Tag Archives: romance

Matched

By Ally Condie, published by Razor Bill (Penguin)

Matched (Matched, #1)

“Watched by society; trapped by rules; freed by love?”

Cassia lives in a dark vision of the future where The Society rule everything- they decide who you will marry, how many kids you will bear, when you will die… even how much food you eat. They dictate over everything.

When Cassia is matched to her lifelong best friend, Xander, she is given a special card which she can slot in to a device to see pictures of him. But upon viewing his profile, a different face appears… Ky, another friend. While she tries to get to the bottom of why he was accidentally put as another ‘Match’, she will uncover dark, sinister secrets about The Society, and fall in love with Ky… what will happen after she has fallen in love with the wrong person?

I kept meaning to buy this, as it looked like a really good YA book, and the reviews said so too. I read it in a day, and really loved it! Ally Condie has generated a dark, dystopic world… where everything is perfect to the citizens, but really it’s sinister underneath. It’s imaginative, and futuristic. My only problem is some parts weren’t explained; like the device called ‘the port’- I really had no idea what that was. However, the plot was clever, with the events exciting and at points, terrifying.

I really liked the character of Cassie, but I think she could have been a bit more rebellious. She was a great narrator and adventurous, but not exactly Tris from Divergent. The two love interests were great, too- I loved both of them and there was a lot of visible rivalry, which I liked and it made the love triangle very effective.

Overall, it’s a really great dystopic read, full of futuristic visions and battles for love, great for teenagers. I’ll be picking up the sequel soon.

One Crow Alone

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By S. D. Crockett, published by Macmillan.

One Crow Alone (After the Snow, Book #2)

“A winter’s day has become a winter’s nightmare…”

Teenage Magda Krol is living in her quiet, Polish village until strange men arrive. She hides in her cellar, and upon emerging realises that they were not thieves, but people evacuating the village because of the harsh weather! She ventures across the frozen wasteland to the next village, in the hope of getting on the next evacuation truck, when she encounters Ukrainian boy Ivan. Together they smuggle themselves onto a truck bound for London, where they will search for Magda’s only remaining relative; her mother. But London is a whole lot worse than Poland…

*REVIEW MIGHT CONTAIN SPOILERS :)*

I really loved S. D. Crockett’s first book, After The Snow, and I loved this one just as much. Although I expected the sequel (Well… technically this is a Prequel) to be about the further adventures of Willo and Mary- but it wasn’t. In fact, they only had three short chapters in total. The whole of the book was about a minor character, Magda (Willo’s step-mum), from ATS. It was unexpected, but great to delve into a story of a different character. It’s was really great to see how she accidentally fell into Willo’s future.

The character of Madga was great; she made for a really adventurous, determined protagonist! She was really love-able, and I was rooting for her, hoping that she would find her mother, all the way through the book. I also really liked Ivan, the love interest- although when he decided to run off and leave Magda alone my mind really changed about him. He was portrayed as quite caring, and always stuck by Magda’s side- so it kind of confused me as to why he left for no given reason. The way all of Willo’s family fell into the story at the end was absolutely brilliant, and quite unexpected, too!

As for the plot, it was great, and I really enjoyed the adventure and action. It was dark and scary, and all about hope, survival, and loss. There was even an essence of romance in there too! I was also given a much better insight into S. D. Crockett’s dystopic world, actually giving us the date in which it’s set (late 2030’s and onward!). Overall it’s a really great, thrilling read from an author I love. Highly recommended!

The Beautiful and the Cursed

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By Page Morgan, published by Hot Key Books

Ingrid Waverly and her sister Gabby move to Paris with their mother, escaping the memories of the accident Ingrid caused- setting fire to a house. They had sent Ingrids twin, Grayson, ahead of them to France to scout out a new home. They arrive at an eerie looking Abbey guarded by stone gargoyles but Grayson is nowhere in sight. Locals say he went missing. like the french girls who have been kidnapped.

Determined to find their brother, Gabby and Ingrid begin a search, but stumble across a scary new side to Paris. The gargoyle which sits on top of their abbey was once a human; Luc; and was turned into a beast, who is sentenced to protect whoever shelters within the abbeys walls. Also, Demons exist- and so does an ‘Alliance’, who pledge to protect people from the Demons. On their search for their sibling, Gabby will fall in love with Detective Nolan, and Ingrid with their Gargoyle Luc, but can they protect each other, and save Grayson, on top of stopping the evil force behind the kidnappings?

