Yay for Good Guys in Good Books!

What Happened to Goodbye by Sarah Dessen

Identity Crisis.  McLean doesn’t know who to be in her new town with her dad.  Her parents divorced two years ago and have been having custody battles and things have not been going well between McLean and her mom since she left McLean’s dad for another man.  McLean’s dad, Gus Sweet is a restaurant consultant and he goes where his boss moves him, to the dying restaurants of the company his boss owns.  McLean knows by the food how long they are going to be in a new location.  Since she’s been in 4 new towns in the last two years, she’s got pretty good at packing up her life and starting over.  The starting over has been starting with a different persona as well.  From the Cheerleader to the Drama Queen, from changing her name to Lizbet to Beth, in her new town she doesn’t know who she will be, until she realizes that sometimes a move can become permanent in your heart.  Of course it doesn’t hurt to get to know the boy next door Dave, maybe he can help her find her true identity.

I have never read a Sarah Desson book before.  I still haven’t “read” her books, I listened to this one on my commute to work.  I loved it.  I can’t wait to actually read one now.  Her characters are perfect.  They each have a unique quirk to them and personality.  I loved McLean, she was a great POV character and her confusion and fear and confidence were excellent.  I loved Dave.  He was such a great hero, literally the boy next door and so much fun to read about.  Anytime he was in the picture I knew it was going to be a great interaction.  He pulled out the real McLean from just being a great guy. 

I highly recommend this book.  If you don’t have time to read it, I suggest listening to it, at the very least.  I have no idea if the grammar was good of if there were mistakes, you can’t quite catch things like that when you are stuck in traffic, but like I said before, the characters were amazing and fun and I didn’t want to the book to end. 

I hope to read a Desson book very soon!  Keep Reading my Friends!

Hope is Not Lost... I'm having issues coming up with witty titles, give me a break!

Losing Hope (Hopeless #2) by Colleen Hoover

In Hopeless all secrets are revealed and lived through by our heroin Sky Davis.  As she starts public school for the first time with an unearned reputation and her best friend leaves her and enters Holder. Holder is a mysterious boy with the bad past with a tattoo of Hopeless on his arm, who immediately freaks Sky out from the very beginning.  When the audience moves on to Losing Hope, we feel like we are going into this book and we know all Sky and Holder’s secrets.  We will not learn anything new, just the same story from a different point of view.  That would be incorrect.  Losing Hope is so much more than Holder’s POV, we see why he makes every decision, why he reacts the way he does and even the hurtful things that we know are coming are just as hard to bear because it is coming from a different direction and our hearts hurt all over again.

Wow!  Just Wow.  I loved Hopeless and I loved the characters, I loved Hoover’s writing style, everything.  I didn’t know that Hopeless could be topped, but I think I liked it that much more from Holder’s point of view.  I like the breaks in the story between letters to his twin sister.  I loved learning about her death even though it was heart breaking. 

I loved Daniel, what a funny guy.  He did outlandish things that I laughed out loud about.  I loved that he made up nicknames for his friends and frienemies as well. There were a few scenes that stuck out with Daniel.  The cafeteria was my absolute favorite, I was laughing out loud when he pointed specific people out and told them the rumors they had started.  I was also happy to see Holder and Breckin’s friendship.  Breckin was also a character that made me laugh.       

If you read Hopeless, which I hope you did, then this is the next book for you.  There are some surprises in the book that were not in Hopeless so, download today!  Keep Reading my Friends!

Killer Looks? Killer Instinct? Friend Killer?

Killer: A Pretty Little Liar Novel by Sara Shepard

These books are starting to become a broken record.  The girls do seem a little bit less responsive to New A’s threats.  The girls are leaning more on each now than in times past.  They are actually talking again which is good.  The difference between the show and the books is huge to me especially in their relationships with each other. 

I did not like this book.  It seemed a little same ole, same ole.  I couldn’t get how each book was so repetitive, but how I didn’t like it until now.  I actually was going to give this book 1 star on good reads until the very last paragraph… now I want to see what happens in the next book.  I’m crazy confused and I’m ready to know what the heck is going on.  I usually take a break in between these books, and the breaks keep getting longer and longer.  If I didn’t own the next 2 I would probably forget about them all together, but alas I do own them.  Luckily they are easy to get rid of.  I finish one and send it out on paperbackswap.com the very next day. 

Just an example of how slow this book was for me.  I read 7 books while reading this one book.  Pretty bad.  But needless to say, I will continue this series.  I have to know what happens.  Books are like a drug to me.  Keep Reading my Friends!

