I confess, it has been a long time since I was a teenager. Longer than I would care to admit and if I'm being honest, I don't think I behaved or thought like an actual teenager when I was one. If I did behave like a stereotypical teenager, and by stereotypical I mean like the teenagers in TMI, then why the hell didn't somebody slap me? Because I can tell you now if these characters are meant to be a typical representation of teenagers and how the behave then we are in for some serious, serious problems.I think that is part of my problem with the book. Because I am nowhere near a teenager or that mentality I found it unbelievably hard to connect with any of the characters. The idea behind the story was great and I am honestly very glad that it didn't end up like a Dateline To Catch a Predator episode. Because it could have, really easily. I just think that the characters were a little too petty. Not to mention the weird dynamic that was the friendship of Bailey and Meg. It's almost like they are more frenemies than anything.
All in all this is a decent read and I'm sure that other's would will like it just fine, but it just wasn't my cup of tea.
I have a lot of books in the New Adult genre on my shelf. I’ve been meaning to get around to reading them, but had yet to do so. Until now, until this book. The Coincidence of Callie & Kayden by Jessica Sorensen was for all intents and purposes my introduction to all things new adult, and let me just say what an introduction is was! I could not put this one down. In fact, I read it in one sitting. Then I went back and I read it again.Everything I dislike about the Young Adult genre was absent from this book. There was no ‘instant love’, no weak female main characters waiting for a boy to save her or just see her for who she is, there was no petty problems, no douche of a male lead who is somehow made out to be the ideal love interest. Instead we watched two people with real issues and real problems not only come together to be some kind of strength in each other’s lives, but we got to watch these two very flawed characters work on themselves. It’s almost as if they realized that they needed to be an asset to themselves before they could be an asset to anyone else. *Gasp* the maturity!
And that pretty much sums it all up. There was an exploration of maturity demonstrated in The Coincidence of Callie & Kayden, both in the story and in the characters themselves that was really great to see. Callie & Kayden are not yet fully-formed adults and while they are still in the flush of youth, there is a depth to them and their story that makes you want to cheer them on as the story progresses.
Oh, and that ending! I have to say that while cliff hanger’s normally drive me nuts, all this one did is make me want to read the next book in the series, The Redemption of Callie & Kayden right now. Look out for that one in stores in February 2014 or available in eBook format right now!
Fact: I love the Darkness Rising series by Kelly Armstrong.Fact: Book one in the series, The Gathering was good.
Fact: Book two in the series, The Calling was better.
Fact: Book three in the series, The Rising is better than both of the first two books.
The Rising continues where The Calling left off. There are no gaps in the story and you aren't left feeling like you are getting any unnecessary repeats of information from either of the first two books. The Rising offers what has become Kelly Armstrong's signature of fluid storytelling with a gradual, but natural progression of the story.
[quote style="1"]"Do you really think that matters? We're bought and paid for, whatever the currency. They say they want us happy, but they really just want us compliant." I looked at him. "I don't do compliant."[/quote]
Honestly, the Darkness Rising series is one of the better YA series' out there. The characterizations of the teens in the books are appropriate. They recognize their own strengths and weaknesses; they are flawed and they know it. This adds to the believability of the story. Nowhere in The Rising do the characters fall into the 'I'm a teenager, but I can save the world and I don't need you' mentality that is found in so many books these days.
All in all, The Rising by Kelly Armstrong is a great story that has plenty of moments of suspense, action, and drama that will keep you on your toes right until the end. The Rising is a fitting end to a great series.
More reviews like this one at: Nicole About TownWhen I got into the office this morning, one of my co-workers asked me the same question she asks me everyday, ‘Nicole, what book are you reading right now and describe it in one word?’ My reply: ‘I just finished reading Pretty Girl-13 by Liz Coley and honestly, it was haunting’. Even now sitting down to write this review two hours later, I’m still not even sure where to start. I guess you could say that I am in complete and total awe of this amazing book; complete and utter wonder at the incredibly detailed and believable story woven throughout the novel. And let’s be honest, I’m a little creeped out as well by just how realistic Pretty Girl-13 was from beginning to end.
