King's Cage Review:

Yesterday I finally finished King's Cage. This is the third book in the Red Queen series by Victoria Aveyard. Just a side note, for some reason I had no clue that this wasn't a trilogy anymore, but a quartet, and for this whole book I thought it was the last book. The ending killed me (no spoilers) but I literally was like what? This cannot be the last book, and it wasn't... There's going to be a 4th one, but we don't know anything about that one yet. Sadly....

Now getting into the Review:

Synopsis:
The Red Queen series by Victoria Aveyard consists of 4 books, so far 3 have been released, Red Queen, Glass Sword, and King's Cage. This is a YA sci-fi/dystopian story. Red Queen is about a girl named Mare Barrow who is brought up in a society divided by blood. There are those with silver blood, the royalty and the noble houses who all have powers like wind weaving, being really fast or strong, or controlling fire or water, and those who have red blood, the common people. Mare is an "average red girl", who is forced to suffer under this oppressive monarchy. Until one day, she meets a very nice gentleman, not knowing at the time that it was the crown prince, who she told her story too and who offered her a job at the palace. (I can't be calm about this part, sorry... His name is Tiberius Calore, or Cal and he is the best, nicest person ever, but he can't ever make decisions, but you'll find this all out later). Anyways, so on Mare's first day at the palace there is this big event to chose the strongest daughter of a silver noble, for the prince to marry, that is broadcasted throughout the country. On this very occasion Mare trips and falls into an area, where she should've died, but instead she released lighting from inside her body. And everything goes downhill from here. Mare is forced to pretend to be a lost royal princess, and is to marry Cal's younger brother Maven. This series is about the obstacles and people who stand in her path and how she faces them. As well as portraying her fight to free her people, the reds, from such terrible oppression. This is the basis for the first book, and if you haven't read it I highly recommend it and you should go read it right now! Then read Glass Sword and then come back and read the rest of this review. :) Sorry but since the last book, 2, has been out for more than a year I will probably spoil something from that book or Red Queen.


(I actually just realised I read Red Queen in like October or November 2015 or something like that, I had to wait a few months for Glass Sword to come out in February 2016, and then I had to wait a year! For King's Cage to come out February 2017, thinking it was the last book, and now I have to wait another whole year! What are you doing to me Victoriaaa... ;( But it's ok I'll survive, and I absolutely love the series, so I never want it to end. )

Anyways, so if you've finished any of the three book so far you know that there is currently a war, between the red rebels called "the scarlet guard" and the silvers. In this third book, other powers come into play, and we get a lot more introduction to countries outside of Norta, which is where most of these books take place. I really loved all the new developments throughout the series, and how we go from a small red town where Mare grew up to this thriving castle of silvers to hiding out in forgotten military bases, and underground. I absolutely loved the plot of all these books, and how it feels like this one long never ending journey that Mare goes on to discover herself, and what she can truly do.

I also just can't wait any longer to talk about the characters. Man the characters... I'm not even sure if I can put all of them into words. The most complex character by far is the forgotten prince, made King, Maven Calore. He has so many layers, most of which aren't very decent, but the part he plays specifically in the first and third books is huge and the impact he left on the fandom, and on me personally is as well. I think it's ok to spoil that in the first book he completely betrayed Mare, by leading her to think that he was someone he truly was not. Maven knew exactly what kind of person she wanted to him to be, and eventually completely betrayed her and revealed his true evil colours. Cal was exiled and the king was killed. In the third book Cal played a huge part as well, and in the second book he played the biggest role. In the first book, Mare couldn't choose between the two princes, until Maven betrayed her and made her choice for her. Honestly, I shipped Mare with Cal from their first moment meeting in that pub, where she tried to steal from him. After a while I realised that Cal was actually an amazing person, who was extremely kind, smart, and completely gorgeous, and that he really cared about the people of his country and Mare, but he had a few major flaws. Like his constant draw to power, his need to win, and his inability to make decisions. I have always thought that Mare and Cal bring out the best in each other and need each other to get through things. I really loved Cal for the whole 2nd and 3rd book, until the end of the 3rd book (but no spoils, you all have to go read it).

