Ruby Iyer Short Stories | Laxmi Hariharan

                 96/100                   87/100                         

Both of these short stories are novellas associated with the The Many Lives of Ruby Iyer. If you want to find its review you can click here. 

+5/+4 Cover Design

I think both of these covers are really nice, though I have to admit I like the scheme of The First Life of Vikram Roy better, especially when all of the books match the same layout. They have an air of mystery to them which is definitely eye-catching. 

+4/+4 Writing Style

The writing style for both was the same, and I have to say I enjoyed these short stories far more than I enjoyed The Life of Ruby Iyer. The writing was more precise and much easier to understand.  

+5/+3 Plot Development

Both short stories gave backgrounds on our two main characters and I really liked Vikram's story, more than Ruby's. Vikram's back story was much more complete and flowed extremely well. We saw a progression in Vikram from a sweet innocent boy to the hardened man in Ruby's story. Personally I liked his perspective a lot more than Ruby's. Rub'y backstory seemed rushed and choppy. We get glimpses of her and her past but not a completely storyline. 

+5/+4 Character Relations

Because the storyline was so much more fleshed out in Vikram's story, the relationship between the characters was a lot more believable. We can easily see why Vishal resents him and how that particular relationship developed, as well as the effect everyone in Vikram's life has had on him. In Ruby's case, we didn't get to see as much of this. Her relationship with Sanjay seemed weak and we didn't even get to see Panky who was a major part of the book.

+5/+4 Character Development

Like I mentioned before, because Vikram's story had so much more development. We saw his progression into the character we know and love, and while we saw bits and pieces of the same for Ruby, her development wasn't as concrete as Vikram's was.

+5/+4 Likability of Protagonist

In general, I enjoyed Vikram's perspective much more than Ruby's. I thought he was a lot more relatable than Ruby was and the writing fit his narrative better.

+5/+4 Necessity of Minor Characters

Similar to character relations, we saw exactly how each relationship affected Vikram, while we didn't get the same for Ruby.

+4/+3 Setting Description 

While the writing was the same for both books, I found that Vikram's story was much easier to visualize in terms of setting.

+5/+4 Interesting Storyline

Because I had more of an affinity for Vikram's story, I found his background more interesting than I found Ruby's.

+3/+3  Predictability

Because these were backstories, there wasn't too much unpredictability in them, though I have to say that Vikram's story had many more gasp-worthy moments than Ruby's story. We knew the initial and final states but everything in between had yet to be decided, a journey that had many more twists and turns in Vikram's story.

+50/+50 Finished

Final Total: 96/100 ; A                        87/100 ; B+                     

Overall I thought both of these short stories were fantastic, much better than the original book. Specifically I thought Vikram's story was very well-written. The entirety of it flowed incredibly well and by the end the reader would easily see what molded him into the hard man we see in Ruby's story. 

Ruby's backstory, on the other hand, lack a little in terms of character development. Her story was substantially shorter and, as a result, I felt like the characters and relationships could be fleshed out more. Though the writing in this story was definitely better than the original book. 

If you guys read these short stories, let me know what you think! 

Turn It Off | S. Elle Cameron

93/100

“Life is funny. One minute you’re trying to find something to live for, and the next, it comes walking through your door in the middle of the night.”

Turn It Off follows the life of Peyton Giordano (from A Tragic Heart) as he struggles to find strength to live following the tragic loss of his mother all while falling victim to the lures of drug addiction, mental illness, reckless romances, and countless other internal and external demons. Tormented by his mother’s death, and both the absence of his father and the physical abuse he experienced by his step-father, Peyton embarks on a journey to find balance in his life.

After starting a new life under his aunt and uncle’s care, Peyton finds himself yielding to the evils inside of him more than ever before. Terrified of exposing his true feelings, he learns new ways to turn off his pain. Peyton quickly comes to realize that just because it doesn’t hurt for a moment, doesn’t mean the pain is really gone.

The more he tries to shut everything out, the more he indulges in his dirty habits thrusting his life into a vicious cycle of chaos. As life always has a way of revealing, however, there are but so many times we can go around before we decide to jump off the ride.

Turn It Off acts as a prequel to A Tragic Heart and is the third installment to the RED Tragedies series.

Since it is the third book in the series, there may be minor spoilers ahead (though I did try to keep the contents of the book pretty vague). If you want to find my reviews to the other two books, you can find them below. 

