SP: Kingdom of the Wicked by Derek Landy

Genre: Dark / Fantasy / Action
Page Count: 607 pages
Series: Skulduggery Pleasant (Book Seven)

GOODREADS SUMMARY:

The seventh installment in the biggest, funniest, most thrilling comedy-horror-adventure series in the universe - and the follow-up to 2011’s number-one bestseller, Death Bringer…

Magic is a disease.

Across the land, normal people are suddenly developing wild and unstable powers. Infected by a rare strain of magic, they are unwittingly endangering their own lives and the lives of the people around them. Terrified and confused, their only hope lies with the Sanctuary. Skulduggery Pleasant and Valkyrie Cain are needed now more than ever.

And then there's the small matter of Kitana. A normal teenage girl who, along with her normal teenage friends, becomes infected. Becomes powerful. Becomes corrupted. Wielding the magic of gods, they're set to tear the city apart unless someone stands up against them.

Looks like it's going to be another one of those days…

(To see my review of the past six books in the series, click here.)

This book was so much fun to read.  It'll make you laugh out loud and the twists are unpredictable.  Loved it!  Reading this made me quite excited to get the next installment, Last Stand of Dead Men, in about two weeks!

The plot was very fast-paced and full of action and twists - it feels like the 607 pages are only 50.  There was a sci-fi twist on this story, and I really liked it.  

Argeddion has been the most interesting villain yet - probably because he was a pacifist.  Very strange to see a villain who really wants the best for the world.  

Skulduggery and Valkyrie are still their witty selves and the finale was fantastic.  The last fifty pages or so were epic.

So if you've read the previous Skulduggery novels, definitely don't miss this one.  If you've never read a book in this series, they're great and I highly recommend them to fantasy readers.

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My Sister's Reaper by Dorothy Dreyer

Genre: Fantasy / Paranormal
Page Count: 275
Series: Reaper's Rite (Book One)

GOODREADS SUMMARY:

Sixteen-year-old Zadie’s first mistake was telling the boy she liked she could bring her dead sister back to life. Her second mistake was actually doing it.

When Zadie accidentally messes with the Reaper’s Rite that should have claimed her sister Mara, things go horribly wrong. Mara isn’t the same anymore—Zadie isn’t even sure she’s completely human, and to top it off, a Reaper is determined to collect Mara’s soul no matter what. Now Zadie must figure out how to defeat her sister’s Reaper, or let Mara die … this time for good.

I discovered this on GoodReads and because of the good reviews and the intriguing summary, I picked it up. 

THE CHARACTERS: 

Zadie was a pretty believable character -- she reacted as I would expect her to and I liked her sarcasm.  I just wish more of her backstory was given to give her a little more depth. 

Lilura was probably my favorite character because she was such a sarcastic old lady and I enjoyed seeing her go from hating Zadie to liking her.

Gavin was an interesting character.  Once I got a third of the way through the book, I expected to never see him in the story again; I figured he was only there for the beginning of the story to help the plotline move along, so I was pleasantly surprised when he was a much bigger part of the story than I ever could've thought.

Throughout the entire book, I thought Chase was very mysterious.  We never really get to know Chase very well in this story, so I'm hoping in the next installment of this series his personality is revealed.

THE PLOT:
The storyline was very fast-paced and there was action or a new fact was discovered every couple pages, and it all led up to an exciting finale.  

My main issue with the plotline of this book was that it was pretty predictable (seeing as I have read a lot of fantasy novels) and nothing that was revealed surprised me.  Also, the finale was over in just a few pages, when I was expecting a grand twenty-or-so pages of pure adrenaline and excitement. 

OVERALL:

I enjoyed reading this book but I didn't find it very new and exciting.  A good finish-in-one-sitting mystery/thriller, so I'd recommend if you have a few extra hours and want something different. 

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The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

Genre: Historical Fiction
Page Count: 552

SUMMARY (FROM GOODREADS):

Set during World War II in Germany, Markus Zusak’s groundbreaking novel is the story of Liesel Meminger, a foster girl living outside of Munich. Liesel scratches out a meager existence for herself by stealing when she encounters something she can’t resist–books. With the help of her accordion-playing foster father, she learns to read and shares her stolen books with her neighbors during bombing raids as well as with the Jewish man hidden in her basement before he is marched to Dachau.The country is holding its breath. Death has never been busier, and will become busier still.

