Slated by Teri Terry

Slated #1

Kyla’s memory has been erased, her personality wiped blank, her memories lost forever. She’s been Slated. The government claims she was a terrorist, and that they are giving her a second chance - as long as she plays by their rules. But echoes of the past whisper in Kyla’s mind. Someone is lying to her, and nothing is as it seems. Who can she trust in her search for the truth?

Slated had me hooked from the very first page. It is very well written and the plot is somehow both simple and yet very interesting. It's probably one of the better dystopian novels I've read in a long time. Particular Kyla's character development stands out - she is such a solid character.

I won't say much, as I don't want to spoil anything, everything is explained so well and in it's own time in the book. I can say though that with the exception of potential love showing up early and brightly, it didn't suffer from the usual YA trap. No extraordinary beautiful people, no mindless teenage love, no whining about their "hard" lives - Kyla has plenty of real issues to deal with!

Also, the dystopian world is actually the future - our future. In other words it's grounded in reality and the lack of science fiction is quite a relief, compared to the many dystopian novels based in fantasy.

I would have rated it 5 stars if it had had a more solid ending. As it is, it gave me nothing but the adamant need to get my hands on the next book!

Slated (Slated #1) ISBN13: 9781408319468 448 pages / published in 2012

Review by Iben Jakobsen, BoB, 2013

So I got hit by a car...

As those who follow me on Twitter may know, I was hit by a car Friday evening when biking home from work.

I felt the need to write it down to work it through.

I recently set up a second blog for non-book related things, and frankly this kind of post wasn't how I'd imagined I'd start it out. However it's the best option I've got and it was nice to put some words to some feelings.

The post below is very long though and I don't blame you if you skip it.

To sum it up, the driver (an elderly man) didn't see me as he turned right crossing the bicycle path and though I managed to swerve and avoid the worst of a collision I was going too fast to stop that quickly and ended up hitting the ground. I've bent a few ribs and some scrapes and bruises, and frankly I'm not in the happiest place physically right now. However I was incredibly lucky and I try not to think about how badly things could have ended for me.

I hit the ground hard on my right side. Music still blaring in my ears (Will.I.Am and Britney's Scream & Shout), I could hear myself screaming. I didn't want to scream, but I couldn't stop. I couldn't breathe either. It wasn't a high pitched scream, it was more of an animalistic sound, air in, noise out.

Link to post

Books To Buy

Some have been published longer than others and I'm waiting for some to be released in a cheaper paperback version. Others I want to read now(!) but with money being tight it seems silly to buy them when I have so many unread on my shelves already. Will buy them all eventually though!

Do you have any books you want to buy as soon as possible?

EDIT: Yeah... I just caved and bought 3 of them. The Traitor Queen, Dead Ever After and A Memory of Light is now coming my way!

In My Mailbox #3

I promised myself I wouldn't buy any more books!

Oops.

After watching the 4 amazing seasons of The Tudors about Henry VIII and his many wives I just had to know more and when I realized that one of the books I haven't read by one of my favourite authors, Philippa Gregory, is about Anne of Cleves and Kathryn Howard? Buy buy BUY!

The Boleyn Inheritance by Philippa Gregory

Artemis Fowl by Eoin Colfer

I've reviewed some of the books in the Artemis Fowl series and others not. I have read the entire series, the first four many years back and the final four during the past 9 months. I thought I'd jot down my thoughts about the series as a whole, now that it has come to an end - or at least so I presume.

While the finer details of the earlier books are long forgotten, I do remember I always enjoyed the books. This is a series, that I'll do my best to encourage my own children to read it (you know, if I ever have some).

The writing is fun and engaging, the creativity of the world, culture and history of the fairies and magic is spectacular and I fell in love with both Artemis and Butler from page 1. Holly always was the fierce kick ass heroine and Foaly was just plain awesome. I think I remember either the 3rd or 4th book being sort of dull (or possibly just confusing), but overall the series score 4 stars from me, easily. Quite possibly the 1st was the best, but while the rest may have held somewhat weaker stories, the characters remained fresh and fun and made every book worth the read.

Artemis Fowl (Artemis Fowl #1) The Arctic Incident (Artemis Fowl #2) The Eternity Code (Artemis Fowl #3) The Opal Deception (Artemis Fowl #4) The Lost Colony (Artemis Fowl #5) The Time Paradox (Artemis Fowl #6) The Atlantis Complex (Artemis Fowl #7) The Last Guardian (Artemis Fowl #8)  by Artemis Fowl Published in 2001-2012

Review by Iben Jakobsen, BoB, 2013