Fiery Fantasy Book Reviews Site: June 2013

Saturday 29 June 2013

Kojiki Book Review

Author: Keith Yatsuhashi
Date of Publication: April 17, 2013 (Kindle)
Publisher: Musa Publishing
Pages: 354
Genre: YA, Urban Fantasy
Paperback or Kindle: Kindle

Fiery Fantasy Thoughts

Keiko Yamada is an 18 year old girl, whose father dies suddenly. Her life is turned upside down when she tries to fulfil her father's dying wish of going to Japan to 'Find the Gate. My camera will show you the way'.

Armed with a one way ticket to Japan and an unintelligible death poem about powerful Japanese spirits and their gigantic, beast-like Guardians, she travels, alone and afraid to Tokyo where she experiences her father's death poem come to life.

Ancient spirits invade the city, causing chaos with every minute they are free and Keiko realises why this burden has been inflicted on her...

I am a big fan of Anime and any book that makes me feel like I'm watching an Anime movie...well it gets the immediate thumbs up from me!

The mythical / historical tone of the book is great which really sets this apart from many books I have read recently and the fantasy element, along with the very good description skills help me understand Keiko's pain and dilemma, along with feeling entertained with each turn of the page.

Keiko and Yui (Keiko's guide) are the main characters of this book but I liked how the sub characters also had distinctive parts, so we got to know a lot more, rather than just focusing on the main two.

I liked that Keiko and Yui are very differently as the contrast made it more believable. Keiko is not as experienced in Japanese history about this type of mythology as she has lived in American and embraced their Western lifestyle. Yui is completely different as she has grown up being trained to eventually take on the "The Weakening" (This is an event which would summon the return of a once-great spirit, who went insane and wants to destroy the world).

All these plans were set in motion before Keiko was born but when she decided to fulfil her father's wish, both she and Yui become part of the battle in Tokyo as she encounters "The Weakening" herself.

Now, although I enjoyed that the book did give focus to the sub characters, I did feel at times that the flashbacks and the introduction to these new characters did throw me a little and sometimes I was left wondering, ‘was that section really needed as I didn’t understand if some parts actually added to the main plot, however, that being said, I did enjoy this book as I found the author had really done his research on Japanese mythology and I would be looking forward to reading more of his work.

I would give this 4 out of 5 wings for originality, the Japanese mythology, the strong characters and the good description skills as I actually felt like I was in the story but I had to take off 1 point as although I enjoyed the wide range characters, it did get to a point where I was a little overwhelmed with them. Also there are Japanese words in the book without meanings which threw me a little.

Disclaimer: This book was given to Fiery Fantasy Book Reviews as a review copy and was provided to us in exchange for a fair and honest review. There was no monetary exchange for this review. The free book held no determination on our personal review.

Check the Ratings Page to see what 4 Wings means!

Click here to buy this book

Alana

Thursday 27 June 2013

Gravely Inanimated: A Tale of Woe and Romance (Zombiepunk Series) Book Review

Author: Esther Wheelmaker
Date of Publication: March 27, 2013 (Kindle)
Publisher: Third Broom on the Left Press
Pages: 205
Genre: YA, Steam Punk
Paperback or Kindle: Both

Fiery Fantasy Thoughts

Lucile knight is a young girl living in Victorian times in England with a difference...

London has been invaded by zombies and although the Queen's army try to fend off these deadly creatures, they're increasing population is making it harder for the soldiers to control.

With the British public fearing what could happen day by day, some individuals have taken it upon themselves to hunt the zombies such as hunter, Aeron.

Arrogant, self absorbed and follows no ones rules, this bad boy saves Lucile from a zombie attack and drags her into his mysterious world.

Along with her new association with Aeron, she meets Lord Garrett Ashdown, son of inventor Earl Thomas and with one hiding his a ghastly secret and the other concealing his identity, she finds herself wondering which is less dangerous.

When I read the summary of this book I was intrigued by the Voodoo queen aspect mixing with the zombies and wanted to find out more.

I have never read 'Steam Punk' so I didn't know what to expect but I was pleasantly surprised.

