leahrosereads's Reviews (1.04k)

3.5 Stars.

THE INFINITE SEA was definitely (to me) a weaker second novel. The writing was really great, but the plot itself didn't feel quite as fleshed out as The 5th Wave.

Also, maybe it was because of the fucking twist.


With this novel, we primarily hear from Ringer, and because she wasn’t a character I really cared about in The 5th Wave, it did take me a little time to warm up to her. Once I did though, I was happy for the change of POV. Her story and what she goes through in this was an incredible journey. She goes through a whole hell of a lot in THE INFINITE SEA, and fucking survives it all. She’s one tough broad.

We also got to see some background on Evan which I liked, including meeting a pyscho-bitch alien named Grace. I was happy to hear that back story, because Grace did become more than just some weird nemesis that comes back into Evan’s life (for seemingly no apparent reason than to add some pseudo-love triangle between Cassie, Evan and Grace). I actually don’t get why she was brought into this story...unless…

she’s not as dead as I assume she is when Poundcake blows the hotel.

We also get background/flashbacks from Poundcake, which I thought were unnecessary. I would have rather had those pages for plot development, other character development and fleshing out the story more fully.


I would have rather seen what Sam was feeling being reunited with Cassie, yet still clinging to Ben, but we didn’t hear from him at all. Or hear more from Ben, but we didn’t. And, I really wish we heard more from Cassie and Evan.


Now, with finding out about this twist during Ringer’s story, I’m looking forward to seeing what the hell is coming up next. Because, now I don’t know. I felt like I kind of knew where this story would go in The 5th Wave, but THE INFINITE SEA just completely fucked up most of my theories.

Thanks a lot Rick Yancey.

4.5 Stars - just freaking awesome!


It’s only been a couple of months since I had read Cracked, but how I had missed Meda. She’s back (of course) in CRUSHED and as freaking fantastically awesome as I remembered her. Meda is easily becoming one of my favorite heroines in any YA I’ve read. I just adore her...and I think it’s kind of weird of me to say that, because Meda’s not really meant to be adored. I don’t know what it says about me that I love her so much.

I don’t really care what it says about me.


So, in CRUSHED, Meda is with the Crusaders and is doing her “best” to fit in and be the good little half demon everyone (i.e. Jo) thinks she can be.

The thing about Meda, is that while she’s not evil, she’s not good. She may have morals that have been instilled upon her by her mother, but morals don’t make a person inherently good. And it’s one of the reasons I love Meda.

So, there’s Meda trying her best to stomp down her demonic nature for the Crusaders, because she wants to help them. And what do the Crusaders do? Well, they do a hell of a lot, but trust her and believe she can be good. After taking all she can take, Meda escapes with the help of a demon we met in Cracked - the sexy, dark demon-boy - Armand. Meda doesn’t trust him, but he offered her something that the Crusaders hadn’t - freedom, and she took it.

I loved the relationship between Armand and Meda. Yes, there were some romantic feelings, but there was this understanding between the two, that no Crusader or friend of Meda’s could understand. Armand understood the Hunger that she feels. He understood her need to kill. And yet, even if he may have preferred to kill others, he also understood and respected her code of ethics going after only the truly deplorable members of society.

After being with Armand for a while, Jo (and Chi) find/get back in touch with Meda and give her some awful news about what the Crusaders want to do with her, since she left. It’s not good. To (hopefully) correct the miscommunication Meda, Armand, Jo and Chi make there way to demon central to locate something for the Crusaders. And then, shit hits the fan (more so than had already hit it).

And Meda was right not to trust Armand, but my god the feels during this part…and I completely understood why Armand did what he did for her. He may be a demon, but I truly believed he loved her the best way he knew how.

Meda has to choose between her freedom with Armand or going back with the Crusaders and really following their rules. Allowing herself to be controlled and used as a weapon to save the world.

Meda may not be good, but she’s not evil, and she knows what she has to do.



I hope I didn’t give a way too much, but I definitely think if you haven’t read Cracked yet, you should absolutely give it a try. Eliza Crewe really mixes up the usual YA concoction with this series. You get a strong female MC (which isn’t that uncommon), true friendship between two female characters (which is uncommon), no love triangle or rivalry (as of now, and so I’m going with at all), and a depth to most of the characters that will cause you (did for me) to connect with the characters on a very real level.

The writing is outstanding (and a lot better in CRUSHED). You can see the improvements to the plot, the character development, the writing, and I love that you can visually see/read that improvement.

I cannot wait to see where this story goes, and how Meda continues to grow with the Crusaders and what type of weapon she’ll become.

