The Infinite Sea (The 5th Wave #2) by Rick Yancey | Review

The Infinite Sea (The 5th Wave #2) by Rick Yancey
Publisher: G.P. Putnam's Sons Books for Young Readers
Publication Date: September 16, 2014
Genre: YA, Sci-Fi, Dystopia, Aliens
Pages: 300
Source: Purchased
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Goodreads Description

How do you rid the Earth of seven billion humans? Rid the humans of their humanity.

Surviving the first four waves was nearly impossible. Now Cassie Sullivan finds herself in a new world, a world in which the fundamental trust that binds us together is gone. As the 5th Wave rolls across the landscape, Cassie, Ben, and Ringer are forced to confront the Others’ ultimate goal: the extermination of the human race.

Cassie and her friends haven’t seen the depths to which the Others will sink, nor have the Others seen the heights to which humanity will rise, in the ultimate battle between life and death, hope and despair, love and hate.

My Thoughts

I will admit I was worried going into this book. When I finally decided to start reading The 5th Wave I had heard so many mixed review about this books. Honestly most, if not all them were bad. A lot of the complaints were that the story was slow, confusing, or there just wasn't much going on. As you might be able to see from my rating I don't agree with everything that was said. I picked this book up a couple days after I finished The 5th Wave and because of that I was still fresh on the characters and the general story line. I think this helped me to remain invested in what was going on. However, there were some things that I didn't like about this sequel.

The story picks up right after the end of the first book. All of the main characters that we followed that escaped from Camp Haven are currently hiding out until they decided what they are going to do next. The Infinite Sea is split into two parts (Book 1 & Book 2). Book 1 follows the same style of The 5th Wave in terms of the way the story is being told. The main change is there is a shift in the POVs being used to tell the story. In this book Ringer becomes one of the main point of views we read from and I was a little disappointed by this because I had really become attached to Cassie and the story she told. Book 1 was action packed and had me quickly flipping through the pages.

Book 2 was slower in pace but it brought in a whole new thought process that I found extremely interesting. Pretty much all of this section of the book is told in Ringer's point of view and once again I was disappointed because not only are Cassie and Evan my favorite characters, Book 1 ended on a cliffhanger so I wanted to know what happened to all the other characters. Book 2 still had some exciting parts. This is where I really started thinking about everything I already knew and trying to fit all this new information in that was given to Ringer.

There were moments where I would stop reading just to try to put information together and honestly it didn't even work. I felt like I was in the book and every new piece of information made me question my instincts. Not only was I questioning my instincts, I questioned if I could trust in anyone else if I was in the same position. If you can't trust in anyone what do you do? I just kept asking myself question I couldn't come up with the answers to which I'm sure was the point. For that alone I think Rick Yancey is brilliant!

There is so much to this story than your typical YA Sci-Fi story. While this might not be the type of story for everyone, I really enjoyed this and I'm highly anticipating The Last Star.

The 5th Wave (The 5th Wave #1) by Rick Yancey | Review

The 5th Wave (The 5th Wave #1) by Rick Yancey
Publisher: G.P. Putnam's Sons Books for Young Readers
Publication Date: May 7, 2013
Genre: YA, Sci-Fi, Dystopia, Aliens
Pages: 457
Source: Purchased
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Goodreads Description

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 Thoughts

This is one of those books that sat on my shelf for at least a year before I picked it up and I really think that's a shame. I heard pretty good things about it but I still didn't pick it up for a while. The book started to get more talk when the movie was about to be released and since I did want to see the movie I decided to finally read it. I'm glad I did!

The beginning was a little slow going for me. I think that was mostly because, the current state of life on earth was being explained and I wasn't fully connected to any of the characters yet. I think it also had a lot to do with our main narrator in the beginning switching between the past and what was currently going on. There were moments of action that helped speed up the plot but for the most part it moved at a steady pace. 

I loved that this book made me think. In almost every moment I felt like I was right there with the current character trying to decide who I could trust and the best to handle any situation. This was especially true when reading from Cassie's point of view. For this same reason I found it frustrating when characters dismissed obvious signs that could have saved their lives if they would have trusted their instincts. Honestly, I would like to list off every single moment where the situation could have happened differently if characters had trusted their instincts but I don't want add in spoilers if I can avoid it.

