Book Review: Vanished

Title: Vanished
Author: E. E. Cooper
Year of Publication: 2015
Summary:  Friendship. Obsession. Deception. Love.

Kalah knows better than to fall for Beth Taylor . . . but that doesn't stop her from falling hard and falling fast, heart first into a sea of complications.

Then Beth vanishes. She skips town on her eighteenth birthday, leaving behind a flurry of rumors and a string of broken hearts. Not even Beth's best friend, Britney, knows where she went. Beth didn't even tell Kalah good-bye.

One of the rumors links Beth to Britney's boyfriend, and Kalah doesn't want to believe the betrayal. But Brit clearly believes it—and before Kalah can sort out the truth, Britney is dead.

When Beth finally reaches out to Kalah in the wake of Brit's suicide, Kalah wants to trust what Beth tells her. But she's swiftly realizing that nothing here is as it seems. Kalah's caught in the middle of a deadly psychological game, and only she can untangle the deceptions and lies to reveal the unthinkable truth.

Review: Vanished was a confusing book. Confusing in a good way. But there were so many red herrings, it almost gave me whiplash. It also reminded me a lot of Gone Girl.

I have to put this out there straight away, I knew Britney wasn't dead from the moment it was revealed on the page that she had committed suicide. No body? Pssh. I've seen like five seasons of Pretty Little Liars. No body = not dead. Always.

So while this story was a little predictable, it was also a good read and a strong debut novel for the author, E. E. Cooper. I liked most of the characters, even when I hated them - they were well crafted. Well, maybe with the exception of Britney's mother who was horrible and a little bit racist, and sort of one dimensional and oh, did I mention absolutely horrible? Yeah, I hated her.

I am almost wishing for a sequel or more pages in the book so we can see if Britney was ever brought to justice or not. Also, I would have loved to read more about Kalah and Beth's relationship. I definitely did not agree with how Kalah handed it, especially to do with Zach but I can emphasize. I remember all too well how falling in love with someone I was not supposed to felt.

I don't know how realistic this novel was, but it was an entertaining read nonetheless. I look forward to more by this author. Rating 3.5, rounded up to 4.

Rating:
4/5 stars
★★★★✰

Book Review: The Walls Around Us

Title: The Walls Around Us
Author: Nova Ren Suma
Year of Publication: 2015
Summary:  On the outside, there's Violet, an eighteen-year-old dancer days away from the life of her dreams when something threatens to expose the shocking truth of her achievement.

On the inside, within the walls of the Aurora Hills juvenile detention center, there's Amber, locked up for so long she can't imagine freedom.

Tying their two worlds together is Orianna, who holds the key to unlocking all the girls' darkest mysteries…

What really happened on the night Orianna stepped between Violet and her tormentors? What really happened on two strange nights at Aurora Hills? Will Amber and Violet and Orianna ever get the justice they deserve—in this life or in another one?

Review: **Copy kindly provided by NetGalley in exchange for an honest review**

Poignant, beautiful and breathtaking, The Walls Around Us has the power to send the reader reeling. Nova Ren Suma has done it again.

I first picked up one of the author's earlier books, Imaginary Girls back in 2013 and was quickly drawn into that story and intrigued and impressed by Suma's personal blend of magic. The same sort of magic made an appearance in The Walls Around Us, woven into the prose skillfully.

The story follows three girls through the viewpoints of two of them, Amber and Violet. Their voices leapt off the page and were very distinct from one another. I had absolutely no trouble telling the two apart which is what can sometimes happen when you have more than one PoV in a novel. All of the characters were creative, original, and well-formed. There were absolutely no stereotypes in this book.

The plot itself was amazing and well thought out, with more twists and turns than a whole season of Lost, and it kept me hanging on to every page. I read this book in less than five hours in one sitting, it was just that good.

Nova Ren Suma is an amazing author, and I cannot wait for more material from her.

