Room

Room, by Emma Donogue, was published in 2010 and was an instant hit. So, yes, this book has been out a while. There's even a movie out on it that I really really want to go see now. This novel was a best seller and a best book for good reasons, it was really good! It had such a unique take on things, especially since the narrator was none other than five year old Jack. This fiction novel could of been a terrible, typical story as I almost assumed it would be. But Jack kept things exciting, and the novel was a page turner for me. 5/5 stars, hand down.

This novel doesn't have chapters in the traditional sense, just as Jack and Ma's life aren't traditional. It bugged me at first to not have a stopping point when I had to put the book down, but it makes sense in the end.

We meet Jack and Ma in Room, where Ma has been for the past seven years and Jack his entire life. Ma was kidnapped when she was in college by Old Nick. Jack doesn't know anything about Outside, he's only ever been in Room. His life consists of only what's inside the four walls of Room, his Ma, and the routine that his Ma has created for him to help him be as normal as possible. Ma has done a really good job with what she's had, but her health is deteriorating and Ma knows they need to get out. She becomes desperate and starts to "unlie" to Jack, in that the things in TV do exists and Outside is a huge world that really exists. Jack is scared, but Ma knows they need out. Jack needs to be brave and they have to escape. Ma has tried before, sure, that's why there is no longer a cover on the back of their toilet when Ma tried to knock Old Nick out with it. So Ma concocts plan A and plan B to try and get out. Jack is terrified, their escape is on his shoulders.

Eventually, Jack and Ma do get out. They're ushered away to a private facility where Jack has to learn how to wear shoes, learn manners and boundaries. Ma has to get used to Outside too, the scars she bears in her mind are numerous and monumental. There's also reuniting with her family, and preparing to face Old Nick in court someday.

This novel is about the strength of the bond between parent and child, the resiliency of humans, the sensationalism of the press and how life is seen from the eyes of a child. This novel is powerful, a page turner, and heartbreaking all at once.

We'll Never Be Apart

I picked up We'll Never Be Apart by Emiko Jean and didn't put it down until I read the very last page. This novel was full of twists and turns, important mental health topics, some romance, as well as the topic of grief. While I guessed where this novel was headed pretty early (more than likely because I saw bits of Identical by Ellen Hopkins in it) the journey there was beautiful. This novel touched on hard topics in an approachable way. I believe very strongly in erasing the stigma surrounding mental illness and the best way to do that is education in my mind. But this novel didn't only deal with mental illness, it dealt a lot with grief, an area very much in my interest due to my work with Comfort Zone Camp.

In the novel we meet Alice, an identical twin who narrates this novel. We see Alice in two different ways; one in the present as she is committed in a mental ward at Savage Isle in Oregon, and another through her journal she writes while she is there, that looks back at her life. We learn of Alice and her twin sister Celia's hard upbringing from the moment their grandpa died and they became orphans. At that point, the Alice and Cellie decided to never be apart, no matter what. Cellie is obsessed with fire, and starting fire's seems to be the only thing that can truly calm her down. But fire causes destruction, and Cellie only causes more destruction with each new fire. So as Cellie got sicker and sicker, Alice would take blame for things and stick with her sister through it all. Through the endless merry go round of foster homes to Jason to Savage Isle to death and rebirth.

We meet Alice as she returns to Savage Isle after being in the hospital from a fire her sister set that killed her love, Jason, and nearly killed her. She's reeling from the death of Jason and trying to process his death when she learns she's being charged for his death, not just Cellie. We see Alice trying to cope with his death, and try to remember what really happened that night she escaped Savage Isle with Jason. We see the new relationships she forms with her roommate and the mysterious Chase. We see Alice break down and build back up. We see heartbreaking betrayals and portrayals of mourning.

What happens when Alice remembers what happened that night? What happens when Alice sets out to kill Cellie with Chase's help? Will Alice ever get her start at a new life apart from Cellie, where she can blossom and prove she's not one of "the fire setters."

We'll Never Be Apart is out in bookstores now :)

Fragile Bones

Fragile Bones, by Lorna Schulte Nicholson, is a refreshing, delightful and fast read. The two stars of the book, Harrison and Anna could not be more different. Harrison is 15 and has high-functioning Autism, which he would like you to know was called Asperger's before some people decided to change the rules. Harrison is obsessed with bones, and when overstimulated, finds comfort in the strange world he lives in by repeating all the bones in the human body. Harrison is also very concerned about driving safely, hates sauces on his food, doesn't like his food to touch and watches Grey's Anatomy every day after school at a particular time, because time is important too.

Anna and Harrison meet when a new club is formed at school, similar to a big buddy program, that matches kids with disabilities with "normal" students to expand their social skills. Anna is a perfectionist and wants to get this perfect, just as she's done everything else in her life. Harrison doesn't want anything to do with Anna, especially because she's 1) a girl 2) called during Grey's anatomy and 3) might wear high heels.

Throughout the novel, we see their relationship blossom, and the struggles and victories that Anna and Harrison have both individually and together. Anna becomes more personable, and realized everything isn't black and white, and not everyone fits in a perfect box. Just because you read something about autism, doesn't mean that's what autism looks like for everyone diagnosed. And Harrison learns that stepping out of your comfort zone can bring about good things every once in a while. 

I loved the approach this book took. I loved how the author expressed Harrison through simple language and made him approachable and easy to relate to. You can feel what Harrison is going through and easily have empathy for him. The novel makes you sit back for a moment and reexamine yourself, at least it did for me. I really enjoyed this novel and would recommend it to anyone.

Everything, Everything

Madeline would be your run of the mill, everyday teenager except for one huge exception; she's allergic to the outside world. She hasn't been outside of her house in years, and her nurses Clara is always by her side to make sure she stays safe and stays alive. The only other human contact Madeline gets is with her mother, a doctor herself. Madeline knows she has to stay inside, and has mostly been okay with her sheltered life since it keeps her alive and all. She still longs for the outside world though, to feel the grass under her toes and to hear the waves crash in the ocean.

Soon a new family moves in next door, and Madeline can't help buy spy on the only new thing in her life for the past several years. She begins to notice there's a boy her age, who she comes to learn his name is Olly, who doesn't have the best life. His dad is constantly yelling at him, abusive, and Olly frequently escapes to the roof of his house, spending hours up there where Madeline can't quite see from her bedroom window. Madeline starts getting more and more rebellious, as she falls for Olly who actually wants to seem to get to know her. She wants to meet him, but she knows its against all the rules and could kill her. After enough begging to her best friend nurse Clara, she relents and lets Olly come visit behind her mother's back.