I also really liked the characters. They were all so unique and interesting. This applies to the characters I actually liked. However there were some that I couldn't even try to like, as you would expect. There was one part about a certain character that took me a while to connect and I was a little disappointed in myself about that.

Overall I really enjoyed The 5th Wave. It wasn't my favorite but it definitely had me excited about continuing on in the series.The ending was so exciting and a bit heartbreaking. I've already read The Infinite Sea so I know how the story continues. I should actually have a review up for that next Sunday. I looking forward to the conclusion of the trilogy. I almost wish I would have just waited until the last book came out so I could have marathoned them all together. 

I tried to avoid spoilers in this review but I would love to discuss this with anyone who has read it. If you have already read The 5th Wave, please leave a comment about anything you would like to discuss. If you haven't already read it, go read it and come back and discuss with me! :-)

Opal (Lux #3) by Jennifer L. Armentrout | Review

Opal (Lux #3) by Jennifer L. Armentrout
Publisher: Entangled Teen
Publication Date: December 11, 2012
Genre: YA, Urban Fantasy, Paranormal Romance, Sci-Fi
Pages: 382
Source: Purchased for Kindle
First Line: "I wasn't sure what woke me."
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Goodreads Description
After everything, I’m no longer the same Katy. I’m different... And I’m not sure what that will mean in the end. When each step we take in discovering the truth puts us in the path of the secret organization responsible for torturing and testing hybrids, the more I realize there is no end to what I’m capable of. The death of someone close still lingers, help comes from the most unlikely source, and friends will become the deadliest of enemies, but we won’t turn back. Even if the outcome will shatter our worlds forever.

Together we’re stronger... and they know it.

My Thoughts

The third book in the Lux series picks up right after the end of the last one, so if you haven't read the first two books I would strongly suggest you not to read this review until you catch up. I will be spoiling a lot since I wanted to talk about this the first time I read this and I didn't have anyone to talk about it with. So much happened in this book so I will try to only talk about a few things.

At the end of Onyx Dawson comes home but as can be expected he isn't the same as he used to be. His family and friends are having a hard time accepting that. Katy is the only one who follows the moment whenever she encounters him and tries to get everyone else, especially Daemon to see things from his point of view. Although a lot didn't seem to happen, I really enjoyed the relationship between Dawson and Katy. They were very supportive of each other when it was needed and Katy help Dawson open up so he could reconnect with his family.

I didn't like how Dee didn't want to be friends with Katy. Katy did make some bad choices but everything that happened wasn't completely her fault. Even though Katy wasn't the one that decided not to tell Dee about her new powers in Onyx and Katy didn't kill Adam Dee still blamed her for everything. Dee used to be one of my favorite characters but after this I was really irritated with her.

Oh yeah, and Blake is back.



Not only does he come back after everything that happened in Onyx. He blackmails Daemon and Katy into helping him get his Luxen. Then he tells Dawson so they really have no choice if they don't want Dawson to go running off and get captured again. I never did like Blake and how he acted during this book didn't help his case at all, especially when he was sneaking into her room and sleeping with her at night. I didn't even feel sorry for him when she did. I never believed Blake was on their side and I was right.

I think Luc is one of my new favorite characters. When he was introduced I thought he was creepy and there was more to his story than he was telling. Since I'm rereading the series I already know what it is and I'm not talking about it until it comes up. If you haven't read this series you should be giving him this look.



The last thing I want to talk about is Daemon. So much has changed in Daemon and Katy's relationship by this book. Daemon becomes that almost perfect boyfriend that every girl wishes for. He isn't perfect because to be honest that would be boring. Daemon makes it very clear that Katy is the only one he wants. There arguments over little stuff was frustrating but that was because I felt like I was the one arguing with Daemon over those things. Everything that happened between them made the relationship seem real. My heart broke for Daemon at the end Opal!

I'm always looking for people to discuss with, so if you have already read this book/series or you are currently reading it feel free to leave me a comment and we can talk! I'm also thinking about starting one of Jennifer's other series so if anyone has any recommendations for me, leave those in the comments as well!

I was trying something new with the gifs, trying to break up the paragraphs. Do you like it it or is it too much?

