Alina Starkov doesn't expect much from life. Orphaned by the Border Wars, she is sure of only one thing: her best friend, Mal--and her inconvenient crush on him. Until the day their army regiment enters the Fold, a swath of unnatural darkness crawling with monsters. When their convoy is attacked and Mal is brutally injured, Alina reveals a dormant power not even she knew existed.
Ripped from everything she knows, Alina is taken to the royal court to be trained as a member of the Grisha, the magical elite led by the mysterious Darkling. With Alina's extraordinary power in his arsenal, he believes they can finally destory the Fold. Now Alina must find a way to master her untamed gift and somehow fit into her new life without Mal by her side. But nothing in this lavish world is what it seems. As the threat to the kingdom mounts and her dangerous attraction to the Darkling grows, Alina will uncover a secret that could tear her heart--and her country--in two.
“I missed you every hour. And you know what the worst part was? It caught me completely by surprise. I'd catch myself just walking around to find you, not for any reason, just out of habit, because I'd seen something that I wanted to tell you about or because I wanted to hear your voice. And then I'd realize that you weren't there anymore, and every time,every single time, it was like having the wind knocked out of me. I've risked my life for you. I've walked half the length of Ravka for you, and I'd do it again and again and again just to be with you, just to starve with you and freeze with you and hear you complain about hard cheese every day. So don't tell me why we don't belong together," he said fiercely.”
This book...
This book has been on my TBR list since it first came out. It was initially published back in 2012, and only now, at the very end of 2016 did I get a chance to finally read it. This is actually the case with a lot of other books that I have been meaning to read for years and just never got the chance to. Whether it was because I could never find a copy of the book to buy or borrow, or too many books that I wanted to read came out around the same time and I ended up forgetting about them until the next time I saw it again. Either way, I'm just glad that I was able to finally get my hands on the entire series and start with the first book.
One of the first things that I noticed when I was reading this book was the Russian influence in it. Granted, when I really felt like I was in some sort of alternate universe Russia, I took some time to read one of the reviews on GoodReads where it basically said that Bardugo didn't do her proper research on Russian culture and messed up on some things throughout her book. If you want to read more about it, just let me know, or a quick search on GoodReads under the review section of this book, and I'm sure you will find it the same way that I did. Either way, since I read any bonus material until after I finished the book, it was at least nice to have it confirmed that I wasn't going crazy, and that the reason why I felt like I was in some sort of Russian world was because Bardugo made it that way. If you haven't read it before, the moment you look at the map, you'll see what I mean.
Anyway.
This was definitely an exciting book for me to end the year with. Honestly, I don't even want to read another book until the new year starts so that I can end 2016 with a really good story. It was one of the books that I just could not put down, and I really wish that I could have started this book sooner. Years sooner.
To start, Alina and Mal are both orphans, who grew up together under the care of a rich Duke that liked to adopt other orphans. I honestly don't know if it was a play to be popular among the people, or if he genuinely didn't want any of these orphans to grow up alone. It wasn't like they didn't have to earn their keep. They were working along with the rest of the house servants, as if he was just adding to his personal work force but didn't have to give them money. I still can't tell, especially when Alina ends up seeing him again sometime later. Well, Alina and Mal end up growing up together and end up serving in the First Army together, with Mal being an excellent tracker and Alina being a somewhat good cartographer. Well, their unit was sent to cross into the Shadow Fold, this extremely dark curse on the land that is filled with man eating creatures named volcra. Mostly anyone who has tried to cross the Fold winds up torn to pieces.
So when Alina and Mal are forced to cross over with members of the First and Second Army, it should come as no surprise when they get attacked and almost die. In fact, they would have died if it wasn't for Alina, and that's where the story really begins.
The Darkling, such a mysterious character that you don't know whether to trust or run away from, ends up taking Alina under his wing, trying to make her stronger so that she can save her war torn country and bring peace to the lands. But is that really what his end goal is? His beautiful eyes and merciless behavior both draws people in and keeps them at bay. Even Alina can't seem to resist his pull, and a part of her wants to be by his side, almost like the Darkling's queen. With the Darkling as the most powerful Grisha in existence and Alina... well on the verge of becoming something great, there really wouldn't be anything to stop them. But are they good or bad?
Will they save the world, or destroy it?
The different twists in this book had me on the edge of my seat. I couldn't put this book down except to go to sleep and go to work. It was amazing. The world was one that I could really see in my mind, and Alina and Mal are two of my favorite characters in the entire book. I also liked another character, Genya, which if you're someone like me, you'd like her too. I can't wait to continue this series. My review probably didn't sound like much of a review, but trust me when I say that I thoroughly enjoyed this ride.
Rated: 5/5 ★
The Eighth Story. Nineteen Years Later.Based on an original new story by J.K. Rowling, Jack Thorne and John Tiffany, a new play by Jack Thorne, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child is the eighth story in the Harry Potter series and the first official Harry Potter story to be presented on stage. The play will receive its world premiere in London’s West End on July 30, 2016. It was always difficult being Harry Potter and it isn’t much easier now that he is an overworked employee of the Ministry of Magic, a husband and father of three school-age children.While Harry grapples with a past that refuses to stay where it belongs, his youngest son Albus must struggle with the weight of a family legacy he never wanted. As past and present fuse ominously, both father and son learn the uncomfortable truth: sometimes, darkness comes from unexpected places.
"How many people have died for The Boy Who Lived?"
It's been years since we last saw Harry Potter and the Golden Trio, and they had saved the world from the likes of Lord Voldemort. They won the Battle of Hogwarts, even though there were those that didn't survive the attack. And nineteen years after that final battle, after Voldemort was finally defeated, we see the future where Harry and Ginny are taking their kids to Platform 9 3/4, their son Albus Severus Potter's first year of being a student. But what happened afterwards? Was all truly well like Rowling promised it would be? This original play says different, and with it being Harry Potter, we all should have known better.
When I first found out that there was going to be another book about Harry Potter, I was in shock. I swore that Rowling was done writing about him, and that she would be going into other aspects of the Wizarding World (like Fantastic Beasts for example). Then I found out more information and was a little disappointed to find out that it was necessarily a new book, but a play. A play that I would never get to see because I wouldn't have the means to see it. Would it have the same magical effect that the rest of the series had on me all those years ago? I wasn't sure, which was probably why it took me a few months to actually get the book, let alone read it.
