Rapunzel’s tower is a satellite. She can’t let down her hair—or her guard. 

In this third book in the bestselling Lunar Chronicles series, Cinder and Captain Thorne are fugitives on the run, with Scarlet and Wolf in tow. Together, they’re plotting to overthrow Queen Levana and her army.

Their best hope lies with Cress, who has been trapped on a satellite since childhood with only her netscreens as company. All that screen time has made Cress an excellent hacker—unfortunately, she’s just received orders from Levana to track down Cinder and her handsome accomplice.

When a daring rescue goes awry, the group is separated. Cress finally has her freedom, but it comes at a high price. Meanwhile, Queen Levana will let nothing stop her marriage to Emperor Kai. Cress, Scarlet, and Cinder may not have signed up to save the world, but they may be the only ones who can.

I love list making. It’s more of a condition that I have. I must make lists! To-do lists. To-read lists. To-watch lists. To-go lists. You get the drift.

It makes perfect sense to me to start this sweet little feature on the blog. Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by the lovely ladies at The Broke and The Bookish and it’s all about setting up a theme a week and making a list based on that! Its made for people like me!

This week’s subject is Bookish Bucket List , and here’s mine :-

1. Travel around all the places the book I am reading is set in. For example, fly to Paris while reading Just One Day by Gale Forman and Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins. Live in Dublin while reading Karen Marie Moning. Read All of Game of Thrones while traveling to and fro between Ireland and Scotland. Go to Prague with a copy of Laini Taylor’s Daughter of Smoke and Bone.

2. Have Benedict Cumberbatch read all the works of Arthur Conan Doyle to me while we relax on the terrace under a blanket. Ahem.

3. Visit the sets of the movies that are based on the books and see the characters come to life. See the behind the scene magic.

4. Live inside Maggie Stiefvater‘s head while she constructs the next Raven Boys book.

5. Visit the Wizarding World of Harry Potter in Florida

6. Shift to Edinburgh in the hopes of gawking at J.K Rowling when she gets out to do her grocery shopping.

7. Own signed first editions of the Potter saga (Yeah, I am a potterhead)

8. Own a library with wood paneling and lush Persian carpets where I can spend the last of my days!

That’s it. There could be more if I let my imagination run. But let’s leave it for another day

What’s your bookish bucket list? Maybe yours can inspire mine

Cinder, the cyborg mechanic, returns in the second thrilling installment of the bestselling Lunar Chronicles. She's trying to break out of prison--even though if she succeeds, she'll be the Commonwealth's most wanted fugitive. Halfway around the world, Scarlet Benoit's grandmother is missing. It turns out there are many things Scarlet doesn't know about her grandmother or the grave danger she has lived in her whole life. When Scarlet encounters Wolf, a street fighter who may have information as to her grandmother's whereabouts, she is loath to trust this stranger, but is inexplicably drawn to him, and he to her. As Scarlet and Wolf unravel one mystery, they encounter another when they meet Cinder. Now, all of them must stay one step ahead of the vicious Lunar Queen Levana, who will do anything for the handsome Prince Kai to become her husband, her king, her prisoner.

When I first laid my eyes on Glitches, the prequel short story to The Lunar Chronicles, I had a bookgasm. I LOVED it. The concept was so ingenious and all sorts of awesome. A girl unwanted by her step mother, carrying the weight of being a cyborg? So I ordered a hardcover of Cinder, switched off my phone and sank into it, expecting sinful pleasure.

I waited. And waited. And then waited some more. I am not saying Cinder is a bad book, coz it’s not! It’s unique and pretty interesting but what it does not do is live upto expectations. You have great designs in your mind when you hear the words fairy tale retelling + Cyborg + Sci-fi. So long rant short, I did not fall in love with Cinder. I was so let down that I decided I might as well forgo the series. (stupid emotional past me!!)

I am SO glad that I muted the stupid decision gene and ordered Scarlet. Because my darlings, Scarlet is the REAL DEAL. This is the type of book Marissa Meyer probably dreamed of writing – Gorgeous writing, Swoony romance, Lovable characters, Pure entertainment, Nail-chewing-Lip-biting action and tension!!!

