Title: In Other Lands
Author: Sarah Rees Brennan
Published: August, 2017 by Big Mouth House
Pages: 432
Rating:  
Purchase: The Book Depository

“What’s your name?”
“Serene.”
“Serena?” Elliot asked.
“Serene,” said Serene. “My full name is Serene-Heart-in-the-Chaos-of-Battle.”
Elliot’s mouth fell open. “That is badass.”

The Borderlands aren’t like anywhere else. Don’t try to smuggle a phone or any other piece of technology over the wall that marks the Border—unless you enjoy a fireworks display in your backpack. (Ballpoint pens are okay.) There are elves, harpies, and—best of all as far as Elliot is concerned—mermaids.

Elliot? Who’s Elliot? Elliot is thirteen years old. He’s smart and just a tiny bit obnoxious. Sometimes more than a tiny bit. When his class goes on a field trip and he can see a wall that no one else can see, he is given the chance to go to school in the Borderlands.

It turns out that on the other side of the wall, classes involve a lot more weaponry and fitness training and fewer mermaids than he expected. On the other hand, there’s Serene-Heart-in-the-Chaos-of-Battle, an elven warrior who is more beautiful than anyone Elliot has ever seen, and then there’s her human friend Luke: sunny, blond, and annoyingly likeable. There are lots of interesting books. There’s even the chance Elliot might be able to change the world.

Final Thoughts:
With a wisecracking mouth, an air of superiority and little regard for other people’s feelings, I know Elliot was someone I wouldn’t want to be around. Yet, I couldn’t help but want to be more like him. His ‘no apologies’ attitude towards life and stupid people was one that I secretly wish I could adopt, or get away with adopting. Set in a magical world, with no hint of magic, instead filled with war training, politics and angsty teen romance, this quickly became a whole lot of fun.

Title: Tell The Wind And Fire
Author: Sarah Rees Brennan
Published: April, 2016 by Clarion Books
Pages: 368
Rating:  
Purchase: The Book Depository

In a city divided between opulent luxury in the Light and fierce privations in the Dark, a determined young woman survives by guarding her secrets.

Lucie Manette was born in the Dark half of the city, but careful manipulations won her a home in the Light, celebrity status, and a rich, loving boyfriend. Now she just wants to keep her head down, but her boyfriend has a dark secret of his own—one involving an apparent stranger who is destitute and despised.

Lucie alone knows of the deadly connection the young men share, and even as the knowledge leads her to make a grave mistake, she can trust no one with the truth.

Blood and secrets alike spill out when revolution erupts. With both halves of the city burning, and mercy nowhere to be found, can Lucie save either boy—or herself?

Final Thoughts:
Nobody seems to like this book. I don’t know why. Before I hit Goodreads to check the ratings, I was dashing madly through this one, relishing each lunch break when I could get back into it. Sarah Rees Brennan is one author that just gets characters right. Regardless of whatever the plot may be, she hooks you with the people. I think it’s why I loved the Demon’s Lexicon series so much even though each book took on a different POV. Here, the main cast is kept quite small—just Lucie, her boyfriend, Ethan, and his doppelganger, Carwyn. Told through a single perspective, Lucie really shines as the lead in this story. While she may have had magic rings on her fingers, she didn’t spend the book doing spells. It delves much deeper, getting political with topics such as class, racial discrimination and feminism.

Title: Unmade (The Lynburn Legacy #3)
Author: Sarah Rees Brennan
Published: September, 2014 by Random House
Pages: 370
Rating:  
Purchase: The Book Depository

Powerful love comes with a price. Who will be the sacrifice?

Kami has lost the boy she loves, is tied to a boy she does not, and faces an enemy more powerful than ever before. With Jared missing for months and presumed dead, Kami must rely on her new magical link with Ash for the strength to face the evil spreading through her town.

Rob Lynburn is now the master of Sorry-in-the-Vale, and he demands a death. Kami will use every tool at her disposal to stop him. Together with Rusty, Angela, and Holly, she uncovers a secret that might be the key to saving the town. But with knowledge comes responsibility—and a painful choice. A choice that will risk not only Kami’s life, but also the lives of those she loves most.

Final Thoughts:
I don’t quite know how I feel about this series. It’s had its ups and downs, but has never quite managed to capture that same excitement I felt while reading Sarah’s previous series, The Demon’s Lexicon. Perhaps that was my problem going in. My expectations. I know that I took a lot longer to connect with these guys, but it did seem to happen somewhere during the second book. Kami was a thinker, she was funny, and she had a hero complex—all the makings of a good main character, but whether she lived or died, got the guy, or didn’t, it didn’t mean that much to me.

Stacking The Shelves is a meme hosted by Tynga’s Reviews all about sharing the books you are adding to your shelves, may it be physical or virtual. This means you can include books you buy in physical store or online, books you borrow from friends or the library, review books, gifts and of course ebooks!

Titles link back to Goodreads
• The Queen Of Zombie Hearts by Gena Showalter (purchased)
• The Bane Chronicles by Cassandra Clare, Sarah Rees Brennan & Maureen Johnson (purchased)
• Four by Veronica Roth (purchased)
• Sacrifice by Brigid Kemmerer (purchased)
• The Maze Runner by James Dashner (purchased)
• The Scorch Trials by James Dashner (purchased)
• The Death Cure by James Dashner (purchased)
• Blue Lily, Lily Blue by Maggie Stiefvater (purchased)

It happened again. It’s been months since I’ve posted one of these. Work’s been busy, life’s been busy–I’ve just been super time poor. Also, I haven’t bought that many books. I’ve just been letting the few I’ve gotten accumulate in a pile before I tackled the task of finding somewhere on my over-stuffed shelves to squeeze them in. Personally, I think I need a whole new set of bookshelves. My current ones are looking ready to fall apart. I’d really like to get some built-in ones–wall to ceiling once I’ve built my own house. I think that would look awesome.

