Review of 100 Hours by Rachel Vincent

Title/Author: 100 Hours (100 Hours #1) by Rachel Vincent
Publisher/Date published: Katherine Tegen Books, March 28th 2017
How I got this book: received it from the publisher as an egalley, thanks!

Goodreads summary: A decadent spring break getaway on an exotic beach becomes a terrifying survival story when six Miami teens are kidnapped and ransomed.

Maddie is beyond done with her cousin Genesis’s entitled and shallow entourage. Genesis is so over Miami’s predictable social scene with its velvet ropes, petty power plays, and backstabbing boyfriends.

While Maddie craves family time for spring break, Genesis seeks novelty — like a last-minute getaway to an untouched beach in Colombia. And when Genesis wants something, it happens.

But paradise has its price. Dragged from their tents under the cover of dark, Genesis, Maddie, and their friends are kidnapped and held for ransom deep inside the jungle — with no diva left behind. It all feels so random to everyone except Genesis. She knows they were targeted for a reason. And that reason is her.

Now, as the hours count down, only one thing’s for certain: If the Miami hostages can’t set aside their personal problems, no one will make it out alive.

I used to devour thrillers when I was younger, but these days I gravitate more to other genres, but I've really enjoyed Rachel Vincent's writing style in the past and that combined with the summary made me pick up 100 Hours. Sadly, it didn't work so well for me.

I felt that it lacked something to make me care about what was going to happen to this group of teenagers before it started happening. We're thrown right into the story a little bit before the main events start to unroll and the rapid change in POV between Maddie and Genesis didn't make me connect to either of the characters. Especially because I didn't really like either of them. I mean, I sort of felt bad for Maddie, her father died and her brother's a recovering addict, but it was all so briefly mentioned that I felt like I was supposed to feel sorry for her, but it didn't fully register.
And then there's Genesis, who's supposed to be entitled and not a very nice person, but there's no depth to this character portrayal and she just randomly hooks up with guys who are not her boyfriend, which I can't really blame her for because her boyfriend is a douche, but he's RIGHT THERE, so that was a bit of a problem for me.

There was just a bit too much of random romance thrown in, I mean, why the heck are these people making out with each other when they're being held hostage? I mean, seriously? Why is everyone falling in love with each other in a matter of hours and willing to make sacrifices for said other person when they've known each other for all of 5 minutes and don't even know their real names??? I mean, SERIOUSLY?? Also priorities anyone? And I was just not shipping it. Because it was weird. And while I'm all for romance, it took away from the storyline in this case.

The ending left me going, WAIT WHAT? Because major dramatic events and CLIFFHANGER, but I still don't think I'll pick up the sequel, because while I think we'll finally get to some more interesting storylines, I'm not sure I want to read another full novel with these characters.

My rating: 1,5 stars

Mini-Reviews (17): Diplomatic Immunity, My Fair Princess, The Best Friend Bargain

So sometimes I fail at writing reviews for the books I've read, and 2016 has me failing spectacularly (as did 2015). And because it's been AGES since I read these, I'm just gonna do mini-reviews of them, so as to clear my need-review shelf (cause it's humungous, it's not even funny).

Title/Author: Diplomatic Immunity by Brodi Ashton
Publisher/Date published: Balzer + Bray, September 6th 2016
How I got this book: received it from the publisher as an egalley

I'm just gonna come out and say it: this book was a huge disappointment. It sounded like something that I would just LOVE, but instead it had me going 'meh' and having serious issues with several things happening in the novel. I wasn't feeling the main character, who was a bit of a hypocrite and just annoying and the love interest was just... Not interesting. I felt zero sparks and the whole system was messed up and it didn't feel like this was happening to teenagers.

I did like the relationships between Piper and her brother and Rafael and his brother, but all in all, it just wasn't enough to make me like the novel. I felt like it was trying a little too hard, which is a shame, because I remember very much loving Brodi Ashton's writing before.

My rating: 1,5 stars

Title/Author: My Fair Princess (The Improper Princesses #1) by Vanessa Kelly
Publisher/Date published: Zebra, August 30th 2016
How I got this book: received it from the publisher through NetGalley

So I liked My Fair Princess, it wasn't earthshattering or majorly shippy, but it was cute and I liked Charles, who was lovely and proper, but willing to let go of it for Gillian. I also liked Gillian, but she had a teensy bit of too stupid to live going on with all her diving headfirst into danger that you could see coming from MILES away. I mean MILES. But the two of them had nice chemistry and there was definitely some tension, which was wonderful. And I also really liked Charles' sister, who loved messing with him a bit, which is what sisters are supposed to do in my opinion.

My rating: 3,5 stars

Title/Author: The Best Friend Bargain (Kisses in the Sand #3) by Robin Bielman
Publisher/Date published: Entangled Publishing LLC, August 8th 2016
How I got this book: received it from the publisher through NetGalley

I like a good friends-to-lovers story and this was really sweet. I thought Olivia and Danny were kinda perfect together, but there was a definite lack of communication going on at one point ant that was just hurtful! I mean, wow. Also, I kinda had to laugh a bit at the way Olivia sorta just told someone that she and Danny were getting married and starting a family when she hadn't even told him that she was pregnant, it was all just a little crazy. I could sorta understand where Danny was coming from with his issues, but I was also a bit annoyed by it, because he was just throwing away so many things for himself and for Olivia (and for the women who came before him), that I just wanted to shake him.
Also, the ending threw me off a bit, I mean, that's REALLY quick for another baby (which to be honest doesn't seem all that healthy to me aside from being really quick). But it was a nice story and I liked it.

My rating: 3 stars

Mini-Reviews (12): The Earl Next Door, Burning Glass, Into the Dim

So sometimes I fail at writing reviews for the books I've read, and 2016 has me failing spectacularly (as did 2015). And because it's been AGES since I read these, I'm just gonna do mini-reviews of them, so as to clear my need-review shelf (cause it's humungous, it's not even funny anymore).

Title/Author: The Earl Next Door (The Bachelor Lords of London #1) by Charis Michaels
Publisher/Date published: Avon Impulse, March 1st 2016
How I got this book: received it from the publisher as an egalley, thanks!

I'm sorry to say that I did not very much care for The Earl Next Door. I think I finished it because I was waiting for things to get better and for the romance to grab me and because I REALLY wanted to like it, but it fell a little short of my expectations. The main reason for this is that with my historical romances, I kinda need to cheer for the couple to get together and with Piety and Trevor, I was basically wondering what in the world they were doing with each other. I mean, I felt a bit of insta-love, at least from Piety and Trevor wouldn't admit it, but I think it was there for him as well. And there's just lots of awkwardness and REALLY annoying family member and Piety's mother who for the life of me I cannot understand, because WOW you just cannot try to do that to your daughter. So much wrongness.

I did like Trevor's dry humor and the lady across the street who keeps meddling in everything, but the romance wasn't really what I was looking for.

My rating: 2 stars

Title/Author: Burning Glass (Burning Glass #1) by Kathryn Purdie
Publisher/Date published: Katherine Tegen Books, March 1st 2016
How I got this book: received it from the publisher as an egalley, thanks!

This is another one of those instances in which I wonder why I finished it. And it's probably because the premise is interesting, but then the execution failed to deliver. I mean, Sonya's ability to sense what other people are feeling puts her in a pretty special position and in this case puts her right beside the emperor. The fact that she also takes over whatever other people are feeling makes that I'm still wondering about her personality, because all I could see was what was projected on her by other people and that bugs me.
The other thing that was a major issue for me was the romance. I'm ALL about the romance, but in this one it really annoyed me because HELLO love triangle and Oh, the country is in danger, but WAIT I can't get my priorities straight because I have lusty feelings for both brothers. UGH. Sonya just acted so impulsive and immature and irresponsible, I just could not get myself to like her.

