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CandidCover TBR Wipeout Challenge – Update #1

By Brookelorren on 10 Comments

Summer 2018 TBR Wipeout ChallengeIt’s time for the first update to the Summer TBR Wipeout, hosted by The Candid Cover!  I wasn’t sure how well I would do, since I had to start work again, but I ended up reading six books.  I read 16 books last month when I wasn’t working, so not so bad (In my June update, I said I had read 15 books, but I forgot that I did a reread of Warcross, because I keep track of my rereads in a different place).

So these are the books that I finished:

  • Origin – Dan Brown
  • Ever the Hunted – Erin Summerill
  • Caraval – Stephanie Garber
  • Throne of Glass – Sarah J. Maas
  • The House of One Thousand Eyes – Michelle Barker
  • Batman: Nightwalker – Marie Lu

They were all good, although I only gave Origin and The House of One Thousand Eyes three stars on Goodreads: Origin just didn’t seem to be full of puzzles like the previous Dan Brown book I read, The Lost Symbol, did, and just wasn’t my cup of tea.  I think The House of One Thousand Eyes is an important book, because there is very little fiction that I’m aware of that’s written about East Germany during the time of the Stasi, even though there were a few issues with the book that caused me not to rave about it as much as some of the other readers on Goodreads have.  The reviews for both of these books will be out later this summer.

I’m already on the waiting list to read Ever the Brave and the sequels to Throne of Glass at the library;  Kingdom of Ash isn’t available (yet) at my library to put on hold, but since I’m still 44th on the waiting list for Tower of Dawn, I don’t want to be the first to get my hands on it anyway… I prefer to read the books in order.

I don’t really have an interest in superheroes, but I couldn’t really say that Marie Lu could write about anything and make it good if I wasn’t willing to test that theory out.  Batman: Nightwalker was certainly not my favorite Marie Lu book, but it was good, and I can still say that I’ve liked everything that she has published.  My daughter does like superheroes though, and when she saw me reading the book, her eyes lit up.  She’s been really depressed lately and nothing has made her eyes light up recently.  I’ll be loaning the book to her this evening.

So that’s my first update to Candid Cover’s Summer TBR Wipeout!  Will I ever completely wipe out my TBR?  Yeah, right.  Not unless people stop writing books (and that’s never going to happen).  But I did read some of those books that I see people always talking about and finished reading all of the published Marie Lu books.  So I’m pretty happy with the reading that I did do.

I Love The Young Elites

By Brookelorren on 2 Comments

Young Elites coverToday I will be reviewing the Young Elites trilogy, so it looks like I will be reviewing all nine of Marie Lu’s books this year.  My review for Wildcard will come out September 18th or 19th, and I’ll probably end up reviewing her Batman: Nightwalker book in September as well.  Like my review of the Legend trilogy last month, I will review all three books at once.

The Young Elites trilogy is comprised of three books:  The Young Elites, The Rose Society, and The Midnight Star.  I like the second two books better than the first book of the trilogy; in fact, I currently have two Young Elites related fanfics in progress, and they are more influenced by the second two books.

The three books follow the story of Adelina Amouteru.  As a child, she caught the blood fever and one of her eyes become infected and had to be burned out, leaving a scar.  She also was marked with silver hair.  Although she was still pretty, her scar left her marked: she was a malfetto.

Many people who caught the blood fever as children survived with marks of various types and lived as malfettos.  People hated and feared them.  Adults who caught the blood fever died.

Some children who got the blood fever eventually discovered that they had supernatural powers.  These people became known as The Young Elites.

The blood fever also infected her sister Violetta, who survived and remained unmarked.  Violetta remained pretty, and was the favorite of their father.  Over time, Adelina became resentful and bitter towards her sister.

Until one night, her father decided to sell her to a wealthy merchant… as a mistress.

Adelina wasn’t having that.  She decided to escape instead.  In the process of escaping, she accidentally killed her father — and discovered that she had the power to conjure up illusions.  She was an Elite.

She is taken in by a group of Elites known as The Dagger Society.  They taught her how to use her powers.  She falls in love with the leader of The Dagger Society.  While all this was happening, she discovers that she is trapped into making impossible choices.  She doesn’t know who to trust, and we are led along through all three books.

