Thursday 28 January 2016

Denai Touch by Tiffany Shand

I am so honoured to review this book, I got offered the opportunity by the author to review Denai Touch and I am so lucky to be able to work with Tiffany the author.

The way the author has created this amazing world that is so detailed and real is just incredible. There is a strong mental image throughout the whole book it's like Tiffany has drawn these images and entwined them with the words.

You get entranced in the book pretty quickly when Cate is battling the evils of her world with her brothers and best friend Jade. Cate is deemed to be the next Grand Mistress after her Gran passes away, she will be the most powerful Denai alive. Of course being the next Grand Mistress comes at a price many want Cate dead and will stop at nothing to take her power.

Cate needs Jason more than ever he's her best friend and he is always there when something goes wrong, Jason is so supportive of Cate and they have such a great connection and bond. But will they see it?

I love how you can dip your feet into reality and fiction at the same time, the connection between Jason and Cate is just so overpowering it makes you mentally connected to the both of them begging them to like each other.

The book is so engaging it had my full attention the whole time and around every corner there is something new arising you can barely come up for breath.

When you read the book you become Cate you root for what she believes in and Cate comes alive and I really love to feel like I'm the actual character it makes reading such an amazing experience and Tiffany has got that down to a T.

Great read.
Anastasia x

Find Tiffany Shand:
Twitter:https://twitter.com/TiffanyShand
Page:http://tiffanyshand.com

Wednesday 27 January 2016

Playlist for the Dead by Michelle Falkoff

This book will have triggers around the subject of Suicide.

Sam and Hayden where inseparable, they loved the same games and felt it was them against the rest of high school, they were the 'outsiders'. Hayden got bullied everywhere he went, school, home he had no escape.

His parents looked at him with disdain this wasn't the son they wanted, they wanted a son without a learning difficulty, they wanted him to be perfect like his big brother Ryan. Ryan and his two friends would make Hayden's life hell.

After a fallout Sam goes to make up with Hayden but it's too late, Hayden had overdosed.

Sam feels so lonely without his best friend around, Hayden leaves Sam a disk with a playlist to help hime understand his desicion but makes Sam more confused than ever.

This book really makes sense of loneliness as a teen and the effects bullying can make and I feel it's important this is spoken out and known about. The story was hard to read but necessary, it helps to accept that someone is gone and brings up important issues throughout.

The book brings a certain clarity and when you finish the book you get a sense of relief like you went through all of the grief as well and now you feel okay again.

Very clever book.
Anastasia x

Thursday 21 January 2016

Seed by Lisa Heathfield

I think maybe I should start by saying this book is an emotional book to read. There are hints to sexual abuse in the book but as I said just hints.


So the book is about a girl called Pearl who has lived her whole life in this place called seed . they belive that mother nature is the way, the ladies when they have there once a month mother nature call get pregnant to keep the cycle going whether they like it or not.


Pearl only feels happiness at seed she never sees the bad until a 'outsider' shows the true nature of Papa 'S Seeds group leader. Things go from bad to worse but can Pearl see the truth?.

So this was an emotional book to read because of how shut away Pearl is and how sad it is. But I feel like I have grown stronger having read Seed. I The book was amazingly written and I cannot fault the book in its entirety.

Truly amazing.

 Anastasia x

Wednesday 20 January 2016

Switched- Amanda Hocking

This was a strange book I will not lie. Strange yet I kind of appreciated it. Yeah.

It was a fast paced book to read and I can say I didn't expect to be reading a book about a troll voluntarily, sorry but not the sort of book I would instantly dive in for.

So the book is about a girl called Wendy who has always felt an outside. And to top it off her mother tried to kill her with a knife on her sixth birthday. Wendy's mum always told her she wasn't her real child, that her real child was a boy.

This turns out to be true and in fact Wendy turns out to be a princess in this troll world. She has to learn quickly the rules of royalty and train/ learn her powers. It seems that everything Wendy does is wrong including falling for a human.

I really enjoyed the book and kind of felt a Red Queen vibe (Victoria Aveyard). Which I have to say made the book even better in my eyes.

Will be most likely be continuing the series on.

Anastasia x

Monday 18 January 2016

Dangerous Lies- Becca Fitzpatrick

This lady is incredible. I knew her from the enchanting Hush Hush books a few years back and then I saw the pretty number and I just had to buy and read it!


