Title: Dorothy Must Die (Dorothy Must Die #1)
Author: Danielle Paige
Published: April, 2014 by HarperCollins
Pages: 452
Rating:  
Purchase: The Book Depository

I didn’t ask for any of this. I didn’t ask to be some kind of hero. But when your whole life gets swept up by a tornado—taking you with it—you have no choice but to go along, you know?

Sure, I’ve read the books. I’ve seen the movies. I know the song about the rainbow and the happy little blue birds. But I never expected Oz to look like this. To be a place where Good Witches can’t be trusted, Wicked Witches may just be the good guys, and winged monkeys can be executed for acts of rebellion. There’s still a road of yellow brick—but even that’s crumbling.

What happened? Dorothy. They say she found a way to come back to Oz. They say she seized power and the power went to her head. And now no one is safe.

My name is Amy Gumm—and I’m the other girl from Kansas. I’ve been recruited by the Revolutionary Order of the Wicked. I’ve been trained to fight. And I have a mission: Remove the Tin Woodman’s heart. Steal the Scarecrow’s brain. Take the Lion’s courage. And—Dorothy must die.

Final Thoughts:
Amy’s home life back in Kansas pretty much sucked. She was being bullied by a pregnant girl that seemed to think Amy wanted her guy, and her mother, she was checked out to say the least. I was glad the book didn’t drag things out before escaping to Oz. I found the earlier chapters spent exploring this new take on a classic fictional world to be one of the better aspects of the book. As it progressed, my interest started to wane, taking the better part of a month to get through it. I did enjoy where it ended but found that it took too many detours to get there.

Title: Firewalker (Worldwalker #2)
Author: Josephine Angelini
Published: August, 2015 by Macmillan
Thanks: Pan Macmillan, AU
Pages: 339
Rating:  
Purchase: The Book Depository

Lily Proctor has made it back to her own universe, and it’s finally time for her and Rowan to be happy and relax. True, she almost died in the Pyre that fueled their escape, and they must hide her new magic for the safety of the world, but compared to fighting the monstrous Woven and leading armies in the alternate Salem, life is looking good.

‘You think I’m a monster, but my choices, as ruthless as they seem, are justified.’

Unfortunately, Lillian, ruthless ruler of the 13 Cities, is not willing to let Lily go that easily. Lily is the closest version of herself she’s ever seen in all her worldwalking, and Lillian’s running out of time. If she can’t persuade Lily and Rowan to return to her world, she’ll have to find a way to make them come back.

Final Thoughts:
It had its good plot points, but the journey just didn’t feel worth it. I was never enthralled, and really, I just wanted to get to the end of it so I could start the book I was actually interested in reading. So what happened? I quite enjoyed Trial By Fire, but Firewalker, not so much. With the use of the contemporary and fantasy settings split pretty much in half, the ‘world-walking’ concept doesn’t really come into play much. The book was either set in one world or the other, giving the story two distinct arcs. I thought of them as the ‘training’ one and the ‘quest’. And I’m not one for quests, so that didn’t help things improve.

Title: Trial By Fire (Worldwalker #1)
Author: Josephine Angelini
Published: August, 2014 by Macmillan
Pages: 379
Rating:  
Purchase: The Book Depository

Love burns. Worlds collide. Magic reigns.

This world is trying to kill Lily Proctor. Her life-threatening allergies keep her from enjoying many of the experiences that other teenagers take for granted…which is why she is determined to enjoy her first (and perhaps only) high-school party. But Lily’s life never goes according to plan, and after a humiliating incident in front of half her graduating class Lily wishes she could just disappear.

Suddenly Lily is in a different Salem – one overrun with horrifying creatures and ruled by powerful women called Crucibles. Strongest and cruellest of all the Crucibles is Lillian . . . Lily’s identical other self in this alternate universe. This new version of her world is terrifyingly sensual, and Lily is soon overwhelmed by new experiences.

Lily realizes that what makes her weak at home is exactly what makes her extraordinary in New Salem. It also puts her life in danger. Thrown into a world she doesn’t understand, Lily is torn between responsibilities she can’t hope to shoulder alone, and a love she never expected.

But how can Lily be the saviour of this world when she is literally her own worst enemy?

Final Thoughts:
After thirty or so pages of what felt like a contemporary, things shifted drastically and sent the story into a world of walled cities, oppressive witches, banished outlanders, regular hangings and the threat of killer monsters. Surprisingly, this was a lot of fun, especially for someone that doesn’t normally like fantasy. Kingdoms and dragons and all of that aren’t my thing, so I was happy to find this focused more on its unique take on magic…oh, and the budding romance. Still, that wasn’t too bad either—the chemistry felt natural, though angst was inserted every now and then leaving me a bit iffy on the guy at times, but it didn’t rush things (something I certainly appreciated)

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.

Title: Witches of the East (The Beauchamp Family #1)
Author: Melissa de la Cruz
Published: June, 2011 by Little, Brown Book
Pages: 273
Rating:  
Purchase: The Book Depository

Freya, Ingrid and Joanna Beauchamp love their sleepy life in the East Hamptons. A new engagement, promotion at work, a happy home – its all going perfectly. And, to top it off, no one’s come close to discovering the secret of what they can really do in hundreds of years. But throw a few accidental love potions in the mix the Beauchamp girls are going to need more than a broomstick to clean up this mess…

Final Thoughts: This review is arriving a bit late to the party – I finished the book in early August just so I could watch the TV series without the risk of spoilers. Now season one of the series has ended in Australia and I still have yet to write about the book itself. Witches of the East (or Witches of East End depending on the edition), would you believe it or not, was the first book I’ve read about witches – WHAT?! – but I think it was an excellent intro to the genre. Part of my liking it had to do with the fact that the main characters are not teenagers, nor are they whiny or self-obsessed. Rather they are a mother and two daughters, each with secure jobs, stable friendships, and positive attitudes, and who’re in complete knowledge and command of their supernatural powers.

Title: Demonglass (Hex Hall #2)
Author: Rachel Hawkins
Published: Hyperion by March, 2011
Pages: 359
Rating:  
Purchase: The Book Depository

Sophie Mercer thought she was a witch. That was the whole reason she was sent to Hex Hall, a reform school for delinquent Prodigium (a.k.a. witches, shape-shifters, and faeries). But then she discovered the family secret, and the fact that her hot crush, Archer Cross, is an agent for The Eye, a group bent on wiping Prodigium off the face of the earth.

Turns out, Sophie’s a demon, one of only two in the world-the other being her father. What’s worse, she has powers that threaten the lives of everyone she loves. Which is precisely why Sophie decides she must go to London for the Removal, a dangerous procedure that will either destroy her powers for good-or kill her.

But once Sophie arrives, she makes a shocking discovery. Her new housemates? They’re demons too. Meaning, someone is raising demons in secret, with creepy plans to use their powers, and probably not for good. Meanwhile, The Eye is set on hunting Sophie down, and they’re using Archer to do it. But it’s not like she has feelings for him anymore. Does she?

Final Thoughts:
Hex Hall proved an addictive read for me, finishing it in a single sitting, but this time around, I found it hard to reconnect. Leaving the school behind, we’re sent to the magic council in England, but it’s not nearly as exciting. They’re in a massive building with over thirty kitchens—that was about as exciting as it got. Plus, removed from the school setting, all of the bitchiness is gone. You might say that’s a good thing, but without the tension, it fell flat. I cared little about Sophie’s ‘romance’, so the lack of plot for most of the book left me with hardly anything to hang onto.

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.