Themes

Trust and rejection are a huge part of this story.  Adelina feels like she is rejected by everybody in her life.  Society rejects her for being a malfetto.  She’s rejected by her father.  She feels like she is rejected by her sister.  Then, she is rejected some more.  The more she faces rejection, the more bitter and dark her soul becomes.  When she achieves power over others, she takes it out on them.  She becomes one of those wicked people that you read about as the villains in many other stories.  Yet… you don’t wish ill for her.

Another theme in this story seems to be about mental illness.  As Adelina becomes more powerful, she starts seeing hallucinations and has nightmares.  If she existed in the 21st century and not in a fantasy novel, we would say that she had a mental illness.  Her hallucinations only contribute to the darkness in her heart, until it almost seems impossible for her to crawl out of this dark hole that she’s dug for herself.  My theory on this trilogy is… that she would never have been able to crawl out of this hole on her own.

But, never fear, that is not the end of her story.  A third theme of this story is unconditional love.  There are people that love Adelina for who she is and not what she can do for them.  These are the people that finally help her redeem herself in the bittersweet end.

Setting

I love the setting for this book.  The world is a fantasy, medieval-type world (quite unlike Legend, which is a future dystopian setting).  Each part of the world has a different flavor to it.  The world that Adelina is born into seems to have the flavor of Italy, and in particular, Venice.  The northern part of the world reminds me of the Celts.  In the South, where Adelina’s ancestors hail from, the world seems like medieval Persia.

I felt that this was a really clever way to set up the world.  In my Young Elites WIP, Saving Adelinetta, I’ll be extending on the theme of her settings; but I still have about 1/3 of the first draft to do, and it’s going to need a lot of editing, so who knows when I will finish it.

Overall

This is one of my favorite stories.  In order to write fanfiction, I have to spend a lot of time reading the original books, getting into the character’s heads, and studying what the story is trying to say.  I’ve only written for four fandoms, and this is one of them.  The Young Elites trilogy is good enough for me to want to live in these character’s heads and reread the books enough to write fanfics based on it.  I think that’s enough of an endorsement to say that I really like it.

Best Books I’ve Read in 2018 (So Far) – Top Ten Tuesday

By Brookelorren on 25 Comments

Today’s Top Ten Tuesday Topic is Best Books I’ve Read in 2018 (So Far).  Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl.

I’ve done an annual list of my favorite books, in various places, for about 10 years now, but I’ve never done a semi-annual list.  I’m going to follow the same rules as my normal annual list, which are:

  • Rereads of books I’ve loved previously aren’t eligible
  • Any book I finish in the time period counts, regardless of publication date
  • Translations of books that I previously read in English aren’t eligible
  • If I read multiple books in a series at the same time and they’re all good, they get ranked together

So here’s my list:

City of Bones Cover10. City of Bones – I was looking through Goodreads for some books to read, and Cassandra Clare’s Queen of Air and Darkness looks like it’s going to be highly anticipated this year… only I’ve never read any of the series.  Although this book has been out for a while, it’s the very first of the series, so I decided to start there.  It just barely makes this top 10 list.  It probably won’t make the end of year list, but I liked this one well enough to request the rest of the Mortal Instruments books at the library (I’m still #7 on the waiting list for the second book though).

Ace of Shades Cover9. Ace of Shades – This is another book that I enjoyed that probably won’t make the Top 10 Books of the Year list.  I found this on sale for $1.99 so I couldn’t pass it up.  I thought that the story was fun, and the world, which seems to be based on Las Vegas, was interesting.  The situation that the characters get themselves into also seems to be fairly unique, and the magic system that Amanda Foody comes up with is unlike anything else I’ve seen in the past.  The story ends in a cliff hanger and I definitely wanted to read more.  I’ll be on the lookout for the next book, King of Fools, when it is released next year.

8. My Real Name is Hanna – When I saw that this book, about a Jewish Ukrainian girl who survives during World War II, was available in exchange for an honest review, I just had to read it.  It is a beautiful story.  The characters, although fictional, seem so real, that I almost thought of them as such as I finished the story (they are based on an actual family).  With all of the hatred of the “other” going on in this world right now, it has a good message that other people should read.  This book won’t be released until September 18th (that’s going to be a HUGE book release day).

