Red Queen (Red Queen Trilogy #1) by Victoria Aveyard 

Publisher: Orion

Publication date: February 10th 2015

The poverty stricken Reds are commoners, living under the rule of the Silvers, elite warriors with god-like powers.

To Mare Barrow, a 17-year-old Red girl from The Stilts, it looks like nothing will ever change.

Mare finds herself working in the Silver Palace, at the centre of
those she hates the most. She quickly discovers that, despite her red blood, she possesses a deadly power of her own. One that threatens to destroy Silver control.

But power is a dangerous game. And in this world divided by blood, who will win?

-Goodreads description 


What can I say? I loved it! Although it was completely different from what I had expected, I was happily surprised nonetheless. Unlike many of the books that I have read recently, I felt at ease with the storyline and I felt really invested in the characters and the world that was created, I mean, what more could you want? (virtual book reading,perhaps?) :) I've also decided to try a new style of reviewing, so I hope you like it!

Pros

Plot development and story building
- I especially liked the tension between the silvers and reds.

ACTION, ACTION, ACTION! If I sat here for an hour, I could still probably not even describe all the thing that happened in ‘Red Queen’

The ending - YESSSSS <3
+ the prospect it brings for the rest of the trilogy

The author’s writing style (and for a debut novel) is pretty on point 

 The romance  (even though it was a love triangle, I know)

Cons

Unrealistic development of trust between characters = Stranger Danger, people. c’mon.

Clarification of the time period - If you asked me if we were in the future or the past, bro, I couldn’t even tell you. 

The God-Forsaken Love Triangle, particularly bad in this case because it affects the characterization some of the characters

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly post hosted by Breaking the Spine that outlines the most         anticipated upcoming books!

-From Goodreads

A thrilling, seductive new series from New York Timesbestselling author Sarah J. Maas, blending Beauty and the Beast with faerie lore.

When nineteen-year-old huntress Feyre kills a wolf in the woods, a beast-like creature arrives to demand retribution for it. Dragged to a treacherous magical land she only knows about from legends, Feyre discovers that her captor is not an animal, but Tamlin—one of the lethal, immortal faeries who once ruled their world.

As she dwells on his estate, her feelings for Tamlin transform from icy hostility into a fiery passion that burns through every lie and warning she's been told about the beautiful, dangerous world of the Fae. But an ancient, wicked shadow grows over the faerie lands, and Feyre must find a way to stop it . . . or doom Tamlin—and his world—forever.

Perfect for fans of Kristin Cashore and George R. R. Martin, this first book in a sexy and action-packed new series is impossible to put down!

*-* My eyes are watering, or should I say sizzzzling, just staring at that beautiful cover and equally lust-worthy synopsis. I think this will be the real big deal, like the super-value pack kind. The only downside..you have to wait until May 5th 2015 for the release!

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly post hosted by Breaking the Spine that outlines the most anticipated to-read books! 

(Spoiler alert!)

It’s been three months since the Winterians were freed and Spring’s king, Angra, disappeared—thanks largely to the help of Cordell.

Meira just wants her people to be safe. When Cordellan debt forces the Winterians to dig their mines for payment, they unearth something powerful and possibly dangerous: Primoria’s lost chasm of magic. Theron sees this find as an opportunity—with this much magic, the world can finally stand against threats like Angra. But Meira fears the danger the chasm poses—the last time the world had access to so much magic, it spawned the Decay. So when the king of Cordell orders the two on a mission across the kingdoms of Primoria to discover the chasm’s secrets, Meira plans to use the trip to garner support to keep the chasm shut and Winter safe—even if it means clashing with Theron. But can she do so without endangering the people she loves?

Mather just wants to be free. The horrors inflicted on the Winterians hang fresh and raw in Januari—leaving Winter vulnerable to Cordell’s growing oppression. When Meira leaves to search for allies, he decides to take Winter’s security into his own hands. Can he rebuild his broken kingdom and protect them from new threats?

As the web of power and deception weaves tighter, Theron fights for magic, Mather fights for freedom—and Meira starts to wonder if she should be fighting not just for Winter, but for the world.

-Goodreads description 


Ahhh! I want it bad..so bad. I mean just look at that cover! And after the way that Snow Like Ashes ended, I don't think I can wait until October for this little gem to come out! 

