Another Little Piece
This might be the most difficult review I've ever written since how I feel about Another Little Piece is all mixed up and hard to put into words. I enjoyed the first bit but a little under halfway through the whole book started falling apart for me and by the end I had very little idea what was actually going on. But here I go.
Beware of spoilers!
Annaliese Rose Gordon was at a party the night she disappeared. A year later she is found wandering about with no memories. Then she discovers who she is and goes home with her parents, who she is detached from and calls the mom and the dad instead of Mom and Dad. She looks like Annaliese but there are differences that begin right away, starting with her sudden dislike of chocolate that surprises her mother. Slowly Annaliese's memories return, but there are two sets of memories there: Annaliese's and Anna's. Annaliese sold her soul to Anna in exchange for one sexual encounter with her high school crush at the party she disappeared from. This accounts for the mystery behind her disappearance with the blood, the screams, and the unexplained vanishing.
Anna's memories, on the other hand, are a bit trickier. There's her alcoholic mother and a mysterious boy that made her what she is and pops up everywhere.Then she meets her neighbor Dex, who has his own paranormal secret. He can see people's deaths but can't tell them about it without them either losing their minds or dying anyway. Anna and Dex form a connection and go off to find answers.
Another Little Piece had a promising and creepy start, but ended up just being confusing. There were too many flashbacks of different people, etc. Not much was made clear, and by the middle of the book I began having a hard time understanding what was going on. If you asked me what happened in the end I would have a hard time telling you. I will say that I liked the pieces of Annaliese's life at the beginning of each chapter, with the poetry and such. The poetry was terrible but it was a nice glimpse into the girl she was before the party.
Margaret's parents are both spies and so she has grown up changing identities and having various jobs all over the world. She also is a master safecracker who has been opening locks and safes her whole life. Then she and her family move to New York City where a man who runs a media company might publish a story revealing several people as spies. Her new job is to befriend this man's son and try to get the information through him, which means going to a high school for the first time. Margaret can handle all kinds of tricky situations but high school is a scary thought for her. Fortunately, with the help of her first ever friend Roux, everything becomes a bit more manageable. Then there's Jesse. When she first hears about him, she doesn't think much of him. But after meeting Jesse, Margaret realizes that she really likes him. The problem is that a real spy can't have friends or fall for her assignment. Then there's a bit of a mystery, of course! This book was so fun and cute! Not very realistic but the characters (especially Angelo and Roux! Angelo is the family friend who helps Maggie and gives her advice) were fabulous. The dialogue was also great, funny and quick. The only real problems with this book were the lack of the plot (which I could ignore for the most part!) and the dialogue issues.
Cate lives with her father and two sisters in an alternate version of the 1900s where the Brotherhood rules and witches (who have always existed) are punished by imprisonment, hard labor, or just plain disappear, and women are destined either for marriage or the religious Sisterhood. The problem? Cate and her two sisters are witches who must hide their powers. Cate has more caution than either of her sisters, especially reckless Maura who feels confined and restless by her life and is constantly arguing with Cate. Then, to make matters worse, a governess is hired to teach all three girls how to be proper ladies and becomes yet another person to hide their secret from. Cate is also weeks away from having to declare her intent of either marriage or a religious life in the Sisterhood. There is a choice between Paul, her childhood friend, or Finn, the new gardener. Cate wants to stay at home and protect her sisters, as she has been doing her whole life, which makes the decision even harder.There is also a prophecy about the three sisters that Cate must learn about and protect her family from. As the book goes on, Cate learns more about the people in her small town and discovers several secrets both about her family and the others.The writing was nice enough but not much happened which made the book rather dull to get through. It was mostly pretty descriptions and love triangles. The witch aspect wasn't very present, and the love story (either one!) didn't interest me. Cate wasn't the most interesting character and was very judgmental and she she knew best about everything and everyone.
