Review: The F-It List by Julie Halpern

 With her signature heart and humor, Julie Halpern explores a strained friendship strengthened by one girl’s battle with cancer. 

Alex’s father recently died in a car accident. And on the night of his funeral, her best friend Becca slept with Alex’s boyfriend. So things aren’t great. Alex steps away from her friendship with Becca and focuses on her family. 

But when Alex finally decides to forgive Becca, she finds out something that will change her world again—Becca has cancer. 

So what do you do when your best friend has cancer? You help her shave her head. And then you take her bucket list and try to fulfill it on her behalf. Because if that’s all you can do to help your ailing friend—you do it.

My Review:

This was an interesting story with unique characters.  The take on cancer in this book was done well, and this book really showed how difficult the cancer was for both Becca and her family and friends.

POSSIBLE SPOILERS AHEAD

Alex is a character who is going through a lot of tough stuff.  Her dad died in a car accident, and then she finds out that her best friend (who she was in a fight with) has cancer.  I wouldn't want to be in her shoes.  She deals with everything as best as she can - often involving watching a gory horror movie.  Alex isn't always the most sensitive, since she doesn't really think about what she's going to say before it comes out of her mouth.  She says some things that hurt her mom and brothers, usually when they mention her dad.

It is sad to see Becca go through all that she does when she's having her treatments.  She has a good attitude about the whole thing.  When she first talks to Alex about it, she makes a joke.  The list that she made for herself that she gave to Alex to complete was interesting.  The things on the list varied from innocent to rather inappropriate.  As a reader, I had to read about the treatments making her sicker and sicker.  One scene that was sad was when she decided she was well enough to go school, but then she ended up getting sick at school.  I was glad that she had Caleb, the boy next door, who was really sweet and nice to her.  

The relationship between Leo and Alex is well-written.  At first, it doesn't seem like she's fully ready for a real relationship with him.  She seems to only want to have a physical relationship.  The nature of their relationship has to change when his brother dies.  She realizes he needs someone to be there more emotionally, and she doesn't really know how to be there for him in that way.  I thought that Leo was a sweet guy.  He made cookies for Alex, and he didn't run away from Alex and Becca when Becca got sick at school.  He was a guy who really seemed to care about Alex, and I think she really needed someone who cared about that much, even if she thought that she didn't.

If you like YA contemporary, read this book.

Katie

Review: Reality Boy by AS King

 Gerald Faust knows exactly when he started feeling angry: the day his mother invited a reality television crew into his five-year-old life. Twelve years later, he’s still haunted by his rage-filled youth—which the entire world got to watch from every imaginable angle—and his anger issues have resulted in violent outbursts, zero friends, and clueless adults dumping him in the special education room at school.

Nothing is ever going to change. No one cares that he’s tried to learn to control himself, and the girl he likes has no idea who he really is. Everyone’s just waiting for him to snap…and he’s starting to feel dangerously close to doing just that.

In this fearless portrayal of a boy on the edge, highly acclaimed Printz Honor author A.S. King explores the desperate reality of a former child “star” who finally breaks free of his anger by creating possibilities he never knew he deserved.

My Review:

Reality Boy is a really good story that shows what reality TV is really like.  I don't really watch reality TV, but I still liked getting to find out more about it in this book.  

POSSIBLE SPOILERS AHEAD

Gerald is angry, and he's been through a lot in his life so far.  After all, nobody would want to be remembered as the boy who pooped on things in his house when he was five.  But people do remember Gerald for that.  He was on a nanny show where all the sordid details of his family life at five were displayed on TV, but not necessarily in their proper context.  At seventeen, people he go to school still call him the "Crapper."  One boy at school, Nichols, calls him "Crapper" the most, it seems.  Nichols also shows up at the sports center where Gerald works and calls him names there too.  During school, Gerald takes SPED class (special ed), and the people there are all nice to him.  I really liked the kids who were in SPED with him.

