Monday, February 23, 2009

Going Too Far by Jennifer Echols | Review

Going Too Far by Jennifer Echols | ReviewGoing Too Far by Jennifer Echols
Published by MTV Books on March 17, 2009
Genres: Contemporary
Pages: 245
Format: Paperback
Source: Gifted
Buy on Amazon
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5 Stars

HOW FAR WOULD YOU GO?

All Meg has ever wanted is to get away. Away from high school. Away from her backwater town. Away from her parents who seem determined to keep her imprisoned in their dead-end lives. But one crazy evening involving a dare and forbidden railroad tracks, she goes way too far...and almost doesn't make it back.

John made a choice to stay. To enforce the rules. To serve and protect. He has nothing but contempt for what he sees as childish rebellion, and he wants to teach Meg a lesson she won't soon forget. But Meg pushes him to the limit by questioning everything he learned at the police academy. And when he pushes back, demanding to know why she won't be tied down, they will drive each other to the edge -- and over....

Going Too Far is an amazing book. I could not put this book down. I was hooked at the first page. Meg and 3 of her friends are caught on a railroad bridge, under the influence, right before their spring break. As punishment the cop who found them decided that instead of going to Miami for a school trip, they should be forced to ride around with either the police, firefighters, or ambulance personnel.

Meg unluckily gets stuck with the police officer that arrested them. Officer After seems like somebody Meg knows but she can’t quite place him until her friend tells her that they went to school with him and that he is only a year older then them. As the week progresses Meg is unnerved to find herself beginning to fall for Officer After even though she knows that it can never go anywhere.

Through the week Meg and Officer After begin to connect in different ways and some shocking things are revealed about both of their pasts.

Will Meg and John be able to get past their differences and finally be in a good relationship or will they ruin everything with their hostile natures toward each other?

Honestly, this is one of the best books I have ever read. It has just the right mix of romance, comedy, and rebelliousness. I could safely say that this is book for just about any teenage girl.

Sunday, February 22, 2009

In My Mailbox 4

In my mailbox was started by The Story Siren and is a list of what you received in books over the past week.

HOW FAR WOULD YOU GO?

All Meg has ever wanted is to get away. Away from high school. Away from her backwater town. Away from her parents who seem determined to keep her imprisoned in their dead-end lives. But one crazy evening involving a dare and forbidden railroad tracks, she goes way too far…and almost doesn’t make it back.

John made a choice to stay. To enforce the rules. To serve and protect. He has nothing but contempt for what he sees as childish rebellion, and he wants to teach Meg a lesson she won’t soon forget. But Meg pushes him to the limit by questioning everything he learned at the police academy. And when he pushes back, demanding to know why she won’t be tied down, they will drive each other to the edge — and over….

I got this book earlier this week but I have already read it and posted a review so if you want to know what this book is about you can just scroll down to the review.

A wallflower in the spotlight can do one of two things: wilt, or blossom…

Violet Greenfield’s life changes forever when a lady in giant Chanel shades tells her she could be IT, the next Kate Moss-but taller, and without the PR problems. That’s how Violet winds up with a business card in the front pocket of her jeans on her first day as a senior in high school. Angela Blythe from Tryst Models in New York City wants to put Violet on a plane and whisk her into the world of high-heeled boots and oversized sunglasses. Tall, skinny Violet, who’s been P-L-A-I-N practically forever.

And guess what? She’s going.

I was going to get out of the modeling business for good.

But now I’m having trouble sticking with my decision. After all, if it wasn’t for modeling, I might still be the invisible wallflower. Hot guys like Paulo wouldn’t be interested in me. And I’d never have seen Brazil or Spain-and now France! On the other hand…

I also wouldn’t have to choose between my best friend from home and my agent’s shrill demands. Or anguish over my body the way only runway models do. Not to mention all this trouble I’m getting into for speaking out in the press about eating disorders.

Maybe the life of an international model isn’t for me. But if I quit for good, I might always wonder…What if?

The return of Violet, the not-so- confident model . . .

Violet Greenfield knows she’s supposed to be a super-confident nineteen-year-old because she’s done runway shows in New York and internationally. But now that she’s finally headed to college, she’s afraid she’ll turn back into that girl who blended into the walls in high school. Vassar is just two hours away from New York City–her friends in fashion think she’s crazy to stop modeling now. And her old friend Roger is there…but things have been weird ever since they kissed. The real question is if she’s not going to be “Violet on the Runway” anymore…who is she?

So this is what I got this week, what about you?

Saturday, February 21, 2009

The Rule Of Won by Stefan Petrucha


Book: The Rule Of Won by Stefan Petrucha
Rating: 4 Stars
Summary:

The secret of The Rule of Won is simple, yet its power has been suppressed for generations. The universe is one of infinite abundance—ask, and you shall receive.

