Book Discussion: The Host by Stephanie Meyer

Hello Readers!

 

Today I'm going to rant and rave about The Host by Stephanie Meyer. This is one of my most recent book finishes (I say most recent because I'm way freaking behind on the discussions).

 

 

 

Goodreads Description:    

   

"Melanie Stryder refuses to fade away.

Our world has been invaded by an unseen enemy that takes over the minds of human hosts while leaving their bodies intact. But Wanderer, the invading "soul" who occupies Melanie's body, finds its former tenant refusing to relinquish possession of her mind.

As Melanie fills Wanderer's thoughts with visions of Jared, a human who lives in hiding, Wanderer begins to yearn for a man she's never met. Soon Wanderer and Melanie-reluctant allies-set off to search for the man they both love.

Featuring one of the most unusual love triangles in literature, THE HOST is a riveting and unforgettable novel about the persistence of love and the essence of what it means to be human."

 

My Rating:

4 Stars!!!

 

 

Review:

 

This book sat on my bookshelf for years, I really mean YEARS, before I finally picked it up and started reading it. I think I was hesitant because of the movie, which is not as good as the book. In fact, compared to the book, the movie is disappointing.

 

This book really goes into the relationships and all of the emotions involved a lot more than the movie. The movie doesn't really help you FEEL what the characters feel. When reading the book, I found myself grieving for Melanie. I felt every emotion that she felt as she was feeling it, and let me tell ya, there were a TON of emotions. I was basically a hot mess when I was reading this. So much moodiness.

 

I really enjoyed this book. It was slow in the beginning, but I find that to be true with most large novels, and let me tell you, this was a whopper of a book.

 

After the first 1/3 of the book, things started to pick up. I was very invested in Melanie and Wanderer and I wanted them both to be happy in the end. I felt everything that they felt, especially Melanie. My heart broke for her. I felt her anger. I felt her love for others. I cried with her.  I felt her desperation. It was so emotional. This is a book that completely sucked me in and I would recommend this to anyone. It's a beautiful story.

 

If you are hesitant to read this because of who wrote it, don't be. It is SO different from Twilight. Its a rollercoaster of feeling and it teaches a life lesson to accept those who are different from you. To love everyone even when they believe differently than you.

 

It's a wonderful story.

 

 

 

SPOILERS AHEAD!!!!

 

 

 

 

 

This book is not one that I can't really get into major spoiler-y discussion with because I truly don't know where to start. I do have a few things to say, however.

 

 

First of all, I'm not sure how anyone can hate Wanda after all that we see of her. She is a kind soul and she loves Melanie. She understands human emotion and what it truly means to BE human.

I wanted Wanda to be just as happy as Melanie. I wanted to be with the men they loved. I wanted them to stay friends. I wanted them to become a family.

 

AND THEY DID!!!

 

Melanie ended up with Jared. Wanda ended up with Ian. All as it should have been!

I loved them all.

 

Something else that I realized after the fact was that Jamie, Melanie's brother, was a character that I truly loved. I don't even have siblings!! I loved him like a sister would! How crazy is that. I felt like that kid's sister and I would have died an awful death if something had happened to him. Same goes for ??.

I can't even find anymore memes or gifs to help describe my feelings toward this book.

 

That's just about all I want to get into with this book.

 

I DEFINITELY recommend this one to EVERYONE!!!

 

Happy Reading!

 

XOXO,

Eden

 

Book Review: Their Fractured Light by Amie Kaufman and Meagan Spooner

Hello everyone!

Today I am coming to you for the review for "Their Fractured Light" by Amie Kaufman and Meagan Spooner! This is not my most recent book finish, but I really want to review it here since I reviewed "This Shattered World".

Summary as per Goodreads:

"A year ago, Flynn Cormac and Jubilee Chase made the now infamous Avon Broadcast, calling on the galaxy to witness for their planet, and protect them from destruction. Some say Flynn’s a madman, others whisper about conspiracies. Nobody knows the truth. A year before that, Tarver Merendsen and Lilac LaRoux were rescued from a terrible shipwreck—now, they live a public life in front of the cameras, and a secret life away from the world’s gaze.

Now, in the center of the universe on the planet of Corinth, all four are about to collide with two new players, who will bring the fight against LaRoux Industries to a head. Gideon Marchant is an eighteen-year-old computer hacker—a whiz kid and an urban warrior. He’ll climb, abseil and worm his way past the best security measures to pull off onsite hacks that others don’t dare touch.

Sofia Quinn has a killer smile, and by the time you’re done noticing it, she’s got you offering up your wallet, your car, and anything else she desires. She holds LaRoux Industries responsible for the mysterious death of her father and is out for revenge at any cost.

When a LaRoux Industries security breach interrupts Gideon and Sofia’s separate attempts to infiltrate their headquarters, they’re forced to work together to escape. Each of them has their own reason for wanting to take down LaRoux Industries, and neither trusts the other. But working together might be the best chance they have to expose the secrets LRI is so desperate to hide." 

                                                     

CAUTION: Possible Spoilers Ahead

My Review: (5/5 Stars) 

For starters, I want to say that we have all been blessed by the fact that this trilogy's covers are in existence. They are absolutely stunning! 

I love the two new characters that we are focusing on in this third installment. Tarver and Lilac from These Broken Stars are, and will always be, my favorites, but Gideon is AMAZING. He's snarky and I love it. Sofia is great as well. The switching of the main characters does not bother me a bit in this series, because you still see the characters from the first novels. Their Fractured Light bring back Tarver and Lilac as well as Flynn and Jubilee. You actually see a lot of them, so that is a huge plus to me. I also want to point out that Gideon is mentioned in This Shattered World and Sophia actually appears in it. 

