Night School by C.J. Daugherty – review and giveaway

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There’s nothing better than discovering a new author whose first book hooks you in.  You know that you’ve got more to look forward to and you can’t wait to see how their writing develops.  When I got asked if I wanted to be a part of C. J. Daugherty’s blog tour for her first Young Adult book, Night School, I jumped at the chance.  Night School is the first in an exciting new Young Adult series full of mystery and suspense.

When Allie Sheridan gets arrested for the third time, her parents have had enough.  They decide they can’t handle her anymore so they send her to Cimmeria Academy, a boarding school for problem teenagers.  But Cimmeria Academy is no ordinary school.  Computers and cell phones aren’t allowed so she’s cut off from her old friends and the students are an odd mixture of the gifted, the tough and the privileged.  Then there are the top students who are part of the secretive Night School, whose activities other students are forbidden to watch.  Allie soon makes both friends and enemies, and catches the attention of the most popular guy at Cimmeria, Sylvain and the loner Carter.  When Allie is attacked one night the school begins to seem like a dangerous place.  Allie knows that the adults who run the school, and maybe even some of her classmates, are hiding a secret.  She must learn who she can trust.  And what’s really going on at Cimmeria Academy.

Night School took me a few chapters to get into, but the more I found out about the characters and Cimmeria Academy, I found it really difficult to put it down.  Cimmeria Academy at first seems like a new beginning for Allie.  She feels like she could get used to it and she’s actually happy for the first time in ages, but the more she finds out about the school and the secrets it hides, the more dangerous it becomes for her.

Some of the early events in the book threw me and had me thinking there might have been a supernatural element to the story, but the real twist is very clever.  I loved the truth behind Cimmeria Academy and it will be interesting to see where C.J. takes the story from here.  I’m not a huge fan of romance and love triangles in YA fiction, but I felt the relationships in Night School didn’t weigh down the story too much and the conflict between the love interests was needed to direct the story.  Night School is a great super-natural-free YA story, full of mystery and suspense and characters that will stick with you.

4 out of 5 stars

Giveaway:

If you would like to win a copy of Night School, leave a comment on this post telling me what you think is more important in a good Young Adult book, a gripping plot or strong characters?  Please leave your name and email address so I can contact you if you win.  Competition closes Wednesday 18 January 2012.  Open to New Zealand and Australia.

Join me tomorrow when I host a Q & A with C.J. Daugherty and a giveaway of Night School.

Cinder by Marissa Meyer

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There’s been a bit of a trend in recent years of retelling fairy tales with a modern twist.  Plenty of authors have tried, but few get it right (in my opinion).  So when I read that debut author Marissa Meyer had written a retelling of Cinderella I was a bit skeptical.  However, the more I read about this version of the story, called Cinder, the more I wanted to read it.  In Cinder, Marissa Meyer has taken Cinderella’s story and set it far in the future, years after World War IV, in a world with hover cars, droids, cyborgs, and a devastating plague that is wiping out civilisation.

Cinder is a gifted mechanic in New Beijing.  While she looks like a normal girl, she’s actually a cyborg – part girl, part machine.  She doesn’t remember anything from before her surgery, when she woke up as an eleven year old cyborg.  The only family she knows is the man who adopted her (who died not long afterwards), her cruel step-mother Adri, her step-sisters Peony and Pearl, and her her droid, Iko.  After her ‘father’ died she was left to her step-mother who blames Cinder for his death.  Cinder works all day at her mechanic’s booth in the market, only to pass on anything she makes to her step-mother. It is while she is busy working at her booth one day that the handsome Prince Kai comes to get his droid repaired. Just after the prince leaves, a case of the plague is discovered at the market.  These events lead Cinder’s life to be entwined with Prince Kai’s.

When Cinder’s step-sister, Peony catches the plague and is taken to quarantine, Adri blames Cinder.  She sends her away, against her will, to become part of the cyborg tests to find a cure for the plague.  It is here that she meets Dr Erland, who helps Cinder unlock her past and discover who she really is.  However, the truth is dangerous.  The mysterious Queen Levana of the Lunar People is coming to Earth to meet with Prince Kai, and Dr Erland warns Cinder that Queen Levana must never see her.  But Prince Kai’s droid has revealed secrets to Cinder that she must tell the prince before it is too late.