Umm, yeah right. Meet Caleb Dunne, slacker extraordinaire. Caleb prefers to glide through life with the minimal amount of effort, so he isn’t too jazzed when his overachieving girlfriend, Vicky, convinces him to join a new school club based on a controversial book, The Rule of Won. Slackers don’t join school clubs, do they? As The Rule gains popularity, though, the club members start to gain power within the school. From dark posts on the club’s online message board to all-out threats in the hallways, it becomes apparent that the group is getting out of control. For slacker Caleb, though, the only thing worse than doing something is not doing something.

Darkly funny and exceptionally thought-provoking, The Rule of Won, inspired by the ideas behind books like the runaway hit The Secret, shines a light on the dangers of group thinking and the inner desires that can sometimes get the best of us all.

Overall:
The Rule of Won was a very interesting story about a cult that is obsessed with The Rule of Won. The Rule of Won is a book that was written by Jasper Trelawney and basically is about how if you just wish for something hard enough, you will get it and how anything that happens to you is what you secretly wished for.
Caleb Dunne is a slacker with horrible bad luck. Ever since the old gym of the school collapsed and he was the only person there at the time, he has been on the brink of expulsion and on the outs with his politically ambitious girlfriend, Vicky. When Vicky asks him to join the after school club for The Rule he figures that it will be a way to win her back. Once he gets into the club, though, bad things start to happen.
Caleb realizes that maybe the leader of The Rule, Ethan might be behind a lot of the accidents that are causing The Rule’s dreams to come true but as he begins to investigate he realizes that it is impossible to stop them. The whole school has become obsessed, including the principal.
Caleb finally decides that he has to take matters into his own hands and faces off with Ethan to end the reign of the cult but not everything goes as expected.
I really enjoyed reading this book even though it wasn’t one that I would normally pick up off the shelf. The story is kind of left hanging at the end though. It’s almost like the author could write a sequel and I think that would make another great story.

Thursday, February 19, 2009

After The Moment by Garret Freymann-Weyr | Review

After The Moment by Garret Freymann-Weyr | ReviewAfter the Moment by Garret Freymann-Weyr
Published by Houghton Mifflin on May 18, 2009
Genres: Contemporary
Pages: 328
Format: ARC
Source: Publisher
Buy on Amazon
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5 Stars

A new novel by the Printz Honor author Garret Freymann-Weyr, about a boy who discovers what happens when love fails us—or we fail love.

Maia Morland is pretty, only not pretty-pretty. She’s smart. She’s brave. She’s also a self-proclaimed train wreck. Leigh Hunter is smart, popular, and extremely polite. He’s also completely and forever in love with Maia Morland. Their young love starts off like a romance novel—full of hope, strength, and passion. But life is not a romance novel and theirs will never become a true romance. For when Maia needs him the most, Leigh betrays both her trust and her love.

Told with compassion and true understanding, After the Moment is about what happens when a young man discovers that sometimes love fails us, and that, quite often, we fail love.

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After The Moment is a story of love–love that is true but cannot hold strong through tough times. This book was a little more serious than I expected touching on subjects such as self-mutilation, death of a loved one, bullying, and many others. Even though it was a bit more serious it was truly an amazing story.

Leigh Hunter is the golden boy: soccer star, straight-A student, and boyfriend to Astra Grein. At least, he is until his stepsister’s father dies and he is asked to move to Washington to be there for her. Leigh and Astra decide that they would rather have a long distance relationship than break up but Leigh never expected to fall for Maia Morland, the train wreck.

Maia has many different problems. Her stepfather that actually cares about her is in jail, her mother doesn’t notice her, and she has her own issues such as self-mutilation, anorexia, and she had a tendency to act out sexually until her psychiatrist made her sign a contract.

When Leigh meets Maia he never once thinks that he could love her. She is the exact opposite of Astra and yet he can’t get her off his mind. Leigh begins to drive Maia to her prison visits and in the process, gets to know her. He doesn’t realize that he loves her until being away from her to visit his mom in Maine. When he returns home he goes straight to Maia’s and is surprised to find out that she feels the same way. They begin dating, even though Leigh still hasn’t broken up with Astra.

Finally, Leigh decides that he needs to end things once and for all with Astra and decides to go to New York and tell her in person. He never knew that his decision to stay in New York for one extra night would have such drastic consequences. When he returns to Washington nothing is the same and when he finds out why, he wishes he could change things but he can’t.

Unknowingly Leigh breaks Maia’s trust and loses their relationship. He will always love her but they can never be together.

And if you want to know why, you will just have to read the book. I wouldn’t just give away the ending.

