Photo Friday

https://www.pinterest.com/pin/229120699769978708/
http://bookshelfonacloud.tumblr.com/?og=1

This may be my favorite meme ever.

Taking Leaps and Finding Ghosts

Dreams aren’t just for the young, and Ginny Lawther is happy to prove that even at the age of fifty-eight she can still brave a leap of faith…she just needs a little prodding from like-minded individuals. Step one: place an ad in the local newspaper inviting other dreamers to form an Ideal Life Club. Step two: see if anyone shows up.

When Ginny meets four hopeful strangers at the first club meeting, she thinks they’re off to a great start.

Now it's only a matter of time before the sixty-something widow Hilda turns her crafting into a full-time career; the twenty-something Jerry becomes a professional musician; and the thirty-something housewife Lydia publishes her cookbook. That is, until the rugged divorcé, Lee, sets a goal to solve his ghost problem—and upends all their lives!

Suddenly the support group isn’t just trying to navigate the ups and downs of pursuing their dreams; they’re also wrestling with a strange cast of spirits who keep interrupting their endeavors. What do these apparitions want? And why have they latched on to the Ideal Lifers?

Haunting, humorous, and hopeful, Taking Leaps and Finding Ghosts sparks the imagination and breathes unexpected life into everyday reality.

*May Contain Spoilers*

Janet DeLee experiments with the inclusion of the supernatural in everyday life, with everyday people, in her novel Taking Leaps and Finding Ghosts. The Ideal Life Club is a way for the main character, Ginny to be inspired, held accountable, and help others do the same. In doing so, each member of the group will potentially see success. This simple idea brings the members of the club together, and it does the same for readers. The book is both inspiring and entertaining, demonstrating how, no matter your age or your dream, success can be achieved.

Ginny, Jerry, Lee, Hilda, and Lydia make up the Ideal Life Club. They each have specific goals and DeLee shares their endeavors with the readers as the six months (the club's set time frame) drifts by. Ginny wants to own her own home, a very relatable goal, but she has no idea of what to do first and that ups her anxiety level. Readers will understand Ginny's anxiousness. Buying a home is a big deal, no matter your age. Through this, readers will easily connect with Ginny. 

Jerry dreams of being a musician but has terrible stage fright. The group helps him take a few baby steps before encouraging him to dive into his passion. His courage and determination are impressive. Readers will be rooting Jerry on from the beginning. 

Hilda hopes that one day she can financially support herself with her love of crafting. Her creative spirit definitely aligned with my own and I felt especially connected to Hilda. She's a loving, open-minded, supportive woman who loves to help others. It's easy to bond with Hilda's character as she works toward her goal. 

Lydia is the chef of the group and wants to create her own cookbook for a fundraising event. She's the only main character that I didn't feel a connection with. Though I thought her dream was a good one, (I can barely cook myself!) I didn't think DeLee went as in-depth with Lydia as she did with the other characters. I would have liked to have seen Lydia and her daughter cooking together and witnessing how the food preparation brought them together. 

Lee is the wrench in this solid group of Ideal Lifers as his goal is uncharted territory. He wants to find a way to make spirits leave him, and his construction business, alone. His grandmother tried to tell Lee that he had the gift, but he refused to accept it. I understand how this situation would be mighty frustrating and I think Lee's brave for acknowledging what could be happening instead of ignoring it. Readers will enjoy the mystery that Lee brings to the table, but I think the synopsis blows it a bit bigger than it is. The whole book is not about ghosts. It is about the Ideal Life Club, ghosts just happen to be a part of it. 

Regardless, I think many readers will enjoy the diverse group of characters and find a connection with at least one of them. The plot is interesting enough as DeLee does a good job eliciting an emotional response when one of the main characters take a step toward their goal. But I did feel like there was a bit left out at the end. A blossoming relationship was hinted at with Lee which was not clearly wrapped up. Neither was his 'gift.' I wanted to know if he really was able to communicate with spirits or if it was a fluke. But I can live with not knowing, it's like not scratching an itch. 

Rating: 3/5 Cups

WWW Wednesday (177)

To play along, just answer the following three (3) questions…

• What are you currently reading?

• What did you recently finish reading?

• What do you think you’ll read next?