Indianapolis cover7. Indianapolis – I haven’t read a lot of nonfiction this year, and so far Indianapolis is the only book that has made my top 10 list.  I have a few must-read nonfiction books on my TBR for later on in the year though that have a good chance of making the annual list.  Indianapolis was an exciting read, and although it is nonfiction, often reads like a fiction book.  It doesn’t come out until July 10th, but I was honored to have the opportunity to read it before its pub date in exchange for an honest review.

Echoes cover6. Echoes – Echoes is different than any other book that I’ve read in a long time.  I had a hard time putting it down.  The book has a puzzle that isn’t quite solved at the end of the book (which ends in something of a cliffhanger), runs in two different timelines that overlap each other, and features an enemies to lovers trope.  Although a sequel to this book isn’t listed on Goodreads, I would love it if this book ends up having one.  This book will be out August 7th; I was fortunate enough to be allowed to read this book ahead of time in exchange for my honest review.

Flame in the mist cover5. Flame in the Mist (series) – When I read Flame in the Mist, I couldn’t put it down.  I was thinking about the characters while I was at work, which interrupted my reading time.  Fortunately, I read this book only a few weeks before Smoke in the Sun was released, because I anxiously awaited the release of the second book of this duology.  The second book wasn’t quite as good as the first (mainly because it doesn’t feature as much of Mariko and Ōkami, which is what I liked most about the first book), but it’s still good enough to be included in the top 10 list.  I did like how the series ended, however.

The Fates Divide cover4. The Fates Divide – This was a book that I spent counting down the days to for a couple of months before it came out.  I read Carve the Mark three times this year as I waited for this book to come out (once in Spanish).  As soon as I could get it out of my mailbox, I spent the entire day reading it.  I absolutely loved it, and even the ending was excellent.  I guess Veronica Roth was trying to make up for chapter 50 of Allegiant.  I’m glad she didn’t end this beautiful series with the bitter taste of disappointment.

Strange the Dreamer Cover3. Strange the Dreamer – with this strange name, I wasn’t initially interested in reading the book, but then I saw some reviews on it that made me change my mind.  It is a beautiful book.  The prose is amazing.  The characters are likeable; they aren’t your cookie-cutter beautiful people, which is a good thing.  The world building is great.  It also has a really good underlying message.  I couldn’t put it down, even though this is a fairly large book.  I’m looking forward to Muse of Nightmares, which will be coming out soon (but not soon enough).

An Ember in the Ashes Cover2. An Ember in the Ashes (series) – There was a lot of hype surrounding the release of A Reaper at the Gates, and since I had never read the first book in the series, I wasn’t going to read it, but then Ember became available at my local library.  I was halfway through book 1 before I decided that I needed to read the entire series as soon as possible; I immediately went to go look for the other two books.  Fortunately, A Torch in the Night was also available at the library, so I was able to buy Reaper and read all three books in three consecutive days.

Midnight Star cover1. The Midnight Star – This book came out in 2016, concluding the Young Elites series.  If you read my blog for very long, you’ll figure out that I love Marie Lu’s books.  In fact, I’ve read all of her books this year (except the Batman one because I’m not into superheroes, although I suppose I’ll have to get around to reading that one at some point anyway) .  It took me until January of this year to read it because I “won” the book in a sweepstakes, and they never sent it to me.  If I hadn’t won the book, I would have pre-ordered it.

I loved this book.  It has some really beautiful scenes in it, and the ending was fitting, if not overly joyful.  It was slightly open-ended, which is why I’m currently working on a fanfic at this point (I’ve currently written 245 pages and I’m about 2/3 of the way through, but it’s going to take a lot of revising and I have 4 works in progress at this point).

It was really hard to pick a favorite among the top books on my list.  They were all so good.  I expect that there will be some stiff competition for the top ten list for the year.

My Real Name is Hanna is Really Good

By Brookelorren on 2 Comments

My Real Name is Hanna is a really good book.  Last year I read quite a lot of 20th century books, including Defying Hitler; I also regularly attend a Russian meetup group.  When I had the opportunity to read a book about a Jewish Ukrainian girl during World War II in exchange for an honest review, I figured that I had to read it.  I was not disappointed.