There was so much going on with this book, that I don’t even know what to tell you. Is it a book about a girl who was abducted and returns three year later with no memory? Yes, and I honestly thought that was all that this book was going to be about. Not so. There is so much more going on in Pretty Girl-13 and all are dealt with so well. Pretty Girl-13 introduces the concept of ‘Dissociative Identity Disorder’, also referred to as DID, and that is where the real story begins. We get explanations about DID that aren’t too clinical that the reader gets bogged down with information, and we get demonstrations of the various ‘alters’ that are inhabiting Angie’s psyche and the parts they have played in keeping her alive. Quite honestly, Pretty Girl-13 gave such a great introduction to DID that it’s something I’m interested in researching further at some point.
Liz Coley deals with several horrifying and sensitive topics very well in Pretty Girl-13. The topics of psychological issues, and their triggers, and abduction and abuse of a child are really weighty topics to be tackled in any novel, let alone a young adult novel. There are always the worries of either getting too detailed for the audience or trivializing the entire experience to worry about. Pretty Girl-13 does none of those things, it absolutely nails those topics and issues for the target audience. Like Want to Go Private by Sarah Darer Littman, Pretty Girl-13 is one of those books that should be read by both parents and teens alike.
I'm going to make this short and sweet. Taking a Shot by Jaci Burton has to be my least favourite book in the Play-by-Play series so far. To me, there was just so much lacking in this one. I found the main character Jenna to be immensely annoying. She went around masquerading as this tough girl but in reality she was afraid of her own shadow. Prone to being detrimentally headstrong and making snap judgements, there really was nothing about her character that I was able to connector identify with.Likewise the male lead, Ty, had absolutely no depth to his character at all. He just fell flat, even when getting what should have been an insight into what makes him tick, it was just bland. I found him to be weak and ineffectual as a leading man. To top it off, the chemistry and dynamic between both Ty and Jenna just didn't work for me at all. Don't get me wrong; they had plenty of sex, but as far as convincing me that they were in love or on their way to building a relationship, it just wasn't happening.
All in all Taking a Shot by Jaci Burton was a huge disappointment after what had been two pretty strong books in The Perfect Play and Changing the Game. My final verdict is that you can probably skip this one and move on to the next.
Going into reading this one, I knew that it was originally Twilight fan fiction that was pulled to be published. I’m not gonna lie, I did actually start reading this when it was fan fiction. I didn’t read all of it, but I read part of it. Has Beautiful Bastard been changed a bit from it’s original fan fiction version The Office? Yes! Has it been changed enough that it seems like a new story? Not at all. But that’s not actually a bad thing. While I recognized the story as something that I had read before, it didn’t make me think about Twilight at all. Which is part of what made The Office so popular in the first place.Hot from the word go, Beautiful Bastard is the story of Bennett and Chloe. Bennett and Chloe are employer and employee respectively. They also sleep together…a lot. They also seem to dislike, or at the very least annoy, one another…a lot. Thus begins our story. Beautiful Bastard dives right in. I mean, right in to the sexual relationship between the two. It almost gives the impression that you are starting the book in the middle of the story. It gives it a bit a disconnected feeling that thankfully disappears as the story progresses.
The story is told in Bennett and Chloe’s alternating view points. Normally, this drives me absolutely insane, but it actually worked for this book and didn’t leave me feeling like I was jumping back and forth from one idea to the other. The differing view points managed to give two different perspectives to the same events, while managing not to feel like a bunch of repetition.
I know a lot of people really like Bennett, but I personally really liked Chloe. I was so happy that she was not one of those doormat female lead characters who wouldn’t say s*** if she had a mouthful. All through the story, she managed to give back just a good as she gave. Was her decision making suspect? Absolutely! But speaking as someone who has worked with University students for the past 10 years, her decision making it pretty common. Bad decisions aside, it was refreshing to read about a female character with a set of cojones for a change.
While Beautiful Bastard by Christina Lauren may not end up winning the Pulitzer Prize in Fiction, it just may end up being your guilty pleasure.