The premise is basically what we remember from the epilogue of Deathly Hallows. We start on Platform 9 3/4, with Harry and Ginny taking their oldest son James, and their youngest son Albus to the Hogwarts Express, with daughter Lily in tow. It's Albus' first year and he's afraid that he will be sorted into Slytherin because his big brother James has pretty much put that fear into his head that it would be bad to end up in that house. I guess 20 years hasn't changed kids' perspectives on Slytherin. Harry basically tells him that he was named after a Slytherin (Severus Snape), and he was one of the bravest men he knew. So if he was sorted into Slytherin it wouldn't be so bad.
Of course, Hermione and Ron are there as well, with their daughter Rose and son Hugo (who isn't really mentioned much, not sure why) also going to Hogwarts. We see Hermione in her daughter a lot, even to the point that Rose doesn't think that Albus should make friends with Scorpius Malfoy, all because of who his family is and the rumors about who his real father is. Cruel, I would say, to think that Hermione's daughter would show such prejudice to someone who can't help who he comes from. And with that, Albus and Scorpius becomes the best of friends and Rose and Albus aren't even friends, just cousins that keep up appearances for their parents' sake.
There were a few issues that I had with this book, mostly because it just wasn't the same as what I was expecting. I definitely wasn't expecting the bad guy being... well who the bad guy ended up being. Also, messing with the timeline always makes this worse, and the alternate reality that Scorpius ends up going to just made my heart hurt. Imagine if it was what really happened? I couldn't take it. I'm glad that it was just an alternate universe, let's just say that right here and now. Also, Albus was a jerk. Definitely not worth being named after Albus Dumbledore and Severus Snape. Scorpious was an actual sweetheart, and I think we needed to see more of him.
I liked seeing the original gang throughout the book, but it also showed me that Harry and Ron hasn't grown up as much as I thought they would, and why did they make Ron seem so dumb? Or silly? He's not just a comic relief, even if he wasn't the best at spells like Hermione was. He did have some substance to him throughout the series so why not bring that into this book? It just wasn't the same for me, and I usually love Harry Potter.
Rated: 3.5/5 ★
Catherine may be one of the most desired girls in Wonderland and a favorite of the unmarried King, but her interests lie elsewhere. A talented baker, she wants to open a shop and create delectable pastries. But for her mother, such a goal is unthinkable for a woman who could be a queen.
At a royal ball where Cath is expected to receive the King's marriage proposal, she meets handsome and mysterious Jest. For the first time, she feels the pull of true attraction. At the risk of offending the King and infuriating her parents, she and Jest enter into a secret courtship.
Cath is determined to choose her own destiny. But in a land thriving with magic, madness, and monsters, fate has other plans.
“The easiest way to steal something, is for it to be given willingly.”
Origin stories have always been stories that I am fascinated by. Especially if it's a new take on the specific villain that the story is based on. I believe this is the first book that I have come across that dealt with The Queen of Hearts from Alice in Wonderland, and I'm so glad that I was able to have the opportunity to read this, thanks to my Owlcrate subscription. What was it about the Queen of Hearts that made her such a horrid person? And why was she so obsessed with decapitating everyone that got on her bad side? This book did an excellent job delving into that story, as well as incorporating elements of the original Alice in Wonderland into this original piece.
Let's start with Catherine, or as her friends like to call her: Cath. Loving the nickname, although it reminds me of Cather in Fangirl since Cath was her nickname as well. The image that I got of her was that she was probably a little bigger than most of the women in Hearts because she liked to bake so much. But I also feel like the only reason why she was probably bigger in my mind than I anticipated was because of the constant jabs from her mother and how she would have food taken away from her mid-meal or straight up not allowed to eat at all on certain occasions. Cath's mother, the Marchioness of Rock Turtle Cove was a real piece of work, and I definitely did not like her at all. If there was anyone truly mad in this book, it had to have been her.
Then there's the amazing Jest, who I have added to my never-ending list of fictional boyfriends. The first time we meet him, he has a sway over the citizens of Hearts with his riddle and magic tricks. Even Cath can't seem to keep her eyes off him, and is curious to find out who he is and where he's from. With the Kingdom of Hearts being small enough that everyone knows everyone, a stranger that nobody has seen before is always going to be the talk of the town, Jest being no exception. My heart beats for Jest, and apparently so does Cath's.
This isn't just a love story though, definitely not. There is love involved, between Cath and Jest, two strangers that seem to have some sort of attraction between them. But there's also a real danger out there in Hearts, in the form of the Jabberwock. It's been many years since a Jabberwock has been seen in Hearts, and if the entire kingdom hadn't seen one in front of them with their very own eyes, they probably would have been find pretending that it was just a silly rumor and forget it ever happened. But no, the Jabberwock is real, and threatens the lives of everyone in Hearts if someone doesn't do anything to stop it.
You would think that the King of Hearts would do something, but don't expect it to happen. Like we've seen of him in Alice in Wonderland, he's a kind-hearted fool, one who would rather have parties and eat treats than actually defend his kingdom and its citizens. That was a complete turn off for me, although I should have known based on the previous versions of him that we've seen. No wonder he's still not married, but who does he have his eyes on? The one and only Cath, probably because he knows that she's the best baker in all the land. Everyone knows it, and to think if he made her Queen, she could make him treats all the time! That was probably what he was thinking when he wanted to propose to her, because there was nothing that Cath did to make it even remotely a question that she liked him romantically. Either that or he's just an idiot. I still don't know which one is more true.
The world of Hearts is one that we have seen before, with talking animals that have human like qualities, special food and drinks that have the capability to change you into something else, and magic. It's the norm in Hearts, and while some of it is fun, others certainly aren't. Some of it is actually quite painful, and dangerous. It is Wonderland, after all. What did you expect?
While I won't spoil the story, we all know that it was bound to have a terrible ending. Terrible in this case meaning that Cath was going to be the vicious Queen of Hearts that we grew up knowing her as. And to think that she started off as someone with such passion about something other than beheading, well we know that something really really bad had to have happened to make her change. I can say that, if I were in her shoes, I probably would have reacted the same way, probably worse than what she ended up as. I feel for her, my heart breaks for her, and a part of me wonders if it really is better to be heartless or not. By the time you get to the end of the book, maybe you'll have the answer for yourself.
