I love books. And I love cupcakes. I spend alot of time reading blogs about both. Then I thought to myself, wouldn't it be fun to have it all in one? So here's the plan. Here on my little blog, you're going to find book reviews (mostly YA, because I'm absolutely addicted to them) and once in while I'll show you what I'm cooking up in my little vintage aprons, recipes and all. It's gonna be fun---visit often!! :)
To contact me regarding this blog or if you are a publisher/author with a book you'd like reviewed, send an email to:
storiesandsweetiesblog@gmail.com
See Review Policy
I am currently accepting YA books for review, but I am not accepting ebooks.
"Waiting on Wednesday" is a weekly meme hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine. It lets us all gush about what soon-to-be released books we are jumping-up-and-down excited for.
This week, in honor of having dyed my hair red (!!) I've chosen two awesome looking books that I'm dying to read, both have redheads in them! :)
With a single lie, seventeen-year-old Kelley manages to protect the boy she loves and send him retreating into a haven for Lost Fae hidden below New York City. If she can figure out who’s after Sonny’s magick and uncover the reason why Janus Guards are being recruited to hunt innocent Faerie, Kelley might stand a chance at getting him back…but not before she must finally confront her own Faerie powers and master them.The much-anticipated finale of Lesley Livingston’s ravishing trilogy that began with Wondrous Strange and gathered force in Darklight comes to a stormy head. Fans new and old will revel in the lush romance—and be swept away by the chaotic tempest that’s swirled Kelley and Sonny together.
My thoughts: I cannot WAIT for this book! I love this series and will hate to see it end, but this one looks like it's going to be fantastic. I went to a chat the other night with Lesley Livingston, and she graciously answered questions about her books---now I'm even more excited to read it! And, really, just look at that gorgeous cover! I think it's really cool how they've gotten the same model for every cover and Lesley says she is actually quite a huge fan of the series.
releasing: February 15th, 2011by HarperCollins/Katherine Tegan Books
description from publisher: A stunning debut with angels, romance, and a girl’s terrifying hunt to uncover the secrets of her past lives and save her soul.
Every night Ellie is haunted by terrifying dreams of monstrous creatures hunting her, killing her. But when Ellie meets Will, she feels on the verge of remembering something just beyond her grasp. His attention is intense and romantic, and Ellie feels like her soul has known him for centuries. On her seventeenth birthday, on a dark street at midnight, Will awakens Ellie’s power, and she knows that she can fight the creatures that stalk her in the grim darkness. Ellie’s role is to hunt and kill the reapers that prey on human souls. But in order to survive the dangerous and ancient battle of the angels and the Fallen, she must also hunt for the secrets of her past lives, and for truths that may be too frightening to remember.
This debut, the first novel in a trilogy, is achingly romantic, terrifying, and filled with blistering action.
My thoughts: This one will be on my 2011 Debut Challenge list for sure! Sounds so exciting and I do love stories that involve angels, dreams, past lives, and a little romance!
description from website: After a close encounter with the front end of a school bus, Alona Dare goes from Homecoming Queen to Queen of the Dead. Now she’s stuck as a spirit (DON’T call her a ghost) in the land of the living with no sign of the big, bright light to take her away. To make matters worse, the only person who might be able to help her is Will Killian, a total loser outcast who despises the social elite. He alone can see and hear (turns out he’s been “blessed” with the ability to communicate with the dead), but he wants nothing to do with the former mean girl of Groundsboro High.
Alona has never needed anyone for anything, and now she’s supposed to expose her deepest, darkest secrets to this pseudo-goth boy? Right. She’s not telling anyone what really happened the day she died, not even to save her eternal soul. And Will’s not filling out any volunteer forms to help her cross to the other side. He only has a few more weeks until his graduation, when he can strike out on his own and find a place with less spiritual interference. But he has to survive and stay out of the psych ward until then. Can they get over their mutual distrust—and the weird attraction between them—to work together before Alona vanishes for good and Will is locked up for seeing things that don’t exist?
