Review: Feral by Holly Schindler

Feral
by Holly Schindler
Series: Standalone
Released on: August 26th, 2014
Publisher: HarperTeen
Rating: 2.5 stars
Word Rating: cat mafia alert
Reviewed by: Blythe

The Lovely Bones meets Black Swan in this haunting psychological thriller with twists and turns that will make you question everything you think you know.

It’s too late for you. You’re dead. Those words continue to haunt Claire Cain months after she barely survived a brutal beating in Chicago. So when her father is offered a job in another state, Claire is hopeful that getting out will offer her a way to start anew.

But when she arrives in Peculiar, Missouri, Claire feels an overwhelming sense of danger, and her fears are confirmed when she discovers the body of a popular high school student in the icy woods behind the school, surrounded by the town’s feral cats. While everyone is quick to say it was an accident, Claire knows there’s more to it, and vows to learn the truth about what happened. 

But the closer she gets to uncovering the mystery, the closer she also gets to realizing a frightening reality about herself and the damage she truly sustained in that Chicago alley….

Holly Schindler’s gripping story is filled with heart-stopping twists and turns that will keep readers guessing until the very last page.

Review: Life By Committee Corey Ann Haydu

Life By Committee
Corey Ann Haydu
Series: None
Released: May 13th, 2014
Publisher: Katherine Tegen Books
Rating: 2.5 stars
Word Rating: Eeh. Whatever.
Reviewed by: Mel

Some secrets are too good to keep.

Tabitha might be the only girl in the history of the world who actually gets less popular when she gets hot. But her so-called friends say she’s changed, and they’ve dropped her flat.

Now Tab has no one to tell about the best and worst thing that has ever happened to her: Joe, who spills his most intimate secrets to her in their nightly online chats. Joe, whose touch is so electric, it makes Tab wonder if she could survive an actual kiss. Joe, who has Tabitha brimming with the restless energy of falling in love. Joe, who is someone else’s boyfriend.

Just when Tab is afraid she’ll burst from keeping the secret of Joe inside, she finds Life by Committee. The rules of LBC are simple: tell a secret, receive an assignment. Complete the assignment to keep your secret safe.

Tab likes it that the assignments push her to her limits, empowering her to live boldly and go further than she’d ever go on her own.

But in the name of truth and bravery, how far is too far to go?

Review: Bliss by Kathryn Littlewood

Bliss
Kathryn Littlewood
Series: The Bliss Bakery, #1
Released: February 14th, 2012
Publisher: The Inkhouse
Rating: 2.5 stars
Word Rating: Pretty cute
Reviewed by: Blythe

Rosemary Bliss’s family has a secret. It’s the Bliss Cookery Booke—an ancient, leather-bound volume of enchanted recipes like Stone Sleep Snickerdoodles and Singing Gingersnaps. Rose and her siblings are supposed to keep the Cookery Booke under lock and whisk-shaped key while their parents are out of town, but then a mysterious stranger shows up. “Aunt” Lily rides a motorcycle, wears purple sequins, and whips up exotic (but delicious) dishes for dinner. Soon boring, nonmagical recipes feel like life before Aunt Lily—a lot less fun.

So Rose and her siblings experiment with just a couple of recipes from the forbidden Cookery Booke.

A few Love Muffins and a few dozen Cookies of Truth couldn’t cause too much trouble . . . could they?

Kathryn Littlewood’s culinary caper blends rich emotional flavor with truly magical wit, yielding one heaping portion of hilarious family adventure.

Discussion Review: Her Dark Curiosity by Megan Sheperd

Her Dark Curiosity
Megan Sheperd
Series: Madman's Daughter, #2
Released: January 28th, 2014
Publisher: Balzer + Bray
Ratings: 2 and 2.5 stars
Fright Scale: 2.5 out of 10
Reviewed by: Blythe and Mel

To defeat the darkness, she must first embrace it.

Months have passed since Juliet Moreau returned to civilization after escaping her father's island—and the secrets she left behind. Now, back in London once more, she is rebuilding the life she once knew and trying to forget Dr. Moreau’s horrific legacy—though someone, or something, hasn’t forgotten her.

