Review: Fire by Kristin Cashore

Fire is the second book Kristin Cashore wrote. It's a companion book to Graceling. I recently read both Graceling and Bitterblue, and loved the former so I decided to come back to this book. Once again, Cashore does a great job of painting a wonderful world to get lost in for a few hours.

Fire Summary:
It is not a peaceful time in the Dells. The young King Nash clings to his throne while rebel lords in the north and south build armies to unseat him. The mountains and forests are filled with spies and thieves and lawless men.

This is where Fire lives. With a wild, irresistible appearance and hair the color of flame, Fire is the last remaining human monster. Equally hated and adored, she had the unique ability to control minds, but she guards her power, unwilling to steal the secrets of innocent people. Especially when she has so many of her own.

Then Prince Brigan comes to bring her to King City, The royal family needs her help to uncover the plot against the king. Far away from home, Fire begins to realize there's more to her power than she ever dreamed. Her power could save the kingdom.

If only she weren't afraid of becoming the monster her father was.

Fire Review:
Overall I would say that this book was pretty great. It was roughly 460 pages, which was about 100 pages less than Bitterblue. It didn't feel nearly so long though. At the same time though it wasn't nearly as quick of a read as Graceling, and I would probably rank it as my second favorite of her three novels so far. I thought that Fire's character was very likeable and interesting, and each of the characters were unique in their own ways.

I really liked Prince Brigan, the romantic interest, but the two of them finally getting together was very anti-climatic. Cashore didn't even mention their first kiss. Usually authors will describe it and it's considered to be one of the more significant points in the book, but she glossed over it. Nevertheless I was rooting from them. The one thing I didn't like about the book was that at some points Fire was really strong (although nothing compared to Katsa from Graceling), and at other times she was completely helpless. I guess we all have our strong and weak moments, but this seemed to be taken to an extreme. Regardless, don't let that deter you from reading this book.

As far as Desiderium goes, I've been taking a little bit of a break from it. There are some revisions that have to be made to it, but as of yet I haven't figured out exactly how to address them. I'm still mulling them over, but I'm hoping I'll work up the gumption to take a stab at it this weekend. I don't think most people understand the amount of revision that goes into writing a book. You don't just write it and then poof it gets published. I finished my first draft almost a year ago and spent 8 months revising it on my own. Now I'm revising it with the help of some online writing groups. I guess the good news is it's always getting better. Although to be honest, I'm beginning to hate the word better. I can't wait for the day when my book is good and not just better. Cross your fingers for me.

Review: Spark by Amy Kathleen Ryan

Last year, I read Glow by Amy Kathleen Ryan and thought it was so-so. There were things I didn't like about the book, but overall I liked the plot and the characters. At least enough to read the sequel that just came out. Overall, I would say that Spark was pretty good, and definitely much better than Glow.

In Glow, the Empyrean, the space station that Waverly, Kieran, and Seth live on with their family and friends, gets attacked by their sister ship, the New Horizon, and all of the girls are kidnapped and taken to the New Horizon. Through an unfortunate series of events, many of the adults end up being held captive on the New Horizon, and the girls end up escaping, unable to take the adults with them. When they return the Empyrean, they find that almost all of the adults have died, and those that did survive are in intensive care, leaving the boys to run the ship. As the book ends, the kids and teens set out to try to rescue their parents.

Spark Summary:
Waverly and Kieran are finally reunited on the Empyrean. Kieran has led the boys safely up to this point, and now that the girls are back, their mission seems slightly less impossible: to chase down the New Horizon, and save their parents from the enemy ship. But nothing is truly as it seems…Kieran’s leadership methods have raised Seth’s hackles— and Waverly’s suspicions. Is this really her fiancé? The handsome, loving boy she was torn from just a short time before? More and more, she finds her thoughts aligned with Seth’s. But if Seth is Kieran’s Enemy No. 1, what does that make her?

