Heir of Fire by Sarah J. Maas (Throne of Glass #3): Review

Title: Heir of Fire (Throne of Glass #3)
Author: Sarah J. Maas
Publisher: Bloomsbury 
Buy This Book: Amazon / Book Depository

Lost and broken, Celaena Sardothien’s only thought is to avenge the savage death of her dearest friend: as the King of Adarlan’s Assassin, she is bound to serve this tyrant, but he will pay for what he did. Any hope Celaena has of destroying the king lies in answers to be found in Wendlyn. Sacrificing his future, Chaol, the Captain of the King’s Guard, has sent Celaena there to protect her, but her darkest demons lay in that same place. If she can overcome them, she will be Adarlan’s biggest threat – and his own toughest enemy. 
While Celaena learns of her true destiny, and the eyes of Erilea are on Wendlyn, a brutal and beastly force is preparing to take to the skies. Will Celaena find the strength not only to win her own battles, but to fight a war that could pit her loyalties to her own people against those she has grown to love? (Goodreads summary.)

I have put off writing this review for quite some time now. I could pretend it's because I wanted to schedule it for closer to the release date, but I'd be lying. I knew that once the review was written up then it would really be over. I would have officially read and reviewed every book of Throne of Glass that's available to me. Now I will have to wait for more. THE HORROR! This series is one that leaves you craving more and, no matter how many books you devour, it never feels like enough. I want to warn you all that if you haven't read books one and two then you should read no further, you don't want those spoiled for you.

I finished Crown of Midnight and was left pretty devastated. Okay, let's be honest, completely devastated. I loved Throne of Glass but had found it very predictable at times. I wasn't prepared for all the twists and turns and surprises that Crown of Midnight had for me. I didn't see Nehemia's death coming, not at all. Maas had me fooled for quite a few chapters, I honestly believed her death had been faked and she would suddenly appear later on. I didn't see the Aelin reveal coming either, I think if I had paid more attention to the mentions of her then I think I would have. But what truly devastated me about this book was the fact I had too see Chaol and Celaena finally come together, only for it to all go horribly wrong. What was Maas doing to me?

How I feel about Chaolaena right now!

I didn't really know what to expect from Heir of Fire, I knew that Maas could throw anything at me. If you have read my reviews of Throne of Glass and Crown of Midnight then you will be completely aware of the fact that I am a die hard shipper of Chaolaena; it's my favourite thing about the whole series. I just wanted to see those two be reunited in this and my shipper heart to be mended. That wasn't too much to ask for, was it? Was it?!?

At the end of Crown of Midnight Chaol had just sent Celaena off to Wendlyn, as a way to protect her from the King, before realising that she is Aelin Galathynius and rightful Queen of Terrasen. The book takes us in a lot of different directions and follows a lot of different characters. We see how Celaena does in Wendlyn, training with her aunts heir, Rowan and trying to learn how to use her powers. We also follow Chaol and Dorian back at the palace, Chaol is trying to find ways to break the King's power and Dorian is struggling to deal with his magic. Then we are introduced to Mannon Blackbeak, who's heir to the Blackbeak Witch Clan, and what her role will be in this story.

This is quite a long book, at over 500 pages, and there is quite a lot going on. I can't get enough of Maas's world, characters and stories, but even I felt like it was a bit too long. I think the issue was that there was so much going on, so many different characters to follow and stories to keep up with. I know Mannon will be important in books to come, but I didn't care. Every time we had her story I just wanted to skip ahead and get back to Celaena and the others.

I admit to being totally blinded by my love of Chaol and Celaena together. I missed them and it kind of made the book less enjoyable for me. It also made Rowan pretty much impossible to like, mainly because he's whole 'I hate you and then suddenly I am going to like you' storyline was just too similar to the one we have already seen happen with Chaol and Celaena. I also felt like he might be about to ruin my ship, I just couldn't have it. I COULDN'T! He was just doing nothing for me in this story, even though I felt like I was supposed to like him. I really felt like Maas wrote him to be likeable, but I just couldn't get behind him at all.

No matter how many pages or books I read, I will never have enough. This book felt like too much and not enough all at the same time. It adds so much to the story, introduces so much to the story, completely frustrated me, absolutely wowed me and I loved it. I can't get enough of this series, these characters, the romance, everything. I had my issues with it but it's as well written as the other books in this series. Despite my issues Maas didn't disappoint me. This is a six book series so I understand why certain aspects of the story are being dragged out a bit.

