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Legend by Marie Lu
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

What was once the western United States is now home to the Republic, a nation perpetually at war with its neighbors. Born into an elite family in one of the Republic’s wealthiest districts, fifteen-year-old June is a prodigy being groomed for success in the Republic’s highest military circles. Born into the slums, fifteen-year-old Day is the country’s most wanted criminal. But his motives may not be as malicious as they seem.
From very different worlds, June and Day have no reason to cross paths—until the day June’s brother, Metias, is murdered and Day becomes the prime suspect. Caught in the ultimate game of cat and mouse, Day is in a race for his family’s survival, while June seeks to avenge Metias’s death. But in a shocking turn of events, the two uncover the truth of what has really brought them together, and the sinister lengths their country will go to keep its secrets.
Full of nonstop action, suspense, and romance, this novel is sure to move readers as much as it thrills.

I couldn't bring myself to love this book till the end...

You know that feeling when you were sure you'll give a book the perfect five stars, shelve it under your favourite, and order it from bookdepository.com (because physical books in Aus are just damn expensive)?

Well, that's what happened with Legend. Plus, I always have a thing for Asian authors (not that I'm racist, I mean, really, it is just so far they've been delivering fresh new hits after hits).

Then, I asked myself, what is wrong with me? I mean, seriously. Here we got two 15 years-old prodigies, both capable of butt-kicking, one is a republic agent and the other one is a notorious street thug!
Did you hear that? That was the sound of my muffled scream against my pillow

Yes, I was that excited when I read the blurb.

I can tell you that this book is a crazy combination of Robin Hood + Romeo and Juliet + Sherlock Holmes + some other awesome stuff. But then I guess, it lacks the ummph factor I was looking for. The plot was a bit predictable, the narration while satisfyingly concise and precise, but it sounded dull...reminding me a lot of my monotonous yet knowledgeable lecturer *sigh*.

Some of my GR friends did point out that the age as a function of behaviour was not proportional to each other in this book. Given that Day and June are both prodigies, I'll just pretend that they are not just ridiculously book-smart but somehow they also posses an epic level of maturity and coolness, just so I like this book better *shrug*.

It was also a bit unfortunate because I think, if you minus the prodigy thingy and the dystopian setting, this would be just a regular crime novel despite it was definitely be a good one. The dystopian label was also kind of 'seriously?' for me because eugenics is not a new concept. Purposely infecting people to develop a perfect cure or vaccine? I think I've heard that before. So, I don't know if the true political message from this book is hidden behind that innocent young adult, distopian fiction label.

I bet it is.


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The Savage Grace by Bree Despain
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

A troubled soul. An impossible choice. A final battle.
Wrestling with the werewolf curse pulsing deep inside of her, Grace Divine was finally able to find her brother, but it nearly cost her everything.
With her boyfriend, Daniel, stuck in wolf form and Sirhan's death approaching, time is running out for Grace to stop Caleb Kalbi and his gang of demons. If she fails, her family and hometown will perish. Everything rests on Grace's shoulders.

The final installment in The Dark Divine trilogy brings Daniel and Grace's love story to a breathtaking conclusion.

First impression

One of the three shapeshifters/werewolves series I started last year apart from Wolves of the Mercy Falls and Nightshade. I remembered thinking that all the first books for the three series were amazing although I barely remember why.

After a huge disappointment with Forever (The Wolves of Mercy Falls, #3) last year, I hope this one will be a hit :)

Full review

Okay, first thing first. what's with the bold text! It pained me just looking at the pages!

Second, what's up with the cover! It didn't match the first two!
Was it really hard to match the title font at least?

Nevertheless, I always find the titles of books in this series as among the best.

Alright, there are 488 pages of this book but if you ask me what was going on throughout the book, I probably could tell you that in a single breath. I can hardly remember most the events. This book simply is not memorable.

Fortunately, it was miles better than the second book but I think it was still not as good as the first? Gah! I remember The Dark Divine as being awesome but maybe I was just so much into werewolves during those days.

Anyway, Grace still forgot to use her brain during the first half of the book. She even dared to say things like this;

"I swore I wouldn't give up on him. And I'd more a whole damn mountain if I thought it would change him back."

"But I'm going (to Caleb's super dangerous abandoned lair) and there's nothing that can stop me."

"My future? What future?" If we can't turn Daniel back into a human. I don't have future."

So Grace, tell me, is love the only thing you need in this world? Love can get you money, get you into a nice college, get you a good job, get you a half chicken for today's dinner...

YA heroines...when will they stop obsessing over their boyfriends...

Good gracious Grace was more tolerable for the second half of the book. I particularly like this one line from her;

"Little Miss Naked is my responsibiliy. Nonne of you boys will be able to focus while fighting her."

And oh, her best friend, April was as dumb or probably dumber than Grace herself. I mean, really, you do notice how many best friends of YA's heroines are plain stupid and annoying right? Maybe one day I should make my own list to honor their admirable personality.

Miss Bree Despain, for your third book, I would expect better than something like;

Daniel sprang into action immediately, pulling his coat off and using it to entrap two of the monsters at once, and then flung them into the wall of cornstalks in a move he must have picked up from a Jackie Chan movie or something"

Jackie Chan movie or something? Ermm..your book is not a parody of some sort is it?