In one night, a strange explosion rocks the Empyrean—shooting them off course and delaying their pursuit of the New Horizon—and Seth is mysteriously released from the brig. Seth is the most obvious suspect for the explosion, and Waverly the most obvious suspect for releasing him. As the tension reaches a boiling point, will Seth be able to find the true culprit before Kieran locks them both away—or worse? Will Waverly follow her heart, even if it puts lives at risk? With the balance of power precarious and the clock ticking, every decision counts… every step brings them closer to a new beginning, or a sudden end...

Spark Review:
The action in this book was pretty good, although there were times when I found myself counting pages as I went through it. The book is told from the point of view of three different people. I don't know if he was supposed to be, but I found Kieran to be a completely unlikeable character. The book made a number of valid points about what power and the struggle to attain it can do to you, but I felt as if many of the characters' decisions were irrational. At one point, Seth, who is imprisoned by Kieran and disliked by everyone but Waverly, begs Kieran to talk to him so he can warn him that the ship will blow up, and Kieran doesn't even give him the chance to speak. He just walks away. Big mistake. I felt when I was reading it like there would be no reason for Kieran to ignore him, but to each his own I guess.

The description focuses a lot on the love triangle between Waverly, Kieran, and Seth, but the book didn't really have a lot of this. We know Seth likes Waverly, and in this book Kieran and Waverly hate each other, but throughout the entire book, we receive no mention of how Waverly feels about Seth. Kind of weird.

Then there's the end. I'll try not to spoil it, but one of the characters makes a mysterious decision at the end that I'm not too sure about. I think I know what he's planning to do, but it was purposely left open to keep readers guessing until the next book comes out next year. I guess it worked since I'll be reading the third one when it comes out. Happy reading!

Review: There is No Dog by Meg Rosoff

This blog will be short. I'm 60 pages away from being done with my current revision, so I haven't had a lot of time to read. I did, however, make the mistake of picking up the book There is No Dog by Meg Rosoff. I absolutely hated it. All too often I pick up books and stop reading them partway through because I don't care for them, so I resolved to not do that very much anymore. Needless to say I picked a bad time to start.

There is No Dog Summary:
Meet your unforgettable protagonist: God, who, as it turns out, is a 19-year-old boy living in the present-day and sharing an apartment with his long-suffering fifty-something personal assistant. Unfortunately for the planet, God is lazy and, frankly, hopeless. He created all of the world's species in six days because he couldn't summon the energy to work for longer. He gets Africa and America mixed up. And his beleagured assistant has his work cut out for him when God creates a near-apolcalyptic flood, having fallen asleep without turning the bath off. There is No Dog is a darkly funny novel from one of our most delightfully unpredictable writers.

There is No Dog Review:
I absolutely did not like one thing about this book. The main character is 19-years old, and since he's God, he's supposedly been around for millions of years, and yet he's completely selfish, self-absorbed, and lacks any sort of maturity what-so-ever. Completely unbelievable. After millions of years, wouldn't you tend to mature at least a little? Needless to say every single one of the characters was unlikeable, the writing was vulgar and just plain terrible. And the boy spends the entire book trying to woo this attractive girl he saw, and once he does he doesn't even recognize her when he sees her. Then he makes fish fly and he leaves Earth, leaving his 50-year-old immortal assistant in charge of Earth. This book has no redeeming qualities, and I wouldn't recommend it to anyone.

Review: Hallowed by Cynthia Hand

So, after finishing Unearthly, I might or might not have stayed up until 4:00 a.m. finishing the sequel a couple of days ago, so I haven't made much progress in the way of my own book, but I do intend to devote my free time tomorrow, Thursday, and Friday to editing my own book. Ideally.

Alright, without further ado, let's get down to the summary of Hallowed:

For months part-angel Clara Gardner trained to face the raging forest fire from her visions and rescue the alluring and mysterious Christian Prescott from the blaze. But nothing could prepare her for the fateful decisions she would be forced to make that day, or the startling revelation that her purpose—the task she was put on earth to accomplish—is not as straightforward as she thought.