The family dynamics in the book are really messed-up, both in the past and in the present.  First, his mom decides to write a letter to Network Nanny and have her come to help the family.  What I don't understand is how she thought having her family's problems displayed on TV would actually help them.  She also says that she can't love her two younger kids as much as she loves Tasha because she doesn't have the capacity to love that much.  That's a terrible thing for someone to say about her own children.  Gerald's oldest sister, Tasha, is awful.  She tries to drown Gerald in the bathtub.  She tries to choke him.  She does all kinds of things to try to kill him, and the mom just turns a blind eye to this.  The family treats Gerald like he needs his problems fixed, when Tasha is just as bad, and maybe even worse.  At the age of twelve, she was doing things with a boy that twelve-year-olds should not be doing.  Gerald's other sister, Lisi, who is older than him, but younger than Tasha, seems fine.  She was away at college in another country, and she seemed like she just wanted to escape the family.  She didn't call when she was away.   I was happy that there was resolution to some of the family problems by the end of the book.

The relationship between Gerald and Hannah (Register #1 Girl) was well-written.  Both of them had problems with the lives that they were living, and they were able to help each other.   Their relationship certainly wasn't easy.  Hannah would mention the TV show occasionally, and that made Gerald mad, because he didn't want her to see him as the boy from the show.  When she brought up the show, he called her a "brainwashed moron," which prompted her to do something else that made him even angrier.  I liked how they came up with rules, and how they broke rule #5.  When they would kiss, Gerald would mention breaking rule #5 in his narration.  Overall, despite some of their issues along the way, I thought they made a sweet couple, and they helped each other.

If you like YA contemporary, read this book.

Katie

Review: Wild Cards by Simone Elkeles

 After getting kicked out of boarding school, bad boy Derek Fitzpatrick has no choice but to live with his ditzy stepmother while his military dad is deployed. Things quickly go from bad to worse when he finds out she plans to move them back to her childhood home in Illinois. Derek’s counting the days before he can be on his own, and the last thing he needs is to get involved with someone else’s family drama.

Ashtyn Parker knows one thing for certain--people you care about leave without a backward glance. A football scholarship would finally give her the chance to leave. So she pours everything into winning a state championship, until her boyfriend and star quarterback betrays them all by joining their rival team. Ashtyn needs a new game plan, but it requires trusting Derek—someone she barely knows, someone born to break the rules. Is she willing to put her heart on the line to try and win it all?

My Review:

This is a quick and fun read.  It's a nice story with a sweet romance.  It is mainly a light read, but there are some heavier issues thrown in there for parts.  Basically, it was a book that I really enjoyed reading.

POSSIBLE SPOILERS AHEAD

Ashtyn's character was interesting, though she sometimes made decisions that I didn't understand.  Dating Landon was one of those decisions.  She is the only female on her high school football team, and she gets voted as the team captain for the year.  Her boyfriend, Landon, wanted to be captain, so he is mad when she gets the position instead.  He makes it pretty obvious that he doesn't think she deserves the position.  I did not like Landon at all.  I thought he was a jerk, and his reaction to not being captain was a really bad reaction.  He should have been happy for his girlfriend, but he wasn't.  The world of football certainly isn't easy for Ashtyn, especially when she attends Elite for a week in the summer, a prestigious football camp that only the best players can go to.  The guys there definitely don't want to accept her as a football player, which is pretty much Landon's fault.  I thought it was really rotten of him to mess up her time at Elite.

Derek was a sweet guy who has been through a lot in his life.  His mom died from cancer, and his dad is deployed in the Navy, so the only family member he has near him is his stepmom who is closer in age to Derek than to Derek's dad.  When he gets kicked out of boarding school, he has to go live with her, and she decides to move back in with her dad and sister.  He has many things that happened in his past that doesn't want to share, one of them being how successful he was at football.  It is so sad to read about how he feels guilty that he wasn't there for his mom when she died.  He was a football practice, so he decides that he must quit football to make up for his mistakes.  Though Derek may have acted like he wasn't the type of guy who would be committed to a girl, he was a really good guy, and I didn't believe that he wouldn't be committed.

