October 14, 2018

Review: Origin by Jennifer L. Armentrout

Origin (Lux #4)
Author: Jennifer L. Armentrout
Publisher: Entangled Teen
Publication Date: August 27, 2013
Pages: 364
Format: Kindle/Own

Daemon will do anything to get Katy back.

After the successful but disastrous raid on Mount Weather, he’s facing the impossible. Katy is gone. Taken. Everything becomes about finding her. Taking out anyone who stands in his way? Done. Burning down the whole world to save her? Gladly. Exposing his alien race to the world? With pleasure.

All Katy can do is survive.

Surrounded by enemies, the only way she can come out of this is to adapt. After all, there are sides of Daedalus that don’t seem entirely crazy, but the group’s goals are frightening and the truths they speak even more disturbing. Who are the real bad guys? Daedalus? Mankind? Or the Luxen?

Together, they can face anything.

But the most dangerous foe has been there all along, and when the truths are exposed and the lies come crumbling down, which side will Daemon and Katy be standing on?

And will they even be together?

Review: I forgot how much I missed reading this series!!! Ahhh. So it's been ages since I read the first three books. So I read a nice recap to refresh myself on the first three books and dove into Origin and ahh. I missed this world. And so much happens in Origins! There are some major plot twists and mind-blowing secrets revealed. I was definitely not prepared for some of them. 

So let me start with Katy. Oh my god that poor girl. Daedalus has her and that is not fun. They literally keep looking at her like shes unstable or crazy for being pissed off that she's pretty much being held hostage. Like I'm sorry, who wouldn't be angry and fight back against the people holding her against her will?? Like she's perfectly sane being angry. The whole little situation with her being a hybrid literally has nothing to do with her being angry about being held. They got some nerve. And then the fact she was having to undergo a ton of blood tests, thorough exams, stress tests that no normal should have to be put through under any circumstances. Yeah. Katy had every right to be constantly upset and angry. 

Daemon. My boy Daemon right her. This guy is freaking selfless in this book. He freaking gives himself up to Daedalus and undergoes all kinds of special tests for his kind just so he can find and be with Katy. He does all this for her. And the stuff Daedalus puts him through is no cake walk either. Having to heal Katy from near death at the hands of their doctor as a freaking test. That's not even close to ok. Then having to turn a bunch of humans into hybrids just so they wouldn't do anything to Katy. These people are sick with what they did to Daemon and Katy. 

So lets pause right here and talk about Daedalus. I just can't with these people. They seriously think they are doing the right thing and that what they are doing is perfectly ok. Now I get them trying to prepare for a potential Luxen invasion, since they seemed to have solid information on that. But forcing taking a number of Luxen and hybrids that want nothing to do with them and forcing them to work with them and do stuff for them. Disgusting. If some Luxen and hybrids wanted to willingly work with them there's no issue, but taking people like Dawson and Beth and now Daemon and Katy, and making them work with you just to find strong Luxen. Not cool. At all. And then the whole thing with Project Prometheus, and the origin children, and the literal shutting down of Vegas trying to find Daemon and Katy. Seriously, these people are nuts. Even if they end up as allies in Opposition, I'm still gonna hold my ground regarding them being nuts with these things. Like seriously. They could help but they still have issues doing what they are. 

Guys, I can't get over how adorable Katy and Daemon are. These two are just perfect together. Daemon being so loving and protective. I love how concerned he was about Katy and all she went through. And I love how even though Katy went through so much, she was still super concerned about his well being as well. The amount of love and caring from these two. And what they did, even if it's technically not official because of the circumstances it happened under. My heart is overflowing with gush for these two. Like I can't. They are just perfect. 

Ok, before we touch on the ending, I have to bring this up. How freaking cool that Dee made Katy and Daemons alternate identities names from a book. Sweet Evil by Wendy Higgins to be precise. Like I read that and I was like I recognize those names. I just love how Dee has grown to know Katy so well to know that she'd be super touched by that. But guys, that ending. Freaking Matthew and what he did to everyone, what Daemon, Dawson, Dee and the other Luxen did, how Vegas was left after that showdown, Dawson's freaking mind-blowing revelation about Beth, the freaking LUXEN landing planet-side at the end. And Daemon, Dawson and Dee pretty much being forced to go to them. AHHHHHHHHH.

Read more »

August 08, 2018

Review: Crown of Midnight by Sarah J. Maas

Crown of Midnight (Throne of Glass #2)
Author: Sarah J. Maas
Publisher: Bloomsbury
Publication Date: August 27, 2013
Pages: 418
Format: Paperback/Own

"A line that should never be crossed is about to be breached.

It puts this entire castle in jeopardy—and the life of your friend."

