The Fault in Our Stars by John Green Book Review

Despite the tumor-shrinking medical miracle that has bought her a few years, Hazel has never been anything but terminal, her final chapter inscribed upon diagnosis. But when a gorgeous plot twist named Augustus Waters suddenly appears at Cancer Kid Support Group, Hazel's story is about to be completely rewritten.

Insightful, bold, irreverent, and raw, The Fault in Our Stars is award-winning author John Green's most ambitious and heartbreaking work yet, brilliantly exploring the funny, thrilling, and tragic business of being alive and in love.








My rating: 4/5

I honestly don't know what I can say that hasn't been said before about The Fault In Our Stars. It's one of those books that are pretty much universally known, the book cover was copied and adapted to so many other books hoping to catch on to its success. A million times we saw the phrase "Okay? Okay" or "Some infinites are bigger than other infinites" and so I read it already knowing pretty much everything that was going to happen, from the characters to the plot, to that much spoiled ending and I think some of the excitement was lost on me because of that.

I already knew everything, and that made the reading a bit boring for me. I like surprises. It's not to say I didn't enjoy it, I did and I think John Green has a wonderful way to make his characters come to life, to give them stories and voices. I guess I just wish I had read it a bit earlier.

Destroy Me (Shatter Me 1.5) by Tahereh Mafi Book Review

Perfect for the fans of Shatter Me who are desperately awaiting the release of Unravel Me, this novella-length digital original will bridge the gap between these two novels from the perspective of the villain we all love to hate, Warner, the ruthless leader of Sector 45.

In Tahereh Mafi’s Shatter Me, Juliette escaped from The Reestablishment by seducing Warner—and then putting a bullet in his shoulder. But as she’ll learn in Destroy Me, Warner is not that easy to get rid of. . .

Back at the base and recovering from his near-fatal wound, Warner must do everything in his power to keep his soldiers in check and suppress any mention of a rebellion in the sector. Still as obsessed with Juliette as ever, his first priority is to find her, bring her back, and dispose of Adam and Kenji, the two traitors who helped her escape. But when Warner’s father, The Supreme Commander of The Reestablishment, arrives to correct his son’s mistakes, it’s clear that he has much different plans for Juliette. Plans Warner simply cannot allow.

Set after Shatter Me and before its forthcoming sequel, Unravel Me,Destroy Me is a novella told from the perspective of Warner, the ruthless leader of Sector 45.

Love is a heartless bastard.

I finished this book in a day!!!

I almost never do that! Ok, sure it was a novella, but still! I’m so proud of myself *sniffs*

It was truly refreshing to read from Warner’s point of view in this novella. We not only get to know more about his character but also a bit more about the world the series its set in, something I felt was a bit lacking in Shatter Me.

However, and the reason why I did not give this a flawless five stars rating, is because I have to agree with what other people have told me about the series, and that is that the characters are behaving and thinking in a certain way to move the story into another direction as the opposite of what it should be; they shouldn’t have to lose their personalities and traits to move the plot but rather act around it and find a way to solve it.

In Shatter Me Warner was introduced as the villain; he was heartless, cruel and intelligent, putting Juliette through torture so he could turn her into a weapon for the reestablishment. But here, Warner is changed into a misunderstood guy with good intentions who simply doesn’t know how to make things right.

I believe this is the way his character is going to be portrayed from now on, his behaviour in the previous book is brushed aside and his abuse ignored under good intentions. This is not acceptable, but in a certain way Warner has been changed so much that the villain he is in Shatter Me is not the same we’ll see in the next novels. For the Warner in Destroy Me would have never tortured Juliette like he did, and as much as it bothers me that his personality was changed so much to justify what he did and make him a better love interest, I’ll save my judgement for the next books to see if it has worked out.

What did you guys think? Has Destroy Me changed the way you see Warner?

Shatter Me by Tahereh Mafi Book review

Juliette hasn’t touched anyone in exactly 264 days.

The last time she did, it was an accident, but The Reestablishment locked her up for murder. No one knows why Juliette’s touch is fatal. As long as she doesn’t hurt anyone else, no one really cares. The world is too busy crumbling to pieces to pay attention to a 17-year-old girl. Diseases are destroying the population, food is hard to find, birds don’t fly anymore, and the clouds are the wrong color.

The Reestablishment said their way was the only way to fix things, so they threw Juliette in a cell. Now so many people are dead that the survivors are whispering war – and The Reestablishment has changed its mind. Maybe Juliette is more than a tortured soul stuffed into a poisonous body. Maybe she’s exactly what they need right now.

