Book Rant: Heir of Fire

RATING: 5

GENRE: YA, fantasy

SERIES: Throne of Glass, #3

Heir of Fire by Sarah J Maas. This book just hit the ground running. I really enjoyed the first two books with the competition and seeing Celaena be an assassin and watching the love-triangle play out, but this book blows it all away. There’s less drama, much more magic and general kick-ass moments and, I found, better character development. What can I say for a non-spoilery section? Not much! Celaena has been sent to Wendlyn to assassinate the Royal family there, which she has absolutely no intention of doing. But in Wendlyn lies answers she needs to help overthrown the tyrant King, the very man she pretends to be a loyal servant for. Behind Celaena leaves her friends, Prince Dorian, and Chaol, Captain of the King’s guard, who are also walking the thin line of treason trying to protect their loved ones from the brutality of the King. I highly reccomend starting this series if you haven’t, last I checked there were supposed to be 6 books total so this is the perfect time to jump on this train. Each one is getting better and better. I love Sarah J Maas’ writing style, I find it similar to Laini Taylor’s in that she’s very good a weaving threads you don’t think are important at the time then we zoom out and it’s this beautiful masterpiece. That is all for the non-spoilery people! Bye if you haven’t read the book!

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Okay….where should I start?

We have this new character Rowan. He’s this immortal fey Prince, badass warrior and at first I don’t want to say I hated him becasue that’s too strong. I wanted him to be a friend for Celaena, not like Dorian or Choal, but a real friend who really got her and accepted her and would support her. Neither Dorian or Chaol ever did that, they always had another agenda. And I was so frustrated with him in the beginning becasue he wasn’t doing that I knew that was how they needed to end up. He didn’t even seem to care about her as his student, it really seemed that he had been conditioned to think that becasue she was a demi-fey her life didn’t mean much, ever as a Queen. The peak of this is when Celaena finally yells at him “You left me.” becasue it’s so true, she’s grasping at straws trying to pull herself up enough to fulfill her vow to Nehemia and Rowan will randomly give her a hand up then drop her again. When Emrys finally spoke up on her behalf it was the beginning of a change and it was so good to finally get there. I couldn’t believe what he did though with Luca. What. Yes, it does make her act to save him but it’s the cruelest teaching technique. It wasn’t until her burnout that I finally started liking Rowan. He didn’t know of her past and that made some of what he’d done less cruel. When he finally pens up about his back story we see that he is just as broken as Celaena and they try to put each other back together. I liked how protective he was over her, not like a lover like Chaol, but like a true friend.

I was so proud of Celaena during that fight for the fortress! She’s so selfless, she really doesn’t give herself enough credit. She is a warrior Queen who will sacrifice everything for her people. THAT is a Queen, not sitting in a throne like Maeve watching her people suffer for her. The character growth she goes through is just fantastic. The coming to terms with her life and what had happened to her and accepting her actions and inactions instead of constantly dwelling on them and the end of the book with the tattoo was beautiful. Speaking of, the Valg Princes. Agramon, the greater demon for fear from Cassandra Clare’s shadowhunter world (City of Ashes?) came to mind along with the dementors from Harry Potter. They feed off your fear and pain and go through your most horrible memories until you finally die.

Chaol…sigh…

 

How I felt THE ENTIRE book. Do I need to elaborate more? Was anyone NOT feeling like this towards him? I still like him, but so frustrated.

Let’s move to Dorian and What’s-her-face-healer-chick. Dorian is like a 13 year old flipping girl who can’t not be in a relationship for 5 minutes. This was supremely unnecessary in my opinion. They only significant thing about her character, besides being Dorian’s latest love interest, was that she was another spy. Her role could have been absorbed by Ren, or Chaol, or Aedion. She was just there to generate unnecessary angst with her death. But I didn’t know enough about her to care at all about her death. Dorian revealed his powers saving Chaol, not her anyway. This is the only time I can recall being really annoyed at Sarah J Maas, for introducing and making a huge deal out of this character only to kill her. You could argue that she facilitated the development of Dorian’s character but all his not-considerable development in this book could have been through someone else already in play instead of adding this bimbo so he can fall in love…again. I’m actually glad she’s now dead she I don’t have to deal with Dorian falling out of love with her a week later. Apart from that bullshit relationship, Dorian and Chaol’s interaction I did find very interested. I was so pissed at Dorian for telling Chaol that he couldn’t accept Celaena for what she is (although true) becasue in the last book Dorian wasn’t accepting her either until he realized he is magic. That’s not friendship, you “accept” who she is now that you NEED her. F*** off! Neither of them deserve a second thought from Celaena. But I can’t even be mad at either of them for lack of communication becasue they are both doing it to protect the other. They’re both in the mindset of willing to give up, basically destroy, their friendship to save the other. Chaol a little more than Dorian, Dorian also wants to kill his father and Chaol isn’t there yet. It just shows their true loyalty to one another. When Dorian exposes his power to save Chaol is the epitome of that, even though they are no longer friends in the superficial sense, they are deeper friends then ever.  When Chaol told Dorian that he loved him AH! One of the best parts f the book. Sounds like now Dorian in under the control of the King with one of those collar things, so that’s mildly terrifying. Just as he finally grew a pair too. (I wasn’t all too happy with either of them in this book, if you missed it.)

Aedion! How much do I love this character? So much! At beginning I  hated him becasue thought he truly had turned completely against his people. I though he was the King’s Whore just as he wanted everyone too.  When Chaol points out the ring, I just felt horrible for him becasue he wasn’t himself at all. But then we find out he’s actually a genius and has been playing everyone for so long and actually trying to help. I love how loyal he is to Celaena (Aelin). When he was talking about all his titles and the ones he cherished most were safely locked away I absolutely love it: “Cousin-that had been his most beloved title. Cousin, kin, protector.” I really hope there is a reunion between those two in the next book. Obviously he has to be freed from whatever jail he got thrown into. I’m glad Chaol finally picked a side but he did a really inconvenient time to do so. Aedion had completely forfeit himself so Chaol couls stay in the King’s favour and then Chaol totally burned that bridge. I like that he picked a side becasue I could take another book of his character acting like he was in this one, but timing man, timing.

The witches side plot I really, really enjoyed! Manon is not in anyway a likable character but I still found myself rooting for her. Abraxos was her redeeming point, when she actually cared about something. Then when she saves Petrah and after she kills the Cochran when she’s thinking about the fact that the witches are made into monsters, they aren’t born heartless. I think she can be a really strong character and I can’t wait for the story lines in intersect. I think this plan is going to backfire on the king, a lot.  The witches don’t seem the type to submit to anyone’s rule and now they have the wyverns so unless there is something else in it for them I don’t think  that alliance will last horribly long, especially if/when magic comes back. I really want Manon to team uo with Celaena, even though she killed Baba Yellowlegs. Given the relationship between The Thirteen and Iskra I think they might be able to come to a (probably temporary) agreement to overthrown the King. I really hope so. Also we never addressed the fact that all the meat and people smelt off. That was pretty key, but we got no explanation.

