Review: Vesper

Title: Vesper
Author: Jeff Sampson
Publisher: Harper Teen
Pages: 304
Series: Deviants #1
Rating: 4/5
From the back cover:
Emily Webb is a geek -- and happy that way. She's never been the kind of girl who sneaks out for parties. And she definitely doesn't start fights or flirt with other girls' boyfriends. Until one night Emily finds herself doing exactly that... the same night a classmate -- also named Emily -- is found mysteriously murdered.

The thing is, Emily doesn't know why she's doing this. Every night, she gets wilder, until it's not just her personality that changes; she's also becoming strong, fast, and utterly fearless. Has she been bewitched by the soul of the other, murdered Emily? Or is Emily Webb becoming something else entirely -- something not human?

---------------

Vesper surprised me, and it confused me. It bothered me in places. It made me laugh out loud, and it made me shudder. It definitely was not what I was expecting, but I enjoyed it.

Our story begins with shy, geeky Emily Webb dressed in an outfit she would never wear and attempting to climb out of her bedroom window. A few minutes later, she snaps back to reality, horrified by what she has almost done. Then she gets a phone call: Emily Cooke, a girl from her school, has been shot and killed. Her body was found barefoot, pajama-clad, three miles from her home.

Emily Webb is affected in a way she can't explain by the death of the other Emily, and even as she grieves the loss of a classmate she barely knew, she is changing. Each night, she is hit with a crippling pain, and then she changes into someone different - still Emily, but an Emily who is bold and brazen and maybe even a little slutty. And then she changes even more, into something that may not even be human. Mixed in with the story are transcripts of a conversation Emily has with someone called "F. Savage" describing her adventures.

At first, based on the transcripts, I was expecting a straight-up science fiction novel, but that wasn't what I got. It's a mystery - a murder mystery and a who-am-I mystery all wrapped into one. The plot was excellent. I just kept turning pages, eager to find out what was going on and what would happen next. I hope it doesn't take too long for the sequel, because I want it (a problem, since this one isn't even out until next week).

The only problem I had was Megan. I'm not sure why Emily and Megan were actually friends; it definitely wasn't the kind of friendship I'd want to have. I just didn't like her at all, and I wished we had gotten to know a little more about who she was.

Despite that, Vesper was an intriguing story that kept me reading and left me wanting more. I recommend it, especially if you like a nice dark blend of fantasy, science fiction, and murder mysteries...

Vesper comes out one week from today (on January 25, 2011), so be looking for it soon! :)

Vesper counts towards the Debut Author Challenge and my Missing Letters challenge.


Links:
Jeff Sampson's website

Review: Misguided Angel

Title: Misguided Angel
Author: Melissa de la Cruz
Publisher: Disney Hyperion
Pages: 265
Series: Blue Bloods #5
Rating: 4/5
**WARNING: Spoilers from earlier books (not this one)**
From the book jacket: 
After inheriting the dark Van Alen Legacy, Schuyler fled to Florence with her forbidden love, Jack. Now the two of them must embark on the mission Schuyler was destined to complete: to find and protect the five remaining gates that guard the earth from Lucifer, lord of the Silver Bloods.

Back in New York, Mimi has been elected Regent of a crumbling coven. Struggling with her heartache over the loss of Kingsley and with her overwhelming desire to destroy Jack, she must focus all her energy on a perilous new threat. Vampires are being abducted and their captors are planning to burn them alive online... for all the world to see. Help arrives in the form of Deming Chen, a Venator from Shanghai, who must untangle the web of deceptions before the killers strike again.

As the young vampires struggle for the survival of the coven, they uncover a deadly secret, a truth first discovered by Schuyler's mother during the Renaissance but kept buried for centuries. And as the Blue Blood enclave weakens yet further, fate leads Schuyler to a terrible choice that will ultimately map the destiny of her heart.

---------------

A warning before you read this book: Make sure you've read the previous books in the series, and recently. I've read all the other Blue Bloods books, but apparently not recently enough, because I spent the first sixty pages of Misguided Angel being seriously confused. I couldn't remember why Schuyler and Jack were in Italy or where Oliver was.

At first, I was prepared to give this book a "meh" rating or maybe not even finish it -- I thought maybe I'd go back and reread it once I had refreshed my memory of the earlier books. But Melissa de la Cruz sucked me in with her writing and I couldn't put it down. It almost didn't matter that I'd forgotten a lot of what happened: this novel tells a story in and of itself. (Of course, it also helps a ton that I did eventually remember most of the earlier books...side note: I really do love these books, I just haven't read them recently enough. I did not forget them because they are bad; they're awesome.)

Anyway. Before I go on getting distracted, the book: Schuyler and Jack are in Italy looking for the Gate of Promise. Mimi wants revenge on Jack and she's torn apart by her love for Kingsley, but as the Regent, she can hardly spend her time on that. Not when Blue Blood lives are in danger -- which they are. A new threat has arisen... well, sort of new. The Silver Bloods are very much involved.

Instead of switching between characters frequently, Misguided Angel is divided into thirds. The first third is told from Schuyler's perspective, the second from Mimi's, and the third from Deming's. I thought Deming was an interesting addition to the cast of the series, and even though I'm not a fan of her name ("Schuyler" I just love, "Deming" not so much), I loved her character. Mimi...I just don't like her very much. Schuyler didn't seem very real to me, but I wished there had been more to her part of the story.

What I loved was that even though the three sections of the book are told from very different perspectives and one takes place on the other side of the globe from the others, they still worked together to explore ultimately the same mystery. Obviously, I don't think you should read this if you haven't read the earlier ones in the series...but if you have, read this one! (Before you forget!)