Thursday, February 19, 2009

Waiting On Wednesday: The Awakening

Summary:
Book II in the Darkest Powers trilogy takes us deeper into a world where the supernatural intrudes on the everyday with riveting effect.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 group of people who call themselves 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. 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 gain our freedom back before The Edison Group finds us first. Or die trying.

So I figured since I just read The Summoning I would have The Awakening as my Waiting on Wednesday and I cannot wait for this book to come out. I loved The Summoning and this one looks even better. Also, I really love the cover. The blue is so pretty. I haven’t read any other books by Kelley Armstrong yet but I think I might try some of her adult novels since this book was so good.

Tuesday, February 17, 2009

Teaser Tuesdays

TEASER TUESDAYS
asks you to grab your current read. Let the book fall open to a random page. Share with us two to three “teaser” sentences from that page, somewhere between lines 7 and 12. You also need to share the title of the book that you’re getting your “teaser” from … that way people can have some great book recommendations if they like the teaser you’ve given!

Please avoid spoilers!

From page 154 of After The Moment by Garret Freyman-Weyr

It occurred to him that she brought up her scars whenever she thought they were getting too close. That she used them as a way of keeping him from ever wanting to touch her. Was she afraid of him–of them together–turning into one of those experiences that had been, for her, really bad?

This is a great book so far and I can’t wait to finish it and tell you more about it then.

Monday, February 16, 2009

Stay With Me by Garret Freyman-Weyr


Book: Stay With Me by Garret Freyman-Weyr
Rating: 5 Stars
Summary:

Sixteen-year-old Leila Abranel was born some twenty years after her sisters. Her elegant sisters from her father’s first marriage have lives full of work, love affairs, and travel. Leila doesn’t know either of them very well, but she loves hearing about them—details of Rebecca’s ruined marriage, Clare’s first job, and the strings of unsuitable boyfriends.

When Rebecca kills herself, Leila wants to know why. She starts by spending time with Clare and finally comes to know her as a person instead of a story. With Clare’s reluctant help, Leila tracks down Rebecca’s favorite places and tries to find her sister’s friends. Along the way, Leila meets Eamon.Eamon is thirty-one and writes for television. He thinks Leila is beautiful and smart, but he does not, he tells her, date teenagers. And yet,
the months go by and Leila turns seventeen and learns that you can love someone you are not dating.

Maybe letting Eamon love her back is a mistake. Maybe she’ll never know why Rebecca did what she did. Maybe, Leila, decides, most people have a hard time figuring out which way is left or knowing when to let go and when to stay.

Overall:
The book Stay With Me is a wonderful story about love and loss and how one can lead straight to the other. Leila Abranel feels that she has been left behind when her much older sister, Rebecca, decides to take her own life. Rebecca was 20 years older than Leila and they had just truly begun to get to know one another. Leila was beginning to feel like she could talk to Rebecca about things that she couldn’t talk to her parents about and then she overdosed on pills and ended any chance of a relationship Leila thought they might be able to have.
In the midst of the mourning and grief, Leila’s parents decide that it might be best if they went ahead as planned and moved to Poland for a year, only with a slight change. Since Leila is only 16 she was going to be staying with Rebecca while they were gone but now they must ask her other sister, Clare, if she could take care of her while they are gone.
Leila never really felt like she fit in with her other sisters but she felt like she fit more with Rebecca because Clare was more the smart, workaholic type. Leila is dyslexic and so has always had trouble fitting in and feeling like she belongs but once she moves in with Clare, they start to learn new things about the other and form a close, sisterly bond.
Raphael also helps take care of Leila while her parents are in Poland. His mother was married to their uncle before she met his father and so he is their semi-cousin. Raphael and Clare once had a relationship but it didn’t work for reasons that weren’t really mentioned. Shortly after Leila moves in with Clare, Clare breaks up with her boyfriend and then once again starts a relationship with Raphael, forming a type of family for Leila to rely on.
While, Leila has tried to move on from her sister’s death, she still feels like she is missing something and decides that she should try and find the reason Rebecca killed herself. In her quest for answers she gets a job at Cafe Acca, the last place she saw Rebecca. In a way Rebecca led Leila right to Eamon. Eamon is a 31 year old writer for TV shows and he immediately takes an interest in Leila, not knowing that she is only 16. Throughout the book Leila and Eamon go through many different phases and finally settle on dating even if other people think it is wrong of them.
In the end, Leila realizes that maybe Rebecca didn’t really have a reason for killing herself, maybe she just gave up. She knows that what Rebecca did was selfish and inexcusable. Rebecca was only thinking of herself, not the people she would be leaving behind. Leila finally learns that she doesn’t really need to know everything about her sister but that in her own way Rebecca led Leila right to her love, if not her great love then her great love for now.
Stay With Me is a story about coping with the sudden death of someone you love and how maybe you don’t get over that, maybe you just find new ways to shape your life around it.

