Book Review: Fairest by Marissa Meyer

Genre: 

Young Adult, Science Fiction

Pages: 

222

Part of a Series?:

Companion Novel in the Lunar Chronicles

Release Date: 

January 27th, 2015

You Can Find the Book At:

GoodReads

Amazon

Barnes and Noble

Book Depository

Author’s Website

GoodReads Summary: 

In this stunning bridge book between Cress and Winter in the bestselling Lunar Chronicles, Queen Levana’s story is finally told.

Mirror, mirror on the wall,
Who is the fairest of them all?

Fans of the Lunar Chronicles know Queen Levana as a ruler who uses her “glamour” to gain power. But long before she crossed paths with Cinder, Scarlet, and Cress, Levana lived a very different story – a story that has never been told . . . until now.

Marissa Meyer spins yet another unforgettable tale about love and war, deceit and death. This extraordinary book includes full-color art and an excerpt from Winter, the next book in the Lunar Chronicles series.

My Review:

While there will be no spoilers for Fairest in this review, there will be spoilers for Cinder, Scarlet and Cress. Please be aware of that when continuing. 

I LOVE Marissa Meyer and the Lunar Chronicles, so when I discovered I would have to wait nearly two years for the conclusion after reading the beautiful book that is Cress, I was heartbroken. However, we had this book in between and I’m so glad it exists.

The thing about Levana is that she is the bad guy. She is the villain. She’s the one we’re spending all these books fighting. Its hard to ever think that we could get behind her point of view. But that’s kind of what this book is for. Not necessarily to get you on Levana’s side, but to give you the background on how she began the queen that she is.

When the book first starts, I actually felt really bad for her. Her sister, the way she’s treated by others, the accident that left her…well, desperate to use a disguise all the time…you actually feel sorry for her. For a moment, I felt confused that I wouldn’t know how to feel about her, especially with Winter releasing this fall.

But it didn’t take long for the things to go opposite of how Levana plans them and the character that we’ve grown to know in the books surfaces. But so much worse than we could have imagined. She is sick in the head, the ideas that she has and the measures she takes in order to fulfill her own desires and to quench her own insecurities….its insane! This book is short, chronicling Levana’s life until what we know now and it just blows my mind. You wonder how this little girl that you felt so sorry for just became so misguided and cruel. Her cruelty comes mostly from her insecurities and its sickening. Marissa has created an incredible villain in that even when you’re reading her side of the story, you’re still blown away at what she is capable of.

I think it was a great story, and it really added to what we already know in the series. I think seeing Winter and Selene (aka Cinder) was incredible as well, because we see them under Levana, and what she really truly thinks of them, and its just…ugh. Its gross. Its hard to imagine someone so insecure, so unsure, that they go to the lengths that Levana does.

But it also made me even more excited for Winter. Seeing Winter as a child, seeing what she and her father went through, and her poor mother…its just heartbreaking and I can’t wait to see how this series ends. Marissa Meyer creates the most compelling characters and this is only further proved in Levana’s story.

Rating: 

5 out of 5 Stars

Fierce Reads Giveaway! Prizes from Authors Leigh Bardugo, Marissa Meyer, Anna Banks, Ann Aguirre and Josephine Angelini!

It’s San Diego Comic Con weekend and while I know there a ton of you who are making your way there and having a blast, viagra there’s also a HUGE amount of you that are unable to be there. (Personally, sildenafil I choose NOT to go haha). But I have just the thing to make it a bit better…

ITS GIVEAWAY TIME!

Oh yes, cheapest time to get excited.

Now that I’ve mostly caught up on sending out actual giveaway prizes, I’m ready to jump back in the saddle and start holding giveaways again. I got behind a bit on them, but I scored some seriously awesome stuff at the Fierce Reads Blockbuster event at Barnes and Noble just a couple days ago and I’m ready for an epic giveaway!

Want to see the prize?

Oh, I know you do!

Check it out!

The Prize

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This Fierce Reads Prize Pack Includes:

-One Advanced Reader’s Copy of Josephine Angelini’s Trial by Fire (not signed). This book does not release until September and it is AMAZING.

