My most recent "Must Reads"

Hi there! Long time no see (or read.) Life was a bit crazy over the holidays with sick babies, sick mommies and daddies, and birthdays. So I'll make it short. Here's my list of books I've recently finished that I think you'll enjoy:

1. Across the Universe Trilogy by Beth Revis - This includes Across the Universe, A Million Suns, and Shades of Earth. What a fantastic new trilogy refreshingly unique from the Twilights, Shades of Gray, etc. This may just be the next Hunger Games. Love love love these novels.

2. Rotters by Daniel Kraus - Totally creepy but unique plot and thoroughly enjoyable. I had a hard time putting this down and was pleasantly surprised by the ending. This novel definitely satisfied my morbid side.

3. Firelight by Sophie Jordan - I really enjoyed this fantasy book and continued to read the sequel Vanish, but stopped there. I love the unique story and the imagery these novels provide. They're a nice merger between "dungeons and dragons' and the real world.

4. Delirium and Pandemonium by Lauren Oliver - These were a great beginning to the trilogy that has me anticipating the third (not yet released.) An action packed dystopian plot keeps the reader interested and a believable main character keeps you wanting more.

5. The Divergent Trilogy by Veronica Roth - This includes Divergent, Insurgent and Convergent. While I haven't yet read the third novel, I plan to soon. This is another great set of dystopian novels packed with action and a unique take on the future. Definitely sucks you in and keeps you reading.

6. A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness - Initially I was thrown off by the historical aspects of this novel, but they became a beautifully intricate part of the plot that by the end I thoroughly enjoyed the little details. A nice take on the supernatural being of our planet. You can bet I will be reading the sequels soon!


Start with those... I'm currently listening to The Night Circus and will update you shortly. I'm sure I'm forgetting some I've read and loved, so I'll pass those along as soon as I remember!

Review: Rotters - Daniel Kraus

Rating: 5/5
Summary: When Joey Crouch's mother dies he is sent off to live with his father in a small town Iowa. He soon learns that his father is not only embarrassingly labeled the town "garbage man" but a grave robber. Joey's life takes a dramatic turn when he decides to demand his father's attention and care.
Review: This book was incredibly captivating in a strange way. Its plot is very dark and slightly depressing, even disgusting, at point but still kept me reading. Kraus strings together an unique tale with plenty of twists and turns woven together with completely believable characterization. With as pessimistic and dark as this novel is, I expected to be left feeling depressed but was pleasantly surprised by the ever-so-perfect ending. The story is completely balanced in every way and I was definitely satisfied when I finally finished it. DEFINITELY a must read for any YA, adventure-loving book enthusiast.

Review: Inkheart - Cornelia Funke

Rating: 4/5
Summary: Meggie and her father enjoy books as most people typically enjoy food. When she discovers her father has a secret ability to bring characters to life simply by reading aloud, Meggie is thrown into an adventure of her own that teaches her about trust, love, good and evil.
Review: I definitely understand why this book was made into a movie. Funke weaves a beautifully written plot with captivating characters and a unique concept that is sure to draw anyone's attention. I suppose this book is intended for a slightly younger audience (say the 11-15 age range) but I thoroughly enjoyed it. I can't deny that little more adult drama and action would have made this a much more interesting YA book for the older crowd, but I still found myself returning to it as often as I could. I would definitely recommend picking this one up if you like the "Harry Potter" adventure type books or if you are looking for a great Christmas gift for the preteen on your list. This is a trilogy but this book doesn't leave you having to read the next books, so for now I am moving on.

Buy it here: Inkheart by Cornelia Funke (Hardcover)

Review: Cinder - Marissa Meyer

Rating: 3/5
Summary: Cinder is a cyborg in a futuristic Earth in which humans are plagued by... well, a plague. Paralleling the classic Cinderella tale, Cinder has stepsisters, a mean stepmother, and a prince she pines for.
Review: I really liked this book for the first three quarters of it, until I reached the ending. I felt like it was just cut off at a crucial point, forcing the reader to pick up the sequel. I get that this is an excellent marketing tactic, but it also leaves me with a bad taste in my mouth and I probably won't pick up the sequel simply because I wasn't blown away by the plot and then put off by the ending. Also, there is one sentence in the beginning of the novel that almost ruined the whole book because anyone smarter than a fifth grader can guess its implications. I won't share this revealing sentence, just in case you decided to pick up this book out of boredom. I did like the characters, although I felt they could have been slightly more relatable and the relationships were shallow. Overall, the dystopian quality of this novel kept me interested, but the plot wasn't strong enough to hold my interest into the sequels.

