The Chemist - Stephenie Meyer

My rating: ⭐⭐⭐

From the cover:

"She used to work for the U.S. government, but very few people ever knew that. An expert in her field, she was one of the darkest secrets of an agency so clandestine it doesn't even have a name. And when they decided she was a liability, they came for her without warning. 

Now she rarely stays in the same place or uses the same name for long. They've killed the only other person she trusted, but something she knows still poses a threat. They want her dead, and soon. 

When her former handler offers her a way out, she realizes it's her only chance to erase the giant target on her back. But it means taking one last job for her ex-employers. To her horror, the information she acquires only makes her situation more dangerous. 

Resolving to meet the threat head-on, she prepares for the toughest fight of her life but finds herself falling for a man who can only complicate her likelihood of survival. As she sees her choices being rapidly whittled down, she must apply her unique talents in ways she never dreamed of. 

In this tautly plotted novel, Meyer creates a fierce and fascinating new heroine with a very specialized skill set. And she shows once again why she's one of the world's bestselling authors."

This started off on a strong enough note...The Chemist has been on the run since her former bosses tried to kill her, but now they've offered to call off their dogs if she comes in for one last job. She takes the bait, only to find herself interrogating an obviously innocent man. Just as she's realizing her former employers have played her somehow, the interrogation is interrupted--by her mark's twin brother, back from the dead.

Gaaaaaasp! Things are about to get interesting!

It turns out she was sent to flush out the ex-CIA twin brother of the guy they sent her after, who had faked his own death to escape being taken out by a corrupt CIA official. Or something. Now the trio (for the adventure would not be complete without the innocent former schoolteacher brother The Chemist tortured for information he didn't have) has joined forces in order to take our their oppressors and free themselves from the terror of living in constant fear for their lives.

It's all so exciting, in theory. But then you get into some pretty hard to believe things shoved into the story for convenience, mainly the schoolteacher brother who is a-ok with being tortured, falls in love with the main character immediately, and is somehow almost completely unfazed by all the insane violence and murder going on around him. Like, sorry, but no matter how attracted I find myself to someone upon seeing them on the DC metro, as soon as they cause me immense physical pain in order to force information out of me, I'm out. I'm for sure not going to be down to travel around with my torturer and a brother I know nothing about while they hatch some crazy plan to flush out the people chasing them and kill them. It was a little much to believe, and it only got worse as he and the Chemist's weird relationship developed. I was alright with the book until they got together, but after that there was a clear shift in the focus of the plot, and the insane romantic storyline became the focus, with the whole "let's get rid of these guys and free ourselves to live our lives" thing taking a backseat. Bleh. No thanks. 

Ultimately...it was ok. There are better books out there, but if you're looking for something, say, to get you through a six-hour plane ride, this will do the trick. 

Unearthed - Amie Kaufman and Meagan Spooner

My rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

From the cover:

"When Earth intercepts a message from a long-extinct alien race, it seems like the solution the planet has been waiting for. The Undying's advanced technology has the potential to undo environmental damage and turn lives around, and Gaia, their former home planet, is a treasure trove waiting to be uncovered.

For Jules Addison and his fellow scholars, the discovery of an alien culture offers unprecedented opportunity for study... as long as scavengers like Amelia Radcliffe don't loot everything first. Mia and Jules' different reasons for smuggling themselves onto Gaia put them immediately at odds, but after escaping a dangerous confrontation with other scavvers, they form a fragile alliance.

In order to penetrate the Undying temple and reach the tech and information hidden within, the two must decode the ancient race's secrets and survive their traps. But the more they learn about the Undying, the more their presence in the temple seems to be part of a grand design that could spell the end of the human race..."

