Book Review: TMI by Patty Blount

Release Date: 6 August 2013
Publisher: Sourcebooks Fire
Format: eARC
Source: Publisher via NetGalley

Get a copy! Amazon

Goodreads description:

Best friends don’t lie.
Best friends don’t ditch you for a guy.
Best friends don’t post your deepest, darkest secrets online.

Bailey’s falling head-over-high-heels for Ryder West, a mysterious gamer she met online. A guy she’s never met in person. Her best friend, Meg, doesn’t trust smooth-talking Ryder. He’s just a picture-less profile.

When Bailey starts blowing Meg off to spend more virtual quality time with her new crush, Meg decides it’s time to prove Ryder’s a phony.

But one stupid little secret posted online turns into a friendship-destroying feud to answer the question:
Who is Ryder West?

My Thoughts...

Review: The Culling by Steven dos Santos

Release Date: 8 March 2013
Publisher: Flux
Format: eARC
Source: Publisher via NetGalley

Get a copy! Amazon

Goodreads description:

Recruitment Day is here...if you fail, a loved one will die...

For Lucian “Lucky” Spark, Recruitment Day means the Establishment, a totalitarian government, will force him to become one of five Recruits competing to join the ruthless Imposer task force. Each Recruit participates in increasingly difficult and violent military training for a chance to advance to the next level. Those who fail must choose an “Incentive”—a family member—to be brutally killed. If Lucky fails, he’ll have to choose death for his only living relative: Cole, his four-year-old brother.

Lucky will do everything he can to keep his brother alive, even if it means sacrificing the lives of other Recruits’ loved ones. What Lucky isn’t prepared for is his undeniable attraction to the handsome, rebellious Digory Tycho. While Lucky and Digory train together, their relationship grows. But daring to care for another Recruit in a world where love is used as the ultimate weapon is extremely dangerous. As Lucky soon learns, the consequences can be deadly...

My Thoughts...

Review: Truly, Madly, Deadly by Hannah Jayne

Release Date: 2 July 2013
Publisher: Sourcebooks Fire
Format: eARC
Source: Publisher via NetGalley

Get a copy! Amazon

Goodreads description:

Sawyer Dodd has it all. She's a star track athlete, choir soloist, and A-student. And her boyfriend is the handsome all-star Kevin Anderson. But behind the medals, prom pictures, and perfect smiles, Sawyer finds herself trapped in a controlling, abusive relationship with Kevin. When he dies in a drunk-driving accident, Sawyer is secretly relieved. She's free. Until she opens her locker and finds a mysterious letter signed by "an admirer" and printed with two simple words: "You're welcome."

My Thoughts...

Splintered by A.G. Howard

Release Date: 1 January 2013

Publisher: ABRAMS
Format: eARC
Source: Publisher via NetGalley

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Goodreads description:

Alyssa Gardner hears the whispers of bugs and flowers—precisely the affliction that landed her mother in a mental hospital years before. This family curse stretches back to her ancestor Alice Liddell, the real-life inspiration for Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. Alyssa might be crazy, but she manages to keep it together. For now.

When her mother’s mental health takes a turn for the worse, Alyssa learns that what she thought was fiction is based in terrifying reality. The real Wonderland is a place far darker and more twisted than Lewis Carroll ever let on. There, Alyssa must pass a series of tests, including draining an ocean of Alice’s tears, waking the slumbering tea party, and subduing a vicious bandersnatch, to fix Alice’s mistakes and save her family. She must also decide whom to trust: Jeb, her gorgeous best friend and secret crush, or the sexy but suspicious Morpheus, her guide through Wonderland, who may have dark motives of his own.

My Thoughts...

The Goddess Inheritance by Aimee Carter

Release Date: 26 February 2013
Publisher: Harlequin Teen
Format: eARC
Source: Publisher via NetGalley

Get a copy! Amazon

Goodreads description:

Love or life.
Henry or their child.
The end of her family or the end of the world.
Kate must choose.

During nine months of captivity, Kate Winters has survived a jealous goddess, a vengeful Titan and a pregnancy she never asked for. Now the Queen of the Gods wants her unborn child, and Kate can't stop her--until Cronus offers a deal.

In exchange for her loyalty and devotion, the King of the Titans will spare humanity and let Kate keep her child. Yet even if Kate agrees, he'll destroy Henry, her mother and the rest of the council. And if she refuses, Cronus will tear the world apart until every last god and mortal is dead.

