Lose Time Reading

I was really excited to participate in the tour for Temptation; I am really on a contemporary kick this summer with my reading and it sounded so unique from everything I’ve read in the genre.I absolutely loved the characters in Temptation. Rose, the main character was so real and refreshing. I loved her no nonsense attitude with her brother, her ability to speak her mind and act on her own accord and her loyalty to Noah. Speaking of Noah, talk about swoonworthy. He was so different from the bad boys that normally have me head over heels for them but I adored him. Although I didn’t agree with a lot of his opinions when it came to Rose and how woman should act, his complete love for Rose won me over. Plus how can you resist a sexy boy in suspenders ;) I also adored Rose’s brothers. They were hilarious, overbearing, jerks but the three siblings had so much love for each other you couldn’t help to love them. All in all the character development was fantastic, I was entirely invested in all of the characters and their stories.The story itself, like I said above, was so unique to anything I’ve read. Learning about the Amish culture and way of life was fascinating to me. Karen Ann Hopkins clearly wanted to ensure that the Amish were shown realistically and it shows. I loved having a peek into the forbidden thoughts of Noah and his families reactions.Temptation was sweet, romantic, and at times incredibly heartwrenching. I really felt for Rose and Noah. The instant connection they had and sheer determination to be together against all odds was lovely.The ending had me dying to pick up the next book immediately because I can not wait to see what happens. No spoilers but it’s a great ending for the first book and opens it up for a great start on Belonging.If you love contemporaries and want something different in the genre I wholeheartedly recommend Temptation. It’s a great start to a beautiful journey.

Burn for Burn was pretty forgettable for me. I remembered the ending but I wasn’t wowed by the story at all, and in fact I found a lot of the revenge acts horrible and just didn’t agree with what the girls were doing. When I started Fire with Fire I could barely remember any of the characters so I had to reread my review for Burn for Burn. Ironically Mary, the one girl who wasn’t focused on largely in the first book was the only girl I remembered clearly. Despite all the drawbacks Burn for Burn had for me I still very much wanted to pick up Fire with Fire, due to the cliffhanger ending, and see where the story was going.One thing I had forgotten about entirely was the authors easy to read style. Normally with books I had reservations with I find it extremely hard to initially get into the story. That’s not the case at all with Siobhan Vivian & Jenny Han. These two ladies have such a fluent, easy to read writing style that I was immediately swept into the story again. Not to mention they leave each point of view chapter on a cliffhanger and switch to another character. Fantastic writing.While Kat, Lilia and Mary were still a major part of the story in Fire with Fire, I also found that the secondary characters played just as big of a role this time around. Perhaps it’s because Burn for Burn barely left an impression on me, or maybe it actually was the case, but there was a huge focus on secondary characters. And I loved it. I often find a favorite character outside of the main character(s) and it was very true for this story. I adored Alex. He was so incredibly sweet and I hope, HOPE he ends up in a good place in the last novel. Any time he was hurt I was cringing, I just adored him. I remember hating some of the revenge acts that were done to him last time, so I was glad to see it was different this time. I really enjoyed the voices of the three girls as well. Kat still remained my favorite out of the three as she is spunky and not scared to be herself but Lilia was enjoyable as well as Mary. The hardest part about reading Mary’s POV though is that it’s so incredibly sad sometimes. When she reflects back on what happened on the boat, gosh, it’s enough to make my heart twist.I think one of the main reasons I enjoyed Fire with Fire so much, is the initial element that I disliked the first time is not there. I hated the revenge portion in the first novel. The “revenges” were just so awful, things I couldn’t even imagine doing to anyone and I couldn’t understand why the girls would do such awful things to someone else. I guess for me, the act that was done to them didn’t match up to what the revenge given was. While there is definitely a revenge portion in Fire with Fire, it didn’t unsettle me like Burn for Burn did. Actually the main revenge is leading the story down a different road, and I’m really interested to see what happens.To say Fire with Fire was good would be an understatement, it thoroughly impressed me. It swept my expectations (which were low) completely under the rug, and I was absolutely thrilled with how much I enjoyed the story. The ending made me gasp, I couldn’t believe that the story was taken were it was and I cannot believe I have to wait an entire year to see what will happen. I am astonished that not only did this book impress me but it was one of my favorite reads of the summer. It’s thrilling, heart wrenching and wonderfully written.If you loved Burn for Burn, I’m certain you will enjoy Fire with Fire and if you didn’t love the first book I would suggest giving this one a chance anyway; I had reservations going in but they were quickly extinguished.

