Review - I Was Here

Written By: Gayle Forman
Published By: Viking (Penguin)
Release Date: January 27, 2015
Pages: 288
Genre: Contemporary, Realistic fiction, Suicide
Source: ARC from publisher

Cody and Meg were inseparable.
Two peas in a pod.
Until . . . they weren’t anymore.
 
When her best friend Meg drinks a bottle of industrial-strength cleaner alone in a motel room, Cody is understandably shocked and devastated. She and Meg shared everything—so how was there no warning? But when Cody travels to Meg’s college town to pack up the belongings left behind, she discovers that there’s a lot that Meg never told her. About her old roommates, the sort of people Cody never would have met in her dead-end small town in Washington. About Ben McAllister, the boy with a guitar and a sneer, who broke Meg’s heart. And about an encrypted computer file that Cody can’t open—until she does, and suddenly everything Cody thought she knew about her best friend’s death gets thrown into question.
 
I Was Here is Gayle Forman at her finest, a taut, emotional, and ultimately redemptive story about redefining the meaning of family and finding a way to move forward even in the face of unspeakable loss.

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Several years ago I read Forman's award-winning novel If I Stay, and unlike almost everyone else I wasn't blown away by it, but I did thoroughly enjoy it.  Although this book hasn't hit shelves yet most of its praise has been along the lines of If I Stay so there's no doubt in my mind that fans of that book will just eat this one up too.  The writing was truely beautiful, with several quotes that I can see being made into beautiful pieces of artwork or even tattoos.  The story was reminiscent of Jandy Nelson's The Sky If Everywhere in the sense that it delt with trying to move past the death of a loved one while at the same time keeping them close.  It was fascinating watching Forman weave her story and even more interesting that she managed to add a hint of mystery and love to the mix.  The characters were well rounded and while they did some things that irked me there was a logical reason for them to do it, so I was able to forgive the act more than I would have if it had just been for the sake of the plot.  Overall it was a touching story of a girl coming to grips with the suicide of her best friend, along with uncovering the reasons that she decided to go down that path and learning to forgive herself for what happened.  All of that being said for some reason there was just something that didn't click with me.  I appreciated the characters and the plot, was blown away by the writing in places, and was intregued enough to plow right through the book, but despite all of that I didn't connect with it the way so many people seem to have.  Please though, if you are excited for this book and/or are fans of Forman's previous works pick it up.  Just because I wasn't hit the way so many others were doesn't mean that you won't be (for some reason Forman's books don't give me all the feels like they do to everyone else), but I still think this is a powerful book because it does what so many books are afraid to do.  And that's talk about a tough subject.  It talks about a subject that so many people won't touch and it does it in such a real way and that makes it SO IMPORTANT.  So go pick it up because even though I didn't love it I liked it a lot and it's something that everyone should read.

4.5/5 stars

Review - All The Bright Places

Written By: Jennifer Niven
Published By: Knopf Random House
Release Date: January 6, 2015
Pages: 384
Genre: Contemporary, Realistic fiction, Mental Health
Source: ARC from publisher

The Fault in Our Stars meets Eleanor and Park in this compelling, exhilarating, and beautiful story about a girl who learns to live from a boy who intends to die.

Theodore Finch is fascinated by death, and he constantly thinks of ways he might kill himself. But each time, something good, no matter how small, stops him.

Violet Markey lives for the future, counting the days until graduation, when she can escape her Indiana town and her aching grief in the wake of her sister's recent death.

When Finch and Violet meet on the ledge of the bell tower at school, it’s unclear who saves whom. And when they pair up on a project to discover the “natural wonders” of their state, both Finch and Violet make more important discoveries: It’s only with Violet that Finch can be himself—a weird, funny, live-out-loud guy who’s not such a freak after all. And it’s only with Finch that Violet can forget to count away the days and start living them. But as Violet’s world grows, Finch’s begins to shrink.

