The Passage meets Ender’s Game in an epic new series from award-winning author Rick Yancey.

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.

 

I don’t believe in the end of the world or the zombie apocalypse. It’s all gibberish to me. And, no, I don’t really believe in aliens either. But there was something rather spooky reading about aliens invading the world and killing off 95% of the population. I guess it’s because life really could exist in outer space. We’re not going to die and turn in to zombies, but there could always be another life force out there wanting to eliminate all of us. It was a really spooky, yet addicting concept. Not only was the plot of The 5th Wave addicting, but the writing was fantastic. Every single time that I opened up the book, I was instantly glued to the pages, and I only came up for air once every few hours. I devoured this thing. It was absolute torture trying to tear myself away from it.

Some people are going to have some problems with The 5th Wave, because the synopsis leads you to believe that there is only one point of view. It’s really confusing at first, because it seems like there are like 6 or 7 points of view, but there are actually only four POVS. So, it’s a little confusing in the beginning. I spent a lot of time wondering who was who and how they tied into the book, but they do. You’re going to have a lot of questions during the first half of the book, but everything gets answered by the end of the book, and all the characters make sense by then.

What really made this book was that there were no unlikeable characters. Sure, there were the evil characters who you’re supposed to not like, but all of the main characters were super well done. I especially loved Cassie’s character. I found her so strong and brave. Cassie was definitely the type of female character that I love to read about. I loved reading about the two main guys, as well, though I had a slight problem reading about the 4th MC, Cassie’s five-year-old brother. I loved Sammy, but one of the parts of the book is in his POV, and it was a little awkward reading about a five-year-old POV. Other than that, I loved everyone.

The 5th Wave is not a romance book, but there is some romance in it. It’s not a dominate aspect of the book, because that’s not really what the book is about, but it does exist. Evan and Cassie have this sweet, hesitant, kinda weird quality to their relationship. They’re not a couple…it’s really hard to explain what they are, but I loved them. And I loved them more by the end of the book. Ben and Ringer are another relationship that sort of starts to bloom, but I’m expecting that we’re going to see a lot more of that couple in the second book. So, there is some romance, but in a way it’s almost nonexistent. It just depends on how you look at it while you’re reading the book.

This book was off the charts amazing. I loved it. It was fresh. It was catchy. It was all around brilliant, and major kudos to Rick Yancey for creating a read so wonderful, gritty and captivating. The 5th Wave is full of action, grief and loss, and love and loyalty that will burn you to the core. This book really details what family is all about, and I cannot wait to get my hands on the second one. I would recommend that everyone go and get this book as soon as it comes out.

 

Download a free preview and learn more about The 5th Wave here.

Pages: 480

Publication Date: May 7th, 2013

Publisher: Putnam Juvenile

Rating: :

 

Teaser Quote: “My head falls back against the rough bark of the tree. The bare branches overhead are hard-edged against the bright blue sky. I suck in a lungful of air, and it comes back out as a laugh. “Well, this is a tragic love story, isn’t it? Alien invader falls for human girl. The hunter for his prey.”

They have tried to squeeze us out, to stamp us into the past.

But we are still here.

And there are more of us every day.

Now an active member of the resistance, Lena has been transformed. The nascent rebellion that was under way in Pandemonium has ignited into an all-out revolution in Requiem, and Lena is at the center of the fight.

After rescuing Julian from a death sentence, Lena and her friends fled to the Wilds. But the Wilds are no longer a safe haven—pockets of rebellion have opened throughout the country, and the government cannot deny the existence of Invalids. Regulators now infiltrate the borderlands to stamp out the rebels, and as Lena navigates the increasingly dangerous terrain, her best friend, Hana, lives a safe, loveless life in Portland as the fiancée of the young mayor.

Maybe we are driven crazy by our feelings.

Maybe love is a disease, and we would be better off without it.

But we have chosen a different road.

And in the end, that is the point of escaping the cure: We are free to choose.

We are even free to choose the wrong thing.

