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. :)

UNRAVEL ME REVIEW

Summary

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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)

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.

2. 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

The Young Elites by Marie Lu

 

A couple of months ago, a Goodread’s notification came in informing me that there was a new book by Marie Lu (Legend, anyone?) was coming out. The name of this new, fabulous book would be “The Young Elites.” I immediately went to my Library’s website and looked it up. It already had about 58 holds on it, but I made sure I was the 59th. After that, I eagerly awaited my turn.

I was not disappointed. Like Legend, The Young Elites addicted me from the very beginning. The book follows Adelina Amouteru, who was affected during the blood plague that swept her country a decade earlier. When infected, the blood plague turned her dark hair silver, her lashes pale, and left a horrific scar where her left eye should have been. Adelina, along with everybody else infected with the blood plague, had the name malfetto stamped onto them. In Kenettra (the country previously mentioned) Malfettos used to be pitied, but are now considered abominations and are thought to bring bad luck to the family.

When Adelina hears her father promise her as a mistress to an unknown man, she decides to run from home. While on the run, she hears of a group that Adelina thinks could help her - The Young Elites. The Young Elites are a group of Malfettos who have mysterious powers and are heavily hunted by the Inquisition Axis, the King’s law enforcement.

The Young Elites is action packed and filled with tension to the very last page. But while there was plenty of external conflict, the book was most centered around Adelina’s character development.  Her father raised her to think she was a worthless monster, and throughout the whole book Adelina has to fight the influences that he left on her. I was often caught off guard because I did not have the slightest idea what Adelina was going to do, even while I was reading inside her head. She’s unpredictable and intimidating, and even though I was in a completely different universe than her I was afraid of her. At the same time you find that you are rooting for her, because you have hope that she can become something bigger than she has always been told she is.

Overall, I loved the book because I loved the characterization. I would have preferred to have a little bit more substance in the plot - as it seemed that there were only a few big events that led up to the ending point.

Calculated amount of stars:

Songs that remind me of this book: Monster by Imagine Dragons


I have big expectations for the second installment, and will be looking forward to reading it. Maybe, just maybe, it will bypass the expectations that Marie Lu set for herself with Legend ;)

Welcome to the Book Believer!

I have had The Book Believer up for quite a while now, but I pushed off working on it when I found out that I didn't know how to work Blogger. However, with the help of a good friend of mine, I am making a new effort to improve The Book Believer! After a couple months of thinking, I have come up with a general idea of what I want.

 As you have probably already guessed, I will be reviewing books on this site. I will constantly be trying to improve it, and will try to post a few reviews a month. As time goes on I will write more reviews. But right now, let's quickly go over the rating system. We will be using stars! I had the idea of using music notes, since I intend to find songs that match the book, but I started to wonder if that would be too confusing. In the end, I'm going with something that everybody is familiar with - stars! Here's the idea.

 
 Five stars means that I LOVED the book! If I give it a five star rating, I declare it a must read. (Please note: I am not afraid to use five stars. If I loved the book, I will give it this rating. If I think the book is especially special, I will let you know in the post.)

Four stars means that I really liked the book, and it would be in your best interest to read.

Three stars means that I liked it, but it wasn't necessarily for me. I neither recommend nor discourage reading it.

Two stars means that I didn't like it.

Really, REALLY did not like this book. At all. Nada. No.

Now that the point system is down, let's get to the reviews! :) Happy reading!