'The Yellow Room' by Jess Vallance

*This review will contain spoilers!*

'It's about half seven on Tuesday morning and it's freezing in my bedroom so I'm doing my usual trick of gathering all of my uniform together in one quick sweep, dragging it into bed with me and getting dressed completely under the duvet.'

I think everyone's going to relate to this first sentence: no one likes getting out of bed when it's cold!

Anna is on her way to school when the postman gives her a letter that changes her life. It's from a woman called Edie Southwood, and she's writing to inform Anna that her absent father is dead.

Edie, her father's long-term girlfriend, is utterly distraught by his passing. She asks Anna if they can meet, and against the wishes of her best friends George and Sienna, Anna agrees. If meeting her will help this woman's guilt, it's the least she can do.

Edie brings Anna a necklace that her father wanted her to have, and Anna wastes no time before asking about her father: it's too late to meet him, but it's not too late to get to know him. 

After a few hours in the cafe, Anna quickly comes to the realisation that she actually likes Edie. Her mother is a university professor who has no time for her: even though Edie is naive and innocent, her friendship is the closest Anna has to a parental bond. After a few trips to the seaside Edie decides she's going to relocate there and starts looking for flats, and Anna's happy to help. She's just grateful that her father's death didn't ruin Edie's chance for happiness.

But Anna's mother isn't the only problem in her life. She's being blackmailed by Leon Jakes-Field, a boy who goes to her school, because he saw her push a child she was babysitting (in self-defence, nonetheless). Leon thinks he's hot shit because his mum is a best-selling author, and he's certain he's going to follow in her footsteps. Anna hates him, but she can't let him know that or he'll send her life crashing down around her.

Anna confides in Evie, and the shared knowledge of her secret brings them closer together. She can't tell George or Sienna about Leon or the fact that she's still seeing Evie, and the secrets drive a wedge between their little trio. 

Then Anna gets a phone call, and it seems her dad might not be dead after all. So who is Edie Southwood, and why did she lie?

This is the YA answer to 'The Collector' by John Fowles. As that's one of my favourite classics of all time, you'd be betting correctly if you said I bloody loved this book.

It's psychological as shit. 

First of all you've got the blackmail from Leon, an intensely creepy asshole who manipulates Anna and gets so uncomfortably far into her personal space that you'll find yourself cringing in response while you read. 

Then you've got the relationship between Anna and her mother, which is a fascinating but heartbreakingly realistic depiction of a parent/child relationship. Not every family unit is a happy one, and that's not often represented in YA - often teenage characters have parents that they can turn to, confide in and rely on, but in real life that isn't always the case. 

Last but not least there's Edie, who tries to do everything right but goes about it in completely the wrong way. Edie genuinely thinks she's helping Anna - a fact which makes her barricading her in her spare room all the harder to understand. It's utterly chilling to read, even if it does feel a little rushed: it wouldn't have been good if there had been gratuitous, unnecessary scenes of Anna trapped in the yellow room, but it would have added to the significance of the setting that gives us our title. 

The only reason I didn't give this book five stars is because Anna never has to deal with her problems herself. Edie talks to Leon's mum and she deals with her son, forcing him to delete his so-called 'evidence' before shipping him off to Africa to work for his uncle. Anna's relationship with her mother is only changed when she saves her from Edie's yellow room, and Anna doesn't have to plot her escape because her parents and the police turn up to save the day. On the one hand, it's realistic - not many 16-year-olds have to deal with their problems entirely independently - but it's disappointing. 

That being said, I was so happy with how Jess finished the story. Edie gets the help that she needs and Anna isn't angry with her, which was a relief: sometimes people act out of character because of mental illness, and you can't hold what they do against them. Anna and her mother decide they're going to work on their problems, while Anna's dad leaves town again - it's not a straightforward happily ever after, because life rarely is! Being someone who only has one parent, I was worried that Anna's dad was going to rock up and be seen as the knight in shining armour: I could have cheered with happiness when Anna and her mum teamed up to show him they didn't think he was their saviour. 

This is an entirely satisfying standalone. 

I wish I'd read this book earlier. I'm definitely going to give Jess Vallance's debut novel, 'Birdy', a try: not many young adult authors are attempting to write contemporary psychological dramas, so this book was a refreshing change from the status quo. 

'Liccle Bit' (South Crongton Trilogy #1) by Alex Wheatle

*This review will contain spoilers!*

'I didn't want to be known as a snitch - snitches in Crongton had the same lifespan as a choc ice on a barbecue.'

'It all started two months ago. A normal day at school, if you can call going to my school normal.'

War is raging between North and South Crongton. Members of both gangs are getting deleted weekly, making the tension in the area unbearable.

Liccle Bit - Lemar - isn't a member of the South Crong crew. His mum would kill him if he got involved with Manjaro, the leader of the gang and his nephew's father. He's only fourteen and even though he's a very talented artist his entire family are eager for him to do well at school, just in case his art career doesn't pan out. 

But Lemar's life takes a turn for the unexpected when Manjaro singles him out. He wonders if he's trying to get closer to Jerome, because Lemar's sister Elaine doesn't want her violent, cheating ex anywhere near their son. He does all that he can to avoid Manjaro, but when the toughest man in South Crong asks you for a favour, it's impossible to say no... 

