Title: Hexed
Author: Michelle Krys
Series: Hexed #1
Genre: YA Paranormal, Witches
Format: Hardcover, 384 pages
Release Date: June 10th 2014
Publisher: Delacorte Press
Source: ARC received from publisher in exchange for an honest review

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If high school is all about social status, Indigo Blackwood has it made. Sure, her quirky mom owns an occult shop, and a nerd just won’t stop trying to be her friend, but Indie is a popular cheerleader with a football-star boyfriend and a social circle powerful enough to ruin everyone at school. Who wouldn’t want to be her?

Then a guy dies right before her eyes. And the dusty old family Bible her mom is freakishly possessive of is stolen. But it’s when a frustratingly sexy stranger named Bishop enters Indie’s world that she learns her destiny involves a lot more than pom-poms and parties. If she doesn’t get the Bible back, every witch on the planet will die. And that’s seriously bad news for Indie, because according to Bishop, she’s a witch too.

Suddenly forced into a centuries-old war between witches and sorcerers, Indie’s about to uncover the many dark truths about her life—and a future unlike any she ever imagined on top of the cheer pyramid.


When reading a book, any book the narrator is the key to the readers enjoyment. If you do not like the narrator or their voice, then you can get bored or disinterested very fast. Luckily Michelle Krys created an amazing main character and narrator in Indie, she was fun, sarcastic and extremely independent. I loved Indie's character and her ability to carry the book on her shoulders, with a little help from her friends of course.

What I think i loved that most about this book were the secondary characters. Every single one had a purpose, and not every one of them was likable. The story begins with Indie, her boyfriend and her best friend. Then after one night everything changes and she turns to her neighbor Paige, who I loved. She is like that quiet friend who doesn't really say much until the end. I loved her because she was the rational mind compared to Indie, and if the end of the book is any indication, she will be a very big part of the second book, and I cannot wait to read that! Then there is Bishop. What can I say about Bishop. He was great to read, for one. He was extremely sarcastic, and a little crazy at times but I loved how he brought Indie out of her shell and help through some tough times. I also loved that we got to see a different side of him as the story went on, his character has crazy growth and I loved that.

The magic aspect of the book was great to read and I loved that we discovered it as Indie did. We were as just in the dark as she was and I thought that created a lot of suspense and tension. I also loved that Michelle Krys did something many authors do not. I will not say what it is because it will ruin the book and the surprise, but when you get there you will know exactly I am talking about. It was quite shocking for me.

Overall Hexed was a fantastic read, with all kinds of characters, good and evil, that made the book extremely easy to read. Full of magic, suspense and heartache, Michelle Krys has created a series that will be sure to satisfy all fantasy enthusiasts or those who want to escape into a brand new world. 

Title: We Were Liars
Author: E. Lockhart
Series: Standalone
Genre: YA Contemporary
Format: Hardcover, 240 pages
Release Date: May 13th 2014
Publisher: Delacorte Press
Source: ARC provided from publisher at OLA in exchange for an honest review

Purchase
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A beautiful and distinguished family.
A private island.
A brilliant, damaged girl; a passionate, political boy.
A group of four friends—the Liars—whose friendship turns destructive.
A revolution. An accident. A secret.
Lies upon lies.
True love.
The truth.

We Were Liars is a modern, sophisticated suspense novel from National Book Award finalist and Printz Award honoree E. Lockhart.
Read it.
And if anyone asks you how it ends, just LIE.


The hype monster is something that attacks only once in a while for me. Over the past few months I have been hearing AMAZING things about this book, and when I say amazing things i mean probably some of the best reviews I have ever read for a book. So when I got the chance to read this book I knew I would be in for a treat, but then everything fell apart and I think i payed attention too much to the hype and went in with unrealistic expectations.

There were a few things I did like while reading this book. The love story for one felt very real and very teenager-esque and adorable at times. I also really enjoyed the mystery behind the novel. We fond out early on that something happened to the main character and we do not know what it is, and we don't fond out until the very end, and I will say that I did not see it coming and I really did like the reveal because I think my mouth dropped open a bit. But unfortunately the reveal did not make up for my lack of interest in the rest of the book.

