Review: P.S. I Like You by Kasie West

Publisher: Pointe
Publication Date: July 26, 2016
Rating: 4 stars

While spacing out in Chemistry class, Lily scribbles some of her favorite song lyrics onto her desk. The next day, she finds that someone has continued the lyrics on the desk, and added a message to her. Intrigue! 

Soon, Lily and her anonymous pen pal are exchanging full-on letters -- sharing secrets, recommending bands, and opening up to each other. Lily realizes she's kind of falling for this letter writer. Only who is he? As Lily attempts to unravel the mystery, and juggle school, friends, crushes, and her crazy family, she discovers that matters of the heart can't always be spelled out... 

Well, I have to say, the title of this book alone would have been enough to send me packing if I hadn't read the description first. I'm a closet romantic. I love romance novels, although I would prefer some kind of plot, like running for you lives, or solving some kind of mystery. That being said, something about this idea of this book really got to me. Misunderstood girl writes song lyrics on her desk, only to have someone else complete them. Who doesn't want that to happen in real life. Secretly, everyone wants that to happen. So characters:

Lily: Our main character. I wouldn't say she's a hipster, more like hipster adjacent. She does her own thing, and while I can't say that she doesn't care what other people think (because she is a teenager, they all care), she's willing to march to the beat of her own drummer regardless of others. She wants to be a song write, but has crazy writers block. That is... until she starts her pen pal excursions with the someone at her school. I decided that I liked Lily when I saw how she interacted with her family. I have younger siblings. My sister and I are 12 years a part, I know what it's like to have them burst in your room, interrupt your time with your friends, having to constantly babysit. It's exhausting, and let me tell you, Lily handled it waaaaay better than I did. She was a great sister, a great daughter, and a pretty good best friend. Also, props to creating an amazing and vivid family dynamic. I loved reading about them.

Cade: The mortal enemy. While this was Lily's story, and it was sweet. I feel like I wish there was more interaction between Cade and Lily. We saw Thanksgiving, that car ride, a few hallway moments, and the pool. but I don't know... I think I needed a little more. SPOILER ALTER IF YOU COULDN'T FIGURE IT OUT IN THE FIRST THREE CHAPTERS We learn a lot about Cade from his letter, but I feel like we didn't really get to see it. There was a slight disconnect.

It was obvious to me from the beginning that Cade was the person writing ti Lily, but as I always say when it comes to book, it's not always the ending, it's the journey. I liked it.

Review: Breaking the Rules by Katie McGarry

Publisher: Harlequin Teen

Publication Date: December 8, 2014

Rating: 4/5

A summer road trip changes everything in this unforgettable new tale from acclaimed author Katie McGarry

For new high school graduate Echo Emerson, a summer road trip out west with her boyfriend means getting away and forgetting what makes her so... different. It means seeing cool sights while selling her art at galleries along the way. And most of all, it means almost three months alone with Noah Hutchins, the hot, smart, soul-battered guy who’s never judged her. Echo and Noah share everything — except the one thing Echo’s just not ready for.

But when the source of Echo’s constant nightmares comes back into her life, she has to make some tough decisions about what she really wants — even as foster kid Noah’s search for his last remaining relatives forces them both to confront some serious truths about life, love, and themselves.

Now, with one week left before college orientation, jobs and real life, Echo must decide if Noah's more than the bad-boy fling everyone warned her he'd be. And the last leg of an amazing road trip will turn... seriously epic. (Goodreads)

 

This book picks up where Pushing the Limit ends and man oh man and I so glad that I stumbled across this book, I didn't even know existed. So we know from the first book that Noah and Echo were pretty messed up, they both had some serious emotional baggage, and they were using the summer trip as a new beginning. Echo was going to try to sell some of her paintings, and Noah was going to be by her side every step of the way. However, during the last week of the trip everything starts to fall apart. Noah finds out that apparently he has living family members, and Echo's mom shows up. There were some parts of the book where I was literally tugging at my hair. Noah has so little confidence in his self worth that he spend most of the book sabotaging their relationship and Echo... there was so much going on there I don't know where to start. We saw some of Echo's mom at the end of the first book, and Echo does have her memories back of the fatal night, but that doesn't mean that their relationship is anywhere near functional.

I loved the same thing about this book that I loved about the last one. Echo and Noah are real people (well you know, sort of). This book shows us, that just because book one ended, doesn't mean that their lives were perfect. There were still problems, they still had issues to work out with each other and within themselves. It sounds cheesy, but more more cheesy than thinking someone can lose their parents in a house fire, or being attacked and almost killed by your bipolar mother while your father's on a date with the babysitter. Noah and Echo were bound to still have a ton of problems after the last page of “Pushing the Limits” and I'm so glad that we were able to experience it.

