By: Holly Black Published By: Indigo Released : Available Now Details: Paperback from library, 419 Pages RATING: 3.75 DARK QUIRKY STARS! Blurb: Goodreads Tana lives in a world where walled cities called Coldtowns exist. In them, quarantined monsters and humans mingle in a decadently bloody mix of predator and prey. The only problem is, once you pass through Coldtown’s gates, you can never leave.
One morning, after a perfectly ordinary party, Tana wakes up surrounded by corpses. The only other survivors of this massacre are her exasperatingly endearing ex-boyfriend, infected and on the edge, and a mysterious boy burdened with a terrible secret. Shaken and determined, Tana enters a race against the clock to save the three of them the only way she knows how: by going straight to the wicked, opulent heart of Coldtown itself.
The Coldest Girl in Coldtown is a wholly original story of rage and revenge, of guilt and horror, and of love and loathing from bestselling and acclaimed author Holly Black.
BOOK REVIEW by Michelle:
Holly Black is the author of the Spiderwick Chronicles and the popular Curse Workers series among other works. This is my first book of Holly’s I have read.
The sticker on the front of my library book stated dark, decadent and seductive.
This tale is certainly dark and decadent, I was more seduced in the last one hundred pages.
These thoughts are just my one personal opinion.
I thought this story got off to a promising start. Tana and Aidan are the only survivors of a sundown party that has gone deathly wrong.
Tana woke up in the bathtub to find the farmhouse full of students, all dead.
Aidan was the only other survivor, he was bound to the bed posts and his mouth duct taped up. A vampire boy was gagged and chained beside the bed.
Let this tale of very quirky, sometimes a little kooky characters begin.
I am all up for a different tale with quirky characters and intrigue. Aidan likes guys and girls. Well, good on him. There is a character who enters the story who started off male, or still is male underneath it all??? not quite sure of what I should have been assuming there. That is all cool cucumbers.
This is a YA read, I understand, but not for the too younger YA end of the scale. I can see why. There is blood shed, and sharp things being used to do things to humans. There are tubes and blood drinking and it is indeedy, decadent.
All nice and different.
What I had trouble personally with, is the story got off to a strong start, for me, but then for the next 300 pages, I was a little up and down interested. I thought there was so much more potential for excitement. Things kind of turned out too easy for Tana. I didn’t quite understand why she had to put herself inside Coldtown.
I understand she thought she could be infected, but it’s a big leap from thinks, to is, when you know what Coldtown is all about.
Coldtown is essentially a one way trip, you can get out with a marker. I've handed my book back, I think it was called a marker. It is a token that is coin shaped and you can use it to get released from Coldtown, as long as you aren't cold/infected or a vampire. But you have to have something to trade for this marker.
Tana could have just dropped off her bundle and left, but she HAD to go inside. She could have waited to see if she was infected. I kind of felt she wasn’t at the time because other’s showed signs , quicker. I know what I was told, but it felt a little forced the reasoning for putting her in there.
Funnily enough I thought the best part of the story was when she was inside Coldtown. I think I just needed a more dashing, daring, plausable reason for her winding up inside Coldtown. I get that it seduces kids. The footage that is downloaded for the people outside Coldtown to watch, sounded exciting to be a part of, but that is not why Tana was going. The groupies she picked up along the way, were seduced by it.
I didn’t understand why the bounty wasn’t accepted, even by the tag alongers. Winter knew in the end, but nobody said anything. I'm being cryptic as I am trying not to spoil.
I was like, ‘huh?’
Also nobody knew at the gate who the most wanted person was?
‘Huh?’
The last one hundred pages I really loved. Like I totally dug them.
It’s really hard to explain how I felt reading this book. Holly can most certainly write. I visually saw her dark world of vampires, the coldtown and how it seduced kids to drive to it and want to be a part of it, but it wasn’t all that exciting for me the lead up to Coldtown.
I think I had trouble with it all flowing. I found myself jumping around between characters, which is fine, but it really only made sense to me in the last one hundred pages. Which is ok. But I wasn't really connected with the lead characters for the most part of the book.
I got a kickass twist, that I loved. But, sadly for me three hundred odd pages were quite ho, humish. I mean not to be rude. But I wasn't on the ride I thought I would be on.
The more I read and understood about Holly’s vampires, the more I questioned the ‘why’ that Tana was the only kid to survive that party.
I mean, why?
Vamps can hear your heart, smell your blood. She was only having a kip in the bathtub. Never the less, she was the survivor and Aidan was going to be dinner, but this is where the story starts.
Did I like Aidan? I think I did. I did by the end. He was a hard character for me to hang on to.
Gavriel. I liked him. He is a very odd character. Quite deliberately odd. We have to keep reading to know more. I found I liked Gavriel more in the last one hundred pages and I understood him more.
Jameson, I LOVED his character from the get go. I really connected with him. He kept me turning the pages.
I think this is a book you are either going to be throwing five stars at, or you are going to be like me, you got to the end, but you have questions. I wondered about their cell phones. I mean, eventually Tana did plug in and recharge hers, but it was quite odd they had them could talk to their friends outside if they wanted to, but nobody ever really said that Coldtown was a bit of a lie. It wasn’t what everybody on the outside thought it was.
Parents seemed to easily give up their children, or kids just did what they wanted, anyway. I could see what Coldtown was about once I entered those last hundred pages, but the world on the outside, I am still a bit stumped about it.
Yeah. I think I was personally missing some believability of some areas of this fictional tale.
I am glad I read it and got to the end to find the twist and I did like the couple of hot moments between Tana and Gavriel.
This tale is different. I personally would have liked to like it more. I am really looking forward to reading the two books in the Curse Workers I have had sitting on my shelf for too long, unread.