-One Signed Copy of Cinder by Marissa Meyer

-One Signed Copy of Shadow and Bone by Leigh Bardugo

-One Sneak Peek Of Poseidon Booklet signed by author Anna Banks

-One Bookmark signed by Ann Aguirre

-3 Bookmarks (Anna Banks, Leigh Bardugo, Marissa Meyer), Unsigned

-6 buttons from The Grisha Trilogy, The Syrena Legacy and The Lunar Chronicles

Pretty epic right?

The Rules (yes, there has to be rules!)

The contest will run from today, July 25th to August 5th!

The winner will be contacted within 24 hours of contest end. If winner(s) do not respond within a 24 hour period of contact, their prize will be forfeited and a new winner will be chosen.

Come back every day to share on Twitter and Instagram to earn more entries!

If you check off an option on the rafflecopter, please make sure that you have fulfilled that option. Please be honest! I double check every winning entry and if you are dishonest, you will not win the prize!

This giveaway is in NO way endorsed by any authors, their publishers or any other affiliates.

What A Nerd Girl Says is not responsible for lost, stolen or damaged prizes. It HAS happened before, but only once!

How to Enter:

a Rafflecopter giveaway

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It’s as simple as that! Don’t forget to share and post this for all your friend’s to see, and good luck!

Fierce Reads Blockbuster Event!

Can you guys believe that its been about three weeks since I’ve done a book event? Yeah! Three weeks! Insanity! Ever since I got back home from ALA in Las Vegas, link I’ve been overwhelmed with work, abortion and my novel, that I just haven’t had much time for blogging or going to book events.

Luckily, that is about to change VERY soon. I had an awesome time tonight at the Fierce Reads event at The Grove in Los Angeles, and will be attending a James Dashner and a Maggie Stiefvater event in the next few days and I’m very excited for those. Things are picking up guys.

Tonight I headed down to one of my favorite bookstores for what was sure to be an awesome event. I love Barnes and Noble in general, but I love going to the one at The Grove because they always have such great events and the event coordinator, Lita, is just a doll. I got there early, grabbed my wristband, and had lunch at Veggie Grill (yum yum!) before heading back to the store for the event.

The authors attending this event were four total YA all stars:

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Marissa Meyer, author of the Lunar Chronicles series, including Cinder, Scarlet, Cress and soon to be, Winter. Winter hits bookstores next year, but before that, a prequel story about Queen Levana will hit bookstores. Yay!

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Leigh Bardugo, author of the Grisha Trilogy, including Shadow and Bone, Siege and Storm and Ruin and Rising. She’s currently working on another series, which takes place in the same Grisha world, not long after the end of Ruin and Rising.

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Anna Banks, author of the Syrena Legacy, including Of Poseidon, Of Triton and Of Neptune. She also has a new book called Joyride heading to bookstores next June!

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and

Ann Aguirre, author of the Razorland trilogy, including Enclave, Outpost, and Horde. And soon to be a TON of other books! This includes a new adult trilogy whose titles are Backstreet Boy’s songs. I call that a win.

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I was SO excited because I love all of these authors so much, and I always have a good time going to these events.

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We took our seats, and Lita talked up the event and the authors, and even talked about the moderator, Anthony Breznican and his debut novel, Brutal Youth. She talked it up so much that I immediately went downstairs to pick myself a copy of it. He was so awesome, a great moderator and was fun to talk to after the panel. He seemed happy that some of us grabbed copies of his book; it must be SO nerve wracking to have your debut novel out there!

Then Lita and the fantastic people of Macmillan Teens had a surprise for us early arrivals: ARCs! You know me, I can NEVER get enough of books :) I immediately went forward to check out what they had. I had most of them, from ALA, but they had a copy of Caragh O’Brien’s Vault of Dreamers, which I hadn’t managed to score at ALA. That was exciting. I also had my sister with me, and she was kind of my assistant for the event, so she grabbed a copy of Josephine Angelini’s Trial by Fire. Now, if you guys pay attention at all, you’ll know that I already have a copy of Trial by Fire so this one is going to be up for grabs very soon!

Then the event! Yay!

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All four ladies were so much fun in the panel. I honestly haven’t laughed so hard in so long. Leigh was her usual hilarious self and Marissa had a quirky little sense of humor. Ann Aguirre had a sort of awkward sense of humor, which remind me so much of myself that I just couldn’t stop laughing. And ohmygod, Anna Banks’ dry sense of humor was KILLING me. I could NOT stop laughing. It was too much.

