Reviews and Comments

Richard Mayhew is a nice man and it is very weird to realise his problems sprang from his kindness. Nevertheless, he is warned as he leaves his home town: You've a good heart. Sometimes that's enough to see you safe wherever you go. But mostly, it's not. That warning grabbed my attention fully and I gladly dived with Richard into the dark London, known as London below. Richard helps a bruised girl find out who wanted her family murdered, but mostly he is it at odds with his new environment. Richard doesn't feel he belongs along magic, monsters, assassins, rats and even angels, but to get his life back he has to go through a series of challenges. But whenever there is dark, there is also light and he'll learn that having a good heart eventually pays back.

This is a book about lost people, people who fall through the cracks of life. Sometimes, all it takes is to remember them. All the dark elements Gaiman appreciates are there, but I particularly loved the idea of the floating market and the somehow funny correspondence between the names of locals in London and their counterparts in London below. Lovely story, Mr. Gaiman.

Brooklyn, Lorelei and Glitch feel there's something strange going on. Students are acting weird and dark thoughts abound. Cameron is increasingly more protective of Lorelei, but as the war is approaching he finally welcomes Jared to their little group as he should keep all help he can get. But as Lorelei tries to control her visions, she realises she is a target to a very strange cult. And worse, Jared starts acting really strange and there's no way to tell on which side he really is, which is a bigger problem to Lorelei than any war. Not only he is the strongest entity on Earth as he holds her heart.

I enjoyed the first book, but I enjoyed this one even more! Or maybe I was missing the characters terribly. The action starts right away and there's a lot more darkness to be found. First I was shocked about the visions Lorelei was getting but then I totally embraced the darker tone of this second instalment. Things are looking bad for Lorelei, and not being safe in school really raises the suspense. Not to mention that Jared may not be as much on her side as she thinks. I couldn't put this book down and even though I felt bad for Glitch for most of the story, I was quite happy to find his charms were still around. I cringed a little whenever Lorelei ventured on her own, but I guess I'd do the same in her place. I can't wait to read the last book and know the end because the end to this one left me wanting more!

Jane has finally agreed to marry Gabriel but he doesn't want to elope, which means she actually has to organise her own wedding and invite friends and family that haven't spoken to her since she became a vampire. On the bright side, she can have her revenge for all the horrible dresses her friends made her wear. As the wedding's preparations weren't enough, Jane converts a handsome teenager - Jamie - she used to babysit and ends up having him in her house as she teaches him how to survive in the vampire world. Jane and Gabriel's house gets really crowded when not only Jamie moves in, but also her horrible grandmother that has finally died. Grandma Ruthie is a ghost now, but she is as determined as before to have Jane's house all to herself.

As the previous ones, this book is entertaining as the characters are lovable and some bits are very funny. I understand that the author didn't want the characters to dwell on past errors since they should evolve with their adventures, but that made the story less entertaining. I didn't feel like they were in any real danger, no suspense to speak of and Jamie was more of a bliss than a problem. I think the main problem of the book was really that all characters are so lovable that there's nobody to hate or to be used as a possible traitor. A fun book that definitely doesn't want to be anything else.

All the Shadowhunters are gathering in Alicante (the city of glass) to prepare against Valentine's final offensive. Clary wants to go with the Lightwoods in order to wake her mother from the magic comma she got herself into, but Jace doesn't want her there. Things don't go as planned and Simon is the one who ends up in Alicante with the Lightwoods, which only adds up to his own problems. After all, not even the vampires are happy about a vampire who can walk under the sun. Not to mention that the Clave is not trustworthy and the hatred against Downworlders is still very much alive.

This book was great! My favourite of the three, what a ride! The plot had some funny lines here and there, and the horrible tension from the second book is almost gone. Everybody is getting ready to fight against Valentine as he is the clear common enemy but things don't go smoothly. I liked Clary better in this book, as most characters seem to recognise their major flaws and work on them. I wasn't expecting some of the twists, and felt the battles as if I was there and my canines were being used to rip demons apart. I think the author did a good job describing these scenes, but I do have to say that it pained me a little when the author compared yet again the battles to Bosch's paintings. What a great series, I enjoyed myself a lot reading these and bit my nails a little too much!

Stephanie is a pawn in a deathly game where instructions are handed by e-mail, and all she was looking for was Samuel Singh - a missing immigrant with a very important bound to Vinnie (her boss). Missing is also Boo, a poodle that seems to be connected with Singh. In the meantime Lula is dieting, Stephanie is back with Morelli and his grandmother's visions of death, and Valerie is about to have a baby and eat the whole country in the process.

I have to say this book would get 5 stars if I didn't know who the main killer was almost from the beginning. I loooooved that Stephanie didn't blow up any car but started taking Ranger's men as unfortunate targets. I laughed so much at the hospital scene that I'm even embarrassed about it! As always these books are great entertainment, even though in this one we can feel Stephanie more worried about her fate as the plot thickens. I can't wait to read the next installment as Stephanie's maternal instincts spurred to life with her youngest niece. This seems quite promising!

Since her new found love turned out to be her newfound brother, Clary and Jace face a lot of contradictory feelings. She tries to stay away from him, but Clary is now a Shadowhunter and not even a sort of forced relationship with Simon is going to bring her back to the "normal" world. Jace has his own set of battles and it is doubtful that he can keep his ground. On the other hand, Valentine keeps his quest to control everything he can, anyway he can, and besides their differences nobody has a choice but to fight together against him.

