Only Ever Yours

Only Ever Yours
Rating: 4/5
Buy or Borrow: Buy
Source: Copy courtesy of the Publisher!

frieda and isabel have been best friends their whole lives.

Now, aged sixteen and in their final year at the School, they expect to be selected as companions - wives to wealthy and powerful men. The alternative - life as a concubine - is too horrible to contemplate.

But as the intensity of the final year takes hold, the pressure to remain perfect becomes almost unbearable. isabel starts to self-destruct, putting her beauty - her only asset - in peril.

And then, the boy arrive, eager to choose a bride.

frieda must fight for her future - even if it means betraying the only friend, the only love, she has ver known...

Wow, this was suitably chilling and mildly creepy in certain parts. The society in this book is truly sickening, it's a society that you absolutely hate while you're reading, and I very nearly gave it a 3 star rating because of this, because it reached a point where I was more morbidly fascinated with it rather than actually enjoying it. But it's a good book so 4 it is. This book really hits you hard, and it makes you think because it really showcases some of today's issues in society, and it gives you quite a hard look at them as well. It's fascinating and mildly horrifying. 

It's a very futuristic book, despite dealing with modern issues. The futuristic aspects where quite interesting, and the world was fairly well built considering we don't actually see much of it, we just hear about it. The weird thing for me was the whole thing with Darwin because I usually read happily ever afters and there's no such thing in this kind of book, so the book has stuck with me, and will stick with many people for different reasons. 

For me, the book made me uncomfortable, and because of this, I think, I thought it was a bit too long, because the book was so uncomfortable to read and it was fairly horrifying and everything, it got a bit repetitive at one stage but it did make it's point. 

One point I loved about the book, was how it was written. It was very well written, and very thorough, the girls didn't even have capital letters to their names because they weren't worth a capital letter, you know? So much attention to detail, it was incredible. 

It's not a book I'll re-read again and again, and I didn't love it, but I didn't hate it either. I felt like there was no conclusion to the book, and I struggled with that because it wasn't like you could come up with your own thing for it that easily. I spent the book being angry and horrified in equal measure and being fairly uncomfortable. Well written, with great world building, and attention to detail, it's an eye opener of a book, that's for sure! 

I'm not entirely sure what this review is like overall to be honest, because I wasn't sure how to review it or word it or what, but I've tried. 

Red Queen

Red Queen
Rating: 5/5
Buy or Borrow: Buy!
Source: Copy courtesy of the publisher!

The world is divided in to Red and Silver, if you're a Silver, then you're practically a God (X-Men or is man?), an elite warrior with incredible abilities ranging from control of fire, to controlling people and anything in between. If you're a Red, then you're a commoner, poverty stricken, and treated like dirt. You live under the rule of the Silver's and you're conscripted in to the Silver's war if you don't have a job by 18. A war that the Silver's started and don't actually fight in. It's only the Red's who spill blood for this war.

Mare Barrow is a 17 year old girl from the Stilts, and to her it looks like nothing will ever change. Her three older brothers are away fighting, and Mare looks set to follow in their footsteps with no job, her only skill being to relieve Silver's of their valuables while they remain unaware. She lives in the shadow of her sister Gisa, a seamstress with incredible skill, who carries the entire family on her shoulders. But when Mare's BFF Kilorn is set to be conscripted after an unfortunate twists of fate, Mare makes a rash decision to save the both of them, and when she comes up with a plan to get the money needed to save the both of them, her timing isn't too great.

You see, she picks the one day, to enact her plan, when a terrorist group of Red's known as the Scarlet Guard decide to blow a couple of Silver monuments up. In the chaos that follows Mare has to run, but not before her sister does something stupid. Something that ruins the future for the Barrow's.

In another twist of fate, Mare happens to steal from the wrong person, or the right one, depending on how you look at it. The next thing she knows, she's working at the Silver Palace, right in the middle of the people she hates, and fate is really getting around, because she soon discovers that she's not so different from the Silver's, her blood may be Red, but she has an ability of her own, one that's going to threaten the control of the Silvers.

They think they can use her to quell a rebellion, but she's harder to control than they suspect, and they made her part of their game.....the question is...who's going to win?

"We will rise, Red as the dawn"

OH MY GOD THIS BOOK THOUGH, THIS BOOK, I'M STILL NOT OVER IT AND I NEED THE NEXT BOOK NOW AND I'M TYPING IN CAPITALS AND I'M STILL FEELING ALL THE FEELS AND I CAN'T EVEN RIGHT NOW, JUST OH MY GOD.

Calming down now, I'm calm, it's all good, let's get to business and discuss one of my favourite books  EVER, yes, just like that it's one of my favourite books ever, and this series is going to be so much awesome, and I can already tell it's gonna be one of my "re-read it until the book is falling apart" series. So...fair warning, fangirling ahead, and copious amounts of gushing.

Red Queen draws you in from the beginning and grabs your interest with the narrative and the voice of the character, not to mention the world we see a glimpse of at the beginning not to mention the action. I could immediately tell it was incredibly original and different, and that the politics of the world, the history and well...the world itself was rich, and I wanted to know more immediately about this strange new world and what was going on.

The world of Red Queen is created from page one, it's built up with each new bit of information, and the writing is incredibly descriptive. The world is vivid and I disappeared in to the world from page one, and from that point was totally lost to the real world, I hated having to leave the world to go and do something else, or you know....when the book was over, every time I just wanted to sink back in to the world and get lost again. It was engrossing and oddly enchanting.

Information about the world and it's politics/rules and so on are established from the beginning and built upon, slotted in to the narrative at just the right moment and combined with the narrative so smoothly that is doesn't impact the pace or flow, it just fits there at the right moment, so you know what's going on and what the importance of the upcoming/already happened event is. You get maximum information about this rich world, with none of the pages and pages of information to paw through before you get back to the story. Just how I love it! 

In Red Queen we see a section of what is hinted to be a fairly expansive world, we see Mare's village, the summer palace, and then the capital, Archeon (which I want to see more of!) and a smidgen of the Bone Bowl, all of this is in Norta, which is a small piece of the world. I'd be intrigued to see the area of the battle, more of the town supposedly deadly because of radiation where the Red's are hanging out, and I'd be interested to see some of the other Kingdoms of the world of Red Queen, like the one they're fighting against in their war! I definitely think the opportunity to visit different areas is there, and I'm excited to see what other parts of the world we get to take a good look at in the other books! Especially as there's the whole "if we have a rebellion the other Kingdoms will crush us because they won't change" thing going on. Is that true? I don't know, but I want to find out!

The world is kind of hard to explain and probably about to make a mess of it right now, to me, it seems to be out of time. At points I thought it was a new fresh world, but then I'd start to wonder if it's the future of our world, and so it seemed quite out of time to me. At points the world seems to be quite old school, and by that I mean kind of olden days, medieval, perhaps, with the dresses and the armour and the fighting and some of the events, but then you see technology being used like cameras and so on which gives it a more futuristic/up to date feel to the world, added to the general awesomeness of the powers of the Silver's it creates a unique world that is enchanting.

The politics of the world is quite impressive, with the houses and how they feel towards the King and the royal family, and how a Queen is picked and how the Red's are treated, I love how the reader can insert themselves in the story, because you know......we are the Red's. So you connect to the Red's as a whole on that level, or at least I did! Now this might just be me, but I kind of felt like some of the politics of the world, and the "terrorists" in particular and the war, seemed to echo some of the news broadcasts you see today in the real world, if that makes sense.

"Anyone can betray anyone"

I loved all the different abilities and the different houses/families, talkies, strongarms, magnetrons etc while the abilities are mostly nothing new....they where used in a new way in this world, and had a different meaning, and there where a couple of different ones thrown in there, but from the different families with the different abilities and colour, you could really see how intricate the world is, and that's not including the history of the world or the politics. I also loved how the Silver's acted, how they reacted differently to situations than a Red would and you could see that so clearly through Mare and her sudden dual identity.

Speaking of Mare, I connected to her immediately, I absolutely loved her and she's the type of female lead I love, with all the sarcasm and everything. She's the type of character whose skin I can easily slide in to as I'm reading. I connected to her so easily for more reasons than I already said, it wasn't just the sarcasm and so on, but it was because of her whole story, and how she feels, and how she's been treated by her family and so on, I could empathise with her so easily and I could understand her and see where she's coming from.

“The truth is what I make it. I could set this world on fire and call it rain.” 