Can I just say how incredibly cool is her combining different fairy tale retellings into a tetra pack of pure YA mania? While Cinder was Cindrella’s re telling with a cyborg-y twist, Scarlet is the re telling of Red Riding Hood.

It has the framework skeleton of the original tale :

1. A girl wearing a red hoodie

2. In search of her missing grandma

3. Meeting a dangerous Wolf who may know her whereabouts

Then Meyer worked her magic :

Scarlet is a feisty red head who won’t give up on finding her missing Grandma. She comes across a street fighter named Wolf. (Is that swoony enough for you??)  She knows something is off about him and she suspects he is a part of the mystery of her missing grandma.

So what do they do? They go on a journey to hunt for the one woman who brought her up and taught her everything she knows today. Their journey will answer some questions – Where is Scarlet’s Grandmother? Why was an old woman with a tomatoe farm taken in the first place!?? Who are the guys who took her? What valuable information hides in her grandma’s head that’s worth the kidnapping and carnage?

But it will put up questions of a more unnerving variety – Who is Wolf? Or better yet.. What is Wolf? And will Scarlet even survive to find out for herself?

Scar and Wolf’s journey of uneasy acquaintances to friends to more than friends is one of the BEST parts of the novel. Wolf is dangerously sexy (He is a street fighter!) but there is soft vulnerable side to him that only Scar can bring out! (Cue Awwww) Their shy nervous romance will warm your heart into a puddle of gooey mess while you coo at your copy of the book. The element of danger and time sensitive nature of their mission Find-Grandma and save her just adds to the atmosphere of the novel and their romance. It’s not a fairy tale romance – near the end when all the secrets come tumbling out of the deep dark well, Scar and Wolf both have to accept each other unconditionally, bury their fears and uncertainties and let themselves be in the most unlikely of romances.

When I said the action packed journey of Scar and Wolf that had strains of lovely romance was One of the Best parts you may have wondered what the other awesome punch the novel packed. Yes? I won’t make you wait any longer.

Let me present to you, one of the reasons why I LOVED this book to bits :

CARSWELL THORNE.

So while Scar was on her way across the gorgeous French country side, looking for her Grand mother, unexpectedly helped by a deadly yet adorable Wolf, Cinder, our friendly Cyborg was breaking out of jail.

I did say this story has all sorts of amazing. As you can recall from Book 1, Cinder was arrested and tossed into a cell for standing upto the Lunar Queen Levana at the ball and revealing that she, Cinder, was herself a Lunar. (Gasp)

When the good Dr. Erland provides Cinder with tools to make her escape from the Beijing prison, he asks her to come find him in Africa where he will explain all. In this prison break, Cinder meets her partner in crime, Captain Thorne – a roguish criminal with an inflated sense of self that is preceded only by his incredible sense of humor. I love him I love him I love him.

Together Thorne and Cinder steal a space ship (yeah) and try to evade the authorities, becoming the most wanted fugitives out there.

This duo meets Scar and Wolf and they form the most unlikely band of rebels and trouble makers for Queen levana.

You will find most all the characters you met in Cinder – Prince Kai is there, stressed out and reluctantly thrilled that Cinder escaped. And there is Iko, cinder’s robot who’s awesome personality chip is now in the stolen space ship. So yeah, Iko’s a space ship. That’t the third best thing about this novel!!

Most authors do not live up their hype when it comes to the second book in a series but GOSH, Meyer has made Scarlet 10 times better than her debut! If Cinder made you feel cold then Scarlet is boiling over. But if you loved Cinder, then you are probably going to sleep with Scarlet under your pillow for a few weeks after you finish reading.

What I must note in this review is that this novel made me actually start admiring and liking Cinder a LOT. Since the first book, Cinder has grown by leaps and bounds and she’s surprised the reader in me. Maybe its got something to do with her bonding with Thorne. Maybe its got something to do with the author’s improving writing.

All I can say is that Scarlet is the perfect entertainment package – it will make you laugh out loud and it will make you sniff secretly to yourself. This is not a book to be missed. I repeat, it’s NOT a book to be missed.