Review: The Paradise Trap by Catherine Jinks

Publisher: Egmont USA

Publication Date: April 24, 2012

Rating: 3/5

Marcus doesn't even want to go away for the summer. And his Mum's fond memories of Diamond Beach turn out to be nothing like reality. This could be his worst holiday ever…
But things quickly become more interesting when Marcus discovers the hidden cellar in their smelly old caravan. There, he and his new friends, the Huckstepps, find themselves touring a string of fantasy worlds filled with giant pink cats, stranded holidday makers and walking talking fairground rides, in a place where dreams turn quickly into nightmares.
Your dream holiday is meant to be the perfect escape. So run. NOW.
An a wild, exhilarating ride that will lead Marcus straight to oblivion unless he can escape the trap that's been laid out for him - and all those tempted to venture through the disappearing doors…(Goodreads)

My Junior Book Club read this book and for the most part the kids enjoyed it, although I wasn’t a big fan. A boy named Marcus discovers a staircase under a seat in the mobile home his mother bought. The staircase leaders to a cellar and anyone who opens the door finds themselves in their dream “paradise” and the creatures in their paradise did what they could to keep them from leaving. Throughout the book various characters are trapped in their dream paradise and the other characters in the book get them out.

For the most part the book was alright, but there were some very confusing parts. There’s a section of the book that takes place on a boat and neither I, nor the kids, had any idea what was happening during that chapter. There was also very little character development. I feel like none of the characters learned anything from their experience in the nightmare of a cellar. None of the characters grew, or seemed to learn anything. I understand that the book was for younger children (my book club is 4^th and 5^th grade) but I feel like it does them a disservice. I don’t know. Some of the characters were funny, the kids were able to talk about what their dream paradise and dream nightmare would be , but there wasn’t much else going on.

Review: Pushing the Limits by Katie McGarry

Publisher: Harlequin Teen

Publication Date: July 31, 2012

Rating: 4/5

So wrong for each other …and yet so right.

No one knows what happened the night Echo Emerson went from popular girl with jock boyfriend to gossiped-about outsider with "freaky" scars on her arms. Even Echo can't remember the whole truth of that horrible night. All she knows is that she wants everything to go back to normal.

But when Noah Hutchins, the smoking-hot, girl-using loner in the black leather jacket, explodes into her life with his tough attitude and surprising understanding, Echo's world shifts in ways she could never have imagined. They should have nothing in common. And with the secrets they both keep, being together is pretty much impossible.

Yet the crazy attraction between them refuses to go away. And Echo has to ask herself just how far they can push the limits and what she'll risk for the one guy who might teach her how to love again. (Goodreads)

At one point Echo was a part of the popular crowd with a jock boyfriend, chasing her dream of being an artist. Noah was a jock with loving parents and two young brothers. In present day Echo is the school freak and Noah, the bad boy foster kid who’ll sleep with any girl with legs.

I have to say, when we learned that Echo had scars on her arms, like other readers, I’d assumed that she’d cut herself and that we’d spend the rest of the book slowly learning why. However, when we learned what really happened, I must say I was surprised. As I read, I slowly put the pieces together, but that was a plot twist that I don’t think many could have put together before hand. I liked Echo as a character, although I typically like my girls stronger, we saw some of that backbone during her altercations with Beth and at the party at Noah’s house. I must say however, that I was she could say (or even think) the word sex. I don’t mind that she was a high school virgin, we see quite a bit of that in YA books actually. I can even understand that sex was difficult for her to think about she almost sounded like she was 10 years old when sex came up. It was really hard to suspend my disbelief with that. It continually took me out of the story.

I thought Noah had a great story. It began very typical, a foster kid who bounced from bad home to bad home, and is thus hardened to the world. Unlike other foster kid stories (sorry if that sounds insensitive) Noah came from a good home, and it was taken from him. The story becomes interesting when we learn that Noah’s younger brothers are with another family. Noah’s convinced the family must be abusing his brother’s like his foster parents abused him. It doesn’t help that his brothers foster parents seem to hate him, and don’t want his brothers to see him. We, as readers, are pretty sure that the boys’ foster parents are probably alright, but… you never know. When Noah’s youngest brother is hurt, Noah begins the process of adopting them when he turns 18 and ages out of the system.

