MG Review: The Dark Lady (Sherlock, Lupin & Me #1)

Title: The Dark Lady (Sherlock, Lupin & Me #1)

Author: Irene Adler

# of Pages: 240

Publisher: Capstone Young Readers

Publication Date: February 1st 2014

Source: NetGalley

Level: Middle Grade

Rating: 2 Hearts

Synopsis

While on summer vacation, little Irene Adler meets a young William Sherlock Holmes. The two share stories of pirates and have battles of wit while running wild on the sunny streets and rooftops. When Sherlock’s friend, Lupin, joins in on the fun, they all become fast friends. But the good times end abruptly when a dead body floats ashore on the nearby beach. The young detective trio will have to put all three of their heads together to solve this mystery.

My Verdict

I stumbled across this book when searching through NetGalley's available titles looking for something quite different. I've recently become obsessed with the BBC drama Sherlock and was very interested in this middle-grade mystery about a young Sherlock Holmes.

While this book is just being released in the US this February, it was originally an Italian title and part of a series that already has four books. The book is told from Irene Adler's point of view as she looks back at her childhood and the time her and Sherlock first met, one summer in the beach-side town of Saint-Malo. Unfortunately, the book lost my interest very early on. The "big" mystery was very slow paced which took away any potential suspense.

I wasn't impressed by the writing, it felt narrated rather than seen through the eyes of our protagonist, Irene. There was also an extreme over use of exclamation marks. It was as if everything that came out of Irene's mouth was super important! I began imaging that she didn't just speak, but rather yelled everything.

For a book about Sherlock Holmes I felt we hardly got to know him at all. He was quiet and mysterious, which I know are some of his famous character traits. I just wish he wasn't such a stranger to the reader.

Hopefully the target audience enjoys this book better than I did. As for me, I won't be carrying on with the series. 

YA Review: Broken by C.J. Lyons

Title: Broken

Author: C.J. Lyons

# of Pages: 336 

Publisher: Sourcebooks Fire

Publication Date: November 5th 2013

Source: BEA

Level: Young Adult

Rating: 2 Hearts

Synopsis

New York Times bestselling author CJ Lyons makes her YA debut with a fast-paced thriller sure to keep readers guessing to the very last page

The only thing fifteen-year-old Scarlet Killian has ever wanted is a chance at a normal life. Diagnosed with a rare and untreatable heart condition, she has never taken the school bus. Or giggled with friends during lunch. Or spied on a crush out of the corner of her eye. So when her parents offer her three days to prove she can survive high school, Scarlet knows her time is now... or never. Scarlet can feel her heart beating out of control with every slammed locker and every sideways glance in the hallway. But this high school is far from normal. And finding out the truth might just kill Scarlet before her heart does.

My Verdict

I think it's going to be hard to judge this book for what it is rather than how it was marketed. The back of the book calls Broken a "riveting suspense and taut drama" a lot of reviews I read previously also talked about it as if it were a fast-paced thriller. This is not the case at all. It was basically your average contemporary romance with a slight mystery that doesn't turn suspenseful until the last few chapters. Had I just been expecting a contemproary romance going into it, I may have enjoyed it more than I did. Unfortunely, I was expecting an edge of your seat medical thriller that wasn't there.

The main character, Scarlet, has been diagnosed with Long QT disease, which means her heart beats irregularly and could kill her at any moment. After spending most of her life in the hospital, Scarlet decides she wants to take the time she does have left and go to high school like a normal kid. Her parents are dead set against it, but they decide to let her go on a trial basis.

Scarlet immedietly makes friends with Jordan, Nessa, Celina and Tony. The "wrong" crowd according to Scarlets mother. Ugh, her mother drove me nuts! She made all of Scarlet's decisions for her and did things like feed her vitamins in front of all her friends in the middle of the school cafeteria. Seriously?! I can't think of any teenager that would put up with that.

The book is divided into five sections set over the course of one school week (Monday - Friday). A lot of the time I was bored with the little details of Scarlet's school day, but I guess we were supposed to be overwhelmed by the experience as much as she was.

I was appaled by the bullying that went on at the school and that the students so easily got away with it. I was home schooled, so thankfully I never had to deal with bullying first hand or see it happening to those around me, but I know it's a big issue that is overlooked all too much!