One thing is for sure, Melissa de la Cruz can write. I will be eagerly awaiting the next installment of the series...

Links:
Melissa de la Cruz's website
Blue Bloods website

Review: Raised by Wolves

Title: Raised by Wolves
Author: Jennifer Lynn Barnes
Publisher: Egmont USA
Pages: 418
Series: Raised by Wolves #1
Rating: 5/5
Description from Goodreads:
Adopted by the Alpha of a werewolf pack after a rogue wolf brutally killed her parents right before her eyes, fifteen-year-old Bryn knows only pack life, and the rigid social hierarchy that controls it. That doesn't mean that she's averse to breaking a rule or two.

But when her curiosity gets the better of her and she discovers Chase, a new teen locked in a cage in her guardian's basement, and witnesses him turn into a wolf before her eyes, the horrific memories of her parents' murders return. Bryn becomes obsessed with getting her questions answered, and Chase is the only one who can provide the information she needs.

But in her drive to find the truth, will Bryn push too far beyond the constraints of the pack, forcing her to leave behind her friends, her family, and the identity that she's shaped?

**********

Werewolves are becoming more and more commonplace in YA, but Raised by Wolves is anything but commonplace. I would have loved to devour it in one sitting (sadly, school foiled that plan). It takes the typical werewolf mythology, puts a new and creative spin on it, and then uses that to tell an incredible story. It wasn't a story about werewolves so much as it was a story told through werewolves. Yes, the main characters are part of a pack of werewolves and that completely drives the plot of the novel, but it wasn't about werewolf-ism. It was about identity and growing up and, to a degree, girl power. I feel like I didn't explain that very well, but I mean it as the highest compliment.

The premise is straightforward and complex at the same time. Bryn is a human girl raised in a pack of werewolves; she belongs with them, almost to them, and they are her family. But when she discovers a caged boy who was not born a werewolf but Changed, everything she thought she knew changes, because she is connected to Chase in a way that should not be possible. The plot is one of the many things I adored about this book - it wasn't predictable, it kept moving all the time, it was gripping and engaging, and it kept me reading almost compulsively. Plus, there was just enough tension so that the romantic element was sort of vaguely present, but it was all about the plot. It's so nice to encounter a paranormal novel that isn't a drippy love story.

I also loved Bryn's voice. She's funny and sarcastic and not afraid to stand up for herself, but she also has moments of dark reflection on the tragedies in her past. I especially loved the flashbacks to her childhood and the communication with the wolves - sentence structure and the use of "Mommy" instead of "Mom" can do wonders. Here again, I don't think I'm explaining very well. What I'm trying to say is, Jennifer Lynn Barnes can write. Wow.

The only thing I would change is that I wanted to see more of Devon and I wanted Chase to be more developed. For someone who is apparently Bryn's best friend, Devon got astonishingly little page time - which is unfortunate, because who doesn't love a clever, show-tunes-singing, werewolf best friend? He's a great character, hopefully we get more of him in book two. And Chase...I want to know more about him.

I'm going to stop talking now before I spoil something by accident. Instead, I will leave you with this: Raised by Wolves is one of the best ones out there. I highly recommend it.

Links:
Jennifer Lynn Barnes' website

Review: Numbers (or, I Clearly Excel at Avoiding the Internet)

Title: Numbers
Author: Rachel Ward
Publisher: Scholastic
Pages: 325
Series: Numbers #1
Rating: 4/5
From the book jacket: 
Since the day her mother died, Jem has know about the numbers.

Numbers that pop into her head when she looks into someone's eyes. They're dates, the numbers. Dates predicting with brute accuracy each person's death.

Burdened by such grim knowledge, Jem avoids relationships. Until she meets Spider, another outsider, and takes a chance. Maybe they can find happiness together, if only in the brief time that remains before his expiration date.

But on a trip to London, Jem foresees a chilling chain of events: The city's a target. The clock's running out. The countdown is on to a blowup!

---------------

The premise of this book is so cool. The idea just drew me in. It wasn't about exactly what I thought it would be about - the book jacket makes it sound like it's about the discovery of a terrorist plot or something, but that's only in the first quarter of the book. It's more about Jem and Spider on the run afterwards.

I love the Britishness of Numbers. I love the characters. I really love the story. Jem and Spider are so much fun to read about, and Jem is such a complex character - she's literally an outcast of society, and readers can relate to her. And she's got so many questions and problems, about letting people in and and trusting people and coming to terms with death. I wish Spider had been a bit more developed, and the other side characters. Britney, for example - I loved her. I wanted to know more about her.

I also loved the way Rachel Ward explored the idea of knowing when people will die. Is it better to know when you will die or to leave it a mystery? By coming into contact with someone, can you change their future? How much of life is predestined from birth and how much can be changed? So many interesting concepts. It's so cool.

I was not a fan of the ending. Because I am also not a fan of spoilers, I'm not about to tell you what that ending is, but I will say that it would have been a much better book (in my opinion) without the epilogue. If it had stopped before that, it would have been great. That aside, though, I will definitely be reading the sequel soon (I actually have an ARC in my possession, which is what prompted me to read Numbers in the first place).

Also, can I just take a moment to say that this cover is really awesome?

Oh, and one more thing before I go: this book comes with warnings. There's some pretty heavy swearing and, hopefully this isn't a spoiler, a little bit of sex. So keep that in mind before you pick it up.

