Friday, December 27, 2013

Nadia Knows Best by Jill Mansell

Nadia has been dating her childhood best friend (Laurie) for years, and even though things are a little rough (with Laurie's new modeling career taking off), Nadia doesn't let temptation in the form a night stranded in a snow storm with a stranger make her cheat on the love of her life...Too bad Nadia didn't know that Laurie was already planning on dumping her.

18 months later and Nadia has pulled her life back together. She's now working for the man she spent the snow storm with, and is even starting to consider dating again...then Laurie shows back up and declares his undying love for Nadia and explains his regret at dumping her.  Now Nadia is torn between her new boss (Jay), and her old love.
This story is also filled with characters in Nadia's family:  her selfish artistic artist Clare, her adorable 13 year old half-sister Tilly, her father, and her captivating grandmother (all of whom she lives with), and her crazy whirling dervish of a mother.  Each character gets his or her own story, and some of the stories are stronger than others.  Nadia is a likable character, and the humor and heart in this book propel the narrative.  I pretty much wanted to strangle Clare throughout the entire book, and Tilly's story broke my heart (in a good way).  I look forward to reading more of Mansell's work.

Tuesday, December 17, 2013

Heartbeat by Elizabeth Scott

Emma's mother reached for her toast, and fell down dead.  Now, her body is being kept alive with machines so that Emma's half-brother (her mother was pregnant when she died) has a chance to finish growing inside of her and life.

Before, Emma was super focused on grades and had a happy family with her mother and step-father.  Now, Emma is grieving and angry.  Her mother is dead, she and her step-father are estranged, and the only person Emma still has is her best friend Olivia.  Then Emma meets Caleb, the car stealing bad-boy of her high school.  Caleb understands Emma in a way no one else can, because he lost a family member too. Can Caleb and Emma help each other learn how to go on living with those they love have died?

I really love Elizabeth Scott's writing.  This story sounds like it could be very melodramatic, but Scott writes Emma so that she is amazingly sympathetic for as self-absorbed (by grief) that she is.  Emma's mother (who is dead the entire book) is very well described and without ever being present is actually a fleshed out character.  Emma's lamentations about ignoring her mother in favor of studying and pursuing her future are very touching.  There are times when Emma seems to be a bit exaggerated, and Caleb's home life is very convenient to the story, but those are some minor issues.  All in all, I think that Scott has written another touching book with a main character dealing with grief and redefining her life.

Friday, December 6, 2013

These Broken Stars by Amie Kaufman

Lilac and Tarver are passengers on a luxurious space ship called the Icarus.  Lilac, the daughter of the richest man in the  universe, and Tarver, a boy from a humble background who became famous for heroic deeds he performed as a soldier, meet one night in a salon within the ship.  They are instantly attracted to one another, but Lilac must reject Tarver for fear of what may happen to him at the hands of her father.

Then, without warning, the ship drops out of hyperspace and it hits the fan.  Lilac and Tarver end up in the same escape pod that crash lands on a seemly uninhabited planet.  They are the only survivors of the crash of the Icarus, and they must learn to survive on the planet while they make their way to the site where the ship itself crashed in hopes of being rescued.

Disclosure, I have never sat through an entire viewing of the movie Titanic, and I've never seen the original movie of The Blue Lagoon, but this book reads like the YA novel love child of these two movies that has Twilight as its godparent.  The book is told in alternating perspectives from Lilac and Tarver after they have obviously been rescued.  They spend the first half of their time on the planet trying to be rescued, then the other half of their time there being all schmoopy and puppy-dog in love with each other.  This book is really unrealistic in the fact that Lilac takes only days to acclimate to roughing it (Survivor level roughing it) on the planet, and within a couple weeks is willing to give up her old life and stay in this remote place just so she can be with Tarver.

I almost gave up on this book a few times, but the mystery surrounding the planet made me keep reading it.  I'd kind of like to see what happens next, but I might be more likely to ask a friend who reads the next book to fill me instead of reading the whole book myself.

Tuesday, November 19, 2013

Unhinged by A. G. Howard

Alyssa Gardner has defeated the Red Queen, saved her beloved Jeb, and is now the reigning queen of Wonderland.  All she has to do now is finish high school and convince her parents to let her move to London with Jeb.  Unfortunately for Alyssa, that is not going to be so simple.  Alyssa's art has changed.  She no longer creates mosaics with dead bugs, and instead colors her artwork with her own blood.  These mosaics show maniacal images from Wonderland that Alyssa would rather not try to decipher.  Too bad she has to use these mosaics, and rely on Morpheus (her childhood Wonderland friend who is amazingly unreliable and manipulative) to help protect her kingdom.  Alyssa is increasingly torn between the human world with Jeb and her parents, and her love for and commitment to Wonderland.

