November Snow - Review

November Snow (Bad Bloods, # 2)

By: Shannon A Thompson

Published: September 19th 2016 by Clean Teen Publishing

275 pages

Genre: Young Adult, Fantasy, SciFi, Dystopian

Source: Author for review (Thank you!!)

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Goodreads description--When Daniel and Serena unite, their accidental relationship becomes the catalyst for a twelve-year war to continue. Exposing the twisted past of a corrupt city, Daniel, Serena, and everyone they know will come together to fight. But Serena has another battle.

After a political rumor threatens their lives, Serena must leave her family and join the political front against her will. To survive apart, Daniel has to separate his love from his hatred and join forces with his worst memory to secure Vendona’s war. But very few of them will survive to see the last day. Bad blood or human, a city will burn, snow will fall, and all will be united by catastrophic secrets and irrevocable tragedy.

I had a hard time deciding what to say about November Rain and I think that's going to be the same thing for November Snow as well. Let's recap though. In November Rain we find out that bad bloods are people with supernatural abilities. As far as the characters we meet no one has the same ability. And in Vendona, bad bloods are hunted and killed because people are scared of them. Serena escapes from a blood camp and runs into Daniel who helps her by providing a temporary place for her to recover. But Daniel and Serena* come from different flocks (groups of bad blood kids that have found each other and created their own families helping each other to survive). Daniel is the leader of the Northern flock and Serena is essentially second of the Southern flock. And we don't know why, but Daniel and Robert (the leader of the Southern flock) hate each other. There's history there, but we don't know what. Daniel and Serena begin to develop feelings for each other, and of course that doesn't sit well with Robert. On top of that, there's an election coming up that will determine whether bad bloods will continue to be hunted down or if society will begin to accept them.

It's hard for me to remember the exact point when November Rain ended and November Snow began because once I finished November Rain I started reading November Snow immediately. The break in the stories felt off to me because they didn't feel like complete, separate books. Usually even if a book ends in a cliffhanger, the book itself still feels like a complete work. But that wasn't really the case for these two, and I discuss that in my review of November Rain because that was more of an issue with that book since this one did essentially complete the story.

I also mentioned in my review of November Rain that while I blew through it quickly, I got stalled in reading November Snow at about the 60% mark and put it down for about a month and a half before picking it up to finally finish it. Funnily enough, I finished the last 35ish% in a single night...even staying up late to finish it. The reason I stalled was because I'd essentially read a book and a half and felt like there was still so much going on that I didn't know about. But answers finally started rolling in. Even though I still felt like there was an unpolished feel to all of the events. I can't really discuss the details of what I mean without spoilers though. I can say that I think from a writing standpoint there was a little too much "telling" and not enough "showing." What I mean is that the description was just too much at times. I mean there was an entire paragraph at one point describing where each character was sitting at a table (and there were 24ish characters to describe). It was just too much at times.

The political aspects of Bad Bloods revolved around whether or not the bad bloods would be accepted within society based upon which leader was elected president of Vendona. Considering we in America just had our own very controversial presidential election, some of this resonated. But also considering the way that our nation seems to evenly split down the middle right now and one half of which is protesting...the pretty bow that was put upon Vendona's election felt unrealistic. Of course, the protesting that we're having here is unprecedented and not the norm.

Favorite quotes:

-"Don't count your faults more than your strengths"...

-"Love doesn't always require you to know someone for long, especially during difficult times"...

Ultimately, November Snow had some flaws. There was a bit too much description for my tastes. The number of side characters, their unique skills, and backstories was overwhelming. I couldn't keep them all straight no matter how hard I tried. The events and plot didn't always seem to make complete sense to me like why Selena went to the highlands and what she was trying to accomplish. But I read the first 30% fairly quickly, the next 30% was a bit slow. I ultimately stalled and November Snow down for a month and a half. But I read the last 30% in a night. I didn't hate it, but I felt like November Snow and the Bad Bloods series could use a bit more polishing. November Snow gets 3 Stars from me. Have you read November Snow? What did you think? Let me know!

