Review: Stars Above by Marissa Meyer

A really interesting and beautiful, yet saddening collection of stories. These back stories helped to add more depth to the world of The Lunar Chronicles and made me want to leap right back into Cinder again. Unfortunately, parts were a bit too sappy for me, but apart from that I thoroughly enjoyed it.

(Goodreads parallel) 

My Favourite Books of 2015

This year has been one of my best reading years in a long, long time. I've made an effort to try new genres and have been greatly rewarded for that choice. Here are my top twelve books of the year, along with their descriptions and my reasons for having them on my list. They are listed chronologically as putting them in an order of favourites would just be too stressful.

Blue Lily, Lily Blue - There is danger in dreaming. But there is even more danger in waking up. 
Blue Sargent has found things. For the first time in her life, she has friends she can trust, a group to which she can belong. The Raven Boys have taken her in as one of their own. Their problems have become hers, and her problems have become theirs. 
The trick with found things though, is how easily they can be lost. 
Friends can betray. 
Mothers can disappear. 
Visions can mislead. 
Certainties can unravel.

This book has to be one of my favourites because I cannot get enough of it and the world its set in. Each book in the Raven Cycle series is more exciting than the last and with the final book coming out soon, it's really worth getting your hands on the first three beforehand.

Shadow and Bone - Surrounded by enemies, the once-great nation of Ravka has been torn in two by the Shadow Fold, a swath of near impenetrable darkness crawling with monsters who feast on human flesh. Now its fate may rest on the shoulders of one lonely refugee.

.

This amazing series is full of action, romance and magic. With characters you can't help but hate to love and plot twists waiting round every corner, I would really recommend this book if you are a lover of fantasy.

Half Bad - Wanted by no one. Hunted by everyone.
Sixteen-year-old Nathan lives in a cage: beaten, shackled, trained to kill. In a modern-day England where two warring factions of witches live amongst humans, Nathan is an abomination, the illegitimate son of the world's most terrifying and violent witch, Marcus. Nathan's only hope for survival is to escape his captors, track down Marcus, and receive the three gifts that will bring him into his own magical powers—before it's too late. But how can Nathan find his father when there is no one safe to trust, not even family, not even the girl he loves?

I'm annoyed that it took so long for me to pick this book up off my shelf and read it. This novel is a sad, yet hopeful tale that deals with prejudice, trust and love. Also, it's set in England, which almost no YA novels are, so bonus points need to be awarded.

Cinder -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 centre 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.

This novel is a perfect mix of fantasy, sci-fi and dystopian YA fiction. Definitely do not be put off by the mention of the word 'cyborg' as I first was and go into this with an open mind (though be prepared to have it blown and your heart broken at certain points). As 'The Lunar Chronicles' are now complete, I truly recommend marathoning them all because this is a fantastic series that every lover of YA fiction should definitely experience.

Since You've been Gone - It was Sloane who yanked Emily out of her shell and made life 100% interesting. But right before what should have been the most epic summer, Sloane just…disappears. All she leaves behind is a to-do list.
On it, thirteen Sloane-inspired tasks that Emily would normally never try. But what if they could bring her best friend back?
Apple picking at night? Okay, easy enough.
Dance until dawn? Sure. Why not?
Kiss a stranger? Um... 
Go skinny-dipping? Wait...what?

When I first saw this book my mind was screaming at me so put it down and run away because it seemed just like another contemporary sloppy love story, but I am really glad I got it. This is anything but just another 'contemporary sloppy love story'. It's about friendship, family and doing what's best for you. Also, someone please make me a list...

I'll Give You The Sun - Jude and her twin brother, Noah, are incredibly close. At thirteen, isolated Noah draws constantly and is falling in love with the charismatic boy next door, while daredevil Jude cliff-dives and wears red-red lipstick and does the talking for both of them. But three years later, Jude and Noah are barely speaking. Something has happened to wreck the twins in different and dramatic ways . . . until Jude meets a cocky, broken, beautiful boy, as well as someone else—an even more unpredictable new force in her life. The early years are Noah's story to tell. The later years are Jude's. What the twins don't realize is that they each have only half the story, and if they could just find their way back to one another, they’d have a chance to remake their world.

If you only read one book from this list, make it this one. This story made me laugh and made me cry (and if you know me, you know how hard that is to do). 'I'll Give You The Sun' will turn you into an emotional wreck with a greater appreciation for life and following your dreams. It is the most stunning and beautiful book I have ever had the luck of reading.