With the ending came a big twist and a few fast-paced pages, but it was pretty short lived for a so-called "riveting suspense." If you're a contemporary lover looking for a romance with a little something different I'd check this one out. If you're looking for a fast paced medical thriller, keep looking. 

Mini Reviews: After Math, Crash, & The Elite

Title: After Math (Off the Subject #1)

Author: Denise Grover Swank

# of Pages: 250

Publisher: Createspace

Publication Date: March 12th 2013

Source: BEA

Level: New Adult

Rating: 2 Hearts

My Verdict

I’m normally not a fan of the New Adult genre. I am one of those people who feels it is just an excuse to throw in some explicit content to what would normally be YA. As I read this book, I was beginning to think maybe I had misjudged the genre but than it took a turn for the predictable (a.k.a. explicit content.)

I loved the slow build of Scarlett and Tucker’s romance. It started out as a tutoring job, grew into a friendship, and then exploaded into a romance. I loved watching their relationship grow, the way they looked into one another's eyes and could see each others deepest secrets, the tutoring sessions, and gym workouts. Sadly, this all disappeared once they became a couple and the only thing they did was have sex.

Title: Crash (Visions #1)

Author: Lisa McMann

# of Pages: 233

Publisher: Simon Pulse

Publication Date: January 8th 2013

Source: Library

Level: Young Adult

Rating: 3 Hearts

My Verdict

Interesting concept but slow paced, fairly predictable, with average characters. Your typical Romeo & Juliet style romance with Jules and Sawyer being forbidden to see each other because their families run waring restaurants. As for the visions, one day all of a sudden Jules sees a vision and it just keeps playing over and over on every billboard, TV screen, window. Not only was the cause of Jules visions never explained, but it also got extremely monotonous to have her describe the same vision over and over for 200 pages. While the second book is on my TBR, I'm in no rush to read it. 

Title: The Elite (The Selection #2)

Author: Kiera Cass

# of Pages: 323

Publisher: HarperTeen

Publication Date: April 23rd 2013

Source: Purchased

Level: Young Adult

Rating: 4 Hearts

My Verdict

Ugh, America Singer you may just be the death of me! Your inability to choose who it is your in love with makes me SO angry. I thought a decision would finally be made in this book but no, America continues to bounce between Aspen and Prince Maxon like a ping pong ball. At this point, I'm going to feel bad for whatever guy gets kicked to the curb because they've both been lead on for so long. The one good thing about this infuriating love triangle is that I do like both guys, which pretty much never happens, so either way I'm happy. 

Cass continues to do a great job of drawing the reader into the world she has created and leaving us emotionally invested. After all that's what it's all about right? Getting lost in another world, caring about the characters as if they are real, feeling all the different emotions when things go bad or things work out. Even though it drives me crazy most of the time,  I still love it. 

Hope you enjoyed these mini reviews! I'll probably  be doing a few more before the year ends to help me catch up. 

YA Review: If He Had Been With Me by Laura Nowlin

Title: If He Had Been With Me

Author: Laura Nowlin

# of Pages: 330

Publisher: Sourcebooks Fire

Publication Date: April 1st 2013

Source: Library

Level: Young Adult

Rating: 2 Hearts

Synopsis

If he had been with me, he wouldn't have died.

Throughout their whole childhood, Finn and Autumn were inseparable—they finished each other's sentences, they knew just what to say when the other person was hurting. But one incident in middle school puts them in separate social worlds come high school, and Autumn has been happily dating James for the last 2 years. But she's always wondered what if...

The night she's about to get the answer is also one of terrible tragedy.

My Verdict

It's funny how we have certain expectations for a book when we've done nothing but see the cover and read the back cover. I'm not sure exactly what I was expecting from this book, but I can say it ended up being nothing like how I imagined. 

The story focuses on best friends, Finny & Autumn, who have known each other since before birth. Seriously, their moms are also best friends and would sit with their pregnant bellies together so the babys could kick each other. Now in highschool, we get to watch as Autumn and Finny's relationship changes, they drift apart and back together again. 

The timeline of this book was very strange. It spans all four years of highschool and also contains many memories of middle school and earlier. So much so that I felt I had know Autumn & Finny their whole lives. 

