2014 Challenges Recap: How did I do?

Hello guys!

I am in a bit of a reading slump these days, even if I have a few really cool and interesting books started, I just cannot seem to hold my attention down to read them, or even find the motivation to get sucked into them... so I'm going to do a needed Challenges recap!

I joined a total of 5 challenges in 2014 and now it's time to see how well or how bad I did at them!

This is probably the challenge I failed more completely! I really haven't read many books from my TBR pile and I've kept on adding more and more! I am not signing up for this one again, because of my absolute failure and because I've already signed up for 4 2015 challenges!

I aimed for the First Kiss level (21-30 books) and I read a total of 10!! *hangs head in shame*

I joined the Classic YA & MG challenge later in the year, in June, but this one I've done rather well, I managed to read the 8 minimum of books to join the giveaway and I'll be joining again in 2015 because I love discovering books I missed in my tweens and also taking part in the monthly discussions of the #tmgreadalong

This one I almost failed because I started great, since I was in a BIG dystopian binge the first half of the year, but then after the summer I barely read any, got burned out a bit, but then in Nov and December I read the books I needed to reach the 24 books top level: Leader!

The Review Pile Reading Challenge was one that I thought I had failed but once I checked my GR list for it and my sign up post, I realized that I did much better than I was expecting! I had aimed for the Journeyman level (11-22 books) but I read over 40! So I ended up hitting the Adept level!

This one was a challenge that I was expecting to do very well, and I must say that I failed, maybe not completely and horribly badly, but I did fail! I completed some series that were not in my original list, and completed a few that were, but I did fail to complete 6 of the series I had in my list!! O_O


I have signed up for 4 challenges for 2015, and I might also join up the Dystopian challenge if Ula from Blog of Erised decides to do it again next year!

So guys, did you sign up for any challenges for 2014? How did you do? Are you signing up for any cool challenges for 2015? Tell me!!

Friday Reads: ARC Review of Golden Son by Pierce Brown!!!

Hello guys!

Friday Reads is back a lil later in the day than usual, but this week has been a bit strange and yesterday though full of good news and potential good news left me completely drained, so I've slept in today like there's no tomorrow.

Today's book is a sequel without middle book syndrome and one that absolutely made my day when I was approved by Random House via NetGalley to read it (THANK YOU!!)! The only bad thing about reading it as an ARC? The even longer wait for Book 3!!

As an ARC it will be counted towards my 2014 Review Pile Reading Challenge and as a science fiction dystopian it will be counted towards my Dystopian Reading Challenge 2014!

Golden Son by Pierce Brown

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


When the first book in a series sets itself up as a 5 stars, there's always the question of how will the second one fare compared to it but in this case have no fear. Golden Son doesn't suffer from second book/sequel syndrome AT ALL, if anything I'd say it's even better than Red Rising, and that's quite a feat in itself!

Darrow has found himself a successful place in the Gold elite, apprenticing under Nero au Augustus, the ArchGovernor of Mars and a man that believes he has the best interests of the human race and that his way is the only way to proceed.

Darrow's plight is as dire as ever, he needs to get a position of power so he can follow the plans of the Sons of Ares to destroy the Society from within, and that is not getting any easier the higher he climbs. The amount of political intrigues, tactical changes and who to trust, who not to trust in this book is estupendous!

Darrow has gained himself some enemies within the Augustus family and due to their conspiring, he loses his place there. But it doesn't stop there, because the Sovereign is involved and soon everything progresses into a bigger scale for Darrow, for the Augustuses/Augustii and maybe even for the Society as a whole.

I am simply in love with the complexities of the world the author has crafted in these books, with how the Society elite being so rooted in Roman tradition, and not only by family names or Gods, but also because if there was something the Romans knew about was politics and intrigue!

One word of warning, this is a LONG book and although it is quite full of action everywhere and politics and intrigue and tactics and counterattacks and it never seemed slow for me and I couldn't turn pages fast enough and I finished the second half of the book before sleep, it reads a lil different, the pace is not as fast but every page is full of fascinating and intricate relationships, changes of alliances and quite shocking reveals!

Yes, there are twists and reveals, and like Darrow I felt like I should have realized that before, but I was completely blindsided, and no don't worry I'm not gonna give more hints as to what reveal I'm talking about.

After more epic scheming, and seeing what a great team in political matter Mustang and Darrow make, an epic battle and when you think that things are finally looking up... the othe shoe drops, and holy shitzu does it drop the big way. The ending of the book is painful and a full on cruel cliffhanger that will give you a very serious book hangover!!

Golden Son earns its gold fair and square and it's a sequel that does what every sequel ought to do, bring up the stakes even higher, make the world more complex and leave you pining and crying for the next book! Very much well deserved 5 stars!!



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Friday Reads: ARC Review of Red Rising by Pierce Brown!!!

Hello guys!

This Friday I'm having the first review of the week for Friday Reads and it's one that I finished on Monday, and that on Tuesday was named the Goodreads Best Debut of 2014. I'm not gonna say it's not deserving because I loved it, but I really wasn't expecting it to win!

I got my ARC copy of this book when Hodder & Stoughton added it on NetGalley a pair of months back as a read it now, and I'm so very thankful for it! I cannot wait to get my hands on the sequel, that thankfully releases next month!

