Review: Divergent (Divergent #1) by Veronica Roth

In Beatrice Prior's dystopian Chicago world, society is divided into five factions, each dedicated to the cultivation of a particular virtue--Candor (the honest), Abnegation (the selfless), Dauntless (the brave), Amity (the peaceful), and Erudite (the intelligent). On an appointed day of every year, all sixteen-year-olds must select the faction to which they will devote the rest of their lives. For Beatrice, the decision is between staying with her family and being who she really is--she can't have both. So she makes a choice that surprises everyone, including herself.

During the highly competitive initiation that follows, Beatrice renames herself Tris and struggles alongside her fellow initiates to live out the choice they have made. Together they must undergo extreme physical tests of endurance and intense psychological simulations, some with devastating consequences. As initiation transforms them all, Tris must determine who her friends really are--and where, exactly, a romance with a sometimes fascinating, sometimes exasperating boy fits into the life she's chosen. But Tris also has a secret, one she's kept hidden from everyone because she's been warned it can mean death. And as she discovers unrest and growing conflict that threaten to unravel her seemingly perfect society, Tris also learns that her secret might help her save the ones she loves . . . or it might destroy her.

From Goodreads

Knowing that you don't belong with the family that raised you is one thing; choosing another family is a whole other thing entirely. That's essentially the dilemma that Beatrice Prior is faced with on her selection day. By choosing another faction than the one she was raised in, the newly named Tris faces untold perils. If she fails the initiation process for her new faction, she will be factionless & forced to live on the streets. Determined to find out just who and what she really is, Tris forges ahead in her initiation process. With untold perils lurking around every corner, Tris must decide who she trusts, who her enemy is, & just how she really feels about a particular person. Her decisions have consequences she can't even begin to imagine.

Naturally I'm late to the party on reading this book. I fall into one of two categories when it comes to popular books: either I read it before it became popular or I avoid it like the plague until a lot of the hype dies down just so I can say I read it. I'm glad I waited to read this book. While I'm sure it would have been awesome to fangirl with other readers when this was first gaining steam, I am able to basically binge read by reading Divergent, Insurgent, & Allegiant which comes out NEXT WEEK!! :)

I dove in head first during a 13 hour ride home to North Carolina. The beginning of the book was a bit slow since there was a lot of information to cover. The world building is fairly simple since it so closely resembles our present world. Set in a near-future Chicago, the book moves at a quick pace. I think only a few weeks have passed from beginning to end, and considering just how much happens in those few weeks it was amazing.

The writing style was much to my liking as it gave you just enough detail to give you the picture, but still left room for you to imagine some of the details yourself. It was also a good mixture of action & storytelling. While not an action-driven story, Divergent provides you with more than enough interactions to keep your heart-pumping and your mind-racing.

While the premise may seem overdone (girl with something special about her has to navigate her way through several tricky situations) I think this book gives us a different view on strength & self-sacrifice. Tris is not your "average" teenager. She's actually smaller and more often than not extremely underestimated. I think this is a type of character that isn't seen in this kind of role very often and I think that, if nothing else, makes it worth the read. Also, she screws up all the time (like a normal person) but learns from it and moves forward. That's something that I think everyone can learn from Tris.

I'll have my review of Insurgent (Divergent #2) up soon, but for now enjoy the teaser trailer for Divergent, due in theaters in 2014.
 

Feedback (Variant #2) by Robison Wells review

Spoilers ahead for those who haven't yet read Variant!

Benson Fisher escaped from Maxfield Academy’s deadly rules and brutal gangs.

Or so he thought.

But now Benson is trapped in a different kind of prison: a town filled with hauntingly familiar faces. People from Maxfield he saw die. Friends he was afraid he had killed.

They are all pawns in the school’s twisted experiment, held captive and controlled by an unseen force. As he searches for answers, Benson discovers that Maxfield Academy’s plans are more sinister than anything he imagined—and they may be impossible to stop.

In Feedback, Robison Wells delivers all the answers you’ve been craving—with enough twists and turns to keep readers guessing until the very last page.

From Goodreads 

Talk about a wild ride! Feedback picks up right where Variant left off. You're still in the action & your adrenaline is pumping as hard as it can as you watch Benson & Becky try to escape the multitude of robots chasing them down. When they think they are finally safe at an encampment housing the real students, they find that they are just in another form of imprisonment; unable to move forward & unable to undo all that has taken place.

