MFB: The Selection (The Selection # 1)

“I hope you find someone you can't live without.I really do. And I hope you never have to know what it's like to have to try and live without them.” 


     I'd been meaning to read The Selection for quite a while but I always put it off for unbeknownst reasons. I remember that when I first saw the book, I was really wowed by the cover and as soon as I checked it out and saw that it fit my favorite genres, which are science fiction & dystopia, I couldn't be happier. But other books where more important to me at that time and this was indefinitely postponed.

     Last month, I finally got around to reading it and I'm very glad that I did. This was a very different book in my reading experience so far. Maybe because it was more of a romantic story with dystopian elements rather than a dystopian story with romantic elements, like other books that I've focused on more this year. The Selection may sound like a fairytale at first - 35 girls compete for a crown and the heart of young Prince Maxon. But do not be fooled, because this is not a fairytale! (Or is it? Pretty much.)

Here is the official description of the book:

"For thirty-five girls, the Selection is the chance of a lifetime. The opportunity to escape the life laid out for them since birth. To be swept up in a world of glittering gowns and priceless jewels. To live in a palace and compete for the heart of gorgeous Prince Maxon.
But for America Singer, being Selected is a nightmare. It means turning her back on her secret love with Aspen, who is a caste below her. Leaving her home to enter a fierce competition for a crown she doesn't want. Living in a palace that is constantly threatened by violent rebel attacks.
Then America meets Prince Maxon. Gradually, she starts to question all the plans she's made for herself--and realizes that the life she's always dreamed of may not compare to a future she never imagined."

     America Singer is a teenage girl living in the fictional country of Illea. The dystopian society she lives in is divided into castes from One to Eight, with Ones being the royal family and the Eights being the homeless. America is a Five. For her, The Selection is her worst nightmare and she wants no part in it. Funnily enough, guess what? She takes part in it. 

     How, you ask? That's an easy answer to imagine if you read the first few pages of this book. America is in love with Aspen, who is a Six. It just so happens that their society has strict rules, which barely (or not at all) allow them to be together. So, as soon as Aspen realizes he's no good for America because of his lower caste, he breaks up with her. Devastated, she signs up for The Selection - and she's chosen. 

     What follows, as you can imagine, is a lot of competition between 35 girls who are fighting for the same goal - or at least that's how it should be. But it's not, because while some are fighting for the Prince's heart, others simply want the crown. America is not interested in the competition at all in the beginning - she tries to escape, she makes a deal with the Prince in return for his promise that he will keep her until the last possible moment without choosing her. 

     Things start to change, eventually, as America starts to question her motives. While she swears to stay true to her love for Aspen, the attraction that keeps growing between her and the Prince can't be ignored. The story sounds very much like a fairytale, with all the occasional action-packed subplots, and it all evolves into an interesting story about love and honor. This book quickly became one of my favorites and made me want to read the sequels as well. I gave it 5 stars and recommend it to anyone who is looking for a love story!

October Books

Here are the books I have read this month:

• Panic by Lauren Oliver; my rating: ★★☆☆☆

• Defiance (Defiance #1) by C.J.Redwine; my rating: ★★★★☆

Review: The Giver

My Rating: ★★★☆☆

     I'd been meaning to read The Giver for quite a while now. I first came across this book when it was chosen as a monthly read in one of the groups I'm a part of but didn't read it that month as I had other books planned. The main reason I finally read it was that the movie they made after it was finally released and I definitely wanted to see it. But, most of the times, I like reading the book before seeing the movie, and so I started reading it a few days ago, before I go see the movie.

     I will admit to one dirty secret of mine: sometimes, when I read a book, I do tend to select it by the cover. So, when I saw the cover for The Giver I was a little bit intrigued. A Young-Adult book with the cover of an elderly man? Then I read the description and found out that the book is actually about a child rather than a young-adult, and so I put it on hold indefinitely. Now, after having finished reading it, I am glad that I finally did. 

