I'm A Book Shark

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This book just makes me want to say AWWWWWWWW! I mean, there's some action, there's some paranormal stuff going on, but basically I love Finn and Emma. It's so hard for them, so you really want to root for them! This was the ARC so it needs some editing, but I really enjoyed this story more than I thought I would! I was actually hooked early on, since little by little information is revealed about the two of them. You learn more and more as you read, and it's addicting. You want to know the rest of the story about them!

The idea of an Inbetween is really interesting. I guess I didn't quite understand why people go there because I thought it was mostly kids who couldn't make an impression one way or the other. It's not Heaven, but it's not Hell. I liked that. There were a couple times were I couldn't quite guess what was going to happen next, but some of this is predictable. It works for the overall picture though, because the end wasn't what I guessed at all!! I'm so eagerly waiting the sequel to see where it takes Finn and Emma!

What I didn't quite like was how Emma started liking Finn before she knew the whole story. Maybe she just couldn't help it because of their past, but that feels like justification. I guess I'm going with that excuse because I really want to like this book a lot. I did! I'm glad I read it. It's very cute. Finn has a lot of "aww" moments. It's obviously unrealistic, but I always enjoy that in a story.

This was cute and funny. I enjoyed the narrator, and this made me giggle and get angry all at the same time. I did want more at the end, though. But this is definitely enjoyable and I'd like to see the movie!!

On a side note, I do miss adult books and their free usage of the f-word. It entertains me to no end, honestly. It never fails to be just the word needed in almost any situation! Love it :o)

This was mostly ruined by the narrator. I'm pretty sure she's the same one as the rest of the series, and I'd have to go back and look through my previous reviews, but I couldn't STAND how bratty and over the top she made Evie sound this time around! I was seriously annoyed and I wanted to quit listening to this multiple times. I should have just read the last book because it was ridiculous. I enjoyed the story for the most part, but seriously. Narrator!! GRRR.

Eh. I only listened to this one because I realized I'd somehow made it through the other three. Figured I should finish up this series. The end wasn't really what I thought it would be, but part of it is obvious. I think I wanted more with Cam because I liked him even though I shouldn't have. Oh well. The epilogue made me giggle a little bit. It was kind of cute. I'm glad it's over though.

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4.5 stars

WOWOWOWOWOWWW. Such a great story. Chelsea is a brave girl with a lot of courage and strength to do what she does. A vow of silence is no joke, and Chelsea doesn't take it lightly. It's interesting to see her grow up over time in this novel. Hannah Harrington really made this story amazing with all the side plots and lessons learned. I read it pretty slow in order to take in every word, and it made me tear up twice. I laughed, I cried, I wanted to take my own vow of silence. I'd read this again right now if I wasn't so backed up on review books. SO SO GOOD.

This book is powerful in a quiet way. And that's no pun or joke. It's serious. It's no joke figuring out who you are in high school. It's serious business when you're 16, knowing who your friends are, what flies and what doesn't with them. I never had this problem since I went to a pretty small school, but I've read enough and heard enough stories to know that kids are ruthless! Teens and young adults can be brutal to one another! This book is a great example.

If you think that's enough, then this novel deals with homophobia and hate crimes. HELLO! These are some of my favorite topics to discuss because they get me SO MAD and riled up that I could spit fire. NO ONE puts their hands on another human being out of hate, with intentions to hurt. Especially when it's unfounded, ignorant, unacceptable hate. Okay, I better get back on track. Here's the deal:

So Chelsea witnesses two guys making out at a party. Since she can never keep her trap shut (plus she's had a bit to drink), she spills the beans. Two of the boys in her crowd of friends decide he's a disgusting animal and go beat him up. Chelsea does the right thing and tells the police, but in turn she loses every single friend and shred of dignity she had at her school. (The back of the book tells you this - it's no spoiler.) But Chelsea has some lessons to learn, like if those friends were ever worth the things she had to do in order to keep them around. I loved this book, but I wish stories like this didn't have to be told. It's so sad, but hopefully people learn from books like this one.

