The Here and Now by Ann Brashares

*An ARC of this book was received from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review*

Title: The Here and Now
Author: Ann Brashares
Genre: Science Fiction/Thriller
Release Date: April 8
This title is a stand-alone.

"Follow the rules. Remember what happened. Never fall in love.

This is the story of seventeen-year-old Prenna James, who immigrated to New York when she was twelve. Except Prenna didn’t come from a different country. She came from a different time—a future where a mosquito-borne illness has mutated into a pandemic, killing millions and leaving the world in ruins. 

Prenna and the others who escaped to the present day must follow a strict set of rules: never reveal where they’re from, never interfere with history, and never, ever be intimate with anyone outside their community. Prenna does as she’s told, believing she can help prevent the plague that will one day ravage the earth. 
But everything changes when Prenna falls for Ethan Jarves." - Goodreads

THE STORY:

The Here and Now is a Time Travel story about a group of people from the year 2098 who travel back in time to 2010 because their world is infected with a blood plague. The plan, initially, when they left was to try and change the world so that the future could be better, but something seems to have gone awry. The over all premise of this book was so interesting, and I found myself to be greatly disappointed. The writing was very juvenile, and I feel as if it wasn't advanced enough to handle this kind of plot. The whole story ended up reading very flat, it didn't feel like it had a climax or a darkest moment. In fact, I found myself not feeling anything while reading this book except for general annoyance. The story was executed badly, and so was the "history" I suppose you could call it, of Prenna's future. Nothing was really fleshed out in a way to make sure that it made sense, and everything left me with questions that ultimately would never get answered.

THE CHARACTERS:

There are only really two characters here which are worth discussing, and those are our two main protagonists, Prenna and Ethan. I found Prenna to be ridiculously annoying, and quite often I found that her thought process just didn't make any sense. She would completely jump from one thing to another, or even make jumps in logic that just left me completely baffled. She kept using certain language in her mind that would make her seem a little vain, and then almost immediately after begin thinking about how she wasn't good enough for Ethan. I spent the majority of this book rolling my eyes as I read her thoughts. As for Ethan, I found that he was a fairly stereotypical seventeen year old boy, he couldn't stop thinking about two things (or at least that is what we get from his dialogue), Prenna, and sex. He mentions so many times throughout the book that all he wants in life is to sleep with Prenna, and then he could die happy. Considering these two characters have known each other for a long time, but have only now opened themselves up to the idea of a relationship because the "rules" which had been set forth by the time travellers were almost entirely fake, their relationship moves ridiculously fast. They have only really "been together," if you can even call it that, for approximately a day or two, and already they are making plans to sleep together when everything is said and done, and already progressed to saying "I love you." The whole romance part of their relationship just felt really forced, and I think that the book could have been much better without it.

MY THOUGHTS:

Over all I found this book to be extremely dull, rather annoying, and I couldn't wait until I was done reading it so that I wouldn't have to worry about it any more. I basically spent my entire time reading it thinking about what book I was going to be picking up next, and you should never be doing that while you read. I did not enjoy reading this book at all, and I don't know if I would be willing to pick anything else up by this author if the writing style of this book is any indication to how she writes in the rest of them. I don't really recommend this book.

STAR RATING: ★★

Stolen Songbird by Danielle L. Jensen

*I received an ARC of this book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review*

The Malediction Trilogy: Book 1

"For five centuries, a witch’s curse has bound the trolls to their city beneath the ruins of Forsaken Mountain. Time enough for their dark and nefarious magic to fade from human memory and into myth. But a prophesy has been spoken of a union with the power to set the trolls free, and when Cécile de Troyes is kidnapped and taken beneath the mountain, she learns there is far more to the myth of the trolls than she could have imagined.

Cécile has only one thing on her mind after she is brought to Trollus: escape. Only the trolls are clever, fast, and inhumanly strong. She will have to bide her time, wait for the perfect opportunity.

