Tag: Young Adult (Page 123 of 159)

BOOK REVIEW – Of Beast and Beauty by Stacey Jay

January 4, 2015 / Jen / 0 Comments

Of Beast and Beauty by Stacey Jay
Purchase on: Amazon, iBooks
Add to: Goodreads

Synopsis:
In the beginning was the darkness, and in the darkness was a girl, and in the girl was a secret...

In the domed city of Yuan, the blind Princess Isra, a Smooth Skin, is raised to be a human sacrifice whose death will ensure her city’s vitality. In the desert outside Yuan, Gem, a mutant beast, fights to save his people, the Monstrous, from starvation. Neither dreams that together, they could return balance to both their worlds.

Isra wants to help the city’s Banished people, second-class citizens despised for possessing Monstrous traits. But after she enlists the aid of her prisoner, Gem, who has been captured while trying to steal Yuan’s enchanted roses, she begins to care for him, and to question everything she has been brought up to believe.

As secrets are revealed and Isra’s sight, which vanished during her childhood, returned, Isra will have to choose between duty to her people and the beast she has come to love.

Review:

This was the first book I’ve read that is a retelling of a fairy tale. Truthfully, I was nervous to read a story that held hints of Beauty and the Beast laced throughout the pages. Because whenever my mind thinks about that particular story, I always envision the movie by Disney. The one that filled with me with hope, love, faith that there will always be a bad guy that can be defeated and happily ever afters. And well, could I get those same feelings from this book too? I know that’s a lot to expect, and maybe even wrong to think those thoughts. But, I’m pleasantly surprised to say that I did fall for this “Beauty” and “Beast” book. It was a charming story that was filled with true love, deceit, magic, bad guys, and a world that was at times twisted and sinister. It was a lot of fun to read!

Great men aren’t afraid to do dangerous things to tip the hand of fate in their favor.

On another planet, people have been relegated to specific lifestyles. The smooth-skins live within domed cities. Their harvest, water and lifestyles are all maintained at the cost of the life of the queen or princess. Their sacrifice must be made throughout the years to pay for their safety and lifestyle within the dome. Isra is a blind Princess, whose fate has always been to be the sacrificial one. Outside of the domes, the land is in ruins. Resources are scarce and the creatures that live there are called the Monstrous. They are mutated beasts, and Gem is one of them. Gem has set out on a plan to save his kind from starvation, but in the process he is caught by the blind princess. Isra holds Gem prisoner, but as time passes, truths became known and slowly their world transitions from black and white to grey.

“You seem curious about what will happen when you die,” I whisper. “Maybe it’s time for your curiosity to be satisfied.” – Gem

Isra is not what you would expect a blind princess to be. While she is at times subdued and allows others to make choices for her, she takes risks (risks that shocked me!), she “sees” more than others give her credit, and when backed into a corner she becomes a fighter. What I loved most about Isra was how she treated others and of course her ability to get past what others couldn’t. Her interactions with Gem warmed my heart. And speaking of Gem, I loved him! I don’t care if he was a feral mutated beast, he won me over! He was bold, calculating, manipulative and his inner turmoil of struggling with what was right and wrong weighed on me and made me care for him that much deeper.

No matter how well we’ve been getting along, or how much more human Gem is than I could have dreamed a monstrous would be, it was stupid to start confessing things to him. He’s not my friend; he’s my prisoner. – Isra

Of Beast and Beauty was an entertaining page turner that I definitely recommend. The hints of the original Beauty and the Beast story were perfectly intertwined with this tale. But keep in mind that this fairy tale was so vastly different from the original, that it is impossible to compare the two. There is so much more depth to this story than I have even started to explain. The side characters are entertaining, the plot is interesting and the twist, even though I figured it out, was still exciting because of the chain events that were caused. I love that lies were spun, secrets were hidden, wrongs became rights and in the end a beautiful story was born.

BOOK REVIEW: All Our Yesterdays by Cristin Terrill

December 29, 2014 / Chelsea / 0 Comments

All Our Yesterdays by Cristin Terrill
Purchase on: Amazon, iBooks
Add to: Goodreads

Synopsis:
What would you change?

Imprisoned in the heart of a secret military base, Em has nothing except the voice of the boy in the cell next door and the list of instructions she finds taped inside the drain.

Only Em can complete the final instruction. She’s tried everything to prevent the creation of a time machine that will tear the world apart. She holds the proof: a list she has never seen before, written in her own hand. Each failed attempt in the past has led her to the same terrible present—imprisoned and tortured by a sadistic man called the doctor while war rages outside.