This book was much less sport-oriented than the others. Although Kate is a soccer player, she injured her knee and only jogs a couple times.Kate is very religious and struggles with that. Her best friend got pregnant and had to get an abortion, something that Kate helps her with and tries to be supportive of, but it also goes against her beliefs. Her best friend is also pulling away from religion, causing even more conflict between the two of them. Then Kate works as a camp counselor at a Christian camp. Even there she is considered judgmental and conservative because she doesn't approve of them not following the morals taught at church as well as she does. At camp she encounters Matt, who she met years ago at the same camp. Back then they had shared a connection and a first kiss. Now sparks fly, but Kate is worried about things getting much hotter than her beliefs allow.I didn't like this one as much as the last one. Kate was extremely unlikeable to me with all of her judgements. It was nice to see some familiar characters (like Parker, who strikes up a friendship with Kate) and her transition as she figures out more answers and the right balance between religion and her encounters with people.
I'm disappointed. I loved Poison Study so I know that Snyder's writing can work for me and I was curious about Opal in the Study book she appeared in. But there were too many plots. Stormdancers and their mystery, the return to school, the fake diamonds and the possible political plots and connections behind them, Opal's various magical developments, the missing kidnapper, the love triangle of sorts, and the plot to find a magical prison made out of glass. For every plot there were a couple sub-plots, and after a while it was just too much. The characters were bland and all blended together. I was the most interested in finding out about the Stormdancers but despite them being a part of the main plot, there wasn't that much about them.Also, I definitely recommend reading the Study series first. This is NOT a stand-alone series. Characters and things and developments that were introduced in the Study series popped up here with very little background story. People who don't read Study first will be confused.
When Taylor gets caught stealing a car to escape from her alcoholic mother and the panic attacks she gets, she is sent to a center in order to recover and also to complete her probation time. Taylor is angry with her parents, hates being at the center, and is determined to use any means necessary in order to escape. After various attempts (which, by the way, was really fun to see her planning) and a refusal to participate in various aspects including therapy and school, Taylor starts to make friends, learn about herself, and face her fears. She strikes up a deal with her therapist after making a list of her fears, saying that after they address and deal with each one she is free to go. Part of her therapy also includes creating a garden with the guy she is attracted to but is conflicted about after she feels that he betrays her. She eventually gets over her grudge as the garden grows. While most of this book was a three-star read for me, my enjoyment of her recovery process bumped up the rating a bit.
Elena Michaels is the only female werewolf. She's also trying to live as normal of a life as possible away from her pack and old life. Elena works as a journalist and has a normal boyfriend who has no idea what she really is. Then she gets a call from the Alpha male of her old pack, asking for her help. She finds out that someone has been killing people and the hunt is on for the "dogs" responsible. It seems to be some sort of revenge against the pack. Elena's job is to figure out which mutt (non-pack werewolves) is responsible for the murders and stopping them before her pack is put even more at risk. That's hard enough, but the Alpha male's foster son is the one who turned Elena into a werewolf and has a complicated relationship with her that makes everything that much harder. Elena has to battle her conflicted feelings about him, the pack, and her way of life. It also turns out that the mutt situation is way more difficult than she originally thought and that as the only female werewolf she is a target as well. This book was fun with a great plot. I really loved Elena. I'm not too sure about Clay or her relationship with him but I have time to change my mind when I read more of the series.
Eve and Adam
I am writing this on my kindle so sorry for any mistakes. I was interested in this book because the description grabbed my attention, but sadly it disappointed. The characters were extremely flat. The only one that had any substance was Eve's mom who is a grey character who admits to being cold, ruthless, and bitchy and is proud of it. Nobody is sure exactly where her loyalties lie. However, she also slutshames Eve's friend which made me like her much less. The love interest was unlikable, especially in the way he was thinking about Eve when she was seriously injured.
And the instalove! With very few conversations, encounters where one or the other was injured, they fell enough in love to risk everything for each other. Aslinn's side story was also annoying and distracting and didn't have much of a conclusion. The book wasn't well-plotted which made all that even more apparent. Even Eve's creation of Adam was boring, and he was barely a part of the book and even got his own instalove.The idea was great but the execution was definitely lacking.
