Three on a Theme: 3 YA series I'm in the middle of...

I'm almost livid with myself for how long it's taken me to get to these series and that I have not yet consumed them into my eyeballs in their entirety. I am trying to be responsible with my number - of- library- books-checked-out situation... I can't really talk about that without confirmation of your loyalty.

But anywhooo, this three on a theme is about three YA series that I have started, LOVED, and have yet to finish. It's possible that the last book or the resolutions will RUIN everything (::cough cough:: Hunger Games ::cough cough::) but the first books have been worth the trouble, so far.

Each of these series has rich, diverse characters, great stories, worthwhile plots. There's also some action or moral reckoning, which apparently are things I like to read about and keep me drawn to YA books like these.There are, obviously, moral reckoning situations in adult books as well, but isn't it less interesting when the character should just know better!? That's a whole different post, I guess.

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In all fairness to me, though, the end of this first series has not yet been published. I have already gushed my soul out about the first book in the Winner's Curse series.
I finished the second one last week and promptly yelled at Marie Rutkoski via Twitter for ending the book on such a HORRIBLE part!! She totally did it on purpose, I don't care if she said sorry or not. More like sorry not sorry. Anyway, The series is about a young woman (Kestrel) who must decide where her loyalties lie in a very difficult political situation. This is especially given that she is becoming close with a member (Arin) of the enslaved group of people that her people conquered 10 years ago. She's using strategy and her wits to try and save lives (or at least as many lives as possible given the circumstances) but is struggling to play all the parts she needs to play, which leaves her in a HORRIBLE situation at the end of book 2. Arin, the other primary character in the book is trying to figure out what the hell Kestrel is doing. And he doesn't even know about the HORRIBLE situation... I CANNOT WAIT UNTIL MARCH 29th when the end of the trilogy comes out. In the meantime, I may be able to read Rutkoski's Shadow Society trilogy, which also looks promising. 

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I read Six of Crows recently which is a new series by Leigh Bardugo. I LOVED that book like it was a sweet little precious baby and risked falling into a bookhole until the second one comes out in September 2016. Well, looky looky, Ms. Bardugo has a whole completed trilogy that was set in the same world as Crows. BOOM! The first one was fabulous... and that is as far as I have gotten. This is one of those "I didn't know I had superpowers until i became a teenager and now I have to save the world" types of books. Alina is a Grisha, an elite group who have powers over the elements, although she JUST NOW found out when the hidden powers were sparked by fear for her best friend's life. Obviously, the best friend is hot and popular and Alina has always felt a little bit the outsider. Well, now she's faced with figuring out who she really is and how to stand up for herself. And of course, the world might be ending if she doesn't get her shit together and she isn't sure who to trust. Can she settle all this AND learn how to keep from being enslaved by the Big Bad? And what/who is the Big Bad anyway!? And why are boys so distracting!!? Bardugo is a masterful world- builder who sets a scene you can feel yourself in while you're reading, even as you are yelling at Alina to keep her lips to herself. 

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I started the Unwind series about a million years ago when I read the first book. I have no idea what happened after that. Last week I read UnWholly and was BLOWN- A- FRICKING- WAY. I went back to look at my goodreads rating for the first book and I was blown away back then, too. This series is not going to get away from me again. Nosirreebob. This series is called a dystology which is a word that apparently Neal Shusterman made up, which doesn't surprise me as he is a master word smith, and one of my Secret Author Boyfriends. This series is set in a land in the not- so-distant future when parents are allowed to donate or surrender their children aged 13 - 17 years to the government to be unwound. This basically means they are used for parts. You can imagine the craziness that this has created. Really, you probably can't. There are government campaigns designed to convince parents that unwinding their children is a great patriotic idea, a police forced tasked with tracking down runaways, and a cultural mentality about the subhuman- ness of those tagged for unwinding. Shusterman does the heavy lifting in a series that is brilliant and disturbing. There are times when I set the book down and just THINK about the relations between the concepts in the book world and the one we actually live in. 

I'm writing this ahead of time, so by the time you read this I'll be done with the series. Feel free to ask me to squeal about it to you. 

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