#AmReading YA

Today you are in for a special treat! My co-blogger KIERSTEN has written two fabulous reviews, AND they are not for contemporary books. (I told you it was a treat!)

Finale
Stephanie Garber
Series: Caraval #3
Age/Genre: Young Adult, Fantasy, Romance
Publisher: Flatiron Books
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
Goodreads

Welcome, welcome to Finale, the third and final book in Stephanie Garber’s #1 New York Times bestselling Caraval series!

A love worth fighting for. A dream worth dying for. An ending worth waiting for.

It’s been two months since the Fates were freed from a deck of cards, two months since Legend claimed the throne for his own, and two months since Tella discovered the boy she fell in love with doesn’t really exist.

With lives, empires, and hearts hanging in the balance, Tella must decide if she’s going to trust Legend or a former enemy. After uncovering a secret that upends her life, Scarlett will need to do the impossible. And Legend has a choice to make that will forever change and define him.

Caraval is over, but perhaps the greatest game of all has begun. There are no spectators this time: only those who will win, and those who will lose everything.

Welcome, welcome to Finale. All games must come to an end…

First, a song to set the mood (because I feel like this song captures the essence of the book quite well):


Having loved the first two books in the series, I was very excited to dive into Finale to see how the aftermath of Legendary was resolved. A satisfying conclusion to the Caraval series, Finale is filled with magic, romance, and more!

While Caraval follows Scarlet's adventures through Caraval and Legendary follows Tella's journey through the next festival, Finale follows both heroines and their adventures to defeat the Fates. One of the things I really loved about Legendary was how the history of Caraval was explored, folding in the mythology of the Fates. Finale continues to flesh out this mythology, diving deeper into each of those archetypes.

Finale was filled with so many twists and turns. Every time I thought I knew what was going on, there was a huge revelation that changed everything. My only complaint would be that while I enjoyed everything that happened in the book, I wish it had been given a little more space to breathe.

Overall, Finale is filled with gloriously swoon-worthy romance, deeply enticing mystery, and darkly enticing magic, leaving the reader on the edge of their seat, constantly guessing, and enraptured from beginning to end.

Aurora Rising
Amie Kaufman & Jay Kristoff
Series: The Aurora Cycle #1
Age/Genre: Young Adult, Science Fiction
Publisher: Knopf Books for Young Readers
Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
Goodreads

The year is 2380, and the graduating cadets of Aurora Academy are being assigned their first missions. Star pupil Tyler Jones is ready to recruit the squad of his dreams, but his own boneheaded heroism sees him stuck with the dregs nobody else in the Academy would touch…

A cocky diplomat with a black belt in sarcasm
A sociopath scientist with a fondness for shooting her bunkmates
A smart-ass techwiz with the galaxy’s biggest chip on his shoulder
An alien warrior with anger management issues
A tomboy pilot who’s totally not into him, in case you were wondering

And Ty’s squad isn’t even his biggest problem—that’d be Aurora Jie-Lin O’Malley, the girl he’s just rescued from interdimensional space. Trapped in cryo-sleep for two centuries, Auri is a girl out of time and out of her depth. But she could be the catalyst that starts a war millions of years in the making, and Tyler’s squad of losers, discipline-cases and misfits might just be the last hope for the entire galaxy.

They're not the heroes we deserve. They're just the ones we could find. Nobody panic.

Here's, a song that sounds like what it would be like to travel through the Fold (brought to you by everyone's favorite punk dad Mark Hoppus and pop-punk superstar Alex Gaskarth):


It is no secret that I love The Illuminae Files - everything about that series was so much more spectacular than I ever expected it would be. The beginning of a new series from the dynamic duo of Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff, Aurora Rising did not let me down.

Honestly, I can barely even articulate how incredible Aurora Rising was. I am not much of a sci-fi fan, but Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff just cannot do wrong in my eyes. I had absolutely no idea what this book was about going into it except that it was ~S P A C E~, but it had me hooked immediately. I found myself absolutely flying through this book, finding excuses to just sneak a peak at a few more pages throughout the day at work. My train commute was suddenly TOO SHORT because I just needed more time to read this book. It was amazing and also absolutely crazytown.

Every character in Squad 312 was so interesting. The way all these wildly different personalities meshed together and bonded was truly delightful. I loved every moment of their bickering and banter. Also to be a lame nerd, I enjoyed seeing the squad go through the stages of team building: from reluctantly forming, to absolutely, viciously storming, to finally norming and performing. This is a squad I wish I could be a part of (though maybe with less d a n g e r).

This book was such a wild ride from start to finish, and I absolutely loved the format, with Magellan's snippets between chapters to give some additional (snarky) context. I would like more Magellan in book 2 to fill the AIDAN shaped hold in my heart.

In summation, Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff can do no wrong in my eyes, so obviously I think you should read this (and also Illuminae if you're still sleeping on that). I think sci-fi can sometimes be hard to get into, but this dream team really knows how to make it accessible to a wider audience.

**ARCs received in exchange for honest reviews.

Have you ever made an unlikely friend?

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