Lizreader's Blog

I bought this book on my Kindle on a whim. I had it on my to-read list and the fact that I had wanted to read this book the day it came out. I thought it was going to be an interesting and well developed book considering it sounded a bit different than the normal YA PNR fare...There's a young woman who lives in an abandoned house by the sea and a young man comes to town wanting to rent the guesthouse for the month...and the house is in a town with an urban legend...and things spiral from there. Boy was I wrong.The problems began early for me considering that the author (I think) forgot to look into a few things:1) No Property taxes paid, eating expensive foods, and the kids are broke?The main characters in this story live in an abandoned mansion by the sea. Their parents are off roaming Europe because of their artistic pursuits leaving their kids alone in the house. Their grandmother who used to watch them, Freddie, passed away a few years ago before the story starts. So, she can no longer help them. Considering that the family used to be wealthy, but the money has been running dry why are the parent's off in Europe in the first place? Why are they not watching their kids, who should be their responsibility? Why are these kids spending money on high-priced food items instead of paying property taxes on their large home, heat (for the winters in Oregon), water, and all the other living expenses they, and their parents, have to pay for? The parent's should be paying the estate taxes and all that to begin with, but it's never mentioned if they are or not. Considering what we know, I think they aren't. To move onto other matters.If you don't have a lot of money, you shouldn't be buying premium coffee, almond milk, or anything that isn't really liveable on a modest budget. However, the main characters always tell us what they are hooked on and what they buy, even though they do say how much money they don't have. Their parent's, meanwhile, are in Europe? That's expensive. Are they sending money? Doesn't sound like it. How are they eating? And how are they living alone and no one cares? No one suggests the parent's are in the wrong? In the real world, this living arrangement would never fly. It's entirely unbelievable. It's not even legal. 2) Insta-loveMan, I thought this book wouldn't fall into this trap. The character meets the guy and in LESS THAN A DAY does not care that she hardly knows him and wants to spend a lot of time with him. Their relationship progresses rapidly where they are snuggling with each other and kissing in less than a week. The fact that the main character finds out some disturbing information about the love interest, yet sticks with him even though he has done some terrible things is a bit suspicious. Never for a second did I feel any attraction between the two characters. It was just "here is a pretty boy who swaggers." Really? Why should River like our female protagonist to begin with. Why should the female protagonist like River, besides being "cute" or having a swagger. There is nothing deep going on here. If both characters are seventeen there should be some depth to their relationship. 3) The main female protagonist.To be perfectly honest, this is where the story fails. You see she talks a lot about her grandmother, Freddie, which isn't a problem for me. She wears her grandmother clothes, which is a bit weird considering she never talks about sewing them to fit her. Her grandmother and her were the same size? That's a bit too coincidental, but again it's a quirk and I don't have a problem with (albeit unbelievable to me.) What I do have a problem is that the female protagonist and her brother have limited funds yet she buys specialty coffee for herself and buys expensive food to eat. She might have come from money, but she needs to readjust her lifestyle to fit her funds. Five hundred dollars a month for rent isn't going to cover the lifestyle her and her brother want to live. They also paint. They might have their parent's supplies to use, but painting materials are expensive from making your own canvanses (or buying pre-made ones) to the paints and brushes. If you have limited funds, you aren't going to use them to paint but to pay the heat (which the character says she sometimes doesn't do during the winter. That's not smart because it gets cold in Oregon during the winter and need heat to live). Now, all those things are quirks and problems I have with the way the character thinks, but the one problem I do have is that the main character doesn't really do anything for herself. It's River, the love interest. Her brother, Luke. River's Brother, or Jack a young boy who's supposedly her half-cousin, who do things for her. The main character doesn't do anything till the very end of the book, and that's just to save her life from a wacko. It's not enough in my opinion because she depends on the guys in her life to save her. She's also not entirely realistic. I get young woman who have expensive tastes. I was like that, and I am still like that. I like good food, coffee, movies, music, and books. However, I never spent that kind of money when I was in school because I had a limited budget and lived within my means. I couldn't get an espresso everyday. She also doesn't want to get a job because rich people don't get a job and it doesn't make sense. Please. She should get a job, more than depending on a single renter for a HUGE house. They should get multiple renters and HAVE BACKGROUND CHECKS FOR EACH. You know to make sure they are not serial killers or anything? Entirely way too trusting and naive for their own good. If you are going to rent a room, or a guesthouse to a person you run a background check, credit check (if needed), and make sure that the person isn't doing anything you know illegal. 4. The Main Villain Shows up Way too late in the bookWhat I really hate is the fact that the main villain's are shadowy and we don't even meet them till the last moment. That's pretty much what happened in this story. We don't meet him till after 80% of the book is done. That's way too late in the game. It would be better at around 60-70%. Even seventy percent is a bit too late in my mind. You don't want to get yourself stuck into a corner with your story, and this is one way to see that the author got stuck. You want to set up the story to make sense, and to seem credible. The fact that we don't even know who the true villain is till that late in the game made it hard for me to believe this book in general. 5. Magic systemSo, apparently in this world there is one family who has a superpower and nobody else? This power is skipped in one generation and in the next generation there are multiple people who can use it? This is something that makes me pause. If a character has a superpower and no-one else, or even another family can do it, I instantly get suspicious. I believe this is going to be (another) series, and I would HOPE this is going to get explained in the next book. However, this isn't a well-developed idea. It's just kind of there without any real imagination to it. "Burn" "Glow" wow...that's just...weak. There's no other way to explain what is going on? Besides, wouldn't the people with the powers be scared of what they have and can do? Apparently, not as much as I would like. ConclusionI was pretty excited for this book to be honest, but I wondered how much research went into it. The idea seemed like a cool idea, and I thought for a moment that there was going to be a whole allegory with the "Devil" idea/character in this story. I was sure hoping it would happen, or personal demons in people's lives to begin with. It didn't happen, much to my dismay. There was a lot of violence, and suspense that really wasn't that suspenseful it just seemed out of place. There were parts of the story that didn't make sense in the long run. Considering why mention that Jack is related to the main characters in some way? Maybe it will play more later in the series, but for right now it doesn't make any sense besides the grandmother hiding a secret. I mean the writing isn't that bad. However, some of the descriptions weren't really needed and didn't add anything to the story. The main female protagonist was pretty weak considering she really didn't do anything for herself, the love part of the story was entirely too fast and not well developed, and there are elements in this story that are far too unbelievable, even for YA, to not care about. Who would I recommend this book too? Well, honestly I wouldn't recommend this book. If you want a good Gothic paranormal romance I still suggest Kelly Creigh's "Nevermore." This wasn't that Gothic, even though I hoped for a much better "Beautiful Creatures" vibe. Completely missed the mark in my opinion.