          

01. Currently Reading:
The Family Divided by Anne Allen. Starting the fourth book of the Guernsey series today! Family secrets can lead to innocence or guilt and, not to mention, inheritance.

02. Recently Finished:
Taking Leaps and Finding Ghosts by Janet DeLee. Fun novel about a group of people who all want to lead an ideal life with a bit of supernatural spooks. Review will be posted soon!

03. Reading Next:
Sonnets by Charles Gerard Timm. I'm going to switch it up a bit this coming week and enjoy a poetry collection.

Teaser Tuesday (185)

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of A Daily Rhythm. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:
• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
• Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers



Taking Leaps and Finding Ghosts (83% Kindle)
  - Janet DeLee

As she stood in the middle of the kitchen she decided to take the bull by the horns and loudly addressed any ghosts that might be lurking around, "I am not putting up with this so KNOCK IT OFF!"

The Storyteller - Guest Review

One of my dearest friends wrote this review for The Coffee Pot and I am honored to share it with my fellow readers. Her words gave me chills. Hope you enjoy!

Sage Singer befriends an old man who's particularly beloved in her community. Josef Weber is everyone's favorite retired teacher and Little League coach. They strike up a friendship at the bakery where Sage works. One day he asks Sage for a favor: to kill him. Shocked, Sage refuses... and then he confesses his darkest secret—he deserves to die, because he was a Nazi SS guard. Complicating the matter? Sage's grandmother is a Holocaust survivor.

What do you do when evil lives next door? Can someone who's committed a truly heinous act ever atone for it with subsequent good behavior? Should you offer forgiveness to someone if you aren't the party who was wronged? And most of all—if Sage even considers his request—is it murder, or justice?

*Contains Spoilers*

Very few books make me sob uncontrollably, laugh out loud, and question my own morals, all within a few hundred pages. Picoult writes a novel that cuts to the very core of humanity by forcing the reader to make an unimaginable choice.

“The Storyteller” by Jodi Picoult is about a girl named Sage Singer who is presented with an impossible decision. Sage is introverted to the extreme; she works a night shift as a baker, has very few friends, and spends as much time hiding herself from the world as she can. She blames herself for the death of her mother, and feels the rest of the world does too. She considers herself a lost cause, a loner. That is, until she meets a nice elderly man by the name of Josef who comes into her bakery, and later shows up at her support group. Josef is a beloved member of the community. He was a teacher at the local school, he coached football, and he is lovingly referred to as the town grandpa. Sage and Josef spend more and more time together, and she begins to open up to him about her loneliness and guilt. As they grow closer and closer, Josef tells Sage his darkest secret, and asks her for an unimaginable favor: he was a Nazi during World War II. He wants her to help him die, after she forgives him for his unforgivable actions. Sage’s family is Jewish, her grandmother is a holocaust survivor, and Josef feels she is as close as he can get to being forgiven for his sins.

Throughout the book, Sage struggles with the choice in front of her. Can she forgive him, when she was not a subject of his transgressions? Can she kill him for what he did? Would that be justice, or would it be giving him the easy way out? What would be the consequences (moral and otherwise) if she decides to grant him his wish? She calls in reinforcements at the Department of Justice, and begins gathering more information about him. This spurs a much needed love interest for Sage's character, which provides the only happy ending of the novel.

Josef begins telling his story about what it was like growing up in Germany, how it became an honor to learn how to be a good soldier and follow directions. Josef always felt second best; he was an average student whose brother excelled in school. But then he joined the SS Guard and quickly moved up the ranks. The overwhelming approval he received for being tough and following orders only fueled Josef's ego. His need to please his superiors quickly outweighed any morals he thought he had.  As he is ordered to do unspeakable things, he begins to drink away his actions. He knows what he is doing is wrong, but he feels he cannot stop. He stops thinking of Jews as people. He justifies what he is doing by telling himself he is only doing what he is told. Meanwhile, Picoult manages to keep the emotional attachment to Josef one of pity, even as he describes killing men, women, and children in cold blood. When Josef finishes telling his story, the reader is surprisingly not left with a feeling of hatred toward him. Instead, I almost felt… sorry for him. Sage, on the other hand, is appalled by what she hears.

