Goodreads Choice Award/Nominee

Legends by Marie Lu is a novel set in a dystopian and apocalyptic future of Los Angeles. The author does an amazing job illustrating new apocalyptic Los Angeles, especially the divide between the rich and the poor. The rich have lavish meals, houses, and water. While the poor are lucky to just survive. The two main characters June and Day are born with this divide between them. June born to the rich is trained for success in the system while Day born into the poor and is the most wanted criminal. They would have never met but now June is tasked with hunting down Day. The book switches between their viewpoints helping the reader understand the difference in the class system. Not only that but the author does a great job of switching in the right times to reinforce the plot rather than an awkward switch. All in all I couldn’t set the enthralling novel down and would recommend it with 5 out of 5 stars.

This book is the sequel to Call Me By Your Name, and it is incredible! The novel is split into four sections, each following the lives of Samuel (Elio's father), Elio, and Oliver, characters who were first introduced in the first book. It isn't clear who the narrator is for each section, but and I love the ambiguity that it adds to the plot. The book is so beautifully written: I loved the metaphors and vivid imagery, and the overall theme of the book. Call Me By Your Name ended sadly, but this book was the closure I hadn't realized I needed.

The events of the book take place twenty years after the first book. In the first part, Samuel meets a young woman on a train and they quickly begin a romantic relationship. In the second part, Elio is now an established pianist and begins a relationship with an older man, but they break up later. In the third section, Oliver is married with two children and teaches at a university in New Hampshire. Often, he finds himself thinking of Elio and the time they spent together twenty years ago. In the final section, Elio and Oliver reunite and are raising Elio's half-brother. Overall, I definitely recommend reading this book (and reading the first one)! The movie for the first book is also a must-watch.

Avery always felt like wallpaper at her school, practically invisible. That was until Tobias Hawthorne, a complete stranger, left her billions. She has to uproot her life and move to Texas to inherit the billions. She has to figure out why she inherited the money. Though it is hard while most of the household holds a grudge against her. There Avery finds a complex puzzle waiting to be solved, and not to mention a love triangle.

This book was an amazing read. It tells Avery's story and her scavenger hunt of a life time. It's a great book to help get out of a reading slump. Highly recommend!

Alex was always different. Like the puzzle piece that never fit in. Meanwhile her twin brother was her polar opposite. But the twins always shared a love of fairy tales. When their grandmother stops by their house one day and give them the infamous book called the Land of Stories they grew up with, the twins were excited. Soon the excitement turned to confusion when the book started glowing. To their surprise they landed in the Land of Stories.

This book is a great book for people who love twists on fairy tales, misinterpreted characters, and a good long series. This book was a great easy read to just sit down and enjoy. Highly recommend!

The book, Etiquette and Espionage, follows the teenage, mischievous, unladylike Sophronia. Her mother deems her manners unfit, and sends her off to finishing school. As she quickly learns, this "finishing school" isn't what it seems. The school is an academy for spying and deadly maneuvers. Throughout her first few weeks and months, Sophronia makes friends with some colorful characters, and learns that life might not be all manners and fun. This book is packed with adventure and will make you hang on to the edge of your seat! Try it out, there'll be some plot twists and laughs all along the way.

The Wild Robot takes place on an island where a shipment of robots has crashed. Only one Robot had survived the crash, so she has to learn how to adapt to the wilderness. On her journey, she befriends the woodland creatures and learns to speak their language. I enjoyed this book a lot because it was light hearted. I enjoy being outside and in nature, so this book was interesting to me. The only issue I had with it was that it was very short, and I would have liked to have read more of it.

22/11/63 by Stephen King is about the Kennedy Assassination, and time travel. I really like stuff about time travel and alternate universes, so this book sounded pretty interesting. Basically, an English teacher named Jake gets to go back in time, and ends up changing history. I would recommend this book to anyone who likes Stephen King, time travel, or finds the JFK assassination interesting. I will say though, that while I really enjoyed this book, and think it’s good, it’s definitely not Stephen Kings best work.

This book takes place in North Carolina and follows the life of a girl named Kya. Kya has lived alone in the marsh since a young age and has always loved the life within. The book follows her as she grows up and the challenges she faces. Then her life takes a drastic turn when she is accused of the murder of Chase Andrews. The book deals with themes of love, loneliness, and more.

This book was pretty good, but outside of what I normally read. That said it was a very interesting book to read. It reminded me of To Kill a Mockingbird because of the trial and theme of prejudice. Kya was such a unique character to follow with her lifestyle and how she acted. It was easy to cheer her on during the trial or feel her pain. It was fun to follow along with the trial and see the evidence. That said, I didn't rate this higher because of the twist at the end. The twist caught me off guard and it wasn't one I liked. I felt it went against some of the points made in the book. Although I know some people really loved this book. So this is one of those books you should read for yourself and see what you think. You might really like it or you might not. Either way, I think this book did a good job of showing Kya's world and life.

Heart of Betrayal is how Lia travels through the dessert trying to figure out how to get out of this situation. On the way she crosses how to truly connect with her gift. Then she arrives at Venda. People are succumbing, and start to begrudgingly like her. For some people a little too much. Lia has gone through the whole rainbow of emotions. Now she has to take action before it too late.
In this book the beginning was a little slow for me but it sped up significantly once she got to Venda. Lia is no "little girl" in this book, her character arc is so perfect. This book has a character everyone can love.

Anyone who has spent a considerable amount of time with me will know that one of my top three favorite movies is Tangled (2010). It then comes as no surprise to me that the third book in the Lunar Chronicles series that adapts the Rapunzel fairy tale into this sci-fi retelling would be my favorite of the set. It wasn't until I was reading original fairy tales to my daughter that I realized how close Cress came to representing the story it was based on instead of just relying on the familiar accouterments of the fairy tale.

While I didn't appreciate as much of the split storylines in Scarlet , I felt they improved the greater story arc of the whole series here. Cress explored much of the inner workings of the antagonist faction of Lunars that had been missing up until this point of the series. As such, I was able to gain a greater emotional attachment to the rag-tag group of rebels. It also helped that there was clear character growth in some of the minor characters like Carswell Thorne and Cress through the challenges they had to overcome.

Perhaps the best reason this was my favorite book of the Lunar Chronicles series is that it truly was building toward the climax of the series as a whole. Watching all the different pieces fall into place to set up the final book of the series was what had me hooked on this story all the way through. And sure, it still had that "teenage girl" quality to its prose, but at least it helped make the characters realistic—even if it was to adhere to the tropes of the Young Adult genre.

The sci-fi Rapunzel retelling I didn't know I needed, I give Cress 4.5 stars out of 5.