June Wrap- Up

Perfect Chemistry- Simone Elkeles
Goodreads page
***
Three stars

The Darkest Minds- Alexandra Bracken
Goodreads page
*****
Five stars

This Lullaby- Sarah Dessen
Goodreads page
****
Four stars

Across the Universe- Beth Revis
Goodreads page
*****
Five stars

I also started reading Shatter Me by Tahereh Mafi but i literally couldn't get past the third chapter because the writing style was driving me up the wall, so i don't know if ill be giving that another go or not.

Other than that had a good reading month!

Across the Universe- Beth Revis

Publisher: Razorbill
Published: Jan 11, 2011
398 Pages
Goodreads page

Seventeen-year-old Amy joins her parents as frozen cargo aboard the vast spaceship Godspeed and expects to awaken on a new planet, three hundred years in the future. Never could she have known that her frozen slumber would come to an end fifty years too soon and that she would be thrust into the brave new world of a spaceship that lives by its own rules.

Amy quickly realizes that her awakening was no mere computer malfunction. Someone-one of the few thousand inhabitants of the spaceship-tried to kill her. And if Amy doesn't do something soon, her parents will be next.

Now Amy must race to unlock Godspeed's hidden secrets. But out of her list of murder suspects, there's only one who matters: Elder, the future leader of the ship and the love she could never have seen coming.

I really love the way this was was written, Beth Revis has such a great writing style that whilst reading this i really could imagine being there and seeing everything that was happening.

The story is written from two points of view, Amy who gets unfrozen and Elder the future leader of the ship. I loved the way the Amy and the rest of the humans had so many differences because of how the human race had evolved. 

It was so imaginative and well thought out. Everything pieces together and when you find out whats been going on its done so well that even though whats been happening is bad you can actually kind of see the reasoning behind it. I thought that was really great because it really gets you thinking.

There was a few parts where you think its going to get a little graphic but Beth leaves most of the more graphic scenes to the imagination and i really liked that.

I think this very easily could have a been a stand-alone, even though all our questions aren't answered it was still kind of wrapped up in a way that it could have ended and i would have been happy. I am however very happy that there are two more books to answer my questions.

Overall i absolutely loved this book and really cant fault it.

*****
Five stars

Flashback Friday #1

Flashback Friday is a weekly meme i created where we can take a look back at books we loved when we were younger. Being someone who has loved reading my whole life its fun to look back at the books that you once enjoyed. If you want to join the fun link up below and share you favorites!

Publisher: Scholastic
Published: Feb 1, 1995
144 Pages
Goodreads page

I thought i would start this meme off by showing one of my absolute childhood favorites  I loved any and all Goosebumps books (and the show) but this was one of the best in my opinion.

I loved the creepiness of these stories and they were different from any of the other things i read.
I have fond memories of curling up on the couch with a few of these.

I still have a large collection of these books and would love to one day own them all!

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This Lullaby- Sarah Dessen

Publisher: Viking Juvenile
Published: May 27 2002
345 Pages
Goodreads page

When it comes to relationships, Remy doesn't mess around. After all, she's learned all there is to know from her mother, who's currently working on husband number five. But there's something about Dexter that seems to defy all of Remy's rules. He certainly doesn't seem like Mr. Right. For some reason, however, Remy just can't seem to shake him. Could it be that Remy's starting to understand what those love songs are all about?

This was such a fun easy read. As is the usual i think when it comes to Sarah Dessen's books i think you really cant go wrong with them.

Remy was a really great character and i loved how she was kind obsessive about things, i found i could really relate to her. Dexter was such a dorky and cute guy, he was one of those characters that you just want to meet and hang out with. 

Obviously the story line was quite predictable but its still so enjoyable to watch it play out and to grow and learn with the characters.

There is nothing i can really fault about this book, every one loves a good summer read and this ticks all the boxes. 

I recommend it for any contemporary romance lover, and anyone who is looking for just a really cute easy read.

