Review: Everything That Makes You

Everything That Makes You
Author: Moriah McStay
Publication Date: March 17th 2015
Publisher: Katherine Tegen Books
~A copy was provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review~ 

One girl. Two stories. Meet Fiona Doyle. The thick ridges of scar tissue on her face are from an accident twelve years ago. Fiona has notebooks full of songs she’s written about her frustrations, her dreams, and about her massive crush on beautiful uber-jock Trent McKinnon. If she can’t even find the courage to look Trent straight in his beautiful blue eyes, she sure isn’t brave enough to play or sing any of her songs in public. But something’s changing in Fiona. She can’t be defined by her scars anymore.

And what if there hadn’t been an accident? Meet Fi Doyle. Fi is the top-rated female high school lacrosse player in the state, heading straight to Northwestern on a full ride. She’s got more important things to deal with than her best friend Trent McKinnon, who’s been different ever since the kiss. When her luck goes south, even lacrosse can’t define her anymore. When you’ve always been the best at something, one dumb move can screw everything up. Can Fi fight back?

Hasn’t everyone wondered what if? In this daring debut novel, Moriah McStay gives us the rare opportunity to see what might have happened if things were different. Maybe luck determines our paths. But maybe it’s who we are that determines our luck

In the style of Just Like Fate, Everything That Makes You is cut into two different stories, a what if scenario, only with Just Like Fate, I actually liked it and though Caroline made some rash and stupid decisions, you could understand her, sympathise with her. Fioana and  "Fi" not so much. Wasn't the whole what if scenario was a way of thinking that if Fiona didn't get her face scarred when she was younger, she would be a different person?

If Everything That Makes You meant to say, that no matter what happens to you, you were always meant to be a certain person, then it succeeded, Because she was a horrible person both ways. If you think I'm being mean now, hang around a while. Fiona is a spiteful little bitch. There we go. She's bitter, which okay, you can get, she's bitter at the world, at herself, she has low self-esteem, given all that: she's still a bitch. To her family, to her so called friends, to her boyfriend, self deprecating , selfish and completely takes things for granted. Isn't having something so horrible like this happen to you, supposed to make you have a real long look at yourself and see just how strong you are? To make yourself a better person? Even the "Fi" What If, she was still like this and because of that, even though we know which part is which, I had a hard time differentiating  the two, and considering the names are in the chapter titles, it shouldn't be that hard.

Guest Review Amber: Shadows

Shadows (Dark Touch #1)

Author: Amy Meredith
Publication Date: April 1st 2010
Publisher: Red Fox

Pages : 240

Rough estimate of time it took to read : 14 Hours

Source: Gifted by Kirsty

Fifteen-year-old Eve Evergold is cute, sassy and enjoying a busy social life. What she doesn't know yet is that someone close to her is an evil demon that only she has the supernatural power to defeat. She needs to work out who it is - and fast! Because although there's something very attractive about the dark side...dating a demon? Pure hell!

I'm going to keep this review short since it's a short book, more like a novella than a full-length novel, and I'm not sure what I feel about it, either.

I'm not sure what to think of this book, the last 6-8 chapters were  worth the read but all the previous ones well I just feel like majority it was wasting my time to read. I really struggled with this book. I don't know what to think as I said the last couple chapters were very very good and made me want to read the next book in the series. But looking at the book over all I would have to admit not worth the read unless you are like me and have to finish a book once you've started just to get the satisfaction of knowing you slugged through it and completed a small challenge.

Review: The Cemetery Boys

The Cemetery Boys
Author: Heather Brewer
Publication Date: March 30th 2015 
Publisher: HarperTeen
~A copy was provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review~

When Stephen is forced to move back to the nowhere town where his father grew up, he’s already sure he’s not going to like it. Spencer, Michigan, is like a town straight out of a Hitchcock movie, with old-fashioned people who see things only in black-and-white. But things start looking up when Stephen meets the mysterious twins Cara and Devon. They’re total punks–hardly the kind of people Stephen’s dad wants him hanging out with–but they’re a breath of fresh air in this backward town. The only problem is, Cara and Devon don’t always get along, and as Stephen forms a friendship with the charismatic Devon and something more with the troubled Cara, he starts to feel like he’s getting caught in the middle of a conflict he doesn’t fully understand. And as Devon’s group of friends, who hang out in a cemetery they call The Playground, get up to increasingly reckless activities to pass the summer days, Stephen worries he may be in over his head.

Stephen’s fears prove well-founded when he learns of Spencer’s dark past. It seems the poor factory town has a history of “bad times,” and many of the town’s oldest residents attribute the bad times to creatures right out of an urban legend. The legend goes that the only way the town will prosper again is if someone makes a sacrifice to these nightmarish creatures. And while Stephen isn’t one to believe in old stories, it seems Devon and his gang might put a lot of faith in them. Maybe even enough to kill for them.

Now, Stephen has to decide what he believes, where his allegiances lie, and who will really be his friend in the end

Here I was thinking Tabula Rasa was one of the most ridiculous books I'd ever read because of the characters unrealistic qualities and actions.  Old stuck-in-the-mud creepy town? Check. Strange characters? Check. A towns urban legend complete with eerie atmosphere? Double check. It sounds perfect on paper,  but let's take away the horror aspect from The Cemetery Boys for a minute,  and what do you get? The second most ridiculous book I've ever read because of the characters unrealistic qualities and actions.