I won't deny the fact that Maas is a genius when it comes to writing a romance between two characters. Chaol and Celaena, even Sam and Celaena were both utterly perfect in my eyes. But, in Heir of Fire, the new romance just fell flat for me. We're introduced to a healer, Sorscha, who is helping Dorian. Their romance just didn't work too well for me, it's because it didn't feel totally real for me. I'd kind of had enough of new romances being introduced, I didn't need or want any more. Sorscha always just felt like a plot device to me, not an actual character, and nothing more, which is essentially all she is.

I feel like my review seems like I am hating on this book, I am not at all. I really enjoyed it, I am head over heels in love with this series. I think I'm just mad that I can't immediately go pick up the next book. Maas just hooks you and leaves you craving more, but I don't have more. I have to wait. I know I was expecting everything to work out between Celaena and Chaol, but with three books to go it just wasn't going to happen. Mannon is a character that I know is going to become very important, I do like her but I think she's going to grow on me a lot more over the course of the next couple of books. I am so excited to see where this story is going.

4/5 Butterflies

I am sure I am not the only person who struggled to review this book. I honestly can't put into words how I feel about it, I have tried. I finished the book ages ago and have spent so many hours trying to get this review scheduled. There's so much going on in this book, so much to comment on and yet I can't get a coherent thought written down. I enjoyed it, I really did but I had my issues with it. Yes, Chaolaena is my number one thing about this series. And, yes, I am just bitter they are separated in this book. But, if I am completely honest, whilst it was a brilliant book, a great addition to the series, it's my least favourite of all the books so far. This book isn't going to disappoint fans of the series, it really isn't. It is going to leave you dying to get your hands on the next book. It's going to make you want to kidnap Sarah J. Maas and make her write you the last three books so you can read them straight away. Okay, just me then. 

*I received a copy of this novel from the author/publisher/publicist via Netgalley in exchange for a free and honest review and received no monetary compensation for this review.

My Weekly Book Haul: 16/08/2014

Friday Finds is something that was started over on ShouldBeReading and Stacking the Shelves over at TyngaReviews, I am in love with all of these as I love finding other blogs to follow and books to read through these! So check them all out and see what you find, Stacking the Shelves has a lot of participants as well which is great. This is basically a way for me to show what books I have received, borrowed or bought each week. All book covers and their summary come from back of book or Goodreads.

This week hasn't been too exciting. I have been ridiculously sick, the most sick I have been in the longest time. I'd agreed to a ton of extra time and I hate phoning in sick, which means I have worked every day. I have already infected my whole family with what I am calling Charbola. They do not appreciate my gift. Ungrateful bunch! This has made it hard to function in any way, so reading has been far too hard. But I have forced myself to get some posts written, and have post one every day this week. Progress! Nobody rubbed my chest and sang Soft Kitty though. Bad times.

Lots of adult fiction for once!

Have A Little Faith by Candy Harper

Year Ten has just begun and I'm already in trouble. The way Miss Ramsbottom acts you'd think I'm always causing explosions or giving teachers' radical haircuts (whereas it was just that one time). And now she's separated me from my best friend, Megs, which means I have no one to give me a piggy back or check for dangly bogies. At least the school is trying to make amends by bussing in boys for our choir. So I can stare at Dreamy Finn until he realises I'm the girl for him… except he's singing a duet with my sworn enemy and her big head keeps blocking my view. Fortunately, I've got a plan to solve both problems; as long as I'm careful with the squeezy cheese and the underage driving everything should be just fine...

I've begun to realise that I have a really big book problem. I own so many that this one got lost among them and I haven't featured it, even though I got it a whole month ago. The amazing, wonderful, genius Amanda at Book Badger sent it to me for my birthday, along with the most gorgeous handmade card. I have such a problem with finding time to read books, what with ARCs that have piled up. I need to find time to get to this, especially since it's relatively short. 

Four by Veronica Roth

Readers first encountered Tobias Eaton as "Four" in Divergent. His voice is an integral part of Allegiant. Readers will find more of this charismatic character's backstory told from his own perspective in Four: A Divergent Collection. When read together, these long narrative pieces illuminate the defining moments in Tobias Eaton's life. The first three pieces in this volume – "The Transfer," "The Initiate," and "The Son" – follow Tobias's transfer from Abnegation to Dauntless, his Dauntless initiation, and the first clues that a foul plan is brewing in the leadership of two factions. The fourth story, "The Traitor," runs parallel with the events of Divergent, giving readers a glimpse into the decisions of loyalty – and love – that Tobias makes in the weeks after he meets Tris Prior. Exclusive scenes included!

