What Lies Around The Bend...

"When each summer begins, Belly leaves her school life behind and escapes to Cousins Beach, the place she has spent every summer of her life. Not only does the beach house mean home away from home, but her favorite people are there: Susannah, her mother's best friend, and her sons, Conrad and Jeremiah. Belly has been chasing Conrad for as long as she can remember, and more than anything, she hopes this summer will be different. Despite distractions from a new guy named Cam and lingering looks from Conrad's brother, Jeremiah, Belly's heart belongs to Conrad. Will he offer his to her? Will this be the summer that changes everything?" Review: I was quite furious with this book. It was very wishy-washy. The main character, Belly, acted extremely childish, from her pouting to defensive lashes, but wasn't the story supposed to be about her growing up? And this was definitely one of those stories you couldn't pick a favorite (for example, Team Jacob vs. Team

"Budding designer Lola Nolan doesn't believe in fashion... she believes in costume. The more expensive the outfit - the more sparkly, more sun, more wild - the better. And life is pretty close to perfect in Lola's world, especially with her hot rocker boyfriend. That is, until the dreaded Bell twins, Calliope and Cricket, return to the neighborhood and unearth a past of hurt and anguish that Lola thought was long buried. When talented inventor Cricket steps out from his twin sister's shadow and back into Lola's life, she must finally reconcile a lifetime of feelings for the boy next door." Review: This is a very sweet love story and I enjoyed it much more than I thought I would. This is one of those books you curl up with when you're having a bad day and need chirking up. It has the raw emotion and quirky heroine along with a long awaited reunion our character has tried desperately to avoid. An unexpected twist was really the antagonist. It isn't ma

WARNING: SPOILER ALERT: IF YOU HAVE NOT GOTTEN THIS FAR IN THE LUNAR CHRONICLES, STOP NOW. DO NOT READ. THIS IS BOOK 3. FOR THE REVIEW ON BOOK 1, CHECK OUT CINDER AND SCARLET FOR BOOK 2! "Cinder and Captain Thorne are fugitives on the run, now with Scarlet and Wolf in tow. Together, they're plotting to overthrow Queen Levana and her army. Their best hope lies with Cress, a girl imprisoned on a satellite since childhood who's only ever had her netscreens as company. All that screen time has made Cress an excellent hacker. Unfortunately, she's just received orders from Levana to track down Cinder and her handsome accomplice. When a daring rescue of Cress goes awry, the group is separated. Cress finally has her freedom, but it comes at a high price. Meanwhile, Queen Levana will let nothing prevent her marriage to Emperor Kai. Cress, Scarlet, and Cinder may not have signed up to save the world, but they may be the only hope the world has." Review:

WARNING: SPOILER ALERT: IF YOU HAVE NOT GOTTEN THIS FAR IN THE LUNAR CHRONICLES, STOP NOW. DO NOT READ. THIS IS BOOK 2. FOR THE REVIEW ON BOOK 1, CHECK OUT CINDER ! "Cinder, the cyborg mechanic, returns in the second thrilling installment of the best-selling Lunar Chronicles. She's trying to break out of prison - even though if she succeeds, she'll be the Commonwealth's most wanted fugitive. Halfway around the world, Scarlet Benoit's grandmother is missing. When Scarlet encounters Wolf, a street fighter who may have information about her grandmother's whereabouts, she is loath to trust this stranger, but is inexplicably drawn to him, and he to her. As Scarlet and Wolf unravel one mystery, they encounter another when they meet Cinder. Now, all of them must stay one step ahead of the vicious Lunar Queen Levana, who will do anything for the handsome Prince Kai to become her husband. Her king. Her prisoner ." Review: Yet another girl willing to

WARNING: SPOILER ALERT: IF YOU HAVE NOT GOTTEN THIS FAR IN THE MARA DYER TRILOGY, STOP NOW. DO NOT READ. THIS IS BOOK 2. FOR THE REVIEW OF BOOK 1, CHECK OUT THE UNBECOMING OF MARA DYER ! "You wake up from sedation in a psychiatric ward. You know you're not crazy, but no one believes you. Your impossible past is catching up to you - quickly. You uncover a secret too big to be untrue, and your boyfriend is keeping secrets of his own. You are a walking target. Can you unravel the lies? Mara Dyer is about to find out." Review: As if this series can get any better! Everyone has turned against Mara Dyer, and truly I feel like I'm the only one who believes her story besides Noah! The author did an excellent job making me feel as if I was imprisoned along with Mara. I felt her doubt herself and doubt her own sanity as well. The ending was incredible and had me gasping for air! Michelle Hodkin is an excellent author, and I don't seem to have the words to describ

