Review: Otherbound

Otherbound
Author: Corinne Duyvis

Publication Date:  June 17th 2014      
Publisher: Amulet (Abrams & Chronicle)
~A copy was provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review~




 

 

 

 

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Amara is never alone. Not when she's protecting the cursed princess she unwillingly serves. Not when they're fleeing across dunes and islands and seas to stay alive. Not when she's punished, ordered around, or neglected.

She can't be alone, because a boy from another world experiences all that alongside her, looking through her eyes.

Nolan longs for a life uninterrupted. Every time he blinks, he's yanked from his Arizona town into Amara's mind, a world away, which makes even simple things like hobbies and homework impossible. He's spent years as a powerless observer of Amara's life. Amara has no idea . . . until he learns to control her, and they communicate for the first time. Amara is terrified. Then, she's furious.

All Amara and Nolan want is to be free of each other. But Nolan's breakthrough has dangerous consequences. Now, they'll have to work together to survive--and discover the truth about their connection.

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Oh Otherbound, you were almost freaking perfect.

There's a lot of things going on in Otherbound, we have multiple main characters and a lot going on behind the scenes, we have our world, a different world that might or might not be real, with different rules, magic, a cursed princess that if her blood is spilled their world will go to havoc and a few diverse relationships throughout with differently abled and POC characters. All in one book. So. Good.

Review: (Don't You) Forget About Me

(Don't You) Forget About Me
Author: Kate Karyus Quinn

Publication Date:  June 10th 2014      
Publisher: HarperTeen
~An advance readers copy was provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review~



 

 

 

 

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Welcome to Gardnerville.
A place where no one gets sick. And no one ever dies.

Except...
There’s a price to pay for paradise. Every fourth year, the strange power that fuels the town exacts its payment by infecting teens with deadly urges. In a normal year in Gardnerville, teens might stop talking to their best friends. In a fourth year, they’d kill them.

Four years ago, Skylar’s sister, Piper, was locked away after leading sixteen of her classmates to a watery grave. Since then, Skylar has lived in a numb haze, struggling to forget her past and dull the pain of losing her sister. But the secrets and memories Piper left behind keep taunting Skylar—whispering that the only way to get her sister back is to stop Gardnerville’s murderous cycle once and for all.

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I know I've said it before, but this has to be one of the hardest books to review because the slightest thing could really turn the way you think about it and ruin the whole build-up to the reveal. I'll start by telling you about the town, Gardnerville.  It's a coincidence that I was watching Haven while reading this, and in a way Gardnerville is a lot like Haven.  Weird, complicated,  something lurking behind what we see and what we don't see. And just like Haven, Gardnerville is a special place with a rather destructive founding, and with a little similarity to some "special" people, that's where the familiarity ends, but I'll get to the latter part in a minute. Gardnerville is a place where almost everything is quite perfect, with their quite perfect health score and quite perfect lives, except for that pesky little undertone of fear.

Review: The Geography of You and Me

The Geography of You and Me
Author: Jennifer E. Smith

Publication Date:  April 15th 2014  

 

 

 

 

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For fans of John Green, Stephanie Perkins and Sarah Ockler, THE GEOGRAPHY OF YOU AND ME is a story for anyone who's ever longed to meet someone special, for anyone who's searched for home and found it where they least expected it.

Owen lives in the basement. Lucy lives on the 24th floor. But when the power goes out in the midst of a New York heatwave, they find themselves together for the first time: stuck in a lift between the 10th and 11th floors. As they await help, they start talking...

The brief time they spend together leaves a mark. And as their lives take them to Edinburgh and San Francisco, to Prague and to Portland they can't shake the memory of the time they shared. Postcards cross the globe when they themselves can't, as Owen and Lucy experience the joy - and pain - of first love.

And as they make their separate journeys in search of home, they discover that sometimes it is a person rather than a place that anchors you most in the world.

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In The Geography of You and Me,  for the first time ever Jennifer E Smith has made me dislike her characters. Or I should say, some of the choices they make.  It's also a different style than I was expecting, maybe more like the previous This is What Happy Looks Like,  which it wasn't, and it was so much better for it

The Geography of You and Me is different in a way that, in This is What Happy Looks Like, we had the emails between Ellie and Graham, whereas in here Lucy and Owen aren't so commutative, it's a more read between the lines kind of thing, which made it refreshing and a little more angsty than ever before, and not a repeat.

