My Life Next Door by Huntley Fitzpatrick

"Everything was wonderful and then everything was awful."

A gorgeous debut about family, friendship, first romance, and how to be true to one person you love without betraying another.

The Garretts are everything the Reeds are not. Loud, numerous, messy, affectionate. And every day from her balcony perch, seventeen-year-old Samantha Reed wishes she was one of them . . . until one summer evening, Jase Garrett climbs her terrace and changes everything. As the two fall fiercely in love, Jase's family makes Samantha one of their own. Then in an instant, the bottom drops out of her world and she is suddenly faced with an impossible decision. Which perfect family will save her? Or is it time she saved herself?

A dreamy summer read, full of characters who stay with you long after the story is over.

Something I've picked up on while reading is that, more often than not, main characters rarely have more than one sibling, if they have any at all. Coming from a big family myself, I've noticed that they don't pop-up in books too often. My Life Next Door is definitely an exception. The Garretts are a family of ten (count it, that's eight kids) and they were literally my favorite thing about this book. They're so realistic—it's not just a book full of big family stereotypes. The author does a fantastic job of bringing a real big family to life: there's differences from your normal family, definitely, but every moment isn't like a scene from Cheaper by the Dozen. The best part, I think, was seeing it through our main character Samantha's eyes. Having lived her life with a completely different family dynamic, I loved seeing her reactions.

Samantha, while we're on the topic, is just as realistic as a character as each of the Garretts. While most of us aren't in a situation similar to hers—a mother campaigning for office, rich, the golden child—it still feels somehow completely relatable.

And now, since it is a love story at its base, I've got to talk about the relationship. Jase is now high on my list of favorite fictional boys. Really—he's fantastic. He's sweet as can be, loves his family to death, and wonderfully honest. I rooted for him and Samantha the whole way through.

Usually when I'm writing a three-heart review, especially one where I've already listed so many good things, the bad parts of the book instantly spring to mind. This isn't one of those cases—it just felt like a three-heart book. While I loved the characters I mentioned and more that I didn't, I didn't love the book. I think, in part, it's because there's so many sad things that are happening or happen during the book, like Nan and her drugged-up brother. I hate to see people struggle, and when it's so realistic, it's just ten times worse. 

Just a reminder that this book is sort of PG-13—while it's not packed to the brim with cursing, there's that one character who makes the story particularly colorful. And it is a love story, so if those kind of things bother you, I'd steer clear of this one.

While I'd recommend it, this book isn't my new favorite. If you're looking for a summer read to make it through these winter months, you might just want to check this one out.

Where it Began by Ann Redisch Stampler

"The finish line is in sight; what's the point of blowing it?"






Sometimes the end is just the beginning.

Gabby lived under the radar until her makeover. Way under. But when she started her senior year as a blonder, better-dressed version of herself, she struck gold: Billy Nash believed she was a the flawless girl she was pretending to be. The next eight months with Billy were bliss...Until the night Gabby woke up on the ground next to the remains of his BMW without a single memory of how she got there.

And Billy's nowhere to be found.

All Gabby wants is to make everything perfect again. But getting her life back isn't difficult, it's impossible. Because nothing is the same, and Gabby's beginning to realize she's missed more than a few danger signs along the way. 

I really like this cover, (more about that here) and I pretty much always choose my books by how they look. (Yes, I do realize how bad that is. It's working for me so far!) Anyway, it was free to read on Pulse It so I gave it a try.

Despite my shameless cover-judging, this book actually turned out to have a really cool plot. (I mean, far as I know there's not too many partial amnesia by car-crash books out there.) 

So the good points of this book that you should look forward to are:

Gabby is a really good main character. This is especially good praise from me, because I tend to be really harsh on the main character. (It's not my fault—YA main character girls are just so ugh sometimes.) I really liked reading the book from her point of view—she's just a normal teen.


