Stacking the Shelves and Showcase Sunday (14)

Stacking the Shelves is hosted by Tynga's Reviews. Showcase Sunday is hosted by Books, Biscuits and Tea.

These memes are a replacement of The Story Siren's In My Mailbox.

Stacking the Shelves and Showcase Sunday make a place to showcase your new books,

whether you obtained them through the post or otherwise.

I'm impressed with myself this week - I didn't buy any books at all - that has to be a first! I was sent some fantastic books this week though, which I'm very grateful for. I am very surprised with all of the fantastic copies of ARCS and other review books that I received this week. I never expected to get so many - though that's certainly not a complaint - I am going to be kept very busy! I received The City's Son, Shadows (I haven't read Ashes yet, but I will definitely read it very soon - sounds amazing!), Eighty Days Yellow, The Half Life of Ryan Davis (I love the sound of this and love the cover!), The Ghosts of Young Nick's Head (Fabulous title!), Furt Bent From Aldaheit, High Speed, Soul Beach and Soul Fire!

What did you get this week?

Torn

Torn by David Massey

Paperback, 259 pages

Published 2nd August 2012 by Chicken House

My shelves: arc-or-review, books-i-own, cover-appeal, historical, read-in-2012, realistic-fiction, to-be-reviewed, young-adult

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Description via Goodreads:

Afghanistan. In the heat and dust, young British army medic Elinor Nielson watches an Afghan girl walk into a hail of bullets. But when she runs to help, Ellie finds her gone. Who is she? And what's happened to her? What Ellie discovers makes her question everything she believes in, even her feelings for the American lieutenant who takes her side.

Buy this book:

The Book Depository / Amazon (US/INT) / Amazon UK

My thanks go to Chicken House for sending me this book in exchange for an honest review.

As soon as I saw the cover for Torn, I knew that I had to read it. I absolutely adore the cover and anything about war really intrigues me. The lovely people at Chicken House provided me with a review copy. As soon as it landed in my postbox, it was taken and put on the top of my reading pile. I was very, very, very eager to pick this one up!

Torn was a good read. The writing was enjoyable and accessible and the story was certainly not boring. I personally have an issue where I like to hype myself up for books and so I have great expectations - I think that may have been the case with this book - though I did enjoy it, I felt that it was lacking a certain something. I can't actually pick out what this book was lacking in, but it didn't pack a massive punch for me and so I don't think this will be a story that will stay with me for a long time. 

I thought that Massey did a absolutely wonderful job of introducing us to the war front of Afghanistan - in simple yet effective and descriptive terms, he introduced us to a foreign an very different land compared to the reasonably safe one that most of us live in. Though the beginning of the book wasn't exactly fast paced, for me it was the most impressive part of the book and it gave us a good introduction to Ellie, our main character who is starting out as an army medic.

Most of the characters in Torn were well formed and played good parts. Though it wasn't explicitly written, the emotional trouble of both the soldiers and the civilians in Afghanistan was portrayed quite well. We were introduced to some rather interesting characters. For me, the relationship between Ellie and a child prisoner of war, Husna, was certainly the most effective. However, I also enjoyed reading about Heidi, Ellie's colleague, trying to figure out more about her and what she'd do next - even if she did irritate me at points! I also liked reading about Ellie's friendship with Chip and Yugi. I wasn't all that bothered about the romantic side to this story - it didn't feel all that natural and it was a bit rushed for my liking - against the backdrop of war, it just didn't feel right nor did it seem entertaining. 

Learning about the war in Afghanistan was intriguing, but to be honest it was all a little bit too political for me - I understand that war is certainly a political thing, but the politics of it felt a little forced upon me in this book. I found the story of the child soldiers and the mysterious little girl to be very interesting, but the story behind it did get a little too political for me - I do think that some people will enjoy the political aspect, especially as it throws some mystery into the book, but I personally didn't.

Overall, Torn was a good, interesting book. It is certainly different to many of the other choices of Young Adult books out there and I'm glad that Massey decided to approach the subject of war as it's certainly something to be written about! I will look forward to more work by Massey in the future and I hope to read more books about this subject, too!

From the Review Pile (14)

 From the Review Pile is a meme hosted by Stepping Out of the Page every Thursday.

The aim of this meme is to showcase books that you've received for review (or if you don't receive review books, any book that you own and really want to read/review) but haven't yet got around to reading, in order to give the book some extra publicity.

