Book Review: The Iron Trial

TITLE: The Iron Trial
Book 1 in the Magisterium series
AUTHOR: Holly Black and Cassandra Clare
PUBLISHED: September 9th, 2014
CATEGORY: Middle-Grade
GENRE: Fantasy
PREMISE: In a world where everyone wants to go to magic school, Cass doesn't. But unfortunately, he has no choice.
MY REVIEW: I was just thinking to myself about how I needed to get into another magical boarding school type thing and lo and behold, one appears. I love fantasy set ups like this one: misfit goes to magic school and finds friendship. That's basically what this series is, as well as one that throws in diversity and snark.
Basically, I loved this. It's like the perfect mixture of angst and fun. The result is a massively entertaining book. True, it tended to info-dump a bit, but for the most part, this was a good set-up series debut that didn't treat its readers like they were dumb (something middle-grade can sometimes be guilty of). That cliff hanger at the end will especially leave you wanting the next book immediately.
This book was pretty much what I've come to expect from Black and Clare and they delivered. It was a fun ride and I can't wait for more.
WHO SHOULD READ: Holly Black fans, Cassandra Clare fans, Harry Potter fans
MY RATING: Four out of Five snarky misfits

Book Review: The Alchemy of Forever

TITLE: The Alchemy of Forever
Book 1 in the Incarnation series
AUTHOR: Avery Williams
PUBLISHED: 2012
CATEGORY: YA
GENRE: urban fantasy, romance
PREMISE: Sera has been reincarnated time and again and finally she has had enough and runs from the one reincarnating her, but then he finds her again.
MY REVIEW: Okay here's the thing, when one doesn't really think too hard about this book. It seems really good. There isn't anything completely wrong with it. Writing is decent, a somewhat interesting plot, and so on. The technical aspects of it are all right.
For me I think the problem mostly lies with the main character who is just so...BORING. I mean she seems cool and interesting for the first few chapters but then she quickly falls into Mary Sue category by the middle. I mean really, she has next to NO PROBLEM fitting into this brand new life that she knows NOTHING ABOUT. In fact, she's practically better at this life then the original occupant who gets much judgement from Sera in my opinion even though they've never met and oh yeah, Sera is the one stealing her life when she swore she was never going to do such a thing again. After that it's just little things that kept bugging me such as a million little plot holes, lack of explanation for how any of this is possible, a cheesetastic villian, two-dimensional characters, lackluster instant romance with next to no basis, and a ending that was abrupt. Look, I like cliffhangers and everything, but that was a bad cliffhanger and very anti-climatic.
The thing is this book just wasn't too my taste but I'm fairly certain there are many readers out there who may get a kick out of it. So I don't totally write it off. It's a decent enough debut. I just personally couldn't get into it. I think this is one of those you should check out from the library first to see if it's for you.
WHO SHOULD READ: romance fans, those not bothered by lack of details
MY RATING: Three and a half out of Five alchemy books

Book Review: Once a Witch

TITLE: Once a Witch
Book 1 in the Witch series
AUTHOR: Carolyn MacCullough
PUBLISHED: 2009
CATEGORY: Young adult
GENRE: Witches, urban fantasy, drama
PREMISE: A girl with no magic in a family full of magic users tries to find her place in the world.
MY REVIEW: I actually quite enjoyed this book. True, one or two things were obvious. The MC was a bit annoying at times, and the writing isn't anything special. But it's one of those books you just can't help but enjoy.
One of the things I loved was the world MacCullough created. She thought it through (mostly, the time traveling is a bit funky) and it was a fun world to be in. The plot was also a solid one. I'm a sucker for family drama and this one had that in spades. Granted I would have prefered the MC to wind up not having powers at the end because I think that would have been a better message about how you are just fine the way you are but still, it made for a interesting twist. I didn't even mind the romance. Gabriel was a fun love interest.
All in all this was a fun addition to the witch genre. I look forward to reading Always a Witch.
WHO SHOULD READ: Witch fans, fans of family drama
MY RATING: Four out of Five spell books

