Category: Young Adult

Review: Daring the Bad Boy

8/23/2016

Daring the Bad Boy
Endless Summer novel
by Monica Murphy

Synopsis
Annie McFarland is sick of being a shy nobody. A session at summer camp seems like the perfect opportunity to reinvent herself—gain some confidence, kiss a boy, be whoever she wants to be. A few days in, she’s already set her sights on über-hottie Kyle. Too bad her fear of water keeps her away from the lake, where Kyle is always hanging out.

Jacob Fazio is at Camp Pine Ridge after one too many screw-ups. Junior counseling seems like punishment enough, but the rigid no-fraternizing-with-campers rules harsh his chill. When a night of Truth or Dare gets him roped into teaching Annie how to swim, she begs him to also teach her how to snag Kyle.

Late-night swim sessions turn into late-night kissing sessions…but there’s more on the line than just their hearts. If they get caught, Jake’s headed straight to juvie, but Annie’s more than ready to dare him to reveal the truth.

Review

If you, like me, are a fan of easy, fun, and cute reads - look no further. This book is Young Adult, so there are some steamy parts, but way different than the romance books I usually review on here. It's been awhile since I've read YA actually, so I was a bit worried about getting back on that wagon. I shouldn't have feared it, however, Daring the Bad Boy was truly an engrossing read.

Annie is the shy, somewhat nerdy girl who is off at camp and tired of being who she is...the good girl. She's trying to get the camp jock to notice her, but to no avail. Jake is a boy going through some hard times since losing his mother. Those hard times cause him to be shipped to camp to be a counselor as community service. Once Jake is there, it's Annie who grabs his attention - but getting involved with a camper is totally against the rules. Miscommunication and misunderstandings ensue.

I'm not going to say what happens because that is part of the fun! It was such a great read and it's also my first Monica Murphy and I can truly say that I'm looking forward to reading more from her!

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Review: Blest

3/24/2016

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Blest
by Blaise Lucey

Synopsis

Growing up in a small suburb of St. Louis, sixteen-year-old Jim Blest has always known that he’s different. But he never thought he’d find someone else like him until the beautiful and mysterious Claire Morgan moves to town. When they kiss for the first time, the force of it is earth-shattering—literally. And then everything Jim has ever known suddenly changes.

As it turns out, Claire isn’t like him. He is an angel, and she’s a demon.

At a school where ancient enemies live among humans in a wary truce, Jim and Claire fight to be together against impossible odds. But a timeless war looms on the horizon, and they stand on opposing sides . . .

From debut author Blaise Lucey comes a breathtaking and action-packed story of heartache, sacrifice, and forbidden love.

Review

This is a head-scratcher. This review will involve spoilers, btw.

I was really happy to read a book about angels. That's probably something I hardly read about. And to read about demons too...that was nice! You know what I mean...

The head-scratching is because I enjoyed parts of this book, but others left me...confused. The mythology, main characters, the way the angels are introduced are awesome. The main thing I didn't like was the fact that Claire and Jim fell into instalove. I feel that there was hardly a base of love between the two of them to account for so much sacrifice and, well, evil in this story. There is understanding that happens between them, but love? I wasn't convinced of it. And since this story is based on that, well, it left a bad taste in my mouth. I felt like we didn't get to learn about other characters which made me not care about them. Sad, but true.

I'm still going to recommend this book because I read it to the very end wanting to know what happened. I can't guarantee that I will pick up the next in the series (it ends on a cliff hanger-ish scene), but I can say that I honestly enjoyed the mythology and world-building that was started in this book.

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Review: Playing Defense

3/15/2016

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Playing Defense
a Corrigan Falls novel
by Cate Cameron

Synopsis

Disclaimer: This Entangled Teen Crush book contains adult language, swoon-worthy kisses, and sexy hockey players. It may cause you to watch a hockey game...or ten.

Sixteen-year-old Claudia Waring has never kissed a boy. Never been popular. Never been to a hockey game. All that’s about to change. Assigned to tutor Chris Winslow, a prank-loving, gorgeous hockey player, Claudia’s perfectly planned life immediately veers off course. And she kind of likes it. But as fun as Chris is, she knows she'll never fit in his world.

After his latest prank lands him in hot water, Chris has to get serious about school or lose hockey. Not an easy thing for someone as carefree as the defenseman. The biggest problem, though, is how much he wants to help his cute, buttoned-up tutor loosen up a little. But while confidence has never been a problem for him, around Claudia, Chris is all nerves. Why would a girl as smart as her ever fall for a jock like him

Review

There are gonna be spoilers all over this review. I'm sorry - but it's that good.

Playing Defense impressed me. I don't know if I can describe it any other way. On one side, it is a cute, popular guy-geeky girl romance. A little insta-lovey, but not really because Claudia and Chris both grow into their feelings. The attraction, however, insta-there. There is some talk about sex which is handled very well. Bravo.