Maeve at the end, AH! I WILL STAB. You don’t hurt Rowan! I think that ring is far more important then we have been told. Maeve isn’t the type to do something like release one of her warriors over something simply sentimental. Hopefully it isn’t a Wyrdkeys, I don’t think it is but maybe something else magical? Rowan and Celaena can’t split up, they are so fun to read together. I’m not sure how is going to work becasue magic is gone. The next book has explaining to do. It’s a whole year away! I don’t think I can do this. So many questions unanswered!

That is all for this book, bye guys!

Book Rant: The Raven Boys

RATING: 2.5

GENRE: YA, Paranormal

SERIES: The Raven Cycle, #1

Hi Everyone, first off, Merry Christmas! I hope you are all having a happy holiday with lots of R&R and cookies and treats with your friends and family.

Now, The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater. This book is based in a small town in Virginia and Blue the main character comes from a family of psychics though she herself cannot see anything. Until one night she sees the spirit of a young man, Gansey. There are only two reasons a non-seer would see a spirit, either he is her true love or she is destined to kill him. As fate would have it Gansey and Blue cross paths when her and his ridiculously rich private-school friends (known as the Raven Boys) come to her mother for a reading. Gansey is on a quest with three other Raven Boys: Ronan the unpredictable fighter, Adam a sweet-hearted scholarship student and Noah the quiet observer.  Blue finds herself caught up in their sinister and mysterious hunt into the magic Blue has been surrounded with her whole life but never understood.

Be warned, this book does take lots of patience. SPOILERS past here.

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You may remember the other books of her’s, The Scorpio Races, that I absolutely loved. And people have just raved about this book and series so I went into it with very high expectations and was left underwhelmed. I found there wasn’t much of a plot until halfway through. Sure we knew Gansey was looking for this dead King and there was plenty of back story on the boys’ and Blue’s lives but nothing had really come into play to move the book forward. It felt very sectioned like, here are the characters, now here is the story instead of weaving the characters into the story and watching them develop and learning about who they are that way.  The last 100 pages really picked up and I became really interested, but before that I just was reading to get through it.

Chainsaw. I don’t get it. WHAT IS THE POINT OF THIS BIRD? The Raven Boys have a raven, ahahahaha, that’s so funny. (Sarcasm) The stupid thing kept being brought up, am I to assume it will be important in the next book? At the end we learn it came out of one of his dreams, cool story bro. At this point we have seen so much weird stuff and you live on a magic fey energy line so my capacity for shock has been neutralized. It significant enough for me to justify Ronan telling us he needs to feed it every other chapter. This damn bird better be able to tell the future or save all their lives somehow in the next book.

The Adam-Blue relationship was kind cute, but really it just seemed to slow the inevitable plot and try to construct some unnecessary drama for later. It’s well established at the beginning of this book Gansey is her true love she is destined to kill. She didn’t see Adam’s spirit. I’m not saying she can’t really like Adam, but the end-game has been set.

This Noah-is-actually-a-ghost plot twist. I actually am not sure how I feel about this at this point. I’ll get back to you after I finish the next book. I certainly don’t dislike it and it was done really well but I don’t know if I like how ended yet. I was very happy to have him back but part of me felt like he should have died and been at peace and bringing he back was kinda cruel.

I love Gansey’s character. He’s the most real to me, the others seem a bit 2 dimensional. Noah doesn’t bug me becasue, well, he’s a ghost. The whole point is that he is a shadow of what he was. Adam actually isn’t too bad, it’s Blue and Ronan that really irked me. Ronan in stereotypical fighting, tough, stubborn one who is this way becasue of a traumatic past. And Blue I thought she tried too hard to make her eccentric and different and just ended up making her flat, it ended up being her whole character. There wasn’t anything else to her, no real personality traits, she’s just a sassy, eccentric teenager. She has a couple moments like when she’s with Gansey in the church and she tells him about the prophecy around her when I got the sense that she could be made into a really good character but there weren’t a lot of them. She does have some witty dialogue that made me laugh but there’s nothing behind them.  Emotionless. That’s the word I’m looking for. Gansey though. This character! He’s very human. He has these different sides to him depending on who he’s around and what role he has to play and that’s very true, everyone does that to varying degrees. Beneath that all he’s very unsure but not in a way that stops him, it makes him act and try to figure himself and this mystery out. I really like how he’s so good with words and he just turns them into a dangerous weapon, even without meaning to. And he’s trying to change that.

Neeve. I was kind of confused regarding her relationships with all the people in Blue’s house. At the beginning she’s creepy but we are generally ok with her. She’s like that aunt that is weird but she’s got your back, she’s not mean, she can be helpful and we trust her. And then somewhere in the middle she suddenly becomes suspicious and I don’t know why. Lots of family lives in this house so that another aunt came to live with them I didn’t find strange. We were told by Blue that it was and that she didn’t understand why she was here, but I had just accepted it. She needs a place to stay, all her family is there , it made sense to me. Then at the end I wasn’t sure if she was being evil, or… is she trying to help and having good intentions but maybe going about it wrong not realizing she’s hurting?

Once we found the plot I enjoyed it. It had a great treasure hunt and if had kind of the same vibe as The Spiderwick Chronicles. I never read those books I just saw the movie. Does anyone remember that and know where I’m going with this? Anyway, wasn’t a huge fan of this novel over all, but I didn’t dislike it. I’ll read the next one but I’m not tripping over myself becasue I feel I need it right away.

What are your thought? Again I hope you have a fantastic Holiday! Bye!

 

Book Rant: The One

RATING: 4

GENRE: Dystopian, YA, Romance

SERIES: The Selection, #3

SERIES RATING: B

Hello beauties, I am back! The One is the third and final installment in the Selection Trilogy. This is one of those series that is incredibly frustrating but at the same time really fun and entertaining and you can’t stop reading it. I’m not going to spend too much time here becasue this is the last book, if you want a more detailed explanation of what the series is about I direct you to my The Selection rant HERE and you can catch up with us then come back. Bye if you haven’t read the book! Spoilers past here

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Hey friendship who has read The One. How are you? I hated America considerably less in this book. She could still be infuriating especially with the whole Aspen stupid situation and her indecisiveness on everything and her insane ill-planned actions but it wasn’t nearly as frustrating as in The Elite. He stupidest moment had to be the leaving the castle in the dead of night to meet with August and exchange 10 words. 20 tops. What the hell is wrong with notes? Coded message? Carrier pigeon? Smoke signals, anything but endangering the two people you need alive! Kriss and America’s father being  northern rebels had to be the least shocking thing ever. I’m not entirely sure why it was even necessary to include.  Anyway, America gets shot and we end up in Aspen’s room of all places with all America’s love letters posted all over the walls! Am I the only one finding these shrines to America weird? Maxon has his pictures, Aspen has letters, it just seems weird to me. I don’t think I’d find a wall for pictures of me sweet. I loved when America was talking to her dad and explaining why she liked Maxon and he made her feel like herself, not a number or a project.

