Review: But Then I Came Back (ARC)

TITLE: But Then I Came Back
AUTHOR: Estelle Laure
PUBLISHER: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Books For Young Readers
PUBLICATION DATE: 4/4/2017
FORMAT: ARC
PAGES: 320
SOURCE: Amazon Vine/Publisher
MY RATING: 🦄🦄🦄

SUMMARY (FROM BACK COVER): From the author of This Raging Light comes the story of Eden Jones, a seventeen-year-old girl who feels lost after surviving a near-fatal accident. Unable to connect with her family and friends, Eden forms an unlikely relationship with Joe, a boy who comes to the hospital to visit Jasmine, a friend who may soon be gone forever. Eden is the only person who can get through to Jasmine, but is Eden brave enough to face a world that's bigger and more magical than she ever would have allowed?

OVERALL IMPRESSION: This book was way more contemporary than I was expecting. I thought it was going to have more supernatural elements. The premise of this book actually reminded me a lot of the Freeform TV show Beyond, but they are nothing alike at all. I think I would have enjoyed this book more if it had been marketed as a contemporary love story than as a story revolving around bringing a girl back from a coma, as we rarely saw anything from that aspect of the story.

CHARACTERS: I'm not entirely sure how I feel about the characters. They all seemed great and it seemed like they had wonderful relationships with each other, but I feel like I didn't get to observe it enough.

COVER: The cover is very pretty and is what initially drew me into finding out more about this book.

**I received an ARC of this book from Amazon Vine for my honest review. All opinions are my own and have not been influenced in any way.

Review: My Girl

TITLE: My Girl
AUTHOR: Patricia Hermes
PUBLISHER: Pocket Books
PUBLICATION DATE: 1991
FORMAT: Mass Market Paperback
PAGES: 192
SOURCE: Bought
MY RATING: 

SUMMARY (FROM GOODREADS): When your Dad's an undertaker, you Mom's in heaven, and your Grandma's got a screw loose...it's good to have a friend who understands you. Even if he is a boy.

Thomas J. is Vada's best friend. They live near enough to each other to bike ride over and play, or even just hang out. The two are always together, sharing their afternoons, their adventures in the lake, and all of their secrets. Then something terrible happens to Thomas J. and Vada has to learn to fill her days without her best friend around.

OVERALL IMPRESSION: I have only seen bits and pieces of the movie, never actually watching it all the way through, but I knew a little bit about the story line and when I found the book at a thrift store, I decided to pick it up and give it a try. It's a really short book so it didn't take long to read at all. I enjoyed reading it. It was a quick read to cleanse my palate after reading some longer books. The story was fun but also sad and emotional.

CHARACTERS: The characters in this book seemed very real to me. I could picture these kids running around together. The things they did seems very likely things that kids do. I wasn't a fan of Vada's father though. I understand that he was probably fed up with her hypochondria, but she was obviously fighting for his attention because her mother was gone. I just feel that he could have taken more time with her to explain things and just spend time with her.

COVER: The cover is fine. It's taken from the movie, which the book was actually written after the movie instead of the other way around.

Review: Famous in Love

TITLE: Famous in Love
AUTHOR: Rebecca Serle
PUBLISHER: Macmillan Children's Books
PUBLICATION DATE: 10/23/2014
FORMAT: Paperback
PAGES: 309
SOURCE: Publisher
MY RATING: 

SUMMARY (FROM GOODREADS): She fell in love with him in the books--now she has the chance to star opposite him in the film...

Paige doesn't think she's particularly special, but after getting the starring role in a massive film adaptation of the bestselling Locked trilogy, the rest of the world would disagree. Now she's thrown into the spotlight, and into a world of gossip, rumour and deceit. The only people who know what she's going through are her two male co-stars, and they can't stand the sight of each other. Paige knows it's a mistake to fall in love on the set of a movie, but days of on-screen romance and intensity start to change her mind. The question is, can she keep what happens behind the scenes a secret when the world is watching her every move?

OVERALL IMPRESSION: I needed something light, fluffy and quick to pull me out of my slight reading slump and this book did the trick. I really enjoyed reading it. It was a lot of fun following Paige around and wondering what was going to happen next and speculating how the movie would turn out.

The ending has me a little torn. I don't really agree with Paige's choice and I'm not entirely sure I understand what she's really doing. I'm looking forward to picking up the sequel soon to see what happens next and finally see what Paige is going to do.

CHARACTERS: I didn't feel like there was a lot of character development in this book. I liked our main character, Paige, but I don't really feel that I know her as well as I could. I'm hoping that the next book in the series will have more insight into who all of these characters are.

Also, just a warning, there is a love triangle in this book. I really can't stand love triangles, but I didn't know there was going to be one in this story and I was already too far in to stop reading.

COVER: The cover is cute. I like the color.