But something unexpected happens while she’s waiting – she begins to fall for the enigmatic troll prince to whom she has been bonded and married. She begins to make friends. And she begins to see that she may be the only hope for the half-bloods – part troll, part human creatures who are slaves to the full-blooded trolls. There is a rebellion brewing. And her prince, Tristan, the future king, is its secret leader.
As Cécile becomes involved in the intricate political games of Trollus, she becomes more than a farmer’s daughter. She becomes a princess, the hope of a people, and a witch with magic powerful enough to change Trollus forever." - Goodreads

THE STORY:

The plot of this story was so interesting and unique. At first I had trouble diving into the city of Trollus, but as I spent more time there, I found myself liking it more and more. I found that there were some holes in the story, and the world building was lax, which left me confused during some major plot points of the story, but the development that took place in other areas was just so intriguing that I couldn't help but love it. Where we don't learn much about the world, we learn so much about the Troll Culture and their politics, which I personally found to be very interesting.

THE CHARACTERS:

I still have mixed feelings about the main protagonist, Cecil, but over all I found her to be an enjoyable character. She is stubborn, sometimes to the point of it being annoying, and she definitely has a mind of her own, but she uses these characteristics to help her throughout the course of the story. As for Tristan, the love interest... well where do I begin? I found myself falling in love with him, and he may or may not be a new book crush for me. I loved the different layers and complexity of his character. While the characters in this book, overall, come of as semi-two dimensional, they are a lot of fun to read about.

MY THOUGHTS:

After reading the first couple of chapters, I really didn't want to like this book, in fact, I was sure that I WASN'T going to like it, but boy was I wrong. I ended up truly enjoying my time spent reading this book, and I just flew through it. I can't wait for the next book in this series, and I will definitely jump at the chance to read it.

STAR RATING: ★★★★

Scarlet by Marissa Meyer

For those of you who may not know, the Lunar Chronicles are futuristic, sci-fi, retellings of fairy tales. The first book Cinder is the retelling of Cinderella, and the second book, Scarlet, is a retelling of Little Red Riding Hood, while still intertwining with the initial story which was introduced in the first book.

THE STORY:
Without giving too much away and getting spoiler-y in this review, I can honestly say that I loved the story of this book. I didn't feel that it was quite as good as Cinder, but I think that most of the bits I didn't like about this book were more due to characters than to plot and story. I love that we got to see from basically every character's point of view, and I really love the turn that the story took. This was beautiful set up for the rest of the series.

THE CHARACTERS:
We had three new main characters introduced in this novel, Scarlet, Wolf, and Thorne, and man do I adore all three of them. I did find that my love wavered sometimes with Scarlet, just because of little things she would say or do that sometimes got on my nerves, but over all I still enjoyed her as a character. I found Wolf to be adorable, and while things got a little confusing with him over the course of the book, I still ended up adoring him in the end. As for Thorne, well... I just really, really, really love Thorne. He is so cheeky and I just love the relationship that he has with Cinder. I think that he will definitely make the rest of their adventures interesting and entertaining.

MY THOUGHTS:
I am still in love with this series, and I can't wait to read Cress. This book was so cool, and such an interesting way to bring the Little Red Riding Hood fairy tale into a science-fiction world, and still have it seem like it belonged there. I can't wait to see how all of these characters will interact in the next half of this series. I think it is safe to say that this is becoming one of my favorite series of all time.

STAR RATING: ★★★★ 1/2

The Coldest Girl in Coldtown by Holly Black

I enjoyed taking part in Youtube's Answerly Book Club last month, that I just knew I had to take part in it again, especially when the new YA pick was a book that I had just received for Christmas, and was looking for a reason to read.

"Tana lives in a world where walled cities called Coldtowns exist. In them, quarantined monsters and humans mingle in a decadently bloody mix of predator and prey. The only problem is, once you pass through Coldtown’s gates, you can never leave.

One morning, after a perfectly ordinary party, Tana wakes up surrounded by corpses. The only other survivors of this massacre are her exasperatingly endearing ex-boyfriend, infected and on the edge, and a mysterious boy burdened with a terrible secret. Shaken and determined, Tana enters a race against the clock to save the three of them the only way she knows how: by going straight to the wicked, opulent heart of Coldtown itself." - Goodreads

THE STORY:

At first I had a bit of a hard time getting into this book, but once it got into the actual plot, I just couldn't stop reading. I loved how Holly Black stayed true to a lot of the original myths about vampires, like their weaknesses and their appearance. However, the relationships in this book also made me ridiculous amounts of happy. So many different types of relationships and sexualities were represented in this book, including gay, straight, bisexual, and transgender people. Not only is this something that I strongly believe in, but it made me just so happy to see these relationships portrayed in a young adult book. I also really appreciated the way the characters reacted to these different sexualities. The characters who weren't straight were never treated as if they were different, their sexuality and their differences were simply acknowledged, and then things continued, which I think is a very important ideology for young people to adopt these days.