'Liccle Bit' isn't the kind of book I would normally try. I only picked it up because the sequel, 'Crongton Knights', is on the shortlist for the YA Book Prize and I'm reading every book in the running for the award.
This is a realistic representation of the working class, but it does verge on stereotypical at times. There's a vast spectrum of difference within the working class, and this is a very specific area to focus upon, but Alex Wheatle's focus doesn't waver.
Despite the fact that Lemar isn't directly involved with the gangs at the start of the novel, they're still a prominent aspect of his life. His family are always going to be intrinsically linked to them because of Jerome, which nicely demonstrated the way that the choices of your family can inadvertently impact your life. It also shows the problem with living in a violent area: it permeates everything, meaning that even if you aren't part of it, you're made a part of it just because of your postcode.
The exploration of why people get involved with gangs is fascinating. Manjaro justifies selling drugs and being violent, thinking of his crew as a kind of family. He has an all for one, one for all attitude

"Every loss is our loss and every profit is our profit."

and uses his ill-gotten gains to help his 'employees' afford higher education, even teaching them maths and English while they work for him. Lemar finds this out when he stays at Manjaro's house one night after an argument with his sister. When his family aren't there for him, Manjaro is, which explains why people feel loyalty to gangs: they may feel as though they have no one else looking after them, and no one wants to be alone.
The comparisons between the gang are family are laced throughout the book, and I'm looking forward to seeing if that discussion continues in the future installments. Lemar's parents are divorced, and because his father has a new wife and daughter and his mother doesn't like hearing about them, they also feel like two warring gangs.
Alex Wheatle is a genius when it comes to using informal language. He incorporates the lingo perfectly, bringing the characters to life, even if it is a little exhausting to get your head around at the beginning. The banter between Lemar and his best friends, McKay and Jonah, had me laughing out loud at multiple points

"Man! If I had ten minutes with Venetia," Jonah remarked.

"If you had ten minutes with her, you wouldn't know what to do, bruv," laughed McKay.

and it was nice to see such a great friendship between the three. They might mock and laugh at each other, but they support each other through thick and thin, and that's what's important. I also enjoyed Lemar's friendship with Venetia, though I'm not-so-secretly hoping it'll develop into more...

This is proof that you should always read outside your comfort zone. My assumptions were smashed to the ground, and I'm now looking forward to reading both 'Crongton Knights' and 'Straight Outta Crongton', the last book in the trilogy which was released earlier this month. Knowing that 'Crongton Knights' won the 2016 Guardian Children's prize, I'm expecting it to get better from here. 

'The State of Grace' by Rachael Lucas - SPOILER FREE REVIEW

First things first, I need to say a huge thank you to Macmillan Children's Books for accepting my request to view this book via NetGalley, and to NetGalley for the service that they provide.

'I need to be quiet, somewhere, and just let myself settle, like a snow globe. But it's hard to make people understand that.' 

'Being a human is a complicated game - like seeing a ghost in the mirror and trying to echo everything they do.' 

This opening line is so easy to relate to, but Grace is actually playing the game on a higher difficulty setting to most of us: she has Asperger's, which can make interacting with other people a daily struggle.

There's a lot happening in Grace's life.
Her dad is a wildlife photographer who has flown off to shoot polar bears, and her mum is struggling without him. Eve, an old friend from her university days, arrives on the scene and automatically starts meddling: she doesn't think that Grace and her thirteen-year-old sister Leah should rely on their mum as much as they do and encourages her to start living for herself rather than her daughters. The house falls into disarray as their mum starts spending all of her time with Eve, reliving her youth and neglecting her grown-up responsibilities.
Leah's got a new best friend, buddying up with the little sister of Grace's arch nemesis, Holly. Grace can't understand why Leah stopped hanging out with her old best friend, and her sister doesn't want to talk to her about it.
Then there's Gabe - the new kid at school with a bad boy reputation - who kissed Grace at a party during a game of spin the bottle, and may (or may not) be her boyfriend now. Being a teenage girl is hard, and Grace's Asperger's makes everything tougher.
Grace struggles to adapt to the new normal, because she hates change so much. All she wants is a guide to help her deal with everything going on, but because no one's offering her one it looks as though Grace is going to have to try to fix everything by herself.

I enjoyed reading 'The State of Grace' so much that I want to disregard the things I didn't like about it, and not many books make me feel like that!
I love this book, because I think it's going to do good things for a lot of people. Autism is not common in YA, which adds to the assumption that's it's "not normal". In reality, over 700,000 people in the UK are on the autistic spectrum, which boils down to about 1 in 100 people. It's not the norm, but it's not actually that rare, which means it should be easier for people who are on the spectrum to find themselves in novels. Reading about things is a great way to learn and to breed acceptance, so more autistic characters would improve the way the general population act towards autistic people: rather than seeing them as troublemakers, it would be easier to accept the fact that they're just different, and that's not necessarily a bad thing.
'The State of Grace' is an #OwnVoices novel, because Rachael Lucas has Asperger's. She directly tackles the comments and incorrect assumptions made towards autistic people

'"What's it actually like?"

