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  Super yummy, super easy dessert. Enjoy it as you sink into your favourite romantic YA book! (Recipe)

New in YA Fiction: In the Rearview

Heartbreak, Healing, Hope.

Title: In the Rearview

Author: Maria Ann Green

Genre: YA Contemporary 

Release date: August 19th

Main Character: Meagan

Blurb:

 When Meagan’s secret is found out, and she realizes there is no way to outrun her habit of cutting, she tries to work through it, and her depression, before she cuts too deep, making a mistake that can never be undone.

Meagan's problems aren't like every other adolescent's no matter how much she wishes they could be. Hers are worse. They've pulled her down into the depths of a depression that is anything but normal. She begins her pattern of self-harm as her depression threatens to drown her. She starts with one cut that leads to the next, and the next. After starting, it's apparent that there's no stopping, and Meagan spirals into a dark and cruel world she doesn't understand. Meagan cuts to feel better, but that comfort doesn't last long enough, and soon life is worse than it ever was before.

While learning to quit cutting Meagan faces life-altering obstacles and grows up in the process. IN THE REARVIEW is a story of pain, loss, confusion, and hope told through Meagan’s poems, journal entries, and a splash of narrative.

Goodreads Link

You can grab the ebook on Kindle, Nook etc...

This is currently in our *To  read* pile! It has the makings of a book I won't want to put down! 

P.s The author has her own blog! Check her out HERE

Book review: The Sending by Jandy Salguero

 

The Sending (Senithas Light #1).
By  Jandy Salguero

Goodreads Description:

A city's peace is shattered when two university students go missing, and only Daneel and his friends know the shocking truth of what happened. Finding themselves under attack, Daneel leads them in a race to escape the mounting violence.

Mara is willing to kill for the beliefs of the faction that raised her. But as she seeks out her mark, using a rare, mystical form of travel known as the Sending, Mara discovers a powerful connection that challenges the truth of everything she’s been taught.

While Daneel fights to protect those he cares for, Mara must choose whether to cling to the ideology of her home—or open her scarred heart to a searing attraction and the promise of a new life.

Goodreads link

Review:

I generously gave this book 4 stars... It was a really good read. The story flew by, I rarely felt like i had to labour through the paragraphs. Apart from at the beginning which is more to do with me than the book... I tend to be impatient when it comes to reading the essential pages that set the scene of the story.

The Sending is the first part of a story... While I'm not sure how much more there could be to tell, since at this point we all know whats going on and it feels to me like there's a 'simple' solution, I am very interested in what new twists the Author will introduce in the next book. 

The 'Bond' between the two main characters read a little too cliche for me at times... but I did like how physically tangible the author makes it seem.

The book is also quite short, just over 200 pages. So I guess its great for readers who are short on time.  

I wasn't knocked off my feet by this book, but I did enjoy it and I'll probably be reading the next part (0nce its out).

Book review: Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell

BOOK REVIEW: Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell

Fangirl
by Rainbow Rowell
Book description from Goodreads:

From the author of the New York Times bestseller Eleanor & Park.

A coming-of-age tale of fan fiction, family and first love.

Cath is a Simon Snow fan.

Okay, the whole world is a Simon Snow fan...

But for Cath, being a fan is her life—and she’s really good at it. She and her twin sister, Wren, ensconced themselves in the Simon Snow series when they were just kids; it’s what got them through their mother leaving.

Reading. Rereading. Hanging out in Simon Snow forums, writing Simon Snow fan fiction, dressing up like the characters for every movie premiere.

Cath’s sister has mostly grown away from fandom, but Cath can’t let go. She doesn’t want to.

Now that they’re going to college, Wren has told Cath she doesn’t want to be roommates. Cath is on her own, completely outside of her comfort zone. She’s got a surly roommate with a charming, always-around boyfriend, a fiction-writing professor who thinks fan fiction is the end of the civilized world, a handsome classmate who only wants to talk about words... And she can’t stop worrying about her dad, who’s loving and fragile and has never really been alone.

For Cath, the question is: Can she do this?

Can she make it without Wren holding her hand? Is she ready to start living her own life? Writing her own stories?

And does she even want to move on if it means leaving Simon Snow behind?

