All Posts By

Lucy Powrie

Book Review

REVIEW: Crown of Midnight by Sarah J. Maas

If you’d told me a few months ago that Crown of Midnight would be even better than Throne of Glass, I wouldn’t have believed you. Throne of Glass has been a firm favourite of mine since I read it and so I didn’t know anything could surpass it. But, obviously, Crown of Midnight did.

Crown of Midnight starts a little bit ahead of where Throne of Glass let off and we’re instantly brought back to Erilea and the life of our heroine, Celaena Sardothien. Following on from the events of Throne of Glass, Celaena is working harder than ever.

It was so easy to immerse myself in the world that Maas has created. The world building is so thorough and in-depth that it’s easy to think that you are actually living in Erilea. Imagine my disappointment when I lifted my head up to find that I was sat in my living room!

Celaena is as kick ass as ever and she’s definitely one of my favourite female protagonists ever. In this novel, we really get a sense of who she is and also learn a lot about her life before Endovier and the castle. I think this novel is really important to her character development. I wish I had read the novellas before reading this, but I’m going to be putting the time in now to catch up with them because I’d really like to know more about Celaena’s life before Endovier.

This book sees a lot of the love triangle that we saw hints of in Throne of Glass, and Celaena does make a decision. This book certainly sees a lot of heartbreak! At times I could feel myself wanting to shake the book because some of the scenes were so destroying. For both teams, actually.

The plot has been so carefully created that everything flows at just the right pace. I can’t fault Maas’ timing and precision because everything was perfect.

Crown of Midnight has left me wanting more of the amazing writing, the fantastic characters, and the action-packed and gripping plot lines. It really is going to be torturing waiting another year for the next book.

Book Haul

Letterbox Love (18)

Letterbox Love

Letterbox Love is a UK based feature where book bloggers showcase the books that they received that week, be they e-books, paperbacks, hardbacks or any other format. It is hosted by Lynsey from Narratively Speaking.

This is my book haul for the past three weeks because I was busy moving to WordPress and posting my UKYA fortnight posts. I counted how many books I got and it totals 21…Maybe I need to go on a book-buying ban soon. I think so!

Bought:

book haul 2-8-2013 001

Walking Disaster by Jamie McGuire- So I went to The Works on Friday and picked this up. There was this huge controversy surrounding it a few months ago (it probably wasn’t that long ago) and so it caught my attention then and it does sound really good.

Hallowed by Cynthia Hand- I didn’t enjoy Unearthly that much but I couldn’t resist this when I saw it.

Poison Study by Maria V. Snyder- This is extremely naughty of me to buy because I already have it on my Kindle to read but it sounds so good and I’m more likely to read it if it’s sat in front of me.

Poison Heart by S.B. Hayes- I don’t think I’ve heard of this one before but it’s got me intrigued and so I’m crossing my fingers I’ll enjoy it.

book haul 2-8-2013 002

Dead Jealous by Sharon Jones- I’ve wanted to read this one for a while now because I’m trying to read more thriller/crime-y novels. It’s UKYA, too!

Burn for Burn by Jenny Han and Siobhan Vivian- I saw Amber’s tweets about the sequel to this one so I thought I should try out the first one. The cover is so gorgeous and I just want to stroke it…

The D.U.F.F by Kody Keplinger- I read Cass’ review and instantly started craving this book. I scoured the book shop for it but couldn’t find it and then just as I was about to go this book caught my eye and it was this one! I’m really eating up contemporary novels at the moment.

Charity Shop Finds:

book haul 2-8-2013 003

Northern Lights by Philip Pullman- I’m probably one of the only people who hasn’t read this yet, which is terrible of me. I’m such an awful reader!

Life at the Shallow End by Helen Bailey- I loved Running in Heels by this author and was super pleased when I managed to pick this one out.

The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett- I read this for school last year but didn’t have my own copy and so was really pleased when I found this. It’s one of my favourite classics.

Broken Soup by Jenny Valentine- This one sounds really good and I love the cover.

The Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness- I have had enough of not knowing what anyone is on about when people talk about this book. Sadly, some of it has been spoiled for me, but I’ll try and forget about that.

My Mad Fat Diary by Rae Earl- This one sounds so good and right up my street. And it has battenburg cake on the back which I may just have to eat…

Lock & Key by Sarah Dessen- This will be my third Sarah Dessen book and I’m really looking forward to starting it.

