52 in 52: January

January's total is 8. That's 15% of my total after the first month so I'm pretty happy to be a couple of books ahead already.

As well as the three books in the Mortal Instruments series I mentioned here, I also read Cassandra Clare's - The Clockwork Angel which is book one in her new prequel series, The Infernal Devices. I didn't enjoy it as much as the other three books, I think perhaps the Victorian setting was to blame there. I did enjoy meeting new characters but it was also a nice bonus to see some familiar faces too. I'm looking forward to reading more from this author - she's certainly one of my favourite YA authors at the moment.

Also read:
Nightshade by Andrea Cremer.

The reviews for this were good but it didn't really do it for me. Another YA urban fantasy but not the best in this genre. The feminists (me included) will want to slap the heroine and I felt some of the characters were under-developed - which meant the inevitable love triangle was hard to believe. I still don't get the attraction to the new guy. There was some good bits - like some of the wolf/pack descriptions but sometimes it felt like every teenage cliche had been thrown in there.

I read the whole thing which is something I guess, and the cover is pretty. But yeah. If you are looking for the best in YA - this isn't it.








For fun I read Pride and Prejudice and Zombies: Dawn of the Dreadfuls. This is theprequel to P&P&Z which explains how the Bennett sisters come to be zombie slayers. At times this had me giggling and I really loved how the author kept true to some of the characters even while they faced a horde of "dreadfuls". P&P will always be one of my favourite "classics" (even more so the film versions with a dashing Matthew MacFadygen as Mr Darcy....just saying) and I enjoyed what we here in New Zealand would call this irreverent "piss take". I'm very keen to read P&P&Z (the proper) now. Funny, quick, irreverent - a perfect, lazy summer read. It also has a pretty cool cover.



Heart's Blood by Juliet Marillier was a fast, easy read by one of my favourite fantasy authors. She was born in New Zealand but writes from Australia and I have several of her books from the Sevenwaters series. Heart's Blood is a stand alone book - a touching tale of love and redemption against a backdrop of a mysterious spooky forest and the "folk" who live there. If you like olde worlde type fantasies I can't recommend Marlillier's work highly enough. It's been several years since I read any of her books and I am hoping to catch up on the Sevenwaters series this year as there have been a couple more books published.

February already (where did the summer go?) and I just read a book in under 24hr (!) so I am well on track for cracking 52 books this year.

I'm keeping a list of "to-reads" on goodreads.com so if you have any must reads for me I'd love to hear them!