The Brown Review

Author: TJ Klune Rating: 5/5 Recommend:  A truly heartwarming novel, if I've ever read one. There is magic and children and an island by the sea... what's not to love? The House In The Cerulean Sea tells the story of Linus Baker - an ordinary government official tasked with an extraordinary job. Mr Baker is a Caseworker for the Department In Charge Of Magical Youth; in other words it's his job to make sure that all of the magical children in the human community are being properly taken care of in their orphanages.  On an exceptionally dull Wednesday when Mr. Baker is suddenly charged with a Priority Level 4 assignment - going to an island for a month and sending reports about the welfare of the 6 children there - little does he know that his life is about to be changed completely forever. And this is where our delightful story begins... I never fail to marvel at the power of authors - how their words and imagination can influence your feelings so that you go from feeling ...

Collected Image Author: Erin A. Craig Rating: A solid 5.0! Recommend: This novel is every fantasy lover's dream come true. It has the raw power needed to shove you out of your mundane life on Earth, and place you on the rocky salt shores of a time-old fairy tale - with some sinister twists that is. I loved every single word. Highly recommended. Annaleigh Thaumas is fourth among the twelve beautiful sisters living in the majestic manor of Highmoor (sound like any fairy tales you know?). Growing up surrounded by the salty sea waves and sharp craggy cliffs of their village, Annaleigh and her family are the People of the Salt - from the Salt they are born, and to the Salt they return.  A gorgeous depiction of Highmoor at the very top Everything at Highmoor was fine... until the mangled corpses of the Thaumas sisters started turning up all over the estate. After the death of Eulalie, the fourth among a series of gruesome accidents, the villagers are sure that the family is cursed....

Author: Cassandra Clare Rating:  2.0/5 Recommend: No. Just don't. There is no bigger pain than spending a ton of money on a book which you believed in - despite everyone telling you not to - and then having to slog through the pages, miserably cursing your dumb decision all the while. I have read The Mortal Instruments. The Infernal Devices. Even Tales from the FRIKKING SHADOWHUNTER ACADEMY. All of those were classic Shadowhunter novels - drama mixed with monsters, and in the case of The Infernal Devices, some beautiful scenes of classic era London. I bought Chain of Gold expecting another thrilling story set in the Shadowhunter world - instead, I received a bore of a novel which has put me off the Shadowhunter world for good. Cassandra Clare wanted The Last Hours series to be set several years after the events of Clockwork Princess: with the children of our delightful heroes all grown up, she introduced a new set of characters in the backdrop of Edwardian Londond. Sounds great, r...

Second book in the Villains series. Sequel to Vicious . Author: Victoria Elizabeth Schwab Rating: 4.5/5 Recommend: A second book about Victor and Eli – could it possibly be wrong? Vengeful provides some much needed answers which we longed for in Vicious ; from the history of Eli, to a world rapidly getting to know about the existence of EO’s it provides all the details you’ve been craving and more. I might as well admit it: nothing can live up to the perfection that is Vicious . Vengeful, however was a valiant effort by V. E. Schwab. It’s darker than its predecessor, and there were more than a few parts where the book sent literal shivers down my spine. I write this on a gray, drizzly afternoon… I still can’t get the effects of reading Vengeful out of my mind. After the events of Vicious , many things in the Villains world begin changing. Brought back from the dead by Sydney, Victor is alive but with his power greatly flawed. There is a new government fac...

Vicious First book in the Villains series. Predecessor to Vengeful. Author: Victoria E. Schwab Rating: 4.8/5 Recommend: It doesn’t matter whether you’re a Marvel or DC fan or don’t even like superheroes in general. This book isn’t about heroes – it’s about super-powerful, emotionally damaged, kind of psychotic villains. SO READ IT. :) I had no idea that this book existed before a friend posted on social media that she was reading Vicious – she was talking about how the plot revolved around two college kids who turned into best friends and then into super-people and then turned into arch nemeses – a whole other level of messed up. So, of course I had to go buy Vicious. I am so glad I did. Vicious is all the fantastic mutant powers you’ve ever wanted from an X-Men movie, combined with two semi-villains and one hell of a plotline. Here is what I loved about the book: first of all, the teaming up of Victor (our anti-hero), Sydney (child who raises dead) and M...