Marina has loved her best friend, James, since they were children. A gorgeous, introverted science prodigy from one of America’s most famous families, James finally seems to be seeing Marina in a new way, too. But on one disastrous night, James’s life crumbles, and with it, Marina’s hopes for their future. Marina will protect James, no matter what. Even if it means opening her eyes to a truth so terrible that she may not survive it... at least, not as the girl she once was. Em and Marina are in a race against time that only one of them can win.

All Our Yesterdays is a wrenching, brilliantly plotted story of fierce love, unthinkable sacrifice, and the infinite implications of our every choice.

I hated this. No, wait, I loved this. No, no-I hated it….Right? Still, even after having finished a day and a half ago, I still don’t know what I think of this book. It played with my heart on the deepest emotional level possible…and, for once, I don’t know if that was a good thing.
Dealing with matters of the heart are messy. There is no way to make rational decisions when your heart is split down the middle-I believe that with my whole soul. And, believe it or not, I’m not even talking about a love triangle. This is a good old-fashioned torture of the heart, a total mind-fuck…and I’m not sure I handled it all that well.

When I picked up this book, I thought I was starting a run of the mill dystopian/sci-fi fantasy novel. Honest to God, I might have rethought my decision to start this had I known how it would rip my heart into shreds. I keep telling my friends all the events of the book and we all came to the same type of stuttery, open-mouthed, grappling for words conclusion-Even after countless reviews and a neurotic fetish with making sure it fit all my criteria (I do this for every book I’m about to read, lest I make bad decisions), I still wasn’t prepared for what this book was truly about. If you simply read the blurb, you see it’s about two different couples in two different times, so to speak. You realize it’s all about time travel and deciding what you would change if you could: Are you really fixing something if you go back in time and alter the past? But what that damn dirty blurb doesn’t tell you is this-This book is far deeper than even it’s author lets on. This book has such raw, magnetic moments that you can’t help but to be manipulated by each individual character and each individual motivation. This book is so multi-layered that you won’t know what side you’re on, who you’re rooting for, or who you should be rooting for. The simple truth is this: there is no good or evil, it is simply what your present self knows the future to be. It’s what you’re willing to do, what you’re willing to sacrifice to make the world a better place-even if it destroys you to have to do so. Continue reading

BOOK REVIEW – Unravel Me (Shatter Me #2) by Tahereh Mafi

December 28, 2014 / Jen / 2 Comments

Unravel Me (Shatter Me #2)
by Tahereh Mafi
Purchase on: Amazon, iBooks
Add to: Goodreads

Synopsis:
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tick
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it's almost
time for war.

Juliette has escaped to Omega Point. It is a place for people like her—people with gifts—and it is also the headquarters of the rebel resistance.

She's finally free from The Reestablishment, free from their plan to use her as a weapon, and free to love Adam. But Juliette will never be free from her lethal touch.

Or from Warner, who wants Juliette more than she ever thought possible.

In this exhilarating sequel to Shatter Me, Juliette has to make life-changing decisions between what she wants and what she thinks is right. Decisions that might involve choosing between her heart—and Adam's life.

Review:

What was once an inquisitive story that I was enthralled with, turned into something that was frustratingly difficult to finish. I’m still in shock that I went from not being able to put the book down, to forcing myself to pick it back up. My problem with Unravel Me began when some of the characters started to change. Their demeanor became foreign and honestly, I stopped caring for them. They weren’t who I knew and loved. I could no longer understand or connect to them. They turned into strangers, and I am saddened over how they were altered.

You know how your favorite books feel as though the characters are real and that they are the ones driving the book forward? Each and every choice or action, whether you agree or not, are theirs and they own it. THIS was one of the many things I loved about Shatter Me. Adam, Juliette and Warner were each distinct and their decisions felt real. But somewhere during the pages of Unravel Me, that all changed. It felt as though the characters were transformed to MAKE the story lead in a certain direction. And I can’t be OK with that. I LOVED Adam, and he became someone I disliked. He became angry, distant and desperate. My heart hurt watching him morph into a man I didn’t even recognize. And Juliette became someone who was indecisive and wouldn’t stop toying with others emotions. She would throw Adam away only to reel him back in part way and then throw him back out all over again. I started to dislike Juliette. Maybe even hate. And Warner was such an amazing villain. He was dark, twisted and someone I loved to hate. But he became the misunderstood one. The one whose past is so horrible, that he just needs love and his secret actions are meant to warm your heart. I. Just. Can’t.

So it’s safe to say, I will not be continuing on with this series.

