Title: One Past Midnight
Author: Jessica Shirvington
Series: Standalone
Genre: YA Contemporary, Alternate Universes
Format: Hardcover, 352 pages
Release Date: July 22nd 2014
Publisher: Bloomsbury USA Childrens
Source: eARC received from publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review

Purchase
Amazon | Indigo | TBD | Goodreads









Above all else, though I try not to think about it, I know which life I prefer. And every night when I Cinderella myself from one life to the next a very small, but definite, piece of me dies. The hardest part is that nothing about my situation has ever changed. There is no loophole.

Until now, that is...

For as long as she can remember, Sabine has lived two lives. Every 24 hours she Shifts to her ′other′ life - a life where she is exactly the same, but absolutely everything else is different: different family, different friends, different social expectations. In one life she has a sister, in the other she does not. In one life she′s a straight-A student with the perfect boyfriend, in the other she′s considered a reckless delinquent. Nothing about her situation has ever changed, until the day when she discovers a glitch: the arm she breaks in one life is perfectly fine in the other.

With this new knowledge, Sabine begins a series of increasingly risky experiments which bring her dangerously close to the life she′s always wanted... But just what - and who - is she really risking?


I love this author so much, so when I saw that she was writing a standalone book I knew i needed to read it. What I think I liked the most about this book was its departure from Jessica's earlier series. This book has nothing to do with angels, it actually is about parallel universes and a girl who lives in both.

The concept behind this book was amazing. I loved reading one character in two worlds. You could see how different she was acting in both worlds, it was kind of like seeing two different characters in one, and I loved it! Sabine was a great character to read because she was so easy to relate to. In each world she was in she has issues that all teenagers deal with, parents, love, pressure from friends, pressure from the future. All of these things are areas that impact any person at any point in their life, and watching Sabine go through these aspects of her life made for a great book.

As a reader I did prefer one world over the other, and to be honest I am surprised at which world I chose because of what happens to Sabine within it. In YA there is always the treat of a love triangle, and i will say that there is kind of one in this book, but to be fair, they are in different worlds and they are VERY different. We have Dez who was extremely forceful and liked the idea of love more than actually falling in love. Then we have Ethan, my new book boyfriends BTW. he was smart and sweet and dedicated to Sabine and her way of life. They could not have been more different and I loved how you could see the different in Sabine when she was with each of them.

Secondary characters are crazy important in this book because they let you remember which world Sabine is in, and honestly they were great to read. The parents especially because in one world they made me so angry that I wanted to throw the book against the wall. All of the secondary characters in this book have purpose and I loved that, they all contributed to the story and where it was headed.

The end was both heartbreaking and uplifting. I really cannot say much else about it because I will give it away but lets just say I shed some tears, and yet when I finished reading the book I found myself smiling. Jessica has a way to do that and I recommend this book to lovers of contemporary lovers because to be very honest this book has a very contemporary feel...minus the jumping worlds thing (which is very minor part of the book in my opinion). This book is more about Sabine and her relationships in both worlds, more than her jumping from world to world and I think that is why I loved the book so much.

Title: Wild Cards
Author: Simone Elkeles
Genre: YA, Contemporary
Format:  Hardcover, 342 pages
Release Date: October 8, 2013
Publisher: Bloomsbury
Source: ARC received by publisher for honest review

Purchase
Amazon | Chapters | TBD | Goodreads





After getting kicked out of boarding school, bad boy Derek Fitzpatrick has no choice but to live with his ditzy stepmother while his military dad is deployed. Things quickly go from bad to worse when he finds out she plans to move them back to her childhood home in Illinois. Derek’s counting the days before he can be on his own, and the last thing he needs is to get involved with someone else’s family drama.

Ashtyn Parker knows one thing for certain--people you care about leave without a backward glance. A football scholarship would finally give her the chance to leave. So she pours everything into winning a state championship, until her boyfriend and star quarterback betrays them all by joining their rival team. Ashtyn needs a new game plan, but it requires trusting Derek—someone she barely knows, someone born to break the rules. Is she willing to put her heart on the line to try and win it all?


I have recently rediscovered my love for contemporary fiction, and so when I saw that Simone Elkeles had a new book out, I was seriously excited to get my hands on it. This story follows a young girl who is in love with football and become the kicker for her high school team. Little did she know that a young man would walk into her life and change everything. I will admit that this book did not blow me away, but I did like this book quite a bit.

The chemistry between the main character and the love interest was amazing. The sexual tension could be felt on every page and I loved reading that. Their relationship in general was a great thing to read because it did not seem based on something insignificant and made sense overall. I will say that I thought they fell for each other pretty quickly and at times I thought it could have happened differently. But overall it was a very sweet and at time hot romance.

