Review: The Distance Between Us by Kasie West

Title: The Distance Between Us
Author: Kasie West
Publisher: HarperTeen
Release date: July 2nd 2013
Pages: 320
Genre: Young Adult contemporary
Source: Purchased
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Seventeen-year-old Caymen Meyers studies the rich like her own personal science experiment, and after years of observation she’s pretty sure they’re only good for one thing—spending money on useless stuff, like the porcelain dolls in her mother’s shop.

So when Xander Spence walks into the store to pick up a doll for his grandmother, it only takes one glance for Caymen to figure out he’s oozing rich. Despite his charming ways and that he’s one of the first people who actually gets her, she’s smart enough to know his interest won’t last. Because if there’s one thing she’s learned from her mother’s warnings, it’s that the rich have a short attention span. But Xander keeps coming around, despite her best efforts to scare him off. And much to her dismay, she's beginning to enjoy his company.

She knows her mom can’t find out—she wouldn’t approve. She’d much rather Caymen hang out with the local rocker who hasn’t been raised by money. But just when Xander’s attention and loyalty are about to convince Caymen that being rich isn’t a character flaw, she finds out that money is a much bigger part of their relationship than she’d ever realized. And that Xander’s not the only one she should’ve been worried about.

I was really excited to finally read a book by Kasie West; I'd heard great things about her, and I was in the needed of a fluffy romance, so this looked ideal. But unfortunately, nothing about this book worked for me. I was annoyed with the writing and storyline about 50 pages in, and it just went downhill from there. I thought about giving up so many times but I hate DNFing books so I pushed on, hoping it would getter, but the story and characters just continued to annoy me.

So many elements of this story stilted and unrealistic to me, especially the romance. Guys just keep walking into the creepy doll store where Caymen works and immediately falling in love with her!? I could not get into the romance at all; it's not quite insta-love, since Caymen is very resistant of dating Xander at first, but it is insta-hanging out all the time and suddenly seeing each other all the time in a very forced and unrealistic way. Xander is somehow just automatically in love with Caymen after seeing her once, and they feel this deep connection because neither of them knows what they want to do after high school, when.... does anyone really know that?? Basically every twist and turn of their relationship was overly dramatic, unnecessary, and unrealistic. The message about how not all rich people are bad was also very frustrating, because... why?? 

***SPOILERS IN THIS PARAGRAPH***
The plot twist towards the end made me even more irritated with this book. After all this discussion of how hard it is for Caymen and Xander to date because they come from such different worlds and because Caymen hates rich people, it turns out that Caymen's family is actually rich too; she just didn't know that because her mother is estranged from her rich grandparents. The way she finds out about this seemed super unrealistic (she just happens to run into her grandparents, whom she has never seen before even though they live in the same small town as her!??, at Xander's family's party??) and the fact that everyone just makes up after was just a giant mess.

The story, the characters, the romance, the writing... pretty much every element of this story annoyed me, and reading this book was a very frustrating experience to me. Will need to find something else to satisfy my need for a fluffy YA romance with endearing characters and some romance I will actually want to root for...

Review: The Assassin Game by Kirsty McKay

Title: The Assassin Game
Author: Kirsty McKay
Publisher: Sourcebooks Fire
Release date: August 2nd 2016
Pages: 336
Genre: Young Adult mystery
Source: NetGalley - I received a free eGalley of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. Thanks!
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At Cate's isolated boarding school, Killer is more than a game- it's an elite secret society. Members must avoid being "Killed" during a series of thrilling pranks, and only the Game Master knows who the "Killer" is. When Cate's finally invited to join the Assassins' Guild, she know it's her ticket to finally feeling like she belongs.
But when the game becomes all too real, the school threatens to shut it down. Cate will do anything to keep playing and save the Guild. But can she find the real assassin before she's the next target?

My rating: 2 out of 5 stars

The Assassin's Game sounded like a great read; with the theme of murder at an elite boarding school, it reminded me a little of the Private series, which I loved. The idea of the Guild and their game is fascinating, too. I was expecting a thrilling mystery. But unfortunately, I was very disappointed by The Assassin's Game; while the book had a ton of potential, I had a number of issues with the execution, and the novel just didn't have the level of thrill and danger that would have made it a worthwhile read for me.

A boarding school of geniuses and misfits on an isolated island has a ton of potential for unique and fascinating characters, but unfortunately, I wasn't all that impressed by any of the. Cate is okay, but I don't feel like we even got to know that much about her; I wish her passion for art had been explored more so that we could have maybe gotten to know her better. Cate also frustrated me with how useless she is in times of danger, never shutting up and listening to what anyone is saying to her. The entire cast of secondary characters is very underdeveloped: not Cate's best friend and roommate Marcia, whom we know basically nothing about, not Vaughn, Cate's childhood friend that suddenly reappears but who, to be honest, we don't really get to know either, and none of the other players in the Game that are really all just described with one or two adjectives each. Because none of the characters (and potential suspects) seemed like real people, I couldn't really get myself to care or try to figure out which one of them might be the killer.

Which leads me to my main problem with this book: the underwhelming-ness of the entire mystery. The novel starts out slow, with a really long introduction to the school and the game, and a ton of info-dumping. I kept waiting for the plot to pick up, and to some extent it does... buy in my opinion, it just doesn't pick up enough. I was expecting things to get completely out of hand, for people to actually be killed and for there to be a real sense of danger. But what happens, at least up until the very end, is actually relatively tame, and I never felt any immediate threat or danger. The plot just wasn't intense enough for me. It doesn't actually become dangerous for Cate until the very end, but I still found the resolution to be underwhelming: the bad guy's motivation is kind of petty and didn't seem strong enough to justify what had happened, And after this one scene of confrontation, the book just kind of ends, with a last chapter that wraps everything up nicely and reads more like an epilogue. I just didn't get out of this book any of the sense of thrill I like to read mysteries for.

To be honest, I don't think I can recommend this book. The writing isn't bad; it flows nicely (except for the info-dumping), making this a quick read, if nothing else. But with underdeveloped characters and a mystery that never really picks up steam or makes you feel any sense of threat or danger, the whole book was just very underwhelming for me. While I love the idea, there are other much better YA mysteries out there.