From the throne of glass rules a king with a fist of iron and a soul as black as pitch. Assassin Celaena Sardothien won a brutal contest to become his Champion. Yet Celaena is far from loyal to the crown. She hides her secret vigilantly; she knows that the man she serves is bent on evil.

Keeping up the deadly charade becomes increasingly difficult when Celaena realizes she is not the only one seeking justice. As she tries to untangle the mysteries buried deep within the glass castle, her closest relationships suffer. It seems no one is above questioning her allegiances—not the Crown Prince Dorian; not Chaol, the Captain of the Guard; not even her best friend, Nehemia, a foreign princess with a rebel heart.

Then one terrible night, the secrets they have all been keeping lead to an unspeakable tragedy. As Celaena's world shatters, she will be forced to give up the very thing most precious to her and decide once and for all where her true loyalties lie... and whom she is ultimately willing to fight for.

Review: I genuinely enjoyed this more than I enjoyed Throne of Glass. While the first book was good and interesting, I felt like it was lacking a little. Crown of Midnight definitely picks up the pace and throws more twists and turns into the story. It had me much more engaged in the story. 

So, I'll admit this before going on. With this series being almost finished by the time I'm reading this (August 2018), I know about the whole Celaena being Aelin thing. So everything involving Aelin in this book was not surprising to me. With that being said, already knowing this, I've been more interested in finding out how its found out that Celaena is Aelin. And this book did not disappoint with the story regarding that! It had been rumored all through the book that the rebels were helping Aelin Galathynius, but Celaena is Aelin, so I knew there was something funny going on with this. It was also fascinating how no one put together Celaena's back story as being related to Aelin's story. It wasn't until Celaena went through the portal and her Fae features revealed that Chaol genuinely started questioning things and looking deeper. And it was only once Celaena gave him that vague date at the end of the book, that he looked at the genealogy records and started piecing everything together until he figured out Celaena is Aelin. I was actually surprised it was Chaol that figured it out. Sure he had the bit of seeing Celaena as Fae to push him to look, but Dorian had been looking through the records for quite a while after his event in this book, so I'm surprised he's yet to piece any of it together. Now I'm waiting to see how everyone else finds out in the next book. 

I was a lot happier with the story in this book. It had much better pacing, action, twists. I loved that we weren't focused on Dorian as a love interest. Thank god. Yes, we focus on Chaol as one, but I like him more than Dorian honestly. I liked there was a lot of focus on Celaena and her choices. How she chose to go against the king, buy helping her targets escape and bringing a close double in their place. Showing her consequences to leaving her current target, Archer, alive and believing his information. It showed her making her own choices when it came to Chaol. Both with their romantic relationship and after everything went down. I really enjoyed the relationship with Celaena and Chaol for how short long it was. They finally got a little bit of happiness with each other before everything went to hell again. It was a brief bit of happiness we only got to see with Celaena when she was with Sam. I liked seeing her happy. However, I was just as destroyed as Celaena by what happened to Nehemia. Celaena lost one of the only people she really considered a true friend after so many years. And all because Celaena was deceived by Archer. I felt so bad for Celaena. She just constantly loses people she loves and cares about. This girl deserves a break from the pain. 

I was really interested in all the other developments. We see Dorian surprisingly end up with something that could get him killed if others found out about it. I'm really interested in finding out more about how Dorian got this and what it will mean going forward. We also finally find out how the King has the power he does and how he was able to conquer so many lands when in normal circumstances, it wouldn't have happened. We're only scratching the surface with the power the king has, but its a very dangerous road he's going down and it needs to be stopped before it gets too far. I'm also incredibly curious what role Kaltain and Roland are going to be playing in this since they both seem to be being used for something. We also found out just how deep the rebellion is and how it got Nehemia killed. I don't think Nehemia is bad like Archer was claiming after she left the rebellion. I just think they were going to deep and too far than Nehemia wanted and she wanted out and no part of it, and it got her killed because she knew too many of their secrets. 

I also really enjoyed the fact we got to see more of Chaol outside of being the Captain of the Guard. We got to see him as a lover, a friend, a tossed aside son. We even see him going against the King himself by keeping secrets. I really can't wait to get more of Chaol. He seems like a genuinely interesting character. 

Read more »

October 05, 2013

Review: The Shade of the Moon by Susan Beth Pfeffer

The Shade of the Moon (Last Survivors #4)
Author: Susan Beth Pfeffer
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Publication Date: August 13, 2013
Pages: 304
Source: Hardcover/Library

The eagerly awaited addition to the series begun with the New York Times best-seller Life As We Knew It, in which a meteor knocks the moon off its orbit and the world changes forever.

