Tag: action

YA

Review: Crystal Kingdom by Amanda Hocking

Andge @ Down the Rabbit Hole

Series: Kanin Chronicles #3

crystal kingdom -amanda hockingThe kingdom she loves has turned against her. Can she save it before it’s too late?

Bryn Aven—unjustly charged with murder and treason—is on the run. The one person who can help is her greatest enemy, the gorgeous and enigmatic Konstantin Black. Konstantin is her only ally against those who have taken over her kingdom and threaten to destroy everything she holds dear. But can she trust him?

As Bryn fights to clear her name, the Kanin rulers’ darkest secrets are coming to light…and now the entire troll world is on the brink of war. Will it tear Bryn from Ridley Dresden, the only guy she’s ever loved? And can she join forces with Finn Holms and the Trylle kingdom? Nothing is as it seems, but one thing is certain: an epic battle is under way—and when it’s over, nothing will ever be the same…

4 Drink Me Potions

Wowza. And that completes the Kanin Chronicles.

That was my first thought upon completing Crystal Kingdom. Having read Frostfire at the very beginning of this year and getting to complete this trilogy by the end of it, it feels like a journey that I’ve taken with Bryn this year.

And I can’t say that her adventure doesn’t end off with a bang. Because it sure does. Right from the beginning, she’s off where we left her in Ice Kissed.

With Konstantin Black. Aka the Kanin’s #1 enemy and Bryn’s enemy (and secret childhood crush). Oh, and a total badass.

Amanda Hocking is an absolute genius when it comes to delivering epic adventures as that is what we get here with Bryn now being a fugitive on the run, stuck with an ally that is no help with getting her better connections. Written in a fast-paced sequence, we follow the two of them all around the different troll kingdoms.

Like, YES, we finally get to see the other troll kingdoms besides the Skojare. I absolutely adored their palace in Ice Kissed but there are plenty more interesting things to come here. I don’t want to ruin much beyond that. Of course, the synopsis already does a good job of implicating the Trylle kingdom. If you have read Hocking’s first series (which I haven’t, I will admit), you’ll be genuinely pleased to see some familiar characters popping up quite frequently.

And with grand adventure, there also comes grand sacrifices. Bryn was a strong and well-rounded character. She has that fight and courage in her that is found in a lot of battle-skilled/warrior-like heroines, but she also developed well over the course of the trilogy. It is here that I really saw her emotionally mature. She was always this person who relied solely on herself. Love had no place in her life. It was a distraction, a weakness. But it also showed that she could be lonely living a life like this. With love burning in her heart, she finally understood that maybe it wasn’t such a problem but rather a motivation for doing well.

However, as I said, there comes sacrifices. I won’t say what kind, but every great tale of heroism and adventure has their fair share of problems that just couldn’t be prevented. I will admit that one of those scenes had a really touching moment there. Let me just say that Hocking makes beautiful characters come alive but keeps it realistic, and I’ll leave it at that.

As for the romance, I am OVERJOYED that there was no love triangle. I honestly swear there were hints for one since Frostfire but I’m glad it wasn’t a necessary tool to add into a story that seemed perfectly fine the way it was. Ridley is still amazing as usual, but there’s some conflict between him and Bryn that they’d have to work out. I did wish there could’ve been more of him in the novel as he doesn’t pop in until mid-way. I suppose it was hard to realistically have him pop up on Bryn’s adventures so quickly, but still. My heart broke over the Ridley-less pages.

I may not have liked Konstantin at all for the last two books. Come on, how many people could’ve fallen for a guy who was known as Kanin’s #1 enemy? And Bryn hated him with a passion after what he did to her and her father. It’s fairly easy to dislike a guy with that kinda description and background. But he was always intriguing, and I think that’s where people fell for him a little. In Crystal Kingdom, he’s everywhere. And by the end of it, I wanted to be his best friend the way he seemed to be for Bryn. It was strictly platonic. She didn’t waver in her love for Ridley, but of course, there was a sort of love for Konstantin as well, just not strictly the romantic kind. And that goes to show how well-done this novel was to turn an opinion completely around.

I’m not sure if Hocking will ever come back to these troll kingdoms after having done two series with them. However, I will end off saying that it was a wonderful journey following the Kanin people and that she’s one ingenious author for creating such a captivating, mythical world within our everyday modern one. I do truly wish there would someday be more.

Overall Recommendation:
Bryn’s just been kicked out of the only home she’s ever known, but as the courageous and ever-determined heroine that she is, Crystal Kingdom follows her on a grand adventure to right the wrongs in her kingdom and set everything right once again. Allied with Konstantin Black, someone I once hated but by the end you’ll be calling him a best friend, and filled with treacherous battles and action, this fast-paced novel definitely fulfills the ideal of the word “finale”. Delicious romance, beautiful settings in varying troll kingdoms and a heart-stopping sacrifice, this is one book that you just have to read. Honestly.

