Three Mini YA Reviews

As you may have noted, the Wenches enjoy a wide variety of different genres. So let's look through three of our recent YA reads that we have enjoyed. The Lunar Chronicles by Marissa Meyer, The Arcana Chronicles by Kresley Cole and The Duff by Kody Keplinger. As you can tell though, we do sometimes find it difficult to step away from urban fantasy.

Cinder by Marissa Meyer

Cinder is book one in The Lunar Chronicles. Cinder is a 16 year old girl, living in New Beijing. She has an evil stepmother, an evil stepsister, and there is a cruel, evil and powerful Lunar Queen. If you thinking this is a retelling of Cinderella, you are not wrong. The thing is Cinder is a futuristic Cinderella. She is a cyborg, half robot. People at New Beijing resent her as they resent all cyborgs! They are considered the lowest of low. I must say I found there were some perks to being a cyborg. Such as; she can tell if people are lying, she can't blush and she is a very talented mechanic.

The Emperor is dying, the Lunar Queen is coming to Earth and there is a deadly sickness killing people in the city. One day, Cinder meets Prince Kai by accident and they become friends. Cinder finds a startling secret about herself which changes everything. I loved the way this story is based on the original Cinderella story, and where it goes from there to a completely different world. I also like the way it shows what it's like to be different from everyone else.

There are more books in the series, very well written, based on some other books like Little Red Riding hood and Rapunzel. Check them all, IMO it's a delightful read.

By Merit MacFraser.

The Arcana Chronicles By Kresley Cole

Our young heroine Evangeline “Evie” Greene, is a sixteen year old girl going on seventeen. She has led a simple/normal life in small town in Louisiana, USA. That is until she starts to have weird dreams or are they visions? And then the Apocalypse strikes! The Flash happens and subsequently, most of the people died. Primarily females, and now there are very few females left. But what was left behind were Bagmen, a zombie/vampire combination, cannibals and rough cruel militiamen. The only two left in their small town are Evie Green and Jack Deveaux, a guy from her school. He is a Cajun bad boy, who comes from the wrong side of town. They travel together to North Carolina to find Evie’s grandmother; Evie thinks her grandmother can help her solve some “puzzles” she has, concerning the voices she hears in her head. It leads to the surprising discovery that she has special powers and that she is one of a group called the Arcana. All the Arcana are Tarot cards figures. Evie has to find other Arcana’s, fight some of them and try to join with others, in order to save the world. It is a dangerous journey. Evie and Jack, together with other Arcana characters, fight their way and fight each other in this dark, grim world.

This is a long journey full of mystery and surprises, danger, deathtraps, magic and romance.

The series is very different from Kresley Cole’s Immortals After Dark series. The heroes are teenagers, but the series has fairly dark themes. There are currently 3 books in the series, as far as I know Cole intends to write 6 books.

To check out the series click on the link below.

The Arcana Chronicles

The Duff by Kody Keplinger

The Duff (Designated Ugly Fat Friend) just ticked a lot of boxes for me. It was actually a more realistic portrayal of high school that I've read in a long time. Maybe I've read too much about high school where the supernatural world is involved. Bianca Piper is struggling with a home life that is crashing to pieces around her.  She also has to deal with Wesley Rush. The designated man whore of Hamilton High. Like Bianca he is also trying to keep it together when his home life isn't the glossy imagine that others might think. He lives in a flash house, but money doesn't buy happiness. As Bianca gets to know Wesley her feeling of hating him turn and suddenly she has a real problem on her hands. Can she really be falling for Wesley Rush? After all he did call her a duff and what those words mean keeps swirling around in her head. If you want to read a high school novel than I can recommend The Duff because it does remind you just a bit how it was to be a teenager. After all believe it or not but a lot of teenagers were drinking, having sex and struggling to cope with their world. I enjoyed it so much a read it twice in row and I can assure you that doesn't happen a lot with me.

By Angela Lannister

Let us know below of some of your favourite YA books you have read recently.