A little "City of Bones" movie distraction from Cassie...

Today, our beloved mastermind Cassandra Clare took to her Twitter to distract us all from the City of Bones movie.  They, really, really do work as a distraction! (Weeell... almost...)  But here they are, four mind-bending quotes from the upcoming Clockwork Prince!! All Cassie's words are quoted in red.

I be killing awesome rumours... unfortunately...

Hey guys! So, today some news came out on Alex Pettyfer's IMDB page that he has been cast as Jace in the Mortal Instruments movie! "YAY!," right?  Wrong.  The problem with this information is that like Wikipedia, anyone with an IMDB Pro account can edit and publish information on whatever page.  So, unfortunately, this is apparently the case here.  I know, I know, I metaphorically cried a little too!  But not all's lost, okay guys?  Like I (think?) I mentioned in a previous post, Alex Pettyfer has met up with the director of the Mortal Instruments movie several times AND he's read the books and liked them! So that in itself is something! So not all our hopes are dashed! Like Cassie said in her most recent post on her LiveJournal account, we just have to wait for the final official announcement! Shouldn't  be too hard, right?


In other news, guess who's reading the City of Fallen Angels audiobook!? None other than the adorable Molly Quinn from Castle (who is already a big fan of the books!) and freaking ED WESTWICK! Oh. My. Freaking. Gosh! No one could be more perfect, right?! And Cassie even requested them to read her audiobook! So, we have one more reason to love Chuck Bass Ed Westwick (sorry!) He will know the ending to City of Fallen Angels before anyone else does! So damn jealous...  Right about now, we wish Cassie had written an "I'm Jace Wayland" line in City of Fallen Angels!

Our audio-book Clary

Our audio-book Jace

Sorry I've been a little absent from my blog lately!  It's been a whirlwind of ball prep and school prep and lots of other stuff mixed into that, so I haven't really had time to blog!  But I will keep you guys posted. Until then... Happy waiting guys!

Unearthly by Cynthia Hand

Title: Unearthly
Author:  Cynthia Hand
Published: January 4th 2011 by HarperTeen
Hardback: 435 pages

Synopsis from Goodreads.com:

In the beginning, there's a boy standing in the trees . . .

Clara Gardner has recently learned that she's part angel. Having angel blood run through her veins not only makes her smarter, stronger, and faster than humans (a word, she realizes, that no longer applies to her), but it means she has a purpose, something she was put on this earth to do. Figuring out what that is, though, isn't easy.

Her visions of a raging forest fire and an alluring stranger lead her to a new school in a new town. When she meets Christian, who turns out to be the boy of her dreams (literally), everything seems to fall into place—and out of place at the same time. Because there's another guy, Tucker, who appeals to Clara's less angelic side.

As Clara tries to find her way in a world she no longer understands, she encounters unseen dangers and choices she never thought she'd have to make—between honesty and deceit, love and duty, good and evil. When the fire from her vision finally ignites, will Clara be ready to face her destiny?

Unearthly is a moving tale of love and fate, and the struggle between following the rules and following your heart.

As I mentioned in one of my previous blog posts, I love pretty book covers.  So it was no surprise when I spotted Cynthia Hand's Unearthly on the shelves in mid December and bought it straight away, with barely a glance at the synopsis.  When I did read the synopsis, I knew Unearthly was going to be a page turner.  I draws you in from the very first page, and doesn't wait to get into all the juicy parts, which is a quality I love in books.  It's so much more fun getting straight into it instead of waffling for a while and THEN the good stuff starts happening.

But no, from the very first pages we learn that Clara is part-angel, or an "angel blood."  Obviously, this means that she has angel blood running through her veins, although she's not a full blooded angel.  Clara is referred to as "Quartarius" meaning she's a quarter angel and her mother half angel.  We also get to learn that each angel blood has a "purpose" which they must fulfil.  A purpose is the crucial rite of passage for every part-angel.  Clara has visions of her purpose where she feels as though she is right there in the vision as opposed to seeing it happening in front of her. 

Clara's purpose leads her to Wyoming, where her visions of a terrifying bush fire occur and where she meets the boy that appears in her visions, Christian.  The only problem is that Clara has no idea what she has to do (does she have to save Christian or something else?) or even when the fire occurs.  So a large portion of the first part of the book is Clara coming to terms with her purpose and her angel-blood status.

