DNFing. This is pretty damn awful and I just don't want to read anymore. Review to come. 

Original post: sunsetxcocktail.booklikes.com/post/1193641/post

 

Marcie wants to read Cruel Beauty too.

Original post: sunsetxcocktail.booklikes.com/post/1191285/post

Review: Those Girls

Review:

When I first got one of those 'Read Now for the first 1000 members' email from Netgalley for this title, I was quite excited. I never get those. So I went and downloaded the read it now option.

 

Though adding it to my Goodreads page and seeing the huge amount of negative reviews for the title, my enthusiasm began to dwindle, especially as I read some of the reviews. I read the first 10% and was rather put off almost immediately.

 

This review will be spoiler filled and ranty.

 

First scene is two girls in a car heading to a pharmacy cause one is worried she’s pregnant and every other word out of her mouth is an expletive. She wants the B Plan pill cause her strict Catholic mom won’t let her go on the pill. Right there I had a really bad feeling about this book. The girl wanting the B Plan pill, Mollie comes across as an up tight self important whiny entitled little bitch. Her friend Alex isn’t much better.

 

I nearly DNFed right there,  but pushed on with it. It was pretty damn terrible. The whole thing seemed to be about privileged private school girls getting wasted, high, partying and having sex. Revolving around three characters – Mollie and Alex and a third girl called Veronica. Veronica is constantly referred to as trashy, slut, whore and a whole host of that sort of name calling.

 

Truth be told Veronica is the most likeable character in the book. Yes, she has copious amounts of sex but so what? She’s completely confident in who she is, she’s rich, she’s pretty, she’s got something appealing about her that draws both the girls and boys in her direction. Veronica, in spite of her reputation, has a much deeper side to her you get a glimpse to in her chapters. She does some pretty stupid things, including sleeping with Mollie’s boyfriend which becomes a huge plot point later on in the novel.

 

Mollie is a flat out bitch. Horrible horrible horrible girl. She’s got an air of entitlement to her, an attitude and a foul, foul mouth. Everything is about her, people are the foulest insults imaginable if they don’t tell her things. Everything is about her awesome super cool boyfriend (hottest guy from the neighbouring boys school no matter how awful of a person he is). This girl seems to have no self esteem either. The boyfriend is a douchebag.

[spoiler]

He smokes, he drinks, he pressures her, a few times she mentioned sex hurts, he doesn’t care where she is, sticks it in regardless, but in spite of his many many faults she has to keep trying to please him cause he’s totally the hottest guy in school and he’s love her eventually right? How about a big ass NO.  Mollie is constantly judging everything around her as well. Makes her really tiring and me as the reader wonder how on earth this girl could have any friends at all with her vile personality.

[/spoiler]

 

The third girl, Alex, is supposed to be the nicest most “normal” one of the bunch. She’s the tom boy type girl who gets on really well with the boys, though no actual boyfriends, and has a secret passion for music which I get the impression is supposed to make her “deeper” than the others.  

[spoiler]

She’s in love with her best friend Drew who has a thing for Veronica. This makes Alex uncomfortable and God knows why – but she encourages them to get together. When they do – all she does is bitch to Mollie about it. While she has joined a band from the local high school and got a quasi boyfriend out of that. They make out a lot but she whines when not much else goes on. Clues are this dude knows she’s got the hots for someone else and wants moments with her to be memorable rather than sex for the sake of sex which seems to be what all the other girls do.

[/spoiler]

 

Most of the drama revolves around things like this. A lot of partying and worrying about who’s sleeping with who and getting drunk and getting high. There’s a game of truth or dare at one point where some rather personal questions come up and people get pissy. Mollie’s asshole of a boyfriend dares her to make out with Veronica. Which later on leads to the most uncomfortable threeway I’ve ever read. Again, a point on Mollie’s low self esteem, she does it just to make the boyfriend think she’s hot. Wishing she was drunker at the time it happens, does not make for fun reading.

 

While the whole thing was pretty awful mostly, it was at least amusingly bad, but it was like a where is this whole train wreck of a book going?