One of my favorite things about Splintered was all the descriptions of Wonderland.  The world sounded so beautifully hideous.  This book is set mostly in the human world, so there are not as many of these awesome Wonderlandeqsue images.  Also, the characters are a little less likable for me in this novel.  Jeb came across at times as wooden and kinda assy.  Morpheus is always assy, but he still manages to be decent enough to just keep my sympathy...most of the time.  Alyssa's conflicted desires to be in the human world and in Wonderland were understandable, but she did not handle the situation she was in very well at all and allowed some of her family and friends to suffer.

While Splintered is a book that could stand on it its own; Unhinged is obviously a book that needs a follow up.  The main action didn't start until rather late in the book, and there was resolution, only an obvious start to a next chapter.  I am glad I read this, and I am very much looking forward to reading the next book about Wonderland, but this one fell a little flat for me.

Wednesday, October 30, 2013

Divergent by Veronica Roth

Divergent is coming out as a movie in March and is pegged to be the "next Hunger Games" type series.  With that, and the fact that so many people have raved about this book, I figured it was about time that I got around to reading it.

This book took me at most 3 days to read.  And that is only because my husband and I got Battlefield 4 last night and spent time setting that up (I read this book during the set up) and then playing.

Divergent is a dystopic story set in a future Chicago.  In it's world there are 5 factions, each follows a specific ideal.  Beatrice is raised in Abnegnation where she is taught to be selfless above all else.  The year she and her brother, Caleb, turn 16 they are allowed to choose which faction they want to continue their life with.  Divergent's world is based on the idea of "faction before blood" so choosing a faction other than Abnegnation means separating themselves from their family forever.

When preparing to make her choice, Beatrice finds out information about herself that could potentially be dangerous to her and her family.  Beatrice thinks the only thing she has to worry about is choosing a faction and surviving initiation, but there are much darker happenings going on.

Beatrice (aka Tris as she renames herself) drove me a little nuts with her selfishness, but I loved the world that Roth had built.  I did fell that the end kind of was like a quote from Anchorman "well that escalated quickly", but other than that I really enjoyed the book.  I can't wait to see what happens in the next one.

Tuesday, October 15, 2013

Numbed by David Lubar

Numbed by David Lubar is a book for late elementary/early middle school.  The two main characters visit the math museum with their class and manage to insult a math loving robot who "numbs" them, meaning that Benedict and Logan are no longer able to do math.  Too bad the boys are about to take a big math test at school, the results of which will determine if the class gets an awesome reward.

Benedict and Logan must return to the museum, and finish a bunch of math tests to regain their math ability or else they are going to let their whole class down.

This book is aimed at a different age group than the books I normally read.  I did enjoy the characters, and the information about math, but the book seemed really short to me.  I do think that it would be good in a school or public library for kids in 4 - 6 grade, and would recommend it to readers my library.


Tuesday, September 3, 2013

Never Fade by Alexandra Bracken

This is the sequel to the book The Darkest Minds and it picks up shortly where that book left off.  This review will contain spoilers to The Darkest Minds, so if you haven't read that book yet, GO and read it cause it's awesome.  Then, come back and read this review.


Never Fade starts off shortly after the events that ended the first book.  Ruby is now working with the Children's League and using her special powers to persuade enemies of the League to give the League information.  She's heart broken from losing Liam and tries to use the League's resources to track him to make sure he is ok.  Then, during an op, Ruby and her teammate help rescue a special prisoner, Liam's older brother Cole.  Cole's rescue, and subsequent rifts in the League send Ruby on on a mission to find Liam, rescue information, and hopefully help save the lives of her old and new friends.

This book starts kind of slowly and Ruby kind of reminds me of Katniss during the opening of Mockingjay.  But, once Ruby is off on her missions things really get going.  I enjoyed revisiting the old characters, and I also liked the addition of new personalities.  While the first book could have stood on its own; this book ends somewhat on a cliff hanger.  I can not wait to see what happens next.


Friday, June 28, 2013

Proxy by Alex London

The United States has completely changed.  In the future, rich Patrons can live however they want pretty much free of the fear of punishment, because they all own a Proxy; someone who is punished in the Patron's place.  For some people this arrangement works out wonderfully especially for playboy Knox.  Then Knox takes a date on a joyride and crashes the car they are riding in, killing his date.  Then Syd (Know's Proxy) is sentenced to a life sentence and branded.  This is more than Syd can take, so he runs away hoping to find a better life on the outskirts of civilization.  What Syd and Knox don't realize is that they are both part of a larger than either of them had imagined.

