Crush by Chrissy Peebles

I would like to thank Story Cartel for letting me read and review this book.

When Taylor moves across the country, all she wants to do is try to finally get over her ex and maybe find someone else. What she does not see coming is meeting Jesse. He seems to be the perfect guy- hot, nice, funny... But he has a secret that he isn't telling her. Will they make it through it... and more importantly will she survive either way?

I'll admit it- I'm a sucker for any paranormal book. I see it and I just have to have it, even though I know it is bound to be corny and unrealistic. So when I saw this on Story Cartel I needed it right away...

If you need a less cheesy version of Twilight, read this. It actually sort of makes fun of Twilight (bonus) and I also liked how when Taylor finds out that Jesse is a vampire, she doesn't immediately accept it and just trust that he won't kill her. She actually stays away from him for a while and asks questions, making sure he won't hurt/kill her.

The characterization isn't great, but its acceptable. The writing is pretty good, but the plotting isn't the best. It just seemed like everything was happening too fast.

I HATED the insti-love, but I have really gave up on finding a YA book that doesn't have it.

Thanks for reading!
~Bri

Daughter of Glass by Vicki Keire

I received this book for reviewing purposes from Netgalley. I would like to thank them and Curiosity Quills Press for the opportunity to read this book.

Sasha is a girl who can feel no emotions. Her guardians make sure of that like they did for her mother before she died. She feels nothing until she meets Noah and everything changes. When she finds out how her mother really died, her whole life changes. Can she save herself from the same emotions that played a part in her mother's death? Can she save Noah from heartbreak if she can't? Read it to find out!

Although I loved the ideas behind this story and how original it sounded, the book did not live up to my expectations. The plot fell flat and it seemed way too short. It seemed like there wasn't enough things happening for it to be made into a full length novel. I feel that it would do better as a kind of short story to go along with a longer series that better explores this world.

The writing was good, but I felt there were way too many mistakes. They repeated things too much and some of the stuff included seemed way too obvious to me, like they could have left that part out and most readers would still know what was happening. I feel like this made my overall experience with the book less than it might have been otherwise.

I liked getting into the mind of Desire at the end of the book, and started to better realize how the different "emotions" were actually sort of real people, and just how hard it was for them to let go of Sasha.

The worst thing about this book was the insti-love. If I read one more book with that in it, I swear that I'm going to scream. It drives me crazy how they portray love in YA books, and teens should not be thinking that those are healthy relationships. At least it didn't have a love triangle...

Other people who don't read a lot of YA like me would really like this book, but I've seen the same things happen so many times in these books that I have no patience for them anymore.

Thanks for reading!
~Bri

Rook by Sharon Cameron

I received this book from Edelweiss. As always, this did not influence my feelings on the book in any way.

In this futuristic world, tyranny is a huge problem and people are being jailed unfairly because of it. Sophia becomes "the rook" to rescue friends and innocents from jail. When her family runs out of money she must marry a man she doesn't even know so that they can keep their estate. Rene may be loyal to the tyrant ruler, so if she marries him will he turn her in as the kingdoms most wanted criminal? Will she fall in love along the way? Read the book to find out!

I have been waiting for this book a very long time. After I finished Cameron's other series, I knew that I would gladly read anything written by her. I had been hoping to somehow get an ARC for a long time, but sort of gave up hope. When I went on Edelweiss, and saw this I knew I should at least try and get an early copy of this. I was surprised when I actually did!

I was not a big fan of the cover, but I was really hoping that what was inside would be much better. Luckily is was! I really loved the writing and all the characters were very fleshed out. I really had a love/hate relationship with Rene, but by the end I was leaning towards the love side.

I loved how creative, fun, and new this book was. I have never read a book anything like it and I'm sure I will remember it for a very long time.

Really, buy this book as soon as it comes out!

Thanks for reading!
~Bri

The Wicked Will Rise by Danielle Paige

This book continued Amy's story. Now, after she got the tin man's heart she must also somehow acquire the scarecrow's brain and the lion's courage before she is able to finally kill Dorothy and release Oz from her tyranny. Something that would help her greatly is to find the Revolutionary Order of the Wicked (if there's anything left of it), and more specifically Nox who may or may not know what to do. Can she save Oz in time? Will she find out if all is what it seems to be? Read the book to find out!

Even though there is major drama surrounding something the author tweeted, I chose to ignore that and still read the book. I feel that what an author might do does not influence a book in any way and that she had her reasons for what she did (on Goodreads there is a lot more info on this book's page so if you want to know exactly what happened you can look there).

I really enjoyed this book. It was almost as good as the first one, but outdoing Dorothy Must Die, in my opinion, would be very difficult, if not impossible. Once again, I loved the characters and got very attached to all of them (I hope no one good dies in the next book!). I felt I could see all the characters growing even more than they did in the first book and I truly love when authors are able to do that.

The writing was hilarious! I loved all the different things the characters said, and a few of the idioms that the author must have made up made me laugh out loud! That has not happened to me with a book since second grade when I read Diary of A Wimpy Kid.

