REVIEW: CINDER Marissa Meyer

Summary: Humans and androids crowd the raucous streets of New Beijing. A deadly plague ravages the population. From space, a 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.

Title: Cinder (The Lunar Chronicles #1)

Author: Marissa Meyer

Publisher: Puffin 

Published: January 1st 2012

Rating: 4.5 stars

REVIEW: FALLING KINGDOMS by Morgan Rhodes

Summary:
In the three kingdoms of Mytica, magic has long been forgotten. And while hard-won peace has reigned for centuries, a deadly unrest now simmers below the surface.

As the rulers of each kingdom grapple for power, the lives of their subjects are brutally transformed... and four key players, royals and rebels alike, find their fates forever intertwined. Cleo, Jonas, Lucia, and Magnus are caught in a dizzying world of treacherous betrayals, shocking murders, secret alliances, and even unforeseen love.

The only outcome that's certain is that kingdoms will fall. Who will emerge triumphant when all they know has collapsed?

It's the eve of war.... Choose your side.

Princess: Raised in pampered luxury, Cleo must now embark on a rough and treacherous journey into enemy territory in search of magic long thought extinct.

Rebel: Jonas, enraged at injustice, lashes out against the forces of oppression that have kept his country cruelly impoverished. To his shock, he finds himself the leader of a people's revolution centuries in the making.

Sorceress: Lucia, adopted at birth into the royal family, discovers the truth about her past—and the supernatural legacy she is destined to wield.

Heir: Bred for aggression and trained to conquer, firstborn son Magnus begins to realise that the heart can be more lethal than the sword...

Author: Morgan Rhodes

Series: Falling Kingdoms #1

Source: Owned (Won a Signed Copy; Purchased a copy from Kobo)

Publisher: Razorbill

Publication Date: December 11, 2012

Rating: 3.5/5

Purchase:

Amazon | Chapters | TBD

This is ASoIaF for YA and I loved it so much. It had so much intrigue and was clearly well thought out. I was loving every second of it...ish. I liked the pacing, I thought that enough time had passed between point of views that it made sense while still ensuring that the reader knew what was happening. I liked that time passage was done by switching povs because it didn't feel like it was dragging then.

I liked that this didn't feel like a "First Book" where characters get introduced -- and that's it. Things happened, events occurred. The characters started off one way and grew and changed into someone new throughout this book. It didn't take them too long to do so, but it also felt natural. This book is very heavily character driven (which I love) but it still had really good world building and plot development too. I also really loved that there was such high stakes! You get this huge cast of characters in the beginning and I was overwhelmed, but tbh people die. So you can cross those names off all the time.

So onto those lovely characters...