Review: The Fates Divide by Veronica Roth

I got sent this by Harper Collins for an honest review, which will follow.

I adored the first book in this series, and re-reading it before this book just brought back my love of this series, and my excitement that this second book in the duology is finally out. Here it is:

Fate brought them together. Now it will divide them.

The lives of Cyra Noavek and Akos Kereseth are ruled by their fates, spoken by the oracles at their births. The fates, once determined, are inescapable.

Akos is in love with Cyra, in spite of his fate: He will die in service to Cyra’s family. And when Cyra’s father, Lazmet Noavek—a soulless tyrant, thought to be dead—reclaims the Shotet throne, Akos believes his end is closer than ever.

As Lazmet ignites a barbaric war, Cyra and Akos are desperate to stop him at any cost. For Cyra, that could mean taking the life of the man who may—or may not—be her father. For Akos, it could mean giving his own. In a stunning twist, the two will discover how fate defines their lives in ways most unexpected.

With the addition of two powerful new voices, Veronica Roth's sequel to Carve the Mark is a chorus of hope, humor, faith, and resilience.

I will admit now, I was quite scared to read the conclusion of this series because of Veronica Roth's past endings - I heard about the end of Divergent series and that made me worried about this one. However, I still got stuck right in, and ended up loving the book - so much so that I read it in a day.

This book was slightly different to the first - in that instead of just Cyra's and Akos' POV, you also heard from Akos' sister, Cisi, and Akos' brother, Eijeh, too. I definitely liked the inclusion of Eijeh's voice, as even though it did confuse me as the first chapter, it definitely made things so much more interesting throughout, and as you got further into the book you started to understand what Eijeh may have been talking about.

My favourite part of this book though, was Cyra - her development was amazing. She became so much stronger, and came into herself even more than I thought she would in this book, and at one point it really hit how much she had changed throughout both books and some of the quotes really stuck with me because they were so thought provoking.

I'll mention now, that this book had so many twists and turns it was so hard to keep up - and at one part of the book I think my mouth actually dropped in shock at one of the twists.  That was a new thing for me, I can be shocked but it's different when it's jaw-dropping shock.

I give this book: 5 cats

I adored the ending of this book. Have you read it or plan to read it? Comment below!

ARC Review: A Thousand Perfect Notes by C. G. Drews

This is definitely not one of my usual reads, but as I have started branching out and everyone was talking about this book I decided to give it a try - especially with such a beautiful cover. So, thanks to Netgalley who gave me a copy of this book in exchange for a review!

Here it is:

An emotionally charged story of music, abuse and, ultimately, hope.

Beck hates his life. He hates his violent mother. He hates his home. Most of all, he hates the piano that his mother forces him to play hour after hour, day after day. He will never play as she did before illness ended her career and left her bitter and broken. But Beck is too scared to stand up to his mother, and tell her his true passion, which is composing his own music - because the least suggestion of rebellion on his part ends in violence.

When Beck meets August, a girl full of life, energy and laughter, love begins to awaken within him and he glimpses a way to escape his painful existence. But dare he reach for it?

Okay let me just say how amazing this book was. I've been in a small slump lately where I do read, just not much and not very quickly. But this book threw the slump out the window - I finished it within a few hours, it was an unputdownable book in my opinion!

But, when a book starts with the MC talking about wanting to cut off his hands, you know you're going into something that will definitely be interesting, so it wasn't too much of a surprise that I adored it so much.

It usually takes me quite a while to get into a male-narrated book, I'm so used to female POVs I guess, but I connected with Beck so quickly. I loved his character, and the slight development that was slow-going but definitely there - I think because of August mainly. Which is another thing I loved - their relationship. It was so pure and refreshing to see something that didn't just jump into anything big. To sum-up I just love so much about the characters in this book, they were developed perfectly.

The ending of this book though is the thing that made this for me - I was close to tears it was so perfect. Overall, I think I could describe this book as so amazing it left me speechless - I don't think I can do it justice in my review, so I'll leave it here.

I definitely give this book 5 cats - it was just what I needed to recharge my book batteries!

This amazing book comes out in a few days (7th June) - I highly suggest you go buy it! If you've read it or plan to read it comment below, I'd love to hear your opinions!