"Touching and utterly real." —  Publisher's Weekly

Goodreads Link 

My review:

***3 STARS***

Ugh. I really wanted to like this. I saw tons of good reviews everywhere and Fangirl is the current hype in the YA market. People loved it. They adored it. My book store loved it. So I wanted to love it too. The blurb seemed intriguing enough. Cathy was a fanfic writer. I'm a fanfic writer. I understand fandom, trust me. I'm part of the fandom for korean dramas, mangas, animes, other books. I went cray-cray stalking authors/ celebrities - all for the love of fandom. 

So present me a book about fandom, and I'd be like 'heck yeah!' *bumps fist* This heroine is so me! 

So I dived straight into the book.

And got disappointment. 

My book reading average around 3 hours per book. But I spent the whole day reading this book.

This long book. 

This freakishly long book. 

By my standards, 460 pages isn't a lot. I read LOTR, I know what long is. But reading Fangirl made my whole day dragged on with mundane boringness that made me want to sleep, but I kept saying, 'just one more chapter, maybe I'll get better.'

It didn't.

This isn't a story about fandom. This is a story about an overly obsessed heroine when it comes to Simon Cowell Snow. I'm not like her at all and I can put my hands up and say tons of fangirls aren't like her at all. If you check the reviews on goodreads, many low stars reviews are mostly written about the misinterpretation of fandom. 

Because it's not like that at all. 

Cath for one thing was one boring person. She was highly an introvert (I'm also a hermit crab) but even I'm not that depressed. I enjoy being in my own solitude but with her, it's like solitude is so damn depressing that even her roommate had to pull her out of the room saying she looked too pathetic. 

I disliked Wren. She was that typical stereotype party-goer who drinks and gets stoned and all the drama hoo hah. 

I read my fair share of alpha heroes and cool male protagonists. Levi didn't fit the bill. I couldn't bring his character to life. To me, he was simply a 2D character. 

Nick - oh boy. *flips finger*

There were waaaay too many pages about Simon and Baz (fictional characters written by fanfic writer, Cath). There were snippets of them, stories about them that I didn't care for. There were bloody pages. I skipped those pages. I wasn't interested in those fanfics, and I didn't like how their stories took up a lot of pages. 

In a nutshell, I just couldn't relate to Cath or any of the characters. 

Believe me, I wanted to enjoy this book. But the book dragged on so much, the pace was slow and I read it with my brain half-asleep. It was like reading a grocery list.

Book review: Half Bad by Sally Green

BOOK REVIEW: Half Bad by Sally Green

Half Bad
by Sally Green
Book description from Goodreads:

Half Bad by Sally Green is a breathtaking debut novel about one boy's struggle for survival in a hidden society of witches.

You can't read, can't write, but you heal fast, even for a witch.

You get sick if you stay indoors after dark.

You hate White Witches but love Annalise, who is one.

You've been kept in a cage since you were fourteen.

All you've got to do is escape and find Mercury, the Black Witch who eats boys. And do that before your seventeenth birthday.

Goodreads Link 

My review:

***4 STARS***

 I'm glad to say that I enjoyed this book. The beginning put me off a little as it was quite confusing and the writing didn't pull me in. Have I told you how much I hate writing in verse? It was why I couldn't get into We Were Liars by E. Lockhart. The timeline in this book was a bit jumpy. The beginning started off with present time about Nathan getting locked up, then it jumped into when he was young and the transition of timeline was so abrupt it left me scratching my head. 

Let me flip through the first page.

"There's two kids, boys, sitting close together, squished in by the big arms of an old chair. You're the one on the left.

The other's boy's warm to lean close to and he moves his gaze from the telly to you, sort of in slow motion.

'You enjoying it?' he asks. 

You nod. He puts his arm around you and turns back to the screen."

There you have it. W.T.F right? The writing to me felt clumsy and the author had this thing with changing pronouns. One minute it's in second person pov, then in other pages it's in first person. Um . . . what am I supposed to say to that . . . I guess if pulled brilliantly, it could possibly work but in this case, I feared it didn't. 

And it was kind of slow that I planned to DNF it but it got interesting in the later part of the story. That's where all the whizz bang came in. This storyline was indeed very unique and I enjoyed reading Nathan's pov. It was a bit . . . weird but definitely unique. And the way he thought of his dad (the dad is the Big Bad Witch) that he didn't really hate his dad even when his dad killed many witches got me thinking, so is Nathan really more of a black witch than a white one? 

