Heartstrings and Loopholes

Goddess by Josephine Angelini

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Songs for this read: More Than I Should by Hunter Hayes, Angel with a Shotgun by The Cab, Birds of a Feather by The Civil Wars

I'm so sad right now. But it's a good kind of sad... if that makes any sense. I'm devastated our journey with Helen and those beautiful Delos boys is over. But I'm so happy that I'm sad about it. You see, it seems recently ending Trilogies and series have left me more upset, angry and down right frustrated with the final chapter. So to get to be sad, and yet content with the ending is the best feeling. Reading the end of this story only made me want to read them all over again.

Its the end of a trilogy so there is not much summarizing or explaining I can do without revealing everything, so enough to say that this book was just about as close to a perfect ending as you could hope for. I loved everything about it, despite the losses throughout, everything turned out for the best, for the most part. And I for one and going to dare to dream about the tempting little loose ends left dangling at the end there. I would appear to me Angelini left the door open for the legacy to continue if she so chose.
Fingers Crossed!!

In closing I just want to give a shout out to Hector Delos. Lucas is amazing and perfect for Helen, but Hector will always be my favorite Delos boy  man.


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Number the Stars

Hopeless by Colleen Hoover

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Songs for this read: Stars by Switchfoot, Broken by Lifehouse, Prince of Nothing Charming by Tyler Hilton


Goodreads Summary:
Sometimes discovering the truth can leave you more hopeless than believing the lies…

That’s what seventeen-year-old Sky realizes after she meets Dean Holder. A guy with a reputation that rivals her own and an uncanny ability to invoke feelings in her she’s never had before. He terrifies her and captivates her all in the span of just one encounter, and something about the way he makes her feel sparks buried memories from a past that she wishes could just stay buried.

Sky struggles to keep him at a distance knowing he’s nothing but trouble, but Holder insists on learning everything about her. After finally caving to his unwavering pursuit, Sky soon finds that Holder isn’t at all who he’s been claiming to be. When the secrets he’s been keeping are finally revealed, every single facet of Sky’s life will change forever.

10 million beautiful stars to this beautiful book. There are no words. I think this book just broke me. I have been shredded by this story and don't think I will ever be the same. I laughed. I cried. I sobbed. I hurt. I smiled. This book is a work of art-- no wonder it has one of the highest ratings I've ever seen. Anyone who hasn't read this book is missing out on a miracle. Seriously, this book was so powerful I almost couldn't take it at times. I've never experience anything like it. I wish I could express all of my emotions in words to let you understand what this book is, but I can't. All I can do is tell you to read it and hope you understand when I say this book is like nothing else you could ever experience.

Dean Holder fan girl for life.

Excuse me, but now I need to cruel up and cry for a few forevers and thank god that Colleen Hoover wrote this book.



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Running from The Past

Shadowlands by Kate Brian

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Songs for this read: Jump into The Fog by The Wombats, Did It Really Even Matter by The Rescues, Little Talks by Of Monsters and Men


Shadowands is the perfect blend of “two” of my favorite authors, Kieran Scott and her infamous pen name Kate Brian. The story, to me, was a mix of the mystery and suspense of The Private series (Brian) with the drama and elite setting of the newer series She’s So Dead to Us (Scott). Little did I know the extra element added in at the end that made this book very, very different.
Shadowlands is the story of Rory Miller, a highschooler who is attacked by her math teacher in the woods one day and miraculously escapes with her life. She soon discovers this man is a serial killer who the FBI have been tracking for over 10 years. And he is not done with Rory. When her safety at home is threatened a second time they are forced to take evasive measures and Rory with her father and sister Darcy, are thrust into the witness protection program.
The Miller family soon arrives at Juniper Landing, a quaint little vacation island, under the new name of the Thayer family. Rory and Darcy are quickly adopted by the carefree and beautiful group of kids on the island. And they all seem to have a special interest in Rory, which causes tension between the sisters. But Rory is standoffish and not ready to trust anyone. Her PTSD is back and she doesn’t know if she can trust her own eyes and ears anymore; that and she keeps have horrible flashbacks to that very vivid nightmare where her math teacher tracks her down and kills her and her family in the woods. All Rory does know is that the more she finds out about her new town, the less things make sense. It’s only when her sister goes missing that Rory gets any answers from her new friends. And even then they are not the ones she ever would have expected.

