A Million Worlds With You by Claudia Gray // Not As Good As the First Two

A Million Worlds With You (Firebird #3), by Claudia Gray
Publication: November 1, 2016, by HarperTeen
Genre: Young Adult Fiction, Fantasy, Romance
Pages: 419
Format: Paperback
Source: Purchased
Rating: 

The fate of the multiverse rests in Marguerite Caine’s hands. Marguerite has been at the center of a cross-dimensional feud since she first traveled to another universe using her parents’ invention, the Firebird. Only now has she learned the true plans of the evil Triad Corporation—and that those plans could spell doom for dozens or hundreds of universes, each facing total annihilation.
Paul Markov has always been at Marguerite’s side, but Triad’s last attack has left him a changed man—angry and shadowed by tragedy. He struggles to overcome the damage done to him, but despite Marguerite’s efforts to help, Paul may never be the same again.
So it’s up to Marguerite alone to stop the destruction of the multiverse. Billions of lives are at stake. The risks have never been higher. And Triad has unleashed its ultimate weapon: another dimension’s Marguerite—wicked, psychologically twisted, and always one step ahead.
In the conclusion to Claudia Gray’s Firebird trilogy, fate and family will be questioned, loves will be won and lost, and the multiverse will be forever changed. It’s a battle of the Marguerites…and only one can win.

My Thoughts:

A Million Worlds With You has been marked as currently-reading on my Goodreads account forEVER. Why, you ask? Because I began reading it months ago and found that it was boring, and so much was happening at once that I needed to slow down and wait to read it during a time where I would be able to concentrate. Whenever I kept peeking at its (gorgeous) cover, I would shiver, reminding myself of the boredom it provided me. However, I recently produced the guts to read it (and remove it from my currently-reading list), and I was thoroughly disappointed. This was supposed to be amazing, just as the first two books in this trilogy were. Unfortunately, it was not amazing.

Don't get me wrong: I love this series and still would recommend it to all interested readers. This book just proved itself to be unpromising. While reading, I felt like too much was happening at once, and our main character, Marguerite, was switching between too many worlds (or 'verses') too quickly. I wasn't able to determine what her role in this story was. Apparently it was to save the other versions of herself, but too much was happening and I was unable to really feel that. Instead, I just felt Claudia Gray attempting to ramble on and on, taking up 'space' in the book, instead of entertaining readers in a slow, blissful manner.

This series is really all about its gorgeous romance between Marguerite and Paul. In this novel, their romance felt very flawed (which is normal), but to the point that I stopped being interested because they faced TOO many problems. It seemed as if the characters were getting tired of each other (even though Marguerite attempted to tell herself that she is in love with Paul), and I myself got tired. 

There were pros and positives in this story; I really liked the conclusion, and it really made me feel sad, knowing that this was the last time I would be able to read about these characters. I liked how we were able to see a relationship boost amongst Marguerite and her parents, especially in the other verses. I will truly miss this series, despite the lows of this finale.

A Million Worlds With You was disappointing in comparison to the other two novels in this series. It lacked depth and a faster pace that would keep me entertained for my entire reading experience. I constantly longed for more. Goodbye, Firebird series, I loved you.

Have you read a series with a disappointing ending?

Defy the Stars by Claudia Gray // A Sad DNF

Defy the Stars (Constellation #1), by Claudia Gray
Publication: April 4, 2017, by Little Brown BFYR
Genre: Young Adult Fiction, Science-Fiction, Romance
Pages: 503
Format: ARC
Source: Publisher
Rating: 

She’s a soldier.
Noemi Vidal is seventeen years old and sworn to protect her planet, Genesis. She’s willing to risk anything—including her own life. To their enemies on Earth, she’s a rebel.
He’s a machine.
Abandoned in space for years, utterly alone, Abel has advanced programming that’s begun to evolve. He wants only to protect his creator, and to be free. To the people of Genesis, he’s an abomination.
Noemi and Abel are enemies in an interstellar war, forced by chance to work together as they embark on a daring journey through the stars. Their efforts would end the fighting for good, but they’re not without sacrifice. The stakes are even higher than either of them first realized, and the more time they spend together, the more they’re forced to question everything they’d been taught was true.

