Waiting on Wednesday #67: Renegade

                                                      

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted by Breaking the Spine.

My pick for this week is:

There is no one left for Mila to trust. Except for a boy she barely knows.

But Hunter has no idea who—and what—Mila really is. She can’t bear to reveal her secret, even though he’s unwittingly joined her search for Richard Grady, a man who may know more details of Mila’s complicated past.

Yet the road to the truth is more dangerous than ever. With General Holland and the Vita Obscura scouring the earth for her whereabouts, Mila must rely on her newfound android abilities to protect herself and Hunter from imminent harm. Still, embracing her identity as a machine leads her to question the state of her humanity—as well as Hunter’s real motives.

Perfect for fans of I Am Number Four and Divergent, this action-packed and heart-wrenching second installment of MILA 2.0 will leave readers breathlessly awaiting the series conclusion.

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I really enjoyed Mila 2.0, so I look forward to reading the continuation of her story in Renegade.  This book releases on May 13th.

What are you Waiting On this Wednesday?

Katie

Review: Dead Girls Don't Lie by Jennifer Shaw Wolf

 Rachel died at two a.m . . . Three hours after Skyler kissed me for the first time. Forty-five minutes after she sent me her last text. 
Jaycee and Rachel were best friends. But that was before. . .before that terrible night at the old house. Before Rachel shut Jaycee out. Before Jaycee chose Skyler over Rachel. Then Rachel is found dead. The police blame a growing gang problem in their small town, but Jaycee is sure it has to do with that night at the old house. Rachel’s text is the first clue—starting Jaycee on a search that leads to a shocking secret. Rachel’s death was no random crime, and Jaycee must figure out who to trust before she can expose the truth. 
In the follow-up to her powerful debut, Jennifer Shaw Wolf keeps readers on their toes in another dark, romantic story of murder and secrets.

My Review:

Dead Girls Don't Lie was a great mystery that kept me interested in what was going to happen next.  If I hadn't started reading it at a time when I was busy, then I definitely would have read it quicker.  I was not able to guess who was the murderer, so that was a big surprise.

POSSIBLE SPOILERS AHEAD

Jaycee was a good character who does a lot of good mystery detecting.  After her best friend, Rachel, dies, she changes from the person she was before.  She believes that Rachel's death was no accident, and she is determined to know who was responsible for Rachel's murder.  Before the murder, Jaycee was good and always was a rule-follower.  A few months before Rachel's death, Jaycee got into a fight with her over a boy, and they stopped being friends.  Jaycee feels guilty after the death because Rachel tried to call her several times on the night she died.  Jaycee didn't answer any of the calls because she was busy making out with a boy named Skyler.  She thinks that Rachel wouldn't have died if she had answered the phone calls.

One of the people that Jaycee meets in this book is Eduardo.  Rachel leaves a message for Jaycee telling her to only trust Eduardo.  She doesn't know Eduardo, so she isn't sure what to think about him.  I wasn't sure what to think either, at first.  Jaycee's dad would tell her not to trust him.  He is very protective of her, especially after what happened to Rachel.  In the end, I thought Eduardo was a good character and a good guy.  He was there for Jaycee when she needed him.  They definitely had some misunderstandings, since he assumed that Jaycee thought badly of him for being Mexican.  She thought that he was making unfair assumptions about her when he didn't actually know her.  It took time for them to really trust each other.

Skyler and Evan are interesting characters, and there are some things about them that I can't really talk about without giving spoilers.  Evan is the boy that Jaycee used to like, and the boy that caused the fight between Jaycee and Rachel.  Skyler is the boy who Jaycee starts a relationship with after Rachel's death.  She realizes that it was silly of her to like Evan, since he's more shallow, and Skyler is a better guy for her.  Skyler seems like a sweet guy.  Through some investigating that Jaycee does, she finds out some stuff about Skyler, Evan, and a twisted ritual of the high school football team.  It was really an awful ritual to go through to join a sports team.

If you like YA contemporary mystery, read this book.

Katie

Waiting on Wednesday #66: Split Second

                                                      

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted by Breaking the Spine.

My pick for this week is:

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.

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I am so excited for this book because I am a huge fan of Pivot Point.  I have already read that book twice since it released in February.  I will definitely be buying a copy of this book once it releases on February 11th.

What are you Waiting On this Wednesday?