While the story is about both Finny & Autumn, the focus is more on Autumn and is told from her point of view. She was extremely frustrating, always doing thing's she didn't want to do or saying things she didn't mean. I really disliked her! Finny on the other hand, I loved! I mean how awesome is the name Phineas? Okay I may be biased because of my love for Phineas & Ferb but it just really stood out to me. 

Even though you know how it's going to end from the very first page, it still hits hard when it happens. 

While I didn't care much for the book overall,  I will say that it was very emotional, and quite powerful. I found myself thinking about it for a few nights after I finished, tortured by what had happened and how easily it could have been different had the characters just communicated with one another! 

YA Review & Giveaway: The Infinite Moment of Us by Lauren Myracle

Title: The Infinite Moment of Us

Author: Lauren Myracle

# of Pages: 336 

Publisher: Amulet Books

Publication Date: August 27th 2013

Source: BEA

Level: Young Adult?/ New Adult

Rating: 2 Hearts

Synopsis

For as long as she can remember, Wren Gray’s goal has been to please her parents. But as high school graduation nears, so does an uncomfortable realization: Pleasing her parents once overlapped with pleasing herself, but now... not so much. Wren needs to honor her own desires, but how can she if she doesn’t even know what they are?

Charlie Parker, on the other hand, is painfully aware of his heart’s desire. A gentle boy with a troubled past, Charlie has loved Wren since the day he first saw her. But a girl like Wren would never fall for a guy like Charlie—at least not the sort of guy Charlie believes himself to be.

And yet certain things are written in the stars. And in the summer after high school, Wren and Charlie’s souls will collide. But souls are complicated, as are the bodies that house them...

My Verdict

I think this one is being marketed as young adult but it seemed very much new adult in my opinion. The main characters Wren & Charlie both graduate from highschool within the first few pages, the rest of the book takes place over that summer as they try and decide what to do with their futures. Should they go to college? Take a year off? Do charity work?

The story was told through dual perspective of  main characters Wren and Charlie. Neither voice resonated with me, even though it was first person, I never really felt I knew either of them very well. Wren had a very weak personality. She was pretty much a people pleasing pushover who did and said whatever she thought people wanted her to do or say. Charlie's character wasn't as weak but I didn't like him any better. He always seemed to be stuck in the past, unable to leave it behind.

I'm the type who likes a sweet romance that is slowly built and has you on the edge of your seat waiting for that first kiss. The romance in this story was quite the opposite. While Charlie  had a crush on Wren for many years, she just took notice of him and then it all moved very fast, as the two felt "connected" from the start. The sex scenes were for mature readers only, having more detail than any of the New Adult titles I've read.

The ending was not what I was expecting nor was it satisfying. Overall, this was a complete miss for me.

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MG Review: Love That Dog & Hate That Cat by Sharon Creech

Title: Love That Dog / Hate That Cat

Author: Sharon Creech

# Of Pages: 128/148

Publisher: HarperCollins

Publication Date: April 8, 2008/ September 23, 2008

Source: Library

Level: Middle Grade

Rating: 2 Hearts / 3 Hearts

Synopsis

(From Amazon)

Love That Dog-

Jack

Room 105 - -Miss Stretchberry

September 13

I don't want to

because boys

don't write poetry.

Girls do

But before he knows it Jack is creating his own poetry and a wonderful story emerges as he becomes interested in this thing that 'girls do'! Not only is Jack inspired to write to his favourite poet, but the poet agrees to visit, and Jack discovers how much more there is to poetry behind the words on the page. A lovely, loving and very impressive novel that defies definition.

Hate That Cat-

Jack

Room 204—Miss Stretchberry

February 25

Today the fat black cat


up in the tree by the bus stop


dropped a nut on my head


thunk


and when I yelled at it

that fat black cat said


Murr-mee-urrr


in a 


nasty


spiteful


way.

I hate that cat.

This is the story of 
Jack
words
sounds
silence
teacher
and cat.

My Verdict

There are two types of middle grade books; those specifically geared for middle graders, and those with enough depth for all ages. These books fell into the first category.

Told in a series of journal entries, Jack communicates to his teacher Miss Stretchberry about his thoughts on poetry. Every time his class learns about a new type of poem or famous poet, Jack writes a poem inspired by them about events in his own life.

Out of the two, I enjoyed Hate That Cat a lot more than the first. I think Jack’s personality came through a lot more than in the first. I liked his sense of humor, he definitely had me smiling =)

He also used the word tintinnabulation is a sentence, which was one of my Wordlover Wednesday Words!

