What You Left Behind gives us the unique perspective of a teenage single dad who is both adjusting to his new status as a father and mourning the loss of his girlfriend, who died so that their daughter Hope could be born. The book shows the difficulties and the sacrifices that have to be made in this type of situation – and it doesn’t sugar-coat the painful emotional consequences. What I LOVED: Ryden’s struggles. Ryden was NOT […]
A Million Miles Away is a story about how loss affects us and how we sometimes try to hold on to the past and refuse to let go. This was the case for Kelsey, who couldn’t figure out how to move on from her twin sister’s death. Her parents chose a grief support group, but Kelsey didn’t want anything to do with that. But when Michelle’s boyfriend reaches out to her from Afghanistan, Kelsey can’t bring […]
I honestly didn’t know what to expect with this book. The cover made it almost look like a fantasy to me, but the blurb made it relatively obvious that it wasn’t. I’m not much for suspense, and I didn’t know if this book would venture too far into that territory for me to love it. Still, I was definitely intrigued and I ended up requesting this one through Shelf Awareness and was excited when I […]
I’ve waited a long time to write this review because, I didn’t know how to describe my love for this book. Honestly, when you read the premise, it sounds like a standard story with no real surprises – and it was. I mean, I knew basically how this book was going to go. Girl loses boyfriend, meets boy who got boyfriend’s heart, doesn’t tell him, falls in love with him, he finds out and is […]
Conspiracy of Blood and Smoke is the second installment in the Prisoner of Night and Fog series (a duology, I believe?). This book found Gretchen and David back in Germany, attempting to clear David’s name when he is accused of a murder. It soon becomes apparent that the murder is just part of a larger cover-up, and Gretchen and David hope to uncover the truth and ruin Hitler’s chance at leading Germany down a horrific […]
This book is incredibly hard to review because it’s so hard to even describe. The story is told in alternating POV’s. We get Noah’s POV, describing what happens when the twins are 13 years old and starts out when they are still very close. Jude’s POV jumps to when the twins are 16, and we see that a huge rift has formed between them. As the story unfolds, we slowly start to see how this happened […]
All the Bright Places is a difficult but intensely powerful read. This is not the type of book that will leave you feeling satisfied or refreshed. It will leave you feeling gutted and a bit broken, but also uplifted in an odd sort of way. I chose to read this on my birthday because I wanted to read something amazing that day – I got what I wanted, but I also spent that night sobbing. […]
Title: Breathe, Annie, Breathe Series: Hundred Oaks #5 Author: Miranda Kenneally Release Date: July 15, 2014 Pages: 306 Goodreads Rating: 4.10/5 Stars My Rating: 4.5/5 Stars My Content Rating: Mature YA (Sexual activity, not explicit, but described; Some language) Summary from Goodreads: Annie hates running. No matter how far she jogs, she can’t escape the guilt that if she hadn’t broken up with Kyle, he might still be alive. So to honor his memory, she starts preparing for the marathon he intended to race. But the training […]
Title: My Last Kiss Author: Bethany Neal Release Date: June 10, 2014 Pages: 368 Goodreads Rating: 3.87/5 Stars My Rating: 4/5 Stars My Content Rating: YA (Nothing more than kissing, Some violence) Genre: YA Paranormal Summary from Goodreads: What if your last kiss was with the wrong boy? Cassidy Haines remembers her first kiss vividly. It was on the old covered bridge the summer before her freshman year with her boyfriend of three years, Ethan Keys. But her last kiss–the one she shared with […]
“Debut novelist Blankman’s account of life in Munich prior to Hitler’s 1933 elevation to the chancellorship is completely engrossing….Blankman creates riveting tension for her heroine and pulls readers through with an irresistible subplot featuring forbidden love.” — Publishers Weekly (starred review) “I’m in awed envy of the daring with which Anne Blankman plunges into her difficult and sensitive subject matter. To read Prisoner of Night and Fog is to be immersed in a breathtaking evocation […]