Some of the other characters, however, I couldn't work out, so I was pretty much in the same boat as Mare. I'm talking about Maven and Cal, my opinion of them kept changing as I kept reading, one minute I thought Cal was soooo great but then he'd do something or say something or fail to do something and I'd get the hump with him, but then he'd be so adorable again and I'd be like "he can't possibly be the bad guy in this world". It was exactly the same with Maven. With Maven I felt exactly like Mare did. I thought he was going to be exactly like his mother, totally evil, and I kept expecting him to turn round and be a dick, and have some secret plan going on to screw over Mare and the Scarlet Guard, but I actually ended up liking him and thinking "I really hope he doesn't become a dick", but then there was the mother of all plot twists, that I really didn't see coming even though I should have and was half expecting it, but Maven kept doing things to make me think he wasn't the enemy and so on. But yeah, plot twists and booooommm he went full douche.

The author has written the book so incredibly that it's hard to predict, or if you do predict something that happens, you convince yourself it won't happen because there's no evidence it will and then the thing you didn't think would happen, happens and you're totally shocked and surprised. The author has written Cal and Maven in the book so they're switched for most of the book, we think Cal is the enemy because he won't do what's right, even though he's totally sweet and totally likes Mare and she likes him but won't admit it, and we think Maven is the hero, when in reality it's actually the other way round and Cal's the good guy, but Maven/the author has manipulated your thoughts so subtly through the characters and so on, that you're wrong. It's so hard to explain but you'll see. Everything you think as you read is wrong, and you don't realise until right at the end.

“Many things led to this day, for all of us. A forgotten son, a vengeful mother, a brother with a long shadow, a strange mutation. Together, they've written a tragedy.” 

But the thing was, as much as Maven and the King where dicks, I could also see where both of them where coming from. Cal is the last thing the King had to remember the woman he loved, and I'm not even going to touch Maven's issues, but I did feel for him more than once, and I could understand him and see where he's coming from, as much as I dislike him, to the extent I've half given him the benefit of the doubt and I'm like "maybe it'll come out that his mother is controlling him and making him do it" and yes I do know how stupidly unlikely that is, but I really did feel for the poor sod. 

I would really like to see more of Cal in the next book, he was in the book a fair bit, don't get me wrong, but I'd like to get to know him better, possibly as Mare does! They had a couple of scenes together, but we mostly saw her with Maven, so yes, I'd love to see more of Cal and Mare together, and get to know him a little bit better now Maven is out of the way. I'd also love to see and learn more about Kilorn, Julian, Shade and Farley, as I really liked what I saw of all of those characters, but we didn't get to know them all that well, and seeing as what happened at the end of the book...well...happened, I'd love to know them better this time round! Not to mention Mare's other brothers, they where hilarious and I loved them! Gisa...well....I feel a bit of resentment to her because of poor Mare, but we'll see!

As you can probably tell, the author creates all of her characters, including the secondary ones, very well, so well that you feel what they feel, and they come alive right in front of you. Each character has hidden depths to them, and have more going on than you would think, and each is, like I said, beautifully created, you can picture them clearly, and you want to get to know them better. They're another reason why it's so hard to leave the world! I'd LOVE to see more of Lucas, but nooooooooooo.

"In the fairy tales, the poor girl smiles when she becomes a princess. Right now, I don't know if I'll ever smile again.” 

Like I said, I never knew what was going to happen next, I had my own ideas of what was coming up next and was always wrong, and surprised, and even if  I had half guessed, I was STILL surprised. Red Queen has you on the edge of your seat with all the action, and the secrets and the general wanting to know what happens next! Any theory you have, the author will convince you that you're wrong, so you're even more surprised when you where, in actual fact, at least semi right. Red Queen is a roller coaster of action, and feels and so much happened, I LOVE it when loads happens in a book and you go on a real journey with the character not just in terms of plot, but in terms of the characters development.

This book was so hard to put down because there was never a good enough place to put it down, there was never a lull in the action, or the intrigue or the general OMG, and the world is so engrossing you just don't want to leave it. I was so gutted that I couldn't read it in one go like I wanted to, I had to be up super early for work every day, and so I had to keep stopping and starting, but it was so easy to disappear back in to the world each time, and get back in to the action and instantly remembering exactly what had been going on.

I'm going to tell you a tale of horror and strife now, you see, I had to stop reading this book with 50 pages left. 50. I had to be up early for work and for the first time in my life I decided to be sensible. The struggle was real guys. It was legit the hardest thing I have ever had to do, and I still don't know how I managed to force myself to put the book down. It was right at the OMFG NO WAY I CAN'T BELIEVE IT WHAAAT moment, where you NEED to keep reading because you HAVE to know what's going to happen next. And. I. Put. The. Book.Down. I deserve a medal. The entire next day was total torture until I could finish reading it. I have stared in to the abyss. Seriously. 

I'm a lover of all things unique and original, so this book was literally heaven. There where so many little original quirks, like the Silver's version of blushing and so on, and I loved seeing each new little thing that added little touches to the world to make it really come alive. I'd made the people and the world so original and Red Queen is a breath of fresh air to the genre!

“I see a world on the edge of a blade. Without balance, it will fall.” 

Romance. I know you all want to know about the romance, but as you can probably tell from the whole character paragraph, I had NO idea who to ship her with! As I started to read I assumed I'd ship her with Kilorn, but I didn't get enough of a feel for him to form an opinion, other than he kind of threw some things back in her face, so he's on my no list. I shipped her with Cal immediately, as soon as they met. You could say I shipper her with Cal the entire way through the book, and here's where things get complicated. While I shipper her with Cal, because he was so sweet and adorable and it was too cute, Maven obscured that, by saying certain things about his brother and doing the things Cal wouldn't, I kept wanting Cal to do certain things, and he wouldn't but then Maven would do something like joining the SG, and Cal wouldn't try to make change, and I'd ship her with Cal but then I'd have moments where I was like okay maybe she should be with Maven, as he's clearly better, but then Cal would do something else and I'd be like no don't be silly, Cal and Mare need to be together and there's just a couple of obstacles in the way.

Cal was way too cute and adorable to her, saving her, being all jealous, it was honestly so cute and made you all squirmy inside, so of course, I'm Team Cal. I reached a point where I was like "this is going to be an intense love square" but then Maven did the thing and now I'm like I can handle the triangle that Kilorn will help make, I trust the author to write is incredibly well as she's written everything else, so it's going to be a good one! Her and Cal are the more interesting pairing I think, as they have so much to overcome, and it's so complex, especially after the end of Red Queen. I can't even. It will be fixed in the next book though, right? RIIGHT?!

To be perfectly honest though, for the majority of the book, the romance was kind of secondary to the plot and everything going on with the Guard and Mare learning how to be Silver and how to use her powers and who she really is and how she exists and so on. So the romance was there but it was pretty subtle most of the time, there was the odd big gesture, but you where mostly focused on the plot, especially when Julian was all "here have some info I found, it'll change your life". I'm intrigued to see where the romance is going to go, what with my ship and all, don't get me wrong, but I'm more excited to find out what's going to happen in the world next with the rebellion, and everything.

There where so many points of intrigue in the story, what happened to Cal's mother, what Julian's beef is with Maven and so on, that you're always focused on the story and coming up with your own theories. Always wanting to know more about the book and the world.

“Words can lie. See beyond them.” 

My reaction to the end of the book? Lots of swearing, a mini temper tantrum and OMG's. I ship Cal and Mare so hard and the end just killed me, because they need to be together and then Shade and omg. And then the direction the plot has been pointed in for the next book? SO EXCITED. So much OMG.

Red Queen really brings the feels, it makes you feel all the feels, it's fast paced, there's never a dull moment, the world is vivid and original and the history of the world is rich. Red Queen is fantastically written, always intriguing, and is set to be an incredible and popular series, fast becoming a favourite of mine. Most importantly Red Queen is original, different and unique, and it's a true breath of fresh air in to a genre filled with books that are far too similar. It stands out from the crowd and the romance/triangle/square, will have you freaking the hell out, while being all "awww" at the same time. You have been warned!

I cannot wait for the next book, seriously, I really can't, I need to know what happens next, I need to see Cal and Mare getting back together again and repairing their relationship and I need to see them being all badass and taking down he who shall not be named, Kind of douches. 

The wait is going to be excruciating. I have the book hangover, of all book hangovers, and I loved every minute of it! A little bit of X-Men, (seriously Cal's supposed to marry Magneto) a liiiittle bit of the Selection, a splash of Dystopia and a dash of fantasy. Boom.

The Fire Sermon

The Fire Sermon
Rating: 5/5
Buy or Borrow: Buy!
Source: Copy courtesy of the publisher!

Four hundred years in the future, the Earth has been greatly damaged by a nuclear fire, now, humanity lives in a world that's reminiscent of the middle ages, and is very primitive. All technology from the Before, like Electricity, is taboo, not to be used or touched. Most of the animals and the humans died at the time of the fire, and for generations after, babies where born not quite right thanks to the radiation. While it's been many years and the radiation is gone, every person is born with a twin. Each pair of twins is one boy and one girl, one Omega and one Alpha. Alpha's are perfect in every way, whereas Omega's are all born with a deformity of some sort, missing limbs, and so on. Omega's are branded and sent away to live in Omega settlements when they're very young, they're not welcome in Alpha society and are thought of as lesser, as if they're contagious.

