Review: Insurgent

Insurgent
(Divergent #2)
By Veronica Roth

Published: May 1, 2012 by HarperTeen
Read from:  May 1-3, 2012
Number of pages: 525
Source:  Anderson's Bookshop
Find it on:

Summary: One choice can transform you—or it can destroy you. But every choice has consequences, and as unrest surges in the factions all around her, Tris Prior must continue trying to save those she loves—and herself—while grappling with haunting questions of grief and forgiveness, identity and loyalty, politics and love.

Tris's initiation day should have been marked by celebration and victory with her chosen faction; instead, the day ended with unspeakable horrors. War now looms as conflict between the factions and their ideologies grows. And in times of war, sides must be chosen, secrets will emerge, and choices will become even more irrevocable—and even more powerful. Transformed by her own decisions but also by haunting grief and guilt, radical new discoveries, and shifting relationships, Tris must fully embrace her Divergence, even if she does not know what she may lose by doing so.

New York Times bestselling author Veronica Roth's much-anticipated second book of the dystopian Divergent series is another intoxicating thrill ride of a story, rich with hallmark twists, heartbreaks, romance, and powerful insights about human nature.

Cover Reveal: Ashen Winter by Mike Mullin

Ashen Winter
(Ashfall #2)
By Mike Mullin

Expected Publication: October 8, 2012 by Tanglewood Press
Find it on:

Summary: It’s been over six months since the eruption of the Yellowstone supervolcano. Alex and Darla have been staying with Alex’s relatives, trying to cope with the new reality of the primitive world so vividly portrayed in Ashfall, the first book in this series. It’s also been six months of waiting for Alex’s parents to return from Iowa. Alex and Darla decide they can wait no longer and must retrace their journey into Iowa to find and bring back Alex’s parents to the tenuous safety of Illinois. But the landscape they cross is even more perilous than before, with life-and-death battles for food and power between the remaining communities. When the unthinkable happens, Alex must find new reserves of strength and determination to survive.

My Thoughts

I'm not sure what I was expecting for the cover of Ashen Winter, but I was very surprised when this image first appeared up on my cover watch shelf.  I think I was expecting a more subdued cover.  With a title like Ashen Winter I wasn't expecting the bright pop of red/pink on the cover, especially when you compare it to the desolate cover of Ashfall which is was initially drew me to the book. 

I guess the cover leaves me with a lot of questions.  the first being what exactly is that redish/pink in the background? To me it looks like muscle tissue, and if that is indeed what it is, why is it featured on the book cover? my second question is who's hands are on the cover, is it Alex and Darla's maybe Alex and one of his parents?  With just over 6 months till the book is released this book is absolutely on my must read list.  

Read my review of Ashfall

 

Review: Ashfall

Ashfall
(Ashfall #2)
By Mike Mullin

Published: October 11th 2011 by Tanglewood Press
Read from:  January 11-14, 2012
Number of pages: 466
Source:  HS Library
Find it on:

Summary:
Under the bubbling hot springs and geysers of Yellowstone National Park is a supervolcano. Most people don't know it's there. The caldera is so large that it can only be seen from a plane or satellite. It just could be overdue for an eruption, which would change the landscape and climate of our planet.

Ashfall is the story of Alex, a teenage boy left alone for the weekend while his parents visit relatives. When the Yellowstone supervolcano erupts unexpectedly, Alex is determined to reach his parents. He must travel over a hundred miles in a landscape transformed by a foot of ash and the destruction of every modern convenience that he has ever known, and through a new world in which disaster has brought out both the best and worst in people desperate for food, water, and warmth. With a combination of nonstop action, a little romance, and very real science, this is a story that is difficult to stop reading and even more difficult to forget.

Review: Matched

Matched
(Matched #1)
By Ally Condie

Published: November 30th 2010 by Dutton Juvenile
Read from:  November 7-10, 2011
Number of pages: 369
Source:  HS Library
Find it on:

Summary: Cassia has always trusted the Society to make the right choices for her: what to read, what to watch, what to believe. So when Xander's face appears on-screen at her Matching ceremony, Cassia knows with complete certainty that he is her ideal mate... until she sees Ky Markham's face flash for an instant before the screen fades to black.

The Society tells her it's a glitch, a rare malfunction, and that she should focus on the happy life she's destined to lead with Xander. But Cassia can't stop thinking about Ky, and as they slowly fall in love, Cassia begins to doubt the Society's infallibility and is faced with an impossible choice: between Xander and Ky, between the only life she's known and a path that no one else has dared to follow.