Links:
Rachel Ward's website

Review: 13 to Life

Title: 13 to Life
Author: Shannon Delany
Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin
Pages: 308
Series: 13 to Life #1
Rating: 4 stars
From the back cover: 
Everything about Jessie Gillmansen's life changed when her mother died. Now even her hometown of Junction is changing. Mysterious dark things are happening. All Jessie wants is to avoid more change. But while showing a hot new guy around Junction High, she's about to discover a whole new type of change. Pietr Rusakova is more than good looks and a fascinating accent -- he's a guy with a dangerous secret. And his very existence is sure to bring big trouble to Jessie's small town. It seems change is the one thing Jessie can't avoid.

**********

I really dislike the summary of this book. (I do, however, love the cover - the way the moon is the center of the eye? It's awesome.) The summary makes the book sound completely cliched and stereotypical, and it doesn't really talk about what the story is about. BUT! The story inside the book is awesome.

Jessie, a reporter for her school paper, has taken an interest in the "Phantom Wolves" that were supposedly haunting the nearby city of Farthington. So when she starts seeing wolves - big wolves - in her small-town home, Junction, she's naturally somewhat freaked out. And if that's not enough to be getting on with, she's been assigned the job of showing new-boy Pietr Rusakova around school. Pietr, Jessie finds, is impossibly annoying, incredibly mysterious, and more appealing than he should be. She's drawn to him, but she can't explain why. Instead, she pushes him towards her friend Sarah, who is clearly interested in him. Big mistake, especially because Sarah is showing hints of turning into the ice queen she was before the accident. The same accident that killed Jessie's mother.

It took me a while to figure out what exactly the relationship between Jessie and Sarah was. I couldn't decide whether they were friends or enemies or what, but once I got it, it made sense. And I loved the relationship between Jessie and Pietr -- they don't immediately hate each other, and it isn't love at first sight. It develops somewhat more normally than that, which was a very pleasant change from a lot of YA. I felt like Jessie was really slow to make the connection to Pietr's secret, but that was probably just dramatic irony at its finest, and I loved the awesome new twist on werewolf mythology. But what really made me love this book were the characters.

Jessie can be a bit slow at times, but she's a wonderful protagonist. Personally, I would have liked to see more of her best friend, Amy. And Sarah...I'll be interested to see what happens with her in the second book. Weird Wanda, Jessie's dad's girlfriend, makes another interesting addition to the novel, and Pietr's whole family is just wonderful. Max cracked me up so much, and I would love to hang out with Catherine sometime. And then, of course, there's Pietr. Add one more name to the list of "Amazing Fictional Guys." He's sweet, he's protective, he has a sense of humor, he's not a stalker (unlike too many YA guys now), and he's just overwhelmingly real. I love Pietr. And Jessie. And the two of them together.

Parts of the novel were predictable, other parts were a little confusing, but it was absolutely worth reading anyway. J'adore this novel. (Someone check my French? I take Spanish.) It was excellent and wonderful and lots of fun, and I cannot wait to read the sequel, Secrets and Shadows, which I believe comes out in February. 13 to Life was engaging, funny and dark in equal measure and in all the right places, and I just loved it. Well worth your time!

Links: 
Shannon Delany's website
Shannon Delany's blog

Review: Beautiful Darkness

Title: Beautiful Darkness
Author: Kami Garcia & Margaret Stohl
Publisher: Little, Brown
Pages: 503
Series: Caster Chronicles #2
Rating: 5 stars
From the book jacket: 
A few months ago, I believed nothing would ever change in this town. Now I knew better, and I only wished it was true.

Ethan Wate used to think of Gatlin, the small Southern town he had always called home, as a place where nothing ever changed. Then he met mysterious newcomer Lena Duchannes, who revealed a secret world that had been hidden in plain sight all along. A Gatlin that harbored ancient secrets beneath its moss-covered oaks and cracked sidewalks. A Gatlin where a curse has marked Lena's family of powerful Supernaturals for generations. A Gatlin where impossible, magical, life-altering events happen.

Sometimes life-ending.

Together Ethan and Lena can face anything Gatlin throws at them, but after suffering a tragic loss, Lena starts to pull away, keeping secrets that test their relationship. And now that Ethan's eyes have been opened to the darker side of Gatlin, there's no going back. Haunted by strange visions only he can see, Ethan is pulled deeper into his town's tangled history and finds himself caught up in the dangerous network of underground passageways endlessly crisscrossing the South, where nothing is as it seems.

**********

I loved Beautiful Creatures, the first book in the Caster Chronicles, so I've been dying to read this since way before it was released. Sometimes in cases like that, the sequel can't possibly live up to your expectations, but I think Beautiful Darkness did.

I will confess that I had a hard time getting into it at first - it started off a little slowly. But once it got going, it really got going. After getting through about fifty pages throughout the week in my few free minutes at school, I sat down this morning to read a bit more over breakfast. I decided that I would read while I ate, then go work on college essays and NaNoWriMo. Around 3 pm, with only a brief interruption to get lunch, I finished the novel and hadn't written a word. I simply could not put it down.

Ethan is still crazy in love with Lena, but Lena is struggling with a dark secret and even darker emotions that are pulling her away from Ethan. Suddenly, she's hanging out with her evil cousin Ridley and a mysterious new Incubus, leaving Ethan feeling pushed aside and desperate to save her before she turns Dark. Her Seventeenth Moon is coming up, and Lena will have to be Claimed soon. And Liv, Marian's new assistant at the library, is only convincing Lena that Ethan has moved on. But, of course, in Gatlin, SC, nothing is what it appears to be.

