Betrayed [Review]

**3 1/2 Stars**

Stats:
#2 in House of Night series
314 pages [Kindle]
Published 1 January 2007
ASIN: B000UZNQQ0

Across the Universe [Review]

Stats:
#1 in Across the Universe series
398 Pages [Kindle]
Published 11 January 2011
ASIN: B004NNULKY


Synopsis:
Seventeen-year-old Amy joins her parents as frozen cargo aboard the vast spaceship Godspeed and expects to awaken on a new planet, three hundred years in the future. Never could she have known that her frozen slumber would come to an end fifty years too soon and that she would be thrust into the brave new world of a spaceship that lives by its own rules.

Amy quickly realizes that her awakening was no mere computer malfunction. Someone - one of the few thousand inhabitants of the spaceship - tried to kill her. And if Amy doesn't do something soon, her parents will be next.

Now, Amy must race to unlock Godspeed's hidden secrets. But out of her list of murder suspects, there's only one who matters: Elder, the future leader of the ship and the love she could never have seen coming.


My Thoughts:
Across the Universe is told in two perspectives: 1) a 17 year old girl, Amy, who starts off being cryogenically frozen. 2) Elder, a 17 year old boy, who has lived his life aboard the ship, Godspeed, and is the only 17 year old aboard. Elder is in training to become the next leader of Godspeed (a ship headed from Earth or Sol-Earth to Centuri-Earth) to take over for the current Eldest. There was an Elder before him that should have taken over, but he is dead and so the Eldest is teaching Elder everything he needs to know to lead the over 2,000 people aboard. He is learning what causes discord in a society. The first is difference, which is why everyone aboard is the same race and no one has religion. The second is lack of leadership, which is why there is an eldest. He doesn't trust Eldest and finds out about a whole other section of the ship from person in the Recorder Hall, Orian, that includes a whole room full of cryogenically frozen people.

After Elder's discovery, Amy is awoken from her frozen state quite violently. She would have died if Elder and Doc (and Eldest, if I remember correctly) hadn't made it in time. After she adjusts (as much as she could) to the new environment, the new society, the thing left to do is find out why she was woken up 50 years early and who did it. Then a few more are unplugged and more and more of the ship and how it is running unfolds.


This was another surprisingly great book. I love how amazingly Revis built the world en route to Centuri-Earth. I cannot wait to read the next in the series and see what happens next. A lot of this is a who-dun-it that you get distracted from by the corrupt "government" and the strange way that people keep acting. It's absolutely awesome!


Previous Review:
The Fault in Our Stars by John Green [here]

[Counts toward my TBR Pile challenge: here]

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The Fault In Our Stars [Review]

Stats:
328 Pages [Kindle]
Published 10 January 2012
ASIN: B005ZOBNOI


Synopsis:
Diagnosed with Stage IV thyroid cancer at 13, Hazel was prepared to die until, at 14, a medical miracle shrunk the tumours in her lungs... for now.

Two years post-miracle, sixteen-year-old Hazel is post-everything else, too; post-high school, post-friends and post-normalcy. And even though she could live for a long time (whatever that means), Hazel lives tethered to an oxygen tank, the tumours tenuously kept at bay with a constant chemical assault.

Enter Augustus Waters. A match made at cancer kid support group, Augustus is gorgeous, in remission, and shockingly to her, interested in Hazel. Being with Augustus is both an unexpected destination and a long-needed journey, pushing Hazel to re-examine how sickness and health, life and death, will define her and the legacy that everyone leaves behind


My Thoughts:
John Green is brilliant. He is a brilliant author who puts brilliant words into brilliant sentences into brilliant paragraphs into brilliant chapters to make this brilliant book. TFiOS easily climbs to my top 5 all-time favorite books. Why?

From page 1, I was hooked. I immediately connected with Hazel. The voice in which Green writes is like you are sitting down with someone and having a personal conversation - that person is retelling a time in their life. There is no way on earth you couldn't adore Augustus. The supporting characters were superb. This book/story makes you laugh, makes you cry, makes you think, warms your heart, makes you bawl, and when it's all over, you want to read it again to stay in the moment of reading the book. I got so emotionally connected to these kids. Not because of the cancer and for pity's sake, but because this book was so well written that I felt like I knew them. I felt like I was living the moment with them.

Read. This. Book. Now.

Previous Review:
The Lost Prince by Julie Kagawa [here]

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The Lost Prince [Review]

{4.5 out of 5 Stars}

Stats:
#1 in Iron Fey: Call of the Forgotten series {Sequel Series}
400 Pages [Kindle]
To Be Published 23 October 2012
ASIN: B008X4BIGU


Synopsis:
Don’t look at Them. Never let Them know you can see Them.