Review: The Woman in Cabin 10 by Ruth Ware

Title: The Woman in Cabin 10
Author: Ruth Ware
Publisher: Harvill Secker
Release date: June 30th 2016
Pages: 352
Genre: mystery/psychological thriller
Source: Gift from publisher
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This was meant to be the perfect trip.
The Northern Lights. A luxury press launch on a boutique cruise ship.
A chance for travel journalist Lo Blackwood to recover from a traumatic break-in that has left her on the verge of collapse, and to work out what she wants from her relationship.
Except things don’t go as planned.
Woken in the night by screams, Lo rushes to her window to see a body thrown overboard from the next door cabin. But the records show that no-one ever checked into that cabin, and no passengers are missing from the boat.
Exhausted, emotional and increasingly desperate, Lo has to face the fact that her sleep problems might be driving her mad or she is trapped on a boat with a murderer – and she is the sole witness...

My rating: 2 out of 5 stars

I've been really into mysteries and psychological thrillers lately, and The Woman in Cabin 10 sounded like a great read, with the fear-inducing setting of the enclosed space of a cruise ship, a heroine with a dynamic backstory, and a psychologically complex murder story. But unfortunately, I found myself very disappointed by the execution of the novel: it just wasn't as gripping, suspenseful, or well-crafted as I had hoped.

I started out liking Lo and enjoying her story. I felt for her during the break-in, and I wanted to keep getting to know her throughout the novel. But I quickly grew bored with her character. The characterization became very repetitive, focusing on her anxiety and her drinking and not much else. None of the other characters are fully developed, and I couldn't really keep track of them, making it hard for me to really care what happened to any of them or to figure out who was a potential suspect.

The mystery was what I found myself most disappointed by in The Woman in Cabin 10. Like I said, I loved the set-up of the cruise ship and the woman in the cabin disappearing without anyone else noticing. But the development of the mystery is very mediocre. You find out who the murderer is relatively early on, and it's a very convoluted scheme - which I liked - but I wanted more shocking twists afterwards, some kind of suspenseful confrontation with the murderer, more connections to previous clues, and we don't get any of that. We find out what happened basically just through Lo's thought process, and I wanted more actual plot twists and, well, just more of a plot, really. I never had that edge-of-my-seat, can't-turn-the-pages-fast enough feeling that I love about mysteries.

To be honest, the writing just wasn't strong enough to keep me interested. The narration is very heavy on description, light on dialogue, and the descriptions are repetitive at that, which bored me. The pacing is too slow for a successful mystery, in my opinion - honestly, the book could have probably been half as long because of its simple and straightforward plot, if it weren't for the lengthy descriptions. One element I did really enjoy were the newspaper clippings, emails, etc. in between sections; these heightened the suspense and worked as ominous foreshadowing for what was to come for Lo.

The Woman in Cabin 10 had a ton of potential but unfortunately fell flat for me. With a disappointing mystery that lacks suspense and plot twists and a rather slow pace, The Woman in Cabin 10 just wasn't a book that really gripped me as a reader. If you're more interested in the character development aspect and the setting of the cruise ship, this book might work better for you, but if you're in it for the suspense and thrill, like me, I wouldn't recommend The Woman in Cabin 10.

Review: Trauma by Michael Palmer and Daniel Palmer

Title: Trauma
Author: Michael Palmer & Daniel Palmer
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
Release date: May 12th 2015
Pages: 384
Genre: Adult mystery/medical thriller
Source: NetGalley - I received a free eGalley of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. Thanks!
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Dr. Carrie Bryant's is a much-admired neurosurgical resident at an esteemed Boston hospital. But when her first unsupervised brain surgery goes horribly wrong, she loses her confidence-and, after another fateful misstep, Carrie decides to quit her residency and move back home. Her new life's purpose: To help her combat-vet brother, Adam, recover from a crippling case of post-traumatic stress disorder.
At first, the experimental program at the VA Medical Center-one that could forever cure the ravages of PTSD-seems like best option for Adam. But Carrie has her doubts when one of her patients goes missing...and then another. Carrie turns to local investigative reporter David Hoffman for help in getting answers. But the VA organization is determined to keep its secrets-at all costs. As Carrie and David descend into a labyrinth of murder and corruption, the price Carrie could pay for asking the wrong questions is her own life...

My rating: 2 out of 5 stars

I haven't read many medical thrillers, so I might not be the best judge, and I can't really compare Trauma to any other books in the genre. But I was just very disappointed by this book. I was excited about the premise because I tend to like mysteries with female MCs that combine suspense with a more personal story, and I thought the PTSD element might be an interesting twist. But unfortunately, the awkward writing and implausibilities made it hard for me to enjoy this book.

I feel really mean saying this, but the writing felt very amateur-ish; this felt very much like a debut novel, or even an unpublished manuscript, which is kind of surprising for accomplished writers (although I had never read anything by Michael or Daniel Palmer). The writing is just so awkward, with bad metaphors and all telling and no showing. A lot of the over-the-top descriptions had me rolling my eyes, and I was always so focused on the awkwardness of the writing that I could never actually get lost in the writing.

The characters had a lot of potential. Carrie is actually an interesting character, I really liked David, and Adam adds an interesting element to the story as well. But the writing kept me from actually feeling for these characters. Because I associated the melodramatic wordings with Carrie's voice, I couldn't really take her seriously, and since the awkwardness of the writing was so distracting, I couldn't actually feel for Carrie or David. The romance between Carrie and David is especially cheesy and the descriptions of Carrie's attraction to David made me seriously question the authors' ability to write a female MC. 

I understand that this is a medical thriller, but, to be honest, the excessive medical terms and explanations kind of bored me. I actually enjoyed them in the beginning, during Carrie's first surgery, but after that it just got too much. Of course a story like this needs some medical explanations to show its accuracy, and it did seem like the authors knew what they were talking about, but for readers like me, the amount of medical information was unnecessary; it was just too much and too confusing for someone outside of the field to follow. I got so bored by all of this information that I didn't even try to follow it towards the ending. The ending, to me, seemed very far-fetched and didn't justify everything that happened in the story, and one of my biggest pet peeves about mysteries is when the bad guy doesn't have adequate motivations.

