Batgirl by Brenden Fletcher, Cameron Stewart and Babs Tarr

I've never been supper into comics. As a woman its not unusual to feel misrepresented or not represented at all in the comic book world but a few months ago I came across the artwork from Barbara (Babs) Tarr and everything changed. She is the illustrator behind the new improved Batgirl comics by DC. If you appreciate badass women holding their own and beautifully powerful imagery then this is something you need to check out. I found it difficult to get my hands on a physical copy of #35 so ended up downloading it through the comixology app on my iPhone. Turns out I think I prefer reading it on my phone for the convenience of being able to read it wile standing sardine style on the train. 

I've been following her on Instagram and I've become addicted to her tumblr. The work she's done with Sailor Moon its too good for words. She has an etsy store but nothing is available on it at the moment. I'm dying to get one of her prints on a tote bag or a T-shirt or something. Anything. 

Next month (June 17th) Brenden Fletcher will be collaborating with Annie Wu, who is the artist for the Hawkeye comics, to create the 2015 Black Canary. I'm looking forward to this one as well as I slowly grow my collection of kick-ass female comic book heroines. Babs Tarr has done a variant cover for this as well.

Review: The Heir #4 in The Selection Series by Kiera Cass

My Rating:  ✯✯✯✯✩  

Genre: YA, Dystopian, Romance 

Publication Date: May 05th, 2015

Quick Synopsis 

Set twenty years after the end of book three, the daughter of America Singer and Prince Maxon Schreave is ready for her own Selection. Princess Eadlyn doesn't have high expectations for the competition but as things unfold she finds that everyones happily ever after looks a little different. 

My Review 

I didn't know I was so invested in this series until I found out there was going to be a fourth and fifth book which naturally made me want them in my hands immediately. This one I preordered digitally as soon as it was made available to do so and I started refereshing pretty much straight after midnight in the wee hours of Tuesday morning. 

Something that sets this book apart from the previous three is the personality of the protagonist. Princess Eadlyn is bratty and spoilt which took a bit of getting used to after being so familiar with the perspective of America Singer. Once I eventually warmed up to her I ended up enjoying The Heir just as much as all the others in The Selection Series. 

All I can say is whatever it is that makes people watch particular realty TV shows religiously, this series has the book incarnation of that. 





The Epic Reads guys on YouTube put together some great interview videos for some of the Selection candidates that reminded me so much of watching the Batcheloret on TV.             Love. 

 

Review: Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda by Becky Albertalli

My Rating:  ✯✯✯✯✯  

Genre: YA, GLBT, Contemporary 

Publication Date: April 07th, 2015

This book is the 2015 Fangirl. Five out of five stars. Five out of Five everythings.

I don't read Contemporary that often but when I can be persuaded to do so thus far the feels have destroyed me and left me in a stunned mess.  There has been just as much hype about this one as Fangirl when it came out and for good reason.

The top 5 things I love about this book include: the acknowledgement of the sacred status of Orio Cookies,  a homosexual protagonist, abundant Harry Potter references, inclusive gender representation and a character that has my name.

Three hundred and twenty pages of comfort on a bad day, sarcastic melancholy, awkward romantic emails and social media blackmail set to a Rilo Kiley soundtrack. My honest hope for this book is that it lands itself with enough legitimacy and street cred in the literature world to be considered along side The Perks of Being a Wallflower for inclusion in school curriculum.

I'm not going to go into it too much because I think everyone needs to read this. Especially people that think they don't know anyone thats gay or anyone thats convinced themselves that they understand what being gay in high school or coming out would be like if they haven't lived it themselves. Parents and teachers need to read this, politicians and people with moral/religious opposition to homosexuality need to read this, people who think they understand what it means to be human need to read this.

If everyone you know has been telling you to read this just do it. Obtain a packet of Orios and lock yourself away for a few hours. You'll be glad you did.

