Book Review #462 - Four: A Divergent Story Collection (Divergent #0.1 - #0.4) by Veronica Roth

Two years before Beatrice Prior made her choice, the sixteen-year-old son of Abnegation’s faction leader did the same. Tobias’s transfer to Dauntless is a chance to begin again. Here, he will not be called the name his parents gave him. Here, he will not let fear turn him into a cowering child.

Newly christened “Four,” he discovers during initiation that he will succeed in Dauntless. Initiation is only the beginning, though; Four must claim his place in the Dauntless hierarchy. His decisions will affect future initiates as well as uncover secrets that could threaten his own future—and the future of the entire faction system.

Two years later, Four is poised to take action, but the course is still unclear. The first new initiate who jumps into the net might change all that. With her, the way to righting their world might become clear. With her, it might become possible to be Tobias once again.

My Rating: 5/5

This was one of my most eagerly anticipated books of 2014 and so I was happy to discover that it met my very high expectations.

I liked not only the insight we got into Tobias's background and thoughts but also the faction world.

In this book which is primarily set 2 years before Divergent, the cracks are only just starting to appear in the faction system whilst in Divergent it is already shattered and fully corrupt.

I found that whilst I really did enjoy all the individual stories, they seemed to get better as the book progressed.

My individual review of the short story The Transfer can be found here.

Book Review #461 - Scarlet (Lunar Chronicles #2) by Marissa Meyer

This is not the fairytale you remember.

But it’s one you won’t forget.

Scarlet Benoit’s grandmother is missing. The police have closed her case. The only person Scarlet can turn to is Wolf, a street fighter she does not trust, but they are drawn to each other.

Meanwhile, in New Beijing, Cinder will become the Commonwealth’s most wanted fugitive – when she breaks out of prison to stay one step ahead of vicious Queen Levana.

As Scarlet and Wolf expose one mystery, they encounter Cinder and a new one unravels. Together they must challenge the evil queen, who will stop at nothing to make Prince Kai her husband, her king, her prisoner . . .

My Rating: 5/5

This book is the sequel to Cinder which I read earlier this year.

When I first began reading this book it didn't feel like a sequel at all and felt rather more like a companion novel. This was due to the change of narrator.

Because of this, I found it a little difficult to get into the story, even though it was enjoyable, I had to adjust my expectations.

However, once Scarlet and Cinder's stories began to merge I was unable to put the book down and found that ultimately I liked this book a lot more than I liked Cinder.

I found Scarlet a lot more relatable that Cinder as I found her to be more genuine.

Book Review #460 - Spurt by Chris Miles

Jack Sprigley isn’t just a late-bloomer. He’s a no-bloomer. It's nearly the end of Year 8, and with puberty still a total no-show, Jack's in serious danger of being left behind by his friends. But then he comes up with a plan to solve all his problems. It's simple: all he has to do is fake puberty....

My Rating: 3.5/5

I received this book for review from Hardie Grant Egmont.

I decided to read this book because it seemed entirely different to usually read, and it was.

The reality TV aspect of it reminded me a lot of Loathing Lola. Other than that, this book was entirely unique.

The characters were only 14 years old and so they were quite immature and juvenile which didn't annoy me anywhere near as much as something like that usually would.

I would recommend this book primarily to anyone in the 12-15 age bracket, but I think anyone could pick this book up and get a laugh out of it.