The set-up seemed intriguing and had potential, but it just doesn't work. The awkward writing and far-fetched twists made it very hard for me to care about this story, and I don't think I can recommend it.

Review: Hello, I Love You by Katie M. Stout

Title: Hello, I Love You
Author: Katie M. Stout
Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin
Release date: June 9th 2015
Pages: 304
Genre: Young Adult contemporary romance
Source: I received a free copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. Thanks!
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Grace Wilde is running—from the multi-million dollar mansion her record producer father bought, the famous older brother who’s topped the country music charts five years in a row, and the mother who blames her for her brother’s breakdown. Grace escapes to the farthest place from home she can think of, a boarding school in Korea, hoping for a fresh start.

She wants nothing to do with music, but when her roommate Sophie’s twin brother Jason turns out to be the newest Korean pop music superstar, Grace is thrust back into the world of fame. She can't stand Jason, whose celebrity status is only outmatched by his oversized ego, but they form a tenuous alliance for the sake of her friendship with Sophie. As the months go by and Grace adjusts to her new life in Korea, even she can't deny the sparks flying between her and the KPOP idol.

Soon, Grace realizes that her feelings for Jason threaten her promise to herself that she'll leave behind the music industry that destroyed her family. But can Grace ignore her attraction to Jason and her undeniable pull of the music she was born to write? Sweet, fun, and romantic, this young adult novel explores what it means to experience first love and discover who you really are in the process.

My rating: 2 out of 5 stars

I was really excited for this one: it was pitched as another Anna and the French Kiss; I love books that let you explore foreign places; and the darker family stuff sounded right up my alley too. But sadly, Hello, I Love You is nowhere near as good as Anna and the French Kiss, the writing is not even close to strong enough to carry the emotional storyline, and the element of exploring a foreign culture is ruined by a frustratingly ignorant main character.

Grace is painfully ignorant about the country she has just decided to move to. I understand that, to some extent, this is just due to her circumstances: moving to Korea was a spur-of-the-moment decision with the goal of getting as far away from her family as possible. But she doesn't seem to have done any research at all before moving there; she could have at least looked up yes/no/please/thank you in Korean or learned the most basic ideas about Korean culture. And this ignorance doesn't really change once she's there: she doesn't try all that hard in her Korean class, and she doesn't try to interact with anyone except for those who speak perfect English. She justifies this by saying "Call me antisocial, but in my defense, it’s hard to make friends with people who refuse to speak your language outside the classroom” (59), which irritated me to no end - YOU're the one who decided to move to another country but is refusing to learn its language or culture. URGHH. Grace's exotifying comments about Korean culture (or Asian culture, as she likes to call, since of course they're all the same) are culturally insensitive at best and racist at worst. I did enjoy some of the descriptions of the places Grace visits, since I love seeing new places I've never been to through books, but Grace's ignorant comments kind of ruined the whole thing. 

Of course, if all of this is intended, and the main character grows over the course of the novel, this doesn't have to be a bad thing. There are some attempts at character growth towards the end of the novel, and we do find out something that somewhat explains Grace's emotional state. But sadly, the writing just isn't strong enough to make this work. The writing is too simplistic for me to really feel for Grace, and her character growth is not developed enough at all: there are no consequences for Grace's behavior in the beginning of the novel, and she doesn't seem to show all that much remorse. That means the novel doesn't even question Grace's problematic attitudes, and Grace's racial and class privilege is never really addressed.

The romance might have just been tainted by my overall negative impression of Grace, but she frustrated me in her relationship with Jason too. Grace's constant back and forth about what she wants from Jason got irritating very quickly; she keeps messing things up with Jason on purpose and pushing him away for reasons that don't make sense to the reader, let alone Jason. Again, I get that, to some extent, this might have been intended, since we find out towards the end why Grace is so emotionally instable. But even if it makes sense, it did not make for an enjoyable romance, and the character growth at the end is not strong enough to justify the change in attitude and happy ending.

Everything about this book was just so frustrating. I can (sort of, maybe) see where Katie M. Stout was going with this, and the family storyline as well as the idea of moving Grace to another culture had a lot of potential. But the writing is very simplistic and none of the ideas are explored in enough depth to actually make this work. That leaves us with a culturally insensitive main character who doesn't really change over the course of the novel and a frustratingly hot-and-cold romance. I should have just reread Anna and the French Kiss instead...

Review: Hold Me Like a Breath by Tiffany Schmidt

Title: Hold Me Like a Breath (Unce Opon A Crime Family #1)
Author: Tiffany Schmidt
Publisher: Bloomsbury
Release date: May 19th 2015
Pages: 400
Genre: Young Adult contemporary
Source: NetGalley - I received a free advance copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. Thanks!
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Penelope Landlow has grown up with the knowledge that almost anything can be bought or sold—including body parts. She’s the daughter of one of the three crime families that control the black market for organ transplants.
Penelope’s surrounded by all the suffocating privilege and protection her family can provide, but they can't protect her from the autoimmune disorder that causes her to bruise so easily.
And in her family's line of work no one can be safe forever.
All Penelope has ever wanted is freedom and independence. But when she’s caught in the crossfire as rival families scramble for prominence, she learns that her wishes come with casualties, that betrayal hurts worse than bruises, that love is a risk worth taking . . . and maybe she’s not as fragile as everyone thinks.

My rating: 2 out of 5 stars

Hold Me Like a Breath sounded like such an intriguing read. The title and the cover are gorgeous, and an organ transplant black market is such a unique and fascinating take on the crime family story. But sadly, I didn't end up loving Hold Me Like a Breath as much I was hoping I would - it was a pretty slow and frustrating read for me. 