The writing style, I think, was the thing that bugged me the most. It is not the type of style I like to read because I fond that short sentences and evasive writing does not allow me to connect with the story of the characters for that matter. I think while reading I kept thinking, I don't really know who these characters are and I really do not get to know them at all because we only see them at their summer home, and honestly that is not who they really are.

I also found myself wondering when everything was going to happen while reading because when you read this book you will realize that nothing really happens. It is just the main character trying to decide what happened to her and her friends being evasive and not telling her. I also found that all the characters themselves to be caricatures of what people with money are like. I did not fell like they were real therefore I couldn't connect with them at all, which lowered my enjoyment of the story.

Overall I enjoyed the mystery and the end of the book but when i sit down and think about it I really did not enjoy this book as much as I wanted, and i am sad to say that I am on the other end of the spectrum. But that will not deter me from reading other things my E. Lockhart in the future!

Title: The Here and Now
Author: Ann Brashares
Series: Standalone
Genre: YA Time Travel
Format: Hardcover, 288 pages
Release Date: April 8th 2014
Publisher: Delacorte Press
Source: eARC received from publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review

Purchase
Amazon | Indigo | TBD | Goodreads




Follow the rules. Remember what happened. Never fall in love.

This is the story of seventeen-year-old Prenna James, who immigrated to New York when she was twelve. Except Prenna didn’t come from a different country. She came from a different time—a future where a mosquito-borne illness has mutated into a pandemic, killing millions and leaving the world in ruins.

Prenna and the others who escaped to the present day must follow a strict set of rules: never reveal where they’re from, never interfere with history, and never, ever be intimate with anyone outside their community. Prenna does as she’s told, believing she can help prevent the plague that will one day ravage the earth.

But everything changes when Prenna falls for Ethan Jarves.

From Ann Brashares, the #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants series, The Here and Now is thrilling, exhilarating, haunting, and heartbreaking—and a must-read novel of the year.


I will preface this review by saying that I have not liked a book that Ann Brashares has written since the end of The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants series. I loved those books so much that I thought I would love anything that she would write, but over the years I have discovered that I don't like her style of writing as much as I used to, and I am sad to say that The Here And Now did not change that statement.

I will say that the beginning of this book had me hooked, i liked the main character because she was a great narrator and a great person to introduce us to her world. I am a huge fan of time travel, and the fact that she is from the future made me very curious on what would happen. I liked that there were consequences to breaking the rules and that there was a society connected to their time travel. I liked all of these things, and I am sad to sad that those were where my likes ended.

There is a love story in this book, and usually I am all for those, but to me this seemed extremely rushed, and I honestly didn't believe it at first. To me it made no sense why this boy was obsessed about this girl because they had never really talked. I also found that the boy himself was a useless character until he was needed. For example, the MC was kidnapped and it just so happens that he put a tracker on her and knew how to break into a house?? how is that possible when we had no inkling of these skills before hand. I felt like he was a plot device and was used mostly to advance the plot and nothing more.

I also felt that the world building fell apart completely by the middle of the book, nothing was really explained and there were no consequences to her action at all. One of the rules was you cannot have a romantic relationship with someone from the now, and she did, but nothing happened.  I also had a huge problem with the end. It was way too easy in my opinion. How can this one girl take on a whole organization with just her words and no actual action? I felt cheated and I wanted more of a fight.

Title: Sea of Shadows
Author: Kelley Armstrong
Series: Age of Legends #1
Genre: YA Fantasy, Horror
Format: Hardcover, 416 pages
Release Date: April 8th 2014
Publisher: Doubleday Canada
Source: ARC received by publisher in exchange for an honest review

Purchase
Amazon | Indigo | TBD | Goodreads








The first book of a bold and hugely anticipated new YA trilogy by the phenomenal Kelley Armstrong.

In the Forest of the Dead, where the empire's worst criminals are exiled, twin sisters Moria and Ashyn are charged with a dangerous task. For they are the Keeper and the Seeker, and each year they must quiet the enraged souls of the damned.

Only this year, the souls will not be quieted.