Review: You know, sometimes stories are just plain fun to read. I guess it's kind of odd to say that about a book where one of the main characters has just been plowed down by a bus, but it's true. The Ghost and the Goth was fun, and despite the grim premise and a few emotional dilemmas mixed it, it stayed light: a perfect summer read.
I absolutely loved the mix of the super popular girl and the antisocial goth boy. Seeing them trying to work out their differences was so amusing and their back-and-forth banter was very funny. I am quickly becoming a huge fan of the method of telling tales in alternating view points. Seeing this one from only one side of their story would have lost so much. I loved getting inside both their heads, especially Alona's, and not only seeing how death did not affect her attitude much at first, but also seeing how she reacted to getting a little taste of her own medicine after her death! I loved the progression of Alona and Will's relationship, it seemed perfectly paced to me, and it constantly keeps you guessing as to whether they will be able to get past all their differences and help each other.
This one was a buyer for me...because I definitely plan to read it again!
In My Mailbox is a weekly meme hosted by The Story Siren, where we all share what we got during the week!
Ok, here what I got! Mostly library stuff, although I wasn't at work much this week because I was sick, sick, sick.
~Revolution is a ARC tour book---I'm just finishing it up today, but it was quite a whopper of a book to get through in a week, at close to 500 pages and heavy subject matter!! My review will be up in a few days. ~I've been wanting to read John Green for awhile and I found this one on the shelf so I grabbed it. ~Not sure where I heard about Damosel, but its about the Lady of the Lake from the King Arthur legends,...sounds good to me! ~Newes from the Dead takes place in the 1600s during the witch hunts and its about a girl who is hanged and then wakes up again right before they are about to dissect her!! Sounds creeeeepy! ~And last but not least, The Luxe series. What do ya'll think? Would you recommend this series? I have long been drawn to these gorgeous dresses on the covers, but I am not much into the "gossip girl" type stories, and I once heard them compared to those. What can you tell me about these? Do you think I'll enjoy them?
Also, be sure to check back in this week---I went to bed one night thinking, hey I'm getting close to 200 followers, and the next morning I woke up with 215!! So I think its time to celebrate!! So be on the lookout for my 6-month-blogoversary-slash-200-follower GIVEAWAY!!
Two great sites are now hosting blog parties on Fridays, so here we go!! I love hopping around, finding new little gems of sites that I might not have come across otherwise! Click the images to go to the hosting sites for more details:
Have a great Friday, everyone! And Happy Reading!! :)
Ok, so I didn't get to finish Hunger Games because of a slew of ARC tour books coming in. But then I saw this and decided to wait anyhow!! So excited!! And this will allow me to read the entire trilogy back to back with no torturous waiting for the next installment!! Love it!
Description from goodreads: Torn between two destinies?
Claire is having the perfect sixteenth birthday. Her pool party is a big success, and gorgeous Matthew keeps chatting and flirting with her as if she's the only girl there. But that night, she discovers something that takes away all sense of normalcy: she's a werewolf.
As Claire is initiated into the pack of female werewolves, she must deal not only with her changing identity, but also with a rogue werewolf who is putting everyone she knows in danger. Claire's new life threatens her blossoming romance with Matthew, whose father is leading the werewolf hunt. Now burdened with a dark secret and pushing the boundaries of forbidden love, Claire is struggling to feel comfortable in either skin. With her lupine loyalty at odds with her human heart, she will make a choice that will change her forever?
Review: This one really had some interesting twists on a common theme, and it made for an extraordinary, fun story. Claire is a regular teenage girl who just wants the normal things: a mother who is around more, the guy she likes to like her, to talk to her best friend about boy problems. But normal is a little difficult to come by in a town where every person in it is afraid of becoming the next werewolf attack victim. A girl can't even enjoy her sixteenth birthday party without it being evacuated because of a sighting! That normal life gets even more out of reach for Claire when she discovers she herself is turning into a werewolf.