The romance between this book is slow-building and sweet, with plenty of problems along the way. There were parts of the book when I wanted to tell Derek and Ashtyn that they both liked each other, so I wanted them to hurry up and start dating.  Since it was dual POV between their perspectives, I assumed they would end up together, but watching the path of their romance was still fun to read.  Their relationship is also interesting because, technically, Derek is Ashtyn's step-nephew.  Of course, they are the same age, and they aren't blood-related, so it's fine that their relationship happens.  I really liked them as a couple.  I liked how they fell more each other even when they were trying not to.  I loved the "nondate" that Derek took Ashtyn.  Really, I just thought their relationship was adorable.

If you like YA contemporary, read this book.

Katie

Review: The Fiery Heart by Richelle Mead

 Sydney Sage is an Alchemist, one of a group of humans who dabble in magic and serve to bridge the worlds of humans and vampires. They protect vampire secrets - and human lives.

In The Indigo Spell, Sydney was torn between the Alchemist way of life and what her heart and gut were telling her to do. And in one breathtaking moment that Richelle Mead fans will never forget, she made a decision that shocked even her. . . .

But the struggle isn't over for Sydney. As she navigates the aftermath of her life-changing decision, she still finds herself pulled in too many directions at once. Her sister Zoe has arrived, and while Sydney longs to grow closer to her, there's still so much she must keep secret. Working with Marcus has changed the way she views the Alchemists, and Sydney must tread a careful path as she harnesses her profound magical ability to undermine the way of life she was raised to defend. Consumed by passion and vengeance, Sydney struggles to keep her secret life under wraps as the threat of exposure — and re-education — looms larger than ever.

Pulses will race throughout this smoldering fourth installment in the New York Times bestselling Bloodlines series, where no secret is safe.

My Review:

This series never leaves me disappointed.  I love these characters, and I love the storyline.  Something I really loved in this book is the romance.  Also, this book has both Sydney's and Adrian's POVs.

POSSIBLE SPOILERS AHEAD

The Sydney and Adrian romance in this book was absolutely perfect.  They are a couple who work so well together, even if they seem like an unlikely match at first.  They have fallen in love, and hearing them say they love each other, and getting to read their thoughts about each other is awesome.  They have such good banter between each other too.  I liked their Love Phones, and how they would secretly send each other messages on those phones.  Their relationship reaches another level physically in this book as well.  At the end of this book, things happen.  I can't say what those things are, since that would spoil the end, but I will say that these things that happen are about as bad as that time when Dimitri got turned into a Strigoi.  I'm not sure how Sydney/Adrian romance is going to go on in the next book.

There is a lot going on in this book when the characters are trying to figure things out to change the world of the Moroi forever.  Adrian does some stuff with spirit to try to see if the blood of a Strigoi who has been restored to a Moroi or a dhampir can be used in tattoos on others to prevent Strigoi from drinking their blood.  It is an interesting theory, and the tests they do to figure it out are interesting too.  They do end up figuring out a solution of how to do this.  

I liked getting to see cameos of the characters from Vampire Academy.  Both Sydney and Adrian spend some time in the Moroi palace, so there are many familiar faces there.  We get to Rose, Lissa, and Dimitri, and even Abe shows up there.  And I also love all the characters who are part of the Bloodlines series.  There is a new dhampir at the boarding school named Neil.  He is quite serious about his job, and he does something interesting near the end of the book.  There is Jill, and she has feelings for Eddie that she is trying to forget about.  Let's just say that something happens with Jill and Eddie near the end of the book, and I'm not sure what will happen next in their story.  Angeline gets into some trouble as usual, having to break into a classroom because she forgot her homework at the desk.  And she's also trying to figure out her complicated relationship with Trey.

