Fated by Sarah Alderson

Fated by Sarah Alderson
Release Date: January 5th 2012
Publisher: Simon & Schuster UK
Add it: Goodreads
Overall: ♥♥♥♥

What can I say? After reading Hunting Lila and absolutely falling in love with Sarah Alderson (and Alex, of course *stares into space*), I could not wait to read Fated! Guys, it doesn't disappoint!

Evie is a 17 year old waitress who is just trying to earn as much money as possible so she can get out of her town and move to New York. Lucas (is really, really hot... *ahem*) is a half human, half Unhuman Shadow Warrior who would like nothing more than revenge on Hunters - Hunters killed his family. Evie Tremain finds out she is the last in a long line of demon slayers known as Hunters after being attacked in the alley behind her work by a demon who's tail can cut human flesh as easily as cutting through butter and a demon who's skin is green and deadly.

Evie is such a refreshing main character! She is just... I can't even describe it... You know how a lot of heroines in YA sort of have the same type of personality or voice? Well, Evie is just completely different! She is tough, angry and doesn't take things at face value. EVER. She questions everything but she asks the right questions! Evie has some major trust issues, but with good reason. However, she learns so much and grows throughout the novel, I ended up getting rather attached to her due to her outlook on life and I loved how she made choices for herself rather than for somebody else (I know so many people like that in real life, it drives me nuts)

Lucas... Oh, you *may* give Alex a run for his money... (But Alex is still my #1 tied with Etienne St. Clair) Oh. Wow. Oops, now I'm daydreaming. Anywayyy! Lucas, whilst not on par with the previously named sexiness, he is still pretty darn close. Sarah Alderson has a talent for creating incredibly hot characters. At first, Lucas seems just like a pretty face, but as this is told in third person (YAY!) dual-narrative, we get to know him so well and we follow his heartbreaking backstory with him. Lucas also grows immensely as a character, we get to learn how love can change somebody in such a dramatic way, and whether this is perceived as a positive or a negative thing.

I adored the world building in Fated. It gave youa little taste about the different types of demons and their world whilst leaving room for more detail in the books to come. The different types of demons were fascinating and I loved all of their relationships with one another. It was almost as if you were reading about one big family! As for the world building of the Hunters. Oh my. That was incredible! I loved learning about Evie's family history and the history of Hunters, I loved reading the Evie's book along with her and I adored the little twists and turns every now and then.

Fated is a well-written, fast-paced, funny and deep book that will keep you on your toes. If you loved Hunting Lila, you'll love this one as well :) Sarah Alderson has done it again! You magnificant woman, you! THANKYOU!

I FINALLY SAW THE HUNGER GAMES!

So I know I'm about 3 weeks behind but I have my reasons!
1. I PINKY PROMISED my stepmum (about 10 months ago before we even knew there was going to be a movie) that we'd see it together. And I live 700km away from her
2. I wanted the hype to die down a little bit before attending the cinema. (In all seriousness, I used to work at the local cinema and for Transformers 2 we had an average of 750 people a night and it isn't exactly a big cinema-so you could only imagine Hunger Games)

SO WE SAW IT THE OTHER NIGHT AND I WAS SO SO SO HAPPY! AHHHHH!
I knew I was going to cry because I'd cry in the trailers alone but no kidding, Kelly and I started crying THE MINUTE the movie started playing. Seriously. What is wrong with us! It was just incredible! I was so excited yet so scared due to mixed reviews. Some people told me it wasn't like the book at all or that it was boring and others (Megan <3) told me it was INCREDIBLE and really true to the book! Fortunately it was the latter! Obviously you can't expect a movie to be exactly the same as our precious books *cough* Half Blood Prince *cough*, but I was so stoked with the entire movie. I thought they did a PERFECT job! Kelly and I bought a travel pack of tissues each with us and we used them all, we even got weird looks from the people in front of us! *fistpumps*
The acting was incredible. I have a girl crush on Jennifer Lawrence (god, she just *is* Katniss) and I already had a crush on Liam Hemsworth and now I have a crush on Josh Hutcherson and Alexander Ludwig *daydreams* *eyes glaze over*. 

Here are just a few of my favourite parts:
- The Reaping: OH GOD THE REAPING. Talk about being reduced to a blubbering mess! This scene was perfect and oh, I'm tearing up just writing about it... I'll stop now
- When Effie Trinket said, "That is MAHOGANY"
- Gale <3 hello hot Australian actor, how I love you
- When Peeta tosses Katniss the bread: I'm actually crying while writing this now.
- The bloodbath at the Cornucopia: I adored the cinematography-the camera angles, movement and overall jerkiness (or "vomitcam") really forced the viewer to experience the film to its full extent. Even the editing was awesome. It created the perfect mood!
- I also adored the cinematography and editing throughout the entire film, they used the right techniques in the right places.
- The Capitol and District 12 were perfect (although I think the Capitol should have had a more distinct accent)
- The salute to District 11: I'm crying again.

Okay. Seriously. I'm in love and I need the DVD now!

Here are some funnies for you:

Jennifer Lawrence loves food

Jennifer Lawrence is awesome, and modest too!