This is the first in a planned series (on Goodreads it is listed as Proxy #1) and the ending is great, but also leaves the story open to continue. The action is fast, and the sci-fi tech and speak remind me a lot of the Uglies series by Westerfeld.  Syd is a likable character who also happens to be non-white and gay which is refreshing to see in a story where neither his race, nor his sexual orientation is the focus of the story.  I will definitely be recommending this to library patrons who like sci-fi and action.

Friday, May 10, 2013

School Spirits by Rachel Hawkins

Izzy Brannick is a monster hunter, in fact she is the last in a long line of monster hunters.  When Izzy can't hold it together after her sister disappears, and almost gets killed hunting a vampire, her mother decides that it is time to take a break and face something less scary....high-school.
While Izzy is enrolled at Mary Evans High she is supposed to be looking around for the ghost that almost killed a teacher, but she's also trying to navigate the ins and outs regular high school life, and deal with her first crush.  When the haunting escalates, Izzy must find a balance between trusting her new friends and being a Brannick which means stopping the spirit no matter the cost.

This book is the love-child of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and the TV show Supernatural.  Izzy's fish out of water reaction to normal teenage life, and her friends willingness to accept her flimsy cover stories sometimes are a little hard to buy, but aside from that the characters were all enjoyable.  This book had action, romance, and a lot of humor.  I laughed out loud, and enjoyed the book so much I had to read passages out loud to my fiance.  The book does read a little young, but Izzy is a sheltered (in her own way) 15 year old girl, so that is understandable.  I can't wait for the next book in the series, and now I want to go back and read all the other Hex Hall books.


Tuesday, April 30, 2013

Spellbinding by Maya Gold

Abby is invisible, or so it seems.  She only has one friend, and the guy she has had a crush on forever barely knows who she is.  She also suffers from horrible headaches, and reoccurring nightmares about drowning in a past life.  The only good thing about these dreams is the guy she keeps seeing, the guy she knows she is connected to, the buy with the blue slash through his green eyes.

Then, during a history project, Abby learns that she is related to one of the women convicted of Witchcraft during the Salem Witch Trials, and after further investigation she starts to wonder if she herself has witchy powers.  And, when she meets the boy with the blue glint in his eye while researching in Salem...things start to change rapidly.

It's hard to describe this book, because a lot went on without that much happening.  There were times were Abby was not a very likable main character, and some of the descriptions in the book were awkward.  One girl is described as looking like a ham in a dress, but I am not sure if that was supposed to be a good or a bad thing.  Also, the sense of time in the book is off.   The school Abby attends doesn't have prom until the end of June, and she says in August that she hopes she will "get a tan over the summer".  That said, I enjoyed the first 2/3 of this book as a fun and breezy beach read with a touch of history, but by the end I was really frustrated.  Teens may well sympathize with Abby more than I did though, and if a library has a large supernatural following this would be a clean addition to those that want magic with romance.


Wednesday, April 24, 2013

A Corner of White: Bk 1 of the Colors of Madeline by Jaclyn Moriarty

Madeline and her mother have run away from her father.  They now live in England, where her mother is a seamstress who dreams of making it big on quiz shows.  During the day Madeline and two other students learn through a homeschooling set up that Madeline's mother worked out with a group of adults.  Madeline lives in our world.

Eliot's father is missing, and he is on a mission to find him.  There are rumors that Eliot's took off with a local Physics teacher, and killed his own brother, but Eliot is sure this is not true.  Eliot is searching his world (the kingdom of Cello) to find his father.

Then,through a crack in the worlds that has not appeared for a long long time, Eliot and Madeline begin to communicate.

Right around the time Eliot and Madeline began to communicate is about where I totally lost interest.  I was pretty interested in Eliot's side of the story, but Madeline was just such a bland character.  The two worlds didn't seem to meld together very well, and while I like to think I'd go back and finish this book one day, I just couldn't hold off reading something I'd enjoy more.



I received an e-ARC of this book from Netgalley.

Monday, April 22, 2013

The Rose Throne by Mette Ivie Harrison

This is the story of two princesses, two kingdoms, and the magic that divides them, but could also bring them together.  Ailsbet is a tall red headed princess whose father is manipulative and who relies only on the masculine magic to rule his kingdom.  Her father has all but exiled the feminine magic that helps plants grow and encourages the calm and living aspect of nature.