The Council are in charge, and they rule over all the Alpha's and Omega's. The Alpha's get everything, the best land, the best resources and so on, and the Omega's get nothing, barely enough to survive on. Alpha's may think they're superior, but there is one catch, one minor detail that means the Alpha's are never quite as free as they'd like to be....if one twin dies....so does the other. Without fail. One feels the pain of the other, the sickness of the other, and there is no way around it. Some high up Alpha's even keep their Omega's in a prison of sorts called the Keeping Rooms. Omega's live in ever worsening conditions, but there is one hope, an Island, an Island for Omega's where they can escape and live in peace, any talk of said Island results in a harsh punishment. Unfortunately it's not real. Or is it?

Things are about to change....

Cass is a very rare Omega, she has no deformity that can be seen, hers is hidden, you see, she's a Seer. As a child she learnt not to cry out when woken in the night by her terrible visions of the past and predictions of the future, a skill that allowed her to start with her parents much longer than usual, but causing a fair bit of resentment from her twin, as their parents tried to work out which was Alpha and which wasn't worth their time. Now her twin, Zach, has gained an awful lot of power on the council, including the new name The Reformer, and when Cass is dragged from her settlement to be locked in the Keeping Rooms, she stumbles across something terrifying in her bid for freedom.

On the run from her brother and the Council, she still wants to believe in equality between the two, and envisioning a world where Alpha's live side by side with Omega's is one reason they're after her. The other? Like I said...Cass is a Seer, not only would she be useful to the Council, but she's started to have some rather interesting visions....visions of an Island of Omega's, an Island that isn't supposed to exist, that's supposed to be a myth, and the Council will do anything to find it and shut it down. But they're not quite expecting the resistance they will meet. Omega's have more power than they realize.

So this book was totally incredible! I'm not really getting the "it's like the Hunger Games" vibe going on, because it's nothing like the Hunger Games, it's in fact, totally different, and that's why I loved it! Because of filming and other commitments, this took me a few days to read, rather than the few hours it should have if I'd been able to sit and read it in one go. Now I'm slightly glad about that because I got to enjoy the book for longer, but at the same time it was SO hard to put down and there was a definite lack of sleep because every time I was like "okay, this is the last chapter" something would happen and I'd be like "....one more! It's only.......2am...uuumm...." but who cares?! I was incredibly bereft when this was over, and I seriously didn't know what to do with myself.

I've been incredibly lucky lately, and I feel so incredibly grateful because a few publishers have sent me some truly incredible books that have everything I love in them and I have found myself with a whole host of new series to love and agonizingly await the next books of, and Fire Sermon is one of them!

I have such a thing about unique books, and you all know it because I always mention it, I should probably start a tag to be honest! But this is another for my list. It's so incredibly unique, it's a breath of fresh air to the genre that's full of wannabe's right now, and books trying to be something else. Fire Sermon has a thought out and complex background, history and politics to it, and it's all explained, and told to you with so much detail so you fully understand everything that's going on, why it's going on and so on, but without dragging the pace and narrative down. Cass's background in particular was inserted incredibly well in to the narrative, so you know time is passing as she's in the Keeping Rooms, but she's flooding you with memories as to how she got to this place, and each time in between the memories you're waiting for the next installment!

The Fire Sermon gripped me from the beginning, I was fascinated and immediately wanted to know more about the world, and Cass and just what was going on. From then on, it was a real struggle to put down so to be honest I'd recommend clearing your schedule so you don't have to! The world building in particular was so vivid, and I loved it because it sucked you straight in to the world, and you feel like you've visited the world and you have such a clear image, not to mention the atmosphere created, it's intense at times, to say the least, but you can feel the atmosphere, and practically see it oozing off the page, and it totally engulfs you. You really do feel a range of emotions, not only from the atmosphere, but from the events and the characters and so on.

I connected with Cass so easily. So, so easily. I really came to hate Zach, and I seriously wanted to smack him one, but then like Cass, I also felt for him at times as well, and I found myself being conflicted once or twice, but still usually hating him. It's so tricky. He's a villain, he's doing all the horrible things to the Omega's and he does have his reasons, and he seems quite evil at times, but then you can see his point of view, and then he does something like he did at the end and you're like....okay...maybe you're not THAT bad. But then it's like no actually you are. And it's reaaaally hard! You can get why he's like he is, and you can even get why the Confessor is like she is, although I'm still curious as to how and why they ended up working together, I'd have thought Zach would have nothing to do with another Seer, I think it's more than the ambition they both have to be honest. But maybe I'm reading too much in to it!

The plot is complex, there's all the political things going on with Zach and what he's doing and why, and what his ultimate plan is and the electricity and what's really going on under the surface, and then there's Cass on the run and her journey to get to the Island and everything that entails, and then coming back and everything after. It's all woven together perfectly to create a complex, engaging plot, that makes the book hold your attention no matter what, to be honest the nuclear fire from the book could have happened and I wouldn't have noticed until I'd finished reading the book and looked up like "......oh". As the plot  is complex, the solution is also complex it's not as simple as killing Zach off and getting rid of him, because then Cass will die, and it's the same with every Alpha bad guy mentioned in the book, because as Cass reminds us, you're actually killing two people.

The story and plot and narrative and so on, flowed easily, everything happened organically, everything that happened was the next logical step for the story, there was nothing added just for some drama or just there for no reason other than to move the plot along. Everything that happened had a root in the plot and what was truly going on, not just what was happening on the surface.

It's really quite an epic journey, you go from the beginning with the background to the keeping rooms to on the run to New Hobart and so on. You don't see just one small section of the world, you see a vast expanse of it, and can see it very vividly. So much happens, and there's always something going on, like I said, a chapter always ends leaving you wanting more. There are plenty of twists and turns that you don't see coming, some that you maybe have an inkling of but haven't worked it out, but there's none that you can flat out guess in all their detail. Some of them are incredibly sad and heartbreaking, and I wasn't expecting it so I just sat there all shocked, mouth hanging open, totally gobsmacked. I should have guessed about Kip, but I didn't, and it's because it was totally unexpected, but also because you're so engrossed in the story, you don't really have much time to theorize, cos you're turning pages too fast!

There's a smidge of romance, juuuust a smidge. But don't worry, it's not the main focus of the plot, it's woven in very subtly and develops naturally, it's not there for the sake of it. I loved how when you where reading, you felt like you where in the middle ages or a similar time when everything was very basic, but then they'll mention the Before or electricity and machines and you're suddenly jolted in to remembering that, no, this is the future after we've all destroyed the Earth.

I seriously loved this book, and everytime I picked up the book, I was totally absorbed in to the world, and what was going on and was totally obsessed with the book, like when I wasn't reading it, I was thinking about it and thinking about getting home and reading it some more!

Fire Sermon ends, not on a proper cliffhanger really, but the next book has been subtly set up, and you have a slight idea of what's going to happen, but judging from this book, that will only be a small part of it, or the goal of the characters, there will be so much more going on, and there's a couple of threads left to be picked up in the next book. You're left desperate for the next book, you don't want to leave the world and the characters, and you so badly want to know what happens next, it's going to be torture waiting for the next book!

The Fire Sermon is unique, full of action, and incredibly well thought out and complex, while still being engaging and fast paced. You're thrown in to two times, the future, that is incredibly like the past in moments. I for one am incredibly excited about this book, and the series, it's firmly lodged itself in to my list of favourites, and it's one of those books you read and re-read and keep re-reading until pages are falling out of the binding! And each time you read it, it's going to be like you're reading it for the first time, I  guarantee! Go on....give it a whirl!

Golden Son

Golden Son

Rating: 5/5 

Buy or Borrow: Buy 

Source: Copy courtesy of the publisher 

Time has passed since the ending of Red Rising, two years to be precise, and Darrow is now fully embedded in to the society of the Golds. But when Pliny conspires to get him released from Augustus's service, Darrow is reminded of what he's fighting for, and he kicks back harder than ever. Darrow ignites a civil war among the Golds, one that could bring down the Sovereign and put Augustus on the throne, but first there's a war to fight, and not everyone will survive, truths will come out, and sides will change. 

Dammit. I am 50 shades of hell no right now. I can't even. Like, I KNEW he was going to betray Darrow, I knew it, I saw it coming a mile off with him being all pissy all the time, but then at the end I still couldn't believe it, I'm SO over all the betrayals, I can't take it anymore! Poor Darrow! Waaa! I am so heartbroken and emotionally fragile right now from this book. 