'His voice is an integral part of Allegiant' - Voice? What voice? His voice was just Tris's, haha. I hope he actually sounds like the character we meet in the first two books. Not the whiny, male version of Tris we meet in book 3. Please, Roth, redeem yourself. Please! This was a gift from the boyfriend, he's rather amazing like that.

The Queen of Tearling by Erika Johansen

Kelsea Glynn is the sole heir to the throne of Tearling but has been raised in secret by foster parents after her mother - Queen Elyssa, as vain as she was stupid - was murdered for ruining her kingdom. For 18 years, the Tearling has been ruled by Kelsea's uncle in the role of Regent however he is but the debauched puppet of the Red Queen, the sorceress-tyrant of neighbouring realm of Mortmesme. On Kelsea's 19th birthday, the tattered remnants of her mother's guard - each pledged to defend the queen to the death - arrive to bring this most un-regal young woman out of hiding...
And so begins her journey back to her kingdom's heart, to claim the throne, earn the loyalty of her people, overturn her mother's legacy and redeem the Tearling from the forces of corruption and dark magic that are threatening to destroy it. But Kelsea's story is not just about her learning the true nature of her inheritance - it's about a heroine who must learn to acknowledge and live with the realities of coming of age in all its insecurities and attractions, alongside the ethical dilemmas of ruling justly and fairly while simply trying to stay alive...

Another gift from the amazing boyfriend! He saw me eyeing this up at YALC on their wall of books. I wanted to grab it, steal it and run away. He was lovely and bought it for me for a present. I am very excited to read it.

 

White Cat & Red Glove by Holly Black

Cassel comes from a shady, magical family of con artists and grifters. He doesn't fit in at home or at school, so he's used to feeling like an outsider. He's also used to feeling guilty; he killed his best friend, Lila, years ago.
But when Cassel begins to have strange dreams about a white cat, and people around him are losing their memories, he starts to wonder what really happened to Lila. In his search for answers, he discovers a wicked plot for power that seems certain to succeed. But Cassel has other ideas and a plan to con the conmen.

Amanda has made me want to try this series, pretty excited to get to it. If I ever actually find the time.

Stolen by Lucy Chrisopher

IT HAPPENED LIKE THIS.
I was stolen from an airport. Kidnapped. Taken from everything I knew, everything I was used to. Imprisoned by sand and heat, dirt and danger. And he expected me to love him.
This is my story. A letter to my captor.

I tried to read this once before but didn't get too far. The story does really intrigue me though, I want to try my hardest to get at least halfway with it.

Only Ever Yours by Louise O'Neill

Frieda and Isabel have been best friends their whole lives.
Now, aged sixteen and in their final year at the School, they expect to be selected as companions - wives to wealthy and powerful men. The alternative - life as a concubine - is too horrible to contemplate.
But as the intensity of the final year takes hold, the pressure to remain perfect becomes almost unbearable. isabel starts to self-destruct, putting her beauty - her only asset - in peril.
And then, the boy arrive, eager to choose a bride.
frieda must fight for her future - even if it means betraying the only friend, the only love, she has ver known..

I was on relief at another library this week and spotted this on the new books display. Sounds pretty interesting, definitely intrigued. 

The Son-In-Law by Charity Norman

On a sharp winter's morning, a man turns his back on prison. Joseph Scott has served his term. He's lost almost everything: his career as a teacher, his wife, the future he'd envisaged. All he has left are his three children but he is not allowed anywhere near them.
This is the story of Joseph, who killed his wife, Zoe. Of their three children who witnessed the event. Of Zoe's parents, Hannah and Frederick, who are bringing up the children and can't forgive or understand Joseph. 
They slowly adjust to life without Zoe, until the day Joseph is released from prison...

You may not know this by looking at my blog, but I love adult fiction. I know I have basically read nothing but YA since I started blogging, but I really miss my adult fiction. This one just looks too good to pass up. 

