Review: Deadfall (I'm so not forgiving you, Anna Carey)

Deadfall
Author: Anna Carey
Publication Date: July 16th 2015
Publisher: HarperTeen
~A copy was provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review~

 In the compelling sequel to Blackbird, Anna Carey delivers a gritty and adrenaline-filled story of a girl desperate to escape her mysterious and terrifying assailants. Told in second person, this heart-pounding thriller puts the reader in front of the target.

A week ago, you woke up in Los Angeles with no memory of who you are. The only thing you knew: people are trying to kill you. You put your trust in Ben, but he betrayed you and broke your heart. Now you've escaped to New York City with a boy named Rafe, who says he remembers you from before. But the two of you are not safe. The same people who are after you are tailing Rafe as well. As the chase heats up, your memory starts to return, but your past cannot save you from the terrifying circumstances of your present, or the fact that one wrong move could end this game forever.

With enemies on every side, and not a reprieve in sight, Deadfall will grab readers and refuse to let go. Perfect for fans of the Maze Runner series and the Legend series.

• Warning! There might be some slight spoilers for Blackbird ahead!

I really enjoyed Blackbird last year, while I know some had a problem with the second person narration, I loved it and it worked so well with the plot and story, and I don't think it would have worked any other way.

Blackbird and Deadfall have a lot of things working for it in YA, it's original, I haven't read another book like it, it runs and feels like a movie, which I always love when books can do that, they're fast paced to the point where they don't let you get comfortable with the story so you feel how intense it is and it creates the dangerous atmosphere and keeps you on your toes. It isn't predictable and while one major thing felt predictable in Blackbird, it set things up perfectly for Deadfall, which I have to say, is more intense, crazy and twisted than I thought it would be.

Review: Mr. Kiss and Tell (Rejoice, Logan!)

Mr. Kiss and Tell 
Authors: Rob Thomas and Jennifer Graham
Publication Date: January 20th 2015
Publisher: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
~A copy was provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review~

In the second book in the New York Times bestselling mystery series, Veronica Mars is back with a case that will expose the hidden workings of one of Neptune’s most murderous locations.

The Neptune Grand has always been the seaside town’s ritziest hotel, despite the shady dealings and high-profile scandals that seem to follow its elite guests. When a woman claims that she was brutally assaulted in one of its rooms and left for dead by a staff member, the owners know that they have a potential powder keg on their hands. They turn to Veronica to disprove—or prove—the woman's story.

The case is a complicated mix of hard facts, mysterious occurrences, and uncooperative witnesses. The hotel refuses to turn over its reservation list and the victim won’t divulge who she was meeting that night. Add in the facts that the attack happened months ago, the victim’s memory is fuzzy, and there are holes in the hotel’s surveillance system, and Veronica has a convoluted mess on her hands. As she works to fill in the missing pieces, it becomes clear that someone is lying—but who? And why?

I loved The Thousand Dollar Tan Line, I'd put off from reading it for a while since I didn't think it could hold up to the show-or even the movie-and while it doesn't replace either, it was a good fix to be with the characters again, the snark and wit and the sleuth ways. But, it wasn't perfect. What was missing in The Thousand Dollar Tan Line was present in Mr. Kiss and Tell, and by "what was missing" I mean who. And by whom, I mean Logan. Logan, Logan, Logan. Also, Weevil has more of a role this time around too, since the beginning is all about his trial from the aftermath of what happened in the movie.

Waiting on Wednesday (#82)

"Waiting on" Wednesday is a weekly event hosted by Breaking the Spine that spotlights upcoming releases.

Queen of Shadows by Sarah J. Maas

 Expected publication: September 10th 2015 by Bloomsbury UK

Sarah J. Maas's New York Times bestselling Throne of Glass series reaches new heights in this sweeping fourth volume.

Everyone Celaena Sardothien loves has been taken from her. But she's at last returned to the empire—for vengeance, to rescue her once-glorious kingdom, and to confront the shadows of her past . . .

