This trilogy is absolutely unique and original, both in the way it's written and in the darkness of the story itself. The writing is really different, it flips back and forth from second to first person. The timeline is also not quite linear, instead it flips back in time every now and then to explain the current. I loved it, as it makes the book stand out and also makes you feel really close to the characters. I’m glad I started reading the series when all three books were published; I literally could not put the books down until I’d finished all of them.

Also, the series is kind of brutal, to say the least. It’s set in modern-day Europe, where witches secretly lives alongside humans (fains). The witches are either white (good) or black (bad), aside from 17-year-old Nathan who is half of both. His absent father is the most notorious black witch alive and his mother is dead. It’s as gloomy as it sounds. When we first meet Nathan he is trapped in a cage and abused. Actually, a lot of the book looks back at how Nathan has been mistreated, even tortured, from a very young age because of who his father is, and how eventually he is trapped by the Council of White Witches and put in a cage for cruel tests. Nathan desperately has to escape before his seventeenth birthday, to receive three gifts from his father and his magical ability and become a full-fledged witch. Otherwise, he will die.

Nathan is such a wonderful character. He goes through some absolutely terrible things, but he always has hope and never gives up. Nathan receives help from a series of characters, notably the black witch Gabriel who has lost his powers due to an accident.

​In the second installment, Half Wild, Nathan has escaped and managed to gets his gifts. Now he must decide whether to join the rebelling alliance of free witches and stop the white witch counsel from suppressing and experimenting on black witches, or live a lonely, but free, life. Nathan’s story then comes to close in Half Lost, where the battle is continued and Nathan is being hunted by both sides. I’m not gonna tell too much about the ending, more than that Sally Green definitely knows how to write an epic finale that will shock you.

Of all three books, the second one, Half Wild is my favorite. This is where the love story between Nathan and Gabriel finally takes off for real. It’s such a sweet, wonderful, love story in the midst of all the terrible things going on. It’s also something of a surprise, as inititially Nathan's love life seems to be heading in another (Annalise) direction.
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Some of the best things with the Half Bad trilogy is the surprising love story between Nathan and Gabe, and that it plays with ’gray areas’. White witches aren’t just good and black witches aren’t just bad. Strangely enough, even though Half Bad is about witches, there’s not much magic in it, which is actually a good thing. The story is magical enough in itself.

Rating:
​5 stars

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This story is a kind of sci-fi Romeo and Juliet-tale with sheltered Aria meeting savage Perry and being forced to form an uneasy partnership to survive as outcasts. Aria has lived a protected, virtual, life in the enclosed city of Reverie; through the make-believe worlds she accesses through her ‘Smarteye’; the eyepatch that lets her tap into her virtual reality. Peregrine (Perry) is a savage from the outside world, where reality in the wasteland is harsh and dangerous. When Aria is expelled from the security of her dome, she has no-one but her wits and Perry to fall back on.

The narrative is told from dual perspectives, but from a third person perspective. Quite unique, but I liked it. It really helped build the characters of Aria and Perry. Truth be told, it’s actually Perry that is the most interesting character, who drives the story. He’s got all the manly hero attributes - tough, protective, and strong – yet Veronica Rossi managed to make him into one of the nicest guys ever in literature. Also, in the beginning he’s not that into Aria at all, but finds her fragile and annoying, with her artificial breeding and her aroma of rot. She in turn thinks he’s disgusting. It takes a lot of adjustment for them to begin to even see each other as people, rather than a means to an end.

Together they set out through the three books to find redemption, their lost loved ones and to unite the two people of Dwellers and Outsiders. The books are adventurous and thrilling, with interesting sci-fi tech and virtual reality aspects, and with the slow-romance between Aria and Perry as the draw. Basically, I think that the Under the Never Sky trilogy is a perfect mix of adventure and romance, sci-fi and dystopia, entertainment and heartbreak.

​Rating:
​5 stars

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​Author info:
Veronica Rossi

I loved this action-packed joyride, with magical creatures, epic battles, friendship and low key romance! When I bought The Rebel of the Sands because of the beautiful cover and intriguing blurb, I had not heard about this series before and was so pleasantly surprised by it. This story just drew me in and I couldn’t put it down until I’d reached the end. It was so fun, fast paced and had such lovable characters.

I totally adore the main character Amani and what a fierce tomboy she was. Known as the ‘Blue-Eyed Bandit’, Amani has always been “more gunpowder than girl”. Her whole life, she’s been trying to leave Dustwalk, the unforgiving dead-end dessert town she’s grown up in, without success. Until she meets a stranger, Jin, in a sharpshooting competition. Taking her chance, she follows him on a dangerous journey through the deserts.

What’s special in this series is the mythology that Alwyn Hamilton weaves into the tale. The story is spiced with fairytale animals, like the ‘Buraqi’, a sand horse that can be turned into a real steed by a girl, ‘Nightmares’ that remains in the sands, coming out only at night to inject humans with venom that infects the mind and body, ‘Skinwalkers’ that shift their form from one victim to another, ‘Djinns’; men made of out of smokeless fir and others.

During the journey, Amani’s and Jin’s banter grows into love, but after rescuing a wounded Jin to a safe haven he’s pointed out, Amani finds out that Jin is not just an ordinary boy, but the brother of the rebelling Prince fighting to overthrow the Sultan. When Amani gets over the betrayal, she soon also finds out that she is a ‘Demdjii’ with supernatural powers and gets pulled into the uprising.
There is also a slow-paced love story that leaves you desperate to know that there will be a HEA after all strains. Can’t wait to continue this magical series!

Rating:
​5 stars

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​Author info:
Alwyn Hamilton

This series started my Shadowhunter journey, and will therefore always have a special place in my heart. It got me hooked from the start with the world-building, the kickass action and all the amazing characters, who all had something that made them unique and lovable.

This was also the first series that I read with a M/M romance. I fell totally in love with Alec and Magnus and wanted to read everything with them, so I binge-read the whole series. But even more so, this series opened up my eyes to the need for diversity and made me want to read more LGBTQ+ books. Cassandra Clare truly was a forerunner when it comes to queer representation in YA literature at that time.​

Rating:
5 stars

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​Author info:
Cassandra Clare’s Shadowhunters

I know that there are a lot of problems with the Twilight series, but it is such a big part of my story and how I got on the path I am today. It was released at a time when I had fallen out of reading, but it opened my eyes to the YA genre and brought back the magic of books to me again.

The Twilight Saga was my first real YA read and it got me totally hooked, I binge read all books in the series in one seating, just cound’t put them down. I don’t think I should re-read them though, but they will always have a special place in my heart. Based on nostalgia and on how much I loved them back in the days, and for the teen me, they will always be glowing 5 star reads...

​Rating:
5 stars

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​Author info:
Stephenie Meyer