Chrononsphere Book Two: Malfunction by Alex Woolf

The second book in the exciting Chronosphere series sees a mysterious malfunction ravage the Chronosphere. It starts slowly at first, with meals being served cold and food going off, then residents start to notice the blistering heat and haywire android servants. Soon the entire Chronosphere is malfunctioning, causing a complete breakdown of society and the eruption of a fierce turf war between rival gangs. Caught in the middle of the crossfire are Raffi Delgado and his fellow chrononauts Dario, Sal, Jonah and Lastara. With the help of familiar faces and old enemies, they put into place a brave rescue attempt, but in doing so the dark truth about the source of the Malfunction and the real aims of the Chronomaster become all too clear.

I like to vary my book genres, and I thought this sci-fi book sounded great. Raffi Delgado lives in the world, Chrononsphere - a world that moves a million times slower than in real life. The whole idea is so orginal. It is one of those stories where you are baffled how the authors can come up with these brilliant ideas.

The first novel in the series, Time Out Of Time, is where the main character (Raffi) is on the verge of entering adulthood so buys back a year of his life so is shown the Chrononsphere. I found that the plot made sense without reading the first book before this one, but I recommend the first one too. They are a compelling and inventive series that will blow your mind.

The only thing I found difficult about this book was ... well ... the words.  I didn't know what most of them meant - not as in complicated vocabulary, but the sci-fi related language that I didn't know what the characters were talk about. This is only a minor point, because there is a dictionary at the back of the book with definitions. Unfortunately, I only discovered this when I had finished reading!

This book is perfect for sci-fi lovers, or for anyone who likes to read stories 'out of this world' kind of stuff. I thought most of it was gripping, but the characters were slightly confusing. I think this would be fine for both genders, but perhaps 11+ would find it a more comprehendable read.

RATE: 3.5/5

Publisher: Book House

Publication date: 1st September 2011

Pages: 240

Edition: Paperback

Source: For Review

To buy this book click HERE.

Rémy Brunel and the Ocean of Light: Chapter 8 & 9

**Fiction Express is an e-fiction site where each chapter is released every Friday. When you have read that chapter, you can vote to what happens next! The first chapter is for free, and the next ten chapters are from 59p. I recommend the site 100% and I suggest you check out the brilliant books they have on offer Please be aware that my review may have spoilers of previous chapters, but not the current one.**

My previous reviews:
Chapter 1, click here. Chapter 2, click here. Chapter 3, click here. Chapter 4, click here. Chapter 5, click here. Chapter 6, click here.
Chapter 7, click here.

Chapter 8 review:
After the mega cliff-hanger on chapter 7, I couldn't wait to read this one! Is this the end?! Gosling's writing is really gripping; the kind that makes you sit on the edge of your seat. I felt like I was in the book, experiencing the adventure that Rémy was having. I liked the way how the author writes and the clever things she does to making it believable. Near the end, Rémy has to decide between Thaddeus or Abernathy. After everything she has been through, she has to make a big choice.

Chapter 9 review:

It is strange how I am empathising with Rémy, because she and I are so different (for starters, she is a thief...). But I feel like I am actually there in the story. At the beginning, I kept wondering is Rémy had made the right decision, and if Abernathy is the real villain. She manages to work out the truth, and bumps into the Professor along the way. He gives her some shocking news about what will happen to J and Thaddeus. She must make another choice to either save either one or neither of them. Will friendship triumph?

Zoe x

In My Mailbox #14

IMM is hosted by The Story Siren. It is meme some bloggers take part in to show what books they have recieved that week.

For Review-

Defiance by G.C Naffin

Thanks to Rachel for letting the author know about my blog, and to the actual author for giving me this e-book to review. It looks really good, I can't wait to start it. :)

Won-

Sean Griswold's Head by Lindsey Leavitt

This looks like a really cute and funny read, I think I will enjoy this!

Bought-

Sister, Missing by Sophie McKenzie

Yay!!! After reading Girl, Missing I was anticepating for the release of this sequel. I completely forgot I had pre-ordered it months ago so it was an awesome surprise when I opened my package! :-D

Zoe x

PS. Sorry for not posting for the last week, homework is taking over my blogging time!! But come back today because I might be able to post reviews Chapter 8 & 9 of Rémy later! Thanks. =)

In My Mailbox #13

IMM is hosted by The Story Siren. It is a meme some bloggers take part in to share what books they have received in any form that week. This week I received seven books, which makes up for the fact of going back to school!