Madeline feels electric and has fluttery butterflies whenever she's near Olly; she's falling in love. She continues to be more and more rebellious, until her mom find out that she's been sneaking about with Clara's help and fires Clara.

This is where the story gets interesting, awkward, and disappointing.

You see, Madeline's mom is the one who's sick, not Clara. Clara isn't actually allergic to the outside, something she discovers when she runs away to Hawaii with Olly. Her mom has convinced both herself and Madeline that she's allergic in order to protect her daughter. She's sick, and needs help. Madeline also needs help now. She has Olly by her side, but her immune system is so weak she's susceptible to anything because she's never been exposed to anything. So know what Madeline's line has effectively been ruined by her mother and she has to start over entirely, what comes next?

My bottom line: 3 star, well-written, deceptive in a bad way and left me upset and wanting more.

P.S. My intense physiology class is over and more regular posts should be in order!

Second Star

I couldn't help myself; I ran out and grabbed the only other novel by Alyssa Sheinmel that they had in stock. This one was Second Star, published last year and recently released in paperback. I didn't have as strong of a connection with it that I did with The Stone Girl, but it was still amazing. I can't get over how Sheinmel writes; her way with words is beautiful and music to my ears eyes. It took me no time at all to finish this novel and it kept my rapt attention until the very last page.

Wendy just graduated high school and is getting ready to go to Stanford University in the fall. Her best friend since Kindergarten, Fiona, is practically attached to her at the hip. But with Fiona's new boyfriend, Wendy feels pushed aside just a little, and as she gets wrapped in, and then obsessed with finding her twin brothers, John and Michael, who disappeared one day, things go sour. Wendy can't get over that her brothers are still out there, hiding in some surfing hide-out that they always talked about, still surfing every day. The case is already closed though; there was a huge surfing event up north where two young boys went missing, and while they're bodies were never found, fragments of their surfboards washed up. So when Wendy comes across this boy at the senior bonfire who is there one minute and gone the next, she can't get him out of her mind and is intrigued.

Wendy's journey starts with a drive up north trying to find a hide out surfing spot based on a picture that she is convinced her brothers left her as a clue. She finds the place after some searching, along with the boy from the bonfire. His name is Peter, and she's enchanted by him. She keeps on going back to this place, called Kensington, where all these under-aged surfers live at abandoned beach homes and surf all day long. Wendy starts surfing, keeping in mind that her brothers are the end goal. But while life at Kensington is all whipped cream with a cherry on top for a while, nothing good can last forever. Wendy learns that Peter was lying, he did know her brothers. She learns about the other side of the beach and the wild parties that happen all night long. That side of the beach belongs to the "dusters" aka the druggies. She learns Peter actually kicked her brothers out after they got addicted to the dust, and Wendy traipses over to the other side of the beach in search of answers. What she doesn't realize is that she walked over there during the middle of a wild party, and the entrance fee is taking a hit of the dust. Wendy doesn't react well at all, and eventually finds herself in the hospital. In a psychiatric ward to be exact, with doctors telling her she's suffered a psychiatric break from the grief. They tell her she made up Peter and the surfing; they tell her she's been on a wild cocktail of drugs for months. She tells them what they want to hear after a while, but gets lost in trying to figure out what was and what wasn't true.

When her parents want to send her to a treatment center in Montana, no where near the water, she freaks out and runs away from home again. This time though, it's with the drug dealer living on "the other side" of the beach at Kensington. But he appears to care so much, to get it. She travels with him all the way up the coast, while he maintains they're going searching for her brothers. But bad things happen up the coast, like Peter's friend Bella saying she actually saw her brothers drown. That she was there, and never told Wendy the whole time she lived at Kensington. She did live at Kensington right?

Will Wendy ever get her life sorted out? Can she determine if Kensington is a real place, or just a place in her mind that she created out of grief? Did Wendy ever really surf? Did Wendy try and kill herself up north to get close to her brothers again? Can Wendy resume her goody two shoes life she has had most of her life and get back on track to go to Stanford?

Pick up Second Star by Alyssa Sheinmel today and soon you'll find yourself picking up her other books as well!

NEED

When I saw an available arc by the amazing author Joelle Charbonneau, an author local to my area who wrote the amazing The Testing trilogy, I was bouncing up and down with joy. You see, I've had the pleasure to meet Joelle in person, and since I can clearly remember how amazing The Testing series was, I was super excited to get my hands on NEED. So it shouldn't come as any surprise that I read this book the same day I received it, neglecting all my other duties with no regrets. It was spectacular, and I savored every second I got to read NEED once it got going.

The basis for NEED is for you to ask yourself, what to you really NEED. Not want, but need. If you're a teenager in high school, there's probably a lot of things you think you need. Kaylee is the main star of the show, she's known as the crazy one because her brother is dying and needs a transplant to save his life, which has caused Kaylee to pull some dumb stunts in the name of love. Kaylee has a best friend who has a pretty big role in the novel, and is pretty much her one and only friend. There are a lot of other people, and a lot of different POV's going on, which can make this novel hard to follow in the beginning. I'm not a huge fan of lots of POV's and prefer one strong voice, but the novel was so intense and moving that once I figured out who was who and where they all were, I really didn't mind.

The basis is the novel is a mysterious website that pops up for this one high school, asking you to tell them what you need and in return you do something, prove it and they give it to you. Need a new cell phone? Invite six friends. But as the needs become greater, people pay a bigger price to access those needs. Pretty soon the entire high school is wrapped up in this cyber game that's about to destroy them all. Everything comes at a price, right? Apparently teenagers at this Wisconsin high school don't notice that until it's too late because they think they need the things they're asking for. Except they don't, they want it. There's one exception though, Kaylee does NEED the transplant for her brother. So she's really confused when the website takes forever to tell her to do anything. She isn't aware that it's because she actually asked for something she needs, not something she wants.

For a while, no one can see that the tragedies happening in this town are connected to NEED, especially since it's secretive and only the teenagers of the town know about it. The police can't get anywhere, and the teenagers are oblivious. With things starting to fall apart as people are getting hurt and nearly killed, Kaylee sees the truth and start searching for answers. She can see how the website is ruining lives and she knows it has to stop. With the help of others with her pleas, she gets on the track of discovering the truth behind NEED. But is it going to be too late to save herself, her brother, her best friend and others in her tiny city? Only time will tell who's behind NEED and if she can go from zero to hero in Nottawa.

