Iron Fey Series : Iron Knight by Julie Kagawa

Brief description of the book.

This is the last book of the series. Concentrate mainly on Prince Ash.

When he was a Prince in the Winter Court, any show of emotions or feelings is consider to be a show of weakness. Hence, he had to build a barricade around himself. And when his beloved wife died, its was like his heart had died. He only live for revenge.

That is until a girl, a half faery princess and half mortal, Meghan Chase, came into his life. She melted the ice around his heart and he starts to feel again.

However, destiny prevented their union.

In order for him to be re-united with Meghan Chase, he had to give up his immortality and to gain a Soul as all Faery does not have a soul.

This is his quest.

My Comment :

Although this book is not as emotional as the third book, and yet I enjoyed it very much. I love the light banter between Puck, Grimalkin and not forgetting The Big Bad Wolf. For we wouldn't want him to be forgotten and end up as a citizen of Phaed, would we?

As for Prince Ash, I don't think that he was that outstanding in this book but we do get a lot of insight on what he feels and things like that. I feel that he was being overshadowed by the supporting characters.

The part I enjoyed the most is when the came to the Temple and they have to go through a series of challenges.

I would like to comment that the author did a very good job in writing the part where Ash had to go through a series of test in order to become human. That part reminds me of the Chinese Story "Journey To The West" where the Monk and his disciple were face with challenges of the heart, mind and soul.

At the end of the book, there is a chapter in how to survive Faeryland which I found very entertaining. I can see the author's humour there.

Also another notable part is the Interview with the Author. There were two unexpected guests as well which make the interview more "colourful".

However, am feeling a bit down too now. Finishing these 4 terrific books, it's like loosing a friend. The end of a chapter. Hopefully, I would be able get my hands on some more terrific books like these.

By the way, there are two more books to this series "Winter's Passage" and "Summer's Crossing" which I have yet to obtain. It's in the form of e-books.

Iron Fey Series : Iron Daughter by Julie Kagawa

In Iron Daughter, Meghan, the half human and half Summer Faery Princess kept her word. She followed Prince Ash back to the Winter Court. There, she sort of a "prisoner with some privilege" to Queen Mab. Nobody believe their words in the existence of Iron Fey.

To her dismay, Prince Ash attitude towards her had turn colder than frozen ice upon returning to the Winter Court and had frequently look at her with disdain.

War looms between Winter Court and Summer when the Scepter of Seasons when missing. Meghan was there when the Scepter when missing but nobody believed her, especially when she the claim that it's the work of the Iron Fey.

Without her power, Meghan could do nothing. She had to depend on her wit for survival and do the best she can to retrieve the Scepter to prevent war.

Offer to help came to her from an unexpected side. Who can she trust? One miss step would prove to be fatal. Could she believe the words of a seemingly traitor?

My Comment:-

Again, the author had me biting my nails anticipating the action and how the story would develop.

I don't know how she do it but she certainly have the talent to bring the story from one height to another. The chemistry between Puck, Meghan and Prince Ash were there. Some would compare them to Jacob, Bella and Edward. However, in my humble opinion, the former combination is better.

Certainly not to be missed.

However, one down side is that I don't think this book could be read without reading the first book in order to understand fully of the sequel of events.

Suitable for young adults and those that are young at heart. Not much gory.

Iron Fey Series : Iron king by Julie Kagawa

Brief Description :

The series starts off with Iron King. Meghan was turning 16 that year but she is not your normal teenager. There is something special about her.

She discovered the truth one day when her younger step brother, Ethan, gone missing. He was kidnapped. In his place, they left a changeling.

Thus, this is the beginning of her quest to Faeryland (Fairyland) to rescue her brother. Along her side was her best friend, Robbie, who happens to have a secret of his own.

In Faeryland, some secrets were finally revealed. Even though it was not her fault, Meghan made some very deadly enemies and had become pawn in feud between two Courts; The Summer Court who is head by King Oberon and Winter Court headed by Queen Mab.

What made it worse is that Meghan was strongly attracted to the handsome ice prince from the Winter Court, Prince Ash who would not hesitate to kill her in a blink of an eye in view of the feud between the two Courts.

However, some circumstances force Prince Ash, Meghan and Robbie whose alternate identity is Puck, to join force and journey together to rescue Ethan.

There they discovered a new race of deadly faery....Iron Faery.

They managed to rescue Ethan but not before Meghan was given something unexpected and lost something in return.

My Comment :

I was hooked from page one of this book.

