Review for Red Fox by Lara Fanning

4.5 Stars. One of the most unique storylines I’ve read in a long time. There were some really twisted things that happened to the main character in this book, and though they were awful I enjoyed every second of watching her overcome them. Lara Fanning explores a dystopian Australia where the government seeks to take the population back to their more primitive and savage roots. Freya is a high school girl who witnesses tragedy and turmoil as her government turns her country upside down, forcing those worthy of survival to do unspeakable things. I loved this. My only complaint is that I just wish we’d gotten a little more interaction between the two main characters, Freya and Whil, in the second half of the book.

Freya was a well written character. She was intelligent and fierce. There were moments that I didn’t like her much in the beginning. At times, she came across as ungrateful and selfish. But, I admired her strength and independence and I think those parts of her personality kept me interested in who she was and what was happening to her. She could also be a little impulsive at times, but I think that played into this “Red Fox” concept the author explores.

Whil was also a great character. He was softer than Freya and I think he helped even her out, but he was also smart. I really liked their dynamic, and the time they spent together were my favorite scenes. Part way through the character’s environment drastically changed and it changed the mood of the book. Though it was a little abrupt, I really enjoyed the direction the story went in the second half. I just wish we’d seen more of Whil in it.

Overall, the writing was good. I found a few typos and maybe a sentence or two that was redundant, but the plot had me hanging on every word. One thing I found a little strange was that the book started out with some religious points that I didn’t understand how they fit into the overall story. For example, the first sentence is “Q1. Do you believe in God?” It was the first question on a test that Freya took, and while I understood how the test itself played into the overall plot, I felt like the rest of the story didn’t have anything to do with the character’s religious beliefs. It just seemed like there could have been less emphasis on religion in the beginning. This is definitely a must read and I’ve added the second book to my ”to-read” list.

Review for Ignite Me (Shatter Me #3) by Tahereh Mafi

4.5 Stars. Warren has won me over. I loved the relationship between Warren and Juliette in this book. Honestly, though, it was really all there was to the book. The rest of the plot, including Juliette’s plans to overthrow the Reestablishment felt kind of thrown together. In fact, the actual plan they devised to take Anderson out didn’t even sound like it would work.  However, I enjoyed seeing the characters interact and grow so much, I honestly didn’t care what they were doing. I just wanted to see more of these characters.

I ate up every page of this and it became my favorite of the series. I liked seeing Juliette’s friends slowly change their mind about Warren. There were some interesting moments between him and them. And we get to see new sides to all of their personalities, which I loved.

I did wish by the third book that we would have known more about where Juliette and the other’s powers had come from. There’s a lot of background that I’d been waiting to find out and it’s really never explained. But, this book really does make all the decisions that Juliette made in the first two books make sense. You can see the full spectrum of her character development in this book and who she is finally all comes together.

While this book didn't feel like it hit the mark plot wise, Juliette's character development was so prefect and her growing relationship with Warren so captivating I loved it all the same. If what you liked most about the first two books were the characters and relationships, this will not disappoint.

Read my Review of Shatter Me
Read my Review of Unravel Me (Shatter Me #2)

Review for Unravel Me (Shatter Me #2) by Tahereh Mafi

3.5 Stars. Character Driven, but just a Scene Setter for Book #3. I didn’t like this book as much as the first one, but having read the third book I can definitely say it’s worth reading Unravel Me to finish the series. This story takes a different turn in this book. Shatter Me felt more dystopia, this book felt more like X-men, which was cool, just very different. We see all of the characters growing up in this book. They take on new responsibilities, especially Juliette. Some characters grow closer while others grow apart.

Though Juliette’s relationships were a huge part of the plot in this book, like the first, Unravel Me focused a little more on the world that Juliette lives in and how Juliette can affect that world and help people. Still though, the heart of this story was with it’s characters.

I started to really love Kenji in this book, but he also seriously frustrated me when he complained about Juliette and Adam’s relationship. I get that Adam and Juliet were dramatic at times, but I felt like Kenji lost sight of how important Adam was to her. He acted like she was just any other girl with a boyfriend. But, that’s not what Adam was to her. For Juliette, losing Adam mean losing the ability to touch another human being. It meant being deprived of an entire aspect of love and affection. I just got annoyed with Kenji trivializing that. But, we also see Kenji and Juliette spending more time together in this book and the beginning of a great friendship starts to develop.

