Title: Liars Inc.
Author: Paula Stokes
Series: Standalone
Genre:YA Mystery/Thriller
Format: Hardcover, 368 pages
Release Date: March 24th 2015
Publisher: Harper Teen
Source: eARC received from publisher via Edelweiss in exchange for an honest review

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For fans of Gone Girl, I Hunt Killers, and TV's How to Get Away with Murder.

Max Cantrell has never been a big fan of the truth, so when the opportunity arises to sell forged permission slips and cover stories to his classmates, it sounds like a good way to make a little money and liven up a boring senior year. With the help of his friends Preston and Parvati, Max starts Liars, Inc. Suddenly everybody needs something and the cash starts pouring in. Who knew lying could be so lucrative?

When Preston wants his own cover story to go visit a girl he met online, Max doesn’t think twice about hooking him up. Until Preston never comes home. Then the evidence starts to pile up—terrifying clues that lead the cops to Preston’s body. Terrifying clues that point to Max as the murderer.

Can Max find the real killer before he goes to prison for a crime he didn’t commit? In a story that Kirkus Reviews called "Captivating to the very end," Paula Stokes starts with one single white lie and weaves a twisted tale that will have readers guessing until the explosive final chapters.  


Paula Stokes has quickly become one of my favorite contempoaray authors, every since I read The Art of Lainey last year. So when I leanred that she was going to be writing a YA Mystery I was very excited and knew I had to read it. And I am so glad that I did because this book was a page turner!

What I think I liked the most about this book was its characters. They were so real and interesting to read. They were also very hard to like which is a very different reading experience for me. We first meet Max, a young man who is a very interesting character. He is snarky, untrustworthy and niave. I actually really liked that Max was our narrator because he was interesting. He saw things from a very interesting perspective. I loved his relationhsips with his girlfriend Pavarti and his best friend Preston. I loved them because they were complicated. I knew right off  the batt that I didnt particularly like Pavarti or Preston. There was just something that was off for me. And I wanted desperately for Max to see it, but if he did we wouldnt have had this mytery would we?

The whole premise of this book is that Preston goes missing, police then find his body and it links Max to the murder. Intriguing right? And you would be right. This mystery kept me reading from beginning to end. It is a page turner that makes you want to find out what happened and why is Max being framed. But I will say that the outcome was a bit obvious...to me at least. I am a sucker for anything mystery and my husband gets mad at me when we watch those types of shows and i figure out who the killer is before it is revealed. So it is no suprise to me that I figured it out. But what makes this a great book was that the fact that I figured out the end did not hinder my reading experience. I still really enjoyed the book.

The only thing that I did not like that much was Pavarti and Prestons relationhip and what it meant for the story. Overall it was a bit creepy and although it makes for more conflict, it just made for extra drama that did not need to be there. But overall I really liked this mystery and you will be reading from beginning to end on the edge of your seat. Such a great new mystery to add to your shelves!

Title: Black Ice
Author: Becca Fitzpatrick
Series: Standalone
Genre: YA Contemporary, Thriller
Format: Hardcover, 400 pages
Release Date: October 7th 2014
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Books For Young Readers
Source: ARC received from publisher in exchange for an honest review

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Sometimes danger is hard to see... until it’s too late.

Britt Pfeiffer has trained to backpack the Teton Range, but she isn't prepared when her ex-boyfriend, who still haunts her every thought, wants to join her. Before Britt can explore her feelings for Calvin, an unexpected blizzard forces her to seek shelter in a remote cabin, accepting the hospitality of its two very handsome occupants—but these men are fugitives, and they take her hostage.

In exchange for her life, Britt agrees to guide the men off the mountain. As they set off, Britt knows she must stay alive long enough for Calvin to find her. The task is made even more complicated when Britt finds chilling evidence of a series of murders that have taken place there... and in uncovering this, she may become the killer’s next target.

But nothing is as it seems in the mountains, and everyone is keeping secrets, including Mason, one of her kidnappers. His kindness is confusing Britt. Is he an enemy? Or an ally?