Placid Girl

      Guys, this book gave me all the feels. A page turner that had me hooked from the start. I've been in a big of a reading slump for a while, and after just finishing a book I wasn't super impressed with, this was just what I needed. Enter Placid Girl, a novel by Brenna Ehrlich. We're introduced to Hallie, a semi-normal teenage girl who's in a band with her best friend Sarah. Hallie's a talented drummer, but is shy and almost always overshadowed by her loud, confident friend Sarah. So Hallie turns to a band called Haze during all of her free time. Haze is a mystery that Hallie has been trying to figure out for years; he wore a mask that never showed his identity, only came out with one album, and hasn't been heard from in five years now. Hallie is obsessed with Haze's music and the mystery behind it, which sets up the plot for this novel. When Hallie gets some new neighbors, a pastor and his son, Hallie largely ignores them at first. That is, until she learns the pastor's son, Steve, works at Hallie's favorite local record shop and is also obsessed with Haze. So when Steve has some information on Haze, like being related to Haze's drummer and having a copy of Haze's second album, Hallie is super intrigued. Then someone starts texting Hallie, seemingly knowing a lot of things about her and Hallie feels deep down that it's Haze. The twists and turns in this novel are exhilarating and keep you turning the page into the wee hours of the night because you just can't turn it down. When Hallie, Steve and Sarah set off to the city to find Haze once and for all, all kind of things can go wrong.

4.5/5 stars for this stunning novel.

One Two Three

I'm generally a sucker for novels involving dance or gymnastics - myself being a dancer at a very young age, and a gymnast for many years. So the novel One Two Three, by Elodie Nowodazkij, seemed right up my alley. What I didn't expect was the overabundance of romantic relationships woven in the story - I'm generally not a fan of romance novels. However, I still really enjoyed the novel and zipped through it in two days.

Natayla is seventeen years old, and is getting ready to start high school in a new state, a new town, at a new house. Well, kind of. It's at her grandmother's house, where her and her mom moved to after her father was killed in a car accident that nearly took Natayla's life as well. Nata used to be a dancer, an amazing dancer, but the car accident ruined her knee, and there was little hope that she'd ever be able to train as a dancer again. Nata was trying to come to terms with this, as well as her mother's alcoholism getting really bad while trying to settle into a town she'd only known from the summer's she spent there as a child. The one good thing was her best friend Becca, who was always there for her, even when Nata pushed her away after the accident.

The author does a great job of showing the character's emotions, and doesn't let Nata hold anything back. I felt with Nata the raw emotions she was going through, even though I've never been in a terrible car accident or lost my father.

Nata's first day of school isn't what she expected though, a boy named Tonio won't leave her alone, even though Nata wants nothing to do with her. But throughout the novel, he won't go away and Nata slowly finds herself falling for him. Their romance is a bit like Perfect Chemistry, but we also have Becca's love interest blossoming that changes it up a little.

Nata is scared though. She won't do anything that means leaving her mom home alone longer than she has to, because she needs to be there for her. She often finds her mom passes out on the floor, one two many bottles of alcohol. Nata yearns for a normal family situation like Becca has, and actually finds great comfort when Becca's mom Mina gets involved and sends Nata's mom to rehab. Nata gets to move in with Becca, and finally feels like she has a real family taking care of her. Her parents used to fight so often, and Nata always wished her parents were more like Becca's.

But when a family secret comes bubbling to the surface, and Nata knows everyone is hiding something, she becomes angry and not being able to deal with her emotions, turns to alcohol. She's knows it's bad - look at what it did to her mother - but she liked the numbness is gives her. Luckily, Becca's parents step in and put a stop to that before she falls down the rabbit hole, and it's only with her strong support system - including Tonio - that she is able to deal with the big family secret that comes out and work towards forgiving her mother.

This novel had so much information and events that I barely scratched the surface. What is the big family secret? Will Nata ever dance again? What eventually happens between Nata and Tonio?

Pick up this novel NOW to find out :)

Blind

The novel Blind, by Rachel DeWoskin, actually took me quite a while to read. Maybe it was because I was busy with school and work and life, or maybe the story didn't progress as fast as I wish it would have. However, I still really liked the novel - the author took time to develop all of the characters really well and while the plot was a bit broad, was well put together.

We enter Emma's life a year after she went blind from a fireworks accident in her tiny, nothing-bad-happens town. She was the talk of town for the entire year, as she struggled to relearn how to live her life without being able to see anything. She had to switch schools to a school for the blind, that focused more on how to do certain things that come easily to sighted people than focusing purely on schoolwork. Emma hated it there, and her main goal was to make it back to "normal" public high school. And as we enter Emma's story, she is ready to start her first day back to "normal" high school. She has her dog Spark by her side, a paraprofessional to help her out and her best friend Logan to help her. Things are different though still, she has to read in braille, and her para has to tell her what the teacher is writing on the board so that Emma knows what is going on. But Emma is getting by, until another huge event rocks her tiny nothing-bad-happens town. A teenager in the community goes missing, and soon turns up dead at the lake. What was a kidnapping situation is now clearly a suicide situation, and the town struggled to understand.

The rest of the novel really focuses on the kids of the town coming together at an old abandoned village to talk about Claire, the girl who committed suicide, and try to come to terms with it. They meet often, at night, and while fights are common, they're all there for each other to try and understand the tragedy that shook their already fragile town.

I feel the author did a really good job of developing the characters in this novel  - Emma comes from a large family, yet I felt I got to know each and every one of her siblings on a more personal level. We get to see how Emma interacts with different people, from her mom who blames herself and thinks hovering will stop anything else bad from happening to her twin sisters who are polar opposites. We learn about the mistake Emma made at her blind school with her friends she was developing there, and how she works to recorrect her wrongdoings towards the end of the novel.

This is a coming of age novel as Emma rediscovers and redefines herself as someone who is blind, a teenager who is blind and quickly approaching adulthood.

Probably my favorite part of Emma's story was her development of synesthesia, or the ability to hear words as colors. Each word or voice that Emma heard translated into a different color or scene in her mind. This disorder actually exists, and I really enjoyed the author delving into this disorder that is often not talked about.

DeWoskin did a really good job with wrapping up this novel, and her use of descriptive words and strong characters really enhanced this novel. It was amazing to me how well I could envision the scenes of everything, since Emma couldn't describe for herself what she could see! Emma had to rely on everyone else to tell her what was going on, if she couldn't depend on her other senses to let her know.