The description skills were very good, however I did feel that sometimes I was being told the story instead of being allowed to use my imagination.

I was very excited by the Voodoo spin on the story, however I wasn't sure why the Voodoo Queen wanted to summon the zombies and create havoc in London. I found this out towards the end of the story and I must admit I was a little underwhelmed at her reasons for creating this invasion.

I was also unsure about the romance as from chapter one it did feel a little predictable (spunky girl trying to get home, gets attacked by a group of zombie and is saved by an arrogant hero who follows her home to make sure she is safe but she does not appreciate but obsesses over why she has such strong feelings of hate towards even though this is her first encounter with him?) and I was routing for a different romance but it was a little cliche for me.

I did like the zombies, the Victorian references and who doesn't love a book set in London but with a few changes and improving on the reasons behind the Voodoo Queen's zombie invasion I think I could love it.

With all these points in mind, I give it a healthy 3 out of 5 wings and thank Esther Wheelmaker for introducing me to the 'Steam Punk' genre.

Disclaimer: This book was given to FF Book Reviews as a review copy and was provided to us in exchange for a fair and honest review. There was no monetary exchange for this review. The free book held no determination on our personal review.

Check the Ratings Page to see what 3 Wings means!

Click here to buy this book

Eva

Tuesday 25 June 2013

Fiery Fantasy Blog Tours

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Previous Blog Tours

- Unwanted Blog Tour

- Wicked Hunger (Someone Wicked This Way Comes)

- Sunset Rising

- Split Blood: The Ancient Codex - Part One

- The Legend of the Firewalker

Wake Book Review

Author: Amanda Hocking

Date of Publication: April 16, 2013 (Paperback)

Publisher: St Martin’s Griffin

Pages: 320

Genre: YA, Urban Fantasy

Paperback or Kindle: Both

Fiery Fantasy Thoughts

I went into this novel knowing who Ms Hocking was but I managed to avoid reading any of her work until now, so reading ‘Wake’ was refreshing as it was not another vampire romance.

This mermaid (or Siren) story is told from two different sisters viewpoints. Gemma loves to swim and it is her whole world. She is the free spirit, her uptight sister, Harper isn’t, who loves order and structure.

I liked the opposing personalities and although I found Gemma’s personality a little lacklustre and wooden, I found Harper more interesting as she takes on the mothering role of her sister, much to Gemma’s annoyance.

The three sirens (mermaids) – Penn, Lexi and Thea, were interesting as I liked their mean girl’s contribution to the story, however I was a little confused at why they were so dangerous as we were never provided with any proof to why they would be a real danger and not just mean girls?

This was not the only problem I had with this book – there was no spark!

I kept turning the page waiting for some kind of exciting scene or some more depth to be introduced to Gemma’s character but it never came!

Also, I know that Hocking has been criticized in the past for her lack of an editor but even with this book being published by St Martin’s Griffin publishers, I still found pacing issues throughout the chapters and grammatical mistakes which (if the story had captured me) I would have overlooked.

If this book focused more on the mythology behind the siren’s, developed Gemma’s character and gave us a little more interaction with Daniel (Harper’s potential love interest), I would have been more interested and less inclined to read her other books.

Unfortunately, I can only give ‘Wake’ 2 wings out of 5 as I honestly cannot remember any memorable scenes.

Check the Ratings Page to see what 2 wings means!

Click here to buy this book

Eva

The Dark Heroine: Dinner with a Vampire Book Review

Author: Abigail Gibbs

Date of Publication: March 5, 2013 (Paperback)

Publisher: William Morrow Paperbacks

Pages: 544

Genre: YA, Paranormal

Paperback or Kindle: Both

Fiery Fantasy Thoughts

With all the hype around this novel, I had to read this vampire book.

This story gave me mixed feelings, therefore I do apologise if this isn't a more straight-forward review.

Firstly, Violent is a young lady who stumbles across a massacre in Trafalgar Square, London. She tries to hide but is found and kidnapped by some affluent vampires who realise she witnessed what they had done.

