Source: Library

200 Word Review: Cross My Heart and Hope to Spy

Posted November 14, 2014 / Book Reviews / 7 Comments

I think I MIGHT like Cross My Heart and Hope to Spy a littleee more than I’d Tell You I Love You but Then I’d Have to Kill You. A little more. I think there’s more of a mystery element to this book than the previous. You follow Cammie as she tries to get to the bottom of what the Blackthorn-related mysteries are. I didn’t care too much for Zack (I’m a Josh fangirl) but I started to be okay with him towards the end. The overall storyline of this book was just maybe more interesting than the first one? The fact that I don’t remember anything about these books anymore has nothing to do with their QUALITY, but everything to do with TIME. I read these back in eighth grade/freshman year of high school. It’s been quite a while! I have a hard time remembering my thoughts and basic plot points of books I just read a day ago, let alone 8 years ago! I’m excited to continue with the series and remember what happened with all of my Gallagher Girls. There are hints that hopefully she’ll learn some more about the circumstances of her father’s disappearance/death too.

Review: The Fourth Wish

Posted November 12, 2014 / Book Reviews / 2 Comments

*Do not read this review if you haven’t read book one, The Art of Wishing! I don’t recommend that you even read the synopsis for the second book until you’ve read the first book. I was so excited to see how Margo would deal with becoming a genie. My favorite part of the second book was just that: learning how it works and seeing all of the different kinds of magic she could do now. The book jumped right into the middle of the action and confused me because it didn’t pick up right where the previous book left off. Well, it didn’t seem that way at least. Regardless, you soon learn what happened and again, you get the slow release of information about the world. I absolutely LOVED the gender stuff in this book. As you can imagine, genies can shapeshift into exactly what their current master would want to see in a friend, partner, etc. That means that they can switch genders in order to make wishes happen for each person. It was awesome to read about that flexibility and (basically) complete acceptance from both Margo and Oliver on that end. It was handled in a great way because the characters were open about it and had the attitude that it was the person beneath the gender that was important. So healthy and awesome to read! This book kind of reminded me of the Shadowlands series by Kate Brian (really just the ending of the third book). Without […]

Review: The Art of Wishing

Posted November 10, 2014 / Book Reviews / 6 Comments

I was intrigued by this book when I saw the premise. It was a really unique and compelling take on genies. I loved learning about what being a genie entails and how it can be a lot different than the mainstream interpretations of what genies do. (I’m kind of making it sound like genies are real now… maybe I’m convinced.) The writing style in this book was really fast-paced and enjoyable. It was very easy to read, which is what I was in the mood for! I’ve noticed this a lot in some of the books I’ve read lately: I like the slow release of information. It was over halfway through the book when I finally felt like I fully knew what it was like to be a genie and how Oliver’s life worked. I like jumping right into the middle of the action then learning more about the backstory as the book goes on. I loved that this felt much more like a contemporary romance with some fantasy mixed in. The main characters grow closer and develop a relationship despite the fact that Oliver is a genie. It just felt like I was reading a cute romance story and OH YA he’s a genie too I guess. The paranormal/fantasy aspects were really cool and I loved when they were mixed in, too. Oliver is so cute. I love him. That’s all. The concept behind the book overall was really interesting. As I said before, I just couldn’t stop reading […]

Review: I’d Tell You I Love You but Then I’d Have to Kill You

Posted November 7, 2014 / Book Reviews / 5 Comments

You know I don’t like to reread books. However, when I realized that the final two books in the Gallagher Girls series had somehow slipped past me, I knew I needed to revisit the other books before finishing the series. I remembered that they were fun, quick reads; I figured why not try out the audio version of all the books? So far, so good! The books are just as cute and fun as I remember. I love the characters. Cammie, our MC, is the daughter of the Gallagher Academy headmistress. She’s known as the chameleon because she can blend into any situation; she’s pretty much the epitome of an average plain jane….. except for the fact that all Gallagher Girls are spies in training. I loved listening to all of the spy stuff that the girls would learn, and how Cammie applied it to her personal covert operations mission. Cammie and her friends (Bex, the British badass, and Liz, the country girl klutz) have a great friendship. All of the Gallagher Girls have an extremely loyal sisterhood, which was so cute. When Cammie meets a cute boy in the town one day, Bex and Liz help her learn more about him using their spy tools. Macy, the spoiled rich girl that just started at Gallagher, brings her knowledge of boys and normal prep schools. Armed with this information, Cammie starts seeing her new boyfriend, Josh, as much as she can… and has to lie about her real life. The […]

Book Buddies Review: Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children