The Rules Review

TITLE: The Rules
AUTHORS: Nancy Holder & Debbie Viguie
PUBLISHER: Delacorte Press
PUBLICATION DATE: 6/23/2015
FORMAT: ARC
PAGES: 352
SOURCE: Amazon Vine
MY RATING:

COYER SCAVENGER HUNT #29: READ A BOOK WITH NO MAGICAL OR FUTURISTIC ELEMENTS - 2 POINTS

BACK COVER SUMMARY: Junior Robin Brisset has no idea what she's in for when she accepts an invitation to one of Callabrese High's most exclusive parties. And when the trademark scavenger hunt begins, Robin must go against every rule she's lived by to survive.

OVERALL IMPRESSION: I was hoping for a really scary and thrilling book and that's what I got. Unfortunately, I didn't enjoy this as much as I wanted to. This book has so many different points of view. We just jump around from character to character and it was hard for me to keep everything straight. I could follow what was going on in the story line, but I had trouble keeping track of who was who. I feel like if this book had stuck to one or two perspectives, it could easily have been a 4 star book for me. It's an action packed book; there's a lot happening and I was invested in the story, but I feel like the big reveal would have been more shocking to me me if I'd been able to keep track of the characters better.

CHARACTERS: As I said above, there were so many different perspectives that I couldn't really keep the characters straight. I feel like I didn't really get to know anyone because we were jumping around from person to person.

COVER: The cover is great. It's really creepy and fits with the feel of the book.

**I received an ARC of this book from Amazon Vine and the publisher. My opinions are my own and have not been influenced in any way.**

Rise (Novella) Review

TITLE: Rise
SERIES: Paper Gods #2.5
AUTHOR: Amanda Sun
PUBLISHER: Harlequin Teen
PUBLICATION DATE: 5/1/2015
FORMAT: ebook
PAGES: 51
SOURCE: Amazon Freebie
MY RATING: 

COYER SCAVENGER HUNT #23: READ A BOOK SET IN A FOREIGN COUNTRY: 2 POINTS

SUMMARY (FROM GOODREADS): A long, long time ago, before the world was as we know it, Izanami and Izanagi came into being. Two of the first of the ancient gods of Japan, they crafted the world from ink and their own imaginations. Izanagi wants, more than anything, to be with Izanami--but one moment of pride could tear them apart forever.

Yuki and Tanaka have been friends for as long as they can remember, but lately deeper feelings have been bubbling beneath the surface. How do they navigate the transition from friendship to true love without destroying the powerful bond between them?

Set a millennia apart, can these two couples, living parallel love stories, find their happily-ever-afters?

MY THOUGHTS: This was super quick to read. It doesn't really add a whole lot to the story line of the trilogy, so it's not a must read to follow the trilogy, but it's still nice to read to get a little bit of insight. Yuki was one of my favorite characters in the first two books in the Paper Gods trilogy, so I was glad to see a novella where she was one of the main focuses. This novella has me excited to pick up the third and final book in the series.

COVER: Again, another beautiful cover from the Paper Gods series. They are all just stunning.

Paper Towns Review

TITLE: Paper Towns

AUTHOR: John Green

PUBLISHER: Penguin Group

PUBLICATION DATE: 10/16/2008

FORMAT: ebook

PAGES: 246

SOURCE: Bought

MY RATING: 

COYER SCAVENGER HUNT #78: READ A BOOK THAT ONE OF YOUR GOODREADS FRIENDS HAS GIVEN 4/5 STARS AND THAT ANOTHER GOODREADS FRIEND HAS GIVEN 1/2 STARS

SUMMARY FROM GOODREADS: Quentin Jacobsen has spent a lifetime loving the magnificently adventurous Margo Roth Spiegelman from afar. So when she cracks open a window and climbs back into his life--dressed like a ninja and summoning him for an ingenious campaign of revenge--he follows.

After their all-nighter ends and a new day breaks, Q arrives at school to discover that Margo, always an enigma, has now become a mystery. But Q soon learns that there are clues--and they're for him. Urged down a disconnected path, the closer he gets, the less Q sees of the girl he thought he knew.

OVERALL IMPRESSION: I think it's safe to say that I am late to the party with this one. It seems like everyone but me has already read it, so when I found out a movie was coming out, I figured it was time I picked it up. I enjoyed the first part of the book quite a bit more than the second and third parts. I really enjoyed watching Q and Margo go on their adventure and enjoyed their interactions. The rest of the book, while still good, wasn't as fun for me. 

I flew through this book. I didn't realize I had gotten as far as I had when I was reading. It's such a fast and easy read. 

I'm not really sure how I feel about the ending. I feel like it was written the way that it was supposed to be written, but I just don't know if I really liked it or not. I would love to see a short novella from Margo's perspective. I think it would be really interesting to read about her journey.

I'm excited to see this movie when it comes out to compare it to the book, and I'm happy that I no longer have to avoid the movie trailers for fear of spoilers.

CHARACTERS: I feel like I would have connected with Margo had she been in the story more (dual perspectives maybe), but the rest of the characters that played a bigger role later on (Ben, Radar, Lacey) didn't really do anything for me. I feel like I didn't know much about them. They had potential to be great characters, but I feel like I didn't get to learn about them.

