Weekend Rec: The Invasion Trilogy by Jessica Frances

Just like its name, Let's Say It's a... Book Rec! is a feature where I recommend book for your weekend read!

Here comes weekend again!

I was quite busy this week, tmth yet so little time to do it. I even had to give up posting two posts of my supposedly new blog features 'cause I really didn't get enough time to write (or type) it down... *sigh* But it's okay, I'm going to rearrange my blog posting schedule so it won't overlap my personal schedule. Anyway, for this weekend I'm going to recommend one of my favorite series from sci-fi genre. The plot is epic and I super love the thrill and all the feels I got from following this trilogy! It is just too bad that not many people knows about this trilogy because I'm sure that those who read this would definitely be in love with them. Well, what trilogy is that?

THE INVASION TRILOGY by Jessica Frances

#1 EARTH

AMAZON | ADD TO GOODREADS

"The world as we know it is ending."

(Chapter II, Earth)

The first book already made a total mess with my mind! All the feels that I got from reading this were just... epic! The thrill, the suffocating feel, the crying, the tension, the heartbreak, the romance, THE CLIFFHANGER. God, I remembered internally screaming at the top of my lungs once I read the last page because there was no way in hell I could sleep after everything that happened in that first book. 

Synopsis

Earth is being invaded. There was no warning and no time to stage any kind of defence. Instead countries started to go silent. They were no longer reachable and no one knew what was happening. So when Canada went dark; everyone knew America would be next. 

My name is Matilda, but everyone calls me Mattie. I was at college in Oregon when the attack began. By the time Canada went quiet, we’d had enough. So two of my friends and I decided to join the fight in Vancouver and find out what was really happening. That is when everything changed. What we found was death, destruction and machines that were slaughtering humans. There would be no escape for us; no place to go where the machines couldn't reach us. I had no future, but then I met him. 

My name is Marduke and I’m part of the reason Earth is being invaded. I’m from a different planet and even though I look human, I’m not. But when Earth was invaded, I began running from my family and running for my life. Then she saved me. She made me feel something I’d never felt before. She saved my life and opened my heart to the possibility of love, she changed me forever. 

What are the chances of finding your true love right when the world is ending? What kind of cruel fate places them together under those circumstances? What is she supposed to do when he tells her he is not from Earth? When she finds out that he is one of the invaders? 

What does she do when she finds out everything she thought she knew was wrong? 

What does he do when he has to make a choice between protecting her and saving himself? 

How can they overcome everything standing in their way? 

Me saying... 

"...I finished the rest 90% in one sitting because apparently after the invasion kicked in, I just COULD NOT PUT IT DOWN! Seriously. Ms. Frances brought up the invasion as the main topic and she did it awesomely because it’s just so well-built, the invasion, background story of the Oden. They’re all so well-thought. Even me as a romance-sucker ―who’s basically been focusing only on romance side in just every book, this time also felt intrigued by the non-romance part as much as the romance ones."

Read more of my review here >>

#2, ROTH

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“I want to go home, Marduke. I want to go to Earth. Can you promise me that?”

(Chapter V, Roth)

Yep, this is me being a tease! :p
The second book is where the real ugly crying begins... When I thought I was already blown away too much by Earth, Roth came and topped all of my expectations! I was totally enchanted and felt like could not see past the reader I gripped tightly in my hands for hours after reading it. Seriously, this is probably the best sequel I've ever read in my entire life...

Synopsis

I was taken and left for dead on a planet far from Earth. My new nightmare is called Roth. 

I have only Hank for an ally here and a burning rage that builds higher with each passing day. 

But we have a plan.

One that will hopefully give humans back the Earth.

One that will ensure I get revenge for what was taken from me.

I will stop at nothing to get Earth back.

I am willing to die for this.

I made a mistake. 

I sent Mattie away from Earth and now she is in more danger than she ever was there.

The threat to her life doesn't just come from my people, but from humans as well.

I have to find her. 

She needs to know there is more at risk than just her life. 

She carries a secret, one that would lead to our deaths if anyone found out.

If we want a future together, then we need to escape Roth and leave the war and everyone behind.

What happens when their plan begins to fail? 

What will they do when a new threat presents itself, one more dangerous than anything they have ever faced before?

Will Mattie be able to survive the loss she is forced to endure?

Will Marduke be able to protect her from not only his people and hers, but also from herself?

Is there still a way to save Earth?

Is there even a way to save each other?

Or will humans fall? 

Will Earth be lost to them forever?

Me saying... 

"Today, I proudly confirmed that Roth has gracefully topped ALL my expectation as the second book of Invasion Trilogy!

GOD! I had a great time with the first book. Earth had successfully taken me into a mind-blowing roller-coaster ride and in the end it left me speechless and craving for more. But ROTH, people, ROTH is marvelous! It’s amazing! It’s everything I’ve never read! It… blew my mind! Every part of it!"

Read more of my review here >> 

#3, ODEN

AMAZON | ADD TO GOODREADS

“You’re too forgiving. Why don’t you hate me?” 

“Because I love you and I know you are kind and brave. You’re a good man, no matter your species or what your family is like.”

(Chapter II, Oden)

If you think I'll write a little something here to let you know how I feel about this third book, you're wrong. Because, how in the world could I write a condition like this?

Well, nuff said, I guess.