Now, torn between her increasingly complicated feelings for Christian and her love for her boyfriend, Tucker, Clara struggles to make sense of what she was supposed to do the day of the fire. And, as she is drawn further into the world of part angels and the growing conflict between White Wings and Black Wings, Clara learns of the terrifying new reality that she must face: Someone close to her will die in a matter of months. With her future uncertain, the only thing Clara knows for sure is that the fire was just the beginning.

Hallowed Review:
I think the fact that I was up until 4:00 in the morning says a lot about what I think about the book. It's very gripping and kept me on the edge of my seat, but I would definitely read Unearthly before reading this sequel. I thoroughly enjoyed Clara's character, and she did have a legitimate love triangle decision to make. Oftentimes when a girl has two choices, one choice is either a jerk or posessive, so the decision isn't really all that hard, but at times I found myself torn between the two. I'm personally rooting for Tucker in the next installment, but I could see why she would choose Christian.

Overall I would say that this book had two big secrets, and both were fairly transparant. One of them I was able to guess halfway through Unearthly, even though it wasn't revealed until the end of this book, and the other secret started seeming obvious about 60 pages in. So in that respect it was fairly predictable, but at the same time I enjoyed the ride. This book brought tears to my eyes for completely different reasons than the first book. It had more of a sad undertone, but I'm hopeful for the third book coming out next year.

Hopefully it'll be at least another week or two until I review another book, but I'll try to keep you guys posted on my editing process. Happy Fourth!

Review: Unearthly by Cynthia Hand

To begin, sorry it's been so long since my last post. I've been busy revising and reworking my query letter in a vain attempt to make it perfect...or at least seem like the story is more original and exciting than my last pitch did. I'll include it at the bottom of this post for anyone who would like to read it/comment on it. I always love to hear suggestions! Anyway, onto business...

So I'm ashamed to say that the main reason I picked this book up was because of the awesome cover. I've never branched out into books about angels before, because I've heard some terrible things about some of the books out there, but this one actually got good reviews. So I picked it up. Usually an author's first book is no more than 350 pages, but this one was a hefty 450 pages. More on that later.
Unearthly Summary:
In the beginning, there's a boy standing in the trees . . . .

Clara Gardner has recently learned that she's part angel. Having angel blood run through her veins not only makes her smarter, stronger, and faster than humans (a word, she realizes, that no longer applies to her), but it means she has a purpose, something she was put on this earth to do. Figuring out what that is, though, isn't easy.

Her visions of a raging forest fire and an alluring stranger lead her to a new school in a new town. When she meets Christian, who turns out to be the boy of her dreams (literally), everything seems to fall into place—and out of place at the same time. Because there's another guy, Tucker, who appeals to Clara's less angelic side.

As Clara tries to find her way in a world she no longer understands, she encounters unseen dangers and choices she never thought she'd have to make—between honesty and deceit, love and duty, good and evil. When the fire from her vision finally ignites, will Clara be ready to face her destiny?

Unearthly Review:
Overall, I would say that this book is excellent. The plot wasn't very original, but the story was excellent, and the characters really came to life. This was the first book in the trilogy, and was 450 pages long. To be honest it felt a little too long, and a lot of the first 200 pages could have been edited out. But the second half of the book was phenominal.

There's a little bit of a love triangle going on, but the author even jokes in the book about love triangles being overplayed in literature. Respectable. And one thing that I really liked about this book was that with the main love story, she didn't just decide that she liked him and fell madly in love with him. It was only after talking with him and being friends with him for a while that she realized she liked him. And I hate to admit this, but the first time they kissed even brought a tear or two to my eyes. The writing was just that good.

My only complaint other than the first half being too long is that the climax was sort of anti-climatic, but it set the stage nicely for the sequel. Overall, I would recommend this book to anyone who likes romance novels or angel stories.

Desiderium Summary:
If she could, seventeen-year-old Rhiley Winters would wish to be a normal high school student who doesn't have to work three jobs to support herself. But to want anything is illegal. With the world at the mercy of one person's desires, the government uses chip implants to monitor citizens’ desires in a race to suppress and track those of  the unknown Desiderium—the one individual who unknowingly has the power to make anything happen by desiring it strongly enough.