I think for a moment, because people don't actually ask that very often. They tell me what they think I feel because they've read it in books, or they say incredible things like "autistic people have no sense of humour or imagination or empathy" when I'm standing right there beside them (and one day I'm going to point out that is more than a little bit rude, not to mention Not Even True) or they - even worse - talk to me like I'm about five and can't understand.' 

and because I have a few autistic friends and I've seen people treat them like that in the past, it made me both angry and extremely sad. People don't deserve to be treated like that.
I didn't realise this was an #OwnVoices novel until I started reading it, when it became obvious. Grace's autism is handled with care, and the way she describes experiencing the world

"It's like living with all of your senses turned up to full volume all the time [...] and it's like living life in a different language, so you can't ever quite relax because even when you think you're fluent it's still using a different part of your brain so by the end of the day you're exhausted."

is similar to the way my friends have described it to me in the past. It's a very personal way of explaining it, and Rachael has laid her soul bare by being so open and honest about the way that she feels.
The only other time I've encountered autism in writing for young people was 'The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time', which is vastly different to 'The State of Grace': as well as being a far more stereotypical representation of autism, it's for children so doesn't feature an autistic person navigating their first relationship. 'The State of Grace' is unique is that respect: rather than having Grace dealing with her Asperger's and making that the entire plot, it's just one part of her. Grace isn't her Asperger's, she's far more than that. She's bold, she's caring, she's funny

"You don't look autistic."

"And you don't look ignorant. And yet here we are."

and I warn you now, DON'T read this book while a) walking down the road or b) riding on public transport, because you will cackle so loudly at multiple points that you'll scare away pigeons, get funny looks from the people driving past you and make children cry. I don't think I've ever laughed so often while reading.
It's also a really reassuring read for teenage girls who don't have autism. Grace is so relatable, particularly when panicking about Gabe and worrying about how to define their relationship and whether she's blown it or not by saying the wrong thing... It's something we all experience at some point in our lives, and it just shows that people are people: we all worry about the same things, even if we have other stuff going on in our personal lives!
However, this book wasn't perfect. I almost (almost) dropped it down to three stars, but I couldn't bring myself to do it.
My main problem is that Gabe is a bit one-dimensional. He mentions the fact that he takes ADHD medication and got in trouble before he was diagnosed, but there was more potential for exploration of that topic.
It almost reminded me of 'A Quiet Kind of Thunder' by Sara Barnard: the relationship in that novel is so successful because Steffi and Rhys (a mute girl and a deaf boy) learn to work past their individual difficulties and communicate and work together. All I wanted was for Grace and Gabe to communicate with each other, discussing how their individual diagnoses would impact their relationship and how they would work through problems. Instead it felt as though they were both burying their heads in the sand, which made it impossible to care about their relationship.
It wouldn't have been so much of a problem, but the relationship was a huge part of the novel. There were a lot of different plots going on, but Gabe and Grace was one of the bigger aspects, so the fact that it wasn't satisfying greatly detracted from the overall effectiveness of the story.
But as I've already said, I loved this book despite the negative aspects. Rachael's writing is beautiful, Grace is a well-crafted character who is a great role model, and I loved the exploration of the family (particularly the fact that Grace's mum and dad had their own plot: not many parents get that in YA!). I wish it had been longer, because that would have probably resolved all of my quibbles anyway, and I'm already looking forward to Rachael's second novel (apparently called 'My Box Shaped Heart', and slated for release next February!).

This is a quick read that you'll be able to get through in one sitting, so there's no reason not to give it a try. It's always good to support #OwnVoices authors, particularly those who're writing about under-represented topics, and Rachael Lucas has done an amazing job writing a character that it's easy to relate to and learn from.

SERIES REVIEW: The Blackcoat Rebellion by Aimée Carter

*This review will contain spoilers!*

I was going to write three individual reviews for each book in this series because I liked them so much, but because I read them back to back in less than a week I thought it would make far more sense to write one big post.
I don't know how I hadn't heard of The Blackcoat Rebellion trilogy before, but when I spotted it in the library I was instantly intrigued. The covers, the premise, everything appealed to me. I hadn't read and enjoyed a dystopian series in so long, so I hoped this trilogy would revive my love for the genre.

If you think you'll enjoy reading the Blackcoat Rebellion trilogy, please consider purchasing them using my Amazon Affiliate links! If you buy 'Pawn', 'Captive' or 'Queen', I'll receive a little bit of income. 

'Pawn' - 4 stars

'Risking my life to steal an orange was a stupid thing to do, but today of all days, I didn't care about the consequences. If I were lucky, the Shields would throw me to the ground and put a bullet in my brain. 

Dead at seventeen. It would be a relief.' 

We join Kitty Doe on her seventeenth birthday. She's just taken the most important test of her life, and she's not happy with her result.
Kitty is a III. The average rank is a IV, and she feels cheated and disillusioned. She can't read and wrongly assumed that she'd get extra time to compensate, but because she didn't she couldn't finish a third of the paper. She's been relegated to the rank of III for the rest of her life.
Being a III means you're lesser. Not as low as a II or a I, but you're destined to work hard and die young. You're not even permitted to buy an orange from the market: those are only available to people of rank IV or above.

'I'd seen the posters and heard the speeches. Everyone had. We all had our rightful place in society, and it was up to us to decide what that was. Study hard, earn good grades, learn everything we could, and prove we were special. And when we turned seventeen and took the test, we would be rewarded with a good job, a nice place to live, and the satisfaction that we contributed to our society - everything we would ever need to lead a meaningful life.' 

