Notes of Life

Author: Lauren Kate
Publisher: Doubleday
ISBN: 978-0-857-53164-3

Are you a Lauren Kate fan awaiting the final book in the Fallen series? If so, you’re in for a treat!

On 2nd February Doubleday release Fallen In Love in the UK, a book featuring four new love stories featuring the Fallen characters. Just perfect for this upcoming Valentine’s Day.

Everyone has their own love story and Fallen In Love gives us The Valentine of Shelby and Miles, The Valentine of Roland, The Valentine of Arriane and, finally, The Valentine of Daniel and Lucinda. The four love stories intertwine during a romantic Valentine’s Day in Medieval England to make, essentially, one story.

Fallen In Love is basically book 3.5 of the Fallen series. It happens during the same time-frame  as Passion (book 3), starting when Shelby and Miles land in Medieval England having arrived via an Announcer. Each of the stories is told from a different perspective and so we get to know some of the characters a bit better than we did in the novels of the series.

While Fallen In Love gives us more understanding and insight into the Fallen characters, I wouldn’t say it’s a necessary addition to the series, but it is a welcome one. I think it’s more of a bonus book and one I’m very grateful for! In fact, when I met Lauren Kate at the Passion book launch last year I’d asked her if she’d ever considered writing a book of short stories to go along side the series. Lauren had said that it was a good idea. It turned out that she was being cagey, for the very next day the publishers announced that Fallen In Love would be released this February!

At the end of Fallen In Love, fans are also treated to an exclusive first look at Rapture, the final Fallen book, due for release this summer. I was lucky enough to hear the lovely Lauren Kate read from this at the Passion book launch last year.

Fallen In Love is a must for any Lauren Kate fan!

P.S. – There is also a FALLEN BOOKS app to bring the cover to life, but I can’t yet find it on the Android Marketplace, only on the App Store for iPhones and iPads.

You can read my reviews of the books from the Fallen series via the links below:
1. Fallen
2. Torment
3. Passion

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Please note: I received this book free from Random House in return for a review. However, this has in no way influenced my opinion of the book.

Author: Becca Fitzpatrick
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 978-0857072276

Before I get started, Silence is the 3rd book in a series by Becca Fitzpatrick, and it pretty much picks up where the previous book left off. The first two books of the series are Hush, Hush and Crescendo.

Nora awakes in a graveyard. It’s cold and dark, and she hasn’t a clue what she’s doing there or how she got there. In fact, it turns out she can’t remember the last 5 months. Summer has been and gone, just like her memory.

This sets Nora on a mission to find out exactly what happened to her while she was missing and who kidnapped her, then she can plot revenge!

Of course, fallen angel Patch never seems to be far away…….

As it had been quite some time since I read the previous book in the series, I found myself with my own memory lapse… I couldn’t quite remember what had happened in Crescendo! Thankfully though, just like Nora’s memory, mine started to come back as I read on and it didn’t have an impact on my enjoyment of the book.

Sometimes a series can start lacking by the third book, but this isn’t the case with Silence and the Hush, Hush series. I thoroughly enjoyed it and there’s another book to come yet. I’ve now begun to feel like I really know the characters. Nora is certainly starting to grow up. Of course, we’re also treated to the appearance of past characters such as Vee, The Black Hand and Scott.

Silence is full of twists and turns, along with tension, action, romance and a little humour. The ending leads us nicely to the fourth book of the series, which I believe will be the final book. (I think this was originally only going to be a trilogy) and I can’t wait to find out what happens next.

If you’ve not yet read Hush, Hush or Crescendo, then I would definitely recommend you read this series in order. I don’t think Silence is a book you can jump into without having already read the previous two books.

A must for YA, fallen angel fans.

Buy Silence by Becca Fitzpatrick.

Author: Daniel Polansky
Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton
ISBN: 978-1-444-72129-4

Welcome to Low Town.

Here, the criminal is king. The streets are filled with the screeching of fish hags, the cries of swindled merchants, the inviting murmurs of working girls. Here, people can disappear, and the lacklustre efforts of the guard ensure they are never found.

Warden is an ex-soldier who has seen the worst men have to offer; now a narcotics dealer with a rich, bloody past and a way of inviting danger. You’d struggle to find someone with a soul as dark and troubled as his.

But then a missing child, murdered and horribly mutilated, is discovered in an alley.

And then another.

With a mind as sharp as a blade and an old but powerful friend in the city, he’s the only man with a hope of finding the killer.

If the killer doesn’t find him first.

The Straight Razor Cure is a thrilling crime novel with more than an edge of fantasy. It’s edgy and dark with characters showing real presence. The main character, Warden (who’s perspective the story is told from), isn’t a man to trifle with. He’s a drug dealer, ex-soldier and former agent, but he’s got a heart and that’s what sets him on a mission to investigate when he comes across missing girl murdered in a street.

Low Town, the setting, is dark and grim. It’s an apt name for a place full of low-lifes, criminals and poverty. Polansky’s words make it easy to imagine being there, seeing through Wardens eyes.

I was totally surprised to learn that The Straight Razor Cure is Polansky’s debut novel. It feels like it’s been written with complete confidence and I had expected the author to already have a number of novels under his belt. Polansky’s writing style drew me into the story and had me gripped from the very first chapter right until the final page. While it is quite dark in places, Polansky injects some wit and humour in places and I did find myself smiling at times.

I’m very much hoping, at the very least, there will be a sequel to The Straight Razor Cure, if not the beginnings of a series. I’ve come to know Warden and his acquaintances very well and would enjoy reading what’s next for them.