We knew even in The Selection that America was going to be Queen so it felt really dragged out at time! All she needs to do is say “Oh, I love you” she has this epiphany halfway through where they are on the roof dancing in the rain of she loves Maxon and doesn’t want to be with anyone else but she doesn’t tell him! America is such a horrible procrastinator! I’ll tell him I love him later, I’ll tell him about Aspen later. As soon as he noted that she was close to Aspen (which was AFTER she decided she was so in love with Maxon and wanted to be the princess) I would have been “oh this is actually something we should clear up now so there is no drama later, he and I were childhood sweethearts, it was over by the time I selected and he left to become a guard.” Nice and simple. 80% honest, leave out the make-out sessions in the castle so you both don’t get killed, leave it at the we broke up before I even knew I was selected.  But no. We get Maxon at the end suddenly acting irrational and very much like America becasue she was standing close to Aspen. They weren’t even doing anything and he just freaks out. He had to get shot to realize he truly loved her and she loved him. These two are the most dysfunctional couple ever.

What I wanted to happen that didn’t really get shown was for the country to start getting fixed. This series truly just was about the selection.  I would have rathered the selection be over half way through the second book and then the rest be world fixing. And more back story would have been nice becasue we don’t really know what happened to dissolve America (Country) and make Illea.

Celeste! We finally like her in this book! She becomes our best ally and redeems herself. We have these two really fantastic moments with all the elite girls, one when they are fooling around and take Maxon’s camera and are taking a bunch of pictures with the Queen and then when they are all sitting in America’s room having a huge heart-to-heart about what they’re done so far, what they’d do different and their futures and all that. Both of those were so great. And then she dies. It was this huge invasion and in all the past ones no one dies or was even that hurt and this one is just a slaughter! The King conveniently dies, as does Anne (becasue can’t have her complicating he Lucy-Aspen relationship *eyeroll*) and the Queen. And the northerners come in to save the day and we skip right to the wedding. Aspen walking America down the aisle seemed odd. A chapter before Maxon had been shouting at America and ready to marry someone else becasue she was standing close to him and he now knows that he’s her ex-fiance. I would have thought her Mom would give her away, but whatever, it was a satisfying ending.

That is all! Bye!

Book Rant: Legend

RATING: 3.75

GENRE: Dystopian, YA

SERIES: Legend, #1

Hi beauties! Legend by Maire Lu is what we are discussing. I finished this book at 2 this morning. Where the was once the United States of America there now lies two nations constantly at war, the Republic and the Colonies (AKA: the Patriots). June is born into the Republic’s elite. Living in luxury with all of her needs, and wants, take care of she is destined for a high rank in the military. Day is from the slums. The plague infested parts of the city where people are janitors and factory workers – if they are lucky. At 10 years of age the Republic requires all of it’s children to  take “the test”, physical, mental and communication skills are all put to the test and the children are sorted into categories to determine their future. June is the only person to ever get a perfect score and she is the Republic’s protege, at fifteen she is ready to graduate the military-style college she attends and join her older brother in the highest ranks. Day failed, he is now the most wanted criminal though he is only 15 years old. But he actions are not nearly as malicious as they appear.  It is only after June’s older brother is murdered that these two cross paths, Day is the suspect and June in out hunting for revenge. What lies outside her pretty little world surprised her, her perfect government has secrets. Secrets they will go to any length to protect.

It is told from duel POVs which worked for this novel. I liked this book, didn’t love it. Part of the problem was, I think, that I went into this book with such high expectation becasue I know so many people just rave about this series. It was good, don’t get me wrong and I did enjoy it a fair bit, but with all the hype I was expecting it to be FANTASTIC. It’s just the first book so I’ll read the next two any maybe it does step up a bit. Spoilers beyond here! Bye of you haven’t read the book!

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One of the issues I really had with this novel was total lack of character development. was a little more fleshed out for me but I didn’t feel particularly attached to either of them so for the first part of this book I was having real trouble getting into it. Once the plot picked up I really wish there was as much character building as there was world building. I have to say I did prefer Day, we had a lot more moments with him like when he’s remembering his family or when he’s with Tess. June my only impression of her was that she was a spoiled brat who doesn’t appreciate what she’s been given and her only defining factor is her intelligence.  And she uses it like she is entitled to anything becasue she’s the smartest, especially at the beginning. On the other hand, Day is brilliant but that’s not all he is. Even though we see June and Metias interact more in the novel both as live-action and as memory, Day seems closer to his family and it’s easier to feel their relationship. Another thing was that neither character changed from beginning to end. You could argue that June made that discovery, but it didn’t change her character it just made her switch sides. I know it’s only the first book but that is what really disappointed me.

Thomas. Thomas, Thomas, Thomas. I didn’t like him from really early on. Even before I was suspicious of him killing Metias. His attraction to June I found down right creepy. She’s fifteen. I don’t think it ever says how old her is but it talks about him training with Metias, and he’s clearly out of college and it sounds like that last until you are 20. So Thomas is 20-25, somewhere in that range. That’s messed up. Not only is June a child, but she acts likes like she’s 15 most of the time. Not a bad thing, just a fact. At the very beginning she talks about maybe dating Thomas when she’s a bit older and when Metias wouldn’t freak out, and she can be forgiven a school-girl crush. She has a crush on her older brothers friend, nothing weird there. And Thomas keeps escorting her to places like the ball/dinner and he movies that feel like dates and I’m sitting here like “Ahem, Commander, authority person, yeah, ummm…” And then we get the torture/killing scenes with him. He’s now obviously a sadist. Solid. When he’s talking to Day and beats the shit out of him all I could think of was “The confrontation” song from Les Meserables 

Dare you talk to me of crime
And the price you had to pay
Every man is born in sin
Every man must choose his way
You know nothing of Javert
I was born inside a jail
I was born with scum like you
I am from the gutter too!

It fit really well with that scene. Although Thomas has murdered people and Day hasn’t (and Thomas knows it) he still classifies himself as a better person than Day becasue he’s from the slums too and he’s found his way up the ranks by following orders and Day is just a criminal. In his mind, like in Javert’s, it doesn’t matter that Day is helping people whereas he is hurting them, he (Thomas) is still in the right.

