type: Young Adult Action/Adventure
Source: Gift
Goodreads


It's been a little over a year since Ellie and her friends returned from their camping trip in Hell to find their country had been invaded and their families captured. The original group of eight has been reduced to five, and they've gained a group of rescued orphans. Now the New Zealand troops are preparing their final assault, and Ellie and her friends are about to be called into action for one final time.

This is the seventh and final book in the incredible Tomorrow series (after Tomorrow When the War Began, The Dead of Night, The Third Day, the Frost, Darkness Be My Friend, Burning for Revenge and The Night Is for Hunting) and it wasn't really what I expected.

Reading the blurb and other reviews I thought this book would be a series of fairly random attacks where all the main characters were involved. Without including any spoilers, all I will say is that the story took some totally unexpected twists and turns. It was an incredible journey that kept me glued to the page. Knowing that the series and the war would be ending in this book, but not knowing how or whether the characters would survive made it unputdownable.

The ending is fitting to the series, and I'm really glad there wasn't a movie style perfect happy ending where everything is tied up in a neat little bow. At the end of the day the characters have been through an incredible amount so to make everything all better again not only would have been unrealistic, but also would have devalued the previous books.

All in all this was a great conclusion to an amazing series that I thoroughly recommend to anyone who likes dystopian novels and/or action packed stories.

Plot: 9/10
Characters: 10/10
Ending: 10/10
Enjoyment: 9/10
Cover: 10/10

Overall: 48/50

The Night is for Hunting by John Marsden

Title: The Night is for Hunting

Author: John Marsden
Publisher: Pan
ISBN: 978-0-330-36136-1
Pages: 252
Series: Tomorrow #6
Type: Young Adult Action/Adventure
Source: Gift
Goodreads


Ellie and her friends have decided that it's time for them to leave Stratton and return to the safety of Hell. Their time in Stratton has given them a chance to heal, but also a chance to betray and be betrayed. Still reeling from Lee's actions, Ellie becomes determined to rescue a group of feral orphans. What Ellie hasn't counted on is that the orphans may not want to be rescued.

This is the sixth book in the Tomorrow series (after Tomorrow When the War Began, The Dead of Night, The Third Day, the Frost, Darkness Be My Friend and Burning for Revenge) and it takes a somewhat gentler tone than previous books. When the orphans were introduced in the previous book I found them to be a bit annoying and distracting so I was a bit apprehensive of reading this. However I'm glad I did.

The pace picks up quickly and stays at quite a high level for the majority of the book. There is a slower paced section where the teens arrange Christmas for the orphans, but unlike slower parts of previous books this doesn't drag. There is still a lot of action based around fights with the invading troops, but the kids also provide more story and an opportunity for the teens to act more maturely. The orphans are also well developed as characters, each having a different backstory that explains their behaviour.

The ending of the book caught me completely off guard. It is cleverly done and leads neatly into the next (and final) book without having a cheesy cliffhanger ending. Instead a few new questions are raised, along with the possibility of an end to the war.

All in all this was a great read and I'm looking forward to seeing how the series ends in The Other Side of Dawn.

Plot: 9/10
Characters: 10/10
Ending: 10/10
Enjoyment: 10/10
Cover: 9/10

Overall: 48/50

Shelf Candy Saturday (18)

Shelf Candy Saturday is an awesome weekly meme hosted by Five Alarm Book Reviews where each Saturday bloggers defy the saying "never judge a book by its cover" and showcase one that really catches their eye. Covers play a huge role in the books I choose so it's great to have the opportunity to showcase the pretties :)

Allie used to be a spoilt Long Island princess until her mother ran away with her tennis instructor and all the family money. Now Allie runs a diner in Brooklyn which has a doorway to hell in the basement accidentally opened by Allie and her friends six years previously. Now Ryan, a gorgeous demon hunter, crashes in her basement hunting down any demons that manage to sneak through. But when the door disappears, Allie and Ryan find themselves forced to pass through Hell itself to discover what is going on.

So this week I decided to go with one of those quiet little unassuming covers that you kind of ignore, but then one day realise are actually pretty spectacular. The main feature that I absolutely adore on this is how the designer chose to do the title. The words look like the materials they are constructed from - salt looks like it is made of salt and silver looks like it's made of molten silver.

I love the blue/purple background which isn't hugely surprising as I love those colours, but I also love how the lemon of the t-shirt complements and contrasts really well. The other background feature I adore is the Brooklyn bridge and shadowy impression of Manhattan in the distance. It matches the location of Allie's diner brilliantly.

The other factor I love and didn't realise until I read the book was that the girl on the front fits with the description of Allie, the main character. It's clear that the designer did their research and really made the different elements fit together well.

So what's your shelf candy this week?

Burning for Revenge by John Marsden

Title: Burning for Revenge

Author: John Marsden
Publisher: Scholastic
ISBN: 978-0-439-85803-8
Pages: 260
Series: Tomorrow #5
Type: Young Adult Action/Adventure
Source: Gift
Goodreads


Ellie and her friends decide to leave the safety of Hell to journey to the nearby town of Stratton. It's a perilous journey not least of all because the enemy's headquarters are somewhere along the way. A careless mistake leads the group into the most dangerous situation yet and presents them with their greatest opportunity when they find themselves within the enemy's heavily fortified airbase. But how much are the teens willing to risk, and when it comes to revenge or escape what will they choose?

This is the fifth book in the Tomorrow series (after Tomorrow When the War Began, The Dead of Night, The Third Day, the Frost and Darkness Be My Friend) and continues the story of the teens fighting a guerilla war against invaders. The pace of the book is pretty up and down and it did mean at times I found my interest waning. Parts of the book are action packed and fast paced, but the start and middle are more introspective and far slower in pace.

One thing I did notice with this book was that at times I found it hard to keep reading, partly due to the pacing issues and also partly due to Kevin. He becomes very withdrawn in this book which is understandable, he's been a captive and his girlfriend died at the hands of the invaders, but it does make the book quite depressing at times. After the epic failure of everything the teens tried to do in the previous book, this one sees them be more successful in their fight but lacks the emotional high.

All in all this was a great read and I'm looking forward to The Night Is for Hunting.

Plot: 8/10
Characters: 9/10
Ending: 7/10
Enjoyment: 7/10
Cover: 9/10

Overall: 40/50