Book Review: Under the Never Sky by Veronica Rossi

Wow. You guys only get one review for this month. I feel sad. I haven't been able to catch up on reading, and I'm not going to make any excuses up so I'm just going to flat out say that this month was a blog tour month. Woopsie Daises. But in all seriousness, I sincerely apologize and I will try to make up for my lack of review posts next month!

Series: Under the Never Sky (#1)
Genres: Young Adult, SciFi, Fantasy, Romance, Adventure
Published: December 1, 2011 by Atom
Purchase: Amazon | Barnes & Noble

WORLDS KEPT THEM APART.

DESTINY BROUGHT THEM TOGETHER.

Aria has lived her whole life in the protected dome of Reverie. Her entire world confined to its spaces, she's never thought to dream of what lies beyond its doors. So when her mother goes missing, Aria knows her chances of surviving in the outer wasteland long enough to find her are slim.

Then Aria meets an outsider named Perry. He's searching for someone too. He's also wild - a savage - but might be her best hope at staying alive.

If they can survive, they are each other's best hope for finding answers.

I'm not particularly fond of this book. It was a nice read and it's one where you can usually skim through and never understand (nah, just kidding. It's not to that extreme, but it is confusing). Although you have questions, you don't get answers. You have to search for it. I'm not sure what to think of it, I guess some things I could pick up on and some things I couldn't. I just went along with it and assumed what I thought was what, and that helped me throughout the reading process. Teeheeee.

Also, Peregrine (The name though...) AKA Perry is someone who can invade your privacy. Stay clear from him if you were to ever meet him in reality okay? Ok. Joking. But seriously, I'm someone who hates invasion of privacy and/or lack of privacy. Like, I want to keep some (maybe a lot)of things to myself, alright? So back off. I'm fine if you ask questions, but if you do it on purpose and the other party dislikes that invasion of privacy, it's annoying. And I just want to point out that Perry's nose can smell what kind of feeling/emotion you have and that is just creepy and something that I couldn't stand while reading this novel. Especially when she got her period and he was there to witness and smell everything. I just feel embarrassed in her place.

Also, I don't know if I'm the only one, but I have no idea what the title means. I also like the fact that they have 'smart(-)eyes'. It's a nice useful advanced piece of technology that must hurt a lot, especially because you're practically attaching it to your eye's inner membrane.

In the beginning, I was actually hoping to read a romance novel like this where the guy (who loves to invade your privacy) loves/likes (whichever word you use to interpret the romance in the beginning) the girl, but the girl has no feelings, but nope. Not going to happen. The girl, obviously, later on in the novel starts to fall for him (I'm not really sure if that should be counted as a spoiler, because it's very obvious?)

The world building was insane though. Although, there were little details, it gave you a lot of room to imagine what the places would look like. From the Realms to the Outside world, everything fitted in place. And the dual PoV's was fantastically written, especially since it was from third person point of view - if I'm not mistaken.

I have one last thing to say. To me, the SciFi books that I've read so far are confusing. But at least, you slowly start to catch on right?

Book Review: The Eye of Minds by James Dashner

Hey Guys! Sorry for the lack of posts! I'm vacation now, so I have a bunch of plans. I promise I'll spam you for the last four days of June and for July too! I can't guarantee though.

Series: The Mortality Doctrine (#1)
Genres: Young Adult, SciFi, Fantasy, Adventure
Published: October 8, 2013
Publisher: Delacorte Books for Young Readers
Purchase: Amazon | Barnes & Noble 

Michael is a gamer. And like most gamers, he almost spends more time on the VirtNet than in the actual world. The VirtNet offers total mind and body immersion, and it’s addictive. Thanks to technology, anyone with enough money can experience fantasy worlds, risk their life without the chance of death, or just hang around with Virt-friends. And the more hacking skills you have, the more fun. Why bother following the rules when most of them are dumb, anyway?

