The Island

Now, I'm not usually a romance reader. In fact, romance is usually what turns me off from books, because it's either rushy, it completely takes over the plot or there is an unnecessary love triangle. Well, not this book! I enjoyed reading about how Theo and Galian come together and fight to survive on their island so much that there were several times where I nearly forgot to finish my school work.

The pacing was also perfect. There was never a point throughout the book that I was bored or wanted to lay it down and do something else. Perhaps altogether it took around four hours to read, around daily life.

The world building is amazing and I can not wait until the following two books come out which will hopefully give more insight into the characters from Rave, and also, maybe from the other countries that are shown on the map (Yes, this book contains a map! And it's awesome!).

My only issue with the book is that I now have to wait for what seems like forever to read the second one, because holy cow that ending was amazing!

I read Sush’s first book back in January and have fallen in love with her writing. So when she announced this one, despite my hesitation for romance, I was so, so excited for her new trilogy. And let me just say, I wasn't disappointed. The Island was everything wanted and more which is why I am rating it with a fabulous 5/5 stars due to amazing characters, compelling twists, and detailed world-building.

This novel starts off with Theo who is a pilot in the midst of a war. She is strong. She must be strong. Theo is the captain of her young fleet at such a young age, she has survived countless air battles and seen more death than anyone her age should be seeing. Her wit and skills keep her alive, and that’s what I admire so much from her. Sush creates amazing female role models and Theo is another to be added to that list.

Galian is the prince of the country Theo is fighting against, and he is absolutely adorable in every sense. He never wanted to be a pilot, and just wanted to help people as a doctor. His morals and values are commendable and his interactions with Theo always had me laughing. Their development throughout this book honestly couldn’t be done without the other. Their relationship developed well, so that I was shipping them very, very soon. They had so many great moments, and the author had me itching for them to kiss. And when they did omg it was glorious.

The only problem I had with their relationship was that I feel Theo warmed up to Galian a little too quickly. She was ice cold for most of the beginning, but then it felt like she immediately didn’t mind that he was the enemy and allowed him to help her stay alive. If she were truly loyal to her country, she would have just killed him and got on with it, probably died even. I mean of course that wouldn’t be the point of the book, but I feel that it would have stayed in her character better if she had.

Anyways, there were so many things that I didn’t really picture happening, but they happened and were so unexpected it kind of blew my mind. Sush’s writing will keep you compelled throughout the story and guessing about what happens next. She is amazing at keeping the reader hooked all till the end when they are craving the next book. I finished this book in the span of three or four hours and couldn't stop to even do a project I had due the next day. Honestly, that’s how awesome this book is.

I mean, when I first heard of this book, I thought it was going to be filled with a bunch of cliches. I hate cliches. And it was kind of was cliche in parts now that I think about it, but while reading, I didn’t notice them at all because they were executed in a way that I didn’t even realize it. I think it’s because the characters were so real to me. They leaped off the page, and in life, there are tons of cliched people, so the characters instantly felt normal and I was completely satisfied with these cliches, because they were done right.

The last thing I loved about this book was the world building. I was able to completely understand the politics of the world, and the tension between the Raven and the Kylae. The world felt so real to me, I could totally imagine myself as the new recruit in Theo’s squadron. But the history between the two countries, the darkness and the horrors were all very well-explained and dealt with.

Final verdict:
Sush’s fantastic writing comes through once again in her first installment of the Madion Trilogy in The Island. Through characters of Galian and Theo, we can once again learn the boundaries of love in an everlasting war. If you love romance, forbidden romances, or even hate-to-love relationships and a good war, this one is for you.

I had fairly high expectations going into this book. Not the highest of expectations but they were pretty far up there. This tends to lead to disappointment but it this case it turned out very well. I hadn't read anything previously written by this author or even any books similar to this so I wasn't sure what to think when starting this book.

I would 100% be BFF's which Theo. I thought she was a great character! My favourite part about her was that she always, always, always fought for what she thought was right. She could never just sit by while something horrible was happening. I also think she's going to be a great character in the later books. She just has so much potential right now and a great sense of right and wrong.

I fell in love with Galian easily during this book. He's just an easy character to like. It was nice seeing that a prince, who you would think to have a great life, actually have a really hard time growing up. It pushes the fact that it doesn't matter who you are, everyone grows up differently and experiences life in different ways. I loved that the characters sympathized with each other's situations and didn't compare as to who's was worse.

My only complaint with the writing style was that some parts could be a little rushed. It wasn't bad though because the plot kept me interested the whole way through and I wasn't concerned about small technical details. There's some books where you can put down and pick up no problem and this was one of those books. The only thing was that I didn't want to put it down, I wanted to know what was going to happen next. I think the only reason this book got 4 instead of 5 stars was because it didn't have that one special thing to really push me over that edge. I thought the plot was great and the characters were well done but I wish there was just a little bit more to this book. If I gave out half rating then this would get the 4.5 stars.

If you've read the summary of this book and thought "oh that's interesting" then you're probably right because this was an interesting book. It was fun while being serious at the same time which I think is hard to do. I'm extremely glad I picked this book up and I can't wait to get my hands on the next one. I highly recommend this book to more mature young adults (and older!) that love fantasy with some romance mixed in. This was a great start to a hopefully incredible series.