I am so in love with this series so when I finished Faking It and found out there would be a novella as well I was overjoyed, even more so when I received it on Edelweiss!Keeping Her is about Garrick and Bliss which I was really excited about. I felt there was so much more to their story and I couldn’t wait to get a glimpse of that. The couple travels to London to see Garrick’s family, this is also the first time that Bliss is meeting them and true to Garrick/Bliss form there are a few hiccups along the way.I need to start off by saying that I’m a little bit over Bliss. I really liked her in Losing It but now that they have been together for quite some time, live together and are actually engaged the freaking out, embarrassed act that she has sometimes drives me nuts. I understand it’s nerve-wracking to meet your fiancé’s parents for the first time but she was being a bit irrational. I don’t know, maybe I looked too much into that.I did enjoy the story however, it was cute and a good little addition to their story. It’s absolutely not necessary to read Keeping Her as it doesn’t have any plot developments but it’s fun to read. I liked meeting Garrick’s family, friends and seeing where he comes from but I’ve had enough of their story now and I’m ready for Finding Her!

When J.L. Bryan contacted me to review his new novel, to put it mildly, I was ELATED! Jenny Pox was actually the first e-book I ever read and I absolutely adored it, and the following book, Tommy Nightmare. The synopsis sounded so interesting; I’m becoming more and more interested in Science Fiction and the time travel element me intrigued immediately. I’ve only read a handle of books about time travel but every one I have thoroughly enjoyed. Needless to say, Nomad did not disappoint me.Immediately you are thrust into action with the first chapter. Raven “wakes up” on a highway, nearly getting killed by a truck, with absolutely no memory of how she got there. She is covered in blood and wearing completely different clothes from the people around her. She soon realizes she is on a race for her life and to save the future as she knows it.Raven was freaking AMAZING. Ohemgee, she was tough, smart and incredibly loyal to her loved ones. I adored her immediately. There is not a single fault I could find in her, she was perfect in my opinion. Her strength and toughness is so rare in female main characters and she did had both of those qualities nailed down. The character building was great in Nomad. Even the characters that you only seen glimpses of, or only appeared every so often(Kari for instance) you felt such an attachment to them from Raven’s flashbacks(or are they flashforwards?? Time travel always trips me up!). Gosh, I even started to warm up to Lucas, the evil dictator!The world building was intense. Future USA is bleak, at best, but has a crazy amount of advanced technology. Well, obviously, they can travel back in time now. The weapons, the visual devices, all of it was fascinating. The best part about it all was that it was entirely believable. The futuristic world is not something that is entirely non plausible so it was easy to imagine yourself there, fighting for your existence and freedom.The plot and pacing was phenomenal. I clung to this book for the entire second half. In fact, I wouldn’t even pick it back up until I was certain I had the time to sit and read it through to the end. Everything starts to come together so quickly at the end that it’s impossible to put down. It’s extremely fast paced and there was times I was TERRIFIED for Raven(and the other characters), and it also broke my heart a few times as well. It’s hard to explain why without spoiling anything, but believe me, the emotional part of the story is just as incredible as the action. The time travel aspect was awesome. I can never fully wrap my head around the concept of it, it really mystified me, but I enjoy it very much. The whole idea that what you change in the past, will change the future and then where do you end up? It leaves my head aching but I LOVE it every time.J.L Bryan did an amazing job of taking an existing genre(dystopian) and putting an entirely unique and enjoyable twist on it. OH! And the ENDING! Oh my gosh… And that’s all I will say. ;) There isn’t a single negative thing I can say about this. I suggest you pick this up, especially if you love dystopian and science fiction, I guarantee you will not be disappointed.