Onyx (Lux #2) by Jennifer L. Armentrout | Review

Onyx (Lux #2) by Jennifer L. Armentrout
Publisher: Entangled Teen
Publication Date: August 14, 2012
Genre: YA, Urban Fantasy, Paranormal Romance, Sci-Fi
Pages: 366
Source: Purchased for Kindle
First Line: "Ten seconds passed between when Daemon Black took his seat and when he poked me under my shoulder blade with his trust pen."
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Goodreads Description

Being connected to Daemon Black sucks…

Thanks to his alien mojo, Daemon’s determined to prove what he feels for me is more than a product of our bizarro connection. So I’ve sworn him off, even though he’s running more hot than cold these days. But we’ve got bigger problems.

Something worse than the Arum has come to town…

The Department of Defense are here. If they ever find out what Daemon can do and that we're linked, I’m a goner. So is he. And there's this new boy in school who’s got a secret of his own. He knows what’s happened to me and he can help, but to do so, I have to lie to Daemon and stay away from him. Like that's possible. Against all common sense, I'm falling for Daemon. Hard.

But then everything changes…

I’ve seen someone who shouldn’t be alive. And I have to tell Daemon, even though I know he’s never going to stop searching until he gets the truth. What happened to his brother? Who betrayed him? And what does the DOD want from them—from me?

No one is who they seem. And not everyone will survive the lies...

My Thoughts

* contains spoilers

There is so much that happened in this book that I want to talk about! I'm only going to talk about a few though because I don't want to give away the whole story, unless someone wants to discuss!

At the end of Obsidian, I had a feeling I was going to have some problems with Katy and Daemon's relationship. And I was right! For the first half of the book Katy is trying to deny their feelings for each other. Every time something intimate happened between them she was always quick to say Daemon didn't like her or the attraction was only because of the alien bond they had. It took two different people telling her that the bond didn't force romantic feelings for Katy to finally start considering that Daemon might actually like her.

One of the more exciting things that happened in this book is learning about Katy's new powers. There was a hint of this at the end of Obsidian but it's not the same. Experiencing these moments with Katy is like watching a kid try to ride a bike without training wheels for the first time. It's funny at times but it's really risky especially since the DoD is in town trying to figure out how their satellite had been blown up.

Along with the DoD came Blake. I didn't like Blake from the moment he was introduced. That was partly because I felt like he was being added to create a love triangle but at the same time something just didn't seem right about him to me. Even after I found out his secret, that he was like Katy, I felt like he knew way too much for someone who had to learn everything (about what he was, how it happened, about the other types of aliens, how the government was involved, and how to control his powers) by himself. Blake's need to see some tremendous progress of Katy's skill and the constant escalation of their training session (throwing a knife at her and taking her out the protective perimeter of the quartz to fight an Arum) and his mood swings didn't help either.

The last big point I want to talk about is Matthew. I don't trust him! He seems to get better in the fact that he isn't always staring Katy down, or questioning Daemon's action but I still get a bad vibe from him. When Daemon goes to talk to him says he didn't know there was a possibility of Dawson being alive but I didn't believe him. I'm not sure what it is but I don't trust him. 

Have you read this book? What did you think about it? Anything that I didn't mention that you want to talk about? Comment below!

Obsidian (Lux #1) by Jennifer L Armentrout | Review

Obsidian (Lux #1) by Jennifer L Armentrout
Publisher: Entangled Teen
Publication Date: May 8th 2012
Genre: YA, Urban Fantasy, Paranormal Romance, Sci-Fi
Pages: 335
Source: Purchased for Kindle
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Goodreads Description

Starting over sucks.

When we moved to West Virginia right before my senior year, I’d pretty much resigned myself to thick accents, dodgy internet access, and a whole lot of boring… until I spotted my hot neighbor, with his looming height and eerie green eyes. Things were looking up.

And then he opened his mouth.

Daemon is infuriating. Arrogant. Stab-worthy. We do not get along. At all. But when a stranger attacks me and Daemon literally freezes time with a wave of his hand, well, something… unexpected happens. 

The hot alien living next door marks me.

You heard me. Alien. Turns out Daemon and his sister have a galaxy of enemies wanting to steal their abilities, and Daemon’s touch has me lit up like the Vegas Strip. The only way I’m getting out of this alive is by sticking close to Daemon until my alien mojo fades. 

If I don’t kill him first, that is.