To help make her choice, Sage approaches her grandmother, and then we begin to hear the other side of the story. Minka talks about growing up as a Jew in Poland, where she plays dress up with her best friend Darija and crushes on her teacher.  As the war progresses, she is forced to move to the ghetto where over a few years, most of her friends and family are killed or "deported", never to be heard from again. She is eventually sent on a train to Auschwitz, where she is forced to work and is nearly starved to death. Minka is a storyteller; she has been writing the same novel since she was a young teenager. The story changes as she gets older and experiences tragedies. In both a figurative and very literal sense, this novel she is writing is the reason Minka survives. By the end of her story, I was left in tears. Literally sobbing. The atrocities this woman endured are hard to imagine, yet Picoult writes them so that you experience every loss, every pain, and your heart breaks for this character.

Once Minka and Josef have both finished their stories, it is easy to figure out the stories are intertwined. Both the reader and Sage are now more conflicted than ever. Can Josef be forgiven for what he has done? The point is made that murder can never be forgiven, because the victim is not alive to grant forgiveness. Should Sage help him die? He is an elderly man, no longer a danger to anyone. He clearly feels guilt for his actions, as evidenced by his need to become a productive member of society. Can someone with a conscience murder thousands of innocent people? On the other hand, can someone without a conscience feel guilt and remorse?

As she struggles with the situation at hand, Sage receives advice from the few people close to her. She is told that forgiveness is not for the transgressor, it is for the person granting the forgiveness. In the end, Sage makes her choice.

What would you choose?

-Brooke, St. Louis

Brightly (Flicker #2)

Lee Capren’s life isn’t exactly normal... but it’s hers. When she’s not slinging spells with her monster-wrangling roommate, Filo, or honing her magical abilities with her boyfriend, Nasser, she’s working in a shop that caters to the magical crowd.

When three strangers arrive with a desperate plea for help, Lee and her friends are swept up in their quest to break the curse that plagues their home. Unraveling the mystery of the curse will take them from an island where merfolk swim in the coves to a city hidden beneath the streets of Seattle and beyond. As the danger grows, relationships are tested, new ones are forged, and in the face of impossible choices, Lee learns the hardest lesson of all: Where there is love, there is also heartbreak.

With time running out, failure could cost their lives—and success could cost them everything else.

*May Contain Spoilers*

From the moment I finished Flicker, and realized that there would be MORE, I've been waiting patiently for my reading list to tell me it's time for Brightly by Kaye Thornbrugh! Filo, Lee, Nasser, Jason, and Alice barely survived Byrony the Dryad the year before and now they're being blackmailed. A small island off the coast is experiencing some troubling magic, and three other gifted humans are forcing the Flicker gang to help cleanse the island of the curse.

Readers of Flicker already have a firm connection with the main characters, especially Lee. With this second book, the scope widens to include Jason and Alice more, as well as keeping focus on Nasser and Filo. The whole group is blackmailed by three islanders, Henry, Clemetine, and Davis, to help them cleanse their home of a merfolk curse that puts humans in a trance, with barnacles growing on their skin, and the overwhelming urge to walk into the ocean. 

Lee has been learning magic from Filo, and as the only one that isn't included in the blackmailing scheme, she has an outsider's perspective of the whole situation. Readers know that she always has a helpful attitude and she is more than ready to stand beside her friends to help them. The relationship between readers and Filo will increase dramatically in this sequel. For one, we get to witness Filo fall in love for the first time. This is huge for his character. He normally keeps his feelings hidden and focuses on surviving. The emotions that readers witness him deal with really opens him up for a deeper understanding of his character, good and bad. A new facet of Nasser's personality is also revealed to readers here. Nasser is painted with a martyr-like personality. With this book, readers get to see him reach his limit. Knowing he has a limit will turn Nasser into a more realistic and down to earth character. Jason and Alice have to make a few hard decisions in this novel and I think those will allow readers to solidify the initial connections made in Flicker.