Although for me, the plot did drag in a few parts, for most of the story, it was propelled at a nice pace by some really great plotlines. The relationship between Claire and her mother was really fascinating---I thought it was very realistic the her powerful, strong minded mother, Marie, who had so much pride in being a werewolf would expect her daughter to take to it so easily. In fact, Claire hates it, she hates lying to the people she loves and she hates the animal instincts that come with turning. I loved the twist that all werewolves were women, and they were more like covens than packs. It gave them more of a magical feel.
The love story is really sweet. I love the risks that Matthew and Claire took to be to together and to make it work. Their whole relationship is a huge risk since Matthews father is a scientist whose whole life's work is about finding werewolves and "curing" them. He is leading the town in the effort to get rid of werewolves and so Marie forbids Claire to see Matthew. Ahhh, forbidden love. I love it!
I love how this story constantly kept you guessing who the "bad guy" was. Several different characters were suspicious and had motive, and in the end it was not who I thought it would be! All in all, a really great story! I'm not if there will be a sequel or not, but I will definitely pick it up if there is! Favorite quote: She meant it as a joke, Claire could tell, but the secret shriveled and dried in Claire's mouth like an autumn leaf.
In My Mailbox is a weekly meme hosted by The Story Siren, where we all share what we got during the week!
Gorgeous, gorgeous books this week. Every single one, even the library checkouts, has such delectable covers (I do wish my library would stop putting their barcodes on the front. Wish I had that much say at my job! haha). I was going to buy Sisters Red this week, but surprise! It came in on hold at the library for me. I didn't even remember putting it on hold. I had to grab Sea because of all the amazing things I've been hearing about it. Prophecy of the Sisters and Sea Change were both out in paperback this week so I snatched them up. Honestly, when I first saw the new cover style for the Prophecy of the Sisters series, I wasn't so sure about it, but I have to tell you---it is beeeautiful in person! Now I really can't wait for Guardian at the Gate. I've already read this one but I'd checked it out from the library before, so I needed my own copy. Plus, anything to support author Michelle Zink. She proved once more why she is one of my favorite authors around with this post on her blog! I've been wanting to read Dreaming Anastasia for a long time and it just happen to come through circulation the other day, so I grabbed it. I have too many library books at home, no doubt, but what can I say..I just can't help myself. :)
OK, I have to share this with my blog readers, but I admit it for the purely selfish reason of getting extra entries into this fabulous contest!! Is that bad to say?? Haha... ah, well. This is quite literally my DREAM contest!! Most of these are books that I am just dying to get my hands on! Halo? Oh yeah. Pegasus? Yes, please!! Paranormalcy??? Aaaaaaghh, I want it!! Nightshade I already have, but would be super excited to win it so I could pass it on to someone else! Want to enter, too? Click on The Undercover Book Lover (Not Really) banner to get there!
"Waiting on Wednesday" is a weekly meme hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine. It lets us all gush about what soon-to-be released books we are jumping-up-and-down excited for.
Description from Goodreads: In her dreams he’s irresistible—seductive, charming, and undoubtedly dangerous. But when he appears to her when she’s awake—and captivates her just the same—she’s not sure which way is up and which is down.
Theia Alderson has always led a sheltered life, not allowed the same freedoms as the rest of the teenagers in the small California town of Serendipity Falls. But when a devastatingly handsome boy appears in the halls of her school, she feels every urge she’s ever denied burning through her at the slightest glance from Haden Black. Theia knows she’s seen Haden before—not around town, but in her dreams.
Theia doesn’t understand how she dreamed of Haden before they ever met, but every night has them joined in a haunting world of eerie fantasy. And as the Haden of both the night and the day beckons her forward one moment and pushes her away the next, the only thing Theia knows for sure is that the incredible pull she feels towards him is stronger than her fear. And as she slowly discovers what Haden truly is, Theia’s not sure if she wants to resist him, even if the cost is her soul.
