Save Me by Jenny Elliott {guest review}

Save Me
by Jenny Elliott
♦publisher: Swoon Reads
♦release date: January 6, 2015
♦paperback, 309 pages
♦intended audience: Young adult
♦source: from publisher for honest review
♦review by: Amy

Something strange is going on in the tiny coastal town of Liberty, Oregon. Cara has never seen a whale swim close enough for her to touch it—let alone knock her into the freezing water. Fortunately, cute newcomer David is there to save her, and the rescue leads to a bond deeper than Cara ever imagined.

But then she learns something about David that changes everything, and Cara is devastated. She turns to her best friend for support, but Rachel has changed. She’s suddenly into witchcraft, and is becoming dangerously obsessed with her new boyfriend….

Cara has lost her best friend, discovered that her soul mate is off limits, and has attracted the attention of a stalker. But she’s not completely alone. Her mysterious, gorgeous new friend Garren is there to support her. But is Garren possibly too perfect?

Review: Fall in love with the beauty of the sea, forbidden love, and paranormal mystery. Cara’s life is surrounded by that of which she loves the most, the gray whales, off the Oregon coast. For Cara, on one fateful day, her life takes a drastic turn, when separate accidents bestow two guys into her life.

Cara usually spends her days whale watching and working for Liberty Charters, but the day David arrives for a tour, her life is never the same again. Cara can’t believe her luck, having a cute guy on board, and even more amazing, she is finally able to touch a gray whale when it swims port side. Then, before she knows, Cara is overboard swimming for her life. By chance, David is there to save her, instantly forming a connection between the two of them, as if they are meant to be.  With her thoughts spinning over the day, Cara never expected to back out of the parking lot and hit a stranger named Garren, throwing yet, another beautiful guy into her life.

Cara never expected, to see both the guys, on the first day of school, spiraling her world out of control. Now, brimming with the choice between two affections, one guy, both mysterious and beautiful; and the other, gorgeous and even providential, yet completely off limits.
Needing her best friend now more than ever before, Cara turns to Rachel for help, only to discover she has developed an overnight infatuation with another boy. With nowhere else to turn, Cara opens her heart and her friendship to Garren, who always seems to be there at the right time, with all the right answers.

Quickly, Cara’s world turns for the worse, as Rachel becomes withdrawn from their friendship. Solace can’t be found anywhere and all Cara can think about is having David’s arms around her. However, discovering the truth behind the turn of events threatens Cara’s life, throwing her life into a deadly mix of witchcraft, curses, forbidden love, and danger. Garren might be the only one who can save her, but is it their love that is meant to be, or the love she that felt with David?

With a paranormal twist on fate and love, Jenny Elliott captures the heart ache of a love that is found too soon, along with the dangers of dabbling in curses and witchcraft. Save Me, takes readers into a fast paced, thrilling ride on land, as well as on the water.

While the book captivated me at first, the quick turn to demonic entities, possession and witchcraft, took the story on many twists and turns, ultimately leaving me wishing for Cara to be able to stand for herself. Jealousy and revenge, find a way to rear their ugly head, as the theme quickly changes to sabotage and possession, taking the faced paced storyline, down a dark and slippery slope.

Find Jenny Elliott online:   Twitter  •  Facebook

Puchase Save Me: Indiebound  •  BookDepository  •  Amazon

Falling Into Place by Amy Zhang {guest review}

Falling Into Place
by Amy Zhang
♦publisher: Greenwillow Books
♦release date:September 9, 2014
♦hardcover, 304 pages
♦intended audience: Young adult
♦stand-alone
♦source: from publisher for honest review
♦reviewer: Amy

On the day Liz Emerson tries to die, they had reviewed Newton’s laws of motion in physics class. Then, after school, she put them into practice by running her Mercedes off the road.

Why? Why did Liz Emerson decide that the world would be better off without her? Why did she give up? Vividly told by an unexpected and surprising narrator, this heartbreaking and nonlinear novel pieces together the short and devastating life of Meridian High’s most popular junior girl. Mass, acceleration, momentum, force—Liz didn’t understand it in physics, and even as her Mercedes hurtles toward the tree, she doesn’t understand it now. How do we impact one another? How do our actions reverberate? What does it mean to be a friend? To love someone? To be a daughter? Or a mother? Is life truly more than cause and effect? Amy Zhang’s haunting and universal story will appeal to fans of Lauren Oliver, Gayle Forman, and Jay Asher.

Review: When Liz Emerson crashed her car into a tree, she thought that would be the end. The end of having to look at herself in the mirror, seeing all the damage that she has caused in her life, as well as the lives of those around her. What she didn’t expect, was to live, if you call dangling on the edge living.  As Liz fights for her life, follow the days, hours, minutes and even years, before she crashes her Mercedes. Recounting her life in every last detail …3 years before Liz crashes her car… 8 hours before Liz crashes her car… 17 minutes before … Snapshots of her life’s memories, as well as the events that impacted Liz’s life and those who surround her.

Visions of Liz Emerson’s life: popular, pretty, the homecoming queen, she is everything everyone wants to be. Yet, popularity comes at a cost, a cost Liz is unsure if she is willing to pay. A mean girl to the core and almost naturally cruel, Liz knows that she was responsible for starting the cracks in everyone’s lives, lives that are all now in ruins. If only her classmates knew the real Liz, a girl, tormented with secrets, trying to discover the real place in which she gains her determination to live.

Written in a universal language of love, loss, fear and most of all hope, “Falling into Place,” calls out to be read and understood, highlighting the cause and effect that we have on one another.

Narrated in a unique and surprising voice, I am in awe with the beauty in which Amy Zhang writes. Her honest portrayal of high school and the pitfalls of popularity, exposes the face behind the mask, as well as a side that is rarely seen. Within the chapters of her book, she opens readers to a world of loneliness and loss, with both intensity and realism. Poetic and heartfelt, Amy writes in a fresh new voice that captivates readers, pulling you into a tale that is as fast paced as it is addicting. Forcing readers to explore the world inside Liz Emerson, it leaves your mind to trying to discover why she really crashed her car.