Katie

Books I've Acquired in September

This month, I purchased two books.  Both of these books released in September, and I have read both of these since the day I bought them.  I loved both books, and my review of Dead Ends has already been published.

 

The Books:

Dead Ends by Erin Jade Lange

Where the Stars Still Shine by Trish Doller

Katie

Review: Where the Stars Still Shine by Trish Doller

 Stolen as a child from her large and loving family, and on the run with her mom for more than ten years, Callie has only the barest idea of what normal life might be like. She's never had a home, never gone to school, and has gotten most of her meals from laundromat vending machines. Her dreams are haunted by memories she’d like to forget completely. But when Callie’s mom is finally arrested for kidnapping her, and Callie’s real dad whisks her back to what would have been her life, in a small town in Florida, Callie must find a way to leave the past behind. She must learn to be part of a family. And she must believe that love--even with someone who seems an improbable choice--is more than just a possibility.

Trish Doller writes incredibly real teens, and this searing story of love, betrayal, and how not to lose your mind will resonate with readers who want their stories gritty and utterly true.

My Review:

I was very excited to read this book since it is the sophomore novel of Trish Doller, author of Something Like Normal, my favorite book ever.  While this book does not surpass Something Like Normal, it is still an awesome book that did not disappoint me.  I loved the characters and the storyline of this book.  

POSSIBLE SPOILERS AHEAD

Callie is a great character who certainly hasn't had an easy life.  She's been moved around from place to place by her mentally unstable mother who kidnapped Callie when she was five years old.  Her mom gets arrested while they are traveling to another place, and Callie is taken back home to her dad, and back to a life that she had forgotten about.  She is thrown into this strange place where she has an entire family that cares about her.  I thought the book showcased her feelings for her mother really well.  Even though her mom had kidnapped her, she still loved her mom, since her mom was all she had known for the past twelve years.  It wasn't easy for her to just accept that her mom was in trouble with the law and could be going to jail.  She felt guilty for allowing her mom to get arrested.  She felt like she needed to save her mom.

In this book, Callie finds out about many more family members that she didn't even know she had.  She comes to live with her dad, Greg, who is very welcoming.  He has wanted to find her for twelve years, so he is glad that he finally has his daughter back.  Since his divorce from Callie's mom, he has remarried a woman named Phoebe and had two boys with her, Tucker and Joe.  Tucker is three, and Joe is a year or two younger than Tucker.  They are sweet little brothers to Callie.  Phoebe is worried about having Callie around the boys at first since she fears that Callie could be mentally unstable like her mother, but her feelings change as the story progresses.  Callie also meets her cousin, Kat, who she was best friends with when she was a little girl.  Kat expects them to immediately be best friends again, but Callie doesn't really remember her.  She's never had friends, so she doesn't really know how to have a friend and be a friend.  She does become friends with Kat, but she sometimes says or does things that make Kat mad at her.  

Then there is Alex Kostas.  He is the boy that Callie meets in this book.  He doesn't know at first that she is the kidnapped girl, so he doesn't treat her like she had been kidnapped.  The romance between these two moves quickly, but it is also very sweet.  Callie has never been with a guy who has treated her well before.  All the other guys she's been with have seen her as something to be used and then discarded.  Alex helps her realize that there are good guys out there who don't just want to sleep with her and then leave her.

If you like YA contemporary, read this book.

Katie

Review: Gated by Amy Christine Parker

 Do the gates keep the unchosen out or the chosen in?

In Mandrodage Meadows, life seems perfect. The members of this isolated suburban community have thrived under Pioneer, the charismatic leader who saved them from their sad, damaged lives. Lyla Hamilton and her parents are original members of the flock. They moved here following the 9/11 terrorist attacks, looking to escape the evil in the world. Now seventeen, Lyla knows certain facts are not to be questioned:

Pioneer is her leader.

Will is her Intended.

The end of the world is near.

Like Noah before him, Pioneer has been told of the imminent destruction of humanity. He says his chosen must arm themselves to fight off the unchosen people, who will surely seek refuge in the compound's underground fortress--the Silo.

Lyla loves her family and friends, but given the choice, she prefers painting to target practice. And lately she'd rather think about a certain boy outside the compound than plan for married life in the Silo with Will. But with the end of days drawing near, she will have to pick up a gun, take a side, and let everyone know where she stands.

My Review:

Gated is a fantastic page-turner that had me completely invested in the story at all times.  I loved the way that it made me feel about the characters.  The characterization was done so amazingly.  

