Tag Archives: Young Adult

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Where You Are by Tammara Webber

After finishing Between the Lines, I decided to give Where You Are a try, if only for a continuation of Graham and Emma’s story. To be honest, the plot didn’t really appeal to me. I’m not a girl that goes for the twisted, manipulating revenge kind of story. In the end, this book was about what I thought it would be. I loved the parts that dealt with Graham and Emma and loathed the parts that were about Brooke and Reid.

This is written from four different points of view. Brooke, Emma, Graham, and Reid all get to tell their own story. It did feel a little bogged down at times, but it wasn’t too bad. I think all sides were necessary to know everything going on, even if Reid and Brooke’s views got a little repetitive and overworked at times.

Graham and Emma are perfectly sweet. They’re a wonderfully written couple in the early stages of a relationship. There’s a little bit of confusion rolled around with a lot of happiness. If the story has simply been about them, I think I would have enjoyed it more. A book about trying to find their footing in a new romance while one starts college and one finishes and enters the next stage of life, not to mention Graham’s daughter, would have been a syrupy sweet read.

The problem comes in with Reid and Brooke and their “plan” to win back the relationships they never had. Brooke starts everything, coming to Reid with a plan to help him get Emma back. From there it just spirals. It felt too childish for me to actually enjoy. It took away from what could have been a good story.

There’s not a lot of secondary character action. Emily shows up occasionally, but there wasn’t enough to make up for Reid and Brooke. They were extremely secondary and I wished there could have been more.

Overall, Where You Are was a bit of a let-down from Between the Lines, even if I was kind of expecting it, based on the novel description. I’m glad I got to read a little bit more of Graham and Emma, but I could have done without the backstabbing pettiness of Reid and Brooke. Unfortunately, I think this is where I’ll bow out from the series. Emma and Graham were the people keeping me reading, and even with Reid’s slight redemption at the end, it’s not enough to keep me reading this series. I’m not ready to give up on Webber, though, so I will give her other book, Easy a try.

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Between the Lines by Tammara Webber

I honestly thought this would be a quick read that was a little enjoyable, a lot cheesy, and nice filler between other books. I really didn’t expect to enjoy it as much as I did.

It’s a book about teen movie stars. That’s why I wasn’t really sure about this book. I’m not really one for celebrity drama in real life, so why would I want to read a book about it? Turns out, the celebrity doesn’t play a huge part. It does come into play, but it’s basically a book about teens and their lives.

Emma is thrown into the world of the famous, but she’s trying to maintain her ties to home and as much of a regular life as she can. So when she starts to fall for one guy meanwhile having the hottest actor of the moment after her, life gets a little complicated. I liked how Webber kept Emma just outside the full celebrity life. It made her likable and a little bit relatable. She’s living the life a lot of people would love to have, if only for a day.

The two guys in this book are likable in their own way. Reid is a bit of a “bad boy,” but he’s also got a bit of a heart. Graham is a little mysterious, but always a gentleman. Webber managed to write the two types of guys most girls want to date at least once in life. I know who my favorite is, but it’s not hard to root for both.

The secondary characters in this novel are fantastic. Emily, Emma’s best friend, is one of the best. She doesn’t let Emma get away with anything. She may be a bit starstruck, but she’s still there for Emma. The people Emma meets on set are interesting and I liked that they kept Emma from getting completely wrapped up in the guys in her life. They may not be able to keep her grounded, but they were able to keep her head on straight.

Between the Lines is a book that surprised me. It was sweeter than I thought it would be, and not as cheese-filled as I expected. It was a quick read, but sometimes those are what you’re looking for.

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Days of Blood and Starlight by Laini Taylor

I stopped reading Days of Blood and Starlight about halfway through. I didn’t want to read anymore. Every word I read meant I was one word closer to the end of the novel and I never wanted that to happen. And so I stopped reading. But then I started to hate myself a little bit because I wanted to read so badly. So I picked it back up and started to read.

<Days of Blood and Starlight is a book that doesn’t hide away from the ugliness of war. If Daughter of Smoke and Bone was about the relationship between Karou and Akiva, Days of Blood and Starlight is about the war that is tearing their world apart. It doesn’t shy away from the horrors of war. It throws them right in your face and makes you confront them.

