Review: Wolfsbane by Andrea Cremer

Sorry for the long time between posts but I spent a few weeks in Europe with no internet connection which made it kind of hard to post! That and the fact that everytime I've finished a book lately there has been another awesome one begging me to pick it up as soon as possible. Finally one broke through this, my need to sing it's praise so strong! And that one was Nightshade's amazing sequel Wolfsbane.

    How many trials can love survive?
This thrilling sequel to the much-talked-about Nightshade begins just where it ended-Calla Tor wakes up in the lair of the Searchers, her sworn enemy, and she's certain her days are numbered. But then the Searchers make her an offer-one that gives her the chance to destroy her former masters and save the pack-and the man-she left behind. Is Ren worth the price of her freedom? And will Shay stand by her side no matter what? Now in control of her own destiny, Calla must decide which battles are worth fighting and how many trials true love can endure and still survive.
(Taken from the Nightshade website)

Let me say this, I have been waiting for months for the release of this book! Yes, I know everyone else who read Nightshade has been waiting anxiously for that long too, as you can't help but fall in love with it, but I swear my waiting has been slightly more violent than yours. Everytime I saw a tweet that someone else had an ARC of Wolsbane  I got practically homicidal! Luckily, most of those people lived in the US and as I'm in Australia are safely out of my reach. And even though it has felt like forever, left with that cliffhanger, it was well worth the wait.

In Nightshade I fell in love with the deep and intricate characters created by Andrea Cremer and in Wolfsbane not only was I introduced to a new a whole cast of new characters to love but some old favourites of mine were back. And bestill my nerdily beating heart if I haven't fallen in love with Silas.

The unique intensity and depth of the relationships I found in Nightshade was once again present in Wolfsbane making it a compelling read I couldn't get enough of. Usually with a love triangle I'm quick to pick a side and stick to it as I did with the first in this series. After Nightshade I was firmly Team Ren. Now, after finishing book two I'm still Tean Ren though there were points where I wavered a little.

And that ending! Ugh, yet another cliffhanger from the brilliant Andrea Cremer. I don't think I have ever had this much trouble waiting for a book! I honestly was naive enough to believe that reading the first chapter of what is going to be the third in this awesome series, Bloodrose, would help with the cliffhanger. But nope it just left me truly longing for more!

Without putting spoilers in here there isn't much else I can say as I really really really (!!) just want to go all "OMG I couldn't believe it when ..... happened!" and  "Did you see that coming? Did you?!?" and "*whistles lowly and fans self* Shay was so hot in that scene, you know the one ...." so if you've read Wolfsbane I seriously need someone to talk about it to!

Also, the winner for the City of Fallen Angel giveaway is...  Kamsajini Thillainathan! Please send me an email with your address to post it!

Laura

Signed City of Fallen Angels Giveaway!

In my mind there is one question that determines whether or not you're sane: Do you like Cassandra Clare's books?

If you answered no, get away from this blog. No, don't do that! I'm just kidding but this probably isn't the kind of giveaway for you. If you answered yes, you and I are going to get along awesomely.

For anyone unaware, Cassandra Clare's fourth The Mortal Instrument's book came out at the beginning of last month and since then she has been touring even making her eventual way all the way down under to Australia!

And of course as a massive Aussie fan of hers I went to a few of her Melbourne signings the last of which was her tour wrap up party!

The event was awesome and Cassie was so nice and did a great talk. Amongst all this fun, I made sure to get an extra copy of City of Fallen Angels signed so I could give it away to you guys!

So here's the deal:
- The giveaway is international, so where ever you live you can enter
- You must be a follower of the blog to enter
- 1+ entry for following on twitter
- 1+ entry for tweeting about this competition
- 2+ entries for blogging about this contest. If you don't have a blog facebook is included in this.

The giveaway will run for two weeks closing at midnight on Sunday the 12th of June Australian EST. To enter fill in this form.

And go! If you have any questions comment below and I'll do my best to answer!

Edited: Due to a complete lack of anyone entering this contest I'm extending the date to Friday the 24th of June.

In which I brag about giant runed cookies!

So, being the completely normal and un-book obsessed person that I am, the idea that I would ever make giant cookies with the runes from The Mortal Instruments book series is ludicrous. However, this is actually how I chose to spend my Saturday!  I mean, come on, I had to do something to fill in the time until Clockwork Prince or City of Lost Souls, and now that City of Fallen Angels is out and has been read by me the wait is stretching out before me!