As I read along, I had this dejavu feeling that the plots or stories feels familiar. Part of it was like Narnia. Some parts were like Grimm's Fairy Tales and most obvious was a  lot of it made me feels that I am reading a branch of The Never Ending Story.

For example, the Nevernever slowly dying. Poisoned by Iron. Iron from the dreams of modern society.  It is pretty similar to The Never Ending Story where the Land was being devoured by "the Nothing" and the characters/people/fairy in it will soon disappear as people in the mortal world no longer believe in fantasy.

In both books, the characters depend on people's imagination and memory to survive.

Please don't get me wrong. What I am trying to say is that I love this book as it is as good if not better than The Never Ending Story. The author have amazing talent to be able to churn out such a wonderful book.

When I read the first few pages of the book, I felt very "happy". The kind of happiness that only a fellow avid book lover would feel when they finds a good book. Have you ever had that kind of feeling? Guess, am doing a very bad job of reviewing this book as word just doesn't adequately describe the feeling.

Though this book is aim at young adults, but I am sure those who are young at heart would certainly love it too. I know I do.

I hope to be able to collect the full set of this series. However, I was told that for some reason unknown, hardcopies of this book is not available in Malaysia. This book is loan to me by a fellow book lover.

The Future Door By Jason Lethcoe

 

Book Description byBooksneeze.com

A mystery is afoot at 221 Baker Street, but will Griffin Sharpe be able to figure out the clues before the future catches up with the past?

When Sherlock Holmes moves out of Baker Street, a new tenant moves in—a mysterious woman named Elizabeth who has long been a fan of Holmes. When she discovers that Griffin and his uncle are also detectives, she becomes very friendly. So when Elizabeth goes missing along with a special invention, Griffin sets out to rescue her. But finding Elizabeth will take them on a race against the clock that bends time itself!

My Comments:

I have read "No Place Like Holmes" last year and was delight with the book. Hence I did not hesitated when I saw the second instalment of this book is being offered for review by Booksneeze. 

This second instalment did not disappoints me at all. In fact, I find it is better than the first book. Don't worry if you have yet to read the first book because you can still read this second instalment without reading the first book.

I like the way the author combine element of mystery with futuristic elements. For me, it's refreshing. It is certainly a page turner. I managed to finished this book in 3 hours.

Certainly recommend this book for kids around the age of 9 to 12 years old

I give this book 4 stars out of 5.

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from the publisher through the BookSneeze®.com  . The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255  : “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

Emily The Strange : Stranger and Stranger by Rob Reger and Jessica Gruner.

This is the second Emily The Strange book that I have read.

In this book, Emily, some what of an inventor with a mischievous strike got in trouble when she accidentally created a duplicate of herself.

Maybe that's why the synopsis at the back of the book says Double Trouble?

In the beginning, all are well. But at a longer time, more and more strange things happened.

For example the fake Emily trying to kill her when she was sleeping or that her golem, Raven, was holding an axe as Emily woke up.

Then there is the curious case of their neighbor, Venus Fang Fang who seems to have a grudge against Emily.

This book reminds me of us human have their good and evil sides. Just like in Harry Potter, there was a scene where even Dumbledore dare not trust Harry completely. Even Harry himself was afraid that his evil side would take over.

Frankly, I enjoyed this book more than "Emily The Strange : The Lost Days". Could be attributed to I have grown accustomed to their style of writing or that the story in this book is easier to understand. Good versus evil

I recommend this book for young adult both boys and girls.

Emily The Strange : The Lost Days by Rob Reger & Jessica Gruner

I stumbled upon this book at The Subang Jaya Book Exchange Programme.

I picked it up due to it's unique cover.

When I open the 1st page, I discovered the print is upside down. After careful thinking, I guess it's not printing error. It is done purposely for marketing purposes maybe.

Anyway, this caused me to examine this book further.

I discovered that it's being written in a unique way. The book is full of illustration and at times, point form is used. Very interesting.

The story is about this 13 year old girl called Emily. She "appeared" in the small town of Blackrock without her memory.

She got no identity. Nothing on her that can give any clue on who she is and what she is doing there.

Temporary she stayed in an old refrigerator cardboard box behind the town bar cum Museum cum others.

In her search for her identity, she met the mysterious monosyllable Raven and weird kid with a parrot Jakey. More suspense awaits as she gradually found out more about herself.

I sort of like this book coz it's so unconventional. Don't expect logic in this book. It's really wonderful to immerse myself into the mysterious and strange world that has been created by Rob Reger and Jessica Gruner.