I did love the organ-transplant element of the novel. It's interesting how the whole business is illegal, but the Family sees themselves as doing something morally right by providing transplants for people the government doesn't deem 'worthy' because of disabilities, etc. But of course, only people with money have access to this, considering how obscenely rich Penny's family is as a result of this business. Different members of the Family have different opinions on the proposed laws that would legalize selling one's organs and how that would affect the Family's business, which was especially interesting within the context of other illegal businesses that are being legalized... It's a complex issue, and Hold Me Like a Breath treats it as such making this a very thought-provoking element of the story. The whole thing didn't even read like contemporary at times; with these made-up laws and a world I know nothing about, Hold Me Like a Breath felt kind of like a sci-fi novel, and I really loved its fascinatingly unique worldbuilding. 

But even though I loved this setup, the rest of the story didn't really work for me. I had some issues with our main character Penny. I loved reading about the details of her autoimmune disorder and how that affects her day-to-day life, but that's about the only unique thing about this character. Penny is ridiculously naive, and I understand that that makes sense, considering her sheltered upbringing, but she also acts like a whiny, spoiled brat for most of the novel. I usually hate when people base their opinion on a book on whether or not they liked the main character, but Penny was just so annoying and frustrating to read about that I could not get myself to care about the outcome of her story. She does undergo a transformation over the course of the novel and learns to fight for herself, but I was just too annoyed at that point to really notice. She still acts pretty naive, trusting and helpless even when she's living by herself, and her failure to do anything other than wait around for someone to save her for 90% of the novel frustrated me to no end.

There's two elements to this story: the thriller side, meaning Penny trying to hide and then protect herself and others from the mysterious bad guys; and the emotional side of Penny processing the tragedy that struck her Family. The thriller element in the beginning is pretty weak, considering that nothing really happens for the first three-quarters of the novel; Penny doesn't do anything, she just sits around waiting for something to happen. And at the end, when we do get more action, it just got kind of unrealistic for me - there are so many elements to this thriller that don't make sense. I can't really go into this without spoiling this, but I'll just say that none of the characters really had any motivations that would justify their actions, and there's some serious plotholes in how Penny got to where she is now. As for the emotional side, the writing and the characters just weren't strong enough to make me feel anything. 

And then there's the romance, which, of course, had to include a love triangle and some insta-love. At first I liked Garrett, the childhood friend Penny has been in love with forever, but I didn't get too strong of a connection between him and Penny, and once Char shows up, Penny just kind of forgets about him. The relationship with Char was too insta-love-y for me - they're both suddenly obsessed with each other, and Penny isn't creeped out when Char follows her and stakes out outside the apartment where she's hiding.  Again, I didn't feel a real connection; for that whole part of the novel, nothing much really happens. When Penny has to choose between Garrett and Char, the resolution is made way too easy, and she doesn't even consider the other side for reasons that didn't make sense to me. 

Hold Me Like a Breath was worth the read only because of the original ideas of the organ-transplant black market and the autoimmune disorder; this was an interesting world to gain insights to. But the execution left much to be desired: with a frustrating main character, a predictable thriller storyline with significant plotholes, a weak emotional element and a predictable romance, none of it really worked for me. I might pick up another book by Tiffany Schmidt because I did enjoy her debut, Send Me a Sign, but I'm not going to be continuing with this series.

Review: Everything That Makes You by Moriah McStay

Title: Everything That Makes You
Author: Moriah McStay
Publisher: Katherine Tegen Books
Release date: March 17th 2015
Pages: 352
Genre: Young Adult contemporary
Source: NetGalley - I received a free eGalley of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. Thanks!
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One girl. Two stories. Meet Fiona Doyle. The thick ridges of scar tissue on her face are from an accident twelve years ago. Fiona has notebooks full of songs she’s written about her frustrations, her dreams, and about her massive crush on beautiful uber-jock Trent McKinnon. If she can’t even find the courage to look Trent straight in his beautiful blue eyes, she sure isn’t brave enough to play or sing any of her songs in public. But something’s changing in Fiona. She can’t be defined by her scars anymore.
And what if there hadn’t been an accident? Meet Fi Doyle. Fi is the top-rated female high school lacrosse player in the state, heading straight to Northwestern on a full ride. She’s got more important things to deal with than her best friend Trent McKinnon, who’s been different ever since the kiss. When her luck goes south, even lacrosse can’t define her anymore. When you’ve always been the best at something, one dumb move can screw everything up. Can Fi fight back?

My rating: 2 out of 5 stars

The concept of Everything That Makes You sounded interesting, but it's not the most original; Cat Patrick and Suzanne Young's Just Like Fate and Kasie West's Pivot Point are pretty similar in set-up. In order to make this done-before concept work, the writing and the plot would have had to be great, and to be honest, they just... aren't. There isn't much that's technically wrong with Everything That Makes You, but I didn't really see this story going anywhere or a point to all of this, and I didn't connect with it. 

Even if the two-lives thing has been done before, the idea of seeing where Fiona's life is going with or without this accident could have been interesting. I would have wanted to see some kind of progression and a message at the end about how you end up where you're supposed to be, regardless of what goes wrong, or something along those lines. But that isn't really the case; these are really just two pretty average stories that don't seem to go anywhere, and there's nothing that ties the two stories together in the end. I just didn't get the point of it all.

One issue for me was that it was hard to tell the two stories apart; I had to keep checking back to make sure which girl's story I was reading at any given moment. I think that's mainly because the two stories have all the same characters, just in slightly different roles: Trent as a friend/love interest in one and a distant love interest in the other; Jackson as a friend one story and the love interest in the other, and her family is pretty much the same in both stories. I kept forgetting who played what role in which story because I don't think Fi and Fiona's voices were different enough to really set them apart. 

It also didn't help that Everything That Makes You spans such a long period of time; it starts halfway through junior year of high school and ends after freshman year of college. With two stories to tell, I think that's just too long for a 350-paged book because this it doesn't leave enough space to fully explore any of the storylines. For example, Fiona's obsession with Trent seems really random (considering he's a hot douchebag she knows nothing about) and doesn't go anywhere, and the tragedy in Fi's life didn't make me feel anything because we didn't have enough time to really get to know the characters. The characters aren't bad, necessarily, but we don't get to know them well enough for me to actually cares what happens to them.