Juliette has to make a choice: Be a weapon. Or be a warrior.

My rating:5/5


"Laughter comes from living." I shrug, try to sound indifferent. "I've never really been alive before.”

First and foremost, let me have a second to fangirl about that cover.

Ehem… Now that that is done, let’s proceed to the actual review.

  

Shatter Me is the story of Juliette, a girl that thanks to her lethal touch she has spent the last 264 days confined in a mental asylum during which time she hasn’t touched another human being, the last time she did it cost someone’s life.

Locked up alone and forgotten, Juliette spends her time in a very fragile state of mind. That is, of course until the day when she gets a new roommate. Despite her fears Juliette finds herself able to trust her new friend Adam, and when the sector leader Warner seeks her out to use as a weapon it will be Juliette’s time to decide whether she wants to remain fragile or fight back.

Before I started this book I wasn’t really sure what to think about it. I had heard a lot of comments about the writing style (I’ll get on to that later) the characters and also a few spoilers; so I dug in rather reluctantly and I was pleasantly surprised!

First, and since this seems to be one of the particularities of the book, I’ll discuss the writing:

Mafi has a very distinctive style, and I can tell you now it’s a love-it-or-hate-it. In order to portray Julliete’s fragile mental state the author uses many metaphors, repetitions and even scratched out words or phrases that represents mostly Juliette’s honest thoughts to which she doesn’t want to admit.

For me it was weird at first. There were sentences and descriptions that were wonderful and that could move me like the one above.

But there were others like this:

"Every organ in my body falls to the ground."

That were kind of weird.

But eventually I got to love it for its weirdness and uniqueness.

As a main character, Juliette was an odd one but I guess everything about this novel is odd. After spending so long trapped inside a cell, her thoughts and personality had been racked until there was only a shelf of a life left. Juliette was dependant, weak, insecure, all traits fitting what she went through. She would pass out every now and then for reasons that seemed innocuous to us, she would blush and stammer every page or so, but it made sense. This girl has been through hell.

There is insta-love in this novel yes but, her relationship with Adam, although it is really fast (and I’m not a fan of the “I have always loved you”) it makes sense in between the narrative. I mean, Juliette has been locked up for over a year, and she has been a monster pretty much her entire life. She never had someone who loved her, her parents told her she was lucky they didn’t kill her, and so finding someone who cares about her and wants to help her is something so new and Juliette is so desperate she will do anything to cling to that bit of hope.

Luckily Adam is a good guy, he cares for her but even at the end of the book Juliette is still rather fragile, she is not a person just yet, she needs to grow and be loved to learn who she is.

As a villain, warner was excellent. Creepy and an asshole all at once. He was one of the most interesting characters

.

Shatter me is an intense roller coaster, and I can’t assure you whether you’ll love it or hate it, but you’ll surely remember it.

My Fake Fiancé by Helen Cooper Book Review

He wanted her for four weeks. Only she didn't really know why. 

TJ Walker and Mila Antonia Brookstone have known each other for years. He's her brother's best friend and she's admired his muscular body and handsome good looks since she was a teenager. Only he was never interested, until now. 

In a game of cat and mouse, TJ and Mila find themselves going back and forth like they always do, only this time something is different. They become closer on a summer trip to the lake house, only neither one really knows who is pursuing whom. And the secrets behind both pursuits are well hidden. 

TJ wants her to be his fake fiancé for a reason, but the reason she accepts might well surprise everyone. In the game of romance, can secrets ever truly lead to love? 

NOTE: This novella is a free prequel to the full-length standalone novel Four Week Fiancé, that will be released on June 23rd. It will also be included in Four Week Fiancé when it is released, so you can read it first as a free download or you can read it as part of the novel on release day


My rating: 3.5/5

After a few days of deliberation, I still don’t know what to think about My Fake Fiancé. On the one hand, it’s a cute and fun story good to spend the time. On the other hand, that’s all it has to it. There is no originality to it, no excitement or emotion since I feel I have read the same book hundreds of times before.

The writing was rather dull and cliché, there was no personal style to it, nothing to tell it apart from so many other stories out there. There were some sentences that were particularly cringe worthy, and I found myself laughing at things that… well, I wasn’t supposed to be laughing about.

“I can’t make your decision for you¸ Mila.” My voice was deep, some might say husky, as I looked down into her wide eyes.