My rating: 1,5 stars

Title/Author: Into the Dim (Into the Dim #1) by Janet B. Taylor
Publisher/Date published: HMH Books For Young Readers, March 1st 2016
How I got this book: received it from the publisher as an egalley, thanks!

I'm always down for a good timetravel story and after seeing some mixed reviews on Goodreads, I was a bit hesitant, but it turned out ok. So this books is over 400 pages and for pretty much the first 100 or 150 nothing much happens. At least, nothing exciting. And the heroine seems a bit clueless, cause she only really seems to have booksmarts and not stuff she can actually put to use, like how to tell if someone is being creepy. But I got over this when they went back into the past to save Hope's mother, which she's determined to do, having to overcome some fears while doing so. I liked that they went back to the time of Eleanor of Aquitaine, because she's such an interesting historical figure! So that was entertaining. The things that I liked less at this point were the romance, because I wasn't really feeling either potential love interest and the mindless cruelty of the villain. I mean, there's not really a point to her evil and I like it when I can actually understand what drives the people working against the main characters.

My rating: 2,5 stars

Review of The Killing Jar by Jennifer Bosworth

Title/Author: The Killing Jar by Jennifer Bosworth
Publisher/Date published: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, January 12th 2016
How I got this book: received it from the publisher through NetGalley, thanks!

Goodreads summary: “I try not to think about it, what I did to that boy.”

Seventeen-year-old Kenna Marsden has a secret.

She’s haunted by a violent tragedy she can’t explain. Kenna’s past has kept people — even her own mother — at a distance for years. Just when she finds a friend who loves her and life begins to improve, she’s plunged into a new nightmare. Her mom and twin sister are attacked, and the dark powers Kenna has struggled to suppress awaken with a vengeance.

On the heels of the assault, Kenna is exiled to a nearby commune, known as Eclipse, to live with a relative she never knew she had. There, she discovers an extraordinary new way of life as she learns who she really is, and the wonders she’s capable of. For the first time, she starts to feel like she belongs somewhere. That her terrible secret makes her beautiful and strong, not dangerous. But the longer she stays at Eclipse, the more she senses there is something malignant lurking underneath it all. And she begins to suspect that her new family has sinister plans for her...

So I was pretty excited to start this because the summary hints at dark powers and a commune that could also be read as cult and I'm both fascinated and very scared by cults, so it's always interesting to me when they appear in a novel.

Sadly, I have to say that The Killing Jar didn't really work all that well for me. I mean, the plot was sort of interesting, but I kept getting annoyed by the characters. All of them. Most of all Kenna and her mother and also her grandmother and everyone in the commune. I mean, holy wow, can we just say people kept making REALLY bad decisions? And I'm not just talking about the teenagers, but mostly about the adults and I just cannot.

I mean, I'm sorry, but Kenna has done something awful and her mother KNOWS this and also knows what caused it and then she just sort of keeps Kenna at a distance and doesn't tell her about this? I mean, WHAT? And then all of a sudden something else happens and Kenna's mom decides to send her to this commune? I mean, WHAT THE WHAT? Without really explaining anything she just up and leaves Kenna there and OMG I got so angry at this! I mean, can we say bad parenting?

And Kenna herself... Well, I'm just not a fan. I felt like she was just completely ignoring what was right in front of her and why was she not questioning things more at the commune? I mean, maybe I'm just naturally suspicious, but something was OFF from the moment she got there and she's just like 'lalala, I'm just gonna sniff flowers and sing and dance and well, maybe the people here are weird and they don't tell me anything about anything, but I'm just gonna ignore that'. And the way she handled things with her twin sister was just not ok. I get that she's confused because of all the shiny things they did show her at Eclipse, but seriously, you have a brain, please use it.

The only reason I finished this because I wanted very badly to know what was behind everything at Eclipse. And we're sort of told about it, but my curiosity isn't really satisfied with the answers we're given. I think I just feel like this could have gone a lot deeper into things and now it felt very superficial and just not what I had expected.

My rating: 1,5 stars

Review of A Whole New World by Liz Braswell

Title/Author: A Whole New World (Twisted Tales #1) by Liz Braswell
Publisher/Date published: Disney Press, September 1st 2015
How I got this book: received it from the publisher through NetGalley
Buy this book at: The Book Depository

Goodreads summary: Welcome to a new YA series that reimagines classic Disney stories in surprising new ways. Each book asks the question: What if one key moment from a familiar Disney film was changed? This dark and daring version of Aladdin twists the original story with the question: What if Jafar was the first one to summon the Genie?

When Jafar steals the Genie’s lamp, he uses his first two wishes to become sultan and the most powerful sorcerer in the world. Agrabah lives in fear, waiting for his third and final wish.To stop the power-mad ruler, Aladdin and the deposed Princess Jasmine must unite the people of Agrabah in rebellion. But soon their fight for freedom threatens to tear the kingdom apart in a costly civil war.

What happens next? A Street Rat becomes a leader. A princess becomes a revolutionary. And readers will never look at the story of Aladdin in the same way again.

I'm BACK! I know it's been almost two months and I'm very much embarassed by that, but after reading A Whole New World, I found that I had something to say again and I decided to just go for it :)

A Whole New World immediately caught my attention, because I LOVE Aladdin! It's one of my favourite Disney movies and I've watched it so many times, I can literally just mute it and still get all the words right, especially for the first part. Which is also why I noticed that the first 20% of this book is basically the same as the movie. Which was not very much appreciated by me. And that's because I was looking for a fresh take on this beloved tale of mine and not have the first 76 pages be something I know by heart, but in book-form. But then the twist comes when Jafar takes the lamp instead of Aladdin and I was like, ok, let's give this another chance. But in the end I didn't really warm up to this twisted tale.

I mean, in the original tale, I love Aladdin's heart and his bravery and resourcefulness and the romance with Yasmine is believable and sweet, but in A Whole New World I was very much not feeling it. While the instant infatuation works in the Disney movie, here it fell flat and Yasmine definitely shows a side of herself that I didn't find pretty at all in A Whole New World and I really couldn't find myself cheering for their lovestory. I mean, even Jafar, who I love to hate in the original tale was not his best villainy self. I mean, he's this big bad sorcerer now, how does he not just kill Aladdin, capture Yasmine and be done with it? Also, I HATED that he destroyed the magic carpet, who is still one of my favourite characters.

But most of all, I'm disappointed by the lack of shininess that was the genie. I mean, you get this sort of charm coming off him, but it's muted and I get that he has less chance to show his magic and humour and all when he's tied to Jafar, but this spark that he has was just missing and I'm kinda disappointed by how things ended for him.

But aside from this, I was just basically a bit bored by the whole story. It never really got exciting for me and the charm and sizzle that I remember from this story was just missing. I felt that the things that were added to make it into this twisted tale were not really interesting or needed to be there. What I'm looking for with all these retelling and twists on classic stories are things that make me go ooh, that's clever and capture the magic of the original thing, but also make it a little something more. And I never got that from A Whole New World, which is a disappointment as I'd really been looking forward to reading it.
I might just go and watch the movie and laugh over the genie's antics now.

My rating: 1,5 stars

Review of King by Ellen Oh

Title/Author: King (The Dragon King Chronicles #3) by Ellen Oh
Publisher/Date published: HarperTeen, March 31st 2015
How I got this book: received it from the publisher as an egalley
Buy this book at: The Book Depository

Goodreads summary: Girl warrior, demon slayer, Tiger spirit of the Yellow Eyes — Kira is ready for her final quest. In this thrilling finale to the Prophecy trilogy, fans will get even more of the fierce Kira and her quest to save her kingdom!