The Sisterhood Grows

3 Willows: The Sisterhood Grows by Ann Brashares

I remember seeing this book all over the blogosphere several years ago and it has been on my to-read list for a very long time, but it just seemed to be one of those books that I never got around to.  I still have not read it, but I listened to it on one of my solitary trips from Alabama to Texarkana and I enjoyed it very much. 

Three Willows is an offshoot of the Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants (another book that is currently on my shelf yet to be read).  It talks of 3 best friends, Polly, Jo and Ama, who have slowly drawn apart as they have grown to middle school age.  When they were very young, they planted three willow trees and as the years have gone on, the trees have grown while their friendships have grown stale.  We travel with each girl during a summer of change and each girl experiences something new and different, each have struggles, but in the end they all make it out older and wiser for their struggles.

I wish I could remember more, it has been a very long time since I listened to this and since it doesn’t look like the series will continue, I’ll just have to say that this was a cute read meant for a very young audience.  I would say girls anywhere between the ages of 10-14 would enjoy this book.   

I do need to read Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, until then… Keep Reading My Friends!

Fallen In Love

Fallen in Love (Fallen, 3.5) by Lauren Kate

I’m not sure why authors have all of a sudden thought it a great idea to make novellas.  I’m not sure if it’s a new concept or a recently revisited old one, but I’m not a fan.  I’ve read 3 now (Bree Tanner – Twilight, Hana- Delirium, and now Fallen in Love).  Luckily I did not spend reading time on this book, but I listened to it on my way between Texas and Alabama.  I am not a fan of this series.  I didn’t like the first book (should have stayed with my gut feeling on that one) liked the second book pretty well, third book was a little better and I hated the last book.  So, why did I listen to this short story in between book 3 and 4?  Probably because I’m a gluten for punishment, but mainly because I can’t let a story not be 100% completed, it’s a compulsion. 

This small book is a collection of stories from some of the characters of the Fallen series.  A couple of the stories were ok, but several of them stunk.  Anyway, I would not recommend this book or the series.  Sorry for any hurt feelings.

Keep Reading my Friends!

Look at that Cover, Now Move Along

The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight by Jennifer E. Smith

This is a book that got me.  It got me because I judged this book on the cover and title.  I thought it was going to be excellent.  Don’t get me wrong, it was good, but not excellent. 

Hadley Sullivan misses her flight from JFK in New York to London for her dad’s wedding by 4 minutes.  She then meets Oliver.  He’s a hot British college age guy who happens to be sitting in her row.  As the plane takes Hadley and Oliver across the world, the night goes by in a flash.  When they arrive at the London airport, they get separated by airport madness and with no information exchanged, Hadley goes to her dad’s wedding a little heartbroken and definitely can’t keep her mind off of Oliver.  With crazy time coincidences and changes in plan, will Oliver and Hadley meet again?

For being such a short book, this book was kind of long and at times a little boring.  Hadley would have these crazy flashbacks or memories and they were sort of confusing and would actually take away from the story.  I have seen these done well where they bring life into the story, but these memories or thoughts usually just took away. 

I also felt no connection with the characters, nor did I care what happened to the characters.  It was a sweet story, but not really worth my time.  Do I wish I hadn’t read this book? Naw… Do I recommend it?  Naw… But I do hope you find something to read that lifts your spirits, breaks your heart, and keeps you reading!  Keep Reading my Friends!

The Kiss of Death

The Kiss (Witch and Wizard #4) by James Patterson

Horrible.  This book was horrible.  Why was it written?  I am not sure.  The story ended with The Gift the third book in this series.  When I started this series, I read them with a dear friend.  We both enjoyed them for what they were, a young adult series by James Patterson, but I will no longer be reading these books, I do not care what happens, all the characters could die and I wouldn’t be upset.  Actually if they would have died on the first page of this book, I would have thought, “that’s weird,” and moved right along to the next book on my to-read list.  Don’t get upset with me, these aren’t real people.  People die in books a lot, get over it.

Anyway, I have already wasted too much time on this book.  Read something else now, Keep Reading my Friends!

Mom, Dad, this is... what's your name again?

Faking It by Cora Carmack

Cade Winsten is getting his masters in Philadelphia, after graduating college and moving from Texas, but you can’t move away from everything when heartbreak follows you.  The love of his life Bliss Edwards also moved to Philly with her new boyfriend Garrick Taylor.  For more information about this said heartbreak and relationship please see Losing It by Cora Carmack. 

Cade is struggling.  He’s in school, but he’s having a hard time living with his broken heart.  Even meeting up with Bliss and Garrick for coffee causes heartache.  Fate just happened to be thinking about Cade and in walks Max.  This dual narrated book shows both Max and Cade’s perspective on an impromptu relationship that comes from faking a relationship.

