Legend by Marie Lu

Title: Legend
Author: Marie Lu
Rating: 3/5 stars
Blurb: What was once the western United States is now home to the Republic, a nation perpetually at war with its neighbors. Born into an elite family in one of the Republic’s wealthiest districts, fifteen-year-old June is a prodigy being groomed for success in the Republic’s highest military circles. Born into the slums, fifteen-year-old Day is the country’s most wanted criminal. But his motives may not be as malicious as they seem.

From very different worlds, June and Day have no reason to cross paths—until the day June’s brother, Metias, is murdered and Day becomes the prime suspect. Caught in the ultimate game of cat and mouse, Day is in a race for his family’s survival, while June seeks to avenge Metias’ death. But in a shocking turn of events, the two uncover the truth of what has really brought them together, and the sinister lengths their country will go to keep its secrets.

Review: I read this book right after I read Ashfall by Mike Mullin, and I have to say, both of them made me go through the same motions... shrugs.

So anyway, Legend turned out to be an interesting read, and from the beginning I found myself fascinated by Day's character. He's very likable in that he's poor, yet totally bold and helpful. His is also the first POV in the story. June's POV comes second, and because of that, I wasn't as intrigued with her character. It's not that she was unexciting or anything, I just found that her character was very similar with Day's. Or maybe it was just their voices. Yeah, the voices.

The plot was alright. It kept me reading till the end, and it had enough twists to hold my attention. Especially near the end. I really wanted to find out how things would turn out, and John (Day's older brother), just became my favourite character after what he did. To be honest, I think I liked him from the very start.

There was one huge pitfall for me in the book. Both June and Day are these super smart, super agile and athletic, super famous (for different reasons), super mega beautiful 15 year olds... Have I said enough? OK, maybe all of the above might have been alright had our protagonists been older. I mean, they are so young yet so influential... it's all just very unrealistic, and therefor, it threw me off a bit.

In all though, the plot and characters were interesting enough, and the whole story was put together nicely. For me, this book is truly a three stars, nothing great, nothing sucky. Just average. I might give the second book a try (greater chance if it makes its way to me, and not me to it, yeah?) (Day said yeah a lot, is that like, and an American thing? Because I can totally use this on my cousins in the states, yeah?)