This is What Happy Looks Like by Jennifer E. Smith

I have been waiting on this book for a long time. I absolutely loved Smith’s other book, The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight. And while, I love a lot of the YA contemporary authors that keep writing awesome books, it’s good to get a fresh new voice for this genre too.

The story is sort of a classic romantic comedy “You’ve Got Mail” type story. It begins with an accidental email that Graham sends to Ellie about his pet pig, Wilbur. How could Ellie not respond to that email, even it were an accident? The two build up a virtual friendship with a near constant correspondence. And much of my favorite lines of the book come from their witty email dialogue.  (Note that while this book seems thick, definitely thicker in length than Smith’s other book, keep in mind that a lot of pages have very few words on them –emails take up page space).

Well, it turns out that Graham is a movie star (and he most definitely did not tell Ellie this), and that his next film location is in the small town in Maine, where Ellie lives. Technically, Graham fought for this location because he knew it was where Ellie was from. However, unlike Ellie’s best friend and the rest of town, Ellie seems to be the only one who doesn’t want a movie crew taking up space.

Ellie has a secret she’s never told anyone (especially not Graham), and as the two meet, and become real life friends, Ellie’s secret has a way of putting up major boundaries in regards to this friendship growing into anything more. Ellie’s secret means she needs to avoid cameras at all costs! And cameras follow Graham absolutely everywhere.

This book is loaded with friendship and family drama. It deals with money issues (for Ellie), and success issues for Graham. It’s about two completely different teens finding someone they can trust, no matter what. And it is just so much fun too! Between the boat adventures, the film sets, the dates, the secret beaches, the Fourth of July fireworks, the ice cream fiascos, and the secrets, it was quite honestly impossible to put this book down.

Was the book realistic in the slightest? Not really. How often do we find ourselves in mysterious correspondence with movie stars? And I’m not sure how in love I am with the book condoning digital relationships turned real relationships, because in most cases a girl will not realize the person she is talking to is actually a teen heart throb. However, Smith takes this fantastical (every girl dreams of this happening) idea and gives it authenticity by making the characters so real. Even Graham has his flaws and I found myself often finding myself feeling more sorry for him than for Ellie.

I loved that it takes place in a town with a season (like the town I’m living in). And I found Ellie’s secret to be so amazing! I’m not sure if I’ve ever read from the perspective of a character that’s been through what she has before. So, even while the story is a sort of classic romantic concept, there were definitely new elements thrown in as well. Also, Smith just wows me with her characters. I loved everyone from the main characters, to the best friends, to the people working for Graham, to Ellie’s mom.

This book makes the perfect beginning of summer read. Take it outside and read it in the sun, and it’s even better. It makes me want to go on a YA contemporary binge. I give it a 9/10. And I look forward to anything else this author has to say.

A Good Week in Books (51)

I had a decent book week. I purchased two new paperbacks this week. Both are books I’ve actually read already, but I know that at some point I would like to re-read because they were super good. I also checked out one library book.

Eleanor and Park by Rainbow Rowell (library book)
Pushing the Limits by Katie McGarry (new paperback!)
A Temptation of Angels by Michelle Zink (new paperback!)

I’ve also realized that I’ve had some books sent to my old address. So hopefully, next week, I’ll have a lot more new books…We’ll see how this works. How was your book week?

Waiting on Wednesday (44)

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted by Breaking the Spine that allows bloggers to share which books we are most anticipating.

This week I am waiting on Emerald Green by Kerstin Gier (10/8/2013):

Description on Goodreads:

Gwen has a destiny to fulfill, but no one will tell her what it is.

She’s only recently learned that she is the Ruby, the final member of the time-traveling Circle of Twelve, and since then nothing has been going right. She suspects the founder of the Circle, Count Saint-German, is up to something nefarious, but nobody will believe her. And she’s just learned that her charming time-traveling partner, Gideon, has probably been using her all along.

This stunning conclusion picks up where Sapphire Blue left off, reaching new heights of intrigue and romance as Gwen finally uncovers the secrets of the time-traveling society and learns her fate.