A Swift Pure Cry - After Shell's mother dies, her obsessively religious father descends into alcoholic mourning and Shell is left to care for her younger brother and sister. Her only release from the harshness of everyday life comes from her budding spiritual friendship with a naive young priest, and most importantly, her developing relationship with childhood friend, Declan, charming, eloquent and persuasive. But when Declan suddenly leaves Ireland to seek his fortune in America, Shell finds herself pregnant and the centre of a scandal that rocks the small community in which she lives, with repercussions across the whole country. The lives of those immediately around her will never be the same again.

This is a heartbreaking tale of loss and love. Real life stories are often the most eye-opening and scarring and this was certainly that. It makes you truly feel for the plight of others and be thankful for the life you have.

The Winner's Curse - Winning what you want may cost you everything you love... 
As a general’s daughter in a vast empire that revels in war and enslaves those it conquers, seventeen-year-old Kestrel has two choices: she can join the military or get married. But Kestrel has other intentions. 

Though this tale is one that is completely different to those I am used to, it is utterly brilliant. Drawing on ideas from Ancient Greece and Rome, it demonstrates that love can overcome prejudices and mistakes can cost you everything.

A Court of Thorns and Roses -When nineteen-year-old huntress Feyre kills a wolf in the woods, a beast-like creature arrives to demand retribution for it. Dragged to a treacherous magical land she only knows about from legends, Feyre discovers that her captor is not an animal, but Tamlin—one of the lethal, immortal faeries who once ruled their world.

An epic high fantasy novel that leads the way for an amazing series. This book will draw you completely in Feyre's world and make you wish that, despite the constant threats and levels of danger, you could live in the majestic world of the fae. If you are looking for stunning fantasy writing, this is the book for you.

The Year of the Rat - To Pearl, there's nothing sweet about her premature half-sister, Rose. It was Rose that caused her mother's death and Rose that turned her world upside down.
To Pearl, Rose is The Rat.

This novel is another eye-opening tale. It has the power to make you feel pity and sadness, but also hope and joy. It is one of those books that I think everyone should have the chance to experience.

The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer - Mara Dyer believes life can't get any stranger than waking up in a hospital with no memory of how she got there.
It can. 
She believes there must be more to the accident she can't remember that killed her friends and left her strangely unharmed. 
There is.
She doesn't believe that after everything she's been through, she can fall in love. 
She's wrong.

An intoxicating start to a dark series filled with fear and romance. The 'Mara Dyer' trilogy has to be my favourite series of the year. You can fly through these books in one sitting and feel like you haven't been there for more than ten minutes. Noah Shaw is a definite perk as well.

Emma - Beautiful, clever, rich - and single - Emma Woodhouse is perfectly content with her life and sees no need for either love or marriage. Nothing, however, delights her more than interfering in the romantic lives of others. But when she ignores the warnings of her good friend Mr Knightley and attempts to arrange a suitable match for her protégée Harriet Smith, her carefully laid plans soon unravel and have consequences that she never expected.

This book was not what I expected at all. I would never have believed you if you had said to me that I would laugh at a classic and use the word 'man-slut' when talking to my friends about a novel by Jane Austen. If you have yet to start reading classics, I would highly recommend this as you first pick.

Here's to a great year of reading! I wish you all the best in 2016.

-E

Review: Winter by Marissa Meyer

I feel very lucky to have only started this incredible series at the start of the year because I don't think I could have waited much longer for 'Winter'. This book is action-packed, full of harsh reality and hardship, yet shows that there is always hope. I am continually amazed by how the fairytales are incorporated into the storyline and this book is no different. Princess Winter is a character whom I instinctively clicked with, just as I had with Cinder in the first novel, and made the plot all the more enjoyable.

After completing this series, I could not recommend it more highly as it satisfies completely what I look for in sci-fi and in fantasy.

(Goodreads parallel) 

Review: Fairest by Marissa Meyer

This book is a great accompaniment to the main 'Lunar Chronicles' series. It is definitely a book that needs to be read after reading 'Cress', the third book in the series, and before reading 'Winter', the forth book in the series, because that way you understand more about the characters and the story, plus it ends so you can start 'Winter' straight after reading it with a smooth transition. In places it is quite a sad tale and at other moments it makes you want to tear out your hair in annoyance, though that is a good thing. It is really interesting to get a look into the court on Luna and this book manages to build hype and excitement amazingly well for 'Winter'. Though this book isn't as good as the main 'Lunar Chronicles' books, it still manages to stir up emotions within me and even made me want to root for someone I know to be the "bad guy".

