Red Queen (Victoria Aveyard, #1)

In a world of fantasy, there are people split into two categories, those with silver blood blessed with extraordinary powers and those with red blood living an unfortunate lives to serve the army that keeps losing and to work endlessly. Mare Barrow is almost eighteen and the only work she found was theft, by the time she turns eighteen and she doesn't have work, she will be sent to war with the rest of her brothers. When she comes across a stranger and tries to steal from him, later finding herself work at the Silver Palace because of him. She discovers she's something more between those glass walls, she's got powers too and she's willing to use them if it means fixing the world. This may be more of a story about revenge and breaking the system, rather than a romance story. She's torn between the brother she has to marry, Maven, the shadow to his older brother, and Cal, the leader and warrior. 

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I give 

★★★★✩

The reason for it was mainly how it was written. Or perhaps the lack of chemistry between Mare and every possible guy she could have a relationship with. Kilorn, Cal and Maven. Though, I found it difficult to root for any relationship, I think the character made it easier for me to despise Cal and love Maven or Kilorn more. Even so, with the awful/amazing plot twist, I love, love, love the devil!

I think I might've seen everything coming. It's never good when someone is too perfect, that's for sure. 

Will I recommend this to anyone? Yes. I have a feeling the second book is a lot better. 

There was so much I liked about this book so i'm just going to go ahead and make a list. WE all love lists!

Things I loved!

1. She's a strong protagonist with a huge heart. She's got the powers of Silver people but is a Red blooded person in the heart and mind. 

2. She has no idea how to be the prince's fiance. She's got no Silver manners and has no idea how to act like a royal woman. 

3. Her powers consist of creating electricity. If that's not badass, I don't know what is. Fire would've been too much of a cliche, mostly because I play dota and Lina exists. 

4. We don't know who she'll end up with. There's the shadow boy, whom we want her to be with because he didn't have it all like Cal did. Not his father's attention, nor the women's. He's good with words but terrible in action. Can't say the same for Cal, whom we all find attractive because he's the alpha. So really, who is it going to be?! And then there's Kilorn. I like him, he's stubborn and not regal. And his character development is grand compared to the beginning. 

5. She gets have a cool bodyguard. I adore Lucas, and I wish it didn't have to end that way with him.

6. Not everybody in this book really dies, so what am I to expect in the next book!? hint Shade hint

7. I expected one of the brothers to betray the king, I never thought it wouldn't be Cal.

8. There are others like her! Whaaa- I can't wait to see what powers everyone else has. 

9. There's so much p

retending and she's so bad at it, it's pretty amusing and worrying because any moment, she could be making a wrong move to expose herself. It's pretty great.

10. The cameras she always felt, were they Maven's all along?!

11. The whole idea of her preferring the brother she's not supposed to marry is just overwhelming and beautiful. 

12. The whole betrayal theme going on is pretty great too. What goes around come back around. She wants to betray Cal for them rebels, instead she gets betrayed by the person she least expected. The moment of realization was unbelievable, simply mind-blowing.

Things I disliked. 

1. Does Evangeline really believe her powers were "tricks"? 

2. She gives up too easily. But then again she never signed up for this, and who said joining those rebels was going to be easy?!

3. I couldn't love Maven until he turned evil. 

4. Am I ever going to like Cal? I know I did at first, I don't know what stopped. Oh, right, he kisses his brother's fiance. That just ... yeah.

5. The king's death is too fast. 

The Book of Ivy by Amy Engel

Goodreads synopsis 

After a brutal nuclear war, the United States was left decimated. A small group of survivors eventually banded together, but only after more conflict over which family would govern the new nation. The Westfalls lost. Fifty years later, peace and control are maintained by marrying the daughters of the losing side to the sons of the winning group in a yearly ritual. 

This year, it is my turn. 

My name is Ivy Westfall, and my mission is simple: to kill the president’s son—my soon-to-be husband—and restore the Westfall family to power. 

But Bishop Lattimer is either a very skilled actor or he’s not the cruel, heartless boy my family warned me to expect. He might even be the one person in this world who truly understands me. But there is no escape from my fate. I am the only one who can restore the Westfall legacy.