Naked

     Naked, by Stacey Trombley is a hauntingly beautiful novel. Naked is Trombley's debut novel, and an excellent one at that. I was actually reading a different book that was slow going, and raced through Naked in a couple of days. This novel was just published on July 7th, so go pick up your copy today!
     Exquisite is a 16 year old prostitute living in New York City, no stranger to sex and police stations, for that matter. But Exquisite wasn't always a prostitute - she used to be a girl named Anna who lived an hour outside of the city with her parents until she ran away at the age of 13. The novel opens up with Exquisite once again in a police station, but this time is different. A lady is sitting across from her who she decides is definitely NOT an officer. Her instincts are right - this lady is anything but, trying to coax information out of her without being violent - trying to help her. This lady, Sarah, soon offers Exquisite a way out of her prostitute life, which she is more than ready for. Exquisite had been living with a guy named Luis who sold her to men for money until he was done with her and sold her to a pimp, abandoning her. Sarah knows that Exquisite is really Anna, and wants to help reunite her with her family. After some time, Exquisite relents, and confirms she is Anna, and did run away from home when she was 13. Her parents are already at the station to take her home, but Anna is less than thrilled that this is the solution. There was a reason after all that Anna ran away from home at 13 and never came back.
    Anna goes back home, walking on eggshells. Not much has changed, just that her father views her as an even more vile human being and her mother is still submissive to everything her father says. Anna hasn't known parental love since she was a young child, and it doesn't appear moving back in after three years is going to help. But Anna has to move on, including going back to school and not getting into any more trouble. She soon starts school - a freshman in high school at 16 - and the rumors are there from the start. She constantly is stared and sneered at, hearing the words "whore" and "slut" flung at her from every direction. She doesn't know how she is going to handle it, until Jackson enters her life. Jackson lives down the street from Anna, and they soon become good friends. Jackson doesn't believe the rumors and their friendship blossoms. Anna feels safe with him, and Jackson stands up for her time and time again. But Jackson doesn't know the truth of Anna's part, and Anna is terrified to have him find out.
    It isn't until more and more threatening mysterious notes are dropped off in Anna's locker that she becomes concerned. She is finally fitting in - her classes are making sense, her relationship with her mother is improving, she has a few friends and she has rediscovered her passion for art. But these notes dropped off in her locker threaten the new life Anna has built for herself - they threaten to expose her, and Anna knows they are serious because they address her by her street name Exquisite.
    What happens when Anna is put in a situation where she is alone with the mysterious man putting notes in her locker? Will Anna be able to tell Jackson the truth and still keep him as a potential boyfriend? Will Anna be able to overcome her past and move on with her future.
    Find out when you pick up a copy of Naked, a choice you won't regret! :)

The Choice

      The Choice, by Allison J. Kennedy, is a wonderful masterpiece that everyone should experience reading. However, disclaimer, this book does deal with heavy issues surrounding trauma, and could potentially be quite triggering. When I received the ARC for this beautiful novel, there was a discretion warning on there, which I was very pleased they included. But back to the masterpiece.

      May is your typical high school teenager, with two best friends, a little sister and an independent personality. At the beginning of the novel, one of May's best friends, Addison, is in Italy exploring her heritage alone leaving the best friend trio out of sorts. So May and Danica are navigating high school together, with some drama thrown in. Their lives are normal and joyful, with thoughts of the future looming happily in heir minds. But one day, May is pressured by Danica to attend a party, and being the good best friend she is, she reluctantly goes ahead and attends. But that night May senses trouble and wants to leave, and when Danica breaks the promise that she'd leave with May if May wanted to,trouble brews and their lives are changed forever. After Danica is hurt, May is frustrated and tries to get away from the party I an upstairs bedroom. However, tragedy strikes when May is raped, and time stands still. 

      May rushes out of the house, trying to comprehend what has just happened to her, and without explaining why, drags Danica out with her. When the two have a knockout fight that same night, May is left alone and traumatized. She tells no one. The emotions that Adwen were able to portray in May's character are raw, passionate, encompassing and poetic. You can empathize with May in an uncanny way, experiencing how victims feel when everything was taken away from them without permission. May is sick of days, won't talk to anyone and retreats inward. She loses weight and can't feel anything besides sick and disgusted. 

      Addison finally returns home from her amazing trip to Italy, and May starts to pickup a little with her best friend by her side. She goes back to school, but has to endure sitting in the same room as her rapist for most of her classes. Addison soon (correctly) guesses what happens the "night she lost her virginity", and experiences May's pain with her. 

      In the background, May has started to heal a tiny bit by riding and taking care of her horse, a lifelong passion. At the horse barn, May spots a new guy riding a horse around the stables. She tries to hide, not anywhere near ready to get involved with the male species, but her interest is piqued at his natural ability. When he runs into her "accidentally," she's stunned that she is so relaxed around him. Alex has been through a lot in her life, and although at the time has no idea what trauma May has just endured, takes to her immediately. Alex is new to the area, his grandfather just passed away and as the only living relative left, he inherited his bookstore. After a cautious invitation is extended to May to come see the bookstore, May warily agrees. The more May gets to know Alex, the more comfortable she is, surprising herself. Even after they share their first kiss, May isn't terrified and still wants to be around Alex. Addison is concerned though - she thinks May is taking this way too fast so soon after her traumatic experience and warns May to be cautious. May understands this though, she just is enjoying feeling safe and comfortable to Alex's presence.

     But more is in store for May when she thinks she may be pregnant. She missed her always on time period, and then got some spot bleeding for a couple of days before it went away. She panics and calls Addison, and after a positive pregnancy test, May breaks down. She wants this child out of her - NOW. Abortion is the only thing on her mind, she can't believe the luck she has. After Addison texts her and her mom sees the text message, her whole family is in on what happened. But she doesn't let them know that she was raped, so they say hurtful things about her having unprotected sex and being unsafe, leading to becoming pregnant. Especially when she tells them she doesn't even remember who did it. Why is May protecting her rapist? She gently tells Alex, amazed he still wants to be near her, since she considers herself "damaged goods" now. But Alex is supportive more than ever, and just wants to be there for May. May is falling for Alex, and Alex seems to have already fallen for May.

    Addison is whole-heartily against May getting an abortion, and wants her to reconsider. But her amended, but still shaky relationship with Danica has improved, and she agrees to go with her to the clinic along with her mother while she gets the procedure done. More trials are ahead for May though. May starts to rethink if this is really the right thing to do, and in the meantime something tragic happens that will again change May's life forever.

   Is May ever going to be okay? Can she get through and past this trauma she's endured? Where is Alex and May's relationship going to end up?

    Kennedy gives short glimpses into May's future throughout the book, enough to keep you knowing that May will endure and will survive, and even come out happy on the other side. But these glimpses are infrequent and mysterious, until it all comes together at the end.

