aprildiamond's reviews
144 reviews

So first of all, props to Ananna for having cool life goals (not being a wisp protag that just floats through life) and also for doing basically all the work in this partnership lmao. Yes, it's just as annoying when a male character is useless as it is when it's a female character, but I kinda admire the flipped script since I'm (sadly) used to saying this about the girls. (generic bland YA protagonist who can't do anything for themselves but it's a guy!)

Up until after the scene where the main characters are forced off their ship, I was kinda vibing with this book. It wasn't perfect, of course. Namely, 2 issues I had were that
1) Ananna was a pirate but sometimes the author wrote her like she wasn't? Occasionally she'd have lapses where she acted distinctly not pirate-like or didn't know/do something that you'd think pirates would know/do.
2) there was the whole enemies to lovers thing happening which was fine, but honestly I think Ananna started showing interest in Naji way too early and that tended to take away from her otherwise well-written character.

After that point though, the book went from 4 stars to 3. It just fell off...? I was expecting a cool climax and then there wasn't a climax at all. And it felt like we lost most of the positive character development between the two mains, not to mention both of them started making decisions that were dumb af.

This book was not really what I expected from the cover and the summary on the back. But in a good way. I really enjoyed this story and how it developed and I can't wait to see how it works out in further books.

The only reason I dropped a star was because of the beginning. The very first scene was great (the prelude) and it was, in fact, the reason I kept reading through the rest of the first part of the book.

Why I didn't like the beginning: 1) the main characters were kinda annoying throughout the first part of the story. It was constantly mentioned that Liam was going to miss Mars SO much. (I get that if you leave your home, you'd be sad, but it was a little over the top. Plus, Mars sounded kinda sucky.) Also, Phoebe was a little too pushy. They both mellow out after this, which makes them good characters through the rest. 2) It was pretty slow. I feel like there was too much buildup to the ACTUAL last day on Mars. It wasn't really interesting until that part, but I will say that it definitely picked up starting from then. That was when we started getting into the twists and the danger and when the antagonists started coming out to play. Basically, reading the prelude and knowing that we were eventually going to learn about the mystery with the supernovas, aliens, etc made the first part worth getting through.

The rest of the book really popped off, though. I loved the descriptions of everything, from the settings to the details of explosions. I felt like I was watching it happen, which was neat.

The plot also pulled me in, constantly. I was always really excited to find out what would happen next, or what the antagonists were planning, or their motives. In addition, things kept going wrong for Liam and Phoebe as they were trying to get off the planet and to the ship, which can be tedious in books sometimes. But in this case, the 'something goes wrong just when they're about to succeed' trope was done pretty tastefully so it ended up adding to the experience instead of taking away from it.

In the end, I enjoyed this book a lot. It was so dramatic and I loved that. I also got pretty attached to the main characters by the end, which is promising.

I have a lot of theories about what's going to happen so I'm really looking forward to the next book!

First of all, I've read a lot of James Riley stuff and I have to say that out of all his main male characters Jack is one of my favorites. He's very likable, and his motivations feel real.

Honestly this book wasn't anything show-stopping but that doesn't mean it wasn't good! It was interesting and I had a lot of fun reading it. I liked all the characters for the most part and they never did anything that I found annoying (which is probably my main character pet peeve). I'm kinda a big fan of twisted versions of fairy tales so that's another plus.

I think sometimes people feel like a book has to have a deeper meaning or say something profound or dramatic to be worthwhile. I just liked this because it was a good time, and that's all that really matters.

Looking forward to the rest of the series!

4.5 stars! One of the classics of children's literature in my opinion.

I've read this book like a million times but I wanted to go back through the series in preparation for the fourth book (!) And like every other time, I loved it.

I love the characters, who have so much personality (yeehaw for my favorite, Kate) and I love the plot. When I first read the book, the Emergency and the dystopian vibe were somewhat lost on me. But as I got older, the more of an impact it had on me, which I think is really cool. You can enjoy this book at any age.

