In a future world, Vampires reign. Humans are blood cattle. And one girl will search for the key to save humanity.

Allison Sekemoto survives in the Fringe, the outermost circle of a vampire city. By day, she and her crew scavenge for food. By night, any one of them could be eaten.

Some days, all that drives Allie is her hatred of them. The vampires who keep humans as blood cattle. Until the night Allie herself is attacked—and given the ultimate choice. Die… or become one of the monsters.

Faced with her own mortality, Allie becomes what she despises most. To survive, she must learn the rules of being immortal, including the most important: go long enough without human blood, and you will go mad.

Then Allie is forced to flee into the unknown, outside her city walls. There she joins a ragged band of humans who are seeking a legend—a possible cure to the disease that killed off most of humankind and created the rabids, the mindless creatures who threaten humans and vampires alike.

But it isn’t easy to pass for human. Especially not around Zeke, who might see past the monster inside her. And Allie soon must decide what—and who—is worth dying for. – Source

Review:
Julie Kagawa, how are you so awesome?! After having loved her Iron Fey books, I was more than a little excited to read her take on vampires. If they were anything like her faeries, I knew that I would love The Immortal Rules…throw in a dystopian society to go with her vampires and I was all in!

Unlike mostly everyone else, I’m one who hasn’t been burned out on vampires after Twilight and all the books that followed its success. Sure, there were some that I came to be very ‘MEH’ on, but I found that the right author — Richelle Mead and her Vampire Academy for example — could bring something refreshing to the table. While Julie Kagawa eventually got there with her vampires, I must admit that I found the first part of the book a little slow moving. While necessary to her worldbuilding, I found my eyes glazing over all the details of the society, the vampire mythology, and her main character’s transformation. I’m sure new readers to the vampire genre will find no issue with these sections, but as someone who has already read many books about them, I found them to be repetitive and very “been there, done that.”

So where does the strength of Julie Kagawa’s The Immortal Rules lie? In her main character, Allison Sekemoto, her struggle, and the people she meets along the way. While I didn’t immediately warm up to Allison, I absolutely loved her by the end. She’s a good person, but she definitely goes through a lot of internal struggle due to her vampirism. I loved reading about her conflict, seeing her mess up, and always growing from her experiences. Not to mention, Allison knows how to kick some ass! Meghan’s character arc in the Iron Fey series was such a highlight for me that I’m really looking forward to seeing what Julie Kagawa has in store for Allie.

No doubt Julie Kagawa can write some amazing action scenes, and there were plenty of those in the book, but she also brought plenty of development to her characters. Kanin, Allie’s sire, is such an enigma that I was left eager to find out more. The group of humans she meets along the way had such an interesting dynamic, too, and it was fascinating to see her interactions with them. Zeke is the love interest and he’s the perfect contrast to what Allie is experiencing in some of her dark moments.

A perfect blend of horror, action, friendship, and forbidden romance, Julie Kagawa has a brilliant new series in her hands and I’m excited for the twists and turns ahead!

The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater
Release Date: September 18, 2012
Add it on Goodreads

It is freezing in the churchyard, even before the dead arrive.

Every year, Blue Sargent stands next to her clairvoyant mother as the soon-to-be dead walk past. Blue herself never sees them—not until this year, when a boy emerges from the dark and speaks directly to her.

His name is Gansey, and Blue soon discovers that he is a rich student at Aglionby, the local private school. Blue has a policy of staying away from Aglionby boys. Known as Raven Boys, they can only mean trouble.

But Blue is drawn to Gansey, in a way she can’t entirely explain. He has it all—family money, good looks, devoted friends—but he’s looking for much more than that. He is on a quest that has encompassed three other Raven Boys: Adam, the scholarship student who resents all the privilege around him; Ronan, the fierce soul who ranges from anger to despair; and Noah, the taciturn watcher of the four, who notices many things but says very little.

For as long as she can remember, Blue has been warned that she will cause her true love to die. She never thought this would be a problem. But now, as her life becomes caught up in the strange and sinister world of the Raven Boys, she’s not so sure anymore.

