Review: The Revenge of Seven

The Revenge of Seven (Lorien Legacies #5)
Pittacus Lore
Science Fiction

The have killed four of us.
They will not rest until we are all dead.
They will not stop until your planet is theirs.
They think we are broken.
We will not be defeated.
We are all that stands in their way.
We know secrets they thought hidden.
We have power they never expected.
The time has come for them to fall.


The Garde have suffered the ultimate betrayal: Number Five has allied himself with the Mogadorians, killing Eight and helping the Mogs to abduct Ella from the safe house. Now the fight for Earth's survival has just become that much more impossible.


The Garde may not have time to mourn their fallen ally, but they'll make sure to avenge him. And help is at hand from the most unlikely of sources: Adam, a Mogadorian, has turned his back on his people. He might just be their lifeline, but are the Garde repeating past mistakes by putting their trust in him?

You can read my review of The Fall of Five  (Lorien Legacies #4) here.

As you can see in my above review, I absolutely adored The Fall of Five and the series in general. However, The Revenge of Seven, in contrast, was a let down.

Here's the thing - unlike what I hear about The Fifth Wave, The Lorien Legacies isn't really all that action-adventure-science-fiction-y. I Am Number Four was cool because of its backstory, and the whole alien-falls-in-love-with-human-girl pitch. I loved The Fall of Five purely because of the hilarious cracks and awesome characters.

But now, the writers remembered that, you know, since this IS an alien invasion story, there needs to be, well, an alien invasion.

And they're not as good at writing that.

They played the same card they did in all the other installments - lots of build up then end the book. The whole plot was fairly predictable. Sarah was more or less out of the picture, so the love story that up until now had distracted me from the fact that it took 5 books to reach the alien invasion was gone. Six and Sam kept saying they were NOT going to be lovey mushy like John and Sarah but instead they were a whole different cliche - the No-I-Shouldn't-Form-Attachments-Because-People-Die-In-War one. Yawn.

The things I did like:

- Ella's POV- you GO girl! It is so easy to forget she's 12.

- John being a leader. You, sexy, you. 

- Adam the Mogadorian- he's cool, respectful, and useful. Great addition to the crew. 

- In general, understanding the Mogadorians. Ella's time with Setrakus Ra FINALLY explains a lot of things you've been wondering about for a while. 

- As usual, Nine. His lines make the book(:

All in all, still a pleasure to read, but not nearly as much as the previous one. I will, of course, finish the series, because, well, the Garde are just that cool. Still highly recommended. 
Rating:

Happy reading!
Esty

Review: Red at Night

Red at Night 
Katie McGarry
Harlequin More Than Words Novella

In Red at Night, Stella and Jonah are total opposites. She's the girl with purple hair from the wrong part of town. He's a high school senior who hangs with the cool crowd. Until a car accident leaves him haunted by guilt, and Jonah starts spending time at Stella's favorite refuge…the local cemetery.

Stella knows she should keep her distance—after all, she spent her girlhood being bullied by Jonah's friends. Once he's sorted out his tangled emotions, Jonah won't have time for her anymore. Too bad she's already fallen for him.

No, I did not choose purple just because I like it. It matches, see? Her hair is striped!

It's Katie McGarry, obviously it was good. 

I looooved the romance, and I became quickly attached to our protagonist, Stella. Unfortunately, so did Jonah. 

Now, usually Ms. McGarry doesn't have this problem in her books, but I guess because this is a novella she had to speed things up a bit.  I liked them and their story,  so I have decided to forgive her and I believe you will, too. 

The setting was weird and different, something that drew me in immediately. Innocent-boy-has-ridiculous-guilt-complex was not, however. Seriously, I had expected there to be SOME half-legitimate reason to blame himself. There wasn't. SIGH. 

I liked how the character development was spoken about. Jonah really changed over the course of 84 pages, and I thought it was important how they brought it up a lot. Otherwise, it wouldn't have been realistic. 

There was a really beautiful scene when they volunteer for an organization called Goodie Two Shoes Foundation- the book is part of the More Than Words program by Harlequin, which is helping promote it. I thought it was a beautiful scene, especially as Stella herself is a recipient of the charity - therefore, not making the volunteering a scene to make the characters look good, but really highlighting the work done and the positive results. 

All in all, an adorable, quick read. Too short! Rating:

Happy reading!
Love,
Esty