All eyes are on her. Kira, once an outcast in her home village of Hansong, is now the only one with the power to save her kingdom. She must save her cousin, the boy fated to be the future king, uncover the third lost treasure, and face innumerable enemies in order to fulfill the famed prophecy.

Kira braves a sea of tigers and battles armies of demons as she musters her inner strength and learns to trust herself, the romantic feelings for Jaewon that are growing within her, and the destiny that must be hers.

***WARNING: POSSIBLE SPOILERS FOR FIRST TWO BOOKS IN THE SERIES***

So this series and I have a difficult relationship. On one hand, I'm fascinated by this non-European fantasy spin, on the other hand, I'm disappointed by the actual execution of said fantasy spin. Let me explain.

The first book was ok, I was a bit annoyed with Kira at times and then the second book left me going *meh*, but I really needed closure, so I picked up King, even though from the title you can pretty much tell everything is going to end well for Kira and her cousin who is the next in line for the throne.
Like I mentioned in my review of Warrior, the second book in the series, thing come pretty easily to Kira. She does things that seem impossible and then she sleeps for a bit, gets a visit from her Tiger Spirit, and is whole again. This pretty much didn't work for me. It was essentially too easy for her to do all of these things and suddenly everyone likes her, when she was universally hated before this crusade started and I really don't want to say this, but there was this voice in my head shouting MARY SUE a LOT while I was reading King. And I hate that. But I mean, little kids and animals and just about everyone she meets keeps wanting to be with her and it was kinda annoying. And she survives something that should be unsurvivable. I mean. Seriously.

As for the love triangle, I wasn't really sure who I was rooting for while reading the second book, because neither love interest held much attraction for me, but in the third book I had a slight preference for one of them and let's just say that what I luke-warmly shipped sank. And OMG the way this love triangle was dealt with felt WAY too convenient. I mean, seriously?? It took away the need for Kira to actually choose between the two and I was outraged at the not 'chosen' boys behalf, he did not deserve to be passed off like that.
Also, while I wasn't really into either love interests, I never felt like Kira was. She sorta has butterflies for the hotness of one of them and she thinks of the other more as a friend/brother in my opinion. So yeah, the romance pretty much fell flat for me. I get that she's a little busy trying to save all seven kingdoms from being turned into demons or being enslaved, but honestly, the way she handled these boys was annoying to me.

Like with Warrior, I though King lacked a sense of urgency. I never once doubted that Kira could pull saving the world off. She has this moment of self-doubt that was more annoying than anything else. I didn't feel like there was a lot at stake, even if it's the enslavement of all the people and the lives of Kira and her friends that actually are at stake. It wasn't exciting and the demise of the bad guys comes a little too easily. Again, I think I mentioned this in my review of Warrior, but I like my protaganists to suffer a bit before getting it right, and I like the villains to be strong and have a real reason for being evil and taking over the world and destroying lives. But mostly, if it's this easy to defeat the villain, why is it only Kira who can do it? It seems like any toddler just passing by could have done it just as easily. Ok, maybe that's a little too harsh. But still.

I did like meeting the Dragon King, that was pretty cool. And I like the premise of this story, just not the way it was executed in the end. I felt like Kira regressed over the course of this series instead of growing as a person and she just got a bit too Mary Sue-ish for me.

My rating: 1,5 stars

Review of 17 First Kisses by Rachael Allen

Title/Author: 17 First Kisses by Rachael Allen
Publisher/Date published: Harper Teen, June 17th 2014
How I got this book: received it from the publisher as an egalley

Goodreads summary: No matter how many boys Claire kisses, she can’t seem to find a decent boyfriend. Someone who wouldn’t rather date her gorgeous best friend, Megan. Someone who won’t freak out when he learns about the tragedy her family still hasn’t recovered from. Someone whose kisses can carry her away from her backwoods town for one fleeting moment.

Until Claire meets Luke.

But Megan is falling for Luke, too, and if there’s one thing Claire knows for sure, it’s that Megan’s pretty much irresistible.

With true love and best friendship on the line, Claire suddenly has everything to lose. And what she learns—about her crush, her friends, and most of all herself—makes the choices even harder.

This book and I did not get along. The blurb tricked me into thinking it would be a cute, fun contemporary and instead I got frenemies, an abusive relationship, lots of slut-shaming and basically not even one character to root for.

It REALLY bothered me that Meghan and Claire are called 'best friends'. Seriously, with a friend like that, you really don't need enemies. The rest of their band is just as bad. And OMG, how do you let a boy you know for all of 5 minutes get in the way of this so-called friendship? Ok, you both have the hots for him and that's a tough situation, but I just cannot even with this. It was so dysfunctional! And Meghan already stole one of Claire's boyfriends a couple of years ago, but to be fair, he was Meghan's boyfriend first. WHAT?? I was just staring at this trainwreck of a friendship and being thankful for my own friends.

And I really didn't like Claire. She's constantly slut-shaming other girls, looking down on everyone and it was just not pretty. Also, I didn't like how she went behind Meghan's back with Luke. And also, Luke was no prize either. He was constantly talking shit about Meghan, even though she was his girlfriend and it just really bugged me! And it bugged me that Claire wouldn't stand up for her best friend while he was doing this.
Also, I cannot even begin to tell you how annoying it was to read about this revenge-kissing that Claire did after a bad break up, she went and kissed the guy's 4 bandmates, basically leading one of them on who seemed like a really good guy and didn't seem to really feel bad about this. I don't know who would do such a thing. Not someone I would want to have around.

I'm not entirely sure why I finished this book, I guess I was hoping for it to be fun in the end or something? To have the characters redeem themselves? Neither of these things happened.

My rating: 1,5 stars

Mini-Reviews (6) On the Fence, The Stepsister's Tale, Lady Windermere's Lover

So ever since June of 2014 I've been failing at writing reviews for the books I read. I know. And because it's been AGES since I read these, I'm just gonna do mini-reviews of them, so as to clear my need-review shelf.

Title/Author: On the Fence by Kasie West
Publisher/Date published: HarperTeen, July 1st 2014
How I got this book: received it from the publisher as an egalley

I LOVE Kasie West's writing! She knows how to build an interesting story AND make me swoon over the romance! On the Fence was SO cute, while also dealing with loss and a one-parent family. And I really enjoyed reading about Charlie's family, the siblings really care about each other, I LOVED her brothers! And I loved her dad for trying to also do the girly thing with advice from his 'co-worker' and sometimes failing epicly, but still, he gets bonus points for trying!

I really liked the slowly building romance and how Braden and Charlie have a real history and a foundation for their relationship. They've known each other for ages and I loved the glances and the insecurity and misunderstandings and just the tension! And boys being dumb boys and just all of it! I really cannot recommend Kasie West's books enough, they are amazing!

My rating: 4,5 stars

Title/Author: The Stepsister's Tale by Tracy Barrett
Publisher/Date published: Harlequin Teen, June 24th 2014
How I got this book: received it from the publisher through NetGalley

I was intrigued by the premise of Cinderella told from the perspective of one of the stepsisters. I mean, history is written down by the victors right? And in the original tale, the stepsisters are definitely NOT the winners. And while I appreciated the concept, the execution could have been better. I almost DNF-ed this several times, mostly because the beginning was SO slow! Seriously, if it hadn't been for hours spent on a train while travelling through Morocco, I probably would have put this down. It really takes forever to take off, and everything was bleak and there was not even the least sense of hope and Ella was ANNOYING and weird and OMG I did not need 100 pages of them being hungry (I don't know if it was 100 pages, but it felt like it).

