Review: Stealing Snow

Review:

I received a copy from Netgalley.

 

I requested this title on a bit of a whim. I was less than impressed with the author’s debut novel Dorothy Must Die, which I read about 200 pages of and gave up. I had the same problems with Stealing Snow that I had with Dorothy Must Die. Certainly very creative, but I felt they were both very flashy but nothing had any substance. World building was all over the place, and the characters were flat.

 

Stealing Snow is “Snow Queen” retelling. I certainly credit it for it’s originality. It’s hard to think of a Snow Queen retelling without delving into a Frozen references, even though I didn’t like Stealing Snow, I was pleased to see the main character Snow’s ice magic was quite unique, and there was nothing resembling Frozen that I could pick out at all.

 

However, I just didn’t like this novel. It introduces the main character, Snow, who after trying to walk through a mirror as a child has spent almost her entire life in a mental hospital. She spends her days getting her education out of Encyclopaedias, a haze of drug cocktails, and watching a soap opera with her favourite staff nurse, getting into fights with one other difficult patient, a thief nicknamed Magpie, and swooning over a boy she calls Bale, a firebug who is her only friend but she is not allowed to see; for reasons of course.

 

At one point a strange boy, Jagger, shows up with a cryptic message Snow thinks is a dream, next think you know, she’s escaping and running into this new boy Jagger who leads her into a strange snow covered word called Algid. Somehow Bale has gotten loose – or something happens and Snow comes to learn Bale has escaped into Algid as well.

 

Snow meets a variety of characters who we don’t know if they’re good or bad. She learns of a the evil king has frozen the landscape and there is a prophecy of a girl who’s the most powerful thing ever – the king’s long lost daughter – she’s the most powerful thing in the whole world and this girl will off the king and set the world right again.  Of course she thinks it’s ridiculous but everyone else is convinced Snow is the long lost princess. As the novel progresses Snow starts to realise she is incredibly powerful; (of course) but can’t control her magic. She meets a River Witch and her assistants Kai and Gerda who offer to train her and get her ready for the prophecy after she runs off from Jagger deciding to search for Bale on her own.

 

As things progress and we learn some characters aren’t what they seem and new ones and new plot lines are introduced, Snow’s desperate search for Bale, the possibility that feelings for Jagger might be developing from tentative trust to something more.

 

There were bits of it I liked, as new characters were introduced, particularly when Snow falls in with a group of female thieves thanks to reuniting with Jagger after ditching him. The girls are all different and uniquely pretty in their own way, but do use some overly flashy and dramatic magic, run by a Queen Margot. She has her own plans for Snow and her magic.

 

While there were some bits of I like, the biggest problem I had with this novel was I came to loathe Snow. The girl was a fucking idiot. Each new group of people she meet warn her quite bluntly that the king knows she’s now in Algid and training her magic. He’s sent his most deadly warriors and magic beasts after her, including the feared and dreadful Enforcer.

 

Talk of Snow and the prophecy is strictly forbidden. On several occasions Snow ignores this completely and heads out into public places –

[spoiler]

one market where she’s recognised and a little boy sings a song about her – the guards storm in and are about to execute the boy not giving a crap about the boy’s wailing parents. Snow kicks up a fuss and her uncontrollable magic lets loose and it’s a big fight between herself and the guards and the enforcer and big upset for the regular people.

[/spoiler]

 

 

She does this several times. Ignores warnings and the possibility she will put others in danger to do whatever the hell she wants. The thief group she joins sets her off on an initiation task. She’s given very strict instructions. It doesn’t go according to plan and Snow lets off her magic again – creating danger for those around her.

 

By the end of the novel I wanted to punch Snow several times. She’s a selfish moron. All she wants is to get Bale and get back to her own world. Fair enough, that’s understandable. But let’s ignore all the people who have been depending on you to show up learn your gifts and help make their world right.

 

There were quite a few twists at the end of the novel that were quite surprising and unseen. Certainly original, I will say that, definitely something I never saw coming. Unfortunately, I was so sick of Snow and fed up with the novel in general by the end that the twists just made me roll my eyes. Not a series I will be continuing.