My Thoughts:

DNF @ page 150

I really feel bad to write this review because I am even disappointed in myself. I REALLY, REALLY, REALLY wanted to love this book. Claudia Gray is one of my most favourite authors without any doubt - her Firebird trilogy definitely has a piece of my heart, and it always will. I was stoked, ABSOLUTELY THRILLED to see that she has a new series coming out, however, I'm not really the dystopian-science fiction type of chick. I expected to enjoy this because the ONE AND ONLY Claudia Gray has written it, however, I was extremely disappointed with the outcome, and I was forced to stop reading it around page one hundred and fifty.

Defy the Stars just seems like a book that was put together with bits and pieces of other YA stories. Cinder, These Broken Stairs, Illuminae... I enjoyed all of those books SO much, and this was just a blend of them all. And I saw that immediately when I began reading. The fact that this was unoriginal and boring makes me feel depressed, because I'm pondering whether it was Claudia Gray's writing or my tiredness of this genre that made me not enjoy this.

Everyone seems to be giving this positive reviews, however I stand as a black sheep. This was slow-paced, and I couldn't feel any depth in the story. It was just a romance novel disguised as a science fiction story with a premise that I couldn't care less about. It's kind of a Romeo and Juliet story, where our two characters, Noemi and Abel, are basically forbidden to be together because they stand on two opposite sides of the social ladder in space. I did, however, find the setting to be extremely interesting. Spaceships and planets we never have heard of sound extremely cool, but the book as a whole was a bore.

Defy the Stars was sadly unoriginal and boring, prompting me to put it down and not finish it. I couldn't care for the ending and whether there would be plot twists or if Abel and Noemi's relationship strengthened. This was just a complete disappointment.

*A review copy was provided by the publisher in exchange for a honest review. Thank you so much!*

What genre has disappointed you lately?

Ten Thousand Skies Above You by Claudia Gray // OVERWHELMINGLY AWESOME

Ten Thousand Skies Above You (Firebird #2), by Claudia Gray
Publication: November 3, 2015, by HarperTeen
Genre: Young Adult Fiction, Science-Fiction, Romance
Pages: 424
Format: Paperback
Source: Purchased
Rating: 

Ever since she used the Firebird, her parents' invention, to cross into alternate dimensions, Marguerite has caught the attention of enemies who will do anything to force her into helping them dominate the multiverse—even hurting the people she loves. She resists until her boyfriend, Paul, is attacked and his consciousness scattered across multiple dimensions.
Marguerite has no choice but to search for each splinter of Paul’s soul. The hunt sends her racing through a war-torn San Francisco, the criminal underworld of New York City, and a glittering Paris where another Marguerite hides a shocking secret. Each world brings Marguerite one step closer to rescuing Paul. But with each trial she faces, she begins to question the destiny she thought they shared.
The second book in the Firebird trilogy, Ten Thousand Skies Above You features Claudia Gray’s lush, romantic language and smart, exciting action, and will have readers clamoring for the next book.

My Thoughts:

The utterly stunning (more stunning than all of the books that currently exist, to be honest) Ten Thousand Skies Above You has been awaited by me for ages. AGES. I read the first book in the Firebird trilogy, A Thousand Pieces of You, last year, and was more satisfied than I could have ever imagined because, finally, a book has mastered the concept of time-traveling and parallel universes so well that I was unable to think or really want to enjoy a book for a while after that. I purchased this sequel a few months ago, didn't think much of it, but I have only realized that at this moment, I feared second-book syndrome. I feared disappointment, confusion with the plot (because I actually read this more than a year ago) and most of all, I feared a let-down in terms of my favourite couples not being able to be together. Listen: I love my feels going out of control, but I strongly didn't want to cry or rage at Claudia Gray's newest masterpiece.

