Genre: Young Adult

ARC Review: Aspen

Posted August 6, 2014 / Book Reviews / 6 Comments

Review: This book was definitely not what I was expecting. Based on the synopsis, I thought I was going to get something more paranormal. I figured Katelyn’s ghost would be talking to Aspen and trying to live her senior year vicariously through Aspen, since she wouldn’t get the chance. In reality, Katelyn’s ghost would just appear as a figment of Aspen’s imagination until she came to terms with what she’d done. What a great read this book was! I loved all of the characters, the plot moved flawlessly, and it was wrapped up in a way better than I expected. Aspen was a totally normal girl: she had weird friends and hair she hated. She made mistakes. Her mother, the pot-smoking hippie with a boyfriends coming through a revolving door, was awesome. I was totally fascinated by their mother-daughter relationship, because it was pretty much the reverse of what it would normally be. My mom would never encourage me to have sex or say things like “a little sex would put a smile back on that face” and “orgasms make you live longer too.” It was a really cool dynamic that worked in some ways and need help in others. Her friends, Kim and Cass, totally loved each other but would never admit it. I was hoping for a little more about them when the book ended, but it didn’t bother me too much. Katelyn’s former best friend, Suzy, and boyfriend, Ben, are suddenly in Aspen’s life too. One thing that […]

ARC Review: Can’t Look Away

Posted August 4, 2014 / Book Reviews / 5 Comments

Review: This book definitely hit me harder than expected. Based on the synopsis, I could tell I was going to possibly get misty while reading this one. My sister is about the same age as Torrey’s sister in this book, so I had a feeling I would be projecting some of the traits of their relationship onto my own with my sister. Nonetheless, I was intrigued by the topic of this book. Beauty vloggers are a newer trend and something that I watch pretty frequently on YouTube. Comments and criticism run rampant online, because it’s so much easier to talk negatively about someone through a screen instead of face to face. When Torrey’s sister dies, some followers offer words of sympathy while others blame her for the circumstances of Miranda’s death. Torrey is forced to move with her family from Colorado to Texas because they all need a fresh start, but her online fame follows her to her new school. Throughout the book, Torrey reflects on memories of Miranda and wonders “if only” about every event from that fateful day. If only she hadn’t rushed her during breakfast; if only she hadn’t forced her to come with her at all; if only, if only. The guilt she was feeling throughout the majority of the book made me so sad for her and her family. When you read a story like this, you start to reflect on your own life. I would think of my little sister and start to regret the times I […]

Isla Is Coming Readalong / Review: Anna and the French Kiss

Posted August 2, 2014 / Book Challenges, Book Reviews, Features / 5 Comments

The Isla Is Coming readalong kicked off on the last day of July and I decided to take part! Unlike most people participating, I’m reading the series for the first time. (Click on the picture on the right to read the informational post). I started reading Anna and the French Kiss on Friday, when the readalong started, and I basically haven’t stopped it reading since. I just finished the book (WAY too early!) and now I’m going to wait another few days before starting Lola and the Boy Next Door with the rest of the readers. It’ll be hard to resist but I really want to keep pace with the readalong. Of course, the point of the readalong is to gear up for the third book’s release – Isla and the Happily Ever After on the 14th. Judging by how much I absolutely loved the first book, I’m sure I’ll really enjoy the next two in this totally adorable trilogy. So now here’s my review for the first book in the Isla Is Coming readalong! Review: This is exactly what I’m looking for when I read a young adult romance. All YA authors should read this book before writing one of their own. I feel like I smiled to myself like an idiot throughout the whole book; it was just so damn cute. Anna was one of the most relatable characters I’ve encountered. Her experiences completely mirror those of the average teenage girl: getting screwed over by a best friend, falling for a boy […]

Review: September Girls

Posted July 29, 2014 / Book Reviews / 7 Comments

Review: Oh man. I have so many things to say about a book where barely anything happened plot-wise. Jesus. I saw this cover at the bookstore and the synopsis seemed like something right up my alley. I could see that it was a paranormal-esque book based on the description, but didn’t know what was up with these ~*girls*~ (wasn’t that supposed to be the point of the book? Figuring out the secret of the beach and the girls?). INSTEAD it was completely ruined for me by someones Goodreads shelf. Sad face. I also noticed people referencing it in their reviews, so maybe it was common knowledge and I’m just a little slow? Regardless, I went into this book already knowing what it was leading up to. There were a lot of mixed reviews…There was a pretty serious sexism-related debate between reviewers though, and oddly I agreed with both sides. Check here for a review that the book was sexist and here for one that didn’t think it was. Frankly, both perspectives are worth exploring–especially if for some reason you still want to read the book after this review. I absolutely never wanted to sit down and read this book because I dreaded it. I’m too stubborn to stop reading a book though. If it had been on my shelf for years, I may have stopped, but I JUST bought this one a few months ago and was determined to finish it. At any rate, this book was so effing slow. I’ve […]