This is an intense, gripping novel perfect for fans of Jay Asher, Rainbow Rowell, John Green, Gayle Forman, and Jenny Downham from a talented new voice in YA, Jennifer Niven.

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There have been so many people raving about this book that I was a little worried that it was going to be one of those books that I found overrated but surprisingly that did not turn out to be the case.  By the time I realized this book might end up breaking my heart I was already so invested that I had to see what happened next, so a warning to you all; tears are almost unavoidable.  This should come as no surprise to people though, seeing as the book is comped to The Fault in Our Stars, which is also a tear-jerker, and let me say if you didn't enjoy that book you probably won't enjoy this one.  I say this because I can see a slight resemblance between the "teens who feel too old for teenagers" vibe coming from both of these books, and while some people hate this I found that it lead to some passages that were breathtakingly beautiful.  Something that I think people will enjoy is that the manic-pixie-dream-girl stereotype that seems to come with these kind of books isn't there.  In fact it's more of a manic-pixie-dream-boy kind of thing, which I found quite fascinating.  The energy exerted by the main male character is one of the biggest reasons that I kept flipping pages, I almost felt like I HAD to see what happened next; what he would do next, what he would say next.  There was a feverish pace that I couldn't break no matter how hard I tried.  And I have to give props to the girl because so often in books like this they do everything wrong, but she did everything RIGHT.  When you get to the point I'm referring to you'll know exactly what I mean, and I cannot stress enough how fantastic it was to see that in YA lit.  It just filled me with joy that Niven decided to take her characters down that path instead of the one most traveled.  Overall I was ridiculously pleased with age-group jump into YA and I can already tell this is going to be a big seller.  I found this a fantastic way to bring in the new year and I wish Niven all the best in the sales of this book, they are deserved.  I can't see what she comes up with next.

4.5/5 stars

In Which I Anticipate 2015 + Giveaway

Yesterday I took a look back at my year in books and today, being the start of a new year, I'm going to look forward.  One of the things that make me so excited about a new year is all of the new books that are going to be published and I thought I would take a look at some that I can't wait to read along with a few book-related new year's resolutions!

Here are 15 novels that come out THIS YEAR that I'm excited to read!

• A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas - I love Sarah J. Maas' books, so I'm sure this will be no exception! 
• A Darker Shade of Magic by V. E. Schwab (aka Victoria Schwab) - Schwab's first adult book was SO GREAT and I have high hopes for this one!
• Alive by Scott Sigler - A teenage girl wakes up in a coffin and finds others in the same position.  That's how it starts.  HOW COOL IS THAT!? (Note: in real life this would NOT be cool)
• Bones & All by Camille DeAngelis - Cannibals.  That is all.
• Delicate Monsters by Stephanie Kuehn - Supposedly the main female character is screwed up.  I'm excited to see if it's true!

• Fairest by Marissa Meyer - I'll pretty much read anything Marissa writes, and since Winter isn't out until much later I suppose I'll have to see how Queen Levana turned into who she is.  I'm interested to see if I like it. (We'll stick Winter in here too, cause it comes out this year too!)
• Hold Me Closer: The Tiny Cooper Story by David Levithan - This is a musical as a novel about one of the best characters from Will Grayson, Will Grayson.  It cannot get better than that.
• Lair of Dreams by Libba Bray - I'm excited to finally see what happens to this cast of characters!  
• Magonia by Maria Dahvana Headley - This cover. This summary!  And Neil Gaiman meets John Green?  Heck yes I'll give that a shot!
• Monstrous by MarcyKate Connolly - This book just sounds so adorable I can't even.  Also, the cover is SO CUTE!!!