Anyhow, the ending was a cliffhanger (sort of). It's moving on to the next adventure. Let me tell you something though. Read this book. It's unique and some parts are very cleverly woven but it will leave you depressed. Because Nathan's story is depressing and the poor boy is being hunted for the rest of his life just because he's half bad.  

 

Book review: Infinity + One by Amy Harmon

Infinity + One by Amy Harmon

Infinity + One
by Amy Harmon
Book description from Goodreads:

When two unlikely allies become two unwitting outlaws, will two unforgettable lovers defy unbeatable odds?

Bonnie Rae Shelby is a superstar. She’s rich. She’s beautiful. She’s impossibly famous. And Bonnie Rae Shelby wants to die.

Finn Clyde is a nobody. He’s broken. He’s brilliant. He’s impossibly cynical. And all he wants is a chance at life.

One girl. One boy. An act of compassion. A bizarre set of circumstances. And a choice – turn your head and walk away, or reach out your hand and risk it all?

With that choice, the clock starts ticking on a man with a past and a girl who can’t face the future, counting down the seconds in an adventure riddled with heartbreak and humor, misunderstanding and revelation. With the world against them, two very different people take a journey that will not only change their lives, but may cost them their lives as well.

Infinity + One is a tale of shooting stars and fame and fortune, of gilded cages and iron bars, of finding a friend behind a stranger’s face, and discovering love in the oddest of places. 

Goodreads Link

My review:

***5 STARS***

*Hums*

I cannot express how much I enjoyed reading this book. I loved Making Faces (I think that will forever be one of the sweetest thang I've ever read) but Infinity + One is also a powerful book in itself. From now on, I'm gonna read anything written by this author. She is INCREDIBLE. 

I know this is a YA blog and I don't think this book or Making Faces are YA but young adults can read this. Amy Harmon doesn't focus on Bham! Love at first sight kind of crap or 'omg, he's so hot and I'm a drooling idiot' kind of heroine. Nope. She has this talent of weaving subtle romance and write about the relationships of characters in such a beautiful way. 

If you want something heartwarming to read, then read this book. You won't regret it :3

This is a story about two broken people who came together and learn how to rely on each other. I know tons of stories are like that, but this ain't cliche or whatever crap is written out there.

Book review: We Were Liars by E. Lockhart

We Were Liars by E. Lockhart

We Were Liars
by E. Lockhart
Book description from Goodreads:

A beautiful and distinguished family.
A private island.
A brilliant, damaged girl; a passionate, political boy.
A group of four friends—the Liars—whose friendship turns destructive.
A revolution. An accident. A secret.
Lies upon lies.
True love.
The truth.

We Were Liars is a modern, sophisticated suspense novel from National Book Award finalist and Printz Award honoree E. Lockhart.

Read it.
And if anyone asks you how it ends, just LIE.

Goodreads Link

My review:

***DNF***

This is quite a hard review to write, because my opinions are completely different compared to majority of the readers.

So I heard about this book. I think everybody heard about this book. My friend emailed me the other day squealing with excitement saying this book was the bomb! It had all the emotions and beautiful writing, and so trusting her words, I dived straight into the book.

It wasn't her fault. A lot of those reviews on GR were all 5 stars as well.

I guess this is a book that isn't just for me. 

I had tons of issues with this book. And I feel bad about it because I should've felt like the rest and enjoyed it. But I didn't. 

First of all, it was boring. Dear god, I tried to keep going and leafed through the pages, but I ended skimmed through most of the paragraphs. In the end, I skipped right to the ending to find out this terrible secret or whatever. 

Cady wasn't my favourite heroine. To me, she was just. . . messed up, y'know? I think the author portrayed it well, about the minds of rich kids and also illustrate dysfunctional childhood. I should've sympathized with her, but I didn't. She seemed annoying to me, petty and I just. . . couldn't care less. 

And the writing! Maybe this is just me but I couldn't stand the writing. The metaphors were driving me crazy and it wasn't like those metaphors that Tahereh Mafi used in her books. This was much worse. The sentences were very disjointed, tons of commas and odd phrases here and there and repetitions. 

The storyline was also meh. 

By all means, read this book. This is merely an opinion of mine. I didn't enjoy it, but that doesn't mean you wouldn't. Many people loved it so judge for yourselves.