Requiem is told from both Lena’s and Hana’s points of view. The two girls live side by side in a world that divides them until, at last, their stories converge.

 

Requiem. The third and final book in the Delirium trilogy, and one that many have been yearning for for over a year now. The Delirium series has been an interesting journey for me. I read Delirium, and while it was interesting, it fell a little flat for me. Then I moved on to Pandemonium, and I fell head over heels in love. And finally, I read Requiem, and my overall feelings toward the Delirium series are a little mixed. Because, while I loved one book in the series with all my heart……the other two just didn’t have that wow factor.

While the first two books are told from Lena’s POV, Requiem is split equally in half between Lena and Hana’s POV. Now, I can see why some people would be curious about Hana and want to read more about her (Great, go out and read the short story dedicated about her), but there was really no need to put her in this book. The end result of including Hana’s POV in this book was that it took a LOT away from the story and the series. But here’s the kicker: Hana’s POV was the best to read about. It just really wasn’t necessary to include in the book.

Lena’s character grated. on. my. nerves! I’ve always been a fan of Lena in the previous two books, but I hated her in Requiem. You guys…she whined…Nonstop! Honestly, I cannot think of a scene where Lena wasn’t crying, moping, feeling sorry for herself, begging/yelling at one of the two guys, or throwing a tantrum because she didn’t get her way. Who IS this person? What happened to the headstrong Lena from the first two books? Lena’s character made it VERY difficult to enjoy this book.

On a positive note, there were some cool action scenes and shocker moments. On a negative note, these scenes could have been done better (and more frequently) if Hana’s POV had been left out of the book completely. There were also quite a few things in the book that were not touched on. If there was going to be a fourth book, then this wouldn’t bother be……but this is it, guys! There’s NOT going to be another book! This works out perfectly for the television show….but it sucks for the rest of us.

Ok….let’s move on to the ending of Requiem. There were quite a few people who told me that they hateeeed the ending, and there was about two people who told me they really enjoyed it. Normally I wouldn’t do this, but I’m about to give you my opinion on what happened. So,  be warned, there will be spoilers after this point! You read right….Spoilers! So go! Shoo! Don’t read after this point unless you want Requiem to be ruined for you!

 

I thought that the ending of Requiem was the perfect ending. I’ll warn you, not everyone is going to like it. Most people are going to want Lena to end up with one of the two guys, but I found it fitting that she didn’t. Now, I know. We’ve followed Lena now through 3 books. We’ve fallen in love with either Alex or Julian…maybe both. And we just know who Lena should spend the rest of her life with! But let’s look at reality. In the third book, Lena’s what? 18? 19? Maybe 20? Reality check! You don’t settle down at that age.  Hell, if you do, the odds of making the relationship work are not in your favor! But here’s a key fact that people seem to be leaving out a lot……Lena didn’t dismiss both guys from her life! She realized that all three of them are royally screwed up. She’s not the same girl from Delirium…and Alex and Julian are different too. And she’s too young to settle down! At the end of the book, both guys are still in her life! So what’s the issue? Her life continues from there. You decide who she ends up with and what else happens to her life.

Overall, I was pretty let down. Was it a good book? Yes. Was I blown away? Absolutely not. This series had massive potential, but I found the end of it to be a real mess. But…who am I to talk? It’s (most likely) going to be on national television. The series is obviously popular. And it was a good series to read! I’ll probably never reread it, though, and I would recommend everyone else either borrow it from a friend or get it through the library.

Pages: 391

Publication Date: March 5th, 2013

Publisher: HarperTEEN

Rating: :

 

Teaser Quote: “Stop!” His voice rings out sharply, hard as a slap. He releases me and I stumble backward. “Alex is dead, do you hear me? All of that—what we felt, what it meant—that’s done now, okay? Buried. Blown away.”
“Alex!”
He has started to turn away; now he whirls around. The moon lights him stark white and furious, a camera image, two-dimensional, gripped by the flash. “I don’t love you, Lena. Do you hear me? I never loved you.”
The air goes. Everything goes. “I don’t believe you.” I’m crying so hard, I can hardly speak.
He takes one step toward me. And now I don’t recognize him at all. He has transformed entirely, turned into a stranger. “It was a lie. Okay? It was all a lie. Craziness, like they always said. Just forget about it. Forget it ever happened.” 