*Also, I just finished watching Gossip Girl on Netflix where two of the main characters' names are Daniel and Serena.

All Our Yesterdays - Review

All Our Yesterdays (All Our Yesterdays, # 1)

By: Cristin Terrill

Publication: September 3rd 2013 by Disney Hyperion (first published August 1st 2013)

360 pages

Genre: YA, Science Fiction, Dystopian, Time Travel

Source: Free Audiobook Sync Download

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Goodreads description--What would you change?

Imprisoned in the heart of a secret military base, Em has nothing except the voice of the boy in the cell next door and the list of instructions she finds taped inside the drain.

Only Em can complete the final instruction. She’s tried everything to prevent the creation of a time machine that will tear the world apart. She holds the proof: a list she has never seen before, written in her own hand. Each failed attempt in the past has led her to the same terrible present—imprisoned and tortured by a sadistic man called the doctor while war rages outside.

Marina has loved her best friend, James, since they were children. A gorgeous, introverted science prodigy from one of America’s most famous families, James finally seems to be seeing Marina in a new way, too. But on one disastrous night, James’s life crumbles, and with it, Marina’s hopes for their future. Marina will protect James, no matter what. Even if it means opening her eyes to a truth so terrible that she may not survive it... at least, not as the girl she once was. Em and Marina are in a race against time that only one of them can win.

All Our Yesterdays is a wrenching, brilliantly plotted story of fierce love, unthinkable sacrifice, and the infinite implications of our every choice.

I feel like I need to start this review off by saying that I’m not sure All Our Yesterdays makes for the best audiobook. All Our Yesterdays jumps back and forth in chronology between the past and present and between two versions of the same character. It took me entirely too long to grasp the difference between “Em” and “Marina.” Em is the current version of Marina. When she goes back in time, her prior self goes by Marina. See it’s confusing just trying to explain that. Without really seeing the breaks and changes in narration that I’m sure are front and center visibly in the print copy, it was more difficult for me to keep up with when the narration swapped between current Em and prior Marina.

On top of the dual narration problems, All Our Yesterdays is a complex book. I highly enjoyed the concept, especially when most time-travelling books just don’t do it for me. I don’t usually buy what they're selling. And so the fact that I enjoyed All Our Yesterdays at all is a feat in and of itself. But audiobooks are something that I prefer not to be too complex. I’m usually multitasking when listening to an audiobook. I’m cleaning. Or working. And well if I have to use my brain to think when I’m working on whatever other task I’m doing while listening to the audiobook, chances are high that I’m going to miss something important. And I think that’s what happened with All Our Yesterdays. It wasn’t that I could pick one place that I missed one specific thing, but it was the little details here and there that all add up to really important stuff. If you’re going to listen to All Our Yesterdays on audio then I suggest paying close attention and only multitasking with mindless other things. If you’re reading this one, then I don’t think you have to worry.

All Our Yesterdays hooked me pretty quickly. I was asking myself questions right off the bat, not “I’m confused” questions, but “I’m intrigued/What’s going to happen” questions. I connected with Em and Finn—both current Finn and prior Finn--pretty quickly. But Marina was harder for me to connect with, as was James.

The events of All Our Yesterdays kind of need to be experienced versus me telling you about them. I did enjoy this book, but I would just recommend reading it over listening to the audiobook. All Our Yesterdays gets 4 stars from me. Have you read All Our Yesterdays? What did you think? Let me know!

The Scorch Trials - DNF Review

The Scorch Trials (The Maze Runner, # 2)

By: James Dashner

Published: October 12th 2010 by Delacorte Press

360 pages

Genre: YA, Science Fiction, Dystopian, Fantasy, Post-Apocalyptic

Source: Borrowed from the library

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Goodreads description--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 didn’t love The Maze Runner by James Dashner. I was curious about what was happening and how it would end, but the book was really slow for me. And there wasn’t much driving me to read it. I didn’t feel any burning need to know what was happening, and that’s essentially how I felt when I finished it too. Even though things ended in a bit of a cliffhanger, I wasn’t feeling a big pull to start the second book. I always felt like I would read it…at some point. Then I saw that the library had the audiobook version and so I figured that would be the perfect way for me to get it “read” and marked off my list.