Jennifer Lawrence is so talented :)

Josh as Katniss

I love them both

Night Beach by Kirsty Eagar

Night Beach by Kirsty Eagar
Release Date: April 26th 2012
Publisher: Penguin Books Australia
Add it: Goodreads
Overall: ♥♥♥♥♥

Why hello thar! Nice to be writing a review again :) You see, lately my time has been spent writing essays on things such as causes of action in order to sue somebody with and public relations scandals!
I HAVE been attempting to write this review for the past few days but my internet is being incredibly frustrating and RANDOMLY STOPS WORKING and shuts down my browser. So yeah, I've been a little bit annoyed! BUT YAYYYYYY! HERE IS A REVIEW AGAIN!

Now... about the book!

Abbie is a girl who loves to surf, loves to paint and has a major crush on Kane - a guy who lives with her and her family. Kane has just come back from a surfing trip a week early and something about him has changed, and Abbie is the only person who can see it.

Well shit, I've just finished picking up pieces of my brain and now I can somewhat think clearly again. I absolutely adored this book. It was twisted, weird, creepy, a little bit scary and just all round cool.

Whilst I found Abbie a little um, stalkerish and perhaps weird at first, I grew to love her! Abbie is a beautifully rounded character who has both flaws and talents and is just overall an incredibly realistic character. Her relationships with others are not ideal, but really, as a teenager when is anything perfect? Abbie is an extremely well developed character who is strong, confident, sensitive, tough and funny.

To begin with, I thought I might have a few issues simply due to some of the things at the beginning of the novel. However, these ended up becoming redundant and I just didn't give a shit about the fact I was a bit disturbed at one stage, because the rest of the novel was just so incredible. This novel is creepy in the same way that Imaginary Girls is creepy. It's haunting and disturbing and once I actually got into the book, I found myself always saying, "Just ONE more chapter!". The supernatural aspect of this is insane and Kirsty Eagar's writing is gorgeous! She is an Australian author (which automatically makes anyone awesome), so naturally I felt comfortable reading this, but her way of piecing things together is brilliant. I especially loved her writing. Everything she wrote placed a perfect image in my head, and I was going a bit nuts for this when she was describing all the supernatural aspects because the image I was getting in my head was just AWESOME.

The overall plot turned out brilliant. I'm having a lot of trouble writing this review because it was so incredible. I'm sure some of you know what I mean :)
This book just made me feel, and I love books that make me feel. It made me scared, happy, sad, frustrated, sympathetic, empathetic and completely intrigued. Having never read anything by Kirsty Eagar before (but I've heard awesome things!), her other books are now a top priority to read for me! Seriously guys, you HAVE to read this. It's fabulous. And creepy. Yeah, I know I've mentioned that but I love creepy :D

A few things I loved...
- The mention of 24 hour Maccas (this changed my life when I was 17)
- Someone is mentioned to have the name, "Jack Daniels", this got a giggle out of me :)
- "What feeds and obsession is not getting what you want. But my real problem is, I like being obsessed. It leaves me hollowed out and hungry, makes everything more intense. It's painful, yes. And frustrating. But it sure as hell makes me feel alive."
How AMAZING is that quote? I adore that quote. I think it makes a lot of sense and I love how much it adds to Abbie's character.

I received this from Netgalley and this has not affected my review

In My Mailbox (11)

In My Mailbox is a weekly feature by The Story Siren which allows us to drool with one another over the books that we received or bought this week!

So as you may know already (cos I was STOKED), I won a massive prize pack from Brodie and Lisa's month-long Valentine's Event! I received the rest last week (I've already included Jenna & Jonah's Fauxmance in my last IMM) and I CAN NOT WAIT TO READ THEM <3 YAYYYY! I also got four little heart post-its (I LOVE POST IT NOTES) that say, "Things that shouldn't be forgotten"... Cuteeee!

So after I finished Hunting Lila, I lent it to my Aunty Caroline... needless to say she LOVED it, so she bought me Fated :D *squeals* (so she can read it too of course!), she ordered it from Book Depository and when I found out she got it for me, I was absolutely ecstatic so I opened the package and then my whole world came crumbling down (Ahaha!) for the book HAD BEEN CUT. As in when they opened the box or whatever, they opened it with a knife and CUT THE COVER. I was devastated haha, but Aunty Caroline sorted it out ;). AND NOW I HAVE ANOTHER BEAUTIFUL BOOK BY SARAH ALDERSON! *ahem* So, moving on....

As for the uh, SPICE GIRLS MOVIE *jumps up and down* and the little Mario Mushroom were both random little gifts from Mum when she came to visit me :)
I watched the Spice Girls movie on Saturday night and honestly, I never realised how strange it was when I was a kid, they take their overdue pregnant bestfriend out to a club HAHAHAHA ohhh how I love it <3 (It's still obviously awesome)

On Netgalley (I've been catching up on my Galleys lately *high five*), I received two Steampunk novels a while ago (I've kept forgetting about them!), I've only read Girl in the Steel Corset so I'm looking forward to see where the sequel goes and I'm mega excited for Innocent Darkness... Also, how GORGEOUS is the cover. AHHH!

Won:
- Fallen In Love by Lauren Kate (Review here)
- Forgotten by Cat Patrick (and heart post-its)
- Faery Tales and Nightmares by Melissa Marr
- The Iron King by Julie Kagawa

Gifted: 
- Fated by Sarah Alderson

Netgalley:
- The Girl in the Clockwork Collar by Kady Cross
- Innocent Darkness by Suzanne Lazear

What's in your mailbox :)

Ooh, I know this week is a little late, I was away for the weekend :)