POSSIBLE SPOILERS AHEAD

One thing that was so wonderful about this book was the way it made me feel while reading it.   Pioneer was the character that made me very angry.  I knew that he was lying about the end of the world coming. Despite his lies, he was able to influence a bunch of people into putting their trust into him.  They gave up all of their normal lives for a lie.  Of course, they didn't know it was a lie.  Lyla's mom in particular made me mad.  She was unable to question anything that Pioneer said, even when Lyla tried to convince her that he was lying.  Lyla's mom was so sure that he was, without a doubt, correct.  She was so upset about the kidnapping of her other daughter years ago that she practically forgot about the daughter that she still had.  She wanted the world to end because she was just so angry about Karen's kidnapping.

Lyla is a good character who had been shaped by the beliefs that Pioneer had brought her up believing.  She knows that anyone who doesn't live inside the Community is evil and will be wiped out when the world ends.  She begins to question all of this when she meets Cody, a boy from Outside who doesn't seem evil.  Her relationship with him is well written.  He cares about her, but he understands that her leader, Pioneer, is very strict.  When she tells him the truth behind her Community, he tells her it isn't true and proves it to her.  I think it was a good decision by him to do because Lyla needed to know what to really believe.

I liked Lyla's friends inside the Community.  Her first friend there was Will, and when she became a certain he became her Intended.  She knew that they would be married someday, but she never really had romantic feelings towards him.  That's unfortunate for Will, who does actually have feelings for her.  Eventually, he realizes that her feelings towards him are only friendship.  Later in the book, he is so upset by Lyla not returning his feelings that he has trouble believing something important that she tells him.  Marie is Lyla's friend as well.  She does some rule-breaking things in the Community.  I liked how she was there to believe when Lyla needed someone to know she was telling the truth.

If you like YA contemporary with a slightly dystopian feel, read this book.

Katie

Waiting on Wednesday #65: Side Effects May Vary

                                                      

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted by Breaking the Spine.

My pick for this week is:

What if you’d been living your life as if you were dying—only to find out that you had your whole future ahead of you? 

When sixteen-year-old Alice is diagnosed with leukemia, her prognosis is grim. To maximize the time she does have, she vows to spend her final months righting wrongs—however she sees fit. She convinces her friend Harvey, whom she knows has always had feelings for her, to help her with a crazy bucket list that’s as much about revenge (humiliating her ex-boyfriend and getting back at her arch nemesis) as it is about hope (doing something unexpectedly kind for a stranger and reliving some childhood memories). But just when Alice’s scores are settled, she goes into remission.

Now Alice is forced to face the consequences of all that she’s said and done, as well as her true feelings for Harvey. But has she done irreparable damage to the people around her, and to the one person who matters most? 

Julie Murphy’s SIDE EFFECTS MAY VARY is a fearless and moving tour de force about love, life, and facing your own mortality.

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This sounds like a great story.  It is about ballet and cancer, and it sounds like a powerful read.  This book releases on March 18th.

What are you Waiting On this Wednesday?

Katie

October Releases I'm Most Excited For

October 1st:
Fault Line by Christa Desir  - I have been excited for this book since I first heard about it last year.  It sounds like an awesome, dark, and emotional male POV novel.
How To Love by Katie Cotugno - I am so excited to read this book because it sounds like such an amazing contemporary.  I've heard so many good things about this one, too.



October 8th:
The House of Hades by Rick Riordan - I am a big fan of the Percy Jackson series and its spinoff, The Heroes of Olympus.  I look forward to seeing what happens next to these characters, especially after that cliffhanger at the end of the third book.
Premeditated by Josin L. McQuein  - This sounds like an interesting and emotional read.  I look forward to reading about Dinah, and finding out about the boy who broke Claire.
Red by Alison Cherry - This sounds like a really interesting and fun read about a unique town.



October 15th:
The Vow by Jessica Martinez - I liked Virtuosity by Jessica Martinez, and I absolutely loved her second book, The Distance Between Us.  I have read that book multiple times.  I hope The Vow is just as amazing.



October 22nd:
Allegiant by Veronica Roth - This is the final book in the Divergent trilogy, and I look forward to seeing how Veronica Roth ends this series.
Reality Boy by AS King  - This sounds like an interesting book.  I like the idea of reading about a boy who is known for a TV show that he was on as a kid, and seeing how the show still affects him today.