Through the Book Portal

~o~Rating~o~

~o~Goodreads Synopsis~o~

I am tired of being used, hurt, and cast aside.

Adelina Amouteru is a survivor of the blood fever. A decade ago, the deadly illness swept through her nation. Most of the infected perished, while many of the children who survived were left with strange markings. Adelina’s black hair turned silver, her lashes went pale, and now she has only a jagged scar where her left eye once was. Her cruel father believes she is a malfetto, an abomination, ruining their family’s good name and standing in the way of their fortune. But some of the fever’s survivors are rumored to possess more than just scars—they are believed to have mysterious and powerful gifts, and though their identities remain secret, they have come to be called the Young Elites.

Teren Santoro works for the king. As Leader of the Inquisition Axis, it is his job to seek out the Young Elites, to destroy them before they destroy the nation. He believes the Young Elites to be dangerous and vengeful, but it’s Teren who may possess the darkest secret of all.

Enzo Valenciano is a member of the Dagger Society. This secret sect of Young Elites seeks out others like them before the Inquisition Axis can. But when the Daggers find Adelina, they discover someone with powers like they’ve never seen.

Adelina wants to believe Enzo is on her side, and that Teren is the true enemy. But the lives of these three will collide in unexpected ways, as each fights a very different and personal battle. But of one thing they are all certain: Adelina has abilities that shouldn’t belong in this world. A vengeful blackness in her heart. And a desire to destroy all who dare to cross her.

It is my turn to use. My turn to hurt.

~o~Review~o~

I have mixed feelings about the main character Adelina Amouteru (reasonably so). She’s not exactly a hero but she’s not a villain either, she’s more of an anti-hero (she actually reminded me of Elsa from Frozen in certain parts). Marie Lu herself says this was more of a villain’s origin story than anything else. Adelina is unlike any main character I’ve read about (except maybe Ender Wiggin from Ender’s Game). Adelina is very aware of the fact that she is flawed in both her appearance and her personality. Her marking is her bright silver hair and because one of her eye stopped working, they had to take it out of her socket so she is missing one eye.

I love that Marie Lu created this very dark and disturbing character, but gave her enough personality where the readers can’t help but sympathize with her (at-least a little bit). Adelina crosses the line between good and evil quite a few times and her sense of morality is very different from the typical YA protagonist. It’s not that she is inherently evil but more that she will do anything to protect herself. She tries to be good but she has this growing fury inside of her that she can’t get rid of. Her energy depends on the fear of others which alone warned people to stay away from her so she was pretty much doomed from the beginning. She is tired of being used and has this hunger for power which she can’t seem to quench. This book brings up the question of good vs. evil quite a few times as the line between the two get more and more unclear.

4.5 stars because the beginning was a little slow and it took me a while to get accustomed to the setting and the characters.

~o~SPOILER ALERT~o~
 
I loved how Adelina’s power developed and it’s a pretty cool power. I mean, killing someone with an illusion of pain? Terrifying but awesome.

The other characters were interesting but I didn’t connect with most of them. I liked Raffaelle but wanted more of his story which I’m hoping the later books will bring. His character proved that no one is who they appear to be because he is the one who banishes Adelina at the end (granted she killed Dante and technically Enzo).

Enzo: I honestly didn’t like him all that much but it did surprise me when he died. But at the end, we do see Maeve who can bring people back from the dead so this should be interesting.

I wanted to know more about Gemma and Lucent; they were mentioned quite a lot but we didn’t really get to witness Adelina interacting with them. There might be more of Teren than we saw in this book, but right now, I pretty much hate him. Thinking he’s some kind of savior by killing all these people, that’s what you call delusional.

Violetta is probably my favorite character since I always tend to like the sweet ones. She has protected her sister her whole life. I’m confused on why she doesn’t have a marking though, maybe it’s just really small. Or maybe her hair just turned a very similar shade to what it was before so no one noticed. Oh well…

I’m really excited to see where this is going. Adelina’s character could go in any direction.

~o~Rating~o~

~o~Goodreads Synopsis~o~

Three years ago, Sophie Mercer discovered that she was a witch. It’s gotten her into a few scrapes. Her non-gifted mother has been as supportive as possible, consulting Sophie’s estranged father—an elusive European warlock—only when necessary. But when Sophie attracts too much human attention for a prom-night spell gone horribly wrong, it’s her dad who decides her punishment: exile to Hex Hall, an isolated reform school for wayward Prodigium, a.k.a. witches, faeries, and shapeshifters.

By the end of her first day among fellow freak-teens, Sophie has quite a scorecard: three powerful enemies who look like supermodels, a futile crush on a gorgeous warlock, a creepy tag-along ghost, and a new roommate who happens to be the most hated person and only vampire student on campus. Worse, Sophie soon learns that a mysterious predator has been attacking students, and her only friend is the number-one suspect.

As a series of blood-curdling mysteries starts to converge, Sophie prepares for the biggest threat of all: an ancient secret society determined to destroy all Prodigium, especially her.