The character development in this story is fabulous. They both start out with nothing, and no one, and they are distrusting and untrustworthy themselves. You learn why they both hate the Laroux family (if you have read book two, then you already know what Sophia's hate stems from) I love that they grow as individuals and that their relationship grows as well. They have each other and can love and trust again. 

The action in this book is constant! There are points in it when you think that you're at the height of it, but then *BAM* more action! It really kept me on my toes. There are some twists here that actually make me worry for the characters, (not only Gideon and Sophia), and they literally sent me into a panic. A straight up panic. Not exaggerating at all here. I love it when a book can make me freak out like I did, because it means that you're truly invested in the characters and what happens to them. 

I adore this series and I was so sad to see it end. I've said this about the second book, but I can 100% extend it to all three books: These stories are heartbreakingly and achingly beautiful. The entire trilogy now has a place on my favorites list and I am SO glad that I finally picked them up! I definitely recommend them all to you guys if you haven't read them yet! You'll really be missing out if you don't! 

XOXO,

Eden

Book Review: This Shattered World by Amie Kaufman and Meagan Spooner

  Hey y'all!!

 My most recent book finish is "This Shattered World" by Amie Kaufman and Meagan Spooner. This is the second book in the Starbound Trilogy, and let me tell ya, it was fabulous.

Synopsis: 

 "The second installment in the epic Starbound trilogy introduces a new pair of star-crossed lovers on two sides of a bloody war.

Jubilee Chase and Flynn Cormac should never have met.

Lee is captain of the forces sent to Avon to crush the terraformed planet's rebellious colonists, but she has her own reasons for hating the insurgents.

Rebellion is in Flynn's blood. Terraforming corporations make their fortune by recruiting colonists to make the inhospitable planets livable, with the promise of a better life for their children. But they never fulfilled their promise on Avon, and decades later, Flynn is leading the rebellion.

Desperate for any advantage in a bloody and unrelentingly war, Flynn does the only thing that makes sense when he and Lee cross paths: he returns to base with her as prisoner. But as his fellow rebels prepare to execute this tough-talking girl with nerves of steel, Flynn makes another choice that will change him forever. He and Lee escape the rebel base together, caught between two sides of a senseless war." (from Goodreads)

WARNING!!! If you haven't read the first book in the series, "These Broken Stars", and you plan to, you might want  to stop reading now, because there could be a few accidental spoilers here. Also, if you haven't read the first book, I would suggest you read it before you read this one. There are connections that you'll need to make, and you'll need to have information from the first book to do so.

My Synopsis:

This story revolves around Flynn Cormac, a rebel on his home planet of Avon, and Jubilee Chase, a soldier sent to Avon to keep the peace. Avon has been in the terraforming process for years, and there has been no progress towards a more inhabitable world. It is a swampy, dank, dark planet. There is always cloud cover, and most locals have never seen the stars. Along with these conditions, the soldiers all seem to fall ill with a sickness that they call the Fury after spending a few months on Avon.

The rebels and the soldiers have been fighting for quite some time, and have recently entered into a cease fire. During this cease fire, Flynn runs into Jubilee on the military base, and decides to kidnap her in order to get some answers about why his planet has been so slow to be terraformed, why he and his people are forced to live with nothing, and he wants to ask questions about a secret facility that he stumbled across earlier that very same day. Flynn brings her to the rebel's base camp secretly, and while there, his comrades (or are they?) find her and are preparing to kill her, execution style. Instead of allowing this to happen, Flynn saves her and lets her return to the military base. This decision really does change his life forever.

Love eventually blossoms between Flynn and Jubilee. They are both fighting it. They think that they are two different, and that they have hurt each other too much for it to work. They feel that their people need them too much, but they give in. Their love is about forgiveness, and acceptance of each other and themselves. It is heart breaking and beautiful all at the same time.

My thoughts: 
When I started this book, I was so disappointed that Lilac Laroux and Tarver Merendsen, the star crossed lovers from "These Broken Stars", were not the main characters. The first book was so full of mystery and love and plot twists, and it just a breath-taking story. I was sure that it was a book that I would have to suffer through. Boy, was I ever wrong.

 I have to throw in that both Tarver and Lilac did make a cameo in the book, and I really appreciated how it tied the story together with the first book. It really needed it, and it just thrilled me that I would get to see more of their story, even if it was from afar. :)

This story is very different from the first, and I loved that about it. "These Broken Stars" was a little slow at first, and it was mostly about love and survival up until the last third of the book. "This Shattered World"was fast paced from the beginning. I flew through it!

There are similarities, some of which I can't get into because I don't want to completely ruin the book for you, but in the first book, Tarver is a soldier, determined and strong. He's very serious in the majority of the book. Lilac is a rich girl, that actually isn't all about parties and fashion and socialization. She longs to have a normal life, away from her manipulative father. In this book, Flynn is more like Lilac, except he has nothing. No home and no immediate family. He wants to end a war among his people. He wants to change the world, like Lilac wants to make a difference and stop her father. Jubilee is just like Tarver. She has lost more than he has, but personality wise, they are the same. They are all star-crossed, and each couple is perfect together. A match made in Heaven.

I seriously recommend this whole series to everyone who reads this. It is one of the best series I have ever read. EVER! It's the perfect mix of romance, fantasy, and science fiction.

Photo cred: readingaftermidnight.com (This blog site is amazing. Y'all go check it out!!)

Review for Their Fractured Light coming soon!!!!!

XOXO,
Eden