Book Reviews

Imagine Me // Tahereh Mafi

Imagine me
master of my own universe
I am everything I ever dreamed of

Well. This is it. The final instalment. The end of an era. I think it’s probably wise to tell you my relationship with the Shatter Me series by Tareheh Mafi before I go into the review for this; as it made this reading all the more poignant. This is a v quick review because, I’ll be honest, I don’t want to make this too spoiler-heavy nor do I have that much to actually say about it.

I put off starting Shatter Me and the subsequent books for a long, long time. I think I fell victim to the negative Goodreads reviews and didn’t want to put myself through reading it. But then I read it and wished I had picked it up sooner. To fully appreciate Imagine Me, please PLEASE read the other books in this series beforehand. They all feed into each other; they are all necessary to get this as a final piece of written work for Juliette; Warner; Kenji and so on. I was sad to end my time with these characters; and was equally as sad and disappointed with this final instalment. (Eek! Controversial).

I think Imagine Me was always going to struggle to deliver the same way, emotionally, as the other books. Such a momentum had been built in the run up to this with the events of Ignite Me and Defy Me, that I do appreciate that it would have been tricky to keep the interest peaked. But it definitely felt like this was the nicey-nice round-off that Juliette and Warner deserved; but as readers – did we NEED it?!

Warner was virtually non-existent in this book. Dealing with the loss of Juliette, Warner slips into a depressive state and is the nasty piece of work he was depicted as in the first couple books. He was having a hard time. Juliette was also present in this but only ever-so-slightly more than Warner, having been kidnapped and basically altered scientifically to do dirty work for her enemies.

Kenji was the definite star of the show here – and the majority of the book was from his perspective. He came into his own and I was sad when the book finished, because I felt like in all the other books we had been a bit cheated of Kenji and he didn’t have enough pages-time.

All in all, I will give Imagine Me 4 out of 5 stars, but I think at least one of those is just for nostalgic value and the emotions you feel when you realise you have officially closed the door on a set of characters that you have come to love. So it’s more likely a 3 star book. When the ending came, I was left feeling a bit – “That was it?!” It felt incredibly rushed and sort of as if not that much actually happened throughout the novel?

Warner and Juliette, as always, were pretty cutesy. But I wanted more PASSION.

Emmaline’s storyline made me cry.

Kenji is king.

Will definitely re-read this and wallow in Shatter Me memories though.

What did you lovely lot think?

A xo

Book Reviews

The Crown // Keira Cass

Just a 5 minute review today, folks.

V fluffy. So cute. 3 stars. Out of the whole The Selection series, this was definitely the weakest. I dunno, I found Eadlyn hard to like and constantly getting on my nerves. I know they tried to do some character development with her but she was ultimately still a bit of a brat?

Certain points of this felt a bit rushed and I feel like Eadlyn’s selection and story could have also spanned 3 novels just like her mother and father’s did. There was definitely enough potential plot to beef that out. That’s a shortcoming for this, as I feel Keira Cass really missed an opportunity to get some more character development for both the Elite and Maxon and America.

Also – potential spin-off for Ahren and Camille? No? At the end of the day, I’ve been a huge fan of The Selection series since it came out and can’t believe it took me so long to read this finale! I will always, always hold this series as one of the first, OG successful dystopian concepts and trilogy (that then became a series). I love the world, I love the concept of The Selection process and a society where there is a monarchy and caste system etc. (Love in the sense that, I enjoy reading about it…)

The final twist of who Eadlyn ended up with was FAR TOO RUSHED and a bit of an insta-love, although any declarations of feelings from protagonists that had only had a 2 book lead up to describe and illustrate and entire competition that determines a victor to marry a princess/queen would be far too rushed. I like who ended up with Eadlyn though.

All in all, The Selection Series: The Selection, The Elite, The One, The Heir, and The Crown are all worth a read. Just don’t pick up the series for this book. You will probably feel a bit underwhelmed, at least with Eadlyn’s story, byt the end of it. America and Maxon are the true reason anybody invests their reading time here.

I mean – just look at them!!