Review: Behind the Scenes (Daylight Falls #1) by Dahlia Adler

Book Title: Behind the Scenes (Daylight Falls #1)

Author: Dahlia Adler

Published Date: June 24th, 2014

Publisher: Spencer Hill Press

Genre: YA Contemporary

Series: Book 1 in Daylight Falls

Book Link: Goodreads

Purchase Links: Amazon, Barnes & Noble, The Book Depository

Synopsis from Goodreads:

High school senior Ally Duncan’s best friend may be the Vanessa Park – star of TV’s hottest new teen drama – but Ally’s not interested in following in her BFF’s Hollywood footsteps. In fact, the only thing Ally’s ever really wanted is to go to Columbia and study abroad in Paris. But when her father’s mounting medical bills threaten to stop her dream in its tracks, Ally nabs a position as Van’s on-set assistant to get the cash she needs. 

Spending the extra time with Van turns out to be fun, and getting to know her sexy co-star Liam is an added bonus. But when the actors’ publicist arranges for Van and Liam to “date” for the tabloids just after he and Ally share their first kiss, Ally will have to decide exactly what role she’s capable of playing in their world of make believe. If she can’t play by Hollywood’s rules, she may lose her best friend, her dream future, and her first shot at love.

Disclaimer: I received this e-ARC from Spencer Hill Press via Edelweiss.

Review:

I was really excited about this book despite the fact that it isn’t normally my cup of tea. I am definitely a sucker for good friendship stories and that’s what Behind the Scenes gave me. Ally and Vanessa’s friendship was solid and it was an equal friendship. Vanessa is talented and she is set to be one of the stars of the new show Daylight Falls. Yet, she is careful not to flaunt her success in front of Ally.

Ally’s going through her own problems. Her father is in the hospital, fighting Stage IV skin cancer. Doctors are saying that he doesn’t have much time left so Ally spends a lot of time in the hospital with him. Her family is very close and supportive of one another. Ally has been planning to attend Columbia, but now that her father’s medical bills are eating up the college fund. So Ally wonders just how she is going to be able to go to Columbia when all this is going on in her family.

That’s where Vanessa sweeps in and hires Ally as her assistant so that Ally can go to Columbia like she’s dreamed of. It’s here where Ally met Liam. Ally tried her hardest to ignore Liam. She doesn’t want to have anything to do with a guy who makes a living as an actor. What she doesn’t know is that Liam has his own demons.

When Ally begins to talk to Liam, she learns that he has gone through absolute hell. His mother died from cancer when he was 8 and he was whisked off to his father’s house. He didn’t know his father at all and things between his father and him never improve.

“Sick as it was, there was something oddly nice about being able to talk cancer with someone who already knew the terminology.” -Ally-

I totally understood that as I have often said the same thing about my own health problems. It is definitely really nice to be able to talk about my heart problems with others who have experience with it. That means I don’t have to stop and explain everything that I’m talking about, which sometimes drives me batty. I could tell Ally really needed someone who knew about cancer to talk to them about it.

It wasn’t just the cancer thing that brought Ally and Liam together. They have great chemistry even as friends. Liam desperately wants to prove to Ally that he’s not a total douchebag and Ally wants to believe that he’s not like every other actor on the planet. But as things begin to deepen between them, Ally starts to wonder if she can really deal with being the secret girlfriend to an actor. She starts to think that maybe she’s not cut out for this. Maybe she’s not okay with seeing him “date” Vanessa.

“I just wanted to be enough” -Ally-

That line pretty much broke my heart. Ally’s best friend is a beautiful actress and her boyfriend is a very attractive guy. Ally lives in the real world. The world of high school and homework and prom, and sick dads and money problems. She doesn’t feel like she’s good enough for Liam. She doesn’t feel pretty enough, she doesn’t feel sexy enough. Not feeling good enough is definitely a high school thing so I was happy to see Adler put this in the book as I felt like Ally didn’t feel good enough for Liam for the longest time.

I really enjoyed this book a lot. More than I expected to. I am definitely excited to see what happens next. It was a book that combined friendship, family and love and those seem to be my favorite books regardless of the setting. 4 stars to this book and I’m excited for Vanessa’s story next. 