The reality of the situation is beyond grave for our protagonists. There are so many trials & tribulations that at times even I felt like giving up hope. Yet these teens stayed the course & followed their instincts to do what they thought was right & best for everyone involved. Intricate plans & devious plots must be laid with precision in order to deal the greatest blows to Maxfield in the hopes of saving as many people as possible.

Without a doubt, the twists & turns in this book will cause your head to spin and you will at times need to stop for a moment to truly take in what all has transpired. I truly believe that it what makes this series so great. Not only is it a whole new take on the idea of a "nightmarish boarding school," but it seems to have re-invented the conspiracy element that many books fail to address. I really enjoyed this aspect as it forced me to really consider everything that happened in the story.

With all that being said, I felt like there was a lot of talking & very little action going on in this book. Don't get me wrong, there needs to be a lot of talking considering the magnitude of what goes down, but it tended to catch me off guard when action suddenly sprang seemingly out of nowhere. That may have been intentional though.

I have to strongly recommend that you read this book if you've read Variant. If you haven't read that, then my review will wait patiently here until you come back yearning to hear what happened in Feedback. :)

ARC graciously provided by Around the World ARC Tours

The Darkest Passion (Lords of the Underworld #5) by Gena Showalter review

 May contain spoilerish information for previous books!

For weeks, the immortal warrior Aeron has sensed an invisible female presence. An angel-demon-assassin has been sent to kill him. Or has she? Olivia claims she fell from the heavens, giving up immortality because she couldn't bear to harm him. But trusting - and falling for - Olivia will endanger them all. So how has this mortal with the huge blue eyes already unleashed Aeron's darkest passion?

With an enemy hot on his trail and his faithful demon companion determined to remove Olivia from his life, Aeron is trapped between duty and consuming desire. Worse still, a new executioner has been sent to do the job Olivia wouldn't...

From Goodreads

  Seriously, there has been someone's eyes glued to Aeron for a good majority of the time for several weeks. It's something so scary that it frightens his daughter-like demon Legion back into hell. She can't be around this invisible presence so naturally Aeron can't stand it. When his invisible stalker finally appears he's unprepared for what he sees.


Olivia is broken, bleeding, & crying out Aeron's name at the top of her lungs. Determined not to be enticed by her & truly believing her to be some sort of Bait (from the Hunters or from the gods) Aeron just wants her patched up & moved on. Unfortunately he doesn't take her seriously when she tries to explain that she is a fallen angel. Eventually the truth comes to light that she has chosen him & his company over her immortally blissful life as an angel. 


This doesn't mean that his assassination has been cancelled, the gods still want him dead for bringing Legion into a realm in which she did not belong. As the days pass many immortal beings interfere with Olivia's speedy exit from Aeron's life, providing them all the time they need to become rather desperate for one another. But who will pay the ultimate price? The piper must be paid & he's coming to collect sooner than they'd like.


This was one of the best Lords of the Underworld book I've read since the first one. Aeron has long since been one of the more intriguing Lords because of just how much he cares. All the Lords, being the Immortal warrior brothers they are, care deeply for their friends, but Aeron takes it much more personally. Possessed by the demon of Wrath, he feels compelled to punish others for their sins & crimes. With Olivia being an angel, she is free from any tainting that might have occurred in a mortal existence. 


The over-arching war storyline continues with some very distinct twists & turns. While we don't learn nearly as much about the warriors' female companions, we spend a lot more time in the field learning about the enemy. Even better, Gena brings some older characters back to the surface & allows their continued growth.


All in all, I'd have to give this one a big thumbs up! A reminder though, this is an adult series. There is cursing, questionable moral decisions (involving torture & murder) & quite a bit of sex. This is a romance book, so it's to be expected & honestly this is at least more tame than many other romance books I've perused. So if you're a fan of the paranormal romance genre, or even just looking for something steamer than your current reads, give this a shot!

Fire by Kristin Cashore

Everyone has known since the day Fire was born that she is a monster, but that has never stopped her from trying to conceal it. In the Dells, there are many monsters who look just like their normal counterparts, except for the fantastical colors that separate them. Fire is the last human monster who, just like all other monsters, can ensnare the mind with one look. She stands out from the regular human population due to her atypical beauty and flaming red hair.

