City of Bones by Cassandra Clare REVIEW

City of Bones
Author: Cassandra Clare 
Publisher: Margaret K. McElderry Books
Publication Date: 2007 


     I had been planning to start The Mortal Instruments series for a while now, and I have finally gotten to reading and finishing the first book. I began The Infernal Devices series last year and have yet to read Clockwork Princess, but I finished the other two fairly quickly and fell in love with the world that the books brought me to. So, after reading the series that precedes this one, I felt it necessary to one day read City of Bones. The day has come! I have very little complaints and very many words of praise so lets begin with the review.

     To begin with the cover art - it's awesome. I bought my copy of the book from Barnes & Noble and got the paperback version and although I wish I had gotten the hardcover (because my copy got a little beat up) I am still able to enjoy the very captivating cover. It gives you glimpses of the setting and one of our main characters but without blatantly revealing it all - it sparks the imagination just enough. It's a pretty thick book, I will say, and I found it hard to hold while reading sometimes because it wasn't sturdy enough to hold regularly, but it wasn't "bendy" enough to fold over in the usual "paperback book fashion." But oh well, enough about aesthetics, on with the summary/review.

     City of Bones introduces us to the world of Shadowhunters - a world I admittedly would love to be a part of. In this book we meet Clarissa "Clary" Fray, who is all of a sudden propelled into this world after coming across Jace Wayland, Isabelle Lightwood, and Alec Lightwood one night in New York City. We learn, as the story goes on that this encounter is not a simple coincidence, but it must've been fate. For, Clary plays a much bigger role in the world of these three young Shadowhunters than she could have ever imagined. I don't want to give much away, and the summary that Cassandra Clare herself wanted to reveal can be found on/in any copy of the book. But let me just say this is the kind of book where I just want to fly through the rest of the series right away and take in all of the information about this storyline as I can. The book offers readers romance, suspense, action, moments where you'll want to be crying and other where you'll be laughing aloud. It truly captivated me and once I got to the third part of the book I found myself putting off reading any further because I wasn't quite ready to finish the story. It sounds silly, but this is definitely one of the books that you will read and get invested in. And it will certainly be a tough time sitting in the movie theaters come August 23 if the movie ruins any parts of this beautifully written piece of literature because there is so much that I feel could be left out even though to me, and probably to many other readers, it's important.

     I fell completely in love with Jace Waylan, one of our leading males, while reading this book. And the plot twists with his character's story line left me speechless and wanting more. Although I know the true star of this first book is Clary, Jace just tugged on my heartstrings. But the great thing about this book is that every character stands out - no matter how small. And even chapters ahead I can remember their names and their roles in the events leading up to the current story. That is always important to me when reading a book because I hate having to flip back all of the time to refresh my own memory so that what I am currently reading makes sense. Clare does a good job of writing in a memorable way and really grabbing your attention. She makes her characters understandable but the text isn't so simple that it feels childish or boring at any point. She also did a good job of leaving us with a resolution while leaving some things left unsaid. So, while there was no big cliffhanger & I'm not angry because I feel like I got jipped once I got to the end, I still am so excited just to find out what happens next. I couldn't even bring myself to read the first small portion of Book Two that is included in the back of my copy because I knew if I did read it I would have to go out right away and grab City of Ashes even though I have three books at home waiting to be read next.

     You can probably tell how much I enjoyed this book by my rambling on in the previous paragraphs,  but the bottom line is: this book is a super enjoyable read and really gets you excited about everything that's in it. I highly recommend reading it - especially before the movie comes out! If you have any specific questions or a question about something I didn't address in this post, feel free to ask and I'll be sure to get back to you! If you've been wondering about this book or if you've been searching for a new book to read, I hope this helped!



                               Sincerely,

         Spenser Lee & Simply Lovely Lit

Tiger Lily by Jodi Lynn Anderson REVIEW

Tiger Lily
Author: Jodi Lynn Anderson
Publisher: Harper Teen 
Publication Date: 2012 


    I read Tiger Lily over the summer, and since then I have filled my brain with a college semster's worth of knowledge and hopefully not forgotten enough to mar the value of this review. If I falter on the plot or details, I can assure you that the one thing I know for certain is that I absolutely loved this book. 

    As always, beginning with the cover, it's pretty cool. At first glance you may think it is an actual tiger lily, the flower, but it's actually a girl in a fiery gown curved in just a way that the strips of fabric fan out like petals. The actual hard cover is simply orange with a black binding over the spine - I'm not usually a fan of the orange-and-black theme unless its Halloween, but I guess it goes with the motif of the flower. 