BOOK REVIEW: Burn for Burn (Burn for Burn #1) by Jenny Han & Siobhan Vivian

December 17, 2014 / Chelsea / 0 Comments

Burn for Burn (Burn for Burn #1)
by Jenny Han, Siobhan Vivian
Purchase on: Amazon, iBooks
Add to: Goodreads

Synopsis:
Postcard-perfect Jar Island is the kind of place where nobody locks their doors at night, where parents can sleep easy, knowing their daughters are tucked away safe and sound in their beds.

But bad things can happen, even to good girls . . . and sometimes, the only way to make things right is to do something wrong.

Lillia used to trust boys, but not anymore. Not after what happened this summer. And she’ll do whatever it takes to protect her little sister from the same fate.

Kat is over the rumors, the insults, the cruel jokes made at her expense. It all goes back to one person--her ex-best friend. Someone needs to teach her a lesson, and, with Lillia and Mary behind her, Kat feels up to the task.

Four years ago, Mary left Jar Island because of a boy. But she’s not the same girl anymore. Now that she’s got friends who have her back, he's going to be in big trouble.

Three very different girls who come together to make things right. Will they go too far?

Welp. That wasn’t what I expected. In many ways I think I’ve been putting this one off because I knew it wasn’t going to be what I wanted. It’s not that it didn’t have it’s exceptional moments where I found some immense enjoyment out of the three girls’ bonding experiences or the revenge they were seeking on the individuals who treated them badly. But, at the risk of sounding hoity toity, it all just came across so….juvenile.

So many people liked this book and I have to think that maybe I just wasn’t in the mood for it-but then I start to backtrack and wonder: would I have enjoyed the cliquey cliches even months ago, even when I was in the mood? Would I have enjoyed the somewhat childish conversations everyone seemed to have? And, most of all, would the fact that those people didn’t deserve to have even a little of their lives ruined bother me? And I have to believe that, even when I was excited about this book, it all still would have bothered me.

And that’s not even mentioning probably my biggest problem with the whole book: Every single scene or idea seemed like a contrived, watered down, wannabe version of other books and movies that, frankly, did it way better. I feel so bad saying that, but it doesn’t change the fact that every other page I kept seeing Janice from Mean Girls or Brittany Snow from John Tucker Must Die. Literally every single scene had me unintentionally thinking of other movies I have watched over and over again and loved in the past ten years of my life: Mean Girls, John Tucker Must Die, and I know there was one other that I just can’t remember at the moment. And then it also reminded me of a book that I LOATHED-*The Keatyn Chronicles*-though I must say Burn for Burn was written way better and had a little more class. That much I can say for it.

Which leads me here. People loved it. Hell, I even loved the idea of getting revenge on the bitches that I felt wronged me back in the day. Don’t we all have that secret little (if only a minuscule, tiny piece) place where we wish people that were cruel would get what’s coming to them? So yes, on that level I enjoyed it-that’s why I couldn’t one star this story. The writing was great. The IDEA of all of it was great. I just…something was missing. I rolled my eyes more often than not, the only character I really and truly connected with was Lillia (And Mary, sometimes-she could be a bit pathetic…I don’t know) and that’s only because I could see some humanity in her even as she hung out with the devil. Her love for her little sister was great and I could totally relate, remembering how protective (I still am) of my little sister I was when she started to stray from the path. But nothing could really ground me and connect me to this story. At the end of the day, all I could think of was how annoying Kat was (And I felt a tad trashy, for that matter), how I wished Mary could move on, and how Lillia was going to be heartbroken after all the acts they planned against her ‘friends.’

So, all in all, I don’t know if I’ll ever continue to the next book. It all seemed so petty, which of course it was supposed to be, and I felt bad for the people they targeted. Some of the things they had planned were vile, but then I felt some fell short. I don’t know HOW the plan at the end would truly scar Rennie-it seemed very small, really, compared to everyone else’s revenge. I just, AGH. I don’t know. I suppose I never will. It’s one of those books that is a super easy read, fast-paced, and fun if you are in the mood. In the end, I guess I just really, really, really was not in the mood. Maybe next time.

BOOK REVIEW – Shatter Me (Shatter Me #1) by Tahereh Mafi

December 15, 2014 / Jen / 0 Comments

Shatter Me (Shatter Me #1)
by Tahereh Mafi
Purchase on: Amazon, iBooks
Add to: Goodreads

Synopsis:
~~I have a curse~~
I have a gift

~~I am a monster~~
I'm more than human

~~My touch is lethal~~
My touch is power

~~I am their weapon~~
I will fight back

Juliette hasn’t touched anyone in exactly 264 days.

