We'll Always Have Summer by Jenny Han (Summer #3)

It’s been two years since Conrad told Belly to go with Jeremiah. She and Jeremiah have been inseparable ever since, even attending the same college– only, their relationship hasn’t exactly been the happily ever after Belly had hoped it would be. And when Jeremiah makes the worst mistake a boy can make, Belly is forced to question what she thought was true love. Does she really have a future with Jeremiah? Has she ever gotten over Conrad? It’s time for Belly to decide, once and for all, who has her heart forever.

Belly is a sweetly naive college girl who has been with her boyfriend, Jeremiah for the last two years, after having broken up with his brother Conrad. When Jeremiah cheats on her, her entire world comes crashing down on her. In a moment of weakness and desperation, he proposes to her and she takes him back and it brings them closer than ever before. This drives a wedge between Belly and her mother, and generally causes a huge amount of upset. So, Belly is forced to carry on with everything as planned and get ready for a wedding — without her mother’s help, or her blessing. Belly’s naiveté was both endearing and grating at times.

I could envision myself laying by the pool, tanning and reading this. It isn’t too involved or overly complicated, and Han’s writing is pretty solid and engaging. The story line is predictable, and it’s pretty obvious who she’s going to end up with in the end. I actually really liked Conrad a lot. Jere was kind of an inconsiderate pig and he seriously annoyed the bejesus out of me.

I think I’m going to read the first two books now. I wanna know more. =]

Final verdict? 3/5.

This book is due for release on April 26, 2011.

Betrayal by Mayandree Michel (Descendents #1)

At seventeen, Cordelia is an ordinary teen with an extraordinary and frightening secret. A secret that induces vivid dreams which she not only experiences true love, but crippling fear while barely escaping with her life each night.

After a life altering event, Cordelia has an unexpected encounter with Evan, the mysterious boy from her dreams, who reveals who and what she is – a descendant of the Greek gods. At that moment everything she knows of her world is a lie, and she must leave the present and go into the past to assume the role she was put on this earth for – safeguarding her ancient empire amidst evil forces that toil hastily to destroy it.

In a race against time, Cordelia must decide if she is truly a part of this dangerous world, or risk defying the gods, and ultimately lose the boy who has put a claim on her heart.

Gods, Goddesses, shifters, vampires.. Betrayal had it all. Forbidden love, scandal, secrets. Michel paints both beautiful and grotesque imagery in the first installment of her freshman series The Descendants. The beginning drags a bit, not gonna lie, but some disturbing, and life changing events grab you by the shoulders and you realize what a gem you’re holding in your hands. There’s a wealth if information in this book, and nothing is lacking. From character building to world building, there were no small parts in this book. Everyone had a purpose, every place described was an integral part of the story. No one was simply a prop in this story, and I found myself wanting to know more about the characters described in this book. The fight scenes, which can often end up lame, were beautifully choreographed and gripping. Michel istruly a master of her craft. The must-read of the year, hands down. 

Final verdict? 5/5.  Damn near perfect.

This book is due for release on April 1st, 2011.

The Ghost and the Goth by Stacey Kade

Alona Dare was the most popular girl in Groundsboro High School — that is until she met her untimely demise. Death by schoolbus aka, the loser cruiser. Lame, right? Alona sure thinks so. And now she’s stuck wearing red polyester gym shorts and a see-through white t-shirt for the rest of her life.. *ahem*afterlife. She’s quickly learning that while she may have been popular, she wasn’t actually very well-liked. Just when she thinks that her afterlife couldn’t possibly get any worse, the only person who can see and hear her is the freaky goth kid, Will Killian. Will has an extremely interesting ability — he can communicate with the dead and vice versa. The day following Alona’s death, he sees her crying and laughs at her before stuffing his earbuds back into his ears and walking away from her. This was all the confirmation she needed to know that he could see and hear her. Surely Will has the key to all of the answers allowing her to be sucked up into that big white light, right? Wrong. Alona unknowingly assigns herself to the task of being Will’s spirit guide and the two fall into an unexpected friendship.

This was a light, cute read. Pure fluff, feel-good pretty much. I enjoyed watching the relationship develop between Alona and Will, and the lessons that they taught one another and I was totally cool with the “lack of affection” as another reviewer described. It seemed more real and genuine the way things panned out in the end.

Be sure to add it to your TBR list, guys. You won’t be disappointed. =]

Final verdict? 4/5.