    Now, on to the story. This review may be short, but it'll be sweet. This story tells the tale of Neverland and Tiger Lily pre-Pan (as in Peter). I have loved the story of Peter Pan since I was little, I even had a crush on the cartoon version (not really sure how that happens). When you open up the front cover of the book it says, "Before Peter Pan belonged to Wendy, he belonged to the girl with the crow feather in her hair..." So I had to hear about this romance that had never crossed my mind as a possibility, and I am very happy I did. Major props to Jodi Lynn Anderson, because in my opinion, it takes a lot of creativity and guts to create a story that thrives off of the existence of an already-successful one. I think this for two reasons: one, you are writing something that could potentially conflict with the perceptions of the fans of the already-established work and they will react negatively towards your story, and two, you have to write in accordance with every little detail that occurred in the first story and find a way to make it fit in a believable way. It takes a lot of thought, consideration, and imagination to do those things, and Jodi Lynn Anderson was very successful in the creation and publication of Tiger Lily. 

    I'm not going to lie, this story had me crying. Even though I flew threw it (because I was so into it),  I got so attached to the characters and fell in love with the story. It changed my opinions of the characters that had already existed in my mind for so long, I fell farther in love with some, fell out of love with others, but still had an extreme appreciation for both stories. Peter Pan is such a classic, and if you loved it as a kid and just aren't satisfied with one trip to Neverland, pick up Tiger Lily and go there again, it's worth it.  

    If you have any specific questions or a question about an aspect I didn't cover, feel free to ask, but my bottom line is: It's such a fantastic read and definitely worth it! If you've been wondering about this book or searching for a new book, I hope this helped!



                                Sincerely, 

                   Spenser Lee & Simply Lovely Lit
    

Grave Mercy by Robin LaFevers REVIEW

Grave Mercy (His Fair Assassin Series #1)

Author: Robin LaFevers

Publisher: Houghton Mifflin

Publication Date: 2012

     Since reading The Hunger Games series in February, I've really been into reading books that star a kick-ass female protagonist who makreaes me wish I could live a few days in her shoes or just escape into the world that she lives in for a little while as a spectator. In this book, Ismae is our leading lady, and she lives in the European country of Brittany in the 1400s. I've always had a thing for the Medieval and Renaissance periods, so when I flipped to the first page of text and saw that the date read "1485" I was really excited to see what historical aspects were incorporated into the story. I love books with a real historical basis, because since it's based on truth I feel like it makes the story that much more significant to me knowing some of these people were living, breathing individuals dealing with decisions and obstacles that I am so enthralled with now in 2012. But anyway, before I get more into the wonderful literary aspects of the book, I want to talk about the esthetics because I am the kind of reader who does judge a book by it's cover.

    The cover of the book is really well done, complete with the quote "Why be the sheep when you can be the wolf?" I love the quote, and the spine of the book has a little wolf image on it which I thought was cool/cute. The actual hard cover is your run-of-the-mill black cover with gold writing on the spine. I tend to like when a symbol of some sort is placed on the front of the hard cover to give it some mystery and prettiness, but it's really not that big of a deal. Past the publication and dedication pages, there is a map of the parts of Europe in which the story takes place, which I always love to see in books so that I can go back and re-trace the character's journey. Past the map is a dramatis personae, which I also loved because I love the theater and plays and there were a few allusions I picked up on that hinted at the theater, and some of the interactions between characters are deceitful and false as if it were "all just a ruse or a play."

   Now, let's get down to the nitty-gritty of it all. It's a good book. I didn't really feel like it was slow at all in the beginning (which I feel with most books that I read and end up loving), and I finished the book really quickly because I couldn't bring myself to put it down even though it's a huge book and my hands aren't big enough to easily hold it open for hours! The story of Ismae is empowering and touching, and you really can't help but root for her through the whole book. You quickly find yourself thinking about the other characters as she would, and sometimes I even found myself reading some of the things she said out loud (as embarrassing as that is) as if I were reading her lines in a show. You also learn to love Anne, the Duchess, who is actually a real historical figure that had a life just how it is described in the book. Other characters you're introduced to don't really exist historically, but after reading this book it's really hard to believe they didn't. 

   This book has a little of everything. Action (tons of it). Love. True Friendship. Faith. Death. Sorrow. Joy. And, since the book is the first in a trilogy it certainly leaves you wanting more, but the ending is not one of those heart-wrenching cliff hangers that you want to re-read over and over because you can't buy the next book until next  year! If you find yourself reading dystopian books similar to the Hunger Games, there's a good chance you'll like this book, but the books have very different plots, Ismae and Katniss are definitely not comparable, and the time period is in the past - not the future so they can only be so much in common. 

   If you have any specific questions or a question about an aspect I didn't cover, feel free to ask, but my bottom line is: read it. It's worth it! If you've been wondering about this book or searching for a new book, I hope this helped!

                             Sincerely,

                     

                  Spenser Lee & Simply Lovely Lit