Kitty's boyfriend Benjy is bound to get a VI, because he's the smartest kid from their group home. Because they were both Extras (second children removed from low-ranking parents who're only allowed the privilege of having one child) they've grown up together and they assumed they'd spend the rest of their lives together, but Kitty's III makes that difficult. She's assigned a job in a sewer in Denver, so far across America that it would make it impossible for her to ever see Benjy again.
He can't bear to be parted from her, but she doesn't want him to sacrifice his chance. Instead she takes a leap of faith and contacts their old friend Tabs, who's now working outside of the law as an escort. It's Kitty's only chance to stay near the boy she loves.
On your first night on the job, you're auctioned to the highest bidder so that they can have their fun with you while you're still a virgin. Kitty is disgusted by the idea but she has no other options.
Or, at least, she doesn't. Not until she's purchased by Prime Minister Daxton Hart.
Daxton pays 30,000 gold for Kitty, but instead of taking her virginity he offers her the chance to become a VII. The only people who get such a prestigious rank are born into it, so Kitty accepts: she knows there must be a catch, but it's worth the risk. Daxton leads her out of the building, bundles her into his car and drugs her - yep, that's the catch!
When she comes around she's not herself anymore. He's had her surgically-altered - Masked - to replace his niece Lila, as Kitty shares her distinctive eye colour. Lila was vocal in her disregard for the ranking system and the Hart family leadership, so he's had his own niece killed to silence the voice of the rebellion. He's tasking Kitty with repenting and undoing all the discontent Lila spread with her rousing speeches.
Kitty's thrown into life as Lila, living in the luxurious Somerset mansion with the rest of the Harts. The family are all involved, and her mother Celia and grandmother Augusta (the one who's actually in charge of the country, pulling the strings behind the scenes) work with Daxton to train her to pass as Lila without question.
Things get awkward when she meets her fiancé, Knox, who she's expected to marry within a couple of months... She knows that won't go down well with Benjy, who doesn't even know about the surprising turn her life has taken.
But Lila wasn't the only member of the Hart family discontent with the way the country was being run. Celia and Knox are both involved with the terrorist movement the Blackcoats, and they're desperate to take out Daxton by getting Kitty to continue Lila's good work.
Kitty has to decide: does she want to risk being hunted by running back to her old life with Benjy, or will she help the American citizens break free from their bonds?

Aimée Carter doesn't sugarcoat anything, and I had chills when I read the first page. Kitty feels as though she has nothing to live for after being ranked a III, making her the perfect figurehead for a revolution. She's self-sacrificing, always doing things for other people, though that can express itself as selfishness when she directly disobeys the wishes of her loved ones and puts herself in danger.
Kitty's a very well-rounded character. She's reckless, which makes for tense reading: it was touch and go whether she'd survive a couple of the situations she found herself in! But her adventurous side isn't the only part of her that makes her character so intriguing. Kitty is unable to read, despite many lessons from Benjy over the years, and this makes her doubt herself more than anything else: she wonders whether she might actually deserve her III, for not being able to do something so simple.
I thought Benjy and Kitty's relationship was lovely because they're together before the book begins. It's always nice to join an established couple, and I enjoyed the fact that they reminisced on things they'd gotten up to before the book began: a simple but effective back story that adds depth to their emotions and makes their coupling believable. There's potential for a love triangle between Kitty, Benjy and Knox, but despite the fact that it seems like a obvious choice for the plot there's too much life-threatening political drama for it to be explored.
The books is a springboard for discussion about good and bad, and how it's not always black and white. We automatically think of terrorists as bad people in our mind, because they do so many horrific things. The Blackcoats set off bombs and convince Kitty to attempt to assassinate the Prime Minister, but because they're fighting for the greater good you support them and want them to succeed. Meanwhile, Daxton takes Kitty on a trip to Elsewhere, where he shows off by hunting terrified people who the ranking system have deemed as worthless to society. It's very controversial, particularly with the political landscape looking the way it does at the moment: this trilogy is utterly relevant, and I definitely feel as though I've read it at the right time.
However, the plots gets a bit convoluted. The ranking system is easy to get to grips with, but the political side of things tied my brain in knots. Daxton is the Prime Minister, but Augusta is in control. Celia is Daxton's sister, but is also the leader of the Blackcoats. Kitty discovers that Daxton isn't Daxton: a Masked man is masquerading as him, just like she is pretending to be Lila.
Then there's Lila, who isn't dead after all...
Celia kidnaps Greyson, Daxton's son. To get Greyson back, the Harts make a public appeal which features both Kitty and Lila. The general public don't know Lila is supposedly dead, so can't understand why she would suddenly need to make an appearance with her body double, and I was completely lost. It's the only reason it didn't get 5 stars, because it was very close - particularly when Kitty killed Augusta, showing a marked character development from the girl who couldn't kill Daxton when she tried earlier in the novel.

'Captive' - 3 stars

"There's no such thing as a bloodless revolution."

'Somewhere nearby, Benjy was waiting for me.'

'Captive' starts three months after 'Pawn' begins, so not much has changed since the end of book one.

