One choice can transform you, or destroy you. Every choice has consequences, and as unrest surges in the factions all around her, Tris Prior must continue trying to save those she loves, and herself, while grappling with haunting questions of grief and forgiveness, identity and loyalty, politics and love. – Goodreads description —— **WARNING:
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BOOK REVIEW | DIVERGENT – VERONICA ROTH
In Beatrice Prior’s dystopian Chicago world, society is divided into five factions, each dedicated to the cultivation of a particular virtue–Candor (the honest), Abnegation (the selfless), Dauntless (the brave), Amity (the peaceful), and Erudite (the intelligent). On an appointed day of every year, all sixteen-year-olds must select the faction to which they will devote
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BOOK REVIEW | THE NATURALS – JENNIFER LYNN BARNES
Seventeen-year-old Cassie is a natural at reading people. Piecing together the tiniest details, she can tell you who you are and what you want. But it’s not a skill that she’s ever taken seriously. That is, until the FBI come knocking: they’ve begun a classified program that uses exceptional teenagers to crack infamous cold
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BOOK REVIEW | CUPCAKES, TRINKETS, AND OTHER DEADLY MAGIC – MEGHAN CIANA DOIDGE
If you’d asked me a week ago, I would have told you that the best cupcakes were dark chocolate with chocolate cream cheese icing, that dancing in a crowd of magic wielders — the Adept — was better than sex, and that my life was peaceful and uneventful. Just the way I liked it.
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BOOK REVIEW | THE GRAVEYARD BOOK – NEIL GAIMAN
After the grisly murder of his entire family, a toddler wanders into a graveyard where the ghosts and other supernatural residents agree to raise him as one of their own. Nobody Owens, known to his friends as Bod, is a normal boy. He would be completely normal if he didn’t live in a sprawling
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BOOK REVIEW | AGENT 21: CODEBREAKER – CHRIS RYAN
Secret agent Zac Darke is back for his third mission – and the stakes have never been higher. An unknown bomber is conducting a terror campaign in London. After an explosion on the tube leaves someone dead, Zac and his team are brought in to try and work out how this terror cell
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BOOK REVIEW | FANGIRL – RAINBOW ROWELL
Cath is a Simon Snow fan. Okay, the whole world is a Simon Snow fan . . . But for Cath, being a fan is her life — and she’s really good at it. She and her twin sister, Wren, ensconced themselves in the Simon Snow series when they were just kids; it’s what
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BOOK REVIEW | THE BEGINNING OF EVERYTHING – ROBYN SCHNEIDER
Golden boy Ezra Faulkner believes everyone has a tragedy waiting for them—a single encounter after which everything that really matters will happen. His particular tragedy waited until he was primed to lose it all: in one spectacular night, a reckless driver shatters Ezra’s knee, his athletic career, and his social life. No longer a
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BOOK REVIEW | THIS SONG WILL SAVE YOUR LIFE – LEILA SALES
Making friends has never been Elise Dembowski’s strong suit. All throughout her life, she’s been the butt of every joke and the outsider in every conversation. When a final attempt at popularity fails, Elise nearly gives up. Then she stumbles upon a warehouse party where she meets Vicky, a girl in a band
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BOOK REVIEW | MORE TALES OF THE CITY – ARMISTEAD MAUPIN
The tenants of 28 Barbary Lane have fled their cozy nest for adventures far afield. Mary Ann Singleton finds love at sea with a forgetful stranger, Mona Ramsey discovers her doppelgänger in a desert whorehouse, and Michael Tolliver bumps into his favorite gynecologist in a Mexican bar. Meanwhile, their venerable landlady takes the
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BOOK REVIEW | AUSTENLAND – SHANNON HALE
Jane Hayes is a seemingly normal young New Yorker, but she has a secret. Her obsession with Mr. Darcy, as played by Colin Firth in the BBC adaptation of Pride and Prejudice, is ruining her love life: no real man can compare. But when a wealthy relative bequeaths her a trip to an English
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BOOK REVIEW | READY PLAYER ONE – ERNEST CLINE
Like most of humanity, Wade Watts escapes his grim surroundings by spending his waking hours jacked into the OASIS, a sprawling virtual utopia that lets you be anything you want to be, a place where you can live and play and fall in love on any of ten thousand planets. And like most of
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BOOK REVIEW | TALES OF THE CITY: A NOVEL – ARMISTEAD MAUPIN
“San Francisco, 1976. A naïve young secretary, fresh out of Cleveland, tumbles headlong into a brave new world of laundromat Lotharios, pot-growing landladies, cut throat debutantes, and Jockey Shorts dance contests. The saga that ensues is manic, romantic, tawdry, touching, and outrageous – unmistakably the handiwork of Armistead Maupin.” – Goodreads Description —— I
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BOOK REVIEW | SILVER LININGS PLAYBOOK – MATTHEW QUICK
Pat Peoples knows that life doesn’t always go according to plan, but he’s determined to get his back on track. After a stint in a psychiatric hospital, Pat is staying with his parents and trying to live according to his new philosophy: get fit, be nice and always look for the silver lining. Most
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BOOK REVIEW | GOING BOVINE – LIBBA BRAY
This is the story of a totally normal teenaged boy called Cameron. Cameron has a sister, two parents, enjoys quirky music and smoking up and eating pizza. Like most teenaged boys, Cameron’s biggest problems are not doing well in school, not getting along with (and frequently disappointing) his parents, not being able to find a
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BOOK REVIEW | GOOD OMENS – TERRY PRATCHETT AND NEIL GAIMAN
This book holds the dubious honour of being my all-time favourite. I generally hesitate to make such intense statements, fearing disappointment on the reader’s part if they find that the expectations I built up don’t measure up to the experience. In this case, I have no such reservations. —— It is the story of
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BOOK REVIEW | AGENT 21: RELOADED – CHRIS RYAN
This is the second book in the Zak Darke Agent 21 series (the first being, of course, Agent 21). Rather than struggle to sumarize the story for you I’m going to let Chris Ryan introduce you to the plot of the book: Sound exciting? It is. Like the first book in the
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BOOK REVIEW | BOY NOBODY – ALLEN ZADOFF
Boy Nobody is the story of a teenaged assassin. Yeah, you read right. Think Jason Bourne, but the early, early years. Like Bourne, Boy Nobody is trained to kill high-profile targets in such a manner that no one suspects that they didn’t die of natural causes. His typical modus operandi is to start at a