So, full disclosure, this was an ARC copy I received from ALA. I know that it's not the final, finished copy, and there were some editing issues. This time I'm not just talking about weird grammar or missing punctuation. I'm talking about issues with TIME in this book. On day 22 it's apparently Saturday AND Sunday, and then day 24 is Saturday again.. something like that. I tried to stop paying attention to the day headers because they didn't really matter in terms of the story. I kind of wish those would go. Plus I wanted a little more at the end. Like what happens to the guys who beat Noah up. That kind of stuff. It has a great ending, perfect final words, so I'm not too disappointed.

Basically, READ THIS THING! Much better than Saving June!

Uhhh, what?!?! My brain has almost no clue about what it read.. seriously! That was a bit of a mind-bender. I still am not totally sure about what was the truth and what was really going on. I wish a bit more of that got explained. And I had so many theories running through my head the whole time! This book really makes you think and keeps you guessing until the end.

My only real problem with this is that, while you're guessing about what's going to happen, everything that happens is never really a clue. A+B does not equal C in the end. So don't even bother. Even though this book is over 400 pages long, I wanted more. In the end, I craved more explanation about all that WTFery and all the stuff Alice learns about Rachel along the way. This book was just crazy, but I really liked it!!

This was a cute book. It had quite a bit of trickery going on. Plus it's funny! Not seriously funny or wickedly funny, but it had such undertones of funny. Little quips that are SO Maureen Johnson. She writes such a variety of stuff, it's hard to figure her out. I did predict one of the parts, and it's obvious that no one is going to Hell, but it's still a cute listen.

Now, I love Therese Plummer. A lot. I love when she narrates books. But her voice was too old for this character. She did some fantastic voices for the characters, but her teen voice just didn't shine through this time. Still, I enjoyed listening!

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AWWWWW! This book is like every bookworm's dream come true. Who wouldn't want to find out that the book boyfriend in your favorite book was REAL in the pages of the book!? It's such a cute, clever idea. I would love to have been there for a writing session between mother and daughter on this one. The ending is clever, and the whole book is adorable. The audio version of this book is really something special. I love the different narrators for each character, plus the storybook narrator.

One of my favorite things about this book is actually the fact that Delilah's mom is very involved in her life. In so many YA novels, the parents are extremely absent. I can't stand that. It's okay if that's the deal - busy working mom, single father, etc. But when they're "supportive" parents who aren't EVER involved, boooo to that. Delilah's mom was front and center, always worried and wondering about her daughter, trying to get her help when she thought Delilah was nutso. YAY for that!

But mostly I just loved Oliver and Delilah together. As they try to figure out how to get Oliver out of the book, they work together with so many creative strategies. They're determined. All of the side characters are wonderful, too. Rapscullio (or however you spell it - I listened to this, remember) cracked me up because his voice sounded like Hoggle from Labyrinth. The horse, Socks, was too funny with his insecurities. Every character stood out to me!

If you haven't checked out Jodi Picoult, this is NOT the place to start. It is not very representative of her other novels. This is purely a fun, fictional novel written with her daughter. I'd recommend this one to young readers. Picoult's books are much more dense and heavy, written mostly for adult readers. But this one is definitely a good book. :o)

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3.5 stars

I really liked this one. It kept me guessing until the very end. And there were times where I was really shocked and needed to keep reading. But I still thought the end was slightly weak. The last few paragraphs started to wrap it up way too quickly. I don't ever want anything to drag out unnecessarily, but with the way this ends, it needed a little bit more to explain everything.

I liked that this was male POV. I always find that a refreshing change of pace. Books like Anna Dressed in Blood and Freefall with male POV change it up for me. I read a lot of books with a female perspective. So I liked that about this book. I also liked the premise behind it. It's a bit confusing at the beginning, but after a while I got really into it. It seemed like it was going to be such a cluster for Nick's life, and I always wanted a happy ending for him. I liked him and Taryn. I wasn't sure I would, but I definitely felt for the characters.

