book review

Review: Preppy: The Life and Death of Samuel Clearwater, Part Two

3:42 PM

Preppy: The Life and Death of Samuel Clearwater, Part Two
By TM Frazier

Preppy finds himself back in a world he once loved, but no longer recognizes. His dim smile can’t hide his inner turmoil and the people he views as family all suddenly feel like polite strangers.

Except for one person. A girl with dark eyes and even darker hair. 
A girl who isn’t even an option.

At least, not anymore.

Dre can’t decide who she’s going to listen to. Her heart, her head, or her body. Because two out of those three things have her heading right back to Logan’s Beach. Closure is what she tells herself she’s seeking, but when she unlocks doors that were never meant to be opened she soon discovers that when it comes to Samuel Clearwater, closure might NEVER be an option.

This is book six in the King Series and the second part of Preppy and Dre's story.




     This review will contain spoilers if you haven't read the King series. I love the King series which is odd because I don't like these alpha type guys in real life. They are the complete opposite of my type, but I think that's what makes this series so much fun to read. It's gritty and vulgar and feels dangerous without actually being in any real danger. We get to live through the eyes of a drug addict, a motorcycle gang, murderers, and an amnesiac.


     Luckily we pick up right where we left off in part one. Preppy has woken up from a coma and called Dre his wife. Clearly, Dre is confused, as was I, because they never got married. Next thing we know he has Dre by the throat and is choking the hell out her. It's obvious that Preppy has a severe case of PTSD and is extremely violent especially toward Bear since he looks so much like Chop. He feels like everyone has moved on without him and struggles with the fact that their lives weren't put on hold while he was gone. To be fair, they did think he was dead. Preppy's friendship with Ray (Doe) is one of my favorites to read about. They had a deep bond, and it hurts her to know that he is hurting. I kind of ship it. (Don't kill me, King.)

"Someone squeezed my arm. If it was the devil, he had tiny hands and used moisturizer."

     Dre is back in Logan's Beach after years of being drug-free. She is hoping to sell Mirna's house to help her father since he is losing his business after taking out loans to get her into rehab and community college. She feels responsible for the debt he's drowning in and wants to help. I was so glad that Dre has gotten clean and is no longer the damsel in distress. The roles were reversed, and it's her turn to help Preppy with his demons.  

     This is a short read, and I would have liked to see more of Preppy and Dre together, but I also wanted to see them struggle more too. Everything seemed to fall into place so quickly. There was a lot crammed into 282 pages which made it feel a bit rushed. Preppy doesn't know Dre as a sober individual, and it would have been interesting to see how she struggled with her sobriety since he regularly partakes in drugs. This seems like a filler book that gives just enough information to get us to part three. Oh yeah, there is going to be a third book. Which I was a little annoyed about since I thought part 2 would tie up loose ends. Of course, it ended on a HUGE cliffhanger, so we'll have to wait patiently until the third book is released. By "wait patiently" I mean refreshing Goodreads every 2 seconds to see when the release date is posted. 

     Overall I liked this story. It kept me entertained for a few hours, and I  enjoy reading about Preppy since he is (obviously) the best guy in the King series. TM Frazier, I'm gonna need a lot more bowties in the next book! 

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5 star

Review: We Are the Ants by Shaun David Hutchinson

2:02 PM

We Are the Ants
By Shaun David Hutchinson

Henry Denton has spent years being periodically abducted by aliens. Then the aliens give him an ultimatum: The world will end in 144 days, and all Henry has to do to stop it is push a big red button.

Only he isn’t sure he wants to.

After all, life hasn’t been great for Henry. His mom is a struggling waitress held together by a thin layer of cigarette smoke. His brother is a jobless dropout who just knocked someone up. His grandmother is slowly losing herself to Alzheimer’s. And Henry is still dealing with the grief of his boyfriend’s suicide last year.

Wiping the slate clean sounds like a pretty good choice to him.

But Henry is a scientist first, and facing the question thoroughly and logically, he begins to look for pros and cons: in the bully who is his perpetual one-night stand, in the best friend who betrayed him, in the brilliant and mysterious boy who walked into the wrong class. Weighing the pain and the joy that surrounds him, Henry is left with the ultimate choice: push the button and save the planet and everyone on it…or let the world—and his pain—be destroyed forever.


     Wow! I can't even tell you how incredible We Are the Ants is. You truly need to experience it for yourself. I'm so annoyed that I've been putting off reading it as long as I have. If you're like me and prefer contemporary books and aren't really a fan of Sci-Fi, put that aside because this book is about so much more than aliens.

