Review of The Vault of Dreamers by Caragh M O'Brien

Review of Caragh M O'Brien's The Vault of Dreamers

Release Date: September 16th, 2014

Synopsis as found on GoodReads.com:

From the author of the Birthmarked trilogy comes a fast-paced, psychologically thrilling novel about what happens when your dreams are not your own.

The Forge School is the most prestigious arts school in the country. The secret to its success:  every moment of the students' lives is televised as part of the insanely popular Forge Show, and the students' schedule includes twelve hours of induced sleep meant to enhance creativity. But when first year student Rosie Sinclair skips her sleeping pill, she discovers there is something off about Forge. In fact, she suspects that there are sinister things going on deep below the reaches of the cameras in the school. What's worse is, she starts to notice that the edges of her consciousness do not feel quite right. And soon, she unearths the ghastly secret that the Forge School is hiding—and what it truly means to dream there.

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From the author of 1 of my favorite series, Birthmarked, comes this book about a girl who is accepted into an elite school that is also a reality show. Rosie is 1 of 100 new Sophmores that were accepted at The Forge School for the arts. With thousands of applications every year, the outcome could have been very different. Rosie comes from a poor town where she lives in an abandoned train car with her family. She does not want to end up back there, but out of the 100 students, only 50 get to stay. The 50 are chosen by a popularity ranking system called the Blip Board. Sadly Rosie is close to last place.

The book begins with only 1 day before the choices are made with who can stay & who gets sent home. Rosie has to quickly make a plan on how she is going to gain popularity that quickly. It has been done in the shows past, but can she accomplish the unimaginable? That is when she meets Linus, a lowly kitchen employee only a year older than her. For her time already being at Forge, she hasn't made a single friend, because she wanted to focus on her art, but now is when she begins to open her eyes to the people and world around her.

At the same time, Rosie begins to see little things that make her question the school she is living at. Every day they are made to take 12 hours of sleep with the help of sleeping pills, but one night Rosie decides to gum hers and remove it when the night monitor leaves. She sees another girl have a seizure in the middle of the night & an IV placed into her arm. Afterword, they roll the girl out of the room. The next morning, the girl doesn't even realize anything has happened & doesn't notice the scab in her arm.

This story is about Rosie's life in a school that is a reality show... but this school is not exactly what it's viewers believe it is. It was a fast paced mystery that had me second guessing if the character was crazy or if everyone was making her feel that way. I enjoyed it quite a bit. If it can't be dystopian, at least it involved a competition/reality show a la The Selection by Kiera Cass.

This book marks the end of my tangent in reading only already released books. So I will be back to reading 3 Advance Copies & then 3 Released books as usual. So make sure you are checking back in a few days to see what I've read next.

Review of The Styclar Saga: Lailah by Nikki Kelly

Review of Nikki Kelly's The Styclar Saga: Lailah

Release Date: October 7th, 2014

Synopsis as found on GoodReads.com:

The girl knows she’s different. She doesn’t age. She has no family. She has visions of a past life, but no clear clues as to what she is, or where she comes from. But there is a face in her dreams – a light that breaks through the darkness. She knows his name is Gabriel.

On her way home from work, the girl encounters an injured stranger whose name is Jonah. Soon, she will understand that Jonah belongs to a generation of Vampires that serve even darker forces. Jonah and the few like him, are fighting with help from an unlikely ally – a rogue Angel, named Gabriel.

In the crossfire between good and evil, love and hate, and life and death, the girl learns her name: Lailah. But when the lines between black and white begin to blur, where in the spectrum will she find her place? And with whom?

Gabriel and Jonah both want to protect her. But Lailah will have to fight her own battle to find out who she truly is.

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Wow! That is my first thought when reflecting on Lailah. Just Wow! I don't really know where to begin. I guess we can start with the prologue... So the book starts off with an Angel named Angeal being sent to kill demons... when she is attacked and bitten by this demon (that you realize is really a Vampire, when his fangs pop out and he bites her). Another Angel comes into the picture and uses his Divine Light to heal her. Sadly, his Light can not save her baby, who is infected now with the Vampire's venom. So from this point, I was thinking "WTF?" Because really, why would she be demon hunting pregnant... and why do we not know she's pregnant until the baby is infected. Angeal gives birth to the baby, but leaves her on a stranger's doorstep.