As people close to Juliet fall victim one by one to a murderer who leaves a macabre calling card of three clawlike slashes, Juliet fears one of her father’s creations may have also escaped the island. She is determined to find the killer before Scotland Yard does, though it means awakening sides of herself she had thought long banished, and facing loves from her past she never expected to see again.

As Juliet strives to stop a killer while searching for a serum to cure her own worsening illness, she finds herself once more in the midst of a world of scandal and danger. Her heart torn in two, past bubbling to the surface, life threatened by an obsessive killer—Juliet will be lucky to escape alive.

With inspiration from Robert Louis Stevenson’s The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, this is a tantalizing mystery about the hidden natures of those we love and how far we’ll go to save them from themselves.

Review: The Collector by Victoria Scott

The Collector

Victoria Scott

Series: Dante Walker, #1

Released: April 2nd, 2013

Publisher: Entangled Teen

Rating: 2.5 stars

Word Rating: Ugh

Reviewed by: Kate

 

He makes good girls...bad. 

Dante Walker is flippin’ awesome, and he knows it. His good looks, killer charm, and stellar confidence have made him one of hell’s best—a soul collector. His job is simple: weed through humanity and label those round rears with a big red good or bad stamp. Old Saint Nick gets the good guys, and he gets the fun ones. Bag-and-tag.

Sealing souls is nothing personal. Dante’s an equal-opportunity collector and doesn't want it any other way. But he’ll have to adjust, because Boss Man has given him a new assignment:

Collect Charlie Cooper’s soul within ten days.

Dante doesn't know why Boss Man wants Charlie, nor does he care. This assignment means only one thing to him, and that’s a permanent ticket out of hell. But after Dante meets the quirky Nerd Alert chick he’s come to collect, he realizes this assignment will test his abilities as a collector…and uncover emotions deeply buried.

Mini Review: Winter Damage by Natasha Carthew

Winter Damage
Natasha Carthew
Series: None
Release Date: August 1st, 2013
Publisher: Bloomsbury Children's
Rating: 2.5 stars
Word Rating: Okay-ish
Reviewed by: Mel

On a frozen Cornish moor, a fifteen-year-old girl lives in a trailer with her dad and little brother. Ennor's mother left years ago, when things started to go wrong - and gradually their world has fallen apart. Now her father's gravely ill, school has closed, and Ennor knows they're going to take her brother away if things don't pick up soon. So three days before Christmas, when the wind is cold and her dad's health takes a turn for the worse, Ennor packs a blanket, a map, a saucepan and a gun into her rucksack, and sets off to find her mum and bring her home. Ennor thinks she knows where she's going. But this journey will change her life for ever - it becomes a battle for survival, a heartbreaking story of love and friendship, and a fable about not finding what you were looking for, but finding something more important instead...

Reader's Choice Review #1: Vampire Academy

Reader's Choice is a weekly meme inspired by Christina at Reader of Fiction's Sadie Hawkins Sunday, where you, the readers of this blog, get to choose what I read and review on the blog each Saturday/Monday, depending on the circumstances. 

Vampire Academy
Richelle Mead
Series: Vampire Academy, #1
Release Date: August 16th, 2007
Publisher: Razorbill 
Rating: 2.5 stars
Word Rating: *sigh* 
Reviewed by: Blythe
Recommended by: Hayden and Steph of Cuddlebuggery

St. Vladimir’s Academy isn’t just any boarding school—it’s a hidden place where vampires are educated in the ways of magic and half-human teens train to protect them. Rose Hathaway is a Dhampir, a bodyguard for her best friend Lissa, a Moroi Vampire Princess. They’ve been on the run, but now they’re being dragged back to St. Vladimir’s—the very place where they’re most in danger...

Rose and Lissa become enmeshed in forbidden romance, the Academy’s ruthless social scene, and unspeakable nighttime rituals. But they must be careful lest the Strigoi—the world’s fiercest and most dangerous vampires—make Lissa one of them forever.

Review: The Shadow Girl by Jennifer Archer

The Shadow Girl

Jennifer Archer

Series: None
Release Date: April 9th, 2013

Publisher: HarperTeen
Number of Pages: 336

Rating: 2.5 stars

Sometimes I forget for an hour or two that she's with me. Sometimes I convince myself that she was only a dream. Or that I'm crazy.


