Danielle Hearts Books

Review: 

• Juliette, and her amazing character growth. In Shatter Me, we met the very fragile Juliette, a girl who was afraid of her own shadow. Shatter Me, told from Juliette's perspective, was filled with crossed out words that she was afraid to speak or even allow herself to think. In Ignite Me, Juliette is completely different. She is no longer that afraid girl; she is sure of herself, and her wants and desires. There are no more crossed out words - she is completely sure of her thoughts and actions. It's a real treat to watch a character grow so much.
• Warner. Never have I ever done such a 180 on my feelings for a character. Warner was depicted as this despicable, psychotic person when we first met him. But now, almost everything he did has a valid and (sometimes) honourable reasoning behind it. Possibly the biggest revelation (for me at least) was learning that Warner never intended to us Juliette as a weapon. He found her whilst trying to find help for his mother, who's own touch was killing her. Warner still admits that he's done some terrible things, but he doesn't want to be like that any more. Ignite Me shows us that he was a product of his upbringing and circumstance - he was living his life the only way he knew how. But now, with Juliette, he's reaching for something more. 
• Warner and Juliette together. I was so sure that Juliette would end up with Adam, not because I wanted her to, but because in most books with a love triangle, the chooser ends up with whoever they fell for first, or the good guy. Surprisingly, that didn't happen here. Juliette even realised that she probably wasn't really in love with Adam, which pleases me to no end because I always thought their relationship was only due to circumstance. Warner and Juliette fit so much better together, which becomes abundantly clear in Ignite Me. Where Adam wants the meek, fragile girl Juliette used to be, Warner wants the passionate, powerful girl that Juliette's become. They just work so well together, and I am so glad that they've ended up together. 
• Speaking of Juliette, I loved all that romance. We spent the majority of our time focusing on the relationship between Juliette and Warner; Her realisation that he's not the despicable person she believed, and her final acceptance of her feelings and there getting together. And boy, do they get together. It's great to read. 
• Kenji. The hilarious best friend. Any time I laughed out loud whilst reading this was because of him. He's the much needed comic relief.

Review:

** Spoiler Alert: Read at your own risk**

• I liked the plot overall. Vortex took our character's in a new direction. Instead of focusing more on the romance in Tempest, Vortex very much focused on the time travel, and the mysteries behind it, and the government corporations all getting in on the action. And I liked that. 
• I like what they did with Holly. In Tempest Holly was our protagonist Jackson's love interest, and the main driving force behind everything he did. In Vortex, for reasons I won't go into, she's his enemy. It was hard to wrap my head around it at first, because you've also got Jackson still hung up on the old Holly, and the majority of his actions revolve around protecting her, but once I started to think of her as a completely new character, I could appreciate what Cross has done with her.  
• I liked Stewart and Kendrick. I loved Kendrick as the new best friend, and Stewart was an interesting character. You start out maybe not liking her so much, but she grows on you and in the end, you're glad Jackson has her. The only downside is that I don't remember Stewart in Tempest AT ALL, so I have absolutely nothing to compare her to in terms of character growth
• I LOVED the ending. Very wacky, very strange, but very well done. 
• There are still so many unanswered questions, which I can't wait to find out about in Timestorm. Why was Jackson's Dad abducted from the past? Where did Courtney come from and how is she doing what she's doing? Emily is still mysterious, I need more information on her. Healy said Thomas wasn't the guy he's been sending to try to convince him to do what he wants - so who is it? Is it Holly? Emily? Also Stewart seemed at bit off at times, does she have a deeper role? AND ADAM, WHY DID HE HAVE TO DIE??? There are so many questions raised that make my anxious to get my hands on Timestorm so I can get my answers. 

It wasn't my intention to post this review today, but after finishing this gem yesterday, I just had to get my feelings out there. Because OH MY GOD THIS SERIES. It's going to be one hell of a struggle to wait a year for the last instalment.

I can't believe what Meyer has managed to do with this series. Not only does she effortlessly and flawlessly work a fairytale into each novel, but she follows the overarching plot as well. You'd think that adding another main female protagonist (to add to Cinder and Scarlet) would be a few too many POVs, but somehow it works. The number of POVs in this novel is astronomical, and yet, it doesn't feel forced, or a pain, to read from each character's POV. I've had problems with multiple POVs in the past, just in that usually I prefer one POV over the other. But Meyer has created fascinating and interesting characters that this isn't a problem; I don't even mind jumping around POVs mid chapter, it's just written that well.