Chapter 1 takes us to the rest of the story... in which a girl named Francesca (Cessie for short) is working in a bar. We assume that this is the child of Angeal, but can not be for sure... the story is already confusing by this point and we are only 20 pages into it. Cessie gets off work and hears a hurt animal crying in the woods... so she decides to check it out. Really? It happens to be a Vampire. At this point, we find out she had a previous run in with a Vampire that didn't turn out well... so what does she do? She helps save a wounded and dying Vampire by taking him back to her place. Believable?

The book goes on to be even more confusing in parts, but has a spark of great writing here and there. By the last quarter of the book, I am determined to finish... and it is finally getting good. I am just sad it took so long for me to get interested in it. By the end, we have FINALLY found out what has happened in the back story, but are stuck with a confusing love triangle... that is really a confusing love pentagon... I don't know what just happened. Did I like it? Did I not? I am so confused... What's my name again?

This is how I feel after reading Lailah!

Review of Unraveled by Gennifer Albin

Review of Gennifer Albin's Unraveled

Release Date: October 7th, 2014

Synopsis as found on GoodReads.com:

Autonomous. Independent. Dangerous.

They tried to control her. Now she’ll destroy them.

Things have changed behind the walls of the Coventry and new threats lurk in its twisted corridors. When Adelice returns to Arras, she quickly learns that something rotten has taken hold of the world and Cormac Patton needs her to help him reestablish order. However, peace comes at a terrible price. As the Guild manipulates the citizens of Arras, Adelice discovers that she’s not alone, and she must let go of her past to fight for mankind’s future. She will have to choose between an unimaginable alliance and a deadly war that could destroy everyone she loves.

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This month has been a big new release month, so for a short time, I have decided to just read the books that have already come out, so that my stack does not get any bigger than it already is, and wait another week before I start back on the Advanced Reader Copies I have waiting to be read.

So this book has been on my want to read list for a while. I have been dying to know how Albin was ending her series from the moment I ended book 1. Crewel was a book I picked up & could not put back down until I was finished reading it less than a day later. That is how incredible book 1 was. Like most series, as the books went on, the story began to wane for me.

In a world where girls are tested to see if they have the power to weave anything into existence and become renowned "Spinsters" who have a life of luxury, but are unmarried slaves to their jobs, one girl comes along with a power surpassing all else. That girl is Adelice. Her powers are so great that she would in turn train under the only other person ever born like her, Loricel, and her title would be "Creweler". Hence the name of the first book, Crewel. That is my quick synopses on book 1.

In book 3, Albin gives us a definite end to the story. There is a lot of death & not all of my favorite characters had happy endings... or made it out alive. I actually finished the book saying "What just happened?" So you can imagine, I am not completely happy with how she has left the end open & yet not. I can tell this is the end, but Albin has not given me the answers I crave... leaving me a little sad for more reasons than 1.

Other than the last couple chapters, the book was over all pretty good. I recommend it for fans of Kiera Cass' The Selection, Ally Condie's Matched, & Amy Ewing's The Jewel.

Review of The Young Elites by Marie Lu

Review of Marie Lu's The Young Elites

Release Date: October 7th, 2014

Synopsis as found on GoodReads.com:

I am tired of being used, hurt, and cast aside.

Adelina Amouteru is a survivor of the blood fever. A decade ago, the deadly illness swept through her nation. Most of the infected perished, while many of the children who survived were left with strange markings. Adelina’s black hair turned silver, her lashes went pale, and now she has only a jagged scar where her left eye once was. Her cruel father believes she is a malfetto, an abomination, ruining their family’s good name and standing in the way of their fortune. But some of the fever’s survivors are rumored to possess more than just scars—they are believed to have mysterious and powerful gifts, and though their identities remain secret, they have come to be called the Young Elites.

Teren Santoro works for the king. As Leader of the Inquisition Axis, it is his job to seek out the Young Elites, to destroy them before they destroy the nation. He believes the Young Elites to be dangerous and vengeful, but it’s Teren who may possess the darkest secret of all.

Enzo Valenciano is a member of the Dagger Society. This secret sect of Young Elites seeks out others like them before the Inquisition Axis can. But when the Daggers find Adelina, they discover someone with powers like they’ve never seen.

Adelina wants to believe Enzo is on her side, and that Teren is the true enemy. But the lives of these three will collide in unexpected ways, as each fights a very different and personal battle. But of one thing they are all certain: Adelina has abilities that shouldn’t belong in this world. A vengeful blackness in her heart. And a desire to destroy all who dare to cross her.

It is my turn to use. My turn to hurt.

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This is definitely a release from Lu's previous series, Legend. Whereas Legend was a dystopian military tale, this is a period piece about people with unnatural powers.