With the fate of everyone she loves resting on her shoulders, Kate must do the impossible: find a way to defeat the most powerful being in existence, even if it costs her everything.

Even if it costs her eternity.

My Thoughts...

Pantomime by Laura Lam

Release Date: 5 February 2013

Publisher: Strange Chemistry
Format: eARC
Source: Publisher via NetGalley

Get a copy! Amazon

Goodreads description:

R. H. Ragona’s Circus of Magic is the greatest circus of Ellada. Nestled among the glowing blue Penglass—remnants of a mysterious civilisation long gone—are wonders beyond the wildest imagination. It’s a place where anything seems possible, where if you close your eyes you can believe that the magic and knowledge of the vanished Chimaera is still there. It’s a place where anyone can hide.

Iphigenia Laurus, or Gene, the daughter of a noble family, is uncomfortable in corsets and crinoline, and prefers climbing trees to debutante balls. Micah Grey, a runaway living on the streets, joins the circus as an aerialist’s apprentice and soon becomes the circus’s rising star.

But Gene and Micah have balancing acts of their own to perform, and a secret in their blood that could unlock the mysteries of Ellada.

My Thoughts...

The Dead and the Buried by Kim Harrington

Release Date: 1 January 2013

Publisher: Scholastic
Format: eARC
Source: Publisher via NetGalley

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Goodreads description:

Jade loves the house she's just moved into with her family. She doesn't even mind being the new girl at the high school: It's a fresh start, and there's that one guy with the dreamy blue eyes. . . . But then things begin happening. Strange, otherworldly things. Jade's little brother claims to see a glimmering girl in his room. Jade's jewelry gets moved around, as if by an invisible hand. Kids at school whisper behind her back like they know something she doesn't.

Soon, Jade must face an impossible fact: that her perfect house is haunted. Haunted by a ghost who's seeking not just vengeance, but the truth. The ghost of a girl who ruled Jade's school — until her untimely death last year. It's up to Jade to put the pieces together before her own life is at stake. As Jade investigates the mystery, she discovers that her new friends in town have more than a few deep, dark secrets. But is one of them a murderer?

My Thoughts...

When Love Comes to Town by Tom Lennon

Release Date: 1 March 2013
Publisher: Albert Whitman Teen
Format: eARC
Source: Publisher via NetGalley

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Goodreads description:

The year is 1990, and in his hometown of Dublin, Ireland, Neil Byrne plays rugby, keeps up with the in-crowd at his school, and is just a regular guy. A guy who's gay. It's a secret he keeps from the wider world as he explores the city at night and struggles to figure out how to reveal his real self--and to whom.

My Thoughts...

Dualed by Elsie Chapman

Release Date: 26 February 2013

Publisher: Random House BFYR
Format: eARC
Source: Publisher via NetGalley

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Goodreads description:

You or your Alt? Only one will survive.

The city of Kersh is a safe haven, but the price of safety is high. Everyone has a genetic Alternate—a twin raised by another family—and citizens must prove their worth by eliminating their Alts before their twentieth birthday. Survival means advanced schooling, a good job, marriage—life.

Fifteen-year-old West Grayer has trained as a fighter, preparing for the day when her assignment arrives and she will have one month to hunt down and kill her Alt. But then a tragic misstep shakes West’s confidence. Stricken with grief and guilt, she’s no longer certain that she’s the best version of herself, the version worthy of a future. If she is to have any chance of winning, she must stop running not only from her Alt, but also from love . . . though both have the power to destroy her.

My Thoughts...

Friday Fling! The Next Forever by Lisa Burstein

During Friday Fling , I share with you a "just for fun" romance book or novella that I read and really enjoyed.  It will generally be a "mini review" instead of a full review and I'll stray from my YA focus into the realm of adult romance (which, in case you're curious, is my not-so-guilty pleasure).  These are books that I think are fun, quick (sexy) reads that are definitely worth checking out!




Follow-up novellas tend to be hit or miss for me, but I have to say that this little gem was spot on...

Publisher: Ever After (Entangled Publishing)
Release Date: January 2013
Get it! Amazon | B&N

Amy and Joe have known each other for a long time, but it was only at the end of their high school career that their friendship was rekindled and blossomed into something more. Now together in college, Amy and Joe must navigate the uncertainties and difficulties of college life.  Amy must reconcile her new (actually, old) self with the person that she was while hanging out with Lila and Cassie.  Joe is trying to find his own path while holding on to Amy as his anchor.  Will they be able to forge a path forward together?

