Title: Prodigy
Author: Marie Lu                 
Publication Date: April 8, 2014
Publisher: Speak
Format: Trade Paperback
Price: ₱399 (Philippines) - $6.29 (Amazon)


Plot Synopsis:



Prodigy is the second book of Marie Lu's Legend series. My review on the first book, Legend, can be found here.

Prodigy, with a name and a cover like that, I couldn't resist reading it especially after reading Legend.

Plot Synopsis:

From very different worlds, June and Day have no reason to cross paths. 

Until  June's brother is murdered and Day becomes the prime suspect.

In a shocking turn of events, the two uncover the truth of what has really brought them together, and the sinister lengths their country will go to keep its secrets.


I always found these in my local bookstore and last month I bought one because "Eh, might as well, her book signing's coming up soon anyways." And what a good buy it was!

With this book series's two-perspective writing style, I'm a bit worried that it'll end like the Divergent series; with a damnable twist that'll leave fanboys and fangirls in ruin. Hopefully not.

As the story progresses, I can see Marie Lu's inspiration for this book become more and more apparent. A modern take on Victor Hugo's behemoth of a novel Les Miserables: A misunderstood criminal with good intentions being hounded by a prodigious detective/law-person  all for stealing the proverbial bread. A what if Jean Valjean and Javert were teenagers in a dystopian world and what if they fall in love? Ok, I admit, that's a terrifying image! XD But it's a somewhat original concept and it's one of the things that captured me.

June Iparis seems to be the perfect protagonist, a prodigy, perfect Trial score, and fast reflexes among other considerable traits. She follows the law (to some extent). But she is also a teenager, meaning she is also susceptible to things that affect teenagers. Like love.

When June Iparis goes undercover to track down the Republic's most wanted mysterious criminal Day, the mysterious most wanted criminal who's identity the Republic doesn't even know, who supposedly killed her brother. Instead of a grimy-looking bastard, she meets an attractive street-urchin who fits Day's description all too well,  she finds that she can't take her eyes off him, that she gets a shiver every time he touches her. She's fallen in love with the criminal she needs to turn in.

But Day is in desperate need of plague cures after is little brother is struck with it. It's life or death. Together with Tess, they search all over Los Angeles for a cure.

Day found Tess when she was nine-years old and scavenging for scraps just to servive. She was at first reluctant at Day's generosity at taking her in, but she grows to like and trust him.
And ever since then, they only had each other.

Tess really, really cares for Day, how many times has she saved his ass before? And Day cares deeply for her too.


But she swore revenge against her brother's killer.

“You should have taken me with you," I whisper to him. Then I lean my head against his and begin to cry. In my mind, I make a silent promise to my brother's killer.

I will hunt you down. I will scour the streets of Los Angeles for you. Search every street in the Republic if I have to. I will trick you and deceive you, lie, cheat and steal to find you, tempt you out of your hiding place, and chase you until you have nowhere else to run. I make you this promise: your life is mine.”

But when she finds out that this boy is the one she's tracking during a "Skiz" fight, will she choose duty and turn him in to justice, to be executed, or love and run away with him, away from the Republic's watching eyes and atrocious secrets. Secrets that can either destroy or keep "order" that keeps their brittle society intact.

What is this plague that is haunting Los Angeles and killing hundreds of people each year? What happened with the United States of America? Where do the people who fail their Trials go to really? Is June really the only prodigy in the Republic to score a perfect 1500?

This novel gave me a Dystopian Halo-esque feel to it, military academies, their sceneries, the Republic of Los Angeles against the Colonies and the Patriots.

Novels like this is what fuels the Dystopian genre to popularity. This book is not as grimy as, say, The Hunger Games but not as dystopian in the sense of the word as Divergent. Fans of dystopian books will rejoice in this novel of love and action!

“Each day means a new twenty-four hours. Each day means every thing's possible again. You live in the moment, you die in the moment, you take it all one day at a time.”

“I don't know if anyone's ever told you this", he begins. He doesn't blush, and his eyes don't dart away. Instead I find myself staring into a pair of oceans - one perfect, the other blemished by that tiny ripple. "You're very attractive."

I've been complimented on my appearance before. But never in his tone of voice. Of all the things he's said, I don't know why this catches me off guard. But it startles me so much that without thinking I blurt out, "I could say the same about you." I pause. "In case you didn't know."