 

Thank you to Netgalley and Bloomsbury Publishing Plc (UK & ANZ) for approving my request to view the title.

Original post: sunsetxcocktail.booklikes.com/post/1456639/review-stealing-snow

Review: The Reader

Review:

I received a copy from Penguin First To Read.

 

This particular fantasy wasn’t on my immediate must have radar, I must admit. I knew of it, I was waiting for some reviews from blogs I followed before looking for closely at it. I took a chance at requesting when I saw it in Penguin’s First to Read list. It got off to a bit of a rocky start, I found it rather clunky and boring. Turns out by the end I absolutely loved this fantasy. I loved this fantasy so much I pre ordered a finished hard cover from the Book Depository.

 

I very nearly DNFed several times in the first 100 pages or so. The world building was interested enough. The bulk of the population of this world is illiterate, except a few chosen who belong to some sort of society that is very powerful (and possibly dangerous). History and stories and such are passed down through word of mouth. At first it almost seems like there’s no magic even, which is surprising in a YA fantasy. Turns out though magic does have a pretty big part to play by the end of the novel.

 

The novel starts by introducing the main character Sefia and her aunt leaving a busy town, the aunt has some sort of mysterious path and we learn right off she’s a brilliant thief. Shortly afterwards the aunt, Sefia’s only living family, is kidnapped by a group of masked people, men and women. Leaving Sefia alone with a strange object that she’s to protect at all costs. The object turns out to be a book. Sefia is left alone to reminisce about the deaths of her parents – both murdered – and how she escaped and came to her aunt. She has to figure out the purpose of the book and teach herself how to read it.

 

The world building was interesting enough, though I did find those first hundred pages very very slow. The story does jump in time to a year later after the kidnapping of Sefia’s aunt. I think it’s after that when most of the other characters are introduced.

 

Aside from Sefia, we are introduced a number of other different characters in different locations. The scene setting is quite visually striking and one thing I really loved about this fantasy was how the women were just as strong (in many occasions stronger) than the men. There was no shove the women to the background. The women in this novel pretty much kicked ass and were awesome.

 

After other characters are introduced – a young man with a gift for words is given the chance to join the society of Readers and become part of a mysterious Library to learn the words and the magic that comes with the knowledge of books. In training the guy’s magical abilities increase. He strikes up a friendship with a nameless Assassin in training. Which becomes one of the most incredibly moving, slow burning romances I’ve come across in a long time. This seems to have absolutely nothing to do with Sefia and her own book.

 

There’s another plot of a crew of pirates striking a deal to sail to the edge of the world, a mismatch of different characters with interesting histories. I was a little apprehensive when the pirate plot was introduced as the last few books I’ve read with this sort of thing I’ve not liked much at all. Turned out the story for these guys was one of my favourite parts of this book.

 

Sefia herself has become a Reader and is determined to rescue her aunt. In tracking her down, she comes across a group of mercenaries who seem to be abducting young boys and sending them off to some sort of fighting ring. Sefia inadvertently finds herself rescuing one of these boys she names Archer due to his proficieny with a bow and arrow. Archer appears to be unable to talk. I was worried when this happened that here comes the inevitable romance (it’s a YA fantasy after all). However, again I was quite pleased with how things progressed between Archer and Sefia, trust developed over time turning into friendship turning into more, the possibility of another incredibly slow burn romance.

 

While all of this is going on, the novel’s very unique take on magic begins to develop as the story progresses. It’s not obvious magic, flashy spells and such. Everything is more intricate, there’s magic in the young man’s studies, Sefia discovers a very powerful vision type magic when she kills someone for the first time, the Assassin has some pretty nifty and scary magic of her own. The more the novel progresses, the more the magic builds. Becoming pretty damn huge in Sefia’s part by the end.

 

Even though all the different characters were interesting enough and as neat as the storylines were, it’s like – where is all this going? It does all come together – but not in the way I would have ever guessed. The twist with the young scholar and the Assassin in training was pretty jaw droppingly awesome.

 

All in all by the end of this novel I was absolutely hooked and I cannot wait for the next book. I need it! Now!