Review: 2 in one! The Scortch Trials and The Death Cure - James Dashner

Rating: 5/5, 5/5
Summary: In these two novels we follow Thomas in his adventures through the dystopian future in which our earth is plagued by sun flares and a disease threatening to wipe out the human race. Thomas and his friends are being tested in an effort to find a cure and then escape Wicked to find there are worse things than zombie-like disease-ridden people and hot scortched earth.
Reviews: Oh goodness. Pick up this trilogy, including the first book Maze Runner, as soon as you can. While the first book was a little slow, these two are fantastic and just get better. I definitely enjoyed all three and flew through the last two, finding every excuse to listen to them, even working out! The character intricacies continue to be intriguing and the plot twists keep your eyes glued to the pages (or earbuds glued in your ears) as long as physically possible. I would recommend this to anyone above the age of fourteen or so, simply because there is some frightening violence and imagery that may give preteens nightmares. But if you love dystopian novels, pick this up asap for a fantastically unique plot and unrushed storyline.

Get them here: The Maze Runner Trilogy Collection Set - Maze Runner, the Scorch Trials & Death Cure By James Dashner

Review: Delirium - Lauren Oliver

Rating: 5/5
Summary: Lena is a young girl about to receive the operation that will cure her from the disease of love, releasing her from a future of pain, losing her mind and ultimately death. When Lena meets a boy on one of her runs, she realizes her worst fear is happening and she is slowly falling in love.
Review: I hesitated to read this book. I thought the concept, that love was a disease to be cured, sounded cheesy and almost impossible to make believable. Somehow, Lauren Oliver did it! I truly loved this book. Not only was the plot utterly captivating, but the characters were wonderful and I couldn't put it down. My absolute favorite part of the whole novel was Lauren's style of writing. She uses a lot of similies and metaphors in her descriptions and somehow it magically makes you experience falling in love right alongside the main characters. The audiobook narrator also did a fantastic job of infusing the personalities of the characters into her voices for each so I suggest listening to this one if you can. I recommend this to everyone and yes, I am starting the sequel as you read this....

Get it here: Delirium

Review: Maze Runner - James Dashner

Rating: 4/5
Summary: Thomas wakes up in a metal elevator... being lifted into a giant maze... by boys he doesn't recognize... and doesn't remember anything but his name. When Thomas discovers that he and many other boys are left to feed and fend for themselves, not to mention fight off the evil creatures living beyond the walls of their protected glade in the maze, he begins to question why they were all put there in the first place. They boys work to find a way out while trying to keep each other alive and struggling to remember anything about their past lives. When a girl arrives in the metal elevator one day, the lives of all in the maze are thrown for a loop as they are presented with frightening resolution.
Review: This was definitely a unique novel. While dystopian in nature, you don't really realize that it takes place in the future until the very end of the book. Dashner delivers a backwards sort of plot that keeps you interested but thoroughly confused until the end, and then shocked at the clarification made in the epilogue. The character development is easily appreciated and while some of the boys get a little confusing in the beginning, you certainly have your favorites by the end. I would definitely recommend this to anyone who enjoys dystopian, YA, suspenseful novels with new concepts that haven't be written and rewritten like many other current fiction novels.

I will definitely be reading the sequels so keep looking for those reviews coming soon.