YA

Review: Rebel by Amy Tintera

Andge @ Down the Rabbit Hole

Series: Reboot #2

rebel -amy tinteraWren Connolly thought she’d left her human side behind when she dies five years ago and came back 178 minutes later as a Reboot. With her new abilities of strength, speed, and healing—along with a lack of emotions—Wren 178 became the perfect soldier for HARC (Human Advancement and Repopulation Corporation). Then Callum 22 came along and changed everything.

Now that they’ve both escaped, they’re ready to start a new life in peace on the Reboot reservation. But Micah 163, the Reboot running the reservation, has darker plans in mind: to wipe out the humans. All of them. Micah has been building a Reboot army for years and is now ready to launch his attack on the cities. Callum wants to stick around and protect the humans. Wren wants nothing more than to leave all the fighting behind them.

With Micah on one side, HARC on the other, and Wren and Callum at odds in the middle, there’s only one option left…

It’s time for Reboots to become rebels.

4 Drink Me Potions

What I love about this story is that it really makes you think. My all-time favourite book is The Host, so this is a huge compliment when I say that like it, Rebel centres on one huge question.

What makes someone a human? Is it their physical make-up or how they go about making their decisions? Is it their ability to love or their ability to bring down such destruction upon themselves? Is being human even a good thing?

Wren struggled with this in Reboot, the first book in this duology. I thought she came a long way in finding a piece of humanity in her. However, the true progress came through here. It wasn’t black and white for her. Kill humans who never treated her kindly? Or risk everything to save a species who were, logically, the less evolved group and may not hesitate to kill a Reboot?

So throughout Rebel, Wren had to take a good look at herself and figure out why she wasn’t like Callum with his way of thinking. Was it really just because of her high number that made her feel less guilt over what she’s done or could do? Or is it just, at the end of the day, something that was solely because of her? She was still this amazing kick-ass character who, unbeknownst to her, was worthy of admiration and respect from the other Reboots, not only due to her 178 number. She wasn’t some weak and fragile heroine who couldn’t take care of herself. But she wasn’t just some heartless monster desperate to find herself either. And that’s what always made her POV very interesting to read.

Likewise, Callum had his own POV in this book and went through a similar, fleshed-out character development. I love that his role as Wren’s love interest never just stopped at that. Some books carry their male leads like some fancy toy that’s nice to admire and have around, but don’t really have anything unique or interesting about them on their own without the girl they supposedly like/love.

Callum was this happy-go-lucky kinda guy in Reboot. I loved that about him. I personally think his quick smile and attitude while facing hostile Reboots in the HARC facility was what touched Wren enough to fall for him so hard. But he realistically had to face challenges after escaping that affected his ideologies. After all, he was only rebooted a short while ago. Everything wasn’t great for them most of the time. Humans feared them or wanted nothing to do with them. He only touched the surface of the hardships he’d have to face as a Reboot now.

As for the action and romance, there were plenty of both. And they balanced each other out. Rebel started literally right where Reboot ended, dumped at the doorstep of a potentially new future for escaped Reboots. The pacing was always on point. It never dragged out a scene and there were always suspicious things going on to ponder about.

The only thing I’d complain about is one anticlimactic point near the end where I personally thought Tintera could’ve made a more action-packed sequence for it. Like, the plot of the story kinda built it up and it just….fizzled down. When I read it, I was like, “wait, what just happened? Hold on. You gotta be kidding me…”. But ah well. I guess it could’ve been worse.

The romance didn’t take up centre stage this time, but it was always evident that Callum and Wren dearly cared for each other. And their relationship was realistic too. Their personalities were so different and although they complemented each other in a lot of ways, sometimes those ideologies can cause disagreements as well. I loved that Tintera fleshed out and explored where they were headed now that the initial “I like you, I think you totally dig me too” kinda phase has passed. She didn’t need to bring in some awful love triangle or some stupid thing that to cause a rift between them to make the book “exciting” in the romance department. (You can totally see how big of a fan I am with love triangles…).

As I look around on the news, you can see what humanity can be like. So to wrap things up, this brings me back to what I pointed in the beginning as the central theme of Rebel. I think Tintera pointed it out perfectly. It’s not that we are good and emotional. We’re by far not. Human beings can do the worst, unimaginable horrors to each other. But there’s always a choice. I think that’s what being human looks like. Choosing which path to go and accepting the consequences. It’s not always black and white in the decisions that are made, but hopefully, at the end of the day, the more moral and loving choice was picked. I think Rebel really touched down on such an essential part of humanity.