Rated: 5/5 ★
A mysterious island. An abandoned orphanage. A strange collection of curious photographs.A horrific family tragedy sets sixteen-year-old Jacob journeying to a remote island off the coast of Wales, where he discovers the crumbling ruins of Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children. As Jacob explores its abandoned bedrooms and hallways, it becomes clear that the children were more than just peculiar. They may have been dangerous. They may have been quarantined on a deserted island for good reason. And somehow—impossible though it seems—they may still be alive.A spine-tingling fantasy illustrated with haunting vintage photography, Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children will delight adults, teens, and anyone who relishes an adventure in the shadows.
“I used to dream about escaping my ordinary life, but my life was never ordinary. I had simply failed to notice how extraordinary it was.”
So I went into this book months after I watched the movie, so of course I already had a preconceived notion of what I thought would happen. I will say that there are quite a few differences, but that will be saved for another segment of my Books V. Movie series. But back to this book
Honestly I thought this book was one of my favorites this year. There were some things that I didn't like, for example some of Jacob's behavior. I can appreciate the fact that he didn't have friends back in Florida, and since he had a falling out with his one and only friend it would make sense that he's a little less social or more sarcastic. Don't get me wrong, the sarcasm is amazing and it actually made me laugh quite often. But there was just something about him that bothered me. He wasn't as brave as I thought he would be, and maybe I just had a lot higher expectations of him from what I wanted to see come out of him. It made it difficult for me to really feel for him, really root for him in every aspect.
Miss Peregrine was an interesting character as well. Seeing her as an old crone, one that has her own sarcasm attached to her with her demeanor and everything else that made me think of her as completely British. For some reason I just imagined her as an older and meaner Professor McGonagall (I doubt I have to say which book series she's from). But unlike the beloved Professor, this first book didn't allow me a chance to really fall in love with her character. it definitely makes me want to know more about her, and I'm hoping that I get that chance in the next two books.
The way that this book read really made me feel like this was meant to be a series. So I think with that in mind, I had to stop and think about the fact that not everything would be answered when I hit the end of the book. If anything, I had so many more questions. Like what is it about the ymbrines that makes them masters of time? How exactly do they reset the loop and do they ever get to sleep? What makes Abe and Jacob able to see the hollowgasts and the other peculiars can't? Did all peculiars come from circuses or at least spend time in one?
Just so many questions.
I hope I get my hands on the rest of the series soon, and be on the lookout for my book and movie comparison where I can write a lot more about my thoughts on the differences. Right now I can't really say much without spoiling it even more than I probably already did.
Rated: 3.5/5 ★
The first in a spellbinding contemporary fantasy trilogy, The Dreamer has been awarded a Silver for Best Fantasy/Sci-Fi from the eLit Book Awards, a Finalist Medal for Best Cover Design from The Next Generation Indie Book Awards and has appeared in globally distributed book subscription boxes such as the Sci-fi & Fantasy Book Box.
It’s night. Always night. Dreams guard against the evil forged by nightmares. Infinite shooting stars illuminate a moonless sky. A city stands alone, surrounded by a darkened field. On its fringes, a man watches one star separate from the masses and fall. What survives the crash will unveil a secret centuries long hidden.
Molly hasn’t slept well since the night of her twenty-fourth birthday. Being struck by lightning might have something to do with it, but then again, her chicken did look a little undercooked at dinner. Whatever the culprit, her life quickly catapults from mundane to insane as, night after night, Molly is transported through her once dreamless sleep to a mysterious land illuminated by shooting stars.
There she meets the captivating but frustrating Dev, and together they discover Molly possesses a power coveted by his people—the ability to conjure almost anything she desires into existence. Seduced by the possibilities of this gift, Molly shifts her attention from waking life toward the man, the magic, and the world found in her dreams.
But Molly must ask herself—does something truly exist if you only see it when you close your eyes?
Faced with the threat of losing everything—her job, best friend, boyfriend, and most importantly, that little thing called her sanity—Molly will learn just how far she’ll go to uncover what is real and what is merely a figment of her imagination.
“And then there are the dreams that feel as authentic as reality itself, that seem to exist just as your own life does. Where the emotions you experience there carry over to when you're awake. They are so real, so genuine, that you begin to question your own sanity. And you know that when the day comes that you finally stop dreaming them, you will never stop remembering.”
Sometimes dreams can seem so real that you aren't even sure whether or not you actually are dreaming. Those are the types of dreams I crave, the ones that feel so real, that are so close to being the kind of reality that I want that I couldn't imagine waking up again. But none of those dreams could ever compare to the kind that Molly has, and I still don't know whether I want to be in her shoes or not.
See, it all started when Molly was going home after celebrating her 24th birthday with her amazing attorney boyfriend Jared. Maybe it would have been better for her to play hooky that night instead of going home to work because that's when it happened. The whole getting struck by lightning and almost dying thing. Kind of puts a damper on birthday celebrations, right?
Fast-forward to her time in the hospital, while she was in her mini coma, and she ends up dreaming for the first time in her life. And for some reason she dreams about this field with a single tree, with a bunch of stars in the sky, and this mysterious guy dressed in all black. Who is this guy, and has she seen him before? Is he someone from her past that is suddenly making an appearance in her subconscious? Whoever he is, he is certainly dreamy (pun-intended).
Molly basically starts to dream about this land, which she finds out is called Terra, basically a land of dreams. She also finds out that there's so much more to her than she thought, and while she may have already been pretty sure of herself from the moment we met her, she learns that she is meant for greatness. It almost reminded me of that movie, Night at the Museum, where Theodore Roosevelt talked about greatness. Yeah, that's pretty much Molly right now.
Not to mention Dev is a book babe, and I'm so obsessed with him that I wish I could dream about him as much as Molly did. Granted, the time that Molly spent with him was 50% rolling her eyes at him and 50% wanting to take his clothes off, but I know there is so much more to this guy. I just want to know his backstory, like who was he before he became this bad ass head of military specialist that is fascinated by Molly and how human she is.
So did I like the book? Loved it. Do I want the physical book as well as the Kindle version? Absolutely. Do I want Dev to myself?
You bet your ass I do.
5 /5 ★
"I believe in ordinary acts of bravery, in the courage that drives one person to stand up for another."
