Tag «throwdown thursdays»

Throwdown Thursdays: Crossfire Series vs Fifty Shades of Grey Trilogy

Since the beginning of time, similar things have always been compared to each other: Pepsi or Coke? Lemon or Lime? Boxers or Briefs? And books are no exception!

Throwdown Thursdays: On the first Thursday of every month I play the ultimate game of “Would You Rather” with books that are inevitably compared to each other. After 3 rounds, I pick my winner. Feel free to join in by commenting, making your own response (just link back) or vote in my poll! Here is this month’s match:

Crossfire Series by Sylvia Day | Fifty Shades of Grey Trilogy by E L James

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Round 1: The Hero

Mysterious, Tortured Millionaire vs Mysterious, Tortured Millionaire

Both Gideon Cross and Christian Grey are top dogs in the business world but who wins the hearts of readers?

I’m not a fan of alpha males so I really don’t care for either Gideon or Christian. Their constant need to “own” their respective love interests nauseates me. I’m all for confident characters but these guys are extreme.

I never warmed up to Gideon Cross. I never got his appeal and his intensity was just WAYyyy to high for my tastes. He actually scares me in his intensity and it makes me question the relationship he shares with Eva.

Christian on the other hand, I grew to like. While his intensity was strong in the first book, I really felt like he made some significant progress as the series progressed. Given his past, I understood why he acted the way he did (for certain things). I just felt like he took things down a notch instead of amping up like Gideon did

Winner: Christan Grey. While Christian is intense, he never took things to the extremes that Gideon did.

Crossfire: 0 | Fifty Shades of Grey: 1

Round 2: The Heroine

Experienced, Flawed Woman vs Inexperience, Flawless Woman

Who compliments their male counterpart the best? Eva, equally damaged woman or, Ana, the naive student fresh from collage?

What I initially liked about Eva is that she wasn’t a naive virgin. Not that there is anything wrong with that, it just seemed so cliche in Fifty Shades. Eva has a dark past and I liked that it made her think more about starting something with Gideon. She was also very independent in the first book but that quickly changed as the series progressed. She got wayyy to dependent on Gideon and it became nauseating to read. She quickly fell from a favourite contemporary heroine to one of my least.

Ana on the other hand I always liked. Sure, she was naive and her attributes are so cliche they serve as the definition of contemporary romance tropes BUT, I felt like she really grew as a character (well, as much as she could in a contemporary erotica romance). I appreciated her ability to stop when certain things were going to fast and that she wanted to be an independent woman and not get everything handled for her. I guess I just

Winner: Ana. I just found her to be more consistent in her character delivery.

Crossfire: 0 | Fifty Shades of Grey: 2

Round 3: The plot/Romance

Learning to Love vs Learning BDSM

Two people trying to love each other despite the many obstacles in their way and their own personal demons.

The Crossfire series is definitely more of an erotic romance than anything else though it has its suspenseful and dramatic moments. The best part is that these elements are present from the first book whereas Fifty Shades doesn’t really start until the second. And these books really have a darker element to them as things escalate. Unfortunately, I think this series suffers from over popularity, resulting in the series being 5 books long instead of the 3 or 4 books it was supposed to be. I really feel like the plot lines are being stretched thin and the characters are suffering from it. I haven’t enjoyed the last two books very much (I actually haven’t finished the latest one yet).

As for their romance, I find it to be extremely unhealthy in the later books. It’s a shame because I really saw why they would work together earlier on and I liked them together. However, their dependencies on each other and the extremes they go to later on makes me very uncomfortable. It gives me the heebee-jeebees and it’s really turning me off of this series.

It was the opposite with Ana and Christian in Fifty Shades of Grey. I started being a little creeped out by Christian’s intensity to be with Ana after only briefly meeting but as the series progressed, I was really rooting for them. I felt like their relationship evolved to be more than just BDSM experimentation and Ioved that (no pun intended). Is it a completely healthy one? No, but it could have been a lot worse.