Find Amy Zhang online:  Website  •  Twitter  •  Facebook

Purchase Falling Into Place: BN.com  •  BookDepository  •  Indiebound

Amy's View: The Beautiful and the Damned by Jessica Verday

The Beautiful and the Damned by Jessica Verday
♦publisher: Simon & Schuster
♦release date: October 1st, 2013
♦hardcover, 272 pages
♦intended audience: Young adult
♦companion to The Hollow series
♦source: from publisher for honest review

Cyn’s blackouts have deadly consequences in this sexy, suspenseful spinoff to the New York Times bestselling Hollow series.Cyn and Avian are far from a perfect match. She’s a witch who casts spells on men so she can steal their cars. He spends his time being judge, jury, and executioner to the truly evil in the supernatural realm.

When the blackouts Cyn’s been having ever since her time in Sleepy Hollow start escalating, she finds herself unable to remember where she’s been or what she’s been doing. Frightened, she seeks guidance at a local church, and it’s there she meets Avian.

The unlikely pair soon discovers that her blackouts are a side effect of what she truly is—an Echo—a conduit for souls of the dead. The only way to prevent Cyn from losing complete control is to return to Sleepy Hollow and vanquish the source of her power—but she may not survive the process. And if she does? She won’t ever be the same...

Review:  Cyn is constantly on the run, between her nighttime job as a waitress, her numerous wigs that she uses for disguises, to the tiny sparse room that she rents, life can’t get any worse. Torn between the visions and scant memories of the night her boyfriend Hunter was murdered, Cyn can’t let her guard down for even a moment, lost in the fact that she doesn’t have full memories of the night her boyfriend was killed. Is she responsible for killing Hunter, or can someone else be blamed for his murder? All Cyn knows is that she woke that night, covered in his blood and that she’s in constant danger of being discovered by Hunter’s brother who is trying to solve the case.

Living in constant fear, doesn’t leave Cyn open to trusting anyone. However, she soon finds herself in a situation where help is desperately needed, forcing her to fall right in the path of the scorned, evasive, and often abrasive, Avian. Not wanting, or looking for his help, she finds that he shows up at the most unexpected of times, fortunately for her, it’s the times when trouble seems to find her. Through the unlikeliest of events, and the kindness of Father Montgomery, they soon realize that the secrets that threaten them both just might be the key to unlocking the truth in each other’s lives.

It compells them to try and regretfully work through their differences.
With the many secrets they both hold, Avian knows the truth behind Cyn's memory lapses and why she feels convinced that she is Hunter’s killer.

Being the thirteenth Revenant, Avian has been cast out of both Heaven and Hell, and is doomed to walk the earth searching for his purpose. Making him able to recognize the evil that resides in others, like Cyn an Echo, who is partly possessed by the souls of the dead, leaving her to see reflections of others when she looks in the mirror. What’s even harder than knowing, is Avian deciding if he should tell Cyn the truth about who she is.

With a relationship that can only be described as one filled with tension and angst, these two must find a way to conquer the demons within, or let those very demons kill them in the process.

With gentle resonation of the Hollow Series, Cyn and Avian’s story is a fresh new take on revenants , demons and the evils that can take over one’s life.
Jessica Verday quickly captivates her reading audience, as she so delicately weaves a tale of love, heartache, belonging, and finding help in the most unlikely of cases. Only reminding fans of her endearing quality as a writer.

Find Jessica Verday online: Website  

Purchase The Beautiful and the Damned: Amazon  •  BookDepository  •  Indiebound

Amy's View: Formerly Shark Girl by Kelly Bingham

Formerly Shark Girl by Kelly Bingham
♦publisher:  Candlewick Press
♦release date: May 14, 2013
♦hardcover, 304 pages
♦intended audience: Young adult
♦source: from publisher for honest review

It’s been a year since the shark attack that took Jane’s arm, and with it, everything she used to take for granted. Her dream of becoming an artist is in the line, and everything now seems out of reach, including her gorgeous, kind tutor, Max Shannon. While perfectly nice guy from her science class is clearly interested in Jane- removing her hear that no on ever would want a one–armed girl. Jane can’t stop thinking about Max. But is he interested romantic? Or does her just feel sorry for her? Formerly Shark Girl picks up where Kelly Bingham’s artful, honest debut left off.

Review: Gripping and poetic in its realism and honesty, Formerly Shark Girl grabs onto you and doesn’t let go.

It’s been little over a year since Jane lost her arm in a shark attack. Refusing to been seen as “shark girl”, Jane battles to be seen to as just Jane, proving that what couldn’t be taken from her is the tenacity and vivacious way she has taken on life since the attack. Determined to find a way to give back, Jane turns her focus on finding a way to make her life count by taking on the inner battle between her old love of art and her new desire of nursing, hoping that through her choice she will be able to give her life purpose.

Letters and offers continue to pour in asking Jane to share her story, promising that through her spared life, she does have purpose.  This leaves Jane to replace her arm with a new weight, filled of expectations and the need to find meaning to her second chance on life.

While learning to paint with her left hand, Jane struggles to rediscover her passion for art, while trying to pass science and wondering if she will ever receive her first kiss, only adding to the normal pressures of any 17 year old high school girl. Will painting murals and art for the competition or volunteering at the hospital help her choose between going to Art College or Nursing School? All the while, the form of giving back can only be discovered by Jane herself.

Formerly Shark Girl, is a deeply poetic read that takes you throughout the struggle of a teenage girl caught between two worlds- one strained of obligation, verses one that is filled with passion. Struggle, determination, and the strength of one girl who defies the obstacles set against her to forge her own path. The story resonates that by losing part of her arm she didn’t lose part of who she is. It's a story teaching the valuable lesson that in life there are, “no promises, just lots of hope.”