Maggie Stiefvater’s The Scorpio Races is now one of my all time favorites so it was inevitable that The Raven Boys would pop up in one of my WoW posts. I love the sound of the premise and I’m always eager to read more of Maggie Stiefvater’s gorgeous prose. Plus, the two chapters totally pulled me in and I love the cover. WIN ALL AROUND.

What are you waiting on this week?

Bitterblue is the long-awaited companion to New York Times bestsellers Graceling and Fire.

Eight years after Graceling, Bitterblue is now queen of Monsea. But the influence of her father, a violent psychopath with mind-altering abilities, lives on. Her advisors, who have run things since Leck died, believe in a forward-thinking plan: Pardon all who committed terrible acts under Leck’s reign, and forget anything bad ever happened. But when Bitterblue begins sneaking outside the castle–disguised and alone–to walk the streets of her own city, she starts realizing that the kingdom has been under the thirty-five-year spell of a madman, and the only way to move forward is to revisit the past.

Two thieves, who only steal what has already been stolen, change her life forever. They hold a key to the truth of Leck’s reign. And one of them, with an extreme skill called a Grace that he hasn’t yet identified, holds a key to her heart.

Find out more about the book and series:
Graceling Realm website
Kristin’s website
Graceling Realm Facebook fan page
Read an excerpt

Rules for the giveaway:
• US only
• You must be 13 years or older to enter.
• The giveaway ends at the end of May 15, 2012 EST.
• The winners will have 24 hours to respond or another winner will be chosen in their place.
• All prizing provided by Penguin.

To enter, click on “Read More” and fill out the rafflecopter!

In a word: AWESOME. I absolutely loved Marie Lu’s Legend and I am so, so eager to get my hands on Prodigy. I love the colors, how they’re such a contrast to those of Legend, and I really dig the symbol, too. I’m sure the two books will look stunning together on my shelf. What do you all think?

Be sure to pop up on over to USA Today to read the first chapter from Prodigy.

Eight years after Graceling, Bitterblue is now queen of Monsea. But the influence of her father, a violent psychopath with mind-altering abilities, lives on. Her advisors, who have run things since Leck died, believe in a forward-thinking plan: Pardon all who committed terrible acts under Leck’s reign, and forget anything bad ever happened. But when Bitterblue begins sneaking outside the castle—disguised and alone—to walk the streets of her own city, she starts realizing that the kingdom has been under the thirty-five-year spell of a madman, and the only way to move forward is to revisit the past.

Two thieves, who only steal what has already been stolen, change her life forever. They hold a key to the truth of Leck’s reign. And one of them, with an extreme skill called a Grace that he hasn’t yet identified, holds a key to her heart. – Goodreads

Review:
It has been only a few months since I read Kristin Cashore’s Graceling and Fire, but their individual epicness made the wait for Bitterblue a little more torturous. Set eight years after Graceling, Bitterblue is now the queen of Monsea and things are amiss in her kingdom. To be expected, of course, considering Leck’s reign of horrors, but Bitterblue decides to take action to get to the bottom of it all.

The mystery in Bitterblue is a complicated one: people around her are behaving strangely, things are disappearing from the castle, there are secret messages to decipher… There is a lot to consider and Bitterblue has a difficult time understanding it all. Her confusion was palpable to the point where I sometimes felt that there was too much going on. I have to admit that there were moments when I had to step back from my reading to regroup all the details.

In comparison to Graceling and Fire, I felt that Bitterblue’s pacing was a lot slower. Kristin Cashore focused heavily on the mystery and politics, leaving little to no action in the book. Which is fine — Bitterblue had a different story to tell, after all — but I did have my fingers crossed that there would be more ass kicking along the way.

As the lead in the book, I really enjoyed Bitterblue. She’s very different from both Katsa and Fire and Kristin Cashore did an excellent job displaying that in terms of her vulnerability and emotions. Still, Bitterblue is independent. and she’s determined, making for another strong female character from Kristin Cashore.

