Review: Confessions of a Murder Suspect

Title: Confessions of a Murder Suspect (Teen Detectives #1)

Author: James Patterson, Maxine Paetro

Rating: 3/5

James Patterson returns to the genre that made him famous with a thrilling teen detective series about the mysterious and magnificently wealthy Angel family . . . and the dark secrets they're keeping from one another.

On the night Malcolm and Maud Angel are murdered, Tandy Angel knows just three things: 1) She was the last person to see her parents alive. 2) The police have no suspects besides Tandy and her three siblings. 3) She can't trust anyone—maybe not even herself. Having grown up under Malcolm and Maud's intense perfectionist demands, no child comes away undamaged. Tandy decides that she will have to clear the family name, but digging deeper into her powerful parents' affairs is a dangerous-and revealing-game. Who knows what the Angels are truly capable of?

I read this book not really knowing what to expect. Of course it was going to be a murder mystery novel, due to the title, and that the main character would be a suspect.

I really liked the characters in the novel. They were all so different, not only to each other but to characters in different books. I did, however see a small resemblance between some of these characters and some of the Maximum Ride characters, for example Gazzy(MR)and Hugo(CoaMS) because they were quite similar in not only age but also personality. In fact, the whole family were incredibly similar to Max and the Flock!

Our main protagonist is Tandoori (Tandy) Angel, and she is determined to find out the truth about her parents deaths. The way she speaks to the reader was slightly difficult for me to get used to at first, but as the book progressed I found myself more at ease with the style.

the first thing I noticed when I read it is how out of the ordinary this family really is, and that feeling stayed with me and increased durning the book- and its true, because the Angel family are WERID. However, even though the reader notices this, the children are  oblivious to how different their family is to others, in more ways than they think.

I was a little disappointed, as I figured out the truth little over half way of the novel, but what was good about it was that even though I thought I knew what happened, James kept me on the edge of my seat, making me think-wait, maybe I'm wrong- and so my decision kept changing.

I adored the love interest in this book! It was incredibly refreshing as it was so different. I can't really expand on it that much without spoiling you a little. I would defiantly want to learn some more about him though, as not much is said. 

One of the things I loved the most in this book, was the chapters! They were pretty short, but every so often there were 'Confession' chapters, in which Tandy would say a little but more, more than she was originally letting on as she got closer to the reader. I could usually tell when these chapters were coming and it made me really excited to learn more about Tandy's past. The 'Confession' chapters were probably the easiest, if not the only way to learn about her past and I thought that was very well done. There was always something new to learn!

A down side is the pace of the book. At some points there was a lot going on, but it seemed either everything was happening, or nothing was. I think this book could have defiantly have been cut down by 50, or even more, pages. It was a real shame, the pacing, because it took me so long to read this book- 2 weeks I think. I just couldn't bring myself to finish it. But I must admit, when I sat down and read the last 100 pages or so, time did fly.

The end was left on a cliff-hanger but I don't feel all that inclined to read it which is a shame because I had high hopes for this book. All in all I was expecting better from James Patterson, but I suppose it could have been a lot worse.

Review: Seizure by Kathy Reichs (Virals #2)

Title: Seizure (Virals #2)
Author: Kathy Reichs
Publication Date: October 18th 2011
Rating: 3/5

Ever since Tory Brennan and her friends rescued Cooper, a kidnapped wolf pup with a rare strain of canine parvovirus, they've turned from regular kids into a crime-solving pack. But now the very place that brought them together - the Loggerhead Island Research Institute - is out of funding and will have to shut down. That is, unless the Virals can figure out a way to save it.

So when Tory learns of an old Charleston legend about a famous she-pirate, Anne Bonney, whose fortune was never found, she can't believe her luck - buried treasure is exactly what she needs to save the Institute on Loggerhead! Trouble is, she and her friends aren't the only ones looking for it. And this time, the Virals' special powers may not be enough to dig them out of trouble . . .



