- Title: The 5th Wave (The 5th Wave #1)
- Author: Rick Yancey
- Page Count & Publisher: 457 | Penguin
- Genre: Young Adult, Apocalypse, Science Fiction
- Format: Paperback
- Links: Amazon UK | Goodreads
Summary:
Only the unlucky survive. Humanity has been wiped out by aliens in 4 successive waves, and the 5th wave is still to come. We meet Cassie who has survived all 4 waves, she's learned to trust no one and that has served her well so far. She meets Evan Walker after being injured but can she trust him?
My Thoughts:
Well, this was one of the most hyped books from earlier this year. I was looking forward to getting it read but nervous as well, in case it didn't live up to the hype. So I grabbed it as soon as I saw it on the shelves and jumped into it as soon as I could.
I loved how real the characters feel in this book. Cassie is a teenager and is still fairly naive at the start of this, even with all that has happened. She's forced to grow up very quickly and she becomes someone much stronger. She's faced with some awful choices and she recognises that any choice she takes can result in a horrible outcome. Yet she still has the courage to do what she needs to do. Through this book, Cassie became one of my favourite lead characters. She's strong yet absolutely not perfect.
This story is told through multiple points of view. This generally works quite well but a few of the male characters seemed to flow into each other until we got to know them a little better. People get hurt in this, kids get hurt in this and they remain hurt. Being injured effects their actions later on and I really did appreciate that. No super fast healing or hand waving. Bullet wounds take time to heal.
There are so many twists and turns. You think you know what's going on and with who, but then it twists and twists again and by the end I had no idea who's side anyone was on and I loved it. I didn't want to have guessed the answers straight away, I liked that people remain ambiguous until the end. I couldn't read the last quarter or so of this book fast enough, I couldn't get the words into my head and absorbed fast enough for me to be satisfied. I wanted more when it was over.
But the 5th wave, the truth behind the 5th wave is utterly horrifying.
Loved it, will be buying the second book the minute it appears and I will hide for two days while I read it.
Rating: 
- Title: Wool (Silo #1)
- Author: Hugh Howey
- Page Count & Publisher: 542 | Arrow Books (Random House)
- Genre: Dystopia, Post-apocalyptic, Science Fiction
- Format: Paperback
- Links: Amazon UK | Goodreads
Summary:
In a post-apocalyptic waste land, the only safe place to live is in the Silo. The world outside will kill you in minutes. The rules of the Silo need to be followed to maintain order. Rule breakers are simply sent outside, an efficient punishment - discord is removed and the cameras outside are cleaned. Jules is one of these rule breakers, she has questions, and she may be the most dangerous person there is.
My Thoughts:
This was one of my most anticipated books of this year! I waited for the paperback to be released and immediately dove into the pages.
The world building in this is absolutely amazing! The Silo feels like a real place filled with real (for the most part) characters. The descriptions inside the Silo made it feel fully fleshed out and a place I could imagine. Only one or two of the characters felt a little one-dimensional but on the whole they were complex and felt like actual people.
It did take me some time to get through, I've been reading quite a bit of young-adult at the minute so it was refreshing to get back into a book so densely packed with words and storyline. The plot is as many layered as the Silo in some places. People's motivations and actions are not always as you expect and people's loyalties can and do switch.
I loved Jules as a lead character. She was strong and utterly competent, sure of her convictions even when she wasn't sure of her actions. Her reactions felt real and believable, even when placed into some truly horrifying situations. I think she's one of my favourite leads that I've read in quite some time.
Again, I loved the descriptions of the world outside. I want to know more about it! I love a good description of a devastated environment and this teased me with just enough to keep me happy!
I'm planning on reading the rest of this trilogy as soon as the paperbacks appear. The next part is out in hardback already so I may just cave and buy the Kindle edition!
Rating: 
This is the second in a series of 7 books, I've got them all to read through and I'm liking them so far!
- Title: My Soul To Save (Soul Screamers #2)
- Author: Rachel Vincent
- Page Count & Publisher: 362 | Mira Ink (Harlequin)
- Genre: Young Adult, Paranormal
- Format: Paperback
- Links: Amazon UK | Goodreads
Summary:
Set 6 weeks after the end of the previous book, Kaylee is learning more about her Banshee heritage and learning how to have a relationship with her Dad. She's also developing her relationship with Nash and her friendship with Tod. They go out to a concert one night when the singer collapses and dies on stage. Kaylee, however, doesn't feel the urge to scream. How can she, when there's no soul to scream for? It then becomes a race against time to discover who girls are selling their souls to and why, before someone else meets the same fate.