The Firebird trilogy is one of my most recommended trilogies. Every person, even if they are not a fan of science-fiction, would adore the focus on love in this trilogy. The story is not just a story or just a book—to me, it just means so much that this is not just about the science-fiction aspects, the physics of time-traveling and multiverses. This is surely a continuation to the first book, and I thank the BOOK LORDS FOR NOT CONFUSING ME WITH WHAT HAPPENED. Honestly, I would have loved to reread the first book and re-feel everything once more, but I have no time to do that. Thankfully, Gray just retold the ending of the first book to us in the beginning of this, and I suddenly remembered what happened again and how much I needed this sequel. And from there? Everything just began again.

There wasn't a moment in this story where I wanted to stop reading, take a look at my phone, go on Goodreads, read some reviews, write some reviews, or even take a breath. It's amazing and so much is happening every moment and every page of the story. I couldn't stop going crazy and obsessing over everything that was happening. The plot was fast-paced, and things got into the real very quickly. I was in legitimate shock at every corner, and especially during THAT ENDING WHERE I JUST NEEDED SO MUCH MORE, ENDLESS AMOUNT OF PAGES TO CONTINUE THEO/PAUL/MARGUERITE'S STORY. I was absolutely addicted to it all and I feel this absolute need for the sequel at this absolute instant.

At the start of the story, things seem well again, especially with Theo and Marguerite's relationship after everything that happened to the Caine family. All of the sudden, Theo gets sick after taking too much Nightthief (the addictive drug for travellers), Marguerite wants to meet with Wyatt, wherever he is, to find a cure for Theo, since she knows that doctors wouldn't have any cure whatsoever. When it seems that she has everything under control, Paul's soul is splintered, and split into four pieces that Marguerite must seek in different universes.

"I've come to believe that there really is something that flows through every version of us, one common identity that outweighs our different situations in the various worlds" (35).

Can we just chat about how smart, how intelligent, how powerful this sequel is, equal to the first novel? I rarely call books smart, because there has to be a true reason for it, whether it's terminology, explanations, equations—anything in that matter. Ten Thousand Skies Above You, like its previous novel, is all of that. There is so much thought put into the story by Gray, so much energy flowing through it that I just want to get up and create my own Firebird, travel to a different universe where Marguerite, Paul and Theo all exist and talk physics with them. Claudia Gray is the best author genius in the entire universe. This trilogy is why I enjoy science-fiction and seeking different books that are not your typical story about different societies or fighting until death. (You certainly know which books I am talking about). Instead, this is a book that takes readers to different settings, perhaps settings that they have never visited, but have heard tons about, all mixed with the mystery of "Where's Paul?" or "What is Marguerite's life like in this universe?" all throughout. The questions seriously never ended in my end, but they were not out of confusion, but out of curiosity, and some were answered, some I know will be answered in the last novel.

I still am in utter shock that these beautiful characters will be leaving us in the next book. I AM GOING TO THROW THAT IDEA OUT OF MY HEAD NOW OR ELSE I'LL GET SAD. This is such a complex, event-crazed story that I felt so overwhelmed after I finished reading. I began reading this late at night, had to stop at around sixty pages, and then finished it in a sitting the next day, today. Afterwards, my head was pounding, but sometimes these side effects do not matter at all to me. Especially when the book that effected me so much was astonishing.

I love rating books five stars, and this is one of the most stellar ones yet. I needed a refreshing read that will make me smile, because this certainly turned out fabulous. How is someone able to rate this less than five stars? *cries of shock* I wish I could reread it over and over again and go crazy and create an Instagram page and promote it fifty million times and... my dreams won't come true, hah. My dreams did come true when we travelled to San Francisco yet again (though in a dystopian setting, I'm pretty sure), Paris, New York City and Russia once more. Every step or universe that Marguerite took into consideration, she experienced something new and a thousand new secrets were revealed to her, things that she didn't even know about herself in her reality universe.

"Ten thousand skies, and a million worlds, and it still wouldn't be enough for me to share with you. Nothing less than forever will do" (421).

