I Don't Like You That Way

Published:  September 1st, 2014
The Opposite of Love
By: Sarah Lynn Scheerger
Albert Whitman Teen
ISBN-13:  9780807561324

Rose is the wild girl nobody really knows.  Chase is haunted by his past.  Both are self-proclaimed "disappointments," attracted to each other enough to let down their defenses.  When Rose's strict, adoptive parents forbid the relationship it only makes things more intense.  But Chase can't hide from his own personal demons, and Rose has secrets of her own.  After they're wrenched apart, a cryptic email arrives in the middle of the night on Christmas Eve, beginning a desperate pursuit and a look back over their tumultuous romance.  Will they find each other before the night is over, or will they be torn apart forever?

Review

       Rose has been with her parents since she was really young and they adopted her.  But she remembers her "real" mother and refuses to be the obedient, docile daughter that these people want her to be - she's going to do things her way.  Chase's father was a violent, abusive bastard.  His mother is not very maternal, to say the least, and he pretty much takes care of running their lives (and making sure his sister is taken care of).  When the two of them actually meet one another, sparks fly and trouble seems to be on the horizon.  After they are forbidden to see one another things come to a head with a mysterious email Cahse receives on Christmas Eve.  Can Chase and Rose find their way back to one another?  Or are both of their self-destructive tendencies too much to handle?

       I could not stand Rose.  She was a complete and utter, spoiled brat.  Yes, she has reasons to be upset with the strict and over-the-top way that her adoptive parents treat her all the time.  But she definitely invites it, with her completely outrageous behavior.  And yeah, it's sad that she lost her real mother, but her real mother had apparently been a down on her luck prostitute.  So, as much as she loved Rose, she had no business trying to take care of a child when she couldn't take care of herself.  Plus, it's obvious to see that her adoptive parents love her (even if I don't agree with their methods - the police?  Really?!).  Chase on the other hand, while being from the wrong side of the tracks, was a fairly sweet boy.  I didn't mind him quite so much.  I did think that him deciding to pursue Rose, who obviously was in self-destruct mode, was a dumb-ass thing to do.  Not to mention, it could ruin his life right alongside hers, which would just be a waste.  

       It's kind of hard to truly like a book though, when you feel like the author is cramming issues down your throat.  I also had a hard time with the "romance," seeing as I hate one half of the romantic couple.  Then the author had that so-called "twist" happen near the end of the book.  Really?  That's how she chooses to end this book, and make the two dumb teenagers grow up?  Cliched and overall, I've seen it so many times as a reader that it just makes me tired.  Overall, nit my cup of tea and not something I'd recommend.  I was skimming near the end, cause I just frankly didn't care.

VERDICT:  2/5  Stars

**I reviewed this book as part of Around the World ARC Tours, run by the lovely Princess Bookie.  No money or favors were exchanged for this review.  This book was published September 1st, 2014.*

Shattered Hearts and Broken Things

Expected Publication:  December 23rd, 2014

This Shattered World (Starbound #2)

By:  Amie Kaufman & Meagan Spooner

Disney-Hyperion

ISBN-13:  9781423171034

Jubilee Chase and Flynn Cormac should never have met.

Lee is captain of the forces sent to Avon to crush the terraformed planet's rebellious colonists, but she has her own reasons for hating the insurgents.

Rebellion is in Flynn's blood.  Terraforming corporations make their fortune by recruiting colonists to make the inhospitable planets livable, with the promise of a better life for their children.  But they never fulfilled their promise on Avon, and decades later, Flynn is leading the rebellion.

Desperate for any advantage in a bloody and unrelenting war, Flynn does the only thing that makes sense when he and Lee cross paths: he returns to base with her as prisoner.  But as his fellow rebels prepare to execute this tough-talking girl with nerves of steel, Flynn makes another choice that will change him forever.  He and Lee escape the rebel base together, caught between two sides of a senseless war.

Review

     This had all the important things that the first book had: adventure, outer space intrigue, romance and character development.  Lots of conflict to keep me busy as a reader.  Yet, I didn't quite connect immediately with Lee or Flynn, quite like I did with Tarver and Lilac in the first book.  Maybe because Lee and Flynn seem to have a much clearer understanding of who they are and where they belong, etc. (not that this lasts for the entire book, but it didn't draw me in to have such self-assured characters).  Maybe it's because I'm such so insecure myself.  Also, Flynn came across as a pretty big idiot.  You're part of a fairly big rebellion, and your first instinct is to kidnap one of the opposing leaders when you have the chance.  Did he honestly believe he could convince his people to peacefully let her go once they had what they wanted?  As if!  Dreamworld buddy, total dreamworld - especially since his sister had been a violent rebellion leader herself, executed for her actions.