~o~Review~o~

To me, Hex Hall was one of those light reads that you enjoy when you’re reading it but forget about after a few weeks. The main character, Sophie, is a witch who gets sent to this boarding school with other supernatural kids because she messed up a love spell.

I thought the plot was predictable. She was the new girl who fell in love with the hottest guy in school (Archer) who already had a girlfriend. The girlfriend was of course portrayed as one of those snotty, mean girls in a generic high school movie. Sophie’s roommate (who also happens to be a vampire) was the most unpopular person in the school. And then slowly Archer started to fall for Sophie.

However, the book was funny at times. Sophie is witty and able to stick up for herself and her friends. And the ending did make me want to read the next book just so I could find out what happens next. Overall, it’s a nice and quick read but nothing remarkable or extraordinary.

~o~Rating~o~
 

~o~Goodreads Synopsis~o~

It’s been six weeks since angels of the apocalypse descended to demolish the modern world. Street gangs rule the day while fear and superstition rule the night. When warrior angels fly away with a helpless little girl, her seventeen-year-old sister Penryn will do anything to get her back.

Anything, including making a deal with an enemy angel.

Raffe is a warrior who lies broken and wingless on the street. After eons of fighting his own battles, he finds himself being rescued from a desperate situation by a half-starved teenage girl.

Traveling through a dark and twisted Northern California, they have only each other to rely on for survival. Together, they journey toward the angels’ stronghold in San Francisco where she’ll risk everything to rescue her sister and he’ll put himself at the mercy of his greatest enemies for the chance to be made whole again.

~o~Review~o~

“But the truth is that we’re all just stumbling around in the dark. Sometimes we hit something terrible.”

“Sometimes, as we’re stumbling along in the dark, we hit something good.”

Now here is a very admirable heroine. Penryn is brave, kind and fiercely loyal to her little sister, Paige. The book begins with her, he sister and her mother going out at night to scout for supplies. As the story progresses, the pieces of what has happened comes together. The world had been attacked by angels and humans are barely getting by.

While scouting Penryn meets an angel named Raffe whose wings is cut off in a fight and his opponent flies off with Penryn’s sister. Penryn saves Raffe because she needs his help finding her sister. They two start to bond and help each other out.

I loved how determined Penryn is to the point of extreme stubbornness. She is also not just another helpless teenager; her mother has some form of psychological disability and made her take a bunch of self defense classes as a child so Penryn has some really cool moves up her sleeve.

And Raffe is just adorable with an awesome/cocky sense of humor.

~o~SPOILER ALERT~o~
 
In the end, when they sew giant bat wings on Raffe made me so angry! How could you do such a thing!? And then when he though Penryn was dead and brought her to the car with the other rebels, imagining that scene gave me goose bumps.

And also, poor little Paige! Those monsters took her apart then sewed her back together like a rag doll. Whoever they are, they better die a horrible death.

~o~Rating~o~

~o~Goodreads Synopsis~o~

Though the Greek and Roman crew-members of the Argo II have made progress in their many quests, they still seem no closer to defeating the earth mother, Gaea. Her giants have risen—all of them—and they’re stronger than ever. They must be stopped before the Feast of Spes, when Gaea plans to have two demigods sacrificed in Athens. She needs their blood—the blood of Olympus—in order to wake.

The demigods are having more frequent visions of a terrible battle at Camp Half-Blood. The Roman legion from Camp Jupiter, led by Octavian, is almost within striking distance. Though it is tempting to take the Athena Parthenos to Athens to use as a secret weapon, the friends know that the huge statue belongs back on Long Island, where it “might” be able to stop a war between the two camps.

The Athena Parthenos will go west; the Argo II will go east. The gods, still suffering from multiple personality disorder, are useless. How can a handful of young demigods hope to persevere against Gaea’s army of powerful giants? As dangerous as it is to head to Athens, they have no other option. They have sacrificed too much already. And if Gaea wakes, it is game over.

~o~Reviews~o~

This book was, well… disappointing. Not because it was a bad book (which it definitely wasn’t) but because I was expecting something much more. The beginning started off okay; the middle was good enough the ending though lacked closure. It wasn’t satisfying enough for me. There were a lot of questions left unanswered, which might have been because Riordan was trying to leave them up to the reader’s imagination but I wish he had answered them.

~o~SPOILER ALERT~o~

I will start off with the parts I loved (starting of-course with Nico). Nico has been one of my favorite characters since The Titan’s Curse. And after HoH, I really wanted him to have his happy ending. In BoO, Nico is the one character who developed the most. He finally started accepting himself and the fact that he also deserves happiness. I liked how close he and Reyna got during their quest and I loved how supportive Reyna was of him.

And let me just say that Solangelo is PERFECT. I absolutely love the idea of Nico and Will (which might have something to do with the fact that I am a daughter of Apollo).

I like Reyna way more than I originally had after this book now that we know more of her background. She is a very strong person and she had gone through a lot (which was the case for most of these demi-gods). The fight between her and Orion was memorable. I screamed when he almost killed Blackjack, that was NOT okay.