Ten Things We Did (and Probably Shouldn't Have)

Ten Things We Did (and Probably Shouldn't Have
Author: Sarah Mlynowski
Pages: 368 pages
publication date: June 7 2011






Summary:
2 girls + 3 guys + 1 house – parents = 10 things April and her friends did that they (definitely, maybe, probably) shouldn't have.

If given the opportunity, what sixteen-year-old wouldn't jump at the chance to move in with a friend and live parent-free? Although maybe "opportunity" isn't the right word, since April had to tell her dad a tiny little untruth to make it happen (see #1: "Lied to Our Parents"). But she and her housemate Vi are totally responsible and able to take care of themselves. How they ended up "Skipping School" (#3), "Throwing a Crazy Party" (#8), "Buying a Hot Tub" (#4), and, um, "Harboring a Fugitive" (#7) at all is kind of a mystery to them.

In this hilarious and bittersweet tale, Sarah Mlynowski mines the heart and mind of a girl on her own for the first time. To get through the year, April will have to juggle a love triangle, learn to do her own laundry, and accept that her carefully constructed world just might be falling apart . . . one thing-she-shouldn't-have-done at a time.



review:
This was a fun and fast paced book, so many people have told me how much they loved it, I had to get my hands on a copy right away.

At first I was really into the book but then by the end I don’t think I liked it as much as I thought I did, it was definitely 4 stars for me but I was hoping for the amazing 5 star book.

I felt like punching the main girl only because she kept lying and digging herself in a giant hole, but I honestly have to say that this book would never happen in real life, first of all, no way would any kid get away without the parents meeting, I mean she was really sneaky and kept making up excuses as to why her dad couldn’t meet Susan, I mean really, my dad would insist that he talk to her in person first, second of all I don’t think a parent would give me $1,000 dollars each month, he would tell me to go out and get a job.

Then there’s her whole mom thing, her mom knew the whole time, and being the good mom she was kept it quiet from her dad, what kind of mom would do that? She and her mom are “best friends” but come on, even a mom has to take some responsibility, and I was annoyed with her mom too!

But bad things aside I really did enjoy reading this book, at times I was biting my nails ready for her to get caught, they definitely thought of everything that’s for sure, and somehow everything worked out.

At the end I would have liked to hear what the dad said when she told him, I would have liked to hear him get mad or ground her or something but the book ended right there, I was a little disappointed about that but I will get over it.

Sarah did create a wonderful story that has people wanting more of her writing; I have read Gimme a Call by her and I liked it but this one was even better! I loved reading about April’s life of lies. Can’t wait to see what else Sarah writes.


4/5 stars

Sweetly

Sweetly
Author: Jackson Pearce
pages: 310
publication date: August 23 2011





Summary:
Twelve years ago, Gretchen, her twin sister, and her brother went looking for a witch in the forest. They found something. Maybe it was a witch, maybe a monster, they aren’t sure—they were running too fast to tell. Either way, Gretchen’s twin sister was never seen again.

Years later, after being thrown out of their house, Gretchen and Ansel find themselves in Live Oak, South Carolina, a place on the verge of becoming a ghost town. They move in with Sophia Kelly, a young and beautiful chocolatier owner who opens not only her home, but her heart to Gretchen and Ansel.

Yet the witch isn’t gone—it’s here, lurking in the forests of Live Oak, preying on Live Oak girls every year after Sophia Kelly’s infamous chocolate festival. But Gretchen is determined to stop running from witches in the forest, and start fighting back. Alongside Samuel Reynolds, a boy as quick with a gun as he is a sarcastic remark, Gretchen digs deeper into the mystery of not only what the witch is, but how it chooses its victims. Yet the further she investigates, the more she finds herself wondering who the real monster is, and if love can be as deadly as it is beautiful.



Review:

After reading Sisters Red last year I fell in love with Jackson Pearce’s writing. I LOVED Sisters Red, that’s why when the ARC of Sweetly came in the mail I was excited to start it. I was very disappointed. For some reason Sweetly didn’t match up to my expectations.

Ansel and Gretchel have been kicked out of their house by their step-mom, they leave and get stranded in a little town that doesn’t have many people, and it doesn’t help with all the crazy rumors spreading around.

They find Sophie, the chocolate maker and the girl that most of the town hates, there’s been rumors that she’s the one who made the girls disappear. Ansel and Gretchel help around the house and live with Sophie, Ansel falls in love, and Gretchel becomes suspicious, while she falls in love the town outcast.

The whole time I knew something was up with the way Sophie was acting and all throughout the book they showed signs here and there of suspicious activity and I knew something was up but both Ansel and Gretchel were too dumb to realize it for the longest time. 