The appeal of dystopian novels is the "what if" factor. What if the world ended and there were only a few humans left? What if after a hundred years of living, people began to show signs of supernatural abilities? What if the world started having competitions where children were forced to kill one another in order to have their families have food for the rest of the year? It's those kinds of questions that people crave to have answered, without actually going through it themselves. It is with the power of books and storytelling that these questions can be explored in their own universe.
So what if the remaining humans in the world decided that the best way to keep control over society was by categorizing them into five specific character traits?
This is where Divergent comes in to play, and the world that author Veronica Roth created. Each person has to choose which group they want to belong to: Abnegation, Amity, Candor, Dauntless, and Erudite. Each group is known for a specific trait: Abnegation is selfless, Amity is peaceful, Candor is honest, Dauntless is brave, and Erudite is intelligent. These groups are called Factions, and this kind of society has been working for as long as they can remember. "Faction before blood" is their mantra, for even though one can be born to a certain faction, on their sixteenth birthday they can decide whether to stay in their born faction or more on to a different one. But once they choose, they can never change their decision, or they risk being factionless, without a home or family ever again. In a city that used to be Chicago, society is functioning as well as could be expected in the wake of a decaying world.
Beatrice Prior, born into the Abnegation faction, doesn't feel quite so selfless as the rest of her family. She feels like maybe something is wrong with her for feeling this way. Why should she not be as selfless as her family when they are all Abnegation? She spends her spare moments watching the Dauntless kids, the ones who her father believes are wild animals because they frequently do daring acts that no other faction would do. Like jump on and off moving trains for example. But that's just who they are, and Dauntless are the brave after all. Beatrice turns 16 and it's finally time for her to take her aptitude test, the one that will tell her which faction she belongs to. But when the time comes and the test is finally over, she hears that her results were inconclusive, that she has an equal chance of being Abnegation, Dauntless, and Erudite. How can that be? Is she the only one that has been like this before?
And what exactly does being Divergent mean?
After finding out what she did about her, and knowing that she's not allowed to discuss her results to anyone else, she has to make a choice on where she wants to be for the rest of her life. Will she stay in Abnegation, where she already feels out of place? Or will she take a chance and become a Dauntless, following her dream of getting out there and doing something with her life? Will her family be okay with her decision? Will she be okay with it? Will this decision change her life forever?
By changing the course of her life forever, by choosing to jump on a train and become a Dauntless initiate, Beatrice transforms herself into Tris, and her new life is born. She goes through many trials, both physical and mental, in order to prove herself to be worthy of being in this faction. She goes from being the girl that was born to stay out of people's way, to being a target to those who see her as a threat. And while part of that reason may be because she's been labeled as "Divergent", it's also because Tris herself is an enigma that the rest of the world doesn't know how to handle. She is more than just brave, more than just selfless. She is everything that the society has based their world on, not just one or the other; those that want power just don't know how to keep her in check, and that's what makes her so dangerous to them.
I really enjoyed this book, and I'm glad I finally got to read it after seeing the movie when it first came out. It gave me a different perspective going into the book, and it actually made me appreciate the movie even more. I feel like Book-Tris and Movie-Tris had their differences, but I won't discuss that on this post. Look for my Book vs. Movie post for Divergent, hopefully coming out soon.
Rated: 5/5 Stars
"Even before he got electrocuted, Jason was having a rotten day."
It hasn't even been a year since the second Titan war. Percy Jackson and the rest of Camp Half-Blood did everything they could to defeat Kronos and stop the Titans from taking over the world. Despite the Gods winning this war again, not everything has been peaceful, and the demigods suffered quite a few casualties. It shook the balance of everyone at Camp Half-Blood, and things got serious even more than they were before. Their friends were dead, or badly injured, and the looming thought of another Great Prophecy over their heads meant that this wasn't over. And it definitely wasn't.
Fast forward a few weeks, and we come across three new teens that will begin their journey just like any other kid with a godly parent: being attacked by monsters.
Meet Jason, a guy with a serious case of amnesia. He doesn't even remember who he really is, only that his name is Jason and that something is terribly wrong. For some reason, everyone around him in the bus that he magically wakes up has it in their head that he's been one of their classmates for three months or so, even though Jason has no idea what they are talking about. He apparently has a girlfriend named Piper too, who may or may not have been a little heartbroken when he didn't recognize her.
Speaking of Piper, she turns out to be a pretty important character to the story too. And not just because she thought she was Jason's girlfriend either. Jason, Piper, and their comedic friend Leo all have their lives turned on their heads and are forced to find solace and refuge in a camp for demigods. What are demigods? Well, they are the children of Greek gods that decided to come down to Earth and have a little fun with the mortals. A little gross when one could have many siblings in close age, like the children of Aphrodite and Hermes for example, but still pretty cool. Piper finds out that she's the daughter of Aphrodite, and Leo is claimed by Hephaestus. But what about Jason? He has the powers of a child of Zeus, and yet for some reason that doesn't seem right to him. Even Chiron saw him and said he was supposed to be dead.
In this book, a story separated from the first epic adventure of Percy Jackson still has those drama-filled gods trying to get their children to do their dirty work for them. It wasn't enough that they had to kick ass against the Titans just a few months ago. No, now there are more dangerous and evil creatures stirring beneath the Earth, and it doesn't look like the gods will be able to win this time. What makes it even worse, is that for some reason the gods seem to possess multiple personalities, their Greek personas and their more warlike Roman counterparts. We end up finding out what happened to the other Titans while Percy and the Greek demigods were busy fighting Kronos. The others didn't just decide to retreat after that. Oh no. It was so much more complicated than that.
For those who have read the Percy Jackson series, I feel like this is a very exciting follow up. It's not really a sequel, especially if you're counting on hearing the story from Percy's perspective. Don't expect that in the first book, because you will be disappointed. But don't knock it until you try it, because from what Jason, Piper and Leo have to go through in this book alone, you can already guess that this new prophecy is going to be so much darker and so much more challenging than the first one. If you thought the Titans were bad, think again. This was the perfect first book to another exciting series, bringing Roman mythology into the mix perfectly balancing out the Greek mythology we came to love with the first series. I'm already on the edge of my seat in anticipation.
Rated: 5/5 Stars
"Anyone can betray anyone."