As a 22 year-old, I didn’t particularly get a lot from these stories but I do think they would be good books for their specific age bracket. They both touch on different types of poetry, being embarrassed to put your name on something you’ve created, and most importantly it turns a boy who’s reluctant to write poetry into a boy who loves poetry.

Book Review: The Sea of Tranquility by Katja Millay

Title: The Sea of Tranquility

Author: Katja Millay

# Of Pages: 448

Publisher: Atria Books

Publication Date: June 4^th 2013

Source: NetGalley

Level: Young Adult

Rating: 2 Hearts

Synopsis

(From Amazon.com)

I live in a world without magic or miracles. A place where there are no clairvoyants or shapeshifters, no angels or superhuman boys to save you. A place where people die and music disintegrates and things suck. I am pressed so hard against the earth by the weight of reality that some days I wonder how I am still able to lift my feet to walk.

Former piano prodigy Nastya Kashnikov wants two things: to get through high school without anyone learning about her past and to make the boy who took everything from her—her identity, her spirit, her will to live—pay.

Josh Bennett’s story is no secret: every person he loves has been taken from his life until, at seventeen years old, there is no one left. Now all he wants is be left alone and people allow it because when your name is synonymous with death, everyone tends to give you your space.

Everyone except Nastya, the mysterious new girl at school who starts showing up and won’t go away until she’s insinuated herself into every aspect of his life. But the more he gets to know her, the more of an enigma she becomes. As their relationship intensifies and the unanswered questions begin to pile up, he starts to wonder if he will ever learn the secrets she’s been hiding—or if he even wants to.

My Verdict

While this story was very unique, mysterious, and occasionally sweet, the bad outweighed the good for me.

The story is told from alternating points of view; Nastya and Josh. Nastya survived a traumatic experience when she was fifteen that took away the one thing she loved most in life, her ability to play piano. Now, three years later she is still consumed by fear, anger, and hatred for what happened to her. It takes awhile for us to figure out what happened in Nastya’s past. We get small snippets here and there until the full story comes out at the end. I really couldn’t understand Nastya’s mindset most of the time. She didn’t respect herself at all and was so self-destructive it was painful to watch.

Then we have Josh, another person who’s past is full of pain and loss. New to school, Nastya tries her hardest to push everyone away, but there is something about Josh that draws her in. The two start to form this odd relationship that goes from hate, dislike, like, to love. I didn’t really love Josh either. I liked him most of the time but then he would do something stupid and really bug me.  He was also pretty self-destructive, not letting anyone into his life who he could later lose, because inevitably that’s what always happened.

My main issue with this book was the swearing and sexual comments every two seconds. There were more F-words in this book than I’ve probably heard in my entire life, and the disgusting sexual “jokes” they were constantly making were not funny. Had these two aspects not been so prevalent, I would have enjoyed this story a lot more!

Overall, this just wasn’t the right book for me.  

Book Review: Nobody by Jennifer Lynn Barnes

Title: Nobody

Author: Jennifer Lynn Barnes

# Of Pages: 400

Publisher: Egmont USA

Publication Date: January 22, 2013

Source: Library

Level: Young Adult

Rating: 2 Hearts

Synopsis

(From Amazon.com)

There are people in this world who are Nobody. No one sees them. No one notices them. They live their lives under the radar, forgotten as soon as you turn away.

That's why they make the perfect assassins.

The Institute finds these people when they're young and takes them away for training. But an untrained Nobody is a threat to their organization. And threats must be eliminated.

Sixteen-year-old Claire has been invisible her whole life, missed by the Institute's monitoring. But now they've ID'ed her and send seventeen-year-old Nix to remove her. Yet the moment he lays eyes on her, he can't make the hit. It's as if Claire and Nix are the only people in the world for each other. And they are--because no one else can really see them.

My Verdict

From the synopsis I was expecting this fast-paced, teenage assassin adventure, but what I found was a slow moving, overly complicated, sci-fi heavy book that failed to deliver.

Nix is a nobody, a person that is looked through rather than at, who will be instantly forgotten, someone who would make the perfect assassin. Nix always completes his mission no questions asked, but when he gets orders to kill sixteen-year-old Claire, he disobeys his orders. Why? She looked at him, not through him, but directly at him. Turns out, Claire’s a nobody too.