Review: Far From You by Tess Sharpe

Book Title: Far From You

Author: Tess Sharpe

Publish Date: April 8th, 2014

Publisher: Disney Hyperion

Genre: YA Contemporary Mystery

Standalone

Book Link: Goodreads

Purchase Links: Amazon, Barnes & Noble, The Book Depository

Synopsis from Goodreads:

Sophie Winters nearly died. Twice.

The first time, she’s fourteen, and escapes a near-fatal car accident with scars, a bum leg, and an addiction to Oxy that’ll take years to kick. 

The second time, she’s seventeen, and it’s no accident. Sophie and her best friend Mina are confronted by a masked man in the woods. Sophie survives, but Mina is not so lucky. When the cops deem Mina’s murder a drug deal gone wrong, casting partial blame on Sophie, no one will believe the truth: Sophie has been clean for months, and it was Mina who led her into the woods that night for a meeting shrouded in mystery.

After a forced stint in rehab, Sophie returns home to a chilly new reality. Mina’s brother won’t speak to her, her parents fear she’ll relapse, old friends have become enemies, and Sophie has to learn how to live without her other half. To make matters worse, no one is looking in the right places and Sophie must search for Mina’s murderer on her own. But with every step, Sophie comes closer to revealing all: about herself, about Mina and about the secret they shared.

Disclaimer: This is a library book.

Review:

I had my eye on this book for months and when I got my new library card, I immediately put a hold on this book. I had heard nothing but amazing things about it and I could not wait to get my hands on it. It was totally amazing, unputdownable, fabulous mystery mixed in with friendship and romance. It was fast paced and it kept me guessing all the way through.

The timeline actually worked for me. I liked how it bounced around from present time to past time. It filled in a lot of the gaps that I would have had without the flashbacks. We got to see the characters in different lights. We got to see how Mina and Sophie fell in love. We got to see Mina’s struggle with wanting to be herself in front of her family, but also fearing the consequences of it. We got to see how Sophie’s addiction started, which was probably my favorite subplot of the story.

When we first meet Sophie, she’s nearing the end of her stay in a rehab facility. It’s been 4 months since her best friend was murdered right in front of her. Sophie has been dealing with addiction since she was fourteen years old, after a terrible car accident that left her in constant pain. But she shouldn’t have been at Seaside. At the time of her best friend’s death, she had been clean and sober for 10 months.

None of that mattered to her parents. Especially when they found a bag full of drugs in her jacket pocket the night of the murder. Her parents, the detectives, even her friends won’t listen to her. That was incredibly hard for me to read. My heart ached for Sophie. She had just lost her best friend and now her parents refused to believe she was clean. Not only that, but they were sending her off to a rehab facility. 

So many things happened in this book. So many difficult things were talked about in it, In true mystery book form, there were twists and turns, none of which I saw coming. And there was a romance, although it was more like a love square. It was complex, but interesting to see how Sophie interacted with Kyle & Trev. It was interesting to see that the secret Sophie and Mina shared was not quite as secret as they thought it was.

Sophie’s relationship with her aunt Macy was awesome to see. We don’t see extended family much in YA novels so I was excited to see Macy make several appearances. Especially since she was the one who helped get Sophie clean. I actually wanted to see more of Macy because I thought she was a great character.

This book was nearly perfect, so I’ll be giving it four and a half stars. I can’t quite figure out why I can’t give it the full 5 stars. I just know that I need to buy my own copy of this book whenever I can afford it. I cannot wait to see what the author writes next.

Review: Open Road Summer by Emery Lord

Book Title: Open Road Summer

Author: Emery Lord

Published Date: April 15th, 2014

Publisher: Walker Books

Genre: YA Contemporary

Standalone

Book Link: Goodreads

Order Links: Amazon, The Book Depository

Synopsis from Goodreads:

After breaking up with her bad-news boyfriend, Reagan O’Neill is ready to leave her rebellious ways behind. . . and her best friend, country superstar Lilah Montgomery, is nursing a broken heart of her own. Fortunately, Lilah’s 24-city tour is about to kick off, offering a perfect opportunity for a girls-only summer of break-up ballads and healing hearts. But when Matt Finch joins the tour as its opening act, his boy-next-door charm proves difficult for Reagan to resist, despite her vow to live a drama-free existence. This summer, Reagan and Lilah will navigate the ups and downs of fame and friendship as they come to see that giving your heart to the right person is always a risk worth taking. A fresh new voice in contemporary romance, Emery Lord’s gorgeous writing hits all the right notes.

