Book Review | Nantucket Blue | Leila Howland

May 30

I received this book for free from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

Book Review | Nantucket Blue | Leila HowlandNantucket Blue by Leila Howland
Series: Nantucket #1
Published by Disney Hyperion on May 7, 2013
Genres: Contemporary YA, Romance, Young Adult
Pages: 294
Format: eARC
Source: the publisher via NetGalley
Amazon • Barnes & Noble • Goodreads
three-stars

For Cricket Thompson, a summer like this one will change everything. A summer spent on Nantucket with her best friend, Jules Clayton, and the indomitable Clayton family. A summer when she’ll make the almost unattainable Jay Logan hers. A summer to surpass all dreams.

Some of this turns out to be true. Some of it doesn’t.

When Jules and her family suffer a devastating tragedy that forces the girls apart, Jules becomes a stranger whom Cricket wonders whether she ever really knew. And instead of lying on the beach working on her caramel-colored tan, Cricket is making beds and cleaning bathrooms to support herself in paradise for the summer.

But it’s the things Cricket hadn’t counted on–most of all, falling hard for someone who should be completely off-limits–that turn her dreams into an exhilarating, bittersweet reality.

A beautiful future is within her grasp, and Cricket must find the grace to embrace it. If she does, her life could be the perfect shade of Nantucket blue.

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Filed Under: 2013 Reading Challenge, Reviews, Young Adult Tagged With: , , , ,

Book Review: Under the Never Sky by Veronica Rossi

May 22

Book cover for Under the Never Sky by Veronica Rossi

Title: Under the Never Sky
Author: Veronica Rossi (web | twitter)
Series: Under the Never Sky #1
Genre: Science Fiction/Dystopia YA
Amazon | Goodreads
Publisher: Harper Collins
Release date: January 3, 2012
Challenge: Reading Recommendations
Source: Own it
Summary: WORLDS KEPT THEM APART.
DESTINY BROUGHT THEM TOGETHER.

Aria has lived her whole life in the protected dome of Reverie. Her entire world confined to its spaces, she’s never thought to dream of what lies beyond its doors. So when her mother goes missing, Aria knows her chances of surviving in the outer wasteland long enough to find her are slim.

Then Aria meets an outsider named Perry. He’s searching for someone too. He’s also wild – a savage – but might be her best hope at staying alive.

If they can survive, they are each other’s best hope for finding answers.

 

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Filed Under: 2013 Reading Challenge, Reviews, Young Adult

Audiobook Review: Every Day by David Levithan

May 9

Book cover for Every Day by David Levithan audiobook

Title: Every Day
Author: David Levithan (web | twitter)
Narrator: Alex McKenna
Genre: Contemporary YA, Paranormal YA
Amazon | Goodreads | Audible
Publisher: Knopf BFYR, Listening Library
Release date: August 28, 2012
Source: Library
Challenge: YA Audiobook Challenge
Summary: Every day a different body. Every day a different life. Every day in love with the same girl.

There’s never any warning about where it will be or who it will be. A has made peace with that, even established guidelines by which to live: Never get too attached. Avoid being noticed. Do not interfere.

It’s all fine until the morning that A wakes up in the body of Justin and meets Justin’s girlfriend, Rhiannon. From that moment, the rules by which A has been living no longer apply. Because finally A has found someone he wants to be with—day in, day out, day after day.

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Filed Under: 2013 Reading Challenge, Audiobook, Reviews, Young Adult Tagged With: , , , ,

Book Review | Going Vintage | Lindsey Leavitt

May 6

I received this book for free from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

Book Review | Going Vintage | Lindsey LeavittGoing Vintage by Lindsey Leavitt
Published by Bloomsbury on March 26, 2013
Genres: Contemporary YA, Young Adult
Pages: 320
Format: eARC
Source: the publisher via NetGalley
Amazon • Barnes & Noble • Goodreads
four-stars

When Mallory’s boyfriend, Jeremy, cheats on her with an online girlfriend, Mallory decides the best way to de-Jeremy her life is to de-modernize things too. Inspired by a list of goals her grandmother made in1962, Mallory swears off technology and returns to a simpler time (when boyfriends couldn’t cheat with computer avatars).