I've been hearing about this book for ages and I finally picked it up to see what all the hype was about.  Well, if you haven't read this yet, this book most definitely lives up to the hype.

THE CHARACTERS:

I connected with Liesel so much.  The fact that she recognized how powerful words are and how she loved both reading and writing certainly made me resonate with her the most.  I also liked how three-dimensional she was. Problems that she came across wouldn't just pass straight through her - she would think about those obstacles and use what she's experienced in the past to help her with her decision -- she was written perfectly.

The other characters were great as well.  I loved Rudy and Hans and even Death's characters.  They were all fantastic, and if I wrote a paragraph about each, you wouldn't make it to the end of this post.

THE PLOT:

Perfectly executed. There were a couple slow spots, but the action and the suspense really made up for them.  There were twists and subplots that were compelling and that I didn't see coming. 

THE WRITING:
Phenomenal.  That's all I can say.  There was at least two quotable phrases on each page -- hundreds of beautiful metaphors and insightful sentences.  Markus Zusak's writing really made the story vivid and you knew how each scene felt, smelled, and looked like all in gorgeous detail.  He's definitely become one of my favorite authors for his writing style.

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The Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness

I really, really liked this book. At first I was unsure of it, but by the end I was dying for the sequel. The plotline is very original, and I loved the main characters Todd and Viola--you didn't really see into them at first, you didn't really know their story, but you soon learn more about them and I liked how the author did that. He kept you on the edge of your seat--this book is really fast-paced and it's just a really good dark dystopian fiction. I recommend it to fans of The Hunger Games, or if you want to get hooked on another YA series!

Summary (from GoodReads):
Prentisstown isn't like other towns. Everyone can hear everyone else's thoughts in an overwhelming, never-ending stream of Noise. Just a month away from the birthday that will make him a man, Todd and his dog, Manchee -- whose thoughts Todd can hear too, whether he wants to or not -- stumble upon an area of complete silence. They find that in a town where privacy is impossible, something terrible has been hidden -- a secret so awful that Todd and Manchee must run for their lives.

But how do you escape when your pursuers can hear your every thought?

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This book was a great way to start the year! 
Hopefully, 2013 will be full of spectacular books.

~thespectacularbookworm

Beautiful Darkness by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl

This is the second book in The Caster Chronicles. To see my review of the first, click here.

I loved Beautiful Creatures, and the sequel is even better! I like the new characters and you learn more about characters that lingered in the background of the first book, and it's much more exciting and fast-paced than Beautiful Creatures.  If you liked Beautiful Creatures, I would definitely recommend to continue the series.  Now I have to get my hands on the third book in the series, Beautiful Chaos! 

Summary (from GoodReads):
Ethan Wate used to think of Gatlin, the small Southern town he had always called home, as a place where nothing ever changed. Then he met mysterious newcomer Lena Duchannes, who revealed a secret world that had been hidden in plain sight all along. A Gatlin that harbored ancient secrets beneath its moss-covered oaks and cracked sidewalks. A Gatlin where a curse has marked Lena's family of powerful Supernaturals for generations. A Gatlin where impossible, magical, life-altering events happen.

Sometimes life-ending.

Together they can face anything Gatlin throws at them, but after suffering a tragic loss, Lena starts to pull away, keeping secrets that test their relationship. And now that Ethan's eyes have been opened to the darker side of Gatlin, there's no going back. Haunted by strange visions only he can see, Ethan is pulled deeper into his town's tangled history and finds himself caught up in the dangerous network of underground passageways endlessly crisscrossing the South, where nothing is as it seems.

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The Caster Chronicles
BOOK ONE: BEAUTIFUL CREATURES
BOOK TWO: BEAUTIFUL DARKNESS
BOOK THREE: BEAUTIFUL CHAOS
BOOK FOUR: BEAUTIFUL REDEMPTION

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~thespectacularbookworm

Beautiful Creatures by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl

I heard of this series a couple years ago, and I regret not having picked it up until now.  It was a really thrilling book and it was fun to read!  I liked how many characters were very mysterious--it made you want to keep reading and not put the book down until you've finished!  I recommend this to fans of YA fiction, fantasy, Harry Potter fans, Twilight fans, or really anyone who likes an addictive series.

Summary (from GoodReads):
There were no surprises in Gatlin County.
We were pretty much the epicenter of the middle of nowhere.
At least, that's what I thought.
Turns out, I couldn't have been more wrong.
There was a curse.
There was a girl.
And in the end, there was a grave.