    There are so many twists and turns and emotions flooding throughout this masterpiece of a novel, I can't wait to get my hands on a physical copy and read it cover to cover again. Pick up this novel right now and read it! You won't regret it, it has quickly made its way onto my short list of favorite books of all time.

(Sorry about the two day delay, apparently I didn't figure out how to work Blogger's "publish on this day" function, Ugh!)
   

   

The Choice Blog Tour

On July 1st I will be posting a review of a very special book I had the opportunity to read. Stayed tuned for my review on The Choice by Allison J. Kennedy!! 

Every Fifteen Minutes

      Was on vacation the past ten days, sorry for the lack of posts! Didn't get as much reading done as I thought I would on the trip, but I'm back in action now. :)

     
      Every Fifteen Minutes is Lisa Scottoline’s brand new novel. I’ve loved her previous novels Look Again and Save Me, so I went out and bought this one the day it came out. The novel is primarily about a psychiatrist, Dr. Parrish and a new patient of his, Max. Though I thought the novel was pretty straight forward for about half of the book, the complexity really built and built until the very last page. I appreciate Scottoline’s attention to detail and how she can keep you so engaged while pulling a story together in a satisfying ending.
     I regret to say I almost gave up on this novel though, halfway into this 432 page novel, I was bored. I couldn’t figure out where the author was leading me, why there was no excitement really happening, and what the whole point of the novel was even about! But I have only ever not finished readying one novel in my life, and I was determined to push through my boredom and finish this book. Besides, I love this author, psychology, and I was already over 200 pages in! And boy, am I so glad I stuck with this novel through the end. It kept me guessing until the end, and the ending completely shocked me! I’m usually a decent predictor, so bravo Scottoline.
     Max comes to see Dr. Parrish after his dying grandmother, whom he is the caretaker of, requests a consult for his grandson Max. Dr. Parrish is worried and agrees to see him as a private client. They see each other three times, before Dr. Parrish’s world explodes like he could of never imagined. In those three sessions, Dr. Parrish confirms that Max as Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, or OCD, and is depressed with suicidal tendencies. But when his grandmother passes, he breaks, and goes missing. Soon, a young lady Max was obsessed with is found dead, Max has taken hostages inside a mall and Dr. Parrish is in trouble with the law because he is following patient confidentiality laws.
     However, Max’s story wasn’t really the main story line throughout this novel, and that took me a while to understand. It’s so much more complex than that, and so much more about Dr. Parrish. Dr. Parrish has recently gone through a divorce and is battling custody over their daughter Hannah. He had an incident in the hospital with a client and got him in trouble, a student on a psychiatric rotation accused him of sexual harassment and he was soon suspended as Chief of the Psychiatric Unit. Dr. Parrish’s life appears to be in shambles, but he’s determined to get to the bottom of what’s going on - especially because he believes Max didn’t murder the young lady, Renee.
     In the last twenty percent or so of the novel, all the pieces come together. We discover how Dr. Parrish was set up by a colleague who he respected, and that his maybe girlfriend Laurie was actually a sociopath. We learn that Dr. Parrish’s relationship improves with his ex-wife and he gets to be a larger part of his daughters life. We can follow how Dr. Parrish pieced everything together, but how much of a fight it was to have people believe him. In the end, Max is sent to a detention center for his hostage stint at the local mall, but is doing much better and making great progress. Dr. Parrish’s life is put back together, and he stands up for himself against the hospital administrators and resumes his chief post after the fake allegations are cleared.
    When you read this book, be patient through the first half. Absorb the details and try and enjoy the story - because you’re in for a real treat when you get to the second half and finish the novel. This novel makes you think for days afterward, and for me, that  makes me admire and respect Scottoline a million times more. I can’t wait to read her next novel, whenever that may be, whatever subject it may be about.

In Search Of Sam

      This beautiful novel, In Search of Sam, by Kristin Butcher is technically a sequel to the novel Truths I Learned From Sam, but it works well as a stand alone novel as well. I did not read the first novel, and never felt confused or like I was missing any important details. However, I will probably seek out and read the first novel since I enjoyed this one so much. Also, throughout this novel I had to remind myself that it is in fact fiction, because some of the happenings going on are a bit far-fetched for an 18 year old girl to make happen.
     Dani is a fierce, independent 18 year old girl who lives with her mother and step-father. She spent the past summer with her biological father - not nearly long enough - before he was diagnosed with terminal cancer and died soon after. Upon his death, Dani learns that she is to inherit everything that belonged to her father Sam. So Dani decides to take a solo trip to meet the lawyer who handled Sam's affairs, much to the concern of her mother. The story doesn't stop here though, because Sam wants more information. Her father was an orphan, left on the doorstep of a family in a small city named Farrow, before he was removed by Canadian Services at the age of six due to not being properly adopted by the family he stayed with. Dani wants answers - Where did her father come from? Who were his real parents? What else can she find out about Sam that will bring her closer to him?
      In Farrow, Dani becomes charmed with the decaying city and has hopes and dreams of turning the place around. She meets Alex, an incredibly talented artist, who ends of being an essential piece of her family tree. She befriends the lady at the bed and breakfast she is staying at and comes up with dream and ideas to resurrect Farrow. Then, while still searching for anything linked to her father, she puts her plans in motion. She calls upon Sam's good friend to help organize the town's revival, her step-father in hopes he will set up a distribution center in Farrow to create jobs and more.
     But does Dani get the answers she's looking for about her father, Sam? And is she able to pull off resurrecting the almost ghost-city Farrow? This novel is one of determination, self-discovery and coming of age. The story line was great, the ending was perfect. I did not want to put this novel down. I'm looking forward to more novels by Butcher in the future!

Weight of Guilt

     The Weight of Guilt, by Jon Ripslinger, is a young adult novel featuring John Hawk. John Hawk, by his own words, is cursed. He was at a party with his girlfriend Riley, and when driving her home taking back roads, was hit by a car that killed Riley. John walked away with minor injuries, and everyone blamed him for Riley's death. Racked by guilt for a crime he didn't commit, John goes to live with his sister to finish out high school. His plan is to blend into the background and don't make a commotion - go unnoticed and don't cause any trouble.
     This plan doesn't work for long, as the principal's daughter Megan has set her eyes on John. Soon, Megan has cornered John and convinced him to go to prom with her. After prom, Megan drops John off at his house and they have plans for the next day. But Megan goes missing, and all fingers point to John. With John's history with the law, everyone is quick to judge and call him guilty. But John is innocent, and can't believe what he's gotten himself in to.
     The second half of the novel really picks up, with exciting turns and twists at every page turn. Megan's best friend Charly gets involved when Megan turns up dead, believing John when he says he's innocent. The two get involved with some evil people who want to keep them quiet, and they are in for the fight of their life to stay alive.
     What happens to John and Charly? Who killed Megan? Why is John cursed and will his dad ever believe him that he's not involved? Find out when you pick up and read The Weight of Guilt!