COVER: I like the cover a lot. It shows that this is going to be a road trip book, which immediately appeals to me.

Love and Other Perishable Items Review

TITLE: Love and Other Perishable Items
AUTHOR: Laura Buzo
PUBLISHER: Alfred A. Knopf
PUBLICATION DATE: 12/11/2012
FORMAT: Hardcover
PAGES: 243
SOURCE: Bought
MY RATING:

INSIDE COVER SUMMARY: Love is: heart-wrenching, tongue-tying, butterfly-inducing. But most of all, love is awkward.

Amelia should know.

From the moment she sets eyes on Chris, she is a goner. Lost. Sunk. Head over heals infatuated with him. It's problematic, since Chris, 21, is a sophisticated university student, while Amelia, 15, is 15.

Amelia isn't stupid. She knows it's not gonna happen. So she plays it cool around Chris--at least, as cool as she can. Working checkout together at the local supermarket, they strike up a friendship: swapping life stories; bantering about everything from classic books to B movies; and cataloging the many injustices of growing up. Their conversations crackle with wit and repressed longing, and as time goes on, Amelia's crush doesn't seem so one-sided anymore. But if Chris likes her back, what then? Can two people in such different places in life really be together?

OVERALL IMPRESSION: I enjoyed this book. It's a quick contemporary, but it still has depth to it. I feel like it's really relateable because what teenage girl hasn't had a crush on an older boy?

I like that there was the possibility of a relationship brewing below the surface, but that both characters realized the age difference wouldn't be appropriate with how young Amelia was.

I really enjoyed the references to all of the other books, I just wish I had actually read the books they were referencing so I could know more what they were talking about. But this was a solid, enjoyable book that I would recommend.

CHARACTERS: I liked both Amelia and Chris. I felt that they were believable. Amelia's parents made me angry though. I was extremely agitated about the fact that they would just expose their kids to all of that secondhand smoke and act annoyed when Amelia complained about it.

COVER: The cover is adorable. The mason jar is cute, the font is cute, the layout is cute. Cuteness all around.

Miss Peregrine's Home For Peculiar Children Review

TITLE: Miss Peregrine's Home For Peculiar Children
AUTHOR: Ransom Riggs
PUBLISHER: Quirk Books
PUBLICATION DATE: 6/7/2011
FORMAT: ebook
PAGES: 352
SOURCE: Library
MY RATING: 

SUMMARY (FROM GOODREADS): A mysterious island. An abandoned orphanage. A strange collection of curious photographs.

A horrific family tragedy sets sixteen-year-old Jacob journeying o a remote island off the coast of Wales, where he discovers the crumbling ruins of Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children. As Jacob explores its abandoned bedrooms and hallways, it becomes clear that the children were more than just peculiar. They may have been dangerous. They may have been quarantined on a deserted island for good reason. And somehow--impossible though it seems--they may still be alive.

OVERALL IMPRESSION: I don't know exactly what I expected this book to be like, but it was a lot different than I thought it would be. I had pretty high hopes before going into this book and I was a little let down. The book was still good, but I guess with everything that I had heard about it, I thought I was going to enjoy it a lot more.

I liked seeing all of the pictures throughout the books. They were super creepy and added to the feel of the story.

I enjoyed learning about all of the peculiars and what each of them could do. I'm excited to see what's going to happen next in the story and also what is going to happen to Miss Peregrine.

CHARACTERS: I really hope to see more of Olive in the next books. I like her ability and her personality. I'm also intrigued by Millard and Enoch, and all of the children really.

COVER: The cover is very creepy and fits right in with the rest of the book.

The Summer After You and Me Spotlight Blitz + Review & Giveaway

TITLE: The Summer After You and Me

AUTHOR: Jennifer Salvato Doktorski

PUBLISHER: Sourcebooks Fire

PUBLICATION DATE: May 2015

ISBN: 9781492619031

FORMAT/PRICE: Trade paper/$9.99

Buy Links:

Amazon: http://amzn.to/1bdZCrJ

Apple: http://apple.co/1GZ6qq1

BAM: http://bit.ly/1wWFUdw

B&N: http://bit.ly/1ABV3x6

Chapters: http://bit.ly/1EnXK6R

Indiebound: http://bit.ly/1EtSUr9

Will it be a summer of fresh starts or second chances?

For Lucy, the Jersey Shore isn't just the perfect summer escape, it's home. As a local girl, she knows not to get attached to the tourists. They breeze in during Memorial Day weekend, crowding her coastal town and stealing moonlit kisses, only to pack up their beach umbrellas and empty promises on Labor Day. Still, she can't help but crush on charming Connor Malloy. His family spends every summer next door, and she longs for their friendship to turn into something deeper.

Then Superstorm Sandy sweeps up the coast, bringing Lucy and Connor together for a few intense hours. Except nothing is the same in the wake of the storm, and Lucy is left to pick up the pieces of her broken heart and her broken home. Time may heal all wounds, but with Memorial Day approaching and Connor returning, Lucy's summer is sure to be filled with fireworks.

