Category Archives: The Must Reads

These are the books that I think are a must read.

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Until I Die by Amy Plum

I’ve spent the past several minutes, sitting in stunned silence, with my mouth gaping, and strange inhuman sounds occasionally coming out of me. That is what Plum has reduced me to.

Until I Die has managed to be a tie-together for the first and second books, while still being its own, amazing story. It not only avoided the “second book sinkhole” that plagues some trilogies, but it built a wonderful, fantastic, gold encrusted, jeweled bridge over it.

Everything that I loved in Die For Me was here in Until I Die, and somehow Plum added elements I didn’t even know I wanted. There’s romance, supernatural and regular human problems, Paris, action…it’s all in there and Plum has found the magical formula to make it great.

There’s no shortage of romance between Kate and Vincent, although the tone has changed just slightly. They’re no longer trying to figure each other and their situation out; they’ve come to a workable solution that works for everyone and I really loved that. There’s just a little something different about their relationship that I love. Vincent is still there to sweep everyone away with his words and actions, but there’s more between them than just that.

The story builds on the action of Die For Me and adds even more layers to the already complex plot. It makes for an extremely interesting novel that never feels slow or like Plum was simply writing this book to get to the action of the third book. It seamlessly ties in the story of the first book with the setup for the third, and leaves such a cliffhanger that I’m more anxious and excited for the next book than most normal humans should be.

Until I Die was a fantastic, amazing book that has me hanging on the edge of my seat for the next book and in love with Amy Plum and her words. It’s definitely a must read for anyone that wants a book with love and action with a supernatural twist.

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Nothing Like You by Lauren Strasnick

I wasn’t quite prepared when I started reading this. I wasn’t expecting this book to be this heavy. I thought it would be a lot like the lighter novel that deal with tough topics. You’d feel sorry for the main girl, sad for the choices she makes, and elated when in the end, she falls in love with the right person and everything is tied up in a pretty bow. Nothing Like You was nothing like I thought.

Holly recently lost her mother to breast cancer and she thinks she’s okay now. She didn’t have a dark time of depression after her mom’s death, but it’s easy to tell by the nearly robotic way she thinks about life in the first few chapters that she hasn’t dealt with losing her mom. She hasn’t really faced her grief; she’s found a way to live while pushing the sadness back.

Holly reaches out to Paul as a way to bring her out of the numbness she’s felt since her mom died. In doing this, her problems begin to grow and snowball until she’s finally forced to confront them. It’s a very realistic look at Holly’s journey from the numb, needy girl she starts out as to the more emotionally stable person she becomes at the end. Everything isn’t solved by the end of the book, but there’s hope written in those final pages. My only wish is that we could have seen if Holly came to terms with who she is and found a way to stop comparing herself to others and deciding what she does or doesn’t deserve based on what she sees.

Nothing Like You is a heavy, but fantastic read that tackles the tough topic of loss and what it can do to a person. Even though it’s on the shorter side in length, Strasnick packed a lot of valuable words and meaning into these pages. It’s definitely worth a read.

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Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? (And Other Concerns) by Mindy Kaling

I discovered The Office a couple years ago when I had two weeks to do nothing but watch either TBS reruns or Discovery Health shows. I chose The Office and fell in love with it. I became a devoted fan and started to love each and every person involved in the creation of the show. During all of this, Mindy Kaling in my life came about. So when I saw she had a book, I knew I was going to read it.

She makes observations about the big and the little things in life. She’s able to go from talking about serious things to commentary on how slowly men put on shoes (which, to be honest, is still a bit of a serious issue). It’s refreshing to read a book where I’m smiling nearly the entire way through and find myself wanting to take the author out for a coffee, just to hang out for an hour.

Usually, I feel there is something lost when a comedy writer writes their own story. Somehow, a bit of their voice gets lost in the final product and I end up a little disappointed. Not with this book. I could have easily breezed through this book in a day, but I spent my time reading because it was just too sweet to speed read.