Ambushed and separated by an ancient evil, the sisters' journey to find each other sends them far from the only home they've ever known. Accompanied by a stubborn imperial guard and a dashing condemned thief, the girls cross a once-empty wasteland, now filled with reawakened monsters of legend, as they travel to warn the emperor. But a terrible secret awaits them at court--one that will alter the balance of their world forever.


Starting to read this book was very hard for me, and it is probably not the reason you think. It was not because I was afraid of Sci-Fi, or the start if a new series, it was because it was written by one of my favorite authors of all time; Kelley Armstrong. I have read and loved everything that Kelley has written so far, and my fear was that I was not going to like it as much as her other books. I hate not loving a book by a favorite author, and that was my fear going into this book. But thankfully I was worried for nothing and I loved every page of this book.

This is not a genre that I am great at reading, it can be very touch and go for me, and I will say that more often then not, fantasy mixed with a bit of sci-fi can be dangerous. But honestly I think that this book is a great start to a brand new series that follows twin sisters who have extraordinary powers. I loved the creativity that Kelley had with the world that these twins live in. Not only was there magic and mystery but it also had disgusting creatures that both frighten and enthrall the reader. I loved reading about this world and what it was capable of.

This book is told from both girls' POVs and I loved that because they were separated for most of the story therefore as a reader we got to see two different sides of the same story and that was great to read. I love being able to see different sides and figure out what will happen next. And I will be honest I never actually figured out what was going on until Kelley decided to show me, and I will say that I was surprised!

Kelley has always been good at writing romance, and I honestly loved that this book was not focused on that. Although it was prominent at some points, most of the story was about the love these sisters had for each other and how that love drove them to find one another in the end.

Overall this book is a lot darker and more horror-like in genre than most of her other YA novels but I think that the grotesque elements brought this book to a whole new level for me and I loved reading it. I seriously cannot wait for the next book!

Title: And We Stay
Author: Jenny Hubbard
Genre: YA Contemporary, Social Issues
Format: Hardcover, 240 pages
Release Date: January 28th 2014
Publisher: Delacorte Press
Source: eARC received from Publisher in exchange for an honest review

Purchase
Amazon | Chapters | TBD | Goodreads





When high school senior Paul Wagoner walks into his school library with a stolen gun, he threatens his girlfriend Emily Beam, then takes his own life. In the wake of the tragedy, an angry and guilt-ridden Emily is shipped off to boarding school in Amherst, Massachusetts, where she encounters a ghostly presence who shares her name. The spirit of Emily Dickinson and two quirky girls offer helping hands, but it is up to Emily to heal her own damaged self.

This inventive story, told in verse and in prose, paints the aftermath of tragedy as a landscape where there is good behind the bad, hope inside the despair, and springtime under the snow.


When I read the synopsis of this book I knew I wanted to read it. The idea of the ghost of Emily Dickinson helping a young girl with the tragic death of her boyfriend. But I have to say that this book was not what I expected.

What I think my issue with this book was the way it was written. There was prose, that was told in a 3rd person omniscient, which is really not my favourite point of view, and then there were poems written in between chapters. The poems began to explain what happened to her and her boyfriend and what lead to his eventual suicide. I honestly think that I would have liked this book more if the entire book was written in poems because, since Emily Dickinson was a large part of Emily's life at the boarding school, it fits. And to be honest I think I got more out of the poetry than I did the prose.

What I did like about this book was the subject matter. Teen suicide is something that is getting more and more attention in YA and I think that is a good thing. But in this story it seemed a little far fetched. But I still think the subject matter was needed, I just think that the manner in which it was delivered needed to be changed.

Although the subject matter was what I liked most in this book, I still found myself extremely disappointed in the overall book. I wanted more chemistry between characters, and more backstory so that I would feel more for Emily and what she went through, because when I finished the book I felt no closer to her then when I started the book.

Title: Red Rising
Author: Pierce Brown
Genre: Adult Dystopian
Format: Hardcover, 400 pages
Release Date: January 28th, 2014
Publisher: Random House Canada
Source: Copy provided by publisher in exchange for an honest review

Purchase
Amazon | Chapters | TBD | Goodreads





The war begins...