The romantic storylines have never been the focus of the books, but come on, I know I definitely grew attached to Po and Brigan. I was looking forward to finding out who held the key to Bitterblue’s heart, as the summary says, but I must say that I wasn’t too into him. If I’m being completely honest, I thought there was another character that I thought Bitterblue had more chemistry with, ha! That said, I did enjoy the honesty in the resolution between Bitterblue and her love interest.

With this being a sequel to Graceling, I think we all looked forward to a reunion with Katsa and Po. I hope it’s enough to say that I don’t think too many people will be disappointed with what Kristin Cashore offers of them. In addition to that, I loved the way she tied together the three books. I won’t say much more except that Fire is my favorite of the series and yes…I was pleased. Ahhh, I am so vague.

While Bitterblue is not my favorite of the three books, it’s still a welcome installment to the series. It was easy to slide back into the Seven Kingdoms, feel the terror of Leck’s reign, and go on another journey with Kristin Cashore’s richly complex characters. I don’t know if she plans to write any additional books in this series, but I do know that I would eagerly read them.

Rating: ★★★★☆ 
Graceling – What better way to be introduced to the Graceling world than with a character who has been Graced to kill? It would have been so easy to make her a ruthless killing machine, but Kristin Cashore never takes the easy way out with her characters. Katsa, though she follows through on her uncle’s orders, does not thirst for blood on her hands. She loathes being used in her uncle’s games, but it isn’t until Po arrives on the scene that her rebellion begins.

It was the easiest thing ever to fall into the world Kristin Cashore created. I thought the idea of Graces was so interesting — more so when some were so mysterious or when Cashore threw in a surprise or two about them (ahem, Po). Her characters were so complex and this was only confirmed as I read through the rest of the installments in the series. It all ties together and it is so, so great.

Rating: ★★★★★ 
Fire – This is definitely my favorite of the three books in the Graceling Realms series. After having loved Graceling, I was a little wary that Fire would revolve around another set of characters, in a completely different time period and location. I was sure that I wouldn’t enjoy it as much. But I was wrong!

I loved Katsa, but there was always a degree of distance from her for me. With Fire, my liking to her was almost immediate. As the last human monster, Fire has the ability to control minds and, in addition to that, those around her find her alluring and fall into want of her. It was fascinating to see Fire navigate through her journey of self-discovery and decide between right and wrong. Her past, as disturbing as it may have been with Cansrel, proved her goodness because she could have easily been swayed in another direction.

Always the sucker for a good romance, I really admired the way Kristin Cashore handled these storylines in both Graceling and Fire. It was never the focus, and it never overwhelmed the books, but in both cases it was a natural progression for the characters involved.

Graceling and Fire both offered a lot in terms of action, mysteries, friendship, and complexity in the characters. Oh, and not to mention getting the serious creeps from Leck, yikes. He is seriously the worst and probably my favorite villain. I absolutely fell in love with this series. Stay tuned for Bitterblue!

For April: The Chaos Walking series by Patrick Ness

BAM. Yes, I am cheating since there are three books, including one that I read in 2010, but these books are epic and brilliant. It’s been a few weeks since I turned the last page in Monsters of Men and I am still constantly thinking about these characters and world. You can read my full review here.

What was your favorite read this month?

April Recap

I’m actually really pleased with the number of reviews I managed to crank out this month — especially since I only had three in March. Hopefully I can keep it up!

Reviews Posted:
The Hunt by Andrew Fukuda
Insignia by S.J. Kincaid
Spell Bound by Rachel Hawkins
The Fine Art of Truth or Dare by Melissa Jensen
Catching Jordan by Miranda Kenneally
The Chaos Walking Trilogy by Patrick Ness
The Traitor in the Tunnel by Y.S. Lee
The Selection by Kiera Cass
Incarnate by Jodi Meadows
Wonder by R.J. Palacio

Giveaway:
Pre-order of Insignia by S.J. Kincaid

Bring it on, May!