It’s also no secret that the first book of the Fifty Shades Trilogy is basically just sex scene upon sex scene (I think all but two are not described). I’m not a BDSM fan so I really didn’t enjoy exploring this side of sexuality. I definitely liked the later books that focused more on uncovering Christian’s past and other dramatic events and those are the highlights of the series to me.

Winner: Crossfire. While I really don’t like the direction the series has moved, I feel like the earlier books were more fine-tuned when it came to balancing the sexy-times with the more dramatic elements.

Crossfire: 1 | Fifty Shades of Grey: 2

Ultimate Winner: Fifty Shades of Grey

Final Comments: Love it or hate it, Fifty Shades of Grey has done a lot for the contemporary erotic romance genre. Other authors have taken the basis of the trilogy and upped the ante with better writing, more dramatics and hotter romance. So it might not be the greatest novel ever, but, I still enjoyed reading it and appreciate that it never tried to be more than it was (well, the movie tried but that’s a whole other review 😉 )

What are your thoughts: which one would you rather read? Leave a comment below!

Next Time: ebooks vs physical books

Monthly Inventory: May 2015

May 2015

May was a busy-busy month for me! I moved back home for the summer, went on vacation, and started my summer job. So it’s been a lot of adjusting and sadly, not as much reading as I had hoped. But that’s all good! I have a big plan set in motion to tackle my TBR this summer plus some to-dos with my blog and I really hope I can pull it off!

15 Books Read + 3 novellas
- 0 nonfiction novels
- 1 standalones
- Started 8 new series
- Finished 0 series from start to end
- Finished 1 previously started series
- Read sequels for 4 previously started series
- Dropped 1 series

Favourite Read(s)	Least Favourite Read
★★★★★	★★

*Note: just because I read a series/book this month doesn’t mean that the review was also published. Due to the nature of my blog (ie I review whole series) it often takes me a few weeks to publish a full review (pending book availability) so look forward to seeing some of these reviews in the upcoming weeks/months!

Levitate Just Say When Discovering Us (True Love, #1) Finding Us (True Love, #2) Finally Us (True Love, #3) A Risk Worth Taking A Beautiful Mess (Beautiful Mess, #1) A Tragic Wreck (Beautiful Mess, #2) Gorgeous Chaos (Beautiful Mess, #3)

Most Viewed Post

Throwdown Thursday: Vampire Diaries Show vs Books

and

Series Review: Arcana Chronicles by Kresley Cole

Click to View this month’s archives for more posts & reviews!

Previously posted reviews I updated this past month:

This month wasn’t as successful as I had hoped considering school is over. But I started my summer job, caught up with friends and had to do some serious purging of my room so I really didn’t have much time to sit down and read! But, I managed to read some books I had been dying to read: like Rogue and The Court of Thorns and Roses.

Book Bingo–Canadian: 0 books added
Bookish Bingo–Ready for Spring: 2 books added
Everything YA Challenge: ✖ Mini Challenge + ✔ 2 YA reads
Goodreads Challenge: 18 books added (I’m more than 72% complete! YIKES!)
Monthly Key Word Challenge: ✔ “Ash”, “Road” & “Prince”
Prequel & Sequel Challenge: +25 points added
SERIESous’ Personal Classics Challenge: 0 books added
SERIESous’ Personal Nonfiction Challenge: 0 books added

View my Reading Challenge Progress Here!

The idea behind the feature is to pit two books (or other themes) that are always compared to each other in a battle of three rounds to see who the winner is. Of course it is completely subjective to my own opinions so I added a poll feature to get your take on everything. Thanks to those who participated!