I appreciate it when the author puts effort into describing their characters but putting words and adjectives that doesn’t make sense isn’t helpful to create a picture for us readers. And what guy would think that his voice was deep ad husky? It’s just weird.

The characters were alright but, again, there was nothing especial about them; virginal and whimsical girl who is confused on why the “hot” guy wants her, and an almost rude and distant dude who isn’t also very sure on why he wants the virginal girl… Mila and TJ had no hobbies, no likes or dislikes they weren’t characters but simply plot devices to move the story forward.

The plot, do I need to say it again? Dull, common and predictable. I usually enjoy these kinds of stories nonetheless, but when the characters and the writing aren’t good…

In the end, My Fake Fiancé is a good story to have some predictable fun for a while, but it is nothing especial in itself. I do hope that the next story (This is a prequel) is better because I do believe this has a lot of potential but was sadly wasted.

Shattered Blue by Lauren Bird Hollowitz Book Review

For Noa and Callum, being together is dangerous, even deadly. From the start, sixteen-year-old Noa senses that the mysterious transfer student to her Monterey boarding school is different. Callum unnerves and intrigues her, and even as she struggles through family tragedy, she’s irresistibly drawn to him. Soon they are bound by his deepest secret: Callum is Fae, banished from another world after a loss hauntingly similar to her own.

But in Noa’s world, Callum needs a special human energy, Light, to survive; his body steals it through touch—or a kiss. And Callum’s not the only Fae on the hunt. When Callum is taken, Noa must decide: Will she sacrifice everything to save him? Even if it means learning their love may not be what she thought?



My rating: 5/5

I received a copy of this book thanks to the publisher via Netgalley.


Your Sister is dead.

Those are the words Noa wakes up to everyday since the accident that took away her sister Isla's life and that broke her family in more ways than one, leaving all of them to seclude in whichever comfort they could get, Noa in her Poetry, her father in his work, her mother... well in anyway she could.

I loved Noa and her resilience, her strenght and will to move forward from a loss so great and keep on living, trying to find the beauty in life.

If Noa had been a different kind of girl, those words might have crushed her, curled her in under dark lines and letters. But every morning, Noa woke up to their sting in her cheeks, their buzz in her cheeks- and got up anyway.

The writing style is absolutely wonderful, it took my breath away more than once with its ability to capture emotions so easily and to put into words something so complex as loss and love. The family relationships were outstanding, the book captured a moment so horrible and was able to show us each perspective, all the pain and the sorrow, the regrets and joys.

Despite her tragic past, Noa enjoys her time at school thanks to her friends who support and love her through everything. But something new happens, another student appears at school, a strange boy who keeps to himself and captures Noa's attention, despite her friends wariness.

The story is told in three different perspectives and I love how the author was able to give each character a voice of their own, each of them dealing with their inner demons as this love story unfurls.

The romance, to be honest I wasn't sure how it would work considering how Callum is at risk of stealing Noa's energy through touch, but it was resolved well enough and I enjoyed their love story; it wasn't insta-love of any kind, and it made sense for this two people to meet and grow to be something more than friends.

However, the book ends on a cliffhanger and, considering how Shattered Blue hasn't been published yet, the waiting for the sequel is going to be excrusiating!

The Darkest Minds by Alexandra Bracken Book Review

When Ruby woke up on her tenth birthday, something about her had changed. Something alarming enough to make her parents lock her in the garage and call the police. Something that gets her sent to Thurmond, a brutal government “rehabilitation camp.” She might have survived the mysterious disease that’s killed most of America’s children, but she and the others have emerged with something far worse: frightening abilities they cannot control.

Now sixteen, Ruby is one of the dangerous ones.

When the truth comes out, Ruby barely escapes Thurmond with her life. Now she’s on the run, desperate to find the one safe haven left for kids like her—East River. She joins a group of kids who escaped their own camp. Liam, their brave leader, is falling hard for Ruby. But no matter how much she aches for him, Ruby can’t risk getting close. Not after what happened to her parents.

When they arrive at East River, nothing is as it seems, least of all its mysterious leader. But there are other forces at work, people who will stop at nothing to use Ruby in their fight against the government. Ruby will be faced with a terrible choice, one that may mean giving up her only chance at a life worth living.

My rating:4/5

“The Darkest Minds tend to hide behind the most unlikely faces.”  

So you decided not to play fair, huh book? Leaving us with that heartbreaking ending?? Well... I'm over it, just so you know, COMPLETELY FINE.