At the beginning of the book, we meet Hanna and her family.  They are a observant Jewish family who won’t even light a fire on the Sabbath: they pay for their neighbor to light the fire for them.  She has a normal family, attends school with her best friend Leon, and lives a typical Ukrainian life.  Even through they sometimes have to pledge their loyalty to one government or another (first Stalin and the Soviet Union, then Germany), they still live decently.

Hanna and her family begin to hear rumors about things happening to other Jews in faraway places.  At first, they are insulated from these problems because they live in a rural area.  Eventually, Hanna’s family is affected by Hitler’s rules for Jews.  First, her family is asked to wear armbands marking them as Jews (her family rebels against this order).  Then, they are given fewer food rations than their non-Jewish neighbors.  They start hiding fleeing Jews in their barn.  Eventually, things get so bad that Hanna’s family, as well as Leon’s family, have to flee their homes and hide.

Throughout the remainder of this book, they struggle to survive while in hiding.  Their circumstances get progressively worse, and when it looks like the family won’t be able to make it, the Russians finally take over their town and they are able to return to society.

My Real Name is Hanna is a book that you won’t want to put down.  I wanted to know what would happen to their family next.  How would they find food?  Will Hanna and Leon become more than friends?  You grow to care about Hanna and her family as they go through these struggles.  Hanna is a likeable girl, and even though you know she is going to survive (Hanna is telling this story as an adult), you still want to root for her.

With everything that is going on in the world, books like My Real Name is Hanna are more important than ever.  If you read the news, there is a growing hatred for “otherness” in both the United States and in Europe.  This is not only a good book; it is also a reminder that tragedies like this could happen again if we don’t remain vigilant.

This book will be available on September 15th, but you can pre-order it now.

Compliments to the Writer! (Part 1)

By Brookelorren on 2 Comments

This is part 1 of a two-part series discussing complimenting authors of books that you like.

LibraryI used to think that published authors were these mysterious, god-like people who were just amazing, and, of course, they knew it.  Because they were published authors and all.  I knew that most of them weren’t rolling in the dough like Stephen King or anything (which I’m sure is what I thought when I was a kid), but I thought that they all knew how magnificent their works were.  If not, they wouldn’t have gotten published, right?

I thought that sending them a compliment to tell them how I loved their book would be rude.  I mean, I’m a nobody.  Why would these wonderful authors want their day interrupted by some nobody telling them about how they liked their book?

I’ve recently come to the realization that most authors are more like me.  With the main difference being… they’re published.  But that doesn’t mean that they don’t have similar thoughts as me.

Following a few authors on Twitter, I’ve seen that some of them have doubts about their abilities.  Many are trying to get publicity so they can sell books and make a living.  Incredibly, I noticed, a rare few have fewer Twitter followers than I do (in fact, one author that I’m publishing a review on later this month does… and I loved her book).

A couple of days ago, one author tweeted that compliments can make an author’s day, especially when they were in a writing slump.

I realized that that was the truth.  Sending a compliment to a writer can make their day.  It can even get them writing again.  I know that from personal experience.  Seeing that tweet made me realize that I need to compliment more authors.  If I like their work, I need to tell them.

A few comments this year have truly stood out to me and have made me want to write more.

Back in 2016, my husband had to go to the hospital for the night.  I had just finished reading the Legend series for the second time, and I thought to myself “wouldn’t it be nice if someone wrote a short story where Day and June actually ended up together?  I could throw something like that together this evening while dh is not here.”

That’s just not possible.  I did start the story though, and 14 chapters and 85 pages later, the story was still unfinished.  But I had to move into my new house.  I published the 14 chapters of Like Normal People, the resulting story, so other people could read it.  In the process of moving (I also was intimidated because I had to write about mountain climbing and had no clue how to do it), I forgot about the story.  For two years.

On February 3rd, I got this note:

I have just seen this now and it is amazing ughhhhh I hope u go on and update this sometime in the near future

Eduemoni - Own work
Wow!