To me this book suit young adult no matter if is a boy or girl.

More About Boy: Roald Dahl's Tales From Childhood by Roald Dahl

Would you like to know a funny thing? I didn't know Roald Dahl is well know author of Children books until the recent years.

I have always had the impression that he wrote adult books. His first book that I read was a Hardcover book which housed 6 of his famous book - "Kiss Kiss; Over to You; Switch Bitch; Someone Like You; Four Tales of the Unexpected; My Uncle Oswald". I love those.

I bought More About Boy: Roald Dahl's Tales From Childhood from Book Tree not long ago. Obvious from the title, the story is about his childhood staring with his Norwegian father who travel away from his village and had become a successful man. His first wife pass away and during one of his trip back to his homeland, he married Roald Dahl's mother.

His father pass away when he was young but his mother held on with the family and believe that education British education is the best. He was sent to a boarding school till he graduated.

Reading this, I did not feel bored. I found that Roald Dahl could be an imp at times. His mischievous plots sometimes lead to the cane meeting his bum.

There are plenty of photographs and letters that his mother kept, printed here.

There were also School Report/Report Card from his school to his mother which mentioned that his "idea limited" "consistently idle: too pleased with himself" "I have never met anyone who so persistently wrote words meaning the exact opposite of what he obviously intended".

For me this is certainly and entertaining book.

Have you read Enid Blyton "Malory Tower Series" and "St Claire Series"? or  Elinor Brent-Dyer's "The Chalet School Series"? The stories about boarding school, pranks and the school master/mistress are fictional. If you enjoy them, then you will surely enjoy reading about Roald Dahl's experience with boarding school.

I give this book 4 stars out of 5. It's a keeper.

It's Kind Of A Funny Story by Ned Vizzini

Craig Gilner is a 15 years old teenager who is highly ambitious. He had his life planned out. He wants to succeed in life. And this means have to get good result in high school, get into the right college in order to get the right job.

He managed to get into the  Manhattan's Executive Pre-Professional High School. However, the pressure become unbearable. He could not concentrate and he stopped eating. Suicide thoughts were constantly in his mind. His friends thought he is weird for he always carries flash cards around him.

Lucky for him, he have an understanding family. When he told his parents about his depression, they very very supportive and got help for him. Sent him for psychiatric treatment. He was alright for some time till he stopped taking his med.

One night the pressure was so hard that he dialed Suicide Helpline and he checked into the Hospital by himself. This is the story of his stay in the psychiatric ward where he met new "friends", which includes a transsexual sex addict, a girl who scarred her own face and self elected President Armelio.

I find that this book was very insightful. Probably because the author had spent 5 days in adult psychiatric in Methodist Hospital, Park Slope, Brooklyn 29 Nov to 3rd Dec 2004. The way it is written was sensitive and the issue touched here are common issues faced by teenagers today.

What I like is that the issue were dealt in a sensitive and respectful way. Not overtly emotional. For example, Craig did not look down on Charles when he found out that Charles is a transsexual person.

Am amazed at the standard of the health care there whereby anyone, even a 15 year old,  who is feeling suicidal can check themselves into a hospital to get help. It's very unlike here were we have to get all sort of "certification" before we can get any psychiatric help...by then we might have been a goner already.

However, I find that the ending was a bit too tidy. All well that ends well?

Koyal Dark, Mango Sweet by Kashmira Sheth

Synopsis from www.goodreads.com

Jeeta’s family is caught up in the whirlwind of arranging marriages for her two older sisters, but the drama and excitement leave Jeeta cold.

Even though tradition demands the parade of suitors, the marriage negotiations and the elaborate displays, sixteen-year old Jeeta wonders what happened to the love and romance that the movies promise?

She dreads her turn on the matrimonial circuit, especially since Mummy is always complaining about how Jeeta’s dark skin and smart mouth will turn off potential husbands. But when Jeeta’s smart mouth and liberal ideas land her in love with her friend’s cousin Neel, she must strike a balance between duty to her tradition-bound parents, and the strength to follow her heart.

My Comments:

I like this book. It's written in the voice of Jeeta and it have a very innocent ring to it. She is just beginning to discover life and that there is something more in life than getting married and having kids.

The author have put in many scene where Jeeta's character can bloom. There is very strong reference in the tradition and I love to read about the traditions in other country.

It's a very clean book. No inappropriate sexual reference not violence involved.

I would recommend it to young adults.