Review: Dear Killer

Dear Killer
Author: Katherine Ewell

Publication Date:  April 1st 2014        
Publisher: Katherine Tegen Books

~An advance readers copy was provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review~

 

 

 

 

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Rule One—Nothing is right, nothing is wrong.
Rule Two—Be careful.
Rule Three—Fight using your legs whenever possible, because they’re the strongest part of your body. Your arms are the weakest.
Rule Four—Hit to kill. The first blow should be the last, if at all possible.
Rule Five—The letters are the law.

Kit takes her role as London’s notorious “Perfect Killer” seriously. The letters and cash that come to her via a secret mailbox are not a game; choosing who to kill is not an impulse decision. Every letter she receives begins with “Dear Killer,” and every time Kit murders, she leaves a letter with the dead body. Her moral nihilism and thus her murders are a way of life—the only way of life she has ever known.

But when a letter appears in the mailbox that will have the power to topple Kit’s convictions as perfectly as she commits her murders, she must make a decision: follow the only rules she has ever known, or challenge Rule One, and go from there.

Katherine Ewell’s Dear Killer is a sinister psychological thriller that explores the thin line between good and evil, and the messiness of that inevitable moment when life contradicts everything you believe.

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Disclaimer: I always try to write a spoiler free review. In this case it's impossible to talk about it without some spoilers. Major spoilers and theories themselves, you have fair warning and are covered.

Dear Killer, where to I even start? Freaking hell. My head hurts.

I'll start by saying not everyone will love his book, i don't even know if I do love it, it's unethical, immoral and pushes a dozen of boundaries,  and most of the conversations seemed awkward and sometimes  unrealistic, but to put it simply.

It's fascinating.

Review: Ask Again Later

Ask Again Later
Author: Liz Czukas

Publication Date: March 11th 2014           

~A copy was provided by HarperTeen  via Edelweiss in exchange for an honest review~

 

 

 



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Sixteen Candles meets Sliding Doors in this hilariously charming and irreverent YA debut. Fans of realistic teen fiction like Lauren Barnholdt's Two-Way Street and Sarah Mlynowski's Ten Things We Did (And Probably Shouldn't Have) will love Ask Again Later's pitch-perfect tale of prom night drama—with a twist.

Heart LaCoeur has zero interest in a messy high-school romance, no matter what her name suggests. That's why she's decided to avoid prom angst by going with a group of single friends. And that's why, when two surprise prom invites derail her brilliant plan, Heart takes the only foolproof, drama-free solution: a coin flip—that somehow gives her the chance to live out both prom nights. Heads or tails, where they both end up might be the most surprising thing of all.

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I have two words for Ask Again Later.

Cute. Hilarious.

I can honestly say it was not what I was expecting at all. And I know, I know, I pretty much say that with each book but it really wasn't. For the first part, it's kind of like Cat Patrick & Suzanne Young's Just Like Fate, where it's not a paranormal alternative universes, but just two different paths and the outcome of what those paths lead to. For Ask Again Later, it's the choice of who to go to Prom with after being invited by two guys (who have two different motives), when the original plan was to go with her group of friends. But, of course she doesn't know who to choose and she doesn't want to hurt  their feelings, so after much procrastination she uses a coin and thus begins the alternate chapters of HEADS and TAILS (because magic 8 balls are mean.)

Review: The Shadow Prince

The Shadow Prince (Into the Dark #1) 
Author: Bree Despain

Publication Date: March 11th 2014        

~A copy was provided by  EgmontUSA via Edelweiss in exchange for an honest review~

 

 

 




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Haden Lord, the disgraced prince of the Underrealm, has been sent to the mortal world to entice a girl into returning with him to the land of the dead. Posing as a student at Olympus Hills High—a haven for children of the rich and famous—Haden must single out the one girl rumored to be able to restore immortality to his race.

Daphne Raines has dreams much bigger than her tiny southern Utah town, so when her rock star dad suddenly reappears, offering her full tuition to Olympus Hills High’s prestigious music program, she sees an opportunity to catch the break she needs to make it as a singer. But upon moving into her estranged father’s mansion in California, and attending her glamorous new school, Daphne soon realizes she isn’t the only student in Olympus who doesn’t quite belong.

