The Last Town (Wayward Pines #3)Synopsis:
haha nope.
Epic.
Unforgettable.
Gripping.
Intense.
INSANE.
I will come back and read this someday…and it won’t be soon enough.
GAHD I loved this. I wish I could un-read this series so I could go through the epicness again….Thanks, Dark Pup. For real.
Ethan!!!!! I’ll miss you, ya surly little shit. Until we meet again.
Everything, Everything by Nicola Yoon Synopsis:
My disease is as rare as it is famous. Basically, I’m allergic to the world. I don’t leave my house, have not left my house in seventeen years. The only people I ever see are my mom and my nurse, Carla.
But then one day, a moving truck arrives next door. I look out my window, and I see him. He’s tall, lean and wearing all black—black T-shirt, black jeans, black sneakers, and a black knit cap that covers his hair completely. He catches me looking and stares at me. I stare right back. His name is Olly.
Maybe we can’t predict the future, but we can predict some things. For example, I am certainly going to fall in love with Olly. It’s almost certainly going to be a disaster.
In the beginning there was nothing. And then there was everything.
There are very few things in this world that I take for granted. I have always had a better-than-I-ever-could-have-imagined life, that has never been a secret, but I didn’t act….spoiled….I guess. I always knew that I had super cool parents and unheard of privileges-I loved it, and I never forgot that. But one thing that I absolutely, positively, definitely took for granted…was life. Breathing fresh air, walking outside, hearing birds chirp and trees rustle as the cool breeze brushed my skin in autumn…I won’t lie-Those things?? Those are the most beautiful things in the world-Fall especially, seeing as it’s my favorite season-and I took every crisp breath of fresh air for granted.
Life is a gift. Am I wasting mine?
Not many kids, teenagers, sometimes even adults, realize how amazing their lives-however significant or insignificant they think it is-are. We walk onto our front porch, stretch, sit in a rocking chair looking out into our yard, the woods, a field, whatever we may see, and sip our coffees (or in my case, a soda, preferably Coke or Mountain Dew) and wipe the sleep from our eyes without even thinking about how beautiful this recurring gift is. We hug our dogs, puppies, sons, daughters, families….and think it’s a certainty. It’s not. Each day is a gift, and we often forget to acknowledge it….But Madeline knows the cost of living-and her price is solitude. And oh, what she wouldn’t give to have what we have-even for just five minutes.
I keep thinking about the summer I turned eight. I spent so many days with my forehead pressed against my glass window, bruising myself with my futile wanting. At first I just wanted to look out the window. But then I wanted to go outside. And then I wanted to play with the neighborhood kids, to play with all the kids everywhere, to be normal for just an afternoon, a day, a lifetime.
I think my long introduction has a lot to do with me coming to terms with how amazing my life is-and can be. I complain a lot, you know? It might be human nature, it might just be me, I don’t know. But, every once in a while, I get these small bouts of gratitude where, just for a moment, just a brief, tiny moment, I thank God for everything I have and become mushy and nostalgic as I think about my family, my two little pups (added a new addition this weekend!), and my lovely-most-of-the-time husband. I even find myself quoting my favorite movie (not the book, don’t get it twisted): ‘It’s a beautiful life -insert husband name here or whomever you wish- Hazel Grace’…though, I find it comical to say Hazel Grace because…I’m weird and it annoys the hubbs. As a little girl, when people asked me what I wanted to do, I knew. I would say: I want to be married and have babies and be a stay at home mom who also works for her dad (however THAT was going to work out). I know…not too exciting, right? Well, it was to me.
For the first time in a long time, I want more than I have.
It was what I wanted…and things don’t always work out as we plan. Had it been my decision, I’d have married my high school sweetheart during college-or hey, right after-and we’d have a baby by now and a big, beautiful house. But these things take time, and life isn’t about planning everything out piece-by-piece. I got my Happily-Ever-After….My house, my puppies (still working on stubborn ass for part two), my job with my dad plus more, and, after 10 years of dating, my husband-Moves like a snail, that one. But it didn’t happen as I had planned or when I wanted it to-that’s life. Anyway, my point in all this is that Madeline didn’t get these moments, these rare opportunities. Life hands us a deck of cards, but we don’t totally get to decide how they are dealt and where they are distributed. Maddie didn’t get to see the world, she didn’t get to meet other kids growing up-She dreamed of a better life, of a larger world than outside her house…but that’s literally all it could be: A dream.