I feel like this plot held a lot of potential that fell flat during execution. The existence of the non-human characters like the nobodies, sensors, and nulls, weren’t really explained beyond “some people are born wrong.”

The story is told through the eyes of both Nix and Claire. Having been told he was nothing his whole life, Nix has a pretty degrading thought process, with a mantra of “You are less than air. Less than shadow.” How depressing is that?

Nix and Claire’s relationship was not one I could relate to or care about. I understand that they were supposed to have this deep connection because they were both nobodies, but their attraction to one another was just too hard to fathom. As Nix had his hands around Claire’s neck about to kill her, she was thinking about how much she liked his touch and wished he would kiss her. Um, hello?!? HE’S TRYING TO STRANGLE YOU, or did you miss that part?

For a 400-page book, I felt there wasn’t enough action or even pacing. Most of it went by really slowly and didn’t really do much to further the plotline. I think a significant cut could have been made without losing anything key.

For some unknown reason, I finished this book, though I’m not completely sure why… 

Book Review: Witness by Karen Hesse

Title: Witness

Author: Karen Hesse

# Of Pages: 161

Publisher: Scholastic

Publication Date: July 5, 2000

Source: Own

Level: Young Adult

Rating: 2 Hearts

Synopsis

(From Amazon.com)

Leanora Sutter. Esther Hirsh. Merlin Van Tornhout. Johnny Reeves . . .

These characters are among the unforgettable cast inhabiting a small Vermont town in 1924. A town that turns against its own when the Ku Klux Klan moves in. No one is safe, especially the two youngest, twelve-year-old Leanora, an African-American girl, and six-year-old Esther, who is Jewish.

In this story of a community on the brink of disaster, told through the haunting and impassioned voices of its inhabitants, Newbery Award winner Karen Hesse takes readers into the hearts and minds of those who bear witness.

My Verdict

It’s always disappointing when you read one book by an author and absolutely love it and then you read another by them and don’t like it. That is pretty much what happened here. I had just read Out of the Dust the night before and was expecting another great book but instead was very disappointed with what I found.

This is a work of historical fiction about a small town in 1924 and how it affects them when the Ku Klux Klan moves into town. Told in five “acts”, the story unfolds before us through the eyes of eleven different characters, each passage told from a different point-of-view. The cast of characters was just too large and hard to keep track of. There was a cast list in the front of the book with pictures of each character, which was nice but I got sick of flipping back and forth between pages every time I couldn’t remember who someone was.  Needless to say this really hindered me from connecting with any of them.

Another thing I didn’t like about switching between such a large number of characters was that their ages ranged from six to sixty-six so one minute your in the head of a six year old with her innocent thoughts and the next minute your in the head of an adult who’s plotting to poison someone.

I apologize for the really negative review but this book just wasn’t for me. I am still planning to read more of Hesse’s work in hopes they will be more like my first experience with her writing, which was the polar opposite of this one. 

Book Review: The Raft by S.A. Bodeen

Title: The Raft

Author: S.A. Bodeen

# Of Pages: 240

Publisher: Feiwel & Friends

Publication Date: August 21, 2012

Source: Library

Level: Young Adult

Rating: 2 Hearts

Synopsis

(From Amazon.com)

Robie is an experienced traveler. She’s taken the flight from Honolulu to the Midway Atoll, a group of Pacific islands where her parents live, many times. When she has to get to Midway in a hurry after a visit with her aunt in Hawaii, she gets on the next cargo flight at the last minute. She knows the pilot, but on this flight, there’s a new co-pilot named Max. All systems are go until a storm hits during the flight. The only passenger, Robie doesn’t panic until the engine suddenly cuts out and Max shouts at her to put on a life jacket. They are over miles of Pacific Ocean. She sees Max struggle with a raft. 


And then . . . she’s in the water. Fighting for her life. Max pulls her onto the raft, and that’s when the real terror begins. They have no water. Their only food is a bag of Skittles. There are sharks. There is an island. But there’s no sign of help on the way.

My Verdict

My standards for this book were heightened by the fact that I just recently read Survive, which I loved and that was also about a girl who finds herself in a crazy life or death situation.

