Book Review: The Winner’s Curse by Marie Rutkoski

The Winner’s Curse by Marie Rutkoski

The Winner’s Trilogy Book 1
Published by Bloomsbury Childrens publishing house
I received this courtesy of the publisher it does not change my opinion

Winning what you want may cost you everything you love

As a general’s daughter in a vast empire that revels in war and enslaves those it conquers, seventeen-year-old Kestrel has two choices: she can join the military or get married. But Kestrel has other intentions.

One day, she is startled to find a kindred spirit in a young slave up for auction. Arin’s eyes seem to defy everything and everyone. Following her instinct, Kestrel buys him—with unexpected consequences. It’s not long before she has to hide her growing love for Arin.

But he, too, has a secret, and Kestrel quickly learns that the price she paid for a fellow human is much higher than she ever could have imagined.

Set in a richly imagined new world, The Winner’s Curse by Marie Rutkoski is a story of deadly games where everything is at stake, and the gamble is whether you will keep your head or lose your heart.

For a slow to start novel The Winner’s Curse is sure worth a read. It was actually my favourite fantasy novel of last year.

The Winner’s Curse follows the general’s daughter Kestrel an intelligent 17 year old who does not want to make the choice that every Valorian must make at 20; to either marry or enlist in the army. Kestrel just wants to play the piano, which is not a suitable past time, as music is only for slaves. When utterly drawn to a young male slave during an auction Kestrel pays a huge sum for him and she comes away with Smith. With a slightly slow first half this book soon builds into beautiful political plotline and a wonderful romance between two perfect characters.

As I said above this was one of my favourite novels of the year for some many reasons that all just make this a perfect book. It has wonderful world building that never felt like anything was missing or had huge information dumping points. The world had quiet a roman feel that really detailed but not so much that everything felt cluttered. The relationship between the Valorian and the Herrani people was really well developed and explain as the story progressed.

The characters in this book also make it stand apart from the rest just like the world building they are so detailed and amazing that it just makes me smile like a manic to think about it. Kestrel is definitely one of the best female protagonist I’ve read about in a while with her strategist brain and strong will she makes some really hard choices that I’d certainly struggle with. While having such good qualities Kestrel is by no means prefect she is whiny and can some times be irritating but all of this I found made her a well rounded character. Smith or Arin as we find out he’s really called is just as perfectly flawed as Kestrel and that makes their slow burning romance oh so swoon worthy.

The ending of this book is a killer to say the least with out spoiling anything and you can bet your bottom dollar I would fight to the death for the next book in the series. All in all this is a great book to read and I would recommend it anyone.

Book Review: All The Bright Places by Jennifer Niven

All The Bright Places by Jennifer Niven

Published by Penguin Teen Australia on 7 January 2015
384 Pages
Goodreads Book Depository

Theodore Finch is fascinated by death, and he constantly thinks of ways he might kill himself. But each time, something good, no matter how small, stops him.

Violet Markey lives for the future, counting the days until graduation, when she can escape her Indiana town and her aching grief in the wake of her sister’s recent death.

When Finch and Violet meet on the ledge of the bell tower at school, it’s unclear who saves whom. And when they pair up on a project to discover the “natural wonders” of their state, both Finch and Violet make more important discoveries: It’s only with Violet that Finch can be himself—a weird, funny, live-out-loud guy who’s not such a freak after all. And it’s only with Finch that Violet can forget to count away the days and start living them. But as Violet’s world grows, Finch’s begins to shrink.

This is an intense, gripping novel perfect for fans of Jay Asher, Rainbow Rowell, John Green, Gayle Forman, and Jenny Downham from a talented new voice in YA, Jennifer Niven.

I just spent the last hour in my bathtub sobbing so this isn’t going to be my best review but god its going to be heartfelt so prepare for that. Up until writing this review I actually hadn’t read the synopsis for All The Bright Places, so I had no idea what I was going into and simply picked up the book on the recommendation of Kelly over at Diva Booknerd who said it would destroy me and boy was she right.

This book is being sold as a combination of Eleanor and Park and The Fault In Our Star the later of which I have read. I fall into the unfavourable opinion that The Fault In Our Stars was just okay, as I couldn’t really relate to the characters. This book blew it out of the water. It is really awe-inspiring is how relatable it is I’ve never connected so much with two characters and wished for them to have the best circumstances possible. I personally suffer from depression and anxiety and have at time been suicidal and to say that Jennifer Niven captured every emotion I’ve ever felt perfectly is an understatement. Jennifer Niven truly is a goddess of writing.