About The Author:

Jennifer Salvato Doktorski is the author of two YA novels and is a freelance nonfiction writer. Her first paid writing gig was at The North Jersey Herald & News, where she wrote obituaries and began her lifelong love of news and coffee. She lives in New Jersey with her family.

An Excerpt:

Connor opened the gorgeous double doors, each with half-moon stained-glass windows on the top, and motioned me inside. “After you.”

The house had that distinct yet hard-to-describe smell of a beach home that had been closed up for a while. I walked to the center of the high-ceilinged foyer and immediately pic­tured pine garland and twinkling white lights wrapped around the sweeping banister.

“Wow. I’d love to spend Christmas here,” I said and immedi­ately regretted being so sappy.

Connor smiled. “You could fit a twelve-foot tree in this hallway.”

I admit, over the years I’ve had my share of Connor-centric fantasies. However the image of him watching his children pad down the stairs on Christmas morning had never been one of them…until that very second. I liked thinking about Connor that way.

“Come on. You’ve got to see the master bedroom.”

The wholesome image of a Malloy family Christmas van­ished.Aha, I thought. That was the Connor I knew.

“Uh-uh,” I said. “The widow’s walk. I want to go there first.”

“Race you,” he said and took off running.

He beat me up the two flights and was waiting for me in the third-floor hallway toward the back of the house. Off the hallway was an art studio, with a drafting table and a bookcase. There was also a telescope standing near the window.

“Follow me.” He crossed the studio and unlocked the dead­bolt to the narrow door leading outside.

“You’ve already been up there?”

“First thing I did when I got here,” Connor said.

“Not the master bedroom?”

“Nah, that’s the first thing I wanted to do when you got here.”

I thought it was just more flirty banter, but Connor’s flushed cheeks looked as warm as my body felt. He stared at me for a beat too long and my throat constricted. I was suddenly aware that I’d left the house with slept-on hair and no mascara. The look on Connor’s face told me he hadn’t noticed. His eyes never left mine.

Finally he said, “Come on, Luce. I’ll follow you.” The space was tight when I passed in front of him, and the closeness of his body gave me the shivers. I opened the door and stepped outside onto a small patio. I walked toward the wrought-iron spiral staircase that lead to the widow’s walk on the roof and placed my hand on the railing. My knees felt shaky as I began the climb, but I never looked back.

My Review:

This book was a fun read. It is a great book to pick up while lounging on the beach or by the pool during the summer. The main character was really frustrating to me. If you don't want to be in a relationship with somebody, then don't be in that relationship. It's not a hard concept, but this girl just can't grasp that concept. Other than that, this was a fun, quick read. I absolutely loved the ending. It was so sweet and perfect.

**I was given an eARC copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. My thoughts are my own and have not been influenced in any way.**

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Mini Reviews #1

(picture from freepik.com)

Mini reviews will be a new feature on my blog. It won't have a set day for publication and will probably be a fairly rare post. I have a stack of books that I have read and haven't gotten around to writing a review for. Some of the books are books that I read quite a while ago and have forgotten the details of, so I will be writing mini reviews of those books with some notes I have taken while reading, as well as a star rating.

TITLE: Rutabaga The Adventure Chef

AUTHOR: Eric Colossal

PUBLISHER: Harry N. Abrams

PUBLICATION DATE: 3/3/2015

PAGES: 128

FORMAT: eARC

SOURCE: Netgalley

MY RATING: 

MY THOUGHTS: I chuckled out loud a few times while reading this. It was a pretty weird story. The ending was abrupt, I didn't know it ended until I tried to turn the page and there were no more pages.

TITLE: The Silence of Six

AUTHOR: E.C. Myers

PUBLISHER: Adaptive Books

PUBLICATION DATE: 11/5/2014

FORMAT: eARC

PAGES: 274

SOURCE: Netgalley

MY RATING: 

MY THOUGHTS: I was definitely pulled in by the story. There's a lot of talk about hacking, but I didn't find it confusing at all and it was actually really easy to follow. I wanted to know what was going on throughout the book and why Evan did what he did. I found myself pretty invested in the story line and was trying to pay attention to see what everything was building up to. I think the ending was a good one. It tied things up, but didn't have a complete finale so a sequel could be made, but isn't necessary. 

TITLE: Every You, Every Me

AUTHOR: David Levithan

PUBLISHER: Ember

PUBLICATION DATE: 9/11/2012

FORMAT: Paperback

PAGES: 243

SOURCE: Bought

MY RATING: 

MY THOUGHTS: I wish the photographs in this book were bigger or in color so I could actually see them. I was very confused while reading this book and had no idea what was going on. This was a really weird book and I'm not sure how I feel about it.

TITLE: Bad Taste In Boys
AUTHOR: Carrie Harris
PUBLISHER: Delacorte Press
PUBLICATION DATE: 7/12/2011
FORMAT: Hardcover
PAGES: 201
SOURCE: Bought
MY RATING: 

MY THOUGHTS: I picked this book up because I wanted a quick, easy read and the back of the book implied that it was going to be funny. Going in, all I knew was that it was about zombies. In my opinion, this book wasn't funny at all. The story and the "cure" were extremely far fetched to me. I was glad that this was so short, or I probably wouldn't have finished it.


