Storm Review

TITLE: Storm
SERIES: Paper Gods #3
AUTHOR: Amanda Sun
PUBLISHER: Harlequin Teen
PUBLICATION DATE: 6/30/2015
FORMAT: Paperback
PAGES: 287
SOURCE: Amazon Vine
MY RATING: 

COYER SCAVENGER HUNT #74: READ THE LAST BOOK IN A SERIES - 5 POINTS.

INSIDE COVER SUMMARY: After almost a year in Japan, Katie Greene has finally unearthed the terrible secret behind her boyfriend Tomohiro's deadly ability to bring drawings to life--not only is he descended from Kami, the ancient Japanese gods, but he is the heir to a tragedy that occurred long ago, a tragedy that is about to repeat.

Even as the blood of a vengeful god rages inside Tomo, Katie is determined to put his dark powers to sleep. In order to do so, she and Tomo must journey to find the three Imperial Treasures of Japan. Gifts from the goddess Amaterasu herself, these treasures could unlock all of the secrets about Tomo's volatile ancestry and quell the ink's lust for destruction. But in order to complete their quest, Tomo and Katie must confront out-of-control Kami and former friend Jun, who has begun his own quest of revenge against those he believes have wronged him. To save the world, and themselves, Katie and Tomo will be up against one of the darkest Kami creations they've ever encountered--and they may not make it out alive.

OVERALL IMPRESSION: This was a great ending to a great series. It picked up where the second book in the series left off, rounded out the overall story line and wrapped everything up nicely. The writing in this book sucked me in. I could see everything in my mind as it was happening. The book has nice reminders of what happened in the previous books without having long drawn out summaries. It helped refresh me on what was going on since the last book.

There were far fewer drawings included in this book and I really missed seeing them, but it makes sense because the characters weren't really drawing anything until further in the book. I really enjoyed the drawings that were included.

I liked the ending of this book. I felt that it was the best possible way for things to go and I felt like it wrapped up the entire series enough to where I felt content.

CHARACTERS: The characters are all great. We don't really learn a lot about the characters, but I feel like we already know a lot about them from the previous two books.

COVER: This is my least favorite cover of all the books in the series. I loved the first two covers so much. I wish they would have made this one more similar to the first two covers.

**I received a copy of this book from Amazon Vine and the publisher for my honest review. My opinions are my own and have not been influenced in any way.**

Grim Review

Goodreads

TITLE: Grim

EDITOR: Christine Johnson

PUBLISHER: Harlequin Teen

PUBLICATION DATE: 2/25/2014

PAGES: 476

MY RATING:

BACK COVER SUMMARY: Inspired by classic fairy tales, but with a dark and sisnister twist, Grim contains short stories from some of the best voices in young adult literature today.

OVERALL IMPRESSION: I was really disappointed by this book. There are some big name authors in here, a lot of whom I haven't read yet, but I feel like I was let down. There were a few stories that I could tell for sure what fairy tales they had come from, but for most of them I had no idea. I'm not sure if that's because they were way different from their originals or if there are a ton of fairy tales out there that I'm unaware of. I was expecting a lot more horror and terrifying aspects in this book. Some of the stories were great when it came to scaring me, but most of them were dull and not dark at all. Some of my favorites were The Twelfth Girl by Malinda Lo, The Brother's Piggett by Julie Kagawa and Unteathered  by Sonia Gensler. 

COVER: This is such a beautiful book. I love the colors, the texture and the built in bookmark.

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

Take Me On Review

Goodreads

TITLE: Take Me On

AUTHOR: Katie McGarry

PUBLISHER: Harlequin Teen

PUBLICATION DATE: 5/27/2014

PAGES: 544

MY RATING:

INSIDE COVER SUMMARY: Champion kickboxer Haley swore she'd never set foot in the ring again after one tragic night. But then the guy she can't stop thinking about accepts a mixed martial arts fight in her honor. Suddenly, Haley has to train West Young. All attitude, West is everything Haley promised herself she'd stay away from. Yet he won't last five seconds in the ring without her help.

West is keeping a big secret from Haley. About who he really is. But helping her--fighting for her--is a shot at redemption. Especially since it's his fault his family is falling apart. He can't change the past, but maybe he can change Haley's future.

Haley and West have agreed to keep their relationship strictly in the ring. But as an unexpected bond forms between them and attraction mocks their best intentions, they'll face their darkest fears and discover love is worth fighting for.

