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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Splintered by A.G. Howard

Alyssa Gardner is a decedent of Alice Liddell, the girl who inspired Lewis Carroll to write Alice in Wonderland, and all the women of her family have been cursed since Alice came back out of the rabbit hole. Alyssa is scared to succumb to the same crazy that has kept her mother living in an asylum for years, ever since she attacked Alyssa with a pair of pruning sheers.  Alyssa has reason to be scared, she can hear bugs and flowers talk, but she has kept this a secret from her father, and her best friend/secret crush Jeb.

Then, Alyssa's mother's health takes a turn for the worse and Alyssa decides that she is going to enter Wonderland, break the family curse, and save her mother.  But, once she's there, Alice isn't sure who to trust, and finds herself torn between two worlds.  Nothing in Wonderland apparently is as it's described in the books.

Howard's Wonderland is creepy, deadly, and beautifully described.  Alyssa is a likable character, torn between the mortal world she is known, and a desire to connect with the ethereal Wonderland.  Some of the creatures described in this book are outright gruesome, but there is always an underlying beauty about all of it, even the most horrific descriptions.  There is a touch of romance to this book, and its pretty heated for not being explicit.  I liked that this was a fantasy book, but that the character wasn't your normal fantasy heroine.  Alyssa is a sporty artist who loved to skateboard.

I really enjoyed this book, and kept reading the character descriptions out loud to my fiance.  I'm excited to get this book in at the library so I can start sharing it with the patrons.

I was allowed to borrow an ARC e-book of this title through netgalley.  I received no compensation, nor fun book related swag for my review.

Cinders & Sapphires (At Somerton) by Leila Rasheed

Rose Cliffe has never met a young lady like her new mistress. Clever, rich, and beautiful, Ada Averly treats Rose as an equal. And Rose could use a friend-to the rest of the staff at Somerton Court she is the indulged favorite of the housekeeper, her mother. Especially now that she has risen to ladies' maid at barely sixteen. Rose knows she should be grateful to even have a place at a house like Somerton. Still, she can't help but wonder what her life might have been had she been born a lady like Ada. If she even had a father.

Ada never believed that one encounter could so completely alter a young lady's heart. That was before her voyage to England. For the first time in a decade, the Averlys have returned to Somerton, their majestic ancestral estate. But terrible scandal has followed Ada's beloved father all the way from India. Now Ada finds herself torn between her own happiness and her family's honor.  Only she has the power to restore the Averly name-by marrying a man more than twice her age. And ever since her voyage across the sea, she's loved someone else...someone she could never persuade her father to accept. 

I made it about a third of the way through this book, and I enjoyed the story well enough, but I came across the same problem I had with the Gossip Girl series, too many characters, not enough development, and not enough interest to keep going.  For awhile I pretended that the maid Rose was actually Moira from American Horror Story: Murder House, and that helped.  But, eventually I started reading again and they mentioned a character that I'd already been introduced to and I thought "who in the world is that???", didn't care to go back and find out, and promptly gave up reading.  I don't think the book was bad, I just lost interest.

This review is based on an e-ARC I was allowed to read.  I received no compensation or free swag for my review.