Non-Spoiler Book Review | “Flame in the Mist,” by Renée Ahdieh

4.5/5 Stars

I’m really impressed by how this book turned out to be. I put it off for a while because I was afraid it would not meet my expectations. But who was I kidding? Renee is one of the best of authors when it comes to YA fantasy. The amount of research and love she puts into her books shows throughout her story, and it is so impressive to read. This is a Mulan retelling, and our main character, Mariko, is such a strong resemblance in terms of personality. She’s stubborn, loyal, witty and opinionated. Okami is stubborn as well, and If I’m being honest, both of them were alike, in a lot of ways.

Yes, many of the names are confusing AF, (she does have a glossary at the end of the book though), and half of the time I didn’t know what the hell what’s going on–but pay attention to the little details because they might surprise you in the end. The book was written in the third person and there are many points of view that might seem insignificant to you, but that will make sense in the end.

I loved this story, Renee is such an amazing author, and the story line and plot twist and character development were so good. I never once got bored reading this story. Well, everyone once in a while I would because of the little snippets of other characters POV, which I didn’t realize its importance until the end of the book, hence me warning you above to pay attention to the minor details so they don’t surprise you.

 

 

 

 

Non-Spoiler Book Review | “Alex, Approximately,” by Jenn Bennett

5/5 stars

Uhh! I loved this book so much. Like, I can’t get over how good this book was. This is my first book ever that I’ve read from this author, and I honestly don’t know if this is her first one, but she did a damn great job. She’s such an amazing writer, and I’m proud of her for writing this book. The story line was amazing, the characters were super strong in terms of personality and character development, and the plot twist was different than what I was expecting but in a good way.

Enter Baily, aka Mink. She’s been talking to this guy, Alex, for a while online about movies and stuff, and he’s been inviting her to go to this film festival that happens in his town in California. They don’t know each other outside of the online chat, they don’t know their real names, nor where they live or none of that. The only that Bailey knows is that the town he lives in is where her dad lives and that she’s moving in with him. They have a great connection online, and Baily likes him a lot.

Bailey is sort of paranoid because of something that happened to her in the past, and that’s why she doesn’t tell Alex that she recently moved to his hometown, so instead she’s decided to find him on her own with the couple of clues and information he’s provided her over the time they’ve been talking.

Now, in the midst of finding Alex, Bailey gets a job and meets this guy named Porter, and OMG, Porter is sooooo sexy! Like I have him on my top 20 fav book boyfriend list. He’s a real jerk to her on the beginning, which immediately told me that he liked her. But, of course, Bailey can’t stand him. Uhhh! Did I mention that he was a surfer?

Anyways, that’s the line of the story and you have to read to find out about everything else. But I really did enjoy this cute story. It’s the perfect summer read! It talks about a summer romance, movies, surfing in Californian beaches, and more! BTW, the romance in this book is hot! The author doesn’t go into specific detail about what the characters do but she does make it happen. Anyone, 16 years and older can read! Would most certainly recommend!

Non-Spoiler Book Review | “When It’s Real,” by Erin Watt

3.5/5 stars

I did not like this story as much as I thought I was going to. First of all, the plot and story line are all wrong. The author decided to focus on the least important thing to develop the story. Second, the language of the book, the way the author wrote the characters was awful. I don’t know how old she is, but I don’t think she’s young enough to understand teen’s lingo these days. The way she wrote this story made it seem like she has two teenage children and she overheard them talk and then copied their conversation into the pages. I’m not even joking, some of the conversation between characters are so bad, that they made me cringe, and not in a good way.

She also writes without sentiment, which can be a good thing or a bad thing. But in this case, it felt like a bad thing. When you read her books, she doesn’t compare the characters emotion with anything. When she’s having the characters talk to each other, you don’t feel like their genuine because she focuses more on the physical part of the conversation instead of the emotional. When I’m reading a book, I want to make sure I feel what the character is saying and thinking. It’s a book, it’s supposed to make me feel their emotions. I don’t want to know that someone turns barely to the side, and she was talking. If I wanted that I would watch a movie.

Don’t get me wrong, I don’t think is bad that she went this route with her book, and I know some of you even appreciate it because she doesn’t get as poetical as the other authors. But when you read this book, you learn to appreciate the second-hand opinion that characters when describing things, people, or feelings–because you have a base of comparison, and as readers, it helps us a lot to understand what the character is going through.

I felt like there were so many things that she could have addressed in this, and others that honestly, she did not need to mention. Like, for example, Erin did not fully develop the actual emotions that Vaughn could have been feeling towards her parents. She could have gotten more into depth for that aspect. Also, she could have addressed Oakley’s relationship with his parents a little bit better. Oak has a strained relationship with his parents but it was also a great point to focus on for part of the story, instead of him going to stupid clubs for stupid reasons. Like, that was not as important as to solve his parents’ mystery.

The story itself had a lot of potentials, and if she would have gotten a different route with her plot twist, the book could have been way better. Something else that I didn’t like was how stupid the plot line was, I don’t want to give anything away, but I felt like there were more things that she could have made their “breaking point.” And she should have brought that plot twist part, (you know, the part where-everything-goes-wrong-before-it-gets-right part), sooner. She literally did it at the end, and not the middle end, but like a few pages from the end, giving us little to no space to wonder for the what if, or even the epilogue.

 

 

 

Non-Spoiler Book Review | “Lucky In Love,” by Kasie West

4.5/5  stars

Kasie never disappoints! Another adorable read in check for her! I always love reading her books because I know what I’m getting into and I love her so much because of it! When you read books by Kasie West your heart gets all fluffy and your cheeks grow warm, and your life feels lighter. Everything changes for you!

