Tag Archives: Young Adult

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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.

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The Pledge by Kimberly Derting

This book was much better than I thought it was going to be. I was a little worried when I started that this would not only be yet another dystopian fantasy book, but feel younger than the young adult genre it fell under.

I’m very happy I was wrong. This book might have started out a little weak, but it quickly recovered and drew me in, keeping me awake much later than I should have been and was the first thing I picked up when I woke up. While a few parts of it felt a little clichéd and predictable, most of it was different from everything else I’ve read. Separating the classes through language was an ingenious idea for Derting to make, and really set the tone of distrust, fear and caution for the rest of the novel.

Charlie was a fantastic character to read about. She was a strong female, and although she liked the secure feeling she felt with Max, she was able to stand on her own and fight for herself. She used her own motivations and those things important to her to gain power and strength, and I love reading that.

Max was a swoon worthy character. His devotion to Charlie was sweet and amazing to read, and I fell in love with him almost immediately after one important development.

Overall, this was a fantastic book, and worth a read. It’s a little fast-paced, and some parts were a touch cheesy, but as a whole, it’s an interesting and worthy take on the dystopian genre.

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Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor

Wow. This book was wow.

When I started reading this, I didn’t think it would be as intricate and interesting as it was. The imagination and essence are amazing and I could hardly put this book down.

Humanity plays a huge role in this story, and Taylor uses this as the starting point of her characters and weaves their story through it. Karou maintains her humanity through the entire story, never losing the thing that makes her real. She goes from being a semi-normal 17-year-old girl to something else entirely, and the one thing that remains true is the emotions that tie her to her humanity. Akiva is made beautiful not through his looks or strengths or abilities, but his powerful connections to love and the love story wrapped around him and Karou.

The feelings I had reading this book were indescribable. My heart was beating faster, my mind was spinning and I couldn’t believe what I was reading. The writing was beautiful and made the story what it is. I can’t wait to hear the rest of this amazing love story.

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Lola and the Boy Next Door by Stephanie Perkins

I think one of the the reasons I enjoy young adult romance books so much is there’s such a wonderful, first love quality to them that’s hard to find some days in real life. The reader feels as head over heels about the characters and the characters feel about themselves. Yes, there’s a bit of a struggle, but there’s not of the adult “real life” involved. There’s no kids, no house, none of the typical “adult” things to overcome. It makes it easy to fall in love with the love.

I absolutely loved Lola. I’m not sure there’s an adequate word to express just how much I swooned through the entire book. Not only over Cricket, but the little piece of Anna and Etienne that were in there, too. Perkins has such a fabulous way for writing completely wonderful, swoon-worthy, perfectly imperfect guys that I’m not sure my heart could handle much more. Of course, that will never stop me from rereading Anna and Lola and eagerly awaiting Isla.

The huge difference I loved between Anna and Lola was the realness of Lola. Anna was amazing, but there was this special feel to it. It was set in Paris, with amazing English boys, living the life almost every girl dreams of. Going away to the city of love and finding it. Lola was set in San Francisco, with a delightful, tall, slightly awkward American boy. It was what could happen to almost any girl.

My heart hurt from all the happiness and love I felt reading this book. It was so amazingly sweet and wonderful and I fell in love with it several times over.

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The Scorpio Races by Maggie Stiefvater

I’m not sure what emotion can be used to describe how I’m feeling about this book. It was a wonderful book and I loved it, but I still want more.

This book is very legend driven and the romance aspect of it doesn’t get in the way of that, which I enjoyed. I was happy the book focused on the legend instead of trying to devote equal time to both and coming up short in the end.

Would I have liked more Puck and Sean? Sure. However, I never thought the book was going to be about them. I went into the book thinking it was going to be about the Scorpio Race and it was. It was about overcoming the limits other put on you and proving to yourself that you can do whatever you set your mind to. Even the romance plays into this; making the characters realize what they can sacrifice in order to come out in the end with what you need.

The characters are amazingly written as well. I’m sure most people will fall for Sean; however, as much as I liked him, Finn was my favorite character. He is so fiercely loyal to Puck, even when he knows he could lose her. He stays by her side and is there for her always, even though he might disagree with what she is doing.

