Gameboard of the Gods by Richelle Mead

Gameboard of the Gods by Richelle Mead
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Synopsis
Mae is the the perfect government enforcer, following the rules and stamping out religion whenever it pops up. However, all of this changes when she is assigned to protect Justin, an investigator that was exiled after he found a secret that the government wanted hidden. Will Mae and Justin be able to uncover the cause of a string or mysterious killings? Or will they just become pawns between a religion hating government and the gods that are tired of being ignored?

Review
I was so excited to read this book. I love Richelle Mead and honestly, Mae is one of my all time favorite names. Richelle managed to weave a technologically strong dystopian society with magic in a manner that was engaging and amazing. She obviously is setting up for a series, but the novel also works well as a stand alone novel. She has a very strong mythos growing behind the society, and it will be very exciting to see if the characters will eventually consent to work with the gods that keep trying to influence them.

My Recommendation

I love the worlds that Richelle Mead creates, and I can't wait to read more about this one. I give it 4/5 - I really liked it.

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***FTC Disclosure: This book was provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review, no other compensation was given, all opinions are my own***

Most Likely to Succeed by Kate Davies

Most Likely to Succeed by Kate Davies
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Synopsis
Kelsey Moore is embarrassed to still be working at her family's flower shop when her 10 year high school reunion. The only thing that could draw her to the event is the hope of seeing her high school crush, Nathan Barrow.

Review
This novel felt short and light. None of the characters were really explored, this made the story feel like a light romp. Unfortunately, it also meant that I was never able to actually get into the story. The plot was very quick, and I had expected a bit more something.

My RecommendationIt was a fun, very light read. I give it 3/5 - Good, but not something I would repeat

The Fault in Our Stars by John Green

The Fault in Our Stars by John Green


Synopsis
Hazel spends her time tethered to an oxygen tank and occasionally attending the cancer survivors support group. She may be alive following her battle with lung cancer, but she's not actually living. All of that changes on day when she sees a new guy staring at her in group. Augustus is also a survivor and forces her to change her views on sickness and living.

Review
This book is sad, I can't really state that enough. As usual, I jumped into this book without reading the description and then spent several hours crying as I made my way through the book. I don't know if I was having an emotional day or if this is seriously the saddest book ever. In my opinion, the emotion that the middle of the book wrung out of me overwhelmed the actual story. I also felt like the last 5th of the book just kind of lost its momentum. There was so much buildup, and then it kind of petered out.
The characters are pretty strong and feel like they could actually be real. I also appreciated that there wasn't an immediate love, or any kind of normal love triangle. The reality of the story may lose some of the younger readers that are used to the fluffy paranormal books that are running around today, and that would be a shame. This is certainly the first YA book that I have read in a long time that evoked an emotion.

My Recommendation
If you are in need of a good cry, go for it! I give it 3/5 - Good, but not something I would repeat

Broken by A.E. Rought

Broken by A.E. Rought
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Synopsis

Emma's life fell apart the night she watched her boyfriend fell to his death. She is stumbling through life haunted by his ghost and memories when a new boy shows up to her school. Her attraction to him and the joy in his eyes when he meets her both upsets and intrigues her. She has to both fight her guilt about moving on from her boyfriend's death and try to open herself up to the alarming happiness offered by Alex. If she can survive getting to know him, the end result might be worth the risk.

Review

I stayed up until 3 am reading this book last night. While I figured out what the big secret was fairly early on, I still really enjoyed the story. I read a lot of retellings, but I haven't seen one done with Frankenstein before. I found the story to be interesting, though for a thriller or horror book, it was really lacking in the scary department.

I've seen a bunch of reviews likening this story to Twilight, but I honestly didn't really see the comparison. I am a Twilight hater, and if a novel has a bunch of similarities to that franchise, I usually notice. Emma fell into the "instant connection" trap, but for once there was an actual reason for it. Plus, it kinda made sense. She was a fairly strong and developed character, no sitting around wanting to die or waiting for someone to save her. She was walking around doing her thing and trying to move on with life.

If I had children, I would much rather have them read this than any of the Twilight books.

My Recommendation

I really enjoyed this story and stayed up way too late reading it. I give it  4/5 - I really liked it .