Spoiler: Juliette’s breakup with Adam was totally heartbreaking, and completely real. I liked that they tried to make it work, but things just kind of fell apart around them. As the book went on I kept wanting for them to get back together, but there was this moment when it just felt like too much time had passed. They’d missed their chance, and that was awful, but from that point on it just felt like it wouldn’t be the same if they got back together. I just loved how real it was.

The romance that starts to bloom between Warren and Juliet threw me at first. I enjoyed seeing another side of Warren’s personality, but I really hated him in the first book, so I didn’t like the idea of them being together. However, as the story went on he started to win me over. I also enjoyed that his character didn’t change too easily or too quickly. Spoiler: And, their almost-sex scene at the end was totally hot.

The end of this book left me rethinking who these characters were. Juliette is figuring out who she is and thrown into a social world for the first time. She grows up a lot. And, both Adam and Warner surprised me. I was left thinking that neither one of them were exactly who I thought they were in the first book.

Read my Review of Shatter Me

 

 

Review for Shatter Me by Tahereh Mafi

4.5 Stars. Unique Writing Style, and an Intense Story.  This series blew me away. What I loved most was the growth Juliette’s character went through from the first book to the last. In Shatter Me there was a lot of description, especially in the first two chapters. The writing was beautiful, though a little wordy at times, but in a way that actually added to the story. The book is told through Juliette’s POV, so I could understand some of the repetition because these are her thoughts, and considering the book opens with her in an asylum it’s understandable that she’s going to have some jumbled thoughts. There are also some very interesting metaphors, some of which were things I’d never consider using to describe the things she was describing, but they added to Juliette’s personality. She’s quirky and a little crazy.

Juliette has a lot of growing to do in this book in order to be comfortable with who she is, but she’s still strong. I loved that despite everything she’s been through that she was able to hold herself together and hold on to her beliefs.

I also loved the romance between Adam and Juliette, though I felt like it happened a little quickly. I really wished there’d been a little more angst, and a little more build up between them. Having said that, after reading all three books, the pace of their relationship was perfect in retrospect.

In turn, the villain of this story, Warren, comes off as really sick and twisted, and he really gets into your head at the end of the book. When I first met him he wasn’t anything like what I was expecting him to be, and as the story progressed it was clear that there was more to his character than we got to see. There’s some mystery about him, and a vibrancy to his character that made me love to hate him.

This book starts out a little slow with Juliette locked up in the asylum, but it ends with plenty of action. I liked that Juliette takes the lead at the very end. For a little while it feels like she’s a bit of a damsel in distress having Adam save her, but she takes charge at the very end and ends up doing some saving herself.

Juliette is on a journey of self-discovery, she grows a lot in just this book, but even more as I look at the series as a whole. She’s very broken in Shatter Me, she’s afraid of what she can do, and this is just the beginning of her journey.

 

Review for The One by Kiera Cass (The Selection #3)

Kept me hanging on every word, but the ending didn’t meet my expectations.

4 Stars. I couldn’t put this down. Cass sucked me in just like she did with the first two books. As usual there’s some beautiful imagery, some interesting tasks for the contestants to compete in, and a wonderful love story.

America is still stubborn and holds true to her values. I loved that even though she faced some hard choices she never wavered or compromised her beliefs. However, unlike the second book, she was smarter in the way she dealt with the things she felt passionately about that she knew the king would dislike.

I loved seeing America and the final contestants grow close. There’s a shift in this book where they stop competing and actually get to know one another. And, I loved seeing America and Maxon working together. They have a few experiences together outside the constraints of the selection contest, where it’s just the two of them, and I loved those moments.

However, I was a little annoyed that it took America so long to just tell Maxon how she felt about him. It seemed obvious that all he wanted was to hear that she loved him. I could understand that she was worried about putting herself out there, but it felt like Maxon had given her more than enough to know how he felt about her. However, when they finally do say their “I love you’s” it’s done in a way that’s really believable, and you know each of them mean it.

My only complaint was with the ending. It felt a little rushed and I wished America had had a more active role in it. She spent a good amount of time hidden in a safe room, and even though her earlier actions had led to a positive outcome, I wished she’d been able to contribute more in the moment.

