(I received a free copy of this book in exchange for a review).

(This review may contain spoilers).

This was a fairly short book, but I thought it was a good introduction to the series. I couldn’t help feeling sorry for Vivian. I did grow to like her as a character and I was able to empathise with her really easily.

I wasn’t very keen on Vivian’s Aunt Agnes, I have to say. While it’s true that, as the book went on, I found it easier to understand her, I still didn’t really like her. Beatrice was a character I grew to like much more.

It was interesting to see Rose and her reactions to Vivian. I felt really sorry for Rose from the beginning… though I’m sure she’s not the type to want (or need) anyone to feel sorry for her.

I was a bit disappointed not to see very much of the paranormal aspects in this book. I did think that Vivian’s reactions to what she was being told made sense, since she didn’t automatically believe and still questioned, right up until she didn’t have much choice.

I liked learning about the history of the town and it would have been good to know more about the history of the different families in the town.

I did think that Hunter was an interesting character and one I would have liked to see more of. I also found Jaxon to be quite intriguing… but my favourite secondary characters were probably Declan and Skylar. I enjoyed reading about their relationship and it was cool to see them so quickly befriend Vivian.

I did think the reasoning for information being kept from Vivian was weak at best. And I found myself really disliking her father. It wasn’t clear why he was suddenly shunting her off onto two aunts she didn’t know about… or even if it was a ‘normal’ thing for him to do. I also thought that Vivian’s arrival in the school was a bit cliched, such as the pretty, popular girl who hates her… and the inordinate amount of attention she gets on her first day.

This book worked as a good introduction to the series. It would have been nice if it was longer and I did find myself with all kinds of unanswered questions by the end. But I am interested in reading the next book/s in this series and seeing where Vivian and Rose will go next.

(I received a free copy of this book in exchange for a review).

(This review may contain spoilers).

I did find this book to be quite difficult to get into at first. By the end, I’d ideally give it 3.5 stars… unfortunately, it didn’t quite reach the mark for 4 stars, at least for me.

I had a few mixed feelings about Ariana. I actually felt she started off as quite an interesting character… but I felt that she lost the strength I glimpsed when Cal came into the picture. She kind of lost me for quite a while when she waxed narcissistic (there were a couple of references to her body shape being curvy. And toned. And thin… and, well, who really knows what shape their face is?)

I felt that the book was better during the times when the romance took more of a backseat. I liked seeing glimpses of Zane and it was also good to see Ariana interacting with the others in her family. I did like the fact that she was taking care of her brother and sister… and it was also good to see her having to deal with a mother who was struggling with depression.

There were times I felt that Ariana’s language came across as a bit juvenile. I’ve seen ‘OMG’ used in dialogue… but it’s just as cringeworthy to read it used in the narrative. And it seemed to contradict Ariana’s entire personality up till that point.

Although I didn’t like the constant descriptions of males being ‘handsome’ with no reference points, I did actually find Cal to be a fairly intriguing character. I do have a strong dislike of love triangles, though, and the one set up in this book hit a lot of my negative associations.

I found Zane a bit more of an interesting narrator, though his constant hangups over Ariana were a bit annoying. I felt that too much of the book was dedicated to describing events/scenes that were really unnecessary. There was a lot glossed over that was irritating, giving a telling rather than showing feeling to the book.

I did like Ariana’s relationship with her father and it was interesting to see the politics involved… even if I did get a sense of the Hunger Games at certain points. The book was easier to read as I continued… but I do think there were things that could have been improved upon.

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

(This review may contain spoilers).

Falconry is something I’ve seen used in a lot of writing or in other media, but I don’t know a lot about it. I thought this was a good, really interesting book. It was clearly a book written for younger readers… but I still found it readable.

I did find the use of the *s and footnotes to be quite distracting, especially since not all of the footnotes were referencing the text marked.

I thought that the start of the book worked quite well. It was interesting to see the different animals talking to each other… and I really enjoyed reading Wendover’s interactions with DJ.

It was interesting to see something of the food chain between the animals… but also the friendship that sprang up between DJ and the birds of prey. I thought it was sweet that DJ developed a crush on Ria… but I would have liked to see more of the interactions between the three of them. I felt that a lot of the friendships that formed between them were glossed over.

I thought it was good to have the opportunity to see things from both Timmy’s perspective and from the animals. I found it really easy to get drawn into the storyline and I liked the personalities shown of the birds and rat.

I liked Ria quite a bit. It was good to see that Timmy recognised the fact she belonged in the wild. I would have liked to know how Timmy got into falconry. I didn’t really see much of a mention of his family… and it would have been good to see more of other human characters.

The illustrations in this book were really well-done and I felt they added a lot to the storyline. It was good to see that some of the animals had their own sense of honour… as well as the fact that they were resourceful and able to work together towards the end of the book.

I plan to pass this book onto my niece, since I think she’d probably enjoy it. And it would also be good to read more about Timmy and his adventures with Wendover in the future.

(I received a free copy of this book in exchange for a review).

(This review may contain spoilers).

I’m not actually sure how I ended up receiving a copy of this book, but since I do have an eight-year-old niece, I figured she might find it quite enjoyable. So we read it together today.

I thought this book was a good way of introducing a child to China. It was good to see that there were pronunciations of some of the words… my niece had great fun sounding some of them out! I think there could have been a bit more explanation as to why some of the spellings were vastly different to the way the words were pronounced. My niece was a bit confused by that fact.

It was interesting to read about the origin of the country’s name and I liked the fact that the narrative addressed the reader directly. I think there could have been a couple more guessing games included… but my niece did engage with the couple of, ‘What does this word mean?’ questions.

There were quite a few interesting facts in this book, such as the different foods people from different parts of China might eat and the estimated length of the Great Wall of China. There were some really good illustrations in this book… and a couple of really nice photos, too. There was a good one of the Wall which had illustrations of children walking on it.

Although there were a few typos, such as missing words and wrong words, I thought this book worked really well as an informational one. It was a nice length and it was easy to read to my niece.

My niece also told me she thought it was really great. She said she liked being able to learn some of the language and she tried out ‘I love you’ on her mum and Granddad, as well as others in the family. I’ve given her the book to keep and I expect she might be interested in learning more of the Chinese culture in the future. (She liked the name Zi when we looked at the page about the names you might have if you were born in China).

I’m sure I’d get her other books by this author in the future. And when my nephew’s a bit older, he might enjoy learning about China as well.