Synopsis
Mattie:
A war is coming.
It will not be an Earth bound battle yet humans will have to fight for their survival.
This is no longer about fighting to take our planet back, this is a fight for our society, our way of life.
However I will not be fighting in this war, I have another I must battle against, to stop him and keep myself, Marduke and our child safe and out of his clutches. I will do anything to protect my family from this evil maniac.
Jeprow doesn't know of human’s strengths. He doesn't know how resourceful we are. How brave and cunning and smart we can be.
He thinks he’s already won and the battle between us is over, but he has no idea who he’s messing with.

Marduke:

Oden is under attack and suddenly there is more at risk than just my own life. Mattie and our baby now rely on me and I can’t let them down

My new family is trapped in a warzone and I must protect them.

But I must still protect my people, my family’s legacy and the leadership that holds it all together.

If we lose this war, then the humans lose as well. 

We are in this fight together and the losses on both sides will be many.

Never before have I been under such pressure, never before has the risk of failure been so high.

What happens when they end up sacrificing more than they ever intended, if they lose who they are and what they are fighting for?

Can they move on from all they have lost, forgive each other for what they have been forced to do?

Most importantly, can they ever learn to forgive themselves?

Who will win the war and who loses everything?

Me saying... 

"It felt bittersweet to close the last page of Oden. The Invasion Trilogy is the best fantasy trilogy I’ve ever read my whole life. This one is perfection. Every scene is vivid picture in my mind until now. I personally think everything in Earth, Roth, and Oden are materials worth to be made into movies because just by reading them I could feel such real feeling of suspenseful, scared, grief, and so on. Imagine what it’d feel like seeing them as moving-images. Jessica Frances might be a new author for me but she quickly becomes my best favorite author. I wish to read more sci-fi books from her in the future…

Ahh… how to end this without igniting melancholic situation? LOL!

Read this trilogy, people! Trust me: you don’t want to skip this trilogy. I’m serious, really. I’m not going to say anything anymore.

Just read the book and you can thank me later."

Read more of my review here >>

***

Well, so there's that! My recommendation for your weekend read this time. I know I'm not good in convincing people but maybe what I wrote there with all the little teases from my reviews would convince you to read this trilogy. I really really love this trilogy and it's like my habit to get as many people as possible to read books that I deeply love.

So, pals, let me know if you're interested in reading this book! Or maybe you've already read it? Then let's discuss this trilogy with me! :)

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Book Review: Alienated (Alienated #1) by Melissa Landers

Alienated by Melissa Landers

Rating:  /5

Get a copy here!

AMAZON | BOOK DEPOSITORY

Alienated has been on my TBR list for quite some times. The eye-catching cover was the first thing that draws me in. Also, sci-fi is my top second favorite genre after contemporary so this book easily caught my attention when I first saw it on GR. Too bad I just had time to read it now since I’ve been too engrossed in contemporary ones.

First of all, I like the basic concept of Alienated that ―compared to other sci-fi books I’ve read before― is quite fresh to me. Majority of sci-fi books I know often brings up alien as cruel invaders of Earth but Ms. Landers comes up with a different idea through her Alienated series. In this book, alien is represented as friendly extraterrestrial being that actually want to work together with humans through some sort of mutualism. This is such an interesting concept that for once we get to see aliens and humans building a friendly relationship instead of having a war in some invasive action. I couldn’t help being curious of what kind of mutualism both parties would create.

Aliens believed that there must be another living creature besides them in the whole galaxy. So they had been going on some journey to find them, not only in their galaxy, but also to another galaxy possible to reach. Earth was found 10 years later since their first journey and became the first planet with living creatures that have the same anatomy as them. So two years ago, L’eihrs ―the aliens who conduct the intergalactic search― finally make their first contact with humans.

Fast forward to present time, L’eihrs and humans have come so far to the level of both parties agree to do a student exchange program to learn more good possibilities before an alliance is made permanently. And this… is where the story begins.

Cara Sweeney is one of the three ‘luckiest’ students who are chosen to join the exchange program. It means she gets an excessive amount of scholarship which would be an amazing deal considering how her family’s financial issue has been really bad, but in returns she and her family have to be the host for one of L’eihrs’ students for eight months. It sounds pretty easy, until she realizes that her life is about to turn upside down in every way possible ever since Aelyx, the L’eihrs who gets to stay with her, takes a step to her small comfy house.

I thought this book would use first POV from one main character or better, alternating first POV from both main characters. But it’s not. And I think it’s a bit unfortunate because I couldn’t get to learn their emotions closely, being the third person in the story and with the abrupt perspective changes time to time. It somehow makes the chemistry between me and the book so thin and slowly fading away throughout the story. I don’t know but first POV always makes me feel understand every book much better because I could feel the emotion exactly as what the characters feel. Good thing Ms. Landers writes Alienated in a fun tone with amusing female main character, Cara. So even if I couldn’t really get the chemistry built up, I enjoyed reading it.

The opening chapter is quite engaging for me. It starts with Cara joining exchange program through one-sided decision of L’eihrs. She doesn’t even apply for one but there she sits at principal’s office, being told she is to be the host of some cold emotionless alien from galaxy thousand years light away. The situation is a bit comical and intriguing at the same time. Although, the use of some foreign L’eihrs terms like, sh’alear, l’ina, sh’ovah, sh’ad, asheem, and sh’ellam (yes, I dutifully highlighted them all while reading) make me a bit light headed at first. But don’t worry, because we get the explanation one by one along the way (even if sh’alear isn’t going to be explained clearly from the first time it is mentioned at 3% until around 90% where I yelled ‘DAMN, finally someone answers my question!’).