But then the story started to really come together and things started happening aside from them scavenging for food and it was VERY interesting! And I actually liked the second part of the novel, and there's a pretty cute romance, but I really cannot get over the slowness of the first half of the book. I'm glad I stuck with it for the later part, but I think it will turn a lot of people off.

My rating: 2,5 stars

Title/Author: Lady Windermere's Lover (The Wild Quartet #3) by Miranda Neville
Publisher/Date published: Avon, June 24th 2014
How I got this book: received it from the publisher as an egalley

I hate to say it, but I really did not much like this book. And that's mostly because the hero, Damian, is an ass and then the heroine, Cynthia just takes his crap.
So Damian is pissed that he's being forced to marry a commoner to get back the property that he foolishly gambled away as a youth. Ok. Fine. But that's no reason to treat Cynthia, his wife, the way he did! Constantly demeaning her and just being insulting and snobbish and UGH! I really wanted to slap him. And she falls for him ANYWAY because he's 'so handsome'. SERIOUSLY??? I wanted to shake her to wake up and recognize his assness.

Then he leaves her for a year and in that year she decides to flirt with his best friend, who she kisses once and he doesn't believe that they haven't been having an affair all year long when she tells him. But because she's beautiful now he decides to seduce her (WTF?) anyway. There's also this vendetta he has against his best friend that's basically him blaming Julian for something his stupid drunk self did when he was younger. I mean, SERIOUSLY?? I'm not even sure why I finished this, I get annoyed again writing this review.

My rating: 1,5 star (half star extra for cute kitten that's in it)

Review of When Joss Met Matt by Ellie Cahill

Title/Author:
Publisher/Date published:
How I got this book:
Buy this book at: The Book Depository

Goodreads summary: Dating can be fun, but it can leave a nasty taste in your mouth. For Joss, ever since her longtime boyfriend cheated on her, she doesn’t want her last memory of a guy to be that jerk. Enter her college friend, Matt. They come up with a theory: after a bad break-up, a person needs to cleanse the palate with a little sorbet sex. Lovers for a night, but always back to being friends in the morning. The two can handle it because they have a contract: rules they wrote, rules they follow and rules they can sometimes bend. The arrangement works: everyone needs a little sorbet now and again... until it starts to be the only thing you want. And then Joss breaks the one rule they never wrote down: don’t fall in love.

So I was ready to LOVE When Joss Met Matt, cause my friend Debby keeps raving about it. But I'm sad to say that I was not nearly as enthusiastic about it as she was (please don't kill me Debby)...

I love a good fluffly contemporary, and New Adult explores a period in someone's life that we don't really get to see much of: college. I LOVE stories set in college, cause it's all about discovering who you are on your own, without the constant presence of your parents and parties and dorms and just YES. But I felt that When Joss Met Matt wasn't so much a fluffy contemporary as it was a sequence of random hook-ups.

It might be due to the fact that I never really cared much for Joss. I did like Matt, but Joss was just a bit too crass and I didn't really get her reasoning behind a lot of things and there was just basically nothing I liked about her except that she liked animals. Or says she likes animals. Cause she was just not a good cat mom. I mean, seriously, she's constantly annoyed by her cat and shoving him out of the way and DUH, cats respond negatively to that. I might be a little oversensitive about this cause I have a cute kitty myself, but it really bothered me that she was constantly talking about *having* to pet her cat cause he wouldn't stop *bothering* her until she did and I was like, yeah, you just got home, of course the kitty wants some attention.
Anyway.

I did like Matt, he seemed like a decent human being and just such a guy, I could understand Joss falling for him in the end. But he was being a bit of a douche at the end, I know he was hurt, but still. I guess that I just didn't like that they kept going back for each other for SEVEN years to have sorbet sex, with the best reason for them not being together being that Joss thinks Matt is too nice? I mean, what? I'm not saying that just not having those kinds of feelings for someone isn't a legitimate reason to be together, but she obviously thinks he's attractive enough to have sex with him and he's one of her best friends. I could have gotten behind this if they'd just been friends without the physical contact, but this just felt off.

The back and forth between the present and their whole history of hook-ups also didn't really work for me, it just felt like one long line of bad relationships interspaced with sex with each other. I never got the fuzzies about them together, I didn't FEEL that they were falling for each other, or at least not from Joss' side of things, which was the POV. I also didn't like that aside from this, we never really got to see much of their lives. I mean, how are they doing in college and hanging out with friends aside from as props for their relationships. There was nothing about either of them just being a person and I would have liked that.

I'm very disappointed to say that I just wasn't into When Joss Met Matt, even though I wanted to love it REALLY badly, I just did not like this and didn't get my fluffy on as I wanted to.

My rating: 1,5 stars

Review of Remember by Eileen Cook

Title/Author: Remember by Eileen Cook
Publisher/Date published: Simon Pulse, February 24th 2015
How I got this book: received it from the publisher as an egalley
Buy this book at: The Book Depository

Goodreads summary: Harper is used to her family being hounded by protesters. Her father runs the company that trademarked the "Memtex" procedure to wipe away sad memories, and plenty of people think it shouldn't be legal. Then a new demonstrator crosses her path, Neil, who’s as persistent as he is hot. Not that Harper’s noticing, since she already has a boyfriend.

When Harper suffers a loss, she’s shocked her father won’t allow her to get the treatment, so she finds a way to get it without his approval. Soon afterward, she’s plagued with strange symptoms, including hallucinations of a woman who is somehow both a stranger, yet incredibly familiar. Harper begins to wonder if she is delusional, or if these are somehow memories.

Together with Neil, who insists he has his own reasons for needing answers about the real dangers of Memtex, Harper begins her search for the truth. What she finds could uproot all she’s ever believed about her life...

I was really excited to start Remember, because the brain and memory are fascinating to me. I however did not really appreciate the execution of Remember.

The concept of softening your memories so you retain them but they don't hurt you anymore. It's both scary and something I can imagine in the treatment of PTSS patients. So I was a bit disappointed that while it's a factor in the story, there's not really an explanation for how they found this and how it all works and everything that I was wondering about. So that was a bit of a let down.

I didn't much care for Harper, she was an ok main character, but I was just not connecting with her. I never really got a good feel of her personality and she was both taking action and being a damsel in distress and I just wasn't really feeling it. And I get that she needed a reason to get the treatment, but I didn't like that she would rather not feel anything about the horse who'd her best friend for years than work through the grief. I appreciated that she was this devastated by the loss of an animal who'd been close to her since she'd been a child, but it felt a bit like a lack of character to go ahead with the procedure.

I also wasn't feeling the romance, I mean, I didn't get why they liked each other and there's some telling instead of showing me they developed a relationship, they'd apparantly met for coffee multiple times off-page. I mean, I get that they could be attracted to each other, but there was an I love you straight out of nowhere and I was like WTF??? I didn't get why they would risk all of what they did for each other.

I did like the whole intrigue with Harper's parents, that was interesting, but all of it feels a bit unresolved. I mean, Harper finds out what's been going on, but they don't really do anything about it except for that and her dad just seems awful and UGH! I felt that in the end the only thing that was resolved was Harper getting together with the new guy and everything else was still blah.

All in, I thought this was an interesting concept, but the execution failed to impress me.