My thought: This sounds amazing. Sort of a cross between Alice in Wonderland and the movie The Good Night. I know I'm torturing myself by pining for a book that is so far off in its release date, but I can't help it!! And that gorgeous cover?? *sign* Yup, I want it.
Check out the authors website here. Lots of cool stuff, and its just gorgeous to look it! :) And check out the trailer:
Tessa Gratton is running a cool contest at her blog! For those who haven't heard, Tessa is one of the amazing Elevensies, the 2011 Debut authors. Her book, Blood Magic sounds absolutely amazing and I can't wait to see a cover reveal for this one---it's sure to be awesome with a plot like that! She is also one of the three authors who writes short fiction on Merry Sisters of Fate, along with Brenna Yovanoff and Maggie Stiefvater.
So, while she doesn't have a copy of her debut book to share just yet, she does have one seriously awesome prize to give away: an ARC of Linger by Maggie Stiefvater!! And while this is awesome in it's own right, this completely one-of-a-kind copy is signed by Maggie in the back with the first line of Forever, the final book in the series!!! How cool is that?? Head on over to her livejournal to find out all the details on how to enter! One of the ways to enter is to posting one of the Epic Tessa cartoons, but you can also get an extra entry by drawing your own! So here is mine!! And the link to her site: http://tessagratton.com/
In My Mailbox is a weekly meme hosted by The Story Siren, where we all share what we got during the week!
Got some cool stuff this week! Pretty exciting! I had a bit of a lucky streak a few weeks ago. I was completely floored to win three contests in one week!! Wha?? Me??? I could hardly believe it! I also bought one, got a few tour books, and one for review! Not a bad week. :) On a disappointing note..I was hoping to pick up a copy of Sisters Red and Sea this week, but my local Barnes doesn't have them in stock! So, plan B, will have to order them. Cheaper that way anyhow and it's not like I don't have enough to read, right? Oh, and I got three ARC tour books this week. Yikes. So this blog may be a little on the quiet side---I'll be reading like a madwoman!
Bought: The Necromancer by Michael Scott (this one was actually for hubby, although I will read this series someday!!)
Contest Prizes: Nightshade by Andrea Cremer, along with some fantastic swag! (won from Red House Books--thank you, thank you, Emily!!)
For Review: Manifest by Artist Arthur (thank you, Lisa!) Girl, Stolen by April Henry (Around the World Tours) Ghost and the Goth by Stacey Kade (Traveling ARC Tours) Claire de Lune by Christine Johnson (YA Addict ARC Tours)
There's all my fun stuff! What did you get in your mailbox?? :)
description from goodreads: After years of frequent moves following her mother’s death, Chloe Saunders’s life is finally settling down. She is attending art school, pursuing her dreams of becoming a director, making friends, meeting boys. Her biggest concern is that she’s not developing as fast as her friends are. But when puberty does hit, it brings more than hormone surges. Chloe starts seeing ghosts–everywhere, demanding her attention. After she suffers a breakdown, her devoted aunt Lauren gets her into a highly recommended group home.
At first, Lyle House seems a pretty okay place, except for Chloe’s small problem of fearing she might be facing a lifetime of mental illness. But as she gradually gets to know the other kids at the home–charming Simon and his ominous, unsmiling brother Derek, obnoxious Tori, and Rae, who has a “thing” for fire–Chloe begins to realize that there is something that binds them all together, and it isn’t your usual “problem kid” behavior. And together they discover that Lyle House is not your usual group home either…
Warning! The following book descriptions contain some spoilers for the book that came before each one!! I have hidden the descriptions---to view them, simply highlight between the hearts!
description from goodreads: ♥If you had met me a few weeks ago, you probably would have described me as an average teenage girl—someone normal. Now my life has changed forever and I'm as far away from normal as it gets. A living science experiment—not only can I see ghosts, but I was genetically altered by a sinister organization called the Edison Group. What does that mean? For starters, I'm a teenage necromancer whose powers are out of control; I raise the dead without even trying. Trust me, that is not a power you want to have. Ever.
