Vampire Academy: The Graphic Novel (Review)

MY RATING: 3/5

BLURB: 

After two years on the run, best friends Rose and Lissa are caught and returned to St. Vladimir's Academy, a private high school for vampires and half-bloods. It's filled with intrigue, danger - and even romance. 

Enter their dark, fascinating world through a new series of 144-page-full-colour graphic novels. The entire first Vampire Academy novel has been adapted for book one by Leigh Dragoon and overseen by Richelle Mead, while the beautiful art of acclaimed British illustrator Emma Vieceli brings the story to life. 

REVIEW: 
First off I just want to state that my rating of his is based largely on how it came across to me in comparison with the book. It would probably be different for people who haven't read the book. Graphic novels translate very different to an actual book, in the same way that movies compared to books do. Also this was my first graphic novel (I have read manga before, but it's a little different), so this is from someone who is not at all familiar with these kinds of books. 

I actually really enjoyed this, I think the artwork was fantastic, and most of the characters were just like I would imagine them to be. So while I really enjoyed this book (would you call it that?) I am curious as to how it would come across to someone who hasn't read the book. At times I felt it was a little jumpy, like they would be doing one thing and all of a sudden they would be somewhere else. Graphic novels may just be like this, I wouldn't know. I also realise that it is impossible to include every little detail when it comes to transferring a story in such a way, so it may also have been that. I also didn't feel as though the chemistry between Rose and Dimitri communicated very well, (from what I remember, and correct me if I am wrong and I will change it) they had a lot more chemistry in the first book. They had a sort of instant attraction to each other that they were constantly battling. And I don't feel as though you really got that from this. 

The artworks were all really amazing. I loved how the moroi magic looked. I also how the frames were fogged around the edges when Rose was in Lissa's head, I think that was a really interesting touch. I think sometimes the characters eyes were a little on the small side, but other than that, I think the artist did a fantastic job with this. Christian was hot! And while I never imagined Mason to be very attractive, I know he was descrived to be good looking in the book but i am just not a fan of red hair, I think the artists really made his looks work for him. He was really good looking! The only character that really surprised me with how she looked was Natalie. I know she probably looked as she was desciribed in the book, but for some reason I pictured her with brown hair. Not sure why. 

Anyway, all in all, I think this will be great for a quick Vampire Acamdey fix when you don't have time to read the book, as I read it in under an hour while I was on my way home this afternoon. And I really cannot wait to get my hands on Frostbite so I can stare at Adrian :P I love Adrian <3 I also think he looks amazing in Frostbite! I would definitely recommend this if you have read the books and are interested. Great, quick and fun read. 

Jammie the Book Nerd 
<3

Trending #TheGoldenLily on Twitter

Hey guys :D 

So, are any of you fans of Richelle Mead's series Vampire Academy and Bloodlines series? Well, if you are, you would know that the latest book in the Bloodlines series The Golden Lily is coming out in a month, June 12th to be exact :D Yay, so excited! Cannot wait. What are you most looking forward to in it? I am personally looking forward to Adrian, and I have also heard that The Golden Lily is full of romance, so here's to hoping we get some Adrian and Sydney, or Sydrian as they have adopted :)

Isn't the cover just gorgeous? I also stuck the cover for the first book, Bloodlines, down there, because I love that one too. If you have not read Bloodlines, but love Vampire Academy, I would highly recommend checking it out in preparation for The Golden Lily. Or if you haven't read Vampire Academy you should check them out! I know, I know. Another vampire book, but they seriously rock!

Anyway, back to the whole point of this post, @VampireAcademyAus (the link will take you to their twitter page) over on twitter are trying to get together as many fans as possible to try and trend #TheGoldenLily, so if you are a fan, or are just interested in helping out, then you can head on over and sign the twitition they have set up here. And spreading the word through blogging, twitter, tumblr what ever is your forte will be greatly appreciated I'm sure. So help them get the troops together and lets get #TheGoldenLily trending on June 12th :D 

We can totally do this! 

Jammie the Book Nerd

<3

Star Wars

Hey! :D 

Not that I am like a Star Wars fan or anything, but today is International Star Wars Day :D So May the Fourth be with you all :P 

Hope you had a good Star Wars Day.

Jammie the Book Nerd 

<3

The Hunt by Andrew Fukuda

MY RATING: 3/5
RELEASE DATE: 10th May 2012

BLURB: 

Against all odds, 17-year-old Gene has survived in a world where the general population has eaten humans to near extinction. The only remaining humans, or hepers as they are known, are housed in domes on the Savannah and studied at the nearby Heper Institute. Every decade there is a government sponsored hunt. When Gene is selected to be one of the combatants he must learn the art of the hunt - but also elude his fellow competitors as suspicious about true nature grow . . . 