Original post: sunsetxcocktail.booklikes.com/post/1456163/review-the-reader

Review: The Society

Review:

I received a copy from Netgalley.

An enjoyable story about a girl who takes her own styles of vigilantism against the bullies in her high school only to realise revenge isn't always the answer, especially when things take a turn for the worst and go too far.

Sam's dad went to prison just before Sam went to high school. He had an affair with her best friend's mom. The best friend Jessica, found out and whilst spying on Sam's dad and her mom discovered Sam's dad's criminal activities. Sam's dad went to prison, Jessica's parents broke up. Sam's mom took off leaving Sam in a trailer with her Aunt Lorretta Jessica turned on Sam and refused to have anything to do with her. As high school progressed Jessica became the Queen Bee of the mean girls and she and her friends took to making Sam miserable. Even though Sam had nothing to do with her dad’s criminal activities or the affair Sam is relentlessly bullied. Sam has a ray of light in her best friend Jeremey who sticks by her and shields her from the bullies as best he can.

 

 The school has a “secret” society, The Society (not the most creative name) but this group is the cream of the crop of the high school they attend. The most popular students are members and there are all sorts of benefits to being part of The Society. Sam knows she never had a shot in hell at the Society, but as Jessica is the queen bee – Sam decides the Society is perfect place to get her revenge on Jessica and the other mean girls.

 

So she formulates a plot and hacks into the Society website to manipulate it to her own needs, enlisting some of the nicer people, inviting them to join and complete the required initiation tasks she has redesigned with the intent of humiliating Jessica and the mean girls while getting the benefits The Society offers for her own friends.

 

All goes well at first, but like most revenge plots, the course of vigilantism doesn’t always run smoothly. Jeremy finds out Sam’s plans and is furious with her, imploring her to think about what she’s doing. Sam stubbornly refuses to listen as the mean girls are getting their comeuppance and Jessica’s reputation is going rapidly down the toilet. No one’s been hurt, so where’s the harm?

 

Given Sam’s situation it’s easy to understand why she feels the way she does and if she can do something about the people making her miserable, why not turn the tables on them and give them a taste of their own medicine? However, she’s not only manipulating them, she’s manipulating other people as well to do the tasks for her rather than doing anything herself. She’s the mastermind behind things. That’s not so bad, right? There’s a fine line here between what’s right and wrong and even though Sam believes she’s right….there’s definitely a morality issue here.

 

There’s also some weird side plot about Sam getting involved romantically with a motorcycle riding boy Ransom – whose sole intent with Sam becomes very clear right off (even though she can’t see it)

 

But things with Sam’s revenge plan get worse and people do start getting hurt. And on top of all these things with Ransom aren’t going as she thought and her feelings for Jeremy are changing. Jeremy’s uncharacteristically jealous the second he comes across Ransom. But as things become more and more chaotic with Sam’s plans and get worse and worse, she finally realises – what am I doing?

 

Spoiler but something I was surprisingly pleased with.

[spoiler]

Sam actually turns herself into the police after a very serious turn when Jessica actually gets hurt and winds up in the hospital. While I didn’t always agree with Sam’s twisty turny plotting, I was quite impressed with her when she manned up and turned herself into the authorities willing to take full responsibly for her actions.

[/spoiler]

 

 

All in all, an enjoyable read with interesting characters, and a believable plot.

 

Thank you to Netgalley and Entangled Publishing, LLC for approving my request to view the title.

Original post: sunsetxcocktail.booklikes.com/post/1455297/review-the-society

DNF: Pride and Predujice and Zombies

Review:

I have never been able to finish a Jane Austen novel. I often wonder if I'm the only one who simply does not like and will most likely never like her books. Though weirdly enough, sometimes I like retellings of classics. But even the addition of zombies can not make this bearable for me.

Original post: sunsetxcocktail.booklikes.com/post/1454748/dnf-pride-and-predujice-and-zombies

DNF: Kids of Appetite

Review:

I received a copy from Penguin's First to Read.