After a Blood Fever sweeps the land, killing off any adult who catches it and marring many of the children who survive, a number of children discover that not only do they get strange markings (ie. Oddly colored hair, discolored skin, etc), but they realize they have strange powers as well.

When Adelina was a child, almost her whole family caught the fever. Her mother died from it & her sister came out of it unscathed, but she ended up having an eye removed from an infection & stark white hair, marking her as one of the Malfetto. Originally the Malfetto were looked upon in pity as the children who suffered, but after a string of strange deaths occur in multiple families, rumors have been circling saying it was from the powers of a Malfetto.

10 years later, Adelina has suffered abuse from her father, who believes he could fetch a higher price for her if only she showed signs of having powers. After a failed attempt at running away, she is caught by her father. While he is trying to drag her back home by her hair, Adelina's powers finally emerge. She summons forth illusions of demons rising from the earth & in the process spooks her father's horse, which in turn tramples & kills him.

Adelina is arrested & on the day in which she is to be burned at the stake, she is rescued by a group of Malfetto's with powers called the Young Elite. This story is the journey of a girl on the path to becoming a villain and what happens to make her who she will become. Can she over come the obstacles on her path to greatness? Or will she end up the villain many see her as already?

I enjoyed this book, but was not as big a fan of it as Lu's first series. I don't really like comparing the 2, because they are for different genres, but I can't help but compare them a bit. This is a great read for fans of Alexandra Bracken's The Darkest Minds.

Review of Emergent by Rachel Cohn

Review of Rachel Cohn's Emergent

Release Date: October 7th, 2014

Synopsis as found on GoodReads.com:

Zhara, the First. Elysia, her clone. On the surface, they are identical. But looks can be deceiving.

When Zhara plays, she plays to win. She thought she had escaped the horrors of Doctor Lusardi's cloning compound. But the nightmare is just beginning. Elysia has taken everything from Zhara-a softer, prettier version of herself and an inescapable reminder of all she's failed at in her life. Now the man Zhara loves has replaced her with Elysia. Zhara will get her clone out of the way, no matter the cost.

Elysia has finally learned the truth: she has a soul. Her First is alive. She knows it hurts Zhara to see her with Alexander, but she can't give him up. The genetically-perfected Aquine has chosen as her as his life mate, and their days together are limited.

Elysia can't remain in the Rave Caves off the shores of Denesme forever. Revolution is brewing on the island paradise. Hundreds of soulless clones remain imprisoned like Elysia once was, slaves to the whims of their owners-wealthy human inhabitants of the island. As a group of clones and humans, led by Alexander, plot an insurrection that will turn Denesme's world upside down, Elysia knows her place is fighting by his side. Terrible sacrifices must be made to defeat Denesme's twisted regime. But even the greatest losses cannot prepare Elysia for the ticking time bomb built into her own programming...

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Oh, how I have been waiting for this book to come out ever since I finished Beta. I have been dying to find out what happened next in Elysia's story.
 
Beta ended with the world shaking arrival of Zhara, Elysia's First. Seeing as how Demesne Clones are unable to be created except from the dead body of their Firsts, this new arrival was Earth shattering. It has been thought to be impossible for a Demesne clone to be created from a living being, but their is a first for everything. Now that Tahir is gone, Elysia only has Xander to rely on... but Xander is Zhara's ex-boyfriend. What should have been a beautiful reunion is anything but.
 
Elysia is coping with the after effects of being violated by her former owner's son, Ivan, and his death at her hands when she was defending herself against him. She doesn't want to remember what happened to her, but she has a daily reminder in the baby growing inside of her... which shouldn't be possible. Clones are supposed to be infertile.
 
Book 2 is about the Defect Clones' Insurrection from their Masters. They are planning a rebellion so they can take back the island that has been built on their suffering. Be ready for a quick dystopian read that will have a lot of drama. I enjoyed most of the book, but toward the ending it felt rather rushed and instead of giving me the idea that there would be a 3rd book, I felt like this was the end... but I'm not sure, because there was no definitive ending. We never find out if everyone lives or makes it to their happy ending. WHAT HAPPENS NEXT?

Review of UnDivided by Neal Shusterman

Review of Neal Shusterman's UnDivided

Release Date: October 14th, 2014

Synopsis as found on GoodReads.com:

Teens control the fate of America in the fourth and final book in the New York Times bestselling Unwind dystology by Neal Shusterman.