Marissa Meyer has woven a story that has elements of the original Cinderella fairy tale, while also being unique and breath-taking.  Marissa has introduced us to this plague-stricken world that has risen out of a devastating war.  It is a world filled with androids that are everything from nurses to escorts, humans that have been patched up with mechanical parts to create cyborgs, hover cars that have replaced automobiles, and a race of people that live on the moon and can manipulate humans.

The Lunars were one of the most interesting parts of the story and it seems that they will be central to the other books in the series (Scarlett, Cress, and Winter).  The mystery surrounding them and their bio-electrical powers really hooked me and I want to read the next books in the series to find out more about them.

Both Cinder and Kai are great characters and you really feel for them and the situations that they are forced into.  I thought Kai was very different from the arrogant, Prince Charming character that we’re used to from other fairy tale books.  He is put under a lot of pressure but doesn’t cave under it.  He’s not afraid of Queen Levana and not afraid to stand up for what he believes in.

There’s something for everyone in Cinder – mystery, suspense, science, robots and romance.  I can’t wait for Scarlett in 2013. Thanks Marissa for a great start to 2012!

5 out of 5 stars

Patrick Carman talks about Floors

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Patrick Carman’s new book Floors is one of the most inventive, imaginative books for kids that I’ve ever read.  It takes me back to the wonder I felt when I first read Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.  I’m still reading it at the moment but will post my review soon.

Check out the cool website for Floors too – www.floorsbook.com

Win a copy of Michael Morpurgo’s War Horse

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I’ve been a huge fan of Michael Morpurgo for years.  Every single book of his that I’ve read has been brilliant.  His book, War Horse, was one of them that I hadn’t read until recently but I wanted to before I saw the movie.  I’m one of those people who has to read the book before I see the movie otherwise the book is ruined for me.

I can’t wait to see the movie because it looks like Steven Spielberg has stayed true to the story and the cast looks amazing.  Just watching the trailer nearly made me cry so I’m sure the movie will be a tear-jerker.

I have a copy of the movie tie-in edition of Michael Morpurgo’s book to give away.  All you have to do to get in the draw is tell me what is your favourite kids/family movie based on a book?  Just leave a comment on this post with your name and email address (so I can contact you if you win).

Thanks to those who entered.  The winner of the copy of War Horse is Clare.

If you haven’t seen the trailer yet check it out:

Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor

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My first book of 2012 is one that’s been calling me from my ‘to-be-read’ pile since it was published in September last year.  Laini Taylor’s Daughter of Smoke and Bone is of those books where, as soon as I saw the front cover, I knew it was going to be good.  After finishing it today I wonder why it took me so long to get around to reading this beautiful story.

Karou is a seventeen-year-old at student living in Prague.  With her attitude, blue hair and tattoos, she stands out from the crowd. Her sketches of mysterious and beautiful creatures are the envy of her fellow students, including her best friend Zuzana.  No one knows about her other life, as the errand-girl to a monstrous creature who is the closest thing she has to a family.  Karou knows nothing of her real family, only Brimstone and the other chimaera who have raised her.  She has been raised half in our world, half in ‘Elsewhere,’ the dark world which she knows little about.  As Brimstone’s errand girl, she travels the world buying teeth from murderers and hunters, trading them for wishes of various denominations.  Karou soon finds her world turned upside down when the seraphim destroy the portals back to Elsewhere, trapping her in our world, not knowing whether her family are alive or dead.  When one of the seraphim attacks her a train of events is set in motion that will lead her back to Elsewhere and the truth about who she is.

From the first chapter, Daughter of Smoke and Bone cast a spell on me and I was totally immersed in the story for days.  I felt like I was right there beside Karou and Akiva, from the streets of Prague and Marrakesh, to Brimstone’s shop and the caged city of Loramendi.  The sights and smells of these places were so vivid that, even when I wasn’t reading the book I was thinking about them.  Laini Taylor’s writing is absolutely beautiful and so full of emotion.  I wanted to keep reading particular sentences just to taste them.  Karou is a character that I really connected with because you could really get inside her head and know what she was feeling.  I felt her heartache, love, longing, loyalty and fear.  The thing I loved the most about the story was the creatures and places that Laini created.  The chimaera, which are made up of different animals and humans, reminded me of the mysterious creatures from Guillermo del Toro’s films, including Pan’s Labyrinth and Hellboy (especially the scene in Hellboy: The Golden Army at the troll market).