They talked about their books, their inspirations for them, how they tackled them. They talked about books they loved, and what books inspired them. What I really loved is how they dove into the appeal of YA to adults and the growing diversity in YA books. Those are two very important topics and I was eager to hear what they had to say about it!

Then was the signing, of course. I got books signed by all of them, because I’m spoiled that way ;) I got Mortal Danger signed by Ann Aguirre, Of Poseidon by Anna Banks, and my extra copies of Siege and Storm and Ruin and Rising by Leigh Bardugo.

Because I already have my entire Lunar Chronicles signed (so far), I bought an extra copy of Cinder (and also Shadow and Bone) and those will be up for grabs soon as well!

I think I cleaned up pretty nicely after this event!

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Not a bad haul from the event!

I also managed to get my hands on some extra stuff! Check it out!

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I bought extra copies of Cinder and Shadow and Bone and those are both signed by the author. I got my hands on that extra copy of Trial by Fire, which doesn’t hit bookstores until September! I also got an Of Poseidon sneak peek booklet signed by Anna Banks and a bookmark signed by Ann Aguirre, and ton of other cool bookmarks and pins. Keep an eye out because a giveaway is coming VERY VERY soon!

Leigh’s mom was there, and I’ve met her twice before, at the Siege and Storm release party and the Ruin and Rising release part, and she’s such a doll. She remembered me and gave me a big ol hug and sat next to me during the event. She’s such a sweetheart :)

I also met a “fan” of What A Nerd Girl Says today, named Laura! She was SO cool, and I always love meeting you guys so NEVER be nervous to say hi. I’m kind of a weirdo so please do! Also, she read my excerpt that I posted the other day of The Awakened, and loved it, and that gave me SUCH a boost! Thanks for that, Laura :)

All in all, a super great night and I’m always so glad to go to the Barnes and Noble at the Grove and to go to Fierce Reads events. I ADORE Macteen and they put out so many amazing books and I will go to every Fierce Reads event that I can!

Until next time, folks! And keep an eye out for that giveaway!

L.A. Times Festival of Books 2014: Day One and Day Two Recap Vlogs!

Guys, doctor I just had SUCH an amazing weekend. This weekend was the annual Los Angeles Times Festival of Books at U.S.C., where the entire weekend is dedicated to the amazing culture of reading. It’s one of my favorite weekends of this year, and this year was no disappointment.

There was a team of five us: me, Sylvia from Fangirl Feeels, our friends Cassandra and Alexandra and my sister, Jessica. We had our game plans, and despite minor hiccups along the way, we managed to do everything that we wanted to do.

I met (and met again, for some) amazing authors this weekend: John Green (OHMYGOD), Rainbow Rowell, Lauren Oliver, Marissa Meyer, Sarah J Maas, Robin Benway, Veronica Roth, Lauren Myracle, Leigh Bardugo, Deb Caletti, Kiersten White, Andrew Smith and Stephanie Perkins.

But I won’t keep you from seeing my awesome vlogs. I vlogged while at the Fest so you get some pretty awkward and hilarious moments from me, a short video of my conversation with John Green and…lots of awkwardness haha.

Check it out!

Day One!

Day Two!

Yay! I hope you enjoyed seeing the awesomeness that was my weekend!

I managed to grab extra copies of Cinder, Anna and the French Kiss and Fangirl for a giveaway. There will NOT be a giveaway for the month of April (as of now), but there is a HUGE giveaway coming for my Blog Birthday in May so keep an eye out to see how you can get your hands on these books!

Oh! And don’t forget you can check out ALL the pictures on the What A Nerd Girl Says Facebook page here!

Happy Reading Everyone!

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Cress Book Review

Cress by Marissa Meyer

 

 

 

You Can Find the Book At:

GoodReads

Amazon

Barnes and Noble

Author Website

GoodReads Summary:

Rapunzel’s tower is a satellite. She can’t let down her hair—or her guard. 

In this third book in the bestselling Lunar Chronicles series, Cinder and Captain Thorne are fugitives on the run, with Scarlet and Wolf in tow. Together, they’re plotting to overthrow Queen Levana and her army. 

