(I received a free copy of this book from Bold Strokes Books, through NetGalley, in return for a review).

(This review may contain spoilers).

Ideally, I’d give this book 4.5 stars, but since I can’t give half stars…

This was a book I particularly wanted to read. The blurb sounded really interesting and the cover really attracted me.

The plot of the story managed to keep me reading and I really did like the romance that developed between Imms and B. I thought the author did a really good job of showing how Imms developed as a character.

The contrast between the Silvers’ planet and Earth came across really well, as did how different people reacted to Imms when he was on Earth. One thing that really struck me was that no one cared enough about what was happening to Imms to try and stop it, even when they said they didn’t agree with it. Sadly, I feel that’s all too true of the world we now live in. People rarely step in when they think something’s wrong.

The relationships that Imms formed with others came across really well, but it was sad that he was forced to change and that people wanted to provoke him. Because we need more violence in the world.

I can see this happening if we discovered aliens. The romance between B and Imms was sweet at times, but Imms was the only one who seemed to have to change.

I would definitely be interested in reading a sequel to this book. I think there’s still so much of the story to be told.

(I received this book for free as part of Goodreads First Reads giveaways).

(This review may contain spoilers).

For those of you not aware, I actually did also win a copy of the first book in this series. That probably has little relevance to this review, except to say that I was already familiar with the characters.

This is definitely a good book for younger children to read. The two girls are characters I would have found easy to relate to as a child. There’s not a huge amount of mystery in this, but I think it’s enough to keep a child’s attention… possibly not every child, though.

The illustrations worked really well with this book and I think they would certainly succeed in drawing a child in. The bits of history revealed were interesting and didn’t come across as a lecture or info-dump.

It was good that there were actually some German phrases in this book, especially within the dialogue. I think it provides a bit of learning made fun.

The information after the story is finished is quite good and it’s nice that there’s a recipe so that children can experience Austrian cooking.

I passed the first of these books onto my niece and I intend to do that with this one, too.

(I received a free copy of this book from INscribe Digital Publishing, through NetGalley, in exchange for a review).

(This review may contain spoilers).

The cover of this book and the blurb really attracted me, but I did struggle a bit with the plot itself.

The author, in this book, created a world that was really interesting and intriguing – but I felt that there was a bit too much info-dumping going on.

Despite her name, Genesis, at first, came across as quite an interesting character. Until she went to the Academy and became little more than a sex object.

The problem with having a character so completely unique is that you then run the risk of that character becoming a Mary Sue. Genesis was right up against the line, but the fact that she at least tried to have a life outside of ‘boys, boys, boys’ was what saved her.

Love triangles are rarely done well. Xander and Adam would have been much more interesting characters if the forced-romance aspects had been taken out. Genesis’ attraction to them was literally based on their appearance, rather than getting to know them – and that just didn’t resonate with me.

I was going to give this book two stars, but it did really pick up towards the end. The writing sucked me in with the final scenes and that’s what makes me interested enough to find out what’s going to happen to Genesis next.

(I received this book for free as part of Goodreads First Reads giveaways).

(This review may contain spoilers).

Genetic engineering is something that’s becoming more common now. Designer babies and everything. Having said that, this book is more about the main character – at least in my opinion.

Michael was an easy character to relate to. I could really get behind his desire to make humanity better and the fact that his wife was the main driving force behind it just made the character even more likable.

The skipping back in time was a bit confusing and, in a way, I think it was unnecessary. Although it serves to set the scene a bit, it did throw me a little.

I particularly liked Michael’s relationship with Annie. It came across as really sweet and realistic, even though there were some problems. (That actually made the relationship better – that it wasn’t all sunshine and roses).

I did find the science parts a bit confusing at times, but I did particularly like the bits with the monkeys. It was sweet how they each seemed to have their own personality and how different they were because of the new cells that had been introduced.

When the children came into it, I would have liked to see more of them, rather than being told what they were like. They didn’t actually appear in any scene properly.

The technology in this book was pretty good and it was interesting to see how things had developed – and under-developed. I could actually see a lot of how the world ended up happening in the future of this world.

The attitude of the government and their decisions about what to do was sad, but really not that surprising. Michael’s reactions to that was one of the things that endeared him to me.

The writing in this book was really good, though I did notice one or two errors. I hope there will be a sequel to this, because I’d really like to read it.

(I received a free copy of this book from Random House UK, Ebury Publishers, through NetGalley, in exchange for a review).

(This review may contain spoilers).

I’ve found that tie-in novels can be a bit hit and miss. I’ve really liked some of them, but really disliked others.

This does fall into the first category. I did like the Doctor, but I wasn’t sure which he was supposed to be – he was a bit like Ten, but I could see a few elements of Eleven as well.

I particularly liked the storyline of this book. It was interesting and engaging, even though I didn’t understand everything that was going on, or all of the explanations.

This book did read like an episode of the show, which is always a good thing. It was nice to see hints/thoughts given to his previous companions – I’m sure they all meant something to him in one way or another.

The Doctor’s reluctance to turn to a violent solution comes across really well in this, as well as the way he stops the monster from being further attacked when it’s already been weakened. I did like the ending, even though I’m not sure I understood how it all fit together. I would speculate, but I don’t want to give away the storyline – so I won’t.

I found this book to be a really entertaining read. It didn’t take long to finish and I would definitely be interested in reading more of these books/short stories.