But some rules were made for a reason. Some technology is too dangerous to fool with. And recent reports claim that one gamer is going beyond what any gamer has done before: he’s holding players hostage inside the VirtNet. The effects are horrific—the hostages have all been declared brain-dead. Yet the gamer’s motives are a mystery.

The government knows that to catch a hacker, you need a hacker.
And they’ve been watching Michael. They want him on their team.
But the risk is enormous. If he accepts their challenge, Michael will need to go off the VirtNet grid. There are back alleys and corners in the system human eyes have never seen and predators he can’t even fathom—and there’s the possibility that the line between game and reality will be blurred forever.

This book by James Dashner truly caught me by surprise. His best selling series, The Maze Runner, was very similar, whereas both books focus on mystery and action. They're both SciFi and Dystopian novels, with high tech advancements in the future. The only thing that was vastly different was the storyline. The Eye of Minds focused on computer hacking and games that start within your game coffin. The Maze Runner focused mainly on escaping the maze.

That storyline aspect of a novel is very unique and important to me. I read for entertainment and I review to recommend. Therefore, if the storyline/plot is boring, then I will be bored, which will cause me to review this with below 3 stars. :D  But I loved the world building and how Dashner makes the characters seems so realistic. I don't find much of the main protagonists very mysterious but that's what makes the characters seem so realistic, because they each have their own personalities and they don't really annoy me. The best part of this novel was the world building, so let me get into that element.

For obvious reasons, this reminded me of the anime; SAO (Sword Art Online) and that's what intrigued me to read EoM. The world building of the VirtNet was very interesting and differs a lot from the SAO world. And the amount of thinking that goes into writing must be insane. You just want to live in that beauty of a world. I mean, think of staying at home all the time. It must be boring, but when you get to experience a different world in your mind? It's just insanity.

I wasn't worried at all about the similarities between SAO and EoM. I was excited to read it. When SAO had ended, I was very sad. I wasn't devastated, because I'm pretty used to book series/anime series ending off, but I was just excited to read a novel that sounded a lot like SAO. That's the thing though. My first sentence of this review:  . . .caught me by surprise because it was a completely different plot. The VirtNet and the three protagonists was that aspects that changed my worries about the similarities.

Book Review: Crown of Midnight by Sarah J. Maas

Series: Throne of Glass (#2)
Genres: Young Adult, Adventure, Fantasy
Published: August 27, 2013
Publisher: Bloomsbury USA Childrens
Purchase: Amazon | Barnes & Noble

"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 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.

Wee. I'm in love with Sarah J. Maas's writing. This book was amazing! So much more better than the first book, although Throne of Glass was amazing too! The plot was a whole different story and for some reason, I'm proud of Calaena for making such a choice against Chaol. The missions she gets sent out to do, the looks she gets when she returns. The way the characters are written are impressive, especially in third person PoV.

Crown of Midnight had so many more intense and dramatic scenes. You just can't stop thinking about it. And the fact that I got caught up in the story without noticing it was third PoV is amazing, because I read mostly first person PoV, so I immediately notice when it's third. I just kept reading along until halfway through the book. Haha. If you haven't read Throne of Glass yet, just pause yourself from reading this review and come back to this review later because you need to read Throne of Glass. It's amazing, but just not as amazing as CoM if you're reading it right after.

If you were to compare all the books I've read to CoM then CoM would dominate all my books, including my favorites. It's just that amazing. The love triangle is ridden. No more burden. There's a ton of more action and magic/secrets/mysteries and...betrayal(which is the part where I got so happy and became proud of Calaena for literally the rest of the book).



Calaena was simply the character you wish to be if you love stealth and murder/assassinations/blood. It's just cool like that. And you get to work with the king. *HALLELUJAH* Let's not forget, she still has her passion for reading. Now who's team am I on now? now? now? Chaol? Dorian? Now? Now? I have no answer so I'm just going to repeat Now? Now? Now?