My Thoughts:
I jumped straight into the second book in the series after finishing the first, I certainly was glad that I had it to hand! In this book, more of the Banshee world is fleshed out. We see more of the Netherworld and what Kaylee could be capable of. However, I did think that Kaylee was just a little too competent a little too quickly. It doesn't exactly take her long to work out her new abilities.
The relationships still feel real in this book. The slight distance she has with her Dad still, the remaining doubts she has about her relationship with Nash. Kaylee feels like a well fleshed out character, someone who is starting to grow as a person. I still want to shout at her for not involving someone who could actually offer help at some points in this but her hesitance to do so does make sense.
We meet some more clearly important character in this and Tod's almost hero worship is somewhat adorable.
The main plot doesn't quite feel as personal this time round. Previously, the people involved were Kaylee's friends and family. This time round she's helping a friend of Tod's and it seems to be because she couldn't save everyone last time.
Not quite as strong as the first book, but still worth its rating!
My Rating:
I didn't get quite as much reading done in June as I did in May, but I read three really fantastic books!
-Wool by Hugh Howey - took me nearly two weeks to get through as it was a dense, layered book that deserved a lot of attention while reading. Really enjoyed the world created in this and I can't wait to read the remainder of the trilogy.
-My Soul To Keep by Rachel Vincent - the best in the series so far, I'm looking forward to reading the 4th in the series to read the fall out from the events in this one!
-The 5th Wave by Rick Yancey - hugely hyped and popular in the book community, it deserves all the praise it has been getting! Absorbing and shocking in parts, the sequel is just too far away!
July is already shaping up to be a busier reading month, I've got one finish already and I'm almost done with another book!
This is one of the books that featured in my very first haul video! I bought it not long after Christmas.
- Title: The Departure (Owner Trilogy #1)
- Author: Neal Asher
- Page Count & Publisher: 498 | Tor (Pan Macmillan)
- Genre: Science Fiction, Dystopia
- Format: Paperback
- Links: Amazon UK | Goodreads
Summary:
Alan Saul wakes up on his way to the Calais Incineration Plant. He can't remember much, but he does remember pain and his tormenter's face. He has an illegal AI in his head who reveals a world full of death and despair. Earth is a hugely overpopulated planet, ruled over by the Committee, watched over by the Argus Array. The Committee need to kill 12 billion in order to stabilise the population of Earth, Saul doesn't intend to let them.
My Thoughts:
This took me some getting through! The first quarter or so of the book seemed to take so long to get through but the second half flew by. It's probably because while I love love hard science fiction (and this is definitely in the ranks of hard sci-fi), I'm not the biggest fan of post-humans. Aliens and such are fine, but something about AI and computer enhanced humans just doesn't do it for me. Maybe I was just traumatised by the Borg as a child.
This Earth is a brutal, violent world where the sheer scale of human life has cheapened its value. The phrase "manswarm" is used a few times and it sums it up quite well. There are Zero Asset and Societal Asset citizens. The be a Societal Asset means you have use (unless you start asking questions, then you get taken away to be re-educated) and the ability to buy food. Zero Asset citizens are nothing.
The world building in this was pretty fantastic. You got a good idea of the sights (and occasionally the smells) around Saul. You can understand how this world came to be, especially with the snippets of future history at the start of each chapter. This world actually makes sense, it feels real. Horrifically brutal, but real.
At first I wanted to sympathise with Saul. He has no idea who he is, everything about him was wiped out during his torture. You want him to find his answers, find out who he was and how he reached that point. However, as he began to get his answers he moved further and further away from what it meant in his world to be human. He's downright disturbing at the end and I even began to ask myself if he was "the good guy" after all. He doesn't seem to want to cause suffering, only death. Some of the obvious "bad guys" were a bit stereotypical bad guy-ish. You knew they weren't good but lacked some depth that could have added more interest to the world and storyline.
I am planning on reading the rest of this trilogy, but it's probably not going to be a priority.
Rating:
This was my first for review book! The author contacted me and offered me a free download in exchange for an honest review. This has had no effect on the review I'm going to give.