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Fields of Elysium by A.B.Whelan

Fields of Elysium by A.B.Whelan
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Synopsis

While on a hike with her dog Pandora, Molly happens upon a strange glowing blue cloud in a cave. She is sucked through the portal and tossed into a different cave on the other side. While exploring she discovers a group of boys who let her know that she is no longer on Earth, but a planet called New Earth.

Review

The novel was an interesting concept, one I haven't seen presented quite this way before. The writing was a bit odd, but that is easily explained by the fact that the author is not a native English speaker. A.B. Whelan has an amazing imagination, she has certainly developed a very complex and rich world. Though the book seems to be written for a younger audience, somewhere around early teens, it does tackle a few fairly serious topics, like teen pregnancy and abuse, but in a bit of a haphazard way.

My Recommendation

While I did enjoy the novel, it did get a bit preachy at the end and wrapped up a bit too cleanly. I give it  4/5 - I really liked it

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What do you think?
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***FTC Disclosure: This book was provided by the author in exchange for an honest review, no other compensation was given, all opinions are my own***

Teach Me by R.A. Nelson

Teach Me by R.A. Nelson
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Synopsis

Nine is a six foot tall amazon girl in her senior year of high school, and she's hot for teacher. Attacking her attraction with laser focus, she is amazed and astounded when her feelings are reciprocated. When the teacher suddenly breaks it off, Nine loses it. Will she find her way out of the madness?

Review

Unlike Uses for Boys, Teach Me actually had some redeeming features at the end of the painful slog. While it was written very similarly to Uses for Boys, it did have a much stronger vocabulary and more personality than that novel. That said, I still wasn't a big fan. There were several points when I would tell my husband "I'm slogging through, but I just wish it would end." The story is not told linearly, and can be a bit confusing.
Nine was somewhat likable, though I lost any affection for her as the book went on. I just wanted to beat her over the head, or any of her "supportive" friends and family. It was bizarre that in her loving family, they just kind of "let her have her space" when their daughter was completely losing her mind. They even noted all of the signs of a major issue in their daughter, but then failed to do anything about it. I realize that this happens in real life, but it just seemed out of place in the novel.
The teacher, Mr. Mann was just plain creepy in my mind. I saw a few review were people thought that he sounded dreamy. Yeah, no. As a character, he was a bit flat for me. I thought that he should have been more developed if he was going to attract the attention of a seventeen year old girl that strongly. Though, I suppose that since the book is primarily about Nine's obsession, the lack of description could have been yet another example of how unwarranted her attention was.

My Recommendation

Since I didn't actually enjoy the book, I can't recommend that you read it. I think that if you want an exploration of the themes of this book, there are way better examples out there. (Even if I can't think of them off of the top of my head at the moment) I give it 2/5 - If it happens to be around, it's OK.

Uses for Boys by Erica Lorraine Scheidt

Uses for Boys by Erica Lorraine Scheidt
My rating: 1 of 5 stars

Synopsis

Anna is lonely, alone, and incredibly passive; she'll let boys do whatever they want to her. I would tell you more about the story, but there isn't really anything else to tell.

Review

You will not hear this from me often, but I hated this book. I wasn't offended, even thought the novel could be graphic at times, simply bored. I think that I understand what the author was trying to do with the story, and she did paint a fairly distinct picture or a very lonely and detached girl. Unfortunately, the story never really went anywhere. I kept waiting for some kind of redeeming feature, but it just never came. I never felt that Anna actually grew a backbone or became her own person, hell, I never felt like Anna became a person at all.
For a book that primarily focused on a girl that found her identity through boys, I was surprised that the male characters were even less developed than Anna. My biggest issue with this was the character Sam. I think that he was supposed to be a good guy and a redeeming character, but he just wasn't anything beyond a vehicle for Anna into his home.
While the writing was not terrible, the formatting of the chapters was irritating. Like the sparse, blank characters, the chapters were just odd; occasionally just fragments of a story or an isolated thought. Ugg.

My Recommendation

Honestly, the story made me thing of a mindless string of paper dolls humping each other. I wouldn't recommend this novel to anyone, especially the target audience of teenagers; I fear that they might possibly think that the behavior in the novel is OK and it is simply not. I give it a 1/5 - Not worth the effort.