I love anything Kate Brian and Shadowlands is definitely up towards the top of that list. I have recently discovered I love psychological thrillers and the total mystery that comes from having an unreliable narrator. This revelation was thanks to the amazing Mara Dyer series (which if you haven’t read you simply must, must, MUST) which I really see a lot of in Shadowlands. I like to post-it my books and on more than one occasion I stuck a sticky in reading something like “omg! Like in Mara when…” or “gosh Rory is being just like Mara”. I’m sure to people who have read both you can see how the characters relate, especially with their PTSD. – To those who haven’t read Mara, I think Shadowland is a great kind of training wheels book so to speak, where if you like Shadowlands and can handle the mystery, creep-factor and frustration of it all then you are ready for The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer.
But enough about Mara. Shadowlands is an amazing set up to this series. To me that was all it really was, a set up. Even about 200 pages in I was looking at how much I had left to read and remember thinking, I have way too many questions and relatively no answers and nearly enough pages to get anything done. So while this was just a very detailed prologue to me, I am very excited to see where Brian takes it. With the ended her gave us, the possibilities are endless. This is a great read, a new story line for Brian and ultimately unique to YA fiction. Brian is on to something, and it looks like she’s ahead of the curve.

4 ½ stars and a round of applause for Shadowlands

Now I think I need to sit back and process what just happened...




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Balancing Act

The Essence by Kimberly Derting

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Songs for this Read: Northern Lights by The Dangerous Summer, and Warrior by Paradise Fears

To recap, Charlie, a vendor girl, has just defeated the evil queen Sabara and been pronounced queen herself. But she has a secret, the queen’s essence did not die with Sabara’s body, it is deep within her. Charlie has tried to keep her at bay but every day it gets a little bit harder. Now with a rebellion on her hands and an assassin out for her life she must flee her palace and set out for “the Summit” early. As Charlie and her friends head for queen Neva’s palace up north for the meeting of many queedoms, known as the summit, they realize the assassin is one of their own. And while Charlie is missing Max terribly, she meets an ambassador who makes her dizzy and conflicted about what to feel. As they make the long journey north, Charlie struggles to keep a grip on Sabara when she no longer can tell her own thoughts from the queens and must fight to see right from wrong. All Charlie really knows is that she needs Max and she would do anything to protect her family—Anything.

I love anything Kimberly Derting puts on the shelf at B&N. She is one of my favorites. The Pledge books never cease to amaze me because they are so unlike anything else out there. I could try to describe them by telling you they are something like a Shannon Hale book meets classic dystopian, but that really doesn't do them justice. These books are in a genre all of their own filled with Queendoms and revolutionaries and magic and so much more that really you just have to read to understand how well it all meshes together.
As everyone knows, sequels always cause me anxiety. It’s the middle book where, now that the story has been set up in the first, everything must go wrong in the second to be cleaned up in the third. And so I started this book with both excitement (because I love them) and trepidation (because I knew this was not going to be all rainbows and butterflies). I think one of the reasons I like I love Kimberly Derting’s writing so much is that unlike some other authors out there (i.e. Cassandra Clare) Derting doesn't torture her readers with every plot twist, there is a balance to her stories. Even when in one sense it seems all is lost, the next chapter will relight that flame of hope that there is still good in the world. That is probably the main reason why this is one of the best sequels I have ever read—ever.
And now for the character shout outs: To Charlie, she such a perfect heroine- she is strong but only human and her weak spots make her a beautifully dynamic character to read. Her best quality is that she is smart; I am never cursing her for stupid decisions. Next is Aron and Brook, these two really grew in this book and all I can really say is that they are some of the best friends a girl can have and that I love them. Thirdly, a quick round of applause for all of those crazy queens at the Summit, I loved all their eccentric queenliness, so fun. And then there is Zafir, who I would love to learn more about, he is quite the man of mystery. And finally, a shout out to my boy Max--> I think I'm in love with you. You wouldn't have to ask twice to be my king ;)

5 stars to Essence, one of the few sequels I have given 5 stars to. I would make it 10 stars if I could.




