Hey my lovelies, this weeks Monday post is a bit different to my normal bookish posts. As I just wanted to update you guys on my life and explain what will be going on over the next few months with English Blonde.

As many of you already know I have been working hard at college the past two years, and have finally completed my course and as luck would have it, I have finished with the best possible grades, so as a procrastinating 18 year old, I have been trying to figure out what I want to do with the rest of my life and in all honestly I have no idea. Before October time I initially thought that when I finished the course, I would get a full time job at maybe a supermarket or something similar, before finding something that I enjoy doing (other than reading of cause, although I have no idea how I would be able to turn that into a job), but after surpassing my expectations with how much I have enjoyed my course and business as a subject, I have decided that I am going to continue to study Business, so as of September I shall be starting at University and get a degree in International Business in 4 years! Exciting right? 

Now you may be thinking what does this have to do with English Blonde, you'll be still continuing it right? And of cause I will, it's just in the coming weeks, maybe even months my posts may become even more sporadic than they already are (that's hard I know). And as much as at the moment I have a long list of different post ideas that I want to write other than just book reviews, but with everything that is going on in my life at the moment, I have no idea how I'm going to have time to write all of these posts as well as everything else that is going on. Like right now, I've been out all day and now its 34 minutes past 10 and i'm sitting with my cat writing this post a week before I plan for it to go up and it's the first post I expect will be up in August (unless I pull my finger out and write my July wrap up of cause). 

Now onto the whole issue with my posts, well its only an issue for well me, but let me vent a bit anyway. My goal was to have 52 book reviews up and post every Monday and Friday... that has clearly not happened. And for some reason that I can't even fathom I haven't been reading as much as i would like and whenever I get to the end of a book and are at the stage to write the review nothing happens, no matter if I loved it, hated it, or simply tolerated it. My mind goes completely blank about anything that happened and I move on and the cycle happens again. Does anybody have any advice on how to get through this? Even still I really am trying to post as often as I can, but sometimes it just doesn't happen the way I want it too. 

Back onto the University side of things, I found the Uni that is the best fit for me to be around an hour away by train, so I will be moving out of my home, and into Uni accommodation, so I will be basically moving out (well for 9 months of the year, but that's by far the longest time I will have ever been away from my parents), so for them following weeks I doubt I will be posting a lot during this time like I said above, however I am hoping to schedule a few posts to keep English Blonde going, because no matter what I will love and try my best to continue my little corner of the internet. And depending on how I'm feeling I may post a few mini updates just letting you guys know how I'm coping and how I'm finding it all. 

Due to this I have a few ideas of some University posts I would like to write, and I know this probably won't interest a lot of you, but just a few that would answer some of the questions I wanted to know this time last year, and maybe I could help some people the same way I would have liked to been. So expect a little University series of posts in the coming months. 

Thank you for reading my lovelies, I hope you enjoyed learning a little more about my life, and my plans for English Blonde in the coming months. If you're going through or have gone through any of the things mentioned above please talk to me in the comments! 

EnglishBlonde

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Hey my lovelies, welcome to this weeks Monday (which is slightly delayed, sorry guys) post, and there has been a little bit of a change in plan, my original planned post is being swapped over to the 31st, and this weeks post is now my booktubeathon TBR & (mini) Haul. The booktubeathon is an annual readathon, that was created by Ariel Bissett on Youtube, with the idea that as well as celebrating the booktube community, everyone bands together to read as many books that they can in the week, whilst trying to complete the 7 challenges. This year it runs from today (July 24th) to Sunday (July 30th). All of the books included in today's post, were bought for the purpose of reading in this readathon, so lets get down to it...

Thankfully when buying for this, I had the good sense to only pick relatively short books, so I won't be overpowering myself by trying to read 7 500+ page books in 6 days.

Challenge #1 ~ Read a book with a person on the cover

Now this one wasn't a very difficult choice to make and that's because it is Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher, I first read this book around four years ago, and I remember really enjoying it, however with the series recently coming out on Netflix, I decided before watching it I would reread the book. If you don't know what Thirteen Reasons Why is about Clay who receives a set of tapes, only they're from his classmate Hannah, who committed suicide two weeks earlier, and claims to explain the thirteen reasons why she committed suicide, the only thing is Clay is one of them.