The plot and conflict was extremely believable, and I will say that if my boyfriend did something like that to me, he would not be walking right for a very long time. And I thought that the way Simone wrote it made me so mad for Ashtyn, our main charcacter because I fell in love with her right from the beginning. You are rooting for her to suceed and that is the markings of a great character.

Although there were some issues for me, this book was a great read for a contemporary romance lover. There is suspense, romance and tension like you would not believe. It will leave you wanting more and I cannot wait to see what Simon comes up with next.

Title: Where the Stars Still Shine
Author: Trish Doller
Genre: YA, Contemporary
Format: Hardcover, 308 pages
Release Date: September 24, 2013
Publisher: Bloomsbury USA Childrens
Source: ARC received by publisher for honest review

Purchase
Amazon | Chapters | TBD | Goodreads





Stolen as a child from her large and loving family, and on the run with her mom for more than ten years, Callie has only the barest idea of what normal life might be like. She's never had a home, never gone to school, and has gotten most of her meals from laundromat vending machines. Her dreams are haunted by memories she’d like to forget completely. But when Callie’s mom is finally arrested for kidnapping her, and Callie’s real dad whisks her back to what would have been her life, in a small town in Florida, Callie must find a way to leave the past behind. She must learn to be part of a family. And she must believe that love--even with someone who seems an improbable choice--is more than just a possibility.

Trish Doller writes incredibly real teens, and this searing story of love, betrayal, and how not to lose your mind will resonate with readers who want their stories gritty and utterly true.


It is official. I have fallen back in love with Contemporary YA Fiction. It is stories and author like Trish Doller that make me want to gush and gush about a book o a friend. Although I have never read anything from Trish before, I will now. Because of the way she transformed a story into something so extraordinary, she deserves to be noticed. Where the Stars Still Shine was brilliant in every way.

A mark of a good book is the amount of feels you have while reading. And I knew the moment I started reading that I was going to need some alone time I was going to have THE FEELS.

Our narrator is Callie, a young woman who has taken care of her mother since she was small. It was that or they would starve or be homeless. She also has a devastating secret that morphs her ability to see what is right and what is wrong. It is only when she finds out that her mother stole her from her father that she realises that life she could have had, and how much she doesnt fit into the family that loves her so much.

What I loved most about this book was it utter need to be real. There is no avoiding tough topics like sexual abuse, and sexual promiscuity. Trish Doller makes you think you know a character and then in one line everything is shattered. Family life is depicted so well in this novel. Callie's family is Greek, so therefore they are many in number, so the fact that Callie feels overwhelmed and lost reads normal for me. I felt like Callie was a great character for this story because she felt real. She did not take shit and she did not apologize for the way she lives because that is how she survived all those year.

Another thing I loved was her devotion t her mother. Even after learning everything about what happened when she was small, there was a large part of Callie that yearned for the freedom she felt when she was with her, and since her Mother was the only parent she ever knew, it made sense.

The love story was not slow building. It was sudden and shocking, and since Callie is neither normal nor boring, it made sense for her love interest to be at the same caliber. Although this book does deal with teens being sexually active, and their nonchalance about it felt needed because it made sense for Callie. I know many will opose this but honestly I loved that part because it gave a different perspective on a situation that is so overdone in YA fiction. It was refreshingly shocking.

This book will change you. I know its been over two weeks since I read it and I am still thinking about. it will make you question what is normal and what is perceived as normal. And what it means to be part of a family, even a broken one. This is a brilliant read that everyone should have on their shelves.

Title: Starry Nights
Author: Daisey Whitney
Genre: YA, Contemporary, Fantasy elements
Format: Hardcover, 288 pages
Release Date: September 3, 2013
Publisher: Bloomsbury
Source: ARC received from publisher for honest review

Purchase
Amazon | Chapters | TBD | Goodreads




Seventeen-year-old Julien is a romantic—he loves spending his free time at the museum poring over the great works of the Impressionists. But one night, a peach falls out of a Cezanne, Degas ballerinas dance across the floor, and Julien is not hallucinating.

The art is reacting to a curse that trapped a beautiful girl, Clio, in a painting forever. Julien has a chance to free Clio and he can't help but fall in love with her. But love is a curse in its own right. And soon paintings begin to bleed and disappear. Together Julien and Clio must save the world's greatest art . . . at the expense of the greatest love they've ever known.

Like a master painter herself, Daisy Whitney brings inordinate talent and ingenuity to this romantic, suspenseful, and sophisticated new novel. A beautifully decorated package makes it a must-own in print.


Starry Nights was a book that I was extremely excited to read for many reasons. One is was by Daisey Whitney, two has to do with art, and three it was set in Paris, which is by far my favorite place in the world. I went into this book with an open mind, and I will admit that i was disappointed.