So Dangerous Lies is about you guessed it...Dangerous Lies. The main character is a strong willed girl called Estella who sees a crime unfold, her mother was heavily involved in drugs and had a dangerous dealer for a boyfriend. Someone was murdered and now Estella has to leave her boyfriend and old life for protection.

Estella who now gets named Stella moves to a small time country town for protection and finds it difficult to keep her hands of the towns bad boy.

I have to admit I found Estella a pain in the ass, I know that that was the way she was meant to come across but it was just a bit too much for me, and also a tiny bit cliché to me with the whole bad girl gone good. But on the plus side I liked the progression of the storyline and the added extras made it a good read.

This is a book I could read again tolerably.

Anastasia x

Carry On- Rainbow Rowell

So this will be the third book I have read from the amazingly talented author Rainbow Rowell. You can check out my review of Fangirl here: http://anastasiarobsonwolfe.blogspot.co.uk/2015/09/fangirl-rainbow-rowell.html.

So lets talk about Carry On, this was such a clever book in my opinion. The book was connected to Fangirl in the sense that The girl in Fangirl called Cath, Cath wrote fan fiction on media and was obsessed with creating these stories. And so Rainbow Rowell created Carry On as the fan fiction Cath wrote on media. Clever eh!

So the fan fiction is about a 17 year old called Simon who is meant to be the most powerful magician of all time!. He goes to a school for magicians called Watford in Britain, his roommate Baz is secretly a vampire but Simon has had his suspicions since he saw Baz.

There are serious threats and dangers around every corner for Simon including the most evil thing even known. The Insidious Humdrum. The Insidious Humdrum has been trying to kill Simon since he appeared at Watford but can Simon finally defeat him once and for all?.

So this normally isn't something I would be into reading but I loved every single page of the book. The book cover is so lovely and amazing, and my edition has an old style bookmark piece of ribbon. I can't believe how intricate the detail were and how brought to life the book was. I really can't say enough good things about this book.

It's a must read!

Anastasia x

Tuesday 12 January 2016

Why I Support Books Rather Than Digital Books.

This is just my opinion and the points I bring up are personal to me and what I feel. Obviously not everyone will agree with my opinion but that is okay.

The thing is physical books convey more than what is written within the pages. I mean the experience and memory committed to your mind when you walk into the bookstore, taking in a big breathe, smelling the book smell, it's priceless. I feel you don't get that luxury when shopping on Amazon Online.

You don't get to experience holding the book, smelling the book, opening the first page of the book, closing the book when you finish the book knowing that you have finished the book, feeling the textures of the books you loose that when you aren't buying a physical copy of a book and cheaper than buying physical books.

There are of course upsides to having Kindle book and the other types of electronic books. You can put thousands of books onto the device and take them everywhere and never run out of books, it's lighter to pack a device, great for travelling, easier to get published for electronic books and cheaper.

But there are downsides. Device being stolen or broken, battery dying, charging the device the more often you use the device, the comfort a physical book can give you,can hurt your eyes or damage them, the physical attraction of a physical book and not forgetting all the experiences and textures you get with a book.

I am slightly old fashioned and would much rather read a physical book under candlelight whilst tucked up in bed. For me nothing could bring me more happiness or comfort than a physical book.

But there are two things that electronic books and books have in common. Not good in rainy conditions and both hurt when you drop them on feet or face!!

Anastasia x


Tuesday 5 January 2016

The Book Thief- Markus Zusak

I was honoured to read this book, The Book Thief has been listed in the top 100 must reads by newspapers and was made into a movie adaptation a few years ago. The book inspired me, made me cherish reading and made me even more passionate about my love for books in general.

The book is about a little girl called Liesel who was traveling to Germany to live with a foster family with her little brother. Sadly her brother passes away before they both make it to their new destination and has a little funeral near the train tracks, there is a opportunity to steal a book, this is in fact the first of a few books Liesel steals.

More problems arise when her new stepfather hides a jewish person in their home, hides them form the Nazis and the eyes of the rest of the street. Liesl gets more and more desperate to steal books as her hunger for reading grows more by the day.

Extraordinary book.

Anastasia x