I bought this book on my Kindle on a whim. I had it on my to-read list and the fact that I had wanted to read this book the day it came out. I thought it was going to be an interesting and well developed book considering it sounded a bit different than the normal YA PNR fare...There's a young woman who lives in an abandoned house by the sea and a young man comes to town wanting to rent the guesthouse for the month...and the house is in a town with an urban legend...and things spiral from there. Boy was I wrong.The problems began early for me considering that the author (I think) forgot to look into a few things:1) No Property taxes paid, eating expensive foods, and the kids are broke?The main characters in this story live in an abandoned mansion by the sea. Their parents are off roaming Europe because of their artistic pursuits leaving their kids alone in the house. Their grandmother who used to watch them, Freddie, passed away a few years ago before the story starts. So, she can no longer help them. Considering that the family used to be wealthy, but the money has been running dry why are the parent's off in Europe in the first place? Why are they not watching their kids, who should be their responsibility? Why are these kids spending money on high-priced food items instead of paying property taxes on their large home, heat (for the winters in Oregon), water, and all the other living expenses they, and their parents, have to pay for? The parent's should be paying the estate taxes and all that to begin with, but it's never mentioned if they are or not. Considering what we know, I think they aren't. To move onto other matters.If you don't have a lot of money, you shouldn't be buying premium coffee, almond milk, or anything that isn't really liveable on a modest budget. However, the main characters always tell us what they are hooked on and what they buy, even though they do say how much money they don't have. Their parent's, meanwhile, are in Europe? That's expensive. Are they sending money? Doesn't sound like it. How are they eating? And how are they living alone and no one cares? No one suggests the parent's are in the wrong? In the real world, this living arrangement would never fly. It's entirely unbelievable. It's not even legal. 2) Insta-loveMan, I thought this book wouldn't fall into this trap. The character meets the guy and in LESS THAN A DAY does not care that she hardly knows him and wants to spend a lot of time with him. Their relationship progresses rapidly where they are snuggling with each other and kissing in less than a week. The fact that the main character finds out some disturbing information about the love interest, yet sticks with him even though he has done some terrible things is a bit suspicious. Never for a second did I feel any attraction between the two characters. It was just "here is a pretty boy who swaggers." Really? Why should River like our female protagonist to begin with. Why should the female protagonist like River, besides being "cute" or having a swagger. There is nothing deep going on here. If both characters are seventeen there should be some depth to their relationship. 3) The main female protagonist.To be perfectly honest, this is where the story fails. You see she talks a lot about her grandmother, Freddie, which isn't a problem for me. She wears her grandmother clothes, which is a bit weird considering she never talks about sewing them to fit her. Her grandmother and her were the same size? That's a bit too coincidental, but again it's a quirk and I don't have a problem with (albeit unbelievable to me.) What I do have a problem is that the female protagonist and her brother have limited funds yet she buys specialty coffee for herself and buys expensive food to eat. She might have come from money, but she needs to readjust her lifestyle to fit her funds. Five hundred dollars a month for rent isn't going to cover the lifestyle her and her brother want to live. They also paint. They might have their parent's supplies to use, but painting materials are expensive from making your own canvanses (or buying pre-made ones) to the paints and brushes. If you have limited funds, you aren't going to use them to paint but to pay the heat (which the character says she sometimes doesn't do during the winter. That's not smart because it gets cold in Oregon during the winter and need heat to live). Now, all those things are quirks and problems I have with the way the character thinks, but the one problem I do have is that the main character doesn't really do anything for herself. It's River, the love interest. Her brother, Luke. River's Brother, or Jack a young boy who's supposedly her half-cousin, who do things for her. The main character doesn't do anything till the very end of the book, and that's just to save her life from a wacko. It's not enough in my opinion because she depends on the guys in her life to save her. She's also not entirely realistic. I get young woman who have expensive tastes. I was like that, and I am still like that. I like good food, coffee, movies, music, and books. However, I never spent that kind of money when I was in school because I had a limited budget and lived within my means. I couldn't get an espresso everyday. She also doesn't want to get a job because rich people don't get a job and it doesn't make sense. Please. She should get a job, more than depending on a single renter for a HUGE house. They should get multiple renters and HAVE BACKGROUND CHECKS FOR EACH. You know to make sure they are not serial killers or anything? Entirely way too trusting and naive for their own good. If you are going to rent a room, or a guesthouse to a person you run a background check, credit check (if needed), and make sure that the person isn't doing anything you know illegal. 4. The Main Villain Shows up Way too late in the bookWhat I really hate is the fact that the main villain's are shadowy and we don't even meet them till the last moment. That's pretty much what happened in this story. We don't meet him till after 80% of the book is done. That's way too late in the game. It would be better at around 60-70%. Even seventy percent is a bit too late in my mind. You don't want to get yourself stuck into a corner with your story, and this is one way to see that the author got stuck. You want to set up the story to make sense, and to seem credible. The fact that we don't even know who the true villain is till that late in the game made it hard for me to believe this book in general. 5. Magic systemSo, apparently in this world there is one family who has a superpower and nobody else? This power is skipped in one generation and in the next generation there are multiple people who can use it? This is something that makes me pause. If a character has a superpower and no-one else, or even another family can do it, I instantly get suspicious. I believe this is going to be (another) series, and I would HOPE this is going to get explained in the next book. However, this isn't a well-developed idea. It's just kind of there without any real imagination to it. "Burn" "Glow" wow...that's just...weak. There's no other way to explain what is going on? Besides, wouldn't the people with the powers be scared of what they have and can do? Apparently, not as much as I would like. ConclusionI was pretty excited for this book to be honest, but I wondered how much research went into it. The idea seemed like a cool idea, and I thought for a moment that there was going to be a whole allegory with the "Devil" idea/character in this story. I was sure hoping it would happen, or personal demons in people's lives to begin with. It didn't happen, much to my dismay. There was a lot of violence, and suspense that really wasn't that suspenseful it just seemed out of place. There were parts of the story that didn't make sense in the long run. Considering why mention that Jack is related to the main characters in some way? Maybe it will play more later in the series, but for right now it doesn't make any sense besides the grandmother hiding a secret. I mean the writing isn't that bad. However, some of the descriptions weren't really needed and didn't add anything to the story. The main female protagonist was pretty weak considering she really didn't do anything for herself, the love part of the story was entirely too fast and not well developed, and there are elements in this story that are far too unbelievable, even for YA, to not care about. Who would I recommend this book too? Well, honestly I wouldn't recommend this book. If you want a good Gothic paranormal romance I still suggest Kelly Creigh's "Nevermore." This wasn't that Gothic, even though I hoped for a much better "Beautiful Creatures" vibe. Completely missed the mark in my opinion.