Who among us will cast aside a comfortable existence and risk death to follow a dream?

A world kept peaceful for a thousand years by the magic of the ruling vicars. But a threat lurks from a violent past. Wizards from the darkness have hidden their sorcery in a place called the keep and left a trail of clues that have never been solved.

Nathaniel has grown up longing for more but unwilling to challenge the vicars. Until his friend Thomas is taken for a teaching, the mysterious coming-of-age ritual. Thomas returns but with his dreams ripped away. When Orah is taken next, Nathaniel tries to rescue her and ends up in the prisons of Temple City. There he meets the first keeper of the ancient clues. But when he seeks the keep, what he finds is not magic at all.

If he reveals the truth, the words of the book of light might come to pass:

“If there comes among you a prophet saying ‘Let us return to the darkness,’ you shall stone him, because he has sought to thrust you away from the light.”

 

I received There Comes a Prophet by David Litwack for the blog tour over at Xpresso Book Tours. I found the cover to be fascinating, and I was in the mood for a dystopia/sci fi/fantasy type of book. I was a little interested in how the author was going to meld those three categories into one book, but he managed to do exactly that.

David Litwack’s writing is so beautiful and full of detail. I could really visualize everything that I was reading, which is something that takes a lot of skill. Sometimes I thought that there was a bit too much detail, though. There were some scenes that had two to three pages of detail for one specific thing, which I thought was a bit too much.

One thing that I loved about this book were the characters. Nathaniel, Thomas and Orah start out as young adults in the beginning of the book, and there is a lot of maturity that develops in each of them throughout the book. They each had their own individual personalities and voices, which I adored.

On a negative note, there was a bit too much religion in the book for my taste. This is obviously something that is not going to bother everyone, but that’s really just not something that I’m interested in at all. Litwack did a very good job of making it so that the reader wasn’t being preached to, and I really appreciated that. The religion also tied in well with the book. Again, it’s just a personal complaint.

Overall, I really enjoyed There Comes a Prophet by David Litwack. The plot was captivating and well-written, and I’m interested in reading more from him in the future. I would definitely recommend that fans of dystopia and sci fi YA books give this book a shot, as it will keep you on your toes and leave you craving more.

 

Pages: 282

Publisher: Double Dragon Publishing

Publication Date: July 12th, 2012

Rating: :

 

Teaser Quote: “Like a foolish parent, to save us from wickedness, they’ve given us a world of limits and not a world of possibilities.”

Buy the book:   Amazon   Barnes & Noble   The Book Depository

Book Trailer   Goodreads

 

The urge to write first struck when working on a newsletter at a youth encampment in the woods of northern Maine. It may have been the night when lightning flashed at sunset followed by northern lights rippling after dark. Or maybe it was the newsletter’s editor, a girl with eyes the color of the ocean. But he was inspired to write about the blurry line between reality and the fantastic.

Using two fingers and lots of white-out, he religiously typed five pages a day throughout college and well into his twenties. Then life intervened. He paused to raise two sons and pursue a career, in the process becoming a well-known entrepreneur in the software industry, founding several successful companies. When he found time again to daydream, the urge to write returned. There Comes a Prophet is his first  novel in this new stage of life.

David and his wife split their time between Cape Cod, Florida and anywhere else that catches their fancy. He no longer limits himself to five pages a day and is thankful every keystroke for the invention of the word processor.

Stalk David: Website   Goodreads   Facebook    Twitter

 

Author Interview:

Cats or Dogs? Dogs. I’m allergic to cats.

Hunger Games or Mortal Instruments? Hunger Games.

Chocolate or Vanilla? Vanilla.

 

Can you tell readers about your latest book, There Comes a Prophet?

