Genre: Sci-Fi


Monday, September 19, 2016

Review: Gemina by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff

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I received this book for free from Knopf Books for Young Readers in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

Review: Gemina by Amie Kaufman and Jay KristoffGemina by Amie Kaufman, Jay Kristoff
Series: The Illuminae Files #2
Published by Knopf Books for Young Readers on October 18th, 2016
Genres: Adventure, Sci-Fi, YA
Source: Knopf Books for Young Readers
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four-stars

The highly anticipated sequel to the instant New York Timesbestseller that critics are calling “out-of-this-world awesome.”

Moving to a space station at the edge of the galaxy was always going to be the death of Hanna’s social life. Nobody said it might actually get her killed.

The sci-fi saga that began with the breakout bestseller Illuminaecontinues on board the Jump Station Heimdall, where two new characters will confront the next wave of the BeiTech assault.

Hanna is the station captain’s pampered daughter; Nik the reluctant member of a notorious crime family. But while the pair are struggling with the realities of life aboard the galaxy’s most boring space station, little do they know that Kady Grant and theHypatia are headed right toward Heimdall, carrying news of the Kerenza invasion.

When an elite BeiTech strike team invades the station, Hanna and Nik are thrown together to defend their home. But alien predators are picking off the station residents one by one, and a malfunction in the station’s wormhole means the space-time continuum might be ripped in two before dinner. Soon Hanna and Nik aren’t just fighting for their own survival; the fate of everyone on the Hypatia—and possibly the known universe—is in their hands.

But relax. They’ve totally got this. They hope.

Once again told through a compelling dossier of emails, IMs, classified files, transcripts, and schematics, Gemina raises the stakes of the Illuminae Files, hurling readers into an enthralling new story that will leave them breathless.

I have a weird thing about sequels that aren’t about the main characters from the first book but since Illuminae was the bomb.com, I was still pretty excited for Gemina. I didn’t love it as much as Illuminae but that’s also probably because I missed the sh██ out of Kady and Ezra. I MISSED THEM SO SO MUCH because they are so wonderful together and I HAVE A LOT OF FEELINGS FOR THEM.

As a result of the mentioned weird thing I have, it took me a lot longer to warm up to Nik and Hanna but when I finally did, I was able to appreciate the fact that they were wonderfully well-rounded characters who were pretty darn easy to like. They are both funny and sarcastic like Kady and Ezra were but they also feel completely different from the pair in terms of their personalities. Hanna is a serious kick a██ and Nik is a criminal mastermind (sorta).

If you are a fan of opposites attract/hate to love sort of romance, their relationship will probably be kryptonite for you. I definitely enjoyed watching their relationship bloom as they came to understand one another while working together under desperate circumstances.

For others like me who have a hard time wrapping their minds around the fact that Kady and Ezra are no longer our main kiddos, they do make a cameo and Kady is name dropped a bunch so they aren’t completely forgotten about. Hanna and Nik’s story also works perfectly alongside Kady and Ezra’s and it’s so interesting to see all the ways in which they connect. I HAZ some questions though and I guess I’ll just have to wait until book 3 to get all the goody answers.

The sci-fic elements in this book are actually a lot more interesting than the ones in Illuminae. For me, Illuminae was a little more space opera and Gemina is a little bit more sci fic because more black holes/wormholes involved. Also some really f███ing cool s███ that I cannot elaborate one because spoilers (like actual major spoilers) but just beware of page 505 and make sure you have tissues on hand.

Most people know the BIG news by now that Marie Lu has a hand in some of the illustrations in this book and while those weren’t included in the ARC, you can see a couple here and they look absolutely GORGEOUS. I cannot wait to have a final copy in my hands so I can flip through and see all the amazing things I missed out on.

I do want to mention that it might be helpful to flip through Illuminae before diving into Gemina because the timeline stuff confused me at first and it took a while (and lots of flipping through Illuminae) to jog up my memory and have pieces fall into place.

So pick this s███ up, kids. Especially if you loved Illuminae because s███ really hits the fan in this one and I am READY to read book 3. GIVE IT TO ME NOWWWWW.

four-stars

4 Hot Espressos

5 Reasons Why You Should Read Vicarious by Paula Stokes

Posted by on 08/24/2016 • 6 Comments

If you read Paula Stokes’ guest post on the blog the other day, you’ll know that it is not secret that she is a talented writer but Vicarious blows that out of the water. Liars, Inc. was the last thriller she wrote and one I rated 4.5 stars because of how amazing it but Vicarious is EVEN better and kept me EVEN more at the edge of my seat and holy crap the climax of this novel almost killed me. 

