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. 

Fifty Shades Of Grey (By EL James, #1)

When literature student Anastasia Steele goes to interview young entrepreneur Christian Grey, she encounters a man who is beautiful, brilliant, and intimidating. The unworldly, innocent Ana is startled to realize she wants this man and, despite his enigmatic reserve, finds she is desperate to get close to him. Unable to resist Ana’s quiet beauty, wit, and independent spirit, Grey admits he wants her, too—but on his own terms.

 

Shocked yet thrilled by Grey’s singular erotic tastes, Ana hesitates. For all the trappings of success—his multinational businesses, his vast wealth, his loving family—Grey is a man tormented by demons and consumed by the need to control. When the couple embarks on a daring, passionately physical affair, Ana discovers Christian Grey’s secrets and explores her own dark desires.

Review

I give ★★★★★

I would have given less. Why did I not? 

Ana's story began from the very beginning, straight to the point, straightforward all the way. I didn't like a lot about this book, but I don't exactly rate unfairly. Obviously, it's all my opinion. This is my first '"erotica" book to ever read and finish, and I found some scenes, okay, most scenes disturbing; that doesn't mean it wasn't written properly. It captured my attention and I wanted to read more to see where her relationship with this mysterious guy was going. I liked the fact that it kept me going. I was curious to know more about him, because she's just so simple compared to him. It balances out their characters. They complete each other. After a while of reading constant sex scenes, it got less weird. It was still all strange but I didn't close the book and gave up. 

The voice of Ana sounded extremely childish at times, and I liked that because she's young and inexperienced and small things matter so  much, like her fear, excitement, nervousness; it all created a realistic feeling of being inside a young girl's head. Especially that inner Goddess of hers with those pom-poms. 

Christian felt like such a mature person compared to her, which I was so  thankful for. He is such a mystery it's overwhelming. I suppose most people are eager to read more on their "sexy time", instead what I wanted most was for him to let her touch him. Like his face or just hand or arm or anything really, the fact that he wouldn't let her, I would say I was a lot more frustrated than she was, and she kept insisting and I wanted to find out if he would let her and he's so closed and keeping everything to himself.. ugh! Share your mind with us, Christian. Throughout the book, all I wanted to do was find out what was in that little messed up head of his and to find out if he would ever hurt her or if she would ever leave him and my questions were not entirely answered. Not yet. 

I loved the ending and I was so happy, I definitely want to read the next book. 

I can't wait for the movie, the actors  seem the perfect fit.