Stay, Or At Least Give Me A Reason...

Published: September 8th, 2011
Stay With Me
By: Paul Griffin
Dial (Imprint of Penguin Group, USA)
ISBN-13: 9780803734487


An urban romance that will capture your soul, break your heart, and restore your faith in the human spirit

Fifteen-year-olds Cece and Mack didn't expect to fall in love. She's a sensitive A student; he's a high school dropout. But soon they're spending every moment together, bonding over a rescued dog, telling their secrets, making plans for the future. Everything is perfect. Until. Until. Mack makes a horrible mistake, and in just a few minutes, the future they'd planned becomes impossible. In this stark new reality, both of them must find meaning and hope in the memories of what they had, to survive when the person they love can't stay.

From award-winning writer Paul Griffin, Stay with Me is both heartbreaking and uplifting, filled with characters (both dog and human) that will forever change the way you look at the world.

Review

   Cece (pronounced Che-Che) is on the track to make something out of her life other than popping out babies and waitressing on the wrong side of town.  Mack is a high-school dropout who has a talent with dogs, but can't look people in the eyes.  Neither wanted to go out with the other - but when Cece's brother Tony goes into the Army they begin to connect like he said they would.  It starts with Mack walking Cece home from work at Vic's Too, the diner they both work at.  Then they work to rehabilitate a pitbull together.  Slowly, they fall in love and plan their future.  But when Mack does something unforgiveable it all begins to fade away.  How will their story end?  The best word to describe this book is bittersweet.  I began this one with expectations of another book like Perfect Chemistry, and ended up with a book that left me sort of cold.  I immediately felt like I was reading S.E. Hinton because of the way Mack talks and how REAL he felt to me - but I can't say the same for Cece.  I was pretty disappointed with how distanced I was from her character's feelings and problems.  I fell in love with Mack (but it fizzled near the end of the book) and I loved Carmella, Vic and Tony as well.  But Cece was keeping herself apart from me, and that makes for no easy affair with a book where she's the main character.  The way Mack interacted with the Pits and was like a dog whisperer was pure gold though!  It made me miss my dog (who's been gone for 7 years) and made me want to finally get another one.  You could tell Griffin really knew his way around animals! :)  It was well-written and it kept me reading to the end, but it left me feeling numb. 

VERDICT:  3/5  Stars

*No money or favors were exchanged for this review. This book is now available in stores and online.*

The Road Diverged Into Two Paths

Published: December 11th, 2011
A Tale of Two Proms (Bard Academy # 4)
By: Cara Lockwood
TKA Distribution
ISBN-13: 9781937776237


It was the best of prom, it was the worst of prom.

Miranda Tate returns for her senior year at Bard Academy and she is counting on two things: Prom with her boyfriend, Heathcliff, and then graduation from the haunted boarding school where fictional characters come to life. Fate, however, has other plans.

When Catherine Earnshaw, Heathcliff's long-lost love, appears on campus, suddenly everything she thought she knew about Heathcliff is changed forever. Catherine seems determined to win Heathcliff back, even if that means destroying Bard Academy and banishing its ghostly teachers - for good.
Miranda and her friends face their most daunting challenge, yet, which will take them for the first time inside the classics that have powered their mysterious boarding school. It's up to them to save Bard Academy - and prom. Can Miranda change her destiny and Heathcliff's? Or is this one story that was written in the stars?

Review

   Miranda Tate has survived a lot during her years at Bard Academy.  Now she is finally closing in on graduation after a completely uneventful Senior year.  But she does have a decision to make: go away to college at Ivy League school Penn State, or stay on the island and marry Heathcliff who has just proposed to her.  Because he's a fictional character and tied to his story, Heathcliff is unable to leave the island.  Does Miranda have to choose between a life well lived and true love?  She may not get the chance to find out, because strange things are happening at Bard again.  This time Catherine Earnshaw is behind them, determined to punish Miranda for taking Heathcliff from her (even though she thinks that he's basically no better than garbage).  Catherine's plan to "improve the classics" has negative consequences for everyone.  But there are even more surprises in store, including Heathcliff's almost double, Sydney Carton from A Tale of Two Cities who is brought forth by a surprising personage.  Also, it turns out Catherine is there by someone else's design to keep Miranda and Heathcliff apart.  Miranda and her sister Lindsay have to leave school for a family emergency, but when they return the school itself has disappeared and so have all the students.  With the vault of magic books also missing, the few that Miranda still has access to will mean the difference between rescuing her friends and saving the school, and having the world end because of Cathy's plot destabilizing the portals between fiction and reality.  Will everyone come out of it alive?  Also, will Cathy manage to get Heathcliff once more for herself and what role will Sydney play in all this.  The teachers (dead authors with unfinished business) also have a few tricks left up their sleeves before the last page is turned.  I honestly thought it was a really strong conclusion to the series.  I liked the plot twists and the imagination behind all of it.  It kept me just as intrigued as ever.  But the romance between Heath and Miranda lagged quite a bit for me.  It ended up too angsty and Sydney Carton was my bright spot.  I practically howled in rage at what he ends up doing at the close of the novel.  I would recommend this for people who have read the first three books only.  If this sounds like your kind of book, read the other ones first!!!