To many, I was myth incarnate, the embodiment of a most superb legend, a fairy tale. Some considered me a monster, a mutation. To my great misfortune, I was once mistaken for an angel. To my mother, I was everything. To my father, nothing at all. To my grandmother, I was a daily reminder of loves long lost. But I knew the truth--deep down, I always did.
I was just a girl.

With an opening like that, I just knew what I was going to read was going to be magnificent, and I was right. Although, I didn’t realize just how magnificently sad Ava’s life was going to become.

THE STRANGE AND BEAUTIFUL SORROWS OF AVA LAVENDER started off slow, for me. I had picked up this book because of the hype, but I just assumed that I would be reading the story of Ava Lavender, and only her. I didn’t think that I would be seeing her family’s past, the way I did, and how by knowing that past, I was able to understand Ava’s life all the better.

Love makes us such fools.

Love, and the disasters that fall on all of us when we do love, played such a significant part to this story. From Maman (Ava’s great grandmother) losing the love of her life and more, to Emilienne (Ava’s grandmother) who also lost so much when it came to love, and Viviane (Ava’s mother), who went through heartbreak and never really overcame it; I realized that when it came to love, Ava’s story would probably have a similar fate. Love has not been kind to her family.


It did take a while to meet Ava, but when we did, she came into this world on her birthday, with a very unique attribute attached to her back - wings. She grew up in seclusion, kept in her home, because her mother feared that people wouldn’t understand or would fear Ava and her wings.

And yet, Ava still made friends. She still found love, and she still discovered that the world does have some messed up people in it, and that when that darkness touches you, sometimes you cannot recover.


I pretty much loved most aspects of this book. Writing and story were great. The characters were really interesting to read about, and I could only feel sorry that these women had had such horrific luck when it came to love in their life. This ended up being such a darker tale than I had anticipated, but even so, I loved it to the very end.


The secondary characters in this story really made this for me. Mostly, I loved Gabe, the poor love struck fool (he fell hard and in forever love with Viviane) and Rowe, who loved Ava fully and without any reserve. If she didn’t have her wings, I think she would have broken this weird “curse” on her family when it came to love. Rowe was a gentle soul, and so was Ava. Together, I think they would have been perfectly happy and content falling and staying in love.

I absolutely despised Jack Griffith and Nathaniel Sorrows, both of course for very different reasons. However, they were so completely necessary for this story, and so even with all the heartbreak they caused, without them, this story wouldn’t have been as brilliant as I think it was. Although it would have been a much happier tale without these two bastards in it.


I definitely recommend reading THE STRANGE AND BEAUTIFUL SORROWS OF AVA LAVENDER if you haven’t already. I felt like this book deserved the hype it’s received.

2.5 Stars...finally finished this book.

I still have no idea what to say about this book, other than I didn't like it. However, after thinking on this some more, and swallowing my stubborness, I've decided to not read the final book.

I just don't think I can take anymore.


If you loved/enjoyed the first book, you may like this one, and want to continue to the trilogy. If you were just meh on The Strain, you may feel really more underwhelmed with THE FALL (which is how I felt).


The writing: Meh.
The plot: Meh.
The characters: Meh.
My enjoyment: Meh.
Everything: Meh.


I'm done.

”You learn many things with a knife in your shoulder. You learn how to save your life. Or how to die. But that’s what it means to be a soldier. You train for situations like that, and you hope that when they arrive--if they arrive--you will be ready.”

I enjoyed Boy Nobody quite a bit. It wasn’t without its faults, but the essence of the novel was truly one that I liked. It was over the top and filled with action, with a male protagonist that had the emotional stability of a sociopath, but he was still likeable. And it's pretty freaking cool that Allen Zadoff could walk that line, and do it so well.


Our boy soldier/assassin/patriot/psychopath is Benjamin (not his real name). He was forced into The Program at the age of 12, after another boy soldier/assassin/patriot/psychopath killed his parents. Benjamin is given the option to join or die, and the well, even with his choice, initially to die with his parents, it ended up being JOIN. In other words, he doesn't really get a choice.


Now 16, Benjamin has been with The Program for 4 years, and he is given missions by two individuals - Mother and Father. They run The Program and they’re little psychopaths with military efficiency. The soldiers/assassins/patriots are given secret apps on their phones and some awesome spy shit to accomplish their missions, which involve death, and Benjamin, he does it damn well. He’s a highly trained soldier after all.

And I loved when Benjamin was that character. The assassin, the borderline sociopath. I loved seeing his mind work in an efficient order only. I liked that I was clearly reading in a male point of view, and one with his feelings having been removed from the equation. It was nice to read.