Now this is how you do a gradual build-up to big reveals! Amelia and Jules end up thrown together on a strange, hostile planet, working together to navigate their way through a dangerous Undying temple to the secrets within. At first glance, the two couldn't have less in common...Amelia is an orphan who makes a living stealing, scavenging, and doing what she has to in order to survive, on the planet to steal enough alien technology to purchase her younger sister's freedom from a seedy nightclub. Jules is an Oxford-educated genius raised around the kind of opulence people like Amelia couldn't even begin to imagine, come to Gaia to study the secrets and knowledge left behind by the mysterious Undying. As they struggle their way across the planet's surface and begin to work their way past the challenges of the Undying temple, though, they begin to discover that they have more in common than first believed...and that they may have gotten themselves involved in something much more dangerous and insidious than they might first have imagined.

This story hooked me right away, and it had me dying to find out what happened next all the way up to the last page. Amelia and Jules are such easy characters to root for, I was on the edge of my seat over every danger they faced. I'm still a little in shock over the ending, and I don't know if I can wait until December for the next book. I guess it's a good thing I've got plenty of reading to keep me occupied while I wait.

Obsidio - Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff

My rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

From the cover:

"Kady, Ezra, Hanna, and Nik narrowly escaped with their lives from the attacks on Heimdall station and now find themselves crammed with 2,000 refugees on the container ship, Mao. With the jump station destroyed and their resources scarce, the only option is to return to Kerenza—but who knows what they'll find seven months after the invasion? 

Meanwhile, Kady's cousin, Asha, survived the initial BeiTech assault and has joined Kerenza's ragtag underground resistance. When Rhys—an old flame from Asha's past—reappears on Kerenza, the two find themselves on opposite sides of the conflict. 

With time running out, a final battle will be waged on land and in space, heroes will fall, and hearts will be broken."

So everyone has made it this far, surviving the Phobos victims, escaping the Lincoln in the battered and almost broken Hypatia, avoiding being liquidated or shaken apart in a crazy gemina field at the Heimdall station...but where will they go from here? Without access to a wormhole or jump gate, the refugees aboard the Mao and the Hypatia are stranded in space, condemned to dying aboard those ships. Their only option is the mobile jump gate BeiTech used to attack Kerenza, so it looks like Kady and Ezra are headed home, to what they don't know. Combining the refugees from Kerenza with those from Heimdall isn't all sunshine and rainbows, though...will conflict between crews put an end to their journey before the pair can find out?

Asha, presumed dead after the refugees aboard the Copernicus, the Hypatia, and the Alexander escaped Kerenza, is alive and...not well, but surviving. It's only a matter of time before BeiTech manages to repair their jump drive, liquidates the Kerenza survivors, and makes their escape. Asha and her friends are fighting back, but when BeiTech supplies start to go missing, none of the resistance seems to know what's going on. Are their plans unraveling? Or will Asha survive to be reunited with her cousin?

I've waited for this book for so long, and it did not disappoint. Action packed, breathtaking, intense...the trilogy is complete, and it remains one of my favorite stories ever. There were gasps, there were tears, at one point I broke down sobbing...read this book. READ IT.

Champion - Marie Lu

My rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

From the cover:

"He is a Legend.

She is a Prodigy.

Who will be Champion? 

June and Day have sacrificed so much for the people of the Republic—and each other—and now their country is on the brink of a new existence. June is back in the good graces of the Republic, working within the government’s elite circles as Princeps-Elect, while Day has been assigned a high-level military position. 

But neither could have predicted the circumstances that will reunite them: just when a peace treaty is imminent, a plague outbreak causes panic in the Colonies, and war threatens the Republic’s border cities. This new strain of plague is deadlier than ever, and June is the only one who knows the key to her country’s defense. But saving the lives of thousands will mean asking the one she loves to give up everything. 

With heart-pounding action and suspense, Marie Lu’s bestselling trilogy draws to a stunning conclusion."

Talk about a roller coaster conclusion to this trilogy. The number of times that I yelled, "what the fuck?!" while in my car listening to this was ridiculous. Good god, what an end for this trilogy. I think by now I've made pretty clear that the action in these books is nonstop and awesome...still true. What's more, the ending was, dare I say it...perfect? The closer I got to the last few chapters, the more worried I got that it was going to wrap up in an overly simple way, something either crazy sad and predictable or too happy-ending predictably. But the ending......I didn't see it coming, and I loved everything about it. Beautiful end for an incredible trilogy.

Prodigy - Marie Lu

My rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

From the cover:

"Injured and on the run, it has been seven days since June and Day barely escaped Los Angeles and the Republic with their lives. Day is believed dead having lost his own brother to an execution squad who thought they were assassinating him. June is now the Republic's most wanted traitor. Desperate for help, they turn to the Patriots - a vigilante rebel group sworn to bring down the Republic. But can they trust them or have they unwittingly become pawns in the most terrifying of political games?"

June and Day have escaped Los Angeles, but Day is severely injured and the pair need help. They've put their trust in the Patriots, but something about the group's operation doesn't sit right with June.  Was she right to trade their assistance in the Patriots' latest plot against the Republic for a surgery that would save Day's leg? Or will the two ultimately find themselves in more trouble than they would have been without the Patriots' help? Just like Legend, this book is action-packed. It pulls you in immediately and keeps you hooked through the last page. 

Spellbook of the Lost and Found - Moira Fowley-Doyle

My rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

From the front cover:

"One stormy Irish summer night, Olive and her best friend, Rose, begin to lose things. It starts with simple items like hairclips and jewelry, but soon it's clear that Rose has lost something much bigger, something she won't talk about, and Olive thinks her best friend is slipping away.

Then seductive diary pages written by a girl named Laurel begin to appear all over town. And Olive meets three mysterious strangers: Ivy, Hazel, and her twin brother, Rowan, secretly squatting in an abandoned housing estate. The trio are wild and alluring, but they seem lost too—and like Rose, they're holding tight to painful secrets.

When they discover the spellbook, it changes everything. Damp, tattered and ancient, it's full of hand-inked charms to conjure back things that have been lost. And it just might be their chance to find what they each need to set everything back to rights.

Unless it's leading them toward things that were never meant to be found..."

When I discovered that Moira Fowley-Doyle had another book, I couldn't wait to get my hands on it. I loved The Accident Season, so I had high hopes for this book. Spellbook of the Lost and Found definitely lived up to my expectations. The book focuses on three groups of friends--Olive and Rose, Laurel, Ash, and Holly, and Hazel, Rowan, and Ivy--in the aftermath of their town bonfire as everyone discovers their things are going missing. As diary pages start popping up all over town and the lives of these three groups begin to intertwine, the reader discovers that something darker than missing trinkets might be going on... This world had the same spooky, other-worldly feel to it as The Accident Season, the characters were just as nuanced and captivating, and the story constantly had me wanting more. 

Legend - Marie Lu

My rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Legend, Marie Lu's debut novel, came out in 2011, and I can't believe it took me this long to read it. From the cover:

"What was once the western United States is now home to the Republic, a nation perpetually at war with its neighbors. Born into an elite family in one of the Republic's wealthiest districts, fifteen-year-old June is a prodigy being groomed for success in the Republic's highest military circles. Born into the slums, fifteen-year-old Day is the country's most wanted criminal. But his motives may not be as malicious as they seem.

From very different worlds, June and Day have no reason to cross paths—until the day June's brother, Metias, is murdered and Day becomes the prime suspect. Caught in the ultimate game of cat and mouse, Day is in a race for his family's survival, while June seeks to avenge Metias's death. But 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."

This was my second Marie Lu book, and I enjoyed it so much more than Warcross. I legitimately could not put it down...finished it in less than 24 hours. This pretty much cements my opinion that if the first half of Warcross had been more concise, I would have enjoyed it more, because hot damn, Legend was action-packed from the first page, and I loved every second of it. Day and June both have such compelling stories, and the mystery surrounding how their paths diverged even though they are both so similar has me dying to get my hands on the next book! I can't recommend this book enough to fans of dystopia.