Blood Red Road -- Moira Young

I loved this book! I thought Saba was such a great character, she's a bit of an anti- hero. When her twin brother Lugh is kidnapped by thugs from their isolated home Saba takes off to go find him, even abandoning her younger sister with a former friend of her parents. Saba has never much cared for her younger sister Emmy Saba blames her for their mother's death and for stealing her precious time with Lugh, but Emmy has more to her then Saba knows and both of them will discover new things about themselves on their journey to find Lugh. 

Saba really doesn't think much of herself, she's completely single minded in her pursuit of Lugh, but other people quickly see her value and she builds a nice little team to help her on her quest. She really has some amazing adventures, lots of fighting with a nice little stint as a gladiatrix, followed by a daring escape from captivity. There really is a lot happening throughout the book. It's fast paced and exciting, a great start to what I'm sure will be an excellent series!

Enjoy!

Finnikin of the Rock - Melina Marchetta

I liked Finnikin of the Rock I really did, but I have to say there were some issues with the book. The premise was really interesting a country locked in a curse, with half it's people trapped inside with a mad king and the other half in exile, reviled by the people they now rely on to survive.

 Finnikin our main character is the son of the former Captain of the Lumateran Guard and he's living in exile, travelling from kingdom to kingdom hoping to convince one of the kingdoms of Skuldenore to take in the people of Lumatere. In the course of his journeys he picks up Evanjalin, a fellow exile who, like Finnikin, wants nothing more than to break the curse on Lumatere and end the reign of the false king inside. The story of how the curse came to be is a good one, and I won't spoil it here, it's very dark and scary, but as I was reading the book it felt like I had missed this huge important event. The way Marchetta wove the back story into Finnikin made it seem as though there was another book with other characters that came first. Considering the importance that Finnikin's father and Stepmother have in the story I felt like she should have at least perhaps written a prologue from one of their points of view. It just seemed a bit strange to be reading about a parent's love story from the child's point of view, especially since he was so young when it all took place and likely wouldn't remember it in any significant detail. 

Overall it was a good read, well worth picking up, though I have to say I liked the sequel Froi of the Exiles much much better! I would read Finnikin just to read Froi  and I have high expectations for the conclusion to the series Quintana of Charyn which frustratingly has been released in Australia but not yet in North America. 

Enjoy!