I've saved this bit to chat about the romance. Is there a love triangle? Kind of. I mean, we definitely did see it in the first novel, where Marguerite was torn between Theo and Paul for the whole novel, until she realizes who she really loves, but this book was a slight bit more complicated, only for the reason that Marguerite is eventually found in a situation where she is in a setting where she is in love with Theo, hilariously. They even travel to this world (the war-torn San Francisco) and end up in the weirdest situation when they get there. It was hilariously awkward, and it made the book ten times more entertaining, proving that even book fictional characters don't have it perfect from time to time. I DON'T KNOW WHOSE SIDE I AM REALLY ON AT THE MOMENT. My feelings are still all over the place because I ship Tharguerite and I also ship Parguerite. I CAN'T PICK. We see a lot of Theo in this one, since he is Marguerite's travelling companion, doing so much for her and showing her that he will always be there, waiting for Marguerite if things don't end up well behind her and Paul. But there's also the dedication that Marguerite has for her and Paul's relationship, and how she is willing to do just about anything to save him. It is truly obvious that he loves her with all of his heart, and I loved their intimate moments.

As usual, we are fortunate to be able to get appearances of Marguerite's parents and Josie. I love Marguerite's relationship with her family—it's truly important for the reason that she is making all of these sacrifices, going travelling and finding out answers for them. She loves her "parents," even in the other universes where they truly aren't... themselves. I could definitely admit that more than a few tears sprawled on my face from time to time, and I was strongly awaiting a reunion for the Caines.

THAT CLIFFHANGER, PLOT TWIST AND SECRET THAT IS REVEALED ABOUT EVERYTHING THAT MARGUERITE HAS EVER KNOWN. WOW. HOLY MOLY FIREBIRDS. I don't know how I could wait any longer. Seriously, if you thought the last book was full of twists and jaw-dropping turns, wait for this one. Everything that you thought you knew about the anatomy of the world(s) that Claudia Gray created is absolutely inauthentic. Fake. Lied about. My stomach weirdly churns when I think about it all over again.

Ten Thousand Skies Above You is certainly the best title I have read this year. I constantly say that when I read five-star reads, but this is pure seriousness. Marguerite, Theo and Paul are going to sit with me in my dreams tonight, I know it. I NEED BOOK THREE WITH ALL MY MIGHT, AND I JUST CANNOT STOP GOING CRAZY OVER THIS. The cover is completely gorgeous, just as the novel is (which is even more prettier). From the first page, I knew that I wouldn't be disappointed, and I am still struggling with the fact that I waited this long to finally pick it up. This book deserves ten thousand stars. 

What is the best sequel you have read? Do you enjoy Claudia Gray/Amy Vincent's work?

A Thousand Pieces of You by Claudia Gray Review: ADDICTING AND BLEMISHING

A Thousand Pieces of You (Firebird #1), by Claudia Gray
Publication: November 4, 2014, by HarperTeen
Genre: Young Adult Fiction, Science-Fiction, Romance, Dystopian
Pages: 368
Format: Hardcover
Source: Gifted
Rating: 

Every Day meets Cloud Atlas in this heart-racing, space- and time-bending, epic new trilogy from New York Times bestselling author Claudia Gray.
Marguerite Caine’s physicist parents are known for their radical scientific achievements. Their most astonishing invention: the Firebird, which allows users to jump into parallel universes, some vastly altered from our own. But when Marguerite’s father is murdered, the killer—her parent’s handsome and enigmatic assistant Paul—escapes into another dimension before the law can touch him.
Marguerite can’t let the man who destroyed her family go free, and she races after Paul through different universes, where their lives entangle in increasingly familiar ways. With each encounter she begins to question Paul’s guilt—and her own heart. Soon she discovers the truth behind her father’s death is more sinister than she ever could have imagined.
A Thousand Pieces of You explores a reality where we witness the countless other lives we might lead in an amazingly intricate multiverse, and ask whether, amid infinite possibilities, one love can endure. 

