Review: What a Boy Wants by Nyrea Dawn

What A Boy Wants by Nyrae Dawn
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

One of these days I'll get back to some paranormal stuff but this is not that day. Tomorrow isn't looking good, either.

What can I say about this story? Not a lot if you want me coherent. The short form: Loved it. Lots.

Sebastian was a cocky, arrogant know-it-all of a guy. I knew a few of them when I was in high school and I think everyone can say the same. The best part of this book, though, is not only that it's told entirely through his PoV, it's told effectively. He's not the "what a girl thinks a guy is" but a real guy. I could hear his thoughts, even his words, in my son's voice. Or those of his friends.

He wasn't perfect, he made stupid mistakes, seriously stupid mistakes that made me want to yell at him through the page. The awesome factor of this story is that even though he was stupid, I loved him anyway. Loved him in spite of it. Watching him come to terms with who he is, the reality that he not only didn't know it all...that he really knew nothing at all? Made for an incredible journey that I will most likely read again. And again.

It's a love story, yes, but it's also a young man's journey of finding himself as he loses everything that matters.

This review started as four stars, but the more I wrote, the more I knew I was off by one.


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Review: The Edge of Never by JA Redmerski

The Edge of Never by J.A. Redmerski
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Going to round up on this one because it falls more at 3.75 than a full four stars.

I fell right into the book headfirst. In fact, the first 50% of it flew by as I got to know Camryn and Andrew. The POV shift didn't bother me at all, especially since it wasn't ever a rehashing of what we'd just seen through Camryn's eyes, but Andrew taking over from the moment of the switch onward.

My worries that it would turn into a sexcapade once the sex line had been crossed were for naught, but started headshaking a little. For all Camryn's confessions that she liked it rough, and to be forced...that only ever happened in the book once. Before she told him that that was what she liked. The only other time he backed her into a corner, metaphorically, it had nothing to do with sex at all. Maybe I need to go back and re-read, but I don't remember a whole lot of headboard-rattling rough stuff going on. Camryn didn't seem to mind...so I guess I shouldn't either. It just seemed a little inconsistent.

One thing I did love - Andrew was a guy. A real one. His thoughts, what he said, the way he said it, all rang true. It's semi-rare to find this, especially in young adult novels, and it's refreshing as hell when I do stumble onto one of them.

There is a twist at the end that seriously had me guessing and was expertly handled throughout the book as so vague that I didn't have a clue until right before the bomb dropped, but still hinted at enough that it didn't come out of left field.

Overall, it was an enjoyable read if not overly burdened with an overarching plot. It's the story of two people in their early twenties meeting and travelling the road not taken and handling the curves thrown at them during the trip.

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Review: Lola and the Boy Next Door by Stephanie Perkins

Lola and the Boy Next Door by Stephanie Perkins
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I seriously wanted to love this one as much as I did Anna's story. But very seriously, the best part of Lola's story for me were the parts with Anna and Etienne, and the glimpses into their lives after graduation.

I had a hard time connecting to Lola, which is strange considering I was an individualist just like her. Okay, not to her extreme with wigs and the costumes she put together, but I did spend a week walking around my high school with a Peter Pan hat from Disneyland. I think the reason I couldn't connect were the mixed reasons why. For the majority of the book, I was under the impression that she dressed the way she did for precisely the reasons Max fired off at her - because she didn't like who she was, or to be thought of as anything like her mother. Then Max asks which one he's talking to - because, yes, Lola lies, and she lies a lot. That's when it comes clear that she does it to express who she is. Okay. It's kind a willful misdirection, and it didn't help me connect.

About the lies. Imho, she has no right to get pissy with him for not trusting her. She lied and he drew him into a relationship that could have gotten him jailed. Then, to be super honest, if her dads didn't like her with Max, and they seriously did seem to utterly loathe him, they'd have had him arrested for statutory.

I also had a seriously hard time connecting to a guy named Cricket. Maybe it's because I had a friend growing up and we called her Cricket (her real name was Cathy) but whenever I read the name, I saw my friend, not a hot guy in tight pants (and no, I'm not going to comment on the reactions to the hot pants from Lola, or from her Dad...ugh.)

