The Post-Ignite Me Post (Contains Spoilers!)

* THE MELISSA'S SPOILER WARNERING: *

If you have not read Ignite Me, DO NOT CONTINUE READING THIS POST. There are spoilers ahead! If you are still reading this and you have not read the book, STOP! Don't do this! Read the book and then come back! Please! For your own sake! You have been warnered. I better not hear you whining in the comments about how we ruined the book for you because The Melissa WILL CUT YOU!

To give you a chance to click away from this post if you need to, here's a photo of Melissa and Ally's dog, Tyler, to fill up some space before the rest of the post continues:

Last week, we (Melissa & Lee) collaborated on a post theorizing how the Shatter Me series would end. We both finished Ignite Me over the weekend and thought we'd discuss our reactions.

The Melissa: The Melissa was RIGHT! BAM! Mwahahaha!

Lee: Oh. So I see we have "The Melissa" back again today instead of plain, old, regular Melissa. Mind you, I am actually related to "The Melissa." Do you see what I have to deal with here?! And you know, Melissa (I refuse to acknowledge your "The" today), there is such a thing as an ungracious winner. This means you, Melissa.

The Melissa: The Melissa can't hear you over the sound of her rightness. Readers, don't let her fool you. If she had been right (which she wasn't), she'd be a lot worse! And she does enjoy my strangeness because it's entertaining! Anyway, I'll put my gloating aside (for now) to talk about Warner—I mean the book. I WAS RIGHT! Okay, I'm done for now.

Lee: I only finished reading Ignite Me on Saturday, thanks to the Post Office delivering our copies of the book a day late as well as being extra busy with work this past week. It's Sunday as I write this, and I'm still processing everything.

The Melissa: I was so mad the books were late. I almost set the mailbox on fire! Guaranteed Delivery means Guaranteed! That was the only thing that got me through my math class and IT WASN'T THERE! Then, The Melissa had to wait for Lee to finish. Stupid WORK! >:O

Lee: Just remember, it's thanks to work that you also got a copy of the book. Anyway, my brain is kind of a wreck after reading this. I love Tahereh Mafi's writin—it's just so . . . pretty. I obviously loved every word, sentence, and paragraph that pertained to Warner. And yet I also find myself . . . I don't know how to explain what I want to say. The book just kind of ended and felt a little anti-climactic in comparison to how long the build-up was to the finale.

The Melissa: I love TM's writing style. She's an artist! And while I loved everything about the book, I too found the ending to be a bit abrupt. Also, I was a little upset with how she treated Adam. It was like he was a different person. I felt like he was completely out of character. All of the Adam fans (including me) really got shafted. TM didn't just make Adam look bad, she made us look bad, too!

Lee: I've been utterly, ridiculously in love with Warner from the very beginning, but even I have to say that I was extremely surprised by the turnaround in Adam's character. I think it's really hard to like him in Ignite Me. Some of the things he says to Juliette . . . geez.

The Melissa: I really liked Adam in the first book and by Ignite Me, he wasn't Adam anymore! :( I was super happy to find out Warner wasn't a big meanie, though! Lee, I knew you liked Warner because he was psychotic. Did this new info change the way you thought of him?

Lee: No.

The Melissa: * stares expectantly *

Lee: I mean, you're 100% right. I loved Warner in Shatter Me because he came across as completely unhinged. But you know, I never once questioned his love for Juliette, even before you got to see that he had a human side in Destroy Me I loved where his character went over the span of the series, but I would still love him even if he had remained the Warner we first met in Shatter Me. Am I making sense anymore? Thinking about Warner renders me incoherent. God, I still have a review of Ignite Me to write. I got nothing! (BTW, this post was Melissa's idea. It's her way of worming out of writing a formal review of Ignite Me. I'm on to you, dear cousin!)

The Melissa: Hmm. You caught on sooner than expected. :-p I don't think I could write a review for this book without a ridiculous amount of spoilers!

Lee: Yeah, I'm definitely facing that problem. I do believe I'll be employing another spoiler warning when the review goes up. Switching gears, I'd like to share this little tidbit about Melissa. If you want to drive her to hysterics (the angry kind, not the haha kind), just text her some pics of some of the, er, more PG-13 pages from Ignite Me. (I may or may not have learned from firsthand experience that this is a guaranteed way to enrage Melissa.)