 

[spoiler]

At some point Veronica starts screwing Mollie’s douchebag boyfriend and finally, Mollie finds out. And is absolutely furious. She and Alex decide to get revenge…by roofie-ing Veronica at prom to make her pass out so they can strip her and leave her somewhere in public for everyone to see her so Veronica will be humiliated. (Though by this point Alex is doing the same thing – sleeping with a best friend’s boyfriend and no one things to get this sort of brainless revenge plan on her? ) The fact that Mollie has roofies available to her is disturbing enough.

[/spoiler]

 

[spoiler]

At least there were some consequences for their actions at prom. Though in spite of all the drama and backstabbing, and screwing everyone else’s boyfriends, the girls don’t seem to care.  They are punished for prom drama (all three of them) but seem to move past everything pretty quickly. Which left me as a reader completely and utterly baffled

[/spoiler]

.

 

It made me think of the Gossip Girl books and at a stretch Leah Reader’s Black Iris both are pretty much along the lines of the same thing –  teens, sex, partying, drugs and revenge. Unfortunately for me, ‘Those Girls’ just didn’t have the arrogant charm of Gossip Girl, nor did it have the brilliant writing and shock factor of ‘Black Iris’.  I got the impression that this book was trying to combine the two. It didn’t work.  The whole thing was pretty awful, as I mentioned, but at least had an amusement factor. Though that last bit made me really really hate it. 

 

Thank you to Netgalley and Little, Brown Books for Young Readers for the chance to view the title.

Original post: sunsetxcocktail.booklikes.com/post/1188964/review-those-girls

June Mini Reviews

Mini review for the June books I've read and didn't feel like doing reviews for. 

 

Static - Tawny Stokes - 3 Stars. YA paranormal romance. One of the many freebies I've had on my kindle for ages, started reading in the hairdressers one Saturday morning, turned out to be pretty good. About a girl who's obsessed with a heavy metal band and gets backstage, only things don't turn out the way she hopes and she winds up waking up in a dumpster the following morning, but finds herself changing in really freaky ways. She teams up with one of the band's roadies who has the same abilities she does and they sent out to destroy the evil band.  Likable heroine, fairly decent world building revolving around succubi and inccubi. Though the mythology did get rather silly towards the end. It was okay, a reasonably enjoyable quick read. 

 

An Ember in the Ashes Sabaa Tahir - 5 Stars. I just loved this one. A lot of fantasy seems to have a middle ages or Grecian based structure, I found the romaneque city really interesting. While I was fairly apprehensive about this one since there were a fair number of negative reviews, I found myself utterly captivated by it. There was a definite lack of world building and sense of description, but I really liked the mythology. Brutal at times, though not the worst I've read. I loved the characters, how everything twisted and fit together. I NEED THE NEXT ONE!!. 

 

The Start of Me And You - Emery Lord - 5 Stars. Emery Lord is an automatic must buy for me. While I did really like her debut Open Road Summer I got very annoyed at  the girl-hate by the main character for any girl who wasn't her squeaky clean best friend. This book had none of that girl-hate. Everything about the friendships in the book were heartfelt and delightfully uplifting. Fairly predictable in the plot, but enjoyable all the same. Deep and moving in parts.

 

Black Iris - Leah Reader - 5 Stars. Jesus, this is one hugely fucked up book. Chocked full of sex and drugs and horrible, horrible characters. I very nearly DNFed this several times. The writing was just genius, lyrical and pretentious, but almost like a punch to the gut, and very blunt at times. It became a compulsion to finish because I knew if I didn't I wouldn't pick it up again. Its a revenge against the sociopathic bully story, a potential love triangle boy/girl/girl which actually turns into a three-way (YES!!). Ridiculously hot sex scenes, though the constant sex got rather tiring and the drug use was just obscene. All the characters were pretty self destructive and deplorable. It became a pretty much love to hate it. I've never read anything like it.

 

Day 21 (The 100 2) Kass Morgan - 3 Stars. Nothing much to say about this one. I liked it. No surprises really, though I did find I liked the character development a lot more in this. Still trying to wrap my head around how different the books are from the TV series. One of the weird ones, where I then both in their own way, despite how different they are. Not a whole lot happens in this second installment until towards the end. Still looking forward to the next one though. 