If you like YA paranormal, read this book.

Katie

Review: Onyx by Jennifer L. Armentrout

Being connected to Daemon Black sucks…

Thanks to his alien mojo, Daemon’s determined to prove what he feels for me is more than a product of our bizarro connection. So I’ve sworn him off, even though he’s running more hot than cold these days. But we’ve got bigger problems.

Something worse than the Arum has come to town…

The Department of Defense are here. If they ever find out what Daemon can do and that we're linked, I’m a goner. So is he. And there's this new boy in school who’s got a secret of his own. He knows what’s happened to me and he can help, but to do so, I have to lie to Daemon and stay away from him. Like that's possible. Against all common sense, I'm falling for Daemon. Hard.

But then everything changes…

I’ve seen someone who shouldn’t be alive. And I have to tell Daemon, even though I know he’s never going to stop searching until he gets the truth. What happened to his brother? Who betrayed him? And what does the DOD want from them—from me?

No one is who they seem. And not everyone will survive the lies…

My Review:

This was a great continuation to the series.  The romance was good in this one, and there was a lot going on with the characters, especially with the DOD being in town.  

POSSIBLE SPOILERS AHEAD

There were some new characters in this one who were interesting to read about.  The DOD is in town, so there are some DOD characters that pop up in some of the chapters.  But the main new character that I'm thinking of is Blake.  My feelings about him changed throughout the book.  At first, I thought he seemed like a sweet new guy who obviously liked Katy.  And he seemed normal too, so he could help her escape from all the alien craziness.  But then it turned out that he wasn't normal.  He knew all about the alien world, and he wanted to help Katy train the new powers that she was getting.  When he started doing the training, he chnaged.   I didn't like him anymore because he would do risky things with seemingly complete disregard for Katy's safety.  And there are more things that you find out about him near the end of the book.

The romance between Katy and Daemon is well-developed.  I was waiting for this romance to happen in the last book, but it didn't really.  Katy tries to act like she isn't attracted to Daemon, but she really isn't fooling anybody, including Daemon.  She has her doubts about his feelings for her, thinking they are only existing because of the bond, but it was obvious to me how much he liked her.  He was jealous of Blake when Katy went on a date with him, and he was always worried about her safety.  There are some really sweet scenes between the two of them.  There is the Thanksgiving scene and the scene after the big fight with Blake.  I love these two as characters, and as a couple.

If you like YA paranormal, read this book.

Katie 

Review: Find Me by Romily Bernard

 “Find Me.”

These are the words written on Tessa Waye’s diary. The diary that ends up with Wick Tate. But Tessa’s just been found . . . dead.

Wick has the right computer-hacking skills for the job, but little interest in this perverse game of hide-and-seek. Until her sister Lily is the next target.

Then Griff, trailer-park boy next door and fellow hacker, shows up, intent on helping Wick. Is a happy ending possible with the threat of Wick’s deadbeat dad returning, the detective hunting him sniffing around Wick instead, and a killer taunting her at every step?

Foster child. Daughter of a felon. Loner hacker girl. Wick has a bad attitude and sarcasm to spare.

But she’s going to find this killer no matter what.

Because it just got personal.

My Review:

Find Me is a fast-paced mystery novel.  The characters are well-developed, and the plot keeps you turning the pages to see what will happen next.  There are some red herrings in the mystery, since there are a few suspicious characters.  This should continue to be a good mystery series.  The end of this book sets up the premise of the next book, and I will read that when it releases.

POSSIBLE SPOILERS AHEAD

Wick is a great character.  She does some things that are legally questionable, such as her hacking.  She tells herself that her hacking is always for good purposes, but that may not always be true.  She cares about her sister, and she will do anything to protect her.  Her sister, Lily, is eleven years old, and she believes in people more than Wick does.  It's understandable that Wick has some cynical views of people.  After all, her mom killed herself when Wick was younger to escape Wick's abusive dad.  Her dad cooked drugs and taught her how to hack.  When her mom killed herself and her dad went to jail, Wick and Lily were both placed into the foster care system.  