The writing, too, is great. I love writing styles that are unique so you can pick up a book and know who wrote it. Plus, the author is really good at making it funny even when Gabby's in a pretty serious and solemn situation.


Now, I'm not going to spoil anything, but pretty far into the book, Gabby finds out something that took me completely by surprise. I can't even remember the last time I'd read a book when I didn't at least guess at the big surprise of the book. I was totally clueless. Now I keep looking back and thinking "How did I miss that?", but it was really, really cool to be surprised like that.  

Alright, I had just a few tiny issues with this book, but these just might be me, so you'll have to decide for yourself.


For one, Gabby, the whole book through, talks about how she constantly tries to be the best girlfriend ever so she won't lose her very-popular boyfriend. And you see, when she's talking with him sometimes, how she says what she thinks he wants her to say. But other times, she'd say things that were definitely not best girlfriend in the world lines, and it still seemed like she thought she was saying the right things. I mean, when your boyfriend is giving you serious advice, does the world's best girlfriend say "whatever"?


A little thing that confused me for a small part of the book was her parent's names. The whole book through, she refers to her parents by their first names. It never explained why she did that, and  nobody else seemed to think it was strange. I just thought it was really strange-sounding. Does anyone actually do that? Maybe I just don't know anyone who does.

There's one last point which might be a possible plot flaw, but since it's tied up in the conclusion, I won't say it here. But if you read it as well, you might pick up on it.

Despite a few minor bad marks, I liked this book. Like I said before, it's a really, really interesting read, and I'd recommend it!


Read more reviews for Where it Began at:
A Good Addiction and I B Book Blogging

Slide by Jill Hathaway

"I slid into someone else. Someone bad. Someone with a knife."

Vee Bell is certain of one irrefutable truth—her sister’s friend Sophie didn’t kill herself. She was murdered.

Vee knows this because she was there. Everyone believes Vee is narcoleptic, but she doesn’t actually fall asleep during these episodes: When she passes out, she slides into somebody else’s mind and experiences the world through that person’s eyes. She’s slid into her sister as she cheated on a math test, into a teacher sneaking a drink before class. She learned the worst about a supposed “friend” when she slid into her during a school dance. But nothing could have prepared Vee for what happens one October night when she slides into the mind of someone holding a bloody knife, standing over Sophie’s slashed body. 

Enmeshed in a terrifying web of secrets, lies, and danger and with no one to turn to, Vee must find a way to unmask the killer before he or she strikes again.

This was another one of those times where I shamelessly judged a book by its cover. Not that you can blame me—that cover is like, gorgeous. The highlighted face? The blueish tint? The streaks around the title? So very awesome.

Okay so, Vee, our main character, has the (unwanted) ability to "slide" into other people's minds, and basically experience what they're experiencing without anyone ever knowing about it. I kind of fell in love with this book instantly, because the plot reminded me so of Lisa McMann's Wake, which I adore.

Note: If you have not read Wake, go read it now.

Anyway, from the first scene where Sophie's murder comes into it, I was completely hooked. It actually gave me chills down my spine. It's hauntingly creepy, because it's not some paranormal thing: There's a murderer. That person is running around your town. You could be next.

Another thing: I adored Sophie. Even though her murder happens only five chapters in, I was already rooting for her, just like Vee. I felt the same way as Vee a lot of the time: I hated Scott Becker, I loved her little sister; she was a great main character to cheer on.

My biggest dislike was the conclusion. I'm not going to spoil it, but the murderer reveal was a letdown for me—I just didn't really get the motive. I guess I was expecting more...and that was just it.

My one other complaint is about Vee's best friend, Rollins. Vee thinks he suspects something about her sliding, which she never told him about. Whenever she tries to, she decides against it, because she told her dad years ago and all she got was a shrink. But still, she always feels guilty and he gets upset since he knows she's not telling him something. That would be understandable.


