Currently reading
Eyes Turned Skyward
The Best American Nonrequired Reading 2014
Mobile Library: A Novel
My True Love Gave to Me: Twelve Holiday Stories
Strangeling: The Art of Jasmine Becket-Griffith
The Mockingbird Next Door: Life with Harper Lee
Alcatraz: A Definitive History of the Penitentiary Years
Calm
Landline
Dorothy Must Die
The Honest Truth
OVERALL IMPRESSION: I hadn't heard anything about this book before I read it, and I thought it was possibly about a boy who goes on a camping trip with his dog. I was completely wrong. I didn't enjoy this book as much as I wanted to, but I think this would be a wonderful book for any middle school aged child. There's a lot of lessons packed into this little book. It was a quick read that I think would hold the attention of a younger, less patient reader.CHARACTERS: I loved the main character of this book. He's just a little boy, but he has to go through so much and it's made him so strong and determined. I also really liked Jess, the main character's best friend. She has a decision that she is struggling with and my heart went out to her.
COVER: I love the bright colors that they used for this cover. The image also fits the book 100%.
**I received an ARC of this book from Amazon Vine for my honest review.**
A Thousand Pieces of You
OVERALL IMPRESSION: I'm having a really hard time writing a review for this one. I really love the idea behind the story of there being this infinite amount of parallel dimensions. And I also liked the plot of the story and where that was and continues to go, but for some reason I just wasn't sucked into the book. I found myself relieved when I was done reading because I knew I wouldn't have to pick it up again. That doesn't mean it was bad though, it just wasn't my cup of tea.CHARACTERS: The characters were okay. I liked Marguerite the most, but I didn't really feel connected to anyone.
COVER: The cover is beautiful. Being totally honest, it's the whole reason I became interested in this book in the first place.
**I received an ARC of this book from Amazon Vine for my honest review.
For Real
3.5/5OVERALL IMPRESSION: This story is so fun. I really enjoyed reading it and waiting to see what the next challenge would be for the contestants on the TV show. One of the best things about this book was seeing what would get thrown at the contestants next. This book was filled with the perfect balance of drama, laughter and touching moments. I would have given this book 4 stars, but I was a little bit disappointed by the ending. It wasn't a bad ending, I just felt like it needed to be expanded more.
CHARACTERS: The character development in this book is wonderful. I loved watching the main character, Claire, grow and develop throughout the story. I also liked seeing the relationships between all of the different characters.
COVER: The cover is cute. I like it.
*I received an eARC of this book from Netgalley for my honest review.
Eve & Adam
OVERALL IMPRESSION: This book is set in San Francisco. I just moved away from the bay area about a month ago, and San Francisco is my favorite city, so I really enjoyed seeing the references to things in the city (In-N-Out, The Embarcadero). The pacing of this book could have been a lot better. The main story line doesn't start to progress until about 1/3rd of the way through and it starts getting really good around the halfway point. I could already see where the story was going so I felt like it was just dragged out way too long. The ending was also really rushed and over very quickly. All that being said, I still enjoyed the story.
CHARACTERS: I didn't really have any strong connection with any of the characters. It wasn't that they weren't fully developed, I just didn't feel like I could relate to any of them.
COVER: I really like the cover. It's vibrant and eye catching and I love how the cover itself, under the dust jacket ties into the design as well.
Cinder & Ella
OVERALL IMPRESSION: The first thing that I fell in love with this book for was the fact that the main character Ella has a book blog. It's so neat reading about people who have the same interests as me. About 10% of the way through the book, I was absolutely hooked and didn't want to put it down. My heart breaks for Ella when I see the way her step-family, and especially her dad, treats her.
I wanted to scream at Cinder every time that he was talking to Ella to just tell her who he was. And then I was so giddy during the scene where they meet for the first time. It was so well done and I loved the way it played out. The ending of this book was just perfect also.
CHARACTERS: I adore the relationship between Cinder and Ella. They are so playful and fun together.
COVER: The cover is okay.I like the fact that the cell phones are on the cover, but I wish they had different images in them instead of people's faces.
*I received a complimentary copy of this ebook for my honest review.
The Boy Recession
OVERALL IMPRESSION: I don't like to read book synopses as I don't want to be spoiled on anything, so I didn't know what this was about when I bought it. I was hoping this was going to have more of a sci-fi spin on it where the boys were actually disappearing, not just moving out of town.I think a 7th or 8th grader might enjoy this story, but it wasn't for me. It did get better as it went on, but I'm still not that impressed with it. It wasn't terrible, it just wasn't memorable and it's one of those books that I'll probably never pick up again.
CHARACTERS: I liked both of the main characters, Hunter and Kelly. They were cute together and I enjoyed watching the progression of their relationship.
COVER: I adore the cover, and it's honestly a big reason that I picked this book up in the first place. I love the color scheme and the little boy and girl figures on it.
100 Sideways Miles
OVERALL IMPRESSION: I've wanted to read an Andrew Smith book for quite a while. Everyone seems to rave about his books and I was curious to see what all the fuss was about. I was pretty disappointed with this one. About a third of the way through the book, I started to loose interest. Not much was going on and I was quite bored. I was prepared to give this book a 2.5 star rating, but in the last fourth or so of the book there was an event that happened that brought quite a bit of excitement to the story and I decided to bump it up to 3 stars. CHARACTERS: The characters were okay, but not my favorite. I did enjoy reading about Finn's epileptic episodes, but other than that I didn't really feel myself connecting with anybody.
COVER: I like the cover a lot after learning what the significance of the horse means.
**I received an ARC copy of this book from Amazon Vine for my honest review.
Autumn Falls
2.5/5OVERALL IMPRESSION: I'd seen Bella in her Disney show, as well as in Blended and thought she seemed like a great, well-rounded person, so I was curious when I heard that she had a book coming out. I feel like the story that she wrote was fine, but could have been better. The idea behind the book is a good one, but I think Bella needs to work on her writing skills some more--although, I believe if she keeps at it, she can become a great writer. When I was reading the book, I could definitely tell that it was written by someone of a younger age by the way the words sounded as I was reading them in my mind.
I enjoyed the resolution of the book. It was predictable, but still cute and fun to read. I hope Bella continues to work on writing as I would love to see what she can accomplish.
CHARACTERS: I really liked the character of J.J. He has a great personality, and I wish I could have seen more of him throughout the book. The main character, Autumn, was great as well. I felt like I really understood her and what she was feeling.
COVER: I have mixed feelings on the cover. I don't usually like covers with faces on them, but this one is only half a face. I really like how they painted the model's nails with the sparkly polish and the heart detail on her left hand.
**I received an ARC of this book from Amazon Vine for my honest review.
Schooled
OVERALL IMPRESSION: This story was pretty good. I wouldn't say that I was blown away or that it was super memorable, but I was entertained while reading it. I had fun trying to figure things out alongside Lexy. The ending was suspenseful, but not suspenseful enough. I felt like there could have been a lot more done with it to make me stand on edge.CHARACTERS: Lexy annoyed me with the way she used her body to get what she wanted. I just cringed a little bit every time she did it. I liked Mike a lot. He was the right combination of protective and fun, and he was really understanding of what Lexy was going through.
COVER: When I first picked this up, I thought it was a graphic novel because of the cover, but it's not.
