Book Review - The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins | ★★★

In this book, we not only have one central character, we have three: Rachel, Megan and Anna. 

Let´s begin with Rachel, who is the main of these three women. She is in her early thirties, already divorced and currently living with a friend from college in the London suburbs. Rachel is an alcoholic, which is the reason she got fired from her job. 

Because she has nothing else to do and she wants to hide the fact that she is unemployed from her roommate Cathy, she takes her usual train to London every day.

“I am not the girl I used to be. I am no longer desirable, I’m off-putting in some way. It’s not just that I’ve put on weight, or that my face is puffy from the drinking and the lack of sleep; it’s as if people can see the damage written all over me, can see it in my face, the way I hold myself, the way I move.” 

Book Review - The One by Kiera Cass | ★★★

SPOILER ALERT! DO NOT CONTINUE READING THE REVIEW FOR THE ONE IF YOU HAVE NOT YET READ THE SELECTION, YOU MAY GET SPOILED!

Only four girls are left in the competition to win Maxon´s heart and the crown of Illéa; Competent Elise, sweet Kriss, gorgeous Celeste and of course, America. 

America still regularly upsets the apple cart of the Illéan monarchy and acts mostly impulsive and careless with no thought what her actions may cause and how that could change her fate with Maxon. As the bad rebels from the South start hurting people caste by caste, America advises openly the whole Illéan populace to fight back. This however, gets King Clarkson angrier about her actions than he was ever before. He wants her gone. 

“America, you are full of nothing but bad ideas. Great intentions but awful ideas.” 

The conflict between the Southern rebels and the royal family (especially King Clarkson) continue to grow more and more. Between America and Maxon everything is good and they seem to want the same thing: Peace.

Book Review - The Giver by Lois Lowry | ★★★

Jonas lives in perfect society - nothing of the bad things we know exist in that place. The motto of it is sameness; everything is the same for everyone. Children are no longer born in families, they are made in a laboratory and breaded by birth mothers. Everybody gets one year older in December, even if you were born in another month. Every year there is a ceremony that lasts two days, where each child gets one year older and where they get their new item for the next year. One year old get assigned to a family who requested a child, new nine year old get a bicycle, twelve year old get assigned a job which they have the rest of their lives. 

Book Review - The Elite by Kiera Cass | ★★★

SPOILER ALERT! DO NOT CONTINUE READING THE REVIEW FOR THE ELITE IF YOU HAVE NOT YET READ THE SELECTION, YOU MAY GET SPOILED!

America still lives in the royal palace and her daily routine now includes learning rules and how to run a country. She has never expected to last as long as she did and become one of the Elite. There are only six girls left and all of them compete for Maxon´s love and the royal crown. More and more America has come to realise that she may be in love with Maxon, but she does not want to become a princess and accept all the responsibilities that come with said crown. In addition to all that trouble, there still is Aspen who works as a guard in the royal palace. 

Book Review - The Selection by Kiera Cass | ★★★

America Singer is a five out of eight. That means she´s on the fourth lowest rank on Illéa´s, her country´s, caste system. Illéa is where the United States used to be and is now shaped by this futuristic society. America was born into the rank of artists and performers and has chosen to be a singer, playing the piano, violin and many other instruments. 

When the country´s prince comes of appropriate age, there will be a selection of his future wife and queen of Illéa. In the selection, 35 girls will participate to date the crown prince Maxon, and from all these girls, he has to choose one to marry. 

“Listen to me, kitten. Win or lose, you’ll always be a princess to me.” 

Book Review - Rebel Belle by Rachel Hawkins | ★★★

Harper Jane Price, 17 years old, has a wonderful life. Apart from her sisters death one year ago, she has a amazing boyfriend Ryan, wonderful friends, loving parents and a bright future. Harper is a southern belle and from the outside perfect. Perfect grades, school president, popular everywhere. But as she forgets her lip gloss in the night of her homecoming dance, her perfect world seems to fall apart. 

“Looking back, none of this would have happened if I’d brought lip gloss the night of the Homecoming Dance.” 

Harper borrows some lip gloss from her best friend and goes off to apply it in the ladies bathroom at school before her name is called for Homecoming Queen. While she is applying it, she is interrupted by the school´s janitor, Mr. Hall. He is mortally wounded and for his last breath, he grabs Harper and exhales inside her mouth. Her history teacher storms in and Harper figures out that he is the one who killed the janitor. As he notices Harper he tries to kill her too, but Harper finds herself with new abilities and fights her teacher, eventually kills him.

Book Review - The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas by John Boyne | ★★★

Bruno is a nine year old boy, who grew up in Berlin during World War II. His family is wealthy and they live in a five-story house with servants. He has a 12-year-old sister, Gretel. 

Bruno doesn´t know his father´s profession, but he wears an impressive uniform and they have been visited by a very important man called the Fury. After that visit, Bruno´s father got an even nicer uniform, his title changed to Commandant and they move to a new home at a place called Out-With. 

The new home is smaller and always full of soldiers. Bruno doesn´t like it and the worst thing for him is that there is nobody to play with. He has a small window in his bedroom from which he can see a town of people all dressed in striped pyjamas. The strange thing was that they were separated from him by a large fence. He approaches his father about them and asks who they are, he responds that they aren´t really people. 

Book Review - Fractured by Teri Terry | ★★★

SPOILER ALERT! DO NOT CONTINUE READING THE REVIEW FOR FRACTURED IF YOU HAVE NOT YET READ SLATED, YOU MAY GET SPOILED! 

I finished Fractured a few weeks ago and finally found time to write the review (I already read Shattered, the third book of the trilogy). 

The story continues to follow Kyla´s life after she was slated. It jumps right in after the violent struggle with Wayne Best in the woods. Memories start to surface and Kyla is very confused, since Slateds are not supposed to be violent. If they are, their Levos are programmed to stop them by rendering them unconscious or even killing them. But right after she gets away from the badly injured Wayne she discovers that her Levo isn´t working anymore. Soon memories of someone named Rain appear and she starts to realise that she is someone else.

Book Review - If I Stay by Gayle Forman | ★★★

I decided to make two seperate reviews of If I stay and Where She Went by Gayle Forman. 

Mia is a seventeen year old girl, who is, except for her talent in playing the cello, pretty normal. She has a good shot at attending Julliard, a boyfriend, who also is a musican but playing the guitar in a rock band, a best friend and a family everybody could wish for. On a snowy day school is cancelled and her family decides to go visit their best friends who recently got a kid. But on this day Mia's life and dreams of becoming a famous cellist are shattered. On the way the family's car collides with another. Right after the accident, Mia finds herself somewhere between life and death. From outside her badly injured body, she sees the hugeness of the crash and later follows  the events at the hospital. Her Parents died instantly and her brother makes it to the hospital but doesn´t survive.