Marie Lu – Adventures in Reading

This feature is hosted by the lovely ladies over at The Broke and the Bookish.

I wasn’t sure how easy or hard this topic would be, but I wanted to give myself a challenge. Go check out my dream parings.

Emery Lord & Jessi Kirby
-If these two ever wrote a book together, I would need to stockpile a LOT of kleenex to get through their book-

Sarah J. Maas & Marie Lu
-These two write badass ladies and have beautiful writing. Imagine how amazing their collaboration would be –

Mary E. Pearson & Renee Ahdieh
-Okay, someone needs to make this happen. Badass ladies again plus fabulous world building-

Christa Desir & Courtney Summers
-I have a feeling if these two EVER wrote a book together, I’d need a drink to calm the hell down-

Tamara Ireland Stone & Courtney C. Stevens
-These two write characters that are wonderfully & heartbreakingly real. I would lose my crap if they ever wrote a book together-

Brandy Colbert & Tess Sharpe
-Two of my favorite & most underrated authors. Both of these ladies wrote books that broke my heart, and pushed the envelope on those tough topics-

Francesca Zappia & Katrina Leno
-These two wrote about mental illnesses in heartbreakingly real ways and they both exceeded my expectations when I did read their beautiful books-

Becky Albertalli & Amy Zhang
-This is a bit of a wild card pick, but Amy’s writing is stunning and Becky’s first book was quirky and adorable. I’d be thrilled if they wrote a book together-

Trish Doller & Peggy Kern
-These two authors have written some of my favorite books. Books that have been hard to read at times, but awesome books nonetheless. If they wrote a book together, it would probably be raw, realistic and amazing-

Abigail Haas & Amanda Panitch
-These ladies are the QUEENS of mind fuckery. My goodness, if they EVER wrote a book together, I’d probably spontaneously combust-

If you did a TTT post this week, leave me the link in the comment section. If we have any of the same picks, don’t forget to tell me.

Book Title: The Young Elites

Author: Marie Lu

Published Date: October 7th, 2014

Publisher: Putnam Books For Young Readers

Genre: YA Fantasy

Series: Book 1 in The Young Elites series

Book Link: Goodreads

Purchase Links: Amazon, Barnes & Noble, The Book Depository

Synopsis from Goodreads:

I am tired of being used, hurt, and cast aside.

Adelina Amouteru is a survivor of the blood fever. A decade ago, the deadly illness swept through her nation. Most of the infected perished, while many of the children who survived were left with strange markings. Adelina’s black hair turned silver, her lashes went pale, and now she has only a jagged scar where her left eye once was. Her cruel father believes she is a malfetto, an abomination, ruining their family’s good name and standing in the way of their fortune. But some of the fever’s survivors are rumored to possess more than just scars—they are believed to have mysterious and powerful gifts, and though their identities remain secret, they have come to be called the Young Elites.

Teren Santoro works for the king. As Leader of the Inquisition Axis, it is his job to seek out the Young Elites, to destroy them before they destroy the nation. He believes the Young Elites to be dangerous and vengeful, but it’s Teren who may possess the darkest secret of all.

Enzo Valenciano is a member of the Dagger Society. This secret sect of Young Elites seeks out others like them before the Inquisition Axis can. But when the Daggers find Adelina, they discover someone with powers like they’ve never seen.

Adelina wants to believe Enzo is on her side, and that Teren is the true enemy. But the lives of these three will collide in unexpected ways, as each fights a very different and personal battle. But of one thing they are all certain: Adelina has abilities that shouldn’t belong in this world. A vengeful blackness in her heart. And a desire to destroy all who dare to cross her.

It is my turn to use. My turn to hurt.

Disclaimer: Library book.

Review:

It was no secret that this book was one of my most anticipated reads of 2014. I hadn’t read Lu’s previous work, but this one sounded so good and I was so excited for it. It was described to me as a dark fantasy and that it would cause me pain, but that I would enjoy it.

My blogging friends were right on the money. I loved this book, and especially Adelina. The role of “evil” character is usually reserved for the man in the story, so I loved that in this story Adelina was the one who was “evil” and instead of being sweet and demure, she was passion and anger filled. Awesome-sauce.

It took me a long time to warm up to Violetta, I was actually angry with her for not defending her sister against their abusive father. We later found out more about her which definitely changed my opinion of her. I still don’t love her, but I’m warming up to her definitely.

For a little while there I was convinced that this story was going to include a love triangle between Enzo and Raffaele and Adelina, thankfully I turned out to be wrong. I adored Raffaele though and he did remind me a lot of Finnick Odair from The Hunger Games trilogy. Finnick was another character I adored. The light romance was beautiful, and I was glad that not much emphasis was put on the romance. I think any more romance would have made me not love the book.

The world building was utterly glorious, it was so vivid an I could totally picture it in my mind’s eye. It was beautifully described and it made me want to jump into the book and live in it. It’s been a long time since a Fantasy book has made me feel like this. Good world building always makes me happy and this world building was beautiful so kudos to Lu for creating this world.

5 stars to this fantasy novel that has the power to turn into an epic series and I think it will do just that. I now need to go pick up Lu’s previous trilogy from the library because her writing is so fabulous.