Heist Society by Ally Carter

Title: Heist Society
Author: Ally Carter
Publisher: Disney Hyperion
Released: February 9th 2010
Pages: 291 (Paperback)
Buy: Amazon UK / Amazon US
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When Katarina Bishop was three, her parents took her to the Louvre...to case it. For her seventh birthday, Katarina and her Uncle Eddie traveled to Austria...to steal the crown jewels. When Kat turned fifteen, she planned a con of her own--scamming her way into the best boarding school in the country, determined to leave the family business behind. Unfortunately, leaving "the life" for a normal life proves harder than she'd expected.

Soon, Kat's friend and former co-conspirator, Hale, appears out of nowhere to bring her back into the world she tried so hard to escape. But he has good reason: a powerful mobster's art collection has been stolen, and he wants it returned. Only a master thief could have pulled this job, and Kat’s father isn’t just on the suspect list, he is the list. Caught between Interpol and a far more deadly enemy, Kat’s dad needs her help.

For Kat there is only one solution: track down the paintings and steal them back. So what if it’s a spectacularly impossible job? She’s got two weeks, a teenage crew, and hopefully just enough talent to pull off the biggest heist in her family’s (very crooked) history - and, with any luck, steal her life back along the way.

Being a fan of Carter's Gallagher Girl series, when I saw Heist Society, I knew I had to read it. Yeah, I'd seen a few negative reviews here and there - but her writing isn't for everyone. Turns out that statement can't be more true, and now it seems that her writing just isn't for me anymore.

Acid by Emma Pass

Title: Acid
Author: Emma Pass
Publisher: Random House
Released: April 25th 2013
Pages: 448 (eBook)
Buy: Amazon UK / Amazon US
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2113. In Jenna Strong’s world, ACID – the most brutal, controlling police force in history – rule supreme. No throwaway comment or muttered dissent goes unnoticed – or unpunished. And it was ACID agents who locked Jenna away for life, for a bloody crime she struggles to remember.

The only female inmate in a violent high-security prison, Jenna has learned to survive by any means necessary. And when a mysterious rebel group breaks her out, she must use her strength, speed and skill to stay one step ahead of ACID – and to uncover the truth about what really happened on that dark night two years ago.

I have to admit, it's the cover of Acid that first caught my eye. I love me some badass heroines, so as soon as I saw the girl on the cover, I knew it had to be added to my TBR list. But when I suddenly got a review copy of it? Lets just say I was over the moon with joy. Although the book didn't keep me up at all hours, it was addictive; the plot was thick with incredible twists, and I always wanted to know what was going to happen next.

All These Things I've Done by Gabrielle Zevin

Title: All These Things I've Done
Author: Gabrielle Zevin
Publisher: Pan Macmillan
Released: March 29th 2012
Pages: 352 (Paperback)
Buy: Amazon

Sixteen year-old Anya becomes the head of a mafia family after her parents are both murdered by rival gangs. Although Anya is embroiled in the criminal world, she is determined to keep her brother and sister out of the mafia family, but her father’s relatives aren’t so keen to let them go. When Anya’s violent ex-boyfriend is poisoned with contaminated chocolate – chocolate that is produced illegally by Anya’s mafia family – she is arrested for attempted murder and sent to the notorious jail on Manhattan Island.

Eventually she is freed by the new D.A. in town, who believes she has been framed. But this D.A. is the father of Win, a boy at school to whom Anya feels irresistibly drawn, and her freedom comes with conditions. Win’s father wants to be mayor, and he can’t risk having his ambition jeopardized by rumors spreading that his son is seeing a member of a notorious crime family. Anya knows she risks the safety of her family by seeing Win again, but the feeling between them may be too strong to resist.

The Last Three by Almon Chu

"'Just three more stops,' I thought to myself. I gripped my knife, the handle digging into my flesh. I closed my eyes and tried to think of Eris." A descent down the path of self-destruction, does salvation lie around the corner or is it merely an illusion? The Last Three is a captivating story of a lost soul on the streets of a modern dystopia.

The author himself asked me if I'd review this book, and as soon as I read the Amazon synopsis, I knew I'd love it. And I absolutely did. The story is set in a sort of modern dystopian world, and revolves around this guy called Jon. Throughout the novella, it talks a little bit about his past, and how he will proceed in the future. But it is a tale of mice and men - no matter how you might plan for the future, something can - and will - change it.

What I first of all want to say about this novella is that nothing is really revealed throughout all of it. Although I found myself slightly annoyed at this, since I always want to know the nitty gritty details, I think it was a brilliant technique to cloak Jon and his backstory in mystery, which kept me hooked on reading it, keen to find out where the plot was going. It also doesn't give away anything about where he lives, how long he's lived there, what the worlds state is in, which gives the story a quite small, secluded setting. I think Chu wrote this story so that the reader could interpret certain events as they felt fit, which helped them to connect to the storyline. Personally, I felt like this was set in a few future decades, in small area of a big city. Jon, to me, felt like he had grown up with very few people around, and now he lived practically on his own, not really sharing his inner thoughts and feelings with anyone. This gradually built up inside him until the events in this book pushed him over the edge, ending the story with the Voices in his head mocking him.

