Author Archives

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Crossed by Ally Condie

I really liked parts of this book, and others were a little disappointed when compared to Matched.

The relationships between the characters are very well-written, in my opinion. And not only the relationship between Ky and Cassia, whose romance is sweet and not too much. Condie doesn’t let the romance element of the story completely override everything else in the story. The new characters (Eli, Hunter, Indie, and Vick) added a little something extra to the story. Indie is just what Cassie needs when she’s surviving in the wilderness and provides a bit of mystery concerning her character. Eli provides a touch of innocence, even though he has seen so much in his short life. Vick is someone Ky can talk with and someone he has respect for.

The descriptions of The Carving and all its colors and intricacies were wonderful and provided an interesting contrast to the world the Society built in Matched.

Unfortunately, Crossed seems to have fallen into a trap of being set-up for the third book instead of being its own. There was not much plot development and really no action. No big answers were revealed and while a few of the smaller questions were answered, they didn’t really help the reader figure much out.

So while I loved pieces of the writing and the characters, I was left wanting more story. I’m holding out hope that the last book will be back up to the Matched level and will close the series out in a fantastic way.

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The Everafter by Amy Huntley

This book was sad and yet somehow a little uplifting. It deals with the after of death. What happens to us after we die? It really made me think.

Madison only knows one thing and that is she’s dead. She doesn’t know how or why or where she is now. She starts finding things she lost and goes back to her life and sees the scenes connected with those objects. She doesn’t change much of her history, but lives through most of the events again.

The other minor characters in the book weren’t as completely developed, in my opinion, as Madison. However, I felt like it made the point of the story even more prevalent. We weren’t there to see Maddy’s entire life and her friends and boyfriends and family. We were learning about Maddy and her soul. We were learning about the events that shaped her and the other characters were there just enough to show how they helped shape her. I really enjoyed the effect it had.

The epilogue was one of my favorite parts of the book. It was perfect for the story and left the feeling of hope and life that the book needed.

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Shatter Me by Tahereh Mafi

This is a wonderfully fabulous book that I completely devoured. It was hard for me to put it down to sleep.

Juliette is a fantastically written character. She starts the book as somewhat weak, yet resilient. She thinks of herself as a monster, something that doesn’t really deserve to be around people. By the time the novel reaches its conclusion, you can see her strength growing, her acceptance of herself finally starting to come about. Throughout the entire novel, you can see that her heart is what makes her powerful, not whatever power she actually has. It’s her heart that gives her strength.

I love Adam. I want an Adam of my own. He is amazing and kind and wonderful. I’m sure I could come up with more adjectives to describe him, but I won’t. I just love him.

Kenji provides a bit of relief with his whole persona. His little comments, inserted exactly where they need to be, let me take a breath and prepare myself for more of the intensity sure to come.

Beyond the characters and the storyline, I adored Mafi’s writing style. You see inside Juliette’s head and are aware of just how broken she is in the beginning. You can feel her faith in herself grow through the writing. And the metaphors on every page really let you feel what she is feeling. As an example, there are many interpretations of how realization could feel for a person. But when you read, “Realization is ice-cold water and it’s dripping down my spine,” you know exactly what to feel. You feel that cold water dripping down your back. I can’t get over how stunning the writing is.

This may be the first book in a trilogy, but it is a complete book that I’ll definitely be telling people to read, as I anxiously await the second book.

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You Are My Only by Beth Kephart

I can’t get over the writing in this book. The plot itself is an interesting one, but the style of writing Kephart uses to tell the story makes this novel exceptional. The descriptions in this book are amazing and the imagery they create is incredibly unique. You can see the story unfolding as it happens; you are right there, feeling everything, seeing everything, experiencing it all.

I fell in love with Sophie and Emmy. Sophie is a girl who doesn’t know everything she is missing until she breaks the rules to find it and Emmy is the distraught young mother who wants to stop at nothing to find her missing baby. The aunts and Joey are Sophie’s neighbors and her introduction to the real world. Autumn was the girl who listened to Emmy and helped her keep from falling completely apart. These characters were so real, I couldn’t help but cry for them.

I loved this entire book, from start to end. The very last line of this book is one of the best I’ve read. It gets across the entire weight of Sophie and Emmy’s stories and was the perfect way to end this story.

Everyone needs to get this book and read it. It is one of the most extraordinary books I have read this year.

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Shine by Lauren Myracle

The cover of this book is what drew me in at first, but the amazing writing is what kept me reading from the first page to the very last.

This book deals with several hot-button issues, namely homophobia and what it can do at its worst. But even more than that, it deals with many other problems that exist in society. While the main focus is the horrible hate crime and its aftermath, you see abuse, alcoholism and how fear can turn into hatred and its ability to destroy.