Marissa is from a kingdom completely unlike Ailsbet.  Marissa's father encourages Marissa's feminine magic, and the kingdom is full and in bloom, although it lacks the masculine strength that Ailsbet's kingdom has in abundance.

These two princesses both want to serve their kingdoms, be who they are, and be loved for their individual selves.  And can either of them make the prophecy come true and reunite these two feuding kingdoms?

This description is a bit vague, and that's because the book's plot itself is kind of muddled.  Honestly, the description of the book and what really happens in the book are rather different.  Apparently Ailsbet is on the cover of the book, although the story certainly holds Marissa up as the "better" princess.  The world created by Harrison is beautiful, if claustrophobic (it seems like the two kingdoms are at the center of the world with very few others around them), but the story was a jumble.  I honestly thought for awhile this was going to be an LGBT story because it didn't seem like the princesses were really in love with anyone in particular that they wanted to marry, so I figured maybe men weren't really what they were interested in.

There isn't much resolution, which makes me wonder if there are supposed to be more books in this series, or if this is just the end and we are supposed to decide what happens next.  I've really enjoyed some of Harrison's other work, but this one was just OK for me.  I did want to find out what happened, but once I got to the end I was kind of left feeling "meh".

This review is based off an e-ARC I was allowed to read.

Thursday, March 14, 2013

The Tell Tale Start by Gordon McAlpine

Edgar and Allen Poe are the great great great great (not sure if there are more there) grand nephews of the famous writer Edgar Allen Poe. They are also twin boys who share a love of their best friend Roderick Usher (their cat), and oh yeah...they pretty much share a brain too.  Edgar and Allen live with their aunt and uncle due to their parents dying in an unfortunate space-related accident.

An evil genius decides to use the boys' amazing power of communications for his own gain, so he kidnaps their beloved Roderick Usher and sets Edgar and Allen on an adventure to rescue their kitty napped friend.  Along the way Edgar and Allen are helped along by their famous dead great uncle (through mysterious communications from the great beyond), and their incredible shared intellect.

This is obviously the first in a series, and while the plot was a little thin (I did get somewhat bored at times) I very much enjoyed the characters.  I like that Edgar and Allen obviously love their family, and their cat, and they love their friends at school without being  condescending to people who are obviously of inferior intellect.

Tuesday, March 5, 2013

Revenge of the Girl with the Great Personality by Elizabeth Eulberg

Lexi is stuck being a part of Team Mackenzie, a back up player to her 7 year old beauty pageant sister.  Pretty much every weekend Lexi is dragged off by her mom to help out Mac in a crazy pursuit of beauty filled with fake eyelashes, tans, and teeth, and Lexi is getting sick of it.  Lexi is also sick of not being noticed by her long-time crush Logan, so, with the encouragement (and well dares) from her best friend Benny, Lexi decides to try something new and take queues from the "pretty people".  Lexi starts doing her hair, her make up, and changing what she wears, but then she starts to wonder if the positive attention she is getting is for the right reasons, or if maybe she'd rather be liked for her great personality than her great new sense of style.

There are a lot of things going on in this book, even though the premise may seem kind of superficial at first.  Lexi's mom is so involved with the pageant world that she is bankrupting the family, and Lexi's relationship with her sister is complex and realistic.  Lexi is 11 years older than her beauty queen sister, and somewhat jealous of the attention lavished on Mac.  But, Lexi also loves her sister and wants to protect her and be there for her.  I had a hard time putting the book down because I wanted to know what was going to happen with Lexi and her family.  While I was a little disappointed in the ending, I do think that it fit with the tone and the message of this book and I will be buying this for my library.

This review is based on an e-ARC I was allowed to read.  I received no money or free swag for this review, although I did get to tweet @ the author for her #GreatPersonality Day event, she used my tweet in her blog.

Wednesday, February 27, 2013

Legend by Marie Lu

June and Day could not come from more different backgrounds.  June is a prodigy from a family of prestige and money.  Day is a notorious criminal who grew up in the slums.  They both live in the Republic controlled Western United States and would never have crossed paths if it weren't for the night when one of Day's break-ins went wrong and June's brother Metias got killed.

Now, Day has been accused of killing Metias and June is on the hunt for him.  When the two finally meet, their worlds start to change and they start to realize that nothing is exactly the way they thought.

