Book Review: Celebriteens - Into the Spotlight by Joanna Philbin

Plot: Move over Gossip Girl, Celebriteens are front page news! As the daughter of a supermodel, Lizzie is used to living in her mother's shadow. But when a photographer spots her unique style and look, Lizzie becomes the new "it" girl of the New York fashion scene Cast into the spotlight, Lizzie isn't sure fame is all it's cracked up to be. Luckily, her best friends are also the daughters of celebrities and know just had to keep her grounded. But can they bring her back to earth before she loses her chance with the gorgeous new boy at school?

Review: Like many other novels based around the world of fashion, this book ultimately aims to show how shallowness and supposed "Model Behaviour" is not all it's designed to be - ergo, be nice and keep your friends close.
Todd (the love interest) is adorable and whenever he and Lizzie have an awkward moments I'm like "Ahh! They're so cute".
Lizzie's best friends Carina and Hudson are the sweetest friends ever! The only problem is that at the start I kept getting the girls muddled up - all with their famous parents and whatnot.
A gripping read - try to savour it though and not read it all at once like me! 3.5 stars.

Happy reading,
xxGEORGIExx

Book Review: Vice and Virtue by Veronica Bennett

Plot: 1700, London: a city so crowded and unregulated that anyone, should they so desire, could slip away - disappear down a back street and become someone else. After the death of her father, seventeen-year-old Aurora Eversedge is left without a dowry and agrees to marry a much older man who claims to be wealthy, though in poor health. On their wedding night, Edward Francis confesses that, in fact, he is penniless but that his health is robust - also that his proposal of marriage carried an ulterior motive: he wants Aurora to act as a spy for him. Edward's father had left his fortune to his sworn enemy, Josiah Deede. Edward suspects that Josiah murdered his father and is determined to regain his inheritance and bring Josiah Deede to justice. Aurora's first assignment is to make the acquaintance of Josiah's daughter, Celia, and son, Jos, at a Covent Garden theatre. Vice and Virtue is full of acute observation of social life that characterises Jane Austen's work - the sort of book Jane Austen would have written if she wrote mysteries.

Review: Considering this book was set in 1700 it's lingo was remarkably up to date, whilst still maintaining a sense of historical accuracy. The story has as many twists and turns as a gossip girl story, and yet continues to be easily readable and hooks you from the start!
Aurora seemed to me to have almost no backbone at the start of the novel, and her character developed indefinately throughout.
A good read - 3.5 stars.

Happy reading,
xxGEORGIExx

Book Review: 13 Treasures by Michelle Harrison

Plot: While visiting her grandmother's house, an old photograph leads Tanya to an unsolved mystery. Fifty years ago a girl vanished in the woods nearby - a girl Tanya's grandmother will not speak of. Fabian, the caretaker's son, is tormented by the girl's disappearance. His grandfather was the last person to see her alive, and has lived under suspicion ever since. Together, Tanya and Fabian decide to find the truth. But Tanya has her own secret: the ability to see fairies. Can it help them to unravel the mystery? Soon they are facing terrible danger. Could the manor's sinister history be about to repeat itself?

Review: Although the plot didn't instantly grip me, I must say it was a good read.
The plot was, although one of many of it's kind, original, talking of a seperation inside the faerie government. Changelings are also quite a promine t theme in the book.
What appealed to me was that there is a lot of involvement between the human and faerie characters of the book, and the faeries are not all tall, willowy and hollywood-beautiful.
To be honest, most of them sounded completely repelling! And one of the other protagonists, Fabian, wasn't instantly appealing either - he grew on you.
Overall, a good read with interesting characters and plotlines - 3.5 stars.

Happy Reading,
xxGEORGIExx

Book Review: Mocking Jay (Hunger Games #3) by Suzanne Collins

Plot: Young Katniss Everdeen has survived the dreaded Hunger Games not once, but twice, but even now she can find no relief. In fact, the dangers seem to be escalating: President Snow has declared an all-out war on Katniss, her family, her friends, and all the oppressed people of District 12. The thrill-packed final installment of Suzanne Collins' Hunger Games trilogy will keep young hearts pounding.

Review: If you have ever doubted that a YA Novel could be a masterpiece, read the Hunger Games. Mockingjay is pure perfection, mixing confusion, love and violence. In this book Katniss is helping to lead the revolution in District 13 (which was started in Catching Fire) and I am warning you, if you are soft and emotional like me, you will cry. And wierdly, I seemed to cry at all the wrong moments - I won't necessarily cry at the death scenes, but when Katniss mentions them later I weep [I think I'm in shock!]
I think Suzanne Collins is one of the only YA Authors who is brave enough to kill off sub-main, possibly even main characters - don't worry, that's as far as I'm going. I won't reveal any names.
I'm not sure what else to say for risk of spoiling the story for you; however, I must completely disregard the statement which I have perviously made about not needing a trilogy. The themes and storylines within this series have changed drastically, and the world of the Hunger Games is a lot more complex than at first glance.

A must read - 5 stars!!!!!!!
If you haven't read them yet, read them now, before the film comes out, otherwise you will never properly experience all the detail Suzanne Collins took care to write. However amazing the film will be, it will probably never be quite as good as the books.