This was a wonderful book that gave me the ability to look at the world with a lighter view. It wasn’t stop-drop-and-roll hilarious, but it was funny in a unique way. It was a bit quirky, but a lot sweet and I definitely recommend this book to anyone looking for a read that will lift you up and make you feel good.

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Legend by Marie Lu

I’ve had this sitting in my kindle for a while now and I’m not really sure why I kept passing it over. But a couple days ago, I saw it sitting there and I just went for it. I’m incredibly glad I did. Legend was a fantastic novel that had the right mix of action, romance, and explanation of the dystopian future Lu created.

I was so happy to find that both main characters are strong people. They might depend on each other at times, but they can make their own way. They know their strengths and weaknesses and make each situation work as well as it can for them.

I loved June. She could have easily come off as a very cocky individual, but she downplayed her talent just enough to make her lovable. And Day could have easily gone down the same overly cocky path as June, but Lu wrote him with just a touch of that arrogance and it made him perfect. He knew he was good, but he didn’t let that take over. He kept himself in check.

Even the supporting characters are wonderful. I especially love Tess. She found herself in a bad situation and with a little help from Day, managed to make herself into something more than she ever would have been without him.

The love aspect of this story fits amazingly. There’s not too much, but there’s just enough to make you swoon. Any more romance and it wouldn’t have been believable. June and Day don’t have time to fall in love the normal way. They’re under so many pressures and stresses that the way it comes about makes perfect sense.

Legend was a fabulous, amazing read and I can’t wait to read the next part of June and Day’s story. Lu definitely has me hooked.

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Die for Me by Amy Plum

I’ve wanted to read this book for a while, but waited until the second book was closer to come out. I’m not the world’s most patient person, but the wait was worth it.

The story is unique, in my opinion. In the flood of recent Young Adult fantasy and supernatural novels, it was incredibly refreshing to find something that hadn’t been explored before. To make it even better, Plum has a wonderful way of writing that just sucked me into the story right away. I was equally interested in the revenant side of the story as I was the romance of the book. There was a perfect balance between the two and that can be difficult to come across, and I give Plum tons of credit for being able to pull it off.

Kate is a wonderful female character. She thinks about the consequences of her decisions and sets limits for what she can handle in a relationship (she even sticks with them). She makes sure she and Vincent are on as level playing fields as they can be and won’t take no for an answer when it comes to being kept in the dark. I just loved that she didn’t push herself aside for the relationship with Vincent and didn’t let him do it either.

Vincent is amazing. He’s romantic and yet the banter between him and Kate is just as wonderful as when he decides to be the deliciously sweet French boyfriend that he is. He cares so much for Kate that he’s willing to go above and beyond the call of good boyfriend duty to make sure she feels like staying with him is the right thing to do. He’s not overbearing and gives her the space she needs. I want a Vincent for my own life.

Die For Me was one of the best books I’ve read this year. It was romantic, sweet, and had enough action to keep me turning page after page. This is a book that doesn’t disappoint. Read it and you’ll fall in love with every word.

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The Flight of Gemma Hardy by Margot Livesey

I’ve never read Jane Eyre. There, I said it. I’ve never read it and I was worried that might have an effect on how much I enjoyed this book. Would I be able to love it, even if I’ve never read the novel it’s a retelling of? Would I even be able to understand the impact of the original on this book? If the story has already been told before, would it even be a good book?

The answers to those questions are yes, yes, and yes.

I loved this book and it actually has me wanting to read Jane Eyre. I fell in love with Gemma and her determination to not be a victim of her past. There were so many parts of the story when it would have been completely acceptable for Gemma to take a look at her circumstances and life and decide to just give up hoping for better things. But she fought forward instead and took ownership of her life and made things happen for herself instead of sitting idly by and hoping something came along.

I loved how Gemma was developed as a person before introducing the romantic element of the story. Yes, she’s still young, but she knows more of herself than a lot of girls her age. She’s had time to grow before falling in love and she doesn’t let that love change the major parts of who she is. When something doesn’t feel right to her, she makes the decision to maintain who she is and what she believes, even though it ends up hurting more than anything else in her life.