Preoccupied with concealing that her parents abandoned her, Rhiley has no trouble suppressing her desires until she falls in love with Isaak, the son of a past Desiderium who makes her question everything she’s ever been told about desire. Then when a six-year-old Desiderium is killed for bringing dinosaurs back to life, children and teenagers become the target of society’s suspicions. As her life unravels, she begins to wonder if the new Desiderium could be someone she knows. Together, she and Isaak must either comply with the government’s stricter demands and never learn the truth about the Desiderium or outwardly defy them and spend years in prison.

Bitterblue Review

I am happy to say that I have finally finished reading Bitterblue, the sequel to Graceling that I mentioned in my last column. Sorry it took so long! I think the first book was roughly 400 pages, and it didn't take quite so long to get through because it was more action-packed, but the sequel was 550 pages full of very little action so it took forever to get through. I've you've never read Graceling by Kristin Cashore, I definitely wouldn't recommend this book, but if you loved Graceling I would recommend reading it.

Bitterblue Summary:
Eight years after Graceling, Bitterblue is now queen of Monsea. But the influence of her father, a violent psychopath with mind-altering abilities, lives on. Her advisors, who have run things since Leck died, believe in a forward-thinking plan: Pardon all who committed terrible acts under Leck’s reign, and forget anything bad ever happened. But when Bitterblue begins sneaking outside the castle—disguised and alone—to walk the streets of her own city, she starts realizing that the kingdom has been under the thirty-five-year spell of a madman, and the only way to move forward is to revisit the past.

Two thieves, who only steal what has already been stolen, change her life forever. They hold a key to the truth of Leck’s reign. And one of them, with an extreme skill called a Grace that he hasn’t yet identified, holds a key to her heart.

Bitterblue Review:
Overall, I would say that Bitterblue was good, it was just incredibly dragged out. The author definitely could have been heavily edited without the book losing much. It's sort of sad that after 550 pages I don't have a whole lot to say about the book. I really enjoyed Bitterblue as a character, she just didn't really do much. Her advisors keep her in the castle all day everyday and in 8 years she never ever leaves it...seems a little bit unrealistic if  you asked me. Then one day she just randomly decides to sneak out on her own in the middle of the night. Seems implausible.

Not to mention that throughout the entire book the author teases the reader with a potential love triangle, so for 500 pages you're waiting for something to happen, and then when something finally does happen it's completely unsatisfying and leads nowhere. I won't spoil the ending for any YA lovers out there considering reading this book, but I will say that the ending was altogether unsatisfying and depressing. The journey was slow, albeit somewhat interesting, but the end was totally not worth it.

At any rate, I'm onto bigger and better things (in the YA world at least), so hopefully my next review will be more positive. More to come!

Everneath Review

After completely reworking my pitch I just submitted it last night. Nothing is likely to come of it, but it was a good exercise, and I think it made my query letter stronger. Now I just need to finish my new round of revisions, and then I'll send it off again. I'm still working on finishing Bitterblue, the sequel to Graceling which I reviewed a few days ago, so hopefully that will be up soon. In the meantime, I recently finished reading Everneath by Brodi Ashton. Overall, I would say it was pretty good, but nothing to swoon over. It left on a cliff hanger, so I'm assuming there will probably be a sequel, but I'm still not sure if I'll read it or not.

Everneath Summary:
Last spring, Nikki Beckett vanished, sucked into an underworld known as the Everneath, where immortals Feed on the emotions of despairing humans. Now she's returned- to her old life, her family, her friends- before being banished back to the underworld... this time forever.

She has six months before the Everneath comes to claim her, six months for good-byes she can't find the words for, six months to find redemption, if it exists.

Nikki longs to spend these months reconnecting with her boyfriend, Jack, the one person she loves more than anything. But there's a problem: Cole, the smoldering immortal who first enticed her to the Everneath, has followed Nikki to the mortal world. And he'll do whatever it takes to bring her back- this time as his queen.

