Title: The 5th Wave
Author: Rick Yancey
Series: The 5th Wave
Book: 1
Rating: ★★★★ 1/2
Blurb from Goodreads:
After the 1st wave, only darkness remains. After the 2nd, only the lucky escape. And after the 3rd, only the unlucky survive. After the 4th wave, only one rule applies: trust no one.
Now, it's the dawn of the 5th wave, and on a lonely stretch of highway, Cassie runs from Them. The beings who only look human, who roam the countryside killing anyone they see. Who have scattered Earth's last survivors. To stay alone is to stay alive, Cassie believes, until she meets Evan Walker.
Beguiling and mysterious, Evan Walker may be Cassie's only hope for rescuing her brother--or even saving herself. But Cassie must choose: between trust and despair, between defiance and surrender, between life and death. To give up or to get up.
My Rating/Thoughts:
Wow. This book has left me speechless. I debated with myself for a long time if I should even pick this up and finally decided that I should just give it a try. If I didn't like it, no harm no foul. And boy, am I glad I did! Now this book took me awhile to get used to. To say I was confused was an understatement. I found myself reading pages over just to fully understand what was really going on. I felt like I must have been so stupid to not pick it up quicker, but I wanted to make sure I understood everything. So as a result, I felt like I was reading this book rather slowly. But once I got the feel of the book everything clicked into place perfectly.
"We're here, and then we're gone, and it's not about the time we're here, but what we do with the time."
The story and plot was what I actually liked the most. I was very skeptical at first because I do not read any sci-fi novels or anything that has to do with aliens or alien invasions. Like at all. In fact, I hate sci-fi. It's just not my thing. But this book was! I loved the story and the pacing worked great. I didn't feel like it went too fast or too slow. I know there has been many who said this book takes a while to get into because the beginning is very slow, but I didn't get that impression at all. I even enjoyed reading the multiple POVs, which is surprising considering I hate alternating POVs (unless they are done right). In this case, they were done completely right. I enjoyed reading from Cassie the most because I just loved her thoughts and humor. However, I also loved, loved Ben's POV as well. He had the same sense of humor and spunk as Cassie did so it was easy to love his character and thoughts as well. I found myself always getting comfortable with one character and once things got really intense the POV would change. I'd be thinking "No! Go back to Cassie!" or "Go back to Ben!" But it still worked marvelously and would get sucked right in again.
Now let's get into the characters. I don't think there was a character in this book that I didn't like.Obviously aside from Vosch, even though we didn't see too much of him the fact that he is the villain and the cause of all this? He sucks. Plain and simple.
Cassie though...Cassie is great. She is so protective of her brother and she would stop at nothing to go back and save him. She refused to give up even when it seemed impossible to come out on top. I liked how skeptical she was of everyone and anything and I completely agree with her. She was running from Silencers, Aliens and humans who probably won't trust you anyway. Do you really blame her? I'd doubt everyone as well. In fact, I did! I did not trust a single person every time we saw a new character.
"Because if I am the last one, then I am humanity. And if this is humanity's last war, then I am the battlefield."
Zombie! Now Ben Parish was one of my favorites as well. I was not expecting to get a POV from him at all. I thought Cassie just mentioning him was because she had a crush on him. I suspected we would see him again, but a POV? SWEET! I loooooove how protective he gets over Sams though! It truly hit me in the gut with the feels how responsible and protective he was over him.
"If anyone comes between you and me, they're dead."
Now Evan Walker. How much I loved you with all my heart! You don't want to trust Evan at all, but you can't help it! He's protecting you, he's taking care of you, he's handsome, his hands are soft, and he smells like chocolate. *Sigh* Now I was skeptical of him the entire time right along with Cassie. I just knew something wasn't right. I knew it the entire time! I had my doubts and my hopes that this wouldn't end badly, but you can't help but love him all the same! In fact, everything he does and gives up for Cassie just makes you love him even more!
"I didn't save you. You saved me"
Overall, I loved this book. I thought it was a little funny to me because about halfway through I felt like so much happened, yet nothing at all at the same time. But I thought it was wonderful and that means a lot coming from someone who has read absolutely nothing involving aliens or anything sci-fi at all! So I am definitely looking forward to get my hands on The Infinite Sea because with an ending like that?! Uh uh! Nooooooooo way! We cannot just leave it like that! What the heck?!
Title: Ruing and Rising
Author: Leigh Bardugo
Series: The Grisha
Book: 3
Rating: ★★★★1/2
Blurb from Goodreads:
The capital has fallen.
The Darkling rules Ravka from his shadow throne.
Now the nation's fate rests with a broken Sun Summoner, a disgraced tracker, and the shattered remnants of a once-great magical army.
Deep in an ancient network of tunnels and caverns, a weakened Alina must submit to the dubious protection of the Apparat and the zealots who worship her as a Saint. Yet her plans lie elsewhere, with the hunt for the elusive firebird and the hope that an outlaw prince still survives.
Alina will have to forge new alliances and put aside old rivalries as she and Mal race to find the last of Morozova's amplifiers. But as she begins to unravel the Darkling's secrets, she reveals a past that will forever alter her understanding of the bond they share and the power she wields. The firebird is the one thing that stands between Ravka and destruction—and claiming it could cost Alina the very future she’s fighting for
My Rating/Thoughts:
I really enjoyed this series and I was a little more than anxious to get my hands on this book so it kind of pains me to say that this ending has left me a little bummed out. Don’t get me wrong I did like the ending and everything came together perfectly and I understand that for Alina it was the perfect happy ending that she always wanted. But for me? I wanted more for her. I wanted her to own her powers and be the invincible girl that I always knew she could be. She was happy and that's all that matters to me. It just makes me a little sad what resulted from the amplifiers. But it was still cute and I was happy with how things ended. I loved that everyone stayed together or kept in touch. It was so bittersweet.