TITLE: Lost For Words
AUTHOR: Alice Kuipers
PUBLISHER: Harper Teen
PUBLICATION DATE: 5/11/2015
FORMAT: Hardcover
PAGES: 210
SOURCE: Bought
MY RATING: 

MY THOUGHTS: This book sounded like it was going to be really emotional. It was a really quick read; the writing was very juvenile with a lot of short sentences. The main character seemed to me like a typical girl and I felt she handled the tragedies in her life pretty much the same way I would expect anyone to. The ending was just as it should have been.

Fairy Keeper Review

TITLE: Fairy Keeper
AUTHOR: Amy Bearce
PUBLISHER: Curiosity Quills Press
PUBLICATION DATE: 3/5/2015
FORMAT: eARC
PAGES: 230
SOURCE: Publisher
MY RATING: 

SUMMARY (FROM GOODREADS): Forget cute fairies in pretty dresses. In the world of Aluvia, most fairies are more like irritable, moody insects. Almost everyone in the world of Aluvia views the fairy keeper mark as a gift, but not fourteen-year-old Sierra. She hates being a fairy keeper, but the birthmark is right there on the back of her neck. It shows everyone she was born with the natural ability to communicate, attract, and even control the tiny fairies whose nectar is amazingly powerful. Fairy nectar can heal people, but it is also a key ingredient in synthesizing Flight, an illegal elixir that produces dreaminess, apathy and hallucinations. She's forced to care for a whole hive of the bee-like beasties by her Flight-dealing, dark alchemist father.

Then one day, Sierra discovers the fairies of her hatch are mysteriously dead. The fairy queen is missing. Her father's Flight operation is halted, and he plans to make up for the lost income by trading her little sister to be an elixir runner for another dark alchemist, a dangerous thug. Desperate to protect her sister, Sierra convinces her father she can retrieve the lost queen and get his operation up and running.

The problem? Sierra's queen wasn't the only queen to disappear. They're all gone, every single one, and getting them back will be deadly dangerous.

Sierra journeys with her best friend and her worst enemy--assigned by her father to dog her every step--to find the missing queens. Along the way, they learn that more than just her sister's life is at stake if they fail. There are secrets in the Skyclad Mountains where the last wild fairies were seen. The magic Sierra finds there has the power to transform their world, but only if she can first embrace her calling as a fairy keeper.

OVERALL IMPRESSION: I enjoyed this book. There was a point in the story where I was afraid we were going to run into a love triangle, but fortunately that didn't happen. I liked running into all of the different magical creatures. It was interesting to see the way they were described. This was a good story. There was plenty of action and adventure, a couple of bad guys, and a mission. It was well rounded and fun to read. I felt good about the ending. I like how everything was wrapped up.

CHARACTERS: The main character, Sierra, was a pretty good character. She was strong and wanted to do everything she had to in order to get her sister back, but at the same time, she was still a teenage girl and felt like a teenage girl. I also really liked the development between the characters throughout the book. I liked seeing how the different relationships between different characters changed over time.

COVER: I like the cover. I like that we get to see the butterfly tattoo that is described in the book.

**I received an eARC of this book from the publisher for my honest review. All opinions are my own and have not been influenced in any way.**

Miles To Go Review

TITLE: Miles to Go
AUTHOR: Miley Cyrus with Hilary Liftin
PUBLISHER: Disney Hyperion
PUBLICATION DATE: 1/1/2009
FORMAT: Hardcover
PAGES: 272
SOURCE: Bought
MY RATING:


INSIDE COVER SUMMARY: Three years ago, Miley Cyrus was a virtual unknown. Her life in rural Tenneessee was filled with family, friends, school, cheerleading, and the daily tasks of living on a farm. And then came a little show called Hannah Montana.

Almost overnight, Miley would rocket to superstardom, becoming a television and singing phenomenon. Quiet days were replaced with sold-out concerts, television appearances, and magazine shoots. But through it all, Miley has remained close to her family and friends and has stayed connected to the Southern roots that have made her so strong.

In Miles to Go, Miley offers an honest, humorous, and often touching story of one girl's coming-of-age--from private moments with her pappy to off-roading with her dad, Billy Ray, to her run-ins with mean girls. Miley talks about suffering through drama and heartbreak and coming out the other end unscathed (relatively). And now, for the first time, she will discuss it all--the milestones still left to reach (driver's license! voting!), the dreams to live out (travel to Asia! find true love!), and the lessons to be learned (remembering to enjoy every moment!).

This is a truly unique look inside the world of one of today's biggest and brightest stars as she tackles looking back and moving forward. 

