Legend by Marie Lu

I went on a young adult reading slurge recently and am trying to find time to catch up on all my reviews.  I read Legend, Divergent, Uglies, and Matched all at the same time so I started to mix up which story went with each book.  I still need to finish Matched so I will write that review at a later time once the library has them back in.

So Legend by Marie Lu.  Honestly, I have mixed feelings towards this trilogy.  The first book started slow and did not get interesting until the very end.  Yes, it takes a bit to set up the story and characters, but nothing happened.  We follow Day and June as they meet each other and we see how their actions affect one another.  As I got into the second book it got better and I was actually excited with the last book since I believed the author was actually going to kill one of her main characters.  Hardly anyone does that.  They just can't let go.  Well, unfortunately Marie Lu decided she couldn't kill her hero so she just gave him amnesia, but he still gets back together with June 10 years later.  Sorry to throw that info at you, it just made me sad.  It would have been fine to kill Day instead of putting him in a coma for 3 months.

So to the actual storyline so you know what this book is about.  Yet another dystopian book where the world was affected by global warming and started flooding.  In response, everyone went crazy and the United States divided into The Colonies and The Republic.  Alaska is also another section that is technologically advanced.  The Republic built a huge wall around them and it is in this government that Day and June are from.  They are ignorant to how the rest of the world is and are led to believe that The Republic is superior and a main super power in the world.  In reality it is incredibly small, outdated, and not involved with other governments.  They implemented Trials where you go when you come of age and take tests to see what job/school you will be sent to.  If you fail you supposedly go to a work camp when in actuality you are killed.  Otherwise you are whisked away to a military school or sent to work some menial job.  Day was considered a trouble maker so he was intentionally sent with the fail group, but they did not actually kill him and he escaped.  June scored a perfect score and was sent to the military school to become a promising military help.

Day sticks around to make sure his family has enough money to eat and to make sure the 'plague' does not affect any of them.  Of course his youngest brother is infected.  All our drama starts with Day breaking into a hospital to get a cure for his brother since only the rich get vaccines for the plague and in the process he 'kills' June's brother.  June is then sent to track down Day and turn him in since Day causes trouble by blowing up planes and hindering the government effort.  Well, June finds Day, but falls in love with him and finds out that Day did not actually kill her brother but he government did and they also killed her parents.  Day's brother was intentionally infected with the plague and taken for experimentation so Day and June team together to rescue him and save the republic.  Not a bad book and a lot of fun twists.