Haden and Daphne—destined for each other—know nothing of the true stakes their fated courtship entails. As war between the gods brews, the teenagers’ lives collide. But Daphne won’t be wooed easily and when it seems their prophesied link could happen, Haden realizes something he never intended—he’s fallen in love. Now to save themselves, Haden and Daphne must rewrite their destinies. But as their destinies change, so do the fates of both their worlds.
 

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Greek Mythology in YA, what can go wrong? Really, just don't ask yourself that question.

Since I've read a lot of them, and most of them have been good, The Shadow Prince, however was average. The mythology was fun and though I'm not the person who could go through one and go "that's wrong", it was pretty good. That part was fine. You have the preface of the myth of Persephone and Hades,  overlapping with the tale of Orpheus and Eurydice.

Review: Panic

 Fight Club Panic
Author: Lauren Oliver

Publication Date: March 4th 2014

~A copy was provided by HarperCollins via Edelweiss in exchange for an honest review~

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Panic began as so many things do in Carp, a dead-end town of 12,000 people in the middle of nowhere: because it was summer, and there was nothing else to do.

Heather never thought she would compete in Panic, a legendary game played by graduating seniors, where the stakes are high and the payoff is even higher. She’d never thought of herself as fearless, the kind of person who would fight to stand out. But when she finds something, and someone, to fight for, she will discover that she is braver than she ever thought.

Dodge has never been afraid of Panic. His secret will fuel him, and get him all the way through the game, he’s sure of it. But what he doesn't know is that he’s not the only one with a secret. Everyone has something to play for.

For Heather and Dodge, the game will bring new alliances, unexpected revelations, and the possibility of first love for each of them—and the knowledge that sometimes the very things we fear are those we need the most.

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The first rule of Fight Club is: you do not talk about Fight Club.  

The second rule of Fight Club is: you DO NOT talk about Fight Club!  

Third rule of Fight- 

Sorry, wrong book. 

But, that's the idea. You know about Panic, you enter Panic, you do not talk about Panic. Kind of alá Cry Wolf. 

Review: Prince of Shadows

Princeo of Shadows
Author: Rachel Caine

Publication Date: February 4th 2014              

~A copy was provided by Allison and Busby in exchange for an honest review~

 

 

 

 



 

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A thrilling retelling of the star-crossed tale of Romeo and Juliet, from the New York Times bestselling author of the Morganville Vampires series.
In the Houses of Montague and Capulet, there is only one goal: power. The boys are born to fight and die for honor and—if they survive—marry for influence and money, not love. The girls are assets, to be spent wisely. Their wishes are of no import. Their fates are written on the day they are born.

Benvolio Montague, cousin to Romeo, knows all this. He expects to die for his cousin, for his house, but a spark of rebellion still lives inside him. At night, he is the Prince of Shadows, the greatest thief in Verona—and he risks all as he steals from House Capulet. In doing so, he sets eyes on convent-bound Rosaline, and a terrible curse begins that will claim the lives of many in Verona…

…And will rewrite all their fates, forever.

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Alright, I'm going to put it out there. I loved this so freaking much.

But, I also hated it so freaking much. Nothing to do with Rachel Caine, of course, because she's basically a YA God. Romeo and Juliet. It's just that while I used to love Romeo and Juliet when I was younger but the older I got (I'm 21 now, I know, I know. I'm so old guys) the more I despised it. Mainly because everyone focused on the love story. And everyone called it a love story.

It. Is. Not. A. Love. Story. It. Is. A. Tragedy.

All through high school everybody called it a love story. I-No.

No.

Review: The Secret Diamond Sisters

The Secret Diamond Sisters
Author: Michelle Madow

Publication Date: February 25th 2014 (March 7th  UK)              

~A proof copy was provided by Harlequin Teen/ Mira Ink in exchange for an honest review~

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Three sisters with Big secrets.

Get ready to meet...SAVANNAH. COURTNEY. PEYTON.
The Diamond sisters never knew their father and never could catch a break. But their luck is about to change when they find out the secret identity of their long-lost dad – a billionaire Las Vegas hotel owner who wants them to come and live in a gorgeous penthouse suite.

Suddenly they have access to all that their dad’s money can provide, meaning it should be easier than ever to fit right in. But in a town full of secrets and illusions, fitting in is nothing compared with finding out the truth about their past.