It's safe to say with that ending, the next book is needed right now, and it's been set up perfectly. I'm most intrigued to see what Mustang is going to do, especially after these events. This book is like crack, I'm not even joking, it's impossible to put it down once you've started reading, and when it's over you need the next one ASAP. I'm still thinking about the book now....and I'll probably be thinking about it for weeks.

I loved the little "Previously on Red Rising.." page at the beginning that refreshed your memory concisely, while getting you pumped for the next instalment and then you turn the page and it's straight in at the action, and it's pretty much non stop from there, there's always something going on to keep you hooked, keep you engaged, keep you reading. I love that about these books, and I love how you don't know what's going to happen next, and even when you do, you're still shocked when it happens because you here hoping you where wrong! The twists and turns are always shocking, and always add to the story.

The thing I love about this series, is that it's set in the future, and there's loads of cool tech, but there's this balance achieved by the author so that while there's tech, it's still pretty archaic at times, and there's still plenty of savagery. It's a perfect blend and balance so you don't get too much of one or the other, and  you really get taken out of time. 

Like in Red Rising, in Golden Son we cover a lot of ground, we see a lot of new locations, we go on another epic quest of sorts, friends are made and broken, and I feel so bad for Darrow that he keeps losing friends, it's not his fault he's kind of useless and keeps pushing them away! Okay it is but still. We find out who Ares is and I honestly did not see that coming, I hadn't even guessed to be honest, I didn't want to touch that aspect because I knew I'd be wrong whoever I said! 

I continue to totally, 100% love Sevro and his Howlers, is it reaaally wrong for me to say they make the book for me? I mean, Sevro makes me chuckle all the time, especially his quips and the little ditties he comes up with! I like to thing he's the humour and the badassness all in one. I just love how he's pretty much like "I am who I am" and doesn't really give a shit or apologise for it. Love it. 

I also mentioned in my Red Rising review, I believe, that I loved Pax, and I really was going to miss him reading this book, at least I thought, but it turned out to be okay because we get Pax's brother and his Dad, and I can't wait to see more of them. I mean Papa Pax has a pet fox that he feeds jelly beans....LOVE. 

Victra turned out to be a pleasant surprise for me, I was wary of her at first, but I think like Darrow and the others, I came to trust her more as the book went on, she was a total badass, and ridiculously loyal and I didn't expect that. She came to be a favourite of mine and it near broke my heart at the end when she's all "I didn't know" because she wanted Darrow to know she didn't betray him and omg. Damn you Brown. 

As for Darrow? Right now, I think he's a bit of a mug, because he didn't really listen to a word Mustang said about who to trust, and who to mend things with, and I thought he'd learned a lesson about pushing people away, or keeping them in the dark, but he did it again this book and look where it got him, silly sod. At the same time, while I want to smack him one, I also feel for him, and the connection to him is still there, especially when he remembered what he was fighting for and when he got to go back home, and how upset he gets whenever he loses people, because it's what sets him apart from the other Golds. I'm interested to see who he becomes in the next book and what the conclusion will be to everything going on.

It's safe to say shit hits the fan in this book, it's truly the climax, whatever happens in the next book is going to be awesome. We have a world in uproar, everyone's running about, and there's power up for grabs and it's going to be interesting to see who it goes to and how the trilogy continues. I love how the plot for the book is one thing, but then there's bits woven in to keep the overarching plot of the series going in the right direction, and there is always more going on than what appears. It's an expertly written, complex plot made up of many components, without being incredibly confusing or you having to take notes. 

The world continued to be engrossing and vivid, with a fantastic atmosphere. I loved getting a glimpse at different parts of the world, and having a trip back to Darrows home. I'm loving how the world building hasn't been forgotten in favour of the plot or so on. There's an equal spread to make sure everything gets the right amount of attention, and it's a world I love and found so easy to slip back in to thanks to Browns world building! 

I'd also like to note that the jump in time was done incredibly well. Sometimes I've seen it done, and it's been confusing and characters haven't quite caught up with the time, but the characters were all where you  would have expected them to be mentally and so on, for the time that's passed, and you knew what had gone on in the two years thanks to the concise little tidbits thrown out here and there.

Romance continues to be subtle and secondary to the plot, not overshadowing it, and it continues to be an interesting one. I can't really say what happens without spoiling it but i'm SO dying to know what Mustang is going to do, I don't think she's going to be horrible to him, but I don't know. We'll see. I'm really hoping certain characters get what's coming to them, which is unusual for me to say, this trilogy is bringing out the side of me that usually only shows itself during Game of Thrones! 

Golden Son truly takes you out of the world for the hours it takes to read it, fully immersing you in to the world of the book, so you're right there with the characters. Characters, old and new, primary and secondary, who jump off the page and come alive. With a plot that always has more going on than meets the eye and twists and turns everywhere, you won't be able to put the book down, nor will you actually want to, you'll be kept guessing, because even if you do have an inkling, you will second guess yourself, and who to trust, like the characters sometimes. 

Golden Son is the sequel us fans where hoping for! It's just as good as, if not better than Red Rising, there's no formula from the first book, used for the second but with different circumstances, kinda like Hunger Games did (don't get me wrong, I love that trilogy but that did make me go uhh). This is one hell of an explosive trilogy, and one that has fast become a favourite of mine, and hopefully loads of other people. This series is going to be big, and I'm waiting patiently for a movie to be made, because this book series deserves movie adaptions! 

Thank you Pierce for writing such an awesome first two books, that have made me delve back in to a genre I was falling out of love with! But at the same tine DAMN YOU FOR THAT ENDING, YOU CAN'T KEEP DOING THIS TO MEEEEE! YOU'VE BROKEN MY FEELS. I have a book hangover that can't be healed. 

BLOG TOUR: The Mime Order Review AND Scion Guide!

The time is upon us, The Mime Order looms, and I have for you my review aaaannddd a cool little guide Samantha knocked up for me to post on here. Coolest blog tour ever riiight!? First up.....review times! 

The Mime Order

Rating: 5/5

Buy or Borrow: Buy it NOW

Source: Copy courtesy of the publisher!

In The Bone Season Paige escaped the brutal penal colony known as Sheol I, taking as many  Voyants with her as she could but having to leave behind Warden. In Mime Order, we join her on the second leg of the escape, and her problems are only just beginning, what with the train letting out at the Tower...full of guards. After that, most of the fugitives are dead or missing and Paige has no idea where they are. Thanks to Nashira, she is also the most wanted person in London with her face plastered everywhere.

Scion has it's Sauron like eye on Paige, but while she's still Jaxons Mollisher, she's untouchable, no-one will risk his wrath to turn her in. But Paige is chafing under Jax, she didn't leave one slave position for another, and Jax has no intention on acting on what they know, he'll do everything in his power to make sure she doesn't breathe a word about the colony and the Rephaim to the Unnatural Assembly. Not that they'd do anything, considering the corruption festering under the surface, encouraged by the Under-Lord, the only one who can call them to do something. Warden is still MIA and when said Under-Lord and his entire group are killed, including his mollisher and heir, the Unnatural Assembly need new leadership, and to get it, all eligible parties will have to participate in a scrimmage.

Jaxon and his Seven Seals are prepared to fight and win, but Paige can't allow that to happen. Secrets are everywhere, nothing is as it seems, and the Seven Seals are about to be torn apart, but who will fall on whose side? Paige is determined to do something about the imposing threat and destroy the corruption in the Unnatural Assembly, and she won't allow Jaxon to control her anymore.

Paige is going to have to make a stand, the question is....who will be her allies? Everything Paige thought she knew, is wrong. Who can she really trust, when she's being hunted?

Oh maaaaaaaaaaaaaaaan! How can you leave it like that!? Waaaaa! Dammit give me the next book noow! This is going to be a horrible wait, I can tell, because right now I can't think about anything other than this book, and the series, and what's possibly going to happen next, and every bad thing that could happen is going through my head, and I need to know what happens! But I will calm myself to write this review! Expect some gushing though! Although I'll try and keep it as spoiler free as possible!

Mime Order seriously starts off right from where Bone Season ended, so we're on the train heading towards Scion, and Paige is trying to figure out what to do next, so as you can imagine there is some intense emotion and atmosphere from the beginning as well as action that starts from the beginning and carries on throughout, making the book impossible to put down. Every chapter leaves you needing to know what happens next, there is no appropriate place to stop, because there's never a lull, if it's not an awesome fight scene, then it's clues dropping in to your lap, or you being shocked at a plot twist, and so on. Something is always going on, and urging you to keep reading.

This series is incredibly unique, it's incredibly detailed and intricate with the politics and the time line and the explanations for things like Jack the Ripper, and the different levels of Voyants, and the world and everything. Everything is explained so well and so concisely that you immediately get the world, and slipping back in to it for Mime Order is so easy. I love the uniqueness of the book, I really do, there's so much about it I could mention, but I'd be here all day and no-one wants to read a review that's longer than the book! I suspect fans of the books will know what I mean anyway!

