Review: Champion

Champion (Legend #3)
Marie Lu
dystopia

He is a Legend.
She is a Prodigy.
Who will be Champion?

June and Day have sacrificed so much for the people of the Republic—and each other—and now their country is on the brink of a new existence. June is back in the good graces of the Republic, working within the government’s elite circles as Princeps-Elect, while Day has been assigned a high-level military position.

But neither could have predicted the circumstances that will reunite them: just when a peace treaty is imminent, a plague outbreak causes panic in the Colonies, and war threatens the Republic’s border cities. This new strain of plague is deadlier than ever, and June is the only one who knows the key to her country’s defense. But saving the lives of thousands will mean asking the one she loves to give up everything.

Click here to read my reviews of Legend and Prodigy. 

I totally FLEW through this book. Everything was just so fascinating, the stakes were so high.. there were politics, negotiations, love, loss, sad times and fun times. 

Day continues to be awesome. You just can't help but love him, and admire his loyalty despite everything he'd been through, and his determination to never give up. June is alright- she's very real, and that unfortunately means she's very flawed. Naturally, this made me want to read about Day all the time. However, she displayed really remarkable emotional intelligence in Champion, and was constantly there for everyone. 

Like I said about Prodigy, all the usual literary cliches for last-books-in-the-series were here, something that greatly pissed me off. I WAS NOT HAPPY WITH THIS ENDING. I won't spoil it, but it just wasn't probable, overally disappointing and unnecessary. I also felt that I wanted more information about the Republic for closure- we were told what we needed to know but I like Anden as a leader and wanted to experience within the story the happy ending for the country. 

What can I say? I loved it and was practically in tears to finish such a wonderful series but I can't not dock off a star for that ending. 

Review: Bloody Jack

Bloody Jack: Being an Account of the Curious Adventures of Mary "Jacky" Faber, Ship's Boy

L.A. Meyer

YA historical fiction

Life as a ship's boy aboard HMS Dolphin is a dream come true for Jacky Faber. Gone are the days of scavenging for food and fighting for survival on the streets of eighteenth-century London. Instead, Jacky is becoming a skilled and respected sailor as the crew pursues pirates on the high seas.There's only one problem: Jacky is a girl. And she will have to use every bit of her spirit, wit, and courage to keep the crew from discovering her secret. This could be the adventure of her life--if only she doesn't get caught. . . .

I had this book on my shelf for the loooongest time. My friend had shoved it into my hands forever ago. At first it looked to me like a cute middle grade adventure, the kind I would've liked when I was younger, and therefore didn't strike my fancy during the period in which I was reading Fifty Shades of Grey, for example. However, a few weekends ago (yes I'm so behind in my reviews) I opened the first page to see what it would be like and I was hooked.

Let's start with the setting. EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY LONDON. DOES IT GET MORE PERFECT THAN THAT?? Notice my blog design and you get all you need to know about my favorite time and place to read about. Except this time it's not a grand Institute, no balls or seasons or corsets and carriages. No, in Bloody Jack we visited London as the regular people experienced it - dirty, people dying of diseases left and right and not even getting a proper burial as their bodies are getting picked up by experimenters. Starving orphans on the streets scavenging to survive- that is where we meet or protagonist, Mary.

We learn that Mary actually come from a semi-ok financial situation, and that she was even taught to read. But no money or education can stop the death of your parents by plague and being cast out onto the streets. There Mary is picked up by a gang of smart and tough kids led by the lovable Charlie.

I loved this first part of the book. The way it's written, in Mary's garbled street-speech, the fast pace, the childish way in which Mary understands things - it all sucked you right in to the tragedy that was those kids' lives, but also their fun and adventure and family that they built together.

Throughout the novel, we grow up with Mary. How she gets herself on that boat, cleverly hides her identity as a girl, and takes on the name and role of Jacky. It was incredible how a story about a child became a tale of a ship's boy, but then slowly to that of a woman. Despite the book's blurb, I didn't expect the book to dive that deeply into femininity and what it means to be a woman. The whole theme of it made the story so much more realistic - if you were a growing girl among boys who hasn't seen any grown women in years, it would also be a subject that kept you up at night. In this respect, Bloody Jack was very different from other stories where girls pass as boys, like Leviathan or Alanna.

So, behold: