Planet Urth - Jennifer and Christopher Martucci

Typical YA fare with a teenage girl and her young sister are trying to survive in a pitiless post-apocalyptic world where everyone is out to get them.

The Good:

• Some awesomely creepy creatures involved
• Excellent imagining of how life might actually be when you're scared out of your whits and trying to live in the wild
• Great characterisation with Avery and her sister, June, and their relationship is wonderful
• Interesting ideas where the families are involved, makes you think about how you and your family would react to this kind of thing
• Nice beginning to a romance. Shame it completely clouds the Avery's judgement, as she's such a strong character

The Bad:

• Obvious storyline that goes exactly how you thought it would
• Slow to start
• No complexity of plot
• No character arc or facets in the characters
• Avery, the protagonist, is a little bit too perfect for me. Pretty, good survival skills, excellent fighter, caring... the list goes on. She only doubts herself a little bit when it comes to her sister
• No promise of something bigger in the next book

Overall:

It's a middle of the pack story, part of a series that I may or may not pick up again, depending on if I see the second one about for a good price. While it was enjoyable, there was nothing in the book that excited me enough to pick up the next one. I could already imagine what was going to happen, or what was likely to. While there was a promise of some sort of rebellion for the MC, there was no solid evidence that it was likely to happen on a larger scale.

3/5 for fun factor and readability, but didn't quite live up to my expectations.

Planet Urth on Goodreads

Kyra_x

Review: The Miniaturist - Jessie Burton

"There is nothing hidden that will not be revealed . . ."

On a brisk autumn day in 1686, eighteen-year-old Nella Oortman arrives in Amsterdam to begin a new life as the wife of illustrious merchant trader Johannes Brandt. But her new home, while splendorous, is not welcoming. Johannes is kind yet distant, always locked in his study or at his warehouse office—leaving Nella alone with his sister, the sharp-tongued and forbidding Marin.

But Nella’s world changes when Johannes presents her with an extraordinary wedding gift: a cabinet-sized replica of their home. To furnish her gift, Nella engages the services of a miniaturist—an elusive and enigmatic artist whose tiny creations mirror their real-life counterparts in eerie and unexpected ways . . .

Johannes’ gift helps Nella to pierce the closed world of the Brandt household. But as she uncovers its unusual secrets, she begins to understand—and fear—the escalating dangers that await them all. In this repressively pious society where gold is worshipped second only to God, to be different is a threat to the moral fabric of society, and not even a man as rich as Johannes is safe. Only one person seems to see the fate that awaits them. Is the miniaturist the key to their salvation . . . or the architect of their destruction?

Honestly. I couldn't have put it better myself, hence why you have pretty much the entire blurb in front of you now.

I picked up this book because A. the cover is gorgeous and B. miniatures that seem to magically mirror their counterparts are awesome in every way. I was not disappointed, in fact, I was far from it. What I never took away from the blurb is that the miniaturist only has a small, but significant, part to play. They are on the sidelines, looking in and commenting in the same way we would, but knowing far more.

No, this book is about far more than a little but of magic. This book is about the harsh reality of living in this era, in this city. There was so much more to this book than I originally thought. It talks about real issues that are still lingering in our world today: arranged marriage, racism, sexism and being gay. It talks about a world where we must keep secrets from others to have a better social standing, and to become rich; a completely ridiculous and unfair world, and yet there are still people today who are sexist or homophobic.

Although I thought the book was very slow to start, where it was trying to give plenty of background and atmosphere, the rest of it passed by in a blur as more and more interesting things happened. There is some absolutely brilliant storytelling, and not one of the characters felt unrealistic to me. I loves each character and their quirks that made them unique. They are real people to me, and that made it very special.

I did have a couple of issues though. I would have loved to have the miniaturist playing a much larger role, being more like a puppet master. We never really see what's going on with this character, and it would have been great to get a bit more out of them, because they are extremely intriguing. Maybe they really can tell the future and could have helped but decided not to. We never knew the real purpose of them being there, and in some ways their existence failed to move the plot along at all - life did that by its-self.

And another; Nella is very quick to change her ideas. She doesn't seem to really care about certain things that happen to her where others would have given a punch to the face. She needed more balls, in my opinion. I know that's not particularly realistic, but I need my characters to have a bit of fire!

It was a very abrupt kind of ending, and one that really left me wanting more, like the book never truly closed on that last page. I am somewhat of a fantasist so was very disappointed that the other-worldliness and magic of the miniaturist was never actually addressed, and even more so seeming as they are the title of the book.

Nonetheless, it was a great read and very engrossing. I simply had to know what happened.

3.5 / 5

Phew! That was a long one!

The Miniaturist on Goodreads.

Kyra_x

Review: Crane by Stacey Rourke

This modern retelling of The Legend of Sleepy Hollow features Ireland Crane, Ichabod's feisty descendant who lives in present day. Ireland runs away from a broken relationship and finds herself a new job as a school counsellor in Sleepy Hollow. The town is pretty normal, but there is one hitch; people are getting murdered again, and some believe that the headless horseman has come back.