Now I'm running for my life with three of my supernatural friends—a charming sorcerer, a cynical werewolf, and a disgruntled witch—and we have to find someone who can help us before the Edison Group finds us first. Or die trying.♥
description from goodreads: ♥Only two weeks ago, life was all too predictable. But that was before I saw my first ghost. Now, along with my supernatural friends Tori, Derek, and Simon, I’m on the run from the Edison Group, which genetically altered us as part of their sinister experiment. We’re hiding in a safe house that might not be as safe as it seems. We’ll be gone soon anyway, back to rescue those we’d left behind and to take out the Edison Group . . . or so we hope. ♥
Review: This entire series was EXCELLENT! The Reckoning was definitely one of my most anticipated releases of this year, and it didn't disappoint---far from it!
From the very first sentence of The Summoning, this series is enticing. You meet Chloe Saunders, with her big dreams of becoming a movie director and her insecurities about things like not getting her period when all the rest of her friends have, and it bring her across as a very normal teenage girl. She is sweet, strong-minded, has a slight stutter when her confidence takes a hit...very human. I really liked her from the start. She grows immensely through the course of the series, into a person who knows her strengths and weaknesses, and learns to stand her ground when it really counts. In turn, I think she really finds out who she is and what she wants to stand for.
There were some definite creepy elements throughout this series. Within the first few pages, this one had sent a few chills up my spine! I love that in a book! Even after you find out what is happening and Chloe starts to learn more about her powers, even into the second and third books, her encounters with the dead don't seem to get any less chilling.
There's not alot of downtime in this plot! It's fast-paced; the characters roll right along in a constant and breathtaking streak of discovering secrets, running from danger, fighting for their lives, or trying to figure out who to trust, sometimes even among themselves. All while still trying to figure out their own powers. The Reckoning was my favorite of the three, so exciting and brought everything to light; it was the perfect ending to a fantastic series.
My only regret, and this is a plus for anyone who hasn't picked up this series yet, was that I didn't wait to read this series until they were all out. While each one was great it its own right, the endings of the first two books were alittle abrupt. I would almost say with the first one, that it felt like the first two books were written together and then just chopped in half at a pivotal point in the story. I would have been preferable, for me, to have waited until all three were out and just jump right into the next book. With such extreme cliffhangers, it was almost too much to bear to wait a year to find out what happened next!
I know this was suppose to be the end of this series, but the way it ended had me thinking: could there possibly be more coming to this story? While the ending was satisfying, it definitely left a little sliver of room for more of these characters' stories to come, and I would welcome another installment wholeheartedly!
Trailer for the Reckoning:
The website for this series has some fun extras on it, including a sneak peak at Kelley Armstrong's next YA series, The Gathering!! I can't wait for more info on this!!
"Waiting on Wednesday" is a weekly meme hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine. It lets us all gush about what soon-to-be released books we are jumping-up-and-down excited for. Pegasus by Robin McKinley
release date: November 2nd by Putnam Juvenile
description from Goodreads: A gorgeously-written fantasy about the friendship between a princess and her pegasus
Because of a thousand-year-old alliance between humans and pegasi, Princess Sylviianel is ceremonially bound to Ebon, her own pegasus, on her twelfth birthday. The two species coexist peacefully, despite the language barriers separating them. Humans and pegasi both rely on specially-trained Speaker magicians as the only means of real communication.
But it’s different for Sylvi and Ebon. They can understand each other. They quickly grow close—so close that their bond becomes a threat to the status quo—and possibly to the future safety of their two nations.
My thoughts: The story sounds amazing, but I would have been eagerly anticipating this one based on the gorgeous cover alone!
In My Mailbox is a weekly meme hosted by The Story Siren, where we all share what we got during the week!