I loved so many things about this book. The characters - Link and Liv especially, and Ethan's great-great-aunts, and Ridley, and of course Ethan most of all - just came to life in my mind. I wish we had gotten to see more of Lena, although I'm confident that she'll be more important in book three. I would read pages and pages of just small talk between these characters, because I love them that much.

And the plot. Oh my goodness. I really want book three NOW, because I just have to know what happens next. Beautiful Darkness keeps working at solving the mysteries introduced in book one, answering a few questions and raising plenty more, and there's always something new happening. I feel like that description is really cheesy and doesn't do the book justice at all, but I'm not sure (1) how much I can say without accidentally spoiling something and (2) how else to say it. It just takes hold of you and refuses to let go until you've read every last word, and then leaves you hungry for more of it.

Long story short: I adored this book, every bit as much as the first one if not more, and I can't wait for book three! Absolutely read the Caster Chronicles.

Links: 
Caster Chronicles website
Kami Garcia's blog
Margaret Stohl's blog

Review: John Belushi is Dead

Title: John Belushi is Dead
Author: Kathy Charles
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Pages: 309
Rating: 3.5 stars
From the back cover: 
In the end, we all fade to black.

Pink-haired Hilda and oddball loner Benji are not your typical teenagers. Instead of going to parties or hanging out at the mall, they comb the city streets and suburban culs-de-sac of Los Angeles for sites of celebrity murder and suicide. Bound by their interest in the macabre, Hilda and Benji neglect their schoolwork and their social lives in favor of prowling the most notorious crime scenes in Hollywood history and collecting odd mementos of celebrity death.

Hilda and Benji's morbid pastime takes an unexpected turn when they meet Hank, the elderly, reclusive tenant of a dilapidated Echo Park apartment where a silent movie star once stabbed himself to death with a pair of scissors. Hilda feels a strange connection with Hank and comes to care deeply for her paranoid new friend as they watch old movies together and chat the sweltering afternoons away. But when Hank's downstairs neighbor Jake, a handsome screenwriter, inserts himself into the equation and begins to hint at Hank's terrible secrets, Hilda must decide what it is she's come to Echo Park searching for...and whether her fascination with death is worth missing out on life.

---------------

I won my copy of John Belushi is Dead from Goodreads First Reads. Thank you Simon & Schuster!

Ordinarily I'd begin by giving you a brief description of the plot of the novel, except the back cover does all that and more. In a sentence, though, John Belushi is Dead is the story of Hilda coming to terms with death. Her parents died in a car accident five years ago, and since then she has developed an obsession with Hollywood deaths. After all, if death comes for even the rich and famous, it must be something she can deal with. Then there's Benji, whose obsession with death is a lot more intense than her own.

If I say too much more about the plot, there wouldn't be a whole lot of point in reading the novel, because the summary from the book cover is pretty detailed. Instead, on to what I liked and didn't like:

I really liked the characters. Hilda, especially, was extremely well-developed and she just felt like a real person. Benji...I didn't like him, and he was a little overdone, but he was still well developed. When I say I didn't like him, I mean it in the sense that if he were a real person, I would be terrified of him and I definitely wouldn't like him. Hank, too, was a great character. And Jake. I love Jake, and I love the dynamic of his relationship with Hilda. It is so nice to see a novel where the female protagonist doesn't immediately think "oooh I'm in love!" and then start obsessing the first time she sees a cute guy. Their relationship developed in what I felt like was a genuine and excellently written way. And it wasn't knock-you-over-the-head romance, which was a very pleasant change. Romance was more of an undertone.

I didn't like the end. I won't tell you what it was, of course, but I didn't like it. I wasn't a fan of some of Hilda and Benji's interactions, either - they felt kind of forced in places. In all honesty, though, there wasn't a whole lot I didn't like about the writing and the characters in the book. My problem was with the subject matter.

Dead celebrities. Two teenagers who have an obsession with dead celebrities. Okay, fair enough, but I don't really want to hear all the gory, graphic details about all these celebrity suicides and murders. The attitude Benji especially had toward suicide (accidental or otherwise) as something to shrug off and/or glorify really bothered me. I'm not particularly squeamish and I love creepy stories, but I had some problems with the approach this novel took to death. It did get better by the second half, though.

Overall, I'd recommend this to anyone who likes Hollywood and is okay with some blood and guts. Not a good book for someone who has a problem with blood, definitely, and like I mentioned before, I got kind of bothered by the idea of glorifying death. Still, though, on the whole I think it was a good book and one that's worth your time if you're okay with the subject matter.

Links:
Kathy Charles' website

Review: Mockingjay

Title: Mockingjay
Author: Suzanne Collins
Publisher: Scholastic
Pages: 390
Series: Hunger Games #3
Rating: 5 stars. Or, you know, a gazillion or so.
**Warning!!! This review contains spoilers for books 1-2. (I promise no spoilers for this one, though!)**
From the jacket flap:
"My name is Katniss Everdeen. Why am I not dead? I should be dead."

Katniss Everdeen, girl on fire, has survived, even though her home has been destroyed. Gale has escaped. Katniss's family is safe. Peeta has been captured by the Capitol. District 13 really does exist. There are rebels. There are new leaders. A revolution is unfolding.

It is by design that Katniss was rescued from the arena in the cruel and haunting Quarter Quell, and it is by design that she has long been part of the revolution without knowing it. District 13 has come out of the shadows and is plotting to overthrow the Capitol. Everyone, it seems, has had a hand in the carefully laid plans -- except Katniss.

The success of the rebellion hinges on Katniss's willingness to be a pawn, to accept responsibility for countless lives, and to change the course of the future of Panem. To do this, she must put aside her feelings of anger and distrust. She must become the rebels' Mockingjay - no matter what the personal cost.

