GoodRead - Life Before Legend

This was an accidental purchase! I feel I have to state this before I start this review. I didn't want to buy it! I wanted to read a sampler of it as I was, at the time, reading Legend at the time (review here, by the way) and I wanted to read a sampler in case of spoilers. Shouldn't have worried, though.

In this prequel, readers get a glimpse in Day's and June's everyday lives several year before the events of Legend took place and the two met. We see how, via some distance, their lives affected each other. The days in question is June's first day at Drake University and Day trying to survive on the streets.

Now, I am torn over this. I'm not sure if it's because I read it so soon after Legend or because I liked Marie Lu's writing style, but I did like slipping in and out of reading this novella. It was nice to see their lives BEFORE the events and the tiny hints of foreshadowing to the rest of the series. It's a good way to introduce yourself to Marie Lu's writing and the series if you haven't read the series and you want to know if you would like it. It was a good taster into this world.

However, I do have two big points I want to raise and one of which has NOTHING to do with the author but the publishers.

The first is me wondering what exactly was the point of this novella? It kinda didn't give us anything new. If anything, we see Day's first kiss (which wasn't as amazing as it sounds), his first act against the Republic (this could have gone more in depth) and June's relationship with her brother (again, this could have gone SO MUCH MORE in depth). But, if you think about this, we kinda go over these details (barring the first kiss) at the beginning of Legend, so you wonder why these points are so crucial?

My second point is price. If you know me, you know I have issues with pricing with eNovellas and it's not the author's fault. Some eNovellas's prices I agree with due to length, while others are priced ridiculously! We readers want our money's worth! And with Life Before Legend, I think the pricing is too high. For an eNovella that, according to Goodreads, is 38 pages long, it's £1.81. Which, when you compare to other eNovellas's page lengths and their prices (The Prince by Kiera Cass [64 pages] is 99p, Die For Her by Amy Plum [60 pages] is 99p & Radiant by Cynthia Hand [94 pages] is 99p), you have to wonder why, on this eNovella, the price is double but the length is shorter?

Fans of the series will enjoy this and I think if you want to start this series, you might want to check this out. But at that price, me thinks you should wait till a sale happens on your eReaders...