For some reason I've been putting off reading this for a while. I wasn't a fan of [b:If I Stay|4374400|If I Stay (If I Stay, #1)|Gayle Forman|http://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1347462970s/4374400.jpg|4422413] and [b:Where She Went|8492825|Where She Went (If I Stay, #2)|Gayle Forman|http://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1347810457s/8492825.jpg|10706553] but I wanted to give Foreman another chance. I'm really glad I did. The book has several parts to it and some worked better than me than others. Some spoilers! I cut the whole thing to be safe.The first part is about a rule-abiding non-spontaneous girl who is on a tour of Europe with her friend after graduating from high school. The first bit of spontaneity is when she and her friend decide to go to an outdoor Shakespeare play and meets actor Willem. Then Allyson (or Lulu, her alter-ego name given to her by Willem) goes to Paris with him. There they fall in love. Then the next day Willem is not there and she feels abandoned. Allyson goes to back to the United States without ever knowing what happened to him. The travel part was fun but not my favorite.The next part starts when she's at college, going along with the science-oriented path to a medical degree as decided by her mother. But Allyson is depressed and realizes that the path is not what she wants. She is sullen and unpleasant to be around, and her relationship with her mother as well as pretty much everyone becomes strained. This part, while understandable, was a bit of a struggle for me to get through.Then comes my absolute favorite part, the one where Allyson starts to figure out who she is, who Lulu is, and a compromise between them. She experiments with classes, makes new friends (one of whom I absolutely loved), learns a new language, gets a new job, and becomes way more spontaneous. The final part is when she goes back to Europe to find out what happened.I loved watching Allyson grow throughout the novel. My only real complaint is that the ending was abrupt.
Although this is the second book in the Sevenwaters series, it's not completely necessary to read the first one (though I recommend it! I loved Daughter of the Forest and gave it 5 stars) as it's a different main character and a different set of circumstances, though some characters from the last book do show up. Liadan has had a good life, at least up until she turns 16. At that point her mother becomes seriously ill, her sister has an affair with a man she shouldn't and gets forced into an arranged marriage with someone else, a man that Liadan is not interested in wants to marry her, and there have been threats to her people by the mysterious Painted Man. Then, while traveling with her sister to deliver her to her new husband, Liadan gets kidnapped by the men of the Painted Man who desire her for her healing skills. The Painted Man is not happy about this development as he deeply mistrusts women, and is not very nice to Liadan, but somehow she ends up falling in love with him anyway, which complicates her life and her alliances to the people she loves. After all, she is in love with the enemy. Just like the first book, Son of the Shadows was beautifully written with a nice set of characters. I liked Liadan a lot. I was tempted to give this book 5 stars, but it did drag a tiny bit and I wasn't as in love as with Daughter of the Forest.
Hmmm, I'm not really sure what I think of this. I did like it, and when I read positive things about this book I certainly agree with most of it. I thought the writing was lovely and the story was imaginative, but I still feel torn about certain aspects of it. For example, I thought that the characters didn't really feel alive to me. You know how after you read some books you feel like you know those characters really well? That didn't happen here. I still loved the complicated relationship between Orma and Seraphina, though. In fact, I think that was one of my favorite things about this book. And I thought that the relationship between Lucian and Seraphina was rushed just a tad because while they had some nice interactions, her feelings for him seemed to come from nowhere. But even so, I liked him and them together. Finally, in some places this book seemed to really drag. So I would go from not wanting the book to end and being completely involved in the world to feeling bored and wanting the book to end, and then back to being involved!
Siege and Storm
I liked it a little better than the first one in a few ways, mostly due to the fact that some of the new characters were fun. But it still had a lot of the flaws I noticed in the first one, such as the worldbuilding and the obsession with beauty as well as Alina's relationship with other girls. Mal's character annoyed me even more than in the first one. And despite all the action, part of me felt that very little went on. I was a bit bored even during the exciting scenes and I can't figure out why. It had all the elements to make me really into the book but something was missing. Here's to hoping that the third one gets even better.
I thought the setup was OK. The first 4 waves were understandable, and the first half of the book was pretty creepy. But the instalove and the weird plan for the 5th wave brought down my enjoyment quite a bit. Also, Sammy annoyed me quite a bit but fortunately it wasn't his PoV too much so I could ignore that for the most part. And Cassie, well, I don't think that she was written very well. First of all, she talks about her former crush way too much for the situation she's in (talking with her friend about having sex right before the end of the world because it's the end? Really? She doesn't have more important things to focus on?), and she completely ignores her instincts regarding Evan, even though she's pretty sure he's an alien. And the instalove! Made her characterization even worse. She's supposed to be at least somewhat decent at having survival skills seeing as how she survived that long but wow, I don't see it at all. How is Evan too in love with Cassie, without even ever have talked to her, that he can't stand to kill her? How can Cassie ignore all the things that aliens have done to other people just because he's attractive?Finally, I'm not a fan of the PoV change but I would have liked it a lot more if they had the character's name at the start of the chapter or something to make it clear whose PoV I was reading. Even in the case where (obvious as it was) Yancey might not have wanted to reveal Evan right away, he could have used his title as shooter or something else to conceal his identity.
