Book Review - All fall down by Ally Carter

Hi everyone!

Title: All Fall Down

Serie: Embassy Row 1/3

Author: Ally Carter

Publisher: Scholastic Press

First Edition edition (February, 2015)

Review Source: NetGalley
Language: English

Amazon / BD

A new series of global proportions -- from master of intrigue, NEW YORK TIMES bestselling author Ally Carter.

This exciting new series from NEW YORK TIMES bestselling author Ally Carter focuses on Grace, who can best be described as a daredevil, an Army brat, and a rebel. She is also the only granddaughter of perhaps the most powerful ambassador in the world, and Grace has spent every summer of her childhood running across the roofs of Embassy Row.

Now, at age sixteen, she's come back to stay--in order to solve the mystery of her mother's death. In the process, she uncovers an international conspiracy of unsettling proportions, and must choose her friends and watch her foes carefully if she and the world are to be saved.

The hero of our story is Grace, a girl that hasn'a had a stable family life. His family, (his parents, his brother Jamie and her) have been changing due to his father's work in the army. Her life seems to be stabilized, because they have decided to stay in one place, but it all goes to hell when Grace is the witness in her mother's murder. But nobody believes what she has seen, and everyone says the death of her mother was an unfortunate accident.

“Adria is a very friendly post, but we live in a dangerous world. That’s why security protocols are not optional. We do not prop open doors. We do not give out access codes. And we never, ever jump off of walls." [...]

“While you are in this building, you are on American soil. This is your country. This is your home. But step outside these walls and you are a visitor in Adria- a visitor with a very important job. Grace, I need to know that you understand me.” [...]

Our story begins when Grace arrives at Embassy Row to stay and live with his grandfather; three years have passed since that traumatic event. As we read, we get to know a little more to Grace and everything that happened to her in the last years. It is a traumatized young girl who tries to adapt to the circumstances, but she can not. Since the first day, her attitude is combative, sarcastic and distrustful. She doesn't want to be there, all place brings memories of her mother. They spent every summer at that residence, enjoying the city and the friends. When she was a child, the embassy was her playground, she kept getting into trouble, too naughty for her age, she followed his brother and his best friend, Alexei, everywhere. But today, that Gracie is gone, but today she gets into trouble. As the story progresses, we see that Grace has to face herself, her memories, those things she thinks she knows and her fears, to discover what really happened to her mother.

“Sometimes the walls that stand between us and our neighbors are all that stand between our country and war.”

Other characters are Noah, Megan, Lila, Rosie, Alexei, Ms. Chancellor, his grandfather, etc ... They all live there and are part of different embassies, I liked everyone, especially Noah and Rosie. Noah will become her best friend, and he has a very outgoing personality with Grace, and get closer since the beginning. Their dialogues are funny. Meanwhile, Rosie is a 13 years old girl, and she has many skills to be so small. 

The story develops in one atmosphere full of political intrigue, conspiracies and secrets. I really enjoy the plot, because the nuanced plot has several twists, especially at the end, I did not expect them, so that I liked a lot. and that's the reason because I gave it 5 stars.

Book review: The here and now by Ann Brashares

Hi everyone!

Title: The here and now

Author: Ann Brashares

Publisher: Delacorte Press

First Edition edition (April 8, 2014)
Hodder Childrens Books (January 1, 2015)

Review Source: NetGalley
Language: English

Amazon / BD

An unforgettable epic romantic thriller about a girl from the future who might be able to save the world . . . if she lets go of the one thing she’s found to hold on to.

Follow the rules. Remember what happened. Never fall in love.

This is the story of seventeen-year-old Prenna James, who immigrated to New York when she was twelve. Except Prenna didn’t come from a different country. She came from a different time—a future where a mosquito-borne illness has mutated into a pandemic, killing millions and leaving the world in ruins.

Prenna and the others who escaped to the present day must follow a strict set of rules: never reveal where they’re from, never interfere with history, and never, ever be intimate with anyone outside their community. Prenna does as she’s told, believing she can help prevent the plague that will one day ravage the earth.

But everything changes when Prenna falls for Ethan Jarves.

The story begins when Ethan meets Prenna in the river. He thinks that the pretty girl covered in mud up to her ears isn't real. Finally he realizes that she is real and isn't the product of his imagination.

The rest of the book is told from the perspective of Prenna, who is giving us clues of her present time and past time. In her past life there was fear, hunger and disease, and in the present she is part of a community of people who came from the same time than hers (2098). This community must obey strictly a series of rules since they arrived on April 23, 2010.

The more I knew about that community, the more I reaffirmed my idea that it was conceived as a sect, which nobody could leave or interact with anyone outside. But in this story, that community has a very poor action in the nuance plot.

The two heroes of the story are Prenna and Ethan.  

Prenna is a young girl from a future time that doesn't remember anything of the day when she arrived, but totally she remembers her past life. As the narrator of the story, we read how she reacts to such simple things like watching the sea, the snow, some new fruits that she didn't know...

Her relationship with their community isn't very special or fluid. There is a paragraph that explains these feelings:

Meanwhile, Ethan remembers everything about Prenna, but it seems that she doesn't recognize him. He is a character more developed than Prenna. Suddenly, he knows almost every secret of Prenna and together are going to look for what must be avoided to have a future.

The story begins to get interesting when a character is showed. This character will be the key in the developing of the story. He shows them the right way to discover the important and decisive fact of the history for the future.

The best part of the story is when Prenna and Ethan begin their trip to prevent future epidemic that will end the world. In these chapters, we find out the events that led to the great deadly epidemic and the writer makes us reconsider many things about the possible future.

I gave it 3 stars because I loved the storyline about the end of the world, but the heroes didn't convince me and the ending left me some questions about the future and the relationship about Prenna and Ethan, and there isn't secuel. It's not fair :(

Other covers:

(Thanks for the ARC)