Book Review | Seraphina | Rachel Hartman

Aug 20

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 | Seraphina | Rachel HartmanSeraphina by Rachel Hartman
Series: Seraphina #1
Published by Random House Children's Books on July 10, 2012
Genres: Dragons, Fantasy YA, Young Adult
Pages: 499
Format: eARC
Source: the publisher via NetGalley
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five-stars

Four decades of peace have done little to ease the mistrust between humans and dragons in the kingdom of Goredd. Folding themselves into human shape, dragons attend court as ambassadors, and lend their rational, mathematical minds to universities as scholars and teachers. As the treaty’s anniversary draws near, however, tensions are high.

Seraphina Dombegh has reason to fear both sides. An unusually gifted musician, she joins the court just as a member of the royal family is murdered—in suspiciously draconian fashion. Seraphina is drawn into the investigation, partnering with the captain of the Queen’s Guard, the dangerously perceptive Prince Lucian Kiggs. While they begin to uncover hints of a sinister plot to destroy the peace, Seraphina struggles to protect her own secret, the secret behind her musical gift, one so terrible that its discovery could mean her very life.

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

Book Review | Unbreak My Heart | Melissa C. Walker

Aug 2

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 | Unbreak My Heart | Melissa C. WalkerUnbreak My Heart by Melissa C. Walker
Published by Bloomsbury on May 22, 2012
Genres: Contemporary YA, Young Adult
Pages: 232
Format: eARC
Source: the publisher via NetGalley
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three-half-stars

Sophomore year broke Clementine Williams’ heart. She fell for her best friend’s boyfriend and long story short: he’s excused, but Clem is vilified and she heads into summer with zero social life.

Enter her parents’ plan to spend the summer on their sailboat. Normally the idea of being stuck on a tiny boat with her parents and little sister would make Clem break out in hives, but floating away sounds pretty good right now.

Then she meets James at one of their first stops along the river. He and his dad are sailing for the summer and he’s just the distraction Clem needs. Can he break down Clem’s walls and heal her broken heart?

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

Book Review | This Is Not A Test | Courtney Summers

Jul 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 | This Is Not A Test | Courtney SummersThis Is Not a Test by Courtney Summers
Series: This Is Not a Test #1
Published by St. Martin's Griffin on June 19, 2012
Genres: Contemporary YA, Horror & Ghost Stories, Young Adult, Zombies
Pages: 326
Format: eARC
Source: the publisher via NetGalley
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four-stars

It’s the end of the world. Six students have taken cover in Cortege High but shelter is little comfort when the dead outside won’t stop pounding on the doors. One bite is all it takes to kill a person and bring them back as a monstrous version of their former self.

To Sloane Price, that doesn’t sound so bad. Six months ago, her world collapsed and since then, she’s failed to find a reason to keep going. Now seems like the perfect time to give up. As Sloane eagerly waits for the barricades to fall, she’s forced to witness the apocalypse through the eyes of five people who actually want to live.

But as the days crawl by, the motivations for survival change in startling ways and soon the group’s fate is determined less and less by what’s happening outside and more and more by the unpredictable and violent bids for life—and death—inside.

When everything is gone, what do you hold on to?

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

Book Review | Shadow and Bone | Leigh Bardugo

Jul 5

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 | Shadow and Bone | Leigh BardugoShadow and Bone by Leigh Bardugo
Series: The Grisha Trilogy #1
Published by Henry Holt and Co. on June 5, 2012
Genres: Fantasy YA, Young Adult
Pages: 368
Format: eARC
Also by this author: Six of Crows
Source: the publisher via NetGalley
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five-stars

Surrounded by enemies, the once-great nation of Ravka has been torn in two by the Shadow Fold, a swath of near impenetrable darkness crawling with monsters who feast on human flesh. Now its fate may rest on the shoulders of one lonely refugee.

Alina Starkov has never been good at anything. But when her regiment is attacked on the Fold and her best friend is brutally injured, Alina reveals a dormant power that saves his life—a power that could be the key to setting her war-ravaged country free. Wrenched from everything she knows, Alina is whisked away to the royal court to be trained as a member of the Grisha, the magical elite led by the mysterious Darkling.

Yet nothing in this lavish world is what it seems. With darkness looming and an entire kingdom depending on her untamed power, Alina will have to confront the secrets of the Grisha…and the secrets of her heart.

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

Book Review | My Life Next Door | Huntley Fitzpatrick

Jun 25

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 | My Life Next Door | Huntley FitzpatrickMy Life Next Door by Huntley Fitzpatrick
Series: My Life Next Door #1
Published by Dial Books for Young Readers on June 14, 2012
Genres: Contemporary YA, Relationships, Romance, Young Adult
Pages: 394
Format: eARC
Also by this author: The Boy Most Likely To
Source: the publisher via NetGalley
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five-stars

“One thing my mother never knew, and would disapprove of most of all, was that I watched the Garretts. All the time.”

The Garretts are everything the Reeds are not. Loud, numerous, messy, affectionate. And every day from her balcony perch, seventeen-year-old Samantha Reed wishes she was one of them . . . until one summer evening, Jase Garrett climbs her terrace and changes everything. As the two fall fiercely in love, Jase’s family makes Samantha one of their own. Then in an instant, the bottom drops out of her world and she is suddenly faced with an impossible decision. Which perfect family will save her? Or is it time she saved herself?