     Henry has been randomly abducted by aliens since he was 13 and at 16 they told him the world is going to end on January 29, 2016, but he has the power to stop it if he presses a red button. His boyfriend committed suicide a year before, and Henry doesn't know if the world is worth saving. To make matters worse, he is tormented at school, and his home life is challenging. His mom is still grieving the loss of her husband after he ran out on their family, his brother Charlie got his girlfriend pregnant and dropped out of college, and his grandmother is slowly losing her memory. 

     After reading the first page, I was hooked. Henry is cynical and just plain pissed-off that his boyfriend Jesse committed suicide. He thinks that he is to blame and that the world shouldn't exist without Jesse in it. I could feel how hurt and heartbroken Henry is. He wants to know the reason behind Jesse's death and spends a lot of time obsessing over what he could have done to prevent it. 

     "Grief is an ocean, and guilt the undertow that pulls me beneath the waves and drowns me."


     I loved seeing the family dynamic. I actually related to Henry's relationship with his grandmother. He knows that his grandmother is losing her memory but doesn't understand the extent of her loss since there are some memories he wouldn't mind losing. Those scenes were the most difficult for me to read since I recently lost my grandmother and she also suffered from memory loss. It's frustrating when the people we love can't remember something as seemingly simple as you calling that afternoon or what your name is. 

     "I'm losing my memories. It's like someone's broken into my piggy bank and is robbing me one penny at a time. It's happening so slowly, I can hardly tell what's missing."

     Something that I really appreciate about this book is that Henry's sexuality isn't treated as a big deal. Yes, he is gay, but this isn't a coming out story. This book is about a kid that is dealing with hardship and has to figure out if those hardships are reason enough that the world should end. The author's writing is fantastic and witty and brilliant. I never wanted it to end because it was so beautiful. Please do yourself a favor and read We Are the Ants. 

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4 star

Review: Art & Soul by Brittainy C. Cherry

8:34 PM

Art & Soul
By Brittainy C. Cherry

                                                                              
I had always been the invisible art student in high school. 
Passed by. Glossed over. Unnoticed. Now I was Aria Watson… that girl.
After one bad decision, and being labeled a slut, I was no longer unseen. I was the whore. The ignoramus. The tramp.I would never be invisible again.
Particularly to Levi Myers. He was the odd boy with the beautiful soul who accepted and understood the broken girl inside me.Falling in love wasn’t the plan. But how could I resist his promises of hope? Of forgiveness? Of a future I had stopped dreaming of?We were shattered. We were scarred. We were something strange and beautiful.
We were two lost souls holding on to the only thing that could keep us together.
Each other. 



I know when I open a Brittainy C. Cherry book that I'm going to have, what feels like, my heart chewed up and spit out. Why do I continue to do this to myself? Because her writing grabs hold of me and won't let go. I adore Brittainy's characters and that there is always a family aspect in her books, good or bad. Weirdly in most Young Adult books, there is a lack of family life.

     Art & Soul is about two teenagers trying to navigate adult situations. Told in dual POV, we meet Levi who is moving to Wisconsin to reconnect with his absent father and escape his overbearing mother. Then we meet Aria who is keeping a major secret from her family. The two met when Aria takes a short cut through the woods to get home, she notices a guy talking to a deer and attempting to feed it berries. Deer boy. Aria is standoffish in the beginning but quickly grows to like Levi. Maybe a little more than she cares to admit given her current situation. 

     This book could have easily been a cliche, an invisible girl is noticed by drop dead gorgeous boy, kind of story but the author didn't do that. Instead, she took those cliches and put a new twist them. These teens deal with some hard real-life situations. The only thing that seemed a little unlikely was the relationship between Levi and Aria. I've never met a sixteen-year-old boy that would insert himself into the situation that Aria is in, but this is fiction. I did like that their relationship wasn't something that happened overnight. It's slow burning, and that's what kept me reading. 

 "Being around him felt like being around someone who saw your scars and called them beautiful when you only see your past mistakes."

     Brittainy tackles some pretty difficult topics in Art & Soul, one those being mental illness. I appreciate that she was able to capture the reality of mental illness without being disrespectful or over-the-top. She also showed how mental illness affects the family as well. It's heartbreaking but gives you a little insight. 

     Art & Soul is a great book with fleshed out characters and packs a punch. 

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2017

10 Most Anticipated 2017 Book Releases

6:57 PM



It's 2017! 
You know what that means? New fantastic books to look forward to! I've listed my top 10 most anticipated book releases of 2017. They are in order by the release date. Release dates are subject to change.  A couple of the books do not have a cover yet. 



Her Every Fear by Peter Swanson 
Release Date- January 10th 
I just recently read The Kind Worth Killing by Peter Swanson, and I loved it. This is a psychological thriller about a woman that lives in London and swaps apartments with her cousin that lives in Boston. She finds out one of her cousin's neighbors has recently been murdered and questions if her cousin had something to do with it. 