Kelly Bingham brilliantly captures the essence of  Jane , in a way that makes you believe that she herself could be “ shark girl”. Even with its short verse prose, there is still a depth and intensity that gives strength to Jane’s story, allowing for her character to shine. However, with the short verse style, in which this book was written, I yearn for the extra details and storyline that comes from a traditionally written book. 

Find Kelly Bingham online: Website  •  Twitter  •  Facebook

Purchase Formerly Shark Girl:  Amazon  •  BookDepository  •  Indiebound

Amy's Series View: Twice Shy and Special Dead by Patrick Freivald

Twice Shy by Patrick Freivald
♦publisher:  JournalStone
♦release date: October 26, 2012
♦paperback, 231pages
♦intended audience: Young Adult
♦source: from publisher for honest review 

High School Sucks...... It's worse when you're dead.............

Ohneka Falls is a small, Western New York town where everyone knows everyone and nothing of note happens. Ani Romero is a sixteen-year-old girl who wants to play sports, hang out, and kiss Mike, her middle-school crush. A childhood carrier of the zombie virus, she died at fourteen but didn't become a mindless, brain-eating monster. Her controlling mother forces her to join the emo crowd to hide her condition behind a wall of black clothes and makeup, and her friends abandon her. When creeper Dylan learns her secret, he falls into obsession, with Ani and with death. She bites him in self-defense. Persecuted by the jocks and ignored by Mike, Ani struggles through the motions of life hoping her mother's research unveils a cure, or Dylan dooms them all to a hungry, walking death. As her emo facade crumbles in the face of jealousy and obsession, Ani knows that the worst thing she can do is be true to herself.

 
Review: A contemporary, gothic horror that leaves zombies fans cheering for more.

Ani just wants to be a normal teenager, but hiding deep down is a secret she can only share with her mother. Which in turn, results in way too many rules: be part of the emo crowd, stay covered, only limited sunlight, take formaldehyde baths, get good grades, no secrets, and never ever tell anyone that you are a zombie. All of which is easy, if you’re ok being called a freak. Not to add, the one boy you have ever liked can’t stand looking at your new emo style and his girlfriend is determined to make your life miserable. Life would be simpler, if only she could keep the thought of brains off her mind. The serum her mother, (Doctor and scientist) creates helps a bit, and even keeps the decaying process down but it still isn’t a cure. Leaving Ani with the illusion of a normal teenage life with her piano, job , and finding simple ways to distract her from eating brains.

However, Ani’s life starts to change when Dylan, local creep and obsessive emo boy, turns his obsession onto her and discovers the truth. Turning Ani’s life into chaos, threatening the very life she has grown to tolerate.

With love and hate and hate again, Ani’s heart is constantly tugged between her junior high crush Mike and his toying affections, while his girlfriend Devon goes to any length to make sure Ani knows who’s boss. Causing a cat and mouse chase with her heart that doesn’t even beat. All leading up to one explosive ending, that leaves the door open to its sequel.

Patrick Freivald captures the essence of a teenager. With great dialogue, true problems and the angst of complicated love. Addressing real social issues such as: cutting, drinking, and acceptance at any cost. I was pleasantly delighted by the unusual and creative spin on capturing the zombie essence. Adding a little teenage undead drama, with all the gory details one would expect there to be in a good zombie classic.

Special Dead by Patrick Freivald
♦publisher:  JournalStone 
♦release date: July 12th, 2013
♦paperback, 260 pages
♦intended audience: Young Adult
♦source: from publisher for honest review 

Shackled to her desk, Ani Romero has a hard time concentrating on her studies. One of eight zombie survivors of the Prompocalypse, she's back at school, but this time it's no secret. Locked in their room, flamethrower-toting soldiers watching their every move, they're tasked with homework and classes during the week, and macabre experiments on the weekend.

When the courts rule they're not human, only an appeal keeps them alive long enough to discover a cure. College applications and SATs pale under the threat of incineration, and desperation turns them into lab rats... ...but the scientists helping them have ulterior motives, and the promised cure destroys more than the virus.

Surviving high school has never been so hard.

Review: Follow Ani through the zombie filled continuation of Twice Shy, where life as a zombie is not what it is cracked up to be.

 With the event of prom fourteen months earlier, and Ani’s small slip up, her secret is partially out, and the zombie virus has been discovered. Leaving Ani and 7 of her classmates infected and known world-wide as the zombie survivors of, Prompocalypse.

Now acting like a new undead person, Ani must suffer with her classmates the horror of returning back to high school. If you call being chained to your desk, wearing helmets and metal bite guards, while surrounded by guards with flame throwers, a normal high school day. Luckily she has Mike, her partly brain eaten boyfriend, there with her. Although, Devon his ex girlfriend just happens to be there as well.  Life could only get worse if they were all dead- wait they already are.

With a storyline that stretches through their days at school, medical testing, zombie virus injections you follow the trial and tribulations of not only being a teenager but being a zombie teenager.

With a realistic approach to how society might actually react to a zombie virus outbreak. This book highlights social disorder and raises the question of, “What do you do with the living undead?” Are they people with rights or subjects only to be kept around for medical experiments?

Special Dead highlights the fall of social structure at the dawn of a deadly virus and the challenges faced by those who are left to cope with the disease. Although teenagers themselves, they are faced with choices of which all  have deadly consequences, as well as being emotionally charged. If you are a fan of zombies, sci- fi, or gory medical research this book taps into it all.