Disclaimer: This book was a personal purchase.

Review:

This book made me want to blast some country music and have an impromptu dance party.

I needed a book to wow me after a recent reading slump and so on Twitter the other day, I asked if Open Road Summer would do that for me and the response was a resounding YES. Boy were they right. This book had it all, country music, friendships, boys and family and of course those all important feels. Unlike other debut books, this didn’t FEEL like a debut book, it didn’t feel like a brand new author wrote it.

Emery Lord writes like she’s been writing books all her life. The writing is beautiful and I am so thankful for that. Oftentimes when a book cover is that gorgeous, the writing is lacking. Not in this case. It was beautiful and emotional and evocative so major kudos to Emery Lord for that. 

Dee and Reagan have been friends since they were 8 years old. They’ve seen each other through everything and now they are excited to spend the summer together. Reagan is the wild child and that wild child behavior got her into some trouble that included community service and a bad boy. Dee is an accomplished singer who is an up and comer in the country music scene. They couldn’t be more different in the family department either. Yet, none of that matters to them. They remain best friends despite disagreements and the usual ebbs and flows in a friendship.

Sweet and sexy Matt Finch appears on the scene shortly after a scandal threatens to halt Dee’s burgeoning career. Matt is everything that Reagan is not and on paper he seems to be a better match for Dee. Yet Dee is still hung up on Jimmy, the boy she left to follow her dreams.  Matt Finch was adorable and sweet and kind and basically my perfect boyfriend. He’s a good fit for Reagan though and there’s definitely mutual attraction between them early on. 

Something else that caught my eye while reading this book, was the progression of Reagan’s relationship with her stepmom Brenda. Initially Reagan paints Brenda in a very negative light, but by the end of the book, things have definitely improved between the two of them. I really liked seeing that storyline and how it played out.

I absolutely adored this book and it is absolutely getting 5 stars from me. I am definitely going to be pushing this book on all of my fellow YA Contemporary lovers.

Review: Split Second (Pivot Point #2) by Kasie West

Book Title: Split Second (Pivot Point #2)

Author: Kasie West

Release Date: February 11th, 2014

Publisher: HarperTeen

Genre: YA/Paranormal

Series: Book 2 in Pivot Point duology (My review of Pivot Point is here)

Book Link: Goodreads

Purchase Links: Amazon, Barnes & Noble,Book Depository

Synopsis from Goodreads:

Life can change in a split second.

Addie hardly recognizes her life since her parents divorced. Her boyfriend used her. Her best friend betrayed her. She can’t believe this is the future she chose. On top of that, her ability is acting up. She’s always been able to Search the future when presented with a choice. Now she can manipulate and slow down time, too . . . but not without a price.

When Addie’s dad invites her to spend her winter break with him, she jumps at the chance to escape into the Norm world of Dallas, Texas. There she meets the handsome and achingly familiar Trevor. He’s a virtual stranger to her, so why does her heart do a funny flip every time she sees him? But after witnessing secrets that were supposed to stay hidden, Trevor quickly seems more suspicious of Addie than interested in her. And she has an inexplicable desire to change that.

Meanwhile, her best friend, Laila, has a secret of her own: she can restore Addie’s memories . . . once she learns how. But there are powerful people who don’t want to see this happen. Desperate, Laila tries to manipulate Connor, a brooding bad boy from school—but he seems to be the only boy in the Compound immune to her charms. And the only one who can help her.

As Addie and Laila frantically attempt to retrieve the lost memories, Addie must piece together a world she thought she knew before she loses the love she nearly forgot . . . and a future that could change everything.

Disclaimer: This book was a personal purchase.

Review:

Oh Split Second, how I loved you. Let me count the ways…

Just kidding, I am absolutely not that poetic, but holy crap this was an awesome book, from beginning to end. There were twists and turns frequently which I loved. Addie and Laila are still one of my all time favorite friendships. The friendship is beautiful, reciprocated and well balanced which I love. 

Unlike in Pivot Point, I loved Trevor. He was sweet and kind and so supportive of Addie. This time around, I bought their relationship and not only that, I rooted for them as a couple. Generally a Norm and someone with abilities do not mix well together, but with Trevor and Addie it just works and it works really well.

