Pretties (Uglies Trilogy #2) by Scott Westerfeld

Synopsis: Gorgeous. Popular. Perfect. Perfectly wrong. Tally has finally become pretty. Now her looks are beyond perfect, her clothes are awesome, her boyfriend is totally hot, and she's completely popular. It's everything she's ever wanted. But beneath all the fun--the nonstop parties, the high-tech luxury, the total freedom--is a nagging sense that something's wrong. Something important. Then a message from Tally's ugly past arrives. Reading it, Tally remember what's wrong with pretty life, and the fun stops cold. Now she has to choose between fighting to forget what she knows and fighting for her life--because the authorities don't intend to let anyone with this information.

~~

This book was better than Uglies. But I didn't like how Westerfeld repeated Tally's story throughout the entirety of the book. He kept going back to ugly days and repeating what had happened to Tally, even though she knew what had happened and mostly every character in the book did, too. I understand that Westerfeld might have been doing this for the benefit of readers who haven't read the first book, but I would think that you would read the first book since it is on the back of Pretties.

Tally's point of view on the entire world has been altered thanks to her pretty operation. I loved how Westerfeld didn't pretend like nothing had happened to Tally during the operation and how he changed her mind into a pretties. She sees the world like a pretty and she acts like a pretty, wanting to be bubbly for her friends. She knows that something's wrong but pushes it away while she becomes bubbly. And even when she finally remembers everything from her past, she still tries to push it away. She doesn't want to accept everything. But she has to. And eventually, she does. Which is why I have a love-hate relationship with Tally as the heroine of these books. She's somewhat selfish until she sees the damage she could do with her own selfishness and she turns against her own mind and tries to do something right.

Westerfeld introduces lots of more characters in this book, added onto the others that Tally met in Uglies. But it's not overwhelming, which I found so amazing. He lets you learn each character and then he'll introduce another, leaving you enough time to get used to one character before you meet another. Westerfeld is very good at making each character seem real and alive. I found myself being sucked into the story when I opened the book and it stuck with me long after I closed it.

Overall, Pretties is a wonderful addition to the Uglies trilogy. I love how Westerfeld gives you the insight to each part of Tally's world, starting with Uglies, going to Pretties and ending with Specials. His writing is amazing and i loved entering each world that he's created. The Uglies trilogy are intriguing books and I highly recommend them to anyone, whether you're a boy or girl.

OH MY GOODNESS--I'M FREAKING OUT!!!!

You know Cassandra Clare, the author of the Mortal Instruments Series and the Infernal Devices? Of course you do! Why wouldn't you? Well, containing my excitement isn't getting any easier, so....

Who will fall in love, and who will find their relationship torn apart? Who will betray everything they ever believed in? Love. Blood. Betrayal. Revenge. In the heart-pounding fourth installment of the Mortal Instruments series, the stakes are higher than ever.

Thank you to http://www.mortalinstruments.com/ who provided this amazing, awesome, supercalifragilisticexpialidocious book cover. AH!! I'M FREAKING OUT HERE!!!

I loved the Mortal Instruments series, I finished Clockwork Angel of the Infernal Devices three months ago, and I've been waiting for this cover FOREVER!!! I'm so happy that the cover still incorporates the same elements as the other three, but has two people on it! It's beautiful and the red is amazing and eye-catching. Love Cassandra Clare. Love Mortal Instruments and Infernal Devices. Love IT!!

Fragile Eternity (Wicked Lovely Series #3) by Melissa Marr

Synopsis: Seth never expected he would want to settle down with anyone--but that was before Aislinn. She is everything he'd ever dreamed of, and he wants to be with her forever. Forever takes on new meaning, though, when your girlfriend is an immortal faery queen. Aislinn never expected to rule the very creatures who'd always terrified her--but that was before Keenan. He stole her mortality to make her a monarch, and now she faces challenges and enticements beyond any she'd ever imagined.

~~

Alright, I have to admit, and I'm sorry, but...this had to be the slowest and worst of the four books out. It started out OK, with Seth trying to gain votes to travel into Faerie and ask Sorcha (the High Queen) to turn him into a faerie so he could be with Aislinn forever, but once he got into Faerie, it dragged on. Marr flipped to Sorcha's point of view and Aislinn's, like she has in other books. Sorcha's point of view was dull until she developed emotions towards Seth and started feeling. Aislinn's point of view was bugging me, though. She was wondering whether she should give up on Seth after he disappeared or go with Keenan, who was luring her to him ever so slightly. And her final decision had be glowering at the book and refusing to pick it up until I had to know how it ended.