Turn off your stupid decision gene, like I did and READ THIS BOOK.

Then go stalk Marissa Meyer because you’ll probably be in love with her when the book gets over.

Next in series is CRESS which I inhaled as soon as it came out and the review will be up tomorrow!

“Ender, Katniss, and now Darrow.”—Scott Sigler Pierce Brown’s relentlessly entertaining debut channels the excitement of The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins and Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card.“I live for the dream that my children will be born free,” she says. “That they will be what they like. That they will own the land their father gave them.”   “I live for you,” I say sadly.   Eo kisses my cheek. “Then you must live for more.”  Darrow is a Red, a member of the lowest caste in the color-coded society of the future. Like his fellow Reds, he works all day, believing that he and his people are making the surface of Mars livable for future generations. Yet he spends his life willingly, knowing that his blood and sweat will one day result in a better world for his children.   But Darrow and his kind have been betrayed. Soon he discovers that humanity reached the surface generations ago. Vast cities and sprawling parks spread across the planet. Darrow—and Reds like him—are nothing more than slaves to a decadent ruling class.   Inspired by a longing for justice, and driven by the memory of lost love, Darrow sacrifices everything to infiltrate the legendary Institute, a proving ground for the dominant Gold caste, where the next generation of humanity’s overlords struggle for power.  He will be forced to compete for his life and the very future of civilization against the best and most brutal of Society’s ruling class. There, he will stop at nothing to bring down his enemies . . . even if it means he has to become one of them to do so.Advance praise for Red Rising  “A story of vengeance, warfare and the quest for power . . . reminiscent of The Hunger Games and Game of Thrones.”—Kirkus Reviews   “Fast-paced, gripping, well-written—the sort of book you cannot put down. I am already on the lookout for the next one.”—Terry Brooks, New York Times bestselling author of The Sword of Shannara   “Very ambitious . . . a natural for Hunger Games fans of all ages.”—Booklist   “Pierce Brown’s empire-crushing debut is a sprawling vision.”—Scott Sigler, New York Times bestselling author of Pandemic   “A Hollywood-ready story with plenty of action and thrills.”—Publishers Weekly   “Reminiscent of . . . Suzanne Collins’s The Hunger Games . . . [Red Rising] will captivate readers and leave them wanting more.”—Library Journal (starred review)From the Hardcover edition.

Aren’t we all tired of the trend of “The Next Best Thing”? All the marketing campaigns love it to death. I personally don’t want to read “The Next 50 Shades of Grey”! (Presumably, Sylvia Day’s Bared to You) nor do I buy into “The Next JK Rowling” hype (Samantha Shannon with her 7 part Bone Season series)

I want to read something original. If it’s one of my favorite books repackaged, I’m not interested. But if it will make me feel what my favorite book did, then hello, where do I sign up!?

Red Rising was touted as another “The Next Hunger Games”. It is not. Not by a mile. It’s just not the same animal! If I were to go out on a limb then I’d say Red Rising is a bit more violent, a bit more brutal.

The Red in Red Rising is Darrow, a simple man who earns a hard living in the belly of the planet Mars. Earth became inhabitable and humans sifted to it’s red cousin. To make it sustain human life, a section of people were sent by the Powers that Be to work beneath Mars’ surface. They drill and drill and extract minerals crucial to make the surface okay for the rest of our species. Darrow is a such one Helldiver. 

This brings me to the new terminology this book births – it mostly combines two words that are already in oxford dictionary today. It does make reading a bit difficult and initially the twowords stepped on a nerve or two. But you’ll get used to it and it won’t make a difference.

The story takes a sharp turn upwards when Darrow realizes that he’s been lied to. The Government Lies! The surface of Mars has been inhabited by the Elite since forever! The Red section of society was duped into working in sub human conditions! Here is where the caste system becomes interesting.

More of the disparities of this caste division comes into focus when Darrow is chosen by an anti-elitist group targeting the atrocious government to pose as one of the Elite – The Golds. He is now a spy who has to change everything about himself to become someone else – everything except his purpose. The Golds took something dear away from him and he is fueled by the vengeance.