Connor and Laila were my favorite relationship in this book. Connor was the quintessential bad boy and Laila was the only girl to be seemingly immune to his charms. Yet, again, they work somehow. Maybe it’s the opposites attract thing, I don’t know. Laila needs Connor’s help though and it’s at that point, that you realize that Connor’s bad boy image is just a facade.

My favorite subplot was Laila’s brother Elliot. He hasn’t Presented yet and he’s scared that he won’t Present. I was scared that he wouldn’t Present and that he would be kicked out and made to live in the Norm world. Watching Laila try to help him was beautiful and at times, heartbreaking. I can never say enough about how much I love brother-sister dynamics in books.

I’m obsessed with the ending. It was quick paced and action filled to the point where I didn’t want to put it down for anything, nope not even a bathroom break. Even the ending kept me guessing, which I absolutely loved. I am so sad that my journey into this world is now over and that I will never see these characters again. 5 stars to this book. I think everyone should read this duology.

Review: My Life Next Door (My Life Next Door #1) by Huntley Fitzpatrick

Book Title: My Life Next Door

Author: Huntley Fitzpatrick

Release Date: June 14th, 2012

Publisher: Dial Books For Young Readers

Genre: YA/Contemporary

Series: Book one in My Life Next Door series

Book Link: Goodreads

Purchase Links: Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Book Depository

Synopsis from Goodreads:

“One thing my mother never knew, and would disapprove of most of all, was that I watched the Garretts. All the time.”

The Garretts are everything the Reeds are not. Loud, messy, affectionate. And every day from her rooftop perch, Samantha Reed wishes she was one of them. . . until one summer evening, Jase Garrett climbs up next to her and changes everything.

As the two fall fiercely for each other, stumbling through the awkwardness and awesomeness of first love, Jase’s family embraces Samantha – even as she keeps him a secret from her own. Then something unthinkable happens, and the bottom drops out of Samantha’s world. She’s suddenly faced with an impossible decision. Which perfect family will save her? Or is it time she saved herself?

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

Disclaimer: This book was a personal purchase.

Review:

When I was making my list of books I wanted to buy, this one was at the top of the list. I had heard so many people raving about it over and over again, to the point where I just had to put it on my list and when I was able to make a book purchase, this book would be one of the ones that I would buy.

I did not regret it one little bit. It was a sweet summery read (since it’s still winter, it’s an odd time to read it but oh well) The characters were funny and sweet and totally likable. Despite being 10 years older than Jase, I wanted him as my new boyfriend. But I’ll settle for him being my book boyfriend. He was totally swoony and adorable and just an all around good guy. I loved how close his entire family was. You don’t get to see that very often in YA books. The entire family was close and it was a big family which made it all the better.

With a big family like this, one could worry that it would make it hard for all of the characters to stand out with individual personalities and such. But it wasn’t. Despite the Garretts having 8 kids, I was still able to differentiate all of them.

Samantha on the other hand, had a small family. Just her mom and older sister Tracy. Now she has to deal with her mom’s boyfriend Clay. It’s strange for Samantha because her mom has been single her entire life. So the idea that she has a boyfriend is kind of icky to Samantha. She doesn’t want to picture what her mom does with this guy.

Samantha and Jase were just about the sweetest teenagers ever. Holy moly, they were cute and sweet and basically drama free (outside of keeping their relationship hidden from Samantha’s mom) I felt bad for Samantha though. Jase has what was essentially, the ideal family and Samantha’s was just slapped together and she had a very judgmental mom which would have really driven me crazy. Samantha clearly longed for a mother like Mrs. Garrett.

There were the supplemental characters like Samantha’s best friend Nan & her brother Tim. My thoughts on Nan stayed relatively positive until the end, when my opinion of her started to become more negative. Whereas my thoughts on Tim started off very negative but by the end,my thoughts were quite positive. Even to the point where his transformation was one of my favorite things to watch.

I wasn’t sure what the “unthinkable” thing would be, when I first started the book but it ended up being totally different than anything I could have ever imagined. The behavior of two people in particular was abhorrent to me. However things ended up exactly how they should have.

This book was awesome. I loved the focus on family & friendship that were not shoved to the backseat in favor of a romance. The only thing that I would complain about was that the ending was short and I was kind of hoping for something more. I also didn’t really get emotional while reading the book. So this book will be getting 4 stars. I am so excited to read the next book, which is Tim’s story. I know that is going to be another special book.