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The Secret Diamond Sisters, on one hand I really liked you. You were something new, based in a setting I hadn't read before, so Vegas sounds like a ton of fun and I really liked a few of the characters, and I also wanted to put a few of  the rest of the characters in their place. Including two of the leads. One I just wanted to shake to wake her up to the obvious, but other than that, you were enjoyable. It kind of ran like a The Hills type of show, only in Vegas. Is there already a reality TV show set in Vegas? If there's not, there should be.

Release Day Review: Maybe One Day

Maybe One Day
Author: Melissa Kantor

Publication Date: February 18th 2014                        

~A copy was provided by HarperTeen via Edelweiss in exchange for an honest review~

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Critically acclaimed author Melissa Kantor masterfully captures the joy of friendship, the agony of loss, and the unique experience of being a teenager in this poignant new novel about a girl grappling with her best friend's life-threatening illness.

Zoe and her best friend, Olivia, have always had big plans for the future, none of which included Olivia getting sick. Still, Zoe is determined to put on a brave face and be positive for her friend.

Even when she isn't sure what to say.

Even when Olivia misses months of school.

Even when Zoe starts falling for Calvin, Olivia's crush.

The one thing that keeps Zoe moving forward is knowing that Olivia will beat this, and everything will go back to the way it was before. It has to. Because the alternative is too terrifying for her to even imagine.

In this incandescent page-turner, which follows in the tradition of The Fault in Our Stars, Melissa Kantor artfully explores the idea that the worst thing to happen to you might not be something that is actually happening to you. Raw, irreverent, and honest, Zoe's unforgettable voice and story will stay with readers long after the last page is turned

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Every now and then you come across a book that you know from the off you're not going to like the outcome, and with a tagline involving The Fault in Our Stars, you're pretty much done for it. It's the kind of book, that half an hour later after reading it, I'm thinking oh. This book gives you feelings. Maybe One Day was out of my comfort zone, and what I got from it was very much how I felt like after finishing The Fault in Our Stars, but the difference between that and Maybe One Day, was that the whole story, although centred around cancer, was all about friendship. You have this person, the one person you trust in, trust to say everything and anything to, that even when you don't know what to do, they're there. That when you cry, they cry with you. Your best friend. Who now has cancer, and suddenly everything's changed.

Review: Perfect Lies

Perfect Lies
Author: Kiersten White

Publication Date: February 18th 2014                                 

~A copy was provided by HarperTeen via Edelweiss in exchange for an honest review~

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Annie and Fia are ready to fight back.

The sisters have been manipulated and controlled by the Keane Foundation for years, trapped in a never ending battle for survival. Now they have found allies who can help them truly escape. After faking her own death, Annie has joined a group that is plotting to destroy the Foundation. And Fia is working with James Keane to bring his father down from the inside.

But Annie's visions of the future can't show her who to trust in the present. And though James is Fia's first love, Fia knows he's hiding something. The sisters can rely only on each other - but that may not be enough to save them.
 

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The first thing I said in my review about Mind Games was " Mind Games is either cleverly executed, or a damn right crazy mess with the most ironic and appropriate title."

Reading Perfect Lies made my mind up for me. Cleverly executed.

Perfect Lies was so much better than Mind Games, I still kind of think we got nowhere, not until the end, but I don't care because I loved it.

Review: The Academy: Love Match

The Academy: Love Match
Author:  Monica Seles

Publication Date: February 25th 2014  (February 14h  UK)           

~A copy was provided by Bloomsbury Childrens  via Netgalely in exchange for an honest review~

 

 

What cover do you prefer?

 

 

 

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The Academy is the sports school everyone is talking about. But for Maya, it seems getting in was the easy part. It’s staying there that’s tough. To succeed it takes more than just talent. You need fame . . .

After a star performance in the semi-finals at a tennis competition, Maya is labelled The Next Big Thing and books a high-profile modelling job. The only problem is her co-star in the campaign is her super-hot ex-boyfriend, Jake Reed – and this is a job that her rival, Nicole, wants! Maya’s only just put the betrayal by Jake and Nicole behind her and now Maya is being drawn back into a circle of jealousy and desire. Luckily, she knows Nicole’s latest secret and gossip is a powerful weapon at The Academy!

