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Forest Born

Forest BornTitle: Forest Born
Author: Shannon Hale
Series: Books of Bayern #4
Genre: Fantasy, Young Adult
Format: Paperback
Pages: 400
Reason Read: Utah Book Month
Rating:

My Thoughts

I really liked FOREST BORN, but not quite as much as the previous three books in the series. Rin, the MC, was younger than the MCs in the other three novels by a couple of years. In a YA novel that may not seem like much, but it is. I couldn’t relate to her as well and I didn’t like that there was no love interest in this one. I also didn’t like the tree-speaking gift quite as much as the wind-, fire-, and water-speaking gifts. The way Hale portrayed the gift was a bit weird to me.

I liked being back in Bayern and I’m so glad Isi, Geric, Enna, Finn, Razo, and Dasha were all in this book in some way or another. I liked being around the speaking gifts and seeing how they all intertwined with one another. And, I liked the elements of the story that required the fire sisters, as Rin calls them, to do what they did.

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Elevated

ElevatedTitle: Elevated
Author: Elana Johnson
Genre: Contemporary, Romance, Verse, Young Adult
Spice: 1 / 5
Format: Kindle
Pages: 292
Reason Read: Utah Book Month
Rating:

My Thoughts

ELEVATED is the first novel in verse I’ve read. It was really weird at first and hard to follow. But, then I really got into it and I couldn’t put it down. It was a fast read.

The story and characters were very compelling. I had wondered going into it if a novel in verse could give me the depth I want in a novel and it did. The characters were very fleshed out and story was very deep. It was a lot more emotional than I had imagined it would be.

I really enjoyed it a lot. Even though I loved the ending, I didn’t love it quite as much as I could have if it had ended just a tad bit differently. Still, I’ll definitely be reading more of Johnson’s books and I’m excited to read other novels in verse.

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Ink And Ashes

Ink And AshesTitle: Ink and Ashes
Author: Valynne E. Maetani
Genre: Thriller, Young Adult
Format: Hard Cover
Pages: 368
Reason Read: Utah Book Month
Rating:

My Thoughts

I’ve been excited to read INK AND ASHES ever since I found out about it. I loved being immersed in the Japanese-American culture. There were some things I already knew from my Japanese classes in college, but I learned quite a few things too. I was especially excited to see Japanese written in hiragana, katakana, and kanji in the book. And, I loved seeing all the Japanese expressions throughout the story.

The story was fun and very suspenseful. I thought I knew what was going on and then when it all came together, I found out I was way off, even though I did guess one thing right. I really liked that the story wasn’t predictable.

I loved the characters. Claire and her friends made the story really enjoyable. I loved all their personalities. And, I liked that Claire’s parents weren’t absent like parents usually are in so many YA novels.