Challenge #2 ~ Read a hyped book

This next book I've had on my TBR for quite some time now, and from the reading of various others TBRs it is clearly a priority to get this one read, especially after the film came out last year, so A Monster Calls is joining my list.  And for this one I am pretty much going into this blind, only knowing that it is about a young boy and a monster (who my mum thought was Groot, when she saw the trailer on TV). But can you deny that this is a super hyped book? Patrick Ness has been so popular with both bloggers and booktubers a like in the recent years.

Challenge #3 ~ Finish a book in one day

And for this challenge (although one of my other picks, will probably cover this one) I have chosen the official Booktubeathon read! Which is of cause Juniper Lemon's Happiness Index by Julie Israel, and all I know about this one is that it deals with someone coping with the grief of losing their sister, and how they deal with allowing themselves to get over the loss.

Challenge #4 ~ Read about a character that is very different from you

For this one I wasn't really sure what to choose, as it was such an open ended challenge, so in the end I simply decided to let it go and see what happens, whilst the readathons on.

Challenge #5 ~ Finish a book completely outside

Now bar challenge #7 this is one I feel I'm most likely to fail at, as you never really know what is going to happen with British weather, but in the spirit of it being summer, I have chosen to read Lying about Last Summer by Sue Wallman. Similar to Juniper Lemons Happiness Index, this deals with the trauma from losing a sibling, however with a mystery/thriller edge, as Skye starts receiving texts from someone claiming to be her dead sister. Pretty Little Liars much?

Challenge #6 ~ Read a book you got because of the cover

For this challenge, I picked a book my mum got me in the last two weeks, which I adore because of the cover and it is The Diabolic by S.J. Kincaid, as well as it being the only science fiction book on my list, it is also the only hardcover I plan to read. But honestly how cool is that cover? A butterfly turning into knives, what could be better? This is another one I'm going into blind.

Challenge #7 ~ Read 7 books

And for the final challenge I have chosen the booktubers collaboration Because you love to hate me, I chose this one, because what is better than finishing of a booktubeathon with a book inspired by booktubers writing prompts?

I know I shouldn't but when buying for this haul, I couldn't help myself. So I bought a swapping books, meaning that if I change my mind on what to read I could try this instead. So we have another book by Sue Wallman, See how they lie, which is another ya thriller. 

Thank you for reading my lovelies, I hope you enjoyed it, and if you're taking part in the Booktubeathon let me know what your reading below in the comments!

Previous Book Review: Pigeon Blood Red by Ed E. Duncan
Previous Bookish Post: May/June Wrap Up & July TBR
Next Book Review: Landline by Rainbow Rowell

EnglishBlonde

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Hey my lovelies, welcome to this weeks review and it is of Pigeon Blood Red by Ed E. Duncan. I received this book for free in exchange for an honest review. 

Title: Pigeon Blood Red
Author: Ed E. Duncan
Genre: Crime Thriller
Publication Date: February 25th 2016
Publisher: Zharmae
Format: Paperback 
Pages: 238
Rating:4 stars
Goodreads Summary: For underworld enforcer Richard "Rico" Sanders, it seemed like an ordinary job. Retrieve his gangster boss's priceless pigeon-blood red ruby necklace and teach the double-dealing cheat who stole it a lesson. A job like a hundred before it. But the chase quickly goes sideways and takes Rico from the mean streets of Chicago to sunny Honolulu, where the hardened hit man finds himself in uncharted territory when a couple of innocent bystanders are accidentally embroiled in the crime.

As Rico pursues his new targets, the hunter and his prey develop an unlikely respect for one another and Rico is faced with a momentous decision: follow his orders to kill the couple whose courage and character have won his admiration, or refuse and endanger the life of the woman he loves?

Overview

You might be reading the title and thinking Pigeon Blood Red? What on earth is that about? Well it's actually about the consequences of  when rubies go missing and the domino effect that this one act has on others. Well that's my take on the story anyway. With a healthy dose of murder, affairs and hot weather thrown in there too. I'm not typically a fan of adult thriller books that aren't 'who dunnits?' but this was a refreshing change of pace for me and I actually enjoyed it.

Pigeon Blood Red has multiple point of views from the four main characters. 