That is Ethan Chase’s unbreakable rule. Until the fey he avoids at all costs—including his reputation—begin to disappear, and Ethan is attacked. Now he must change the rules to protect his family. To save a girl he never thought he’s dare to fall for.

Ethan thought he had protected himself from his older sister’s world—the land of Faery. His previous time in the Iron Realm left him with nothing but fear and disgust for the world Meghan Chase has made her home, a land of myths and talking cats, of magic and seductive enemies. But when destiny comes for Ethan, there is no escape from a danger long, long forgotten.

My name is Ethan Chase. And I may not live to see my eighteenth birthday.


My Thoughts:
Julie Kagawa is my hero.

It was so easy to get sucked back into the Iron Fey world. Ethan - you remember him? He was the one taken by the fey in the very first book. Well, now he is all grown up. Broody and a loner, Ethan has jumped from school to school, getting expelled over and over because of the fey. His Sight has cost him a normal childhood and teenage-dom. Instead of making friends and being social, he keeps to himself and pretends not to see the fey and half fey that live in the human realm - once you see them, they won't leave you alone. On his first day at a new school, Ethan steps in when two football players are bullying a half fey (phoulka) named Todd. When Todd tries to thank him later, he gets Ethan sucked into a whole other kind of trouble. There are a new type of fey running around and they are after Todd.

Ethan, by far, is my new favorite character in Kagawa's world. He's very jaded. He's kind of a like a sweetheart bundled up in a bad boy package. A few oldie but goodie characters show up too, like Leanansidhe, Puck, and Grimalkin. I liked each of them in their own way during the original series. Plus a few new faces, like Mackenzie St. James and Kierran. Kagawa is brilliant at world building while still building on her characters on so many levels. I really enjoyed the male POV. I am so ready for the sequel!

Thank you to NetGalley and HarlequinTEEN for the opportunity to read it! 


Previous Review:
Marked by PC & Kristin Cast [here]

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Marked [Review]

Stats:
#1 in House of Night series
306 Pages [Paperback]
Published 1 May 2007
ISBN: 0312360266


Synopsis:
The House of Night series is set in a world very much like our own, except in 16-year-old Zoey Redbird's world, vampyres have always existed.  In this first book in the series, Zoey enters the House of Night, a school where, after having undergone the Change, she will train to become an adult vampire -- that is, if she makes it through the Change.  Not all of those who are chosen do.  It's tough to begin a new life, away from her parents and friends, and on top of that, Zoey finds she is no average fledgling.  She has been Marked as special by the vampyre Goddess, Nyx.  But she is not the only fledgling at the House of Night with special powers.  When she discovers that the leader of the Dark Daughters, the school's most elite club, is misusing her Goddess-given gifts, Zoey must look deep within herself for the courage to embrace her destiny--with a little help from her new vampyre friends.


My Thoughts:
I have had this sitting on my bookshelf at home for years now. I felt guilty that I hadn't read it. It was lonely up there on my shelf. I read a graphic novel version of The House of Night and I liked the premise of it. I flew through this book. It was an easy YA vampire book that was written in more of the voice of a young teenager. At 24, I'm totally okay with this voice and tone. It doesn't bug me. In fact, most of the things that irritated or made other readers angry didn't bother me at all. I may just have a high tolerance and love to find more characters to love.

In Casts' vampyre world, vampyres are made through "Trackers" marking the forehead of a human. This forces you through the change, but not everyone survives it. Zoey is marked, but with a tough home life and a mildy obnoxious bff and boyfriend - she isn't so upset about it. She goes to the House of Night school with all the other adolescent fledglings (baby vamps). She quickly makes friends with her roomie Stevie Rae and her friends, Damien, Erin, and Shaunee. She also makes herself a new enemy, the queen bee of the school, Aphrodite. From there, it's kind of that good ole cliche of mean girl vs. new girl plus mean girl's ex-boyfriend storyline.


Previous Review:
Poltergeeks by Sean Cummings [here]

[Counts toward my TBR Pile challenge: here] 

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October TBR List

I had 11 leftover books last month, so I am doing a lot better getting those dwindled down :)

Books leftover from August:

• Across the Universe by Beth Revis [We Heart YA Themed BOTM] - currently reading

Books leftover from September:

• Betrayed by PC Cast
• Chosen by PC Cast
• Untamed by PC Cast
• Three to Get Deadly by Janet Evanovich
• The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer [We Heart YA BOTM]

Books for October:

• Smashed by Zailckas
• Hunted by PC Cast
• Tempted by PC Cast
• Burned by PC Cast
• Awakened by PC Cast
• Destined by PC Cast
• Rising by Stephanie Judice [We Heart YA - General BOTM]
• Gone by Michael Grant [We Heart YA - Series Readalong]
• Night School: Vampire Hunter Bk 1: Angel by Michelle Cornwell-Jordan [Received for Review]
• Seven X by Mike Wech [Received for Review]