Part of this book was focused on family.  Wick cared so much about Lily, her younger sister.  Lily just wanted to have a good home, and she was glad to have finally found this good home with Bren and Todd.  Bren and Todd are both involved in the types of jobs where they help kids and teenagers, like therapy.  Bren is a really kind foster mom who would like to adopt Wick and Lily since she was never able to have her own children.  I liked how she cared about them, and she really wanted them to be a part of her life.  She tried to act like a true parent to them.

Griff was an interesting character as well.  Sometimes he seemed sweet, and sometimes, he wasn't really as sweet.  He was there for Wick to help her solve the mystery, and he was a big help to her sometimes.  The plot with his hacking was interesting.  When she finds out he hacks, Wick thinks that he is like her.  It is interesting when we find out the truth about him getting involved with hacking for Wick's dad's friend, Joe.  The romance between Griff and Wick was well-developed.  They weren't in a relationship right away.  They started off working together to solve the mystery, and the romance developed from there.

There were some characters who seemed pretty shady, which made the mystery harder to solve.  One policeman, Detective Carson, came and sat outside Wick's house at night.  She wasn't sure if he was doing this because he was trying to find her dad, or if he had discovered Wick was a hacker.  He was really creepy, and Wick would encounter him in many different places.  Another guy who seems shady is Jim Waye, Tessa's dad.  From descriptions in the book, it sounds like he was definitely abusive to his family.  He also comes and lurks outside Wick's house at one part during the book.  And he gets pretty angry and isn't good at controlling his anger.  These shady characters make it difficult to guess who it really was that had caused Tessa to commit suicide.

If you like YA contemporary mystery, read this book.

Katie

Review: Crash Into You by Katie McGarry

 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.

My Review:

Just like I loved Pushing the Limits and Dare You To, I also loved Crash Into You.  The character development was well done, and the plot was fast-moving.  It was one that always held my interest.

POSSIBLE SPOILERS AHEAD

I really liked Rachel's character.  She definitely has a lot of pressure put on her by her family.  I was not a fan of her parents, and my opinion on her brothers wavered.  Sometimes, I would think I liked some of them, but then they would do or say something to make me dislike them.  It was awful that Rachel felt like she had to be Colleen's replacement, but what was even worse was that her mom actually really did want her to be exactly like Colleen.  She didn't really try to get to know Rachel as Rachel.  I also didn't like how the pressure Rachel's family put on her made her feel like she had to hide her panic attacks.  She had suffered panic attacks when she younger, and her family knew that, yet they still made her speak in public because they thought she had gotten over the attacks.  When West and Ethan knew that she still had the attacks, they still wanted her to make the speeches about Colleen.  I feel like they shouldn't have told her she still needed to do the speeches, because doing the speeches was physically making her sick.  I liked getting to read about Rachel doing the things she loved.  She had a passion for cars, and though I didn't understand any of the technical car terms, it was still interesting to read about.

Isaiah is recovering from his heartbreak in this book, after Beth starts going out with Ryan.  He thought he had loved Beth, but in this story, he finds out much more about what love really is.  He has had a tough life, losing his mom to jail when he was six, and being shuffled from one foster home to another for the years following that.  His mom had gotten out of jail two years before this book starts, and at the beginning of the book, she is trying to visit him for the first time.  It is clear that he is mad that she took so long to try to visit, so he doesn't want to see her.  Even with all of his issues, he has a good heart and he cares about people.  He doesn't have an easy time forgiving his mom for the things that have happened in their past, but he tries.  