I loved so much of this book. It was really creepy and once again perfect for my Halloween-a-thon. It was a ghost story, but filled more with memories than actual hauntings, and of course, there were a few gruesome deaths.

I can't pretend. I haven't read The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, but now I really really want to, because from the sound of it, the film is nothing like it, and neither is this book. Crane really plays with the Sleepy Hollow story as it cleverly blends The Legend of Sleepy Hollow with Washington Irving's other story, Rip Van Winkle, and features Washington Irving himself. This is really very clever and lends a whole new twist. This story plays havoc with the original as it twists all the events that happen to skew everything in a light much more similar to Time Burton's adaptation where Ichabod is the hero. It makes excellent use of the viewpoints of Ireland and Ichabod to give a mystery to the novel, even if you have read the original.

As characters go, Ireland is a very suitable heroine, but she also makes a fantastic, grudging villain. I loved that idea and was very happy with how she acted throughout with her feisty remarks. I liked that Ichabod was included as a viewpoint as this went back to the original story nicely and their symmetry was quite pleasing to read. Rip was also a nice touch, with excellent use made out of his peculiar sleeping habits, which actually made sense. It was also good to have a character who had lived through both timelines, as this made it easy for explanations and so the pace was very good.

The only thing was that I felt something was missing with this story. Maybe there could have been a subplot or something that could have made the plot more complex. Instead this was quite short and it was over far too soon, with all the action happening very quickly. I would have preferred the suspense and action to carry on for much longer, as it still would have been an engrossing read.

As you would expect, the novel is quite bloody and fairly disturbing. I wouldn't say it gave me nightmares, but it certainly affected me as a few visions made their way into my sleep. The story is suspenseful, made worse when there is suddenly a time limit. A great read with a suitable ending which, unfortunately, you could see coming. All in all quite satisfying.

Crane on Goodreads

Kyra_x

Tour Stop (Review): Perfected - Kate Jarvik Birch

Perfected - Kate Jarvik Birch

Release Date: 07/01/14

Publisher: Entangled Teen

Synopsis (from Goodreads):

Perfection comes at a price.

As soon as the government passed legislation allowing humans to be genetically engineered and sold as pets, the rich and powerful rushed to own beautiful girls like Ella. Trained from birth to be graceful, demure, and above all, perfect, these “family companions” enter their masters’ homes prepared to live a life of idle luxury.

Ella is happy with her new role as playmate for a congressman’s bubbly young daughter, but she doesn’t expect Penn, the congressman’s handsome and rebellious son. He’s the only person who sees beyond the perfect exterior to the girl within. Falling for him goes against every rule she knows…and the freedom she finds with him is intoxicating.

But when Ella is kidnapped and thrust into the dark underworld lurking beneath her pampered life, she’s faced with an unthinkable choice. Because the only thing more dangerous than staying with Penn’s family is leaving…and if she’s unsuccessful, she’ll face a fate far worse than death.

For fans of Keira Cass’s Selection series and Lauren DeStefano’s Chemical Garden series, Perfected is a chilling look at what it means to be human, and a stunning celebration of the power of love to set us free, wrapped in a glamorous—and dangerous—bow.

Perfected on Goodreads

Perfected on Amazon 
Perfected on Barnes & Noble 
Perfected on Kobo Books

Review:
Ella is perfect; trained to be poised and elegant, to speak politely, to behave impeccably and to look stunning at all times. She is the perfect pet until one day she realises that she wants things she is not allowed to have.

Let's start with the characters. For a fairly short book, all of the main characters were extremely well-developed. I simply adored Ruby, and loved how the perceptions of characters like the congressman, his wife and Penn changed over time. Ella and Penn were both drawn beautifully with rounded ideals, loves, hates and dreams that neither of them were meant to have. This is truly a story about embracing every part of you and being happy in your flaws, but it is also a story about going out and getting what you want, no matter what others might say or think. Ella could have easily been a Mary-Sue, but thank God for her incredible naivety to begin with, then her confusion and indecision later in the book.

The themes running through this book are really interesting, and they were the ideas that made me want to host this tour in the first place; cloning and possession of humans. It is strange to think that others could think less of someone due to their status as a clone, as if they aren't real people. Of course they are! Aren't twins technically clones? As a twin myself, I can honestly say that I do not feel as if I have half of me missing; I am as much a whole as the next person. Anyway, the possession aspect really makes you think. Once upon a time animals were wild too, and we tamed them, interbred them and owned them. Is this a barbaric practice? It feels like it is barbaric to own another human being; it brings back thoughts of slavery and makes you remember that not everyone does have freedom. It is nice to see someone addressing these ideas in a western setting, because many westerners do not realise that slavery is something that still goes on today. Trafficking, the sex trade, forced marriage, child labour and bonded labour are all modern forms of slavery that still need to be abolished.

