[Review] Dare you To

English Hardcover

English Paperback Cover

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‚Dare you To‘ by Katie McGarry

Pushing the Limits # 2

Synopsis:
If anyone knew the truth about Beth Risk’s home life, they’d send her mother to jail and seventeen-year-old Beth who knows where. So she protects her mom at all costs. Until the day her uncle swoops in and forces Beth to choose between her mom’s freedom and her own happiness. That’s how Beth finds herself living with an aunt who doesn’t want her and going to a school that doesn’t understand her. At all. Except for the one guy who shouldn’t get her, but does….
Ryan Stone is the town golden boy, a popular baseball star jock-with secrets he can’t tell anyone. Not even the friends he shares everything with, including the constant dares to do crazy things. The craziest? Asking out the Skater girl who couldn’t be less interested in him.
But what begins as a dare becomes an intense attraction neither Ryan nor Beth expected. Suddenly, the boy with the flawless image risks his dreams-and his life-for the girl he loves, and the girl who won’t let anyone get too close is daring herself to want it all…. (Source: Goodreads.com)

My thoughts about the book:
I was really surprised and sooo hooked by the first book of this series and accordingly of this, my expectations for that book were also really high. Particularly because now it was about Beth, who though seemed to me in the first book a little bit unfriendly, but has already shown in the first part briefly, that her life isn’t anything but perfect and hence, I could understand her behavior and also her defense.

As well as also here in the second part, in which I still got a lot bigger and more exact look at Beth and her life – particularly on her mother and her relation to her, and also on her flubbed childhood, which I even wouldn’t wish my worst enemy. Therefore I can understand as already said, Beth’s reticence and her actions, which would have led to shaking my head with any other character. Beth often runs away and wants to close her eyes before problems, but then her uncle Scott gets custody for her, she has to live with him and his wife and there she gets to know the sportsman and god-boy Ryan. And, yes, here we also have found our romantic, male protagonist of the book.

First I had my problems with Ryan because he apparently has everything what one can wish for and looked rather superficial. But luckily this has changed during the book and a part for it, was probably also due to the fact that he’s a baseball player, a sports with which I have no interest in it at all. Luckily this aspect became less and less. 😉
I find Ryan was quite okay and a nice character, and then also Beth was a better, but they weren’t as awesome as the couple Noah and Echo from the first book. Unfortunately here I’ve missed this ‘wow-effect’, for which I can’t really find a reason.

Other readers often don’t like it, that in a further book you still see how happy the couple from a previous book is, when they whisper sweet nothings and kisses and so on, but I found that nice and I liked it, that Echo and Noah also showed-up it this book briefly – very briefly – and that they are still happy. I find something like that always absolutely sweet and also okay, if it’s not too much as it was here.

What has disturbed me very much was the fact that there were many clichés in the book, especially Beth, who comes from bad house, and Ryan, from a putatively intact, good and rich family. Also the bet, the reason because he has spoken at first to Beth, was not for my taste. It was not original and too similar to ‘Perfect Chemistry#1’ by Simone Elkeles, even if it has turn into a differently course.

I’m really sorry, but for me the big enthusiasm was missing, because there happened much surprising or special things in it, anyhow it was just too poor. Although I found her uncle Scott very great and it was a pity that at the end, there wasn’t more with him, or more together with him and his wife – or also that there weren’t any more occurrences with her friend Lacy, which I found also very interesting and I liked her at first sight.

At next the third book is coming out in autumn/ winter 2013‚ which will be called ‘Crash into You’, which will host the story of Isaiah. At the moment I’m not so glad about it, because right now I don’t really care much about Isaiah, but I will read it nevertheless, because I would like to conclude the whole series.

Cover Hardcover:
I like this cover as much as the first book and again, here are people on it, which fit well to the descriptions in the book (that’s not always the case ^^)

All in all:
It was a good book and all in all, I also had my fun while reading it, but nevertheless, I’m a little disappointed, because this great wow-effect was missing, which I had with the first part.

Rating:
3,5 of 5 points – (I really liked it)
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Thanks to netgalley.com for the reviewer’s copy!

© netgalley.com

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Quotes:

Chris to Ryan: „You need a girlfriend.“
Lacy: „Exactly! I’ve been saying that for months. Not an evil girlfriend. We are not doing evil again. I was tired of wearing crucifixes. I considered carrying holy water, but then I would had to sneak into a church and then-“
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Ryan: „You’re a lot like that bird in the barn. You’re so scared that you’re going to be caged in forever you can’t see the way out. You smack yourself against the wall again and again and again. The door is open, Beth. Stop running in circles and walk out.“
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Beth: ‚That must be love: when everything else in the world could implode and you wouldn’t care as long as you had that one person standing beside you.‘

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Succession:

#1 Katie McGarry – Pushing the Limits »»
#2 Katie McGarry – Dared to You »»
#3 Katie McGarry – Crash into You

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(© goodreads)

About the author – Katie McGarry:
KATIE MCGARRY was a teenager during the age of grunge and boy bands and remembers those years as the best and worst of her life. She is a lover of music, happy endings, and reality television, and is a secret University of Kentucky basketball fan.