This month’s final poll results:

Vampire Diaries: The TV Show 5 | Vampire Diaries: Book Series 0

Next Battle: Fifty Shades of Grey Trilogy vs Crossfire Series

Just a brief update on my crusade to tackle my TBR list this summer. You can find part 1 of my plan in my original post here, but the basic idea is to read some of the books I’ve purchased over the years. For the months of May and June, I created four rules that I hope will get me to a place where I can read mostly purchased novels. Here’s how I’m doing in the week since I created the post:

No more putting books on hold at the library!
- I was actually really successful at this! I only put one book on hold, but it’s Katie McGarry’s latest (Nowhere But Here) and I’ve been dying to read it so I let myself cheat on that one 😉
- I also staggered my suspended holds so that they don’t all come in at once.
- I kinda goofed with putting the Grisha Trilogy on hold at my local library this month because they became available much quicker than I expected–however, this has been on my TBR for YEARS so I’m not going to make it a negative thing rather a positive
No more buying books!
- The books above that I listed as May purchases were made earlier in the month so they don’t really count 😉 I’ve thought about buying a book here or there because they were only $1 but I haven’t pressed the purchased button yet!
- No joke, as soon as I posted my plan, Kobo came out with another contest period which means promo codes for discounts! I don’t plan on buying anything unless I get a really great promo code (30%+) and so far I’ve only got one 30% so it doesn’t look like it’s going to be so bad!
No grabbing freebies!
- I’ve been pretty good though I definitely picked up one today. I’ve stopped browsing the bestseller list and have just been going by my book sale email subscriptions so it seems to be working! But I’m definitely going to pay more attention to this in the coming weeks!
Read at least one book from my TBR Jar a week!
- That definitely didn’t happen this past week! Work and catching up with friends and family took priority so I really didn’t have a chance.
- I also have a ton of eBooks out from the library that need to be read before they expire next week so I don’t think I will be meeting this goal for another two weeks.

Recently updated reviews will be noted on the side menu. If you hover over the cover you can see what date the review was updated
- I’ve decided to add Conclusion cards to older reviews when they are updated.
I haven’t posted a Toonie Tuesday post in forever, so I think that feature/review theme is on the kaputs! It’s so hard to find books for $2 (most I get are because of a coupon & prices are always fluctuating)
- Plus, I’ve been doing the Top Ten Tuesday Memes and I think that’s a great feature to continue 😉
I’m contemplating getting Twitter and/or Tumblr for my blog
Posted my first Netgalley reviews! I’m loving this review outlet so far!
Non-review features will be limited to 1 type per week (in most cases)
- It can become so overwhelming to do each meme feature every week and I felt like they were slightly taking away from the purpose of my blog

I think I’m going to create a book discussion feature that will be more of a seasonal/whenever I feel like it type of post. It’s going to be a bit of a rant driven post about an individual book 😉
Update the following:
- review directories
- Series Recaps for G-L — I SWEAR it’s going to get done!
Possibly Twitter or Tumblr
Participate in Booking Through Thursdays meme
Finish some blogger tags and award tags (thanks everyone!)

Gah! I really didn’t listen to music very much this month–really just whatever was on the radio when I was driving to work (which is like 5 minutes away). BUT I did listen to some Ed Sheeran because I am seeing his concert in 4 days! I’m also in love with Marianas Trench’s latest single, Here’s to the Zeros <3

What were your biggest reading or personal accomplishments of the past month?
Leave a comment below!

Throwdown Thursdays: Vampire Diaries Books vs Vampire Diaries TV Show

Since the beginning of time, similar things have always been compared to each other: Pepsi or Coke? Lemon or Lime? Boxers or Briefs? And books are no exception!

Throwdown Thursdays: On the first Thursday of every month I play the ultimate game of “Would You Rather” with books that are inevitably compared to each other. After 3 rounds, I pick my winner. Feel free to join in by commenting, making your own response (just link back) or vote in my poll! Here is this month’s match:
twiVSvam *I am only including the first 4 books of the original Vampire Diaries Series in my review; AND I only watched the first 4 seasons of the TV show
Book Series Review Here

I compare movies to their books all the time so why not try a TV show?