There were a few flaws within this read, the largest one being that some of the plot twists were very obvious. I found that I knew why the previous pet left the house pretty much as soon as the first hint was read, very near the beginning of the book, and this was only confirmed at the end. Maybe to a YA reader, this may not be so obvious, though, and if anything it reinforces Ellas naivety.

An engrossing read about forbidden love and ownership with a truly heartbreaking ending, putting me in mind of Wither and The Handmaid's Tale. If there is a second book, I will definitely be keeping an eye out!

Author Bio:
Kate Jarvik Birch is a visual artist, author, playwright, daydreamer, and professional procrastinator. As a child, she wanted to grow up to be either a unicorn or mermaid. Luckily, being a writer turned out to be just as magical. Her essays and short stories have been published in literary journals including Indiana Review and Saint Ann’s Review. She lives in Salt Lake City, Utah with her husband and three kids. To learn more visit www.katejarvikbirch.com


Author Links: http://www.katejarvikbirch.com/ 
http://www.twitter.com/katejarvikbirch
https://www.facebook.com/katejarvikbirchbooks

Thank you to Entangled Teen, Kate Jarvik Birch and YA Bound Book Tours for this opportunity.

Perfected Blog Tour
Blog Tour Organized by: YA Bound Book Tours

Kyra_x

Tour Stop (Review): Division Zero - Matthew Cox

Division Zero by Matthew S. Cox 
(Division Zero #1) 

Published by: Curiosity Quills Press
Publication date: March 7th 2014
Genres: Cyberpunk, New Adult, Paranormal

Synopsis:

Most cops get to deal with living criminals, but Agent Kirsten Wren is not most cops.

A gifted psionic with a troubled past, Kirsten possesses a rare combination of abilities that give her a powerful weapon against spirits. In 2418, rampant violence and corporate warfare have left no shortage of angry wraiths in West City. Most exist as little more than fleeting shadows and eerie whispers in the darkness.

Kirsten is shunned by a society that does not understand psionics, feared by those who know what she can do, and alone in a city of millions. Every so often, when a wraith gathers enough strength to become a threat to the living, these same people rely on her to stop it.

Unexplained killings by human-like androids known as dolls leave the Division One police baffled, causing them to punt the case to Division Zero. Kirsten, along with her partner Dorian, wind up in the crosshairs of corporate assassins as they attempt to find out who – or what – is behind the random murders before more people die.

She tries to hold on to the belief that no one is beyond redemption as she pursues a killer desperate to claim at least one more innocent soul – that might just be hers.

Division Zero on Goodreads

Purchase:

Division Zero on Amazon.com

Division Zero on Barnes and Noble

Division Zero on Kobo

My Review:
I love a bit of paranormal fiction, and I love watching CSI TV shows, so the fact that policing, murders and ghosts have all been mixed into this book is really great for me, and let's not forget the futuristic setting too. The blurb really ticked all of my boxes so I was so excited to be a part of this tour. So without further ado:

Kirsten works for Division Zero, a group of police officers with extra-ordinary abilities, and her latest case is something that has left all the other police baffled. It starts with one rogue robot malfunctioning, but quickly escalates into a series of gruesome murders of innocent civilians. Kirsten soon realises the truth; they're being posessed by a very powerful and very angry ghost.

Being perfectly honest here, at first I was confused by this book; there were a lot of words that were made up for the futuristic setting and I felt immediately bombarded with the fact I didn't understand this world. However, that feeling soon passed and the technical speak became more apparent to me after that.

Also, before the writer really gets into a stride, I often found myself flicking back a page to ensure I hadn't glossed over bits. There were a few instances where things that may well be obvious to the writer are left out, for example the fact that Dorian, her partner, has accompanied her into a bar. At one point he wasn't actually mentioned until he made a remark.

Speaking of Dorian, there was one more confusing thing to go with the odd omissions; the fact that at one point I was trying to guess who was dead and who wasn't, because to Kirsten they appear solid and act like normal people. I was wondering why people were giving her weird stares when she was on the bus with her dad, and then I figured it out! That being said, as soon as the story got into the full flow, there was nothing to confuse me.

Now for the good stuff. Sometimes in books, the subplots are really rubbish, but in this one, they really helped the story along, and they added more soul to Kirsten's character. One or two subplots can easily be developed through to a second book, should the author choose to write a sequel. Oh! And one thing that is really great? No romance! OK, there is a little bit hinted at, but nothing comes to the fore over this short space of time; kind of like how it is for every single career girl in her early twenties, only this one happens to be a kick-ass psionic. Kirsten could have easily been a Mary Sue if not for her fears and her lack of control when unexpectedly threatened, so I was really glad to see some flawed attributes coming through.

The ending was really satisfying; a culmination of all that non-stop action and emotional tension built up to a dramatic and bloody scene, levelling its-self out with a perfect end, with all the strands of plot tied off nicely.