---------------------------------------

So, it's been about twenty minutes since I finished reading Mockingjay (I was all for staying up last night to finish it, but unfortunately school stopped that). For all of that time, I have been literally lost for words.

I read the last page and then just stared at the book for a little while. It's over. This is all there will ever be of these characters who took me on this absolutely heart-wrenching journey. And what a story it was.

I'm really not sure what I can say without being mega-spoilery, so I'll just ramble for a while about how much I adore the characters and the story and everything about this book and the whole series. Katniss is seriously one of the strongest, most kick-butt heroines I have ever encountered. Her strength is more physical than a lot of heroines' anymore, but she's got this mental strength too, and Mockingjay tested her in so many ways. We got to see another side of Katniss, which was really awesome. And I think more than anything, it's Katniss's weaknesses that make her such a wonderful character. And then there's Gale and Peeta (both of whom are wonderful characters, regardless of what all the die-hard Team Gale/Team Peeta people say. Although I know whose team I'm on - and always have been - regarding Katniss), and Prim (who's finally a legit character!) and Finnick (who is wonderful) and Boggs and everyone else.

And the villains, too. President Snow, of course, is one seriously bad bad guy. Also I will say that the development of other antagonistic characters was excellent.

I'm rambling a bit. Sorry. I really just do not have the words for this book. And I REALLY don't want to spoil anything. The plot just starts going and never slows down. And like I said...it left me speechless.

So instead of rambling on until I become completely incoherent or inadvertently spoil something, I will leave you with these thoughts: The themes of this book really hit hard. Suzanne Collins can do magic with words. And I approve of the ending. And I'm very, very sad to leave these characters behind as their story ends. Mockingjay made me smile and it made me cry (yes, literally cry. I will admit to this). The Hunger Games trilogy is definitely one of my favorite series ever, and this conclusion is absolutely stunning.

Links:

Suzanne Collin's website

Official Hunger Games fansite, Mockingjay.net

Review: The Replacement

Title: The Replacement
Author: Brenna Yovanoff
Publisher: Razorbill
Pages: 352
Rating: 4.5 stars
From the book jacket: 
Though he lives in the small town of Gentry, Mackie comes from a world of tunnels and black murky water, a world of living dead girls ruled by a little tattooed princess. He is a Replacement - left in the crib of a human baby sixteen years ago. Now, because of fatal allergies to iron, blood, and consecrated ground, Macie is slowly dying in the human world.

Mackie would give anything to live among us, to practice on his bass or spend time with an oddly intriguing girl called Tate. But when Tate's baby sister goes missing, Mackie is drawn irrevocably into the underworld of Gentry, known as Mayhem. He must face the dark creatures of the Slag Heaps and find his rightful place, in our world, or theirs.

-------------------------

I would have loved to sit down and read The Replacement in one go, but unfortunately, schoolwork prevented that. It took me ages to get through this book because I had to keep hiding it from myself until schoolwork was done. But now I've finally caught up on schoolwork, so I sat down and finished it all at once. And since it comes out exactly one month from today, I figure that's just barely close enough to the release date that I can go ahead and put the review up right now.

The Replacement was awesome. I loved it.

What I didn't like was the description on the back cover. I feel like it says too much and not the right things. It  just doesn't quite fit completely with the story. But if you ignore that and just dive into the story...wow.

Mackie is not normal. He can't go to church with his family even though his father is a minister, because the ground is consecrated. He gets physically sick when he comes into contact with iron or comes too close to blood. He can't even kiss the girl he likes, because she has a metal tongue ring. He knows why he's not normal, and so does his family: he's not really their son, Emma's not his biological sister. The real Malcolm Doyle was stolen from his crib as an infant, and Mackie was left in his place. What makes Mackie different from the other Replacements is that he survived.

And now another child has disappeared: the baby sister of a girl from school, Tate. Mackie knows Tate - she's friends with two of his best friends, and he finds her intriguing. But he can't tell her that he knows what happened to Natalie. What he can do is find out what the truth is about who he is and how to save Tate's sister.

I loved Mackie as a narrator. I just connected to him -  he felt so real. His emotions, the way he struggled with his feelings for family and friends and classmates, his desire to fit in and hide his unusualness from everyone else...it was just excellent. It's very difficult to put into words the way I related to Mackie, but it was wonderful. I also really loved a lot of the side characters. Emma, Roswell, Tate, the Morrigan...and the Lady made the perfect villain. So, so awesome. I wish we got to see more of Tate and Emma.

So yes. I love the characters, I love the story (delightfully dark, creepy, beautiful and honest), and I love Brenna Yovanoff's writing style (seriously, it's awesome). The Replacement will be in stores September 21st, and you should definitely make a point of reading it.

Links: 

Brenna Yovanoff's website

Brenna Yovanoff's blog

Review: Amy & Roger's Epic Detour

Title: Amy & Roger's Epic Detour
Author: Morgan Matson
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Pages: 343
Rating: 5 stars
From the book jacket: 
When you're on a road trip, life is all about the detours.

Amy Curry is having a terrible year. Her mother has decided to move across the country and needs Amy to get their car from California to Connecticut. There's just one small problem: Since her dad died this past spring, Amy hasn't been able to get behind the wheel. Enter Roger, the nineteen-year-old son of an old family friend, who turns out to be unexpectedly cute...and dealing with some baggage of his own.