The world will always have a chance to rebuild itself, if there are enough people that want to make it happen. That's the beauty of living in the future, in a world that isn't tainted with the realities of our lives. Sure, it may seem like this entire story takes place in the past, but this is a whole new kind of ballgame, and it's not to be taken lightly. In this world, people are divided by the color of their blood, literally. There are the Red masses, the poor ones of the new society who have to serve the higher powered Silvers. It's like the color of their blood is what makes them special, as only the Silvers have powers that make them so much more ruthless than their Red counterparts. Only the Silvers have what it takes to take what is theirs, without risking any permanent damage to themselves. When there are monthly matches between Silvers just to see who is the strongest, and they never have to fight to the death, it's easy to see that they flaunt their power of the Reds, showing them that they are better than the rest.
So if only Silvers have special powers, then why doesn't Mare die when she falls face first into a lightning shield?
That's the question that begins Mare Barrow's journey into the world of the Silvers. Mare, born with Red blood in her veins, forced to work in the Palace after she is responsible for making her sister lose her source of income. She just so happened to start on one of the most exciting days in the Silver world: Queenstrial. This event is where the most eligible maidens have the opportunity to prove why they should be the next Queen. It's not all fashion shows and Miss Universe waving though. The Queenstrial is one of the most brutal shows of force that Mare has ever seen, and it's when one of the girls uses her immense power to tilt the stadium that all of the noble Silver families are in that Mare should have fallen to her death on the lightning shield. It was there that she discovered that she's special, maybe even more special than a Silver.
Mare is then hidden from the world in plain sight, with the royal family telling a lie for the public to believe: that she is a lost Silver Princess named Mareena, whose parents were killed in the war when she was a baby and she was living with a Red family this whole time, not knowing of her true heritage. Somehow, the public believes it, even if it seems highly unlikely. Of course, there are some that start to get suspicious of Mare, and for good reason, but for the most part Mare has to assume her new identity if she is to stay alive in enemy territory. She does everything she can to survive, and to make sure that her real family doesn't become a target of the royal family for her mistakes. It may seem like the two Princes, Cal and Maven are there to help her, and maybe they have some feelings towards her, but she just needs to make sure that she can fool the rest of the world without revealing the lie that she is living.
But, of course, joining with a group who's sole purpose is to bring the Silvers down is probably not the best way of ensuring her safety.
Mare's thoughts are prominent throughout the book, distinct with the use of italic font. I personally loved that she was so snarky, even though she was basically fighting for her life. She stayed true to herself as much as she could, and she was able to learn more about her powers and harness them to her advantage. Especially for someone who had no idea they had powers over electricity, to be able to learn how to control them in such a short amount of time is an impressive feat in and of itself. I'm proud of her for that.
Be warned though. The book doesn't have a happy ending, as is expected for books with sequels still in the making. The betrayal that Mare faces towards the end of the book is enough to make anyone want to bawl their eyes out or throw the book across the room by what happened. I was at the edge of my seat the whole time, from the Parting Ball and what happened there, to the very end of the book. I honestly can't wait until I am able to read Glass Sword, the second installment of this trilogy. I could barely put this book down!
Rated: 5/5 Stars
"There's always room for love, even if it's as small as a crack in a door."
Mermaids are the creatures of the deep, the ones that every little girl has always wanted to be. Even now, as those girls grow up, there's still some part of them that yearns for their own tail and clam shell top, exploring the depths of the ocean to parts unknown. It's a fantasy that we can only wish was real life. But, while many little girls think about being mermaids, there's another mythical creature that lives in the sea, one that is similar to the beautiful mermaids but so much deadlier to those around them. For this creature is said to lure the lives of sailors to their death by calling them to the Ocean with their beautiful voices, singing a song that has no choice but to kill those who hear it.
These creatures are Sirens, and they are so different from their mermaid counterparts.
As we have learned in this book, there are never too many sirens in the world at one time. In fact, the most number of sirens at one time is 5, for any more than that could risk exposure of their kind. In order for sirens to become what they are, the Ocean has to save them from drowning, and when that happens, they are to serve Her for 100 years. No more, no less. It is with this information that this story begins, with Kahlen making the difficult choice of becoming a siren.
Fast forward 80 years, and the story really begins.
Sirens have come and gone, with new ones coming to take the place of those whose times have already passed. Two of the three Sirens that were there when Kahlen's new life began have already left her, and her oldest friend is Aisling. Her time is almost up, it's just a matter of months now. Kahlen lives with her two other siren sisters, Elizabeth and Miaka, two party girls that live a completely different life from Kahlen, who is content with people watching around the university that they live near. It's on one of those excursions, in the library where her silence will not go noticed, that her life changes. She meets a boy, Akinli, who comes to terms with the fact that she can't talk and still manages to have a full and wonderful conversation with her anyway. Their interactions are short for the most part, especially considering that Kahlen is already 80 years into her sentence, but for some reason, she is so infatuated by him, to the point of falling in love with him. But with her being a siren, she can't afford to fall in love with a human. The Ocean wouldn't let her, or any of her daughters of the sea.
But Aisling, right before her time is up and she turns back into a human, confides a great secret in Kahlen, making everything that seemed impossible. Aisling was able to hide her love for her family, from the daughter that she left behind to her great-granddaughter who is already grown up. She was able to hide the fact that she was keeping tabs on her family the whole time she was a Siren, and one of the main rules that the Ocean said was that mothers can never be sirens because they wouldn't be able to take the lives of children away. Yet, Aisling was able to do her job with no hesitation, and it changes everything that Kahlen was brought to believe. She could love, and still do what she needed to do to serve her time. But when she accidentally speaks in front of Akinli, and he finds himself succumbing to the Ocean's power, Kahlen begs for Her to spare his life, and leaving him in the process.
This was a wonderful love story, one where it shows that even the act of kindness and friendship without expecting anything from it can lead to the most beautiful kind of love. Kahlen and Akinli couldn't communicate normally, and yet that didn't deter them from having a wonderful friendship. Akinli was the boy that Kahlen needed in her life, to show her that love does exist, even from the most unexpected source. Their love was so pure, so strong, that with them far apart from one another, they would have died together. Sirens aren't supposed to be able to die, but Kahlen almost did, and so did Akinli. With the help of the Ocean, even though She didn't want to let go of the one Siren that loved her unconditionally, helped Kahlen to get back to the life that she needed to lead, and heal her heart in a way that the Ocean could never do on Her own.
