Catch Me If You Can

Expected Publication:  September 24th, 2013

Find Me

By: Romily Bernard

HarperTeen

ISBN-13:  9780062229038

“Find Me.”

These are the words written on Tessa Waye’s diary. The diary that ends up with Wick Tate. But Tessa’s just been found . . . dead.

Wick has the right computer-hacking skills for the job, but little interest in this perverse game of hide-and-seek. Until her sister Lily is the next target.

Then Griff, trailer-park boy next door and fellow hacker, shows up, intent on helping Wick. Is a happy ending possible with the threat of Wick’s deadbeat dad returning, the detective hunting him sniffing around Wick instead, and a killer taunting her at every step?

Foster child. Daughter of a felon. Loner hacker girl. Wick has a bad attitude and sarcasm to spare.

But she’s going to find this killer no matter what.

Because it just got personal.

Review

     Wick has been in foster care now for long enough to know that the only person who can really help her, is herself.  So she is farming out her hacking skills to make extra cash for when she and her sister Lily are inevitably (in her opinion) kicked out of their current placement.  She's just trying to keep her head down and stay unnoticed at school and at home.  So when her former friend Tessa Waye appears to have committed suicide, Wick is shocked to find her diary laying on the doorstep.  Someone wants Wick to find out what really happened to Tessa - who killed her and why.  It will take all of Wick's hacking skills, the help of Griff, the one boy she just might be able to let in (with secrets of his own) and her inner detective to find the truth,  But when Wick's explosive Dad is released from prison and her sister Lily becomes the killer's next target, just what will Wick have to sacrifice to save Lily - and give her a life worth having?

     This was definitely different from my normal reads.  Normally I don't go for thriller/suspense books, but honestly most of the time this really didn't feel like it was committed to those as its primary genres.  For the the vast majority of this book, I felt like the plot was fixated on the criminal, family drama of Wick and Lily's Dad, their Mom's suicide and the foster system they're being bounced around in.  To me, this book was a lot more about a girl who has been bashed around by life learning to trust someone and change her life with the help of others.  Not to mention the crazed, pedophiliac killer.  Can't forget that of course!  The relationship between Wick and her sister was one of my main problems with this book which I otherwise enjoyed.  I just did not believe they were as close as they both said they were.  Wick did everything for Lily, who treated her like dirt and basically turned on Wick when they got taken in by a couple that treats them like their real daughters.  I wasn't feeling the sort of togetherness that Wick waxed on about so much.  

     Wick and Griff's relationship was also kind of a bit much for me.  They didn't even ever really talk to each other and all of the sudden when he's drawn into a hacking job with Wick's Dad's "friend" they start a flirtation, which leads to Wick trusting him implicitly in regards to her entire life.  This includes her half-cocked plans to draw out the killer using Facebook and tracking I.P. addresses from his online activity.  I am glad, in a way, that the book was more character focused than story focused.  Because if the story had been the point, this would have been just like reading some cheap paperback thriller, only even more predictable if that's at all possible.  I knew pretty early in who the killer was and the "motivations" behind it.  Really the mystery was non-existent and the only real suspense was how it was all going to go down when Wick faced off with the killer.  I liked this book quite a bit, but it was definitely NOT the best YA thriller/mystery I've ever read - not even close to it.  I would recommend this for some light fluff, maybe a good pick for reluctant readers as it did go by awfully quick.  If you're in search of complexity, pass this one by cause it'll only disappoint you.

VERDICT:  3.5/5  Stars

*I received this book as part of Around the World ARC Tours, run by the lovely Princess Bookie.  No favors or money were exchanged for this review.  This book's expected publication is September 24th, 2013.*

Sometimes All You Need Is a Second Chance

Expected Publication: March 5th, 2013
The Second Chance Cafe
By: Alison Kent
Montlake Romance
ISBN-13: 9781611097894

Kaylie Flynn was luckier than most children left to the Texas foster care system, blessed with a foster mother who taught her the comfort of home and the healing power of baking the perfect brownie. Now, Kaylie has journeyed back to Hope Springs to open a cafe in the charming Victorian she once shared with her foster family and to finally find answers about her past and where she came from. Yet Kaylie's carefully laid plans quickly become complicated. The house needs far more work than she realized, and Tennessee Keller, the carpenter Kaylie hires, stirs up feelings she hasn't felt in a long while. When an unexpected crisis threatens to unravel her dreams, Kaylie seems to have all the ingredients for a perfect disaster or quite possibly the perfect love.