"Eva and Addie started out the same way as everyone else - two souls woven together in one body, taking turns controlling their movements as they learned how to walk, how to sing, how to dance. But as they grew, so did the worried whispers. Why aren't they settling? Why isn't one of them fading? The doctors ran tests, the neighbors shied away, and their parents begged for more time. Finally Addie was pronounced healthy and Eva was declared gone. Except, she wasn't.... For the past three years, Eva has clung to the remnants of her life. Only Addie knows she's still there, trapped inside their body. Then one day, they discover there may be a way for Eva to move again. The risks are unimaginable - hybrids are considered a threat to society, so if they are caught, Addie and Eva will be locked away with the others. And yet.... for a chance to smile, to twirl, to speak, Eva will do anything." Review: I never thought I'd know what it would be like to h

WARNING: SPOILER ALERT: IF YOU HAVE NOT GOTTEN THIS FAR IN THE ARCANA CHRONICLES, STOP NOW. DO NOT READ. THIS IS BOOK 2. FOR THE REVIEW OF BOOK 1, CHECK OUT POISON PRINCESS ! "Evie has fully come into her powers as the Tarot Empress, and Jack was there to see it all. She now knows that the teens who've been reincarnated as the Tarot are in the throes of an epic battle. It's kill or be killed, and the future of mankind hangs in the balance. With threats lurking around every corner, Evie is forced to trust her newfound alliance. Together they must fight not only other Arcana, but also Bagmen zombies, post-apocalyptic storms, and cannibals. When Evie meets Death, things get even more complicated. Though falling for Jack, she's drawn to the dangerous Endless Knight as well. Somehow the Empress and Death share a history - one that Evie can't remember, but Death can't forget..." Review: So the sequel of the Arcana Chronicles did not disappoin

WARNING: SPOILER ALERT: IF YOU HAVE NOT GOTTEN THIS FAR IN THE WHITE RABBIT CHRONICLES, STOP NOW. DO NOT READ. THIS IS BOOK 2. FOR BOOK 1, CHECK OUT ALICE IN ZOMBIELAND ! "Alice Bell has lost so much. Family. Friends, A home. She thought she had nothing else to give. She was wrong.  After a new zombie attack, strange things begin to happen to her. Mirrors come to life, and the whispers of the dead assault her ears. But the worst? A terrible darkness blooms inside her, urging her to do very wicked things. She's never needed her team of zombie slayers more, but ultra bad-boy Cole Holland, the leader and her boyfriend, suddenly withdraws from her... from everyone. Now with her best friend, Kat, at her side, Ali must kill the zombies, uncover Cole's secret and learn to fight the darkness. But the clock is ticking... and if she fails at a single task, they're all doomed." Review: I had flushed cheeks for 75% of the book. I'm just saying, this

WARNING: SPOILER ALERT: IF YOU HAVE NOT GOTTEN THIS FAR IN THE BURN FOR BURN SERIES, STOP NOW. DO NOT READ. THIS IS BOOK 2.  FOR REVIEW ON BOOK 1, CHECK OUT BURN FOR BURN ! "Lillia, Kat, and Mary had the perfect plan: work together in secret to take down the people who wronged them. But things didn't exactly go the way they'd hoped at the Homecoming Dance. Not even close. For now it looks like they got away with it. All they have to do is move on and pick up the pieces, forget there ever was a pact. But it's not easy, not when Reeve is still a total jerk and Rennie's meaner than she ever was before. And then there's sweet little Mary... she knows there's something seriously wrong  with her. If she can't control her anger, she's sure that someone will get hurt even worse than Reeve was. Mary understands now that it's not just that Reeve bullied her - it's that he made her love him. Eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth, b

"A Murdered Woman with a bloody X carved across her heart. A Handsome Artist with a mischievous smile and a knack for getting into trouble. A Deranged Killer on the loose. One Girl About To Discover a more sinister side of Venice, where temptation, deception, and corruption can lead to something far worse than murder." Review: How can a book make me this angry? Because it reaches the pinnacle, where everything is supposed to be answered or contently unanswered. But no! The author just had to leave the biggest cliffhanger of all. The pieces of the mystery still remained scattered about like a broken window pane. At first, I thought I had the story pegged. I thought I knew how it was going to end, but as the chapters bled on, my mind was running in circles guessing who the killer was every which way. And I sympathized with Cass because both men deserved her love, but it was unclear which deserved it more. My heart rang out to her, despite my siding wi