I’d definitely recommend The Straight Razor Cure to those who enjoy crime thrillers and fantasy. Daniel Polansky has a new fan here and I look forward to my next visit to Warden and Low Town.

Buy Low Town: The Straight Razor Cure by Daniel Polansky.

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Please note: I received this book free from Hodder & Stoughton in return for a review. However, this has in no way influenced my opinion of the book.

I was lucky enough to be invited to Lauren Kate‘s book launch by Random House Children’s Books.

For those who don’t know (and if you don’t, where have you been?!), Lauren Kate is the author of The Betrayal of Natalie Hargrove, as well as the Fallen series featuring Fallen, Torment, Passion and the upcoming summer 2012 release, Rapture.

You can read my reviews of the books from the Fallen series via the links below:
1. Fallen
2. Torment
3. Passion

The event was held at Proud in Camden, London last night. Unfortunately, I arrived at the venue soaking wet as our lovely British weather gave a downpour as soon as I came out of Camden Town tube station!

As soon as I arrived I was given a glass of bubbly and an eyeful of two topless male angels (See photo to the right showing Lauren Kate at the UK Passion Launch at Proud in Camden with angel waiters! Photo courtesy of Random House Children’s Books). What a great start to the evening!

Lauren Kate was delightful. She read us the prologue for Rapture, the fourth and final book in the Fallen series I can’t share any of it with you, but I loved it and can’t wait to read the book. I’ve got quite a wait though as it’s not out until next June (right in time for my birthday!). I loved listening to Lauren read and I think she’d be great at reading her own audiobooks.

Breaking News…

On 2nd February 2012 Random House Children’s Books will publish an original novel by Lauren Kate that is connected to her Fallen series. The novel, Fallen in Love, is a collection of four intertwined love stories featuring the Fallen characters we’ve come to love and adore… Miles, Shelby, Roland, Arriane and, of course, Luce & Daniel.

So that’s something to keep us fans going until the long awaited release of Rapture!

Giveaway (Ends midday Sunday, 2nd October 2011 – UK readers only – CLOSED!)

I’d taken my copy of Passion to get signed by Lauren, and, as we were also allowed to grab a copy of Passion at the launch party, I got to have the second copy signed for one of you. Yes, that’s right, one of my readers will win a signed copy of Lauren Kate’s Passion! To be in with a chance of winning, all you have to do is leave a comment on this post. That’s it!

Unfortunately, this giveaway is restricted to UK readers due to postage costs, but my international readers can look forward to another giveaway very soon.

UK readers have until midday on Sunday, 2nd October 2011 to enter the giveaway. A winner will then be chosen at random. (Giveaway entries now closed!).

Thank you so much to Lauren Kate and everyone involved in organising the book launch. I had a wonderful time, with plenty of bubbly top-ups by the gorgeous angels (Do you think I could have my own angel waiter at home?!) and met some lovely people. Thanks to Random House Children’s Books for inviting me.

Author: Lee Carroll
Publisher: Bantam Press
ISBN: 978-0-593-06597-6

Having submitted my review of Black Swan Rising for the Transworld Book Group Reading Challenge, the wonderful people at Transworld kindly sent me a copy of the second book in this wonderful urban fantasy trilogy to review.

The Watchtower follows on from where Black Swan Rising left off. Garet James is struggling to come to terms with who, or what, she really is. Having believed she’s received a sign from Will Hughes, the 400 year old vampire who has disappeared along with her ancestor’s silver box, she heads to Paris in search of Will and the path to Summer Country, the legendary land of the Fey. Garet’s trip takes her on a dangerous journey on which she encounters more strange and mythic creatures. Will she succeed in her search?

Was The Watchtower as good a read as Black Swan Rising? It certainly was! Being mainly set in France and England and partially in the past, this book had a slightly different feel to Black Swan Rising’s New York. I felt the story’s pace quickened as the story went on and, once again, Lee Carroll provides us with an urban fantasy mystery and adventurous page-turner.

The chapters alternate from Garet’s first-person perspective to following Will in third-person narrative. Will’s chapters follow his life from before he became a vampire and we’re treated to historic settings from England and France in 1602, while Garet’s chapters are mainly set in present day France. This alternation in chapters doesn’t work very well in some books I’ve read, but I felt the author team of Lee Carroll (Carol Goodman and her husband Lee Slonimsky) made it come together suitably in The Watchtower. I had no problem in the narrative switching and even found it easy to follow with the story flowing well.

Once again, we’re treated to all manner of characters in The Watchtower… There’s the vampire, of course, as well as a dryad living in the Luxembourg Gardens, a gnome who lives beneath the Jardin des Plantes Labyrinth and an ancient botanist metamorphosed into Paris’ oldest tree, to name just a few. The legendary, real-life character of John Dee also makes a return appearance in The Watchtower. Unlike many other urban fantasy stories, this is a trilogy that treats us to all kinds of beings, rather than just focusing on one or two.

Having read Black Swan Rising and The Watchtower in quick succession and really enjoyed them both, I now can’t wait for the third book in this trilogy (though with The Watchtower having only just been released this month, I may have a while to wait!). This is definitely a trilogy you should read in order, but it’s also one I wouldn’t hesitate in ecommending to any urban fantasy reader.

Buy The Watchtower by Lee Carroll at the Book Depository.

Read my review of Black Swan Rising by Lee Carroll.

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Please note: I received this book free from Transworld Publishers in return for a review. However, this has in no way influenced my opinion of the book.