If you adore Gossip Girl, Pretty Little Liars and Ally Carter’s Gallagher Girls, you’ll be mad about the sassy new series The Academy.

 

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 Personally, I prefer the first, it looks less...childish.

The Academy: Love Match was not what I was expecting, and in a bad way. I liked the first one okay, though It wasn't my favourite, I did enjoy the drama. So because of that I wanted to see where the second one took us. Love Match being the second in the series I was expecting progression, and that's where it failed.

Review: Vengeance

Vengeance
Author:  Megan Miranda

Publication Date: February 4th 2014  (February 13th  UK)           

~A copy was provided by Bloomsbury Childrens  via Netgalely in exchange for an honest review~

 

 

What cover do you prefer?

 

 

 

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Falcon Lake wants vengeance. And so, it seems, does someone else... An intense, heart-rending psychological thriller to accompany the chilling and seductive Fracture

When Decker drags his best friend Delaney’s lifeless body out of the frozen lake, he makes a deal: Anyone but her. Everyone but her. The lake releases her. It takes another...

All their friends blame Delaney for Carson’s death. But Decker knows the truth: Delaney is drawn to those who are dying, and she would have tried to help Carson.

Or so Decker believes until a body lies in front of him in a pool of water on his kitchen floor. Until he sees in Delaney’s eyes that she knew this would happen too – and she said nothing. Until he realises it isn’t the lake that is looking for revenge – Delaney is part of someone else’s plan.

This powerful and emotionally charged psychological thriller follows Megan Miranda’s stunning debut Fracture.

 

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The first thing I thought when finding out Fracture had a sequel: Why? The second: I can't spell Vengeance.

I liked Fracture, it was angsty and perfect and I'm a sucker for the best friends/relationship, but I didn't think it needed anything else. It was done.

Being from Decker's perspective changed a lot of what I originally thought, and I was interested in seeing where it would carry on, and since I loved him in Fracture, nothing could go wrong, right?

Nope.

Wrong.

Review: All That Glows

All That Glows
Author:  Ryan Graudin

Publication Date:  February 11th 2014                          

~A copy was provided by HarperTeen  via Edelweiss in exchange for an honest review~

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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 Emrys—a fiery, red-headed Fae—always embraced her life in the Highlands, far from the city’s draining technology, until she’s sent to London to rejoin the Faery Guard. But this isn’t any normal assignment—she’s sent to guard Prince Richard: Britain’s notorious, partying bad boy and soon-to-be King. The prince’s careless ways and royal blood make him the irresistible for the dark spirits that feed on mortals. Sweet, disheveled, and alive with adventure—Richard is one charge who will put Emrys’s magic and heart to the test.

When an ancient force begins preying on the monarchy, Emrys must hunt through the London’s magical underworld, facing down Banshees, Black Dogs and Green Women to find the one who threatens Richard’s life. In this chaos of dark magic, palace murders and paparazzi, Emrys finds herself facing an impossible choice. For despite all her powers, Emrys has discovered a force that burns brighter than magic: love

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I'm not a huge fan of Fae stories. I've read a few, but I'm not Team Fae. So what made me download All That Glows? Well, the fact that it's centred in London and about the Royal family, even if it's  a fictional one.  Was it what I was expecting?

Yes and no.

Yes, to the fact it was interesting, the whole system of The Guard- Fae who protect the Royal family throughout generations, from The Green Woman, Banshee's, Black Dogs, and well, themselves. It was a fun take, and restoring back to Arthurian, definitely caught my attention, because I love anything to do with that.

Review: Anything to Have You

Anything to Have You
Author:  Paige Harbison

Publication Date:  January 28th 2014                    

~A copy was provided by the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review~

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Nothing should come between best friends, not even boys. ESPECIALLY not boys.

Natalie and Brooke have had each other's backs forever. Natalie is the quiet one, college bound and happy to stay home and watch old movies. Brooke is the movie—the life of every party, the girl everyone wants to be.

Then it happens—one crazy night that Natalie can't remember and Brooke's boyfriend, Aiden, can't forget. Suddenly there's a question mark in Natalie and Brooke's friendship that tests everything they thought they knew about each other and has both girls discovering what true friendship really means

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While I did enjoy Anything to Have You, there was something just...off about it for me, that I don't even know what it was, but I did enjoy it, though if some of the characters had their way, I wouldn't have.