I found the main character, Robie, hard to care about, which isn’t good when you’re supposed to be rooting for her survival. She was immature, whiny, and selfish. When you’re stranded with another person fighting for survival wouldn’t you think it would bring the two of you together and you would take care of one another? Nope, that wasn’t the case. The only food on the Raft is a bag of Skittles but does Robie share them? NOPE. She eats them all while Max is sleeping, and later when she catches a fish once again she eats her share and leaves nothing for Max.

The “big plot twist” was easily guessed early on and when this “twist” was finally revealed at the end we are practically beaten over the head with it to make sure we fully comprehend what happened. This just frustrated me.

I did like that the ending wasn’t abrupt. It went further than just the conclusion of this horrible event, which I found very satisfying.

For a book where the main characters life hangs in the balance for most of the book it was way too easy to put down and forget about. I should have been enraptured in her fight for survival; instead I could’ve cared less.

Book Review: Tiger Lily by Jodie Lynn Anderson

Title: Tiger Lily

Author: Jodi Lynn Anderson

# Of Pages: 304

Publisher: HarperTeen

Publication Date: July 3, 2012

Source: Library

Level: Young Adult

Rating: 2 Hearts

Synopsis

(From Amazon.com)

Before Peter Pan belonged to Wendy, he belonged to the girl with the crow feather in her hair . . .

Fifteen-year-old Tiger Lily doesn't believe in love stories or happy endings. Then she meets the alluring teenage Peter Pan in the forbidden woods of Neverland and immediately falls under his spell.

Peter is unlike anyone she's ever known. Impetuous and brave, he both scares and enthralls her. As the leader of the Lost Boys, the most fearsome of Neverland's inhabitants, Peter is an unthinkable match for Tiger Lily. Soon, she is risking everything—her family, her future—to be with him. When she is faced with marriage to a terrible man in her own tribe, she must choose between the life she's always known and running away to an uncertain future with Peter.

With enemies threatening to tear them apart, the lovers seem doomed. But it's the arrival of Wendy Darling, an English girl who's everything Tiger Lily is not, that leads Tiger Lily to discover that the most dangerous enemies can live inside even the most loyal and loving heart.

My Verdict

As much as I like to think I enjoy fairy tale retellings, the truth is I’ve yet to really fall in love with any I’ve read so far. I guess it’s the idea of them I like the most.

Tiger Lily is a new twist on the classic tale of Peter Pan. I was excited for this story, as most re-tellings are of princess stories like Cinderella or Beauty and the Beast.

As someone who’s never actually read the original story, the only thing I have to go off of is the Disney movie =) As most of you probably know, Tiger Lily isn’t in that version of the story. While I was excited to read the story from a new point-of-view, I didn’t think I could actually hope for someone besides Wendy to end up with Peter, but by the end of it I did.

The story was told by Tinker-Bell as a sort of all-knowing Narrator. I haven’t read a book from the perspective of a narrator in awhile and I found it kind of awkward and distant. As much as I didn’t feel connected to Tiger Lily, I still found myself rooting for her and wanting things to work out with her and Peter, even though I knew they couldn’t.

I thought Neverland was supposed to be this wonderful place where kids never grew up, fairies went around sprinkling fairy dust, and mermaids occupied the lagoon. This version of Neverland, however, was painted a lot darker. It was a land that held many known and unknown dangers. Tiger Lily and her tribe were only allowed to go to certain parts of the island for the rest were deemed too dangerous, with unknown beasts lurking in the dark. They even made Peter out to be this horrible person that everyone should fear.

As for the characters, can I just say there were a lot of really crazy character names in this book?! Ex. Pine Sap, Moon Eye, Giant, Aunt Agda, Magnolia Bud.

• Tiger Lily was hard to understand at times, her actions were out of the blue and I wasn’t able to understand why she was doing what she was because we couldn’t get inside her head.

• Peter was very distant, I felt like we never got to see what he was really thinking or how he truly felt until the very end.

• Tik Tok (Tiger Lily’s father) was a character I felt was thrown into the mix just to add something mainstream to the story line. He wore dresses and took pride in doing up his hair in braids and other styles. It just didn’t seem to fit naturally with the story to me.

• Pine Sap was definitely my favorite character. He and Tiger Lily have been friends for years, and he would do anything for her. He endured so much from his family and tribe beating him down but he always put up with it unbelievably well and still remained so sweet.  I really wanted Tiger Lily to fall in love with him instead of Peter! (But I guess there would have been no story that way huh?)