- Title: Noah's Ark
- Author: Andrew J. Morgan
- Page Count & Publisher: 289 | That Right Publishing
- Genre: Science Fiction, Apocalypse
- Format: eBook
- Links: Amazon UK | Goodreads
Summary:
We follow two characters, Alex and Michael. Alex is living the perfect life. He has a wonderful family and a successful career. Michael is living a perpetual nightmarish existence in a locked facility under sadistic guards. Alex thinks he's along after the darkness took everyone away. He's wrong.
My Thoughts:
This is such a hard book to review because discussing the plot at all will give away the biggest spoiler in the book! It was utterly confusing at first, until you figure out what's going on. And by confusing, I mean to the point where I put the it down for a few days until I could devote a bit more attention to it! You get absolutely no answers during these confusing first chapters but it all falls into place later on in the book.
While this book follows two main characters, there are a few other people involved. I don't think the other people felt as fleshed out as Alex and Michael and one or two were a touch stereotypical. I liked Michael a whole lot better than Alex, even at the start when it appears Michael is a violent, cold blooded murderer. Michael is always fighting for himself, to not give into those around him. Alex slips into a melodramatic funk quite early on and has a lot of things happen at him, rather than to him.
There is a huge amount of descriptiveness in this book, sometimes it's actually quite beautiful:
"His pondering swirled out through his mouth and drew spirals in front of him. They collided, showering reflective sparks in every direction.The ones that touched him burnt and stung; he yelped and they turned and slithered away, wriggling and writhing as they burrowed into the black."
-Noah's Ark by Andrew J. Morgan
Other times, the description got in the way of the momentum of the story, it felt a little bogged down in adjectives.
The tone completely changed once the two met, it got a little "action hero" dialogue-ish. There was some "I can't go on, leave me", "Never!!" type dialogue which felt a bit out of tone with what had happened so far.
There's a huge, and not unexpected plot twist at the end but there's a huge amount that still doesn't get explained by the end of the book.
Overall, it's a good and solid debut. I'm looking forward to seeing more from Andrew J. Morgan!
My Rating:
I really enjoy watching everyone's monthly reading wrap ups on Youtube and I thought it would be a fun thing to do on my blog as well!
I had such a good reading month this month, managing a total of 7 books! Five of those were paperback and two were on my Kindle. I actually had a slow start to the month but picked up pace a week or so in.
-Uglies by Scott Westerfeld - my first finish this month, I enjoyed the world that he created and found it to be a pretty easy read.
-Pretties by Scott Westerfeld - I quickly moved on to the next in the series and devoured it in a couple of days. This was another easy read that I really enjoyed.
-Specials by Scott Westerfeld - I don't normally go through a trilogy so quickly so I was getting a little book fatigue by the end of this! Still, it was every bit as good as the other two in the series.
-The Need For Flesh by Matthew Hawking - this was a free at the time download from Amazon. It wasn't that long and I read it over a bus trip. It only rated one star, it might have been better if it felt like it had actually been edited before being released.
-The Departure by Neal Asher - this took my most of the month to work through, it's brutal and violent and took me quite some time to get into. A much better second half helped me finish.
-Extras by Scott Westerfeld - not quite as good as the other three of the series, I'm not sure this really adds anything essential to the overall plot of the Uglies series even though we're seeing the world after the events of Specials.
-Noah's Ark by Andrew Morgan - the last book I read this month (I finished it at about 11pm last night!) and the first book I received for review. A pretty good first half and a mind bendingly twisty plot!
What have you read this month? Any suggestions for me to add?
The Soul Screamers series is one I haven't heard much about, but I managed to get 6 of the 7 books for cheap from The Works so it seemed like a pretty good idea at the time!
- Title: My Soul To Take (Soul Screamers #1)
- Author: Rachel Vincent
- Page Count & Publisher: 345 | Mira Ink (Harlequin)
- Genre: Young Adult, Paranormal
- Format: Paperback
- Links: Amazon UK | Goodreads
Summary:
Kaylee Cavanaugh is just trying to be a normal teenager. Well, as normal as she can be when she has the overwhelming urge to scream when someone around her is about to die. She's just caught the attention of Nash, the hottest guy in school, when girls around her start dying. Strangely, Nash seems to know more about what's going on than Kaylee does. And just what is her family not telling her?