What I liked about Unearthly is how it's a very different angel book compared to others I have read, like Hush, Hush and Fallen which are both amazing books.  I love how Clara doesn't need to be saved, and as opposed to being the damsel in distress she's a heroine.  All the fantasy/paranormal books that I have read seem to have the male love interest as the mysterious, handsome not-human, and the female protagonist is always ordinary.  Now, I love that, the fact that we are able to relate to the protagonist but I also like to read books that wander of the usual track of keeping the girl human and the dreamy character a paranormal entity.

Now, Clara thinks that she has to get close to or even date Christian, after all he is what she considers her dream guy. But then along comes her classmate Tucker, and she soon realises she has feelings for him as well.  So of course Unearthly fills one of the main paranormal tropes called "the love triangle" but I love love triangles. I don't think I'd ever get bored of them. But, yes, immediately she's drawn to Christian who she thinks she has to save and he's such a nice, well-mannered kid.  But Tucker is the opposite to Christian, as he's cocky and a jerk.  Although you soon find out he's rude to Clara because he likes her, I found Tucker to be annoying at times because of this behaviour.  But his early actions are somewhat justified as the book progresses. 

So, now Clara finds herself torn between fulfilling her purpose or following her heart (even I admit, that is kind of a hard decision. Hot guy or possible really bad consequence to not fulfilling your purpose? Hmm...).  But you find yourself asking can she have both? You'll have to grab a copy of Unearthly for the answer.  However, Clara soon finds out that her love life and her purpose are only two small pieces of a one thousand piece puzzle as she discovers the existance of a war between the angels and their devilish counterparts, the Black Wings. 

Now onto the topic of Clara's family.  Her father doesn't play a huge part in her life as he lives in New York.  It's never really revealed if he knows anything about her angel heritage, but I'm fairly sure he might play a bigger part in the series as it progresses.  Clara and her mother are really tight knit, however as Clara begins having visions of her purpose and asking questions of angel lore that her mother carefully shrouds and avoids, Clara is left feeling stung and her relationship with her mother fractures.  She has a younger brother called Jeffrey who seems like a minor character in Unearthly but I'm assuming as he gets older and the series progresses that his powers will become more apparent and important, for reasons that I will not delve into here. You'll have to read the book.  

But if there is one thing that let me down a bit, it was the ending.  The plot line and synopsis of Unearthly leads you to believe it will have a really suspenseful ending and be really climactic throughout, but I found that that wasn't the case which was disappointing.  The ending wasn't as suspenseful as I'd anticipated and I wouldn't have minded some more twists and turns in the story line and conflict.  But overall it was a really, really good read and a great debut novel.  I'd highly recommend going and grabbing a copy from a library or bookstore.  I'm eagerly waiting for the next installments in the Unearthly series and I don't want to wait til next year!

Alex Pettyfer officially in talks to be cast as Jace!

Hey guys! So, um, I'm a bit speechless. Allow me to freak out for a second....

OH MY GOD! IT'S FINALLY HAPPENING!! IT'S ACTUALLY FINALLY HAPPENING!! WOOO!! I'M SO EXCITED AND HAPPY AND ANXIOUS AND AND AND JUST OH MY GOSH!!!!

Okay, that's not really all of my excitement vented just yet. But I'm sure it will leak out into what I believe is the best blog post I have posted yet!

So all you Mortal Instruments enthusiasts out there, I have some exciting exciting news! You know how ever since the Mortal Instruments blew up over the past few years and probably even before that, every enthusiast of the series has been shipping for the amazingly handsome Alex Pettyfer to play male protagonist and female protagonist Clary Fray's love interest, Jace Wayland.  Well, I'm sure some of you are guilty of bombarding author Cassie Clare with requests (although I'm sometimes more inclined to call them frantic demands) for her to persuade Alex Pettyfer to be cast as Jace.  Now poor Cassie! She's received hundreds and hundreds of messages regarding the Jace Wayland casting, and I'm surprised she's still sane! (Cassie, if you're reading this more confirmation of your sanity would be awesome.)  

Agreed for Jace, guys? I say HELL YEAH!