So, being, aforementioned, normal, today I made giant, and I mean GIANT(!!!) cookies with chocolate chip runes!

As you can (kinda) see, there is Fearless in up the top, Equilibrium on the left and Angelic Power on the right!

                                                    And a little closer, Fearless.

And so you can see the actual GIANTNESS of the cookies! It's bigger than my head!

And here is a bigger Angelic Power!

And yes, I am this purely awesome! Yes the cookies tasted awesome! And yes I know you're jealous!

Now the only real question is will the Fearless runed cookie make me fearless? I'll let you know!

Laura 

Tempted By Tuesday: City of Fallen Angels by Cassandra Clare and Red Glove by Holly Black

So, I am well aware that a lot of people out there in the blogosphere do posts which they title 'Waiting on Wednesday' to celebrate new release books which all come out on Wednesdays. This doesn't work for me. Why? Well, I'm Australian. This means that while we have the same date as everyone else for us, these dates are on Tuesdays. Hence the new segment for this blog: Tempted by Tuesday!

And to kick it off, two books I absolutely can not wait for that are coming out Tuesday week. Cassie Clare', City of Fallen Angels  and  Holly Black's Red Glove. With just over a week to go until their release I am literally counting down the days (Only ten more sleeps!) and am like a kid waiting for Santa if Santa was either an arrogant blonde shadowhunter or an awesome curse worker. Actually no, I think I'm more excited than those little kids.

For those un-initiated these books are:

(I know this is the UK edition of Red Glove but it matches the copy of White Cat I have and I assume this is the copy we'll get here in Australia)

The day I found out Miss Clare was planning on writing more Mortal Instruments books was a truly happy day for me. It's one of those days you'll always remember what you were doing, like (if you're that old) the day man walked on the moon, or the day you find out that that video you watched of man walking on the moon was possibly a hoax. I was stalkin-* I mean researching authors (wink,wink) when I stumbled across this tidbit, while literally stumbling as I was walking and reading the website on my phone so not looking where I was going, that Cassandra Clare was going to write not one but, *gasp*, three more Mortal Instruments books!! My squeals could be heard by my friend who lives on the other side of the state and called me to ask what all the noise was about!

Since then I have been collecting all the excerpts and quotes released online by Miss Clare and even entered and won a competition on her blog to win a copy of City of Glass with a chapter of City of Fallen Angels which wasn't available in Australia. And of course when that book arrived I didn't stroke the cover while also murmuring "My pretty...".

As someone who is also a fan of Holly Black you can imagine my excitement when I found out the sequel to the phenomenal White Cat was coming out the same day. Of course this also started an internal dilemma. Which should I read first? I'm sure I'm not the only one with this problem though and if you've managed to come up with a solution let me know.

This problem was only made worse of course when I found out a friend of mine knows Miss Black and has already read Red Glove! The jealousy overtook me and I think I may have told her, in a purely joking fashion, that I hate her, too which her response was "You can't hate me, I'm too awesome!". And in that particular instant I had to agree. But what have you authors done to me?!? Driven me to hate those who are my friends? Ahh the jealousy is eating me from the inside out!

As you can see from the ranting, I may possibly be in love with either or both of these two lovely ladies! Therefore I was over mars (saying over the moon is cliche!) when I found out that Cassandra Clare would be coming here to Australia in May! I was a little sad that Holly isn't coming and found myself dreaming about it before waking up and gently weeping over the injustice into my pillow. Okay, I didn't weep. But I did dream it which may mean I need to see a therapist about my obsessions, anyway... I've already booked my place and am searching for my costume. Anyway who is Melbourne and wants to go all the details are here.
 I am tossing up between three solutions on how to decide which to read first:
                      1. Toss a coin.
                      2. Whichever I see first when I walk into the book store.
                      3. Jace Wayland and pure shadowhunter sexiness or Cassel and twisty cons and magic, which am I craving more?

I'm sorry to say this Holly Black, but if I go with option 3, the simple temptation of the Dirty Sexy Alley Scene will probably win me over! (If you haven't read the DSAS it can be found, along with all the other currently released quotes here.)

Laura

*Okay, yes, I stalk authors, I've said it before and I'll say it again. It's only in the least creepy way possible, all I know is blogs, twitters, home addresses, phone numbers, bank accounts and computer passwords so nothing really. Authors, you know those weird phone calls where you pick up there's some screaming and then the phone's hung up? It's me, my international phone call bill is astronomical.