This blog Metias left June in his journals I found really confusing. He’s a hacker. The internet is way less secure then his paper journals. He would have been better to leave instructions to this hidden journal. You can’t hack paper. It really confused me and I think what it came down to was pride, he assumed becasue he was the best hacker he could make it so no one could hack this site, but seriously? Even though she deleted the site everyone know once something is on the internet there is no getting it back. even if you delete it. As she was looking at this site that’s all I could think was that the Republic probably knows about the site and that’s why they killed Metias and they are now monitoring it. I guess that’s not what happened but it seemed a very foolish error.

Day and Tess’s relationship I absolutely LOVE! I really want to get her back into the story ASAP. I already went over most of my June frustrations but I have to mention one more specific incident: When she got back from the slums, looked at her crystal glass contemplating how much it was worth, and then shattered it. Excuse me? How selfish are you? It’s one thing before when she didn’t understand, but having lived with Day and Tess after they saved her ass and lost all their money and seeing them try and get food it was just so infuriating! She does have a lot of good moments though. She has a good heart. When she stepped in to save Tess then kicked butt! Ah! So good!

For all we talked about the Republic and the Colonies/ Patriots in this book we really have no clue what happen to start this. No one remembers anything and all evidence has been destroyed. And then the plague been tested on their own people to “rule out the weak” and testing Day even though he got a prefect score becasue he was poor. What the hell happened?!? Killing everyone who finds out, are they hiding even more? Do they even know that the United States used to exist or has it really been that long? I really want some back-story addressed in the next book becasue I’m so curious!

That’s all darlings! Bye!

 

Book Rant: The Ring and The Crown

RATING: 3

GENRE: Historical-fantasy, YA

SERIES: Stand-alone

Hi all! This book, The Ring and The Crown by Melissa De La Cruz, is a historical-fantasy taking place in the early 1900 where the English and the French have joined together to form an empire that controls all the world’s most powerful magicians and most of the world itself. Aelwyn is a bastard magician and her only duty in life will be to serve the crown, having been sent away four years ago to study and learn to control her magic she has returned to London and is reunited with her childhood friend, Princess Marie-Victoria. The Princess has never had the ambitions of her mother, Queen Eleanor II, or Aelwyn and she wants nothing more than a simple life with the man she has given her heart away to. A man she cannot have. Insteed she has a political marriage lined up for her, and the man she is to marry was engaged and his ex-fiancé isn’t ready to have him taken from her without a fight. Ronan is a beautiful American who is using her beauty to fight her way up the social ranks and she isn’t going to be left behind in the wedding games! All 4 girls meet in London for the coming out season, each willing to do anything for their perfect match. I enjoyed this book, it wasn’t anything spectacular though.  While much more interesting than most books about the court, there were still a lot of very dry bits. Spoilers past here!

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This novel had to have had one of the least satisfying endings I have ever read. Isabelle really gets the worst of it. She finally finds love and then get kidnapped, Louis is killed, she’s pregnant with her evil (and dead) lover’s bastard child and then gets to be raped by her guardian figure, Hugh, (which is “very much like coming home” because that was her childhood! Yay! Ain’t the sweet. No. It was really depressing, why did that line have to be there?! It made it sound like this was somehow positive!) There’s a hint at the end that she MIGHT have ran away and is now living by herself with her child. Oh good. So they get to be dirt poor and likely starve.  Then we have Ronan and Wolf situation (more on that later) finally they are all set to go, they both love each other, this is going to work! Oh wait. No it’s not. We get rid of the evil character and break up our favourite couple in the process. Wolf and Marie-Victoria (henceforth PMV) are friends so it’s not horrible, but I was so disappointed, I really wanted Wolf and Ronan together. Oh then Ronan also starts her own business so that was fine. Her story line ended ok.

Wolf and Ronan the start of their relationship really made me frustrated. Almost all of it made me frustrated actually but mostly the first bit when he proposes. It’s like this “test” if she loves him or just money because she doesn’t know he’s rich. That is SUCH an unfair test for many reasons

• He knows the role of woman at the time, marry wealthy and support your family. She’s told him how she’s going to sell herself because her family is practically broke. She doesn’t know he has money so she’s not going to sacrifice her family for a guy she doesn’t know.
• That brings me to part two, she doesn’t even know his real name! She doesn’t know a damned thing about him.
• She could have though he was marrying her for her money; it looks like she has a lot so it’s not an unreasonable assumption.

Personally when he brought it up I would have gone with the last one as my main argument, supporting it with the second and first then sprinkles of what she did which virtue and that crap. After that initially messiness was out of the way I really liked their relationship, it frustrated me as I said, but it was a good frustration. They had good push and pull and I just wanted them to be together already! Then they’re together for like a day then it all goes to hell.

I can’t believe PMV wasn’t angrier when Aelwyn told her the Merlin guy was poisoning her! The test thing, fine. I understand the need for a strong ruler who will make personal sacrifices for the greater good of the people and wanting to make sure. I don’t support the method but the ends justify the means in this case (I think). But I saw no feasible reason for poisoning her to make her sick. Why? What are you trying to prove?  I would have been way more upset and dwelt on that fact way longer than she did! Aelwyn told her and PMV and the Queen were just kind of “oh ok. That’s normal.” That’s high treason HE WAS DELIBERATLY FEEDING THE PRINCESS POISION AND CALLING IT MEDICINE! And it’s not like he just started, he’s been doing this for the majority of her life. Years. After the rest of her body was all fixed he just was like “oh I need to do something, she’s too healthy!” and after this he doesn’t see to be upset or anything, there was no revealing of plans it’s like he was just doing it for shits and giggles.

I really loved PMV and Gill scenes. They were so cute together but I knew she was going to give him up which I wasn’t too angry about because it had to happen. But seeing them together even for a bit made me happy.  It was so satisfying when Leopold was killed by Louis in a duel! We knew something was up with him! At first it was just “ok PMV is in love with someone else, obviously he’s a good actor playing him part etc.” Then as it went on it just got weird because clearly he isn’t a very good person why does everyone love him so much? Does he just hide it that well? Ah he’s magic. Makes sense now! I had almost forgotten about Pandora’s box when it came back into play. I love when book make nice little circles like that. So elegant.

That is all for now! Kisses! Bye guys!