Once I received the audiobook version from the library, I started it up and completed about 22% which equates to roughly 75ish pages. While The Scorch Trials does have an air of mystery about it, I still felt a disconnect from the storyline and the characters. I didn’t have a single urge to continue listening and uncover all of the secrets. I can’t pinpoint one element that I disliked other than simply not being connected to the story or characters.

And so I’ve come to the point in my reading life when I realize that it’s just not possible for me to read ALL THE BOOKS. Given my lack of connection to the events and characters of The Scorch Trials, I decided to mark this one as DNF and move on with my life. Have you read The Scorch Trials? Did you love it? Or did you have the same problems connecting as I did? Let me know!

Crossed - Review

Crossed (Matched, # 2)

By: Ally Condie

Published: November 1st 2011 by Dutton Children's

367 pages

Genre: Young Adult, Dystopian, Science Fiction

Source: Borrowed from my local library

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Goodreads description--The Society chooses everything.

The books you read.
The music you listen to.
The person you love.

Yet for Cassia the rules have changed. Ky has been taken and she will sacrifice everything to find him.

And when Cassia discovers Ky has escaped to the wild frontiers beyond the Society there is hope.

But on the edge of society nothing is as it seems...

A rebellion is rising.

And a tangled web of lies and double-crosses could destroy everything.

So I really enjoyed Matched, right? But it was very similar to Delirium which I liked better. I went into Crossed knowing that a lot of people didn’t enjoy it as much as Matched. Having not read any reviews of Crossed before starting it, I didn’t know WHY people weren’t enjoying it as much. I grabbed this from the library on audiobook because I really enjoyed hearing the writing style of Matched spoken out loud. I thought the narrator, Kate Simses, did a really good job. Having said that, audiobooks can be tricky. I find that I can listen to audiobooks and multitask only when whatever else I’m doing doesn’t require much thought from me—housework, imaging (a mindless work task), cleaning the pool, etc. But that wasn’t really the case when I started Crossed. I apparently needed to devote more brainpower to work than I thought and thus I had some issues with Crossed in the beginning. I had to restart it twice because I had no clue what was going on. And when I finally made it to the 50% mark in the book, I forgot to renew it and it was returned to the library only for me to be put on the waiting list to check it back out. *sigh* Oh well. I finally finished it.

I can see why people weren’t as into Crossed as Matched. Although describing why feels more difficult. I guess because in Matched you have the excitement of first love and a slight tinge of danger and rebellion. But Crossed is out and out rebellion against Society and our relationship between the male and female lead is pretty cemented even if they’re currently physically separated. Like many other dystopians before (or at least that I’ve read before: Requiem, Allegiant, Pawn ), the Matched series appears to be falling into the trap where our heroine seeks to fix a broken society. It’s the broken society that we love to read about. While the fixing of what is broken is important and we need to read about overcoming obstacles, I’m just not really a fan of these worlds that I fall in love with in book 1 turning into an all-out political war. It’s one of the biggest downfalls of the dystopian genre—at least when it comes to a series within the genre.

Cassia and Ky both narrate in Crossed and I’m thankful for the dual narrators in the audiobook version as well. While Cassia and Ky are separated, Cassia thinks about Ky way too frequently for my tastes. He completely dominates her thoughts. Seriously every third sentence mentions him. And one of my biggest frustrations was that Cassia and Ky’s chapters mirrored each other. They would often be thinking the same thoughts at seemingly the same time. And while I know some of that is possible and probably true—couples often do this I’m sure—it was a bit overdone for me. I’m really big on couples having a distinct voice if both are going to narrate. And they did have a distinct voice (especially because two different people did the narration for the audio version), but the thoughts were very similar even to the point of dreaming similar dreams at the same time.

The biggest plus for Crossed was Ally Condie's writing style for me. Like Matched, Crossed is very poetic at times. Here are my *favorite quotes:

-I’m only afraid of dying wrong.

