#5 The Forsaken by Lissa M. Stasse

Stars: *****

Genre: YA, Dystopian, Romance, Survival, Adventure, Action

Alenna Shawcross is a orphan of the UNA (United Northern Alliance, a super country consisting of Canada, Mexico and the US.). Alenna is shy and quiet, never fitting in. And then we have the GPPT, the exam every teenager takes to see if they have a high capacity for brutal violence. If the GPPT says you are capable of brutal violence you get sent to Prison Island Alpha a.k.a The Wheel (a remote island with a life expectancy of just two years.)

Alenna knows she will not be sent to the Wheel, she has never shown any inclination to violence but somehow, after her GPPT she wakes up in The Wheel.

In the Wheel she is taken in by the villagers, a group of kids who are in a war with the drones, the other group in the island. Alenna makes friends in the village and meets a blue eyed boy who seems very familiar and who she is drawn to. 

Slowly Alenna discovers how the island works and about the strange illness that takes some and the weird machines that take others. 

Alenna and her friends go on a search to find a way out of the island, never expecting what they will find.

Alenna starts out as an orphan with no special survival skill, not like Katniss (Hunger Games) who has an incredible aim with the bow and arrow or Saba (Blood Red Road) who can fight and win. Alenna is just a normal city girl and when she is dropped in the Wheel she has to find a way to survive, learning from those around her. 

This book was full of suprises that I never expected. So, if you are a fan of the Hunger Games, or any other dystopian triology, you might like to read this book.

#4 The Scorpio Races by Maggie Stiefvater

Stars: *****

Genres: YA, Romance, Fantasy, Supernatural

On the Island, every start of November there's a race. But this race is not a normal race, in this race, riders ride water horses and try to hold on till they reach the finish line. And in these races anything can happen, you can get first place and win lots of money, you can stay alive till the end ot die, because these water horses are not normal, they are man eating horses who's home is the sea, and if you are not careful, they will take you there, to your death.

And then there are the main characters, Puck Connolly and Sean Kendrick. 
19 year old Sean Kendrick is the returning champion, winner of the four races before. He works for Benjamin Malvern, the richest man on the island, he is a young man of few words with fears hidden deep inside.
Puck Connolly lost her parents because of the water horses and it seems ironic that she would join the races. But she joins the races just to keep her small family together after her eldest brother said he wanted to leave the island and Malvern came to take her house away. Winning the race might get her brother to stay and her house back. 
But Puck and Sean never expected to have their lives entwine.

Four words: I love the book. I am not a fan of Stiefvater's novel Shiver and at first I had my doubts about The scorpio races but after seeing the cover many times I went to read what it was about, and i just had to read it. Horses, races, and island, i just had to have it. And I'm glad I read it. So if you like islands, and horses, you might like this book.
And the cover, OMG, it's amazing. I love the black figure of the girl ridding her horse that over the red looks kind of like a prehistoric drawing on a cave wall.