 

Not for me. I keep picking this up, reading a few chapters and putting it aside. The story is simply not grabbing my attention at the moment. There is nothing wrong with the novel that I can think of, I don't hate any of the characters. It's a fairly interesting concept. Two different kids Vince and Mads both fall in with a group of very different misfits. There's been some sort of incident - a murder and the story flips between the different view points of Vince and Mads in their police interviews and the events leading up that lead them there. The problem for me is I'm not connecting to anything in this novel. So it's a DNF for me.

Original post: sunsetxcocktail.booklikes.com/post/1454742/dnf-kids-of-appetite

Review: Pasadena

Review:

 

I received a copy through Penguin First to Read.

 

I loved this one. This is a gritty novel set in Los Angeles with one of the most unlikeable characters I have come across in a long time. It’s one of the rare cases where in spite of the fact that the main character Jude is an unapologetic bitch, her characterization is so good it works brilliantly and as a reader it didn’t even bother me how rude, bitchy and obnoxious this girl is. Usually I hate characters like this. But I still kind of liked this girl.

 

I can’t really say how well the noir homage was done as it’s not a genre I’m familiar with (I don’t think saying I saw LA Confidential once counts).

 

The novel tells the story of the sudden and unexpected death of Jude’s best friend Maggie. Set during summer in LA you really get a sense of the uncomfortable sticky heat of LA in high summer, with the tense atmosphere of the novel it was really visual and I could picture everything going on so clearly, like watching a TV show or a movie. Jude races back from her vacation at her dad’s house (her parents are divorced and she spends the school year in LA with her mom and mom’s string of less than reputable boyfriends). Her good friend Joey picks her up from the airport and the novel progresses from there.

 

Jude meets with some of Maggie’s other friends – just because they all knew Maggie and were friends with her doesn’t mean any of them like each other much. Jude is still in shock from this news – it’s pegged as suicide – Maggie is found floating face down in a pool with a glamorous swimsuit on. Jude’s convinced it’s murder. She’s flat out cruel to almost every other one of Maggie’s group of friends – Dane, Tally, Hank, Eppie, Edina, Luke. Dane and Tally are a couple as are Hank and Eppie.

 

Luke turns out to have a huge crush which boarders on flatout stalking. (Luke’s stalking/crush thing turns out to be a huge plot point that becomes very helpful in Jude’s investigation into Maggie’s death later on in the novel)/

 

Edina and Jude seem to be competing for the BFF spot, though Jude clearly thinks she’s the only one that counts and Edina is a hanger on wannabe and a poor excuse of a person. Most of these people are pretty awful with the exception of Joey (who was awesome) and Hank and Eppie, who were actually nice. Maggie managed to bring all these people together and make them feel special.

 

Maggie herself was rich and extremely popular and desired. Yet of course, had a cruel drama queen streak of her own. As Jude starts digging to the days before and up to Maggie’s death she stars digging into these people who knew Maggie in ways she didn’t. She begins learning some uncomfortable home truths. She speaks without thinking and doesn’t give a crap about what she’s saying or if it will hurt anyone’s feelings. Throughout it all Joey seems to be the only one who can tolerate Jude’s attitude problems enough to stand by. But even he has his limits. His strength to stick with Jude is pretty damn admirable.

 

Of course Jude has her own drama to deal with, digging into Maggie’s friends and her death brings up some uncomfortable home truths of her own she had long thought was buried and stuff she never really dealt with herself.

 

A really diverse cast of very well put together characters who were well fleshed out and believable even if most of them weren’t particularly likeable. Brilliant sense of place and setting, visually striking. It’s a brilliant mystery and completely unpredictable.

Original post: sunsetxcocktail.booklikes.com/post/1454740/review-pasadena

Bookish Bingo summer 2016 Wrap Up

 

 

With the completion of Kissed by an Angel by Elizabeth Chandler (didn't have high exception for this book - a 700 page YA romance with angels - wildly exceeded my expectations and turned out to be so damn good!) covering the 500 page + square thus finishing by Bookish Bingo card.

