Review: Stealing Parker

 

Author: Miranda Kenneally

My Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
Purchase: Amazon | B&N | TBD

Synopsis: Red-hot author Miranda Kenneally hits one out of the park in this return to Catching Jordan's Hundred Oaks High.

Parker Shelton pretty much has the perfect life. She’s on her way to becoming valedictorian at Hundred Oaks High, she’s made the all-star softball team, and she has plenty of friends. Then her mother’s scandal rocks their small town and suddenly no one will talk to her.

Now Parker wants a new life.

So she quits softball. Drops twenty pounds. And she figures why kiss one guy when she can kiss three? Or four. Why limit herself to high school boys when the majorly cute new baseball coach seems especially flirty?

But how far is too far before she loses herself completely?

Review:

"It's a scary thing to wake up and realize the people you need most aren't nearby anymore... But you keep moving." - Brian

Parker's life was in a mumbo jumbo ever since her mother left them for her friend- a girl friend. Since then, she did a lot of things, some of which she wasn't proud of, just to prove that she's not a lesbian like her mother. But things were still in shambles.

Despite trying to act like a total bitch around guys, Parker wants the real thing. The real romance and not just some one-time thing. She may be tough in front of everyone but her vulnerability starts to show at home.

At some parts in the book, I found that I can somehow relate to Parker. Her disappointments and expectations were real and didn't feel fictional. I love how book characters seem real and not just some people in the page.

Though this might not be that romantic compared to Catching Jordan, I think Parker and Will's moments were cute. They weren't best friends like Jordan and Sam so it was pretty much understandable that they didn't spend their times cuddling and being so damn comfortable with each other. Although I love the fact that his family liked Parker and they didn't judged her like those Christian's did.

I love Parker's reunion with her mother. I like the fact that she finally surrendered and finally called her mother when she couldn't handle it all. It makes me realise that though people may walk out of your lives, someone will always be there for you.

For the second time, Miranda made me enjoy the story with a sport I'm not really familiar with. I love how she keeps it simple and light. I love how she makes me cry too. Can't wait to read her next book!

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This copy was acquired through a giveaway hosted by Reading after Midnight

Review: Insurgent

    

Author: Veronica Roth

My Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
Purchase: Amazon | B&N | TBD

Synopsis: One choice can transform you--or it can destroy you. But every choice has consequences, and as unrest surges in the factions all around her, Tris Prior must continue trying to save those she loves--and herself--while grappling with haunting questions of grief and forgiveness, identity and loyalty, politics and love.

Tris's initiation day should have been marked by celebration and victory with her chosen faction; instead, the day ended with unspeakable horrors. War now looms as conflict between the factions and their ideologies grows. And in times of war, sides must be chosen, secrets will emerge, and choices will become even more irrevocable--and even more powerful. Transformed by her own decisions but also by haunting grief and guilt, radical new discoveries, and shifting relationships, Tris must fully embrace her Divergence, even if she does not know what she may lose by doing so.

Review:

I just finished reading the book and I'm still in awe. To be honest, every page you turn makes it hard to breath. It's like you're already anticipating something bad along the way that you can't relax and be cool about it. Like Tris, it makes you suspicious. Roth has her ways of making us anticipate the next book without leaving us deathly cliffhangers and that's something I love about her style in writing.

The book shows us how Tris was slowly eaten by guilt over what happened during the night of the attack and how this, along with grief affects her radical thinking.

I love how we explored more characters personality and met new ones. I liked how Roth introduced them to us by giving us small info and not only focus on the antagonist and protagonists that usually happens when the book is having its moment; a very interesting part of the storyline. I love how the storyline is not purely focused on one thing and goes on a straight line. It definitely branches out along the way.

Though romance was obviously not it's focus, I was glad with the amount of Four/Tris moments. Although I sort of hated Tris for her lies and whatnot. There were issues between them and Tobias and it's sad to see them working behind their backs, even though it's for the same cause.

It surprised me how deaths, even of supporting characters affected me by making me connect to what Tris felt and how slowly these became factors of her decision making. 

Over all, I loved the book. I loved the twist not just with the storyline but also with the characters. But I admit, this seems like a filler for an epic ending. I really wish it's epic.

Now, here comes the hard part: waiting for the next book. 

Review: Graffiti Moon

    

Author: Cath Crowley

My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Purchase: Amazon | B&N | TBD

Synopsis: "Let me make it in time. Let me meet Shadow. The guy who paints in the dark. Paints birds trapped on brick walls and people lost in ghost forests. Paints guys with grass growing from their hearts and girls with buzzing lawn mowers."

