Friday, April 7, 2017

The Last True Love Story by Brendan Kiely

Hendrix's grandfather is slowly disappearing into an Alzheimer haze and is living in a nursing home. All his grandfather wants is to go back to New York to see it one more time. That's when Hendrix gets an idea to drive his grandfather away from California back to New York fulfilling his grandfather's dying wish. The only problem was that he didn't know how to drive and he didn't exactly have his own car. That's when Corrina comes in. Corrina is one of Hendrix's friends and she is going through a rough time. All she wants is to get away so Hedrix proposes that she drives him and his grandfather to New York. They take Hendrix's mom's car, pick up his grandfather and then start driving to New York. It's a long drive but Hendrix is determined to make it there.

This book is filled with moments of happiness, some of sadness, and many filled with adventure and laughs. I love the 'relationship' between Corrina and Hendrix have during the story and I also really enjoyed how different parts of the story unfolded. I am shocked by a number of reviewers who didn't like this book. Some say it's "too John Green" or "too similar to every other YA book". In my opinion: so what if it shares similar plot lines to other books? It was still a great book and to be honest I didn't notice similarities to many other books.

I recommend this book to anyone who likes mild adventures. This isn't an action book, no one's being chased or shot at, but it's still a fun adventure to read. This book is exciting, funny, and heartwarming. It even has a little romance, but not too much to get sappy. I truly think this is a great book, and a wonderful read.

Books like this:
The Odds of Lightning by Jocelyn Davies
My Unscripted Life by Lauren Morrill

Check it out!

Wednesday, April 5, 2017

Teach Me To Forget by Erica M. Chapman

Ellerly is passed being depressed, she's ready for it all to be over. The date is planned down to the minute. In her closet sits the gun accompanied by the one bullet she will need. She has savings set aside for her mother to help with afterward, including hiring a cleaning crew to come the next morning. What she didn't plan for was the gun not working. 

This isn't just some suicide story. Yes, Ellerly wants to die, and even tries it more then once. But when she's returning the broken gun, a guy from school recognizes her and her distress, tries to stop her from getting a new gun. She doesn't know him but he refuses to leave him alone I thought that this books was well written and the parts of the story I do find relatable (and I promise, it's not the suicidal parts

I honestly don't know who to recommend this book to. It's a hard book to recommend. It covers a tough topic. If you are interested in books that cover sad, tough topics like suicide and depression then you might be interested in this book. 

Books this one reminded me of:
Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson
To Catch A Killer Sheryl Scarborough

Check it out

Monday, April 3, 2017

Wake by Amanda Hocking

Gemma is about to into her junior year of high school and is working towards her goal of becoming an Olympic swimmer. Gemma's life is going great! She's dating an amazing guy, the boy-next-door, named Alex. Her swimming time keeps getting better and she's all around happy. In Gemma's town, summer has started and tourist season has begun. There are three mysterious but gorgeous girls are in town visiting and they give Gemma the creeps. These girls, Penn, Lexi, and Thea make Gemma nervous especially when they approach her. When the missing teenage boys are found in the woods completely ripped apart, Gemma starts to worry. It seems that Penn, Lexi andThea may look normal but Gemma quickly finds out that they're far from it.

This book was good. It moved painfully slow at times but that's the way first books in a series tend to go. Gemma and Harper are so close and their dynamic, in my opinion, is what makes this book especially good. In a few of the Goodreads reviews it is mentioned that they're not a fan of Gemma, the main character. They say she isn't too bright and is mostly bland. I don't totally agree with this opinion but I can sort of see where they're coming from. They also say that the story moves too slow. I agree with that, as I said before, it does move slowly but in my opinion it needed to. I think that the pace was necessary for you to know the information to make the story work. There were many other reviews, some good some bad as you can guess, but none of them are worth arguing.

I recommend this book to anyone that enjoys mythical sea creature books. This book has mermaids, adventure, some suspense, and even romance. 

Books this reminded me of:
-Siren by Kiera Cass
-Lies Beneath by Anne Greenwood Brown
-The Tail of Emily Windsnap by Liz Kesler

Check it out!

Thursday, March 16, 2017

My absence...