OVERALL IMPRESSION: Another instant hit from Katie. I don't think this woman could write a bad book if she tried. I will read anything by her. I was in love with this book before I was even halfway through it. Katie's writing just pulls you in and makes you keep flipping the pages. I will admit that I didn't like this one as much as her other books, but it was still extremely good. 

CHARACTERS: I think my reason for not liking this book as much as the others is because of the main characters, Haley and West. For some reason, I just didn't connect with them as well as I would have liked to. It might have been because the story line revolved around boxing, and I have zero interest in that, but I did really love the relationship that West and Haley shared. 

COVER: I'm not a fan of any of the covers for the Pushing The Limits books, but I do like that there is something printed directly onto the book underneath the dust jacket.

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

Crash Into You Review

Goodreads

TITLE: Crash Into you (Pushing the Limits #3)

AUTHOR: Katie McGarry

PUBLISHER: Harlequin Teen

PUBLICATION DATE: 11/26/2013

PAGES: 474

MY RATING:

INSIDE COVER SUMMARY: The girl with straight As, designer clothes and the perfect life--that's who people expect Rachel Young to be. So the private-school junior keeps secrets from her wealthy parents and overbearing brothers...and she's just added two more to the list. One involves racing strangers down dark country roads in her Mustang GT. The other? Seventeen-year-old Isaiah Walker--a guy she has no business even talking to. But when the foster kid with the tattoos and intense gray eyes comes to her rescue, she can't get him out of her mind.

Isaiah has secrets, too. About where he lives and how he really feels about Rachel. The last thing he needs is to get tangled up with a rich girl who wants to slum it on the south side for kicks--no matter how angelic she might look.

But when their shared love of street racing puts both their lives in jeopardy, they have six weeks to come up with a way out. Six weeks to discover just how far they'll go to save each other.

OVERALL IMPRESSION: When I received this book, I dropped everything else I was in the middle of reading to start on it. I've read the first two books in the Pushing the Limits series and loved them so much! I had extremely high hopes for this one, and I was not disappointed. I was entertained throughout this entire book. 

I've been waiting so long to find a book to make me cry, and this one finally did it. There's just so many emotions in this book and I love that I experienced so many feels while reading.

The second half of this book was fast paced and just amazing, and the ending was wrapped up nicely.

I also learned that there's going to be another book coming out and I am so excited! 

CHARACTERS: I really liked Rachel. She was so sweet and innocent and I could completely relate to her. My favorite character is Abby. I would have liked to see more of her in the book as I really enjoyed her character.

COVER: The cover is pretty cheesy. I'm not a huge fan of covers with people on them and I feel like this cover makes the book like it will be just another cookie cutter romance book, which is not true at all. I do like all of the red and I like the letters of the title.

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

Confessions of an Almost-Girlfriend Review

Goodreads

Amazon

TITLE: Confessions of an Almost-Girlfriend
AUTHOR: Louise Rozett
PUBLISHER: Harlequin Teen
PUBLICATION DATE: 6/25/2013
PAGES: 279
MY RATING:

SUMMARY (From Goodreads): Rose Zarelli has big plans for sophomore year--everything is going to be different. This year, she's going to be the talented singer with the killer voice, the fabulous girl with the fashionista best friend, the brainiac who refuses to let Jamie Forta jerk her around...

...but if she's not careful, she's also going to be the sister who misses the signals, the daughter who can only think about her own pain, the "good girl" who finds herself in mid-scandal again (because no good deed goes unpunished) and possibly worst of all...the almost-girlfriend.

When all else fails, stop looking for love and go find yourself.

OVERALL IMPRESSION: I didn't know that this was the second book in a series when I got it. I don't have the first book and I don't really plan on reading it because I have too many books in my TBR pile, but I figured I'd give it a shot and try to read it anyway.

In the opening scene, I feel like there's way too many characters. I don't know if they're in the first book, but when reading this I got a little lost. I'm assuming that we gradually meet these characters in the previous book and if I had read that one first, I would be able to keep track of everyone. 

The book was okay. Not one of my favorites, but I did read through it pretty quickly. I just feel like nothing really exciting happened in the story line.

CHARACTERS: I feel like there wasn't a lot of character development or growth with any of the characters.Also, Robert is so annoying and when reading any scenes with him in it, I just wanted him to go away.

COVER: The cover is fine. I like the blue streak in the model's hair.

