Tag: teen reads

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Into the Dim – Book Review

Into the Dim - Book Review

Plot:

Being “the homeschooled girl,” in a small town, Hope Walton’s crippling phobias and photographic memory don’t help her fit in with her adoptive dad’s perfectly blonde Southern family. But when her mother is killed in a natural disaster thousands of miles from home, Hope’s secluded world crumbles. After an aunt she’s never met invites her to spend the summer in Scotland, Hope discovers that her mother was more than a brilliant academic. She’s a member of a secret society of time travelers, and is actually trapped in the twelfth century in the age of King Henry II and Eleanor of Aquitaine. Now Hope must conquer her numerous fears and travel back in time to help rescue her mother before she’s lost for good. Along the way, she’ll discover more family secrets, and a mysterious boy who could be vital to setting her mother free… or the key to Hope’s undoing.

Review:

I adored everything about this book. There was so much detail and thought put into every word on the page. The story captivated me from the beginning and kept me hanging in until the very last page.

Hope has had a bit of a difficult life. She has total recall, so she basically has the world’s best photographic memory. This gives Hope some problems, like occasionally she is just bombarded with information that her brain is feeding her, causing her to overload. Totally understandable. Hope has also never really felt like she fit in, and for good reason (though I won’t get into that here).

Once Hope travels to Scotland to meet her mysterious aunt, her whole life as she’s known it is flipped upside down, and she does surprisingly well with handling the information being thrust upon her.

A few aspects of this book were—wait for it—slightly predictable. I don’t know if it is just because I read so much and can see plot twists coming from miles away, or if these things were just blatant, but it didn’t affect how much I enjoyed the book. Rather it just made me burst out with a “Ugh I knew that was going to happen!”, to which my boyfriend gave me a puzzled look. Other than that, this book was fantastic.

I give this book 4/5 stars, and I can’t wait to read the next book in the series when it comes out. You can order Into the Dim by clicking on the book’s cover image below:

I received this book via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.
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Book Reviews

Finding Hope – Book Review

Finding Hope - Book Review

Plot:

Hope lives in a small town with nothing to do and nowhere to go. With a drug addict for a brother, she focuses on the only thing that keeps her sane, writing poetry. To escape, she jumps at the chance to attend Ravenhurst Academy as a boarding student. She’ll even put up with the clique-ish Ravens if it means making a fresh start.

At first, Ravenhurst is better than Hope could have dreamed. She has a boyfriend and a cool roommate, and she might finally have found a place she can fit in. But can she trust her online boyfriend? And what can she do after her brother shows up at the school gates, desperate for help, and the Ravens turn on her? Trapped and unsure, Hope realizes that if she wants to save her brother, she has to save herself first.

Review:

I was surprised at how much I liked this book. I found Hope to be very predictable, but I felt sorry for just how gullible and easy to deceive she is. Hope has had a tough time since she became “The girl whose brother does crystal meth,” but no one knows the real reason why Eric started down the path that he chose.

I think that the story gives too many blatant hints at what happened to Eric, and also with what Hope goes through at her new school. I would have liked a bit more mystery as opposed to some very obvious clues about what is going on.

This book was a very quick read for me. If I hadn’t been on vacation visiting family, I could have easily finished this in a day. I give Finding Hope 4/5 stars. You can order Finding Hope by clicking on the book’s cover image below

I received this book via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.
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Book Reviews

Hello, Goodbye, and Everything in Between – Book Review

Hello, Goodbye, and Everything in Between - Book Review

Plot:

On the night before they leave for college, Clare and Aidan only have one thing left to do: figure out whether they should stay together or break up. Over the course of twelve hours, they’ll retrace the steps of their relationship, trying to find something in their past that might help them decide what their future should be. The night will lead them to friends and family, familiar landmarks and unexpected places, hard truths and surprising revelations. But as the clock winds down and morning approaches, so does their inevitable goodbye. The question is, will it be goodbye for now or goodbye forever?

Review:

So one of Jennifer E. Smith’s books, The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight, has been on my to-be-read list for what seems like an eternity. So when I happened upon a review copy of this book, I figured I would give it a shot and then if I liked it I would force myself to go out and get Love. Well, I guess I’m going to have to go to the bookstore soon, because I really liked the style of writing in this book, so I can only imagine that it’ll be the same way in her other books as well.

The main characters of this book, Clare and Aidan, are both leaving for college in less than a day when the book first starts. This might not be so out of the normal, except these two have been dating for two years, and are now at a crossroads in their relationship: do they try to make a long distance relationship work while they each go off to separate coasts for school, or do they just break up and call it a day?

Clare plans a scavenger hunt of sorts for Aidan, where they go from one place to the next, all of the places holding important memories from their relationship. These places range from their high school, to their friends’ houses, the local bowling alley, and the beach. As the night goes on, Clare and Aidan get closer to having to make a decision about the fate of their relationship.

I really liked the way that this story progressed, and the flow of the writing. It made this a very quick read for me, which is something that I always like. When it takes me too long to make my way through a book, it frustrates me.

I give this book 4/5 stars. You can purchase the book by clicking on the book’s cover image above.

I received this book via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.
Categories
Book Reviews

The Scorpion Rules – Book Review

The Scorpion Rules - Book Review

Plot:

In the future, the UN has brought back an ancient way to keep the peace. The children of world leaders are held hostage—if a war begins, they pay with their lives.

Greta is the Crown Princess of the Pan Polar Confederacy, a superpower formed of modern-day Canada. She is also a Child of Peace, a hostage held by the de facto ruler of the world, the great Artificial Intelligence, Talis. The hostages are Talis’s strategy to keep the peace: if her country enters a war, Greta dies.

The system has worked for centuries. Parents don’t want to see their children murdered.

Greta will be free if she can make it to her eighteenth birthday. Until then she is prepared to die with dignity, if necessary. But everything changes when Elian arrives at the Precepture. He’s a hostage from a new American alliance, and he defies the machines that control every part of their lives—and is severely punished for it. Greta is furious that Elian has disrupted their quiet, structured world. But slowly, his rebellion opens her eyes to the brutality of the rules they live under, and to the subtle resistance of her companions. And Greta discovers her own quiet power.

Then Elian’s country declares war on Greta’s and invades the prefecture, taking the hostages hostage. Now the great Talis is furious, and coming himself to mete out punishment. Which surely means that Greta and Elian will be killed…unless Greta can think of a way to save them.

Review:

I feel like this book had the potential to be fantastically written, but in the execution it fell a bit short of the expectations that I had for it,

The book has a really interesting premise: in order to keep the peace between nations and thwart wars, the UN takes a child hostage from the leader of every country. If a country does end up declaring war on another, their child (or grandchild, etc.) is killed. It is thought that this will deter countries from ever starting wars. And for the most part it works.

But then there are those who believe that the needs of their country are greater than the value of the life of their hostage, and declare war anyway. This never ends up working out for the country, and their hostage is killed, but hopefully the country at least got something out of their declaration of war. If not, it was all for nothing.

While this had the promise of being a good bit of plot, the characters and the ways their stories unfolded did nothing for me. I felt lost throughout a lot of the story and was constantly having to pay close attention to detail so as to not get too confused.

Overall, the book was okay. Nothing too special, but it did entertain me, which I suppose is the main purpose after all. I give the book 3.5/5 stars.

You can purchase The Scorpion Rules by clicking the image of the book above.

I received this book via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.