Book Rant: Cruel Beauty

RATING: 2.5

GENRE: Fairytale retelling, YA

SERIES: Stand-alone

Hello! Cruel Beauty by Rosamund Hodge is a retelling primarily of Beauty and the Beast but also has elements of Rumpelstiltskin, Blue Beard and Greek/Roman/Pagan mythology plus a parallel universe of sorts and magic. Confused yet? That’s a main theme of this novel. Nyx is 17 and since her birth she has been betrothed to marry the immortal demon-lord who rules over her world. Her father bargained her life while saving her twin sisters and Nyx now must settle her father’s debt. But she has been trained her whole life how to kill the beast and she finds herself reluctantly forced into the role of the world’s best hope. What she didn’t count on was for her new husband being so charming. The characters of this novel are passable; I’m not going to say I loved any of them. Nyx has a lot of really good moments as does Ignifex (demon-lord) but there is very little continuity in the plot and there are way too many ideas presented and they don’t quite fit together all the time and none of them are given enough attention to have them make sense. Overall I wouldn’t recommend this book, which is a shame because it’s beautiful and had good potential. Spoilers past here!

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What was most frustrating in this book had to be the lack of continuity. At first if we guess Ignifex’s real name, Nyx goes free. Then it sounds like if we guess his name he goes free as well. As soon as she guessed Shade’s name I thought, oh well, there you go because Shade and Ignifex  are quite obviously the same person! In a sense anyway. On page 220 after Shade tries to kill her, essentially, and she has this vision of the sparrow she wakes up to see Ignifex and she thinks “I know his name.”  And then it’s like she forgets. I thought she might be using this knowledge to get something, like a bargaining chip. But that never happens and she never explain why she is just sitting on this information and being all “let’s go on a treasure hunt for your name!” The way it was set up at this point I think if she guesses Ignifex is free from the Kindly ones, based on what Ignifex has told us. Nyx says she loves him and this would remove him from being the demon-lord without killing him, there is no logical reason for her not to tell him his name! We get to the end of the book, which I’ll address in more detail in a minute, and she finally says his name! All of months later.  And the Kindly Ones tell her that won’t do anything. Excuse me? For over half this book you have made it seem like that is the way to free him.

There is way too much happening in this world. The Hermetic magic, the house magic, Blue Beard doors, Rumplistizkin name guessing, Greek AND Roman AND Pagan mythology that seems hastily researched at best, the Kindly Ones that I’m not even sure what they are supposed to be, demons a sort of parallel world to our own or maybe it was part of our world that got separated (like Atlantis) or maybe it’s supposed to be our world. I’m not sure. It’s way too much and nothing gets as much time as it needs to be explained. There are a lot of things we are just supposed to accept even though there’s no explanation or reasoning behind it. Like the Hermaetic marks. What the hell is her drawing the around this house supposed to do? They collapse it. Ok then, how do these random symbols do that? What the hell are these “hearts”? And things just get dropped off:  the house changing, it’s talked about in one chapter then never mentioned again.   It’s just incredibly frustrating and very hard to follow.

The ending was one giant, “WHAT?!” from the time Nyx leaves her sister things just stop making sense. She sets demons on Ignifex using this ring (that was randomly introduced to us with no foreshadowing or prior meaning)  and then what? We jump to the other parallel universe where the sky is blue again? The world is somehow freed and just no one remembers anything including Nyx but then she seems to because she goes looking for Ignifex? Is she experiencing memories that have been altered by removing Ignifex? Are there no more demons? We then somehow end up back with the Kindly Ones and Nyx’s love and willingness to sacrifice her human life to stay with him frees Ignifex who is also the ancient Prince. And they both wake up beside each other. Nyx is saying she has all these memories of being with Ignifex but she knows that she’s never actually done anything more than holding hand with a man so it was that all a dream…? I was just really frustrated by the end of this book. T felt really rushed. I remember when she left her sister looking at the number of pages left and thinking that it couldn’t possibly wrap up in that short amount of space. The beginning I found really slow and it took me awhile to get into it, the middle I enjoyed apart from the aforementioned things, but the characters did a lot to help move it along. My favourite part had to be when Nyx abandoned Ignifex in the dark and then came back for him. It was good.

That is all for this book! If you’ve read it let me know what you thought! Bye!

Book Rant: Scarlet

RATING: 4.5

GENRE: Science-fiction, fairytale retelling, YA

SERIES: The Lunar Chronicles, #2

Hello welcome to the Book Rant! Today we are discussing Marissa Meyer’s second book in the Lunar Chronicles, Scarlet. This series continues to impress, we have a new storyline woven in with a human girl Scarlet and her companion Wolf who are trying to find her grandmother who was kidnapped for unknown reasons. But Cinder is still a major part in the story with her new partner in crime, Thorne, who she helped escape the emperor’s custody in return for use of his spaceship. If you haven’t started the series I don’t want to go into too much detail and spoil you but I highly recommend this series, the writing and character development is wonderful. Spoilers past here!

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How Cinder makes her entrance into this novel was absolutely spot on hilarious. We just meet this other prisoner, Thorne, and screws start falling from his ceiling so he looks up and Cinder just jumps down and he starts flirting with her as she’s trying to escape. It was so perfect, I immediately loved Throne’s character. I know he’s supposed to be an ex-military guy but I pictured this slightly nerdy young man who just looks totally out of place in prison, little like Robert Sheehan as Simon in the City of Bones movie.  Simon with a Jack Sparrow attitude. it was brilliant! I’ve already said in my Cinder Book Rant that didn’t want Cinder with Kai so I’ve got some feelers out looking for another man for her. I liked Kai more in this book. He grew up a bit and he’s a pretty good leader for just being thrown into it. I do appreciate that he lied and said her knew Cinder was cyborg and that it didn’t matter to him. (You can’t hear it but that was admitted reluctantly.) I still don’t want them together, I know it’s going to end up that way but Cinder could do some much better! You have two books left to prove yourself worthy, Kai! Lucky for you I don’t see Cinder with Throne either.

I was so glad Iko came back into the book so quickly. Having her as a ship isn’t ideal clearly but it worked! And as always she is just so funny and interesting to have around. She feels a lot like a little sister.  When Cinder was admiring her little group of chips before she installed Iko into the ship I was thinking you kept Peony ID chip!? They can track that! It seemed like such a rookie mistake, you got rid of all these tracking devices off yourself but you kept Peony’s. People know you have that it was on camera. Your step-mom knows you have that or she at least suspects. I understand the sentimental pull on it but it not like Iko’s personality chip that can just be reinstalled into another body. If she didn’t want it being given to a fugitive, smash it, burn it, bury it, anything just don’t keep it on you.

We have these two new characters, Scarlet and Wolf. First impression of Scarlet is that she is another really strong female lead which was really good because flipping between Cinder and Scarlet’s POVs didn’t bother me and there wasn’t one I wanted to read more than the other. We know that somehow Cinder and Scarlet are going to cross paths, it happened later in the book than I was initially expecting because they are both looking for the same person, but it worked really well the way they did it. What can sometimes happen with two main character is that they can start sounding the same and it gets really dull but I didn’t find it an issue. Scarlet and Cinder have a lot of similarities and they complement each other very well but I was never confused as to which of them I was reading format any given time. I love how when we first meet Scarlet she starts a fight and is throwing tomatoes at the wall.