Seth is an amazing character who looks at everything so differently than others. He loves Aislinn to the utmost extreme and does everything he can to be with her, including traveling to Faerie to become a faerie himself. He doesn't care that she is a Faerie Queen and is immortal, also that she's destined to be with Keenan because he is her immortal king and partner forever. Don't you think that would put a damper on the situation? No! Not to Seth, that is. He travels to Faerie, approaches the Faerie Queen, and asks her to turn him into a faerie. And he waits. For Aislinn. But what does she do?

In this book, Aislinn is indecisive. Of course, she has to deal with her own immortality, Seth's mortality, and Keenan's intrigues, but she could at least have faith in Seth. When he leaves, she spirals into uncertainty and can't think straight without thinking of Seth and where in Faerie he could be. Keenan talks to her, tempting her to turn away from all hope of Seth returning, and to join him fully to restore their kingdom. Okay, Aislinn, you go ahead and do that while Seth is turning in his mortality for you. The least she could do was have faith, but Aislinn wasn't my favorite part of the book. That was Sorcha.

Sorcha is the oldest character besides Bananach (her evil sister). She's the Queen of Reason, the High Queen, Logic, Truth, Light and the Unchanging Queen. That is until Seth comes to her, asking for immortality to be with his Summer Queen girlfriend. Sorcha has heard of Aislinn and ponders his question. Finally, she gives him his immortality, taking part of his mortality in exchange. That changes her. She starts to feel emotions and feelings. Mostly towards Seth. I loved Sorcha's transformation throughout the book and she became on of my favored characters in the books. That is besides Bananach and Donia. Who were, by far, my favorite characters.

The next couple of books in the series are mostly leading up to the big battle between the courts that is sure to happen. You learn from each courts point of view the impact that Keenan's choosing Aislinn has made.  Bananach is the major villain in these books and is insane/crazy/totally creepy. Which is why I like her. Not saying that I am insane/crazy/totally creepy. She's out for blood and war and will do anything to provoke it. But the other courts know Bananach and her cravings and choose to ignore her presence. But what they can't ignore is her promotions. And those are saying that war is coming. This is why I finished the book and moved on to the next one and am highly anticipating the last book, coming out February 2011, as I've said before.

Overall, I thought Fragile Eternity was the slowest one of them all, mostly building suspense between courts for the next two books. Seth was amazing; Aislinn was bothersome; Keenan was unrelenting; Sorcha was one of my favorites and I loved how she changed; and Bananach was by far the greatest character of Faerie. To me. Marr has created another good tale in Faerie, although I have to say that her others were better.

Jessica's Guide to Dating on the Dark Side by Beth Fantaskey

Synopsis: Marrying a vampire definitely doesn't fit in to Jessica Packwood's senior year "get a life" plan. But then a bizarre (and incredibly hot) new exchange student named Lucius Vladescu shows up, claiming that Jessica is a Romanian vampire princess by birth and he's her long-lost fiance. Armed with newfound confidence and a copy of Growing Up Undead: A Teen Vampire's Guide to Dating, Health, and Emotions, Jessica makes a dramatic transition from average American teenager to glam European vampire princess. But Jessica has never been kissed--how can she possibly commit herself to a long-term relationship? Or an eternal relationship, for that matter?

~~

I loved loved LOVED this book! It's cute, it's heart-wrenching, and it's comedic! Jessica is a relative character with relative problems. She's insecure, she has boy problems and she's still trying to figure out who she is and what she wants to be. And then Lucius comes into the picture, and she's thrown into a whole different world. She now has to deal with the fact that she's a vampire (although she really doesn't believe Lucius AT ALL) and she's living with her fiance by birth. Um, drama much?

Jessica's best friend Mindy is adorable and funny, same with Jessica. Mindy tries too hard sometimes, and she pushed Jessica to break out of her shell while Jessica is trying to fit in more than she is to stick out. Jessica's a math nerd who thinks that there is no such thing as fairy tales, while Mindy begs to differ. Jessica also has a crush on Jake, a boy in her town. This pushes her relationship with Lucius, who is shown in the first chapter but comes up much more later on in the book, toward the extreme edge.

This was an adorable read that I (can not say it enough) loved. It went a little slow at the beginning and it took Jessica awhile to accept who she was, but by the end I was on the edge of my seat, cheering on Jessica and Lucius. They had a strange relationship at first, full of uncertainties and instability, but they eventually grew into a friendship. Towards the end of the book, but mostly the end of the middle, I screamed at Lucius, getting very, very angry with him. But he straitened out by the end, and I was singing his praises. Jessica grew up so much emotionally throughout the book, and I really felt for her. She was confused, growing up like a normal teenager, and she had her vampirism thrown upon her unexpectedly. But she straitens out and soon, she learns to love herself more than she ever had.

Fantaskey was fantastic! Her writing was light or heavy in the right parts and she added the right amount of humor to Jessica's story. She made side characters show up, but she mostly focused on Jessica and Lucius's growing relationship. It was cute and hilarious and I loved how Jessica looked at life. She was sarcastic, but serious. Fantaskey has written a fun read that gave me lots of laughs and 'aww's'.

