Friday 56 #6- First World Problems by Leigh Ann Kopans

The Friday 56 is  weekly meme hosted by Freda's Voice.

Rules:

--> Grab a book any book

-->Turn to page 56 or 56% in your eReader (if you have to improvise that's okay)

--> Find any sentence, (or few, just don't spoil it) that grabs you.

-->Post it.

-->Add your (URL) post on Freda's Linky. Add the post URL, not your blog URL It's that simple.

"Losing control of myself, of my body, was one of the scariest things I could imagine."

Review: Silence by Natasha Preston

Publisher: Createspace
Publication Date: May 9, 2014
Rating: 2/5

For eleven years, Oakley Farrell has been silent. At the age of five, she stopped talking, and no one seems to know why. Refusing to communicate beyond a few physical actions, Oakley remains in her own little world. Bullied at school, she has just one friend, Cole Benson. Cole stands by her, refusing to believe that she is not perfect the way she is. Over the years, they have developed their own version of a normal friendship. However, will it still work as they start to grow even closer? When Oakley is forced to face someone from her past, can she hold her secret in any longer? (Goodreads)

I chose to read this book because I read a review by someone else and I was intrigued. Oakley is our main character here, she's 16 (I think) and she hasn't spoken a word to anyone since she was five years old. Her parents (mostly her mother) has tried to figure out of something is medically wrong with their daughter but for the most part, they live with her as she is. Oakley has a best friend who lives two houses over named Cole and they do just about everything together. He understand Oakley better that her parents and is head over heals for her.

Most of the book is about Oakley trying to stumble her way through forming a relationship with Cole that surpasses friendship. So we as the readers know that something has happened to Oakley, probably something along the line of sexual abuse. We know that her father is involved and it's easy to think that her father was the one sexually abusing her. I was okay with the story (there were some issues but I was living with them) until the end. I like how Oakley called Cole to come and help her, but it was all pretty anticlimactic, maybe I'm dramatic but there should have been fighting, chasing, something, but Cole just showed up and drove her away. Then the father and abuser are arrested and Oakley and her family randomly decide to move away. I haven't read the second book but I assume the ending was to set up the second book but I didn't like it at all. With some editing beginning and middle of the book could have been more solid (more details and substance) but the ending was all wrong. It was suppose to leave us wanting more, but... it just didn't work.

This book was almost there, but then fell flat.

The Friday 56 #5- Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe

The Friday 56 is  weekly meme hosted by Freda's Voice.

Rules:

--> Grab a book any book

-->Turn to page 56 or 56% in your eReader (if you have to improvise that's okay)

--> Find any sentence, (or few, just don't spoil it) that grabs you.

-->Post it.

-->Add your (URL) post on Freda's Linky. Add the post URL, not your blog URL It's that simple.

 

 "I thought of Dante and wondered about him. And it seemed to me that Dante's face was a map of the world. A world without darkness. Wow, a world without darkness. How beautiful was that?"

Waiting on Wednesday: Finding Mr. Brightside

Waiting on Wednesday is hosted by Breaking the Spine.

Abram and Juliette know each other. They’ve lived down the street from each other their whole lives. But they don’t really know each other—at least, not until Juliette’s mom and Abram’s dad have a torrid affair that culminates in a deadly car crash. The funeral is uncomfortable, to say the least. They don’t speak.
Fast forward to the neighborhood pharmacy, a few months later. Abram is on Paxil. Juliette is on Adderall. Abram decides to say hello. Then he decides to invite her to Taco Bell. To both of their surprise, she agrees. And the real love story begins.

~*~

Release Date March 24, 2014 

Review: I'll Meet You There by Heather Demetrios

Title: I'll Meet You There
Publisher: Henry Holt & Co.
Publication Date: February 3, 2015
Stars: 4 of 5

If seventeen-year-old Skylar Evans were a typical Creek View girl, her future would involve a double-wide trailer, a baby on her hip, and the graveyard shift at Taco Bell. But after graduation, the only thing standing between straightedge Skylar and art school are three minimum-wage months of summer. Skylar can taste the freedom—that is, until her mother loses her job and everything starts coming apart. Torn between her dreams and the people she loves, Skylar realizes everything she’s ever worked for is on the line.

Nineteen-year-old Josh Mitchell had a different ticket out of Creek View: the Marines. But after his leg is blown off in Afghanistan, he returns home, a shell of the cocksure boy he used to be. What brings Skylar and Josh together is working at the Paradise—a quirky motel off California’s dusty Highway 99. Despite their differences, their shared isolation turns into an unexpected friendship and soon, something deeper. (Goodreads)

Review:
Skylar Evans, lives with her mother in a trailer park. 9 times out of 10, the only future that inhabitants of that town have to look forward to, are trailers, a job at a gas station, and babies.Sky, and her friend Christ are the only members of their graduating class leaving for college and Sky just has to make it through the summer. However as the summer progresses Sky's plans are derailed by her mothers renewed drinking problem that seems to be nurtured by a bad news guy who has friends with her dad (not deceased after a drunk driving accident) and the return of an old co-work/ town heart throb Josh Mitchell. Through out the Summer Sky and Josh (who lost a leg in Afghanistan) grow closer as Sky unconsciously helps Josh with his PTSD, and a relationship develops.

