Review: Pandemonium by Lauren Oliver

 Title: Pandemonium (Delirium #2)
Author: Lauren Oliver
Other title in series: Delirium
Publisher: Harper Collins
Date Published: February 28th 2012
Rating: 5/5

Synopis:
I’m pushing aside the memory of my nightmare, 
pushing aside thoughts of Alex, 
pushing aside thoughts of Hana and my old school, 
push, push, push, like Raven taught me to do. The old life is dead.But the old Lena is dead too.I buried her.I left her beyond a fence,behind a wall of smoke and flame.


*May contain spoilers*


Review: 
Pandemonium the sequel to Delirium is even better than the first one. The jaw dropping cliffhanger at the end of Delirium had me sobbing into my pillow and I was dying to know what happens once Lena escapes Portland. In a world where Love is a disease just months before her procedure that will cure her from the disease called Amor Deliria Nervosa (Love) Lena Halloway falls in love with Alex. Lena manages to escape to the wilds but Alex is shot and she has to leave him behind.


Pandemonium continues from where Delirium left off and Lena finds herself in the wilds under the care of a girl named Raven, she finds it hard to adapt to their way of life eventually but slowly manages to adapt and make new friends. The story is divided into chapters called Then and Now. Then refers to Lena's time in the wilds and Now refers to Lena's fake life where she is working undercover as part of the resistance. The resistance is working to bring down the current government and eliminate the cure. Soon enough Lena is kidnapped alongside Julian the son of The DFA( disease free america) leader. 


Lena escapes with Julian and slowly finds herself falling in love again, because by now she is convinced Alex is dead. Julian is all for the cure in the beginning but once he meets Lena his viewpoint changes and he falls in love with her too.
Lauren Oliver is the queen of cliffhangers, but even before I started the book I was waiting for the ending and I was kind of expecting it and what a ending it is I was screaming for joy and jumping around.


While I love the characters of Tack and Raven I couldn't really connect with Julian's character as Alex is just the one for me.
Lauren Oliver writes in beautiful prose and the world she has created is amazing, I honestly cannot wait for Requiem.


Click here to buy Pandemonium

Review: Fever by Lauren DeStefano

Title: Fever (Chemical Garden #2)
Author: Lauren DeStefano
Other books in series: Wither (Chemical Garden #1)
Publisher: Simon & Schuster children's
Date Published: February 21st 2012
Rating: 5/5

Good Reads Synopsis:
Rhine and Gabriel have escaped the mansion, but danger is never far behind. 

Running away brings Rhine and Gabriel right into a trap, in the form of a twisted carnival whose ringmistress keeps watch over a menagerie of girls. Just as Rhine uncovers what plans await her, her fortune turns again. With Gabriel at her side, Rhine travels through an environment as grim as the one she left a year ago - surroundings that mirror her own feelings of fear and hopelessness. 

The two are determined to get to Manhattan, to relative safety with Rhine’s twin brother, Rowan. But the road there is long and perilous - and in a world where young women only live to age twenty and young men die at twenty-five, time is precious. Worse still, they can’t seem to elude Rhine’s father-in-law, Vaughn, who is determined to bring Rhine back to the mansion...by any means necessary. 


Review:
I was highly anticipating the sequel to Wither, I really enjoyed reading the first book and was looking forward to how Rhine and Gabriel's lives change as they leave the mansion. I enjoyed reading this book even more than Wither it was that good.  In Lauren DeStefano's dystopian due to a genetic cause men die at the age of 25 and woman die at the age of 20.


Fever starts where Wither left off, Rhine and Gabriel finally escape the mansion away from the cruel Master Vaughn (Linden's father).  Immediately they are trapped in a carnival where the ring mistress uses Rhine and Gabriel in a show, just when Rhine thought she had left a horrible environment she is in yet another bleak and terrifying place. Rhine and Gabriel manage to escape and go an a search for Rhine's twin brother Rowan. Rhine begins to fall sick and thinks the disease is catching up with her or worse has Master Vaughn done something to her similar to what he did to her sister wife Jenna?