Uglies (Uglies Trilogy #1) by Scott Westerfeld

Synopsis: Everybody gets to be supermodel gorgeous. What could be wrong with that? Tally is about to turn sixteen, and she can't wait. Not for her license--for turning pretty. In Tally's world, your sixteenth birthday brings an operation that turns you from a repellent ugly into a stunningly attractive pretty and catapults you into a high-tech paradise where your only gob is to have a really great time. In just a few weeks, Tally will be there. But Tally's new friend Shay isn't sure she wants to be pretty. She'd rather risk life on the outside. When Shay runs away, Tally learns about a whole new side of the pretty world--and it isn't very pretty. The authorities offer Tally the worst choice she can imagine: find her friend and turn her in, or never turn pretty at all. The choice Tally makes changes her world forever.

~~

I got these two years ago and failed to pick them up until recently. And boy am I glad I did. Tally's world is so strange and different from the world we know today. It's based in the future, referring to us right now as Rusties. They have built off of our mistakes and created a utopia when you are a littlie, an ugly, a pretty, a middle pretty and finally, a late pretty, or crumbly. And Tally knows she wants to be a pretty. Her best friend Peris already is a pretty, and Tally is lonely and dying for her sixteenth birthday. When she meets Shay, who's friends have either become a pretty or run away. Shay opens a different side of being ugly, like long nights hoverboarding and better pranks. But the day before they're combined birthday, Shay informs Tally that she's leaving, going to the Smoke: a town outside of their city where you don't have to have an operation at sixteen. Tally's really nervous and tries to talk Shay out of it, but it's useless. Shay leaves, giving Tally vague instructions on how to get to the Smoke, if she ever wants to.

On the day of Tally's birthday, she's sent to Special Circumstances where the pretties are scary-looking and want Tally to give up Shay. But Tally doesn't know where Shay is and refuses to give anything up, saying she promised Shay that she would never tell. They give her a choice: help turn Shay and the Smoke in, or never turn pretty. After four days of thinking, and Peris and her parents chatting, Tally decides that it's best if she finds Shay and turn pretty with her. She agrees and sets off to find Shay. She leaves with only Shay's note and survival gear.

It takes a week to find Shay and the Smoke and she learns why they choose to be there and not in the city. She learns ugly secrets about becoming pretty, and she decides not to help the Specials and to instead stay in the Smoke with Shay and her friends. But the Specials drop by, anyway, and Tally is forced into hiding with David, the leader of the Smoke. Together, they return to the city and help break their friends out of Special prison. And then there's a dark, spoiler twist that I'm not going to tell you.

Overall, I loved Uglies and am almost finished with Pretties, the next installment of the trilogy. Westerfeld really knew how to build a not-so-perfect utopia and I was shocked at everything they said about us Rusties. Tally is a believable character who knows nothing except what the schools teach her. She feels she needs to turn pretty to go on with life but Shay and David (the Smoke leader, as I mentioned) help break her out of her society's mold and she becomes a very rebellious ugly. I liked Shay at the beginning of the novel, but I grew to dislike her by the end. Westerfeld makes the side characters a large part of the novels but they're not dwelt upon throughout the books. The ending was surprising to me and I can't wait to finish Pretties and go on to read Specials, the last in the trilogy.

Ink Exchange (Wicked Lovely Series #2) by Melissa Marr

Unbeknownst to mortals, a power struggle is unfolding in a world of shadows and danger. After centuries of stability, the balance among the Faery Courts has altered, and Irial, ruler of the Dark Court, is battling to hold his rebellious and newly vulnerable fey together. If he fails, bloodshed and brutality will follow. Seventeen-year-old Leslie knows nothing of faeries or their intrigues. When she is attracted to an eerily beautiful tattoo of eyes and wings, all she knows is that she has to have it, convinced it is a tangible symbol of changes she desperately craves for her own life. The tattoo does bring changes--not the kind Leslie has dreamed of, but sinister, compelling changes that are more than symbolic. Those changes will bind Leslie and Irial together, drawing Leslie deeper and deeper into the faery world, unable to ressist its allures, and helpless to withstand its perils....

~~

This book doesn't focus on Aislinn and Keenan like in Wicked Lovely (see my reveiw), but instead focuses on Leslie, one of Aislinn's friends, and Irial, the Dark King. It also focuses on Niall, one of Keenan's guards from the Summer Court. I suggest reading it and not skipping ahead to the next book, Fragile Eternity. They make many references to events that happened in Ink Exchange.

