I Was Here by Gayle Forman

Book: I Was Here by Gayle Forman
ISBN 13: 9780451471475
Average Goodreads Rating: 3.82 
My Rating: 2 out of 5 unfinished homework assignments 

          I had such high hopes for this book! Gayle Forman is a really good author,  I've read If I Stay, Where She Went, and Just One Day and loved them. When I found out that she had a new book that came out recently I rushed to get it from the library! I read the whole thing in a day but it just wasn't on the same level as the others.  So many people left reviews of this book saying things like ''It was beautiful'' or ''I cried so hard, I loved it!'' Stuff I usually say! For some reason I just didn't feel it with this one.
       
             The characters seemed very one dimensional and I wasn't able to connect to any of them. It's  hard to get into a book if you don't like the narrator and honestly, I didn't like Cody. She was just an ass to everyone -almost on purpose-. Alice was being super nice to her, with her arms open ready to be her friend and Cody kept pushing her away. When Alice drove all the way down to middle-of-nowhere, Washington  and wanted to help Cody and give her info on Meg, Cody just snapped at her. She also seemed really whiny. I get it, you best friend just died. But Cody is just complaining about ''I don't want to go to anymore memorial services'' and ''Meg was so lucky, my parents suck, Meg had everything''. Granted, Tricia was a jerk, what mother tells her child not to call her mom from when she was born?

       And the romance! Oh lord, once the hints started coming about the whole thing between Ben and Cody... just no! You're hooking up with the guy who had a one night stand with your best friend and tossed her aside. A guy who openly has meaningless sex with a different girl every night. Why couldn't you have gone for a nice guy? Stoner Richard? Harry? Alice?  Anyone else! Nope, it had to be Ben. He was getting a phone call every few seconds from a girl while you were hanging out with him Cody! Guys like that don't just change! Just because he has 'gorgeous, electric blue eyes' does not mean he is a suitable mate. -End of Rant-
   
     The book did have a few good moments. Pete and Repeat the cats were pretty adorable, i'm a sucker for animals. Also, the last part when she tied ''I was here'' back to the day in the park, the graffiti wall with Meg was pretty sweet. But on the whole I think was a step back for Gayle Forman. Maybe she was just getting pressed by fans to get another book out there as fast as possible. Since she still has all the popularity from the If I Stay movie? I've tried writing a novel once and I know how difficult it is, and not all will be gems. But my fingers are crossed for a better one next time.

Thanks for Reading!   -R 

          

Vanishing Girls by Lauren Oliver

Book: Vanishing Girls by Lauren Oliver
ISBN 13: 9780062224101
Average Goodreads Rating: 3.73 
My Rating: 5 out of 5 Sleeping cats! 

     ** SPOILER ALERT!!! Usually I try to do a review with little to no spoilers. But with this one I can't. Once you get to the end, this entire book changes. So if you plan to read this book, you don't want to keep reading this post.**

