Book Review - Something Real by Heather Demetrios

Title: Something Real by Heather Demetrios
Series?: N/A
Pages: 406 pages
Publishing house: Henry Holt and Company
Dates read: From January 23rd to 26th 2015 (Hardcover copy)

Goodreads synopsis:
Winner of the 2012 PEN New England Discovery Award!
There’s nothing real about reality TV. Seventeen-year-old Bonnie™ Baker has grown up on TV—she and her twelve siblings are the stars of one-time hit reality show Baker’s Dozen. Since the show’s cancellation and the scandal surrounding it, Bonnie™ has tried to live a normal life, under the radar and out of the spotlight. But it’s about to fall apart…because Baker’s Dozen is going back on the air. Bonnie™’s mom and the show’s producers won’t let her quit and soon the life she has so carefully built for herself, with real friends (and maybe even a real boyfriend), is in danger of being destroyed by the show. Bonnie™ needs to do something drastic if her life is ever going to be her own—even if it means being more exposed than ever before.

Rating: 4.5/5 stars
**This review may contain slight spoilers**

Book Review - All The Bright Places by Jennifer Niven

Title: All the Bright Places by Jennifer Niven.
Series?: No.
Pages: 384 pages
Publisher: Knopf
Dates read: January 7th to January 10th 2015 (ebook)

Goodreads Synopsis:
 Theodore Finch is fascinated by death, and he constantly thinks of ways he might kill himself. But each time, something good, no matter how small, stops him.

Violet Markey lives for the future, counting the days until graduation, when she can escape her Indiana town and her aching grief in the wake of her sister’s recent death.

When Finch and Violet meet on the ledge of the bell tower at school, it’s unclear who saves whom. And when they pair up on a project to discover the “natural wonders” of their state, both Finch and Violet make more important discoveries: It’s only with Violet that Finch can be himself—a weird, funny, live-out-loud guy who’s not such a freak after all. And it’s only with Finch that Violet can forget to count away the days and start living them. But as Violet’s world grows, Finch’s begins to shrink.

This is an intense, gripping novel perfect for fans of Jay Asher, Rainbow Rowell, John Green, Gayle Forman, and Jenny Downham from a talented new voice in YA, Jennifer Niven.

Rating: 4/5 stars
**This review may contain spoilers**

Book Review - Compulsion by Martina Boone

Title: Compulsion by Martina Boone
Series?: Book 1
Pages: 433 pages
Publisher: Simon Pulse
Dates read: December 30th 2014 to January 4th 2015 (hardcover copy)

Goodreads synopsis:
All her life, Barrie Watson has been a virtual prisoner in the house where she lives with her shut-in mother. When her mother dies, Barrie promises to put some mileage on her stiletto heels. But she finds a new kind of prison at her aunt’s South Carolina plantation instead—a prison guarded by an ancient spirit who long ago cursed one of the three founding families of Watson Island and gave the others magical gifts that became compulsions.Stuck with the ghosts of a generations-old feud and hunted by forces she cannot see, Barrie must find a way to break free of the family legacy. With the help of sun-kissed Eight Beaufort, who knows what Barrie wants before she knows herself, the last Watson heir starts to unravel her family’s twisted secrets. What she finds is dangerous: a love she never expected, a river that turns to fire at midnight, a gorgeous cousin who isn’t what she seems, and very real enemies who want both Eight and Barrie dead.

*This review may contain spoilers*
Rating: 4.5/5 stars

Book Review - The Winner's Curse by Marie Rutkoski

Title: The Winner’s Curse by Marie Rutkoski
Series?: The Winner's Curse, book #1
Pages:  355 pages
Publisher: Farrar Straus Giroux
Dates read: December 17th to 22nd, 2014 (ebook)

Goodreads Synopsis:
As a general’s daughter in a vast empire that revels in war and enslaves those it conquers, seventeen-year-old Kestrel has two choices: she can join the military or get married. But Kestrel has other intentions.
One day, she is startled to find a kindred spirit in a young slave up for auction. Arin’s eyes seem to defy everything and everyone. Following her instinct, Kestrel buys him—with unexpected consequences. It’s not long before she has to hide her growing love for Arin.
But he, too, has a secret, and Kestrel quickly learns that the price she paid for a fellow human is much higher than she ever could have imagined.
Set in a richly imagined new world, The Winner’s Curse by Marie Rutkoski is a story of deadly games where everything is at stake, and the gamble is whether you will keep your head or lose your heart

Rating: 4.5/5 stars
**This review may contain spoilers**

Book Review - Afterworlds by Scott Westerfeld

Title: Afterworlds by Scott Westerfeld
Series?: No
Pages: 599 pages
Publisher: Simon Pulse
Dates read: December 22nd to 24th 2014 (ebook)

Goodreads synopsis:
Darcy Patel has put college and everything else on hold to publish her teen novel, Afterworlds. Arriving in New York with no apartment or friends she wonders whether she’s made the right decision until she falls in with a crowd of other seasoned and fledgling writers who take her under their wings…

Told in alternating chapters is Darcy’s novel, a suspenseful thriller about Lizzie, a teen who slips into the ‘Afterworld’ to survive a terrorist attack. But the Afterworld is a place between the living and the dead and as Lizzie drifts between our world and that of the Afterworld, she discovers that many unsolved - and terrifying - stories need to be reconciled. And when a new threat resurfaces, Lizzie learns her special gifts may not be enough to protect those she loves and cares about most.