I don't want to start going in depth about the character's or the plot, because I feel I might wander into spoiler territory. I'll just say that during the final section (Cress was separated into four sections), my heart was pounding, I was frantically flipping through the pages, and I absolutely adored that ending. It's been a while since I've been so invested in a story and it's characters, to the point where even though I'm sure they'll be ok, I still worry for them throughout their escapade. It's been a while since a plot has kept me guessing, and thrown plot twists at me that I hadn't even considered. It's been a while since I've picked up a book and read over 150 pages in one sitting. This series right here is why I read YA, because when it's done right, it's just so damn good.

Review: 

Looking back at my notes after I finished reading this, I've mostly just written three lines which boil down to 'I thought this was good'. So this review isn't going to delve into characters, or the plot, or the normal things you see in a review. Instead I'm just going to focus on the main points that stood out to me. Don't get me wrong, I loved the characters, the setting, the plot, and all that jazz, but these are the main points that really stood out to me. 

Review: 

Ever since I became aware that this was being turned into a movie, to be released later this year, well, I just had to read it. And may I say, I'm looking forward to seeing the movie now, because I quite enjoyed this.

Review:

Do I really need to even write this review. Just, go read the book. Or if you haven't read its predecessor Splintered yet, go read that first, then read this novel. Because, like, you really need to. It's just that good. 

I think what's great about this follow up to Howard's amazing debut is that it's not entirely what you'd expect it to be. Whilst Splintered was predominantly set in the twisted world of Wonderland, we spend the majority of this one in the human world. But don't worry about missing the creepiness of Wonderland, because that manages to follow Alyssa into the real world too; from her mosaics to Sister Two herself, this time, the battle is fought on Alyssa's turf. Even Morpheus is there, doing questionable things, but ultimately doing it all for Alyssa. What's great about Morpheus in this novel is that we get to see a different side to him, something softer. He's still manipulative as all hell, but another side of him is starting to peek through. With this extra attention on Morpheus, Alyssa's other love interest, Jeb, does get pushed to the back a little. But he's there just enough that a love triangle is firmly established, and really, Alyssa could choose either one of them.

Now let's move onto Alyssa's mother Alison, because man o' man, everything revolving her little story arc was just plain amazing. When Alyssa discovered one of her mosaic's depicted three Red Queens dueling for the crown, I was sure the twist would be that Alison was going to try to steal the crown for herself. But then NOPE, actually it was something completely different, something I totally wasn't expecting, because it had to do with Alyssa's DAD. Because, of course, he's somehow involved in this all too. Which is actually handy, considering that massive cliffhanger ending. Lord, it's going to be tough waiting for the final instalment in this trilogy. 

Overall, just go and read this series. Just do it. 

Review: 

Review:

Overall, this was a solid end to a series that I was starting to worry about. After that infuriating second novel, I was worried our third and final addition to this trilogy would be similar. But, thankfully, we returned to what I loved about Abandon (mostly). 

Overall I enjoyed the plot. Lots of questions were answered, everything was resolved, John and Pierce are in a good place. Honestly, I can't actually remember specifically what happened, which probably is an indication of how memorable this book is. What I do remember were the major conveniences. Like the whole thing with Alex - majorly convenient. But lets not get into that, because that would lead to spoilers.  

So, my final thoughts? I enjoyed it. I thought it was a fitting end to a series that had started to go downhill - much, much better than the second novel. 

Overall, I enjoyed this, but I don't think it lived up to all the hype. 

So what did I like? Well, I thought the romance was super cute. I caught myself stupidly grinning to myself after reading something because it was just so. damn. cute. And I liked Eleanor's story. It's not something I've read a lot of, and it was interesting to juxtapose Eleanor's life with Park's. And also super cute that they found that connection, in spite of their different backgrounds. And I thought the ending was very fitting - bittersweet, maybe not what people wanted, but it fit with the story.

So what didn't I like? Well, the romance felt a little instalovey to me. Eleanor and Park hardly knew each other before they were declaring full blown love (well, at least one of them was). They basically started a relationship before they even started talking to one another. It just didn't feel like a natural progression. And on top of that, I was waiting for this OMG moment, which I assumed would happen because everyone raves about this book. And I think I know which moment that was supposed to be, but it wasn't an OMG moment for me. It was completely reasonable and not entirely surprising. Sad, yes, but surprising, no. 

Overall, I enjoyed this, but not as much as I thought I would. I enjoyed the plot and the dual perspective. But, everything was pulled down by the instalovey relationship that the story was centred on.