Book Review: Rise of the Chosen (Lifeblood #1) by Anna Kopp

In Sam's world there are two rules. Rule #1: Nobody dies. Protect the living at all costs. Rule #2: Everybody dies. At least once.

The Waking was a global event in which a force called the Lifeblood invaded all humans who died. The few strong enough to control it came back as powerful immortals. The rest let the bloodlust take over and awoke with one goal - to kill.

Newly appointed Watch Guard Samantha Shields has a legacy to uphold. Her father died a hero defending their city and now she wants to follow in his footsteps. Except for the dying part, of course. Unfortunately, fate has other plans as she discovers deep dark secrets that make her choose between her loyalties and the lives of everyone in her city. Both rules are in play as Sam is forced to make hard decisions that could cost her everything - including the person she cares about most.

I can't even COUNT how many years its been since I have read a dystopian. That genre used to be my shit years ago. Thanks to two massive series that came out ... one with a dashingly handsome gentleman named Four. I need a Four. Maybe two Fours. Anyway ... uh ... if I'm totally honest, I didn't mean to click this book on NetGalley. I received an email about it and clicked it to see what all the excitement was about and BOOM! It added it to my shelf.

Yes. So. First dystopian I've read in quite a while and wow. Didn't think that I would like this as much as I did. Not because it's a dystopian but because it's about zombies. Don't like that stuff. Unless it's World War Z ... or Walking Dead ... it's derailment city around here today. Yeah, so I didn't think that I would like it but DUDE! The story was something I hadn't heard of before and it really grabs your attention! 

That being said ... I won't lie ... it was a tad difficult to read. That difficulty all comes down to it being from multiple POV's and you not really being clear on when the switch happens. I'm hoping that it was changed in another version of the book ... maybe a couple of page breaks or asterisks or something between the characters. It takes you a few sentences into the new POV to figure out who it is that's talking. And that can be a bit of a derailment in itself. It caused the book to read pretty choppy and there were what felt like a lot of starts and stops because things just didn't flow how I knew that they could. 

I liked the characters but again, they were a little difficult to get to know and I really think that it was because of the multiple POV's and the distracting qualities that were brought with it. The intriguing storyline made up for it. It was a fast-paced book that was full of shocking twists and turns that kept you on  your toes from the first page to the last sentence. 

* I received this novel in exchange for an honest review *

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Review: Nirvana (Nirvana Series #1) by J.R. Stewart

When the real world is emptied of all that you love, how can you keep yourself from dependence on the virtual?

Larissa Kenders lives in a world where the real and the virtual intermingle daily. After the supposed death of her soulmate, Andrew, Larissa is able to find solace by escaping to Nirvana, a virtual world where anything is possible – even visits with Andrew. Although Larissa is told that these meetings are not real, she cannot shake her suspicion that Andrew is indeed alive. When she begins an investigation of Hexagon, the very institution that she has been taught to trust, Larissa uncovers much more than she ever expected and places herself in serious danger. Her biggest challenge, however, remains determining what is real – and what is virtual.

Nirvana is the first instalment in the three-part “Nirvana” series, a fast-paced, page-turning young adult trilogy that combines elements of the romance, mystery, and science fiction genres. This first novel introduces readers to a heroine who refuses to give up on the man she loves, even if it means taking on an entire government to do so.

 

I had such high hopes when I picked this one up. I thought that maybe I would be able to get hooked on a new dystopian YA series since I haven't found one that I've fallen in love with in a very long time. Not since The Hunger Games and Divergent. Unfortunately, this was just not one for me. I tried and tried and tried to get into it and I just couldn't. It was an uphill battle that I ended up losing. I had a lot of issues with pretty much everything in this novel.

Right off the bat, I despised the main character, Larissa Kenders. I thought that she was rude as shit and she was super sensitive. Those two traits work for some characters. The author can make a character that way and then prove why they are behaving the way that they do. I'm okay with an asshole character but it needs to be justified. I just didn't think that it was justified in any way. And to be honest, I just really didn't like her. Again, not liking a character can be a great thing. It can make you think or it will put a new spin on what is going on in the book but I just didn't like her because she was a horrible character. 

