gia
poppy and kieran both love cas so much they'll flirt and elevate their friendship into something more while he's getting tortured <3
also poppy knows her HEART MATE and love of her life sooo well that she can't tell him apart from his best friend during sex. for a book that was so descriptive with smut, we get a whole lot of nothing with the joining.
JLA should've stuck to a trilogy and hired a competent editor. glad i didn't pay for this trash. book has less planning for plot than the star wars sequel trilogy, i find that incredible.
It's 4am and I just finished binge reading this book and I honestly don't even know what I read. 3/5 stars because it was interesting (?) enough to keep me reading until I finished the book but wtf was that ending?
Jules obviously plays a big role and the author tries to hide that in the beginning but at least give the readers some time with his character before the big reveal.
Nora. Fucking Nora. Sometimes I wanted to bash my head in because she was just so stupid. The choices she made and the rationale behind everything. And her lack of care that she might be going crazy because of her hallucinations. And her mom! Another thing that's annoying about many YA books is the lack of a real parental figure, her mother is only there when it's convenient for the author.
On a positive note, unlike many YA books that have a popular bitchy girl, the one in this book wasn't completely annoying but that's probably due to the author barely mentioning the character.
Patch was ... somewhat likable in his dark and intriguing way. I know I said Nora was stupid but I can see why she was attracted to him AT FIRST. Once shit hits the fan, you usually don't trust the man who's a likely suspect. I think he also made a rape joke at one point so that's obviously a negative.
Overall I'm not sure how to feel. I'll sleep on it and have a better idea when I wake up.
3.5/5
The book felt like it was dragging halfway through and the ending was a bit obvious to call early on but aside from that it wasn't bad. I'll really miss the Ella and the Royals. I'm a bit disappointed because between the three books, Gideon and the twins don't really play a crucial role or have much depth to their characters.
It was a little over the top but I suppose most YA thrillers are like that. Overall, it was an okay book. When I picked this up I desperately wanted to like it, I hoped it was good and sadly I'm left disappointed. The writing isn't terrible, the characters weren't intolerable - mostly overdone tropes, but the overall plot is what needs work. We don't really find out what's going on until the last 20 pages, and I mean that in a bad way. Typically in stories you're given enough hints to somewhat piece things together, but with this I felt like everything was dumped towards the end. Looking back at it, I can see how it makes sense but the reasoning for one of the deaths just isn't explored enough and felt like it was plopped in front of me just so there would be a reason to begin with. I found the “reveal” scene boring and hoped
Some of the characters were just there for convenience or filler - they ultimately served no purpose. Our main female character, Willow, was unbelievably stupid at times. The choices she made just didn't make sense to me, and she was way too trusting. Our “villain” was barely explored wish is what's really disappointing. I assumed that if there's a villain who's terrorizing our main characters and harming others, they'd be fleshed out and given traits but that's not the case in this book. I'm not sure how I feel about Ashton, I think he's great at times and annoying at other times ¯_(ツ)_/¯
It was well written and the characters weren't too bad but had the plot actually been really thought out and well planned (in regards to the end too), this would've been a great book. Sadly it's only a 3/5 for me.
I'm actually upset that I wasted time reading this book.
The main characters were flat. The plot was terrible. The writing isn't pure shit but it's not enough for me to give this two stars. I've literally read wattpad stories that were better than this. It's unbelievable how this book has been praised so much yet has the worst possible content.
My concern isn't the characters are step-siblings with a romantic interest in one another (although that's a bit worrisome too), but rather the fact that they're just such shitty people. Fallon is an insufferable idiot. Madoc is an absolute jerkoff. Having your two main characters as incredibly annoying people doesn't help your book. Fallon is almost everything I hate in a character. Fallon goes on and on about how she shouldn't have sex with him and how she has a plan for revenge, but she has no self control. Is your step-brother that insanely hot that you literally cannot control yourself? He's a massive douche yet she still falls for him because of course he has a different side to him that very few people see. Is it really that difficult to not have sex with someone? Genuinely curious because everyone else in New Adult fiction has that issue, and readers don't seem to be too annoyed by it. This book is supposed to be a romance but everything felt so forced, and I mean everything. For the life of me, I could not understand how the two main characters actually liked each other. When the boy you're “hate-fucking” for your “plan” consistently calls your mom, who you don't exactly get along with but don't necessarily hate, a gold digger you probably shouldn't fall for him. When a boy slut shames and makes fun of you, you probably shouldn't fall for him. What is it with authors romanticizing this bullshit? This isn't hot, this isn't sexy, this is disgusting and pathetic.