I loved the slow build Myracle used to tell the story. You got enough information to make you turn the page, where you’d get just a tiny bit more before you hit the peak and it all came into focus. It made the ending much more powerful.

This is definitely a book people need to read. It’s powerful, and yet the message comes across in such a wonderful way, you can help but walk away feeling a little bit different.

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LIE by Caroline Bock

This was an intense book. Bock took on a hard subject and handled it in such an impressive way that this book will be sticking with me for a while. This is a book that will get people talking.

This book was extremely realistic and that makes it all the more shocking. To think that this book, while a work of fiction, is true in many ways was extremely powerful. I felt so much for Skylar, the shy girl who doesn’t want to lose another person in her life. She knows if she goes along with the lie, she will be able to keep the people around her. But if she tells the truth, she will be losing several people important to her.

I know some people might have a hard time with the multiple points of view, but I found them extremely helpful in understanding how this hate crime affected the town. You see the truth eating Skylar and Sean alive, and how Lisa Marie can delude herself. You see into the mind of the town and how this one event can disrupt the lives of so many not directly involved. I only with there had been Jimmy’s point of view, even if it was only a short little blurb.

I think this is a book that everyone needs to read because it opens your eyes and makes you think. It’s a powerful book that I will definitely be recommending to anyone that will listen to me.

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If I Tell by Janet Gurtler

I’m mixed on this book. I liked some parts of it and other parts I could do without. It just didn’t feel as developed as it could have been.

Gurtler wrote a book about issues that need to be addressed, but I feel like some of them were put in the book to make the characters flawed and dysfunctional, instead of actually serving a higher purpose. This book dealt with racism, prejudice and the ability to forgive others, and all these other issues just seemed a bit too much. I can understand not writing perfect characters, but to add so many heavy issues in a book already about a tough subject just seemed a little over the top. It made it hard for me to feel for the characters.

This wasn’t a bad read; there was just way too much happening in it. It made it difficult to connect with any of the characters and it’s hard for me to fully enjoy a book I can’t connect with. However, I do believe this is a book other people can find themselves in and don’t discourage anyone from reading it if the premise interests you.

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Becoming Marie Antoinette by Juliet Grey

While there wasn’t anything necessarily wrong with this novel, I just couldn’t get into it. As someone who greatly enjoys history, I usually know quite a bit about the people typically written about. What I find most enjoyable is when those facts are told through new and interesting ways, and there wasn’t much of that in this book.

It seemed very, “and then this happened, then this and then this followed,” without really building up the story. It felt more like a biography than a novel, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing; it just wasn’t what I was looking for.

This book was a very well-written, factually correct book about the earlier years of Marie Antoinette, but if you’re looking for something on Marie that reads more as a novel, I’d consider something else.

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Everything You Need to Survive the Apocalypse by Lucas Klauss

I’m a little confused after finishing this book. I liked parts of it and couldn’t wait for other parts to get over. Mostly, I’m a little annoyed with the deception I felt while reading this book. I got no warning about what the majority of this book would be about and I feel like I could have saved myself the read.

Most of this book was great, and it was a very well-written book that did an amazing job of showing character development. The growth and maturity the main character exhibits throughout the book was fantastic, and if you don’t mind religious themes, then this is a great character-driven book for you to read.

It boils down to me having faith, but not practicing a religion. And religion is a large part of this book. I don’t look down on others for what they believe, however, I tend to avoid books that rely heavily on religion to get a point across because it makes me very uncomfortable and occasionally frustrated. Despite how amazing the writing was, it was hard to look past the religion, especially when it started to get into the hell and damnation and greatness of Christ and God. I didn’t like how Phillip started his search for religion because of a girl and tried so hard to completely cover himself in it all that he started to lose who I thought he was.

Basically, this is a wonderfully well-written book about something I can’t really handle reading about. If you don’t mind the reliance on religion to drive the plot, give this book a read. However, if you’re like me and prefer a more secular book, I’d pass on this one.

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Legacy by Molly Cochran

The idea behind this book is a good one, and I feel like the book could have come out better than it did. I really wanted to like this book when I started, and I did end up enjoying it, but not as much as I hoped I would.

Mainly, this book just seemed choppy. I could get over the clichéd aspect of the novel because it’s rare to find a book that doesn’t contain some sort of cliché, however, the book seemed to jump all over, and some it was hard to connect certain times, places, relationships because they just didn’t seem to add up or make sense.

Throughout the entire book, I felt like I was missing pieces of information that would have brought sense to the story. For example, how Katy goes from knowing something is different about her but not knowing what exactly to suddenly performing spells with Hattie, without much of a transition between the two. Parts of the book just seemed to jump around and it made it hard for me to enjoy the story as much as I wanted to.

I did like this book, I just feel like it could have been better if there had been a little more flow to it.