Rated: 5/5 Stars
Where all the popular books involve vampires and werewolves, it's so refreshing to find a decent book that's not about either one of these supernatural creatures. With books about angels, or fallen angels depending on how you look at it, they can either be really amazing or not so much. In this case, I found it to be quite enjoyable for the most part, and that's always a good thing for me.
We meet the main character Luce when she is being dropped off to what would basically be a boarding school for juvenile delinquents. It's so strange to me that she would be sent here because a boy she happened to be with ends up dying without anyone knowing what happened. Is this society's way of punishing her for being there, especially since they can't tie her to this boy's death in such a clear cut way? Even Luce herself doesn't know how he died, only that he died in a fire that she somehow was able to escape. That is weird enough, and it just doesn't seem like Luce even belongs in Sword & Cross. But then again, there are a lot of things that we don't know about this so-called school, so we are along for the ride just as much as Luce is.
At this strange school with a very colorful group of teenagers, we meet two boys that have already caught Luce's eye. We have Cam, the nice boy that looks like he can be a total ladies man, with his beautiful eyes and warm personality. Then we have Daniel, who upon seeing Luce for the first time decides to give her a warm welcome to Sword and Cross by giving her the middle finger. Charming, right? This kind of greeting would normally turn girls off by now, but not Luce. See, for some reason, she keeps having this strange feeling like she's seen him before, and yet she can't place it. Was it at a party or something that she went to back when she was a normal kid? Or was it something else, something that happened way further in the past that wouldn't make sense otherwise.
Looks like it's the latter.
The book goes slow for a few hundred pages, where we don't know which boy Luce is going to choose, even though it seems like the most likely option would be Cam. So far he hasn't done anything to make her feel like she's unwanted, and he's been nothing but a gentleman so far. Daniel, on the other hand, has been avoiding her at the least, rude at the most. So why is she so obsessed with him? What is it about him that makes her want to basically find out about his past and have her new friend Penn do some research on him? When a girl's crazy over a guy, she'll do better research than the FBI, right? I doubt she thought she would find out what she does end up finding out about him, not to mention the rest of the kids at this school.
This book has been known to be similar to Twilight but honestly I didn't see it. I thought it was better than it in many ways, although I will say that Luce was a little unbearable at some moments. The story behind this school is crazy to me, and how was it that so many angels could be in one location without anyone else realizing it? What are they doing there and is it really just because of Luce? And if she was always stuck in the same cycle of living for seventeen years and dying every single time she would be close to learning the truth, does the fact that she was never baptized in this life really change everything? Is the idea that she wasn't raised in a religious household end up saving her from having to die again and again, or was it better to continue to live forever without knowing any better? A part of me wants to read the rest of the books and know more, and another part just wants the answers given to me. Either way, it was a pretty good book and it was nice to read about angels for once.
Rated: 4/5 Stars
"For the first time in her life, she didn't look like royalty. She looked fierce, edgy, and troublesome. A merl not to be messed with. And she liked it."
The ocean has always been one of Earth's greatest mysteries. After all these years, not even half of the oceans have been discovered, the dark depths teaming with creatures that remain nameless. Who's to say that there aren't kingdoms under the sea, filled with mermaids and mermen? In this case, there are, and Serafina is the future Queen of her very own Queendom named Miromara. We first meet her getting ready for her coronation where she has to pass three specific tests before she can be crowned the next Queen of Miromara. Everything seems to be mostly going well until Serafina's life turns upside down, and her queendom was attacked. In one fell swoop, Sera lost everything, and to this point the fate of her mother is still unknown, making Sera want to give up hope completely.
The attack on Miromara wasn't what it seemed, and while Sera and her best friend Neela was able to escape capture from their attackers, they find out that the humans are behind it all, and that their main goal is to release an ancient evil in order to destroy the world. Not only is this evil going to destroy their homes, but Sera, Neela, and four other girls are part of an ancient prophecy that has foretold that they are the only ones that can stop it from happening, as each of the six girls are direct descendants of the founding members of Atlantis. Yes, that's right. This goes all the way back to Atlantis, and what really made the treasured city sink to the depths of the ocean. These six are the most powerful mermaids in the world thanks to their ancestors, and somehow they are going to have to come together in order to save everyone, even if it means putting aside their differences.
This book was honestly one of the best books I have read this year so far. I've said it before and I will say it again. I have not come across many mermaid books that have caught my attention, and I'm so glad that I found this one. It may have been the cover that made me pick it up initially, but after reading the synopsis, I had to buy it. I love mermaids, and I've always wanted to be one, so this one was such a wonderful addition to the mythology. Each of the six girls has their own personalities that make them one to root for, and while we still have a lot to learn about the rest of them, it's a journey that I look forward to hearing about. Each of the girls come from a different realm within the world, and the diversity in and of itself is very interesting to me. One of the girls is even blind, and yet she is able to function as well as any of the others, something that is so important for me. They don't show her disability as a weakness, or something that needs special attention in order for her to do her daily tasks. In fact, her blindness is an important part of the prophecy.
I can't wait to finish the rest of the series, and I really hope that the rest of the books delve deeper into the rest of the girls.
Rated: 5/5 Stars
I received this book in exchange for an honest review, through the GoodReads group "YA Buddy Readers' Corner".
"The last week had made her realize something more important than her feelings for him: her true self. She wouldn't die without him; she would miss him, sure, but it wouldn't change who she had become."
In an attempt to change her life, Rebecca transforms herself into a new girl, an alter ego named Caden, in order to escape the abuse that she suffered from her ex boyfriend Sean. In the aftermath of yet another altercation with Sean, Caden finds herself stranded in the middle of a bridge, contemplating on whether she should jump or not. Yes, it reached an all-time low for her at that moment, and if she had ended up jumping, everything that happened in this book would have never taken place. Is that a good or a bad thing, it's yet to be said, but the main thing for sure is that Caden's life will never be the same.
