She never chose her deadly gift but now she’s forced to use it. How far would you go to protect the only family you have left?

Annie is beset by fleeting strange visions and a guilty conscience. Blind and orphaned, she struggles to care for her feisty younger sister Fia, but things look up when both sisters are offered a place at Kessler School for Exceptional Girls.

Born with flawless intuition, Fia immediately knows that something’s wrong, but bites her tongue… until it’s too late. For Fia is the perfect weapon to carry out criminal plans and there are those at Kessler who will do anything to ensure her co-operation.

With Annie trapped in Kessler’s sinister clutches, instincts keep Fia from killing an innocent guy and everything unravels. Is manipulative James the key to the sisters’ freedom or an even darker prison? And how can Fia atone for the blood on her hands?

 

You guys voted for me to read Mind Games by Kiersten White next on last Sunday’s poll and here is my review! I was instantly drawn into Mind Games ( or some of you may know it as Sister Assassin.) I flew threw about 40% of it within a couple of hours, and I was eager to finish the rest of the book. Unfortunately, the last half of the book wasn’t very good. It got weird and …well..just weird..which I will explain more below. I ended up skimming parts of the last half of the book, because I just wan’t interested in the story anymore. Obviously I was a little upset that the book took such a negative turn, as I had fallen in love with it during the first half.

First I have to say that the cover of Mind Games really doesn’t relate with the story itself. It shows a girl, probably Fia, but I just don’t see what it has to do with the story itself. I know that this is a silly complaint and it has nothing to do with the book itself, but it’s bugging me so I have to share it with the rest of you!

Like I said before, Mind Games starts off really good. It starts off with a girl named Fia who is sent to go kill this guy for unknown reasons. But at the last second she decides that she can’t kill him after all. She notices him petting and saving a puppy, and her heart melts for him. As she’s trying to save him, they are ambushed by three people who say they are there to save the man. Fia, thinking that they have been sent to kill her as well, fights them and gets the guy out of the city and to a new life.

Once to the city, Fia and the man part ways for the time being, and Fia goes back to her sister, which is when we learn more about Fia’s life. Fia’s older sister, Annie, is blind and a seer. Both girls were brought into a facility during their younger teenage years, and they have basically been forced apart. Fia has been constantly abused and threatened due to an unknown power of hers, and her sister, Annie, is constantly used as a threat against Fia. Basically, if Fia doesn’t do what they want and kill who they want, then they will kill Annie.

I started off really liking Fia’s character, but it soon became obvious that she was unstable and..well…was nuts. Obviously that was the point of the story. Fia had been abused and forced to kill people for many years. That would make anyone nuts. But I didn’t want to read about it. It was during the second half of the book that I got to a point where I just couldn’t read about her anymore.

Annie’s character was a huge struggle for me. I just couldn’t stand her. I got to the point where I was skimming her chapters, because I didn’t want to read about her. I found Annie to be whiney, rude, self-centered and just flatout annoying.

When I think about it, I really did not find a single character in the book that I did like. I found all of the characters to be very bland and boring, and it just wasn’t a book for me.

It’s really sad, because I started off absolutely adoring this book. Imagine my disappointment when I picked up the book the next day and realized I despised it. The book was bland, the characters had no development, and I was left wanting to pick up something different. To this date, I have not been able to finish a Kiersten White book, so I just cannot recommend Mind Games.

 

Pages: 256

Publication Date: February 19th, 2013

Publisher: Harper Teen

Source: ARC provided by the publisher

Rating: :

Juliette hasn’t touched anyone in exactly 264 days.

The last time she did, it was an accident, but The Reestablishment locked her up for murder. No one knows why Juliette’s touch is fatal. As long as she doesn’t hurt anyone else, no one really cares. The world is too busy crumbling to pieces to pay attention to a 17-year-old girl. Diseases are destroying the population, food is hard to find, birds don’t fly anymore, and the clouds are the wrong color.

The Reestablishment said their way was the only way to fix things, so they threw Juliette in a cell. Now so many people are dead that the survivors are whispering war– and The Reestablishment has changed its mind. Maybe Juliette is more than a tortured soul stuffed into a poisonous body. Maybe she’s exactly what they need right now.

Juliette has to make a choice: Be a weapon. Or be a warrior

 

I’m warning you guys now that I have a lot to say about Shatter Me by Tahereh Mafi. Shatter Me is about a seventeen-year-old girl, Juliette, who has been locked up in a mental ward for 264 days. She has this unique power where if she touches anyone she can kill them. When she was fourteen-years-old she accidently killed someone with her powers, which resulted in her being sent away from the human society.