Buy it here: The Maze Runner (Book 1) (Maze Runner Trilogy)

Review: Vampire Acadamy - Richelle Mead

Rating: 3/5
Summary: Rose and Lissa are best friends in addition to being guardian and vampire. When they are brought back to school after having run away normal teenage drama meets paranormal trouble and things get interesting.
Review: I'll be honest, while this book had a lot more intricacy and detail to the whole vampire genre, it didn't thrill me. It almost got borderline nerdy in the paranormal realm. As an avid YA reader, I like all things magical and fantasy, but terms like Moroi and Strigoi scare me off the same way Dungeons and Dragons players do. I liked that the plot was action packed with vampire "stuff" and also normal teenage lust and betrayal. The characters were definitely believable although maybe a bit emphasized for entertainment purposes. All in all, I would recommend this to someone who is a vampire novel fan, but not to someone who is looking for the next Hunger Games or unique concept.

Review: The Scorpio Races - Maggie Stiefvater

Rating: 5/5
Summary: Puck Connolly and Sean Kendrick are two teenagers who have signed up to race in Thisby's annual Scorpio Races. But these races aren't like any other; all the riders will be astride deadly water horses, except Miss Connolly. In a game where the mounts are likely to kill each other and the jockeys, Puck has decided to ride her petite land horse and risk it all to preserve the life she loves.
Review: I LOVED this book. To be honest, I did not enjoy Stiefvater's previous novel Shiver and didn't have high hopes for this one but was completely surprised. Not only has the writing style and character development improved dramatically to the point of not even reading like the same author, but the storyline kept me utterly captivated. I did not want to stop listening (and yes, I did the audiobook because its was narrated by two great readers.) I really enjoyed her pacing throughout the plot and how she kept the actual race until nearly the end. This made the novel more about the anticipation and relationships rather than a beginning, conflict and resolution. And what a creative concept. I have not read anything in the supernatural YA genre about water horses yet and loved it. Definitely pick this one up!

Buy it here:The Scorpio Races

Review: Gregor the Overlander - Suzanne Collins

Rating: 4/5
Summary: When young Gregor and his baby sister fall through a grate in their apartment building they plummet down into the "Underland," a world deep within Earth where humans coexist with giant versions of our rats, spiders and cockroaches. The "Underlanders" are a race of humans who, upon meeting Gregor and his sister, decide he is the one prophesied about by the founder of their world and that he will help save them from extinction. Gregor, being a preteen, does not exactly agree.
Review: I originally picked up this book because it was written by Collins, the author of the Hunger Games, expecting it to be similar in style. Oh no... I was quite wrong. While I still enjoyed this little tale, its a much younger novel overall. I would recommend this to a middle-schooler or maybe young high school students. The characters were interesting and the plot was well written and entertaining (as expected of Mrs. Collins) but I couldn't even compare this to her later novels. With lots of tricky interactions and a playful but action packed story, I kept wanting to stay up reading, but overall I could almost call the novel slightly predictable. Definitely would be a great gift for those preteens in your life, maybe not so much for the adults.

Buy it here: Gregor The Overlander (Underland Chronicles, Book 1)

Review: Game of Thrones - George R. R. Martin

Rating: 4/5
Summary: Taking place in a much older time, this novel centers around the royal houses' battle for possession of the throne. There are essentially good families, such as the Starks, and those with bad intentions, the Lannisters, that continually face each other in confrontations of the physical and mental. Other families play interesting roles in this medieval plot line filled with treachery, deceit, sex, love, murder and mystery.
Review: I am not normally a "kings and queens" novel reader, but with the hit HBO series and all the buzz about this book I felt I had to pick it up. And WHOA, is it heavy. Seriously, the book is very long in comparison to my other YA books. I decided to listen to it on audio to make it go a bit faster (and because the narrator Roy Dotrice is excellent.) Although this is a lengthy and intricate plot, I did enjoy the read, or rather listen, and was enthralled by the detail and incredible character distinction. This may be one of the best demonstrations of multiple well-developed and very different characters, all quite believable, that I've ever read. The scandal and sex in this book keep this from being juvenile and I never felt bored by the story despite its length because its jam packed with many small relationships and dramas. I did not like how it ended, however, because I felt like almost the entire book was left inconclusive. I probably won't read any more in the series simply due to time and interest in other plots, but I feel like someone with a medieval fascination would thoroughly enjoy these novels.