I didn't really read too much into this book before I started it, I just jumped in knowing exactly what is there above. So pirates basically. I'm not much into pirate books, mainly because I haven't read many but I adored the first book, Virals, and I loved the mystery aspect. Perhaps that was because I'd never really been into that before, however after reading Virals, Seizure and getting more sucked into Sherlock I am, but I digress. This book was a bit slow going for me, taking a long while to finish. towards the middle I got more involved, but maybe its just because I felt it was too much like the first. But I'll come back to that later.

Basically, the whole plot of this book eventually stems back to the fact they need to raise enough money to save Loggerhead Island, the 'birth place' if you will of the Virals.

First of all, Seizure follows the same group of people as in the first book, Tory, Ben, Shelton and Hi, however this time there is a fifth member of the Virals. COOPER! I don't really think I had much of a connection to Tory our protagonist in the first book, and that didnt really change much. I always felt that the the boys were nicer people, not that Tory wasn't it was just certain things she did.

For example, at many points throughout the book, Tory was all 'Lets go explore this place even though we will be grounded for life!' and the three boys kept saying 'No, lets not, I don't want to die' Fair enough right? Not for Tory Brennan. If they said they wouldn't come with her, little old tory would say she was going by herself and that she didn't care- OVER AND OVER again. So because Hi, Ben and Shelton are all so nice, lovable people, they went with her so she didn't a) do something stupid b)DIE.

Thats probably one of the most annoying parts about it in my opinion, also- obvious plot twists. Yes, I will admit there was at least one that took me by surprise, but seriously Kathy? Its a mystery novel- GIVE ME A BIT OF MYSTERY!

As i mentioned earlier, it did seem a lot like the first book. The fact that in the blurb they both have a bit of 'dead bodies' 'someones trying to kill them' blah blah blah. Thinking about it, it was a lot like the first, because I guess mysterys have to be somewhat similar. But all these 

Some positives. One of the better bits, was the fact that the 4 are still confused by the wolf DNA they have. There seems to still be more to figure out in the final/future books and thats something I'd like to find out. Find out what else they can do and how they manage to cope with the changes. I'd also like to know if they actually tell their parents. Come on Tory, Kits great, he'd understand! Maybe not Whitney but nobody likes her anyway... I did like that Tory found out why she is able to connect the minds of the Virals, which was a huge contributing factor to the confusion.  

One of my favourite bits? THE LOVE TRIANGLE. In the first one, it was pretty clear that Jason liked Tory, and in this one Ben starts showing up, hinting at him liking Tory too. There were a couple of hints in the first, but not major. Now, I love Ben and in my opinion it should be Ben and Tory who get together, but nothings made totally clear who Tory will choose. In fact, I think Torys pretending to feign ignorant. 
Ben hates Jason. Maybe thats because of the Love triangle, but I think something else is contributing to his dislike, or rather I'm hoping for there to be.

I have to admit, it was a lovely change to most of the YA around now, a definate breath of fresh air. I didn't enjoy it as much as the first, which is the reason for the lower rating, but it was enjoyable all the same.

February Wrap-Up!

I know, I haven't posted in a while, and I'm truly sorry but school work has taken over, and of course that takes priority. Also, due to aforementioned school work, I haven't read as many books as I did last year, In fact I only read half of my January reads so have only read 4. 

0.4 by Mike Lancaster- 3/5 Stars

I read this right at the very beginning of the month, and looking back on this, I may have been slightly generous with this rating. I remember thinking that it sounded really intriguing and something that could develop. It sounded different and I wasn't sure exactly what would be going on. But when I read it I was more than disappointed. I may write a review on this in the near future...but if I do, expect a rant. 

Under the Never Sky by Veronica Rossi-4/5 Stars

I liked this book. I would have liked to have seen more of Aria's home at the beginning, rather than learning about her world through the book. I would have also liked more flashbacks which I think knocked a star off. I wont say much but I am looking forward to reading the next one, to find out about characters, answer my questions and I'm just generally intrigued. 