Their best hope lies with Cress, who has been trapped on a satellite since childhood with only her netscreens as company. All that screen time has made Cress an excellent hacker—unfortunately, she’s just received orders from Levana to track down Cinder and her handsome accomplice. 

When a daring rescue goes awry, the group is separated. Cress finally has her freedom, but it comes at a high price. Meanwhile, Queen Levana will let nothing stop her marriage to Emperor Kai. Cress, Scarlet, and Cinder may not have signed up to save the world, but they may be the only ones who can.

My Review:

Please take note that while there will be no spoilers for this novel, there will be spoilers for the previous books. You can read my review for Cinder here and my review for Scarlet here. 

It took me a thousand years it seems to finish reading this book but I finally did. This is not to say anything about the book though. That was all my doing. I bought this book the day after the release and I’m in SUCH a slump right now, reading wise, that I just couldn’t make myself read ANYTHING. But I pushed my way through because I was loving the book and I love these books, and the last 100 pages flew by because it just was so great.

I honestly think that Marissa Meyer is a genius, and she is able to weave fairy tales and science fiction and even a little dystopia so perfectly that everything about it is so genuine and so real to me. Its so easy to accept so much of what is going on in her novels and it just flows so beautifully. Her writing is beautiful, and her story telling is incredibly compelling. She is such a talent and I honestly can’t wait to meet her in April so I can tell her how unbelievably amazing and inspirational she is as a writer.

Moving on though, I loved how long the novel was and yet took place over such a small span of time. I thought that was beautiful. Marissa was able to introduce the character of Cress into the story, and creating her own path and her own journey and growth while sticking super close to the other characters and the story she had already created. I think that’s brilliant. She did that in introducing Scarlet in book two, and she does it so effortlessly in introducing Cress in this novel. She also (this gets a little spoiler-y, sorry), sort of matches characters up in the novel. Now, normally that sort of thing would bother me, like…really, there’s a person for everyone? Come on, now. But in the book…everything is so gradual and so realistic and she’s very good at building relationships between characters. I never really thought about the matchy-matchy of the people after the first initial thought of it.

Plus she just ROCKS at writing really great science fiction. Not even just young adult, but just good science fiction, and she blends the fairy tale stories in so well. One minute, I’m caught up in the story of Cinderella or Little Red Riding Hood, or, as in this novel, Rapunzel, and the next, I’m holding my breath, wondering what the alien queen Levana is going to do to the earth or laughing at the ridiculous and lovable android, Iko. She takes this incredible world of aliens, and space travel, and Lunars, and androids and cyborgs and weaves it with these familiar fairy tales, and it all feels so real and so smooth. I also love that she takes the stories that we know from the popular Disney version and mixes them with the classic stories, that can be a little more gruesome than what Disney shows us. She puts a lot of time and effort, obviously, into building incredible stories.

I can’t WAIT to read Winter next year and I’m not too fond of having to wait until it comes out haha. She’s left us in an incredible position with the Earth pitted against the Lunars, and its absolute chaos and I reached the end in shock, awe and excitement. I also love the beautiful way that she introduces Winter (I know, that’s a bit spoiler-y, sorry again!) and I already know that she’s going to be an incredible character because she’s already blown my mind. Can it be time for Winter already?

Rating:

5 out of 5 Stars

WWW Wednesday

WWW Wednesday is a weekly meme, troche hosted by Should Be Reading.

The three W’s are:

What are you currently reading?

What did you recently finish reading?

What do you think you’ll be reading next?

What are you currently reading? 

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I literally JUST downloaded this to my Nook so I’m excited to dive into it and read it :) It should be GREAT.

What did you just recently finish reading? 

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Yeah, shop I re-read it again. I just can’t really explain how much this book means to me. It became one of my favorites of all time SO quickly. I have never read a book like this before, malady that understands the way Harry Potter makes me feel. Cath is me. She’s awkward and unsure but she gets online and she starts to write and she gets lost in the Simon Snow world and it was so beautiful. I felt so connected with Cath, it was ridiculous. So yeah, I read it again haha.

What do you think you’ll be reading next? 

Can I be honest on this one? I have NO idea. I’m in the worst reading slump that I think I’ve ever been in. I have so many books to read and I just can’t seem to read them. I hope after Cress that I’ll be able to read again. Seriously. I would read anything right now just to get back in the groove haha.

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What is everyone reading this week? Share in the comments!