Got it at my local library, but you can buy it here: A Game of Thrones (A Song of Ice and Fire, Book 1)

Review: Fifty Shades Freed - E.L. James

Rating: 2/5

Summary: And so the sex scandal becomes a love story when Anna and Christian fall in love and get married. They proceed to have slightly interesting non-vanilla sex into their marriage and then find themselves amidst more danger when a few past enemies reenter their lives.

Review: Might I start by saying that I am quite glad I finally finished this series. After having completed all three books, I now feel like I have probably wasted some valuable Audible credits and a few hours on books just not worth my time. The writing style is awful and the sex scenes just got progressively less interesting. Not only does this plot parallel the Twilight series in so many uninteresting and less successful ways, but it also completely drops from a slightly sexy book to a terribly cliché love story with an utterly predictable ending. Lets just conclude by saying if you haven't read these books, don't start, unless you enjoy cheesy dialogue and replica personalities of the Twilight characters with different names. Do not, I repeat DO NOT, waste your time if you enjoy a good book.

Review: Fifty Shades Darker - E. L. James

Rating: 3/5
Summary: As we continue to follow the story of Anna and Christian, we see a slightly softer side of our leading man and a more dominant side of the heroine. He also reveals some darker secrets of why he is the way he is and the "kinkery" he continues to crave.
Review: While this sequel has a slightly better plot than the first, the writing is still pretty terrible and the sex scenes stay about the same on the interesting scale. I found it hard to believe that someone with a 10+ year history of the BDSM lifestyle was this easily distracted from it and gave in to such constant, relatively "vanilla" sex. I appreciate that he's trying to change for Anna, but I was also disappointed that the sexcapades weren't truer to the hype we were built up to in the first book. Anyway, the ending of this book left me hanging just like the first, so I am slightly ashamed to admit than I was forced to read the third book. This book is not a page turner, but at least worth reading for the fact that I now feel like I have a dirty little secret I share with at least half of the adult female population.

Review: Fifty Shades of Grey - E. L. James

Rating: 2/5
Summary: Anastasia Steel is a new college graduate who meets Mr. Christian Grey, a young and highly successful entrepreneur and, quite literally, falls into a relationship with him. His tastes, however, are in the BDSM realms of sexuality and this throws our virginal Miss Steel for a loop.
Review: First things first, or last... I HATE the ending. I wasn't planning on reading the rest of the series due to this books complete lack of originality and plot, but the last few chapters sucked me in and the ending made it impossible for me to not pick up the sequel. Seriously though, the book consisted of nothing but some terribly cliche flirting, some rough sex, and unfortunate drama. If you're looking for something to "get the juices flowing" in a minivan mom kind of way, this might do it for you, as this series has been dubbed "Mommy Porn." However, if you're more interested in a good book with some sexuality expertly written and intertwined into a decent plot there are much better places to find it. Start with Stardust by Neil Gaiman. Thats got a fantastic little scene that blows these tacky and crude words out of the water. But yes, I am ashamed to say I am reading the sequel....

Also, if you couldn't tell by the striking similarity in characters (thus showing this authors unoriginality) this story was originally written as a fan fiction based on Twilight. Steel = Swan, Grey = Cullen, Ray = Charlie. The characters' personalities are virtually the same.

Review: 1984 - George Orwell

Rating: 3/5
Summary: In Orwell's 1984 we live in a world forever watched by "Big Brother" and history is rewritten to fit the present and future. Sex is strictly for reproduction only and rebellious thoughts are outlawed with the consequences of torture and death.
Review: With many children being required to read this in high school, and being considered on the best dystopian novels of all time, I had high expectations set. However, I did not enjoy this book in the least. Like most older books, especially those required in high school English Literature, the plot is extremely slow and relatively uneventful. In our modern society, we need more fast paced and event packed plot lines to keep our interest. Additionally, I found the heroine's personality unbelievable and the characters difficult to relate to. I know, I am criticizing a "classic" so flame me as you will, but I simply can not classify this as a "page-turner" or "must read." I apologize in all sincerity to all my past English Lit teachers....

