Review: Emmy & Oliver

Emmy & Oliver
Author: Robin Benway
Publication Date: June 23rd 2015
Publisher: HarperTeen
~A copy was provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review~

Emmy’s best friend, Oliver, reappears after being kidnapped by his father ten years ago. Emmy hopes to pick up their relationship right where it left off. Are they destined to be together? Or has fate irreparably driven them apart?

Emmy just wants to be in charge of her own life.

She wants to stay out late, surf her favorite beach—go anywhere without her parents’ relentless worrying. But Emmy’s parents can’t seem to let her grow up—not since the day Oliver disappeared.

Oliver needs a moment to figure out his heart.

He’d thought, all these years, that his dad was the good guy. He never knew that it was his father who kidnapped him and kept him on the run. Discovering it, and finding himself returned to his old hometown, all at once, has his heart racing and his thoughts swirling.

Emmy and Oliver were going to be best friends forever, or maybe even more, before their futures were ripped apart. In Emmy’s soul, despite the space and time between them, their connection has never been severed. But is their story still written in the stars? Or are their hearts like the pieces of two different puzzles—impossible to fit together?

Readers who love Sarah Dessen will tear through these pages with hearts in throats as Emmy and Oliver struggle to face the messy, confusing consequences of Oliver’s father’s crime. Full of romance, coming-of-age emotion, and heartache, these two equally compelling characters create an unforgettable story

Oh, Emmy & Oliver, I want to hug you. Literally. I wish you were real, and not just because the characters felt so real and were pretty damn awesome. But, the story of Emmy & Oliver is sadly one that we've seen more frequently over the years. A parent taking their child away. Fortunately, Oliver's story has an outcome that we only sometimes get to see, Emmy & Oliver begins with an ending.

Oliver's found.

Review: An Ember in the Ashes

An Ember in the Ashes
Author: Sabaa Tahir
Publication Date: June 4th 2015
Publisher: Harper Voyager
~A copy was provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review~

Set in a terrifyingly brutal Rome-like world, An Ember in the Ashes is an epic fantasy debut about an orphan fighting for her family and a soldier fighting for his freedom. It’s a story that’s literally burning to be told.

What if you were the spark that could ignite a revolution?

For years Laia has lived in fear. Fear of the Empire, fear of the Martials, fear of truly living at all. Born as a Scholar, she’s never had much of a choice.

For Elias it’s the opposite. He has seen too much on his path to becoming a Mask, one of the Empire’s elite soldiers. With the Masks’ help the Empire has conquered a continent and enslaved thousands, all in the name of power.

When Laia’s brother is taken she must force herself to help the Resistance, the only people who have a chance of saving him. She must spy on the Commandant, ruthless overseer of Blackcliff Academy. Blackcliff is the training ground for Masks and the very place that Elias is planning to escape. If he succeeds, he will be named deserter. If found, the punishment will be death.

But once Laia and Elias meet, they will find that their destinies are intertwined and that their choices will change the fate of the Empire itself.

In the ashes of a broken world one person can make a difference. One voice in the dark can be heard. The price of freedom is always high and this time that price might demand everything, even life itself

If you've already read An Ember in the Ashes you'll know three things. If you haven't read An Ember in the Ashes, you should know these three things.

It really is brutal.

It's without a doubt cruel and immoral.

Its empowering. 

Review: Simon vs. The Homo Sapiens Agenda (THISBOOKTHISBOOKTHISBOOK)

Simon vs. The Homo Sapiens Agenda 
Author: Becky Albertalli
Publication Date: April 7th 2015
Publisher: Balzer + Bray
~A copy was provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review~

Sixteen-year-old and not-so-openly gay Simon Spier prefers to save his drama for the school musical. But when an email falls into the wrong hands, his secret is at risk of being thrust into the spotlight. Now Simon is actually being blackmailed: if he doesn’t play wingman for class clown Martin, his sexual identity will become everyone’s business. Worse, the privacy of Blue, the pen name of the boy he’s been emailing, will be compromised.

With some messy dynamics emerging in his once tight-knit group of friends, and his email correspondence with Blue growing more flirtatious every day, Simon’s junior year has suddenly gotten all kinds of complicated. Now, change-averse Simon has to find a way to step out of his comfort zone before he’s pushed out—without alienating his friends, compromising himself, or fumbling a shot at happiness with the most confusing, adorable guy he’s never met

Right now my thoughts about Simon vs. The Homo Sapiens Agenda are along the lines of thisbookthisbookthisbook, it was when  I finished it, and it still is now, because THISBOOKTHISBOOKTHISBOOK. I know what you're thinking, how do I explain things so well? *cough* It's a gift.*cough*  ;) It's just so freaking adorable and funny and cute, and so much more than just freaking adorable and funny and cute, and again, I know, I explain things so well.  So I'll put it this way, Simon Vs the Homo Sapiens Agenda shows how far society has evolved regarding anything LGBTQ, and how everything diverse has changed in YA, but also how it hasn't changed for anyone LGBTQ.

Review: The Orphan Queen (!!!!!!!!!!)

The Orphan Queen
Author: Jodi Meadows
Publication Date: March 10th 2015 (US) April 9th 2015 (UK)
Publisher: Katherine Tegen Books
~A copy was provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review~

Wilhelmina has a hundred identities.

She is a princess. When the Indigo Kingdom conquered her homeland, Wilhelmina and other orphaned children of nobility were taken to Skyvale, the Indigo Kingdom’s capital. Ten years later, they are the Ospreys, experts at stealth and theft. With them, Wilhelmina means to take back her throne.