Now, up until now, Violent didn't realise vampires were real, but they are and the government also know about their existence (along with her father) and the vampires use her as a pawn (as they realise her connections to the government after they hold her prisoner) to gain more power over the government and to fulfil an ancient prophecy.

In the beginning, I enjoyed Violet’s sassy character as she was a bold, smart mouth heroine that we are un-used to seeing in a typical vampire story, however this soon changed as her dangerous and sickening relationship developed with Kaspar, who would only give her attention in the form of violence when she would annoy him or not do as he asked.

Being a sexist, chauvinistic, spoilt vampire, who is clearly used to getting what he wants, he is constantly angered by Violet’s inability to do as he says straight away and uses violence and threats to get her to submit.

I did not like this aspect to the story because although many vampire stories are male orientated and the females in these books are usually submissive; they do not advocate violence and try to make it romantic.

This is a long book that started off well but dipped and went downhill in the middle when nothing really happened.

Also, I think some of the story was flawed as I was confused as to why the government couldn’t do more to get rid of these vampires.

I admire Gibbs for writing this at such a young age but with the constant violence which was just accepted by Violent throughout the book, flaws in some sections of the story and grammatical issues (some paragraphs needed to be cut shorter), I can only give this novel 2 wings out of 5 as although it was an interesting read, I think it put across the wrong message about romance to the younger side of the YA audience.

Check the Ratings Page to see what 2 wings means!

Click here to buy this book

Alana

The Host Book Review

Author: Stephenie Meyer

Date of Publication: April 13, 2010 (Paperback)

Publisher: Back Bay Books; Reprint edition

Pages: 656

Genre: YA, Science Fiction

Paperback or Kindle: Both

Fiery Fantasy Thoughts

Having read, ‘The Twilight Saga’ I was obviously going to compare it to this successful series.

However, I shouldn’t have done that as it is nothing like them books!

Firstly, ‘The Host’ takes place on Earth, when it has been taken over by an alien race called, ‘souls’. These ‘souls’ are a parasite civilization who take over the conscious and physical actions of human beings by embedding themselves into the necks of their host’s body.

As a result of this bodily invasion, the human’s soul dies, whilst the alien race ‘souls’ take over.

The ‘souls’ take over most of earth, leaving a small group of humans who have managed to escape with no idea of how to defeat them.

The book concentrates on Wanderer, a newly implanted ‘soul’ who has taken over the human body of Melanie. Wanderer is very important to the ‘souls’ as Melanie was one of the few remaining rebels who could tell the ‘souls’ where to find this rebel camp and turn them before they can retaliate.

However, the ‘souls’ did not realise how strong Melanie’s memories were and find it more difficult than they thought to control her, so (experiencing all these memories first hand) Wanderer begins to feel sympathy for Melanie and the rebels (also feeling the love Melanie felt for Jared) and feels she has to leave the world of the ‘souls’ behind to find out if Jared is still alive.

Even though there is the love story between Wanderer (or Melanie) and Jared, this is not the main storyline, which is a nice surprise as it doesn’t get to soppy and boring.

I liked the fact that the reader was given enough detail to get their imagination pulsating without being force-fed every image and scene.

I also liked that it wasn’t a heavy science fiction novel (meaning you do not have to be a ‘die hard’ science fiction fan to enjoy it) and although we got a chance to feel how it would feel for the humans being taken over by these ‘souls’ and what earth could have been like if this happened, it was still light and understated.

This book felt slightly like a mix between ‘Invasion of the Body Snatchers’ meets ‘War of the Worlds’ and although I did enjoy it and would recommend it as I think the characters are strong and I really liked the descriptive skills displayed throughout the novel, I do think the flow of the story was a little uneven throughout and I wasn’t fond of the repetition of words as I think my vocabulary couldn’t have taken more!

Overall, if you like you science fiction books that are not heavy going and like good character development, then this is the novel for you.

I give it 4 wings out of 5 as I did enjoy this surprising read from Ms. Meyer!

Check the Ratings Page to see what 4 wings means!