Paper Towns

      Paper Towns, by John Green, is a coming of age novel about two seniors who have grown up together as neighbors. I admit, I constantly passed this book in the bookstore and never picked it up to read. Everyone seemed to be raving about it, especially after the success of The Fault in Our Stars by the same author. But it wasn't until I saw a preview of the movie of this book that I actually went down and bought and read it. This book kept my attention throughout for the most part, yes, but it was very underwhelming and I hated the unsatisfying ending. I wanted to throw the book after I finished the last pages, actually.
     So, the chick in the novel, Margo Roth Spiegelmen, is the all-American girl and neighbor, Quentin. Quentin is the main voice of the novel, and Q is in complete love with Margo. So one night, after they haven't spoken in years, Margo appears in Quentin's window in the middle of the night to have an epic adventure. I am hooked at this point in the novel, I love that Margo is going around doing these things teens only ever dream of. But then Margo goes missing the next morning, seemingly haven run off, as she has done in the past. This adventure seems amazing, but far fetched as they are very unprepared, basically stay up driving the entire time, get in a car crash with no damage or injuries and find Margo.
    But something happens when they find Margo that didn't really sit well with me, or with other people either it seems as I read some reviews. What happens to Margo and Quentin? Well you better read to find out...or just watch the movie when it premiers later this year :)
    My verdict: 3.4 stars, and yes, I'll probably still go see the movie. 

Painless

      I had really high expectations for Painless, especially after reading an except from Buzzbook's 2015 YA release. However, I feel the author, S. A. Harazin, tried to accomplish too much in this short novel.

      David Hart is a seventeen year old with CIPA. CIPA is an extremely rare, fatal disease where one cannot feel pain, produce tears or regulate one's own body temperature. Most born with CIPA die before they are teenagers, and it's a miracle that David's grandparents have kept him alive this far. David needs constant care in order to make sure his body isn't over or under-heating and that he doesn't have any potentially fatal injuries that he can't feel.

      David lives with his grandmother because his mother abandoned him as a baby and his father, seemingly unable to care for David's medical leaves, also abandoned David at his grandparent's house and never came back. David has always wanted to find his mother and father (and laugh in their faces!) and begins the journey to find them during this novel.

      This novel takes you on a journey through David's sheltered eyes to find love, independence and freedom. 

      Now..where I think the author lost a lot of people in this novel was in the overuse of medical problems the characters were given. This novel is pretty complex, which I praise it for, and makes it hard for me to give a brief review on, but you have David's CIPA, his grandmother's dementia and  Luna's cancer to deal with just to list a few. I think if the author had just fully focused on CIPA, a rare disease itself, that a lot more could of been accomplished. Instead, David fell a little flat at me for times because he wasn't always the focus, even though he's the main character.

     Overall, I did enjoy the book, I just wasn't fully satisfied by it.

The Memory Hit

     Wow. This book. It is odd. It is exciting. It is intense. It is not what I expected it to be. The blurb I got from the publishers said it was about two people, Jess and Cooper and how their lives interact on New Years' Day because of a (fictional) drug called Nostalgex, that lets you relive memories. So I was expecting this drug to basically be all about this Nostalgex drug, and thought it had amazing potential. It wasn't though; BUT that didn't make the book bad, I actually really enjoyed the novel. While I do wish the author, Carla Spradbery, delved more into Nostalgex and the possibilities of it, she still crafted a wonderful suspenseful novel. My only complaints would be that it was a bit short, the ending was rushed, and it was hard at times to remember who's voice you were reading from - they weren't differentiated well.
     Basically, Jess is dating Luke, and was dating Cooper. Cooper's best friend is Jag, his ultimate sidekick. Cooper has a sister, Amy and Luke has a twin sister, Hannah. Then there's best friend Scarlet and the villains Leon and Whiteface.The scene set's up between a fire at Scarlet's house when Scarlet is talking to Luke with a conversation that Jess overhears and misinterprets. Then there's Cooper who has been sent to do a "dash and run" by Jag for alcohol, but find himself knocked out by Leon with a backpack full of Nostalgex and a bunch of money he now owes. The whole crowd collides at the hospital, and the book's adventure goes from there. There are so many questions that the reader has, that it keeps on turning page after page. What happened between Jess and Cooper? What's going on with Luke? How did Cooper end up with the Nostalgex? Who is the mysterious Whiteface?
    The novel takes place over a couple of intense action-packed days and in the last ten percent of the book, tragedy strikes over and over, along with solving the mystery of Whiteface.
     The Memory Hit is a YA thriller for sure, and I recommend it whole-heartily.

If You're Lucky

      This novel doesn't come out until this coming fall, but it's well worth the wait. I devoured this book in less than half a day, and it was way better than I could of ever imagined.
       In the beginning of the novel we learn that the main character, Georgia, has just learned her adventurous brother Lucky has drowned while surfing in Australia. This comes as a shock not only to George, but to their entire small community in California. You see, Lucky was adventurous, but never dangerous - he knew how to be safe by reading the waves and keeping track of the rip tides. So how did Lucky end up drowning, was it a horrible accident like everyone believes, or was someone behind Lucky's death?
      When Lucky's family hosts a party in memory of his life, people from all over the world fly in to celebrate - Lucky made friends really easily and was well loved by everyone. But a guy claiming to be Lucky's best pal, Fin, sticks around after all the other friends leave and seems to charm everyone in the small city. Soon, Fin is everyone, almost taking the life of Lucky - becoming Lucky. George is suspicious - but she also has schizophrenia and hasn't been taking her medications. Is she imagining things as her mental illness spirals out of control, or is she onto something?
      This story beautifully details the descent of schizophrenia - an often taboo subject that isn't often seen in fiction books. The author, Yvonne Prinz, stays away from classic cliche's and really lets the reader get to know the characters in the story - they became my friends, my enemies and I felt empathy and the whole gauntlet of emotions for them as they experienced them. A wonderful tale of loss, love, mental illness and life, I recommend this story for everyone.