Aelyx is your typical cold, insensitive, gorgeous-as-hell alien. He loathes being a part of the exchange program but he has no choice other than obeying the command. Humans are repulsive and Aelyx believes that alliance between aliens and humans would be a great disadvantage for his people. That’s also why he agrees to stay on Earth because besides the given mission of learning more about humans and Earth, he and his two other partners in the program have another mission to conduct. That, until he meets his host which turns out is nothing like what he thinks human is all along. At first, Aelyx is amused on what Cara keeps doing to make his stay on Earth as comfortable as possible but the more he witnesses her determination, the more he feels something strange for the human girl. For an alien standard, Aelyx is quite naughty. He’s so quick to pick up humans’ behavior of having racy thoughts of opposite gender. He does it a lot to Cara. Guess every boy is the same, no matter what your kind.

Cara, smart, brave, determined, and funny is usually my favorite kind of female mc. Truthfully, I like her especially on how determined she is to do her job as a good host for Aelyx. She experiences such a cliché high-school tragedy (breaks up with her boyfriend of three years, loses her best friend of six years, and becomes the school’s pariah ―which happened in a whole new level because it involves an alien in the process) and how she deals with them, I like it.

But then…

Then she did something totally jaw-dropping which made me, well, drop my jaw. It happened during the first climax in the book and I was totally like… wow girl. Since then it’s difficult to see her in the same way because somehow that scene shows her true color towards her closed people. It’s too much, I think. I mean, Cara’s practically still a high-school student, and to think she’s capable to do such non-sense thing just for a sake of ‘love’? Well. I am speechless, really.

What’s so good is how the romance between Aelyx and Cara is built. I like that they go through a lot before realizing the attraction between them. I always feel weird of insta-love, especially for such ‘forbidden’ one. It’s good that their relationship starts as strangers turn program partners who help each other turn friends turn lovers. Their feelings grow up slowly through a plain togetherness. I love when they’re together where Aelyx becomes so caring and shows a lot of emotions for Cara. What makes it off is how at one point, their love changes Cara into such an irresponsible and rebellious seventeen years old girl. 

This book has other characters with various characteristics from hideous to lovely. Hideous like some of Cara’s friends and Aelyx’s. Lovely like Cara’s parents. I like it so much that her parents do their job as parents very well. It’s really sad that their kids don’t really show as much love as they do to them.

Even though there are things that I dislike about this book, I still am curious on how things would turn out in book two. The cliffhanger isn’t so bad but I just wish there will be more progress on the sequel and more pace on the plot. Alienated feels more like an introduction of the series. And I hope Invaded deals with the main issue of aliens-humans alliance continuation. Oh, and I hope to see more of L’eihrs’ planet because we only get a tiny glimpse of it here.

I guess I’ll settle with 3.5 points for book 1 but I’m hoping to give more for book two!

Love, read, and review,

Cynthia D.

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Book Review: Fate (The Legacy #1) by G.G. Atcheson

Fate by G.G. Atcheson

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

*I received a digital copy of this book from the author in exchange for an honest review*


Get a copy here!
AMAZON | BOOK DEPOSITORY

There were times when I read the blurb of a book and thought I’d enjoy it only to find out later that I didn’t quite enjoy it. It wasn’t because the book was horrible or what. In fact, I rarely hate a book in my life (I could count with my fingers just how many books I’ve read that I really hate). It was usually because I couldn’t get into the story; because the book apparently didn’t work for me or maybe wasn’t my cup of tea.

That was what happened with me and Fate.

Fate by G.G. Atcheson is a crossover of fantasy genres between paranormal and sci-fi. Please note that I’m a big fan of sci-fi books and other times I enjoyed paranormal ones as well. I was surprised that Fate blended both genres into one tale and it’s really a sad truth that it didn’t work quite well for me. Believe me when I say that I wanted so much to love this book. I even listed below everything I loved about this book and those parts actually made me enjoy reading it. We’ll get there in a bit.

Lutnalind Zhendar Xavelk didn’t know that his latest mission would bring him into a long torturous journey in some foreign planet light years away from her home planet, Xhartan. When his spaceship crashed in the woods somewhere on Earth, LX went with name Alex going around the crashed area to find out where he was exactly. Trained as navigator for million years, Alex was expected to fix the ship and find a way to survive on his own while at the same time keep an honor of his pledge to his people.

But fate brought him to meet Mellie, local inhabitant who emanated different aura from other humans he ever encountered on Earth. Unlike with humans, Alex couldn’t sense her coming near him. And that’s only the first strange things about her. While trying to figure out what kind of creature she and her friends were, Alex had to hide his true identity and play pretend as one of them. He later realized that Mellie was a vampire yet she was a sweet girl and she welcomed him warmly even though some of her friends clearly resented his existence among them.

As Alex found himself got tangled with his feeling for Mellie, he was soon followed by several other problems coming his way. With human’s wanting to capture him, Alex had to juggle running from the authorities and keeping his new friends safe. Alex realized he became emotionally too attached with his new friends and Earth and it surely wouldn’t do him any good. Moreover with human’s false judgment upon his appearance on Earth when truth was it was the reserve. With it came the risk of crossing his pledge right in front of his eyes. Now Alex was left with options whether he should care about Mellie and the planet she lived in or stay true to his oath as Lutnalind. And the stake? Would he able to come home after all?

I’m going to put two lists of what I felt about this book. One for things I liked and the other one for things I didn’t like. I’ll go with the later first.