The Sea of Tranquility
I've been out of my angsty teen phase for several years now and even when I was in it I had very little patience for books about teenage angst. Which made this book really hard for me to get through. Now, I will say that Nastya's feelings are understandable once I understood what she went through, but the problem is that what happened to her was vague until a little over halfway through the book. Instead, it's mostly her complaining about school and talking about how to keep everyone from getting to close and how much she hates life, etc. That gets old pretty fast. I give up, eat half a bag of jelly beans, leaving the black ones behind because they suck, and head to the shower to wash the shit that was this day off of me. I have a riveting conversation with myself while letting the conditioner set in my hair. I talk about my crap schedule. I tell myself about the unfortunate irony that is my music class and wonder if that tops the ridiculousness of Speech & Debate...I crawl into my bed...I grabe a pen and I write. Exactly three and a half pages later, I slide the book back to its hiding place and turn off the light, wondering what fresh hell tomorrow will bring. That was about 8% of the way through and while reading it I wondered how it was possible to make eating jelly beans, taking a shower, writing a bit in a notebook, and going to bed so miserable. And unfortunately, Josh's point-of-view wasn't much happier. At least I liked Nastya much better than Josh, who just wasn't a very pleasant character and thought himself so much better than others. I guess in a lot of ways this book reminded me of [b:Speak|439288|Speak|Laurie Halse Anderson|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1310121762s/439288.jpg|118521] with the whole "I hate high school, I won't talk, here are some clues of what happened to me but I won't tell you the full story until near the end!" aspect, but [b:Speak|439288|Speak|Laurie Halse Anderson|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1310121762s/439288.jpg|118521] just worked so much better for me.
I'd had this book on my to-read list for a while and had heard such good things so I was glad that one of the book clubs I'm in chose this as one of their monthly reads. I was a bit worried when I started that I would end up liking Ty, and while I certainly felt sympathetic about certain aspects of his life, I still disliked him the whole way through. I thought Gemma was a really great character. I'm also glad that we got to see some of her life afterwards, and the struggles of trying to adjust to her old life while trying to give people exactly what they want to hear. Sometimes books end before I want them too and I would have hated if it had ended right as she was rescued.
What I liked:Jordan's relationship with her father was pretty well done and resolved nicely.Jordan's friendship with the boys! They respect her and have a lot of fun together. The fact that she actually got together with Henry. I was a little suspicious when she kept comparing Ty to him but the book seemed to be all about her getting together with Ty. I'm SO used to preferring the friend that the MC does not end up with that it was nice to actually have them get together. That being said, I'm not sure how I feel about her realizing it only when What I did not like:Jordan's relationship with Ty. I thought he ended up being really unlikeable but I also hate how she dealt with the relationship. "Oh, I can't be with Henry so I'll be with Ty because the daily special, even when I want some other expensive item, is better than nothing! But for some reason my relationship with Ty is ruining the friendship with Henry and I have no idea why!" I might not have really liked Ty and how controlling of everything he was (and how he kept trying to tell her how to be with her guy friends!), but being in a relationship with someone who really likes you but you don't like the same way just because you can't be with the person you ACTUALLY want to be with is not cool.Also, after freaking out so long about kissing him, it seemed out of character to lose her virginity to him after one day of being together and pretty much their second kiss. Jordan's view of other girls. Almost all of the other girls are bitchy and scheming and gossipy. They sleep around with all of the football players and make fun of Jordan. She is really scornful and hesitant to be around any girls. This kind of changes near the end but I'm not sure if it's for the better because the only two girls she really ended up being friends with was because they liked football and pizza/wings. It felt a lot like, "I'm not like those other girls!"