Soldier by Julie Kagawa

GoodReads Summary:
When forced to choose between safety with the dragon organization Talon and being hunted forever as an outcast, Ember Hill chose to stand with Riley and his band of rogue dragons rather than become an assassin for Talon. She’s lost any contact with her twin brother, Dante, a Talon devotee, as well as Garret, the former-enemy soldier who challenged her beliefs about her human side.
As Ember and Riley hide and regroup to fight another day, Garret journeys alone to the United Kingdom, birthplace of the ancient and secret Order of St. George, to spy on his former brothers and uncover deadly and shocking secrets that will shake the foundations of dragons and dragonslayers alike and place them all in imminent danger as Talon’s new order rises.
Review:
Things are finally starting to get good in this series. The first few books I couldn’t stand Ember. She was whiney and annoying, but she’s starting to see the world she lives in is a scary place and has had to do things she never thought she would. So, she’s grown.
I started to finally like Ember in Soldier. She’s struggling with the fact that she’s killed people, that her brother betrayed her, and of course, is stuck in a love triangle. I liked that Ember’s grown but I still don’t care for the love triangle.
I don’t like that Ember sees herself as two different parts: the human and the dragon. She sees them as separate entities and I don’t care for that. I’m interested to see if that changes as the series comes to an end.
I love Riley. That will never change. I love his cleverness and his clear attempts to show Ember she should choose him.
I don’t dislike Garret, I just want her to choose Riley. So, even though I prefer Riley, I liked getting to see a bit into Garret’s past in this story.
Overall, I’m starting to get more excited about finishing the series. I don’t hate Ember anymore and I’m dying to know where things will go next for this group.

Keep on reading lovelies, Amanda.

Soldier by Julie Kagawa

Summary: The price of freedom is everything.

When forced to choose between safety with the dragon organization Talon and being hunted forever as an outcast, Ember Hill chose to stand with Riley and his band of rogue dragons rather than become an assassin for Talon. She’s lost any contact with her twin brother, Dante, a Talon devotee, as well as Garret, the former-enemy soldier who challenged her beliefs about her human side.

As Ember and Riley hide and regroup to fight another day, Garret journeys alone to the United Kingdom, birthplace of the ancient and secret Order of St. George, to spy on his former brothers and uncover deadly and shocking secrets that will shake the foundations of dragons and dragonslayers alike and place them all in imminent danger as Talon’s new order rises.

Review:

I. Am. SO. Mad.
But I can’t really talk about it because spoilers. Suffice it to say, the ending was extremely suspenseful, then suddenly everything seems fine and it’s going to end relatively happy, then at the very last second it’s NOT OKAY and I’m texting Amanda freaking out.
Overall, this has been my favorite book of the series so far. There were conflicts in the first two books (see my reviews here and here) but they’ve been smaller; you can tell it’s slowly leading up to one big conflict and it finally reached that point in this book. We also get to see the story from four different points of view which was partly nice and partly annoying. Nice because we got to see different sides of the conflict but annoying because it would switch after mini-cliffhangers so I would just be sitting there trying to focus but going, “But what’s happening to that other character right now!?”
Speaking of characters, I’ll start with Ember. She’s grown so much since the first book in good ways and bad. For most of the book, Ember is suffering from ptsd after the events from the second book and I was really happy about it. I don’t mean to sound like I’m glad she’s suffering but I get a little sick of books that involve war and violence where the characters just go along without any emotional trauma. It’s war. Of course she’s going to be affected by the things she’s seen and done. During the second book, everything’s happening so fast that she doesn’t really have time to process anything and now it’s hitting her all at once. She’s seen humans and dragons murdered in front of her, she’s killed people, seen the skin of a dragon no older than her hanging on a wall. And don’t take it less seriously because it’s a dragon. Just picture for a second, a child’s skin hanging on someone’s wall like a trophy; because that’s what it means to Ember. I just can’t adequately explain how much I appreciated a book like this showing that sort of emotional trauma and doing it really well.
Ember’s brother, Dante, drives me freaking nuts. He’s completely loyal to Talon to the point where he’s betrayed Ember more than once. It was really good to see his side of things throughout this book. My problem is that everytime Talon tells him to do something that seems wrong to him he justifies it saying, “Well, Talon knows what it’s doing. This is for the good of the organization.” YOU’RE KILLING PEOPLE. YOU KNOW THIS IS WRONG. Everytime he does it it just makes me hate him a little bit more.
I’m going to group Garret and Riley together because my thoughts on them are pretty much the same. The love triangle is back! I’m mildly annoyed about it but I like both characters enough that I’m tolerating it. They’re both amazing in such different ways that I continue to enjoy getting to know them better. Especially Garret since we got to see flashbacks from throughout his life during this book and it helped me understand his character a lot better.
I loved this book and absolutely can’t wait to see what happens in Legion. I’d absolutely recommend this book to anyone who likes YA or fantasy (or anyone else because it’s really good and you should just get out of your comfort zone). Amanda hasn’t read it yet so please tell me your thoughts in the comments. I need someone to freak out over it with. Thanks so much for reading.
-Antonia

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WWW Wednesday

WWW Wednesday is a weekly meme formerly hosted by Should Be Reading and was revived by Taking on a World of Words. To play along, answer the following three questions and share a link to your post in the comments on her page. Enjoy!