Katie would love to hear from her readers. Contact her via her website, katielmcgarry.com, follow her on Twitter @KatieMcGarry, or become a fan on Facebook and Goodreads.
(Source: goodreads.com)

Visit her Website »».

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[Review] The Sea of Tranquility

( ©Atria Books)

(© Antisocialite Press LLC)

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‚The Sea of Tranquility‘
by Katja Millay...

Synopsis:
Former piano prodigy Nastya Kashnikov wants two things: to get through high school without anyone learning about her past and to make the boy who took everything from her—her identity, her spirit, her will to live—pay.
Josh Bennett’s story is no secret: every person he loves has been taken from his life until, at seventeen years old, there is no one left. Now all he wants is be left alone and people allow it because when your name is synonymous with death, everyone tends to give you your space.
Everyone except Nastya, the mysterious new girl at school who starts showing up and won’t go away until she’s insinuated herself into every aspect of his life. But the more he gets to know her, the more of an enigma she becomes. As their relationship intensifies and the unanswered questions begin to pile up, he starts to wonder if he will ever learn the secrets she’s been hiding—or if he even wants to. (Source: Goodreads.com)

My thoughts about the book:
Holly crap-that, book brought me to heaven, then hell and back again.
But let us start slowly and from the beginning. The story was written in the present – what I like much in English books – and it switches the POV between the two central characters Nastya and Josh. I liked that and it has also fitted very well to the story and gave me the feeling that I’m in the heads of the characters and that I really could get to know them. Furthermore I also find Millay’s writing manner very suitable and pleasant, although she also let her characters curse out loudly if it fits – and it does. These are teenagers anyway and therefore it feels real and it’s great to read and it was fantastic. Oh, I repeat myself, but yes, it was really good 😉

This book is at the beginning very similar to the book ‘Speak’ by Anderson, but it was written much better – in my opinion. And the most amusing part was for me that Millay has made it possible that I’ve not noticed at all in the first chapters, that Nastya isn’t speaking; not a single word. But she communicates with the reader in a manner that this goes by completely unnoticed. Only when it was explicitly pointed out that she isn’t speaking, I’ve noted it and had to turn back and read parts of it once again to convince myself that she really has spoken no word so far. Really awesome and it shows the great writing manner of Millay. *brillant*

Now to the story: Both characters, Nastya and Josh, have massive problems with themselves and the world in general, which results from painful strokes of fate, which I wouldn’t even wish my biggest enemy. But both don‘t surrender, but fight further in their life and at some point and somehow these two ‘damaged’ characters meet each other. And both know that the other one is just as broken as they are. Cut a long story short– they become friends, become more familiar and it happens even more between them, what I don’t want to tell you right now. Only thus much – that the whole time I was with my heart with them and every page I worried so much about them. They both put me under their spell, especially Josh and now he is also my ‘book boyfriend’ of the month!

You can see now that not only the story could convince me and their way and their fights from their personal hells, no – also the characters themselves. Nastya wasn’t likeable to me immediately; I had to get to know her to get a better picture of her. However, also had my problems with it because she tells a lot and thinks about much, but she reveals only fragments of herself and together with Josh, I tried to solve her jigsaw puzzle and to discover her secret. And Josh – oh ♥ Josh ♥ – he is just amazing and I can’t catch it in words, how much I have suffered with him. Not only because of his past but also in between the story because of his problems with Nastya. Beside my darling Josh, I was also a fan of Clay and Drew. Drew is the sunny-boy of the story who makes everything a little lighter, and who you have to get to know a little better to look behind his narcissistic facade. And sometimes for me he was like a Golden Retriever – I just had to love him. 😉
And his parents, particularly the mother of Drew, are also absolutely great and here it has amused me to read also about other characters.

Now to the points which I haven’t liked so much and which are the reason, why I can’t rate the book with 5 points. The first reason is Nastya. Of course I could understand why Nastya doesn’t speak so long and it was okay for me, but after three quarters of the book, it was more and more illogical for me, why she is speaking with others, but not yet with her parents – or also why she didn’t tell Josh everything. I know, everybody processes traumas differently, longer or shorter. But personally I found Josh’s strokes of fate worse and emotional more difficult to endure, but still he has opened himself for her, has trusted her, but Nastya kept him in suspense, and there were times, where I just wanted to strangle her. Then I wanted to hug her and take her pain way and there were even parts, where I wanted both of it at the same time.
Beside my problems with Nastya’s behavior, I also have to admit that sometimes it dragged a little. Everything was described very long and precisely and the story developed very slowly. Which wouldn’t have disturbed me – because I like it when relationships grow slowly– BUT the romantic scenes were also totally short and were written only like ‘by the way’ alongside the story, without getting into details or taking some time for it, for what I’ve wished for after all the struggle.
Moreover to that I didn’t liked it that sometimes in the middle of a scene, in which they have discussed something important, the chapter just ended and the scene was over, and then it was a jump to the next chapter, several hours or days later – without going in more detail on what has happened exactly in the previous scene. Gosh, I think this was the point which has frustrated me the most! And this point is probably also responsible for the rating. 😉