BLACK ICE is New York Times bestselling author Becca Fitzpatrick’s riveting romantic thriller set against the treacherous backdrop of the mountains of Wyoming. Falling in love should never be this dangerous…


I have loved Becca Fitzpatrick since I read the Hush Hush series, and I have been waiting for her to write something new and when I heard that she ventured into the contemporary thriller genre i knew i had to read it, and i am so glad I did because it was a wild ride.

Black Ice follows Britt, a young girl who is dealing with a bad breakup, a best friend who in my opinion is not the best, and trying to escape a twosome of men keeping her prisoner in the woods. I loved the concept of the book, and I loved that the book got to the point very quickly. There was no lull in the beginning with too much information dropping, and we I loved that we got to know the characters as the story went on. I loved that mystery the most.

I will say that I was not a fan of Britt's best friend. I found her character to be a bit superfluous and unneeded. Although she was great for certain scenes in the book, she never really made a difference as to how the book turned out. I felt like her character didn't mean anything to the overall story and I wish she had either been used more, or cut completely. And plus she was extremely annoying and very bossy, things I am not fond of in secondary characters.

The mystery element was great, and I loved how there were layers to it that kept growing as the story went on. I will admit that i figured out the main mystery quite quickly, and yet it did not ruin the book for me, i still really loved reading Britt's story and how she coped with everything that was happening to her. I will say that in the beginning I was skeptical of the romance between Britt and a certain somebody, but it grew on me as the story went on. I thought their personalities complimented each other well, and it felt real. Especially the end. I felt like the way this book ended made sense, although I would have liked more closure between Brit and her best friend. That part was left too open for me and i wish I got to see what happened there after everything that happened.

Title: Kiss Kill Vanish
Author: Jessica Martinez
Series: Standalone
Genre: YA Contemporary Thriller
Format: Hardcover, 432 pages
Release Date: October 7th 2014
Publisher: Katherine Tegen Books
Source: eARC received from publisher via Edelweiss in exchange for an honest review

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Valentina Cruz no longer exists.

One moment, she was wrapped in Emilio’s arms, melting into his kiss. The next, she was witnessing the unthinkable: a murder in cold blood, ordered by her father and carried out by her boyfriend. When Emilio pulled the trigger, Valentina disappeared. She made a split-second decision to shed her identity and flee her life of privilege, leaving the glittering parties and sultry nightlife of Miami far behind.

She doesn’t know how to explain to herself what she saw. All she knows now is that nothing she believed about her family, her heart, or Emilio’s love, was real.

She can change her name and deny her past, but Valentina can’t run from the truth. The lines between right and wrong, and trust and betrayal, will be blurred beyond recognition as she untangles the deceptions of the two men she once loved and races to find her own truth.


I went into this book with no expectations. I just loved the cover more than I have loved any cover of a YA novel. Yes I judged the book by its cover but sometime it leads to great things. Kiss Kill Vanish is a great thriller, one that I have never read before in this genre. I have read many a YA book but I have not read one where a young girl is running away from her family because she witnessed a murder. That was new thing for me and i have to say it made for a fast paced novel.

Valentina was not my favorite character in this book, honestly she was very hard to like. But i think that was part of her appeal. She was quite winy in the beginning, especially when she met someone from her past that told her he would help her get away from her family for good. When he came along it was life everything she had learned on her own disappeared, she became this little helpless girl that kept waiting and waiting for someone to save her. And honestly it drove me nuts. I wanted her to be able to fight for herself and take her own life by the horns. And when that finally happened in the end I was so happy for her character. She stood up for herself and made a stand, something i honestly did not think would happen with her track record.

I also found Valentina's relationships to be a bit of a problem. I found them to e very unhealthy on every level and didn't understand why she gravitated towards the people that she did. She obviously knew better but chose to keep going in the direction she was going and ended up hurt and honestly in the end I did not see enough improvement for me to feel for her.