I spent most of the book wanting to punch Calliope, and frankly, punch Lola, too. And maybe, just maybe, I liked Max a lot better than Cricket. He was a strong character, he loved her, and he called her on it when she started lying to him again. Cricket was just a little too weak to really have me falling in love with him.

I did start to like it more when Lola grew up a little, when she stopped lying to everyone, including herself, and her making the costume for Calliope made me smile.

So it wasn't an all out loss, but it's not one I'll be going back to.

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Review: Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins

Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Ah, one of those times where reading a YA book as an adult hinders the process just a little.

I call it the smack factor...or how many times I wanted to reach through the kindle screen and give Anna a good smack in the head. The author in me wants to call it a flaw in her character development...but then my head reminds me that 44 has a way of forgetting the impulsive nature of 17. Then I remember, and I realize how well she was written and how true to life.

The only real thing that knocked this down a star was pacing. In this case, the whole bit with Dave. While it was a necessary plot twist, and lead to the ultimate end-game of their story, it seemed sort of thrown in. "We kissed, we were dating, it goes boom."

Even with that little bump in the pace, Anna's story is a strong one and written in such a delightfully refreshing voice that I laughed out loud several times. I could hear Anna in my head so clearly, it felt like she was sitting across the room from me, curled up on her bed, and telling me all about her nine months in Paris.

And Etienne. Beautiful, flawed, uncertain, angry. Everything. I loved and hated him for all those things, mostly, though, because he *wasn't* the perfect guy. He made mistakes, he screwed up huge, but in the end, it was the way they learned from them that won the day.

I'm never going to look at Notre Dame the same way again, either.


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Review: Pushing the Limits by Katie McGarry

Pushing the Limits by Katie McGarry
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I need more stars.

This book, in short, blew me away. The realism of the characters, their very real pain as they worked through their very different problems and the way they found each other, lost each other, and found their way back.

Even though it dealt with very real issues, the story maintained a heavy dose of real. Yes, both characters had problems, they had anger and sorrow and confusion. But that wasn't *all* they had. They also smiled some, laughed some. When the heartbreak came there was sadness, maybe even a little emo, but it wasn't the all consuming angst-fest I've seen in other books.

I think what I loved most was that Noah was a guy. Kind of reminiscent of Reid in Webber's Between the Lines series - when he was a dick, he thought it, he knew it...and did it anyway. Felt bad after, yeah, but it didn't stop him. As the mother of an 18 year old, I could see my son and his friends acting just like this. Soft centers, especially concerning the ones they hold in their hearts, but still the same gruff exterior they show the world.

Echo's journey to remembering was as painful as Noah's struggle about his brothers, both of which wrenched my heart into pieces at times. Wrenched, then soothed, then angered, then made my heart sing.

I got this book as a library book on my kindle...but I know for damn sure that I'll be buying my own copy to reread often.

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Review: Cursed by Jennifer Armentrout

Cursed by Jennifer L. Armentrout
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Hmmm. I'm still trying to decide what I think about this one.

Overall, it was a well told story. Interesting worldbuilding with the Gifted, the menace of the Facility, the creepy pseudo-sinister "family" that abducts/protects Olivia and Ember. And I did like that part of it. I think the reason it's at 3 stars rather than four or five because I never really connected with the characters. Not Ember so much, because she was a very well-crafted character. I think the problem is that Armentrout did *too* good a job of making Hayden shady. (view spoiler)[ So much so that when Ember found and read the files, and read all the info Theo had planted in her mind, my first guess was that Hayden was making her believe she was seeing something different than what she'd seen at first. (hide spoiler)]

Because of this, I guess I didn't really connect with Ember and Hayden, kept waiting for another option. Gabe, maybe? I dunno. That, and the animosity in the house felt like it just resolved too quickly. No small moments that indicated a softening of attitudes, more all of the sudden, things are rainbows.

Overall a good read, but not one that's going to cause much in the way of book hangovers.

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