MY REVIEW: 

The first thing I have to say about this book is that ending!!!!! Oh my god! That was just torture. There is going to be a second book right? There has to be. I didn't love this book, I didn't hate it either, but after that ending I am going to have to find out what happens to the characters. This is a really original story, not like anything that I have ever read before. 

Gene is one of the few lottery winners that were randomly selected to participate in the hunt. But during the "training" process, the other hunters begin to become suspicious of Gene's true nature. So while trying to find a way to get out of being in the hunt, without raising any question, he must also try to hide who or rather what he really is. 

At the beginning of the book Gene really annoyed me, he frequently thinks back to his father telling him 'Never forget who you are', but I really felt as though he had. He looks at hepers and thinks of them with slight disgust, when he is one of them. Still looks at them as stupid savages, when he should know full well that they are intelligent. I can kind of understand how he is like this, given the circumstances that he has had to live through, it would be hard not to lose yourself. I liked him a lot more when his true personality sort of broke through the facade that he had to put up for so long. I felt the same way about Ashley June, at the beginning we see her as snobby and controlling, and I didn't like it. But as you get to know her more you see that she isn't really like that. 

I disliked the lack of background story to the world tat Gene lives in. I would have enjoyed a short history on how their world came to be run by vampires with no humans in sight. I know some people may have enjoyed the lack of boring description, but I personally felt a little lost without it. Although I am now going to hold out hope that if there is a sequel we will learn more in it. I also didn't particularly like how the vampires in this story were portrayed, that they actually eat human flesh, it was a little too freakishly cannibalistic for me. They were almost sort of like a completely different animal to humans, rather than really just being sort of evil super-humans, that's just how I see vampires though. So although I didn't personally like this interpretation, I do have an appreciation for people that put their own twists on things such as vampires. 

I know there was quite a bit that I didn't like about the book, but it was really pretty good. I really liked the description of simple human actions like smiling, it really gives you the feel that they are pretty much in a different world. Also a little forewarning, there is a lot of talk of saliva and descriptions of the vampires turning to pus when they are in the sun, it is really gross. The description of the attack on the heper is not super graphic, but I would probably not recommend this book to fainthearted. 

This was a really original story. Something that I have always wanted to see done, vampires taking everything over, and not like anything that I have ever read before. So I would definitely recommend checking it out. 

Thank you to Simon & Schuster Australia for giving me the chance to win this book to review. 

Jammie the Book Nerd 

<3

Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher

MY RATING: 2/5

BLURB: 

Clay Jensen returns home from school to find a mysterious box with his name on it lying on his porch. Inside he discovers cassette tapes recorded by Hannah Baker, his classmate and crush - who committed suicide two weeks earlier. 

On tape, Hannah explains that there are thirteen reasons why she decided to end her life. Clay is one of them. If he listens, he'll find out how he made the list. 

Through Hannah and Clay's dual narratives, debut author Jay Asher weaves an intricate and heartrending story of confusion and desperation that will deeply affect teen readers. 

REVIEW: 

I just want to clarify that I didn't give this book two stars because it was a bad book, it just wasn't for me. Suicide doesn't sit well with me. 

I should have thought about the fact that this book is about suicide more before I bought it. I was really intrigued at the beginning of this book, wanting to learn Hannah's story, it definitely hooks you in from the very first page. I only realized about half way through why I wasn't getting into the book as much as I thought I should be I personally believe that suicide is the most selfish thing that any one person can do, I'm not saying that it isn't a serious matter and that we shouldn't try and stop it, it's just to me when someone does something like this, they are thinking only of themselves. Of taking away their own pain because they don't want to fight anymore, not caring enough about how what they do will affect the ones that love them. 

Hannah's character annoyed me quite a bit throughout the book, I wasn't really getting why she wanted to commit suicide other than just because she couldn't be bothered to put up with any of it anymore and to kind of get revenge on the people that had hurt her. I couldn't really see what Clay liked about her either, but I guess he didn't know her that well. Other than that, this was a great awareness sort of book and I would highly recommend it, you may like it more than me. It is a very education story about ehat effects our actions can have on others, especially when we don't realize it. In the case of this story, it is both the effects that Hannah's "friend's" had on her life, but also what effect her actions had on the people who cared about her like Clay. I really liked that about this book. 