The List:
1. Run for pep club secretary
2. Host a fancy dinner party/soiree
3. Sew a dress for Homecoming
4. Find a steady
5. Do something dangerous
But simple proves to be crazy-complicated, and the details of the past begin to change Mallory’s present. Add in a too-busy grandmother, a sassy sister, and the cute pep-club president–who just happens to be her ex’s cousin–and soon Mallory begins to wonder if going vintage is going too far.

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Filed Under: 2013 Reading Challenge, Reviews, Young Adult Tagged With: , , ,

Book Review: Bitterblue by Kristin Cashore

May 3

Book cover for Bitterblue by Kristin Cashore

Title | Author: Bitterblue by Kristin Cashore (web | twitter)
Series: Graceling Realm #3
Genre: Fantasy YA
Amazon | Goodreads
Publisher: Dial
Release Date: May 1, 2012
Source: Own it

Summary: Eight years after Graceling, Bitterblue is now queen of Monsea. But the influence of her father, a violent psychopath with mind-altering abilities, lives on. Her advisors, who have run things since Leck died, believe in a forward-thinking plan: Pardon all who committed terrible acts under Leck’s reign, and forget anything bad ever happened. But when Bitterblue begins sneaking outside the castle–disguised and alone–to walk the streets of her own city, she starts realizing that the kingdom has been under the thirty-five-year spell of a madman, and the only way to move forward is to revisit the past.

Two thieves, who only steal what has already been stolen, change her life forever. They hold a key to the truth of Leck’s reign. And one of them, with an extreme skill called a Grace that he hasn’t yet identified, holds a key to her heart.

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Filed Under: Reviews, Young Adult Tagged With: , , , ,

Blog Tour & Book Review: House of Secrets by Chris Columbus and Ned Vizzini

Apr 29

Book cover for House of Secrets by Chris Columbus and Ned VizziniTitle: House of Secrets
Authors: Chris Columbus and Ned Vizzini
Series: House of Secrets #1
Genre: Middle Grade Fantasy
Amazon | Goodreads
Publisher: Balzer + Bray
Release date: April 23, 2013
Source: ARC from the publisher for blog tour

Summary: The Walker kids had it all: loving parents, a big house in San Francisco, all the latest video games . . . but everything changed when their father lost his job as a result of an inexplicable transgression. Now the family is moving into Kristoff House, a mysterious place built nearly a century earlier by Denver Kristoff, a troubled writer with a penchant for the occult.

Suddenly the siblings find themselves launched on an epic journey into a mash-up world born of Kristoff’s dangerous imagination, to retrieve a dark book of untold power, uncover the Walker family’s secret history and save their parents . . . and maybe even the world.

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Filed Under: Blog Tour, Children's/Middle Grade, Reviews Tagged With: , , , ,

Book Review | The Reece Malcolm List | Amy Spalding

Apr 26

I received this book for free from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

Book Review | The Reece Malcolm List | Amy SpaldingThe Reece Malcolm List by Amy Spalding
Published by Entangled Teen on February 5, 2013
Genres: Contemporary YA, Young Adult
Pages: 352
Format: eARC
Source: the publisher via NetGalley
Amazon • Barnes & Noble • Goodreads
four-stars

Things I know about Reece Malcolm:

1. She graduated from New York University.
2. She lives in or near Los Angeles.
3. Since her first novel was released, she’s been on the New York Times bestseller list every week.
4. She likes strong coffee and bourbon.
5. She’s my mother.

Devan knows very little about Reece Malcolm, until the day her father dies and she’s shipped off to live with the mother she’s never met. All she has is a list of notebook entries that doesn’t add up to much.

L.A. offers a whole new world to Devan—a performing arts school allows her to pursue her passion for show choir and musicals, a new circle of friends helps to draw her out of her shell, and an intriguing boy opens up possibilities for her first love.

But then the Reece Malcolm list gets a surprising new entry. Now that Devan is so close to having it all, can she handle the possibility of losing everything?