The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky-4/5 Stars

Don;t get me wrong, I really enjoyed this book as you can tell by the rating and I love the film, but it just took me so long to read it! I don't really have much else to say on this, but it was very good.

City of Glass by Cassandra Clare- 5/5 Stars

THIS BOOK. CASSANDRA YOU'VE DONE IT AGAIN. All the questions I had have finally been answered in little under 550 pages, amazing. There is just one thing I'm not completely sure on because of different things said at different points, but I'm really looking forward to CoFA- which I think will be read in April.

Library Book Haul

Hello! So this is another section I'm going to do. Most of the books I read, I don't buy, I borrow from the local library, so I thought it would be fun to do a Library section and I'll probably upload as soon as I get a new lot of books. I'm not entirely sure how I'm going to manage this section as I have quite a few ready for collection, so I think I'll do all the books I have here at home. If I miss any out, on my Wrap-ups, I will probably (if I remember) write if this is a library book or not, so lets get on with this haul.

Okay, guys- so currently I have 13 books borrowed from the library, so without further ado...

1) Seizure by Kathy Reichs (Virals #2)

This is a sequel  the first book being Virals, so I'm not going to expand too much about what its supposed to be about. What I can say is by the description it sounds a lot different to the first book, which in someways I am looking forward to, but I loved the first one so much I want it to stay more or less the same. Does that make any sense? Didn't think so. Anyway- I definitely recommend Virals is you like mystery books, it was so different to what I thought it would be like- but in such a good way.

2) Halo by Alexandra Adornetto (Halo #1)

I don't know much about this, apart from its to do with 3 angels, Gabriel, the warrior, Ivy, the healer, and Bethany the most human. I was drawn to this partly because my friend recomended it to me, but I also have thing about angel books...I don't know why! But I am really excited about this book.

3)  Eon: Rise of the Dragoneye by Alison Goodman (Eon #1)

This has been praised so much so I thought I'd pick it up and read it. This book has different names, Eon: Rise of the Dragoneye, Eon: Dragoneye Reborn, Eon, The Two Pearls of Wisdom but basically it is about Eon, someone who has been studying Dragon Magic, but who actually turns out to be a girl-Eona. Girls aren't allowed to study this, so I'm excited to find out where it leads. It's a monster of a book though, so I'm not sure when I will get around to it.

4) My Soul to Take by Rachel Vincent (Soul Screamers #1)

Now, I'm not one for vampires, but this is a very vampire-focused book, so I'm trying to expand my horizons. Finger-crossed it works, but I have no idea what this is about.

5) Slated by Teri Terry (Slated #1)

THIS BOOK. THIS BOOK LOOKS SO GOOD. I'm so excited! Its so much bigger than I thought it would be- but hopefully it lives up to my expectations. Its had such good reviews so I'm hopefully going to read this pretty soon.

6) I am Number Four by Pittacus Lore (Lorien Legacies #1)

I don'y know what to say-I had to read it. I've seen the film and loved it, but everyone says the books are so much better- so I decided to give it a whirl. I couldn't find it in any shops so got it from the library.

7) Delirium by Lauren Oliver (Delirium #1)

I so want to read this!

8) Dreamless by Josephine Angelini (Starcrossed #2)

I loved the first one more than I thought I would, so picked this up straight after. 

9)Eve by Anna Carey (Eve #1)

I don't know what this is about, but its short so I think I can get through it reasonably quickly.

10)Legend by Marie Lu (Legend #1)

I picked this up mainly because of all the hype for a while. 

11) A Witch in Love by Ruth Warburton (Winter Trilogy #2)

I really enjoyed the first one!

13) Shadows by Ilsa J Bick (Ashes Trilogy #2)

Again,I really liked the first one so wanted to read the next!