Writing

At the beginning of the book I thought it was quite slow, but then gradually warmed up, causing me to be well in to the book by around 50 pages. A lot of the book did rely on internal monologue and there was also quite a few flashbacks chucked in there too. 

Characters

Evelyn is one of our main characters, she is a middle aged woman trapped in a loveless marriage, so her way to to make it or break it for her and her husband is a trip to Hawaii. She then gets wrapped up in a situation that she had no business in and gets swept into a world that she never even realised existed, let alone one where she is wanted dead. Evelyn is not the most interesting of characters, even her flashbacks seemed a bit limp for me, she chose Robert because he was the 'bad boy' and that didn't pan out, now only realising at middle aged how unhappy she is, sort of mid life crisis anyone?

The next main character is Robert, Evelyn's husband, whose an excessive gambler and alcoholic, who owes lots of various people money. Robert is basically to cut it short, an idiot, who I have no sympathy for. He makes stupid decisions and when push comes to shove he doesn't have the backbone, when then the threats start coming in. 

Unlike Rico, our next main character, Rico is an assassin working for Litvak a renowned loan shark. Ricoc is probably the most complex character, with his murderous ways, which we found out more about in the flashbacks. 

The fourth main character (I'm calling these main characters, because each of these have a point of view in the book) is Paul, to me, he was a bit of a wet wipe, I wasn't a huge fan of him until the end, when he finally started coming out of his shell more. 

And finally we have Litvak who is the loan shark with a missing stash of pigeon blood red rubies. 

Conclusion

In conclusion, I really enjoyed it and Rico was my favourite point of view by far. To me this was mainly setting up the series for the rest of the trilogy, as it did have action in it, but I expect it to really kick off in the next couple of books. A huge thanks to Ed E. Duncan and Kelsey and Taylor at Book Publicity Services. 

Recommend...

I would recommend this to anybody who likes adult thrillers with hints of organised crime. 

 Book Links

Goodreads | Amazon US | Amazon UK

Author Links

Goodreads | Ed E. Duncan | Twitter 

Author Bio

Ed Duncan is a graduate of Oberlin College and Northwestern University Law School. He was a partner at a national law firm in Cleveland, Ohio for many years. He currently lives outside of Cleveland, OH and is at work on the second installment in the Pigeon-Blood Red trilogy.

Previous Book Review: The Midnight Star by Marie Lu

Previous Bookish Post: Emma Recommends... books to read on holiday

Next Book Review: Landline by Rainbow Rowell

Next Bookish Post: Battle of the Book covers (UK vs US)

EnglishBlonde

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Hey my lovelies, welcome to another (two) months wrap up! In May I only managed to read four books, so I decided to wait and do another combination wrap up with June! So lets get down to it...

The first book I read in May was Half Wild by Sally Green, I first read this a few years ago, when it first came out, but when I decided to finally read Half Lost for the first time, I had to read this as well, as in April I read Half Bad. And shockingly the next book I read was Half Lost, are you seeing a theme yet? You can find my review of Half Wild by Sally Green here. As I said I also read Half Lost, however currently I'm not really sure how I'm feeling about it, as the series definitely did not end the way I was expecting it too.

The third book I read in May was Caraval by Stephanie Gerber, and I loved it! This will definitely be making it on my favourites of 2017 post at the end of the year, and I am so excited for the sequel, I won't delve into any of the juicy bits right now, as I have plans to post a full review by the end of next month. 

The fourth book I read in May was Love you to death by Meg Cabot, I got it in my head that the best way to get myself out of a (mini) reading slump, was to read an old favourite series of mine, however when I went to do this I actually only got round to reading the first one. 

And now onto June I read a grand total of 5 books. With the first one being The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern, and wow was this a book, for me the only downfall is the novel definitely seemed to last forever, as I got thoroughly enraptured in the world building and writing of the book. And in all honesty if you haven't read it yet, what have you been doing? And you should do exactly what I did and go into it completely blind.

The second book I read in June was Pigeon Blood Red by Ed E. Duncan, in all honesty I received this book in exchange for review last year, and I have only just managed to get round to reading it (I'm sorry), which is why I'm not going to get to into the nitty gritty details, as the review is scheduled for the 21st July. However, Pigeon Blood Red is a multiple point of view thriller, following our mains face the consequences for actions they didn't necessarily take. 