For now, though, I’m just getting more books. I don’t really know when I’ll read any of these as I’ve read only the first of Gena Showalter, Veronica Roth and Brigid Kemmerer’s books and none of the other series yet–oh, except for The Mortal Instruments, so I could potentially jump into Magnus’ bunch of stories anytime. I just need to get in the mood for a giant book. I’ve actually just finished reading Sarah Rees Brennan’s Unmade, the final in that trilogy. My review will come soon as I’ve thought it up. It’s just so hot this weekend, that I can’t really bare to sit a the computer for an extended period. I need ice cream, and I need it NOW. With that said, I’ll leave you to your stinking hot weekends–or chilly, depending on which side of the world you’re on.

So, what books have you gotten lately? Let me know what I should be checking out in the comments.

Title: Untold (The Lynburn Legacy #2)
Author: Sarah Rees Brennan
Published: September, 2013 by Simon & Schuster
Pages: 370
Rating:  
Purchase: The Book Depository

It’s time to choose sides… On the surface, Sorry-in-the-Vale is a sleepy English town. But Kami Glass knows the truth. Sorry-in-the-Vale is full of magic. In the old days, the Lynburn family ruled with fear, terrifying the people into submission in order to kill for blood and power. Now the Lynburns are back, and Rob Lynburn is gathering sorcerers so that the town can return to the old ways.

But Rob and his followers aren’t the only sorcerers in town. A decision must be made: pay the blood sacrifice, or fight. For Kami, this means more than just choosing between good and evil. With her link to Jared Lynburn severed, she’s now free to love anyone she chooses. But who should that be?

Final Thoughts:
Initially put off by this sequel after not quite warming to Unspoken in the way I did with The Demon’s Lexicon, I let this book sit on my bedside table for a few months. Falling into a bit of a reading slump in the process, I tried to fill it with ten volumes of the Nana manga. (I recommended that series, by the way—lots of angst.) Getting back on topic, it was as if something clicked this time. I picked up Untold and I found myself loving Kami. She’s smart and uses it to get on peoples’ nerves in all the right ways. Rather than shoving a bunch of snarky characters at us, we still get the quips, yet see that they actually have heart.

Title: Unspoken (The Lynburn Legacy #1)
Author: Sarah Rees Brennan
Published: September, 2012 by Simon & Schuster
Pages: 373
Rating:  
Purchase: The Book Depository

Kami Glass is in love with someone she’s never met – a boy the rest of the world is convinced is imaginary. This has made her an outsider in the sleepy English town of Sorry-in-the-Vale, but she doesn’t complain. She runs the school newspaper and keeps to herself for the most part – until disturbing events begin to happen. There has been screaming in the woods and the dark, abandoned manor on the hill overlooking the town has lit up for the first time in 10 years.

The Lynburn family, who ruled the town a generation ago and who all left without warning, have returned. As Kami starts to investigate for the paper, she finds out that the town she has loved all her life is hiding a multitude of secrets- and a murderer- and the key to it all just might be the boy in her head. The boy who everyone thought was imaginary may be real…and he may be dangerous.

Final Thoughts:
As an obvious fan of The Demon’s Lexicon, I couldn’t wait to get my hands on anything new by Sarah Rees Brennan. I was kept sated by Team Human, a riot of vampiric indignation, but now that I’ve finished Unspoken, I’m probably going to have to drop the high average that I’ve been holding onto for the past few years. It was still a great book, but just not an, ‘OMG, where have you been,’ kind of book. Thankfully though, the sardonic wit is back, bringing with it a whole new group of teenagers, one lead by a particularly inquisitive (pronounced: ‘nosey’) girl, Kami, backed up by whichever of her friends she manages to wrangle into tagging along with her on her sometimes illegal escapades into finding out the truth.

Stacking The Shelves is a meme hosted by Tynga’s Reviews all about sharing the books you are adding to your shelves, may it be physical or virtual. This means you can include books you buy in physical store or online, books you borrow from friends or the library, review books, gifts and of course ebooks!

Titles link back to Goodreads
• Team Human by Justine Larbalestier & Sarah Rees Brennan (purchased)
• Alice In Zombieland by Gena Showalter (thanks to Publisher)
• Legacy Of Tril: Soulbound by Heather Brewer (purchased)
• Pushing The Limits by Katie McGarry (purchased)

So I already had a copy of Team Human, but I wanted the Australian cover as well so I decided to double dip. It helps that I’ve already read and loved the book 😀 Thanks to HarlequinTeen for the copy of Gena Showalter’s new book. It reminded me that I really need to get onto Twisted sometime soon. I think I’ve had it waiting on my shelf for about a year now. I’ve only read the first Vladimir Tod book, but I keep buying more of Heather’s books whenever I see them. I think I need to start marathoning some series to catch up rather than starting more debuts. That said, it didn’t stop me picking up a copy of Pushing The Limits. I keep seeing people rave about it, so I thought ‘why not’.

Here are my latest reviews if you want to check them out:
Larbalestier, Justine & Brennan, Sarah Rees, Team Human