     Honestly, Lee was my favorite character and I still wasn't all that attached to her for whatever reason.  I did enjoy the flashbacks into her past.  It gives a deeper insight into the character, especially when you realize the purpose behind them and why Lee never seems to acknowledge these remembrances/hallucinations at all.  The romance in this one just felt too cliched and rehearsed to me.  It never really rang true.  I seem to be in the minority here, so don't mind me - form your own opinions!  So as not to spoil all that much, I will say that the ending resolves the conflict very nicely.  I think any further books will be about different characters again.  The conflict with the corporation owned by Lilac's father has a lot more mileage left in it for Kaufman and Spooner before it starts to get tired.  My favorite part was cameo by Lilac and Tarver (both of whom play a part in the climax of the action, near the end of the book).  I recommend reading this if you've read the first one and it really is a solid second series book.  It just wasn't anything special to me personally.

VERDICT:  3/5  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 date is December 23rd, 2014.**

Winner Takes It All

Published: March 4th, 2014

The Winner's Curse (The Winner's Trilogy #1)

By: Marie Rutkoski

Farrar Straus Giroux

ISBN-13:  9780374384685

Winning what you want may cost you everything that you love.

As a general's daughter in a vast empire that revels in war and enslaves those it conquers, seventeen-year-old Kestrel has two choices: she can join the military or get married.  But Kestrel has other intentions.

One day, she is startled to find a kindred spirit in a young slave up for auction.  Arin's eyes seem to defy everything and everyone.  Following her instinct, Kestrel buys him -- with unexpected consequences.  It's not long before she has to hide her growing love for Arin.

But he, too, has a secret, and Kestrel quickly learns that the price she has paid for a fellow human is much higher than she could have ever imagined.

Review

     This is probably one of my most anticipated books of the year.  Just because I felt like everyone else was talking about it, even though I really wasn't even sure what it was really about!  Let me tell you right now, this book basically defies any sort of classification.  It's set in a world with no connection to ours, but it's not science-fiction, fantasy, or an alternate history of some sort.  I'm thinking that it's only defining characteristic is its base structure around the political intrigues, wars and slavery struggles of the fictional society.  There really isn't a genre for that!  So, that's issue number one.  Issue number two, would be the slow and somewhat contrived pacing and plot of the first half of this book.  We get glimpses at the smart, strategic mind of Kestrel, a general's daughter, who is trapped in between two choices (neither of which she is okay with).  She has no real say in what happens to her future, other than who to marry or whether or not to join her father in the military.  We get to see Kestrel's inner struggle, her daily miniature rebellions and her connections with the others in her society, including her best friend Jess who definitely isn't bucking the system.  Not to mention, Jess' brother Ronan, who wants to marry Kestrel.  One day Kestrel buys a slave.  He acts nothing like a slave, orders her around, ignores her and they have a mental battle for each others' secrets.  They play games with each other, and are developing feelings.

     Things start to pick up in the second half, with the discovery of the slave, Arin's, secret activities and Kestrel's own plans to subvert society in regards to her future.  By the end, everything the reader thought they knew is in shredded ruins and the cliffhanger has left them reeling.  Especially when the slaves turn the tables of the war on their oppressors almost completely around.  There was superb world-building, and I could picture everything that was being described for me.  I could see the rich society houses, the slaves, the bustling marketplace and all of the individual characters.  I was stuck in this book.  But instead of feeling like I was lost completely in it, I felt like the author was consciously manipulating my emotions with calculated scenes, twists, etc.  That's not a fun feeling to have when reading a book.  

     This book was downright bizarre at times, especially with the whole plot revolving around slavery and war.  Not your average YA romance.  I liked that and the second half of the book was phenomenally written.  Yet there was something about these characters that left me cold.  I never really connected with Kestrel, who is withdrawn, scheming and kind of bland.  Arin was very stereotypical and you could see his "tragic" back story coming a mile away.  But the plot execution was a thing of brilliance and the character interactions were vicious in the best kind of way.  If you want a serious mind-fuck, I'd recommend this one.  Something off the wall, and completely new in a strange way (and yes, I'm being purposefully vague, because I don't want to spoil the surprise and weirdness of this one for you).  I will probably read the next one, just to see where she goes!