This book is so great dkjfskd. I mean seriously. In this book we've got the character development, the action, the dystopia world building, the emotion, the humor, everything. 10/10 an iconic start for an iconic series.

Book 2 of the series: still entertaining and still having a lot of fun. Our main characters are still keeping their vibrant personalities (I love May) and the absolute craziness doesn’t stop.

With all of the people hiding their identities, you would think that the ending twists would have been easier to guess, right? But while I had an idea about Jack, the other parts of the last few chapters had me saying “OHHH I GET IT NOW” like every 3 seconds, which is a good sign. And I was still surprised, so it was a win-win.

I’m excited to see what else is gonna go down, and I definitely hope the final book of the trilogy delivers!

Yep, this was the one that did it for me. The first two books of the series were good and I enjoyed them, but it was this book that convinced me.

Obviously since it's the same author, this book was reminiscent of the best parts of the Story Thieves series. There's a lot of chaotic energy with time jumping and going into people's inner minds and stuff like that, but it doesn't make the plot confusing or convoluted. I honestly think that's the James Riley way, and he does it well.

But what made this book stand out?
1) The satisfying conclusion of (main) character arcs. Jack is a very interesting character to me personally, and I liked how we saw him mature and learn that he deserved to be good to himself :,)
Phillip grew immensely from his "perfect" persona that we saw in the first book, gaining kindness and courage (that final battle with the giants tho!). As well as coming to terms with his betrayal and how to grow from it.
And of course, May. It would have been very easy to fall into the trap of making May a caricature of a strong heroine, but that doesn't happen. May learns so much throughout the books. She is strong, yes, but also emotionally mature. At the end, we are shown that May does still love the Evil Queen despite everything, which was a very human touch. She also finds the courage to do the right thing no matter the personal consequences. Honestly, SHE WENT OFF in the throne room scene I was SHOOK.

2) I felt like the plot of this book was more cohesive than the second one? Maybe I read that one too fast but I liked the pacing of the story and there wasn't too much happening for one book.

3) The ending was not depressing and was, in fact, happy!
...even though Jill interrupted our kiss scene but o well >:(

I just felt hyped up and excited to keep reading the whole way through and I was rooting for all the main characters so 5 stars :)

My favorite out of the trilogy for sure.

I love scavenger hunt plots, especially ones with high stakes like this one, so it's no surprise that this book was almost immediately one of my favorites.

On top of the international race, this book had so much more that I loved. Every character's arc this book was suitably interesting with a dramatic conclusion. I mean, Reynie's final decision to trust Captain Noland resulting in a giant ship grounding?? Incredible. And Kate's realization that revenge isn't the path she wants to take has one of the best scenes in the book - her racing through a ship with a live bomb in her hand, thinking about every time the antagonists did something evil. CINEMATIC GOLD.

In addition, this book also contained Milligan's intense fight scene with the Ten Men, Kate throwing lemon juice in the enemy's eyes, Reynie threatening to drop a diamond in a pool of water, a Houdini key trick (courtesy of Kate), Sticky's display of strength as he ran down a mountain, and the beginning of Constance's psychic abilities. What's not to love?

honestly kinda speechless.

I remember when I reviewed [b:Last Day on Mars|25183019|Last Day on Mars (Chronicle of the Dark Star, #1)|Kevin Emerson|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1468612284l/25183019._SY75_.jpg|44890630] I ended by saying I had a lot of theories about where this series could go. And then this book kicked me in the face and called me an idiot.

My expectations here were surpassed. There wasn't any of the filler content that I felt dragged the first book down. The characters were real and they were GREAT and I LOVE THEM SO MUCH. (I feel like I say this for every book I like but then again that's probably why I like them.) Other than the truth about Aaru, I didn't see any of this coming so basically every page I reached a new level of being shook. I mean, the long time it took me to read this book does not correctly portray how much of a page-turner it was. Every minute of free time I could get, I was reading this, wanting to know what happened next.