The House We Grew Up In by Lisa Jewell 

Meet the Bird Family.
All four children have an idyllic childhood: a picture-book cottage in a country village, a warm, cosy kitchen filled with love and laughter, sun-drenched afternoons in a rambling garden.
But one Easter weekend a tragedy strikes the Bird family that is so devastating that, almost imperceptibly, it begins to tear them apart.
The years pass and the children become adults and begin to develop their own quite separate lives. Soon it's almost as though they've never been a family at all.
Almost. But not quite.
Because something has happened that will call them home, back to the house they grew up in - and to what really happened that Easter weekend all those years ago.

I may have just picked this up because I loved the cover. In my defence, the blurb sounds great too.

Someone Watch Over Me by Madeleine Reiss

She closed her eyes and he was gone - who is watching him now?
When Carrie’s five-year old son, Charlie, disappeared on a Norfolk beach, her world was destroyed. Now, three years on, her marriage crushed by grief and the uncertainty around Charlie’s fate, Carrie keeps herself distracted by running a local gift shop. Persuaded by her mother to visit a medium, Carrie is initially sceptical, but is blown away when he appears to reveal something about Charlie’s disappearance; something that nobody could ever have known except herself.
Single mum, Molly, is worried about her young son, Max. Naturally a sensitive child, Max has been having more of his little ‘accidents’ at school and has recently starting talking again to his imaginary friend.
Reluctant to tell his teachers, Molly knows that Max’s problems stem from his very real anxieties about his father – a violent and unstable man – who they are now in hiding from.
Carrie is desperate to learn the truth about Charlie’s disappearance and Molly is will do anything to protect Max from danger. Little do the women know that their worlds are about to converge – and both of them will have to face the thing they fear the most. But will the truth destroy them or will love be their saviour?

The Hypnotist's Love Story by Liane Moriarty

Ellen O’Farrell is an expert when it comes to human frailties. She’s a hypnotherapist who helps her clients deal with everything from addictions to life-long phobias. So when she falls in love with a man who is being stalked by his ex-girlfriend she’s more intrigued than frightened. As Ellen is about to discover, we’re all a little crazy – even her.

I enjoyed the authors debut and have wanted to read more of her books ever since.

TWO OF THEM! TWO OF THEMS!!!

Trial by Fire by Josephine Angelini

Love burns. Worlds collide. Magic reigns.
This world is trying to kill Lily Proctor. Her life-threatening allergies keep her from enjoying many of the experiences that other teenagers take for granted...which is why she is determined to enjoy her first (and perhaps only) high-school party. But Lily's life never goes according to plan, and after a humiliating incident in front of half her graduating class Lily wishes she could just disappear.
Suddenly Lily is in a different Salem - one overrun with horrifying creatures and ruled by powerful women called Crucibles. Strongest and cruellest of all the Crucibles is Lillian . . . Lily's identical other self in this alternate universe. This new version of her world is terrifyingly sensual, and Lily is soon overwhelmed by new experiences.
Lily realizes that what makes her weak at home is exactly what makes her extraordinary in New Salem. It also puts her life in danger. Thrown into a world she doesn't understand, Lily is torn between responsibilities she can't hope to shoulder alone, and a love she never expected.
But how can Lily be the saviour of this world when she is literally her own worst enemy?

I HAS TWO OF THEM! I was so excited to receive my ARC last week, even more excited to receive a finished copy this week. WOW! Was not expecting that. Now what to do with the ARC copy. I need to get some cash so I can start mailing out some books, know the perfect person for this one.

The Rain by Virginia Bergin

One minute sixteen-year-old Ruby Morris is having her first proper snog with Caspar McCloud in a hot tub, and the next she’s being bundled inside the house, dripping wet, cold and in her underwear. Not cool. As she and Caspar shiver in the kitchen, it starts to rain. They turn on the radio to hear panicked voices – ‘It’s in the rain . . . it’s in the rain . . . ' That was two weeks ago, and now Ruby is totally alone. People weren’t prepared for the rain, got caught out in it, didn’t realize that you couldn’t drink water from the taps either. Even a drip of rain would infect your blood, and eat you from the inside out. Ruby knows she has to get to London to find her dad, but she just doesn’t know where to start . . . After rescuing all the neighbourhood dogs, Ruby sets off on a journey that will take her the length of the country – surviving in the only way she knows how.

I wanted to steal this from the YALC wall too, very excited to read it. 