Clue: I'm not.

The darkest minds tells the story of Ruby, one of the survivors of a plague that killed thousands of children and left the remaining survivors with strange and sometimes dangerous abilities. Ruby is one of the dangerous one.

Their powers are classified as colors, Ruby is an Orange, which means she can influence people's minds. Each person has a different variation of the power, Ruby can tamper with people's memories and her powers work if she is touching their skin, while there are others who can mess with people's feelings or thoughts.
She was very little when the plague began, and so she didn't know how to control her abilities which led her to delete the memories of her parents and friends, who turned on her.

She managed to stay alive by passing off as an inoquos Green, someone with high intelligence, until the day they tested a new device designed to spot different kinds of abilities, and that leaves Ruby exposed.

I really enjoyed the twists and surprises. With her ability to reach inside people's minds Ruby could see things others couldn't and it was an interesting contrast between what people appeared to be and what they really were.

I also loved the inner conflict Ruby had with her powers; when she touches someoene and reaches inside their minds she is also at risk of deleting their memories, their personality, everything that makes people be themselves and that is the biggest reason on why Ruby thinks she is such a monster, because she destroys people, and that power that other people want to use as a weapon has left her terribly alone.

I have to admit that I got a little bored towards the middle. It had become a bit repetitive; kids are on the run from bad guys, they are attacked, they escape and go on he run from bad guys, get attacked, escape... it was kind of the same during that time and made the reading to drag on and on but! once we get to the ending things start to heat up.

The ending, well I obviously can't spoil it but whether you love it or hate it (I seriously disliked Ruby) it will surely leave you wanting more.

Scarlet by Marissa Meyer Book Review

Cinder, the cyborg mechanic, returns in the second thrilling installment of the bestselling Lunar Chronicles. She's trying to break out of prison--even though if she succeeds, she'll be the Commonwealth's most wanted fugitive. 

Halfway around the world, Scarlet Benoit's grandmother is missing. It turns out there are many things Scarlet doesn't know about her grandmother or the grave danger she has lived in her whole life. When Scarlet encounters Wolf, a street fighter who may have information as to her grandmother's whereabouts, she is loath to trust this stranger, but is inexplicably drawn to him, and he to her. As Scarlet and Wolf unravel one mystery, they encounter another when they meet Cinder. Now, all of them must stay one step ahead of the vicious Lunar Queen Levana, who will do anything for the handsome Prince Kai to become her husband, her king, her prisoner.



My rating: 3.5/5


“You said yourself that the people of Luna need a revolutionary.” She lifted her chin, holding his gaze. “So I’m going to Luna, and I’m going to start a revolution.”

It's so nice to return to a series! And especially to the Lunar Chronicles after what happened in Cinder!

“Soon, the whole world would be searching for her -Linh Cinder.
A deformed cyborg with a missing foot.
A Lunar with a stolen identity.
A mechanic with no one to run to, nowhere to go.
But they will be looking for a ghost.”

Aggg God I love it!! Scarlet takes off exactly where Cinder finished, with Cinder trying to escape the lunar prison.

We also get to meet a new character, Scarlet, whose grandmother dissapeared without a trace a few weeks before, and the local authorities have ignored the matter believing her to have simply ran away. Knowing ehr grandmother all her life, Scarlet knows this is not possible, that she wouldn't have simply left for the sake of it and leave her alone, and when her father returned after so many years apart, looking for information on his mother, Scarlet is convinced something terrible has happened, and it might have something to do with Princess Selene.

She'll team up with Wolf, a street fighter who might know more that he lets on, to find her grandmother and the secrets behind her dissapearence.

I was so happy to finally be able to see whatever happened to Cinder! Her adventures in getting out of prison and her friendship with Thorn (Which is a relationship, btw, between two straight boy and girl that doesn't lead to romance!! So refreshing!), her chapters were the most exciting for me, especially when Cinder is debating on her Lunar gift and the fear that she might become like Levana, it showed a lot of characetr development from the first book.

However, and as I was so excited to keep reading about Cinder, Scarlet wasn't so fun for me. Maybe it was because I already knew Cinder and so I was more invested in her story? or maybe it was because Scarlet was rather naive and I kept banging my head against the table whenever she made a very obvious mistake? I don't know. I liked how brave she was when it came to stand up to Cinder, the poor girl that was about to be executed and who everybody mocked becasue she was a cyborg. Itw as also nice to see her take matters into her own hands when it came to her grandmother. She knew the local authorites weren't going to investigate, that people in town thought her to be crazy, so she started her own investigation, and that took a lot of gut and effort.