History Is All You Left Me by Adam Silvera 
Release Date- January 17th
I haven't read anything by Adam Silvera, but I've heard that he's a fantastic author. This book is about Griffin whose first love and ex-boyfriend, Theo, dies in a drowning accident. The only person that can understand his heartbreak is Theo's current boyfriend, Jackson.
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Preppy: The Life and Death of Samuel Clearwater Part 2 by TM Frazier
Release Date- January 24th
This book is number 6 in the King series. It is a dark, gritty series that involves drugs, motorcycle gangs, and romance. There maybe a few triggers for some readers. 

The Gravity of Us by Brittainy C. Cherry
Release Date- April 13th
This is the fourth book in the Element series. Number one is The Air He Breathes, number two is The Fire Between High & Lo, and number three is The Silent Waters. Brittainy writes alluring and heartbreaking romances. She is a must-read if you love New Adult.
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The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas
Release Date- February 28th
A powerful and gripping novel about sixteen-year-old, Starr. She is the only witness to the fatal shooting of her unarmed best friend, Khalil, by a police officer. This book is inspired by the Black Lives Matter movement. I'm really looking forward to reading this. It sounds like it will be insightful and gut-wrenching.
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Always and Forever, Lara Jean by Jenny Han
Release Date- May 2nd
This is the third book in the To All the Boys I've Loved Before trilogy. It's a cute contemporary about a high school girl named Lara Jean. She writes love letters to every boy she's loved and puts them in a hat box. Her letters mysteriously get sent to the guys she wrote them to. I really enjoy Jenny Hans writing and the family element in her books.
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Until It Fades by KA Tucker
Release Date- May 2nd
This is about a small town woman who saves the life of a mysterious man and, once the police show up, she realizes the man is a famous hockey player. She is thrown into the spotlight, but there are things in her past she wants to keep secret. I've read several of KA Tucker's books, and she always writes the craziest plot twist. You think you know what's coming but, you have no clue.
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Bad Romance by Heather Demetrios
Release Date- June 13th
Grace meets Gavin, and he's charming, talented, controlling, and dangerous. She has no idea their relationship will become a prison she's unable to escape. Damn. Sounds scary but I can't wait to find out what happens. That book cover, though! It's gorgeous.
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The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid
Release Date- June 13th
An unknown magazine reporter named Monique is chosen to write a biography for the iconic Evelyn Hugo, who was a famous actress in the 50s. Evelyn's seventh husband just died, and she's ready, to tell the truth about her glamorous and scandalous life. I'll read anything that Taylor Jenkins Reid writes. She is definitely one of my favorite authors.
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The Shaw Confessions by Michelle Hodkins
Release Date- Summer 
This is Noah Shaw's POV in The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer series. I was addicted to this series and read all three books in 4 days. It's that good!
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book review

Review: Maybe in Another Life by Taylor Jenkins Reid

7:10 PM

Maybe in Another Life
By Taylor Jenkins Reid


At the age of twenty-nine, Hannah Martin still has no idea what she wants to do with her life. She has lived in six different cities and held countless meaningless jobs since graduating college. On the heels of leaving yet another city, Hannah moves back to her hometown of Los Angeles and takes up residence in her best friend Gabby’s guestroom. Shortly after getting back to town, Hannah goes out to a bar one night with Gabby and meets up with her high school boyfriend, Ethan.

Just after midnight, Gabby asks Hannah if she’s ready to go. A moment later, Ethan offers to give her a ride later if she wants to stay. Hannah hesitates. What happens if she leaves with Gabby? What happens if she leaves with Ethan?

In concurrent storylines, Hannah lives out the effects of each decision. Quickly, these parallel universes develop into radically different stories with large-scale consequences for Hannah, as well as the people around her. As the two alternate realities run their course, Maybe in Another Life raises questions about fate and true love: Is anything meant to be? How much in our life is determined by chance? And perhaps, most compellingly: Is there such a thing as a soul mate?

Hannah believes there is. And, in both worlds, she believes she’s found him.

     When I pick up a Taylor Jenkins Reid book, I'm prepared to stay up all night to finish it. Her writing is so beautiful and descriptive that you really feel for the characters and whatever they happen to be going through. Maybe in Another Life is especially engrossing because we get two alternating story lines. This book is about how our choices, big or small, can change our entire life and where we will end up.

     "It's entirely possible that every time we make a decision, there is a version of us out there somewhere who made a different choice. An infinite number of versions of ourselves are living out the consequences of every single possibility of our lives."

     Hannah is returning to her hometown of Los Angeles after living in New York for nine months. She is a woman consumed by wanderlust, in search of a place she can call home. She hasn't held a steady job and doesn't bother buying furniture anymore since she's never in one place for long. Once Hannah arrives home, her best friend, Gabby throws a Welcome Home party at a bar where several of their friends from high school show up. That includes Ethan, Hannah's first love, and she has to make a decision to either go home with Gabby or Ethan. From this point, we get to see both decisions play out in parallel universes. It's so interesting how this seemingly small decision has significantly different results. There were also some similarities too.