Even though a lot of the focus is on Maven and Cal (vs.) throughout the series there are a lot of other
important characters. (The first half of King's Cage Mare is Maven's prisoner, so that portion of the book is focused on him.) There is also a lot of focus on the main character, obviously, Mare Barrow. Mare is also a great person at heart, who really believed in her cause. She also has some pretty big issues and flaws, but at the same time she really does grow and change throughout the books, especially the 2nd and 3rd. Some
other characters that are important are Evangeline, Cameron, Farley, Kilorn, and Mare's Family (and Shade). Evangeline is "the most powerful daughter of a silver house", the house of metal. She was first engaged to marry Cal, then Maven, she is a character that has a very dominating personality and a big role in the first half of King's Cage, Mare really only ever talks to Evangeline or Maven at that point. Evangeline's character is also very deep and hard to see clearly, because at first she's portrayed as an evil person who doesn't care about anyone or anything, and later throughout the 3rd book is developed to have actual feelings and emotions. Cameron, is a "newblood", the term used for reds with powers (like mare being able to conjure lightning), who joins the scarlet guard. She also plays a pretty big role throughout the 3rd book.

For some reason, I felt like not as much happened in the 3rd book as in the other two, and nothing really new was discovered. I felt like it was too short, but maybe that was because for the first half it was just Mare trying to get out of her prison cell, which was actually not altogether boring. Overall, I'm happy that there is a fourth book, I just wish that is came out a lot sooner, and we didn't have to wait a year. As well, I was not very happy with the ending of the third book because it seemed very sudden, cut off, and like a complete change of character for a certain person (like back to where we started, even though we progressed so much throughout the latest two books, it felt a little unreal). However, altogether King's Cage did have a lot of development in characters and in information we know, about people, places, and powers. I really enjoyed reading it and absolutely can not wait until the forth book comes out, probably February 2018. Wow, that sounds so far away... :( I highly recommend this whole series, and I really love it. I would recommend this to any YA fantasy, sci-fi lovers, there's also a bit of romance, mainly about war though. This is a very interesting series, and I would give King's Cage 8.4/10 stars. I liked it but not as much as some of the other books, even though Cal and Mare were actually finally together for like at least half a book, my OTP. Please Victoria, don't break them up, we need them together, they're better together, if they're not together they will both be miserable.

Also I was reading when I was searching up if there was a forth book, there is and it was announce in 2015, like where have I been for the past two years, I know! But, there's going to be a Red Queen Movie! Probably... and Elizabeth banks is supposed to direct it, I'm super super excited! (Also shout out to Before I Fall, which is coming out March 3rd.) Anyways, thank you to all my readers as always for reading! Hope you're as excited for Red Queen #4 as I am, and for March, which is tomorrow!
- Kat Hearts

( Also this is super random but Cal kind of reminds me of Mako, from Legend of Kora, they both like to show off and there's many other similarities, lmao. ;) ) (Also none of the fanart or images I used, in this post are mine, but they are all super amazing, so I just wanted to share them! <3)

I'll Give You the Sun Review:

Hey Guys! Sorry I haven't posted anything other than reviews and tbrs in a while. I just have so much work this year and honestly I'm struggling of keeping track of everything. So I'll try my best to keep this blog going and on making it more interesting. I have some good news, I finally finished Harry Potter so I'll probably do some sort of review on the whole series as well as predictions and theories about characters and the series as a whole. So anyways for today you'll just have to settle with a review.

So for this month, February, the book club book is I'll Give You the Sun, and I just finished reading it a few days ago. I was completely blown away, and can't wait to discuss it on Monday. Especially since there hasn't been a book club in a while especially for me, with me missing the last one in early January, being in Dominican Republic and all.