A Tragic Heart 

RED

+5 Cover Design

Out of all the covers this is by far my favorite. It's the one that looks the most cohesive in terms of the actual image and in terms of the story. If I saw this sitting on the shelves of a bookstore, I would definitely pick it up. 

+5 Writing Style

Cameron's writing style has remained consistent throughout all of the books and I really love it. There's a certain talent she has in being able to express emotion in a way that's relatable even though the reader may not be able to completely empathize with the circumstances.

I found it really interesting how it was written from a first person, past tense perspective constantly foreshadowing the ending. And overall it gave a bigger insight to Peyton as a character, which I loved. The only way to follow this up would be to write from Mason's perspective, specifically his thoughts during the latter half of his marriage with Taylor. I would love to know what he was thinking during that rough patch.

+4 Plot Development

Unlike a thriller or a mystery where the trajectory of the plot is generally set out, we didn't really know what would happen. It was more learning more backstory and background of a character we already know and love and in that respect I think the book did a fantastic job.

+4 Character Relations

I thought the character relations were pretty interesting. While I couldn't understand many of the romantic aspects of it, such as the problems between Adalyn and Peyton that seemed to randomly come up, I especially liked the brotherly relationship between Mason and Peyton. I think the most relatable moment was when Mason, after bailing Peyton out time after time, finally put his foot down and let Peyton fail, which led to him finally getting better. I think that moment was a crucial turning point and strengthened their relationship, I just wish we got to see more interaction between them after Taylor came into the picture.

+3 Character Development

Peyton definitely developed throughout the book, but it just took him a while to get himself of his own grave. As a reader it was definitely frustrating seeing him slide back into his dangerous habits, especially when he's had so many close calls with overdosing. It was especially frustrating when his close friends, even Mason would invite him out to parties with the disclaimer "I'll make sure you don't drink", because even the environment is tempting enough. I just think that Peyton would have recovered faster had he been in different environment completely cut off from the party scene, which is why I think rehab helped him so much. Though the character development was fairly well done, as a reader it was frustrating watching him fall into the same habits repeatedly.

+3 Likability of Protagonist

On the same note, because Peyton kept throwing himself back into this dangerous and self-destructive behavior, it was hard to like him as a character. All I wanted to do was shake some sense into him, but alas I couldn't and had to watch as he became more and more of an addict. His lack of independence made me like him less.

+5 Necessity of Minor Characters

The minor characters had a huge influence on Peyton's actions, both positive and negative. Adalyn, Mason and Taylor ad a large role in his recovery but, like I mentioned early, everyone else (even including them sometimes) had a large role in his addiction. Their influence majorly shaped the story and they were crucial to the plot.

+5 Setting Description 

The setting was well set, I didn't have any trouble visualizing the characters or the scene.

+5 Interesting Storyline

Because I had read and loved all the other books, I was already invested in the characters and as a result, the plot of this story and the background we get on Peyton was something I really loved.

+4  Predictability

Because this was a retelling of parts of A Tragic Heart, we knew how the story would end. What we didn't know was how we would get from the initial point to the final point. While there's definitely a pattern throughout the characters, each one responds differently to the obstacles thrown in their way and I love how we get a slightly different reaction each time.

+50 Finished

Final Total: 93/100 ; A

Throughout the book we focused more on the time period after Karson and before Taylor and I wish we had gotten more of the two endpoints as well. While Peyton patched things up with his real father, I wish we had gotten some amount of closure with Karson, maybe a final confrontation. Other than that I thought this book, like the rest, was fantastic. If you haven't picked up this series I highly recommend them, and if you have let me know what you thought in the comments below!

Winter | Marissa Meyer

96/100

It's two days into my winter break and I just finished reading Winter (see what I did there) and again I remembered the feeling of just falling back into a book, the feeling of becoming invested and even attached to the characters and actually caring about what happens to them. If you haven't picked up the Lunar Chronicles or heard of them I highly recommend you do. It's essentially a fairytale-retelling in a science-fiction dystopian world, definitely something worth checking out. There will be some spoilers ahead, since this is the fourth and final book, so if you haven't read the books, read them and come back. In the meantime I'll link my reviews to the three other books in the series.

Cinder
Scarlet
Cress
Fairest

+5 Cover Design

All of the covers have been styles of classic fairytales and this one just continues the trend. I really like the trend of revamping the main focus of classic fairytales into this science-fictiony theme, so I give this cover a 5/5. 