      Hannah's friendship with Gabby is the definition of friendship goals. They stand behind one another regardless if they agree with each other's choices. Even though this is a romance, their friendship was honestly the best relationship in the book. Gabby is definitely my favorite character in this story. She is such a strong and caring individual, and I love how vocal she is about her feminism.

     "Looks aren't the measure of a woman."  

    I could go on and on about why this book is so fantastic, but I don't want to spoil it. I think that it's best to know as little as possible because the major points of the book are right after Hannah chooses who to head home with. I can say that I really enjoyed this book and would totally recommend it. Get your highlighter ready because there are some great quotes. 

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alcoholic angel

Review: Lucian Divine by Renee Carlino

5:50 PM


Lucian Divine
By Renee Carlino
Release Date: January 9, 2017


                       “My guardian angel is a drunk.”

Evelyn Casey's life is at a standstill. She's in her mid-twenties, struggling with the dating scene in San Francisco. Nothing seems to be working out, and she’s starting to think that she’ll live out her days in her crummy apartment with her overbearing roommate, Brooklyn. It's absurd, but sometimes Evey longs for a guardian angel to show up and save the day.

And then he does. Seriously. His name is Lucian and he's a guardian angel, been on the job for two thousand years. His sudden presence in her life is both good—he's brilliant, witty, and warm—and bad—he's brilliant, witty, warm, and hot as ----. But as perfect as Lucian seems, he’s got problems of his own. He’s taken up drinking and he’s brazenly inserted himself into Evey’s life, going against the greatest cosmic law ever created.

For Evey, the rules are simple: You are not allowed to hook up with your guardian angel. But sometimes fulfilling your destiny requires a leap of faith, a confrontation with God. 

Yes, God as in God


       I want to start out by saying that I've never been disappointed by any of Renee Carlino's books. I've read Before We Were Strangers, Sweet Thing, and Swear on This Life. A lot of the time her writing is beautiful and poetic, because of that, I've saved several quotes from her books to my Goodreads profile. I knew when I started this blog that Lucian Divine was the first book I wanted to review which makes this tough because I didn't like it. In fact, the majority of the time I was cringing. I knew that to give it a fair review I needed to read the entire book but I really just wanted to throw it in the DNF pile and never look back. 

     After reading the summary I wasn't sure if I was even interested in reading it since it's about a guardian angel. I was concerned that the writing would come across preachy with a lot of religious references that I honestly wouldn't understand or relate to.  I wasn't worried about that after reading the preface where Renee states, 

"This book is not about God and angels. This book is about faith, love, and the unknown, and not taking ourselves so damn seriously all the time."

      GREAT! It's going to be funny as hell! At times it was, I will admit that I did laugh out loud at some parts. Unfortunately, it didn't make up for the writing. The whole story felt choppy and rushed. We didn't even get know the characters much less connect to them. 

     Evey is a 24-year-old fashion designer living in San Francisco, CA with her bitchy best friend, Brooklyn. She is an average young woman that hangs out with her friends, goes on dates, and is trying to jumpstart her career in fashion design. Other than that we know nothing about her, there isn't really anything all that special or even likable about her. 

Lucian is her two-thousand-year-old "alcoholic" guardian angel that has been looking after Evey since she was a baby. He is described as tall, extremely handsome with dark hair and blue eyes and he has been in love with Evey her entire adult life. Guardian angels are not allowed to show themselves to their souls, which means that Lucian is pining for someone that doesn't know he exists. For that reason, he has taken to drinking. I feel like Lucian's "alcoholism" was glorified a bit and was something that he was able to overcome pretty easily. It felt like it was thrown in the book just to give him an edge but wasn't explored as much as it should have been. 

      Lucian decides that he no longer cares about the consequences and reveals himself to Evey. She handles the news pretty well and falls for him instantly. Even though the age gap is insanely large, that isn't what creeps me out about Lucian. It's the fact that he has known Evey since she was born. How could he possibly have romantic feelings for someone that he's been an invisible parent-like figure to? Also there is insta-love but there's an explanation for it which seems like a convenient excuse for a short, rushed story. 

     Lucian has been around for several centuries and, as he stated, has looked after many beautiful women. Why Evey? What about her makes him want to risk his wings or his "life" just to be with her? We don't know because we don't know Evey. We are thrown into the story and expected to roll with whatever the author says without any explanation.

     In closing, this story had no backbone or character development. There were several plot holes, and I didn't feel a connection to the characters. What was the point? I will continue to read Renee Carlino's books, maybe this one was just a dud, but I cannot recommend Lucian Divine.

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