Darrow, is not a good person to know to be honest. And that is realistic – he is emotional bruised, eternally angry and is seeking vengeance. Will such a person make your insides warm? No? He is brash and abrasive and yep, tormented to a certain degree. Now impersonating a Gold, he infiltrates their command school. His aim? To reach the highest rung of the societal ladder and then wreck havoc. Sound strategy but it is not so easy to survive the command school.

There is a reason why the Gold rule over the rest of the colors. They actually are superior – physically and mentally. The command school chips away their emotional weakness and makes them into people worthy of being at the top of the food chain.

I liked the structure of the society – it made sense. The castes were not created just because : they all had reasons and purposes. The politics of this world is so intriguing in its depravity that it’ll make your blood boil. I’ve always been partial to government politics in fictional worlds (Think the epic Mistborn by Brandson Sanderson) and Red Rising does it incredibly well.

The command school and its weeding out of the unworthy via a competition was the part that was most similar to The Hunger Games. (Young people killing each other while the rest watched from their safe platform)

Darrow as I mentioned before is a flawed character and he will make bad decisions and deadly mistakes which are going to come and haunt him in the books following this one. There is a faint romance that’s more like a delicate fragrance and in the backdrop. If you are fighting for your life, you cannot be running around trees singing duets. But that’s my personal opinion.

The last section of this book infuses a bit of the past, specifically Greek Mythology when designating the heads of the command school – the people watching and judging the competition. That is where things got a little bizarre but in an entertaining way.

One thing that can be said for sure is that Red Rising cannot be bracketed into a single genre. It’s like a well rounded individual with a three dimensional personality. I wish there was more of the epic fantasy in this book because there is SO much scope!

I am waiting for the sequel The Golden Son that comes out next January. (So bloodydamn far off!!) Sh!t is going to hit the fan and I want to be there to sit and enjoy it all!

Conclusion : Highly Recommended reading! Read to live vicariously in a war torn world gone berserk! How can anyone resist that??

As a book obsessed people, we are always on the lookout for our next reads. We have a mountain pile of TBR books. We keep our ears and eyes open, our nose to the ground, sniffing around for which book’s hit the hype lottery and which books are friends are adding to their pile. Stacking the Shelves is hence our drug of choice – it’s a feature where we update all and sundry on the books we a) Bought b) Received for Review  c) Got gifted by our ever understanding/patient better halves and friends d) Borrowed .. or Stole. Whatever floats our boats.

It’s been hosted ever since time began by Tynga’s Reviews. You can head over there and enjoy their awesome blog.

This week my STS is going to be huge. Whoever said good things come in small packages, huh? I haven’t posted an STS in a while and I’ll be doing a sort of recap of the month for the books I’ve got. Hold your jealous horses

FOR REVIEW :

Don’t Look Back by Jennifer L. Armentrout – From the writer who’s take on Vampire Academy gave fangirls something to squee over with the Covenant series; I am very curious to how her writing style would be in Don’t Look Back. Very curious. There’s memory loss in this book – let’s see how that’s handled. Makes me think of Samantha Who? (Previously cancelled TV series, for the uninitiated)

After the End by Amy Plum – I have heard such good reviews about this book! My best friend borrowed my copy and absolutely loved Plum’s sense of humor. This is a dystopian and gawd I hope it fares better than the rest of it’s cousins!

#Scandal by Sarah Ockler – I like how there’s a twitter hashtag in the title. This book sounds like a fun sunday afternoon read with loads of gossip and drama.

Deep Blue by Jennifer Donnelly – I want to dive head first into this book! I haven’t read a single mermaid book – though Elizabeth Fama’s Monsterous Beauty is in my line of sight. This will be a start of a Quadrilogy and will follow the lives of 6 mermaids. I. Am. Very. Interested.

Prisoner of Night and Fog by Anne Blankman – I have already read this book and LOVED it to bits. It’s based in pre WW II Germany when Hitler was just rising to power. The setting, characters and tension of the storyline is so taut that it would make you literally sweat. The book’s out next month on the 22nd. I might do a Giveaway since it is SUCH a cool book.

