Review: The Immortal Rules (Blood of Eden #1), by Julie Kagawa

Title: The Immortal Rules (Blood of Eden #1)
Author: Julie Kagawa
Format: eGalley
Source: I received a copy free of charge from the publishers via NetGalley in exchange for my honest opinion

From Goodreads: "In a future world, Vampires reign. Humans are blood cattle. And one girl will search for the key to save humanity. 

Allison Sekemoto survives in the Fringe, the outermost circle of a vampire city. By day, she and her crew scavenge for food. By night, any one of them could be eaten.

Some days, all that drives Allie is her hatred of them. The vampires who keep humans as blood cattle. Until the night Allie herself is attacked—and given the ultimate choice. Die… or become one of the monsters.

Faced with her own mortality, Allie becomes what she despises most. To survive, she must learn the rules of being immortal, including the most important: go long enough without human blood, and you will go mad.

Then Allie is forced to flee into the unknown, outside her city walls. There she joins a ragged band of humans who are seeking a legend—a possible cure to the disease that killed off most of humankind and created the rabids, the mindless creatures who threaten humans and vampires alike.

But it isn’t easy to pass for human. Especially not around Zeke, who might see past the monster inside her. And Allie soon must decide what—and who—is worth dying for."

My Opinion:  When I got approved by NetGalley to read and review The Immortal Rules, I think it's the first time I actually cheered out loud to get an ARC of a book! I even did my own version of a happy dance, which luckily only my dog saw since I tend to look a bit spastic when I'm dancing all by myself! I haven't read Julie's Iron Fey series yet,  but I'd have to be living under a rock not to have heard how awesome it is, and I couldn't believe I was getting the chance to read The Immortal Rules because I LOVE vampire stories! Then I got worried because maybe I was putting too much pressure on myself to like the story, and maybe it wouldn't be able to live up to the hype - but I shouldn't have been worried, because it was everything I had hoped it would be ... and MORE! I loved it! I actually read it about a month ago but life got in the way (it has a way of doing that, doesn't it?) and I wasn't able to write the review until now. I have a bit of a review list going on, but as soon as I got word I'd been approved to read it, I jumped on it and started reading it right away - and I didn't put it down until I was finished! Yes, it was that good! You know how sometimes when you're reading books for review, you keep checking to see what page you're on because no matter how much you're enjoying it, you're trying to get through each book as quickly as you so you can mark it as read and move on to the next one? Well, I definitely kept checking to see what page I was on, but not because I wanted to get it finished quicker - it's because I kept hoping that I wasn't very far in because I didn't want it to end! I even tried to read slower so it would last longer, but the writing was so well done that I couldn't read it slowly if I wanted to! The characters were well developed, and there was definite character growth from start to finish, the pacing was excellent, and there was just the right amount of action and emotion. I felt like I was invested in the story from the get go, and I really cared about the characters.

One thing that I really loved about this book was the fact that not only is it a vampire story, but it has a dystopian/post-apoc setting as well. A virus has swept through the human world, wiping out a fair number of them, which allows the vampires to come out of hiding and take over. Humans now have to register to donate blood regularly, and they work for the vamps. Some humans try to stay off of the grid and live in hiding, including Allison Sekemoto, who harbors a strong hatred of vampires after watching her mother die and blaming the vampires for it. Unfortunately, one night she's out after dark and is attacked by a band of rabid vamps. Another vampire finds her and offers her the choice: die there and then, or be turned into one of the things she hates most in the world. Her survival instinct kicks in and she opts to be saved, even though being a vampire goes against everything she believes in. The vampire who saved her, his name is Kanin, is a loner who agrees to teach her what she needs to know to survive. In time she finds out that there's a lot more to Kanin than meets the eye! Allie sets out to learn what it means to be a vampire and what her place is in the world now, and she ends upon a quest that will take her far from her home and way outside her comfort zone!

I can't say enough how much I loved this book! After reading it I've decided that I'm definitely going to read Julie Kagawa's Iron Fey series, and I will be waiting impatiently for the next installment in the Blood of Eden series, which can't come soon enough for me :D

Review: This is Not a Test, by Courtney Summers

Title: This is Not a Test
Author: Courtney Summers
Format: eARC
Source: Publisher via NetGalley

From Goodreads: "It’s the end of the world. Six students have taken cover in Cortege High but shelter is little comfort when the dead outside won’t stop pounding on the doors. One bite is all it takes to kill a person and bring them back as a monstrous version of their former self. To Sloane Price, that doesn’t sound so bad. Six months ago, her world collapsed and since then, she’s failed to find a reason to keep going. Now seems like the perfect time to give up. As Sloane eagerly waits for the barricades to fall, she’s forced to witness the apocalypse through the eyes of five people who actually want to live. But as the days crawl by, the motivations for survival change in startling ways and soon the group’s fate is determined less and less by what’s happening outside and more and more by the unpredictable and violent bids for life—and death—inside. When everything is gone, what do you hold on to?"