When Caden decides that ending her life is not worth it, no matter what Sean did to her, she ends up getting a ride from the mysterious Gabriel, a sarcastic, ill-tempered teenager who decides to end up helping her out with a place to stay for the night. It feels like she may have overstayed her welcome, and even though she has nowhere else to go, she tries to figure out a way to convince Gabriel to take her in. All of a sudden, she wakes up to the strangest noise in the night, and finds someone completely different in the house. He claims that his name is Tom, and his personality is almost one of a child. The longer she stays in that house, the more she comes to realize that not is all as it seems, and that maybe Gabriel and Tom are actually the same person. But which one does she love more? And if they are the same person, will she do whatever it takes to make sure she gets only one of them in her life, even if it means getting rid of the other one?
This book was an interesting one for me, and while I believed that it had a supernatural element prior to reading it, going through it made me realize that not everything has an unnatural explanation. Gabriel and Tom are a prime example of Dissociative Personality Disorder, and it was interesting to see how the author would explain it in the book. Rather than making it seem like it was a disease that made people crazy, Fairfall has Caden do her research in order to understand what's happening with Gabriel. What I didn't like about the book was what Caden did to Tom, showing how selfish she is when it comes to what she wants. She may have been abused by Sean and almost killed by him, but what she did to Tom was completely out of line. She made promises to both Gabriel and Tom and yet she couldn't follow through. The ending of the book really does set up the next book, and I'm really hoping that the second book comes out soon, even if it's just to see what ends up happening once and for all.
Rated: 4/5 Stars
I received this book in exchange for an honest review, through the GoodReads group "YA Buddy Readers' Corner".
"Each time she had kissed her husband, she had hoped the sensation would vanish, and each time, she was disappointed. But how, after all that time and after all the love they had shared, could it still not be true love?"
Evil isn't born. It's made. Or so that's what seems to be the case in this story. Whether the circumstances surrounding the subject in question makes them turn evil, or the potential to become evil buried deep inside them is uncertain. Can it be a combination of both? Can the mere fact of having a less than desirable upbringing, and the desire to get what you want no matter what the costs lead you to do unspeakable things? Can it truly make you evil? In The Sea Witch, I would say it's a combination of both.
When we first meet Serena, she is such an innocent girl. Well, she's not the kind of woman that her mother is, and we can clearly see that she wants nothing to do with the magic that she was born with, the magic that her mother wants her to give in to. All she wants is for Prince Triton to actually notice her, and maybe even talk to her long enough to fall in love with her. It may be a girl's simple dream, but it's something that she wants more than anything, even if it means taking down whatever stands in her way.
It wasn't until Triton's mom, the Queen Amphitrite insults her heritage and her social standing is just the push Serena needed to start on the long and tiring journey to get what she wanted. It was also the moment that she realized that the royal family would never see her as anything but a maid and the daughter of a sea witch, in essence judging her on something that she has no control over. Of course, this was wrong of the Queen to be so cruel and heartless, but her fate wasn't what she deserved. Even the King's fate was something that could have been avoided if they just stopped judging people.
Thus the story continues until one day, even after Triton and Serena are living "happily every after", their whole world is shattered with the arrival of a beautiful mermaid named Athena, the one woman who ends up being Triton's true love. By that time, no good can come from this story, and the ending of this insight to the life of a notorious sea witch is one that we know all too well.
I really enjoyed this book, and I liked that we got to have a little background into the life of a villain that we all know and love to hate. It's a very refreshing story that, even though it doesn't have a happy ending, isn't just a retelling on what we already know. It falls in line with the likes of Maleficent, where we find out what makes them turn bad, or if they are even really bad in the first place. I do feel like Serena ended up going over to the dark side, and it didn't help that her mother was key in helping her turn evil, but she shouldn't have done a lot of the things she did. Triton handled the situation in a way that I wouldn't have suspected, but it shows how much he's actually matured from the time we first meet him to the end of the book. Serena's story is actually pretty heartbreaking, and I can see why she would want revenge. There were some moments where the timeline kept jumping back and forth and it would get confusing for me, but that didn't happen all the time. I was still able to understand the bigger picture. All in all, I thought this was a very good first book to the series, and I can't wait to see what other villains we have in store.
Rated: 4/5 Stars
"Most importantly, you make the choice of songs you sing within the case. With your mind and gifts, it can be an exquisite litany. Sing of us. Sing of yourself. Sing of what treasure lies inside women's hearts and minds if men but look beyond their preconceived notions. We think, we feel, we bleed when hurt. We have courage when tested. Someday men may laud rather than fear that. That is my hope.
So sing, Ginevra. Make them listen."
Italy. 1400s. Renaissance. This is a time where artists are trying to find their muse, and bring the beauty of their subject to life, whether it's through a painting or through a sculpture. This is the time of Donatello, Leonardo Da Vinci, and all the other greats that history has come to know about. It is in this setting, so far into the past, that history comes to life, in the eyes of one particular girl in Italian history. Her name is Ginevra de' Benci, and this is her story.
One of the things that stands out a lot about Ginevra is her lack of fear when it comes to speaking her mind. This is clearly shown during the first chapter, while she and her friend Simonetta are watching the jousting competition. She hears some men in the audience speaking ill of her brother, calling him names and basically saying that he is a fool for spending so much money on a particular horse. She has no problem standing up to them, using her wit to give those men a run for their money. They didn't even realize that they were insulting her brother until she spoke up. More examples of her assertive demeanor is prominent throughout the book, and it's what makes her so easy to root for.
As a woman living in Italy during the 1400s, we see how women are treated back then if they are considered beautiful enough to win the Platonic heart of a man in high power. Simonetta was the Platonic love of one of the Medici sons, and Ginevra became the Platonic love of Ambassador Bembo. We also see that the fact that Ginevra is a poet is rare in and of itself, since there are very few - if any at all - female poets during this time period. In fact, it is one of her poems that catches the eye of Ambassador Bembo to her in the first place, although it is revealed later on in the novel that that may not have been the case. Her poems are deep, reaching into the very depths of human soul, and because she is a woman, she is sometimes afraid to show her talent to those in power. It's with the help of her Mother Superior, Mother Scolastica, that helps her to "sing" of her talents, so that other women can be seen as more than just their beauty.
