Champion by Marie Lu Review

Title: Champion
Series: Legend (Book 3)
Author: Marie Lu
Published: November 5, 2013
Pages: 369 pages
Format: Hardcover
Source: Purchased

Summary (Goodreads):
He is a Legend.

She is a Prodigy.

She Who will be Champion?

June and Day have sacrificed so much for the people of the Republic—and each other—and now their country is on the brink of a new existence. June is back in the good graces of the Republic, working within the government’s elite circles as Princeps-Elect, while Day has been assigned a high-level military position.

But neither could have predicted the circumstances that will reunite them: just when a peace treaty is imminent, a plague outbreak causes panic in the Colonies, and war threatens the Republic’s border cities. This new strain of plague is deadlier than ever, and June is the only one who knows the key to her country’s defense. But saving the lives of thousands will mean asking the one she loves to give up everything.

With heart-pounding action and suspense, Marie Lu’s bestselling trilogy draws to a stunning conclusion.

_________________

That’s it. The end is finally here.

The end of an author’s first series is always difficult. They say goodbye to a world that got them started and to characters they have been with long before we’ve read about them.

But sometimes the end is difficult for the reader too.

When I was growing up my parents got divorced and I moved with my mom to a new town. I was put in a public school for the first time in years (I’d been homeschooled for many years) and I struggled. I did well in school thanks to the most amazing six-grade teacher on the planet, but I didn’t make many friends. I was a new kid in a small town where everyone else had gone to school which each other since kindergarten. But I found my own place, online in a little community for artists. In was here, online, that I found friends and role models.

One of these role models was Marie Lu. Marie was (and still is) one of my favorite artists to ever be. Marie shared her character creations from her stories in beautiful artwork that I still remember today, almost ten years later. One of these characters was Day.

You see Day originally was a bit different then the Legend series Day, this Day belonged in a fantasy world known as The Glass Sonata. But there are a few things that haven’t changed from the Day before and the Day now, mostly that he is beautiful. No matter the medium Day is portrayed in he is and always will be one of the most beautiful people I know. There is a light, a soul, in him that I have grown to know all these years.

I feel for him. Prodigy nearly destroyed me and Champion pulled at my heart in entirely new ways. I felt Day’s pain, his struggle to protect those he loves and his inability to turn away those in need no matter how poor his situation may be. Day was just a boy but at the same time he was the hope of an entire nation. Day never asked to be a legend or a hero but he didn’t turn away from the challenge no matter how much he lost in the fight.

Day has been and will always be the light. And I can only hope I grow up to be just like him, and make him proud.