Evernath Review:
The premise of this story was only somewhat unique, but the plot was pretty good. It held my interest until the end, even though the main character was far from loveable. Her whole reason for going to the Everneath in the beginning was because her mom recently died, and she began to doubt that her boyfriend, Jack, was being faithful to her. Overall those didn't seem like very logical reasons for her to make such a drastic choice and give up her life--especially since her boyfriend didn't actually cheat on her.

The first few chapters were confusing, but in a good way. They kept me wondering what exactly was going on in Nikki's world. After that though the plot started to slow down. She had six months to say goodbye, and she spent the first four months doing a whole lot of nothing...just going to school and not making any attempt to make headway on her relationships with her dad, brother, best friend, and ex-boyfriend Jack. There's nothing like a whole lot of wasted time in a book.

The rest of the characters though were pretty good, and had a lot of depth. Nikki just didn't seem to have much to her. If you're an avid YA reader, I might recommend this book, especially if you like stories of the Underworld, but if not, I probably wouldn't recommend it.

Happy Monday everyone!

Graceling Review

I want to start off today by thanking everyone who continues to return to my blog. Your readership is greatly appreciated! I'm steadfastly working around the clock to revise Desiderium, but I've recently been a little sidetracked. I'm going to be entering Desiderium into an online pitch slam, in which authors use no more than 6 lines to pitch their books to a few select agents. Needless to say I'm having a little trouble cramming everything into 6 lines, but here's what I have so far. I'm not satisfied with it yet, so please let me know what you think.

Desiderium Pitch:

To protect society from the one person who has the power to turn desires into reality, desire is illegal. The government uses chip implants to monitor citizens’ desires in an effort to identify and kill the Desiderium, but the ability is always unknowingly passed onto another as soon as the Desiderium dies. Like everyone else, Rhiley Winters refuses to let herself feel desire until she meets Isaak and time literally slows down around them. Then a six-year-old is killed for bringing dinosaurs back to life and everything changes when the government reveals that the ability of the Desiderium is always passed onto someone under the age of 18, and Rhiley begins to question everything she’s ever been told.

Graceling Review:
Alright, onto Graceling by Kristin Cashore. I checked this book out weeks ago, and just lately got around to reading it. I would highly recommend it to just about anyone who loves to read. In Barnes & Noble it always appears on the "If You Like the Hunger Games" endcaps, and I would agree that if you like the Hunger Games you'll probably like Graceling, but this book his its very own unique premise.

Here's a little blurb about it: Katsa has been able to kill a man with her bare hands since she was eight—she’s a Graceling, one of the rare people in her land born with an extreme skill. As niece of the king, she should be able to live a life of privilege, but Graced as she is with killing, she is forced to work as the king’s thug. When she first meets Prince Po, Graced with combat skills, Katsa has no hint of how her life is about to change. She never expects to become Po’s friend. She never expects to learn a new truth about her own Grace—or about a terrible secret that lies hidden far away . . . a secret that could destroy all seven kingdoms with words alone.

Here's my take on it: I LOVED this book. It started off a little slow, and I don't even think I really got into it until I was 70 pages in, but after that I was completely sucked in. Cashore does an excellent job of creating an awesome world that I fell in love with, and her main character is very likeable--not to mention a strong, independent woman, and I think the literary world needs a few more of those. One thing that irked me a little bit was that the main character, Katsa ends up with Po, and knows that she loves him, but has no problem spending months away from him at a time. In the sequel, eight years later, which focuses on a different character, it's mentioned that Katsa and Po are still together, but haven't seen each other for months (again). Maybe it's just me, but you would think they would want to spend a little more time together if they were really so in love.

One of the reasons why I think it took so long to get into this book, is that the book is written in third person. My personal preference is for first person narrative, but obviously that didn't stop me from reading this amazing book. Cashore's writing is very eloquent, and I can't wait to keep reading the sequel, Bitterblue later tonight if I have any time after I get off work at 11 p.m. and spend some time working on my own book. More reviews to come.

