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4.5 stars

A Darker Shade of Magic by V.E Schawb

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Rating: 4 out of 5.

354 pages | Tor Books | Historical Fantasy | 4/21/15 | 11hrs and 34 Minutes

If there is a super popular hyped novel you can bet I will read it years after it comes out. I’m always fascinated by series that have huge fandoms and I’ve seen so much fanart and generally squeeing about this series that I don’t know what took me so long to get to it.

In A Darker Shade of Magic, there isn’t just one London, there are four–red, gray, black and white. At least that’s how Kell likes to think of it. He is an Antari, one of only two people with the ability to travel to the other Londons.

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More Happy Than Not by Adam Silvera

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Release Date: 6/2/16

Audiobook Length :  8 Hours 25 minutes

Genre: Contemporary 

Publisher: Soho Press

The expectation to be happy can be overwhelming, but Aaron Soto is going to try. He is going to happily spend the summer hanging with  his friends, nerding out over comics and finally telling his girlfriend he loves her. He won’t think about the things that threaten his happiness like his father’s suicide or Tomas, a neighborhood boy whose friendship could spark something more. Looming in the background of this happy summer is the divisive Leteo Institute, a facility that claims that can make memories go away.

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Audiobook Review: Noggin by John Corey Whaley

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  • Narrated by Kirby Heyborne
  • Release Date: April 8th 2014
  • Pages: 356
  • Audiobook Hours: 8 hours 45 minutes
  • Genre: Science Fiction ???
  • Publisher: Antheneum Books for Young Readers (Simon & Schuster)

 

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Book Review : I Am Messenger by Markus Zusak

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  • Release Date: October 1st 2002 (AUS) / May 2006 (US)
  • Pages: 357
  • Publisher: Random House (Knopf)
  • Genre: Realistic Fiction

Synopsis: Ed Kennedy is an underage cabdriver without much of a future. He’s pathetic at playing cards, hopelessly in love with his best friend, Audrey, and utterly devoted to his coffee-drinking dog, the Doorman. His life is one of peaceful routine and incompetence until he inadvertently stops a bank robbery.That’s when the first ace arrives in the mail. That’s when Ed becomes the messenger.

I seem to be on a roll with these Australian books. This is the third one I’ve read after Finnikin of The RockandGraffiti Moon. Originally published in 2002, I Am Messenger made its US debut in 2006, just a year before Zusack started climbing the bestseller’s list with his runaway success The Book Thief….

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Book Review: I Hunt Killers

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“You won’t even know you’ve crossed the line until it’s way back in your rear view mirror.” ― Barry Lyga, I Hunt Killers

  • Release Date: April 3, 2012
  • Genre: Contemporary/Horror
  • Publisher: Little Brown for Young Readers
  • Pages: 359

Synopsis: What if the world’s worst serial killer…was your dad?Jasper (Jazz) Dent is a likable teenager. A charmer, one might say.But he’s also the son of the world’s most infamous serial killer, and for Dear Old Dad, Take Your Son to Work Day was year-round. …In an effort to clear his name, Jazz joins the police in a hunt for a new serial killer. But Jazz has a secret–could he be more like his father than anyone knows? 

The tagline on the front of this book pretty much tells you everything you need to know.What if the world’s worst serial killer was your dad ? This is the situation for Jasper “Jazz” Dent and guess what ? Bodies are piling up up again. I Hunt Killers is a grotesquely humorous novel that will leave you screaming to the end and then begging for more.

The set up for the novel reminded me a lot of Criminal Minds, so if you are a fan of that show, you will enjoy this novel. As for me ? I stopped watching that show so I could sleep at night. I Hunt Killers is pretty much run on And I Must Scream andHigh Octane Nightmare Fuel. This is especially evident seeing as most serial killer victims are young women and the people who read YA are well….yeah. To soften the impact there is a healthy dose of black comedy thrown in, but the humor peters out towards the end.

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Book Review : Daughter of Smoke and Bone

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Synopsis :  . . . in the tangled lanes of Prague, a young art student is about to be caught up in a brutal otherwordly war. Meet Karou. She fills her sketchbooks with monsters that may or may not be real; she’s prone to disappearing on mysterious “errands”; she speaks many languages–not all of them human; and her bright blue hair actually grows out of her head that color. Who is she? 
That is the question that haunts her, and she’s about to find out.
When [a ]–beautiful, haunted [stranger] Akiva–fixes his fire-colored eyes on her in an alley in Marrakesh, the result is blood and starlight, secrets unveiled, and a star-crossed love whose roots drink deep of a violent past. But will Karou live to regret learning the truth about herself?

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