It’s the end of Year 12. Lucy’s looking for Shadow, the graffiti artist everyone talks about.

His work is all over the city, but he is nowhere.

Ed, the last guy she wants to see at the moment, says he knows where to find him. He takes Lucy on an all-night search to places where Shadow’s thoughts about heartbreak and escape echo around the city walls

But the one thing Lucy can’t see is the one thing that’s right before her eyes.

Review:

I definitely love this book— no doubt on that. I love how Crowley wrote this using simple words but still able to get the right emotions. I love how that it's written in Ed and Lucy's POV alternately.

It's amazing how Crowley managed to cover everything that happened in one night and made it into an amazing work of art. Good pacing and each POV were written in an amazing way that expressed what the character feels.

I understand Ed's struggle and his need for an alter-ego to express the feelings and thoughts he can't express by himself. I understand how Lucy understands Shadow by his works alone even though they haven't met yet. Through his works, he gets to express himself. Through his works, she understands him. Through his works, the connection is made between them.

Review: Exiled

    

Author: RaShelle Workman

My rating: 2 of 5 stars
Purchase: Amazon | B&N | TBD

Synopsis: Stubborn, sixteen-year-old Princess Venus of Kelari wants one thing, to become immortal, that is, until someone exiles her to Earth, kills her irrihunter and takes her family. 

Now she wants revenge. 

First she’s got to get home. But before she can return to Kelari, the Gods have commanded her to help an arrogant boy named Michael find his soul mate. 

Only she doesn't know the first thing about love. 

Rather quickly, her inexperience with human emotion is obscured by other matters--alien-controlled psychotic teens that are out to kill her, and a government group that is set on capturing and dissecting her. 

Worst of all, Venus will suffer a painful death-by-poisoning, thanks to Earth’s atmosphere, if she remains on the planet longer than one week. 

Still, Venus is a Princess and she's got a plan. Surely, with her help, Michael will fall in love with a human. 

But time is running out and Michael is falling for the wrong girl--her.

Review:

I expected a lot from this book. It has an interesting plot and it's actually the first one I've read that concerns a different planet.

The way it was written was kinda off for me though. I was trying hard to feel the excitement whilst reading it but failed. There are terms used in the first few chapters that were obviously unfamiliar. I wish the author explained them. I had a hard time imagining scenes and things, or maybe that's just me. Good thing, the narration got better at the later chapters.

As far as the characters are concerned, I don't like Venus as much as I like other protagonists. She's— okay but not really likeable. I can't see the character development I expected for her after she came to Earth except that she now feels what humans feel.

Michael on the other hand confused me at first. He was first shown as a loving and thoughtful boyfriend, then an abused child, a teen with suicidal thoughts and a football player. His traits don't seem to go hand in hand. I pegged him as an angsty, loner teen after his scene at the lake but that thought was squashed when he played football and attended the party.

Vinny on the other hand was my most appreciated character because of how he played his role as a villain whilst pretending to be their friend all along.

As far as shipping is concerned, I root for Venus/Zaren though I know she's suppose to end up with Michael. I just don't feel her connection to the latter and their interactions weren't enough. But then again, maybe it's just me.

Sadly, I don't feel the anticipation for the next book but I still hope it would be better since the setting is now back at Kelari.

Review: Geek Girl

Author: Cindy C. Bennett

My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Purchase: Amazon | B&N | TBD

Synopsis: "Think I can turn that boy bad?"

17-year-old Jen turns her life upside down when, out of boredom, she makes a bet that she can turn school geek Trevor into someone like her. Instead, the goth girl finds herself sucked into his world of sci-fi movies, charity work, and even-ugh!-bowling. To truly belong with him-and with her new foster family-she must first come to terms with her violent past.

Review:

This is one of those cliché books you'd still love no matter how much you can predict how it would end. It's beautifully written, amazing composition, witty and lovable characters and the protagonist guy can swoon you no matter how geeky he is.

It actually made me feel light during Jen and Trevor's moments, made me feel loved during those scenes where Jen's foster parents would reach out to her and made me feel nauseous upon learning what happened to Jen before. It has a good balance between the positive and negative and does not only focus on Jen and Trevor's relationship with each other but as well as to other secondary characters.

The only thing I sort of disliked here is how some things weren't given much emphasis after Trevor knew about the bet. The build up of the relationship was actually nice and I was expecting for a total swoon moment for them to get together.

Criticisms aside, this book made me laugh and made sympathize the characters on how messed up their lives were, no matter how big or small their problem is.