My Thoughts

I already read this entire serious and I enjoyed it so much I was a bit on the fence about rereading and actually reviewing it. I figured it would be better to reread this then not have content up because I'm taking forever to read a new book. 

Going back into the beginning of the series, I forgot about how much I didn't like Daemon at first. He was extremely rude. Even when you could tell he was attracted to Katy, he acted like she had personally done something wrong to him and his family by moving in next door. There were moments when Daemon acted normally, which I was really grateful for. If those moments weren't there I might have had to stop reading the books. Once there was more backstory given on Daemon and Dee I understood why Daemon acted the way he did towards Katy but it was still excessive.

Daemon and Katy bantering were my favorite scenes. No matter what Daemon said Katy was right there with him. She wasn't some defenseless girl, hopelessly in love with this new guy who was nothing but rude to her. Although she was attracted to him, she didn't let that take over her she responded to him. Watching them go back and forth was often light, funny, and even steamy at times.

The actions scenes were another favorite. They were fast paced and exciting! As much as Daemon did to try to push Katy away from his family, he was always there to protect when needed. And as many times as he tried to give an excuse for the reason he saved her, it was obvious that it was because he didn't want anything to happen to her even if it wasn't his fault. The action scenes, as well as some of the scenes when Daemon opened up, helped to make the book more than Daemon being extremely moody and rude and Katy questioning what she ever did to him.

Overall I really liked the this book! Daemon's mood swings took away some of the enjoyment but I think this was still worth the read. This series gets so much better and I'm pretty sure we don't have to deal with too much more of the Daemon we were shown in this first book.

Trespassers by Todd Wynn & Tim Wynn | Review

Trespassers by Todd Wynn & Tim Wynn
Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform
Publication Date: October 18, 2014
Genre: Science Fiction
Pages: 344
Source: Received Amazon credit from authors to purchase
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I would rate this more of a 2.5

Goodreads Description

When four alien visitors arrive on Earth and disappear into the cornfields of Indiana, it is Stewart Faulkner’s job to find them. Who they are, where they’re headed, and what’s important enough to make them jump from a moving spaceship are all questions that Stewart must uncover. And he will have to do it all while

1) training a new team member named Mindy—who is developing a crush on him;
2) flying under the radar of his boss to make sure he’s not removed from the case; and
3) staying one step ahead of a government agent named Karl Bruner, who is determined to expose the presence of aliens on Earth.

My Thoughts

Non-Spoiler

I'm trying to think of the best place to start with this review. I have so many thoughts going through my mind but when it comes to putting them down in actual words my mind goes blank. I guess the best place to start would be with the reason for the rating. The summary was interesting enough for me to add it to my pile of books I wanted to read, and when I was contacted by one of the authors offering a free digital copy since I had it on my Goodreads "to read" list I figured it was worth it to give it a try.

While I enjoyed the overall plot I felt the story fell short in multiple places. After taking several creative writing classes and having my own work critiques, I learned one of the biggest things a story needs to have is conflict. This story had it's major problems but there were no conflicts and that was a huge disappointment for me. Everything was just too easy!

I liked that the authors payed attention to details liked one of the characters having bow tie shaped pupils to signify he wasn't from earth, but I also felt like they were trying to pay so much attention to the little details that sometimes it was a bit much. There was a lot of back stories and descriptions of things that I didn't feel were important because they were never mentioned again after.

The ending was another problem for me. I understand that usually you would want the story to wrap up nicely, especially in a standalone. This was too neatly wrapped up for me. Almost every single character gets what they wanted at the start of the book. This brings me back to my point of everything happening too easy.

Summary

Overall the book was enjoyable even though it took me a while to get into it. I gave this book a 2.5 out of 5 because while it was enjoyable it feel a little flat for me. I gave it the extra .5 because it had an interesting concept and it had a different approach then different books about aliens that I had previously read, and I felt a little bad giving it only 2 stars.

Spoilers

There was a moment when the Limestone Deposit Survey Group (the government agency in charge of covering up alien activity on Earth) set up a plan to capture the aliens they are currently after. After what could have only been about 10 minutes book time, the aliens are just let go and that scene is over.

Another scene that could have turned into something more was when Jeremy decides to try out Sara's quorets. There were so many ways this scene could have went, so many things these little blocks of wood could have done. Instead all we see is a small moment between Jeremy and Sara and the moment when they were used on someone else.