This is another dystopic adventure featuring a plucky bright heroine.  One of the main differences is that June knows just how good she is and has faith in her abilities.  June can be a bit naive, and the ending of the book does kind of dissolve into some schmupitude, but aside from that I was really absorbed in the story.  Day is a hero who is too good to be true, but so likable that you don't really care.  I can't wait to read the next book in this trilogy (I think it's a trilogy) because I want to know what kind of change Day can really achieve.

Wednesday, February 20, 2013

Poison by Bridget Zinn

Sixteen-year-old potions master Kyra is on the run after unsuccessfully trying to kill her best friend, the princess, and future ruler of the Kingdom of Mohr.

Kyra isn't an evil person, her potions are mostly used for putting people to sleep or glamours, but she must protect her kingdom from the dark future she has seen for it, and the only way to do that is to kill the princess this time around.

This is a fun straight adventure fantasy full of witches, goblins, potions and more.  Also, there is an adorable pig named Rosie.  I was really enchanted by this story, and read through it quickly.  The end did seem a bit rushed, and I thought for awhile that this might be the start of a series, or that there might be a follow-up, but the book can stand on its own.

While researching this review saw that the author of this novel has died.  This is her debut novel, and I am sorry that she will not be writing anymore.  I think the world could be expanded upon, and I would love to visit the characters from this book again.

-This review is based on an ARC.  I received no compensation or awesome swag for reviewing this book.

Tuesday, February 5, 2013

A Mutiny in Time: Infinity Ring #1 by James Dashner

This is the "next 39 Clues-like" series, and I love time travel and history so I thought I'd give this book a shot.  It was one of the Kindle deals, and while I don't normally read chapter books I wanted to read this one.

This series is about Dak and Sera, two kids who are geniuses and weird in their own ways.  Dak loves history and cheese, and Sera is a science whiz.  They live in an alternate reality that seems to run parallel to our current time.  The world is going crazy, there are natural disasters happening all the time, and the world is under the control of the ever powerful SQ.  Dak's parents invent an Infinity Ring that allows them to travel through time, and with Sera's help they get the ring working.  Long story short, Dak and Sera travel through time with Dak's parents, lose Dak's parents in time, and are recruited by a secret group to use the Infinity Ring to travel with a group of people through time fixing mistakes that happened and putting right what once went wrong.  Ok, well I may have borrowed the last part of that from Quantum Leap, but the idea is pretty much the same.

I read about half of this book before I finally accept that there are so many other books that I'd rather be reading right now.  So, I had to give up.  The cove is amazing, the idea is great, but I just really didn't care about what was happening in the book at all.

Thursday, January 31, 2013

The Dead and the Buried by Kim Harrington

Kayla Sloane was the quintessential mean girl, and then one day she died.  Kayla fell down the stairs and broke her neck, and no body believes that it was an accident.  Now, Jade's family has moved into Kayla's old house.  Unfortunately, Kayla has not moved on.  With Kayla's ghost haunting the house, and threatening her little brother, Jade must take on the task of finding out who killed Kayla before Kayla does some killing of her own.

I've read some reviews that said this read like a Fear Street book, which is exactly what I thought while reading it.  It was a fast paced novel with a nice amount of spookiness.  I especially liked the information about gemstones throughout the novel (Jade's dead mother was a jewelery designer, and Jade wears gemstones based on their believed powers).

This novel is based on an ARC of the book.

Thursday, January 17, 2013

Dr. Frankenstein's Daughters by Suzanne Weyn

Twin sisters Giselle and Ingrid are the hidden daughters of Dr. Victor Frankenstein.  They have been hidden so Frankenstein's monster will not find and kill them. They know nothing about their father, and their mother is dead.

Shortly before the girls turn 17, their father dies, leaving them heirs to his entire fortune and his castle.  The girls move into the castle, and Giselle (the beautiful one) has her eyes set on redoing the castle and taking on her role as Baroness Frankenstein.  Ingrid finds her father's journals and becomes obsessed with his science.

I made it about half of the way through this book, but then I wondered if I really wanted to keep going.  I could guess some of the plot points, and honestly neither girl is overly sympathetic.  I do like Ingrid more than Giselle, but her story line really wasn't progressing quickly enough for me.

There started to be some awesome gruesomeness right around the point where I gave up, but I'd already divested myself of the book by then.  I read some descriptions of the story to see if I would want to keep going, but the book description on Amazon does not even feature the correct character names.  Also, apparently there is eventually a love triangle.  Oh well, onto the next book.

I was allowed to read this book as an e-ARC.  I was neither paid, nor given awesome swag for my review.  The actual book may be different than the copy I reviewed.