Everything That Makes You just didn't work for me. These are just two average stories that don't seem to really go anywhere; maybe another reader will get something out of them, but they didn't really have a point, for me. The characters and the stories aren't developed enough to get me emotionally invested, so I just didn't care all that much about what happened. To be honest, if you like this kind of concept, I would suggest picking up Just Like Fate instead.

Review: The Latte Rebellion by Sarah Jamila Stevenson

Title: The Latte Rebellion
Author: Sarah Jamila Stevenson
Publisher: Flux
Release date: January 8th 2011
Pages: 327
Genre: Young Adult contemporary
Source: BEA 2013
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When high school senior Asha Jamison gets called a "towel head" at a pool party, the racist insult gives Asha and her best friend Carey a great money-making idea for a post-graduation trip. They'll sell T-shirts promoting the Latte Rebellion, a club that raises awareness of mixed-race students.
Seemingly overnight, their "cause" goes viral and the T-shirts become a nationwide fad. As new chapters spring up from coast to coast, Asha realizes that her simple marketing plan has taken on a life of its own-and it's starting to ruin hers. Asha's once-stellar grades begin to slip, threatening her Ivy League dreams, and her friendship with Carey is hanging by a thread. And when the peaceful underground movement turns militant, Asha's school launches a disciplinary hearing.Facing expulsion, Asha must decide how much she's willing to risk for something she truly believes in.

My rating: 2 out of 5 stars

Even though I hadn't heard much about this book, I had high hopes for The Latte Rebellion. YA books don't often address social justice issues in such an explicit way, so I thought I would appreciate that The Latte Rebellion does. And while I really liked the idea, it just doesn't work as well as I'd hoped. I had some issues with how the movement is handled, and the actual story develops didn't really hold my interest, so I was pretty disappointed by this one.

I was expecting a main character who is passionate about social justice issues, but Asha did not turn out to be a character I liked. To be honest, she doesn't even seem to care that much. She really just starts this whole thing as a way to make money, which didn't really sit right with me. (And also just doesn't seem like a practical choice.) Even once Asha gets more into the idea of this becoming a real movement, she doesn't seem all that passionate about it; for example, she goes to a couple of social justice activism meetings that sound really cool, but she doesn't seem to care all that much, other than about them selling more T-shirts and about the activism that he guys she likes is interested in. For a novel that I hoped would send a strong message, Asha just isn't a feisty enough main character, in my opinion. She's also really good at slut-shaming and making assumptions about cheerleaders and the members of what she calls the Bimbocracy. 

It also bothered me how the issue of racism against mixed-race individuals is handled. For some reason, the novel focuses mainly on the racism Asha and her friends experience at the hands of other minorities. The main "bad guy," Roger, is an Asian American fellow student who doesn't understand why Asha doesn't just identify as Asian if that is part of her ethnicity. Of course this is a problem, but it bothered me how the novel basically completely ignores the racism all minorities experience from white people. This is especially evident in Asha's criticism of what is basically Affirmative Action - she talks about how minorities are given "special treatment" in college admissions when they can check the "Hispanic" or "black" box and how she doesn't benefit from this because she has to select "Other." I think it's a valid criticism that these categories don't have space for mixed-race individuals, but she completely dismisses the idea that a minority status should be considered in admissions. As someone who believes that Affirmative Action is definitely still necessary, that bothered me - and while Asha doesn't necessarily have to agree with me on this, I don't think this should have been dismissed quite as easily and been discussed in a more meaningful way. In general, it bothered me how the novel pits people of mixed race against minorities of one ethnicity when, really, they are both oppressed by the white power structure, which is basically ignored in The Latte Rebellion.

Asides from the way the issues are handled, I also had some problems with the actual story. I honestly don't know why, but I just couldn't get myself to care all that much about what happened. It might be because I didn't really connect with the characters, or because I thought parts of the story were just unnecessarily melodramatic - for example how snippets from the school board hearing are included in between chapters, when that hearing doesn't even end up being that important. Either way, The Latte Rebellion just wasn't a novel that really sucked me in the way I want books to.

In the end, I was really confused as to what we were supposed to take from this novel because there's no real message or explanation of what happens to the Rebellion. Without a real message at the end, the story didn't really seem to go anywhere. And since I had some issues with the message and the main plot didn't really capture my interest, The Latte Rebellion just didn't work for me. 

Review: Some Boys by Patty Blount

Title: Some Boys
Author: Patty Blount
Publisher: Sourcebooks Fire
Release date: August 5th 2014
Pages: 339
Genre: Young Adult contemporary
Source: Bought
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Some boys go too far. Some boys will break your heart. But one boy can make you whole.
When Grace meets Ian she's afraid. Afraid he'll reject her like the rest of the school, like her own family. After she accuses the town golden boy of rape, everyone turns against Grace. They call her a slut and a liar. But...Ian doesn't. He's funny and kind with secrets of his own.
But how do you trust the best friend of the boy who raped you? How do you believe in love?

My rating: 2 out of 5 stars

This is a really hard book to review. I really, really wanted to love it, because this is such an important topic and there aren't enough YA books out about it. And I do think that Grace's story is an important one that needs to be told. The rest of it, though, I didn't care for too much. Ian did not work as a love interest because he displays some very problematic opinions and not enough character growth

Grace's story, by itself, is what I really liked about Some Boys. Reading about how deeply this rape has affected her, and how terribly the community is reacting to it, was my favorite part (even if that sounds bad). Not because I enjoyed it, of course, but because I think this is a really important story to tell so that people can maybe understand what this is like. Grace's feelings are so well-developed, and I felt for her throughout the novel. She is so strong, and even though it gets a bit preachy at times, her opinions are very important to read about.

Whenever Ian was talking about what happened to Grace, or about rape or gender roles or anything like that, I just wanted to slap him. He has ridiculously problematic opinions. He judges girls so, so much - whenever a girls hooks up with one of his friends, he judges them for being easy and talks about how he doesn't understand why girls let guys do things like that. His double standards are just ridiculous, and his slut-shaming is just out-of-control. One of the lines that pissed me off the most was when he's thinking about the way Grace dresses and the way that makes guys not respect her. He goes, "Why do girls not get that there's a fine line between looking good and asking for it? [...] It's like the people who leave their doors unlocked and then cry when they're robbed. Why are girls not smart about this?" These ideas just made Ian a completely unappealing love interest for me.