+5 Writing Style

The writing style was fantastic, just as all the other books have been. It was so easy to start reading and begin to lose myself in the world of Luna. 

+5 Plot Development

Since Winter was the finale book to the series, it was crucial that it include everything that happens.  Usually one of two things happen: the first being that the author simply shortens the book without including any of these details (*cough* Blood of Olympus *cough*) or they decide to divide it into two books because "everything won't fit" (*cough* UnDivided *cough*). But Marissa Meyer wrote and published 800 pages of beautiful conclusion, and it worked. 

I thought the plot itself was developed perfectly. There were a perfect amount of twists and turns for it to be believable and still work out, and early on in the book we were on the edge of our seat towards the build up of the conclusion. 

+4 Character Relations

If there was anything I had a problem with, it was character relations, mostly because I really didn't enjoy the sets of couples we had. Multiple couples working together to overthrow the dictator just sounds unrealistic, I mean, there's got to be at least one single person in the group. It just seems too convenient that every couple ends with a 'happily ever after'. 

While Wolf and Scarlet are my least favorite couple, my biggest issue was with Cress and Thorne. There was one scene in particular when they're sneaking into the coronation and Thorne ends up kissing some random Lunar, which makes Cress go ballistic. Now if this were real life, Cress would admit she likes him and he would slowly break it to her that he's not interested in the same way, creating awkward tension between them for the rest of the book. But of course, books don't reflect the disappointment of reality so instead he passionately kisses and admits that he loves her too. Classic. 

While I didn't have any major, specific issues with Wolf and Scarlet or Winter and Jacin, something about them just irked me. Their bond was too forced. Wolf and Jacin were both too dominating males, risking everything for their partner. It kept getting in the way of the logical approach of the revolution. 

The only couple I had respect for was Kai and Cinder. For a majority of the book they weren't together, but when they were apart they wouldn't mindlessly worry about one another. Sure, it was in the back of their minds but they knew they had a responsibility to their people first. Kai understands that Cinder is a strong, independent woman (though I guess the same can't be said about the rest of the female characters) and is able to let her go without too much of a fight. I respect the fact that they don't necessarily need to be around each other, they just want to be around each other. 

+5 Character Development

So we could talk about the character development of Cinder finally becoming a queen, but we all know how that turns out. I want to take a moment to talk about Levana. We saw a bit of her side in Fairest and a bit more of her perspective in Winter. 

I think Levana is one of the best villains I've read in a while. There's something so interesting about her character since she truly believes she's in the right. I think it's so easy to take Levana as the bad side and Cinder as the good, but I was able to really see where Levana was coming from. She was raised in an environment where killing and torturing were accepted, even encouraged as methods of rule. So it's no surprise that her rule mimics this. 

Her hate for Winter also mimics this. She's been raised to know beauty and manipulation, but Winter's world only consists of beauty, one of the reasons the public likes her so much. Levana does feel some amount of jealousy for Winter, but I genuinely think she doesn't understand why people like her so much. She doesn't understand the concept of not controlling someone, because the idea of letting someone have control of their emotions means that they can easily turn against her, something that has happened so often in the past. 

Most villains in other books have understood their evil position, and the fact that Levana doesn't understand she's on the "bad" side is an interesting perspective, especially when you attempt to get to the root of her problems. 

+4 Likability of Protagonist

Cinder is fantastic and I love her, but since the book is named after Winter I'm going to consider her as the protagonist. I understand she had the Lunar sickness, but she lacked some crucial common sense throughout the book. One example is the initial spread of the mutated letumosis. She runs off because she thinks she's seen Jacin and some old woman intercepts her and tells her that Jacin left her a piece of candy to proclaim his love for her. Winter, you've known Jacin since you guys were toddlers, does this sound like something he would do? But of course, she doesn't take notice of the inconsistencies and brings about yet another subplot of the letumosis. 

+5 Necessity of Minor Characters

I really don't think I even need to touch on this, but everyone was crucial to the plot. Each character had his/her skill set that contributed to the plot. The only character that seemed mildly unnecessary was Winter, she didn't really do much except coax the wolf soldiers to their side.

+5 Setting Description

Like I mentioned before, it was so easy to get lost within the pages and that was partly due to how well the scene was set out. The visual imagery of Luna and the castle, especially when Cinder was looking up at the palace from the lake was stunning and so easy to picture.

+5 Interesting Storyline

Of course the storyline was interesting, otherwise there's no way I would have gotten through an 800 page book in two days.

