Unravel Me (Shatter Me #2) by Tahereh Mafi

All About It:
tick
tick
tick
tick
tick
it's almost
time for war.

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

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

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

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

Show moreWhat I Thought:

Oh. My. God. I-I can’t breathe…Warner, Warner, Warner, WARNER!!! and Juliette!! Oh. My. GOD! I need more! More! More! MORE!!! This book, this sequel is SO genuinely alive every twist, turn, breath, tear, and pain is your own. It is a terrifying life you live while within the four hundred and sixty some odd pages of this book! When I say “I can’t breathe” I mean it LITERALLY not figuratively. I cannot breathe. This book stole my breath and ran millions of miles across decades of times away. I don’t know how I will survive until the final book in Juliette’s story is in my hands and being devoured by my eyes! It sounds insane, I know this, I know it sounds like a ranting and raving fan but SERIOUSLY it is true! Read Unravel Me (but read Shatter Me first…of course) and you will understand just how I feel! I am SO beyond not kidding. This book…these characters…these living, breathing, REAL people are indescribable. I would pay a thousand dollars, right now, on the spot, for the next installment (of course this would require me to actually have a thousand dollar…eh minor details right?). Oh or if not that what about all the monopoly money in the world, that’s got to be worth something? Or, or MY SOUL!! Come on Ms. Mafi think of the possibilities of everything you could do with possession of your very own (pet) soul!! They are endless! Come on what do you say? A soul for the last of Juliette’s and Warner’s story? (Can you tell who my heart belongs too?) PLEASE? I beg of you! ANYONE who is deciding whether or not to pick up this book, DON’T hesitate! It is worth your money and your time! And maybe put in a good word for who the crazy girl who told you so and maybe I’ll get lucky with the ending sooner rather than later! Okay, crazy and rambling, over enthused fanatic is signing off now. Just remember my proposition Ms. Mafi!

 Five (ten if it went up that high) out of Five Fairies

 

PS: Word of warning if Mr. Warner is not the one to end up with Juliette in the end: I may just have to hire a team of world renowned computer hackers to break into your laptop, HarperCollins’s computer systems, and any servers I have to make it happen, to rewrite the ending, before final print! Okay…maybe I’m just kidding…I would probably just accept the ending any way it goes…maybe/probably….or I just MIGHT have an ability like Juliette’s that could ruin the world where Warner doesn’t get the girl…..Muahahaha! Okay, really, seriously (probably/maybe) just kidding. ;)

 

These Broken Stars by Amie Kaufman and Meagan Spooner

All About It:
It's a night like any other on board the Icarus. Then, catastrophe strikes: the massive luxury spaceliner is yanked out of hyperspace and plummets into the nearest planet. Lilac LaRoux and Tarver Merendsen survive. And they seem to be alone.

Lilac is the daughter of the richest man in the universe. Tarver comes from nothing, a young war hero who learned long ago that girls like Lilac are more trouble than they’re worth. But with only each other to rely on, Lilac and Tarver must work together, making a tortuous journey across the eerie, deserted terrain to seek help.

Then, against all odds, Lilac and Tarver find a strange blessing in the tragedy that has thrown them into each other’s arms. Without the hope of a future together in their own world, they begin to wonder—would they be better off staying here forever?

Everything changes when they uncover the truth behind the chilling whispers that haunt their every step. Lilac and Tarver may find a way off this planet. But they won’t be the same people who landed on it.

--

A timeless love story, THESE BROKEN STARS sets into motion a sweeping science fiction series of companion novels. The Starbound Trilogy: Three worlds. Three love stories. One enemy.

What I Thought:
I am not going to lie, I wasn't a fan of this book at first. It started off slow and with characters that grated on my last nerve. However, once the plains came into view (you'll understand soon enough!) everything picked up and changed for the better. Lilac and Tarver changed over the course of their journey. The point of any good book is to tell a story, one that is good, entertaining, fantastical but also one that shows the progression of characters, growing up. "These Broken Stars" did both, and it brought in elements of not only dystopian but of suspense and supernatural as well. All in all, I like this book. I did not love it but I liked it. If you can stick with it through the first part the story beyond is worth it. Tarver and Lilac have so much crap happen, things you wouldn't expect and it blows your mind, keeping you enthralled in the words. I look forward, eagerly, to the sequel. 