One of the very major reasons I loved this installment was because for a middle book in a trilogy, it doesn't follow the pattern. For many series there isn't enough content for a middle book and it ends up being really boring. Or even when the middle book is good, we get a good amount of answers for the questions we had in book 1; not all of them, but enough. This book is the only one since the 2nd book of York that chooses to barely answer any questions to save for a dramatic finale (hopefully). And just like in York, it works very well.

In conclusion:
The stakes? Very high. Me? Wondering "what is actually happening right now oh my god." The ending? A cliffhanger but also a good stopping point. The finale? Almost here. Am I ready? Of course.

Yeah I definitely recommend this series

Not as good as the first two, but still fun nonetheless. I think the plots of both the first two books were just more hype than this one. In the Institute, there was always underlying tension that the characters were going to be caught as spies, and the second one was constantly moving as the mains raced against Mr. Curtain. In comparison, a lot of this book moved much slower.

Another thing I missed was character development, which I feel wasn't as present in this book as it was in previous books, especially the second. With those, I could clearly describe what each of the main characters learned through the course of the story, and that didn't happen this time.

But there were still plenty of great parts about this book. I loved the parallels between the first scene and the escape from the prison later on. Most of the ending parts were really fun. And most importantly, THE ROOF SCENE. Hands down my favorite scene of the book - it had the one-liners, McCracken underestimating Kate, a bird attack, an explosion, everything. Pure art.

Also Ms. Argent's character arc is the best one yet (yes girl get that promotion!)

I don't think I can do this book justice with my review but I'm gonna try.

This was a roller coaster of a ride that exceeded my expectations for the finale and that always had me guessing as to what would happen next.

From the beginning, I knew that the first scenes would connect to something later, but when we find out that

Barrie was the kid in question, it invariably made things more tense. I KNEW the captain was extremely suspicious and seemed like he wasn't all there.

But the suspense came from not knowing exactly what he was going to do. Also from the beginning, the countdown to dark star functionality at the start of every chapter was quite possibly the most ominous one possible. The first 2 books had countdowns to events we already knew about, but for this one it was kinda like "ok wtf is dark star".

Things just got really crazy really fast around the one third mark and from there nothing slowed down. I mean, once Liam and Phoebe got to Dark Star and things actually started happening, everything just seemed way too convenient. But again, this actually increased the suspense because you never knew what was going to go wrong and when. So then when

the new Earth turned out to be fake, or even when they flew into the portal and Phoebe started screaming, I was both like "WHAT DO YOU MEAN THE NEW EARTH ISN'T REAL" but also "I knew this was coming at some point." Honestly, when Jeff said "There are no sample points because there is no planet" I went into shock lmao

To continue:
1) The interlude almost had me crying :(
2) I had not 1, but 2 existential crises during the course of this book
3) I was waiting for the word harvesting and finally got it yikes
4)

THE CHRONOLOGISTS WORKING FOR DARK STAR WHATTT

that was something I actually never saw coming
5) I love Phoebe

And finally, the ending. It was just enough happy and sad to feel correct for this series. I think it's a good thing that the fates of

Captain Barrie and Iris were left ambiguous because it showed that again, you don't know everything that will happen in the future but that's okay. It also definitely fit with Barrie's character to have him ditch the humans to follow dark star.

I'm also glad that the

Telphons and the humans started making reparations but also that it felt normal and they weren't just like "oh yeah we completely forgive you now!"

Then, of course, Liam and Phoebe, whose relationship I thought was actually really well thought out and well developed. To me, they never felt forced which is a blessing. Yes, I may have cried at the end ;(

As a whole these books were super good and I would recommend them for anyone who enjoys sci-fi. This didn't even feel like a middle-grade book; I'm actually surprised that it is. Definitely worth the time, and this series gets 5/5 stars.