THE CHARACTERS:

I already mentioned how I loved the relationships in this book, but I also really enjoyed the characters in general. I loved Tana as our lead, I adored Aidan and Gavriel, I even enjoyed Lucien, our main villain. However, my favorite character in the whole novel is probably Valentina. She didn't really play a huge role in the book, but her entire being just made me happy. She was a fabulous side-character, and I would love to read more about her, if that ever became an option in the future.

MY THOUGHTS:

So basically I adored this book. Aside from the beginning being difficult for me to get into, I found it to be fun, fast paced, and at some points the gore almost made it difficult to read, which I found refreshing in its own way, because the violence of vampirism wasn't glossed over. This was my first Holly Black novel, but I will definitely be picking up more of her books in the future.

STAR RATING: ★★★★ 1/2

Strange Sweet Song by Adi Rule

*This book was received from Net Galley in exchange for an honest review*

"A young soprano enrolls in a remote music academy where nothing, not even her mysterious young vocal coach, is as it seems

Outside Dunhammond Conservatory, there lies a dark forest. And in the forest, they say, lives a great beast called the Felix. But Sing da Navelli never put much faith in the rumors and myths surrounding the school; music flows in her blood, and she is there to sing for real. This prestigious academy will finally give her the chance to prove her worth—not as the daughter of world-renowned musicians—but as an artist and leading lady in her own right.

Yet despite her best efforts, there seems to be something missing from her voice. Her doubts about her own talent are underscored by the fact that she is cast as the understudy in the school's production of her favorite opera, Angelique. Angelique was written at Dunhammond, and the legend says that the composer was inspired by forest surrounding the school, a place steeped in history, magic, and danger. But was it all a figment of his imagination, or are the fantastic figures in the opera more than imaginary? 
Sing must work with the mysterious Apprentice Nathan Daysmoor as her vocal coach, who is both her harshest critic and staunchest advocate. But Nathan has secrets of his own, secrets that are entwined with the myths and legends surrounding Dunhammond, and the great creature they say lives there."

 - Goodreads

THE STORY:

Over all I thought that the story was very interesting. I loved getting to read a story that was so centred around music. I found the writing, for the most part to be beautiful and poetic. The only problem that I personally had with the storytelling was that sometimes it was hard to follow what was happening. The chapters jump between points of view very often, and sometimes it just became a little bit confusing.

THE CHARACTERS:

The only character I am going to talk about in great detail is Sing. At first I was really put off by her name, I wasn't really a huge fan of it, but eventually it just became normal to me as I read the book. I didn't mind Sing as a character over all, I liked that she was a little bit insecure about herself, especially when it came to people knowing who her mother and father were, and having their expectations for her on her shoulders. The only thing I really didn't like about her was her flippant disregard for the things that she has, and her lack of ability to give people a chance. The first time this happens is when she steps into her Nature of Music class, and as soon as she sees diagrams on the board, she decides that she isn't going to like the class, and doesn't bother giving it a chance.

MY THOUGHTS: 

I had a difficult time getting into this book, not because I didn't enjoy it, but because I just wasn't quite in the mood for this kind of book. However, once I got into it, I really did enjoy it. It wasn't my favorite book of the year, or even of the month, but it was a fun read and I would definitely recommend it to others.

STAR RATING: ★★★ 1/2

Panic by Lauren Oliver

I remember being so excited when I first saw that Lauren Oliver was writing a new book, and I thought that it sounded really interesting. Then the Booksplosion book club on Goodreads decided to make it the book of the month, and I officially had my excuse to purchase it.

"Panic began as so many things do in Carp, a dead-end town of 12,000 people in the middle of nowhere: because it was summer, and there was nothing else to do.

Heather never thought she would compete in Panic, a legendary game played by graduating seniors, where the stakes are high and the payoff is even higher. She’d never thought of herself as fearless, the kind of person who would fight to stand out. But when she finds something, and someone, to fight for, she will discover that she is braver than she ever thought.