 

These Broken Stars - Megan Sponner and Amie Kauffman - 3.5 Stars. I don't read much sci fi, often can't get my head around the sciencey side of things. I did find myself really liking this one, I had it in my head was sort of like 'Titanic' in space. But its not like that at all really. Easy story to follow, and I really liked how the relationship between Tarver and Lilac developed slowly, the character growth was pretty incredible. I liked the world building, the spacey stuff was very well written and easy to follow and picture. 

 

Even In Paradise - Chelsea Philpot - 4 Stars. Technically I read this one last month, but forgot to review it. Very predictable story, with incredibly annoying characters. In spite of that, I found myself really liking it. The rich kids in the story are ostentatious in the worst way but a lot of fun all the same, and I can totally see how the main character became totally engaged with Julia and her family drama. I figured out the twist about the accident as soon as it was mentioned. Still, by the end it was kind of bittersweet and poignant. Very enjoyable. 

Original post: sunsetxcocktail.booklikes.com/post/1188262/june-mini-reviews

Review: Because You'll Never Meet Me

Review:

I received a copy from Netgalley.

When I started this book I was thinking I was getting a nice and fluffy contemporary, maybe would turn out to be kind of emotionally charged but fun non the less. Which it certainly was at points, I was not exactly expecting the dark, almost horrific twists at certain points in the novel.

Certainly, the novel gets points for its incredibly unique characters and storytelling, two very different boys, very different circumstances. Ollie is loveable right from the start, boundless energy and annoying as hell, yet at the same time there's something very compelling and engaging about his character. Moritz on the other hand was gloomy, judgemental, and not in the least bit likeable and it seemed just weird at first to have these two different view points.

As the novel progresses you learn different things about each boy and their lives....Ollie is allergic to electricity and Moritz was born without eyes. Each deals with their unique situation in very different ways. The character development and growth is simply just stunning. I was so emotionally invested in the story and these two characters, I was a basket case of emotions by the end of the novel.

As the novel progresses you learn more about how each boy copes in his world and why he is the way he is, and even the happiest seeming boy can sink into a deep depression and even a grumpy on (though with understandable circumstances) can change is attitude and outlook on things depending on the people around him. 

The plots twist and turn in ways I never thought I would imagine, particularly in Moritz's side. His tale takes on a twist that was quite horrific and shocking. His way of dealing with it is moving and heartbreaking. While Oliver's story takes a certainly dark turn point, its distressing but nowhere near as dark. But its just as effective emotionally. 

And while things looked very bleak and dark, hope flows through in the narration and writing. So not at all what I thought, but utterly captivating in both character arc and storytelling and what I thought was a mildly likeable novel became a brilliantly moving one. I loved it. 

I can not wait to read the next book from this author. 

Huge thanks to Netgalley and Bloomsbury Publishing Plc for approving my request to view this title.

Original post: sunsetxcocktail.booklikes.com/post/1186998/review-because-you-ll-never-meet-me

Review: Sight (The Delta Girls 1)

Review:

I received an invite to view the title from Diversion Books via Netgalley.

 

I'm not really sure what to make of this book, to be honest. I didn't think it was terrible, but then again, I didn't particularly like it either. There was nothing wrong with it, it wasn't badly written or anything, no glaring typos or errors I could spot. Fairly original premise - five psychic sisters for five human senses, one girl getting her first boyfriend and how the relationship develops in spite of the discoveries of their new psychic gifts.

 

I just didn't connect to it. It felt a little too easy and convient in how everything was wrapped up, and a few times I got more of a tell and not show senses I didn't get much of a sense of personality from the main character or that of her sisters, really. There as a decent family dynamic, the mom was nice, and there were some fairly moving scenes towards the end when they finally get some answers on what happened to their missing father and the main characters boyfriend learns the truth about what happened to his own dead father. Though while some of it was moving and beautifully descriptive, some of it felt very cheesy and sickly sweet. Sort of like a Disney movie.

 

It wasn't a bad book really, I guess it was just not to my taste. I'm not really interested in continuing with this particular series, but I could certainly read something else by this author.

 

Thank you to Netgalley and Diversion Books for the invite to view the title.

Original post: sunsetxcocktail.booklikes.com/post/1184407/review-sight-the-delta-girls-1

Review: Emmy & Oliver

Review:

I received a copy from Netgalley.