In Daughter, there’s only a hint of the war that has been going on. Yes, it is mentioned, but Daughter mainly focuses on Akiva and Karou and their romance. It tugs on your heart in a sweet way. Days tugs on your heart frantically, trying to make you see the horrors of war. War doesn’t affect only those fighting, but it affects every single living thing. It only gets worse when those leading the charge stop fighting for what they view as right and start fighting for revenge. It is then that all the rules go out the window and nothing becomes sacred anymore.

Karou is everything I want in a strong heroine. She has her flaws and weaknesses, but she knows that. She uses her strengths to overcome and start working towards finding a better way for her people to live. She sacrifices what she has to and asks for help when she needs it. She knows when a battle is worth fighting and when it is smarter to concede the point and wait for the right moment to spring her attack. She is powerful, but not perfect, and that makes her the perfect character to read.

Akiva also shows his strength when it is needed. He knows the war in his world is tearing it apart more than putting it together and he wants to change that. Not for Karou, not for himself, but because he knows that this war is destruction and there is a better way for peace; one that doesn’t involve one side being obliterated.

<Days of Blood and Starlight is one of those extremely rare sequels that manages to not only match the first novel in its strength, but surpass it. It is dark, gritty, and raw, but it makes you think. It is easily one of the best books of the year. Days of Blood and Starlight is a must read over and over and over again kind of book.

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Catching Jordan by Miranda Kenneally

I’m not the easiest to impress when it comes to Young Adult romances. I typically like a little something else to go with the romance, something to keep my heart racing and keep me turning the pages. That’s why I expected to enjoy Catching Jordan, but not really love it. But as I got further and further into the story, I found myself loving it.

I think one thing I liked most about Catching Jordan was the lack of the typical teen “Queen Bee.” Yes, there were girls that got on Jordan’s nerves. But they weren’t out to destroy her, or at least, that wasn’t what the story was about. Kenneally kept the story focused on Jordan and the boys in her life.

That’s another thing that really worked. Yes, this is mainly a teen love story. But there’s also a team full of guys that respect Jordan as their team captain, but also look at her as the little sister they have to protect from all world evils. I liked that once the boy drama started, the rest of the team wasn’t ignored. The other guys had as much of a place in the story as Jordan did.

As for the romance, I loved it. It wasn’t overly cheesy and it didn’t feel like Kenneally was trying to fit an adult romance into a teen book. It was what high school love should be: sweet, wonderful, but not all-consuming. It also wasn’t insta-love, but rather the much more acceptable instant attraction.

Catching Jordan is a book that sneaked up on me. I wasn’t expecting to love it as much as I did. I was prepared for a bit of cheesiness with a side of fluff, but Catching Jordan is a lot more. I’ll be checking out more of Kenneally’s books for sure.

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Finale by Becca Fitzpatrick

Confession time. I’ve already shared the only reason I picked up Hush, Hush to read was because Fitzpatrick is a Colorado author. I didn’t say I expected to be sorely disappointed and frustrated. I’ve never been happier to have a book shove my expectations in my face. Finale is a great conclusion to a series I didn’t expect to enjoy this much.

There were a few things I found myself shaking my head at because they seemed to be just a little too perfect or coincidental. I won’t go into specifics because I don’t like spoiling books, but they were there. Patch was just as intense and swoon-worthy as ever.

Nora started out a little questionable on personal strength, but once she started to own her fate and take control of the choices being made she improved greatly in my opinion. She does gain strength through sketchy methods at times, but she is able to realize this and own up to her mistakes. In my opinion, being able to admit your faults goes a long way in overcoming them.

The ending shocked me. I definitely wasn’t expecting what happened when it came to the final face-off. Fitzpatrick hit me right where it hurts, and I both love and hate her for it.

After starting this series for a weird reason and with low expectations, I can definitely say I’m incredibly happy I got sucked into the world of Nora and Patch. Fitzpatrick created a series that had me invested. I wish there could be more to read from Nora and Patch, but the way Fitzpatrick ended it is sweet and perfect.