Brightly is a novel that contains many stories, like a picture within a picture. The main plot is that of Nasser, Filo, Alice, and Jason being blackmailed by the Islanders. That line leads to the Island itself and the curse devouring the citizens that live there. Within those boundaries lie even more subplots including the relationship development between all of the characters and the involvement of the Guild. Each part of the story is in itself intriguing, but when combined the plot becomes incredibly entertaining and emotional. Readers who enjoyed Flicker will undoubtedly be consumed by Brightly. I know I was. And the effects are still lingering. So obviously, the announcement of a third book has me shivering with anticipation!

Rating: 4.5/5 Cups

Photo Friday

https://www.pinterest.com/pin/AX_VWpVxcrerVVudZmclo852nbO1XlRIzEGZk5LB-LLpdXu7aYa_hQ8/
http://www.buzzfeed.com/regajha/send-me-on-my-way

I love when a book takes hold with that much strength.

WWW Wednesday (176)

To play along, just answer the following three (3) questions…

• What are you currently reading?

• What did you recently finish reading?

• What do you think you’ll read next?

          

01. Currently Reading:
Brightly by Kaye Thornbrugh. Sequel to the book Flicker I reviewed a little while ago. The misfit team of magical humans are blackmailed into helping heal an island suffering from a strange disease.

02. Recently Finished:
The Fulfillment by Erin Rhew. The final installment of The Fulfillment series. Layla, Nash, and Wil seek peace by trying to defeat the evil in the world, but the struggle to understand the roles they were assigned in the prophecy.

03. Reading Next:
Taking Leaps and Finding Ghosts by Janet DeLee. When Ginny put together a support group for like-minded individuals, she didn't know she'd have to deal with ghosts, too.

Teaser Tuesday (184)

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of A Daily Rhythm. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:
• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
• Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers



Brightly (37% Kindle)
   - Kaye Thornbrugh

"Living things are always changing. Long ago, we learned to use our magic to change humans into merflok--sometimes out of love, sometimes out of necessity. But that magic was never intended to change merfolk into human."

The Fulfillment - Blog Tour

Synopsis:
Layla’s world tumbles out of control when she discovers the truth of her parentage and realizes the Prophecy—the one she upended her entire life to defend—is incomplete. When her new friends share the entire Prophecy, the revelations contained within it alter her destiny and challenge everything she and Wil believe in. Now, she must confront the Outlander queen to save the Ethereal kingdom while grappling with this new reality.

Tortured and imprisoned, Nash accepts his fate and offers the First Ones the one thing he has left to give: his life. In a desperate attempt to save the people he loves most, he surrenders himself to the Outlander queen and a destiny darker than he could have ever dreamed possible.

Wil, tormented by the consequences of his choices, realizes he may never be able to uphold his end of the Prophecy. His mistake casts a deep, foreboding shadow over his kingdom and those he loves, while its ripples threaten to shatter both the Prophecy and everything he and his family have sworn to protect.

In this epic conclusion, lives are lost, kingdoms clash, friendships are tested, and love and fate collide.

Review (Contains Spoilers):
As they say, it all comes down to this. Erin Rhew wraps up her trilogy with The Fulfillment, where everything is finally revealed. While the world waits for all out war, they hope for peace between the three nations: the Ethereals, the Vangards, and the Outlanders.

As the prophecy comes to fruition, each character plays their destined role. Two important women join Layla, Nash, and Wil as they follow their faith in the First Ones. Layla, believed to be The Fulfillment, with her purple eyes and Vangard strength, is struggling with heartache through most of the book. She's accidentally betrayed by Wil and struggles to keep her focus. Though she is undoubtedly brave, courageous, and dutiful, readers see her jealous side. After the revealed betrayal, Wil spends most of the book feeling guilty, almost to the point of annoyance. He was tricked, plain and simple. Yet, it came with complicated consequences. Regardless, Wil is the most understanding character and overly forgiving. His personality is honorable as is his loyalty. The main connection he has with readers will come from their sympathy and understanding. Nash shares his brother's loyalty and honor but his strength and fortuitous nature shine brighter. Readers will have a deep respect for Nash and his desire to save those he cares about. Mia and Zarina are the two characters to take their place beside the others. Though I did not like or trust Mia in the second book, she sort of wins me over in this final act. She was incredibly deceptive but with a good cause. Overlooking that, Mia is a brave, courageous, and steady character that fits in nicely with the others. Zarina, once discovered, quickly becomes the key to the entire prophecy. I liked the story's twist with Zarina and the slippery understanding of the prophecy. She's incredibly brave and hopeful, giving the book it's chance for a happy ending.