Because Bishop must die. And I must be the one to kill him…

Review

I give  ★★★★★

Let me just say, this was an amazing book. 

A lot of comments are just running around my mind right now but let me just say:

Ivy is such a great protagonist, she's just like arghh I don't know how to put it into words!

 “I want to be someone strong and brave enough to make hard choices. But I want to be fair and loving enough to make the right ones.”

Okay, so something happened to her mom. Her sister, her dad and herself, Ivy, have a plan in motion: to marry the president's son and kill him. Kill the boy, no matter what for her dad to take over because the president's rules discourage freedom, and more importantly, punishment means throwing civilians over the fence. What happens over the fence? We don't know. We know it's dangerous but nobody who went there ever came back. THIS I LIKE.

She was raised for this, she was raised and trained to kill Bishop, the man she has to marry, or rather "boy" because he's only... what? 18? Despite the fact that he seems a lot mature. But the person who was supposed to marry him was her sister, which makes it even greater. I love the fact that it's not all happy family, bla bla it's family first bla bla, the kind of stuff you see everywhere. It was more of a "I should listen to my guts and not my family," sort of thing. I liked that even though she was doubting the whole plan, she still went through the steps, like she found no reason to stop. She explained each step, and us, the readers, understand what she had to do, but what we understood most were her doubts. She questioned his character throughout the whole book, and never quite let her guard down. But he is not like his dad!! 

Bishop is such a nice, intelligent character. Okay "nice" doesn't say much, but he's so nice, like person-wise, like doing the right thing and all that. But then with the neighbors, he didn't take direct action to "fix" the problem (trying so hard not to spoil) and they get into these arguments which just fires up their relationship and makes them so "couple-like" and I think this book is too great and it finished too fast.   

What I liked about the beginning was that it got straight to the point. That marriage. And the ending was just too much for me to handle, but I love love love cliffhangers that just overwhelm me. This book has a good cliffhanger, I'm telling you, it's perfect.

Okay okay, enough with the goody goody, I'll admit this book lacks a bit of chemistry between them but for people who have just met, the slow pace is the right pace. 

It's a shame I finished this book so fast, my eyes could not leave the pages. There's a lot but too little on Ivy and Bishop's relationship. The author set this idea in our head that Bishop had to die so the good guys win. We anticipated that Ivy wouldn't go through with it, yet this book, as predictable as it seemed, still managed to surprise me. 

We got the fact that he was a good guy, but we knew so little, Ivy knew so little. Bishop kept leaving and sort of just disappearing. His intentions were mysterious, and we don't even know how much the guy knows or if he was surprised or suspicious about Ivy towards the end.  

SPOILER ALERT!

What Ivy wasn't trained to do was pretend she was happy with him, or the least affectionate and that was a problem we witnessed she was struggling with due to the lack of warmth and tenderness coming from her sister and father. Especially the father, since he seemed to be the most important figure she looked up to. She was trained to stay loyal to their plan however her own instincts became an obstacle as predicted, what surprised me was the fact that her family didn't show any signs of attempting to save her in the end, even if she could've easily betrayed them in a worst possible way. Despite the fact that they were the one who manipulated her into going through the plan blindly with missing facts about what had really happened with her mother. 

I found the reasons behind her father's takeover rather foolish, when the king had absolute no control over what happened.  

Ivy is a loyal, determined, and impulsive protagonist, definitely the right characteristics for her role in this dystopian world of conflict. Which might make Bishop the antagonist, who is reserved, calculated and definitely patient. 

The world they lived in lacked the details we needed to imagine, but it the small bits we got on how the houses looked and the fence were enough to provide us with information that would help create their world. It was simple, and I suppose the focus was more on the characters rather than the world they lived in.

I understood Ivy's reasons for doubting the plan and for making the decisions she made. It felt like her reaction to everything was carefully expressed and she's a wise protagonist. I was really happy with everything. I was pained to see how Bishop kept thinking she was better than that, even when she showed him no reason to believe she was otherwise. She held her emotions carefully despite how painful it was. No character deserves to pick who to betray, and even though her actions may have made it seem like she was betraying Bishop, I wouldn't have thought of a better decision. More importantly, there's a whole new thing To look forward to, it's not just a moment, but a whole new world. I am beyond excited for the next book!