Review: The Fault In Our Stars by John Green

Book Title: The Fault In Our Stars

Author: John Green

Release Date: January 10th, 2012

Publisher: Dutton Books

Genre: YA Contemporary

Standalone

Book Link: Goodreads

Purchase Links: Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Book Depository

Synopsis from Goodreads:

Despite the tumor-shrinking medical miracle that has bought her a few years, Hazel has never been anything but terminal, her final chapter inscribed upon diagnosis. But when a gorgeous plot twist named Augustus Waters suddenly appears at Cancer Kid Support Group, Hazel’s story is about to be completely rewritten.

Disclaimer: I bought this book with my birthday money.

Review:

I have read a lot of cancer books before, but I had never read one that was both heartbreaking and hysterically funny at the same time.There were times where I was reading this book where I’d be laughing so hard I was crying and then a mere two minutes later I was crying hysterically at a heartbreaking part.

Hazel is blunt, honest and witty. All of those things I love in characters. She knows that her time is dwindling but she is trying to live whatever life she has left. She knows that her amazing parents have done everything in their power for her. Her mom has made a career out of taking care of her and her father is always there for her. Supporting her & loving her. 

She’s not a huge fan of Cancer Kid Support Group, but she goes. She goes for her parents mostly. Support group has a revolving door of attendants. Sometimes someone comes repeatedly and then they suddenly stop coming. There is only one real reason that people stop coming and that’s because they have died.

Hazel has one “normal” friend by the name of Kaitlyn, but it’s very hard to relate to Kaitlyn anymore. Kaitlyn doesn’t carry around an oxygen tank. Kaitlyn doesn’t have to be hooked up to oxygen around the clock. She has no idea of the hell that Hazel has been through. Nor would Hazel want her to know what it’s like. Hazel wouldn’t wish having shitty lungs on her worst enemy.

Never in her life, did Hazel expect to meet one-legged Augustus “Gus” Waters. Yet she does and there’s like an instant connection. I wouldn’t call this insta love. Mostly because it takes Hazel a bit longer to warm up to him than vice versa. Relating to Gus is easy for Hazel. While they don’t have the same type of cancer, Hazel still feels like she can relate to him. 

Watching them bond over a book was awesome.It was like a book within a book which I thought was really unique.Watching their relationship develop slowly was a treat. They knew that they were living on borrowed time but that didn’t mean that they had to rush the relationship.

I had cried in the first 75% of the book but that was nothing compared to the last quarter of the book. I full on ugly cried during that last 25% Did I expect something like that to happen? Yes I sort of did, but expecting it and seeing it in print was a totally different ball of wax. By the time the book was over,I had used a quarter of my brand new kleenex box.

“You gave me a forever within the numbered days, and I’m grateful.” Hazel

Issac was an awesome secondary character. He was from Support Group and he went through a lot in this book. He always seemed to have something hysterically funny to say, even if the situation didn’t necessarily call for it.Despite everything he went through during this book, he was a great friend to Hazel & to Gus. 

For all the love I could give this book, I could also admit that it wasn’t perfect. There were lulls in the story that bored me for a little while. The lulls didn’t last long but they were there. The lulls are the reason that this book is getting 4 stars. I loved everything else about this book but the lulls were a bit too frequent for me to give this book a full five stars.

Review: Maybe One Day by Melissa Kantor

Book Title: Maybe One Day

Author: Melissa Kantor

Publish Date: February 18th, 2014

Publisher: HarperTeen

Genre: YA/Contemporary

Standalone

Book Link: Goodreads

Pre-Order Link: Amazon, Barnes & Noble

Synopsis from Goodreads:

Critically acclaimed author Melissa Kantor masterfully captures the joy of friendship, the agony of loss, and the unique experience of being a teenager in this poignant new novel about a girl grappling with her best friend’s life-threatening illness.

Zoe and her best friend, Olivia, have always had big plans for the future, none of which included Olivia getting sick. Still, Zoe is determined to put on a brave face and be positive for her friend.

Even when she isn’t sure what to say.

Even when Olivia misses months of school.

Even when Zoe starts falling for Calvin, Olivia’s crush.

