The Medusa Project: The Set-Up by Sophie McKenzie

Fourteen years ago, scientist William Fox implanted four babies with the Medusa gene - a gene for physic abilities. But Fox died and the babies were hidden away for years.


Now they're teenagers - and unaware that their physic  powers are about to kick in.


Cocky, charismatic Nico thinks his emerging telekinetic abilities will bring him money., power and the girl of his dreams. He's about to find out just how wrong he is...


I've read one of McKenzie's books before, Girl, Missing, and I LOVED it! So I was really eager to read this one. The Medusa Project series has been recommended to me before, but I was told that The Set-Up wasn't as good as the others, because (hence the name), it was kind of setting the scene for the other books, so there wasn't as much action. But I thought that there was plenty of action scenes, so I really enjoyed it.


To be honest, I didn't really like any of the characters. They were all quite annoying. Well, if I had to pick my favourite, it would probably be....Fergus, Nico's step-dad and the principal of the boarding school he attends. At the beginning of the story, Fergus seems to be over-protective and controlling of Nico, but in the end it turns out he was -sort of - right. But the rest of the characters I just didn't like.


My overall rating is...4/5. Or 5/5. Hmm, which one? I know, 4.5/5! Perfect! It lost the 0.5 because of the character quality .Or rather lack of character quality. But regardless, I would recommend it, and am looking forward to reading the next book in the series, The Hostage. You know, almost all books nowadays have sequels, don't they? Not that it's a bad thing, I'm just saying. But still.
Well, bye wonderful readers!


Age Group: 11+
Official Publication Date: 06 July 2009
Publisher: Simon and Schuster Ltd.
Author Website: www.sophiemckenziebooks.com


This review was done as part of the British Books Challenge, which you can find out about at The Bookette.

Split by a Kiss by Luisa Plaja

Jo has never been one of the popular kids...until she moves to the USA. Suddenly the coolest girls at her new high school adopt her, and the hottest boy, Jake Matthews, notices her. But when Jake picks her as his partner in the kissing game Seven Minutes in Heaven, it's not half as heavenly as she imagined! 


Jo has a choice: should she carry on with Jake for guaranteed popularity - or should she tell him where to get off and risk losing her new friends...? 


At this moment - Jo splits. She's Josie the Cool - girlfriend of Jake, member of the in-crowd. But she's also Jo the Nerd - rejected by the It girls, single...ordinary. Will her two halves ever come together again?


OK, I don't normally talk about covers in my reviews, because I don't think covers are a books most important quality. You know the old saying - don't judge a book by it's cover! But is this one of the awesomest covers I have ever seen! Isn't it? The cover is actually what made me want to read the book in the first place! I was looking at some blogs and I saw it and I said to myself 'Wow. I want to read that.' And I did, and now I'm happy! Very happy, actually!


Jo is the main character in the book, but then in a way there's kind of two main characters, because she's sort of two different people. This is hard to explain! That's one of the reasons I love this book,  that Jo gets to experience both ends of the social food chain - at the same time. It's like, you know when you have two choices, and say you pick Choice 1 and then you wonder what might have happened if you had picked Choice 2? Well, it's not like that for Jo. She might have some problems in her life, but at least she's not faced with that one!


My favourite character is Tori, Josie the Cool's best friend. She might be in with the cool crowd, but she still is nice, really. I really hated Kristy, the mean, catty girl in the group. Well, I suppose they were all mean (except Tori) but she was the worst.  Apart from the cool crowd, I pretty much liked all the characters.


The book is hilarious and really entertaining. I actually found no faults at all with this book - really! And I normally find at least one fault with a book, so it just shows you how brilliant this book is! 5/5, definitely. It's super and everybody should read it. It's chick-lit and with the supernatural element to it, so there's something for everyone. I'm so glad there's a sequel, Swapped by a Kiss, and I will be reading it as soon as possible.


A big, huge thank you to Luisa, for sending me a review copy of this book!


Age Group: 12+
Official Publication Date: 06 March 2010
Publisher: Random House Childrens Books
Author Website: Chicklish


I'm doing this review as part of the British Books Challenge 2011, and you can find out more about it at The Bookette

I'd Tell You I Love You But Then I'd Have To Kill You by Ally Carter

''Do you ever feel like you're invisible? I know I do-just call me Cammie the Chameleon. But at my         school, that's seen as cool. Why? Because the Gallagher Academy might say it's for geniuses, but it's really school for spies.''

Cammie Morgan might be capable of killing a man in seven different ways, but she's about to begin her most dangerous mission yet: falling in love. 

Cammie Morgan is a genius and she goes to spy school. Her mother, the headmistress, is a former spy and so is her father, who is dead. Cammie's best friends are super-smart Liz and super-cool Bex. The girls are in their sophomore year (I think that's how you say it?????) and have started Covert Operations, which is spy field work. When the school gets a new CovOps teacher, the gorgeous Joe Solomon, all the sophomores are excited. But then they realise that Mr. Solomon means business. He's a former spy and really knows his stuff. When he gives the three girls a test mission in the nearby town, Cammie meets Josh, a local boy. Josh thinks the Gallagher Girls are all posh, snobby rich girls, so Cammie lies to him and tells him she is home schooled. As Cammie continuously sneaks into town to meet Josh her lies develop and Cammie begins to feel more and more guilty. 

When I first saw the cover of this book I thought it looked really good. I borrowed it off a friend and she told me she didn't really like it, but I decided to try it anyway. I have to say I didn't think it was great. It was written well and it was quite funny but I thought it was a bit boring. I didn't think enough really happened in it.  I think more should have happened with Josh and Cammie but whenever those parts were happening, I felt like skipping them. I would give this book 3.5/5. I probably won't be reading the sequel to it, Cross My Heart and Hope To Spy. So, all in all, I didn't think it was great. 

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