Let me mention the cliffhanger at the end. OMG. FLATTERING? CHAOL. OMG. OMG. YOU JUST CAN'T READ IT WITHOUT REREADING IT AGAIN. It's just surprising you know? And the names that Ms.Maas comes up with is so lovely. If I were to say it out loud in my way, it would sound so..melodic? Hahaha. This is literally all I have to say. It's just an amazing book with a five star rating.

Book Review: Crown of Midnight by Sarah J. Maas

Series: Throne of Glass (#2)
Genre: Young Adult, Fantasy, Romance, Action, High Fantasy, Adventure, Paranormal, Mystery
Published: August 15th, 2013
Publisher: Bloomsbury USA Childrens
Purchase: Amazon | Barnes & Noble

"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 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 ~

By the Wyrd! I loved this. I think this was even better than Throne of Glass. Has anyone been on Team Chaol since the beginning? Because I have. And I probably always will be. I just don't know why I don't like Dorian. You know my nickname for him? DURIAN. If you don't know what durian is, I advise you to search it up. Stinky fruit. 

“The rest of the world quieted into nothing. In that moment, after ten long years, Celaena looked at Chaol and realized she was home.” 

Celaena was just AWESOME. She's kick-a** and bad-a**. People were underestimating her because she's a girl. Well they thought wrong. Chaol was just sweet and kind. I hope that Dorian will become a great king. I want the king dead. Crown of Midnight contained more action, betrayal, secrets and trust. I loved the romance and character development between Chaol and Celaena. I totally ship them. CHAOLAENA. And shoot, if you don't end up with him, I will gladly take him.

"And in that world... Celaena swallowed hard. She and Chaol would never be a normal boy and girl, but perhaps in that world they could make a life of their own. She wanted that life, Because even though he'd pretended nothing had happened after the dance they'd shared that night, something had. And maybe it had taken her this long to realize it, but this man ― she wanted that life with him."

MAJOR SPOILERS START HERE

There's one part I would like to talk about. So Crown of Midnight is split into two parts. When I read part two, it was just depressing when reading it. I hated how Celaena acted after the death of her beloved friend, Nehemia. She blamed and wanted to kill Chaol. I mean, I do agree that Chaol should have at least warned the guards about the anonymous threat to Nehemia. Nehemia saw it coming. She basically planned it out. Chaol just thought he was protecting you, while Nehemia had been lying to you about many, many things. "You will always be my enemy." do you know seeing how much Chaol was hurt hurt me. Her saying that kept coming up in his mind, The way she was acting afterwards, I was like, "Get it together, Celaena! Stop!" She was burning everything that he had touched. I mean come on, I'll take whatever he touched then.

“Why are you crying?"
"Because," she whispered, her voice shaking, "you remind me of what the world ought to be. What the world can be.”

One of my favorite parts was when it was the night of Chaol's birthday. Celaena had arranged a dinner in the greenhouse. And it was so sweet! Chaol had said he hadn't had something like that since he was little. I was just like, "Awwww~". And then they have this one discussion (which I'm not gonna say what since she basically tells him what she's been doing in the beginning) and then they make out and then they make love. <3 I love the scenes with Celaena and Chaol.

“And because she was young, and so damn clever and amusing and wonderful, wherever she made her home, there would be some man who would fall in love with her and who would make her his wife, and that would be the worst truth of all. It had snuck up on him, this pain and terror and rage at the thought of anyone else with her. Every look, every word from her... he didn't even know when it had started.”

We learn some things about Celaena towards the end of the book. I knew one of them because I saw a spoiler on Goodreads, you know, just one simple sentence reveals a lot and that was actually the last sentence of Crown of Midnight. And I was like, "Oh my god. All the possibilities." THE ENDING WAS JUST HEART-WRENCHING AND TEAR-JERKING. Oh, the tears came when Chaol made a deal with his father to discuss to the council or whatever to have Celaena shipped to Wendlyn (for a really heart-wrenching reason) and for that he would have to move back to Anielle. And when Celaena was boarding the ship to Wendlyn and Chaol didn't tell her that he would move back to Anielle and said he loves her, I just died. It just hurts thinking about it right now. Seriously.

