Legend by Marie Lu

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. 

Now I finally know what all the hype is about; Legend is a just an all around good book. June and Day are solid characters and they actually have different voices, which is refreshing to read. Most authors, when writing from two points of view, usually mush up both characters and I end up forgetting who's who because they SOUND THE SAME (which is understandable considering it's only one person writing and all) but that doesn't mean it's not frustrating! *Rant over, back to the book...

Usually I'm not a huge fan of dystopians in general - the future always seems bleak and we have all the youth fighting for their lives against the big bad government. The plot always seems to end up in the same place no matter how you get there. Since I haven't read the rest of the series I can't say that won't happen but at least book 1 was different. I really liked the fact that Day was a rebel and June was a government golden child. Of course they fall in love and whatnot, it is YA, but there was no shortage of action along the way. I found myself wanting to know more about June's family history and Day's backstory as well. Even though this book generally follows all the conventional rules of a YA dystopian it was still interesting - which I think is the main reason I liked it so much. Within all the usual hullabaloo I was intrigued, and that is the mark of a good author.

I did read this a couple months ago so I forgot most of the specifics but I do remember distinctly disliking the fact that, like many books I seem to pick up these days, the two POVs are in different colors. I like the fact that I can easily remember who's narrating but it still hurts my eyes and is a pain to read. I don't understand the gold-theme so much either so I might be missing out on the bigger picture, but personally I believe the book would still be worth reading if all the text was black.

But other than that, no real complaints. I was satisfied from beginning to end and I didn't even really want to read this book to begin with. It just happened to be on my desk at the right time :)

4 stars