She will fight for her cousin, a warrior prepared to die just to see her again. She will fight for her friend, a young man trapped in an unspeakable prison. And she will fight for her people, enslaved to a brutal king and awaiting their lost queen's triumphant return.

Celaena’s epic journey has captured the hearts and imaginations of millions across the globe. This fourth volume will hold readers rapt as Celaena’s story builds to a passionate, agonizing crescendo that might just shatter her world

Review: Rites of Passage

Rites of Passage
Author: Joy N. Hensley
Publication Date: September 9th 2014        
Publisher: Harper Teen
~A copy was provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review~

Sam McKenna’s never turned down a dare. And she's not going to start with the last one her brother gave her before he died.

So Sam joins the first-ever class of girls at the prestigious Denmark Military Academy. She’s expecting push-ups and long runs, rope climbing and mud-crawling. As a military brat, she can handle an obstacle course just as well as the boys. She's even expecting the hostility she gets from some of the cadets who don’t think girls belong there. What she’s not expecting is her fiery attraction to her drill sergeant. But dating is strictly forbidden and Sam won't risk her future, or the dare, on something so petty...no matter how much she wants him.

As Sam struggles to prove herself, she discovers that some of the boys don’t just want her gone—they will stop at nothing to drive her out. When their petty threats turn to brutal hazing, bleeding into every corner of her life, she realizes they are not acting alone. A decades-old secret society is alive and active… and determined to force her out.
At any cost.

Now time's running short. Sam must decide who she can trust...and choosing the wrong person could have deadly consequences

Rites of Passage is one of those rare books I probably would never have picked up, and the only reason why I did in the first place was because of the Dare behind it all. This is also one of those times I'd let someone slap me for being so stupid. This is probably going to be a rambling review because that's just how it goes with ones you love, you can never sit down and focus enough to write something that says just exactly what Rites of Passage means and is, because there's just so many things about it that I loved and right now, sentences are popping into my head and then leave.

Review: Heir of Fire

Heir of Fire
Author: Sarah J. Maas
Publication Date: September 11th 2014        
Publisher: Bloomsbury Childrens
~A copy was provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review~

Lost and broken, Celaena Sardothien’s only thought is to avenge the savage death of her dearest friend: as the King of Adarlan’s Assassin, she is bound to serve this tyrant, but he will pay for what he did. Any hope Celaena has of destroying the king lies in answers to be found in Wendlyn. Sacrificing his future, Chaol, the Captain of the King’s Guard, has sent Celaena there to protect her, but her darkest demons lay in that same place. If she can overcome them, she will be Adarlan’s biggest threat – and his own toughest enemy.

While Celaena learns of her true destiny, and the eyes of Erilea are on Wendlyn, a brutal and beastly force is preparing to take to the skies. Will Celaena find the strength not only to win her own battles, but to fight a war that could pit her loyalties to her own people against those she has grown to love?

 

I am speechless. I have never been more impressed with a series since Harry Potter and Vampire Academy.  Freaking amazing world aside, these characters. They make me love them, hate them, they make me angry and frustrated with them, they make me care and then, then they make me fucking proud of them, the growth of our cast from the beginning are so different from the ones we began with, you can still recognise them, they're still there, they're still them, but they've grown, and you don't see much until Heir of Fire, the strength and will they have to do what they have to do. Even our new additions fit in so well, and again, are different characters from when we first met them, every angle of them explored.

Reivew: The Mission (AKA, yay, only two titles this time.)

 
The Mission (AKA I Am the Mission (The Unknown Assassin #2)
Author Allen Zadoff
Publication Date: 4th September 2014 (UK)
Publisher: Orchard Books
~A copy was provided by the publisher & the Books With Bite team in exchange for an honest review~

He was the perfect assassin. No name. No past. No remorse. Perfect, that is, until he began to ask questions and challenge his orders. Now The Program is worried that their valuable soldier has become a liability.