Madeline: I’m not a princess.
Madeline: And I don’t need rescuing.
Olly: that’s ok. i’m no prince
Madeline: You think I’m pretty?
Olly: for a fairytale ghost spy princess? definitely
I think this book hit me so hard because it was so unexpected. I requested it months and months ago on Netgalley, and I wanted it more than my next breath…but I didn’t get it-I even got denied twice. I mean…ouch. So I waited. And I waited. And I waited some more. And when this finally appeared on my IPad’s library…I stopped the series I was in the middle of and immediately began EE. Needless to say that, while it was cute and I found it very sweet, I wasn’t in love with it like I had thought I would be-Talk about your very soul aching. I had thought this was going to be the book-I was so disappointed.
Sometimes you do things for the right reasons and sometimes for the wrong ones and sometimes it’s impossible to tell the difference.
But then something happened-SOMETHING HUGE-not even in the story, really. All of a sudden I hit a part where, as my friend so astutely pointed out, I started to care not only about the two main characters individually, but as a couple. Olly and Maddie came to life for me-their reactions, their heartache, their struggle hurt me almost as much as it hurt them. It felt as if someone had taken a bag of feels-literally, a bag of GD feels-and socked me in the stomach with them at full force. I couldn’t breathe, I was tearing up (for real, this rarely happens), and I was so invested in them that I couldn’t bear for any more problems to arise, causing them irreparable sadness. I suddenly knew that everything I questioned, everything I wasn’t sure of…..I knew it was just the way it was meant to be and given a second chance to read this, I wouldn’t change a thing-Not one thing. It hit me out of nowhere and I was caught in their adorably tangled web of IM Messaging, window writing, sporadic meeting, and brief glimpses through two panes of glass-Only one house away but as vast as an ocean separating two continents.
He takes a deep breath. “In my head I know I’ve been in love before, but it doesn’t feel like it. Being in love with you is better than the first time. It feels like the first time and the last time and the only time all at once.”
Maddie, Madeline, or Mads, as Olly calls her, has a very rare disease where, well, I guess I’m kind of confused on, but the point is she can’t leave her house, have contact with anyone aside from her mother, caretaker, tutor, or anyone on the approved list-She especially can’t meet that boy next door…that beautiful, funny, tortured, and clever boy next door. But it’s not because of his lack of trying.
One thing I’m certain of: Wanting just leads to more wanting. There’s no end to desire.
Olly moves in next door near the beginning of the book. I can’t say much. All I can say is that his family has their own demons and Mads sees all….It doesn’t take long for the two to realize how much they crave the other’s thoughts and company…seeing as their bedroom windows (conveniently) face each other only three feet or so apart. I loved Olly…but I didn’t luuuuurrrvvvv Olly until a certain point. I’m not going to say more….I will only admonish that he is supportive, kind, sad, loyal, protective, and…hmm…curious. Despite the risks, despite the warnings, he is curious. Even when, in his heart, he knows he should stay away, he still can’t let their interactions go. He craves her laughter, her voice, her thoughts, even as everything can only end in heartbreak for both of them.
Madeline: Yes. I have a solution to our problem.
Olly: listening
Madeline: Let’s agree to just be friends, ok?
Olly: ok
Olly: but no more checking out my muscles
Madeline: Friends, Olly!
Olly: and my eyes
Madeline: No more talking about my freckles.
Madeline: And my hair.
Olly: and your lips
Madeline: And your dimple.
Olly: you like my dimple?
Madeline: Friends!
