Legend by Marie Lu

Hmmmm.  What to say about you, Legend.  I struggled with some of the characters in this book.  In that I wanted to smack them.  This dystopian book tells the story of wanted criminal, Day and his fight to save his plague ridden brother and the rest of his family.  In the midst of trying to get the cure for the plague, Day sets off a series of events that makes him even more wanted.  There is an interesting amount of corruption in the book which is why I will probably grab the next one.  The main characters didn't grab hold of me as much as I like.  But it was good.  I almost forgot to mention that this book is co-narrated by June, a girl who is hunting Day.  I liked his sections better though.

Dust & Decay by Jonathan Maberry

I was having a conversation today about how you know you love the first book of a series.  An easy way to tell is that if you are only catching on to the series late in the game, you pick up the second book right away!
Jonathan Maberry, man, I like, love you, sniff.  I'm really into his books.  Why?  They've got it all!  So much adventure, an epic love story, the baddest of bad guys (and his don't necessarily stay dead, either!) and enough twists that keep you reading until dawn.  And I don't say that too often.  Please see evidence below.  This story is about the Imura brothers (& co.) adventure east.  What's east?  We don't know.  It could be the jet that was sighted during the raid on Charlie Pink-Eye's camp.  It could be fewer zombie.  It could be a cure.  It's definitely the ocean (eventually, anyway).  The group has decided to ditch Mountainside in pursuit of greener pastures.  What they don't realize is that there is a bounty on THEIR heads this time.  (Ahhh, no wonder those bad guys keep popping up everywhere!).  I can't wait for the next book in this series to come out.  There are just so many places this story could go.  Please pick it up after you read Rot & Ruin.

Rot & Ruin by Jonathan Maberry

Lately, all I want to do is read about zombies.  The adventures are epic, the love stories are intense and the immediacy is palpable.  Since I have been reading a lot of zombie books (I'm going to have to start catching up with my reviews), I tend to compare them with one another.  Risky business if you are a teen fiction zombie writer.
Rot & Ruin is the story of Benny Imura, a 15 year old boy who better find a job quick or else his food rations are going to be cut in half.  Food usually motivates most 15 year old boys, and Benny is no exception.  He checks out several jobs at the beginning of the story, inside the protected fences of Mountainside.   This town is a small community that has no zombies in it.  Everywhere outside of the fence-- zombies!  Benny hates zombies.  So does his brother, Tom.  Or does he?  Benny decides to take  up the family business and apprentice as a bounty hunter.  The only problem is that he has to learn under the annoying watch of his older, cowardly brother.  Benny finds out quickly that the life of a zombie hunter isn't as glorified as he once thought it was.  This book has some great humour in it, especially the relationship between Benny and his friends Chong, Morgie and Nix.  It also has an interesting love story woven in.  And the adventure, oh the adventure!  Can you tell I liked this book?  It's one of my very favourite zombie stories and I think you should read it too.

Partials by Dan Wells

I borrowed this advanced reader's copy from a friend.  She said, "YOU HAVE TO READ THIS."  So I did.  I don't always do what I'm told, but when it comes to books, I usually listen.  The heroine of this book, Kira Walker, is an interesting girl.  I've been noticing a lot lately with the post-apocalyptic and dystopian fiction I've been reading that heroines need some help.  Kira is no exception.  Let me explain.
In Partials, Kira has been working in the delivery ward as a nurse at the hospital.  She delivers babies only to watch them die because of the RM virus, a disease brought on by the Partials.  The Partials are robots that look like humans that the government created to fight wars for humans.  Except one day they turned on their creators and released a deadly virus that wiped out most of the population.  The survivors banded together and created a leftover civilization as best as they could.  They imposed rules on the survivors.  One of the rules is that women over 18 must get pregnant and give birth as often as possible. The babies are studied and data recorded.  But every single one of them dies.  When Kira's sister gets pregnant, Kira decides that enough is enough and she vows to save the baby's life.  She leaves the safety of the compound she lives in and goes on a wild and dangerous adventure.  The story has romance, mystery, action and the promise of an interesting story that follows this one.
My only problem with this book was the fact that once again, a female lead is underestimated by herself and the others around her and she spends most of the book figuring out that she is smart enough and brave enough to do what must be done.  It's part of her character evolution in the book, but I'm getting tired of it!
All in all, a great read and a book I will definitely be recommending to others!

The Ask and The Answer by Patrick Ness

This trilogy is probably the darkest young adult fiction that I have ever read.  The second book in the trilogy contains some horrific concepts.  Are they horrific because they are true?  The antagonist in this story uses the cold hard truth to rip his enemies apart.  The awful truths of this book do the same to the reader.  We often fantasize about having to vacate this planet after we mess it up.  This trilogy explores the harsh realities of what happens when we still don't get it right in the next world.  Realities about leaders and followers that force you to decide where you would end up and what you would do.  You won't like what you find out.  This trilogy is definitely for a more mature reader.  I don't like the references to women in this book, or the Spackle (native creatures) but that's really the point.  Pick it up if you are looking for some food for thought, otherwise, run the other way.

The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks by E. Lockhart

Hmmm.  I didn't love this book.  It was an okay, fun read.  It had a strong message to girls, which is, don't erase yourself when you fall for a guy.  Positive, I guess.  There was just so much competition with the 'stronger gender', the more 'powerful sex' that it gave too much credibility to that old school way of thinking for me.  If you can get passed that, you end up with an exciting story of a girl at a boarding school who feels left out of her school's boys-only secret society so she decides to infiltrate them.  They literally become her puppets and she, the puppet master.  She does this at the expense of all of her new friends and her boyfriend though.  Like I said, I didn't love this one.

Desires of the Dead by Kimberly Derting

This is the second installment in the Body Finder series.  I really enjoyed reading the first one and enjoyed this one just as much.  Violet's abilities are improving in this book.  She follows a calling she has to an echo that leads her to the body of a little boy trapped inside a shipping container on the harbour.  When she anonymously calls the police to say she heard noises, she raises suspicions with the FBI.  At the same time, a new boy and girl at school are creating quite a stir.  Strange things begin to happen to Violet, dangerous things.  Violet indulges her callings further and puts herself into danger time and time again, much to the dismay of her parents and boyfriend.  A lady from the FBI seems to know her secret, but Violet has kept her secret for so long, she can't possibly start sharing it with anyone now.  Can she?  If you like romance and mystery, but refuse to give up good writing for it, this is the book for you!