So here's the actual review:

I'll Give you the sun is an unbelievable Ya novel about sibling love and just about the obstacles of growing up, and change. I really loved everything about this book from the characters to the plot, to the way it was written. It is written in two twins' perspectives, Noah and Jude, together these two perspectives tell a whole story, two halves of a whole. This was a very unique and interesting way of writing the novel, and in my opinion gave it more life and also had a lot more perspective. Noah's pov is of the earlier years, when they are both 13-14, while Jude's is of the later, age 16. They change so much in the 2 years in between and go through so much that this way of telling their story is super effective. I really enjoyed it particularly because when Noah was telling his story I got to see Jude from another's perspective and when I got to see Jude's pov I got to see Noah from her perspective. It gave it a wider range of feeling, emotion, and opinions.

I really enjoyed this book overall, and I just could not put it down. I didn't want to read it at first, because I had just finished Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows, finally, and I had been dying to start King's Cage, which arrived in the mail, the day after it came out. (Good news I finally started King's Cage, and so far it hasn't disappointed me). After I had read through the first 50 pages of the book, about 15%, I got very intrigued and I just could not stop reading, literally. I read the book in 2 days, flat, granted it was a Sunday and Monday (Family Day), but still. This book blew me away and I'm torn between wanting a sequel and being in love with it just the way it is.

The characters were amazingly deep and the two stories fit together so well and all the mysteries and questions were answered so perfectly. I absolutely loved the plot and the romance and the characters and everything. The title fits it so well and I'm super grateful that I was forced to read it. Haha. This book is just such a great inspiration about sibling love and also all the obstacles that people go through in life and how they get lost but always find a way back! This book made me feel so many things, it made me laugh out loud, smile like crazy, talk to myself, and almost cry. The writing style is so emotional and real. I also absolutely loved Noah and Jude and how their relationship progressed throughout the book. ( Parts of my Review on Goodreads, right after I finished it, :) )

What made this book that much better for me were the characters. I seriously can not imagine this
book without any of them. Noah and Jude are obviously the most important but for me Brian, Oscar, and Guillermo were almost just as important. I just loved how deep and real the character development went, and how many different sides there were to every character. Brian was Noah's best friend and love interest throughout the book, and honestly he wasn't my favourite character. However, it was super interesting how he changed throughout the book and how Noah did too, because of him. Brian went from the Boy who collected meteors and was obsessed with space, to going to parties and being "the ax", even though he always was. It was like he just didn't want Noah to see that part of him. I honestly don't even know where to begin with Oscar so let's just skip him for now. Guillermo is the resident professional artist in this book, being both crazy and exceptionally talented. He is also like the little bridge between almost every single character in the novel, some you don't even discover until the end. Guillermo's attitude and style were so unique in my opinion, and just the fatherly way in which he interacted with all the characters almost brought tears to my eyes every time. He agreed to mentor Jude in building a stone sculpture, and saved Oscar from the brink of death.

Now I want to dedicate an entire paragraph to Noah and Jude, and maybe Oscar if I can find the words, ;). So Noah... Noah's perspective is so heartbreaking in my opinion, because he has to work so hard for anything in his life, and nothing comes easy. Everyone thinks that he is the weird kid who draws and is quiet. In his earlier years nobody pays any attention to him really, except his mom, and then Brian. Noah is a really quiet person on the outside, but on the inside he is bursting with colour and ideas, an artist at heart. And him and Jude share(d) such a special connection, that nobody understood. Their relationship throughout the book was one of the main obstacles but also probably the best part. The bond that the twins had got broken along the way and they needed to fix it, but sometimes they just couldn't. I honestly love both Noah and Jude so much, but I liked Noah's pov a little more than Jude's. (Btw I am describing them based on their pov, at that specific time, they changed a lot, from how one saw the other to how the other was a few years later or earlier. You have to read it to really understand. It's almost like they switched personalities.) Jude is also very strange, but her perspective is 2 years later, after a very traumatic event leaves her broken. Jude was never as artistic as her brother but she loved making sculptures, she got into the Art school and needed a mentor to help her make a stone sculpture. Jude is super brave and adventurous as heart, but for most of her chapters hides behind a shell of the person she once was. When she is with Guillermo and Oscar the real her comes out, which is one of the things I love most about her. She also desperately believes in ghosts and superstitions after the tragic event, and her mother's death (that coincided...).