Leslie is a likable character who's having lots of problems. Her family life is crumbling, her mom abandoning Leslie and her older brother with their father. Her father turns into an alcoholic, her brother a drug addict. Leslie is forced to be the responsible one in her family, working hard and trying not to reveal any of it to her friends. Then her brother ditches her in a time of need, and she breaks. All the while her friendship with Aislinn is slowly degrading as Aislinn moves away to keep the faerie world away from Leslie and her other friends. She has a crush on Niall, Keenan's guard, and feels like he's untouchable because Aislinn keeps him away, making all the more irresistable to her. She has no idea that he is a faerie.

Niall has been apart of the Summer Court for awhile, but he is originally Dark Court, craving feelings and emotions. Leslie is a craving to him, and he wants to keep her safe, thinking she's different than other humans, knowing about her life at home and wanting to help her. But he remembers his life in the Dark Court and why he left, and keeps away from her, not wanting to destroy her the way he destroyed others.

Iriall needs to feed his court. It's hard to control the court of darkness, when they need human and faerie emotions to survive. He needs a donor to give their feelings to the Dark Court. When Bananch (a strong and powerful Dark Court faerie) threatens to bring war, Irial feels the need more. When he finds Leslie, he knows she's the one. That is what the tattoo is, a vine connecting Irial to Leslie, feeding Leslie's emotions into Irial who feeds his court. But Leslie starts to worry and think about what she's doing, more than how wonderful Irial makes her feel.

Marr has made another captivating tale, this one darker than the last. The Dark Court is so much different than the Summer Court; they have different problems, different needs. Leslie, although being friends with Aislinn, is so much different than her and her point of veiw on everything is clouded by her brothers betrayl. She thinks that Irial is a way out, a way to make the dark feelings leave her. Marr makes it action packed, but by the middle of the book, is slows. It picks up again, and the ending left me in shock. Niall doesn't pop in much, but when he does, he tells his story of the Dark Court, his relationship with Irial and his hatred for the world he left behind. You get small glimpses of the Summer Court, but mostly you see how the Summer Court is affecting the other three courts around it.

If you enjoy/like/love Ink Exchange, and want to know more about Leslie after the books finish, Marr has been so kind as to write the beautiful Stopping Time, Part 1 and Part 2, the sequels to Ink Exchange.



Friday Freak Out: Giving You the Creepiest and the Freakiest

GONE Series by Michael Grant

In the blink of an eye. Everyone disappears. Gone. Everyone except for the young. Teens. Middle schoolers. Toddlers. But not a single adult. No teachers, no cops, no doctors, no parents. Gone, too, are the phones, internet, and television. There is no way to get help. Hunger threatens. Bullies rule. A sinister creature lurks. Animals are mutating. And the teens themselves are changing, developing new talents--unimaginable, dangerous, deadly powers--that grow stronger by the day. It's a terrifying new world. Sides are being chosen and war is imminent.



It's been three months since all the adults disappeared. Gone. Food ran out weeks ago and starvation is imminent. Mean while, the normal teens have grown resentful of the kids with powers. And when an unthinkable tragedy occurs, chaos descends upon the town. There is no longer right and wrong. Each kid is out for himself and even the good ones turn murderous. But a larger probelm looms. The Darkness, a sinister creature that has lived burried deep in teh hills, begins calling to some of the teens in the FAYZ. Calling to them, guiding them, manipulating them. The Darkness has awakened. And it is hungry.

It's been seven months since all the adults disappeared. Gone. It happens in one night. A girl who died now walks among the living; Zil and the Human Crew set fire to Perdido Beach; and amid the flames and smoke, Sam sees the figure of the boy he fears the most: Drake. But Drake is dead. Sam and Caine defeated him along with the Darkness--or so they thought. As Perdido Beach burns, battles rage; Astrid against hte Town Council; the Human Crew versus the mutants; and Sam against Drake, who is back from the dead and ready to finish where he and Sam left off. And all the while deadly rumors are raging like the fire itself, spread by the prophetess Orsay and her companion, Nerezza. They say that death is a way to escape the FAYZ. Conditions are worse than ever and kids are desperate to get out. But are they desperate enough to believe that death will set them free?

~~

I may do "Freaky Friday's" once in awhile, when I've read an exceptionally freaky book. Like the GONE Series by Michael Grant. Doesn't it just sound freaky? I first read them looking forward to raging battles, hopeless dreams and a romance thrown in. But what I got was a never ending fight against people, nature and the FAYZ; a slight romance that never really shows up; and a battle for survival. And all the paranormal stuff like the powers? Yeah, Grant does a pretty good job of explaining them so well, you were gasping out loud at the end of a chapter.

Grant is an amazing author with plenty of details and creativity in his books. He wrote these stories marvelously, giving them a very creepy vibe and plot that will make you dying for more. And speaking of more, if you love these books and are freaking out at the end of Lies, I have news for you. Coming April, 2011, Plague, the fourth novel, comes out. And trust me, I was dying for Plague. I loved these books and I recommend them if you are in a scary book mood.