(Goodreads parallel)

Review: Cress by Marissa Meyer

There is a lot of hype surrounding this book, more than the two before it in 'The Lunar Chronicles', and after having read this book, I can see why. 'Cinder' and 'Scarlet' are works of art and are simply amazing, but 'Cress' brings together the different storylines in such an exquisite and beautiful way that I do not know how it can be bettered. It puts the characters through trouble and turmoil, there is heartbreak and loss, but even with all of that, I still felt happy at the end of the book. I felt happy for the direction that this series is going in and, of course, for the starting to blossom relationships between Cinder and Kai and Throne and Cress.

With each new book in this series Meyer manages to introduce to us a new female heroine who we can fall in love with and side with. We get to know their inner workings and feel like we are sure about what we know about them, then we get to see them from another character's perspective and realise that they were not who they perceived themselves to be, but someone ever better because of their differences and their imperfections.

I would love to go into detail with everything that happened in this book, but it is simply far too long for me to do so. I'm not saying that its length is a downside, in fact it was something that I really liked about this book as I felt that with the ones before I would have liked to spend a lot more time in that world and with this book I finally got the opportunity to.

One of the key points of this book was to introduce Cress to us, I mean, just look at the title of the book. Something that is definitely one of my favourite things about this series is the fact that each story is loosely based on a fairytale and it took me a while to pick up certain points that related to the fairytale of Rapunzel, but I was overcome by Meyer's brilliantness when I realised how the story fitted with the age old classic. Thorne's blindness was something that I didn't realise was part of the fairytale at first, as over the years I have read many versions of the story, some with the Prince's blindness in some not. Looking back, I guess that Thorne's name could be linked to the story as well as originally the Prince became blind when his eyes were stabbed with thorns. Little links like that really boost my love for this series.

This book started to deal with Cinder's growing power more and even though she was practicing throughout the whole book, it wasn't until the final few chapters that we realised what she was capable of and the discovery of that really gives me confidence that in the future books they will be able to overthrow Levana and take control. In a way though, Cinder's growing power is a scary thing and I can see why she is worrying about becoming like Levana as power is a thing that can be hard to control once you get too much of a taste for it.

I feel like I cannot talk about this book without talking about the relationships within it and by that I do not just mean the romantic ones. The bond between a father and his daughter is something that I always find special and to have that bond severed before it could fully be formed has a detrimental effect on both parties. Of course it is more than harsh for the mother as well, but this book dealt with the idea of hope of recovering what Dr Erland had had pulled from his grasp and the short-lived joy when Cress was finally returned to him. It was a bittersweet reunion, but I'm so glad that it was included.

With romantic relationships, I do like the idea of Cress and Thorne as a couple, but I have to say that Cinder and Kai are the couple that I'm rooting for most. In the first book the feelings that both shared were expressed on the page, but they never were truthful to each other about them and I so wanted them to be. Finally, two books later, their feelings have been admitted and I am over the moon. I can see a good future for them, well, after they've dealt with saving the world.

In conclusion, this book is so good I can't find an appropriate adjective to describe it; I don't know of any that will do it justice. In the next book I'm excited to find out more about Lunar, as the book will be told from Princess Winter's perspective, and know the risks from this new strand of letumosis and whether it will threaten any of my beloved characters. I don't know how I will be able to wait much longer for it even though I've only just finished 'Cress'!

(Goodreads parallel) 

Holiday Reading - A Collection of Reviews

Over the past two weeks, my Easter holidays, I have read four books and I thought that instead of posting individual reviews on them, I should combine them into one post.

Scarlet -Marissa Meyer

Upon seeing that this book was not focused on Cinder, I became worried that we would leave her storyline completely and after the end of the first book, I was utterly devastated and confused by that. Thankfully, though this book did have focus on Scarlet, it also had focus on Cinder as well.

This book picked up the story very soon after Cinder had finished and that really reminded me of how little time this book actually covers. The number of events and depth of this book makes it seems as if weeks or months could have passed, but in reality it was only a few days.

The story of Scarlet I could instantly link to the fairytale of Little Red Riding Hood from the disappearance of her grandmother and her red hoodie. I do love how this series links into different fairytales and adapts them so that they can fit in with a more complex universe. As a person, I liked Scarlet for her passion and how she was not always wanting to rely on others. However, I did feel that she started to trust Wolf too soon and that meant that I wasn't totally on board with their relationship until she managed to stop him from attacking her.  As well as that, I could tell that he hadn't betrayed her and actually had feelings for her when they went into the old theatre from the way he was acting beforehand and though that may have been part of Meyer's plan as an author, to me, I would have preferred to be surprised and experience Scarlet's way of thinking.