Darrow is a Helldiver, one of a thousand men and women who live in the vast caves beneath the surface of Mars. Generations of Helldivers have spent their lives toiling to mine the precious elements that will allow the planet to be terraformed. Just knowing that one day people will be able to walk the surface of the planet is enough to justify their sacrifice. The Earth is dying, and Darrow and his people are the only hope humanity has left.

Until the day Darrow learns that it is all a lie. Mars is habitable - and indeed has been inhabited for generations by a class of people calling themselves the Golds. The Golds regard Darrow and his fellows as slave labour, to be exploited and worked to death without a second thought.

With the help of a mysterious group of rebels, Darrow disguises himself as a Gold and infiltrates their command school, intent on taking down his oppressors from the inside.

But the command school is a battlefield. And Darrow isn't the only student with an agenda...

 
There has been so much hype surrounding this book and honestly I was a little hesitant to read it because I was afraid that it would not live up to all of my expectations. But although it was a slow start for me, when I got into the story it blew me away.

First of all, the fact that this book is set on MARS made me interested because it seems to drastic and different from out own world. But when the world itself it explained it made so much sense. The natural progression civilization took to get to there made so much sense to me, and I think that is a huge part of why I loved this book so much. It felt like it could actually happen.

Now, reading a lot of the reviews people are comparing it to Harry Potter and The Hunger Games, and honestly I see more Hunger Games than Harry Potter. The gruesomeness that I read in this book makes The Hunger Games look like a picture book and that made me love this book even more. It felt so real and the characters, although sensationalized for the story, were extremely real. Although one character was obsessed with death and hurt, his personality matched his situation perfectly and I think people can relate to that. Yes, these characters live on a different planet, yes, they are part of a "make-believe" war that causes regular kids turn into killers, but that doesn't mean that they are not relate-able. They are put in a situation that no one will ever understand.

I have heard that this book could be for young adults, but I must disagree with that. And not for the reasons you think. Violence is in everything, TV, video games and of course YA novels as well. But Red Rising is in an "in-between" genre in my opinion because although the main characters are all in their teens, the prose and language used is so above that of regular YA reader. I do believe that this book is a perfect bridge between YA and Adult fiction. For me, i had become so accustomed to YA prose that i did find it hard t find a reading rhythm, but after a while I got used to the prose and was fine. I think that this book would be perfect for those YA readers that are looking for a challenge and are afraid or do not want to venture into the world of Literary Fiction.

This is a brand new segment I am starting where I feature a book a day, in the month of December, that I am looking forward to in 2014. It can be any book from any genre, from any author or publisher!

This is a great way for me to help you make you TBR pile bigger! And to share the books I cannot wait to read! Hope you enjoy!

This is a brand new segment I am starting where I feature a book a day, in the month of December, that I am looking forward to in 2014. It can be any book from any genre, from any author or publisher!

This is a great way for me to help you make you TBR pile bigger! And to share the books I cannot wait to read! Hope you enjoy!

This is a brand new segment I am starting where I feature a book a day, in the month of December, that I am looking forward to in 2014. It can be any book from any genre, from any author or publisher!

This is a great way for me to help you make you TBR pile bigger! And to share the books I cannot wait to read! Hope you enjoy!

This is a brand new segment I am starting where I feature a book a day, in the month of December, that I am looking forward to in 2014. It can be any book from any genre, from any author or publisher!

This is a great way for me to help you make you TBR pile bigger! And to share the books I cannot wait to read! Hope you enjoy!

This is a brand new segment I am starting where I feature a book a day, in the month of December, that I am looking forward to in 2014. It can be any book from any genre, from any author or publisher!

This is a great way for me to help you make you TBR pile bigger! And to share the books I cannot wait to read! Hope you enjoy!

This is a brand new segment I am starting where I feature a book a day, in the month of December, that I am looking forward to in 2014. It can be any book from any genre, from any author or publisher!

This is a great way for me to help you make you TBR pile bigger! And to share the books I cannot wait to read! Hope you enjoy!