The plot of this final installment has two main points: defeat the Outlander Queen and stop King Vance. With hope, the main characters join together to defeat Queen Cataleen. When they all learn of an innocent woman trapped within the evil dictator, they revise their plan to kill her. It's discovered that there is more to the prophecy than they first thought. United, though some on rocky relationships, the destined characters extract the Queen from her host body and banish her to the afterlife. Yet, there is still the war hungry King Vance to defeat. Through heart wrenching losses, Vance and his army are defeated and finally, the world has a chance at peace, and The Fulfillment series has a happy, though bittersweet, ending. I enjoyed this final book, but there was one main downfall. Sadly, I found the writing style repetitive with blanket statements instead of the detail I wanted. The storyline seems oriented toward young adults (I'm thinking 16 to 25) but the word usage and bland sentence structure doesn't support that. Don't get me wrong, not every sentence is like that, but when reading fantasy series I enjoy poetic prose with surprising analogies. I wasn't satisfied. So while I enjoyed the story, it fell short of my expectations when I didn't take to the style.

Rating: 3/5 Cups

Meet the Author:
Erin Rhew is an editor, a running coach, and the author of The Fulfillment Series. Since she picked up Morris the Moose Goes to School at age four, she has been infatuated with the written word. She went on to work as a grammar and writing tutor in college and is still teased by her family and friends for being a member of the "Grammar Police."
A Southern girl by blood and birth, Erin now lives in a rainy pocket of the Pacific Northwest with the amazingly talented (and totally handsome) writer Deek Rhew and their “overly fluffy,” patient-as-a-saint writing assistant, a tabby cat named Trinity. She and Deek enjoy reading aloud to one another, running, lifting, boxing, eating chocolate, and writing side-by-side.  

Twitter / Facebook / Website / Goodreads

     

Photo Friday

https://www.pinterest.com/pin/229120699769754991/
http://thebarnesandnoble.tumblr.com/post/81881712558

I read much more than I sleep. 

And I think I'm okay with that.

Taking on Water

When James Morrow, a social worker, first meets Kevin Flynn, he suspects the teen is being abused. To learn more about Kevin’s home life, he gets to know the boy’s father, Tucker, who’s a lobsterman. James is able to put his suspicions to rest, and the two families begin to form a friendship.

When a kid at the local recreation center dies of an overdose, Detective Maya Morrow adds the case to the long list related to the drug problem plaguing the small New Hampshire coastal town of Newborough. But her investigation gets her much too close to the dangerous players.

Both the Morrows and the Flynns are holding dark secrets, and when their lives collide, tragedy is inevitable.

*May Contain Spoilers*

Taking on Water by David Rawding is more than a tragedy. It's chaos. It's insanity. It's selfishness. I was not expecting the level of emotional intensity that this novel achieves. Taking on Water is a horrific theater of human nature. And it begins with James. 

James Morrow was abused as a young man. His father was an abusive alcoholic, always smelling of Jameson with a slap or a slur just awaiting any sort of motive. Readers will immediately connect with James based on his past alone. They will sympathize with him and dare to understand. As an adult, James helps children who are being abused. A former field agent, James now mans the phones, taking down information that could help save a child. Readers will respect James for what he does and it's evident that he is passionate about his career choice. But readers will also be a little afraid of James. While he's a good natured person who has a heavy past, James also has his own anger issues. There are times that he sees 'red' to the point where he feels as if he cannot control himself. So although readers will connect with James, they must be wary, hold back a little, because there is no happy ending. 

The plot does in fact start, and end, with James. When he meets a child at the rec-center who he believes may be being abused, James makes it a point to introduce himself to the parents. The two families become friends, of a sort. Meanwhile, James' wife Maya works as a police detective, investigating a new influx of heroin in her suburban town. Soon it's too late for everyone and disaster has struck. Rawding's writing style is factual with only necessary details. This technique makes his story incredibly believable, while also intriguing readers by providing them details that the characters lack. Taking on Water is a drug and murder mystery, but it's also much more than that. It's blunt, laced with curse words, brutal, and unforgiving. I was surprised by the dark turn the story took and am hereby warning future readers. A cliche comes to mind: revenge is a dish best served cold. And readers, this book is best read with a cold heart because there really is no happy ending.