However, my problem was when it came about Wolf and how fast she trusted him. I understand that it was necessary for her to move the story along and having constantly doubting Wolf would have been a drag, but Scarlet's trust is too fast and too easy, and again the twist was too predictable.

But, regardless of this, I'm still very much looking forward to continuing with the series and see more of Cinder!

Cruel Beauty by Rosamund Hodge Book Review

Graceling meets Beauty and the Beast in this sweeping fantasy about one girl's journey to fulfill her destiny and the monster who gets in her way-by stealing her heart.

Based on the classic fairy tale Beauty and the Beast, Cruel Beauty is a dazzling love story about our deepest desires and their power to change our destiny.

Since birth, Nyx has been betrothed to the evil ruler of her kingdom-all because of a foolish bargain struck by her father. And since birth, she has been in training to kill him.

With no choice but to fulfill her duty, Nyx resents her family for never trying to save her and hates herself for wanting to escape her fate. Still, on her seventeenth birthday, Nyx abandons everything she's ever known to marry the all-powerful, immortal Ignifex. Her plan? Seduce him, destroy his enchanted castle, and break the nine-hundred-year-old curse he put on her people.

But Ignifex is not at all what Nyx expected. The strangely charming lord beguiles her, and his castle—a shifting maze of magical rooms—enthralls her.

As Nyx searches for a way to free her homeland by uncovering Ignifex's secrets, she finds herself unwillingly drawn to him. Even if she could bring herself to love her sworn enemy, how can she refuse her duty to kill him? With time running out, Nyx must decide what is more important: the future of her kingdom, or the man she was never supposed to love.

My rating: 3.5/5


“You fought and fought to keep all the cruelty locked up in your head, and for what? None of them ever loved you, because none of them ever knew you”

Cruel Beauty is a book hard to judge for me. On the one hand, I loved the story, the mystery behind Ignifex and Shade and what this two beings were, connected to Nyx. I liked the magical elements in the book as well, and I was particularly excited to read about Nyx a character that doesn't fit the norm when it comes to YA female characters.

Instead of the common self-sacrificing type we know so well, Nyx was angry, vindictive and rightfully so. After her mother realized she could not have children, her father tried anything to make his wife happy which led him to make a deal with the infamous Ignifex.

You see, it was Ignifex the one that incased their city so many years before, leaving the town locked with no real sky or sun and moon. He was a man who liked to play games, and so for every favor he did, he twisted it into his own will to make those who seeked for magic to pay a price.

Nyx's mother got pregnant with her and her twin sister, but when birth came their mother died, leaving her father devastated and looking for revenge. When Ignifex had declared that he desired one of his daughters as his bride, the father chose Nyx for she was the one who less resemblanced his lost wife. And so Nyx grew up watching her sister be loved and cared for, with a future gained by her father's love while Nyx was trained and raised with a single purpose; revenge.

Grwing up knowing that she was nothing but a tool of revenge because of some stupid deal his father made left Nyx bitter, and when her wedding day came finally her destiny was about to be fullfilled.

Only Ignifex is not what she had imagined, and destroying his source of power proves to be harder than she expected.

The interactions between Nyx and Ignifex had me giggling at every turn, their talks and games where so much fun I turned out enjoying it more than I should.

However, my problem came with Nyx's characterization. Nyx ahd the habit of go back and forth in her desicions, one minute swearing Ignifex was evil and that she would destroy him, and the next her helping him for no reason at all. Something similar happened with her sister, one minute she loves her, the next she resents her, but she really just loved her... no, wait her sister never loved her.

It really took a toll on me and the reading became a bit annoying with Nyx changing her mind every now and then. I think it could ahve been worked all the better if, after some confusion and deliberation, Nyx had made up her mind and stuck to a decision.

To sum up, Cruel Beauty is a fun, intelligent debut novel by Rosamund Hodge. If well it has its flaws, what book doesn't?! It is still a good book and an imaginative retelling of The Beauty and The Beast.

Obsidian (Lux1) By Jennifer L. Armentrout Book Review

Starting over sucks.

When we moved to West Virginia right before my senior year, I’d pretty much resigned myself to thick accents, dodgy internet access, and a whole lot of boring… until I spotted my hot neighbor, with his looming height and eerie green eyes. Things were looking up.

And then he opened his mouth.