Cover (Atria Books):
Extremely nice cover and I must admit that I wanted the book in the first place because of the beautiful cover. 🙂

All in all:
I have no words for all feelings which this book has triggered in me and I don’t know whether I should be pleased with the sad, depressive parts or saddened. But they have moved me all together, as well as everything else in this story broke my heart and joined together again.
After the end of the book I feel like after a long run in which were are strenuous and lighter phases and now I’m just exhausted, but in good way. It is even in such a way that I won’t read another book in the next two days … because I just can’t. I simply need a break to come to terms with it. Weird – that’s a first.

Rating:
4,5 of 5 points – (so awesome)

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Thanks to netgalley.com for the reviewer’s copy!

© netgalley.com

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Quotes:

Nastya: ‚People like to say love is unconditional, but it’s not, and even if it was unconditional, it’s still never free. There’s always an expectation attached. They always want something in return. Like they want you to be happy or whatever and that makes you automatically responsible for their happiness because they won’t be happy unless you are … I just don’t want that responsibility.‘

Josh: ‚First you count it in minutes, then in hours. You count in days, then in weeks, then months. Then one day you realize that you aren’t counting anymore, and you don’t even know when you’ve stopped. That’s the moment they’re gone.‘

Josh: „I wished my mother was here tonight, which is stupid, because it’s an impossible wish.“ He shrugs and turns to me, drowning the smile that cracks me every time.
“It’s not stupid to want to see her again.”
“It wasn’t so much that I wanted to see her again,” he says, looking at me with the depth of more than seventeen years in his eyes. “I wanted her to see you.”
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About the author – Katja Millay:
She grew up in Florida where she spent her time hiding from the sun. Then she moved to NYC where she attended film school at NYU and spent her time hiding from the rats. She was a high school film production/screenwriting teacher in a former life and now she sits at her kitchen table writing stories and ignoring the frightening mountain of laundry threatening to overtake her home. The Sea of Tranquility is her first novel. (Source: goodreads.com)

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[Review] Pushing the Limits

English HardCover

English Paperback Cover

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‚Pushing the Limits‘
by Katie McGarry

Pushing the Limits # 1

Synopsis:
So wrong for each other…AND YET SO RIGHT. No one knows what happened the night Echo Emerson went from popular girl with jock boyfriend to gossiped-about outsider with „freaky“ scars on her arms. Even Echo can’t remember the whole truth.
But when Noah Hutchins, the smoking-hot, girl-using loner in the black leather jacket, explodes into her life with his surprising understanding, Echo’s world shifts in ways she could never have imagined. They should have nothing in common.
Yet the crazy attraction between them refuses to go away. And Echo has to ask herself just how far they can PUSH THE LIMITS and what she’ll risk for the one guy who might teach her HOW TO LOVE AGAIN. (Source: Goodreads.com)

My thoughts about the book:
Though I’ve already heard from others that this book should be good, I still started this book with care, because I often have a different opinion – particularly with YA books. And see there, my concerns were absolutely unnecessary, because I loved it! *sigh* It was really a nice, heart-touching YA love story, which though got also a few critic points from me, but only at vanities, which don’t really count.

In ‘Pushing the Limits’ there are two troubled-teenagers, who meet each other, when they have to go to the same psychological school counsellor. The fate or Miss Collins, the school counsellor, wants, that Echo helps her school-colleague Noah in his studies and to tutor him. At first everything starts with lot of arguments between these two, later happens a revelation, up to the time, when they both agree to work together to get Collins files about themselves. Because both believe, that they need their file to get some information to set their life right again.
I don’t want to spoil here anything, but I’ve felt so sorry for both of them and I’ve to confess, that I’ve also spend a lot of tears – particularly at the end. But not because it was so sad, but because I was so happy and relieved that they could free themselves from their stroke of fate, and that has deeply moved me.

The story is written in the past in the first person and the POV switches between the main characters Echo and Noah. Therefore I‘ve took them both quickly to my heart and also although Noah is the official bad-boy of this High School, he was for me never a real asshole or somebody, who strongly had to change to be the guy, he’s later at the end of the book. For me he was always the frank, charming type, only that he didn’t wanted to let the others see this side of him and almost all his ‚bad‘ actions were only based on good intentions.

Echo is also a character who is seen differently by the other people in the book, than she really is. Only if you know the truth about her and about her past than you can also understand her behavior, her grief and anger.
And together the both are unbeatable and you already see, I can’t stop slobber anymore. So, yes, I’ve really liked their interaction and the both as a couple, were just amazing. 😉

Maybe some things in the plot were foreseeable, but anyway here the resolution of their past and above all also their feelings, which originate of it, were the more important things in the book. Also the writing style of the author was customized for the story and has worked out the emotions even more!