Rating:  5/5 stars
★★★★★

Book Review: Inhuman

Title: Inhuman
Author: Kat Falls
Year of Publication: 2014
Summary:  America has been ravaged by a war that has left the eastern half of the country riddled with mutation. Many of the people there exhibit varying degrees of animal traits. Even the plantlife has gone feral. Crossing from west to east is supposed to be forbidden, but sometimes it’s necessary. 

Some enter the Savage Zone to provide humanitarian relief. Sixteen-year-old Lane’s father goes there to retrieve lost artifacts—he is a Fetch. It’s a dangerous life, but rewarding—until he’s caught. Desperate to save her father, Lane agrees to complete his latest job. That means leaving behind her life of comfort and risking life and limb—and her very DNA—in the Savage Zone.

But she’s not alone. In order to complete her objective, Lane strikes a deal with handsome, roguish Rafe. In exchange for his help as a guide, Lane is supposed to sneak him back west. But though Rafe doesn’t exhibit any signs of “manimal” mutation, he’s hardly civilized . . . and he may not be trustworthy.

Review: Inhuman sounded like it was going to be an awesome adventure novel through what sounded like a dystopian, post-apocalyptic setting with a kick ass main character. I was so ready to tumble into this novel and thoroughly enjoy it.

Unfortunately, to put it bluntly - this book sucked. The opening scenes were boring, the main character was whiny, and the plot went slowly. By the end of the first quarter it was blatantly obvious there was going to be a love triangle. I knew more about how both boys looked than I did about the main character. Especially Rafe, as she took the time to describe his "sunkissed skin, aquamarine eyes and sculpted lips."

The two dimensional friends mentioned in the first chapter were barely thought of again by the main character, even though Anna was supposed to be her best friend. In fact, throughout the novel she barely thinks of anybody but herself aside from her two love interests - Rafe the bad boy, and Everson the white knight who were essentially reduced to stereotypes. Not only that but the characterization for Delaney was wildly inconsistent - she mentions survival skill classes but can barely do anything. She is supposed to be smart but she's as dumb as a bag of rocks. She fears and hates germs and ferals then the next minute she likes and cares for them (and then goes straight back to being afraid of them).

On top of this, the plot was so slow. By the time I reached the 50% mark I felt like the book should have ended already. I wished it had ended already. That way I wouldn't have had to puzzle through sentences like, "The word alone triggered mental epilepsy" and "The river looked not just fast, but schizo." I wish I had made those quotes up. What does that even mean???

Perhaps if the author had sped the plot up and stopped the lovey dovey mess this book would have been as awesome as it initially sounded. The last quarter of the book was jam packed with the sort of action I'd been craving - if only the whole book had been like this.

I don't think I'd recommend this book to anyone unless they just want to be put straight to sleep by a plot that goes nowhere. Have insomnia? Try this. At the very least it will make you want to knock yourself out.

Rating:  2/5 stars
★★✰✰✰

Book Review: Angelfall

Title: Angelfall
Author: Susan Ee
Year of Publication: 2011
Summary:  It's been six weeks since angels of the apocalypse descended to demolish the modern world. Street gangs rule the day while fear and superstition rule the night. When warrior angels fly away with a helpless little girl, her seventeen-year-old sister Penryn will do anything to get her back.

Anything, including making a deal with an enemy angel.

Raffe is a warrior who lies broken and wingless on the street. After eons of fighting his own battles, he finds himself being rescued from a desperate situation by a half-starved teenage girl.

Traveling through a dark and twisted Northern California, they have only each other to rely on for survival. Together, they journey toward the angels' stronghold in San Francisco where she'll risk everything to rescue her sister and he'll put himself at the mercy of his greatest enemies for the chance to be made whole again.

Review:  Angelfall had me hooked me from the very beginning. Even when I wanted so desperately to put the book down and walk away from it as far as I could, it held me in an iron vice. As much as that sounds like a bad thing, it is the same thing that makes this book so real in my memory a couple of days after the fact.