*This review will contain spoilers for both Clockwork Angel & Clockwork Prince*I was terrified to go into Clockwork Princess. As much as I tried not to read reviews of it beforehand, I couldn’t help it, which in turn made me even more nervous to read it. I absolutely adored Clockwork Angel and Clockwork Prince and I was so scared that the final book wouldn’t give this series the ending it deserved. When Racquel said she was reading it, Cass & I joined in and it turned into an impromptu read along!The characters were still everything and more to me. The Infernal Devices will long go down for having some of favorite characters as a whole, I do believe. I feel like you can connect so well with the characters in this series and it leaves you raw and emotional. Tessa is amazing, I adore her in every aspect. Will… well jeez, do I have to really go into that? I love this guy, LOVE. I also realized that I loved Jem far more than I ever thought while reading Clockwork Princess. Charlotte, Sophie, Gideon, Gabriel… MAGNUS BANE! Honestly, I could go on and on about how much I love them all so we will just leave it at that and say that the development of the characters definitely did not stop in this final installment.The story was phenomenal and heart wrenching. I could not put it down, once I got about 150 pages in that was It, I was invested and I was not stopping until finishing. There were several parts that tore my soul apart, I sobbed so hard at times that I thought my heart would stop beating. I’m not even sure that I can give it any justice in words because the emotions that I felt when I read this were unbelievable.I cannot wait to continue the Mortal Instruments now, because it makes so much more sense to me now that I know the family lines and their ancestors.I know the ending holds a lot of mixed feelings with people, but honestly I really liked it. It made me cry and my heart hurt but I still really enjoyed it. I obviously can’t go into it very much without ruining the grand finale but it was a great finish for me. Clockwork Princess is one of the first books in a very long time that has given me a complete and total book hangover. I feel like nothing as of late has given me the types of feels that it did.If you are hesitant in reading Clockwork Princess because it’s the final book I would suggest taken the plunge and doing it. I found it to be very satisfying as an ending and secured The Infernal Devices as one of my all-time favorite series.

When I found out that Colleen Hoover was writing a companion/second novel to Hopeless, I was over the freaking MOON! I absolutely adored Hopeless, Dean Holder, Sky, the story, gosh… I loved it all and I wanted more. And now she was giving it to us! I was even more ecstatic when I found out it was on Netgalley. I rushed to get it, started to read immediately, and then put it down. For 2 weeks…First off, if you haven’t read Hopeless, just go do it. If you love romance and an amazing story then you will love it. It’s the sole reason that Colleen Hoover is now an autobuy author for me. Sky the main character, is amazing and Dean freaking Holder. *Swoon*. Honestly, this guy is like the book boy of my dreams. He is amazing… even with all of his moodiness he is just perfect. I won’t talk about the characters like I normally do in reviews, because well… this is essentially a retelling of Hopeless, but in Holder’s point of view so the characters are the same(with no further development really) as they were in Hopeless. That being said, Losing Hope is told from Holder’s point of view, and it was phenomenal. I was so shocked that I cried as many times basically re reading the same story. Sometimes I’m nervous to read companion novels because I find the characters voice is the same regardless of the point of view switch. It’s not like that at all for Losing Hope; Holder is entirely his own person and voice and I fell in love with him all over again.My absolute favorite part of Losing Hope was the large focus on Les. My heart THROBBED for Les in Hopeless and it honestly almost physically jumped out of my chest in Losing Hope. Her story is so, so sad and to hear Holder talk about his sister will bring you to tears over and over again. I thought that the story would be identical to Hopeless, but in fact you get a brand new version of the same events. Plus, there is more to the story that is revealed at the end… and wow. Just love.The only reason that I didn’t give Losing Hope 5 stars is entirely due to the fact of the sex scenes. I loved them in Hopeless, and from Sky’s point of view they were perfect. From Holder’s point of view, they kind of creeped me out(especially given the circumstances) and it was such a FOCUS. I could have done without them entirely for the second book.Colleen Hoover is an amazing writer. She can bring you to tears, make you laugh and completely wrap you up in her stories and characters. The entire reason I couldn’t pick this up for 2 weeks is due to this very reason. She makes my heart ACHE for these people. I feel like I know them, I’m a part of their story and I just couldn’t bear it. You know there will be at least one thing that will rock you and I was SCARED for it once I seen that a main focus was on Les.To put my gushing aside, I loved Losing Hope, almost as much as Hopeless and it was a great addition to the story. I’m so glad we got to read more about Holder, Sky and Les. I absolutely recommend Losing Hope, especially if you read Hopeless. It’s just beautiful.