And so Boy Nobody is given a new mission. A test of sorts. A chance to prove his loyalty.

His objective: Take out Eugene Moore, the owner of an extremist military training camp for teenagers. It sounds like a simple task, but a previous operative couldn't do it. He lost the mission and is presumed dead. Now Boy Nobody is confident he can finish the job. Quickly.

But when things go awry, Boy Nobody finds himself lost in a mission where nothing is as it seems: not The Program, his allegiances, nor the truth.

The riveting second book in Allen Zadoff's Boy Nobody series delivers heart-pounding action and a shocking new twist that makes Boy Nobody question everything he has believed.

 

I binge read The Hit ( you can read my review here) and The Mission in 6 hours over four days, back in July because I couldn't wait.  It's a wonder I'm not freaking paranoid right now...okay, more paranoid. So. Worth. It. I can honestly say this has become one of my favourite series because it is completely immoral and completely badass. And there's just something about it that's addicting, that made me not want to put it down because I had to know what came next.

Review: Altered

 

 

 
Altered
Author: Jennifer Rush
Publication Date: January 1st 2013        
Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers

 

When you can’t trust yourself, who can you believe?

Everything about Anna’s life is a secret. Her father works for the Branch at the helm of its latest project: monitoring and administering treatments to the four genetically altered boys in the lab below their farmhouse. There’s Nick, Cas, Trev . . . and Sam, who’s stolen Anna’s heart. When the Branch decides it’s time to take the boys, Sam stages an escape, killing the agents sent to retrieve them.

Anna is torn between following Sam or staying behind in the safety of her everyday life. But her father pushes her to flee, making Sam promise to keep her away from the Branch, at all costs. There’s just one problem. Sam and the boys don’t remember anything before living in the lab—not even their true identities.

Now on the run, Anna soon discovers that she and Sam are connected in more ways than either of them expected. And if they’re both going to survive, they must piece together the clues of their past before the Branch catches up to them and steals it all away.

 
 

 

Altered, you were perfect in every way, my friend. Let's check the criteria, shall we?

·         4 hot guys in your basement? Check.

·         Well rounded characters that suck you in but hold their mysteriousness? Check.

·         Mystery? Check.

·         Badass fight scenes? Check.

·         Secrets? Check.

·         Betrayal? Check.

·         On the run? Check.

·         Danger?

·         Romance? Check.

·         Insta-Romance? Negative. (Though, you could argue that it is, but, there's 1) it's set after years of her finding the boys in the basement, so the romance with Sam, is not insta- and then there's that other reason.

·         Love triangle? Halle-freaking-ujah. Negative.

 

Review: The Hit (AKA, I Am the Weapon. Previously, Boy Nobody. Previously, I Give Up on The Title.)

          

The Hit
Author: Allen Zadoff
Publication Date: 4th September 2014
Publisher: Orchard Books  

The explosive new thriller for fans of Jason Bourne, Robert Muchamore and Michael Grant.
Boy Nobody is the perennial new kid in school, the one few notice and nobody thinks much about. He shows up in a new high school, in a new town, under a new name, makes few friends and doesn't stay long. Just long enough for someone in his new friend's family to die -- of "natural causes." Mission accomplished, Boy Nobody disappears, and moves on to the next target.
When Boy Nobody was just eleven, he discovered his own parents had died of not-so-natural causes. He soon found himself under the control of The Program, a shadowy government organization that uses brainwashed kids as counter-espionage operatives. But somewhere, deep inside Boy Nobody, is somebody: the boy he once was, the boy who wants normal things (like a real home, his parents back), a boy who wants out.
And he just might want those things badly enough to sabotage The Program's next mission.

 

I'm going to start by saying WHY THE HELL DIDN'T I READ THIS SOONER?! Thanks for putting The Mission in the mail, Hachette. I probably wouldn't have read it otherwise, and damn, I would've been missing out.