3 faires out of Five 

Mortality (The Hitchhiker Strain #1) by Kellie Sheridan

All About It:

After surviving a deadly plague outbreak, sixteen-year-old Savannah thought she had lived through the very worst of human history. There was no way to know that the miracle vaccine would put everyone at risk for a fate worse than un-death.

Now, two very different kinds of infected walk the Earth, intent on nothing but feeding and destroying what little remains of civilization. When the inoculated are bitten, infection means watching on in silent horror as self-control disappears and the idea of feasting on loved ones becomes increasingly hard to ignore.

Starving and forced to live inside of the abandoned high school, all Savannah wants is the chance to fight back. When a strange boy arrives with a plan to set everything right, she gets her chance. Meeting Cole changes everything. Mere survival will never be enough.

Show more

ShWhat I Thought:

I have almost no words to describe how much I loved this book. I said, almost! Not telling everyone how amazing this book is would be a crime, though, so I’ll try and do Ms. Sheridan’s work justice! From start to finish (in one sitting, up all night long) I was absorbed in the story and the characters and could not put it down! Savanna, or Savvy as her friends affectionately call her, was an amazing protagonist. You felt what she felt and saw what she saw. While I cannot go into much detail without spoiling a spectacular part of the story, the other point of view we hear from is pretty good too, although I did find myself quaking in anticipation to get back to Savvy’s story line. The romance in this book is frustrating but wonderful and you finish with the first book thinking there could be a love square in the future (although not really…Cole wins because he’s just yummy!) But Zach and ??character (won’t be spoiling this surprise, sorry, well not really READ THE DANG BOOK!!!) might have a shot too! I found the two different waves of zombie infection more than interesting. Most zombie stories do not branch out this much and it makes the new “Zombie Fad” excitingly more enticing and interesting. The journey taken by both main characters is never dull and full of so many twists, turns and heart aching decisions that it is impossible to not become absorbed in the words. I could go on and on BUT I won’t because as much as I could say there is just no way to tell more and not ruin anything. Plus as much as I wish and as hard as I try you cannot fully understand the FANTASTICNESS of Mortality until you read it for yourself. So go out and pick yourself up a copy! Don’t waste any time. Go, go NOW! Okay, I guess you can wait until morning when the stores open…although Amazon.com IS always open. Haha. Seriously, don’t overlook this one. You’ll regret it! The only part I am sorry to report is that the next installment will not be out until later this year. It’s worth the wait though! Thanks for sharing your zombie-fied world with us Ms. Sheridan!

 

Five out of Five Fairies

Daynight by Megan Thomason

All About It:

Meet The Second Chance Institute (SCI): Earth’s benevolent non-profit by day, Thera’s totalitarian regime by night. Their motto: Because Everyone Deserves a Second Chance at Life(TM). Reality: the SCI subjects Second Chancers to strict controls and politically motivated science experiments like Cleaving—forced lifetime union between two people who have sex. Punishment for disobeying SCI edicts? Immediate Exile or death.

Meet Kira Donovan. Fiercely loyal, overly optimistic, and ensnared by the promise of a full-ride college scholarship, Kira signs the SCI Recruit contract to escape memories of a tragedy that left her boyfriend and friends dead.

Meet Blake Sundry. Bitter about being raised in Exile and his mother’s death, Blake’s been trained to infiltrate and destroy the SCI. Current barrier to success? His Recruit partner—Miss Goody Two Shoes Kira Donovan.

Meet Ethan Darcton. Born with a defective heart and resulting inferiority complex, Ethan’s forced to do his SCI elite family’s bidding. Cleave-worthy Kira Donovan catches his eye, but the presiding powers give defect-free Blake Sundry first dibs.

Full of competing agendas, romantic entanglements, humor, twists and turns, daynight is Megan Thomason’s debut young adult dystopian novel and first in the daynight series

Description from Amazon.com


What I Thought:

I was a little bit weary of this book at first due to its three alternating viewpoints; I was however more than pleasantly surprised. This book was fantastic! I could hardly put it down, and being a junior in college that is not an ideal situation to be in. But, you know what, I DID it and I DON’T regret it. The story line in Daynight is different than any other novel out there, refreshingly so. The characters are original and you fall for all of them. The love triangle of Kira, Blake and Ethan is frustrating but delightful. Everything is included in this story, which I know doesn’t make much sense but saying any more than that would give away HUGE twists and turns that take place. Daynight by Megan Thomason is better in its 324 pages than all the Twilight Saga books put together. The ending will leave you down on your knees begging for more. I cannot WAIT to return to the world of Thera (while the characters may SERIOUSLY disagree with me) created by Ms. Thomason.  

