Monthly Archives:: April 2015

Friday, April 10, 2015

Review: Last Good Day of the Year by Jessica Warman

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I received this book for free from Bloomsbury in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

Review: Last Good Day of the Year by Jessica WarmanLast Good Day of the Year by Jessica Warman
Published by Bloomsbury on May 19, 2015
Genres: Contemporary, Thriller, YA
Source: Bloomsbury
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three-stars

A new powerful thriller from the globally-embraced author ofBetween.

Ten years ago, in the early hours of New Year’s Day, seven-year-old Samantha and her next door neighbor, Remy, watched as a man broke into Sam’s home and took her younger sister, Turtle, from her sleeping bag. Remy and Sam, too afraid to intervene at the time, later identified the man as Sam’s sister Gretchen’s much older ex-boyfriend, Steven, who was sent to prison for Turtle’s murder.

Now, Sam’s shattered family is returning to her childhood home in an effort to heal. As long-buried memories begin to surface, Sam wonders if she and Remy accurately registered everything they saw. The more they re-examine the events of that fateful night, the more questions they discover about what really happened to Turtle.

This… was an interesting read, indeed.

The blurb talks about how this is a powerful thriller, but a more apt description would be a “quiet” thriller that sends ripples of emotions to the reader in frequent, yet small doses. This is actually the first time I’ve read something like it, because when I see THRILLER, I expect SUSPENSE! MYSTERY! TWISTS AT EVERY CORNER! But Last Good Day of the Year is anything but. The first 90% is all backstory, and the actual “thriller” part comes almost at the very end.

That doesn’t mean to say that it didn’t work, though, because I found myself liking the overall touch. When Sam was seven years old, she witnessed someone go inside their house and kidnap her four year old sister, Tabitha (nickname: Turtle). If something like that happened to me, my life would definitely change, and so would my parents’, my siblings’, my neighbors’ and friends’. And the book here emphasizes that – how the lives of Sam and the people close to her heart changed, and how they felt the grief, the sadness, the blame, and the regret and how these all followed them for years until the present time. I felt all of these emotions in my very core as I read along, as there was this brutal honesty but softness in Sam’s voice that would hold your heart and tenderly accompany you from finish to end.

If there is one thing that I didn’t like, though, it’s just that there were times the narration felt dragging at times. Like I mentioned, the book was 90% character backstory, and the rest were actually for the “thriller” part (or the knowing of who kidnapped Turtle). It would narrate quite extensively about certain details that I felt were quite irrelevant, although I guess the author really wanted to flesh out the characters and let us see some sort of domino effect. It’s just weird when the book’s shorter than the usual novel and yet there were times you would feel like it’s taking forever. 

Also going to throw this out there: while I appreciated the backstory, I was disappointed that the actual “thriller” part was so, so, so short, and the details and evidences pointing at the real killer were given to us in an “avalanche”. There weren’t really any clues beforehand and so the story gives it all to us in one go as if all of a sudden, the characters had a moment of HUGE epiphany. I usually look forward to the discovering of clues, to the reading between the lines, to thinking about the puzzle pieces myself when it comes to this type of books, so to see it nonexistent here bummed me out. The transition to that point of the book was also not there. So it was like “character backstory, backstory, backstory, OH THE KILLER WAS THIS DUDE AND THIS IS WHY” and every character would be like, “OH I SEE NOW” as if they all simply accepted it. I wish there were more tension 🙁

All in all, it’s an interesting novel and I would read more of this kind of thrillers, as long as the tension is also in abundance (or at least present even in small amounts). I think contemporary readers would definitely like this.

three-stars

3 Hot Espressos

Review: Anyone But Ivy Pocket by Caleb Krisp

Review: Anyone But Ivy Pocket by Caleb Krisp

Posted by on 04/09/2015 • 3 Comments

I was hoping that this would be cute and fun, but I found myself so annoyed by the MC that I couldn’t really enjoy the book at all. I think that the story itself was pretty interesting, but I couldn’t stand Ivy. I did enjoy the stuff about the Clock Diamond and its magic and Ivy’s journey though. I wish that I could say that I enjoyed some of the characters, but I really didn’t. This is a middle grade book, so the younger crowd might enjoy it much more than me, and probably won’t find things as irritating as I did. The other thing that I liked about this book was the artwork. It was very good and thought that it really brought something more to the story. Since…