I'm not giving this book 5 stars just because it makes me extremely anxious to feel a big war brewing and still not knowing when Shadowhunters may have their break at a fair fight. Plus, Jace is growing adult enough to think twice about what having angel blood means! I loved their visit to the fairy world, but sometimes Clary gets on my nerves. Of course I really want to read the 3rd book and hopefully the story finally rolls into some kind of victory - even if a small one. The story develops at a really fast pace and I can't get enough of this world or its characters!

Clary Fray has Simon as her best friend, and one night they decide to go to the Pandemonium Club where Clary starts to realise she sees (live!) people that nobody else does. She then meets Jace, Isabelle and Alec who are Shadowhunters - warriors that hunt demons. Clary is surprised by the existence of this hidden world and the Shadowhunters are surprised a "mundane" can see them. When Clary's mother is taken away, she discovers that the real world is a much darker place than she imagined and there's so much more about her mother and herself than she ever knew.

I fell in love with this book and its world. I wasn't surprised by the events (probably because when I wasn't reading the book I was thinking about it), but it didn't diminish my interest in the story at all! Clary is a great character and even though Simon is in love with her, they really act more like brother and sister. Every important character evolves as the situation gets worse, and it's a pleasure to read the characters' development as they grow and learn from their mistakes. The Shadowhunters world, as well as their twisted history, is amazing and you won't be able to put this book down. Can't wait to read the next book in the series!

Stephanie Plum has a couple difficult cases in her hands: FTA Andy Bender is playing hard to catch and making her lose an embarrassing number of handcuffs; but her biggest case is a mother and daughter on the run. Stephanie tries to help her parents' neighbour since the neighbour's daughter and granddaughter are missing, and her ex-son in law is not the nicest man on Earth. Unfortunately Stephanie runs into deeper trouble when the case is connected to the horrible Eddie Abruzzi and his crazy war schemes. Fortunately, Ranger and Morelli are willing to help as a very disturbing killer rabbit also comes into scene.

This was possibly the darkest book in the Plum series, but still had its fun moments. And should I mention explosions? I love explosions! And how everything that happens to Stephanie is unexpected even though I'm permanently waiting for something bad to happen. I was sort of surprised at how reckless/dumb Stephanie was in the end, but at least I learnt to like Valerie and got a chance to drool over Ranger some more. It's not like I don't like Morelli, but I'm Ranger's team ;)

Charley is still recovering from what she went through at the hands of Earl Walker. Fortunately her friends and family are around to help her slowly coming back to life. Unexpectedly, Harper Lowell shows up at her doorstep and tells Charley someone is trying to kill her. Charley accepts the case because she empathises with Harper. When Charley realises nobody believes Harper, she determinedly takes it to heart to find out the truth and maybe find some reason to get out of her comfy house. Reyes keeps killing demons but the mystery deepens as the demons' attacks against Charley seem more and more coordinated. Who is behind them? And who is setting fire to several buildings in the city?

This was probably the darkest book of the series and I think it was extremely compelling exactly for that. I enjoyed the case Charley was working on (though I was bit confused at one point), but mostly I loved that we get to know a lot more about the "real" Charley and the divinity she really is. Reyes, Gemma, Amber, Cookie, uncle Bob, Artemis, Angel and even Charley's dad are all trying to help Charley deal with her fears and funny enough they are also learning more about her as we do. Charley gets to know a little more of what she is capable of and I don't know how Darynda Jones was able to get every interesting character of this series in this book, but she did it! I'm left with a ton of questions, but the most important to me is who is the impostor that will bring war upon humans? I'm afraid of what the answer might be! Amazing story!

Stephanie is after Eddie DeChooch this time, and she is not exactly pleased because she is not a fan of people who know their ways with guns. Or the fact that he is old and may be dating her grandmother. However, when Dougie disappears and Mooner asks Stephanie for help the whole chase gets serious. How can an old man hide from everyone while driving a flashy white Cadillac? And to make Stephanie's woes worse, there's Morelli and a wedding to get away from, not to mention Ranger and his sexy antics.

I liked this story because it probably is impossible for me not to like Stephanie and her weird life and acquaintances, but I felt the pace was somehow slow. No explosions, no big laugh out loud moment, no big romance, not much of anything besides a very long chase. There was Lula, granda Mazur, Bob and it was fun to read, but it's the first of the series that I felt the plot wasn't unravelling but just going around in circles.

"Death and the girl next door" is the first of the trilogy "Darklight", and as expected a lot of questions are left unanswered. Lorelei is a young girl being raised by her grandparents since her parents disappeared several years ago. She has two great friends, Brooklyn and Glitch, and the three of them are there to support each other through thick and thin. Lorelei has scattered visions and one day she sees a strange battle between a monster and a beautiful boy. After that, she notices she is being stalked by another student named Cameron - a strange boy with no friends. Lorelei eventually realises Cameron may not be after her at all, but after the beautiful boy she saw in her vision and who has materialised as a student in her high school. Suddenly Lorelei's world becomes way more complicated and a sea of questions arise with very dark beings. Is this weird group of friends strong enough to battle dark forces?

I loooved this book and can't believe I have to wait until March to read the second one. I was sort of worried because it is young adult, but it reads beautifully. The dialogues are witty and fun, I love Glitch for being the comic relief. It's very fast paced and although every main character is easy to love, each has a lot of intriguing layers and nobody is left without secrets - which makes the story awesome. Don't think it's a simple group of friends in a big adventure, the whole plot runs deeper and gets darker as it evolves, but somehow Darynda manages to maintain the innocence afloat. And the strong friendship between the three main characters is enough to make us believe they'll make it through every dark thing that is yet to come. Hopefully!