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sugardustedbooks
*Originally reviewed on Pages Of Forbidden Love
I can’t even begin to tell you how much this book broke my heart. When Stephanie emailed me about reading Defy The Stars I knew two things 1) I had to read this book and 2) This wasn’t going to be a happy book. I went in knowing I was in for some hard times but I really didn’t expect all the water works this book had me going through.
Julia is an innocent girl. She plays piano and just wants to get through the rest of her school year so she can graduate and hopefully get into a good music school. She has a plan and she likes to structure things, even spending class planning out her schedule and practicing her music in her head. She isn’t looking for change but she can’t plan everything and one day while rushing to class she runs into Reed and somehow change is what she gets. After an in class reading of Romeo and Juliet and continuously running into him Julia can’t stop thinking about Reed. She catches herself daydreaming about him and wishing to stop. After all, Reed isn’t what she needs and it could never work.
Reed is the complete opposite of Julia. He doesn’t really have a plan and is just trying to get by. He’s had a hard life and he is stuck in it. He doesn’t have parents that care about him and his brother is scum (putting it kindly) but that is all he has. Reed is such a sad and broken character. He’s never had much and deals with life the only way he knows how. He has things rough but he is deep and when he talks about Romeo and Juliet or fate and destiny I just can’t help but love him. I couldn’t help but love him but I also hated him too, for not being everything I knew he could be. For letting his brother get the best of him and for letting Julia be dragged (even though it was willingly) into his world, even when I was wanting her in his life.
It’s very clear that Reed and Julia are from different worlds but the pull between them is so strong that it doesn’t stop them. Their relationship becomes intense so quickly but it is written so well and I really appreciated the fact that although Julia had such strong feeling she still thought about what her feelings really meant and not jumping straight to declaring her love for him. Reading about them together was just beautiful and heartbreaking. I wanted so much for them. I wanted things to work out so badly.
I haven’t read many books in verse, besides most of what Ellen Hopkins has written, but I was ready to read more and I think Stephanie did an amazing job. I was sucked in with her writing from the very first pages. I was wowed from the beginning and I really wanted to read the whole book in one sitting. I love what she did with the story and how deeply she allowed me to feel for her characters. I got so emotional reading her words. Defy The Stars was perfect even with all the darkness within its pages and it is going to stick with me for a long time. Definitely one of my favorites. I can’t wait to read more of Stephanie’s work.
I can’t even begin to tell you how much this book broke my heart. When Stephanie emailed me about reading Defy The Stars I knew two things 1) I had to read this book and 2) This wasn’t going to be a happy book. I went in knowing I was in for some hard times but I really didn’t expect all the water works this book had me going through.
Julia is an innocent girl. She plays piano and just wants to get through the rest of her school year so she can graduate and hopefully get into a good music school. She has a plan and she likes to structure things, even spending class planning out her schedule and practicing her music in her head. She isn’t looking for change but she can’t plan everything and one day while rushing to class she runs into Reed and somehow change is what she gets. After an in class reading of Romeo and Juliet and continuously running into him Julia can’t stop thinking about Reed. She catches herself daydreaming about him and wishing to stop. After all, Reed isn’t what she needs and it could never work.
Reed is the complete opposite of Julia. He doesn’t really have a plan and is just trying to get by. He’s had a hard life and he is stuck in it. He doesn’t have parents that care about him and his brother is scum (putting it kindly) but that is all he has. Reed is such a sad and broken character. He’s never had much and deals with life the only way he knows how. He has things rough but he is deep and when he talks about Romeo and Juliet or fate and destiny I just can’t help but love him. I couldn’t help but love him but I also hated him too, for not being everything I knew he could be. For letting his brother get the best of him and for letting Julia be dragged (even though it was willingly) into his world, even when I was wanting her in his life.
It’s very clear that Reed and Julia are from different worlds but the pull between them is so strong that it doesn’t stop them. Their relationship becomes intense so quickly but it is written so well and I really appreciated the fact that although Julia had such strong feeling she still thought about what her feelings really meant and not jumping straight to declaring her love for him. Reading about them together was just beautiful and heartbreaking. I wanted so much for them. I wanted things to work out so badly.
I haven’t read many books in verse, besides most of what Ellen Hopkins has written, but I was ready to read more and I think Stephanie did an amazing job. I was sucked in with her writing from the very first pages. I was wowed from the beginning and I really wanted to read the whole book in one sitting. I love what she did with the story and how deeply she allowed me to feel for her characters. I got so emotional reading her words. Defy The Stars was perfect even with all the darkness within its pages and it is going to stick with me for a long time. Definitely one of my favorites. I can’t wait to read more of Stephanie’s work.