Fire has lived a rather quiet life in the outer reaches of the Dells in a house that her father Cansrel, the borderline-evil henchman of the last King, set up for her. He taught her everything she needed to know about being a human monster and all the things she is capable of, even though she refuses to use her gifts to harm others. After years of isolated living alongside her friend and occasional bedmate Archer, so named because he is the best in the land, and his father, Fire finds herself at the center of the plan to save the Dells from complete ruination.

After an attack from a rogue poacher, Fire searches for answers at nearby Queen Roen's estate. Unfortunately, Fire encounters two people she was hoping to avoid, the Queen's sons King Nash and the commander of the King's army Brigan. Feeling that she is not safe enough, despite Archer's assurances to the contrary, they decide to bring Fire to the King's castle and use her abilities to uncover the plot to overtake the throne. Fire's abilities are strong, but they can only do so much. Can she do as she is bid, even if it means becoming like her father?

A marvelous tale, told with the same build-up of Graceling, Fire continues to mesmerize. Kristin Cashore has created a fantastic world where the ordinary becomes extraordinary with a simple tweak. Humans and creatures become monsters simply by mind control and bright colors. Children become Gracelings simply by having two different colored eyes and an aptitude for something.

While I found this story more intriguing than Graceling, it was much more complicated and in depth. That's not to say that it was boring or anything like that, it just took a little while to get started because of the history and knowledge that has to be imparted to the reader. The monsters lend a new and intriguing aspect to life in an otherwise normal kingdom. The fact that there can be human monsters is even more interesting, especially since Fire is the last of her kind (and plans to keep it that way).

The characters gave a wide and varied perspective on the kingdom. Archer is an upper middle class type citizen with a jealous streak when it comes to Fire. She is a sheltered and fearful person with large expectations of herself. Brigan is a nobleman through and through with a heart so large that he's had to close it off to many. Nash is rather rash and unwieldy in his personal affairs, but quite reliable when it comes to taking care of his kingdom. They all come together in a manner that allows for many crossings and interactions of both a personal and public sort.

Truly an exciting read that I will enjoy again and again, Fire is an enrapturing novel filled with enticing characters and more action than I hope I ever have to see in real life. Pick it up and give it a shot and I truly hope you will agree!

Nostalgic Friday: All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Remarque

Welcome back to Nostalgic Friday! Since I love all things historical (culturally, physically, and personally) I do a post on Fridays honoring some awesome book that is a bit older. Many of them will be books I enjoyed in my teens and others will be books that I discovered as an adult that I think are relevant to YA readers. This usually get posted on Friday, but somehow Blogger decided not to do it for me. So enjoy Nostalgic Friday on Saturday.

Another book I read in school, All Quiet on the Western Front has got to be one of my favorite war novels. While my preferred war setting is World War II, this book is told from the point of view of young, idealistic Paul Baumer in the trenches of World War I (The Great War). I have taken enough history classes, and done enough of my own reading, to know that World War I was a major turning point in warfare history. The technological advances of the time including poison gas, tanks, heavier artillery, and many other items provided an easier, faster way to destroy the enemy. The brutality of this left many men shell shocked or no longer capable of functioning in society. The Lost Generation was formed out of the disillusioned masses that managed to survive the war. The romantic notion of war was dead and the reality was too hard to deal with.

This was definitely the case for Paul. A youthful idealist, Paul signs up to go to war with his buddies for the German Army. They soon lose their youthful innocence as they are constantly bombarded, day in and day out, with the senseless brutality and difficult nature of war. The ideals that they were fighting for quickly turn into pragmatism as food and supplies become short. We continue to follow Paul as we experience every agonizing aspect from his viewpoint; from living on survival instinct at the front, feeling out-of-place and unable to relate at home, not to mention his inability to interact on a simple level with a woman.

This story is the story of many soldiers during the time period. The anguish and conflicting feelings are standard for the members of this despondent grouping. While this book is definitely not a light read, it is one that I have found very useful as a basis for understanding the larger magnitude of war. Paul is a likable character and his comrades are in the same boat as him. Give it a shot and take a walk in another person's boots. You might just learn something.