Hello October // Brianna Reviews - Cursed by Benedict Jacka

Published: 7th June 2012
Publisher: Orbit
Format: Paperback
Synopsis: Since his second sight made him infamous for defeating powerful dark mages, Alex has been keeping his head down. But now he's discovered the resurgence of a forbidden ritual. Someone is harvesting the life-force of magical creatures—destroying them in the process. And draining humans is next on the agenda. Hired to investigate, Alex realizes that not everyone on the Council wants him delving any deeper. Struggling to distinguish ally from enemy, he finds himself the target of those who would risk their own sanity for power...

After Fated I just had to continue on to the next book which didn’t disappoint. Someone is going around draining the magic out of magical creatures  and unsurprisingly Alex ends up in the middle of it all again, you would think being a diviner he wouldn’t keep accidently ending up in the middle of stuff, although this time it’s personal as whoever is targeting magical creatures could view Arachne as a target, so Alex agrees to help a council member track down who is doing it so that the knowledge of how can be destroyed and therefore eliminate the possible treat to Arachne and any like her.

I’m very confused when it comes to the characters in this book I’m also surprised to see Sonder make a reappearance, even though I wanted him to I didn’t really expect to see him again and I was also surprised to see Alex working for Talisid again.

I find myself liking people I shouldn’t like or don’t think I should like in this, the main culprit being Garrick I just couldn’t help but like him, and I don’t know why, it’s not like he gave me much reason to like him even after everything I was still hoping he got away. Is there something wrong with me? Or is he just a really likable bad guy? The other person that is Cinder although in his case there is some reason for liking him - he was also another person I was surprised to see again – he does help Alex and he isn’t half as stupid as he seems, but he also strikes me as somewhat loyal, even though he and Alex will never be friends, I have no doubt that Cinder would stick by Alex in a sticky situation so long as they weren’t on opposite sides.  The final character, and yes I’m classing it as a character is the Monkey Paw, I sort of like it, I know it’s not particularly good but I don’t know, I get the feeling it likes Alex and part of me thinks that it was trying to help, maybe it even picked Martin to try and warn Alex away from him, or maybe not, I just know I like it and it’s definitely a character in its own right. 

Arachne… what to say about Arachne… she is a GIANT SPIDER! I just can’t get passed it, I try and I like her but then I remember she is a giant spider and I just can’t feel so warm and fuzzy about her, I mean she is a giant spider, just nope. But I didn’t want anything to happen it her.

There are two things I feel very sad about the first is Starbreeze, will she come back, will Alex find another way of contacting her? Or is Starbreeze gone forever? Because I really like the air-headed air elemental.

The other thing is that I feel as if something was lost between Luna and Alex in this book but I can’t quite put my finger on what, but also that fact that even in Elsewhere they can no longer touch, but I guess I’ll just have to wait and see where it goes for both Luna and Alex and Starbreeze.

I know I’ve not discussed the plot all that much but I think that’s because to me the majority of the plot in Cursed is the characters

I will definitely be reading the next book in the series – I don’t think you could stop me if you tried although I am a little apprehensive as I don’t own the 4^th one so I am going to have to stop after the next one, which makes me sad. I hope Alex’s last question to Arachne about the dragon is answered, because although Alex can work it out, I’m not sure I can. And I wonder if we’ll see more of Cinder, I’m sure this time that we’ll see more of Sonder, and part of me is equally sure that Cider will pop up again, personally I don’t much care if Rachel/Deleo makes a reappearance because I don’t actually like her.

Hello October // October Treats

No matter what time of year it is, there's always some sweet treat I'm usually craving but October is a special month. There are certain things that I just NEED as soon as October 1st has arrived and I'm going to let you in on my treat-sized secrets ;)

Pumpkin Spiced Latte & Pumpkin Loaf from Starbucks
This is always and will always be, top of the list. As soon as PSL season starts at Starbucks, I start walking with a spring in my step. My boyfriend deserves huge amounts of recognition here as he is wonderful and drives 20 minutes down the duel carriage way to our nearest Starbucks just to get me a PSL with a wedge of pumpkin loaf. He's even been known to bring them to me at work during lunch breaks! I just can't get enough of them <3

Candy Corn
I'm a little bit ashamed to admit that I only discovered candy corn last autumn. I was scouring Amazon.co.uk for Christmas presents and these popped up in my recommended list. Obviously I don't live under a rock, i've been hearing about candy corn for years but i'd never tried it. I ordered myself a huge bag and spent the rest of the week snacking on it at work. It definitely cheered me up whilst sitting at my desk and brought a touch of Autumn into a very clinical setting.