Review: Ender's Shadow - Orson Scott Card

Rating: 4/5
Summary: Basically this is Ender's Game from Bean's perspective. There is more backround on Bean before and after he meets Ender, but it follows the same sequence of events.
Review: I was recommended this book by several people based on the fact that I loved Ender's Game. I also read Speaker for the Dead and was told that I would appreciate this more because it was more like the first book. In my opinion, its too much like the original book. I was draw in to the story in the beginning because Card tells of Bean's history, but when Bean's story begins to meet that of Ender's, I found myself bored. I knew what was going to happen and the details of Bean's story weren't enough to keep me enthralled as much as Ender's Game and Speaker for the Dead. I guess its just the originality of the plot line and the new characters that entertain me. Other than that, the quality of writing was just as good as the other two books and character development was definitely up to par with Card's other work. A good sequel, but I actually enjoyed the depth of meaning in Speaker for the Dead more as a sequel.

 *If you don't know how the "sequels" work with the Ender's Game books you should know its quite confusing. Check this link out for a better understanding of Ender's Universe.

Buy it here: Ender's Shadow

Review: Mrs. Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children - Ransom Riggs

Rating: 3/5
Summary: Jacob believes his grandfather's tales of the magical home he stayed in as a child and the "peculiar" children that lived there with him are just fantasy. Then, when his grandfather is murdered by a monster than only Jacob sees, he embarks on an adventure that opens the door to a world he never knew existed.
Review: Eh, I had high hopes for this book based on the description but I was disappointed in a few things, most of all the ending. I feel like Riggs rushed to finish the book and left it wide open and inconclusive. Also, looking back on the plot line I can almost tell that Riggs found all these photos first and then wrote the story around them. The romance and relationships felt forced and unrealistic. Overall, this wasn't a great book but it wasn't awful either. I wouldn't recommend this book unless you are sincerely bored.

Review: Speaker for the Dead - Orson Scott Card

Rating: 5/5
Summary: In this sequel to Ender's Game we follow Ender as an adult in a future in which he's skipped thousands of lightyears and is now a Speaker for the Dead as he did for the Buggers in the first book. He has traveled to one of the "Hundred Worlds" and must help a new species of alien justify their existence and to speak the deaths of some important, and not so important, people on the planet.
Review: I really enjoyed this book. I had heard from several friends that this is too philosophical and not as good as Ender's Game but I found it just as entertaining, although a little sad, and much more adult. I appreciate the deeper meanings in the plot and the depth of the characters and if you liked the ending of the previous book, you will definitely enjoy reading this. Card is a very talented writer and really draws the reader in to his character development and the plots with plenty of surprises and interesting relationships. Definitely a "must read" if you liked the first.

Buy it here: Speaker for the Dead (Ender, Book 2)

Review: Paranormalcy - Kiersten White

Rating: 4/5
Summary: Evie, a teenage paranormal investigator, does not live a normal life. She works as an agent finding paranormals like werewolves and vampires and identifying them for the IPCA to track and monitor. When an unidentified paranormal starts killing the immortals, she discovers much more about herself that she ever expected.
Review: This was a fun read, but I wasn't blown away by it. I had a really difficult time getting into it at first because the beginning was so stereotypical that I found it difficult to believe. Despite the characters being unrealistic, I enjoyed the journey and liked Evie's "secret." The author did a great job of winding the plot together and throwing in some good hidden details. Overall, a good story but not a "you have to run out and get this now" book.

Review: Divergent - Veronica Roth

Rating: 5/5

Summary: In a futuristic world, teenagers must decide to live in one of 5 factions based on their own personal beliefs on life society. Of the 5, Tris chooses the total opposite of what she's from, shocking her family and herself. During the initiation process of joining her new faction, Tris learns some awful truths about the societies and the way each is run while also learning about her own strength and choices.

Review: I actually really enjoyed this book. I worried at first that this was going to be too similar to Hunger Games and I wasn't going to be able to get into it. However, the characters were captivating, the plot was thick with lots of interesting relationships, action and twists. I also thought this book had the perfect balance of fight scenes and sexual tension to make it a great YA book for all ages (above 14ish) to enjoy. I definitely recommend picking this one up if you liked Hunger Games and Unwind.

Buy it here:Divergent