Review

 

      Kaylie Flynn had a tough life before she was taken in by her last set of foster parents - the ones that made her feel like she finally had a home.  But when she aged out of the system and went to college, Kaylie never looked back until the couple both died.  Then she waited for the house to be for sale again.  After she finally buys her childhood home, Kaylie returns to Hope Springs, Texas to open a cafe and live in the place she was always the happiest once again.  Helping her realize her dreams, contractor Tennessee Keller comes with baggage of his own and a one-man, ex-convict crew.  Her new friend Luna also has something to hide - a secret bigger than Kaylie ever imagined that involves her in the most personal way possible.  With the help of her new friends and the hint of romance in the air, can Kaylie confront her past once and for all, leaving it behind for a new future?  Or will she always be looking for a place to call home?  This was a really good romance on the surface, but there was another layer of story much deeper between Kaylie and her birth Father who she always though abandoned her and her Mom.  Kaylie's issues of trust and problems with abandonment rang very true, making me wince at certain parts that were especially harsh.  Luna was definitely a friend that was good for Kaylie, but the secret that she kept was too much in my opinion.  Ten Keller felt kind of unrealisitic, in the way he insisted on martyring himself for something beyond his control.  It got on my nerves after a certain portion of whining had already been done.  The romance between him and Kaylie was sweet, but nothing to set my soul on fire.  Overall, I reallyy enjoyed the family and friendship aspects of this book and the heroine was well characterized and written (even if I did like her dog, Magoo, best at the end still!).  I would recommend it to those who like fluffy romance reads, but prefer something with a bit more substance added to the recipe.  Oh yeah, and there are some great brownie recipes in this book too! :)

 

VERDICT:  4/5  Stars

 

*I received an Advanced Reading E-book Copy from the publisher, via NetGalley. No money or favors were exchanged for this review. This book's expected publication date is March 5th, 2013.*

I Want a Restraining Order

Expected Publication: January 29th, 2013

Nobody But Us

By: Kristin Halbrook

HarperTeen

ISBN-13: 9780062121264

Bonnie and Clyde meets IF I STAY in this addictively heart-wrenching story of two desperate teenagers on the run from their pasts.

They’re young. They’re in love. They’re on the run.

Zoe wants to save Will as much as Will wants to save Zoe. When Will turns eighteen, they decide to run away together. But they never expected their escape to be so fraught with danger....

When the whole world is after you, sometimes it seems like you can’t run fast enough.

Nobody But Us, told in alternating perspectives from Will and Zoe, is an unflinching novel, in turns heartbreaking and hopeful, about survival, choices, and love...and how having love doesn’t always mean that you get a happy ending. Described as “beautiful, heartbreaking, and exhilarating” by Kody Keplinger, author of The DUFF, Nobody But Us will prove irresistible to fans of Nina Lacour, Jenny Han, and Sara Zarr.

 