I know I should have expected him to have these opinions at the beginning of the novel, since him growing from these problematic ideas to understand what happened to Grace is kind of the point of the novel. But... Ian barely changed over the course of the novel. The only reason Ian finally decides to believe Grace is because he finds a video on Zac's phone that proves that Grace was telling the truth. Because he sees that Grace had told Zac no and that Zac forced himself on Grace anyways, he believes that it's rape. But the thing is, even without that information.... it would have still been rape. He knew that Grace was drunk enough to have passed out while it happened. The fact that whether or not she fought him or not is irrelevant and that it was rape either way is never even addressed, and for a book attempting to raise awareness about this issue, that's a major flaw.

The whole ending is just really cheesy. After the coach sees the video and kicks Zac off the team, everyone hears that it was "actually" rape and comes crawling back to Grace. And Grace accepts her friends back with no questions asked about how they abandoned her and how horrible they had been to her. All those reunion scenes are cheesy and disappointing because it shows how no one actually learned anything from this experience.

The focus on the romance, rather than Grace overcoming this trauma on her own, didn't sit right with me. Maybe it's just because I didn't like Ian, but I didn't really care whether or not they ended up together; I only care whether or not Grace would be okay. I also wish that there had been more of a focus on Grace struggling to be intimate again after what happened to her; Ian and Grace kiss for the first time only a month and a half after Grace had been raped, and it's never even mentioned that that could have been another traumatizing experience for her. 

I'm still not sure what to make of Some Boys. In a way, it was an important read for me, and I loved being inside Grace's head. But on the grand scale, I don't think the novel does enough to work against rape culture and the gender roles that permit it. Ian - and the rest of the town - don't really learn enough from what happened to Grace to really change anything, and Ian's problematic views of gender roles are barely addressed. Grace herself displays some problematic views, too, when she slut-shames her stepmom and her ex-friends, and that's never addressed, either. It was a good attempt, but there was too much telling and not enough showing, and the novel ended up falling flat for me.

Review: Famous in Love by Rebecca Serle

Title: Famous in Love

Author: Rebecca Serle

Publisher: Poppy

Release date: October 1st 2014
Pages: 336
Genre: Young Adult contemporary
Source: BEA 2014

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When seventeen-year-old Paige Townsen gets plucked from obscurity to star in the movie adaptation of a blockbuster book series, her life changes practically overnight. Within a month, Paige has traded the quiet streets of her hometown for a bustling movie set on the shores of Maui, and she is spending quality time with her costar Rainer Devon, one of People's Sexiest Men Alive. But when troubled star Jordan Wilder lands the role of the other point in the movie's famous love triangle, Paige's crazy new life begins to resemble her character's.

My rating: 2 out of 5 stars

Famous in Love didn't really sound like my kind of read, but since I loved Rebecca Serle's previous two books, When You Were Mine and The Edge of Falling, I thought I'd give this one a try. And although the whole fame-thing isn't my favorite thing to read about, it can work when it's well done (i.e. Open Road Summer), so I thought I might enjoy Famous in Love, too. Sadly, though, this one did not work for me. The story is cliched and underdeveloped, making this a very disappointing read for me.

The main problem I had with this story is the romance. In short, there's a love triangle with lots of insta-love - such a great combination. If it had been well-done, Paige living out the same love triangle as her character could have been kind of entertaining. But it's not. Rainer and Jordan have an interesting background, but that's about all they have going for themselves. When Paige arrives on set, she and Rainer are immediately together, just because. They have no chemistry, he has no personality, and we never learn what she sees in him (other than the fact that he's famous). Jordan is a slightly more interesting character, but things between him and Paige also happen instantaneously, with no build-up or chemistry. So no, I did not enjoy the romance. And considering it's the main storyline, that kind of ruined the book for me.

The fame-and-glamour aspect could have been interesting, but I found it to be kind of underwhelming. It's not horrible - but it's not really anything new. It didn't make me feel the glamour of this world, so it didn't work as any kind of guilty-pleasure entertainment, either.

What's going on at home is what had the most potential, in my opinion. I love the set-up with the big, working-class family, and I thought Paige's sister was a very intriguing character. The set up with Paige's two best friends and their drama is interesting, too. But since most of the book is set away from home, these storylines are never fully explored, unfortunately.

And then there's the ending. I can't really talk about this without spoiling anything, but... what? I was really confused as to what this decision was supposed to mean; it really didn't make sense to me. Is there supposed to be a sequel or something? I just didn't get what the point of that was, at all.

This book really just wasn't for me. With underdeveloped characters and lackluster romance, I really couldn't find anything to love about Famous in Love. It might be better suited for the younger set of YA readers, but I wouldn't particularly recommend it.

Review: Get Happy by Mary Armato

Title: Get Happy
Author: Mary Amato
Publisher: EgmontUSA
Release date: October 28th 2014
Pages: 256
Genre: Young Adult contemporary
Source: NetGalley - I received a free advance copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. Thanks!
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In this poignant, realistic, contemporary YA by a state master list star, perfect for fans of Sarah Dessen and Gayle Forman, a young songwriter builds a substitute family with her friends in place of the broken family she grew up with.
A hip high school girl who loves music, writes songs, and is desperate for a ukelele, learns to her shock that her father did not abandon her years ago and has been trying to keep in touch. She begins to investigate him, only to discover that he has a new life with a new family, including the perfect stepdaughter, a girl who Minerva despises.

My rating: 2 out of 5 stars

Get Happy is a super-short read. It's only 256 pages, and the spacing makes it even shorter than that sounds. To add to that, we have Minerva's song lyrics at the end of most chapters, and the last of those 256 pages has those lyrics again, this time with the musical chords. So the good news is, it only took me like two and a half hours to read Get Happy. But the bad news, sadly, is that this short length means that nothing really happens, and nothing is as complex as I would like, making this a very underwhelming read for me.