Divine Freaks by Fiona Dunbar

I have seen good reviews of this book so when I saw it in the library I thought I might as well pick it up!

Spy Girl: Out Of The Shadows by Carol Hedges

I am not sure if this is the first in the series or not, but it looks good anyway. I like books like this so I think I will enjoy it.

Traitor's Kiss by Pauline Francis

I don't usually read historical fiction, but I think this sounds interesting. That is the good thing about libraries; if you don't like this book you can just bring it back, free of charge!

Love, Aubrey by Suzanne LeFleaur

I have read tons of good reviews about this book, and when I saw it the store for a £1, and I thought: why not?

Pride And Prejudice by Jane Austen

Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte

Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte

These three came together for £3!! The Book People, an amazing website, offers great book bargains. I saw this on a great book blog Mostly Reading YA, and I couldn't refuse!

So, I have bought four books this week for £4, not bad! What have you received in your mailbox?

Interview with author, Luisa Plaja

I have the privilege today to interview awesome Luisa Plaja! She is the author of three published novels; Split By A Kiss, Swapped By A Kiss and Extreme Kissing. She also wrote the e-book Diary Of A Mall Girl on Fiction Express and a short story in Truth & Dare. Her upcoming novel Kiss, Date, Love, Hate is due out in 2012 and I am sure you are just as excited as I am! She is the proud editor of Chicklish, a UK teen fiction site, and posts on Girls Heart Books. Altogether she is SUPER nice person and who is always there for her readers. Basically, she is just awesome, so read the interview below!! :-D

1. Hi, Luisa! *waves and passes a cookie* Have you always wanted to be a writer?
Hi, Zoe! *accepts cookie gratefully and waves back* Yes, I have. I fell in love with books at an early age and I've always loved writing my own stories as well as reading other people's. I used to think that having a novel published was just a dream, though. I'm so glad I was wrong. *huge crumb-filled smile*

2. Me too! So,when you are not writing, what do you like to do?

Read! And talk about books. I run a book blog called Chicklish and I help out with teen book clubs in libraries and schools. I also dance in front of the Wii and defy anyone to touch my Beyonce high score. *waggles imaginary nunchuck in tragically non-Beyonce way*

3. Has anyone inspired you at all or has been your role-model?
Probably everything I've ever read has inspired me! There are so many writers I admire, and so many novels I read again and again. One author whose books I've adored for years is Meg Cabot, and I was beyond thrilled when she read Split by a Kiss and said lovely things about it on her blog. My wonderful writer friends inspire me every day, as do my equally wonderful non-writer friends and family. (Sniff. Thank you!)

4. How did it feel when you had your first book published?
Amazing, brilliant, fantastic... Am sort of tempted to copy in an entire thesaurus entry now but will sum it up as: just WOW.

5. If you had to convince a non-reader to read, what would you say?
What a great question. (What would YOU say?) I think something along the lines of: There's something for everyone in the world of books. You might like memoirs that are absorbing and moving... or fact-based books that make you think and learn... or stories that scare you, or make you cry, or make you laugh. Or maybe all of the above, or something different? Browse around for books that suit you and don't let anyone tell you that any one kind of book is worth less than any other kind. Reading opens up worlds and stretches your imagination, and it's always worthwhile. Read! I promise you won't regret it.
Then I would probably add, "But it's up to you, of course." ;)

6. If you could meet any character from your books, who would it be?

Ooh, another great question! I'd love to meet any of my characters. I'd probably have to put up with some harsh words from some of them. Rachel from Swapped by a Kiss, for example - I bet she'd have something outspoken to say about the way I wrote her. So would Lex from Kiss Date Love Hate, for that matter, but she'd be more wary of me. I should stop now for fear of sounding (overly) weird. But, truly, what a wonderful question.

7. Which one of your books was the most fun to write?
Wow, this is hard. Writing all my books has been fun, and has also caused major headaches at times. Maybe instead of singling out any one book, I'll talk about my favourite part to write: endings. I've really enjoyed writing the endings of all my books, including the e-book Diary of a Mall Girl where I was steered by readers.

8. Could you tell us a bit about your current book you are working on?
I'm working on something a tiny bit different and, um, something else. Hmm, that's all very vague, isn't it? Sorry. Well, I can say that I'll always love writing books about teenagers and relationships. :x (smiley of mystery)

9. Have you ever had writers block?

LP's latest book - isn't the cover so cute?!