Find Patrick Freivald online: Twitter  •  Goodreads

Purchase Twice Shy and Special Dead:  Amazon  •  BookDepository  • Indiebound

Amy's View: Doll Bones by Holly Black

Doll Bones by Holly Black
♦publisher: Margaret K. McElderry
♦release date: May 7th, 2013
♦hardcover, 244 pages
♦intended audience: Middle grade
♦source: ALA

Zach, Poppy and Alice have been friends for ever. They love playing with their action figure toys, imagining a magical world of adventure and heroism. But disaster strikes when, without warning, Zach’s father throws out all his toys, declaring he’s too old for them. Zach is furious, confused and embarrassed, deciding that the only way to cope is to stop playing . . . and stop being friends with Poppy and Alice. But one night the girls pay Zach a visit, and tell him about a series of mysterious occurrences. Poppy swears that she is now being haunted by a china doll – who claims that it is made from the ground-up bones of a murdered girl. They must return the doll to where the girl lived, and bury it. Otherwise the three children will be cursed for eternity . . .

Review:  A doll, a murder and a mystery to be solved.  When Captain William the Blade, of the Neptune Pearl and Lady Jayne, a thief who began her travels with the captain after a misfortunate pick pocketing incident, set out on an epic adventure, they had no idea it would be their last. 

With dolls purchased at goodwill, blacktop that represents the sea, a boat shaped piece of paper and an incredible imagination, Zach, Poppy and Alice make a story come to life. Each child creating a character of their own to take their place on the Neptune Pearl, full of thieves, pirates and even a mermaids curse. The Neptune Pearl is perfectly hidden in a world that only they know about. The game is hidden from friends at school and even their parents, they all secretly know that they are too old to play with dolls. Unable to give up the allure of the game and despite their reservations, the game continues, quickly turning into an epic journey that spills into their real lives.

When Zach, Poppy and Alice decide to bring the "Queen" doll into their game, their make believe adventure suddenly becomes real. The children know to never touch the priceless old porcelain doll in the china cabinet but they never knew why. The Queen represented an ancient honor and time that has gone by.  Wasting away in a china cabinet, the doll beckoned to be played with. So when a tragic and a seemingly ordinary event happened, the Queen doll and her ghostly tale soon unfolds before the children. Once they remove her from her cabinet something sinister starts to happen.  The children need to quickly figure out if the doll is just a doll, or if it contains the ghost of a murdered girl.

One thing is clear, the Queen doll has a motive and that is to lay her to rest. As they set out on the journey to fulfill her request an epic adventure ensues. Although soon enough, Zach, Poppy and Alice realize adventuring wasn’t what they thought it would be.  In story books, real adventurers didn’t need supplies, a chartered path, or a plan.  Instead, the children quickly find themselves cold and exposed to the elements, with adults chasing them at every stop and quickly running out of money on a stolen boat sailing for their lives.  But the Queen doll won’t let them stop until they have done what she wants them to do.

Holly Black, author of The Spiderwick Chronicles once again captures her reader’s hearts in a classic ghost story for readers of all ages. A great way to introduce  young readers to a ghost story.

Find Holly Black online:  Website  •  Twitter  •  Facebook

Purchase Doll Bones:  Amazon  •  BookDepository  •  Indiebound

Amy's View: If I Should Die by Amy Plum

If I Should Die by Amy Plum
♦publisher: HarperTeen
♦release date: May 7th, 2013
♦hardcover, 405 pages
♦intended audience: Young adult
♦series: Revenants, book 3
  reviews of Die for Me & Until I Die
♦source: ALA

I will not lose another person I love. I will not let history repeat itself.

Vincent waited lifetimes to find me, but in an instant our future together was shattered. He was betrayed by someone we both called a friend, and I lost him. Now our enemy is determined to rule over France’s immortals, and willing to wage a war to get what they want.

It shouldn’t be possible, none of it should be, but this is my reality. I know Vincent is somewhere out there, I know he’s not completely gone, and I will do anything to save him.

After what we’ve already fought to achieve, a life without Vincent is unimaginable. He once swore to avoid dying—to go against his nature and forsake sacrificing himself for others—so that we could be together. How can I not risk everything to bring my love back to me?

Review:  Amy Plum doesn’t disappoint in this heart stopping conclusion of the Revenants series. 

I love how this book picks up exactly where the last book left off. No lapse in time, no momentary pause, just the space of a heart beat and a breath. After Until I Die, Kate is left with the pieces of a shattered heart, holding on to every ounce of hope one can have, basing her life on the whispering of two words she believes she heard,“ mon- ange.”Not only Vincent’s secret name for Kate but the sign that means all is not destroyed. Resulting in more questions than there are answers. 

This series endures on with the ultimate battle of good and evil, in revenant proportions. A story of sacrifice and strength, including fortitude of character, along with what one person is willing to sacrifice to bring back their one true love.

In this epic conclusion, the time has come for the numa and the barida to battle it out in legendary proportions. While a new light shines bright like a beacon, the destiny of Kate and Vincent is finally revealed. With echoes of love and loss resonating throughout, their heart’s desires leads to a path of healing and bloodshed. Friends will live and friends will die, some will even betray their own, as all gets revealed. New definition of heroes and villains are defined.

Amy Plum paints an alluring and realistic description of a picturesque Paris, making the streets come alive. The story takes you on a historical tour of French art history and language as well as keeping it all beautifully tied into the storyline.

The heart stopping conclusion doesn’t disappoint and even left me with a tear as I closed the book to a series I adored. It is hard to say farewell.

Find Amy Plum online: Website  •  Twitter  •  Facebook

Purchase If I Should Die:  Amazon  •  BookDepository  •  Indiebound

Amy's View: The Phoenix Girls: The Conjuring Glass by Brian Knight

The Conjuring Glass (Phoenix Girls #1)
by Brian Knight
♦publisher: Journalstone
♦release date: March 8th, 2013
♦paperback, 204 pages
♦intended audience: Middle Grade/Young adult
♦source: from publisher for honest review

When thirteen-year-old orphan Penny Sinclair moves to the small town of Dogwood to live with her godmother, she expects her life to become very dull. She doesn't expect to find a strange talking fox roaming the countryside near her new home, a kindred spirit in her new friend Zoe, or the secret grove where they discover the long hidden magic of The Phoenix Girls.