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

Book Review | Something Like Normal | Trish Doller

Jun 11

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 | Something Like Normal | Trish DollerSomething Like Normal by Trish Doller
Published by Bloomsbury on June 19, 2012
Genres: Contemporary YA, Military
Pages: 224
Format: eARC
Source: the publisher via NetGalley
Amazon • Barnes & Noble • Goodreads
five-stars

When Travis returns home from a stint in Afghanistan, his parents are splitting up, his brother’s stolen his girlfriend and his car, and he’s haunted by nightmares of his best friend’s death. It’s not until Travis runs into Harper, a girl he’s had a rocky relationship with since middle school, that life actually starts looking up. And as he and Harper see more of each other, he begins to pick his way through the minefield of family problems and post-traumatic stress to the possibility of a life that might resemble normal again. Travis’s dry sense of humor, and incredible sense of honor, make him an irresistible and eminently lovable hero.

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

Book Review | The Prince Who Fell From the Sky | John Claude Bemis

Jun 4

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 Prince Who Fell From the Sky | John Claude BemisThe Prince Who Fell From the Sky by John Claude Bemis
Published by Random House Children's Books on May 22, 2012
Genres: Middle Grade, Post-Apocalyptic YA
Pages: 259
Format: eARC
Source: the publisher via NetGalley
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four-stars

In Casseomae’s world, the wolves rule the Forest, and the Forest is everywhere. The animals tell stories of the Skinless Ones, whose cities and roads once covered the earth, but the Skinless disappeared long ago.

Casseomae is content to live alone, apart from the other bears in her tribe, until one of the ancients’ sky vehicles crashes to the ground, and from it emerges a Skinless One, a child. Rather than turn him over to the wolves, Casseomae chooses to protect this human cub, to find someplace safe for him to live. But where among the animals will a human child be safe? And is Casseomae threatening the safety of the Forest and all its tribes by protecting him?

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

Book Review | Cross My Heart | Sasha Gould

May 31

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 | Cross My Heart | Sasha GouldCross My Heart by Sasha Gould
Series: Cross My Heart #1
Published by Delacorte on March 13, 2012
Genres: Europe, Historical Fiction, Young Adult
Pages: 262
Format: eARC
Source: the publisher via NetGalley
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four-stars

Venice, 1585.

When 16-year-old Laura della Scala learns that her older sister, Beatrice, has drowned, she is given no time to grieve. Instead, Laura’s father removes her from the convent where he forcibly sent her years earlier and orders her to marry Beatrice’s fiancé, a repulsive old merchant named Vincenzo. Panicked, Laura betrays a powerful man to earn her way into the Segreta, a shadowy society of women who deal in only one currency—secrets. The Segreta seems like the answer to Laura’s prayers. The day after she joins their ranks, Vincenzo is publicly humiliated and conveniently exiled. Soon, however, Laura begins to suspect that her sister’s death was not a tragic accident but a cold-blooded murder—one that might involve the Segreta and the women she has come to trust.

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

Book Review | Kill Me Softly | Sarah Cross

May 7

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 | Kill Me Softly | Sarah CrossKill Me Softly by Sarah Cross
Series: Beau Rivage #1
Published by Egmont USA on April 10, 2012
Genres: Fairy tales, Fantasy YA, Retelling, Young Adult
Pages: 336
Format: eARC
Source: the publisher via NetGalley
Amazon • Barnes & Noble • Goodreads
four-stars

Mirabelle’s past is shrouded in secrecy, from her parents’ tragic deaths to her guardians’ half-truths about why she can’t return to her birthplace, Beau Rivage. Desperate to see the town, Mira runs away a week before her sixteenth birthday—and discovers a world she never could have imagined.

In Beau Rivage, nothing is what it seems—the strangely pale girl with a morbid interest in apples, the obnoxious playboy who’s a beast to everyone he meets, and the chivalrous guy who has a thing for damsels in distress. Here, fairy tales come to life, curses are awakened, and ancient stories are played out again and again.

But fairy tales aren’t pretty things, and they don’t always end in happily ever after. Mira has a role to play, a fairy tale destiny to embrace or resist. As she struggles to take control of her fate, Mira is drawn into the lives of two brothers with fairy tale curses of their own… brothers who share a dark secret. And she’ll find that love, just like fairy tales, can have sharp edges and hidden thorns.

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

Book Review | Pieces of Us | Margie Gelbwasser

Apr 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 | Pieces of Us | Margie GelbwasserPieces of Us by Margie Gelbwasser
Published by Flux on March 8, 2012
Genres: Contemporary YA
Pages: 336
Format: eARC
Source: the publisher via NetGalley
Amazon • Barnes & Noble • Goodreads
three-stars

Every summer, hidden away in a lakeside community in upstate New York, four teens leave behind their old identities…and escape from their everyday lives.

Yet back in Philadelphia during the school year, Alex cannot suppress his anger at his father (who killed himself), his mother (whom he blames for it), and the girls who give it up too easily. His younger brother, Kyle, is angry too—at his abusive brother, and at their mother who doesn’t seem to care. Meanwhile, in suburban New Jersey, Katie plays the role of Miss Perfect while trying to forget the nightmare that changed her life. But Julie, her younger sister, sees Katie only as everything she’s not. And their mother will never let Julie forget it.

Up at the lake, they can be anything, anyone. Free. But then Katie’s secret gets out, forcing each of them to face reality—before it tears them to pieces.

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