This review has been x posted at The Book TwinsThis was a fantastic end to this series. It contained just about everything you could have wanted in a finale. It upped the stakes, gave you twists and surprises. Not everything was chocolates and roses, but it was enough of an ending to keep you satisfied in the conclusion of the story.
This book was more about Gaia becoming the leader she was always meant to be. She is probably the character who has had the most development throughout the trilogy. That's not to say Leon hasn't, but Gaia has gone from this one young midwife, to someone who goes up against the Enclave and to fight for what is right. She is willing to risk her life to change how things should be from how they are.
The relationship between Leon and Gaia continues to amaze me, and in Promised is no exception. They have had their ups and downs. Their good and bad times, but when it comes down to it, they will always have each other's backs and come back to one another. I love how they kept evolving, and this amazing ending shows no other than the best ending they could have. I do wish something would have been resolved, or that there was hope regarding a certain something, but all in all, they had a fairytale ending pretty much. Well, if you take away the death, the pain and heartbreak.
In this conclusive ending, Gaia and her friends battle the Enclave when they arrive back in town after spending many months away from the place she grew up in. Upon her return, she discovers that there are so many things that aren't as they used to be. People have changed and done the unexpected. Circumstances and events have changed people. But the rules have not changed. There is no change in the wall since the last she left, if anything it's even worse than before.
If Gaia and her fellow friends want to change things, they will have to get deep into the Enclave and force change.
This ending proves to be everything needed and more. Everything the last two books have been leading up to. The rise of the rebellion. One thing is for certain... Gaia will do anything to ensure her friends safety.
This is an action-packed adventure of character building, a beautiful plot and relationships to adore. It deals with love, loss, heartbreak and the chance to make a change.
If you haven't picked up this series yet, then go ahead and do so now. It's one not to be missed.
Rating: 4.5 /5
This review has been x posted at The Book Twins.
In this second installment, the story picks up pretty much right away with Gaia travelling over to the dead forest with her newborn baby sister. Since she is all her sister has in the world now, Gaia tries her best to keep her alive, but thigs seem to look grim.
Whena Gaia encounters a man and he takes her to his village, she thinks they will help her butm it's probably not the sort of help she had encountered on.
In exchange for them keeping her sister alive.. Gaia might have to make a promise and a choice that will affect their lives forever.
In this new town, Sylum there was different rules and laws that everyone must obey against otherwise there will be conseqences.
When people are mysteriously dying upon leaving the town, Gaia and her new group of friends try to figure out the cause of it and try to find some way around it. That's not the only mystery that is surrounding the town.
People keep having babies and only few are girls. Is this just bad luck, or is there something more to it? What Gaia discovers might be truly horrifying and unexplainable.
But Gaia isn't the only newcomer to town. Someone else has turned up, someone from her recent past who has come looking for her.
Leon.
Ah, aint true love grand? Yes. But while that might seem like an overwhelming joy to have Leon there with her.. when Gaia is forced between a rock and a hard place.. she doesn't know what choice to make.
Either way she will be hurting someone. So what does she do? Try to work her way around the problem and try to get make the best decision possible.
I know some people didn't like this book as much as the first, or felt the characters were vastly different but I don't think that's the case at all.
Gaia was still the same girl she has always been.. but sometimes she has to make choices and decisions that she wish she wouldn't have to.
We see different layers to Leon. Not only is he the boy we met in Birthmarked, but since Gaia left the Enclave.. Leon was punished, and he has been through so much and that itself would change a person. We see him more passionate, dangerous and utterly in love with Gaia. I think I fell more in love with him in this book.
We have new characters such as Peter and Will, brothers who end up liking the same girl.. who likes someone else.
The leader of the town, the Matrarc. Banished girls who Gaia befriends.
I was going to rate this 4 stars, but then I remember on my re-read of this book, I could not put it down. It was addicting, and the angsty /tension between Gaia and Leon made me finish this book within a day.
This book was a thrilling ride, and it sets up for the final book in the series which I cannot wait for especially with what will be happening, and that alone.. is a must read.