Mime Order also shows just how clever the book is, I mean at the Tower of London, the guards are called Ravens. You know....the Ravens at the Tower....get it?! There's little nuggets like that throughout the whole book and I'm not sure about other readers, but native Londoners like myself will be reading it and chuckling at all the little nuggets like the Tower, that show our London exists in this future, alternate London, but has been subtly changed, and fits in to the world and so on. It's incredibly well done.

This installment is just as intense and emotional as Bone Season, if not more than, the atmosphere is just....all over you as soon as you start reading it. You can feel the danger, unrest, terror, oppression, slight stirrings of rebellion and so on, and the atmosphere stays with you throughout the entire book, changing subtly with each new part of the plot. It's this atmosphere, along with the fantastically vivid world building, that draws you in to the world and refuses to let you step back out. For me, it wasn't hard to layer this alternate London, over my London. Besides that, for someone who's never been to London, it's going to feel like you have been.

I loved the mix of times, it's set in the future, but there's Victorian elements strewn throughout, and it's all blended together to make a unique setting that you're engrossed by and wanting to know more about with every bit you learn about. Like I've said multiple times, I've been on a roll lately with uniquely awesome books, and this is one of those instances where a sequel is equal to it's previous installment if not better.

Bone Season, as fans will remember, was all about the Colony and the Rephaim, and learning about them and what's really going on with Scion, with brief hints of everything else, although I think it's safe to say there where some bad vibes from Jax, and how he treated Paige, which isn't how she remembered him. Mime Order is all about the Unnatural Assembly, it's structure, the different Cohorts and their resident Mime-Queens or Mime-Lords, their mollishers and other members, the politics of it, and how corrupt it really is and has been allowed to become by Hector. I mean, it's a lot more corrupt than even Paige thought it was.

I continue to love Paige, and connect to her, and feel for her, and I'm right there along with her in the book, feeling what she's feeling and everything. I love how strong she is, and how she keeps on surviving despite what's thrown at her, keeps on fighting. I've loved watching her develop, and continue to develop in this book, I mean she could have just given in and gone along with Jackson, but she didn't. She did what she needed to do, to keep everyone safe. Jaxon is not how I was expecting him to be from the bits Paige mentioned of him in Bone Season, and him at the end, appeared to be out of character, in this book he seems to be totally different from how he's supposed to be, and the whole thing at the end makes you realize what his problem is, why he's acting this way and so on, and I'm totally hitting myself for not picking up on it!

I love the characters in the book, all of them, not just Eliza, and Warden and Nick, but all the secondary characters, because even the really shitty characters, are all incredibly well written, they're all larger than life, they all leap off the page, they're all different from the others and it's a really colourful cast of characters! Not to mention I love the different types of Voyants and all the different gifts they have and Numa, I love finding out more and more about them!

The plot is complex, there's a lot going on under the surface, and there are clues, but I for one, was incredibly engrossed in the book so I missed some clues, obviously, and all the theories I had where totally wrong. Like reaaaaaally wrong! I loved how you're reading, and there's hints of something under the surface, something  more going on, but it's eked out, and you're desperate to know how it all connects and what's really going on and then the reveals just totally blow you away. There are seriously plot twists everywhere and it keeps you on your toes, and I seriously wasn't expecting certain things to happen and I had so many feels. So many. Like I said, I should have guessed certain things and picked up more of the clues, but I didn't, and I couldn't work out some of the clues, because I suck.

There's also a smidge more background about the Rephaim, and you see their point of view about what happened when they arrived back in the 1800's, how they framed Edward as the Ripper, how the veil works, how the clairvoyants came about and how Warden and the others became rebels, and started working against the Sargas. I love the timeline the author has created to explain the Ripper, and her current Scion London, and I love how she's changed history so it starts back in the 1800's, it fits so perfectly.

The Mime Order is reaching the climax of the overarching storyline, change is happening, revolution is coming, and the fight is about to start, and things are going to get even more intense and serious, and there's probably going to be heartbreak. You can feel the change coming at the end of the book, when Lotte shouts out you can literally feel it, it almost makes you shiver. Mime Order ends on a cliffhanger with a plot twist that seriously comes out of nowhere and pretty much punches you in the face and leaves you stunned for a good period of time after, as all the implications come crashing down on you and things click in to place.

The Mime Order is slick, and has a fast, action packed pace that continues strongly all the way through until the end, you don't want to leave the world, you NEED to know what happens next, you want to be as badass as Paige! I loved the Unnatural Assembly and how it's set up, and all the different names, and I'm excited to see what happens with this new Unnatural Assembly with it's new leadership, and the third book is looking to be utterly fantastic, and explosive and just amazing. I need it nooow!

Oh oh oh, and, P.S, I LOVED the little interludes breaking up the story and keeping it fresh and the cool pamphlets and things!

I know I know, so much writing, so much fingerling, y'all should be used to this from me by now when I love a series! If my review got you super excited for Mime Order, check out the link for the coolest guide ever! Reacquaint yourself with Scion London! 

Clickety click, riight....HERE for the open in new page, giant view, OR, below is a little viewer thingy I rigged up. As you can tell I have no idea how I managed it :')

Wishing For Wednesday #22

Hellloooo erryboddyyyy!
This week I am most looking forward toooooo.......... this  little book I found, that seems quite intriguing. I'm excited to give it a whirl, I don't read enough from this particular genre! I'm getting some Maze Runner vibes from the synopsis, not like "omg it's exactly the same" just certain things are a bit reminiscent, so I'm curious!

The Prey

A hot debut trilogy and a riveting story of survival, courage, and romance in a future where creating a master civilization is the only thing prized, no matter the method. After the Omega (the end of the end), 16 year old guys known as LTs discover their overseers are raising them not to be soldiers (lieutenants) as promised, but to be sold as bait because of their Less Than status and hunted for sport. They escape and join forces with a girls’ camp, the Sisters, who have been imprisoned and experimented on for the "good of the Republic," by a government eager to use twins in their dark research. In their plight for freedom, these heroes must find the best in themselves to fight against the worst in their enemies.

The Prey is out January 20th, pre-order your copy here. 

Add it to your GoodReads here. 

The Book Of Ivy

The Book Of Ivy
Rating: 4/5
Buy or Borrow: Buy
Source: Copy courtesy of NetGalley

After a brutal nuclear war, the United States was left decimated. A small group of survivors eventually banded together, but only after more conflict over which family would govern the new nation. The Westfalls lost. Fifty years later, peace and control are maintained by marrying the daughters of the losing side to the sons of the winning group in a yearly ritual.

This year, it is my turn.

My name is Ivy Westfall, and my mission is simple: to kill the president’s son—my soon-to-be husband—and restore the Westfall family to power.

But Bishop Lattimer is either a very skilled actor or he’s not the cruel, heartless boy my family warned me to expect. He might even be the one person in this world who truly understands me. But there is no escape from my fate. I am the only one who can restore the Westfall legacy.

Because Bishop must die. And I must be the one to kill him…

I could make a reference to a certain book by a certain author who's name begins with S and has a character who also has the surname that Ivy has....but I won't. Instead I will say GIMME GIMME MORE! I need the next book now, I say this a lot, but seriously I really do, I'm on such a roll lately and this another series to add to the favourites.

It's a breath of fresh air in the dystopian genre, and I couldn't put it down, I had to keep reading, I was totally sucked in by the world and the plot and just....I'm so sad it's over. It's got one of those worlds that you just don't want to leave once it sucks you in.

Not to mention the cast of well written, full of depth characters that jump off the page and really come alive with the authors words. I loved all of them, except Callie, what a bitch. Ugh. But anyway, Ivy is easy to connect with and I really loved her. I felt for her so badly and then there was the whole thing with her family. I felt angry on her behalf for what Callie and her father where doing to her and everything and ugh. Next book needed.

The plot was fantastic, it keeps you going, it's intense, there's romance as well, and it's the slow building kind of romance that slowly develops and is just utterly perfect. Bishop and Ivy are totally cute together, Bishop makes you melt and then Ivy can break your heart and it's just a rollercoaster of emotions.

It was a unique concept, based on something that's still an issue in our own time and world, arranged marriage. And it really makes you picture what life would be like for you if you lived in that time. What would happen to you? What would you do if you where Ivy?

The Book Of Ivy is just an utterly fantastic read that will totally suck you in, with characters you'll love, the authors writing will paint a vivid picture for you with an atmosphere and will make you feel so many emotions right along with Ivy. You're left wanting more, wanting to know what's going to happen to Ivy and how she's going to adapt to this situation and change and so on.

