Reading round up (41)

Reading round up is a weekly journal where I record my daily reading progress, my thoughts on each book as I read it, and any books I've acquired during the week. *pretends to be productive*

25th August

I read a further 12% of Heir of Fire, taking me to 67%. And I read Betrayed by Jennifer Rush (32 pages) in like ... an hour. Oh my poor bb Trev. Please be happy.

26th August

Currently reading: Heir of Fire | Sarah J. Maas

Current page/percent: 87%

Read today: 20%

Thoughts: Still not fussed on Sorcha. She seems like an awfully convenient love interest for Dorian. Putting money on her betraying him and being a plant from the King.

27th August

Currently reading: Heir of Fire | Sarah J. Maas

Current page/percent: 100%

Read today: 13%

Thoughts: Crying. No. My BABY. You leave Dorian the fuck out of this.

28th August

Started The 100 by Kass Morgan. I'm a little iffy with it, as I was with the TV show but I like the premise a lot. Not a clue who the fuck Glass is, though. I read 19%.

29th August

I am SO bored of The 100 right now. I read 20% but it was like pulling teeth. Glass's sections are pointless. The others I actually like, but why why WHY all the flashbacks?

30th August

Currently reading: The 100 | Kass Morgan

Current page/percent: 47%

Read today: 8%

Thoughts: I SORT OF HATE THIS BOOK but sort of don't mind it in parts. Why is everyone except Bellamy so whiny? Why was Octavia aged up in the TV show? Where the frick is Jasper? Why did the TV show force a love triangle with a character that doesn't exist when Wells is in love with Clarke and there for the adapting? Who is Glass? Basically: ?????????? (if I actually liked this book I probably wouldn't be asking these questions, but I literally can't see why it was made into a TV show because it's not that good.)

31st August

I'm done with The 100. I'm just thoroughly bored of the whining and the nothing happening. So I abandoned it at 47% and started The Exiled Queen by the infallible Cinda Williams Chima. Read 101 pages and I missed these morons.

1st September

Okay so I totally forgot to post this thing yesterday because my life is now so hectic in the run up to The Wandering's release. But lets pretend I posted this on time, and also that I read something (because I didn't.)

Books finished this week: 1.5

(*gnarled moaning*)

Alright, so I went on another binge (birthday money HOLLA) and I don't have the energy or patience to write them all out here, but I got a tonne of Terah Edun books, a handful of other indies, and ALL MY FAVES. I now own everything I love but Cruel Beauty and Illusions of Fate.

I ALSO GOT A GALLEY OF POLARIS, SEQUEL TO AVALON AND HOLY HELL YESSSSSSSSSSS. So happy!! And a shitty preview of Orphan Queen and BOY am I mad about that. Nowhere on the listing on EW did it say it was only a preview and not the whole book. I feel betrayed, HarperCollins.

More Cassandra Rose Clarke books!!!!!! HELL YES HELL YES HELL YES.

I started a design business called Cosmos Cover Design (cosmos because I love all things space). I design book covers, web banners, and sidebar ads. Check it out here. Blog headers are £10, or £20 with custom stock. Ads are like ... £5. (All money I make goes towards luxury things like food and electricity and staying alive...)

Betrayed (mini review)

Altered: Betrayed | Jennifer Rush

Published: August 26th 2014

Genre: YA, Thriller, Science fiction

Pages: 32

Format: Ebook

Source: Purchased

After leaving Anna, Sam, Cas, and Nick behind, Trev is on his own and under the watchful eye of the Branch once more. But where do Trev's loyalties really lie? Riley, Trev's overseer, is determined to find out. 

On Riley's command, Trev sets off on a mission to a small Wisconsin suburb. His order: locate and kill a seemingly innocent teen named Charlie. Trev soon learns, though, not everything is as it seems in this quiet town--most of all Charlie.
Find out what Trev's been up to behind the scenes in this Altered Saga original short story.

I only found out that this book was a thing yesterday at like eleven. And then I preordered it. And then I read it in an hour. And my HEART HURTS. Why must you do this to me, Rush?

Poor Trev, I just want him to be happy. I like the hopeful ending, and the promises it makes, but it was awful to see all the dislike he harbours for himself, and how he doesn't think he's deserving of forgiveness. I could easily read seven more short stories about Trev, to be honest. I want to see him get the happiness and the forgiveness he deserves.

To sum: a heartbreaking, hopeful short with Jennifer Rush's trademark heart-pounding action

Characters ★★★★☆

Setting/world building ★★★☆☆

Writing Style ★★★★☆

Altered (Review)

Altered: Altered | Jennifer Rush
YA, Science Fiction, Thriller

Characters ★★★★★

Setting ★★★★☆

Writing Style ★★★★★

When you can’t trust yourself, who can you believe?

Everything about Anna’s life is a secret. Her father works for the Branch at the helm of its latest project: monitoring and administering treatments to the four genetically altered boys in the lab below their farmhouse. There’s Nick, Cas, Trev . . . and Sam, who’s stolen Anna’s heart. When the Branch decides it’s time to take the boys, Sam stages an escape, killing the agents sent to retrieve them. 

Anna is torn between following Sam or staying behind in the safety of her everyday life. But her father pushes her to flee, making Sam promise to keep her away from the Branch, at all costs. There’s just one problem. Sam and the boys don’t remember anything before living in the lab—not even their true identities.

Now on the run, Anna soon discovers that she and Sam are connected in more ways than either of them expected. And if they’re both going to survive, they must piece together the clues of their past before the Branch catches up to them and steals it all away.

REVIEW

Altered blew me away. It had the same high stakes, fast paced feel to it as All Our Yesterdays and Reboot, but it had something else entirely. Reading it, I felt highly strung and on edge - Jennifer Rush just dragged me head first into the story and immersed me with terror, excitement, and the desperate desperate need to protect every one of the boys (especially Nick. Oh, how I love Nick.)

I loved Anna's isolation, how all she knew was the boys, and her whole life, her career, her everything revolved around them because she had nothing else. But what I loved most of all was her development, how she grew as a character from someone following her father's rules to breaking the Branch's to save her boys. I really think she found her own mind.

The plot was action packed, terrifying, thrilling and there was both too much and not enough of it. I need more of their story or I'm going to combust. I need to know that Sam and Anna are happy and together, that Cas isn't very badly injured and can recover, that Nick has someone who understands him and is patient with the walls he's built around himself, that Trev will redeem himself. But most of all I need to know about Anna, about her past, about the Branch and what they're keeping secret and what motivated Anna's 'father' to keep her in the dark.

I need to know everything! I devoured this book and it consumed me in return. God, I need book two right now.

★★★★★