I feel like every book, and short story, I read in my A.P class I didn't like. It might have been that I would have liked some even variety between reading super depressing works all the time, and to have different works and genres than just the established western canon. Anyways, James Joyce is a great writer. I can appreciate his style, his tone, his symbolism, and how he chooses each and every word he writes. That's not what I have a problem with. Again, it could have been the fact that I read way too many depressing stories in a row and my experience was a bit dampened because I was getting tired of being depressed. However, it's not the fact that this story is depressing that makes me rate it far lower than it seems like a lot of people do but it wasn't that enjoyable for me read. I can appreciate the artistic vision and the craft, as well as the larger meaning of the work but for me I was getting tired of reading the same kind of books over and over. The previous year in my British Literature class we had a bit more variety, at least by the second semester of my A.P year we did have more variety. Anyways, it wasn't all that enjoyable for me to read, but it is written very well.

My journey with Neil Gaiman's The Sandman series can be compared with a departure of a long lost friend. That it went by too fast, and it's too soon to end. Once I started reading this series, there was no going back to the way it was. This series is often times lyrical, equal parts disturbing and haunting, but overall very beautiful because it's about stories. The last chapter, titled "The Tempest" sums up the series perfectly. This series was my first introduction into graphic novels, and what a series to pick. Often times called the comic book series for intellectuals it's filled with the unexpected. The heroes are anti-heroes, Death is rather quite lovely and fun, and the spanning of different cultures and art styles within each volume never ceases to amaze me. This is a graphic novel series I would recommend to anyone who wants something different and, equally, memorizing. You can also see Neil Gaiman grow as a writer over the course of this series.If you are not familiar with this series it's about the Endless, a family of beings who represent aspects of abstractions of ideas that we have. The title character is the King of Dreams, Morpheus, but in this particular volume Morpheus is no more. From the beginning of the series Morpheus is caught by some occultist and held captive for centuries until he breaks free and travels to find his things. From there the story spans centuries, cultures, people, places, and all heartbreaking and haunting at the same time.

Best short story I ever read in high school. Completely chilling and believable in its context, and makes me worry about the future. Super quick to read, but will think about it for a long time to come. I need to read more Vonnegut.

I remember reading this book eons ago for a science-fiction unit in fifth grade. I remember we created a class mural dealing with a science fiction city and we also had to write a short science fiction story. It was a fun unit, and I remember liking this book well enough. I don't know if I would read it again though.