Told in alternating POVs, The Next Forever offers up both Amy and Joe's perspective on a single college night that proves a turning point for both of them.  For such a short novella, I felt like Lisa really packed it in with this one.  The reader gets a deeper sense of connection to Amy and gets to spend some time in Joe's head.  This was a quick, fun read--a definite MUST for fans of Pretty Amy. 

YA Book Review: Flawed by Kate Avelynn

Release Date: January 2013

Publisher: Entangled Teen
Format: eARC
Source: Publisher via NetGalley

Get a copy! Amazon

Goodreads description:

Sarah O’Brien is only alive because of the pact she and her brother made twelve years ago—James will protect her from their violent father if she promises never to leave him. For years, she’s watched James destroy his life to save hers. If all he asks for in return is her affection, she’ll give it freely.

Until, with a tiny kiss and a broken mind, he asks for more than she can give.

Sam Donavon has been James’s best friend—and the boy Sarah’s had a crush on—for as long as she can remember. As their forbidden relationship deepens, Sarah knows she’s in trouble. Quiet, serious Sam has decided he’s going to save her. Neither of them realizes James is far more unstable than her father ever was, or that he’s not about to let Sarah forget her half of the pact…

(ARC) YA Book Review: Crewel by Gennifer Albin

Release Date: 16 October 2012

Publisher: Farrar, Straus, & Giroux BYR
Format: eARC
Source: Publisher via NetGalley

Goodreads description:

Incapable. Awkward. Artless.

That’s what the other girls whisper behind her back. But sixteen year-old Adelice Lewys has a secret: she wants to fail.

Gifted with the ability to weave time with matter, she’s exactly what the Guild is looking for, and in the world of Arras, being chosen as a Spinster is everything a girl could want. It means privilege, eternal beauty, and being something other than a secretary. It also means the power to embroider the very fabric of life. But if controlling what people eat, where they live and how many children they have is the price of having it all, Adelice isn’t interested.

Not that her feelings matter, because she slipped and wove a moment at testing, and they’re coming for her—tonight.

Now she has one hour to eat her mom’s overcooked pot roast. One hour to listen to her sister’s academy gossip and laugh at her Dad’s stupid jokes. One hour to pretend everything’s okay. And one hour to escape.

Because once you become a Spinster, there’s no turning back.

My Thoughts...

(ARC) YA Book Review: Eve & Adam by Katherine Applegate and Michael Grant

Release Date: 2 October 2012 Publisher: Feiwel & Friends
Format: eARC
Source: Publisher via NetGalley

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Goodreads description:

Sixteen-year-old Evening Spiker lives an affluent life in San Francisco with her mother, EmmaRose, a successful geneticist and owner of Spiker Biotech. Sure, Evening misses her father who died mysteriously, but she’s never really questioned it. Much like how she’s never stopped to think how off it is that she’s never been sick. That is, until she’s struck by a car and is exposed to extensive injuries. Injuries that seem to be healing faster than physically possible.

While recuperating in Spiker Biotech’s lush facilities, she meets Solo Plissken, a very attractive, if off-putting boy her age who spent his life at Spiker Biotech. Like Evening, he’s never questioned anything... until now. Solo drops hints to Evening that something isn’t right, and Emma-Rose may be behind it. Evening puts this out of her mind and begins her summer internship project: To simulate the creation of the perfect boy. With the help of Solo, Evening uncovers secrets so big they could change the world completely.

My Thoughts...

YA Book Review: Monstrous Beauty by Elizabeth Fama

Release Date: 4 September 2012

Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux (BYR)
Format: eARC
Source: Publisher via NetGalley

Get a copy! B&N | Amazon

Goodreads description:

Fierce, seductive mermaid Syrenka falls in love with Ezra, a young naturalist. When she abandons her life underwater for a chance at happiness on land, she is unaware that this decision comes with horrific and deadly consequences.

Almost one hundred forty years later, seventeen-year-old Hester meets a mysterious stranger named Ezra and feels overwhelmingly, inexplicably drawn to him. For generations, love has resulted in death for the women in her family. Is it an undiagnosed genetic defect . . . or a curse? With Ezra’s help, Hester investigates her family’s strange, sad history. The answers she seeks are waiting in the graveyard, the crypt, and at the bottom of the ocean—but powerful forces will do anything to keep her from uncovering her connection to Syrenka and to the tragedy of so long ago.

