Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins (Hunger Games Trilogy, Book 2)

Although not as good as The Hunger Games, this book is still an excellent read and has only whetted my appetite for more.

If there’s one thing about about Suzanne Collins, it’s that she can spin a good yarn. Catching Fire is the sequel to Collins’s bestselling novel, The Hunger Games, which I found to be a great read—a bit shallow on the character development but excellent in plot development.

Catching Fire follows on from the ending of The Hunger Games and it’s not a standalone book. A few months have passed since Katniss returned home as a victor in The Hunger Games, and she’s trying to manage the consequences of her actions at the games.

She and fellow District 12 winner, Peeta, are due to start their Victory Tour, and she intends to pretend that she’s madly in love with Peeta, hoping to appease the Capitol—the central governement—that their act of rebellion in the games was due to love.

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The Family Farm by Fiona Palmer

The Family Farm’s blurb shows promise, but a slow plot and lacklustre romance make for a rather dull read.

I really, really wanted to like this book. I’m always on the lookout for good outback romances and at first glance The Family Farm fits the bill.

Isabelle Simpson returns to the family farm, eager to help her parents and show her father that she’s more than capable of managing the farm. But her father is convinced that farm life is too harsh for his remaining daughter, and this causes some conflict between then. When her father is hospitalised indefinitely, Isabelle surreptitiously takes over managing the farm.

Her father thinks their neighbour, Will Timmins, is in charge. For years Isabelle has blamed Will for her sister’s death, but gradually she learns the truth behind her sister’s tragedy and she discovers that Will has changed from the skirt-chasing prankster she knew as a child.

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Love Bites by Lynsay Sands (Argeneau Vampire, Book 2)

This guest review is courtesy of Buttercup, a self-confessed Lynsay Sands fan.

The story begins rather bleakly in a morgue where our hero, Etienne Argeneau, is lying on a metal table about to be examined by our heroine, coroner Rachel Garrett. She is feeling a little puzzled at her attraction for the good looking, but dead, guy. She feels even more puzzled when the corpse starts talking to her.

Etienne is not in fact dead—he is a vampire with a bullet in his chest. Unfortunately for Rachel, whoever killed Etienne follows him to the morgue and she is caught in the crossfire, and is mortally wounded. Etienne wakes up just in time and saves Rachel from death by biting her. This turns out to be a great sacrifice on Etienne’s part as vampires are bound by law to turn only one human in his lifetime, an honour usually reserved for a possible mate. He brings Rachel home and takes care of her while she is transitioning, and takes a softly, slowly approach in introducing Rachel to the world of vampires. Sometimes with hilarious results…

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First of all, a big congratulations to the winner of our Covet giveaway … *drumroll* … angela! To win, Angela had to tell us her deadliest sin, and this was her comment:

Greed…for we are all greedy to some extent but my greed extends from clothes to stationary to bags and especially books. I’ve been collecting books since i was 12, after feeling an intrinsic connection to the world of literature. My aim? To buy a house with rooms that can act as my bookshelf for my sizeable collection.

I think I’m guilty of that sin, too. Angela, your book is in the mail!

Moving on … I got this idea from Marg at The Adventures of an Intrepid Reader (formerly Reading Adventures). Dymocks recently conducted a survey of Australia’s favourite books, and here’s the top 101 list, annotated with my thoughts.

1 The Twilight Saga by Stephenie Meyer – read books 1 (reviewed) and 2

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Heartless by Tasma Walton

This fable about following your heart works wonders as a palate cleanser when you’re in the reading doldrums.

Yes, I bought Heartless because Tasma Walton is married to Rove and I saw her interview plugging the book. I also loved the cover and the blurb: ‘about the power of the human heart, the worthiness of its desires and the often dire consequences of ignoring them.’

I finally picked up Heartless after going through a bit of a reading slogfest, and it was perfect timing. I read it in less than a day and was left enchanted by Walton’s narrative voice.

The heroine, who narrates her story in the first person, is never named in the book. Her story unfolds as snapshots of her life every seven years. At seven, she has ‘a big, loud, red, dancing heart’, and it’s impossible not to be charmed by this exuberant, quirky girl with an imaginary friend and an irrepressible spirit.

But it’s not long before her heart endures the first of many sorrows.

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Goddess of the Hunt by Tessa Dare

A charming story of misguided love that goes the right way in the end.