Learning to use magic isn't easy, though; Penny and Zoe get their magic wrong almost as often as they get it right. When something sinister threatens Dogwood, their often accidental magic may be the only thing that can stop it.

Review: A magical journey of friendship and belonging. The Conjuring Glass embodies a unique strength of character with an exemplary sense of discovery.

For Penny Sinclair, things don’t seem like they can get any worse. After her mother’s untimely death, she is forced to move into the new town of Dogwood where being heckled by the local kids and trying to make friends is the new normal. Life seems like it is in a downward spiral, with no hope in site. Penny however has no idea about the drastic changes that are about to happen. It all begins with a chance encounter with a fox name Ronan, who might just possess the change she is looking for. He he leads her down a path of hope, opening the door to world of magic, the magic of the Phoenix Girls.

Armed with a new friend and the mysterious talking fox, Penny and Zoe set off on a quest that leads to a secluded grove that houses a secret all of its own. Nestled inside the grove, remains a wooden chest with a carving of a half bird, half flame adorning the top, leaving with it not only a mystery of whose it was but what it contains. In spite of the lure behind the mystery, opening the box might be more than the girls can handle. By unleashing the magic and the secrets of the phoenix girls, Penny and Zoe might be unyielding a dangerous power all of its own. It casts them into the middle of a sinister plot entwined with a mysterious carnival run by a malevolent magician, and children that suddenly turn up missing. Penny finds herself torn between solving the mystery and finding answers about her past, causing her decisions to be tainted, thrusting her and Zoe into a dangerous situation where magic might be the only means that can save their lives.

The Conjuring Glass is a charming read laced with easily identifiable characters, talking foxes, a wicked carnival, an evil magician, kidnapping and magic. It pulls you in from the very first chapter with an intrigue that propels you to quickly read through the book, searching for answers. It’s a compelling short book, where you quickly become immersed in the storyline. Being the first of this series, The Conjuring Glass is filled with secrets and mysteries of The Phoenix Girls that is yet to be fully discovered or solved, leaving you anxiously anticipating the next book.

Phoenix Girls: The Conjuring Glass was excellently written and perfect for young adults as well as middle readers. Pure in essence and purpose, Brian Knight gently gives a voice to Penny though her realistic raw emotions emoted through her internal dialogue as well as through the strength of her character. Giving her a sense of belonging and confidence letting Penny discover that being confident in yourself is the strongest magic you can wield.

Find Brian Knight online: Website  •  Facebook

Purchase The Conjuring Glass:  Amazon  •  BookDepository 

Amy's View: The Nightmare Affair by Mindee Arnett

The Nightmare Affair by Mindee Arnett
♦publisher: Tor Teen
♦release date: March 5th, 2013
♦hardcover, 367 pages
♦intended audience: Young adult
♦series: The Arkwell Academy, book #1
♦source: from publisher for honest review

Sixteen-year-old Dusty Everhart breaks into houses late at night, but not because she’s a criminal. No, she’s a Nightmare.

Literally.

Being the only Nightmare at Arkwell Academy, a boarding school for magickind, and living in the shadow of her mother’s infamy, is hard enough. But when Dusty sneaks into Eli Booker’s house, things get a whole lot more complicated. He’s hot, which means sitting on his chest and invading his dreams couldn’t get much more embarrassing. But it does. Eli is dreaming of a murder.

Then Eli’s dream comes true.

Now Dusty has to follow the clues—both within Eli’s dreams and out of them—to stop the killer before more people turn up dead. And before the killer learns what she’s up to and marks her as the next target.

Review: A sweet whimsical ride of nightmare proportions. This book is a light hearted read that spins you on a magical chase.

Dusty is a nightmare. Literally! Born of half human and half nightmare, Dusty lives the life as an outcast. Not completely human and able to live among humans and not all demon, which isn’t the hierarchy of magic kind anyways. Dusty remains trapped in the in between of not quite fitting in.

Being new to the magical world and unaccepted by her peers, life at Arkwell Academy boarding school for magic kind, is worse than any nightmare. If not having a place to fit in at a boarding school is bad enough, dream feeding on humans is enough to completely mortify her.  Breaking and entering, wearing all black and sitting on a boy’s chest’s to invade his dreams, is killing her chance to ever fit in. Not to mention her lack of learning spells, causing mere accidents of singing hair and turning the most popular girl into a snake. 

Being a nightmare is all drawbacks. From needing to feed on dreams to survive to living in the shadows of her mother, the most notorious evil nightmare alive. Just when she thinks she might be figuring out how to be a nightmare everything goes terribly wrong. All Dusty had to do was climb in the window of handsome and totally sexy human boy, sit on his chest and invade his dreams. When that boy turns out to be Eli, a boy she knows, Dusty’s life takes a drastic turn for the worse. When he wakes up to find her sitting on his chest in the middle of the night, all she wants to do is die from embarrassment.  That however isn’t the most disturbing part. Eli was dreaming of a murder at Arkwell Academy, a place no human knows about.  Spinning Dusty’s world into a tailspin, as she is forced to team up with Eli as a dream-seer pair and use her dream invading skills to solve the murder.  

This books dabbles in all types of magical beings giving them new meaning and life, from fairies to sirens, to hags and demons. All set up in their own classes and social structures. While the story was fun and easy it was also heavy laden with many characters, leaving the plot to drag on at times.

If you loved the Harry Potters series this story weaves a tale that is similar to its likeness. A great stepping stone into the world of young adult books, appropriate for younger readers while being entertaining for older readers alike.