Red Rising

Red Rising
Rating: 5/5
Buy or Borrow: Buy
Source: Copy courtesy of Bookbridgr

The Earth is dying, and so Darrow and his fellow Reds toil away, mining Mars to extract the elements they need to terraform the planet and make it habitable for humans to live on. The Reds have always been told they are humanity's last hope, so they continue to work, continue to be treated poorly with barely enough food to survive, continue to try to win the Laurel that means more food. But it's all been a lie.

After a tragic event and a fake death, Darrow finds out that everything they've been told is a lie. People are already living on Mars, it's been habitable for 300 years, and it's been inhabited by the Golds. The Golds are a class of people that look down on Darrow and the rest of the Reds, they're the top of the hierarchy and all the other lesser colours, colours Darrow didn't know exist, exist to serve them. But the Reds are the class expected to work until they die, they're nothing more than slave labour.

Darrow takes up a rebel groups offer, and soon he is disguised, permanently made in to a Gold, to infiltrate their command school. His mission is to take down the oppressors from the inside. Reach a position of power and then destroy them. But first he has to survive the command school, and his first lesson? Being thrown in to a battleground with the rest of house, watched by the Proctors as they fight, make each other in to slaves and even kill, members of other houses. Darrow has to win, he was to be the Primus, because he needs the best offers to get to a position of power. But winning this little lesson isn't going to be easy, it's going to be bloody and it's going to be tough, and he's not the only one with an agenda.

Daammiiitttt, ANOTHER one for my new favourite series list, seriously, when books are usually hyped this much, I go in wary, but a few pages in I was hooked and I knew I was a goner, and now I'm all like "I NEED GOLDEN SON NOOOWWW WAAAA" tensely waiting for the next book. Don't even get me started on the movie. Need. So much need. This book truly deserves the hype because it is astoundingly unique and an utterly enthralling.

Like I said, I was sucked in from the first few pages, from then I was hooked the entire way through, frantically turning pages and feeling shock, sorrow and humour at various different points. Red Rising is is like Pringles. Once you pop you can't stop. Or in this case, once you start to read you can't stop. Doesn't have quite the same ring to it but you get the picture. It's fast paced, the prose is concise yet descriptive, there was an abundance of twists and turns, none of which I expected, which is always a rare thing for me lately. I was constantly shocked at a plot twist, believing whatever the author led me to believe, then finding out it was wrong! Red Rising is impossible to work out, impossible to predict, which is always a good thing!

The world building was just...wow. Cinematic, atmospheric, vivid, it totally draws you in and blots out the real world. It was created and established with such care and detail, the politics and such of the world are explained and detailed so you can understand the world entirely and understand how it works, which also helps to understand characters motivations. It's an intricately built world, with an incredibly intriguing history to it, and an interesting...I want to say layout...with the moon and other planets and everything, but that's not the right word, and I'm fairly sure after this little rambly tangent you'll know what I mean! Anyways, I do really love a world I can immerse myself in!

The characters, where all very well written and very complex. A couple of them had their own agenda's, a couple of them had way more to them than you originally thought, behaviours changed as a result of the setting they where in and the situation they where put in, and it was interesting to watch the characters adapt and change as they experienced the war game. Some of them handled it well, others did not, and it became clear Darrow wasn't the only one, there where others like him. I just found it so incredibly fascinating and well done, to see how these pampered kids, suddenly had this total shock and reality check and how they reacted to it, each characters reaction was very natural and organic, some adapted, some didn't, some adapted terribly, but it was fascinating. Every character was so strong and a lot of the secondary characters could standalone.

I loved the fact you first meet Darrow, then you watch him change over the course of the book, you watch him make mistakes, like when he went from being a very good leader to a crappy one, and then you watch him learn from his mistakes and the amount he grew and changed was fantastic. I felt he was very realistic, we all make mistakes in one form or another, we all lose sight of goals and need to have them reaffirmed and everything, and I really enjoyed Darrow, I just felt he was written realistically, he wasn't perfect, which made him more human.

I also have to mention that I really really really loved Pax, when you saw the other side to him, I seriously loved him, he made me chuckle more than once, and I can't even begin to described my sorrow when he was eliminated, I mean seriously. So many feels. I also really liked Sevro too, he was one of the characters where there was more than met the eye, and I really hope Darrow and his friends/lieutenants stick together and we see more of them together. I still don't entirely trust Mustang I have to admit, because I didn't suspect a thing and I was horrendously shocked and expecting the worse and everything. A truly fantastic bunch of characters!

 I actually took the "which house are you" test before I read the book, and now I'm quite disgusted and disappointed I got Apollo!

I want to talk briefly about the connections being made with the Hunger Games, because I can see why. At points reading the part of the book where they're all in the battleground and at war, I got a very Hunger Games vibe, going on, because of the arena I presume. But I don't like the whole "oh it's like The Hunger Games but in space" shtick, because it's not at all. I feel like in this book, the stakes are higher for our lead, I love the Hunger Games I really do, but for me the world building, the characters and the plot where all more serious and more complex, Hunger Games is serious, don't get me wrong but it's also a lot about the love triangle, whereas in this, things are a lore more brutal, there's very little romance, and it has an entirely different vibe. This is not another Hunger Games, it's an entirely separate book that adds another breath of fresh air to the genre.

Like I said, the plot was complex, there where lots of elements, politics, background, history, how things work with the Houses and everything and the colours all woven in to along with our main arc to create a complex story, that was truly action packed and had all the severity the situation warranted. Yes it made me laugh in places, but it was at times brutal and at times very sad as it was humorous, but it was entertaining and engaging, and I love a plot that is very clearly well thought, and is not at all easy to figure out. There's lots of different elements to the plots, and there's lots of emotion. It has a unique setting, set up and premise, the majority of the book is unique, with the colours and the houses and so on.

I feel like the second book has been very well set up, very subtly, the main focus was on Darrow and what was going on right then, and what needed to be done next, but at the end there's a very subtle set up to the next book, and I say subtle because I have a very vague idea of what the next book will contain, at some point there'll be a showdown with Cassius, there's going to be lots of dealings with Augustus, but beyond that, I can't really predict what's going to happen next. I have a feeling it's going to be a very different set up and vibe to this book, meaning there won't be another battle field (well there could be, but I don't think so, not like the Hunger Games with the second arena) I feel like we're going to see the story moving more towards the endgame as it's the second.

Red Rising, I am so pleased to say, deserves all of the hype it gets, and I truly loved the book, and enjoyed reading it. It was emotional, at times funny, complex, engaging and unique. It really makes you think, about if the world was truly like that, what colour would you be? What would you do if you where a Red? You understand the characters actions, you see some truly great character growth and change and not just from the main character, and the book is truly unpredictable. You'll race through it, there's no info-dumps bogging down the narrative, and it's a truly fantastic book. I can't gush enough about it!

I am incredibly excited for the next book, I can't wait to see what happens to Darrow next, to get back in to this strange and fascinating world and to see my new favourite characters again!

Station Eleven

Station Eleven
Rating: 5/5
Buy or Borrow: Buy
Source: Copy courtesy of publisher!

"Survival is insufficient" 

It all started during a performance of King Lear, celebrated actor Arthur Leander playing the title role of course, during the fourth act it  became clear that something was very, very wrong. Paramedic in training Jeevan jumps on stage to help, but it's too late. After comforting Kirsten, one of the young girls playing one of King Lears daughters, he starts to head home when he gets a worrying phone call from a friend. Leave town, he says, leave town, this flu is a pandemic. But he can't leave, after stocking up on essentials he lugs multiple trolleys to his brothers flat, where he will watch the world as we know it end.

That was day one. The day the Georgia Flu spread unnaturally fast all over the world, with a 99% mortality rate. Over the next few days everything slowly shuts down and by week two...civilization is over. No running water, no electricity, no internet, no TV, looting, food shortage...you get the idea.

In that first initial  year, many people walked, wandering through borders that no longer existed, looking for other people, looking for some semblance of the old world. Those initial years where dangerous times, violence everywhere. But by year 20, things have settled down as much as could be expected,  life is going on, and a travelling band of actors and musicians, the Travelling Symphony. They travel around this new world performing Shakespeare, we join them as they're heading back to the town they left two of their members at to have a baby, but they're not there and something is very wrong. We join them journeying to the Museum of Civilization at Severn City Airport to reunite with their friends, but the journey is by no means smooth. Disappearances, a strange marking that appears again on a mans face, and the mysterious Prophet, all conspire to make the journey....interesting.

Meanwhile we switch back and forth between the hectic and bustling pre Flu world just before the collapse, and the deserted and changed world left behind after the Flu twenty years later. We follow the interconnected lives of six people, Arthur Leander and the rise of his acting career; Jeevan and his new life post flu; Arthurs first wife Miranda and the creation of her comic book; Clark, Arthurs oldest friend and a certain curator; Kirsten, the young actress with few memories of her time before the flu, now travelling with the Symphony.