Meeting new people and coming to terms with her father's death are not what Amy had planned for this trip. And traveling the Loneliest Road in America, seeing the Colorado mountains, crossing the Kansas plains, and visiting diners, dingy motels, and Graceland were definitely not on the itinerary. But as they drive, Amy finds that the people you least expect are the ones you need the most - and that sometimes you have to get lost in order to find your way home.

I read this book on Simon & Schuster's PulseIt site over a couple of hours (when I should have been doing summer homework. This was much more interesting, though). It absolutely kept me hooked - even though I predicted pretty much by the end of the first chapter what would happen, I still was excited to find out how it happened, and it's really more of a character novel than a plot novel anyway. And the characters are great, so it's awesome.

Amy Curry's father died in a car accident three months ago. For the last month, she's been on her own in their California home: her mom is in Connecticut, and her twin brother is in rehab in North Carolina. In all that time and then some, she hasn't driven. Amy doesn't drive anymore, not since the accident. So when she has to get the car from Cali to Connecticut, her mom calls in the son of an old family friend: Roger. Roger's driving the car for her, because he'll be staying at his dad's house in Pennsylvania for the summer, but he only agreed to drive the whole way because he's hoping to encounter his ex-girlfriend, Hadley. What neither of them realize is how much they'll end up helping each other with their issues.

The characters are really relatable; I especially related to Amy, because even though she's very different from me in a lot of ways, her feelings are so real and understandable and human. And Roger, too - he's flawed, he's sweet, he's one of the most real fictional male leads I've encountered in a long time, which makes him really quite awesome. And the story is simple and sweet and cute, just like a fun summer read should be, but it also deals with a lot of deep dark issues.

The five words I would pick to describe this book: heartbreaking, heartwarming, sad, sweet, and smiley.

The phrase I would use to describe what you should do now: Go read this book ASAP, because it's awesome.

Oh! And I almost forgot to mention the playlists! Amy and Roger spend a lot of time on their road trip making playlists. Roger's playlists include Jack's Mannequin - a band I really like that hardly anyone at my school/church/etc ever seems to have heard of - as well as other alternative bands that are awesome (and some I don't know - new music yay!) and Amy's are comprised of show tunes and Elvis. Need I say anything more about how awesome this is?

Review: The Dark Divine

Title: The Dark Divine
Author: Bree Despain
Publisher: Egmont
Pages: 372
Series: Dark Divine #1
Rating: 4.5 stars
From the book jacket: 
A prodigal son.
A dangerous love.
A deadly secret.

Grace Divine - daughter of the local pastor - always knew something terrible happened the night Daniel Kalbi disappeared and her brother Jude came home covered in his own blood.

Now that Daniel's returned, Grace must choose between her growing attraction to him and her loyalty to her brother.

As Grace gets closer to Daniel, she learns the truth about that mysterious night and how to save the ones she loves, but it might cost her the one thing she cherishes  most: her soul.

When I started the book, I really loved the story but I kept getting distracted by the print. The font seemed to be in all bold, which I thought was weird, and honestly, that was the only thing that kept me from getting into this book from the very beginning. But once I got used to that...wow. Awesome book.

Grace is the daughter of a pastor, and her family is almost obnoxiously religious and saintly. On the surface, anyway - but they go out of their way to not talk about anything that creates a real problem. So they don't talk about Daniel Kalbi, Grace's one-time childhood crush and a friend who used to be so close he was like an extra brother to Grace and her older brother Jude. Three years ago, he disappeared, and something happened between him and Jude that Jude still won't talk about. So when Daniel turns up in her AP art class and starts flirting with her, Grace has no one to turn to.

It quickly becomes clear that something is up with Daniel, who is demonstrating abilities bordering on superpowers, and there are almost too many clues lying around (I figured out the secret well before the end of the book). Something's up with Jude, too: he's not acting like himself at all. Grace wants to find out the secret about what happened that night, but it might put her in more danger than she can imagine. And as she works to find out what's going on and how to fix it, her once-perfect family life is falling apart around her.

I really loved The Dark Divine. Grace was such a relatable character, and even though her family was kind of unnaturally nice, I felt like all of those characters could have been real (Jude probably least of all, but even him). And Daniel was the ultimate bad-boy, unlovable-and-yet-totally-lovable character, and I really related to him, too. I also loved the characters of Don Mooney and Grace's father, especially. And the plot had just the right mix of action and romance and mystery...it was great.

Also, Bree Despain did an awesome job with the mythology in this. It was a very interesting new approach to a very familiar paranormal topic (and no, it's not vampires). I'm not going to say anything else about that because I don't want to spoil anything...but, yes, it was awesome.

So, the one-sentence summary of that review: The Dark Divine is an excellent paranormal romance with an interesting twist on the legends that I would absolutely recommend.

Links:
Bree Despain's website

Review: The Body Finder

Title: The Body Finder
Author: Kimberly Derting
Publisher: HarperCollins
Pages: 327
Series: The Body Finder #1
Rating: 5 stars
Description from Goodreads:
Violet Ambrose is grappling with two major issues: Jay Heaton and her morbid secret ability. While the sixteen-year-old is confused by her new feelings for her best friend since childhood, she is more disturbed by her “power” to sense dead bodies—or at least those that have been murdered. Since she was a little girl, she has felt the echoes the dead leave behind in the world . . . and the imprints that attach to their killers.


Violet has never considered her strange talent to be a gift; it mostly just led her to find dead birds her cat had tired of playing with. But now that a serial killer has begun terrorizing her small town, and the echoes of the local girls he’s claimed haunt her daily, she realizes she might be the only person who can stop him.