Move over, sparkly vampires- the magic gargoyles have arrived! This book was amazing. As soon as I saw the cover I knew this was going to be a great, Gothic read. It was thrilling from the beginning, with scary murder cases and supernatural secrets and evil demonic hell-hounds… So much awesome stuff. There was so much action, so much drama, packed into the pages, and I loved it.

I thought that the main focus would be on Ingrid, seeing as that’s the character on the cover, and even though most of the limelight was on her, her sister Gabby was also a main character. I loved Gabby and Ingrid, they were great protagonists; brave, courageous, adventurous 19th century girls. Luc made a great character too; a Gothic, half human gargoyle sentenced to protect the people that live in the abbey but accidentally falls in love with the eldest girl? How cool!

I didn’t think there was going to be a love triangle, but then one was introduced on the last few pages which was really unpredictable. I’d like to see it develop a bit more in the sequel out soon (The Sweet and the Savage), but I hope it won’t overpower the action!

Ferryman

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By Claire McFall, published by Templar.

Ferryman

“Life, death, love– which would you choose?”

Teenage protagonist Dylan is on a train, heading north form Glasgow to finally meet the father that see hasn’t seen in over a decade. But the train crashes in the middle of a countryside full of hills, and when Dylan emerges from the wreckage, the only person she can find is a mysterious looking boy sitting up on a hill. She will soon learn that she has actually died in that train crash, and that she’s emerged into a wasteland full of demons called wraiths who wish to fest on her pure soul, and that the mysterious boy is called Tristan. He is her ferryman; a person who guides souls through the wastelands into the unknown afterlife. As they embark on the terrifying, wraith-infested journey, Dylan finds herself falling in love with her ferryman, Tristan. Life, Death, Love- what will she choose?

This is one of the books that seriously stood out to me during the bloggers brunch event the other weekend. I just couldn’t wait to read it, and ended up reading it in just under a day. I literally could not put it down! It’s a terrifying, downright scary story, with a strong essence of forbidden love. The characters were just brilliant, I grew to really love Dylan, as it was quite a while into the book (about 60 pages) before she actually died. I got to know her whole back story, and what made her how she is, which I wasn’t expecting, but enjoyed. The setting was so imaginative; a really original take on the afterlife. There was not one point in the book that I didn’t like. It was just so awesome.

I really recommend this to YA horror/dark romance/dystopia fans: It’s an absolutely brilliant debut from an author I would really love to read more from!

Sister Assassin

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By Kiersten White, published by Harper Collins

Sister Assassin (Sister Assassin, #1)

“She never chose her deadly gift but now she’s forced to use it. How far would you go to protect the only family you have left?”

Meet two sisters who love each other very dearly; Fia, and Annie, who is blind. Orphaned, they are sent by their Aunt to a special Academy which claims it has the resources to help older sister Annie’s need in education due to her blindness. However, it’s not all they help with- as they are a school for extremely talented students… ‘Talented’ here meaning ‘Gifted with special, almost supernatural abilities’. Annie has the gift to for see the future and the dangers that lie ahead for those close to her in visions. The school also helps to train Fia, the younger sister, in combat. But why are they training her to kill?

Then Fia is sent to assassinate a man for a reason unknown to her, but she just can’t do it. Fia has killed two people before, and her past haunts her. She doesn’t want the weight of another death on her shoulders, and additionally she finds this ‘target’ different… innocent. But when Fia does not follow her orders from the Academy, her life and her sisters life are thrown upside down and life becomes a deadly game… Can Fia work out why the Academy wants this man killed and save those she loves?

Sister Assassin has got to be one of the most mind-blowing, exciting, books for teenagers ever! Obviously, I was hooked from the first page: Top secret mysterious organisation? Check. Superpowers of sorts? Check. Two loveable and well developed protagonists? Check! It’s a great, gritty thrill ride of a book; fast paced and tense. I liked how the narration kept changing from Fia to Annie, even though Annie’s parts were a bit lengthier at times. Despite how frustrating that got, I found that was a pretty great narrative hook. It really drew the reader in.

The ending was a bit of a ‘I NEED TO READ THIS AGAIN TO MAKE SURE I READ THAT PROPERLY’ ending. It really shocked me (I gasped out loud!)! I’ll warn you now; this story gets pretty violent and shocking, it’s not for the faint hearted!

All in all, this is a really brilliant book by an awesome author. I really hope there’s some kind of sequel in the making!