Two: I was subconsciously on the prowl for a strong dystopian novel/series because I'm probably going to shelve that genre for a little while. The YA dystopian boom was a good boom, but the boom is over for me, and I'm glad that I discovered a series that will leave a nice flavor for me to come back to.

Three: I'm usually pretty incredible at seeing plot twists before they happen. I saw two or three, then I was reading along (after a big "oh nooooooo!" moment) then BAM! My head was spinning and I sat in the parking lot of my daughter's daycare to finish reading the book right then.

Four: Aveyard's description of Whitefire Palace... "My old teacher used to say it was carved from the hillside itself, a living piece of white stone." (wish I knew what page that was from in print, but on Kindle for iPhone it's location 4494 of 6034 :D ) I immediately saw the white walls of Minas Tirith, and my heart applauded another Tolkien fan from afar.

In short, Red Queen was quite lovely. Ok, it was wonderful, creative, colorful, incredible, fantastic... any and all of these things. My heart was pulled in different directions from beginning to end, and I love that Mare sees things more gray than strictly black and white. It's more realistic. Well... As realistic as a society with different colored blood and superpowers scattered through the population can get.

Victoria Aveyard, a job well done. I can't wait to see what else you conjure up in the coming years.