Find Mindee Arnett online: Website  •  Twitter  •  Facebook

Purchase The Nightmare Affair:  Amazon  •  BN.com  •  Book Depository  •  Indiebound

Amy's View: Alice in Zombieland by Gena Showalter

Alice in Zombieland by Gena Showalter
♦publisher: Harlequin Teen
♦release date: September 25th, 2012
♦hardcover, 404 pages
♦intended audience: Young adult
♦series: White Rabbit Chonicles, book 1
♦source: purchased

She won’t rest until she’s sent every walking corpse back to its grave. Forever.

Had anyone told Alice Bell that her entire life would change course between one heartbeat and the next, she would have laughed. From blissful to tragic, innocent to ruined? Please. But that’s all it took. One heartbeat. A blink, a breath, a second, and everything she knew and loved was gone.

Her father was right. The monsters are real….

To avenge her family, Ali must learn to fight the undead. To survive, she must learn to trust the baddest of the bad boys, Cole Holland. But Cole has secrets of his own, and if Ali isn’t careful, those secrets might just prove to be more dangerous than the zombies….


I wish I could go back and do a thousand things differently.
I'd tell my sister no.
I'd never beg my mother to talk to my dad.
I'd zip my lips and swallow those hateful words.
Or, barring all of that, I'd hug my sister, my mom and my dad one last time.
I'd tell them I love them.
I wish... Yeah, I wish.

Review: Out of Wonderland’s chrysalis and into the abyss of Zombieland- A girl named Alice, an ominous rabbit-shaped cloud, and a world that suddenly feels like she fell down the zombie hole. Alice soon realizes she is “living a nightmare of zombie proportions.”  With mere scattered references to the original story of Alice in Wonderland, this book takes off in a new world all of its own. With a creative and different flair Gena Showalter spins you into a new tale of Wonderland, introducing readers to a fresh new perspective of zombies differing from that of the normal stereotype.  

From the amazing cover to the quirky patterned paper on the inside jacket, this book is perfect in every way.  Alice in Wonderland meets zombies is the perfect blending of storybook meets horror, alluring readers with a delightful and often surprising storyline. 

Automatically I went to the cliché, expecting a girl named Alice to stumble upon a rabbit hole and fall into a Wonderland full of zombies, and boy was I wrong. This story takes place in a normal, average city where the horrors of zombies are real but not seen.  Monsters that feed on the goodness of your soul verses that of brains.  Driven by a fear that was bred into her, Ali grew up being taught from her father about the horrors that lie in wait for her outside after dark. She grew up eating dinner before the sun set and never ever going out at night. The days were spent learning how to fight monsters that weren’t even there and missing the normal life that any teenage girl would want. All Ali wants is for one chance to go outside past dark with her family. Little did she know that that one choice would change her life forever!

In the blink of an eye Ali learns monsters are real, and that they can take everything that you have ever loved away from you. Leaving Ali with a new life, a new school, and a new best friend she soon discovers the life that she was meant to live. Immediately, Ali locks eyes with the most mysterious, brooding boy Cole, and at first glance her life changes again. Underhanded, sneaky, and manipulative Cole is the leader of the most secretive group of kids there ever was. But all Ali’s brain can focus on is how gorgeous, memorizing, and alluring he is, resulting in not only a fiery relationship but one with catastrophic proportions.  Through Alice’s perseverance, she discovers with Cole that the monsters her dad warned her about do exist, and that there is a way to fight them. 

Ali soon learns there is a fine balance between hunting the zombies that took her family and protecting those that she loves.  With life constantly hanging in the balance and death by zombies becoming the new acceptance in Ali’s life, it all brings new meaning to “off with their heads.”

A charming read, as well as a “Freakishly Mad Tea Party” for all to enjoy.  A wonderful book with continual twists and a strong plot that was obviously written as a building block for a much anticipated series. Only through the next book will we see the path that is meant to be taken and how that path looks Through the Zombie Glass.

 

Find Gena Showalter online:  Website  •  Twitter  •  Facebook

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Amy's View: 17 & Gone by Nova Sum Rena

17 & Gone by Nova Ren Suma
♦publisher: Penguin Dutton
♦release date: March 21, 2013
♦hardcover, 354 pages
♦intended audience: Young adult
♦stand-alone
♦source: from publisher for honest review

Seventeen-year-old Lauren is having visions of girls who have gone missing. And all these girls have just one thing in common—they are 17 and gone without a trace. As Lauren struggles to shake these waking nightmares, impossible questions demand urgent answers: Why are the girls speaking to Lauren? How can she help them? And… is she next? As Lauren searches for clues, everything begins to unravel, and when a brush with death lands her in the hospital, a shocking truth emerges, changing everything.

With complexity and richness, Nova Ren Suma serves up a beautiful, visual, fresh interpretation of what it means to be lost.

Review: I eagerly anticipated this book and even contacted Penguin Publishing for an early copy. The moment it arrived I dove right in, however by page 156 I found myself stuck. Not knowing which way I should go, to simply set it down or keep reading.

The story line was one that intrigued me, a promising thriller with a 17 year old girl who is having visions of girls who are missing. I found myself hoping for mystery to follow the ghostly images or trails of kidnapping and murder and all I got was chapter after chapter of each girl’s story of how they disappeared.  Long, drawn out and elaborate in their storyline. Not at all relating to one another but all plaguing Lauren’s daily life to the point of utter destruction. Weaving you through the mental strains of following Lauren as she tries to help the lost girls and figure out why they disappeared.

Not the ghost story I had hoped for but the inter-workings of girl who is, “lost”. Truly complex and believable, leaving you sympathetic of the delusions a mind can create. Now that I have reached the last chapter I have a new respect for how the book was laid out. Although I do wish it was done in reverse. Having the knowledge of the tragic way the mind can work gives you the understanding and sympathy you need to truly follow Lauren’s Story. Complex and often too wordy, 17 and Gone was an interesting but long read that could possibly have been published as an adult book.