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 was published March 4th, 2014.*

North Pole Reform School Blog Tour - Review and Giveaway!!!

 

Title: North Pole Reform School

Author: Jaimie Admans

Date of Publication: November 6, 2013

Genre: YA rom-com, fantasy

Blurb:

 

Mistletoe Bell hates Christmas. So would you if you had a name like hers. Her Christmas-mad parents make the festive season last all year, and with another Christmas looming, Mis doesn’t think she can take any more. After her carelessness causes an accident at school, it seems like things can’t get any worse.

Then she wakes up to find The Ghost of Christmases Ruined in her bedroom.

She is taken to the North Pole, to a reform school run by elves determined to make her love Christmas. Stuck in a misfit group of fellow Christmas-haters with a motley crew of the weird and even weirder, watched over by elves day and night, she doesn’t expect to meet cute and funny Luke, who is hiding a vulnerable side beneath his sarcastic exterior. She doesn’t expect to fall in love with him.

But all is not as it should be at the North Pole. A certain Mr. Claus is making the elves’ lives a misery, and pretty soon Mistletoe and Luke are doing more than just learning to like Christmas.

A YA romantic comedy in which Santa is the bad guy, teaching reindeer to fly is on the curriculum, and zombies have a fondness for Christmas music.

 

Suitable for older teens and upwards due to bad language.

Goodreads link: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18754638-north-pole-reform-school?ac=1

Purchase link: Amazon

About Jaimie Admans:

 

Jaimie is a 28-year-old English-sounding Welsh girl with an awkward-to-spell name. She lives in South Wales and enjoys writing, gardening, drinking tea and watching horror movies. She hates spiders and cheese & onion crisps. She has been writing for years but has never before plucked up the courage to tell people. Afterlife Academy is her third novel and she hopes you enjoy it. There are plenty more on the way!
 

Website: http://www.jaimieadmans.com/

Twitter: http://twitter.com/be_the_spark

Facebook: http://facebook.com/jaimieadmansbooks

Newsletter: http://eepurl.com/oDXZj

 

My Thoughts

 

     So this book starts off with the main character, Mistletoe Bell, being woken up by a purple moose (also known as The Ghost of Christmases Ruined) and informed that she is being sent to North Pole Reform School.  It's not a crime to hate Christmas yourself, but to ruin it for someone else either on purpose or through carelessness is unacceptable.  So Mis is being sent to learn to love Christmas again, like she used to when she was a kid.  In her class at reform school are also a teenage boy named Luke who turns out to be part elf himself and hates Christmas because of his mean & violent Dad, a little boy named Hugo whose family died on Christmas, Joe who is a rude and disastrous drunk, and Emily who has a serious phobia of ducks.  Unable to escape, especially with the zombies that are on the outside of the North Pole's dome growing restless (yes, you read that correctly), it's up to Misty and the others to rediscover the true meaning of Christmas.  But is this Santa the right one for the job?  Can they survive meals of candy canes, mince pie and yule log?  Also, is there a possible romance brewing between Luke and Mis?  Read and find out all that and more...plus zombies you guys!

     When I started reading this I was warily optimistic.  I've been disappointed many a time in books that promised to be original and funny.  But this one was both of those things, in spades!  Once I started laughing, I never really stopped.  I especially loved the head elves, Tinsel and Navi who are so full of Christmas spirit it's practically oozing out of their ears.  It makes for some funny situations.  I think my favorite part of this was closer to the end of the book when Mis and Luke are stuck working with the Elf who answers all the letters to Santa.  That really brought things home for them AND made them want to enact a change for the better as well.  It also brought tears to my eyes a few times!  The ending was sweet and probably my main complaints are that it was too short (I want to know what happens next!) and that Emily, Hugo and Joe just kind of dropped off the face of the Earth once the romance/friendship deepened between Luke and Mis - they became the center of the novel.  Overall, a hilarious, sweet and touching story of learning what the Christmas spirit truly means and why we need it! :)

VERDICT:  4.5/5  Stars

 



*I received an ARC from the author and tour host for the purpose of this blog tour. No money or favors were exchanged for this review. This book was published November 6th, 2013.*

 

 

***Don't forget to enter the tour-wide giveaway, for a $25 Amazon Gift Card!!! :)  Good luck.

 

 





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Take Me To Your Leader

Expected Publication:  February 4th, 2014

Alienated

By: Melissa Landers

Disney-Hyperion

ISBN-13:  9781423170280

Two years ago, the aliens made contact. Now Cara Sweeney is going to be sharing a bathroom with one of them. 