Simply put, this book was disconcerting as all heck. And it was intended to be this way. Gone are the days of simply being scared of angels because of Doctor Who - nope, now I have a new reason to be absolutely terrified. Ee’s angels are not fluffy do-gooders (though they are hot), they are monsters.

The character of Penryn and her family are blessings of the YA genre. They are not damsels in distress - her mother is schizophrenic, her sister is disabled, and Penryn herself manages to keep her wits about her even in the face of a swoony shirtless potential love interest.

It has been a while since I was desperately in need of a sequel, but now I am desperate to get my hands on a copy of World After (Penryn & The End of Days book #2). It’s actually astounding that even though this book was published in 2011 I had not heard of it until this year. It is a book that I think must be read by everyone. It is a wonder that it has not been made into a film or a mini-series yet - I could see this series becoming as big as say, The Hunger Games.

This book is fully deserving of the five stars I am giving it. Definitely a must-read for everybody, especially those who enjoyed titles such as The Hunger Games, the Maze Runner, Cinder, and The Mortal Instruments.

Rating: 5/5 stars
★★★★★

Book Review: All We Had

Title: All We Had
Author: Annie Weatherwax
Year of Publication: 2014

Summary: For Ruthie Carmichael and her mother Rita, life has never been stable. Jobs are hard to find, men come and go. But when a set of unexpected circumstances strands them in Fat River, a small rural town in upstate New York, life takes a turn. Fat River becomes the first place they call home. 

The modest economic security they gain gives them peace and space for friends. The people of Fat River—Hank and Dotty Hanson, the elderly owners of the local hardware store being driven out of business by the new Walmart; Mel, the flawed, but kindhearted owner of the town diner where Rita finds work; and the cross-dressing Peter Pam, the novel’s voice of warmth and reason—become family. Into this quirky utopia comes Vick Ward, a smooth-talking broker who entices Rita with a subprime mortgage and urges her to buy the ramshackle house she and her daughter have been renting.

Tough and quick-witted, thirteen-year-old Ruthie—whose sardonic voice and plain-spoken observations infuse All We Had with disarming honesty and humor—never minded her hardscrabble existence as long as her mother was by her side. Through it all, the two have always been the center of one another’s lives. But when financial crisis hits, their luck takes a different turn. 



Review: **Copy kindly provided by Netgalley in exchange for an honest review**

Beautiful and haunting, All We Had is a novel that is unpretentious and unabashed, and will leave you reeling.

Ruthie's voice gripped me from the very beginning and had me turning pages throughout the story. The beginning to middle was a little slow, but when it picked up it swept me off my feet and into Fat River, the heart of the novel and the place where it is set.

The eclectic characters had me spellbound - from Peter Pam who was by far my favourite, to the strange, but kind Hanson's who owned the carpentry store. The events and characters of the story had me in tears at multiple points, but especially the end.

There is so much of this story that hit home for me - but putting it into words seems impossible. It is truly a novel that you just have to experience for yourself.

Rating: 5/5 stars
★★★★★

Book Review: Cinder

Title: Cinder
Author: Marissa Meyer
Year of publication: 2012
Summary: Humans and androids crowd the raucous streets of New Beijing. A deadly plague ravages the population. From space, a ruthless lunar people watch, waiting to make their move. No one knows that Earth’s fate hinges on one girl. 

Cinder, a gifted mechanic, is a cyborg. She’s a second-class citizen with a mysterious past, reviled by her stepmother and blamed for her stepsister’s illness. But when her life becomes intertwined with the handsome Prince Kai’s, she suddenly finds herself at the center of an intergalactic struggle, and a forbidden attraction. Caught between duty and freedom, loyalty and betrayal, she must uncover secrets about her past in order to protect her world’s future.

Review: Oh my gosh, this book was a doozy. Completely mind boggling and action packed, and absolutely a blast to read. I almost feel like I have not slept in days even though I read the book in one setting. Wow.