Delirium by Lauren Oliver

“I love you. Remember. They cannot take it.”

Okay, so this book has pretty much left me speechless. I literally finished like, a few minutes ago and my mind is still seriously blown.

Lena lives in a world where love is the enemy, where passion is anathema, where poetry and art have fallen by the wayside, and romantic tendencies must be put down at all costs. some seriously hardcore brainwashing helps guide young citizens through the complexities of these norms, while upon reaching their majority a more comprehensive (invasive, horrifying) solution is offered: a procedure, not so far removed from a lobotomy, that results in a total dulling of the emotions. Recipients of this procedure feel nothing. Love, happiness, anger are null.

Lena does the unthinkable – she falls in love.

Okay, so this book has pretty much left me speechless. I literally finished like, a few minutes ago and my mind is still seriously blown. And the cliffhanger? GOD, WHY?! I need to know what happens! I also absolutely loved the way that bible stories, Shakespeare and other literature were intertwined into the narrative – either left unaltered and banned by the government for its subversiveness or altered in order to conform to the dystopian ideologies. Final verdict? 5/5. This book was utterly perfect.

“Love, the deadliest of all deadly things:
It kills you both when you have it, and when you don’t.
But that isn’t it, exactly.
The condemner and the condemned;
The executioner the blade; the last-minute reprieve;
the gasping breath and the rolling sky and the thank you, thank you, God.
Love. It will kill you and save you, both.”

Lipstick Laws by Amy Holder

Here, we’re introduced to April “boobless” Bowers, a fifteen year old high school sophomore who’s only friend has been transplanted in another state, leaving April to fend for herself. When she catches the eye of beautiful, popular Britney in her gym class, she’s more than overjoyed. Soon, she becomes Britney’s protege and becomes initiated into her clique of mean girls. However, when April breaks the Lipstick Laws, she is promptly kicked out of the group and Britney vows to ruin her life. Not one to stand by idly, April discovers that there are other girls out there like her- girls who have been shunned by Britney and her group; and they all want revenge. While the characters each fit into the typical roles necessary for this type of story – mean girl and her devoted followers and nice but socially awkward girl – the author has made April charming, witty, sarcastic, awkward and insecure, but not without a spine — plus, there’s a lesson to be learned! I would absolutely recommend this for any preteen girl. 

This plot follows the film, Mean Girls almost verbatim (Britney being Regina George, and April being Cady Heron). It’s an overused story line, but Amy Holder does it in such a fun, refreshing way and really makes the story her own. 

Final verdict? 4/5 stars!

This book is due for release on April 4, 2011.

Jane by April Lindner

Okay, so this book was the biggest timesuck of my life. A few of the passages were actually painful to read. Like a good little reader, I just kept slogging right though because I had high hopes for this. I kept hoping that it would get better because I really did enjoy Jane Eyre when we read it in my english class. 

We follow Jane Moore through her many unfortunate situations, affairs, etc. How much more pitiful could she have gotten? I’ll tell you. Her parents died in a car accident, her mother constantly berated her for being plain, and unpretty, choosing only to dote on her prettier and more talented older sister, was bullied by her older brother (Yea, I know right? Boo fucking hoo.), Had an AFFAIR with an older man/rock star only to find that he was keeping his previous wife who suffered from schizophrenia locked up in his attic.. the list goes on. 

Stay away if you can’t stand pitiful female progatonists who cease to exist when they don’t have a man in their life, because that’s exactly what this was. 

Final verdict? One star. Out of five. Yea. 

Angelfire by Courtney Allison Moulton

Before Ellie turned seventeen, she was a regular teenager with regular problems. She loved parties, Valentino, ice cream, and Friday Movie Night. Except for one thing. Ellie is a Preliator, an ancient warrior, and has been reincarnated into a seemingly average teenage girl roughly every decade for thousands of years to fight the battle the agents of the fallen angel Lucifer in the Grim under the instruction of Will, her Guardian. I really enjoyed this concept and found the new viewpoint on the “old topic” of good vs. evil a breath of fresh air. 

Will and Ellie’s relationship developed at a reasonable, steady pace and didn’t feel rushed at all. I really loved his character, and the scenes between he and Ellie gave me the warm fuzzies. OOHHH Lordy, the chemistry! Freaking awesome. 

It wasn’t just the two main characters. All of the secondary characters were fully developed and each had their own unique personalities. Even the reapers had their own fully developed personalities! 

