Book Review: Pushing The Limits by Katie McGarry

Pushing The Limits

Katie McGarry

392 Pages

Published July 31st, 2012

No one knows what happened the night Echo Emerson went from popular girl with jock boyfriend to gossiped-about outsider with "freaky" scars on her arms. Even Echo can't remember the whole truth of that horrible night. All she knows is that she wants everything to go back to normal.
But when Noah Hutchins, the smoking-hot, girl-using loner in the black leather jacket, explodes into her life with his tough attitude and surprising understanding, Echo's world shifts in ways she could never have imagined. They should have nothing in common. And with the secrets they both keep, being together is pretty much impossible.
Yet the crazy attraction between them refuses to go away. And Echo has to ask herself just how far they can push the limits and what she'll risk for the one guy who might teach her how to love again.

 I've had this one on my shelf for ages and a few weeks back I knew it was finally time to dig into this one and see what all the hype was about. I'm not too big on contemporaries or romance stories, so  I had my doubts straight from the beginning. After reading Pushing The Limits it's safe to say that it's worth all the hyper and more. This was a truly amazing read that gave me the feels guys - the feels!

We have excellent character development in this book. Seriously. I felt like Echo, Noah, Beth and Isiah were some of my best buds, that I'd known them for a long time. Echo had a haunting past that even she didn't remember, and it was one hell of an emotional ride seeing flashes from her past and finally finding out how she got the jagged scars all up and down her arms.

Noah is another story. A hunky bad boy on the outside, a cautious young man with real priorities and feelings on the inside. These two were perfect for each other, trying their hardest to help each other cope with the demons of their past.

I loved how this wasn't "just' a romance book. It had a lot of other plot-lines running through it, adding suspense and other layers to the already captivating story. You quickly fall i n love with not just one, but every character in these books. I've already read Beth's story and am working on Isiah's!

Book Review: The 5th Wave by Rick Yancey

The 5th Wave

Rick Yancey

457 Pages

Published May 7th, 2013

The Passage meets Ender’s Game in an epic new series from award-winning author Rick Yancey.
After the 1st wave, only darkness remains. After the 2nd, only the lucky escape. And after the 3rd, only the unlucky survive. After the 4th wave, only one rule applies: trust no one.
Now, it’s the dawn of the 5th wave, and on a lonely stretch of highway, Cassie runs from Them. The beings who only look human, who roam the countryside killing anyone they see. Who have scattered Earth’s last survivors. To stay alone is to stay alive, Cassie believes, until she meets Evan Walker. Beguiling and mysterious, Evan Walker may be Cassie’s only hope for rescuing her brother—or even saving herself. But Cassie must choose: between trust and despair, between defiance and surrender, between life and death. To give up or to get up.

Rave reviews sprouted from many of my favorite bloggers back when this book first came out in 2013. I bought it only a month or two after the release date, eagerly anticipating another fantastic book about aliens, a subject I've grown to become fascinated with. Obviously that didn't happen and months passed on. I recently started seeing recommendations from Amazon for the upcoming sequel, and that prompted me to finally pick this baby up. Why, why did I wait?! This book is amazing and one of the best alien books I've read!

Our main character Cassie, (short for Cassiopia!) has survived the first four "waves" of an alien invasion. Each wave brings new hardships and millions of deaths. Now she awaits the 5th wave with much fear and trepidation, not sure if any other humans are alive. Her entire family is gone, but she believes her younger brother is alive.

Cassie was a strong character, though she trusts no one. she struggles with loneliness and fear, along with feelings of being a monster for killing a man she wasn't sure was human or alien. Yeah.. the aliens look like us.. they are inside of us. That made the whole story so much more creepy and terrifying. Could this really happen? Are there aliens among us?

Later on we meet Evan, a haunted boy who isn't who he appears to be. Though Cassie doesn't trust him at first, she slowly falls in love with him. She doesn't trust him completely though, always suspicious of his actions. He never sleeps, he always goes hunting in the middle of the night, but he never brings back any reapings of the hunts. Though their romance was sweet, it was also unusual with all the unease brewing between them.

The setting moved along quickly, never failing to surprise me with th many twists and tuns. Lots of shocking "oh my god!" moments come into play, and that made the book that much better. Short chapters and changing points of view really add another layer to this story, making for a very quick read. I was done with this in less than two days. Hurry up book number two I need you in my possession!!