I’m glad Gretchel figured it out, and did what she did, but we didn’t find out what was really up with Sophie and the whole disappearance thing until the end of the book. While reading it I became frustrated because I couldn’t figure it out and they weren’t figuring out anything, finally after about 300 pages I found out, that was the longest suspense moment for me.

I don’t know about you but while reading Sweetly I started drawling from hearing about all that chocolate and candy. I craved chocolate so bad, and we had none, then mom came home with some chocolate and I all but pounced on top of her to get it. For those of you who are allergic to chocolate I totally knew what you feel like. While reading about chocolate and candy throughout the entire book (and let me tell you, there was always a talk about it, I became so hungry for it, but we had none.

All chocolate and sugar aside I did enjoy Sweetly, I haven’t really read much about the Hansel and Gretel story when I was younger but I remember most of the story to be able to incorporate it into the book while reading it. I heard somebody say that  some of the characters in Sisters Red were slyly put into this book, but it was such a long time ago that I read Sisters Red that I had no idea what part it was at.

I can’t wait to read about what Jackson Pearce writes next.

3/5 stars

In My Mailbox #10

Quote for today

Someone posted this one facebook so I though I should share it with you guys, enjoy!

When I woke up this morning, I asked myself, "What is life about?" I found the answer in my room...the fan said, "Be cool." The roof said, "Aim high." The window said, "See the world!" The clock said, "Every minute is precious." The mirror said, "Reflect before you act." The calendar said, "Be up to date." The door said, "Push hard for your goals." The floor said, "Stay grounded." And most importantly, the toilet said "don't take any shit"....

Ashes, Ashes

Ashes,Ashes
Author: Jo Treggiari
pages:341
publication date: July 1 2011






Summary:

A thrilling tale of adventure, romance, and one girl's unyielding courage through the darkest of nightmares.

Epidemics, floods, droughts--for sixteen-year-old Lucy, the end of the world came and went, taking 99% of the population with it. As the weather continues to rage out of control, and Sweepers clean the streets of plague victims, Lucy survives alone in the wilds of Central Park. But when she's rescued from a pack of hunting dogs by a mysterious boy named Aidan, she reluctantly realizes she can't continue on her own. She joins his band of survivors, yet, a new danger awaits her: the Sweepers are looking for her. There's something special about Lucy, and they will stop at nothing to have her.




Review:
I have never been disappointed with a dystopian novel yet, each one is different and original and I love the dystopian genre very much.

Lucy is a loner, she is one of the lucky who hasn’t died from the black plague, everyone in her family had died, she’s all alone, living in the woods, with a homemade shelter, minimal food and water, and lives each day to the fullest, knowing that any time she could die.

Then one day she meets Aidan, she is instantly irritated at his “cool” behavior, she smells like she just crawled out of the sewer while he smells like soap. Aidan saves her life from wild dogs, he tells her he lives in a place called “The Hell Gate” she sees the water at the river rising higher and she knows that a tsunami is coming. She gathers her stuff and heads off to The Hell Gate. There she finds Aidan and many others living in tents and getting by way better than she had.

While she figures out what to do next she stays, while she is there “sweepers” come and raid there area, they take some people each time they come. But the one person they are looking for is Lucy, even though she doesn’t know it yet, Lucy is special, they’re out for her blood.

Every time I read novel like this, I always wish I could communicate with the characters or help them in some ways, it would be awesome to be able to actually interact with the characters while I’m reading about them.

I’ve had “Ashes, Ashes” for awhile now just sitting on my desk and now I finally finished, I really wish I would have read this sooner. I should know better, I always hold off on the really awesome books.

This book was suspenseful and full of action and romance, I did predict the betrayal of a certain character, but I was just as confused as Lucy and Aidan about Dr. Lessing, was she good or evil? If you want to know the answer to this question, go out and pick up a copy of it!



4/5 stars

Wintertown

Wintertown
Author: Stephen Emond
pages: 305
publication date: December 5






Summary:
Every winter, straight-laced, Ivy League bound Evan looks forward to a visit from Lucy, a childhood pal who moved away after her parent's divorce. But when Lucy arrives this year, she's changed. The former "girl next door" now has chopped dyed black hair, a nose stud, and a scowl. But Evan knows that somewhere beneath the Goth, "Old Lucy" still exists, and he's determined to find her... even if it means pissing her off.

Garden State meets Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist in this funny and poignant illustrated novel about opposites who fall in love.



Review:
WinterTown Is one of those weird books where you don’t quite know if it’s you like the book or not, while reading it my thoughts were all over the place. I didn’t know what to make of the book.