-It is looking at something without being watched, without being told what to see. That’s what the picture has given us.

-Because in the end you can’t always choose what to keep. You can only choose how you let it go.

-It was brave of them to love again.

-And then I reach the plain and wish for nothing but what I have.

-”You need to choose. I don’t think you see either of them clearly.”

-Is this what Ky feels? Like no one wants the whole? That his truth is too heavy to carry?

I had some frustrations with Crossed, and I can definitely understand why people may have enjoyed it less than Matched but it was still a pretty good read listen. Crossed gets 3.5 stars from me. Have you read Crossed? What did you think? Let me know!

*It's extremely difficult to quote from an audiobook. I do my best to get punctuation and all of the words correct. Any mistakes are my fault. If you see any mistakes, please let me know in the comments and I'll update. It's near impossible to get it all right when I can't see it in print.

Shatter Me - Review

Shatter Me (Shatter Me, # 1)

By: Tahereh Mafi

Published: November 15th 2011 by Harper (first published January 1st 2011)

338 pages

Genre: YA, Science Fiction, Dystopian

Source: Personal Kindle Library (Christmas present, thank you Kay!)

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Goodreads description--Juliette hasn’t touched anyone in exactly 264 days.

The last time she did, it was an accident, but The Reestablishment locked her up for murder. No one knows why Juliette’s touch is fatal. As long as she doesn’t hurt anyone else, no one really cares. The world is too busy crumbling to pieces to pay attention to a 17-year-old girl. Diseases are destroying the population, food is hard to find, birds don’t fly anymore, and the clouds are the wrong color.

The Reestablishment said their way was the only way to fix things, so they threw Juliette in a cell. Now so many people are dead that the survivors are whispering war – and The Reestablishment has changed its mind. Maybe Juliette is more than a tortured soul stuffed into a poisonous body. Maybe she’s exactly what they need right now.

Juliette has to make a choice: Be a weapon. Or be a warrior.

Shatter Me is a book that I've seen tons of press about. I haven't read any reviews for Shatter Me (even as I'm writing my own review now), but I've seen it make Top Ten lists and Best Ofs all over the place. So I decided that Shatter Me was a book that I wanted to get my hands on. Truthfully, I'd never even read the book description until preparing to write my review. BUT through the top ten and best of lists that I've seen I've seen little snippets that left an impression on me and colored a bit of how I experienced Shatter Me. Dern those snippets.

Before I go into any more detail, can I just say that Tahereh Mafi's writing is stunning. I found myself highlighting entire paragraphs because of their beauty and poetry. I've come to find that I really enjoy and appreciate this type of writing style. It reminds me of Lauren Oliver, Maggie Stiefvater, and Michelle Hodkin. And well add Tahereh Mafi into that list because I'll be on the lookout for more of her work from now on. I've also never seen anyone use the strikeout method in their writing like she has and I LOVED it (which also makes the cover make more sense). This added a whole new depth and meaning to Juliette's narrative. I'll include some of my favorite quotes toward the end of this review.

Juliette is a character that I latched onto pretty quickly. She's basically been imprisoned in an asylum for close to a year and we slowly learn the why and the how of it all. Have any of you heard of Jenny Pox? Well Shatter Me is what Jenny Pox should have been. It's just the same basic concept of not being able to touch anyone because skin to skin contact has the potential to kill the other person. So I really felt for Juliette. How lonely she's been, how sad to be deprived of all human contact. And even more than that, Juliette hasn't even spoken to anyone in the same amount of time. She's desperately lonely. And then one day, this boy she's not even sure she remembers is thrown into her cell and everything changes.

Adam. Now remember those snippets I told you about before. Well those snippets don't involve Adam himself but they kept me from fully attaching to Adam like I'm sure I would have under other circumstances. Adam was a character that I should have fallen hard for. You're not sure if he remembers Juliette just as Juliette isn't even sure she remembers him. But the more time goes on the more that is revealed and everything falls into a beautiful place.