Parts of this felt a bit overdone, but again, I liked it. I guess there was drama with this author, but I enjoyed the book anyway. It's different and enjoyable with a few WTF moments in there. I like that. :o)

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While I read this pretty quickly, I wasn't ever hooked to the story. I was mildly intrigued until close to the end, about 3/4 of the way through. By then I felt invested enough to have to finish it, if only to find out what happens to Margo, AJ, and even Taylor herself.

Taylor thinks she doesn't belong at Sunny Meadows, and maybe she doesn't. But she needs some emotional help after dealing with panic attacks for years and stealing her mom's boyfriend-of-the-month's car to run away. She meets some interesting characters throughout the novel, and she deals with her emotions and the problems with her parents while at Sunny Meadows. This is the story of Taylor trying to figure her life out.

Like I said, I was intrigued, but I never got addicted or totally sucked in. I was frustrated at the beginning because people mess with Taylor, and some of it just wasn't all that important to the story. I probably could have put this book down for a day or two without consequence, but it's a quick read, so I finished it. I hope people enjoy this one.

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3.5 stars

I really enjoyed this book. I wasn't hooked at first because I read 30 pages and didn't think I'd like this much. The whole astral projection sounded weird, zooming off to different places while leaving her body behind. But I've seen so many good reviews and tweets about this book that I sat down to read it and ended up finishing it in a matter of hours. I never really wanted to put it down because I certainly wanted to know how it would all work out. This is a pretty good book!

It's unlike a lot of the stuff I've read recently. I've read about vampires, werewolves, reapers, ghosts, necromancers, witches, etc. But someone who can leave her body like that is different. Especially when she gets shut out when someone else takes over! WTF, right?! Yeah. The description of this book tells that part of the story, and it's all so addictively frustrating that you can't put the book down!

And all the tension between Anna and Rei was perfectly done while slightly predictable. So you basically know what will end up happening in this book, but it's the journey that matters for this one. I mentioned that in my review for Such a Rush, but that one didn't work like Auracle does. I'd recommend this one for sure.

4.5 stars

AAAHHHHH this book! I sighed happily and hugged this book when I finished. It was a bit of a roller coaster, up and down, happy and sad. I wasn't exactly sure where it would go sometimes, which is awesome because I hate the predictability of YA romances. It surprised me until the end.

At first, I actually liked the idea of Brian and Parker. Then it went downhill, fast! Corndog didn't hit me right at first, but then I really got into him. It's interesting to see how this story plays out! I loved almost all of the characters (besides aforementioned Brian), and I read almost the whole thing in one day.

What I didn't particularly care for was the religion aspect. I'm not religious in the least, but it didn't stop me from reading this. Everything bad that was happening in the story was because of religion. If there wasn't so much religion, no one would have cared that this stuff was going on. But alas, that's the tension in the story, so it worked.

Stealing Parker so enjoyable, just like Catching Jordan! I absolutely cannot wait for more from Miranda Kenneally!

WHAT. THE. EFF. Did I just listen to?!?!?!?

I thought this would be 5 stars, but the ending kind of let me down. I was hoping for something explosive, but no. So it's more of 4.5 stars, but I just can't round up on Goodreads for this one. Just WOW. Do you ever really know anyone well enough?! After reading this, I'm just not sure. Psycho!!

So.. Amy and Nick seem like this solid couple until Amy goes missing and you get a glimpse into her diary and into Nick's head. Things start to look really bad, and after that you have zero clue about who is telling the truth. My head is still spinning from this book. I want to just punch everyone who appears in this novel. Plus, I want some answers! But those questions are spoilery, so I'll leave it alone.

It took me three days to listen to, and those days were a solid 6 hours each. Geesh! The narration is pretty spot on, though. I love both of their voices, but I thoroughly loved Julia Whelan's narration. She did Amy just right. Brought the crazy out!