I also wish the ending had been different overall. I feel like there was still more story to tell. There are a few secrets we discover at the end, including a big one with Kriss, that aren’t really explored as deeply as they could have been.

Spoiler: There were too many plot points left hanging, and I feel if the King and Queen hadn’t been killed off at the end that those points could have come up in a fourth book. For example, the power play going on between America and King Clarkson was a really interesting point of the story. I loved watching America defy him. I feared for her when she made him angry, and I was excited to see what he would throw at her next. I would have loved to have read a fourth book seeing America find her place within the castle as the princess, trying to support Maxon, and dealing with conflict between her and the king. Also, I disliked that the king and queen died off camera. I would have liked it better if we had seen those deaths. It would have made them more meaningful and poignant.

Overall, I loved this series and highly recommend it.

 

Read my Review for The Selection

Read my Review for The Elite (The Selection #2)
 

Review of Mark of Defiance (Defiance Gray #2) by Adrianne Brooks

3.5 Stars. A Scary Journey. I enjoyed the dark imagery and scary moments of this book. There were also some interesting philosophical questions that the book raised about religion and being open minded, which I liked. And, most of all I enjoyed seeing Defiance’s character grow and watching her start to open her mind and question all the things her “church” had taught her.

However, there were places where the plot dragged a bit, and the pacing felt off. I think if the first book had been combined with this one, and the author had cut a few things that it would have had a better flow.

Like in the first book there were a few contradictions that took me out of the story. For example they’re taught to lie in school, but lying to a high priest is a bad thing. Also Defiance seemed to have never seen windows before, but I thought I remembered her climbing back into her orphanage through a window in the first book. Also there’s a mention of using gas from old cars in the desert, but considering this is supposed to take place hundreds of years after the apocalypse, the gas shouldn’t be good anymore. They were just little annoyances, but they pulled me out of the story.

The biggest problem I had, was that I just didn’t feel drawn in to the budding romance between Defiance and Uriel. I could kind of understand Defiance having a bit of a crush on Uriel, but there’s so little we actually know about him that I had a hard time connecting to him as a love interest for her. As a protector and an Angel, he’s written perfectly, but I think he maybe didn’t seem human enough for me to believe that there could be a relationship between the two of them.

That said, I did love the ending, and how much Defiance was actually involved in saving the day. It felt like her learning about her gift was building up to that moment, and it finished the story off in a great way.

Read my Review for Act of Defiance (Defiance Gray #1)

Review for The Elite by Kiera Cass

A Wonderful Mix of Fantasy and Dystopian Concepts

5 Stars. I absolutely loved The Selection and The Elite had me hooked just as much as the first book. It was a wonderful mix of fantasy and dystopian concepts.

America is a really tough character but she gets scared of what the end of the selection will mean for her, and that’s really what this book is about. Either she wins and then she’s the future queen and she doesn’t know if she can handle that responsibility – if she can be a leader when so many of her ideals conflict with how the country is actually run, or she loses which would mean Maxon never cared for her like she did for him, and she really does love him. And then there’s always the third option of dropping out to avoid becoming queen, and heartbreak from Maxon, and returning home to be with Aspen.

America has a lot of doubts about Maxon in this book, partly because he keeps some things from her, and there were times when I was frustrated with America’s paranoia and rash decisions. But considering her situation I think these emotions were perfect. She does lash out and in turn make some bad decisions – decisions that she doesn’t think through or consider the consequences of, but I think it would have been unrealistic had she done anything else. It was obvious to me that Maxon wanted her the most, but being in that situation where she’s competing with all of these other girls for his attention I believed that she would feel unsure at times and question his motives.

I also enjoyed that we got to see so much more of Maxon’s character. He can be this perfect gentleman, caring, and wholesome, even a little naive at times; but there’s more to him than that. We see in this book that he’s not perfect, that he makes some questionable decisions as well, and that his life hasn’t been as easy as America has thought it was. This competition is wearing on him as well.

I was glad to see America work out her feelings by the end of this book. The love triangle in the first book didn’t feel that strong to me and I was glad to see that America wasn’t going to continue to string someone along in the third book. She does give both Maxon and Aspen mixed signals throughout the book, but I could understand why.

Like in the first book I liked the relationships between the girls, and I’m particularly interested to see how America and Kriss’ relationship continues in the third book, or if we’ll see more of Marlee.

