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Title: Criminal
Author: Terra Elan McVoy
Publisher: Simon Pulse
Release date: May 7th 2013
Pages: 288
Genre: Young Adult contemporary
Source: BEA 2014
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Nikki’s life is far from perfect, but at least she has Dee. Her friends tell her that Dee is no good, but Nikki can’t imagine herself without him. He’s hot, he’s dangerous, he has her initials tattooed over his heart, and she loves him more than anything. There’s nothing Nikki wouldn’t do for Dee. Absolutely nothing.
So when Dee pulls Nikki into a crime – a crime that ends in murder – Nikki tells herself that it’s all for true love. Nothing can break them apart. Not the police. Not the arrest that lands Nikki in jail. Not even the investigators who want her to testify against him.
But what if Dee had motives that Nikki knew nothing about?
Nikki’s love for Dee is supposed to be unconditional…but even true love has a limit. And Nikki just might have reached hers.
My rating: 4 out of 5 stars
Criminal turned out to be really different than I'd expected. I had assumed the story would start with Nikki being happy with Dee, show how he gradually pulls her into this darker stuff, and then escalate with the murder. I figured the novel would end with Nikki finally giving up Dee and going to the police. But that's not how Criminal is set up. The story starts with the murder and deals mainly with the aftermath. This set-up has its pros and cons: it made me feel Nikki's despair, and it let us see what happens later on, but it also made it a bit harder to understand why Nikki won't give Dee up, since we never get to see the two of them together before things went so wrong.
It isn't easy to be in Nikki's head. Seeing her continue to defend Dee, to abandon herself and everyone around her to do exactly what Dee tells her, to basically wreck everything for her obsession with Dee... it gets frustrating. But Nikki's character is so well done that I sympathized with her despite her flaws. Her life leading up to this point has been rough, to say the least, and it's easy to understand why she would cling on to Dee, when so many other people have abandoned her. Being inside Nikki's head is harrowing, emotional, and sometimes painful, but I loved it. The cast of secondary characters isn't too complex or lovable (except for Bird, of course), but they do add a lot to the story.
Like I said earlier, the downfall of starting this story with the crime is that we don't get to know what Dee and Nikki were like before things went so wrong. In any story about an unhealthy relationship, I think it's important to show both the problematic parts and the good moments so that the reader can understand why the victim loves their partner so much and won't give them up. And that was missing in Criminal. Throughout the novel, I felt nothing but hatred towards Dee, what he puts Nikki through and how he treats her. I wish we had gotten some more insight into Dee as a person, to find out about his background and understand how he came to be this monster of a person. Of course it's important to show that his actions are completely unacceptable, but I still wish his character had been more complex so we could have understood him and his relationship with Nikki a bit better.
The prison setting is really well done. I can't judge how realistic it is (and don't want to!), but it definitely felt real. I loved reading about all those details that you don't really hear about, and it was great to see how Nikki's relationships with the other inmates develop.
Criminal is very different from Terra Elan McVoy's previous books. I loved her light, entertaining reads, but she does this darker story really well too. Criminal is a unique, gritty novel, and while it's a hard read, it's definitely worth it. I can't wait to read Terra Elan McVoy's newest, In Deep!
Title: The Summer of Firsts and Lasts
Author: Terra Elan McVoy
Publisher: Simon Pulse
Release date: May 3rd 2011
Pages: 423
Genre: Contemporary YA
Source: Bought
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Three sisters. One life-changing summer.
Calla loves summer because summer means Duncan. They’ve been best friends for years, but Calla has never worked up the nerve to tell him how she really feels. This summer, the summer before college, is Calla’s last chance. Violet isn’t much of a rule breaker in real life. But this isn’t real life, this is summer, and Violet is determined to make the most of it. Besides, a little sneaking out never hurt anyone. And sneaking out with James is 100% worth the risk...even though James is completely off-limits. Daisy has never been the sister that boys notice, but when sparks fly with Joel at the first bonfire of summer, it seems so easy and right. So why is being his girlfriend so complicated?
