Melanie's Week in Review - September 29, 2013

Hello! Autumn decided to surprise us this week with some gorgeous weather which allowed me to sneak in a bit more outside reading time on my lunch breaks. I fear that is all over until next June (if we are lucky, this is English weather). Anyway onto what I was reading.

I finished off Cracked by Eliza Crewe (Strange Chemistry, Nov. 5, 2013) and LOVED IT! This is the first in the Soul Eater series and I can hardly wait for the next book to come out. The more I thought about it the more I decided it was definitely YA UF. If you go purely by the book summary it could be adult UF but the heroine (or anti-heroine) Meda is in her teens and towards the end it reads more like typical YA novels I have read before. Meda however, is not your typical teenage heroine. She is part demon and rips people to pieces in order to eat their souls. Needless to say she isn't terribly likeable at first but has all the funniest lines in the book. There was several places where I got all 'LOLy' and doing that on public transportation can lead to a lot of weird looks. I had a few of the more hilarious comments bookmarked and went back and read them afterwards and still thought they were funny after a second reading. I even have a new favourite word that Meda uses in the book which is "hangry" when you get angry from being hungry. Tee hee.

Meda finds out that she is more than just a soul eating, violence craving monster and teams up with a group of 'templars' in training teenagers to try to eradicate her own kind. Nothing is ever straight forward and Meda discovers more about herself than she bargained for. There are some quite sad parts of this book, as well and demonstrates Crewe's ability to create a well rounded character that had me cringing at the gruesome scenes where Meda literally 'lets rip', laughing at her sarcasm and reaching for a tissue during some rather touching moments towards the end (don't want to give you any spoilers!). This is a great start to the series and if you like YA then this is a must read.

I also read Perdition by Ann Aguirre (Ace, August 27, 2013). I read and reviewed Bronze Gods that Aguirre wrote with her husband but I haven't read any of her solo novels. If Perdition is anything to go by then I am going to get buying a few. I will be writing a full review so keep your eyes out for it.

I started to panic that I had only read two books this week and wouldn't have anything to tell you so I was very naughty and bought some more. I bought and read Priceless by Shannon Mayer. It is about a young woman with exceptional talents at finding lost children. Her sister was kidnapped when she was young and the guilt has driven her to use her skills to rescue other missing kids. When a child is kidnapped on the same day in the same park as her own sister she discovers this is more than just a coincidence. The heroine Rylee is pretty kick ass. She is friends with a witch, has a werewolf as a pet, a troll makes her brownies and she fancies an FBI agent. I thought the book was OK. I had it finished in a day which means it was fairly easy to read but maybe not as challenging with the plot as it could have been.

I also bought King of Thorns by Mark Lawrence and Crown of Midnight by Sarah J Maas. I  read the first books of both these series last year and decided I was overdue in buying the next books. Hopefully, I will get a chance next week to get them read and tell you what I thought of them. But until then I wish you a good week ahead and Happy Reading!