Category Archives: Young (and New) Adult

All the Young Adult genre book reviews, with some New Adult thrown in.

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Cracked Up to Be by Courtney Summers

I love Courtney Summers. I’m just going to put that out there.

I honestly thought, after reading her other two books, that I couldn’t love her more. I was wrong. And after learning this was her first novel…I was shocked and a little in awe.

Summers doesn’t shy away from tough subjects, but she is able to write them so perfectly that you can’t help but be drawn in and feel for the characters she creates.

Parker is struggling after a party the previous school year. Something happened and she knows, but she can barely admit it to herself. She is struggling with her life and she can’t say why. It’s tough to read, and your heart reaches out to her.

It’s hard to read, but well worth it.

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Some Girls Are by Courtney Summers

I couldn’t stop reading this book. There was too much emotion for me to set this book down, even though I wanted to several times, and then start back up again. I wasn’t sure if I’d be able to handle coming in and out of the world Summers had created around Regina and her fall from the top.

Regina used to be the second in command at the school She was one of the popular girls that hardly gave a care about the lives they hurt, as long as they remained untouched. So when Regina suddenly becomes one of the victims, it turns her world upside down.

The only person willing to giver her a chance is someone who’s life she hurt a couple years ago. It’s hard to know what Michael’s intentions are in giving Regina a sliver of kindness. Everyone else is using trickery and whatever means they can to make life for Regina as miserable as they can.

It’s a touch story about what high school can be like, and the lives of the victims of bullying. Summers once again gets the hard emotions across and makes the story a real one, not giving her characters sudden, unbelievable epiphanies where the main character suddenly makes everything right and everything is forgiven. It’s a real story, and that is why I will keep reading books Summers writes.

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Across the Universe by Beth Revis

Yet another first in the series books. And yet, this one was different. I’m not hanging on the edge of my seat, wishing the next one would come out already.

Don’t get me wrong, I can’t wait to read the next part of the story. But the end of this book was just so…good. There was enough of a conclusion where I’m not ripping my hair out wanting to know what happens, but I’m invested enough in the story to run out and get the next book as soon as I can.

Elder and Amy’s relationship confuses me a little, in that I can understand Elder’s fascination with her, but I’m not sure yet how it can turn into something more in a believable way. I’m looking forward to seeing if Revis can accomplish this.

I give major props to Revis for coming up with a storyline that is unique, and yet not so different that everyone is struggling to find a way to connect. There’s enough of the classics within the book that it’s easy to find a way to connect with a character and find the story possible and believable.

It was a little frustrating how Elder simply believed Eldest without any questions, but I can see why he would. He grew up knowing nothing different, but he does start to question authority and it’s refreshing once he does.

Overall, a great book and I can’t wait to see how Revis handles more of the future.

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Delirium By Lauren Oliver

After reading Oliver’s “Before I Fall,” I was anxiously awaiting reading this book, even though I knew it was the beginning of a series that would not be concluded for a few years. That is how much I love Oliver’s writing style.

Lena lives in a world where love is viewed as a disease, and doctors have found a way to “cure” people of the swoony, fluttery feeling people get when they fall in love. They remove that wonderful feeling people get when they fall in love and people are okay with this. Love is crazy and makes people go crazy.

Lena only has 95 more days before she will be cured, but of course, that is too much time. She starts to feel the love disease creeping up on her, and she can’t stop it. More to the point, she knows she should want to stop it, but she doesn’t. It’s the disease taking control of her.

The end of the book has my heart continually breaking every time I think of it, and Pandemonium cannot be release soon enough. I’ll be waiting at the front of the line to get my copy.

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Fall For Anything by Courtney Summers

I couldn’t put this book down, and read it in a night. There was just too much for me to be involved in to close this book for longer than a couple minutes.

Eddie is grieving and hurt after her father commits suicide and all she wants to know is why he did. Why he was pushes so far he felt he had nothing else to do? Why her love for him wasn’t enough to keep him with her.

She meets Culler and in her desperate need for answers, she forms a relations with him that gave me warning bells, but she was too lost to notice. Culler plays his part perfectly, getting close to Eddie and giving her what she thinks she needs.