This is seriously some of the strangest shit I've read/listened to in a while. I read a lot of YA, so adult literature needs to stand out for me. This isn't something I'll ever forget. And I guess they're making a movie about this, which is why I listened. Holy hell. My dreams will be so messed up tonight.. haha. I just want to hug Josh and hope to everything good in this world that he's normal and real with me. OY!!

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Let me start off by saying that I just don't do well with books that everyone else gushes about. I know, I know. It's ridiculous of me, but when there is so much hype sometimes the book falls flat. This one wasn't totally flat, but I'll explain. Here it goes..

It's predictable. Like, seriously predictable. I don't know if I've been reading so much lately that I can smell a plot line now or what. Seriously, I don't think that's it. But I knew exactly how this book would turn out and what was going to happen down the line. I didn't exactly predict every detail, but the big ones are the ones that matter. And those were visible from a mile away. Yes, it turns out to be a nice story, but the journey counts for something to me!

The plane stuff was so unnecessary. I skimmed quite a bit of the plane stuff. I'm talking about when she's pushing planes out of hangars, bringing the chocks out onto the runway (or whatever they're called.., etc etc. I didn't care much about the fact that she was a pilot. At all. I've read books about different female characters (see Catching Jordan) but the pilot thing wasn't done right or something because I just did not care. It was cool towards the end, but throughout the book I'd just had enough.

Grayson was a dick. I know his family is all messed up, but it seems like he was even before some of those events happened. I have NO idea why (Wow, I forgot the MC's name. Not going to lie, I had to look it up.) LEAH wanted to be with him for years before this stuff even takes place! Zero clue. When she sticks up for him in the beginning, he acts like an a-hole. He doesn't deserve her affection when he demands and blackmails. Eff all that. Seriously.

I want to scream some more about how predictable this book was, but I also had some heartwarming moments while reading it. I liked Alec a lot, actually. Her friend Molly was a little uncool throughout this book. She had her moments, but goodness. And did we ever find out what happened with Ryan or whatever the mutual ex's name is..? Leah kept hinting that Molly didn't know the truth. Whatever. Oy! OHH and Mark. Disgusting Mark. Barf barf. Not cool.

So all in all, it took me a while to read this one, and it wasn't because I was too busy. I avoided it. When I finally finished, I was a teeny bit relieved to be done. It's nice to have a good young romance to read, but when it's thoroughly predictable and you don't like the characters it's just hard to want to finish. I'm glad everyone else likes this, but it wasn't for me. It needed a bunch of editing and a less formulaic story line.

This one was recommended to me a couple different times by the same person. She kept saying that she thought I might like this one, and she was totally right. I should have listened sooner. I really enjoyed Working Stiff! I wish I hadn't read the description of the book, because it takes a while for the very first line to actually happen in the novel. But that's okay. The pacing worked for me, and some of the action got my heart racing in suspense! Good good book.

I listened to the audio, and Julia Whelan is awesome. I love her narration. She fits the book perfectly. I only wish this book hadn't been written in third person. Oh how I don't enjoy third person as much as first. But that's alright. I still really liked the novel. Looking forward to more in this series!!

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I almost feel guilty for not liking this very much, given the subject matter and all, but there was a lot wrong with it. I just couldn't get past the lack of character development. Everyone seemed so flat to me. And the pacing was totally off. There were times when too much time would pass between paragraphs that I had to go back and read a passage or two to figure out the jump in time. I'm not saying that this book had time travel. It was just hard to keep up with how much time had passed paragraph to paragraph.

It's easy to feel awful for the MC, Valerie. You know what happens to her. That's a terrible thing to experience. But this book is way too short to develop the way a story about rape should. Too many details are rushed, and too many details didn't matter much throughout the novel. Obviously, this is an ARC, so maybe some things will change before final copies are printed, but I'm reviewing the ARC. And it needs editing. Bad.