Warning: This is quite a interesting novel in terms of themes, and some readers may not like what they read. There is the discussion of death, heaven, hell and faith, as well as scenes of child abuse and mentions of homosexuality. However, the main overwhelming theme seems to be that of overcoming your demons and doing what you think is right.

Like an American, sci-fi version of Rivers of London, but with a lot more gross scenes and ghost handling rather than detecting.

Thank you to the author and Xpresso Book Tours for the e-arc supplied for this review.

Author Bio:

Born in a little town known as South Amboy NJ in 1973, Matthew has been creating science fiction and fantasy worlds for most of his reasoning life. Somewhere between fifteen to eighteen of them spent developing the world in which Division Zero, Virtual Immortality, and The Awakened Series take place. He has several other projects in the works as well as a collaborative science fiction endeavor with author Tony Healey.

Hobbies and Interests:
Matthew is an avid gamer, a recovered WoW addict, Gamemaster for two custom systems (Chronicles of Eldrinaath [Fantasy] and Divergent Fates [Sci Fi], and a fan of anime, British humour (<- deliberate), and intellectual science fiction that questions the nature of reality, life, and what happens after it. He is also fond of cats.

Awards: Prophet of the Badlands (excerpt) – Honorable Mention – Writers of the Future

Author Links:

http://www.matthewcoxbooks.com/wordpress/

https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/7712730.Matthew_S_Cox

https://www.facebook.com/MatthewSCoxAuthor

https://twitter.com/mscox_fiction

This is the tour-wide giveaway for a signed copy of Division Zero and a $25 Amazon gift card. To enter, please fill in the rafflecopter below. Open Internationally.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Tour Schedule

Kyra_x

Review: Poison Study - Maria V. Snyder

After having this book and its sequels sat on my shelf for quite a while, I finally got around to reading them. I've been wanting to read something by Maria V. Snyder for a long time because I love the sound of her books. Reminiscent of Trudi Canavan, or perhaps Kristin Cashore both of whom I have read numerous times, her books centre on fantastical lands with magic at their core.

Poison Study is the first installment of the story of Yelena. We find her cowering in a dungeon with only the rats for company. She is taken away and offered a choice - she can be executed for murder, or she can be the Commander of Ixia's new food taster. She wants to survive, but how long will it last? Yelena must study poisons and people to learn what could kill her and who to trust. She soon realises that she has magical powers, which could also lead to her death, as using magic in Ixia is forbidden.

I loved the story. It was mostly set in the 'palace', where the King once lived and the Commander now lives. In that way I'd liken it to Bitterblue by Kristin Cashore. It's about a woman seeking information and survival, but it's also about slow-building love, friendship and betrayal.

Yelena herself was perfect. She has an excellent character arc and reasons for her flaws which stem from past experiences. She has a deep power underneath it all that I think most people would empathise with. Underneath her flaws and insecurities there's a strong woman.

Valek is the man who gave her the option of being a food taster. He is complex and thoughtful, yet strong and immensely skilled. As a head of security and master assassin he has had to be pretty ruthless, but he has his reasons. I always liked him even when Yelena didn't. He's a very interesting character and his loyalty to the commander knows no bounds.

Then there's the baddie. Well, one of them. Brazell is a powerful man whose son Yelena killed. He is out for revenge and won't stop until he gets what he wants. He's a nasty piece of work, and that's all I shall say on the subject. The less said about him the better.

Snyder's writing is beautiful. It flows well and had me enraptured from the first page. She has structured it very nicely with well-paced action and interesting slower parts. The only thing I would say is that the ending felt a little rushed, with a bit too much information all at once. I would have liked to see a scene play out with Brazell.

Other than that the ending went much the way I thought it would have, which left me satisfied however I would have preferred more of a twist.

In all I think it's a very well rounded first novel for Snyder and I can only see her getting better with every book she writes. I very much look forward to grabbing the next in this series from my shelf to find out what happens next in Yelena's life.

Stacey_x

Review: The Casquette Girls - Alys Arden

Welcome to a storm-torn New Orleans, where the water level rose so high that people died trapped in their own attics, where crime is rife and people have been found murdered in the street. Now the water and the storm have subsided, Adele and her father come back to the city to salvage what is left of their lives. For Adele this journey is much tougher than she ever expected as she struggles juggling strange occurrences, murders, a new school and family issues. Soon, all that comes to the fore and Adele find herself fighting for the truth, only to find herself plagued by a very old curse that she has everything to do with.

This book was very unexpected for me. I had only read the blurb when I picked it up, so the prescence of something supernatural was kind of expected, but what those entities were really wasn't! Spoiler alert guys, this is, in fact, a vampire book... and a witchy book. Now, I don't usually go in for vampires any more, not with the travesty of sparkles haunting the once-terrifying version of them that I had in my head, but you know what? This book has changed my mind yet again. I really enjoyed the way that the creatures were portrayed in both a sympathetic light and as cunning monsters by using several characters to display their strengths and weaknesses, and their underlying humanity. There was one part in a diary entry, on a boat, where the story began to played out rather too much like Dracula for my liking, but it was a really lovely nod to the classic tale that made vampires what they are today.