Round 1: Story

90s Cheerleader with Vampires & Witches vs Modern Teen with Vampires, Witches, Werewolves, Hybrids…did I miss any?

I think we already know who is going to win this one…

When you compare the book series to the TV series, it seems so basic in its execution and that’s because it is; and there is nothing wrong with that. You can do a lot more with TV/visual media than you can with literature because you have more time and have an easier way to present material without endless amounts of description. I’m not saying that it can’t be done in literature–because it can!–I’m just saying it’s a hell of a lot easier for TV shows and movies.

I find that the TV show expands upon the basic concepts of witch-craft and gets wayyyyyy deeper into the Catherine-Elena history. I also loved the darker edge the TV show has to it because I found the books to be a little cheesy at times (but that is probably because they were written in the 1990s). They aren’t afraid to kill off people on the show and I like the idea that no one is safe–it keeps things exciting!

One thing I really don’t like about the show is all the supernatural creatures they have going on. It got a little too crazy for me and because I was watching it sporadically it was hard to keep up. I plan to catch-up this summer though 🙂

Winner: The TV Show. I just prefer the darker storylines and the action. Never a dull moment!

Vampire Diaries Books: 0 | Vampire Diaries TV Show: 1

Round 2: The Characters

Golden Cheerleader with Sister vs Doppelgangers Galore with Brother

These little verses are hard to come up with!

In the book series, I found things to be pretty stereotypical. Sure, Elena didn’t live with her parents but she followed every other high school cheerleader stereotype. Cute boyfriend? Check. Rival Cheerleader? Check. Everyone loves her? Check. It was a little cliche to say the least but she did have some good character development, allowing her to break out of these molds at times. Stefan is your typical brooding heartthrob and Damon is evil. Add a BFF witch and a darling little sister and you have the original cast of characters. Nothing surprising but nothing all that exciting either.

The TV Show really revamped (no pun intended) these characters. gone is the childhood sister of Elena and in her place is the I-got-better-looking-as-the-series-progressed teenaged brother Jeremy. I really liked Jeremy’s character, his looks aside, because he added another perspective to the storyline and was another male character–and one who didn’t immediately fall in love with Elena. Elena herself is a much strong, independent heroine in the TV show. She doesn’t do anything rebellious for the sake of attention and has a good head on her shoulders. Bonnie became a lot more interesting and integral to the plot with her witch-craft. But really, it’s Caroline who stole the show for me. I really didn’t like her character in the books and it took me awhile to like her on the show, but she really grew on me!

As I said before, there are so many characters on the show that it is hard to follow them. And the doppelganger situation was starting to get a little out of control when I stopped watching. I LOVED the addition of the Originals (yet I haven’t started to watch the show yet!) and that whole storyline.

As for the brothers–they’re pretty much the same on the show except you realize Damon has a soul and isn’t as evil as you expected 😛

Winner: The Show. While they rotate them through quickly at times, I find they have a lot more substance to them.

Vampire Diaries Books: 0 | Vampire Diaries TV Show: 2

Round 3: Romance

One Sided Love Triangle vs Full Blown Love Triangle

In the books, the main focus is Elena and Stefan; in the show their love is important but so is the rest of the casts’

I always felt like the romance in the books was really a one-sided love triangle. I mean, I think we all knew which brother Elena was going to end up with from the start. One of her BFF’s gets a love interest but past that, it really is the Elena-Salvatore Brother love triangle.

With the show, who knows who will really win Elena’s heart? That’s part of the reason why I stopped watching because I hate back and forth love triangles in my TV shows. They are exhausting to watch! But what kept me around was everyone else’s romantic encounters. Jeremy, Bonnie, Caroline and Tyler, even Klaus and Rebecka all had me totally onboard with their relationships and provided a fresh storyline I was interested in watching.

Winner: The Show–in the sense that there is more romance going on. However, I prefer the love triangle of the books so both get a point!

