Unravel Me (Shatter Me #2) by Tahereh Mafi

Rating: 3*

Awh man I really was stuck trying to give this book a rating. I'll tell you the good points first:

As usual, Tahereh Mafi's beautifully poetic and colourful prose astounded me. Her writing is amazing and unique. 

Secondly, the concepts are interesting. I'll say no more on that.

Thirdly, I love the dilemma Mafi has created for Juiliette which is between Warner and Adam.

Fourthly, Kenji.

I read it in a day (a day which I skipped all but one of my college lessons to read it in) and couldn't put the book down despite all rational reasons that I should have.

On the contrary, I think my expectations were a little high (as you can see in the photo above of me before reading it) for this book because unfortunately it did not meet them. I preferred the first book so much more. There was exciting tension within the drama, action and dialogue in Shatter Me, which I think Unravel Me lacked. I actually loved the first book that much that I think I read it 2 or 3 times. 

I regretfully found my self bored reading this, particularly in the first fifty percent of the book where nothing seemed to be happening and Juliette was just on a bratty self-sympathetic mind wondrous journey. Ughh. I hate when characters go on about how much they hate themselves for too long, especially when they shouldn't. 

Needless to say, I enjoyed learning a bit more about Warner and seeing how his character developed but I don't know, for some reason I found myself disliking him. I liked him more in the first book.. (don't hurt me please!)

Anyhow, if my rating was based on the the quality of Mafi's writing, it would definitely be a 5* however I had to chop the 2 stars off thanks to me being probably far too opinionated for my own good.

True Love Story by Willow Aster

I came across this story advertised in the back of Tarryn Fisher's "Dirty Red" book and I can't wait for more people to read this. 

I think this book actually made me go through the five stages of grief. Call me melodramatic but I swear I felt the denial, isolation, anger, betrayal, depression etc.. that the main character would have felt. I got so emotionally attached to Sparrow, who's POV the story is told from. I was so connected to her that I cried so much because of how angry I was made to feel and also because of the amount of sympathy and sadness I felt for Sparrow. The story was heartbreaking but touching that she could be so forgiving. The fact that her whole personality was effected by Ian's affair with Laila ( unreasonable prick!) ,as she went from a bubbly optimistic lovely young girl to broken down and depressed also broke my heart.

 I still don't understand Ian's motives for what he did and how he could do such a thing while being so enamored and in love, and so found myself unable to comprehend how Sparrow could forgive him. The point I think was for it to reflect the intensity of their love, the message being that love conquers all. I think she just gave up and was too sick of being unhappy that she decided to be with him in the end.

Overall, I will  recommend this book. It was addictive to the point where I couldn't put my kindle down. The romance was beautiful and the love was portrayed poetically. The author also managed to cover the many different types and aspects of love. The writing I think, had an exceptional quality to that of other N/A, Y/A and Chick-Lit authors. What I like most about the writing of the book was how it was structured- I think it was most effective that way because deep down we all kind of knew what was coming from the start, though I tried to brush it off, and this was vital to the built up of the betrayal.   

Read it people, if you're in need of a good o'l story 'bout love.