Kitty is determined to discover the identity of the man behind the Daxton mask. She breaks into his office and finds a file filled with information and a photograph from before he was Masked, but because she can't read it she has no choice but to take it with her. She squirrels it away somewhere no one else will be able to find it, making herself indispensable, but Daxton discovers that the file is missing. He storms her room, gets Knox to shoot Benjy, and ships her off to Elsewhere.
Kitty is distraught. Knox revealed that he was betraying the Blackcoats, and she has no way of warning them about the traitor in their midst.
But it's not all doom and gloom. The hunting ground isn't all there is to Elsewhere. It's a society in itself: prisoners live in different sections, working and experiencing a semblance of freedom (unless they're chosen by the visiting politicians to be used in their hunt, or they break the rules). If they break the rules? They're put in a cage with another prisoner, and they fight to the death.
Kitty sees more people get brutally murdered in her first day in Elsewhere than she ever has before. It shakes her: even though she looks like Lila Hart, she's not untouchable in this environment.
Elsewhere is ruled by the Mercer family. Kitty recognises Jonathan Mercer, because he was in the photograph with the Masked Daxton, who she realises must be Victor, Jonathan's dead brother. Hannah, Jonathan's wife, is also a formidable opponent: she used to be a prisoner, but managed to claw her way up to a leadership position after having an affair with Daxton himself.
The Mercers invite Kitty to stay with them in their mansion, an offer she accepts when Knox arrives as their guest. If she can get close enough to him, she can take her revenge for Benjy. She doesn't care if it's the last thing she does.
But the Battle of Elsewhere is brewing, and Kitty needs to decide whether to focus on her own problems or secure a better future for the United States.

I found this installment mind-numbingly predictable.
Of course Knox isn't a traitor! Of course Benjy isn't dead! Of course Daxton and Hannah are Kitty's parents!
Yawn.
As soon as the guard in 'Pawn' commented on the fact that Kitty had the same distinctive eyes as Lila, I knew she had to be biologically related to the Hart family, so I'd been waiting for this reveal since the beginning.
Aimée still writes it as though each of the twists should be a surprise, but there's no way anyone didn't see them coming. I've never read anything more obvious.
It definitely reduced my enjoyment of the book. Whereas the first book gloated a gripping plot and brilliantly crafted characters, this felt like a lazy fallback on the least interesting tropes of the dystopian genre: the death fake out, the "I'm a traitor, lol jk", the parentage reveal... All of them made me groan.
That being said, I thought it was interesting to see the revolution in a different setting. The prisoners of Elsewhere are disillusioned with society, so it's a lot easier to convince them that the Hart family and the ranking system need to be dealt with. I appreciated the brutality, because when you're placed in a 'kill or be killed' situation you will do everything possible to save your own life: I was genuinely shocked at a couple of points, which doesn't often happen in YA, but none of it felt gratuitous. All of the deaths were necessary, because they inspired Kitty in a way that living Lila's charmed life couldn't.
In this installment Benjy and Kitty take the next step in their relationship. I was grateful that it didn't happen in book one, because it often feels as though YA authors are encouraging teenagers to make that move as quickly as possible, but the timing was dreadful! Bombs are going off around them, war is raging and Kitty doesn't even know if her birth mother is alive, but they think it's the perfect time to sleep together. Cringe!
I did like the way Aimée portrayed their first time, though:

'I wish I could say that night was perfect - that it was straight out of one of the romances Benjy had read to me, full of fireworks and grace and everything a first time should be.

But it was awkward. And we fumbled. And neither of us knew quite what we were doing. And afterward, once it was over and we lay tangled together underneath the sheets, we both watched each other as if we couldn't quite believe what we'd just done.' 

It's very realistic, and definitely doesn't set Hollywood standards!
I felt a lot more conflicted about the trilogy after reading this installment. It was still a very quick read - I finished it in two sittings and I could hardly tear my eyes away for a moment - but because it felt hackneyed I wasn't as impressed as I was by 'Pawn'. It closed with another tense cliffhanger, making it impossible to resist reading 'Queen' straight away, but I felt apprehensive.

'Queen' - 5 stars

"The brightest and most privileged in the country aren't interested in equality."

'I gazed out across the gathering crowd, my heart in my throat. The citizens of Elsewhere shifted restlessly, their red and orange jumpsuits bringing color to an otherwise gray winter landscape, and I could feel them growing impatient. 

They weren't the only ones.' 

Two weeks have passed since the end of 'Captive'. We rejoin Kitty, Benjy, Knox and the Blackcoats in Elsewhere, fighting to get support from the general public by revealing the truth about Daxton's identity.

After Kitty outs Victor to the world, he denies all of her claims. The Blackcoats know that they need proof to get the public on their side, so Kitty and Knox return to Somerset to recover the file on Victor Mercer that she hid at the beginning of 'Captive'.
But Kitty gets captured, and Knox has no choice but to leave her behind and get the information released to the public.
Kitty is reunited with Lila and Greyson, who are both being held hostage by Victor. Lila's been forced to speak for him on multiple occasions, because if she doesn't say what he wants he's going to kill Greyson. Kitty doesn't want either of them to die, so she agrees to appear on camera repealing the accusations she made on one condition: if she does it, Greyson and Lila get to leave. Greyson and Lila counter her, saying Victor should allow her to leave as a show of good faith, and he agrees - he'll accept one of their offers once Kitty's made her speech, but they'll have to wait and see which one he'll take.
As soon as Kitty's finished speaking, Victor tells her she can go. But Lila is desperate for freedom, and Kitty's well-trained in pretending to be her: Lila begs her to allow her to leave in her place.

"I don't want to be me anymore. You can be me - you're good at being me. But I'm done. I don't care about the risk involved. I don't care about where I end up. I just want to be gone, Kitty. I want to be free. And if that means dying in the middle of nowhere, then fine. I'd rather die out there tomorrow than die in here a hundred years from now."