My problem is that, in the year that she's known her best friend, not once has she been to his house. He repeatedly gives her fake excuses when she asks to go over, and she just accepts them, never connecting the dots and saying "Um, why is it not okay for me to keep one tiny secret when you're hiding half of your life from me?" which is what I would've said long before.

I loved the suspense of the book, and loved seeing the sliding aspect, but the ending didn't quite measure up to what I was expecting. You'll probably spend a good portion of the book trying to track down a murderer with Vee, playing detective.

Read more reviews for Slide at:

Uniquely Moi Books and I Swim for Oceans

Welcome, Caller, This Is Chloe by Shelley Coriell

 "It's not about the space but how you fill it."

Big-hearted Chloe Camden is the queen of her universe until her best friend shreds her reputation and her school counselor axes her junior independent study project. Chloe is forced to take on a meaningful project in order to pass, and so she joins her school’s struggling radio station, where the other students don’t find her too queenly. Ostracized by her former BFs and struggling with her beloved Grams’s mental deterioration, lonely Chloe ends up hosting a call-in show that gets the station much-needed publicity and, in the end, trouble. She also befriends radio techie and loner Duncan Moore, a quiet soul with a romantic heart. On and off the air, Chloe faces her loneliness and helps others find the fun and joy in everyday life. Readers will fall in love with Chloe as she falls in love with the radio station and the misfits who call it home.

I just want to give the cover artist for this book a vivacious round of applause. The colors, the clarity, the set-up, all make this cover pop. I can already tell this will be one of my favorite covers of the year.

Chloe has personality, that much is for sure. I respected her because even when it seemed like her life was seriously messed up sometimes, she kept on going. She didn't throw a pity party when her friends went AWOL on her or when troubled brewed at home or when her junior study project is axed; instead, she tried to act on what was happening to help fix a situation.

When you get down to it, what I liked most about Chloe was her heart. You can tell she truly cares about everyone: Even her grandma and her mother when they won't stop arguing. Even the radio's general manager who wants to keep her off-air. Even ex-friends that try to ruin her at every turn.

The radio aspect of the book was, personally, my favorite. Chloe hosts a talk-show, where she highlights different topics of her own choosing, from pet peeves to comfort foods. I loved getting to listen in to her broadcasts and only wish there had been more radio time in the book.

Oh, and if you have a flair for vintage shoes, look no farther than Chloe, girl fashionista, strutting her shoes throughout the pages.

Chloe narrates the book with a very 21st century feel: the abbriviated BF instead of best friends, the drawn-out "gawwd" and "stoo-pid" to clarify how the characters talk, and a couple texts in their steriotypical lingo. I think it was meant to accentuate Chloe's style, but I got the feeling I'd been dropped into the hipster clique in middle school, or that I was hanging around that one mom that thinks using the lingo will make her kid's friends think she's cool.

Some points in the book attemped to stray from the radio hi-jinks and high school woes to more serious topics. While I appreciated the author's to merge a deeper tone into Chloe's story, I felt that sometimes they didn't mesh right. Chloe was too caught up in her school life to be really immersed in deeper plot lines, so they were just kind of woven together.

If I could describe this book in a word, it would be playful. Chloe and her style were a mix-up from what I usually read, and they were a nice, fun, refresher. Chloe knows a thing or two about fun. If you're looking for something lighthearted and upbeat, try some Chloe.

Read more review for Welcome, Caller, This Is Chloe at:
BookHounds and Mrs. Readerpants

The Secret to Lying by Todd Mitchell

 

"The secret to lying is this: believe yourself and others will believe you, too."

James was the guy no one noticed — just another fifteen-year-old in a small town. So when he gets into an academy for gifted students, he decides to leave his boring past behind. In a boarding school full of nerds and geeks, being cool is easy. All it takes is a few harmless pranks to invent a new James: fighter, rebel, punk. Everyone’s impressed, except for the beautiful "Ice Queen" Ellie Frost and the mysterious ghost44, an IM presence who sees through his new identity.