I ordered some fun books this week! I was so excited about the last few weeks of book releases, especially Glimmerglass and Forgive My Fins, and I got them both this week! I also finally bought myself my own copy of Shiver, which I read and absolutely fell head over heels in love with (you can see my review here). Sunshine was actually a present to my daughter for her birthday, but decided to include it here since we were both equally excited about reading it! :) And my lone library loan this week, Rampant! I've seen this book around and it sounds so exciting, although I'm not sure I can wrap my head around killer Unicorns!! Being raised on stories like Morgan & Ewe and the movie Legend and tons and tons of other stories that portrayed them as the gentlest beings in creation! So we'll see! Either way, excited about all of these---and such a collection of drop dead gorgeous covers!!
description from author's site: Darkness falls so quickly in Howland its people have no word for evening. One minute the sky is light, the next minute it is black—an impenetrable, suffocating black, unlit by moon or stars. Then good people bar their doors, for fearsome kinderstalk leave the forest to prowl among the houses, looking for children to steal. Yet when Annie Trewitt overhears her uncle making terrible plans for her, she flees to the only place she’s sure he will not follow: the forest. Annie never expects to survive the night, but soon she finds neither the kinderstalk nor the people of Howland are what they first appear. Her journey will take her from the depths of the forest to the glittering halls of the palace—and ever closer to an evil darker and more vast than the night itself.
Review: I came across Darkwood like I do so many other books: I checked it in for someone at my library! I couldn't resist the dark eerie cover and the determined expression on the girls face, the wolves in the background, and the cats creeping around her. The story inside did not disappoint. It was an incredible adventure story much in the style of Grimm's Fairy Tales.
I loved Annie's character. She had so much courage! Her and her two cats, Isadora & Prudence, steal away into the suffocating darkness to escape her uncle and the adventure begins---and doesn't stop until the very end! The darkness is almost a character of it's own: when it fell, it falls fast and engulfed everyone in complete blindness. The storylines were amazing, changing and twisting throughout the whole book, so that even the characters goals morphed several times. Along the way, Annie finds some very important lost things and discovers alot about her true self.
So many interesting characters help the story along, good and bad. My favorites were the sisters Serena and Beatrice, who take Annie in and care for her like their own, protecting her like mama bears. They are twins but they are physical opposites, one is large and strong, the other is small and slight, but both are so sweet. I couldn't help but love them! As for the bad, there is a character that is named only as the Apothecary who is so terrifying, each of her scenes had my skin crawling!
There is so much here: mystery, adventure, terror, royal intrigue, war, and love! I definitely recommend picking this one up if you get the chance! Check your local library or grab a copy of the newly released paperback!
"Waiting on Wednesday" is a weekly meme hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine. It lets us all gush about what soon-to-be released books we are jumping-up-and-down excited for.
description from goodreads: Three sisters, three extraordinary, life-changing powers!
I hugged my sisters and they fit against my sides like two jigsaw pieces that would never fit anywhere else. I couldn’t imagine ever letting them go again, like releasing them would be to surrender the best parts of myself.
Three sisters share a magical, unshakeable bond in this witty high-concept novel from the critically acclaimed author of Audrey, Wait! Around the time of their parents’ divorce, sisters April, May, and June recover special powers from childhood—powers that come in handy navigating the hell that is high school. Powers that help them cope with the hardest year of their lives. But could they have a greater purpose?
April, the oldest and a bit of a worrier, can see the future. Middle-child May can literally disappear. And baby June reads minds—everyone’s but her own. When April gets a vision of disaster, the girls come together to save the day and reconcile their strained family. They realize that no matter what happens, powers or no powers, they’ll always have each other.
Because there’s one thing stronger than magic: sisterhood.