The romance between Rachel and Isaiah is well developed with many good moments.  They meet in an interesting and illegal way.  They race against each other in a street race, and the race is soon broken up by the cops.  They escape, and when his car breaks down, Rachel takes him in her car.  That same night, they share an intense kiss in his apartment.  It is clear that they both like each other, but it isn't easy for them to make their relationship work.  Rachel and Isaiah are from completely different lives, and he doesn't think he is good for her.  Her brothers wouldn't approve of him if they knew about him, so, once their relationship starts, it stays a secret.  

The minor characters in this book are well done too.  There are cameos of Noah and Echo, and Beth and Ryan.  Beth and Ryan are there less because Isaiah isn't friends with Beth anymore.  He still is friends with Noah, though, and they live together in an apartment.  Ryan's friend, Logan, makes some appearances in this book, and he surprisingly becomes good friends with Isaiah.  They both like to race their cars.  Abby is an interesting, and I hope I find out more about her in the later books.  She is a drug dealer, but she still becomes Rachel's best friend.  She's not the type of person that Rachel would usually be friends with, and Abby doesn't typically do friendships.  It is an interesting friendship, but it is well-written and developed.

If you like YA contemporary, read this book.

Katie

Review: Once We Were by Kat Zhang

 "I'm lucky just to be alive."

Eva was never supposed to have survived this long. As the recessive soul, she should have faded away years ago. Instead, she lingers in the body she shares with her sister soul, Addie. When the government discovered the truth, they tried to “cure” the girls, but Eva and Addie escaped before the doctors could strip Eva’s soul away.

Now fugitives, Eva and Addie find shelter with a group of hybrids who run an underground resistance. Surrounded by others like them, the girls learn how to temporarily disappear to give each soul some much-needed privacy. Eva is thrilled at the chance to be alone with Ryan, the boy she’s falling for, but troubled by the growing chasm between her and Addie. Despite clashes over their shared body, both girls are eager to join the rebellion.

Yet as they are drawn deeper into the escalating violence, they start to wonder: How far are they willing to go to fight for hybrid freedom? Faced with uncertainty and incredible danger, their answers may tear them apart forever.

My Review:

This book was a good second installment in the Hybrid Chronicles.  It continues to develop the characters, and the world that they live in.  The world they live in is often a cruel world, especially to the hybrids, even though it isn't their fault that the recessive soul didn't just fade away.

POSSIBLE SPOILERS AHEAD

The conflicts between Eva and Addie were portrayed well in this book.  They were beginning to share the control of their body more, which made things much more complicated for them.  The problem is that sometimes Eva and Addie have different opinions.  For example, when the underground hybrid rebellion begins, Eva wants to be involved while Addie thinks it is too dangerous.  When Eva has control of their body, she is able to agree to being involved in the rebellion, even though she is going against Addie's wishes.  Sometimes, Eva and Addie get mad at each other, and they are able to actually just leave each other.  They have learned how to do this so they can have some time alone.  But when they use this when they are having a fight, they aren't able to talk about their problems that they are fighting about.

The romantic relationships in this book are interesting.  Of course, romantic relationships are quite awkward when every body has two souls, and each soul likes a different person.  Maybe it would be ideal that one soul liked one soul, and the other soul liked the other soul in the other body, but that's not how it happens in this book.  Eva likes Ryan, and she is able to have a relationship with him when Addie is not there.  Addie knows that Eva is in a relationship with Ryan.  The problem is that Addie keeps her relationship with a guy a secret from Eva.  That makes it super awkward when Eva wakes up and finds herself kissing a boy that she doesn't even like.  I feel like Addie should have told her about her relationship because that is something Eva should know.  Addie knows about Ryan, so she should have told Eva about her boyfriend.  

There is some interesting stuff going on in this book with the hybrid rebellions.  Some of the plans that they come up with are so dangerous and risky.  They don't really seem like the best plan.  And these plans are being kept a secret from the leader of the hybrids, Peter.  The main leader of the secret rebellions is Sabine.  She is keeping some secrets from Eva and Addie, though.  They think she is planning on bombing an empty building that is meant to be a hybrid institution, but what will they do when they find out her true plan?  Eva is more trusting of Sabine than Addie.  Addie doesn't want to be involved, yet they still end up involved.  What ends up happening to their plan is interesting.