I have read and loved both of Abigail's books, Dangerous Girls & Dangerous Boys. To celebrate the release of Dangerous Boys, I am giving 1 winner the chance to win paperback copies of both Dangerous Boys and Dangerous Girls. It's open internationally, as long as Book Depository ships to you!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

The Kiss of Deception by Mary E. Pearson: 2/5 Review
Seven Deadly Sins Tag
Monthly Recap: July
Top Ten Tuesday: Books I'm Not Sure I Want To Read
Boomerang by Noelle August: 4/5 Review
Films for Thoughts on Thursday: Guardians of the Galaxy 7/10 Review
Dangerous Boys by Abigail Haas: 4.5/5 Review & Giveaway
Five Friday Favourites: Favourite Films

Five Friday Favourites: Favourite Films (I Cheat... A Lot)

Five Friday Favourites is a weekly event hosted by Book Badger, where once a week, a five favourites subject is posted and everyone is welcome to join in. You can find out more about Five Friday Favourites and the future subjects here.

So this weeks topic is favourite films, and this is Five Friday Favourites, which means I have to pick 5 favourite films. Five!

I'm sorry, but that's hilarious. And, yup, not going to happen!

Can you bear with me? I have wanted to talk more about movies on the blog, it's why I started Films for Thoughts on Thursday. But reviewing films hasn't been enough, I also want to showcase some of my absolute favourite movies. But FIVE? That's just not possible, you have to go in genre and then there's the consideration of newer movies and older movies, childhood favourites versus new favourites. So this is hard, I have separated them into genres and I really hope you can get through them with me.

I actually own almost 800 DVDs, so you can understand why picking my favourites is really hard for me. I LOVE MOVIES! I organise my DVDs by genres and things. For example I have Disney Classics, Live Action Disney, Pixar, then other kids films, romcoms and musicals, comedies, stand up, foreign, film series, general movies and on and on it goes! So I will use that sort of thing to figure out my list.

Disney Classics

I thought this would be easy, well easy enough. Nope! I own pretty much every single Disney Classic, I love Disney and just adore all the movies. Even being completely brutal I could only cut it down to 20 favourites. 20! That is crazy. And that still meant leaving out some of my absolute favourite Disney films.

Funniest Disney

Funny Disney is just the best Disney! It was so hard to pick 5, but others I wanted to use I knew I could use later in different categories. Emperor's New Groove has some of the best jokes in all of Disney, the same with Hercules. I also adored Lilo & Stitch, Mulan and Tarzan and thought they had brilliant funny moments too.

Older Disney

I counted older Disney as anything before The Little Mermaid. I have so many favourites, but these are definitely the five that I probably watched the most as a kid. There's also Lady and the Tramp though and The Jungle Book... and so many others! Can you tell I have a Disney problem? Bambi and Robin Hood were two films I used to watch every single time I would stay at my nan's house. I was obsessed!

Golden Age Disney

I really wanted to not cheat and have 5, but I couldn't do it!!! These are all just amazing movies and I definitely think that was the golden age of Disney. They've started making some amazing movies again, but I still think these guys win out over all.

Newer Disney

Tangled, Brave and Frozen were all brilliant! Frozen and Tangled were both just genius, with so many brilliant songs and characters. I adore Brother Bear, I love the soundtrack to that one as well. I also think that Treasure Planet was really underrated, I really enjoyed it. 

Live Action Disney

As I was coming up with the different categories that I wanted and the movies I wanted to pick, I realised one thing: I am a big kid. I was mostly picking movies that I adored as a child, ones I would happily rewatch. These five were ones I was absolutely addicted to, especially Hocus Pocus because that movie is just amazing. Pirates 1 is the best of them all, they pretty much ruined it all after that. Except for the jar of dirt bit in the sequel. 

Other Animated

Yes, I am addicted to kids movies! I am not ashamed, haha. I even did a post on my top 20 favourite non-Disney animated movies. So narrowing it down to 5 was really hard. For all 20 you can see part one here and part two here. But these 5 are all pretty amazing, I knew 100% that Anastasia, Quest for Camelot, Cats Don't Dance and El Dorado would make the list - I adore them all. Slot 5 should really have gone to Ice Age but I do think Spirit is amazing and really underrated. 

Robin Williams Films

This is especially sad to post now, but I new I wanted to include all my favourite childhood films in this post. Two men provided me with some of my absolute favourites: Jim Carrey and Robin Williams. They both did movies that kids loved to watch, but also films that your parents would happily watch with you and laugh just as hard at. Mrs Doubtfire, Jack and Jumanji tie for my top spot!