Okay I think I'm ready for Oscar now... But I can never do him justice. Oscar is such a complex character, in my opinion the most complex out of all the characters in this book. And obviously, drop dead gorgeous! He is Jude's friend and love interest throughout most of this book. But honestly, to me he's so much more than that. His and Jude's relationship is so complex, that they can only describe is as fate, but I would describe it as extremely good story telling skills. Oscar is the handsome stranger she meets in a church that takes pictures of her, but he is so much more than that. A few years before he had a terrible addiction to drugs and alcohol and almost overdosed, but Guillermo saved him. Oscar changed a lot since then but doesn't want to admit it, and Jude always sees straight through him, and always always brings out the best in him. He and Jude, are just perfect for each other, and everything around them falls into place. I can't do better than that, but he is my favourite character and no not just because he's hella gorgeous, but hello, but because of his so many layers and the part that he plays in both their stories.

The setting is definitely not as important as the characters but still pretty important. Most of the time Jude spends her time in Guillermo's studio, and Noah spends his time at home or in the woods with Brian. I think that overall the setting's, especially G's studio bring a lot of life to the already so real characters. The plot is also so intricately woven that I can't even begin to explain it. What you need to know is that it is the story of two people who get lost, and their journey of finding their way back to their true selves and each other (and not in a romantic way, not everything always has to be romance). And that you absolutely have to read it! Overall, I would rate this book a 9.5/10 and highly recommend it to any contemporary, romance, or just book lovers. It's amazing! The writing is so heartfelt and deep, and really brings forward real issues, with super cute scenes that will make you laugh and cry!

Thank you so much to all my lovely readers for reading! Or if nobody reads then hello to my future self. Lmao. Anyways if you read it and have any comments you can comment below. And I'd love to hear what you guys are reading right now! Until next time...
- Kat

Replica Review:

I not so recently finished (lol, sorry) a book called Replica, written by Lauren Oliver and published by HarperCollins. I originally wasn't that interested in this book because of the cloning theme and I read a book called cloning Miranda that I didn't particularly enjoy. However, I ended up picked this book up because I heard of a Lauren Oliver book signing and I absolutely had to go. To go you had to have bought the book to get it signed and they were also having a discussion about it, along with Kendare Blake and M-E Girard. If you want to read my report on that event here it is:! I ended up really enjoying it and below is my review. A key thing to keep in mind is that Replica is actually two completely different books in one: Lyra and Gemma.

But let's get into what Replica was actually about:

Summary:
Replica is the story of two completely different girls, Lyra and Gemma. The book is actually also split up into two different mini books each around 300 pages. One is told from Lyra's point of view, and one is told completely from Gemma's point of view. These point of views mainly differ because Lyra has spent her whole life at Haven and Gemma has spent her whole life in a normal home and school. Haven is a research facility on an island where scientists secretly create clones, called replicas. Lyra is one of the Replicas and has lived her whole life there not knowing many things and believing that her sole purpose in life was to be useful to others. Gemma, however, was brought up in a normal home with both her parents. Gemma has always been an outlier in her world mainly because she has a few health problems and isn't a typical "pretty girl". She has a best friend named April at the beginning of the book, but she also meets a few other people throughout the book. Gemma's dad was somehow involved in the creation of Haven and throughout her half of the book, Gemma is trying to figure out how she is related to Haven. Lyra on the other hand is fine where she is, she's not super adventurous and is quite content as long as there is no change. She is friends with a few girls and nurses, but in Haven friends are almost non existent. When Lyra is forced out of Haven because of a fire she is forced to join forces and try to survive in conditions she's never experience before. In this perfect blend of modern contemporary and science fiction two girls experience things they never have before, and are forced to step out of their comfort zones.

