Review: Ash & Bramble

TITLE: Ash & Bramble
AUTHOR: Sarah Prineas
PUBLISHER: Harper Teen
PUBLICATION DATE: 9/15/2015
FORMAT: ARC
PAGES: 464
SOURCE: For Review

MY RATING:

  
BACK COVER SUMMARY: Pin has no recollection of who she is or how she got to the Godmother's fortress. She only knows that she is a Seamstress, spending day after day making ballgowns fit for fairy tales. Pin feels there's more than what's inside these cold, stone walls and escapes with the handsome young Shoemaker.

But Pin discovers that what seems like freedom is a prison of another kind, one that entangles Pin in a story that leads to a prince, a kiss, and a clock striking midnight. To unravel herself from this new life, Pin must choose between her prince and another--the one who would give his life for her. Torn, the only thing for her to do is trade in the glass slipper for a sword and find her own destiny.

The tale has been told and retold, twisted and tweaked, snipped and stitched, but now discover the true story of Cinderella in Sara Prineas's bold, romantic, and utterly original young adult debut.

OVERALL IMPRESSION: I've always loved retellings, so I was pretty excited going into this book. This was definitely an interesting take on the classic story and I really enjoyed it. The introduction was brilliant. I felt like the narrator was talking directly to me. There was a point in the book about a third of the way in that was really strange and I was worried the book was going to get weird, but it only lasted a couple of pages and then it was over.

The ending was great. There was a good build up and plenty of action. I also really liked the way the story was wrapped up. There was a point where it could have been turned into a series, but in the end everything was wrapped up and I'm glad that this is a standalone.

CHARACTERS: I liked both the main characters, Pin and Shoe. They had a fun chemistry together. I also liked the shoemaker and his wife. I wish we had been able to learn more about the side characters as there were so many that seemed interesting, but I didn't really know much about (Dulcet, Precious, Spinner).

COVER: I am obsessed with this cover. It is gorgeous and it ties in perfectly with the story.

Tiny Pretty Things Review

TITLE: Tiny Pretty Things
AUTHOR: Sona Charaipotra & Dhonielle Clayton
PUBLISHER: Harper Teen
PUBLICATION DATE: 5/26/2015
FORMAT: ARC
PAGES: 448
SOURCE: Amazon Vine
MY RATING:

COYER SCAVENGER HUNT #22: READ A BOOK WHERE DANCE IS PROMINENTLY FEATURED - 2 POINTS

BACK COVER SUMMARY: There can only be one prima ballerina. No knows that better than Gigi, Bette, and June, three students vying to be the next star at Manhattan's most elite ballet academy. Free-spirited new girl Gigi just wants to dance--but the very act might kill her. Privileged New Yorker Bette's desire to escape the shadow of her ballet star sister brings out a dangerous edge in her. And perfectionist June needs to land a lead role this year, or her controlling mother will put an end to her dancing dreams forever. In a world where every dancer is both friend and foe, Gigi, Bette, and June will sacrifice, manipulate, and backstab to be the best of the best.

Black Swan meets Pretty Little Liars in this soapy drama from CAKE Literary, a new packager dedicated to bringing diversity to YA books. With gossip, lies, and scandal, Tiny Pretty Things is a riveting read about three not-so-perfect ballerinas who will do anything to get on top.

OVERALL IMPRESSION: I was pretty disappointed in this book. From reading the description, I expected this book to be filled with juicy drama, mystery and nonstop twists and turns. But to me, it read more like a contemporary with a hint of mystery. It's a pretty slow read. The last 50-75 pages does pick up a little bit, but this is a pretty chunky book, so most of it is slow.

I didn't really like the ending. This book just wasn't for me. If you're a fan of contemporaries, but are looking for something that isn't a fluffy, light contemporary, this might be something to pick up. It just wasn't for me.

CHARACTERS: I had trouble keeping up with the characters. The book is told through three different perspectives, but there are a LOT of characters in this book and I tend to struggle with books that have a lot of different perspectives.

I did like June and was excited to discover more about her and her story, so that's probably what pushed me to keep reading this book.

COVER: The cover of this book is so pretty! I love the black background with the purple writing and the ribbon weaved through. It fits with the plot of the story for sure.

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

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.

Red Queen Review

Goodreads

TITLE: Red Queen

AUTHOR: Victoria Aveyard

PUBLISHER: HarperTeen

PUBLICATION DATE: 2/10/2015

FORMAT: Hardcover 

PAGES: 383

SOURCE: Bought

MY RATING:

INSIDE COVER SUMMARY: Mare Barrow's world is divided by blood--those with red and those with silver. Mare and her family are lowly reds, destined to serve the Silver elite whose supernatural abilities make them nearly gods. Mare steals what she can to help her family survive, but when her best friend is conscripted into the army she gambles everything to win his freedom. A twist of fate leads her to the royal palace itself, where, in front of the king and all his nobles, she discovers a power of her own--an ability she didn't know she had. Except her blood is Red.

To hide this impossibility, the king forces her into the role of a lost Silver princess and betroths her to one of his own sons. As Mare is drawn further into the Silver world, she risks her new position to aid the Scarlet Guard--the leaders of a Red rebellion. Her actions put into motion a deadly and violent dance, pitting prince against prince--and Mare against her her own heart.

OVERALL IMPRESSION: This book was just phenomenal. After reading it, I felt like my insides were being torn out, but in a good way! There were so many twists and turns. There were a few things that I saw coming, but I was still caught off guard by so many things. While reading the book, it felt like I was watching a movie instead of just reading and I can definitely see this being made into a movie and I really hope that happens. There's so much action and intense moments. The ending was perfect. It sets everything up for the next book and I cannot wait to get my hands on it. 

I would say that this book is easily up there on my list of favorite books, and if the rest of the books in the trilogy continue on the same path as Red Blood did, it will probably be my favorite series, second only to Harry Potter.

CHARACTERS: All of the characters in this book were great. There were great characters on the good side and great villains on the bad side. I really liked the main character, Mare. She is very independent and strong. She is a refreshing lead character in that she has a good head on her shoulders and she stands for what she believes in. I really want to learn more about Farley and I'm hoping that we will get a lot more of her in the next book in the series.

COVER: This is one of the best covers I have ever seen. I'm so glad that this amazing book was given such an amazing cover to tie the whole package together. It's just beautiful.

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.**

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.