Rating: 5/5
This review has been x posted at The Book TwinsFrom the moment I opened the very first page, I was hooked.
We're taken right into Gaia's world of being a young midwife, following in her mother's footsteps. At sixteen, Gaia knows just about everything there is to know about delivering a child, but while her mother is at another birth, Gaia is forced to deliver her very first child out into the world.She starts to feel guilty about delivering the child to the Enclave for others to raise, but she serves the Enclave and is taught not to ask questions, and do as she is told.
Upon arriving home, Gaia is told her parents had been taken into the Enclave for questioning, basically arrested for something she can't imagine they would be involved in. She too is questioned regarding information her parents might have kept hidden by a soldier. How could she know anything like this... she has no idea what was going on.
From that moment on, she determined to find her parents and sort out the mess they think they are in. She is sure they must be mistaken. But getting inside the wall was proving harder than she imagined, and that's when things start to take off..
I really fell in love with Gaia's story of not just finding her parents, but also finding out the truth. Along the way, she meets and gets to know the solider who questioned her. Leon.
The romance in this book felt very natural, and realistic. These two characters. Gaia and Leon both have been through complicated messes and come out at the other side.
The journey to discover the truth behind the patterns, and the package that was left to her seems to be more complicated than she thought. She does not have a lot of time other wise, she could end up dead.
I really liked the mystery behind this story. And the end gives more to work with for a series. I loved this book the first time I read it, and even more the 2nd time.
This story feels different than a lot of the dystopian things out there. And the writing was just great. Caragh has a knack of getting you addicted in the world she has created.
Rating: 5/5
This review has been x posted at The Book TwinsJessica Shirvington has debuted her very first standalone, YA contemporary, but with a twist novel. If you loved her Violet Eden series and waiting her final book, then you are sure to love this novel.
I found the premise for this story very compelling and interesting from the very first moment Jess spoke about it. I personally don't know how I would deal if I were in this kind of situation, so Sabine is a strong female character on that merit alone.
The story brings us to Sabine, who is about to turn eighteen and looking forward to what the future brings her. But her life is not like anyone else's. For she, you see, has two lives. She doesn't know how it came or be, or when it started, but after midnight she switches from one life to another, never missing one moment of each of her lives.
She is the same girl. Same name. Same physical appearance, but different family and friends. Different life.
When Sabine realizes that things have started to change through each Shift, she becomes to the realization that this may be the time she will have to choose ONE life, but the question is, which one?
In one life.. she has everything she could have wanted. Friends, popularity, wealth, the perfect boyfriend. But everything is not as it appears to be, because the boyfriend she can't stand, her brothers she doesn't really get along with.
In the other, her family could not have been any different. She isn't popular. She is more like a rebel. But she has a best friend. Her parents are on hard times financially, but she has a bright spot and that is her little sister who she adores and who adores her. But when it comes down to deciding.... how does one decide which life to lead?
The moment she meets Ethan, changes everything. Everything she wanted to feel in her 'perfect' life's boyfriend happens with Ethan. If only she could take him to her other life if she decides to choose that one. But who said ANY life was easy? Most of us only have one to deal with day by day, but Sabine has twice the trouble as she deals with not one, but two of them.
This book is equally as addicting, compelling and heartbreaking as Jessica's VEC series. It has love. It has family, and heartbreak.
There was something that involved Ethan that I should have seen coming, but I didn't. Maybe I just didn't want to believe it. But what Sabine has to deal with is so heartbreaking and tragic, I don't envy her for a moment.
I did love that by the end Sabine got closer to her brothers than she was before. She goes through a traumatic experience that will bond them forever, and she will never have to worry about going back to the relationship she had with them before ever again. And by the end of the book... while Sabine goes through everyone one could ever imagine--- there is hope for something for the future.
There could have been more to this story, but I did like the end how it ended on a note of hope.. just enough to leave you satisfied, but also enough to make you yearn for more as well.
Jessica can write the bible and I'd read it. She has this special knack at getting you involved in the world that she creates. I'm a fan for life, for sure.