OVERALL IMPRESSION: I am not afraid to admit that I loved the television show Hannah Montana and was sad when it ended. This book pretty much explains how Miley Cyrus became Hanna Montana as well as her journey during and slightly after the show ended. You can definitely tell that this book was written by a younger person by the voice of the story, but I still enjoyed it and was entertained. This book will not blow you away by any means, but it was interesting to me to get an inside look at Miley Cyrus's early days. I really liked reading all of the little lists that were randomly scattered throughout the book.

I really wish that Miley would write another book. I feel like she is misunderstood. Yes, she has made some poor choices about the way she has presented herself, but I feel like she is a very kind and caring person. I have seen her on a few talk shows and it seems like she wants to express herself and have fun. I would like to see how a book about the last few years would compare and I'd really be interested to see what she would have to say now.

COVER: The cover is fine. It's a picture of Miley for a book about Miley.

Read Between The Lines Review

Goodreads

TITLE: Read Between The Lines

AUTHOR: Jo Knowles

PUBLISHER: Candlewick Press
PUBLICATION DATE: 3/10/2015

FORMAT: ARC

PAGES: 336

SOURCE: Amazon Vine

MY RATING:

BACK COVER SUMMARY: Unpopular Nate suffers a broken finger courtesy of a bully in gym class. The middle one--splinted to flip off the world. It won't be the last time that finger is raised in this extraordinary novel. Dreams Claire envisions herself sitting in a cafe, filling a journal with her thoughts--but fate has other plans. One cheerleader dates a closeted basketball star; another questions just how, as a "big girl," she fits in. A group of boys scam clueless drivers for beer money without remorse--or so it seems.

Their voices--and many others--speak of the complex dance that is life in a small town. These characters orbit one another, trying to understand and be understood in the face of trauma, heartbreak, and revenge. The line where presentation and perception meet can be hard to discern. Unless, of course, one can look a little closer--and read between the lines.

OVERALL IMPRESSION: This book is made up of many many different perspectives. I like how all of the stories are intertwined, but we don't see them collide all at once, we see things unfold slowly throughout the story. It makes you think about how people are always interspersed in each other's lives and how we are all connected in some way or another, even if we don't realize the impact we may have on other people. This book is a very small snippet of time for this community and it was really interesting to read about.

CHARACTERS: The book gives the perspectives of ten different characters. Because the book is so short and there are so many characters, I feel like I didn't really get to know any of them as deeply as I would have liked. But I also feel that this story is more about the community as a whole than any one individual character, so it works for this book.

COVER: The cover is pretty simplistic, which is a feature I like in covers. It ties in well with the story.

**I received and ARC of this book from Amazon Vine for my honest review.**

The Third Twin Review

TITLE: The Third Twin
AUTHOR: C. J. Omololu
PUBLISHER: Delacorte Press
PUBLICATION DATE: 2/24/2015
FORMAT: ARC
PAGES: 336
SOURCE: Amazon Vine
MY RATING:


BACK COVER SUMMARY: When they were little, Lexi and her identical twin, Ava made up a third sister, Alicia. If something broke? Alicia did it. Cookies got eaten? Alicia's guilty. Alicia was always to blame for everything.

The game is all grown up now that the girls are seniors. They use Alicia as their cover to go out with boys who are hot but not exactly dating material. Boys they'd never, ever be with in real life.

Now one of the guys Alicia went out with has turned up dead, and Lexi wants to stop the game for good. As coincidences start piling up, Ava insists that if they follow the rules for being Alicia, everything will be fine. But when another boy is killed, the DNA evidence and surveillance photos point to only one suspect--Alicia. The girl who doesn't exist.

OVERALL IMPRESSION: I really like the concept behind this story and I was hoping that it would live up to my expectations. My expectations were a little too high though and I was slightly disappointed, but I didn't hate it. I was expecting this book to read as more of a mystery/suspense novel, but it was more like a contemporary novel with  mystery/suspense elements. The story line was good, I just felt like I wanted it to be more intense. I wanted to be kept on the edge of my seat the whole time, but the story was more tame with a few moments of suspense. I would definitely recommend this to readers who like contemporary but want to try to branch out a little bit.

CHARACTERS: I feel like the characters kept making some decisions that I can't see anyone ever making. It just didn't make any sense to me why they were choosing to do these things. My favorite character in this book was Zane. I feel like he was a loyal friend and I liked his personality.

COVER: I like the cover. It is really creepy and part of the reason that I expected this book to be a lot more suspenseful.

**I received an ARC of this book from Amazon Vine for my honest review**

 

Playlist For The Dead Review

Goodreads

TITLE: Playlist For The Dead

AUTHOR: Michelle Falkoff

PUBLISHER: Harper Teen

PUBLICATION DATE: 1/27/2015

FORMAT: ARC

PAGES: 288

SOURCE: Amazon Vine

MY RATING:

SUMMARY (From Goodreads): Here's what Sam knows: There was a party. There was a fight. The next morning, his best friend, Hayden, was dead. And all he left Sam was a playlist of songs, and a suicide note: For Sam--listen and you'll understand.