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The Evolution of Mara Dyer by Michelle Hodkin

Here’s the thing. Obviously scary things don’t scare me. I can watch horror movies and not really flinch. In order to have me freaked out, things can’t be obvious.

The Evolution of Mara Dyer had me freaked out. Mara isn’t the most reliable of narrators, even though I knew she wasn’t crazy. She’s still a little bit unstable at times. And I loved that. It makes everything just a little bit unknown. I knew she was telling the truth, but I also knew she didn’t know the whole truth. When things in the novel started to change, I was getting freaked out.

In The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer, I felt like the balance between paranormal and romance was off. There was too much romance and not enough paranormal. The Evolution of Mara Dyer found the balance. There’s enough of Noah Shaw being romantic to keep me swooning and smiling, but there was more than enough paranormal to keep me turning page after page.

Noah Shaw was another issue I had with Unbecoming. He was too perfect. Tall, British, rich…it was just a little too much. His perfect exterior started to crack, though, in Evolution. He’s still the same tall, British, rich boy, but his imperfections are starting to break through. They are making me love him a little bit more each time I see one.

Mara. I like her. She does what she has to in order to keep fighting. She doesn’t wait for the guy to swoop in and save her. She knows when to take things on herself and when she needs help, but she does things for herself. She may not always trust what she sees or hears, but she trusts herself to do what she needs to. I wish there had been a bit more explanation of her powers and what in the world is going on, but I get why that wasn’t in this book. And I can’t wait to read it in the next one.

After being a little let down with The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer, I didn’t want to expect too much out of The Evolution of Mara Dyer. Hodkin wrote a book I was not expecting, even a little bit. It has that creep factor that had me on edge. It has that sweet teen romance that makes me smile. It has everything I like to read in a book and then just a little more. I’m riveted and after the ending of The Evolution of Mara Dyer, I need 2013 and The Retribution of Mara Dyer to get here now.

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Sacrifice by Cayla Kluver

I’m not really sure how I feel about Sacrifice. Was it a good book? Yes. Was it engaging? Yes. But things were missing, and I didn’t find myself enjoying Sacrifice as much as I had hoped.

First, the romance. In the previous two books, I felt it. I was swooning as much as Alera was. In Sacrifice, I didn’t feel it. Sure, Kluver told me about how amazing Narian was and how sweet, but she didn’t show me like she did in the previous books. I feel like there needs to be more than kissing to make me fall in love, and that’s really all I got from Alera and Narian’s romance. There was some swooning in this book, but it didn’t last as long as I wished it would.

I could have handled a flat romance, if the rest of the story was spectacular. Unfortunately, it felt like there was a lot of build up to something that wasn’t fully explained. I wanted to know more about that last battle. I wanted to know how things went down. I felt like 85% of the book was leading up to this epic battle, and then nothing. There was summary, but nothing of the actual action.

I guess that’s how I feel about the entire novel, though. Legend and Allegiance were fantastic build up to Sacrifice, while fell short of what I was expecting. It felt like more of a middle novel, lots of little things happened, and one or two large things happened, but it didn’t feel like its own novel. Plus, the ending wrapped up a little too fast. I would have loved having the last 10% of the novel expanded.

Sacrifice wasn’t a bad book, but it didn’t live up to the caliber the first two novels had set. It’s a fine novel, but I wanted something more and it just wasn’t there.

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Dash & Lily’s Book of Dares by Rachel Cohn and David Levithan

This wasn’t a bad book. It wasn’t a great book, either. I just wasn’t as in love with it as I wanted to be. The characters don’t feel real and while I liked the ending and it made up for most of the book, it wasn’t enough to save it.

When I read a book about teens, I want to read a book about teens. Not adults packaged in teen bodies, and that’s what Dash & Lily’s Book of Dares is. I’m all for reading about teens that don’t quite fit in, that are a little quirky. I think that can make a good book great. But there’s a fine line between making the characters enjoyably quirky and a little too pretentious. Dash & Lily’s Book of Dares starts off cute and sweet, heads into pretentious, and ends on the last couple pages sweet again.