Fever by Megan Abbott – The blurb teases your curiosity and the glowing reviews make you buy into all the hype! A book about a deadly contagion and family secrets. I am raring to read this thriller.

Rebel (Reboot #2) by Amy Tintera – Reboot was one of the BEST books I read when it came out last year. I even went ahead and gushed my love to Amy who was kind enough to gently accept it. Rebel takes the story forward with the speed of a freight train headed into collision with awesome. There is violence which makes the tender moments stand out. I absolutely love Wren, the main lead and I’m pretty sure you guys, who love badass-ness, would love this series too. Highly recommended. I think I must giveaway this book just because I want everyone to read it!

Prototype by M.D. Waters – This is the follow up to Archetype which is all about memory loss. I really have a soft spot for amnesia it seems. The audiobook is narrated by my favorite narrator, Khristine Hvam. Rachel from The Reader’s Den put the spotlight on these books and said they should be read successively. I totally go by her advice and will be jumping into them one after another.

This is all for now, I have bought a few more books and received some more for review but that’s for the next haul! What have you bought/received? Let me know down below!

Welcome to the 4th Annual Lucky Leprechaun Giveaway Hop!

It’s co hosted by I am a reader, not a writer and Books complete me

What you stand to win : 

1. Your book of choice from The Book Depository amounting to not more than $15.

addendum : If TBD does not deliver to your country, a $15 Amazon Gift Card.

a Rafflecopter giveaway
 

Welcome to another cool Giveaway! You can win a) Any book of your choice from the Book Depository OR b) A $10 Amazon Gift Card The choice is upto you!   a Rafflecopter giveaway

From New York Times bestselling author Sophie Jordan, Uninvited is a chilling and suspenseful story about a girl whose DNA brands her as a killer, perfect for fans of The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer and Confessions of a Murder Suspect.Davy had everything—a terrific boyfriend, the homecoming crown, a bright future at Juilliard—but when her genetic tests come back positive for Homicidal Tendency Syndrome, she loses it all. Uninvited from her prestigious school and avoided by her friends and family, she is placed in a special class with other

You have been uninvited.

This line is the emotional crux of the story. These are the words that creep beneath the emotional barrier of the protagonist and wreck havoc insider her mind and heart.

Davy Hamilton is a girl who has a perfect life on paper. Good looks – check. Good grades – check. Supporting family who is proud of her achievements – check. Involved best friend – check. Gorgeous, doting boyfriend – double check.

You can see she has got a good life going for her and she has a shiny future to look forward to. The starting of this story lands you right there, in the happy part of Davy’s life.

And then all goes to hell.

The story is set in a futuristic society where young individuals are screened for a gene that is responsible for acts of violence or homicidal tendencies. That is SO freaking awesome because I remember reading articles in a science journal (SciAm to be precise) where they discussed the creation-source of sociopaths and psychopaths – how your genetic makeup makes you susceptible to violence. Your personality is coded in your DNA. (Gives you food for thought on the illusion of free will and self-creation)

All that makes the premise of the story SO real. You can believe it ill happen somewhere in the future. We will play God. We will try & uproot the problem from the roots before it can find purchase in the ground. The blurb suggests this Minority Report-esque quality of the story.

Davy Hamilton, perfect student, perfect daughter tests positive for the Homicidal Tendency Syndrome. The government is predicting that Davy can turn into a murderer. She has the Kill-Gene. And hence, she is uninvited. Not just from her school, but from regular civilized society.

When this news goes public – the way people react to her has been written with such realism that you cannot exactly blame anyone and yet hate them for being so cowardly and disloyal. The changes that start taking place in the behavior of her boyfriend, her best friend, her family have so many undertones!! There is so much of reading between the lines. Davy thought she knew these people and they knew her back. That hope is such a painful, unsure thing that it hurts the heart. That hope for your people to stand by you in times of trouble. How it hurts to be left out in the cold, how it hurts when your own mother is afraid of you.