A slow grin spreads across his face. "Oh, trust me. I know.”

Title: The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight
Author: Jennifer E. Smith                   
Publication Date: Jan 1 2012
Publisher: Poppy
Format: Trade Paperback
Price: ₱365 (Philippines) - $10.00 (Amazon)


Plot Synopsis:



British guy? A title like "The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight"? YA Romance? What's there not to like??!?!?!

Originally, I was gonna read Jennifer E. Smith's Geography of You and Me first, but reading this book was as good a choice as any and here's why:

"You know what they say," Dad said, "If you love something, set it free."

"What if he doesn't come back?"

"Some things do and some things don't." He said reaching over to tweak her nose "I'll always come back to you anyway"

"You don't light up." Hadley pointed out but dad only smiled.

"I do when I'm with you."

Plot Synopsis:

Lara Jean Song keeps her love letters in a hatbox her mother gave her.

They aren't love letters that anyone else wrote for her; these are ones shes written. One for every boy she’s ever loved—five in all. When she writes, she pours out her heart and soul and says all the things she would never say in real life, because her letters are for her eyes only. Until the day her secret letters are mailed, and suddenly, Lara Jean's love life goes from imaginary to out of control.


I looked for this book fore AGES!I guess it's because it ranked as National Bookstore's #1 best selling Young Adult novel. So when I found a small pile of them at a mall one day, I instantly grabbed one!

Lara Jean Song writes love letters to crushes she had before, she pours her feeling unto them and after she's finished she's positively over them, she keeps them safe in a hatbox that she keeps in her closet. Crushes like Josh Sanderson, their next-door neighbor and her older sister Margot's boyfriend, and Peter Kavinsky the smug-but-funny bastard the you simply can't help but love.

So when all her letters are shipped to their addresses one day--all hell breaks loose for Lara Jean.


So when She's confronted with Josh about the letter she "gave" him, she forms a fake relationship with Peter K to save face. Peter K, the only boy she hates.

At first I thought that it was a terribly bad idea to have even a fake relationship with Peter, but I soon found myself questioning myself what's real and what's pretend. Where do I draw the line with all their "pretend" lovey-dovey scenes? You'd think the plot is straight-forward but it's really, really not. Full of twists and turns, this book. I sometimes found myself forgetting that it's all a ruse, a lie, until she explicitly says that it's not all real.


What shock me more is that Josh actually reciprocates some of her affections! With just a few more weeks before Margot returns for Christmas break, can Lara Jean fix this complicated mess of a lovelife of hers?

I really liked Peter Kavinsky's character, he's this dashingly smug, gloating, and sporty/jocky kind of guy who always throws wise-cracks but that's part of his charm! At first I thought he was a complete douche but I came to look forward to whenever he and Lara Jean hung out. Team Lara Jean/Peter K all the way!

Lara Jean Song, she originally struck me as this more-or-less ordinary girl who never had a boyfriend before despite the fact that she's pretty cute (Refer to cover) and someone who cries a lot in the first few chapters. I mean, she cried, like, 5 times in the first 100 pages. She the lovestruck middle child to her younger sister Kitty and her older sister Margot.
Margot who's gone away for college in Scotland, she's also the one everyone looks up to and looks to for most everything like advice. But now that she's away, Lara Jean has to look out for adorable Kitty and be a role model to her.

The way Jenny Han wrote this book was all girly, cute, and bubbly and I think it fits perfectly with Lara Jean's personality! It's just her writing styles that puts that certain lightness and relaxed tone that's a real relief to someone who've just read A Study in Scarlet or to persons who usually read books of a more serious topic.

This was a definite page turner that glued my butt to my seat!  The cover! The characters! I loved every page of it!  This makes me want to travel back in time just to meet and greet and have my books signed by Jenny Han!

“Seventeen's not so young. A hundred years ago people got married when they were practically our age."
"Yeah, that was before electricity and the Internet. A hundred years ago eighteen-year-old guys were out there fighting wars with bayonets and holding a man's life in their hands! They lived a lot of life by the time they were our age. What do kids our age know about love and life?”

“Your house is lovely,” I say, even though it isn’t. It’s old; it could use a good cleaning. But the things inside it are lovely.

“It’s empty now. All my things sold up. Can’t take it with you, you know.”

“You mean when you die?” I whisper.

He glares at me. “No. I mean to the nursing home.”