My thoughts: I love sisterhood stories...throw in alittle magic and I'm sold.
intended audience: Young adult recommended: 16 and up.
rating:
Description from goodreads: There’s a lot Zoey would like to forget. Like how her father has knocked up his twenty-four-year old girlfriend. Like Zoey’s fear that the whole town will find out about her mom’s nervous breakdown. Like darkly handsome bad boy Doug taunting her at school. With her life about to become a complete mess, Zoey fights back the only way she knows how, using her famous attention to detail to make sure she’s the perfect daughter, the perfect student, and the perfect girlfriend to ultra-popular football player Brandon. But then Zoey is in a car crash, and the next day there’s one thing she can’t remember at all—the entire night before. Did she go parking with Brandon, like she planned? And if so, why does it seem like Brandon is avoiding her? And why is Doug—of all people—suddenly acting as if something significant happened between the two of them? Zoey dimly remembers Doug pulling her from the wreck, but he keeps referring to what happened that night as if it was more, and it terrifies Zoey to admit how much is a blank to her. Controlled, meticulous Zoey is quickly losing her grip on the all-important details of her life—a life that seems strangely empty of Brandon, and strangely full of Doug.
Review: I had some very mixed feelings about this. It was definitely a fascinating story and held my interest all the way through...sometimes because I liked what I was reading, and sometimes to see if the characters would finally figure out the solutions to their dilemmas that seemed like they should have been obvious all along. Now that I've mulled it over for about a week, I realized I didn't hate it...I was just very frustrated with the way the characters handled themselves. Which doesn't make for a bad book, and in one way of looking at it, I guess it's good to get emotionally sucked into the character's world, even if that emotion is predominantly frustration and impatience!
Zooey is a pretty mixed up character to begin with. She has alot on her plate, with a mother becoming mentally unstable and a father who has run off with his 24-year-old pregnant girlfriend. When her mother tries to commit suicide, she is left to stay with her dad, who is more worried about her getting in the way of his shiny new life. Completely distraught, she goes to a party and ends up "hooking up" (a term I hate, by the way, but the one that was used in this situation) with her friend Brandon who she is fully aware that he sleeps with every female (or two) that he can. Up to this point, the situation was believable and understandable that she would do something rash to distract from her problems at home. Its what follows that I really had a hard time buying into. Basically after this night, Brandon tells everyone what happened between them and then completely blows her off, and so obviously turns his attentions to the next girl. After the accident, when Zoey is trying to put together the pieces of her memory that seems to be missing, she completely ignores the signs that he has no interest in being with her and clings to her relationship with him, repeating over and over throughout the whole book, "I'm with Brandon! I have to be good to Brandon!" It just took alot of suspension of reasoning to believe that this girl who is suppose to have a good head on her shoulders would behave with so little self-respect.
The love/hate relationship between Zoey and Doug was really quite fun to read! I loved his sense of humor when dealing with her. It got pretty steamy there a few times! However, a big part of their conflict took a little suspension of belief as well. Zoey doesn't remember anything about the night of the accident, and she is scared to tell anyone this because her father (who was incredibly cruel, I might add!) threatened to lock her away with her mother if she had amnesia. Again, understandable. So she goes about trying to find out what happened on the sly, while trying to make it appear to everyone that she remembers everything. But, with the things that she was asking and saying, it should have been obvious to Doug right away that she didn't remember the night at all. I kept getting so angry with Doug, thinking he was just being cruel by not telling her what happened right away. Then it was said that he really had no idea that she couldn't remember. I had a hard time believing that. A really hard time. I was also very frustrated with Zoey's friends. Shallow as they come. I mean, what kind of friends find out your whole life is falling down around you, and they actually get mad because you didn't tell them something that was never their business to begin with?
Still, even though I very literally and out loud said "well, duh!" when a major plot twist was revealed, it was a fun ride getting there that fled by in two days of reading. And like I said, there is nothing wrong with getting a little emotionally invested in a story! :) It's the beauty of books...not every books is suppose to speak volumes to you, go exactly the way you want it to, or make you feel all warm and fuzzy inside! Some stories are frustrating and I guess that's okay!
Angelfire