My Thoughts...
So much more than a "mermaid book," Monstrous Beauty captured my heart with all of the wonderful elements that Ms. Fama threw in. This was honestly a beautifully dark, wonderfully crafted ghost story with terrifying magical sea creatures woven in. To top it off the story offers history, genealogy, and cemeteries--all things that captured my heart in a personal way.

The story is told in alternating viewpoints from Syrenka, the mermaid living in 1872-3, and Hester, a modern young woman determined to avoid love and all that it entails for her family. Reading from the point of views of both women gives the reader a unique advantage over the modern main character as the mystery increases on both sides. Watching the stories converge in the ways that they eventually do is engaging and really drew me in as a reader.

Both Syrenka and Hester are interesting characters, but I connected a lot with Hester.  Her emotional reactions to the things going on around (and within) her as well as the way she delved into the mysteries she was exploring really resonated with me as a person.  We are a lot alike in ways and I found that she was simply a fun character for me to get to know.  Combined with fantastic writing and richly atmospheric storytelling, this is a story that I can see myself reading and enjoying again in the future.

You don't have to like mermaid books to enjoy Monstrous Beauty.  It's dark tale combines new romance, local history, intriguing mystery...ghosts, sea monsters (mermaids), and cemeteries.  it may sound like a lot of elements to throw into a single story (which is wonderfully a standalone) but it definitely works.  Fans of darker fairy tale-esque stories will thoroughly enjoy this story.

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YA Book Review: The Immortal Rules by Julie Kagawa

Release Date: 24 April 2012

Publisher: Harlequin Teen
Format: eARC
Source: Publisher via NetGalley

Goodreads description:

In a future world, vampires reign. Humans are blood cattle. And one girl will search for the key to save humanity. Allison Sekemoto survives in the Fringe, the outermost circle of a vampire city. By day, she and her crew scavenge for food. By night, any one of them could be eaten.

Some days, all that drives Allie is her hatred of "them." The vampires who keep humans as blood cattle. Until the night Allie herself is attacked--and given the ultimate choice. Die...or become one of the monsters.

Faced with her own mortality, Allie becomes what she despises most. To survive, she must learn the rules of being immortal, including the most important: go long enough without human blood, and you will go mad.

Then Allie is forced to flee into the unknown, outside her city walls. There she joins a ragged band of humans who are seeking a legend--a possible cure to the disease that killed off most of humankind and created the rabids, the mindless creatures who threaten humans and vampires alike.

But it isn't easy to pass for human. Especially not around Zeke, who might see past the monster inside her. And Allie soon must decide what--and who--is worth dying for.

My Thoughts...

YA Book Review: Lies Beneath by Anne Greenwood Brown

Release Date: 12 June 2012

Publisher: Delacorte BFYR
Format: eARC
Source: Publisher via NetGalley

Goodreads description:

Calder White lives in the cold, clear waters of Lake Superior, the only brother in a family of murderous mermaids. To survive, Calder and his sisters prey on humans and absorb their positive energy. Usually, they select their victims at random, but this time around, the underwater clan chooses its target for a reason: revenge. They want to kill Jason Hancock, the man they blame for their mother's death.

It's going to take a concerted effort to lure the aquaphobic Hancock onto the water. Calder's job is to gain Hancock's trust by getting close to his family. Relying on his irresistible good looks and charm, Calder sets out to seduce Hancock's daughter Lily. Easy enough, but Calder screws everything up by falling in love--just as Lily starts to suspect there's more to the monster-in-the-lake legends than she ever imagined, and just as the mermaids threaten to take matters into their own hands, forcing Calder to choose between them and the girl he loves.

One thing's for sure: whatever Calder decides, the outcome won't be pretty.

My Thoughts...

(ARC) YA Book Review: Inbetween by Tara Fuller

Release Date: 28 August 2012

Publisher: Entangled Teen
Format: eARC
Source: Publisher via NetGalley

Get a copy!

Goodreads description:

Since the car crash that took her father’s life three years ago, Emma’s life has been a freaky — and unending — lesson in caution. Surviving “accidents” has taken priority over being a normal seventeen-year-old, so Emma spends her days taking pictures of life instead of living it. Falling in love with a boy was never part of the plan. Falling for a reaper who makes her chest ache and her head spin? Not an option.

It’s not easy being dead, especially for a reaper in love with a girl fate has put on his list not once, but twice. Finn’s fellow reapers give him hell about spending time with Emma, but Finn couldn’t let her die before, and he’s not about to let her die now. He will protect the girl he loves from the evil he accidentally unleashed, even if it means sacrificing the only thing he has left…his soul.

