Best Books of the Month: Death Bringer and The Raven Boys

Best Books of the Month is a self-explanatory feature where the contributors of WildFire Writing will highlight their favourite book that they have read for the month and share with you why their particular choice is a favourite of theirs.

Reeshe's Pick

My favourite book for the month of June 2012 is Death Bringer by Derek Landy.

The points that made Death Bringer my favourite book are:

• Death Bringer was brimming with betrayals that I never saw coming.
• Every second of this book was full of excitement, my heart pumped quickly with every word I consumed from this book.
• The friendship in this book was great, I could only hope I have a friend like Skulduggery Pleasant (Now that I think about it Sandy and Kitten are like My Mr. Pleasant minus the Magic)
• I love the way this book expressed Melancholia longing for a friend or someone to love her, for who she is.
• I love the way Valkyrie Cane is growing into herself.
• I love that you get to see more of Darquesse in this book, get to see from her point of view where she stands and want stays between her and Valkyrie.
• I hated to see Tanith go in the previous book, Mortal Coil, but I understand why it chose her. I just hope that maybe one day we will be able to see her again, the Tanith we know and love. I missed her a lot in this book but hopefully this will change and change soon.

I hope to see your own favorite books posted and thank you all for your support here for all 3 of us here at WildFire Writing!

Sandy's Pick

My favourite book for the month of June 2012 is The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater and here are the main reasons why:

• This is Maggie's best writing yet and if you've read her previous books then you know how amazing that is. She always takes care with what to say and what to not say, you have to pay attention and make sure you don't miss anything.
• Every character had secrets and their own agendas and dreams, sometimes they meshed well together and other times they clashed terribly which resulted in great drama.
• The storyline was unique and brimming with interesting detail. I want to find out more.
• Bromance, there was bromance everywhere and I loved it.

I received an ARC of this book at BEA and a full and proper review will be posted in August or September so keep a look out and as Reeshe says share your favourite books with us we can never have too much books on our TBR list.

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New Feature: Best Books of the Month

Wildfire Writing will be introducing a new feature! From now on at the end of each month Reeshe and I will both highlight our favourite book that we have read for that particular month. We both read a lot of books and we don’t review them all while others we don’t review them right away so this way we will still be able to share with you our latest favourite reads but in a quick and concise manor. Some posts will just have bullet points stating why we loved our particular pick while other posts will have a brief review.

This is also a way for you to share your favourite books of the month with us so don't hesitate to state your latest favourite read in the comments or even link to a review for it. We will be sure to check it out ^_^

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Out this Weekend - Brave

The three of us are going to buy our tickets today and watch the movie tomorrow.

Are you excited for Brave?

What do you think of Pixar finally having a movie with a female lead?

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Book Review: By These Ten Bones by Clare B. Dunkle

By These Ten Bones by Clare B. Dunkle

There's hidden places all over this land, old, old places. Places with a chain for them to chain up the wolf when it's time.

A mysterious young man has come to a small Highland town. His talent for wood carving soon wins the admiration of the weaver's daughter, Maddie. Fascinated by the silent carver, she sets out to gain his trust, only to find herself drawn into a terrifying secret that threatens everything she loves.

There is an evil presence in the carver's life that cannot be controlled, and Maddie watches her town fall under a shadow. One by one, people begin to die. Caught in the middle, Maddie must decide what matters most to her, and what price she is willing to pay to keep it.

The time and world of By These Ten Bones is one rift with superstition and folklore and the version of the werewolf told in this story is one that stems from original legend. That every full moon the man inflicted with the werewolf curse becomes a beast and hunts the ones he loves and unfortunately for our main character, Maddie, that’s her. Set in the medieval Scottish Highlands Maddie’s nameless, little village is visited by two travellers; one, a lazy drunk and the other an apparently mute wood carver with a terrible secret. From a very young age he was savaged with the curse of the werewolf and to prevent suspicion and harm from occurring he can never settle in one place for very long and has to chain himself up every night of the full moon.