My Thoughts:
I liked this book, it reminded me of The Summer I Found You by Jolene Perry. My heart went out to Sky. She'd kept away from all temptations while classmates, drank, partied, and dallied in romances, because she was so focused on her goals which she achieved with a full Scholarship to an art program in San Francisco. I liked how we were able to see how Sky's art affected her, how it was what she used to focus when life got out of control. The relationship progression between Sky and Josh worked for me. I always make a face when characters start throwing the world love around (and I did it in this book as well), but... I don't know, it didn't both me as much as it has in other books. I can't speak too much to Josh's PTSD because although I come from a military family, my family members were lucky enough to have had to experience hand to hand combat. I imagine that Josh's struggles were very real, jumping when car backfire, experiencing flashbacks when they hear certain phrases, adjusting to relationships now that he's, not only been to war, but come back without a leg.

All in all I was happy with the characters, the setting, and I like that we have a rather ambiguous ending. All of our questions aren't answered, but I wasn't left unsatisfied.

The Friday 56 #4- I'll Meet You There

The Friday 56 is  weekly meme hosted by Freda's Voice.

Rules:

--> Grab a book any book

-->Turn to page 56 or 56% in your eReader (if you have to improvise that's okay)

--> Find any sentence, (or few, just don't spoil it) that grabs you.

-->Post it.

-->Add your (URL) post on Freda's Linky. Add the post URL, not your blog URL It's that simple.

"Seeing the leg sitting by itself--- that was the moment when I really understood what had happened to Josh."

Waiting on Wednesday-Crimson Bond by Rosamund Hodge

Waiting on Wednesday is hosted by Breaking the Spine.

When Rachelle was fifteen she was good—apprenticed to her aunt and in training to protect her village from dark magic. But she was also reckless— straying from the forest path in search of a way to free her world from the threat of eternal darkness. After an illicit meeting goes dreadfully wrong, Rachelle is forced to make a terrible choice that binds her to the very evil she had hoped to defeat.

Three years later, Rachelle has given her life to serving the realm, fighting deadly creatures in an effort to atone. When the king orders her to guard his son Armand—the man she hates most—Rachelle forces Armand to help her find the legendary sword that might save their world. As the two become unexpected allies, they uncover far-reaching conspiracies, hidden magic, and a love that may be their undoing. In a palace built on unbelievable wealth and dangerous secrets, can Rachelle discover the truth and stop the fall of endless night?

Inspired by the classic fairy tale Little Red Riding Hood, Crimson Bound is an exhilarating tale of darkness, love, and redemption.

~*~

Release Date May 5, 2014 

Today's my Birthday!!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME. HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME. HAPPY BIRRRRRTHDAAAAY TO MEEEEE. HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME. (sung to the Happy Birthday song)

Review: When by Victoria Laurie

Title: When
Publisher: Hyperion
Publication Date: January 13, 2015

"Maddie Fynn is a shy high school junior, cursed with an eerie intuitive ability: she sees a series of unique digits hovering above the foreheads of each person she encounters. Her earliest memories are marked by these numbers, but it takes her father’s premature death for Maddie and her family to realize that these mysterious digits are actually death dates, and just like birthdays, everyone has one.

Forced by her alcoholic mother to use her ability to make extra money, Maddie identifies the quickly approaching death date of one client's young son, but because her ability only allows her to see the when and not the how, she’s unable to offer any more insight. When the boy goes missing on that exact date, law enforcement turns to Maddie.

Soon, Maddie is entangled in a homicide investigation, and more young people disappear and are later found murdered. A suspect for the investigation, a target for the murderer, and attracting the attentions of a mysterious young admirer who may be connected to it all, Maddie's whole existence is about to be turned upside down. Can she right things before it's too late?" (Goodreads)

I got the book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Honestly... I liked the book.

Background:
Maddie is our protagonist and for her entire life, she's been seeing number over people heads (or on there foreheads, I really don't know). When she's like four her dad begins to teach her her numbers and she stars reciting the numbers over his head and even draws a picture of her entire family with the dates over their heads. It turns out that the dates, are the dates that people are going to die, as she learns when her father is killed. So, flashforward, Maddie and her family have moved out of the city, her mother is a pretty serious alcoholic, and her uncle, her fathers brother, does what he can, but he lives in the city so he isn't there all the time. Because their mom drinks up a long of the money, she makes Maddie tell people their death dates, kind of like she's a fortune teller, for money. It backfires one day when Maddie tells a woman that her son is going to die the next week. The boy is kidnapped, then found dead on the day Maddie predicted. The boys mother blames Maddie for it, and all of this poor girls problems begin as the cops begin hounding her and even go so far as to arrest her best friend. It's all pretty rough. She wasn't the most popular girl in school before that, but she's even beat up by two guys in a hall when the whole town thinks that she's a killer. Personally I never understood any of that because if I thought someone was a killer or a witch or basically anyone who could hurt me, I'd make it my life's mission to leave them the heck alone, but whatever.