My Thoughts:
As I said at the start, this was a pretty random purchase for me and I ended up with the whole series of 7 books before reading any! I got the first 6 for £10 from The Works and thought I may as well get the last one from Amazon.
I thought this was a really, really good start to a series. There's not a huge amount of world building going on but we discover the world of Banshees and everything else that goes with it along with Kaylee. The focus is most definitely on characters here, but there is enough information given to us about the world to make it feel almost "real".
Speaking of information, Kaylee is actually given answers to the questions she has. So often in YA, the girl discovers she's not what she thought and everyone around her prevents her from getting answers for "her on good". Kaylee's family has kept plenty of very important things from her "for her own good" but once she starts questioning it, they answer.
I found I liked Kaylee more and more through the book, she seemed well thought and avoided falling into some of the more popular tropes! When the hottest guy in school is suddenly aware of her, she doesn't react with the whole "my life suddenly has meaning!" I've seen before but instead reacts with suspicion. Why is he suddenly paying so much attention to her? What's he getting out of it? I also loved the way their relationship began to play out. It felt like a naturally progressing relationship, none of that insta-love here.
Perhaps though Kaylee is a little to ready to accept the changes in her life. She had no idea that this world existed and had actually suffered in the past because of her urge to scream.
I didn't see the twist at the end coming. Though upon skimming through again to see what I missed, perhaps there were more clues than I thought!
My rating:
Well, since I started a book blog to go with my YouTube Channel I thought I should actually post something! I'm going to try and review most of what I read on here with a few each month recorded as usual for uploading!
- Title: Uglies (Uglies #1)
- Author: Scott Westerfeld
- Page Count & Publisher: 425 | Simon & Schuster
- Genre: Young Adult, Dystopia
- Format: Paperback
- Links: Amazon UK | Goodreads
Summary:
Tally Youngblood is about to turn 16. She'll get her operation to turn her from an "Ugly" into a "Pretty". She'll get to party all night and sleep all day with the other Pretties. Her oldest friend, Peris, is already a Pretty and Tally can't wait to join him. Not long before her birthday she meets Shay, another Ugly not far from her 16th birthday. However, Shay would rather stay Ugly and look for "The Smoke" than turn pretty. Shay vanishes not long before she's due to have her operation and Tally is given a choice by Dr Cable from the almost mythical Special Circumstances: bring Shay back or stay Ugly forever. The choices she makes have far reaching consequences.
My Thoughts:
Uglies was actually recommended to me by a coworker, we've swapped book recommendations and always see if the other is reading something interesting! This was a pretty easy read and I got through the first three of this series in just over a week! I really enjoyed this one, it was definitely a good introduction to the world.
I didn't find Tally the most engaging of characters in Uglies, I was far more interested in Shay's story. At times it felt as though Tally was being swept along with everyone else, it wasn't until nearer the end that she took more control of her own path. She had a lot of lessons to learn and she definitely got there. There were some hard things to discover about herself and the world of the Pretties but she was a better person at the end because of it.
I did have a few questions about how sustainable this environment is, especially once you learned more about what is going on with the Pretties. An answer was given for the "important" people such as Doctors, but what about the dirty jobs that no one wants to think about? Where do all the resources come from? The relationships between the characters were a bit more developed than the world, though this may just be because Tally hasn't has cause to question the world around her.
On the whole I was pretty well absorbed by the story! I was certainly pleased that I had the next on hand to dive straight into!
My Rating:
I thought it was time I started the blog to go with my InkyLeaves booktube channel! I've enjoyed beauty blogging to go along with my defunct beauty channel and decided to add book blogging to the mix!
I'll be posting hauls, reviews, book chat and inky things in here.
My favourite genre is Science Fiction, older and newer stuff! But also add in zombies, apocalypse, dystopia, etc and I'm going to be a happy reader!
Introductions are always awkward, even after blogging for the best part of 5 years. So let's just get onto the good stuff.
I live in a town that has a few second hand book shops. We're not big enough to have any chain book shops here but our second hand shops are well stocked. I recently went into one of the ones I haven't been into for a while and came away with a handful of books!
These were £6 for all 3! I think I'll be visiting that shop again very soon. All 3 of these were on my Amazon wishlist. Not only that but these are brand new books!
-Slated by Teri Terry
-Ashes by Ilsa J. Bick
-X Isle by Steve Augarde
I've linked to Amazon for all 3, but it's not an affiliate link.
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