He bent down and picked up Aidan, slinging him over one shoulder. “We’ll get you another day,” Gavriel said, with such odd sincerity that she had to smile.
By: Leigh Bardugo Published By:Indigo, Hachette Released : Available Now Details: Paperback , 308 Pages Thank you to Hachette for review copy:) RATING : 4.5 MAL & DARKLING STARS! Blurb: Goodreads The Shadow Fold, a swathe of impenetrable darkness, crawling with monsters that feast on human flesh, is slowly destroying the once-great nation of Ravka.
Alina, a pale, lonely orphan, discovers a unique power that thrusts her into the lavish world of the kingdom’s magical elite—the Grisha. Could she be the key to unravelling the dark fabric of the Shadow Fold and setting Ravka free?
The Darkling, a creature of seductive charm and terrifying power, leader of the Grisha. If Alina is to fulfil her destiny, she must discover how to unlock her gift and face up to her dangerous attraction to him.
But what of Mal, Alina’s childhood best friend? As Alina contemplates her dazzling new future, why can’t she ever quite forget him?
Glorious. Epic. Irresistible. Romance.
BOOK REVIEW by Michelle :
The Gathering Dark or Shadow and Bone , depending on what neck of the woods you live in, was a very exciting , colourful, deceiving, intriguing, dark, sinister, betraying world with a friendship that will be tested, and a love that is hiding beneath the surface. There is still a lot of mystery surrounding the Shadow Fold, for me personally.
I would love a prequel novella explaining the Volcra and the Fold, more. The Volcra intrigue me after you find out what they originally were, but at the same time that might spoil something. Maybe I will learn more in the Siege and Storm, which is called The Shadow Fold forus Aussies? Well, there you go, with a title like that the chances are high we will find more out about this mysterious fold that was made hundreds of years prior.
The world building was fascinating and at first I was taken a bit back with the names in this book, as they kind of in my head, had a Romanian or Russian feel to them?
The groups of The Grisha, the ‘Soldiers of the Second Army Masters of the Small Science’, I had a little thing where I shortened the names Corporalki were Corps, Etherealki were Ethers and the Materialki were the Materials. What can I say, it helped me to not stumble. Anybody who knows me knows I get a bit tongue tied sometimes and I also have a weird thing with pronouncing names wrongJ
I loved the well written characters in this book. Alina Starkov and Malyen Oretsev aka Mal were orphans living in Duke Keramsov’s estate with other orphans. They have known each other near all their lives, played together and are best friends. Both were Grisha tested and found to not have what it takes to be Grisha.
Both have trained for their military service in Poliznaya. Alina goes on to become a Cartographer and Mal a Tracker.
We find out early Alina is crushing on Mal. She uses her smart retorts to hide her feelings. I love Mal he is gorgeous.
This was the hardest part of being around him - other than the way he made my heart do clumsy acrobatics. I hated hiding how much his stupid things he did hurt me, but I hated the idea of him finding out even more.
“Hey ,” he said with a grin, “I worry.” “If you’re lucky, a volcra will have me for breakfast tomorrow and then you won’t have to fret any more.” “You know I’d be lost without you.” “You’ve never been lost in your life,” I scoffed. I was the mapmaker , but Mal could find true north blindfolded and standing on his head. He bumped my shoulder against mine. “You know what I mean.” “Sure,” I said. But I didn’t. Not really.
How stinking cute are these two...but then the Darkling enters the story...
I loved the visual I got in my head when they started to cross the Fold, the Unsea. They travel on skiffs, as it is sand, and they are using the Grisha who are ranked Squallers, they can raise or lower pressure of the air, fill the skiff sails with wind that would carry them across the miles of the Fold.
Crossing the Fold is inviting danger and death to those travelling it. The skiff does not go unscathed but then something happens which gets the Darkling all excited.
Alina finds herself whisked away from Mal away to safety from Fjerdan spys and Shu Han assassins. No goodbyes for Mal.
Leigh gets us all a bit girlie goo goo eyed over the Darkling as they travel away to the safety of the Grand Palace, the Ravkan King’s winter home.
Alina manages to say what she thinks and not be reprimanded or worse by the Darkling. She has this feisty spirit about her. Saying what comes to mind no matter who she is talking to. It’s like the Darkling is making allowances for her throughout the book.
We learn about amplifiers. They increase a Grisha’s power, but that power must be there to begin with. Amplifiers are rare and hard to obtain. The Darkling is a living amplifier.
Alina finds herself spending a great deal of her time at the Little Palace where we meet a pile of interesting Grisha characters.
Genya is lovely. I really like her. She is this beautiful friend that I think Alina needs. She appears loyal , trustworthy and fun.
The Grisha are not immune to jealousy’s amongst themselves and causing hurt between each other. The different coloured kefta show off ranks. Now I must giggle as I thought I would see if kefka being a robe was a real thing via google and I came out with a Moroccan lamb or beef type mince kebab or meatballs, hehe!
Baghra is this tough , yet amusing character , who was also quite wise. I really liked her. She has a tough love approach , if I could call it that?
Then we have the Apparat. Is he a priest, fanatic or a fraud? He is still a mystery to me. What side of the fence is he sitting on? He is an intriguing character who at times can appear, quite creepy.
The more you get into this story , the more exciting it becomes. The Little Palace was for learning and smexi tension and the odd makeover, but then...
The reuniting of a friendship, the twists, scenery... by the time I got to the end of this book I was like hanging for more.
“I never really belonged anywhere.” “You belonged with me,” he said quietly. “No, Mal. Not really. Not for a long time.”
I am left with two guys who captured my heart. One maybe more real than the other and one that has left me confused. I do see a glimpse of ...well that would be spoilingJ