I have absolutely adored these books! I love the main character. She is just so normal (you know, aside from the whole time travel thing). I love the sense of humor of this author. And I love the romance. I’m dying to see what will happen next. I hate that it has to be over soon, but I am so beyond excited for this last installment. I need answers as much as Gwen does!

What are you waiting on this week?

Dead Silence by Kimberly Derting

So, it’s kind of impossible for me to hold on to any book by this author for any extended period of time without reading it. I just got it, and had to read it immediately. There’s something about intense romance mixed with serial killers that is just so positively addicting…Granted, my favorite tv shows are Gilmore Girls and Dexter…Weird mixture, right? But apparently not because this book seems to exist for fans like me.

My favorite part of all of these books are the sizzling scenes with Violet and Jay. Things have gotten a little more complicated with Rafe in the picture. And in this book, Rafe now attends Violet’s school, along with the rest of her supernatural team. Violet has to go to mandatory therapy sessions that she tolerates because of the sleeping pills she is awarded at them. Apparently sleep is only something for people without non-stop echoes in their heads. Violet had to kill someone in the previous book, and she has to live with the aftermath. The aftermath for her is a lot more than guilt; it’s the living with the incessant noise of the echo of the kill.

On top of the not sleeping thing, Violet also has headaches and a constant music box type song stuck in her head for forever. She still gets the impulse to find other bodies. And the book begins with her finding the bodies of a whole family who were brutally murdered. The weird thing about this family is that the kid has no echo. He’s clearly been murdered and Violet has never not felt an echo for someone killed before.

Violet’s mother has given her a box full of her grandmother’s things and in that box are journals. Violet learns a lot about her grandmother’s romantic life. She also learns a lot about her own mother as a child. And best of all is what she learns about her grandmother’s abilities and the team she was recruited for that reminds Violet a lot of her own murder-solving team. Violet’s team is not all that it seems, and she slowly comes to realize who she can most trust.

Violet shares her secret with someone else in this book. She finds more bodies. She goes to metal concerts. She fights with Jay, and makes up with Jay. There’s some love triangle-type moments. There are some great best friend moments. And then of course there are all the points of view moments of the serial killer. This serial killer is a control freak who abducts girls, administers serious drugs, and wishes he was part of a particular metal band.

I always find these scenes to be so interesting! At first I’m always sad to deter from the teen drama, but then I get so into the story of the killer too. These books are the perfect mixtures of teen drama, supernatural suspense, and thriller. Everything all comes down to Violet needing to be honest, honest with Jay, honest with her parents, honest with her teammates, honest with herself. It’s hard for Violet to learn to control her impulses to go after killers, but she’s really working on it in this one.

I love how real Jay and Violet’s relationship is. They have their ups and downs like any couple would. They have a lot of that common YA soul mate type stuff, but it’s believable because nothing is ever too easy in regards to them. And I love how realistic this stuff is. I also love all the suspense with Violet’s team. I super loved her grandmother’s journals and learning about how her grandmother dealt with the same abilities. Though, learning about those killed with no echoes was a little too easy with these journals. I mean the timing was a little too spot-on. It’s nice getting a little more details/history about everything because I’ve almost become accustomed to just not having any answers.

I liked all the scenes at the music clubs. I wish there were more moments with the girls dressed as metal fans. And then of course things get more personal when the killer goes after Violet’s friend. And I love how strongly determined Violet always is to protect those who are close to her. She genuinely seems to be embracing her abilities lately, and wanting to use what she has to help people.

This one is not my favorite book in the series, but it’s not my least favorite. My favorite ones are probably the more romance heavy ones. But, still, this one is not lacking in that department. I hope Derting keeps writing these. I want to know what will happen with Violet’s team. I want to know what happens with a couple of other things too. I give this books a 9/10.

Chosen at Nightfall by C.C. Hunter

I was really questioning my sanity last week, reading yet another final installment of a series. 2013 really seems to be the year of the final installments. And it’s making my whole year bittersweet, in the reading department. So many endings! I need some more beginnings, seriously.