Rating: 5/5
This review has been x posted at The Book TwinsI've recently read a couple of Adult angel books recently, and this is the one that has stood out to me the most. Ever since I saw this book in the store I knew it sounded like something I would enjoy. For the past while, I have been loving books with angels in it, YA and Adult...and this was no different.
Meet God's top warriors: Michael, Gabriel, Uriel and Azrael. In reward for their loyalty, God created female angels perfect for each of them. The other half of their very soul, but when something happens and the women disappear and cast down to Earth, the four warriors follow them to try to locate their chosen ones.
But they aren't alone...
They have been followed by an enemy who will do everything to stop them from achieving their soulmates.
After thousands of years and no success, the guys start to give up on ever finding the angels, but the moment that Uriel crosses paths with Eleanore Granger, he knows. But as obstacles threaten to stop them from ever finding their way to each other, the question lies between both of them.. can the love they have for one another prevail over everything else?
This was such a fantastic first book in a new series. I loved all of the archangels. Some of them are more torchured than the rest, but each of them hold their own secrets that will make you love them to bits. I look forward to reading the next installment in this series.
Ellie is a strong woman, who didn't give in to pretty boys, but I love her relationship with Uriel and how it progressed slowly throughout the book. It felt very natural and compelling to me. And I love how she also interacted with his brothers. It should be interesting to see them discover their own mates wherever they may be. And hope that Samual does not get to them first.
Samual was an interesting villian. I didn't realize he was at the beginning, but I wonder if he wanted Ellie because he wanted someone to love for himself. Maybe Heather will write him a book and give him his own love interest. Time will tell.
Rating: 5/5
This review has been x posted at The Book TwinsDefiance is the debut novel for break-out C.J Redwine. She successfully carves a delicious and enticing story about one girl's hopes to find her last living family. A story based on hope, despair, faith and love.
This is a book which surely you would put on your to-read list, right? *waits for nods all around.*
Rachel lives in Baalboden, one of the few places deemed livable, where everything else was cut off and called The Wasteland, where there is nothing but a monster lurking abouts devouring everything out there. Baalboden is a civilised community where Rachel's father works as a courier, not to mention being the best tracker out there, but when one day he does not return from a trip, Rachel starts to get worried.
The longer he is gone, the less people think he would have survived. Rachel is adamanent. She fully believes he still lives, even if the city now has deemed him legally dead, and her protectorship has been transferred from her father, to... the boy she wished she never could see again.
Meet Logan. The boy of Rachel's dreams and nightmares. The two share a complicated history that she doesn't want to think about for fear it will dread up all the embarassing thoughts from that time of her life, but when Logan suddenly becomes her protector aka guardian, she is forced to spend more time with him than she would have liked.
But that doesn't stop her from wanting to escape his clutches and go search for her father, but unbeknowest to Rachel, Logan also is planning on searching for him as well... when the time is right.
Rachel is really a strong and kickass character. She is seventeen years of age, a few months from being deemed an adult and no longer need a protector if she so wishes, but until then she doesn't have much of a choice.
The fact she does not give up hope on finding her father and fully believes he is still alive out there, even though everyone else has written him off as being destroyed and killed out in the wastelands, she does not give up on hoping. I admired that about her.
Logan is also an amazing strong character. He comes from a background he isn't proud of. He has had a hard life since his mother was taken away from him as a child, and had to live on the streets until Jared, Rachel's father took him in and gave him a job. I can imagine he felt like he was giving a second chance at life and didn't want to ruin that by doing anything that would put that in jeopardy.
This story is written in both Rachel and Logan's POVs. It's interesting to see things from both of their perspective, as they deal with the same, and different things at the same time. You can understand where they are both coming from. They are alike and yet so different. They hope. They love and they fear, and not all in that order.
The relationship between these two was probably one of my favourite things about this book, if not the favourite thing. It was so real and honest. So hard and yet so heartbreaking. The love story these two have going on didn't just start. But it's from this point forward when it starts to progress into something that is worth fighting for.
If you are interested in a story about love, mystery, loyalty, family with kickass characters in a heartbreakingly dystopian world, then this is for you.