Author : Madeline Miller  Rating: 4.5/5  Recommend : I would recommend all of Madeline Miller’s mesmerizing retelling of heroes and gods, in a heartbeat. Circe is no different – it is a novel which you will read time and time again, will take strength in and seek lessons from, and will remain in your memory for generations more to come.  Circe is the tale of a woman. A woman, who from the minute she was born, was cast aside by both mother and father, deemed unworthy, plain and insignificant. Circe was a goddess, born from the blood of the sun titan himself – but, goddess or no are not all us women like her? Considered by society only for our beauty, little in much else, who men see fit to do as they will, treat as they will, just another object for them to take as they will… Circe is every woman in the world who has had to face the ugliness of men and society and fight them all alone.  Circe, as mortals imagine her As with The Song O...

Book 1 of The Dark Artifices series  Author: Cassandra Clare  Rating: 4/5  Recommend: Shadowhunters both new and old will love this. Among all the different series’ in Cassandra Clare’s fantastic realm, Lady Midnight would come second only to The Infernal Devices novels. It is far better than The Mortal Instruments series.  Imagine flames. Scorching, yellow flames all around you, towering over your height. Imagine the people you have loved all your life staring at you with lifeless eyes as they kill countless innocents around them. Imagine being 12 years old and surrounded in the middle of this chaos, your arms spread wide, protecting your younger siblings, the youngest just 2 years old. This is a memory from the life of Julian Blackthorn: the boy who killed his father to protect his family, a child who then singlehandedly raised four of his younger siblings when he was barely 12 years old himself.  In Lady Midnight, we follow th...

The Cruel Prince Author: Holly Black  Rating: 3.5/5  Recommend: Fans of authors like Cassandra Clare and Leigh Bardugo are welcome to try this book. The Crown Prince feels like an extension of Cassie’s world, where we see the politics of the fae. There are some truly great parts to it such as the beautiful illustrations in every chapter and the cover, and the well-planned plot line.  I don’t usually give ratings below four to bestselling novels, but there’s just something about The Cruel Prince that didn’t feel quite so compelling to me. Nevertheless, I’ll begin with it as I always do: first with a plot summary, and second with the parts which both appealed and did not appeal to me.  Welcome to Faerieland – a place where both your sunniest dreams and your worst nightmares can come true. This realm and its inhabitants are as beautiful as they are deadly; they make up for their inability to lie with cruelty and madness and hate. This is the...

Author : Madeline Miller  Rating: 5/5  Recommend: Yes. Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes. This book will sweep you of your feet, rob you of your sleep, make you smile, cry, and hate and will put you under its spell till all you can see when you close your eyes is Achilles.  I shiver as I write this, the piercing, tragic story of innocence, love, heroes and a war still fresh in my mind. Throughout history, there have been men who were handsome, and men who were brave, men who sacrificed themselves, and men who destroyed even kingdoms with their madness. In her debut novel, Madeline Miller has managed to capture the stories of two of the greatest men in history: Achilles and Patroclus, friends, companions and lovers till the end.  Achilles as I imagine him Told in vivid, moving terms this book will transport you into a world unlike anything you have ever experienced before. It tells the story in Patroclus’ point of view, from the mome...

Third book in the Trials of Apollo series. Keep tissues. Author: Rick Riordan Rating: 4.5/5 Recommend: Fans of the Percy Jackson, and the Heroes of Olympus series will love (and curse) this book. It is the best release yet in The Trials of Apollo series and features the return of previous characters like Grover and Piper, and also has in store some major heartache. Keep your Kleenex ready; you’ve been warned. Apollo, the most gorgeous and glorious Greek God (his words, not mine) of music, poetry, archery and a ton of other things has been punished to live on Earth as an awkward, acne-ridden teenager in the name of Lester Papadopoulus (that’s what happens when you anger Zeus). Bound into service by demigod Meg McCaffrey the two of them set out on a quest to free Apollo’s seven oracles that have gone dark. In the third book, Apollo is going through his third trial, to free the Oracle Herophile; Herophile is bound in chains by the evil sorceress Medea in th...

Book 1 of the Infernal Devices Trilogy. Prequel to The Mortal Instruments. Author: Cassandra Clare Rating: 4.5/5 Recommend: Victorian London. Demons. Warlocks. Faeries. Avenging angels. A gorgeous damsel. Poetry. Not one, but TWO extremely good-looking   males with unreal personalities. Oh and an evil madman with a clockwork army trying to kill them all. Sound good? I have a confession to make before I start. After finishing the Infernal Devices trilogy, my heart went through a good long weeping phase, at the unfairness of it all – because the world of the Shadowhunters (and sweeter than life itself, beautiful, violin playing, silver-haired James Carstairs) are both fictional. WHY WORLD, WHY? Sigh. Here goes the review of the first book, Clockwork Angel. Set in the time of Victorian London, when women spoke little and men expected them to, there existed a race of creatures completely (or mostly) unknown to ordinary human kind. Enter the Shadowhunt...