The relationship between Noah and Echo is… rather typical, but done well. Tough boy protects weak girl, but as Noah tries to help Echo remember what happened the night she got the scars on her arms, you can’t help but love the both of them and route for their relationship. I like this book so much more than I was prepared to, (the mushy cover turned me off). Noah and Echo helped each other in very real ways, there was nothing superficial about this book and I can’t wait to read the others! These are real characters with real problems, that are almost hard to read about sometimes, let alone hard to imagine happening. This is one of those books that some could call dark, but I think it's so important for teens to read. They need to know what it's like for someone to be a Noah or an Echo, so that when they meet someone who those characters (because they probably will). People when only learn to truly accept each other, when they can understand each other, and books like this help us do that.

Roomies by Sara Zarr & Tara Altebrando- Review

When East Coast native Elizabeth receives her freshman-year roommate assignment, she shoots off an e-mail to coordinate the basics: television, microwave, mini-fridge. That first note to San Franciscan Lauren sparks a series of e-mails that alters the landscape of each girl's summer -- and raises questions about how two girls who are so different will ever share a dorm room.

As the countdown to college begins, life at home becomes increasingly complex. With family relationships and childhood friendships strained by change, it suddenly seems that the only people Elizabeth and Lauren can rely on are the complicated new boys in their lives . . . and each other. Even though they've never met.

National Book Award finalist Sara Zarr and acclaimed author Tara Altebrando join forces for a novel about growing up, leaving home, and getting that one fateful e-mail that assigns your college roommate. (goodreads.com)
 
I was very surprised with this book, I was expecting something like Fangirl. I was prepared to read about two girls in their first year of college getting acclimated to the freedom, and new people, and class load... you know, all that stuff that we've all been through. I was so shocked when it finally occurred to me that most of this book was about Lauren and EB's lives the summer before college and the e-mail exchanges between them. My roommate and I pretty much stopped after we figured out who was going to bring the TV and who was going to bring the fridge (I was the fridge). I love that Lauren and EB sort of became each others confidants, we all know that it's easier to tell something to a complete stranger that the people closest to you.

There was so much character development in this book! It was so intense! Without giving too much away these girls really learn a lot their last summer home before college, it's amazing how over a three month period you can learn more about yourself and your wants, than in the four years of high school.

I don't feel like I can say anymore without spoiling, I'll just announce that I'm going to dub this my first 5 stars book of the year. I was pleasantly surprised, this book had a lot going for it.

Never Fade by Alexandra Bracken- Review

I give this 4.5 stars

Ruby never asked for the abilities that almost cost her her life. Now she must call upon them on a daily basis, leading dangerous missions to bring down a corrupt government and breaking into the minds of her enemies. Other kids in the Children’s League call Ruby “Leader”, but she knows what she really is: a monster.

When Ruby is entrusted with an explosive secret, she must embark on her most dangerous mission yet: leaving the Children’s League behind. Crucial information about the disease that killed most of America’s children—and turned Ruby and the others who lived into feared and hated outcasts—has survived every attempt to destroy it. But the truth is only saved in one place: a flashdrive in the hands of Liam Stewart, the boy Ruby once believed was her future—and who now wouldn’t recognize her.

As Ruby sets out across a desperate, lawless country to find Liam—and answers about the catastrophe that has ripped both her life and America apart—she is torn between old friends and the promise she made to serve the League. Ruby will do anything to protect the people she loves. But what if winning the war means losing herself? (goodreads.com)

Alexandra Bracken what are you doing to me??? In the last book you squished my heart with Ruby and Liam, and I can't even think about what a wreck I was wondering what had happened to Chubs, I love him!!! So after the teaser in chapter one, we see what Ruby's life is like in the Children's League and we're introduced to some new characters. I'll be honest, I can get pretty attached to characters, and when new ones are introduced that play a large part in the story, I don't always react well. However, I was not disappointed Jude is adorable, and if anyone has ever wondered what I'm like on the other side of the computer, think if Vida and Chubs had a witty and sarcastic baby.

Overall I'd have to say that I was pretty happy with this book although it did take me a while to get through, I had trouble connecting with Vida, Jude, and Cate and I just wanted Chubs and Liam back. Vida and Jude are very solid characters but... I don't know, I think I just missed Chubs.

Never Fade gets 4.5 stars just because it did take me some time to connect.

It's a new year

Okay folks, it's a new year and I have some new resolutions. I began this blogging things without any type of structure, it was a way for me to put down my thoughts and ideas and I wanted to find people as passionate about books as I am. I feel like I'm starting to get the hang of things so this year I want to provide more structure for my blog. I'm thinking of doing Top Ten Tuesdays, and I might even hop on the Manga Mondays train because I read Manga anyway! I also know that I need to work on my reviews, they're all over the place.

I think I'm going to change the layout of my blog also, I'm not as computer and html savvy as some of the rest of you out there (from the look of your amazing blogs) but I can at least choose a new layout.

Changes are coming people, slowly but surely!!