 So this book follows what happens when two completely different people meet in circumstances that no one ever wants to meet someone; up on bell tower both thinking about what it would be like to jump.  This is how Theodore Finch and Violet Markey meet and start their adventures. God they have such a beautiful adventures, and even that is understating it.  Dealing with topics like mental illness, post-traumatic stress and most importantly suicide this book isn’t a walk in the park but it is a must read for everyone.

Finch is now officially my favourite male character of all time; I really just want to hug him over and over. He is spontaneous, outrageous, a gentleman and just so alive. Finch has periods where he is asleep to the world and just doesn’t function and this makes him feel different than everyone else. Throughout this book Finch really struggles to find who he is and tries out a bunch of different personas like 80’s Finch and Nerd Finch and god I understood exactly what he was going through. It’s hard being weird and Finch is constantly reminded by everyone at his school that he’s weird. All of these things combine somehow to create the most realistic and beautiful character. On the other side of the spectrum is Violet and she is also perfect.

Violet suffers from post-traumatic after a devastating car crash took her older sisters life and her will to live. She quit all her hobbies, doesn’t drive and wears her sisters glasses like they make her some how Eleanor. Violet is stuck in a constant cycle of want to not live and also be alive that gives her an inexplicable connection to Finch and considering the circumstances they met, they both find it hard to forget each other. I did find that I connected with Finch better than Violet but I think that was purely because I understood him better than Violet.

This book has duel a prospective alternating between Violet and Finch they both had such individual voices without either of them losing the underlying beautiful prose that just captured my heart. I’m not really one for adult book but I’m going to be reading all of Jennifer Niven’s other books just in the hope that it’s there as well. I also really loved that quotes littered this book they ranged from Virginia Woolf to Dr Seuss. Each quote was meaningful well placed and just added generally to the story.

All in all if you’re even mildly considering reading this book please do and if you’re not considering reading it please think about it. I honestly can’t express my love this book enough it really just hit all spots.

Book Review: Alice in Zombieland by Gena Showalter

Alice in Zombieland by Gena Showalter

Published by Harlequin Teen on September 25th 2012

416 Pages

Goodreads Book Depository Follow my blog with Bloglovin

She won't rest until she's sent every walking corpse back to its grave. Forever.
Had anyone told Alice Bell that her entire life would change course between one heartbeat and the next, she would have laughed. From blissful to tragic, innocent to ruined? Please. But that's all it took. One heartbeat. A blink, a breath, a second, and everything she knew and loved was gone.
Her father was right.
The monsters are real.
To avenge her family, Ali must learn to fight the undead. To survive, she must learn to trust the baddest of the bad boys, Cole Holland. But Cole has secrets of his own, and if Ali isn't careful, those secrets might just prove to be more dangerous than the zombies.
Don’t let the title fool you with book it is most certainly not an Alice in Wonderland retelling and generally falls more toward my guilty pleasure reading side but if like me you don’t mind a touch of cheese and some insta-love then you might enjoy this.

Following Alice Bell this book tells the story of her life after her family dies and she gains the ability to see zombies. That is basically the redeeming factor of this book that it has some pretty cool zombies that are a bit of a different take than I had read before. The zombie’s in this story are not corporal and only certain people can see them. To kick off the troupes of YA Alice is sent to a new school where there is a group of strange kids who are super tough and intimidating; they turn out to know all about the zombies. Big surprise there, really I was so shocked. Within in this group of delinquent like teens is Cole their leader and supreme bad boy, who would be much more impressive but he’s only 16 and has probably just gone through puberty. As normal he and Alice have a supreme connection and things go on from there.

This is the type of book that can’t be taken to seriously if you want to get any enjoyment out of it. If you can laugh of the insta-love then Cole and Alice’s devotion to each other is cute in a god this is so unreal kind of way. The insta-love between Cole and Alice has a strong focus all throughout the book sometimes even out weighing the zombies, which really only came into play strongly in the battles which also also left quiet a bit to be desired, they just don’t seem to have any real oomph or structure but they did interest me and I did enjoy reading each one.

All in all this is a hard book to review because it overall just left me with a “meh” feeling that was positive or negative. I am curious enough to want to continue on with this series just to see where things progress to.

Book Review: The Truth About Alice by Jennifer Mathieu

The Truth About Alice by Jennifer Mathieu

Published on June 1st 2014 by Hardie Grant Egmont

I received this book courtesy of the publisher

199 pages

5 Stars

There are a lot of rumours about Alice Franklin, and it's stopped mattering whether any of them are true.