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

Ink Review

Goodreads

Amazon

TITLE: Ink
AUTHOR: Amanda Sun
ILLUSTRATORS: Petra Dufkova (cover), Ross Siu (interior)
PUBLISHER: Harlequin Teen
PUBLICATION DATE: 6/25/2013
PAGES: 326
MY RATING: 

INSIDE COVER SUMMARY: On the heels of a family tragedy, Katie Greene must move halfway across the world. Stuck with her aunt in Shizuoka, Japan, Katie feels lost. Alone. She doesn't know the language, she can barely hold a pair of chopsticks and she can't seem to get the hang of taking her shoes off whenever she enters a building.

When Katie meets aloof but gorgeous Tomohiro, the star of the school's kendo team, she is intrigued by him...and a little scared. His tough attitude seems meant to keep her at a distance, and when they're near each other, strange things happen. Pens explode. Ink drips from nowhere. And unless Katie is seeing things, drawings come to life.

Somehow Tomo is connected to the kami, powerful ancient beings who once ruled Japan--and as feelings develop between Katie and Tomo, things begin to spiral out of control. The wrong people are starting to ask questions, and if they discover the truth, no one will be safe.

OVERALL IMPRESSION: I had some trouble connecting with/concentrating on the story because of the Japanese words mixed in. There's a glossary at the back of the book which helps, but it's a little annoying having to flip to the back and search for the word every couple of pages -- I would have loved to see footnotes instead, because I really did enjoy seeing the Japanese words - they added to the authenticity of the story/setting.

A little less than halfway through, the book really picks up speed and got me extremely interested.

I liked the ending of the book. It set us up for the next book in the series, but made me feel good about the ending at the same time.

CHARACTERS: Yuki (a friend of the main character) seems like a really good friend, but I don't really know much about her. I'd really like to learn more about Jun and find out what his plans are.

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

Alice in Zombieland Review

Amazon

TITLE: Alice in Zombieland

AUTHOR: Gena Showalter

PUBLISHER: Harlequin Teen

PUBLICATION DATE: 9/25/2012

PAGES: 404

MY RATING:

INSIDE COVER SUMMARY: Had anyone told Alice Bell that her entire life would change course between one heartbeat and the next, she would have laughed. From blissful to tragic, innocent to ruined? Please. But that's all it took. One heartbeat. A blink, a breath, a second, and everything she knew and loved was gone.

Her father was right. The monsters are real.

To avenge her family, Ali must learn to fight the undead. To survive, she must learn to trust the baddest of the bad boys, Cole Holland. But Cole has secrets of his own, and if Ali isn't careful, those secrets might just prove to be more dangerous than the zombies.

OVERALL IMPRESSION: This is one of the very very few books that I have given 5 stars, meaning it is one of my all time favorites. Alice in Wonderland is my favorite story and I love any and all remakes or stories based on the original. This doesn't follow the story of the original Alice, but it was inspired by it and has a few elements thrown in that reminded me of it. 

I love the way the story unfolded. we learned new information little by little, but the story was not slow placed at all. I flew through this book and loved every second of it. I cannot wait for the next one to come out and I will be reading it as soon as I possibly can.

CHARACTERS: My favorite character was Kat. She and Alice meet in the hospital and from the beginning she is very feisty and high spirited. Alice, the main character, was easy to relate to. I could feel her emotions throughout the story. And Cole, we'll just say I liked him at lot.

COVER: The cover is so pretty. The dress is amazing and I love the boarder around the picture with all the skulls. The book cover itself (underneath the jacket) is very cool too. I like the color and I love the spine. There's also a really cool skull print on the inside of the front and back covers.

Pushing the Limits Review

TITLE: Pushing The Limits

AUTHOR: Katie McGarry

PUBLISHER: Harlequin Teen

PUBLICATION DATE: 7/31/2012

PAGES: 392

MY RATING: 

INSIDE COVER SUMMARY: 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.

OVERALL IMPRESSION: I saw that this book had tons of 4 and 5 star reviews on Goodreads. Everyone said that it was emotional. It's been a while since I've read anything that has made me emotional so I was excited to give this book a try. I was literally chewing my nail during some of the scenes of the book because they were so intense. I loved everything. I feel like the story moved along at a great pace and I enjoyed reading it every step of the way.

CHARACTERS: Echo and Noah have great chemistry together and I liked reading their interactions with each other. I liked Mrs. Collins, the guidance counselor  I felt like she was really genuine and cared for both Echo and Noah. I hated the character of Luke. He was just so aggravating and selfish.

COVER: The cover is cute. My favorite thing about the cover of this is that when you take off the book jacket, there is a larger photo printed directly on the the cover that wraps around to the back. I always check under the book jackets of my books to see if there is anything underneath and I love the rare times that I actually discover something.

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