Daemon is infuriating. Arrogant. Stab-worthy. We do not get along. At all. But when a stranger attacks me and Daemon literally freezes time with a wave of his hand, well, something… unexpected happens.

The hot alien living next door marks me.

You heard me. Alien. Turns out Daemon and his sister have a galaxy of enemies wanting to steal their abilities, and Daemon’s touch has me lit up like the Vegas Strip. The only way I’m getting out of this alive is by sticking close to Daemon until my alien mojo fades.

If I don’t kill him first, that is. 

My rating: 3/5

I will be honest with you guys, the only reason I started Reading Obsidian is because I wanted to know just how similar to Twilight it was. And the hot aliens, I won't lie.

I know, not the right thing to do, but everybody was talking about it! And I was really masochistic curious to see up to which extent the similarities would be.

However, and to my surprise, this books is not a Twilight copycat. I mean, yeah, sure the description sounds just like it, dodgy internet access, hot and mysterious neighbors that everbody in the small town stays away… but the actual story, what happens in between this pages is nothing of the sort and I found myself really enjoying this book with all its quirks and aliens and weirdness.

Katy has just moved to West Viginia with her mom, looking to make a fresh start after her father’s death.

I loved Katy from the start, she is a blogger and only child who understands that moving was something that had to be done if they wanted to carry on with their lives. You can see from the beginning that her father’s death is not just a plot device to get the family to this new place and so the romance can begin, but rather something that ahs defined this character and that affects her until this day.

It was also easy to identify with her with how she felt about starting over and meeting new people, exciting… and terrifying all together. Katy wants to have friends, but she is a bit shy and is afraid that her quirky personality will mark her as the “odd” one in a small town were everybody has known each other since infancy. Still, when it comes to introducing herself to the new neighbors and ask for directions she does it without hesitations, and that’s when Daemon appeared.

Daemon is an ass, a truly rude what-the-hell-is-wrong-with-you ass. He doesn’t just dismiss Katy right away, he also insults her for no reason at all! So she leaves, confused and pissed off at the stranger, only to then meet his sister.

Dee is nothing like Daemon, sure, she is gorgeous, but she is one of the nicest persons Katy has ever met, and the two become friends right away much to Daemon's displeasure.

But there is something strange with the two siblings, they talk about the town and her as “they” as if they were different for some reason, and it doesn’t take long before Katy finds out the truth, that they are Aliens being hunted by another especies across the universe.

I loved the whole alien aspect, I thought it was well developed and it honestly surprised me!

However, I gave Obsidian a three stars which is painful considering this would have been a four or even five stars for me, and the reason for it was Daemon.

Every review and friend praised the hot and sexy alien, and he was one of the things I was looking for in the reading. But, unfortunately, I was really disappointed.

For whoever it is that is reading this review, I want you to do something, imagine your best friend. No, wait scratch that, I want you to imagine someone you love, either that is your best friend, your brother or sister, your parents.

This will work as well. Awww.

Now imagine someone who says and does to them the same things that Daemon does to Katy, imagine them calling your loved one an idiot, a moron “empty eyed and vacant”.

Imagine your loved one coming home crying because that person humiliated them once again. And then, imagine having to witness all of that and then have your loved one say “but he/she loves me!” he’s just doing it because that is who he is, but he loves me!

Do you think that someone who does that sort of thing loves that person?

I know what you are going to say, that Daemon had to keep Kat away and that is why he treated her like he did, but that is not true. If he had wanted to, he could have just stepped back, let her live her life and Katy would have lived happily ever after. Instead he insults her and treats her horribly, Only to then show her a few glimpses of kindness. That is not fair, and I could not root for the romance when I disliked Daemon so much.

What do you guys think?

Inherit the Stars by Tessa Elwood Book Review

Three royal houses ruling three interplanetary systems are on the brink of collapse, and they must either ally together or tear each other apart in order for their people to survive.

Asa is the youngest daughter of the house of Fane, which has been fighting a devastating food and energy crisis for far too long. She thinks she can save her family’s livelihood by posing as her oldest sister in an arranged marriage with Eagle, the heir to the throne of the house of Westlet. The appearance of her mother, a traitor who defected to the house of Galton, adds fuel to the fire, while Asa also tries to save her sister Wren's life . . . possibly from the hands of their own father.

But as Asa and Eagle forge a genuine bond, will secrets from the past and the urgent needs of their people in the present keep them divided?