Overall I cannot wait for the conclusion of this trilogy, The One, and highly recommend this book.

Read my review of The Selection.

Review for The Selection by Kiera Cass

The Hunger Games meets The Bachelor

5 Stars. The best way for me to describe The Selection is that it’s “The Hunger Games” meets “The Bachelor”, and I think if you enjoyed either of those then you would like this book. It has the same wonderful dystopian concepts seen in “The Hunger Games”, but with a more playful tone.

This book is a modern day fairy tale that had me hooked from beginning to end. It’s not as simple as a handsome prince whisking away a pretty girl from the hard life she’s lived to be pampered in a castle, although I did enjoy that part of it. It also looks at the complicated interworkings of politics as Prince Maxon is not only learning how to lead his country but how to make changes and better the lives of his people.

What bring our lead character, America, and Maxon together is a contest, similar to “The Bachelor”, designed to help the prince find his future queen. America makes it very clear from the very beginning of the book that living in the lap of luxury is not the most important thing to her. She looks at this competition that she’s thrown into first as a curse, but later she sees it as an opportunity to do some good. She doesn’t want to be the next queen, but if she could help the prince pick someone else who would make a good queen, and in the process do some things to help her family then, she realizes, that this experience would be worthwhile for her.

I loved the dynamic between these girls and Prince Maxon and how that affected how they were with one another. They all had their own individual personalities and seeing the friendships and animosities that formed between them as they all sought the attention of the same guy was endearing and entertaining. I loved that they still cared for each other, well most of them, when someone got rejected or sent home and, that they weren’t just constantly jealous or selfish. Though we did see those emotions emerge when they were appropriate. This really made these characters and their relationships feel real.

I loved all the characters in this book, especially America. She was outspoken and really a lot of fun to read about. Her competition and love interests were well written as well. You really want things to work out between America and Aspen in the beginning of this book, but Maxon will grow on you and by the end you’ll be torn between this choice that America has to make. I also want to say that I liked how America got into this love triangle. She doesn’t immediately have two loving admirers fighting over her, the relationships built up in a more believable way. I especially liked her relationship with Maxon and how her feelings for him changed as the book went on.

Overall this was a great read and I can't wait to pick up the sequel, The Elite.

Review for Delirium by Lauren Oliver

A Deep and Fascinating Love Story in a wonderfully constructed Dystopia

5 Stars. Lauren Oliver has a wonderful way with words. Her characters in Delirium were deep and well developed and I enjoyed watching them, particularly Lena, grow and learn and change. She creates a deep and fascinating world that looks at how different people would be without love. I also really enjoyed how she pulls you into her story by using beautiful, lyrical prose.

One of the things I really liked about this book was that it had an interesting way of combining religion and science and portraying elements from both of these to explain why the people in this story think the way they think. Oliver took parts of religion and science and showed how people in this society twisted them in order to believe that love was a disease. She does it so well that you can really understand why they believe this.

Oliver did a wonderful job of scene building and providing examples to explain the world she created. She makes it believable that it could exist, that it could be the world we live in some day. Part of what helped me believe in this world was the quotes at the beginning of the chapters and little phrases that Oliver created. They added a lot to the story and I greatly enjoyed them.

I also loved how Oliver not only looked at romantic love but love between parents and their children and love between friends, and how these relationships change and even fall apart without love.

The main character, Lena, goes on a journey of discovery in Delirium. She has to grow as a person to be able to see through to the truth. I enjoyed reading about her journey which started with her fully believing in the ways of her society and government. She accepted that people were cured of love when they turned 18 and the fact that your spouse was essentially chosen for you, she even appreciated these things. Then she started to learn about things that she never knew existed. She started to open her eyes up to all the things she was never supposed to know about. Watching her discover things like music, and love were wonderful and I believed every one of her reactions.

All of the characters in this story were well written. I loved Alex and his relationship with Lena. I loved the way they grew together and that he had a reason for being drawn to her. Alex and Lena truly fell in love, this is not a ‘we love each other for no reason’ kind of story and I really appreciated that. I also loved Hana. At first I thought she was going to be somewhat stereotypical of a character, she’s beautiful and popular and perfect, but there was so much more to Hana.

Every part of this book was well done and I look forward to reading more of this series and more from Lauren Oliver.