Review: Ink Exchange (Wicked Lovely #2) by Melissa Marr

My Rating:  ✯✯✯✯✩
Genre: YA, Urban Fantasy, Romance, Faerie
Publication Date: April  24th 2008

Short Synopsis

Leslie has survived more than her fair share of personal horrors. She knows all about the selfishness and cruelty of men and knows what to avoid, especially what to avoid of her father and brother. Soon she'll be off to college and she'll be able to start a new life for herself and be her own person. For now, in an act of reclaiming her own body, she has become obsessed with the idea of getting a tattoo. Something that has meaning only to her. Turns out it could mean a whole lot more than she intended.

Review

The second book in the Wicked lovely series has been sitting on my shelf for ages. I just decided to pick it up and start reading as part of my fairy themed book binge. Forgetting how much I enjoyed the first one, the richness of the world created by Melissa Marr came back to me and I fell in love with the fairy courts all over again.
This is a seriously underrated series, especially where the theme of urban fairy stories is concerned. This book deals mostly with the Dark Court and Marr portrays them in a way thats reminiscent of underground movements or outlawed gangs. She plays with the idea that being labeled dark or light has nothing to do with being good or evil, that its all about perspective and who's side you're on.

With five books in the completed series, if you're looking for an urban fairy story to pick up easily and marathon/ binge on this one is for you.  

Review: The Darkest Part of the Forest by Holly Black

My Rating:  ✯✯✯✯✩  

Genre: YA, Urban Fantasy, Fae / Faerie

Publication Date: January 13th, 2015

“Hazel, Hazel, blue of eye. Kissed the boys and made them cry.” 

Quick Synopsis 

Hazel and her family live in a town thats one of the few places where living with the reality of fairies is something ingrained in the culture of the place. In the way that a beachside surfer town would deal with the threat of sharks and drowning, the town of Fairfold coexists along side a community of fairies. From time to time a tourist or two will turn up dead buy some misfortune curtesy of the local Fair Folk. Towns people however have much more common sense when it comes to the Fae and rarely experience any related mishaps.
The towns biggest tourist attraction is a small glass coffin in the woods which has proven over generations to be both indestructible and unmovable. The coffin holds a devastatingly gorgeous and mysterious horned fairy boy in some sort of everlasting sleep. A sleep that Hazel has dreamed of waking him from, Sleeping Beauty style, for as long as she can remember. This dream is one also shared by her older brother.
When one day the town is turned upside down with the news that the glass coffin has finally been broken by unknown persons in the night and the boy is missing, Hazel and her brother decide if anyone can find him its going to be them.

My Review 

I just have to say right off that all I could think about when reading this book was Daniel Radcliffe in Horns.  The image was unshakable regardless of how not perfect and polished he is in comparison to the way the sleeping fairy is described.  This is the part where I out myself as a Dan Radcliffe fangirl. 

I say this about pretty much every Holly Black novel but its worth saying again: She writes beautifully complex female protagonists that are damaged and fragile but have an undeniable power and strength all at once. Her representations of sexuality are always much more inclusive than many other popular YA authors at the moment and she writes interpersonal relationships about family and friends with the kind of complicated perspective that is uncommon in YA. 

Not as much rawness and sass as her A Modern Faerie Tale trilogy but still a great read with some laugh out loud moments. 

This is a great stand alone that I would recommend for anyone who is into Urban Fantasy or modern Faerie stories. 

Pictures bellow courtesy Holly Black's Tumblr 

Review: Trigger Warning: Short Fictions and Disturbances by Neil Gaiman

My Rating:  ✯✯✯✯✯
Genre: Urban Fantasy
Publication Date: February 3rd 2015

Quick Synopsis 
Gaiman has possibly the most creatively brilliant and single most amazing imagination ever to be possessed by any one human on this earth. This collection of short stories of varying length are dark yet playful explorations of what it is that makes a person a person.




Review 
One of the things I particularly enjoy about this collection of stories is that they are not all in the same style or format. Some first person, some third person. One is even a recount of someones answers to undisclosed questions  which to me had the feel of listening to someones phone conversation where you only get to guess at the responses on the other end of the line.