Eddie’s best friend Milo caused some problems for me. It was hard for me to feel much for him through most of the book, but by the end, I cracked and he found his way into my heart as well.

Some people may not like how this book ends, but I felt there was no other way Summers could have concluded this book and made it believable. She did an excellent job at getting the struggle across, and really makes you feel for the characters she writes.

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Going Too Far by Jennifer Echols

I read this book after finishing “Forget You” and wanting to read more of Echols’ style. It was another emotionally real book that I had trouble putting down.

I can relate to Meg wanting to leave her small town and the life she’s seen before her for her entire life. She wants to do something more than those around her. She wants to be more.

On the other hand, John has chosen to stay in this same town, and be the control and rules Meg can’e wait to break away from. They form a complex relationship that pushes them both to see what they tried to keep hidden. They force each other to look at the entire world, and not just the small sliver they wanted to see.

It was a wonderful book and, yet again, Echols gave me a story I could believe and a romance I could root for.

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Forget You by Jennifer Echols

I’m a little torn on this book. While it was a wonderful and touching story, there were things that got in the way of my complete enjoyment of it.

I found it a little hard to relate to and understand Zoey. Some things she does, I could look past, because she had just gone through something no person should ever go though, but there were other things I did not understand. I wanted her to refuse to follow her father’s orders. I wanted her to say no to him and do what she wanted to do. And always referring to Brandon as her boyfriend, even though she knows his personality and not seeing him behaving any differently with her than he does any of the other girls he sleeps with once and dumps.

However, Echols wrote a emotionally charged book, while still being able to be witty and true to life. Even though I had some trouble with Zoey, and that might be just how Echols wanted to write her, I did like most of how she wrote the character. She was just the right mix of sweet and smart, with a little bit of confused mix in. I loved the moments she shared with Doug the most. They were touching and felt real.

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The Sky is Everywhere by Jandy Nelson

This was a heartbreaking story about coming to terms with tragedy and how people cope with the death of a loved one.

You can really feel Lennie’s confusion, and that is only complicated by the two boys that seemingly enter her life just then.

Toby is one of the only people that know what she is going through, as he was Bailey’s (her sister) boyfriend. He knows what Lennie has lost, and they can find comfort in one another. There’s something about sharing their grief that draws them to each other, even if others might not understand that relationship.

And then there’s Joe. He comes into her life at just about the same time and adds even more confusion to her life. He just throws himself into her world, sometimes uninvited. He makes her think and start living outside the shadow of her sister. He sees her as her own person, unrelated to being Bailey’s sister.

She makes mistakes that hurt people, including herself as the book goes on, but in the end, she comes into her own as Lennie. She realizes that it’s okay to keep living and being content and happy, even if those around you can’t. It’s okay to move on and live, even when other people can’t.

It was real and touching, and deserving to be read.

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Before I Fall by Lauren Oliver

I have mixed feelings on this book. I felt the ending fit, and although I found myself hoping it wouldn’t end the way it did, I can understand why it happened that way.

When I started reading I found it hard to believe that Sam could be redeemed. Her character just seemed too lost in herself to actually learn anything from what happens to her. In fact, she even gets worse at one point. But somehow, Oliver was able to write the change in Sam so well, it fit and didn’t seem forced at all. I had completely changed how I felt about Sam, and was deeply touched by the ending.

I was also impressed that Oliver wrote the ending the book deserved and needed, instead of the one people would have wanted. I will gladly read anything else Oliver writes, if she continues to write the story she wants to tell, and not the stories other want her to write.

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If I Stay by Gayle Forman

This book really moved me. It’s all about Mia’s decision to stay on Earth, or pass on into whatever the afterlife is with her family. It’s extremely moving and compelling.

It starts by showing Mia and her family just being a family. They are happy and things are going well for them. They go on a drive, and during that drive, they crash. Mia suddenly is viewing herself as a separate entity. She learns of her brother’s death, and knows she is the only surviving member of her family.

She watches as the people that love her try and convince her to stay, all the while she leans towards going with her family. After all, there isn’t much left for her on Earth now. Ultimately, her boyfriend’s plea, that he wants her to stay, even if it means he never sees her again, that makes her chose to live.

It was a book the moved me to tears, and stayed with me for days after I finished. It is definitely a must read.