Review: Shadowlands (Series)

Posted July 22, 2014 / Book Reviews / 10 Comments

Review: Goddamnit Kate Brian, you never disappoint me. I can’t think of the last time I read one of her books and wasn’t completely shocked, intrigued, and/or baffled by the ending. Let me start out by saying that the only reason I read this book is because it was written by Kate Brian — I would usually never pick up a book that sounds this creepy. The other books I’ve read by her (primarily the Private series) can get a little freaky, but not this much. It took me a little while to get into, but that was mostly because I refused to read it at night and scare myself into thinking I was going to be murdered before bed. I just steamrolled through the second half of the book this afternoon because I could not put it down. I can’t even think of a good reason why this book doesn’t have five stars, but I kind of forced myself to give it 4.5. I like to reserve 5 stars for books that are completely lifechanging and/or would go on my “favorites” list. The book begins with Rory being chased by a serial killer through the woods and her escaping from him. Her family, which includes her father and her sister Darcy, is going into “witness protection” to the island of Jupiter Landing. Let me just say it is extremely unreasonable that the FBI had the family head off in a car by themselves while a killer was on the […]

Review: Before I Fall

Posted July 18, 2014 / Book Reviews / 16 Comments

Review: I haven’t had as many “holy shit that was an amazing book” books in a while. This book had me staying up late reading (which is something I haven’t been compelled to do in a long time either). And even after I decided to go to sleep, I couldn’t stop thinking about the book. It was truly the definition of a pageturner. I wanted to get all of that out of the way first. The plot of this book is that a popular teenager, Samantha, is killed in a car accident while driving with her friends. She wasn’t a nice girl to others in high school, which is pretty standard of “popular” girls nowadays. The book starts with her last day of life and outlines everything that happened leading up to the accident. When she inevitably dies, she wakes up in the next chapter and thinks the whole thing was a bad dream. Of course it wasn’t…she is actually dead and reliving the day over and over again, like Groundhog Day. She goes through the typical stages: disbelief, frustration, sadness, etc. Oliver does not try to make Sam a likeable character (at first). She’s a mean girl. Her friends are mean girls. As the book goes on, she tries to make amends for everything and live each day the best she can. She realizes what she needs to do in order to pass on to the afterlife. I don’t want to give too much away, but this book really had me […]

Review: The List

Posted July 18, 2014 / Book Reviews / 0 Comments

Review: At first glance, this book seemed like it may be a little too “young” adult for me. I don’t discriminate though; any book with an interesting enough plotline is worthy of my attention. The basic plot summary is as follows: at some random high school, each year some unknown person makes The List. It includes the ugliest girl and prettiest girl of each grade level. So in total, eight girls’ lives are changed because high school is a place where only appearances matter. Sounds like a great premise. They each struggled with different (pretty serious, at times) issues. Let me tell you a little about each girl and their story, because it was kind of hard to keep up with the changing perspectives. Yes, of course this was one of those books where the author rotates through each girl’s story in different chapters…for eight characters that can be a bit challenging. The story follows these girls over the course of a week. Danielle is named ugliest freshman because apparently her swimmer’s body is a bit too big for some people. She has a boyfriend that she met at camp over the summer, and she wonders how he’ll react. Their story was comparatively boring, but I ended up liking her a lot in the end. Abby is named prettiest freshman and is a little bitch to her older sister about it. She sucks at school and her sister is smart and they’re just SoOoO different. She was pretty annoying but whatever, freshman usually are […]

Review: We Were Liars

Posted July 16, 2014 / Book Reviews / 13 Comments

Review: Well, I decided to make my first review about a book I didn’t like too much. I have mixed emotions about this book, so let me try to work through them here. I have to admit, I was extremely interested in the book based on the cover. I don’t know who is making all these cool, graphic book covers lately, but I love them. I was fascinated by the small amount of plot-related information that was out there and it kept getting rave reviews, so I decided to try it out. The general plot, without giving anything away, is that a rich family goes to their own private island every summer. The kids play while the adults get drunk. Sounds about right for my family gatherings (minus the private island thing). The book goes back and forth between past summers and the current summer, which surprisingly wasn’t too confusing. The main character loved to repeat the same effing phrases over and over again. If I read “Gatt… my Gatt” one more time, I think my head would have exploded. The writing style was choppy and not what I normally like. She wrote paragraphs that seemed literal but were actually figurative. At one point, she says something along the lines of “my father shot me; my brains were all over the grass,” or some shit. As I’m reading, I was like holy shit this dude just shot his daughter… Oh wait, that wasn’t literal. Unfortunately, this was one of the first scenes […]