Letting my niece rate and review it. This is what she has to say: "It was funny and great! And I like the cover because there is a bow on the B. Lets read the next one now."
*Originally reviewed on Pages Of Forbidden Love
I was drawn to read Fields of Elysium by its pretty cover (the glowing butterflies just grabbed me lol) and its interesting summary. I was excited to dive into this new place that Molly discovers and find out what Arkana was all about. It sounded like it had the potential to be an exciting read and although it had its moments I ended up being pretty disappointed. It just wasn’t much of what I expected and a I feel like a lot of it had to do with the structure of the story.
Going in after reading the summary I thought I knew what some of the big problems were going to be and I was looking forward to figuring out the why of it all and how things would be resolved (or not resolved) but as I read I felt like things were a little all over the place. There were quite a few problems and I felt like it was just jumping around from one thing to another without spending much time on a specific thing. Then I felt like some of the big moments in the book came out of nowhere all of a sudden. Also, I felt like some things that were mentioned started out sounding like a really important part of the story and then it would only be mentioned again off and on way later.
Also, no one really stood out to me as being someone out to ruin everything. I was expecting someone(s) to really get in Molly’s way and although there were people to fill this role every once and a while i felt like it didn’t last long. Even the people I thought would create biggest obstacles seemed to not play as big a part in the story as I thought. I was expecting a big presence from the Sentinels, the ones who dislike people from Earth, but we didn’t really meet them. It was more of a struggle just inside Victor.
Now although the previous threw me off, and made it hard to fall in love with the book, I didn’t dislike everything. I didn’t build a very strong connection with the characters but I did not dislike them. They had their moments where I could connect with them. I didn’t feel like Molly was the total outsider that I thought she would be. She fell into a group and they liked her at her school but she did feel disconnected from them (it wasn’t for a lack of others trying though). I liked her adventurous side and her lack of fear when traveling to Arkana but I also felt she didn’t try too hard to make friends and she could be rude. Victor was usually quiet and angry so that was intriguing and he’s had an unfortunate past. I didn’t dislike their romance either. I was able to get into their relationship fairly easily at times but then other times I felt like things got serious too quickly.
I was also really into the world that A.B. Whelan created. There were new names of things to learn and so many gadgets and toys. Arkana seemed like a complicated place. It had its perks but had many problems as well. It had its beauty and its flaws. I am sure there is a lot more to know about Arkana and its people. A lot seems to be going on there and I am curious to know more. For me I just wished there would have been a little more of a structure and focus.
I was drawn to read Fields of Elysium by its pretty cover (the glowing butterflies just grabbed me lol) and its interesting summary. I was excited to dive into this new place that Molly discovers and find out what Arkana was all about. It sounded like it had the potential to be an exciting read and although it had its moments I ended up being pretty disappointed. It just wasn’t much of what I expected and a I feel like a lot of it had to do with the structure of the story.
Going in after reading the summary I thought I knew what some of the big problems were going to be and I was looking forward to figuring out the why of it all and how things would be resolved (or not resolved) but as I read I felt like things were a little all over the place. There were quite a few problems and I felt like it was just jumping around from one thing to another without spending much time on a specific thing. Then I felt like some of the big moments in the book came out of nowhere all of a sudden. Also, I felt like some things that were mentioned started out sounding like a really important part of the story and then it would only be mentioned again off and on way later.
Also, no one really stood out to me as being someone out to ruin everything. I was expecting someone(s) to really get in Molly’s way and although there were people to fill this role every once and a while i felt like it didn’t last long. Even the people I thought would create biggest obstacles seemed to not play as big a part in the story as I thought. I was expecting a big presence from the Sentinels, the ones who dislike people from Earth, but we didn’t really meet them. It was more of a struggle just inside Victor.
Now although the previous threw me off, and made it hard to fall in love with the book, I didn’t dislike everything. I didn’t build a very strong connection with the characters but I did not dislike them. They had their moments where I could connect with them. I didn’t feel like Molly was the total outsider that I thought she would be. She fell into a group and they liked her at her school but she did feel disconnected from them (it wasn’t for a lack of others trying though). I liked her adventurous side and her lack of fear when traveling to Arkana but I also felt she didn’t try too hard to make friends and she could be rude. Victor was usually quiet and angry so that was intriguing and he’s had an unfortunate past. I didn’t dislike their romance either. I was able to get into their relationship fairly easily at times but then other times I felt like things got serious too quickly.
I was also really into the world that A.B. Whelan created. There were new names of things to learn and so many gadgets and toys. Arkana seemed like a complicated place. It had its perks but had many problems as well. It had its beauty and its flaws. I am sure there is a lot more to know about Arkana and its people. A lot seems to be going on there and I am curious to know more. For me I just wished there would have been a little more of a structure and focus.