My rating: 1,5 stars

Mini-Reviews (4): Just Like the Movies, The Queen of the Tearling, Through to You

Title/Author: Just Like the Movies by Kelly Fiore
Publisher/Date published: Walker Books for Young Readers, July 22nd 2014
How I got this book: bought it

I really enjoyed Just Like the Movies! It was nice to see the developing friendship between Marijke and Lily, with some bumps in the road. I did very much like how they worked together and the shenanigans they get up to were fun and overall this was just a really cute read. Obviously some of their ideas were a bit misguided, but I can lovingly roll my eyes at that, and it's all in the name of love, right?
This was pretty much a perfect read for Dewey's 24 hour read-a-thon, it was light and fluffy and just really cute!

My rating: 4 stars

Title/Author: The Queen of the Tearling (The Queen of the Tearling #1) by Erika Johansen
Publisher/Date published: Harper, July 8th 2014
How I got this book: received it from the publisher as an egalley

The Queen of the Tearling is a book that has been getting mixed reviews, but I really liked it, though I can understand it not being for everybody. I really liked that Kelsea was raised far away from everything and actually has a reason to have all these skills that allow her to take care of herself, as opposed to the MC living a pampered life and still somehow being able to survive in the wild. I liked her and her determination to be a good queen.
I was a bit unsure of the exact setting at first, it feels medieval, but they also have J.K. Rowling's books on the shelves, so I'm guessing some distant future in which we've gone a bit back technology-wise? I don't know, but I liked it.

There's lots of intrigue and I still have a LOT of questions about how everything works with the magic system and who the Fetch is and how he's going to play his part in everything, cause he is one intriguing character! There's the possibility of a romance, but it's not there yet in the Queen of the Tearling and while I do enjoy a good romance, I actually liked that, because it could have easily been out of place.
I'm really excited to be reading the sequel soonish, cause I can't wait to find out what happens next with Kelsea and everyone!

My rating: 4,5 stars

Title/Author: Through to You by Lauren Barnholdt
Publisher/Date published: Simon Pulse, July 8th 2014
How I got this book: received it from the publisher as an egalley

I usually really like Lauren Barnholdt's novels, but this one just didn't work for me. I really did not like Penn, the boy I was supposed to swoon over, who is basically just arrogant and annoying and rude and also very insensitive. I was actually rooting for Harper to go and find some other boy to fall in love with, because the way Penn was treating her was just wrong and every girl deserves better than that. If he's so in to her, he should get his act together and actually show that he cares about her. And I get that he doesn't want to get his hopes up about seeing another doctor about his baseball injury, but SERIOUSLY dude, stop being an ungrateful ass, ok?
So Penn didn't work for me, but neither did Harper. I did think that she deserved better, but she wasn't a very interesting character either and to just forgive him every time he put on his jerkface just does not make me like her.

I'm sad to say that I really didn't like Through to You very much and would recommend Sometimes It Happens or Fake me a Match instead.

My rating: 1,5 stars

Review of Return of the Bad Girl by Codi Gary

Title/Author: Return of the Bad Girl (Rock Canyon Romance #4) by Codi Gary
Publisher/Date published: Avon Impulse, December 30th 2014
How I got this book: received it from the publisher as an egalley

Goodreads summary: Bad girls don't forgive.
Bad girls don't forget.
Bad girls don't fall in love.

Caroline Willis may be known for causing trouble, but she is NOT about to become homeless. So when she learns that her perfect apartment has been double-booked — to a dangerously hot bad boy — Caroline's bad-girl reputation comes out in full force. He may be sexy as sin, but she's not afraid of him... or his panty-melting smile.

Rock Canyon's got room for only one bad attitude — and Gabe Moriarty was here first. Still, starting over means playing it smart, so while sharing his new apartment is less than ideal, it's worth getting his dream business off the ground. Not to mention that it means shacking up with a sexy wild child. Caroline may be giving him the cold shoulder, but Gabe always was good at starting fires...

Caroline vows to keep things professional with Gabe, but as close quarters begin to ignite the sizzling chemistry between them, she's left wondering: Bad boy plus bad girl equals nothing but trouble... right?

I enjoyed Good Girls Don't Date Rock Stars, the second book in this series and haven't read the other two yet, but I have to say that I wasn't much a fan of Return of the Bad Girl.

As I'm sitting typing this review, I'm not even all that sure why exactly I finished reading it, because I wasn't all that into the romance. Which is kinda the point of a romance novel, right? I think it might be due to the fact that Return of the Bad Girl has two adorable teeny tiny kittens in it and I'm a sucker for anything feline ever since we got a cat ourselves a couple of months ago. And as I was away from home all week, I craved a cat companion no matter if it was just a fictional one. Or two.

Caroline and Travis have both had a tough past and are both more than a little damaged by it. They both have scars and that feels right considering everything. The one thing that I can't figure out is why there's nothing about Travis' five years in prison in the book. I mean, it's mentioned, but that's it. Nothing about his experiences there, which felt off to me. I mean, that's a big part of your life and it's gonna shape you somehow.

I was wondering why their parents were so sucky, even if Caroline's father comes around after she confesses her big secret to him. She and her father should really learn to communicate better. And while I really liked the small town vibe in Good Girls Don't Date Rock Stars, it really annoyed me in Return of the Bad Girl, because everyone was so judgmental and just plain mean. And how are there so many sleazeballs in such a tiny place?

But mostly the problem was that I wasn't feeling it. I wasn't feeling the romance and the drama and was a bit like yeah, maybe you shouldn't be together. Which is not what you want to be thinking when you should be rooting for a couple.

My rating: 1,5 stars

Review of The Witch of Salt and Storm by Kendall Kulper

Title/Author: The Witch of Salt and Storm by Kendall Kulper
Publisher/Date published: Orchard Books, September 4th 2014
How I got this book: received it from the publisher as an egalley
Buy this book at: The Book Depository

Goodreads summary: Sixteen-year-old Avery Roe wants only to take her rightful place as the sea witch of Prince Island, making the charms that keep the island's whalers safe and prosperous at sea. But before she could learn how to control her power, her mother - the first Roe woman in centuries to turn her back on magic - steals Avery away from her grandmother. Avery must escape before her grandmother dies, taking with her the secrets of the Roe's power.

The one magical remnant left to Avery is the ability to read dreams, and one night she foresees her own murder. Time is running short, both for her and for the people of her island who need the witches' help to thrive.

Avery has never read a dream that hasn't come true, but a tattooed harpoon boy named Tane tells her he can help her change her fate. Becoming a witch may prevent her murder and save her island from ruin, but Avery discovers it will also require a sacrifice she never expected. And as she falls in love with Tane, she learns it is his life and hers that hang in the balance.

I REALLY wanted to love The Witch of Salt and Storm. I really did. There'd been a lot of hype from BEA-goers and I was all excited and then it just didn't happen for me.

The Witch of Salt and Storm is a pretty dark tale. And I really don't have a problem with that, but it all had a very grey feeling to me, I'm not sure how I can best explain it, but it was just kind of monotonous and unexciting and slightly smudged. A non-sparkly grey. (Side note: I have a big grey couch, so I don't have anything against the color in general, but for a mood it doesn't work for me).

I never really grew to care much for Avery or any of the other characters, I didn't get why she would fall in love with Tane and he with her, for me there wasn't any real chemistry, just the lack of other options for both of them. Avery's relationship with her mother was just plain weird and her grandmother wasn't quite all there either. A lot of the relationship problems that I saw with all of them was a lack of communication and just UGH FRUSTRATION.

The powers of the Roe witch are pretty impressive and what makes them into a Roe witch was interesting, but mostly the story just fell a bit flat for me. It wasn't that it was bad, it just wasn't gripping me and it took me forever to read it because I didn't feel that urge to read on while I wasn't reading it.

