REVIEWbyU x 3!! City of Bones, City of Ashes, City of Glass (The Mortal Instruments #1, #2, #3) by Cassandra Clare

City of Bones

Rating: 4-5 stars

I was instantly enchanted when I read City of Bones, and that enchantment still holds. If I had to describe this book to you in one word it would be impossible because it was intense, jaw dropping, funny, amazing and so much more. Please read it!

City of Ashes

Rating: 4 stars

Clary Fray just wishes that her life would go back to normal. But what's normal when you're a demon-slaying Shadowhunter, your mother is in a magically induced coma, and you can suddenly see Downworlders like werewolves, vampires, and faeries? If Clary left the world of the Shadowhunters behind, it would mean more time with her best friend, Simon, who's becoming more than a friend. But the Shadowhunting world isn't ready to let her go — especially her handsome, infuriating, newfound brother, Jace. And Clary's only chance to help her mother is to track down rogue Shadowhunter Valentine, who is probably insane, certainly evil — and also her father.

City of Glass

Rating: 4 stars

It is the third book in the mortal instruments series and is better than the first and second put together. To save her mother's life, Clary must travel to the City of Glass, the ancestral home of the Shadowhunters - never mind that entering the city without permission is against the Law, and breaking the Law could mean death. To make things worse, she learns that Jace does not want her there, and Simon has been thrown in prison by the Shadowhunters, who are deeply suspicious of a vampire who can withstand sunlight.



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City of Heavenly Fire (The Mortal Instruments #6) by Cassandra Clare

This final instalment in the Mortal Instruments series was a vast improvement on its immediate predecessor. Finally, we are rid of the angst-ridden romance between Jace and Clary (no, they haven’t gone anywhere, but they’ve finally gotten over themselves!) and we’re launched into a great, plot-driven conclusion to the whole Sebastion / Jonathan, Shadowhunter versus Endarkened saga. All our favourite, well written characters are present, as is Cassandra Clare’s witty and engaging writing. As usual, all the adults (well, the mortal ones anyway) are completely clueless and the teenagers are the only ones with a decent set of wits, brains and courage. Being the end of the series, one might expect one or two characters to be sacrificed for the story but to tell you any more would be giving it away!

Needless to say, the whole series has been great, so if you're looking for some well written escapism, you'd do well to give The Mortal Instruments a go.

Caitlin @ Balwyn Library.

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Goodreads Choice Awards, 2014! And the winners are....

Many of you will know that Goodreads is the world's largest site for readers and book recommendations, and has a whopping 20 million members. Every year Goodreads asks its members to vote for their favourite books across a range of categories, including YA Fiction, YA Fantasy and Sci-Fi Fiction and Middle Grade and Children's Fiction.

And the winners for 2014 are........

YA Fiction - We were liars by E. Lockhart, with 33,943 votes! This was a clear winner with more than 13,000 votes more than the second placed book.

For the other finalists in this category, click here.

YA Fantasy and Sci-Fi: City of Heavenly Fire (The Mortal Instruments, #6) by Cassandra Clare, with 53,247 votes! That is a big result, proving how popular this series has been.

For the rest of the finalists in this category, click here.

Middle Grade and Children's Fiction: The blood of Olympus (The heroes of Olympus, #5) by Rick Riordan, with the most votes of all three youth categories: a whopping 63,219 votes! This is the fourth year in a row that Rick Riordan has won in this category.

You know what to do to see the finalists for this category. That's right, click here.

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Post movie blues... Part 3

Have you seen Divergent yet? Whilst I loved reading the trilogy over many weeks, a movie only lasts for a couple of hours. How will we overcome the post movie blues?

Here's part 3 of a series of posts giving you some ideas to get you through this challenging time....

Idea no. 3: Read some other excellent series! What's that you say? Not interested in Dystopian novels? That's OK, how about some of these other excellent series, from sci-fi, to fantasy to everything in-between: 

• The Daughter of smoke and bone trilogy by Laini Taylor. An excellent fantasy series which is so well written, the third book in the trilogy will be published this year. We've reviewed the first book here !
• The Old Kingdom Chronicles by Garth Nix. Garth Nix is an absolutely amazing writer (did I mention he's Australian?) and this fantasy trilogy will never leave you. Join Sabriel as she journeys amongst the living and the dead in the Old Kingdom, whilst just over the border human life exists as normal. Brilliant! 
• The Mortal Instruments series by Cassandra Clare. we'd be suprised if you hadn't already seen this series. It has been ridiculously popular. Fantasy. Addictive. Read it. Oh, and we've reviewed at least
  
  one of the books here.
• The Inheritance series by Christpher Paolini. High fantasy, dragons, elves, extremely long and compelling books. Pretty much everything you could want in this genre. Check out this review.
• The Chaos Walking trilogy by Patrick Ness. This series blew me away with its sheer originality and highly original prose. Why have I never reviewed it? I have no idea! Still, go on an adventure and read this futuristic, off-world, post-apocalyptic series.
• How about this one? The Diviners series by Libba Bray. Historical / paranormal / crime thriller / fantasy, super entertaining, set in 1920s New York. I CAN'T WAIT for book #2 to be released this year. Yep, I've reviewed this one here.
• Want some rollicking good fun, witty plot, excellent writing and a series that will keep you going for quite some time? Read the Skulduggery Pleasant series by Derek Landy. I'd love to meet this author in real life - even the dedications he writes at the start of each book are awesome! We've reviewed one book in this excellent series here.