Olly: ok
Inevitably, the two fools fall in love. And naturally, being the fool that I am, I foolishly fell in love with the fact that they fell in love. And I can’t explain it for you guys, I really can’t, because this was a three until a certain important, pivotal, ground-breaking part….But at that point it all just clicked and the light bulb switched on and I became a hard core fangirl, hehe shocking, and it was all history from there. I was texting people frantically, I was freaking out over things I had read in reviews (sigh, don’t read reviews, people, bad advertising!!!!), and the knots in my stomach were growing larger and larger and the tears were coming more and more frequently….until eventually my heart was shred in two.
He pulls me into his arms and we’re wrapped around each other, his face buried in my hair and my face pressed into his chest, no daylight between our bodies.
“Don’t die,” he says.
“I won’t,” I say back.
I can’t say this book is perfect-far from it-but it was….it was perfect for me. I had wanted to read it for months. I was almost obsessed in my quest to get this novel in my hands…and then when I finally had it, I almost became disappointed. How can anything come of such cuteness? Well, I’ll tell ya-Young love is a powerful thing. It can move mountains, if only because teenagers are so stubborn, and it can make a desperate attempt at keeping someone alive a failed experiment in two seconds flat…if only because you are willing to risk it all for love.
He’s much too smart to fall for this, but he wants it to be true. He wants it to be true more than he wants the truth. The smile that breaks across his face is cautious, but so beautiful that I can’t look away. I would lie to him again for that smile.
That was a common theme in this book, and Madeline is faced with so many choices that can make or break her-literally. And once she met Olly, everything changed: Her world was blown to bits and flipped upside down. Life is about the choices we make, who we are and who we want to become. Life is precious. Life is short. We only have one life to live…But are you really living if you aren’t willing to ever take any risks? I guess Madeline found out what her life was worth….Have you?
*****************************
It was Everything I didn’t expect,
It was Everything I asked for.
It was Everything that mattered,
It was Everything and so much more.
Guys, I didn’t expect to love this book once I started. I was so unsure….but then something happened…something that changed it all. And of all a sudden-BAM! The tears, the feels, the longing, the heartache…the
hope
.
Review to come.
Wayward (Wayward Pines #2)Synopsis:
I'll follow Anna's lead here- Don't read blurb
“Hell is coming to you.”
I have so much to say….but don’t I always??? I want to write an amazing, detailed, long review, but that wouldn’t do this series any good, I think. I believe that, while I would LOVE to go on and on and on about all the amazingness that is this series, it would stunt the curiosity I piqued in everyone with my first review of the beginning book. So, I’ll keep it short and sweet with just a few points to make things curiouser and couriouser for everyone that chooses to read this:
All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players. They have their exits and their entrances; and one man in his time plays many parts.
Ethan: Ethan grew so much in this story. In book one, we didn’t know a lot about him, and we didn’t know what kind of guy he really was-What he was made of, if you will. We knew of his tryst, of his adoration for his wife. We knew he was stubborn beyond words…and that his determination, if nothing else, would keep him alive. So, essentially, in this one, we begin to see even more of his cleverness and quick wit, setting in stone his intelligence and willingness to make things right…and the helplessness….don’t forget his reluctance and helplessness. They go hand in hand with this story. Let’s see what he’s made of.
“Do you hear that?” Ethan asked.
“Hear what?”
For five seconds, Ethan was silent on the line. “That’s the sound of me not giving a fuck.”
Atmosphere: The atmosphere, while still eerie, is blown to bits in this one after the big ‘reveal’ of book one. I can’t say it’s as creepy as it was in the first installment, but there was still an underhanded malice that made you question where things were going and how things could possibly get better for the town’s residents. And since I am obsessed with my dear Ethan…this was a big appeal to me, the worrying.
For every perfect little town, there’s something ugly underneath. No dream without the nightmare.
The Writing: Gahd, do I love Crouch’s writing. It’s virtually impossible not to become wholly immersed in this story with his writing style. In book one, sure, I could understand people not loving or being a bit put off about the amazing fragmented sentences (which I loved, if you can’t tell), but I never had a problem with them. In this story, I was so sucked in that I didn’t even notice it-I even picked up a new book because it was released yesterday (9/1) and thought, ‘Wait, this isn’t how you write!’ So, as you can see, I am in love with his writing.