I loved the mob aspect of the story, it made for great mystery and i honestly had no idea what was going to happen chapter after chapters. The author was great at keeping us guessing. The writing was fast paced and allowed for me to want to keep reading after every chapter finished because I needed to know what was going to happen. There were many twist and turns, especially near the end that surprised me and I loved that. Ultimately I found the end to be a bit too perfect for my taste, especially after everything that happened, but I can be a sucker for a HEA :)

Title: Made For You
Author: Melissa Marr
Series: Standalone
Genre: YA Paranormal Thriller
Format: Hardcover, 368 pages
Release Date: September 16th 2014
Publisher: HarperCollins
Source: eARC received from publisher via Edelweiss in exchange for an honest review


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When Eva Tilling wakes up in the hospital, she’s confused—who in her sleepy little North Carolina town could have hit her with their car? And why? But before she can consider the question, she finds that she’s awoken with a strange new skill: the ability to foresee people’s deaths when they touch her. While she is recovering from the hit-and-run, Nate, an old flame, reappears, and the two must traverse their rocky past as they figure out how to use Eva’s power to keep her friends—and themselves—alive. But while Eva and Nate grow closer, the killer grows increasingly frantic in his attempt to get to Eva.

For the first time, New York Times bestselling author Melissa Marr has applied her extraordinary talent to contemporary realism. Chilling twists, unrequited obsession, and high-stakes romance drive this Gothic, racy thriller—a story of small-town oppression and salvation. Melissa’s fans, and every YA reader, will find its wild ride enthralling.


I am always intrigued when I see Melissa Marr has written another book because I love her and her writing. It is always a little weird but with a contemporary twist and I think that is what I love most about her books. So when I read about Made for You and saw that it was about a young girl who is the victim of a hit and run, only to discover upon gaining consciousness that she has the ability to see the deaths of other...oh and she is being hunted by a killer who is killing everyone around her. Sounds awesome right? It is :)

what i think I liked the most was the different POVs because they gave such different perspectives on the same story. I especially loved the killers point of view because the way it was written showcased how insane this character was, and its anonymity of who actually was talking was great. It kept me guessing as to who the killer actually was and what their motivations were, and how they changed throughout the book. Eva was a great narrator as well, i especially loved her relationships because they showcased not only the type of person she was, but also how much she cared for those around her. Her friendship with Grace was a great to read, especially when you saw how many people did not like the two of them together because they thought Grace was an "outsider" and I loved that Eva could not care less. It was great to read. I also really liked her growing relationship with Nate and how show and meaningful their bond grew. I think over the course of the book, Nate brought out the best in Eva and that was also a great thing to read.

There was one thing that had me a bit disappointed and that was the small paranormal element to the story. The fact that Eva could see the deaths of those around her when she touched them was a very cool aspect to this story but ultimately I thought it would have been better to leave it out. I agree that the foreshadowing made for great tension, especially when it was her friends that she saw dying, but to me, I thought the thriller aspect of the story was enough to sustain me, and the paranormal element seemed over the top. I would have given this book 5 stars if that element was not there and the author focused more on teh thriller and less on the paranormal.

Title: Blackbird
Author: Anna Carey
Series: Blackbird #1
Genre: YA Thriller
Format: Hardcover, 256 pages
Release Date: September 16th 2014
Publisher: HarperTeen
Source: eARC received from publisher via Edelwiess in exchange for an honest review


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A girl wakes up on the train tracks, a subway car barreling down on her. With only minutes to react, she hunches down and the train speeds over her. She doesn’t remember her name, where she is, or how she got there. She has a tattoo on the inside of her right wrist of a blackbird inside a box, letters and numbers printed just below: FNV02198. There is only one thing she knows for sure: people are trying to kill her.

On the run for her life, she tries to untangle who she is and what happened to the girl she used to be. Nothing and no one are what they appear to be. But the truth is more disturbing than she ever imagined.

The Maze Runner series meets Code Name Verity, Blackbird is relentless and action-packed, filled with surprising twists.


I went into this book with very high expectations because I love Anna's writing and I devoured her Eve trilogy. So needless to say when I started Blackbird I could not wait to dig in.

Second Person POV is something that when done either works or doesn't work, and I have to admit that for me it didn't work. I loved many aspects of the story but the way it was written was a very big distraction for me. I love the idea of the reader being a part of the story is intriguing and the idea was brilliant, especially when the story is a thriller. But for me I just felt disconnected from teh characters and what our main character was feeling. I really wanted to love the writing because the idea is amazing but for me it just didn't work.