My Thoughts:

This book was just as majestic and eye-stunning as the cover. And can I just say, man isn't that a compliment?! If you don't see the beauty in this portrait that we're all starring at right now, then something is simply wrong with you. *apologizes and laughs* The watercolours and all of it has to do with our kick-ass protagonist, Marguerite Caine. This book was EVERYTHING for me, and I feel myself slowly falling into a book hangover since I just can't get over that. 

Flashback, #ThrowbackThursday, whatever you weirdos call a blast to the past (hey, that's another one!), let's take one back to the crazy year of 2014, when this beauty was published, and thrown to the hands of millions of greedy readers, just like myself. Except, every reader who picks this book up will feel like it was made, and written for them, without any coincidences or irony. This is the real thing, and IT'S ALL FOR YOU! But I'm telling you, I'm planning on stealing everyone's copy and hoarding them all for myself in a special museum that lies underground next to my house. And you don't know where that location is, so you better beware. *raises eyebrows* KIDDING. I'M KIDDING. All I need is my own copy to make life complete.

Again with this flashback thing, I received this book as a Christmas gift last year, and I was sure that it'd interest me, as dystopias and sci-fis are my favourite kinds of books. But of course, there's always the odd ones out that disappoint me and leave me with tears because I just couldn't handle their disgusting aspects. I expected this to be horrible. I was ready to brace it, I picked up the book with a sad-face on and ended up with a face that no one can even imagine or try to picture because it's all in our imaginations, when the one day will happen where PAUL WILL BE LAYING IN OUR ARMS. That will happen soon, I hope. *writes a letter to Claudia*

"Before, I'd only been afraid of not getting home. Now I'm afraid of not getting out of this dimension in time to escape the danger that I now know is very, very real."

My brain is congested with the events and heart-warming, pounding and thrilling plot that our hearts actually opened a huge gateway to, to actually love and devour. Marguerite Caine lives with her older sister and two scientist parents who surely are on their way to win a Nobel Prize—all because of the Firebird. This is a device that lets people go to another dimension, where there are an infinite amount of them for every single possibility. Her father is then murdered, and their assistant, Paul, is said to be the one who killed him. Marguerite is on a mission alongside her parents' new assistant, Theo, where they are on the hunt to kill Paul for everything that he's done.

Well, you can guess where this book goes from here. HAH, JUST KIDDING—of course you can't! At first, I was a little weakling as well and thought that I was Miss-Know-It-All and figured that I knew every single bit of magic that Gray was adding into this book. Before reading, I'm letting you know that this was the most unpredictable book I've read in a while. And did I happily declare that it is the best one, too? I can't go on telling you all of the majestical things that happened or else I'd basically sit here for the rest of my life, but you've got to trust me on taking the chance on this one.

Where the heck has science-fiction concepts gone? Really, this is a positive aspect if you ask me. Books in the past really didn't focus much on the futuristic elements of our world. and when they did, they focused on ideas that any human can think of eventually happening. Parallel-universes? Now that's got to involve so much physics and thinking and logic to put into place. Very much like Erica O'Rourke's Dissonance, this book focused on a girl who knows how to jump and explore these infinite possibilities and help others out, including herself. Gray wrote about this concept just like if she was Marguerite, and if she was actually the one who went on these adventures. It seems (and it is the real thing) that she has so much experience with this concept, and she knows how to explain it right.

What doesn't get me is the thoughts of the fellow reviewers that we spot on Goodreads or on other blogs. No, no, it's your opinion, you can think whatever you'd like, but I just don't get the fact that people have a problem with the clarity. No dystopia author has ever explained the concept of their book so clearly but in an intriguing matter like Claudia. Her explanations and plots cannot compare to any other author, I must say. And the settings? LONDON, RUSSIA, A STRANDED ISLAND, THIS IS THE BEST, I kept telling myself over and over again. This novel made me feel like I won the Nobel Prize, and my statue was this book.

"I meant it when I said I didn't believe in love at first sight. It takes time to really, truly fall for someone. Yet I believe in a moment. A moment when you glimpse the truth within someone, and they glimpse the truth within you. In that moment, you don't belong to yourself any longer, not completely. Part of you belongs to him; part of him belongs to you. After that, you can't take it back, no matter how much you want to, no matter how hard you try."