What I didn’t like

- Maybe I shouldn’t consider this point as ‘things I didn’t like’ because it’s more like it just didn’t work for me. I said this before, I loved sci-fi so freaking much and I enjoyed paranormal story a lot sometimes but the idea of combining both genres took me by surprise. Some people might find this worked for them but I’m sorry but I personally thought it was far beyond make sense. I didn’t say this combination was bad, really. It’s just because sci-fi was already one big world, one big fantasy world. And paranormal was another big world. And they went on real different paths. Combining two very different characteristically world wasn’t an easy deal. And in this book, it was combined with human world making it three different worlds on the same plate. This was not what I felt personally about Fate. Generally speaking, if there would be any book playing with this kind of combination in the future, I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t pick it up, whoever the authors might be. Still, I appreciated Ms. Atcheson to work with this newly fresh idea and bravely put it into a series. It’s a first, and it’s a big deal, and a lot of people thought this was genius, so I guess she’d succeeded.

- The character Mellie was not quite developed I must say. I couldn’t comprehend her personality. Maybe because this book was basically told in Alex’s POV and he didn’t think much of her personality than he thought of his feeling for her. Also the scenes involving her didn’t say much about her characteristics. It just consisted of her crying over Alex, her confessing her undying love for Alex, and things like that. Thus, I found her character was distant and that’s one minus point for me.

- The romance between Alex and Mellie was so instant. I felt like it lacked of chemistry. Maybe it was partly because of my issue with the crossover genre leading to my not-quite-good opinion of paranormal creature paired with extraterrestrial being. Their romance didn’t quite touch my heart, really.

What I liked

- The sci-fi parts. I loved the technical parts a lot. I loved how the author described how the spaceship worked, how the repairing occurred, I loved just everything describing Alex’s planet, its culture, and all. I loved all the details she put into this section.

- I loved character Alex who put a high loyalty on his people back in Xhartan. He also tried hard to stay true to his original peaceful personality and how he always tried to avoid killing people no matter innocent or not.

- The funny scenes! Gosh, I laughed a lot reading Alex’s confusion in speaking human’s language. It’s just too funny how he struggled with choosing the right form of contractions to use most of the time. This was a few lines where I swear I lost control of my laugh.

“Well, when you said… he’t… hmm no”, I frowned and shook my head.

That did not sound right.

“He’st…”

No, not better.

After rubbing the back of my neck, I tried one more time, “Hem’st?” 

Tell me this didn’t crack you up! He was trying to form a contraction of ‘he must’… Lololol!

- I liked that the author opted to put epilogue in this book. Most authors wouldn’t do that for the first book of a series. It somehow made the cliffhanger more bearable.

And that’s how I felt about this book. I’m thinking that maybe if this book was told in a whole different circumstance (a.k.a. under one particular genre, sci-fi maybe), I’d love this book. But it wasn’t, so this time I had to settle with 3 stars. It’s just me, though.

Love, read, and review,

Cynthia D.

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Book Review: Autumn in the City of Angels (Autumn #1) by Kirby Howell

Autumn in the City of Angels by Kirby Howell

My rating: 4.5 of 5 stars

*I received a digital copy of this book from the author in exchange for an honest review*


Get a copy here!
AMAZON | BOOK DEPOSITORY

Apparently this book wasn’t at all as I expected it would be. Not that I’m saying this in a negative tone, but I was surprised with what I’ve found in this book. Well, I guess I didn’t read the blurb properly…

I was so damn excited when I found out that the story was set in the middle of apocalypse happening on Earth. It’s definitely my cup of tea! The story was fast-paced and even though I felt like there were some points missing in the story, I truly enjoyed reading this book. I loved the feeling the authors built throughout the story. I could really sense the feeling of fear, anxious, frustration, depressed, and even hope along with the characters on the book. It was as if I was there with them and this very thing already earned this book a special spot in my heart.

Autumn had been living her 17 years of her life in a complete comfort and happiness. Her mother was a famous actress who never forgets to check up on her every so often. As her mother’s not always home to stay with her, her father always tried to make up for the absence. And when he’s not around to keep her company, Autumn was still safely tucked in the sanctuary of home her father built for them in the top of apartment building in Marina Del Rey. Simply said, Autumn was one lucky girl. 
When the Plague attacked Los Angeles and the rest of the world, it seemed that her lucky charm once again worked for her. Autumn was one of the one percent populations who were proven to be immune. But when her parents didn’t come home at all after the long and torturous waiting, Autumn began to question whether she could call herself lucky or not.

When Autumn decided it was time to come out of the safety of her home, she discovered that new threat was lurking out there in disguise of survivor group trying to rebuild a good life. Even after such an apocalypse, there were still people wanted to take advantage of others within chaos. Autumn couldn’t believe her luck when a mysterious person came out of nowhere and saved her from being taken by the scam group. One minute she was hiding in a nook of chilled wall of abandoned building with a stranger pressed against her back holding her tight when next minute she opened her eyes to find out that she was already at home under warm blanket and all wounds bandaged. And her faceless savior was nowhere to be found, replaced by a note written in a newspaper rip saying he’ll come to get her when it’s safe. Autumn couldn’t be any happier to find that somewhere out there, there was someone who she could count on. But when he hadn’t come for months, she felt like all hope was completely vanished.

Months had passed when Autumn finally get to meet the mysterious savior. He was just like how Autumn had imagined him to be all the time. Brave, strong, talented, gentle, and now in person, he was even more beautiful and fascinating. But as she became closer to him, she noticed something that she hadn’t notice on their first encounter. There was something behind his sometimes less-expressive demeanor. But Autumn couldn’t deny that she also felt something growing inside her for the savior boy, Grey. When all secret was unraveled, Autumn realized that there was far worse thing behind the plague and as her body might be immune to the plague, her heart might not get through it this time.