As Rhine continues on her search for her brother she finds terrifying truths, discover's her relationship with Gabriel more and tries to escape more terrors coming her way. 
I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book because there was so much happening all the time. The ending was great and I am scared for what will happen in Book three, but I love Rhine's character she is strong, determined and brave while Gabriel is a sweetheart and supports her throughout.


Lauren DeStefano creates an amazing dystopian world, and writes beautifully.


I cannot wait for book three and would recommend this book to everyone.


Click here to buy Fever

In My Mailbox

In my Mailbox is a weekly meme hosted by The story siren where you post about the books you got this week.

1. The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer by Michelle Hodkin
2. Nightshade by Andrea Cremer
3. Aricle 5 by Kristen Simmons
4. The Way we Fall by Megan Crewe
5. Legend by Marie Lu
6. Under The Never Sky by Veronica Rossi
7. Everneath by Brodi Ashton
8. Fracture by Megan Miranda
9. Unwind by Neal Shusterman
                                     

Which books are you reading this week?

Review: Half Blood by J.L Armentrout

Title: Half Blood (Covenant #1)
Author: J.L Armentrout
Publisher: Spencer Hill Press
Date Published: October 18th 2011
Rating: 4/5

Synopis: 
The Hematoi descend from the unions of gods and mortals, and the children of two Hematoi-pure-bloods-have godlike powers. Children of Hematoi and mortals-well, not so much. Half-bloods only have two options: become trained Sentinels who hunt and kill daimons or become servants in the homes of the pures. Seventeen-year-old Alexandria would rather risk her life fighting than waste it scrubbing toilets, but she may end up slumming it anyway. There are several rules that students at the Covenant must follow. Alex has problems with them all, but especially rule #1:Relationships between pures and halfs are forbidden. Unfortunately, she's crushing hard on the totally hot pure-blood Aiden. But falling for Aiden isn't her biggest problem--staying alive long enough to graduate the Covenant and become a Sentinel is. If she fails in her duty, she faces a future worse than death or slavery: being turned into a daimon, and being hunted by Aiden. And that would kind of suck.


Review
This book is a very interesting take on Greek mythology and I thoroughly enjoyed reading it. It focuses on Alex the main female protagonist of this book as she trains to become a Sentinel ( The Half Blood trained to kill Daimons). Daimons are creatures that feed on innocent Pure blood's and half blood's.
After running away from the Covenant with her mother 17-year-old Alexandria finds herself back there after her mother's death. A very hot Pure Blood called Aiden (Whose similarity to Dimitri in Vampire Academy I couldn't shake off) trains Alex to become a Sentinel and surprise!! she starts falling for him, even though romances between half blood's and pure blood's is strictly forbidden.


Alex faces a lot of tough and unexpected turn of events in this book, as someone is looking for her to turn her into a Daimon.
J.L Armentrout is a fantastic writer and really brings her characters to life, so the reader can connect with them. She is one of those rare writers that can think up mind blowing characters (Aiden!!) *swoon*. I would like to see lot's of Aiden in the sequel (sorry I'm fangirling).
I would recommend this book to everyone, I cannot wait to read Pure.


Click here to buy Half Blood

Review- A Million Suns by Beth Revis

Title: A Million Suns (Across the Universe #2)
Author: Beth Revis
Other title in series: Across the Universe
Publisher: Razorbill
Date Published: January 10th 2012
Rating: 5/5
Synopsis:
Godspeed was once fueled by lies. Now it is ruled by chaos. It’s been three months. In that time, Amy has learned to hide who she is. Elder is trying to be the leader he’s always wanted to be. But as the ship gets more and more out of control, only one thing is certain: They have to get off the ship.