• Ruthless by Carolyn Lee Adams - A girl gets kidnapped by a serial killer and he might become her first victim?  Oh yes. 
• The Devil You Know by Trish Doller - I love both of Trish's previous books and this one is a thriller, which is right up my alley!
• The Remedy by Suzanne Young - A prequel to The Program that shows how it all started?  I foresee tears in my future.
• The Sin Eater's Daughter by Melinda Salisbury - The main character can't touch anyone, which reminds me of Shatter Me, but it sounds like it's gonna be set in more of a mid-evil time.  That sounds awesome!
• The Walls Around Us by Nova Ren Suma - I've loved Imaginary Girls and with this novel it sounds like she's getting back to that more magical realism thing, which has me super excited!

• A History of Glitter and Blood by Hannah Moskowitz - The description of this novel just sounds so beautiful I can't not read it.
• Extraordinary Means by Robyn Schneider - I loved Schneider's first novel, The Beginning of Everything, and this book - which is about people with incurable tuberculosis - sounds like exactly something I would read. 
• Nowhere But Here by Katie McGarry - I'll read anything McGarry writes and this new series sounds HOT.
• The Dead House by Dawn Kurtagich - This is a psychological thriller made up of several things, including medical reports and video transcripts.  That sounds way cool!
• The Rose Society by Marie Lu - The Young Elites was one of my top reads last year and I'm excited to see how the story continues.

Slasher Girls & Monster Boys edited by April Genevieve Tucholke - I added an extra book because this is an anthology. I love a lot of the authors contributing to this and the idea sounds awesome!

This is not even close to a list of the books I'm excited for to come out in 2015!  Ask me about more of them in the comments, on the facebook page, or on twitter!

A new year also means some resolutions to go along with it.  I decided that, to hold myself more accountable, I would write down a few of my book-related ones here!  These are in no particular order.

1. I hope to read 100 books this year, which is 49 more than last year (or about double).
2. With the increase in books I also hope to increase the number of posts I put up.  Reviews, giveaways, and just plain discussions!
3. Whenever I go to a book signing I want to have read at least one book by the author (If there are more than one author at the event I want to have read at least one book by at least one author, more if there are 5+)! [Note: I tried this last year, it lasted less than a month.  We'll see if I can do it this year!]
4. I want to write at least 350 words every day (here a "day" is a weekday that is not a national holiday.  That equals writing at least 252 days this year)!

I have extra copies of three 2015 ARCs and so I've decided that one winner will get to pick two of them to keep for themselves!  Below are the three titles I have extra copies of and all you have to do to win is enter via the rafflecopter!  And since this giveaway started a day after the one put up yesterday it will end on the 11th, instead of the 10th!

This giveaway is only open to people with US/Canadian mailing address because I am very broke and international shipping is expensive. Sorry to all of my international followers, there will be more giveaways for you in the future!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

In Which I Review My Year In Books + Giveaway

The year is just about over and now comes the time for looking back at all we've done over the past 365 days, and since this is a book blog I'm going to look back at all of the books I read this year.  First I'll start with some numbers, cause I'm a sucker for all of those infographic things (although mine aren't nearly as cool).

I read a total of 51 books this year.  You can see them all here. (That's just over half the total number that I read last year.)

This is how they broke down age group wise.

I didn't review any of the Adult/New Adult books, so that's a total of 35 reviews.  That's not so great...

What about by genre?

(All of these are only based on the YA books only)

I'm actually surprised by this cause I generally think of myself as more of a paranormal/fantasy/sci-fi lover.

This number could have been much higher, especially with all of the great debuts that came out this year. 

Apparently I also really liked Standalones.  And I started more series than I actually continued AND finished. Oops.

I also 

• read 3 books that were not published in 2014
• did not finish (read more than 100 pages of and didn't care for) 3 books (I started and did not finish more, but I mean to come back to those ones...at some point in time)
• read 6 books that were self-published/indie-published (this is out of ALL the books I read)

Now that you have all of the numbers what about my favorites?

These are in alphabetical order, not in order by rank 

Also, please note that these books are just YA, not adult/new-adult

 Amity by Micol Ostow

Why?  Cause I'm a huge fan of the horror genre and the writing worked for me.  Also, it's pretty original.