I am so sorry that it's been so long since I've written a post! A few weeks ago I was diagnosed with carpal tunnel from typing so much. So I was told that I needed to take a break for at least a month and type as little as possible and that's why I haven't been posting at all. My month is almost up and my wrists have been feeling a lot better! I'll start up again the first Monday of April! :)

Keep reading!
-Delanie

Friday, February 17, 2017

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets by J.K. Rowling

Yes, I finally started reading Harry Potter series. I know this is book two but I didn't like book one, I couldn't finish it. It was too much like the movie which I've seen so many times. Although I didn't read it I was impressed with it's similarity in the part I did read.

I honestly feel like I don't need to explain what this book is about. There is so much hype around this wizarding world that if you haven't heard of Harry Potter then you've mastered a skill I wish I could have. In this book, Harry and his friends find out about a secret chamber created by one of the founders of Hogwarts that supposedly contains a beast so vicious it was impossible to defeat. This chamber can only be open by an heir of Slytherin, and no one knows who that is. Harry is worried that something bad is going to happen and knows he needs to try to stop it. 

Clearly there are many many reviews of this book, most of them being positive. I want to talk about the negative ones I've found. Most of them are just magic haters, don't really get into the magic 'thing', or it wasn't adult enough for them. All valid reasons. Others trash J.K. Rowling's writing and the way she goes about writing the book. I disagree but okay. Then there are the people who start to get too personal. They hate the characters, one specifically stated that she felt Harry shouldn't even be in the book at all and that he is so dull and predictable that it made the whole series "fall flat" in her mind. Wait what? 

I personally loved this book, but I can see how it may not be for everyone. So far I am in love with the characters and I can't wait to keep reading these books! If you're into magic, and fantasy you'll love these books. I especially recommend these books to middle schoolers. Being in high school and reading many different reading levels I can see that this book/parts I've read so far is definitely catered to younger kids in the difficulty levels. That being said, I know many adults who have loved it and have claimed that it made them feel like a kid again. So who really knows. 

The last thing I want to say is: don't let the coverage and media around this series decide whether you read them or not.

Books like this:
I'm not going to do this. I have honestly never read or heard of anything like this.

Check it out!

Wednesday, February 15, 2017

Unforgiven by Lauren Kate

Now that Luce and Daniel have found their happy ending Cam is left wanting to find his own. Cam wants to find Lilith, the girl he almost married years ago.  When he finds out that she is being put through hell by Lucifer he does everything he can to get her out. Lucifer gives Cam 15 days to get Lilith, who remembers nothing about him, to fall back in love with him. It is much harder than he could ever imagine but with Luce and Daniel as his inspiration, he keeps fighting no matter what.


I LOVED THIS BOOK!!! I always liked Cam throughout the whole series and when I found out that there's a book just about him I was so excited. There were many people that were excited about this book too, even people that didn't like the other books. This book allows you to see a different side of Cam and that's what I loved most about this book.

I recommend this book to readers who loved Cam in the other books. Although I do think this book is for readers who liked Cam I also think that if you like Lauren Kate and the Fallen Series I think that you'll still like this book. It really gives you another step into that world and if you didn't like Cam before I bet you will after reading this book.


Check it out!

Monday, February 13, 2017

The Beginning of Everything by Robyn Schneider

Ezra Faulkner believes that everyone will have some tragedy in their life that marks the start of your life. Ezra's tragedy was getting into a car accident after finding out his girlfriend cheated on him. Ezra was a star at his high school. Top tennis player, and popular. His accident ended his tennis career and completely changed the corse of his life. He makes new friends, joins the debate team and even gets a new girlfriend. But everything still doesn't play out the way he thinks it would.

This book was surprising, you don't really know what to expect with this book. There's absolutely no predicting with it, no guessing. Which makes it really hard to say much about it, so I've turned to others. In a few reviews they mention how this book is funny but not easy to laugh at. I agree, there were many parts that made me laugh out loud and it's not like the book ended unhappily. But it was just a very weird story line and I still don't know what to think of it.

I don't know who to recommend this book to. It's kind of a mix between Me and Earl and the Dying Girl and We Were Liars because Ezra has a very similar voice to Greg from Me and Earl and the Dying Girl, he has similar feelings, opinions, and acts very similar in some ways. But this book also has a sort of tragedy aspect to it like We Were Liars and that's why I'd compare the two. Honestly, I don't really know but look, I've filled 3 paragraphs.

Books like this:
Me and Earl and the Dying Girl by Jesse Andrews
When You Were Here by Daisy Whitney
My Life After Now by Jessica Verdi

Check it out!