A shiv straight into Ethan’s gut would’ve felt better.
He lost his breath.
Saw the world suddenly through a blur of tears.
Imagery: Beautiful. Vivid. Startling. What more can you ask for?
A millennium without air or light pollution made for pitch-black skies.
The stars didn’t just appear anymore.
They exploded.
Diamonds on black velvet.
You couldn’t tear your eyes away.
So, as you can see, I’m obsessed. So that’s how I will end this: Read it, don’t read it-that’s your call. But I, my friends, am knee deep, up shit creek, whatever phrase you wana use, in love with this series.
YESTERDAY IS HISTORY.
Obsessed.
TOMORROW IS A MYSTERY.
Obsessed.
TODAY IS A GIFT.
Did I mention I’m obsessed?
Pines (Wayward Pines #1)Synopsis:
Secret service agent Ethan Burke arrives in Wayward Pines, Idaho, with a clear mission: locate and recover two federal agents who went missing in the bucolic town one month earlier. But within minutes of his arrival, Ethan is involved in a violent accident. He comes to in a hospital, with no ID, no cell phone, and no briefcase. The medical staff seems friendly enough, but something feels…off. As the days pass, Ethan’s investigation into the disappearance of his colleagues turns up more questions than answers. Why can’t he get any phone calls through to his wife and son in the outside world? Why doesn’t anyone believe he is who he says he is? And what is the purpose of the electrified fences surrounding the town? Are they meant to keep the residents in? Or something else out? Each step closer to the truth takes Ethan further from the world he thought he knew, from the man he thought he was, until he must face a horrifying fact—he may never get out of Wayward Pines alive.
2013 International Thriller Award Nominee
The international runaway bestseller is now a Major Television Event from executive producer M. Night Shyamalan, starring Matt Dillon and premiering May 14th on FOX.
“Where’d you live before Wayward Pines?”
“I’ve always lived here.”
“You’ve never left this town?” Ethan asked.
“You can’t leave,” the boy said.
“Why?”
“You just can’t.”
“I don’t accept that.”
“That’s why you’re going to die.”
Not too long ago, it feels like yesterday, really, I saw a television commercial for a show called Wayward Pines. It was utterly compelling and drew me in every time the commercial aired. I never got around to watching it, I never really catch TV shows unless they’re re-runs of my all time favorites, so I kind of forgot about it….and Oh. My. Gosh….am I glad I did.
The final strands of horizontal sunlight were striking the cliffs at his back, and he turned around and took a moment to stop and watch the glow fade away.
When the light was gone, the rock turned instantly to the color of blued steel.
And the nature of it changed.
It was still beautiful.
But more remote.
Indifferent.
I was totally blind when I went into this, not really knowing what I was getting myself into. There were only three things I knew: 1. It is addicting. 2. The sentences are kind of fragmented, sending a message of nonchalance, simplicity, and rushed situations for our main character-Which I loved. And 3). We were in the mind of an unreliable narrator-Which I also loved. And honestly…that’s all anyone needs to know.
“Thanks for your help, and your concern,” he said, pressing G three times until the button illuminated, “but I think I got it figured out.”
“What?”
“It’s this town that’s wrong.”
Who wants to read a book that is totally spoiled for you? Okay, okay, if it’s a severe love triangle or I think a main character may be in danger of dying, I might do a little reconnaissance to see how it happens, who they end up with, or what the situation might be. Hey! Don’t judge! I just don’t want to be devastated, so sue me. But all in all, especially in these types of thrillers, which I am SO TOTALLY IN THE MOOD FOR, I like the idea that I know next to nothing about these stories.
…All he wanted to do was to curl up in a bed in a dark room. Sleep off the pain. The confusion. And the base emotion underlying it all that was getting harder and harder to ignore.
Terror.
The strengthening sense that something was very, very wrong.
