Cress (The Lunar Chronicles #3)

Goodreads Summary

In this third book in the Lunar Chronicles, Cinder and Captain Thorne are fugitives on the run, now with Scarlet and Wolf in tow. Together, they’re plotting to overthrow Queen Levana and her army.

Their best hope lies with Cress, a girl imprisoned on a satellite since childhood who's only ever had her netscreens as company. All that screen time has made Cress an excellent hacker. Unfortunately, she’s just received orders from Levana to track down Cinder and her handsome accomplice.

When a daring rescue of Cress goes awry, the group is separated. Cress finally has her freedom, but it comes at a high price. Meanwhile, Queen Levana will let nothing prevent her marriage to Emperor Kai. Cress, Scarlet, and Cinder may not have signed up to save the world, but they may be the only hope the world has.

My Thoughts
I loved loved loved this book! I think I might have enjoyed it even more if I had read it, but sadly I decided to use the audiobook instead. The audiobook drove me crazy. The woman read a lot slower than I would have and I was unsure if speeding it up was possible. I did enjoy all the voices she made for the different characters though.  

Speaking of characters, I adored Cress. Her age was hard to pin down (what with her being stuck in a satellite for so long), but I assume she was around 17. The audiobook made her sound 12, but I don't think she was that young. She did have a childlike innocence though which was endearing. Her innocence never bothered me, it made sense. Her seclusion in space made her psychologically younger in a way. 

Captain Thorne has more of a role in this book and I enjoyed that. He interacts with Cress a lot in this one and you get to see a different side to him than you did in Scarlett. He's sweet and oddly modest...at times. He'll never be completely modest; he's too much of a narcissist for that. He brought out some strength in Cress that she didn't know she had. She changed him for the better too. 

I was glad that one character wasn't in this book as much as the last though. I won't mention who, because that gives away a big plot change, but I don't think many readers missed them. I think they will have a big part in Winter though. 


I am really enjoying this series and I cannot wait for Winter next year!

Scarlet (The Lunar Chronicles #2)

 Goodreads Summary 
Cinder, the cyborg mechanic, returns in the second thrilling installment of the bestselling Lunar Chronicles. She's trying to break out of prison--even though if she succeeds, she'll be the Commonwealth's most wanted fugitive. Halfway around the world, Scarlet Benoit's grandmother is missing. It turns out there are many things Scarlet doesn't know about her grandmother or the grave danger she has lived in her whole life. When Scarlet encounters Wolf, a street fighter who may have information as to her grandmother's whereabouts, she is loath to trust this stranger, but is inexplicably drawn to him, and he to her. As Scarlet and Wolf unravel one mystery, they encounter another when they meet Cinder. Now, all of them must stay one step ahead of the vicious Lunar Queen Levana, who will do anything for the handsome Prince Kai to become her husband, her king, her prisoner.

My Thoughts
I found myself really interested in the Cinder half of the story. After falling in love with this character in the first book I was excited to see what happens next. Scarlet however wasn't as interesting to me. I feel bad because I genuinely liked her, but her storyline wasn't as interesting. I was hoping to be as connected with her as I was to Cinder (it is her show this time around), but I just didn't. I liked her "relationship" with Wolf and thankfully that helped her story pick up speed.  

Secrets were revealed...even if I already guessed them in Cinder.  New problems arose and a pack of new characters emerged. I can't wait to start Cress.

  1/2

Cinder (The Lunar Chronicles #1)

Goodreads Summary 
Humans and androids crowd the raucous streets of New Beijing. A deadly plague ravages the population. From space, a ruthless lunar people watch, waiting to make their move. No one knows that Earth’s fate hinges on one girl.

Cinder, a gifted mechanic, is a cyborg. She’s a second-class citizen with a mysterious past, reviled by her stepmother and blamed for her stepsister’s illness. But when her life becomes intertwined with the handsome Prince Kai’s, she suddenly finds herself at the center of an intergalactic struggle, and a forbidden attraction. Caught between duty and freedom, loyalty and betrayal, she must uncover secrets about her past in order to protect her world’s future.

My Thoughts
I don't think there is any other book series out there right now with as much hype as The Lunar Chronicles series and I FINALLY understand why. 

This charming play on Cinderella is better than the original. Cinder is a cyborg living with a family that cannot stand her. She is forced to work as a mechanic for them because she was adopted when she was 11 years old. Money for her work goes straight to her step-mother. For the past 5 years she has felt unloved for being forced on the family and for being a cyborg. Despite that she is one of the strongest female characters in the young adult section. 

I was hesitant at first because technology isn't exactly my expertise and I don't know much about Chinese culture, but I shouldn't have worried. The book takes places years in the future, so the Chinese culture is vastly different and the cyborg aspect is explained pretty well. 

I can't wait to see which characters appear in Scarlet. I hope Prince Kai will be there and I really hope Iko can make an appearance. Cinder could really use them both. 

Breakable (Contours of the Heart #2)

Goodreads Summary 
He was lost and alone. Then he found her.
And the future seemed more fragile than ever.