This book was entertainment at it's best and I absolutely loved it!

Don't wait, go out and buy this book RIGHT NOW!
Thanks for reading!
~Bri

Dorothy Must Die by Danielle Paige

So like me, you've probably read the Wizard of Oz books and watched the movies, so you're use to Dorothy being a hero, the good guy. This book will make you rethink everything- did she really want power the whole time she did all that stuff in the classic story? Do we really know who the good guys and bad guys are in books? All these thoughts and more will flash through you're mind while reading this, and let me tell you- it is an awesome experience!

Amy Gumm is a normal girl from Kansas, living in a trailer park, getting bullied at school- normal stuff that is written about in YA these days. When a tornado brings her to Oz she doesn't find the carefree world she heard about in movies. Apparently, power made Dorothy a cruel ruler, and to make a long story short all of the magic in Oz was taken away for Dorothy and Glinda to use. The "good" witches are the bad witches, and the "bad" witches are the good witches. Amy joins the Revolutionary Order of the Wicked to try to use her newfound magic to kill Dorothy. Can she do it in time?

I really enjoyed the writing in this book. The author really knows how to relate to teens and her writing reflects that. She really knows "teen-speak" and I loved reading things that teens would actually say, and not stereotypes that teens only say in movies.

The world was amazing- I have read all of the Oz books, and I must say that the author really did her homework! Amazing!

I read this book a few months ago and I still find myself thinking about what happened and guessing about what may or may not happen in the third book. I will be writing a review on the second book too, hopefully later today.

Thanks for reading!
~Bri

Fairy Keeper by Amy Bearce

Synopsis from Goodreads:

Forget cute fairies in pretty dresses. In the world of Aluvia, most fairies are more like irritable, moody insects. Almost everyone in the world of Aluvia views the fairy keeper mark as a gift, but not fourteen-year-old Sierra. She hates being a fairy keeper, but the birthmark is right there on the back of her neck. It shows everyone she was born with the natural ability to communicate, attract, and even control the tiny fairies whose nectar is amazingly powerful. Fairy nectar can heal people, but it is also a key ingredient in synthesizing Flight, an illegal elixir that produces dreaminess, apathy and hallucinations. She’s forced to care for a whole hive of the bee-like beasties by her Flight-dealing, dark alchemist father.

Then one day, Sierra discovers the fairies of her hatch are mysteriously dead. The fairy queen is missing. Her father’s Flight operation is halted, and he plans to make up for the lost income by trading her little sister to be an elixir runner for another dark alchemist, a dangerous thug. Desperate to protect her sister, Sierra convinces her father she can retrieve the lost queen and get his operation up and running.

The problem? Sierra’s queen wasn’t the only queen to disappear. They’re all gone, every single one, and getting them back will be deadly dangerous.

Sierra journeys with her best friend and her worst enemy -- assigned by her father to dog her every step -- to find the missing queens. Along the way, they learn that more than just her sister’s life is at stake if they fail. There are secrets in the Skyclad Mountains where the last wild fairies were seen. The magic Sierra finds there has the power to transform their world, but only if she can first embrace her calling as a fairy keeper.
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I received this book from Netgalley. This does not influence my rating in any way.

I don't know about you, but reading that synopsis made me super intrigued about the book. Lost queens, irritable fairies... that makes a pretty good book when written right, so I decided to request this book.

A week later, I got an email that said I had permission to view this book. I was really happy and I moved this book to the front of my to-read list. I'm very glad I did.

I really enjoyed this book. There were very good relationships between the characters, and while some of them were strained, they managed to put the past behind them and put up with each other. By the end of the book you could clearly see the friendships between some former enemies and really see their sides of things.

The plot was not boring at all- it really surprised me! I found myself actually wanting to read even when there wasn't as much action.

Even though this book is labeled middle grade, I really believe it should be YA. When I picked it up I thought it was YA, and I didn't find out it wasn't until after I was done and looking at the author's website.

The romance wasn't instant, and you could really see how real it was. It was awkward at times, but I felt that made it more realistic and I think that most teens can relate to that- not knowing if your crush likes you or if you should do anything about it. That's something I feel that everyone goes through at least once in their life.

I would definitely recommend this book! Wow, I haven't given a book more than 4 stars in over a month, but I feel really good about giving this one 5 stars.

Thanks for reading!
~Bri 

Burning Kingdoms by Lauren DeStefano

Synopsis from Goodreads:
Danger descends in the second book of The Internment Chronicles, from the New York Times bestselling author of The Chemical Garden trilogy.

After escaping Internment, Morgan and her fellow fugitives land on the ground to finally learn about the world beneath their floating island home.

The ground is a strange place where water falls from the sky as snow, and people watch moving pictures and visit speakeasies. A place where families can have as many children as they want, their dead are buried in vast gardens of bodies, and Internment is the feature of an amusement park.

It is also a land at war.