I'm not sure if it's writers' block exactly, but I've definitely stalled at various points in most of the books I've written. I dedicated Split by a Kiss "to the people who got me out of the ice rink" because I was stuck on Jo's ice rink scene for months. Eventually, many wonderful people helped me come unstuck - er, in a good way - and finish that novel. Taking some pressure off always helps, and I highly recommend fun writing challenges such as NaNoWriMo (http://www.nanowrimo.org).

10. Quick Fire Questions:
Facebook or Twitter? I'm on both, but... Twitter.
Favourite song? Argh, can't narrow it down - my "favourites" playlist is too long!
Music or TV? Music.
Print or eBook? Both! I love books, whatever the format. In fact, can I add "audiobook" to that?
Tea or coffee? Tea, tea and more tea! It goes perfectly with my cookie. *finishes munching and brushes away crumbs*

Thanks, Luisa! :)
Thank YOU, Zoe! :D

Ways to follow Luisa Plaja:

• Luisa Plaja website
• Chicklish
• She blogs at Girls Heart Books along with other authors
• Twitter
• Facebook

Rémy Brunel and the Ocean of Light: Chapter 7

**Fiction Express is an e-fiction site where each chapter is released every Friday. When you have read that chapter, you can vote to what happens next! The first chapter is for free, and the next ten chapters are from 59p. I recommend the site 100% and I suggest you check out the brilliant books they have on offer Please be aware that my review may have spoilers of previous chapters, but not the current one.**

My previous reviews:

Chapter 1, click here.
Chapter 2, click here.
Chapter 3, click here.
Chapter 4, click here.
Chapter 5, click here.
Chapter 6, click here.

Chapter 7 Review

My vote won, yay! In this chapter, more characters are introduced to the story including Desai who made the story more interesting. I really like all the unique names in this book as it makes the storyline more enthralling. Despite being not able to vote because I read it slightly later, a took a look and it was really difficult! What did you all vote for? What are your predictions? I have no idea what will happen next, the adventure never ends!

Zoe x

PS.

Hi everyone, this 'ps' is to just to let you all now that I won't be posting that much in the future because I am going back to school soon. It is an important year (exams = groan) so I won't have as much time as I did in the summer holidays (which was a lot ;))! I will try and post and much as possible, and I will definitely be still accepting reviews and commenting on other blogs etc! Thanks x :c)

Day Of Deliverance (Jack Christie #2) by Johnny O' Brien

Jack and Angus’s time travels are heating up again, and this time the boys must save Queen Elizabeth I from an early death. Meeting the playwright Marlowe and a young actor named William Shakespeare along the way, Jack and Angus will have to use all their bravery and skill to thwart their archenemy, Pendleshape, and his misguided notions of changing history.

Jack and Angus and transported back in time again to London 1587, where they hear a plot of assassination against the Queen. The pair have to try and stop it, but it is much harder than they think when they realise they are dealing with dangerous people.

I enjoyed this one more than the first one. I think it has something to do with the fact that all the names of the guns and the First World War complicated weaponry aren't used as much (this is just for me, as I think lots of other people will know a lot more about the history of weapons etc!).

I love how the author opens it up with a bang as Jack and Angus are having a sword fight, and Jack is just about to thrust a sword into Angus' flesh, when the next chapter starts and it turns out they are practising for a play! Everything links together and makes it even more suspenseful.

The action and suspense kept me wanting to read on but for some reason I wasn't exactly 'hooked'. I didn't feel the need to skip pages at any point but it isn't one of those books that really shines among your other reads.

It can be read alone, as the other events aren't really vital to know as they explain it pretty well. In the beginning it has character lists, interesting photographs and maps to help you understand.

I liked the whole aspect of the book and the way it is told. I particularly like the parts where Jack and Angus introduce the people of the time to iPhones and jellybeans - it is really funny how to us it seems normal but to them it is like from an alien planet.

This book has almost everything a person wants - adventure, humour, action and breathtaking moments. Both children and adults will find this enjoyable.

RATE: 4/5

Publisher: Templar

Publication date: 14th September 2010

Pages: 192

Edition: Paperback

Source: For Review
Notes: I had a different cover to the one above.

To buy this book click HERE.

Zoe x

Blog Tour: Day Of Vengeance - Guest Post + GIVEAWAY!

I am hosting the first spot on the blog tour of the spellbinding book, Day Of Vengeance. I am excited because this is the first blog tour I am taking part in! Yay!
This the is the third one in the Jack Christie series, a thrilling trilogy about a school boy going back in time and changing history. My review should be up soon!

