Book Review: Winter

Winter by Marissa Meyer

Winter by Marissa Meyer is the fourth and final book in the Lunar Chronicles series.  This story is a futuristic adaptation of the classic fairy tale, Snow White.  This book has a lot more action and is slightly more graphic with violence.  None that I thought would be inappropriate of the genre but the three previous books kind of gradually got to this point.  Because I felt that these books were aimed for older teens, the darker nature of this book wasn't to bad.

The novel becomes more of a focal point for Princess Winter, who all of the Lunar people admire her for her grace and kindness.  She refuses to use her glimmer which would hide the scars on her face.  And because of that, her mind is slowly going insane.  Because of the Lunar people's admiration of Winter, Queen Levana is jealous of Winter and tries to find ways to get rid of her (much like Snow Whites step-mother).  The crew: Cinder, Captain Throne, Cress, Wolf, and Emperor Kai come up with a plan to get Scarlet back and to destroy Queen Levana once and for all, but they must help the Lunars in a revolt so they can put the rightful Queen back in her place.

I loved this story and I was so sad to see the series end.  I fell in love with all of the characters, and they were very human despite being fictional.  The ending was quite nice but it was definitely a little open.  There is a resolution to the major conflict, including the characters minor conflicts, but you're left to come up with your own conclusion of Cinder and Emperor Kai.  I choose to believe that once all of the political things settle, they get their own happy ending between each other.  The action was intense, the personal story lines flowed well with the main story line and plot.  I had a very hard time putting this book down and I think I read this book in about a day and a half after I bought it.

The one thing that I hate about when I read books that I'm completely in love with is that I suck at reviewing them.  I seriously loved this book and this series.  And I'm definitely looking out for the next book and series that Marissa Meyer releases.  This would definitely be a series that I would recommend for my niece (who is almost 16).

RATING:
5 out of 5 stars

Book Review: Love, Lucy

Love, Lucy by Lucille Ball is an autobiography set from when Lucille Ball was a little girl to the early 1960's.  The book was published in 1997 (8 years after Lucille Ball's death), and was published by Berkley (both of Ball's children decided that this needed to be released.)

The biography starts off with a forward from Lucille Ball's daughter, Lucie Desiree Arnaz.  She talks about how she found the manuscript when she was going through some things that she had of her mothers.  She also mentioned how her mother never released this was because she didn't want to hurt her ex-husband, Desi Arnaz.  She talked about the love and respect that they both had for each other.  Lucille chronicles her earlier years from when her father died when she was 4, to moving to different relatives while her mother tried to figure out how to support her family to living with her grandparents as a big family.  She also talked about how she modeled but really wanted to be an actress and how she dealt with rejection before going out to California and her rise to stardom.

One of my favorite things about the autobiography, was how Ms. Ball looked at the hardships in her life and she would find the lesson in it.  When she went though a bad situation where a well known director was enthralled by her and wanted to leave his wife but Lucy decided to not pursue a relationship because it could have hurt his children, the wife found out about it and made it so that Lucy wouldn't get any parts in A movies (which led to her title the Queen of B) during that part of her career.  But what I found so interesting was that she never named names, she accepted that was going to happen in her career and instead of giving up she put her all in every roll that she got.  For about half of the book, was on her life with her first husband Desi, whom she did I Love Lucy with and a few movies.  She talked about the passion and love, but she also talked about their dysfunction and difficulties.  One thing, which I felt was important, was that Lucy didn't lay all of the blame on Desi, It wasn't all his fault, she looked at where they both went wrong, she didn't play the victim but she didn't make him out as the villain.  The last few pages talk about their divorce, and Lucy's marriage to her second husband, Gary Morton (whom she was with till her death).  I loved how she talked about how Gary and Desi would golf with each other, how they were all apart of their children's lives.  She said something that I just thought was so powerful, and that was, "I'd rather have my children grow up in two loving house holds instead of growing up in one miserable home."

I loved this book, when I finished it, it left me with such a wonderful warm fuzzy feeling that I couldn't help but be happy.  I honestly think that that this should be required reading for high school students, especially girls.  Lucille Ball is the definition of classy, funny, smart, witty, and just all around a great woman.  She didn't sing her praises she didn't place blame on anyone else.  It just made me happy to read about one of my favorite actresses and comediennes.  I recommend this book to everyone and anyone.  Even if you don't think that you'd like it because you're not a big biography reader, you will.  It was so easy to get through and really hard to put down.

Rating:
5 out of 5 stars

Book Review: Fairest

Fairest by Marissa Meyer

Fairest by Marissa Meyer is a bridge between the books Cress and Winter.  This book is part of the Lunar Chronicles Series, and is a futuristic, young adult novel.  While the other four stories follow a fairytale theme, this book is more like a window into the evil step-mother life.  While this book isn't a part of the series, I felt that it was a great read and set up for the final book in the series, Winter.  This story was shorter, but explained and introduced other characters that play huge roles in the final book.