I had already started to write again.  I was working on Saving Adelinetta (still an unfinished project).  That nice note got me thinking about Like Normal People again.  Although it’s still unfinished, I have made progress on the story now.  All from one nice compliment.

In May, I had the idea for another Legend fanfic.  The idea just came to me one day, and I had to write Republican Phenoms.  It only took two weeks to write this little novella, and another two weeks to revise and publish it.  The only thing was, I was a little nervous about it.  I had gone beyond my comfort zone with a couple of the scenes.  The book had practically written itself; I was just writing down what the characters were doing in my head, and they did a couple of things that I might not have chosen for them.  I didn’t know how people would react to it.  Then I got a nice compliment on this story after I had published it.

It’ll be interesting to see the dynamic between June and Day since Day’s the first to get the perfect score and revelled in its benefits in contrast to how it happens in canon. Great June POV btw! 😀

He left a couple of other nice comments in my fic.  The comments were so thoughtful that it just made me happy all day.  He stopped commenting before the parts that I was nervous about though, so I was still wondering whether I completely screwed up the fic at the end (he did give me kudos on the story though).

Earlier this week, I got this comment on Republican Phenoms:

*pterodactyl screech* OHMYGOD I’M SO HAPPY SOMEONE WROTE AN AU LIKE THIS IT’S SO AMAZING I’M CRYING AAAAAAAA. June’s such a cutie, her transition from no-I-definitely-don’t-like-him to okay-so-maybe-I-was-wrong is so well done and cute, and Daniel is just – a cutie but also an asshole??? But also really sweet? Goddamn it I want to hug those two so badlyyyyy. This is so amazing thank you so much for writing it TT-TT!!!

I don’t think I’ve ever made someone so happy from a story I wrote.  How could you not be happy after someone writes a note like that to you?

So, rather than feeling like this nobody who shouldn’t dare interrupt a writer’s day by telling them how great their work was, I’ve decided that when I read a book that I love, that I need to send a quick tweet to the writer to tell them how much I liked their story.  I might still be a nobody, but if nice comments can make my day, then rather than being annoyances, nice comments might make some other author’s day as well.

In part 2, which I hope to publish next week, I’ll be talking about more popular authors with fandoms.  Is it creepy to really like an author’s work?  Do authors think you’re creepy if you dream about the characters they create?  I actually don’t know the answers, but I’ll be discussing fandoms next week.

I Loved Ace of Shades

By Brookelorren on 6 Comments

I recently finished reading Ace of Shades by Amanda Foody.  It’s not a cookbook.  When I was in the Navy I worked with a person named Army; our last names don’t always match our job title.  At any rate, it was a very enjoyable book, and I look forward to the sequel whenever it comes out.  I got this when it was on sale for $1.99 the other day.  I figured I couldn’t pass it up.

Our story takes place in a place called New Reynes, which is also known as the City of Sin.  Our first protagonist, Enne, is supposed to be a debutante in about a year, and she knows how to behave like a proper lady.  Her (adoptive) mother, however, is missing, and she is entering this den of iniquity in an attempt to find her.  Almost immediately after stepping off the boat, she loses her luggage, is chased by the cops, and ends up running into a gang lord (which is the person her adoptive mother wants her to seek out).

Levi, our other protagonist, is the gang lord.  He is in desperate need of getting his hands on 10,000 volts (volts are their form of currency).  Enne just happens to promise him that amount of money if he will help her find her mother.  Our story follows the two protagonists as they get themselves into trouble and change the city forever.  Along the way, Enne finds out some dangerous family secrets, and discovers that she might not be cut out to be a proper lady after all: she might be much more instead.

The Characters

Ace of Shades is told in the third person point of view from the perspective of our two main protagonists.  I enjoyed the characters.  Levi was a gang lord, but he was still fairly young.  He’s also, for the most part, not an evil guy.  He might cheat at cards, but he’s not a murderer, for example.  Enne begins her journey to New Reynes as a very naïve lady, but she is quickly changed by the city.  While I do like the characters, the rapid transformation of Enne stretches reality a little.  It doesn’t keep me from enjoying the book, but it may bother some people.  The same holds true for Levi and Enne’s relationship.  They start to develop an attraction to each other almost immediately (although they don’t act on it).  Levi and Enne are so completely different that it’s difficult at first to see themselves falling for each other.