****

Four stars

Wishlist Wednesday #3

Hi! Wishlist Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted by Pen To paper. This weekly meme features a book that you are dying to add to your shelves. This week my pick is:

Dare you to- Katie McGarry
Publisher: Harlequin teen
Published: 28th May 2013
462 pages
Goodreads page

Ryan lowers his lips to my ear. "Dance with me, Beth."

"No." I whisper the reply. I hate him and I hate myself for wanting him to touch me again....

"I dare you..."

If anyone knew the truth about Beth Risk's home life, they'd send her mother to jail and seventeen-year-old Beth who knows where. So she protects her mom at all costs. Until the day her uncle swoops in and forces Beth to choose between her mom's freedom and her own happiness. That's how Beth finds herself living with an aunt who doesn't want her and going to a school that doesn't understand her. At all. Except for the one guy who shouldn't get her, but does....

Ryan Stone is the town golden boy, a popular baseball star jock-with secrets he can't tell anyone. Not even the friends he shares everything with, including the constant dares to do crazy things. The craziest? Asking out the Skater girl who couldn't be less interested in him.

But what begins as a dare becomes an intense attraction neither Ryan nor Beth expected. Suddenly, the boy with the flawless image risks his dreams-and his life-for the girl he loves, and the girl who won't let anyone get too close is daring herself to want it all....

I read Pushing the limits when it first came out and am pretty keen to get into this hopefully soon. I didnt think much of Beth in Pushing the limits but i think it will be good to read about her and who she is as a person.

Wishlist Wednesday #2

Hi! Wishlist Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted by Pen To paper. This weekly meme features a book that you are dying to add to your shelves. This week my pick is:

The Moon and more- Sarah Dessen

Publisher: Viking Juvenile

Published: June 4, 2013

435 pages

Goodreads page

Luke is the perfect boyfriend: handsome, kind, fun. He and Emaline have been together all through high school in Colby, the beach town where they both grew up. But now, in the summer before college, Emaline wonders if perfect is good enough.

Enter Theo, a super-ambitious outsider, a New Yorker assisting on a documentary film about a reclusive local artist. Theo's sophisticated, exciting, and, best of all, he thinks Emaline is much too smart for Colby.

Emaline's mostly-absentee father, too, thinks Emaline should have a bigger life, and he's convinced that an Ivy League education is the only route to realizing her potential. Emaline is attracted to the bright future that Theo and her father promise. But she also clings to the deep roots of her loving mother, stepfather, and sisters. Can she ignore the pull of the happily familiar world of Colby?

Emaline wants the moon and more, but how can she balance where she comes from with where she's going?

Ive only read one Sarah Dessen book before but i loved it and this seems like a really fun easy read.
Although its winter where i live, who doesn't love a good summer read?
Cant wait to get my hands on this.

The Darkest minds- Alexandra Bracken

Publisher: Disney Hyperion
Published: Dec 18, 2012
488 Pages
Goodreads page

When Ruby woke up on her tenth birthday, something about her had changed. Something alarming enough to make her parents lock her in the garage and call the police. Something that gets her sent to Thurmond, a brutal government “rehabilitation camp.” She might have survived the mysterious disease that’s killed most of America’s children, but she and the others have emerged with something far worse: frightening abilities they cannot control.

Now sixteen, Ruby is one of the dangerous ones.

When the truth comes out, Ruby barely escapes Thurmond with her life. Now she’s on the run, desperate to find the one safe haven left for kids like her—East River. She joins a group of kids who escaped their own camp. Liam, their brave leader, is falling hard for Ruby. But no matter how much she aches for him, Ruby can’t risk getting close. Not after what happened to her parents.

When they arrive at East River, nothing is as it seems, least of all its mysterious leader. But there are other forces at work, people who will stop at nothing to use Ruby in their fight against the government. Ruby will be faced with a terrible choice, one that may mean giving up her only chance at a life worth living.

