Northern Lights- Philip Pullman

When Lyra's friend Roger disappears, she and her daemon, Pantalaimon, determine to find him.  The ensuring quest leads them to the bleak splendour of the North, where armoured bears rule the ice and witch-queens fly through the frozen skies- ans where a team of scientists is conducting experiments too horrible to be spoken about.
Lyra overcomes these strange terrors, only to find that something yet more perilous waiting for her- something with consequences which may even reach beyond the Northern Lights. Northern Lights is the first book in HIS DARK MATERIALS trilogy. The others being THE SUBTLE KNIFE and THE AMBER SPYGLASS.


The Northern Lights was my favourite book when I was younger and is still one of my favs now. I was about Lyra's age when I read it and really felt I could connect well with her even though her world is imaginary. The adventure is exhilarating, fast paced and surprising. A journey across the world full of magical beings and places. It was like stepping into a wonderful dream. 
Lyra is stuborn, determined, fearless and incredibly likeable wheras her daemon Pantalaimon is cautious, careful and a bit of a worrier. The two are a perfect pair.There is a very surprising plot to the story involving Lyra's family which shocked me but let to the continuation of the trilogy. Philip Pullman came up with a wonderful world although it is quite like ours in many ways. Full of happiness, love, friendship but also deceptiveness, cruelty and  anger. He turns the love and dangers of our modern day world into a descriptive story that everyone will enjoy!

Ingo- Helen Dunmore

Sapphire's father mysteriously vanishes into the waves off the Cornwall coast where her family has always lived. She misses him terribly, and she longs to hear his spellbinding tales about the Mer, who live in the underwater kingdom of Ingo. Perhaps that is why she imagines herself being pulled like a magnet toward the sea. But when her brother, Conor, starts disappearing for hours on end, Sapphy starts to believe she might not be the only one who hears the call of the ocean.


When I first started reading Ingo I wasn't sure I would continue it. All I thought was "oh great, a mermaid book " but then I carried on and loved it. 
Helen Dunmore very convincingly describes the beautiful sea. Ingo is the sea we know and swim in but enhanced. More beautiful and twice as dangerous.

Helen Dunmore writes Ingo in a lyrical account of the undersea world, filled with poems and songs; the first we hear of Ingo is in a song sung by Sapphire’s father.

The novel is filled with stunning descriptions of undersea destinations, ocean currents, sea creatures and the Mer people. Although Helen Dunmore is very imaginative and describes Ingo wonderfully but she stills leaves parts of Ingo for our imagination, making the book all the more magical.

Ingo pulls Sapphire towards the sea, and as she leaves the land behind all she can think about is Ingo. Ingo becomes the main point to her life. Voices pull her towards the sea and she finds she can’t live without it.

My favorite thing about Ingo is the danger and mystery; although it’s very light and colorful we never know if Ingo is good or bad. Unlike mermaid books I’ve read before Ingo is full with danger. I just got the second book and can’t wait to read and review it!

Fallen by Lauren Kate

There’s something achingly familiar about Daniel Grigori.
Mysterious and aloof, he captures Luce Price’s attention from the moment she sees him on her first day at the Sword & Cross boarding school in sultry Savannah, Georgia. He’s the one bright spot in a place where cell phones are forbidden, the other students are all screw-ups, and security cameras watch every move.

Even though Daniel wants nothing to do with Luce–and goes out of his way to make that very clear–she can’t let it go. Drawn to him like a moth to a flame, she has to find out what Daniel is so desperate to keep secret . . . even if it kills her.


Fallen is quite unlike any other book i've read before. Luce, the troubled girl and Daniel, the mysteriously familiar stanger; lifes entwined by a terrifing destiny.      
Throughtout the book there is an air of mystery and danger. The "school" is described more like an assylum, a school thats full of rules and dark empty corridors adds to the secrecy of the place. The troubled students all have dark secrets which are never revealed, the real reasons they're in the school.  The book is quite slow at the beguining which pulls you deeply into the story, letting you know and understand the characters. Leading you to think of your own accusations and suspisions. When you think you have it all figured out the book speeds up, twisting and turning the plot to leave you with a shocking and amazing ending.
I absolutely love how Lauren Kate pulld you into the story. Although the beguining is slow there is such a mystery you just can't stop reading.