My rating: 1,5 stars

Review of The Jewel by Amy Ewing

Title/Author: The Jewel (The Lone City #1) by Amy Ewing
Publisher/Date published: HarperTeen, September 2nd 2014
How I got this book: received it from the publisher as an egalley
Buy this book at: The Book Depository

Goodreads summary: The Jewel means wealth. The Jewel means beauty. The Jewel means royalty. But for girls like Violet, the Jewel means servitude. Not just any kind of servitude. Violet, born and raised in the Marsh, has been trained as a surrogate for the royalty—because in the Jewel the only thing more important than opulence is offspring.

Purchased at the surrogacy auction by the Duchess of the Lake and greeted with a slap to the face, Violet (now known only as #197) quickly learns of the brutal truths that lie beneath the Jewel’s glittering facade: the cruelty, backstabbing, and hidden violence that have become the royal way of life.

Violet must accept the ugly realities of her existence... and try to stay alive. But then a forbidden romance erupts between Violet and a handsome gentleman hired as a companion to the Duchess’s petulant niece. Though his presence makes life in the Jewel a bit brighter, the consequences of their illicit relationship will cost them both more than they bargained for.

***WARNING: There is some ranting ahead of you, be warned***

OMG, I just cannot with this book. At first we were doing ok, I wasn't loving it, but it was interesting and it was a pretty quick read, but, and I cannot believe I'm saying this, but then we got to the romance and everything went WTF from there on.

So the whole issue with royalty being unable to have children and using surrogates with an auction system is fascinating and I'm dying to know why exactly it is that royal women can't have children, is it inbreeding or some kind of mutation and why does it affect all royal women? I cannot help myself, I am fascinated by this kind of stuff.

And Violet is ok, but she didn't seem really special to me, aside from her unusually amazing abilities with the Auguries. And that she had violet eyes, but well, that's not all that special in fictional worlds. She didn't really have any trait aside from her being awesome at playing the cello to define her to me. But I felt like I could have gotten to like her more if it hadn't been for the bullshit romance.

I mean, COME ON, isn't it time we stopped seeing this kind of insta-love? Seriously, they met for 3 minutes and already they're like 'It's like I didn't know myself until this moment' and they go from basically mostly communicating through stares to kissing and to love and I'm like WTF?? And then there's mention of them spending an hour a day together for a month but we don't get to SEE this moments. How am I supposed to believe in this love that has them risking EVERYTHING when I don't actually SEE them spend time together and get WHY the hell they would risk so much for a person they basically just met? I mean, WTF?? I like it when I'm shown things, not just told that's how it is without any evidence to back this up.

And also, on a similar subject: why does Ash not have any personality whatsoever? He's in the book from about the halfway point and I have no idea how to describe him other than he's a companion and he does insta-love.

UGH.

So I'm intrigued by this world, but then the romance took over and there's just a lot of frustration and OBVIOUSLY there's a resistance (because what good dystopian novel doesn't have a resistance?) and it has the lamest reason ever for wanting to 'rescue' Violet. I really don't want to spoil anything, but SERIOUSLY? It all felt very random to me.

Ok, so rant over. If you hadn't noticed this from the general tone of the review, I'll sum up to say that this book did not work for me from the moment the romance entered, before we were doing ok, but UGH, just no.

My rating: 1,5 star

Review of Witch Finder by Ruth Warburton

Title/Author: Witch Finder (Witch Finder #1) by Ruth Warburton
Publisher/Date published: Hodder Children's Books, January 2nd 2014
How I got this book: received it from the publisher through NetGalley
Buy this book at: The Book Depository

Goodreads summary: London. 1880. In the slums of Spitalfields apprentice blacksmith Luke is facing initiation into the Malleus Maleficorum, the fearsome brotherhood dedicated to hunting and killing witches.

Luke’s final test is to pick a name at random from the Book of Witches, a name he must track down and kill within a month, or face death himself. Luke knows that tonight will change his life forever. But when he picks out sixteen-year-old Rosa Greenwood, Luke has no idea that his task will be harder than he could ever imagine.

Look at that cover. Isn't it gorgeous?? I was expecting some epic witchy goodness from this book and I'm sad to say that the book itself didn't quite live up to that pretty cover.

I came SO close to DNF-ing this. I really can't deal with animals dying or animal cruelty in books/movies/real life and this book had some brutal stuff in it. It put me off my chocolate, which pretty much NOTHING can do. But seriously, if I could unread some of the parts in this book, I would, cause I think those images in my head scarred me for life. And I hate it when this kind of stuff is used to get my feelings going, cause it will, but in a really bad way.

So the concept of the Malleus Maleficorum is pretty interesting, other than that we basically get no details on it whatsoever and the only thing that's clear is that they're a bunch of guys who REALLY don't like witches and want all of them dead. I could get why Luke would join, because his parents were killed by a witch, but why would you join something you yourself don't really know much about? But it did make for some high stakes with the whole thing that he had to kill the witch he pointed in the book in a month or he'd be killed himself.

I couldn't really bring myself to care for either Luke or Rosa, they were both a little dull. Luke is confused and doesn't know whether to kiss or kill Rosa, but then he goes and tries to kill her anyway and STUPID BOY HURTS AN ANIMAL! UGH! That lost him all sympathy I could have mustered for him.
Rosa just wasn't a consistent character. She's supposed to be a really powerful witch, but she doesn't have much of a spine and doesn't stand up for herself or use her magic when she's being beaten. I mean, seriously? She also mirrored my reaction when she sees someone beating a puppy to death and then she goes around and thinks he may not be so bad, WTF?? HAVE YOU LOST YOUR MIND?? There's a special place in hell for people who do stuff like that! And then she goes off on a hunt, I mean, HELLO, foxes are animals too you know? I was just not digging it and it didn't make any sense.

Also, I couldn't get behind the romance. I mean, there was just an "I love you" out of the blue and I was just staring at it to see if it would go away because it felt so wrong! There was no real build up or anything and BOOM there it was. And I didn't believe it.

For all that it is about witches and people wanting to kill witches, there wasn't all that much magic in Witch Finder. I would have loved for there to be a bit more, because the parts that I did see seemed pretty interesting.

I guess that what I'm trying to say is that Witch Finder had some really awful parts and other parts that were just meh. I'd been so looking forward to reading this book and was pretty disappointed.

My rating: 1,5 stars

Review of The F- It List by Julie Halpern

Title/Author: The F- It List by Julie Halpern
Publisher/Date published: Feiwel & Friends, November 12th 2013
How I got this book: received it from the publisher through NetGalley
Buy this book at: The Book Depository

Goodreads summary: Alex’s father recently died in a car accident. And on the night of his funeral, her best friend Becca slept with Alex’s boyfriend. So things aren’t great. Alex steps away from her friendship with Becca and focuses on her family.

But when Alex finally decides to forgive Becca, she finds out something that will change her world again - Becca has cancer.

So what do you do when your best friend has cancer? You help her shave her head. And then you take her bucket list and try to fulfill it on her behalf. Because if that’s all you can do to help your ailing friend--you do it.

Guys, I struggled with this book. I don't really read a lot of books that deal with tough subjects such as this one, because in my line of work I deal with disease and awful things happening to people and sometimes I just want to relax and not think about all the horrible things happening in the world when I get home. But The F- It List sounded like it could be more my kind of book because it's about a friendship and I like books about friendships. But like I said: I struggled with this book.