Book Review: Cress by Marissa Meyer

Cress

Marissa Meyer

550 Pages

Published February 4th, 2014

Rapunzel’s tower is a satellite. She can’t let down her hair—or her guard.

In this third book in the bestselling Lunar Chronicles series, Cinder and Captain Thorne are fugitives on the run, with Scarlet and Wolf in tow. Together, they’re plotting to overthrow Queen Levana and her army.

Their best hope lies with Cress, who has been trapped on a satellite since childhood with only her netscreens as company. All that screen time has made Cress an excellent hacker—unfortunately, she’s just received orders from Levana to track down Cinder and her handsome accomplice.

When a daring rescue goes awry, the group is separated. Cress finally has her freedom, but it comes at a high price. Meanwhile, Queen Levana will let nothing stop her marriage to Emperor Kai. Cress, Scarlet, and Cinder may not have signed up to save the world, but they may be the only ones who can.

 This series keeps getting better and better, even when I think a story better than the previous installment is completely insane and not possible. Cress was a fantastic read that blew right past my expectations and I'm so glad I picked it up. In 24 short hours this massive tomb was finished and now I feel a bit empty inside.. totally needing more time with Cress, Cinder, Scarlet, Wolf and Captain Thorne. These characters are seriously some of the most awesomesauce characters ever! They are so fleshed out and their personalities are all so different it's impossible to mix them up.

My favorite character has to be Captain Thorne. Though he loses his sight he still manages to be upbeat and quirky and completely hilarious. He did the wrong thing at times but you could tell he really cared, and the new romance that starts between him and a certain someone was so sweet and perfect and I hope it grows and develops into something even better in the next book.

Cress was a lunar shell that had amazing computer and technology skills. Trapped on a satellite for the majority of her life without human interaction, she tends to be just a tad bit awkward, but sweet. She was a character eager to please, but strong enough to take over and make decisions herself when the time came.

Cinder continued to be awesome as hell, though she continued to have plenty of internal struggles to deal with regarding he lunar powers. She felt she was becoming too much like Levana, though it was obvious to everyone else in the group that this wasn't he case. She strives to do the right thing every time, which sets her in a completely different category of person than the evil and deceitful lunar queen.

Though this was a big book the story didn't drag at all. Not only did the flesh out, realistic characters keep the story moving, the plot was paced perfectly as well. So much happens in this book, but not so much that you become overwhelmed. There are tons of characters and we learn some pretty shocking things that take the story into completely new directions. I apologize for being so vague, but I don't want to give anything away for those who haven't read the series or this third installment.

As usual, Marissa Meyer totally blew me away. Cress was the perfect 3rd book in a series and Winter needs to come out ASAP!!

Book Review: The Hit by Melvin Burgess

The Hit

Melvin Burgess

304 Pages

Published February 25th, 2014

Live the ultimate high. Pay the ultimate price. The shocking return to YA by the author of SMACK.
A new drug is on the street. Everyone's buzzing about it. Take the hit. Live the most intense week of your life. Then die. It's the ultimate high at the ultimate price. Adam thinks it over. He's poor, and doesn't see that changing. Lizzie, his girlfriend, can't make up her mind about sleeping with him, so he can't get laid. His brother Jess is missing. And Manchester is in chaos, controlled by drug dealers and besieged by a group of homegrown terrorists who call themselves the Zealots. Wouldn't one amazing week be better than this endless, penniless misery? After Adam downs one of the Death pills, he's about to find out.

When I first received The Hit for review I was so excited to dig into it and see what this deadly drug was all about. While the book was an entertaining read, I did have my issues. Questions kept popping up in my head, and none of them were really answered, or were answered poorly. For example.. I just didn't find the story all that realistic. How can this tin little pill create the BEST week of your life, all before killing you?! You'd think it'd be out of your system by then or would have killed you sooner, right? What's even weirder is that it's exactly one week later the user dies, like, down to the minute. Just hard for me to believe.

The only other issue I had was that Adam was completely annoying and a total jerk. All he cared about was committing crimes and doing as many selfish things as he could in his last days of life. I understand that he really wanted to live it up, but couldn't he have had some better things on his bucket list? Swim in the ocean or climb a mountain or something like that? Not sleep with multiple women at once, get someone pregnant and kill someone? His character annoyed me so much that it made it hard to enjoy the story because I kept getting so bored with it.