The last time she did, it was an accident, but The Reestablishment locked her up for murder. No one knows why Juliette’s touch is fatal. As long as she doesn’t hurt anyone else, no one really cares. The world is too busy crumbling to pieces to pay attention to a 17-year-old girl. Diseases are destroying the population, food is hard to find, birds don’t fly anymore, and the clouds are the wrong color.

The Reestablishment said their way was the only way to fix things, so they threw Juliette in a cell. Now so many people are dead that the survivors are whispering war – and The Reestablishment has changed its mind. Maybe Juliette is more than a tortured soul stuffed into a poisonous body. Maybe she’s exactly what they need right now.

Juliette has to make a choice: Be a weapon. Or be a warrior.

***I will NOT finish this series. In #2 it felt as though the characters were transformed to MAKE the story lead in a certain direction. And I can’t be OK with that. You can see my review of Unravel Me here – Unravel Me: 2/5 Stars***

Review:

Truth be told, I didn’t want to fall for Shatter Me. You see, I have a dirty, dirty little secret. I loathe spoilers. Avoid them at all cost. And I get so angry when I read a review, and whoops they forgot to warn me about a spoiler. That’s NOT fair! But before I started Shatter Me, I noticed my wonderful friend, Chelsea, didn’t read the final book. Of course I got curious. Why would she not finish a series she loved in the beginning? So I dug and I asked and I even talked to our other blog buddies Laura & Anna (who loved all three books, by the way) and I found out some stuff that could most likely prevent my stubborn self from loving this whole series too. So I kept trying to think “do NOT get attached”. Do I ever listen when I should? Noooooo. I allowed those thoughts to roll around to the back of my head and found myself slowly becoming mesmerized by every word that fell off of these pages. Because the way the characters entrance you, the story is written, and how the words blend together are just beautiful. And you know what? Of course, I got hooked.

I don’t remember much from before. The only existence I know now is the one I was given. An echo of what used to be.

Juliette has spent her whole life alone and unloved. Her parents shunned her and the students at her school avoided or were horrible to her. To further cement her lack of love, she was locked up in an asylum. Her future is unknown, as is her ability to live to the next day. But one day, everything changes. A boy gets thrown in her room, and he reminds her of someone from her past. His name is Adam and he treats her as though she is human. But her “peaceful” new life doesn’t stay that way for long. She has been informed that she is and will be used as a weapon. You see, The Reestablishment wants Juliette so desperately because she is special. Her touch can kill.

“Of course I remember you.” My voice is a strangled whisper. I squeeze my eyes shut. I remember you every day forever in every single broken moment of my life. “You were the only one who ever looked at me like a human being.”

While Juliette is a broken person, she is defiant. She fights rules they try to place on her. She tries to find a way to negotiate to her benefit. And she has no qualms about standing up for herself, even if it is to the leader who is holding her prisoner and is obsessed about her. But goodness yes, she does cry a lot. She shed many tears, but I think I would too if I were in her shoes. So ultimately, I just let that issue roll off of me. My favorite thing about Juliette – I loved every time she tried to smack Warner back into his place. Warner is the leader of The Reestablishment, and he had a way of getting under my skin. Even though he appears to have cracks in his evil façade, by showing glimpses of humanity and decency from time to time, I disliked Warner on every level. He is crazy, evil, a bad boy…..uhhhh wait a minute here, because usually I fall for these types!!……but for some reason he helped push me right into Adam’s arms.

When I think about it, can I admit that I may be broken? Because here I am falling for another sweet man. Not the jerk, not the bad boy, but the perfectly beautiful good guy. Adam. He made me smile, he gave me butterflies and truth be told there is not one thing I didn’t love about him. From his tattoos to his crystal blue mesmerizing eyes to the way he treated Juliette as an equal and the words he used to speak to her. It all warmed my heart. Adam is everything I girl could ever want and then some.

So here I am terrified of what the future holds. I know I have allowed myself to become too attached to Shatter Me. Or maybe not? Here’s to finding out if I will continue to love Juliette’s personality, swooning over Adam, and becoming lost in the way the story progresses. I am keeping my fingers, toes and arms crossed that I will be able to trudge ahead and enjoy the rest of the ride as much as I am now!

He’s kissing away the pain, the hurt, the years of self-loathing, the insecurities, the dashed hopes for a future I always pictured as obsolete. He’s lighting me on fire, burning away the torture of Warner’s games, the anguish that poisons me every single day. The intensity of our bodies could shatter these glass walls. It nearly does.

P.S. I LOVE Kenzi. He is quirky, and has this innate ability to make everything hilarious. I just now that you will enjoy every moment that he is in a scene, too!

P.P.S. The fact that Juliette strikes out her thoughts, when she doesn’t want to think about something, wow, wow, wow. I loved that.