This is one of those delightful books I knew I was going to love from reading the first few pages. This was a lovely, lovely book ranging from the most wonderful bantery fluff to deeply emotional drama and self discovery. I loved every character. Each different person was so fleshed out and real, even Emmy's incredibly annoying overprotective parents had their moments. Parental involvement (while frustrating at some points) in this book was well developed and fit the tone of the novel perfectly without being over the top.

Its also quite a thought provoking plot at times.

The story focuses on Emmy and Oliver, with the odd flashback from before Oliver disappeared and what happened after he comes back and how the two of them, their friends and family deal with his reappearance. There is some delightful witty banter, swoony romance and gut wrenching emotional turmoil. Nothing is as neat as it seems. 

Emmy was a well rounded very relatable main character, with thoughts and feelings all over the place, a brilliant snarky wit and a sweet tender side. Oliver has a difficult journey from his reappearance to how to fit in with his mom and her new husband and daughters, at the same time trying to figure out his feelings for Emmy and where he fits in with her. Emmy has some fantastic friends to stand by her, who all have their roles and everything just clicks perfectly. 

There were some incredibly deep emotion overflowing throughout and it was very moving. I just loved this book from start to finish. 

Huge thanks to Netgalley and Simon and Schuster UK Children's for approving my request to view this title.

Original post: sunsetxcocktail.booklikes.com/post/1183158/review-emmy-oliver

Review: What We Knew

Review:

I received a copy from Netgalley.

I'm really not sure what to make of this. For the most part, I liked it. However, I was really disappointed with the ending. The characters were pretty shallow but the writing was good, the narrative was absorbing and compelling with some beautiful wording. Good, though disturbing imagery.

The characters in this book were not particularly likable, at least not for me. As I mentioned, the story and the mystery aspect were good enough on their own that it didn't really matter that the characters hardly seemed to have any depth to them. Though I did find it kind of interesting to see a story from the view point of such an unreliable narrator. The teens in this book smoke, they drink, they get high, they party, they have sex. Which in reality is probably much more realistic. It wasn't quite horror movie gritty, but it had an interesting psychological factor to it as to what was real and what was imagined.

The main character Tracey was brash and selfish, and I figured out immediately what the secret she was concealing was. I didn't particularly like fact she uses words like "retard" and "spaz" as insults and derogatory terms. Her tone was blunt to the point of cutting at times. Though I really did like the relationship she had with her best friend Lisa.

Then towards the end it seemed to spiral into a much darker tone. Lisa's secret reveal was horrible. Though it seemed like nothing was ever resolved. I was left with a lot of questions and no answers at all.

[spoiler]

At a few points these two girls commit some very serious and violent crimes, nothing happens to them because of it. Both of the two girls, both Tracey and Lisa have terrible, awful things happen to them, but that doesn't, in this reader's opinion, give them license to commit crimes and get away with it. Though to be fair at least, one major violent incident does eat away at Tracey's conscience throughout the novel, and the other happens at the end as I supposed a warped sense of justice for the wrong doing to Lisa. The second violent act didn't bother me so much as the first one because the guy really deserved it. I suppose with Lisa's situation the reality is nothing would ever be wrapped up to satisfactory conclusion. But the other major violent incident she and Tracey committed, that left a very uncomfortable and sour feeling that no consequences came to them because of it. The ending was very open and just seemed weird.

[/spoiler]

For the most part, the novel was pretty good, but I felt the end was a big let down.

Thank you to Netgalley and St Martin's Press for approving my request to view this title.

Original post: sunsetxcocktail.booklikes.com/post/1183050/review-what-we-knew

Polarity in Motion

Review:

I received a copy from Netgalley.

 

A tough, but interesting read that touched on a number of issues I've not come across before in YA fiction. There are probably lots of YA books that focus on a number of the things raised in this novel, but this is the first one of its kind that I have read.

 

Difficult in its subject matter, but enjoyable by the end. There were a few things about it that irritated me a little and seemed rather unbeliable. Generally, it was good to see a lot of adult involvement and parental involvement when a nude picture of the fifteen year old main character Polarity appears on the Internet and the students in her class bully her about it.

 

Polarity is a reasonably likable character, thrown into absolute chaos when this picture surfaces. I thought she handled each horrible situation with a huge deal of maturity, particularly with a very difficult family situation. Her mother has a boarder line personality disorder and while at times Mom really goes out to bat for her daughter, other times she's a nightmare. None of the school officials seem to want to believe that Polarity really knows nothing about the picture and seem ready to believe the worst about her. It seemed like one terrible thing after another, when something started looking up, things would take a turn for the worst. An emotional ride throughout.