I say I want beginnings, yet I also absolutely have to read all these endings too…And this was definitely an ending I was anticipating. The previous book finally gave us some much-awaited answers about Kylie’s supernatural status and abilities. And it ended with a big betrayal by the one she loved most. It ended with such a cliffhanger. I almost needed to know what would happen next more than I needed the closure of the last installment.

(Spoiler Alert. Stop reading if you have not read the prior books in the series)

Any way, it all starts with Kylie living around those of her kind. She left the camp at the end of the last book to go live with other chameleons. And apparently the chameleons are just as strict and set in their ways as the werewolves Lucas had to live with. It’s good and it’s bad for Kylie. It’s nice to be around her grandfather. And it’s nice to learn so much about her abilities from people who experience the same things she does. However, the chameleon kids aren’t ever allowed to leave the compound because chameleons are always in hiding. Apparently, in the olden days people hunted them down and experimented and tortured them (and by people I mean the FRU).

So, the way the chameleons have made it is by constantly hiding and cutting off all communication with pretty much everyone. So, no camp phone calls for Kylie. At first, she’s grateful for this because she really doesn’t want to have any communication with Lucas at all. But, she misses her camp leaders and her roommates. She also still feels like an outcast. Before she felt like one because she was the only non-known supernatural being. Now, she stands out among the outcasts because she’s stronger. She has abilities that most of the others don’t get until well into adulthood. Also, the whole marrying off chameleons to their proper partner things is way too backwards-thinking to Kylie.

Everything changes though when some old friends find her and explain that they think Kylie’s old enemy, Mario, is back and working his hardest to find her. Kylie then decides it’s smartest to return to camp where she can have the upmost protection (even though it means dealing with Lucas and what he did). This book really couldn’t take place anywhere but camp for very long. There’s the whole running from Mario thing, on top of dealing with a ghost who’s apparently killed lots of people, learning to live with (and trying to forgive) Lucas, more love triangle business, some best friend drama, big wedding news, and a lot of revelations.

Stuff goes down with Kylie’s mom. Stuff goes down with Kylies chameleon family. Stuff goes down with Lucas, and Derek. And stuff pretty much just continues to go down through the whole thing. So many questions are answered! The romance is more sizzling than before. The action is not disappointing. It’s fun to see all the people who stand by Kylie no matter what. It’s fun to watch her share her secrets with others. And there’s all the cute, teen angst humor from the previous novels.

Was it the perfect end? No, but I loved it. It was a little too good for me in some ways. There’s this part where Kylie and Holiday are talking about the future and it seems like Kylie and her roomies are going to all go to the same school, and all come back to camp after, with the perfect jobs…And they talk about this as a very plausible possibility and it was a little too good, you know?

I liked how stuff resolved on the romantic side of things. I liked how stuff resolved with Kylie’s mom. And I loved how strong Kylie has become. She spends much of this book learning how to sword fight…Because she actually needs to know how to do this to defeat Mario. Some of the sword fighting training scenes were my absolute favorites. And it was pretty epic. Overall, I was super impressed with this last one. And I was even more impressed with this fun series. I give it a 10/10 and I look forward to reading the author’s spin-off series that will come out next year.

The Elite by Kiera Cass

Well, I read this one in a matter of hours…This author always lucks out with gorgeous covers. Really, I can’t take my eyes away from this one, again. I was kind of hoping this would be a book series of 2 books because I knew having to wait on Prince Maxon’s final choice for a third book would be unbearable. Alas, there will be one more in the series, and I now have some serious waiting to do.

The Elite immediately follows the actions of The Selection. Prince Maxon is down to the elite of his girls. There are six left, including America. The competition is tight at the castle, with girls resorting to all sorts of behavior. America, as before, is ever indecisive of what and who she really wants. Also, the rebel attacks have been becoming more violent, and more frequent.

America is always asking the men in her life for more time. Does she clearly love both? Yes. Does she know if she can be a princess? This, she doesn’t know. Maxon is still enamored with her, no matter how America pushes him away. And Aspen has become a worthy opponent in the love triangle, always attempting to get a moment alone with America and remind her of the wonderful past they had once shared.