Unfortunately, for me regard the thing with the love scenes it was a little too ‘juvenile’. What would have no problem if it were a normal YA book, but the rest of it appeared for me more grown-up than usual, and therefore I found it too bad, that it didn’t happened ‚more‘ between Echo and Noah. You know what I mean? 😉
The second little critic point is that at the end it was over too fast and I’m in general no fan of so short epilogues, which only fast summarize up what happened during the last two months, since the last chapter has ended. And the book simply stops, when I still don’t have enough of the characters and the story still long and I simply like to join their lives a little longer.

Cover:
I find the picture very matching and also beautiful. I like particularly Echo’s red hair and the intimate approach of two characters. *sigh*

All in all:
I felt that this book is a great mixture of the books ‘Perfect Chemistry’ and ‘Beautiful Disaster’. So if you have liked one of these two books, than you will definitely also love this one. *promise*

Rating:
5 of 5 points – (I LOVED it – buy it!)
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Thanks to netgalley.com for the reviewer’s copy!

© netgalley.com

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Quotes:

‚Noah shrugged off his black leather jacked und tossed it around my shoulder. „How are you going to tutor me if you get fucking pneumonia?“
I cocked an eyebrow. What an odd combination of romantic gesture and horribly crude wording.‘

‚Echo: „You don’t know anything“
Noah: „I know crazy when I see it.“ The moment the words flew out of my mouth I regretted them. Sometimes when you see the line, you think it’s a good idea to cross it – until you do.‘

Echo: „I love you enough to never make you choose.“

Noah: „If you’re scared, tell me. If you need to cry and scream, then do it. And you sure as hell don’t walk away from us because you think it would be better for me. Here’s the reality, Echo: I want to be by your side. If you want to go to the mall stark naked so you can show the world your scars, then let me hold your hand. If you want to see your mom, then tell me that too. I may not always understand, but damn, baby, I’ll try.“

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Succession:

#1 Katie McGarry – Pushing the Limits »»
#2 Katie McGarry – Dare to You »»
#3 Katie McGarry – Crash into You

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(© goodreads)

About the author – Katie McGarry:
KATIE MCGARRY was a teenager during the age of grunge and boy bands and remembers those years as the best and worst of her life. She is a lover of music, happy endings, and reality television, and is a secret University of Kentucky basketball fan.
Katie would love to hear from her readers. Contact her via her website, katielmcgarry.com, follow her on Twitter @KatieMcGarry, or become a fan on Facebook and Goodreads.
(Source: goodreads.com)

Visit her Website »».

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copyright: Harlequin Books

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Snapshot: Never Let Me Go

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‚Never Let Me Go‘
by Kazuo Ishiguro

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(© goodreads)

This book tells about a world in which the people have been able to create complete human clones. With it the humanity caused to cure the most fatal illnesses and to guarantee a long healthy life. Hence the human clones are virtually only ‚produced’ for later, when they are adults, to donor their organs and to let operate on them over and over again for donations, till they are ‘completed’, which means up to death.
But this story isn’t about the people who have got a better life because of this new ‚achievement‘, but about the human clones.

The story is told from the point of view of 31-year-old Kathy, who is after 12 years as a ‘carer’ just before the time when she will also become a donor. The whole book Kathy remembers about her past live: It is starting with her childhood in the boarding school in Hailsham, through her youth time in the cottages and later to her time as an adult, working as a ‘carer’. But not the question of the donation and the inevitable death stands in the centre of the topic, but above all the friendship and love between the three central figures Kathy, Ruth and Tommy, who all grow up together in Hailsham. They already got explained as little children what’s the reason for their existence is, but they never really got to know the whole information, but always only fragments of it and in times when they’re still too young to understand.
It also behaves like this in the whole book. Kathy tells anecdotes, flashbacks over and over again and because of that there’s never a proper central theme in the book, but a constant change to and fro of a time in the next, in the present and again back to 2 years before it or 3 years ago. *totally confusing*

I don’t know how the book has managed to get nominated in 2005 for the highest British book price the ‚Booker Prize‘, or why it was added by the ‚Time’ to their list of the hundred best English-speaking novels from 1923 to 2005. Maybe they haven’t read the complete book, but only the synopsis and liked that. Who knows!? ^^

Unfortunately the book hasn’t worked for me at all, although I’ve found the description and also the circumstances which ruled in the book very interesting. Moreover because of the topic it would be a really exciting book for group discussions or for school classes because it raises many questions as for example: How would we handle an inevitable death if we were the clones? Or the question whether we would also close our eyes on how the clones were treated, if we were the organ recipient and it was about our own survival. Who has more right to live and who decides which methods are justifiable to provide the collective health? Is it tolerable to clone ‘humans’, only to harvest their organs afterward like ripe fruits? What is a defensible progress of science or what is morally wrong?

As I said, it’s a book which is very keen of discussions and the subject really leaves nobody cold and makes everybody think over their own opinion and to ponder the Pros and Cons. Hence the two points for the book, on account of the topic and the given conflict.