Of course, we must have a villain. And not only does The Reestablishment take that place, but the face of The Reestablishment as far as we've seen up until this point is Warren. He's a character that I know more will be coming from and one that I need to know more about. But I fear things are not always as they appear. Warren definitely seems to be a capable villain and one that many fear. He pushes Juliette, wants to use her as a weapon, but he also wants her to stand by his side willingly. I need to know more, but at this point I'm being reminded of The Darkling from The Grisha series by Leigh Bardugo. I guess time will tell.

The dystopian or post-apocalyptic world (I'm not 100% sure which because I don't have all of the details of this world yet) that Tahereh Mafi has created is definitely one that has me intrigued. I need to know how the world got this way, and I need to know if there's a way of getting it back. Either way, I just can't wait to dive into the next installment.

My favorite quotes:

-It's like someone is emptying their pockets over the earth and doesn't seem to care where the contents fall, doesn't seem to care that the raindrops burst when they hit the ground, that they shatter when they fall to the floor, that people curse the days the drops dare to tap on their doors. I am a raindrop.

-I catch the rose petals as they fall from my cheeks, as they float around the frame of my body, as they cover me in something that feels like the absence of courage.

-He's too close too close too close. No one is ever close enough.

-The sun is an arrogant thing, always leaving the world behind when it tires of us.

-Truth is a jealous, vicious mistress that never ever sleeps, is what I don't tell him. I'll never be okay.

-I've been murdering minutes for hours and no one seems to mind.

"You think that because I am unwanted, because I am neglected and--and discarded--" my voice inches higher with every word, the unrestrained emotions suddenly screaming through my lungs. "You think I don't have a heart? You think I don't feel? You think that because I can inflict pain, that I should? You're just like everyone else. You think I'm a monster just like everyone else. You don't understand me at all--"

Shatter Me is a read that will pull you in quickly. Tahereh Mafi's writing style is both lyrical and different and I loved every sentence of it. I had no real moments of frustration like I sometimes find in books, and well Shatter Me deserves nothing less than 4.5 Stars. Have you read Shatter Me? What did you think? Let me know!

Waiting on This Shattered World

"Waiting On" Wednesday is a weekly event, hosted by Breaking the Spine, that spotlights upcoming releases that we're eagerly anticipating.

This Shattered World (Starbound, # 2)

By: Aime Kaufman & Meagan Spooner

Expected Publication: December 23rd 2014 by Disney-Hyperion

400 pages

Genre: YA, Science Fiction, Dystopian

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*Note: The above links to Amazon and Book Depository are affiliate links. Affiliate links support giveaways for Somewhere Only We Know readers.

Goodreads description--The second installment in our 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.

The stunning second novel in the Starbound trilogy is an unforgettable story of love and forgiveness in a world torn apart by war.

What are you waiting on this week? Let me know!

Revived - Review

Revived

By: Cat Patrick

Published: May 2012 by Little, Brown Books for Young Readers

352 pages

Genre: YA, Science Fiction

Source: Won in an Armchair BEA giveaway hosted by Andi's ABCs

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Goodreads description--It started with a bus crash.

Daisy Appleby was a little girl when it happened, and she barely remembers the accident or being brought back to life. At that moment, though, she became one of the first subjects in a covert government program that tests a drug called Revive.

Now fifteen, Daisy has died and been Revived five times. Each death means a new name, a new city, a new identity. The only constant in Daisy's life is constant change.

Then Daisy meets Matt and Audrey McKean, charismatic siblings who quickly become her first real friends. But if she's ever to have a normal life, Daisy must escape from an experiment that's much larger--and more sinister--than she ever imagined.

From its striking first chapter to its emotionally charged ending, Cat Patrick's Revived is a riveting story about what happens when life and death collide.

I won Revived as part of a giveaway last year. The giveaway was the option of two “packages.” Each package offered two books. And well, I wanted one of the books and Revived just happened to be the additional book in the package. I’d never heard of it before that, but having read the description I liked the concept. However, since I’d never heard of it before and didn’t know anyone else who’d read it or heard of it, Revived wasn’t making a high priority on my TBR list. It just so happened that I came across the audiobook version in my local library during a time when I needed an audiobook to listen to immediately and most of the ones on my radar had a waiting list. So I picked up Revived.