Now onto the plot. The entirety of it was a cliche. Don't get me wrong, I have no problem with cliches and typical tropes, they're part of life - but dear god, if you're going to write about them/incorporate them at least attempt to have your own spin on things. Everything was predictable, and the things that weren't just seemed like shit the author threw in just to add a little drama to the story.
I think sex is great. Well-written sex is even better. Sex that replaces a chapter where an actual story should be, not so great. Sex sex sex sex sex sex. That's what this book is. Sex is used as a filler for a story with an already shitty plot, or rather a story that's lacking a cohesive, well thought out plot.
The only redeemable thing about this book was Tate and I wish I hadn't read this book before Bully, because at this point I'd like to stay as far away from Penelope Douglas as possible.
1/5, if I could give it a zero I would.
4.5/5 stars. I'm in love with Gemina and wish I could experience it for the first time again. Amie and Jay blew my mind with this book.
Let's start off with the characters and their dialogue. I'll be honest, I hated Hanna and Nik in the first 100 pages. The characters screamed cliche to me, cliche in a way that wasn't even done well. I should've expected it as the characters were marketed as “Hanna is the station captain's pampered daughter, Nik the reluctant member of a notorious crime family,” but I just had such high hopes that Amie and Jay could pull it off. Then they did. I don't know what exactly the turning point was where I started to enjoy the characters, but if it weren't for surveillance footage guy making his appearance early on in the book I probably would've put it down and saved the read for a day where I could tolerate originally off-putting and overly flirtatious/try hard dialogue. Originally, anytime Hanna spoke to Nik, I felt almost out of place and it seemed very forced from the authors. It felt like they were trying to create characters that shouldn't even be speaking to each other (they couldn't even pulloff the forbidden love trope). Nik would constantly flirt in an almost self-deprecating way since he was aware he didn't have a chance of actually being with her. Nik felt much more fleshed out than Hanna even though it feels like we see more of her throughout the book. Maybe it's because Nik was expanded on more through text rather than drawings? This isn't to say that Hanna was a flat character because she was certainly far from that. She was a complete badass and I would say her and Ella are our true heroes (go ladies!). Ella was such a fresh character and didn't let her disabilities hinder her. She's hilarious and strong in so many ways.
Similar to Illuminae I really enjoyed the illustrations in this book. There were some similarities but it felt completely different and I loved it. Hanna's journal and her drawings were one of my favorite things about this book, Marie Liu did an amazing job with it. I also like the small touches on the whisperNET - the NETbar specifically with friends online, a newsfeed, and diary and appointments (Nik has the best ones). This book does a great job of expanding the Illuminae universe and does so in a way that's easy to follow. There's also drawings early on in the book that really show you Heimdall and the systems around it to give you an idea of things. Hanna and Nik's accompanying pages near the end of the book were done so well and reminded me of Replica's format. I'm really happy it found a way to differentiate itself from Illuminae. It was so much more creative than I imagined, after Illuminae I thought it would be practically similar. The pages with blood are still haunting me.
I love the plot. The story was great, it was like die-hard but in space. The cat and mouse chase they had going on worked really well, I just wish they played on the “alien predators” a bit more. I felt that I kind of just ended out of nowhere, maybe I need to re-read it? Towards the end Illuminae characters make an appearance and really tie book 1 and 2 together. Kady and Ezra ♡
I think Amie Kaufman is slowly becoming one of my favorite writers. From Illuminae and Gemina to These Broken Stars, she (and Meagan Spooner) do a stellar job of creating characters and a story that follows teenagers in futuristic space settings. I loved the world building in this as well as the creepy element. I typically binge read books at night and while I don't think the goal was to scare readers, this definitely made me feel a sense of fear and anxiety with the whispers that our characters in this book experienced. I really hope this isn't the last readers will see of Tarver and Lilac and I'm definitely excited to read about two new main characters in book 2&3!