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Beautiful and Broken

Shattered by Elizabeth Lee

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Song for this Read: Joey by Sugarland


I started Shattered and by page two my heart was already wrenching for Alyssa Boyd. A newly graduated high school senior, Alyssa carries a lot of guilt and pain on her shoulders. It has been nine months since her best friend Garret died and her other, Jesse, left her without so much as a goodbye. Garret and Jesse had taken a sad little Alyssa Boyd under their wing in 8th grade and ever since they have done everything to keep her smiling. Jesse has been in love with Alyssa since he first laid eyes on her but has never made his move from best friend to boyfriend. Nine months after he left in the wake of his best friend’s untimely death, Jesse is back in town. And this time he isn’t chickening out.
When Alyssa Boyd is first presented she is a mess of raw emotions and hurt and anger. Her voice is desperate and delicate and my heart broke for her. As Jesse entered the story and told his side more of the pieces fit together and as they both retold tales of their escapades with Garret I found myself totally falling for these two amazing boys who would do anything to see Alyssa smile. I could help but see them as two big brothers to Alyssa, always looking out for her. The whole first half of this book, two words kept coming to mind to describe it: Beautiful and Broken. But somewhere in the middle there the beauty was lost. The story just became broken and frustrating. I would read one chapter full of Alyssa doing stupid things and get to the next chapter just to tell me everything that just happened in the last chapter from his side. It was going nowhere. So when Things finally did come around I noticed something else was lost. No long was the story about them being broken either, it seemed that I was just to forget about the fact that all of a week ago Alyssa could walk into the gym because of memories of Garret and now all the sudden Jesse is here and she is completely fine, she is over it. Well that was disappointing, because what I was really looking forward to most was the two of them working through moving past their pain of losing Garret together. The storyline seemed to turn from this brooding, grief filled plot full of raw emotions to this fluff piece where everyone is just looking for trouble where it doesn’t need to be. It was really disappointing.
I’m giving this book four stars (out of five) because the beginning really was spectacular, it had me want to cry and smile all at the same time. The second half had potential, I just feel that the essence of the book was lost and that is saddening to me. But overall it was a great read.




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The Devils Playground

Every Which Way by Calia Read

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Songs for this Read: Just for Tonight by The Spacepimps

Goodreads Summary:
Severine Blake has seen far too many friends taken down in the crossfires of dating. She devises a precise course of action to protect her heart. The plan is working very well...until she meets Thayer and Macsen.
When the Sloan brothers come into her life, nothing is the same.

Thayer is self-possessed, arrogant and used to getting what he wants. Being near him leaves Severine unsteady and shaken. He makes her question everything.
Macsen contradicts his brother in every way. His calm personality captivates her. Severine is drawn to him instantly.
But Severine quickly discovers that when you want something, that want can turn wicked. Giving in is not always easy, especially when your heart refuses to give up the fight.

What little illusion of love Severine has is soon destroyed. Every option is broken, and the protection she has built around her heart instantly crumbles.

There's just no right way with the Sloan brothers.
(I don't think this summary gives you any idea what it about to go down. You really just need to read it for yourself. Do not judge this by the summary)

*Quick note: I have now written this review three different times. The first time, I went to save and it disappeared into cyberspace. The next I simply hit a few too many buttons on my keyboard while typing and next thing I know the page reloaded and my review was no longer in existence. But hey, third times a charm right??
This book was so much more than I was expecting. It was funny, and frustrating and raw. At times it had me so angry I wanted to slap the characters and then I would turn the page and just want to hug them. More often than not I was perplexed. Severine is one of the single most confusing protagonists I have ever read. Her thoughts are tangents of contradictions; she has no Idea what she wants and she is so prideful more than once it came close to suffocating. But for all her fault she was someone I wanted to read about. What really kept me apart from this story is that I don’t relate to Severine at all. Her motive and reasonings were never quite clear to me, her thoughts were murky and twisted in my mind and her actions were never the logical ones. She was always either thinking too much or acting entirely on impulse; she was a mystery even to herself. Much of what Severine did I didn’t understand, she was so unlike any leading female character I had ever read I didn’t really know what to make of her. But finally about 150 pages in a decided I did like her. She still frustrated me and I struggled to follow her trains of thought but she intrigued me; her and the Sloan brothers both.
These characters came out completely different on the other side of 600 pages than when I cracked the spine. (Ok, let’s be honest, I read this on my ereader. But “cracked the spine” has a nice ring to it, right?) I would have to go back and reread it, which I more than likely will, but I can’t help but feel that many of these characters I just finished reading about are not the same ones who were presented to me on page one. I can’t decide if I just chock this up to character development which some of it definitely is, or if at some point the author kinda took control and bent these characters so they would fit. Either way it worked out great, I’m just curious.
Only one last thing to address here, I think. That ending, it would appear Read is spoiling me with a sequel. How I will ever prepare myself for a round two after all that she just put me through, I have no idea. But who can say no to another 600 pages of Thayer Sloan?? (Didn’t think so :) ) I see frustration and pain in my future thanks to these Sloan boys, but if Read is willing to dish it out, well then that is a challenge I’m willing to accept.