For as long as Lily Winston can remember, she has never been alone. Iris, a shadowy figure who mimics Lily's movements and whispers in her ear, is with her always—but invisible to the rest of the world. Iris is Lily's secret.

But when Lily's father is killed in a tragic accident, his cryptic final words suggest that he and Lily's mother have been keeping secrets of their own. Suddenly, Iris begins pushing Lily more than ever, possessing her thoughts and urging her to put together the pieces of a strange puzzle her father left behind. As she searches for answers, Lily finds herself drawn to Ty Collier, a mysterious new boy in town. Together, Lily and Ty must untangle a web of deception to discover the truth about her family, Iris . . . and Lily's own identity.

It's not a rare occurrence, especially not in young adult, where a book's romance, and the large focus on it, often leads to the entire book's downfall. To even check myself on this, I asked on Twitter which books my followers thought would have been better if it hadn't been for the romance, and I received a wide variety of different answers, ranging from Daughter of Smoke and Bone to The Madman's Daughter.

The Shadow Girl is another book worth adding to that list of books that would have been better had it not been for the romance. Or, in The Shadow Girl's case, romances, neither of which I was a fan. While I thought the mystery aspect to The Shadow Girl was incredibly fun and interesting--although perhaps a bit predictable--I didn't like how the majority of the plot was bogged down by the unnecessary and, to be blunt, just bad love triangle.

Review: City of a Thousand Dolls

City of a Thousand Dolls
Miriam Forster
Series: Unknown
Release Date: February 5th, 2013
Publisher: HarperTeen
Number of Pages: 361
Rating: 2 stars

An exotic treat set in an entirely original, fantastical world brimming with deadly mystery, forbidden romance, and heart-stopping adventure.

Nisha was abandoned at the gates of the City of a Thousand Dolls when she was just a child. Now sixteen, she lives on the grounds of the isolated estate, where orphan girls apprentice as musicians, healers, courtesans, and, if the rumors are true, assassins. Nisha makes her way as Matron’s assistant, her closest companions the mysterious cats that trail her shadow. Only when she begins a forbidden flirtation with the city’s handsome young courier does she let herself imagine a life outside the walls. Until one by one, girls around her start to die.

Before she becomes the next victim, Nisha decides to uncover the secrets that surround the girls’ deaths. But by getting involved, Nisha jeopardizes not only her own future in the City of a Thousand Dolls—but her own life.

To be quite honest, I'm not entirely sure what urged me to read City of a Thousand Dolls the day it was released, or even at all. I'm not, and most likely never will be, a high fantasy fan, and usually steer clear of high fantasies in general, unless they've received positive reviews from many friends of mine. City of a Thousand Dolls did not receive very many positive reviews from friends of mine, so in retrospect, I honestly have no clue as to why I picked this one up. I suppose I was intrigued by the title? The allure of an 'unpredictable and thrilling mystery', intertwined with high fantasy? The cover?

Unfortunately, even with my not-too-high expectations, I am left quite disappointed with this poorly structured novel. For me, the main issue with City of a Thousand Dolls was its pacing, which seemed to never pick up once in the entire novel. City of a Thousand Dolls could have easily been an entertaining, thrilling, and briskly paced novel, given the intriguing murder mystery we're provided with, but it felt like the entire murder mystery really only took center stage in the second half, and by that point I was a lot less invested in the mystery than I was when the murders were first introduced.

Review: Everneath by Brodi Ashton

Everneath
Brodi Ashton
Series: Everneath, #1
Release Date: January 24th, 2012
Publisher: HarperCollins
Number of Pages: 370
Source: Bought
Rating: 2.5 stars

Last spring, Nikki Beckett vanished, sucked into an underworld known as the Everneath. Now she's returned--to her old life, her family, her boyfriend--before she's banished back to the underworld . . . this time forever. She has six months before the Everneath comes to claim her, six months for good-byes she can't find the words for, six months to find redemption, if it exists.

Nikki longs to spend these precious months forgetting the Everneath and trying to reconnect with her boyfriend, Jack, the person most devastated by her disappearance--and the one person she loves more than anything. But there's just one problem: Cole, the smoldering immortal who enticed her to the Everneath in the first place, has followed Nikki home. Cole wants to take over the throne in the underworld and is convinced Nikki is the key to making it happen. And he'll do whatever it takes to bring her back, this time as his queen.