Lucy Waltham has been in love with her brother’s friend Toby for ages, or so she thinks. He is about to be engaged to Sophie, who has been invited to their estate for their annual autumn hunting party. Lucy decides that she must take action and attempts to elicit the help of Jeremy, Earl of Kendall, another close family friend, with unexpected results.

At first, I did not like Lucy, the heroine. The first few chapters had me wanting to tear out her hair. Slowly though, as she grew as a character, I began to warm up to her. She wasn’t really a silly chit, just sheltered with the naivety of youth, the kind that in this day and age would write ILU 4EVER TOBY in a high school notebook. (God, I feel old.) Tessa Dare did an excellent job of developing the character throughout the book, and while Lucy may start out a bit silly, by the end of the book she has grown into a more mature, likeable person in a natural fashion. I think Dare does a great job of showing and not telling with the characters and how events shape them

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This month’s Mixed Bag features wildly different stories by Aussie authors, which have left me with…well, mixed reactions.

Liar by Justine Larbalestier

Liar by Justine Larbalestier

Micah Williams is a compulsive liar, and Liar is Michah’s attempt ‘to tell you my story…No lies, no omissions. That’s my promise.’ Zach, Micah’s friend, has gone missing and Micah’s story is a non-linear narration of events leading up to and following from Zach’s disappearance, interspersed with her family history.

You may have heard of this book due to the US cover controversy (a non-issue for Aussie readers because we got a different cover), but it’s  just as likely you’ve heard of it from the many great reviews it’s received. The praise is well deserved. Larbalestier has created an original and compelling if notoriously unreliable narrator in Micah—something the story depends on for its success.

If you know me at all, you know I almost always peek at a book’s ending. I have no problem with spoilers

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Take Me by Lucy Monroe (Langley Family, Book 3)

A well-paced drama from Wandergurl’s new favourite I-will- buy-everything-you-have-ever-written author.

When Jared, Viscount Ravenswood’s, housekeeper and childhood friend, Mary, dies she leaves him her daughter, Hannah. She makes him promise to introduce Hannah to Calantha, Duchess of Clairborne, whom she once served. Jared is reluctant to do so, as she is the widow of the evil man who raped Mary and sired the child. He has no way of knowing if she was aware of this act and has his doubts about this reclusive widow.

Calantha suffered an abusive past at the hands of her husband and generally keeps to herself, indulging her passion for roses. When she meets Jared and Hannah, though, things begin to change and she slowly comes out of her shell, just in time for romance to blossom.

Lucy Monroe is my new favourite I-will- buy-everything-you-have-ever-written author. (Thanks, @EloisaJames!) This book had excellent characterisation, from the back story to the use of dialogue, to reflect their personalities. My favourite

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Skykeepers by Jessica Andersen (Final Prophecy, Book 3)

This clearer, more streamlined instalment in the Final Prophecy series features a gutsy heroine and an angsty but decent hero.

Sasha always thought the prophesies that her dad, Mayanist Ambrose Ledbetter, talked about were a little bit nuts and nothing more than figments of his imagination, but when he suddenly disappears in the jungles of Central America she rushes off to find him.

In the process, she is kidnapped by the Order of Xibalba, who believe that she holds the key to finding an ancient library. She thinks they’re insane but when she is rescued by the Nightkeepers, a group descended from the original order created to prevent the end of the world, she is forced to think twice.

Michael Stone is a Nightkeeper with issues, issues, issues. He’s spent the last year trying to get away from his past, manage his growing Nightkeeper talents and keep control of his sort of psychotic dark side, which he calls The Other. Charged with finding Sacha

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Source: perfect gift 1 by lusi via stock.xchng

But first, a big congratulations to the winner of our Solace & Grief giveaway…*drumroll*…Mary Preston! To win, Mary had to tell us what mysterious door she’d like to open and where it would lead, and this was her comment:

My Grandmother had a back room we were never allowed to enter. It was kept locked & no-one would say why.  A solid old door locked with a key that lay heavily in my hand. As a child it was always a source  of intrigue for an overactive imagination. I think now it would just lead me to – the skeletons in the closet.

Mm, delicious! Mary, please send me your mailing address and I’ll post the book out to you.

For those who missed out, don’t forget that we’re giving away a copy of Covet by J. R. Ward (click on the link for details and Decadence’s excellent review of the book).

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