What are you currently reading? 

Amanda – So I haven’t actually started it yet, but I’m going to count this as currently reading anyway. The Heart Forger by Rin Chupeco is sitting on my coffee table waiting for me to be finished with this post and my homework and the laundry and the many other things I should (but probably won’t) get done before I can let myself read.

Antonia – I’m currently reading Soldier by Julie Kagawa. Technically I’m only a few pages in but this is the first one of the series that I’m not rereading so I’m really excited to see where the story takes me.

What did you recently finish reading? 

Amanda – I just finished reading The Bone Witch by Rin Chupeco, (check out my review here.) I wasn’t crazy about it and I’m really hoping the second book is better and answers some of the questions The Bone Witch left me with.

Antonia – I just finished Rogue by Julie Kagawa. (See my review here.) This one was a really fun, action-packed read.

What do you think you will read next?

Amanda – This question has not gotten any easier for me the last few weeks. I just have so many options and have gotten so many new books in the last few weeks. I might reread the Red Queen series by Victoria Aveyard. I might reread the Snow Like Ashes series by Sara Raasch. I might reread the Talon series by Julia Kagawa. I might reread the Shattered Realms series by Cinda Williams Chima. But I really just am undecided, (but look at all the fun and awesome books you guys get to look forward to me reviewing!) Ask me again next week and maybe I’ll have decided.

Antonia – I’m pretty sure I’m going to stick with my Talon marathon and read Legion by Julie Kagawa the fourth book in the series.

What are your W’s this week?

WWW Wednesday

WWW Wednesday is a weekly meme formerly hosted by Should Be Reading and was revived by Taking on a World of Words. To play along, answer the following three questions and share a link to your post in the comments on her page. Enjoy!

What are you currently reading?

Amanda – I am currently reading Come Sundown by Nora Roberts. I just got this the other day at Target. I’ve been in a reading slump and Nora can always get me out of those. I needed something I knew I was going to like that would be a relatively easy read.

Antonia – I just started Rogue by Julie Kagawa. It’s the second book in the Talon series. I’m rereading this one so mostly I’m just excited to get to the third book.

What did you recently finish reading?

Amanda – I mentioned above my reading slump. So, sadly, my answer is the same as last week because I haven’t been able to get into any of the books I’ve tried to pick up in the past week. A Court of Frost and Starlight by Sarah J. Maas, which I just posted my review for (so click here and check it out!) is what I read last.

Antonia – I just finished Talon by Julie Kagawa. As you might have guessed, this is the first book in the Talon series. You can expect my review of it on Thursday.

What do you think you’ll read next?

Amanda – I actually have no idea. I just bought a ton of new books and got a few from my aunt that she lent me because she really liked them. There’s also a few I’d love to reread because it’s been a while and they’re books I haven’t reviewed before. So I guess you guys will find out when I post reviews.

Antonia – Soldier by Julie Kagawa. Are you seeing a theme here? My plan is to read the five books in this series right in a row so you can expect to see me talking about them for a little while.

We’d love to hear your own answers to these questions. Feel free to comment what you think or even leave a link to your own post. Thanks for reading!

WWW Wednesday

WWW Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted by Should Be Reading. To play along, answer the following three questions and share a link to your post in the comments on her page. Enjoy!

What are you currently reading? 

Amanda- I’m currently reading The Selection by Kiera Cass. I read the first three book in this series a  few years ago, and recently a few more have come out. So I’m trying to collect and reread the whole series.

Antonia- I’m currently reading (about to start technically) Soldier by Julia Kagawa. Amanda and I both blew through the first two books in this series when we discovered them and I absolutely had to go get this one once it came out. I can’t wait to see where these amazing characters go next.

What did you recently finish reading?

Amanda- I recently finished reading The Belgariad and The Malloreon by David Eddings. These were given to me by my roommate to read and I’m so glad he suggested them. They took a while to read because there’s ten books combined into four large books and there’s so much detail and adventure in each book. If you’re a fantasy lover this is definitely a series you need to read.

Antonia- I just finished The Witness by Nora Roberts. This is my favorite of all her books and I read it about once a year.

What do you think you’ll read next?

Amanda- The next book on my list is The Elite by Kiera Cass. Like I said I’m trying to reread The Selection Series because I enjoyed the first few books that Ive already read.

Antonia- Next I plan to read The Shadow Queen by C.J. Redwine. I recently discovered this from a Top Ten Tuesday (Thank you, Caitlin!) and when I was at the bookstore the other day I couldn’t resist getting it.

What are your answers to these three questions?

Happy Wednesday readers!