This one is part of both my 2014 Review Pile Reading Challenge as an ARC and also part of the Dystopian Reading Challenge 2014, that I did extremely well during the first half of the year but I had been seriously slacking off as of late! Hopefully I'll reach my goal this month so I won't fail it!

Red Rising by Pierce Brown

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


Red Rising was one of those books I was extremely intrigued about since I read about it, but I had seen some mixed reviews, some very positive, some rather negative and I was feeling a lil burned out on dystopias, so I left it in the wish list.

Then I saw it on NG as a read it now, decided to give it a try and simply devoured it in two days! I loved the set up and how the world building progressed with Darrow's character and perspective. It was a very immersive experience and one that simply kept me hooked to the book through the faster and slower parts and never lost me to wonder what the point of anything that happened would be.

This was a very gritty and ruthless world, from the mines of the Reds to the war games of the Golds. As the old adagio says, not all that glitters... And this society so structured by colours, as a new caste system, enforced with physical modifications and genetical distintions and that has the strongest influences of Roman & Greek cultures, being it most apparent in names but also in the Academy.

I don't want to talk too much about the book because for me, reading it so long after I had read the reviews worked great for me, I didn't have a very clear idea of what was going to happen, except for the basics and I really enjoyed being heartbroken, enraged and creeped out on occasion with the ruthlessness present!

The start gave me a very Braveheart like feel, even if it's set in the mines of Mars, but then the story changes mood and the stakes get higher, we get through a slower part full of fascinating classical science fiction and then we're thrown into politics, war games and simply amazing storytelling weaving it all flawlessly!

I don't usually connect too easily with male POVs, but I quite attached myself to Darrow and kept on rooting for him throught his massive rollercoaster of emotions and mental battles. He might be wrong or right, but I couldn't help but understand where he was coming from. He was a flawed character but was always trying to prove himself to the Golds, to himself and to Eo, always.

There are quite a few of unexpected turns thrown here and there that were very welcome to shake both the characters and the reader when we were getting too comfortable and I don't think I saw any of them really coming at all!

So very glad that I read this one before the year ended because I would have missed one of my favourite books of the year and a debut at that! And also very happy that I read it in December because the sequel comes out next month! There's no real evil cliffhanger here, but it does leave you wanting more!

Very much deserved 4.5 stats and very recommended for those you might think they're very much burned out on dystopians!



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Mark This Book Monday: ARC Review of Some Fine Day by Kat Ross!!

As the second and final entry for this week's Mark This Book Monday, I have an ARC review, one for a book that has been left without a publishing date, that should have been released on the 1st of this month, but that when Strange Chemistry closed, was left on no man's land.

As a review copy it counts towards my 2014 Review Pile Reading Challenge and since it's a dystopian it counts for the Dystopian Reading Challenge 2014 (that was feeling a bit abandoned this past pair of months!).

Some Fine Day by Kat Ross

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


When I requested this one, I knew I'd probably liked it cause it was a Strange Chemistry book and those are usually gems. Now that the Strange Chemistry press is closed, this lil gem of a book is in need of publisher and I count myself lucky cause I got to read it.

Some Fine Day is a dystopian which is what made me request it, and not only that it also have a good dose of science fiction, and not any science fiction but the classical, Jules Verne kind of science fiction, and that to me, an absolute fangirl of everything Jules Verne... was a treat!

The world where Jansin lives is postapocalyptic since after massive climate changes society collapsed and the best and greatest of humanity moved underground to survive. Massive storms and hurricanes (called hypercanes) travel the surface of the earth destroying everything in their way. Civilization has continued in a different way underground, with city states, rigid society rules and big on the military. She gets a chance to go on vacation to the surface before graduating from the military academy and that's when everything changes.

I've read many dystopians, and I can get a feeling where things might go now and then, but this book managed to blindside me not just once, but twice. I was expecting the plot to move one way and it ended up going somewhere different! Which made me happy, cause it was a great direction both times and not only showed us different points of view, progressed the world building and allowed Jansin to grow and progress as a character, but I also like when things are not predictable!

There's a pair of twists, a Star Wars reference that made me laugh out loud and that has won this book a half star extra, a LOT of action, world building without info dumping for the most part and a little bit of romance that was a big motivator and that despite the fast pace of the book didn't feel like too rushed or insta-love-y.

The ending is a cliffhanger and now it feels even more horrible cause I need this book to be published and the sequel to be written and published, cause I want to know what happens next!

Well deserved 3.5 stars to this one and with the well earned SW extra .5 rounds up to 4 stars!



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Saturday Pages: The Murder Complex by Lindsay Cummings!!

Hello guys! Today I'm gonna be taking some time to bake and prepare some new Ink & Batter entries but I'm gonna leave you with a new Saturday Pages entry!

I'm trying to find a balance between reading review books, books that are newly released and books I've had in the TBR pile for a while and this one is a new relase that has been in Kindle only since this Tuesday! It is part of two of my challenges: the Dystopian Reading Challenge 2014 and the 2014 Book Blogger Summer Reading Program!

The Murder Complex by Lindsay Cummings

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


The Murder Complex was one debut that I was quite highly in my list for this year, since I'm a huge lover of everything dystopia. And although it wasn't absolutely mindblowing, it wasn't a disappointment by any means.