Book Review: The Magnolia League

TITLE: The Magnolia League
Book 1 in a new series
AUTHOR: Katie Crouch
PUBLISHED: 2011
CATEGORY: Young adult
GENRE: witches, urban fantasy, mystery
PREMISE: Alex goes to live with her grandmother in the south and learns that she is the heir to a powerful society embroiled in deep magic.
MY REVIEW: I'm somewhat embarressed to admit it, but I really liked this a lot. Why am I embarressed you ask? Because while I liked it, the novel is cheesy. Like almost every YA trope you can think of is in here cheesy. Also it stereotypes a lot. But to the author's credit for every southern/hippie stereotype that was in there she threw in a character who went against the stereotype. Also Alex was a rather frusterating main character who constantly flip-flopped all over the place and once again, it had a boring stock romance that was predictable.
But for all its cheesyness and slightly frusterats something intrigues me about this series. The dynamics between Alex, Hayes, and Madison were interesting too me for one. There's also a somewhat interesting plot here involving magic and there's very interesting world building going on. Writing is also decent but considering the author has written adult books before this I'm not surprised about that. This book just had a lot of stuff in it that tends to make me happy (such as Dex and Madison who are by far the best parts about this thing).
There are definite twists at the end I wasn't expecting and it makes me eager to read the next book. So a fantastic series? No. It's very generic in terms of YA. But it is a entertaining book and not horrible. There's definitely a lot to like here and keep you hooked.
RATING: Four out of Five white gloves for a decent read.

Book Review: Demonglass

TITLE: Demonglass
Book 2 in the Hex Hall series
AUTHOR: Rachel Hawkins
PUBLISHED: 2011
CATEGORY: Young adult
GENRE: magic, fantasy, romance, mystery
SHORT PREMISE: Sophie deals with her demon powers during her summer break.
MY REVIEW: Sophie and co. return in the sequel to Hex Hall. Sophie is headed to England to spend time with dear old dad and learn about her demon heritage with her friends Jenna and Cal who never bothered to mention they were betrothed while she was flirting with Archer who is in England and who she no longer has feelings for. Really.
Hex Hall was one of my top ten books from 2010 so I anticipated this book something fierce. Only reason it took me so long to get to is because I had several other books I need to finish first. Damn reading pile keeps growing you know? I devoured this in a few short hours and oh man, I could not approve more with what Hawkins has done. She took it totally in a direction I didn't expect. She introduced new characters and plot developements and made a love triangle that didn't drive me nuts with it's pointlessness. Oh, for the record, Team Cal y'all. I know Sophie will probably end up with Archer cause that's how these things go but damn, I'm rooting for Cal if only because he is made of awesomeness (and so is Archer, I just like Cal more). Isn't it nice having male leads that don't make you want to roll your eyes with their sexism or one-dimensionalism? Yay for good male love interests!
The only thing that keeps this series from being brilliant is that it's not terribly original. However, the way Hawkins writes it and what she focuses on makes the series feel fresh and shiny and the wit and fiesty heroine is definitely a breath of fresh air. After that cliffhanger (JENNA! NO! PLEASE DON'T BE DEAD! Sorry, she's my fav)I cannot wait for the next book that is sadly not till next year.
WHO SHOULD READ: Those that read Hex Hall, Harry Potter fans, Sabrina the Teenage Witch fans, magic school book fans
MY RATING: Four and a half out of Five grimoires

Book Review: Blood Magic

TITLE: Blood Magic
Book 1 in the Blood Journals
AUTHOR: Tessa Gratton
PUBLISHED: 2011
CATEGORY: Young adult
GENRE: magic, urban fantasy, drama, romance
SHORT PREMISE: A girl discovers a dark use for blood.
MY REVIEW: Silla has just discovered her father may not be as crazy as everyone else believed because it turns out that magic actually exists. New boy Nick helps her and her brother figure out the magic without realizing it's deadly consequences.
Blood Magic is a debut book and for a debut book, it's not bad. I've certainly read worse. The idea of the blood magic was very interesting and I liked that the author was not afraid to go as dark as she went with the magical consequences. I also mildly liked Silla and her character. HOWEVER, the writing and characters in this don't do the book any favors. Because this is a first book, the author does many of the first book mistakes: instant love with no developement, stereotyped characters in high school, non-fleshed out main characters (though Silla and her brother did have something going for them so it wasn't a complete loss), and the ever annoying alternating pov. Seriously, what was the point of that? You could have done the entire book in Silla's pov without losing anything major and it would of made it better because frankly Nick was annoying and a jerk. I found myself skipping his povs because he didn't add anything useful and I found him irritating.
It was a decent effort, don't get me wrong. But the author needs to work on prose and needs to not bother with alternating povs next time. She also needs to develop characters and relationships better. With some work this author could be very good. But her first book is just okay. It never really got into that OMG!I love this phase.
WHO SHOULD READ: fans of magic books, you don't mind alternating povs
MY RATING: Three and a half out of Five dead rabbits