Review: Endure (Need #4)

Title: Endure (Need #4)
Author: Carrie Jones (See Interview Here)
Publisher: Bloomsbury
Genres: YA, Fantasy, Romance
Release Date: May 8th 2012
Pages: 272
Where Acquired: Amazon
Buy at Amazon Here
- Best Book Price: £2.25 Kindle Price: £3.60 (as of when posted)

UK Cover:


My View on the Cover:This cover is stunning, as said in my recent Top Ten Tuesday, I do love swirls and shiny bits.  The orange iris is bright and eye catching (Excuse the pun!) and the gold represents the pixie dust and magic of the novel perfectly. I am also a fan of the font, it's simple and elegant but also pretty. I am a fan of some of the other covers in the series more however as even though the orange iris is beautiful I am not so sure about the chopped, sideways face....

Goodreads Description:
Zara is at the center of an impending apocalypse. True, she’s successfully rescued Nick from Valhalla, but it simply isn’t enough. Evil pixies are ravaging Bedford, and they need much more than one great warrior; they need an army. Zara isn’t sure what her role is anymore. She’s not just fighting for her friends; she’s also a pixie queen. And to align her team of pixies with the humans she loves will be one of her greatest battles yet. Especially since she can’t even reconcile her growing feelings for her pixie king . . .

Unexpected turns, surprising revelations, and one utterly satisfying romantic finale make Endure a thrilling end to this series of bestsellers.

My Review:
This review has been a long time coming so I'm sorry for the delay. I have had this book on my shelf for a long time but I was reluctant to read it as it means putting a great series away for good... However, I did finally find the courage to read this novel, and although it is sad to see another series go this year after already loosing Morganville Vampires, Wings, Divergent and Heroes of Olympus later in October, I was glad to have read it and finally seen a resolve to Bedford's pixie problem, the looming apocalypse but more importantly the love triangle. It is probably well known by now that I am a great hater of love triangles that seem to be everywhere these days so I was very glad to see it resolved early on in this book. Zara finally got with Astley, the guy I was rooting for all along, so that left me all happy inside. Especially because Astley is such a boyfriend worthy, sweet, gentleman and Nick turned out to be an annoying, jealous, control freak!  However the romance did take a small step back in this book because our characters were too busy fighting an army of evil pixies and Ragnarok. For this I was grateful as the plotlines surrounding these major problems were spectacular and well deserved the full attention of the reader. The pixies are, as always an interesting race, not shown often in the world of YA. Therefore I was interested from the start of the series, the more original book, the more I like it! However the pixie problem seemed small compared to the end of the world, apocalyptic, Ragnarok. The self sacrifice it took Zara to end Ragnarok made her into one of the bravest, strongest and one of my favorite heroines. One of these sacrifices meant that she had to give up a meeting with her dead father in order to get an idea how to end the apocalypse. However one of the most touching and heart breaking scenes, in my opinion, insured from this when she was allowed to see her father anyway. I literally had tears in my eyes! That's not the only thing that manage to touch my heart however, I also loved the strong, loving, friendships that dominate this novel. They are so sweet and amazing that I really wish to have my own friendships like that! My favorite thing about this novel for me though was the Norse mythology. You all know how much I love my mythology and Norse was one rarely explored even by Rick Riordan the self proclaimed Myth Master who Isn't starting his Norse series until next year. So that explains why I was so pleasantly shocked to find a strong mythology plot in a book I primarily picked up for the already original theme of Pixies. The Norse theme was stronger in this book than in the others of the series (Excluding Entice which held Odin and Thor among others) with the theme of Ragnarok and Loki! (Ok...Ok... I admit I read all of Loki's dialogue in Tom Hiddleston's Voice)

 

Norse mythology is an old part of our heritage so it was interesting to learn more about it, but even better to see it come alive in the form of fiction surrounding some very strong characters. To be honest I loved all of the book, put together it was very original and captivating and this series held me from the start.

Quotes:

“We teleported," Issie finishes. "Like in Star Trek or Harry Potter, sort of. No! Like in Dr. Who in that episode with the Sontarans and the brilliant human boy, or really any Dr. Who ever if you think of the Tardis! Holy canola! That is just the coolest thing ever! Wowie, wow, wow!”

 “I give a little wave back because it's more mature then giving him the finger.”

“Zara White, since when has love ever not mattered?” 

Rating:

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-The Reading Rose

Review: Deadlock

Title: Deadlock (H.I.V.E #8)

Author: Mark Walden
Publisher: Bloomsbury
Genres: Sci-Fi, Action, Adventure, Children's.
Where Acquired: I Bought it off of Amazon
Buy at Amazon Here
- Best Book Price: £4.19 Kindle Price: £0.99 (as of when posted)

UK Cover:

Goodreads Description:
Otto and Raven are desperate to rescue their friends from the clutches of Anastasia Furan, head of the evil Disciples organisation. First they must track down the location of the Glasshouse, the prison where Furan trains children to become ruthless assassins. But Otto is also being hunted. The three months that Otto has spent following his ‘expulsion’ from H.I.V.E. have given the Artemis Section – an elite division of the American intelligence services that specialises in capturing the toughest targets and reports only to the President – an opportunity to locate him.

Deadlock – the eighth book in the breathtaking H.I.V.E. series – continues the high-octane adventures of the supremely talented criminal team, with central characters forced to question everything that Nero has taught them and to confront the consequences of life as a villain, set against the backdrop of a daring high-tech prison break where nothing is quite as it seems.

My Review:
OK, where do I start! I am already an avid Mark Walden fan and H.I.V.E is one of my all time favorite series. Deadlock was no exception with enough twists to fill a lorry! I love, love, love Otto, Wing, Shelby, Laura, Nigel and Franz as always! not forgetting Raven, Niro, Darkdoom and all of the other awesome teachers! the addition of Nero's dad was great, it had just the right amount of tenderness, humor and emotion and it was wonderful to see Franz develop his sniper talent and get the credit he deserves for once. This book was centered around six main stories: Otto and Raven's mission, Raven's Past, The Remaining Alpha students at H.I.V.E, Furan's plans, the Artemis division and The Captured Alpha students trying to survive Furan's assassin school. This gave the plot a more diverse nature and it let you see the many different perspectives, which was interesting and let you into a few, otherwise unheard of, secrets. The twists in the last few chapters however are what made this book worth 5 stars, i will not go into too much detail here as i shall let you read them for yourself, these twists also set the series up perfectly for the next novel.

Quotes:

"The life of a villain is a life where one must make one’s own rules, but still there must be a sense of responsibility. Without that, there is nothing but anarchy, chaos, and death."

 "‘So I see,’ Otto said, raising an eyebrow. ‘You know it’s almost like people don’t want me interfering with their highly advanced experimental weapon systems these days.’
‘How very inconsiderate of them,’ Raven said."

(OK, two more as i couldn't help myself! there are so many awesome quotes in this book!)

 "‘Well,’ Shelby said with a crooked smile, ‘look at it this way. If you’re a member of the Disciples right now, you have Otto tracking you down and Raven coming after you when he does.’
‘Actually,’ Wing said, ‘when you put it like that, I almost… almost… feel sorry for them.’"

"I always say that it’s not really been a good day if you haven’t caused a major diplomatic incident by lunchtime."

Rating:
*****

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-The Reading Rose