There are quite a few unexpected twists and revelations to this one, and I'm gonna do my best to keep this review spoiler free, even if I'll have to be a bit vague here and there.

The Murder Complex is told in dual POV and we follow Meadow and Zephyr on their different paths until they cross and then we experience the events from both their sides. Their voices were quite distinct when we were following them separatedly but once they got together they started sounding a bit too similar on occasion, except towards the end when the voices became more distinctive again.

My favourite part of the book has to be the world building. I loved how real and gritty and chilling the world inside the perimeter felt. At first we don't really know much about how such a society came to be but as we get more answers it becomes more bleak and more scary. This is a world were humanity is not very humane and survival by any means necessary is not the norm but encouraged.

Meadow has been taught to fight and to be strong and kill whenever necessary by her father, to be able to find a job and help feed her family in the very harsh society that they live on. Zephyr is one of the Wards, orphans that do the hard tasks of corpse dispossing and cleaning afterwards, but there's more to him, a darker side that he sort of knows about but can't control.

Then comes everything that I really cannot talk about cause all the spoilers start appearing. But we find out that some characters are more central to the plot and the world building that we thought. And the society and crimes we saw depiced so routinely were more cruel and orgnized than we thought at first.

There's a bit of romance in the book, but given all the mind control and conditioning going on in the society we encounter, it's quite hard to describe as insta-love. We're not really sure about what's real and what's been implanted in the end, and if you add all the stress and all the high stakes and the fights and the adrenaline, is not to hard to see how emotions are running high and how confusing things are for Meadow and Zephyr.

The ending is quite a cliffhanger and I'm quite excited to see where the author will solve it and where she'll take the story next, cause we've give a few glimpses that are very enticing! All in all, a very interesting debut with a greatly constructed world. 3.5 stars rounded up to 4 for the world building.



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Friday Reads: The One by Kiera Cass!

Hello everyone! I'm gonna be starting this week's Friday Reads with another series ender! Seem like this year I have a lot of series ending! This is also a series that I really need to feature in Ink & Batter soon-ish, cause I want to reproduce the dresses in the covers in cupcake shape!

Even if it's mostly all about the romance, the dystopian setting for it makes it count for my Dystopian Reading Challenge 2014!

The One by Kiera Cass

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


This year seems to be full of series enders for me! Although I wasn't totally dying to get this one as much as I might have had other books, I still really wanted to know what the deal with the rebels was and who would America end up choosing, Aspen or Maxon?

I promise I will keep this review as spoiler free as possible, I've already spoiled everyone that asked about it, and I refuse to ruin the book for anyone!

Despite the dystopian elements in this book, it always seemed that it was mainly a romance (is dystopian romance a genre? if you, it's right for this trilogy!) with a setting on a dystopian world, but the whole dystopian world was never really a big part of the storyline. We got some hints here and there, and it got a slight bigger part on the second book, and here it also becomes a bit more important.

I think it might have been what lead to this book not working too well with me. These books have been a fluffly read, fast and adorable for me, and I feel like too much was crammed into this final book for its size. The resolution of the love triangle, with a few key revelations about the rebels, a change on plot direction and then a final showdown with something that for me felt like taking the very easy way out to solve some of the conflicts that were given so much importance.

I enjoyed the book, I got emotional at quite a few scences, though I'm not entirely sure of how necessary the death of a certain character was... and I was pretty happy with the resolution of the love triangle, since I was never clearly Team Aspen or Team Maxon. But once I finished the book I just felt that everything was solved too quickly, taking the easy way out sometimes. I was glad to see that the girls managed to tranform their competitive ways into something better for females everywhere, so thank you for that Kiera Cass!

Not the best series ender ever, but I enjoyed it well enough, so I give it 3 stars. I know I will be recommending it to a friend of mine that will probably totally love it, since it's right down her alley!



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Mark This Book Monday: The Fearless by Emma Pass!!

Hello everyone! Happy Monday!

I'm starting the week with one of my very awaited books of the year! After loving Emma Pass's debut last year, I was super excited to get her next book, and I'm very happy to have it as the first entry for this week's Mark This Book Monday!

This one is also part of my Dystopian Reading Challenge 2014!

The Fearless by Emma Pass

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


After reading Emma Pass' ACID last year, I knew I wanted to read The Fearless as soon as it came out!

It is a dystopian, and as such it belongs to one of my favourites genres to read. I was absolutely intrigued about the premise of the book: an absolute change in our society that starts with the widespread use of a not-tested-enough miracle drug.

I will be trying my best to not discuss the actual plot too much, mostly because I think I'd be spoiling something inadvertedly, and I want this review to be as spoiler free as possible!

I found very intriguing how the beginning of the book was actually the information brochure for the medication that started everything. That gave it a realistic touch I could appreciate, maybe even more than other readers, being a nurse and all that!

Given the synopsis of the book I expected the story to start with Cass being already 17, but we actually start with the backstory of the how's, what's and a few hints of the why's. What's great of this backstory is that even if it's a bit obscurely, we do get a hint at what's going on in the rest of the world, before we focus on the UK and the story turns even more regional once they move to the island.