Then his newest mission is given to him by Father, and there’s a bit of a shift in the character when a girl becomes involved. Samara. She’s his new target. She’s his in to get close to the mayor of NYC who happens to be the man he needs to kill. And Benjamin and Samara, while they spat a bit, since it’s over the course of 4 days, I’m calling their pseudo-weird relationship on insta-lust. It was definitely not love, but it was freaking cheesy, and their interactions had me eye rolling a bit.

Maybe it’s because I was happy with my psychopath being a psychopath and seeing him with emotions just annoyed me, but first reading their interactions was a bit hard to swallow on the realistic scale. And I get why that relationship needed to happen. It did end up giving Benjamin an added depth to his character, and I'm sure it's going to play a more significant part in future books. However, it felt rushed, and because of that, I just don't think it was done well.


Other than that though, I really liked this story. I thought Allen Zadoff did a great job with this first book in a series, and I’m absolutely looking forward to reading the next novel in the series, [b:I Am the Mission|18634740|I Am the Mission (The Unknown Assassin, #2)|Allen Zadoff|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1399328324s/18634740.jpg|26431028].

I really need to make sure not to return books back to the library until after my review, so I can add in quotes that I wanted to use. Oh well.

NOS4A2 was honestly one of my favorite books I’ve read this year. It didn’t beat out The Night Circus, Vicious or either of Eliza Crewe’s novels, but boy was it excellent. Joe Hill is definitely becoming an author that I will be on the lookout for books from in the future, and I’m absolutely planning on buying this novel for my personal collection.


NOS4A2 follows Victoria (Vic) McQueen from childhood into adulthood and all of her screw ups in between. As a young girl, Vic receives a bike for her birthday, a Raleigh Tuff Burner. When something is lost and needs to be found, Vic uses this bike to gain access to the “Shorter Way Bridge” and they take her to the object so that it can be returned to its owner.

Neat huh? And as a young girl, Vic thought it was. However, as she got older, she began to think of this as make believe, and her journeys through the Shorter Way Bridge took its toll on her, physically and mentally.

At 17, an out of control Vic decides to go looking for trouble, and she finds it in the Charles Talent Manx - a man with a gift like hers who has been abducting children for years, taking them to Christmasland. They don’t leave, and he doesn’t age.

It may be a win for him, but he’s stealing the souls and lives from these children, turning them into something else…

Luckily for her, she escapes on the back of a young man’s bike (Lou). Unfortunately, her staying that long through the Shorter Way Bridge took a toll on her mind that she never really recovers from.



I absolutely loved Vic as a character. As a young girl, I saw my adventurous self in her. I lived in a world of make believe, and I loved seeing that side of her. However, as she got older, I loved how well Joe Hill showed the damage to her psyche. This gift damaged her. And adult Vic was one messed up woman.

I also really loved Lou. He’s this overweight man-boy who’s geeky and fun and the complete opposite of Vic. He tries to love her, the best he knows how, and while they make a life together, and a child - Bruce Wayne, Vic never fully allows herself to be loved. I felt for Lou, but I admired what a wonderful person, father, and friend he was.

And then, there’s Charles Manx. The Big Bad of the story, and really, one of the creepier bad guys I’ve read this year. I got the chills when he spoke and how he acted, especially later in the book with Wayne.. He was just disturbing as hell.

There was a wide cast of secondary characters, from Bing - Manx’s...partner (but they’re not equals)...minion? He was creepier than Manx a lot of the time, and they made quite a disturbing pair.

Maggie Leigh - a librarian with a gift (though not quite like Vic and Manx’s). I loved her, and I was so sad seeing the gift of hers break her.

Bruce Wayne - of course, VIc and Lou’s son. He was this older-before-his-time kind of kid. But, with a mom as damaged as Vic, it worked without being a cliche.

I was rooting for him so hard after he was taken by Manx and Bing

And finally, the last memorable character (to me) was FBI Agent Tabitha Hutt. She was like the female geek version of Lou, and while it took her a while to open her mind, she was able to. I think it was the geek in her that allowed it though.


Overall, I thought the writing was spectacular. There were some slow parts of NOS4A2, but overall it was either suspenseful or filled with action or interesting dialogue that kept me reading at a relatively fast pace.

There were parts of the story that while I understood why they needed to happen, I wish they hadn't. I just had my feels touched (especially near the end) pretty regularly. I may be a wimp when it comes to reading, and I do cry at pretty much any part of an emotional aspect of a novel, but this just hit me a little harder, because I was just completely on Vic’s side (even with all the mistakes she made).

Just some rough times for me at some parts of the book.


I definitely recommend checking this out! It may not have been my favorite novel by Joe Hill (his Locke & Key series just can't be removed from that top spot), but I definitely preferred this way over Heart Shaped Box, and while I really enjoyed Horns, I thought NOS4A2 was better.

2.5 stars.