The Hit (Boy Nobody) is both a shocking and slightly disturbing story that could or could not actually be real. You sometimes hear about it, it's something conspiracists  see and fear,  it's something that happens in a fight for War. Parents die, children get recruited. It's serious business and it's handled well and efficiently. I haven't read a book that's kept my focus like that, one that I couldn't just put down, for a while. I wasn't expecting it in the slightest.

ARC Review: Half Bad

Half Bad (Half Life Trilogy #1)
Author: Sally Green

Publication Date: March 3rd, 2014    

~A proof copy was provided by Penguin in exchange for an honest review~

 

 

 

 

 

------------------------------------------------------------------------

A stunning, magical debut. An international sensation.

In modern-day England, witches live alongside humans: White witches, who are good; Black witches, who are evil; and fifteen-year-old Nathan, who is both. Nathan’s father is the world’s most powerful and cruel Black witch, and his mother is dead. He is hunted from all sides. Trapped in a cage, beaten and handcuffed, Nathan must escape before his sixteenth birthday, at which point he will receive three gifts from his father and come into his own as a witch—or else he will die. But how can Nathan find his father when his every action is tracked, when there is no one safe to trust—not even family, not even the girl he loves?

In the tradition of Patrick Ness and Markus Zusak, Half Bad is a gripping tale of alienation and the indomitable will to survive, a story that will grab hold of you and not let go until the very last page.

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Oh, Half Bad, you were delightfully cruel. I may love you a little. A lot.

I read quite a few "witches" in the genre last year that really just didn't do it for me, even with the ones that were supposed to be to do with witch hunts,  but ended up being about love and love triangles and all that sappy stuff  that made them fall flat.

But this. This.

Waiting on Wednesday (#26)

 "Waiting on" Wednesday is a weekly event hosted by Breaking the Spine that spotlights upcoming releases.

The Half Life of Molly Pierce by Katrina Leno

Expected publication: July 8th 2014 by HarperTeen

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A mysterious and visceral page-turner about a seventeen-year-old girl who unravels the secrets of her alternate personality, reminiscent of the film Memento.
You live and you remember.
Me, I live and I forget.
But now-now I am remembering.
For all of her seventeen years, Molly feels like she's missed bits and pieces of her life. Molly suffers from dissociative identity disorder, and since she was a little girl, she's played host to Mabel, a completely separate and individual personality. When Mabel is in control, Molly experiences the blackouts she's been so scared of. But now Mabel is letting Molly in on her secrets; she's letting Molly remember. And in doing so, Molly uncovers the separate life she seems to have led...and the love that she can't let go.

The Half Life of Molly Pierce is a suspenseful, evocative psychological mystery about uncovering the secrets of our pasts, facing the unknowns of our futures, and accepting our whole selves.

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Reason why? So simple, this, dissociative identity disorder is, after 170,000 words, what I've been writing about the past year and a half. I so want to ditch my schedule and read it now.

What're you waiting on? :)

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~

 

 

------------------------------------------------------------------------

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.

ARC Review: Unhinged

Unhinged
Author: A.G. Howard

Publication Date: January 7th 2014    (Also Jan 13th) 
~An Advance Readers Copy was provided by Amulet/Abrams & Chronicle in exchange for an honest review~

------------------------------------------------------------------------
Alyssa Gardner has been down the rabbit hole and faced the bandersnatch. She saved the life of Jeb, the guy she loves, and escaped the machinations of the disturbingly seductive Morpheus and the vindictive Queen Red. Now all she has to do is graduate high school and make it through prom so she can attend the prestigious art school in London she's always dreamed of.

That would be easier without her mother, freshly released from an asylum, acting overly protective and suspicious. And it would be much simpler if the mysterious Morpheus didn’t show up for school one day to tempt her with another dangerous quest in the dark, challenging Wonderland—where she (partly) belongs.

As prom and graduation creep closer, Alyssa juggles Morpheus’s unsettling presence in her real world with trying to tell Jeb the truth about a past he’s forgotten. Glimpses of Wonderland start to bleed through her art and into her world in very disturbing ways, and Morpheus warns that Queen Red won’t be far behind.