As Nikki's time on the Surface draws to a close and her relationships begin slipping from her grasp, she is forced to make the hardest decision of her life: find a way to cheat fate and remain on the Surface with Jack or return to the Everneath and become Cole's queen.

Everneath is a captivating story of love, loss, and immortality from debut author Brodi Ashton.

Everneath is one of those books that seems to be followed by hype everywhere it goes, and, for the most part, understandably so. Everneath is an overall compelling, captivating, and at times heartbreaking read, truly worthy of the hype it has undoubtedly gotten.

But just because I see where the hype is coming from concerning Everneath doesn't necessarily mean I'm taking part in it.

Conceptually, Everneath is practically flawless; a loose retelling of the myths of Persephone and Eurydice, where teenager Nikki Beckett is sucked into an underworld known the inhabitants as the Everneath and lives there for hundreds of years, only to return to the real world and discover six months has passed. But this time, Nicki has only six more months to redeem her mysterious disappearance, apologize to the loved ones she left - including her old boyfriend, Jack, and ultimately, say good-bye to them one last time, as her clock is ticking and the Everneath is ready to claim her again.

But, however, it's with the execution of the above concept where I feel Everneath went wrong. Brodi Ashton could have gone so much farther with the thoroughly interesting mythology presented to us in the synopsis, but unfortunately, the most mythology in the entirety of Everneath is in the opening chapters, and the final few chapters.

Review: Delirium by Lauren Oliver

Delirium
Lauren Oliver
Series: Delirium, #1
Release Date: February 1st, 2011
Publisher: HarperTeen
Number of Pages: 480
Source: Bought
Rating: 2.5 stars or a very low 3 stars

Before scientists found the cure, people thought love was a good thing. They didn’t understand that once love -- the deliria -- blooms in your blood, there is no escaping its hold. Things are different now. Scientists are able to eradicate love, and the government demands that all citizens receive the cure upon turning eighteen. Lena Holoway has always looked forward to the day when she’ll be cured. A life without love is a life without pain: safe, measured, predictable, and happy.

But with ninety-five days left until her treatment, Lena does the unthinkable: She falls in love.

I fell asleep while reading this book. True story, ask anyone (and by anyone, I mean my husband. I hope you're not able to ask just anyone and they can assure you that I fell asleep while reading this. That'd just be creepy). I settled down in bed, all cozied up, preparing to read more of Delirium because I've been putting it off for much too long, hoping to get a big chunk out of the way.

I think I lasted about thirty minutes before Delirium used its superpowers and put me right to sleep. Seriously, I think this book may have some special sleeping powder instilled in its pages. Either that or it's just really freaking boring. But I'll give Delirium the benefit of the doubt and go the sleeping powder route.

But the thing about Delirium is, I don't think it could have exciting even if something actually happened throughout the first three hundred pages, because the subject matter was just dull and uninteresting to me. I knew before going into Delirium that it'd be all about love, and how dangerous it is, but oh no! The main character finds out love is really a beautiful thing and shall be cherished, and that..

Review: Through to You by Emily Hainsworth

Through to You
Emily Hainsworth
Series: None
Release Date: October 2nd, 2012
Publisher: Balzer + Bray
Number of Pages: 272
Source: Edelweiss
Rating: 2.5 of 5 stars

Camden Pike has been grief-stricken since his girlfriend, Viv, died. Viv was the last good thing in his life: helping him rebuild his identity after a career-ending football injury, picking up the pieces when his home life shattered, and healing his pain long after the meds wore off. And now, he’d give anything for one more glimpse of her. But when Cam makes a visit to the site of Viv’s deadly car accident, he sees some kind of apparition. And it isn’t Viv.

The apparition’s name is Nina, and she’s not a ghost. She’s a girl from a parallel world, and in this world, Viv is still alive. Cam can’t believe his wildest dreams have come true. All he can focus on is getting his girlfriend back, no matter the cost. But things are different in this other world: Viv and Cam have both made very different choices, things between them have changed in unexpected ways, and Viv isn’t the same girl he remembers. Nina is keeping some dangerous secrets, too, and the window between the worlds is shrinking every day. As Cam comes to terms with who this Viv has become and the part Nina played in his parallel story, he’s forced to choose—stay with Viv or let her go—before the window closes between them once and for all.