First of all, there are two missing points that I would like to lay out here because as much as I enjoyed this book, I wished these points to be present in the book as well to enrich the awesomeness of this book. And after that, I would go through things that I loved about Autumn in the City of Angels.

Things I’d like to see in this book more: 
One. I like fast-paced story. But for sci-fi books, especially those that involved big deals like apocalypse or invasion or things like that, I wished to read more about it before getting into the ‘after’ part. The idea of plague was kind of new to me and I wanted to know more about how this very thing happened. It’d be more real if there was a close individual scene of plague case happened to someone.

Two. I want Grey’s background story. As an alien who used to express no emotions in daily life, and now when he met Autumn he already changed into more showing emotions, it’s quite hard to picture he had no emotions. Maybe it’s about the perspective of the story was told. This book was told in first person perspective by Autumn so it’s quite not possible to get into Grey’s background story deeper. But maybe if Grey was described having no emotions when he first met Autumn and then slowly he finally could feel emotions as he spent time with her, it maybe could help getting into Grey’s history. Thus, we could understand Alien’s history of emotion banishment.

Things I liked about this book: 

The plot, the characterizations, the idea of the story, the setting, and most of all the feeling and sensation emanated from the story; I liked them all. I liked the character Autumn. She’s too rationalist actually, but there were scenes when she experienced a breakdown from the depressing circumstance she was in making her seemed more normal. But sometimes I resented her for being too emotionally sensitive and went all heroic in the wrong time. Well, maybe it was just me because Grey was too-understanding over Autumn’s need to be a do-gooder. Love, people, what more I can say? 

“I guess I was falling for you before I even knew it.” 

(Grey; Chapter XX, Autumn in the City of Angels)

When I read Grey’s confession about his feeling toward Autumn, I was like,

“Wow, so I guess Alien could fall in love at the first sight as well?”

Because that’s exactly what happened to him. It’s kind of funny and sweet and weird… but sweet anyway. He might be absent from emotional feeling for million years but he showed his love for Autumn just the way normal human did. Oh Grey… :3

Grey was so gentle and caring and the fact that he was willing to take part in rescuing humans (even though he might have his own personal reason for this) showed that after all he had a kind heart. 

Even though the whole feeling of this book was considered suspenseful and a little depressing, I liked that the authors also slipped some funny parts into the scenes. Autumn sometimes acted silly just like most 17 years old girl did. I laughed at some comical scenes and my favorite would be the scene where Grey went all proposing style in front of Autumn only to make her understand just who he truly was…

“My name is Greyson Alexander. I came to Earth in 1803, after leaving my home planet, Andros. I want to make sure you understand that I’m a human being, just like you are.” He said the last four words slowly, emphasizing each one. “I’m just from a different star system. Physiologically, I’m exactly like any other human male from Earth. This is my body that I was born with on Andros. I didn’t steal it from anyone. I’m not a parasite that inhabits people’s bodies. My parents didn’t send me here in a little space ship when I was a baby; I didn’t travel here in a lightning bolt, and nothing is going to pop out of your stomach if you kiss me.” 
(Grey; Chapter XX, Autumn in the City of Angels)

‘..nothing is going to pop out of your stomach if you kiss me..’ LOL! 

About the setting, Ms. Authors did a great job describing it. I could easily picture it in my head how messed up the whole town was, how eerie the situation all around. And the sci-fi parts where Grey described Alien’s superpower were neat and easily understood. It’s kind of technical but not too technical… if you know what I mean…

Now about the ending. It’s kind of cruel. A bit. 

Well, I’m never really a fan of cliffhanger and especially of those being put in the end of a series book and more especially those in books that I truly enjoyed. But oh well, that’s where the charm of series book lies: to make readers as frustrated as possible in the end of each book except the last one ;)

Love, read, and review,

Cynthia D.

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(NetGalley) ARC Review: From a Distant Star by Karen McQuestion

From a Distant Star by Karen McQuestion

My rating: 4.5 of 5 stars

*I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher through Netgalley*

Pub. Date: May 19th, 2015

Get a copy here!
AMAZON | BOOK DEPOSITORY

This is my first time to review a book that I get from Netgalley. I joined NG several weeks ago and still trying to figuring things out with it. From a Distant Star attracted me because of its intriguing cover and blurb. Combination of sci-fi and romance is a big turn on for me. And I was so dead eager to devour this book and find some sweet romance between human and extraterrestrial being within the story.

Oh boy had I guessed it all wrong.

From a Distant Star isn’t a story about a human falls in love with alien. It hardly even contained romantic scenes. It was more like an adventurous sci-fi with a bit of friendship and romance. I admit I was really disappointed about this fact. God knows just how crazy I am over romance. And sci-fi combined. But turned out this book wasn’t like what I expected it to be and I was like…

But I had a mixed feeling about this book.

Despite my disappointment over the non-existence alien-human romance, I found this book really interesting! It surprised me that I really really enjoyed this book and only had one little complaint in the end. Yes, I am such a confusing five years old girl.

“I had once had a boyfriend, the love of my life, but now all that was left of him was a shell.”

(Chapter XIII, From a Distant Star)

Emma Garson and Lucas Walker had been together ever since they could remember. They might just an ordinary couple like the others but both of them believed their feelings were anything but ordinary. Lucas was the driver on their relationship and together they made a perfect couple high school sweethearts ever be. Even though Lucas’ parents seemed to always look down on Emma, he never once gave up on her. So when Lucas got cancer, Emma felt like the ground had cracked under her feet. 