Everyone who fled Internment had their own reasons to escape their corrupt haven, but now they’re caught under the watchful eye of another king who wants to dominate his world. They may have made it to the ground, but have they dragged Internment with them?
                                                                                                                  
I don't even know how to review this, that's why it's taken me so long to post it on here. While I thoroughly enjoyed the first book, even giving it 4.5 stars, this book was very lacking.

I found this book extremely boring. It dragged on and on, and I just couldn't get into it. That's why it took me so long to read. This book definitely had second book syndrome.

The writing seemed to not be very enjoyable. While the first book described everything perfectly, this one seemed to be very vague. Also now that I've read this I realize just how much the first book wasn't describing since it seemed like normal stuff to Morgan, the narrator. I think a good author should be able to let the reader know of some of the changes in their worlds from our world.

Like many characters have been doing lately, they really grated on my nerves. All the characters were super annoying and just expected each other to forgive and forget, and of course they did. I really started to hate Pen, Morgan's best friend, by the end of the book. When she had a near death experience I was really hoping DeStefano would just finish her off already, and maybe make the book a little less boring.

This whole book was extremely boring. All that was happening was they were adjusting to ground life. I felt they seemed too normal with everything, and yet some things they just couldn't understand that they probably should.

I really would not recommend this book to anyone. I really loved the first book, but this one just ruined the series (ironic that the first book was called perfect ruin and this one is burning kingdoms- the ruin that was perfect is now burning...).

DO NOT READ THIS BOOK!
Thanks for reading!
~Bri

 

 

Moonlands by Steven Seville

I received this book from Netgalley. This did not influence my review in any way.

Synopsis from Netgalley:

Ashley Hawthorne thinks of herself as the Cuckoo Girl. No matter where she is it feels like she doesn’t quite belong.

Everything changes when her eccentric aunt, Elspeth Grimm, leaves her the key to a safety deposit box in a bank that was destroyed during the Blitz. That box contains the first part of her true inheritance: an umbrella, a battered old notebook, a pair of aviator’s goggles and a locket. Each of these gifts is a unique part of who she really is.

Elspeth is a Grimm, a descendent of the brothers who purged this world of monsters by trapping them within the Concord. She is the Oracle. A keeper of all the knowledge we have amassed about the creatures of the Fae and other worlds. And someone intent on destroying the Concord has murdered her!

When Ashley looks through the goggles that night she sees curious creatures on the roof of the house across the street watching her. To the naked eye they look like crows but they are not. It is the first glimpse of the other place—the place where she will finally belong.
The journal is crammed full of things, but there’s no actual writing in it. Ash decides she’s going to use the book as a journal, and begins the first entry: My name is Ashley Hawthorne. The ink fades so she writes it again. My name is Ashley Hawthorne. Again the ink fades. She tries again and again until the ink scratches out an entirely different first line: That is not who you are! 

In some ways this book was exactly what I have been looking for in a paranormal book for a long time. It was very original and really kept my interest. I had quite a few problems with many things though.

The love interest, Blaze, was very confusing. I liked how he had a bad side, but could also be very sweet. On the other hand, I did not like how he had to eat people. This really grossed me out, but at the same time I wish that authors could be brave like that and have other love interests so imperfect. If Edward Cullen had to kill people when he knew Bella, maybe she wouldn't have been quite so okay with finding out he was a vampire (then again, maybe not- Bella would probably still be in "love" with him... She wasn't the smartest main character).

I had the same feeling with the writing style. I liked it but then I didn't. The writing was good, but I felt like the author was trying too hard. Some sentences didn't quite make sense, like the author was trying to add too much into them.

I wish I could give this book more than 3 stars, but I honestly can't. There were just too many mixed feelings for me, and just like in real life relationships those are the ones that aren't lasting or good. If there is a sequel someday I will be reading it in a heartbeat though.

I really think that you should go out and try this book if you're looking for something unique.

Thanks for reading!
~Bri

Such a Secret Place by Cortney Pearson

I received this book for reviewing purposes from NetGalley. This did not influence my feelings on the book in any way.

Ambry is one of the only people in her world who cannot perform magic. Like everyone else she is unable to cry, but unlike everyone else she has feelings that somehow were not taken away from her by a wizard years ago.

I really enjoyed reading this book. At first I wasn't sure what to think of it and thought it would have some sort of paranormal aspect in it, but it actually wasn't. I really enjoyed that since there are way too many paranormal YA books.

I really felt like I knew all of the characters, especially Ambry and Talon. They were the main characters and the book was basically about them getting closer, then being torn apart over and over again.

I did not like Shasa at all- I found her vain and snobby, but that could be because she was basically trying to tear Ambry and Talon apart and that was obviously the only reason she was even in the book. I found myself hating Talon at the end of the book since it really seemed like he was cheating, and you'll have to read the book to find out what I'm talking about.

I would really recommend this book, and it actually made me feel for the characters! Anyone who wants to read some unique fantasy should read this.

Thanks for reading!
~Bri