Tag Archives: Must-Reads

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Review: Dear Cassie by Lisa Burstein

Title: Dear Cassie
Author: Lisa Burstein
Series: Pretty Amy series
Pages: 352 pages
Rating: ★★★★★

I love fairy tales. I love that perfect happy ending. I spent the first 10 years of my life wishing I lived in a land that mixed Sleeping Beauty with Beauty and the Beast and I still hold out hope that one day my prince will come and everything will be perfect and wonderful. Even with that hope, when I’m reading, I’d rather have real than happy. Why is this important to know?

Because Dear Cassie is not a fairy tale. It does not have a perfect happy ending. This book will twist your gut and punch your heart. Cassie’s life has never been wonderful, but ever since she became the fall guy for her friends and their prom night, it’s been worse. She’s made decisions she never thought she’d have to face and she’s still dealing with the repercussions.

I didn’t read Pretty Amy before reading Dear Cassie, but I didn’t feel like that took me out of the story at all. The events of Pretty Amy are talked about enough that I could get a good picture of what happened. Even if I couldn’t, Dear Cassie deals more with the aftermath of that prom night and the choices Cassie makes. She is set to this rehab camp as punishment for the prom night events, but she’s working through something even more important and life changing.

Cassie’s disdain for herself broke my heart. There was no “right” solution and she did what she thought was best, yet she can’t help but beat herself up over it. She blocks herself off from people, using language and attitude as a way to keep people away. When Ben works his way past her defenses, it scares her. She’s seen the bad side of men and not much of the good side. Ben works hard to make sure she can see that whatever happened in the past does not have to be her future.

I’m sure some people won’t like the ending. It’s not a fairy tale ending. Everything isn’t tied up in a pretty bow. But it is perfect. It is real life. If this book had ended any other way, it just wouldn’t have felt right.

Dear Cassie was a gut-wrenching read. My eyes filled with tears the more I read. But as much as it hurts, it also gives hope and forgiveness. I can’t think of words to describe after finishing this book, but that’s a good thing. I will definitely be reading more from Burstein.

If Dear Cassie sounds like your kind of book, you can purchase it here:
Barnes and Noble
Amazon
IndieBound

Thank you to Entangled Teen and NetGalley for an advanced copy of the novel in exchange for a honest review.

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Review: Jellicoe Road by Melina Marchetta

Title: Jellicoe Road
Author: Melina Marchetta
Pages: 419 pages hardcover,442 paperback, 437 ebook
Rating: ★★★★★

Jellicoe Road is one of those books that has been on my radar for a while, but I just never got around to reading it. So many people had fallen in love with this book that I was a little worried to read it. I didn’t want to be disappointed. Finally, I decided this book needed to be read.

For the first 100 or so pages, I didn’t get it. I was confused by the two viewpoints and the focus on the wars between the schools. It wasn’t this heartbreaking story I had been told about. I didn’t really care about the war or the boundaries or the negotiations. They were interesting, sure, but that wasn’t the story I thought I was going to read.

And then it changed. Suddenly, things made sense. Taylor’s story and Narnie’s story were tied together somehow and I needed to find out how. Taylor’s need to know who her father was and to know what happened to her mother becomes the only thing she is concerned with. Everyone seems to know something that she doesn’t, but no one will tell her the secrets.

I figured out quickly what the ties were between the present and the past, but I still wasn’t prepared for how much my heart would hurt when Taylor’s life caught up to her. Her reluctance to rely on other people and to lean on them when she needed help made it all the more apparent how much she cares for Jonah Griggs and I was immensely happy Taylor had someone be there for her.

Jellicoe Road is an amazing novel that tells two different heartbreaking stories coming together. As the stories get closer and closer, you know something is about to break and when it happens, no amount of preparation can help. But then Marchetta heals you enough to fall hopeless in love with the story she wove. Jellicoe Road is definitely a must read novel and I can’t wait to read more of what Marchetta has to offer.

If Jellicoe Road sounds like your kind of book, you can purchase it here:
Barnes and Noble
Amazon
IndieBound
Audible

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Review: The Rose Garden by Susanna Kearsley

Title: The Rose Garden
Author: Susanna Kearsley
Pages: 441 pages paperback, 428 ebook
Rating: ★★★★

Time travel is a tricky thing. A novel written around it can either be wonderful or completely fail. Thankfully, The Rose Garden falls into the wonderful category.