My review

 Better off Friends by Elizabeth Eulberg

Why?  I adore friends to lovers stories and this one was just so adorable.

I wrote a review for this and I posted it but the internet ate it so...yeah.  I'll work on that.

Cress by Marissa Meyer

Why?  Rapunzel on a satellite.  That is all.

My reivew

 Don't Touch by Rachel M. Wilson

Why?  This was such a fantastic look at an anxiety disorder, and I really think we need more of them in YA (and adult) lit!

My review

Heir of Fire by Sarah J. Maas

Why?  Despite being a super dark book the writing is just so pretty!  Also, the story! And yay for high fantasy for the YA group!

My review

 I'll Give You The Sun by Jandy Nelson

Why?  The writing was beautiful, as was the story, and it shouldn't have worked but it TOTALLY did.

My review

Isla and the Happily Ever After by Stephanie Perkins

Why?  Because it was just so gosh-dang adorable.  Also, cameos from the previous two book's characters.

My review 

 On The Fence by Kasie West

Why?  Another friends to lovers story that really hit the spot.  I'm also a huge fan of the "one of the boys" cliche too.  This book is just filled with warm fuzzies.

My review

 The Young Elites by Marie Lu

Why?  A female anti-hero, that's why.

My Review

Welcome to the Dark House by Laurie Faria Stolarz       

                             

Why?  It's a teen slasher flick in a book!  

     

My review

Those are my top ten books for the year but because it's 2014 I've decided that there need to be 14 books on this list, so below are four extras that are part of the top 14, but not the top 10

Into the Still Blue by Veronica Rossi

Killer Instinct by Jennifer Lynn Barnes

Split Second by Kasie West

The Summer of Letting Go by Gae Polisner

Feel free to ask me about any adult/NA books I read in the comments, on the facebook page, or on twitter!

And now because I've read some awesome books this year I want to share them with you, so fill out the rafflecopter below and you're entered to win a copy of one of my top 10 14 favorite books!  And if you haven't read the first book in the series you can pick the first book, cause I love all of those ones too!  The giveaway will last until the last day I'm working, which is January 10!

The giveaway will be open internationally AS LONG AS the book depository ships to you.  

You can find out if they do here.

a Rafflecopter giveaway


*One last note, if I owe you a prize I will be mailing it not long after the 10th (and emailing you before then)!  I'm so sorry that it's taking me so long, I just REALLY hate going to the post office...also I'm kinda broke-ish.  

Review - The Young Elites

Three years ago I read Marie Lu's debut novel, Legend, and I really enjoyed it, but for some reason despite buying the other two books in the series I never saw it through to the end.  This year when I heard that she had a new book coming out I decided it sounded like something I would enjoy and asked the publisher for a copy.  I received one but didn't end up getting to it before it came out, so I pushed it aside and said I would come back to it later.  That was a mistake, I wish I would have read this book so much sooner.  So often in books, YA lit especially, females are portrayed as delicate flowers or, when they're actually fully rounded, are still sweet and loving; they're good.  That's bull. The whole world is not rainbows and butterflies, some people are good, some people aren't, and some are just plain confused.  Adelina falls into the confused category, straddling the line between good and bad in a way that makes you slightly unsure of which side you're actually rooting for to win.  On top of Adelina, the main character, the cast of supporting characters was fantastic and I fell in love with almost all of them.  The other thing I adored was that Adelina was fragile.  So often we see characters as weak, especially females, for accepting help, but Lu has written Adelina in a way that while she appears fragile at some points she needs help and ends up accepting it while still coming off as a whole as someone who could kill you easily.  There's a distinct lack of that in YA lit, in anything at all actually, and it's something that I think is really important to highlight; that even strong people have to ask for help sometimes.  Overall I was just so thrilled with this book as a whole.  The twists and turns that Lu wove into the story-line were fantastic and I can honestly say that where the book ended up was not what I was expecting.  I will undoubtedly read book two when it comes out and would recommend this book to just about anyone.  I want to say that I had some trouble getting into the book at first, it was heavy in a way that's hard to describe but that might have had something to do with the fact that this book constitutes as a high-fantasy novel, which can be slightly more bulky than other novels.  There are also some dark scenes in the book that might not be appropriate for those under the age of 14, but that being said it was spectacular.