My personal opinion of this book is that I actually ended up really liking it. Firstly, because I love all of Lauren Oliver's books, I just really like her writing style. And secondly, because it was just super intriguing and interconnecting and I just couldn't put it down. I really appreciated all the different characters and seeing them from different perspectives, and getting that much more development out of each side. I also really loved Lauren's use of description and how real her settings seemed and of all the problems they faced.

The plot and settings of this book were both really intricate and both served a major purpose. Lyra's parts were first mainly at Haven, the research institution, and then all around the nearby area. Haven was a major setting in Lyra's POV because she spent almost her whole entire life there, and everything she ever knew came from that place. Haven played a major part in Replica because it is what brought the two perspectives together. Haven has so many different levels, that Lauren was forced to create and analyse. As in the personal and emotional level, the physical level, and the scientific level. What goes on in Haven is kept top secret so very few people in these two novels actually knew the truth, and the truth is what everything is built on. I especially love how the plot forced the two characters together, but that even after they met they had completely different perspectives and opinions. I also really liked how the settings that both characters visited were in both their points of views and you got to see a bigger picture because of it.

I also really enjoyed this book because of the characters. Gemma had such an easy going and relatable personality and character. I personally liked her more, because her portion of the book was more contemporary and also a lot of self-discovery. At first she was like a spoiled princess with some problems and problems with her dad not always being around, but as the book progressed we got to see so much more of her character. I really enjoyed all the people she met along her journey like Pete, Lyra, and Jake. Some of the characters could've had a bigger role and more plot leading up but overall the Gemma half was pretty good. On Lyra's side I actually enjoyed the characters less but the story more, it was really interesting. Lyra never wanted to get out of Haven or go anywhere at all, and then she was forced to. Her views on everything are very different from Gemma's and since I read Gemma first I knew some of the things that were going to happen, but not the full story. Also the characters in Lyra's POV were a lot more interesting because we got to actually see life inside Haven and what all the nurses did and how the Replicas were treated.

In conclusion, I would say that I was surprised that I actually enjoyed this book, and while reading each half was so intrigued I could barely put it down. Usually when I read a pretty decent book (so most) I can't put it down, but it really depends on the writing style. I really love all of Lauren's work, probably her others more than this one but I really did enjoy Replica. I would probably give this book about an 8.4/10 stars because I really did like Lauren's style, but some of the content wasn't as interesting as I would have liked and a bit cliche. The Gemma half was about a spoiled girl with daddy issues who was self-conscious about her body and wanted to break the rules a little bit. While Lyra's half was a bit less cliche it still followed the major plot of someone escaping a prison, or somewhere were they were raised and seeing the real world for the first time. Even though as I mentioned there were a lot of cliches, Lauren's writing style just makes everyone more interesting. She makes everything more emotional and also really funny at times.I would also recommend this book to anyone who likes sci-fi and contemporary both. Also mainly towards people who are age 14-18 because it does deal with some very mature issues, but also because it features some scenes that some youngsters would not understand, it really is YA.  Overall, I would recommend this book to people who like both sci-fi and contemporary/romance but also like the whole clone thing, because that is a big part of this book. It was also super interesting how it was two books in one and you got to see different scenes but also some of the same from different perspectives.


If you read this book or have anything to say about it comment below! :) Thanks so much for reading! Talk to you soon! <3
- As Always, Kat

(Btw Lauren Oliver's amazing book, Before I Fall, is a movie and it's coming <--  out March 3rd, 2017. I am super super excited guys!!!)