There’s more challenges, more parties, more hiding from violent attacks on the castle, and so much more world–building! America gets her hand on a historical diary and with this book, the history of her very disturbing, yet also believable caste system becomes explained. There’s a lot more politics in this one, a lot more history, and a lot more drama!

A lot of the book is about America realizing that no choice is perfect and that no one is perfect either. We learn a lot about Maxon and his evil father. And we learn a lot more about the remaining selected girls. There’s terrifying confrontations, rebellious live TV moments, dancing, debating, and one terrifying moment that actually caused me to step back in shock. I was crying for these characters and I was fighting against them too. What it all comes down to for America is not just who she loves the most, but how willing she is to make a difference.

This was definitely an interesting sequel. A lot was learned about this world in turmoil. A lot was learned about Maxon. And a lot was learned about America and what she is capable of handling and accepting. I sort of had a love/hate relationship with America though. What I loved most about her was that she was always willing to hear all sides of an argument. She listens to the hired help as much as she listens to the queen. She gets all sides of an argument before making a decision. This also caused me to hate her for stringing these two young men around for so long.

I also found myself on multiple occasions kind of wanting to slap some sense into America. Yes, she was always listening to everyone, acting as the one moral compass of the entire cast of characters. But, she changed her mind too often, all the time. Aspen would piss her off and she’d run to Maxon. Maxon would allow some atrocity to take place, and she would ache for Aspen. I just don’t think love works this way. I think it’s clear which boy she loves more. She’s just letting so many other things get in her way, and maybe rightly so.

I guess my major problem with America was I just kept hoping for her to be tougher/stronger. I wanted her to come to the realization that she could change things for the better much quicker. I want her to want to be queen. I want her to want to change the horrible world she lives in. And above all else I want her to stand up to the king! I kept hoping for the book to take a more rebellious plot turn, but it never really went there.

I get that it’s a far step from musician to leader, but America has all the things a great leader needs; I just wish she saw that. Maybe she comes to this conclusion in the final book? And maybe all the things I keep hoping for, will all come to pass. I’ll have to wait and see.

I enjoyed all the wake-up call moments for America. The hardest one was the unfair treatment of a close friend, and while this pulled at my heartstrings, I also see how this can act at the turning point for America and it needed to happen. I also like that Maxon came off as much more human in this one. He’s not just prince Charming any more. He has a lot of serious flaws. I also love how important books and history have become here. The rebels were stealing books!

And of course there is all the Bachelor-type drama that happened in book 1. It is so addicting, reading a book that reads like a reality show. It’s an easy read (though slightly more intense now). It’s fast paced. There’s a love triangle to end all love triangles. There’s rebellions and politics. There’s dances and fear. I give it a 9/10. And I’m dying to keep reading. Please hurry, Kiera Cass!

Waiting on Wednesday (43)

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted by Breaking the Spine that allows bloggers to share which books we are most anticipating.

This week I am waiting on Untold by Sarah Rees Brennan (10/10/2013):

Description on Goodreads:

Free from bonds, but not each other

It’s time to choose sides…On the surface, Sorry-in-the-Vale is a sleepy English town. But Kami Glass knows the truth. Sorry-in-the-Vale is full of magic. In the old days, the Lynburn family ruled with fear, terrifying the people into submission in order to kill for blood and power. Now the Lynburns are back, and Rob Lynburn is gathering sorcerers so that the town can return to the old ways.

But Rob and his followers aren’t the only sorcerers in town. A decision must be made: pay the blood sacrifice, or fight. For Kami, this means more than just choosing between good and evil. With her link to Jared Lynburn severed, she’s now free to love anyone she chooses. But who should that be?

The first book was my favorite book of 2012. Saying I’m waiting on this one is an understatement. The ending of book one had me gasping in shock/surprise. The description sounds super good. I’ve read a little extra too on the author’s livejuournal. And I am so flipping out and anxiously pacing to get my hands on this one. I’m not a big fan of this cover. I kind of loved the first cover and all of it uniqueness. This one kind of looks like every other YA cover out there, and I’m not that impressed. However, I don’t care about the cover enough to let it defer me. I’m so excited for this one. Can you tell?

What are you waiting on this week?