While reading the book you want to rage at the society. Don’t put Science ahead of basic Humanity! Violence is as much a matter of genetics as it is of the environment you grow up in! This is the classic Nature Vs Nurture debate just with very very high stakes! Don’t discriminate someone on the basis of what they might do!!

It hurts to read about Davy’s fall to the dredges of society – from the top, she goes to the bottom of the societal food chain. It hurts to see her on the other side of the glass window. But it is even more painful to read when her brother staunchly supports her and is as much hurt by her predicament as she is. I know I teared up in the first half of the story where Sophie Jordan brilliantly paints a picture of just how discriminating humans can be. It’s like we want to draw lines amongst our fellow people – a line demarcating Ok this is us and this is you and you are different from us and we don’t ever like different do we? We have no patience for that!

All the teenagers with the Kill Gene are segregated into a group and sent to a different public school. The area where they study is cordoned off and they are not allowed to mix with the regular population. The irony of the situation is not lost on you. As Davy wryly notices, because these kids have the genetic marker for violence, they are preyed upon. They are the ones on the receiving end of violence from the general population. As much hard as it was to read about the repercussions of such a screwed-up system, I loved that dark irony.

I can safely say the first half of Uninvited is dealing with such real issues and showing the readers the fall out of such blatant and ruthless prejudice, this time not on the basis of race or sex but genetics. People with this kill gene are now branded as to-be murderers. If you begin branding people with such negative bias then there will come a time when they will start proving you right.

This seclusion leads Davy to meet with Sean, a guy who looks dangerous, a guy she would never have befriended in her previous life as an A-grade student. Davy realizes that she herself used to be judgmental on the basis of superficial things. This forced fall into being an untouchable HTS carrier forced her to inspect her own life. It makes her a stronger person, a more real person and someone who learns to read people and not judge them by markers the society has set for them.

People are not who the world says they are. Uninvited makes you really think about issues and real world problems. It is the second half of the book that is slightly looser with some gaping holes in the storyline. Nevertheless they are written well and you already care for Davy and Shaun enough by the time to not care. These HTS carriers are then herded off to camps all over the country to make their seclusion from society more permanent.

But some of these teens who show promise are taken elsewhere – to be trained by the government to be killers. They already have the HTS gene – they already have the genetic make up to be one – why not use them for the government?

This is where most of the action of the story takes place – where violence is shown in it’s ugliest form but also where Davy and Shaun discover they have something good between them, something that should be nurtured in this hostile environment where death is not a big deal.

There is no cliffhanger at the end. As a part of a duology, Uninvited solely rests on the strength of it’s characters to hook the reader and want them to wait for the 2nd book. I personally can hardly wait!!

I loved the social sensitivity of the book and I loved the characters! Special mention of Sean again. I totally had a crush on him. He is this guy who has been hardened by circumstances and labeled by the society – yet he refuses to coy down. He refuses to let shame defines him. He is a better guy and a better person than so many of the people who do not carry the Kill Gene, the normal people.

Gosh! This book can make me think for hours on an end!

I so wish there was more plausibility in the second half but the first half hit me so much and moved me so much that I can give the writer some creative licence!

Concluding, I can only strongly recommend you to read this book. It is worth it. And it would not just entertain you, but make you think. What more do you want?

The earth-shattering conclusion to Veronica Rossi's "masterpiece" Under the Never Sky trilogy and sequel to the New York Timesbestselling Through the Ever Night (Examiner.com).

Their love and their leadership have been tested. Now it's time for Perry and Aria to unite the Dwellers and the Outsiders in one last desperate attempt to bring balance to their world.

The race to the Still Blue has reached a stalemate. Aria and Perry are determined to find this last safe-haven from the Aether storms before Sable and Hess do-and they are just as determined to stay together.

Meanwhile, time is running out to rescue Cinder, who was abducted by Hess and Sable for his unique abilities. And when Roar returns to camp, he is so furious with Perry that he won't even look at him, and Perry begins to feel like they have already lost.

Out of options, Perry and Aria assemble a team to mount an impossible rescue mission-because Cinder isn't just the key to unlocking the Still Blue and their only hope for survival, he's also their friend. And in a dying world, the bonds between people are what matter most.