Proactive Citizenry, the company that created Cam from the parts of unwound teens, has a plan: to mass produce rewound teens like Cam for military purposes. And below the surface of that horror lies another shocking level of intrigue: Proactive Citizenry has been suppressing technology that could make unwinding completely unnecessary. As Conner, Risa, and Lev uncover these startling secrets, enraged teens begin to march on Washington to demand justice and a better future.

But more trouble is brewing. Starkey’s group of storked teens is growing more powerful and militant with each new recruit. And if they have their way, they’ll burn the harvest camps to the ground and put every adult in them before a firing squad—which could destroy any chance America has for a peaceful future.

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After 4 books & 5 years, it is finally over... I was hoping it would keep going, but at some point all good things must come to an end. I have been a HUGE fan of this series since I picked up Unwind all those years ago. To see an end to the stories of Conner, Risa, & Lev was a really sad thing to witness. And a complete end it is. With the deaths of multiple characters & the happy endings of some, this is an ending I wont soon forget.

In this book, Starkey is still causing panic everywhere he goes. He now has the backing of the Clapper organization. They are supplying him with the weapons he needs to take out the Chop Shops and save all of the "storked" children. Bam is finally waking up to his ways & with the help of Hayden, maybe they can finally be the people to end his tyranny.

Cam is now owned by the US government and is soon to be the face of Rewinding for the Army. With his most recent addition of nanites in his brain, he has no memory of the girl he fell in love with. Whenever a memory of Risa pops up, it is immediately removed. He may be the face of Rewinding and the Proactive Citizenry's most prized accomplishment, but he may the only being standing that can stop them from taking over the world. What will happen when he discovers a mysterious building out in the fields of Molokai island.

Risa & Conner are in the basement where his freedom seemed to start the first time. They are being hidden by Sonia Rhienschild, the widow of the late scientific genius who invented the organ printer. Never heard of it? That is because Proactive Citizenry had Jansen Rhienschild & all of his research swept under the rug. The printer is thought to be only a myth. What will happen if it gets into the hands of someone who can really do something with it?

Jasper T Nelson, the Juvenile Authority cop who let Conner get away, has teamed up with Argent Skinner. Together they are capturing AWOL teens to sell to a flesh trader. They both are looking for Conner to get back at him for different reasons... they only want revenge. Skinner holds the key to Nelson finding Conner, but he wont give it up until Nelson shows him the tricks of the trade of being a Parts Pirate.

Some will live & some will die in this EPIC finally to a world-wide phenomena. UnDivided was a book worth picking up & was very difficult to put back down. If you haven't read the Unwind Dystology, you are really missing out. Pick up your copy wherever books are sold... and get ready for a thrill ride you wont soon forget.

Review of Material Girls by Elaine Dimopoulos

Advance Review of Elaine Dimopoulos' Material Girls

Release Date: May 5th, 2015

Synopsis as found on Amazon.com:

In Marla Klein and Ivy Wilde’s world, teens are the gatekeepers of culture. A top fashion label employs sixteen-year-old Marla to dictate hot new clothing trends, while Ivy, a teen pop star, popularizes the garments that Marla approves. Both girls are pawns in a calculated but seductive system of corporate control, and both begin to question their world’s aggressive levels of consumption. Will their new “eco-chic” trend subversively resist and overturn the industry that controls every part of their lives?

        Smart, provocative, and entertaining, this thrilling page-turner for teens questions the cult like mentality of fame and fashion. Are you in or are you out?

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When I picked Material Girls as my next read, I thought it sounded like an interesting concept... teenagers hired on before they are even finished with school to make the choices on what would be the next big craze in fashion. These pre-teens, starting at the age of 13, would be chosen for different artistic careers, like fashion, music, movies, & video game production & would peak at work before the age of 20. Their schooling would end & their new lives would begin before they were even finished growing. I didn't know how much I would really love this book until I started reading it.

I was entranced by this world that Marla & Ivy live in. They were "tapped" in their 7th grade in high school and now 3 years later are making their way through lucrative careers. The only problem is, every year more kids are tapped to begin work assignments. So their world is ever changing & moving forward, with or without them. At any point, they can be viewed as old news & left behind for something or someone younger & fresher.

This book is definitely chocked full of moral dilemmas and values. It has a definite moral about the wastefulness of today's society. When something is out in fashion, we usually discard it. It also has a lot of information on the usefulness of eco-friendly living & the value in purchasing eco-friendly clothing.

It took me only 2 days to read, because of how much I loved it. I think Material Girls would be perfect for fans of The Selection by Kiera Cass, Matched by Ally Condie, & Uglies by Scott Westerfeld.