Click here to buy this book

Eva

Breaking Dawn Book Review

Author: Stephenie Meyer

Date of Publication: August 3, 2010 (Paperback)

Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers; 1 Reprint edition

Pages: 768

Genre: YA, Paranormal Romance

Paperback or Kindle: Both

Fiery Fantasy Thoughts

Sadly, for a 768 paged book, I cannot say a lot happens.

The standard of the other 3 books went up and down for me and this book seems to on the downward part of the scale.

I mentioned that I started to dislike Bella’s character in Eclipse as she became selfish and moany, however, I would have welcomed these annoying traits from her in this book as I kept wondering where her character actually went?

This book is quite different to the previous ones, as I realised that many of the characters had changed considerably, the narration switched to Jacob’s half way through, not just Bella’s like the other books, making me become even more distant from her character and after the wedding it seemed that even Edward has lost some of his (dare I say it...) sparkle!

The first few chapters were nicely written and the honeymoon scene was authentic to the characters and sweet but I was still expecting more.

I was a little baffled with Bella’s character becomes immediately ready to have a baby, even though she had never expressed this yearning before and this became the main storyline throughout the book which slightly confused me.

Another confusing twist in the book is the fact that Jacob was quite happy to accept the fact that Bella has chosen Edward as he has ‘imprinted’ Bella and Edward’s baby. However, if he really had powerful feelings for Bella, I would have expected more of a fight.

Although this book seemed to want to wrap up many of the sub storylines, I felt many characters suffered by being forgotten at times with no conclusion to their story and even though Bella was already giving up her friends and family to be a Cullen in Eclipse, it would have been nice to see some kind of interaction with her past and future life to give it a new spin in this one.

All in all, this book was not what I expected but it was readable. It tied up some loose ends but left me with many questions too. I think things were too easily accepted by Bella and I felt like there could have been more of an emotional struggle from Jacob, so I will give it 3 wings out of 5 – readable but wasn't a page turner for me!

Check the Ratings Page to see what 3 wings means!

Click here to buy this book

Alana

Eclipse Book Review

Author: Stephenie Meyer

Date of Publication: February 26, 2009 (Kindle)

Publisher: Atom

Pages: 576

Genre: YA, Paranormal Romance

Paperback or Kindle: Both

Fiery Fantasy Thoughts

In New Moon, we saw the extent of Bella’s feelings for Edward as she fell apart when he left. She went a little crazy, doing dangerous stunt’s just to hear his voice and this made me wonder if this was a healthy portrayal of how young love should be put I kept on with it as the introduction of Jacob’s character added the missing excitement for me.

I also found New Moon slightly improved on Bella’s character as she was no longer a pathetic heroine that needed saving from the powerful vampire, Edward.

However, in Eclipse I was a little confused.

I wondered if Meyer actually wanted us to hate Bella as her character changed dramatically into a selfish, moody teenager who only survived by obsessing over her relationship with Edward.

Now, I understand she is in love with him, I completely get first / young love is potent, overwhelming, consuming and addictive, it also doesn’t hurt that Edward is mysterious, powerful and gorgeous (the typical bad boy) but to say she’ll “die” if he leaves her left a bad taste in my mouth as this was a little over the top. (yes I know Romeo and Juliet had this same scenario however there romance seemed more authentic and not as rushed as Edward and Bella).

One positive aspect that came out of Eclipse was that even though she was still bugging Edward to turn her into a vampire, she seemed to spare a second thought about how this life changing moment would affect her friends and family (even if it was only a split second thought!).

Now, I was a little confused by the love triangle between Jacob, Bella and Edward in Eclipse.

In New Moon, she implied that Jacob was more like a brother to her and she was intensely in love with Edward, however in Eclipse she says she’s in love with Jacob which I don’t understand the change of heart? She suggests that Jacob is her ‘soul mate’ and Edward is her ‘drug’ which baffled me as in the first two books nothing could affect her affections for Edward, so it seemed a little like something Meyer threw in to spice things up, which I didn’t mind but if there was a little more build up to these emotions it would have made more sense and seemed more authentic.