After losing her sister, Eva heads back to the home where they had spent summers growing up. It is where Eva remembers Katrina being happiest, where she wants to spread her ashes. While there, she is faced with the fact that the house will never be the one she remembers because it is missing her sister. She also learns she has the ability to jump through time.

She goes back to the home in 1715, when the owners were two brothers on the wrong side of the crown. They manage to stay just above the law, but there is always the risk of being caught and falling prey to the constable. The more time Eva spends with Daniel, the older brother, the more she starts to fall for him.

She continues to jump back and forth, helping Mark and Susan set up the home so it can continue to operate in the future, all the while realizing that she doesn’t belong at the house at that time anymore. The more she is in the present, the more her heart wants to go back.

Kearsley paints a beautiful picture with her words. I have never been to Cornwall, and yet I could picture everything clearly in my mind. I could smell the see and feel the ground beneath my feet.

I don’t really know what to say about Daniel and Eva’s romance because it was beyond words. It fell exactly how it should have been. They never knew how much time they would have together and so they made the most of it. Daniel did not expect Eva to conform to his society’s standards when it was just the two of them, and Eva gave Daniel a reason to be happy. It was like reading about two puzzle pieces finally fitting together.

The Rose Garden is a fantastic novel about love and what it means to be happy. It also reminds us that home is not always a place with four walls and a roof, it’s about the feeling you have once you find it.

If The Rose Garden sounds like your kind of book, you can purchase it here:
Amazon
Audible
Barnes and Noble
IndieBound

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Review: Hopeless by Colleen Hoover

Title: Hopeless
Author: Colleen Hoover
Series: Hopeless series
Pages: 486 pages
Rating: ★★★★★

Here’s the thing. There’s a lot about Hopeless I shouldn’t like. Holder was a little too perfect for my tastes, there’s a lot of drama, and the high school is stereotypical. The adults are a little too conveniently absent, there’s a friend you shows up occasionally…basically, a lot of the things that usually turn me completely off a novel are here and yet…I loved it. Hoover wrote everything in such a way that I didn’t care about any of that. I was completely engrossed in the novel and never wanted to put it down.

Let’s start with Holder first. I mean…they guy is practically perfect and usually, that bothers me. I like when they screw up and say stupid things and aren’t perfect. Holder knows the right thing to say, the right thing to do even before Sky knows it’s what she needs. I think in any other book, I would have been rolling my eyes and yet I found myself smiling each time he spoke of did something. I think I was okay with it because it wasn’t because he was perfect, but rather because he pretended to be and that confidence made everything work.

The storyline is filled with turns and even though I had figured most of it out pretty early on, I still wanted to see how everything played out. I wanted to see Sky face everything and see how she came out on the other side. I was rooting for her the entire time and her strength was amazing. She found that being weak doesn’t mean you aren’t strong…it only means you need a break before turning around and facing everything again. She found her strength in her weakness and I love it.

Hopeless is a book that I love more than I should. I love it more than I thought I would. It’s heartbreaking and yet impossibly sweet. Hoover’s novel sucked me in and I couldn’t put it down. Definitely an amazing read.

If Hopeless sounds like your kind of book, you can purchase it here:
Amazon
Barnes and Noble
IndieBound

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Review: The Shoemaker’s Wife by Adriana Trigiani

Title: The Shoemaker’s Wife
Author: Adriana Trigiani
Pages: 475 pages hardcover, 496 paperback, 494 ebook
Rating: ★★★★★

Wow.

That is the only word that was running through my head as I finished reading The Shoemaker’s Wife. I did not expect to feel as much as I did. This book grabbed me from the very first word and wove its way through my heart.

Ciro and Ezra grew up in villages just a few miles from each other and yet never met. Ciro and his brother are raised by nuns after their father dies in a mine accident in America and their mother is unable to care for them. Ezra grows up on the mountainside, taking on more responsibility than she is asked, growing up faster than the rest of her siblings. Their first meeting is filled with such sweetness in such a sorrowful moment that I couldn’t help but wish for them.

Both end up going to America; Ciro is to become a shoemaker’s apprentice after being banished from the mountain and Ezra is going so she and her father can make more money in order to build their dream home. Ciro and Ezra run into each other in New York, but once again, life has different plans for them.

Throughout the entire novel, my heart was with these two. There were so many chances, so many opportunities for these two to get together, but their timing was just never right. Their paths crossed, but didn’t entwine.

By the end of the novel, tears were running down my face. I simply cannot think of powerful enough words to describe how much this book touched me. Trigiani pulled me right in and I fell in love. Ezra and Ciro had such a perfectly imperfect, sweet, wonderful, powerful, all-consuming love for each other that it was almost as if I could reach into the novel and touch it.

