Title: All the Rage
Author: Courtney Summers
Series: Standalone
Genre: YA Contemporary, Social Issues
Format: Hardcover, 336 pages
Release Date: April 14th 2015
Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin
Source: ARC received from publisher for Blog Tour in exchange for an honest review

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The sheriff’s son, Kellan Turner, is not the golden boy everyone thinks he is, and Romy Grey knows that for a fact. Because no one wants to believe a girl from the wrong side of town, the truth about him has cost her everything—friends, family, and her community. Branded a liar and bullied relentlessly by a group of kids she used to hang out with, Romy’s only refuge is the diner where she works outside of town. No one knows her name or her past there; she can finally be anonymous. But when a girl with ties to both Romy and Kellan goes missing after a party, and news of him assaulting another girl in a town close by gets out, Romy must decide whether she wants to fight or carry the burden of knowing more girls could get hurt if she doesn’t speak up. Nobody believed her the first time—and they certainly won’t now — but the cost of her silence might be more than she can bear.　

With a shocking conclusion and writing that will absolutely knock you out,All the Rage examines the shame and silence inflicted upon young women after an act of sexual violence, forcing us to ask ourselves: In a culture that refuses to protect its young girls, how can they survive?


Courtney Summers is an author that I will forever read, no matter what age I am or what subject she decides to conquer. Courtney has a way of writing real and damaged characters that I relate to on a level that I have never experienced before. All the Rage is a very hard book to read. I am not going to sugar coat the topics in this book because they are horrible. Rape, bullying and guilt are prominent in every page you read and I will tell you know it was hard to read. But in the best way possible. These kinds of book need to be on shelves and read by as many people as possible.

All the Rage follows a young girl named Romy who was once part of the crowd, until one night with the Sheriffs son ruins her reputation and her life as she knows it. That night changes her life forever. Now she is outcast as a liar and the people she used to be able to turn to torment her on a daily basis. But one night changes the dynamic again, when a girl goes missing after a party and the entire town seems to blame her. Like I said this book is INTENSE.

I loved Romy's character because she was so incredibly real. With every turn of the page I felt more and more anxiety for her and what she was going through. I wanted to go through the page and just give her a hug because I think she needed one so badly. She needed someone to believe her for once and to see through the facade she was putting on. My heart literally ached whiled reading this book because the depiction of bullying was so realistic. Many people that have never been bullied don't realized how all encompassing it can become and how much it can run your life. And I am so glad that Courtney does this with every book that she writes.

All the Rage is a book that NEEDS to be read. The characters, the situations and the actions are things that need to be written and Courtney is doing that, and I am so grateful for her because it gives a voice to those that don't think they have one. I am not going to say much more about the book itself because the more I say the more you will know going in, and I think for this type of book you need to go in blind. It will make your reading experience that much more intense and that is what this book is about. This not a fast read. It will make you cringe and gasp in places and for me, I had to put it down many times. But please read this book. Kids need to know that these types of book exist because it will help them realize that they are not alone. These types of book matter, and I guess to end this review I need to thanks Courtney Summers for being brave enough to write these types of characters and for being one of the most amazing authors I have ever read.

Title: My Heart and Other Black Holes
Author: Jasmine Warga
Series: Standalone
Genre: YA Contemporary
Format: Hardcover, 320 pages
Release Date: February 10, 2015
Publisher: Balzer and Bray
Source: eARC received from publisher via Edelweiss in exchange for an honest review

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Sixteen-year-old physics nerd Aysel is obsessed with plotting her own death. With a mother who can barely look at her without wincing, classmates who whisper behind her back, and a father whose violent crime rocked her small town, Aysel is ready to turn her potential energy into nothingness.

There’s only one problem: she’s not sure she has the courage to do it alone. But once she discovers a website with a section called Suicide Partners, Aysel’s convinced she’s found her solution: a teen boy with the username FrozenRobot (aka Roman) who’s haunted by a family tragedy is looking for a partner. 

Even though Aysel and Roman have nothing in common, they slowly start to fill in each other’s broken lives. But as their suicide pact becomes more concrete, Aysel begins to question whether she really wants to go through with it. Ultimately, she must choose between wanting to die or trying to convince Roman to live so they can discover the potential of their energy together. Except that Roman may not be so easy to convince


I am a sucker for books that tug at the heart strings and this was one of those books. My Heart and Other Black Holes was one of those books that I had to debate whether or not to read because of the subject matter. Suicide is not something I like to read about. My grandmother committed suicide before I was born and sop my family and take it very seriously. And so It me a few tries to start this one because I had heard sop many great things. But in the end I am so glad I read it because it was a great story.

We follow Aysel a 16 year old girl who dealing with way more than she really should. Especially when you take into account what her father did (I will not tell you will just have to read it) and how everyone around her reacted. I loved reading her story because it was so different than my own. Then we meet Roman, a very depressed young man who meets Aysel on a chatroom for people who want to make a pact to die together. This subject is so intriguing to me. And Yet I know when I started reading how the book would end, it didn't hinder my reading experience. I really liked their building friendship and how it grew over the course of the story. Roman was such a different character than Aysel, you could tell he was more serious about dying and you knew something horrible happened to him. Once we find out what that is my heart broke for him. It really did. And I began to understand him more. I loved that we got to see Roman through Aysel eyes, and it was her feelings for him that made her want to live, which I thought was incredibly sweet.

The ending although predictable was very satisfying for me. I loved that it was not perfect in any sense of the word and it brings the feels. But overall it made sense for the characters and I really liked that. I will admit that the story did drag in places, but not too much to make me stop reading. I really enjoyed this story, and though it is about a subject that is normally extremely sensitive and sad, the author made it full of hope and love.