After 264 days of never touching a single living thing, something strange happens. Juliette gets a cellmate. And not just any cellmate, but a male cellmate. Juliette swears that this boy is someone that she used to know. Someone that she secretly used to care about. But after showing him the ropes for over a month, Juliette learns of a betrayal that will cut her deep.

Before she knows what’s happening, Juliette is uprooted from her cell and sent to live in lush quarters with a psychopath named Warner. Warner seems to know all about Juliette’s powers, and he wants to use them to his advantage. He wants to use Juliette as a killing machine. But Juliette has no desire to play the part of Warner’s weapon, and she will do anything within her power to get out of his grasp.

 

I had a problem getting into Shatter Me because the writing is so different than anything else that I’m used to. It probably took me around eight to nine chapters to fully get into the story, but once I did I fell head over heels in love. Tahereh Mafi has such a unique and poetic writing style. I’ve never ran across an author who can tug at my heart strings in the way that Tahereh did. I wanted to jump into the pages and soak up the words she created.

Although I loved Tahereh’s writing, I did have a few problems with it. I couldn’t stand the repetitive words or the scratched out words. I understand why she was doing it, but it drove me nuts and it lasted the. entire. book. It did take turn me off from the story a little bit, but fortunately the rest of the story was so amazing that it made up for it.

Juliette’s character kept switching from positive to negative in my eyes. I didn’t like how she was made to come across as nuts, but I also accepted that it was necessary considering that she had been in isolation for almost a year. I also had a problem with how weak she was in the beginning. I had to change my opinion on the weakness, though, because I finally accepted that Juliette wasn’t weak at all. She was strong. I tend to want my female characters to just jump into action and kick everyones butt, and it’s hard for my to acknowledge sometimes that that’s just not realistic.

I’m having such a problem choosing a team. There’s Warner, who I fell in love with immediately. Of course, this makes me seem like a freak since Warner is a dominant, abusive, very psycho male character. I did get turned off from Warner about halfway through because his freakish tendencies reached a peak. I didn’t stray back to Warner at any other point in the book, but I also didn’t stray to Adam.

I liked Adam’s character, but I never once fell in love with his character. He’s the good guy, and I just always tend to stray toward the bad guy in stories. I want to make myself like Adam, because we all know that Tahereh is going to make him and Juliette end up together at the end of the series, but I’m just not feeling it.

So I’m at a point where I’m not in love with either of the main male characters, and it’s really messing up my mind. I require hot boys in my books, and I’m just not overly impressed at this point. I have heard from several different people that Warner’s novella, Destory Me, will bring out a whole other side of him. I have downloaded the copy, and I will be reading it asap, so hopefully that’s true and I can just pick a side!

I have to split the book in half, because I loved the first half of the book a hell of a lot more than I liked the second half of the book. I think this is because Adam is a dominant factor in the second half of the book, and he’s just not my favorite character. I definitely thought that the first half of the book was a lot more entertaining and interesting than the second half.

This book brings up so many heavy topics that I just want to discuss with every single person I meet. So many people love this series, and I ask myself….do they really pay attention to some of the things that are going on? Don’t get me wrong, I love the book, too! But a lot of the subjects mentioned should be talked about.

Abuse is a major part of this book. I felt that Juliette was abused in one form or another clear until the end of the book. There’s Warner who’s allowing her to be beat up, and she’s being starved in the mental ward, and being stripped naked in the sanctuary. Her life is constantly being threatened, and it is always by men. Men are the dominants in this book and that’s something that really is concerning in books and in real life.

I went back and forth, back and forth, back and forth over these topics because they really upset me. But at the same time, I really did like the book and Tahereh’s writing style. I’m trying to tell myself that sometimes these subjects are necessary to have in books. They get people thinking (hopefully) and they create cause for discussion. But I’m worried that people read about these subjects in books and don’t realize how wrong those things really are.

Overall, I really enjoyed this book. I had a blast reading it, and I finished it in less than 24 hours. Shatter Me and Unravel Me are both out in bookstores, and I would encourage each and every one of you to go read them.