Author Tessa Elwood's debut series is an epic romance at heart, set against a mine field of political machinations, space adventure, and deep-seeded family loyalties.

My rating: 4/5

The premise of Inherit the Stars sounded a lot like Jupiter Ascending to me, a movie that I absolutely loved in concept but that I felt fell a bit flat in the story and characters (Especially, I’m pained to say this but Jupiter, why did she always needed rescuing?). I had secretly hoped someone would make a sort of book adaptation to dwell a bit more into this wonderful world of interplanetary houses and their industries. Perhaps this was not the author’s intentions and a completely different idea all together, but whether it was inspired in Jupiter Ascending or not, the plot seemed amazing nonetheless!

Asa is struggling to keep her sister Wren alive after an attack caused by their own, starving people left her with a severe head injury from which she hasn’t recovered. Every day since then Asa has been at her side reading stories hoping one day she’ll wake up. It seems nothing has changed until, during one of her visits, the brain activity in her sister spikes.

She is not awake or conscious, but it’s a start. However, as she arrives home to share the good news she over hears a conversation between her father and her elder sister, Emmie, who were planning on disconnecting her sister from life support so that Emmie can become the heir and enter an arranged marriage with another house so that they can save their planets from the energy and food crisis they have been suffering for years.

Horrified and desperate, she tries to reason with them but her father won’t listen, and he’ll carry on with the wedding and the plans for his daughter either way.

On the wedding day Asa makes a fast decision and drugs Emmie so that she can take her place in the wedding. The ceremony is more than just any wedding, it’s a blood bond, an unbreakable oath and, despite the disappointment when her sham is discovered, the pact cannot be undone.

But there are darker forces at stake that could threaten not only her sister’s life but that of her people as well.

The story did not disappoint, I was honestly surprised to discover that this was a debut novel, Tessa Elwood’s style is wonderful, it flows with ease and demonstrates the ability of a writer long into the career. I found the main characters incredibly relatable, Asa with her desire to save her sister while fighting against the family that has never really let her have a say in anything, and Eagle with his past and his scars, unwilling to let anybody in.

If I had to say any demerits that would be the world building, I really wished we could have known more about it. How did these three houses came to be? What about the planets and the people? We know that there are several planets, some produced food before the contamination, others had been used to drill for the fuel, but the story could have been expanded to explore this wonderful universe a bit more.

In the end, this was a wonderful debut novel from Tessa Elwood and I will be looking forward to see what new works she has planned.

Cinder by Marissa Meyer book review

Humans and androids crowd the raucous streets of New Beijing. A deadly plague ravages the population. From space, a ruthless lunar people watch, waiting to make their move. No one knows that Earth’s fate hinges on one girl. 

Cinder, a gifted mechanic, is a cyborg. She’s a second-class citizen with a mysterious past, reviled by her stepmother and blamed for her stepsister’s illness. But when her life becomes intertwined with the handsome Prince Kai’s, she suddenly finds herself at the center of an intergalactic struggle, and a forbidden attraction. Caught between duty and freedom, loyalty and betrayal, she must uncover secrets about her past in order to protect her world’s future.





My rating: 4/5

“Even in the Future the Story Begins with Once Upon a Time.”

I am so happy with this “Retellings” thing we have been seeing lately in books (and by lately I mean a while), I don’t know what it is that draws me to this kind of books so much but I just love seeing this classics being reinvented in new and exciting ways, and Cinder is one of them.

The story is about Cinder, a girl who, after an accident that killed her parents she had to undergone through a medical procedure that saved her life… but by making her a cyborg, people with robotic implants, just like her foot.

After her stepfather’s death, Cinder has had to live with her stepmother and stepsisters who treat her as if she were a monster due to her condition.

 Being discriminated for having robotic implants is something every cyborg faces not only in New Beijing, but also in the entire world. Cyborgs are, for some reason, considered as less than humans, charity cases at best, and as such they have less rights than humans do. Cinder works as a mechanic not only to make a living for herself, but also to maintain her stepmother and stepsister and their expensive way of living. 

She has no choice, her stepmother is her legal guardian and has every right over her to treat as she pleases.

People stay away from her, either afraid or disgusted and her only friends are Iko, a robot with a spunky personality and her stepsister Pearl, who loves dances and dresses but hates the way her mother and sister treat Cinder.

Her everyday life is normal, every now and then there is a case of letumosis, a new desease that is becoming pandemic, and cyborgs are “offering” themselves as test subjects to find a cure.