Once we reach present day Cass, we're given a very limited idea of what the world is like since she's at the island, safe but also completely cut off from the rest of the world, where the Fearless are at large, having destroyed civilization as we knew it. Cass isn't entirely happy with her life in the island, but since it's a safe place for her and her brother, she wouldn't even think of leaving for the mainland.

But everything changes one day, once an intruder is discovered in the island. He is captured but he's not the only one and once Cass's brother is kidnapped and taken off the island, all bets are off for Cass. She teams up with the captive intruder, helping him escape to get his help in the mainland trying to rescue her brother.

The book is told in 3 different POVs: Cass, Sol (Cass's used-to-be-best-friend-and-guy-in-love-with-her) and Myo (the captive intruder and guy with a lot of secrets).

Cass is a pretty great heroine, despite some rash choices and her absolute ignorance of what's really going on in the world (though that's not exactly her fault). She is tough, very loyal to her family and not scared to face new things and danger.

Sol starts the book as being a bit of a jerk, but sort of still can tolerate him, but as the book progresses I started disliking him more and more. I could still understand his situation was not ideal, but even so I couldn't justify his bad choices. He's a really big contrast to Cass, and how she handles the situations and the choices she makes.

Myo was a very intriguing character, from the very beginning we suspect there's much more to him than just how presents himself. But even if I suspected what his secret might be, I wasn't entirely sure and it's great what a twist it added to the story, and the morality of the fight that's going on.

The pacing of the book was quite good, even if it first might have seem a bit slow, but it gives us pieces we'll need to know later on, and it also gives Cass some time to try and grasp the change in her worldview. The plot seemed rather straightforward at first, but we're given quite a few twists here and there that make it even more interesting, and ends up presenting us with a few moral dilemmas that do question what defines humanity, and what choices we do when the ends justify the means?

The biggest issue I have with the book and that is the key to my rating is the ending... I asked Emma on Twitter and she told me she wanted to write a sequel, so I'm hoping that'll happen! As a first book in a series or duology, The Fearless would get very solid 4 stars, but as a standalong, I feel like there should be a lil more world building, so it'd get a 3.5 stars.



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Mark This Book Monday: Dark Days by Kate Ormand.

To start this week's Mark This Book Monday I'm starting with another of my few ARCs from Edelweiss that I requested cause it sounded like an awesome dystopian. This one is part of my 2014 Review Pile Reading Challenge and my Dystopian Reading Challenge 2014!

Dark Days by Kate Ormand

My rating: 2 of 5 stars


Dystopian is one of my fave genres, so when I saw this one in Edelweiss and could download it instantly, I totally went for it!

Unfortunately, this was not exactly what I expected or wanted.

It was a dystopian for sure, because something happened to make the world what it is in the beginning of the book but it's extremely vaguely explained, with some references to a climate disaster of some sort that lead to the survivors being walled in cities for their protection, from what? They don't know, we don't know. At first it seemed like this was a distant past sort of thing, but later on we learnt it wasn't that far back, from something Sia's mother says. Everything seems so limited to the Sector, and we only keep getting a few glances here and there, and then we see some of the outside (that was forbidden) and then we go to the New World. But the descriptions lack something to make us feel like we're there, and I was quite bothered by how very few answers I was getting about the world, and it bothered me that the characters also didn't seem to care!

The plot at first seemed a bit confusing, with Sia trying to deal with the fact that some sort of super power/goverment/people in charge have decided to choose a few select ones to go to the New World and then will be sending cyborgs to kill the rest of the humans left in her sector. The countdown for each chapter should have brought us more tension, but somehow we spend so much time with Sia being confused, angsty, a bit of an airhead at the beginning and then everything kinda happens too fast at the end.

I just couldn't get behind everything that was happening cause it all ended up going too fast, too easy, too conveniently or a mix of the 3!

Sia really was an annoying character through and through... at first I gave her the benefit of the doubt, trying to adjust to being condemned to death because you are not "deemed worthy" can't be something you deal with easily, and even less with her parents' reactions. But then she just seems to thrown herself at everything and anything foolishly and rashly and everything seems to work alright in the end? She ended up annoying me.

And don't make me talk about the romance... My emotional state is not ideal right now, but this just felt like more convenience, full of insta love and "feel ready to die for you" in under 15 days?? Just no...

This was a fast read, and it didn't enrage me, despite the main character being annoying for the most part, so I'd say this was totally a "meh" read for me, so 2 stars for it.





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Saturday Pages: Frozen by Erin Bowman!

As the last entry for this week's Saturday Pages I have a book that was one of my "me" reads but that also counts for my Dystopian Reading Challenge 2014!

Frozen by Erin Bowman

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


Last year I quite enjoyed Taken, Erin Bowman's dystopian debut and with a rather interesting ending, I was quite excited to read Frozen and find out what happened next.

As always with a sequel you can expect some spoilers for the previous book, but I will do my best to keep it as spoiler free as possible for Frozen.

The story starts with Gray going on a mission lead by his father to try and contact another of the settlements in the Laicos Project, one that was considered a failure since the population ended up killing themselves in internal fights. But the people at Crevice Valley have reasons to doubt that and to want and try to turn any survivors into allies against the Order.

The journey brought many conflicts into view and even more after a pair of unexpected things happened. I wasn't expecting the Forgeries to be so central to the plot developments in this book, but they were. Not only they challenge the Rebels and Gray's certainity of what they know and how well they know each other, but also give some food for thought about what we consider real and human, how we separate us and them? What can we justify that way?