My opinion: Before I read This is Not a Test, I had heard good things about Courtney Summers' books, but I had not yet had the pleasure of reading them. Therefore, I was really excited to get the chance to read this one because I am a huge fan of zombie books and I figured this would be a great introduction to Courtney's work for me. I can honestly say that I was not disappointed! This is Not a Test is really so much more than just a zombie book. It deals more with the emotional aspects of the six kids trapped in the high school - how they got there, the toll that it has taken on them physically AND psychologically up to that point, and what they have had to do to survive. Our main character, Sloane Price, has already had a tough life, dealing with abuse and abandonment issues after first her mother and then her sister left her. She has already decided that she doesn't want to live through this horror any longer, she just has to decide how and when to die, while keeping her fragile emotional state from the other kids in the school. Be prepared when you read this book for the emotional toll it will take on YOU! What these teens go through is heart wrenching and, although it sounds a little far fetched given that we are dealing with zombies and the end of the world as we know it, it feels so real! That is the true mark of a good author - one who can take an idea that is so far from reality and make you feel the emotions of the characters as though you are going through it all yourself - and Courtney Summers has that in spades! Her writing style is terrific as she makes her characters come to life for you. The characters, even the secondary ones, are very well written and there is marked character growth from beginning to end.

In summary, I totally enjoyed this book as it was different from other zombie novels I've read, but amazingly good! If you love a good emotional story that happens to be set during a zombie apocalypse, then I wholeheartedly recommend this book to you :D

Review: Sacrilege (Giordano Bruno #3), by S.J. Parris

Title: Sacrilege: Giordano Bruno #3
Author: S.J. Parris
Format: Print copy, bound manuscript
Source: I received a copy from the publisher in exchange for my honest review.

From Goodreads: "A gripping historical thriller set in sixteenth-century England and centered on the highly secretive cult of Saint Thomas Becket, the twelfth-century archbishop murdered in Canterbury Cathedral.
 
London, summer of 1584: Radical philosopher, ex-monk, and spy Giordano Bruno suspects he is being followed by an old enemy. He is shocked to discover that his pursuer is in fact Sophia Underhill, a young woman with whom he was once in love. When Bruno learns that Sophia has been accused of murdering her husband, a prominent magistrate in Canterbury, he agrees to do anything he can to help clear her name.
     
In the city that was once England's greatest center of pilgrimage, Bruno begins to uncover unsuspected secrets that point to the dead man being part of a larger and more dangerous plot in the making. He must turn his detective's eye on history—on Saint Thomas Becket, the twelfth-century archbishop murdered in Canterbury Cathedral, and on the legend surrounding the disappearance of his body—in order to solve the crime.
     
As Bruno's feelings for Sophia grow more intense, so does his fear that another murder is about to take place—perhaps his own. But more than Bruno's life is at stake in this vividly rendered, impeccably researched, and addictively page-turning whodunit—the stability of the kingdom hangs in the balance as Bruno hunts down a brutal murderer in the shadows of England's most ancient cathedral."

My opinion: I was asked to read this by the publisher who knew that I hadn't read the first two books in the series, Heresy and Prophecy, as it can be read as a standalone. I loved this book SO much, though, that I'm going to get my hands on a copy of the first two books as soon as possible so I can devour them the way I devoured Sacrilege! I LOVED it! I do enjoy historical fiction, but this went beyond your regular historical fiction - it had one heck of a mystery in it, too! Bruno is contacted by a woman from his past, Sophia, who is on the run after being accused of murdering her husband, a cold, cruel man. She insists she is being set up, so Bruno, who happens to have feelings for Sophia, agrees to go to Canterbury to investigate. As he works for the French embassy to the court of Elizabeth, queen of England, he also volunteers to investigate possible missing funds from the Church of Canterbury. Little does Bruno know, he's going to become involved in so, so much more! He's embarking on a journey that takes many twists and turns before reaching its final destination, including a massive twist at the end of the book that totally took me by surprise! I was delighted that I didn't see it coming because it made it just that much better!

I loved the characters in this book, even the ones you love to hate. Every one of them is well fleshed out and carries the plot along to its conclusion. Bruno has a knack for getting himself in trouble, even when he's trying to avoid it. Part of the fun is collecting the pieces of the puzzle along with Bruno as you try to solve the mystery yourself! The plot is tight and, although filled with historical facts, I found it to be an easy read. 

