A series of natural disasters has decimated the earth. Cut off from the rest of the world, England is a dark place. The sun rarely shines, food is scarce, and groups of criminals roam the woods, searching for prey. The people are growing restless. When a ruthless revolutionary sets out to overthrow the crown, he makes the royal family his first target. Blood is shed in Buckingham Palace, and only sixteen-year old Princess Eliza manages to escape. Determined to kill the man who destroyed her family, Eliza joins the enemy forces in disguise. She has nothing left to live for but revenge, until she meets someone who helps her remember how to hope-and love-once more.Now she must risk everything to ensure that she does not become… The Last Princess.

Hardcover, 295 pages  Published May 1st 2012 by Poppy  ISBN  0316185485 (ISBN13: 9780316185486)

Eliza’s childhood wasn’t so bad. As a member of the royalty, she was raised with the best of everything. When the revolutionaries begins to rise up, Eliza must grow up very quickly. She sees her pregnant mother poisoned, her father shot in front of her eyes and her brother and sister kidnapped by the leader Cornelius Hollister who’s determined to take the crown by destroying all living members of the royal family.

Barely escaping with her life with the help of one of the revolution guards, Eliza is determined to find and kill Cornelius Hollister for everything he has done to her family. She has nothing else to live for and her determination pushes the story forward. She soon ends up within his camp disguised as a soldier and finds that her siblings are alive. She’s called on to fight and help bring back supplies for the army, also having to participate in raids upon the innocent, and even family friends and loved ones.

This story is very fast paced and full of action scenes. Eliza  is tortured and scarred and the difficulties that she has to endure really hook the reader into her plight.

A warning to those that are sensitive there are animal killings and torture scenes.

My family loved this dip! It’s the perfect finger food, and really quick and easy to make!

Ingredients:

8 oz of cream cheese

½ teaspoon garlic powder

1 teaspoon Italian seasoning

2 ½ cups mozzarella shredded cheese

2 ½ cups of cheddar shredded cheese

1 cup of pizza sauce

Any pizza toppings you love! I chose pepperoni, black olives, bacon, and jalapenos.

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit and butter a square brownie pan.
2. In a mixing bowl, add the cream cheese, garlic powder, and Italian seasoning. Whisk together until combined. This step is easier if the cream cheese is at room temperature or softened.
3. Spread this mixture at the bottom of the pan.
4. Take half of each type of cheese and sprinkle that on top of the cream cheese mixture. Next spread the pizza sauce (I used the jar kind) and then top with the rest of the cheese.
5. Spread the toppings of your choice evenly over the entire pan and bake for about 20-25 minutes. You can serve this dip with crackers of slices of bread.

Evie O’Neill has been exiled from her boring old hometown and shipped off to the bustling streets of New York City–and she is pos-i-toot-ly thrilled. New York is the city of speakeasies, shopping, and movie palaces! Soon enough, Evie is running with glamorous Ziegfield girls and rakish pickpockets. The only catch is Evie has to live with her Uncle Will, curator of The Museum of American Folklore, Superstition, and the Occult–also known as “The Museum of the Creepy Crawlies.”

When a rash of occult-based murders comes to light, Evie and her uncle are right in the thick of the investigation. And through it all, Evie has a secret: a mysterious power that could help catch the killer–if he doesn’t catch her first

Evie O’Neill is the main focus of this epic new paranormal story from Libba Bray set in 1920’s New York City.

Evie has just moved in with her uncle after leaving home. She has the power to read objects and has visions. Unfortunately it doesn’t help her get away from the occult when her uncle runs the Museum of the Creepy Crawlies.

Evie soon gets caught up in the police investigations of a serial killer. Strangely, all clues lead to the long dead Naughty John, who couldn’t possibly be committing the murders… could he? From there on in, Evie is drawn into a world that is dangerous and thrilling.

Bray keeps up a quick-witted, snappy dialogue as she beautifully portrays the fashion, entertainment and superstitions of the time. 

While Evie’s story is pretty well rounded in book one, Libba Bray leaves a lot of the other characters stories unfinished. This will draw the reader in for the next instalment to see what happens next.