I may not be an expert in Italian Renaissance history, but I was really impressed with the attention to detail that went into this book. The author even sited all of her sources in the end of the book, as if this were a college historical essay rather than a Young Adult fictional story. It made the story seem that much more real, as if it were an autobiography I was reading rather than a work of art. That was part of the appeal to me, and I'm very glad that the author decided to write the book this way. Ginevra was a force to be reckoned with, and with the help of Leonardo Da Vinci, she became a legend that we can still see to this very day. She was a mountain tiger, and that's what she will be remembered as.
Rated: 4/5 Stars
"I'd done something everybody had told me I couldn't. I'd changed my life all by myself. Having a fairy godmother would have ruined everything." - Ella Brown
Everyone knows the story about Cinderella. She was a beautiful orphan in the care of her wicked stepmother and stepsisters, and her fairy godmother helped her get ready for the Prince's ball. There she winds up meeting the Prince, they fall in love after dancing the night away, only to have her run back home when the clock strikes midnight. He eventually finds her by having every single single girl in his kingdom try on the glass slipper his mystery girl lost the night of the ball, and then they live "happily ever after." That's the way the story ends, or so we thought.
Unfortunately for our main girl Ella, she did not live happily ever after at all, and her Prince Charming was anything but. The story takes place months before the wedding, and Ella is forced to learn how to become more of a lady. Of course it's going to be a challenge, especially growing up having to become a slave to her stepmother after her father died. In this world, there is war, refugees, and the only happily ever after is in the outlandish rumors going around the castle about Ella's background. No, she did not have a fairy godmother to help her get to the ball and woo the Prince, but the entire palace sure believes that story. She made her own dress, used her cleverness to obtain glass slippers, and got to the ball by walking part most of the way to the castle. She changed her own fate, and the fact that everyone didn't know the truth about what happened, and chose to believe a fairy tale rather than find out the reality of the situation stung even more.
Ella is a very strong feminist, and in this book it shows why that concept is important. We see Ella getting everything about being a princess wrong, and that's not because she isn't trying. It's really because, in this kingdom, being a princess involves not being able to have an original thought, or even know the truth about what's happening around the little bubble they forced her into. The Prince turns out to be extremely boring and one dimensional, unable to hold an actual conversation with Ella during their chaperoned meetings. She finds him dull, and realizes that she fell in love with the idea of him on the night of the ball, so long ago to her. She didn't fall in love with the prince himself, and she had to figure out a way to get out of such a loveless and destructive marriage.
In the end she figures out a way to escape, even though she was forced into the castle's dungeon for a period of time. Speaking out against the marriage, and showing that she was not the dainty little girl the palace wanted her to be was what got her into trouble, but that didn't stop her from removing herself from a dangerous situation, one that made her feel threatened and uncomfortable. She ran, all the way to the edge of the kingdom where the refugees of the war were staying, and she made herself into a woman of knowledge and skill. It was hard work, maybe even harder than what she had to go through growing up, but she loved it. She excelled at it, and it fulfilled her life in ways that she didn't even dream of. She made her own destiny into one that she could have never had if she went through with her marriage to the prince, and even though she could probably never go back to that part of the kingdom, she was better off for it.
I felt like this book was pretty interesting, even though it was short to me and ended somewhat abruptly. It really changes the preconception of the Cinderella story, the one that little girls are used to seeing from Disney. There is so much more to this book than what Disney showed us, and in its own little way, they flip the well known story on its head and change the way we see Cinderella. She changes from this girl who had a fairy godmother and talking mice helping her to become a princess to an assertive, no-nonsense teenager that would rather watch a jousting tournament than be inside stitching a new dress. This is a good introduction into the world of female protagonists who just don't like being told what to do, and I feel she has the potential to join the ranks of my favorites, like Rose Hathaway and Hermione Granger. Not bad company to keep.
Rated: 4/5 Stars
"Because if I am the last one, then I am humanity. And if this is humanity's last war, then I am the battlefield." - Cassie Sullivan
Remember watching all of those movies about alien invasions, and somehow the humans find a way to pull together and kick their sorry asses back to where they came from? Yeah, that's a load of crap. If aliens really did come down to Earth and invade us, we would lose. Terribly. Most of us would die before the aliens finally won. And we would have no way to fight against them. The aliens would destroy us before we ever found a way to take back our planet, and by that time it would be too late.
The world would be theirs.
It started back in 1995, or even earlier. We don't know it for sure. All we know is that in 1995, the first phase of their invasion happened. It was "the intrusion", where they inserted themselves into the minds of fetuses, unbeknownst to the mother carrying them. This step, this one step that seemed so strange, so minuscule, only to be mentioned in the prologue and never again, was what turned the tide for the Others. This tiny step in their plan was what made them different all the other aliens we read about or watched about. The ones that inhabited our fantasies never thought to insert themselves into our world years earlier, to have sleepers in some very important positions in the government. They even had sleepers in normal people, those who would be least expected to turn on their families when the time came. Apparently, that's all it took to destroy humanity as we know it.
We are taken into a post-apocalyptic world where over 97% of the world's population has been killed. The alien invasion took place in "waves", as we are told from Cassie Sullivan. Each wave was deadlier than the last, and now what's left of humanity is waiting for the 5th wave to happen. They know this can't be it. They know that the Others aren't done with them yet. They just don't know what's coming. We follow the lives of Cassie Sullivan, Ben Parrish, and Evan Walker: three very different people all trying to survive in this world. They all have that one thing that was keeping them alive, and they have to hold on to it with all of their strength and will.
This book was breathtaking. I usually don't enjoy a book when the narrators switch back and forth, but this time I really appreciated it. It actually makes it better to understand, especially since our characters aren't omniscient. It feels like mostly everything gets explained in this book, although there are two more books before the story is completely over. I really rooted for Cassie to find her little brother, especially after finding out how they got separated in the first place. She mentioned how much this attack on the world made her lose her trust in everyone, feeling like the only way to survive is to be alone. It seemed to be working for her until she's almost killed by an Other, and then she had to learn how to trust the guy who saved her life.
I wrote about Cassie a lot because she is my favorite character. I feel like she has so much more to go through before she can really trust again, but she's getting there as much as she can. She finally found her brother, and although he has been through so much more heartbreak and struggle than any normal five year old should, he still looks up to his big sister the way he always will. This book is so much more than a girl trying to save her brother from the Others, and it's so much more than your typical alien invasion book. This is a story about family, survival, finding yourself, and maintaining your humanity no matter what.
Rated: 5/5 Stars