From the very beginning, this book is a bit hard to follow. You don't really know what the hell is going on until more than halfway through the book. It was super confusing with the reality and virtual stuff. I had a hard time telling what was real and what wasn't. At one point, I was even wondering if this is what the author wanted ... to keep the reader on their toes and wondering what was going on but then I tossed that away as quickly as I thought it because the book itself just didn't read like it was made for a reader. I know, that probably doesn't make any sense ... maybe I can explain. It always seemed like there was some secret code that I wasn't privy to that would help me understand what was going on. For such an in depth book, explanations just weren't there. Creating a dystopian world is probably very difficult but when things aren't explained, it makes it so very frustrating for the reader. And then when the past and present stuff started coming into play ... that was a whole new level of confusion. So you've got past, present, virtual and reality. It was just too damn much. ESPECIALLY, when there wasn't any indication you would be switching and swapping, it would just change from one sentence to the next. 

I think the most frustrating thing is that there are three characters with names that start with K. No big deal, right? Absolutely. It shouldn't have been a big deal but when the book isn't very clear on anything that is going on, having three names that are so similar just adds yet another layer to the confusing, spaghetti bowl of a mess that is going on in this book. 

I won't be picking up the next book in the series and I'll forget this one as soon as I'm done with this review. It's unfortunate when this happens because there was so much potential. It's just too bad.

* I received this novel in exchange for an honest review *

Available: November 10th, 2015

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Review: The New Agenda (The New Agenda #2) by Simone Pond

Ava's journey continues as she searches inside the mainframe to find Chief Morray. She ends up hitting his archive files, sending her way back to the early days. For certain, society was disintegrating: humans were self-destructive and wildly uncontrolled. But young William Morray had hoped, as an idealistic teenager, that his father’s acclaimed Repatterning Program––a precursor to the brilliant New Agenda––could manage the upheaval and get society back on track. They said it was for the greater good: out of chaos comes order and from the ashes the phoenix will rise. They said the Repatterning was a positive event, but like most advertising, it was a lie.

William’s wish had always been to work with his father and win his approval. However, when he is sent away to a remote underground safety shelter in Denver, William is awakened to the grisly truth that the Repatterning is a mass genocide. And worse: his father, the New Agenda leader, is the spearhead of this horrifying plan to eradicate all cities, homes and people outside of the Elite citizenship. William decides to team up with an underground rebel alliance to end the Repatterning and save what’s left of civilization.

I picked this one up immediately after I finished the first book in the series (The City Center). I really enjoyed the first installment and I had high hopes for the second ... thank goodness Simone Pond delivered!! I can think of quite a few impossibly popular series where the 2nd book was almost the kiss of death. It seems like authors write a popular novel and then when they get to the next in the series, they just totally crap on the entire thing and it leaves you wondering why you fell in love with the first novel! Anyhow ... authors: Don't do that.

Whew. Now lets get on with things ... I just loved this book. I enjoyed it quite a bit more than the first and I really, really liked that one. The funny thing is that I was speaking to the author about this second book and she said that she loved writing it. Well, you can tell. This book was intricately written with quite a few twists and turns that kept me on my toes from the very first page to the last period. 

Thankfully, the characters didn't change one iota - they were still the same as they were I left them in the first book. Although ... I did find myself liking a character that I absolutely abhorred in the last book. I even tried to talk myself out of liking him because of how much I detested him in The City Center but it didn't take. That's okay ... the way this character changed and developed made the story that much better and I wouldn't have had it any other way.

Keep in mind, as good as this book was, this is not one of those series where you can just pick up the 2nd book and then jump around. You need to read them in order otherwise you will be totally confused.

I'm super excited to see what the 3rd novel has in store for me!!

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Review: The City Center (The New Agenda #1) by Simone Pond

During the man-made apocalypse in the 21st century, a group of elites killed off a majority of the population. Only two groups of survivors remained––those selected to reside inside the Los Angeles City Center and the rebels, relegated to live on the Outside.

Centuries later, Ava Rhodes is one of five potential successors competing to become the next Queen of the City Center. A week prior to the final competitions she encounters Joseph, a rebel from the Outside, and discovers her utopian home is actually a prison and breeding facility aimed at designing the perfect human. She escapes with Joseph to the Outside world, sending the City Center’s leader, Chief Morray, into an obsessive pursuit for his property.

Along the journey, Ava falls in love with Joseph and discovers an even darker secret about the fate of her people. She must decide whether to stay with Joseph, or save her people from destruction.

I recently just started reading dystopian novels again. For quite a while it felt like every young adult novel that came out had some sort of dystopian angle to it. The young adult genre just felt saturated with them. I had read so many good ones that I just couldn't stop myself from picking up a new one every other day. But then I started to get a little burned by them. They were coming out so fast from so many authors that they just didn't have that something special and unfortunately, a bunch were just a waste of my time to read. So I put the whole genre down. I haven't read one in more than a year, I think. Anywho ... it was a big deal for me to pick this up. It was an even bigger deal to love it as much as I did! 

