The Stone Rose

Title: The Stone Rose
Author: Jacqueline Rayner
Genre: Sci-fi
Rating: 5/5
Cover: 6/10

WHY wasn't this filmed?? Ultimate Rose/Doctor episode ever. 

And it has all the stuff we love the most about Doctor Who: crazy aliens, impossible situations, lots of humour, and the best of all... it takes place in Classical Rome. Picture The Fires of Pompeii, take away Donna and put Rose in her place, and add a hell of a lot of Doctor sass, and you have The Stone Rose.

And when I say it would have been the ultimate Rose/Doctor episode, I mean it. The Stone Rose is like a mix of Tooth & Claw, The Idiot's Lantern, The Impossible Planet, Satan's Pit and Army of Ghosts, all rolled into one beautiful package of Doctor/Rose cuteness. The Doctor is worried and possessive. Rose is teasing and flirty. And yes, there is kissing.

This is what feeds those NC17 fanfictions out there. Amazing. Fantastic. Allons-y!

And if all that wasn't enough to convince you to read it, how about this: the audiobook is read by David Tennant in his Scottish accent ;)

The Mayan Prophecy

Title: The Mayan Prophecy (TimeRiders #8)
Author: Alex Scarrow
Genre: Sci-fi
Rating: 4/5
Cover: 7/10

A little bit of a confusing start (my own fault for insisting on starting a series on book 8), but all that was quickly forgotten when the story took off. And boy, did it take off.

Hidden messages in the holy grail are only the tip of the iceberg of awesome that was this book. The whole 'Windrunners' thing created such a knot in my head, that I didn't even see the next twist coming. The switching between narrators, far from making it even more complicated, only added to the book, and allowed me to understand a bit more of what was going on, and why.

Adam's character intrigued me, and I have a feeling, considering his involvement, that this isn't the last we'll hear of him, which I'm happy about. Maybe it's just because he was the newest character to the series, but I really liked him and his personality.

And wow... that ending! Chilling (in the best way possible).

Definitely worth a read! (though I'd start with book 1, which I have already bought...)

Thief

Title: Thief (Love me with Lies #3)
Author: Tarryn Fisher
Genre: Adult
Rating: 5/5
Cover: 8/10 (seems fitting, as Caleb seems to have spent 1/3 of the book shirtless, ahem)


Jesus. F*cking. Christ.
The second I saw this book was out, I knew is was in for a long night. Five hours later, I can safely say... what. the. hell?

The thing about Thief, though, is that throughout the entire book, you just know that Caleb is going to fight for Olivia. So, no repeats of that god-awfully painful ending to The Opportunist, which ripped my heart to shreds; no goddamn bomb like the end of Dirty Red. So you'd think the pain factor would be smaller, right?
God, no.
Olivia... there's this one scene, towards the end of the book, when she bitchslaps Leah (which I absolutely loved, and have to say - long time coming, that was), when I remembered why I loved her so much in The Opportunist. The girl is feisty, she doesn't take shit from no one, and she doesn't hold back at all. But oh my god, I wanted to strangle her so much. I can't blame her for marrying Noah (though I'm seriously done with him. I really liked him, too...), and I appreciate that for the longest time, her relationship with Caleb wasn't actually cheating. Still, it was cheating emotionally, even though it kind of just felt like Noah got what he deserved (he even admitted it, ffs!), it still wasn't cool.
Caleb... ugh. Stupid, stupid, gullible man. No wonder Leah and Olivia jerk him around so much. The poor bastard knows shit-all about women. His one redeeming quality (which kind of got lost along the way when he married Leah and dated Jessica, but we don't talk about that) is that he loves Olivia so much, I actually think it's unhealthy. I'm still trying to reconcile gentle, sweet, caring and patient Caleb to the dude who is apparently into bondage and read Fifty Shades of Grey (I actually thought that was a reference to Jane Eyre, by the way, until he mentioned Fifty. That's how clueless I was about his kinky preferences).
Leah, to quote Olivia, is the "same stupid slut" as before. Nuff said. (strangling desires amped up to maximum here. I seriously could NOT believe this woman. The bitch is crazy.)
It's easy to understand why it's called Thief, though I'm not sure that's quite the right word, considering...

In short: read it. You know you want to. Because once you've heard Olivia's side of the story, these books become what Olivia and Caleb's love for each other is: codependent and totally unhealthy. And we - just like them - fucking love it.