Exploring Cinder's powers was something that I was hoping would happen in this book. I think that the phrase 'power is addictive' fits in well with what Cinder was struggling with and I am actually quite scared for how it will influence her in the future. We have already seen her break down because of her actions, but will the consequences in later books be more severe? As well as that, learning what Kai was having to do to try and keep the peace was also heartbreaking. It was good to hear that he was not repulsed by Cinder being a cyborg because after the ending of the first book, I was willing to cast him aside completely for what he had done. Finally the return of Iko and introduction of Thorne was something that really drew me into the book; I can't wait to see how their storylines will continue.

Overall this book was sublime and I can't wait to get my hands on Cress!

(Goodreads parallel)

I'll Give You The Sun - Jandy Nelson

I wasn't sure what to expect when I started this book. However, I was soon caught up in the parallel storylines that took place at different times and fell in love with both of the twins for different reasons. I liked Jude for her quirkiness and seeming rebellion from what she was expected to be and act like. I loved how Noah would imagine situations as paintings and how he wanted a life that he was never going to have because I think that can be applied to a lot of people's lives.

Noah at thirteen was someone who I admired for his talent and love of art and also someone who I felt sorry for as he couldn't express himself as he really wanted to, especially with Brian. There was the competition of sibling rivalry on top of that, which Jude experienced as well, and wanting something so much that he focused so much of his time and effort on. Then a few things started to change and I was very happy for Brian and Noah, but I knew from Jude's perspective that something must have gone wrong, which only made the end of their relationship more terrible.

Jude at sixteen was someone who was living with a lot of regret and shame, who instead of sharing it, was letting it all pile up on her shoulders when screaming it out would have probably been better for her mind and soul. Carving her sculptures was a way for her to scream it out and her relationship with Oscar was something that she was not prepared for because at that point she hadn't yet learning to let go of the past. As a character, I loved her immensely because I could feel the weight she carried as if it were my own and I was pleased that she tried to make up for her past mistakes.

I especially loved this book because of how all the events interlinked and how all the characters were involved in each other's lives. The realisation of those connections really left me in a state and I can't thank my friends enough so listening to my ramblings on this book that probably made no sense because I was so emotionally invested in the story.

After reading this book, I would highly recommend it and I think I will have to go on a search for more Jandy Nelson books as a result of how this book made me feel.

(Goodreads parallel)

Isla and the Happily Ever After - Stephanie Perkins

I have been told by numerous people that Isla is their favourite book in the series that started with Anna. I cannot agree with that opinion and think that this is more a 4.5 star book, though I think I prefer it to Lola.

Having the first small section of the book months before the rest of it started was a really nice ease into the book as it introduced Isla to us in a simple way and also let us in on her crush on Josh without taking away from the aspect of her going back to school, which it would have done otherwise.

As a character, I did quite like Isla. She was hard-working and quite self-sufficient as she only really had one friend. That one friend, Kurt, I ended up feeling quite sorry for because it became plain that as soon as Josh started taking an interest in Isla that their relationship would change. As well as that, the fact that he had autism reminded me that this book was not supposed to be about perfect people living a perfect life. It didn't overly restrict him, but it made the book feel more real.

Josh was a main character in Anna's book, though I have to admit that I didn't pay as much attention to him as I should have. So, for me it was really interesting to get a deeper look into his life, his love of art and how he dealt with certain situations. All his friends had left the year before and he was struggling with his school life, which I had got from the first book, but I barely knew anything about Josh then - it was nice to see more into who he really is in this book.

This book was different in its set up to the others. It didn't focus on the characters getting together as much, but rather what happened once they were together. It felt odd to have a teen romance book set up in that way and though I am not against it (I liked how this book got to focus on the actual relationship rather than some 'friendship' that could be put into question), but to have Isla and Josh go on a trip to Barcelona to have sex less than halfway through the book did feel a bit soon. I think that it made me question their relationship more than I did the other couples, but also made their relationship feel like it was closer to what would happen in real life because not all couples spend ages pining after each other, they get together and then things progress from there.

I was happy that we got to see the other characters again, though in a way their introduction in this book did feel a bit like it was pinned on the end. I think I preferred it to Anna's constant involvement in Lola's book though as I want them to be able to be read as separate stories.