Revived is one of those books that I feel like the concept was better than the execution. I liked the idea of a drug that can bring people back to life. Revived bordered on the younger spectrum of YA which isn’t my favorite. And so overall the book just left me feeling “meh.”

Daisy, as the description says, has been revived five times. There’s the initial bus crash that landed her in the program to begin with, but then there are been other instances as well. Choking on a grape, being stung by bees—which she’s allergic to. Each time Daisy dies she has to be relocated because the rest of the world can’t know she’s been revived. Everyone from where she was before thinks she died. Daisy relocates with her handlers Mason and Cassie who play the role of her parents even though they’re not. Mason and Daisy have a fairly close relationship. He’s essentially been her father since she was five, but Cassie’s involvement never really made sense to me. She’s described as being a robot and I’m not sure if that’s accurate as in she’s truly a robot or as in she’s emotionally robotic. Cassie’s entire person, background, etc was a bit “muddy.”

Also as the description says, Daisy actually makes some legitimate friends outside of the program in her newest relocation. Audrey quickly becomes her best friend, and Matt slowly becomes her boyfriend. Daisy has to wonder how much of a true friend she can be to both Audrey and Matt when there’s so much about herself that she’s not supposed to share with them. Can you really be close to people you have to lie to? But Matt and Audrey have a secret too. Audrey’s sick and Daisy is in possession of a miracle drug that saves lives. Unfortunately, Revive won’t work on Audrey. Daisy, who has never really been faced with the finality of death since she’s been revived five times has to realize that not everyone gets to come back from the dead.

A peeve of mine concerning Revived was that the members of the revive program call the founder and creator of the program “God.” I get the idea behind that being because he essentially controls who lives and who dies and how everything works. He has everyone in the program’s lives in his hands. But I felt like this was disrespectful. In Revived, “God” isn’t good. His ways are not just. And he can’t be trusted. So to read about this character and give him the name “God” felt all kinds of wrong to me and left a bad taste in my mouth.

Revived was also the first book I’ve read that included a transgender character. That’s all I’ll say about that.

Overall Revived fell a little flat for me. The conflict felt rushed and unrealistic. The backstory of all the characters didn’t feel completely flushed out. It just ended up being an “okay” book. Give me a year or so and I’m not sure how much I’ll even remember about Revived. It wasn’t a “bad” book by any means, but there wasn’t anything overly “good” about it either. Revived gets 2.5 Stars from me. Have you read Revived? What did you think? Let me know!

The Immortal Crown - Review

The Immortal Rules (Age of X, # 2)

By: Richelle Mead

Published: May 29th 2014 by Dutton Adult

432 pages

Genre: Adult, Fantasy, Science Fiction, Dystopian, Paranormal

Source: Publisher via NetGalley (Thank you!!)

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Goodreads description--The #1 New York Times bestselling author of the Vampire Academy and Bloodline series returns with the second installment in her acclaimed Age of X series.

Gameboard of the Gods introduced religious investigator Justin March and Mae Koskinen, the beautiful supersoldier assigned to protect him. Together they have been charged with investigating reports of the supernatural and the return of the gods, both inside the Republic of United North America and out. With this highly classified knowledge comes a shocking revelation: Not only are the gods vying for human control, but the elect—special humans marked by the divine—are turning against one another in bloody fashion.

Their mission takes a new twist when they are assigned to a diplomatic delegation headed by Lucian Darling, Justin’s old friend and rival, going into Arcadia, the RUNA’s dangerous neighboring country. Here, in a society where women are commodities and religion is intertwined with government, Justin discovers powerful forces at work, even as he struggles to come to terms with his own reluctantly acquired deity.

Meanwhile, Mae—grudgingly posing as Justin’s concubine—has a secret mission of her own: finding the illegitimate niece her family smuggled away years ago. But with Justin and Mae resisting the resurgence of the gods in Arcadia, a reporter’s connection with someone close to Justin back home threatens to expose their mission—and with it the divine forces the government is determined to keep secret.