I feel like my biggest issue in this book was the characters. Julien, our narrator was very one dimensional. We meet him when he has just been dumped by an American Girl and is now trying to move on. The we meet a whole slew of characters that appear and disappear just as fast as they appeared. I think there was just too much going on for me to follow the story properly. And once the secret of Julien being able to see the paintings come to life happened, I think that was it for me. It was just too much in one book.

Although I thought that seeing painting come to life was a turning point for me in this story, I did really enjoy the history the author put behind them. I really enjoyed getting a history of art while reading this story and honestly you would think it would be info dump after info dump but it wasn't. I felt completely at ease while reading about the stories behind some of histories most prized paintings. And I thought that the author did a very good job of incorporating said history into the story.

Another aspect I loved in this book was the mystery aspect that arrived near the end of the book. it was a great distraction from the rest of the story and I honestly wish it was more prominent in the story itself. Once that aspect of the story started i found myself flipping pages like it was no ones business. I wanted to know what happened at the end. And although the end was a bit cliche, it worked. And it was very sweet.

Overall, Starry Nights was a cute and easy read that will make anyone who loves art happy. The characters, although at times one dimensional, developed this story into a great mystery.

Title: Conjured
Author: Sarah Beth Durst
Genre: YA, Paranormal, Mystery
Format: Hardcover, 368 pages
Release Date: September 3, 2013
Publisher: Bloomsbury
Source: ARC received by publisher for honest review

Purchase
Amazon | Chapters | TBD | Goodreads




Eve has a new home, a new face, and a new name—but no memories of her past. She’s been told that she's in a witness protection program. That she escaped a dangerous magic-wielding serial killer who still hunts her. The only thing she knows for sure is that there is something horrifying in her memories the people hiding her want to access—and there is nothing they won’t say—or do—to her to get her to remember.

At night she dreams of a tattered carnival tent and buttons being sewn into her skin. But during the day, she shelves books at the local library, trying to not let anyone know that she can do things—things like change the color of her eyes or walk through walls. When she does use her strange powers, she blacks out and is drawn into terrifying visions, returning to find that days or weeks have passed—and she’s lost all short-term memories. Eve must find out who and what she really is before the killer finds her—but the truth may be more dangerous than anyone could have ever imagined.


I am a sucker for magic. This has been true since I was little, so when I saw that Bloomsbury was putting a book about a girl who could do magical things and have no recollection of why she could, made me very intrigued.

I honestly did not know what I was getting into when I opened up this book. I did not expect to get what was written. The prose in this novel was above anything I have read. It was beautiful and poetic at times, but simplistic in others. I loved every second of reading this book because it got me lost in a way I never expected. Sarah Beth Durst is no stranger to writing, but this is the first book I have read from her, and i will tell you right now that I am a fan for life. Her ability to capture your attention with a line is brilliant. She is one talented woman.

What I loved about this book was its originality in combining two very different genre, mystery and magic. Following Eve on her journey to remember her past and how is trying to kill her was amazing. I never knew what was going to happen, and when you finally figured it out, it was probably the creepiest thing I have read, and it was great. I never saw the end coming and i honestly don't think anyone can because it is so out of convention that it made me question everything in the book.

I only had one issue and that was the romance. I understood its purpose and I loved the two of them together, but his acceptance of the magic was a bit hard to believe at times and i questioned is a teenage boy would actually feel that way a lot throughout the novel.

Overall this book blew all of my expectations out the window and I loved that. It turned convention on its head and made me read things I never expected. Sarah Beth Durst created a world unlike I have ever read, and probably will ever read. Fans of The Night Circus will devour this book in one sitting because it will take you on one wild ride that you won't soon forget.

Title: The Bone Season
Author: Samantha Shannon
Genre: Science Fiction, Fantasy
Format: Hardcover, 480 pages
Release Date: August 20, 2013
Publisher: Bloomsbury USA

Purchase
Amazon | Chapters | TBD | Goodreads






It is the year 2059. Several major world cities are under the control of a security force called Scion. Paige Mahoney works in the criminal underworld of Scion London, part of a secret cell known as the Seven Seals. The work she does is unusual: scouting for information by breaking into others’ minds. Paige is a dreamwalker, a rare kind of clairvoyant, and in this world, the voyants commit treason simply by breathing.

But when Paige is captured and arrested, she encounters a power more sinister even than Scion. The voyant prison is a separate city—Oxford, erased from the map two centuries ago and now controlled by a powerful, otherworldly race. These creatures, the Rephaim, value the voyants highly—as soldiers in their army.

Paige is assigned to a Rephaite keeper, Warden, who will be in charge of her care and training. He is her master. Her natural enemy. But if she wants to regain her freedom, Paige will have to learn something of his mind and his own mysterious motives.

The Bone Season introduces a compelling heroine—a young woman learning to harness her powers in a world where everything has been taken from her. It also introduces an extraordinary young writer, with huge ambition and a teeming imagination. Samantha Shannon has created a bold new reality in this riveting debut.