It all started at a party, when Alice was supposedly with two guys in one night.
Soon everyone at Healy High has picked a side in this game of he said/she said. Do they believe Brandon Fitzsimmons, the most popular guy at school and the football hero of Healy? Or do they believe Alice, the girl who wears too-tight T-shirts and was caught kissing Brandon in a closet a couple years before?
When Brandon dies in a car crash, there are serious allegations that his death was Alice's fault. As the rumour mill spins into overdrive, Alice's small town becomes suffocating. And when the truth becomes a matter of opinion, something's got to give.

The way to the truth is to usually start at the beginning and work your way back from so this is the way I’m going to tell you about The Truth About Alice. Alice Franklin goes to a party one night and supposedly sleeps with 2 guys and this makes her the biggest slut in all to the town. Things get worse when a few weeks later one of them, the star quarterback and town golden boy ends up dead and its all her fault. In aftermath we get a glimpse of how Alice deals with the rumours and her dealing with becoming the outcast of a town in which everyone has something bad to say about her. One word to describe this book is raw, everything about it is honest from the characters thoughts and actions to how they live their lives nothing is hidden behind the usual novel glow.

One of my favourite things about this multi-points of view style book, is how each character really had their own voice and completely different writing style to the next. At no point was I left wondering whose point of view I was reading from or where they should with in the Alice drama. Lets not kid ourselves here the characters like us stood firm on whether they believed Alice guilty of her so called crimes. One of my favourite quotes of this book that I think sums up the whole situation in a few short sentences is about how everyone is to afraid to stand up for an injustice no matter how huge or small which is one of the sad hard hitting facts that this novels bring to light so well. And yes in my belief slut-shaming is an injustice.

“It’s like when we read The Diary of Anne Frank in seventh grade, and I had the sneaking suspicion that I would have been a Nazi back then because I wouldn’t have had the guts to be anything else. Because I would have been too scared to not go along with the majority. Like, I would have been a passive sort of Nazi, but I still would have been a Nazi.”

The ending of this book was just prefect on so many levels. My heart really broke for Alice and the ending just really topped it off in the most perfect heart felt way. I can’t say anything to in depth obviously without ruining it but to say that this book has such an amazing ending for everything that goes on is an understatement. Alice learns something so important and special, I just get so many feels when I think of it.

To conclude one of my most incoherent reviews ever I just want to say read this book, it’s not a long one and I found it extremely spectacular and realistic in every sense. If your looking for a book that encourages thought and how we have different standards for males and females pick this up. 

Book Review: Inkheart by Cornelia Funke

Inkheart by Cornelia Funke

Published in 2003

534 pages

3 Stars

Goodreads Book Depository

Twelve-year-old Meggie learns that her father, who repairs and binds books for a living, can "read" fictional characters to life when one of those characters abducts them and tries to force him into service.
Characters from books literally leap off the page in this engrossing fantasy. Meggie has had her father to herself since her mother went away when she was young. Mo taught her to read when she was five, and the two share a mutual love of books. He can "read" characters out of books. When she was three, he read aloud from a book called Inkheart and released characters into the real world. At the same time, Meggie's mother disappeared into the story. This "story within a story" will delight not just fantasy fans, but all readers who like an exciting plot with larger-than-life characters.

So I’m finally back after a very long and completely unplanned hiatus, things really didn’t go my way in the second half of last year and I had to take some time to work on my mental health and now that the explanations done lets get down to the review.

To kick things off and start the New Year in my favourite way I read a classic fantasy book that I’ve been meaning to read for a long time. That book was of course Inkheat by Cornelia Funke and in all honest I did see the movie many a year ago and I loved it.  That made things hard when reading Inkheart, because it really isn’t the fastest paced book and more tends to dawdle along and check out the scenery where the movie is quiet action packed. So after all my thoughts on what the book was going to be were thrown out the window I started to really enjoy Inkheart and its fantastic descriptive scenery, characters and world.

Following the journey of a young girl called Meggie who discovers her dad Mo as she’s always called him has a strange talent for accidently reading characters and things out of books. This leads to Meggie and Mo having a run in with some very bad guys who aren’t from this world but were once accidently read out of a book called Inkheart. Chaos occurs and we are led on a magical adventure following some really pleasant characters.

Now this book really is up there on the page count with my edition sliding in at 534 pages making it quiet a hefty tome. But gosh is it filled with details, from the covers of books, which were so elegantly described that I had little fangirl moments over some of them. Sometime I honest to goodness forgot this was set in our world it was so magically described, I get happy just thinking about how beautiful it all way.

