Twilight by Stephenie Meyer Review

Twilight by Stephenie Meyer

Published Little Brown 2008

Genre: Young Adult Fantasy/Romance

Format: Kindle ebook

Other books in this series: New Moon, Eclipse, Breaking Dawn

Buy this book: Amazon - Barnes & Noble

About three things I was absolutely positive:

First, Edward was a vampire.

Second, there was a part of him - and I didn't know how dominant that part might be - that thirsted for my blood.

And third, I was unconditionally and irrevocably in love with him.

When Bella Swan moves to the gloomy town of Forks and meets Edward Cullen, her life takes a thrilling and terrifying turn. With his porcelain skin, golden eyes, mesmerizing voice, and supernatural gifts, Edward is both irresistible and impenetrable. Up until now, he has managed to keep his true identity hidden, but Bella is determined to uncover his dark secret.

What Bella doesn't realize is the closer she gets to him, the more she is putting herself and those around her at risk. And it might be too late to turn back...

First, I would just like to clear up that this is my first time reading this book. I know, I missed all the hype a couple of years ago. However, I still wanted to read this book so I could finally catch onto the very end of the Twihard bandwagon. I was expecting this book to be miserable. It is constantly made of fun of and Bella is ridiculed as a character. That's not really what I got though.

Sure, there are multiple eye roll moments. I suffered a couple of them myself. But for the majority of the book, I loved Bella and Edward's banter mixed into their romance. Sure, it was sometimes a little cheesy, actually it was often cheesy. But it was still fun and kept me reading. As for the vampires in the book, that was probably where I had the most issues. Their descriptions were almost funny. The myth behind them was a little confusing and I missed why James was such a threat. Everything in that area got very twisted, so I feel like New Moon may help clear that up a little bit. 

Bella is also hated by most people. I didn't quite hate her. Maybe I will the next book. But for now, Bella, while not a strong female character, was interesting and unique. I really liked the way she talked to Edward and dealt with her issues. At the end, she got a little love obsessed and rash. The writing was also really childish. It seemed like she wasn't a professional author, which she wasn't. It comes through very clearly in the way the book is written. 

Overall, this book was okay. It wasn't really worth the initial hype, but at the same time, it was not the terrible book I was expecting. I will keep reading the series to learn more about the vampires and Bella's character development! 

Sent by Margaret Peterson Haddix Review

Sent by Margaret Peterson Haddix

Published: Simon & Schuster 2010

Genre: Children's Science Fiction

Format: Paperback as a gift

Other Books In the Series: Found (book 1) and Sabotaged (book 3) and many more

Buy It From - Barnes & Noble - Amazon

*If you have not read the first book in this series, even the summary will be spoilery! I do highly suggest this series, so go start it!

The Testing by Joelle Charbonneau: Review

Summary (via Goodreads): Keep your friends close and your enemies closer. Isn’t that what they say? But how close is too close when they may be one in the same? The Seven Stages War left much of the planet a charred wasteland. The future belongs to the next generation’s chosen few who must rebuild it. But to enter this elite group, candidates must first pass The Testing—their one chance at a college education and a rewarding career. Cia Vale is honored to be chosen as a Testing candidate; eager to prove her worthiness as a University student and future leader of the United Commonwealth. But on the eve of her departure, her father’s advice hints at a darker side to her upcoming studies--trust no one. But surely she can trust Tomas, her handsome childhood friend who offers an alliance? Tomas, who seems to care more about her with the passing of every grueling (and deadly) day of the Testing. To survive, Cia must choose: love without truth or life without trust.

Review: This book was A LOT like the Hunger Games. Like so much so that I would find myself anticipating things that happened in THG to happen in The Testing. 

Now, the premise was good. The idea of having the smart kids go through a testing - that sounds pretty cool, very epic. However, the writing was just trying to be like The Hunger Games way too much. For the majority of the time, Cia was in the wilderness (how does that judge anything?) and she was going through some of the very same things that Katniss went through in the arena. 

Other than that - Cia was annoying. Well, not necessarily annoying, but she didn't really have any strong character. She was selfless and caring, she wanted everyone to live, got everything handed to her, passed on all the tests, and figured out all the strategies her fellow Testers were throwing her way. Nothing bad really happened to her. I have no idea what was happening with Tomas. I never trusted him and it irritated me so much when Cia did, even falling in love with him. At the end...ugh, the end. Thankfully, the last cliffhanger gives me some hope for the second book. Will was my favorite character and all of the crazy stuff that happened in this book mostly belonged to him. Other than that, I didn't really care about the other characters in the book. There were lots of little characters that floated in and out of the book. They were trying to be likable so we felt bad when they were eliminated/died but that didn't really work either. 

Overall - this plot seriously would have been better written without trying to be like the Hunger Games. It was entertaining and constantly moving, but the characters and the world could have been developed a whole lot more. 

3/5 stars 

The Fifth Wave by Rick Yancey: Review

Rating: 3.5/5 Stars

This book has mostly rave reviews, but this one will not be. Mostly because I was so confused throughout the entire book. Cassie skips around a lot in her life story, with the time jumps and the explanations after the event has already occurred. Also, there are dual POVs between Cassie and her high school crush, Ben Parish. Honestly, Ben's parts were a lot better than Cassie's. He was easier to relate to. 

Sammy was probably the actual main character. He was the connection between Sam and Cassie which really were the entire motivations for this book. I always knew that Evan was not right, he wasn't human, Cassie shouldn't trust him. Even when she started, I never believed her, or him, for that matter. Ringer was a fantastic character who really had a lot of power. She was brilliant in her strategies and wins the award for my favorite character in the book. I really wish we had more of her. 

The main reason I didn't like this book was because I had no idea what was going on. The five waves weren't explained very well and I had to keep referring to the chart at the beginning of the book. I don't even know with the fifth wave - although I think I should. This book was very skippy (like the peanut butter) in writing style, which really made it unenjoyable. I still have no idea what happened in the book and I didn't like that. 

Will I be reading the next book in the series? Probably not. If I can't understand what happened in the first book, there would be no need for the second.