The Melissa: More liked rated R! The Melissa cannot handle the awko-taco scenes! Give me the hand holding and that's as far as I want it to go! I'm not old enough for that other stuff! :O

Lee: You are 18 now, Melissa.

The Melissa:

Lee: And on that note, we're going to wrap up this post. I am certainly basking in all the Warner love that Ignite Me showed him.

The Melissa: Remember, NO WHINING about spoilers! Peace out!

Lee: I apologize for Melissa's rudeness. She *thinks* she's hilarious.

Stacking the Shelves (51)

Stacking the Shelves is a weekly meme hosted by Tynga's Reviews. It's an opportunity for everyone to share the new books that we've acquired.

As a gigantic fan of the Shatter Me series, I was beyond thrilled for the release of Ignite Me this past week! I'm only about halfway through thanks to work, but with the weekend finally here, I'm looking forward to finally spending some quality time reading it! And at last, I broke down and bought a copy of These Broken Stars.

NetGalley:

Don't Even Think About It by Sarah Mlynowski

Bought:

The Darkest Minds by Alexandra Bracken
Unite Me by Tahereh Mafi
Ignite Me by Tahereh Mafi
Incarnate by Jodi Meadows
These Broken Stars by Amie Kaufman & Meagan Spooner

What did you add to your shelves this week? Please link me up!

The War Over Warner: How Will Ignite Me End?

Well hello there, fellow Shatter Me fans! It's Melissa and Lee here, gearing ourselves up to start reading this little prettiful today:

We looove this series a lot, and we wanted to do something special to mark its end. We considered shooting a vlog, but that involved an amount of work that appealed to no one. Instead, we've decided to write down our thoughts, conversation style, about the series coming to a conclusion. *Sniffle* We've been arguing quite a bit over what we think is going to happen, so this should be fun . . . .

The Melissa: Hello my peeps! After reading Fracture Me, I was rather infuriated to say the least. Don't worry, I have a whole rant to write about that shite! Before that, I had thought Adam and Juliette were meant to be together; now, not so much.

Lee: Gee, Melissa, you sound a little upset . . . .

The Melissa: The Melissa is very upset! WTF, man?! It's obvious that Tahereh Mafi used the novella to make Adam look like a douche tart so Warner can be with Juliette! >:0

Lee: Well, you know I have absolutely no problem with that, mwahaha! By the way, have I ever told you how much I love Warner, Melissa? I love him a lot. He may be just a tad psychotic, but I love him.

The Melissa: I like Warner, too, but it doesn't seem like he was supposed to get Juliette from the beginning! First book, without a doubt, it was Adam. But TM decided she liked Warner better and decided to get rid of Adam!

Lee: I don't think that's true. The conspiracy theorist in me says that TM just wants you to think that Juliette is going to end up with Warner, but ultimately, she'll go with Adam.

The Melissa: The second book and novellas are obviously a segue into Warner becoming Juliette's love interest.

Lee: Hey Melissa—remember Chapter 62 of Unravel Me? Yeah, I just went there. And I really, really don't think you should count Adam out. He's totally going to have an epiphany, realize he loves Juliette, and go after her.

The Melissa: Ewww! You sick bitch! You are unhealthily obsessed with that chapter! Anyway, Adam's brother is and always will be his first priority. That is not going to change. Juliette is Warner's number one and probably always will be. Juliette is broken; she needs someone to be fully devoted to her, and that person is Warner.

Lee: Language, Melissa, language! I would say that your strong reaction to the mere mention of Chapter 62 of Unravel Me means that you're attempting to hide something, i.e. your love of that chapter. Anyway, I actually agree that Warner is wholly devoted to Juliette, but I just have this gut feeling that his love for her is going to him hurt. Maybe literally.

The Melissa: Yup. I agree. With the bit about Warner getting hurt. NOT ABOUT CHAPTER-TOO-ADULT-FOR-THE-MELISSA. However, he will not die and they will be together forever.

Lee: Look, I'm all for Warner getting a lovely, happily ever after ending, but I don't see that happening because he doesn't have that kind of luck. Fracture Me was a setup to get readers to think Juliette didn't necessarily rank first in Adam's heart so that when he inevitably pulls himself together in Ignite Me, everyone will be surprised when he wins her heart back. So there.

