Review: Arcadia Awakens by Kai Meyer

Read the my full review of Arcadia Awakens at Mostly Reading YA.

My Rating: 4/5

"When I first read the synopsis of Arcadia Awakens I knew I had to read it. Then I saw the cover and I was totally convinced. I couldn't wait for my copy to drop through the letterbox and when it did arrive, I wasn't let down..." 

Twelve Days of Christmas: Day #7

6 Favourite Characters Of 2011

Image from: amyr_81

Tom from The Wardstone Chronicles is always a favourite of mine. He's also one of the few characters who has never irritated me at all!

Trista from Wolf Blood. She's strong, courageous and underneath her hard, warrior exterior she's very caring, even if she doesn't show it very much.

Pretty much everyone from The Meek but especially Pinter. I love his expressions and how surly he can be.

Barbara from I Kill Giants. I adore her. I love how she's very tough, sarcastic but very sensitive. I don't want to ruin the story too much through. Read it.

Rosa from Arcadia Awakens. At first I wasn't sure about her, she seemed very typical angsty teenage girl with her gothy clothing (lots of black and spiky boots) but the more you get to know about her past and her family the more you come to understand and love her. You come to realise that she is very clever and very strong, even when her problems seem insurmountable.

Badou from DOGS: Bullets and Carnage. I love most of the characters but there is something special about this chilled, funny and very lucky ginger haired guy who goes crazy when he runs out of cigarettes.

Twelve Days of Christmas: Day #6

7 Favourite Covers Of 2011

Image from: Anastasia Abramova

I love The Meek and I love the cover. It's so well done. It gives you a good feeling of the comic/graphic novel and also hints at just one of the many story-lines within it's pages. 

Gorgeous, just gorgeous and really sums up the feel of the book.

I wasn't sure about the cover at first because you see a lot of YA romance/fantasy books with the same kind of covers: hot girl in big dress. But I do actually really like the font, the feather, the trees, the colour and I just hope they continue the theme because I've seen another cover floating around for the second book that I do not approve of.

I haven't read it yet, and I've heard mixed reviews, but I do think that the cover is pretty gorgeous.

I love it. I love the cover and I love that it's continued through onto the inside.

I know that it took a while for Gill and the publishers to find a cover that they really liked and thought fit the book. I think it had a few versions, some Gill preferred more than others, but it was this one that won out. I think it's simple and I love the reflections in the osprey's eyes.

I just love the art style of DOGS: Bullets and Carnage. So I pretty much always love the covers.  Giovanni Rammsteiner is a bad-ass and this cover  shows that.

Twelve Days of Christmas: Day #5

8 Favourite Books Of 2011

Image from: syd delicious

This list made me realise that I read a lot of books and a lot of comics, and that some how comics always seem to connect with me more powerfully than most novels. Come on writers! Up your game and entice me with stories and characters as awesome as those in my favourite graphic novels! By the way, not all of these books were published in 2011 some are a little older but I only got around to reading them this year, most are parts of a series so do have a newer instalment that came out this year.

I keep thinking about this book. I need the sequel! My life will be incomplete without it!

Loved it, some small niggles but otherwise it's amazing. I'm not very fond of the cover though.

This was published in 2009 but I didn't get to read it until this year. Either way, read The Wardstone Chronicles because they are kick ass.

We own the limited boxset of Girly that was published on demand, so I can't show you the other covers. Girly is an awesome, very strange, very silly and not for kids comic. Expect sex and sillyness and lesbians.

Another comic. I read this one online but there is a book. It doesn't update very often and has been going for a while but read it. It's one of the few webcomics out there that have a really amazing art style and equally amazingly detailed world and story.

Another comic. Read it. Do not research it because you will spoil it. Read it and if you don't love it then, I'm sorry but we can't be friends.

This is not a book about vegetarianism. This is a book about a man finding out about where the meat on his table comes from, what happens to it during it's life, death and after wards, and also what happens to the people involved. I love this book because it is well written and truthful. Nothing is dressed up to sound better or worse than it is. You are not told what to think but presented with the facts and examples so you can make up your own mind. I don't see any reason for someone not to read this book.

This is my favourite manga series. It is an 18+ because it is violent. Seriously. But it's also full of fantastic characters that I love and I also love to hate. Plus most of the characters are super attractive which makes it easy on the eye. The actions scenes are really intense but this isn't your standard boys comic. Yes there's lots of guns and explosions and swearing and gangsters and all that, but the characters all have really interesting pasts and the storyline is deep, dark and drip fed to you. I don't want this series to ever end!

Page Turners: Arcadia Awakens

At the moment I am reading:

Arcadia Awakens by Kai Meyer

My copy doesn't have this cover because it's a proof copy sent to me by Templar to review for Most Reading YA. But I have to say that I think this cover is amazing. The UK hardback cover  is equally awesome. See below:

They're both so vivid and striking and very good at summing up the story in a clear image. They do exactly what a cover should do. I am tempted to also feature them as Coveted Covers, but I won't do that to you and will have to seek out something else. But if my book was published and this is the kind of cover they gave it, I would be thrilled!

Arcadia Awakens is out in the UK and US in February/March 2012

From Goodreads:

"To Rosa Alcantara, the exotic world of Sicily, with its network of Mafia families and its reputation for murder and intrigue, is just that—exotic and wholly unknown. But when her life in Brooklyn begins to fall apart, she must travel there, to her family’s ancestral home, where centuries of family secrets await her.
 Once there, Rosa falls head over heels for Alessandro Carnevare, the son of a Sicilian Mafia family, whose handsome looks and savage grace both fascinate and unsettle her. But their families are sworn enemies, and her aunt and sister believe Alessandro is only using Rosa to infiltrate the Alcantara clan. And when Rosa encounters a tiger one night—a tiger with very familiar eyes—she can no longer deny that neither the Carnevares nor the Alcantaras are what they seem.
 Hidden caves, dangerous beasts roaming the hills, and a history of familial bloodlust mean that Rosa can’t trust anyone. Torn between loyalty to her family and love for their mortal enemy, Rosa must make the hardest decision of her life: stay in Sicily with her new love…or run as far and as fast as she can."