Zodiac #2

Publisher: Razorbill

Publication Date: December 8th, 2015

Rating: 3 Stars

Source: ARC from a Giveaway

Pages: 352

Add it on Goodreads!

Summary (from Goodreads):

Orphaned, disgraced, and stripped of her title, Rho is ready to live life quietly, as an aid worker in the Cancrian refugee camp on House Capricorn. 
 
But news has spread that the Marad--an unbalanced terrorist group determined to overturn harmony in the Galaxy--could strike any House at any moment.
 
Then, unwelcome nightmare that he is, Ochus appears to Rho, bearing a cryptic message that leaves her with no choice but to fight.     
 
Now Rho must embark on a high-stakes journey through an all-new set of Houses, where she discovers that there's much more to her Galaxy--and to herself--than she could have ever imagined.

***Once I get to the romance section of this review, things get spoilery***

Just like the first book in the series, Wandering Star is really mostly a cover read for me. Seriously, all the heart eyes for the covers of these books. Despite the lovely covers and the interesting premise for the series, I didn't love Zodiac as much as I had hoped to and I think I might have liked Wandering Star a little bit less.

Rho is having a hard time being sure of herself ever since her failed armada incident. She is stripped of her title of Guardian of Cancer and is trying to just live under the radar a little bit in the Cancrian settlement on Capricorn. After an attack by the terrorist group, the Marad, Rho gets a tip from Ophiucus (who seems to have switched sides) that while the Marad claim that they plan to attack Sagittarius, they really mean to attack Capricorn.

Not willing to trust Ophiucus, or herself, she keeps this information to herself and heads to Sagittarius to help Nishi and Deke and the young people they recruited to her cause of unity among the Zodiac. The more thought she gives to Ophiucus's warning, the more she thinks it might be true until she finally has a warning sent to Capricorn.

There really isn't a whole lot of action in this book. This is mostly kind of introducing the war that is going to be going on between the Zodiac and the Marad, a growing group of imbalanced Risers fighting for Ophiucus's master who is the real bad guy of this story. A lot of the story is trying to figure out more about the master and the Marad.

I think the only character I really liked in this book was Hysan. He's so perfect and charming and just so very wonderful. He deserves all the good things ever.

Rho is just frustrating in this book. She constantly doubts herself just because the Plenum did. Her constant indecision about everything drove me nuts. And something else frustrating was the fact that she's fighting for unity among the houses, but she doesn't practice what she preaches and always chooses Cancer over everything. Which is not necessarily a bad thing, love for her own house is not so bad, but she's trying to get everyone else to accept the idea of unity, she needs to accept it too.

Pretty much every other character in this book drove me nuts too. Rho's friends, the Guardians, basically just everyone drove me nuts at one point or another in this book.

The romance in this book was a giant, predictable mess. I knew since the moment that Mathias 'died' in Zodiac that he would be back. So probably a lot of the reason I didn't love Wandering Star was because I spent the entire book waiting for that to happen. And surprise, surprise, it did.

For the whole first half of this book, Rho is having a hard time letting herself love Hysan. She still feels horribly guilty over the fact that Mathias 'died' during her armada attack. Every time she's with Hysan, she's thinking of Mathias. But she finally gets over it and kind of lets herself BE with Hysan and Mathias frickin' comes back.

Like how can she still be so obsessed with Mathias? I don't remember a lot of Zodiac, but I think I remember that disaster of a love triangle fairly well. The 'relationship' that they had was basically just admiring each other from afar for however long and then she appoints him her Guide and he doubts everything she tries to do for the rest of the book or something.

Whereas she has a more real relationship with Hysan, like he's actually supportive of her and always so nice and sweet to her. AND he's so patient with her after Mathias 'dies' like he has all the time in the world to wait for her to love him that way that he loves her.

But then Mathias comes back, beaten and tortured, after being rescued from a Marad ship. Another hostage is rescued from the Marad as well, a girl named Pandora. Mathias is obviously broken after his rescue, only really responding to Pandora. She is the one who pretty much kept him sane during his torture. And they kind of cling to each other and Rho thinks that he's replaced her with Pandora. WHO CARES?! You have Hysan who is INFINITELY better than Mathias in every possible way!

But since this is a love triangle, he miraculously comes out of his incredibly broken state in a solid two seconds to once again to vie for Rho's love. You can't love two people equally. Like, you're hurting everyone, you need to choose and let the other one go.

Overall, I liked this book less than Zodiac. The love triangle is really what ruined this whole book for me. And a little bit because the characters weren't my favorite. If you are really against love triangles, I don't think this series is for you. I am probably going to continue this series because I'm curious to see what happens with the war and the master. And the slight cliffhanger at the end of this book makes me curious about what will happen in Black Moon. And let's be real, the cover.

Waiting on Wednesday (#13)

"Waiting On" Wednesday is a weekly event, hosted by Breaking the Spine, that spotlights upcoming releases that we're eagerly anticipating.

This week I'm waiting for...

Wandering Star by Romina Russell

Zodiac #2

Publisher: Razorbill

Publication Date: December 8, 2015

Pages: 352

Add it on Goodreads!

Summary (from Goodreads):

Orphaned, disgraced, and stripped of her title, Rho is ready to live life quietly, as an aid worker in the Cancrian refugee camp on House Capricorn. 

