Jinx by Meg Cabot

Title: Jinx
Author: Meg Cabot 
Release Date: August 1st 2007
Publisher: HarperTeen
Genre: Young Adult, Paranormal
Series: Stand-alone
Pages: 272
Format: Hardback
Rating: ★★★

"Jean Honeychurch hates her boring name (not Jean Marie, or Jeanette, just . . . Jean). What's worse? Her all-too-appropriate nickname, Jinx. Misfortune seems to follow her everywhere she goes even to New York City, where Jinx has moved to get away from the huge mess she caused in her small hometown. Her aunt and uncle welcome her to their Manhattan town house, but her beautiful cousin Tory isn't so thrilled. . . .

In fact, Tory is hiding a dangerous secret one that could put them all in danger. Soon Jinx realizes it isn't just bad luck she's been running from . . . and that the curse she has lived under since the day she was born may be the only thing that can save her life." Source, Goodreads.

---

I just finished reading Jinx and what else can I say but, hmmm. Now I've read a few of Meg Cabot's fiction books which I must admit I rather enjoyed, but this is the first of her YA novels I've picked up and I'm slightly disappointed. Now the other books of hers I've read I knew what I was getting into. I picked up a chick lit expecting a chick lit. Jinx on the other hand I did not expect. After reading the blurb I expected a rather high emphasis on witchcraft. I expected magical twists and turns but really all I got was contemporary fiction. 

Odd, I'm sure I picked up a paranormal book with a paranormal plot, but that's not what I got. Yes there were scenes of witchcraft and spells, but really I just felt like these parts had been added into the plot purely because it was a popular topic and might have sold more copies. One thing I don't particularly like is being conned into buying a book, I much prefer to go into something roughly knowing what to expect. I think if the paranormal aspect had been removed and Jinx was just unlucky and had a 'real' stalker I would have enjoyed the plot a lot more. Seen as I'm not going to get my wish I'll just remove those paranormal aspects myself and judge the book as contemporary YA. The plot was ok. I enjoyed that the story was set in New York and though I've never actually visited myself I felt she captured how I imagine NY to be. The relationship between Jean and Zach kept me interested and though it pained me how Jean was completely unaware of Zach love for her I enjoyed watching as thier story unfold. I think the stalker aspect was a little odd, or at least Jean's reaction to it. Early on in the book you find out that the reason Jean moves to New York was to escape her stalker back in Iowa. If I was in Jean's boots I would be terrified, where as Jean doesn't really give it a second though except to blame herself. Seriously the whole stalker sub-plot could have been taken a lot further. I personally loved Petra and though we didn't get to see her that much I though her role was very important. And last but not least Tory Jean's cousin. Well, well, well, Tory. Tory is riddled with jealously, and I guess jealous people do crazy things and Tory is no exception. 

Overall if we slot this into the paranormal category I would have to give this book a very low rating of 1 star because I just don't feel it meets all the requirements of being a good paranormal book. Where as if we place this into the contemporary section and remove all the paranormal mumbo-jumbo I would have to give this a 4-5 stars. For this reason only I give Jinx 3 stars. I do feel like I've been lied to, but overall I enjoyed it.

Katie

Review: Linger by Maggie Stiefvater

Title: Linger

Author: Maggie Stiefvater

Release Date: July 20th 2010

Publisher: Scholastic

Genre: Young Adult, Paranormal fantasy

Series: The Wolves of Mercy Falls

Pages: 420

Format: Paperback

Rating: ★★★

"Grace and Sam must fight to be together. For Grace, this means defying her parents and keeping dangerous secrets. For Sam, it means grappling with his werewolf past ...and figuring out a way to survive the future.

But just when they manage to find happiness, Grace finds herself changing in ways she could never have expected..." information from Goodreads.

---

Linger is the second book in the Mercy Falls Wolves Series. Though I didn't really enjoy the writing style of Shiver (the first book) I still needed to know where Maggie Stiefvater was taking the story. I wont go into too much detail about Linger just incase you have not read Shiver but I will say that you have to read this series.

At first I struggled with the writing style due to the story being written from the point of view of all the main characters. I felt that in Shiver I struggled to differentiate between the characters Sam and Grace and found myself flicking back to the beginning of each chapter to find out which character I was reading about. When I realised that in Linger even more characters had been added with the same writing style I wondered how I was going to cope. I'm not sure if I just got used to it or if Maggie's writing improved but I coped a lot better than I expected.One negative point about this book was the new characters. I found that more emphasis was put upon them and less upon the original characters, Grace and Sam. This I didn't enjoy as much as I loved Sam and Grace's growth in book one and wanted to learn more about them. But once I got my head around the new dynamics I learnt to enjoy these new characters. Phew! It's tricky to review a book that's part of a series without spoilers so I'm hoping that this is ok.

Katie

Review: Hush, Hush by Becca Fitzpatrick

Title: Hush ,Hush
Author: Becca Fitzpatrick


Release Date: December 9th 2010
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Children's
Genre: Young Adult, Paranormal Fantasy
Series: Hush, Hush
Pages: 391
Format: Paperback
Rating: ★★★

"For Nora Grey, romance was not part of the plan. She's never been particularly attracted to the boys at her school, no matter how much her best friend, Vee, pushes them at her. Not until Patch came along. With his easy smile and eyes that seem to see inside her, Nora is drawn to him against her better judgment. 

But after a series of terrifying encounters, Nora's not sure who to trust. Patch seems to be everywhere she is, and to know more about her than her closest friends. She can't decide whether she should fall into his arms or run and hide. And when she tries to seek some answers, she finds herself near a truth that is way more unsettling than anything Patch makes her feel. For Nora is right in the middle of an ancient battle between the immortal and those that have fallen - and, when it comes to choosing sides, the wrong choice will cost her life."

---

My thoughts: Becca Fitzpatrick creates atmosphere easily to build fear for the characters very early on in this book, leaving the reader constantly guessing, and with a great twist at the end, which admittedly is quite predictable, but still very interesting and enjoyable. I wish that the front cover of this book didn't spoil the plot, as I'm sure that the writer was trying to create mystery around the character Patch, but unfortunately the image of a fallen angel make's this 'mystery' fall flat on it's face. I did find many similarities to other story lines which was slightly disappointing. Let me explain. 

I'm sure you have all heard of Twilight, well who hasn't? Now I'm not saying that this is about vampires or that the writer has ripped off the plot from this novel, but certain aspects have definitely made an appearance. For example the two main characters, Nora and Patch, meet for the first time at high school in Biology class. Fair enough, where else would a high school student meet a mysterious student? But was it entirely necessary for the chosen class to be Biology? Well it kind of was. There were issues raised within the book that that could only be raised within a biology lesson, so I guess we'll let the writer off with this one. The other plot that this book reminded me of is not a book. In fact it is the British T.V series, Hex. I'm not sure how popular this series was, as I'm pretty sure that it was cancelled after the second series. No surprise really as the main, much loved character was killed off within the first few episodes of the second series, then replaced by a much feistier, female demon killer. If you've not heard of this series it too is about a fallen angel that needs to seduce a human to spawn a child, which will bring on the earths destruction. In fact the nearer to the end of Hush, hush, the more I was reminded of Hex. This could be completely coincidental as the writer may have never seen this series, so for this we will also let her off.

I guess that I would recommend this book, I think it's one that I love to hate (slightly.) I did throughly enjoy parts but some just didn't feel quite right. I'm very curious to see where the story leads so there's no doubt that I will end up picking up the next two books in the series, Crescendo, which is out now and Silence, which the hardback version will be released November 4th 2011 in the UK. Gosh I really am a sucker for paranormal series.