Dropping out of all activities except school, Emma devoted to stay by Lucas’ side every day. Lucas seemed to get weaker day by day but Emma never once wanted to leave his side. No matter how hopeless the future seemed for them both. No matter how different Lucas’ appearance had become after months of chemo he’d been through. No matter how stern Lucas’ mother wants to shoo her away every waking second. Emma would do anything to get Lucas back on his two feet and looked at her with his heart-melting smile on his face. Anything, included praying harder than ever and believing some mystical magic potion could cure her boyfriend’s illness. Of course nothing was as easy as it seemed on fairy tales and Emma was left hopeless without anything to hang her hope on.

But then some mysterious events happened and when Emma felt her hope begins to vanish, Lucas opened his eyes. Lucas, who’s been on comatose and had very little progress to wake up any moment soon, who everyone seemed had given up, whose existence was believed would cease any moment, who Emma never gave up on even for a second, finally wake up in the blink of an eye. Everyone was elated. His magical recovery was reported to the entire nation. And surely Emma must be the one who’d cry loudly in joy right? Yes and no. Emma couldn’t stop grinning like an idiot seeing her boyfriend opened his eyes and made a small talk with people around him at first. But then she realized something bizarre on him. Yes, Lucas seemed much better and his recovery progress was even considered excellent but he acted nothing like the old Lucas at all. If any, it seemed like he was a totally different person trying to act like Lucas. 

When Emma noticed the strangeness of Lucas’ behavior was beyond acceptable, she found another surprising thing happened around them. An extraterrestrial object, a mysterious loud explosion sound heard three days before Lucas’ miraculous recovery, a strange visit from Federal agents, they all might be just the beginning of an even weirder enigma. When she learned that her suspicion might be true, Emma realized that her boyfriend’s life was at stake in the middle of this conundrum. This time it seemed like Emma was the one who should be the driver for them. Emma was forced to take action and brought Lucas along in a road trip to save innocent life from questionable agents and mysterious people from science research institute chasing after them. Once again, Emma’s devotion for Lucas was tested. And now Emma wouldn’t hesitate to risk everything to get Lucas back, body and soul, even if it meant risking her own life.

First of all, I loved how the story was told here. The perspective used here was a combination of 3rd person POV and 1st person POV by Emma. The plot was neat and engaging. I liked the bit of escapade feel in this book. Emma was a high school girl with devotion sized a mountain toward his ill boyfriend. This was the first thing that hooked me into the story. I loved her loyalty for Lucas even though sometimes it felt too much for a 17 years old girl. Lucas was described as caring and loving boyfriend who also never gives up on his girlfriend even though his parents against their relationship from the start. I actually melted several times witnessing how strong Emma’s love for Lucas but the fact that there weren’t any actual sweet moments of them together made me bitter…

But what really hooked me into the story was the character Scout a.k.a. the alien. I don’t know about you but I always read alien-related books where the alien appeared to be a hot gorgeous boy. Here, the alien was the kind that very innocent and almost child-like. I felt my soft spot growing for Scout and I think I even got all doe-eyed during all his scenes when he made me taken aback by his innocence. His pure opinion about Earth felt like a gentle slap in my heart…

“This is a very confusing planet. People believe things that aren’t true about other people just because of how they look and what kind of vehicle they drive. Why can you not wait and see who they are inside before you make a decision?”

“That is a sad thing… always thinking the worst of other people.” 

(Chapter XXVI, From a Distant Star)

Gosh, I felt like giving him a hug and reassure him that nothing in this cruel world could hurt his pure soul… and when he got all science-y, I wanted to pinch his cheek and give him a kiss in that exact spot afterward. In the end I realized that I fell in love with his character so much. Much more than what I felt for Emma or Lucas.

My only complaint would be that it’s actually kind of off when everything just got all smooth for Emma and Lucas on their mission trip. Lucas’ brother happened to have a car that they could use for the mission and they happened to meet a very kind couple who happened to have an advanced vehicle that they could borrow. I expected for a rougher kind of adventure actually, not a smooth one with saviors ready wherever they go.

Well, even though I didn’t get what I expected, this book managed to be a very enjoyable read through and through and I couldn’t be any happier it introduced me with Scout here :)

Love, read, and review,

Cynthia D.

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Book Review: Red Rising (Red Rising Trilogy #1) by Pierce Brown

Red Rising by Pierce Brown

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Get a copy here!
AMAZON | BOOK DEPOSITORY

So this book was a proof of my sometimes-lameness in reading certain book. I purchased the kindle copy last year, started reading it for the first time around February, and now 3 months later I just finished it after having long battle with side of me that wanted to keep putting it down. I swear this was my first time of needing such a long time to finish a fiction.

I personally was in total awe with this book and Pierce Brown. Red Rising was a debut novel and the author outdid himself with all the rich details and the unthought-of plot, ever. And not to forget his imagination to build up a fantasy of the whole Mars and all its complexity, it was dead awesome. Bloodydamn. Just where did he gather the inspiration to write this trilogy?

‘I was not raised in palaces. I did not ride horses through meadows and eat meals of hummingbird tongues. I was forged in the bowels of this hard world. Sharpened by hate. Strengthened by love.’

(Prologue, Red Rising)

Sixteen years old Darrow was a Red. A Red by all means was meant to be a slave to higher colors, specifically Gold. Sad truth Reds sat on the very bottom of society which made them slaves to every color. Darrow never dreamt of living more than what his current life offered now. He was a helldiver, the youngest in history, the best in history. He married a beautiful brave girl named Eo. He had his family all living together even though his father was long gone when he was still a kid. He thought no more than spending all his life in Lykos as Red Lambda where song and dance was the comforts to their rough life.