Going into this book i kind of assumed it was going to be like every other dystopian that is going around at the moment and didn't have super high hopes for it. This book however has new and fresh ideas, with strange abilities and diseases and with every turn you don't know who you can trust.

This book was a little confusing for me at first because its not all put out there for you right off the bat and you have to continue reading to get more pieces of the story and a better understanding of the abilities. I love that we are giving the chance to work some things out ourselves, because it can get a bit old when authors throw everything out there at once assuming we wouldn't be able to figure it out ourselves.

The story is told from Ruby's point of view and throughout the book we learn bits and pieces of her story and the story of those she encounters.
Ruby is such a great character to read as she is kind of a mystery and doesn't quite know herself, so to read and discover her abilities just as she does is really great.

We see the way the adults have tried to deal with this disease and the horrible things they will do to keep it contained. Nothing is what it seems.

I loved every part of this, and i highly recommend giving it a go even if you are somewhat over the dystopian genre.

*****
Five stars

Wishlist Wednesday #1

Hi! Wishlist Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted by Pen To paper. This weekly meme features a book that you are dying to add to your shelves. This week my pick is:

The 5th wave - Rick Yancey

Published: May 7th, 2013
Publisher: Putnam Juvenile
457 pages
Goodreads page

After the 1st wave, only darkness remains. After the 2nd, only the lucky escape. And after the 3rd, only the unlucky survive. After the 4th wave, only one rule applies: trust no one.

Now, it’s the dawn of the 5th wave, and on a lonely stretch of highway, Cassie runs from Them. The beings who only look human, who roam the countryside killing anyone they see. Who have scattered Earth’s last survivors. To stay alone is to stay alive, Cassie believes, until she meets Evan Walker. Beguiling and mysterious, Evan Walker may be Cassie’s only hope for rescuing her brother—or even saving herself. But Cassie must choose: between trust and despair, between defiance and surrender, between life and death. To give up or to get up.

This book sounds like its right up my alley and it has had quite a bit of hype in the book community so im looking forward to hopefully picking it up sometime soon!

Perfect Chemistry- Simone Elkeles

Publisher: Walker Books
Published: Dec 23, 2008
359 pages
Goodreads page

When Brittany Ellis walks into chemistry class on the first day of senior year, she has no clue that her carefully created 'perfect' life is about to unravel before her eyes. She's forced to be lab partners with Alex Fuentes, a gang member from the other side of town, and he is about to threaten everything she's worked so hard for: her flawless reputation, her relationship with her boyfriend, and the secret that her home life is anything but perfect. 

Alex is a bad boy and he knows it. So when he makes a bet with his friends to lure Brittany into his life, he thinks nothing of it. But soon Alex realizes Brittany is a real person with real problems, and suddenly the bet he made in arrogance turns into something much more.

In a passionate story about looking beneath the surface, Simone Elkeles breaks through the stereotypes and barriers that threaten to keep Brittany and Alex apart.

This story is told from two points of view, Brittany's and Alex's. It gives a view into both their worlds which are completely different. Alex is the rebel gang member and Brittany is the perfect princess. We follow their stories as they fall in love, and see how two different worlds can come together.

I'm not really sure how to describe my opinion on this. I didn't really think it was that great but i didn't completely hate it. It kind of just felt like any other contemporary and there was nothing that really set it apart.
I liked the way it was told from both points of view but i felt the characters didn't have as much depth as they could have had. They each had their own personalities but they weren't anything really that interesting. The life Alex leads is interesting but him as a person, not so much and Brittany is just like every other rich 'perfect' girl you read about.
I felt that love story was pretty predictable and you could pretty much pick everything that happened.

It could be just that i think i am a little over YA contemporary at the moment but this book was just kind of meh for me.
I would recommend it for anyone who IS a fan of YA contemporary but if your not then i would say to give it a miss.

***
Three stars