The third book I read in June was Landline by Rainbow Rowell, I started reading this book about two, maybe three years ago, whilst on holiday and didn't enjoy it, so I put it down. So I decided to give it another go, and I really enjoyed it, maybe it is because I'm older now? I'm not really sure. Landline follows a woman in a declining marriage, who finds an old telephone that allows her to ring her husband back in the late nineties, which gives her the option of changing the past, so he never married her in the first place. 

The fourth book I read in June was Soundless by Richelle Mead, this was another book I wanted knocked off my TBR, and I've finally done it! Woohoo. It also means I've read every book on my Richelle Mead/Marie Lu shelf, which I am very happy about. Soundless follows Fei, who lives in a deaf village, which relies on the town below to deliver them food, however everything changes when she suddenly regains her hearing.  

The fifth book I read in June was Red Queen by Victoria Aveyard, this was another reread for me, as I have plans to complete the Red Queen series this summer. The last time I read Red Queen I wrote a review, which you can find here. 

July TBR

And now onto the books I plan to read in July, So this months TBR pile has 4 books in and they are...

The first book I plan to read in June is Glass Sword by Victoria Aveyard, as the final book I read in June was Red Queen, my plan is to try to complete the series, as I have yet to read the next 2.5 books. 

The second book I plan to read in June is Cruel Crown by Victoria Aveyard, I have technically read this book before, as I did read Queen Song, when it  was released, however bar Coriane dying (which isn't a spoiler), I can't  really remember what happened. 

The third book I plan to read in June is King's Cage, also by Victoria Aveyard, and is the most recent published one, as it only came out in February. With the fourth and final book expected to be released in February 2018, and I know if I don't get this series knocked out this summer, there is no way I will be able to read it when the next one comes out. 

That is it for this months tbr and last months wrap up, I hope you've enjoyed finding out what I've read in May, and let me know what you're planning to read in June, either by commenting, on Goodreads or via Twitter. 

Previous Book Review: The Midnight Star by Marie Lu
Previous Bookish Post: 2017 Anticipated Releases (Part 2)
Next Book Review: Pigeon Blood Red by Ed E. Duncan

Next Bookish Post: Emma Recommends... Books to read on holiday

EnglishBlonde

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Hey my lovelies, welcome to this weeks book review and it is The Midnight Star by Marie Lu. Last week I reviewed The Rose Society, so if you haven't read that yet, I recommend you do now. As this book review will contain spoilers for The Young Elite and The Rose Society (and very minor spoilers for The Midnight Star). I'm sorry if this review turns more into a series review, but this is the only place I can appropriately describe my thoughts and feelings of the series as a whole.

Title: The Midnight Star
Author: Marie Lu
Publisher: Penguin 
Pub. Date: October 11th 2016
Date Read: 12th April 2017
Pages:  316
Rating: 4.5/5 stars
Summary: There was once a time when darkness shrouded the world, and the darkness had a queen.

Adelina Amouteru is done suffering. She’s turned her back on those who have betrayed her and achieved the ultimate revenge: victory. Her reign as the White Wolf has been a triumphant one, but with each conquest her cruelty only grows. The darkness within her has begun to spiral out of control, threatening to destroy all she’s gained. When a new danger appears, Adelina’s forced to revisit old wounds, putting not only herself at risk, but every Elite. In order to preserve her empire, Adelina and her Roses must join the Daggers on a perilous quest—though this uneasy alliance may prove to be the real danger.

Overview

The Midnight Star kicks off a while after Rose Society, in a world where Adelina is still not speaking to her sister, and is ruling Kenettra with an iron fist. She is soon forced to help her old allies turned enemies to save the rest of their kind, as all of the characters are in some way turning against themselves, some mentally and some physically. And due to this have to band together, much to Adelinas disgust. 

The only real downside I have about this series is that even though I really enjoyed The Midnight Star, for me The Young Elites and The Rose Society could have been a duology, as a lot of this book was Adelina realising the wrong to her ways and her getting a redemption arc, although I may just  be feeling this way because I really have a thing for villains. 