+3  Predictability

There wasn't some big reveal or any element of surprise really. We knew that Levana would be overthrown and Cinder would step in her place. We knew all the couples would get together and stay together. All we were reading for was how it happened, and in this case that was satisfying enough.

+50 Finished

Final Total: 96/100 ; A

Overall this was such a great book to get me back into reading. It's been less than 24 hours since I've finished the book and yet the feeling of book depression still hangs over me. If you haven't read this book, I highly recommend, and if you have read it, let me know in the comments below what you thought! 

Mistborn | Brandon Sanderson

94/100

In a world where ash falls from the sky, and mist dominates the night, an evil cloaks the land and stifles all life. The future of the empire rests on the shoulders of a troublemaker and his young apprentice. Together, can they fill the world with color once more?

In Brandon Sanderson's intriguing tale of love, loss, despair and hope, a new kind of magic enters the stage - Allomancy, a magic of the metals.

+1 Cover Design

There were several covers of this book floating around, and I have to admit that this one is my least favorite. The only one I liked were the newest white ones, marketed as YA books. I just feel as though this cover in particular is extremely busy. There's too much detail and too many lines and drawings making it a non-cohesive cover. I don't hate the font though. 

+5 Writing Style

Brandon Sanderson's writing style is absolutely amazing. So many people have called him the king of high-fantasy and he is complete deserving of that title. His writing just flows really well. The transitions between chapters, scenes, and different POVs is just incredible. 

+5 Plot Development

Yet another amazing aspect of the book. We knew the trajectory of the book from the beginning and while the novel stayed on the predetermined path it was, by no means, predictable. The intertwining of all these different subplots made for such a complex and interesting book. 

+5 Character Relations

My favorite part of any book is the relationships between characters, whether it be between friends, more-than-friends, or enemies. I love the interactions and dialogue between them. And this book reminded me exactly why I love relationships so much. We see such real interactions in this story. We see heartfelt conversations, serious conversation, angry conversation; we even get to see a bit of wit thrown in there every once in a while. Everything about the characters felt so natural. 

+4 Character Development

Because this is the first book in a series, we didn't see character development in everyone, but we did begin to see it in many of the main characters. For example, Vin and Kelsier both grew from each other. Vin became trusting and confident, while Kelsier became mature. Like everything else in this book the character development felt natural in the sense that the development wasn't absolute. Characters would frequently revert to their original thinking simply because it was habit to them and it served a sense of realism that most books lack.  

+4 Likability of Protagonist

I'm not sure who would be considered as the protagonist since there are two main characters. But for the sake of argument, let's just say it was Vin. I know some people don't necessarily like Vin because she's a bit whiny and repetitive in her thoughts, but I didn't dislike her at all. Sure at some points it was mildly frustrating but mostly I found it natural. As humans we tend to focus heavily on our insecurities and I think Vin was just portraying that aspect of herself. Other than that though, as a female lead she is fantastic. Her Allomancy gives her so much power and I love seeing that confident Mistborn inside of her. 

+5 Necessity of Minor Characters

There are a lot of characters that are part of Kelsier's crew and most, if not all, of them have some type of crucial role in the plot. Sazed, Breeze, Dockson, Marsh. Though each character may not have gotten a lot of page time, from Kelsier we can tell how much they've really done for the mission.

+5 Setting Description

I feel like this goes hand in hand with writing style. Since the writing style flowed, the setting description followed. There was never a moment where I couldn't understand at least the basics of what was happening or where they were. 

+5 Interesting Storyline

Since the plot development was fantastic, I can say that the original idea was fantastic as well. 

Interesting storyline + great plot development = happy reader. 

+5  Predictability

There wasn't much about this book that was cliché or predictable. We were always kept on the edge of our seat when we were reading and everything caught us by surprise. 

+50 Finished

Final Total: 94/100; A

All in all this was a fantastic read. For so long I've been seeing this book everywhere and finally I decided to read it and it was a fantastic decision. 

In fact Courtney from CourtneyReads and I are doing a Buddy Read of the whole trilogy and at various checkpoints in the book we've been doing discussion posts which I will link to below: 

Discussion #1

Discussion #2

Discussion #3

Discussion #4

Discussion #5

If you haven't read this book I highly recommend it. I'm not usually a huge fantasy person but I am definitely loving this book and this series, so I suggest giving it a try even if the genre doesn't seem to fit. It takes a few chapters to get into it, but once you're in it's hard to get out.