This is one of those futuristic novels that has a whole butt load of technology that we don't have but Simone Pond explains each thing pretty well and I didn't find myself wondering about how anything works with the exception of two things. There were two things that I just really didn't understand and were glossed over a bit, I felt. 

As a reader, I'm greedy. I'm greedy as hell. I want ever morsel of information that the author is willing to give PLUS a handful of things that they aren't. Now, were these two items a big deal? Not really. It didn't change my reading experience when I didn't really understand them and to be honest, there's a chance that I skipped over the part where it was explained. I kind of devoured The City Center and found myself having to reread paragraphs because I was just going way too fast. You know how that is. 

I really liked the main characters and I became Ava's cheerleader pretty quickly. She's a smart and spunky character that you can't help but root for. I was excited to see what she was up to with each chapter and Pond really kept me on my toes with her. Just when I thought that Ava was in a situation that she couldn't handle, she did. Don't read that as me saying that Ava was written conveniently ... she didn't get out of impossible situations because she found (conveniently) the exact item that she needed or coincidentally something fell from the sky at exactly the right moment ... no. Ava used her wits and training at surprising moments that really boosted the story to a whole new level within the young adult genre. She was just a really well character that I enjoyed thoroughly. 

But. (Come on, you had to know it was coming since I didn't give this book that I really enjoyed 5 stars). Okay... here it is ... the problem was the end. I just didn't like it. Like I said, I'm a greedy reader. I want to know EVERYTHING. Up until the last 15%, the book was moving at a perfect pace - quickly, but not so fast that things were missed but not so slow as to make me want to throw my Kindle out the window. But then that last bit of the book came along and it seemed like things started happening at this break-neck speed. I felt a bit robbed. I want to know the nitty-gritty details. Make the book a little longer, I don't care or make it shorter and pop that last part into a new novel or a novella even. ANYTHING but rushing through. Le sigh. 

All in all, this was such a good book that I really enjoyed. I'm excited to jump into the next novel and see what Ava is up to now!

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Review: Inhuman (Fetch #1) by Kat Falls

In a world ravaged by mutation, a teenage girl must travel into the forbidden Savage Zone to recover lost artifacts or her father’s life is forfeit.

America has been ravaged by a war that has left the eastern half of the country riddled with mutation. Many of the people there exhibit varying degrees of animal traits. Even the plant-life has gone feral.

Crossing from west to east is supposed to be forbidden, but sometimes it’s necessary. Some enter the Savage Zone to provide humanitarian relief. Sixteen-year-old Lane’s father goes there to retrieve lost artifacts—he is a Fetch. It’s a dangerous life, but rewarding—until he’s caught.

Desperate to save her father, Lane agrees to complete his latest job. That means leaving behind her life of comfort and risking life and limb—and her very DNA—in the Savage Zone. But she’s not alone. In order to complete her objective, Lane strikes a deal with handsome, roguish Rafe. In exchange for his help as a guide, Lane is supposed to sneak him back west. But though Rafe doesn’t exhibit any signs of “manimal” mutation, he’s hardly civilized . . . and he may not be trustworthy.

I received this book a long, long time ago in a galaxy far, far away. Geez ... it was like a year ago. I don't know why it took me so long to pick it up. I think that at the time when I first got it, I was super excited. I had been on this dystopian kick that I didn't think I was going to get tired of ... well ... I did, apparently. There CAN be too much of a good thing. I was just gorging on these YA dystopias like they were going out of style and man did it come back to bite me in the ass. I made myself sick of them. If I heard about one more dystopian novel, I was going to scream. So I decided not to read this one when I was so completely dead set against the genre. 

Which I think turned out for the best. Because by the time I picked this one up, it had been quite a while since I had read anything else like it. Not that I have ever read anything else quite like this one ... it was pretty out there. I'm not a huge science fiction fan, so this one was a bit of a reach for me. Can you imagine ... people crossed with animals ... while the concept of talking animals isn't anything new, especially in children's movies, this novel was anything but tired and done. 

The whole concept behind this novel was very intriguing and not very far-fetched. Almost immediately I became obsessed with Lane and the journey she was on. It was interesting getting to go on this trek with her and things being as foreign to the main character as they are to the reader. I found all of the characters intriguing in some way and I had a small attachment to each of them as the story progressed. 