Overall this was a good read, but definitely not Perkins' best. Maybe I set my expectations too high after hearing so many amazing things about it.

(Goodreads parallel)

To All The Boys I've Loved Before - Jenny Han

Even though I have given this book five stars, I would say that it is more accurately 4.5 stars. The concept of this book was something totally different to romance books that I have read before and that really made it so much more interesting. The idea of writing someone a love letter to get over them is not something that I would have ever thought about before, but thinking over it, it actually makes sense. This book was not based off something that would never happen, just something that was unlikely to happen and that is what made it special.

I also love that this book wasn't your typical 'white girl' romance book. The infusion of slight differences in culture made this book stand out as well and though we don't learn much about the girl's deceased mother, her absence was felt throughout the whole book by the girl's having to be a lot more mature than anyone would expect someone of their age to be.

In terms of the romance, I am left totally confused. We are presented with two boys, one of whom Lara Jean thinks she fancies and the other she used to fancy but no longer feels that way. Then there is the concept of fake dating from which a true romance blossoms, but because of lasting ties and other people's views, it is a romance that doesn't work out the way that both parties would want it to. At the beginning, I was thinking that Josh had it in the bag, but now I am utterly on Peter's side.

My criticisms of this book are that, for a nine year old, Kitty seemed far to mature. I have a nine year old sister myself and feel like sometimes the language she was using and way she was acting reminded me more of an eleven or twelve year old. As well as that, the fact that Lara Jean  was never questioning of her elder sister put me on edge a bit. Real sisters never seem to me to be as perfect as they are and it made the words on the page feel more like a story than I would have liked.

Overall, I really liked this book and cannot wait for the next book to come out! The cliff-hanger we're left on may not be as dramatic as in some action novels, but it is raising my heart rate just as much.

(Goodreads parallel)

Review: Cinder by Marissa Meyer

Of the many things I had heard about this book before reading it, most were raving reviews encouraging others to pick up this book and after reading it, I can not only say that I can see why, but I can also say that I am now part of that group. Cinder was such an amazing book to read and if you take anything from this review, it should be that.

Si-fi is one of the genres that I get on least well with and from the blurb of this book I worried that this book would be completely taken up with those aspects and that I would be overwhelmed by it all, but that was not the case. This book also had elements of romance, fantasy and a dystopian universe in which everything was different, yet it was the same as well. I was immediately taken in by the new world and characters.

This is the first book I have read where one of the protagonists is a cyborg and I personally think that it added so much to the book. It reflected today's society in the fact that Cinder was an absolutely brilliant person with a huge skill set, but none of that mattered to other people when they knew what she was; a cyborg. It is the same today in aspects of our lives and it's a real shame. By having Cinder's viewpoints on this at the forefront of our minds throughout the whole book it gave a different, yet still valuable, look at what she was experiencing.

Prince Kai was a character who I had to grow to like. At first I found him arrogant and the way it was described as 'all the girls in New Beijing liking him' put me off him quite a bit. Even though this is a completely different concept, I first imagined him as the guy in school that we all know who is more full of himself than a can of baked beans (obviously before they have been opened). Over the course of the book though, he proved himself to me through his actions and how he didn't always like being too serious; I think that more world leaders could do with adding sarcasm to their vocabulary. Then he had to ruin it by acting the way he did when he found out that Cinder was a cyborg. I seriously hope that was all an act or else I won't be able to forgive him.

Maybe the thing that I liked most about this book was how it played on the fairytale of Cinderella. From the evil step-mother to the looming ball to losing her foot on the staircase, it all just added something extra to a fairytale that I already loved. Incorporating it into the modern world was also something that I think was carried out flawlessly. Obviously more had to be added to the story to embellish it and there were some things that had to be changed to make the story work, but overall it was sublime.

The Lunar's are a race that intrigue me greatly. I really want to find out more about their back-story and their involvement with the people of Earth more than I want to find out about World War IV or anything like that. The little we got told in this book was a large enough taste for the moment, but in the next books in the series, I really want to learn more about them because they seem to be a very interesting, and deadly, group of people.

The only thing that I could nitpick about this book was the fact that as soon as I knew Cinder was a Lunar, I also knew that she would be the missing princess, even though that wasn't specifically written down. It was just a bit too obvious for my liking, but apart from that, I have no complaints.

I cannot wait to get my hands on the next book now, though I might rust from anticipation before then. (I'm so proud that I got that pun in there, you have no idea.)

(Goodreads parallel)