As he listens to song after song, Sam tries to face up to what happened the night Hayden killed himself. But it's only by taking out his earbuds and opening his eyes to the people around him that he will finally be able to piece together his best friend's story. And maybe have a chance to change his own.

Part mystery, part love story, and part coming-of-age tale in the vein of Stephen Chbosky's The Perks of Being a Wallflower and Tim Tharp's The Spectacular Now, Playlist for the Dead is an honest and gut-wrenching first novel about loss, rage, what it feels like to outgrow a friendship that's always defined you--and the struggle to redefine yourself. But above all, it's about finding hope when hope seems like the hardest thing to find.

OVERALL IMPRESSION: I had pretty high hopes for this book, but I was slightly let down. It didn't hold my attention as much as I wanted it to. I wanted to know what was going on and what was going to happen, but the book was so slow moving that I don't know if reading it was worth finding out what actually did happen. 

I think the ending was done nicely. For a book with this tough subject matter, I feel the book ended in the best way possible.

CHARACTERS: I liked Sam, the main character. I felt bad for him having to deal with the struggles of losing his only friend and having to come to terms with moving on with his life and putting himself out there.

COVER: The cover is amazing. I love the color and the silhouettes. 

**I received an ARC of this book from Amazon Vine for my honest review.**

Black Ice Review

Goodreads

TITLE: Black Ice

AUTHOR: Becca Fitzpatrick

PUBLISHER: Simon & Schuster Books For Young Readers

PUBLICATION DATE: 10/7/2014

FORMAT: Hardcover

PAGES: 392

SOURCE: Amazon Vine

MY RATING:

INSIDE COVER SUMMARY: Britt Pfeiffer has trained to backpack the Teton Range, but she isn't prepared when her ex-boyfriend, who still haunts her every thought, wants to join her. Before Britt can explore her feelings for Calvin, an unexpected blizzard forces her to seek shelter in a remote cabin and accept the hospitality of its two very handsome occupants -- but these men are fugitives, and they take her hostage.

In exchange for her life, Britt agrees to guide the men off the mountain. As they set off, Britt knows she must stay alive long enough for Calvin to find her. Things get even more complicated when Britt finds chilling evidence of a series of murders that took place on that very mountain -- a discovery that may make her the killer's next target.

But nothing is as it seems in the mountains, and everyone is keeping secrets, including Mason, one of her kidnappers. His kindness is confusing Britt. Is he an enemy or an ally?

OVERALL IMPRESSION: This story wasn't what I wanted it to be. I feel like it could have been done a lot better. That being said, I did find myself wanting to keep reading to see what was going to happen next. The premise of the story pulled me in and had me interested, but I was frustrated with how naive the girls were and angry with how easily they trusted complete strangers. The story was dragged out a little bit in parts, but it was suspenseful enough to make me not want to put down the book.

CHARACTERS: Mason made me really angry. I wanted him to hurry up and explain himself. The way the book was going, I knew he was eventually going to explain some things, but he just dragged it out and waited so long. Britt and Korbie make quite a few decisions that don't make sense and are agitating.

COVER: I really like the cover, except for the guy on it. It would have been the perfect cover if it just had the scenery on it.

**I received a finished copy of this book from Amazon Vine for my honest review.**

A Thousand Pieces of You Review

Goodreads

TITLE: A Thousand Pieces of You

AUTHOR: Claudia Gray

PUBLISHER: Harper Teen

PUBLICATION DATE: 11/4/2014

PAGES: 368

FORMAT: ARC

SOURCE: Amazon Vine/Publisher

MY RATING:

BACK COVER SUMMARY: What if the universe is in fact a multiverse? Countless dimensions exist, all layered within one another. Each dimension represents one set of possibilities. Every possibility, every time fate flips a coin, splits the dimensions yet again, creating yet more layers of reality. It goes on forever, to infinity. There are patterns within the dimension. Mathematical parallels. People who have met in one reality will be likely to meet in another. Certain things that happen will happen over and over, in different ways, but more often than you could explain by chance alone. Call it fate.

From New York Times  bestselling author Claudia Gray comes a heart-racing, space-and-time-bending new trilogy that asks whether, amid infinite possibilities, one love can endure.

OVERALL IMPRESSION: I'm having a really hard time writing a review for this one. I really love the idea behind the story of there being this infinite amount of parallel dimensions. And I also liked the plot of the story and where that was and continues to go, but for some reason I just wasn't sucked into the book. I found myself relieved when I was done reading because I knew I wouldn't have to pick it up again. That doesn't mean it was bad though, it just wasn't my cup of tea.

CHARACTERS: The characters were okay. I liked Marguerite the most, but I didn't really feel connected to anyone.

COVER: The cover is beautiful. Being totally honest, it's the whole reason I became interested in this book in the first place.