The narrative was beautifully written. It flowed really well and although it had a fairly slow start, the build up and the confusion at first makes the rest of the story even more interesting for the reader. I was quite caught off guard at one point, when about a third into the book, we suddenly had a diary entry instead of the usual prose, written by Adele's ancestor, Adeline. This threw me off slightly, as I had just started getting really into Adele's story. However, once Adeline's story geared up, I enjoyed these diary entries enormously too.

The way that the story fit together was seamlessly done. I loved the way that every character had a reason for being there, and the way that things said earlier in the book make total sense eventually. You can never quite see the relevance of someone like Emile, for example, until they come into the story yet again in a quite unexpected way. At the end there are a few glaring omission ready for the next book, the chief among them being; what exactly was the freak storm? It was not natural, for sure.

As for characters, I found Adele a great character with a strong, charismatic voice. You can really sympathise with her, and she isn't your usually whiny teenager type either. Although her cluelessness at the beginning goes on for too long, she quickly becomes the perfect heroine for me; slightly flawed with plenty of courage, attitude and brains. The other characters were so well drawn you could imagine them standing in the room, but it was Desiree and Isaac who really took centre-stage as they both slowly grow on you, just as they do with Adele.

Nothing is as it seems to begin with, and this book certainly packs a punch at the end. There is a fair bit of suspense and a lot of action, as well as a couple of surprises. A truly well-written book with only minor issues.

Kyra_x

Maleficent - Film Review

On seeing the trailer, and being a massive fan of Disney, I quickly decided I wanted to see this film. After the success of Frozen Disney have been doing well. You can't really ignore that the recasting the original villain into a sympathetic character worked well for Frozen, so why would it not work for Maleficent? Well, you're about to find out.

Maleficent is a retelling of Sleeping Beauty from the point of view of the villain, Maleficent, played by a horn-wearing, winged, not-quite-English accented Angelina Jolie (saying that, the accent wasn't too far off, and it wasn't as posh as the Lara Croft one).

I love a fairy tale retelling. I love the way stories can be made into whatever you want them to be. Gregory Maguire showed this incredibly well with Wicked, a novel based on 'The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West'. Which I have read and loved, and has become a stage musical and possibly even a film (yes, I will be seeing that too if or when it comes out). Maleficent, however, is often deemed one of the cruelest Disney villains. She curses a baby for not being invited to a party? Really? Then she decides that because some fairy put a condition on her curse she's just going to lock up and probably torture a Prince Phillip just because he might just hope to break the curse. That's pretty low.
Nobody had any sympathy for someone like that.

Now Disney are shining a new light on the character, saying that she was a free spirit until a young Stefan broke her heart. So she cursed his daughter out of a need for revenge, and spends the rest of the film regrowing her heart. At the beginning she is a naive and carefree child meeting a human for the first time, gliding over 'The Moors', which are covered in CGI effects and filled with creatures of all varieties, but by the end she is a woman who has learnt a lesson and learns to love again. I did find the beginning a brutal reminder that this film isn't meant for adults. I just found it too sappy and childish. It did get better though.

I think the things that made it good for me was the addition of warring species, the story of how Maleficent the fairy lost her wings, and Sam Riley. For me he made this film. Sam Riley plays the raven Diaval in it's human form. He provides a voice of reason to Maleficent and a person who can share her burden. He is a loyal friend and I love what Disney has done for this character. Is the original he was Diablo, an annoying, screechy evil pet, and now they have given him a real character. He also looks pretty awesome. I also thought Sharlto Copley, who plays King Stefan, was very good.

I was a little annoyed about Prince Phillip. He is my favourite Disney Prince hands down. He's kind, charming, brave, strong, funny and saves the day in stupendous heroic fashion, with his horse pal along for the ride. In this film I felt nothing for the character and he was demoted somewhat, getting next to no screen time and barely a happy ending.


I should probably mention Elle Fanning here too. She plays the good natured, sweet, innocent Aurora in her most sickly form. All I can really say about her is that she seemed sweet. That's it. I don't get how everyone seemed to love her when she had no personality, apart from the fact that she was just plain nice and innocent.

I was also annoyed by the pixies (the three fairies that look after Aurora). I hated them. They were silly and insubstantial, and only there to give children laughs.

Overall though, I did enjoy it, but could clearly see that it was meant for a younger generation. I'm giving it 6 out of 10. I admired the storyline and how it diverged from the original, but there weren't that many features that I thought would make it a better film than the original.

Stacey_x

Danio Yoghurt - Food Review

Frequent visitors to this blog can all agree that food reviewing here is a very rare occurrence. However, when something truly surprising or lovely is tasted, sometimes you just have to write about it.