But finally, after years of "ALEX PETTYFER FOR JACE WAYLAND" messages she's received, she released a post on her blog today outlining everything you've been impatiently waiting for.  Here is what she had to say regarding the exciting news on the casting:

"I wanted to wait till I could have an official chat with the studio folks before I said anything, so my small contribution is: I know Alex has met with the director, Scott Stewart, several times; I know he read the TMI books over the holidays and really liked them and liked Jace, and negotiations are ongoing. At this point it's all about the deal, which really doesn't have anything to do with me, so I stand back and wait for news like the rest of you."

 

As you Mortal Instruments enthusiasts probably already knew, Lily Collins has been cast as Clary! I think she'll make an amazing Clary!

For those of you who aren't familiar with Lily, she's been in movies like The Blind Side and the soon to be released Priest.

But back to the Alex topic.  Apparently, we should receive a confirmation of the reports early next week or even as soon as this weekend.  I know I'll be crossing my fingers for a report titled "Alex Pettyfer cast as Jace Wayland in City of Bones movie adaptation!"

So guys, I'll keep you posted on the movie news! Now excuse me while I geekily go call my friend and morph into a massive fangirl...

Now are you guys as excited as me with this one! Be sure to check out more of what Cassie had to say here.

Do judge a book by its cover

I love pretty covers. Sometimes more than the books themselves. So, every time I see a gorgeous book cover, I HAVE to buy that book, even if it is crappy, just to have the pretty cover on my bookshelf.  And then, when I read these books and they are actually really GOOD, and sometimes AMAZING, that’s definitely an added bonus!  After all, this describes what happened when I bought Hush, Hush by Becca Fitzpatrick, Fallen by Lauren Kate, Skulduggery Pleasant by Derek Landy and Unearthly by Cynthia Hand (which I will be reviewing in my next post!)

So, yeah, admittedly I am a massive “judge-a-book-by-its-cover” reader.  This has happened on so many occasions, and yes, all the books I read have amazing covers. Except for a few.  Like (it is so painful to say this, trust me!), the Hunger Games trilogy by Suzanne Collins. I KNOW!!! DON’T KILL ME, HEAR ME OUT!  And after you’ve heard my side and you disagree then, fine, you can kill me (but I’m hoping you won’t!).  I don’t know what the American Hunger Games books look like, but my chances are they match, and they have a recurring theme through them, yes? Well, the Australian covers. Nope, they are bad.  They could have done so much better for such an amazing series.  For those of you that live outside of the US, here their Hunger Games book covers which complement each other perfectly:

               

And those of you who live outside of Australia or haven’t read these books yet, this is what they look like:

See what I mean?  Now the first cover, yeah, love it! Then the second book came out. Ummm?? Is this right? Third book. Okaay? I think they mixed up the colour schemes of the second and third books here. I mean Catching Fire is purple! I don’t know what fires they were keeping in mind when designing this book cover. 

But don’t get me wrong, I LOVE the Hunger Games! It’s right up there on my “Favourite Series” list.  But for such great books the covers don’t do them justice.  I mean, THEY JUST DON’T MATCH! I hate it when covers don’t match, or books aren’t the same size in a series.

I don’t know if any of you Americans know this, maybe you do, but hey, I’ll say it anyway!  Here in Australia we don’t have hardback releases first and then paperback releases of that same book a year later.  Here we have paperback.  The majority of all the books here are released paperback and they are huge! And then around about when you Americans get your paperbacks, we get our paperbacks downsized.  Here are some photos of two of my favourite series.  Vampire Academy by Richelle Mead and The Mortal Instruments by the magical Cassandra Clare.  Spot the differences:

So, yes it kinda sucks.  The reason why Spirit Bound is in hardback is because I ordered it online and thought they were delivering it paperback but I guess I thought wrong.  Now it’s just made that section of my bookshelf ugly.  (Oh, and the reason why I'm missing a couple of my glorious Vampire Academy books by the great Richelle Mead is because I've loaned them to my cousin who has returning issues.)

So, that ends another blog post!  My next one will be a review of Unearthly by Cynthia Hand (which defies the general rule of American covers being awesomer than their Australian counterparts. I mean, take a look at that amazing dress and the glorious embossed swirls!)