I think the only word I can find sufficient enough to sum this up is powerful. This book is powerful. Although it is only 65 pages long, the depth of emotion in this story is so huge that you are left with a kind of aftershock, which can only be the combined product of an amazing plot and a brilliant brain. As a debut novel, I think it is really impressive, and the only thing I would fault is how short it is; even after I finished, I wanted more of Jon's story. I think it could possibly have been improved with a '10 years later' kind of scenario, but I think that depends on your preferences.

Overall, it is a beautiful piece of work, and if you haven't read it, I plead you to go and buy it from Amazon. It takes a lot for a book to change someone's life, and although I wouldn't call this one life-changing, I would say that it leaves a strong impression behind. Almon Chu is definitely a name we have to watch out for in the future.
Rating: 4/5

Torn by Cat Clarke

Four girls. One dead body. A whole lot of guilt.
Alice King isn’t expecting the holiday of a lifetime when she sets off with her classmates on a trip to the Scottish wilderness, but she’s not exactly prepared for an experience beyond her darkest nightmares…
Alice and her best friend Cass are stuck in a cabin with Polly, the social outcast, and Rae, the moody emo-girl. Then there’s Tara – queen of mean. Powerful, beautiful and cruel, she likes nothing better than putting people down.
Cass decides it’s time to teach Tara a lesson she’ll never forget. And so begins a series of events that will change the lives of these girls forever...
A compelling story of guilty secrets, troubled friendship and burgeoning love.

 So if you've read some of my Waiting On Wednesday's, you'll know I was stupidly excited when I found out that Clarke was publishing another book, and I was practically stalking out the book stores in an attempt to actually find the book - and when I did I swear I could have cried (okay, a bit overdramatic, but close enough.). It's taken me a couple of weeks to get round to reading it, but from when I picked it up yesterday, I was hooked.

The storyline was brilliant, to say the least. When I first read the blurb, it sounded like it was going to be a quite dramatic book - and from having previously read Clarke's other book, Entangled, I was prepared for it to be quite thrilling and to tackle some particularly tough issues. And it was both those things - but not quite to the extent of Entangled, which was a bit disappointing. But I suppose that the whole issue of going on a school trip and accidentally murdering one of your fellow classmates is a pretty major topic all on its own. One of the things I loved about the plot was that it wasn't the type of murder you expected it to be - from the blurb it sounded like they knew they were going to kill her - but in actual fact they didn't, and I think that really worked well,because it added another twist so that the storyline was more like; What do you do when you're playing a prank on the mean girl of your school, but your best friend goes over-the-top and pretty much kills her? And that brings up all these other questions - because Alice was there, is she a murderer too? Will she get into trouble, despite knowing very little about the plan? And I think that constant question is what made the book very addictive - you wanted to know if they got caught. If Alice was guilty. If Rae was guilty. If Cass was guilty. If Polly was guilty. However, despite the addictive storyline, I found the ending very disappointing. It was a cliffhanger - but the kind of cliffhanger that is a full-stop in the fact that there isn't going to be a sequel; that's your lot. And in a way, that was the best way to end the book - but I can't help but wish there was an epilogue, saying what happens to the four of them in the end - what happens to Jack, to Tara...there are so many unanswered questions, and I guess that will bug me for a while. So I will warn you that while it is a great read and I definitely recommend it, prepare to feel slightly lost at the end.

Despite that one flaw, I really did love the book, and for once I actually liked the majority of the characters - or at least felt the way I was supposed to about them. I really liked the characters of Alice, Jack and Rae - and I really disliked the characters of Tara, Cass and Polly, but not because they were badly characterized - the exact opposite really. I thought all the characters were properly thought-through, and each one was unique - well, with the exception of Sam and Gemma.

If you have read Entangled, I highly recommend this book. In my opinion, it isn't as good - but it isn't far off it. Clarke's novels are always gripping and interesting, and I can't wait to find out what book she will write and publish next!
Rating:4/5

Revolution by Jennifer Donnelly

BROOKLYN: Andi Alpers is on the edge. She’s angry at her father for leaving, angry at her mother for not being able to cope, and heartbroken by the loss of her younger brother, Truman. Rage and grief are destroying her. And she’s about to be expelled from Brooklyn Heights’ most prestigious private school when her father intervenes. Now Andi must accompany him to Paris for winter break.

PARIS: Alexandrine Paradis lived over two centuries ago. She dreamed of making her mark on the Paris stage, but a fateful encounter with a doomed prince of France cast her in a tragic role she didn’t want—and couldn’t escape.

Two girls, two centuries apart. One never knowing the other. But when Andi finds Alexandrine’s diary, she recognizes something in her words and is moved to the point of obsession. There’s comfort and distraction for Andi in the journal’s antique pages—until, on a midnight journey through the catacombs of Paris, Alexandrine’s words transcend paper and time, and the past becomes suddenly, terrifyingly present.
 
