I don’t actually like raisins, so I’m not sure how these taste. But everyone that had one couldn’t get enough! I brought them on vacation, to share!

Ingredients:

1 cup butter, soft.

1 cup brown sugar.

1 cup white sugar.

2 eggs.

1 teaspoon vanilla extract.

2 cups quick oats.

2 cups all purpose flour.

1 teaspoon baking soda.

1 teaspoon baking powder.

1 teaspoon salt.

1 cup raisins.

1 cup dried cranberries.

Beat the butter, sugars, eggs and vanilla for five minutes in a large bowl. In another bowl, combine the oats, flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt.

Add the flour mixture to the butter mixture, a little at a time, mixing after each.

Drop small mounds on a baking sheet, and bake at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for about 12 or so minutes.

For 264 days Juliette has been locked away from the world; forced to glean what little she can of it through the small window in her cold cell. In that time she has seen and spoken to no one. That is about to change. She is to receive a cell-mate.

Adam is terrifying to Juliette. He has not been isolated for 264 days; he is perfectly comfortable talking to people. And he expects her to answer. Juliette’s social skills have dried up more with every day that she has been alone and finding them again feels beyond her capabilities. But Adam has the same eyes as a boy she once knew and she slowly begins to trust him.

Mafi is a brilliant writer. Her descriptions drag you into the story and hold you there. She does drift across into monumental hyperbole, but it suits the story. Juliette has been stuck in a cold, concrete cage with minimum amounts of food for 264 days; everything that happens to her is infinitely larger in her mind than in reality. In isolation, Juliette’s mind and imagination are the only things she has to keep herself sane. The exaggerated description emphasises this mindset perfectly.

The main supporting characters, Adam and Warner, are both written as perfectly as Juliette. In Adam, readers can see all the sweetness that Juliette can see, and the vulnerability that she probably can’t. Warner can’t be faulted. I want him to die, painfully, and that is all that is really needed to count a villain a success. Though it goes further than that. Warner’s existence, the very fact that he is alive, threatens Juliette and, because I like Juliette, it threatens me (or my reading pleasure, which is basically the same thing).

Shatter Me reads like two different novels melded together. The genre, writing style and characters all undergo a shift as the book progresses. What starts out as wonderfully written dystopian sci-fi becomes much more paranormal romance. Both Adam and Juliette change too quickly in pursuing their relationship. Despite the strong characters and engaging plot-line, Mafi does not seem yet have enough confidence in her writing to allow them to stand on their own. Adam and Juliette gravitate toward each other, not needing stereotypically romantic moments to show readers how strong their bond is. Theirs is a sympathetic, believable relationship and would have been stronger had the writing of it been pruned back.

What I do love about Shatter Me, is that it is wholly Juliette’s story. It is told in her voice, the writing steeped in her personality and emotions. Further than this, she is forced to play a part in the action. There isn’t someone waiting in the wings to keep her safe. If she doesn’t act, she and others may die. Though she doesn’t grow drastically in the first book, there is plenty of room for her to progress in later books.

As a young adult dystopian novel, Shatter Me stands out from the crowd. It has found its own voice and pace, trail-blazing a new path rather than following one that already exists. Because of this, the characters and situations feel real and it’s harder to predict where their path is leading. I’m looking forward to continuing the journey with Unravel Me.

Shatter Me – Tahereh Mafi

Allen & Unwin (November 15, 2011)

ISBN: 9781743315248

Ingredients: (makes about 8)

4 Slices Bacon

4 oz Shredded Cheddar Cheese

½ cup Sour Cream

10 oz Broccoli Florets, thawed and chopped

1 lb Pizza Dough

Olive Oil

Method

1. Heat oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit. Line a baking sheet with aluminum foil. Cook bacon in microwave (I purchased microwavable bacon, since I feel that it is easier to make than the regular kind).
2. Once the bacon is cooked and cooled down, break it into small pieces.
3. In a large bowl, combine the shredded cheddar cheese, sour cream, and salt and pepper to taste. Fold in both the bacon pieces and the broccoli.
4. Roll out your already prepare pizza dough into a 15 inch circle, and cut 8 triangles.
5. Divide the mixture by eight, filling each triangle. Roll up the filling starting with the wider end.
6. Brush the rolls with a little bit of oil, and bake them between 20 and 25 minutes.