This Shattered World (Starbound#2) by Amie Kaufman & Meagan Spooner

Publisher: Disney-Hyperion 

Publication date: December 23rd 2014 

The second installment in the epic Starbound trilogy introduces a new pair of star-crossed lovers on two sides of a bloody war.

Jubilee Chase and Flynn Cormac should never have met.

Lee is captain of the forces sent to Avon to crush the terraformed planet's rebellious colonists, but she has her own reasons for hating the insurgents.

Rebellion is in Flynn's blood. Terraforming corporations make their fortune by recruiting colonists to make the inhospitable planets livable, with the promise of a better life for their children. But they never fulfilled their promise on Avon, and decades later, Flynn is leading the rebellion.

Desperate for any advantage in a bloody and unrelentingly war, Flynn does the only thing that makes sense when he and Lee cross paths: he returns to base with her as prisoner. But as his fellow rebels prepare to execute this tough-talking girl with nerves of steel, Flynn makes another choice that will change him forever. He and Lee escape the rebel base together, caught between two sides of a senseless war.

-Goodreads description.

Undecided. So, so , SO undecided. This is all I have been feeling since I ended this book and have been thinking about what I was going to say in this review. I have been having these wavering thoughts about almost every single aspect of "This Shattered World" : hesitation about the characters, uncertainty about their relationship, the plot.. Hell, I was even uncertain about buying this book and even READING it in the first place. Let's just say, I've been a stress ball for ..pretty much no reason. But anyway, the point is, I just can't even process my own feelings. In some ways, I guess this is good but in others...not so.

 Well, let me first start off with the plot. Jubilee 'Lee' Chase is the 'stone-faced' captain of one of Avon's platoons, a planet that has been waiting to pass the planetary review for approximately three decades now but to no avail. The local people, or the Fianna as they are called, are growing restless by the military's involvement on Avon. Flynn, the leader of the rebellion, advocates for peaceful negotiations and sets out to talk to Jubilee at a bar which is known to be frequented by the military. However, all doesn't go according to plan and Flynn ends up kidnapping Jubilee and bringing her back to the caves. As expected, her appearance is met with mistrust and violence ends up rising above all else. Having no other choice, Flynn lets her loose so that the inevitable outcome can be avoided. Despite this, this is not the last time that they meet and what that will bring is something no one will expect. 

As you can predict, this novel is filled with a bucket load of action. While that may be, I feel like while a lot of stuff did happen- trust me, there was a shit ton of stuff- there just wasn't ...enough, or at least, not enough of the GOOD stuff. I just had this perception that everything that happened seemed really insignificant on a larger scale. To give you a kind of idea about my feelings, let me compare it to the first book, "these broken stars" which, by the way, is amaze-balls. Reading that one, I felt so immersed in the world that everything that happened made a colossal impact on what was happening around them and the characters themselves. In this book, even by the end, I still didn't feel like I was quite part of the journey; I really did feel like a bystander, watching everything happen from afar. I think this comes from the lack of descriptive writing and story-building in the novel. I know that sounds terrible, ' no story-building in a novel about a new planet, wtf' but truly, it's not at bad as it sounds. Maybe, it's personal preference, but for me to genuinely experience a book, I need to be able to connect with the surroundings or with the characters of a deeper level and I just don't think...that this really made the cut. 

Another thing that I was disappointed with was the relationship between Flynn and Jubilee. When I heard that we would be moving on from the first set of characters, I was just like..no....no...you can't. It would be an understatement to say I was in denial. 

 It just wasn't consistent enough for me to enjoy and it didn't click in the way that it should have, for me personally. Ahhh, I just don't know what's wrong with my feelings.. they are so confused and it's so frustrating to know that you wanted to love the characters and then.. you didn't. 

One thing that t think would be the perfect way to sum up the style of this novel is logical and taking a logistical approach rather than an emotional one. While there were times when I felt myself getting a little bit sentimental, I just never encountered the heart wrenching palpitations that I was preparing myself for :( 

A great read for an action-junkie with a touch of romance but lacking in all it's other areas.
                                                                           -Alana xxx 

                                                               (But really, 3.5)