If you like YA sci-fi, read this book.

Katie

What I Read in 2013: A Numbers Story

For this post, I'm going to look at all the books I read this year and break them down by how many I read in different categories - genre, point of view, and series status.  I will start by counting how many rereads I had.  The books that were rereads will not be counted in the rest of the numbers.  After each category, I will give a brief analysis showing my thoughts on what the numbers of what I've read this year.

Genre

      Contemporary: 58 books

      Paranormal: 14 books

      Dystopian/Sci-fi: 19 books

      Historical: 3 books

      Fantasy: 2 books

      Mythology: 1 book

My Thoughts: These numbers clearly reflect that my favorite genre to read is contemporary.  I did read more dystopian this year, though, and I read some paranormal, but not nearly as much paranormal as I used to read before I got into contemporary.  I do not read very much fantasy at all.

Series Status

      Standalone: 48 books

      First in a series: 27 books

      Last in a series: 4 books

      Any other book in a series: 10 books

      Part of a series of companion novels: 6 books

      Novella: 2 books

My Thoughts: At first, it looks like the majority of what I read are standalones.  But when all the series categories are added together, I read 40 books this year that were part of a series.  That number is not that far from 48.  I read 27 books that were the first in a series, several of them being debuts, so I will be reading the second books in these series in 2014.  Other books in that category are parts of series that are already released, so I may have already read the next book, or I can read it whenever I want, without having to wait for it to come out.

Point of View

      First Person: 83 books

             One Female Narrator: 55 books

             One Male Narrator: 18 books

             Two Narrators: 12 books

             Three or More Narrators: 0 books

      Third Person: 13 books

My Thoughts: Most of what I read is written in 1st person, and I knew that even before I did this tally.  1st person is most of what I read, and when I write, that is how I write.  I tried to read more books with male narrators, but that number is still heavily outweighed by the number of books that were told from the POV of a female narrator.  While I will continue to read more male narrator books in 2014, I feel like I'm still going to read many more female narrator stories, simply because more of YA is written from the perspective of a female narrator.

Katie

What I've Read From My Monthly Lists

Each month, I write a list of the books I'm most excited for that are releasing during that month.  I read some of the books the month they come out, I read some of them later, and there are some of them on the lists that I have not yet read.  This post will tell what I've read from each list, what I still need to read, and the fraction of how many books on the list I've read out of how many books were on the list in the first place.  I will show this for every month in this post.

January

What I Read: 
Empty by KM Walton
Then You Were Gone by Lauren Strasnick
Uses for Boys by Erica Lorraine Scheidt
Nobody But Us by Kristin Halbrook

What I Have Not Read: 
Falling for You by Lisa Schroeder
Brianna on the Brink by Nicole McInnes
Return to Me by Justina Chen
Boundless by Cynthia Hand
Hooked by Liz Fichera

Fraction: 4 read out of 9

February

What I Read: 
The Reece Malcolm List by Amy Spalding
Me Him Them and It by Caela Carter
The Indigo Spell by Richelle Mead
Pivot Point by Kasie West
Crash and Burn by Michael Hassan

What I Have Not Read: 
Hysteria by Megan Miranda
Infinite Sky by CJ Flood

Fraction: 5 read out of 6 (Infinite Sky was actually only released in the UK, so I'm not counting it in my total)

March 

What I Read: 
Bruised by Sarah Skilton
Clockwork Princess by Cassandra Clare
Pretty Girl-13 by Liz Coley
If You Find Me by Emily Murdoch
Impostor by Jill Hathaway
Things I Can't Forget by Miranda Kenneally

What I Have Not Read: 