Find Nova Ren Suma online: Website  •  Twitter  •  Facebook

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Amy's View: Broken by A.E. Rought

Broken by A.E. Rought
♦publisher: Strange Chemistry
♦release date: January 3rd, 2013
♦paperback, 320 pages
♦intended audience: Young adult
♦source: from publisher for honest review

A string of suspicious deaths near a small Michigan town ends with a fall that claims the life of Emma Gentry’s boyfriend, Daniel. Emma is broken, a hollow shell mechanically moving through her days. She and Daniel had been made for each other, complete only when they were together. Now she restlessly wanders the town in the late Fall gloom, haunting the cemetary and its white-marbled tombs, feeling Daniel everywhere, his spectre in the moonlight and the fog.

When she encounters newcomer Alex Franks, only son of a renowned widowed surgeon, she’s intrigued despite herself. He’s an enigma, melting into shadows, preferring to keep to himself. But he is as drawn to her as she is to him. He is strangely…familiar. From the way he knows how to open her locker when it sticks, to the nickname she shared only with Daniel, even his hazel eyes with brown flecks are just like Daniel’s. The closer they become, though, the more something inside her screams there’s something very wrong with Alex Franks.

And when Emma stumbles across a grotesque and terrifying menagerie of mangled but living animals within the walls of the Franks’ estate, creatures she surely knows must have died from their injuries, she knows.

Review:  Horrifically wonderful. Broken is a haunting Frankenstein-like story that will intrigue you from the very start. A twisted tale of love, broken hearts, and shattered lives.

Emma Gentry is a broken-hearted, emotionally absent girl trying to get through life after the devastating death of her boyfriend, Daniel. Not sure how she will finish her high school days, Emma finds herself starting each day with a breve of coffee (us Americans call it a latte) from the walk up window of the  Mugz in Chugz as she reluctantly scuffs off to school. But when Emma arrives at school one crisp chilly morning everything is about change. There is a devastatingly new student, Alex Franks, who feels just a little bit too familiar. From the moment their eyes lock and Alex unlocks Emma’s locker, her life takes on a dramatic and alarming new change.

Even though Emma feels that she is slowly falling apart, Alex still finds a way in to her everyday life, almost, in a way, haunting her days. The only problem is the more she finds herself around Alex the more she finds herself starting to live but also finds herself even more reminded of Daniel---from Alex’s eyes that looks just like Daniels with their little brown flecks in them to the way he can open her jammed locker and the way he calls her by Daniels secret nickname. As time goes on, Emma finds herself strangely attracted to him but also in fear of him. There is too much wrong with Alex Franks to overlook, and the similarities between him and Daniel are all too alarming. And Emma can’t help but constantly wonder how can Alex remind her so much of her dead boyfriend Daniel?

Delightfully from the first paragraph  this story builds into mystery with horrific consequences. Broken takes so many twists and turns I found myself not wanting to put iy down for fear of it losing momentum.  I was truly a captive of Broken's wicked tale. A must read for all you horror fans!

Find A.E Rought online: Website  

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Amy's View: Amber House

Amber House by Kelly Moore, Tucker Reed, and Larkin Reed
♦publisher: Arthur A. Levine Books
♦release date: October 1st, 2012
♦hardcover, 368 pages
♦intended audience: Young adult
♦source: ALA

"I was sixteen the first time my grandmother died . . ."

Sarah Parsons has never seen Amber House, the grand Maryland estate that's been in her family for three centuries. She's never walked its hedge maze nor found its secret chambers; she's never glimpsed the shades that haunt it, nor hunted for lost diamonds in its walls.

But all of that is about to change. After her grandmother passes away, Sarah and her friend Jackson decide to search for the diamonds--and the house comes alive. She discovers that she can see visions of the house's past, like the eighteenth-century sea captain who hid the jewels, or the glamorous great-grandmother driven mad by grief. She grows closer to both Jackson and a young man named Richard Hathaway, whose family histories are each deeply entwined with her own. But when the visions start to threaten the person she holds most dear, Sarah must do everything she can to get to the bottom of the house's secrets, and stop the course of history before it is cemented forever.

Review: Mind blowing! Captivating! This book leaves you breathless with vacant space in your chest needed to be filled.  Everything an amazing story should have. An amazing story, richly thought out.  A beautiful house filled with rich history and southern charm, ancient family secrets, ghosts of the past, blossoming love, and an enchanting masquerade ball.  I was pleasantly delighted with Amber House and all of its many marvelous mysteries waiting to be discovered just behind the threshold. 
 
Sarah Parsons is thrust into a new and delicate world in her family’s grand Maryland estate that dates back three centuries. And with it comes three centuries of ghosts and mysteries that are waiting to be discovered and solved. Sarah is caught between her old life in Seattle where she find herself ready to go running back to the comfort of the familiar and that of the new intriguing life that awaits for her at Amber house.  Not only does Sarah have to deal with an ancient house and all of its mysteries but she has her icy mother who doesn’t want to deal with the death of her grandmother or the newly inherited house. She just wants to sell the house, forget her childhood and all its pain and go back to the west coast. But Sarah isn’t so sure. The temptation of a treasure hunt for lost diamonds and the allure of the attention from two boys are enough to make her want to stay and see what Amber House has to offer. But what the house has in store for Sarah is more than she is ready for. 

Sarah learns of a new and powerful gift that is passed down to every generation of Amber house woman.  Just when Sarah is ready to leave it all behind, handsome wealthy Richard, his father, and his sailboat launch into Sarah life leaving her struggling between her feelings for him and for Jackson, the boy who lives on the grounds. And not only has Richard left Sarah questioning, but his father has charmed Sarah’s mother just enough to make her want to stay and throw the most elaborate sweet 16 masquerade ball for Sarah at Amber house to woo potential buyers into its magical web. Now Sarah truly is trapped, leaving it up to her to weave through the maze of the house mysteries, watch her little brother and prepare for the daunting and horrible ball. Not one part if this story is predictable or leaves you for a moment to catch your breath. Just when you think Sarah will figure it all out one more twist spins you to a dead end and sends you doubling back through the maze of secrets.
 