That quote above was my favourite quote from the whole book, though all of the writing was so meaningful. The author has a passion, a grateful feeling when she writes, and it all shines throughout her words. She's not only writing from a point-of-view of some random character who woke her up in the middle of the night and barged into her head: she was Marguerite. And that's magical. The writing was so addicting, but light and fluffy at the same time that I just wanted to take it slow, enjoy, and suck it all in because I won't get to read more for ages. Is it that much to ask? *smiles proudly* From the first chapter, rarely comes the moment where I just know that I love the book already, but the 5 star rating stayed with me throughout.

I guess that it all brought me into thinking very philosophically. That rarely happens, also, by the way. I'm no philosopher, but then the thoughts of technology and its evolution and all of that came to mind and as I lay in my bed last night, I couldn't stop thinking about ANOTHER ME SOMEWHERE. Maybe there's one universe where I'm not a blogger, or there's one where I have billions of views each day. I guess that's the best thing about books, that they help you imagine possibilities, except this possibility seems real. I can't deny that I might believe in some of this, somehow.

Do I really have to go through the plot? Because from my blabbing, I bet that you can already tell where the story took me and the characters. I cried, I laughed, I gushed, and I couldn't stop reading. There were no distractions around me, and I found that it was so easy to get into the story and fall in love with it. I read a page, and I'm already out of Planet Earth and am in Marguerite's head, watching her kick butt and save herself. I watched her becoming a Princess, and I watched her being in a prison-like cafeteria. I watched her in her father's arms and continuing. 

#THAUL, #MAGAUL, #MAHEO WERE ALL SHIPS FOR ME, but I have to say that Marguerite and Paul were honestly meant to be. And I loved the way how she described love at first sight and love in general, especially since she was a teenager, and she couldn't understand what her crazy hormonal feelings were trying to tell her. At first, she thought she had something in her heart for Theo, but it was an affection for a brother. Paul, on the other hand, was someone else. He watched her from afar, but not in any stalker-gesture-like situation. He cared about Marguerite more than he cared about himself, and he only did the things he did for her and her safety. And that makes me tear up and gush because I just can't go on about their relationship since I'm sitting here, writing words like the most envious person in the world. I want them together, and I can't let their relationship ever go to the drain. I DON'T NEED PLOT TWISTS OR SUSPENSE BETWEEN THEM, JUST LET THEM BE TOGETHER.

"I also think about my Paul Markov, the one who told me that I could only paint the truth. He's with me now, asleep deep within the man I made love with. I don't know if he'll remember this later, which would be—weird. I don't know him well enough to predict how he's going to react."

Marguerite admitted that it was love, but at the same time it wasn't a relationship where they both knew each other inside and out. And this imperfection is what made the story actually perfect. 

So as we sit here at the tearjerking but happy ending, I'll tell you this: Put yourself in a situation where you basically lost all of your hope. The people you love most have basically disappeared, and you're all alone with a small device that can leave you stranded in an unknown world forever. You know that you have to be yourself, but it only makes sense that you have to change to make things better for yourself and your safety. What. The. Hell. Can. You. Possibly. DO?! And that's the question—what will Marguerite do?

Alongside a sexy love interest, NO INSTALOVE, gorgeous, memorable writing, action scenes that will actually and most literally whip your brain out of your head, Claudia Gray has written more than the best birthday present for me. She's written the best book ever, at least next to a few other favourites. 2015 is a huge year of favourites for me, but this is a book that I simply can't get out of my head, but really—not that I'd want or like to. The endless amount of possibilities includes one of the possibilities to have me obsessed with this book for eternity. And that's what I'm about to do, my fellow Firebirds. I WANT ONE. MY LIFE DEPENDS ON THE SEQUEL. NOVEMBER 2015 REALLY CAN'T COME ANY FASTER THAN THIS SLOW PACE. BEA, PLEASE HAVE IT. 

I, I just can't go on with my life any further without this book on my side, ALWAYS. What is your all-time favourite dystopian/sci-fi read?