I was a little worried I’d be too bothered by the age difference in the love story, but I surprisingly wasn’t. It somehow felt right and made sense. In the life of Mr. Sinclair, he has had to face just as many difficulties as Gemma, and even though it took longer for him to find a companion that understood and saw him for him, it fit and was wonderful to read.

I adored this book and definitely think people should read it. I can’t make any comparisons between Jane Eyre and The Flight of Gemma Hardy, but as its own novel, The Flight of Gemma Hardy was superb and certainly one of the best books I’ve read.

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Endless Summer by Jennifer Echols

Yet another book by Jennifer Echols that I adored. As an added bonus, this was two books in one. So many wonderful words to read.

The first of the two books, The Boys Next Door, was simply perfect. It was funny, romantic, and pulled at my heart in the best way. I missed out on any teen summer romances, but in my head, what Echols wrote is exactly how I wanted those summers to feel. Feeling all that emotion–the happiness, the confusion, the love–is what summer love is all about.

Lori was trying to be the girl she thought her mother wanted her to be. She left her tomboyish ways behind and was trying to change herself into the girls she saw at school. This includes dating the guy she thinks her mother wanted her to be with. The realizations she comes to in this book were a little bittersweet, but they made her a better person who was more comfortable in her own skin.

Adam is a sweet guy with a touch of ADHD and a bit of a temper. It’s obvious in the beginning he cares for Lori more than she cares about him (at least in the romantic sense), but he’s able to at least push that aside a little bit. He doesn’t understand why Lori wants his brother so much, but he’ll only get in her way a little bit and hope she comes to her senses and turns to him instead. I felt for him through the whole ruse and was elated when Lori finally realized exactly who she wanted.

Endless Summer was the second book and it was more up and down than The Boys Next Door. It was a great demonstration of how first love isn’t perfect and can take some time to grow into. Where The Boys Next Door was about Lori and Adam falling in love, Endless Summer was about growing into it and fighting for each other.

Lori had to grow up and realize that acting like a teenager wasn’t the way to get her father to give her adult respect. She also had to understand that in order to keep something good, she had to take the mature route and not deal with things as she had done in the past. I loved watching her grow throughout this book, even if I wanted to shake some sense into her at times.

Adam owned up to his mistakes and started working on himself as a person. He got a taste of something wonderful happening in his life, and when it was taken away, he reacted badly. Endless Summer was him growing up and taking charge of the thing in his life he could. He started acting more like a man and less like a youngest child with control issues. It made me adore him even more.

These books made my heart feel incredibly happy and light. They’re quick, delightful reads that are perfect for the upcoming summer. I fell in love with Adam and Lori and people definitely need to read this book.

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The One That I Want by Jennifer Echols

Jennifer Echols is becoming one of the few authors I think I will read anything they write. This was the first romantic comedy of hers I read, and I loved it possibly more than I did her romantic dramas. It’s right up there with Anna and the French Kiss and Lola and the Boy Next Door. Echols was able to take a storyline that could have been dried up and slightly overdone and make it completely sweet and wonderful.

Echols took a plot that a lot of books, movies, and TV shows use and managed to make it her own. She added her own twists and with her writing style, it seemed different. I really enjoyed that. She wrote characters I cared about and even though I knew how the story would eventually end, I still devoured every word she wrote.

I loved Gemma and I loved rooting for her. She was a teenage girl through and through. She had insecurities and wasn’t sure about the person she was after she lost some extra weight. She had spent the past several years mostly content with her life and how she was, but once she saw how her life could be if she took control and made things happen for herself, she wanted that life. It was amazing to see a girl that dealt with her life in such a real way. She wasn’t perfect and that was perfect.

The relationship between Gemma and Addison really brought out Gemma’s character. Gemma sticks with this friendship even though she knows it would be better for her if she left Addison behind. But Gemma is still growing into her new person and knows of Addison as her only real friend, even though she doesn’t treat Gemma like one. It’s safe for Gemma in the beginning, but as the story goes on, this relationship, more than any other, is what demonstrates just how much Gemma grows.

