King's Cage

King's Cage 

By: Victoria Aveyard 

4/5 LOVED IT 

I loved this third installment in the Red Queen series the most so far! King's Cage is such an exciting fast paced book, with deep meaningful undertones, and some superb character development.

We are left off at the end of book 2 with a full blown Red rebellion underway, a heartbreaking loss, and the capture of Mare Barrow landing her in the clutches of the obsessive boy King Maven. 

Finally, all the secrets of The Scalet Guard are revealed and some serious new players in the revolution  are discovered. Piedmont a southern country much like Norta, Montfort -a "free republic" where Reds and Silvers live alongside each other as equals not enemies or slaves. (We shall see about that) - which is a new far off country  that many Nortans did not known existed has Allied with the Guard as well as some unexpected Noble Silver houses of Norta who also align themselves to the cause. CRAZY.
 First, we see a few new traits in Mare Barrow our leading lady, she is less of a martyr and more of a solider in this book and she also has to make some crazy hard choices, like wanting to get revenge for someone she lost but not taking the opportunity for the greater good, that my friends would be incredibly hard to do and props to Mare.
Also , we meet a lot of awesome Newbloods with incredible abilities and overwhelming loyalties to Mare and the Guard. There are a lot of politics in this book , but never boring and very applicable to our world today. If you are rich and born to the right family you will worry for nothing, but be just a lowly poor red blooded schmuck and your odds at success and fair treatment are signifantly less. 
All that matters to the nobles and royals of Norta is strength and power, they marry to conceive the strongest most optimal children, never for love, that's what reds do in their meaningless, trivial, and depressing lives. People are sent to war and used as pawns in a never ending struggle for power and those who profit from all the destruction are never the  people who suffer. This whole series has had the same rhetoric of inequality and how little people's lives mean to the rich and powerful, why should they care who starves or who's kids are sent to work or war when they are still children if its not their own or if it's for their own gain?
Another narrative I noticed a lot of was how people can use their own children in the coldest ways for power and selfishness, the manipulations of a child's parents can be most damaging. Maven is the screwed up boy he is because his mother quite literally twisted his brain (she is a whisper after all) and took pieces of him and added what she wanted and ultimately created a hollow monster who has only ghosts of true feelings, which is very sad and not his fault at all and in this book he is finally  showing signs of his true self trying to break free, but that being said he as a ruler is unyeilding and malevolent, I can't wait to see what Aveyard does with this character.
The other Calore brother Cal, the once heir to the thrown was also manipulated grown to know only battle and that his Kingdom's way of life - Reds are lesser beings meant to serve, and reds like it that way and Silvers are gods- is the only way and it takes a lot for him to step up and choose to sacrifice his way of life, even though at his core he is a genuinely good, and kind man. Cal has never had to make a hard choice in is life and is taught to do what the royals do and move on, no need to change a broken system if those on top stay there; it is very hard for Cal to accept that the old ways can no longer be tolerated and that change is a long fraught battle, and is always more difficult but in the end necessary. I ended up crying a little at the cliff hanger at the end of this book when Cal finally makes a damn choice and it was definitely not what I wanted but hopefully in Book 4 it will be for the best, as of right now my heart hurts a bit. Overall this is such a great series and cannot wait to read on! Aveyard sure has a lot to say about humanity and I'm hooked.  

Glass Sword

Glass Sword 

By: Victoria Aveyard 

3/5 LIKED IT 

I really liked Glass Sword, it did take me a really long time to read it but I definitely was able to get into it. Although it was never so captivating to the point of me not being able to put it down or just having to keep reading,  it was still good and well written. 

As I had previously guessed it shed a bit more light on The Scarlet Guard and how deep the veins of the rebellious group run in the country of Norta.  Glass Sword was much more "tactical" than Red Queen it's predecessor, Mare and The Gaurd are of course in the makings of a war so it only makes sense. We find out that Mare is not the only Red with a special ability (hers being able to control and create electricity.) 

Mare and Farley's rag tag group call these anomalies "New Bloods" both Silver and Red blooded . With the help from exiled and wanted (for murder of the former King) Prince Cal who was betrayed by his step-mother Queen Elara and brother Maven, who is now King, they make it their mission to hunt down the new bloods throughout the country in attempt to recruit and save them, because the saboteur King Maven knows these people exist as well and is also hunting them down but for very different reasons.

So we follow Mare and her group around on their missions and inevitable setbacks as they collect New Bloods,learn of new maddening secrets of evil intent,betrayal, anonymous groups with a secret hand in all of the mayhem, and of new lands and countries. They also strive to motivate both Silvers and Reds of Norta to join the rebellion against the Crown resulting in a civil war.

Mare meets a lot of new characters each with a lot of special abilities and strong personalities, she also meets hard and monumental decisions that are literally life and death. Prince Cal also faces very hard times, being betrayed so awfully and fighting against all he ever stood for. 

Mare succeeds at a lot of her endeavors but is faced with becoming into a hardened killer ready to use anyone at anytime for leverage and gain, we leave her at the end of Glass Sword with a HUGE win, a heart breaking loss and a terrrifying sacrifice. I'm on to King's Cage-book 3 and Cruel Crown - the prequel to Red Queen, featuring  the back stories of Queen Coriane and Diana Farley. Can't wait!