5 Reasons Why You Should Read Vicarious

1. The main character. Stokes’ always writes great characters and this book is no exception. Winter is a complex character with a backstory that will make you want to shelter her from the world. Winter is BADASS but her past has left a…

A Letter to Kady (Illuminae) by Amie Kaufman & Jay Kristoff

Posted by on 10/21/2015 • 11 Comments

I’m excited to have the Illuminae tour stop by the blog today with a fun guest post! I’ve got both Amie and Jay here today with a letter to their main character, Kady! Also don’t forget to enter to win before you go! Before we get to that, let’s see what this book is all about:

Guest post by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff

A Letter to Kady

Dear Kady,

Okay, first up, we’re sorry. WE’RE SORRY. Please don’t delete our back-up files, remotely active our car alarms or plaster our embarrassing baby photos all over the internet. We know you know how. And okay, maybe you’d be justified. We put you through some stuff in Illuminae. We can acknowledge that.

We’re particularly sorry about…

Review: Sleeping Giants by Sylvain Neuvel

Posted by on 10/19/2015 • 2 Comments

In my humble opinion, this book was 320 pages of info dump. The Martial  style except somehow more… overwhelming.

Please don’t get me wrong, I am not new to this kind of format. Like World War Z and Illuminae (Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff), the story of Sleeping Giants is told in the form of interviews conducted by a mysterious, nameless person who seems to have a lots and lots and lots of power as well as in the form of oral diary entries. I loved it when it was used in WWZ and Illuminae because despite it being quite straight-forward and in the form of documentaries, these books were still able to touch me on an emotional and personal level. They showed many perspectives and angles about a particular, seemingly-but-absolutely dreadful…

Review: The Next Together by Lauren James

Posted by on 10/09/2015 • 11 Comments

Wow… just wow.

When you hear the word “time-travel”, the first thing that comes to mind (usually) is “science fiction”. You think of the technology and machines that make this feat possible; you think of the physics involved, of subatomic atoms transferring from one place to another (or however that is supposed to be done); you think of action-packed plots, of conspiracy theories, that push our heroes and heroines to time travel in the first place.

But… romance? With time-travel? To be quite honest, the cynic in me long believed a time-travel with romance in the center would be hard to pull off without it being too cheesy. With a different audience in mind, it would also be hard to talk about the technicalities of how time travel works in the…

Review: Illuminae by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff

Review: Illuminae by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff

Posted by on 09/08/2015 • 9 Comments

It’s not often that I read a book in one day. Especially huge books like this monster. I just couldn’t put this one down though. It loved the fast pace of it, the heartbreaking story, and even the format it’s told in. I loved reading this story through instant messages, documents, and case files, along with other things as well. It was almost impossible to put down because I was so interested in what was happening, and was quickly attached to the characters. The main one being the AI. I loved getting to know it. While books have been written in documents and such things before, this one has so much more. I especially loved the pictures that are done in it as part of the story. They really help…

Review: Spinning Starlight by R.C. Lewis

Review: Spinning Starlight by R.C. Lewis

Posted by on 08/19/2015 • 9 Comments

I am honestly quite conflicted with this book.

While I appreciated this was a retelling of an under-the-radar fairy tale (come on, we have had enough of Cinderella, Beauty and the Beast, Little Mermaid retellings!), this book left me feeling a little underwhelmed. I kind of expected a lot because even though I had some problems with Stitching Snow, the author does know how to write a story. With a cover like that, with a premise like that (oh-em-gee, eight older brothers?! Sign me up, s’il te plaît!), surely after a year, and with a writer like R.C. Lewis, surely this book will knock other retellings out of the water?! Unfortunately, instead of feeling enamored with it, I just feel a bit… deflated.

Meet Liddi Jantzen, the heiress to a large techy company that…

Review: Illuminae by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff

Review: Illuminae by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff

Posted by on 06/17/2015 • 21 Comments

If ever the times comes I’d need to pick the ultimate young adult sci-fi novel, I would choose Illuminae without any second thoughts.

You guys may be well-aware of my huge love for space opera. There’s really nothing more mesmerizing than a tragic and action-packed story set in the vastness of empty space, where you are in the middle of absolute nothingness, where stars, rocks, and planets are seperated by unimaginable distances. I don’t know, it’s just such a beautiful setting for me. Maybe it’s because I find the universe to be the starting ground of life itself, or maybe it’s because I find the cosmos so romantic, or maybe it’s because I see poetry in the stars. Whatever the case, I felt all three of these in Illuminae.

And then some.

Here’s…