The main storyline is the one about Minerva's family; her search for her father and the discoveries about her mother and all of their past. That storyline isn't bad... it's just nothing new; it's a very basic story that I've read a million times before. I found Minerva's reactions to all of this to be kind of melodramatic, to be honest; it might be just because I've read so many similar stories, or because Minerva reads so young (younger than the 16 she's supposed to be), but I didn't find what happened to be big enough to warrant such extreme reactions. I just don't think this is enough to carry the story. And with the strong focus on all of this, I found the developments towards the ending to be lacking: we never get to see what happens between her father and stepsister.

Minerva and her best friend Fin work at Get Happy, where they dress up as mermaids, pirates, etc. to entertain kids at birthday parties. That whole idea is cute, and some of those scenes are pretty entertaining. It's a bit contrived how the two of them, as well as the two other characters, Cassie and Hayes, always ride together and have to entertain parties at the exact same times, but it serves the purpose of showing how they all interact. This cast of characters has potential, but they're not complex enough to seem real, and nothing really happens between them either.

I'm not really sure what to say about Get Happy. It's not bad, and I didn't have many issues with it. But the thing is... nothing really happens. These storylines aren't enough to make for an engaging plot; they would have made a good background to set up a real story to focus on, but there is no such story. I know not every novel has to have a strong plot, but even as a character-driven novel, Get Happy didn't work for me; I didn't think the main character was complex enough or develops enough over the course of the story to make Get Happy work. Get Happy is targeted more towards the younger part of YA, so maybe it's just not for me, but I just found it very underwhelming.

Review: Tape by Steven Camden

Title: Tape

Author: Steven Camden
Publisher: Harper Collins Children's Books
Release date: September 23rd 2014
Pages: 363
Genre: Young Adult contemporary
Source: BEA 2014
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In 1993, Ryan records a diary on an old tape. He talks about his mother’s death, about his dreams, about his love for a new girl at school who doesn’t even know he exists.
In 2013, Ameliah moves in with her grandmother after her parents die. There, she finds a tape in the spare room. A tape with a boy’s voice on it – a voice she can’t quite hear, but which seems to be speaking to her.
Ryan and Ameliah are connected by more than just a tape.
This is their story.

My rating: 2 out of 5 stars

I haven't DNFed a book in over a year, but I wanted to DNF Tape multiple times. The reason that I rarely DNF books is that I like reading good books (for obvious reasons) but also like reading bad books because they give me something to complain about (I'm really good at anger). (Someone please tell me I'm not the only person who likes reading bad books so they can complain.) But Tape gave me neither the pure form of enjoyment nor the anger-enjoyment, because I just felt indifferent about it throughout. I couldn't tell if there was anything technically wrong with the story, but for some reason I just couldn't connect with it. The story bored me, and I couldn't get myself to care about any of the characters, so Tape was a hard book for me to get through.

Part of why Tape was so hard for me to read is the writing style. For some reason, the author used dashes instead of quotation marks throughout the whole novel. I know that shouldn't really be a big deal, but it was really hard for me to get used to this, and it also made me feel kind of removed from the story, since the dialogue isn't properly embedded in the narrative. Asides from this smaller issue, the writing is just very simplistic and basic; a lot of it read like it would be better suited for the middle grade audience. (Which would make sense, since with 13-year-old main characters, Tape is right on the border of MG and YA.) But even if it's meant for younger readers, I didn't find the writing to be all that engaging; it just never drew me in.

As for the plot, the problem is that... there is no plot; nothing really happens until the very end. The whole story moves incredibly slowly and just drags so much. 90% of this story is just the main characters complaining about how annoying their families are; I really can't remember anything else that happens in the first 200 pages. Towards the end, there are two plot twists. One of these I found very predictable; we know from the description that there's some kind of connection between Ryan and Ameliah, and it's hinted at throughout, so the way they turn out to be connected is not all that surprising. The other plot twist, regarding a character in Ameliah's life, I hadn't expected, so I guess that was good. But since I didn't really care about the characters, I couldn't get myself to care about this revelation, either.

If a novel is lacking a plot, I'd assume it'd at least have good characters so it can be more of a character-driven story. But... no. I never connected with these characters. Ameliah and Ryan are really similar characters in really similar situations - they're both dealing with a death in the family and adjusting to a new family arrangement, and that's really all that's happening. Their voices are very similar and hard to tell apart, at times. Since Ryan's story is set 20 years before Ameliah's, I had thought their voices would be different and adapted to their respective time periods, but that's not really the case. In Ameliah's world, everyone has cell phones, but that was the only difference I could see; I wanted to see more of a difference in the way they speak and act. I just didn't have any kind of connection with either of the main characters.

The secondary characters are very one-dimensional. I was especially disappointed by Eve's character. Considering she's so central to the whole story, I feel like she should have had some sort of personality, but we never really got to know her. Ryan and Eve's romance should have been hugely epic, since it brings the whole book together, but we only get a couple of short conversations, lots of insta-love, and nothing else. Everything about the romance is cliched, melodramatic, and not very realistic.

I really liked the idea of the tape connecting these two stories with its time-travel-esque features. But that turned out to just be a whole lot of wasted potential. The tape thing could have made this story stand out, but it didn't even turn out to be all that important. These two characters being connected via the tape could have had so many implications for their futures and could have really changed the course of these stories (sorry for being so vague; I don't want to give anything away), but the characters don't really use this connection for anything, which was really disappointing.

Tape really just didn't have any redeeming qualities for me. The plot is non-existent, the characters are flat, and the romance is melodramatic. Maybe Steven Camden's writing just isn't for me; it never drew me in, and I felt removed from the story throughout. Maybe it would be a better fit for younger readers, but even then... I just can't recommend Tape.