The plus points to Eclipse came in the form of the back stories of Rosalie and Jasper and there was a little more humour to lighten some intense situations. In New Moon, you start to understand the characters more and see them mature as they tackle serious situations. I loved the cute Jasper and Alice moments, I think they're a great couple and show that not all vampire relationships have to be dysfunctional and extreme.

The negative point, for me, is the love triangle, which Eclipse focuses on. Bella comes across as more selfish and manipulative in this book, which makes me dislike her character more as I just feel like she is using Jacob like a puppet. I really wish she showed the same backbone as she started to develop in Twilight in this book as it would have given her character a new dimension.

Thankfully we do not need to keep wishing for Bella to show us that not all the females are weak and need rescuing as characters such as; Alice, Rosalie, Jane, and Angela fill this void.

In conclusion, Eclipse was just ok for me. It wasn’t as good as New Moon and was a bit of a disappointment. I didn't hate it, but I didn't fall in love with it either.

If you enjoyed the first two then I would say why not try Eclipse as the character development is interesting (if not a little annoying), however I can only give it 3 out of 5 stars as it didn’t set my soul on fire!

Check the Ratings Page to see what 3 wings means!

Click here to buy this book

Alana

New Moon Book Review

Author: Stephenie Meyer

Date of Publication: February 26, 2009 (Kindle)

Publisher: Atom

Pages: 563

Genre: YA, Paranormal Romance

Paperback or Kindle: Both

Fiery Fantasy Thoughts

New Moon begins with the heartbreak Bella goes through when Edward decides to end their relationship. In turn, she goes into a deep depression, until she hears Edward’s voice when she is doing something dangerous. In order to continue to hear his voice, she decides to start walking on the wild side and begins to take dangerous risks, e.g. riding a motorcycle!

She gets into this hobby and enlists the help of Jacob Black to help her fix up an old motorbike, which he is only too happy to help with.

Where Twilight concentrates on Bella and Edward’s relationship, New Moon focuses on getting to know Jacob Black and learning how his relationship with Bella develops.

We also get to compare the two love interests as Edward is intense, ‘romantic’ and calm, whereas Jacob is the exact opposite, being bigger, more masculine and more upfront about his feelings for Bella.

I enjoyed this aspect to Bella as it showed the other side to her personality which is a little more fun, carefree and happy with Jacob and I think this is where her confusion with her feelings for both of them starts.

However, I was a little disappointed that the climax of the story was not a war for Bella’s heart between Jacob and Edward but Bella going to Italy to save Edward, leaving a tortured Jacob to look on in confusion.

Much like Twilight, I still feel that Meyer’s writing style still leaves much to be desired, but it did improve slightly in New Moon.

I personally felt that the characters, with the noted exception of Jacob, are still rather shallow (Bella only making the decision to live life on the edge to hear Edward’s voice). Jacob is warm, honest, unconventionally charismatic, intelligent, and quite real.

Another thing that I found hard to understand was Jacob’s ability just to accept that he was Bella’s second best? Bella was more than willing to use him and did not hide this face and he just accepts it. I think there could have been a little more resistance or more backbone from Jacob here to make it more realistic.

I feel that Jacob’s character contributed to the main positive aspect I read in New Moon which is it was a lot more fast paced and electrifying and I felt that his character added this spice.

All in all, this book was an enjoyable read and Meyer can still tell a decent story. Despite the flaws in her writing style and ill thought through emotions, it was easy to become lost in the fantasy, however just like Twilight, the paranormal romance story has been told many times before and better but New Moon outshines Twilight and I think Jacob’s character introduced this freshness.

I think it will be a 3.5 out of 5 as although I enjoyed it, I was still not in love with it.

3.5 wings means that although I wasn't lost in the story, I was bitten by a cute vampire and am now going through a slow change! lol

Click here to buy this book

Alana

Twilight Book Review

Author: Stephenie Meyer

Date of Publication: March 22, 2007 (Paperback)

Publisher: Atom; New Ed edition

Pages: 464

Genre: YA, Paranormal Romance

Paperback or Kindle: Both

Fiery Fantasy Thoughts

Bella Swan is a shy, reclusive girl, who reluctantly moves to the gloomy town of Forks to live with her dad. As well as the usual teenage issues with starting a new school and having to make new friends, she has to cope with her attraction to someone who seems to initially hate her - Edward Cullen.