This book was pretty similar to the Buffy the Vampire Slayer series in a lot of ways. Being a huge Buffy fan, of course I loved it. I adored it. A lot of books in this genre out there lately are severely lacking in a strong, female protagonist, and Angelfire certainly fits the bill. The fight scenes are beautifully choreographed, no other angel book out there right now could even hope to touch the intricacy of the mythology described in this book. 

Final Verdict? FREAKING EPIC. 5/5 stars. I can’t wait for the second installment in the trilogy!

This book is scheduled for release on February, 15, 2011.

Once in a Full Moon by Ellen Schreiber

“I was a love struck girl and yet I couldn’t control my ridiculous feelings.”  -Celeste

I really had high hopes and expectations for this book. First of all, the cover is absolutely stunning. AND, it’s by Ellen Schreiber. What could go wrong?? Unfortunately, it was a pretty huge let-down.

There have been whisperings around Celeste Parker’s small town about werewolves for years, and like everyone else, she dismissed them as urban legend.. until a mysterious outsider comes to town and totally turns Celeste’s life inside out. 

I didn’t really bond with the characters in this book. Nash was a typical teenage jock, poking fun at the westsiders for being poor, and there wasn’t too much character development in Celeste’s friendship circle or family to really get to know them either. It seemed like they were just props for our leading girl. But then we’re introduced to Brandon Maddox, new kid on the Westside and often the brunt of Nash’s jokes. Of course Celeste falls in love with him — Like a WEEK later. The romance was so rushed! Shortly after Brandon is bitten by a wolf, he phases in Celeste’s presence. Only not. He kind of just grows lots of hair, a goatee, his eyes turn gray and he grows taller. Yea. pretty lame. 

Final verdict? 2/5. It was pretty hokey, and not at all what I was expecting. I wanted to love this SO MUCH!! This had similes that made me choke on me coffee, and makes Stephenie Meyer look like a master of nuanced relationships and literary prose.

Wither by Lauren DeStefano

 “You’re getting out of here, and it’s going to be amazing” -Jenna

In a world where women grow sick and perish by the age of twenty, they are bought and kidnapped, forced into polygamous marriages as breeding stock in hopes that natural births will prolong the lifespans of the next generations. I honestly didn’t know what to make of this book. It was shocking, disturbing, and aroused feelings of genuine anger in me. Women’s rights have come a long way in the past hundred years, but in this book, they’ve become nonexistent. Don’t get me wrong. It was a captivating read. Beautifully crafted, and engaging. The things that these poor girls were forced to go through were truly horrifying.

We’re introduced to beautiful blonde, heterochromiatic-eyed Rhine and her twin brother, Rowan who were both orphaned and living in their deceased parents house. Both working, and trying to make enough to get by. One day, Rhine answers an advertisement in the newspaper and is snatched up by a Gatherer and thrown into a van filled with other young girls close in age. The unfortunate ones who are not chosen are simply killed and thus begins the tale of sister-wives Rhine, Jenna and thirteen year old Cecily who are to be married off to Linden. Cecily, childlike in body and nature is simply happy enough to have a home to call her own. Jenna has resigned herself to death, and doesn’t really give a rat’s ass whether or not she lives or dies, as her sisters were in the van with her and were unceremoniously slaughtered after not making the cut. Rhine isn’t waiting around to be saved, and plans for escape. She takes action to save herself, without being too single minded or brash, rather she thoughtfully builds several escape plans in an attempt to save her own liberty.She spends a large portion of the book cozying up to Linden, earning his trust and planning for escape with the attendant, Gabriel who she has become closer with since she was first placed in Headmaster Vaughn and Governor Linden’s care.

I only have two issues with this book. And honestly, they aren’t even really that big of a deal. It’s just.. why?
1. Why did she wait for a storm to try to escape? Why didn’t she just bust a window, and peace out?
2. The puking. What is it with these girls and blowing chunks? It seems like every other day someone’s gonna fish their heads outta toilet.

Those things aside, this book left me speechless. And I can’t wait to see what happens to Rhine in the next installment.
Final verdict? 5/5 stars.