**I received an ARC of this book from Amazon Vine for my honest review.

Eve & Adam Review

Goodreads

TITLE: Eve & Adam

AUTHOR: Michael Grant &Katherine Applegate

PUBLISHER: Feiwel and Friends

PUBLICATION DATE: 10/2/2012

PAGES: 291

FORMAT: Hardcover

SOURCE: Bought (Book Outlet)

MY RATING: 

INSIDE COVER SUMMARY: In the beginning there was an apple. And then there was a car crash, a horrible, debilitating injury, and a hospital. But before Evening Spiker could regain consciousness, there was a strange boy checking her out of the hospital and rushing her to Spiker Biopharmaceuticals, her mother's research facility. Once there, Eve has to heal, and cope with an eerie isolation only interrupted by her overbearing mother, a strange group of doctors, and the mysterious boy who brought her there.

Just when Eve thinks she will die--not from her injuries, but boredom--her mother gives her a special project: Create the perfect boy.

Using an amazingly detailed simulation that is designed to teach human genetics, Eve starts building a boy from the ground up: eyes, hair, muscles, even a brain, and potential personality traits. Eve is creating Adam. And he will be just perfect...won't he?

OVERALL IMPRESSION: This book is set in San Francisco. I just moved away from the bay area about a month ago, and San Francisco is my favorite city, so I really enjoyed seeing the references to things in the city (In-N-Out, The Embarcadero).

The pacing of this book could have been a lot better. The main story line doesn't start to progress until about 1/3rd of the way through and it starts getting really good around the halfway point. I could already see where the story was going so I felt like it was just dragged out way too long. The ending was also really rushed and over very quickly. All that being said, I still enjoyed the story.

CHARACTERS: I didn't really have any strong connection with any of the characters. It wasn't that they weren't fully developed, I just didn't feel like I could relate to any of them.

COVER: I really like the cover. It's vibrant and eye catching and I love how the cover itself, under the dust jacket ties into the design as well.

Schooled Review

Goodreads

TITLE: Schooled

AUTHOR: Christa Charter

PUBLISHER: Missing Spoon Publishing

PUBLICATION DATE: 11/3/2013

FORMAT: ebook

PAGES: 182

SOURCE: Bought

MY RATING: 

SUMMARY (FROM GOODREADS): Lexy Cooper is a Community Manager at Xenon Corporation, maker of the Xenon 24/7 videogame console and Xenonline gaming service. When a young woman's nude body is discovered on the Xenon corporate campus, Lexy's uncle, homicide detective Mike Malick, catches the case. As Malick investigates the crime, Lexy works the case from inside Xenon and discovers more about the seedy underbelly of the games industry than she ever wanted to know.

OVERALL IMPRESSION: This story was pretty good. I wouldn't say that I was blown away or that it was super memorable, but I was entertained while reading it. I had fun trying to figure things out alongside Lexy. The ending was suspenseful, but not suspenseful enough. I felt like there could have been a lot more done with it to make me stand on edge.

CHARACTERS: Lexy annoyed me with the way she used her body to get what she wanted. I just cringed a little bit every time she did it. I liked Mike a lot. He was the right combination of protective and fun, and he was really understanding of what Lexy was going through.

COVER: When I first picked this up, I thought it was a graphic novel because of the cover, but it's not.

Belzhar Review

Goodreads

TITLE: Belzhar

AUTHOR: Meg Wolitzer

PUBLISHER: Dutton Books For Young Readers

PUBLICATION DATE: 9/30/2014

PAGES: 272

FORMAT: ARC

SOURCE: Amazon Vine

MY RATING: 

BACK COVER SUMMARY: If life were fair, Jam Gallahue would still be at home in New Jersey with her sweet British boyfriend, Reeve Maxfield. She'd be watching old comedy sketches with him. She'd be kissing him in the library stacks.

She certainly wouldn't be at The Wooden Barn, a therapeutic boarding school in rural Vermont, living with a weird roommate, and signed up for an exclusive, supposedly life-changing class called Special Topics in English.

But life isn't fair, and Reeve Maxfield is dead.

When a journal-writing assignment leads Jam into a mysterious otherworld she and her classmates call Belzhar, she discovers a realm where the untainted past is restored, and she can feel Reeve's arms around her once again. But, a the pages of her journal begin to fill up, Jam must confront hidden truths and ultimately decide what she's willing to sacrifice to reclaim her loss.

OVERALL IMPRESSION: I love reading books about boarding schools, and for some reason have this obsession with them, so I was really excited to start reading this.  The students in the Special Topics class this year are studying the works of Sylvia Plath, and because of that after reading this I really want to read "The Bell Jar." 

I love the idea behind this story. I haven't ever read anything like it and the topic was something that really stood out to me. I liked the progression of the story and I was really interested to see what was going to happen at the end of the book, but I was disappointed with the last part of the book. The ending itself was find, but the part leading up to the ending where we learn more about what Jam went through was not what I was expecting and I didn't like it at all.

CHARACTERS: I feel like there could have been some more character development. I would have liked to know more about all of the students in the Special Topics class as well as Jam's roommate. I liked all of the characters, but I felt like I didn't know them enough.

COVER: I love how the cover incorporates so many things from the book.

**Thanks to Amazon and Dutton Books for providing me with an ARC for my honest review.