In this final book in her stunning Under the Never Sky trilogy, Veronica Rossi raises the stakes to their absolute limit and brings her epic love story to an unforgettable close.

Review : 

Sample a song divided into 3 acts like a story – the beginning soulful and melodious, trembling with hope and promises of new love – slowly cresting to a peak – now throbbing with the raw want and need of a love distanced by geography – finally crashing into chorus that declares a never ending love with every wave upon wave of music.

The series of Under the Never Sky is that song and Into the Still Blue is the final chorus that makes audiences give a standing ovation. 

I was mighty lucky to have read an advanced reader’s copy of this absolutely gorgeous and riveting and worthy culmination of an epic series. Into the Still Blue answers all the questions a reader can ask. It fulfills all the expectations and then some a reader may have. It goes out of it’s way to love back the reader invested in the series since the start.

Very few books do that. The trend in YA these days is dismal towards the culmination of trilogies. The questions are hastily tied off – still leaking uncertainty and being messy and robbing the readers the satisfaction of coming a full circle. (Think Veronica Roth)

NOTHING about ItSB is convenient or in accord with any popular trend. It is written by someone with an honest heart and a poet’s soul. Veronica Rossi, you have won my heart, soul and piggy bank.

When you see the world inhabited inside the pages of ItSB, you do not want to be a part of it. The Aether storms are a raging beast on steroids – the world is crumbling underneath the funnels of death – human race will be extinct if they do not reallocate into the Still Blue. A magical place where the sky is a blue without the death veins – where it is calm and not a deadly beast intent on burning everything underneath. A place where both Hess of the moles and Sable of the Dwellers plan to take their respective flocks too.

But there is no Noah’s arc when the world is about to end. The panic portrayed by Rossi is spot on. Fear unmasks people and how. Characters reveal their true colors and you gain new understandings of the workings of every individual and complex minds inside.

When you see the world inhabited inside the pages of ItSB, you do not want to be a part of it. But when you meet the people in this story – you are more than willing to jump into the narrative and give them a helping hand and be their friend.

ItSB is a story of a race against time, a quest to search for a dying friend, a test of loyalties and humanity and moral values. It is a story of the bond between people – not just of love but of friendship too.

Under the Never Sky was a story examining the love between Aria and Perry. Through the Ever Night touched upon the amazing friendship that bloomed between Aria and Roar. Into the Still Blue is about the friendship that ropes into something fierce between Perry and Cinder.

It will make you weep hopeless and cheer loudly and get out of your favorite reading spot and pace with agitation because your heart cannot be calmed!

I was unsure of Cinder when I first met him and I remained unsure – till I saw him in the light of his loyalty towards Perry. I saw him as the child he was – clutching the unfair terms of his existence. That was when I related with him in the truest sense.

ItSB opens with Change. People are changing all around. Roar is a different man, his personality undergoing a painful surgery after he lost Liv. Veronica Rossi properly tosses you onto a roller coaster with no seat belt and leaves you clutching on the arm rests till your knuckles are white.

How much I love Roar and how I can understand what he is going through. Such a deep loss – but it’s not just of Liv. I cannot say more but you will understand as you read on. You will and then there will be some weeping with understanding.

As Roar changes he sets off a series of motions and all the FEELS that were carefully arranged fall like dominoes – the atmosphere in the caves where the tribes hide from the aether storms undergoes a change – the air is charged with tension – Perry changes as a reaction to the stranger that Roar has become. From a boy Perry has known all along Roar is now aggressive and blatantly rebellious. Imagine if you got up one morning and found the back of your hand changed – that is the disorientation Perry experiences. Only Aria can feel and understand Roar – she had saved him physically but in that fight his emotional self lost it’s way. And that doesn’t help with Perry’s shaky faith in Aria. There is hurt and betrayal and pain that singes the air.

This book is going to give you so much heartache! Because there is much lost to change, the triumphant moments echo louder in contrast.

