Review: Glass Sword

TITLE: Glass Sword
SERIES: Red Queen #2
AUTHOR: Victoria Aveyard
PUBLISHER: HarperTeen
PUBLICATION DATE: 2/9/2016
FORMAT: Hardcover
PAGES: 444
SOURCE: Bought
MY RATING: 

**This is book 2 in the Red Queen series. There may be spoilers ahead. Proceed at your own risk.**

INSIDE COVER BLURB: If there's one thing Mare Barrow knows, it's that she's different. Mare Barrow's blood is read--the color of common folk--but her Silver ability, the power to control lightening, has turned her into a weapon that the royal court tries to control.

The crown calls her an impossibility, a fake, but as she makes her escape from Maven, the prince--the friend--who betrayed her, Mare uncovers something startling: She is not the only one of her kind.

Pursued by Maven, now a vindictive king, Mare sets out to find and recruit other Red-and-Silver fighters to join in the struggle against her oppressors.

But Mare finds herself on a deadly path, at risk of becoming exactly the kind of monster she is trying to defeat.

Will she shatter under the weight of the lives that are the cost of rebellion? Or have treachery and betrayal hardened her forever?

The electrifying next installment in the Red Queen series escalates the struggle between the growing rebel army and the blood-segregated world they've always known--and pits Mare against the darkness that has grown in her soul.

MY THOUGHTS: I was so excited to get my hands on a copy of this book. The first book in the series is one of my favorite books of all time and received a 5 star rating from me (which is extremely rare). The book picks up at the exact moment that the first book ends and I was obsessed right from the start. Within the first 100 pages, there were already twists and turns and I was excited to see what was going to happen next.

Then, around the halfway point of the book it started to slow down a lot. The events that were going on in the story at the time made perfect sense as to why the action kind of stopped, but I did find myself having a hard time getting into the book. I did push myself through, and the story did pick up quite a bit. The ending is super intense and left on a dramatic cliff hanger so I'm really looking forward to finding out what happens in the next book.

COVER: Another gorgeous cover for this book series. A+.

Check out my review of the first book in the series, Red Queen.

Red Queen Review

Goodreads

TITLE: Red Queen

AUTHOR: Victoria Aveyard

PUBLISHER: HarperTeen

PUBLICATION DATE: 2/10/2015

FORMAT: Hardcover 

PAGES: 383

SOURCE: Bought

MY RATING:

INSIDE COVER SUMMARY: Mare Barrow's world is divided by blood--those with red and those with silver. Mare and her family are lowly reds, destined to serve the Silver elite whose supernatural abilities make them nearly gods. Mare steals what she can to help her family survive, but when her best friend is conscripted into the army she gambles everything to win his freedom. A twist of fate leads her to the royal palace itself, where, in front of the king and all his nobles, she discovers a power of her own--an ability she didn't know she had. Except her blood is Red.

To hide this impossibility, the king forces her into the role of a lost Silver princess and betroths her to one of his own sons. As Mare is drawn further into the Silver world, she risks her new position to aid the Scarlet Guard--the leaders of a Red rebellion. Her actions put into motion a deadly and violent dance, pitting prince against prince--and Mare against her her own heart.

OVERALL IMPRESSION: This book was just phenomenal. After reading it, I felt like my insides were being torn out, but in a good way! There were so many twists and turns. There were a few things that I saw coming, but I was still caught off guard by so many things. While reading the book, it felt like I was watching a movie instead of just reading and I can definitely see this being made into a movie and I really hope that happens. There's so much action and intense moments. The ending was perfect. It sets everything up for the next book and I cannot wait to get my hands on it. 

I would say that this book is easily up there on my list of favorite books, and if the rest of the books in the trilogy continue on the same path as Red Blood did, it will probably be my favorite series, second only to Harry Potter.

CHARACTERS: All of the characters in this book were great. There were great characters on the good side and great villains on the bad side. I really liked the main character, Mare. She is very independent and strong. She is a refreshing lead character in that she has a good head on her shoulders and she stands for what she believes in. I really want to learn more about Farley and I'm hoping that we will get a lot more of her in the next book in the series.

COVER: This is one of the best covers I have ever seen. I'm so glad that this amazing book was given such an amazing cover to tie the whole package together. It's just beautiful.