The Haunting of Sunshine Girl

      The Haunting of Sunshine Girl, written by Paige McKenzie and based on the well-known YouTube series, is fast paced, exciting and a great read. We quickly find out in the novel that the main character Sunshine, is forced to move from her hometown in Texas to a small town in Washington. Sunshine tells her mother multiple times that the house they moved into is "creepy," and her mother soon starts to get annoyed. Once an inseparable mother-daughter pair, the two drift apart throughout the novel.
      Sunshine is convinced a ghost lives in the house, particularly a ghost of a little girl. The pressure mounts throughout the novel, as Sunshine befriends a boy in her class who believes her, and things start to get more and more scary. The two soon discover Sunshine is special, very special in the paranormal world, and must past a test to save her mother from certain death. Sunshine is scared out of her wits as she comes to terms with her special powers and seeks revenge on the evil spirit in the house that terrifies the little ghost girl and is taking over her mother.
    Sunshine needs to figure out what's going on, how to abolish the spirit and save her mother in this thrilling novel.

Scream

      The third novel in the Lakeview Series by Stacey Campbell, we now see an older Halle at boarding school. The novel starts off on a ferry ride back to campus, in which Halle's boyfriend wanders off to take a breather and finds himself witnessing a murder. He can't let go of what he sees, as he starts to connect the dots that the school's cook is the murderer. The other school cook, the wife, gets suspicious and frames Alex in order to get him expelled from school. While she is successful in getting Alex kicked off, Halle can't let it go that Alex is gone and starts her own investigation. She blossoms a new friendship with Alex's roommate who she had first blamed, and the two of them work on bringing Alex back. Halle is daring and adventuresome, and lacks some common safety sense, but is relentless in bringing Alex back. After worrying her entire family overseas, they swoop in the nick of time to help keep Halle safe and bring justice to Alex. Another exciting novel from Campbell, I can't wait to read the next, and will be sad when this series is over!
      Sorry for the short review this time around, I have a few books I've yet to review and they're all jumbled in my head right now! Serves me right for not reviewing them right away. There's that whole memory issue going on right now too - yikes.

I Was Here

  

      I Was Here, by Gayle Forman, is a beautiful YA novel about the often taboo subject of suicide. Cody and Meg are inseparable, but when Meg goes off to college and commits suicide, Cody is blindsided and can't come to terms with Meg's death. She sets off on a wild adventure to discover why Meg did this and try and bring justice to Meg's death. Cody discovers that Meg had a whole hidden life in Seattle at school, and even a secret life in their time home town. She finds out about Ben, the boy Meg had sex with; about the cats Pete and Repeat that Meg rescued; and finally about the pro-suicide forums that Meg frequented in the days leading up to her planned death. She tracks down a man Meg talked to often who encouraged her to "catch the bus," aka kill herself. But Meg also discovers herself on this trip, as someone independent from the pod of Cody and Meg, and comes to terms with Meg's death after talking to her second family, Meg's family, about everything she found.
      Forman set me on a roller coaster of an adventure through this novel, I was hooked from page one, lost the strong connection of the book after a bit, and gained it back that led me off smiling as I finished the book. Not only does this novel cover suicide, this novel touches on relationships, religion, family life and ore. This is a fantastic coming of age novel that I encourage anyone to read. It doesn't weigh down on you, yet it keeps a trained focus on the serious topic at hand. It is moving, it is brilliant, it is daring.

Whisper

     

      Whisper, by Stacey Campbell, is the second in the Lakeview series. While the novel can stand alone, I do recommend getting the back story from Hush. I really enjoyed Whisper, so much in fact that I'm halfway through the third book, Scream. Stay tuned for that review soon!
      Whisper centers around a boarding school in Canada that ranges from 8-12th graders. One of those students is Halle, whom this novel focuses on. Her older sister, Blakely, is the center of the first novel Hush. Halle is super excited to attend Lakeview, where her sister attended for five years. One of her sister's best friends, Leigh, is a year 12 at the school and takes Halle under her wing. The premise of this novel is about a ghost, Elsie, who was the school's founders daughter. Halle becomes wrapped up in this when she discovers Elsie's journal under a floorboard when volunteering to clean their old apartment. Elsie starts to overtake Halle's life, giving her nightmares and appearing to be moving things around when Halle isn't there. Halle learns through the journal that Elsie hid the school's flag and crest shortly before she died, and Halle is on a mission to find these items to set Elsie's spirit free.
      Meanwhile, we learn about Leigh and her troubled past with a boy in her grade, Calum. The two used to date, but after a nasty mysterious breakup, the two hate each other. Unfortunately, Leigh's best friend at school is going out with Calum's best friend and the two are forced to be civil with one another. But the chemistry between them still runs hot and the long school take of someone from each class eventually getting married has the talk around campus.
      In this second novel in the Lakeview series, relationships develop and a ghost is chased while attending boarding school. Halle is the sister of a princess in Europe, trying to forge her own story at Lakeview. Between dodging Missy the bully and falling for her roommate's twin brother, this novel is filled with ups and downs that can excite any reader. I'm not normally one for a romance novel, but this doesn't read as another teen romance flick.

Rosie Rinkstar

      Rosie Rinkstar, by Janet Rosina West, was a short sweet read that I finished quickly. The novel did take me a bit to get into, but I think that was in part due to all the British words thrown in that I'm not familiar with. Also, this book did read younger than YA to me, which was probably why I got through it as fast as I did.
      Anyways...this novel revolves around the life of Rosie, who is an aspiring ice skater. She lives at home with her mother and annoying little sister Bernice. She is very close to her Nan who lives nearby, and plays a special role in this book. Rosie hasn't been skating long, but is good at what she does, as evidenced in the opening of the book when she has "tests" for her skating. We learn throughout the novel that Rosie and her family don't have a lot of money, and Rosie is very aware of how much skating costs, as well as how much gymnastics costs, which her little sister is a part of. Bernice, her little sister, seems to always get her way, and when she needs more advanced classes she gets them. This hurts Rosie, who is forced to say goodbye to ballet classes due to an increased cost, and may soon be out of a ride to the skating rink.
      Rosie's best friend Sergio is also a skater at the rink, and his father is the best coach at the rink. After the confident rich Lulu confronts them for help with a fellow skater, The Princess, they all come together along with the scary new guy in class, Solomon. The unlikely five bond together and work towards helping The Princess, which leads to Sol and Lulu dating and Sergio and Rosie being able to skate together as pairs.
      This short, sweet novel all works out to a happy ending, but not without a few twists and turns along the way. Rosie is easy to connect to for me, as I once shared the same passion for a different sport and have a young annoying sibling as well.