Wolf. Ok I was not nearly as suspicious of him as I should have been! Even at the beginning when Scarlet thinks he kidnapped her grandma and father because of his tattoo I was positive that he was innocent, even before scarlet believed it. I have no clue why, we didn’t know anything about him at that point. I accepted his story about leaving the gang as perfectly normal and even when he met Ran and we learn he’s actually an alpha not a mid-level member like he said I still didn’t doubt him and that he just wanted to get away from it but felt bad his former friends did this so he was helping her out. I actually thought we might be running into Kai’s people or of that sort because he’s looking for the Princess and I’m sure lots of resistance groups are in the hopes to over throw the Levana. Even though they kidnapped Scarlet’s grandma I didn’t really associate them as “bad guys” because I thought they were on Cinder’s side. The when Wolf says “I’m sorry” I start freaking out because we’ve been totally played! I was so upset because I didn’t see it coming at all! I trusted this guy! It was weird he had these freakish abilities but I just put it down as intense training from this rebel group I never thought he was a genetically altered Luna spy/soldier.

Then there is this attack. We already know Levana was a back-stabbing, two-faced evil dictator who probably had spies and a set military plan for taking over Earth. I didn’t realize it was so in-depth. She has these wolf-soldiers stations in major cities all around the globe so she could attack at her whim. Obviously the moon is way more powerful than Earth in brute force. It was a sneak attack and they do have special powers so maybe now that the world knows what we are up against we can move into guerilla warfare. Unfortunately these wolf-soldiers would know our cities pretty well by now. I don’t know, I think Earth would put up some fight.

I found it so frustrating in this book that no one communicated. If Scarlet’s grandma had told Scarlet and Cinder the truth things just would have gone much smoother and we wouldn’t have this time crunch. There’s a month until this wedding and somehow we have to overthrow and entire regime before then. There are two more books, I am so excited to read! Cress which is based off Rapunzel and I have no clue about the last one, it’s not out yet and I’m not sure when it’s supposed to be released, hopefully soon! That is all for now! Bye guys!

Book Rant: Cinder

RATING: 4.75

GENRE: Sci-fi, fairytale retelling, YA

SERIES: The Lunar Chronicles, #1

Hi lovelies! My internet has been down, one of the risks of living in the country especially in late July/early August when we get a bunch of hail and thunderstorms.  Lost time to make up for, so let’s get right to it!

Cinder by Marissa Meyer. The first book in a quartet of science fiction fairytale retellings. This one is loosely based off Cinderella (in case you hadn’t guessed that from the name.) I have been avoiding this series becasue I have this thing with robots, especially cyborgs, where they freak me out. But I really enjoyed this book! They aren’t cyborgs like I typically think of cyborgs being Frankenstein-ed out of human and robot parts, they are humans who got in accidents or had a disease they are just really super advanced prosthetics with a chip in their brain so they can feel in their robot limbs or see with fake eyes or hear or whatever. They have artificial hearts, lungs, etc, medical science has advanced quite a bit we are very far into the future. There have been 4 World Wars, people are living on the moon, Lunars, and they have evolved weird abilities isolated up there and now there is a world treaty of peace and they are in the process of trying to get the Lunars to sign it as well. I thought this was a bunch of companion novels and there was different characters in each just in the same world, but Cinder is a huge part in them all and more characters are just added on and I’m super excited about it! Spoilers beyond here so bye if you haven’t read the book!

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Iko!!! I’m starting with her because she is absolutely my favourite character! She adds much needed light to this story because she is so funny and sassy and just enthusiastic even though she’s an android and supposed to be kind of emotionless.  I found her more human than most humans in this book. When Cinder just found her personality chip and everything else had been sold for scrap, it was probably the saddest part of the book.

When we first get mention for Princess Selene I don’t think much of it, we’re illustrating the cruelty of the Queen. By the second time it was brought up we know that this is important and I’m thinking, ok clearly this is important and Cinder doesn’t remember anything before she was adopted so hey, Cinder is probably this lost Princess.  She’s immune to the plague that no one is immune too it would make sense if she wasn’t human.  Because obviously being a cyborg has nothing to do with it if all the cyborg test subjects are dying. The shell explanation made sense but I was still on Princess Selene, the two weren’t mutually exclusive in my mind. But it was very predictable that Cinder was this lost Princess who could come back and save everyone. Dr. Erland turning out to be Lunar didn’t surprise me either. Right off the bat when he made Cinder forget she wanted to hurt him with the wrench.

I absolutely love how “team Earth” happened. Everyone is fighting, as we do, then we get this possible threat from another “planet” (they keep calling the Moon a planet. IF PLUTO CAN’T BE A PLANET NEITHER CAN YOU!) and the whole world is instantly, “Treaty up guys! Treaty up! Team Earth!” Queen Levana is absolutely crazy though. The stunt she pulled with the mirror to “test” Kai. What was she even testing?  If he cared about his people? What improve he’d use to get out of that situation? How he reacted to her show of power? All of the above? She has no regard for life. I can’t even say human life and she just views humans as below her, but she treats her own people the same way! It’s almost like someone gave a toddler infinite power, she wants what she wants and she’s not thinking about other people apart from “what can I make them do to help me?” Except she’s much craftier than a toddler.

So the love interest, Prince Kai. I don’t know, man. From a basic character perspective I honestly don’t want these two together. Kai I found too naïve and sheltered and judgmental. It’s not really his fault that’s just how he was raised. I was a bit annoyed at Cinder for not telling him outright that she was a cyborg but I completely understand why she didn’t and sympathize with her and I would have done the same thing. Even without the lunar thing, cyborgs are so taboo and fall even below androids. They’re test rats.  Cinder probably gets enough shit for being a girl mechanic, she doesn’t need some pretty boy who’s never had to work for food looking down on her for a decision made for her body that wasn’t even hers. I think Cinder can do way better and deserves better. As far as the plot goes obviously they have to end up together. They’ll overthrow Levana and Cinder will become Queen and then she’ll marry Kai making peace officially between the Earth and Moon.

Peony, ok I lied. Iko and Peony are my two favourites. I was so mad and upset when she died! There was a whole Kai chapter between Cider getting the medication and arriving to the plague center, skipped all of that. Kai, I don’t care! I need to see Peony and fix her! I thought she was going to inject it. That would be my idea, forget making her swallow it! She’s almost unconscious and can’t swallow? Whatever! Get a needle and put it right into her blood stream. Would be more effective anyway. You’re in a med center! There has to be a syringe somewhere! Or have grabbed one from Dr. Erland! Maybe they don’t have syringes anymore, everything is android based. They might not have just a needle.  Pearl and Adri, those two are pieces of work though. When Pearl showed up at the market and Kai was so rude to her! Yes! Haha!