Well, I am not sure what to say about this book.It was sweet, had heartbreaking moments but not enough for me to cry, and the story ended on a bittersweet note. It's hard for me to really like young-love, romance stories because they are always so cheesy about being in love forever and that they can stop the world. The Romance stories I have read so far like "Lola and the Boy Next Door" and "Anna and the French Kiss" and Gayle Foreman, Sarah Dessen, or John Green books always feel a bit forced. Stephanie Perkins writes quirky characters, but everything ends happily ever after. Gayle Foreman writes characters I can relate with and nothing ends happily ever after with her. I like the stories that are bittersweet rather than happily ever after. Life isn't always so sweet, which people like Gayle Foreman, John Green, and Rainbow Rowell seem to get. My main problem with this book is Richie who is a douche, jerk, bastard, and a long list of expletives that I shouldn't write. However, we aren't supposed to like him at all.When it comes to the writing I can't really complain. It's pretty smooth, if nothing to really get your heart racing with swooning lines or make you wish that you wrote that. There aren't a lot of lines that I can remember, but the dialogue felt natural. That's a good thing in my book. I hate how dialogue doesn't feel natural when you read it, and it was.I feel like I do like this book, but at the same time it isn't up there with the romances I really liked (Gayle Foreman books or John Green's The Fault in Our Stars). There were a lot of moments that were tear-jerker to some people, but I wasn't one of them. I don't know, I guess I kind of expected the final outcome. I mean I did like this book, and there isn't much to complain about. It's nice to see a change in pace where the main characters are not blonde, skinny, wealthy, and living a high life in Atlanta or San Francisco. The book takes place in Omaha between a half-Korean Park and a curvy Eleanor who is from a lower-income family. I like that the writer is looking at a story between minority character types in YA. It's refreshing for sure, and nice to see a change in pace. So, why didn't I give this book four or five stars? Well, it was good--but it wasn't groundbreaking or make me completely involved in the character's lives. I mean I was rooting for them, but at the same time they didn't remind me of people I know. I don't know it's hard to write exactly why, but the book was good...but not great. It's cute, and I think that some of the social issues surrounding this book could have been better developed and taken this story to the next level. Who knows? I still like the author and I can't wait for "Fangirl" to come out.

THIS. THIS IS THE MOST AWESOME BOOK (WELL PLAY) EVER! Okay, technically speaking there are a lot of issues. One, the author is using a well established story and tying in pop cultural references (Han shot first) comment. For a Shakespeare like play there are a lot of asides and chorus sequences, BUT as a person who has loved Star Wars since she was six and Shakespeare since fifth grade this book made me very, VERY HAPPY.As someone who has studied Shakespeare for awhile and taken a few classes, as well as read a good majority of his plays Doescher has a pretty good grasp of the pastiche style. It flows very well, and it is a lot of fun to read. Even if you don't like Shakespeare it's pretty easy to read because it's still modernized enough that people can get it.I loved the illustrations (the facepalming Darth Vader with the Death Star on what looks like to be a globe is my favorite). I think the authors is going to continue the trilogy, which will be awesome if he does. This was such a fun book to read. Get it in Hardcover it's a pretty small book, and if you take off the dust jacket it will look like an old book that's seen some time. What I really liked were that the author took advantage of giving some characters a voice, like R2-D2 who we never really get to hear then just meeps and beeps from. He was quite a funny character in this book. This isn't a book for everyone. In fact, I would say it has a niche audience. It's for someone who likes Star Wars and appreciates Shakespeare. If you don't like either, you will not like this book. It's not a perfect Shakespeare imitation, but does it have to be? No. It's done extremely well and the wordplay was clever. I loved the entire thing from start to finish. It's not the most original book seeing as it is about A New Hope, but the way it is executed is fresh and fantastic. I wholly recommend to any Star Wars fan out there!

Well that took me quite awhile to finish, mostly because I was in a dreaded reading slump since around the middle of June and got out of it recently. The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman was a good book, but as with most things Neil Gaiman writes it's a hit or miss for me. What I can say is that I loved this book more than American Gods and Anansi Boys. However, this book will never gain the place of honor among my top favorites of Neverwhere and The Sandman series. That being said what I like most about this book was the experience of a child living in an adult world, and looking back at ones childhood. It's extremely well done, and Neil Gaiman always has a way with writing characters (for the most part) you can connect with. The story was rather interesting, and more along the lines of what I like seeing from Gaiman. The Hempstocks were especially delightful because he never comes out and says who they are, but you get the sense of who they are without being told exactly what they are. If that makes any sense to begin with.Gaiman's writing style in this is Gaiman at his best. It's fluid, lyrical, and every time I read it his voice pops into my head reading as I read it (this is the first time it happened). However, there are some things I didn't like. I felt like the pacing was off in the middle of the book, normally by the time I get to a middle of a Gaiman novel I never want to stop reading. That might have been the reading slump I was in more than the book, but I am still putting that out there.Other things I didn't like I can't be really specific about. I liked Lettie, but we never got a clear sense of why she meant so much to our lead protagonist even though he talks a lot about her and being one of his only friends. It's more of a feeling that I got that I cannot really explain well than anything the author had done. It's a good book and I would recommend it to most people, but I just had higher expectations. That's all. It's still really good.