 

Titles Read:

Yellow Cover: Pretending to be Erica by Michelle Painchaud - 4 Stars

Outdoors: Shipwrecked by Siobhan Curham - 3.1/2 stars

Water on Cover: The Girls of No Return by Erin Saldin - 3 stars

Mental Health: The First Time She Drowned by Kerry Kletter - 3.1/2 stars

Political Intrigue - The Fixer by Jennifer Lynn Barns - 5 stars

Food in Title or on Cover - 100 Days of Cake by Shari Goldhagen - 5 stars

Red Cover - A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J Maas - 3 stars

F/F or M/M Relationship: Without Annette by Jane B Mason 3 Stars

Middle Grade - Kristy's Great Idea (Babysitter's Club #1) Anne M Martin - 5 stars

White Cover: How it Ends - Catherine Lo - 3 stars

Name in Title: Saving Montgomery Sole by Mariko Tamaki - 3 stars

Historical Setting 1900-1950 - Outrun the Moon by Stacey Lee- - 5 Stars

Aussie Author - Wildlife by Fiona Wood - 4 Stars

POC MC - Pointe by Brandy Colbert - 3 stars 

2016 Debut - The Thousandth Floor by Katharine McGee - 4 Stars

Stars with S U M E R - Even As the Sky Falls by Mia Garcia - 3 Stars

Free - The Devil and the Bluebird by Jennifer Mason-Black 4 stars

Monsters - Heir to the Sky by Amanda Sun - 2 Stars

Weather Words in Title - A Frozen Heart by Elizabeth Rudnick - 4 Stars

June July August Release - A Season for Fireflies by Rebecca Maizel - 5 stars

Book about Books - Bookishly Ever After by Isabel Bandeira - 4 Stars

over 500 pages - Kissed by an Angel by Elizabeth Chandler - 4 Stars

Magic - The Reader by Traci Chee - 5 Stars

Part of 4+ book series - Betrayed (House of Night #2) PC Cast - 3 stars

Folklore or Mythology - Dark Descendant by Jenna Black 4 stars

 

You Can see my Goodreads shelf where each book has the dates read here

 

Best Books

Kissed by An Angel, A Season for Fireflies, The Devil and the Bluebird, The Thousandth Floor, The Reader, Outrun the Moon, The Fixer, 

 

Worst Books Read

There wasn't anything this time round I particularly hated, though Heir to the Sky was very boring, and I was a little disappointed with The Girls of No Return. I wasn't overly impressed with Betrayed (House of Night 2). This series is actually pretty awful but there is something addictive about it despite how bad it is. 

 

Honorable Mentions

Dark Descendant. Bookishly Ever After, Shipwrecked, Wildlife, Pretending to be Erica. 

 

Original post: sunsetxcocktail.booklikes.com/post/1454112/bookish-bingo-summer-2016-wrap-up

Review: The Detour

Review:

Despite my initial absolute disdain for the main character, this turned out to actually be a pretty good read. It read very much like a teen horror movie.

 

It tells the story of 17 year old Olivia Flynn, who at such a young age has already become an international best-selling author with a YA trilogy. She has legions of fans, rich parents, and the means to do pretty much whatever the hell she wants. She's got her ticket written to a prestigious Ivy League college because her dad's alumni and her parents are wealthy so she's already got a room waiting in the best dorm on campus. She's completely and totally full of herself and a complete and utter pain in the ass bitch. I loathed this girl from the first page onwards. She flaunts her success and her wealth in the most obnoxious way possible and doesn't seem to give a crap about anyone or anything other than herself. She is absolutely the worst kind of over privileged author who thinks she utterly deserves all the fame and wealth and success right away. She has no patience for the "old women" she constantly sees at conventions and workshops who she thinks don't have a snowball's chance in hell to be as successful as she is

 

On the way to a writers retreat, her expensive car has a terrible accident. She spots a young girl with a flute who appears to have seen everything and shouts to the girl for help. Things go rapidly downhill from there. She wakes in a locked basement room, with the girl’s mother, clad in a “Mrs Daryl Dixon” t-shirt. And her nightmare begins.