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Filed Under: 2013 Reading Challenge, Reviews, Young Adult Tagged With: , , ,

Book Review: Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein

Apr 18

Book cover for Code Name Verity by Elizabeth WeinTitle // Author: Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein (web | twitter)
Genre: Historical Fiction YA
Amazon | Goodreads
Publisher: Disney-Hyperion
Release date: May 15, 2012
Challenge: 2012 TBR Challenge
Source: Own It

Summary: Oct. 11th, 1943-A British spy plane crashes in Nazi-occupied France. Its pilot and passenger are best friends. One of the girls has a chance at survival. The other has lost the game before it’s barely begun.

When “Verity” is arrested by the Gestapo, she’s sure she doesn’t stand a chance. As a secret agent captured in enemy territory, she’s living a spy’s worst nightmare. Her Nazi interrogators give her a simple choice: reveal her mission or face a grisly execution.

As she intricately weaves her confession, Verity uncovers her past, how she became friends with the pilot Maddie, and why she left Maddie in the wrecked fuselage of their plane. On each new scrap of paper, Verity battles for her life, confronting her views on courage, failure and her desperate hope to make it home. But will trading her secrets be enough to save her from the enemy?

A Michael L. Printz Award Honor book that was called “a fiendishly-plotted mind game of a novel” in The New York Times, Code Name Verity is a visceral read of danger, resolve, and survival that shows just how far true friends will go to save each other.

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Filed Under: 2013 Reading Challenge, Reviews, Young Adult Tagged With: , , ,

Book Review | Dark Triumph | Robin LaFevers

Apr 15
Book Review | Dark Triumph | Robin LaFeversDark Triumph by Robin LaFevers
Series: His Fair Assassin #2
Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt on April 2, 2013
Genres: Fantasy YA, Historical Fiction, Young Adult
Pages: 385
Format: Hardcover
Also in this series: Grave Mercy, Mortal Heart
Also by this author: Grave Mercy, Mortal Heart
Source: Bought it
Amazon • Barnes & Noble • Goodreads
five-stars

Sybella arrives at the convent’s doorstep half mad with grief and despair. Those that serve Death are only too happy to offer her refuge—but at a price. Naturally skilled in both the arts of death and seduction, the convent views Sybella as one of their most dangerous weapons. But those assassin’s skills are little comfort when the convent returns her to a life that nearly drove her mad. Her father’s rage and brutality are terrifying, and her brother’s love is equally monstrous. And while Sybella is a weapon of justice wrought by the god of Death himself, He must give her a reason to live. When she discovers an unexpected ally imprisoned in the dungeons, will a daughter of Death find something other than vengeance to live for? This heart-pounding sequel to Grave Mercy serves betrayal, treachery, and danger in equal measure, bringing readers back to fifteenth century Brittany and will keep them on the edge of their seats.

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Filed Under: Reviews, Young Adult Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Book Review: Days of Blood and Starlight by Laini Taylor

Apr 5

Book cover for Days of Blood and Starlight by Laini TaylorTitle // Author: Days of Blood and Starlight by Laini Taylor (web | twitter)
Series: Daughter of Smoke and Bone #2
Genre: Fantasy YA
Amazon | Goodreads
Publisher: Little, Brown BFYR
Release date: November 6, 2012
Challenge: 2013 TBR Challenge
Source: Own it

Summary: Once upon a time, an angel and a devil fell in love and dared to imagine a world free of bloodshed and war.

This is not that world.

Art student and monster’s apprentice Karou finally has the answers she has always sought. She knows who she is—and what she is. But with this knowledge comes another truth she would give anything to undo: She loved the enemy and he betrayed her, and a world suffered for it.

In this stunning sequel to the highly acclaimed Daughter of Smoke & Bone, Karou must decide how far she’ll go to avenge her people. Filled with heartbreak and beauty, secrets and impossible choices, Days of Blood & Starlight finds Karou and Akiva on opposing sides as an age-old war stirs back to life.

While Karou and her allies build a monstrous army in a land of dust and starlight, Akiva wages a different sort of battle: a battle for redemption. For hope.

But can any hope be salvaged from the ashes of their broken dream?

[Read more…]

Filed Under: 2012 Reading Challenge, Reviews, Young Adult Tagged With: , , , , , , ,
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