If Alyssa stays in the human realm, she could endanger Jeb, her parents, and everyone she loves. But if she steps through the rabbit hole again, she'll face a deadly battle that could cost more than just her head.
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Following the events in Wonderland, Unhinged starts off almost a year after Splintered's events. Alyssa's been down the rabbit hole, defeated Queen Red, taken her rightful crown and came out the other end a survivor-and intent on staying human, and to live a life with a now clueless Jeb, her Mother home and keeping her hands out of Wonderlands antic's. But, a certain Moth isn't ready to let go just yet..

Review: Splintered

Splintered
Author: A.G. Howard

Publication Date: January 1st 2013        
Publisher: Amulet Books

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Alyssa Gardner hears the whispers of bugs and flowers—precisely the affliction that landed her mother in a mental hospital years before. This family curse stretches back to her ancestor Alice Liddell, the real-life inspiration for Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. Alyssa might be crazy, but she manages to keep it together. For now.

When her mother’s mental health takes a turn for the worse, Alyssa learns that what she thought was fiction is based in terrifying reality. The real Wonderland is a place far darker and more twisted than Lewis Carroll ever let on. There, Alyssa must pass a series of tests, including draining an ocean of Alice’s tears, waking the slumbering tea party, and subduing a vicious bandersnatch, to fix Alice’s mistakes and save her family.

She must also decide whom to trust: Jeb, her gorgeous best friend and secret crush, or the sexy but suspicious Morpheus, her guide through Wonderland, who may have dark motives of his own.
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I was hesitant to pick up Splintered the first time I read it, because I wasn't really into retellings. How wrong was I? I loved it, and now, the second time around I love it even more. Even if a certain moth drives me crazy at times.

I think with retellings, why I was hesitant to read any was because I thought you basically know the outcome, and the whole setup, but the clever thing about Splintered is that it takes everything from Alice in Wonderland- from a child's mind- and re-imagined every bit from an adults mind and twists it. The tale from Alice in Wonderland is a sweet version, those little things that weren't quite right were turned innocent in her head, and it takes that, and uses it to it's advantage to re-imagine what you thought you knew about wonderland. A Wonderland that although is familiar, completely new.

Review: Pawn

Pawn
Author: Aimee Carter

Publication Date: November 26th 2013        

~A copy was provided by Harlequin Teen via Netgalley.~

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YOU CAN BE A VII IF YOU GIVE EVERYTHING.

For Kitty Doe, it seems like an easy choice. She can either spend her life as a III in misery, looked down upon by the higher ranks and forced to leave the people she loves, or she can become a VII and join the most powerful family in the country.

If she says yes, Kitty will be Masked - surgically transformed into Lila Hart, the Prime Minister's niece, who died under mysterious circumstances. As a member of the Hart family, she will be famous. She will be adored. And for the first time, she will matter.

There's only one catch. She must also stop the rebellion that Lila secretly fostered, the same one that got her killed, and one Kitty believes in. Faced with threats, conspiracies and a life that's not her own, she must decide which path to choose and learn how to become more than a pawn in a twisted game she's only beginning to understand.
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This is my second Aimee Carter book, I've only read The Goddess Test, and haven't finished the rest of the series yet. As soon as I heard about it though, I knew I had to read it, and It awesome.

The atmosphere is palpable, the bad characters are deliciously twisted and evil,  the good are strong, and likeable.  You hate the characters you're supposed to. You're suspicious of characters you're supposed to be suspicious of. Even the ones you may like.

Waiting on Wednesday (#19)

 "Waiting on" Wednesday is a weekly event hosted by Breaking the Spine that spotlights upcoming releases.

 

 

The Murder Complex by Lindsay Cummings

Expected publication: June 10th 2014 by Greenwillow / HarperCollins
 

An action-packed, blood-soaked, futuristic debut thriller set in a world where the murder rate is higher than the birthrate. For fans of Moira Young's Dust Lands series, La Femme Nikita, and the movie Hanna.