My rating: 4 out of 5 stars
The Summer of Firsts and Lasts was kind of hard to get into, for me. There are three different POVs, and with each narrator comes a set of friends and love interests, which was a little hard to keep track of at times. In the beginning, I kept checking back to see whose POV I was reading from because I couldn't keep the sisters' personalities straight. The way all three of the girls see themselves is very different from how they're seen by their sisters. That's not necessarily a bad thing, since that's how it is in real life (in my excperience), but it made it even harder to keep the sisters straight. To add to that, the girls have these nicknames that are kind of weird, and it was difficult to remember which nickname belonged to which of the sisters.
Once I'd spent some time inside all of their heads, though, I did like the characters; I conneced with each of them in a different way. Calla is the one I'm probably most similar to - because we're the same age, but also just because of our personalities. I know some people will be annoyed by how Calla keeps hoping beyond hope that Duncan likes her as more than a friend, but I personally could easily relate to that. I got her perfectionist ways and how she feels like she always needs to be nice to everyone - again, some people will be frustrated by that, but it worked for me, because I'm kind of like that too. Daisy, the youngest sister, is like the little girl inside of me I don't like to let people see. I got her insecurities because, well, I used to be her, when I was her age. Her character growth is probably the biggest, out of the three, and I loved reading about how she found her strength. Violet is the one I'm least like - she's the kind of confident I wish I was but know I never will be. But still, I enjoyed reading from her POV, because every once in a while I need to read about someone who is completely different from me.
I have to admit, the plot is very, very slow. It's less like fast-moving world of fiction and more like real life, in that way. I personally didn't really mind, but I know this will alienate a lot of readers. If you can't take a slow-moving plot and need action all the time, I'm pretty sure The Summer of Firsts and Lasts will make you go crazy. Terra Elan McVoy's style is very understated - there are few ornate descriptions that'll make you marvel at their beauty, but that's okay. The author let her characters do most of the talking, let the reader get to know the characters' voices instead of her own style, and I personally really liked that.
I loved the whole camp atmosphere! I've never been to camp, but The Summer of Firsts and Lasts makes me think I missed out on something important. I loved the together-ness and the spirit of it all - it doesn't feel exaggerated or forced, but it's always there.
The romance is okay. I liked the non-romance between Calla and Duncan because like I said, I get it. Daisy and Joey are interesting to read about, too, because their awkwardness is so real, and again reminded me so much of myself at that age. Violet and James, though, didn't really work for me. I don't want to spoil anything, but their attraction to one another felt forced and I didn't feel any real chemistry. Their relationship moved much too fast for me to really enjoy these two as a couple.
But, in a way, I don't even care about whether the romance worked, or whether I liked the characters as individuals, or about the writing or the plot. For me, The Summer of Firsts and Lasts isn't about any of that - it's really about the relationship between Calla, Violet, and Daisy. And the sister dynamics are really well-done. These three make me wish I had a sister. I love how they fight but are always there for each other when it counts. The more I think about it, the more I appreciate this unique setting to showcase this sister relationship, since there are already so many sister stories out there that take place at home or whatever - the camp aspect gave the sisters' relationship a unique twist.
This book is not for everyone - I can definitely the slow-moving plot and some of Calla's and Daisy's character traits frustrating some readers. But for me, this book was just what I needed. I didn't love it as much as Being Friends with Boys - the first Terra Elan McVoy book I read - but I really did like it. The Summer of Firsts and Lasts is a cute summer read and a unique sister story.
Title: Being Friends with Boys
Author: Terra Elan McVoy
Pulisher: Simon Pulse
Release date: May 1st 2012
Pages: 320
Genre: Contemporary YA
Source: GalleyGrab - thank you to Simon & Schuster GalleyGrab for providing a free eGalley of this book in exchange for an honest review.