Getting down to the nitty gritty part of why I gave such a wonderful sounding book only a 3 star rating which in my book equates to an “eh, it was okay” is hard there wasn’t a particular reason. I really just could not get into the story as deeply as I wanted to. The characters didn’t feel as life like as I hoped them to and I really had to push myself to finish the last 200ish pages, which is the movies fault for giving away the ending.

To wrap things up this book is definitely worth a read just to get a taste of the beautiful writing but be warned if you have seen the movie it might ruin it for it for you. My favourite characters by far are Meggie and Fenoglio, they really added that extra something to me that some of the other characters seemed to be missing.

The Spark of an Idea, by Rachael Craw - Author Guest Post

Tuesday, June 24 Diva Booknerd
Wednesday, June 25 The Tales Compendium
Thursday, June 26 Kids' Book Review & Happy Indulgence
Friday, June 27 Fictional Thoughts
Saturday, June 28 Inside My Worlds: R.L.Sharpe & Aussie Reviews
Sunday, June 29 Striking Keys & Thoughts by J
Monday, June 30 Books for a Delicate Eternity & Fiction in Fiction in Fiction
Tuesday, July 1 The Loony Teen Writer & Kkatie Reads

@RachaelCraw | RachaelCraw.com

Spark is a leap of faith, a five and a half year journey, a dream and an answer to prayer. Not the sweetly sweetly Sunday School prayer but the creative-type’s fevered cry of the soul, ‘Please God for the love of sanity breathe on my aching neurons’. Cue balled fists and baying at the moon. That night I went to sleep and had a dream, the very dream that you find in the prologue.


I know, I know, starting with a dream! Eye-rolling ensues. What was I thinking? But how could I not when it was the inception of the idea? Cut me some slack. So the dream: I’m running through a forest at night, super-fast, lightning reflexes, strong, fearless and what not. Then I’m gripped with a terrible urgency. Someone is in great danger out there in the dark and I have to reach her before somebody else does, somebody who wants to kill her. I know I will have to fight this somebody in order to protect the girl.


I woke and took it on faith I had my seed of a story. Hallelujah chorus! Naturally I began to ask questions: why was I so fast? Where did my strength, reflexes, and fearlessness come from? How did I sense the girl was in danger? Why was it my responsibility to protect her? Who was trying to kill her and why? What evolved from these questions was the idea of genetically engineered predestination. I imagined an organisation designing human weapons with ‘enhanced’ DNA, their natural affinities amplified. I imagined a process that would trigger this DNA and bind a person to their destiny to either defend or attack their Spark.


For the first few months of working away at my laptop I was a bit cagey about letting on to anyone what I was up to. Being possessed as I was with the idea of my story, I didn’t want to say it aloud. It seemed too fragile. That whole fear of failure thing. Not wanting people to see me try, or worse, see me give up. Of course, that’s all a load of nonsense because I am surrounded by people who are loving, encouraging and supportive and when I started to let slip why I had become a bleary-eyed recluse I discovered a great hoard of cheerleaders. Besides which, giving up was never an option. Even at its crappiest, bang my head on the desk, throw my laptop out the window, burn the house down, gnaw my own arms off moments, I still loved writing, I still loved my story and I couldn’t shake it.


Over the next five years I set my heart on learning to write. I sought the best advice and criticism I could find (Thank you Barbara and Chris Else). I had professional assessments and mentoring and gave myself to the crafting process. Needless to say, that will be a life long journey. I am endlessly dissatisfied with my failure to achieve perfection but I hurl myself after it as though it were just within reach. An intoxicating delusion.

Due to unforeseen technical issues the GIFS that go with this post will be added as soon as possible!

The WishKeeper by Maximilian Timm

The WishKeeper by Maximilian Timm

Self Published on October 17th 2013

354 Pages

I received this courtesy of Maximilian Timm in return for an honest review.

Goodreads - Amazon

The WishKeeper tells the story of a fairy named Shea and how her broken wings and inability to fly have kept her from being the one thing she always wanted to be - a WishKeeper.We, WishMakers, all have a WishKeeper assigned to us that protects and guides our wishes to fulfillment. Teenage, broken-winged Shea is determined to become one.Shea is a rebellious, punk rock dressed, tattooed teenage fairy with two mangled wings that draw ugly stares more often than sympathy. She is not looking for sympathy though, and would rather break a WishKeeper's pointed nose than accept an understanding pat on her handicapped back. Living with her disability for most of her angry life has kept Shea out of the Keeper force and therefore a loner (which she is perfectly fine with...or so she says). Until the day her family WishMakers, Grayson and Miranda, made a second True Love Wish, she was barely a blip on a WishRadar. The last time a True Love Wish was made, her mother destroyed it and in turn, Shea's life.All Shea wants is to prove herself - despite her disability, despite her anger, resentment and the all-too obvious chips on her shoulders - that she can be better than any WishKeeper. She sneaks off to the human world with the naive intent to wrangle a type of wish even the most skilled Keeper barely can. She's entitled, selfish, and has only one intention: wrangle a True Love Wish no matter the consequence.Further annoying her, a WishKeeper recruit named Thane is tasked by her military father to babysit her, or at least that's how Shea sees it. Through their impossible adventure in a land Shea had only ever dreamed about, she battles the difficult discovery of painful family secrets, a wish-mongering ex-king and his cursed zombie-like fairies, and the acceptance of her parents' imperfections as well as her own.

