No. 20 for 2015

Title: Red Queen (Red Queen #1)
Author: Victoria Aveyard
Rating: 5/5
Book: 20/50
Pages:  383 pgs
Total Pages: 7,110/15,000 pages
Version: Book
Next up: The Shadows (Black Dagger Brotherhood #13) by J.R. Ward

This was an awesome read! There is a lot of buzz surrounding this book since it was released and I was worried that it would disappoint, but I am happy to say that it did not. I turned the pages as fast as I could and I lost sleep over this book. For anyone who enjoys a good dystopian, I definitely would recommend this one. Victoria Aveyard needs to write faster as I NEED to get my hands on the next book!!

About the Book:

Mare Barrow’s world is divided by blood–those with common, Red blood serve the Silver- blooded elite, who are gifted with superhuman abilities. Mare is a Red, scraping by as a thief in a poor, rural village, until a twist of fate throws her in front of the Silver court. Before the king, princes, and all the nobles, she discovers she has an ability of her own.

To cover up this impossibility, the king forces her to play the role of a lost Silver princess and betroths her to one of his own sons. As Mare is drawn further into the Silver world, she risks everything and uses her new position to help the Scarlet Guard–a growing Red rebellion–even as her heart tugs her in an impossible direction. One wrong move can lead to her death, but in the dangerous game she plays, the only certainty is betrayal.

No. 19 for 2015

Title: Cruel Beauty
Author: Rosamund Hodge
Rating: 3.5/5
Book: 19/50
Pages:  342 pgs
Total Pages: 6,727/15,000 pages
Version: Book
Next up: Red Queen (Red Queen #1) by Victoria Aveyard

While I enjoyed this book, it is missing something for me. I had fun reading it and I am intrigued enough to read the next installment but I felt like this book was trying a little too hard. Also, the ending was wrapped up too neatly and too quickly for my liking. It was as though everything was in pieces and the next page, everything was wrapped up with a nice bow.

Perhaps it’s because it’s a fairy tale retelling and after reading The Lunar Chronicles by Marissa Meyer, nothing can reach the threshold that series has set for other fairy tale retellings but it’s still a solid read.

About the Book:

Since birth, Nyx has been betrothed to the evil ruler of her kingdom-all because of a foolish bargain struck by her father. And since birth, she has been in training to kill him.

With no choice but to fulfill her duty, Nyx resents her family for never trying to save her and hates herself for wanting to escape her fate. Still, on her seventeenth birthday, Nyx abandons everything she’s ever known to marry the all-powerful, immortal Ignifex. Her plan? Seduce him, destroy his enchanted castle, and break the nine-hundred-year-old curse he put on her people.

But Ignifex is not at all what Nyx expected. The strangely charming lord beguiles her, and his castle-a shifting maze of magical rooms-enthralls her.

As Nyx searches for a way to free her homeland by uncovering Ignifex’s secrets, she finds herself unwillingly drawn to him. Even if she could bring herself to love her sworn enemy, how can she refuse her duty to kill him? With time running out, Nyx must decide what is more important: the future of her kingdom, or the man she was never supposed to love.

No. 18 for 2015

Title: Everything I Never Told You
Author: Celeste Ng
Rating: 3/5
Book: 18/50
Pages:  297 pgs
Total Pages: 6,385/15,000 pages
Version: Book
Next up: Cruel Beauty by Rosamund Hodge

This book had a solid start for me and it was really intriguing but the middle of the book just dragged for me. The story itself was interesting and it had the potential to be great for me but unfortunately, it didn’t grasp me like it seemed to with others but perhaps it was just a case of “the wrong book at the wrong time”. Also, this book was marketed as a mystery and I believe that to be incredibly misleading. I would place this book as more of a contemporary read.

One of my pet peeves about this story was that the story seemed to flip from past to present within the same chapter and with no warning. I’d be reading something in the past and then all of a sudden flip to the future with no warning and I was left feeling confused and had to go back to re-read a paragraph to make sure I didn’t miss anything.

Overall it was a good book but it wasn’t great.

About the Book:

Lydia is dead. But they don’t know this yet . . . So begins this debut novel about a mixed-race family living in 1970s Ohio and the tragedy that will either be their undoing or their salvation. Lydia is the favorite child of Marilyn and James Lee; their middle daughter, a girl who inherited her mother’s bright blue eyes and her father’s jet-black hair. Her parents are determined that Lydia will fulfill the dreams they were unable to pursue—in Marilyn’s case that her daughter become a doctor rather than a homemaker, in James’s case that Lydia be popular at school, a girl with a busy social life and the center of every party.

When Lydia’s body is found in the local lake, the delicate balancing act that has been keeping the Lee family together tumbles into chaos, forcing them to confront the long-kept secrets that have been slowly pulling them apart.

No. 17 for 2015

Title: Cold Cold Heart
Author: Tami Hoag
Rating: 5/5
Book: 17/50
Pages:  384 pgs
Total Pages: 6,088/15,000 pages
Version: Book
Next up: Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng

Tami Hoag never fails me when I’m looking for a good mystery. She is excellent in creating a page turning mystery that keeps you on the edge of your seat and guessing and this book was no exception! I definitely recommend this book (or any of Hoag’s books for that matter) to anyone who is looking for a hearty murder mystery.

About the Book:

Dana Nolan was a promising young TV reporter until a notorious serial killer tried to add her to his list of victims.  Nearly a year has passed since surviving her ordeal, but the physical, emotional, and psychological scars run deep.  Struggling with the torment of post-traumatic stress syndrome, plagued by flashbacks and nightmares as dark as the heart of a killer, Dana returns to her hometown in an attempt to begin to put her life back together.  But home doesn’t provide the comfort she expects.

Dana’s harrowing story and her return to small town life have rekindled police and media interest in the unsolved case of her childhood best friend, Casey Grant, who disappeared without a trace the summer after their graduation from high school.  Terrified of truths long-buried, Dana reluctantly begins to look back at her past.  Viewed through the dark filter of PTSD, old friends and loved ones become suspects and enemies.  Questioning everything she knows, refusing to be defined by the traumas of her past and struggling against excruciating odds, Dana seeks out a truth that may prove too terrible to be believed…

No. 16 for 2015

Title: All the Bright Places
Author: Jennifer Niven
Rating: 3/5
Book: 16/50
Pages:  378 pgs
Total Pages: 5,704/15,000 pages
Version: Book
Next up: Cold Cold Heart by Tami Hoag

I liked this book but it was missing a little something for me. As with most popular books, I fail to completely see the hype surrounding the book. I don’t think this is the books fault but rather mine as I seem to dislike most things that are “popular” right at the moment but I totally get on the bandwagon later after people have stopped talking about it.

Even so, it was an enjoyable story and I got invested in the characters. The ending was predictable and I called it from almost a chapter or two into the book. I would definitely read more of Niven’s work as I do enjoy her writing style and I will be checking out the movie adaptation once it is released.

About the Book:

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

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

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