The one thing that keeps Zoe moving forward is knowing that Olivia will beat this, and everything will go back to the way it was before. It has to. Because the alternative is too terrifying for her to even imagine.

In this incandescent page-turner, which follows in the tradition of The Fault in Our Stars, Melissa Kantor artfully explores the idea that the worst thing to happen to you might not be something that is actually happening to you. Raw, irreverent, and honest, Zoe’s unforgettable voice and story will stay with readers long after the last page is turned.

Disclaimer: I received this e-ARC from Edelweiss in exchange for my honest opinion.

Review:

Bare with me here as there’s bound to be a lot of tears that I will disguise as allergies while I write this review.This book was pretty much near perfection for me. As a child I gravitated towards the fictional works of Lurlene McDaniel and Melissa Kantor’s Maybe One Day is right in that very same vein. Actually I would argue that they are extremely similar in a lot of ways. The way Maybe One Day sounded was not at all unlike Lurlene McDaniel’s work fifteen or so years ago.

Zoe and Olivia were more than just best friends. They were sisters, not bound by blood,but by love and friendship.Their friendship made me jealous. I wished so badly that I could have had a friend like that at their age.They were there for each other in way that their parents and families couldn’t understand. Olivia’s mother had the most problems with the friendship. It was implied that Adriana Greco didn’t believe that Zoe was a good influence on her daughter.

Once Olivia starts treatment, it becomes very clear how Mrs. Greco sees Zoe. She sees her daughter’s best friend as “just a visitor” That was heartbreaking. No one wants to think that their best friend’s mom doesn’t like them. It becomes clear what Mrs. Greco’s motive is. She’s gone into protective mama bear mode. Her entire existence has turned into keeping her immuno-compromised daughter as healthy and germ free as possible.

Back to Zoe and Olivia though, Zoe is the perfect friend. She’s unbelievably supportive and she spends hours upon hours visiting Olivia in the hospital.Hospital visits are something no teenager should have to do.Yet Zoe does it.She stays unfailingly loyal to Olivia despite the fact that they are living two different lives.

That loyalty is tested when Zoe finds herself dancing and kissing the boy who Olivia has been crushing on. Zoe takes it a step further by not telling Olivia about it until later, a lot later.I am really, really glad that the inkling of romance was just that, an inkling. I think any more romance would have taken away from the beautiful story of friendship that Melissa Kantor had so carefully crafted.  

I loved, LOVED that both girls had family units that were fully immeshed in the book. That’s a new YA trend that I am loving. In the past, the families of YA characters have been difficult to spot in a book. I really liked Olivia’s brother Jake.He was an amazing brother to Olivia and friend to Zoe. Sometimes the friendship between brother and sister’s best friend seems forced,but not in this case.

This book was a very emotional read and by the end of it I was crying so hard I couldn’t breathe. I was sobbing pretty loudly and violently. Yes apparently there is a way to sob violently.All the feels in this book were intense and amazing. This book will definitely be on my list of my favorite books of 2014. It should come as no surprise that I’m giving this book, the full 5 stars.If I could give it six stars, I would.Everyone should go pre-order this book now.I plan on pre-ordering a finished copy for myself.

Review: Crash Into You (Pushing The Limits #3) by Katie McGarry

Book Title: Crash Into You (Pushing The Limits #3)

Author: Katie McGarry

Release Date: November 26th, 2013

Publisher: Harlequin Teen

Genre: YA/Contemporary

Series: Pushing The Limits Book 3

Book Link: Goodreads

Purchase Links: Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Book Depository

Synopsis from Goodreads:

From acclaimed author Katie McGarry comes an explosive new tale of a good girl with a reckless streak, a street-smart guy with nothing to lose, and a romance forged in the fast lane. 

The girl with straight As, designer clothes and the perfect life-that’s who people expect Rachel Young to be. So the private-school junior keeps secrets from her wealthy parents and overbearing brothers…and she’s just added two more to the list. One involves racing strangers down dark country roads in her Mustang GT. The other? Seventeen-year-old Isaiah Walker-a guy she has no business even talking to. But when the foster kid with the tattoos and intense gray eyes comes to her rescue, she can’t get him out of her mind. 

Isaiah has secrets, too. About where he lives, and how he really feels about Rachel. The last thing he needs is to get tangled up with a rich girl who wants to slum it on the south side for kicks-no matter how angelic she might look. 

