Veronica Roth - Divergent

Divergent is an imaginative, exciting, fast-paced, adrenaline-driven, and honest-to-God amazing read . The world Miss Roth created is very interesting and a real possibility for the future of our society. I also loved her characters because I felt I was reading about real people; Roth didn't try to romanticize her characters and give them only happy feelings. 

I found Tris to be a very human character. I know that sounds weird, but what I mean is that a lot of authors like to make their characters be nice and compassionate and just overall good people; but Tris wasn't compassionate and she really didn't care about others, all she wanted to do was survive the Dauntless training and not get close to anyone. I have to admit that I didn't particularly like the fact that she wasn't compassionate and didn't care about her friends, but it's real . People have ugly sides to them and I think it's good that Roth didn't hide that from the reader. 

Divergent is also not your typical YA read. It is gritty, dark, and no-holds-barred; no light and fluffy feelings here. There is a good deal of violence and death, and the good people aren't spared from it. 

Overall, an incredible start to a series, and I look forward to reading the rest in the Divergent trilogy.

Book Love,

Lena

Rachel Higginson - Hopeless Magic

Holy mother-cracking hell that was freakin INTENSE!! Like habanero peppers mixed with tabasco sauce intense. Just wha--why--how--who--what? What the hell did I just read!!Oh my god I seriously can't believe the book ended how it did. HOW COULD KIRAN DO THAT!!!!! I never really liked Kiran because he's been an asshole to Eden since the first book, but I really wanted to believe the best of him and give him the benefit of the doubt despite having a bastard of a father and being a bit--or a lot--of a prick himself. But no, he just had to prove that he was just like his father. 

I felt so so so so soooooooo terrible for Eden. She absolutely loved Kiran and then he goes and betrays her in the worst way possible. He totally killed their love, and I can't understand how he could think that Eden would forgive him for that. For a second I thought he was insane, like literally psycho, acting like everything was fine and telling Eden they had to leave like nothing had happened. He was totally unreasonable in believing Eden would keep loving him after what he did.

This is the first book I've read where two people are soul mates and absolutely love each other and one of them betrays the other in such an atrocious and horrible way. I have absolutely no idea how Eden and Kiran could possibly come back from this. How do you even forgive something like that? I would find it impossible to do. I'm on the edge of my seat because I desperately want to know what happens next. Is Eden going to hook up with Jericho? Will she meet someone else? Will she forgive Kiran? Or will she stay by herself? The possibilities are endless. 

I do think she will get back with Kiran because, hello, they ARE soul mates, but that kind of betrayal leaves a lasting scar on a relationship; I don't see how things could ever be the same between them. I'll be excited to see how Ms Higginson handles this situation.

On a positive note, because of what Kiran did, Eden turned into a total badass, and I hope she stays that way, because I'm not really a fan of wimpy, whiny, cry-baby, woe-is-me heroines. I was really getting tired of her being this helpless girl who everyone had to protect and who was always being submissive. I have high hopes that all that is over and that she is now more mature and tough.

On another note, I love how the plot of the series is developing, with all the drama of Eden being the only hope of saving the Immortal race. I'm super excited to see how much stronger Eden's magic is going to get and how she is going to bring down the Kendrick line. If it weren't for the awesome plot full of magic, intrigue, action and mystery, I would have stopped reading a long time ago, because the romance is DEFINITELY not up to par. I find Kiran to be cowardly, wimpy and totally lacking as the hero, but well, that's just my opinion, you might not think so. To be honest, throughout most of this book, I actually liked Kiran and wanted his relationship with Eden to succeed. But now, not so much. 

There are so many more things that happened but I'm not going to reveal anything specific; you'll have to read the book and find out for yourself!!! Rarely do I give a book five stars, so believe me when I say this book is AMAZING.

Book Love,

Lena

Mary McCall - Highland Treasure

I was kind of skeptical about reading this book because though it has a lot of stars, it hasn't been reviewed by many people (see Goodreads.com), which made me think the rating would not be very reliable, and it wasn't. I would probably give this book between 2-2.5 stars. What is sad is that this book had a lot of potential, but an extremely fast-paced story line, a lack of depth, and unrealistic situations/characters made it just an ok read. 

For one thing, everything happened extremely fast in this book, from Leonce and Hope getting married to them falling in love. This all happened in just a couple of days, and it just wasn't realistic and didn't allow the reader to enjoy the buildup of emotions between the H/h. It also was not believable that Hope, who had been abused by her father for years, could trust a man within days of meeting him. It was disappointing that Hope didn't make Leonce fight for her love. Instead of reacting like a normal woman who has been tricked into marriage by a man she has known for mere days and trying to escape or make his life impossible, Hope just randomly decides that she will give her heart to him and she will make him fall in love with her, WHEN THEY BARELY KNOW EACH OTHER!!!! Ugh it was just so unbelievable and annoying. And seriously, what was up with Hope? Was she bipolar or something? because she would be exuberant one moment and completely defeated the next, I swear it gave me emotional whiplash; I couldn't keep up with her mood swings. 

The lack of buildup also contributed to a lack of depth in the book. Because the author didn't give the characters time for their feelings to develop, it all felt very fake and cheesy. It would have been nice if Hope and Leonce had both had to work at cracking the other's shell and gradually falling in love, rather than how it played out. 

I'm also not sure whether to call Leonce an alpha male; I'm leaning more towards NOT. He just didn't make me feel like he was dominant and in control; most of the time he felt more like a petulant child rather than a grown man. Mind you, I'm not saying he should have exerted more control over Hope, but rather exuded more confidence and manliness than he did in the book. It just did not seem realistic that a Highland chieftain in the 11th century would have acted how he did.

I also felt like there was little plot in the book. It mostly consisted of Hope playing games, angering people, fighting with Leonce, and discovering she had family pretty much everywhere, which was also highly unrealistic and cheesy. I felt like the matter of her abusive father was not given much thought and was resolved much too quickly. There was basically nothing to make this book exciting, like mystery or intrigue. The magical aspect of the book (view spoiler) totally fell flat and was way too downplayed for my tastes. When people found out she was the Gifted One, they were in awe for like two seconds and then everyone forgot about it -__- . If it had been made a bigger part of the book, it would have made it so much better. It would have been cool if, say, her abusive father and his men were after Hope for being the Gifted One but this was a secret from Leonce and everyone else, and they had to figure out why she was hunted or something like that. Just anything to make it more exciting!!! *Sigh* oh well.

Overall, it's an ok read if you're looking for something without too much depth. But if you're looking for something a little deeper, steer clear of this one.

Book Love,

Lena