Waiting on Wednesday (#84)

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

All In by Jennifer Lynn Barnes

Expected publication: November 3rd 2015 by Disney-Hyperion

Three casinos. Three bodies. Three days.

After a string of brutal murders in Las Vegas, Cassie Hobbes and the Naturals are called in to investigate. But even with the team's unique profiling talents, these murders seem baffling: unlike many serial killers, this one uses different methods every time. All of the victims were killed in public, yet the killer does not show up on any tape. And each victim has a string of numbers tattooed on their wrist. Hidden in the numbers is a code—and the closer the Naturals come to unraveling the mystery, the more perilous the case becomes.

Meanwhile, Cassie is dealing with an equally dangerous and much more painful mystery. For the first time in years, there's been a break in her mother's case. As personal issues and tensions between the team mount, Cassie and the Naturals will be faced with impossible odds—and impossible choices

I LOVE THIS SERIES, OKAY? IT''S JUST. THIS. SERIES.
I'm All In, (I know, cheap shot.)

What're you waiting on? 

Review: Mind Games

Mind Games
Author: Teri Terry
Publication Date: March 5th 2015
Publisher: Orchard Books
~A copy was provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review~

Luna is a no-hoper with a secret: in a world of illusion, she can see what is real. But can she see the truth before it is too late?

Luna has always been able to exist in virtual and real worlds at the same time, a secret she is warned to keep. She hides her ability by being a Refuser: excluded by choice from the virtual spheres others inhabit. But when she is singled out for testing, she can’t hide any longer.

The safest thing to do would be to fail, to go back to a dead-end life, no future. But Luna is starting to hope for something better, and hope is a dangerous thing

Mind Games is very imaginative-and for me, unique, since I haven't read one like it before-I'm not going to discredit that, but that was the only main good thing I liked about it. I didn't hate it,  it was pretty interesting, so that kept me reading, but there's something quite...off about it, that I can't put my finger on. Overall, I had a few issues with it.

Review: Famous Last Words

Famous Last Words
Author: Katie Alender
Publication Date: September 30th 2014
Publisher: Point

Hollywood history, mystery, murder, mayhem, and delicious romance collide in this unputdownable thriller from master storyteller Katie Alender.

Willa is freaking out. It seems like she's seeing things. Like a dead body in her swimming pool. Frantic messages on her walls. A reflection that is not her own. It's almost as if someone -- or something -- is trying to send her a message.

Meanwhile, a killer is stalking Los Angeles -- a killer who reenacts famous movie murder scenes. Could Willa's strange visions have to do with these unsolved murders? Or is she going crazy? And who can she confide in? There's Marnie, her new friend who may not be totally trustworthy. And there's Reed, who's ridiculously handsome and seems to get Willa. There's also Wyatt, who's super smart but unhealthily obsessed with the Hollywood Killer.

All Willa knows is, she has to confront the possible-ghost in her house, or she just might lose her mind . . . or her life.

Acclaimed author Katie Alender puts an unforgettable twist on this spine-chilling tale of murder, mystery, mayhem -- and the movies.

This is my second Katie Alender book, I read Marie Antoinette, Serial Killer  and while I did enjoy it, I had my issues with it, especially with a certain spineless main character. Famous Last Words, however, was so freaking close to being the absolute perfect read for me. It had everything I wanted in one package. Hollywood, pop culture, a serial killer, murders, a ghost haunting, a character going slightly Ghost Whisperer on us, chilling horror scenes and pathological people. That's a lot to ask for, and you get it.

Review: Even in Paradise

Even in Paradise 
Author: Chelsey Philpot
Publication Date: October 14th 2014
Publisher: HarperCollins

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

When Julia Buchanan enrolls at St. Anne’s at the beginning of junior year, Charlotte Ryder already knows all about the former senator’s daughter. Most people do... or think they do.

Charlotte certainly never expects she’ll be Julia’s friend. But almost immediately, she is drawn into the larger than-life-new girl’s world—a world of midnight rendezvous, dazzling parties, palatial vacation homes, and fizzy champagne cocktails. And then Charlotte meets, and begins falling for, Julia’s handsome older brother, Sebastian.

But behind her self-assured smiles and toasts to the future, Charlotte soon realizes that Julia is still suffering from a tragedy. A tragedy that the Buchanan family has kept hidden... until now

I wasn't expecting Even in Paradise to be one of those books. You know, the ones that creep in by charming you, lulling you into a fun sense of security and happy and then laughs in your face for falling for it. I also wasn't expecting it to be what it was, this is a story that's already happened. The beginning, a message from after, reminiscing before the Beginning. The Middle. The End. And now. Ones like these you're either going to love or hate, I guess you've got to get the writing style to enjoy it, but it was done beautifully and had a melancholy feel to it- in a good way. It fitted it entirely, because even though you know on some level how it's going to end, it still draws you in and pulls you along to see how we get there.

Waiting on Wednesday (#83)

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

The Fill-In Boyfriend by Kasie West

 Expected publication: May 5th 2015 by HarperTeen

When Gia Montgomery's boyfriend, Bradley, dumps her in the parking lot of her high school prom, she has to think fast. After all, she'd been telling her friends about him for months now. This was supposed to be the night she proved he existed. So when she sees a cute guy waiting to pick up his sister, she enlists his help. The task is simple: be her fill-in boyfriend— two hours, zero commitment, a few white lies. After that, she can win back the real Bradley.

The problem is that days after prom, it's not the real Bradley she's thinking about, but the stand-in. The one whose name she doesn't even know. But tracking him down doesn't mean they're done faking a relationship. Gia owes him a favor and his sister intends to see that he collects: his ex-girlfriend's graduation party — three hours, zero commitment, a few white lies.

Just when Gia begins to wonder if she could turn her fake boyfriend into a real one, Bradley comes waltzing back into her life, exposing her lie, and threatening to destroy her friendships and her new-found relationship.

 I will read anything by Kasie West. A.N.Y.T.H.I.N.G.


What're you waiting on? :)

Review: No Parking at the End Times

No Parking at the End Times
Author: Bryan Bliss
Publication Date: February 24th 2015
Publisher: Greenwillow Books
~A copy was provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review~

Abigail’s parents have made mistake after mistake, and now they've lost everything. She’s left to decide: Does she still believe in them? Or is it time to believe in herself? Fans of Sara Zarr, David Levithan, and Rainbow Rowell will connect with this moving debut.

Abigail doesn't know how her dad found Brother John. Maybe it was the billboards. Or the radio. What she does know is that he never should have made that first donation. Or the next, or the next. Her parents shouldn't have sold their house. Or packed Abigail and her twin brother, Aaron, into their old van to drive across the country to San Francisco, to be there with Brother John for the "end of the world." Because of course the end didn't come. And now they're living in their van. And Aaron’s disappearing to who-knows-where every night. Their family is falling apart. All Abigail wants is to hold them together, to get them back to the place where things were right. But maybe it’s too big a task for one teenage girl. Bryan Bliss’s thoughtful, literary debut novel is about losing everything—and about what you will do for the people you love.

I give No Parking at the End Times props for being different. Different it definitely was. I don't read that many religious centred books, I usually stay far away from ones I know are going to be so, but every now and then they sneak up on me. What drew me to this one though is the cult-like fashion it was handled. The religious aspect wasn't bible-bashing, but in a way a little bible-bashing but not overbearing, and it's delves into faith verses religion. Can you have faith without having religion? When you think about it, faith and religion go together, but faith does exist out of religion. You don't have to have a religion to believe in God, to believe and have faith in something unknown. Whether that's God, life, the future, it's still faith.