The Modern Tales of Faerie by Holly Black

Tithe


Sixteen-year-old Kaye is a modern nomad. Fierce and independent, she travels from city to city with her mother's rock band until an ominous attack forces Kaye back to her childhood home. There, amid the industrial, blue-collar New Jersey backdrop, Kaye soon finds herself an unwilling pawn in an ancient power struggle between two rival faerie kingdoms - a struggle that could very well mean her death

This was an amazing book to read! I love Holly's writing. Filled with so much imagery and descriptions! Book three in the series was just to tie up the loose ends left in book one and two, but it does make some things about fairies a little creepy for me. I enjoyed this series, it keeps you cautious with wanting to turn the pages as quickly as you can wanting to see what happens next! I highly recommend reading this series!

Graceling Realm Series by Kristin Cashore

This is a book series twitter has been fussing about so I decided to read it all straight through.

Graceling

Kristin Cashore’s best-selling, award-winning fantasy Graceling tells the story of the vulnerable yet strong Katsa, a smart, beautiful teenager who lives in a world where selected people are given a Grace, a special talent that can be anything from dancing to swimming. Katsa’s is killing. As the king’s niece, she is forced to use her extreme skills as his thug. Along the way, Katsa must learn to decipher the true nature of her Grace . . . and how to put it to good use. A thrilling, action-packed fantasy adventure (and steamy romance!) that will resonate deeply with adolescents trying to find their way in the world.

I did read all three books, Okay, Cashore's writing is really good, and the world building is fabulous. I did like the heroine, Katsa, she is so strong and fierce butt kicking warrior, reminds me a bit of Katniss from The Hunger Games but I find her to be just as annoying as Bella from Twilight. Katsa is the only strong heroine in the book, the other female characters are just weak. The beginning of the book just throws you into the action.  There are parts of the book that really bugged me. The author spends the majority of the book trying to sell these to the audience; dresses are the worst, femininity is wrong, men don't respect women, commitment ruins relationships, marriage is a tool of the devil. Katsa and Po, you really can't feel the love between them and the way Katsa treats her love interest is just horrible, like how she hits him then Katsa gives the cliche excuse how she's sorry? Don't abusers always say they are sorry and they won't ever do it again. You can't feel the romance between them, but then you also have the man hating feminist feeling when reading it. Po does change quite a bit in Fire and Bitterblue. This is suppose to be for young adults? This book series is not my genre.  

Matched Trilogy by Ally Condie

Matched 

Cassia has always trusted the Society to make the right choices for her: what to read, what to watch, what to believe. So when Xander's face appears on-screen at her Matching ceremony, Cassia knows with complete certainty that he is her ideal mate... until she sees Ky Markham's face flash for an instant before the screen fades to black. The Society tells her it's a glitch, a rare malfunction, and that she should focus on the happy life she's destined to lead with Xander. But Cassia can't stop thinking about Ky, and as they slowly fall in love, Cassia begins to doubt the Society's infallibility and is faced with an impossible choice: between Xander and Ky, between the only life she's known and a path that no one else has dared to follow.






I decided to try reading another dystopian series. The Hunger Games was dark but showed an important lesson; the way our governments behave now, what makes you think we won't end up like that in the future, sending kids to fight to the death? I like the dystopian novels because it's not the same in every book, authors come up with such unique interesting plots. I prefer to wait to read a book series when the entire series is out.

This is not one of my favorite dystopian series mostly because it's pretty boring. Condie is a good writer but this story was so bland it took me ages to read.Condie's agent is also the agent of Meyer and Pike but this series did not have a good sales record compared to other dystopians. The government system decides who is paired with who. There was too much of the romance elements in this, and not enough of the dystopian of what it's like living in this government system. I felt like some elements in Matched were trying too hard to match up with the Hunger Games.

The Host by Stephenie Meyer

I read The Host when it first came out. When Meyer was still growing as an author for her Twilight series. 

Melanie Stryder refuses to fade away. Our world has been invaded by an unseen enemy. Humans become hosts for these invaders, their minds taken over while their bodies remain intact and continue their lives apparently unchanged. Most of humanity has succumbed. When Melanie, one of the few remaining "wild" humans, is captured, she is certain it is her end. Wanderer, the invading "soul" who has been given Melanie's body, was warned about the challenges of living inside a human: the overwhelming emotions, the glut of senses, the too-vivid memories. But there was one difficulty Wanderer didn't expect: the former tenant of her body refusing to relinquish possession of her mind. Wanderer probes Melanie's thoughts, hoping to discover the whereabouts of the remaining human resistance. Instead, Melanie fills Wanderer's mind with visions of the man Melanie loves - Jared, a human who still lives in hiding. Unable to separate herself from her body's desires, Wanderer begins to yearn for a man she has been tasked with exposing. When outside forces make Wanderer and Melanie unwilling allies, they set off on a dangerous and uncertain search for the man they both love.

The book has a good plot. But it's the writing. Certain parts in the book tend to get bland. The book needed more editing, and the book was so incredibly long while reading it it felt like the story was just dragging on just to get the book to the 800 pages, and during those particular lagging pages, there were so many places that were bland, you find yourself skimming the book most of the time. Meyer's books the main characters lack personality. The fact that Meyer has a degree in English amazes me by how horrible her storytelling is. I heard this book is going to be a trilogy, so who knows how the next book will turn out.