I didn’t love Gameboard of the Gods. It wasn’t bad. There was just a lot to learn about the world, and overall the book felt very slow to me. That being said, I requested The Immortal Crown because I had faith that Richelle Mead would pick things up and once the story got moving then I’d be hooked. However, that didn’t mean I was dying to pick up The Immortal Crown immediately when I got it.

The Immortal Crown was STILL really slow for me. It wasn’t until the 50% mark that I started really getting interested in what was going on, and truly not until the 60% mark when I actually felt hooked. This is so odd to me because I’m usually sucked into Richelle Mead’s books fairly quickly. Maybe it was because work has been really stressful lately, but I literally found myself dozing off every single time I picked up this book until I hit 50%. It took me 9 days to finish The Immortal Crown and while the book itself isn’t exactly small, I also can’t really remember the last time it took me 9 days to finish a fiction book (aside from one of the A Song of Ice and Fire books). Despite the slow beginning, The Immortal Crown packed a lot of action in the last 40%.

Richelle Mead writes from multiple POVs in this series, but it often feels like none of the characters are actually narrating. Sometimes, I feel like some ambiguous third party is the one describing the events. Maybe that’s because the POV wasn’t always clear as it was supposed to be. The Immortal Crown isn’t a first person narrative even when the focus is on a particular character. Maybe this is what keeps me from connecting as much to this series. I'm just not sure.

The characters really grew on me from how I felt about them after reading Gameboard of the Gods. Justin started out in a place where I wasn’t loving his character. He reminds me of Sherlock Holmes. While being utterly brilliant and a master at deduction and manipulation, he also relies on vices to get him through the day to day. Justin grew on me in The Immortal Crown. I couldn’t agree with all of his decisions, but he had Mae’s back explicitly. He jumped in and protected her when she needed it.

Mae has always been likable to me. She fits the strong female leads that Richelle Mead is known for. She’s smart and strong. She’s capable of taking care of herself and others. She’s a protector at heart. And she’s even a warrior. I was happy that Mae was able to evaluate that if Justin can misinterpret her at times then it’s possible that she’s misinterpreted him in the past as well. I was afraid she’d be angry and bitter toward him for too long, but that wasn’t the case. Mae learns that she can trust Justin to have her back when she needs it the most. And yet everything isn’t quite the way she’d like with him either. They make a good team, but in the end Mae might be a little hasty in jumping in out to protect Justin. I’m a little fearful of where things left off with Mae. While she might be smart, she doesn’t have the knowledge that Justin has about the different gods and the mythology surrounding them.

Unlike Mae, Tessa is a character that I’ve struggled with for a bit. For her to be so bright, even at times being referred to as a mini-Justin, she sure seemed to miss the obvious to me in this installment. How she couldn’t see from early on that Daphne wouldn’t be any friend to her or would have ulterior motives is beyond me. Any reader would be able to spot that within seconds. Tessa’s sections weren’t as interesting to me, and when the narration would swap to her I always found myself sighing a bit. I knew Richelle Mead would weave Tessa’s storyline into the overall plot, but it just wasn’t as interesting to me. Overall, by the end of the book I found myself thinking that her part was a lot of work for a small—at least at this point—piece of the puzzle.

As the description says, the elect have really stepped up their game. For the longest time, I was wondering where this big war was going to come in, but then it seemed like four others were revealed within the last 40% or so of the book. I’d love to tell you who they are, but that’s part of the process and you just have to read the book to find out for yourselves.

I feel like I really haven’t even touched on the events of the book itself, but the description really does do a good job of telling you what you need to know there. All in all, I ended up enjoying The Immortal Crown even though it took me a really long time to get hooked into the story. The characters and plot are set up just perfectly for the next (and last????) book in the series. I can see Richelle Mead putting the pieces of the puzzle in their proper places and even though I wasn’t hooked early on like I would like to be, Richelle Mead is the master at setting up and executing a series. The Immortal Crown gets 3.5 Stars from me. Have you read The Immortal Crown? What did you think? Let me know!