Handpicked to host the first-ever L’eihr exchange student, Cara thinks her future is set. Not only does she get a free ride to her dream college, she’ll have inside information about the mysterious L’eihrs that every journalist would kill for. Cara’s blog following is about to skyrocket.

Still, Cara isn’t sure what to think when she meets Aelyx. Humans and L’eihrs have nearly identical DNA, but cold, infuriatingly brilliant Aelyx couldn’t seem more alien. She’s certain about one thing, though: no human boy is this good-looking.

But when Cara's classmates get swept up by anti-L'eihr paranoia, Midtown High School suddenly isn't safe anymore. Threatening notes appear in Cara's locker, and a police officer has to escort her and Aelyx to class. 

Cara finds support in the last person she expected. She realizes that Aelyx isn’t just her only friend; she's fallen hard for him. But Aelyx has been hiding the truth about the purpose of his exchange, and its potentially deadly consequences. Soon Cara will be in for the fight of her life—not just for herself and the boy she loves, but for the future of her planet.

Review

     Cara Sweeny is looking forward to a new school year with her best friend, her awesome boyfriend (even if she's not quite as sure about him as she used to be) and her status as top in the running for valedictorian finally being attained.  Then the Principal drops the bomb on her that she's been chosen to have her family host the first interplanetary exchange, with her brother going to L'eihr and a boy named Aelyx coming to live with them.  Cara is not really all that pleased, but decides to make the best of things for the sake of the scholarship money that will get her to whatever college she wants.  So she starts a blog and gets his room ready.  When the Sweeny family brings Aelyx back to their small town, all Hell breaks loose.  With anit-L'eihr sentiment building at a rapid pace, Cara is dumped by her boyfriend and her friend who join a hate society against the aliens and gets threatening notes and assault attempts against her.  Can she and Aelyx become friends against all odds, even with all the differences between the L'eihr and the Humans?  What will they do when the violence escalates to a breaking point and forces them to make a drastic choice?

     I like the alien novels recently joining the YA canon, the most prominent of which that's coming to mind being The Luxe Series by Jennifer L. Armentrout.  As much as I love that other series, it is Roswellian in its drama and teen angst quotient.  This was almost like reading a memoir by a participant of the Little Rock Nine when they were attempting integration in 1957.  I hesitate to make that comparison, but the amount of focus and detail towards the paranoia, violence and hate directed at both Aelyx and Cara because he's from L'eihr and not Earth, reminded me eerily of the treatment of African-Americans during the Civil Rights Movement.  It wasn't all politics, thought they played an important (and well-written part).  This book also deals with serious character development in Aelyx (stereotypical cold alien at first) and Cara (epitome of the self-centered, ambitious teen girl).  Through their friendship with each other and the struggles that it brings they are transformed into people that I would be proud to know in real life.  The descriptions of L'eihr, the relationships and interactions of Aelyx with his fellow alien exchange students and the government conspiracies added some serious depth to this book too.  I loved the descriptive language and felt like it struck the perfect balance, stopping just short of overblown.  Also, the humor in this book had me laughing out loud so often that I smile just remembering it.  It was such sincere, effortless humor and the exchanges between Cara and Aelyx were high points for sure.  The chess games cracked me up, as well as her cooking attempts.  And may I just say that I sincerely hope Disney keeps this cover?  It fits the story perfectly, which is a rarity (especially in YA fiction).  Plus it's just gorgeous and eye-catching.  All in all, probably one of the best books that I will read this year and I'm definitely buying my own copy when it comes out.  This is the shining example of what the YA Science-Fiction genre can be when done right! :)  Highly recommended to anyone, hardcore fan of sci-fi or not.  Put it on your to-read list and await February anxiously!

VERDICT:  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 February 4th, 2014.**