Queen Levana is known as the ruthless ruler of Luna and their people the Lunars.  Known for her glamour you follow Queen Levana as a young teenager up to her adult years.  You feel for the insecure girl who was badly scared from a fire when she was a child.  Verbally abused, she becomes obsessed with a palace guard who is older than her and happily married into another woman.  She soon realizes the power she has not just with her glamour (Which is where they can change their physical appearance) but also with other people.  With the ambition of being not only the most beautiful Queen, but also the greatest ruler of Luna, she isn't afraid to hurt, kill and destroy anyone who stands in her way.  Including family.

I loved this book.  While it wasn't necessary to the Lunar Chronicles series, I was a great way to understand the madness that is Queen Levana.  One thing that I loved about this story is that even though you find out what she went through and you start to understand how she became who she was, you don't change your opinion on her.  You don't in the end hope that she gets a happy ending.  You still want to see her get what she has coming to her in the final story Winter.  While it isn't necessary to read this book as part of the Lunar Chronicles, it was still a great read.  Yes, you can read the Lunar Chronicles book without this and they explain everything that you need, I found it was interesting to go deep into the character which is Levana.  Finding out how she became the loose cannon that she was, was interesting.  I loved every second of this book.

Rating:
5 out of 5 stars

Book Review: Scarlet

Scarlet by Marissa Meyer

Scarlet by Marissa Meyer is a young adult fiction novel and it is the second story in the Lunar Chronicles.  It follows the dystopian idea with a classic fairy tale twist.  Scarlet takes a bit of inspiration from the tale of Little Red Riding Hood and the Big Bad Wolf.  The story introduces three new characters and also follows the main characters from the previous novel Cinder.  

The story starts with Cinder trying to break out of prison and ultimately has to ask the help of a fellow in mate as she is trying to break out.  The story soon introduces you to Scarlet Benoit who is searching for her missing grandmother.  When Scarlet encounters a street fighter, Wolf, who may have information on her grandmothers whereabouts she must ultimately try to trust the stranger that she is wary of.  They soon find themselves drawn to each other and as they start to unravel the mysteries, they meet Cinder and inmate, Carswell Thorne, whom is also a pilot.  Together the four will try to figure out a way to save humanity from the evil lunar queen Levana.

I have to be honest, I read this book last year, but I still remember a lot of details.  I loved this book and gave it a 5 out of 5 stars on good reads.  I loved the action, the plot twists, the bit of romance.  Yes this story has a little romance.  But I felt that the romance was appropriate and suitable for the age range the books are ultimately geared towards which I feel would be the older young adults.  I loved this book and the addition to the different characters.  I felt that the author has a clear direction in where she wants the series to go.  It's so different that a lot of the other young adult books because I feel that it has a unique take on a way of story telling and as an adult I enjoy it,  I didn't feel like the writing was dummied down in order to appeal to a younger crowd.  I honestly can't wait for the next book in the series to be released because I desperately want to know what happens to the characters that I've grown attached too.

Rating:
5 out of 5 stars

Book Review: Cinder

Cinder by Marissa Meyer

Cinder by Marissa Meyer is a young adult, science fiction, romance book loosely based off of a the classic fairy tale, Cinderella.  This book is the first book of the Lunar Chronicles series and was published in 2012.  I read this book last year in March and I have to say, I loved it!  I'm completely hooked on this series and I'm going to state this now, I will be incredibly disappointed if they turn this into a crappy movie.  Yep I went there.

The story starts off when Cinder who is a android/human hybrid trying to offer her mechanical skills.  As a cyborg she is considered a second-class citizen and can't remember her past before her life saving operation.  In the market, someone suddenly take ill and you are introduced to the event that sets everything into motion, the plague that is ravaging the population of earth.  Just like every fairy tale there is an evil queen, Levana who is a ruthless leader to the lunar people who watch and manipulate those around them.  When Cinder's beloved stepsister becomes ill with the plague, her stepmother sells her to the Prince Kai's head doctor so that they can run tests on her.  But soon she finds that she is more important to the people of Earth and also important to Kai.

I have to say for a young adult novel, I thought it had the right amount of romance.  It was enough to make my heart happy, but not over done that I would have thought that this wouldn't be apporpriate for the age group that it was aimed at.  As someone who is in their later 20's instead of their teens I was thoroughly entertained by the book.  I felt the author did an excellent job of writing, it wasn't too mature but it also wasn't patronizing that I feel a lot of young adult books tend to be.  I immediately loved the character Cinder.  A lot of the time, I find that author's find that it is easier to make their main female characters to be weak and easily manipulated.  This is not the case with Cinder, she's confused, yes, and she also doesn't originally want the burden.  I found that all of the characters were intriguing and I couldn't put the book down.  The plot moved fast enough, but not so fast that it was hard to keep details straight.  I couldn't put this book down, and I immediately bought and read the sequel Scarlet and as soon as Cress came out I bought that as well.  And of course, I am patiently waiting for the next book to come out.

I gave this book 5 out of 5 stars because I couldn't put it down and this has got to be one of the first young adult books that I have been able to get completely en captured by.  As an adult sometimes books that are in the young adult genre are not very well written, and it is not the case with this book.  I loved it from cover to cover.

Rating:
5 out of 5