Review: Winter Damage by Natasha Carthew

Title: Winter Damage
Author: Natasha Carthew
Genre: Young Adult, Adventure
Release Date: September, 2013 (Australia)
Source: Bloomsbury Sydney. Thank you!
Goodreads | The Reading Room

On a frozen Cornish moor, a fifteen-year-old girl lives in a trailer with her dad and little brother. Ennor's mother left years ago, when things started to go wrong - and gradually their world has fallen apart. Now her father's gravely ill, school has closed, and Ennor knows they're going to take her brother away if things don't pick up soon. So three days before Christmas, when the wind is cold and her dad's health takes a turn for the worse, Ennor packs a blanket, a map, a saucepan and a gun into her rucksack, and sets off to find her mum and bring her home. Ennor thinks she knows where she's going. But this journey will change her life for ever - it becomes a battle for survival, a heartbreaking story of love and friendship, and a fable about not finding what you were looking for, but finding something more important instead . . .

Review by Nara

Review: Me Before You by Jojo Moyes

Title: Me Before You
Author: Jojo Moyes
Genre: Adult, Contemporary Romance

Goodreads rating: 4.36 out of 5.00 (38, 970+ ratings)
Goodreads | The Book Depository |


Lou Clark knows lots of things. She knows how many footsteps there are between the bus stop and home. She knows she likes working in The Buttered Bun tea shop and she knows she might not love her boyfriend Patrick.

What Lou doesn't know is she's about to lose her job or that knowing what's coming is what keeps her sane.

Will Traynor knows his motorcycle accident took away his desire to live. He knows everything feels very small and rather joyless now and he knows exactly how he's going to put a stop to that.

What Will doesn't know is that Lou is about to burst into his world in a riot of colour. And neither of them knows they're going to change the other for all time.




Review by Chantelle

Discussion: Remembering...wait what was it again?

The other day, on the bus on the way home from uni, I asked Chantelle a very serious question. What was that question? It was:
Do you remember the last names of book characters?

OSR: The School for Good and Evil by Soman Chainani

Title: The School for Good and Evil
Author: Soman Chainani
Genre: Middle Grade, Fantasy
Goodreads | The Reading Room

This year, best friends Sophie and Agatha are about to discover where all the lost children go: the fabled School for Good & Evil, where ordinary boys and girls are trained to be fairy tale heroes and villains. As the most beautiful girl in Gavaldon, Sophie has dreamed of being kidnapped into an enchanted world her whole life. With her pink dresses, glass slippers, and devotion to good deeds, she knows she’ll earn top marks at the School for Good and graduate a storybook princess. Meanwhile Agatha, with her shapeless black frocks, wicked pet cat, and dislike of nearly everyone, seems a natural fit for the School for Evil.

But when the two girls are swept into the Endless Woods, they find their fortunes reversed—Sophie’s dumped in the School for Evil to take Uglification, Death Curses, and Henchmen Training, while Agatha finds herself in the School For Good, thrust amongst handsome princes and fair maidens for classes in Princess Etiquette and Animal Communication.. But what if the mistake is actually the first clue to discovering who Sophie and Agatha really are…?

The School for Good & Evil is an epic journey into a dazzling new world, where the only way out of a fairy tale is to live through one.

Review by Nara

Review: Chasing the Valley by Skye Melki-Wegner

Title: Chasing the Valley
Author: Skye Melki-Wegner
Genre: Young Adult, Fantasy
Source: Random House Australia. Thank you!
Goodreads | The Reading Room

Escape is impossible. Escape is their only hope.

Danika is used to struggling for survival. But when the tyrannous king launches an attack to punish her city – echoing the alchemy bombs that killed Danika’s family – she risks her life in a daring escape over the city’s walls.

Danika joins a crew of desperate refugees who seek Magnetic Valley, a legendary safe haven. But when she accidentally destroys a palace biplane, suddenly Danika Glynn becomes the most wanted fugitive in Taladia.

Pursued by the king’s vicious hunters and betrayed by false allies, Danika also grapples with her burgeoning magical abilities. And when she meets the mysterious Lukas, she must balance her feelings against her crew’s safety.

Chasing the Valley is the first book in an epic trilogy of magic, treachery and survival.

Review by Nara

[Tag] Seven Deadly Sins of Reading

So, for the Seven Deadly Sins of Reading tag, we were tagged by Cayce at Fighting Dreamer. Okay, technically not specifically tagged, because she tagged everyone, but still :P

Discussion: The awkward moment when...

Today, we're going to talk about the awkward moment when...hmm, actually, let me begin by telling you a little story. (Yay! Story time!)