Retellings have been done before, many, many times. What makes this one unique is that it is set in the future, hundreds of years in the future, and our Cinderella is a cyborg. Our heroine is resourceful, independent - and doesn't wait for her prince or her fairy godmother to save her. She takes care of herself, and she gets things done armed with the tools of her trade - she's a mechanic after all.

One thing I absolutely loved about Cinder was the characters - the death of Peony was absolutely heartbreaking, but it had an upside... even though Cinder's other step sister and her stepmother were total monsters they grieved for Peony. In their own ways.

Perhaps Adri had not always been such a horrid person. Perhaps before Cinder's stepfather died, she had been good. Grief does things to people, and it can change them forever. I still don't forgive her for taking Cinder's foot or her android, Iko, though.

A character I found surprisingly pleasant was Kai. I am so used to stupid love interests that it was a breath of fresh air to get one who wasn't so dumb, even if he was a little vanilla.

Though the big reveal in the story was a little obvious, I still had no idea what would happen in the end of the story - and oh man, I was floored. You guys will just have to read it for yourselves to see what I mean.

I only wish there was more information about the Lunar colonies. Okay, yes, there was a lot in there but I want more. Luckily there are two more books in the series so that I may satisfy my cravings in due time.

In the meantime, I will be recovering from this whirlwind book with a cup of hot tea and a nap in the hopes that I can start reading Scarlet, the second book in the series, very soon.

Rating: 5/5 stars
★★★★★

Book Review: The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer

Title: The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer
Author: Michelle Hodkin
Year of publication: 2011
Summary:  Mara Dyer believes life can't get any stranger than waking up in a hospital with no memory of how she got there.
It can. 

She believes there must be more to the accident she can't remember that killed her friends and left her strangely unharmed.
There is. 

She doesn't believe that after everything she's been through, she can fall in love.
She's wrong.

Review: Mara Dyer was one of those books that I really wanted to like. I did. It had everything that my book snob heart so very much desires - mysteries, murder, paranormal activity. It was, for the most part, well written, however the parts that were not were enough to make me dislike the whole story.

For example... Anna and Aiden. Why? What made the duo such heartless cretins? No one is that malicious over a dumb boy. I expected a proper answer by the end of the story, but nope. They were there only to play the part of the cliche bullies.

Also, Jamie. She knows this guy for all of one minute, he barely gets any screen time and suddenly when he's expelled he's her best friend, cue sobbing. If that was not bad enough, to top it all off once Mara has her little hissy fit she forgets all about him and isn't mentioned again! Some best friend, hey?

I can forgive Mara for her stupidity in this novel. Okay, she's just been through a very traumatic event, she's not thinking straight. I get it, I understand -it's realistic. PTSD is terrifying.  It was disappointing that she was, quoth herself, a "Whitey McWhiterson" when her brothers all shared their mothers skin tone. Alright, genetics and whatnot yada yada. But it would have been nice to have a PoC heroine. I don't see why she, like all the other YA heroines with few exceptions had to be as pale as Snow White's ass or whatever.

Noah annoyed me to no end. His behavior throughout the story was creepy and possessive and I just wanted him to go away. His one redeeming feature was that he helped Mara save Mabel. I am sucker for doggy sob stories. Stop stupid YA love interests 2k15 please.

Aside from the characters, I felt some things should have taken more of a major role over the story - such as the Jordana Palmer case. It really didn't get any attention til the very end of the book, when I think maybe it should have. Plus the Anna/Aiden vs Mara fiasco. Seriously, how am I supposed to believe that it was hate at first sight? Just dumb. At least give it more of an arc in the story. I don't need them to forgive each other at the end and become all buddy buddy besties or whatever. I just need it to be believable that Anna hates Mara so intensely that she would cause all of this drama, enough to get someone expelled.

Overall, it was not terrible. But it just wasn't good. The ending was not enough of a cliffhanger to give me reason to want to read the second book after the first one was lackluster at best. Very disappointing, in my opinion. I expected better.

Rating: 3/5 stars
★★★✰✰