VERDICT:  3.5/5  Stars

*I received an Advanced Reading E-book Copy from the publisher, via NetGalley. No money was exchanged for this review.  This book was published December 11th, 2011.*

In Another Life

Published: September 29th, 2011
Lola and the Boy Next Door
By: Stephanie Perkins
Dutton Publishing
ISBN-13: 9780525423287


Budding designer Lola Nolan doesn’t believe in fashion . . . she believes in costume. The more expressive the outfit -- more sparkly, more fun, more wild -- the better. But even though Lola’s style is outrageous, she’s a devoted daughter and friend with some big plans for the future. And everything is pretty perfect (right down to her hot rocker boyfriend) until the dreaded Bell twins, Calliope and Cricket, return to the neighborhood.

When Cricket -- a gifted inventor -- steps out from his twin sister’s shadow and back into Lola’s life, she must finally reconcile a lifetime of feelings for the boy next door.

Review

   Lola seems like she's a pretty normal girl other than her life-is-a-costume-party philosophy (which is actually kind of cool).  She's seventeen, has a cool rocker boyfriend Max (who at 22 makes her parents nervous), two Dads who love her fiercely and a great best friend she can always count on.  Everything starts to blow up in her face when the Bell family moves in next door again and she has to face the humiliating episode between Calliope, Cricket and herself from two years ago.  When Cricket seemingly shut her down, Lola's heart was broken and Calliope has always been jealous of the possibility that Lola could be important to her twin, when outside of her figure skating career he's all she really has.  Plus, Lola has to deal with her re-emerging feelings for Cricket, her dimming feelings for Max and all the drama that comes with her birth mother Norah, who is her adoptive Dad Nathan's biological sister and is causing all sorts of issues between him and his partner Andy.  A really cool thing about this book is that Lola works at a movie theater close to Berkley and her co-worker is Anna, also later on Etienne St. Clair.  So I got to see two of my fave characters in YA literature from Anna and the French Kiss again.  Other than that this book underwhelmed me quite a bit.  Lola came across as a confused, overly dramatic, spoiled brat, drama queen who didn't appreciate how good she had it.  Honestly Max's sudden trasformation from good boyfriend to complete asshole felt very contrived.  I felt like all of the feeling that showcased in this book was very shallow and one-dimensional.  That said, it was a pretty cute book.  Not very deep, but a cute and angsty teen romance.  I don't know if I'd recommend it to anyone other than people who have read and fallen in love with Anna and the French Kiss previously.  Overall, kind of a disappointment.  I honestly hope I connect better to the characters in Isla and the Happily Ever After.

VERDICT:  2.5/5  Stars

*No money or favors were exchanged for this review. This book is now available in stores and online.*

Make It a Clean Break

Expected Publication: January 17th, 2012
Fracture
By: Megan Miranda
Bloomsbury/Walker Books for Young Readers
ISBN-13: 9780802723093


Eleven minutes passed before Delaney Maxwell was pulled from the icy waters of a Maine lake by her best friend Decker Phillips. By then her heart had stopped beating. Her brain had stopped working. She was dead. And yet she somehow defied medical precedent to come back seemingly fine
-despite the scans that showed significant brain damage.  Everyone wants Delaney to be all right, but she knows she's far from normal. Pulled by strange sensations she can't control or explain, Delaney finds herself drawn to the dying. Is her altered brain now predicting death, or causing it?
Then Delaney meets Troy Varga, who recently emerged from a coma with similar abilities. At first she's reassured to find someone who understands the strangeness of her new existence, but Delaney soon discovers that Troy's motives aren't quite what she thought. Is their gift a miracle, a freak of nature-or something much more frightening?
For fans of best-sellers like Before I Fall and If I Stay, this is a fascinating and heart-rending story about love and friendship and the fine line between life and death.

Review

   Delaney Maxwell has a fairly average small-town life.  One night when she's on her way to a party with her best friend Decker, all of that changes abruptly.  She falls through the ice on the lake.  Under for eleven minutes before she's rescued, Delaney is in a coma for a week.  All of the Doctors think she will have extreme brain damage and possibly be a vegetable for the rest of her life.  Delaney wakes up absolutely fine and they have no explanation other than a medical miracle.  At first she doesn't realize why the itch in her brain is pulling her to certain people - then she figures out it means they're going to die soon.  Then this weird boy named Troy Varga - who can do the same thing as Delaney - begins to get close to her.  He has serious issues though and the pressure of her ability and feeling crazy starts to get to Delaney and she begins to self-destruct.  I thought this was a truly interesting book.  The relationships of Delaney and her parents were painful but realistic.  I was totally invested in Delaney's life and her problems getting Decker to understand the complexity of what she was going through.  Also, I come from a very small town myself and that side of things definitely read realistically.  I liked that the paranormal element of this book wasn't overplayed or underplayed - it was just right.  By the time the ending rolls around the book truly comes full circle.  I would highly recommend this book to fans of If I Stay and The Beginning of After.  It was definitely worth the read and it got into my heart more than I thought it would. 

VERDICT:  4.5/5  Stars

*I received an Advanced Reading E-book Copy from the publisher, via NetGalley. No money was exchanged for this review. This book is now available in select stores and online.*