Vampire Diaries Books: 1 | Vampire Diaries TV Show: 3

Ultimate Winner: the TV Show

Final Comments: The show really amplified the basis of the Vampire Diary stories and brought them to the next generation. And because I am from that “next generation”, the show appeals to me a lot more. It’s faster, darker and has a whole lot more drama–basically everything I like in a good TV show!

What are your thoughts: which one would you rather read? Leave a comment below!

Next Time: Fifty Shades of Grey Trilogy vs Crossfire Series

Throwdown Thursdays: Twilight vs Vampire Diaries

Since the beginning of time, similar things have always been compared to each other: Pepsi or Coke? Lemon or Lime? Boxers or Briefs?

And books are no exception!

Throwdown Thursdays: On the first Thursday of every month I play the ultimate game of “Would You Rather” with books that are inevitably compared to each other. After 3 rounds, I pick my winner. Feel free to join in by commenting, making your own response (just link back) or vote in my poll! Here is this month’s match:
twiVSvam
Twilight Saga Review Here | Vampire Diaries Review Here

*I am only including the first 4 books of the original Vampire Diaries Series in my review

**Note: I am comparing the BOOK series, not the movie vs TV series

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Round 1: Story

Unsuspecting New Girl Falls for Local Vampire vs Local Girl Falls for Newbie Vampire

At the base of these stories is a romance, but there is some more to them plot-wise…

Contrary to popular belief, Twilight was actually written YEARS after the first Vampire Diaries novel. It’s simply that the revival of the Vampire Diaries series with the TV show happened after Twilight’s popularity became main-stream so people accuse it of being a rip-off of Twilight.

But I can understand the comparison. In a lot of ways these books are similar: a new person at school, a stand-offish relationship until a major event changes everything and then throw in a vampire antagonist and you have the bones of each series.

Twilight focuses more on the romance ~~I think~~. The whole first book is basically Bella learning about the vampire world with a dash of dramatics near the end. Then you have a whole book dedicated to heart-break (New Moon); followed by a book of romantic indecision (Eclipse) which all wraps up in the final book of fan-fiction wishes (Breaking Dawn). Which isn’t necessarily a bad thing if you go into it knowing that it is a romance with some paranormal elements. And I will be the first to tell you that as a teen-aged girl, I loved the first novel because of the romance with its little bit of excitement near the end.

Vampire Diaries takes a bit of a different approach. The dramatic paranormal plot is pretty much right there from the get-go, side-by-side with the romance. I felt like there was a good balance between the two. But most of the focus is on Damon trying to make Elena his Queen of Darkness, Stefan fighting his true nature and Elena trying to figure out her path in this crazy world she finds herself in. Throw in a witch, magic and a creepy grave and you get a more paranormal urban fantasy than Twilight provides.

Winner: Based simply on plot concept alone, I have to give it to Vampire Diaries. While I found they were slower and didn’t have too much going on, I liked the fact that it focused more on the paranormal and trying to solve the supernatural problems that were happening.

Twilight: 0 | Vampire Diaries: 1

Round 2: Vampires

Glitter in the Sun, Mind-Power Vampires vs Bat-Transforming, Will Die in the Sun Vampires

It’s a battle between the modern and the classic vampires…

Twilight gets a lot of flack for the fact that Edward glitters in the sun. And while it isn’t my favourite modification of vampires ever (that goes to Vampire Academy), I can appreciate the fact that it is fiction and with fiction comes artistic licence. I also sympathize with Edward because my skin is so pasty I too reflect sunlight when I am outside 😛

I also didn’t mind (no pun intended) the whole mind-powers bit that vampires possess–initially. It got a little ridiculous near the end of the series to me though (do you get the impression yet that I really, really didn’t like Breaking Dawn?). What I did like was how vampires were the ultimate predators; the scientist in me can see how this would happen in nature. I also kinda liked the fact that they were these sophisticated vampires who secretly ran their own world. I thought that it was really interesting to read.