I loved the Sherlock Holmes story and the Doctor Who story which to me were a lot like Neil Gaiman trying his hand at fan fiction and celebrating both of these classic franchises.

The best thing about this book is the bite sized nature of the stories. Theres just something about being able to pick up a story and finish it in one sitting. Especially considering that each and every story in this book is a different type of brilliant. The best way I can think to describe it, however lame, is to compare it to a chocolate box where each morsel is perfect and delicate but complete in and of itself yet nestled amongst its companions who are all equality as delicious but entirely different. I'm not usually one for short stories but this book may have just changed my mind.

Review: The One. #3 in The Selection Series by Kiera Cass

My Rating: ✯✯✯✯✩ 

Genre: YA, Dystopian, Romance 

Publication Date: May 06th 2014

‘The One’, number 3 in The Selection Series, concludes the trilogy depicting Americas struggle to win Prince Maxon’s heart in the competition of The Selection. This one is the first to heavily work in the Rebellion plot but it felt like Cass had some trouble keeping the Batchelor style completion going wile fleshing out the North and South rebellion side story.

Its always difficult to have a satisfactory ending to an interesting dystopian concept but all things considered Cass does a pretty good job concluding this story. The concept got me hook line and sinker and I read the entire book in one day. Her writing style is entertaining and easy which makes it so easy to forget that its 3am and you have work in the morning but just can’t put the book down.

My favourite element of this series is the relationship and conversations between the girls in the Selection. I particularly enjoy that everyone has some sort of motivation or hidden agenda, even America.

I highly recommend this series for anyone thats a YA dystopian love story fan. Its a fun series that I can see a lot of people appreciating as distraction from work or time killing entertainment during travel.


If you don't want to guess at who Prince Maxon chooses don't read the next paragraph. Just know theres going to be another book out this year.








There is a 4th book  'The Heir' due out on the 5th of May 2015 that follows the Selection story of Princess Eadlyn, the daughter of America Singer and Prince Maxon. This will be interesting because unlike the previous three books we’re already in love with the King and Queen. Its also going to be a fun change to get a Bachelorette male selection.



Kiera Cass has also revealed on her website that there will be a 5th book which will conclude the series and Eadlyns story some time in 2016.

A companion to the Selection series will also be out on the 6th of October 2015 called 'Happily Ever After' that will include all of the novellas, a map, illustrations and a heap of other bits and pieces about the series.

The Raven's Prophecy Tarot by Maggie Stiefvater due out September 2015

My return to the Book Bear Blog after a bit of a hiatus has been sparked by recently learning that the fourth and final *dies* instalment of The Raven Cycle by artist and author extraordinaire Maggie Stiefvater is due for release on September 29th 2015. As this is going to be the last book in the RC series I’m now beginning preparations for a new measurement of time that will forever be referred to as the time before the Raven Cycle and the time after the Raver Cycles, henceforth referred to as BRC and ARC respectively.

In case you're still looking for other reasons to commence your heart palpitations and hyperventilation, the Creatrix Maggie Stiefvater will also be releasing a stunning RC themed Tarot deck in September through Llewellyn. This will hopefully mean we could possibly be lucky enough to get our little fingers on a deck in isolated Australia. Even if that means paying more for shipping than the deck itself. Honestly, just take my money and let me hold 78 pieces of Stiefvater gold in my hands.

I’ve decided that in about July/  August I’ll be doing an RC re-read and of course getting my Tarot skills up to par in preparation for these two gems in September.

Right now I’m just taking it one day at a time and trying not to think too much about what my life will be like ARC.

You can pre-order the The Raven’s Prophecy Tarot Deck through Llewellyn HERE.

I had issues with the Llewellyn site maybe because I'm in Australia, who knows, but I ended up pre-ordering through Amazon HERE. I payed about $37 which I'm hoping was in AUD. It's projected to arrive sometime in late September.

Photos courtesy Maggie Stiefvaters Tumblr and Maggie Stiefvaters Instagram