The plot was pretty predictable but still enjoyable. We have the story of Adam and his ride with Death, and we have the undergoing plot line of the zealots and the revolution they are trying to begin. Chaos is rampant and it's clear that the government has pretty much ruined the country, though we never do figure out how this started or exactly what was going on behind the scenes. I liked all the non-stop action with Christian (the craziest character I've read about in a while!) and the zealots. Hope crept into my veins every time an antidote was mentioned, even though people kept denying the possibility of one.

Though this book irked me at times, I don't regret reading it. There was a lot of issues but the general premise was good and the plot interesting enough to almost override my issues with it. Though definitely not a favorite, I'd still recommend it to certain groups, particularly teenage boys who may relate with the main character a bit more than I did.

Book Review: Anything To Have You by Paige Harbison

Anything To Have You

Paige Harbison

304 Pages

Published January 28th, 2014

Nothing should come between best friends, not even boys. ESPECIALLY not boys.
Natalie and Brooke have had each other's backs forever. Natalie is the quiet one, college bound and happy to stay home and watch old movies. Brooke is the movie—the life of every party, the girl everyone wants to be.
Then it happens—one crazy night that Natalie can't remember and Brooke's boyfriend, Aiden, can't forget. Suddenly there's a question mark in Natalie and Brooke's friendship that tests everything they thought they knew about each other and has both girls discovering what true friendship really means.

I loved this book at times and I hated this book at times. There was tons of dramatic situations we are exposed to that kept me flipping the pages, due to a high interest level. However , annoying characters made the interest dwindle over time, and I found myself shaking my head at how stupid teenagers could be.

Brooke was the loud friend. She didn't care about school all that much, just wanted to climb the ladder of popularity. Yeah, I know that it's common for teens to feel insecure about themselves and desperately want to be popular.. but really... this girl is awful. She's pretty sluttish, going after every boy she sees, even though she has a boyfriend that she treats pretty bad, if you ask me. She was rude and controlling when it came to her best friend, Natalie.. overall I really didn't like Brooke, even when she was being funny.

Natalie was an iffy character for me as well, though I could enjoy her more than Brooke. She was shy and had the potential to be popular, but unlike other teens she didn't really care. That I DID like - she was her own person. However.. she's a bit of a pushover. She lets Brooke walk all over her and boss her around like she's her parent. when she should have been standing up for herself.

Aiden... even though he's technically a cheater with a bit of an angry streak, I really liked him.. he's the only character in the book I liked. He seemed to be a sweetheart and I liked watching his and Nat's relationship grow and evolve. They had similar interests that really helped pull them together, and their romance is what redeemed this book for me.. without them getting together I probably would've hated this book completely.

While Anything To Have You has its' fair share of issues, there were things I loved as well. A fast paced plot filled with high stakes drama kept me engaged and satisfied me in the long run.

Book Review: Ignite Me by Tahereh Mafi

Ignite Me

Tahereh Mafi

416 Pages

Published February 4th, 2014

Juliette now knows she may be the only one who can stop the Reestablishment. But to take them down, she'll need the help of the one person she never thought she could trust: Warner. And as they work together, Juliette will discover that everything she thought she knew - about Warner, her abilities, and even Adam - was wrong.

This is one of my favorite series of all time - seriously - the Shatter Me Series is a true work of art created by a master wordsmith. Action, intrigue and plenty of steamy romance all couple together to create this intense story world.

 All of our favorite characters are back, though this isn't obvious in the first few chapters. We get to see plenty of Kenji, Juliette, Adam and Warner. Oh... Warner. Though in the first book I hated him, he grew on me in the 2nd book and in the novella, and by book 3 I was totally rooting from him. I may have been swooning over him just a tad bit... just a tiny bit, during this book. He was so broken and Juliette worked to make him whole again and everything was so angsty and perfect.

The stakes grow to epic proportions in this final book of the series, and the pages flew by fast. I read this in one sitting, in between nursing sessions with a newborn. It was just. that. good!! I loved the character growth and how Juliette finally quite being a whiny little girl. She stood up for herself FINALLY!! She wasn't afraid of her powers, she embraced them and realized she was a strong woman. I loved when she truly realized that Adam just wasn't the right kind of guy for her.