Now onto the rest of the book :) The thriller part of this book was brilliant. I could not wait to find out everything that was going on. I loved the amnesia part of the story the most because it allowed for me as a reader to figure things out along with out main character. That is one of my favorite things to read in a book, especially a thriller. The twist and turns in this book were crazy and seriously? I want more!

The "love interest" if you can really call it that was the best part of the book because it was really the only relationship she had in the book that went beyond just acquaintances and it revealed so much about our narrator. It showed how hard it is for her to trust someone, and it also shows that maybe first impressions are not the best, especially when you can't remember anything past the last week.

Overall this book was a very interesting and I will definitely will read the next book because I want to know what this whole series is about and what will happen next! I will warn that the way this book i written is not for everyone, but once you get past that, the story is amazing.

Title: Feral
Author: Holly Schindler
Series: Standalone
Genre: YA Thriller
Format: Hardcover, 432 pages
Release Date: August 26th 2014
Publisher: HarperTeen
Source: eARC received from publisher via Edelweiss in exchange for an honest review

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The Lovely Bones meets Black Swan in this haunting psychological thriller with twists and turns that will make you question everything you think you know.

It’s too late for you. You’re dead. Those words continue to haunt Claire Cain months after she barely survived a brutal beating in Chicago. So when her father is offered a job in another state, Claire is hopeful that getting out will offer her a way to start anew.

But when she arrives in Peculiar, Missouri, Claire feels an overwhelming sense of danger, and her fears are confirmed when she discovers the body of a popular high school student in the icy woods behind the school, surrounded by the town’s feral cats. While everyone is quick to say it was an accident, Claire knows there’s more to it, and vows to learn the truth about what happened.

But the closer she gets to uncovering the mystery, the closer she also gets to realizing a frightening reality about herself and the damage she truly sustained in that Chicago alley….

Holly Schindler’s gripping story is filled with heart-stopping twists and turns that will keep readers guessing until the very last page.


I will admit that this book was weird. I honestly did not expect what I got when I started this one. First of all there are two narrators in this book, one is alive and one is dead. I thought the dead girls parts were a bit too much for me, and i found it to be too weird for my tastes. Although it gave a very interesting perspective on what happened to this girl, i still felt disconnected to this story, right from the beginning.

What I think I loved the most about this book was the murder mystery aspect of the book. As a reader we know aspects of the murder than the character did not, which I thought was interesting, but we still had to find out who was behind it, and we found that out along with the characters. That I really liked. I think that aspect of the book was the reason I kept reading. And when the killer was finally revealed it made so much sense. It felt real and like it could happen in real life, even though the circumstances were a bit out there.

There is a reason that this book is called Feral and that is because this book has a lot of to do with cats and feral cats. I found this aspect to be the weirdest part of the book because I really didn't connect with it. I found myself rolling my eyes when these parts would come and especially when the dead girl BECAME one of the cats. That was my braking point and I knew I wasn't going to like this book was much as I wanted. Overall this book was crazy interesting and I loved the murder mystery aspect to it, but I was taken aback by the cats involvement into the story and the fact that none of the characters really connected with me on any level.

Title: Forget Me
Author: K.A Harrington
Series: Standalone
Genre: YA Contemporary, Mystery/Thriller
Format: Hardcover, 288 pages
Release Date: August 7th 2014
Publisher: Putnam Juvenile
Source: ARC received from pubsliher in exchange for an honest review

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An edge-of-your seat psychological thriller with a romantic twist

On the three-month anniversary of her boyfriend Flynn’s death, Morgan uploads her only photo of him to FriendShare to get some closure—but she’s shocked when the facial recognition software suggests she tag him as "Evan Murphy." She’s never heard of Evan, but a quick search tells her that he lives in a nearby town and looks exactly like Flynn. Only this boy is very much alive.

Digging through layers of secrets and lies, Morgan is left questioning everything she thought she knew about her boyfriend, her town, and even her parents' involvement in this massive web of lies.
 

Mysteries are always a must read for me, especially in YA. So when I read about Forget Me I knew I had to request it, and I am so happy I got a chance to read it because boy was it fantastic!

