Monday, September 22, 2014

Kiera Cass - my first meet and greet

So this past summer I was able to meet one of my favorite Authors, Kiera Cass, who wrote the Selection Series. A recent post on her website reveals she is adding two more, that's right TWO more full length novels to the series. The Heir is set to release May 5, 2015 and there is no title or date on the last book.

The Selection is about a girl, America, who is put into a pool of girls to try to win Prince Maxon's affection in hopes to be the new Queen. The setting is in the future in the United States where we have reverted back to a King and Queen instead of a President. Also, the people have been broken down into a caste system of numbers where what ever your number is will decide what type of work you can preform. America is currently a 5 which are artists and musicians. Maxon is the son of the current King and Queen making him a 1. Aspen, America's long time friend and neighbor, is a 6 which is the lowest of the Castes and he is a laborer. In the Selection America deals with the fact that a lot of people cannot see past the number she once was. Once you are chosen for the Selection you are bumped up to a 3 which is where most other famous and wealthy people are. I dont want to say to much more without giving it away.

The Elite continues on with America deciding if she can win Maxon over or if she will risk it all for Aspen. She also bumps heads with Maxon's father and realizes there is a lot more going on outside of the Palace with the caste system than the King is letting on. Again, if I say more I will surely be giving too much away.

The One, as you can probably guess Maxon has to narrow his choice down to 1 girl and choose his bride and the future queen. This book was better than the first two, which is very hard for most authors to pull off. Kiera Cass really does an amazing job at keeping you interested right up to the very last chapter. I wanted to cry at some parts and SCREAM at Maxon and America in others. This last book really makes you feel what the characters are feeling.

Now there are Novellas in this series as well.

The Prince is about the first time Maxon comes into contact with America. Honestly this just made me love Maxon even more than I thought I ever could. I love novellas told from the opposite sex's point of view. You read about Maxon's struggle to win over his Father and yet make is own decisions to make an attempt for real love.

The Guard is told from Aspen's point of view when he joins the Guard, making him a 2 and being in the palace with America while she is dating Maxon. I wasn't fond of Aspen but this book did give me a soft spot for him.

The Queen is being released in 21 days and will be about The Queens time in the Selection. How she came to become the Queen and the bonds she made with the other girls she competed with.

The Favorite is to be about Marlee. I am not sure what this is about because I have not really researched too much about it. I did pre-order the Queen/Favorite combo pack and will make an attempt to update after I have read them both.

The Jewel - Amy Ewing

Since I am terrible at blogging apparently I am going to attempt to keep up to date reactions to all of the books I read. You can visit my shelfari page and see what i am reading there as well as what I plan to read in the future. [sgamble187]

I recently read The Jewel by Amy Ewing. WOW is how I would sum up this book in 1 word. If you have read the Chemical Garden Trilogy (Wither, Sever, Fever) or The Selection Series (The Selection, The Elite, The One, -The Heir* not yet released) Then I have no doubt that you will also love this new and up coming series.

The Jewel isn't a piece of Jewelry, it is actually the center of an island or the capital of this 'country'. The book never really says exactly what the world is only that water surrounds all of the land, and that is where the poorer families live. Then there are stone walls separating each class of citizens basically until you reach the center, which is the Jewel.

The people of the Jewel are royalty and you soon learn that for what ever reason they cannot conceive children of their own. Have no fear though, because they are royalty they have tons of money and can afford to buy girls to carry their children for them. They even have the technology to choose to have a boy or a girl. But this isn't even all of it...

The story follows Violet, a girl who is chosen to become a surrogate after a blood test shows she basically has magic in her. They call magic Augury in this book. There are 3 different kinds, the ability to change colors, the ability to change shapes, and the ability to make life or growth. The royals buy these girls and use the Augury magic to have the perfect children. The girls are forced to use the magic to make the child look how their owner wants them to look.

There is a love story in this book, however the main focus point is on Violets struggle to take charge of her life. She realizes very quickly that she has never been able to decide on anything since she was chosen to become a surrogate. When she is purchased she is even more limited and must listen to what The Duchess of the Lake tells her to do. When surrogates do not listen they are punished and in some cases even put to death. The whole book you are put on the edge of your seat waiting for The Duchess to hurt Violet for disobeying her. Lets just say it finally happens at the end of the book and you have to wait for the next one to come out around 1 year from now :(

Now to the writing style. It is told from a 16 year old girls point of view, but thankfully Violet does not act like a younger girl as in some other young adult books (I'm looking at you House of Night novels). There are very long descriptive parts about the scenery and the background on what is going on. I am the type of person who usually skips this part of the book and looks for the next set of quotation marks to pick back up on the story. This town, country, whatever it is, is seriously so interesting to me that I didn't skip any details. You as a reader are pulled right in to this story by the first few pages. I just needed to know more about Violet and the Jewel. I read this book in a day, which sadly is not unusual for me when I find a good book like this. Amy Ewing really sold me on her first book she had published. I have high expectations for the second book which does not yet have a title but is set to release September 2015.

Update 9/22. If you write to Amy on her website AmyEwingBooks.com she will respond!!! So insanely cool that she takes time out of her day to do this!