Tuesday, June 30, 2015

Seven Weeks to Forever by Jennifer Farwell

As apparently I am still living let’s begin!

Title: Seven Weeks to Forever
Author: Jennifer Farwell
Publisher: Booktrope
Publication Date: January 8, 2015
Genre: Young Adult

Synopsis:
Cassidy Jordan knows she’ll die a few weeks after her eighteenth birthday, and she can’t wait. This is her second time here, and she knows what’s waiting for her in The Life-After–the place most mistakenly call “the afterlife.” Getting back there is supposed to be easy: she just has to find nineteen-year-old Riley Davis and help him get his life on track. By the time she finds him, though, she has only seven weeks to help him. Riley will die too young if she fails, and she’ll never see The Life-After or this life again.
But no one told her helping Riley would mean dating him; she hasn’t dated anyone since the love of her first life caused her death the last time she turned eighteen. When Cassidy realizes she’s falling for Riley, she’s faced with a choice: give him the life he’s meant for and leave when it’s time, or give up eternity for the true love she’s never had, knowing Riley will die the same way she did in her first life and that her entire existence could end at any time.

Opinion:
When I first stumbled upon this book I was kind of iffy about as I only knew the synopsis but reading some of the excerpts (specifically the one below) made me really want to get into it. You can trust that I will be picking up this book when I get the chance and probably enjoy reading it. Jennifer Farwell has given us promises of star-crossed lovers and choices that are hard to make that any reader who loves romance is bound to enjoy.

Excerpt:
I take a few breaths, trying to clear my mind. We walk for three blocks in silence before I get my bearings and finally find my voice.
“Thank you,” I tell him. I swear I hear him snort.
“Yeah, no problem.” He sounds put-out and doesn’t even try to hide it. If he recognizes me from the concert last night, his face doesn’t show it.
We walk a few more steps, then he stops so abruptly that I almost plow into him. He drops my hand.
“Do your parents know you’re out roaming the city in the middle of the night?”
His jaw is set, and I’m pretty sure that’s irritation I see on his face. Well, that’s interesting. I wonder if getting mad at strangers is something he does a lot.
“My parents died when I was six.” I regret my words the instant they leave my mouth. Surprise replaces the irritation in his eyes, and then I see exactly what I didn’t want to see. He’s uncomfortable now. Talking about death seems to do that to people. Discomfort isn’t exactly what I was going for, but maybe I shouldn’t care. It’s better than being lectured.
“I’m sorry.” His eyes drop to the sidewalk and stay there.
“Don’t be.” I start walking again.
“Do you make a habit of walking alone down dark streets at night, this close to bars and people drunk out of their minds?” he calls after me.
Oh, joy. Here we go again.
I stop and turn around. He sounds angry, and a quick check of his energy shows me little red sparks shooting everywhere. Yup, that’s definitely the color of anger.
“I got to town a week ago. What am I supposed to do, leave a breadcrumb trail to my house and stay there until new friends magically show up at my door?” I stop talking when something occurs to me. He’s out here alone, too. I put my hands on my hips and glare at him. “Why are you giving me a hard time, anyway? I don’t see you working the buddy system for safety.”
He narrows his eyes. It’s completely the wrong time for me to notice that they’re this incredible shade of deep brown, lit up with little golden flecks here and there. I didn’t notice his eyes last night, but they sure have my attention now.
Stop staring, I tell myself. Easier thought than done.
“I’m a little bigger than you,” he tells me. I still can’t tear my gaze away from him and I think he’s noticed, because he’s staring right back. I feel warmth run through me and am about to check my energy when I realize energy has nothing to do with it. The heat is in my cheeks. Curse him, I’m blushing.


AUTHOR BIO:
Jennifer Farwell has been writing since the day she picked up a navy blue Crayola as a toddler and began scribbling on her parents' freshly painted white walls. She's the author of SEVEN WEEKS TO FOREVER and ROCK STAR'S GIRL. When not writing novels, she can often be found at a Kundalini yoga class, cheering on the L.A. Kings during hockey season, or curled up with a good book. Her love of storytelling led to completing a Bachelor of Journalism degree and a Master of Arts degree in English, both from Carleton University in Ottawa, Canada. She grew up in Thunder Bay, Canada, and now lives in Los Angeles with her dog, Pico.
Find Jennifer!
Twitter: @jennfarwell
Snapchat: jennfarwell



Tuesday, June 16, 2015

Born at Midnight by: C.C. Hunter

Title:  Born at Midnight
Author:  C.C. Hunter
Genre:  Romance, Paranormal/Supernatural, Mystery, YA/Teen
Age:  13+
Rating:  4.5 out of 5 stars

Summary:  (Taken from the Goodreads Website)

One night Kylie Galen finds herself at the wrong party, with the wrong people, and it changes her life forever. Her mother ships her off to Shadow Falls—a camp for troubled teens, and within hours of arriving, it becomes painfully clear that her fellow campers aren’t just “troubled.” Here at Shadow Falls, vampires, werewolves, shapeshifters, witches and fairies train side by side—learning to harness their powers, control their magic and live in the normal world.