BUT now to the things which I haven’t liked in the book and have reduced the rating so drastically: The writing manner was okay and it also was easy and fluently to read, but the narrative perspective was dreadful and these whole flashbacks and time jumps were the pure horror. I didn’t like these whole jumps in the time in the least.

First it was confusing and I couldn’t get into a reading fluently, because it was too chopped off and incoherent. Furthermore the whole tension and the motivation were taken away and it wasn’t like in other books where I want to read on as fast as I can to get to know what happens after some actions, because here Kathy has always told what resulted out of some actions first and then how it came to it. Hence, it was never really thrilling to read on because I always already know before a new memory started how I would end and what happens as a result, because Kathy already told beforehand.

I know this sounds a little bewildering but to be honest, it was like this all the time in the book and in addition also just irritating and unnaturally. If I didn’t have to read this book for my ‘Book2Movie’ Challenge, then I probably would have broken it off several times.
For me the reading was very strenuous and I had to force myself over and over again to continue to read. But at some point I simply wanted to know, after all I have been through, how it would end. Not because I’ve cared so much for the characters, (this wasn’t the case and in my opinion her best friend Ruth was a ruthless, rotten piece who I wouldn’t have told any secret), but finally to know what the whole book actually was about. After the whole exertion I just wanted to get some answers after countless vague indications and these temporal jumps, but even here I got disappointed.

Even if there were also every now and then sensitive passages, which particularly described the special friendship of the three main characters or the perspective on life in general and on which reasons the people react and what results from which actions. But it wasn’t enough and I also never got a connection with the main character Kathy because she never really told how she felt. She didn’t let anybody look behind her facade and she just told her memories and hasn’t given anything from herself as a feeling person.
I’ve thought this book pursued a higher purpose and that at the end a solution or something like that would be presented, or an end that gives an ‘aha’-affect, but I didn’t even get that. It just ended and I as a read was virtually left hanging in the air without anything. It was very disappointing and I’ve still a grudge against that ending.

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I’ve read this book for the ‘Book2Movie – Challenge’ 2012 !

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[Review] I’ll Be There

English Cover

German Cover

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‚I’ll Be There‘
by Holly Goldberg Sloan

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Synopsis:
Sam Border wishes he could escape. Raised by an unstable father, he’s spent his life moving from place to place. But he could never abandon his little brother, Riddle.
Riddle Border doesn’t talk much. Instead, he draws pictures of the insides of things and waits for the day when the outsides of things will make sense. He worships his older brother. But how can they leave when there’s nowhere to go? Then everything changes. Because Sam meets Emily.
Emily Bell believes in destiny. She sings for her church choir, though she doesn’t have a particularly good voice. Nothing, she feels, is mere coincidence. And she’s singing at the moment she first sees Sam.
Everyone whose path you cross in life has the power to change you–sometimes in small ways, and sometimes in ways greater than you could have ever known. Beautifully written and emotionally profound, Holly Goldberg Sloan’s debut novel deftly explores the idea of human connection..   (Source: Goodreads.com)

My thoughts about the book:
Sam and Emily is, as the name already tells, a charming, but also sad story about the chances of life which can lead to luck or misfortune. Small occurrences, considered in little only as vanities, which maybe have to mean nothing, but if you look at them in the big whole of the life with the involvement of other people, they can turn the whole life upside down, or shape a new course and lead to chain reactions.
Goldberg plays with these small chances, with these little twists of fate and leads us on an exciting, amusing trip of the unusual chances, where she never loses the main topic or the general sight of the big picture. And exactly this is it, what makes this book to something special and thereby contrasts with others and for it she earns every single point in my rating.

Unfortunately there are not only positive aspects in the book, but I also have to criticize some things in it, which has diminished my reading pleasure and are also the reason for the lower rating. For me it’s clear that this is only a subjective, personal preference, but it has disturbed me that everything was written from the third person. Especially I didn’t like that there was this ‘omniscient narrator‘, who constantly summarized and told about the people in the book, about their feelings and their past and so.
This kind to writing reminded me very much of the old classics, for example ‘The picture of Dorian Gray‘ which was written alike hence this is a little atypical for nowadays and so one is less accustomed to it – at least I’m. Though thereby one got to know a lot – and also unnecessary things – about every single appearing character, and I think the writing for it is very difficultly, but thereby I could only build up lesser feelings for the central figures. Though they were there, but anyhow I could not grasp them within my fingers, couldn’t feel them.

Sam and Emily were as characters in this book really interesting and I’ve also grown fond of them, the same with Sam’s younger brother Riddle, but unfortunately there were not enough attachment and feeling for them because of this ‘omniscient narrator’.
I rather would have liked to know much more about Sam and Emily or from them as a couple and what they’ve talked about. I would have loved to read their dialogues, and about their feelings when they touched or kissed for the first times, how it was for them when they were together. But this virtually didn’t appeared properly, because this ‘narrator‘ only told about it by the way. Hence, I found this was a pity and I’ve liked it the least in the whole book.