The Shoemaker’s Wife will grab your heart and make you cry with how amazing it is. I truly do not have the words to say how much I love and adore this book.

If The Shoemaker’s Wife sounds like your kind of book, you can purchase it here:
Amazon
Audible
Barnes and Noble
IndieBound

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Review: The Madness Underneath by Maureen Johnson

Title: The Madness Underneath
Author: Maureen Johnson
Series: Shades of London series
Pages: 290 pages hardcover, 304 paperback/ebook
Rating: ★★★★★

I’m always afraid to start book series because the second book rarely lives up to the first. For some reason, the second book always seems like more of a way to get from A to C without really having much of a point. The Madness Underneath is not one of those books. It’s definitely not a book that can stand by itself, but it is its own book and serves a greater purpose than tying book 1 to book 3.

The Madness Underneath deals with the aftermath. The aftermath of the attack on Rory, the aftermath of her newly discovered power, the aftermath of what happened in the bathroom at Wexford. There’s a lot of material to work with in this book and Johnson does a suburb job of handling it all.

Rory has been living at home with her parents, but just wants to get back to her life in London. She wants to go back and act like she’s the same person she was before everything happened. Once back at school, she realized she’s bit off a little more than she can chew. The world didn’t stop for her while she was gone, and now she’s lagging just a little bit behind everyone else.

On top of that, she still has to deal with her new ghost knowledge and powers. There are things going on that only she and a few of her friends know about, but even they aren’t sure how to handle this new situation.

The Madness Underneath didn’t have me fearing every little noise, but it still had a sense of creepiness. There was no way to guess at what was about to happen and the ghosts are still sticking around. This was a book even better than the first. After the major cliffhanger in The Name of the Star, I thought I’d be able to handle anything Johnson threw at me. But the ending of The Madness Underneath punched me in the gut. I simply cannot wait to read what comes next.

If The Madness Underneath sounds like your kind of book, you can purchase it here:
Amazon
Audible
Barnes and Noble
IndieBound

Thank you to Putnam and NetGalley for an advanced copy of the novel in exchange for an honest review.

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Review: Prodigy by Marie Lu

Title: Prodigy
Author: Marie Lu
Series: Legend series
Pages: 356 pages paperback, 372 hardcover/ebook
Rating: ★★★★★

I’ve been getting lucky lately when it comes to reading the middle book in a series. So far, they’ve been avoiding the sophomore slump and have been as good, if not better, than the first novel. Prodigy definitely doesn’t disappoint.

There is no break in the action from Legend. The story starts right away with June and Day trying to find the Patriots. From there, it is non-stop, keep-you-on-the-edge-of-your-seat fantastic. The world Lu has created drew me right in and it felt like I was running right along with them.

June and Day’s relationship has moved quickly. They’ve only known each other for about a month when all of this goes on. That doesn’t bother me though. There is something so perfect about how these characters are written, so amazingly human and real, that everything that happens feels perfect. They have those lusty moments teens are supposed to have, they can be over-thinkers, jealousy is there, they say things without thinking…all of that combines to create two wonderful people in the middle of a sweet romance in the middle of a crazy world.

The twists and turns this novel takes are out of this world. Just when I’d think I’d have something figured out, Lu would throw a new loop in and pull me completely off course. And the ending. Wow. I had been hearing about the gut-punch that was awaiting me at the end of this book and thought I was ready. I had prepared myself for so many different scenarios that when the end actually came and I turned the last page, I was still reeling.

Prodigy is the kind of book that you can’t start and stop. You have to sit down and read it all in one go. It pulls at your heart, hurts you where it counts, and yet you still keep coming back for more. I cannot wait to get my hands on Champion and find out what is in the future for June and Day.

If Prodigy sounds like your kind of book, you can purchase it here:
Amazon
Audible
Barnes and Noble
IndieBound

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Review: Shadows in the Silence by Courtney Allison Moulton

Title: Shadows in the Silence
Author: Courtney Allison Moulton
Series: Angelfire series
Pages: 469 pages hardcover, 384 ebook
Rating: ★★★★★

Shadows in the Silence blew me away. I was on the edge of my seat the entire time I was reading and as soon as I finished, I had that feeling. There’s really no way to describe that feeling, but you know when you have it.