I wasn't sure what to expect when they reached the north settlement, but not exactly what we got for sure! I was so surprised about how a few generations could turn things back so quickly even when they had the technical advantage a while back.

Even if I had a few issues with the uneven pacing and I so wasn't a fan of Gray's inability to make up his mind between the two girls, and kept pushing and pulling both along, which proved quite a bad idea with such a dire mission underway, I really enjoyed this book and I don't think it suffers from middle book syndrome. While the love triangle isn't really resolved do to a quite brilliant plot twist near the end, we get a lot of plot progression, character growth and we can expect some really interesting things in the showdown between the Order and the Rebels (and their newly gained allies!).

Well deserved 3 to 3.5 stars for this one.



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Mark This Book Monday: Champion by Marie Lu!!

This week's Mark This Book Monday starts with a review for the final book of a series that I binge read during my vacation time. And I'm glad that after waiting for a while, I finally read this series!

As with the previous books of the series, it is part of two of challenges: the 2014 Series Challenge and the Dystopian Reading Challenge 2014!

Champion by Marie Lu

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Reading a trilogy back to back is always a fantastic experience and this time it was not an exception. As this is the final book I will do my best to keep the review as spoiler free as possible but you can expect some spoilers from the previous books.

Since Prodigy ended in such an emotional wrenching way, I started Champion hoping to get some hope to the rather bleak prospects we were left with, but things started getting even worse soon. Day and June are again separated and reading each other's POVs with the knowledge that one has and the other hasn't... it is hard to read.

Then Day is called back to the capital to help save the Republic, and he finds out that things in a very bad situation for the Republic, and know that he knows the Colonies are not the utopia he once thought... he will try whatever is in his power to help save the Republic so it can be changed from within.

Champion is full of emotional crippling moments, neck-breaking action and a lot of political maneuvers. The political bits felt the less interesting of the lot, even if I enjoyed the visit to Antarctica since it expanded our knowledge of the world. I was happy when June left her Princeps post and started working as a field operative again, because that clearly was when she felt the most comfortable.

The final chapter was very hard to read, I kept on thinking that it was too cruel to end like that, after all the fight and all the suffering... And then we get the epilogue that made me cry some more and also left me with a heart full of hope and all the warm fuzzy feelings!

A very fitting ending for this series, even if all the political bits were not my favourite, this is still a very solid book to end a great dystopian series. Well deserved 4 stars!



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Friday Reads: ARC Review of Sunrise by Mike Mullin!

For this week's final Friday Reads entry, I have the review of the final book in the Ashfall trilogy. Thanks a lot to Tanglewood Press for approving my ARC request on NetGalley!

This book is part of so many of my challenges! Since it's the final book of the trilogy it's part of the 2014 Series Challenge, as an ARC is part of my 2014 Review Pile Reading Challenge and ARC April and as dystopian/postapocalytpic book is part of my Dystopian Reading Challenge 2014!

Sunrise by Mike Mullin

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Getting approved for Sunrise via NetGalley was the final push that I needed to finally start reading this series and I have to say I am mighty happy that I did! Thank you so much Tangledwood Press for approving my ARC request!

This was a fantastic series in one of my favourite genres! I love postapocalyptic and dystopian stories, and the Ashfall series is the perfect mix of both. We start from what is our normal life and through catastrophic events we're left in a new and terrifying world, without clear rules and nothing but doubts about the future.

Sunrise is quite the epic conclusion to this great trilogy. From the very beginning of the book we hit the ground running, since we start at the point were Ashen Winter left us, ready for a showdown and confrontation. As always I'll try my best to keep this review spoiler free, but some spoilers for the previous books can be expected.

Alex and Darla are two characters that I really loved in each and every page. They're teenagers that grow and raise to the challenge of their tough situation and that with their flaws still manage to have me rooting for them page after page. They have this wonderful relationship full of love, companionship, teamwork, respect and friendship. They butt heads occasionally and always manage to use each other strenghts to fix whatever problem that they're thrown in their way... and trust me, they get thrown plenty of tough crap at them in Sunrise!

Where Ashfall was about surviving a catastrophe and Ashen Winter was about deciding how to survive in the world that resulted after the catastrophe, Sunrise is all about deciding how to stop thinking of just surviving and think about how to live. Thinking about long term, about rebuilding, about the choices that will shape the world you're building for yourself.

Sunrise has plenty of action and fight in it, but also plenty of planning, of building, of politics even! Alex finds himself wishing he could ignore the mantle of responsability he's taken on, but he finds that he's good at being in charge and other people agree with him. I really liked seeing how sometimes the so called kids were better than the actual adults at adapting and realizing the change of the situation.

Sunrise has a large cast of secondary characters that were perfectly fleshed up, which helped a lot with not getting them confused or finding yourself wondering "who was that again?". I'm also glad not many of them were killed, even if there were some really tough parts in this book, about choices and the consequences. And if there's a character that irritated the heck out of me, it was Alex's mum. I just couldn't understand her mindset at all, no matter how hard I tried... I actually felt like slapping her a pair of times!