    Okay, wow. I only finished the book about twenty minutes ago so i'm still recovering from how it ended! Just, the shock. The feels. O_O Just...Dara?..and Parker. Oh, Nick. *Pauses to collect thoughts*
          Starting Over! First off, I love Lauren Oliver. I've read Panic, Before I Fall, and the Delirium Trilogy plus the spinoff novellas with Raven, Hannah, and Annabel! And I NEVER read side novellas of a series. I usually think they're a waste of time and an excuse the author makes to make more money. But I like Lauren Oliver's style, she is one of my two favorite authors. To quote Hazel Grace Lancaster on her love for Peter Van Houten ''Frankly, I would read your grocery lists''. Side note, John Green is my other favorite if you were wondering. I've met Lauren before at a book signing and she is the nicest author Iv'e ever met. She stopped and actually had a full conversation with all of the fans there. So when I heard she was releasing a new book March 2015 I had to read it. Even though i'm a little late. It came out on the 10th and I bought it on the 25th. I would have pre ordered it, but Amazon, Y UR Shipping so high?!
        Anyway; I saw some people talking about this book saying that if you read psychological thriller the ending was obvious. I myself, don't. I'll read anything but sometimes when it comes to a genre I don't know as well, I don't know where to start looking for a good one. That being said, the end of this book took me completely by surprise. Until the very end I was still trying to muddle through what all of the pieces meant. I didn't believe that it was really happening until somebody in the story just came right out and said it. Dara is dead. She always was. Throughout the entire story. Nick's mind just refused to believe it and the points of the story in 'Dara's' point of view was just Nick having pshycotic delusions.
        How can someone have seen that coming?! I was so ready for the happy ending where Nick and Dara become best friends again, all is forgiven and Dara survives the car accident. But Lauren Oliver knew that. She knew that everyone would expect for things to work out and that;s exactly why she couldn't let it end that way. But then after I knew how it turned out I realized all of the signs, and every part of the story made so much more sense. The party at the Drink where 'Dara' goes, but then Nick's sweater is found at the scene. 'Dara' is putting on her jeans but the don't exactly fit. 'Dara' is kissing Parker but then he whispers Nick's name in her ear. The 'two' of them were never in the same room together at once...
        It's been awhile since I've really been shocked by and ending. So in a way I enjoyed it, but at the same time it broke my heart not to have that perfect Disney moment where they all ride into the sunset. Even though we had the ''red flag'' in the tree house and everything was back to normal...sort of. It was a similar feeling when I read 'Before I Fall' which was the first book Lauren Oliver wrote. I won't spoil that ending though. This book was so much better executed that Before I Fall though. I think it's interesting to see how far Lauren is from her first book.
                                                                                Thanks For Reading! - R
PS/ note: Before I end this! I keep forgetting to say this but I got my tickets to YALL West! It is a two day book festival going on here in Cali (it was a strictly east coast festival until this year) I will be meeting authors including Lauren Oliver and getting this book signed. Plus the following week is the LA Times book festival which i'm also going to for the second year in a row. I wanted to let everyone know that I will have special posts after those events talking about my experiences. Maybe I'll even post pictures since its such a special event! Bye all!

Fifty Shades series

Books: Fifty Shades of Grey, Fifty Shades Darker, Fifty Shades Freed 
Average Goodreads Ratings: 3.70, 3.92, 3.93
ISBN13: 9781612130293, 9781612130583, 9780345803504
My Rating (average): <---- 3 out of 5 unintentional sad face emojis 
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>       Hello All! I am in such a lovely mood! Since I am now 6 hours into my spring break and all i've done so far is read :) I know that posting (and even reading this series) is a little controversial. It's well known this book has some graphic sexual content, 50 shades has a 'mature audience' label on the back cover. My mother and her her friend even got into an argument over her choice to let me read this. I have seen deep discussion about this online and many people thing there should be an age limit on these kinds of books. I myself am a few months away of turning 15. Honestly; I think parents need to calm down on this subject -*immature teen voice* Duuude parents need to like totally chill man. Seriously bro*- Ha. There are far worse things for teenagers to get into than -gasp- books! Also, adults don't like to accept this. But teenagers have sex too. Not all of us. Calm down, I am pure. It's just a general statement, and statistically speaking more than half teenagers have engaged in sexual intercourse by the 12th grade. That's right, I Googled it. My point is, young people already have exposure to sex. 