Title: It's Not Summer Without You
Author: Jenny Han                       
Publication Date: April 5 2011
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Format: Trade Paperback
Price: ₱349 (Philippines) - $8.80 (Amazon)


Plot Synopsis:




It's Not Summer Without You is the second book of Jenny Han's The Summer I Turned Pretty Trilogy, with The Summer I Turned Pretty as it's first installment which can be found here.

Is it really summer without the beach? Or the boys?

This is the first summer in Belly and her family's lives where they won't be going to Cousin's Beach for summer. Which is crazy! I know, but you'll find out later rather than sooner.

Well, Belly's still a tad bit naggy and whiny as always and Conrad's still as distant and somewhat a dick as ever. I mean, I sometimes feel that he doesn't give too much effort for their relationships. I sometimes don't understand him, him and his personality.
All throughout the book I can't quite figure out his overall mood/personality, one minute he's a romantic Casanova, and then the next he's a shy recluse.
What does Belly see in him? Jeremiah and Belly? Perfect!
But you'll know why he ran away from their house and school by the latter half of the book. He didn't do it to surf. He didn't do it for the sake of running away. He (Data Expunged). (Sorry for that! But that could've spoiled everything)

It wasn't like how it was with Conrad and Aubrey. He'd loved her. once upon a time, he'd been crazy about her. He had never been that way with me. Never. But I had loved him. I loved him longer and truer than I had anyone in my whole life and I would probably never love anyone that way again. Which, to be honest, was almost a relief.

 

Plot Synopsis:

In the new world led by the Rebooters, former Proxy Syd is the figurehead of the Revolution, beloved by some and hated by others. Liam, a seventeen-year-old Rebooter, is Syd’s bodyguard and must protect him with his life. But armed Machinists aren't the only danger.

 People are falling ill—their veins show through their skin, they find it hard to speak, and sores erupt all over their bodies. Guardians, the violent enforcers of the old system, are hit first, and the government does nothing to help. The old elites fall next, and in the face of an indifferent government, Syd decides it's up to him to find a cure . . . and what he discovers leaves him stunned.


I read this back-to-back with Proxy because I wanted to read them before Alex London's book signing at the end of this month. Details can be found Here.

Like Proxy, this book's "romantic" scenes were not cliche and rare, but heart-tugging nevertheless!!

The series was action-packed, somewhat romantic, and very technological while maintaining interest for the readers. This really is a contemporary masterpiece!

If you've read the bonus story that came with Proxy, the one entitled "Punishment: A Proxy story", then you would probably know Liam.

Liam's this new character, arriving shortly after (SPOILERS, HEAD BACK) the Jubilee was achieved and the Rebooters renamed themselves The Reconciliation.
Not much is known about him, even after the book ended--Apart from him being a killer and having fought with the Rebooters his whole life.
We don't even know how and where he got his cool-ass robotic hand.

Liam's this guy with reddish/orangish short cropped hair who looks like he could intimidate even a Guardian into submission. But despite his rather tough looking exterior, he's actually a somewhat softie and kind guy with puppy-dog eyes that could melt an iceberg! XD

Syd stood in front of knox "What am I supposed to do?"

"Like I know?" Knox told him "it's your future, choose"

A new problem has arisen.

The Ex-Guardians after the (SPOILERS, HEAD BACK) destruction/collapse of The System have turned into these mindless, Silent Hill-esque creatures who apperantly carry a infectious virus that makes your blood turn black and makes your blood itch. To scratch it is hell, not to is pure agony.
It'll never leave you.

Omg, DAT ENDING. DAT ENDING!! I couldn't say I expected it to play out the way it did, well, maybe because I probably imagined it like: . . . And then Syd saved everyone and lived happily ever after. lol.
The ending offers us a sense of closure while still reeling us in for more! It was ended in picturesque paragraph that you could interpret in many different ways, which adds another thrill to reading the last page.

“Again, Syd had that feeling, the past as an echo, repeating itself as it faded. The poor had longed for Jubilee to save them from the powerful, and now the one-time patrons longed for the Machine to do the same. Every revolution believes it can return something that had been lost, but nothing is ever the same. The only thing that endures are people. Syd saw that clearly now, and perhaps so too did Marie. You could serve a revolution, an idea that ended up an echo if itself, or you could serve people, with their maddening contradictions. You couldn't serve both. You had to choose."