But, nevertheless, I’ve liked this book very much; better than other books, because the story was really tragically and I immediately felt with the central figures. Particularly with Sam and Riddle – I just wished them some luck and a better life. And although this ‘narrator’ – thing has stood between me and this book, there were also moments in it,  which really made  me upset and sad, even so much, that I have lost one or two tears – to be honest, I’ve cried like a baby, but I don’t care! 😉
So, as you can see, the book has its strengths and also its weak points, but it probably lies with every reader whether they like this way of telling a story or not.

German Cover:
The cover has its own charm and in addition the title reflects perfectly the contents of the story. On top one notices the love with which the cover was made and designed with miraculous details and a special material.

All in all:
It was a tragic, but also delighting and emotional book, which I’ve liked very much except for the narrative manner. Who doesn’t have a problem with such an ‘omniscient narrator’, like I had, has here a fantastic book, which I can only recommend.

Rating:
3,5 of 5 points – (I really liked it).

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A huge Thanks for the reviewer’s copy to:

©Arena Verlag

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About the author – Holly Goldberg Sloan:
Holly Goldberg Sloan was born in Ann Arbor, Michigan, and spent her childhood living in California, the Netherlands, Istanbul, Washington, DC, and Oregon. She has written and directed a number of successful family feature films. The mother of two sons, Holly lives with her husband in Santa Monica, California. I’ll Be There is her debut novel. (Source: goodreads.com)

Visit her Website »».

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Review: Rules of Attraction

English Cover

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‚Rules of Attraction‚
by
Simone Elkeles

Perfect Chemistry # 2

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.Synopsis:
When Carlos Fuentes returns to America after living in Mexico for a year, he doesn’t want any part of the life his older brother, Alex, has laid out for him at a high school in Colorado . Carlos likes living his life on the edge and wants to carve his own path—just like Alex did. Then he meets Kiara Westford. She doesn’t talk much and is completely intimidated by Carlos’ wild ways. As they get to know one another, Carlos assumes Kiara thinks she’s too good for him, and refuses to admit that she might be getting to him. But he soon realizes that being himself is exactly what Kiara needs right now.  (Source: Goodreads.com)

My thoughts about the book:
Surprisingly I’ve liked the book really very much again, although Elkeles presents again very penetratingly the clichéd stereotypes and it also was very much alike as the first book in this series. For example with all the drugs and the same problems, with which Carlos has to battle and on which he puts the blame for the fact, that he can’t live a ’normal‘ life like other teenagers.

But, nevertheless, there are a few good differences, so that the reading never becomes boring and again it was that I read constantly very fast, just to get to know what happens next. The reason for that is primarily that the story is full of likeable characters, and secondly because of the nice liquid and also great and easy writing style of Elkeles.

However, I must confess that although I’ve take the characters to my heart, I liked in this book Carlos less, than in comparison to the first book his brother Alex. Though this is a little pity, I already know that this would happen before I even started the book, because I was just so crazy for Alex in the first book.

For me Carlos seemed too enforced and it was to prominent how he appeared as a ‘bad-boy’, and for that, he couldn’t put me on his side for a longer time. His brother Alex is just my darling and I like his character and hence I’m also extremely glad, that in the second book I could also read a little about him and Brittany. *very great* 🙂

In return I liked the female main character – here she is called Kiara – a lot more than Brittany in the first book. Kiara is really great, though, brainy and has a great rotted to the soil-attitude, although she also has to fight with a few things in her life and clear them for herself. At some times she appears a little bit too perfect, so that I’ve had a hard time to imagine such a girl also in real life, but she is sweet and so I can overlook that. 🙂

Moreover the other characters are also very likeable and I find Kiara’s family just extremely great with their tolerant attitude and their candid treatment of sexuality or drugs. In general I’m of the opinion that such an education for children can only be good and welcome that parents speak openly with them and to clarify that they understand and know, that they can come to their parents with every problem.

Finally just two short points which I would like to state. At first the book was entertaining, but couldn’t keep up with the great first part. Also I hadn’t had to laugh at any parts like in the first book, but there were still a few nice scenes, which made me smile but not more and I like humor and I like it in books.

Secondly the end was similar but not as spectacular as in the first part, and also not with so much feelings and heartache. Here I would have wished for a little more action and a longer preparatory phase. It all happened very fast in the end and therefore I got the feeling that the author just wanted to finish the book.

Cover:
Actually I like it very much and it also fits greatly to the story of the book. The English cover is a little colorless and hence I prefer the German cover with the pink written letters.

All in all:
A nice YA book with pleasant, though partial trivial entertainment, which is perfectly suitable as a summer reading and kidnaps the readers again in their youth and in the first ‘falling-in-love‘.