There's a little something-something with the Wyrd keys and one of the competitors involved in the mystery. I'm not gonna go into that since either you've read it or you haven't yet.

I just recently found out that the third book is called HEIR OF FIRE. You know what that means right? By the Wyrd, we have to wait for 5 more months. Waiting for the cover reveal...

Book Review: Throne of Glass by Sarah J. Maas

Series: Throne of Glass (#1)
Genres: Young Adult, Adventure, Fantasy
Published: August 2, 2012
Publisher: Bloomsbury USA Children's
Purchase: Amazon | Barnes & Noble

After serving out a year of hard labor in the salt mines of Endovier for her crimes, 18-year-old assassin Celaena Sardothien is dragged before the Crown Prince. Prince Dorian offers her her freedom on one condition: she must act as his champion in a competition to find a new royal assassin. Her opponents are men-thieves and assassins and warriors from across the empire, each sponsored by a member of the king's council. If she beats her opponents in a series of eliminations, she'll serve the kingdom for three years and then be granted her freedom.

Celaena finds her training sessions with the captain of the guard, Westfall, challenging and exhilarating. But she's bored stiff by court life. Things get a little more interesting when the prince starts to show interest in her... but it's the gruff Captain Westfall who seems to understand her best.

Then one of the other contestants turns up dead... quickly followed by another.

Can Celaena figure out who the killer is before she becomes a victim? As the young assassin investigates, her search leads her to discover a greater destiny than she could possibly have imagined.

Review ~

Oh man, this was good. If you were wondering, I am Team CHAOL! Not Durian, Dorian. Yes, Chaol, and to all you Dorian fans out there, I won't be ranting much about Dorian(probably will, but not much), so stayed tuned! Haha. Okay, let me tell you that I loved the world building and the character building too(also known as: character development). The thing I didn't like was the storyline. I mean, it was alright, but I feel like it's not a young adult storyline, it's a middle grade one. I just couldn't feel it.

"Libraries were full of ideas–perhaps the most dangerous and powerful of all weapons.”

Let's start with the character building/development. I like the word "building" better, but I'll use development. So, yea. Umm, I don't know. Sarah J. Maas did a wonderful job creating the characters though, I loved their personalities, each had their own. Even Dorian had his own(obviously). There's always that bad ass dude(in which this case, is Chaol)who's like the perfect guy with the strength and knowledge. Well, his ranking isn't quite high(Captain of the guards), so he listens to Dorian 24/7 which is god dang annoying(well, he listens to Dorain because they're good friend, but still, it's annoying.). And then we have Dorian, the guy who's ranking is top notch(not exactly)and can basically command people to do whatever he feels like they should do(depending if they've received orders from the King/Queen). I REALLY don't know. I can't really describe the feeling I get when I read this novel filled with well written and developed characters. I just love her writing of the characters and I'm very excited to read Crown of Midnight, and to see what new characters there will be.

“We all bear scars,... Mine just happen to be more visible than most.”

The love triangle. I must say I wasn't much of a fan of it(because Team Chaol, you know?), but I liked it better than the other love triangles from other books. Chaol had to back down, Dorian stepped up. It kept going back and forth, back and forth. One thing I liked was the fact that Calaena wasn't going to let her love interest conquer her life/assassin skills. What I mean was: She didn't choose.

“Names are not important. It's what lies inside of you that matters.”

Why didn't I like the storyline? Well, I kind of explained it in the first paragraph, but I'll say it less vaguely. Let's try it again. I did NOT like the storyline. It sucked balls. Okay, not that bad, but it wasn't the captivating point of this novel. The characters and the very detailed world were the elements that kept me reading. I don't know(3rd time I said it?), I just wasn't feeling it to be so interesting. Calaena wasn't the pissy, sympathetic kind of protagonist you would hate to read, but she kind made the whole plot less Young Adult-ish. Overall, I really like Sarah J. Maas' writing, I can simply imagine her typing/writing with her hands flowing freely with amazingly vivid details and fascinating characters!