Teen angel – adult demon!  Belinda Hamilton discusses growing up in the public eye.

It is such a stereotype of the child actor, rebelling, making huge mistakes, taking drugs, and being arrested when they’re on the cusp of adulthood.

Lets name a few shall we? Johnny Depp, Drew Barrymore, Britney Spears, Lyndsey Lohan… yeah, you’ve got the point.

Are they actually doing anything abnormal for their age bracket? OR are they lashing out harder to make an identity outside of the clean cut, perfection the public are expecting them to continue until they die?

Is the behaviour they’re exhibiting ‘just part of growing up’?

Do we, as the public, have a right to expect the ‘role models’, fed to us by mainstream media, to act a certain way, dress a certain way and abstain from unethical behaviour?

I found a clip on YouTube by TheFineBros of a group of teens around Miley Cyrus’ age bracket who were asked to comment on her recent music videos. They were Rumor 17, Toir 15, Eric 16, Jeanie 18, Sam 17, Ethan 15, Madison 18, Alix 17, Shant 17, and Rachel 17.

Many of them were reacting to Miley as an extension of her former TV role as Hannah Montana. Could the reason for Miley’s rebellious period be based out of utter frustration, when as a whole, the public are forgetting that Hannah was fictional?

A few compared her clip to the behaviours of Lyndsey Lohan, and so many of them were adamant her conduct was inappropriate, and was for attention seeking purposes only.

Our teen years are supposed to begin the evolution of our adult selves, which is a really daunting thought (and if you’re stressing, imagine how much your parents are holding their breath).

Our brains aren’t completely finished connecting up, peer pressure is rampant and risk-taking and rebellion are just a part of life. However, fingers are continually being pointed at the celebrity element. Blaming them for the unacceptable behaviour of non-famous teens all the way around the developed world.

Isn’t it up to parents to be the primary role models of their kids, then to point them in the direction of worthwhile non family members to mentor and model their behaviours by?

Does a celebrity’s rebellious streak make you like them more or can it make you lose all respect for them?

Check out the clip and leave us a comment. I would love to know what you think.

When I was asked by Pan MacMillan Australia to review this book I thought, ‘why not?’

I didn’t really read too much into the background of the book, thinking it would colour my impressions, and apart from the duo of boot clad feet on the cover, and a comparison to John Green (whose books I haven’t read to date), I jumped in unaware of how charmingly disarming Fiona’s writing style is.

In the semi-tamed bushlands of a wilderness style campus of a boarding school in New South Wales, you will find a bunch of pampered, scared sixteen year old city kids about to lose themselves, only to find friendships, inner strength and the ability to camp on their own.

Sibylla finishes her school holidays by kissing the most desirable guy in the school, and now they’re going bush. She’s struggling to find her way in the uncharted waters of peer pressure and being true to herself. Lou and Michael are along for the ride, and though they are firmly land locked there isn’t a light house on earth that can steer the HMS Siby from disaster. Not even the advice of a life long friend can save her now.

Quite frankly I am not the camping type. Though I may hold tight to my brought up in the country ideals, there is a line I will not cross. BYO is for restaurants, not toileting habits. So reading about a place described as richly as this, allowed me to dip my toe into the water without the cold shock of the full on reality experience.

The emotions explored in amongst the eucalyptus trees is more than enough to tug at your heart strings and by golly if you don’t feel like punching Ben by week 2 I would like you to sign up to therapy because if that is your idea of a ‘healthy relationship’ you are waaaaaaay off (mumble mumble mumble mumble).

I thoroughly enjoyed the character arcs and I have a feeling I will be hunting down Fiona’s previous book, starring Lou, called Six Impossible Things, in the not too distant future. Lou’s a tough nut to crack but I’d like to see her when her guard is down. Perhaps it’s contained within that book or perhaps I will find it in future instalments.

However, it turns out I was thrilled to that I got to review Wildlife. A way to go bush from the warmth and safety of your favourite chair.

http://fionawood.com/

Paperback

384 pages

Expected publication: June 1st 2013 by Pan Macmillan Australia

ISBN13 9781742612317