 

As things go from bad to worse for Olivia as the mother and daughter team start to torment her, she’s suffering injuries from her car wreck (and constantly whining about her missing £300 Italian leather shoes that are no longer on her feet) she learns that the mother, Peg, seems to think Olivia is responsible for something bad that happened (to either Peg or the daughter, it’s unclear) and Olivia must suffer for it. Olivia clueless brat she is, has no clue what that something is. So she starts to think back.

 

[spoiler]

We learn of her oh-so-traumatic childhood. Apparently she was bullied mercifully throughout her school years, to the point of where she developed that hair pulling affliction (which has a really complicated name I can’t remember or spell) no one noticed and no one helped her. The group of girls she wanted to be friends with had her be really mean to a new student who joined the class, but then turned on her the next day.

[/spoiler]

 

 

[spoiler]

When her parents found out they pulled her from that school and her mom gave up her law career to home school Olivia who by then had decided she wanted to be a writer and had a talent for it. So instead of focusing on home schooling or even finding a new school to transfer the girl to, Olivia and her mom decide to focus on Olivia’s writing. She got a few hours of school in the morning and then she blabs on about how she worked really hard at her writing and got like, instant success.

[/spoiler]

 

 

Which personally, I didn’t agree with at all. Yes, it sucks horribly when people pick on you for seemingly no reason other than they can, I've been through that myself, so I know first hand just how frustrating and horrible it can be.  It’s really really had to be sympathetic at all to Olivia, even though what she went through as a child was horrible because she’s such a hateful know-it-all bitch at present.

 

[spoiler]

Though I hate the fact that this little bitch had only a bit of school work in the morning and then got instant success for a writing career. I loathe Olivia so much I can’t find anything redeeming about her to be happy that she rose above the bullying and became successful. She didn’t deserve to be destroyed the way she was, but I do think her parents coddled her too much when they found out. They didn’t’ report it to the school or get anything done about it or send her to a therapist or anything like that. It’s let’s become famous and successful and then they’ll all see how awesome I am. Which just makes me want to gag.

[/spoiler]

 

 

 

As Olivia remembers she’s continually tormented by Peg and the daughter, and their horrible cousin Wesley who is a really slimy piece of work. Olivia starts to take in her surroundings and think about how she’s going to escape. What she’s seen on movies and TV and what not to do. To be fair, she’s actually pretty logical and shows some keen intelligence when we get to this point. Which comes with more reminiscing about her past and her oh so fabulous carer.

 

[spoiler]

She remembers when a novel came out a few months after hers with a very similar plot. So similar that she blogged about it and her fans gathered up and called it plagiarism and actually went after the other author, verbally attacking her and pretty much destroying her career. Olivia doesn’t think she did anything wrong.

[/spoiler]

 

 

As much as I loathed Olivia, and rather enjoyed seeing the little brat desperately trying to preserve herself and figure it all out, it was actually a pretty good read. Though it still drove me up the wall when the red herrings came back in and the answers finally came to light and Olivia found out what it was she had done that was so terrible. And it was pretty fucking awful on her part. Yet of course, she manages to justify it to her benefit so of course can’t have done anything wrong at all and she deserved none of what happened to her. (Spoiler – she totally DID deserve everything).

 

At least by the epilogue she had finally toned her hatefulness down. The ending did make me grin. A totally and utterly deplorable main character, but if you can look past that, a pretty good read.

Original post: sunsetxcocktail.booklikes.com/post/1452063/review-the-detour

Review: Kasey Screws up the World

Review:

 I snagged a copy of this novel when it was available as a Read It Now title from Netgalley. I figured I’d give it a shot, I’d most likely either love it or hate it. Turned out just to be okay. There was nothing particularly remarkable about it. I didn’t flat out hate it, I didn’t love it either.

 

It tells the story of 16 year old Kasey who feels like she has spent her whole life in the shadow of her older sister Lara. Both girls enjoy dancing, and both girls are very good at it. However, Lara has always been the prettier of the two and talented to the point where she can make a good career out of her dancing.