Before I Die by Jenny Downham- I’ve already read this but I had to buy my own copy when I saw it because it’s such a beautiful book.

Review Books

book haul 2-8-2013 004

The Soterion Mission by Stewart Ross- My review is coming of this next week. Thank you, Curious Fox!

Forgive Me, Leonard Peacock by Matthew Quick- Review was posted here. Thank you, Headline!

(Can you tell that I’m getting lazy..?)

The Key to the Golden Firebird by Maureen Johnson- My first (kind of. I read 13 Little Blue Envelopes years ago but can’t remember it properly now) MJ book! So excited to start this one. Thanks, Hot Key!

The Elites by Natasha Ngan- FGFIEWFGIYWFGIYFV. AAAHHHHH! Words cannot describe how excited I was when this popped through my letterbox. My parents were sick of me telling them about it! Thanks Hot Key for being so fab!

The Ghost Bride by Yangsze Choo- Review coming soon! I really enjoyed this one. Thanks, Hot Key!

The Bone Season by Samantha Shannon- Woo! I was so pleased to receive this and it has such a pretty dust jacket and cover. *gazes longingly* Review coming soon. Thank you, Bloomsbury!

What did you get this week? 

Book Review

REVIEW: Forgive Me, Leonard Peacock by Matthew Quick

Forgive Me, Leonard Peacock was the perfect concoction of The Perks of Being a Wallflower and Before I Die, with a male protagonist, of course.Although I haven’t read The Silver Linings Playbook, I expected great things from the same author, and I was not let down at all.

It’s Leonard Peacock’s eighteenth birthday and the day he is going to say goodbye, for he has decided that today will be his last day on Earth. After killing his former best friend, he will take his own life. His mother, who he calls Linda to annoy her, who spends most of her time in New York with her French boyfriend, won’t care. His father, who has moved to somewhere in Venezuela and practically dropped off the face of the planet, won’t care.

Leonard has four packages: one for his Bogart- obsessed neighbour; another for his Holocaust teacher; one for a violin virtuoso; and one for a pastor’s daughter.

Leonard, for all of his odd characteristics, was a very likable character and one that I just wanted to send big hugs to. He’d never received any love from his parental figures and so was searching for something that he had never had. I loved his relationship with Walt. It was so natural and I relished the scenes when they were interacting. Walt really cared about him, and it was really sweet to see.

Written with footnotes at the bottom was a really good idea and fitted in really well with the narration and themes of the book. It’s something that really makes the book stand out and a really strong reason to pick up this book. If you like something a bit different, then Forgive Me, Leonard Peacock is the book for you.

I loved the future scenes. I’d happily read a whole book that featured this world, because it was so carefully thought out and crafted. It really added a nice touch to the book, and this is the sort of thing that bumps up my rating.

Forgive Me, Leonard Peacock is the kind of book that I devour. I love hard hitting and raw novels and this really was one of them. It’s impossible to say that this book was a light read, but if it was it wouldn’t be the same. I loved this novel because of its nature and I think this is something that other people will love, too.

I didn’t think I’d like Forgive Me, Leonard Peacock as much as I did and I’ll definitely be reading something else by Quick now.

Uncategorized

July Recap & August Goals 2013

Today I’m here to do the July Recap and August Goals post. 

This month I read:

17190167

The Future of Us by Jay Asher and Carolyn Mackler


The Moon and M
ore by Sarah DessenAttachments by Rainbow Rowell

The Truth About You and Me by Amanda Grace

The Avery Shaw Experiment by Kelly Oram

Bittersweet by Cathy Cassidy -NOVELLA

Angelfall by Susan Ee

Shadow and Bone by Leigh Bardugo

TheFifthWavecover

 

The Midnight Heir by Cassandra Clare and Sarah Rees Brennan -NOVELLA

Level 2 by Lenore Applehans

Forgive Me, Leonard Peacock by Matthew Quick

Split by a Kiss by Luisa Plaja

The Fifth Wave by Rick Yancey

The Soterion Mission by Stewart Ross

The Ghost Bride by Yangsze Choo

17789310

My three favourites were:

Attachments by Rainbow Rowell, Angelfall by Susan Ee and The Fifth Wave by Rick Yancey.

I’ve done so much in July, like moving to WordPress which was a huge thing for me. As well as moving, I made my own header and blog button, which was something I was nervous about doing. I’m normally useless when it comes to design.