He is one of five Cullens who also attend the school - keeping themselves to themselves in a ‘Children of the Damned’ type of way but they are all beautiful and mysteriously cool. As time goes on, Edward and Bella are drawn together more and more, but she is also realising her suspicions that Edward is not all what he seems. As their love develops, Bella discovers that Edward and the rest of the Cullens are vampires, but are attempting to deny their true nature. The problem is, not all vampires are so gentle, as Bella finds out...

For me, it is a decent story but little more than that. I feel if it wasn’t for all the hype from the films, it is just another paranormal romance story with the same issues as the rest.

I personally feel that Meyer's writing is clumsy at times, but is still somehow compelling enough for me to continue wanting to know what happens. I must say that the dialogue is laughable at times, but that did not deter me.

Personally, I think that the strength of the book is in the two central characters (Bella and Edward) and the memories it stirs up of first love. Because we read it from Bella’s perspective, we feel what she does and suffers along with her as she struggles to come to terms with Edward's true nature and her torn feelings for him.

Bella’s character annoyed me at times as she over analysed over the silliest things at times, but seemed to not think twice about throwing away her friends and family with her desire to become a vampire, however that was overlooked when we experienced the thrill that comes when her love is reciprocated by Edward. Anyone who has had a first love that takes there breathe (and brains) away can identify with Bella - her disappointment whenever Edward went awol, her desire to be by his side at all time and her heartache whenever he mentions the idea of leaving.

If we take all this away though we are (in theory) falling in love with a boy who stalks a girl, who goes to her house and watches her sleep and who tries to control her every move - however I am a hopeless romantic and love Edwards passion for Bella, however reading it from Bella’s perspective does make some parts a little creepy - vampire or human! lol

So, in conclusion, this is a story that, despite its many faults, I enjoyed and went onto read the sequels, however if you are looking for a fresh new paranormal romance that differs from the others on the market then I do not think that Meyer is doing anything particularly new or clever and therefore I do not think Twilight really deserves all the hype.

For these reasons I give Twilight a healthy 3 out of 5 - nothing different to other paranormal romance stories out there but it put a twinkle in my eye!

Check the Ratings Page to see what 3 wings means!

Click here to buy this book

Alana

Mockingjay Book Review

Author: Suzanne Collins

Date of Publication: May 3, 2011 (Kindle)

Publisher: Scholastic Fiction

Pages: 455

Genre: YA, Science Fiction

Paperback or Kindle: Both

Fiery Fantasy Thoughts

Captivating but not fully engaging – this was not the ending I was hoping for!

I was enthralled with the first book! So much so that I went onto Catching Fire straight away with eagerness, however, after reading a few chapters I just thought it all became unnecessarily complicated. The introduction to the myriad of characters just took away some of the sparkle for me.

Even though Collins keeps the readers in suspense, with new twists and turns I felt that Katniss's character became less realistic with her fluctuating feelings with her complicated love triangle, which I found difficult to comprehend and relate to.

The positive part of this book is that Peeta managed to partially mend Katniss, and made her realise she could still live after everything that happened and I liked this rainbow coming from the clouds scenario as it gave a little light heartedness to the whole brutal story.

I liked the character development in this book (even with Katniss’s slightly change in emotions) however my main issue with this book was that the War events and fatalities happened too fast, the whole battle became too overwhelming!

All in all, I personally found this book underwhelming and give it 3 out 5!

Check the Ratings Page to see what 3 wings means!

Click here to buy this book

Eva

Catching Fire Book Review

Author: Suzanne Collins

Date of Publication: May 3, 2011 (Kindle)

Publisher: Scholastic Fiction

Pages: 472

Genre: YA, Science Fiction

Paperback or Kindle: Both

Fiery Fantasy Thoughts

In this novel, Katniss Everdeen is back home in Sector 12, after surviving The Hunger Games and is not looking forward to her role as a mentor for the next year's games. She is surprised to hear rumours that her defiance of the Capitol and President Snow during the Games has sparked unrest and even conflict in other sectors. She realises how far the disharmony has gone in these sectors when she (and her co-winner, Peeta), conduct a tour of the districts.