But when their shared love of street racing puts both their lives in jeopardy, they have six weeks to come up with a way out. Six weeks to discover just how far they’ll go to save each other.

Disclaimer: I received this e-ARC from Edelweiss and Harlequin Teen in exchange for my honest review.

Review:

I swear I didn’t plan to have Katie McGarry’s books reviewed all in a row on my blog. It just happened like that. Over the past few days I have reviewed both Pushing The Limits and Dare You To. I had heard that Crash Into You was amazing so after I binge read the first two books in the series, I went to my e-ARC of Crash Into You. I was excited to read Isaiah’s story as he had been a major player in the first two books.

Unfortunately, I didn’t enjoy this one as much as I was hoping to.I found Isaiah to be controlling and while some might call it protective, I saw a young man who hadn’t been able to control much in his life and lo and behold comes Rachel. She is young,naive and in my opinion, a doormat.

Rachel’s family dynamics were interesting. After a family tragedy happened before Rachel was born she must now step in and be the daughter and sister that her parents and brothers lost.Her willingness to do this infuriated me. She just agreed to whatever her parents wanted. If it had to do with the daughter they lost, Rachel bent over backwards. She should have just been herself and made them deal with it. Instead, her parents (well mostly her mom) leaves a shrine to the lost daughter and sister and Rachel allows her parents to decorate her room in a color she hates,she accompanies her mom to the malls and she reads her mom’s fashion magazines.

Personally, I would not have stood for it. I would have shut it down a long time ago. I was really kind of pissed that it took a guy for Rachel to stand up to her parents.Her self-esteem had been shot down while she dealt with the panic attacks but it’s only Isaiah who is able to raise her self-esteem. I’m sorry but seriously? Where is the confident, self assured woman that Rachel should have blossomed into?

Isaiah bugged me too. However I did like the story with his mom. I had wondered what had happened to land his butt in foster care and it was really interesting to see him come face to face with his mom. Yet I finished that part of the book a little unsatisfied.It felt like this story could have continued just a little more.

All the car stuff really bored me. Big time. I am not a car person, so I got bored preeeety quickly.The one thing that came out of the car thing was Abby. I loooooved Abby. She seemed like a softer version of Beth (who I also love) I loved the friendship that developed between Abby and Rachel.

I loved seeing Ryan, Beth, Echo and Noah again too. It was good to see that they played their parts in this book. The scenes near the end with Beth and Isaiah were perfectly written and I may have let a few tears fall. I loved how Ryan’s friend Logan played a big part in this book. Watching the friendship grow between Isaiah and Logan was totally awesome.

Let’s get to the romance part of the story. I didn’t feel the same chemistry with Isaiah and Rachel that I felt with Noah & Echo, Beth & Ryan. I didn’t root for the couple at all. And no it’s not because I was secretly dreaming that Isaiah and Beth would come to their senses because it wasn’t. Beth clearly chose right with Ryan.

I think a lot of it had to do with the insta-love as well as the cheesy nicknames that Isaiah called her. Angel,really? It was almost as cheesy as Noah’s Siren talk in Pushing The Limits.The only reason that Noah’s nicknames for Echo didn’t bug me was because the back-stories for Noah and Echo were super strong.

The ending was pretty good and it raised the rating a half star. It was scary and no one knew what was going to happen. I love how all of the couple’s friends came together to help. It showed that friendship is a very strong theme in this book which I love.Friendships are very often underrated and not given the attention that they deserve. Katie McGarry changes that in her books, which is awesome.

It kills me to give this one 3.5 stars but I have to. It wasn’t as strong as the previous two were and Rachel & Isaiah drove me bananas.Plus I didn’t feel the chemistry between them. However i am excited to read the next book in the series which is West’s story.

Review: Portrait of a Crossroads by Kelly Rand

Book: Portrait of a Crossroads

Author: Kelly Rand

Published Date: May 18th, 2013

Publisher: Riptide Publishing

Genre: LGBT/Romance/Short Story

Standalone

Book Link: Goodreads

Purchase Links: Amazon

Synopsis: 

Since the day Annette found her father’s body at the bottom of the stairs she has been going through the motions in life.She remembers the days where she had ambition but she just can’t remember what they were. Her brothers are no help as they have never had any sort of ambition.