When I started this book, I was a bit unsure as to whether I would like it or not. As I've said before, I'm not overly keen on books set in the past, and at the beginning of the book I didn't know whether it was currently set in the past or the future. But as I read on, things started to become clear, and I fell absolutely head-over-heels for this book! It was amazing - honestly amazing. One thing that made me pick up this book in the first place was because of how thick it is - nearly 500 pages. Nowadays, thick teenage books are hard to come upon, and I really fancied a novel I could sink my teeth into. And this book was perfect for the job, and even now that I've finished it, I just want to pick it up and read it all over again. Throughout the story, you connect with each of the main characters and feel like all the events are simply unfolding before you - you feel like you are inside Andi's head. It's so brilliantly and beautifully written - Donnelly manages to capture the escence of present-day teen as well as post-day teen. And she seems to do it so effortlessly, too. I enjoyed this book more than words can describe, and I really want to read another one of her books soon.
Rating:5/5

Becoming Bindy Mackenzie by Jaclyn Moriarty

Bindy Mackenzie is the smartest − and kindest − girl at Ashbury High. She likes to share her knowledge and offers lunchtime advisory sessions in a relaxed setting (the locker room). But when Bindy discovers that, despite all her hard work, nobody likes her, benevolent Bindy is banished − ruthless Bindy is about to be unleashed. Bindy records every moment of her new rebellious life in a project − from The Philosophical Musings of B. Mackenzie to extracts from her essays. But her scrapbook is also the key to a bizarre mystery − with Bindy herself at the centre. Only her friends can help her now. If only she had some.


As I said in my previous review on one of Jaclyn Moriarty's other novels, Dreaming of Amelia, I read Becoming Bindy Mackenzie a couple of years back and didn't remember much about it. So I decided I would re-read it - and i loved it! Again in this book, I re-met some of the characters I had read in the other book: Emily, Astrid, Lydia, Cassie and Toby - along with new characters Emily, Sergio, Briony and Finnegan (although Becoming Bindy Mackenzie was published before Dreaming of Amelia - and Bindy was, in fact, in DoA). So when I started, I was already fairly familiar with some of the characters - but not the main one, Bindy. Bindy Mackenzie is the replicar of that one girl each of us has in our year: constantly recieving praise from teachers, getting countless awards, always getting top marks in essays and tests - that one girl that we can find patronising and annoying. So as I read this book, it was quite eye-opening to see the life through someone elses eyes - and you actually realize how hard it is to keep being at the top, and how much Bindy has actually sacrificed to get to where she is. But then disaster strikes as Bindy tries to be nice to her fellow pupils and finds out that they are not actually at all fond of her - or so it seems. So she sets out to try and be ruthless and horrid, by comparing each of the seven pupils in her FAD group (Friendship and Development group, where eight pupils get together to relax and speak about their stresses and worries) to poisonous and venomous animals. As the novel slowly unwinds, you share a coming-of-age journey with Bindy, and even though she is rather annoying in the beginning, I found that I grew fond of her throughout the tale. One of the things I find unique to Moriarty's stories is that throughout the novel, a conspiracy forming that is only revealed in the last few chapters of the book - so as the reader starts to get tired of the long story, a massive plot is dropped on their heads. And you know what? It absolutely works. The best thing about it is that you have no real clue of it even existing until it is basically spelt out in front of you. It makes her novels even better, and you find yourself looking back through the book to spot the clues and hints of what was going on. I really enjoyed it, and I think I read about half of it in a couple of hours. Brilliant work!
Rating:4/5

Forbidden by Tabitha Suzuma

"You've always been my best friend, my soul mate, and now I've fallen in love with you too. Why is that such a crime?"
She is pretty and talented - sweet sixteen and never been kissed.
He is seventeen, gorgeous and on the brink of a bright future.
And now they have fallen in love. But...they are brother and sister.


I have so much praise for this book. Of course when I first read the blurb I was curious - I mean, as it often says in the book, falling in love with a sibling is taboo. Any other kind of sexual incest relationship is more socially accepted than this. At first, I thought the siblings had been seperated at birth, and then reunited when they were older - or that they were half-siblings, or even step-siblings. But no - Maya and Lochan are pure brother and sister, and they have grown up together side-by-side, looking after their family of five children while their father is with his new family in Australia, and their mother has abandoned them for her boyfriend. It is understandable how they fall in love, and you cannot help but practically befriend the characters themselves. Suzuma writes in such a way that it feels like you are literally right there with them, living their lives alongside them. You feel yourself developing a bond and a soft-spot for the two main characters, as well as their other siblings Kit, Tiffin and Willa. However, the only fault I find is that although it was better with two POV's, it got incredibly confusing sometimes, because of how alike the characters are portrayed. I sometimes found myself thinking I was reading a Maya chapter, but found out a couple of pages in that it was actually Lochan. But despite this, the book was beautiful and heartbreaking, especially at the last 50 pages, where everything seems to go downhill for not just the two characters, but for the whole family, and you will find yourself in tears as you read the last two or three chapters. But despite the sad finish to the book, it is also sort of happy, and leaves you with a mildly satisfying feeling that for the characters, everything will be okay. I strongly recommend this book, because it is not only a good story, but it will really change how you view certaint things in your life.
Rating:5/5