Thursday, March 19, 2015

IGNITE ME REVIEW


Cover rating: 5 stars ;) But seriously look at how pretty.

Summary: With Omega Point destroyed, Juliette doesn’t know if the rebels, her friends, or even Adam are alive. But that won’t keep her from trying to take down The Reestablishment once and for all. Now she must rely on Warner, the handsome commander of Sector 45. The one person she never thought she could trust. The same person who saved her life. He promises to help Juliette master her powers and save their dying world . . . but that’s not all he wants with her.

My Review: In the first book of this series, Shatter Me, I really didn't like Juliette. She was always crying and whining, and couldn't take care of herself. In Unravel Me, she was finally starting to realize that she needed to stand up and fight, and learn to finally except herself. And in Ignite Me, she finally comes to.
All of a sudden, I respected, even liked, Juliette. She finally accepted that she was who she was and figured that she would make the best of her abilities and use her powers for the good. She took hold of her mind and powers, and I loved her for it. Juliet, along with many other characters, became more real to me in Ignite Me. I’m one of those readers that places a lot of value on characterization, (like, A LOT of value) so I was really happy how real these characters became for me.
But let us discuss something equally important - the romance.
I enjoyed the romance in this story, but I personally believe that it could have been better. I felt like there was only one option for me to take because the author decides to make one of them incredibly undesirable. Aside from this, I liked how the romance was written. There was a lot of tension, and no instalove, which I always appreciate.
The only other problem is that that it took two books for this series to get really good. Right when I start to enjoy this series, it ends, and I didn't think it ended in a very good way either. The whole book was building up to one big moment, and I didn't feel that moment was big enough for me. It was reminiscent of Blood of Olympus, which spent hundreds of pages leading up to a five page battle scene.

My Overall Rating:

Songs that remind me of Ignite Me: The Man by Ed Sheeran (for Adam) - I know that this song is very specific, so some of the parts don’t work, but the general idea does. And a song that kind of reminded me of Warner is Comatose by Skillet.

Who I recommend this series to: I recommend this series to people who enjoy books such as The Hunger Games, Divergent, and Legend, as long as they are big readers. If you are willing to read past a not so good first book to reach bluer skies, read the series! If you don't want to push through that first book, then I wouldn't push you to read this series. However, my editor wanted me to tell you that the first book was, quote, “Fantabulous” so as always, there are differing opinions. :)

Monday, March 16, 2015

UNRAVEL ME REVIEW


Summary
tick
tick
tick
tick
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it's almost
time for war.

Juliette has escaped to Omega Point. It is a place for people like her—people with gifts—and it is also the headquarters of the rebel resistance.

She's finally free from The Reestablishment, free from their plan to use her as a weapon, and free to love Adam. But Juliette will never be free from her lethal touch.

Or from Warner, who wants Juliette more than she ever thought possible.

In this exhilarating sequel to Shatter Me, Juliette has to make life-changing decisions between what she wants and what she thinks is right. Decisions that might involve choosing between her heart—and Adam's life.

My Review
Guess what? I liked this book.
I still shock myself by saying that.
I. Liked. This. Book.
And I think I have finally put my finger on the general reason that I liked this book so much more than I liked Shatter Me. There was a lot more action, therefore more dialogue, which then led to less time for Juliette to...think.
That sounds harsh, but what really bothered me about the first book was that the author had a strange way of putting Juliette’s thoughts onto paper, and I didn’t really like the way that she was going about it. (If you didn’t read my Shatter Me Review, go ahead and read that for more details on why I did not like Shatter Me.)
Another big reason that this book was a lot better than the first was because of our good friend Kenji. Kenji, thank goodness, voiced my thoughts and told Juliette that she had to quit crying about her own problems and man (or should I say woman) up. Hallelujah! It was about time! And because of his words, Juliette actually started to turn into a character that I enjoyed to read about. She still struggled to let go of the whininess that had plagued her for years, but she was without a doubt more promising.

If it was so great, then why did you only give it 3.5 stars?

Glad you asked, wonderful reader. There is really only one answer that I can give to that - I didn’t like the love triangle.
In order to avoid spoilers, I will simply say this - it felt like the author was forcing me to take sides with one of the guys by making the other undesirable. I love love triangles, but I only like them if it is hard to pick between the two of them. What’s the fun in a love triangle when one of the boys is hot, and the other is not?

Overall Rating of Unravel Me

Song: Warrior by Beth Crowley (I know that it's a TMI song, but it works for this book so well)

Thursday, March 5, 2015

SHATTER ME REVIEW


Summary of Shatter Me: (provided by Goodreads) 


I have a curse
I have a gift

I am a monster
I'm more than human

My touch is lethal
My touch is power

I am their weapon
I will fight back

Juliette hasn’t touched anyone in exactly 264 days.

The last time she did, it was an accident, but The Reestablishment locked her up for murder. No one knows why Juliette’s touch is fatal. As long as she doesn’t hurt anyone else, no one really cares. The world is too busy crumbling to pieces to pay attention to a 17-year-old girl. Diseases are destroying the population, food is hard to find, birds don’t fly anymore, and the clouds are the wrong color.

The Reestablishment said their way was the only way to fix things, so they threw Juliette in a cell. Now so many people are dead that the survivors are whispering war – and The Reestablishment has changed its mind. Maybe Juliette is more than a tortured soul stuffed into a poisonous body. Maybe she’s exactly what they need right now.

I really wanted to like this book. I heard so many great things about it, and all of my book friends loved it. Not to mention, it’s Goodread's average rating was ABOVE 4 stars (by like, .4 but still.) So I was expecting a really great book.
But sadly, that didn’t happen. In the end, I had to admit to myself that I did not like this book because of one reason. I know that it seems low to only have one reason to dislike a book but this reason killed me throughout all 300-something pages. That would be the writing style. 2 main problems I had with it:

  1. The whole book was filled with metaphors and similes that made absolutely NO SENSE most of the time. Don’t get me wrong - I love similes and metaphors just as much as the next guy, but only if they are good and insightful and not “Hmm...I wonder what one could compare to feeling anger?” *sees a paintbrush lying on the desk* “Oh, I guess falling from a ladder holding a red paintbrush makes sense.” No. It does not.

  1. She constantly repeated words three times. Examples: his eyes were blue blue blue. I was angry angry angry. I was falling falling falling. I was about to start a tally on it with how many times she would do this. I promise I am not over emphasizing how much this happened. I’m cool when books occasionally do this to add emphasis - but it was way too overused.

The whole time I was reading this book, I felt that I was running in circles through terrible metaphors and crazy descriptions. I literally don’t know how to say it better than running in circles. The whole thing was very repetitive, and it nearly drove me mad.
If this book had been written in a more tolerable writing style, I probably would have given it around 4 stars. I liked the story for the most part, and I can’t complain about the romance too much. So if you find yourself reading this book and you’re okay with the style, yeah, read it. If that one aspect isn’t bothering you, then you probably will like it. But purely because of the writing, I have to give it 2 stars. :(

My rating:
Songs that reminded me of this book: Check Yes Juliet by We The Kings