There Comes a Prophet is about a society devoid of technology, the result of an overreaction to a distant past where progress had overtaken humanity and led to social collapse. The solution—an enforced return to a simpler time. But Prophet is also a coming of age story, a tale of three friends and their loyalty to each other as they struggle to confront a world gone awry. Each searches for the courage to fight the limits imposed by their leaders, along the way discovering their unique talents and purpose in life.

What were the challenges with writing There Comes a Prophet?

As the story progresses, readers begin to realize this is not an idyllic past but a dystopian future. The main characters discover things that are familiar to today’s audience, but alien to them. I had to be careful to view every detail through the eyes of people who have grown up in a more primitive time. I tried to keep in mind the quote from Arthur C. Clarke: “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.”

Did you ever experience writer’s block? How did you work through that?

I’m sure no writer sits down and has words flow freely while writing an entire novel. I sometimes wander down plot paths that get me in trouble, so I have to back up and start again. I force characters to do things that are against their nature and they rebel. At a certain level, the novelist’s challenge is to be absolutely clear what he’s trying to say. The problem is that when we stare at a blank screen initially, it just isn’t that clear.

I try to have the mindset that there will be lots of drafts, that with each, I’ll better understand the characters and the story. When I get stuck, I go back to basics: what do the main characters want? What’s stopping them from getting it? How will they overcome the current obstacle and move on to the next, greater obstacle until they either achieve their goal or realize it’s not what they really wanted.

If I’m having trouble seeing the story clearly, I’ll take a break, read, or go for a long walk. Occasionally, I need to set the project aside and work on something else for a while, until I can gain a fresh perspective. The worst thing a writer can do is sit there and bang his head against the screen.

Do you have any writing habits?

I write in two hour sessions, the most I can do at one sitting. I generally try to get one under my belt first thing in the morning while I’m fresh. Then, after getting some exercise and having lunch, I’ll do a second session in the afternoon. On bad days, that requires a nap. On good days, when the story is clicking and I’m making good progress, I’ll do a third session at night.

How long did it take you to write There Comes a Prophet?

It took a year on the first try. Then I put it aside and wrote a couple of drafts of a different novel. After that, I went back to it with a much sharper pencil, figuratively speaking, and spent another six months of additional editing.

You have two other books that you’re working on: The Daughter of the Sea and the Sky and Along the Watchtower. Can you give us a little info about those?

Along the Watchtower is a mainstream fantasy about an Iraq war veteran from a troubled family background, who has been severely injured in an IED attack. Prior to the attack, he coped with tragedy and hardship by playing World of Warcraft every chance he had. Now, suffering from traumatic brain injury and PTSD, he lapses in and out of a dream world like in the fantasy game. But unlike the video game, his quest is not for gold or a higher level, but to find a reason to live.

The Daughter of the Sea and the Sky is about a world divided between the Blessed Lands, a place of the spirit, and the Republic, whose people worship at the altar of reason. A mysterious nine-year-old girl from the Blessed Lands sails into the lives of a troubled couple in the Republic and changes everyone she meets. She reveals nothing about herself, other than to say she’s the daughter of the sea and the sky. But she harbors a secret wound she herself cannot heal.

For more of an advance look, you can check them out at www.davidlitwack.com.

What inspires you to write?

Those people in my head who have stories they want to be told.

What is the best book that you’ve read recently?

I’ll give you two: Alan Brennert’s Molok’ai—a fictional biography of a woman who grew up and lived in the infamous leper colony. It’s sounds depressing but it’s one of the most uplifting books I’ve read in a while. And Erin Morgenstern’s The Night Circus, for its originality and wonderful, lyrical style.

What is currently in your To-Be-Read pile?

I recently finished Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro and Philip Pullman’s The Golden Compass. So I’ve added to my to-read list The Remains of the Day and the last two books of the His Dark Materials trilogy.

 

Giveaway:

One winner will win a paperback copy of There Comes a Prophet by David Litwack

Giveaway open to U.S. and Canadian residents only.

Giveaway will run from March 28th, 2013 to April 8th, 2013

 

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