For this particular book, West brings the narrated story of Madeleine and how her life changes when she wins the lottery. I’m not going to lie though, I love West, but this book wasn’t as good as I was expecting. And it pains me to say this because I do love her as an author, and don’t get me wrong I still enjoyed the book, (I mean I finished this story in 4 hours, her book are always super easy to read), but there was something about Madeleine that bothered me a lot.

She is a very smart girl, she knows that the only way she can get into college is if she works her butt off at school so that she can get a full scholarship. However, things start changing once she won the lottery. She herself, didn’t start changing, but all of the sudden she started gaining attention, and well, she did make super stupid decisions that made me think if indeed she was smart, albeit her 4.25 GPA. I have to agree with what her friend said about her being too trusting. She was incredibly too trusting, and that’s what bothered me the most.

Her parents also kept fighting between them, instead of being there for their daughter, helping her figure out what to do with all this money. She had one friend wink who was super sweet and treated her like normal. And I guess she always could count on him for her problems, which was adorable!

Kasie does know what she’s writing about though because even though Madeleine’s naivety did annoy me, West managed to keep my interest. I would definitely recommend if you’ve read books by Morgan Matson, Jennifer E. Smith, or Jenna Evans Welch.

Non-Spoiler Book Review | “I see London, I see France,” by Sarah Mlynowski

I love travel books, just because they get to be so fun, and you get to travel with the characters in the comfort of your house. I absolutely loved Sarah’s writing, I mean as I read along Sydney and her incredible journey with her best friend Leela, I felt like I was with them every part of the way. I also enjoyed the idea that Sarah made her characters older teens. I appreciate that they were 19 to 20-year-olds kids, and not younger–not that I have anything against younger characters but in the YA world is hard to find some older ones.

Anywho, the story follows the adventures Sydney and Leela as they go through Europe on their summer adventure. Big surprise happens when Leela’s ex also shows up for the ride, and they crash into him a couple of times in the country that they were visiting. Something that irritated me though was how quickly attached Leela got to her cheating ex-boyfriend, making her “love” him once again, and then resulting in being miserable for most of the trip when things wouldn’t go her way because of whatever mood her boyfriend manage to put her in. She got moody really quickly and that the hell out of me. I honestly think that the only thing that she did was prevent Sydney from enjoying the trip even further.

I also felt bad for Sydney because her mom was at home in the U.S. and she has an illness, and she had to check on her every once in a while. And well, that kept her from enjoying the trip as well. But all of that aside, Sydney does have a great time, she meets Leela’s ex-boyfriend’s friend, and a summer fling appears that has potential into turning into something else. I would definitely recommend if you like traveling and cute summer flings!

Non-Spoiler Book Review | “Geekerella” by Ashley Poston

5/5 stars

Beautiful story. I love this remake of Cinderella that Ashley has brought us. This is like the perfect modern/fangirl fairy tale that us, book lovers, needed.
Elle, aka Danielle, lives with her stepmother, aka step-monster, and her step-sisters. Elle is fed-up with everything that her stepmother makes her do, and since her father died the only thing that she has left for her is the show called “Starfield”. Her dad and she used to watch together all the time, so much so that her dad started a big convention just on the show itself many years ago, and now that’s all that she has from him.
Enter Darien, the super sweet actor who landed a the main role on the upcoming starfield movie. He is very determined to prove to the starfield audience that he can be their Federation prince, even though he puts a lot of pressure on himself, just because, like everyone else, he is a starfield fan! However, not everyone knows that, especially not Ella.
She’s extremely devastated that Darien Freedman got cast as the main role in the upcoming movie, and lets the world know about her distaste for him through her blog, which she pretty much fangirl about the show. They hate each other, but both of them go through the sort of the same situations despite living very different lives, and in the midst of all, they manage to find each other.
This story is hilarious, full of challenges, heartbreak, sadness, but overall, lots of love. Join Ashley in her incredibly different story of the Cinderella fairy tale, with a twist that as book lovers, we will love!

Non-Spoiler Book Review | “What To Say Next,” by Julie Buxbaum

4/5 stars

I love this story so much. I’ve read her other book before, “Tell me three things,” and I really did enjoy that one. So, when I started reading this one, I was expecting sort of the same theme. The way I see Julie as an author is like Kasie West, she writes cute contemporary teen romances and they are so much fun to read.

However, when you first start this book you immediately realize that this is not your common YA romance. I’ve never read a book where a character suffered from an illness such as Aspergers, which I honestly find cool because not many choose to write about such topics just because they think that they won’t reach the desired target audience.

But in this case, Julie managed to incorporate the illness to a very handsome, weird and lonesome guy, in a way that transfixes us because we get to see the illness from his point of view.  David is a very smart young boy, with an incredibly brilliant mind and a witty mouth. Part of having Aspergers is always saying what’s on your mind without thinking about it first, and well this is the case of David.

Enter Kit, recently saddened and devasted by the loss of her in a car accident, she looks for comfort and silence at the table where David sits alone in their school cafeteria. Both of them manage to form an unusual friendship which in the future morphs into love.

They face a lot of challenges because David’s illness categorizes him as weird in his school, and people do not look kindly towards him. This story is all about confronting your fears, finding love in the least unexpected place, and being brave towards yourself and expressing your feelings. I would recommend to anyone that knows about someone with this type of illness, (and I’m not sure illness is the right word), and would like an another point of view on this topic. But it is also a beautiful story that teaches teens how to respect each other and treat each with love.