This book is due for release on March 22, 2011

The Iron King by Julie Kagawa

“Ladies and Felines,” he stated grandly, grasping the doorknob, “Welcome to Tir Na Nog. Land of endless winter and shitloads of snow.” -Puck

Okay, so I had unreasonably high expectations of Meghan. Mainly because her name was Meghan, and us Meghan’s simply have a higher standard to live up to. =] That said, I admired her. I admired her strength, cleverness, determination, and love for her little brother. This was an incredible book. I couldn’t put it down. It played on all of my favorite fey legends, and was beautifully written. The Iron Fey are a great new twist on classic fey mythology. The plot was fast paced, and nothing was ever pointless. 

Puck has been keeping an eye on Meghan Chase for years, though Meghan only knew him as her best buddy Robbie, not as the immortal fey of legend. All of this changes though on her 16th birthday when Meghan’s little brother Ethan is  kidnapped by the fey and a bloodthirsty little changeling left in his place. Meghan soon finds herself thrust into the adventure of her life as she travels to the Nevernever to rescue her brother. Along the way, she starts to come to terms with who she really is and that she is not as helpless as she thinks. 

Grimalkin was probably my favorite overall, I adore witty sarcastic characters, and this snarky cat was brilliant. Does anyone else totally think of Grim when seeing this gif? I know I do.

Unearthly by Cynthia Hand

 “So often we only do what we think is expected of us, when we are capable of so much more.”

Clara’s mother is half angel. Dimidius, to be exact. Which would make Clara a Quartarius. She’s known since she was fourteen years old what she was, and that someday she would have to fulfill her purpose. So, when Clara has a vision of a truck’s license place, and a boy in a forest fire, she finds herself transplanted from sunny California to podunk Jackson Hole, Wyoming. Her life has been a whirlwind of trying to make sense of the vision, making new friends, finding where she fits in, and trying to capture the interest of the cute boy starring in her visions. Oh, and not to mention being called Carrots every other day by the hella obnoxious brother of her new friend, Wendy.

So, here’s where it gets super spoiler-y. I seriously expected Clara to end up with Christian. I mean, it totally makes sense. She has the vision about him, he dumps his crazy hag beast of a girlfriend, and they end up going to prom. But, it doesn’t happen that way, which I found refreshing. So often, you see the lead female protagonist falling for the first guy introduced in the book, but it doesn’t happen that way. She and Tucker start to spend more time together and fall in love. I freaking know, right?! I never saw it coming. I actually kind of thought that she would end up ‘falling from grace’ or whatever, but it turned out that Christian was completely irrelevant to the entire thing. I’m totally not going to ruin the book for everyone else, so I’ll shut up now. /end spoilers

Clara was a pretty likeable character. She struggles just like everyone else, even though she’s part angel. She isn’t genetically superior in every way, and in a lot of ways, she seemed just like an average teenager trying to get through day to day life and get out of high school. I also really liked that her friends were legit characters in the book, and weren’t just props for our star. They were real people with real depth, and had total likeability. Even though Angela was super weird, but that’s just her character, I think.

Oh man, this book went above and beyond my expectations. I adored it from beginning to end (even though the ending was a teensy bit rushed, I thought), and I seriously can’t wait for the second installment! Team Tucker all the way!!

Final Verdict? Near perfect. 5 stars!!

Matched by Ally Condie

 Do not go gentle into that good night, 

Old age should burn and rage at close of day;
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

I’ll be honest. What initially attracted me to this book was the cover (It’s absolutely GORGEOUS!!) and the huge amounts of hype surrounding this book pre-release. I was not disappointed. Please don’t let the negative reviews stop you from reading this book!!Read it, and formulate your own opinion. To me, this book was nothing short of GREATNESS.

The general idea is that the Society is perfect. they do not, under any circumstances make mistakes. Cassia Reyes has complete, unwavering faith in the Society that dictates who you marry, what you eat and how much, where you work and even as far as regulating the amount of personal items kept in your home. Suddenly though, everything changes. The people of the Society find themselves in a rebellion.

I liked that the romance in this book developed gradually. It didn’t feel rushed like so many other books. They didn’t see each other, and in the next chapter swear undying devotion after one brief conversation. Normally, the romance completely obliterates the story, and I didn’t feel like this was the case in this book. There were other things going on besides the fact that the characters were in love, and it seemed like the romance took the back burner for a while. Really cool. I’m so tired of love stories anyway.

Cassia was a breath of fresh air. She wasn’t weak minded, and she had spunk and initiative once she made the decision to question authority and take action. At times she was afraid, but that only made her more relatable.

This book was amazing. 5/5 stars.