Amber House is magnificent and rich in storytelling with a new concept that blew me away. I am left eagerly waiting for the next book in this trilogy.  
 
Yep, you guessed it: 5 wonderfully lavish cupcakes.  Sparkling champagne and Vanilla bean cupcakes, heaping mountains of golden rich buttercream frosting dusted in gold glitter dust. Yummy. 

Visit the gorgeous Amber House Trilogy website!

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Amy's View: Ten by Gretchen McNeil

Ten by Gretchen McNeil
♦publisher: Balzer & Bray
♦released: September 18th, 2012
♦hardcover, 294 pages
♦intended audience: Young adult
♦source: ALA

SHHHH!
Don't spread the word!
Three-day weekend. House party.
White Rock House on Henry Island.
You do NOT want to miss it.

It was supposed to be the weekend of their lives—an exclusive house party on Henry Island. Best friends Meg and Minnie each have their reasons for being there (which involve T.J., the school’s most eligible bachelor) and look forward to three glorious days of boys, booze and fun-filled luxury.

But what they expect is definitely not what they get, and what starts out as fun turns dark and twisted after the discovery of a DVD with a sinister message: Vengeance is mine.

Suddenly people are dying, and with a storm raging, the teens are cut off from the outside world. No electricity, no phones, no internet, and a ferry that isn’t scheduled to return for two days. As the deaths become more violent and the teens turn on each other, can Meg find the killer before more people die? Or is the killer closer to her than she could ever imagine?

Review:
Once again I find myself loving a book that has very mixed reviews. I will tell you I mainly picked up this book to read next because of the reviews that it got. I was shocked to see a book receive 1 star and then on the next review receive 5 stars with nothing in between. A love it or hate it dilemma. So off I went to my bookshelf picked it up and dove right in. And I am happy to report that I really enjoyed TEN by Gretchen McNeil. A captivating YA thriller. Yes folks, it’s a YA book.  It was written with young adults specifically in mind. So if you are an adult reading this keep in mind before you review that this wasn’t written for your generation. The reading community can be harsh out there.  I give Gretchen McNeil huge credit and a huge virtual hug because you have to be strong to weather the opinions of others.

Now to the book. Ten was an entertaining and mesmerizing thriller. It can hold its own on a shelf next to a Christopher Pike book any day. The book was extremely well thought out and even left me surprised with the twists and turns that it took. I was even pleasantly surprised that late at night when I was finishing this book I caught my heart racing for the main character Meg. I was so wrapped up in the book I almost jumped at a few parts. I couldn’t put it down for hours even as darkness crept into the late hours of the night setting the scene perfectly to finish this chilling book.  The plot was a realistic set up of scenes, 10 teenagers all lying to their parents to have a weekend party at a friend’s summer house. Maybe not one that all teenagers can pull off but there defiantly are those few who would take any opportunity to have a party like this. However this weekend doesn’t turn out to be the party of the decade everyone planned it to be--- instead it turns out to be reminiscent of a classic 90’s horror movie. Ten teenagers trapped in a house on an island, a wicked storm trapping them there and each one falling to death one by one. It sounds cliché, but surprisingly it’s very well done. Some murders I didn’t even see coming even though I was waiting for it.  And to all those doubters out there, the story does have a plot and a reason behind why each person is murdered. It just goes to show how fragile a teenager’s life is and how one night's choices can change your life forever. Definitely a good read. Fast, entertaining and definitely a thriller. Just don’t read this one if your alone in a house along the ocean…. unless you want to set yourself up for the perfect reading scene.

Find Gretchen McNeil online: Website  •  Facebook  •  Twitter

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Amy's View: A Witch in Love by Ruth Warburton

A Witch in Love by Ruth Warburton
♦publisher: Hodder Children's
♦release date: July 5th, 2012
♦paperback, 416 pages
♦intended audience: Young adult
♦series: A Winter Trilogy, book 2
♦source: from publisher for honest review

Spoiler alert! Description and review may contain slight spoilers for book one in the series!

Anna still finds it hard to believe that Seth loves her and has vowed to suppress her powers, no matter what.

But magic – like love – is uncontrollable. It spills out with terrible consequences, and soon, Anna is being hunted.

Review:
A delightful, much anticipated, bewitching sequel to the British Witch in Winter Series. We find ourselves picking up the story 6 month after the first book ends where we still find Anna struggling in the midst of her magical gift and trying to suppress her ever-surfacing magical tendencies. And if that isn’t enough for a teenager to deal with, Anna still struggles with finding out if the love of her life, Seth, really does love her or is it still the silly remnants of the very first spell that she accidentally cast. 
 
In this book Anna has to learn who she really is and embrace herself for the witch that she is within. But what happens to an unpracticed, unconfident witch trying to stay off the radar? Random snowfalls and electrical shocks, just to name a few.  But hiding magic won’t protect Anna, her home, or the boy she loves from the Malleus (a vicious group willing to do anything to rid the country of those suspected of witchcraft). Once Anna goes on a quest to find out who she really is and where she came from, her life starts to unravel in a dangerous mysterious way. Anna finds that not even magic can help her get out of this one and saving her life becomes her new number one focus. Anna will need to learn the greatest lesson of all and quick. Knowing who you are and trusting yourself and those that truly love you. Only then Anna can hopefully get herself out of the worse predicament that she has found herself in thus far. But will she learn that lesson in time or will her fear drive Seth, her father, and all her friends away leaving Anna at death's door in the hands of the Malleus?

 Witch in Love is definitely action packed with a lot more twists and turns and drama with a force that propels you quickly through this second book of the series. Can’t wait to see how it all will end in her third installment.

Find Ruth Warburton online:  Website  •  Twitter  •  Facebook

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