If you have read this book, you should check out this song by Alice Invictus here.

All of her other songs are really good too :D

Jammie the Book Nerd

Giveaway at The Tales Compendium

Jess over at The Tales Compendium is having a two year blogoversary giveaway. Congrats to your two years Jess :D 
Go and check it out here. 

Jammie the Book Nerd 
xxoo

Double Clutch by Liz Reinhardt

MY RATING: 3/5

BLURB: 

What happens when you fall for the perfect guy . . . twice . . . in one day? 

Brenna Blixen spent her freshman year homeschooling in Denmark; now that she's back in the States, she's determined to make her sophomore year unforgettable. And by unforgettable, she imagined awesome classes, fun friendships, and maybe a little romance. 

What she got was a whole lot of romance, and all at once. 

The same day that dark, brooding Saxon Maclean charmed her with his killer good looks and whip-smart wit, Jake Kelly stole her breath away with his heart-wrenching smile and intelligent, thoughtful focus. 

But Saxon is a proud player who makes it clear that he doesn't know why he can't get Brenna off of his mind and out of his system, and Jake's sweet humble attitude hides a secret past life that might be darker and more complex than Brenna is willing to deal with. 

Complicating the matter is the fact that Saxon and Jake were once best friends and are now arch-enemies . . . and the more Brenna finds out about their connection to each other, the more intrigued and worried she becomes. 

Between keeping the peace with her lovingly over-protective parents, designing t-shirts for her high school's rising punk band, keeping up her grades in classes slip between academic and technical high school, and running the track like a maniac, Brenna has enough to worry about without juggling two guys who make her heart thud and drive her crazy all at once. 

She has to make a choice, but how is she supposed to do that when giving her heart to one of them might mean breaking the others? 

REVIEW: 

Whoa. That was a long blurb :/ Anyway, I really enjoyed this book. I devoured two thirds of it in one night when I should have been studying and finished it the next day. I know a lot of people are really against them, but I really enjoy love triangles if they are done well. I mean I know that everyone says that they are repetitive because it’s all the same, but I whole heartedly agree with what Cassandra Clare (Author of The Mortal Instruments series) said on the topic of the love triangle in her series The Infernal Devices:

“Every plot under the sun (female lead falls for male lead, female lead falls for male lead’s best friend, female lead falls for own best friend after realizing suddenly she has loved him these many years, female lead falls for archenemy of male lead, female lead falls for dude who turns out to be gay) had been done a thousand times. It is the manner in which it is done that makes it interesting.”

Double Clutch is a story about a girl named Brenna who has just come back from being home schooled in Denmark. On her first day back Brenna meets two guys who instantly spark her interest. Saxon Maclean, who is hot, and a real arse-hole but in an oddly attractive way (to me at least). Then there's Jake Kelly, who is just about the complete opposite of Saxon, shy and humble, but also haunted by a secret from his past. 

I think one of the things that I enjoyed most about this book was the characters. It was the characters that kept tempting me to abandon my studying and read another chapter. They were also very realistic and relatable. I love Brenna. She is strong and smart and not afraid to bite back, I like that in a girl. She knows what she wants and she tries her best to get it. Sometimes it seems like a lot of female protagonists in books are all very fragile and weak and rely on their male interests more than what I like to read about. 

When I started the book I liked Saxon right away. But, I also really liked Jake by the end of the book, at first I thought he would be the perfect guy of the story, and too perfect people always bug me, it's the flaws that make people beautiful and interesting. But Jake was definitely an interesting character. He isn't that well off in life, he lives in a shabby house, and has just enough to scrape by. It's a little heart breaking, and makes you love him more and want him to get the girl in the end because he deserves it. Saxon takes joy in angering Brenna and refuses to face up to what he really feels for her. I liked that Jake had a sad back story, it was cute to me, and it gave him more character. But I think I am definitely more for Saxon getting the girl. 

This book just sucked me in. The relationships are realistic, Brenna doesn’t all of a sudden get distracted from her grades and other important things just because she has a boyfriend. There is some sexual content so I would not recommend to younger readers (maybe about 15 or 16+). I really want to get my hands on Junk Miles the second book in this series. I definitely enjoyed this book and would like to thank Missy at Missy Reads and Reviews and Liz for the opportunity to read this book and be a part of this blog tour :)

Jammie the Book Nerd

xxoo

p.s. For the tour details and all of the other stops on the blog tour visit Missy's blog tour post.