Happy Reading,
xxGEORGIExx

Book Review: Catching Fire (The Hunger Games #2) by Suzanne Collins

Plot: Against all odds, Katniss Everdeen has won the annual Hunger Games with fellow district tribute Peeta Mellark. But it was a victory won by defiance of the Capitol and their harsh rules. Katniss and Peeta should be happy. After all, they have just won for themselves and their families a life of safety and plenty. But there are rumors of rebellion among the subjects, and Katniss and Peeta, to their horror, are the faces of that rebellion. The Capitol is angry. The Capitol wants revenge. Suzanne Collins continues the amazing story of Katniss Everdeen in Catching Fire, the second novel of the phenomenal Hunger Games trilogy.

Review: To be honest, before I read this book there were times when I dubted whether the Hunger Games needed to be a trilogy. Why not stop at one book?
I am so glad Suzanne Collins carried on and wrote more. This book has made me both laugh and sob. And it leads perfectly into the 3rd book in the series, Mockingjay.
Catching Fire adds yet another theme to The Hunger Games (alongside War, Government, Equality or lack of it, etc.) - it adds Rebellion.
The Story is full of twists and 4-point-turns, so much so that the cliff-hanger ending is so unexpected that you nearly weep, at first with relief, and then with sadness.
In this book I grew to respect Haymitch more, love Cinna and Adore Peeta even more than than I already did. And, if it is possible,  may even like Katniss more - in Book #1 she was fiercer, with walls up all around her, but I felt that I got to know her as a person, and her feelings more.
The Hunger Games is one of those series which if you haven't experienced then you haven't lived. It might make you laugh (in parts), it will make you cry, and I can guaruntee from personal experience that you will anticipate the upcoming film more than ever - I just hope it can live up to my sky-high expectations! :)

5 stars!!

Happy reading,
xxGEORGIExx

Book Review: TimeRiders - The Doomsday Code

Plot: Liam O'Connor should have died at sea in 1912.
Maddy Carter should have died on a plane in 2010.
Sal Vikram should have died in a fire in 2026.
But all three have been given a second chance - to work for an agency that no one knows exists. It's purpose: to prevent time travel from destroying history...
In 1994 British computer hacker Adam Lewis finds his name in a coded manuscript that is almost one thousand years old. How did Adam's name get in there... and why?
Confronted by Adam in 2001, the TimeRiders travel back to Sherwood forest in 1194 to discover the origins of the ancient message. But when a strange hooded man appears to be interested in the same thing, they begin to wonder what terrible threat this cryptic link from the past holds for the future...

Review: TimeRiders just keeps getting better and better! The storylines get more and more intense and, although I sometimes find the 6-month-action a tad slow going, the mystery and intrigue more than make up for it. Scarrow is really playing the "working for an unknown agency" theme up for this one!
A thread that's finally resolved: we finally find out about Pandora, well sort of. Becks develops her human-like behaivour traits and Liam just keeps ageing (mentally as well of physically) which he also manages to guess by the end of the book.
And the story ends with another agency-based cliffhanger - the last of which was resolved at the start of this book. It seems the series just can't get enough of them.

A definate read, 4.5 stars.

Happy reading,
xxGEORGIExx

Book Review: TimeRiders - Day of the Predator by Alex Scarrow

Plot: Liam O'Connor should have died at sea in 1912.
Maddy Carter should have died on a plane in 2010.
Sal Vikram should have died in a fire in 2026.
But all three have been given a second chance - to work for an agency that no one knows exists. It's purpose: to prevent time travel from destroying history...
When Maddy mistakenly opens a time window where and when she shouldn't have, Liam is marooned sixty-fire million years in the past in the hunting ground of a deadly - and until now - undiscovered species of predator.
Can Liam make contact with Maddy and Sal before he's torn to pieces by dinosaurs - and without endangering history so much that the world is taken over by a terrifying new reality?

Review: As with the first book, TimeRiders - Day of the Predator was a joy to read and the words flowed smoothly throughout. The characters Maddy, Sal and Liam are becoming more defined as you get to know them better. I think that the first book focused on Liam and Bob, whereas we learn more about Maddy now that Foster has left her to deal with things on her own.
This book could have easily turned into a slightly changed copy of the first novel, but Aex Scarrow managed to invent new events and new consequences to leave us (the reader) guessing.
Oh, and at the start of the book we hear more about Sal's recruitment (which was left out of the first book)!
I hope we learn even more about Sal in the 3rd book and learning more about Maddy and Liam's exploits.

A great read 4.5 stars!

Happy reading,
xxGEORGIExx

Oh and BTW, if you want to check me out on other sites...

Goodreads - http://www.goodreads.com/xxgeorgiexx

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Google+ - +Georgie R

In My Mailbox (#3)

Hey there!

I got my Mum to pre-order a book for me from http://www.play.com/ and it arrived today!

The Wood Queen

by Karen Mahoney

I'm looking forward to reading and reviewing it...

Happy reading,
xxGEORGIExx