Rating: 3.5/5 Cups

WWW Wednesday (175)

To play along, just answer the following three (3) questions…

• What are you currently reading?

• What did you recently finish reading?

• What do you think you’ll read next?

     

01. Currently Reading:
In between books at the moment. This afternoon will be a different story.

02. Recently Finished:
Taking on Water by David Rawding. I did not expect the level of intensity within this book. I'll post my review this afternoon about two families, murder, drugs, and how it threatens their lives.

03. Reading Next:
The Fulfillment by Erin Rhew. The final book in The Fulfillment series. Everything comes to climax as Layla learns the entire prophecy that she is supposed to fulfill. Blog tour next Tuesday, October 20th!

Teaser Tuesday (183)

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of A Daily Rhythm. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:
• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
• Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers



Taking On Water (Kindle 64%)
   - David Rawding

"... I know you've gotten yourself mixed up in some illegal business."
He studied her for a moment, then his eyes veered away.

Red Queen

This is a world divided by blood - red or silver.

The Reds are commoners, ruled by a Silver elite in possession of god-like superpowers. And to Mare Barrow, a seventeen-year-old Red girl from the poverty-stricken Stilts, it seems like nothing will ever change.

That is, until she finds herself working in the Silver Palace. Here, surrounded by the people she hates the most, Mare discovers that, despite her red blood, she possesses a deadly power of her own. One that threatens to destroy the balance of power.

Fearful of Mare's potential, the Silvers hide her in plain view, declaring her a long-lost Silver princess, now engaged to a Silver prince. Despite knowing that one misstep would mean her death, Mare works silently to help the Red Guard, a militant resistance group, and bring down the Silver regime.

But this is a world of betrayal and lies, and Mare has entered a dangerous dance - Reds against Silvers, prince against prince, and Mare against her own heart...

*May Contain Spoilers*

Wowza! I haven't read a book that has impressed, surprised, and entertained without disappointment in a while, but Red Queen by Victoria Aveyard delivered. With just a friend's recommendation (librarian's always give the best), I picked up Red Queen. And subsequently devoured it. Full of practiced liars, this book is dancing with deceit and laced with betrayal, yet behind it all, hope is hiding in the shadows. 

Mare Barrow is the main character in this futuristic, rebellious novel. She's a Red, which means she's a commoner, barely worth the clothes she wears. She has no talent, no job, and is only a year away from being forced into the army. Mare is a pickpocket, stealing from her own people to try to help her family. However, she unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on your view point) picks the pockets of the wrong man and lands a job at the castle. Which leads to the biggest scandal in Red Blooded history. Mare isn't a normal Red; she's a mutation, an aberration. And the castle must hide this information. 

Suddenly, Mare's a Silver Lady, pretending her heritage is one of tragedy and strength. She must lie to save her own life and this brings out her true nature. Mare is a powerful girl who can control electricity. She's brave, incredibly loyal, a little naive, courageous beyond a doubt, and knows what she stands for. Mare dares to believe that one day the world will let go of it's war and greed. Readers will thoroughly enjoy watching Mare as she discovers her abilities, fights for her family and all other commoners, all while trying to learn the intricacies of castle life. 

At the beginning of this novel, I felt like I was falling into a retelling of The Heir mixed with magical powers. The story began with Mare and a strong depiction of her normal life labelled as a nothing, a nobody. All of the unfortunate situations in the first hundred pages were thorough examples of a hard life. Then she meets a mysterious man who whisks her away to the castle, giving her a job and a way out of the army. The stranger revealed as the Prince was a bit predictable, and I must say I scoffed at this. Then Mare falls onto an electrical screen and everything, including my view of the book thus far, changed. Suddenly, Mare is the lightning girl and she's joining the rebellion and falling in love and I am completely enchanted. The whole story was incredible after that point and I dare say none of my other predictions came true, which was frustratingly glorious. After all, if I've learned anything from Aveyard, it's that anyone can betray anyone.

Rating: 4.5/5 Cups