"If you can remember your lines in questionable territory, you'll  be fine on stage" 

I've seen a lot of people loving this book, and the entire premise intrigued me, as an actor, how could it not? With regards to the whole Shakespeare, Travelling Symphony thing.....obviously. I still wasn't entirely sure what to expect, i'll be honest, but I was really excited to start reading. I only meant to read a little bit of it before bed, but once I fell in to the book, I couldn't get back out!  It was beautiful and emotional and for me it was very thought provoking! Or maybe I read too much in to it because it was 4am? Who knows!

The opening scene gave me chills, and drew me straight in. I was hooked from there on out. The ominous comments in the narrative, like saying "so and so would die from the flu in X amount of days" also helped with the intrigue, making you want to read on as well as being slightly chill inducing.

As you read the book there's at one point a list of things no longer available shall we say, and there's other things that are mentioned, and it makes you realize how many things you take for granted. Watching a film, antibiotics, and so on, there's so many things we'd be lost without and the book kind of makes you realize you don't always appreciate them that much. Some of the things that are described, like a plane ride at night for instance, you realize that you never fully acknowledged the beauty of it. Although I will admit I thought I was the only person who did it! Think about the people in the houses etc, I mean.

"No more towns glimpsed from the sky through airplane windows, points of glimmering light; no more looking down from thirty thousand feet and imagining the lives lit up by those lights at that moment." 

The book was written very beautifully, with tight and concise prose, and a fantastic smooth flow with fast pacing. The way the book was written, it makes you appreciate things you overlook on a regular basis, and it kind of made me want to go out for a walk, and just look at all the beauty in the world. I spent a lot of time thinking about what I'd miss or dream about, how I'd feel if I was living in that world and trying to picture my environment in the context of that world.

Despite what you may think, the book was actually quite humorous in certain places, I had the odd chuckle. I loved the term "iPhone zombie", I'm totally going to nick that! It also made me laugh how Jeevan was singing "it's the end of the world as we know it" because the lyrics crossed my mind multiple times as we reading certain parts!

"I'm talking about those people who've ended up in one life instead of another and they are just so disappointed. Do you know what I mean? They've done what's expected of them. They want to do something different but it's impossible now" 

As I've said the book is quite thought provoking, but not always because of the whole "what if this happened to me" thing, for instance page 163 particularly resonated with me, as I'm sure it will with others of all ages, those who are scared of it happening, those who are experiencing it and so on. It's very relate-able at multiple points in the story.

"but then by four or five o'clock the day's just turned into yet another day, and you go on like that, looking forward to five o'clock and then the weekend and then your two or three annual weeks of paid vacation time, day in day out, and that's what happened to your life" 

Man I don't think I've ever seen working in retail described so accurately, with the break room and talking to colleagues and everything. The clock watching, looking forward to the end of shift and then doing it all again the next day. Seriously. Perfectly describes most peoples lives I would think.

The contrast between the bustling cities, people bumping in to each other, constant noise and light and so on, and then the silence and near empty world post-flu was at times subtle, and at times quite obvious and almost jarring. It was perfectly shown.

What struck me about the world after the flu, was that a few things where like being thrown back to the Victorian era, the caravans the symphony has for example, where like Victorian coaches but made out of pick-up trucks! It was also striking how kids born after the flu don't know what certain things are like a circus, and have to have airplanes and air condition and things explained to them, I was trying to picture having to explain something like that to a kid who never experienced it and I didn't get very far!

The world building was fantastic. It could be visualized perfectly and it totally engrossed you. You really felt like you where there. It was very atmospherically written, and you got so much out of the description with few words. The creepy forest for example, well forests always creep me out with the whole "someone could be watching me" thing, but the emotion and the feeling from that atmosphere oozed off the page. Not to mention the creepy school. I dare you to find someone who's ever been in a school after everyone has left, and for them to not find it creepy. But things like that became even creepier when you picture it abandoned etc. Not to mention the roads chock full of abandoned cars complete with skeletons.

"The perpetual hum of the city fading away"

Kirsten was an interesting character, she doesn't remember much from before the flu and doesn't remember the first year after. She does however remember Arthur, and she keeps looking for magazines with photos of him in, and she has the comics he gave her called Doctor Eleven. It was intriguing, how you wanted to know what happened in that missing year she doesn't remember, you never find out so it's kind of left to your imagination to create that year for her.

My opinion of Arthur changed a lot, I started out feeling sorry for him because it was so very sad they had to call his lawyer when he died instead of a loved one, and then I kind of thought he was a bit of an ass multiple times, but then I just felt incredibly sad for him again. I liked learning about Arthurs acting career, how it started, how it developed and so on, it was an interesting journey to watch, especially from my view point. I think it was his last day from his POV that just made me feel incredibly sad for him.

The book also gives us an interesting look at fame, and fully shows that fame isn't all it's cracked up to be. I think a lot of people think being papped and followed by paps is glamorous because it means they're famous or whatever, but the book shows what an invasion of privacy it is and how they kind of look at celebrities who are actual real people, like dollar signs. Particularly when Arthur's being wheeled to the ambulance. You see the relationship between paps and celebrities a little bit, the waitress tipping the paps off, them staking out Arthurs house and so on.

We get a slight story within multiple stories when we get told the plotline for Station 11, the comic book. It was expertly woven in, as where the mentions of it when we're getting Miranda's POV. I thought it was striking how in the comic, their world has changed, they're living on a world mostly water with no sun and all one group of people wants to do is go home, and when you think about it, the post-flu people just want them same thing, except home to them is the old world. The Undersea people in the comic cling to the hope of the world being restored much like Kirsten and co.

There are so many connections throughout the book, the Doctor Eleven comic book, the dogs name Luli, a paperweight, things that are all connected to multiple characters and entwining them even more. A lot of these connections, connect the pre and post flu worlds. The paperweight I mentioned? Clark gave to Arthur and Miranda, she took it and gave it to Arthur who gave it to Tanya who gave it to Kirsten, which she still carries around the post flu world. Every single character is connected, they've all touched each others lives at some point. I loved looking out for the other characters in the others stories and being all "AHA".

The transition to pre-flu is smooth and flawless, you can picture a movie version of the book where a picture or a word triggers the screen to fade in to a flashback to the pre-flu days. It all links back so flawlessly. For instance, Kirsten was looking at a certain tabloid photo of Arthur and Miranda, then we go pre-flu Miranda is recalling the circumstances around the photo. Then at another point Miranda goes out to the paps, one of which is Jeevan, to ask for a cigarette, and took a candid photo of her that he later recalls taking. Every single character has a connection that is made apparent.

I'm sure it's obvious from what I said so far, but the POV switching was also flawless. Clark's and Miranda's provided an interesting little view point of a famous actor from the view of two people who've known him since before he was famous. They can see what he's become, see that he's not perfect. I found it really interesting that on two separate occasions Clark and Miranda note that it seems like he's performing or acting when he's interacting with them. Does an actor get so used to acting they do it all the time? Can they not turn it off? Or is he doing it because he mentioned his life was like a movie and he's created a facade?

The idea of actors being immortal is something I've always thought, films will last forever after all, but in the book it's the tabloids that have lasted, it's the tabloids that have kept actors immortal. It was yet another point in the story where I thought "this is me, I think that".

We get Kirsten and the Travelling Symphony's story, going to get Charlie etc. We get Arthurs story, becoming an actor, what his life was like. From Miranda we see her relationship with Arthur develop, we see it's decline and her sense of not belonging in his world, and we see it come full circle when he dies. Jeevan's story lets us in to the life of someone who has no idea what they want to do, we see him as a pap, we see him trying his hand at entertainment journalism, through Jeevan we get chills as we watch the world collapse after the flu, and we see his journey to finally settling down, and becoming a doctor. Finally, with Clark, we see what happened to those last few flights, we see everyone stranded at an airport, including Arthurs second wife and son, and we see what life was like at the airport for the people who where stuck there and eventually made a home there. And we see Clark finally create the Museum. All these stories are expertly woven in to one with flawless transition, each as engaging as the next, each perfectly placed.

I thought the transcripts from Kirstens interview with the librarian in one town was a great way to let us know Kirsten a bit more, understand more about her, and see what the world is currently like with the different towns, some more sane than others. It kept the narrative fresh and was an intriguing break in said narrative. Arthurs letters to V where again, an intriguing break in the narrative, keeping it fresh and engaging. It also gave you a real insight in to the real Arthur, and what an acting career is like with the struggles and so on, and how fame affects a person.

I loved the ending. The Prophet was taken care of, but everything made sense. You saw two people with the same reading material and how they reacted differently to it and the situation. I loved how you where left with the knowledge that one village has electricity back for the first time in 20 years, you're left with the thought that in the book, the world has just taken it's first step to righting itself, to fixing itself. It was the perfect ending.