I was really excited to start reading Sisters in Sanity; I felt like I was the only person on the planet who hadn’t read any of Gayle Forman’s books so I couldn’t wait to dive into this one and see what I was missing out on.I had a really hard time connecting with the main characters of Sisters in Sanity: Brit, V, Bebe, Martha and Cassie. They weren’t bad characters, I just had a hard time connecting with them on any level. I found this is something I’ve been struggling with occasionally with some YA contemporaries. Often the problems that they are facing are ones that I haven’t had to experience in so long that it’s often hard to put myself in their shoes. Obviously that’s no fault of the author, or her writing, It’s just something I wanted to put out there. That being said I did LIKE the characters very much. I found Brit’s struggle to deal with her mothers abandonment very saddening. I felt like my heart was being squeezed a bit every time she spoke about her mother, or her and her parents “old” life. Out of the friends Brit made at Red Rock, my most favorite was probably Bebe. I really enjoyed her spunky attitude and her sarcastic humor always made you smile.The story itself angered me honestly. I hated Red Rock and I hated the counsellors and head figures. They were awful and I thought it was horrendous that any parent would think their child needed to go to such a horrific place. The physical labor parts were the worst and the brainwashing and torment of the girls was ghastly. I was so pissed at Brit’s Dad the entire novel because he thought that his daughter really needed to be in a place like that.I loved the little romance between Brit and Jed. It was sweet and wholesome and the perfect addition to the story. It really lightened up the plot and I couldn’t wait to see what happened between them.I enjoyed reading Sisters in Sanity and I would recommend it to anyone who likes a quick contemporary read. Gayle Forman’s writing is wonderful, easy to read and I can definitely see why everyone loves her so much. While it wasn’t as wonderful as I expected it, I did very much enjoy the story and I will absolutely be picking up her other novels in the future.

I was ecstatic to participate in this tour. I absolutely ADORED Barbie Girl and I could not wait to find out what happened with Barbie(and Dylan!!), and I was not disappointed.Barbie World continues shortly after Barbie & Everett have started living with the Knights. Barbie and Dylan are NOT together(boo!) and Barbie has been placed into counselling to try to cope with the issues in her life.I adored Barbie in the first book, and I enjoyed her very much in the second book as well. She’s such a free spirit and incredibly independent. I love how nobody can tell her how to live her life, or what she should do. Dylan was perfect as always. Third was my same, fabulous, silly Third as the first book. I also loved Roxie even more than in Barbie Girl. Actually… I adored all of the characters :P Everett is so incredibly sweet and my heart breaks for the horrible young life he endured being placed with the Knights.Obviously I want this to remain spoiler free so I will try to be as elusive as possible. Barbie World was a perfect continuation(and ending) to the wonderful story of Barbie Girl. It was just as heart wrenching in parts as it’s predecessor and my eyes were welling up repeatedly. One of the toughest topics that Barbie had to deal with was her mother abandoning her and it was extremely painful to go through that with Barbie. One of the most important parts of the story as well is Barbie & Dylan. I had a love/hate relationship with this part of the story. I found there was a lot of back and forth in Barbie World and it started to become a bit tiresome. I still loved their relationship and their journey but I wanted to just yell at them to get it over with! The pacing of that part of the story is the only reason it received 4 stars.The ending was FANTASTIC. I will reveal nothing about this, but let me just say it was quite possibly the very best ending ever. ZERO loose ends… everything was perfect and I was completely content with how the story was completed, although it may not be what you are expecting.If you haven’t read Barbie Girl, I highly recommend picking it up… this is a wonderful series and the conclusion absolutely does the first book justice. If you HAVE read Barbie Girl, you need to read Barbie World

Kenssie, the main character is a demon that feeds of secrets of mortals. This is what instantly grabbed me from the synopsis. I love all paranormal’s and I haven’t read a lot of stories that focus solely on demons. I really enjoyed Kenssie’s character. She was supposed to be wholly wicked but she wasn’t, there were layers of soft spots that showed through several times. I was actually surprised, despite the length of the novella, how invested I was in Kenssie.The world building and plot in The Secret Eater was great for a novella. While I wish there was more explanation of the world, that’s not entirely possible when the book is less than 100 pages and Ros Jackson did a great job of providing vivid pictures of what the world was like. I really loved the “feeding” that the demons did. Often I was entirely confused about what was real and what was not as the powerful demons have the ability to alter the perceptions of others. The plot was wonderful and very engaging. I loved how you had no idea what was going on and what was going to happen next which really kept you on the edge of your seat. There were quite a few sharp twists to the story and none I was expecting.The only downsides to The Secret Eater I have are that explanations sometimes fall short as well as you are thrown quite a bit of information at once and the length. Obviously the first reason ties in with the second but I really wish that The Secret Eater was a full length novel. It is incredibly interesting and I wanted the story to go on for so much longer. That being said, it was a great story and if anyone is looking for a quick, paranormal read I highly recommend picking this up! You will read it in one sitting because it’s near impossible to put down!