How about you guys?  Do you share my pet hate of mismatching book sizes and covers? Or do you have some of your own?

My Review of Clockwork Angel by Cassandra Clare

Title: Clockwork Angel

Author: Cassandra Clare

Released: August 31, 2o1o

Published: 2010/Margaret K. McElderberry

Hardcover: 496pgs

Synopsis from Amazon.com:
"Magic is dangerous—but love is more dangerous still. When sixteen-year-old Tessa Gray crosses the ocean to find her brother, her destination is England, the time is the reign of Queen Victoria, and something terrifying is waiting for her in London's Downworld, where vampires, warlocks and other supernatural folk stalk the gaslit streets. Only the Shadowhunters, warriors dedicated to ridding the world of demons, keep order amidst the chaos.  Kidnapped by the mysterious Dark Sisters, members of a secret organization called The Pandemonium Club, Tessa soon learns that she herself is a Downworlder with a rare ability: the power to transform, at will, into another person. What’s more, the Magister, the shadowy figure who runs the Club, will stop at nothing to claim Tessa's power for his own.  Friendless and hunted, Tessa takes refuge with the Shadowhunters of the London Institute, who swear to find her brother if she will use her power to help them. She soon finds herself fascinated by—and torn between—two best friends: James, whose fragile beauty hides a deadly secret, and blue-eyed Will, whose caustic wit and volatile moods keep everyone in his life at arm's length . . . everyone, that is, but Tessa. As their search draws them deep into the heart of an arcane plot that threatens to destroy the Shadowhunters, Tessa realizes that she may need to choose between saving her brother and helping her new friends save the world. . . . and that love may be the most dangerous magic of all."

I absolutely loved Cassandra Clare’s first book series The Mortal Instruments.  Cassie Clare has this amazing gift of writing which can’t be taught. All her books have a nasty habit of making you come up with your own ideas and guesses as to what will happen and what each little loose end means, but then at some stage I found all my guesses were proved entirely wrong! This is one of the many qualities found in her writing that I absolutely love!

So, when City of Glass was published, I had preordered it and I rushed to the bookstore after school to go pick it up.  It truly made my day to hold that book in my hands after I’d been waiting for it for months! And then, after all those months of waiting, I devoured it in, oh, about... 8 and a half hours! When I finished it at one o’clock in the morning, I was kicking myself thinking, “This is the last Mortal Instruments book and I didn’t even savour reading it!” But then I went back many times and read it more slowly and I picked up some little things that I missed here and there.

So, when Cassie Clare announced that she would be continuing to write in the Shadowhunter world, the Infernal Devices, a prequel to her Mortal Instruments series, I was really ecstatic! So, I called my friend (another Mortal Instruments fan who has actually met Cassandra Clare herself! So jealous...) and we just spoke about how much we loved her books and how happy we were to have more of her amazing work to read!

Although, because I loved her Mortal Instruments series so much, I was a little concerned that Clockwork Angel would be a little too similar to City of Bones.  And I found that it was similar, just not in the way I feared.  We have the protagonist, Tessa Gray, who is thrown into the deep end of a world she’s never heard of or seen before, just like Clary Fray, the protagonist of City of Bones.  In Clockwork Angel, Tessa is on a quest to find her missing brother, as Clary is to find her mother.  Both series have a gorgeous male character who holds an unhealthy penchant for sarcasm and even cruelty at times (but, seriously, I can let this one slide because these guys are hot and totally bad-boy. You know what I’m saying?). And then, all the similarities were just a minor detail which I found myself disregarding, because essentially, the entire book is different, from time and place, down to conflict.  It’s obvious that each character was different, no matter how the similarities connected them.  Like, Tessa wasn’t Clary and Will wasn’t Jace, etc.

Which leads me to my next point, which is how much I love Cassandra Clare’s characters! They are all different in their own ways. They are so well rounded and deep, they seem to just leap off ink and paper, coming alive in bursts of different personalities.  In the Mortal Instruments Cassandra Clare had moulded her characters to have multiple layers to them and her Clockwork Angel is no exception to that.  Take Will for example. There is much more to him than being drop-dead hot, mmkay? He seems like a cruel and arrogant, overly sarcastic guy, right? But then that’s only at first glance.  As the book progresses, you’ll see his softer, fiercely loyal side come out, but only for him to realise he’s dropped his facade and snap back into his irritating self. 