Jim Carrey Films

I love Jim Carrey! I find him absolutely hilarious and my family watched a lot of his films growing up, over and over again! I adore Liar Liar and Me Myself & Irene, those two are the ones I laugh at the hardest. The Grinch is amazing, I now the whole script to that movie. And The Truman Show showed off how incredibly talented Jim Carrey is, he totally deserved at least an Oscar nomination for that movie.

Romantic

Baz Luhrman is a genius, Moulin Rouge and Romeo + Juliet are definitely two of my all time favourite movies. My sister got me addicted to Dirty Dancing, she'd make me watch it over and over again. I just adore The Notebook and Titanic, even though they are so girly and romantic and everything... but I love them.

LOVE WITH ALL MY HEART

As someone who watches a lot of movies and loves so many, trying to pick 5 was tough. I still didn't get to showcase all of my favourites in here. But, when I really think about it, Fight Club and Boondock Saints are the two movies I know 100% would make my top 5 list. If you haven't heard of or seen Boondock Saints then I highly recommend. Most people know Norman Reedus as Daryl Dixon, but he will always be from Boondock Saints for me. Fight Club is just amazing, awesome, legendary, genius and everything else. And then we have the LOTR movies, I once watched Fellowship 3 times in one day whilst waiting for the second movie to come out. I could not get enough of those movies.

And because I can

Just a random selection of some others that I love. I felt really horrible having to leave off so many movies, the above ones don't even begin to cover all the movies I wanted to mention. I have a movie problem, I know, but I just can't get enough of them. I own way too many books and DVDs but I wouldn't have it any other way. 

I DID IT!

P.S I promise I don't just watch kids movies all day, everyday.

I have read and loved both of Abigail's books, Dangerous Girls & Dangerous Boys. To celebrate the release of Dangerous Boys, I am giving 1 winner the chance to win paperback copies of both Dangerous Boys and Dangerous Girls. It's open internationally, as long as Book Depository ships to you!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

My Weekly Book Haul: 09/08/2014
The Kiss of Deception by Mary E. Pearson: 2/5 Review
Seven Deadly Sins Tag
Monthly Recap: July
Top Ten Tuesday: Books I'm Not Sure I Want To Read
Boomerang by Noelle August: 4/5 Review
Films for Thoughts on Thursday: Guardians of the Galaxy 7/10 Review
Dangerous Boys by Abigail Haas: 4.5/5 Review & Giveaway

Dangerous Boys by Abigail Haas: Release Day Review & Giveaway!

Dangerous Boys by Abigail Haas

Out now!
Buy this book: Amazon US / Amazon UK / Book Depository 

Three teens venture into the abandoned lake house one night; hours later, only two emerge from the burning wreckage. Chloe drags one Reznick brother to safety, unconscious and bleeding; the other is left to burn, dead in the fire. But which brother survives? And is his death a tragic accident? Desperate self-defense?

Or murder? 

Chloe is the only one with the answers. As the fire rages, and police and parents demand the truth, she struggles to piece together the story of how they got there-a story of jealousy, twisted passion, and the darkness that lurks behind even the most beautiful of faces…

Purchase Now!

Amazon: amzn.to/1wrph3u

Add to Goodreads: http://bit.ly/1AYM77B

 

Early Praise

Dangerous Boys is a taut, compelling thriller balanced on the razor's edge of suspense. I could not put it down, and could not stop grinning wickedly as I raced through the pages." -- Leah Raeder, USA Today bestselling author of Unteachable

"Abigail Hass is a master at her craft! This is a special book and a special author. This is the kind of storytelling and writing that stick with you no matter how much time passes." -- The Book Geek Blog

"As with Dangerous Girls, the closing left me with a huge, admittedly rather twisted smile on my face. I don't know how Haas manages to turn me into such a gleefully evil creature." -- Dahlia Adler, blogger.

"Dangerous Boys was an intense, psychological read which was full of suspense and drama,...Abigail Haas has a way of writing books which reel you in and keep you there, hooked and addicted until the very last page." -- Goodreads.com

About Abigail Haas

Abigail Haas has written two adult novels and four young adult contemporary novels under the name Abby McDonald. Dangerous Girls is her first young adult thriller. She grew up in Sussex, England, and studied Politics, Philosophy & Economics at Oxford University. She lives in Los Angeles.