When I first read the synopsis for Losing Francesca I was instantly intrigued. Recently I have been loving mysteries and I thought this sounded really interesting and quite unlike anything I’ve read. I was shocked to discover not only was this a mystery but a sweet, romantic story about love, family and friends.I didn’t instantly like Francesca/Fiona. At first I thought she was arrogant and completely rude. Once she started to warm up to Brody though, I started to warm up to her. Her entire character held such a mysterious cloud around her I was dying to finish this book from chapter one, just to see who she really was. I really loved Fiona’s entire family as well. I thought Frank was sweet, although tough and brutal, Sean was so loving and Angela and the sisters were so accepting of Francesca.The love story between Francesca and Brody was so sweet and innocent. Since Francesca disappeared when she was 6, their relationship sort of started at the same level. Sweet and innocent. I thought it was lovely and it was so refreshing to read. As Huss states in her summary on Goodreads, this is not smut, and she is entirely right. The romance is sweet and perfect and imperfect all at once. I really enjoyed it.My favorite part though I would have to say would definitely be the mystery. I was DYING trying to figure out who Francesca really was. I realized when some major plot points were finally revealed that there were little hints along the way, but I’m glad I didn’t clue in. I kind of had a clue what was going to happen but not entirely and I really enjoyed the big “reveal” at the end.The ending was perfect. I loved how everything tied together and what the final outcome was. All in all if you like an intriguing story, with a sweet romance I definitely recommend Losing Francesca. It’s incredibly easy to read and a book that leaves you satisfied with the ending.

My Life After Now was completely off my radar until Ashley from Nose Graze posted her review and then I NEEDED to read this. It sounded like the type of book that would just leave my in pieces at the end, and I adore those type of raw, emotional reads. I was completely intrigued that the main character has HIV, and knew I just had to read her story.When I first started My Life After Now, the main character immediately reminded me of Rachel Berry from Glee. She was a superstar at school, in theatre, had two Dads and was dating the male star of the theatre group. Further along I realized that Lucy is much different but I wanted to share my initial reaction to her character. The strangest thing about Lucy is that she didn’t capture my heart like I thought she would. I really liked her as the main character; I thought she was incredibly realistic and raw and I enjoyed her but I wasn’t super attached to her. That being said, my feelings towards Lucy didn’t take anything away from the story, which I really loved because it’s rare when I don’t fall in love with the main character but love the story. The two characters that I DID adore were Lucy’s Dad’s. I LOVED them. One, the family dynamic was remarkable and it’s so, so rare to have the main characters family entirely present in books lately. They were incredibly supportive of Lucy and were on board with her the second they found out she had HIV. For the most part I really liked all of the people in Lucy’s life(except Ty). Her friends, her HIV Support Group, they were all wonderful and well crafted characters.The story itself is absolutely heart wrenching. It isn’t a sad story, but it’s realistic and scary and will make you cry. Jessica Verdi did an amazing job at writing this story. The emotions that were on every page were just enough to want to make you stop and sob to yourself. It’s such a beautiful story she has written and one that needed to be told. It’s not often you read a story about a picture perfect teenager that is suddenly faced with a life threatening illness that was easily preventable. Actually, make this the first time I have read about it. I think it’s a great story for teenagers to know that something like this could happen to anyone.I applaud Jessica Verdi for telling such a realistic and beautiful story. Her writing is remarkable and her characters were so believable that you are entirely engaged in Lucy’s journey. I highly recommend you pick up My Life After Now. I’ll definitely be picking up whatever she comes out with next.