But nothing remained forever in life.

“I live for you”

“Then you must live for more.”

(Chapter IV, Red Rising)

The day the nightmare happened, all Darrow wanted was to follow the smell of death. And that was what about to happen except a group of rebels wanted a different path for him.

Away from Lykos, family, and all familiar thing back in Red ground, Darrow was shaped to a whole different form. Red Darrow was now a Gold. Well, at least that was what shown on the outside. Darrow was still Red in heart and sure he would never change. Disguised as Gold, Darrow tried a risky step to infiltrate the evil color from the inside. And just like another teenage Gold, he stepped up to join a Gold institution where he could pick a start of revenge. Little did he know that the institution wasn’t at all like its simple name. It was not a school. It was more like a life-and-death battle to be the only one ArchPrimus. Darrow used all his strength to be the said Primus and found along the way how exactly it was to be a real Gold: mean, unforgiving, and unstopped. He began to question himself about all he’d done to get the title, wondered if that would make him no less than an evil Gold. But he did it all for Red, for people back in Lykos, for every Red blood who put their faiths on his shoulder. Surely that would make a different, right? As he questioned himself that, he was faced with another surprising fact that Gold could be a loyal friend if treated right. Struggling with all these complicated dilemmas, Darrow was once again reminded by the fact that in the end, after all the torture, blood, pain, and death, it was only just a beginning.

I remembered became all teary inside once I finished it. Not because the story, though, but because the fact that I was finally able to reach the last page.

My first impression about Red Rising was hardcore dystopian.

But first thing first, let me say something.

I NEVER like dystopian book.

I hate it. I do. Dystopian infuriates and depresses me at the same time. I always avoid this genre at all cost. I believe that reading is a joy where we could fully escape to the story without having to worry about being lost because we can always close the page any moment to come back. But the ‘misery’ from reading this genre seemed to haunt my soul forever no matter just when I decided to stop reading it.

So we could easily conclude that I’d hate this book. What with each violence scene was being described very casually here.

But here I was going to say something that would make my whole speech above pointless: I loved Red Rising.

I know, I was being confusing here but this was what exactly I felt. This book had me at mental battle between loving and hating this book. I hated this book that I couldn’t stop wincing at all those miserable scenes which practically on EVERY page. Yet my mind was in a superb awestruck condition by all the details that I could not forget this book until this very second. Hell, Red Rising might be the first dystopian book that I ever loved.

The author did characterizations to each character very well. Darrow was my top favorite. I loved that Pierce Brown didn’t make him as this flawless hero but simply as human who made mistakes and learned from it to be better. I loved Darrow’s way of thinking despite his young age. He was so much mature, well, being Red it was common though.

The other character, Eo, also took special place in my heart. There was this one particular scene where she did something that later became the turning point of Red Rising. I loved Darrow for loving her so deep. Never once he forgot her while doing his risky mission. After all, what he’d done was all started because of Eo’s move first.

‘And she may be like me— from a clan of Red earth diggers, a clan of song and dance and soil— but she could be made from air, from the ether that binds the stars in a patchwork.’ 

(Chapter I, Red Rising)

I super loved the details about Mars, how separate the life of each colors there. I kept saying about rich details here because that was what the author did. He went all out with details for everything. When devouring all these details, for a second there, I could easily forget my hope to get an HEA from this book. Clearly, the author knew very well what he wrote and what to do to engage readers to stay put until the end of the book.

Anyway, there was one thing that bothered me a lot about the title.

First time I read the title ‘Red Rising’, all I could think of was this book would be about Red people fighting their rights, like they were having actual war of getting justification somewhere in the middle of the book. Instead it was focusing more on the preparation of rising, like how Darrow went through all those awful phases transforming into Gold, then more about how Gold’s world worked. Gold took like 80% of the book. I kept thinking when the rising would occur only to find out on the last page that everything was just a beginning. The actual rising didn’t even really happened here. It annoyed me when the title of the book misleading what I thought about the story inside.

Oh, another complaint: just how many odd terms on this book made it rather difficult sometimes for me to immerse into the story. This might be one of the reasons I kept putting it down. Just put glossary in the end of the book then problem fixed!

So, despite my complaints and my speech about hating dystopian book, here I said that I loved this book, or more like awestricken by this book. I wanted so bad to read the continuation of Red’s rising under Darrow’s command but I still don’t know when I’d read the next book because clearly I needed time to recover from the torture caused by Red Rising before firing it up again with second book. Well, hopefully soon.

Love, read, and review,

Cynthia D.

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Book Review: These Broken Stars (Starbound #1) by Amie Kaufman and Meagan Spooner

These Broken Stars by Amie Kaufman

My rating: 4.5 of 5 stars

Get a copy here!

AMAZON | BOOK DEPOSITORY

The first time I laid my eyes on These Broken Stars' cover, I was instantly in love with it. Scratch that. I AM SO FREAKING CRAZY IN LOVE WITH IT. The cover was so darn beautiful and intriguing and amazing and made me want to wear it as a top every day...