The Ball. Waiting the entire book for this ball, we finally get it and we’re going after the Lunar contacts Cinder telling her the threat on Kai’s life. I didn’t see much point in that, I assumed it was a given Levana was going to kill Kai after they were married but maybe I’m just a pessimist and cynic for jumping to that. But we’re going to the ball in a wrinkly dress, stained gloves and too-small foot all in an ancient car. Subtly is key.  It was so sweet for that moment that we thought Kai knew she was a cyborg and didn’t care at all, but he was talking about Peony. After that it was like watching one big, giant train wreck that wouldn’t stop! I loved how Cinder saw that it was going downhill and she just has a moment of “screw it! Go big or go home!” and then kisses Kai and tries to kill the Queen and then starts sprinting away. I very much related to that, I’m the same way, I’m very stubborn. If something is going badly go all out because you’re either going to make it better or it’s already bad so how much worse can it get? You might as well try.

That’s all I have for Cinder, I can’t wait to dive into Scarlet! Bye! Kisses!

 

Book Rant: Never Fade

RATING: 4.5

GENRE: Dystopian, YA

SERIES: The Darkest Minds, #2

Hello my lovelies! Today we are discussing the second installment of Alexandra Bracken’s The Darkest Minds trilogy, Never Fade. What this series is about is the majority of the American population under the age of 20 is dead from this plague that targeted children, the children that survive are mutated and have these powers that fall into 5 categories and the government deems them a threat so they are put into concentration camps. Ruby, our main girl has escaped from one of these where she was help for 7 years. That is the first book. This book has so much happening in it, we start out with the Children’s League who obviously doesn’t really care about the children at all they’re just a tool. And the end of the first book, I think we all remember (ahem, we’re emotionally traumatized) by that. Go pick up this book, I didn’t love it as much as the first but it was still fantastic and I can’t wait until the last one! (in October?) Spoilers past here! Bye if you haven’t read the book!

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When we first start this book it 6 months later and she’s on an op for the Children’s League to get back this guy. It was incredibly confusing at first becasue we are given so much information, out of order, all at once. I didn’t remember Rob was a bad guy at this point, I had completely forgotten that relevance which was my bad becasue it’s the entire reason any of the first book happens. Important details. Ah. Should pick up on those. Anyway we get this captive they came to rescue, pull of the bag at it’s Liam!  Oh my god, he’s back in the story already! Nope! It’s Cole, his older brother. At first I didn’t like Cole, I didn’t trust him, partly becasue everything we know about him we heard from Liam and it wasn’t a lot of good things, and partly becasue I don’t trust people over the age of 20 in this book. That changed, super abruptly right at the end, Cole is a RED. An adult has these powers that only kids are supposed to have! I had to read that paragraph twice just to be sure I understood it. How many other adults have powers? I get keeping it a secret, it’s a way more powerful tool if no one expects it, but why not tell Liam? Your brother? That would probably help patch up that relationship and bit for him to understand, Cole has these powers to and he was struggling to figure them out like you were. But before we find this all out, zero trust for Cole. While the shower scene was hilarious I didn’t believe he wasn’t with Rob, or setting some sort of trap. Then Vida shows up and I’m convinced she’s a double agent. Well, she is, but a more evil double agent.

We have this new character Jude and he mirrors Zu a fair bit and what Zu could be. We better see Zu in the next book! But Jude is so sweet and has so much control over himself. He’s also very young, not age wise becasue he is 15, but I found him very naive which made me feel protective of him the same way Ruby did. I love when he’s explain why he doesn’t mind being called Judith becasue he does find anything insulting about being called a girl. It such an odd thing to think about a 15 year old boy saying. When we realize at the end that he isn’t out there with them and Liam and Chubes go looking for him I so thought he was going to come back, maybe hurt but he was so innocent and young he just couldn’t be killed, not like that. And Liam brings back the necklace and still didn’t believe it. Someone comes out of the rubble and I was so hopeful, but it Clancy. It’s just so unfair that Clancy was the one to walk away and not Jude.

When we are first reunited with Chubes at Liam’s house, first I was all “yay Chubes!” then he calls out for Liam and I reread that bit so may times becasue I was so confused. I thought Liam was with him, but no. That was TWICE Alexandra Bracken convinced me he was back in the story, right at the beginning too!  We aren’t even halfway and she’s had my hopes up twice!

I loved the woman with the tickets and how she wrote “Stay Safe” on them when Ruby thought she had her under control. Then Andy who helped them out too, it was really touching to see that not all people were awful and wanted to contain these kids and turn them in for money.

Ruby in the first book was super hesitant about using her powers and in this book, she has no such problems. What she did to Rob with torturing him with the images of these kids he killed and ending up killing him. On the one hand, he probably deserves t and I was so thrilled she had complete control over her powers but on the other hand it was so evil and dark and twisted. She really stooped to the level of the other oranges in my option and I was really disappointed with her becasue I held her to a better standard.  The fact that she feel bad about it gives me hope that she’ll be able to dial it back and not do something like that again, but it was really a bitter-sweet scene. The heart-to-heart she had with Vida about it though was so great. I loved seeing Vida’s character develop becasue she has a tough shell but below that she really cares about her group so those little bonding moments were great.

Fake East River. We are captured and told we are going to “the slip kid” obviously I think it’s Clancy! I’m panicking, get your butt outta there! We can’t be trapped by Clancy again! Have you forgotten last time?! But it’s not him. It’s this fake kid, Knox, and he’s this Blue-as-the-superior-race dictator guy. Clancy was the same for orange, but he at least pretended he was a fair leader and that he gave a shit. We go into that tent and Liam is in the middle of it…oh wait, he’s dying! It was this emotional roller-coaster.  So Ruby goes and she says she’s going to fix it and that was really anti-climatic. I was expecting her bust in and kick-ass but engages Knox in this conversation trying to get him to touch her and her burns her hand with his cigarette. Who does that?! Next day we have the girls fighting in the ring of fire. And this Red comes out! I was a little confused up to this point about what reds actually did but they are fire. They control it, they generate it. Ruby finally gets her shit together and figures out how to control her power and this was probably her best moment becasue she doesn’t hurt anyone or force anyone to do anything, she just frees the red from his “programming” and frees the kids and kicks out the evil leader.

Liam and the mind-wipe. We know he sort of remembers her because he says he recognizes her and he clearly cares about her. He’s on the team that picked her up after the Rob fiasco and he’s freaking out (understandable, our main character was stabbed and captured, I was freaking out too!) Then Ruby sneaks away and Liam comes to comfort her and she tells him that lie! I just wanted to shake her! Stop! Tell him the truth! He’s a big boy, he can handle it! We get this scene in the gas station where Ruby is like “I know you hate me.” and Liam says “Hate you? I love with you! I don’t even know you, but I love you!” And then she takes down the blocks on his mind somehow and immediately I’m super excited because maybe she can fix her parents!