Kitty begrudgingly agrees, and her and Greyson watch Lila get on a helicopter and leave... Only for it to be shot out of the air moments later. Lila is dead, and Kitty is forced to act for her life: if she can't convince Victor that she is the real Lila, he'll have no qualms about taking her out.
Victor continues to psychologically manipulate them. They must watch as he murders members of the Ministers of the Union, taking them out one by one until they agree to sign over full control. He then orders an airstrike on Elsewhere, and Kitty and Greyson have to watch as bombs are dropped: they had no time to warn everyone, which means all of the Blackcoats - all of their friends - have just been decimated in seconds.
Victor has no one to answer to. He holds all of the power, and there's no one that can stop him.
There's only one way to solve the problem: Victor must be killed. Kitty tries to shoot him, but he survives, and teaches her not to try that again by inviting her to his personal torture room where he's flayed the man who was previously his closest adviser.
With the Blackcoats and Lila dead, Celia still on the run and Greyson and Kitty trapped with a madman, it looks like time is running out for the United States.

I couldn't find anything wrong with this installment. I don't know if that's just because I was so excited to finish the series and see how everything ended up, but I couldn't put the book down! It's such a brilliant ending: there were a couple of main character deaths that almost had me in tears, torture and tense scenes that had my heart racing, and the defeat of the dastardly (fake) Daxton - hurrah! 

I know protagonists don't often die, but I was genuinely scared for Kitty's life. There isn't much overt violence against her (at least, not until the end of the novel), but Victor's psychological abuse is very hard-hitting, and left me shaken. I'm never going to get the image of the torture room out of my mind; I knew he was a terrible person, but I didn't think anyone would go quite that far. Aimée Carter is a sick genius for being able to create a villain that disturbed.

All of the characters make huge progress throughout the series, and when you look back to who they are at the start of 'Pawn', they're completely different at the end of 'Queen'. Benjy and Kitty decide to call time on their relationship but remain best friends, because they know that the events they've been through have changed them too much. There's a whiff of a love triangle, but because Kitty's already distanced herself from Benjy, her feelings towards Knox are both unsurprising and reasonable: no one can argue that the relationship is very authentic. 

This is a strong trilogy. 

The plot is tight, and each installment moves the characters to a different setting and keeps it fresh and exciting. There's no way that this could have been cut down to a duology, because though there are slight bits of waffling at times (particularly at the start of each sequel, which gives an in-depth recap of the events of the previous book) the majority of the events are necessary and add something to the story.

The conclusion is satisfying: I haven't been this happy with a the way a series ended in a very long time! I loved the fact that it's left open for Aimée to return to the characters in the future if she wishes: we get to see Daxton's comeuppance, but we don't get to see how they implement the change in the government, how Greyson copes as Prime Minister or whether things work out between Knox and Lila, and I'd be interested in reading more from all of them! 

I'm just surprised this isn't more popular. It's much better than some of the dystopian novels I've read in the past: the family dynamic, the realistic relationship, the scarily possible future... This could easily have been adapted into a successful film, and I'm sad that it flew under the radar in favour for less developed and interesting releases. 

I haven't read any of Aimée Carter's writing before, but after enjoying this so much I'm definitely going to change that. The way she crafted this trilogy blew my mind: I just hope her Goddess Test novels are as good! 

Overall, this series gets 4 stars from me. 

'Unconventional' by Maggie Harcourt

*This review will contain spoilers!*

'Funny things, words. Big words, small words; words that are bigger on the inside and packed tight with feeling. They can make us fall in love, and they can break our hearts and we're powerless against them.' 

'There is a very specific sensation, right in the pit of your stomach, that comes from realizing that because you sent that stupid confirmation email from your stupid phone on the stupid bus while you were thinking about the stupid history essay that was due yesterday, you put a hyphen in the wrong place... and now, instead of having a box of inflatable three-meter-high palm trees sitting on your doorstep, you have three boxes of inflatable meter-high palm trees.'

Tell me you don't have an instant image of Lexi in your mind, and you'll be lying.
This is such a powerful opener. The huge chunk of text written almost like a stream of consciousness shows you that Lexi's brain works a thousand miles a minute, and she still has time to make mistakes. She's only a teenager, not a professional assistant, no matter how much that fact seems to slip her father's mind!

Lexi is the daughter of Max Angelo - yes, THE Max Angelo, the one that's involved in planning the biggest conventions across the country! For Lexi, that means instead of spending her weekends worrying about her sixth form coursework, she's emailing the agents of famous authors and actors, arranging panels that can be fit into tight schedules, all while trying to keep her over-worked father calm.
Then Max announces that him and his fiancee, Bea, have set a date. Lexi can't believe it: the rule in the convention world is that nothing is happening until a date has been confirmed. She knew the wedding would happen eventually, but she didn't think it would be any time soon: she didn't think her dad telling her about their engagement was that serious.
This puts Lexi in a bad mood for the first convention of the season. It's great to be reunited with her best friends - she only gets to see Sam, Nadiya and Bede when they're working together, because they all live so far apart - but she takes out her frustrations on them. It's hardly like she can talk to her dad about it, especially not when he's so busy running the convention.
To make that first day worse, she finds a random guy in the green room. He doesn't have a guest pass and he can't even remember the name of his own agent, yet he has the sheer audacity to insult Lexi's clipboard. She's already in a foul mood, so kicks him out without a second thought.
She survives that first convention, but it's not time to have a break. The season is in full swing, so Lexi needs to make sure that all of the other conventions go off without a hitch. Her dad's wedding to Bea is looming, and it's not helping his stress levels - as well as needing to shout at people on the phone to make sure everything is in place for the convention, he needs to ensure his second special day will go perfectly.
Because Max is so busy, he doesn't have time to read all of the advanced copies that publishers send him in the weeks preceding an event. He passes one on to Lexi, certain that it's something she'll love: 'Piecekeepers', by Haydn Swift. She decides to give it a go, and it quickly becomes her favourite book, distracting her from everything that's going on and giving her a world to escape into.
So just imagine her dismay when she convinces her dad to invite the author along for a launch event at their next convention, and she discovers that he's the random interloper who insulted her clipboard. Awkward.