Lena Duchannes is unlike anyone the small Southern town of Gatlin has ever seen, and she's struggling to conceal her power and a curse that has haunted her family for generations. But even within the overgrown gardens, murky swamps and crumbling graveyards of the forgotten South, a secret cannot stay hidden forever.

Ethan Wate, who has been counting the months until he can escape from Gatlin, is haunted by dreams of a beautiful girl he has never met. When Lena moves into the town's oldest and most infamous plantation, Ethan is inexplicably drawn to her and determined to uncover the connection between them.

In a town with no surprises, one secret could change everything.

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Plus there's a movie of Beautiful Creatures coming to theatres February 13th, 2013! Watch the trailer here (this trailer contains minor spoilers!):

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The Caster Chronicles

BOOK ONE: BEAUTIFUL CREATURES

BOOK TWO: BEAUTIFUL DARKNESS
BOOK THREE: BEAUTIFUL CHAOS
BOOK FOUR: BEAUTIFUL REDEMPTION

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~thespectacularbookworm

The Evolution of Mara Dyer by Michelle Hodkin

This is the second book of the Mara Dyer series. See my review of the first here!

Everything that was amazing in the first book is in the sequel--and more! This book was full of mystery and so much suspense.  There were constant twists that kept me at the edge of my seat and completely awed. You get to know Mara and Noah better in this one, and it ends with a big cliffhanger, as the first book did.  Overall, this book was fantastic and very fun to read. It's 544 pages long, but it doesn't feel like that when you're reading it.  The book is such a rush, and I'd definitely recommend this to anyone who liked The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer. 

If you haven't read The Unbecoming, I'd recommend you read it if you love mystery, suspense, psychological thrillers, and/or amazing YA novels.

Summary (from GoodReads):

Mara Dyer once believed she could run from her past.
She can’t.

She used to think her problems were all in her head.
They aren’t.

She couldn’t imagine that after everything she’s been through, the boy she loves would still be keeping secrets.
She’s wrong.

In this gripping sequel to The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer, the truth evolves and choices prove deadly. What will become of Mara Dyer next?

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~thespectacularbookworm

Ember by Jessica Sorensen

This is the first book in the series called "The Death Collectors" and it was pretty good. It was interesting and kept me wanting to read more and more, and it was written well, but upon finishing it, I'm not left with any excitement about the series. Overall, it's pretty good, so if you like dark young adult books, I'd recommend this for you! (Plus it's only $0.99 in the Kindle Store!)

Summary (from GoodReads):
What if you knew when someone was going to die?

For seventeen-year-old Ember, life is death. With a simple touch, she knows when someone will die. It’s her curse and the reason she secludes herself from the world. The only person who knows her secret is her best friend Raven. 

Then she meets Asher Morgan. He’s gorgeous, mysterious, and is the only person Ember can't sense death from. So when he pushes into her life, she doesn’t mind.

But when unexplained deaths start to haunt her town, Ember starts questioning why she can’t sense Asher's death and what he may be hiding.

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~thespectacularbookworm

The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer by Michelle Hodkin

First of all, the cover is AMAZING! Second of all, this book is AMAZING!  I recommend this book to anyone who loves YA fiction.  This book reeled me in my just the first chapter.  I loved the suspense, I loved the romance, I loved the whole mystery on what REALLY happened that night.  The characters were three-dimensional -- which is something I always like to see.
You should definitely read this book. :)

Summary (from GoodReads):
Mara Dyer doesn’t think life can get any stranger than waking up in a hospital with no memory of how she got there.
It can.
She believes there must be more to the accident she can’t remember that killed her friends and left her mysteriously unharmed.
There is.
She doesn’t believe that after everything she’s been through, she can fall in love.
She’s wrong.

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Doesn't it look good? Well, it IS good, so read it! :D
For more information on the book, visit the website.

~thespectacularbookworm


Cirque Du Freak by Darren Shan

First of all, I have two warnings.

1. These books are dark and sort of gruesome.

2. There are 12 books (200-250 pages long each)

So if you don't like dark stories or committing to a series that's long, this isn't the book for you.

Secondly, I didn't really like these books.  The first 1-5 were good, 6-9 weren't.  10-11 were okay, and 12 was pretty good, I liked how the author finished it.

