Book Review of Legend by Marie Lu

Goodreads Summary: 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's 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.
Goodreads Rating: 4.20 stars with over 250,000 ratings
Genre Listing: Young Adult, Dystopian, Science Fiction, Romance, Fantasy, Adventure, Post-Apocalyptic
Get the Book: Amazon, Book Depository
Book Haul link: Book Haul 1/1/2016
Book challenge: Pop Sugar 2016 Challange, 6/40 - YA Best Seller

Review: 

Edited 12/1/2016

I feel like I should get some award for actually reading a book from one of my book hauls. I'm so terrible about that. Seriously. I hoard books and never actually read them.

I'm not nearly as impressed with this book as I would have hoped to be. I'm kind of wondering if that's the book or if it's me. It has excellent ratings on Good Reads, and a lot of my friends on their loved it and spoke highly of it. I just wasn't super impressed with it. Maybe I've just read too many books in this genre, and now they all seem the same to me. Don't get me wrong; I enjoyed the book. I'm just not in love with it.

I want to take a minute to start out with something I liked. This book gave two distinct points of view, and it let the reader know who's view it is. Not only does it have their name in huge letters across the top of the page, but the font changes. I can not tell you how helpful that is. It drives me nuts when there is just like a star or nothing at all to signify a change in character view. If I have to sit and wonder about who's perspective I'm reading from it takes my concentration off of what is going on.

I didn't feel that connected to Day or June. They weren't awful characters; I just didn't find them to be great characters. I felt like they were robotic through most of the book. Having always to read about how pretty the other was drove me nuts. What little emotion there was in the book, I just didn't get a feel for. That being said, it was a nice change of pace to see two strong lead characters. I never felt like either one was helpless and needed the other to save them and make them look strong. They held their own pretty well and were fighters.

For the most part, I thought that the plot was pretty predictable. It was interesting, but I wasn't drawn into it until close to the end of the book. I'd say the las 100-150 pages is where it got good for me. I mostly found myself wanting to know the history of the circumstances. Why did the U.S. fall apart? What caused them to be divided in such a manner? ?hat were the numbers on the doors underground for? How are things in the Colonies and with the Patriots? - These are all questions I wanted answers to. I may have missed the answer to the number question. I have a pretty good idea what it was for, but my reading comprehension is probably not that high right now.

I will most likely read the next book in the series, but I'm not going to rush right out and buy it. It's going to have to wait until I can get to the bookstore and buy it. I have a weird quirk about series. If I start the series in one format, I have to finish it in that format.

Overall, it was an entertaining read. I enjoyed it, but I'm not in love with it. I have a lot of questions about the history of the apocalyptic nature of things.