     The Giver was an interesting book. The fact that it was dystopian gave it a plus in my experience. Although, I see that people loved it and thought it was amazing, I will not be as generous. I think it was an alright book, but I fail to see what was so extraordinary about it. I liked the story. It was somewhat different from all the other dystopian books. Granted, it seemed like an utopia at first, and maybe that's why the impact was bigger, but it felt different, in a good way. Maybe one of the things that bothered me was that the characters were children, and it's hard to imagine children in a dystopian world. But, the awful truth is that if the world ever goes wrong like that, age won't matter. I guess it's hard and unpleasant when you think about it.

     I can't say that I had a favorite character in this book, seeing as how short it was. There wasn't enough time, or better said, enough story, for me to develop strong feelings for any of the characters. However, I did like The Giver and even Jonas, presumably because they were the two main characters, the ones we got to spend more time with. 

     Even though I can't say that I loved this book, I really liked the concept of it. I thought it was different, fresh, innovative. I liked the idea of a world without color, without emotion, without the simple concept of love, pain, fear. I thought it was well written and well thought. I do not plan to read the rest of the series, at least not for a while, but I enjoyed reading The Giver as it was a very different reading experience for me.

My Top 3: Films I Liked Better Than The Books

A while ago, I made a similar post listing my top 3 best and worst book to film adaptations. Today, I thought that I should make a post regarding those YA movies that I personally liked better than the book they were based on. It's really rare that this happens to me, but sometimes it does and I would like to share with you my own preferences.

There are still a few YA movies that I haven't been able to see yet or read the books they were based on, but there is always time. The YA genre is becoming more popular with movie producers and surely, within the next few years, we will be able to watch many more YA books come to life on the big screen. But until then, here are my top 3 films I preferred over the book they were based on:

The Films:

I Am Number Four (2011)

The Giver (2014)

The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones (2013)

The Books:

I Am Number Four (2010)

The Giver (2006)

City of Bones (2007)

And here they are. Keep in mind that these are my personal likes/dislikes and I am not trying to influence you in any way, but simply share with you what movies I found more enjoyable than the books. If you want to, feel free to let me know what you thought of these movies/books or leave a comment saying what were your preferences. Until next time!

Review: City of Heavenly Fire (The Mortal Instruments # 6)

My Rating: ★★★☆☆

     City of Heavenly Fire, the final installment in this very overrated loved series, wasn't as good as City of Lost Souls, at least not in my experience. But, after a month, here I am. September 1st came with my decision to finally start reading The Mortal Instruments which, at that point, had already created huge hype around it.

     Twenty days later, here I am, having finished all six books. I expected much more from the final book, but I guess some things are just not meant to happen. I didn't like this as much as the previous book but at least it wasn't as bad as City of Fallen Angels. My problem with this book was that it was way too long and it felt too dragged at certain points. While it did have quite the action, I felt like it took forever until something actually happened.

     This must have been the book I spent most time reading in the series. I felt like it was never going to end. My biggest concern with City of Heavenly Fire was that there were like a lot of pages of build-up for something big that was going to happen and then a few pages where it actually happened. It was so frustrating! Now, all this, happened for a reason and that reason was the introduction of other characters. So, my question is, why did Cassandra Clare feel the need to introduce the character of Emma and all of her friends/family in the last book of her series? I felt like it was really pointless. I couldn't bring myself to care about this girl one bit. Of course, I still felt the same way about Maia, Jordan, Jocelyn, Luke, which is what I kept saying for the last three books in the series or the second trilogy.

     From my point of view, these characters kept dragging the story endlessly, and while I understand the presence of Jocelyn or Luke, seeing as how they were Clary's family and they were there from the beginning, I really didn't understand the point of introducing Emma in the story and giving her so many chapters in her point of view. However, I did like the story in this book. I think that I could have given it 4 stars instead of 3, had it been shorter and straight to the point. 

     When I first started reading these books, I thought for sure that my favorite couple would be Clary and Jace but it turns out that I actually loved Simon and Isabelle all this time. Clary and Jace's romance just didn't do it for me, their characters felt too childish and immature at times and I didn't care much for their relationship. But Simon and Izzy were amazing and I was furious at the end of the book, when Simon had to give up his happiness for the rest of them. Fortunately, it all worked out in the ending and he and Izzy got their happy ever after. I also really liked Alec and Magnus' relationship, I thought they were really cute.