This series has so much hope.

Throne Of Glass (Throne of Glass series #1 by Sarah J. Maas)

In the dark, filthy salt mines of Endovier, an eighteen-year old girl is serving a life sentence. She is a trained assassin, the best of her kind, but she made a fatal mistake. She got caught.

Young Captain Westfall offers her a deal: her freedom in return for one huge sacrifice. Celaena must represent the prince in a to-the-death tournament - fighting the most gifted thieves and assassins in the land. Live or die, Celaena will be free. Win or lose, she is about to discover her true destiny. 

But will her assassin's heart be melted?

Review

I give  ★★★★★

Third-person perspective is extremely different.  I still get into the mind of the character, but her thoughts don't matter as much as her actions. Also knowing what the other people think is so different. 

This novel starts out when they take her, so we don't get much insight into what she does at the mines, just when she talks about it with the Prince or Chaol, Captain Westfall. There is a love triangle going on, I knew it as soon as both guys were introduced. Now it only depends on who she'll end up with. The "Shatter Me" had an unpredictable ending, so I can only hope that who I choose as my final favourite  will remain Celaena's lets say "lover".

She has such a strong character, I fell in love with her personality as soon as one could. She is not thoughtless or even stupid. She considers all of her enemies and I think she has a good sense of judgement when it comes to those around her. She thinks of what benefits her, and her only, but then she has these small acts, or well excessive acts of selflessness, like saving Mr. Thief and  telling him to leave because he was in danger. And she likes books! So little characters in novels are actively enjoying their hobbies. 

“No. I can survive well enough on my own— if given the proper reading material.”

But she does, and the piano playing. It is great, however I wish I was given more information  on her past "lover", which would be so unusual for an assassin to have. 

I was a bit conflicted about the fact that she fell for the Prince, or at least liked him in that way, maybe or maybe not it was for her own benefit but for an assassin, assuming she kills without blinking an eye, her heart is all over the place. Or at least that is how it seems. 

"Say my name, Say, 'Very well, Dorian'."

She rolled her eyes. "If it pleases Your Magnanimous Holiness, I shall call you by your first name."

This book made me smile more than I can remember. It has these little moments that just warm my heart from visible acts of humanity, or how she is in fact still young for all of this. 

Chaol is such an uptight person. There are rarely any non-serious moments with him, but even those serious, he just, he just, I don't know I have high hopes for him but my head is stretched between both of them, Chaol and Dorian. I like Chaol because he seems mysterious, and stronger than Dorian, who just gives his heart away without even hesitating, and he seems so oblivious sometimes, it makes me wonder if he actually cares about what is happening in the world, and if he does why not show that?

A Chaol momento:

“How long was I asleep?" she whispered. He didn't respond. 
"How long was I asleep?" she asked again, and noticed a hint of red in his cheeks. 
"You were asleep, too?" 
"Until you began drooling on my shoulder.”

Ok, Nehemia. These names confused me completely. I was convinced Nehemia was the same character as Kaltain. So I was basically against Nehemia halfway through the book. What is up with these names? I could not even remember most and then Nehemia gives Celaena another name for the sake of their friendship? Elentiya, like I'm going to remember that by the time I start the next book. 

Despite the names, I've enjoyed this book and it is why I think it deserves 5 stars, I would not give less. Never, Let the next books not disappoint me. 

Unravel Me (Shatter Me series #2 By Tahere Mafi)

Juliette has escaped to Omega Point. It is a place for people like her—people with gifts—and it is also the headquarters of the rebel resistance.

She's finally free from The Reestablishment, free from their plan to use her as a weapon, and free to love Adam. But Juliette will never be free from her lethal touch.

Or from Warner, who wants Juliette more than she ever thought possible.

In this exhilarating sequel to Shatter Me, Juliette has to make life-changing decisions between what she wants and what she thinks is right. Decisions that might involve choosing between her heart—and Adam's life.