I know that this review is pretty suckish, due to fangirling and all, so I'll just end here. Ignite Me was the perfect ending to the perfect series. Honestly, I'm so sad that it's over!

Book Review: Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor

Daughter of Smoke and Bone

Laini Taylor

418 Pages

September 27th, 2011

Around the world, black handprints are appearing on doorways, scorched there by winged strangers who have crept through a slit in the sky.
In a dark and dusty shop, a devil’s supply of human teeth grown dangerously low.
And in the tangled lanes of Prague, a young art student is about to be caught up in a brutal otherwordly war.
Meet Karou. She fills her sketchbooks with monsters that may or may not be real, she’s prone to disappearing on mysterious "errands", she speaks many languages - not all of them human - and her bright blue hair actually grows out of her head that color. Who is she? That is the question that haunts her, and she’s about to find out.
When beautiful, haunted Akiva fixes fiery eyes on her in an alley in Marrakesh, the result is blood and starlight, secrets unveiled, and a star-crossed love whose roots drink deep of a violent past. But will Karou live to regret learning the truth about herself?

You know when you discover a series way later than everyone else? When a book is already so hyped up that you're afraid to just sit your ass down and read it? That's what happened to me with Daughter of Smoke and Bone, though I really wish I had read it sooner so I could have been raving about it right along with everyone else. This book is amazing you guys, truly amazing!

Laini Taylor is now one of my favorite authors. Her writing tone and personality is unlike anyone else's, and that is something I've come to appreciate over my years as a bookworm. The words flow across the page like water, like an ocean on a calm, clear day. Each word brought meaning to the story and I found myself lost in the streets of Prague, feeling like I was the one running errands in other worlds for Brimstone.

Brimstone.. he seemed pretty shady at first, but it really didn't take long for me to love his character.  It's clear he had many secrets, but he really hides them for Karou's sake, to keep her safe from his world. He cares about her so much, it's hard to think he's 'evil" or "bad" in any way, shape or form.

Karou.. god I love her name! She has always had an inkling that something was off with herself, though she can't put her finger on what. She doesn't know where she comes from, and I was surprised she didn't ask more questions. She was strong when she needed to be, but still very.. eh.. human I suppose. I loved her snarkiness and how she had a sarcastic sense of humor that I could definitely relate to.

I loved the world of the Chimera and the Serephim (spelling?!) The setting and imagery was so vivid that I couldn't put the book down. The romance between Karou and Akiva was a bit fast paced, but you understand why later on in the story, so it wasn't truly insta-love. Even if it had been, these two were the perfect couple, even though they come from different worlds and really.. never should have met.

With secrets lurking around every corner, Daughter of Smoke and Bone was a thrilling read that kept me guessing until the end. I'm sure I'll be picking up the sequel in the next few weeks!

Book Review: The Cellar By Nashua Preston

The Cellar

Nashua Preston

386 Pages

Expected Publication: March 1st, 2014

When sixteen-year-old Summer Robinson goes missing one night, her family, friends and boyfriend are devastated. Nothing ever happens in Long Thorpe, so the disappearance of a school girl shocks the whole community. The police waste no time in launching a search and investigation, but with nothing to go on and no trace of Summer, hopes of finding her quickly fade.
Colin Brown, is a thirty-year-old solicitor living alone after the death of his mother. He suffered a traumatic and abusive childhood, and is left with no sense of right or wrong. Desperate for the perfect family, Colin, referring to himself as Clover, turns to drastic measures to get what he wants.

Have you ever been so engrossed in a book, so terrified by the words you were reading that you couldn't put it down, no matter how many feelings you were being hit with? The Cellar has me feeling just like this throughout the entire freaking book! I almost feel guilty saying I enjoyed this book, as it left me feeling so emotionally wrong. After the last page commenced I just sat there, staring off into space lost in my thoughts. The story the Preston composed has me feeling the entire rainbow of emotions, from hope to fear to burning hot anger. 