The key to my enjoyment came in two waves. The mystery and the main character. I will start with the main character. Morgan was a great narrator. She was extremely easy to relate to, although I did question her relationship with her boyfriend in the beginning. It seemed a bit far fetched but that is what made me like her even more. She knew their relationship was not normal and therefore she questioned herself constantly. It was nice to read a girl who was not too confident. She had doubts, not only about herself but about life itself and those around her. She asked questions when no one else did and that got her the answers she was looking for. Morgan had two very different relationships in this book, she had her friendship with her BF which was great to read because they were so different from one another and therefore they were great together on the page. But there was also Morgan's friendship with Ethan. I think I liked this one the most because of how slowly they got to know each other and watching them learn to trust each other was great to read.

Now onto the mystery. This was the best part of the entire book because it kept me wanting to read from the first page. I was sucked in right from the beginning and I think I read this book in one sitting because I could not put it down. The author's ability to suck you into this story and make you a part of it was great and I loved how addictive the writing was. It kept me wanting more. I can't give much away in this review because the reveal at the end of the book was amazing and I don't want to ruin that for anyone else. But let me just tell you that it makes perfect sense and I did not see it coming.

Overall, Forget Me was an amazing read. It was filled with love, laughter and mystery; everything you would want in a YA book and I will tell you, if you pick up this book, clear your schedule because you will not be able to put this book down.

Title: Complicit
Author: Stephanie Kuehn
Series: Standalone
Genre: YA Contemporary, Thriller
Format: Hardcover, 256 pages
Release Date: June 24th 2014
Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin
Source: eARC received from publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review

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Two years ago, sixteen-year-old Jamie Henry breathed a sigh of relief when a judge sentenced his older sister to juvenile detention for burning down their neighbor’s fancy horse barn. The whole town did. Because Crazy Cate Henry used to be a nice girl. Until she did a lot of bad things. Like drinking. And stealing. And lying. Like playing weird mind games in the woods with other children. Like making sure she always got her way. Or else.

But today Cate got out. And now she’s coming back for Jamie.

Because more than anything, Cate Henry needs her little brother to know the truth about their past. A truth she’s kept hidden for years. A truth she’s not supposed to tell.

Trust nothing and no one as you race toward the explosive conclusion of this gripping psychological thriller from the William C. Morris Award-winning author of Charm & Strange.


Complicit was a book I picked up for review in a hunch. I really did not know what it was about but i was compelled by the aspect of a good mystery and family drama. So when I started reading this book I was hooked from the very beginning and it did not stop until the very end.

Complicit follows Jaime, a young boy who is adopted and has a sister in jail for some very unsettling things she did a few years back. I will not say what those things are because I honestly think it added to the mystery. But damn this girl is MESSED UP, but it was great to read. I loved not knowing if Cat, his sister, was coming after him or going after someone else. But i knew there was more to her story than she let on. And boy was i right. I will admit that I kind of figured out the end early but it didn't diminish my enjoyment of the book because I didn't know if I was right or wrong but I knew something was up, and I wanted to know what it was!

Jaime was  great character because he was an unreliable one. Although he knew his sister was bad, he also loved her and wanted to be around her because of their past. She remembered their mother, who was killed when Jaime was very young and therefore they both got adopted. Unreliable narrators are some of my favorites narrators, if they are done well. And Jaime was done very well. I wanted to believe everything he said, but I knew he did not remember everything and his past was hazy so that made him one interesting person to tell the story. Cat, his sister on the other hand was also an interesting character but I found she was very 2 dimensional as a character, but happily she became quite an interesting character, especially near the end when everything was revealed. Her relationship with Jaime was explore in more detail and their past was hashed out as well, which answered A LOT of questions.

Overall, Complicit was a great read with many twists and turns and characters that stay with you long after you finish reading the book. I will say that the end was a big loose for my liking but overall I loved how it ended. This book is for all who love a good mystery and some crazy characters that are worth reading!

Title: Wicked Games
Author: Sean Olin
Series: Yes, not sure on the series name
Genre: YA Contemporary Thriller
Format: Hardcover, 352 pages
Release Date: June 10th 2014
Publisher: Katherine Tegen Books
Source: eARC provided by publisher via Edelweiss in exchange for an honest review

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Wicked Games is the first book in a sexy thriller series where passion, lies, and revenge collide-perfect for fans of Simone Elkeles and Sara Shepard.