Wednesday, January 16, 2013

Rumor Has It by Jill Mansell

Tilly came home one day to find that her live-in boyfriend had up and left.  On a weekend visit to see her best friend Erin, and try to collect herself, Tilly sees an advertisement in a local paper for a "Girl Friday" job and decided to investigate.

Tilly lands the job, and moves in with the new family; a gay man (Max) and his teen aged daughter.  Moving from London to a small town is a bit of a shock, and it doesn't help that Max is best friends with Jack Lucas, the best looking man in town with the worst reputation.  Tilly can't help but be attracted to Jack, and the more time she spends with him the less the rumors about him make sense.

Meanwhile Tilly's best friend Erin has finally found the love of her life, too bad he's the soon-to-be ex-husband of the town shrew who won't leave Erin alone.

These plots, and a lot more, happen throughout this novel.  It's a decently long book (over 400 pages), and I think it could have done well to be broken up in two or three companion novels.  All of the characters were likable though, and the book was very enjoyable.  There was romance, but nothing too explicit (no bodice ripping, yay!) and a lot of humor.  This book reminded me a lot of Meg Cabot's boy series.  I was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed this book, and I am looking forward to reading more from the author.

Thursday, January 10, 2013

The Darkest Minds by Alexandra Bracken

Set in a near-future dystopian US, most of America's children are dead due to a strange disease and those that have survived...well they aren't exactly "normal".  When she was 10 years old Ruby did something that caused her parents to lock her in the garage and call the authorities.  For 6 years Ruby lived at Thurmond one of the "rehabilitation camps" run by the government.  All these years she's been hiding her true power, until one day she can't hide it anymore.  After that she's broken out of camp by the Children's League, an ruthless anti-government group who wants to use Ruby as a weapon.

Ruby runs away from the Children's League and meets up with a group of teens on the run who are looking for East River and the Slip Kid, a place and person who seem to be the answer to all their problems.

Ruby is a likable character, although there is a little too much of her underestimating her own attractiveness, and her desire to be not girly can be a little much at times.  Her traveling group are all great supporting characters.  Liam, the group's flawed leader is adorable and you just want everything to work out for him, even though it's very unlikely that will happen.  Chubs slowly grows on you, and little Zu just sounds like a lost little girl that anyone would want to hug and take care of.  This book has action, romance, and it was hard for me to put it down.  It wasn't exactly what I was wanting to read when I picked it up, but I became so engrossed in the story that I just couldn't walk away.

The ending is heart breaking, but since this is the first in a planned trilogy, there will hopefully be some happier resolution later on.

Monday, January 7, 2013

Anatomy of a Single Girl by Daria Snadowsky

We already have Anatomy of a Boyfriend in my library, and it's circulated pretty well, so when I saw Anatomy of a Single Girl as a book I could request on Netgalley I was pretty excited.  I downloaded the book and started reading, unfortunately I was not able to get very far.  This book follows up after the relationship in Anatomy of a Boyfriend falls apart, and the main character is just not very likable.  Maybe part of it was me, I am getting married this year and am really excited about it so when the main character Dominique started making fun of a bride for being all excited about her up-coming wedding I was immediately turned off.  I also didn't care for the fact that Dominique said she was going to be spending time over of her summer break "bratsitting" (note not baby-sitting) for some families.  Dominique also comes off as pretty superficial.  I couldn't make myself keep reading, and instead would spend my time with this book thinking about the other book I had that I wanted to read more.  So, I had to give up.

This review is based off an e-ARC that I was allowed to read.  I received no compensation for this review.

Wednesday, January 2, 2013

Shadowlands by Kate Brian

One afternoon, on the way home from school, Rory Miller is attacked by Steven Nell; an infamous serial killer who has eluded police for over a decade.  Steven Nell is not one to give up, the only other girl escaped him, and he came back to kill her and her entire family.  So, now Rory, her sister Darcy, and their father must enter the witness relocation program.

The town they move to, Juniper Landing, seems like an idyllic tourist town.  A great place to blend in, and a place where the family begins to heal. Then, Rory's new friends start disappearing and Rory is scared that Steven Nell has found her again.

This book was fast-paced and atmospheric.  It was also pretty violent.  I figured out the "twist" to the end before it got there, but that didn't stop me from enjoying the book.  I am seriously looking forward to the rest of the books in this planned trilogy.


This review is based on an e-arc I received from Netgalley.  I received neither payment, nor awesome swag in exchange for this review.

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