Book Review: The Heir by Kiera Cass

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book, book review, chick-lit, dystopian, fiction, Kiera Cass, review, romance, The Heir, The Selection

The Heir

The Selection #4

by Kiera Cass

genre: chick-lit

Summary from Goodreads

Princess Eadlyn has grown up hearing endless stories about how her mother and father met. Twenty years ago, America Singer entered the Selection and won the heart of Prince Maxon—and they lived happily ever after. Eadlyn has always found their fairy-tale story romantic, but she has no interest in trying to repeat it. If it were up to her, she’d put off marriage for as long as possible.

But a princess’s life is never entirely her own, and Eadlyn can’t escape her very own Selection—no matter how fervently she protests.

Eadlyn doesn’t expect her story to end in romance. But as the competition begins, one entry may just capture Eadlyn’s heart, showing her all the possibilities that lie in front of her . . . and proving that finding her own happily ever after isn’t as impossible as she’s always thought.

Book Review: Wither by Lauren DeStefano

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book, book review, books, dystopian, fiction, Lauren DeStefano, pregnancy, review, reviews, Wither, YA, young adult

Wither
(The Chemical Garden #1)

by Lauren DeStefano

genre: dystopian, YA

Synopsis from Goodreads

By age sixteen, Rhine Ellery has four years left to live. She can thank modern science for this genetic time bomb. A botched effort to create a perfect race has left all males with a lifespan of 25 years, and females with a lifespan of 20 years. Geneticists are seeking a miracle antidote to restore the human race, desperate orphans crowd the population, crime and poverty have skyrocketed, and young girls are being kidnapped and sold as polygamous brides to bear more children.

When Rhine is kidnapped and sold as a bride, she vows to do all she can to escape. Her husband, Linden, is hopelessly in love with her, and Rhine can’t bring herself to hate him as much as she’d like to. He opens her to a magical world of wealth and illusion she never thought existed, and it almost makes it possible to ignore the clock ticking away her short life. But Rhine quickly learns that not everything in her new husband’s strange world is what it seems. Her father-in-law, an eccentric doctor bent on finding the antidote, is hoarding corpses in the basement. Her fellow sister wives are to be trusted one day and feared the next, and Rhine is desperate to communicate to her twin brother that she is safe and alive. Will Rhine be able to escape–before her time runs out?

Together with one of Linden’s servants-Gabriel-Rhine attempts to escape just before her seventeenth birthday. But in a world that continues to spiral into anarchy, is there any hope for freedom?

Book Review: The Maze Runner by James Dashner

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book, book review, book reviews, books, dystopian, James Dashner, review, reviews, science fiction, The Maze Runner, YA, young adult

The Maze Runner
Book 1

by James Dashner

genre: science fiction, dystopian, young adult

Completely by coincidence, Ermisenda and I have both been reading The Maze Runner. We didn’t realize it until she beat me to posting her review by three days. Though I could wait to post mine, she and I came away with very different opinions, so I hope you enjoy reading my take on the book as well. I’m going to see the movie this evening, so I will be posting that review on Friday.

Ermi, don’t you dare post yours on Wednesday. 😉

Synopsis from Goodreads

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.

Book Review: Hush, Hush by Becca Fitzpatrick

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Becca Fitzpatrick, dystopian, fallen angels, Hush Hush, paranormal, romance, trilogy, YA, young adult

Hush, Hush
Hush, Hush #1

by Becca Fitzpatrick

genre: YA, romance, dystopian, paranormal

Synopsis from Goodreads

Romance was not part of Nora Grey’s plan. She’s never been particularly attracted to the boys at her school, no matter how hard her best friend, Vee, pushes them at her. Not until Patch comes along. With his easy smile and eyes that seem to see inside her, Patch draws Nora to him against her better judgment.

But after a series of terrifying encounters, Nora’s not sure whom to trust. Patch seems to be everywhere she is and seems to know more about her than her closest friends. She can’t decide whether she should fall into his arms or run and hide. And when she tries to seek some answers, she finds herself near a truth that is way more unsettling than anything Patch makes her feel.

For she is right in the middle of an ancient battle between the immortal and those that have fallen – and, when it comes to choosing sides, the wrong choice will cost Nora her life.

Book Review: Delirium by Lauren Oliver

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book, book review, books, Delirium, dystopian, Lauren Oliver, review, reviews, YA, young adult

Delirium
(Delirium #1)

by Lauren Oliver

genre: dystopian, YA

Delirium had everything that should have made it a five star book: amazing writing style, interesting plot. So why did I give it 2 stars? I finished 4 or 5 books since starting Delirium and at the romantic high point, I didn’t cry (the end of the world is near).

Synopsis from Goodreads

Ninety-five days, and then I’ll be safe.
I wonder whether the procedure will hurt.
I want to get it over with.
It’s hard to be patient.
It’s hard not to be afraid while I’m still uncured, though so far the deliria hasn’t touched me yet.
Still, I worry.
They say that in the old days, love drove people to madness.
The deadliest of all deadly things: It kills you both when you have it and when you don’t.

 

Book Review: Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury

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book, book burning, book review, books, classics, dystopian, Fahrenheit 451, Ray Bradbury, review, reviews

Fahrenheit 451

by Ray Bradbury

genre: classics, dystopian

Synopsis from Goodreads

The terrifyingly prophetic novel of a post-literate future.

Guy Montag is a fireman. His job is to burn books, which are forbidden, being the source of all discord and unhappiness. Even so, Montag is unhappy; there is discord in his marriage. Are books hidden in his house? The Mechanical Hound of the Fire Department, armed with a lethal hypodermic, escorted by helicopters, is ready to track down those dissidents who defy society to preserve and read books.