The subject of this momentous blog is a yogurt. Usually they are gloopy concoctions of dubious flavour and rather too much sugar, fat and calories. Danio is a little different; a low fat, creamy pot of deliciousness with a fruit compote at the bottom.

Despite them being a little bit on the pricey side (88p a pot at Tesco, with no multi-packs to save on), they taste so good that it kind of cancels out the extra pound or two spent. There was also a deal to get 3 pots for £2.00, so naturally I leaped on that.

Initially these were free giveaways from a nice lady who was stationed outside Tesco, and nothing tastes better than free food. These, however, didn't just taste nice because they were free. They are thick (due to the amount of milk used in them, which also means they have more calcium), making them feel indulgent, and the compote is tasty, whether it is mixed in or on its own. They would actually make a lovely breakfast with a bit of granola mixed through it (don't miss that trick, Danone, you'll make a ton of money).

The compote itsself is great. The flavour is spot on for the fruit (possibly because it is made with real fruit and not flavouring. Does anyone else hate flavourings that don't even taste like the fresh fruit version? One thing that may split opinions is that the fruit compote does keep the seeds in (not the cherry stones though). While this does not make much of a difference in many of the flavours, the passion fruit one does notice as there is a crunch and a different taste there.

Now for the facts and figures. The 160g yogurt is high protein, containing 13g of the stuff, and low fat (0.2g) with 0.1g being saturates. It is 125 calories, which is a little more than your Muller lights but around the same as the low-fat Tesco yogurts. It contains no preservatives, no artificial flavours or sweeteners and is suitable for vegetarians. Flavours come in Strawberry, Cherry, Raspberry, Blueberry, Passion fruit and Peach.

These yogurts are delicious and really fill you up, so please give them a try if you're sick of swallowing tasteless food. A 9 out of 10, simply because some people may not like the seeds.

Own image

Angelmaker - Nick Harkaway

Joe Spork is a normal guy. He fixes clocks for a living, he stays out of trouble, he's nice to everyone. Then he fixes something for a client, something he really shouldn't have fixed, and his whole world goes to pot. He soon finds himself in the middle of a worldwide crisis, having unwittingly turned on a device, named the Apprehension Engine, that could devastate the planet. It doesn't end there, either, the plot actually starts years earlier.

Nick Harkaway is a genius. He has created a plot that intertwines beautifully, like a Dan Brown novel, only a little bit more intricate. His protagonist is easy to understand, easy to like and you can place yourself almost entirely in his shoes. His growth throughout the book is brilliant, and you end up really rooting for him by the end. The other main characters are great too, showing multi-faceted personalities and having interesting back-stories. Perhaps the best character is Edie Bannister, a feisty old lady who owns an ugly dog and a few guns. I found the flashbacks to her younger days very entertaining and highly intriguing. The way that the plot then blends all this in in expertly done.

The only down point is that it took a while to really get into it. However, as soon as Edie's flashbacks started, I was hooked. The verbose language and the complexity of the sentences may make your head ache at first, but give it time, keep a dictionary on hand and keep reading. The best is yet to come. And the finale? Well, lets just say that Joe Spork isn't such a normal guy after all.

This is a tiny review, but if too much of the plot is revealed, the story will get ruined for all of you, and no-one wants that! The book is a fairly long read, especially if you have to keep looking up words (thank god for Kindle dictionary, is all I can say), but it's worth it! 8 out of 10.

Wreck-It Ralph - Film

Disney's 51st animated classic is the story of a video game villain trying to earn his place with the good guys. Ralph is sick of being treated like the bad guy. He's just got a job to do and he does it well; he's great at wrecking stuff, especially buildings. But Ralph has had enough, so he hitches a ride to Hero's Duty, the new first person shooter, in search of a medal to bring home. True to his name, he wrecks the place, and then escapes into Sugar Rush (a candy-coated racing game) to wreak more havoc.

As you would expect from any Disney movie, kids will love it. There are funny moments, and the introduction of Vanellope Von Schweetz gives a little bit more lightness to the weighty subject of what it means to be good. The video game idea is a good one, and the setting of an arcade means that the creators had a lot of scope for which character they could put in. This is the good part for adults, too. You can spot so many different game characters that your kids probably won't even know about. (Warning, this part gets geeky). You can see characters like Pac-man, Bowser (from Mario), Sonic the Hedgehog and Dr Eggman, a cyborg from Mortal Kombat (he even performs a fatality) and a few others from games like Streetfighter.

There are tons of other references too. Maybe the most obvious is the game Hero's Duty, the name and shooter style being taken from Call of Duty. King Candy, the monarch of Sugar Rush has the characteristics and voice style of the Mad Hatter from Disney's Alice in Wonderland. As with Scott Pilgrim vs the World, Disney decided to do an 8-bit scene at the beginning. This time it was the Steamboat Willie scene that got a makeover. 8-bits and pixels feature quite heavily in the beginning of the film where the main action was in the game Fix-It Felix Jr (that's Ralph's eponymous good guy). The character all moved jerkily and their surroundings were mostly squared off like pixels. These touches really brought some reality to the film.