Review
I loved Reading Across the Universe, so was really excited for the sequel. I thought A million suns wouldnt be as good as the first one but it exceeded my expectations I enjoyed reading it far better than the first one.
Three months after Amy was woken from cryogenic storage. The inhabitants of the Godspeed are struggling to deal with life without the effects of Phydus, and at the same time with Elder as their new leader . But not everyone is happy with the new freedoms, someone aboard the ship is killing in Elder's name leaving a ominous message behind on each of its victims: Follow The leader.
As Elder struggles to keep the ship in one piece, Amy is left a series of clues by Orion (The previous Eldest who tried to kill her in book 1) which leads to a startling revelation. 


Beth Revis weaves a tale rich in suspense, mystery, murder, lies and romance. The plot was very unpredictable and kept me guessing throughout, I was so not prepared for the ending. I love both the main protagonists and cannot wait for the third book in the series. I would recommend this book to fans of science fiction and dystopian.






                                 

Incarnate Theater Treasure Hunt- Interview with Jodi Meadows

Welcome to the INCARNATE Theater Treasure Hunt!

This week, 48 bloggers are celebrating the release of INCARNATE by Jodi Meadows by participating in a treasure hunt with clues, activities, and lots of prizes including signed books and handknit fingerless mitts. You've reached a CLUE blog, which means somewhere on this page is a clue to finding the hidden page and grand prize entry form on Jodi's website. Follow 26 clues to get there!

For more information on the INCARNATE Theater Treasure Hunt, check out Jodi's post. http://www.jodimeadows.com/?p=568

There are awesome prizes up for grabs:
Grand prize: Signed, annotated hardcover; fingerless mitts; a Jodi-made mask; character named after them in book 3 (could end up dead); swag

Two runners up: Signed hardcover; fingerless mitts; swag

There are more prizes being added to the list!

Here is my Interview with the lovely Jodi Meadows....

1. How did you come up with the idea for Incarnate?

My original idea for INCARNATE came three years before I started writing the story. I wrote a note with the basic premise and then stuffed it in my "new ideas" folder, coming back to it only occasionally to see if it was ready to be written. The premise was a challenge, something I wasn't sure I'd ever be ready to write because it looked hard, and it was hard when I started writing it! But the best stories usually are.

However, because it's been years since I originally wrote down the idea, I now have no idea what was going on when the inspiration struck!

2. How would you describe your publishing journey?

Difficult! I went through zillions of rejections that sounded like this: "You write very well and I enjoyed this, but I'm not going to offer representation." They were always super nice and complimentary (once I actually did start writing well, that is -- I started out writing lots of bad to mediocre things, just like everyone else), but the nice rejections started to hurt more than encourage. Being so close but not quite there is painful! I wrote, revised, and submitted stories for years before the right people said yes, and in spite of the difficulty, I wouldn't change a thing about my publishing journey. It's made me stronger and helped me become a better writer.

3. Why did you decide to write for the Young adult genre?

This actually took an embarrassing amount of convincing. I started writing with publication dreams when I was twenty. I'd decided that at twenty, I was a Grown Up and should write Grown Up books. For years, I rebelled against my natural voice and stories, in spite of friends and critique partners telling me I belonged with YA. (Clearly I wasn't that much of a grown up; my rebellion phase came late.) 

But then I started reading YA and I realized that I loved it. I began devouring books at an alarming rate, reading more than I had since I was a teenager. Once I realized everyone else had been right all along (sooo embarrassing), I embraced the YAness of my stories and found myself in a much happier place. It still took years before I wrote INCARNATE and all the right people said yes, but accepting my natural style was a huge step.

4. Finally any words of advice to aspiring writers out there? 

Read. Write. Keep getting better. Your first (or second or third or tenth) manuscript may never see the fluorescent lights of a bookstore, but that's okay. Persistence and constant improvement is also important.

My clue for the password is..... First word: t
(There are no spaces in the password)


Make sure to visit all of the other blogs participating in the treasure hunt.Don't forget to pick up your copy of Incarnate out on January 31!


Links to other clue bloggers

Rachel's Book Reviews
The Reading Geek
Fire star Books