But one day, Prince Kai appears in her workshop waning to fix a robot that may or may not have a secret that could change the course of the nation, and when her stepsisters falls ill to the pandemy, Cinder is sent to be experimented on against her will.

No cyborg has ever survived the test, but just when she was giving herself for dead, something incredible happens, she survives and there she’ll learn that there is more to her past and scars that she knows of.

I really liked Cinder, the main character. It wasn’t fair the way she was being treated and yet she found a way to work around it. Moreover she had a sarcastic personality that I loved. Aaand did not fall head over hills for Kai, she was realistic about it and that gave her a lot of credit.

I loved loved loved loveeeed Iko, my sweet precious baby! So sassy and lovely!

I trembled everytime she was threatened to be dismantled.

In the end, I do believe that the story was incredibly predictable, but I enjoyed it inmensely nonetheless.

If I had to critizice something (and lets face it, that’s why I’m here for!) it would be the worldbuilding. Marissa Meyer had a wonderful chance to create an amazing world, this is new Beijing after all! We could have known what happened after the change, what things remained and what were new? What happened to the culture? Unfortunately, we get little information about this, about the technology and all.

It’s a shame, the book is great but still, a shame.

Angelfall by Susan Ee book review

It's been six weeks since angels of the apocalypse descended to demolish the modern world. Street gangs rule the day while fear and superstition rule the night. When warrior angels fly away with a helpless little girl, her seventeen-year-old sister Penryn will do anything to get her back.

Anything, including making a deal with an enemy angel.

Raffe is a warrior who lies broken and wingless on the street. After eons of fighting his own battles, he finds himself being rescued from a desperate situation by a half-starved teenage girl.

Traveling through a dark and twisted Northern California, they have only each other to rely on for survival. Together, they journey toward the angels' stronghold in San Francisco where she'll risk everything to rescue her sister and he'll put himself at the mercy of his greatest enemies for the chance to be made whole again.

My rating: 5/5

“I am an ant in the battlefield of the gods. There's no room for pride or ego, and barely enough room for survival.”

I’m sorry I’m a bit speechless by how FRICKEN AWESOME THIS BOOK IS.

You want a heroine who is brave? Who is smart and sassy and loyal as hell to those she loves??

You want a hero that is sexy but not rude? Sarcastic and awesome??

Amazing worldbuilding? Fast paced? Sleepless nights until you finish a book??

Angelfall starts six weeks after the angel apocalypse, when angels came down from the sky and, after Gabriel its leader and messenger was shot, they wrack havoc in the world causing a world-scale collapse of civilization and living people to fend for themselves not only against murderer angels but also against the gangs that have taken over.

Penryn is a teenager who is in charge of her sister Paige, a seven year old who has to be moved around in a wheelchair (you can imagine how practical that is during an apocalypse) and is also in charge of their mother who suffers from Schizophrenia, and who was the causal of Prim’s condition.

 I particularly enjoyed, if I'm being honest, her relationship with her mother. We hardly see characters with mental illness in books, not to mention being played correctly and not as a mock or as something "cute". Penryn understands her mother's illness, but she doesn't try to downplay her or ignore her, instead she knows what she wants and needs.

Despite having to be constantly moving around to find food and escape gangs and angels while being constantly on the lookout for her family, Penryn never complains and that is something that I loved about her. She doesn’t see her family as a burdain at all, on the contrary, she loves her sister and her mom and would do anything for them, regardless of the cost.

This is proven when her sister Paige is taken by angels. During one of their moves they come across a fight in between angels in which one is taken down and the others cut off his wings. Desperate to save her family, Penryn helps the fallen angel, only to buy time for her family to escape but things go wrong and as a punishment, one of the angels takes her sister.

But something strange happens, as Penryn watches the angel fly away with her sister, he doesn’t drop her but instead takes her somewhere else. It had not been the first time they had seen them taking children and, convinced that she can still help her she forms an unsteady alliance with the fallen angel, Raffe.

I loved the heroine, I loved the world, so dark and gritty that had me praying for everything to turn out alright. I loved Raffe, of course and his smartass personality.

Try not to move around too much so you don't bleed again. The bandages aren't that thick and blood will soak through pretty quickly.”

“No problem,” he says. “Shouldn't be too hard not to move around as we run for our lives”

I also loved that this was not instalove, the romance in here is very subtle and real. It’s about two enemies realizing they have more things in common than they thought, and discovering they could actually get along, if not more.

The end, however, I must warn you… it’ll leave you wanting more.