Review

I give  ★★★★★

I wasn't sure where this book was going, with the underground people and all that. All Juliette ever did was feel sorry for herself

"I'm a monster."

Oh don't touch me.

"Adam are you ok? Did I kill you?

"I could've killed you, I could've killed you, Adam-"

ENOUGH!

Gosh, halfway through this book this woman won't stop feeling sorry for herself, so what if he dies? It's not her fault. None of this is!

And all of this stops as soon as Kenji finally says: 

"You have to live with it, just like the rest of us." 

"You and Kent need to sort out your drama ASAP."

And I think this guy saved Juliette from all the imaginary slaps I would have given her if she felt sorry for herself one more time.

Juliette also catches a glimpse of Warner's humanity at the beginning of the book. I had to read "Destroy Me", a novella on Warner's point of view to see what he'd been doing for the first 100 pages of "Unravel Me".

I loved so much about this book, especially that Juliette improved so much and developed into this new person, with courage. It was a slow improvement, and I suppose I didn't see her greatest potential here but her character was different. She got up and she faced her abilities. She ends her relationship with Adam as an act of protection, and I suppose without being in a relationship with him, she is more able to be independent. Especially when she faces Warner's father, that was so great. 

All I know is that my hand is around Anderson's throat and I've pinned him to the wall, so overcome by a blind, burning, all-consuming rage that I think my brain has already caught on fire and dissolved into ash. 

I squeeze a little harder

He's sputtering. He's gasping. He's trying to get at my arms, clawing limp hands at my body and he's turning red and blue and purple and I'm enjoying it. I'm enjoying it so, so much. 

I think I'm smiling.

This is the real juliette we all want, and a glimpse of her is what we get to see in this book. I loved this scene, mostly because it all took me by surprise and I would not stop reading, I was a machine with no stop button and it was beautiful. 

And then my favourite parts come along, where Juliette needs to visit Warner for information until those visits just sort of become a necessity. I loved those short moments. I knew it would be the beginning of something more between them. 

"He hasn't moved an inch since I stepped into this room. He's resting on his side, his back to the wall, his left arm tucked under his face, his right arm against his torso, his entire body perfect bare, strong, smooth, and smelling faintly of soap. I don't know why I can't stop staring at him." 

This is so sweet, she's finally discovered that she's physically attracted to him! Ah. Finally. 

I suppose this book is more about the development of her relationship with Warner, and it could not have made me happier. It was such a great book, with tiny little events that complete the entire story. 

Kenji is another favourite character. He's just so down to earth, honest and funny. He definitely makes things a lot easier for Juliette, and I would give him so much credit for his friendship and advice. He's made me laugh countless times and I don't know if this book would have been the same without him.

"I mean, I just have to say-the last line? 'I wish I could love you less'? That was genius.Really, really nice. I think Winston actually shed a tear-" 

DIED.

This book is about choosing between Adam and Warner, I only hope that your choice is as good as mine. And the next one is better.

Shatter Me (#1 By Tehereh Mafi)

I am a monster

I'm more than human

My touch is lethal

My touch is power

I am their weapon

I will fight back

Juliette hasn’t touched anyone in exactly 264 days.

The last time she did, it was an accident, but The Reestablishment locked her up for murder. No one knows why Juliette’s touch is fatal. As long as she doesn’t hurt anyone else, no one really cares. The world is too busy crumbling to pieces to pay attention to a 17-year-old girl. Diseases are destroying the population, food is hard to find, birds don’t fly anymore, and the clouds are the wrong color.

The Reestablishment said their way was the only way to fix things, so they threw Juliette in a cell. Now so many people are dead that the survivors are whispering war – and The Reestablishment has changed its mind. Maybe Juliette is more than a tortured soul stuffed into a poisonous body. Maybe she’s exactly what they need right now.

Juliette has to make a choice: Be a weapon. Or be a warrior.

Review

I give ★★★★☆

Even though it was more of a 3.5/5 stars, I think this book deserves 4/5 stars because I am not completely against it. I will continue the series and I will read the next few books. 

