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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.