Fraction: 6 read out of 6

April

What I Read: 
My Life After Now by Jessica Verdi
If He Had Been With Me by Laura Nowlin
Taken by Erin Bowman
This Is What Happy Looks Like by Jennifer E. Smith

What I Have Not Read: 
The Collector by Victoria Scott
The Symptoms of My Insanity by Mindy Raf

Fraction: 4 read out of 6

May

What I Read: 
Nantucket Blue by Leila Howland
Reboot by Amy Tintera
Golden by Jessi Kirby
The Rules for Disappearing by Ashley Elston
The Book of Broken Hearts by Sarah Ockler
All I Need by Susane Colasanti
Thousand Words by Jennifer Brown
The Neptune Project by Polly Holyoke
Dare You To by Katie McGarry

What I Have Not Read:
How I Lost You by Janet Gurtler
The S-Word by Chelsea Pitcher
Riptide by Lindsey Scheibe 

Fraction: 9 read out of 12

June

What I Read: 
The Moon and More by Sarah Dessen
Insomnia by JR Johansson
Another Little Piece by Kate Karyus Quinn
In the After by Demitria Lunetta

What I Have Not Read: 
Rules of Summer by Joanna Philbin
Linked by Imogen Howson

Fraction: 4 read out of 6

July

What I Read: 
The Distance Between Us by Kasie West
45 Pounds by KA Barson
Prep School Confidential by Kara Taylor

What I Have Not Read:
Dirty Little Secret by Jennifer Echols
Starglass by Phoebe North

Fraction: 3 read out of 5

August 

What I Read: 
Gated by Amy Christine Parker
Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea by April Genevieve Tucholke
The Beginning of Everything by Robyn Schneider

What I Have Not Read: 
Canary by Rachele Alpine
Taste Test by Kelly Fiore

Fraction: 3 read out of 5

September 

What I Read: 
Dead Ends by Erin Jade Lange
All Our Yesterdays by Cristin Terrill
Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell
This Song Will Save Your Life by Leila Sales
Dead Girls Don't Lie by Jennifer Shaw Wolf
Once We Were by Kat Zhang
Where the Stars Still Shine by Trish Doller
Find Me by Romily Bernard

What I Have Not Read:
Wild Cards by Simone Elkeles

Fraction: 8 read out of 9

October

What I Read: 
Fault Line by Christa Desir
How To Love by Katie Cotugno
Allegiant by Veronica Roth

What I Have Not Read: 
The House of Hades by Rick Riordan
Premeditated by Josin L. McQuein
Red by Alison Cherry
The Vow by Jessica Martinez
 Reality Boy by AS King

Fraction: 3 read out of 8

November 

What I Read: 
Crash Into You by Katie McGarry

What I Have Not Read: 
The F-It List by Julie Halpern
The Fiery Heart by Richelle Mead

Fraction: 1 read out of 3

December 

What I Read:

What I Have Not Read: 
Ink Is Thicker Than Water by Amy Spalding
Racing Savannah by Miranda Kenneally
These Broken Stars by Amie Kaufman and Meagan Spooner
Control by Lydia Kang
The Promise of Amazing by Robin Constantine

Fraction: 0 read out of 5

Total Read Out Of Total Listed: 50 read out of 80

Katie

January Releases I'm Most Excited For

January 7th:
No One Else Can Have You by Kathleen Hale - This book sounds like an interesting murder mystery.  The aspect of the very small small town sounds unique, and I look forward to reading this story.



January 21st:
Fake ID by Lamar Giles - This sounds like another interesting mystery.  The Witness Protection aspect should be good.  I've only read one other book with Witness Protection, and I really liked it.



January 28th:
Timestorm by Julie Cross - I loved Tempest and Vortex, so I am looking forward to seeing how this series ends.
Her Dark Curiosity by Megan Shepherd - I look forward to seeing what happens next in this continuation of The Madman's Daughter series.



Katie