Katniss realises that her name and her emblem, the Mockingjay, are being taken up as a symbol of rebellion and hope.

Determined to demolish Katniss's influence in these sectors, Snow devises a special new Hunger Games event for the 75th anniversary of the games. All the living winners of the games must return to the arena for a fresh battle...

Catching Fire is the second volume of The Hunger Games Trilogy, Suzanne Collins' highly successful, post-apocalypse, dystopian YA Science Fiction series, however I personally feel that the first novel was slightly better.

I felt Catching Fire had some slight consistency issues as when we're more than halfway through the novel (before the second Hunger Games kick off); we are not able to spend much time with those games before the conclusion arrives.

I did like that the arena is also far more ingenious, with many more deadly traps in this novel as it showed Snow’s strong determination to take down Katniss.

However, I did feel the games section of the novel and the conclusion were both rushed in an attempt to cover as much ground as possible before the final novel, which I felt hurt the quality of this book.

In conclusion, it's still a fast-paced, readable and enjoyable book. We see more of Panem and get more of an idea what life is like for people living there, which is essential to better-establish the overall atmosphere of the trilogy.

Catching Fire is 3.5 out of 5 for me just because the quality does not match the first book but still an enjoyable and entertaining novel.

3.5 wings means that although I wasn't lost in the story, I was bitten by a cute vampire and am now going through a slow change! Lol

Click here to buy this book

Eva

The Hunger Games Book Review

Author: Suzanne Collins
Date of Publication: March 1, 2012 (Kindle)
Publisher: Scholastic Fiction
Pages: 464
Genre: YA, Science Fiction
Paperback or Kindle: Both

Fiery Fantasy Thoughts

After all of the hype with the film, I thought I should read the book (as I usually do it the other way round) and I actually enjoyed it!

Firstly, this novel is written in the "first-person" which is usually quite difficult for authors but I felt Suzanne Collins did this faultlessly. Katniss' narration made the story come to life and I connected more firmly with the emotional turbulence the main character feels throughout the story; being written from the main protagonists POV allows the reader to be sucked into the dystopian world that she inhabits.

There is subtle humour to soften the tense atmosphere and it shows that it is aimed at the older YA audience as it deals with adult emotional issues, that I would never have expected from a typical YA book.

The writing is sophisticated and flows nicely throughout each chapter and at certain parts I would describe it as beautifully portrayed as Katniss struggles to deal with her ties to other Tributes with her desire to stay alive for her family.

I definitely wouldn’t class this as a typical YA novel as it deals with themes which are aimed more at the adult market. However the action, drama and subtle humour could be enjoyed by a younger market too.

I have seen the film and have now read the book and I would definitely recommend reading the book (even if you have seen the film) as even though I enjoyed the film, the book answered some questions that I had and helped me understand the characters better.

I would definitely recommend this book!

Check the Ratings Page to see what 4 Wings means!

Click here to buy this book

Eva

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Ratings

At Fiery Fantasy, we try not to be too harsh on the books we read as we know it takes courage to actually publish a story, so we try to be as nice as possible.

However, if we receive novels that have such poor grammar or it lacks any positive comments then we will contact you first and let you know what we thought before we post our review to see if you still want us to continue.

So here is our wings ratings outline:

5 Wings = Amazing! Took me to another world! A must read!

4 Wings = I was lost in this good story!

3 Wings = I was bitten but wasn't transformed into a vampire!

2 Wings = I cast the spell but it didn't work!

1 Wing = Drive the stake in and get it over and done with!

Fiery Books

Hi Beautiful Readers,

At Fiery Fantasy Book Reviews Site, along with providing you with some of the best free YA, Fantasy eBooks, we also like to share some amazing, affordable reads!

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Free eBooks

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