Ellie really comes into her own in this novel. She’s strong, determined, and really figures out who she is. I really liked the focus on Ellie and her humanity. Moulton did an amazing job of speaking about what makes humans human without sounding like she was trying to preach; she wrote about souls perfectly. The struggle Ellie faces between saving the human world and possibly losing herself, or keeping who she is and risking evil taking over is done in a breathtaking way.

Will and Ellie together are fabulous. They realize that while love can make you weak in the knees, it does not make you weak in the heart. It gives you something to fight for when everything looks like it is stacked against you. They rely on each other, but they aren’t dependent upon each other. There’s a wonderful balance of give and take in their relationship and it’s perfect.

I was very hesitant about reading the Angelfire series. I just wasn’t sure if it would be my cup of tea. Moulton’s writing shook me and made me think, really slow down and savor each word she wrote. Ellie and Will’s story is timeless and I’m completely in love with them. Shadows in the Silence is a gripping, fast-paced novel that keeps you turning page after page, needing to know what’s next. Even in the darkest times, Moulton created a world that still had that ray of hope.

This is a definite must-read series for me. Don’t make the mistake I did and pass it up for two years. Read it, and read it as soon as possible.

If Shadows in the Silence sounds like your kind of book, you can purchase it here:
Amazon
Barnes and Noble
IndieBound

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Review: Wings of the Wicked by Courtney Allison Moulton

Title: Wings of the Wicked
Author: Courtney Allison Moulton
Series: Angelfire series
Pages: 516 pages hardcover, 544 paperback, 533 ebook
Rating: ★★★★★

I had heard of Angelfire a couple years ago. I thought it sounded a little meh and predictable. I didn’t look at it again for almost two years, when the final book in the series was getting ready to be released. I both love and hate myself for that decision. I love that by putting reading it off for two years, I don’t have to wait a year to see how the series ends.

I hate myself because that is two years that this book series wasn’t in my life.

Wings of the Wicked was spectacular. If the action and drama of having to destroy the demonic wasn’t enough, Ellie must deal with finding a way to balance every piece of her. She needs to be Gabriel, she needs to be Ellie, and she needs to be Will’s. There is always the worry in her mind of losing one of those pieces and not knowing what her world would be like if a chunk of it was suddenly gone.

Will and Ellie’s romance was superb. It wasn’t the typical Young Adult, teen love angst. Yes, some of that was there, but there was another layer to it because even if they looked young, their souls had been through so much. I felt so caught up in their every interaction, my heart hurting at one moment and soaring the next.

I’m so happy and relieved I was able to get Shadows in the Silence the moment I finished Wings of the Wicked because I would have crumbled if I had to wait. I want to dive right in and let Moulton’s story wrap its arms around me and take me right back into Ellie’s life. I am officially a Courtney Allison Moulton fan.

If Wings of the Wicked sounds like your kind of book, you can purchase it here:
Amazon
Barnes and Noble
IndieBound

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Review: Boundless by Cynthia Hand

Title: Boundless
Author: Cynthia Hand
Series: Unearthly series
Pages: 438 pages hardcover, 448 paperback, 320 ebook
Rating: ★★★★

I’ve been looking forward to reading Boundless for a while. I was nervous and excited and anxious to start it as soon as I got my hands on it. I knew once I started reading, I wouldn’t be able to stop until I had read every last word.

Boundless starts off the fall of Clara’s first year at Stanford. She feels a little alone, even though Angela and Christian are there with her. Angela begins to drift away from her and Christian wants more than she can give. She misses her mom, her Jackson friends, and Tucker. On top of that, she’s trying to balance being a typical college freshman with being an angel. Every choice she makes can alter the lives of those around her.

While I’ve been a huge fan of Tucker for the last two books, I did warm up to Christian. I could see why Clara struggled so much between her feelings for the two. It was a black and white choice. An author has to be amazing in order to make me love both guys in a love triangle, but Hand easily does it. I knew either choice Clara made would be bittersweet.

As for the other important part of any novel, the plot, it was just amazing. It had me anxious, waiting for someone to pop out and say the figurative “Boo!” I was completely engrossed, barely paying attention to anything in the real world. It kept me engaged and interested.

Boundless is the satisfying end to a fantastic paranormal series, definitely one of the best I’ve read. It has strong messages about life and love, and even with the paranormal aspect, it speaks true to life. Finishing a book is always bittersweet, but Boundless ends with hope lighting the future. Amazing book, amazing series, amazing read.

If Boundless sounds like your kind of book, you can purchase it here:
Amazon
Audible
Barnes and Noble
IndieBound