Find out more: Amazon | Goodreads
Goodreads description:
Charlotte and Oliver have been friends forever. She knows that he, Abe, and Trip consider her to be one of the guys, and she likes it that way. She likes being the friend who keeps them all together. Likes offering a girl's perspective on their love lives. Likes being the behind-the-scenes wordsmith who writes all the lyrics for the boys' band. Char has a house full of stepsisters and a past full of backstabbing (female) ex-best friends, so for her, being friends with boys is refreshingly drama-free...until it isn't any more.
When a new boy enters the scene and makes Char feel like, well, a total girl...and two of her other friends have a falling out that may or may not be related to one of them deciding he possibly wants to be more than friends with Char...being friends with all these boys suddenly becomes a lot more complicated.
First sentence:
I'm on my way up the stairs to my locker Monday morning when Abe comes down the other direction.
My rating: 4 out of 5 stars
Why did I wait so long to read a Terra Elan McVoy book? I'd heard great things about her writing, but for some reason I never got around to buying one of her books. So I was excited to see Being Friends With Boys on GalleyGrab, and made use of the opportunity to finally read a Terra Elan McVoy book. And I ended up loving it!
I love the topic of boy-girl-friendships - why aren't there more of them in YA? The topic is interesting, and the relationships are handled really well in Being Friends With Boys - I liked seeing how Charlotte being friends with boys influences way other girls treat her, and her assessment of the way boys think is lots of fun to read about.
I also loved the musical aspect - I didn't know it was going to be such an important part of the novel from reading the description, but I like that it did. I loved reading about the dynamics in the band, and Char's songs sound amazing - I wish Sad Jackal was a real band! I like how the plot is music-focused, but doesn't require much knowledge about any particular music scene, the way many music-focused books I've read do. There aren't many references to other bands or music that some people won't get; it's mainly about their original music, and I appreciated that.
The writing is good, it flows nicely and reads very quickly. There's something about Terra Elan McVoy's style that just makes it easy to get lost in the words - I generally don't like reading ebooks all that much, so when I do, I'm usually checking how many more pages I still have to go every few minutes. Being Friends With Boys is the first book that sucked me in so much I didn't feel the need to check at all, and I managed to be completely absorbed in the story despite the format.
I love Charlotte. Again, I can't put my finger on what makes her special, but she definitely is special. She's easy to relate to, so likeable, and even though we're not all that similar, I just clicked with her. I loved reading about her life - even when there's not much going on, I wanted to be there alongside Charlotte in her everyday life. Her voice is great, so real.
The secondary characters are okay. I feel like maybe there were a little too many - at times, it's hard to keep track of who's who, and not all of them have fully-developed personalities. But, somehow, I didn't even mind - the characters that are fully-developed make up for it! I loved Trip, Oliver, Fabian and Benji - each of them is adorable in his own way, and Char's relationship with each one is unique and complex. Reading about all the different relationships is probably what I liked most about Being Friends With Boys - it's nice to see such a wide variety of what friendship can look like.
The family storyline is pretty good - the set-up is unique and interesting to read about, but I would have liked to know more about the situation, the relationships between each of the family members, their past, and how all of that affects Charlotte.
I think the ending is a little too abrupt. Actually, I really like the ending, but I wanted there to be more. The romance doesn't start until the end of the story, which works with the story, but still - it's adorable, and I wanted to know more about how the relationship goes! I don't want to say too much about the romance aspect, since I liked not knowing who ends up being more than a friend to Charlotte, but it's so, so cute, and I wish we could have seen even more of that relationship. I also would have liked to know more about Charlotte's future, and whether she decides to go to college or not.
I feel like I'm not doing a good job at all of explaining what makes Being Friends With Boys so great. The novel isn't flawless, but it just works - I can't put my finger on what it is, but everything about this book is just the way I like it. With beautiful writing, and diverse, complex characters and relationships, Being Friends With Boys is a captivating story of all types of love and friendship, finding yourself, and, well, being friends with boys! I loved it, and I'm going to need to buy Terra Elan McVoy's earlier books!
If you've read this book, what did you think?
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