I look forward to August when the sequel comes out. I can't wait to see where Rachel and Logan's story goes to next.
Rating: 4.5 / 5
Um well. I'm kind of disappointed really.I went into this with pretty good expectations after the reviews I had seen. But while I liked the characters well enough.. I was bored.. to the point where I was falling asleep. Granted, it may be 1am, but still.
I guess I didn't feel the kind of depth that attracts me to books. Or I just didn't feel the characters and the plot.
Such a shame really. :/
I'd probably put this more at a 2.5
This review has been x posted at The Book TwinsFrom the moment we were left with that agonizing cliffhanger in Deity, I have been itching to find what was coming next. The novella, Elxir did provide a little comfort and gave me hope for the future, but of course, I wanted more.
Jennifer L.Armentrout has proved time and time again the ability to deliver in her stories, characters and world-building, but in the second to last book of this heart-thumping series comes so many twists and turns you won't see coming. It will leave you hanging after each single page.
When we return with Apollyon, we have Alex who is now off the Elixir, but still connected to Seth via the bond. It started to get annoying after a while as she called him "Her Seth" it was like.. you know, she was sired or something /crackjoke.
But as the story progressed throughout the book, Alex soon was able to break the bond and return to her former self, thank goodness. I'm not sure how much I could take with the way she was being. And there was so many other important things she had to do.
Now that Alex is one of two Apollyon's, her concerns start to be focused on what happens when Seth gets his hands on her and possibly then turning into a God Killer. The thoughts and ideas are so unimaginable to think about. They just better hope that does not happen, because if it does... then God help them all.
While we do see Seth here and there, more than in the previous one that is for sure. In feel there is still some hope that he can be saved. Whether or not that is true remains to be seen, and I am sure will be discussed in the final book in this series coming later in the year.
But the romance between Alex and Aiden goes form strength to strength. There is nothing he wouldn't do for her, and I love how much they have gone through and come out stronger on the other side. I knew from the beginning these two would be a love like no other. It would be tested and tried, but usually those kinds of romances come out on top by the end.
I'm counting down the days until Sentinel is released. I can't wait to see how everything all ends for this story.
Rating: 4.5/5
This review has been x posted at The Book TwinsLisa Strasse has come up with a imaginative story to dig into, as we find ourselves in a government funded dystopian novel. This genre has exploded since the arrival of The Hunger Games. I know that I was very hesitant to get into this kind of thing back then, but since those books.. I have discovered a crave for this very genre moreso than any other.
There have been so many books I have read, while some more similar than others, but each have their own individual spin on this dark, haunting and devastating world.
Welcome to the United Northern Allegiance; formally known as The United States, Mexico and Canada.
We're introduced to Alenna Shawcrossed, who after losing her parents (not by death, but by disappearance) at a young age, becomes an orphan. At age sixteen she takes the compulsory test every student takes that will determine whether or not you have rebellious tendencies toward criminal behaviour. Most people pass... and some, don't. Aleena never thought much about not passing because she couldn't harm a fly even if she tried, so when she does fail by whatever means she can't believe her luck.
After failing, Aleena finds herself being shipped off to a prison camp alpha where the life expentancy for each 'unachored soul' is eighteen years of age.
After she and another person wake up on 'The wheel' for which the inhabitants call it, since it's split into different sections, they try to find their way out. When they are caught for being in a section they shouldn't be in, Aleena and the other newest recruit to The Wheel need to try stay alive before they end up dead.
I was very impressed with this book. I had a feeling I would enjoy it, but never imagined how much. While things do start out slow... when things start to reveal themselves, it takes on a whole new meaning.
While there is romance in this book it doesn't take up the main plot, or does it overtake it. I know some may not like the way it happens, but I found it rather cute. It's not the earth-shattering love, nor is there a love triangle (thank goodness).
I love the friendships Aleena makes during her time on the island. Not only with Liam, but with the other people in the tribe which take her in.
There is certainly one surprise that I didn't see coming and makes for some interesting story.