I adored this book.
I've only been to a couple of conventions, but this book perfectly encapsulated the atmosphere of them. The camaraderie, the non-stop busyness, the potential of spotting stars in the most unlikely places (hi, Melinda Salisbury!)... All are represented, and every page made me want to go to more conventions in the future. It definitely gave me more respect for the staff, too: I'd never considered how many problems they could be dealing with behind the scenes, and I've never been less envious of a career.
There was only one reason this wasn't a five star, and that was the lack of a conversation between Lexi and Bea.
Lexi doesn't have a close relationship with her soon to be stepmum. Bea doesn't live with them, and because she also travels to work at conventions - just professional, business ones - she's never around. Lexi's mum tells her how much Bea appreciates her, but it would have been nice to see them bonding. I can only think of one conversation they have in the entire book, which seems like a bit of an oversight when so much of the book revolves around Lexi's feelings towards her father's impending nuptials.
That being said, Lexi's interactions with her father were very realistic. He works her too hard, forgetting that she has schoolwork and other commitments to juggle. Lexi feels quite bitter about that, particularly because she feels as though her dad doesn't appreciate everything she sacrifices for him, but they actually talk and try to come to a resolution that both of them are happy with. It's nice to see a family using compromise.
I particularly loved the relationship between Aidan and Lexi. If you prefer a slow burn romance, this is the perfect story for you. Lexi starts off hating Aidan, and it's only after months of conventions - and many different methods of communication - that they fall for each other. It's a genuine portrayal of long distance relationships: the paranoia, the nerves, the yearning, but has a more positive spin than other stories I've read. You need to prepare to be frustrated, though: even though the conventions are all hosted in hotels and the sexual tension is through the roof, Lexi and Aidan's relationship is completely innocent. They have far more self-control than I would...
I was glad this aspect was also dealt with in Lexi and Sam's friendship. Their lack of face-to-face interactions doesn't make their best friendship any less significant when compared to those who see each other daily.
I hope Maggie decides to release 'Piecekeepers', because the excerpt that was included at the end of the story sounded amazing! It's a unique concept, and if Maggie doesn't write it I might have to do it myself. (Kidding! Seriously, just kidding...)

This is totally worth the read. If you're a geek or love any part of geek culture, you'll relate to this book; there are lots of very clever cameos written into the background, and the cosplays are so brilliantly described that you'll be in awe of them despite not being able to see them.
I haven't read Maggie Harcourt's debut novel, 'The Last Summer of Us', yet, but I MUST. Her writing is a delight, and I just cannot wait to read more from her. If I hadn't borrowed Anya's (An Awful Lot of Books) copy of this book, I'd be rereading it immediately.
This gives me a good excuse to break my book buying ban again, though...

BLOG TOUR: 'Lie With Me' by Sabine Durrant - SPOILER FREE

Welcome to my stop on the 'Lie With Me' blog tour! 

In May last year, I received a copy of 'Lie With Me' via bookbridgr, but unfortunately I didn't have the time to read it once it arrived. I was intending on going back to it, but with so many other releases filling my inbox it slipped further and further down my TBR. 

That's why I'm so grateful to Vero Norton for contacting me with this wonderfully exciting opportunity. It gave me a kick up the bum and made me prioritise this book, and I'm so glad that I finally picked it up because it is gripping.

'It struck me in the night that this might have started earlier.' 

I'm not a big fan of instant foreshadowing.
I often find that it's too cliched, giving away a huge part of the plot before the action can progress and before we can learn to care about the characters and what could possibly happen to them. If you know something bad is going to happen to someone, there's no point in wasting your hope that things might turn out okay.
In this instance, however, I thought it worked really well.
Paul Morris wakes up in the middle of the night, ruminating on something that has happened in his life. It's dark and disorienting, throwing you straight into the action. His voice is established within the first few paragraphs - he's a strong character, and you know exactly what motivates him within a couple of pages.

Paul Morris is the definition of a bachelor. He's always on the lookout for his next conquest, which is how he ends up going to the book store in Charing Cross: he sees a young redhead through the window, and decides to try his luck. 

He strikes out. He's embarrassed: how dare she not want him? He looks good for 42. He's a published author, a Cambridge graduate. A catch. 

When he bumps into old school friend Andrew, he's distracted. Andrew asks for his number to arrange a lunch and he gives it to him, wondering if the redhead behind the desk will be surrepititiously writing it down now she knows how successful he is. He doesn't want Andrew to contact him, and decides he'll decline the call when it arrives.

He lets his guard down, though, hoping to hear from a journalism student who wanted to wrack his brains for advice. Next thing he knows he's booked in that lunch date with Andrew and he's travelling across London and back into his past.