Don't forget, if you can't get these titles off the shelf, check our ebook collection too!

Caitlin @ Balwyn Library.


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REVIEWbyU: Clockwork Angel (The Infernal Devices #1) by Cassandra Clare

Reviewer: Amy
Rating: 5 stars

Tessa Gray is a 16 year old girl living in 1878. She moves to London to start a new life following her Older Brother there, who was there setting up a life for them. But when she gets there things are not right, she gets taken away and imprisoned by two sisters. What has her brother gotten her into? Will she survive the harsh beatings of the sister and will she ever save her brother, but to save her brother someone must save her first. She gets taken in by the London institute with a group of deadly demon hunters. She will have to work with the demon hunters to destroy the enemy and try and get her brother back. Along the journey Tessa will find love, friends and enemies and she will have to figure out who she is and what she stands for. This novel is brilliant. It is a prequel to The mortal instrument series with shadowhunters and some ancestors of the characters in the Mortal instruments. The novel has all the great things a novel needs action, romance, suspense, drama, humor, amazing characters and a thrilling story line.

FAVORITE QUOTES- "What kind of monster could possibly hate chocolate?”

“Remember when you tried to convince me to feed a poultry pie to the mallards in the park to see if you could breed a race of cannibal ducks?" They ate it too, Will reminisced. Bloodthirsty little beasts. Never trust a duck.”

“There's plenty of sense in nonsense sometimes, if you wish to look for it.”

"Let me give you a piece of advice. The handsome young fellow who's trying to rescue you from a hideous fate is never wrong. Not even if he says the sky is purple and made of hedgehogs.”


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Mortal Instruments Movie news!

Fans of Cassandra Clare's Mortal Instruments series will be excited to know that the long awaited trailer for City of Bones (based on the book of the same title) is finally online! Check it out on the movie's official website, themortalinstrumentsmovie.com

The movie opens in the United States in August 2013 - hopefully we'll be seeing it in Australia soon after that. Can't wait!

If you still haven't read the books, why not look them up? We stock them ni our libraries and you can also download them from our ebook collection here.

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City of Lost Souls by Cassandra Clare

Book Five of Cassandra Clare's 'The Mortal Instruments' series sees, yet again, Jace up to his eyeballs in life threatening trouble and Clary fighting hard to save him and their relationship. This time the destroy-the-world-bad-guy is Sebastian aka Jonathan/Valentine's Son/Clary's evil brother, who claims to be a good-guy (could he be?) who loves humankind but believes the Clave have abused their position as keepers of the peace amongst Downworlders and must be shown the error of their ways. Sebastian has bound to Jace to him, and only Clary and Jace's loyal friends and family believe there is any hope of saving him. Thankfully there's lots of plot developments outside of the usual Jace & Clary vs. bad-guy storyline, giving us the chance to read about Simon, Isabelle, Alec and Magnus in greater depth than in the earlier books. Entertaining and well written, fans of the series will not be disappointed.

Caitlin @ Balwyn.

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REVIEWbyU - City of bones, by Cassandra Clare

AboutTheBooks reader evi-sami-poo submitted this review via REVIEWbyU.

Book: City of Bones - The Mortal Instruments Book One
Author: Cassandra Clare
Rating: Amazingly good

This gothic romance/adventure series follows the journey of Clary Fray, a teenage artist who has recently discovered the world is a lot bigger than just school, clubs and Manhattan. When Clary is out clubbing with her best friend Simon she witnesses the death of a young man, only to see his body disappear infront of her eyes. A while later she sees the murderer at a bookshop and confronts the elusive Jace about the murder. Confused she runs home to find a demon, similar yet different from the one that Jace allegedly killed staying in her apartment and her mother missing. Readers are enraptured as they follow Clary, Simon, Jace and the siblings Isabelle and Alec from the "Clave" as they search for Clary's mother and her captor, the mysterious Valentine who had supposedly died sixteen years earlier. This story is gothic, romantic, witty, keeps you on the edge of your seat and craving for more. Fans of 'Twilight' by Stephanie Meyer will enjoy this but will find it a different take on the forbidden love.

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