The film could be seen as taking an idea from Toy Story, as the games seem to really come to life when the arcade closes. However, there are rules, and when they get broken, there are some serious consequences for the characters. But hey, this concept is so entertaining, who cares?

As for the voices, we've got a good few famous faces (the four main characters even look like their human counterparts, which is cool); John C. Reilly, Jane Lynch, Sarah Silverman, Jack McBrayer and Alan Tudyk all lend their voices to characters. Jane Lynch actually adds something really nice to her character. her lines are fast with lots of puns and amusing name-calling. She's a tough cookie with a sweet underside. Maybe she should race in Sugar Rush?

The verdict? I want to play Sugar Rush, and I want to see the film again soon. It was very funny in places and had a nice plot. There were even a couple of twists, which is pretty unexpected for a Disney film. Although not quite as funny as the Emperor's New Groove, and with none of the songs of Aladdin, it's a solid film and I'm glad I bought it. 8 out of 10.

After Earth - Film

Spoiler Warning - Many plot points have been discussed in this review

In the distant future, a commanding officer and his son are stranded on Earth after their spaceship crash lands from an accident. They are the only survivors, and Earth is a far deadlier place than it is today. Their only hope of survival is to find a beacon which will lead to their rescue. The problem is that the beacon is 100km away in the tail section of the ship and Earth's air is no longer breathable.

Sounds good, right? A futuristic version of Earth where everything has evolved to be giant killing machines, the idea that this used to be their home planet thousands of years ago, trekking across the great unknown and looking at how the world has changed so drastically.. Well, yes, in theory. But here comes the awful truth; the story merely follows the boy, Kitai, on his journey (both emotional and physical) to retrieve the beacon. Does he grow? Yes. Is he much of a character to begin with? Not really, but at least we get a good back-story. We don't really get the appreciation of the fact that this world was once theirs, we get a glimpse of the world as it became uninhabitable, and as for the animals? We see three resident species, and the most dangerous animal in the whole thing comes from the world that the humans escaped to. It was, quite frankly, disappointing on an intellectual level.

As for the story, it was entertaining. A boy journeys into a big scary jungle for a few days and encounters all sorts of danger and peril. His dad is injured and he has to save him, but he's giving him advice with futuristic gadgetry (which, by the way, was pretty cool and very nicely thought through. Liquid to help you breathe in difficult conditions? Genius). Oh yeah, and an evil fear-smelling creature has escaped and will probably find that boy because he has panic attacks every time he thinks about the amount of danger he is in. There is a lovely human element that is sometimes missed out in other films of the action-type genre, where the main plot is about blowing things up rather than turning into a better person (I realise that this may be more of a sci-fi film, but there was an awful lot of running in it, and the same idea applies anyway).

There was character growth for both protagonists, but Will Smith's character, Cypher, seemed to grow early on, and then suffered an injury that left him boringly chair-bound for the remainder of the film. His facial expressions were great, but lets face it, Will didn't have an awful lot to work with to bring his character to life. Speaking of the characters, they weren't particularly likeable either; they are from a military background, and so they are very rigid, at least to begin with. Jayden's character was very flawed (which did leave room for his growth), and was a little bit dim, to be honest. Characters who tend not to do what you're shouting at them to do, in my book, are ones which you should put in the bin and not look back on. Maybe that's just me.

One other nice thing about the film was the flashbacks that brought the background into perspective. It gave reasons as to why Kitai was so afraid of everything, and how Cypher became a commander in the armed forces. At the beginning, it starts with Kitai in serious trouble, and then flashes back three days. This was really nice as it hooks the viewer from the first scene, making them wonder what happened. The only downfall on that was that the circumstances leading to his predicament weren't quite as thrilling as you imagine them to be.

In all, the film is worth a watch for the idea alone. The creatures were realistic and the landscape was so wildly beautiful that it wasn't hard to believe that this was Earth, untouched for a thousand years. But unfortunately the plot wasn't up to scratch. It felt quite inevitable and could have done with a twist or two to keep us guessing. For that reason, and for the others mentioned above, it gets a 4 out of 10.

The Assassin's Curse - Cassandra Rose Clarke

Ananna is the daughter of a pirate captain. She is being forced into an arranged marriage for the good of the clan. That is, until she runs away on the back of a stolen camel, in her wedding clothes, with her husband-to-be shouting after her. The Hariri clan isn't too pleased about that, so they send an assassin after her. Somehow, Ananna saves the assassin's life, leaving him cursed to protect her from harm and her stuck with him. Ananna unwillingly tags along in search of a cure to the curse, a journey that turns out to be more dangerous than she anticipated.