 

While Kasey’s parents funnel all their energy and attention to Lara’s career, their mom seems to see Kasey’s dancing as “just a hobby”.  Their mom is terrible, one of the worst back seat driver parents I’ve come across in a long time. Kasey barely seems to register to the mom, except when she’s in trouble.  The dad is okay, makes lame jokes to lighten the atmosphere when it gets tense and seems kind of passive.

 

The story starts with Kasey returning to school after a vacation where something terrible has happened to Lara, her dance career is DOA, and all of Lara’s friends hate Kasey, Kasey’s own friends from her dance team have turned on her and are making her miserable before she can even get in the school door. She quits the dance team and hides. All is pretty grim, there is one ray of light in her friend Lonnie. Even though it appears at some point in the summer she fucked things up with him, Lonnie seems to be more than willing to forgive and forget and still wants to be Kasey’s friend.

 

Kasey’s miserable, she wants people to understand her side of what happen, but no one will listen to her, so she decides to start a blog. The novel flips between what’s happening now and what happened on the vacation that lead up to the incident with Lara. It seems that before the accident, despite the fact that Kasey felt a little overshadowed by Lara they seemed to get on pretty well. Lara stuck up for her, they shared clothes and makeup and stuff and it looked as though they were sort of friends.

 

Though when on their family summer cruise vacation they meet two boys, Fin and Hayden, and things start going downhill between Lara and Kasey from there.  Kasey’s always been kind of shy, Lara encourages her to flirt with Fin while she goes for Hayden. Fin does bring out Kasey’s fun side and while she hangs out with him without Lara around, she finds herself being flirty and funny and cute in a way she’s never really had the chance to. As the cruise progresses and they find daft things to do on the ship – sneaking into adult discos, pretending to be newly-weds to win a competition (which was pretty funny actually) their feelings start to grow. Meanwhile Lara has been planning on entering the talent show, some producers for a big dance TV talent show are supposed to be there, and Lara (and their mom) seems to think that if Lara can win the talent show on the ship, she’s a shoo in for this TV show. But somehow Kasey ends up in the talent show too.

 

And from then on it gets to the accident and the aftermath of the accident. There’s a big was it an accident or not theme, and as Kasey blogs about it, the kids at school all start reading and commenting, the dance team mean girls even have t-shirts at one point “team accident” and “team on purpose” (no brainer to which one the mean girls are wearing). But Kasey’s former best friend starts thawing. There’s a mystery going on as to where Lara’s been since the incident. She was supposed to be in her first year of a local college but snooping Kasey finds some stuff out. Money also disappears from mom and dad’s bank account and Kasey takes the blame – even though it has nothing to do with her.

 

I did think Kasey’s parents reactions to her after the incident was pretty unfair. They pretty much freeze her out. It’s like they only tolerate her in the house because they legally have to. It’s applied at a few times that Kasey isn’t even allowed to eat meals with her parents if Lara’s there. Which is pathetic and cruel. Lara doesn’t want anything to do with Kasey and in this family what Lara wants goes. No one wants to listen to Kasey’s apologies.  So it’s understandable why Kasey wants to get her side out, and while blogging is the only way she can do it.

 

Though at least by the end of the novel there’s progress when all the answers finally come out and the sisters can start working on their relationship again. It’s never going to be quite the same, but at least things start improving. Kasey makes a monumental effort for Lara to show her there’s more to the world than dance and how she can still have a career in dance even if she’s not actually physically dancing. Which was sweet.  Kasey’s friendships start getting better. And plus points to Lonnie for sticking by Kasey throughout the whole thing. The ending was a little sickly sweet for me and everything wrapped up with a sort of Disney channel TV show happiness.

 

It certainly wasn’t a bad novel by any means, decently written with believable characters. Though it was only an okay read for me.

Original post: sunsetxcocktail.booklikes.com/post/1451672/review-kasey-screws-up-the-world

DNF: A Court if Mist and Fury

I made it to 400 pages and I'm now at the point where I'm cringing when I look at my paperback because I STILL have another 200 pages plus to finish. Not happening, its long winded and boring and I'm starting to loathe the main character. Calling it quits on this series. 

Original post: sunsetxcocktail.booklikes.com/post/1450724/dnf-a-court-if-mist-and-fury