Posted October 29, 2014 / Book Buddies Reviews, Book Reviews / 4 Comments

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 on one blog and the second half will take place on the other blog. Without further ado, here’s the first BOOK BUDDIES REVIEW! Lauren: So, what made you initially add this one to your TBR? Cristina: Actually it’s kind of a funny story. I had seen it at a bookstore one day when it was initially released and remarked upon it to my boyfriend that it looked creepy…a little while later he ended up gifting it to me for my birthday! Lauren: That’s awesome! I love when my boyfriend picks up on hints like that. For me, I was kind of turned off by it at first. It looked TOO creepy for me. Recently there were so many people reviewing it that I decided to give it a try! Cristina: I had never come across a YA book with pictures integrated, so I liked the concept but I was also wary that they were going to be really creepy, so it’s sat on my shelf for a while until I had a good excuse not […]

Review: Just Like the Movies

Posted October 24, 2014 / Book Reviews / 1 Comment

A lot of bloggers I follow weren’t super impressed with this one, but it seemed too cute for me to pass up. I think a lot of them expected this book to be movie reference after movie reference, with constant tie-ins or conversations. Luckily I read a lot of their reviews before reading this so I knew NOT to expect that. I think there was a perfect amount of references that were pretty easy for most people to follow; it used a lot of classic romantic comedies with pretty obvious scenes. Lily and Marijke live in different social circles at school but find themselves coming together to make their romantic lives better. They plan how to make these “movie moments” for themselves: Lily wants to get the crush she’s been pining over and Marijke wants her boyfriend of a year to finally say those three words. Their friendship developed kind of quickly (almost like insta-love but for best friends), but I really liked it. They felt natural for some reason. The characters in general were kind of stereotypical versions of high schoolers. Marijke was sporty, Lily was nerdy, Joe was a badass, and Tommy was in a band. I wish they were characterized a little more than that, but I did like watching the relationships develop. The whole book was full of cliché movie moments, whether they were referencing them or they were happening naturally. It felt very “high school” to me, also. I understand that this book took place […]

Review: Dissonance

Posted October 13, 2014 / Book Reviews / 15 Comments

Have you ever read the description of a book that felt like the most YOU book of all time? Like the author literally jumped into your brain and wrote it just for you? Yeah, Dissonance is one of those books for me. I’m sorry if this review is just me fangirling like a wild woman, but I’m just too excited. When I first saw this book pop up, right before my blogging days got started, my jaw dropped at the plot summary. This concept of creating new universes based on every decision you make was something I thought about ALL of the time. Anyone remember that episode of the old Disney show So Weird? The girl makes a decision to pick orange juice instead of grapefruit juice, which splits into two different universes.. In one she ends up late to school, gets detention, and falls into a bad crowd. The other world has her day going normally. The two versions of herself somehow squeeze into one world and she has to work to get the other one out. Yeah, well, ever since that episode I’ve been obsessed with that concept. Talk about taking “everything happens for a reason” literally! WELL I DIGRESS A LOT but this book was perfect for me. I talked about it for MONTHS, built it up in my head to be the best book I would read this year, and guess what? It delivered. As far as the actual story goes, we learn about Del and […]

Review: Ask Again Later

Posted October 8, 2014 / Book Reviews / 3 Comments

Okay this book was really funny. A bit of the humor was a little too predictable or childish for my tastes, but I really enjoyed that aspect overall. (Obviously this book was set in high school, so I can’t be too surprised). This book is about Heart, who of course has no interest in finding love. That aspect was cheesy to me but I let it slide. She is invited to prom by two very different guys under very different circumstances. Instead of just doing the logical thing and saying no to both, so she can go to prom with her big group of friends like she planned, she flips a coin. Heads: she goes to prom with her brother’s friend, Troy, who is most likely going to get drunk and obsess over his ex-girlfriend. Tails: she goes with Ryan, the theater boy with a secret. I LOVE this premise; I will read any book with the alternate timelines like this one. This book was so cute and light that I finished it in about 3 sittings over the course of 2 days. I liked the characters a lot (more below), but felt like overall they could have been fleshed out a bit more. All of her friends in the No Drama Prom-a crew weren’t given much explanation and I constantly had no idea who was who. It wasn’t that big of a deal, because giving them much more personality probably would have detracted from the actual story, but I got enough […]

200 Word Review: That Summer

Posted September 24, 2014 / Book Reviews / 6 Comments

I don’t want to say I was disappointed, because that seems a bit harsh, but it definitely didn’t exceed my expectations. Why? The characters – ALL of them – were so selfish. I get that there was (kind of?) a reason for it in terms of the book’s moral, but I just found myself SO sick of their shit. Nothing. Happened. At. All. The book took place over the course of a month or two and literally Haven worked, ran into her sister’s ex, complained about her life, and spent time with her friend. Oh, and there was a random supermodel show that pretty much added nothing to the plot. I’m okay with the fact that this book was only about family issues, but it was just missing the spark of something else. ANYTHING to get some more action. The moral/message of the book was pretty clear and I liked the way it ended. The narrator had the most childish voice. I get that the MC was 15, but holy shit it felt like a 12 year old. Overall, I did like the book. It didn’t blow me away and it certainly isn’t one of Dessen’s best, but I can’t say I regret listening to it.