Category: Book Reviews

ARC Review: Play On

Posted April 16, 2015 / Book Reviews / 0 Comments
ARC Review: Play On

I really liked this one for the most part! It definitely was different than I expected in a lot of ways too. I think the best way to break it down is in a what worked/what didn’t kind of format. My rating is rounded down just because I did roll my eyes at the cheese more often than it made me swoon, as well as the first reason listed in the negatives section below. Overall I would recommend this book (especially if you’re a baseball fan!) because it was a cute, quick story. What I Liked The main character was a nice perspective to hear the story from. I liked reading a male POV in a contemporary, because it doesn’t happen too much. It was nice to see the more emotional side of himself and having him admit to having feelings for Marissa. There’s a lot more about the voice that I need to go into (on the negative side, unfortunately) but OVERALL I did like Austin as a main character. The book was deeper than I expected. It had cute elements that I expect from contemporary YA, but it also had some darker themes that I didn’t see coming. The issues with Austin’s dad and Marissa definitely took up a lot of the book and I liked having something different and difficult to read about, while still getting an adorable story. There was a good balance between lighter and darker themes. I’m really starting to enjoy books set in […]

ARC Review: Things We Know By Heart

Posted April 15, 2015 / Book Reviews / 10 Comments
ARC Review: Things We Know By Heart

I am actually pretty bummed about this book… which you would never guess, based on the decent rating. I had to break it down with my rating report, below, in order to sort my feelings out. If there was a way to give this 3.75 stars, I would. [EDIT: Upon further reflection, my rating has come down quite a lot. The issues I explain here have only bothered me MORE with time.] This book was easily at the top of my most-anticipated list for this year and the lovely Brittany let me borrow it ahead of time. There was just something about the topic that really drew me in. I expected something very heavy and sad, yet emotionally gripping and (hopefully) uplifting/ inspiring by the end. That’s not exactly what I got. When I first started the book, I was immediately drawn in. I wanted to know exactly what happened with Trent, how she tried to move on, and her experiences with the other organ recipients. Again, I didn’t exactly get that. The timeframe of this book starts a year after Trent dies and after she’s already met every other organ recipient. The boy who got the heart, Colton, never wrote back to her. She takes it upon herself to track him down and accidentally gets involved with him. Of course, you can immediately tell that this is going to be one of those books where she holds out until the last second to tell him the truth about how she […]

ARC Review: Dream a Little Dream

Posted April 10, 2015 / Book Reviews / 3 Comments
ARC Review: Dream a Little Dream

The Story The main premise of this story revolves around Liv and her extremely vivid dreams. Her family, which consists of her mother and sister (Mia), has moved around quite a bit over the recent years to follow different university jobs for her professor mother. They make their “final” move to London because her mom has landed her dream job at Oxford. Enter her mom’s new boyfriend, Ernest, and his two children, Grayson and Florence. The new blended family joins together in Ernest’s house and adjust to their lives together. Meanwhile, Liv’s dreams are getting crazy. She’s seeing people from school, including her new stepbrother and his friends, and they seem to recognize her too. I was a huge fan of the different worlds going on in this book: the dreams and reality. I didn’t expect some of the events or main parts of the plot to be as dark as they were, though! That was a bit much for me but I’m excited to see what happens. The book itself was VERY introductory. I cut the first book in a series some slack because it often is more informational than action-packed, but this was definitely an extreme example of that. This book was purely setting the stage for the other two books in the series. I enjoyed reading it but felt like nothing was happening. There wasn’t a lot of action at all; it was mostly explaining how things worked and learning about the characters. The Goodread synopsis doesn’t […]

