The Young Elites

Okay so not going to lie; I started another post a while ago where I was going to have short snappy descriptions of a bunch of books I read recently but it was taking too long so I'm going to start from scratch.

The Young Elites

By: Marie Lu 

(same author as the Legend series- if you haven't read it yet, you definitely should)

Picture From of Goodreads

I got off to kind of a rocky start with this book as I checked it out from the library a couple times and both times ended up not being able to read it, but in the end I'm glad I went for magic number 3 because it was really good.

This book is about this girl named Adelina who lives in an abusive household. When she was really young she got the blood fever. Some of the survivors of this fever have marks and so they are labeled malfettos and are a disgrace to their families. However, some of these malfettos have powers and it turns out that Adelina is one of them. These people are called the Young Elites and there is a group of them called the Dagger Society who recruit Adelina.

However, there are complications which of course I can't give away because that would spoil the book but suffice it to say that Adelina's powers are much stronger than everyone expects and she isn't able to control them as well as the Dagger Society would like.

I really enjoyed this book because it was different. Especially at the end, you think you know how everything is going to work out and then BAM! it doesn't work out the way you expect which was incredibly refreshing. The whole thing with the powers was kind of similar to Steelheart (I don't know which came out first) but at the same time it was totally different and it didn't occur to me that they were even remotely similar until just now.

I definitely recommend this book to everyone looking for something out of the ordinary- especially if you are a fantasy fan and even if you're not, broaden your experiences, try something new and read it anyway.

Wow It's Been Awhile

Wow, okay so it's been a really long time. I don't think I've posted since September, yikes. I doubt any of the people who used to read this blog will still be checking or anything but I'm going to go ahead and post anyway and hopefully I'll be a lot more regular about it now that it's summer.

So I just took a break to skim over the last thing I posted and I was wrong- I haven't posted anything since August, albeit the end of August. Sorry about that! (to those of you who have actually been checking on a regular basis) So... I guess I'll just get to it. I'm thinking that for this initial post I'll just list a bunch of the books that I've read recently (or even in the last year if I can remember them) and maybe some thoughts on each one and then if you guys want more information, depending on how long ago I read it I'll try to give you a decent post specific to the book. Otherwise, I'll just try to post about a book after I finish it.

Ripper: This is a really good historical fiction (I'm pretty sure) book about Jack the Ripper. Basically the author took the story of Jack and made it his own. There's a plot twist at the end that you really don't see coming (you know how much I love a good plot twist). It's sooo good!! Anyway, I read this book about 9 months ago and I still remember that it's good and the major plot points so you can tell that it's definitely memorable. Although I don't remember the main character's name... I mean I remember some of the characters' names- just not the main character's *rip*. Oh well, I still recommend it because it's really good and isn't just one of those cookie-cutter books that I seem to be finding a lot of recently.

The Testing (and the rest of the series): Ahh this book is soooo good! I read it in like 2 days which considering the fact that this was my first year of high school is really impressive. I know it may seem like your classic dystopian novel- in fact it was kind of a combination of The Giver and The Hunger Games- but for some reason I really really liked it and I never like copy-cat books. I don't remember a ton of details because I read the entire series really quickly (I think in less than 2 weeks actually) but I do know that the other 2 books in the series were not as good as the first; which honestly is typical of trilogies with a really good first book. However, I'm not saying that the other books were bad. I'm saying that I liked the first one soooo much that the others didn't meet my expectations. I am also saying that I DEFINITELY recommend this book to anyone in search of a good book to read, especially if you are into sci-fi dystopian novels. I just realized that I should probably tell you guys what the book is about, shouldn't I? Basically, the Testing is set in the future in a world (our world) dealing with the aftermaths of a war (or a natural disaster) (or both- I think many things happened, it's been awhile since I've read it sorry) that killed thousands of species and wiped out thousands of cities. It's about a girl named Cia who wants to be a mechanical engineer but her only chance at a college education is to be chosen for The Testing. The book just follows her through her journey and her internal struggle (you'll know what I mean when I read the book- or just read the official summary). Also, there is a love interest (which you will also learn of if you read the summary). Oh yeah, just remembered, there is a plot twist; lots of betrayal; how could I forget? All in all it's a really fun read and gets 5 stars from me.    

Out of the Easy: This book is by Ruta Septys. Oh that name sounds familiar? Probably because she is the author of Between Shades of Gray and Salt to the Sea, both of which have previously been featured on this blog. You're probably thinking, wait those are the really sad historical fiction books, right? That is correct. Now you're probably thinking, why would I want to read another super sad book? Why thank you for your question, let me help you with that. 1) Because they are AMAZING!!! Ruta Septys is such a good author, I love all her books (the 3 that are out). 2) This book isn't as sad as the others; yay!! The number of deaths is considerably less when compared to the other books -probably because this book isn't written during a time period of war. It's set in 1950 in the French Quarter of New Orleans and it's about a girl named Josie who wants to escape the quarter and go to college. It's pretty inspiring. Two really memorable things from this book: the first one is that the death of one of the characters was really sad which was surprising because I didn't realize how much I actually liked that particular character until he/she (no spoils XD) died. The second memorable thing is that there were 2 boys. 2 boys oh no that sounds tragic =| Well for me it is tragic because I can never pick which guy I want the girl to end up with and with this book it ties together really well and I didn't have to go wish that she ended up with the other one because it worked and by the end of the book it's obvious that it couldn't have ended any other way. You probably won't know what I mean by this until you actually read the book because I'm not gonna spoil. Anyway, if you read either of Ruta Septys's other books then I know that I don't even have to tell you to read this book because you will anyway but I am telling you and anyone else who seems interested regardless because it really is sooo good. *Interesting Fact* The next book that Ms Septys is writing is set during the Spanish Inquisition (I'm only 90% sure though so don't quote me or anything) and I can't wait until it comes out!!


The Perks of Being a Wallflower: This book is also really sad- for those of you who haven't watched the movie (me) or don't know what it's about (not me - anymore), it's about a boy named Charlie who is entering his first year of high school. Charlie is kind of different from the other kids and as a result doesn't really have friends until one day he meets these 2 seniors named Sam and Patrick who open up a whole new world to him. Essentially this book is about navigating high school and finding yourself. One thing that I especially enjoyed was the format of the book. It was written as a series of letters addressed to someone named "Friend". Unfortunately, we never find out who "Friend" is or how Charlie finds out about him. Disclosure: This book includes topics such as drugs, alcohol and sex so if you are uncomfortable with those things I would strongly suggest NOT reading this book. 

Wow this post is getting really long and I still have a lot more books I was planning on talking (writing) about so I think I'm gonna stop here and make it a multiple part post and I'll try to keep the other ones brief. Bye for now!

PS. Sorry I didn't include author's names but I did include pictures so hopefully that will help and if you are really just dying to know an author's name then just ask me down below in the comments.

Pictures Courtesy of Goodreads