Hysteria was high up on my reading list well before it came out so when I first got my library card it was one of the first books I requested, and then patiently(um, not) waited for my hold to come through. I had heard mixed things about Hysteria but that didn’t stop me, I love a good mystery thriller so I decided to still give it a shot.Mallory, the main character, killed her boyfriend. She cannot remember the details but it apparently was self defense so she is not charged. She is struggling being in her town because his friends, his mother, and even her own parents act weird around her. Her parents decide to send her to an elite boarding school, the same one her father went to when he was her age, and she immediately hates it. Strange things start to happen around her and her secret gets let out about what happened back at home.The character’s in Hysteria were really hard to get attached to. The main character Mallory, was fine in terms of her traits but I didn’t form any specific attachment with her throughout the story. Every situation she was in, I felt bad for her, or scared for her, but I didn’t exactly care about the outcome either way. Reid, her childhood friend and love interest, was interesting. I enjoyed him and thought he was sweet and cute, and definitely a good match up for Mallory but I didn’t swoon over him like I do in most books. I did enjoy seeing the back and forth between Mallory and Reid however. Colleen, Mallory’s best friend, was my favorite character. I thought she was witty and I loved how loyal she was to Mallory, despite everyone’s reservations.The mystery aspect was fun, although predictable. I basically knew what was going to happen before it happened, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing in Hysteria. I still found the pacing quick, and the plot interesting. I think the scene played a large part in keeping the plot interesting as the boarding school Mallory was attending was quite creepy, with the deep forest and large amounts of fog.I liked Hysteria, but I didn’t love it. It was enjoyable and incredibly easy to read. This was my first Megan Miranda book but I really enjoyed her writing style so I will definitely be picking up her other books. If you like mysteries, thrillers and fast paced contemporaries I recommend you pick up Hysteria. Although the ending might not surprise you, it’s an enjoyable journey to get there.

I had heard so much about Nova Ren Suma and her haunting tales that when I seen Imaginary Girls at the library I immediately snatched it up. I couldn’t wait to pick this up to start reading, especially since 17 & Gone is on my TBR for this year, and I really wanted to try out one of her early works…This review is going to work backwards compared to my normal reviews because I just have to state this from the beginning, I really, really disliked this book. I had just an incredibly weird journey with it, I was obsessed with getting to the end because I was sure that some amazing revelation would come out and it would knock me off my feet. But… no. It did not and I actually came very close to throwing the book straight across the room upon finishing.To start off, I could not STAND Ruby. Ruby is Chloe’s older sister and I just hated her. Honestly, I can’t even pretend that I liked her even a bit. She was SO full of herself, selfish, and just an all around complete whack job. Chloe, in all actuality was not much better but I did like her slightly more than Ruby. I think the part that bothered me the most about these two sisters was that Ruby was supposed to do anything for her sister, to love her more than anything, and they were so incredibly close but it was not like that at all. I waited… and waited… for some clue that would tell me that this magical relationship was going to come out of the woodwork but it never happened! All I got was Ruby mistreating her, giving her orders, being incredibly evasive and just treating her badly. AND don’t even get me started on the way Ruby treated others, especially her boyfriend. Oh, the characters in Imaginary Girls were enough to put me over the deep end.Despite all of that, I could not stop reading. If you read Imaginary Girls you will know what I mean… the story is just so STRANGE. It was next to impossible for me to stop because I needed to know what happened. The clues, unfortunately were there all along. There is no massive, shocking secret that’s revealed; it’s exactly the story you are presented with.Now, amongst all my negativity I have to add that there is a redeeming factor to Imaginary Girls. Nova Ren Suma’s writing. It’s absolutely intoxicating(clearly… I finished the entire book feeling like the above). It’s addictive and I adore her writing style. I WILL be reading her other books, there is no question about that, it’s just Imaginary Girls wasn’t for me. At all.I hate writing reviews like this, I really do. I’ve gotten pretty good at picking out exactly what I will like, and more(MUCH more) often than not I’m pleased. I’m not sure, maybe I completely missed the point of this book but I do know that it was not what I expected and definitely not my cup of tea. HOWEVER, as I said above this has not turned me off of Nova Ren Suma’s books… in fact it might make me want to read them even more, I need to discover what everyone is raving about.