Review: The Boyfriend App

Posted April 8, 2015 / Book Reviews / 3 Comments
Review: The Boyfriend App

I received an ARC of The Pretty App, the next book in this companion series, a looong time ago. I tried to read it first without reading The Boyfriend App, but wanted to go through the whole series in order. I didn’t have a lot of expectations going into this one. I was hoping to breeze through and get the background info for the next book in the series. Well, that worked: this was a super quick and entertaining read! It’s certainly not perfect, but I definitely enjoyed it overall. The number one thing I liked about this book was the concept. There’s an app contest where the winner gets scholarship money and prizes for their school. Audrey, the main character, designs The Boyfriend App. First, it matches people up based on compatibility and distance. The second version of the app creates a lot of chaos, as it actually gets the other person to fall in love (but mostly lust). For a contemporary romance, the concept was unique. I loved that the MC was a geeky, super smart girl. I loved her group of friends: Aidan (the cute boy I shipped hard throughout), Lindsey (her fashion-obsessed cousin who always had her back), Mindy (her supportive friend with a speech impediment and didn’t talk), and Nigit (another super-smart geeky guy in the group). The book is split into two parts – one for each “version” of the app. The first part is Audrey brainstorming her app and figuring out what she wants […]

Review: Nowhere But Home

Posted April 6, 2015 / Book Reviews / 7 Comments
Review: Nowhere But Home

I have no idea how to review this book. I wasn’t really able take notes during this one, but just wrote down a few different words that I couldn’t forget: Poetic. Sad. Beautiful. Unique. Interesting. Amazing characters. It’s a book that usually wouldn’t be on my radar at all, aside from the gorgeous cover. I’m really picky about books and their subjects, and I’m even MORE picky with adult books. I honestly can’t even tell you what I look for in women’s fiction; usually there’s just a spark of something that interests me in the synopsis. The synopsis for Nowhere But Home is certainly interesting, but not my cup of tea. Following Hannah’s blog has brought a lot more adult titles to my attention, and Liza Palmer’s books were promptly added to my TBR. In fact, her review is actually a lot more coherent than mine is going to be, so I recommend reading that. After finishing Nowhere But Home, I took a reading break for a day. I wasn’t ready to part with the characters or the story. I felt like the next book I read would pale in comparison, and I didn’t want to ruin my next book because of this massive book hangover. This is a book I wanted to crawl inside and stay in forever.  “It’s what we’re all trying to do, right? Remember a time that was better. Re-create a moment of that memory as we let the crisp Coke bubble down our throats. Riding bikes on […]

Review: This is What Happy Looks Like

Posted April 3, 2015 / Book Reviews / 6 Comments
Review: This is What Happy Looks Like

There really wasn’t anything bad about this book, but it was super in the middle of the road for me. I liked the characters, premise, and writing style, but it wasn’t anything particularly exceptional. With contemporary, my main concern is the swoons. If it’s a book about a couple getting together, I kind of want to SEE the couple together and FEEL their relationship grow. Beware that this review is A LITTLE SPOILERY. I won’t ruin anything major, but there’s really no way to explain my problems with the book without talking about the main thing that had me feeling “meh.” The set-up of the book is that Graham, a celebrity heartthrob movie star, accidentally emails Ellie, a regular girl who lives in a small Maine town. The two of them spend quite a few months emailing back and forth and essentially end up falling for each other. She doesn’t have any idea that he’s actually a celebrity, and she has some skeletons in her closet as well. He comes to her town to film a movie and the two of them start hanging out. My issues: It feels like insta-love. Even though they’ve been talking for months, he seems to be blown away by her immediately and their relationship takes off without a hitch. I get that there’s the whole background setup of them talking for a while, but the reader doesn’t get to experience any of that! They spend half of the book apart. Because of her family issues and […]

Reread Review: Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

Posted April 1, 2015 / Book Reviews / 3 Comments
Reread Review: Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

If I remember correctly, the first three books were already published when I started the series in 1999. So, I got this one for Christmas (which was three months after it was published in the United States) and started reading it pretty much immediately after the second book. I remember that this one was my faaaavoriteeeee. Honestly, up until rereading, I couldn’t really explain WHY. It just had a different feel than the other books: probably because of the new characters that I immediately loved. The time-turner’s introduction was so cool too. I remember buying a version of the necklace when I saw it at Barnes & Noble one day too. I wore it to the rest of the movie premieres. 😉 My answer stands! I always knew I wanted to reread the series but just never found the time to do it. Rereading them through audio, as I’ve said before, has been such a great experience! It genuinely baffles me that the narrator can do all of the character’s voices SO SPOT-ON. Honestly though, I was especially looking forward to reading this book out of the seven! Because I knew it was my long-standing favorite (without ever rereading), I wanted to verify that it was still my favorite or see if that changed. Not a lot happens in this book until the very end, apparently. I kind of forgot that. Regardless I confirmed that this is definitely one of my favorites. I feel like I should just list the reasons […]