OH MY WHAT DID I JUST READ?Was it possible that I just read:1) A strong female, kick ass protagonist who not only showed vulnerability and her emotions but also wasn't always thinking about the guy (or I guess angel)?2) A well concocted world where angels from the heavens attacked the world, and in San Francisco the first fight back occurred?3) Where the dialogue wasn't forced, but natural and funny at the same time?4) Where the angel mythology lent itself to be both accurate in its origins, but original in its usage? 5) And where we have characters that I absolutely care for?Yes. It happened.I'll be completely honest back in December of 2011 and early 2012 I had gotten a Kindle for Christmas and was browsing Amazon for books to buy for it. I found Angelfall for 99 cents, but I didn't read it then. 0___0Despite the fact that there were glowing reviews from Amazon (I wasn't on GR at the time). I just wasn't into angels. Now, I feel like I cheated myself out of saving myself three dollars, but it's definitely worth the price I payed for it (which is still less than traditionally published YA and it is NOWHERE near as good as this book was). However, I still wasn't sure I wanted to read this book. It had a lot of hype once I found out about GR (and even Amazon). People were writing glowing reviews about it left and right, and even my own friends had said the same things as others have said. If you read my other reviews, you will see I am not a fan of a lot of hyped books (except I did enjoy The Fault in Our Stars and Gayle Foreman novels)Well, this is one very hyped up book that I believe DESERVES EVERY SINGLE BIT OF HYPE. MY GOD! This book was brisk in its pacing. Once I picked it up, it was hard to put down. It yanked me by my shirt and never let me go till I got to the end. I had to tell myself to remember to breath, while reading the book (and to take a breath because my goodness there were a lot of graphic scenes in this book). I won't go into too much detail by Penryn. Penryn named after a street sight of Penryn Road should SET THE STANDARD FOR STRONG FEMALE PROTAGONISTS IN YA! THIS IS HOW YOU WRITE A STRONG FEMALE CHARACTER THAT NOT ONLY CAN TAKE CARE OF HERSELF, BUT ALLOWS HERSELF TO BE VULNERABLE AND TO SHOW EMOTION. This is also how you write a character who isn't a brat to everyone she meets and does not reject her feminine side as well. Where she realizes that she is over her head, and every single action makes total and complete sense. I applaud Mrs. Ee for taking the time to write such an awesome and action pack novel. Penryn is better than Katniss, Katsa, and any other protagonists billed as a "strong female heroine" in the YA age group. (At least from what I've read). What I don't understand is why she didn't think this wouldn't get traditionally published? It's better than 80% of the stuff out there in YA and paranormal/fantasy genre. This would have had a superb amount of marketing because it would get picked up by the same people who like CC's novels and THG's. I mean now it is getting wider readership with other translated editions and MOVIE RIGHTS! That's right the rights for a movie were brought: http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/heat-vision/good-universe-adapt-angelfall-sam-390593Sam Raimi is co-producing. aafjkdjfaklgjaklgdkgaikgjalkgjkYeah, that was so eloquent. If it does become a full fledged movie. This will be THE movie to see. Also, PLEASE FILM IN THE BAY AREA AND THE SILICON VALLEY! THANK YOU! Anyways, as a San Francisco native (or used to be since I don't really live there anymore) I was completely enthralled and disturbed by the premise of this novel and the use of the setting. I mean wow, suburbia no more and San Francisco and Golden Gate no more? AHHH! It's interesting and creepy at the same time. There were a lot of twists and turns in this novel I didn't expect, but I am not sure what really happened towards the end of the novel regarding the lab. Maybe in the next book it will be explained better? Hopefully, that is my only gripe with this novel. This book is absolutely fun, breathtaking in its brisk pace, and chilling in its premise. It's wonderful and thank you to all who recommended this book to me.