The mission to save Cinder propels the emotionally heavy belly of this book and infuses an adrenalin rush into the events. Special mention goes to secondary characters like Brooke, Soren and of course, Cinder himself – who though secondary places a massive role in the story. And of course I am going to keep hush about it. (I am giving you ALL the incentives to read this book!!)

There are no shocking twists a la Allegiant, thank you very much. There are no cheap thrills. Whatever you feel will reverberate around every corner of your heart. The rush to save humanity feels like a very immediate danger, thanks to Rossi’s writing. There is the surprise of finding the identity of Aria’s father – a mystery unsolved since book 1. That scene is handled Oh-so-very-well!! I can still picturise it in my mind. Aria’s internal emotional conflict reflected back as the atmosphere of the violent world they live in. (When they make this into a movie – I am going to watch out for that scene )

I am ever so thankful that Aria and Perry’s romance did not eclipse the dire circumstances of the story as a whole. I am ever so thankful that Rossi did not take short cuts when dealing with messy emotions like distrust and grief. She goes into the thick of them and extracts spell binding moments for her characters.

The ending of this book and this series was bitter sweet.  I loathed the ending of this series. But I loved how Rossi had not cheated the readers out of an honest conclusion. I cannot make peace with the fact that this series has ended but I can make peace with the ending of this series.

Read this series if you want to fall in love with friendship and rejoice the feeling of love again. Read this series if you want to experience the tour de force that is the writing of Veronica Rossi. Read this series if you do not want to miss one of THE best character-driven YA series of all times.

I opened this review by saying this series is like a song – a song you will want to play on the loop for times to come.

Finally, as I tend to say, I rest my case.

Review : 

This is a combined review of the two novellas published alongwith the Under The Never Sky trilogy.

1. Roar and Liv (UtNS #0.5)

“Liv or love?” she asks. I brush her hair away from her neck and rest my hand there, feeling the beating of her pulse. “Either,” I answer. “They’re the same to me.” 

Roar is a fan favorite and I love him. I would have loved him even if he wasn’t a fan favorite. There are no conditions applied. And that’s precisely the nature of the romantic entanglement that is Roar and Liv. They love each other – without a breath of hesitation. They have always loved each other.

This is not their love story per se, but it is a window into their world of harsh skies and soft stolen kisses. The main books in the trilogy consist of the dual PoV of Aria and Perry but this novella puts the spotlight on Roar – it gives him the center stage and allows us readers to hear his thoughts as if we were dwellers born with the gift of sharing a thought through touch of skin. How I wish.

This short story is a story in a world where Perry lives unaffected by Aria, at a precipice where he doesn’t know his world is about to change. As a reviewer astutely mentioned in her post, this story is a window into how Perry works. We see him through Roar’s eyes and understand him and get to know him. They say you can be judged by who your friends are and how they are with you. Judge all you want, you will come out loving Perry the more for it.

Liv is a character I did not personally relate to. I love Roar so much that I wanted to like Liv, I wanted to believe she was worthy of his unabashed love but alas, I am neutral when it came to her. Brooke though piqued by curiosity and I am glad she got her own novella that falls smack in between Book 2 and 3.

As novellas and short stories go, Roar and Liv is a must read for fans of this series. It has absolutely no filler and is choc-a-bloc with feelings and emotions and more of the characters we love.

2. Brooke (UtNS #2.5)

What a fabulously unconventional and gutsy character to choose as the central figure of a novella!

Not many readers like Brooke and perhaps with good reason. She is the girl Perry dated before he met and fell in love with Aria. This novella is Brooke’s view of her world and of Perry. It’s a story that contains her love and her pain and heart break and finally the determination to get on with her life without the boy she was in love with.

Brooke is a no nonsense character and in this novella I came to rather like and root for her. I hoped she’d find her Happily Ever After and I felt for her when she sat nursing an aching heart filled to the brim with unrequited love.

This story is Brooke’s journey from a girl dealing with rejection to a woman who moves on and looks towards the future with a lighter heart and a world of hope.

The writing is as expected, par excellence. If nothing else, read this story to savor the exquisiteness of Veronica Rossi’s prose.