The classic dystopian novel of a post-literate future, Fahrenheit 451 stands alongside Orwell’s 1984 and Huxley’s Brave New World as a prophetic account of Western civilization’s enslavement by the media, drugs and conformity.

Bradbury’s powerful and poetic prose combines with uncanny insight into the potential of technology to create a novel which, decades on from first publication, still has the power to dazzle and shock.

Book Review: Divergent by Veronica Roth

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book, book review, books, bravery, divergent, dystopian, review, reviews, veronica roth, YA, young adult

Divergent

by Veronica Roth

genre: dystopian, YA

Synopsis from Goodreads

In Beatrice Prior’s dystopian Chicago world, society is divided into five factions, each dedicated to the cultivation of a particular virtue–Candor (the honest), Abnegation (the selfless), Dauntless (the brave), Amity (the peaceful), and Erudite (the intelligent). On an appointed day of every year, all sixteen-year-olds must select the faction to which they will devote the rest of their lives. For Beatrice, the decision is between staying with her family and being who she really is–she can’t have both. So she makes a choice that surprises everyone, including herself.

During the highly competitive initiation that follows, Beatrice renames herself Tris and struggles alongside her fellow initiates to live out the choice they have made. Together they must undergo extreme physical tests of endurance and intense psychological simulations, some with devastating consequences. As initiation transforms them all, Tris must determine who her friends really are–and where, exactly, a romance with a sometimes fascinating, sometimes exasperating boy fits into the life she’s chosen. But Tris also has a secret, one she’s kept hidden from everyone because she’s been warned it can mean death. And as she discovers unrest and growing conflict that threaten to unravel her seemingly perfect society, Tris also learns that her secret might help her save the ones she loves . . . or it might destroy her.

Book Review: The One by Kiera Cass

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book, book review, books, dystopian, fiction, Kiera Cass, review, reviews, romance, The One, The Selection, YA, young adult

The One
The Selection #3

by Kiera Cass

genre: YA, romance, dystopian

I don’t blame @Disney for my unrealistic expectations of men. I blame Kiera Cass #amreading #theone

— Eliabeth Hawthorne (@EliaHawthorne) June 8, 2014

Synopsis from Goodreads

The Selection changed America Singer’s life in ways she never could have imagined. Since she entered the competition to become the next princess of Illéa, America has struggled with her feelings for her first love, Aspen—and her growing attraction to Prince Maxon. Now she’s made her choice . . . and she’s prepared to fight for the future she wants.

Find out who America will choose in The One, the enchanting, beautifully romantic third book in the Selection series!

Book Review: The Selection by Kiera Cass

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book, books, dystopian, fiction, Kiera Cass, review, reviews, The Selection, YA

The Selection

The Selection #1

by Kiera Cass

genre: dystopian, YA

‘I want that dress. I have to read that book.’ That was the extent of my selection process though it’s been sitting in my TBR pile for a while. I’m so glad it had a pretty cover! In all fairness though, I did eventually decide to read it because I needed something lighthearted to pick me up after wallowing in the depression that is The Jungle by Upton Sinclair. Don’t get me wrong, great book but soooo depressing. But I digress. The Selection is amazing and I recommend it to just about anyone who likes YA, romance, and oddly enough, The Hunger Games.

Synopsis from Goodreads

For thirty-five girls, the Selection is the chance of a lifetime. The opportunity to escape the life laid out for them since birth. To be swept up in a world of glittering gowns and priceless jewels. To live in a palace and compete for the heart of gorgeous Prince Maxon.

But for America Singer, being Selected is a nightmare. It means turning her back on her secret love with Aspen, who is a caste below her. Leaving her home to enter a fierce competition for a crown she doesn’t want. Living in a palace that is constantly threatened by violent rebel attacks.

Then America meets Prince Maxon. Gradually, she starts to question all the plans she’s made for herself and realizes that the life she’s always dreamed of may not compare to a future she never imagined.

Book Review: Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins

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book, book review, books, Catching Fire, dystopian, fiction, review, reviews, sci-fi, science fiction, suzanne collins, The Hunger Games, YA, young adult

Catching Fire (Hunger Games #2)

by Suzanne Collins

genre: dystopian, YA, science fiction

Don’t start Catching Fire unless you’re ready to read Mockingjay. I’m sure I looked like a raving lunatic with tears streaming down my cheeks for nearly the whole time I was driving with my audio book this past weekend. You have to get through some rather annoying Peeta-Gale love triangle drama that detracts from the seriousness of the storyline, but after that, everything builds to an incredible peek.

Summary from Goodreads

Against all odds, Katniss has won the Hunger Games. She and fellow District 12 tribute Peeta Mellark are miraculously still alive. Katniss should be relieved, happy even. After all, she has returned to her family and her longtime friend, Gale. Yet nothing is the way Katniss wishes it to be. Gale holds her at an icy distance. Peeta has turned his back on her completely. And there are whispers of a rebellion against the Capitol – a rebellion that Katniss and Peeta may have helped create.

Much to her shock, Katniss has fueled an unrest she’s afraid she cannot stop. And what scares her even more is that she’s not entirely convinced she should try. As time draws near for Katniss and Peeta to visit the districts on the Capitol’s cruel Victory Tour, the stakes are higher than ever. If they can’t prove, without a shadow of a doubt, that they are lost in their love for each other, the consequences will be horrifying.

In Catching Fire, the second novel in the Hunger Games trilogy, Suzanne Collins continues the story of Katniss Everdeen, testing her more than ever before…and surprising readers at every turn.