I loved that someone would write essays about my favourite YA ! All the people who are disappointed just do not like reading essays.

(I received a copy by the author in return for an honest review)

I love dystopian fiction, I really do. I also love kickass heroines.

So this book is voted similar to the hunger games, yeah, I get:
- kickass heroine from a poor environment
- she's got a little sister she wants to protect
- not that fond of her mother (compared to her father)
- layers of realms divided into many small supchapters and so on..

But I preferred this one compared to the hunger games. David (the amazing author) has really created something EPIC here. It's amazing. Truly. And very true to the dystopian genre. Well done David, well done..

The characters are likeable, the world is constructed well and there is this amazing mystery going on which keeps the reader glued from beginning to end. What the heck is going on? Why the bombing? Why the weird headaches? What does the note mean? WHAT????! (I am so reading the next book!)

I'm adding this to my favourite shelf.

Spoiler below!!!!!!

How I loved they didn't kiss!

(I received a free copy in order to give an honest review)

The secret willow lane is about the curiosity of children. Jessie and her best friend Tina loves mysteries and one day they decide to solve one. However, as the find out, it can be dangerous and most people want to keep their secrets hidden, and they will do anything in order to do so.

The flow and rhythm of the story is fast paced and never boring, it really captures the reader. The language is easy and there's no annoying children's language as there sometimes is when kids are the narrators of stories. I liked the historical fact of Scandinavians' migration to the us. Being a Dane myself some of my ancestors migrated there :)

It was very enjoyable. I will read it for my siblings when they are old enough for English!

I received this book for an honest review.

I really liked the idea of this book, especially the blogging form of it.

So much happened within the last 5-7 % of this book that is just did not make any sense.
It is very, VERY, short. A novella. 62 pages, so I get that there isn't room for everything yet suddenly almost every supernatural being is her new friends, and then she meets a hot guy, that she has been dreaming off on the last pages. And they got her brother? Well, clearly there are rules and whatnot, and teacher for the rule breakers. Clearly she isn't alone? And there is a council? And clearly the teachers or the principal should have noticed that somebody started turning all the young boys..

It needs work, and then I think it can be good.

Alexis can hear people's 'thought/decisions' and one day a killer's thought pops into her mind. But she cannot help the poor victim, who would believe her?
Suddenly she finds her life entangled with witches, ghosts, and a horrible accidents she has long forgotten..

I really liked this book. It was a quick and easy read. I spent 2.5 hours reading it.

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What I disliked:
- I thought it was too fast at some points. I would have wanted it to be longer and more details. I know this is book number 1 in the series, however, I just think book number one would benefit from being longer.
- I always hate when the love starts too early in the book, and it did in this one.
- And we kinda knew Chance was special when she met him at the beach, too early as well, in my opinion.
- And Alex's mother doesn't realise her other daughter has been gone for a day? wtf?!

What I liked:
- Easy language
- Likeable characters. I prefer Gabriel.
- Chance got some issues such as been terribly in love with the girl who 'killed' him when she was four.

I am looking forward to the next instalments.

I was so fortunate to receive a copy for review.

One for: AMAZING!
This is a wonderful quick adorable retelling of the classic tale of the Beauty and the Beast.

1 Star: The characters are likeable! Will is adorable and lovely annoying in the beginning.
2 Stars: Fairy tale elements. I LOVED the Fey Lands and how dangerous these magical beings really are. And I loved the fact that there was a stepmom and two stepsisters.
3 Stars: Their love doesn't develop that quickly. I hate when that happens
4 Stars: I love old fashioned boys so Will was spot on for me!
5 Stars: I never really liked the Beauty and the Beast, but I really like this version.

-1 star: WHY ISNT THERE MORE? THIS COULD BE EVEN MORE AMAZING if it was longer!
+ 1 star: the general magic of the house!

= total of 5 stars!

After reading the first chapter of this book I was left with one impression: WTF just happened?
It was so confusing, and the characters cutting the dialogue off all the time. Who is speaking when?
Further in it got okay... But I still do not really now what it was about.. Some people on a boat on a river. Then there were some tribe folk, and a preacher man.. Ah ha..

It was a good story, but it just leaves me rather mad because I could have used my time reading something else. I still do not know what the point was with this story which is rather sad..

Fifteen-year-old Chela Prizeon wants to save her brother, and in doing so she gets mixed up with fallen angels, good guys and bad guys.

I loved this book! I loved loved loved it! The whole universe that is created is amazing, and how everything works such as the political business, occupations, the abilities various people possesses. It is just so amazing!

For once I did not dislike the main character! It is a fault in me to almost always hate the main character but yet I did not :D ! And I loved that there were 3 guys around, and not only one guy.

I basically loved everything. I am so happy about this book I cannot stop saying that I loved it! :D

One minor negative error I found was the missing "'s when some of the conversations began or ended..

Looking forward to be reading the next two books in this series!

Review by: Hald Reviews

`I had been making the rounds of the Sacrifice Poles the day we heard my brother had escaped. I already knew something was going to happen; the Factory told me.' Quote from the book.

'The Wasp Factory' is Iain Bank's debut novel and it is by all means not for the faint-hearted! The 16-year-old narrator Frank lives on a remote Scottish island with his father, where he spends his leisure time torturing animals. The novel is considered an attack on the romanticised peaceful Scotland as Frank disturbs this peace by flooding and blowing up animal habitats, murdering people, and engages in perverse, almost religious, rituals with the `Wasp Factory'. A torture chamber for wasps, that guides him through life. The novel is a gothic bildungsroman as we follow the events surrounding Frank.

Mr Banks keeps the readers caught at the very first line, as quoted above, several things are going on. Using his wit Banks has created a narration so gruesomely detailed as it is comically evoking. Creating a thoroughly psychopathic character that the readers come to like, even sympathise and empathise with him, when he wilfully murders younger members of his family and tortures animals, is quite the trick.

It is a brilliant page-turner, and we are left fearing what happens next. With an outstanding unpredictable ending, this book will stay with you long after the last sentence. I urge you to pick this book up, you will not regret it.

Review by: Hald Reviews ([...])