The Rose Society (The Young Elites, #2) in Ultimate Popsugar Reading Challenge

Jul 09, 2015 Nadine in NY Jones rated it it was ok

Shelves: young-adult, fantasy-and-sci-fi, series-i-don-t-love-but-keep-readin

Oh. Thank. God. I. Am. Done. With. This. Book.

I found the entire book to be completely tedious. I hated (HATED!!) the first person present tense that was used in Adelina's chapters, and I didn't understand why Teren's and Raffaele's chapters were THIRD person present tense, but yet they seemed to be from their POV? Why why WHY??? I didn't understand Adelina's motivation and I had NO idea what her goal was. I didn't care about ANY of the characters: Fine! DIE already! Just die and end this book!! Oh. Thank. God. I. Am. Done. With. This. Book.

I found the entire book to be completely tedious. I hated (HATED!!) the first person present tense that was used in Adelina's chapters, and I didn't understand why Teren's and Raffaele's chapters were THIRD person present tense, but yet they seemed to be from their POV? Why why WHY??? I didn't understand Adelina's motivation and I had NO idea what her goal was. I didn't care about ANY of the characters: Fine! DIE already! Just die and end this book!!! That's probably not the reaction Ms Lu was hoping for.

Adelina was just all over the place, wanting this and then wanting that; I never truly understood what she wanted. That may have been because Adelina herself didn't know what she wanted, but the text didn't communicate that well enough to me. I just felt unsatisfied, and - frankly - confused by where the hell the story was going. When it finally got to where it was going, I thought, "uh? was THAT the goal? I totally missed that."

There were too many characters who were underutilized. Why give us details on all of Maeve's brothers, when we barely see them? Why so much build up on Maeve's brother, Tristan, when he is not in any way crucial to the plot? Why tantalize us with backstory between Maeve and Lucent, and then never ever show it again??? (Why name a character Lucent?? Every time I read that name, my brain thought: Lucent Technologies! We make the things that make communications work ...https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EljC8... ) This story should have focused only on: Maeve, Teren, Raffaele, Enzo, Adelina, Violetta, Magiano, and Sergio. Anyone else just added distraction. (view spoiler) I would have liked to see more about Magiano's balance instead of wasting my time getting distracted by Tristan. I really liked Sergio, I found him to be the most sympathetic of all characters, and we barely got to know him. I'm especially annoyed by this because the teaser at the end of Young Elites implied that Tristan was going to be a major player in the next book.

I loved Ms Lu's first series, Legend with an undying passion, so this is especially disappointing. I did not care for The Young Elites and I'd really been hoping this book would be better. It wasn't. It may have even been WORSE.

When I finally got to the end (and had a party inside my head because I was done with this book), I realized that this is actually a retelling of the Anakin Skywalker story. Well, MAYBE it is. I don't really know. I like the whole idea of that, I think it's really clever and interesting. (It should be noted that I didn't like Star Wars I, II, or III either, so maybe I just don't like this kind of story. I think I COULD like it, if I met the right one.) I may have enjoyed this series more if I could have looked at if from that angle all along. So, that earns a star right there, or otherwise this would be a one star read for me.

This book also can fulfill the "YA bestseller" category of the 2016 Ultimate Reading Challenge. ...more

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Jun 18, 2017 Debbie rated it it was amazing

Shelves: fantasy

Young Elites, book two.

Adelina and her sister find some new allies and her Rose Society sets out to defeat the Inquisition Axis (lead by the fanatical Teren) take the crown of Kenettra from Giulietta. Though her former allies from the Daggers want to do the same thing, they are most definitely not in this fight together.

I loved the new Elites, especially Magiano and Sergio. Adelina is still a fascinating character, but her power and motivations get darker and pull her more and more toward not ...more

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Mar 01, 2016 Ash rated it really liked it

Shelves: young-adult

Well that was dark! Very good though~ can't wait for the last book :) ...more

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Feb 11, 2017 Julie rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: teen, fantasy-scifi

4 1/2 stars....love the dark turn the characters take. A new twist on a "heroine". Definitely took a new direction and I can't wait to read the last book! ...more

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Apr 05, 2016 Celeste rated it it was ok

I wanted to like this book. The main character made a lot of mistakes in the first book and I wanted her to make things right, but she is a vengeful murderess and it makes her impossible to like. Also bringing people back from the dead is a cop out. I don't enjoy reading books about villains when their story encourages hatred and revenge-even if it was fantasy. ...more

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