Overall, Tiger Lily was a quirky, strange, yet entertaining read. 

Book Review: A Need So Beautiful by Suzanne Young

Title: A Need So Beautiful

Author: Suzanne Young

# Of Pages: 272

Publisher: Balzer & Bray

Publication Date: June 21, 2011

Rating: 2 Hearts

Synopsis

(From Amazon.com)

We all want to be remembered. Charlotte’s destiny is to be forgotten.

Charlotte’s best friend thinks Charlotte might be psychic. Her boyfriend thinks she’s cheating on him. But Charlotte knows what’s really wrong: She is one of the Forgotten, a kind of angel on earth who feels the Need- a powerful, uncontrollable draw to help someone, usually a stranger.

But Charlotte never wanted this responsibility. What she wants is to help her best friend, whose life is spiraling out of control. She wants to lie in her boyfriend’s arms forever. But as the Need grows stronger, it begins to take a dangerous toll on Charlotte. And who she was, is, and will become—her mark on this earth, her very existence—is in jeopardy of disappearing completely.

Charlotte will be forced to choose. Should she embrace her fate as a Forgotten, a fate that promises to rip her from the lives of those she loves forever? Or is she willing to fight against her destiny—no matter how dark the consequences?

My Verdict

I have to say that I went into this book with high hopes, hopes that did not live up to their expectation. I thought the plotline for the book was unique and very interesting, but it stopped there.

  
I felt like all of the characters were shallow and stereotypical: Harlin the bad boy who’s really soft at heart, Sarah the flirty best friend, Seth the popular guy/jerk at school. I just didn’t really care for or connect with any of them, not even Charlotte.

  
I also found it really tiresome to keep reading the same thing over and over every time Charlotte was struck with the Need. She’s compelled to move against her will, there is an intense burning in her shoulder, and so on and so forth, every single time. I think the author was just trying to get us to understand the pain Charlotte was going through, but instead it just caused me pain to keep reading it over and over. I think she could have abbreviated the process a little bit once we understood what it was like whenever the Need hit.

  
Overall this book just wasn’t my cup of tea. 

Book Review: Num8ers (Book 1) by Rachel Ward

Title: Num8ers: Book 1

Author: Rachel Ward

# Of Pages: 336

Publisher: The Chicken House

Publication Date: February 1, 2010
Level: Young Adult

Rating: 2 Hearts

Synopsis

(From Amazon.com)

Whenever Jem meets someone new, no matter who, as soon as she looks into their eyes, a number pops into her head. That number is a date: the date they will die.

Burdened with such an awful awareness, Jem avoids relationships. Until she meets Spider, another outsider, and takes a chance. But while they’re waiting to ride the Eye Ferris wheel, Jem notices that all the other tourists in line flash the same number. Today’s number. Today’s date. Terrorists are going to attack London. Jem’s world is about to explode.

My Verdict

 I was torn with whether I even wanted to finish reading this book or not. One minute I had decided that I wasn’t going to read it anymore and then I would decide that I wanted to see how things played out. I went back and forth, back and forth the whole book.

  
I was really intrigued by the whole plot of this book. A girl who sees the date someone is going to die whenever she looks into his or her eyes. Why can she see this? What does she do about it? How does she deal with it? I was interested to see what direction the author was going to take with it.

  
The language was my biggest issue here. The amount of F words coming out of these characters mouths made me stop and put the book down on several occasions. There were also a lot of slang words, which I just find hard to follow sometimes.

  
Jem is a very confused character; she is burdened with this unwanted knowledge and doesn’t really know what to do with it. She keeps everyone at a distance, and tries her hardest to avoid eye contact with anybody. I really wasn’t able to connect with Jem at all, I hardly ever agreed with any of the choices that she made, and kept getting mad at her the whole time.

  
As for romance, Jem and Spiders friendship does develop into more of a relationship but it’s a weird one. When Jem decided she liked Spider as more than a friend is beyond me. I felt like she spent most of her time criticizing him and then all of a sudden she decides she’s in love with him. I don’t know it just seemed kind of strained.

 
I wasn’t aware that this book was the first in a series until I had finished. I think my jaw actually hit the floor when I read the last few pages. The ending was so good and so shocking that I did consider reading the next book for about half a second, but then my better judgment kicked in and I decided against it.