Four by Veronica Roth | Rating: ★★★★★

“Dead people can be our heroes because they cant disappoint us later; they only improve over time, as we forget more and more about them.” 

What's the first word that comes to mind when I think of Four? Four as in both this collection and the character? Swoon. Swoon, I think about swooning. Actually, come to think about it I do more than think about swooning, I swoon the heck on out of this Popsicle stand and before you know it, my icy exterior has melted to the sidewalk like that ice cream cone I wept over as a child. But that's neither here nor there and I'm soooo not bitter about it or anything. 

Honestly, though. Four--Tobias Eaton, if you prefer--is one of my top ten book boyfriends of all time and frankly I loath the term book boyfriends but a girl's gotta do what a girl's gotta do, you know? And Four is completely worth the silly hair twirling (which, admittedly, I found myself doing in the more romantic scenes of his) and that's a pretty high compliment from me. 

Typically I'm not one for collections of short stories. None of my favorite series have little bonus stories in their line-up (that's a lie; The Darkest Minds and Splintered have done so and those were fantastic, too) so I tend to sprint in the opposite direction when I do see installments as such. While many authors and publishers do so only to bank on the success of their series and make that $$$$ (get that money, y'all!) Roth, instead, uses to build onto the series we already know and love. I love, love, love the collections that I listed above but Four goes above and beyond that.


I felt like I better understood the dangers and the heart that came with being Four and to some extent, Tris. I thought that the parallels and differences between the two (be it their life before moving on up into Dauntless) were painted wonderfully and it was nice to see it side by side and remember what it was like reading Divergent. In many ways, Four is the missing piece of the puzzle when it comes to the original trilogy and I think it was utterly necessary to expand it like Veronica Roth did. 

Each of the stories told from Four's point of view were just as fast paced as the original stories. Full of suspense, romance and action, it was everything that's good about Divergent. Four is the sort of collection you read in one sitting and think about for the rest of the day. Four is the perfect way to wrap up the series and the ultimate must-have for any fan. It does more than provide us with a solid backstory for Four. Veronica did it again and gave readers an absolute delight to see this new, fresh point of view--as always, I'm totally hooked! Plus, who doesn't love Four/Tris?

And isn't this series total book candy?

That's why I call it.

If you didn't love the original trilogy than the collection definitely isn't for you, but I find myself even more in love with Four than I did before. That's kind of saying something because I already loved him a lot a lot a lot. The must haves for this book are: cozy blankets, something sweet and a warm drink. I'd recommend it to anyone looking for a high stakes drama with action and a lot of swoons. Four hits all the right notes.