Reading Wrap Up | May 2016

Another month has come and gone and I'm sat here wondering how we are already in June and how my birthday is in three days! I'm going to be eighteen!!!! Ahhh!!!!!!
Anyway, this month because of the amount of revision that I've been doing combined with the exams that I'm undertakening meant that I wasn't able to read that much. And I also entered a slight reading slump meaning that I didn't feel like reading. In total I read five books. I suppose it isn't that bad but I'd been doing so well that I thought I was going to be able to read so much more. All the books that I read in May were books sent to me to review so I've given them my honest review.
Anyway, let's get started.

Passenger, by Alexandra Bracken
passage, n.
i. A brief section of music composed of a series of notes and flourishes.
ii. A journey by water; a voyage.
iii. The transition from one place to another, across space and time.

In one devastating night, violin prodigy Etta Spencer loses everything she knows and loves. Thrust into an unfamiliar world by a stranger with a dangerous agenda, Etta is certain of only one thing: she has traveled not just miles but years from home. And she’s inherited a legacy she knows nothing about from a family whose existence she’s never heard of. Until now.

Nicholas Carter is content with his life at sea, free from the Ironwoods—a powerful family in the colonies—and the servitude he’s known at their hands. But with the arrival of an unusual passenger on his ship comes the insistent pull of the past that he can’t escape and the family that won’t let him go so easily. Now the Ironwoods are searching for a stolen object of untold value, one they believe only Etta, Nicholas’ passenger, can find. In order to protect her, he must ensure she brings it back to them— whether she wants to or not.

Together, Etta and Nicholas embark on a perilous journey across centuries and continents, piecing together clues left behind by the traveler who will do anything to keep the object out of the Ironwoods’ grasp. But as they get closer to the truth of their search, and the deadly game the Ironwoods are play­ing, treacherous forces threaten to sep­arate Etta not only from Nicholas but from her path home . . . forever

I was sent this book by Hachette Children's Group and I really enjoyed it; enjoyed it far more than I thought I would. It was such a unique read; like nothing I've ever read before. If you want to read my full opinion about it then please feel free to check out my review and you will see why I gave it ****

Risuko: A Kunoichi Tale, by David Kulder 
Can one girl win a war?
My name is Kano Murasaki, but most people call me Risuko. Squirrel.
I am from Serenity Province, though I was not born there.
My nation has been at war for a hundred years, Serenity is under attack, my family is in disgrace, but some people think that I can bring victory. That I can be a very special kind of woman.
All I want to do is climb.
My name is Kano Murasaki, but everyone calls me Squirrel.

Risuko.

Though Japan has been devastated by a century of civil war, Risuko just wants to climb trees. Growing up far from the battlefields and court intrigues, the fatherless girl finds herself pulled into a plot that may reunite Japan -- or may destroy it. She is torn from her home and what is left of her family, but finds new friends at a school that may not be what it seems. 

Magical but historical, Risuko follows her along the first dangerous steps to discovering who she truly is.

Kano Murasaki, called Risuko (Squirrel) is a young, fatherless girl, more comfortable climbing trees than down on the ground. Yet she finds herself enmeshed in a game where the board is the whole nation of Japan, where the pieces are armies, moved by scheming lords, and a single girl couldn't possibly have the power to change the outcome. Or could she?

This Middle Grade novel was sent to me by Independant Book Publishers and surprisingly I really enjoyed it. It gave me an in look into the lives of people in Japan during the time of the Samurai. I'm not sure how accurate it is historically but it does have an enjoyable storyline and some realistic events were addressed such as periods; something that is never addressed in this style of novel. Overall. it wasn't perfect but it was sweet ****

The Glass Castle, by Trisha White Priebe 
The king is growing old and is concerned about who will replace him. His new wife wants to produce an heir to the throne.  The only problem? Thirteen years ago, the king’s first wife gave birth to a son, and no one knows for sure what happened to him. Rumors swirl throughout the castle. The solution as simple: dispose of all the thirteen-year-olds in the kingdom. Except, it isn’t that easy. Avery and her friends won’t go quietly.   Avery, Kate, Tuck, and Kendrick take charge of the underground network of kidnapped children, inspiring them to believe that their past does not dictate their future and pledging to do the hardest thing of all. . .reunite the children with the homes they left behind.  When they discover that one among them might be the child of a man who wants them dead, will everything they work for be lost?

Another book I was sent to review, this time by Barbour Publishing. This book was nothing like its blurb said it would be. The writing was poor and the plot went everywhere except where it was supposed it. It was awful, hence why I gave it *

Dairy of Anna the Girl Witch: The Foundling Witch, by Max Candee 
What do you do when you discover you’re a witch... And that using your new powers destroys your soul a little each time? 

Set in the Swiss countryside, this story blends ancient folklore with a coming of age tale about a young witch on the brink of womanhood. 
Anna Sophia has always known she was different. She didn’t know just how different until now. 

On the eve of her 13th birthday — in the orphanage where she’s spent most of her childhood — Anna wonders about her past. She never knew her parents, doesn’t even know where she came from. All she has to go by is an unbelievable fairy tale her uncle used to tell: that she was found as a baby, tucked among a pack of bear cubs in the wilds of Russia. 
To make matters even more complex, Anna has discovered that she can see and do things that no one else can. So far, she’s kept her powers a secret, and they remain strange and frightening even to her. 

It’s only when Anna receives a letter from her mother — a mother she will never meet — that she discovers some of the truths about her past, and begins to uncover the possibilities in her future. As Anna continues to learn more about her secret abilities, she finds out that her neighbors are hiding something of their own: a plot to harm Anna and her friends. 

Can Anna Sophia use her newfound supernatural powers to stop them? Can she fight back, without endangering her own soul? And maybe, just maybe, is her own secret tied up with theirs?

This book was sent to me by Independent Books. I liked it. it was sweet but it wasn't perfect. There were several plot points that were washed over a bit too quickly and the voice felt younger than thirteen but other than that it was sweet. Hence why I gave it ***

The Girl of Myth and Legend, by Giselle Simlett 
A girl with a past she tries to forget, and a future she can’t even imagine.

Leonie Woodville wants to live an unremarkable life. She wants routine, she wants repetition, she wants predictability. So when she explodes in a blaze of light one morning on the way to her college, it’s enough to put a real crimp in her day.
And things only get weirder…
Leonie learns from her father that she is last of the Pulsar, a phenomenally powerful member of a magical species called the Chosen. It will be her sole duty to protect the Imperium, a governing hierarchy, from all enemies, and to exceed the reputation of the Pulsar before her. So – no pressure there, then.

Leonie is swept away from her rigorous normality and taken to a world of magic. There, she is forced into a ceremony to join her soul to a guardian, Korren, who is both incredibly handsome and intensely troubled, a relationship for which ‘it’s complicated’ just really doesn’t cut it.

But Leonie is soon to learn that this ancient world is no paradise. With violent dissidents intent to overthrow the Imperium, and dark entities with their own agenda, she and Korren find themselves caught in a war where they will have to overcome their differences if they are to survive.

The final book I read this month was sent to me by Independent Books and I hated it. I read the first two chapters and DNFed it (did not finish). It sounded so amazing but there was something about it that just bored me. In fact I think it put me in my reading slump. Hence why I gave it *

And that was it, everything that I read in the month of may. How did your reading month go?

-IAMAGEEKINGGINGER!
Book Total of 2016 - 40
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