Meadow Woodson, a fifteen-year-old girl who has been trained by her father to fight, to kill, and to survive in any situation, lives with her family on a houseboat in Florida. The state is controlled by The Murder Complex, an organization that tracks the population with precision. The plot starts to thicken when Meadow meets Zephyr James, who is-although he doesn't know it-one of the MC's programmed assassins. Is their meeting a coincidence? Destiny? Or part of a terrifying strategy? And will Zephyr keep Meadow from discovering the haunting truth about her family? Action-packed, blood-soaked, and chilling, this is a dark and compelling debut novel by Lindsay Cummings.



So, I was going to pick this one a few weeks back, but wanted to do it when it had a cover. And it is awesome.

What are you waiting on? :)

Waiting on Wednesday (#17)

"Waiting on" Wednesday is a weekly event hosted by Breaking the Spine that spotlights upcoming releases.

 

 

Killer Instinct by Shannon Greenland

Expected publication: May 6th 2014 by Simon Pulse

 

 

 

She’s not evil, but she has certain... urges.

Lane is a typical teenager. Loving family. Good grades. Afterschool job at the local animal hospital. Martial arts enthusiast. But her secret obsession is studying serial killers. She understands them, knows what makes them tick.

Why?

Because she might be one herself.

Lane channels her dark impulses by hunting criminals—delivering justice when the law fails. The vigilantism stops shy of murder. But with each visceral rush the line of self-control blurs.
And then a young preschool teacher goes missing. Only to return... in parts.
When Lane excitedly gets involved in the hunt for “the Decapitator,” the vicious serial murderer that has come to her hometown, she gets dangerously caught up in a web of lies about her birth dad and her own dark past. And once the Decapitator contacts Lane directly, Lane knows she is no longer invisible or safe. Now she needs to use her unique talents to find the true killer’s identity before she—or someone she loves—becomes the next victim...

 

 

 

Mine. Now. Please? :)

 

What're you waiting on this week?

 

 

Review: Antigoddess

Antigoddess
Author: Kendare Blake

Publication Date: September 10th 2013

~A copy was provided by Hachette, in exchange for an honest review.~

Old Gods never die…
Or so Athena thought. But then the feathers started sprouting beneath her skin, invading her lungs like a strange cancer, and Hermes showed up with a fever eating away his flesh. So much for living a quiet eternity in perpetual health.

Desperately seeking the cause of their slow, miserable deaths, Athena and Hermes travel the world, gathering allies and discovering enemies both new and old. Their search leads them to Cassandra—an ordinary girl who was once an extraordinary prophetess, protected and loved by a god.

These days, Cassandra doesn’t involve herself in the business of gods—in fact, she doesn’t even know they exist. But she could be the key in a war that is only just beginning.

Because Hera, the queen of the gods, has aligned herself with other of the ancient Olympians, who are killing off rivals in an attempt to prolong their own lives. But these anti-gods have become corrupted in their desperation to survive, horrific caricatures of their former glory. Athena will need every advantage she can get, because immortals don’t just flicker out.

Every one of them dies in their own way. Some choke on feathers. Others become monsters. All of them rage against their last breath.

The Goddess War is about to begin.


*Note: I was doing a giveaway with the review, but I've had too much caffeine and after this am going in a dark room because I have a migraine coming on. Giveaway will start tomorrow!*

I would love to tell you I hated this. I would, and gladly do so. I had this huge expectation in my head since I finished the Anna series and heard about Antigoddess, and though I had this expectation, I didn't know what to expect. It was nothing like my expectation, in the best way possible.

I read this slower than usual, because I wanted to read it but then I didn't. I just had this feeling, and as soon as I started I knew I wouldn't be disappointed. I am, and then again, I'm not. Not because it didn't live up to my expectation, because it did and a lot more, but maybe disappointed is not the right word. I'm feeling like I did after The Girl of Nightmares, that same bitter sweetness.