Vampire Diaries features your more classically known vampire stereotypes. They transform, they drink human blood (though Stefan, like the Cullens, drinks animal blood), and they don’t do so good in sunlight (unless they have a magic amulet/ring). Naturally they are more aggressive and tend to stay alone. There really isn’t much more to say about them.

Winner: Call me whatever you want, but I liked learning about the vampires in Twilight. I like different takes on popular ideas. Sure, some of the ideas weren’t that great, but to me it was more exciting because these vampires and their characteristics were unknown. While I can appreciate the darker vampires in Vampire Diaries, they weren’t anything new to me.

Twilight: 1 | Vampire Diaries: 1

Round 3: Romances

Love Triangle vs Love Triangle

Oh! Don’t forget the male BFF who is also in love with the heroine! So I guess that makes it a love square?

I detest love triangles–I actually have Twilight to thank for that realization: so thanks Twilight! I just never got why three boys (you are probably wondering where I got three from: Jacob, Edward and Mike, you know the normal guy who crushes on her in the first book) all simultaneously fall in love with dull Bella. Maybe they like her moodiness? I guess girls like brooding guys so I suppose it works vice versa. But the worst part of this triangle was the indecisiveness on Bella’s part. Like I said in Round 1, all the books focused on Bella sorting out her love life. And while I can see why it might be hard to differentiate romantic feelings from ones of friendship, I think it was glaringly obvious to everyone else who she was going to pick. Mostly, I’m just mad that I had to read New Moon–perhaps one of the most boring books I have ever had to read–to set up a love triangle. Yes, I am still bitter 7 years later.

There is also a love triangle (plus one) in Vampire Diaries. However, it never really felt like a love triangle to me (at least in the first four books, I never read past that). Elena is smart enough to know her feelings for Matt are just friendly and she is magically compelled to fall for Damon. It was frustrating to watch her swoon all over Damon but because I knew that there were supernatural things at play, I think I always knew deep down what the end result was going to be. But, I did find the romance between Elena and Stefan to be a little too insta-love for me in addition to being super cheesy (was it just me or were romances really cheesy in the 1990s?)

Winner: Vampire Diaries for sure! It never made me pull out my hair or read an entire book about a girl mooning over her boyfriend while another hot guy tries to sweep in. The Vampire Diaries love triangle served a purpose plot-wise which I can appreciate.

Twilight: 1 | Vampire Diaries: 2

Ultimate Winner: The Vampire Diaries!

Final Comments: Both series had their quirks that irritated me but they also had aspects that I really enjoyed. Yet neither series tops my Favourite Series list for various reasons (read my individual reviews to learn why). But for me to make this decision it really came down to the basics of what I like more as a reader objectively. Which is hard because enjoying a book is supposed to be subjective! However, I think if I had chosen different Round topics, the results could have definitely swung in Twilight’s favor.

What are your thoughts: which one would you rather read? Leave a comment below!

Next Time: Vampire Diaries Novels vs Vampire Diaries TV Series

Throwdown Thursdays: Divergent vs Hunger Games

Introducing my new original monthly feature:

Since the beginning of time, similar things have always been compared to each other: Pepsi or Coke? Lemon or Lime? Boxers or Briefs? And books are no exception!

Divergent Trilogy Review Here | Hunger Games Trilogy Review Here

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Round 1: The Dystopian World

Personality Factions vs Resource Districts

What I love about dystopian novels is that they take a regular, everyday trait of society and exploit them to the extreme–and as readers, we get to see how everything unfolds.