I could have liked Dash and Lily. Lily even felt like the book version of me for a while. It was just that part in the middle, where Cohn and Levithan seemed to be trying to prove to me how smart Dash and Lily are instead of letting the characters show me how smart they are. I don’t need to be impressed with their knowledge of obscure literature and poetry in order to believe a character is smart. For a while, it felt like Levithan and Cohn were trying to shout out, “Look how intelligent and well-read we are! We know more than you!” instead of trying to make a great story.

I will say that the ending, once the pretension left, was exactly what I hoped the rest of the novel would have been. It was sweet, made me sappy, and nearly perfect. It just came too late to save the rest of the book.

I had hopes for Dash & Lily’s Book of Dares, and they just weren’t met. The beginning and end were exactly what I was wishing for, but the middle was too much. Too much adult for a book with teen characters, too much pretension, just too much. I’m disappointed with this book, and that’s not a feeling I enjoy having.

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The Name of the Star by Maureen Johnson

I saw “Jack the Ripper” in the book description and I was sold. I was going to read this book. I just hoped it wouldn’t let me down. I’d read a couple books by Johnson before and enjoyed them, so I had faith in the book. Johnson didn’t let me down.

The Name of the Star takes place in London, in the midst of a Jack the Ripper copycat string of murders. Rory is new to London and is thrown into the action right away. She’s connected to the crimes in a special way and that tie is what makes this novel.

There were times this novel had me creeped out. I woke up one morning at 3am and my first thought was a Jack the Ripper ghost was staring at my back. This book had invaded my dreams and thoughts. It gave me goosebumps and I loved it.

I wasn’t a huge fan of how easily this story-line was wrapped up, and I’m sure there are people that will disagree with that. I just feel like there was a lot of build-up for something that wasn’t quite as grand as I had been expecting. It worked, but it felt a little flat.

I like Rory. She’s real and not too stereotypical when it comes to characters. She works hard, but likes to have a little fun. She has friends and people she doesn’t get along with, but no one at the school is out to get her for no reason. She’s trying to get the most out of living in London without sacrificing anything. I wasn’t sure about the supernatural aspect at first, but it’s growing on me.

There wasn’t really romance in this book; instead Johnson decided to write a different side of the high school relationship coin. A relationship between friends that crosses the friend lines at times, but doesn’t become that big serious THING other Young Adult books like to make it.

The ending of The Name of the Star had me slack-jawed and anxious to read more. This is a series that has the potential to be great and I’m looking forward to going along on the ride.

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Sweet Venom by Tera Lynn Childs

When I first started reading, I thought there would be too many stories being told, and the novel would end up being too busy and crowded. Childs was able to write the very distinctive characters and voices and managed to avoid making the too big for the novel.

Gretchen is the huntress. It’s all she’s really known for four years. She’s accepted it as her future and works hard to make sure monsters don’t roam free for too long. Grace is new to town, looking to make herself different with this new move. She starts seeing monsters and her world gets thrown a little off-kilter. Greer saw a monster once, but years of therapy have molded her into the perfect daughter her socialite parents want her to be.

When these three girls discovery their connection, the world starts to change. The rules Gretchen has known and followed begin to change. Grace starts to get a backbone. Greer has a chance to be something more than a rich family’s daughter. Gretchen and Greer have the hardest time with these changes. They live their lives how they were, when they knew what to expect and what to do. Grace has the easiest time embracing the truth. This is the change she was looking for.

Sweet Venom is a beautiful book that brings mythology into the modern world. It has the stories of three very different girls interwoven in a clear way and it doesn’t overwhelm with details and backstory. Childs could easily have had a bit of a mess on her hands, but she wrote this book so well that I never once felt the 3 different points of view was a bad idea. Childs got the stories of all three girls across without losing the main plot of the novel.

The boys in this book are pretty swoon-worthy as well. Nick enjoys getting under Gretchen’s skin and Milo is the sweet jock everyone couldn’t help but love in high school. They weren’t a huge part of this first book, but they were in the novel enough to make me smile. I’m looking forward to reading more of these relationships’ development.

Sweet Venom is a novel that could have gone in the opposite direction and been a bit of a mess. Childs worked some sort of magic and kept it entertaining, flowing, and wonderful. This is definitely a book for anyone who likes a touch of mythology in their novels. It was a great read and I’m certainly going to be reading the next book.