So, when I went to the library on Tuesday to vote, I decided to browse the graphic novels for some quick reads. There were a lot of volume 2 through whatever other number, but not that many volume 1s to pick from. I saw that this had all of the volumes available, so I grabbed the first three.

The writing:

Honestly, not that great. FOR A BETTER FUTURE felt like it was trying a little too hard to be this deep mystery, but all I felt while reading it was dissatisfaction. Had I not grabbed more than one volume of this, I wouldn't have continued to series at all. It didn't feel like it was going to be for me, and I blame the writing and the characters for that.

The characters:

So we have six teenagers all with the same birthdays and with very Breakfast Club-esque personalities. We have the geek (Hunter), the princess (Mary Sue...excuse me, Casey), the goth (Jade), the bad boy (Ike), the jock (Jun), and our slut shaming character (Zoe). They all felt generic and I didn't give a damn about any one of them. I just couldn't connect to them at all.

I know I was supposed to love our heroine, Casey, especially since she guessed quickly that something wasn't right at Morning Glory, while all the other newcomers were these clueless imbeciles, but it just didn't work for me. There wasn't really any foundation for her knowledge or understanding that made sense or was explained. It felt forced so that the reader knew exactly who to root for.

The art:

I really liked the artwork in this graphic novel. I loved the colors, and while I didn't care for the writing all that much, the art did bring the story alive.


Overall, had I not taken out Volumes 1 through 3 of Morning Glories, I wouldn't continue this series. However, I read FOR A BETTER FUTURE so quickly, I decided to move onto Volume 2 before bed.

I'm not sure I would recommend this series, based on the first Volume alone, but I'm currently writing this while reading the third volume, so I'm just going to say that the writing has gotten better, and while I'm still not a fan of the characters, they're growing on me and so is the plot. Would recommend if you don't have anything else to read at the moment.

After finishing Volume 1 of this series, I went directly to reading ALL WILL BE. It was late at night, and I didn't really want to start a novel, so while I wasn't that excited about the first volume, I said what the hell and went to reading this volume.

I have to say that I'm happy I took out more than just the first volume of Morning Glories. While this series isn't up there at all with my favorite graphic novels, it has been some nice mindless reading for me.

The writing:

Has definitely gotten better with Volume 2. Is it great? No. I still have definite issues with the mystery aspect of this series as well as the characters. At this point of reading, I still don't really like the character I think I'm supposed to love (Casey), but I do like Ike and Zoe, and our bad guys (all the teachers). To me, every character seems cookie cutter generic, except for the ghost killer guy (David?). I like him. I don't know him. But, I like him. I want to see more of him.

The characters:

This review is kind of just meshing together, but oh well. I like the ghost killer guy. Zoe calls him David, so I'm going with that for now. I also really like Ike (

the backstabbing little shit that he is

), and I think that Zoe has a lot more personality than Casey. Maybe that will change, but until then, I prefer Zoe's stronger personality over Casey's kind of bland, clearly hero personality. I'm intrigued by both Jun and Jade's backstories, so I'm hoping they'll grow on me. And then there's Hunter. I want to love this love-able geek, but I just haven't fallen for him. We'll see if that changes in the later volumes.

The art:

Is still carrying the words/story for me. If this was a novel, I would have said fuck-it by now. But, I like the art, and really does help the story.



Overall: ALL WILL BE gets .5 more stars than Volume 1, so maybe by the end of this, it'll be a five star series for me. I guess I'll see.

It took full three volumes, but I’m officially hooked on this Morning Glories series. P.E. was definitely a step in the right direction for me, in regards to character development, writing and plot, and just overall enjoyment of the series.

The writing:

I think it’s improved, but really pieces of the puzzle are coming together, and while there’s still this crazy mystery and disjointedness in the plot with having characters doing freaking everything, I felt like it worked this time around. Maybe I’m just getting used to the writing and the story in general, but I think with P.E. the Morning Glories story has hit its stride.

The characters:

At this point, all of them have grown on me. I’m starting to like Casey a little more than in the previous two volumes, and while she’s still not my favorite character, I feel like she’s gotten more relatable. I absolutely loved Jun (Hisao) and his backstory in this volume becoming more developed. Loved it, and love him.

Still really loving Zoe...but what the hell is her mission all about? She’s either batshit crazy or she’s been following some batshit orders. I want to know.

I liked Ike and Jade being paired up, and although I like that Ike is a dick, I was happy to see this other side of him come out when talking with Jade. He was still a dick, but he’s has some added depth to him now.

The artwork:

I’m still really loving how everything is being portrayed visually.

The ending:

The hell was up with that ending? Can you say freaking cliffhanger!?


Luckily for me, I’m picking up the next three volumes from my library this evening. I need to know what happens next.