Thoughts:
I like Maddie well enough. I felt for her, she was in a rough spot, she was trying to user her ability to help people and it back fired big time, but I have to say that I didn't really connect with her. I'm not sure what was missing, but I wasn't feeling it. As a rule of thumb I always know that I'm going to like stronger characters. I like the girls who talk back, don't take crap, and refuse to let people walk all over them. Granted, Maddie's situation was pretty intense, she was looking at jail time, so realistically I don't know. I have to say though, as soon as the cops became involved I would have forced them to show me random pictures of people that had died so I could tell them the death dates, I was really annoyed that it took her so long to do that, but I guess if she did the story would have been less exciting. I'm not sure what else to say other than that I wish I could have connect more to Maddie.

Oh and one last thing. The description says that she attracts the attention of a young admirer who may be at the center of it all. Very misleading. The guys name is Aiden, and we see him three times in the book, once in the beginning, for three paragraphs in the middle, and for a half a page at the end. She thinks he may be involved for a second somewhere in the middle, but even Maddie disregards the thought. I would have rathered he not be mentioned at all because I kept waiting for something that never happened

All in all, I was very entertained by the book, I will suggest it to my readers when it books comes out, but I doubt I'll be reading it again.

Waiting on Wednesday: Captive by Aimee Carter

Waiting on Wednesday is hosted by Breaking the Spine.

For the past two months, Kitty Doe's life has been a lie. Forced to impersonate the Prime Minister's niece, her frustration grows as her trust in her fake fiancé cracks, her real boyfriend is forbidden and the Blackcoats keep her in the dark more than ever.

But in the midst of discovering that her role in the Hart family may not be as coincidental as she thought, she's accused of treason and is forced to face her greatest fear: Elsewhere. A prison where no one can escape.

As one shocking revelation leads to the next, Kitty learns the hard way that she can trust no one, not even the people she thought were on her side. With her back against the wall, Kitty wants to believe she'll do whatever it takes to support the rebellion she believes in—but is she prepared to pay the ultimate price?

~*~

Release Date November 25, 2014 

New Adult... I'm not sure what to do about it

One of my new favorite books in Maybe Someday by Colleen Hoover. I love that Ridge and Sydney share such a close bond over music, I love the relationship between Ridge, Warren, and Sydney, I love that Ridge is so loyal to those close to him, I love how the book ends, and I LOVE LOVE LOVE that Ridge and Sydney don't fall into the same lack of communication crap that dominates so many characters in not only YA but Adult books as well, it's 90% of the attraction for me.

The ideal of a New Adult category (which Maybe Someday falls into) had so much appeal to me because I'm 27 (next week) years old. I want to read about characters who are beyond High School, but I don't have a husband (or even a serious boyfriend for that matter), I don't have kids, I've never been divorced, I can't always relate to the mindset the older characters are in. I can, however, relate to someone worried about finishing Grad School, second guessing career choices, finding a place to put down roots (because the world is mighty big), finding a close group of friends in the adult world when all of your college and high school friends have moved on... this list goes on and on. That is what it means to be a 20 something, and those are some of the things that Sydney struggles with, and yes, relationships, ugh, I could talk about that all freaking day. Romantic relationships also play a very key role in you mid to late 20's because typically that's the time people begin to make families of their own, so what does it mean if you're not there yet? All of these questions are what I want to see in NA novels, and alas, I have a hard time finding them. Maybe Someday hit the nail on the head, I'd even dare to say the the Sylvia Day books had a bit of what I was looking for under all of the sex and money, the main characters (including Carey) were just looking for their place in the world and trying to keep it from eating them alive. I even liked this book the I found on Facebook called Chasing Wishes and not just because it took place in the town where I grew up, the book was self published and could have used better beta readers (in my opinion) but again, it had some of what I was looking for.

Most of the NA books that I stumble across now... I'm not happy with (notice how I say most not all). There's lots of sex, flat characters, and it has nothing to do with a life that the majority of 20 somethings lead. Now you may be thinking, neither do the Sylvia Day books. I remind you that I said under the sex and money. There are real people in this world who have been hurt and abused and scared by the actions of others. They live a life that luckily I don't understand, and hope never to outside of the pages of a book, so yes actually, Sylvia Day. I wish more NA books were like Maybe Someday because otherwise it looks like once you hit 23, you can't think of anything but finding random people who hook with for random reasons. That's not what 23 or even 27 is about (I direction you attention to the paragraph above). I want to find more books that relate to my life (yes with some romance thrown in because I need to get it from somewhere.)

If anyone has any suggestion, throw them my way. it's going to be a long Winter and I need something to do.