My Thoughts...

(ARC) YA Book Review: Andy Squared by Jennifer Lavoie

Release Date: 18 September 2012

Publisher: Bold Strokes Books (Bella Distribution)
Format: eARC
Source: Publisher via NetGalley

Goodreads description:

Seventeen-year-old twins, Andrew and Andrea Morris, have always been close. They share everything—from their friends to a room—and they both enjoy star positions on their high school’s soccer teams. All’s right with the twins...or is it?

When new student Ryder Coltrane moves from Texas to their small New York town, he spins Andrew’s world upside down. All of Andrew’s past relationship troubles begin to make sense and his true feelings start to click into place after Ryder comes out to him. His friendship with Ryder turns secretively romantic, but secrets, they soon find out, are hard to keep. Once rumors start to fly, so-called friends turn on them, and the boys’ relationship turns into a bomb about to explode. But Andrew never expected it would be his own twin, Andrea, holding a lighter to ignite it.

My Thoughts...

NetGalley Knockout Challenge!

I stumbled upon this great August reading challenge and it seemed perfect for the back-to-school month! I have a lot of really great digital review copies from NetGalley that I would like to get read and reviewed so...why not?

Here's the deal from the host's blog (Goldilox and the Three Weres):

Pledge to read those books from your Netgalley and Edelweiss egalleys during the month of August by entering your blog on the linky below!

The books you read do not have to be released in August. They can be already released, released in August, or released later than August.

So...I don't actually know how many books I will get read in August as I'm starting a new job (YAY!), but I'm totally willing to give it a go! (And some expire VERY soon!!) Here's my list of NetGalley books that will be on the challenge TBR list:

1. Spellcaster by Cara Lynn Schultz
2. The Wicked and the Just by J. Anderson Coates
3. The Immortal Rules by Julie Kagawa
4. The Girl in the Park by Mariah Frederick
5. The Peculiars by Maureen Doyle McQuerry
6. Shadow & Bone by Leigh Bardugo
7. Struck by Jennifer Bosworth
8. Lies Beneath by Anne Greenwood Brown
9. Dark Companion by Marta Acosta
10. Long Lankin by Lindsey Barraclough
11. Quarantine: The Loners by Lex Thomas
12. Pushing the Limits by Katie McGarry
13. The Goddess Legacy by Aimee Carter
14. Between You and Me by Marisa Calin
15. Throne of Glass by Sarah J. Maas
16. Glitch by Heather Anastasiu
17. Innocent Darkness by Suzanne Lazear
18. OMGqueer by multiple authors
19. The Demon Catchers of Milan by Kat Beyer
20. Confessions of an Angry Girl by Louise Rozett
21. Speechless by Hannah Harrington
22. Inbetween by Tara Fuller
23. Monstrous Beauty by Elizabeth Fama
24. Silver by Talia Vance
25. Unspoken by Sarah Rees Brennan
26. Personal Effects by E.M. Kokie
27. Daylight Saving by Edward Hogan
28. Stormdancer by Jay Kristoff
29. Yesterday by C. K. Kelly Martin
30. Dearly, Beloved by Lia Habel
31. Skylark by Megan Spooner
32. The Curiosities
33. League of Strays by L.B. Schulman
34. Beautiful Music for Ugly Children by Kirstin Cronin-Mills
35. The Opposite of Hallelujah by Anna Jarzab
36. Diverse Energies by multiple authors
37. Midnight City by J. Barton Mitchell
38. Meant to Be by Lauren Morrill
39. The Dead and Buried by Kim Harrington
40. The Lost Prince by Julie Kagawa

Hahahaa...seeing that list all written out...OUCH.  They are in pub date order, so that is generally the order that I try to tackle them in, but this time I'm in pursuit of new books for my high schoolers so I'll probably start with the ones I think will most appeal to them. :)  My GOAL will be to read at least 15 of these in August. Lofty? Perhaps...

YA Book Review: Temptation by Karen Hopkins

Release Date: 26 June 2012

Publisher: Harlequin Teen
Format: eARC
Source: Publisher via NetGalley

Goodreads description:

Your heart misleads you. That's what my friends and family say. But I love Noah. And he loves me. We met and fell in love in the sleepy farming community of Meadowview, while we rode our horses together through the grassy fields and in those moments in each other's arms. It should be ROSE & NOAH forever, easy. But it won't be. Because he's Amish. And I'm not.

My Thoughts...