I want to start a series of blogs where I talk about 2 different awesome female characters who are from different series but really have a lot in common! Today I want to talk about Tella Holloway from the Fire & Flood series by Victoria Scott and Juliette Ferrars from the Shatter Me trilogy by Tahereh Mafi.
These are 2 of my favourite books that I have read this year, these are the kinds of books that lock you down until you are finished I completely fell into these books, the characters the plot, the relationships the settings and the badass female main characters!
FIRE & FLOOD
Author: Victoria Scott
Series: Fire & Flood book #1
Publisher: Chicken House Ltd, 6. March 2014 (They did this cover version)
Genre: YA, Dystopia
Goodreads Synopsis:
"Time is slipping away....
Tella Holloway is losing it. Her brother is sick, and when a dozen doctors can't determine what's wrong, her parents decide to move to Montana for the fresh air. She's lost her friends, her parents are driving her crazy, her brother is dying—and she's helpless to change anything.
Until she receives mysterious instructions on how to become a Contender in the Brimstone Bleed. It's an epic race across jungle, desert, ocean, and mountain that could win her the prize she desperately desires: the Cure for her brother's illness. But all the Contenders are after the Cure for people they love, and there's no guarantee that Tella (or any of them) will survive the race.
The jungle is terrifying, the clock is ticking, and Tella knows she can't trust the allies she makes. And one big question emerges: Why have so many fallen sick in the first place?"
First I just want to again say how flipping awesome I think these original covers are! So beautiful and I made sure I got both with these covers. I have talked about this book series a bit on my blog and I know I get bad with the ones I like too much but one thing I loved about this is the character of Tella, she starts off being such a girly girl and wishes she was back in her home town hanging with her best friend going to get coffee and shopping. And then she gets this invite to join the Brimestone Bleed and she starts to show how strong she is, but she never loses that original personality. Sure she goes through things that no one should ever be made to go through and this makes her have such a tough shell, to make decisions when she needs to not just for her but for the contenders she chooses to work with. Watching her change and go through all of this crap yet still coming out at the end of the day with a such sash and she sees the whole situation from such a real view I mean “When I first saw the sand, I thought it was beautiful. Like maybe it'd be fun to just roll around in and make sand angels. Now I know the truth, that sand is actually the love child of proud parents Marie Antoinette and Joseph Stalin.” I loved that she was there for her brother to help him but she never got pulled in to the point where she lost herself, in all reality she found her voice and she found herself.
I know this is all a little spoilery but the growth Tella goes through was one of the reasons that pulled me in, plus her great sashy comments helped too and well there was Guy ;) The amount of one liners is so great in this series “Something is definitely up. That or my family is auditioning for a remake of The Shining.” And who doesn't want a flipping Pandora people!
I highly recommend, definitely a 5 star book and 5 star series, I just wish she would write more! I need to know what would happen next!
Besides having a kick butt character in the Shatter Me series is the fact that Juliette also goes through epic growth and is also set in a dystopian world but this is where to me it ends and that's why I like these 2 characters because they are so different but have been through hell and still come out the other side with a purpose to make some shit go down!
SHATTER ME
Title: Shatter Me
Author: Tahereh Mafi
Series: Shatter Me Book#1
Publisher: HarperCollins (15. November 2011)
Genre: YA, Dystopia
Goodreads Synopsis:
"I have a curse
I have a gift
I am a monster
I'm more than human
My touch is lethal
My touch is power
I am their weapon
I will fight back
Juliette hasn’t touched anyone in exactly 264 days.
The last time she did, it was an accident, but The Reestablishment locked her up for murder. No one knows why Juliette’s touch is fatal. As long as she doesn’t hurt anyone else, no one really cares. The world is too busy crumbling to pieces to pay attention to a 17-year-old girl. Diseases are destroying the population, food is hard to find, birds don’t fly anymore, and the clouds are the wrong colour.
The Reestablishment said their way was the only way to fix things, so they threw Juliette in a cell. Now so many people are dead that the survivors are whispering war – and The Reestablishment has changed its mind. Maybe Juliette is more than a tortured soul stuffed into a poisonous body. Maybe she’s exactly what they need right now.
Juliette has to make a choice: Be a weapon. Or be a warrior."
I really loved this series and I know that it has gotten a lot of mixed reviews but this is a great story! The things I do love about it as a hole would be the premise I am a sucker for this and also the writing I really loved the way she painted a picture in my head and such beautifully wove the story together. Tahereh Mafi you deserve a pat on the back for this one girl!
I was a little eh about Juliette at the beginning but once I started into this book I fell in love with her, she is so scared and been such shit through her life that it is totally understandable that she is the way she is. She is fragile but you keep reading and you get to watch as she not just grows into herself but how she takes charge of her life instead of being scared of the world she embraces it. She goes through a lot though and its cool to watch as she stumbles through the story at first realising she has 2 legs and that she needs to learn to stand on her own but to also let people in and be open to the world. I mean the world is pretty flipping crazy and one thing I loved about this is I went into it blind I had seen youtube videos of it from some of my favourites but they never said what the book was about and to go in and be opened up to this world was one of the reasons it made for a great reading experience. I also love how Juliette is at the beginning with people but to watch how she is with other characters as from the description you see she has been by herself for such a long time she doesn't really know how to react and its great to see her learn about people and especially her relationships with some of the main guys in the books Warner, Adam and Kenji.
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| Book #2 |
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| Book #3 |
This series is made up of 3 full books and 2 novellas, one told by Warner and the other is told through Adam who are 2 amazing characters in themselves who really make the book plus I totally love Warner's Novella like Oh My Gosh!
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| Book #2.5 Adam |
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| Book #1.5 Warner |
Definitely a great series and worth the read, all of them! Give it a chance and I know you guys will love it! 5 star series again! Though I love the other covers, sorry but this first one is not very nice and I really hope that they make a cover to match the others. Not a big fan of straight on people on covers very much : /, I did notice that the boys novellas have the eyes closed while Juliette's are open, metaphor! I think so ;D
So what do you guys think let me know if you have read these and what you think!, more series reviews coming up soon :D Love books and gaming so any recommendations would be greatly appreciated!
Hope you are great and having a great day
Peace : )