(Warning: Possible spoilers, but really nothing you won't find in the synopsis)

On my one and only status update for this book, a brief discussion was held on how there are so many books in the YA genre recently that have an immense amount of potential, but, unfortunately, that potential is never met. And while unmet potential sadly is very common in YA, I went in to this book with very high expectations, sure that I would absolutely love it, only to be disappointed in the long run. Considering how much I was looking forward to this book, it pains me to say that Through to You has yet another case of unmet potential.

In Through to You, Hainsworth has come up with an original and intriguing concept of a high schooler named Camden Pike whose girlfriend recently died in a car crash due to his fault, and one day, he finds a transparent girl calling his name. This girl is eventually revealed to be Nina Larson, and she comes from a different dimension than Camden, and accidentally stumbled through a portal and into his dimension. Nina's dimension, as Camden finds out, is one where everything is opposite than his, and his girlfriend is alive. Anxious to see his girlfriend again, Camden travels to Nina's dimension, only to find out things are not as they seem.

Through to You is an extremely slow moving book, and in fact, the actual plot only kicks in barely before the fifty percent mark. That being said, most of the first half of Through to You is comprised of Camden being incredibly moody, Camden blaming himself for the death of his girlfriend, and Camden's incredibly boring and melodramatic inner-monologue. And all of this remains true even in the second half of the novel, but at least then we had some sort of plot going on, however poorly executed that plot may have been.

Review: The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer by Michelle Hodkin

The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer by Michelle Hodkin
My rating: 2.5 of 5 stars

Mara Dyer doesn’t think life can get any stranger than waking up in a hospital with no memory of how she got there.

It can.

She believes there must be more to the accident she can’t remember that killed her friends and left her mysteriously unharmed.

There is.

She doesn’t believe that after everything she’s been through, she can fall in love.

She’s wrong.

2.5 stars


The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer is a romance, plain and simple. It is not a paranormal book with some romance thrown in; at best it’s a romance book with paranormal qualities thrown in (very little paranormal qualities, might I add). The sad part is, this could have been really, really good if it didn't ditch the whole plot for the romance.

I had really high hopes for The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer, despite the many negative reviews. I thought it sounded awesome, and I’m a sucker for shocking endings, and from what I’ve heard, this had one.

As with the ending, I’ll break it down into two parts: the “I totally saw that coming and don’t understand how no one else did” part, and the “what?” part.

First, the “I totally saw that coming and don’t understand how no one else did” part. People, how did you not see that coming? (view spoiler)[Were you asleep during the first chapter? Hellooooooo? Rachel asks “What will be the cause of my death?” and the Ouija board spells out “Mara”… (hide spoiler)] I mean, come on.

Then there’s the “what?” part.


 
  What?!?!?!?!
 
(Yes, the extra question marks and exclamation points were completely necessary). I want the next book, and I want it now.

Review: The Iron Daughter by Julie Kagawa

The Iron Daughter by Julie Kagawa
My rating: 2.5 of 5 stars

Half Summer faery princess, half human, Meghan has never fit in anywhere. Deserted by the Winter prince she thought loved her, she is prisoner to the Winter faery queen. As war looms between Summer and Winter, Meghan knows that the real danger comes from the Iron fey—ironbound faeries that only she and her absent prince have seen. But no one believes her.
Worse, Meghan's own fey powers have been cut off. She's stuck in Faery with only her wits for help. Trusting anyone would be foolish. Trusting a seeming traitor could be deadly. But even as she grows a backbone of iron, Meghan can't help but hear the whispers of longing in her all-too-human heart.

I feel very constricted at the moment, because I don’t know what rating to give this. The story itself was pretty good, and the ending was sweet, but it’s just Meghan… I don’t think I can not take stars away from this book because of Meghan… I did some thinking about it, and figured without Meghan, this book probably would have gotten three and a half stars from me. With Meghan, I’ve come to the conclusion that it gets two and a half stars. I don’t know if that’s too much, and I’m being too generous, or if I'm taking too much from the rating, but that was the final rating I decided. Now, let’s get this review started.