The Strain

  It's Ephraim Goodweather's "perfect" weekend off work, and he's spending it the best way he possibly could; with his son, Zack.
  That is, until he gets a call from work. Apparently a plane has been found with all of its passengers....dead. Dr. Goodweather is stumped for the cause of death. There's no clues as to how this happened....and the fact that the corpses suddenly vanish doesn't make the case simpler.

  It was somewhat of a relief to read a book about vampires that don't sparkle. Hogan and del Toro have written an epic apocalypse book that is original but also familiar. I loved how it switched points of view, giving the readers a better understanding of what was going on (and of course wrenching our hearts so that we couldn't put the book down!).

My Name is Memory

 Lucy has had a crush on Daniel for years, although he seems not to want to even be friends with her. When, at their senior prom, Lucy finally gets an opportunity to talk to him, she is ecstatic. Little does she know that Daniel has The Memory, which allows him to remember all his past lives. He and Lucy have fallen in love before, only to be tragically torn apart. 

  After the first few pages I was prepared not to like this book. It didn't seem to me that the rest of it could be interesting or good; Lucy was obsessed with Daniel. Daniel wanted Lucy but didn't think she would understand or remember. How could this go on for three-hundred more pages?
   I ended up liking it, though. I thought it was cool that Daniel told the story of his past lives, and as he told them he came to realize some important things. Honestly, I think it could have done without the romance. The book would have been great just as a sci-fi novel. The romance scenes just seemed pointless to me (and there were just one too many of them.) I also thought there were some really funny lines. 

   
   

Matched Trilogy

Book One

Matched 

  Cassia has always trusted the Society to make the right choices for her: what to read, what to watch, what to believe. So when Xander's face appears on-screen at her Matching ceremony, Cassia knows with complete certainty that he is her ideal mate... until she sees Ky Markham's face flash for an instant before the screen fades to black.

    The Society tells her that it was just a glitch and that she should forget about it and focus on living a happy life with Xander. But Cassia doesn't forget and can't help but feel that the Society isn't as safe as she once thought. She soon finds herself falling in love with Ky, and by doing so she chooses a path that no one else has dared to follow.

Book Two

Crossed 

  Cassia journeys to the Outer Provinces in search of Ky, who has been sent by the Society to his certain death. She arrives to find that he has escaped, and then she must follow the clues he left behind. The longer she travels the more determined she becomes to spend her life with Ky and the angrier she becomes at the Society. She wants to find the Rising, the rebellion plotting against the Society, and help them destroy it. 

Book Three

Reached 

 Cassia, Ky and Xander are all in the Rising but are stationed in different places, and with the sudden outbreak of the Plague, it's hard to get away and see each other. The Rising and the Society are both trying to find a cure for the Plague, and soon the three of them realize the the Rising is just like the Society, and that both of them are running out of places to look for a cure.

  I liked the whole series, but I think Matched and Reached were better. I love sci-fi and usually don't like romance, but in this series I liked both. The romance between Cassia and Ky isn't like the romances in other books I've read. I liked it because it was more about their friendship and they slowly started having feelings for one another rather than . Cassia isn't flighty, Xander isn't evil, and Ky isn't perfect like the typical characters in love triangles. I highly recommend these books.