I think a huge part of the problem for me comes from the fact that I just did not like Alex. I really disliked Alex to be honest. She's harsh and in your face and just not a nice person. And I didn't really think that Becca was necessarily a nice person either. So it was kinda hard for me to really get into the story, because let's face it, I can sympathize a whole lot more with characters if I like them, I can't help it. I just never felt connected to Alex and half the time I didn't understand what the hell she was doing.
I know that she's been through a lot with her father dying and her best friend having cancer, but from what I've gathered she wasn't all that different personality-wise before that happened and I was kinda glad that someone actually called her out on it at one point, because she needed an attitude-adjustment.

Also, I was confused by the friendship between Becca and Alex. I get that not every friendship is the same and that not everyone is always hugging each other and everything. Not everyone is shiny and happy. But I genuinely was confused by the stuff they'd pulled on each other in the past. I mean, seriously, I don't think my best friend in high school would have slept with my boyfriend. EVER. No matter the circumstances.

I'd expected it to be more about actually doing the things on Becca's list, but it The F- It list was mostly about Becca being sick, Alex dealing with it and with her budding romance. And you know, usually I'm all for the romance, but here it was just a distraction for me. I mean, I liked Leo, he was probably one of the only decent persons in the novel, but it just felt a bit off for me.

I did like Alex's brothers, and Leo. They were the bright spots in the novel for me and I like how they didn't take crap from Alex and would call her out on her behaviour.

But yeah, overall I was kinda disappointed in this book, as I had just expected it to be more than it was. But my struggles were also for a huge part due to my major disconnect and also dislike of the main character and that falls at least party into the 'it's not you, it's me' category, so it may not be the same for others.

My rating: 1,5 stars

Review of Undercurrent by Paul Blackwell

Title/Author: Undercurrent by Paul Blackwell
Publisher/Date published: HarperTeen, July 23rd 2013
How I got this book: received it from the publisher as an egalley
Buy this book at: The Book Depository

Goodreads summary: A shadowy figure. An intense roar. The sensation of falling — fast.

That’s all Callum Harris remembers from his tumble over the waterfall. But when he wakes up in a hospital bed and finds his best friend trying to kill him, Callum knows something is seriously wrong. Unfortunately for him, the mysteries are just getting started.

Why are his parents acting like he’s some big sports star all of a sudden? And why are all the buildings in town more run-down than Callum remembers? Worst of all... what happened to Callum’s brother? Either Callum has gone seriously crazy or something happened when he went over the falls. Something impossible. Callum needs answers, and now. Because in this twisted new version of the life Callum knew, his former best friend isn’t the only one who wants to see him dead.

Filled with mind-bending suspense and unsettling thrills, Undercurrent is a grippingly paced teen debut that will pull you under and never let go.

I was really excited to start this book, it sounds like my kind of creepy supernatural occurence with the whole alternate universe and such. And I'm sad to say that it didn't work for me.

There was such amazing potential, I mean, landing in an alternate universe where everything Callum knew is upside down? And why did he go over the waterfall in the first place? But I never felt excitement or that edge where you're dying to know what'll happen in the end, turning the pages to find out. Instead I was kinda... bored.

Callum is supposed to be this likeable boy in his own universe, but I never really could relate to him. I mean, all the memories are of him being a bit of a nerd and unpopular and hanging out with two pretty nice kids, of which he was secretly in love with the girl. And it sounded nice. But I never warmed up to him in his alternate universe. I mean, I don't know if it's his changed environment or anything, but he's having anger management issues and being a jerk to his mom and to other people in general. It seems like the Callum from the alternate universe was a psycho who for some reason was really popular, but the story-Callum isn't such a nice guy himself.

I was really annoyed by the fact that he claims to be so in love with one girl and then goes off and fools around with another just because she's hot. I mean, seriously? If you're the nice guy you claim, you wouldn't be doing that. I felt like we never really go very deep into other characters either, they're the superficial people acting like scenery to the events.

Which brings me to my next issue: not much of anything really happens. Callum isn't trying all that hard to figure out what happened and I was seriously worried this would be one of those unexpected series books because I couldn't figure out how Paul Blackwell would wrap this up in 10 pages. Turns out you can do that, it just wasn't very satisfying for me. And it definitely didn't solve all that many problems aside from the obvious one. Nothing real got fixed. The Callum from the alternate universe is still as much of a jerk as he used to be and his life a big mess and that's about it.

I did like the parts where Callum is bonding with his dog Jess and I really appreciate that she didn't die somewhere along the way, cause at one point I was REALLY worried about this. I also liked that Callum didn't magically become good at sports like his alternate universe self was, just because he went over the waterfall.

But all together this book wasn't for me. The summary sounded really exciting and like something I would love, but the execution fell flat for me.

My rating: 1,5 stars

Made me crave: cheese

Review of Vengeance Bound by Justina Ireland

Title/Author: Vengeance Bound by Justina Ireland
Publisher/Date published: Simon & Schuster, April 2nd 2013
How I got this book: received it from the publisher as an egalley
Buy it at: The Book Depository

Goodreads summary: Cory Graff is not alone in her head. Bound to a deal of desperation made when she was a child, Cory’s mind houses the Furies — the hawk and the serpent — lingering always, waiting for her to satisfy their bloodlust. After escaping the asylum where she was trapped for years, Cory knows how to keep the Furies quiet. By day, she lives a normal life, but by night, she tracks down targets the Furies send her way. And she brings down Justice upon them.

Cory’s perfected her system of survival, but when she meets a mysterious boy named Niko at her new school, she can’t figure out how she feels about him. For the first time, the Furies are quiet in her head around a guy. But does this mean that Cory’s finally found someone who she can trust, or are there greater factors at work? As Cory’s mind becomes a battlefield, with the Furies fighting for control, Cory will have to put everything on the line to hold on to what she’s worked so hard to build.

Guys, I love pretty much anything to do with mythology and the Furies fascinate me. So I was really excited to pick up Vengeance Bound, even though I'd heard a couple not so good things about it. And I was pretty disappointed...

I mean, it really is a fascinating concept that the Furies sort of get attached to a host and use said host to do their 'justice'. But this was exactly my problem, the '' around justice. The Furies in Vengeance Bound are not looking for justice, they're looking to kill as many men as possible, not even caring if someone is guilty or not. And that's what majorly put me off, but maybe more so that Cory actually goes along with this. I get that they don't leave her much of a choice, but it's scary how cold-blooded she is.

I couldn't connect to Cory. She's a little all over the place and she didn't seem to have much of a personality outside of being the Furies' instrument. But maybe it was just also because I just didn't like her. I felt no sympathy towards her whatsoever, so it was kinda hard to root for her in her struggles.

Several times I considered DNF-ing Vengeance Bound, but I kept going because I thought, but wait, this HAS TO GET GOOD, right?? But mostly it was just Cory bemoaning her fate and doing nothing to change it. And then there was this weird thing going on with Niko and one of Cory's new friends, who was seriously cuckoo-crazy. I mean, she pretty much had a sign over her head saying "HI, I'M INSANE, WHO ARE YOU?" and I didn't get how anyone can call themselves someone's friend if you don't try to get someone like this help. Really. LOTS of help.

I really wanted to like Vengeance Bound, but it was kind of a depressing book. I had no love for any of the characters and not even the Furies were interesting enough to keep me entertained.

