Review: Once

Title: Once
Author: Anna Carey
Genre:Dystopian
Series:Book 2 in the Eve Series
Pages:354
Release Date: Jan 1, 2012Date
Publisher: HarperCollins
Summary:When you're being hunted, who can you trust?

For the first time since she escaped from her school many months ago, Eve can sleep soundly. She's living in Califia, a haven for women, protected from the terrifying fate that awaits orphaned girls in The New America.

But her safety came at a price: She was forced to abandon Caleb, the boy she loves, wounded and alone at the city gates. When Eve gets word that Caleb is in trouble, she sets out into the wild again to rescue him, only to be captured and brought to the City of Sand, the capital of The New America.

Trapped inside the City walls, Eve uncovers a shocking secret about her past--and is forced to confront the harsh reality of her future. When she discovers Caleb is alive, Eve attempts to flee her prison so they can be together--but the consequences could be deadly. She must make a desperate choice to save the ones she loves . . . or risk losing Caleb forever.

In this breathless sequel to "Eve," Anna Carey returns to her tale of romance, adventure, and sacrifice in a world that is both wonderfully strange and chillingly familiar.(via Goodreads)

My Rating:

| Goodreads | Amazon | My Goodreads Review | 

Part two in a pretty typical YA dystopian series.  I enjoyed this book marginally more than Eve but it still did not really wow me. I expected something more, although like book one, I'm not sure what that was. 

It was a pretty typical second book, like I said. I still enjoyed the unique setup for the first book of schools where girls are groomed to be breeding stock, but that's where the uniqueness is pretty well over. Even the fact that in book one Eve was pretty useless in the wild and it was not one of the unbelievable stories where the girl is all of a sudden able to do all manner of things, doesn't follow through to this book. The straight forward love interest morphs into a love monster (that's what I'm calling it. I do not apologize. It's not exactly a love triangle but it's something where everyone inter connects). 

That's not to say that I didn't enjoy this book. It was OK. The back story was pretty interesting, and it was, like book one, a quick read. The change of setting was nice, and I liked seeing the City of Sand. 

To be honest that's about it. I did like it, and will finish the series, but It didn't wow me. I think it would appeal to someone new to YA, who hasn't over read these plot lines. 

Review: Eve

Eve by Anna Carey
Eve on Goodreads


I have been eyeing this book up in Books-A-Million for over a year now, and I finally read it! I have to say it was not what I expected, but it was still really good.

This book is a dystopian young adult book with a love story incorporated into it, so while this is a very unique dystopian young adult book with a love story, it is still a snowflake in a blizzard, which unfortunately means, that not a whole lot of this book really stuck with me. That being said, I will be continuing this book because I think there is a lot of potential in this series.

This book follows Eve, a young girl who escapes from her 'school' where she learns they are preparing girls to be baby machines, and teaching them to fear and hate men. I think that that is a really interesting idea, that has some really great ties to today's society.

I really enjoyed the fact that Eve was not a special little flower who everyone loves and dotes on at all times, but is also not a hard core Katness Everdeen type character who kicks some butt, and scares everyone, while being emotionally unavailable. I found her very realistic, and it actually really broke the mold in that respect.

Ultimately, however, it did read like any number of first books in post apocalyptic dystopian worlds. Luckily the second books are always the best!

My review on Goodreads

Review: The Year of the Flood

The Year of the Flood by Margaret Atwood

I liked this book a lot more than the first one, and to be honest I liked the first one a lot more once I had the perspective of this book. I was pretty generous with my 3 star rating of Oryx and Crake mostly because of how much it made me think, and continues to make me think, but this book really earned it's 4 stars, and I liked it in it's own right.

I really enjoyed the different points of view of Toby and Ren. It was a little bit confusing at first, trying to figure out the timeline and characters, but it really brought the world to life. I thought there was some interesting religious points brought up by the gardeners, but most importantly I think that this book really showed Jimmy/Snowman's character. All of the characters went through similar, traumatic events, and lived through what was essentially almost the end to the human race. In the first book we see Jimmy sinking into himself, and wholeheartedly believing his is the last human on earth. He thinks that there is no way that anyone else could have survived. On the other hand Ren has no reason whatsoever to believe that anyone else has survived let alone Amanda, the one person she reached out to. But she believes that it is possible. Then Toby who is somewhere between the two, she feels like the last person, but she wants to believe that Zeb survived. She *wants* to believe, but she isn't always able. I really enjoyed seeing Jimmy/Snowman from Ren's perspective, as well as seeing his story as seen by others. It shows that he really is just a misogynistic, narcissistic, low life, that has an inflated scene of his own importance and worth. It was this, I think, that made both books better. The perspective change. I know that I questioned in a review or Oryx and Crake if something was how Jimmy saw things, or how the author saw them, and I am very pleased that this book answers that question. 

If you have read Oryx and Crake you must go and get this book right now because you are missing out if you don't!

The Year of the Flood on Goodreads

My review on Goodreds

Review: The One

The One by Kiera Cass

**This review was originally posted on my Goodreads**

** This review has some explicit spoilers in it**

This book was not as good as the first one, but much better than the second. I really liked that the back and forth between Aspen and Maxon came to an end pretty early on. As I've said in my review of The Elite, I was not a fan of the love triangle. I still found the love story plot a bit tired. Maxon was selfish and obnoxious dating 3 people at once, although I do know that is the basis for this series. The thing that got me though was the childish games that America and Maxon played with each other. Who cares who says I love you first? Page after page of back and forth monologues about how she loves him but can't or won't say it unless he says it first, and then the arguments over who should say it! For Heaven's sake just someone say it and be done with it!