This was a fantastic and full of hope ending, despite all the hardships and tragedies that happened. Alex and Darla never stopped dreaming and fighting for a chance at a future together and they made room in their dream for a growing number of people that took their dream as their own too. Very much deserving of 4 to 4.5 stars!



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Friday Reads: Ashen Winter by Mike Mullin!!

I'm gonna be starting this week's Friday Reads with the sequel for one of this week's Mark This Book Monday entries. It's always great when a sequel builds up over the previous book but also manages to stand on its own. No middle book syndrome for this one, sometimes I felt like I needed to take a breather with everything that was happening but I also had to keep on reading to see what happened next!

This one is also part of two of my challenges, the 2014 Series Challenge and the Dystopian Reading Challenge 2014!

Ashen Winter by Mike Mullin

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Ashen Winter is exactly what a middle book in a trilogy should be, full of a plot that will stand on its own, that moves the general plot of the series along and that will make you want to keep on turning the pages!

As always, you ought to expect some spoilers for book one, Ashfall, in this review, but I will do my very best to keep it as spoiler free for the main plot points of the book.

Ashen Winter starts where Ashfall leaves us, with Darla and Alex finding some sort of a safe haven, that proves to be not as safe as everyone would have wished. But Alex still feels like he needs to find his parents, so he and Darla decide to trust what little information they have and mount an expedition of two to try and locate and bring back Alex's parents.

This is another book where Darla and Alex are travelling, and though they are more prepared and know more about surviving in the new world, with the volcanic winter and the hardships of it, it's still as dangerous or even more than it was before, since all the survivors are making their choices on how they're gonna ensure they continue to survive.

While Ashfall was more about living through the catastrophe and the consequences of it while trying to get your head around the new reality that you had found yourself in, Ashen Winter is more about surviving and trying to adapt to that new reality, and how it will change you as a person, or not.

One of the biggest strenghts of this book is not only how it shows us the harsh conditions people have to deal with, but also how people would react to those conditions, and how that extremeness can bring out the worst and best on people. I really like how it doesn't forget the criminals and how prisons might be affected, so not only regular people can change and be monsters, but also, you have to contend with the regular monsters out and finding themselves in a lawless place.

Alex and Darla are pushed to their limits even more than in Ashfall, and I love how strong their relationship is. How they're there for each other, being strong when needed and never giving up on one another. I really liked how they kept having to remind the adults that even if they're just teens, things are not what they used to be, and they have to be taken more seriously after all that they've been through.

This book is full of tension and I kept on thinking... what else can happen now! Damn it! Everything that could go wrong seemed to go wrong! The climax and ending was quite heartbreaking and when you hope that they'll find some measure of safety and quiet to try and deal with all the physical and emotional scars, they find themselves thrown into another battle about to begin! It is not exactly a cliffhanger per se, but I'm quite happy to have the final book here to be read now anyways!

All in all a fantastic sequel that kept me tense and scared for the character turning page after page! 4 to 4.5 stars.





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Mini Reviews: Life Before Legend and Darla's Story!

Today I'm here with a pair of mini reviews for two novellas that are part of two series. Both novellas are also part of my Dystopian Reading Challenge 2014.

Life Before Legend by Marie Lu

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


Life Before Legend are two short stories about Day and June, when they were both 12 years-old. These stories provide a bit of background story on both of them, even if the insight that they offer is not as game changing as other novellas I've read for other series.

We see June's first day in college as a 12 year old, and we see more of her insecurities, because she wonders if she'll fit in at college any better than she did in her previous schools. This is a June that is as brilliant as the one we know but that is still trying to fit in, even when she fears it'll be more of the same. We see more of her relationship with Metias which I really like, and we see her assert herself and resign to be a loner once again.

Day's story also provides a different kind of insight. He's already on the run and already fighting the Republic in his own way, but he isn't the famous Day yet. This is the story of his first kiss, but also the story of one of his first big hits on Republic officials. We see how Day wants to make things right and why he thinks the Republic is wrong and not just by what happened to his family.

We learn more about June and Day and how they became who they are in Legend, but it's not a must-read novella to help us understand them better. A 3 star read.



Darla's Story by Mike Mullin

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


I had started Ashfall when I read this novella, but I had read only a pair of chapters when I saw that this one was sort of a prequel, and I decided that I had to read it first. And I'm very glad I did, cause it helped me understand Darla so much better when we meet her in Ashfall!

Darla lost her dad a while back and since then, she's had to juggle school and work in the family farm to keep going, since her mom retreated inside religion.

They're both at the farm when the eruption happens, and they deal with all the horrible effects as best as they can. Once the initial shock is past Darla's very practical side and her mechanical abilities prove a blessing for them both and they start thinking of long term planning. Then one day a visitor arrives at the farm and despite Darla's misgivings, her mother wants to help. I was so very much with Darla in this one, cause the old lady was either delusional, in denial or gone cuckoo, and all the kindness that Darla's mum was showing her wasn't doing her any good. And the lady proves Darla right by running away with their stuff.

It's no surprise that by the time that Alex ends up in the farm's door, Darla feels very hostile against new people landing there in need of help.

A very relevant novella to the character development, that show us where Darla is coming from and how she became the Darla we meet in Ashfall. 4 stars for this one.



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Mark This Book Monday: ARC Review of The Forever Song by Julie Kagawa!!!

