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Review: Rebel (Legend #4) by Marie Lu

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Title: Rebel
Author:  Marie Lu
Publisher/Year:  Roaring Book Press 10/1/19
Length:  332 Pages
Series:  Legend #4

Overview

Respect the Legend. Idolize the Prodigy. Celebrate the Champion. But never underestimate the Rebel.

With unmatched suspense and her signature cinematic storytelling, #1 New York Times–bestselling author Marie Lu plunges readers back into the unforgettable world of Legend for a truly grand finale.

Eden Wing has been living in his brother’s shadow for years. Even though he’s a top student at his academy in Ross City, Antarctica, and a brilliant inventor, most people know him only as Daniel Wing’s little brother.

A decade ago, Daniel was known as Day, the boy from the streets who led a revolution that saved the Republic of America. But Day is no longer the same young man who was once a national hero. These days he’d rather hide out from the world and leave his past behind. All that matters to him now is keeping Eden safe—even if that also means giving up June, the great love of Daniel’s life.

As the two brothers struggle to accept who they’ve each become since their time in the Republic, a new danger creeps into the distance that’s grown between them. Eden soon finds himself drawn so far into Ross City’s dark side, even his legendary brother can’t save him. At least not on his own . . .

My Thoughts

OH.MY.GOODNESS. Thank goodness we got to re-enter the story here with Day and June because they had major unfinished business in the epilogue of book 3 and there was no way that fans were going to be ok with that ending. Knowing that our amazing author Ms Lu was busy writing another story (which was also amazing), I was patient and that patience paid off.

We enter this story about ten years in the future. Day (Daniel) and his brother Eden are living in Ross City in Antarctica. The most advanced new country in the world – a society based on Virtual Reality, a Level system to keep you in classes, and as a result, a society that’s both thriving and failing at the same time. If we learned anything from the Republic, we know that there will be unrest and that will result in the wrong people coming into power and that will result in a catastrophe.

That wrong person is our main villian here – Dominic Hann – the man who rules the Undercity – the portion of Ross City that’s made up of people who don’t have levels high enough to survive. They can’t get medication, they can’t get food and shelter and they can’t aspire to be anything more.

The story we have here is one told in alternating chapters between Daniel and Eden. They are brothers who at the core love each other, but who have such different views on life because of their experiences in the past. Daniel wants nothing more than to protect Eden, and Eden wants to live his life. It’s that ‘living’ that gets them into trouble. Eden is noticed by Dominic while in the Under City and that means that he’s on a radar for skills. Skills that we were seeing in the previous books – his innate knowledge of tech and computers and his ability to make things that others can’t. That’s something that he thrives in here in Antarctica and he’s actually scored an internship back in the Republic because of what he can do. The challenge though is that his interaction with Dominic means that nothing will come to pass as it should.

Daniel on the other hand is now part of AIS which is a government agency. Like the FBI or CIA. he’s there to keep order, to hunt criminals and to protect the president. That’s one thing that he has in common with June as she’s in the Republic to protect Anden still. He is hunting Hann and when his brother gets mixed up in that gang, things get dicey.

Now back to June. The last we saw of her and Daniel was back in the epilogue of the last story. Daniel’s memory had been wiped because of illness and intervention and he didn’t have any sense of what June was to him anymore. Devastating!!! June knew that was a likely occurrence when she agreed to help him get treated, meaning that sh was going to sacrifice her love and future, which inevitably they both did. The great thing about their love story though is that even without the clear memories, Daniel still knew that June was special and this fourth installment lets us see how that plays out.

So you can imagine the excitement that we have in this story. We have the Utopia society come crumbling down because of interactions with the under city and Dominic Hann. (thank you Eden for being such a genius) and we have the potential to see romance rekindled. Add to that breaking laws, fleeing to the Republic and being back as square one where it all began. Watching governments struggle and society crumble. Far too many people die in this story and far too many truths are found to be lies.

But on the flip side, we see new relationships form, new alliances taking shape, we see the future for what it can be and that’s something that’s amazing. This is the closure and finale that this story truly needed and i’m THRILLED that Ms Lu finally got to finish it. Enjoy!

Review: Champion (Legend #3) by Marie Lu

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Title:  Champion
Author: Marie Lu
Publisher/Year:  Penguin 11/5/13
Length:  384 pages
Series: Legend #3

Overview

The explosive finale to Marie Lu’s New York Times bestselling LEGEND trilogy—perfect for fans of THE HUNGER GAMES and DIVERGENT!

He is a Legend.
She is a Prodigy.
Who will be Champion?

June and Day have sacrificed so much for the people of the Republic—and each other—and now their country is on the brink of a new existence. June is back in the good graces of the Republic, working within the government’s elite circles as Princeps Elect while Day has been assigned a high level military position. But neither could have predicted the circumstances that will reunite them once again. Just when a peace treaty is imminent, a plague outbreak causes panic in the Colonies, and war threatens the Republic’s border cities. This new strain of plague is deadlier than ever, and June is the only one who knows the key to her country’s defense. But saving the lives of thousands will mean asking the one she loves to give up everything he has. With heart-pounding action and suspense, Marie Lu’s bestselling trilogy draws to a stunning conclusion.

My Thoughts 

Where do i begin – WOW – there was a lot that i definitely didn’t see coming even though a majority was quite expected.  We are picking right up where we left off, June is the Princeps Elect (or one of 3) that’s to shadow Anden who is the new elector of the Republic.  The princeps will become the leader of the senate so it’s a BIG DEAL.  Day is still the people’s favorite given that he’s what they want – a rebel that will fight for them….and Anden will do what he can to make Day stay on his side.

Where this story opens up though is several months after we last left these guys, and the colonies and the Republic are at it again.  The colonies are planning to attack again, and the only way that Anden thinks that he can keep them at bay (especially now since the colonies have an ally in Africa who apparently is a super power) – is to turn over Eden, Day’s brother in the search for a cure of the plague since it’s spread into the colonies.  Anden decides that he has to use June to get Day to respond to requests and she reaches out to him to come back to Denver the capital in the hopes of convincing him (which she knows is a lost cause).

While everyone’s together though, the colonies decide that they are going to strike anyway – without waiting for a deal to be made.  This means that chaos ensues.  people are at risk, we know that the colonies want to capture Day and Eden, and they want to kill Anden, June and the other princeps elect.  Day has to work with the patriots to keep everyone safe, while evacuating the city.

We get to see Thomas and Commander Jameson stand trial and get their sentence doled out, but while we’ve always held out hope that Thomas isn’t as bad as his actions, we know that commander Jameson truly is, and she doesn’t disappoint.  we learn that she’s working for the other side and that causes issues of it’s own.

Throughout the story, we see the constant battle of trying to get to Eden to use his blood for a cure, we see the constant fight that Day has with his health since we know that his brain is infected – we see the relationship develop at times between June and Day but it’s never fully taken to where it needs to go overtly at least.

Anyway, what i loved about this story is

1) they bring into play Antarctica – i don’t know about you guys but i NEVER would have expected that bit of things.  what they’ve done there and the power that they’ve become – i mean WOW!

2) at this point you don’t even know what’s going to happen to the republic or Colonies or anyone – and that’s kind of nice.

so, while i think that i may have expected a different ending, i’m pleased with it.  I liked that it wasn’t clean and cut and dry – but i was a little sad which i know was the intention.  I’ll continue to compare to Requiem and Allegiant at this point.  Requiem left us high and dry – and Allegiant definitely didn’t give me what i was hoping for.

In this story though, I did get what i was hoping for, just not in the same path and form that I expected.  All in all though, great closure and a great resolution to the story.