But James is riding high, playing pranks and hooking up with luscious Jessica Keen. There’s just one thing awry: he’s starting to have vivid dreams of being a demon-hunting warrior, a thrill that is spilling over into dangerous and self-destructive acts while he’s awake. As he’s drawn deeper into his real-life lies and his dream-world conquests, James begins to wonder: What’s the price for being the coolest guy around?

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  My Rating:

I picked it up because:

I actually picked this one up by chance when browsing one of the shelves my the library; the title stuck out to me among the other books, and I love the shattered glass effect on the cover.

What I liked:

The school James attends was a great set-up for some interesting characters. I loved his friends, the school pranks, and I his conversations with ghost44, the mysterious *cough cough* very obvious who it is *cough* character who IMs James but won't reveal his/her identity. And then there's the dreams where he's fighting demons, a supposed parallel to his life, in a more direct aspect.

What I didn't like:

In a good book, I am the main character. I cry when they cry, I laugh when they laugh.  I never really felt that connection with James. I want to know everything that a main character is thinking, their reasoning behind everything they do. I wasn't in James' mind. I didn't really get why he did things a lot of the time, which is majorly important to me, especially when the main character is supposedly suffering from depression and self destructive behavior.

The Bottom Line:
I wanted to love this book, but I never really got James. Still, I'm glad I read it because I enjoyed meeting the characters in James' world. If you're expecting an accurate account of depression, this isn't your book. But if you're looking for a read that'll keep you interested, try this one out.

Read more reviews for The Secret to Lying at:
A Good Addiction and Tina Reviews
 

Hate List by Jennifer Brown

Hate List by Jennifer Brown

A quote:

“Just like there's always time for pain, there's always time for healing.”

My rating:

Summary:

Five months ago, Valerie Leftman's boyfriend, Nick, opened fire on their school cafeteria. Shot trying to stop him, Valerie inadvertently saved the life of a classmate, but was implicated in the shootings because of the list she helped create. A list of people and things she and Nick hated. The list he used to pick his targets.

Now, after a summer of seclusion, Val is forced to confront her guilt as she returns to school to complete her senior year. Haunted by the memory of the boyfriend she still loves and navigating rocky relationships with her family, former friends and the girl whose life she saved, Val must come to grips with the tragedy that took place and her role in it, in order to make amends and move on with her life.

I picked it up because:

The summary had me completely hooked. A school shoot-out by one of its students: I'd never read a book with anything even close to this premise before, even though it's something that comes up in the news and everyday life. A book like this can really open people's eyes to something that's become just part of the world, and I think it's great of Jennifer Brown to explore a topic like this.


What I liked:
The perspective. Having the book written from the perspective of the shooter's girlfriend, Valerie, made it much more personal than if it had been from just a kid from the school's perspective, because Valerie doesn't automatically think of Nick as the villain like everyone else. She has good memories of who she thought he really was and her perspective allows you to see her struggle to fit the two people together to find the real Nick Levil.


What I didn't like:
The book skips around in time, letting you see Valerie as she works her way through life as she starts back her senior year, but also excerpts from the past: memories of she and Nick, of the actual day of the shooting, and her recovery in the days afterward. While I appreciated the tidbits of the past, they were a little distracting from the main plot and I found myself double-checking a lot to make sure I knew what part of her life I was reading about. I would've liked to see more of Nick and Valerie's relationship, of how they were close and how they interacted with each other, because I found Nick's character to be likeable, and as the antagonist of the novel, I wished I could've known him better.
My main dislike would mostly be the pacing of the book. While I was intrigued by the plot enough to keep reading, I found myself getting bored. The writing, and I hate to say this, was bland at times, and if it hadn't been for my interest of how it would end, I might not have finished it.

Overall:

If you're as intrigued by the plot as I was, read it, and maybe you'll get more out of it than me. If you need something that's going to entertain you from the first to last page, you might want to look elsewhere.

Let me know what you thought of it in the comments below!