 

Rounded, well thought out characters with both good and bad personality flaws. A believable romance (no insta love, yay!) Though one of the things that irritated me every time it came up was issues with race.

 

At one point when Polarity is removed from her home by Child Protective Services and placed in a safe house for the night she's very scared and comforted by one of the girls living there who she doesn't really see as its dark and there are no lights turned on. Then in the morning she meets the girl in the kitchen with the other residents and is stunned to find she's the only white girl. And someone actually says they don't believe white girls get in "the system" much.

 

This irrated me greatly. I don't believe for a second any fifteen year old girl would not know about, or at least have a vague idea about "the system". Of course white people are going to be in the damn system! I nearly DNFed it right there on that point, but as it wa sonny 11% in when I got to that bits last night, I figured this morning I'd give it another shot. The book did get much better. And I finished the rest of the book in one sitting.

 

Though I did notice this whole annoying white privileges thing is something that comes up a lot throughout the novel, and Polarity is very affronted by it, though her parents don't seem to see why. Another point someone is using the N word and Polarity does a damned good job of putting that boy right in his place for using that awful word. And she also realizes that there are lots of things about this type of issue she has never thought about before and it makes her become more aware and resolve to try and do something about it.

 

Polarity goes through quite a journey and comes out as a strong together character. The mystery didn't actually turn out the way I thought it would in the end, so it came as a surprise when the answers were finally revealed. For a lot of the time I thought it was going to turn or out to be one of those terrible things where you would never know who was responsible for the picture and the hell Polarity goes through is never resolved but does at least teach her some valuable life lessons and makes her a stronger person because of it. Even though she never did anything wrong.

 

While I did find some this about it annoying, it was a very good read in the end. Emotional and difficult, but good to see some important issues touched on.

 

Thank you to Netgalley and Red Adept Publishing for approving my request to view this title.

Original post: sunsetxcocktail.booklikes.com/post/1180870/polarity-in-motion

Review: Damage Done

Review:

I got a copy from Netgalley when this title was available as a 'Read it Now'.

 

This was one disturbing, twisty turny thriller.

 

When I started this book the other day, I did find it rather bland and slow. There is animal death fairly early on and I did find it graphic and uncomfortable. Also, the portrayal of Julia/Lucy's twin brother Ryan was a child sociopath was very very disturbing. On top of that, when Julia finds herself getting involved with the boy she's had a crush on since she moved to the new school and they connect and get along great it felt insta lovey. My initial thoughts were I'm not going to like this one much.

 

As I've DNFed quite a few things recently I figured I'd try and finish this one, regardless of how uncomfortable it made me feel. It did get better. The characters development was pretty good, Julia's family troubles, what happened with her brother in their old school, the consequences creeping up on her. Julia was a complex character. The friends she made in her new school were pretty good friends. In spite of the danger in being Julia's friend and as things get worse, they're still there. And it wasn't really insta lovey after all with the boy she gets involved with, which was nice to see. A tad bit annoying at first, but the way they relationship despite the almost insta love beginning, turned out to be pretty good.

 

The plot becomes very twisty after a slow beginning, and about 41% in it was getting to the didn't want to stop, I need to know what's going to happen point. I was reading during my lunch hour at work and if I hadn't had to go back to work I would have finished the whole thing. The disturbance factor didn't let up. Its not that gory, but it does have a definite ick-factor to it.

 

Julia was a pretty strong character, attitudy without being annoying and over the top about it, an delightfully snarky. She had a definite I'm not going to take crap from anyone when things got really bad for her. She struggles a lot with different issues of relationships with her friends, the new boyfriend, the guilt over her brother's actions. I did find her pret remarkable. But then there's the ending.

 

The twist at the end is kind of stomach churning. Didn't see it coming and despite the fact that it was rather sick, it did kind of make me grin at the same time. Which bumped it up from a 3 star to a 4 star.

 

So while very disturbing, it did turn out to be a very good read.

Original post: sunsetxcocktail.booklikes.com/post/1179342/review-damage-done