What is a better way to celebrate International Fairy day then to read a kick arse book that provides a take on fairy mythology.  After reading The WishKeeper I honestly don’t have much to say about this other than it has a really wonderful story arc and that I just love fairy books.

So to talk about the story arc a little is a very fun task because The WishKeeper as I said above provides a new take on the ‘little person with wings that fly around’ idea. Shea Evenstar is one of the most bad arse fairies I’ve ever had the awesome pleasure to read. Now Shea is really such a wonderful character because she has a disability compared to the other characters but she doesn’t let it hold her back at all.

A positive that came of Shea’s winglessness was most definitely Thane. He is a young want to be WishKeeper who is given the task by Beren, Shea’s father who happens to be the commander to look after Shea.  You really couldn’t get a sweeter or kinder character than Thane and I just love him for it.

My only criticism for The WishKeeper would be that at time it could be rather confusing as to what really was happening or who was who as a lot of characters were named.

Luckily enough to cerebrate International Fairy Day Max has granted my wish of letting me share part of the first chapter of The WishKeeper. Hopefully you will all snag a copy while its on sale for today for $1.09 which is completely worth it!

Goggles, Goggled 

Ten Years Ago

“Wings tucked, Private!” Shea’s mother playfully ordered.

The frozen sap of the evergreen clung to Shea’s bare feet as if the icy tree was trying to keep her in one place. It was Wishing Eve in the Makers’ world - The Other Side, as the WishKeepers called it. A night when all WishKeepers would leave their secret world of Paragonia and cross through the Gates to tend to their WishMakers in celebration of opportunity; the opportunity to collect millions of wishes and sustain the harmony between their world and the Makers’. It was the most important night of the year, but for Shea, it was a night that would define her.

It was the night a True Love Wish was destroyed. It was the night her wings were ripped from her delicate shoulders. It was the night her mother died. And the sap of the evergreen tugged at her toes, begging her not to move. She should have listened.

She played along with her mother’s orders as Elanor stood in front of her little fairy daughter, fists at her hips.

“Check! Yes, ma’am,” Shea replied, standing upright and tucking her wings straight behind her.

“Goggles goggled?” her mother asked, stern.

Shea adjusted oversized aviator goggles around her eyes, “Check!”

“Wishes made?”

“Wishes granted!” she said as she stiffened a salute at her forehead.

Shea eyed an identical smile that rimmed her mother’s lips as the setting sun of The Other Side silhouetted Elanor’s graceful wings.

“I have to go to work,” Elanor said with a deep breath. It was her daughter’s first time on The Other Side, and Shea could sense that her mom regretted not being able to stay with her all night.

Shea loved the feeling of the slow, gentle swipe of her mother’s fingers as they gently tickled her forehead, moving the thick red mane out of her eyes. Despite never wanting to admit it, there was an immeasurable eagerness within Shea’s little body to become her mother. Every ounce was desperately impatient to be just like her. Shea watched her mom buzz her wings and prep for a quick launch.

“Hey…Mom?” Shea stopped her. She felt compelled to say something, but the words dangled from her tongue.

Elanor waited for one last peep from her eager daughter.

“I…I mean. Never mind.” Shea smiled, bashful.

“I won’t be long,” she said, noticing the eagerness of adolescence pouring from her daughter’s eyes. “You are going to be a wonderful WishKeeper someday. But it’s not today, honey. Please…promise me you’ll stay here.”

Little Shea nodded as wishes darted through the park behind Elanor. The impulse to fly after each and every one of them was overwhelming as Shea watched her mother zoom out of the tree and into the sea of colorful wishes. Purple, blue, pink and green - the wishes danced and darted through the park. Their playfulness was intoxicating. The evergreen did its best to keep her little feet stuck to its branch, but as much as she wanted to be a good fairy and follow her mother’s orders, Shea couldn’t deny her innate impulse to explore.