Arriving at Andrew's house, he meets Alice. He can't remember, but they've met before: ten years ago, when they were both on holiday in Greece. Alice and Andrew have a yearly pilgrimage back, taking both of their families on holiday to a villa that Alice owns: one that they won't be able to visit again, as developers are tearing up the property to clear the way for a new hotel complex. 

Alice is on a mission. Ten years ago, when they were all in Greece, a young girl named Jasmine vanished. She feels personally involved, as she was there to comfort Jasmine's mother in the hours directly following her disappearance, and she's been campaigning for the last decade to get the Greek police to do more to find Jasmine, who she's convinced must still be alive.

She's too old for Paul, but her drive turns him on. She has a villa in Greece, a huge house... She has a lot of money, and he's about to lose the place he's been living. He decides to seduce her, then when her daughter Phoebe goes to university he's hoping she'll invite him to lodge in the spare room. 

Their romance is a whirlwind one. Alice seems unconvinced to start with, inviting Paul to Greece and then refusing to mention the offer again despite his hints, but he pushes into her affections until he finally seems to have her under his spell. He gets the invitation to Greece, and he's certain he'll be able to move straight in as soon as they get back. Easy. 

But Paul starts to wonder if something's going on between Alice and Andrew. The long, lingering looks between them make him uncomfortable, and when he finds condoms in Andrew's bag he takes them, hoping he can stop the affair in its tracks. Then there's a rape on the island, and Alice and Andrew collude to cover up the potential involvement of Alice's son, bringing them closer and making Paul feel as though he's being pushed out...

Paul just wants her to trust him and open up to him, but she won't. He doesn't think it's fair: he's doing everything he can, granting her every wish, but she still seems to favour Andrew. He feels like he has to lie to her constantly, because she believes he has more money than he does - he wants her to have a high opinion of him, and is afraid that if she knows he's broke she'll no longer be interested. Keeping up with all of the falsehoods he's weaving is exhausting, and she still doesn't seem to care for him as much as he does for her.

Their beautiful getaway isn't really a holiday. Alice is so focused on the Finding Jasmine campaign that she barely has time for him, and tensions are rising between him and Andrew. The teenagers aren't making things easier: Louis is moody and uncooperative, while Phoebe and Daisy are constantly flaunting their bikini bodies.With family drama at the forefront of his mind, Paul can hardly relax at their villa, especially with the constant droning of the diggers working ever closer to Alice's property line.

The first third of the book is achingly slow, but as soon as Paul gets to Greece the tension becomes unbearable. 

I will admit, I almost gave up a few times towards the beginning. Paul is arrogant, and reading the story from the viewpoint of a man with such an inflated ego is exhausting. He thinks he's so clever, lying at every possible opportunity, but that gave me secondhand embarrassment. It was obvious that he was going to get caught out. That's the moral of this story: even the smallest lies catch up with you.

His constant scheming to get invited to Greece is also tiring. If he didn't get to go to Greece their would be no story, so all of the chapters where he's hinting his interest are unnecessary. He's so needy, refusing to outwardly ask if he can go, just desperately trying to manipulate her into wanting him there. I hate men who treat women as though they're less intelligent. Paul is one of those people who only sees women for their bodies, rather than for their minds. He's not attracted to Phoebe, Alice's teenage daughter, because she has badly dyed hair, so when she asks him about journalism he's dismissive and uninterested. 

If you haven't guessed, Paul is a hateful man. That's the point; because you know that bad things are coming to this irritating character, you're eager to see him experience his downfall. That's not to say that you'll celebrate it when it eventually happens, though. Sabine Durrant knows how to manipulate her reader's emotions, meaning that you care for characters you previously hated and despite those you thought you loved.

Bear with it. If you're hoping to read a thriller that is relentless in its intensity then this is not the book for you (but I'm going to be featuring one like that next week, so stay tuned!). Be patient: it pays off. 

Sabine's descriptions of Greece are delightful. It was raining every day I read this book, but I could feel the heat emanating from the pages and warming my soul, making me desperate for summer to hurry up and arrive. This is the perfect holiday read, so if you're going anywhere nice any time soon keep this book in mind. 

After you get through the dragging establishing chapters the book is a very quick read, becoming almost impossible to put down. There are subtle clues sprinkled throughout the story, but until you know exactly what happened it's difficult to pick up on them. As soon as you know everything makes sense - you can feel that last piece of the jigsaw puzzle snap into place, clearing the meaning that has been obscured throughout. 

It takes a very clever writer to create a story like this. The way that everything gets twisted to have a different meaning is mind-blowing, and if it hadn't been for the way that Sabine neatly tied up the loose ends and explained everything that had happened throughout, this would have been an instant reread for me. 

I'm not going to give spoilers, because this isn't a book that would be easy to enjoy if you knew what was going to happen. All I can ask you to do is to give it a chance. If I hadn't been reading this for a blog tour I would have given up, and after seeing how it all ends that would have been a huge mistake. 

I haven't read any of Sabine Durrant's novels before, but after this I'm craving more of her writing. Her characters are very authentic, and the way she weaves her plot is astounding. It's been a long time since I've read a novel with an antihero protagonist, and this is making me want to read books about hateful people - something I normally dislike doing. 

Also, just look at how gorgeous the cover is. How can you resist a book that beautiful?