Flipz Chocolate Pretzels
Okay, this is cheating a little bit as I LOVE these. It's kind of standard to receive a bulk order of them for my birthday. However, being curled up in a chair with a book & a blanket is only made better with Flipz. They're the perfect reading snacks - no greasy/starchy finger marks!

Pumpkin Chocolate Balls
It's a little hard to describe these unless you've had them yourself. The side picture of this post is of the exact Pumpkin Chocolate Balls i'm talking about. The exact same cheeky faces! They are literally just balls of chocolate with a foil wrapper with printed pumpkin faces on them. I have NO idea what makes them so special but I ate about 15 bags of these last October and I have zero regrets.

Dolce Gusto Caramel Chocochino
Our Dolce Gusto machine gets a lot of love all year round (hello, iced tea!) but it really gets going in the colder autumn/winter months. Our favourite night time treats before we go to bed is the Caramel Chocochino topped with whipped cream (and mini marshmellows for the boyfriend - yuck!).

If you have any suggestions of what treats we should try this year, please leave them in the comments! Let me know what treats & drinks you love to indulge in this time of year :)

Please get in touch if you'd like to be featured during the month. Any submissions are accepted as long as they are received by 30th October

Hello October // Brianna Reviews - Fated by Benedict Jacka

 Published: 1st March 2012 
 Publisher: Orbit

 Format: Paperback

 Synopsis: In the heart of Camden you'll find the Arcana Emporium, run by Alex Verus. He won't sell you a wand or mix you a potion, but he might just be able to help. That's if he's not too busy avoiding his would-be apprentice, foiling the Dark, outwitting the Light or investigating a mysterious relic that has just turned up at the British Museum.

If ever there was a case of judging a book by its cover this was it. I had seen the first 3 books of this series in a shop I was working in at the time and every time I saw them I thought the covers were really pretty, eventually I bought the books, but it wasn’t until I got home that I even looked to see what they were about. Given my recent confession about magic you could imagine my dismay at realising they were about magic. I shouldn’t have worried luckily Fated is as good as its cover.

Alex Verus is a mage who runs a magic shop in Camden, London. He’s not really too fond of spending time with other mages and has very few friends (I’m not too fond of the one that is a giant tarantula!)he’s been keeping himself to himself after a bad experience with a dark mage (that might be a bit of an understatement) but his life doesn’t stay free of mages for long as several different mages sought him out for help.

I really, really liked this book. One of my favourite things about this book is Alex’s humour while narrating it’s not often that I chuckle at the actual narration of a book (or not as much as I did with fated) One of my favorite bits might have been his description of Unicorns or maybe his explaination of the mindset of diviners. I also like the way that Alex acknowledges that it took him a long time to figure out what the cube does while I had figured it out well before him.

At first I wasn’t a fan of starbreeze but I quickly fell in love with her and her incredibly short attention span and I loved and honestly was a bit surprised at the fact that she stuck around to help at the end when things started to get a bit hairy.

I’ll be honest Arachne terrifies me no matter how nice she is, and she is kinda amazing but no matter how amazing she is I just can’t shake the fact that she is a giant spider bigger than a car!

And of course I liked Luna ad feel really sorry for her. But I do wonder how Alex manages to be around her so much without accidently touching her in some way, I might just be really clumsy but I’m not sure I could spend that much time with someone without accidently coming into contact with them at some point, never mind staying at least an arm’s length away. It has also occurred to me that if Alex and Luna worked together they might even have all bases covered as Alex can’t predict events that are purely chance, but Luna’s curse can only affect things that are purely chance; I wonder if that was by design or by… chance (sorry).

I only really have two issues with Fated and they are pretty small as issues go. The first is I would like to know more about Alex and his past, I understand why we don’t get more information since it’s from Alex’s POV, but was he always a mage? Are you born a mage or do you become a mage? And how did he escape from Richard?

The other issue I have is that at the end part of the story was resolved that I wasn’t aware needed resolving. At the end it says that Arachne went back to her home, but I wasn’t aware that she had left, I might have just missed it – I was pretty tired while reading some bits as I had stayed up late to read it.

I am definitely going to read the next one – in fact I’ve already started! And since I loved it so much I now have an excuse to buy the other books in the series with their beautiful covers. I sort of hope Sonder shows up again I was just beginning to like him when Fated ended. And I’m really interested to see what happens with Luna’s curse as it seems like she was starting to direct it rather than it just being there.