**This review may contain spoilers**
Rating: 4/5 stars

Book Review - A Thousand Pieces of You by Claudia Gray

Title: A Thousand Pieces of You by Claudia Gray
Series?: Book 1
Pages: 368 pages
Publisher: HarperTeen
Dates read: December 28th-30th 2014 (hardcover copy)

Goodreads synopsis:
Every Day meets Cloud Atlas in this heart-racing, space- and time-bending, epic new trilogy from New York Times bestselling author Claudia Gray.Marguerite Caine’s physicist parents are known for their radical scientific achievements. Their most astonishing invention: the Firebird, which allows users to jump into parallel universes, some vastly altered from our own. But when Marguerite’s father is murdered, the killer—her parent’s handsome and enigmatic assistant Paul—escapes into another dimension before the law can touch him.
Marguerite can’t let the man who destroyed her family go free, and she races after Paul through different universes, where their lives entangle in increasingly familiar ways. With each encounter she begins to question Paul’s guilt—and her own heart. Soon she discovers the truth behind her father’s death is more sinister than she ever could have imagined.
A Thousand Pieces of You explores a reality where we witness the countless other lives we might lead in an amazingly intricate multiverse, and ask whether, amid infinite possibilities, one love can endure.

*This review may contain spoilers*
Rating: 3.5/5 stars

Book Review - The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry by Gabrielle Zevin

Title: The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry by Gabrielle Zevin
Series?: No
Pages: 258 pages
Publisher: Algonquin Books
Dates read: Dec. 11th-14th 2014 (ebook)

Goodreads Synopsis:
Hanging over the porch of the tiny New England bookstore called Island Books is a faded sign with the motto “No Man Is an Island; Every Book Is a World.” A.J. Fikry, the irascible owner, is about to discover just what that truly means.
 A.J. Fikry’s life is not at all what he expected it to be. His wife has died, his bookstore is experiencing the worst sales in its history, and now his prized possession, a rare collection of Poe poems, has been stolen. Even the books in his store have stopped holding pleasure for him. These days, A.J. can only see them as a sign of a world that is changing too rapidly. And then a mysterious package appears at the bookstore. It’s a small package, but large in weight. It’s that unexpected arrival that gives A.J. the opportunity to make his life over, the ability to see everything anew. It doesn’t take long for the locals to notice the change overcoming him or for a determined sales rep named Amelia to see her curmudgeonly client in a new light. The wisdom of all those books again become the lifeblood of A.J.’s world and everything twists into a version of his life that he didn’t see coming. As surprising as it is moving, The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry is an unforgettable tale of transformation and second chances, an irresistible affirmation of why we read and why we love.

Rating: 3.5/5 stars
**This review may contain spoilers**

Book Review - The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer by Michelle Hodkin

Title: The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer by Michelle Hodkin
Series?: Book 1
Pages: 452 pages
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Dates read: November 21st to 23rd, 2014 (Hardcover copy)

Goodreads synopsis:

Mara Dyer doesn’t think life can get any stranger than waking up in a hospital with no memory of how she got there.

It can.

She believes there must be more to the accident she can’t remember that killed her friends and left her mysteriously unharmed.

There is.

She doesn’t believe that after everything she’s been through, she can fall in love.

She’s wrong.

Rating: 4/5 stars

Book Review - My True Love Gave to Me, Edited by Stephanie Perkins

Title: My True Love Gave to Me, edited by Stephanie Perkins, stories by Rainbow Rowell, Kelly Link, Matt De La Peña, Jenny Han, David Levithan, Holly Black, Gayle Forman, Myra McEntire, Kiersten White, Ally Carter and Laini Taylor.

Series?: No
Pages: 336
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
Dates read: December 5th to 11th, 2014 (hardcover copy)

Goodreads Synopsis:

If you love holiday stories, holiday movies, made-for-TV-holiday specials, holiday episodes of your favorite sitcoms and, especially, if you love holiday anthologies, you’re going to fall in love with My True Love Gave to Me: Twelve Holiday Stories by twelve bestselling young adult writers (Holly Black, Ally Carter, Matt de La Peña, Gayle Forman, Jenny Han, David Levithan, Kelly Link, Myra McEntire, Rainbow Rowell, Stephanie Perkins, Laini Tayler and Kiersten White), edited by the international bestselling Stephanie Perkins.  Whether you celebrate Christmas or Hanukkah, Winter Solstice or Kwanzaa, there’s something here for everyone.  So curl up by the fireplace and get cozy.  You have twelve reasons this season to stay indoors and fall in love.

Rating: 4/5 stars

Book Review - The Body Electric by Beth Revis

Title: The Body Electric by Beth Revis

Series?: N/A
Pages: 350 pages
Publisher: Scripturient books
Dates read: November 15th to 19th 2014 (Limited special edition paperback copy)

Goodreads Synopsis:
The future world is at peace.
Ella Shepherd has dedicated her life to using her unique gift—the ability to enter people’s dreams and memories using technology developed by her mother—to help others relive their happy memories.
But not all is at it seems.
Ella starts seeing impossible things—images of her dead father, warnings of who she cannot trust. Her government recruits her to spy on a rebel group, using her ability to experience—and influence—the memories of traitors. But the leader of the rebels claims they used to be in love—even though Ella’s never met him before in her life. Which can only mean one thing…
Someone’s altered her memory.
Ella’s gift is enough to overthrow a corrupt government or crush a growing rebel group. She is the key to stopping a war she didn’t even know was happening. But if someone else has been inside Ella’s head, she cannot trust her own memories, thoughts, or feelings.
So who can she trust?

Rating: 4.5/5 stars
**This review may contain spoilers**