As a child, Landon Lucas Maxfield  believed his life was perfect and looked forward to a future filled with promise — until tragedy tore his family apart and made him doubt everything he ever believed.

All he wanted was to leave the past behind. When he met Jacqueline Wallace , his desire to be everything she needed came so easy…

As easy as it could be for a man who learned that the soul is breakable and that everything you hoped for could be ripped away in a heartbeat.

My Thoughts
I cannot tell you how much I loved this book. You get to see the dichotomy between Landon and Lucas. Lucas being this man who has his shit together and Landon being this grief-stricken child just figuring the world out. The book flips between Landon after (I don't want to give anything away in case you haven't read Easy) ...the incident. He's grieving and struggling in a new town and a new school. We see how he was in high school with peers and girls. Then we flip to Lucas' point of view on Easy. We witness what he was going through from the moment he first noticed Jacqueline. 

I wasn't a huge fan of the Landon chapters. I think that I was just so interested in reading about what was going on with Jacqueline that I didn't care to know about his high school crush or his domineering best friend. You learn a lot about him in those chapters though and that I appreciated. 

This book won't be appreciated if you don't read Easy first. Easy lets you meet these amazing characters. You meet Jacqueline when she's vulnerable. Lucas when he is a knight on a dark night. Then there's Jacqueline's roommate Erin who's a fireball. She reminds me of Alice from Twilight...minus the ability to see the future. Professor Heller. I don't think you can understand how important Professor Heller is to Lucas unless you read Easy first. These characters were so real to me that I felt like they are my friends. 

I want you all to give Easy a chance and then pick up a copy of Breakable. These books helped me. They made me realize that it's not my fault. Thank you Lucas for that. Thank you Tammara Webber for that.

 

Half Bad (Half Life Trilogy #1)

Goodreads Summary
Half Bad by Sally Green is a breathtaking debut novel about one boy's struggle for survival in a hidden society of witches.

You can't read, can't write, but you heal fast, even for a witch.

You get sick if you stay indoors after dark.

You hate White Witches but love Annalise, who is one.

You've been kept in a cage since you were fourteen.

All you've got to do is escape and find Mercury, the Black Witch who eats boys. And do that before your seventeenth birthday.

Easy.

My Thoughts
Second person. What? Why? I bailed after 15 pages! *walks away frustrated*

Welcome, Caller, This is Chloe

Goodreads Summary
Big-hearted Chloe Camden is the queen of her universe until her best friend shreds her reputation and her school counselor axes her junior independent study project. Chloe is forced to take on a meaningful project in order to pass, and so she joins her school’s struggling radio station, where the other students don’t find her too queenly. Ostracized by her former BFs and struggling with her beloved Grams’s mental deterioration, lonely Chloe ends up hosting a call-in show that gets the station much-needed publicity and, in the end, trouble. She also befriends radio techie and loner Duncan Moore, a quiet soul with a romantic heart. On and off the air, Chloe faces her loneliness and helps others find the fun and joy in everyday life. Readers will fall in love with Chloe as she falls in love with the radio station and the misfits who call it home.

My Thoughts
This was a typical contemporary. It was cute, but nothing to write home about.  After being dropped by her two best friends, Chloe has to survive high school on her own. She also has to deal with a new school counselor who wants her to work at the school's failing radio station for her junior project. 

Chloe was a little self-centered, and although she learned that about herself, she (in my opinion) didn't really change too much. Duncan was adorable. He has a tough home life, but he does everything he can to survive. I love a fighter. The rest of the radio kids were interesting too. I wish we got to know some of them a little more. 

This book was ok. Check it out if you want a cute, quick read. 

1/2

Proxy (Proxy #1)

Goodreads Summary
Knox was born into one of the City’s wealthiest families. A Patron, he has everything a boy could possibly want—the latest tech, the coolest clothes, and a Proxy to take all his punishments. When Knox breaks a vase, Syd is beaten. When Knox plays a practical joke, Syd is forced to haul rocks. And when Knox crashes a car, killing one of his friends, Syd is branded and sentenced to death.

Syd is a Proxy. His life is not his own.

Then again, neither is Knox’s. Knox and Syd have more in common than either would guess. So when Knox and Syd realize that the only way to beat the system is to save each other, they flee. Yet Knox’s father is no ordinary Patron, and Syd is no ordinary Proxy. The ensuing cross-country chase will uncover a secret society of rebels, test both boys’ resolve, and shine a blinding light onto a world of those who owe and those who pay. Some debts, it turns out, cannot be repaid.

My Thoughts
If you liked Marie Lu's Legend series then I think you will enjoy this. This world was so interesting. It centers around a society where one's negative behaviours directly effect someone else. If Knox misbehaves, Syd will be beaten. Knox is forced to watch, but does he learn anything from it? He doesn't. The wealthy citizens are so used to the way society has run that they don't even consider how it is run. Knox has no idea how Syd was put into debt in the first place. He doesn't question it. He assumes that Syd did something to deserve his debt, but really he was born into it. The two boys, as well as a unlikely girl, have to save each other to same themselves. 

This book makes you think about society today and if we need to make some changes.