She is a spy. Wil and her best friend, Melanie, infiltrate Skyvale Palace to study their foes. They assume the identities of nobles from a wraith-fallen kingdom, but enemies fill the palace, and Melanie’s behavior grows suspicious. With Osprey missions becoming increasingly dangerous and their leader more unstable, Wil can’t trust anyone.

She is a threat. Wraith is the toxic by-product of magic, and for a century using magic has been forbidden. Still the wraith pours across the continent, reshaping the land and animals into fresh horrors. Soon it will reach the Indigo Kingdom. Wilhelmina’s magic might be the key to stopping the wraith, but if the vigilante Black Knife discovers Wil’s magic, she will vanish like all the others

Jodi Meadows introduces a vivid new fantasy full of intrigue, romance, dangerous magic, and one girl’s battle to reclaim her place in the world.

Holy crap. Holy crap. Holy crap. That was pretty much me through the last half of The Orphan Queen. I know, I know, I'm being amazingly subtle at how amazing The Orphan Queen is. I will try to resemble my thoughts into something coherent, but you know how it goes with books you love, you never know how to review it. So here's four words to accurately describe The Orphan Queen.

Damn, Jodi Meadows, damn.

Review: Killer Instinct

Killer Instinct
Author: Jennifer Lynn Barnes
Publication Date: November 6th 2014        
Publisher: Quercus
~A copy was provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review~

Seventeen-year-old Cassie Hobbes has a gift for profiling people. Her talent has landed her a spot in an elite FBI program for teens with innate crime-solving abilities, and into some harrowing situations. After barely escaping a confrontation with an unbalanced killer obsessed with her mother’s murder, Cassie hopes she and the rest of the team can stick to solving cold cases from a distance.

But when victims of a brutal new serial killer start turning up, the Naturals are pulled into an active case that strikes too close to home: the killer is a perfect copycat of Dean’s incarcerated father—a man he’d do anything to forget. Forced deeper into a murderer’s psyche than ever before, will the Naturals be able to outsmart the enigmatic killer’s brutal mind games before this copycat twists them into his web for good?

With her trademark wit, brilliant plotting, and twists that no one will see coming, Jennifer Lynn Barnes will keep readers on the edge of their seats (and looking over their shoulders) as they race through the pages of this thrilling novel

 

The first paragraph has a major spoiler from The Naturals, so if you haven't read The Naturals yet, skip the first paragraph, you've been warned.

After the aftermath and betrayal of finding out that the serial killer the FBI and The Naturals were after was one of their own, and a pretty important one involved in The Naturals training, The Naturals programme is coming under fire. Everyone's still shaken, Deans closed off as usual, Michaels using his humour mechanism, you never know what Lia's feeling, Cassie's second guessing herself and her ability and feeling guilty for how and what she's feeling and Sloane...is Sloane.

Review: The Cure for Dreaming

The Cure for Dreaming
Author: Cat Winters
Publication Date: 1st October 2014
Publisher: Amulet Books
~A copy was provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review~

Olivia Mead is a headstrong, independent girl—a suffragist—in an age that prefers its girls to be docile. It’s 1900 in Oregon, and Olivia’s father, concerned that she’s headed for trouble, convinces a stage mesmerist to try to hypnotize the rebellion out of her. But the hypnotist, an intriguing young man named Henri Reverie, gives her a terrible gift instead: she’s able to see people’s true natures, manifesting as visions of darkness and goodness, while also unable to speak her true thoughts out loud. These supernatural challenges only make Olivia more determined to speak her mind, and so she’s drawn into a dangerous relationship with the hypnotist and his mysterious motives, all while secretly fighting for the rights of women. Winters breathes new life into history once again with an atmospheric, vividly real story, including archival photos and art from the period throughout

Can we just stop and think for a minute of the oppression of women in this era? Can we honestly, in this age, know and feel how that would have felt? 100 pages in and well, anger doesn't seem to cover it. Sexism still exists, it's a thing along with others that will probably always exist, especially in a work place and when it comes to what's considered as 'Man Jobs',  Military and cut-throat jobs that apparently are no places for Women. Now, what I loved about The Cure for Dreaming, that while it does the oppression and repression well, it also uplifts the arguments well. Especially in the letter Olivia writes.

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: Dangerous Boys (OH.MY.GOD)

Dangerous Boys
Author: Abigail Haas
Publication Date: August 14th 2014        
Publisher: Simon & Schuster UK
~A copy was provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review~

 Three teens venture into the abandoned Monroe estate one night; hours later, only two emerge from the burning wreckage. Chloe drags one Reznick brother to safety, unconscious and bleeding; the other is left to burn, dead in the fire. But which brother survives? And is his death a tragic accident? Desperate self-defense? Or murder?
Chloe is the only one with the answers. As the fire rages, and police and parents demand the truth, she struggles to piece together the story of how they got there-a story of jealousy, twisted passion, and the darkness that lurks behind even the most beautiful of faces

Dangerous Girls was on my radar last year, and although it had all these amazing reviews I didn't think it was for me. When I saw Dangerous Boys and thought why not? Why not indeed, because oh damn. I just- NO WORDS. So this will probably be a rambling review because it's one of those that are hard to talk about without spoiling, but is so freaking mind blowing that I just want to spoil it. But, I won't. Because you seriously need to read it for yourself and get all the feelings because it is amazing and twisted with a heavy dose of psychology and is it bad to say how much I freaking love how twisted it was? It has some serious shit going on, and something like this you shouldn't really love but I did, because it was fascinating and  see? Rambling.