Writing

The Midnight Star appropriately finishes off Adelina's character arc, with the Young Elites have her discovering and developing herself, the Rose Society is when the villain is made and The Midnight Star, is her realising that her actions have consequences and learning about what good and bad truly is.
I also really liked how Marie Lu pulled all of the world building together from the first two books, with the myths and fables told and how they all came together, which made the book very satisfying to read, well for me anyway. I love it when books have little Easter eggs hidden in there.

Characters

 Something I really liked about this series is that we saw what was going on from a variety of different point of views. And this way we see the light and dark side of all of the characters, which truly makes the reader see them more as human and enables you, as a reader, to see them more as human and enables you to find out what is truly going on from a wider perspective.  

As mentioned in my previous reviews of the rest of the trilogy, I have never been interested in the Raffaele chapters, and I was still uninterested reading this, instead I much preferred Adelina's, as well as Magiano and Violetta's one off point of views. Although Adelina has got to be one of the best anti-heroes I have ever read, and even though objectively I knew what she was doing was bad, I still felt myself rooting for her.

Conclusion

 In conclusion, I really enjoyed this series, and Adelina is probably one of my all time favourite book characters. The ending wasn't quite what I expected, but I enjoyed it nether the less and will be recommending it to my friends and family for them to read. However, one of my absolute favourite things of this series was each of the characters individual character development, whether they were becoming better people, or worse. 

Recommend...

I recommend this to fans of YA fantasy, and of cause fans of the first and second novel, because in my opinion the series just got better and better. As I said in my last review I would recommend this series to fans of the Red Queen series by Victoria Aveyard, Throne of Glass series by Sarah J Maas and And I Darken by Kiersten White. And I Darken due to Adelina being a strong anti- hero. Red Queen due to the magical powers aspect and Throne of Glass because of the violence and the magic aspect again.

Book Links

 Goodreads | Amazon US | Amazon UK | Waterstones | 

Author Links

Marie Lu | Goodreads | Twitter

Thank you for reading my lovelies, I hope you enjoyed this weeks review, do you know of any good books with a strong antihero? If so please let me know in the comments, as that is the exact type of book I am looking for at the moment. 

Previous Book Review: The Rose Society by Marie Lu
Previous Bookish Post: 2017 Anticipated Releases (Part 2)

Next Book Review: Pigeon Blood Red by Ed E. Duncan

Next Bookish Post: May/June Wrap Up & July TBR

EnglishBlonde

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Hey my lovelies, welcome to my second most anticipated releases of the year. If you haven't already checked out my part 1, you can do so here. But can you believe that we are already half way through the year? I honestly can't, especially when I look at all the books on my tbr pile, which i still haven't had a chance to get round to yet. Never the less here are all of the books being released from June onwards that I shall be picking up anyway. These are in the order for the expected publication date.

The first book on my list may be slightly cheating (it's release date was May 30th), but I don't care and it is Royal Bastards by Andrew Shvarts. This is the first book in a brand new trilogy and follows Tilla, the bastard daughter of a Lord, who quickly cast her aside once his legitamite children were born. And her adventure, as she bands together with other bastards when people begin hunting them due to others treachery. If this doesn't sound like my cup of tea, I honestly don't know what does. Royal Bastards was published on May 30th by Disney-Hyperion.

The second book on my list is Once and for All by Sarah Dessen, this is the first Sarah Dessen book I've thought about buying, as so many people seem to love them, so I really want in on that action, so why not go out and buy the next one to be released? Plus I'm a big fan of reading romances in the warm, so why not read it this summer? All I know of Once and for All is that it follows Louna, who is overly cynical about romance, and it is up to Ambrose a serial dater to change her mind. Once and for All was published on June 6th by Viking Books for Young Readers.

The third book on my list is Because You Love to Hate Me: 13 Tales of Villainy by a large number of authors, which would take too long to type them all out, but some of the booktubers who I watched that are involved are: Benjaminoftomes, abookutopia, JessetheReader, readbyzoe, PeruseProject and my personal favourite polandbananasBOOKS.  If you haven't heard of this book, it's an anthology where 13 booktubers and 13 best selling authors have teamed up in order to rewrite fairy tales from the villains point of view. I am so excited to read this, and am hoping to do a mini review on each of the individual stories. 

