Title: Ensnared
Author: A.G. Howard
Series: Splintered #3
SYNOPSIS:
After surviving a disastrous battle at prom, Alyssa has embraced her madness and gained perspective. She's determined to rescue her two worlds and the people and netherlings she loves. Even if it means challenging Queen Red to a final battle of wills and wiles . . . and even if the only way to Wonderland, now that the rabbit hole is closed, is through the looking-glass world--a parallel dimension filled with mutated and violent netherling outcasts. In the final installment of the wildly popular Splintered trilogy, Alyssa and her dad journey into the heart of magic and mayhem in search of her mom and to set right all that's gone wrong. Together with Jeb and Morpheus, they must salvage Wonderland from the decay and destruction that has ensnared it. But if they succeed and come out alive, can everyone truly have their happily ever after?
MY REVIEW:
Mad. Wild. Wonderful. Violent. Unexpected. Heartbreaking. Sensual. Beautiful. Tempting.
What a great finale to a different kind of series. Yes, the story is based on Alice in Wonderland, but it's almost unrecognizable in this insane retelling. One of the things I loved was that the love triangle in this story was so well done, I could feel my heart splintering just as much as Alyssa's. How to choose between two men who are so different, yet so perfect for her? When she was with Morpheus...I was Team Morpheus. When she was with Jeb...I wondered how I could ever not be Team Jeb. It was perfect. If there is one thing I would have liked, it would have been more of Jeb in the epilogue, but I will just have to imagine the details myself.
SUM IT UP:
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Title: Unhinged
Author: A.G. Howard
Series: Splintered #2
SYNOPSIS:
Alyssa Gardner has been down the rabbit hole and faced the bandersnatch. She saved the life of Jeb, the guy she loves, and escaped the machinations of the disturbingly seductive Morpheus and the vindictive Queen Red. Now all she has to do is graduate high school and make it through prom so she can attend the prestigious art school in London she's always dreamed of.
That would be easier without her mother, freshly released from an asylum, acting overly protective and suspicious. And it would be much simpler if the mysterious Morpheus didn’t show up for school one day to tempt her with another dangerous quest in the dark, challenging Wonderland—where she (partly) belongs.
As prom and graduation creep closer, Alyssa juggles Morpheus’s unsettling presence in her real world with trying to tell Jeb the truth about a past he’s forgotten. Glimpses of Wonderland start to bleed through her art and into her world in very disturbing ways, and Morpheus warns that Queen Red won’t be far behind.
If Alyssa stays in the human realm, she could endanger Jeb, her parents, and everyone she loves. But if she steps through the rabbit hole again, she'll face a deadly battle that could cost more than just her head.
MY REVIEW:
I liked the first book more because everything was so new and weird, but Unhinged was also a great, dark, twisted read. A.G. Howard has taken the Wonderland story and turned everything on its head to make it even more whacky than the original. Because the story is so dark and there are so many "rules" to Wonderland, I often found myself putting the book down in the first half of the story and digesting all of the details for the rest of the day. But once I got to the last third of the book, I couldn't put it down. There was a huge cliffhanger at the end and I'm really excited to see what happens in the next book.
SUM IT UP:
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Title: Ignite Me
Author: Tahereh Mafi
Series: Shatter Me Series
Published: 2014
SYNOPSIS:
The heart-stopping conclusion to the New York Times bestselling Shatter Me series, which Ransom Riggs, bestselling author of Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children, called “a thrilling, high-stakes saga of self-discovery and forbidden love.”
With Omega Point destroyed, Juliette doesn’t know if the rebels, her friends, or even Adam are alive. But that won’t keep her from trying to take down The Reestablishment once and for all. Now she must rely on Warner, the handsome commander of Sector 45. The one person she never thought she could trust. The same person who saved her life. He promises to help Juliette master her powers and save their dying world . . . but that’s not all he wants with her.
The Shatter Me series is perfect for fans who crave action-packed young adult novels with tantalizing romance like Divergent by Veronica Roth, The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins, and Legend by Marie Lu. Tahereh Mafi has created a captivating and original story that combines the best of dystopian and paranormal, and was praised by Publishers Weekly as “a gripping read from an author who’s not afraid to take risks.” Now this final book brings the series to a shocking and satisfying end.
MY REVIEW:
This book was so incredibly perfect in every way. The writing, as always, was poetic and haunting and gorgeous.
I enjoyed seeing Juliette come full circle and grow as a character, able to look back at herself in the past and find answers and explanations in her behavior and choices.
And Warner. God how I loved Warner's character. He was the ultimate tortured, cocky, bad boy...my favorite. There was so much action and craziness at the end that I truly feared I would not get my happy ending. But this book was flawless and I loved, loved, loved it.
SUM IT UP:
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Title: Unravel Me
Author: Tahereh Mafi
Series: Shatter Me Series
Published: 2013
SYNOPSIS:
tick
tick
tick
tick
tick
it's almost
time for war.
Juliette has escaped to Omega Point. It is a place for people like her—people with gifts—and it is also the headquarters of the rebel resistance.
She's finally free from The Reestablishment, free from their plan to use her as a weapon, and free to love Adam. But Juliette will never be free from her lethal touch.
Or from Warner, who wants Juliette more than she ever thought possible.
In this exhilarating sequel to Shatter Me, Juliette has to make life-changing decisions between what she wants and what she thinks is right. Decisions that might involve choosing between her heart—and Adam's life
MY REVIEW:
Tahereh Mafi's writing is, in one word, poetic. This is just one of my favorite passages:
"So I have to keep remembering that Warner and I are 2 different words.
We are synonyms but not the same.
Synonyms know each other like old colleagues, like a set of friends who've seen the world together. They swap stories, reminisce about their origins and forget that though they are similar, they are entirely different, and though they share a certain set of attributes, one can never be the other. Because a quiet night is not the same as a silent one, a firm man is not the same as a steady one, and a bright light is not the same as a brilliant one because the way they wedge themselves into a sentence changes everything.
They are not the same."
I'll let her writing speak for itself. Except to add this....I love the tortured-soul bad boys, always have. So although Adam was the true love of book one....I'm beginning to see why Juliette is so attracted to Warner.
SUM IT UP:
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Title: Shatter Me
Author: Tahereh Mafi
Series: Shatter Me Series
Published: 2011
SYNOPSIS:
I have a curse
I have a gift
I am a monsterI'm more than human
My touch is lethalMy touch is power
I am their weaponI will fight back
Juliette hasn’t touched anyone in exactly 264 days.
The last time she did, it was an accident, but The Reestablishment locked her up for murder. No one knows why Juliette’s touch is fatal. As long as she doesn’t hurt anyone else, no one really cares. The world is too busy crumbling to pieces to pay attention to a 17-year-old girl. Diseases are destroying the population, food is hard to find, birds don’t fly anymore, and the clouds are the wrong color.
The Reestablishment said their way was the only way to fix things, so they threw Juliette in a cell. Now so many people are dead that the survivors are whispering war – and The Reestablishment has changed its mind. Maybe Juliette is more than a tortured soul stuffed into a poisonous body. Maybe she’s exactly what they need right now.
Juliette has to make a choice: Be a weapon. Or be a warrior.
MY REVIEW:
This book was impossible to put down. The language and writing were so poetically beautiful. I loved the odd combinations of words that almost created a new language of heartache, loneliness, love....thoughts of a truly shattered person. Gorgeous. I found the crossed out text to be intriguing, the love scenes were steamy, and the storyline unexpected. I want to read it again immediately just to experience the beautiful writing again.
SUM IT UP:
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