 

Pages: 338

Publication Date: November 15th, 2011

Publisher: Harper

Source: Library

Rating: :

 

Teaser Quote: “You’re naked?” Kenji is suddenly studying my sheet and not bothering to be subtle about it.I flush despite my best efforts, flustered, frustrated. “Blondie said they destroyed my clothes.” “Blondie?” Blond man is offended.”

Imagine a place where the dead rest on shelves like books.

Each body has a story to tell, a life seen in pictures that only Librarians can read. The dead are called Histories, and the vast realm in which they rest is the Archive.

Da first brought Mackenzie Bishop here four years ago, when she was twelve years old, frightened but determined to prove herself. Now Da is dead, and Mac has grown into what he once was, a ruthless Keeper, tasked with stopping often—violent Histories from waking up and getting out. Because of her job, she lies to the people she loves, and she knows fear for what it is: a useful tool for staying alive.

Being a Keeper isn’t just dangerous—it’s a constant reminder of those Mac has lost. Da’s death was hard enough, but now her little brother is gone too. Mac starts to wonder about the boundary between living and dying, sleeping and waking. In the Archive, the dead must never be disturbed. And yet, someone is deliberately altering Histories, erasing essential chapters. Unless Mac can piece together what remains, the Archive itself might crumble and fall.

In this haunting, richly imagined novel, Victoria Schwab reveals the thin lines between past and present, love and pain, trust and deceit, unbearable loss and hard-won redemption.

 

The Archived is a story full of mystery, suspense, building love, and secrets that jump right out of nowhere. The story surrounds Mackenzie Bishop who is a Keeper. What is a Keeper? A Keeper is someone who is charged with keeping the Histories (dead people) from entering the mortal world. Mackenzie has been a Keeper since she was a little girl. She’s lived a life full of lies, death, betrayal, and without much sleep. But when Mackenzie and her family move to a hotel turned apartment, she is quickly overwhelmed with a massive amount of Histories in her districts. She doesn’t know what is bringing upon these Histories, but she does know that it needs to be fixed or there is going to be a big problem.

 

I cannot begin to tell you guys how thrilled I am that I ran across The Archived by Victoria Schwab. 2013 has started off very slowly with books. I’ve discovered some books that were good, but mostly I’ve just had horrible luck. I immediately got sucked into the world of The Archived. Victoria Schwab created such a interesting and wonderful world. I just want the next book in my hands right now.

One thing that I really enjoyed about this book were the characters. First, there’s Mackenzie. Mackenzie is strong and powerful in her own right, and she broke my heart at the same time. Mackenzie loses her little brother before the book takes place and that plays a major role in the book. I cannot imagine losing someone so close to me, and my heart just shattered for her.

And Wesley! Wesley, Wesley, Wesley. I find it really difficult to connect with male leads, but I adored Wes. I wish that he had a few more scenes than he actually did, but I loved how Mac and Wes were so hesitant to start whatever it is that they have. I hate books where the main characters jump at each other on the fourth chapter. That’s definitely not what happens in this book. It’s slow progression of confusion, interest, lust and chemistry.

Some people have had some problems reading this book, and I understand why. The first several chapters of this book are a little strange, but they’re not unreadable or even bad. The book is just so mysterious that it took awhile for my brain to catch up. I also had a problem during the very beginning because I didn’t realize that the “Da” was the grandpa, and I was really confused as to why her dad was still alive. My questions were answered by Victoria herself, but the book may have just started off slow for me because I didn’t understand who was who.

One problem I had with this book was that it was very repetitive. I felt that Mac was always in the Narrows and in the Archive, and I just wanted to see more of a mix. I didn’t want to see her just going to work everyday. Another thing was that the ending was very predictable to me. There was a small part that I didn’t guess, but I knew everyone who was involved with the scandal long before it happened. I’m one who usually guesses those things, though, so that might play a part in my judgment.

On a more positive note, I loved the mystery that surrounded The Archived. It kept me on my toes, and I was dying to find out what happened next. The book is great. The writing is fabulous. I just want to kidnap Victoria Schwab and have her write for me all day. I will definitely be picking up the next book in the series as soon as it comes out. And just so you guys know, The Archived is already out in stores! I saw the hardback cover at Barnes and Nobles today, and I felt this moment of just…pride…and it’s not even my book. Go pick this book up today!

 

Pages: 328

Publication Date: January 22nd, 2013

Publisher: Disney Hyperion

Source: ARC provided by publisher

Rating: :

 

Teaser Quote: “Because the only way to truly record a person is not in words, not in still frames, but in bone and skin and memory.”