Website / Twitter / Facebook

My Review

(originally posted here)

If you didn't know, although I have said it a million times, I loved Dangerous Girls! It was mind-blowing, mind-boggling read and I absolutely loved the whole book. Haas is a seriously talented author and I knew instantly that she would be an author I would be following from then on. So when Dangerous Boys became available on Netgalley, I knew I just had to have it! Even better, I got to do another buddy read with Amanda over at Book Badger.

I am always honest in my reviews, so I will admit that Dangerous Girls is my favourite of the two. But Dangerous Boys gave me everything I had been looking for from this read. It kept me guessing and had me questioning myself so much that it was hard to keep up with my own theories. It had me so engrossed in the story that I read it in one sitting and stayed up way later than I should have. It gives you characters you can obsess over in your head because they're so complex that it's hard to figure them out.

Basically me for the entire book.

Dangerous Girls was all about figuring out who the killer was in the story, where as Dangerous Boys takes a different approach. From the very beginning we know that Chloe makes it out of a burning house alive and that she drags one of the Reznick brothers with her but, for the longest time, we have no idea which brother she chose to save. As the story unfolds we begin to see how Chloe became a part of the Reznick boys lives and how they all came to be in the house that night. Haas isn't one to give too much away though and I was left staying up until the early hours of the morning so that I could finally find out what the hell had happened.

Total bad boy alert! 

This book was dark and the characters were so twisted that it was a little hard to deal with at times. Chloe was a character that was hard to connect to because you don't come across many characters like her. She's struggling with so much, her father walked out on them after having an affair and finding out the other woman was pregnant. Her mother has slipped into a depression so bad that Chloe doesn't know how she can help her. Chloe has always dreamed of getting out of her small town, but she defers a year so she can help her mother. This is when she meets Ethan, a sweet guy who takes her mind off of everything, he seems like the perfect distraction. That's until Oliver shows up, Ethan's brother and probably the best definition of a bad boy... E.V.E.R! That boy, I have to admit for falling for his dark, brooding, overly confident attitude straight away. I didn't blame Chloe for being even a little tempted to go there.

Chloe's home life is definitely difficult and I could sympathise with her struggles with her mother. She was in a terribly deep depression but Chloe seemed to be the only one who could see how big a problem it was. Her father was probably one of the worst I have come across in fiction in a long time, he just didn't care at all. I liked how Chloe had stepped up to look after her mother and I think the resentment that builds because of it was very realistic. Chloe was trying her hardest but I liked how much she struggled to put her life on hold for her mother.

Ethan was a character that I felt so sorry for and pitied quite a bit. That boy is so oblivious that it's not even funny. He is utterly sweet, adorable and is basically the perfect boyfriend ever. But, in my opinion, I didn't really understand why he was with or even wanted to be with Chloe. I just felt I was never really shown the moments where she was nice to him. He talks about how nice she is, but we never actually see it. I kind of wanted the boy to just wake up and move on.

This book had the same addictive quality that Dangerous Girls had, you can't put it down. Haas knows how to build up suspense and she knows how to keep your attention 100%. I never got bored once reading this book, I had to continue, had to know what happened that day at the house. This has the kind of intense characters you struggle to understand but want to so bad that it's hurt. They don't seem to react or act how you expect them to or how you would yourself, but that's what works so well. I couldn't predict where the story was going or what these characters would be capable of doing next.

4.5/5 Butterflies

I love Haas and find her writing style is utterly addictive. She writes the kind of books that I find hard to put down, I lose sleep because I have to stay up until I have finished. She is the queen of suspense and keeps you guessing the entire time, I came up with so many wild theories it was unreal. Her characters are twisted which makes them so fascinating to read about. The hunting scene was one that was particularly powerful to me and was a stand out part of the entire book. I felt like I enjoyed it a lot but it didn't leave me as utterly blown away as Dangerous Girls did. Haas needs more books out, I am going to be stalking her Goodreads page for her next book because I have to have! If you are looking for an intense thriller that's going to keep you guessing then I highly recommend this (And, of course, Dangerous Girls too).

*I received a copy of this novel from the author/publisher/publicist via Netgalley in exchange for a free and honest review and received no monetary compensation for this review.

I have read and loved both of Abigail's books, Dangerous Girls & Dangerous Boys. To celebrate the release of Dangerous Boys, I am giving 1 winner the chance to win paperback copies of both Dangerous Boys and Dangerous Girls. It's open internationally, as long as Book Depository ships to you!

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