Daughter of Smoke and Bone ends on a cliff-hanger, with a heart-wrenching discovery so I will be eagerly awaiting the next book.  Until then, I’ll savour this beautiful story.

5 out of 5

Adventures of Tintin movie review

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I’ve been looking forward to seeing The Adventures of Tintin since I heard the movie was being made, so I went to the very first screening on Boxing Day. All of the pictures and movie trailers I’ve seen for the film made it look amazing and I wasn’t disappointed.

The Adventures of Tintin is a mish-mash of three different Tintin stories, Secret of the Unicorn, Red Rackham’s Treasure and The Crab with the Golden Claws, so there are locations and characters from each of these books (minus Professor Calculus). The opening credits really set the scene with an endless action sequence that highlights lots of different Tintin stories. The movie opens with Tintin’s creator, Herge, making a guest appearance in the market where Tintin discovers the model of the Unicorn. The story rockets along like all good Tintin adventures and you meet some of your favourite Tintin characters, including Captain Haddock and Thompson and Thomson.

The motion capture animation is amazing, making the characters look real while still looking like Herge’s illustrations. The characters use their catch-phrases, including my favourite ‘Billions of blue, blistering barnacles!’ There are some brilliant action sequences throughout the movie, especially in Bagghar (this part made me crack up laughing as well). I saw the movie in 3D but I’m sure it’s just as great in 2D. Whether or not you’re a fan of Tintin you should go and see The Adventures of Tintin for your dose of action, adventure, and laughs. It’s perfect for anyone from 7-107.

10 out of 10 – my favourite movie of the year!

Join us for the Night School Blog Tour

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Author C. J. Daugherty’s first book for Young Adults, Night School is being released in January.  She’s doing a blog tour to celebrate the launch and My Best Friends Are Books is lucky enough to be having a Q & A and a giveaway.  Here’s the blurb for Night School:

“When everyone is lying, who can you trust? Allie Sheridan’s world is falling apart. She hates her school. Her brother has run away from home. And she’s just been arrested. Again.
This time her parents have finally had enough. They cut her off
from her friends and send her away to a boarding school for problem teenagers. But Cimmeria Academy is no ordinary school. It allows no computers or phones. Its students are an odd mixture of the gifted, the tough and the privileged. And then there’s the secretive Night School, whose activities other students are forbidden even to watch. When Allie is attacked one night the school begins to seem like a very dangerous place, Allie must learn who she can trust. And what’s really going on at Cimmeria Academy.”

 Join us for the fun on Wednesday 11 January.  

Hana – a Delirium short story by Lauren Oliver

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Lauren Oliver’s Liesl and Po was one of my favourite books of 2011.  I absolutely loved her very descriptive writing and magical story.  While I haven’t read Delirium yet it’s definitely on my to-be-read pile.  I know there are lots of Delirium fans out there and I like to support and promote authors whenever I get the chance, so here’s some special news for you:

“We now have a special Christmas treat for all you Delirium fans: whilst you’re eagerly awaiting its sequel, Pandemonium, out in March, you can read Lauren’s amazing short story, Hana. It’s told from the point of view of Lena’s best friend (who, you might have guessed, has some secrets of her own…) There’s a shocking twist to her tale that will leave you with your heart in your mouth. The short story is out exclusively in eBook this Christmas – it’s available to buy for just 99p for a limited time only over the festive season. 

Now, we know you’ll be desperate to order it immediately, but we have a favour to ask you. We’d love to give Lauren the best Christmas present ever: seeing Hana at number one in the eBook charts on Christmas Day.

Will you help us get it there by joining in on one big Christmas Eve push? If we all buy it on the 24th December, that will propel it up the charts into (hopefully!) the top spot.”

Check out the Hodder and Stoughton website to find out more about the story and where to purchase it.

 

 

The Adventures of Tintin movie tie-in books

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Here in New Zealand we have to wait until Boxing Day to see The Adventures of Tintin on the big screen.  I certainly can’t wait to see it as the trailers and clips I’ve seen so far have been amazing.  While I wait for Boxing Day I’ve been checking out the cool movie tie-in books that Bantam have released.  There are 6 books all together and they are all aimed at different age groups.

The Adventures of Tintin Novel by Alex Irvine is a novelization of the screenplay which was written by the legendary team of Steven Moffat, Edgar Wright and Joe Cornish.  This novel tells the story of the movie and is aimed at children 9+.  It’s a very different experience reading this than the original graphic novels because you don’t have any images to help tell the story.