I also love the chemistry between Tessa and Will, and Tessa and Jem.  I really can’t wait for the next books where we can see Tessa choose between Will and Jem, or maybe neither! God forbid she doesn’t choose Will (he’s my fave!).  But man, does that girl have boy issues.  On the one hand she has sweet, heart-of-gold Jem, Will’s best friend, who always looks for the best in people and never lies.  And then there’s Will, who constantly and cruelly pushes Tessa away, acts like he doesn’t care about anyone or anything and who has bajillions of vices, like gambling, alcohol, lying and women. AND he seems to be hiding some gargantuan dark secret (oooooh!). They’re entirely opposite to each other, and she’s drawn to both of them, but she has decision issues (*cough* Will! *cough*)

As for my favourite character, I’d have to go with Tessa.  Despite the fact that everything she’s thought and known has been turned upside down and inside out and proven wrong, she keeps quite level-headed in this new world of chaos.  Despite the fact that she’s a Downworlder and may not be human (the Clave is yet to decide what she is), she is a strong and bright heroine. Also, I love how she’s an avid reader. It makes her relatable.  And she constantly quotes famous literature throughout the book, so if that’s something you’re into, look out for it.

I can’t wait til September to get my hands on the next instalment! Damn awesome cliffhangers.  Clockwork Angel was definitely an amazing debut book to kick off the Infernal Devices trilogy, and it will be- for sure- a winner just like its sequel series, the Mortal Instruments.  So if you haven’t already, go grab a copy, you won’t be disappointed.  And if you haven’t read the Mortal Instruments series either, there is no prerequisite to read the Infernal Devices before the Mortal Instruments or vice versa (another thing I love about the series). So, heck, you can even read them both at the same time, and you’ll find little connections between the two series.

The second instalment in the Infernal Devices trilogy is called Clockwork Prince and is scheduled to be released sometime this September. You can find all Cassandra Clare’s publication information here, follow her on Twitter here, and visit her official website here. Happy reading!

Hey Blogging World!

So, yes, as you probably guessed for yourselves, this is my first ever blog post! I find this oddly exciting because, finally, I am able to share with you fellow book aficionados, my passion for reading and delving into fantasy worlds full of magic, a sprinkling of action, a cup of humour and a bucketful of romance... (because, come on now, romance is the REAL reason why we all read these kinds of books, am I right?)

I've been meaning to start up a book blog for a while now, but I've never really gotten around to starting it up.  So, as I sat at my desk, thinking of an interesting blog title and whatnot, I honestly had no idea where to start... So, naturally, I went straight to my favourite book blog site, MundieMoms, and browsed through countless blog entries and reviews and gained some more enthusiasm from there. So, I messaged the MundieMoms admin Katie and asked for a few handy hints. Two emails, seven days and many helpful and encouraging hints on Katie's part later, I came up with a blog title "The Scarlet Bookend" and material for my blog!

My love for books probably stemmed from my mother who is a children’s book author.  I remember lying down in bed at night, lamp on and tucked in all snug, and my mother sitting next to me, reading rough copies of her manuscripts to me.  She tells me stories of how when I was too young to remember, I used to say little comments here and there which would help her write her books and remove her chronic writer’s block, if only for a little while.

The first novel I ever read was in the second grade and it was Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone. I loved that book and soon, my obsession for really long fantasy books and Harry Potter grew. Which leaves me where I am ten years later, reading really long, really amazing romantic fantasy/sci-fi/paranormal books.  I don’t remember where I became so specific and narrow-minded to the genre of books that I will read. Maybe it started with Twilight, although I was never obsessed  with it or a “Twi-hard” as they call the hard core fans of the series.  I have very biasedly (is that even a word?) never wandered from the track of my favourite genre books, and hopefully never will because I love them so so much!

So, hopefully once I post my first review on my blog, of Cassandra Clare’s  Clockwork Angel, you guys will want to visit my blog more often and will take interest in my reviews (insert hypnosis here), so I’ll continue to do what I love to do. Which is talking about books…