To all the locals in the small beach town of Dream Point, Carter and Lilah seem like the perfect It Couple-but their relationship is about to brutally unravel before everyone's eyes.

Carter has always been a good guy, and while Lilah has a troubled past, she's been a loyal girlfriend for the last four years. When smart, sexy Jules enters the picture at a senior-year bash, Carter succumbs to temptation. And when Lilah catches wind of his betrayal, she decides that Jules needs to pay.

By the end of the summer, the line between right and wrong will be blurred beyond recognition. Blood will be shed. Nothing in Dream Point will ever be the same.

This juicy summer read will keep readers turning pages until the shocking, nail-biting finale.


What can I say about this book. It was not my favourite by a long shot and since I do not want this review to be all negative, I will start with what I did like about it. I really liked the tension that the author built up between the character. Cheating characters can do that to a book, and n this one they caused A LOT of tension. For me the best part to read was near the end was the climax was about to be revealed and I could not put the book down because I knew it was coming. That is a sign of great tension and suspense. But sadly for me, that is where my enjoyment ended.

I found the whole concept of the book to a bit far fetched and parts of it to be very disrespectful to people with mental illness. Before I get to the mental illness part, let me start with the part that bothered me the most, the characters. I usually do not like reading book that have characters that cheat. I am very against it and find it very offensive so when a character does something like that I find it very hard for them to redeem themselves in my eyes. So when the story starts off with Carter cheating on his girlfriend of 4 years with some girl named Jules he meets on the beach, I immediately dislike him, and Jules by association. What I think bothered me the most about this whole cheating thing was that Jules knew what was happening and she was happy about it, and when she told her mother her mother was like "OK, just hope you know what you're getting into." Um no, that is not what a mother saying when her daughter is the other woman. I'm sorry its just wrong.

Another aspect of this book that drove me nuts was Carters girlfriend Lilah. I knew from reading about her that she had some sort of metal illness, and yet Carter just gt frustrated by her and wanted to be left alone. He never really tried to figure out what was wrong with her, and why she was like this. He would always just get frustrated with her. And the worst part was, he never really broke up with her until, like, the middle of the book! So obviously Lilah was upset. But then she goes postal and becomes a stalker and extremely violent toward Jules, but not Carter. She only took things out on the girl, t her actual boyfriend who CHEATED! so frustrating. And then when people try and get Lilah parents evolved they says something like "oh yeah she has problems, we don't really know how to handle her." Umm seriously?? The depiction of parenting was not the best in this book.

So needles to say, this book was not my favourite, but I have to talk about the end. because seriously that changed everything. I thought we were going to have a nice end to the story and then the epilogue happened. when you read it you will understand, it made me so angry and I wondered, OK if this is how it is going to end, why did I have to go through the entire book for this??? i felt a little cheated to be honest, and I don't really know what to think about it.

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

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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: Killer Instinct
Author: S.E. Green
Series: Standalone
Genre: YA Contemporary, Mystery, Thriller
Format: Hardcover, 272 pages
Release Date: May 6th 2014
Publisher: Simon Pulse
Source: eARC received from publisher via Edelweiss in exchange for an honest review

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She’s not evil, but she has certain... urges.

Lane is a typical teenager. Loving family. Good grades. Afterschool job at the local animal hospital. Martial arts enthusiast. But her secret obsession is studying serial killers. She understands them, knows what makes them tick.

Why?

Because she might be one herself.

Lane channels her dark impulses by hunting criminals—delivering justice when the law fails. The vigilantism stops shy of murder. But with each visceral rush the line of self-control blurs.
And then a young preschool teacher goes missing. Only to return... in parts.
When Lane excitedly gets involved in the hunt for “the Decapitator,” the vicious serial murderer that has come to her hometown, she gets dangerously caught up in a web of lies about her birth dad and her own dark past. And once the Decapitator contacts Lane directly, Lane knows she is no longer invisible or safe. Now she needs to use her unique talents to find the true killer’s identity before she—or someone she loves—becomes the next victim...