Let me first tell you about "The Cave Allegory" in The Republic By by Plato, and then I will get to how this figures in with my review. The primary premise is that there are people chained to a wall who can only see shadows on that wall. The shadows on that wall is their reality and all they know. It isn't till one of the prisoners breaks free of the chains and goes to the outside world and comes back and finds that the reality that he always known is in fact not real. It is an illusion of fire and and object. The former prisoner tries to reason with the other prisoners to tell them that their reality is not what they believe it to be, but they do not listen.What does the Cave Allegory have to do with this book? In the eternal words of Yoda: everything. The allegory is used as a symbol throughout the book and a basis for the plot of the book, where our main character Astrid Jones is contemplating her life through her questioning sexuality and her relationship with her friends, family, and the town that she lives in. A.S King writes a breath of fresh air into the YA genre. I know she is known for "Everybody See the Ants," which I have not read but will sometime soon. She writes more introspective pieces that are intelligent and widely real. Astrid is a character I wish was I knew when I was in high school, when the same questions of my own reality were slipping away from me. This is not a plot heavy book, but it is entirely centered on themes, character development, symbolism, and tone. It's a wonderful piece of young adult fiction and what I love the most are the characters of Astrid, Dee, her (stoner) father, and even Kristina to an extent. Her mother, well even though Astrid made amends with her, I'm not such a big fan. The main plot line is that Astrid Jones is a senior in high school, facing a metaphysical crisis in her life. With her workaholic (and bitch of a mother), a "perfect" younger sister, stoner father who has no backbone, and originally from the big city of New York City and not a small town in Pennsylvania. She is questioning herself in regards to her sexuality and to how she views life, in her A.P Humanities class she studies philosophy and it is through studying philosophy that she starts to unravel her life through what she studies. This book reminds me of a line said by bell hooks: "I came to theory because I was hurting-the pain was so intense that I could not go on living. I came to theory desperate, wanting to comprehend--to grasp what was happening around and within me. Most importantly I wanted to make the hurt to go away. I saw in theory then a location for healing."--In Chapter Five of Theory as Liberatory Practice For Astrid, philosophy is a way to make sense of her world, and that is why I love this book. A lot of authors use speculative fiction such as fantasy and science fiction as an allegory to real life, but sometimes I hunger for a more introspective approach. The narrator is Astrid and she is real, flawed, and beautiful in her own voice. She is not pretentious nor insipid. She does make mistakes, and she learns from them. She is a character that is fully realized and has crawled into my heart and is just sitting there. This book makes you think. It isn't just a "coming-out book" it is a book about real relationships with friends, family, and lovers and about being honest with you who are and where you stand. The writing is excellent and it seems effortless in wrapping you into the story. The novel is not very long, and I found it quite compelling all the way through. Not knowing what I was about to get into, I was very surprised with what I got. It's a lovely read and I recommend it to everyone. A.S King has gotten into the ranks of one of my favorite writers of all time in any genre, not just YA. Beautiful. Just beautiful. Now, I want to meet A.S King and have a discussion with her on this book. I think it would be riveting.

Kill Me Softly by Sarah Cross began as an interesting spin-off of fairy tales and in the beginning captured my interest. As I progressed through the novel I began to see the problems, by the end I was happy again. At first, this book sounded like a YA take of "Once Upon a Time" on ABC about fairytales coming to life in the town of Storybrooke. However, reading the book it has nothing in common, but the fairy tale like tendencies. This book was entirely too uneven when it comes to plotting, since a lot of plot points were revealed far too early and one had to wonder what the rest of the book was going to be about. I wished the pacing was better because that is one problem I had with the novel overall.I also didn't like a lot of the characters from Felix to Freddie. Even though Freddie is supposed to be a good character I thought he was way too feminine for a guy (the whole animal magnet was a HUGE TURN OFF for me). It was silly to be quite honest, and I really didn't like his character because he never really grew at all. He knew what he was supposed to do throughout the entire book, and he didn't change a bit. Felix was annoying because he was twenty-one and Mira was in love with him. I dislike it when authors write about those kind of relationships. Blue was a very interesting character, even though I really wish his name was different. Blue just doesn't do it for me, even though it does have something to do with the fairy tale he portrays (or the Curse that is). The other characters didn't really have much of an arc besides being additional friends to Freddie and Blue, and I don't like it when friends of characters do not have more to their story arcs. The writing was alright, it could be lyrical at times. Mostly it was fine. I don't have a lot of big issues, besides the character development of the secondary characters.The ending of the book is what gave this a three for me, otherwise it would be a two. It was a great ending, but a little predictable too. This read was not one of my favorite books I read this summer, but neither was it one of the worst. It just wants me to watch "Once Upon a Time" instead.