I know that a lot of you have a huge pile of books that you want to read/review, but it understandably takes a while to get around to reading them all - here you can give a book (or two!) some of the publicity that it deserves, even if you haven't read it yet!

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This week, I'm going to showcase Cold Hands, Warm Heart!

This book sounds right up my street! I absolutely love the sound of it - it sounds so interesting. I can't wait until I have some spare time to actually get around to this one and read it. It sounds so full of emotion and that's what I love most in books.

Cold Hands, Warm Heart by Jill Wolfson

Paperback

Published 1st November 2011 by Walker Books

Dani was born with her heart on the wrong side of her body. In her fifteen years of life, she's had more doctor's appointments, X-rays, and tests, and eaten more green hospital Jell-O than she cares to think about. Fourteen-year-old Amanda is a competitive gymnast, her body a small package of sleek muscles, in perfect health. The two girls don't know each other, don't go to the same school, don't have any friends in common. But their lives are about to collide. Acclaimed author Jill Wolfson tackles this fascinating story with her trademark honesty and wit.

666 Park Avenue (666 Park Avenue #1)

666 Park Avenue (666 Park Avenue #1) by Gabriella Pierce

Paperback, 336 pages

Published 2nd August 2012 by Constable & Robinson

My shelves: adult-fiction, arc-or-review, better-than-expected, books-i-own, chick-lit, cover-appeal, currently-reading, magic, magical-realism, read-in-2012, series-or-companions

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Description via Goodreads:

Jane thought she was living a fairy tale. Now she has to contend with burgeoning magical powers and a soon-to-be mother-in-law who is a witch ... literally Welcome to New York City, where the socialites are witches.

Jane Boyle has been living a fairy tale. When her boyfriend Malcolm proposes, Jane can't believe her luck and decides to leave her Paris-based job as a fledgling architect and make a new start with him in New York. But when Malcolm introduces Jane to the esteemed Doran clan, one of Manhattan's most feared and revered families, Jane's fairy tale takes a darker turn. Now Jane must struggle with newfound magical abilities and the threat of those who will stop at nothing to get them.

Welcome to 666 Park Avenue...

Buy this book:

The Book Depository / Amazon (US/INT) / Amazon UK

My thanks go to Constable & Robinson for sending me this book in exchange for an honest review.

Before I was asked if I'd like a copy of 666 Park Avenue for review, I had never heard of the book. Thankfully, I was introduced to this very interesting, contemporary book series and I'm happy to see more people reading it. This book deserves a whole load of popularity - it's fun, it's captivating and it's truly addictive! This is a new, exciting trilogy and is definitely something to keep your eye on!

The first instalment in this trilogy introduces us to Jane Boyle, a young woman living in France who is quickly swept off her feet by a very well-off american man named Malcolm Doran. Unfortunately, not everything is as perfect as it first appears - when visiting her caring grandmother to tell her the news, she discovers her dead, leaving behind only a note and a powerful ring which opens up a world of magic and witchcraft. When Jane and Malcolm arrive in New York City, lots of strange things begin to happen and she realises that she's not the only one who holds supernatural powers. It was very interesting to see  how things unfolded in this book and the discoveries were fascinating. I also really enjoyed seeing how Jane adapted to her new-found powers. Though this an easy to read, chick-lit type book, I thought that the magical plot was very impressive.

I really liked Jane - it was easy to relate with her and to sympathise with her. I think that most people will find it easy to put themselves in her shoes whilst reading this book. I did find her to be a little bit of a pushover at times, but thankfully she did stand up for herself at points. I can't really blame her for being a pushover when it came to her mother-in-law to be, Lynne, though as she was really quite terrifying! The Doran family are an extremely complicated bunch, and I can't wait to get to learn even more about them in the next two books. I really loved meeting all of the members of their clan (however awful they were!) and seeing how they interacted with both Jane and each other member of the family. Without giving too much away, I particularly loved  reading about the issues of Malcolm and his siblings. 

This was different to many other paranormal books that I've read. This book is aimed towards the adult market, rather than young adult but it could be easily be enjoyed by either of these age groups. Though 666 Park Avenue certainly does have a main paranormal element to it, it is also a quite contemporary book and will be enjoyed by those who like chick-lit. I think that this would be an ideal book to give to someone who usually reads realistic fiction but who is willing to give paranormal a try, or vice versa. I think that it's fantastic that there's a book to bridge this gap. I really enjoyed this book and I am very excited to progress onto the second in this trilogy!