Review: The Fine Art of Pretending by Rachel Harris

Title: The Fine Art of Pretending
Author: Rachel Harris
Publisher: Spencer Hill Contemporary
Release date: September 30th 2014
Pages: 256
Genre: Young Adult contemporary romance
Source: BEA 2014
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According to the guys at Fairfield Academy, there are two types of girls: the kind you hook up with, and the kind you're friends with. Seventeen-year-old Alyssa Reed is the second type. And she hates it. With just one year left to change her rank, she devises a plan to become the first type by homecoming, and she sets her sights on the perfect date—Justin Carter, Fairfield Academy’s biggest hottie and most notorious player.
With 57 days until the dance, Aly launches Operation Sex Appeal and sheds her tomboy image. The only thing left is for Justin actually to notice her. Enter best friend Brandon Taylor, the school’s second biggest hottie, and now Aly’s pretend boyfriend. With his help, elevating from “funny friend” to “tempting vixen” is only a matter of time.
But when everything goes according to plan, the inevitable “break up” leaves their friendship in shambles, and Aly and Brandon with feelings they can’t explain. And the fake couple discovers pretending can sometimes cost you the one thing you never expected to want.

My rating: 2 out of 5 stars

The cover of The Fine Art of Pretending is adorable, and when they're well done, this type of story can be really cute. Sadly, The Fine Art of Pretending doesn't belong in the "well done" category, in my opinion - the characters are frustrating, and the plot drags on with unnecessary drama about nothing. The Fine Art of Pretending just didn't work for me.

Aly rubbed me the wrong way from the first page on, since the novel starts with her plan to give herself a total makeover of appearance and personality, in order to get guys to like her. I know this was to be expected from the description, but I had somehow assumed she was making these changes for herself, rather than for male attention. But... no. The whole thing is about getting guys to like her. Her entire self-worth is based on male perceptions of her, which is problematic in so many ways. When she finds out that the guys at her school have organized girls into two groups - Casuals (girls to hook up with) and Commitments (girls to have relationships with) - she is only concerned with wanting to become a Casual, rather than being outraged at how offensive and objectifying this distinction is. Yes, I understand that Aly isn't supposed to be entirely likeable at the beginning of the novel, since the plot is about her character growth. But this character growth focuses on her learning she is really a Commitment and shouldn't try to be a Casual, rather than dismantling this ridiculous binary. The depiction of femininity within these two groups is highly stereotypical and demeaning to both "categories" of females. It also bothered me how the only way for Aly to become okay with being a Commitment is realizing that this is something guys do like - rather than becoming comfortable with herself regardless of male perceptions of her. The problems with the depiction of gender roles and definitions of femininity in this novel are just endless.

Brandon isn't much better. His views of gender are also highly problematic, but I think my feminist rant has gone on long enough, so I'll talk about my issues with his character, regardless of gender stuff, instead. Honestly, I just don't think his story was strong enough. The main obstacle standing in the way of Aly and Brandon being together, once they've realized they have feelings for each other, is that Brandon believes relationships always end and therefore aren't worth it, which he learned from seeing his mother grieve the death of his father. This idea has a lot of potential, but it isn't developed enough to actually make me feel for him. We never find out anything about his dad, other than that he died, or his mom, other than that she's grieving; they're very, very one-dimensional characters. We also never really get to see Brandon grieve his father, other than making those statements about how he learned that relationships only cause pain. If we had really gotten insight into how grief has affected his family, I could have sympathized with Brandon and understood his reluctance to start a relationship, but because the storyline is so underdeveloped, it seemed kind of contrived and constructed only to have Aly and Brandon face some kind of obstacle.

Most of the secondary characters are just personifications of stereotypes. I really wanted to get to know Aly's girl friends, but the only time they play a role is when Aly needs someone to discuss her guy troubles with; I don't think they ever have a conservation that doesn't revolve around one of their relationships with a guy. All the other characters are just the stereotypical popular high school kids who don't get real personalities. And what is up with all of these one-week relationships everyone is having?? The only other character we get a little bit of insight to is Justin, but his story is oversimplified, too.

I can't really think of a nicer way to put this; I just didn't like this book all that much. There are many books out there who do the friendship-turning-into-romance storyline a lot better than The Fine Art of Pretending does. This story is melodramatic, stereotypical, and highly problematic regarding perceptions of femininity. I just couldn't enjoy it in any way.

Review: Guitar Notes by Mary Amato

Title: Guitar Notes
Author: Mary Amato
Publisher: EgmontUSA
Release date: January 1st 2012
Pages: 272
Genre: Young Adult contemporary romance
Source: Bought
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Tripp, who plays guitar only for himself, and Lyla, a cellist whose talent has already made her famous but not happy, form an unlikely friendship when they are forced to share a practice room at their high school.

My rating: 2 out of 5 stars

Guitar Notes sounded like a cute read, but it just didn't work for me. Part of it isn't really the book's fault - maybe I'm just too old for lower YA, and Guitar Notes is a prime example for immature characters that I can't relate to anymore. But even asides from the age thing, the writing is very simplistic, the characters are underdeveloped, and the story - except for one unfortunate plot twist - is pretty boring, so I just couldn't find anything to like about Guitar Notes.

The characters are the main problem. Both Tripp and Lyla represent stereotypes, and there's not much more to them than the description already gives away. The secondary characters are just as one-dimensional and unrealistically bland. Tripp and Lyla are ridiculously melodramatic, and I just couldn't take their whining, although again, this might be because of our age difference.

The relationship between Tripp and Lyla is nothing special either - it's the friendship-version of insta-love. The notes they left each other got personal way too soon to be realistic, and it seemed like they just randomly started being best friends. One thing I did appreciate is that the relationship between Lyla and Tripp stays platonic throughout the novel. I kept fearing the moment their friendship would turn into romance because they seemed so young that reading about their romance would have made me feel like a pedophile, so I'm glad Mary Amato kept their relationship platonic.

Towards the end of the novel, there is a plot twist that made the whole book a million times worse. I don't want to give anything away, but something really serious happens that does not fit at all with the light and happy tone of the rest of the story. This is something that would have merited a novel all on its own, or at least should have been treated as a major part of the plot, but it just kind of happens and then it's resolved and ten pages later, the story is done. Since it's never really explored in any depth, this plot twist didn't add anything to the story but just added to the lack of depth.

I don't know what else to say; Guitar Notes just wasn't for me. It could have been a cute, fun read, but with underdeveloped characters, melodramatic writing, and a boring-until-it-turns-unnecessarily-dramatic plot, I couldn't find anything to like about it. Guitar Notes might be an okay read for younger YA readers, but I personally can't recommend it.