But then there's the other stuff. And the other stuff is what really makes this young adult book so different than others. The other stuff is the part that every young adult book is essentially about, but this one is so wonderfully blatant about it. Claudia is terrified of growing up - and never realized it until she met Chris. Chris signifies what she's been missing since she's so focused on her academic life. Friends, attraction, dating, caring about someone - these are things that Claudia has yet to experience even though she's nearing the end of her high school career. Chris isn't totally unaffected either - Claudia makes him realize that there is more to him than someone who is good at hockey. He learns that it's worth trying even if you think you're going to fail because, as Claudia so perfectly puts it, "Failure is temporary."

Together, Chris and Claudia learn that growing up can mean a different things for different people, but it's worth changing and growing because, even though you get to experience horrible things (you'll understand when you read the book), you get to experience really wonderful ones too.

This book made me think about how I challenge myself - and how I keep myself dormant. It's something I'm going to keep thinking about, and I probably wouldn't have done so at this time, had it not been for this book. I am no longer a young adult - but that doesn't mean I've stopped growing. I recommend this book to people of all ages - it may have teenagers in love, but there are real lessons being taught that are well worth our time.

Plus it's funny lol

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Review: Holding Court

3/5/2016

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Holding Court
by K.C. Held

Synopsis

Sixteen-year-old Jules Verity knows exactly what's in store at her new job at castle-turned-dinner-theater Tudor Times. Some extra cash, wearing a fancy-pants dress, and plenty of time to secretly drool over the ever-so-tasty-and completely unavailable-Grayson Chandler. Except that it's not quite what she imagined.
For one, the costume Jules has to wear is awful. Then there's the dead body she finds that just kind of...well, disappears. Oh, and there's the small issue of Jules and her episodes of what her best friend calls "Psychic Tourette's Syndrome"-spontaneous and uncontrollable outbursts of seemingly absurd prophecies.
The only bright side? This whole dead body thing seems to have gotten Grayson's attention. Except that the more Jules investigates, the more she discovers that Grayson's interest might not be as courtly as she thought. In fact, it's starting to look suspicious...

Review

I don't mean it to sound offensive when I say that I was surprised as to how thoroughly I enjoyed this book! I'm not big on stuff having to do with the medieval times...which is something that I actually really want to delve into. Anyway - Jules is this teenage girl who has a very...um, unfortunate talent/gift - she can foretell the future, but only in these Twitter-like nonsense sentences. They sound like riddles to tell you the truth. The unfortunate part is that she cannot seem to control these messages and they turn out to be outbursts in the most horrible of situations - like being face to face with her crush Grayson.

I was enjoying the story with just those tidbits, when all of a sudden - a mystery! Jules clumsily finds herself in a hidden passageway in the castle. That's fun and all, but what she sees there isn't - the body of a dead girl! She finds her way out only to collide with Grayson. When the king of the castle (literally) goes in to check - no body is to be found. Just who is behind this? Or was Jules having some type of hallucination? Hmmm...

This book turned out to be so wonderfully different than other young adult books - the mystery twist is what did it! I was expecting a romance but got so much more. I recommend this lovely read to anyone who enjoys young adult and mysteries!

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Review: Angelfall

12/14/2015

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Angelfall
by Susan Ee

Synopsis
It’s been six weeks since angels of the apocalypse descended to demolish the modern world. Street gangs rule the day while fear and superstition rule the night. When warrior angels fly away with a helpless little girl, her seventeen-year-old sister Penryn will do anything to get her back. Anything, including making a deal with Raffe, an injured enemy angel. Traveling through a dark and twisted Northern California, they journey toward the angels’ stronghold in San Francisco, where Penryn will risk everything to rescue her sister and Raffe will put himself at the mercy of his greatest enemies for the chance to be made whole again.

Review
Okay - so why hasn't anyone told me this book existed?? Seriously - I picked it up and thought, "hm, sounds interesting" and now I'm sad because I am too poor to buy the other two books in the series at the moment!

Usually, I detest dystopian stories (I got burnt out on them), but this book is so good. I think that this is so because of the angel mythology in the book - but I'm getting ahead of myself.

Our protagonist, Penryn, her sister, Paige, and their mother are in hiding-as is the rest of the world-from the newest threat, angels. These aren't the cherubs we're used to seeing in church but rather strong, avenging archangels. They seemed to have made earth their battleground. Penryn just wants to get through the next minute, a plan that is thwarted when they stumble upon angels beating and slicing the wings off another angel, Raffe. Not knowing exactly why, Penryn intervenes. She saves the angel from dying, but loses her sister to the angels who drag her away. Penryn takes the angel into safety, hoping that once he wakes up he will help her find Paige. Together, they form an understanding in a world that is beyond the thought of good and evil.

I LOVED this book. I was able to get through the dystopia part of the story because of the angels. I think angel mythology or whatever you want to call it is so interesting. I also really came to care for Penryn who is a smart, caring, loyal, and daring protagonist. Raffe is just the right amount of brooding angel. I love stories where two people can't seem to stand each other, only to find out that they actually really care about each other *sigh*

This is a great book. It does have some horrible stuff involving children (think horror movie/science fiction stuff), so be aware of that if you can't stomach that in a fictional way (there's lots of things I can read about that I can't stand seeing in real life...). There is some subtle romance that just makes me want to *sigh* I can't wait until I can afford the next two books in the trilogy (I think it's only three books total?) so I can see what happens next.

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