I did like the closeness that Evan and Lucy had but I felt like there should have been more of Lucy and Evan as a couple. Evan’s character is great, I loved his awesome nerdiness, his charm, the way he thought, you could really tell what he was thinking in this book and it was nice to be able to see inside Evan’s mind in most of this book.

Unfortunately I didn’t like Lucy’s character at all. I felt like all she did was feel sorry for herself the whole time and she kind of annoyed me throughout the book, she changed so much from when Evan last saw her a year before. Evan didn’t like the new Lucy and neither did I. She had family issues, so she decided to rebel and turn Goth, unfortunately her personality and demeanor changed with her clothes.

This book was different, it had pictures and comic strips and it made the whole book come together nicely, while reading this I couldn’t help but think about the times when I used to read picture books and I never read the words, it’s refreshing to go back to that and read a YA book that has pictures in it.

I didn’t feel like Wintertown was amazing, and I found myself looking at the page numbers and thinking “is this book almost done.” The pictures broke up the writing and made the book fast paced and more enjoyable.
I don’t know whether reading this in winter time would make this book more enjoyable. I don’t know if reading books in certain seasons that pertain to the plot of the book, but I wonder if I read this book in wintertime if I would enjoy this book more. I don’t know, it’s definitely a good theory to try out.

Anyways, Wintertown was a different read than I’m used to reading, it was pretty fast paced and a light read. I’m glad I got an ARC of it, hopefully when winter comes around, and this book comes out, people with snuggle inside a blanket with a cup of hot cocoa and enjoy it!

2/5 stars

Waiting on Wednesday #14

waiting on wednesday is a weekly event
hosted by breaking the spine








This week's book I can't wait for is:

Glow
Author: Amy Kathleen Ryan
publication date: September 27 2011








Summary:
What if you were bound for a new world, about to pledge your life to someone you'd been promised to since birth, and one unexpected violent attack made survival—not love—the issue?

Out in the murky nebula lurks an unseen enemy: the New Horizon. On its way to populate a distant planet in the wake of Earth's collapse, the ship's crew has been unable to conceive a generation to continue its mission. They need young girls desperately, or their zealous leader's efforts will fail. Onboard their sister ship, the Empyrean, the unsuspecting families don't know an attack is being mounted that could claim the most important among them...

Fifteen-year-old Waverly is part of the first generation to be successfully conceived in deep space; she was born on the Empyrean, and the large farming vessel is all she knows. Her concerns are those of any teenager—until Kieran Alden proposes to her. The handsome captain-to-be has everything Waverly could ever want in a husband, and with the pressure to start having children, everyone is sure he's the best choice. Except for Waverly, who wants more from life than marriage—and is secretly intrigued by the shy, darkly brilliant Seth.

But when the Empyrean faces sudden attack by their assumed allies, they quickly find out that the enemies aren't all from the outside.




leave a comment with your WOW in the comments!

Clean

Clean
Author:Amy Reed
pages: 288
publication date: May 8 2011





Summary:
Olivia, Kelly, Christopher, Jason, and Eva have one thing in common: They’re addicts. Addicts who have hit rock bottom and been stuck together in rehab to face their problems, face sobriety, and face themselves. None of them wants to be there. None of them wants to confront the truths about their pasts. But they’ll all have to deal with themselves and one another if they want to learn how to live. Because when you get that high, there’s nowhere to go but down, down, down.




Review:
I didn’t know what to expect going into this novel. I knew it was a heavy novel focuses on a subject that you don’t hear about too much in the YA genre, I usually don’t read much about teenagers who are addicted to drugs or alcohol.

I went into this book not expecting, not expecting to like it as much as I thought I would.

Clean is about 5 teens that have a problem, whether it’s a drug addiction, an alcohol problem or an eating disorder these 5 teens each are addicted to one of those things. That’s why there in the rehab system, wasting a month away trying to get clean and stay away from their problems.

The writing of this book is very original, it switches from each of their perspectives, in the form of discussions in there group or group assignments and sometimes just telling a story.

I became so captured into these teen’s lives I forgot about everything else until I finished it. It was addictive reading about their sadness and the way they felt, and then reading about them growing up and growing into their characters, each of the 5 teens are as different as night and day but they grow together as a group, helping each other out, even though it didn’t seem like it at the time.

When they just started in the rehab program they had one thing on their mind. How to get the next fix and counting down the days till they were able to leave, by the end they were almost all different people. They understood each other and they learned to work together. There were some ups and downs but in the end it seemed like they got the purpose of why they were there and why they needed to get better.

This book isn’t for everybody, but I definitely recommend reading it. You won’t be disappointed. It is a heavy read but a really good story.



4/5 stars