When I first received this novel, I knew nothing of it being the first installment in a series. I often hoped that the story would wrap itself up so I could find out how things ended but at the same time, I was wishing that there would be a continuation so that the adventure didn't have to stop. Thank goodness, there will be a second installment ... especially since this one ended in such a cliffhanger. I'm interested to see how everything plays out in the next novel. I won't lie ... I'll need to reread this one before I get into the second one because I devoured it so quickly, I'm sure that I missed some important things.

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Review: The Death Cure (The Maze Runner #3) by James Dashner

It’s the end of the line.
 
WICKED has taken everything from Thomas: his life, his memories, and now his only friends—the Gladers. But it’s finally over. The trials are complete, after one final test.
 
Will anyone survive?

What WICKED doesn’t know is that Thomas remembers far more than they think. And it’s enough to prove that he can’t believe a word of what they say.

The truth will be terrifying.

Thomas beat the Maze. He survived the Scorch. He’ll risk anything to save his friends. But the truth might be what ends it all.

The time for lies is over.

 

Tsk. Tsk. Tsk. This is what I get for being so excited about reading a book. I guess I had put this whole series up on a pedestal. The first book was pretty good as was the subsequent one and then I get to this one and it was just ... meh. It fizzled for me. I'm not totally for sure what I expected but for some reason, it wasn't how it went. 

No, that's not the truth. I know what I expected. I expected The Death Cure to really just knock my socks off. I know that the first novel in the series got off to a slow start but I had hoped for more with this one. It's the ending. It should be amazing, right? Instead, you know what it reminded me of? A couple of things. First ... it reminded me of Thanksgiving dinner. I know that sounds weird, but just stay with me for a second. When you're cooking that big gluttonous meal, you spend hours. HOURS. Long hours preparing and long hours actually over the stove. Then it's ready. And then your kids Cookie Monster that shit and it's gone in 5 minutes. All that work for 5 minutes of eating. That's kind of what it was like!! Oh, and it also reminded me of the 4th of July but I won't get into my fireworks analogy. (You're welcome). But that's what this book was like. I plowed through the first two novels with the hope (and understanding because the author insinuated this would be an epic ending) that this series would end spectacularly. It wasn't, it was just okay. 

The characters were great, as they had been in previous novels but it felt almost disjointed for me. I didn't feel the same passion from the characters as I had in the past and that was a little sad because I thought that was a strong suit of this author. It was exciting in places and everything but ... just not enough, I guess. I found myself skipping paragraphs and pages because it was just ... boring a lot of the time. The action sequences were good but not good enough to make me forget about the boring parts. I wanted this awesome finish and instead of sliding into a warm bath with the satisfaction of a trilogy well completed, someone threw ice water in my face, called me a sissy and then punched me in the boob. 

In case you haven't picked this up ... it just wasn't my favorite ending. The series as a whole averaged out to ... average. It was nothing earth-shattering. Nothing that I'm dying to read again start to finish right this very moment. I might someday but not until I get over being angry at the injustice of such an ending to a series. 

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Review: The Scorch Trials (The Maze Runner #2) by James Dashner

Solving the Maze was supposed to be the end.

Thomas was sure that escape from the Maze would mean freedom for him and the Gladers. But WICKED isn’t done yet. Phase Two has just begun. The Scorch.

There are no rules. There is no help. You either make it or you die.

The Gladers have two weeks to cross through the Scorch—the most burned-out section of the world. And WICKED has made sure to adjust the variables and stack the odds against them.

Friendships will be tested. Loyalties will be broken. All bets are off.

There are others now. Their survival depends on the Gladers’ destruction—and they’re determined to survive.

I don't really know where to start with this one ... I picked it up immediately after finishing the first novel and I'm glad that they went together completely seamlessly. It was if the book had just continued and there wasn't a different title. This is great for a reader who picks up the whole series after it's complete and doesn't have to wait for each installment. If I had read this when it first came out and then had to wait for the third book, I would be nothing short of pissed. Once again, this one stopped at this massive crossroads and I had to pick up the 3rd book before I even wrote the review for this one because I just had to know what had happened. 

All in all, a good book. I wavered between 3 and 4 stars on this one. It was super exciting and so much stuff going on, so I wasn't bored but I did find myself skipping sentences and paragraphs just because the info wasn't REALLY important and I wanted to get on with the story. I guess you could say it lagged a little for me. Now, this may not be the case with a younger reader. Compared to the age that this book is targeted at, I'm old and I can imagine that younger generations might have more patience for this style of writing. 