Station Eleven is so incredibly unique. It's emotional, it makes you laugh, it makes you cry or at least want to cry, it's incredibly movng, it's chilling/spine tingling at points, heartbreaking at others. Haunting, bittersweet almost and so beautifully written. Engaging through and through, you won't be able to put the book down or stop thinking during and after reading it. It might even change your outlook on life, maybe you'll look up and take in the world around you as you walk to work or wherever instead of keeping your eyes glued to your phone. Maybe you'll look for the beauty in the world and lock it away in your memory....just in case.

Hunted

Hunted
Rating: 5/5
Buy or Borrow: Buy
Source: Copy courtesy of the author

Still reeling from the betrayal and subsequent execution of her best friend, Talia jumps at the chance to be distracted....and see her boyfriend Erik. Talia packs up her bags and heads to Washington DC to help administer the annual Talent Aptitude Tests, which will analyze and identify any children with Talent. Talia finally has a purpose again, but she has to work with Cadence, and there's no love lost between the two. Talia has always known that the Mandatory Testing Law's are controversial, she isn't sure she agree's with them herself, especially now she's seeing up close and personal what happens during the testing, but she's still shocked by the protesters she see's lining the streets. She's even more shocked when she finds out there's a city wide curfew during the testing, it seems that while Penny was a traitor, most people aren't happy a teenager was executed. Talia's misgivings and distrust of the agency and Mac begin to grow, with what Penny showed her, and what she see's happening around her.

 When Erik enlists the help of a friend working in the medical unit, the reason for Talia's seizures is revealed, as well as what the drug is that they're giving her...not to mention a shocking secret of the Agency's. As if that wasn't enough to put a crack in Talia's trust of Mac and the Agency, Mac assigns her a task that will destroy everything she thought she knew. Mac sets Talia, Erik and Cadence up with an extraction team to retrieve a child. A child that is 4 years old. A child that doesn't even have to be tested yet. A child that belongs to a face from her past. When it goes wrong, Talia will have to make a tough decision, one that will take her away from everything she knows and set her on a path of uncertainty, and discovery.

Life altering decisions will be made. Earth shattering secrets will  be revealed. Loyalties will be tested. Enemies will become allies. And a War is about to begin.

The plot thickens. The stakes are raised. And I have never been more shocked the entire way through a book. I'm still processing what I've just finished reading. I mean...wow.

The world building in Hunted is on par with the previous two books. The world of the Dystopian Washington DC is embellished on what we've seen so far, we see the dark underbelly of it, and we get another mini world built on in the form of the Underground. When you start reading the book, or when you go back to it after you've had to force yourself to sleep, you're immediately sucked in to the world, and that's a quality about these books that I love, and is consistent. You get lost in the world, and everything can be pictured so clearly with so few words.

The prose continues to be atmospheric and cinematic. It continues to be concise and is not bogged down with useless information. We learn things as Talia learns them, any background given is kept to the point and doesn't interrupt the flow of the book or the narrative.

The previous book was fast paced, but this book seemed even more so, with so much happening the book. We went from DC to the Underground, to the location of the extractions. There was so much information to process, but it was presented perfectly with great flow from location to location and event to event.

My love Talia grows with each book, when you're reading you feel like you're connected to Talia, we learn things as she learns things, we feel what she feels, and we love her to bits. In Hunted, we watch as Talia loses control of herself and her emotions and how that makes her feel, which I thought was beautifully written, I felt for Talia, and it was realistic in that if I was in her shoes, I feel I'd react the same way. Talia is still the strong character we love, she's just a little bit more flawed which makes her more human and even easier to relate to. We're on this journey with Talia and we're watching her grow and develop and question things. Talia is even more of an amazing character than I first thought, I mean agreeing to look after Alex, after she finds out Donovans his dad? I can honestly say I would not be able to do that.

Erik is still amazing. He's patient with Talia, he's there for her he's perfect. But at the same time, he has very realistic reactions to things, like in one scene when he says he's tired of the mood swings, but then he's still there. He keeps her safe, and his over protectiveness is written perfectly so it comes across as sweet, and funny rather than kind of creepy and scary like so many books that missed the mark with that aspect. I'm excited that Erik's past is revealed a little more, and I'm excited to see more of his past with the introduction of his family.

Donovan. Oh Donovan. Just when I was feeling a little bit sorry for you and thought "hey...you know what..maybe I could like you" you had to go and out douche yourself. I'd suspected for a while that he may be behind her seizures, I just wasn't sure HOW. So ya know..he knows he's the reason and he's not said a word....kind of douchey. But the main reason he's kind of an a-hole, is bigger than that. I get why he hid the kid away, I do. It was very noble and I felt bad towards the end for him. But I just can't get past the fact that he cheated on Talia with Candice, got her pregnant, had a son with her, tried to get back with Talia and was NEVER going to tell her?! Then there's the whole "I love you, I still love you" thing, yet Mac appears to have forced him to date her? I'm curious to see if Donovan will be hard core redeemed, he was working his way there, but this kind of made me hate him again.

The plot definitely thickens. There are so many threads coming together, including threads from the first book, to create an intense and rich plot for this book, and for the final book coming up. Hunted was so brilliantly written, that it's like we're Talia. I'm trying to think how to describe this so bear with the rambling! We don't see how shady some characters are, until Talia does, so we start off loving Donovan, then feeling what Talia feels. We have until this point, felt what Talia felt for Mac. We liked him, thought he was a great guy, but as of last book slightly didn't trust him. Now in this book, as Talia has started to have no trust for Mac, we've started to not trust him either. Along with Talia, we've started to realise that Mac and the Agency may not be what they seem. I can't describe how that makes the experience of reading the book so awesome.

Along with Talia our suspicions have built up, doubts about what we thought we knew are appearing, and for the entire book there's a sense of growing distrust, and you can feel while you're reading that all is not as it seems. This is pretty good indicator of not only how good the writing is, but how invested you become in the books. You're fully immersed in the world. The entire book you're feeling the tension and unease while you're reading, it set me a little on edge, I kept waiting for the bomb to drop, while  being glued to the book.

The bomb did indeed drop. Several of them actually. I love these books  because they're not predictable, and Hunted is no exception. There where so many plot twists that I never saw coming. Yes I said earlier I figured Donovan was the reason for Talia's seizures, I don't view that as a predictable plot twists because I didn't know how he was responsible. That was all part of another huge plot twist that dents Talia's trust hugely. Then we have the kid thing. Then the Penny's alive reveal which is the only one that didn't have me gasping in shock. I'm fairly certain I squealed at a level only dogs could hear. Mac's true colours where revealed and Talia finally realizes who killed her parents among other things.

All these plot twists made for truly explosive reading. You're not expecting them, it just adds to the impact as you turn a page and read another huge plot twist that you didn't see coming. Some questions from the previous books are answered, some threads come together and tie up, but there's many more questions, and there's more threads being added in. You spend the whole book gasping in shock, unable to put it down as the tension mounts and the stakes get higher.

We see more clearly how controlled everything is by the Agency. You can feel revolution in the air. *Do You Hear the People Sing plays*, yes I may have hummed that to myself once or twice at certain appropriate parts. Sue me.

Sophie is one of few authors I know of who can build up the anticipation, and set the scene perfectly for the next installment, without taking away from the storyline of the current book, it's always a well written secondary thing. Believe me when I say Sophie has set up when hell of a finale. The epilogue itself built up so much anticipation I can't even handle it.

The books have, for me, journeyed from a kind of cute romance with some action thrown in, to a mystery with a smidge of romance and building intrigue, into the third book which for me was a book where the action and the intrigue, and the plot are front and centre, and the romance is secondary, but still strong and enjoyable. The books have gotten more serious as it goes on, and the war is pretty much upon them. And ya  know...I'm still reeling from what we discovered in Hunted about the Agency. I mean this is the first Dystopian book that is actually rivaling Hunger Games in the genre in my opinion.

It's just so perfect, and each book just get's better and better as we follow the over arching storyline, we learn more about the characters, we find out more about what's going on, as we follow the path to the end. I can guarantee that no-one who's read all the books has the same opinion of certain characters *coughMaccoughDonovancough* as they did in the beginning. I can't stress enough how much I love that our opinion of the characters changes as Talia's does.

I swear to God Sophie has implanted some sort of mind melding technology in her books so that you are one with Talia. I feel like I've not read Hunted. I feel like I've lived it. I'm simultaneously excited for the final book, but not because you know...it's the end. We're going on a real journey here and Hunted was the climax of that journey.

Hunted is page turning, gripping, on the edge of your seat drama. Shocking revelations abound, and characters appear in totally different light. Questions are answered, but more appear, and the threads of the plot are coming together into an intense spiders web of intrigue, mystery, action, romance, and war. You can't tell me you didn't read this book and get way too emotionally invested in the characters!