Despite his fierce protectiveness over her, Jay reluctantly agrees to help Violet on her quest to find the murderer—and Violet is unnerved to find herself hoping that Jay’s intentions are much more than friendly. But even as she’s falling intensely in love, Violet is getting closer and closer to discovering a killer . . . and becoming his prey herself.


I fell in love with this book from the first chapter. I couldn't tell you what about it made me love it, but once I started reading, I just couldn't put it down. At the very beginning, I was concerned that it might not live up to my expectations (which were very high, from all of the positive reviews I've read), because I felt like it was doing more telling and less showing...but then...it was just amazing.


Violet is such a relatable character. She's got a few friends but she's not super-popular, she has a hard time coming up with clever comebacks, she's trying to hide a crush on her best friend, she's scared but she's trying to do something about it. She has her flaws, but they're just a part of her - she could be real. And Jay. Oh my goodness, Jay. He has definitely earned a place in the top few Crush-worthy Fictional Guys. I wish the side characters had been developed more (I need more Chelsea and Claire, please!) but I think their role in the story worked.


The set-up, basically, is that Violet gets these sensory stimulations when she's around a murder victim or a murderer. Mostly that means that her cat smells weird after he kills a bird and she can always find the bird, but then she finds a dead girl her age in a lake at a party. Soon other girls start disappearing, there's a serial killer on the loose, and Violet may be the only one who can find and identify him. I had worried that the premise of "I see dead things" might be too cliche, but it totally wasn't. The mystery is really well done and I just could not put the book down until I knew what had happened. It was fantastic. I also really liked that it occasionally flashed to the killer's point of view, telling us just enough to keep us sufficiently horrified by the crimes but not enough to ruin the mystery.


And the ending. No spoilers, I promise, but if you read it you'll know what I mean: the ending was very well done. It works as a stand-alone, I think, but I'm sooo glad there's going to be a sequel, because I need more Violet and Jay. And Chelsea. And Claire. And so on and so forth...you get the picture.


Anyway, long story short, definitely read this one, you guys. It was awesome.


Links:
Kimberly Derting's website

Review: Before I Fall

*This review was originally written before the creation of Bookworm Boulevard. It has been reformatted and reposted here for archiving purposes.

Title: Before I Fall

Author: Lauren Oliver

Publisher: HarperCollins

Pages: 470

Rating: 5 stars

Description from Goodreads:

What if you had only one day to live? What would you do? Who would you kiss? And how far would you go to save your own life?

Samantha Kingston has it all - looks, popularity, the perfect boyfriend. Friday, February 12th should be just another day in her charmed life. Instead, it's her last. The catch: Samantha still wakes up the next morning. In fact, she relives the last day of her life seven times, until she realizes that by making even the slightest changes, she may hold more power than she ever imagined.

Oh my goodness. Where to begin? Before I Fall is amazing. So, I have to confess, for the first few chapters of the book, I didn't like it at all. I hated the main characters (except Kent, who the main characters hate), and I expected the constant talk of sex, drugs, alcohol, and obsessive popularity to get really old really fast. I was prepared to hate the book.

I was wrong. Yes, at the beginning of the novel, Samantha ("Sam") Kingston and her friends, Lindsay, Ally, and Elody, are - there's no other word for it - bitchy. They're mean to everyone, they're bullies just because they can be, they can get away with anything and do whatever they want. They talk about sex a lot, and they drink a lot just because they can, and they smoke and cut class and all that other stuff that gives teenagers a bad reputation.

But then Sam dies. And after her nightmarish last day, she wakes up again the same morning. She relives her last day seven times over. During this miraculous final week, she changes. Sam starts to understand things about the world around her, and about herself. The question is, will one day be enough to change everything?

By the end of the novel, I didn't hate Sam or her friends at all. I sympathized with Sam, I wanted to just give her a big hug and make things okay, and I will confess that there were a couple of parts near the end that almost made me cry. I sat down and read the entire second half in one afternoon. It was fantastic. Lauren Oliver has some kind of magic with storytelling, to be able to create a character so real and to change the reader's attitude toward her so completely. It is absolutely worth the first couple of chapters (although the prologue may be compelling enough on its own; very well set up) to get to the rest of the story. READ IT. Please. It took me a little longer than I liked to get into it, but once I did, it was absolutely fantastic. Definitely, definitely check this one out.

Links:

Lauren Oliver's website

Lauren Oliver's blog

Review: Tangled

*This review was originally written before the creation of Bookworm Boulevard; it has been reformatted and reposted here for archiving purposes.

Title: Tangled
Author: Carolyn Mackler
Publisher: HarperCollins
Pages: 320
Rating: 4 stars
From the back cover:
Jena, Dakota, Skye, and Owen are all at Paradise - a resort in the Caribbean, that is - for different reasons, but in Paradise their lives become tangled together in ways none of them can predict. The week might take Jena one kiss closer to having a life; set Dakota on a new path; push Skye to stop playing a role, or face the consequences; or inspire Owen to take a leap from his online life to a real one, all because of a girl he met in Paradise. Whatever happens here, it will change them all.

At first, I wasn't sure I liked Tangled. I thought it was going to be just another chick lit where the dorky-girl-who-has-no-life either ends up with some hot guy who turns out to have a sweet personality or discovers that being hot and popular is not all it's cracked up to be. But I kept reading, because I kind of liked the characters, and...wow. It turned out to be really good.

