Australian bloggers - assistance?

If you are an Australian blogger who presents YA content on your blog I would love your assistance.  I am currently gathering some information on the bloggers that help to shine a light on YA (whether it be Australian or international).  Your content can be exclusively YA or only marginally.  This does not include YA authors at this time but may do so at a later date.

It would be fantastic if you could take the time to email me with your name (optional), blog's title and hyperlink and which state in our fine country you are from.

All will be explained sometime in the future.

Thank you
Adele

Mini Review - Last Sacrifice / Richelle Mead

Rose Hathaway has always played by her own rules.

She broke the law when she ran away from St. Vladimir’s Academy with her best friend and last surviving Dragomir Princess, Lissa. She broke the law when she fell in love with her gorgeous, off-limits instructor, Dimitri. And she dared to defy Queen Tatiana, leader of the Moroi world, risking her life and reputation to protect generations of dhampir guardian to come.

Now the law has finally caught up with Rose- for a crime she didn’t even commit. She’s in prison for the highest offense imaginable: the assassination of a monarch. She’ll need help from both Dimitri and Adrian to find the one living person who can stall her execution and force the Moroi elite to acknowledge a shocking new candidate for the royal throne: Vasilisa Dragomir.

But the clock on Rose’s life is running out. Rose knows in her heart the world of the dead wants her back… and this time she is truly out of second chances. The big question is, when your life is about saving others, who will save you? Goodreads.

Review - The last title of the Vampire Academy feels like slipping on a pair of old jeans - comfy, familiar and the right fit.  That doesn't meet that the plot isn't a little overindulgent in unnecessary scenes and side trips but it was nice to spend time with the motley crew of individuals that assisted Rose throughout the series.  There weren't that many surprises (for this reader anyway) and the stakes failed to project as dire as they were meant but it was an enjoyable read nevertheless.  Mead managed to wrap up the series with appropriate sass and affection that one would expect.

Recommendation - A comfortable completion to a fun series.

Published: December 7, 2010
Format: Hardcover, 594 pages
Publisher: Penguin USA
Source: purchased
Origin: USA

Mini Review - Forget You / Jennifer Echols

WHY CAN’T YOU CHOOSE WHAT YOU FORGET . . . AND WHAT YOU REMEMBER? There’s a lot Zoey would like to forget. Like how her father has knocked up his twenty-four- year old girlfriend. Like Zoey’s fear that the whole town will find out about her mom’s nervous breakdown. Like darkly handsome bad boy Doug taunting her at school. Feeling like her life is about to become a complete mess, Zoey fights back the only way she knows how, using her famous attention to detail to make sure she’s the perfect daughter, the perfect student, and the perfect girlfriend to ultra-popular football player Brandon.

 But then Zoey is in a car crash, and the next day there’s one thing she can’t remember at all—the entire night before. Did she go parking with Brandon, like she planned? And if so, why does it seem like Brandon is avoiding her? And why is Doug—of all people— suddenly acting as if something significant happened between the two of them? Zoey dimly remembers Doug pulling her from the wreck, but he keeps referring to what happened that night as if it was more, and it terrifies Zoey to admit how much is a blank to her. Controlled, meticulous Zoey is quickly losing her grip on the all-important details of her life—a life that seems strangely empty of Brandon, and strangely full of Doug.

Review - I am a huge fan of Echols work there is a zap to her dialogue and a heat to her story lines that really capture a reader's attention.  Forget You revolves around the memory loss of the protagonist and as such the reader feels untethered in the novel.  So much of the plot is dependant on Zoey not remembering that the emotional connection is lessened.    Zoey holds fast to what she thinks she knows for sure while understandable, also alienates her from the reader.  However, there is a lot to enjoy about this novel from the charged interchanges between the two leads, portrayal of depression and Echol's trademark banter.

Recommendation - A fun read with some bumps in the road.

Published: July 20, 2010
Format: ARC, 293 pages
Publisher: MTV
Source: publisher
Origin: USA