                                                                                            XOXOXOXO- THISRAVENCLAWREADER

Red Queen

      

          

    
               Red Queen 
          By:Victoria Aveyard 
  
         3.5/5 REALLY LIKED IT

Red Queen was such a good opening to what I'm sure will be a intense, dynamic, and exciting trilogy! I really enjoyed this book and have swiftly moved on to the sequel - Glass Sword -.
I would recommend this book (and have already) to anyone especially those who are fans of , fiction, YA Lit, fantasy and whoever likes dang good stories!
 In my opinion the most efficient/ effective way to describe this book is : if The Hunger Games, Divergent, and Game of Thrones had a baby. (What a kid right?)
The protagonist is Mare Barrow just a lowly Red blooded girl with nothing going for her or her broken family they are poor  and worked to the bone, if they can't find work to slave over they are sent to fight in a never ending war. These cruel standards are true for all "Reds" who are to always submit, provide goods, serve, and fight for the "Silvers" for little to nothing in return . The silvers who just by blood right hold all of the strength and power of this very split world, they are  able to maintain such privileges, and higharchy because their silver blood means they have abilities like controlling the elements, man made objects, and even control peoples mind which reds are not able to do. The divide is unjust, stagnant and corrupted and has continued this way for centuries, until a rebel group called  The Scarlet Guard begins to take a stand against the Royals and all Silvers alike, also in which Mare becomes an integral role amoung others you meet in the story. I'm sure in the next books we will discover just how deep this group goes, or more information of the Guard's history. 
Our heroine finds herself in a whirlwind of changes, information, and above all a newborn revolution.
Red Queen has tons of action, mysteries,and definitely keeps you guessing. Mare also gets caught one hell of a love triangle, I think my favorite thing about this story was how you REALLY did not know who to trust, the betrayal is real in this book and seemingly never ending (in a good way). I was on tenterhooks the whole book waiting for the true villain to be revealed, I was right about who it was but it was still a hard pill to swallow. Overall I enjoyed Red Queen it's very well written  also it did not have a overly juvenile feel to it which in my opinion makes it much more immersive.
                     
                                 XOXOXOXO-THISRAVENCLAWREADER

I'm Traveling Alone

            I'm Traveling alone
              By Samuel Bjork 
             
               4/5 LOVED IT

Let me just preface this review by noting that I gave this 4 out of 5 stars only because I don't think it is for everyone. It is an incredible book that I thoroughly enjoyed, and I will be reading more of Bjork's work. Though, I think you REALLY need to be a fan of thrillers/crime novels to get into this one, some readers might get too bored along the way.
I'm Traveling Alone follows a slower paced, multi faceted storyline coming from the point of view of many characters, all with a different piece of the overall puzzle. I found it captivating and loved the detailing the author put into this story. 
 When a 6 year old girl is found hanging from a tree in a forest of Norway, wearing dolls clothing and bearing a sign that says "I'm Traveling Alone" the investigation is given to only the best detectives: Holger Munch, a lovable bear of a cop with a slight chip on his shoulder, and a crazy addiction to nicotine. And Mia Kruger a young seriously gifted and intelligent investigative prodigy, who is also seriously haunted by some dark and twisty demons from her past. When we first meet Mia she is on a little island she bought and is drowning herself in alcohol and pills and is fully intending to kill herself, but when faced with Holger and a case of a little girl murdered she soon realizes that this girl is just the beginning, and is girl number 1 out of 10. Mia has to take part in this case and sees that things are about to get personal. It's a fascinating race against the clock to catch this killer, with different character views and "cut-scenes" if you will, you get left guessing which person or place is going to crack the case and how everything would connect in the end. I didn't know who the killer was for the longest time, Bjork's style had me focused on so much other information it is really an exciting novel, very unique I felt.  


                          XOXOXOXO-THISRAVENCLAWREADER

The Girl Before

                            The Girl Before 
             By JP Delaney
             5/5 MUST READ

The Girl before is the epitome of a Psychological thriller. It has every element necessary to provoke thought and keep you guessing until the very last second. I am pretty good at figuring out at least part of the "twist", but nope I was completely wrong which is always the most exciting when finishing a book! 
The narration changes between Emma and Jane , who on the surface seem to have a lot in common, but really they couldn't be more different which is slowly and methodically revealed to you. They look strikingly similar, and both move to One Folgate street at different times for different reasons, but both come with an underlying insecuitry and a need to make a big change in their lives.
 One Folgate street is an allusive Minimalistic  sleek ,and sexy flat that is crazy technologically advanced and comes packed to the hilt with "rules",it is also very hard to get accepted to reside there. Both women also have an affair with the Architect Edward who is as allusive,obsessive,and is as sexy as his house. 
The hook is the fact that Emma lives in One Folgate years before Jane, and Jane discovers soon after moving in that Emma is dead.. 
This author has mastered the art of trickery and leads you headfirst    into one theory and sneaks another right past you, I flew through this book! I love psychology and am fascinated when writers portray the human motive so concisely,and the fact that our subconscious is very penetrable and with very subtle manipulations people can be controlled or changed.This book Is beautifully written and I can't blame Emma and Jane for getting completely  lost in One Folgate street, I did too. 

                                                  XOXOXOXO-THISRAVENCLAWREADER

The Forgotten Girls

The Forgotten Girls

By Sara Blaedel

               5/5 MUST READ 

This book is so incredibly riveting,from the prologue on I was simply hooked! The story starts with the discovery of a woman's body  in the woods, and the Police soon discover she wasn't murdered and no one knows who she is... 

From there so many connections are revealed and the storyline recedes into the past in ways I never saw coming. The investigation is headed by Louise Rick who is your "typical" hardened demeanor, mysterious past, Policewoman character(which is totally fine,it works.)

 Louise felt typical but her character development and absolutely heart breaking back story set her apart for me, ahh the feels.

This book was extremely well written,researched,and has quite a unique storyline. The chapters are short and each one gives you just the right dose of new information that keeps you addicted. The author also brought in an element that I personally am so fascinated with: the terrible,sad,and eerie history of Mental institutions. My heart broke for the Forgotten girls... I cannot wait to read more of Sara Blaedel's work.
        
                       XOXOXOXO-THISRAVENCLAWREADER