I am always weary when it comes to hype, if a book is called "brilliant" "outstanding" etc. I always think, "well it should blow my mind then," and then I get disappointed when it doesn't. So when I was told by many people at the Penguin Canada office to read The Bone Season because its the best thing they have ever read, I was hesitant but excited. And I will tell you right now, the hype was well deserved.

The Bone Season is hard to categorize for many reasons, many people think it should be YA, others think it should be Adult. To me it is in between. Although the main character is young, she is not young enough to be a young adult. Also, the subject matter is little intense, and honestly the writing style is above the young adult genre. Samantha Shannon has a extraordinary way with words and she has the ability to suck you into her world full of amazing powers and characters.

What I loved most about this novel was its originality and the way the world built upon itself the more you read. This is not a one sitting read, although I did finish it quite quickly. It is quite complex and deserves your full attention from beginning to end. The characters are well developed and the conflict was heart pounding, especially at the end. Although many are comparing this new series to Harry Potter, I find that quite wrong. With Harry potter the world grew with every book, and the characters grew with it. But in The Bone Season I think it is the way a series should start; strong and powerful. It is full of energy and action that will leave you turning the ages faster than you can read.

Now, I cannot write this review with mentioning Warden because he is seriously A.M.A.Z.I.N.G. Anyone who has already read this book will attest to my love for this man. He is complicated, tender, and incredibly sweet. I loved him from the moment him and Paige met. Their sexual tension was amazing and well built throughout the novel, and I won't say what happens but I can tell you I would love for Shannon to write the next book ASAP.

The Bone Season is for hardcore lovers of Fantasy who love a well built world full of fantastical things and characters. It is for people who want to read something that will take the world by storm and create a new set of obsessions for a new generation. This book is a must read for 2013. You will not be disappointed.

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly event that is hosted by Jill @ Breaking the Spine, it highlights upcoming books that we cannot wait to read! This week my picks are....

 Starry Nights by Daisy Whitney


Seventeen-year-old Julien is a romantic—he loves spending his free time at the museum poring over the great works of the Impressionists. But one night, a peach falls out of a Cezanne, Degas ballerinas dance across the floor, and Julien is not hallucinating.

The art is reacting to a curse that trapped a beautiful girl, Clio, in a painting forever. Julien has a chance to free Clio and he can't help but fall in love with her. But love is a curse in its own right. And soon paintings begin to bleed and disappear. Together Julien and Clio must save the world's greatest art . . . at the expense of the greatest love they've ever known.

Like a master painter herself, Daisy Whitney brings inordinate talent and ingenuity to this romantic, suspenseful, and sophisticated new novel. A beautifully decorated package makes it a must-own in print.


                                                   
 Crown of Midnight by Sarah J. Mass

After a year of hard labor in the Salt Mines of Endovier, eighteen-year-old assassin Celaena Sardothien has won the king's contest to become the new royal assassin. Yet Celaena is far from loyal to the crown – a secret she hides from even her most intimate confidantes.

Keeping up the deadly charade—while pretending to do the king's bidding—will test her in frightening new ways, especially when she's given a task that could jeopardize everything she's come to care for. And there are far more dangerous forces gathering on the horizon -- forces that threaten to destroy her entire world, and will surely force Celaena to make a choice. 





Conjured by Sarah Beth Durst

Eve has a new home, a new face, and a new name—but no memories of her past. She’s been told that she's in a witness protection program. That she escaped a dangerous magic-wielding serial killer who still hunts her. The only thing she knows for sure is that there is something horrifying in her memories the people hiding her want to access—and there is nothing they won’t say—or do—to her to get her to remember.

At night she dreams of a tattered carnival tent and buttons being sewn into her skin. But during the day, she shelves books at the local library, trying to not let anyone know that she can do things—things like change the color of her eyes or walk through walls. When she does use her strange powers, she blacks out and is drawn into terrifying visions, returning to find that days or weeks have passed—and she’s lost all short-term memories. Eve must find out who and what she really is before the killer finds her—but the truth may be more dangerous than anyone could have ever imagined.




 Where the Stars Still Shine by Trish Doller

Stolen as a child from her large and loving family, and on the run with her mom for more than ten years, Callie has only the barest idea of what normal life might be like. She's never had a home, never gone to school, and has gotten most of her meals from laundromat vending machines. Her dreams are haunted by memories she’d like to forget completely. But when Callie’s mom is finally arrested for kidnapping her, and Callie’s real dad whisks her back to what would have been her life, in a small town in Florida, Callie must find a way to leave the past behind. She must learn to be part of a family. And she must believe that love--even with someone who seems an improbable choice--is more than just a possibility.

Trish Doller writes incredibly real teens, and this searing story of love, betrayal, and how not to lose your mind will resonate with readers who want their stories gritty and utterly true.