I only wish there had been a couple more chapters at the end devoted to Puck and Sean and their relationship. As much as the book wasn’t about that, I still wanted a tiny bit more of them

Stiefvater is a great young adult author and I thoroughly enjoyed The Scorpio Races.

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Sometimes It Happens by Lauren Barnholdt

I wasn’t sure how much I was going to like this book when I started. I was a little unsure about the infidelity aspect of the story and how Barnholdt would manage it. I didn’t know if I’d be able to like the main characters or if the story would make it seem like cheating is okay.

I was very happy with how it turned out. It was real, with both Hannah and Noah taking responsibility for how they each acted, knowing how they should have handled things and how they actually did handle them. Yes, some of it seemed a touch melodramatic, but it was written from a 17 year old’s point of view, and what teenager doesn’t over dramatize some things in life?

Each chapter seemed to end with something like a cliff hanger. You knew what would ultimately happen, but at the end of each chapter, when it switches between past and present day, you’re left wanting to know just a little bit more of the story.

As for the characters themselves, I love when they have flaws. And I don’t just mean a pimple or scar. I mean actual flaws that make them human. There wasn’t any perfection within the characters and I loved that. They were human with human problems and that made it easy to relate to.

This was a perfect end of summer read and it put Barnholdt on my list of authors I’ll be anxious to read again.

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Love Story by Jennifer Echols

I enjoyed Going Too Far and Forget You, so I was extremely excited to read yet another one of Echols’ books. I was not disappointed and I only wish we had gotten more of Erin and Hunter’s story.

I liked how Echols included some of the stories Erin and Hunter wrote for their creative writing class within the story. It made some of the revelations about their history more interesting than simply telling it in the main story. You still got their back story, but it was not only from Erin or Hunter’s point of view, but from the characters they wrote.

I wish there had been a little bit more written about the class, the publishing internship, their relationship, as well as something more with her grandmother. It felt a little cut off and some of those loose ends weren’t tied up enough for the story to be really over. I felt like there could have been another couple of chapters to really end the story.

I can’t wait to read what else Echols writes in the future.

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The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

I’m not really sure what my expectations were when I started this book. All I know is every single one of them was shattered.

This is not a book you can just breeze through and understand. It makes you really read and drown in the rods on the page. There is so much emotion in every word, you can’t just skim it. this is a book that demands you read it.

The whole book is narrated by Death as he “works” through World War II. He tells Liesel’s story as she grows up during the war. She begins as an orphan, heading to her foster home but becomes so much more.

The one thing that I loved and hated about Death telling the story, was how well everything was foreshadowed, or in some cases, announced. Knowing what was coming just made me dread it more, because I knew there wouldn’t be a different outcome. If Death announced something, it was coming. It just made the emotional shock value increase, and tied a connection between me and war going on in the book. People die in war. You can’t change that. Knowing what will happen is sometimes worse than not knowing.

As depressing as the subject matter of the book is, somehow, the book itself is never completely depressing. It is not morbid. Liesel provides what this book needs to save it from being a depressing read. She and her Papa’s relationship is one of my new favorites. The love they had for each other nearly jumped off the page. In between all the ugly in the book, there was good.

This book made me feel more than most books in recent memory. The story grabs you by the heart and does not let go. It squeezes hard and tugs at you, but through the entire story, you are being held captive by the words that play so important a part within the story itself. This is not a book for young adults. It is a book for anyone. It will leave an imprint on you long after you finish reading the last page.

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Out in Blue by Sarah Gilman

I requested this book from NetGalley, and was extremely pleased when I was allowed to read it. The new look on angels and demons really interested me and I couldn’t wait to start reading.

Overall, the book was extremely well written, and I found myself very engrossed in the story. My only real complaint was how the story started. Readers are dumped right into the middle of a story and I would have liked to have a bit more of a build up, but even that did not distract me from the story.

Despite how fast the two main characters fell in love, and even though it didn’t seem natural, it didn’t feel forced, either. It just was and I actually found myself enjoying that.

I was a little worried about starting this book when I saw it was the first in a series, however this book can stand on it’s own, even as a set-up for the rest of the books. It was it’s own story and simply laid in place the elements necessary for the rest of the series. I loved the end of the book, and while I’m excited to read what’s next, I know this story is finished and it felt that way.

I greatly enjoyed this book and can’t wait to see what comes next for these characters.