Review- Throne of Glass by Sarah J. Maas

In the dark, filthy salt mines of Endovier, an eighteen-year-old girl is serving a life sentence. She is a trained assassin, the best of her kind, but she made a fatal mistake: she got caught. Young Captain Westfall offers her a deal: her freedom in return for one huge sacrifice. Celaena must represent the prince in a to-the-death tournament—fighting the most gifted thieves and assassins in the land. Live or die, Celaena will be free. Win or lose, she is about to discover her true destiny. But will her assassin’s heart be melted? - From Goodreads When people talk about this book, and Celaena they mention that she is beautiful, arrogant and girly. Not usually traits I particularly like my female protagonists to have, yet Celaena pulled it off incredibly well. I was terrified that this girl would end up like whatshername from Paranormalcy, girly and arrogant to the point of stupidity, but no. Celaena has her reasons to be arrogant. She's good at what she does and she is deadly beautiful.

Top 100 Books for Teens

This summer NPR hosted a Best-Ever Teen Fiction poll. More than 75000 votes were cast and 235 finalists nominated. Here are the results with all the books I have read in bold

1. Harry Potter (series), by J.K. Rowling

2. The Hunger Games (series), by Suzanne Collins

3. To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee

4. The Fault in Our Stars, by John Green

5. The Hobbit, by J.R.R. Tolkien

6. The Catcher in the Rye, by J.D. Salinger

7. The Lord of the Rings (series), by J.R.R. Tolkien

8. Fahrenheit 451, by Ray Bradbury

9. Looking for Alaska, by John Green

10. The Book Thief, by Markus Zusak

Why I think Peter Jackson is a money grabbing A-hole

3 Hobbit movies? Are you serious?

Ok so I would be ecstatic if I thought they were making 3 The Hobbit films for the sake of being true to the book. Any book to movie adaptation is always going to have things missing. It's just a guarantee. Even a two parter. But that's not the reason for the trilogy. Oh no. Jackson has decided to take world of middle earth and try and make it his own. He's adding things in that are not in the books, and even though some of it is from Tolkien himself a lot of it will be up to Jackson's interpretation and don't get me wrong, he did an amazing job on The Lord of the Rings, but the ONLY FUCKING REASON they are creating a trilogy out of 1 book is so that they can pump it for all the money it's worth. Now instead of having to spend £5-£7 for a cinema ticket to see two films I will have to spend it to see three. That's £15- £24 one films alone, then with all 3 DVD/Blu-rays and then later probably extended editions or limited edition box sets that's a whole fucking lot of money they're trying to get out of something that isn't Jackson's idea. AND, the original creator, Tolkien won't see a penny of that. His family might, but he won't, he's dead and he can't complain. I bet they'll just make more fucking movies out of his other books as well. Can you tell I'm mad?

Sigh. I really wish Del Toro had been able to direct this movie.

Book Haul-Stormdancer, The Hobbit. Looking for Alaska and more...

Stormdancer by Jay Kristoff- A long and gushing review

Stormdancer comes out in the UK on September 13th and is being published by Tor. The Hardback is 438 pages of epic.

This story is about a girl named Yukiko, her special gift and her broken family. Ordered by their Shogun (their emperor/king basically) the hunters of the imperial court, led by Yukiko’s own father, set off on the impossible task to find a thunder tiger, knowing that the beast is extinct and the mad Shogun’s order is basically a death sentence. If they refuse, they die. If they fail, they die. The only thing they can do is set off on a sky ship, the Thunder Child, and pray that their God grants them fortune but fortune always comes about in a way no one expects. Set in a Japan inspired land with lots of steampunk elements this really is an epic fantasy.

Video book haul [2]

Review: The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien

Written for J.R.R. Tolkien's own children, The Hobbit is the classic children's story about Bilbo Baggins, the reluctant burglar for a group of dwarves intent on taking their treasure and home back from the terrible dragon Smaug. This is a re-read. I first read this book when I was about 8.


The Hobbit has been held as a classic for a long time and it deserves that status. The story follows this unlikely group of creatures as the set off towards the misty mountains. Tolkien's writing style is incredible, it flows beautifully and describes this wonderful cast of characters and their predicaments perfectly. I love how songs and riddles are incorporated through out the story, which is something modern fantasy doesn't tend to do much of.