The Melissa: You're theory is stupid!

Lee: You used the wrong "your." Who's stupid now?! Let's get back to the topic at hand.

The Melissa: NOOOO!!! In my extreme rage, I made the most horriblest of mistakes. Do you see what your stupidness is doing to me?!

Lee: I'm not the one referring to myself as "The Melissa." What is UP with that?!

The Melissa: The Melissa does not answer to you! But, just to clarify, it just kinda happened. Putting "the" in front of things seems so grand!

Lee: This "conversation" is collapsing quickly. Any final, Ignite Me-related thoughts?

The Melissa: I can't wait to gloat when I turn out to be right!

Lee: You mean you can't wait to sulk when you turn out to be wrong! It's OK. I won't remind you about it too often. Maybe only every 5 seconds.

The Melissa: I guess we'll just have to see. And the winner (me) will have a gloat post.

And just in case you need a refresher on the previous books/novellas in the series, here are their reviews:
• Shatter Me
• Destroy Me
• Unravel Me
• Fracture Me

ARC Review: The Tyrant's Daughter by J. C. Carleson

The Tyrant’s Daughter
By J. C. Carleson
Publisher: Alfred A. Knopf
Format: eBook
Source: NetGalley
Publication Date: February 11, 2014

To Sum It Up: Following the assassination of her father by her uncle, fifteen-year-old Laila, along with her mother and younger brother, suddenly finds herself adapting to a new life in the United States. Not only must she grapple with a complete change in cultures, but for the first time, Laila gets a hard look at the perception of her father outside of her homeland. As she struggles to cope with everything that’s happened, her mother pursues her own agenda—one that involves making deals with the CIA.

Review: I rarely read current events-related books, but I couldn’t help being intrigued by the synopsis for The Tyrant’s Daughter. The fact that the author is a former CIA officer also piqued my interest in a title that otherwise would not have caught my eye. The expectations that I formed in my head based on the blurb and the author’s background didn’t quite line up with how the story actually played out, though.

The narrative is told from the perspective of fifteen-year-old Laila, who was until very recently a princess, the daughter of the ruler of a Middle Eastern country that is never named. Laila’s royal world came crashing down the day her uncle killed her father and seized power. Laila, her mother, and little brother, Bastien, have fled to America, where the family is living in drastically reduced circumstances. Although Laila comes across as a fairly sympathetic character who’s caught between her past and present lives, I found her narrative voice detached for the most part. I couldn’t muster much emotional investment in her story, not because there was anything blatantly wrong with the prose, but it just didn’t jump off the page at me.

I read a little too much into the part of the book’s summary that references Laila’s mother, Yasmin, negotiating with the CIA to put her son on the throne. I was hoping to see the author’s personal experience with the agency lend a unique angle to the novel, but the events in the book don’t venture too far from what you’d find in a collection of news stories. Yasmin does engage in some slick maneuvering to get what she wants, but the results, while not completely lacking surprise, aren’t exactly jaw-dropping, either. There’s also a bit of an info dump toward the end of the book.

This review has been a challenge to write because although I didn’t have any particularly salient issues with The Tyrant’s Daughter, it also wasn’t a page-turner for me. It’s equally difficult to rate this type of book, where you’re not really leaning toward liking it or disliking it. My rating reflects being unable to get into the story more than anything, so if this sounds like a book that interests you, I urge you to give it a read for yourself.

All in All: The Tyrant’s Daughter features a fairly fresh premise among YA contemporary novels, and that alone may make this worth checking out. Unfortunately, the book didn’t work out for me, but then books in this genre tend to be hit or miss for me.

January 2014 Recap

January was kind of a tough month for me reading-wise. I was really excited about starting a new year in books, but being disappointed by two big name titles in a row put a little damper on my enthusiasm. I feel like I'm in a bit of a reading slump right now, but sometimes that just happens. February should be better, if only because Ignite Me, the final Shatter Me novel, is coming out on Tuesday! EEEP!

Reviews Posted:

• Fracture Me by Tahereh Mafi
• Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist by Rachel Cohn & David Levithan
• Divergent by Veronica Roth
• Shadow and Bone by Leigh Bardugo

Featured Posts:

• Reading and Blogging Resolutions for 2014
• Ally Is Alive!

TBR Reading Challenge Progress:

• Books Read/Reviewed: 1