I then dived in the book with a hope to find some amazing story inside. Um, I gotta be honest; I seriously don't know what to feel about this book. This book falls into sci-fi category and God knows how much my love for sci-fi grew even stronger since my last encounter with amazing sci-fi trilogy months ago. That trilogy was the picture perfect of what kind of sci-fi I'd no doubt love with all my heart (i.e. strong sci-fi with good mixed amounts of everything). But this book lacked of parts where sci-fi usually focused on. What does it even mean? Come read more below ;)

Lilac Laroux was always famous. The beautiful, breathtaking, untouchable Miss Laroux. She was the only heiress to the LaRoux Industries empire. Not only she was known as the richest girl in the galaxy, Lilac was also known as the most off-limit girl ever existed. Her father made sure everyone see the fact. It left Lilac with a personal guard and an overprotective friend to accompany her everywhere. That way, a lot of guys knew better than made a move to her. 

Tarver Merendsen was just recently being famous. The war hero, best soldier, precise in every action Major Merendsen. His heroic acts during the war earned him Medal of Honor that brought his image from lowborn boy to respectable hero. But still some people didn't bother to point his background out for others to see. After all, he was just a teacher's son who made it all the way to the top by working hard under the help of scholarship. 

The first time they met, they made a little effort to pretend that everything was normal between them. Tarver saw her the first time as a girl covered in gracefulness who had a tolerant heart. Lilac saw him the first time as a man of action who wore confidences fitly on his sleeves. Little did they know that Tarver knew nothing about Lilac's true self at the time. And for a brief time there, Lilac was happy to be able to interact with someone who saw her for who she was, not for whose kid she was; knowing it was a very wrong thing to do.

The second time they met, Lilac finally did one thing that she was supposed to do from the beginning: to steer clear of Major Merendsen. But something died a little inside her when she did that common act she used to perform every time someone showed interests for her. Because he was unlike any other guys she'd ever known. Because he was so sincere it reflected in his eyes. Because she felt very comfortable around him. Because she knew what her father could do to someone like him. Because... she cared for him. 

But it was funny how everything could happen in a span of a day. One minute she disdained him with a quite hurtful words, the next one she found herself huddling together with him on the same survival pod to save their lives from the accident happened with Icarus, the ship they were on at the moment. From there on ward, they took turns saving each other's life after their pod crashed into a nowhere planet that hid mystery on its every corner. When they finally learned heart-slicing truth of their landing on strange planet, they were faced with countless hurdles and unexpected turn of events to survive there physically and how to keep their insanities intact. When they thought what they went through was already bad, they met worse things, and even the worst hadn't all come out. On that strange planet where Tarver and Lilac learned a lot of things: loss, survival, loyalty, trust, love, betrayal, sacrifices, and most important, nothing was ever as it seemed.

For the truth, this book didn’t strike me as intriguing on the first chapter. I didn’t read the blurb at all so I wasn’t sure of what I’d expect from the book anyway. On chapter two I officially disliked Lilac. From chapter three onward, I took turns disliking Lilac and Tarver until their survival pod crashed into nowhere planet. They were attracted to each other since the beginning; it’s obvious. But one rejection led them into childish words fights every time they’re having conversations. Well, yes it’s quite mean on Lilac’s part but if only Tarver was gentle enough in reacting to that… Somewhere in the middle of their journey to reach the shipwreck though, when their first twist of their stay at the strange planet happened, I started to like them. They started to respond rationally to each other as the only survivors on some never land. Then somewhere around 50%, I was truly in awe with Lilac. It’s amazing how the authors did the characterization with such progress; that Ms. Kaufman and Ms. Spooner could make hard-to-like characters to slowly become lovable by making use of the situations to help shaping their characteristics.

These Broken Stars didn’t actually have a fresh plot but it had a real interesting way of telling. Mystery and suspenseful were the keywords for These Broken Stars. I must admit that when it came to the thrilling part, it was freaking intense and the authors did an awesome job building the suspenseful feeling. They successfully made me shiver in the middle of the night all alone in my dimly lit bedroom with the only light was from my e-reader (yes, I know, I had a real bad reading habit). I had a hard time keeping control over my mind to wreck somewhere in the middle of the book. The tension was built very well and I found myself gasping for air of reality to hit my breathless lungs that was drained by mind-boggling fantasy. So where did my complaint about the lacking lie?

It lied on the place setting.

So, their unexpected journey began with a sci-fi-y Titanic famous scene (read: wrecked ship and all) which still took place on space. After it crashed into a strange mysterious planet somehow I felt that the place setting wasn’t quite concerned the authors any longer. They went on and on exploring the mystery and thrilling parts while they simply put description of the planet as simple as it could be. I was expecting more mind-blowing place setting than just forest, plain, and mountain. This is a sci-fi after all where extraterrestrial things happened in some mind-boggling places outside the Earth. I wanted more description of outer space and foreign planets vividly. It’s sad that even the planet they lived in were not even described at all even though Lilac mentioned once in the beginning; something about brightest light called Corinth. I wanted to know more of these parts. It would actually complete the point of great sci-fi read for me.

My other complaint (this is even worse, I guess) was the ending.

Dearest God. Why such mind-boggling story should ended up like that???

It was so abrupt and left too much unanswered questions in the back of my mind. I actually thought the second book would be the continuation of Lilac and Tarver’s future where things would be completely resolved. But no, people, the second book was a whole different story and there would be NO perfect wrap-up whatsoever for Lilac and Tarver’s story (I haven’t read the book but this is what I get from its blurb). It seriously made me want to cry in frustration. This book should’ve ended in much better ending, seriously. Oh why…

I wanted so damn bad to give this book five stars. I even agreed to come to terms with my complaint about lack of place setting. But I couldn’t come to terms with the ending. So, after contemplating about the rating of These Broken Stars real hard…

Oh hell, 4.5 stars just earned!

Love, read, and review,

Cynthia D.

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