Revised First Five Pages of Desiderium

I do have a couple of YA books I just finished that I need to review, but today's post will be dedicated to the new revised first five pages of Desiderium. I've made a lot of changes to it, and I'm much happier with these revisions. Please let me know what you think in the comments section! All right, here goes...

Chapter 1

The deadbolt of my front door clicks and the door creaks open, urging me to move faster. More time to get ready would be nice. As soon as I think it, I squeeze my eyes shut and try to distract myself. I can’t want that. I can’t want anything. Not if I don’t want to end up in jail.

My bracelet blinks yellow for a few seconds and then stops. I heave a sigh of relief. If the light turns red, it means the amount of dopamine in my blood is over the legal limit and the government will know about my desire. It’ll be a matter of minutes before the government officials show up. I know they’re just trying to protect us from the Desiderium, but an official knocking on my door is the last thing I need.

“Are you ready to go, Rhiley?” My best friend JM wanders into the living room and plops a copy of my house key onto the coffee table.

“Only if I can study in the car,” I say as I throw my hair into a sloppy bun and jam my books into my bag.

“You do know you can take a break, don’t you?” he asks as he topples onto the couch and sinks into the worn-out cushion.

“I don’t have time for a break.” I don’t have time for much of anything. I wince as soon as I think it.

“You might very well be the only 17-year-old workaholic in the world,” he smiles as he tosses a pillow at me.

As I gather the rest of my things, I can’t help but notice the concerned look on his face. His chocolate colored eyes always reflect a hint of worry whenever he gives me some variation of the “you work too much” speech.

JM hauls himself off of the couch and reaches for his key.

“You know I don’t have a choice. And if we don’t hurry I’m going to be late for class.”

I shove him towards the door, but he doesn’t budge. He chuckles and shakes his head in amusement as he steps outside. I shoot him a reprimanding look, but his smile forces a grin onto my face. JM and I have been best friends for ten years and I don’t know what I’d do without him. He’s the only reason I feel anything since my brother died.

JM leans against the side of the house as he offers me his copy of my house key. I shoot him a playful glare and lock the door. He grins and jumps off the porch. I chuck the key at him, but he turns just in time to catch it. He waves the key tauntingly and jogs over to the car. I shake my head as the gravel crunches under my feet.

JM climbs into the driver’s seat and reaches across to open the passenger door for me. I toss my bag onto the floor and hop in. His car whispers to life as JM flicks on the radio. The blaring music makes me flinch. I roll my eyes and reach over to turn it down. JM smiles and shakes his head as he backs the car out of the driveway. For the rest of the ride, he hums to himself while I try to study.

Before I know it, the Central Washington University sign whirs by us as we approach Bouillon Hall.

“Thanks for the ride,” I say as we pull into the crowded parking lot and I jump out of the car.

“No problem. I’ll see you back at the high school,” he hollers after me.

Frantic students brush past me as my legs glide across the floor. Once I reach the secluded classroom, I slide into an empty seat in the back with just enough time to cram in one final minute of studying.

“Good morning class,” the professor says, interrupting my thoughts. “Please put everything under your desks except for a pencil. For those of you who have just been added to the class, you will not be required to take the quiz but you will be responsible for the material. For everyone else, you have exactly ten minutes.”

Students are always adding and dropping classes in the first couple weeks of the quarter, but there’s always the slightest chance I’ll see somebody from the high school. There are a few of us who take advantage of the Running Start program that lets high school students take college classes for free.

Most of the faces in the room seem familiar. I’m about to look away when a student a couple of seats to my right catches my attention. He brushes his curly amber hair out of his face to reveal startlingly deep blue eyes. He doesn’t look much older than me, but I don’t recall seeing him around Ellensburg High School. I definitely would have remembered him.

His eyes catch mine and something sparks inside of me. He raises his eyebrows, adding a sense of mystery to his subtle smile. A deep breath brings me back to my senses. My lip twitches into a smile and I convince myself to look away. It isn’t easy.

Someone jabs me in the shoulder and shoves the stack of quizzes in my face. I slide one off the top and notice the new student doing the same. My pencil slides across the paper until all of the questions are answered. With two minutes to spare, I flip my paper over and lay my pencil on the desk. Everybody else is still scribbling away at their quizzes. Maybe I could just sneak one more peek at the new student.

