Red Queen ~ Victoria Aveyard

Rating: ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ½

This has been on my To Read shelf for a long time. So when I saw it on the Staff Recommendation shelf at the library, I picked it up.

Mare Barrow lives in a world separated by blood, red or silver. The Reds are the commoners who live most of their lives in poverty. Silvers live luxurious lifestyles with their special abilities (essentially superpowers) which Reds don't have. As a seventeen year old girl living in the run down Stilts, it seems like nothing in Mare's life will change. Until she finds herself working in the Silver Palace. Here she is surrounded by the people she has despised her entire life, but in front of some of the most important Silvers in the country, Mare discovers she too has a special ability. An ability that threatens to destroy the balance of power between Reds and Silvers. The royal family, fearful of Mare's potential with her ability, hide her in plain sight by declaring her a long-lost Silver princess now engaged to a Silver prince. Mare knows that one false move would mean her death but within the Silver walls she is confined to, she silently helps the Red Guard, a militant resistance group, to bring down the Silver leadership. However, the life she's living is full of betrayal and lies and Mare has entered a dangerous dance. It's Reds against Silvers, Prince against Prince and Mare against her own heart.

After reading the synopsis for this story I had hope that the story would be just as good, and for the most part it was. This story, in my opinion, had such a slow and boring beginning. It almost seems like a huge part of it could be cut out and there wouldn't be any difference in the overall book. Despite this, the plot eventually got me hooked and by the end I was desperate to know how things would play out.

The one thing that really bothered me about this book though was the characters. In all honesty, they were flat. Even Mare had a simple backstory that was never really explained in a thorough way. It was like the history of any character was briefly explained once and then was almost never touched again. For me to become attached to characters, I need them to have meat. I know, what a weird word to use, but it's true. These characters lacked the meat, or the extra something, that would leave a lasting impression on me.

Victoria Aveyard writes this story pretty well despite there being things I would change about it. I've heard that her writing only improves as the series goes on and I am interested to see if that rumor is true. I will most likely read the over books in the series since I am interested in the plot and I'm hoping that I will become more attached to the characters as well.

Crazy Rich Asians ~ Kevin Kwan

Rating: ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ½

After hearing all the crazy hype about the movie, I thought for once it would be wise to read the book before watching the movie (which I still need to do btw).

When Rachel Chu agrees to go to Singapore for the summer with her boyfriend, Nicholas Young, she pictures visiting a quaint family home with a sweet, accepting family and spending some quality time with the man she hopes to marry. But Nicholas fails to provide Rachel with some key details. His family happens to live in houses that look like palaces, they almost own more private planes than luxury cars, and that he is one of the most eligible bachelors in the country. Before Rachel has stepped foot into the country, she has a target on her back and what she thought would be a relaxed vacation turns into an obstacle course of money, making good impressions, forcing herself to fit into the role Nick's family expects her to be and people talking and scheming behind her back.

I'll be honest, I did have to somewhat trudge my way through this. The book is split into different perspectives of some of the different people on the incredibly big (and confusing) family tree. The only perspectives I really cared about were Rachel, Nick, and Astrid. All of the others I read quickly or even skimmed because I wanted to get back to the "action." But all I really went back to was Rachel being confused, shocked, or worried about Nick's family, Nick figuring out that he loves Rachel more and more even though he is letting her be humiliated by his family and Astrid struggling with the fact that her husband might be having an affair (which she specifies so many times is common but that she isn't just another girl so it's more difficult for her).

The part of the story I was anxiously waiting for took almost the whole book to "build" up to and then ended so quickly and not at all how I thought or wanted it to. Plus Rachel should have seen some sort of sabotage coming, the most eligible bachelor isn't simply allowed to go and propose to the girl he wants to be with, not when there are many girls letting her in on the fact that she, supposedly, isn't good enough for him. But the situation is so overwhelming that she just passes out and that's pretty much it. No big fight or family feud, just Nick's nosy mother telling Rachel details about her family that she thought she was hiding from Nick.

Overall, I was somewhat disappointed with this story because I expected more drama packed moments instead of simply gossip. In my opinion, the book would've been more interesting if just some of the perspectives were written out so the more interesting ones could be explored in depth. Just because I want to know what happens between Nick and Rachel, I might make an effort to read the other books in the series but we'll see.

January TBR

Crazy Rich Asians (Crazy Rich Asians, #1) ~ Kevin Kwan

Red Queen (Red Queen, #1) ~ Victoria Aveyard

The Mermaid ~ Christina Henry

The Dog Stars ~ Peter Heller

People Kill People ~ Ellen Hopkins

When Dimple Met Rishi ~ Sandhya Menon

Turtles All The Way Down ~ John Green

Once And For All ~ Sarah Dessen

A Very Large Expanse Of Sea ~ Mafi Tahereh

The Raven Boys ~ Maggie Stiefvater

A Thousand Pieces Of You ~ Claudia Gray

This TBR list is subject to change, as books can be substituted, added or removed.

*If I DNF a book, it will remain on this TBR post and will be included in my wrap-up post*

If you would like to recommend a book for my TBR, leave a comment.