Insurgent by Veronica Roth

Reading Level: Ages 14 and up

Hardcover: 544 Pages

Publisher: Katherine Tegen Books

ISBN: 978-0-06-202404-6

My Rating: 5/5

One choice can transform you-or it can destroy you. But every choice has consequences, and as unrest surges in the factions all around her, Tris Prior must continue trying to save those she loves-and herself-while grappling with haunting questions of grief and forgiveness, identity and loyalty, politics and love. Tris's initiation day should have been marked by celebrating and victory with her chosen faction; instead, the day ended with unspeakable horrors. War now looms as conflict between the factions and their ideologies grows. And in times of war, sides must be chosen, secrets will emerge and choices will become even more irrevocable-and even more powerful. Transformed by her own decisions but also by haunting grief and guilt, radical new discoveries and shifting relationships, Tris must fully embrace her Divergence, even if she does not know what she may lose by doing so.

It's been a long time since I was able to read a full book or write a review as I'm sure most of you noticed. So I apologize for that and if this review is really not up to the standards of my others. With that being said, let's start!

First of all, I love love love this book. I also really loved Divergent and read it in a very short amount of time. Insurgent is a continuation of Divergent and an amazing one at that. Most books lose their sizzle from book 1 to book 3 but not Insurgent! If possible, it gets better.

Tris struggles through some amazingly difficult situations and substandard living conditions. She is very real for me in Insurgent. She acts how I would expect a normal person to act. Having to shoot her best friend in Divergent, she is unable to even hold a gun in Insurgent because it's too painful and she is overwhelmed with a flashbacks and emotions. Even when her life is in jeopardy, she still can't seem to sum up the courage to fire a gun. This story is full of twists and turns! Help comes to Tris from a lot of unexpected sources, she risks her own life over and over again, and she is still overwhelmed over the events that happened in Divergent.

Overall, this book was incredible. Roth has easily become one of my favorite authors with her superb writing style and sheer talent. I can't wait to read more from her! Which will be sort of soon with the third book in the Divergent series being released on 10/22/2013. I can't wait! If you haven't picked up Divergent yet I very strongly recommend that you do! It's one book you won't regret purchasing and you will easily fall in love with it over and over.

One of my favorite books!!

I'm not sure if any of you remember but a while back I read a book called 'Familiar Origins' which I loved so much!! I'm super excited to say that the next book is scheduled to be released in February!! Right now, they have the first book in the series on for just 99 cents at Amazon for kindle!! If you haven't read this book yet, you NEED to and at 99 cents, how can you say no?

The Iron Witch by Karen Mahoney

Reading Level: Ages 12 and Up

Paperback: 312 Pages

Publisher: Flux

ISBN: 978-0-7387-2582-6

My Rating: 4/5

When she was seven, a horrific fey attack killed Donna Underwood's father and drover her mother mad. Her own nearly fatal injuries were fixed by alchemy-the iron tattoos branding her hands and arms. Now seventeen, Donna feels like a freak, doomed be the magical heritage that destroyed her parents and any chance she had for a normal life. Only her relationship with her best friend, Navin, is keeping her sane. But when vicious wood elves abduct Navin, Donna is forced to accept her role in the centuries-old war between human alchemists and these darkest outcasts of Faerie. Assisted by Xan, a gorgeous guy with faery blood running through his veins and secrets of his own, Donna races to save Navin-even if it means betraying everything her parents fought to the death to protect.

It took me a long time to read this book just because I'm in school. And normally I have the worst memory in the world and forget everything. I'd usually have to go back over the book and skim through it to kind of jog my memory I guess you could say. I didn't have to do that with this book which was great. It really stuck with me and I very much enjoyed the story. The characters were likable for the most part and it was very well written.

Characters: The only thing bad I can say about the characters is that I didn't get enough of them. Donna is a great character...she's well developed, makes the story very engaging, has a good personality. She has a lot of great qualities and likable assets. Navin we don't learn too too much about other than the fact that he is Donna's best friend and stands by her no matter what. He's a very endearing character and I really liked Xan...he was probably my favorite character.

Plot: The plot is great in this story. It's basically Donna struggling with her...abnormal physical attribute and hiding it from everyone. She doesn't go to high school anymore because of something that happened and now none of the kids like her and they all think she is a freak. Eventually she meets Xan very early in the book and they start this weird kind of...relationship I guess you could say. Anyways, it all boils down to Donna trying to save Maker and Navin from the wood queen.

After going back over this I realized I rambled a bit haha. I have a hard time explaining  things without giving away too many details. I don't like to ruin books for people because I hate when they are ruined for me. Anyways! haha. It's a great book, if you haven't read it yet then you should pick it up, it's really good. The characters were admirable, the plot was engaging, and overall it was amazing! I loved everything about it and it stuck with me even though I had to take a break from reading for a while.

Spirit Bound by Richelle Mead

Reading Level: Ages 12 and up

Paperback: 496 Pages

Publisher: Razorbill

ISBN: 978-1-59514-366-2

My Rating: 4/5

Rose's life will never be her own. She has been outrunning death ever since the accident that forever bonded her to her best friend, Lissa-whom she's sworn to protect no matter what. But with Dimitri stalking her, Rose can only run so far.

It should come as no surprise that I love the 'Vampire Academy' series by Richelle Mead. In fact, she has easily become one of my favorite authors; however, I found 'Spirit Bound' to be least favorite book of the series. I still really liked it and contemplated giving it a 3/5 but the ending was good enough to boost my rating back up to a 4 out of 5. It makes me extremely sad to say that I almost gave a VA book a 3/5 but let's discuss why.

Characters: The characters were still the same. Rose was still Rose, Lissa was still Lissa and so on. I did notice that there were some character differences though. Rose seemed weak to me in Spirit Bound. Normally she has the strength of a bull but in this particular novel she seemed to rely too heavily on other people. And Lissa was tougher than normal, which is great!

Plot: As much as it pains me to do so, I have to admit that I found the story line to be very predictable. I knew what was going to happen before it did. And not just one or two things here or there, pretty much everything. The plot was still adequate enough to keep me interested but it was slow at times and highly predictable.

Those were really the only two things I took issue with. I love to read a book or watch a movie and speculate what is going to happen; it's part of what makes it fun for me! But being able to almost always know what is going to happen makes things a little tough to read-or watch. Overall, it was still a good book and I'm definitely going to read the final book 'Last Sacrifice.' Even though I didn't enjoy this book as much as the others, it's still a series I highly recommend to everyone! Happy Reading! :)