melissa de la cruz – Zakiya N. Jamal

Book Review: Stolen

Posted on January 3, 2015May 21, 2015 by Zakiya N. Jamal in Book Reviews

Synopsis from Goodreads:

Who is Eliza Wesson?

Months after Nat and Wes said good-bye on the shores of the Blue, Nat is learning how to control and use her new power. She and her drakon are the last of their kind—and she’s risked her life for their reunion. When she receives a mysterious distress call, she races to help, soliciting the guidance of her new friend, the beautiful and aloof Faix Lazaved of the Blue.

Still heartbroken over losing Nat, Wes is racing cars on a New Vegas racetrack while his team is scattered and lost. When he finds out that his sister, Eliza, is being held in the golden domes of El Dorado, he does what he’s best at—running to her side—and gambles on luck to see him through one more time.

Magic, romance, and danger collide as Nat and Wes become entangled in a dark new adventure that leads right to the heart of the mystery of their frozen, broken world. They soon discover that the answer to both their quests lies in the same question: Who is Eliza Wesson—what is she capable of, and why was she stolen from her family so long ago?

*This review will contain spoilers*

The fact that it took me a year to read the sequel to the first book in this trilogy, Frozen, should indicate how much I wasn’t really interested in this trilogy. However, because I was trying to get one more book in for my Dystopia Book Challenge before the end of the year I decided to give the second book a shot.

It was worse than the first one. I didn’t really get into this book until half way through the novel when Wes and Nat are finally reunited. Also the whole “icehole” and “freezing” as replacements for curse words seriously annoyed me. Just say what you mean. I can’t imagine in a dystopia world they change their curse words to words that include the fact that their world is not covered in ice. I just can’t.

The only thing I really liked about this book was the Eliza Wesson plot twist. I knew she was probably going to be evil but I wasn’t expecting her to be the high priestess. Also I was surprised to find out Faix was actually a good guy. I thought he’d turn on everyone and Wes would be proven right. Although he did some shady things he was always on Nat’s side and that was cool.

The ending was also pretty good. It was a nice cliffhanger that almost makes me want to read the last book just so I can know how it all ends. I’m not sure I will (I have a bunch of other books to read) but we’ll see. Overall, I was not a fan of this book and it took me way longer than it should’ve to finish. The beginning was very slow and then things started to pick up around the 50 percent mark. However, once you work past the build up in the beginning it is a bit better.

Favorite Line:

Love does not make you weak; it is the absence of it that does.

Stars: 2 out of 5. The boring parts outweighed the action.

Borrow or Buy: Borrow!! Not worth being on your bookshelf.

Other Reviews

Teen Scene

The Reading Cafe

Once Upon A Twilight

Bookish Ardour’s Dystopia Challenge 2014

Posted on May 20, 2014December 24, 2014 by Zakiya N. Jamal in Books

I’ve never participated in a book challenge before (which is crazy since I read so much). However, I’m really excited to join this one because I read dystopias on a regular basis and it’s probably my favorite genre of fiction.

The idea of the challenge is to read a certain number of books in this category within the year. I’m willing to include books I’ve already read this year so I’ve decided to try for the Contagion level of reading 15 dystopian books this year. Whoa.

Bookish Ardour apparently does this every year and I’m really excited to join in for the first time (even if it is almost half way through the year). I’ll be doing reviews on each book I read and I’ll indicate if it’s book I read as part of the challenge. Below is the list of books I’ve either already read this year or plan to read as part of the challenge. Feel free to join me on this reading adventure.

The List:

1. The One by Kiera Cass

2. Frozen by Melissa De La Cruz and Michael Johnston

3. Divergent by Veronica Roth

4. Insurgent by Veronica Roth

5. Allegiant by Veronica Roth

6. The Winner’s Curse by Marie Rutkoski

7. The Darkest Minds by Alexandra Bracken

8. Never Fade by Alexandra Bracken

9. The Immortal Rules by Julie Kagawa

10. The Eternity Cure by Julie Kagawa

11. The Forever Song by Julie Kagawa

12. Gone by Michael Grant

13. Hunger by Michael Grant

14. Lies by Michael Grant

15. Plague by Michael Grant

Well that’s the list. I feel confident I can do this before the year’s end. It’s go time.