4.5/5 dust spirits

Review - Melt

Usually I do not read self published books but when I was just starting out as a blogger an author sent me a copy of her newest YA novel for me to read, and being who I am I decided to read it.  What I found was a really good, emotional novel that I would never have found if I hadn't taken that chance, so when that same author asked me to read her upcoming YA release I decided that I would take that chance again.  When it comes to books with difficult subject manners (this one deals with child abuse and drug and alcohol abuse) I usually find that it takes me a while to get through them because they're so intense.  Now, while this book is intense, quite intense actually, I didn't find it difficult to read at all.  In fact despite the slightly strange formatting (which might have been because it was an early uncorrected copy) and jarring voice of the male POV (which made sense in terms of the story) it was a really quick read.  I found that the pages just flew by and I was invested in what was going to happen to the characters next.  I also loved being able to see things from both character's POV, and trust me when I say there was no mistaking one character for another, which I know can be a big problem for some people.  There was one thing that was slightly irritating but after thinking about it I realized that for the character it made sense.  That was the fact that the female character seemed a little young, but like I said after giving it some thought I realized that it wasn't as big of a problem as I thought it was, that it fit with the idea of the character.  Overall I was very pleased with this book and I'm interested in seeing what happens to the characters next.  Like I said I don't rarely read self published books, and even rarer do I recommend them to people, but this book managed to touch me in just a way that makes me think I will be thinking about it for quite some time, and on top of that it's a quick read that sets itself apart from other things that are currently on shelves.

Out November 6, 2014

4/5 dust spirits

*Thanks to Selene for providing me with an early copy of this book in return for an honest review.

Review - Killer Instinct

There's almost nothing I love more than a good murder mystery, whether it be on TV, the big screen, or on a page, so last year when I heard about a book that was basically Criminal Minds with teenagers I knew I had to read it.  I devoured the first one and was very pleasantly surprised by the novel as a whole and the fact that I didn't see who the killer was from page one, so when I heard there was going to be a second book in the series I knew I had to get my hands on it.  So often I find that the second book in a series inevitably leads to heartbreak one way or another but that, thankfully, didn't happen.  Dare I say it I think that I actually enjoyed this book more than the first one in the series.  Everything was ramped up in this sequel, the romance, the intrigue, the death, and the gore. With the consequences of the first book really starting to show up at the very beginning the stage is set for a novel that could very well have ended up being a flop but with Barnes introducing a character we had only just heard about in book one everything changes and gets much, much darker.  Again we got to see inside the mind of the killer and look through their eyes as they methodically carried out their plan, but we also got a glimpse of a killer behind bars who, arguably, could be one of the top serial murderers in the YA world (and might be able to hold that title in the real world as well).  I think it's also important to point out that while this book could have been so dark Barnes managed to keep it light with her entertaining cast of main characters who we get to learn more about.  Overall I'm ridiculously pleased with the outcome of this book and would recommend it to anyone who has a thing for YA and criminal dramas (especially Criminal Minds).  As for the rest of the series I hope that there will be at least two more books (although if we're being honest there's probably only going to be one more), but regardless of how many books there are left I can't wait to return to this world with these characters because even the ones I disliked I still wound up liking!  Bravo Barnes for a great second-in-a-series novel, and I do believe you have found your calling writing YA murder mysteries!

Out November 4, 2014

4.5/5 dust spirits

*Thanks to Disney-Hyperion for providing me with an ARC of this book in return for an honest review