ARC Review: The Start of Me and You

Posted March 26, 2015 / Book Reviews / 13 Comments
ARC Review: The Start of Me and You

Yeah, I’m not sure how I’ll ever formulate words about this one. My Goodreads review that usually is a few sentences about my first reaction literally consisted of: I pretty much loved this book from the first page. I’m not going to say anything fancy about it. I just did. When I saw that I got approved for this one on NetGalley, I celebrated like never before and immediately started reading after my current book. This all happened in January – and, because I’m me, I wrote the review then. (Hi! This is January Lauren!) This was easily one of my top three anticipated books for 2015 so my excitement was out of control. Thank god, somehow, my expectations were exceeded. I really loved Open Road Summer but I’m a weirdo in that music isn’t a huge part of my life. I liked the tour aspects. I LOOOOVED me some Matt Finch. But a book centered around music is kind of meh for me. REGARDLESS, excellent book. How could she top that? (She did though) Also, there was a Lilah Montgomery reference in this book and I died. LET ME GET TO IT FOR REAL NOW: This book was perfection. There were some moments where I wanted to kick Paige in the butt, but I felt the same way about Reagan in ORS. Emery Lord’s main characters are imperfect. Flawed. They make mistakes that the reader wants to punch them for, but loves them anyway. I loved Paige. I loved […]

Book Buddies Review: Ruin and Rising

Posted March 25, 2015 / Book Buddies Reviews, Book Reviews / 1 Comment
Book Buddies Review: Ruin and Rising

Book Buddies is a discussion-style review that takes place with one of my two buddies. (Learn more and see past reviews here) We both read the book and then have a private discussion about it. We post our discussion as a review on the last Wednesday of each month. You’ll be able to see our similar/different opinions on the overall book, characters, writing style, etc. – just like a regular review. The first half our discussion will take place right here, and the second half will be on Kaitlin’s blog! (Link at the bottom) View Kaitlin’s part of the discussion here. Some decently big spoilers ahead regarding the ending and some plot points, especially if you haven’t read the whole series! Proceed with caution. Before starting this book, did you read any reviews on it? Do you generally read reviews before or after reading a book, and does it impact your reading if you read them before? Kaitlin: Usually I don’t read a review before reading a book. That’s what happens after I finish the book. If the person posts a review for a book plan to read then I’ll save it on Bloglovin for later. Other than that, no. Reviews are usually read after the book is finished. Same went for Ruin and Rising, I didn’t read reviews before I read it but since, now, I have already read it, I went ahead and let myself read reviews. My reason for that is usually to avoid spoilers. I understand that people don’t include spoilers […]

Review: Something True

Posted March 20, 2015 / Book Reviews / 0 Comments
Review: Something True

 Mild spoilers ahead if you haven’t read books one and two! Overall this book held my attention much better than the other two! I was super eager to finish the series just to see how everyone got together and True finished her tasks. I was itching for her and Orion to get back together finally. The setup of this book was a little different than the previous two. Usually the three points of view were True and the two people she was trying to set up. In this case, it’s True, Orion, and Darla. She’s trying to win back Orion while he dates Darla, and meanwhile True is trying to find someone for Darla. Because of the setup of this one, it was good to be in Orion’s head more and see his relationship with True. The previous two books mostly include her pining over him and the reader not getting to see their relationship in action. After book two, I was dying to get more True + Orion time, and this book delivered. I loved all of the characters for the most part. I mention below some reservations about Orion and Darla, but I really grew to like them. I also loved Hephaestus and True’s sister. The cameos from the first couples that True got together were great! I think it ended perfectly. I won’t say much more! Orion and Darla’s voices really bugged me for quite a bit of the book. They definitely got better as time went on, […]