Overall Recommendation:
Rebel was equal parts action and equal parts character development with romance sprinkled in between to glue it all together. The pacing never dragged out as new characters and new plotlines picked up. Likewise, we really get to see what humanity looks like through the POVs of both Wren and Callum. Although they may be Reboots now, what separates them from humans? Have they really lost their sense of morality and guilt? Are humans even worth saving? These are all questions explored through both their narratives and I think Tintera did an amazing job at trying to answer this through the eyes of two realistic characters. Definitely check this duology out.

YA

Review: Reboot by Amy Tintera

Andge @ Down the Rabbit Hole

Series: Reboot #1

reboot -amy tinteraFive years ago, Wren Connolly was shot three times in the chest. After 178 minutes she came back as a Reboot: stronger, faster, able to heal, and less emotional. The longer Reboots are dead, the less human they are when they return. Wren 178 is the deadliest Reboot in the Republic of Texas. Now seventeen years old, she serves as a soldier for HARC (Human Advancement and Repopulation Corporation).

Wren’s favorite part of the job is training new Reboots, but her latest newbie is the worst she’s ever seen. As a 22, Callum Reyes is practically human. His reflexes are too slow, he’s always asking questions, and his ever-present smile is freaking her out. Yet there’s something about him she can’t ignore. When Callum refuses to follow an order, Wren is given one last chance to get him in line—or she’ll have to eliminate him. Wren has never disobeyed before and knows if she does, she’ll be eliminated, too. But she has also never felt as alive as she does around Callum.

The perfect soldier is done taking orders.

4 Drink Me Potions

Wren Connolly, otherwise known by her branded number as 178, having “rebooted” to life after 178 minutes after dying.

She should have lost more of her humanity than anyone else, but it seems all it needed to surface was a push in the right direction.

I held off reading Reboot for a long time. I’m not really sure why. But oh boy, I’m so glad I finally picked it up. This story follows a beautiful protagonist who truly feels that emotions and other trivial human things are just a part of her ill-spent childhood. I love that Wren is such a complicated character. She feels emotions, but she doesn’t believe she’s really human anymore. Even she believes she can be a monster, mindlessly following even the cruelest of orders coming from HARC. After all, she’s 178, right? How much humanity could have been left in her after being dead for so long?

In a way, this inner conflict against her own personal demons reminded me a lot of Rosamund Hodge’s Crimson Bound. I admired the protagonist for the complexity in which her character couldn’t be defined as strictly good or bad. Although Wren wasn’t as monstrous or as dark of a character (for which I am grateful, ’cause poor me can only handle so much darkness at a time), she definitely went through a similar struggle. She killed people. People who were supposedly bad. And she enjoyed the hunt.

Enter Callum, with his wee number of 22 minutes. You would think that a guy like him, who was barely a Reboot and probably retained most of his humanity, would have nothing in common with someone like Wren, who scared even most of the other Reboots in the facility. But he did. With his contagious smile and hopeful attitude, he showed her that there was still a large piece of humanity in her.

Man, this just makes me want to find a Callum for myself.

The romance was sweet and slow-progressing. Reboot as a whole was an extremely fast read, gobbled up in a few sittings, and the romance still felt like it was written in a nice, even pace. And it wasn’t just the romance, but the pacing of the action sequences was well-done. Things weren’t as normal back in the facility, leading Wren to question her role with HARC for probably the very first time.

The world building and setting was definitely interesting. A new virus caused a major outbreak in the area known as today’s Texas. But it had strange effects. It killed a ton of people, but it also “rebooted” some young people after a range of minutes from death. Hence, a new and stronger species of humans called Reboots started roaming. The world building was familiar, in a sense, but with familiar cities remodelled to fit with this fallen world after the virus. I do wish Tintera let us explore a little more into the world she’s created, so that’s something to look forward to in the sequel.

I’ll keep this review short and sweet, closing off with this. The romance does give a lot of weight to Reboot, probably more so than other novels in this genre, but I think it’s well-placed alongside the fighting and the rebellion against the higher order. It connects us to Wren and to Callum in such a strong way that it’ll have you rooting for their survival way before the end of it.

Overall Recommendation:
For a synopsis that suggests rebellion and loads of action, Reboot also has a fair share of romance, as well as diving into the inner conflict that Wren has to deal with. Is she a monster now that she’s a Reboot, having been dead for so long? Could she find a piece of humanity left in her? All that is explored alongside her growing friendship and attraction for newbie Callum, someone she normally would never give a second thought about. I loved that it explored her character like this to give us a sense of who she really is and to let us connect with her, whether she be a monster or not. That’s not to say the novel isn’t exciting and still full of some ass-kicking. I’d say Reboot has something to offer for everyone.