Review: The Cage by Megan Shepherd

Review: The Cage by Megan Shepherd

Posted by on 04/08/2015 • 12 Comments

Gah, I’m not sure what to think about this book. One one hand, I feel like it’s definitely unique and refreshing, partaking on a sci-fi idea and molding it into something new. On the other hand, it had a lot of things that made me raise my eyebrow, want to bang my head on a wall, and gouge my eyes out.

Let’s get one thing straight, though: the writing is mad awesome. It’s been a while since I’ve read such beautiful writing that reads like a sweet harmony, as if reading it is like listening to angelic music. I have heard of the author’s writing prowess in reviews of her previous series The Madman’s Daughter, but now I am a firm believer. The narration and how the words were connected and…

Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens  by Becky Albertalli

Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens by Becky Albertalli

Posted by on 04/06/2015 • 27 Comments

This book was so sweet and realistic. I couldn’t help but love it. It really captured the reality of someone who might be going through the same type of situation. I loved the characters, the story, all of it really. It didn’t totally blow me away or anything, but it was an amazing story that I will highly recommend to others. Once again, I am happy that more and more YA books are covering topics such as this in such a fantastic way.

I adored Simon. He isn’t embarrassed about being gay, he just doesn’t know how to tell anyone. His family is great and caring, but his dad is known to crack some gay jokes. He knows that they will except it, as well as his friends, but…

Fresh Batch (April 5th – 11th)

Fresh Batch (April 5th – 11th)

Posted by on 04/04/2015 • 8 Comments

Fresh Batch, posted weekly, keeps you up to date on the hottest releases of the upcoming week.

Flavor of the week:

None of the Above I.W. Gregorio Publication date: April 7th 2015by Balzer + Bray

Goodreads Purchase

A groundbreaking story about a teenage girl who discovers she was born intersex . . . and what happens when her secret is revealed to the entire school. Incredibly compelling and sensitively told, None of the Above is a thought-provoking novel that explores what it means to be a boy, a girl, or something in between.

What if everything you knew about yourself changed in an instant?

When Kristin Lattimer is voted homecoming queen, it seems like another piece of her ideal life has fallen…

Review: Gone Too Far by Natalie Richards

Review: Gone Too Far by Natalie Richards

Posted by on 04/03/2015 • 7 Comments

You guys know how much I like my revenge stories. There’s something that feels really sweet when mean and awful people get a dose of their own medicine. The best one I’ve read to date is Gretchen McNeil’s Don’t Get Mad duology, which had an amazing cast of female characters (who totally kicked butt and whose different personalities really made both novels shine), so I was kind of expecting to feel the same intensity in Richard’s. Unfortunately, while I liked the idea of the premise (which wasn’t all that original, sadly enough…), it didn’t feel like it was executed greatly enough.

So, the story starts with Piper finding a notebook filled with cryptic statements about what people have done to other people. She witnessed someone get bullied in school, a victim…

Review: Hold Me Like a Breath by Tiffany Schmidt

Review: Hold Me Like a Breath by Tiffany Schmidt

Posted by on 04/01/2015 • 21 Comments

This is probably the first time in a long while since I’ve gotten this infuriated and angry and just fuming over a book. I chose to read this novel expecting great things (especially with such a title as romantic as that), but I ended up putting the book down at certain times and pacing around the room just to cool off the steam coming out of my ears. I was that seething. 

(And I’m not the only one. I buddy read this with Aimee and we kept ranting about the book to each other.)

I don’t even know where to start with this thing. It had so many factors that could have given us an amazing story – underground family-syndicates that deal with black market organ transplants, a heroine who has an autoimmune disorder, assigned guardians…