Then she meets Sadie. Sadie has everything that Annette is missing.She’s a newly single, tattooed artist.Something about her wakes Annette up. Whether its the way she captures people on the canvass or simply the kindness she shows Annette,Annette doesn’t know.

When Annette begins doing odd jobs for Sadie such as cleaning brushes and spending lazy days together in conversation,things slowly develop from a burgeoning friendship into something more. This also allows Annette to realize her own ambitions once again.

Disclaimer: I received this book from Netgalley in exchange for my honest review.

Review:

This book was an easy read, albeit sometimes tedious. The beginning was quite slow and too much time was spent on the friendship and not enough time on the romance that developed from that.I think I would have liked this book much better if things weren’t so cramped together. The end felt rushed and that drove me bananas.

Another issue I had was that I didn’t understand what attracted Sadie to Annette. It was shown why Annette was attracted to Sadie but not the other way around. I worried that for Sadie,this was a rebound relationship as she had just become single again after an extended relationship with another woman.

I was hoping that we’d get a little glimpse into when Annette realized she was interested in women as it was clear that this was a new thing for her. I worried that Annette was just tired of being single and was simply settling for whoever wanted her. I do not believe in settling so this bugged me quite a bit.

This really should get 2 stars but I’m bumping it up because the sex scene was easily the best part of the book.It was everything a reader would want from a sex scene. It was hot and totally believable unlike certain other sex scenes that have made me want to rip my hair out.So this short story gets 3 stars. I didn’t hate it but I didn’t love it either.

Review: Frigid (Frigid #1) by J. Lynn

Book: Frigid (Frigid #1)

Author: J. Lynn (aka JLA)

Published: July 15th, 2013 (e-book) November 5th 2013 (paperback)

Publisher: Spencer Hill Contemporary

Genre: NA/Romance

Series: Book 1

Book Link: Goodreads

Purchase Links: Amazon, Barnes & Noble

Synopsis: 

21 year old Sydney has been in love with Kyler for as long as she can remember. They’ve been best friends since their playground days.If you looked up the word manwhore in the dictionary, Kyler’s picture would be right there. He never stays with the same girl for very long. Sydney doesn’t want to risk their friendship by telling him her true feelings for him.

Now they are stuck together in a ski lodge while a major storm whirls around outside.There is nothing stopping them. Can their friendship survive these feelings. And can they survive at all as a stalker creeps closer and closer to them.

Disclaimer: Bought this book off of Amazon.

Review:

 Oh boy,where to start with this one. The first half of the book was awesome and I loved it but as I kept reading I got more and more irritated with both Kyler and Sydney.Once I finished the book and allowed myself time to think about it,I began to realize exactly how aggravating this book was.

Kyler seemed to think that Sydney was a poor helpless little girl who couldn’t take care of herself and the screwy part was that she was characterized in that way. That enraged me so much. I mean where are the confident women who don’t need a man to rescue them? The idea of having a man “rescue” a woman makes me gag. 

Sydney kept saying that she loved him but she never said why she loved him. I certainly didn’t understand it. I wish we had been told what Sydney loved about him because I sure was not buying the “She loves him just because” crap. You don’t just love a person because. There’s got to be a solid reason to love someone (many reasons actually) and we the readers don’t know what & why Sydney loved him.

The manwhore thing? Really if he was in love with her like he claimed to be,he would not have been whoring around. Yes I understand that men have needs but good god he cannot keep having meaningless one night stands and also freaking out that Sydney is simply talking to another guy. Double standard much?

Holy moly if Kyler called her baby one more time I was going to barf all of my coffee up. Especially since he was calling her baby even before they got together. Um I have good male friends but I would never let them call me baby. Heck I never let my ex boyfriend call me baby.Seriously Sydney has a name. Why were the cutesy pet names necessary?

Honestly towards the end I started skimming. The confrontation with the masked guys was really boring and pointless. I was waiting for Kyler to rush in and save her (gag) but thank goodness that wasn’t what happened. Of course I wanted Sydney to rescue herself so to speak but that wasn’t what happened either.

Oh my goodness the ending was predictable and corny and it made me ill. After all of that they are still together and I still don’t know what it is that attracted them to each other. 

This book is getting 2 stars.The plot had so many holes in it that a truck could have driven through and neither main character was all that likeable. Maybe someone else will like this book but this was definitely not one I enjoyed.