 

Five out of Five Fairies

Rise by Anna Carey

All About It:

Rebel armies are getting closer, and the fate of The New America rests with Eve. Trapped in the City of Sand and married to a man of her father's choosing, Eve can't forget her love for Caleb-- her passion for the rebel cause. Then tragedy strikes, and Eve must choose who to leave behind, who to save, and who to fight in this final battle for freedom.
(obtained from the ARC of Rise)

What I Thought:

For how much I loved the other two in the series, the finale of the Eve trilogy was a major disappointment.

 Don't get me wrong, the writing was still fantastic and the story so enthralling that once I started in on the ARC (advanced readers copy) I could not put it down and finished in one sitting. However, the ending, the final conclusion and farewell to the trilogy left so much to be desired. It concluded, yes, but it did not leave you feeling like it did. I actually want to cry at how awful the final page was. It was the conclusion and yet it wasn't. To make this trilogy truly amazing, before publication a new ending must be written. Otherwise, it leaves the dedicated reader cold. Add more description. Without it put in, this series in nothing. I cannot say much without spoiling, but PLEASE Ms. Carey for the fans RE-WRITE the ending, make it warmer. Let us SEE it; it is one place in writing the writer should not be bound by the "show don't tell" rule. I want to leave this world of Eve behind with a warm and fuzzy feeling. As it stands right now the ending came to fast. With the fast paced ending there is not enough transition to the end, you leave it feeling dead inside. So before official publication TELL us what the last few paragraphs lead up to, show it in WORDS not vague descriptions. It will make the reader happier, feel more satisfied, and NOT like they wasted their precious time reading something that will never end. If nothing changes, I am sorry I recommended this series to so many people.

So, like a broken record I say, PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE Ms. Carey, WRITE A DIFFERENT ENDING!! Eve deserves it, you deserve it, the READERS deserve it...Please.

1 faire out of Five

Dearly, Beloved by Lia Habel

All About It:

Can the living coexist with the living dead?

That’s the question that has New Victorian society fiercely divided ever since the mysterious plague known as “The Laz” hit the city of New London and turned thousands into walking corpses. But while some of these zombies are mindless monsters, hungry for human flesh, others can still think, speak, reason, and control their ravenous new appetites.

Just ask Nora Dearly, the young lady of means who was nearly kidnapped by a band of sinister zombies but valiantly rescued by a dashing young man . . . of the dead variety.

Nora and her savior, the young zombie soldier Bram Griswold, fell hopelessly in love. But others feel only fear and loathing for the reanimated dead. Now, as tensions grow between pro- and anti-zombie factions, battle lines are being drawn in the streets. And though Bram is no longer in the New Victorian army, he and his ex-commando zombie comrades are determined to help keep the peace. That means taking a dangerous stand between The Changed, a radical group of sentient zombies fighting for survival, and The Murder, a masked squad of urban guerrillas hellbent on destroying the living dead. But zombies aren’t the only ones in danger: Their living allies are also in The Murder’s crosshairs, and for one vengeful zealot, Nora Dearly is the number one target.

As paranoia, prejudice, and terrorist attacks threaten to plunge the city into full-scale war, Nora’s scientist father and his team continue their desperate race to unlock the secrets of “The Laz” and find a cure. But their efforts may be doomed when a mysterious zombie appears bearing an entirely new strain of the virus—and the nation of New Victoria braces for a new wave of the apocalypse.

What I Thought:

It is not very often that I can say a sophomore book is better than the first in a series, but often or not, I can say it now. Dearly, Beloved was in simple words…”Just…WOW!” I found the first in Ms. Lia Habel’s series, Dearly, Departed, a bit hard to get through. I just kept picking it up, reading a little, becoming bored and placing it back where I had gotten it from. This was not the case with Beloved. I could barely manage to put it down to shower, eat and sleep and DON’T even get me started on the work thing! I would often set aside something I was supposed to be doing to continue on with the story!