His quiz is already flipped over. His eyes find mine and hold my gaze. My eyes glide across his face. His eyes do the same to me and I can’t help but wonder if he sees the same green-eyed girl with curly hair and tiny ears that I see when I look in the mirror. My stomach ties itself into a knot. I wish I knew more about him. As soon as I realize what I’m doing, I have to regain control of my thoughts.

My bracelet blinks an annoying shade of yellow.

My eyes dart around the room, searching for something to distract me. Whatever I do, I cannot let myself feel desire. The chips embedded into our forearms monitor the level of dopamine in our system, which is the government’s way of monitoring our desires. Trace amounts will make the bracelet turn yellow. An abundance of dopamine will turn the bracelet red.

People tell me I won’t even be tempted to feel desire anymore when I’m older. It’ll be nice. Then I won’t have to worry so much about setting off the red light on my bracelet or letting the words want and desire slip out of my mouth.

The door slams open behind me, forcing my head to whip around. Two police officers barge into the room trailing a uniformed official. The official passes the professor a respectful nod.

I subtly glance down at my bracelet and heave a sigh of relief that it isn’t red. It isn’t even yellow anymore.

“Samantha Jones,” the official’s voice booms.

All eyes shift to a girl in the front of the room.

“Yes?” she stutters.

The police officer slides out a pair of handcuffs.

“The levels of dopamine in your system have exceeded the legal limit. You are under arrest.”

The solid red light on her bracelet gives her away.

“No, you don’t understand,” her voice shakes.

The officer yanks her out of her seat.

She screams.

Before anyone can realize what’s happened, the girl’s elbow smashes into the police officer’s nose. Blood trickles down his face. The desk crashes to the ground. The room erupts into confusion as she makes a break for the exit. The second police officer stumbles after her. Just a few feet from the door, the official reaches out, his face expressionless, and shoves a black object against the girl’s side.

Her body convulses as she tumbles to the ground. The official slides the Taser back into his pocket and waits as one of the police officers slides the handcuffs onto her wrist. A tear streams down the girl’s cheek as the officer jerks her up off the ground.

“Sorry for the interruption,” the official passes another nod to the professor as they lead the girl out of the room.

The professor nods in return. “Back to work everyone.”

>>>>>>> <<<<<<<

Cinder Review

First off, let me say that this cover is completely awesome. I was intrigued by the concept of the book, so I picked it up off the shelf.

Cinder Synopsis
Humans and androids crowd the raucous streets of New Beijing. A deadly plague ravages the population. From space, the ruthless lunar people watch, waiting to make their move. No one knows that Earth’s fate hinges on one girl. . . .
Cinder, a gifted mechanic, is a cyborg. She’s a second-class citizen with a mysterious past, reviled by her stepmother and blamed for her stepsister’s illness.

But when her life becomes intertwined with the handsome Prince Kai’s, she suddenly finds herself at the center of an intergalactic struggle, and a forbidden attraction. Caught between duty and freedom, loyalty and betrayal, she must uncover secrets about her past in order to protect her world’s future.

The Verdict
I would say that overall, this is a solid read, and I would recommend it to anyone who likes a good cyborg story, but this book wasn't something I would consider to be absolutely amazing by any means. The plot was interesting, but there was nothing driving me to get to the end of the book. This book took me almost a week to get through. I don't have a lot of reading time, but believe me, when there's a book I like I will make time for it. This one though was just kind of there.

One thing that really irked me about it was that it had this huge secret that anyone could see coming from the first third of the book, and it was sort of annoying that it never even occurred to any of the characters until the end of a book. Don't get me wrong, a twist at the end is nice, but not when you see it coming a mile away and it's not even that twisty.

Kudos though to the author for giving the classic Cinderella fairy tale a more female-empowering premise and protaganist. And even more kudos for the cliff hanger ending that has most likely convinced me to read the sequel.

Overall a good read, but nothing all that special.