Book Review: Blue Bloods

Posted on January 8, 2014 by Zakiya N. Jamal in Books

I’m not sure how I feel about Melissa De La Cruz. She has this uncanny ability to write books that make you want to keep reading but for me this feeling mostly comes from curiosity, not interest.

I thought this book was okay. There’s a lot of mystery in it that left me wondering what would happening next. However, I also found many of the characters to be irritating.

This book is the first in another series about vampires, which already deterred me a little bit. Of course, Cruz puts her own spin on the vampire idea. In her series, vampires live forever through their blue blood that carries on their many lives. Basically, they are reincarnated over and over again. They still drink blood but the sun doesn’t kill them it only makes some of them itchy if they’re allergic.

The main character, Schulyer, is an outcast at her prestigious high school. Even so she has a hidden beauty and when a senior and one of the most popular guys in school, Jack, notices her and one of her fellow students is found dead things start to change for Schulyer who later finds out she’s a vampire and so are many of her classmates.

Of course, there’s something special about Schulyer, who’s curiosity about who she is and the death of her classmate leads her to a search for the truth about who could be killing vampires who are supposed to be immortal.

Like I said, I kept reading because I was curious. I wanted to know what Schulyer was and who’s killing these kid vamps. Overall, however, I didn’t find the novel to be that great. It didn’t draw me in and I wasn’t obsessively reading it late in the night to find out what happens next.

Even so, I will most likely still read the next one because I want to know what happens next. Who knows, maybe I’ll like the next one better.

Stars: 2 out of 5

Borrow or Buy: Borrow. This is definitely a book I wouldn’t re-read. Unless you need a refresher on what happens when you finally get around to reading the next one. But in that case you could probably just read the summary on Wikipedia.

Book Review: Frozen

Posted on January 4, 2014May 21, 2015 by Zakiya N. Jamal in Book Reviews

To avoid confusion this is not a book that the Disney movie, Frozen, was based on. This Frozen is the first book in the new Heart of Dread series by authors Melissa de la Cruz (author of the Blue Bloods and Witches of East End series) and Michael Johnston.

Based in a post apocalyptic world, where Earth is now a frozen wasteland, the novel focuses on Nat, a marked girl who has powers she can’t control. The marked are people, or magical creatures really, that humans fear. Similar to the way in which some people still believe they can “catch” cancer or HIV/AIDS in this dystopia people fear the marked not only for their powers but also because they’re scared they can get the “illness” as well. Therefore the marked are persecuted, either being imprisoned or killed on site.

This is just one of the many things wrong with this futuristic society included but certainly not limited to corrupt government, slavers (involved in a lot of black market trading of people), a large disparity between the rich and poor, amongst many other things.

Hence, why Nat wants to escape to what many call the Blue, a far away place that is rumored to be a paradise where the sun still shines and animals still exist. This leads Nat on an adventure along with a boy named, Wes, and his crew to find the Blue.

I thought this book was great. Though this book has a similar to theme to many books coming out recently it’s also a stand out for many reasons. First, this novel is told in third person narration, thereby giving us insight to both Wes and Nat’s perspective which I found to be interesting. Second, this book adds an air of mystery and fairy tale quality to this otherwise very dystopian novel which I definitely haven’t seen in any of the other dystopian novels I’ve read recently (and I’ve read a lot).

Also, I’m usually weary of books that are written by two authors because sometimes you can tell who’s writing what and the change in the style of the novel can get really annoying, early on. However, this novel ran very smoothly, and I felt like I was only reading one author’s writing, not two.

I’m excited to see where Cruz and Johnston will go with this series. Frozen was filled with action, mystery, and a little bit of romance. Though I’m not completely obsessed with this book/series just yet I think this first book built a good foundation for this series to get even better.

Stars: 4 out of 5

Borrow or Buy: Borrow. I thought this book was good but not one that I’d read over and over again. Better to get it from the library and spend the money on that book you’ve had on your wish list for months instead.