Despite the lacklustre writing style and my initial inability to relate to the characters of By These Ten Bones I have to say once I hit my stride the book took no problem to get through. I was caught up with the story and anxious to see what was going to happen to the characters and how the story was going to end. And have to say although I completely predicted the climax I was tense while reading it because although for the majority of the book nothing wowed or compelled me about the writing there were various pockets of dark scenes that were written so well and subtlety I could feel myself being fearful and anxious.

I am happy that I read this book because being a fan of werewolf reads I find myself being very picky with what I like and have never come across a werewolf YA I really like until this one. I recommend this book to anyone looking for a good old fashion werewolf story.

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Press Release: First Look at Angelina Jolie as MALEFICENT

Did you guys know that Disney is producing a live action movie about the Evil witch...faery(?) Maleficent from Sleeping Beauty? Because I DID NOT know this.

I’ve already got my horns fitted. My kids are very happy.

Image Credit: Greg Williams

Click HERE to read the rest of the press release for more details at Entertainment Weekly.

It looks like Elle Fanning will be playing Aurora. What do you guys think about this? Are you excited?

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Cover Up #11

There were lots of pretty covers posted in the past few months and if you've missed them elsewhere then check them here.







Asunder is the cover that puts a pretty spin on the typical pretty face cover by adding lovely colours and lovelier effects. Earth Girl looks like it could be a poster to a really great movie. Etiquette and Espionage is probably my least favourite here but it definitely stands out and catches the eye. The Archived is equal parts gorgeous and dark and had me checking what the book was about as soon as I saw it. Dualed could be an action movie poster, if less so, and ties in with the synopsis of the book perfectly.


Click on the covers to be taken to their goodreads pages.

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Movie Review: Snow White and the Huntsman

Production Company
Universal Studios

Director
Rupert Sanders

Writers
Evan Daugherty, John Lee Hancock, and Hossein Amini

Main Stars
Kristen Stewart, Chris Hemsworth, and Charlize Theron

In a twist to the fairy tale, the Huntsman ordered to take Snow White into the woods to be killed winds up becoming her protector and mentor in a quest to vanquish the Evil Queen. .

Despite my best efforts I went into Snow White and the Huntsman with high hopes which is probably why I came out a little disappointed. Not to say that is wasn't a good movie, there were some parts that were even great but overall Snow White and the Huntsman was a movie that had the potential to be an amazing fantasy but just didn't quite reach it and I think I know why. However, before I tell you what I didn't like about Snow White and the Huntsman let me tell you what I loved.

In the words of Jim Moriarty from the television show Sherlock "Every fairy tale needs a good old fashion villain" and Ravenna, the Evil Queen (played by Charlize Theron) was a Villain with a capital V. A woman who was both cruel and vain but a woman who could also appear vulnerable and, in times of loneliness, broken. There is a reason that you mostly see this character in the trailers despite the title of the movie because it really is all about her. She gets more back story and development then basically every other character in this whole movie.

My other favourite part about this movie was that it was beautiful..to look at. From the scenery to the close ups this movie was just a feast for the eyes. So much so that I wish I had pictures or clips to show you what I am talking about because it's really hard to put into words how wonderful it was just to watch this movie and not for the story but for the setting, and costumes, and landscapes.

And now for my last and most favourite part of the movie, which might make it sound like the movie was crap because it's the credits. The credits were beautifully done and again it's another thing you have to see but the graphics paired with Florence and the Machine's Breath of Life was just perfect.

Now for what made the movie less than great, there was hardly any character interaction at all. Snow White barely talks, Kristen Stewart probably has about twenty lines in the whole film, is this why she was better here than in Twilight I don't know but her lack of speech left for very little communication between her and everyone else. There was also very little communication between supporting characters which I think stifled character development a lot so I up ended not really caring about mostly everyone. I thought William was really cute (I like archers) but he was just the childhood friend that missed his chance, the huntsman had a bit of development but when a crucial turning point took place in the movie I was in disbelief because I found it hard to believe he would do such a thing. The scenes with the Queen and the Dwarves were where most of the characters actually spoke to each other which is sad because none of them were titular characters.

Snow White and the Huntsman had a lot of promise but in the end all I can really say is that it was a very pretty film.

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