The next one I shall definitely be picking up is Ringer by Lauren Oliver, this is the second book in the Replica series, which I read back in October, when it first came out. I'm a big fan of Lauren Oliver, and really enjoyed the first one giving it 4 and a half stars. I'm really excited to explore more of this world, and to get my hands on the hardcover (I really embraced the format of Replica). From what I know of Ringer, it continues to follow Lyra and Gemma, and the way that they are adjusting to the information we found out at the end of book 1, and how this affects them. It also really makes me sad knowing that Orphan Black is finishing this year, and using this as a distraction. Ringer is expected to be released October 3rd by Hodder & Stoughton.

The fifth book on my anticipated releases is Renegades by Marissa Meyer, this is the first book in a brand new series (you know because I need to add more books to my tbr) and even though I have yet to read any Marissa Meyer books, which are all sitting pretty on my bookshelf, I clearly need this one too. After all its got people with powers in a crumbled society, so at the moment I'm kind of getting a mix of The Young Elites by Marie Lu (although probably not as dark) and Control by Lydia Kang. So if its anything like these two books, I'll be happy. Renegades is expected to be released on November 7th by Feiwel & Friends.

Other notable releases include Tower of Dawn by Sarah J Maas and Tower of Dawn by Kendare Blake.

Thank you for reading my lovelies, and I hope you enjoyed hearing about my most anticipated releases part 2, what books are you dying to get your hands on? Let me know in the comment section below.

Previous Book Review: The Rose Society by Marie Lu

Previous Bookish Post: May & June Wrap Up & July TBR

Next Book Review: The Midnight Star by Marie Lu 

Next Bookish Post: Emma Recommends... books to read on holiday

EnglishBlonde

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Hey my lovelies, welcome to this weeks book review and it is The Rose Society by Marie Lu. Last week I reviewed The Young Elites, so if you haven't read that yet, I recommend you do now. As this book review will contain spoilers for The Young Elite.

Title: The Rose Society
Author: Marie Lu
Publisher: Penguin 
Pub. Date: October 13th 2015
Date Read: 11th April 2017
Pages:  397
Rating: 4.5/5 stars
Summary: Once upon a time, a girl had a father, a prince, a society of friends. Then they betrayed her, and she destroyed them all. Adelina Amouteru’s heart has suffered at the hands of both family and friends, turning her down the bitter path of revenge. Now known and feared as the White Wolf, she flees Kenettra with her sister to find other Young Elites in the hopes of building her own army of allies. Her goal: to strike down the Inquisition Axis, the white-cloaked soldiers who nearly killed her. But Adelina is no heroine. Her powers, fed only by fear and hate, have started to grow beyond her control. She does not trust her newfound Elite friends. Teren Santoro, leader of the Inquisition, wants her dead. And her former friends, Raffaele and the Dagger Society, want to stop her thirst for vengeance. Adelina struggles to cling to the good within her. But how can someone be good when her very existence depends on darkness?

Overview

The Rose Society picks up with Adelina and Violetta escaping Kenettra and traveling in an attempt to find more malfettos and get their own version of the Young Elites.

Rose Society is the perfect example of a tumblr post I once read for a writing prompt. You follow the hero, only to find out at the end that they are in fact the villain. 

Writing

I do wonder if Marie Lu decided to do three point of views in order to do the whole "Three sides to every story. Their side. Your side. The truth' sort of thing.  

The only thing that I kind of feel after reading both this and the final book in the trilogy is I honestly feel like we could have finished the book there and kept it a duology, rather than the expansion into the next book. 

Characters

  

Adelina began to embrace her dark side a lot more in this novel. From the beginning you could just tell there was going to be a lot of conflict between the sisters from the very beginning of the book. Because honestly Violetta is so self righteous. She says that she is only looking out for Adelina but everything she does has some sort of detrimental effect on her sister. 

Teren is such a love struck fool, like what an idiot. Has he honestly still not realised that the reason for Guilettas obsession for malfettos is because of her brother, and the weird hierarchy for the throne. Although he did start going against his dear beloved, and growing a back bone, even if it wasn't necessarily in the way I wanted him too, but at least he stood for his values.

Even though of cause The Rose Society has three main characters, but I don't really have anything to say about Rafaelle, I didn't really enjoy him as a character and I don't really care for him. 