Thief Blurb

It's been a while coming, but the blurb for Tarryn Fisher's third and final book in The Opportunist trilogy, Thief, is finally here:

Now that we've been assure Caleb will fight for Olivia, let's get down to the good stuff: word on the street is that Thief will be released some time next week, so keep your eyes peeled for it. Ms Fisher has been dropping hints left, right and centre, telling everyone to get their re-reads done now. So, if you need to refresh your memory, now's the time to do it.

For any of you new to The Opportunist, you can read my review of the first book of the same name here.

J.K. Rowling's Pseudonym

Yes, you read that right.
Remember, this is not the 1st of April, so I have no reason to be pulling one over you. And trust me, this is very much real news. J. K. Rowling, acclaimed author the Harry Potter series, published a crime novel by the name of The Cuckoo's Calling under the pseudonym of Robert Galbraith in April this year.
Rowling, who published her allegedly first adult novel, The Casual Vacancy last year, has confirmed the claims. The Cuckoo's Calling has, quite differently from The Casual Vacancy, done incredibly well - apparently a little too well, as quite a few reviews seemed sure it would turn out to be written by an incredibly famous author; if only they'd known! The Casual Vacancy sold well, but mostly received mixed reviews - in large part thanks to constant comparisons to the Potter books, as I commented here.

Here is the blurb of The Cuckoo's Calling for any of you interested:

"A brilliant debut mystery in a classic vein: Detective Cormoran Strike investigates a supermodel's suicide. After losing his leg to a land mine in Afghanistan, Cormoran Strike is barely scraping by as a private investigator. Strike is down to one client, and creditors are calling. He has also just broken up with his longtime girlfriend and is living in his office.

Then John Bristow walks through his door with an amazing story: His sister, thelegendary supermodel Lula Landry, known to her friends as the Cuckoo, famously fell to her death a few months earlier. The police ruled it a suicide, but John refuses to believe that. The case plunges Strike into the world of multimillionaire beauties, rock-star boyfriends, and desperate designers, and it introduces him to every variety of pleasure, enticement, seduction, and delusion known to man.

You may think you know detectives, but you've never met one quite like Strike. You may think you know about the wealthy and famous, but you've never seen them under an investigation like this."

Cover Love: The Bride Wore Size 12

It's been a while since this particular lady writer has made an appearance on this blog, but it's that time again - Heather Wells and Cooper are back in September, and wedding bells are ringing...

Here's the blurb and cover for Meg Cabot's latest Heather Wells mystery, out 24th September.

"Heather Wells is used to having her cake and eating it too, but this time her cake just might be cooked.Her wedding cake, that is.

With her upcoming nuptials to PI Cooper Cartwright only weeks away, Heather's already stressed. And when a pretty junior turns up dead, Heather's sure things can't get worse—until every student in the dorm where she works is a possible suspect, and Heather's long-lost mother shows up.

Heather has no time for a tearful mother and bride reunion. She has a wedding to pull off and a murder to solve. Instead of wedding bells, she might be hearing wedding bullets, but she's determined to bring the bad guys to justice if it's the last thing she does . . . and this time, it just might be."

The Great Gatsby

Title: The Great Gatsby

Author: F. Scott Fitzgerald

Rating: 4/5

Cover: (way too many. I do like the Penguin Classics edition one, though. Hate the original blue one)

With all the hype surrounding Gatsby because of the movie (and, let's face it, DiCaprio), reading Gatsby took me completely by surprise. 

I'm not sure what it was, exactly, that I was expecting, but whatever it was... it definitely wasn't what I got

Fitzgerald creates believable, flawed characters that, despite our misgivings, we can't help but fall in love with. In a clear light, Gatsby is an obsessed, dangerous man who uses his illegally earned money to throw huge parties. But the view presented to us of Gatsby by Nick is that of a lovesick man, who wants nothing more than to be loved by the woman of his dreams. And we can all relate, on different levels, with that kind of unrequited love.

Even more interesting are the other characters, as well as Fitzgerald's narrator choice. When you read the title, you instantly think that the book will be narrated by Gatsby, or at least have him introduced immediately. But the book does neither, and that is the first hint that nothing about this book is what it seems. 

Fitzgerald played smartly with the conventions of a society used to debauchery, and showed us, without ever actually saying he was doing so, the dark side of love. Reading Gatsby, it's easy to understand why Fitzgerald described the 20s as the 'biggest orgy in the world'. 

Gatsby is delicious, enticing, sad and frustrating. A definite must-read.

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