Monday, February 16, 2009

New Blogger!

So, over at Laura’s Review Bookshelf, she had a contest to get more followers and now Melange is having a similar contest on her blog. If you go to her blog and decide to follow her blog then you can be entered to win some of her books that she has on paperbackswap.com.

So go ahead and tell Melange that Katie recruited you. Her blog looks really promising and I might just have to do a contest like this soon so that I can get some more followers.

http://melangesreviews.blogspot.com/

Sunday, February 15, 2009

In My Mailbox 3



So, In My Mailbox was stolen from The Story Siren! This week I only got about 3 books. I didn’t have a chance to go to a bookstore this week otherwise there would be a lot more. I got Stay With Me and After The Moment from Houghton Mifflin Company and my mom actually found Ripped At The Seams at a thrift store.

Saturday, February 14, 2009

The Summoning (Darkest Powers #1) by Kelley Armstrong | Review

The Summoning (Darkest Powers #1) by Kelley Armstrong | ReviewThe Summoning by Kelley Armstrong
Series: Darkest Powers #1
Published by Harper Teen on July 1, 2008
Pages: 390
Format: Hardcover
Source: Bought
Buy on Amazon
Goodreads
5 Stars

My name is Chloe Saunders and my life will never be the same again.

All I wanted was to make friends, meet boys, and keep on being ordinary. I don't even know what that means anymore. It all started on the day that I saw my first ghost - and the ghost saw me.

Now there are ghosts everywhere and they won't leave me alone. To top it all off, I somehow got myself locked up in Lyle House, a "special home" for troubled teens. Yet the home isn't what it seems. Don't tell anyone, but I think there might be more to my housemates than meets the eye. The question is, whose side are they on? it's up to me to figure out the dangerous secrets behind Lyle House...before its skeletons come back to haunt me.

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I absolutely loved this book! I couldn’t put it down. I read it in one day, almost in one sitting but sadly I had to go to school.

I think my favorite thing about this book is how Chloe is just like a normal teenager except that she can see and talk to dead people. Her mom died when she was young and her dad is always away on business so she is normally alone, except for a few friends and her aunt Lauren who tries to fill in for Chloe’s mom. She usually keeps to herself so when things start to get weird she can’t really tell anyone.

So, at the beginning Chloe is in a school for the arts and she is just like all the other people in her school, except a little bit of a late bloomer. On the same day that she gets her first period she also sees her first dead person or at least the first person that she knows is dead. After being chased through the school by a dead janitor, Chloe is sedated and sent to the hospital and told that she must spend at least two weeks in Lyle House, a group home for unstable teens.

Once in Lyle House, Chloe meets some interesting people such as Liz, Rae, Simon, and Derek. Derek is a little scary at first, always sneaking up on Chloe and accidentally throwing her across a room. Once she gets to know him, though, she realizes that he is just like her and can’t control his powers. At first, Simon seems like he is just in the group home to stay with his brother, Derek, but once she starts talking to him she realizes that he is a supernatural also but his powers aren’t as obvious as Chloe’s and Derek’s. Liz also seems to have some powers but she never realizes that she is controlling them. She is transferred shortly after Chloe arrives because instead of getting better she seemed to be getting worse. Rae also may have powers but it was really hard to tell. She was placed in the group home shortly after giving her mom first degree burns when she never had a lighter or anything else that could have caused them.

There are others in the group home, such as Tori and Peter, but Peter gets sent home after Chloe arrives and Tori is the group’s resident witch and not in the supernatural way. Tori believes that because her mom is on the board of Lyle House she can do and get whatever she wants but Chloe interferes with her plans as soon as she arrives. Tori manages to get Chloe in many terrible situations, some potentially deadly, but it’s only because she doesn’t want her mom to be disappointed in her. Tori doesn’t play a really big role in the story, all she really does is get everyone in trouble.

Chloe, Derek, Simon, and Rae discover Lyle Houses’ secrets and realize that, maybe they aren’t there because they are crazy but because of their powers. They realize that they need to escape and that they need to do it soon. Once out, though, things don’t go exactly as planned. They are hunted down by the nurses and owners of Lyle House and chased through warehouses by guys with tranquilizer guns. Once the girls escape and find a safe place they think things are going to get better but none of them realized that someone close to them betrayed their trust.

Of course, I’m not gonna say who. That would give everything away. I truly loved this book and if you really want to know how it ends you will just have to find a copy to read. This book is first in a new series by Kelley Armstrong. The next book, The Awakening, will be out on April 28.