Tuesday, June 28, 2016

Book Review: The Conspiracy of Us by Maggie Hall

The Conspiracy of Us was much more fun than I ever anticipated. 

I decided to give this book a whirl after seeing my friend Lauren's review on it here. The Conspiracy of Us follows our main character Avery as she is thrust into a world she never knew existed. She goes to her prom only to be taken to Paris and find out that there are 12 families (known as The Circle) that are descendants of Alexander the Great who rule the world. Avery is apparently  a distant relative to the Saxon's, a family that is part of the circle. Things kick off from there and everything is (obviously) not what it seems.

What I loved most about this book was how fast paced it was.  I actually read this book via audiobook, and I'm glad that I chose this as a start to listening! Whenever I was reading listening, the book always held my attention. The novel starts with Avery going to Paris with a complete stranger, and it never slows down from there. As far as the narration went, I thought it was fabulous. I never was taken out of the story because of the narration. In fact, I was paying more attention because of it.

I really loved how Maggie Hall wrote this book. There was a great juxtaposition between Stellan and Jack, the other main characters besides Avery. There was this one scene where Avery is trying on dresses, and maybe I was thinking too much into the book, but I am certain that her two final dresses represented Jack and Stellan. One was silver, like Jack's eyes, and the other was gold, like Stellan's. The dresses were symbols of Jack and Stellan and I liked how they Avery's feelings towards the dresses so accurately represent Avery's feelings towards the guys. 

However, I do have two small-ish complaints that made the book get less than four stars.

My first complaint is Avery's decision making skills. Everything she did was very brash and she never thought of the consequences. She risks her life and Jack's  and doesn't stop to think about how her actions might affect other people. Though I do see why she did what she did, I would have never taken the same route as her.

Secondly, I guessed the ending from a mile away. I'm getting pretty tired of guessing the twist at the end. Most of the book is about Avery and Jack, who are trying to solve this riddle. Unfortunately, I solved part of the riddle pretty early in. However, the other half I wasn't expecting and I loved seeing Avery and Jack solve it.

All in all, I really enjoyed The Conspiracy of Us. While I had a few complaints, the pros outweighed the cons. I'll be continuing on with this series with Maps of Fates, and will be listening to that one as well. I recommend this to anyone who is looking for a quick paced mystery/thriller-esque YA series.

With that, I give this book
3.75 out of 5 Stars! 





Thanks for stopping by and I'll see you soon with another post!

Happy Reading!

Genni @ Ready, Set, Read!

12 comments:

  1. Ooo, fast-paced sounds good! I prefer fast-paced books for sure, that is music to my ears. I got an ARC of this one way back when, but I never read it because I saw fellow reviewers complaining about a love triangle in this book. And apparently, the series in general! The love triangle persists in book two. *sigh* I am super anti-love-triangle. So I'll pass on the series! Maybe I'll binge-read the books. :)

    Great review, Genni! I'm glad you enjoyed this one. I hope you love book two as well!

    Alyssa @ The Eater of Books!

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    1. I do as well! If something doesn't hold my interest, I can't get through the book. :D There definitely is a love triangle. There was hinting at it in this book, but I was hoping nothing would come out of it. That's the one thing I'm not looking forward to in book two. :/ Who knows? It might be done really well! I'm keeping my fingers crossed!

      Thanks so much Alyssa! *hugs*

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  2. Hm, this sounds really interesting! I'll have to see if I can find it. :)

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  3. I'm tickled that my review inspired you to check it out for yourself, Genni! Thanks for the shout out, by the way! :D

    I'm glad you enjoyed it! I totally didn't notice that about the dresses - but you make a pretty good point there.

    I really liked the audio production, too. I probably would have put it down if I were reading, but the narration had me hooked! :)

    Great review!

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    1. You're welcome, Lauren! I was thinking of reading it and your review was the final push!

      I completely agree with you. I really want to pick up Map of Fates as an audiobook!

      Thank you. :D

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  4. Glad this was a good one! I don't like it either when protags are brash or rush into things without thinking it through, but other than that it sounds like this was pretty good! And happy blogoversary!!

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    1. That was really the only problem I had with it. I saw where she was coming from, but she kept getting herself into trouble. Thank you so much!

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  5. I love fantasy novels so this seems so interesting! This is my first time hearing of this book, and I kind of want to check it out now, thanks to you :) I love the idea of it, and I like fast-paced novels so I'm happy that Maggie Hall had a good pacing in this book. Thanks for the review! It was a pleasure to read it!

    Jillian @ Jillian's Books

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    1. Aww thank you so much Jillian!! I hope you like it. :) Sometimes I think my reviews are too long, but I'm glad this one helped!

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  6. Oh! I didn't know that this book was a mystery/thriller. They are some of my favourite books, so I will definitely have to add this one to the TBR.

    It's great that you enjoyed this one so much! I have only ever listened to half of an audiobook because the narrator's voice was so nice that I kept on falling asleep XD So I don't think they are for me. It's awesome that you liked the narrator on this one - I know a lot of people don't like narrators sometimes.

    Ah, I have read in other reviews that Avery's decisions annoyed them, so I will definitely have to watch out for that aspect.

    I hope you enjoy the sequel, Genni! :D

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    1. I wasn't expecting it either! There is some romance in it too, but it takes a back burner to the mystery aspect.

      This was actually the second book I have ever read via audiobook! The first was The Book of Ivy. I have to say I like the narration in this a lot more. :D I'm not too picky on my narrators because I don't have much experience. I'm assuming that I'll get more picky as I have more experience. :)

      Thank you Chiara! I hope you like this one if you read it!

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