ARC Review: Gretel and the Dark

Gretel and the Dark
Author:  Eliza Granville

Publication Date:  February 6th 2014   

~An Advance Readers Copy was provided in exchange for an honest review~

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Gretel and the Dark is Eliza Granville's dazzling novel of darkness, evil - and hope. Vienna, 1899.

Josef Breuer - celebrated psychoanalyst - is about to encounter his strangest case yet. Found by the lunatic asylum, thin, head shaved, she claims to have no name, no feelings - to be, in fact, not even human. Intrigued, Breuer determines to fathom the roots of her disturbance.

Years later, in Germany, we meet Krysta. Krysta's Papa is busy working in the infirmary with the 'animal people', so little Krysta plays alone, lost in the stories of Hansel and Gretel, the Pied Piper, and more. And when everything changes and the real world around her becomes as frightening as any fairy tale, Krysta finds that her imagination holds powers beyond what she could have ever guessed . . .

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Say hello to my little friend...

Joking.

I'm not friends with this book. So...

Review: Cruel Beauty

Cruel Beauty
Author:  Rosamund Hodge

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


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Graceling meets Beauty and the Beast in this sweeping fantasy about one girl's journey to fulfill her destiny and the monster who gets in her way-by stealing her heart.

Based on the classic fairy tale Beauty and the Beast, Cruel Beauty is a dazzling love story about our deepest desires and their power to change our destiny.

Since birth, Nyx has been betrothed to the evil ruler of her kingdom-all because of a foolish bargain struck by her father. And since birth, she has been in training to kill him.

With no choice but to fulfill her duty, Nyx resents her family for never trying to save her and hates herself for wanting to escape her fate. Still, on her seventeenth birthday, Nyx abandons everything she's ever known to marry the all-powerful, immortal Ignifex. Her plan? Seduce him, destroy his enchanted castle, and break the nine-hundred-year-old curse he put on her people.

But Ignifex is not at all what Nyx expected. The strangely charming lord beguiles her, and his castle-a shifting maze of magical rooms-enthralls her.

As Nyx searches for a way to free her homeland by uncovering Ignifex's secrets, she finds herself unwillingly drawn to him. Even if she could bring herself to love her sworn enemy, how can she refuse her duty to kill him? With time running out, Nyx must decide what is more important: the future of her kingdom, or the man she was never supposed to love
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Cruel Beauty. Cruel Beauty, what can I say about you? I didn't want you to end, is one. And when it did? The book hated me. And yet, I still loved it.

A unique, magical world, laced with mythology,

Prepared and trained all her life, Nyx  has always known she was born for one thing and one thing only. To kill the Gentle Lord that rules their world, unleashes shadow demons that if looked upon by human eyes-and they look back-would drive you mad, that has controlled and damned their existence.

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.

Review: And We Stay

And We Stay
Author: Jenny Hubbard

Publication Date:  January 28th 2014    
~A copy was provided by Random House Childrens/Delacorte Press via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review~




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When high school senior Paul Wagoner walks into his school library with a stolen gun, he threatens his girlfriend Emily Beam, then takes his own life. In the wake of the tragedy, an angry and guilt-ridden Emily is shipped off to boarding school in Amherst, Massachusetts, where she encounters a ghostly presence who shares her name. The spirit of Emily Dickinson and two quirky girls offer helping hands, but it is up to Emily to heal her own damaged self.

This inventive story, told in verse and in prose, paints the aftermath of tragedy as a landscape where there is good behind the bad, hope inside the despair, and springtime under the snow.

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I'll be the first to admit I don't get all poetry, I can get the feelings behind it, but don't ask me what they actually mean because I have no clue. I'm a lyrics person myself, and though you might say it's basically the same. It's not. Personally, I find poetry too restricting at times, I love reading it, but writing it is not for me.

And We Stay from the description is a little misleading but I really enjoyed it. Well, "enjoyed" isn't the word because it's depressing at points, but really beautiful. Emily Beam's story is not an easy one, it's not a comfortable one either. The last few months of Emily's life has been hell, and you see how it takes its toll on her, she doesn't know how to move away from it.  It's one thing to have your ex-boyfriend come into school and corner you in the library with a gun, but the aftermath isn't what Emily expected, she can't shake it off. But, that's not where Emily Beam's story begins or ends...

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.