A lot of new characters were introduced in the Rose Society and some that I liked a lot more than others. As we met Magiano (my personal favourite), Sergio and of cause Queen Maeve, who we met mildly in book one. **Spoiler ahead** I found it really interesting that they added Sergio 'the weather manipulator' into the mix. As the Young Elite did say that they had killed him due to him not being in control. **End of spoiler**

Conclusion

 In conclusion, I really enjoyed the Rose Society, only wishing that we delved into Guiletta's character a bit more. But after finishing reading this I am ready to move on to the next book, The Midnight Star. 

Recommend...

I recommend this to fans of YA fantasy, and of cause fans of the first novel, because in my opinion it got better. As I said in my last review I would recommend this series to fans of the Red Queen series by Victoria Aveyard, Throne of Glass series by Sarah J Maas and And I Darken by Kiersten White. And I Darken due to Adelina being a strong anti- hero. Red Queen due to the magical powers aspect and Throne of Glass because of the violence and the magic aspect again. 

Book Links

 Goodreads | Amazon US | Amazon UK | Waterstones | 

Author Links

Marie Lu | Goodreads | Twitter 

Previous Book Review: The Young Elites by Marie Lu

Next Book Review: The Midnight Star by Marie Lu

Next Bookish Post: 2017 Anticipated Releases (Part 2)

EnglishBlonde

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Hey my lovelies, welcome to my first book review of the month of May and it is, drum roll please, The Young Elites by Marie Lu. I first read the Young Elites, when it first came out and even though I did enjoy it, I probably wouldn't put it down as one of my favourite books. But after reading it a second time, I definitely found it a lot better. 

Title: The Young Elites
Author: Marie Lu
Publisher: Penguin 
Pub. Date: October 7th 2014
Date Read: 9th April 2017
Pages:  356
Rating: 4.5/5 stars
Summary: 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.

Overview

The Young Elites opens up with a kingdom still recovering from the scarlet plague, which took place years previous. Leaving the adults who contracted it to die and the children marked with the scarlet mark. With these children being known as malfettos, with few being shown to have extraordinary power, with a select few going against the patriarchy and naming themselves the Young Elites. 

Writing

It is beautifully written, for such a short 356 page novel, and the world building is exquisite. Making me really feel as if I am in Kenettra. It was just the little things that I loved, such as the weird royalty laws. Like them not allowing female heirs in Kenettra, unless the female heirs were to marry (like the old British monarchy), whereas in Beldain, they have to have a Queen, with female heirs.

Characters

It is split into three main points of view; Terin, Adelina and Rafaelle. This creates a diverse atmosphere, as it ensures that we are finding out what is going on from all angles. And considering The Young Elites is a fantasy story, I really enjoyed how real some of the characters seemed, and that all of the characters had flaws. 

Adelina was such an amazing character, I love a good antihero, and with the exception of 'And I Darken' by Kiersten White, I don't think I've really read any other books with a female anti-hero, so that was an amazing character she is. I felt anger, when she felt anger, I felt upset, when she felt upset, and I think that is amazing for an author to do, as I don't tend to feel sympathy for characters that often anymore. Adelina's main flaw was probably her jealousy and contempt for her younger sister Violetta, and I truly loved their relationship, in both flashback and when they were together, because their was just something so raw about the pair. Violetta herself, is a great and complex character hiding herself behind naivety and kindness, even if that kindness has a detrimental effect on others. Teren was another complex character, from his love for his Queen, to his insecurities and how they effect him. 

Conclusion

Overall, I really enjoyed The Young Elites, much more than I did the last time I read it anyway. However, it did take me around 2 hours and a half hours to finish it, due to my awful reading slump, which isn't really the best for me. I do have high hopes for The Rose Society now though, which I plan to read as soon as I finish this review. As I really want to learn much more about Queen Guiletta, as I feel like she has the potential to become a much more complex and deeper character. 

Recommend...

I recommend this to fans of YA fantasy, and specifically fans of the Red Queen series by Victoria Aveyard, Throne of Glass by Sarah J Maas and And I Darken by Kiersten White. And I Darken due to Adelina being a strong anti- hero. Red Queen due to the magical powers aspect and Throne of Glass because of the violence and the magic aspect again. 