Title: Bleed Like Me
Author: C. Desir
Series: Standalone
Genre: YA Contemporary, Issues
Format: Hardcover, 291 pages
Release Date: October 7th 2014
Publisher: Simon Pulse
Source: eARC received from publisher via Edelweiss in  exchange for an honest review

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From the author of Fault Line comes an edgy and heartbreaking novel about two self-destructive teens in a Sid and Nancy-like romance full of passion, chaos, and dyed hair.

Seventeen-year-old Amelia Gannon (just "Gannon" to her friends) is invisible to almost everyone in her life. To her parents, to her teachers-even her best friend, who is more interested in bumming cigarettes than bonding. Some days the only way Gannon knows she is real is by carving bloody lines into the flesh of her stomach.

Then she meets Michael Brooks, and for the first time, she feels like she is being seen to the core of her being. Obnoxious, controlling, damaged, and addictive, he inserts himself into her life until all her scars are exposed. Each moment together is a passionate, painful relief.

But as the relationship deepens, Gannon starts to feel as if she's standing at the foot of a dam about to burst. She's given up everything and everyone in her life for him, but somehow nothing is enough for Brooks-until he poses the ultimate test.

Bleed Like Me is a piercing, intimate portrayal of the danger of a love so obsessive it becomes its own biggest threat.


I went into this book expecting something completely different. I really don't know what I was really expecting was not this. The one thing I like about books that deal with issues such as toxic relationships and self harm are the ways in which the characters deal with everything and learn from it. In Bleed Like Me I didn't get the satisfaction of seeing character growth by the end of the book, it felt like she just kept living even though everything she went through was horrible and clearly effected her in ways no one really knew.

Amelia Gannon is not a likable character in the least. While reading I wanted to like her and relate to her but she made it so freaking hard. She made horrible choices and saw nothing wrong with a clearly abusive boyfriend and made no change to her life. She hated her family, which honestly made sense to me because they were not that great to begin with, and really had no friends. We only really say Amelia through her boyfriend Micheal's eyes because he was the only one she really spent any time with. I hated their relationship right from the beginning. I could see that it was toxic and i hated that no one around did anything to really stop it from going further. Her family and so called best friend tried to warn her about him but they really didn't try hard enough in my opinion.

I really liked the beginning of the story because it was very raw and felt real to me, and the writing was bang on. It was on point with Amelia's feelings and her surroundings, and I really liked that reading experience. But for me there was not enough hope. I say this a lot with books that deal with tough subjects because I always say that yes, it makes sense for there not to be a happy ending, i get that, but there should be a semblance of hope for the characters. I don't want to end a book and s=feel like they are doomed to live a life that is so horrible that they will eventually give up. I need hope, and in this case there was none at the end, and that really tarnished my reading experience.

Title: Kiss of Broken Glass
Author: Madeleine Kuderick
Series: Standalone
Genre: YA Contemporary, Issues
Format: Hardcover, 224 pages
Release Date: September 9th 2014
Publisher: HarperTeen
Source: eARC received from publisher via Edelweiss in exchange for an honest review

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Madeleine Kuderick’s gripping debut is a darkly beautiful and lyrical novel in verse, perfect for fans of Sonya Sones and Laurie Halse Anderson. Kiss of Broken Glass pulses with emotion and lingers long after the last page.

In the next seventy-two hours, Kenna may lose everything—her friends, her freedom, and maybe even herself. One kiss of the blade was all it took to get her sent to the psych ward for seventy-two hours. There she will face her addiction to cutting, though the outcome is far from certain.

When fifteen-year-old Kenna is found cutting herself in the school bathroom, she is sent to a facility for mandatory psychiatric watch. There, Kenna meets other kids like her—her roommate, Donya, who’s there for her fifth time; the birdlike Skylar; and Jag, a boy cute enough to make her forget her problems . . . for a moment.


Books written in verse can either be amazing or can lack something for the reader, and sadly Kiss of Broken Glass left something to be desired. I will say that because this book was in verse it made for a very quick read, just over 2 hours, but sadly I was lacking in some other areas of the book.

This book's theme was cutting and the consequences behind getting caught and continuing to cut. But I do think that there should have been more emphasis on the cutting and why Kenna, our main character decided to start. It is hinted at that there was no real reason behind it and it was just a "club" that these girls were apart of, but I wanted more back story. I wanted to know more about Kenna's life and what made her susceptible to this kind of behavior. I think that was my biggest issue with this book and the way it was written because verse did not allow for me to connect enough with the characters and see deeper into their lives. I wanted more from them and I think that so why I did not enjoy this book as much as I wanted.

Characters for me are very important in any story and I felt in this book that they fell a bit flat for me. I couldn't connect enough to them to feel anything for them as the story went forward. For example there was a small love interest but honestly it felt like nothing happened. I mean they were attracted to each other, but they were in a psych ward and therefore nothing could really happen. I think I would have liked to have had no love interest at all because it took away from the real issue and that was self harm and how that effects every aspect of your life and your friends and family.

I will say that the writing within the verse was beautiful and I thought t flowed very well. I think I just wanted full prose for this kind of story. I felt like it deserved more of an in depth look at its characters and the effects of self harm. I also was a bit disappointed in the end because it was so open ended. There was no real conclusion to this story and I think these characters deserved more of an ending, at least I wanted one. I felt like we were left with too many questions and not enough of a resolution to the problems these characters were facing.

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

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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.