The Ruining was easily one of my most anticipated debuts of 2013. I thought the summary sounded really intriguing and I expected it to be one of my first debuts read. Obviously that didn’t happen but as soon as I picked this up from the library I dove right in.Annie , the main character, leaves her broken home to go to school in California. She found a job with a very wealthy family where she is the live in nanny. The family is incredibely wealthy, so Annie has more than she ever has in her life as well as they instantly take her under their wing, especially Libby. I finished The Ruining a week ago and I can still not even piece together my thoughts on Annie. She was just weird. I have little to no idea whether I liked her or not. I guess at the beginning I did like her well enough but towards the end I had no idea, I suppose that is the idea with an unreliable narrator. She was really needy though. It’s like she sought constant approval for her actions. I enjoyed her relationship with Zoe though. She was really caring and treated Zoe remarkably. Libby and Walker were instantly hated on my part. I knew there was something strange about them from the beginning and they had a very sneaky demeanor about them.It’s hard to describe what I liked and didn’t like without giving away some of the details. I’m not sure if the reader was supposed to be able to guess the twists, but I did. Pretty much straight from the beginning I caught on to quite a few of them. If you were meant to be strung along for answers, that’s not how it turned out. Despite figuring out the mystery early on, I really enjoyed the story itself. I despised most of the characters but ANna Collomore’s writing is great. I actually had a very hard time with what was real and not real, so she had Annie’s breakdown fabulously crafted. The ending was unsatisfying to me. I will not spoil if for others but I just thought it left way to much for the reader to wonder on. I hate stand alones like that, I’d like to have all the ends(or the majority of them) tied up upon completion.All in All, The Ruining is an interesting novel. The story is a bit strange, and pretty unrealistic as far as I’m concerned. The characters are angering but the fact the main character slowly starts to have a mental breakdown makes the plot incredibly intriguing. It’s very easy to read and I wanted to read it in one sitting just to see how the ending was. It didn’t blow me a away but I do think that anyone who enjoys stories like this will enjoy the mystery.

Wow. It is very hard for me to put into words what I experienced when I read Saving Ben. This novel is gutwrenching and that is the only true word I can use to discribe it.I truly felt most of the characters in Saving Ben. Katherine was wonderful. She was so, so loyal and a good person inside and out. Ben, although he also had his fault, just broke my heart and I really felt for him. Despite his poor decisions he honestly loved and cared about everyone that was close to him. Emma… well Emma was a bitch. I hated her, exactly like I was supposed to. OMG I wanted to scream because she made me so angry. My favorite character, was Abigail or Yabba. I absolutely adored her. Her soft-spoken, kind manner was so honest. The characterization for Saving Ben was remarkable. I didn’t feel like these were characters created, I felt like they were real, true people and we were listening to their story.As this is a mystery type novel, although you don’t find out the mystery until quite close to the end I don’t want to reveal a lot of details. The most important part about Saving Ben is the build up to the ending. I didn’t understand that when I was reading that, until the ending, so I became quite antsy waiting for something to happen. Don’t go into this waiting for the mystery, that’s my advice as because of this I had a few problems with pacing. I thought it was a bit slow at times.The writing is absolutely phenomenal. As it was for the characters, I felt like this was a story I was in, not reading. I was completed enveloped in the story and I truly felt for the characters.The ending is bittersweet, as well as several other parts during the novel. I blinked back tears several times and when I finished I had that familiar aching in my chest that I only have when I read books such as Code Name Verity.I wouldn’t pass up Saving Ben, it’s beautifully written and has wonderful characters.

Heist Society was one of those books that had been on my TBR for basically as long as I’ve had a TBR. I decided to pick it up, finally, from the library as I thought it would be a great summer read.The main character, Katarina, comes from a family of thieves. Her Dad is a thief, her mother was a thief, her uncle, and all of her close friends. She tried to escape from that life, and conned her way into a prestigious boarding school but.. that didn’t go over. When she leaves the school she learns that an unknown thief has stolen valuable paintings from an extremely dangerous man… and that man thinks it’s Katarina’s father. Katarina (and company) takes off on a round the world chase to try to and find out who stole those paintings so she can save her father.I liked Katarina quite a bit. She was snarky, sarcastic and super smart. I enjoyed the back and forth banter she would have with her peers, especially Hale. I liked Hale as well. Honestly, I didn’t dislike any of the characters but I did not form a strong attachment with them either. Heist Society is much more plot driven, than character driven in my opinion so while there is a ton of characters being introduced the small amount of information you are given on them is more than enough to carry you through the story.The plot was great. I love the idea of a family of thieves and con artists. I thought the travelling back and forth across the globe was exciting and kept the novel interesting. One thing I had a hard time getting used to though was Ally Carter’s writing style. It was really jumpy, and sometimes I had to re read pages just to see if I missed something. Once I got used to the writing style however it was really enjoyable and the pacing is very fast paced.All in all, Heist Society, is exactly what I wanted it to be: a light, fun, summer read. The “surprises” were very predictable but that doesnt ruin the story. It’s fun and entertaining and I will definitely be continuing on with the series. I recommend picking up Heist Society before the summer ends, it’s a great beach read!