Some new characters were kinda likable such as Ryan, Lisa and Slade. The ending was satisfying as well.

At the end of the day, if you're thinking of starting this series

then probably no. I could barely find any originality in this series, particularly in this book. The hunting part reminded me a lot of Forever (The Wolves of Mercy Falls, #3) and the lost boys reminded me of Jacob's pack in Twilight series.

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The Iron King by Julie Kagawa
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Meghan Chase has a secret destiny; one she could never have imagined.
Something has always felt slightly off in Meghan's life, ever since her father disappeared before her eyes when she was six. She has never quite fit in at school or at home.
When a dark stranger begins watching her from afar, and her prankster best friend becomes strangely protective of her, Meghan senses that everything she's known is about to change.
But she could never have guessed the truth - that she is the daughter of a mythical faery king and is a pawn in a deadly war. Now Meghan will learn just how far she'll go to save someone she cares about, to stop a mysterious evil no faery creature dare face; and to find love with a young prince who might rather see her dead than let her touch his icy heart.

I am someone who prefer to write a review straight away after I finished the book.

Instead, I went to bookdepository.com and ordered The Iron Fey Boxed Set.

Isn't the packaging adorable? *puppy eyes*

I tend to avoid any series which consist of more than three books. Most of the time, I heard that the overall plot could be easily condensed into fewer books and the authors were just keen to have more money out of you. I was also skeptical with books based on fey myth because I thought they were like the bubbliest, shiniest, radiating-with-good-energy creatures out there, and I thought nah...probably for kids but not for me.

This book proved that I should never generalize.

If you've read it, you'll notice that this book was born from years of imagination. Not something that an author tried to come up with when realizing the burst of Young Adult market in the past few years.

The choice of words and the fluidity of the plot was impeccable. It reminded me of The Lords of the Rings, Narnia, Alice in Wonderland but unique enough to stand in its own league. I didn't like Meghan as much as I wanted to but I guess, there are more pages reserved for Meghan to be the ass-kicking heroine whom I longed for in later books.

Fear not, the romance was not done excessively in this particular book (thank God!). Ash was the classic Mr Darcy, so I instinctively drawn to be in his team. But Puck was a strong male lead as well, unfortunately I think he'll be staying in the friend-zone for the rest of the series.

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Beautiful Darkness by Kami Garcia
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Ethan Wate used to think of Gatlin, the small Southern town he had always called home, as a place where nothing ever changed. Then he met mysterious newcomer Lena Duchannes, who revealed a secret world that had been hidden in plain sight all along. A Gatlin that harbored ancient secrets beneath its moss-covered oaks and cracked sidewalks. A Gatlin where a curse has marked Lena's family of powerful Supernaturals for generations. A Gatlin where impossible, magical, life-altering events happen.
Sometimes life-ending.
Together they can face anything Gatlin throws at them, but after suffering a tragic loss, Lena starts to pull away, keeping secrets that test their relationship. And now that Ethan's eyes have been opened to the darker side of Gatlin, there's no going back. Haunted by strange visions only he can see, Ethan is pulled deeper into his town's tangled history and finds himself caught up in the dangerous network of underground passageways endlessly crisscrossing the South, where nothing is as it seems.

Why is this happening with every second book? When I read the first book, I thought, Beautiful Creatures is for me. If I can be a writer, I would write a story like this. More condensed maybe.

Urghh...when I read Beautiful Darkness, I kept telling myself, I have to finish this, I have to finish this. It's pathetic,really. The story got so complicated but very little were being revealed (even after all 500 pages of it). I once thought, am I too stupid for this book?

No.

Urghh...definitely not a pleasant book (except for Lucille...I miss Boo by the way). Ethan still sounded like a girl (I was guessing the authors would appreciate all the comments thrown at their first book, but no, Ethan sounded more feminine than ever). Not even Link's jokes could rescue this book anymore. Lena was so irritating, uninspiring. Ok, she had her reasons, so? Those were not excuses for behaving so weak.

The climax scene seemed so rushed, I could barely get my head around what happened. I understand the book is meant to be in paranormal fantasy genre, but coming back from dead? (this applies not to only one person, but two). LOL! Too much magics, no logical explanations given.

Long story short, I won't be reading the sequel anytime soon with plenty of good books on the market right now.


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Across the Universe by Beth Revis
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

A love out of time. A spaceship built of secrets and murder.
Seventeen-year-old Amy joins her parents as frozen cargo aboard the vast spaceship Godspeed and expects to awaken on a new planet, three hundred years in the future. Never could she have known that her frozen slumber would come to an end fifty years too soon and that she would be thrust into the brave new world of a spaceship that lives by its own rules.
Amy quickly realizes that her awakening was no mere computer malfunction. Someone-one of the few thousand inhabitants of the spaceship-tried to kill her. And if Amy doesn't do something soon, her parents will be next.
Now Amy must race to unlock Godspeed's hidden secrets. But out of her list of murder suspects, there's only one who matters: Elder, the future leader of the ship and the love she could never have seen coming.