I was drawn by the beginning. it was so suspenseful and strange at one point, almost like listening to water drops in a quiet empty echo-y room. This is what the first few chapters were to me, until beautiful Adam was introduced and then it just got awkward, which I liked, I wanted to see where this book was going and so I read. 

I recommend no breaks. 

As I have stopped for a few days from reading the book, the idea of getting back and reading was a big no-thank-you-maybe-later. 

Juliette is such a different character, she thinks of herself as the monster, the villain of her story and the only to harm others. I think the fact that abilities are introduced in the book is beyond what I have read. Her personality seems complicated and lost and I hope to learn and find out more of her struggles in the next few days. 

Adam is a whole different story. It feels like he's this super-in-love-kid which is nice, but annoying. I was hoping he'd stick to being an ass just like the beginning when he was first introduced. It made Juliette's story more interesting. Perhaps if he was paid by someone else to get her out of Warner's walls and then falling for her, maybe that would've been better. Someone should write a fan-fiction of this book.. 

I immediately got attached to Warner, despite his odd name, the controlling-bossy-young-jerk. Yep, definitely the right description of what Juliette needs, even though Adam kind of balances out the monster she thinks she is with his kindness and such. I hate that she is Warner's weakness, that he directly falls for her words and actions. He's no idiot, so why does he act like one? Hopelessly in love with her is not the answer I want.  

Don't stop reading this book!

And

Don't stop with this book!

I believe Unravel Me will be better.

Beautiful Disaster By Jamie McGuire

The new Abby Abernathy is a good girl. She doesn’t drink or swear, and she has the appropriate number of cardigans in her wardrobe. Abby believes she has enough distance from the darkness of her past, but when she arrives at college with her best friend, her path to a new beginning is quickly challenged by Eastern University's Walking One-Night Stand. 

Travis Maddox, lean, cut, and covered in tattoos, is exactly what Abby needs—and wants—to avoid. He spends his nights winning money in a floating fight ring, and his days as the ultimate college campus charmer. Intrigued by Abby’s resistance to his appeal, Travis tricks her into his daily life with a simple bet. If he loses, he must remain abstinent for a month. If Abby loses, she must live in Travis’s apartment for the same amount of time. Either way, Travis has no idea that he has met his match

Review

I give ★★★★★

Beautiful Disaster was a test to see how fit I was to read something a little closer to Adult-y stuff, even though it wasn't even close to warming up to Fifty Shades of Grey, I thought it might've gotten me one step closer to that Romance Genre. It was adventurous throughout the beginning to the end. Despite my irritation at times, I was unable to take breaks, the book had me hooked at all times, and the hardest thing to do was have a life when reading it, honestly.

The tension, sarcasm, the hate and love it was all there, everything I like about a beginning to end relationship in a book was there. Not to mention that it contained this idea of no third wheels when both Abby and America were in a relationship and hung out at their boyfriend's apartment. Thats just absolutely cool. I am also a fan of bets, I tend to lose them quite frequently but the whole idea, it was all there, in this book and it was awesome. 

“After climbing off his bike, I smacked his shoulder. “Did you forget I was with you? Are you trying to get me killed?”

“It’s hard to forget you’re behind me when your thighs are squeezing the life out of me.” A smirk came with his next thought. “I couldn’t think of a better way to die, actually.”

“There is something very wrong with you.” 

OH OH ,the jealous act. Yes. I love that too. 

"I let you have your say. My patience has run out." Parker tried to look at me, but Travis leaned in his way. "Don't fucking look at her. Look at me, you spoiled shit stain." Parker focused on Travis's eyes and waited. "If you so much as breathe in her direction, I'll make sure you'll be limping through med school."

“The anger subsided, and my shoulders fell. “I know you didn’t. But you have got to curb this overprotective big-brother thing you’ve got going on.”

Travis laughed once. “I’m not playing the big brother, Pigeon. Not even close.” 

Okay, so I may have mentioned if not, I'm mentioning it now. I am still in Disney world, meaning a make out scene may still make me flinch, so this was all new to me. All of it.