The World

The World of Ace of Shades seems to be pretty unique.  It seems to have a basis in Las Vegas, but there is a magic system in place that obviously doesn’t exist in the real world.  Everybody has talents that they are born with; your two last names tell other people what your talents are.  People bind themselves to each other with oaths.  There are more magical forces in this world as well, but I won’t mention them in order to not give out spoilers.

The city is also a city of dirty politics.  It has faced war in the past.  It is crawling with street gangs, although that doesn’t necessarily mean that they don’t associate with one another.  Some of the police are also corrupt.  The world is well done and enjoyable.

Overall, Ace of Shades was enjoyable and well worth the time I spent reading it.  It may not be the best book I read this year, but I liked it nonetheless.

Far Forest Scrolls was… Okay

By Brookelorren on 2 Comments

I recently had the opportunity to review Far Forest Scrolls Na Cearcaill.  It sounded really great.  What’s not to like about a fantasy story with dragons and adventure?  It looked like it might have a little Celtic influence as well (I’ve done a little bit of studying Irish and there are a few words in Irish in this book).  It turned out, the book was just okay.  The book has a lot of potential; I just didn’t think that it was where it should have been for a published novel.  Especially not for a book that is scheduled to cost $24.95.

Plot

Far forest scrolls happens in a medieval fantasy setting.  There is a “squad” of squires that the story revolves around, mostly Bellae, who is a pre-tween who discovers that she has a gift for talking to animals.  The squires (and their knights) go through many adventures.  Bellae (or her friend) has been foretold to be the chosen one in the upcoming Na Caercaill, which I think means some sort of cataclysm or world-shaking event.  There is also war on the horizon, which the squires and knights must prepare for.

What I Liked

While overall, I wasn’t a fan of this book, it wasn’t without its merits.  The story was imaginative, and I thought Bellae was a cute character, and she had some nice friendships with some of her squadmates.  You could tell how she loved animals, which was quite endearing.  There were parts that were pretty exciting.  The story was written with a good vocabulary, with colorful words.  Some of the illustrations were good.

What I Didn’t Like So Much

The book felt a little amateurish.  For example, sometimes the characters would explain concepts of the world that the other characters probably already knew, but the reader didn’t.  It made the dialogue sound a little off.  There were a lot of characters in this book, and in the beginning, they were introduced a little too quickly — I had trouble keeping everything straight.  The same holds true for the places in this world.  The book also had several illustrations.  While a smattering of the illustrations looked like they were professionally done, some of the illustrations looked like they came out of someone’s sketch book.  You could even see the outline of the page where it had been scanned.  The sketches and illustrations broke up the text on my Kindle, although if you read this in the hardback version, that wouldn’t be a problem.

The book seemed to have an abrupt ending.  There really was no climax to the story; no great battle that they win and then they have to go fight an even bigger battle, like many other trilogies/duologies/tetralogies etc. have.  They were in the middle of a fight, some reinforcements show up, and then… that’s all folks.  The web site describes this as part of a pentology, so there must be more to this story coming.

This book was categorized as a Young Adult novel, but I would probably put it in the Middle Grade category.  The main characters are Middle Grade age, and there is some banter that I think would be better appreciated by a Middle Grade audience.  Some of the vocabulary might be advanced for Middle Grades, but the storyline itself I think has more Middle Grade appeal.

After I agreed to review this book, it was taken off Goodreads.  It is also no longer on NetGalley (where I received my copy of the book in exchange for an honest review).  Perhaps the author withdrew the book so they could make further revisions (it was supposed to be released August 3rd).  I hope that they do that, because while I didn’t particularly think the story was great, it does have the potential to be a good story.

This Savage Song ON SALE

By Brookelorren on Leave a Comment

This Savage Song coverToday, This Savage Song by Victoria Schwab is ON SALE for $1.99 (ebook version)!  I don’t know how long this sale is supposed to go on, but for all I know, the sale might end tonight, so if you’re interested in it, now would be the time to get it.

I haven’t read it yet, but it looks interesting, and one of my Twitter friends alerted me to this deal, so I figured I’d probably want to read it.