I will give you a little to go off of, though. Our main character, Ethan…he’s not what you would call an upstanding guy. He’s not a bad dude, per se, but he definitely has had some shaky behavior and indiscretions in his past. And, for the first time in as long as I can remember, this aspect didn’t bother me. Maybe it was his loyalty and fierce love now, in this moment, but, for whatever reason, I loved him.
Are you losing your mind?
You tell me.
I can’t.
Why?
Because I am you.
I loved his determination, his iron-clad will, his unwillingness to believe the bull shit he was obviously being fed….I loved his reactions to this freaky as fuck town he landed in. He’s confused and alone, and everyone is hell bent on calling him crazy, saying he’s delusional, that everyone in town is happy and why don’t you try and make a life of it here? It’s so nice! Why don’t you have your ID or wallet?? Are you lying to us, Mr. Burke? How dare you do such a thing! Needless to say I’m already finished with book two-Yeah, I love this series that much.
The scream could only be compared to human suffering or terror. Like a hyena or a banshee. Coyotes at their maddest. The mythologized Rebel Yell. High and thin. Fragile. Terrible. And on some level, humming under the surface like buried electrical cables, was a dim awareness that this wasn’t the first time he’d heard it.
Chilling and grotesque, Ethan is stuck in a town with virtually no way out…and no answers. Continually running in circles and trying to find answers-each one more spine-tingling than the last-Ethan is going out of his mind. Cloaked in an eerie atmosphere that you can’t help but to fall in love with, I guarantee this could be your next page turner. I wish I could say more, but that’s not in the spirit of this book, so I’ll be blunt: While depraved and intentionally mysterious, this book will keep you on the edge of your seat. And, while not for everyone, anyone who loves a good thriller and a man determined to win-at any cost-will likely find great enjoyment out of this book. I hope that these measly words will be enough to influence you to give this one a chance. Easy. Dark. Manipulative. What more could a girl ask for?
**************************************
Epic. Absolutely, positively epic. Chilling.
This series will be the end of me. Bad. Ass.
Review to come 🙂
How to Lead a Life of Crime by Kirsten Miller Synopsis:
A meth dealer. A prostitute. A serial killer.
Anywhere else, they’d be vermin. At the Mandel Academy, they’re called prodigies. The most exclusive school in New York City has been training young criminals for over a century. Only the most ruthless students are allowed to graduate. The rest disappear.
Flick, a teenage pickpocket, has risen to the top of his class. But then Mandel recruits a fierce new competitor who also happens to be Flick’s old flame. They’ve been told only one of them will make it out of the Mandel Academy. Will they find a way to save each other—or will the school destroy them both?
“What takes more guts? To fight for your own life at any cost-or prove that you’re willing to lose it?”
Well, well, well….I am so beyond happy. <<< Eew that sentence, but it’s so true! Months ago, I read a series that I absolutely cherished, adored, obsessed over-I Hunt Killers. It took me a long time to get over my Jazz boy, and anyone that didn’t grasp my level of obsession over him would have to have been blind or wholly disinterested. But what do you do when you can’t make extra books appear out of thin air when your favorite series of the year ends? You find similar books.
I don’t care about Ghosts or girls anymore. I don’t give a damn about proof. This monster is just waiting for a chance to kill it’s creator. One way or another, I’ll get out. And then I’m going to destroy him.
But, as it was, when I started this, I couldn’t stop thinking of my wonderful Jazzy boy. So, this was put on hold until I could get my head out of that world and I could focus on this one. My long winded story ends here, I promise-This weekend I couldn’t get into my book, so I scoured my e-library and saw this beauty. It suited my mood, it reminded me of a favorite, had an addicting and compelling story, and it had an amazing male lead that had me rooting for him from beginning to end. I wasn’t sure how I’d feel about this book…but, in the end, it was a thrilling page turner that kept me on the edge of my seat.
I would sacrifice almost anything to stay here with her. And that’s exactly why I have to leave. She will keep me from becoming what I need to be. And if she tries to save me, I will end up destroying her.