I went into this book loving the cover. I thought it was so eye catching and so original from a lot of the books on the shelves, I love the use of white space and I think that is what originally caught my eye and made me want to read it. Unfortunately I felt like this story lacked something for me, and I did not like it as much as I would have liked.

This book is about a young girl who has urges to hurt people, she is not scared of gore, she loved death and she finds a way of hurting people without scarring her conscience. Think Dexter. She only hurts people that harm others, and I feel like that is where most people will say they were lost on the enjoyment of this book because it did remind me of Dexter A LOT so that was something I had to get past in order to continue reading the book. But the other part that actually kept me reading was the fact that there was a serial killer named the Decapitator that was killing people every September and that killer starts to contact her. This is where things get interesting for me because i was really interested in who this person was and how they knew who she was.

The interest of the killer and the interest in who the killer was is where my likes ended. I felt like everything else in the book seemed a little over the top. Especially her family because it seemed too good to be true that her Mother and Step Dad were both part of the FBI so she could see crime scene photos and snoop around the case of the Decapitator. I also didn't see the point of her sister Daisey and why her character had to be labeled as a slut. From what we hear about her, it sounds like its true, but honestly her character had no real impact on the story itself therefore I wondered why her character had to be that way at all. It seemed unnecessary. I also felt like I had a disconnect with all the character including the narrator herself. When something happened I never really felt any kind of emotion so that made it hard to connect to any of the characters.

The reveal. This was the kicker for me. When we learn who the killer really was I wanted t throw the book across the room because, although I did not see it coming, it also made no sense what so ever. I felt angry at the end, i felt myself rolling my eyes and saying "really?" over and over again because the killer did not seem believable to me. AT ALL. that was the nail on the coffin for me, that reveal was the reason I gave this book 2 stars.

Title: Find Me
Author: Romily Bernard
Genre: YA Thriller, Mystery
Format: Hardcover, 307 pages
Release Date: September 24, 2013
Publisher: Harper Teen
Source: eARC received by publisher for honest review

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“Find Me.”

These are the words written on Tessa Waye’s diary. The diary that ends up with Wick Tate. But Tessa’s just been found . . . dead.

Wick has the right computer-hacking skills for the job, but little interest in this perverse game of hide-and-seek. Until her sister Lily is the next target.

Then Griff, trailer-park boy next door and fellow hacker, shows up, intent on helping Wick. Is a happy ending possible with the threat of Wick’s deadbeat dad returning, the detective hunting him sniffing around Wick instead, and a killer taunting her at every step?

Foster child. Daughter of a felon. Loner hacker girl. Wick has a bad attitude and sarcasm to spare.

But she’s going to find this killer no matter what.

Because it just got personal.


I really cannot say how much I loved this book. I have already tweeted that this book was probably my favorite debut of the year, and as of right now that still stands. I have never been this impressed with a story in a long time and to put that into perspective, I have read over 100 books so far this year, and this one blows all of those out of the water.

This is not your ordinary YA novel because our main character, Wick, is your normal teenager. She is a hacker, and she and her sister have been put into foster home when their father is suspected of being part of a criminal organization, one that Wick knows all too much about. It is only when a distant friend somics suicide that her worlds turns even more upside down. She find her diary with a note that says FIND ME. Wick knows that someone made her do what she did, all she had to do was find out.

And oh does she find out. I pride myself o figuring out the ends of mystery novels. I watch way too many episodes of Castle and Criminal Minds to not be. But honestly I thought I knew who the bad guys was BUT NO! Romaly had to go and turn everything on its head and make me question everything i just read. WELL DONE.

But seriously, besides the reveal at the end, what I loved most about this book was the sub plots that seemed to crop up everywhere! I am not saying there were a lot, but there were enough to makes this story incredible complex and engaging. Evey chapter revealed something else, which in turn revealed something else. It was like a stack of dominoes that was falling slowly but you knew everything would happen eventually.

I loved everything about this book. There was no part that I thought was underdeveloped or overdeveloped. Every character served a purpose and every scene lead to the ultimate end. I loved this book more than this review could ever express. It was amazing.