       Anyway, my first impression of Fifty Shades of Grey was that the plot was weak and it had gained popularity predominantly on shock value. Every other scene in the first book was... you guessed it. Sex. Eventually it got to the point where I was just skimming over them because they were all more or less the same thing. I did notice that the very first 'scene' I read my reaction was much more surprised but by the end of the series I had been desensitized to them and didn't really react much at all. A lot of people say this book was really poorly written and the worst book ever, etc. I agree that this book wasn't amazing. However; I respect EL James who was just an average person who wanted to write something which is not easy! To those who are complaining as well, this book is popular because people buy it. Another thing I absolutley hate -actually hate isn't strong enough loathe is when people openly critique a book and say it's bad when haven't even read it. That happened a lot with people when I said I was going to read this. If you have read the whole book and whole series I will discuss the strengths and weaknesses of it and rationalize my views on it and not just simple say ''This sucks''

        Another thing! If you don't want something to gain popularity than leave it alone.  A lot of people hate on the book and say it's awful but then they buy it anyway. That's one the rules of consumerism people! If something is in demand there will be more production of it! If people buy ''crappy, awful writing that gives people the wrong idea about sex'' then there will be more production of said thing. I had the same view on another book series I'm about to mention. The good thing was, as the series progressed there was more of a plot. Christian's character becomes much deeper than 'hot, rich, bad boy'. Anastasia however... well. Lets just say she was better that *dramatic pause* ... Bella Swan! 

       Yes. I am aware of the fact that Fifty Shades began as a fanfiction of Twilight. In fact I remember my first thought when getting the books was ''Oh lord, if the book E.L James was basing this off of was bad, how atrocious is this going to be?'' Luckily, I think these books were better than Twilight. Main reason being, I loathe Bella Swan. She was just so dull, predictable, and ahem submissive. Bella could hardly manage to tie her shoes without the help of her Prince Charming, Edward Cullen. Every adjective used to describe her vampire boyfriend is a million different synonyms of hot. Anastasia Steele is an intelligent, brave-ish young woman who could definitely kick Bella's ass. Hey! EL James! How about writing a cross over so I could see that! I promise I would be quite entertained. 
                                                           Thanks for Reading! 
                                                                                                  -R
         

Half Blood Jennifer Armentrout

Book: Half Blood By Jennifer Armentrout 
ISBN 13: 9780983157205
Average Goodreads : 4.17 stars
My Rating: 3 out of 5 Van Halen songs

       This book was recommended by one of my friends from book club and I've read the Lux series written by Jennifer Armentrout and I really liked it. There are quite a few mixed opinions on this one and it turned out to be pretty unpopular among the book club community. In fact, one them absolutely despises Alexandra Andros... aand I see where she's coming from. There is also the controversy that this book is a carbon copy of Vampire Academy, which I haven't read. I mean come on, Vampire Academy? That title alone sounds like cliche, teen hormones, and horrible romance rolled into one. Plus, it's been 4 years since I read Twilight and the thought of vampires still makes me shudder. {End of anti vampire rant}
       This book actually had some potential in my opinion. The first few chapters I really liked. With one exception, Jeez Alex! Your mom just DIED and the next day all you can think about is making out with *stereotypical teen girl voice* Aiden St. Delphi <3. Come on! Yeah sure hormones but damn every girl in book club just cringed when discussing this part. It makes teenage girls -and boys- look bad. 
           My favorite part of this book was Alex's sarcasm. I think the point of her snarky comments were meant to be used as a device to 'cope' with all the things happening to her but whatever it was, I thought is was fun! I don't think Katy had that quality to the extent of Alex; the snarky character of that series was definitely Daimon. I did notice that I was comparing Katy to Alex quite a bit while reading. Overall I found Katy to be a more relatable character though -Sorry Alex!- I think that Alex was too much of a hot head to be believable. In her given situation I would expect her to tone it down at least a little. But maybe as the series progresses? Possible character development? Katy was more my style; a tiny bit awkward in a lovable way and of course the obvious... Katy was a book nerd! <3 
          So far i'm digging Lux over this one but I've only read one book of the series so it's too soon to tell. I can't put my finger on exactly what the difference between the two is but I just thought covenant was a little more juvenile than Lux. Like Armentrout changed in between writing each series. (Even though the last book of each series only came out 1 year apart) 
         The main flaw of this book was that there wasn't a lot of detail into the world this story takes place in. Books like Harry Potter and the Shadow Hunter series give a lot of depth to their realms. In this case it was as if we were already supposed to know about everything. Greek Mythology isn't my specialty. I read the Percy Jackson series in 4th grade, that's the level of experience I have. I do think this series has potential, I will give book 2 a chance. 

