In The After Light by Alexandria Bracken

Cover:

Rating: 5/5 stars

Plot: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3kRUt92i2PQ

That's the trailer for the first book in the series guys! Anything after this will be slightly spoilerish. I really don't think you should spoil this for yourself because I haven't read such an amazing series since half blood. Seriously. Check out the first book totally worth it.

Now onto In The Afterlight...

http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/16150831-in-the-afterlight

That's the synopsis since I'm so lazy. Also as a side note sorry I've been gone for a while but college comes first.

My Opinion: Guys...guys...guys....I seriously LOVED this book!!! The ending was satisfying. As usual I found it to be a bit predictable and the slow pace, while was necessary, was painful at times. But anyway onto the love...the originality brought to this story while maintaining its classic dystopian style is amazing. I picked this book up expecting generic YA dystopian and had a pleasant surprise as the story grew more complex and beautiful. The author, Alexandria, treated her to-be YA audience as if they were mature, intelligent people. I truly loved how she hit more complex and in depth ideas. Now this series is in my top 10 favorite series. The whole time reading this I was like:

Characters: Ruby is the best female protagonist. She is confident and mature and independent. Throughout the story she stands by her decisions and doesn't let anyone influence her. She has her flaws and her misguided thoughts while noble were stupid. 

Liam annoyed me a lot. He was very clingy and annoying. He wasn't strong and he was a coward. Ruby was going through so much and he wasn't there for her at all. He was all about himself. I prefer his brother Cole. 

Cole had Ruby's back and taught her to be a strong leader and an even stronger person. That one part broke me. Those who read it understand what I am talking about, those who have not beware.

Ending: The ending without spoiling was amazing. No "happy ending" was given but it was a believable and realistic ending. It had way more power than a boring classic everything is okay ending. Truly one of the top three endings I've ever read. It was so elegant and poignant that I will remember it for a long time. 

Gifs will be added shortly also I will be around more often as school slows down. 

~Cat 

Talented by Sophie Davis

Cover:

Rating: 2.5 (and that's stretching it)

Plot: Block it out. Impossible for Talia Lyons. When you’re a Mind Manipulator, it’s hard enough to block the thoughts of others, let alone your own.

Block it out. The pounding, siren-ready world Talia inhabits as she trains with her fellow Hunters, the country's top-secret covert operatives. The physical demands. The emotional toll.

Block it out. The secrets that Talia’s boyfriend is hiding. Talia’s unbidden feelings of frustration and annoyance toward her teammate, the Casanova of the compound. The wondering why she cares what he thinks.

Block him out. Ian Crane. The man behind the bloodshed marring Talia’s memories of her murdered parents. The man she’s determined to kill.

Block it all out. Focus.

Talented is an emotionally raw Dystopian Romance, about the life of a girl with extraordinary psychic powers, and what happens when a heart is torn between love and rage.

(from Goodreads)

My Opinion: My hopes were high for this book. I started it and quickly became bored. I put it down several times and didn't pick it back up for days. In honesty, I can't pinpoint what went wrong for me. One thing that put a damper on things for me was how we would randomly switch scenes without any sort of notice. One second we are talking to someone, next we are in training. I swear I had whiplash. But a lot of authors make this mistake so I can overlook it but I can't overlook that it took me over two weeks to finish this book. A long time for us book lovers. Maybe I will go back and try again so I can finish the series but I can tell you I won't be doing it anytime soon. The relationships also killed me because of how unusual the characters are and I'm not talking about their 'Talents".

Characters: Talia is so so so so special. Really special. No one like her special, guys. Let me say it 10 more times. Talia is special. In case you didn't get it, Talia is special. That's all we hear about the whole book but we never actually have it explained. You see, they explain her powers which sound awesome but  they never go anywhere with it. Dead end street. Talia, who is so special (there's that word again) and amazing is so utterly not. She whines, makes terrible decisions, and is always in some sort of stupid situation. Her personality is nonexistent. This book was supposed to be about assassins not stupid boys or her hair or how she needs revenge but does nothing to get it. This is a romance novel lovelies not a cool kickass book about killing stuff. But don't get me wrong I wouldn't have minded (because I love me some romance and hot guys) except the romance was predictable and stupid. I just wanted Talia to shut up about how she wants to be normal. Well, honey, you are. So are so very normal and boring. Mission achieved.

Donovan: Hmph. Got what he deserved and then like an asshole got out of it. Oh and his part of the story is so predictable that I guessed within the first few chapters what was going on. That's all I'm going to say.

Erik: Blehhhhhh. That's all.

Ending: The ending really picked up for me, We started to see the plot come out from behind the romance and boy was it good. And then bad. Nothing happened. It was very anti-climatic to me, I was like finally its over!! The story could have been great and it did have some great moments. The idea was great and fun. The missions were interesting but everything else just clouded how good it was. The bad outweighed the good by a lot, And that breaks my heart. Maybe I'll try again in a few months and pick up the second book but until then we'll just have to settle for mediocre book that could've been an amazing book. 

~Cat

Shatter Me Series by Tahereh Mafi

Cover: (First Book)

Rating: 5 stars...if I could I would do more stars it is just that great.

Plot: 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.

Juliette has to make a choice: Be a weapon. Or be a warrior. 

This story has to be one of the only stories, besides Jennifer L Armentrout series and Richelle Mead series, that truly made me breathless and excited. This story makes you laugh, cry, and all those other great emotional things. This book changes you. The lines are so poetic and unique and true that you just never want to stop reading and keeping reading these paragraphs over and over again.

You will be screaming for the next one. 

Characters: So Juliette. She is truly one of the best female leads I have ever read because she is so true and honest and relate-able. I loved her because all these heroine's we read they are strong and amazing and everything is always easy. We never see them cry, mope, break-up! I love when charcters break-up because that makes them real. I'm sorry but how many first relationships ever work out? Not many. And Tahereh shows us a real true girl who has emotions and is afraid. I have a girl crush on Juliette. Seriously. 

(Exactly how I pictured her which is scary.)

Adam is the first male lead and I have to admit, I wasn't sold with him and not to spoil much but she ends up with the guy she was supposed to.

Warner...the other guy and swoon. Bad boy. Like really bad boy. But then you peal layers back and underneath...mmmm. I love him. No lie.

There is NO love triangle in this series. You will understand when you finish because there isn't a triangle but there are two love interests. 

(Hot guys for your viewing pleasure. Neither are exactly what i picture but they are pretty close.)

Ending: Wow. Just wow. All three books will have you grasping out through tears and laughing so hard you pee a little. Kenji makes the book and I will stop myself there because I will just on about Kenji forever. (Notice i didn't mention him in characters because he is just so awesome it would be longer than the whole review if I added him). The ending of the series is satisfying and done well unlike so many books these days. I seriously suggest you guys go get this because it is so epic it deserves a moment of silence everyday. No, seriously. So start reading with no interruptions.

And when you finish you will be like:

Because you can't believe its over and how good it was.

But in all seriousness without my love of gifs READ THIS SERIES OR YOU WILL REGRET IT!

That is all.

Cat

Undone by Shannon Richard

I am not going to deep into detail for this because I wasn't a huge fan of it. I read it months ago and forgot to blog about it due to my crazy college schedule. This story portrays the discrimination towards women and men so well. Because a girl wears short shorts it means she is a ho or if a boy sleeps around he is a stud but if a girl does she is a ho. This story is cute in its romance. Definitely for 16+ due to sexual situations and sex scenes. I definitely think if you are looking for a quick read then this is for you.

3 stars.

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