On this day of the the blog tour, Johnny will be doing a guest post where he talks about his brilliant characters and how he invented them. He will also be telling us how he interpreted the historical figures in his own fictional novel. The author is a very interesting person and I hope you like the guest post:

 

 

Jack’s character was formed in a rather bizarre way. When I wrote Day of the Assassins there is a piece where Jack is escaping from baddies on HMS Dreadnought and he has the bright idea of hiding in the barrel of one of the famous battleship’s main guns. In order to fit him into the aperture of the gun, I had to make him quite small. To balance his limited physical stature (although he gets bigger in the later books!) I had to give him other strengths – like his memory and intelligence. Angus is then his alter-ego really – he is good at sports, brawnier and a physical match for anyone – but lacks Jack’s brains and judgement. He also had to be bigger because of all the physical equipment they come across – cable cars, army jeeps and weaponry! As  a team they have most of the skills they need! So that really is how I came up with Jack and Angus...

 

What is good fun about writing the Jack Christie books is the interweaving of fantasy and fact – this applies to events as well as people. Jack and Angus meet lots of extraordinary characters on their travels, thing is, some of the most extraordinary are not the ones that I’ve made up! I had quite a lot of fun with Christopher Marlowe in Day of Deliverance. He was an extraordinary person – a famous playwright and possibly a double-agent. He came to a sticky end when still in his twenties. There is a portrait in Corpus Christi College (supposedly him) with the words ‘what feeds me destroys me’ – that probably says it all!

It is pretty difficult to really know what a historical character was really like; so it’s fun to add your own interpretation. In the main part the real historical characters are mostly kept in the background – but there are some important interactions and you have to just have a go at what you think they would have been like based on what you have read and learned.

I think Adolf Hitler, in Day of Vengeance was perhaps the most challenging historical figure to recreate. Jack and Angus don’t actually meet him, but they do see him on his tour of Paris and there are some thoughts that go through Jack’s head about that. They also encounter some other fictional characters representing some of the abhorrent and criminal elements of the SS and the Nazi movement. I found it hard to write what is essentially a made up story whilst representing some of these elements of the period in a way which was not clichéd. I am not sure I succeeded and I also worry about writing about a period which although ‘historical’ is obviously still relatively near and so controversial and deeply sensitive to so many people.

--GIVEAWAY--

Like what you hear? I thought you might. The wonderful publisher,Templar, are giving away a copy of the book and you could have the chance of winning! If you want to know more about the book itself, read the blurb below.

Schoolboy time-traveller Jack Christie is thrown back to 1940s France with the Second World War at a crucial point. The Battle of Britain and the German Vengeance programme are underway, as Jack and his best friend Angus take a more senior role in VIGIL's bid to prevent an intervention in history that could go nuclear. With Spitfire dogfights, jeep races and thrilling chases, the boys have met their most hair-raising adventure yet, including involvement in an assassintation attempt on Hitler.

I love the books, and I think all ages will find them exciting and well-written. So, go on - enter! You know you want to....

Read the T&C's before entering:

• You don't have to be a follower to enter, though it would be nice. ;-)
• UK residents only.
• The deadline is 8pm on Friday 23rd September 2011, and the winner will be announced the day after and e-mailed.
• The winner will be picked at random so there is a fair chance for everyone.

To enter, just fill in a form HERE.


Good luck, everyone!


Don't forget to check out tomorrow's stop at Empire Of Books where Johnny will be talking about where his inspiration for the time travel series came from.


For anymore information on the book tour, click here, for the Templar blog.

I hope you enjoyed my spot for the blog tour, and if you haven't read this book yet, make sure to enter my giveaway or buy the book instead of missing out on all the action....

Zoe x

In My Mailbox #12

IMM is hosted by The Story Siren. This week I received......

Won-

Shine by Kate Maryon
THE COVER IS AMAZING! Don't you just love it? I won this from another brilliant Girls Heart Books giveaway, whoop whoop! :-)

Borrowed-

Underworld by Cathy Macphail
I borrowed this from a friend after reading a brilliant book by Cathy Macphail before (I don't know why I haven't posted a review up yet!). This looks amazing - shame I can't keep the book...!


What did you get in your mailboxes?

Zoe  :) xx

PS. What do you all think of the new dashboard? I don't really like it, so I switched back to the old one! :-D