August Goals

In August, I’m hoping to read:

The Elites by Natasha Ngan which is one of my most anticipated reads of the year. I have a proof sat on my shelf at the moment and it’s taking all of my self-restraint to stop me from picking it up.

The Bone Season by Samantha Shannon is another review book sat on my shelf. I have the gorgeous hardback and I’m going to be starting it as soon as I finish my current read.

My Mad Fat Diary by Rae Earl sounds so much fun and so I’m really looking forward to reading it.

August means that I’m no longer at school so I’m going to be trying to get through my TBR pile and also filming more vlogs (hopefully!)

Uncategorized

Welcome to Queen of Contemporary!

welcomequeenofcontemporary

Welcome to the brand new Queen of Contemporary!

I’m really excited to be launching the brand new site officially today, and this is the first post.

I’ve worked out a whole new schedule which I’m really excited to share. I’ve worked it so that I can do more memes like Waiting on Wednesday and Top Ten Tuesday, because I’ve always wanted to join in with both.

The schedule is as follows:

WEEK ONE

Monday: Review

Wednesday: Waiting on Wednesday/Discussion

Friday: Review/Featured on Friday

Sunday: Letterbox Love

WEEK TWO

Tuesday: Top Ten Tuesday/Discussion

Thursday: Review

Saturday: Embracing My Inner Geek/Review/Discussion

Sunday: Letterbox Love

As you can see, it will be on a fortnightly cycle and I’m hoping that this will excite things for me, and for viewers too. Sometimes I don’t like posting the same things week after week, and I’m sure you don’t like reading the same things either.

Thank you for sticking by Queen of Contemporary. I’m still busy working behind the scenes and have really appreciated your support so far.

UKYA

UKYA FORTNIGHT: Bye, bye UKYA Fortnight!

I’m so sad that it’s the end of my UKYA fortnight! It’s been a huge hit, and it’s most likely that I’ll be hosting another one next year. Every comment, retweet and pageview has really affected me and I feel so much love towards you guys right now.I’d like to thank everyone who tweeted the links to the post or retweeted. The buzz on Twitter

 is something that has completely blown my mind because I never expected anything like it.

The UKYA Twitter chat was amazing and I loved chatting with you all.

 Because of the success, I will be hosting another one at the end of August. I’m planning it at the moment and there are some very awesome things up ahead. If you like the Queen of Contemporary Facebook page, then you’ll stay updated because I’ve begun to post a lot more there now.

I have a full write up of the event over at the UKYA blog. Thanks for having me, Keris!
If there’s anything you’d like to chat about in particular, then I’m always open to new ideas so do send me a tweet or email!

I’d like to also thank all of the authors and bloggers that participated. I wouldn’t have been able to do this without you. Virtual cookies will be sent around!

I have lots of exciting UKYA things in the works at the moment and also monthly chats. If one person has picked up a UKYA book as a result of this week then I’ll be a very happy person indeed.

THANK YOU everyone! You’re all very special people!

Uncategorized

UKYA FORTNIGHT: Supporting UKYA Authors

Today a few amazing  bloggers will be sharing with you ways in which you can help support UKYA authors.
Rachael from Rachael Reviews All:
The only thing I can really say to that is to buy, read, and share. The internet is full of many nations, and now is the time for UKYA to really travel overseas. I’m also saying this as an aspiring British author, who will want to get her work out there. Supporting UKYA will allow new British talent to shine through.
 
With the sheer volume of YA that comes out of the States, UKYA sometimes gets lost in the fray. As part of the UKYA community we need to support our authors and their books and try and give them as much publicity as possible. Highlighting books that come out of the UK is a brilliant way to do that, try hosting themed weeks like yourself or taking part in the British Books Reading Challenge that has been hosted over the last few years. We’re a great community who is happy to come together to support UKYA.
 
Lisa from The Book Column:
The UKYA community is thriving if we just take a second to look. As readers it is so easy to get caught up in the hype of the next big book to hit our shelves. It’s so easy to be blinkered by the big international names and forget to even look at the delights that are right underneath our noses. There are an abundance of amazing UKYA authors and we should all spend a little time seeking them out, reading their work and supporting them wholeheartedly. I mean, why wouldn’t we do that? Do you even know if your town has a local YA author (be it indie or not!) that you can support? Authors reply upon people reading their books and championing them – because no matter how hard a marketing team work, you cannot beat word of mouth. You cannot beat individual recommendations. You cannot beat the impact a book blogger can have on influencing book sales… and if you have your very own UKYA author sitting half a mile away working themselves into the ground trying to make a name for themselves – why wouldn’t you want to use your influence and ability to support that? We all covet the autographed copies of the works of Cassie Clare, or Stephenie Meyer, or Suzanne Collins – but you could have an author with an amazing novel sitting in the next town to you. Seek them out. Offer your services. Help a UKYA author to become the next big thing because, you never know, thanks to you, somewhere down the line people could be coveting their autographed works too!
 