For the final entry for this week's Mark This Book Monday I'm having an ARC that made me ignore everything else that I was reading and start it right away, even if I was completely exhausted that night after work! I have to say a big big THANK YOU to Harlequin Teen for approving my request for this one via NetGalley.

This one is part of three of challenges! As the final book of the Blood of Eden series is part of my 2014 Series Challenge, as a paranormal postapocalyptic dystopia it is part of my Dystopian Reading Challenge 2014 and since I got my eARC via NetGalley for review, it is part of my 2014 Review Pile Reading Challenge! Phew!

The Forever Song by Julie Kagawa

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


When I was approved for The Forever Song on NetGalley I was immediately running towards my eReader to get it to load, and I totally ignored whatever books I had pending to read, even The Winner's Curse, that I had just started! Thank you so very much to Harlequin Teen for approving my request for this book! Thank you, thank you, THANK YOU!!

This review is gonna be as spoiler free as possible, and trust me I'm gonna try my hardest! This was one amazing book to read without knowing what was coming, and I want you all to go into it as I did. That means it'll also be a bit vague. What you might expect is some spoilers for book 2, but nothing that you wouldn't get for reading the summary for this book. If you haven't started the series, just don't read this review and go read the books!

The Forever Song has to be one of the most perfect final books in a trilogy ever. I've been lucky to get some really great final books for a series this year, but this one... Wow. I wasn't sure what to expect after that ending in The Eternity Cure, but Julie Kagawa managed to surpass any expectations I had (and those I didn't know I had)!

This books is full of heartbreak and it shakes you in a way that you don't expect. Very early on I was saying "Noooooo, that can't beeee!" out loud! And the emotional scenes and onslaught to the heart continues for all the book, one way or another. With happy emotional to heartbreak and back again. There's plenty of action and we get a few unexpected twists to the plot here and there.

Allie has lost herself to the monster inside, she refuses to feel and keeps on telling herself it's better to not care and to treat humans as bloodbags, than to acknowledge the pain that carries inside after the death of Zeke. She only has one thing in her mind: Revenge. She wants to kill Sarren and she won't mind dying in the process as long as she takes him with her. Kanin isn't happy with her new mindframe but Jackal seems to be enjoying the new attitude on his blood-sister. It's heartbreaking to see her like this, and when the change comes it's even more emotional. First tears right there.

Then, as they continue to follow Sarren's trace trying to stop him ending the world, we encounter what I'd call the biggest shock of the book. Just, wow, it broke my heart right there. Second moment of tears.

Jackal becomes the voice of reason and common sense on more than one occasion and it really makes you think of messed up things really have to be for that, aye? Aye. He's one character I love to hate, and even if he annoys me sometimes, I wouldn't want him to be any other way.

There's more heartbreak and tears along the way, with more emotional moments, thankfully not all of them on the negative side, and quite a few that are just fantastic.

The ending is perfect. Full of hope for the future, even after all the massive heartbreak and sacrifices. I might not be happy with how it came to be, but once you stop to think about it, it's really fitting for the character and perfect for the storyline to come full circle. Sad and heartbreaking, but perfect. The brightest day comes after the darkest night and that is very much true for this book.

Very much deserving of 5 or more stars. Stock on the tissues before reading!



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Mark This Book Monday: Ashfall by Mike Mullin!!

I'm starting this week's Mark This Book Monday with the first book of a trilogy that was quite a fantastic read. Very much disturbing in the way it made me think of how human nature can go from worst to best and how sometimes extreme situations make us less human.

I have this one as part of two of my challenges! It's a series that I had been thinking of reading for a long time, so it's part of my 2014 Series Challenge, and since it's a dystopian & postapocalyptic book, it's also part of my Dystopian Reading Challenge 2014!

Ashfall by Mike Mullin

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Ashfall has been in my TBR list forever and this time during my vacation time, I decided it was about time I started it!

It starts with the eruption of the Yellowstone super volcano, we experience it from afar through Alex's experience. Even if he didn't live that close to the actual volcano he could feel a lot of after effects. Insane noise from the explosions, ash rain thicker than snow, darkness for days on end... And Alex starts trying to adapt and survive without his family, but once things seem to have got a lil more stable, he decides to leave to look for his family.

Everything has been changed by the one event, nothing works as it used to. There's no telephone, no electricity, the roads are useless... So Alex decides to sky to his uncle's house where his family were travelling to when the eruption happened.

Ever since the start of the book we see the different ways people are reacting to such a extreme change. Some are kind and focus on survival and banding together to help each others. But others just go berserk and try to grab as much as they can, not matter who they hurt.

Alex is a very normal teenager at the start but as the action progresses he shows that he's made of tougher and kinder stuff than he even imagined. He then meets Darla and her mum that help him when he really needed it, and in turn he then helps Darla when she needs it most.

Alex and Darla make a fantastic team, both with different sets of skills and with different approaches to situations and they work so well together! Their relationship develops over time, getting to know each other, working together so them developing feelings for each other was a natural progression and it never takes over the story but strenghten them as a team.

This was a fantastic read that got me turning pages faster and faster, wondering how they were going to get through what was coming next and then the next thing, and even when you think they're getting a break... something else happens! And the thing is... this is so plausible! We don't know when but that volcano can erupt and it will be as life changing and scary as we can read in the book, and it might just be nightmare inducing!