Going into this book initially I was pretty excited. I had liked Sarah Dessen's previous work "Along for the Ride" and "Just Listen." However, "The Moon and More" is not what I expected at all. In fact, I am severely disappointed. Sarah Dessen I have noticed likes to keep with a formula, and as long as she keeps to it she is successful. I don't know why this bothers me a lot, but the woman can write but yet does not do ANYTHING NEW. In fact, what I did like her for previously is so OVERDONE in this book. I'll explain.ThemesShe is entirely WAY TOO FORCEFUL with her themes and what you are supposed to get out of this book. There is no trying to figure this out for yourself, she TELLS YOU WHAT YOU NEED TO GET OUT OF THIS BOOK. On every page it's some platitude people hear all the time. Platitude after platitude. In fact, this entire book is way too preachy. Her other books were not this extensive. They had symbols and metaphors, but "The Moon and More" takes it to the extreme that one cannot stop eyerolling at every single sentence.This is not to say I don't enjoy learning things from what I read. I do VERY MUCH ENJOY learning from reading, but I like to THINK FOR MYSELF and NOT HAVE EVERY SINGLE LESSON POUNDED INTO MY HEAD WITH A HAMMER. This gets excruciatingly annoying and difficult to deal with as I progressed through the novel because it just gets worst.Characters: The Love InterestsI normally liked the guys Mrs. Dessen writes about, at least when it came to "Along for the Ride" and "Just Listen." The only guys I like in this novel is Emaline's ten year old brother Benji and her friend Morris. The two love interest in this book nauseated me. Theo:At first I liked him. He was the ambitious outsider and film student at NYU who was working on a documentary about an elusive Colby beach artist. He was pretty interesting to hear about, and I was rooting for Emaline and Theo. Then came the 70% mark and everything fell to pieces. The guy is a pretentious jerk who only gives a care about himself and has no sense at all when it comes to thinking about his future. He would rather throw away his education to chase after an artist who doesn't even like him? That's not smart. It's suicidal. Every bit of sympathy I had for him went down the drain. One of the WORST characters she has ever written. EVER.Luke:He's got no backbone. He is the initial love interest where he had been with Emaline since her ninth grade year (who's with their boyfriend for all four years? That doesn't make any sense to me at all and it's not even that realistic). He gets mad at Emaline for hanging out with Theo, and he makes assumptions and then cheats on her at a dingy bar. Honestly, I can't root for the guy when I never really liked him. He's just a stereotypical unfleshed out boyfriend who cares for his girlfriend then gets jealous, but then still wants to be a friend to her later on when everything goes down the drain. There isn't much development there at all. The supporting charactersI actually quite enjoyed Daisy, Clyde, Morris, and especially Benji. In fact, the relationship between Benji and Emaline was the best part of this book how she helped her half-brother get through a difficult time in his life when his parents are going through a divorce. Probably the best part of the book. Daisy was a fun character and had a lot of quirks that I enjoyed a lot. Morris was also a very interesting character and Daisy's love interest too, which was interesting seeing they are a study of opposites. They were the funnest characters.The adults (besides Clyde): Sarah always writes about divorces or about family problems, which makes sense since everyone to some extent deals with these issues. I just wished she would give her adult characters more room to grow as characters since they are seen as the "bad guys" who leave families who don't take care of their kids. They have personality faults, but I just wish it wasn't so black and white with Sarah Dessen. Life is full of shades of gray. I wish she could start writing more ambiguity, especially at the age between adolescent and adulthood. In some of her other novels she handled this better, but not in this one. I guess I do like Emaline's mother and dad, but her father I do not. Emaline herself...I have conflicted feelings. Her as a sister to Benji I do enjoy quite a lot, but she kind of sits back for most of the book and doesn't really do anything but what she is told. Then a BOY enters the picture and then everyone pounces on her, even though she had a boyfriend previously because he's not from Colby. Really? That's a pretty annoying reason for things to start to change, too coincidental for me. Her character change really isn't as developed as I hope it would be by the end. She doesn't start to change until a lot later in the book. I hate that! I really do. Ivy...at first we are supposed to not like her. She's demanding, belittling, and pushy, but later on she starts to grow on you. I ended up liking her character A LOT MORE than Theo who I had liked for most of the book and not Ivy, but in the end I do. Other ThingsI know that Sarah Dessen likes to create her own universe with Colby and everything. It was nice to see that Auden and Esther were mentioned, as well as Clementines (and Tallyho). However, I do not like her replacements for things that we all know like Costco, Facebook, and anything else (also her facebook UMe.com allows ten year old users? In the real world it is at least thirteen!). The plot felt extremely long and dragged out. Normally her novels are a fast paced read for me, but this one dragged on and on (and on). I wanted to put it down way too many times, and I ended up getting frustrated for most of the novel. ConclusionThis novel by Ms. Dessen was so very dissapointing. Although, I can't say a lot about her prose I don't really like being preached at. This is by far the worst integration of themes and messages I have ever gotten from Ms. Dessen. This book didn't have a summery feel to it like all her other books do. In fact, I was so annoyed by most of the characters that I couldn't invest myself into them (if I did I found out they were not the people we should be rooting for). I dislike that this book is so black and white about messages, about getting out but knowing your limits. It's so passe and cliche, and I thought she would be able to string it together a lot better than she did. She didn't. MTV calls her the "Grand Empress of YA contemporary" but that should really go to my favorite author GAYLE (FREAKING) FOREMAN! Who writes beautiful, beautiful books about good characters and it is not always so black and white. I'm not sure if I will ever read another Dessen book again, maybe one of her older ones but unless she changes her course and WRITES SOMETHING OUTSIDE HER COMFORT ZONE...then I will pass.