     Having put all my thoughts into this review immediately after I finished reading City of Heavenly Fire, I can honestly say that I am glad that I 'm finally done with these books. While I did rate the previous book 5 stars, this series is definitely one of my least favorites. I tried really hard to love the books but I just couldn't see what was so amazing about them. I think that they were alright, but not extraordinary. I'm really not trying to be mean about the books or the author. I think her writing was amazing. I just didn't get hooked up with the story. I'm happy that I managed to finish The Mortal Instruments seeing as how I considered giving up at some point but I also don't think you're going to miss out too much if you skip this series.

MFB: City of Lost Souls (The Mortal Instruments # 5)

“Kill me, little sister. Kill me and you kill Jace, too.”  

     It's finally happened! City of Lost Soulshas officially become my favorite book inThe Mortal Instruments. This was, without doubt, the best book in my experience with this series. I feel relieved that I can finally write a review about a book of this series where I have mostly positive thoughts to write. 

Here is the official description of the book:

"The New York Times bestselling Mortal Instruments continues—and so do the thrills and danger for Jace, Clary, and Simon.
What price is too high to pay, even for love? When Jace and Clary meet again, Clary is horrified to discover that the demon Lilith’s magic has bound her beloved Jace together with her evil brother Sebastian, and that Jace has become a servant of evil. The Clave is out to destroy Sebastian, but there is no way to harm one boy without destroying the other. As Alec, Magnus, Simon, and Isabelle wheedle and bargain with Seelies, demons, and the merciless Iron Sisters to try to save Jace, Clary plays a dangerous game of her own. The price of losing is not just her own life, but Jace’s soul. She’s willing to do anything for Jace, but can she still trust him? Or is he truly lost?
Love. Blood. Betrayal. Revenge. Darkness threatens to claim the Shadowhunters in the harrowing fifth book of the Mortal Instruments series."

However, I want to start with what I didn't like about this book. At the top of my list stands Jocelyn, obviously. I hated her in the previous book and I hated her in this book. Also, I couldn't bring myself to care about the characters of Maia and Jordan in this book either, and I was very frustrated with their points of view because I just didn't care much about their stories and I felt like they didn't play such a very important role in the story. The same goes for Jocelyn and Luke. Maybe I'm not being reasonable, but the truth is that I couldn't bring myself to care much about any characters apart from the five main ones. The only exception is, without doubt, Magnus.

When I first started reading these books, I thought for sure that my favorite couple will be Jace and Clary, but after reading five books I realized that their romance was just awful. We never got to see an actual good romance between the two of them. They were either fighting, upset with each other, or in love but not talking to each other. In this book, we got way more of them but, unfortunately, it wasn't real. Jace was under Sebastian's possession for the majority of this book so I can't help but think that their moments weren't real.

But, as I said, this was definitely my favorite book in the series. I liked the fact that there was a lot of action in this book and it kept me hooked for most of the time. The whole Jace-Clary-Sebastian story was really good and it kept me reading page after page. I actually really liked Sebastian in this book. Call me crazy, but I did. For most of it, anyway. I liked his interaction with Clary, which almost felt genuine at the time, but I think we all knew it was just pretend. Towards the ending of the book, Sebastian showed his true colors and it was nothing short of shocking when he tried to abuse Clary. However, I did like his character a lot in this book which is a shame, because just like Jace, it wasn't his real self. 

It's funny that the only book of this series where I liked Jace and Clary was the one book were Jace wasn't being himself and Clary was pretending to be okay with it. It seemed to me that, under Sebastian's influence, Jace stopped being his whiny, sometimes stupid, self and he simply acted like he was in love with Clary. But, since it was all fake, I knew that in the end it had to be redeemed somehow. And now we get to my favorite part of the book. I was extremely thrilled (and this might sound crazy) that, in the end, Clary used Glorious on Jace instead of Sebastian to separate the two of them. I just loved it! It made everything way more dramatic and it definitely had a bigger impact on me.

The little cliffhanger ending kept me my interested piqued and, after finally reading a good book in this series, it left me very excited to read the final installment in The Mortal Instruments. However, I must say that while I did give this book 5 stars, I didn't exactly love it. I certainly didn't like it as much as I liked other books I rated 5 stars. Instead, I gave it 5 stars because I thought it was the best book in the series and because reading it was my most pleasant experience with this series.