Like Departed, Dearly, Beloved was told in alternating viewpoint. All in all you hear from Nora, Bram, Pamela, Michael, Vespertine and a new comer, Laura. Each character gave their views and parts in the current apocalypse. I usually find alternating views hard to stomach and annoying. I like to hear from one person and one person only. But in Dearly, Beloved the alternations worked. Nora and Bram, while the main characters of the story, were interesting but by far not my favorite to partake in reading. Honestly, as horrible as it may sound once you read this marvelous book, my favorite was Michael! He was so dark, twisted, and sad that I found myself disliking him yes, but more so feeling utterly sorry for the poor lad and hoping something would come of his evilness. Pamela, Nora’s best friend was a tad on the annoying side to listen too. She complains and worries far too much. I did however find that as annoying as she was I connected with her the most. She was the most real to me. As for Vespertine I truly hated her in the first book but from her SMALL part in Beloved I see my hatred stance changing. I think I might actually be coming around to liking her! And finally, the new comer, Laura, she is a member of a new zombie gang called “The Changed.” All in this group are zombies but while at first on the side of peaceful coexistence with the living the group slowly comes undone and things fall apart, leaving a nasty side effect for the rest of the world. Laura was likable but a bit infuriating at the same time. She sits around and doesn’t take charge, leaves the horrors to continue around her and keep her mouth shut. I cannot wait to see what becomes of her in the next installment.

Dearly, Beloved was fantastic. While I DO believe mindless, crazy, and flesh hungry are all zombies should be, I am coming around to the whole good zombie thing! I am actually falling for Bram (just as Nora!) The ending of this sophomore novel was tear jerking and beautiful. I find myself anxiously awaiting the next by Ms. Lia Habel!

4 and 1/2 faires out of Five

Wither and Fever:The Chemical Garden Triliogy by Lauren DeStefano

All About It:

Wither:
At age sixteen, Rhine Ellery has four years to live. Thanks to a botched effort to create a perfect race, all females live to be twenty, and males live to age twenty-five. While geneticists seek a miracle antidote, orphans roam the streets and polygamy abounds. After Rhine is kidnapped and sold as a bride, she is desperate to escape from her husband’s strange world, which includes a sinister father-in-law in search of the antidote and a slew of sister wives who are not to be trusted. On the cusp of her seventeenth birthday, Rhine attempts to flee—but what she finds is a society spiraling into anarchy.

Fever:  
Rhine and Gabriel may have escaped the beautiful prison of Wither’s mansion, but they are far from escaping danger. First they’re chased for stealing a getaway boat, and then the fleeing pair ends up in the eerie den of Madame, an old woman who collects girls and sells them to the highest bidders. Worst of all, Vaughn, Rhine’s sinister father-in-law, seems to be on her trail every step of the way. Rhine remains determined to get to her brother in Manhattan—but the road they are on is long and perilous.

Now that Rhine has finally regained her freedom, what lengths will she need to go to in order to keep it?

What I Thought:

For just about a year, Wither sat on my bookshelf just waiting for its turn to be read. It took me a year to get to it, and GOODNESS I cannot believe I let that happen! I immediately fell in love with the main character Rhine. Ms. DeStefano blew me away and drew me in all at the same time. I couldn’t get past the world she created, past the dangers and fears that came with it. The short life of twenty years for girls and twenty-five for boys makes any person who reads it think long and hard about their life. Have they lived it well enough? I am twenty at this moment and cannot imagine being on the cusp of death. I am however getting away from the book review now aren’t I? Rhine was kidnapped, sold, wed, and kept prisoner all under the pretense of love and marriage. Linden was the man she was wed too, along with two other girls, creating a sister-wife living arrangement. I loved the characters of the sister-wives. Jenna and Cecily were great entertainment. The fact the tough subjects were not strayed away from makes this series even more enticing. There is sex, polygamy, teenage child birth (as no one lives much longer) and SO much tension and evil. This series has it all! I know much of what I am saying seems cryptic and meaningless but I cannot say much more without ruining not only Wither but the sequel Fever which was equally as fantastic and capturing. I can say one thing; don’t waste a year like me, READ Wither and Fever NOW! I promise they will be worth your time! The future world, the love, the lies, the deceit, the Gabriel…..What more can I say? Read now! The only regret you will have is that it will be another whole year before the explosive finale comes out! Word of warning though….the ending of Fever will leave a bad taste in your mouth and your heart skipping beats….it puts you on the edge of a cliff, hanging by the tips of your fingers, not falling over, not dying as you hit the ground….hanging…just hanging….closure is a thing unheard of in this sequels end. I make a plea though…Like I said before I am dead or dying in this future world! Can’t a dying girl get a conclusion! Show More

Show More

Five out of Five Faires!