Going into this book initially I was pretty excited. I had liked Sarah Dessen's previous work "Along for the Ride" and "Just Listen." However, "The Moon and More" is not what I expected at all. In fact, I am severely disappointed. Sarah Dessen I have noticed likes to keep with a formula, and as long as she keeps to it she is successful. I don't know why this bothers me a lot, but the woman can write but yet does not do ANYTHING NEW. In fact, what I did like her for previously is so OVERDONE in this book. I'll explain.ThemesShe is entirely WAY TOO FORCEFUL with her themes and what you are supposed to get out of this book. There is no trying to figure this out for yourself, she TELLS YOU WHAT YOU NEED TO GET OUT OF THIS BOOK. On every page it's some platitude people hear all the time. Platitude after platitude. In fact, this entire book is way too preachy. Her other books were not this extensive. They had symbols and metaphors, but "The Moon and More" takes it to the extreme that one cannot stop eyerolling at every single sentence.This is not to say I don't enjoy learning things from what I read. I do VERY MUCH ENJOY learning from reading, but I like to THINK FOR MYSELF and NOT HAVE EVERY SINGLE LESSON POUNDED INTO MY HEAD WITH A HAMMER. This gets excruciatingly annoying and difficult to deal with as I progressed through the novel because it just gets worst.Characters: The Love InterestsI normally liked the guys Mrs. Dessen writes about, at least when it came to "Along for the Ride" and "Just Listen." The only guys I like in this novel is Emaline's ten year old brother Benji and her friend Morris. The two love interest in this book nauseated me. Theo:At first I liked him. He was the ambitious outsider and film student at NYU who was working on a documentary about an elusive Colby beach artist. He was pretty interesting to hear about, and I was rooting for Emaline and Theo. Then came the 70% mark and everything fell to pieces. The guy is a pretentious jerk who only gives a care about himself and has no sense at all when it comes to thinking about his future. He would rather throw away his education to chase after an artist who doesn't even like him? That's not smart. It's suicidal. Every bit of sympathy I had for him went down the drain. One of the WORST characters she has ever written. EVER.Luke:He's got no backbone. He is the initial love interest where he had been with Emaline since her ninth grade year (who's with their boyfriend for all four years? That doesn't make any sense to me at all and it's not even that realistic). He gets mad at Emaline for hanging out with Theo, and he makes assumptions and then cheats on her at a dingy bar. Honestly, I can't root for the guy when I never really liked him. He's just a stereotypical unfleshed out boyfriend who cares for his girlfriend then gets jealous, but then still wants to be a friend to her later on when everything goes down the drain. There isn't much development there at all. The supporting charactersI actually quite enjoyed Daisy, Clyde, Morris, and especially Benji. In fact, the relationship between Benji and Emaline was the best part of this book how she helped her half-brother get through a difficult time in his life when his parents are going through a divorce. Probably the best part of the book. Daisy was a fun character and had a lot of quirks that I enjoyed a lot. Morris was also a very interesting character and Daisy's love interest too, which was interesting seeing they are a study of opposites. They were the funnest characters.The adults (besides Clyde): Sarah always writes about divorces or about family problems, which makes sense since everyone to some extent deals with these issues. I just wished she would give her adult characters more room to grow as characters since they are seen as the "bad guys" who leave families who don't take care of their kids. They have personality faults, but I just wish it wasn't so black and white with Sarah Dessen. Life is full of shades of gray. I wish she could start writing more ambiguity, especially at the age between adolescent and adulthood. In some of her other novels she handled this better, but not in this one. I guess I do like Emaline's mother and dad, but her father I do not. Emaline herself...I have conflicted feelings. Her as a sister to Benji I do enjoy quite a lot, but she kind of sits back for most of the book and doesn't really do anything but what she is told. Then a BOY enters the picture and then everyone pounces on her, even though she had a boyfriend previously because he's not from Colby. Really? That's a pretty annoying reason for things to start to change, too coincidental for me. Her character change really isn't as developed as I hope it would be by the end. She doesn't start to change until a lot later in the book. I hate that! I really do. Ivy...at first we are supposed to not like her. She's demanding, belittling, and pushy, but later on she starts to grow on you. I ended up liking her character A LOT MORE than Theo who I had liked for most of the book and not Ivy, but in the end I do. Other ThingsI know that Sarah Dessen likes to create her own universe with Colby and everything. It was nice to see that Auden and Esther were mentioned, as well as Clementines (and Tallyho). However, I do not like her replacements for things that we all know like Costco, Facebook, and anything else (also her facebook UMe.com allows ten year old users? In the real world it is at least thirteen!). The plot felt extremely long and dragged out. Normally her novels are a fast paced read for me, but this one dragged on and on (and on). I wanted to put it down way too many times, and I ended up getting frustrated for most of the novel. ConclusionThis novel by Ms. Dessen was so very dissapointing. Although, I can't say a lot about her prose I don't really like being preached at. This is by far the worst integration of themes and messages I have ever gotten from Ms. Dessen. This book didn't have a summery feel to it like all her other books do. In fact, I was so annoyed by most of the characters that I couldn't invest myself into them (if I did I found out they were not the people we should be rooting for). I dislike that this book is so black and white about messages, about getting out but knowing your limits. It's so passe and cliche, and I thought she would be able to string it together a lot better than she did. She didn't. MTV calls her the "Grand Empress of YA contemporary" but that should really go to my favorite author GAYLE (FREAKING) FOREMAN! Who writes beautiful, beautiful books about good characters and it is not always so black and white. I'm not sure if I will ever read another Dessen book again, maybe one of her older ones but unless she changes her course and WRITES SOMETHING OUTSIDE HER COMFORT ZONE...then I will pass.

jgkaghignkwhghinhg...AHHHHHHHHHH!That was pretty incoherent, but that pretty much sums up my feelings by the time I read the last page of the book. There was SO MUCH GOING ON in this book as compared to the others. The first half of the book was pretty good, but nothing really that special. By the end of the book it went like this.Something big happened.what?Something even bigger happened.WHAT?Something HUGE happened.WHAT!!!Then the final page.NO YOU CAN'T LEAVE IT LIKE THAT! NO!It's safe to say that Jenn Bennett is quickly rising the ranks of urban fantasy writers that I enjoy. Not only is Cady a strong female character that is likeable, and not always perfect there is a perfect cast of supporting characters from Lon Butler and his son Jupiter (Jupe) to Kar Yee. This series can get a bit lewd from time to time, but there seemed to be a better handle on it in this installment. I am really excited to see where the series takes off from here. This book is a game changer that is for sure for the series. The first two were pretty good, but this was great. I hope it doesn't decline from here as some series do. This was the best installment by far, and I decided to give it five stars just because of the second half. Wow.

This sounds more steamy than my usual pickings, but if anyone can balance character development, plot, setting, magical system, and romance I am pretty sure Jenn Bennett will not disappoint.