A great dystopian & postapocalyptic book and the most promising start for a trilogy! Very much deserved 4 to 4.5 stars!



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Saturday Pages: Steelheart by Brandon Sanderson!!

Starting this week's Saturday Pages I have a review of one of those books that I really wanted to read last year but kept postponing for two reasons: hype and then my physical copy was stolen by my SIL, so I couldn't read it till I returned to India in February for my vacation!

It's also part of two of my challenges, the 2014 TBR Pile challenge and the Dystopian Reading Challenge 2014!!

Steelheart by Brandon Sanderson

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


I had heard many great reviews for this book, many of them from bloggers that I trust and with a taste that helps me figure out if I'd like a book or not, but it was after Octavia from Read Sleep Repeat told me I just HAD to read it that I finally got to it during my vacation time!

I was quite intrigued by the premise of this book since having people with superpowers that are evil instead of the super heroes we are more used to.

As soon as the book started, I was hooked! We read about the beginnings of the reign of Steelheart in Chicago and the start of David's hate and revenge plot against him. Everything started when Calamity appeared in the sky, and some people started getting super powers and began abusing them left, right and center. They are known as the Epics.

David witnessed the death of his father at the hands of Steelheart, but he also witnessed his only weakness, so he spent all his time growing up amassing information about the Epics and about Steelheart and his system in Chicago. He's also being following the Reckoners, a group of humans that are fighting and taking down Epics, and that seem to very well be humanity's last fighting chance.

He manages his dream of joining the Reckoners and he starts learning how they work but also makes his own contributions to the team, with all his information and research. He somehow manages to make his personal vendetta the next mission for the Reckoners, even if some of the team members are not totally convinced. Everything will change if they can pull this off, cause taking out one of the most powerful Epics out there would be the lynchpin for a change on the status quo.

The world building is fantastic, even if we have many questions unanswered, but we know what the characters know, what it's know in this fractured world and that's something that makes it feel more real and genuine. I'm hoping we'll be getting a broader look at the bigger picture on the next books though.

David is a great character, even if he's to be too driven by revenge and doesn't even seem to realize he's too young to define his life just by one goal. He does a lot of growing up in this book, even if half the time he just makes it up as it goes. Which is both a blessing and a curse cause he can bluff his way out of almost any situation but also can compromise a mission by improvising too much.

The rest of the characters are also very well crafted and have much more to them that what we see in the surface, so much that we get a few big shocks and twists coming with some of them. And though I had suspected some, I only did maybe a page or two before it was revealed.

By the time we reach the end of the book we have a lot of our assumptions pretty shaken and we've gone through one hell of a ride. We are left just begging for me, even if we're not exactly left with a cliffhanger.

A brilliant read, full of action and food for thought. 4 to 4.5 stars!



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Friday Reads: Prodigy by Marie Lu!!

As the next entry for this week's Friday Reads I have the sequel of Legend, the book I reviewed in the previous Friday Reads entry. Binge reading a series has the advantage of saving you agonizing waits and you feel like you've never left the world you're reading about!

As with Legend, Prodigy is part of both my 2014 Series Challenge and the Dystopian Reading Challenge 2014!

Prodigy by Marie Lu

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Being able to read Prodigy right after finishing Legend was a treat because I had all the details fresh in my mind. As always I'm going to try and keep it spoiler free, but expect spoilers for Legend because that's the nature of sequels!

We start right where Legend left us, with June and Day on the run, trying to contact the Patriots and get them to help Day with his injury. June is ready to give up everything in her former life to help Day and try to make amendments and Day has decided that the Patriots are the ones that can help them change the Republic.

The Patriots plan is to kill the newly elected Elector Primo, to start a revolution and change the Republic as it is. In exchange for the Patriot's help to finding Day's brother, they are asked to help. June will infiltrate the Elector's circle by returning to the Republic and Day will be the one to carry out the deed. But nothing is exactly as it seems, not the Elector Primo, not the Patriots and certainly not their plot.

Here the world builind is intense, since we see beyond the streets where Day grew up, we see more of the Republic and we even see some of the Colonies, and we learn that they aren't exactly the paradise and haven Day had dreamed of. There's a lot of political intrigue in Prodigy with quite a few unexpected twists in it too.

Day and June are still our main characters and the POVs we follow, but they're not the only characters that get developed. We get to know other players in this game much better than we did in Legend, and despite the hints at a love "square" we get, it was done in a very realistic way. It bothered me a bit, but never really took from the narrative and the main plot points, and in a sense, it also adds a bit more to the already high stakes.

For most of the book Day and June are separated because in this book and series romance never takes over the plot, the story and the fight never feels like an excuse to present us with the romance. Day and June do go through to some very hard times and revelations in Prodigy, and that changes them but also makes them more determined to do what they think is right.

The ending... well, the ending is not exactly a cliffhanger, but it is an emotional punch. You are left feeling quite horrible and hoping for something that will fix everything in the next book! Luckily enough for me, I had Champion right there waiting to be read!

Prodigy was a fantastic sequel, didn't suffer from the dreaded middle book syndrome, since we learn a lot of important information and the character progression is brilliantly done. Very much deserved 4 stars!



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