Leave all your love and your longing behind, you can't carry it with you if you want to survive.

 


 See How They Run
Author: Ally Carter
Publication Date: January 14th 2016
Publisher: Orchard Books
~A copy was provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review~

Inside every secret, there's a world of trouble. Get ready for the second book in this new series of global proportions--from master of intrigue, New York Times bestselling author Ally Carter.

Grace's past has come back to hunt her . . . and if she doesn't stop it, Grace isn't the only one who will get hurt. Because on Embassy Row, the countries of the world stand like dominoes, and one wrong move can make them all fall down.

The twists get twistier and the turns get even more shocking in the second thrilling installment of Embassy Row.

OHMYGOD. THAT WAS THE MEANEST CLIFFHANGER ENDING. Continuing on from All Fall Down, See How They Run builds up the history of Adria, and the history of the founders. Believe it or not, See How They Run is a lot darker than its predecessor, there are so many more secrets about Grace and Adria and more things out of Graces control than she likes (and we know how she acts when it comes to secrets).

Grace is...I hate to say broken, but she is completely broken. And it's what you'd expect from what she found out about the mystery surrounding her mother’s death and the scarred man. At least when she didn't know she had this thing to hold onto, to know she wasn't crazy, when everybody acted like she was. But I love her, she isn't entirely likeable, but I connect more with her than any previous Ally Carter MC's (Cammie post Only the Good Spy Young and Kat, Uncommon Criminals). Alexei. Oh, bloody hell, Alexei. We get more of him (yay!) but we also get more depth from him, and get to see his darker side.

What I love about Ally Carter, is the emphasis she puts on family. Never are they standard or perfect, they're broken and dysfunctional but they're strong. They're family, and it doesn't stop at blood. And in See How They Run we get to meet Grace's older brother, Jamie. And she tries her damn hardest to push him away, but he's always there pushing her back. They really feel like siblings.

WE HAVE SOME ROMANCE, if you were disappointed by the lack of romance in All Fall Down, you still might be, because honestly, there's no outwardly romance between Grace and Alexei. But what I seriously adore about the way Ally Carter writes romance is how she builds their foundation first. How she can write intimate and sexy moments without the characters even kissing, is beyond me.

See How They Run is fast paced, packed with shocking twists that you won't see coming until just before it hits you, family ties, and uh, more Alexei.

Rating: 5/5

                             

There's not even a demon, in Heaven or Hell, is it all just human disguise, as I walk down the aisle

 The Dark Days Club
Author: Alison Goodman
Publication Date: January 21st 2016
Publisher: Walker Books
~A copy was provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review

London, April 1812. Eighteen-year-old Lady Helen Wrexhall is on the eve of her debut presentation to the Queen. Her life should be about gowns and dancing, and securing a suitable marriage. Instead, when one of her family's housemaids goes missing, Lady Helen is drawn to the shadows of Regency London.

There, she finds William, the Earl of Carlston. He has noticed the disappearance, too, and is one of the few who can stop the perpetrators: a cabal of powerful demons that has infiltrated every level of society. But Lady Helen’s curiosity is the last thing Carlston wants—especially when he sees the searching intelligence behind her fluttering fan. Should Helen trust a man whose reputation is almost as black as his lingering eyes? And will her headstrong sense of justice lead them both into a death trap?

In The Dark Days Club, internationally best-selling author Alison Goodman introduces readers to a heroine who is just as remarkable as Eona—and yet again reinvents an establlished literary genre, making it her own.

Although The Dark Days Club isn't original in its concept, it's unique in its execution. Set in Regency England, Lady Helen's coming to terms with the fact her mother's traitorous legacy has more to it than what it seems, and that she herself is more like her than anyone would like.

Review: Playlist for the Dead

Playlist for the Dead
Author: Michelle Falkoff
Publication Date: January 27th 2015        
Publisher: HarperTeen
~A copy was provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review~ 

 

A teenage boy tries to understand his best friend's suicide by listening to the playlist of songs he left behind in this smart, voice-driven debut novel.

Here's what Sam knows: There was a party. There was a fight. The next morning, his best friend, Hayden, was dead. And all he left Sam was a playlist of songs, and a suicide note: For Sam—listen and you'll understand.