I loved Max. He was just the right mix of humor, sweetness, and romantic with a touch of the imperfect temper and foot-in-mouth syndrome. He goes from knowing the perfect thing to saw, to completely blowing it with one statement. He’s the teenage boy I wish I knew in high school.

The One That I Want was such a sweet read. It left me feeling completely happy and I had a huge smile on my face. I will definitely be keeping this book for another read whenever I need cheering up. It’s a book anyone who loves a bit of teen love without a ton of drama should read.

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Under the Never Sky by Veronica Rossi

This book is hardly unique. There’s been several post-apocalyptic, dystopian novel published recently. There’s a love story in nearly every Young Adult book. There have been a lot of “difference people can’t be together” stories out there. And yet, I am absolutely in love with this book and the way Rossi told this story.

The world isn’t completely described. Rossi gives enough information to start painting the picture, but information out and places open. There’s several things mentioned, but never really explained. It never gets in the way of the story, though, and it feels like she did this with a major purpose. She wasn’t avoiding filling in all the facts because she wants people to be buying the books to get the answers, but it feels like she was avoiding some things because they weren’t necessary to understand the plot. She didn’t want to dump a ton of information in the middle of the adventure and I’m so grateful she left little things out there. It only makes me more and more interested.

The characters are another amazing piece in this novel. They don’t immediately fall in love, like a lot of Young Adult romances do. There was a gradual build up to the first kiss and it felt right. The characters were in the right place for each other. They had grown separately before beginning things. It’s probably one of the best love stories I’ve read in recent memory.

Tied together with the romance is that of the action part of the book. Under the Never Sky is more about the journey these characters are taking, with a dash of love thrown in. It’s about two people wanting to find answers and find the people they love and through that, they begin to love each other. It’s about more than these two people falling in love and I really, really liked that. It made the book even more enjoyable and I really couldn’t put it down.

Under the Never Sky is an amazing start to a new trilogy. It’s fast-paced, yet never feels rushed. There’s an adventure and a love story. There’s major plot twists and several hold your breath moments. It’s everything I want a book to be and I’m so happy I read it.

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Green Heart by Alice Hoffman

Green Heart is two books in one. The first book is Green Angel, the second is Green Witch. I thought about trying to write this review without separating the two, but that wasn’t working. They are two very different stories wrapped up in one another and it’s lovely.

The first, Green Angel is about Green’s journey through loss and grief and finding herself again. She loses her entire family in a horrible, devastating way. She crumbles and has to put herself together again. She feels guilty, regretful and, of course, extremely sad and upset. She has to rebuild her life without those she loved most, but she ends up finding comfort in new people. The neighbor she and her sister stole apples from, the girl from her school that was never really her friend, the boy survivor that stumbles into her life and holds her heart.

It’s a short story, but incredibly moving and hopeful. The way the story is written leaves much to the imagination, and yet you aren’t left trying to figure things out. It’s all laid out, waiting for you to read and put together. It’s dark and yet there’s light that keeps shining through with every page. I absolutely loved it.

Green Witch is the continuation of Green Angel and is more about Green finding herself again and finding the reason people fall in love. She’s looking for something as she visits the houses of neighbors the village people consider “witches;” those that can look past the ugly and have something to give the world. They help Green as she searches for the boy she fell in love with and the girl that became her friend. With the help of these women, she’s able to find out that she’s stronger than she thought; she has a special power from within herself that people wish they could have. They turn to her for help and to help them find hope again.

Green Witch is another story of a journey, but this one is about finding your strength and who you are. It’s about love and what love is worth. Everyone has a different answer for how to measure love and it was beautiful to read how each woman viewed the love they had lost. It was both heartbreaking and empowering.

Green Heart is a simply breathtaking book that opens pieces of your soul and makes you feel. It’s a book that, while short, has an impact. The lyrical way it was written made it all the better. This is definitely a book people should read if they want something that will leave them feeling uplifted and refreshed.