Kylie’s never felt normal, but surely she doesn’t belong here with a bunch of paranormal freaks either. Or does she? They insist Kylie is one of them, and that she was brought here for a reason. As if life wasn’t complicated enough, enter Derek and Lucas. Derek’s a half-fae who’s determined to be her boyfriend, and Lucas is a smokin’ hot werewolf with whom Kylie shares a secret past. Both Derek and Lucas couldn’t be more different, but they both have a powerful hold on her heart.

Even though Kylie feels deeply uncertain about everything, one thing is becoming painfully clear—Shadow Falls is exactly where she belongs…  

Reaction:

Ahhh, finals are over and there is more time to read, can life get any better?  This is the epitome of a perfect, light, summer read.  Heck, this book is set at a summer camp for supernaturals!  I finished this book in a day and I loved every minute of it!  It was funny, mysterious, romantic, and fantastical!  I've been wanting to read this series for a long time and finally Cait gave me the second book, so I thought it was about time to start reading this series.  I went out and got the first book and now here we are.  I seriously loved this book...okay, enough ranting and onto the characters.

Characters:

Kylie Galen:
I've read multiple reviews where it has been said that Kylie is a whiner and that nothing gets done in the book, but I beg to differ.  Kylie is going through difficult times and she reacts about the same as every other teen would:  she becomes cold, angry, and distant.  She blames people and gets angry.  I don't blame her!  Kylie is also strong mentally and even though she isn't exactly "accepting" of new ideas she has enough of an open mind to entertain supernatural possibilities.  But, the thing that I liked best about Kylie was the fact that she was a very good friend to pretty much everybody and she is very forgiving.

Derek and Lucas:
They were both awesome!  Can Kylie end up with both of them?  Is that even possible?  Derek is very kind and respects Kylie's wishes about staying just friends, which is really rare in male leads which makes me like Derek even more!  Lucas is very mysterious and shares a past with Kylie, he is sort-of brooding and more of a bad boy type, but he is actually very kind and is never mean to Kylie!  I also thought Lucas was awesome!  Urg!  Why do they both have to be so kind and perfect!  Sheesh, C.C. Hunter please don't make me choose! 

Miranda and Della:
Can anyone ask for better friends?  I absolutely loved Miranda and Della!  They were the best friends that Kylie could ever ask for and they even set aside their differences to keep Kylie happy and even ended up friends in the end.  I hope in future books that there are no big tiffs in this friendship, because that would make me very sad :(

Holiday:
Holiday runs the Shadow Falls Camp, and even though Kylie doesn't trust her right away they end up becoming very close friends.  Holiday is only a bit older then Kylie and they have a lot in common.  Like most other characters in this story, Holiday is very kind and tries her best to help Kylie find out who she is and help her feel at home!  Please, please, please let nothing happen to Holiday, she is my favorite character!

Overall:

I love, love, loved this book!  I can't imagine a cuter, funnier book to read at the beginning of the summer!  Some people say that there is a big cliffhanger at the end of this book, but I didn't think that, that was the case.  Personally, I thought the book wrapped up rather nicely and I'm very excited to get into the next book in the series!  I recommend this book to anyone who likes paranormal, romantic, or funny reads.

Listening to the Wicked soundtrack on repeat -Terantum

Sunday, June 14, 2015

Backlash by Sarah Darer Littman

Was I expecting a happy ending? Because if I was then I screwed up, majorly… And there goes my happiness for the rest of the week.

Synopsis: Watch what you say because you never know when your offhand comment can ruin someone's life but never ever try to do it on purpose; the consequences would not be fun at all. The last thing Lara needed in her life was Christian, a pretty boy with seemingly nice words until he shows his true colors… all on her Facebook wall for the world to see. When she decides the do the worst thing imaginable and try to take her life the world around her, and the people in it, start to take a nosedive straight into the pavement.

Opinion:
I found exactly TWO people in the book that I actually liked. TWO! And it wasn’t the main character. To add to that the 8th grader was smarter than every. Single. Adult. In. This. Book. The book basically summed up to this: girl gets jealous of other girl, other girl is just minding her own business, original girl is going to get revenge and cyberbully her with the help of her mom, other girl almosts commits suicide. That is the ENTIRE plot of the book and that’s all you need to know.

Please, PLEASE, let me make a suggestion. If you want to read a good book go elsewhere there are millions of other you can get emotionally invested in and not want to burn by the end of it just not this one.

Wait what!? Yeah, I said that and I meant it.

I disliked this book so much I decided to make a list of books you can check out instead of this book:

Paper Towns by John Green (DFTBA for the win!)
Words in the Dust by Trent Reedy (Wonderful book about an Afghan girl and learning)
Wondrous Strange by Lesley Livingston
Anna Dressed in Blood by Kendare Blake

Rating: 1 out of 5 stars… it was terrible....

Finally back after a 20 day break due to the most chaotic end of year stuff! Cait out!