I think it’s quite simple…read it! Read it, review it, tweet about it, talk about it, just get your opinions out there! The UKYA community is so fantastic, and it doesn’t always get the recognition it truly deserves, so the more people that talk about UKYA, the stronger and more vocal the community will get.
Uncategorized

UKYA FORTNIGHT: Guest post by Debbie from Snuggling on the Sofa

 I’m very pleased to welcome Debbie from Snuggling on the Sofa to the blog today. Debbie runs one of my favourite blogs and so you should definitely go and check it out once you’ve finished reading this fab post.

Top 5 UKYA Authors from my Teenage Years
 
 
Robert Muchamore– As you can see I have quite a big collection of his books! I love his books about teenage spies, and can’t wait for new novel Black Friday.
Enid Blyton– Not strictly YA, but Enid’s books are suitable for any age. Her Famous Five and Naughtiest Girl series are one of my favourites.
Tabitha Suzuma– I’ve lost count of the amount of times I have read A Note of Madness. Forbidden was equally as amazing, and I am eager to read Hurt, out later this year.
Malorie Blackman– 2013 children’s laureate for a reason. Her Noughts and Crosses series are one of the most famous, but I also loved her earlier books such as Antidote and Pig Heart Boy.
JK Rowling– Does this need any explanation? Harry Potter defined by entire childhood.
Top 5 New UKYA Authors 

Holly Smale– Funny and lovable, Holly is just an amazing down-to-earth person. I can’t wait for Geek Girl 2 (and 3!). Check out my Geek Girl review here (http://snugglingonthesofa.wordpress.com/2012/12/27/book-review-geek-girl/)
Peter Cocks– One of the best thriller YA books I have read is Long Reach, and I really hope he keeps writing.
Andy Robb– A true Geek, Andy is so witty and his writing makes me giggle. Geekhood: Close Encounters of a Girl Kind is a true gem in the teen world (my review here: http://snugglingonthesofa.wordpress.com/2013/06/17/book-review-geekhood-close-encounters-of-the-girl-kind/)
Sophia Bennett– I absolutely adored You Don’t Know Me and feel like she is definitely an author to watch.
Moira Young– I was encouraged to read Blood Red Road (my review here: http://snugglingonthesofa.wordpress.com/2012/11/30/book-review-blood-red-road/) and I’m so glad I did! I rushed out to read Rebel Heart straight away. Check out my thoughts at http://snugglingonthesofa.wordpress.com/2012/12/03/book-review-rebel-heart/. I can’t wait to get my hands on the next in the series!
UKYA Authors I Have Yet to Read (But Have Heard Great Things About)
 
Joe Craig– His Jimmy Coates series sounds like something I would LOVE, so I need to start this soon.
Louise Rennison– I think I may have read one of her books as a teenager, but her Georgia Nicholson and Tallulah Casey series sound like great funny contemporaries.
Patrick Ness– His Chaos Walking series has always been a bit daunting to me, but I will read it one day. His new book More Than This sounds really intriguing, and will hopefully inspire me to read his earlier books.
Cressida Cowell– I recently watched the film of How to Train Your Dragon and loved it, so I’d really like to check out the books.
Eoin Colfer– Artemis Fowl is just never a book I picked up, but I’m delving more into fantasy so am intrigued about this series.
Top 5 UKYA Books I Can’t Wait To Read 

 
The Oathbreaker’s Shadow by Amy McCulloch 

Soulmates by Holly Bourne
After Iris by Natasha Farrant
The Last Minute by Eleanor Updale 

Acid by Emma Pass 

I’ve just realised that all these books are by women! Girlpower all the way. I’ve heard lots of good things about Acid, The Last Minute and The Oathbreaker’s Shadow. They all seem really excellent fantasy/action YA and it’s nice to see such strong material come out of YA titles. Soulmates is one I’ve had my eye on for a while, and sounds like a great contemporary. Some fellow bloggers have read After Iris and commented how emotional it is, and sounds like a really heartwarming read.