"Graduation Day" by Joelle Charbonneau

4 of 5 stars!

I thoroughly enjoyed this last installment of The Testing series. I'm happy the author ended it there instead of trying to drag out the story line. I was reading a few reviews and readers seemed not to enjoy the way in which the story unraveled. I on the other hand enjoyed it and was enraptured from the beginning of the book. I do think the author tries to make Cia more bad-ass than she actually is, but when you have to live up to books like Hunger Games and Divergent, I suppose that's the route you try to take: bad-ass female protagonist. Either way, I like that Cia was so smart and was able to get down to the truth of most of her concerns about the testing. I hate it that her brother died but someone important had to die at the end of the book, if it wasn't Tomas, then I guess it had to be her brother Zeen.

It did not surprise me that the task the President set her to complete was a testing in itself. I am also not surprised that the President knew more than she let on about the Testing and students who are Redirected. Anyway, I'm happy to be done with the series and I'm not surprised that Cia is deciding to go back to Tosu City even after being able to stay in Five Lakes.

~Remember, teachers read fun stuff too!

"Independent Study" by Joelle Charbonneau

4 of 5 stars.

The Basics: Now that Cia has successfully completed the Testing, she has a whole new set of issues to deal with: trying to remember what happened in the Testing, dealing with her feelings toward Tomas, and now trying to handle her Induction into the Government Studies program at the University.

My Thoughts: I enjoyed the book, not more than book 1, but I still enjoyed it. I felt that the Induction was like a mini Testing, but with the Tosu City students. Learning more about the rebellion and Symon was nice, but the ending was surprising. Either way, I'm looking forward to reading the last book in the series.

~Remember, teachers read fun stuff too!