The story starts off fast, not letting us get to know our main character, Summer all too well before she is snatched by a man she's never seen before, who calls himself Clover. She's thrust into a cellar, though it wasn't the type of cellar that I was expecting. Instead of a cold, dingy basement she's forced into a bright and cheery downstairs with 3 other girls, a cellar that smells strongly of lemon disinfectant and other cleaners. Their captor is a madman who's head isn't on quite straight.. more like on backwards. He's obsessed with cleanliness and keeping young girls clean and "pure". He goes on late night killing rampages, targeting prostitutes and any girl who dresses skimpy or acts less than ladylike. Though he always acts polite around the general populace, he has an angry side to him that made him terrifying, and oh so dangerous.

The most interesting part of the story for me was getting to know the other girls. Rose.. she got on my nerves at first but as the story progresses, I see why she is so different from the other girls. While Summer, who was renamed Lily during her 8 month stay in the cellar, desperately wanted to get out and return home, Rose seemed to have given up all hope of ever leaving.. she'd already been his captive for years. Hell, sometimes she seemed happy, like she genuinely cared for the monster who kept her imprisoned. After some back story it becomes clear that they'd originally been in a relationship, before he threw her int he cellar to be his forever.

Next we have Violet.. poor Violet. She's more feisty than the other girls, the only one that Lily could actually relate to. She wants nothing more than to escape the cellar, and this is what often gets her in trouble with Clover. She isn't afraid to challenge him.. but challenging a beast like him often comes with some pretty harsh consequences.

Then there was Poppy, who seemed defeated at times, but nowhere near as badly as Rose. I feel like if fear wouldn't have been holding her back so much, she might've planned an escape with Lily, but she was just too terrified. Though she willingly did his bidding, it was clear that she still had her head on straighter than Rose, and was still able to think for herself.

My blood boiled every time Clover walked into the room. He was so vile and nasty, so delusional in thinking that these girls were his family. Watching him unwind and spiral out of control as the authorities came closer and closer to discovering him and his nasty lifestyle terrified me. I started this book at 10pm and by 1am I was finished, stunned into silence. The intensity of this read wasn't something I was prepared for, so be sure you're ready for some pretty intense feels and a long sit when you pick up this one!

 

Book Review: The Almost Girl by Amalie Howard

The Almost Girl

Amalie Howard

416 Pages

Published January 7th, 2014

Seventeen-year-old Riven is as tough as they come. Coming from a world ravaged by a devastating android war, she has to be. There’s no room for softness, no room for emotion, no room for mistakes. A Legion General, she is the right hand of the young Prince of Neospes, a parallel universe to Earth. In Neospes, she has everything: rank, responsibility and respect. But when Prince Cale sends her away to find his long-lost brother, Caden, who has been spirited back to modern day Earth, Riven finds herself in uncharted territory.
Thrown out of her comfort zone but with the mindset of a soldier, Riven has to learn how to be a girl in a realm that is the opposite of what she knows. Riven isn’t prepared for the beauty of a world that is unlike her own in so many ways. Nor is she prepared to feel something more than indifference for the very target she seeks. Caden is nothing like Cale, but he makes something in her come alive, igniting a spark deep down that goes against every cell in her body. For the first time in her life, Riven isn’t sure about her purpose, about her calling. Torn between duty and desire, she must decide whether Caden is simply a target or whether he is something more.
Faced with hideous reanimated Vector soldiers from her own world with agendas of their own, as well as an unexpected reunion with a sister who despises her, it is a race against time to bring Caden back to Neospes. But things aren’t always as they seem, and Riven will have to search for truth. Family betrayals and royal coups are only the tip of the iceberg. Will Riven be able to find the strength to defy her very nature? Or will she become the monstrous soldier she was designed to be?

I was pretty afraid of suffering mass disappointment from this title due to reading quite a few not so positive and overall "meh" reviews. This worried me a bit, as Strange Chemistry is known for publishing some of the most intense, thought provoking, action-packed stories out there. Discouraged, I put this one off foe a few weeks, only to finally push aside the negative reviews and give it a try myself. The Almost Girl was just like any other title published by Strange Chemistry: different, action-filled and super duper awesome.

Riven (love the name!) is a teenage girl, but she isn't like anyone from your average high school. She's from an entirely different world, one ravaged by war and disease, filled with danger lurking in every corner. Due to these harsh living conditions, Riven is understandably tough, as well as pretty damn calm and collected. On the exterior she seems cold and heartless, completely devoid of any love and emotion. Though this is an area she struggles with, I was happy to see that she actually did have feelings, and she did have her own unique weaknesses. Without these things, Riven would have been a character that was hard to relate to, but the author did a nice job of making her just real enough, just human enough for me to enjoy and really relate to.