I really don't have much else to say ... I can see why this book's rating is lower than the first ... the excitement does taper off a bit but it's still something that will keep your attention and you'll feel the need to pick up the next installment right after you finish it. The characters were great, the author really kept the same feel throughout both novels. The book magic was still the same ... nothing about the characters were changed, the feel of the novel was identical to the first. I think that is hard sometimes with authors. They get the first novel published and then who knows how long of a break there is in between the first and the second and before you know it, the characters just don't read the same between the two. I'm glad that didn't happen this time. 

I don't have any more time for dissecting this one ... I gotta get back to reading the final novel in the series ...The Death Cure!

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Review: The Maze Runner (The Maze Runner #1) by James Dashner

If you ain’t scared, you ain’t human.

When Thomas wakes up in the lift, the only thing he can remember is his name. He’s surrounded by strangers—boys whose memories are also gone.

Nice to meet ya, shank. Welcome to the Glade.

Outside the towering stone walls that surround the Glade is a limitless, ever-changing maze. It’s the only way out—and no one’s ever made it through alive.

Everything is going to change.

Then a girl arrives. The first girl ever. And the message she delivers is terrifying.

Remember. Survive. Run.

I had been interested in getting my hands on this book for quite a while and finally, I was able to. I have really enjoyed this whole young adult, dystopia thing that has been going on for the past 5 years. I haven't liked all of the entrants into this little sub-genre but I've enjoyed most. After looking at the ratings that everyone had given this one, I was super excited. 

And then I started reading. Man. It was rough for the the first 50 or so pages. I just couldn't get into it. I was so close to putting this down and just not picking it back up because it was a bit ... disconnected for me at first. But instead of going with that first instinct, I just kept at it and it payed off. It REALLY paid off. I became immersed in this world that Dashner had created and I just couldn't get enough. I didn't read it as quickly as I have some others but it was right up there with them. 

The setting is something that takes a little while to kind of get a grip on. It's completely different from our society and while it seems a little extreme at times, I think that it was warranted in order to set the story up correctly. The characters were a bit difficult to connect to at first because of their different vernacular but it was easy to fall into and get the hang of after a few chapters. I really like how Dashner has written Thomas and a few of the others. It actually reads like it's young kids talking and not an author trying to get in touch with that generation ... it felt authentic. And that seems to be something that quite a few authors have issues with. There was no talking down or making these kids seem too young or stupid, it was just perfect. 

I did immediately pick up the next book in the series and while that would normally urge me to give a book 5 stars, since I had such a hard time getting into everything, I decided to bump it down to a 4. But all in all, this is a good novel and I'm pretty excited to see it in movie form to see how it stands up. 

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Review: Paradigm (Paradigm #1) by Ceri A. Lowe

What if the end of the world was just the beginning?

Alice Davenport awakens from a fever to find her mother gone and the city she lives in ravaged by storms – with few survivors.

When Alice is finally rescued, she is taken to a huge underground bunker owned by the mysterious Paradigm Industries. As the storms worsen, the hatches close.

87 years later, amidst the ruins of London, the survivors of the Storms have reinvented society. The Model maintains a perfect balance – with inhabitants routinely frozen until they are needed by the Industry.

Fifteen-year-old Carter Warren knows his time has come. Awoken from the catacombs as a contender for the role of Controller General, it is his destiny to succeed – where his parents failed.

But Carter soon discovers that the world has changed, in ways that make him begin to question everything that he believes in. As Carter is forced to fight for those he loves and even for his life, it seems that the key to the future lies in the secrets of the past...

I've been on a bit of a dystopia kick these past couple of years. I initially fell in love with the genre a while back and I'm always on the lookout for a new author that can bring something new to the table. And that's why I initially was so excited about this book. I thought that it sounded like a really cool idea and I was super interested to read a book with both the before and after versions of a new world. But unfortunately, this one just didn't do it for me.

Right from the very beginning, it was just really slow. Super slow. Slower than I will usually tolerate, actually. Most of the time, if a book is super slow, I'll skip ahead just to get past the stagnant parts. This time, I felt like if I did that that I would get lost. Truth be told, I don't know that I would have minded missing a bit. 

Now the heart of the story was good. I enjoyed getting to know the characters but with it being so slow and so boring, I just couldn't stay engaged. I didn't want to stay engaged. I just wasn't invested in the novel. It's one that I probably won't pick back up again. Not for me. 

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