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Prefectly Imperfect

The Evolution of Mara Dyer by Michelle Hodkin

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Mara Dyer once believed she could run from her past.

She can’t.

She used to think her problems were all in her head.

They aren’t.

She couldn’t imagine that after everything she’s been through, the boy she loves would still be keeping secrets.

She’s wrong.

In this gripping sequel to The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer, the truth evolves and choices prove deadly. What will become of Mara Dyer next?

These books are so beyond unreal. I have never read into every word of a book the way I do these. I marked this book up like it was a notebook. Michelle has little "easter eggs" hidden all over this book which I am determined to get to the bottom to. I might do a whole post on my blog later about some of my finding. This book played heavily on my emotions. I kind of break it up into segments based on the core feeling. It goes from cautious and picks up speed to heart wrenching and takes a stop at the creepy crazy psycho station then we get to the secret part and the avoidance and then a brief moment of acceptance and peace only to be followed by terror and the most gnawing feeling of frustration that makes you want to pull your hair out, you are rewarded for you patience with this uncomfortable feeling with revelation which of course then brings you crashing down to earth at warp speed, stripping you of all prior theories, hopes, or ability to feel joy. The latter side effects could last for hours, days, or months after reading, for Michelle Hodkin has once again left us all holding our breaths.

I will most definitely have more of this review and/or a post of my findings in The Evolution of Mara Dyer, including a playlist, in the very near future on my blog, so be sure to check it out soon!





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Losing Control

Losing Lila by Sarah Alderson

My rating: 5 of 5 stars



This is a sequel (to the amazing Hunting Lila, if you haven't read it, what on earth are you waiting for?!!), so I don't like to say too much but that these books are by far some of the best I've ever read. The characters are so genuine its hard to believe they are not real people walking around somewhere. Jack, Lila and Alex have some of the greatest relationships, I find myself turning green with envy at times about how strong their bond is. I seem to always be either laughing crying or stifling a scream when reading these. Suki and Nate just do me in, I love those guys and their less than innocent jokes. Everything about these books is masterfully crafted, Alderson's alternate reality welcomes you like a firm embrace had doesn't let you go till ages after the last page. I look forward to rereading these many times over.



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Roadside Attractions

I Recently completed reading: Amy & Roger's Epic Detour By Morgan Matson.

17 year old, Amy Curry is not alright. Her dad just died, her brother is in rehab and her mom has left her alone in their home in California while she gets things settled at their new house in Connecticut. At this point amy is just going thru the motions everyday. she doesn't talk to anybody, not even her friends anymore. And she certainly doesn't drive.
So when her mom calls and tells her she needs the car out in New England, Roger saves the day. Roger is a 19 year old College Boy, who's mother is a family friend. He is on his way to his dad's in Philadelphia for the summer and agrees to drive Amy up that way as well.  
When these two decide to take a few detours along the way things get bumpy. But they don't let that stop them. they are each on their own quest. A Quest for closure, for love, for forgiveness, for happiness, and for so much more.

When I first picked up Amy & Roger's Epic Detour, I'll be honest, i thought it was going to be another sappy chick lit. Although I do enjoy those books for the most part, i just wasn't in the mood for another. But i was surprised by how much depth this book had. From the cover and the blurb it seemed rather cliche but it was the little things that made it stand out to me.

I loved all the characters that you met along the way. You would only get to know them for a few chapters but yet they were so well developed you felt like you had known them the whole story and you didn't want to say goodbye.

I loved the continuous jokes and stories that developed throughout. Roger teasing Amy about her never buying new sunglasses. All of the nicknames (and there were a lot) Popping back up in random places to give you a little laugh here and there. And even a flashback every so often.

But what I enjoyed the most from this book was the journal bits. The scrapbook pages, the "where I've Been" pages, the Playlists, emails, and the random receipt placed here or there throughout the pages of the book. It really kept things interesting and real.

Over all I really enjoyed Amy & Roger's Epic Detour. It was a compelling and fun quick read.
You can enjoy this book for free till the end of September on Pulseit.com by Simon & Schuster publishers.