From Goodreads:

 

There’s no such thing as safe in a city at war, a city overrun with monsters. In this dark urban fantasy from author Victoria Schwab, a young woman and a young man must choose whether to become heroes or villains—and friends or enemies—with the future of their home at stake. The first of two books.

Kate Harker and August Flynn are the heirs to a divided city—a city where the violence has begun to breed actual monsters. All Kate wants is to be as ruthless as her father, who lets the monsters roam free and makes the humans pay for his protection. All August wants is to be human, as good-hearted as his own father, to play a bigger role in protecting the innocent—but he’s one of the monsters. One who can steal a soul with a simple strain of music. When the chance arises to keep an eye on Kate, who’s just been kicked out of her sixth boarding school and returned home, August jumps at it. But Kate discovers August’s secret, and after a failed assassination attempt the pair must flee for their lives.

If you’re interested in reading this book, I hope this finds you before the sale ends!

Legend is One of My Favorite YA Trilogies

By Brookelorren on 7 Comments

Legend coverLast week I wrote about Marie Lu’s latest book, Warcross; today I’m writing about her debut trilogy, Legend.  The series consists of three books: Legend, Prodigy, and Champion.  If you haven’t read them yet, you are missing out.  Go read them right now.  I’ve read them several times myself, and I love this universe so much that I have published three fanfics about it on Archive of Our Own (with a fourth sitting unfinished on my desktop).  Since this is a completed trilogy that I’m not reading for the first time, I’m reviewing the trilogy as a whole, and not the books as separate entities.

Plot

The story begins on November 28, 2031 (which is a Wednesday, in case you’re curious).  Legend begins with the memorable line “My mother thinks I’m dead,” which immediately hooks you into the story.  Daniel Wing, now known as the notorious criminal “Day”, is hanging out with his best friend Tess.  They both live on the streets, eking out a living as best as they can.  The plague patrols are coming through, and Day is watching his family’s house, worried that his family might be sick.  It turns out, his younger brother Eden does have the plague.  Being the loving brother that he is, Daniel breaks into the hospital in order to try to steal some plague cure, setting off a chain of events that will change his life (and the country) forever.

June (our other protagonist) is a brilliant girl in her final year at the military academy.  She doesn’t fit in with the rest of her classmates because over the course of her childhood, she’s skipped several grades, and everyone around her is older than she is.  Her family is also about as wealthy as Day’s family is impoverished.  When tragedy strikes her family, she is sent to track down the person responsible.  In the process, she ends up meeting Day, and they develop a relationship with each other.

The trilogy deals with political corruption, deception, love, and war.   It deals with the problems caused by class disparities when the privileged aren’t aware of the plight of those that are less fortunate than them (while I was reading Never Stop Walking, I thought about this story and how there are people living lives similar to what Day had, except in reality, not fiction).  If I go into too much detail, I’ll give away spoilers, but there is a lot going on in this story; you’ll just have to read it until its exciting conclusion.

Characters

The story is told from Day and June’s points of view.  These two characters (as well as the supporting characters) make the story come alive.  Day is street smart and agile, able to climb buildings in a single bound (okay, that’s a little of an exaggeration).  He suffers from a few physical problems (courtesy of the government), and when his world intersects with June’s, the cultural differences can cause a few problems.  June is wealthy and wickedly smart.  She has an almost obsessive-compulsive fixation on time and minute details (which is why I can tell you when the story begins, even though the book never outright states it).  She’s a good fighter, and her attitude can sometimes get her into trouble.

The supporting characters are also great.  Tess, Day’s best friend, is a caring healer.  Metias, June’s older brother, teaches June not to judge people just by their life’s circumstances.  Thomas, Metias’s friend, is a soldier that is blindly loyal to the government.  Joining them is a whole host of other characters.

Themes

The Legend trilogy has many themes underlying the story, which is one of the things that makes it so enduringly lovely.  It speaks of sacrificing your own wishes because of your love for other people.  It speaks of not holding someone in judgement just because they’re not as well off as you.  It speaks about how blind loyalty to a cause can be dangerous.

I guess that one of the themes in this story can be summed up by these two lines of dialogue between June and another character:

“I will die with honor for sacrificing everything — everything — for my country.  And yet, Day is the legend, while I am to be executed.”

