Author: Paula Stokes

ARC Reviews: A Dangerous Year, The Key to Everything, and The Hundred Lies of Lizzie Lovett

Posted November 6, 2017 / Book Reviews / 0 Comments
ARC Reviews: A Dangerous Year, The Key to Everything, and The Hundred Lies of Lizzie Lovett

I immediately saw comparisons to Ally Carter’s books, plus a little bit of Pretty Fierce by Kieran Scott, when I first saw this book on Goodreads and Netgalley. I was definitely intrigued, as I love the whole teen-spy genre. Add in the fact that this takes place at a Connecticut boarding school and I was HERE FOR IT. I have a lot of mixed feelings about this book. There were some potentially problematic sentences that really rubbed me the wrong way, and I initially felt that this book would definitely be under the three-star mark as a result. The author said things like “hooker red lipstick,” which is rude, and didn’t understand how something like Man Crush Monday or Woman Crush Wednesday worked. I know that one is small potatoes but it still definitely bugged me as I was reading. If you’re going to write for teens and about teens, you should run those passages by a couple of them. The cab driver said his name was Steve and the MC thought, because of his accent, it should be more like “Tariq or Malik.” And one other thing that bugged me, more in terms of the MC as a friend or human:  Aside from those things, the book was sub-par until the very end. The last 10% was an absolute whirlwind. I thought I had everything figured out pretty early on, but there were a LOT of twists. The ending was definitely a cliffhanger too, so I’m really curious to […]

Review: Liars, Inc.

Posted March 30, 2016 / Book Reviews / 2 Comments
Review: Liars, Inc.

I totally thought The Art of Lainey would be my first Paula Stokes book because, c’mon, it’s right up my alley. I ended up adding this one to the poll for my YA book club and it was chosen for March’s read. I finished the book within two sittings – it was super fast but unfortunately predictable for me. I always say that I’m terrible about guessing mysteries, but that’s changed recently. Maybe I’m reading too many books like this (even though it doesn’t feel that way) or I’m too comfortable with YA. All of the YA mystery/thrillers I read tend to follow a similar formula and I find myself guessing whodunit without much thought. I know I’m not the target age for them necessarily, so I hope teens have a better time with them! I said during my reading progress on Goodreads that it’s always hard to believe YA mysteries because it just doesn’t feel logical that teens are this involved in murder mysteries. Brittany said it better over here too. The story set-up was kind of cool too. The book started at the end-ish, then jumped to the beginning to backtrack, then went back to the end. I liked that it started the story with a “bang” (haha, literally). That always adds some intrigue to stories for me. Anyways, yeah – this one was too predictable for me. I skimmed a few reviews on Goodreads and it seems like most people were surprised by the ending. Don’t get me […]