Her latest mission as a general is to travel to Earth in search of a boy named Caden, who is rumored to be the clone to the prince of Nesposes, the city that Riven resides in. However, things get a bit hairy, and it takes her longer than anticipated to locate this target. Everything changes along the way and she finds herself drawn to this boy who makes her feel things she tries desperately to push aside, things that make her feel weak and inadequate. I really enjoyed the character of Caden and how he brought out both the best and worst in Riven. Their relationship is far from insta-love, which pleased me greatly. It's a slow burn with many bumps along the rode before the could finally be together, but the chemistry between them was intense, even if Riven tried to deny it being there.

The Almost Girl was an intense read, and lots of blood was spilled throughout the pages. Things got real and shit hit the fan fast, everything moving at a gallop. I loved turning the pages as fast as possible, trying to keep up with all that was going on in these two worlds. There is politics, treachery and tons of lies and betrayal, with everyone in one huge power struggle. Needless to say.. this book rocked my world and blew me away, and I ended up really enjoying it despite some of the not so grand things I had heard about it. Just goes to show that not everyone will look at a story in the same way.

Book Review: Why We Took The Car by Wolfgang Herrndorf

Why We Took The Car

Wolfgang Herrndorf

256 Pages

Published January 7tth, 2014

A beautifully written, darkly funny coming-of-age story from an award-winning, bestselling German author making his American debut.
Mike Klingenberg doesn't get why people think he's boring. Sure, he doesn't have many friends. (Okay, zero friends.) And everyone laughs at him when he reads his essays out loud in class. And he's never invited to parties - including the gorgeous Tatiana's party of the year.
Andre Tschichatschow, aka Tschick (not even the teachers can pronounce his name), is new in school, and a whole different kind of unpopular. He always looks like he's just been in a fight, his clothes are tragic, and he never talks to anyone.
But one day Tschick shows up at Mike's house out of the blue. Turns out he wasn't invited to Tatiana's party either, and he's ready to do something about it. Forget the popular kids: Together, Mike and Tschick are heading out on a road trip. No parents, no map, no destination. Will they get hopelessly lost in the middle of nowhere? Probably. Will they meet crazy people and get into serious trouble? Definitely. But will they ever be called boring again?
Not a chance.

I'm not sure what I was expecting from Why We Took The Car, but it sure was a surprising read. The story starts off hard and fast, with our main character, 14 year old Mike, being interrogated by the police. He's clearly badly injured and immediately tons of questions popped into my mind. Why is he hurt? How badly? What is such a young kid doing at the police station? What the heck did he do to land himself in such a serious situation?!

Sadly, my questions weren't answered for quite some time.. and I think that was the big beef I had with this book. I don't tend to be the most patient person, and I was a little ticked off and quite confused when the story shifted to a completely different area of this kids life. We're lead on to see how his life was before, for much of his childhood. We get probably over a third through the story before we even get a hint of what started this journey, why he and Tshick stole a car and how they wound up at the police station and eventually the hospital.

Once we finally get the ball moving, Why We Took The Car was a fairly decent coming of age story. The writing style was simple and pleasant, and you could really tell that it was told from the point of view of a young teenage boy. Many of the things.. ok.. pretty much everything, Mike did was pretty stupid, but hey, that's how a lot of youngsters are, eh? It was a bit weird that he just went along with what Tshick said without much questioning, but I decided not to be bothered by that. Instead, I let myself be swept along with them on their road trip across Germany.

Things moved pretty fast in the second half of the book, the two boys always on the run from any cops they caught a glimpse of. Some pretty strange stuff ended up going down, some of which wasn't all that believable, but still.. awesomely strange things always happen in road trip stories. Though lots of self reflection happened on the part of Mike, I didn't witness too much character growth, which disappointed me a bit. After all the reflecting her had done, I was hoping for him to think more highly of himself. Even at the end of the book he was hung up on how "boring" he was. Judging by his recent trip, I'd say he was anything but boring.

Though not a favorite of mine, Why We Took the Car was still an enjoyable way to spend an afternoon. If you're looking for a crazy story full of thrills and silliness, sit down with this one and be prepared for something truly unique.