As he listens to song after song, Sam tries to face up to what happened the night Hayden killed himself. But it's only by taking out his earbuds and opening his eyes to the people around him that he will finally be able to piece together his best friend’s story. And maybe have a chance to change his own.

Part mystery, part love story, and part coming-of-age tale in the vein of Stephen Chbosky’s The Perks of Being a Wallflower and Tim Tharp’s The Spectacular Now, Playlist for the Dead is an honest and gut-wrenching first novel about loss, rage, what it feels like to outgrow a friendship that's always defined you—and the struggle to redefine yourself. But above all, it's about finding hope when hope seems like the hardest thing to find.

WHY ARE THESE ONES SO HARD TO REVIEW?

So I'll get straight to the point.

I didn't love it.

I didn't hate it.

Again, I'm in middle ground territory and I freaking hate that, and the fact that I so wanted to love it, it's very music orientated as well, and come on, that's perfect for me, which makes me dislike it more because I didn't love it. But, that's not down to the story, or the message behind the story.

Review: Heartbeat

Heartbeat
Author:  Elizabeth Scott

Publication Date:  January 28th 2014         
~A copy was provided by Harlequin Teen via Edelweiss in exchange for an honest review~

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Life. Death. And...Love?

Emma would give anything to talk to her mother one last time. Tell her about her slipping grades, her anger with her stepfather, and the boy with the bad reputation who might be the only one Emma can be herself with.

But Emma can't tell her mother anything. Because her mother is brain-dead and being kept alive by machines for the baby growing inside her.

Meeting bad-boy Caleb Harrison wouldn't have interested Old Emma. But New Emma-the one who exists in a fog of grief, who no longer cares about school, whose only social outlet is her best friend Olivia-New Emma is startled by the connection she and Caleb forge.

Feeling her own heart beat again wakes Emma from the grief that has grayed her existence. Is there hope for life after death-and maybe, for love?
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There is no possible way to write a review without it getting personal. Because it is. Personal. It also hits home a lot more than I'd like to admit, and it's hard to have an unbiased review because of that. It's always hard to see both sides when you know somebody else's so much better. Now, mine and Emma's is not the same, I got to grieve for the person I lost, while Emma hasn't, not that she hasn't tried, but the fact that she can't because her mother's body is being kept alive for the baby growing inside of her, and she has to see her, everyday, knowing that her mother's dead, yet she's right there in front of her, just out of reach. In a way, it's a whole lot worse that just losing somebody. They die, you say goodbye, they're buried, they're gone, and eventually you try and move on,  but the fact is, she literally can't.

EARC Review: Uninvited

Uninvited
Author: Sophie Jordan

Publication Date: January 28th 2014
~A copy was provided by HarperTeen via Edelweiss in exchange for an honest review~

 

 

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The Scarlet Letter meets Minority Report in bestselling author Sophie Jordan's chilling new novel about a teenage girl who is ostracized when her genetic test proves she's destined to become a murderer.

When Davy Hamilton's tests come back positive for Homicidal Tendency Syndrome (HTS)-aka the kill gene-she loses everything. Her boyfriend ditches her, her parents are scared of her, and she can forget about her bright future at Juilliard. Davy doesn't feel any different, but genes don't lie. One day she will kill someone.

Only Sean, a fellow HTS carrier, can relate to her new life. Davy wants to trust him; maybe he's not as dangerous as he seems. Or maybe Davy is just as deadly.

The first in a two-book series, Uninvited tackles intriguing questions about free will, identity, and human nature. Steeped in New York Times bestselling author Sophie Jordan's trademark mix of gripping action and breathless romance, this suspenseful tale is perfect for fans of James Patterson, Michelle Hodkin, and Lisa McMann

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In the beginning Davy was a character who had her head in the clouds, she was happy with where she was, her friends, her boyfriend, her options, she was a prodigy after all. She's popular, and likable. She's kind of a fuzzy character though, neither here or there. She's nice but not too nice, she's pretty, but not too pretty, she's not mean, she's modest but knows her talents. She's also rich, and just so, she's a little judgemental. She doesn't know herself. But testing positive for the Killer gene changed that. At first, she's in denial that anything will change. and then it changes, slowly at first, and then all at once and there's no control. The girl who never thought or questioned anything, accepted things the way they were...she's gone.