Summary:

Darren Shan is just a regular kid who happens to like spiders until he attends a freak show, called "Cirque Du Freak", with his friend, Steve.  During the show, one of the acts is a man named Mr. Crepsley and a spider he calls Madam Octa.  After the show, Steve goes backstage to confront Mr. Crepsley about being a vampire.  Steve demands to be one too.  Mr. Crepsley tastes a bit of his blood and says no.  Darren watches from inside a closet, overhearing everything.  A few days later, Darren steals Madam Octa (because he likes spiders so much), and Madam Octa bites Steve.  The only way he can save Steve is to make a deal with Mr. Crepsley.  In order to save Steve, he has to become Mr. Crepsley's assistant.

WHAT WILL HAPPEN?

BOOK 1: A LIVING NIGHTMARE - BOOK 2: THE VAMPIRE'S ASSISTANT - BOOK 3: TUNNELS OF BLOOD - BOOK 4: VAMPIRE MOUNTAIN - BOOK 5: TRIALS OF DEATH - BOOK 6: THE VAMPIRE PRINCE - BOOK 7: HUNTERS OF THE DUSK - BOOK 8: ALLIES OF THE NIGHT - BOOK 9: KILLERS OF THE DAWN - BOOK 10: THE LAKE OF SOULS - BOOK 11: LORD OF THE SHADOWS - BOOK 12: SONS OF DESTINY 

~thespectacularbookworm

Skulduggery Pleasant (Books 1-6) by Derek Landy

*edited July 13th, 2013

THIS IS A REVIEW OF BOOKS 1-6 IN THE 9-BOOK SERIES.

GOODREADS SUMMARY OF BOOK #1:

Meet Skulduggery Pleasant. Sure, he may lose his head now and again (in fact, he won his current skull in a poker match), but he is much more than he appears to be—which is good, considering that he is, basically, a skeleton. Skulduggery may be long dead, but he is also a mage who dodged the grave so that he could save the world from an ancient evil. But to defeat it, he'll need the help of a new partner: a not so innocent twelve-year-old girl named Stephanie. That's right, they're the heroes.

Stephanie and Skulduggery are quickly caught up in a battle to stop evil forces from acquiring her recently deceased uncle's most prized possession—the Sceptre of the Ancients. The Ancients were the good guys, an extinct race of uber-magicians from the early days of the earth, and the scepter is their most dangerous weapon, one capable of killing anyone and destroying anything. Back in the day, they used it to banish the bad guys, the evil Faceless Ones. Unfortunately, in the way of bad guys everywhere, the Faceless Ones are staging a comeback and no one besides our two heroes believes in the Faceless Ones, or even that the Sceptre is real.

So Stephanie and Skulduggery set off to find the Sceptre, fend off the minions of the bad guys, beat down vampires and the undead, prove the existence of the Ancients and the Faceless Ones, all while trading snappy, snippy banter worthy of the best screwball comedies.

I began reading this series in about 2010 (age 11-ish), and I instantly loved it. The summary may seem a little cheesy, but each book is full of wit and charm and humor, making them fun to read.  The first three (Skulduggery Pleasant, Playing With Fire, The Faceless Ones) are geared toward middle-grade, but the next three (Dark Days, Mortal Coil, Death Bringer) are all YA.

I always look forward to August/September each year to get the next installment of the Skulduggery Pleasant series.  Each book is progressively longer than the past (i.e. Book 1 is 368 pages and Book 6 is 607 pages). 

The characters are amazing in this series.  I feel like I have grown up with Valkyrie and Skulduggery and so it makes it so fun to keep reading their story (I don't know what I'm going to do when the final installment hits shelves in 2014).  Each character (including the small ones) each have individual personalities and backstories. 

The plot is so fun.  It's extremely fast-paced, there's action every other chapter, and there's humor and wit that'll keep you laughing to yourself the entire time.  Each book is a ride and I'm always sad whenever I finish one of these.

All in all, if you haven't read this series yet, I strongly suggest you do.  But I may be biased because I just love it so much.

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THE SKULDUGGERY PLEASANT SERIES
BOOK ONE: Skulduggery Pleasant (UK); Scepter of the Ancients (US)
BOOK TWO: Playing With Fire
BOOK THREE: The Faceless Ones
BOOK FOUR: Dark Days
BOOK FIVE: Mortal Coil
BOOK SIX: Death Bringer
BOOK SEVEN: Kingdom of the Wicked
BOOK EIGHT: Last Stand of Dead Men RELEASING AUGUST 29, 2013
BOOK NINE: NO NAME YET RELEASING AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 2014

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