This book tells the story of four teens - Jena, her mom's friend's daughter Skye, a hotshot jock named Dakota, and his dorky younger brother Owen - who for various reasons have to spend a week at a resort called Paradise. Jena meets(/falls for) Dakota and finds a suicide note by a hot tub, and then things are in motion that are beyond their control. There are four sections in the book, each told from a different character's point of view and surrounding that character's individual story, but there's definitely crossover between them. The book is about how their lives get tangled together and how it changes all of them. Skye's and Owen's sections were probably my favorites because I could relate to them better, but they were all great. It was a little difficult to believe in places, but it worked. 

There is some strong language and some sexual content, especially in the first half, but it's written in so that on the whole it adds to the book rather than taking away from it. I almost put it down because of some of that content, but I am reeeally glad that I kept reading. Seriously. Sweet story, great characters, and just overwhelmingly real. Probably more of a girl book than a guy book, although guys would probably enjoy Dakota's and Owen's sections just as much; I'd definitely recommend it to anyone.

Links:

Carolyn Mackler's website

Carolyn Mackler's blog

Review: All Unquiet Things

*This review was originally written before the creation of Bookworm Boulevard; it has been reformatted and reposted here for archiving purposes.

Title: All Unquiet Things
Author: Anna Jarzab
Publisher: Random House Children's Books
Pages: 352
Rating: 4 stars
Description from Goodreads:
Carly: She was sweet. Smart. Self-destructive. She knew the secrets of Brighton Day School's most privileged students. Secrets that got her killed.

Neily: Dumped by Carly for a notorious bad boy, Neily didn't answer the phone call Carly made before she died. If he had, maybe he could have helped her. Now he can't get the image of her lifeless body out of his mind.

Audrey: She's the reason Carly got tangled up with Brighton's fast crowd in the first place, and now she regrets it - especially since she's convinced the police have put the wrong person in jail. Audrey thinks the murderer is someone at Brighton, and she wants Neily to help her find out who it is.

As reluctant allies Neily and Audrey dig into their shared past with Carly, her involvement with Brighton's dark goings-on comes to light. But figuring out how Carly and her killer fit into the twisted drama will force Audrey and Neily to face hard truths about themselves and the girl they couldn't save.

I will admit it took me a while to get into All Unquiet Things, but after the first few chapters I was completely hooked. Long story short, it's essentially a murder mystery. A year before the story starts, Carly Ribelli is found dead with four gunshot wounds to the chest. Her uncle, the father of her cousin and best friend, Audrey, was convicted of the murder, but Audrey doesn't believe her dad is guilty. So Audrey enlists the help of Carly's ex-boyfriend, Neily - who was still in love with Carly - to help her figure out who really did it. The story is a mix of murder mystery and high school drama; the focus is on the murder mystery, but the clues are embedded in the high school drama.

The story alternates between Neily and Audrey's perspectives. It's really well-written, maybe a bit slow at times but still very engaging, and the story - oh my goodness. Some of it is a bit hard to believe, but Anna Jarzab makes it believable. And the characters are so real and well-developed and amazing. They each have their own distinctive voices, but the transitions from one narrator to the other are (mostly) very smooth. There is some language and content that might not be appropriate for younger teens, but to anyone who doesn't mind that stuff, I would absolutely recommend this book.

Links:
Anna Jarzab's website

Review: If I Stay

Title: If I Stay
Author: Gayle Forman
Publisher: Dutton Books
Pages: 196
Rating: 4.5 stars
From the jacket flap:

"Just listen," Adam says with a voice that sounds like shrapnel. I open my eyes wide now. I sit up as much as I can. And I listen.

 "Stay," he says.


Choices. Seventeen-year-old Mia is faced with some tough ones: Stay true to her first love - music - even if it means losing her boyfriend and leaving her family and friends behind?


Then one February morning Mia goes for a drive with her family, and in an instant, everything changes. Suddenly, all the choices are gone, except one. And it's the only one that matters.


If I Stay is a heartachingly beautiful book about the power of love, the true meaning of family, and the choices we all make.


First off, I have to say how much I love this cover of this book. I love the texture of the font that makes it look so handwritten, I love the simplicity, I just love it. That said, the paperback cover is beautiful too, but I think I like this one better.

And the story is just beautiful. The narrative is nonlinear; a series of flashbacks is intercut with the story in the present, and it's not broken into chapters but rather divided by time stamps. Not everyone can pull off such a complex structure, but Forman certainly does. And the characters are so beautifully, wonderfully real. The choices Mia is forced to make are very real ones, and her reactions to them are so starkly human and so well-tied to her personality that she could very easily come to life. And even the smaller characters - Adam, Kim, Mia's family, Henry, Willow, everyone - are well-developed. Readers see them through the filter of Mia's narration, but we are shown (not told: important distinction) enough that we really get a sense of who these people are and what Mia's life is like.

Mia's relationships to her family and her boyfriend were refreshing, too. Her love life isn't perfect; far from the I-have-the-perfect-boyfriend or I-have-the-perfect-secret-lover relationships shown in a lot of books, Mia's relationship with Adam has the same ups and downs that any normal relationship has. They are in love, but their relationship is flawed. They fight and argue, but it's something they can work through. And it's wonderful to see a teen who doesn't totally hate her parents. Mia experiences the same feelings of loneliness and misunderstanding that most teens experience, but she still loves her parents, they are very present in her life, and she has a very protective and sisterly instinct toward her younger brother.

My only complaint was that it seemed to take a very long time to get to the heart of the major choice Mia was facing, but the story is absolutely worth reading in spite of that. It's beautifully written, heartbreaking and hopeful at the same time. I have to confess to crying like a baby at parts of it. Definitely read this book if you get the chance.

Links:
Gayle Forman's website
If I Stay book website