“You might make me a better man.”
“And you might make me a monster.”
The only thing that really honestly bothered me about this book was that we didn’t get to see the Darkling as much! I mean COME ON! Every scene that we had with him just left me crying for more! It was nearly not enough and I missed all his interactions with Alina because they were what made these books so intriguing. He is such a complex character and it is sad to not see his character more because he was finally starting to show more of his “human” side. He just didn’t want to be alone. He wanted to have someone who was just like him and he believed that was Alina. He wanted it desperately and I just wished we’d see more of him. It came to a point where I was a little upset that Alina wouldn’t “go to him” to see him. I loved those scenes!
That aside, I loved reading about Baghra’s story! Oh my gosh I didn’t see that coming at all. It was so interesting to learn more about Morozova and how that connected to the Darkling. I really liked Baghra’s character in this book more as well. She was less evasive and more willing to give Alina the answers she needed. FINALLY! No more just telling her to “run” or “give up” let’s have a chat and I’ll finally explain to you why you need to run! Why this situation can’t possibly go well the way you are thinking.
Speaking of which...let’s talk about their “plan.” When I first read their first idea of a plan of attack I thought we were just bouncing ideas off our heads because no way that could possibly work right? No, wrong! That’s the master plan? That’s all you plan to do? Ok.. let’s do this, I guess see how it works because it can’t possibly be that easy, but whatever. and surprise surprise, it wasn’t that easy.
Which brings us to the amplifiers! I feel like this was a little silly when we find out what the third amplifier was. I mean it makes sense and goes well with the story of Morozova, but seriously? So we were around it the entire time and didn’t need to go put our lives in danger looking for another creature? Don’t get me wrong I thought it fit into the story pretty interesting and I was like WHAAAAAAT?!!? When I read this part but at the same time I was like? UGH!!!! STOP BLOWING HOLES IN MY SHIP, BARDUGO!!!
and I am not even going to go completely into the love interests in this book because honestly, I have never read a book where I shipped the main character with THREE DIFFERENT GUYS! Two, sure...but three?! Seriously? A Prince, a tracker, and the “bad boy” Oh Lord, save me now. I LOVE Nikolai….I love Mal...I love the Darkling. How is a girl to choose?
“You were meant to be my balance, Alina. You are the only person in the world who might rule with me, who might keep my power in check.”
The Darkling was just so…..sigh. When we found how human he was in his final moments it truly broke my heart. We find out his true name and he has never gone by the name in a very, very long time. The fact that he opened up and shared that part of him with Alina was beyond touching. He just kept wanting to hear his name on her lips until the very end. I just….I can’t. It was so heartbreaking and I was CRYING so much. I had to set my book down and calm myself down.
Plus, the prequel about him was truly unbelievable! I felt so terrible for him because he had to constantly hide who and what he was because anyone who found out he was an amplifier immediately wanted to use his power for their own greed. It made a lot of sense why he turned into the troubled character we know and love.
“You are no Lantsov,” snarled the King.
Nikolai merely bowed. “I find I can live with that fact.”
The Privateer Prince. Nikolai? Well he’s just perfect. He’s cocky, sarcastic, charming, funny, and just *swoon* The fact that it was pretty much obvious that he didn’t stand a stand with Alina was a little unbelievable to me. I mean come on..he’s the Prince and he’s perfect! What more do you want, Alina?
“I would have been different too, without you. Afraid of the dark. But no matter who or what I was, I would have been yours.”
But Mal? Yes I have always loved Mal. I loved him in the beginning of Shadow and Bone and I loved him until the end. But God was he infuriating! He kind of reminded me of Eddie Castile from the Bloodlines series where he’s in love with someone he feels he is unworthy of and instead of just talking to her to see how she feels and trying to make it work he just tries to stay away and frustrates the hell out of you. I get it, he sees Alina destined for greatness, she is going to save Ravka and destroy the Darkling and the Fold blah blah blah but damn homie, just talk to her! Stop sulking like a little baby and talk to the girl you love! All this aside I really liked Mal’s development over the series. You see him go from protective of Alina to scared of and confused of Alina’s power to accepting of Alina’s power. Which I think I enjoyed most. The fact that he finally accepted her powers and was no longer apprehensive of them or fearful really was the icing on the cake. I can’t lie, I teared up when Alina saw his tattoo.
Now Alina really grew so much more in this book. She became so strong and powerful. I loved seeing how she stood up for her friends and how forgiving she was even to those who potentially wronged her. And I couldn’t help cheering for her when she finally put that Apparat in his place!
“A man so obsessed with holy fire should pay more attention to the smoke.” YOU GO GIRL!
Overall, I did really enjoy this book. I think it was paced perfectly and mirrored the other two books in the trilogy. We didn’t get too much thrown at us at once considering it was a conclusion book and it was just really good. I enjoyed myself. I was scared, surprised, happy, shocked, terrified, anxious and everything in between. I laughed. I cried. I wanted to rip my hair out, but it was a fun ride. I love this series and definitely will be entering a book hangover!