The end...while leave for more story-telling, but I don't think it is as bad of a cliffhanger as I have seen in other books. It's good enough though to make me want to know more. To see where things will progress.
Bring on August.
Rating: 4.5/5
This review has been x posted at The Book TwinsFrom the very first instant I heard about this book I knew I wanted to read it. The world building that Alexandra Bracken has created in this novel is simply divine. It's a class act of just how brutal a post-apocalyptic world would be.
Tragic. Horrifying. Dark and real.
The moment Ruby woke up on her tenth birthday she knew something was different. She didn't understand how different until she was then shipped off to a government 'rehabilitation' camp. After being one of the few kids who survived the epidemic illness that killed off the majority of her classmates, Ruby knew there was a reason she was left alone.
Just when she begins to think she has made a friend in such a lonely world she and these new kids have found themselves in; Ruby does the impossible: she erases her best friend's memories without even realizing it.
Thurmond is split up into different colours depending on what sort of risk they think you are or might be in the future.
The treatment of these kids are so horrible. It becomes to the stage where you are not afraid of the adults --- they are afraid of YOU.
After managing to escape from Thurmond, Ruby finds herself on the run until she stumbles upon a group of other runaways just like herself, others who have each escaped from camps just like she did with Thurmond. They are on search for East River, which is rumored to be a safe place for kids like themselves.
Not only is this an action-packed story full of surprises at every end, it's also very character-building. You begin to understand what lies beneath the heart of Ruby. Why she doesn't want anyone close to her and how she will protect those she does care about to the very end.
She doesn't start out as a strong character.... but it's something that gradually grows into something so much bigger than an outright kickass heroine.
Ruby is someone I think we can relate to. A scared girl who was taken from her family at a young age and is trying to find her way in the world. A place for someone like her can belong.
It's also with the help of Liam, the leader of the runaways can she truly see what is worth living for. Slowly, the more she is around him... she begins to open up her heart in a magnificent way.
I definitely look forward to the second book in this series... especially with we are indeed left with a cliffhanger that makes you yearn for more.
I enjoyed this book so much, and I thank goodness I found this story in my life.
Review: 4.5/5
ETA: Review to follow.Calling all Australians.
I have a Giveaway for The Heiresses up on my Blog.
Enter for your chance to win.
The Heiresses by Allison Rushby | Special Giveaway
This review has been x posted at The Book TwinsEverything begun with The Selection. America went from not wanting anything to do with it, to a point where she decided it was where she wanted to be.
The first book in this amazing trilogy introduced you to our beloved characters, plot and the world which Kiera created. It was the book in which I fell in love with this story. Not only for America & Maxon, but also because I knew there was trouble rumbling deep down in the rebellion. Not everyone is happy....
In The Elite, America finds herself competing, in the real sense for the affections of Maxon. But along with the competition, America finds out some interesting things about her country, how it was formed and how some change has to come into affect at some point.
Not everyone is happy about the way things are done. The fact this competition is even around. And those people start to become more of a threat than they were before.
What I loved about this book was that it got a bit more darker than the previous. More attacks. More rebellion. It also had more romantic moments, with more than one boy. But I think America had made her choice very early on... and even though some things have challenged that decision., there is no doubt it sticks and will continue to do so throughout the final book.
I know there are many people who didn't like some of the things, actions that took place... but when I actually thought about the reasons.. I understood why they did the things they did, and I forgave them. They are still... after all young people trying to understand the laws of nature and find their place in the world.
While the actions of both America and Maxon could sometimes get on your nerves, in the long run.. I don't think those problems will cause any affect.
There are some characters like Aspen and Celeste who got on my nerves. Celeste, well.. nobody likes her and she has always been on my last nerve since she was introduced...but Aspen, I felt was in the background and really didn't serve any purpose apart from being in this so-called triangle. Although, toward the end.. I did feel a bit of a hint that he might be able to move on.. with someone else *cough*.
WHY does THE ONE have to be a year away? Since Kiera just announced it won't be released until May 6th, 2014! Ahh.. well, she better give me plenty of AM stuff to tease me with until it comes out.
Review: 5/5