But news has spread that the Marad--an unbalanced terrorist group determined to overturn harmony in the Galaxy--could strike any House at any moment.

Then, unwelcome nightmare that he is, Ochus appears to Rho, bearing a cryptic message that leaves her with no choice but to fight. 

Now Rho must embark on a high-stakes journey through an all-new set of Houses, where she discovers that there's much more to her Galaxy--and to herself--than she could have ever imagined.

Excited for this one! Didn't love the first one, but I think that I will like this one a lot better! And the total cover buyer in me can't wait!

What are you waiting for this week?

Review: Zodiac by Romina Russell

Zodiac #1

Publisher: Razorbill

Publication Date: December 9, 2014

Rating: 3 Stars

Source: ARC trade

Pages: 336

Add it on Goodreads!

Summary (from Goodreads):

Rhoma Grace is a 16-year-old student from House Cancer with an unusual way of reading the stars. While her classmates use measurements to make accurate astrological predictions, Rho can’t solve for ‘x’ to save her life—so instead, she looks up at the night sky and makes up stories.

When a violent blast strikes the moons of Cancer, sending its ocean planet off-kilter and killing thousands of citizens—including its beloved Guardian—Rho is more surprised than anyone when she is named the House’s new leader. But, a true Cancerian who loves her home fiercely and will protect her people no matter what, Rho accepts.

Then, when more Houses fall victim to freak weather catastrophes, Rho starts seeing a pattern in the stars. She suspects Ophiuchus—the exiled 13th Guardian of Zodiac legend—has returned to exact his revenge across the Galaxy. Now Rho—along with Hysan Dax, a young envoy from House Libra, and Mathias, her guide and a member of her Royal Guard—must travel through the Zodiac to warn the other Guardians.

But who will believe anything this young novice says? Whom can Rho trust in a universe defined by differences? And how can she convince twelve worlds to unite as one Zodiac?

This is a book that I have been wanting to read for quite some time for two reasons. The first being JUST LOOK AT THE COVER! And the second being because I found the fact that it was based on astrological signs to be very interesting! I enjoyed this book overall, but I didn't love it as much as I had expected to!

Rhoma Grace, or just Rho, has a real knack for reading the stars, but she does it her own way which gets her in trouble in the beginning of the story because she doesn't show how she comes to her conclusions. But she sees a weird pattern in the stars, but no one believes her that it's probably something bad. So she goes on with her life and is about to play a gig with her band when there is a violent blast that strikes the four moons of Cancer and MANY people die, including the current Guardian of Cancer. She is taken to a space station with the rest of the survivors from the blast and is taken aside and tested and named the new Guardian of Cancer, much to her surprise. She makes her first official act as Guardian a mission to go warn the other Houses about the impending danger to their planets with her advisor, Mathia, and the diplomatic envoy from Libra, Hysan. The only problem with her plan is that no one believes her so her biggest challenge is finding a way to prove it and get the Houses to all get along with each other again.

Rho is the main character of this story. I liked her. I think she might have been kind of dumb sometimes, but I liked her. She was selfless. She was definitely very determined. She told everyone her story of what she saw in the stars even though it seemed way too far fetched to be true. No one believed her, but that never stopped her from at least attempting to warn everyone who immediately needed warning. She was brave to do a lot of the things that she did even though it very well could have been the end of her. 

Mathias is Rho's self appointed Advisor. They had a previous 'relationship' before they really met in the story. They always hung out in the same area and they basically just watched each other for years until she appointed him as her Advisor. I didn't like him. I never found him to be entirely pleasant. He CONSTANTLY doubted Rho and tried to get her to stop doing what she was doing. And he was constantly trying to fight with Hysan and I was basically just over him.

Hysan is the diplomatic envoy from Libra. Rho and Matthias take off on their mission to warn the Houses in his ship. So he ends up tagging along with them. I liked him. He was SO MUCH more pleasant than Mathias. He believed Rho even though her story sounded so crazy and no one else could see what she was seeing in the stars. He was kind and always seemed to be smiling and just so much better than Mathias all around in my opinion.

There is definitely a love triangle in this book. I don't understand it. It seemed to me that for most of the book, one of them is the clear pick! But that's not necessarily the case and I just didn't enjoy it! She says she has feelings for both of them. So obnoxious!

Besides Mathias and the love triangle there are two other things that bother me. One of them being how after the blast no one could find her family, they were missing. Then they were found. Then they were missing again. And it just felt like it kept going back and forth and I guess I could have maybe not read it as clearly as I should have, but that bugged me. Also the fact that not a single person even would consider that Rho's story was true even after all that had already happened, but then one more even happens and suddenly EVERYONE believes her and thinks she's totally sane again and I didn't feel like the way that went was very believable.

Overall, I really did enjoy this book. I found the astrology part of this book to be super interesting. Although, as a Sagittarius, I definitely don't think that I would fit in with the group from this book. I am like the opposite of curious. I am very excited to read the next book and I think that I'm probably going to buy the hardcover of this book! I need that beauty to be on my shelf forever!!

Also since I am doing Bookish Bingo, I have just crossed off the Science Fiction square with this one!

What did you think of this book if you've read it?