The Adventures of Tintin: The Chapter Book, adapted by Stephanie Peters, is the story of the movie written as a chapter book aimed younger readers (7-9 year olds).  Unlike the novel, the chapter book has photos from the movie to add some excitement to the story.  The chapter book tells the whole story of the movie, but is very abridged.

There are also two Colour First Readers, The Mystery of the Missing Wallets and Danger at Sea.  These two first readers take a particular part of the story and simplify it for those children who are just starting to read.  They are full of colourful photos from the movie and are perfect for readers who are comfortable tackling new words and starting to read on their own.  There is also Tintin’s Daring Escape, a picture book that’s perfect for sharing with young Tintin fans.

My favourite of all the Tintin movie tie-in books is the Sticker Book.  It includes games and puzzles, as well as over 100 full-colour stickers.  Children could stick them in the book, save them for something special, or stick them all over their school books.

I’m a huge Tintin fan so I think it’s great to see these movie tie-in books.  I’m sure the movie and these wonderful books will help to introduce Tintin to a whole new generation.  If you need any last minute Christmas gift ideas or just want something special to keep the kids entertained over the Christmas break, head to your bookstore and grab The Adventures of Tintin movie tie-in books.

The Extraordinaires: The Extinction Gambit by Michael Pryor

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I’ve been a fan of Michael Pryor’s ever since I first picked up Blaze of Glory, the first book in his Laws of Magic series.  I was captured by the old-style covers and as soon as I started reading I was transported to a world very similar to ours.  The series was full of magic, politics, intrigue, espionage and brilliantly witty characters.  When I found out that Michael had started a new series I was eager to delve into his new story and meet new characters.  His new series is called The Extraordinaires and the first book, The Extinction Gambit, introduces us to a shadowy London where dark creatures lurk just below the surface.

Kingsley Ward knows nothing of his parents.  His foster father, Dr Ward, refuses to tell him how he came to be looking after Kingsley.  On the night that he is to make his professional debut on stage with his death-defying escapology, his performance ends in disaster.  Kingsley has a wolfish nature that bursts free at the most inappropriate times, especially in the middle of his performance in front of hundreds of people.  A strange albino girl called Evadne comes to his rescue and takes him back to his foster father’s house, only to find his father is missing, the house keeper has been murdered, and two abnormally large, very ugly men are ransacking Dr Ward’s library.  Kingsley has no idea who these men or what they have done to Dr Ward.  Evadne takes Kingsley to her secret hideaway and explains that she is part of the Demimonde, the ‘world of the dispossessed and the fugitive, of outlaws, thieves and cutthroats, of the lost and abandoned, of the strange and uncanny.’  Through alternate chapters Michael Pryor introduces us to other members of the Demimonde: Jabez Soames, the human inside the Demimonde who wheels and deals and knows just how to bargain with the various groups in the Demimonde; the True Humans or Neanderthals (depending on whether you’re one of them or not) who want to wipe out the Invaders (Homo sapiens) by travelling back in time and killing them; and the Immortals, a group of immortal sorcerers who need to inhabit the bodies of children to live the longest.  As the story progresses the paths of these various groups cross and it’s up to Kingsley and Evadne to disrupt their plans before it’s too late.

Michael Pryor has once again created a story filled with action, suspense, mystery and fantastic characters.  I loved the idea of this group of shady characters lurking underneath London and having a group of Neanderthals that didn’t die out is brilliant.  The Immortals at first sounded a little like vampires, but I think they’re far creepier.  There’s also a slight hint of the Frankenstein story creeping into this story, as the Immortals create their minions, the Spawn, from their own body parts that they cut off.  Like Aubrey in The Laws of Magic, Kingsley is a fantastic character who is intelligent and witty.  At first I thought Kingsley’s wolfish nature might be hinting at him being a werewolf, but the true is much more exciting, and is linked with Rudyard Kipling who is also a minor character.  Evadne is a girl who can look after herself (and Kingsley at times) and is also incredibly intelligent.  There is a sense that there are many layers of Evadne that Kingsley, and the reader, hasn’t been introduced to yet.   The Extinction Gambit is the perfect book for anyone who likes their supernatural/fantasy stories without the gushy romance.  I can’t wait to see what Michael Pryor has in store for Kingsley and Evadne next.