Review: Endure by Carrie Jones

Endure
Need #4

Author: Carrie Jones

Publication Date: May 8, 2012

Publisher: Bloomsbury USA

Genre: Fantasy/Mythology

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Synopsis:

Zara is at the center of an all-out war, and an impending apocalypse. True, she’s successfully rescued Nick from Valhalla, but it simply isn’t enough. Bedford is being ravaged by evil pixies and they need much more than one great warrior; they need an army. Zara isn’t sure what her role is anymore. She’s not just fighting for her friends, she’s also a pixie queen. And to align her team of pixies with the humans she loves will be one of her greatest battles yet. Especially since she can’t even reconcile her growing feelings for her pixie king…

Unexpected turns, surprising revelations, and one utterly satisfying romantic finale make Endure a thrilling end to this series of bestsellers.

My Thoughts: I read this series back to back in a whirlwind couple of days. I have to say, I really really enjoyed the series as well. I loved the first book, felt a small dull in the next few, but I am so glad that I stuck it out until the end because it was totally worth it.

The Need series is about a girl named Zara White and her journey. I loved watching her really and truly evolve and go through so much from Need to Endure. She was pretty awe-inspiring and I was glad to be in her head. The turmoil she goes through when facing moral dilemmas feels genuine.

Endure, in particular, is probably my favourite book out of this series. Not just because Zara ends up with the boy I was rooting for (YAY!) but also because of the action, the romance, the friendship and the obstacles they overcome.

Zara is the girl in Amnesty International. She tries to save the world, one letter at a time and is a pacifist. By this novel, all of her beliefs have been tested as well as her character. Nick is her first love and an overprotective alpha wolf with a black and white view of the world.

Astley is the pixie king that showed Zara that not all pixies are bad and turned her world from black and white to help her see the grey. He is respectful of her decisions and defends them (most of the time).

Again, I really liked this entire series and would recommend it! It has a lot of Norse Mythology in it, which I liked since I could discuss it with my husband since he loves it so much. The only negative I have about this book is that I wish a few more things were clarified for me in the end - but sometimes it is good to leave the viewers wanting more, I suppose.

Review: The Pixitres by Basil Sprig

The Pixitres

Author: Basil Sprig

Publication Date: April 3rd, 2012

Publisher: Createspace

Genre: Middle-Grade/Fantasy

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Synopsis:

As the fairies of Camp Fae investigate the disappearance of one of Alley Willowwood’s closest friends, they discover that the entire magical world is on the brink of war. Someone is stirring up Pixies tribes not only against one another, but against the Fairies. Join Alley as she tries to find her friend and uncover the true villain behind it all in an adventure that takes her across several continents, deep under the sea, and to the other end of our solar system. Alley confronts kidnapping pixie tribes, dragons, a demonic beast from the underworld and more importantly her own fears as she tries to solve the mystery. Who are these mysterious new strangers that have appeared at Camp Fae and what are their intentions? Who has kidnapped her friend and why? And worst of all, what is she going to do now that she's inadvertently made an oath of allegiance to one of the pixie queens and quite possibly given her the ultimate magical weapon?

My Thoughts: The Pixitres is a pretty good magical adventure, full of tons of exciting events and fantastical experiences. If you like fairies, pixies, any of that good stuff, you'll definitely like this book. It seems to me that is kind of inbetween YA and Middlegrade, so I think you'll like it regardless of your age, or genre preference.

The thing that struck me most about this book were the similarities to Harry Potter. Don't get me wrong here though. Harry Potter is one of the ultimate stories ever told and I'm not comparing their greatness but certain points in the plot just had me thinking this was almost Harry Potter but with Fairies instead of Wizards. Alley is the main character, she's a young girl that discovers she is a fairy in her pre-teens, she goes to a camp every summer that is pretty much like a fairy school, and of course only fairies know it exists. Alley herself lives in the human world though, where no one knows what she is or that fairies even exist. While the rest of her friends, with one exception, live in fairy houses with fairy families and such. Alley and her close friends are part of a special group that essentially fights bad and evil. The main bad guy in this story just had me thinking Voldemort, except he was nearly as amazingly evil. But he had the same aspirations ultimately. He wanted fairies to rule, to dominate over piddly humans and he was prepared to conquer all those in his bath, and he had his own little band of fairies to back him up. Am I crazy to see the correlation here? I don't know haha, maybe I am, but the likeness really seemed to jump out at me.

But apart from all that, it was a good story and was very unique it lots of ways. It was fun reading about fairies and how they use their powers and what kinds of things they are capable of. It seemed to me the Author put a lot of work into his story, as it contained lots of information behind his characters and beings and that is always an awesome thing in a story. Especially one about magical or fantastical creatures. Everyone tends to put their own spin on things, so it's nice when the Author gives you lots of information on their own unique twist. The story also carried a pretty detailed plot line that you actually had to pay a bit of attention to if you wanted to keep up. I also like that in a story. The only thing that bothered me was that I didn't really develop a connection with the main character or any of them really. It didn't really seem like there was time to with every thing that was constantly going on. But maybe that's because I didn't get to read the first book in this series. I'm sure if I had things might have been different.

But in the end, it was a pretty good story, and I did enjoy it. I would probably recommend it, but I feel like I should go back and read the first one so I can get to know some more about Alley and the other characters :). Thanks to Basil Sprigs publisher for offering me this book, I enjoyed the read!