I loved this book.  I just thought I loved Bliss and Garrick.  I really loved Max and Cade.  I loved how they saw themselves and each other.  I loved how different their internal voices sounded and I really enjoyed going back and forth and hearing the same interactions from the different perspectives.  I usually am more of a one Point of View book reader, but this was not distracting and it gave enlightenment on why situations were taking place.  I enjoyed it very much. 

Carmack has a great way of writing love scenes as well.  The audience felt every kiss and touch and missed it when they weren’t there too (as I stated before in my Losing It blog). 

I can’t wait until we see what’s in store for Kelsey in Finding It.

Keep Reading my Friends!

Maximum Ride Comes to an End

Nevermore by James Patterson (Maximum Ride #8)

2013 has been the year of finishing series.  Many series that I have read for years have ended this year, or I have finally caught up.  This is the last book of the Maximum Ride series.  I am unsure why I have continued this series.  The characters are not well written, there are complete and utterly unrepentant undertones of environmentalism.  Not that that is a bad thing, but why not just have bird kids save the world because it’s entertaining and not just because you want to put a political statement out there?  

This last book begins with Fang still being gone and Max and Dylan are growing closer.  Angel is gone, like she exploded in France in the last book and the flock are just not talking about it.  The flock is going to school and living a non-violent life.  Meanwhile, Fang’s gang is trying to learn more about the 99% apocalyptic movement that is going to wipe out the whole human race except the 1% of humans with super mutant abilities.  It’s going to be the flocks goal to not only stay safe from Ary (Max’s mutant dead half brother) and his gang of wolf hybrids, but also save the world from the environmental woes that will surely be coming before this series ends.

Now that I have lost my reading audience with my recap of what the book is about, here are my thoughts.  Read this book if you have been reading the series.  If you haven’t started, don’t.  These books are for a young audience, like under 14.  These are not young adult books, but preteen books.  I am so glad that I borrowed each of these books from the library and only read/listened to them if there was not much going on.  My list of books to read is ever increasing and I need to stop adding to the list and take care of some books that are already on there, I’ll be more careful with the books I pick in the future.  Thanks for stopping by my blog.  Keep Reading my friends!

Going, Going, Gone.

Losing It by Cora Carmack

It.  The most non- descriptive word I’ve ever seen in a title that can mean so much.  Losing it.  Was Bliss Edwards losing something as trivial as her wallet, or as horrible as her mind?  Nope, we’re talking about the elusive IT, sex.  Bliss is an almost college graduate who is ready to lose her V-Card, or is she?  When she mistakenly tells her best girl-friend Kelsey that she was a virgin, “it” takes her life in a crazy tailspin.  She goes to a bar with the actual intent to have a one night stand and meets our British hunk Garrick Taylor.  With quite an interesting meeting and first night together, she hopes to never see Garrick again.  Well it would have been an extremely short book if that was true, but no more spoilers here, you’ll have to read it to see what happens.

This book is a New York Times best seller, but what I’ve seen on good reads has mixed reviews.  Most books, either the collective audience loves it with 4 or 5 stars or they are the dramatic opposite and they hate the book with 1or 2 stars.  With this book I saw a lot of 3’s.  Not sure what that has to do with anything except here I will tell you that I gave it four stars.  I liked the story.  I loved Bliss.  She was fun and she was an interesting character with many different levels.  Of course who wouldn’t love an English Hero like Garrick.  I was picturing Julian Morris (Wren from Pretty Little Liars), so cute!  Of course I tried to make him have an English accent in my head, but it just didn’t work out, guess we’ll have to push for a movie so we can hear Garrick in all his English glory.

There were so many scenes that I loved.  The spin the bottle make out party, was awesome because I have known many theater majors and this is something they would do and love it.  I also loved the sick bed chapters, seemed like a great way to move from their angst period.  I loved how much passion was written in these pages.  Carmack did a great job making me feel every kiss, every touch, and every moment that didn’t have those physical interactions.

Only complaints, would be that the story line was a little same ole same ole, luckily it was written well and therefore I didn’t mind the plot.  I also think the down or sad times could have been more angst felt, for example, when Garrick and Bliss aren’t talking it just felt like oh well, another day in the life of Bliss, but it could have been excruciating.  But if that’s all, you know that I liked the book.

I can’t wait to read Faking It.  Poor Cade, can’t wait to see what Carmack has in store for poor Cade.

Let me know what you think!  Have you read this book or anything from this author?  Keep Reading my Friends!