Rating:
3,5 of 5 points

Quotes:

Carlos: „You’re dangerous.“
Kiara: „Why?“
Carlos: „Because you make me believe in the impossible.“
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Carlos: „This is a team of gay dudes, isn’t it?“
Tuck: „What gave it away? The pink shirts, or half our team drooling over you?“

Carlos: „I’m in deep shit Alex, ‚cause I think I’d like nothin‘ better than to wake up with her every mornin‘.“

Succession:

# 1: Simone Elkeles – Perfect Chemistry  »»
# 2: Simone Elkeles – Rules of Attraction »»
# 3: Simone Elkeles – Chain Reaction
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Simone Elkeles

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About the author – Simone Elkeles:

Simone Elkeles is the NY Times & USA Today bestselling author of over seven teen romance novels. She has won various awards and recognition for her books, including the coveted RITA award from the Romance Writers of America for her book Perfect Chemistry and being named Author of the Year by the Illinois Association of Teachers of English. She was born and raised in the suburbs of Chicago.
(Source:  http://www.simoneelkeles.net)

Visit her Website »»

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Review: One Moment

English Cover

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‚One Moment‘
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Kristina McBride

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Synopsis:
„This was supposed to be the best summer of Maggie’s life. Now it’s the one she’d do anything to forget.“
Maggie remembers hanging out at the gorge with her closest friends after a blowout party. She remembers climbing the trail with her perfect boyfriend, Joey. She remembers that last kiss, soft, lingering, and meant to reassure her. So why can’t she remember what happened in the moment before they were supposed to dive? Why was she left cowering at the top of the cliff, while Joey floated in the water below-dead?
As Maggie’s memories return in snatches, nothing seems to make sense. Why was Joey acting so strangely at the party? Where did he go after taking her home? And if Joey was keeping these secrets, what else was he hiding?  (Source: Goodreads.com)

My thoughts about the book:
Sometimes the insignificant books surprise you more than the books for which you’ve waited for months and you’ve started to read cheerfully. This book here I’ve found by chance on netgalley and I started to read it only because I wanted to read a not addicted-making book and I thought this book won’t carry me away so much or occupy me. There I’ve been so completely wrong! Because the book didn’t let me go anymore and now that I’ve finished it already a few days ago, I still think or sympathize about it.

Right at the beginning of the story happens the tragedy, which is also described in the synopsis, and where Maggie’s boyfriend Joey dies in an unnecessary accident. Nevertheless the police intervene and some inconsistencies are being thrown up in connection with Joey’s death and bring some secrets to light, which some would have rather liked to be buried with him.

But who thinks now, this book is about a thriller or a crime novel, than that is wrong, because in the focus stands unmistakably the grief processing and above all the emotional life of the main protagonist Maggie, from whose view the events are told, full of flashbacks from her time together with Joey.
In so doing the author has made it possible that the readers could also get to know Joey, although the reader knows the whole time that Joey is already death. Although I also know that all along I nevertheless felt with Maggie as she remembered her first date with him, their first kiss and everything and I could only cry all the time, because it’s so sweet and sad at the same time – and I have also grouted some tears during this book!

Beside Maggie, it also tells much about the other characters and friends of Joey and how they deal with his sudden death. The narrow clique existed of 3 girls and 3 boys in whom now an important part is missing and instead that Joey’s death bond them together even more, they and also their friendship threatens to break.
I could also like most of these other central figures, but right from the beginning I had problems with Shannon and I also didn’t get along with Tanna from the start but it got better during the book. In return Adam was at the same time my chosen hero and favorite and he could convince me more and more during the plot, although he has also twisted himself in the story and has turned in different directions.

The end remains, let us say‚ half-open‘. I liked that, because I could play a little with my own imagination, but at the same time not too much and without an end. I’m very glad how the story has developed throughout the book and I could feel and hope with the protagonists, also despair, though. Hence, the end after all this strain was that what I’ve wished for and I’m really happy about it. 🙂

Cover:
The cover was what got my attention first. So for me the cover shows very felicitous the feelings in the book, the melancholy and naivety, and it also gets the reader into the right mood for the story.

All in all:
A heartbreaking book, which has gripped and hasn’t let me go anymore up to the last pages. The author has made it greatly to bring the emotional life of Maggie by her words on paper and let them share with the reader. I wasn’t caught for a long time into such an emotionally story. *great*

Rating:
3,5 of 5 points – (I really liked it)
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Thanks to netgalley.com for the reviewer’s copy!

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Quotes:

„Running.
We were running.
Almost there.
But the thunder of my feet crashed through something in my consciousness.
And I knew.
It was like I hit an invisible wall.
One that did not exist for Joey.
I had been so close to flying.
Then, suddenly—I stopped.“

Maggie: „What if it’s as simple as one moment? One tiny thing, like that kiss on the rocks? What if I’d kissed him a little longer? Would he be alive right now? Or what if I’d stayed with him Friday night, what if I’d been with him… wherever he was?“.

Maggie: Above, leaves fluttered in the moonlight, and I wondered if their whispers were meant for me, if they were imprinted with a code that I needed to decipher. Some kind of important message that would help me get this right.