Back together with Clancy, she has a gun on him and she doesn’t shoot! Why would you even let him speak? A) he has the ability to lie like everyone else, seriously you are skeptical of everyone else except him?! B) he can control your mind. When we realize he isn’t there when everyone asks Ruby who she is talking too. Ah! Idiots! Knocking him out and putting him in a closet, sweet victory! But no. he gets out of the closet and escapes a collapsing building being bombed. WHY WON’T YOU DIE?! Then when he appears no one puts a bullet in his head. They want to trade him? No! Why? He could mind control his way out of this situation any minute, if he’s not, it means he’s bidding his time and using you until the opportune moment. But he was helpful becasue we find out that there is a cure to the disease and to the powers. Why Ruby needed that hard copies I’m not sure becasue I’m pretty sure that is what is on the flash drive Cate has safely. Apart from the dramatic revel of them, of course. Where was she keeping them?! I’m picturing a folder or binder, or even if it’s just pieces of paper where have they been? Hidden in her shirt?

This is so long! But there are so many things happening in this book, I didn’t get them all, I know. But I have to cut it off. Bye guys!

Book Rant: Vampire Academy

RATING: 4

GENRE: Paranormal, YA

SERIES: Vampire Academy, #1

WARNING: I am REALLY sleep deprived. I went to bed at 4am. Guys I am behind on my Book Blogging. I actually read Vampire Academy by Richelle Mead a few days ago and I am in a mourning period (AKA: Book hangover) When I was reading the book I was enjoying it but not in love with it and I finished it think “oh, that was a decent book.” and it wasn’t until I tried reading another book and no. I could it was too soon! Too soon for a rebound book.

 I  also rented the movie on iTunes and watched that. (I really liked it! It was funny and almost like  satire) I have been avoiding this series like the plague becasue I thought it was going to be like the House of Night series which I have so much hatred towards, but it’s not. Rose is so kick-ass and strong and Dimitri, I have another fictional crush. Does anyone not know the premise of this book? Because I’m so late to the party. In case you are like me and are really behind, Lissa Dragomir is a Moroi princess, a mortal vampire who can control one of the four elements. The Strigoi are immortal, have no access to magic and cannot go out in sunlight. They are also out to get the princess Lissa. Rose Hathaway is a dhampir a mix of human and moroi vampire blood run through her and she is Lissa’s best friend and guardian. Well, self-assigned guardian-in-training. It’s been two years since Lissa and Rose have escaped the wrought iron gates of St. Vladimir’s Academy, a school for Moroi and their guardians to train and learn. Rose and Lissa are on the run but the Academy isn’t keen on letting the princess get away and they find themselves being dragged back to the Academy by a gorgeous male dhampir who becomes Rose’s mentor. But Rose and Lissa ran away for a reason, not everything dangerous is outside the walls. So many booktubers and bookbloggers and reviews have said that you just need to get past the first two book, after that the series gets so much better, but I really enjoyed this book and it gets BETTER?! Spoilers past here!

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Mason is Rose’s best friend besides Lissa and he’s so cute and sweet I just want to hug him! I don’t necessarily want him to be with Rose becasue of Dimitri but I kind of do at the same time. He’s just so awesome, their little flirtation/teasing moments are the best. Like when we are first introduced to him, their banter about thinking about Rose naked. This is a series where you know someone you really like is going to get offed and I really DON’T want it to be Mason, but I’m really scared it will be. Lissa can’t be killed. So far the entire purpose of the series is keep Lissa safe so if she’s dead, oops no more story line.

Christian! I love Christian right when we met him I knew he was going to be this awesome in-depth, interesting character. I did have to agree with Rose at the beginning, he was a little creepy, stalker like. I do love him and I love him with Lissa but constantly watching someone you barely know and then informing them that you have been watching them by mentioning all their secrets you have found out, is a touch on the creepy side. Actually a lot. By the end I was a huge fan of him, I love him and Lissa and how he looks out for her.

Lissa goes through this crazy, power hungry journey to get back at Mia becasue of the stupid rumor she started about Rose being a blood-whore.  And it gets so out of hand and so just frustrating to see Lissa acting like such a child and making it all about popularity . Rose was trying to help her but Lissa refused to let herself be helped. When Rose tells about Lissa’s cutting to save her life becasue she’d gone too far, Lissa just gets so mad and stops talking to her. She told your secret, but saved your life. She’s trying to help.

When Lissa is kidnapped and Rose goes to Dimitri there is the stupid necklace make-out scene. (as in the necklace is stupid and annoying, not the scene.) It was so frustrating!  Obviously I want Rose and Dimitri together, I love that power couple and just having them together kicking ass but I was mentally screaming at the the whole time to go help Lissa! You idiots the necklace has a compulsion on it! Hit pause, get rid of hit, go save the princesses butt then come back to this relationship mess! It took so long after Dimitri first took off the necklace then picked it back up again to figure it out and actually throw it away. I’m not blaming him, but Lissa! Still on the Dimitri subject but back at the middle, Rose has this line that was just so funny: “I was crushing on my mentor. Crushing on my older mentor. I had to be out of my mind. He was seven years older than me. Old enough to be my…well, okay, nothing.” then in the movie the the version of this line was equally funny and I loved how they fit together. “I’m crushing on my mentor, Dimitri, who’s old enough to be…not my father, but like an uncle. Like a disturbingly sexy uncle.” and that line made the original line funnier. Maybe this is just me.

Prince Victor, that little bitch! I did not suspect him through this whole thing! And Natalie! When she came out as a strigoi I was in shock! They were good friends! I thought she was so happy to be part of this “popular royal clique” with Lissa and Rose and she just completely turns on them and has been manipulating Lissa. I do see Prince Victor’s point though, his overall goal makes a lot of sense. Christian beings it up earlier to, I like that parallel. But the moroi need to learn how to fight and use their magic as a weapon. The dhampir’s really get the short end of things, they are almost slaves and the moroi look down on them but they’re constantly risking their lives to protect them against evil, soulless vampires who and stronger and faster than them! What Victor is trying to achieve is like how it was way back when where moroi and dhampir’s fought side by side, neither one was above the other becasue they both mutually needed each other. Like I said, while I support Victor’s endgame, I love Lissa and he can’t just end her life for his vision. What he should have done was explain all this to her and then have her try to become queen so she can enact his idea. But no. he had to kidnap her and make his daughter go Strigoi.

That is it for this book rant!What are your thoughts? I’ll talk to you guy later! Bye!