Book Links

Goodreads | Amazon US | Amazon UK | Waterstones | 

Author Links

Marie Lu | Goodreads | Twitter 

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Hey my lovelies, welcome to this months reading wrap up and I am happy to say that I have finally ended my reading slump. Woop Woop! Which is why I read a grand total of 7 books in the month of April, and pretty much all of them are Marie Lu books.

April Wrap Up

The first book I read in April was a reread and it was The Young Elites by Marie Lu, I first read this book around two year ago and planned to read the other books in the trilogy when they came out, however I never got round to it and now I finally have. I definitely enjoyed it a lot more than the last time, as I am really into reading stories about anti-heroes right now, which you probably would have realised on your own by the end of this wrap up. You can find out more of my thoughts on The Young Elites on the 12th when my review is scheduled to come out.

The second book I read in April, shockingly was The Rose Society by Marie Lu, the second book in the Young Elite trilogy. Again, I really enjoyed this. There was certain things that I would have preferred to of happened, but again it's not really something I have much of a say on, as I didn't read it. And I really wanted to explore Guiletta's character a lot more, and sadly that did not happen. 

The third book I read in April was The Midnight Star by Marie Lu, this is the final book in the Young Elite trilogy, and it did not disappoint. I really like the ending of this series and how all of the loose ends tied up in a little bow. My review of The Midnight Star is expected to be out on the 26th May.

The next series I started and then completed was the Legend trilogy by Marie Lu. After really enjoying the Young Elites, I thought I would finally knock this one of my tbr and gave it ago. Although I have to say I did not enjoy this as much as the other series, and would have preferred it if some things were slightly different, but you can find out what I thought about the entire trilogy in my review of it coming out on the 2nd June.

And the final book I read in April was Half Bad by Sally Green, this was another reread for me, as I really want to finish this series and find out the end of Nathan's story. I read both Half Bad and Half Wild almost two years ago now, and have been planning to read Half Lost for quite sometime and after picking up a signed hardcover, with a small note inside, I've been desperate to find out what it means. 

May TBR

And now onto the books I plan to read in May, but probably won't. And this months TBR is all to do with retellings, due to me picking up Heartless by Marissa Meyer last months and putting it at the top of my TBR pile. 

You can probably guess what the first book on my TBR is, and that is Heartless by Marissa Meyer. I've owned the Lunar Chronicles for round about a year now, and have only ever got round to reading it once, and then I couldn't get passed the first chapter of Cinder, so it didn't go the best. And since then I've been ignoring that section of my shelf, so in order to hopefully get used to her writing styles I am starting off with Heartless. Heartless is a prequel to Alice in Wonderland, following the story of the Queen of Hearts before she even became Queen. All I know of it so far is what I've read on the blurb, and  that alone has me interested. I purchased this due to being Llandudno and felt inspired after seeing all of the statues around the town. 

Another shocking book on my tbr is of cause the first book in the Lunar Chronicles, Cinder by Marissa Meyer. Now this is a much loved book series for some people, and other people hate it, and after owning all of the books I really don't want to be a part of the group of people who hate it. But hopefully after reading Heartless, I shall be more accustomed to her writing style, and be able to get on with the rest of the series. All I know about Cinder, is that it's a Cinderella retelling with a scifi twist, and based on the book cover Cinder is in fact a cyborg, or part cyborg. Hopefully after finishing this one then I will be able to move on to Scarlet. 

The third book on my tbr is Stealing Snow by Danielle Paige, I don't really know a lot about this one, only that it is a retelling of the Snow Queen and is set in modern upstate New York, in some sort of mental facility. But other than this I am going into this book completely blind (how I prefer to, in all honesty). 

And the fourth and final book on my tbr is The Wicked Will Rise by Danielle Paige, The Wicked Will Rise is the second book in the Dorothy Must Die series, and I read Dorothy Must Die back in January, and really enjoyed it, and never got round to reading it (are you guys sick of me saying this yet?), however I've been dying to read it, so why not in my very own retelling's month? 

That is it for this months tbr and last months wrap up, I hope you've enjoyed finding out what I've read in April, and let me know what you're planning to read in May, either by commenting, on Goodreads or via Twitter. 

Next Book Review: The Young Elites by Marie Lu

Next Bookish Post: Battle of the Bookcovers

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