This story is filled with adventure, peril and magic. The story is simple, and yet the scope for what could happen to the protagonist is huge. It keeps you guessing, because the moment magic comes into the mix, you have no idea what the characters are capable of.

The book is a quick read, mostly because it is so engaging, but also because it is quite short. It can get a little bit formulaic at times; apart from running away, Ananna doesn't exactly make things happen, things happen to her. The character who really pushes the story along is Naji, the assassin. Therefore it tends to read a little like the Wizard of Oz; this happens, then this, then this...

The characterisation is well done. The two main characters are well-rounded, with different drives. The way that Ananna and Naji interact is both amusing and engaging. The assassin keeps mostly to himself, as you would expect. He is secretive and lethal, but he also has a vulnerable side, which you can just see through the layers of moodiness. Ananna is no pushover, either. Being brought up as a pirate, she knows how to look after herself and she has no intentions of being stuck with some morose murderer. However, things change, and soon she finds herself defending the man who would have killed her.

The story is written in first person narrative, in Ananna's voice. This is good as then we get Naji's story as she discovers it. Her style of speech is manifested here with double negatives, curses and slang. Some people may dislike that the author has done this, but it feels more real, like Ananna is literally telling you the story.

It is a very thrilling read, however, there is one rather large flaw, in my opinion. This book is only part one. The end, if you could call it that, leaves the reader right in the middle of the story arc. It isn't exactly a cliffhanger, but it's close enough. It means that you absolutely have to buy the next one to find out what happens, but you also have to wait for it. It's not out until the 18th of June. Some people might be OK with this, but I am not one of them. It is a personal preference that I finish the first book in the series with a sense that I could just stop reading if I wanted to; that the story was perfectly rounded off. The fact that I am forced to read the next one, rather than just wanting to in order to find out what happens to the characters, is quite frustrating. I found this was also true of 'The Selection', which was, again, a great book.

Without this flaw, it probably would have got and 8 or 9 out of 10, but instead I am giving it a 6.

Image from Amazon.co.uk

PS: What an awesome cover!

The Witch's Betrayal, a short story, is out now on Kindle. The Pirates Wish will be out on the 18th of June.

The Twyning - Terence Blacker

Kindle is a wonderful thing, made even more wonderful by the introduction of the Kindle Daily Deal. That was where I found this book and proceeded to buy it for 99p.

What a premise. A war is looming. On one side, Doctor Henry Ross-Gibbon, an MP and a band of willing followers, on the other, the rat Kingdom. Efren is a ratling born to the Court of Tasting, but his life takes a wild turn when he is witness to the murder of the rat king at the hands of the Doctor. Soon, he finds himself in the middle of a political struggle, and then in the middle of a war. To make things more complicated, he finds that not all humans are the enemy, and becomes torn between love and loyalty.

First off, you're all asking, what on earth is a Twyning? Well, some of you may find this gross. It is a load of rats, about 20 or more, all joined up by the tails to form one big seething mass. Told you.

Anyway...

The book has two first person viewpoints, that of Efren the rat, and that of Dogboy, a homeless thirteen-year-old who lives in a rubbish tip. It is at first difficult to see how the two could link together, but trust me, they do. The chapters alternate between the two voices, meaning that you get each of their story a bit at a time. This is good as you get to see, piece by piece, how their lives will cross over. Efren is possibly the more interesting of the two, simply because he is a rat. There are so many elements to him that make him an excellent character. Not least that he isn't even a normal rat. The way his emotions are shaped; they're just like ours, only he thinks differently. Loyalty to the Kingdom and his King is a forefront of his thoughts. He is a truly selfless character, but he can come across as a little bit cold. The inclusion of Dogboy's voice means that we have something to associate with. His thoughts are like our own. We understand him perfectly.

There are a lot of very clever aspects of the story. The first is how the Kingdom of the rats has been thought through. We thought they were mindless beasts, but in this book they communicate in their minds, they have a Court system that allows the Kingdom to run smoothly and they have a kind of religion in that they worship the Twyning. The second is that the backstories of the children, Dogboy and Caz (a little girl who Dogboy lives with), are very interesting. Caz's particularly fits in with the events of the story, and there are some peculiar things about both of them that will give the reader a surprise or two.

As the story progresses, it drags you in. Your emotions become entwined with that of the young boy and the rat, of all the trouble that they get into. When the war finally starts, you truly feel for all the rats dying, you believe that the doctor is the enemy, even though your human brain is still telling you that rats are vermin. This book is packed with excitement and interest. It can be a little gory at times, just to warn you, but don't let that stop you. It is well worth reading.

Money well spent? I think so. The climax was good, but I wanted the war to end with a bit more of a punch. I wanted something to happen that would really shock me, like some of the events earlier in the book such as the pits and the rescue.

Still, it deserves a good, sturdy 9 out of 10. I would read any of Terence Blacker's books on the merit of this one alone.

Image from www.terenceblacker.com.