Notable quote: "I laid a hand over his and a silent tear trickled down his hollow cheek. His words reminded me of Helene's, and I felt suddenly overwhelmed by the weight of their grief and bewilderment; all over our bloody continent, Catholics and Protestants alike went on dying at one another's hands, all looking up to heaven and crying out to their God, whose side are You on? While their God remains deaf and says nothing, because on both sides they have failed to understand who or what He is, as they spill more blood in His name."

I can't get across how much I loved this book and can't WAIT to read the other two books in the series, as well as any other books S.J. Parris has written or will write! :D

Review: Starters (Starters #1), by Lissa Price

Title: Starters (Starters #1)
Author: Lissa Price
Format: ebook
Source: NetGalley

From Goodreads: "HER WORLD IS CHANGED FOREVER 

Callie lost her parents when the Spore Wars wiped out everyone between the ages of twenty and sixty. She and her little brother, Tyler, go on the run, living as squatters with their friend Michael and fighting off renegades who would kill them for a cookie. Callie's only hope is Prime Destinations, a disturbing place in Beverly Hills run by a mysterious figure known as the Old Man. 
He hires teens to rent their bodies to Enders—seniors who want to be young again. Callie, desperate for the money that will keep her, Tyler, and Michael alive, agrees to be a donor. But the neurochip they place in Callie's head malfunctions and she wakes up in the life of her renter, living in her mansion, driving her cars, and going out with a senator's grandson. It feels almost like a fairy tale, until Callie discovers that her renter intends to do more than party—and that Prime Destinations' plans are more evil than Callie could ever have imagined. . . ."

My thoughts: I've read some mixed reviews on this book, but I was intrigued enough by the synopsis that I requested it from NetGalley anyway. I have to admit that I wasn't very drawn to the cover, but again, the book's description was interesting, so I was looking forward to reading it. I must say that I wasn't disappointed! I thought it was a great dystopian, with enough creepiness to keep me interested from start to finish. 

In the world that Lissa Price has invented, there has been a "Spore War", chemical warfare, that wiped out all the people who had not been inoculated. Since only the young and the old had received their inoculations when the war started, that means that all of the people between approximately 20 and 60 were gone now. Because of advancements in medicine, the Enders, as the older generation is called, can easily live to be 200 now. The only problem is, their bodies continue to age and they can't do the things that they used to be able to do.  Enter the Starters, or the younger generation, who have the youthful bodies the Enders crave. A new technology has been invented wherein the Starters can rent out their bodies to the Enlders for weeks at a time, which enables the Enders to be young again, and the Starters to earn the money they need to live. Laws are in place that prohibit anyone under the age of 18 from working so the jobs can go to the longer living Enders. Unfortunately for kids like Callie, and her little brother Tyler, with no one to take care of them they are forced to live in abandoned buildings, trying to stay one step ahead of the law, who capture unclaimed kids and put them in institutions where they are forced to work at basically hard labor until they are 18. Tyler is also sick, so that puts even more strain on Callie to try to find someplace where they can live, and money to get medical attention for Tyler. She is helped by her friend, Michael, but there's only so much he can do either. 

Callie hears about the program at Prime Destinations where kids who are attractive and physically fit can rent out their bodies to Enders for large sums of money, and although she finds the idea repulsive, she can't deny that the money would enable her to pay for a nice apartment or house for her and Tyler, and she would finally be able to buy the medicine that Tyler so desperately needs. She goes ahead and rents out her body for what she thinks is only going to be a week (but turns out to be a month) and that's when things go horribly wrong. She finds out that the Ender who wanted her body has other plans than just enjoying a youthful body for a little bit of fun. She's up to something much more dangerous, and it's up to Callie to somehow find a way to stop her, without losing her paycheck, or worse - her life. 

I really enjoyed the world building in this book. No matter how far fetched the idea that seniors would be able to "rent" a body whenever they wanted, Lissa Price finds a way to make it all believable! The characters are well written, too. Callie is a very brave and likable heroine, and you can feel her love for her little brother in everything she does. Every decision she makes is based on how it will affect Tyler, which is completely understandable in light of the fact that they are all alone, with only each other to depend on. The story is told from Callie's POV and I think that works very well here. There are also flashbacks from the years leading up to the Spore Wars that help you understand what happened, how this made Callie into the girl she is, and where she gets her strength. I will tell you that the book ends with one heck of a cliffhanger - one that I definitely did not see coming - and I totally loved it! 

I highly recommend this to fans of dystopian fiction, and I can't WAIT for the next installment of this series to come out! :D

Disclosure: I received an ecopy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley free of charge in exchange for my honest opinion.