Review: The Iron King by Julie Kagawa

Title: The Iron King Author: Julie Kagawa Series: The Iron Fey #1 Reading Level: Young Adult Publisher: Harlequin Teen | February 1, 2010 Pages: 363 Add it: Goodreads Buy it: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Book Depository | Books-A-Million Synopsis:   Meghan Chase has a secret destiny; one she could never have imagined. Something has always felt slightly off in Meghan's life, ever since her father disappeared before her eyes when she was six. She has never quite fit in at school or at home. When a dark stranger begins watching her from afar, and her prankster best friend becomes strangely protective of her, Meghan senses that everything she's known is about to change. But she could never have guessed the truth - that she is the daughter of a mythical faery king and is a pawn in a deadly war. Now Meghan will learn just how far she'll go to save someone she cares about, to stop a mysterious evil, no faery creature dare face; and to find love with a young prince who might rather see her dead than let her touch his icy heart.

The Scene: Mainly set in the mystical faerie realm of the Nevernever. Also, faeries. Puck. Ash. Quest. Talking cat. ASH.

The Girl: Meghan Chase starts seeing things like shadows and stuff on her sixteenth birthday. You know, not normal things. Then she finds out her brother is kidnapped by the Fey so she has to go on a quest to save said brother with Puck (yes, Midsummer Night's Dream Puck) and a talking cat (Grimalkin). Meghan, for a sixteen year old YA main character is suprisngly likable. Yes, she bothered me at times (girl, learn how to fight!) but overall she's alright. 

The Boy(s): I'll start with Puck and not the overly obvious choice of the stoic faerie prince, Ash. Robbie aka Puck is that Puck, you know from the Shakespeare play. I find Puck to be very entertaining. He's quite funny and you can tell he really cares about Meghan. But I have a feeling he'll be friendzoned majorly (ahem, hot faerie prince anyone?). Ash is like the typical hot, brooding, and fierce young adult bad boy. Except without any humor save one joke. I have to say, I like Ash but I think Meghan was really stupid to melt into a puddle of mush whenever she was around him especially when he says things like,

"War?" Something cold touched my cheek, and I glanced up to see snowflakes swirling in a lightning-riddled sky. It was eerily beautiful, and I shivered. "What will happen then?"

 Ash stepped closer. His fingers came up to brush the hair from my face, sending an electric shock through me from my spine to my toes. His cool breath tickled my ear as he leaned in.

 "I'll kill you," he whispered, and walked away...

Yeah, that doesn't really strike me as warm and fuzzy, you know?

The WTF?!: Talking cat. Don't get me wrong, this WTF is actually good. I actually love Grim. He's all sorts of funny, amusing, and a little frustrating. It's just that he reminds me of the Cheshire cat in Alice in Wonderland soo much. I don't know if that's a good or bad thing? 

The Buzz: This book is your typical faerie book but not so typical as any other typical faerie book (say that three times fast!). If that makes sense. It's filled with action and adventure and lots of Fey (duh). I liked this book. So, go and read it. They say this series gets better as it goes on so we shall see.   

Rating

Review: Allegiant by Veronica Roth

Title: Allegiant Author: Veronica Roth Series: Divergent #3 Reading Level: Young Adult Publisher: Katherine Tegen Books | October 22, 2013 Pages: 526 Add it: Goodreads Buy it: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Book Depository | Books-A-Million  Synopsis:  The faction-based society that Tris Prior once believed in is shattered—fractured by violence and power struggles and scarred by loss and betrayal. So when offered a chance to explore the world past the limits she’s known, Tris is ready. Perhaps beyond the fence, she and Tobias will find a simple new life together, free from complicated lies, tangled loyalties, and painful memories. But Tris’s new reality is even more alarming than the one she left behind. Old discoveries are quickly rendered meaningless. Explosive new truths change the hearts of those she loves. And once again, Tris must battle to comprehend the complexities of human nature—and of herself—while facing impossible choices about courage, allegiance, sacrifice, and love. Told from a riveting dual perspective, Allegiant, by #1 New York Times best-selling author Veronica Roth, brings the Divergent series to a powerful conclusion while revealing the secrets of the dystopian world that has captivated millions of readers in Divergent and Insurgent.

The Scene

The last book in the Divergent trilogy finally takes place outside the walls of dystopian Chicago. Going into this, I was pretty excited to know what was outside. I was predicting like desolation and waste and survival stuff.

I was really off.

What's outside is the government. Apparently, there's like experiments in certain cities that the government (the United States of America, yeah that government) holds to try to "cure" genetically damaged people. And the Divergent are genetically pure people. I don't know, this plot line felt kinda insignificant especially because of the ending.

The Girl

If I start talking about Tris, it's just gonna be a crapload of spoilers. Or a ton of gifs. That give away said spoilers. All I'll say is I'm NOT happy with what happened.

The Boy(s)

Reading from Four's perspective was quite interesting. I always wondered what went on inside his head. I don't know if I liked the dual perspectives all that much. I kinda just liked reading from Tris' POV but it was still cool.

What went on with Peter really irked me. I had like a love/hate relationship (okay, maybe a amuse/hate relationship) going on with him after the events of Insurgent and while reading this book I was starting to like him a bit more. Until the end. It actually reminded me of his cowardice from the first book especially so it was like a wake up of some sorts. I mean he didn't do anything like really horrible but it disgusted me because he took the easy way out.

The WTF?!

1. The Ending
2. The Ending
3. The Ending
4. Uriah
 5. THE ENDING

The Buzz

If you get over that wretched ending, then you could say that Allegiant was really good. I enjoyed reading it for the most part although at times I was a tiny bit bored. I have to say I liked Divergent and Insurgent better than the last book. I think it might have something to do with that ending...

Rating

My New Rating System!

Hey guys!

You know all those rating systems that bloggers seem to conjure like magic specifically tailored to their blogs? Yeah, well I kinda got tired of my plain old star system. So, I've been thinking that maybe I should create my own rating system, but I've been putting it off for so long because I didn't know what each rating should be called. 

Then it hit me.

My blog name, Brianna's Book Buzz, is the perfect way to base my rating system off of. So, without further ado, here is my new rating system:

No Buzz Whatsoever: It was horrible. I did not like this book at all. There was no buzz in this book. I definitely would NOT recommend this book.

Little to No Buzz: It was okay. Really didn't have much buzz going for this book. This book wasn't completely horrible but it still wasn't my cup tea. I would not recommend this book.

Some Minor Buzz: It was just good. Definitely wasn't great but not horrible either. I had some problems with this book but was still mildly enjoyable. I would maybe recommend this book.

Some Major Buzz: It was really good. I enjoyed this book a lot but it didn't quite hit the buzz factor. Still, a wonderful book and would recommend.

The Buzz Factor: It was AMAZING. This is the book that's worthy of an award. It's the book that sucks you in where you're incapable of doing anything remotely productive because your eyes are super-glued to the pages. I HIGHLY recommend this book.  

What do you think? Do you like it? Anything I should do different? :)