Well, it wasn't as bad as I first expected it to be. Not to say it was mind-blowingly awesome. A quick read and just...meh!


Ok, let's start with the cover. I could've sworn that the girl on the cover is blond. So, when I came across the part where Amy's hair is described as red or sunset? I was like




Gah! The cover wasn't one of my favourite anyway. I felt weird carrying this book around with that cover. It's not like Romance is my favourite genre.


Enough rambling about the cover, I was actually deceived by the title. I though it was a love story between two persons coming from two different worlds, like in The Lake House or The Time Traveler's Wife.


So much for my hatred for romance.


LOL! I like love stories when it is impossible for that two persons to be together. Some people just like to see the world burn. Next time I should read the blurb more closely.


Anyway, reading this book wasn't a complete waste of time. I adore the author's description of cryogenics, something I picked up during my ethics class long time ago. I would say, the world crafted by the author was believable albeit the disturbing portrayal of The Season.


Of course I was expecting a intergalactic battle.



but let's face it, here we have a hero who is still couldn't figure out how to operate the damn ship and a heroine who is still clutching her teddy bear, the chance of them winning would be none.


I'd still give the author credit for her writing style. To be honest, the pace of the story itself was very slow, but I kept on reading because the short, sharp transition from Amy to Elder point of view and back again although I did skipped a few paragraphs and pages here and there and didn't feel like I was missing much.


I like how Elder as the male protagonist is flawed but I am very traumatized by his revolting thoughts;


My eyes devour her body, then drift back to her breasts. The ice is a little foggy there, teasing me, but I can see enough to know they're lush, and even if they're frozen, I imagine that if they were warmed up...


I want to protect her now, cover her curves instead of run my fingers over them.


When I looked at Amy...I know what I'd like to do with her, and I know that I could.


Amy bites her lip, and all I want to do is seize her, crush her against me, feel her lips with mine.





That is worst than insta love. That is lust! Elder freaking unplugged Amy just to mate with her! Don't tell me that Fifty Shades of Grey is the new Twilight because then I'll be the who has to page my mother ship.


Moving on to Amy, thank goodness she wasn't immediately attracted to Elder. But she did admit that she watched people having sex on TV for million times? OF course she agreed that seeing people making out live was disturbing but I don't know, I find that part unnecessary?


Gah! I know I'm conservative and I should keep my thought to myself.


Anyway, I'm still considering whether I would continue on with the series. I kinda like the ending of this book. At last, in book two of a series, someone could desert her love interest for a valid reason.



Even Snape approves.


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Beautiful Creatures by Kami Garcia
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

There were no surprises in Gatlin County.
We were pretty much the epicenter of the middle of nowhere.
At least, that's what I thought.
Turns out, I couldn't have been more wrong.
There was a curse.
There was a girl.
And in the end, there was a grave.
Lena Duchannes is unlike anyone the small Southern town of Gatlin has ever seen, and she's struggling to conceal her power and a curse that has haunted her family for generations. But even within the overgrown gardens, murky swamps and crumbling graveyards of the forgotten South, a secret cannot stay hidden forever.
Ethan Wate, who has been counting the months until he can escape from Gatlin, is haunted by dreams of a beautiful girl he has never met. When Lena moves into the town's oldest and most infamous plantation, Ethan is inexplicably drawn to her and determined to uncover the connection between them.
In a town with no surprises, one secret could change everything

When I read the reviews on Amazon, I quickly requested this book from the library. But the reviews on Goodreads have not been promising, plus the fact that this book is ridiculously long, I thought I might return this book as soon as I borrowed it but since my holiday is about to end soon, I gave this book a try, and I finished all the 563 pages of it.

The story started off pretty well, considering although I've read the synopsis earlier, I couldn't make sense what the book is all about. The jokes were sometimes really funny and I liked the idea how even though Lena was quite pretty, she has no sense of style whatsoever, which somehow made her stylish in her own way. But towards the end, she seemed to give up too easily and kept saying 'there's nothing you can do blah3'. Come on, a female lead should be more inspiring than that.

What I like
- The whole type of Light and Dark Casters, the Siren, the Natural, the Incubus etc. Cool names, but the details of their powers were not being elaborated enough for the readers to fathom.
- The sharing of dreams and visions, and how the smell, the heat, the blood lingered even after the dreams and visions were gone.
- Link is a pretty hilarious character.
- Boo. I silently wished he would not be dead and thankfully he survived.

What I don't like
- The length! OMG, how could the authors force me to read a 563 pages long novel and left me with so many questions even after I finished reading the last page. Save for the sequel of course, but honestly, by reading the synopsis of the following novels and the no of pages they have, I don't think I'll read the sequels anytime soon. Maybe never.
- The story lost pace after about 200 pages or so. Yes, I did finish this book within 24 hours, and as much I was eager to find out what happens next, I can't help but noticing how there were so many scenes that were insignificant and should be cut off from the novel.
- The prejudice against the Southern people. I mean, they can't be that bad, can they?
- The cover. Some people commented it was beautiful but nah, I don't think so. Just average.

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