As far as the political aspect, I thought it was amazing! I liked the way the northern rebels' story line played out and I absolutely loved the scenes with the Italians. This book had a feel that danger was right around the corner, but unlike the previous book, it felt important, and worth the risk. 

I also really enjoyed seeing the family dynamic in the Singer household and was genuinely sad when the father died. I did not, however like the 180 Celeste's character pulled. I think she started out too extreme and had to come too far too fast to make it believable. I did like her after said unbelievable character change. 

I think that the ending was rushed and a little bit of a cop out, but I saw it coming. Too much setup had been laid out for the Aspen reveal not to touch on it, and the king had to die to tie this up nicely. I didn't see the queen's death coming though, and was upset about that. I really liked her, she seemed like quite a lady. 

If someone liked the first two books, I think that they would really enjoy this wrap up of the series. 

The One on Goodreads

My review on Goodreads

Review: The Elite

The Elite by Kiera Cass

**This review was originally posted on my Goodreads** 
** This review has some explicit spoilers in it**

I didn't like this book as much as I liked the first one and I think that that was mostly due to the Aspen story line. It just did not appeal to me at all. It was predictable from the first chapter of the first book that this kid was going to show up and mess things up, and honestly I'm a little tired of this dramatic secret love triangle story line where the leading lady tries to explain away why she is messing around with two or more men. To be honest, I didn't even find Aspen that likable. So because that was a major story line in this book, it just didn't seem as good.

I loved Marlee and even though I had already guessed what was coming, I was so sad for her when she got caught with Carter. I thought it was a very moving scene when America was fighting to get her, although I'm not sure what she thought she was going to do.

I liked that the political aspect took more of a forefront than the previous book, and thought it was very interesting reading about Gregory Illéa, and the situation in present day Illéa. When her father seemed really interested in the diary, and I found the whole rebels with books scene very suspicious.

I think that in this book Maxon's character started to seem all over the place. I've said that I didn't like America was messing around with Aspen while we were lead to believe how much she cared about Maxon, and I found it equally irritating when Maxon put on a show of complete devotion to America while being secretive about the other girls. I thought that this whole mess was made even worse by the touching revelation in the closet about how Maxon is beat by his father. Don't get me wrong, I thought it was a nice scene, but it just seemed like a plot twist to me.

I could have ignored a lot of those things if it wasn't for the terribly arrogant scene where Maxon humiliates America in front of Kriss, and then leaves with her, just, it seams, to get back at her.

If you liked the first book, I would recommend reading this one, if only to get to the last book in the series.

The Elite on Goodreads
My review on Goodreads

Review: The Selection

The Selection by Kiera Cass

**This review was originally posted on my Goodreads** 

This was another one of those start out rocky books. I almost put it down for a while but then decided to finish it and I am so very glad that I did! I thought, initially, it was going to be another cliche book about a girl who doesn't know how pretty she is, while forcing it down your throat that she is. That, and I'm not a huge fan of America as a name. I am happy to report that it was not one of those books, and the name was not an issue. 

This book is set in a dystipian America after world war 4, and a Chinese invasion due to debts. The countries of the world had consolidated into a few large countries rather than so many small ones. Instead of a president, Illea (the country that most of North America has been reformed into) has a royal family. When the heir to the throne comes of age, girls are sold into political alliances, and boys must pick one common girl from the selection, where 34 girls all compete for the prince's favor while navigating eliminations,group and solo dates, and the royal palace. Think fluffy Hunger Games meets The Bachelor. 

I really enjoyed the relationship between America and Maxon, as well as hearing about how the society works. The caste system was particularly interesting to me, and was a focal point of this book. I liked that America did not just fall into the role of perspective princess. She always seemed to remember her place as a 5. 

Overall I really enjoyed this book, a lot more than I expected to. I would most definitely recommend this book to anyone who enjoys political dystopian stories, especially those about royal life, and people who enjoy reality shows like the Bachelor or the Bachelorette.

The Selection on Goodreads

My review on Goodreads

Review: Cinder

Cinder by Marissa Meyers

**This review was originally posted on my Goodreads** 

I started reading this book a long time ago not I sort of lost interest very early on and put it on long term hold for a while. But I made a goal this [2014] year to cut down on my currently reading shelf, so I decided to give it another try. 

It must have been book ADD because I really loved it this time around! I thought that this dystopian science fiction fairy tale retelling was so creative and took on such a beautiful life of it's own outside of the well-known Cinderella tale. The futuristic setting was incredibly well thought out and realistic seeming.

I was a bit wary about the relationship between Kai and Cinder because I expected it to seem fake or forced, but I thought that Marissa Meyer did a really great job keeping it believable while still maintaining that fairy tale feel to it. I also really liked that she brought a political feel to it with an incredibly rich background. 

I would recommend this great book to anyone who loves dystopian books and fairy tale retellings.

Cinder on Goodreads

My review on Goodreads

Review: Frozen

Frozen - by Melissa De La Cruz and Michael Johnston

I recently got this book as an ebook Advanced Reading Copy from NetGalley.

An adventure right from page one, this book was fast paced and engaging from the get go. I felt like a kid on their first trip to the aquarium, wide eyed and staring around at every new and exciting detail! From the beautiful and creatively crafted world, to the mysterious twists that urge you to turn the page! I couldn't put this book down! I also really like the way the book is broken into sections and chapters because it was really hard to put this book down and the sections offered a good breaking point for necessities like eating and sleeping.

The characters are interesting, and incredibly likable, and there was just enough mystery to turn up the excitement for book two!
The only issue I had was that it was a little difficult to figure out the world at first, but in the end, piecing it together added to the experience and only made it better. 

I recommend this book to anyone who loves fantasy and dystopian books and I can not wait for the second book to come out!

Frozen on Goodreads
My review on Goodreads