Dodge has never been afraid of Panic. His secret will fuel him, and get him all the way through the game, he’s sure of it. But what he doesn't know is that he’s not the only one with a secret. Everyone has something to play for.

For Heather and Dodge, the game will bring new alliances, unexpected revelations, and the possibility of first love for each of them—and the knowledge that sometimes the very things we fear are those we need the most."

 - Goodreads

THE STORY:

One of the comments that I see coming up a lot on Goodreads was that this book sounded a lot like the Hunger Games. On this point, I have to say that the blurb is slightly misleading. True there are some aspects which are similar: teenagers taking part in deadly activities, in fact causing several deaths. However, that is about where I found the similarities to end. This story was so interesting and I absolutely loved reading it. I found it to be fairly fast paced while still highlighting Lauren Oliver's beautiful, poetic writing style. 

THE CHARACTERS: 

I don't even know where to begin with the characters. I had love-hate relationships with most of them, and spent several portions of the novel feeling like they were complete and total idiots, but I still adored their personalities. Heather felt relatable and she grew so much as a character. Bishop was kind hearted, and had a bit of a twist that I found rather interesting. I found Nat's change in character throughout the book to be really interesting, although I do wish that we had gotten a little bit more information about her rather than needing to read in between the lines. And finally Dodge, who was probably my least favorite character of the bunch. He was just so obsessed with revenge that he didn't stop to think things through, and acted in several ridiculously reckless ways which could have resulted in fates far worse than what he had intended. 

MY THOUGHTS:

Basically, I loved this book. I am so excited for this to become a movie, since it has already been optioned for one through Universal, and I think that it will be really interesting to see all of it come alive on screen. I love Lauren Oliver's writing style, and will definitely be picking up more of her books in the future.

STAR RATING: ★★★★★

Cinder by Marissa Meyer

After my friend finished reading Cinder by Marissa Meyer, she immediately told me that I had to read it so that we could gush about it together. Little did I know that I would be doing a lot of gushing.

"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." - GoodReads

THE STORY: 
As pretty much everyone knows, this book is a sci-fi retelling of Cinderella, set far in Earth's future, just after World War IV has taken place. I love fairy tales, and always have, so when I heard the premise of this book, I was super excited to dive into it. I absolutely loved how Marissa Meyer incorporated all of the big, well known plot points of Cinderella into this book, while still allowing the story to become something so unique and so fun. Everything was pretty fast paced, and while there was one plot point near the end that I personally found to be very predictable, it was still fun to arrive at that point and experience it with the characters.

THE CHARACTERS:
First off, I obviously need to talk about Cinder. I adore her to no end. Cinder is so quirky and awkward, especially when she is around Prince Kai. However, when she is put into situations that make her uncomfortable, or she knows that what is going on around her is morally wrong, she makes a stand. She stands up and fights for what she believes in, and never backs down. She rolls with the punches that are thrown at her, but doesn't just accept them, she questions everything and everyone, trying to constantly figure out motives and truths. I just love her a lot.

Kai is so freaking charming. I love that he takes the time to get to know Cinder, even though she is a mechanic, and is dirty and covered in motor grease so much of the time. He looked past what he saw on the outside and actually got to know what kind of person that she was. I also enjoyed reading about a prince who was so, so nervous about taking his place as king, and didn't like being pampered all of the time. He is such a natural, normal boy when he is around Cinder and it was something that I found really refreshing to read. However, I also like that while he is being thrown into this situation of becoming emperor far earlier than he would have liked, he still takes the role very seriously and tries to make the best decisions for his people.

I am not going to go into much detail about all of the side characters in this book, for there are quite a few of them, but I enjoyed all of them so much. Each and every one of them was so different from each other, and that is something which is so difficult to do. Even though they were not the main characters in the book, most of them even my a long shot, they still had personalities, and I felt as if I got to know them all still on some sort of personal level, just not as much as I got to know the Prince and Cinder.

MY THOUGHTS:
Well, if you can't tell by now, I am in love with this book. I own Scarlet and Cress, so I will be diving into those books as soon as I can, and I can't wait for Winter to come out next year. I am so excited to read more about these characters and the new characters that I will be introduced to in the newer books of this series. I can't recommend this book enough, especially if you are like me and you just absolutely adore fairy tales. I basically had a perpetual smile on my face while reading this.

STAR RATING: ★★★★★