My rating: 1,5 stars

Review of How To Dance With A Duke by Manda Collins

Title/Author: How To Dance With A Duke (Ugly Ducklings #1) by Manda Collins
Publisher/Date published: St. Martin's Paperbacks, January 31st 2012
How I got this book: received it from the publisher through NetGalley

Goodreads summary: "What’s a wallflower to do when she’s suddenly in need of a husband? Use all the pluck and moxie she can muster to get what she wants...
Miss Cecily Hurston would much rather explore the antiquities of Egypt than the uncharted territory of marriage. But the rules of her father’s exclusive academic society forbid her entrance unless she weds one of its members. To clear her ailing father’s name of a scandalous rumor, Cecily needs to gain admission into the Egyptian Club — and is willing to marry any old dullard to do it.
Lucas Dalton, Duke of Winterson, is anything but dull. He’s a dashing and decorated war hero determined to help Cecily — even if that means looking the other way when she claims the dance card of Amelia Snow, this season’s most sought-after beauty. But Lucas has a reason for wanting Cecily to join the Egyptian Club: His brother went missing during one of Lord Hurston’s expeditions to Egypt. An alliance with the explorer’s bluestocking daughter could bring Lucas closer to the truth about what happened... or it could lead him to a more dangerous love than either he or Cecily could have imagined..."

If you follow me on Twitter you may have seen me tweeting about How To Dance With A Duke while I was reading it. There are two occasions in which this happens: either I'm REALLY enjoying it or I'm really not. Unfortunately, the second was true in this case.

I just have to say it: How To Dance With A Duke was slightly ridiculous. At one point I asked myself if it was ridiculous enough to be amusing, but that point passed fairly quickly. And then it was also just basically somewhat boring.

I mean, I like a good wallflower-turned-beauty story, but in this case I just didn't believe it. Also, the whole novel started of with a sort of game of conversation-avoidance tag between the two main characters and it left me going HUH??
Cecily and Lucas are supposed to be two rather smart characters. Then why in the world would they think it's a good idea to start having sex when someone's locked them in a room in a place they weren't allowed in the first place and just when they find the key?? I mean, I get that they needed a reason to be forced to marry each other (or rather, I don't, cause people get married without being forced to as far as I know), but this was just ridiculous. Besides, they'd only kissed once and that was it. It felt off.
I was also annoyed that on more than one occasion we had Cecily tell us that Lucas had whispered 'loving things' in her ear without actually knowing what he said. And for all her smarts she had some really ditzy and too-stupid-to-live moments.

Another thing that made me snort with its ridiculousness (this has Cecily looking at Lucas' 'male member'):
"To Cecily's mind it was rather a shame that he was forced to hide such an impressive specimen with clothing. Though she could understand that perhaps it might get in the way during day-to-day activities."
And then a few lines later:
"Your... er... appendage is very elegant, Your Grace."

REALLY?? I mean, seriously? SERIOUSLY? I cannot even comment on this beyond that.

Even though I didn't like Cecily at all, I did like Lucas. Sure, he didn't come across as intelligent as he supposedly was, but he seemed like a decent guy and he obviously was more in touch with his feelings than Cecily was. I liked that he put his foot down when she was trying to push him away and was all angry male. One thing that did annoy me about him is that he had this war injury and walked with a limp. This in NO WAY impaired him during all his activities except for dancing.... Yes, consistency and all that.
The backstory and the mystery were okay, I figured out whodunnit pretty early on. The whole climax felt a bit, well, anti-climactic to me. The bad guy is just a crazy man who is supposedly very dangerous but is on the other hand incredibly easy to get away from, even if Cecily probably isn't strength personified.

All in all, I was just not very impressed and it did get some smiles from me, but unfortunately I don't think these moments were meant to be laughed at.

My rating: 1,5 stars

Review of Flirting In Italian by Lauren Henderson

Title/Author: Flirting In Italian by Lauren Henderson
Publisher/Date published: Delacorte BFYR, June 12th 2012
How I got this book: received it from the publisher through NetGalley

Goodreads summary: "Four girls. One magical, and possibly dangerous Italian summer. Family mysteries, ancient castles, long hot nights of dancing under the stars... and, of course, plenty of gorgeous Italian boys!"

While the weather in Holland hasn't gotten the message that it's almost Summer, or even Spring, I was in the mood for some cute Summery contemporary romance. And granted, there's not much to this summary, but it sounded like it would be just the thing! Seeing Magan from Rather Be Reading go WTF??? made me a bit cautious though, cause she doesn't do this often and I trust her opinion.

But all this aside, Flirting In Italian started off ok, sure I was a bit annoyed at the description of Violet's mother, seemingly being nothing more than an overprotective, fragile woman. And only one of the four girls, Kelly, was immediately endearing to me, but I was willing to look past all that. Because it held the promise of some cute summer romance and family secrets and I'm SO into that!

And I was enjoying myself reading the first part of the book, with the girls going ga-ga over the hot Italian boys and learning more about the culture and just generally trying to form a friendship with each other. Only one of the boys, Andrea, seemed like a winner to me, though I can imagine the attraction of the others just as easily, they just didn't do it for me. But we were doing ok, I wasn't expecting this to be an amazing read for me, but enjoyable looked doable.

Right up until we got a little bit closer to the end and the 'family mystery' started getting more storytime. And it was then that I just found myself staring at the pages in disbelief and thinking 'These people are ALL CRAZY!'. Because really, they were. And Violet's right away believing someone's out to get her and suspecting everyone, even the girls she's there with and it was just weird.

Also, this whole thing started with Violet being curious about a portrait she'd seen that had a girl in it that looked exactly like she did and wanting to find out more about her. She's always questioned whether she was adopted because she looks nothing like her parents. But of course it's a more logical solution to just lie to your mother about your reason for wanting to spend the Summer in Italy than just asking her if she'd been adopted or if her father wasn't her father after all. Obviously. *rolls eyes*

The romance wasn't working for me, Luca was just a bit too messed up and I didn't know if he even really liked Violet or not and it was just confusing as hell. And while I get the attraction of just such a guy, it felt off and I didn't swoon right along with Violet, like I'd wanted to.

Now it's time for a little rant that will contain spoilers:
***SPOILER, LIGHT UP TO READ***
Seriously, if there'd been ANY chance of me being some guy's cousin, not to mention half-SISTER later on, I'd NOT be thinking of pursuing a relationship with him! Can you say incest?
Also, WTF WAS UP WITH THAT ENDING??? I mean, GAH! These people are beyond crazy and it didn't seem believable and it was just WEIRD! The family servant is trying to poison Violet... Yes, cause that's completely logical. And why the hell didn't Violet text Kelly like she'd promised to when she found out something wasn't adding up? YOU STUPID GIRL!
***END OF SPOILER***

I just had to get that out, sorry!

I did like the exploring of the Italian culture and the girls forming a grudging friendship over a mean Italian girl. I liked that Paige spoke her mind and owned up to her shortcomings, it was refreshing. I also liked that dancing was such a stress-reliever for Violet, I'm the same way. Music is the thing I turn to when I'm stressed/sad/happy, basically no matter what mood I'm in, music makes it better. I also liked that she discovered a new side of herself that wanted to be an artist.

I started to get worried towards the end because I didn't know how everything would get wrapped up in those last 30 pages, because I was fully believing this to be a standalone. And the end made me SO angry because NOTHING is resolved and all the big plot points are still wide open! Turns out there's going to be a companion novel. I don't really mind a cliffhanger ending, but this wasn't one, it was just me being left completely unfulfilled with all my questions unanswered and let's just say that's not a good place to be after finishing a book.
I'm so mad at that ending that I don't think I'll even pick up the companion novel.

Basically, this novel had the promise of being a cute summer read with some mystery included in it, but I didn't much care for the execution. And the ending left me raging, looking for my torch and pitchfork. It wasn't for me, I don't like being left with a sense of having wasted my time because nothing got resolved AT ALL.

My rating: 1,5 stars