If you’ve not read Daughter of Smoke and Bone, I urge you strongly not to read on until you’ve done so. Spoilers do make a difference to how you may perceive a book.

Book 1 spent so much time on the romance and the world building that book 2, Days of Blood and Starlight, feels like it went off on whole other tangent. It’s still the same gloriously rich world and intelligent character arcs as last time, but the focus falls more on the thought-provoking battle between good and evil. Not to mention the suspense.

Karou survives the dramatics at the end of book 1, and is taken in by Thiago, ‘The Wolf’. And as was hinted at in book 1, the slimy fink is still chasing tail. It is up to her to take over from her predecessor, Brimstone, to build the bodies, to house the souls, of the army who will save the future generations from the wrath of the Angels. However the true measure of an action is its intent. Just what is it that the Wolf intends to do?

I found pacing myself to savour the bitter tang of this instalment suited me better than flying through it. It took a fair bit of will power though, because the plot is certainly meant to be ready quickly. I rarely had to read back over pages and the dialogue is charmingly fresh. Especially when Karou finds her best friend and her boyfriend almost dead on the outskirts of the compound.

Laini almost had me in tears with the threads the next book will tie into. I hold much respect for her skill with twisting the knife on an already heartbreaking situation. How the events at the end of Days of Blood and Starlight will effect Karou will remain to be seen. If she can find it in her heart to allow Akiva back into her life, how will her allies react?

We’ve go plenty of time to stew over the details and reread the tortuously tangled tomes as the third instalment isn’t due out until April 2014. Considering how well the first two books are written I’d rather wait a while and get the best book Laini can write, than get it quickly and be left wanting.

You’ll kick yourself if you get on board with these books too late. Also it looks like a film adaption is in development for Daughter of Smoke and Bone, so be one of the people who read the book first. Methinks perhaps the premier should be in Prague. How about you?

http://www.lainitaylor.com/

http://www.daughterofsmokeandbone.co.uk/

Paperback, UK, 528 pages

Published November 8th 2012 by Hodder & Stoughton (first published November 6th 2012)

ISBN: 1444722689 (ISBN13:9781444722680)

This recipe gets a huge work-out in our family. I’ve been making these cookies for years, and they disappear almost as quickly as they bake. Chewy in the middle, crunchy on the outside and just the right blend of vanilla and chocolate. And so, so yummy while they’re still warm!

What you need:

1 cup of softened butter (use the real stuff, not margarine)

1 cup white sugar

¾ cup brown sugar, tightly packed

2 teaspoons of vanilla essence

1 teaspoon of salt

2 eggs

3 cups of plain flour

1 ½ teaspoons of baking soda

250 grams of milk or dark chocolate chips

How it’s done:

Preheat oven to about 140 degrees C.

In a large bowl, beat together the butter, sugars and vanilla essence until it lightens in colour and gets a kind of creamy texture. An electric mixer makes this bit easy. Add eggs, one at a time and continue mixing.

In another bowl, mix together the flour and baking soda. Gradually add this to your butter and sugar mixture. Be careful at this point, especially if using a stand mixer – if you’re not careful, flour goes everywhere! (I do it every single time…)

Keep mixing until well combined, then add the chocolate chips. Mix until they’re evenly spread through the mixture.

On a baking tray lined with baking paper (hey, we all hate cleaning up, right?) spoon balls around 1 tablespoon of mixture. Don’t place them too close together, because these suckers spread. I usually put seven to a large tray. Now comes the tricky bit – you need to cook them for LESS time than you’ll think. It only takes about 10 minutes for the cookies to change colour to a light golden brown, which is your signal to pull them out. They’ll still be super-soft, so let them cool for a minute or two, then use a spatula to transfer them carefully to a cooling tray.

This recipe makes about 45 to 50 cookies – I dare you to eat just one!