June’s response to his confusion about why Day, a criminal, was being held up as a good guy, and why the other character was being sentenced to death for following orders, was “Because Day chose to walk in the light.”

One Final Note

Legend has a very… complex… ending.  It’s not a story where the ending leaves you seeing flowers and rainbows and puppies and kittens, but it’s also not an ending that leaves you crying as you crawl into bed at 4 in the morning (yes, I’m still talking about you, chapter 50 of Allegiant!).  When I initially reviewed Champion on Goodreads, I gave it four stars.  I have since upgraded my review to five stars, because the ending grew on me a little (it helps that I write fanfiction in this fandom).  After reading the ending, I wanted more, which is why I chose to create more on my own.  I didn’t want to let the story go as it was.

If you like dystopian YA stories and haven’t read this one yet, you’ll want to read these.  All three of them.  I absolutely love this trilogy, and I think you will too.

Series I Want to Finish Someday (And One I Don’t)

By Brookelorren on 34 Comments

Today is Top Ten Tuesday, sponsored by That Artsy Reader.  Today’s theme is Series I’ve Given Up On, but since I don’t really have many of those, I’m modifying it a bit, and am doing Series I Want to Finish Someday (And One I Don’t).  Since a lot of the series that I have been reading have recently finished, I don’t have a full 10 to give you, but I’ll give you what I have.

Ace of Shades CoverI just recently finished reading Ace of Shades by Amanda Foody (I hope to review it next week).  This is the first book of a planned trilogy.  Since the other two books in the series aren’t out yet, I can’t exactly read them yet.

I don’t know if I will buy the follow-on books or get them at the library yet, however.  I only paid $1.99 for the first book on my Kindle; although I do plan on reading the remaining books in the series, I don’t know if it’s a book I want to read over and over and over again, like some of the books that I buy.

City of Bones CoverCity of Bones is a series that I am currently on the waiting list for at the library.  I’m currently #7 on the waiting list for the next book, City of Ashes.  At some point I’ll get to the top of the waiting list and I’ll probably review a bunch of books from these series in quick succession.

While I didn’t give this book a five-star review, I did enjoy it, and (I peeked ahead) I’ve read some excerpts from her later books and am looking forward to getting to them.  Someday…

An Ember in the Ashes CoverAn Ember in the Ashes is the first book of Sabaa Tahir’s tetralogy.  I just read her first three books for the first time this month, and I absolutely love them!  I’m looking forward to the last book coming out next year, especially since the characters are still in distress, and I’m hoping that Ms. Tahir helps them save themselves and at least lets them be a little happy (if not, there’s always fanfiction).

I definitely plan on pre-ordering this one as soon as it becomes available.  Since the last book in the series A Reaper at the Gates, just came out, I don’t know when that will be.

Warcross coverWarcross is the first book in Marie Lu’s latest series.  I pre-ordered this on April 10th this year (only reason I know is because it was the day that The Fates Divide came out, which was another book that I eagerly looked forward too).

Out of the three series that I’m looking forward to reading, this is the one that I’m looking forward to the most.  Fortunately, I only have to wait until September to read it (less than 3 months now!).

The One Series I Don’t Plan on Continuing…

I won’t say that I will never read the rest of the Illuminae series, but I don’t have any plans to do so any time soon.  If I do continue reading these, it will not be on the Kindle.

This book was really difficult to read on my Kindle.  The concept is pretty cool.  There are different files to read, and it is very graphic.  It doesn’t translate to the Kindle well at all, because I wasn’t able to resize the pages, making it hard to read.  There were graphic pages where the words swirled around, which were also difficult to read on a Kindle.

I think what disappointed me the most about Illuminae, however (the Kindle visual problems are quite easy to fix by reading these books in hardback) was how in the very middle of the book, the story completely pissed me off.  I can’t say why without giving away spoilers, but I went to google the ending in order to find out whether it was worth finishing or not; even then, I put down the book, went to bed, and finished it the next day.

As far as I know, the next books aren’t continuations of this story, but tell the story from a different angle, I don’t think I’m going to finish.  I’m not interested enough to continue reading this book at the moment.