Review

     Will and Zoe run away together, hoping that they can outrun everything bad in their lives - her abusive Father, his lack of family or chances in life and the obvious fact that they're too young to be able to survive without any support.  She is educated and naieve and he is an emotional train-wreck, with so many issues that he is constantly fighting the world.  And when things get dangerous, and the FBI comes chasing after them will Zoe and Will be able to have their happy ending?  Or will their story be just another teenage tragedy?  I went into this wanting to fall in love with it.  But alas, it wasn't meant to be.  AT ALL.  This book is nothing like If I Stay, which leads me to believe that the person who wrote this blurb didn't even read the damn book!  I love a good romance, with tensions and obstacles as much as the next person.  But poor abused Zoe had absolutely no self-respect and chose to run away with a guy whose answer to every problem is to beat someone up and who blames HER when she is sexually harrassed while they're traveling.  That is so unromantic it makes me gag.  Also, several times in the book Will makes her afraid that he's going to hit her.  Zoe just basically goes from an abusive Father, to a very unhealthy and bordering on absuive relationship with Will.  Yeah, I get that Will's had a shitty upbringing and plenty of his own problems but y'all, that's NO EFFING EXCUSE!!!  Nothing makes abuse and violence okay!  The way the book ended was super unsatisfying, because even though they are split apart from each other, Zoe is basically still thinking that Will is her soulmate and the only guy for her.  This book glorified abusive and unhealthy relationships and it was disgusting to me as a reader.  Yes the relationship is intense, but in this case that's a bad thing.  Also, did they really think Zoe could enroll in high school with just a fake I.D.?  And when Will kills someone they STILL think they can get out of the situation okay.  Overall a badly written novel that I hated and would not recommend to my dog as a chew toy.  I might recommend it to my hillbilly neighbors' bonfire though...

VERDICT:  0/5  Stars

*I received an Advanced Reading E-book Copy from the publisher, via Edelweiss. No money or favors were exchanged for this review. This book's expected publication date is January 29th, 2013.*

Pushing Me To the Brink

Expected Publication: July 31st, 2012
Pushing The Limits
By: Katie McGarry
Harlequin Teen
ISBN-13:  9780373210497

"I won't tell anyone, Echo. I promise." Noah tucked a curl behind my ear. It had been so long since someone touched me like he did. Why did it have to be Noah Hutchins? His dark brown eyes shifted to my covered arms. "You didn't do that-did you? It was done to you?" No one ever asked that question. They stared. They whispered. They laughed. But they never asked.

So wrong for each other...and yet so right.

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.

"An edgy romance that pulls you in and never lets go. I was hooked!"-Gena Showalter, New York Times bestselling author of the Intertwined series.

Review

   Echo Emerson has been an outcast since she disappeared from school and came back with disfiguring scars on her arms.  All of her classmates think she tried to committ suicide, but the truth is much darker than that.  It keeps Echo awake at night and haunts her dreams, even though her mind is a total blank and she can't remember what happened.  Plus she has to deal with having lost her brother in Afghanistan, her parents divorcing and her Dad marrying the babysitter, who is pregnant with his child.  Noah Hutchins has been the resident bad boy at Echo's school, but even with the drugs and the parade of girls, he is something much more.  His parents died in a tragic fire and he was separated from his younger brothers, bounced around the foster care system.  Now all he wants is to get his family back together, but he'll need to clean up his act first.  Now with the new counselor Mrs. Collins pushing Echo into tutoring Noah so she can make money to fix her dead brother Aires' car, the lines will blur and they will find something in each other that has been missing from their lives.  As they fall deeper into each others situations, can Echo and Noah find a way to heal together or will they destroy each other once and for all?  I LOVED this book.  It was not completely perfect and sometimes the stupidity of the characters actions annoyed me.  Such as Echo and Noah trying to steal their files, her to find out what happened the day she almost died and him to get the address of the foster home where his brothers are.  And Echo feeling like popularity and getting her old life back were the most important things ever, including her old boyfriend who was a total douchebag and her old BFF who is shallower than a kiddie pool.  I loved the gritty issues that they both had to deal with, that made the story twice as intense.  Plus the chemistry between Echo and Noah was completely smoking hot.  Like off the charts insanely hot!  I liked Lila, Isaiah and Beth although Beth truly made me want to bash her head in at times.  I could not put this book down.  I literally read it in one sitting and wanted more at the end.  By the time things were resolved with Noah's issues and Echo's memory, I was practically bawling.  This was so close to five stars that I have to say I highly recommend it for fans of gritty, contemporary YA who don't mind a little raciness in their fiction.

VERDICT:  4.85/5  Stars

*I received an Advanced Reading E-book Copy from the publisher, via NetGalley. No money or favors were exchanged for this review. This book's expected publication date is July 31st, 2012.*