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(© goodreads)

About the author – Kristina McBride:

Kristina McBride, a former English teacher and yearbook advisor, dreamed of being a published author since she was a child and lived across the street from a library. Kristina has published two novels for young adults – The Tension of Opposites (May 2010) and One Moment (June 2012). She lives in Ohio with her husband and two young children.
(Source: goodreads.com)

Visit her Website »».

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Review: Good Oil

English Cover

German Cover

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‚Good Oil‘ by Laura Buzo

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Synopsis:
‚Miss Amelia Hayes, welcome to The Land of Dreams. I am the staff trainer. I will call you grasshopper and you will call me sensei and I will give you the good oil. Right? And just so you know, I’m open to all kinds of bribery.‘
From the moment 15-year-old Amelia begins work on the checkout at Woolworths she is sunk, gone, lost…head-over-heels in love with Chris. Chris is the funny, charming, man-about-Woolies, but he’s 21, and the 6-year difference in their ages may as well be 100. Chris and Amelia talk about everything from Second Wave Feminism to Great Expectations and Alien but will he ever look at her in the way she wants him to? And if he does, will it be everything she hopes?  (Source: Goodreads.com)

My thoughts about the book:
Who hasn’t experienced how it is to fall in love for the first time and often at the same time also unhappily? Particularly if one is at an age, while one doesn’t recognize oneself again because the own body is changing, the feelings play around and everything and everybody apparently starts to revolt.

This book begins with the story of Amelia who is telling it in the present, from which I’m unfortunately not a fan but nevertheless, after some chapters I was caught in the reading flow and it didn’t disturb me so much anymore.
Amelia has just become 15 and for her the world is upside-down, particularly after she meets Chris, who is 6-years older than Amelia, but for whom her heart beats faster but she realistically also sees no chance for them. The story is primarily around the life of these two main characters, their developing friendship and beyond.

About the first half of the book is very childish and very easy, often with very short sentences, but it is also written liquidly and hence fitting for a 15-year-old teenager. Though it seemed authentic for the situation, but nevertheless there were also some times at which I’ve felt this writing style was too simply, too jolty. But I’m already a little older than 15 and therefore I maybe don’t fit completely to the given age recommendation. 😉
However, to my luck this changed after this aforesaid half of the book and I was very glad to be allowed to read suddenly a completely other writing style. I don’t want to describe here at this point how that has exactly happened or why it has changed, because I don’t want to ruin your ‘surprise‘. But who has also already read the book, will certainly know what I mean here.

The storyline begins very slowly and the reader is led step by step to the central figure Amelia, as well as to her family and friends and therefore gets to know them and her way of thinking better and better. I must confess that I couldn’t get along with her at the start but it became better with the time. She has irritated me sometimes with her ‘puppy love’ and keenness, but if I remember my puberty right, I probably was just like that and like almost every other girl in this bewildering time. 🙂
Chris is the total opposite to her and the typical darling of everybody with a constantly loose saying on his lips and he’s always up for every fun. He’s really very likeable and charming, but only when he also has shown his negative sides and his self-doubts, he could also conquer my heart.

Who now thinks that in this book it is only told about the both of them, who hold dull dialogues than you’re wrong. Amelia and Chris, as well as the book, discuss also principle questions about the female emancipation and also talk passionate a lot about classical books.

SPOILER !

Actually not really a spoiler, but nevertheless I wanted to mention here that I’m not a fan of open ends. Certainly this gives the reader the chance to thinks freely of the things afterwards and to create a positive exit for themselves. But I rather want books which are completely led to an end and read it to a final end, instead of thinking one up for myself. I didn’t like this point so much.

Cover:
I really like it because of these two faces and the decoration on the sides. It’s particularly nice that the little flowers shine.

All in all:
This book is an homage to the first great love and describes vividly and with feeling in which whirlpool of emotions one is pulled if one falls in love for the first time with 15. It is empathetically and even so sweetly. In general the book is suitable for the age recommendation of 12-15 years, but some scenes aren’t that appropriate for this age.

Rating:
3 of 5 points – (I liked it)
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A huge Thanks for the reviewer’s copy to:

©Arena Verlag

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Quotes:

Chris: „She even takes the goings-on of fictitious characters personally.“

Amelia: „I wonder briefly if I could somehow broker a deal with God whereby if I put both my arms around Chris, his suffering would be transferred to me via skin-to-skin osmosis at a rate inversely proportionate to how much I love him.“

Amelia: „Oh, well. Love is pain. Or is it beauty is pain? I wouldn’t know about the latter, but the former makes my sternum ache.“
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(© goodreads)

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About the author – Laura Buzo:
Laura Buzo was born and grew up in Sydney, middle of three daughters. Growing up she loved swimming, riding horses, tennis, netball, running, chocolate and above all, reading. After university, Laura worked as a social worker in various acute and community-based mental health settings in Sydney. In 2005 she took some time away from work to start writing her first novel, Good Oil. Laura is still working as a social worker and has a young daughter. She lives in Sydney.
(Source: goodreads.com)

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