And that’s the best part-It wasn’t extremely fast-paced, it wasn’t action on each and every page, and it wasn’t what you’d expect. But, with all that being said, it was so much better. It was chilling, intense, underhanded, and brutal in it’s subtlety. I didn’t need non-stop action, nor did I need millions of things to happen at once. This story was so manipulative and gripping that I never once was thinking about anything but what was happening in front of my face-that is so rare for me. I am always thinking to the next chapter, the next page, the next problem, but because this was so intense I was so worried for our main character that I only cared what was happening to him in the here and now.
I thought this time, I was willing to do anything. Now Mandel will know that it’s all just an act. Because there’s one thing that I will not do. Not even to save the world from a monster. I won’t let Joi die.
I don’t know what I was expecting when I went into this, but I never expected for it to have The Testing vibes mixed with an I Hunt Killers theme I so immensely craved. And, even more than that, it was sad. Our poor boy, who had lived an inexplicably sad and undeserved life, was hurting-and rightfully so. More than once my heart ached for him and was torn to shreds as he imagined his little brother right beside him, even though he never truly could be again.
I’m not a lost boy, and I’m too old for a Wendy. But I want to remember her once before I let her go. All I get is a faint whiff of jasmine before my dream’s interrupted. And then the last person I’ll love is gone for good.
I choked on tears, wished for a better life than what he got, and hoped for him to make it out of Mandel Academy alive….but that’s hard to accomplish when you set out to make enemies.
Second period just started, and I already have five enemies, a pretty blond stalker, and zero friends. It’s a record, even for me.
Flick (No, that’s not his real name) is a thief, a boy so good at pick-pocketing on the streets that all it takes is a flick of his wrist and he has your license, your money, your life in his hands-clever, eh?? His humor is exactly what I love in these books. Thrown into a world he’d have never wanted after losing his mother and almost identical brother, the only two happy things in his life, and being beaten for the most minuscule things (I mean it-like, being beaten to a bloody pulp) by his father, Flick is what you could probably call a ‘tortured’ male lead.
When I was younger, I’d make Jude stand beside me in front of my mother’s closet mirror. We looked so much alike. I couldn’t see what the difference was-I couldn’t understand how my father could love one of us and loathe the other.
So, when he is offered a chance to go to Mandel Academy in exchange for information that will help him take down his father, the reason for all the bad things in his life, he accepts….but at a price-he must leave Joi, his last happy thing, behind without a word or notice.
Suddenly I see the problem with Jude’s brilliant advice. Be who you want to be, he said. Well, the person I’d like to be would save View Spoiler ». But that would be dangerous. I could die trying-and there’s only one of me to sacrifice.
I’ll be quick-Joi is who makes him strive to be better, what keeps him from flipping his switch and turning into a monster. She helps anyone and everyone, never turning down even the most lost of souls, and she is a ray of sunshine in his-and many other children’s-bleak world. But don’t be mistaken-Joi can be a badass, too. But I don’t want to spoil that for you ;).
Maybe he’s not going to give me the choice to trade my life for hers. Maybe he’s found another way to force me to watch the girl I love be destroyed.
All in all, I never expected much from this story. I didn’t know where it was going or when the blurb would come into play-but I was never bored. And the minute the blurb does kick in? Wow. The things Flick has to do, the intense, multi-layered cast of CRAZY characters he has to encounter and go through….Wow. Keep your eye on a certain…yeah, never mind. Just watch out, ‘K? It’s never safe. Never trust anyone. And don’t do anything you can’t live with. This chilling cast of characters will make your head spin…..and I still am thinking about it, even a day after finishing.
This is how it feels to lose your last hope. To stop treading water. To unplug life support.
Jen    |
Chelsea |
Arielle |
Cassie |
| Jen |
Chelsea |
| Arielle |
Cassie |
Disclosure:
We are an Affiliate for Amazon, iTunes, Book Depository and Nose Graze. We receive a commission for any purchases that are made through our website via an affiliate link. This helps us with maintaining our blog and allowing us to do giveaways. Thank you!Theme by Anders Noren — Up ↑