Dancing Through It

 
      I certainly seem to be on a roll with memoirs. This memoir, Dancing Through It by Jenifer Ringer was right up my alley. It is about life as a professional dancer, life as a Christian gaining and losing and regaining her faith and touches on Ringer's struggles with eating disorders as well. I've always been fascinated with dancers, I was a gymnast and found that they were both so similar and so different than myself. Ringer was just 16 years old when she became a professional dancer in New York, and worked her way up the ranks to principal dancer; but she had a emotional and physical roller coaster on her journey there. Ringer even found herself cut from the company at one point when her eating disorder was out of control, and it took the man she would eventually marry and finding Christ again to obtain control over her eating disorder and return to life as a professional dancer. This memoir is filled with emotions ranging from euphoria to despair as Jenifer matures and becomes an adult. I really enjoyed the glimpse into the dance world that Ringer offered, and was done with this book in under a day.
      Fleeting at times, the memoir does skip around some to seemingly unconnected events of Ringer's life. She goes from talking about her favorite dances in exquisite detail to talking about finding Christ which enabled her to recover from two opposite eating disorders. Once I accepted that this was Ringer's voice though, I enjoyed following around her thoughts on paper - it is her story, and this was how she knew best to share it.
      At the end of the memoir, we find Ringer happily married, with two children and still a professional dancer at the age of 40. I certainly didn't know there were professional dancers at the age of 40 - my gymnastics career was half of hers!
     All in all, I really enjoyed this memoir, and found myself pretending to be a ballerina in my room late at night. This memoir covers the good and the bad of the dancing world, and is rich in its writing.

Friday Never Leaving

I admit - this novel took me a long time to get through. But once I hit the second half a month into the book, I couldn't put it down and finished it at four in the morning, putting it down only to eat dinner and get ready for bed. This novel made me feel. It felt like I was one of the crew, one of the lost kids in the novel who were fighting for their survival, living together as a dysfunctional family. I smiled, I laughed and I cried ugly tears. Friday Brown just recently lost her mother to cancer, her father having never been a part of her life. She is sent to live with her cranky old grandfather, and leaves almost instantly, determined to keep the nomadic lifestyle she had with her mom, and find her dad. But her plan goes astray when another teenager, Silence, finds her at the train station and whisks her away. Here begins Friday's journey with a hodgepodge of other teenagers living on their own. Eventually the novel brings the crew to an abandoned city in the middle of nowhere where the book really picks up. Knowing the background that the author brought in during the first half of the novel, we see the true colors of most of the characters during the second half of the novel when things really get going. But no spoilers here, just a reminder to keep with this book through the beginning, it's worth it to get to the good stuff. While the very end confused me a bit, and I feel I might have missed something with taking so long to read this novel, I have no qualms against rereading Friday Never Leaving to put all the pieces together. I can't say that about very many novels I've read in my lifetime.

The Body Tourist

      Wow. I finished The Body Tourist a good 24 hours ago, and my mind can't let go of this book. I've been trying to figure out how to put into words how amazing the memoir is, but my words will never do Shavin's own words justice. Shavin eloquently details her life, beginning when she is a young adult and getting her first "real" job in a halfway house for drug and alcohol addicts. She is young and naive, and thinks that she can hide her half-ass recovery from everyone. Hospitalized years ago for Anorexia Nervosa, Shavin will continue to struggle with this disease throughout the book. As you relive her relationships, trials and growth, you will see that her Anorexia will always be there, following her like a black cloud. As you read, you will notice that Shavin is able to look back on those years, and see that her relationship and housing choices were a direct reflection of how she thought about herself. You will see that Anorexia is not just about food and the body, it's about control. Shavin lets you see her fall down, and pick herself up again. Shavin also lets you see how she grows from a naive counselor at a halfway house, to a graduate student for Psychology, to a new professional working with clients she never thought she wanted to work with, to finally realize her calling as an artist.
      This memoir offers an important window into someone suffering from an eating disorder, and how is permeates their entire life, not just their thoughts surrounding food and weight. But Shavin doesn't let the novel be ONLY about her eating disorder, it is about her life, which is more than Anorexia.

Alex: The Life of a Child

      Alex Deford was an incredible little girl who passed away at the tender age of 8 due to Cystic Fibrosis. Her father wrote this memoir in memory of his daughter and it is both touching and memorable. I have to admit, at times I SOBBED while reading this incredible story. Alex's father, Frank, writes with such emotion and detail that it is easy to visualize Alex in the flesh. You can feel her pain she endures from daily treatments to help her breathe better, and you can feel the joy she exudes to everyone she is around. You can feel the despair Alex has as she is dying; as she is forced to spend more time in the hospital. You can feel the fear that Alex has of dying in the hospital, and you can feel the loss when Alex's dad recalls her final days. I would recommend this book to anyone, it's a must read. It shows just how far medicine has come in the past 30 years, and the grim outlook children with CF had 30 years ago. Alex touched so many people, and Alex's father included notes from her classmates and adult friends she made during her short 8 years on this planet. Frank tells a story of Alex that displays her as wise beyond her years. She rarely complained, cared for others and was a bright star during her time on this planet. This memoir also gives you a glimpse into how Alex's parents handled her disease and ultimate death.
      This novel makes you feel. It's a touching book that you won't forget anytime soon. Go out and read this memoir ASAP!
     

My Entrance to the Blogworld

Hi!

My name is Brittany and I'm a 22 year old young adult living in the northwestern suburbs of Chicago. Born and raised in Southern California, I'm still a newbie to the Chicagoland area. After graduating from UCSD in June 2014, I moved to the midwest to begin grad school at The Chicago School of Professional Psychology. I'm also a barista at Starbucks, where I've been for almost two years.

More about me...I love to travel, I love to learn, I love adventure and activities that get my adrenaline rushing. I enjoy coffee, my mom's pancakes on Sunday mornings, and swimming with manatees in Cozumel.

In my free time I read. I read books. A lot of books. However, with past medical conditions that have affected my memory, I don't always remember books after I read them. But I still love to read. So that puts me here, at this new blog. A little corner of the blogworld to call my own, where I can read books and review them. I've been blessed to be able to review ARCs of books before they're published, so some of the reviews of books I post here will be ARC reviews. I'm really excited for those. Books that appeal to me include cooking/baking books related to the vegan and gluten-free world, YA novels, memoirs, new adult, psychology focused books and just popular fiction.

Obligatory favorite "adult" author: Jodi Picoult
Obligatory favorite "YA" author: Scott Westerfeld

Thanks for stopping by,

Brittany