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Thanks For Reading! -R

* Note: I found an article that hopefully will help get rid of the white background around the words! So I shall try to fix it! It involves so HTML-ish stuff which I kinda suck at so fingers crossed. Ha. 

UPDATE: It worked! Yay! I went back on the older posts that still had issues too. Hopefully from now on the white text thing wont be a problem anymore. :)
          



       

Shatter Me Series by Tahereh Mafi

Sorry for my month long hiatus! So in the interest of catching up, I will be trying something different. I will condense the reiews of this trilogy into one post. We shall see how this goes. *note: This includes the three main books not the side novellas in other characters POV)*

Books: (and ISBN-13) 

Shatter Me 9780062085481

 Unravel Me: 9780062085535

 Ignite me :9780062085573

Average good reads rating (for each): 4.04 stars, 4.37 stars, 4.47 stars

  My Rating (general) : A generous...4 out of 5 pink grapefruits. (A 3 would probably be more accurate)

    

Okay this series has been getting a lot of buzz on goodreads lately. So of course, I had to see what all of the fuss was about. The story has a common YA theme, dystopian romance. Juliette as the power to kill with just her touch. Something i've alway thought of since the story of king Midas, what would it really be like to have an ability with just touch? It's not something you can control. Juliette spends most of the series denying her power and cowering in fear of herself. She is also haunted by her accidental murder of a little boy. I do understand where she comes from in her fear I would hate having this ability but Juliette spends an excessive amount of time crying bout her relationship while

 the world is turning to crap. 

    Speaking of these romantic issues, the dreaded love triangle! LORD! I'll admit, the love scene in book 3 had me swooning,but love triangles were old a long time ago. The only love triangle I really loved was Gayle + Katniss + Peeta. That is the one exception to the golden rule of mine; love triangles are extreme cliche. The only good thing about this Adam, Juliette, Warner pairing was that Mafi waited until mid- series to introduce the concept. In book one I was for sure 'team Adam' (I use quotes because I loathe the 'team blah blah' thing girls do but don't know what term to use instead) but as the series went on Adam turned out to be an annoying, jerky, hot head. Warner on the other hand went in the opposite direction. He went from insane dictator to an insecure, misunderstood teenage boy. So ha! Take that to people who say Young Adult books don't have character development. Unfortunately Adam and Warner seem to be the same person in terms of back story. (Then again I didn't read the books in both Adam and Warner's perspective: Fracture Me and Destroy Me) They both didn't have a mother, had an abusive father who *SPOILER ALERT* turned out to be the same guy, and went into military careers to 'escape'... and of course both fall madly in love with Juliette. 

         The synopsis of book 2 and 3 (Unravel and Ignite) seemed to talk about this 'war' between the Reestablishment and the Rebels but honestly, this 'war' was pretty much two battles. One of which Juliette passed out and didn't see and the other lasted about ten minutes and yayy the Rebels win and Juliette and Warner make out on top of a building and awww The End. But I was like.... what? Where was the war? That wasn't war. And Juliette decides to be ruler of this new society when she has 1) No military experience. 2) No clue about politics, economics, etc and 3) She's been in prison for the past 3 years, she has no idea what's been going on in this country. 

    Overall I thought this book was pretty 'meh'. There were bits I liked and bits I didn't but this series had a really strong fanbase so idk what am I missing here? Ah well, can't love them all can I? 

Thanks for Reading! -R

*Another side note! I'll have a 50 shades of Grey review up hopefully in a few days that i'm excited for! I'm on book 3. Aaaad I'll have book 1 of another series posted soon. Bye! :)