Divergent goes the personality type route, dividing people into four groups: the honest, the selfless, the brave and the peaceful plus the one group that encompasses all four, the divergent. While you can argue that there are more than these 4 types of personalities, at the core these are the ones that exist and influence everything else. It makes for an interesting social project: but it isn’t a world that I would want to live in. You know how sometimes, the people who think exactly like you are the ones you can’t get along with. Like, I am a stubborn person when it comes to certain things so when I meet someone who is as equally stubborn we butt heads. I could see why, in a post-apocalyptic world, society might try this route but I think it would be a disaster! So this isn’t the world that I would want to live in–not like Pan Am is a golden world either.

However, Pan Am in the Hunger Games is more realistic to me. We live in a material world and The Hunger Games chooses to exploit this by dividing the people based on each district and their economic contributions. I could easily see this happening in our world–and to a certain extent we already live in a world where a select few have power and money while the vast majority do not. Do I think our current way of life will lead to a battle to the death game every year? Definitely not! But if you remove the game aspect from the Hunger Games, the world seems much more probable than Divergent’s.

Winner: The Hunger Games. I prefer its underlying themes of greed and the corruption that follows it to divisions based on personalities.

Divergent: 0 | Hunger Games: 1

Round 2: The Romance

Four/Tobias vs Gale and Peeta

All is fair in love and…rebellion?

I really loved Divergent when I read it for two reasons: the suspense of Tris undergoing Dauntless’ initiation process and Tobias/Four. I loved their chemistry in the first book, even if it wasn’t a huge focus; but when we did get to see them interact, I absorbed every moment. And in the subsequent books, I loved watching their relationship develop. They make great partners in everything they do and I could see how much they loved and cared for each other. They brought out the best in their partner and it was so sweet to watch.

In the Hunger Games, I was Team Peeta all the way. I detest love triangles; especially the ones where the female lead’s male BFF is obviously in love with her and she is oblivious. So it really is nothing against Gale as a person (though I came to detest him by the end of Mockingjay) it’s just that he played a generic role and it didn’t do anything for me. However, I always felt like Peeta cared more than Katniss. But, to be fair, that is part of Katniss’ character flaw: she is too independent and guards her feelings. It definitely improves and in Mockingjay I think Katniss shows her true feelings for Peeta more. But sometimes I got the impression is was just guilt on Katniss’ part for using Peeta in the first book because Peeta does everything he can to save Katniss because he loves her and she just uses him in the first book to save herself.

Winner: Divergent. I loved the relationship between Tobias and Tris–it is a true partnership that is more than just physical chemistry and need.

Divergent: 1 | Hunger Games: 1

Round 3: The Action

Breaking the Factions vs The Hunger Games

While both rebel against their respective governments, the each do so in a different way: but which way is best to read?

To me, Divergent’s action packed appeal slowly goes away in the next two books of the series. It becomes a lot more talking and trying to figure out what they are going to do next: which is fine and dandy but not all the thrilling to read. Especially when Divergent had so much action when you take into account the inner faction fights during the initiation, the fear simulations and the eventual rebellion. It took me a long time to get through Allegiant (Book 3) because it was so dry. But once the action was there (the last little bit of the book) I was hooked and it was over. I’m hoping the movies will focus more on the action than they do on the talking when they are finally released.

I found the Hunger Games always had action because of the nature of the Games itself. Katniss is quickly thrown into a life and death situation and the way Suzanne Collins describes things makes you feel like you are right there with her. And while I found the second and third books didn’t have as much intensity, they had more action and just the right amount of talking. Well, maybe not Mockingjay so much, but I felt like it picked up much quicker than Allegiant did.

Winner: The Hunger Games. I preferred the high intensity fighting and background rebellion to the plotting rebellion and followup action that we get in Divergent.

Divergent: 1 | Hunger Games: 2

Ultimate Winner: The Hunger Games

Final Comments: While I really enjoyed each series, The Hunger Games is one of my favourite series hands down. Divergent was great (and definitely had some things I loved more than the Hunger Games), but I was really disappointed in the subsequent books. If you could combine those two series into one, you would have an amazing series. Hmmm, maybe that’s why I love Legend by Marie Lu so much…