It's been more than two years since Jon Evans and his family left Pennsylvania, hoping to find a safe place to live, yet Jon remains haunted by the deaths of those he loved. His prowess on a soccer field has guaranteed him a home in a well-protected enclave. But Jon is painfully aware that a missed goal, a careless word, even falling in love, can put his life and the lives of his mother, his sister Miranda, and her husband, Alex, in jeopardy. Can Jon risk doing what is right in a world gone so terribly wrong?

Review: I didn't like this book as much as I loved the others. Jon was harder for me to like. I didn't like how he went along with Tyler and Zach on everything just to try and protect his step-mom from failing her examination. He could have stood up to them a little and her job would have probably stayed intact. He was just being cowardly about it because it was easier to go along with it than fight it. I also didn't like the way he acted in general. His mom had pretty much spoiled him and took care of everything in the past books so he felt a sense of entitlement to get what he wanted and to always have people to do it for him. I really didn't like that. I was actually much happier when he had to start learning how to do things on his own. I also hated how much he felt haunted by Julie. It was like she was always there haunting him no matter what he was doing. That got kinda old really quickly. I mean I get that he loved Julie but I thought this whole thing with her haunting him was getting old real quick. I also didn't like how he suddenly got violent when he was drunk or messed up. He was never that way before. And lastly, I really didn't like how easy it was for him to get mad at Miranda for what she did in the past to Julie so she didn't suffer. He was so easy to hate his own sister for that. He was just really cold in many parts of the book.

I did however like how hard he did try to protect his step-mom and stepbrother. I mean he probably didn't have to do as much as he did in regards to making sure his step-mom didn't lose her job, but it was nice seeing how much he wanted to protect the both of them. I also liked seeing how much he cared about Sarah even though they had their own fights. He tried also to protect her when his friends thought about doing bad things to her and I admired that. I did like how Jon loosened up at the end. He really let go of his anger and did the right things. He kinda forgave Miranda and helped her and Alex get their baby back after the people in the Enclave stole it from her. He also made sure Sarah and his stepbrother Gabe out of the Enclave safely after the baby stealing back. He even went back after that to try and save his step-mom but she had already taken matters into her own hands and killed herself after the baby situation. That made me really sad when she had the chance to get out with them. :( He also saved the domestic his family had when she ran off after the whole baby stealing, Gabe disappearing scenario. He had a real change in attitude at the very end.

I really didn't like the Enclave (Sexton). They treated so many people like dirt. Jon, Lisa (his step-mom) and Gabe were treated like dirt because they were "slips" (the term they used for people who got into Enclaves with passes). Sarah was treated like dirt because her dad kicked someones Grandpa out of a job (boo hoo). And the grubs (the people who didn't live in Sexton) got treated the worst. They were treated like they didn't deserve to live on the earth just because they couldn't get into an Enclave. Really? Even when Sarah said they were human beings too everyone just blew her off because they didn't see the grubs like that. All except Jon who did because most of his family was considered a "Grub." Honestly, people from the Enclave just went around killing whatever "Grubs" they wanted or sending them somewhere where they would pretty much die soon anyways. Like after the soccer game. They just went around killing "Grubs" and a few days later they killed Jon's mom (Laura) just for trying to protect her students from getting sent into Sexton. It was just horrible. I felt really bad for Jon because both woman he knew as his mom died in this book. Add on top of that his dad had died on the road before they even made it to Sexton and he had no parents left at all. All he had left was his brothers, brother-in-law, sister and niece. They all lost the parental figures in their lives and that really hit them all hard. 

Overall, I thought the book was ok. There was a lot more that could have been put in to make it better. I would have liked to see more Miranda and Alex. They had such small parts in this book up until the end.

3 Stars!

Read more »

July 24, 2013

Waiting On Wednesday [#96]

"Waiting On" Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted by Jill at Breaking The Spine, that spotlights upcoming releases we're eagerly anticipating.

Origin (Lux #4) 
Author: Jennifer L. Armentrout
Expected Publication: August 27, 2013

Daemon will do anything to get Katy back.

After the successful but disastrous raid on Mount Weather, he’s facing the impossible. Katy is gone. Taken. Everything becomes about finding her. Taking out anyone who stands in his way? Done. Burning down the whole world to save her? Gladly. Exposing his alien race to the world? With pleasure.

All Katy can do is survive.

Surrounded by enemies, the only way she can come out of this is to adapt. After all, there are sides of Daedalus that don’t seem entirely crazy, but the group’s goals are frightening and the truths they speak even more disturbing. Who are the real bad guys? Daedalus? Mankind? Or the Luxen?

Together, they can face anything.

But the most dangerous foe has been there all along, and when the truths are exposed and the lies come crumbling down, which side will Daemon and Katy be standing on?

And will they even be together?

I am so so so freaking excited for Origin!!!! I was so freaking sad at the end of Opal and with the blurb above I am absolutely dying to get my hands on this!!!!!!! 

What are you waiting on this week?

Read more »