"Elizabeth Caldwell doesn't feel emotions... she sees them in human form. Longing hovers around the shy, adoring boy at school. Courage materializes beside her dying friend. Fury and Resentment visit her abusive home. They've all given up on Elizabeth because she doesn't succumb to their touch. All, that is, except beautiful Fear, who sometimes torments her and other times plays her compassionate savior. He's obsessed with finding the answer to one question: What happened to Elizabeth to make her this way? They both sense that the key to Elizabeth's condition is somehow connected to the paintings of her dreams, which show visions of death and grief that raise more questions than answers. But as a shadowy menace begins to stalk her, Elizabeth's very survival depends on discovering the truth about herself. When it matters most, she may not be able to rely on Fear to save her." Review: What a grotesquely gorgeous novel. I think this is one of t

"Sixteen-year-old Lex Bartleby has sucker-punched her last classmate. Fed up with her punkish, wild behavior, her parents ship her off to upstate New York to live with her Uncle Mort for the summer, hoping that a few months of dirty farm work will whip her back into shape. But Uncle Mort's true occupation is much dirtier than shoveling manure. He's a Grim Reaper. And he's going to teach her the family business. Lex quickly assimilates into the peculiar world of Croak, a town populated entirely of reapers who deliver souls from this life to the next. Along with her infuriating yet intriguing partner, Driggs, and a rockstar crew of fellow Grim apprentices, Lex is soon zapping her targets like a natural born Killer. Yet her innate ability morphs into an unchecked desire for justice - or is it vengeance? - whenever she's forced to Kill a murder victim, yearning to stop the attackers before they can strike again. So when people start to die - that is, peopl

WARNING: SPOILER ALERT: IF YOU HAVE NOT GOTTEN THIS FAR IN THE REVENA NTS TRILOGY, STOP NOW. DO NOT READ. THIS IS BOOK 3. FOR THE REVIEW OF BOOK 1, CHECK OUT UNTIL I DIE AND DIE FOR ME FOR BOOK 2! "I will not lose another person I love. I will not let history repeat itself. Vincent waited lifetimes to find me, but in an instant our future together has been shattered. He was betrayed by Violette, someone we both called a friend, and I lost him. Now Violette is determined to rule over France's immortals, and she's willing to wage a war to get what she wants. It shouldn't be possible, none of it should be, but this is my reality. I know Vincent is somewhere out there, I know he's not completely gone, and I will do anything to save him. After what we've already fought to achieve, a life without Vincent is unimaginable. He once swore to avoid dying - to go against his nature and forsake sacrificing himself for others - so that we could be together

"In the aftermath of a brutal and bloody war, in the still-smoldering Black City, sixteen-year-olds Natalie Buchanan and Ash Fisher do the unthinkable - they fall in love. Natalie, a human and the daughter of a government official, is still reeling from her father's murder by a crazed Darkling, upending her entire life. So how can she now be falling for Ash, a brooding half-blood Darkling boy? Natalie's heart betrays everything she's ever believed with one magnetic beat, forcing her to choose between her family and the boy she loves. Ash tries desperately to deny his feelings for Natalie. She is a Sentry brat, after all. The very Sentry who would love nothing more than to see all Darklings totally eradicated from the United Sentry States. For now, they've settled for banishing all Darklings to the wrong side of a ghetto wall. Despite being half-human and being allowed to live on the human side, Ash is still scorned everywhere he goes, always wondering what it

"Escaping from the brutality of an arranged marriage, seventeen-year-old Ismae finds sanctuary at the convent of St. Mortain, where the sisters still serve the gods of old. Here she learns that the god of Death Himself has blessed her with dangerous gifts - and a violent destiny. If she chooses to stay at the convent, she will be trained as an assassin and serve as a handmaiden to Death. To claim her new life, she must be willing to take the lives of others. Ismae's most important assignment takes her straight into the high court of Brittany, where she must pose as mistress to the darkly mysterious Gavriel Duval, who has fallen under a cloud of suspicion. Once there, she finds herself woefully under-prepared - not only for the deadly games of love and intrigue, but for the impossible choices she must make. For how can she deliver Death's vengeance upon a target who, against her will, has stolen her heart?" Review: This book was extravagant. That is not a wo

"Humans and androids crowd the raucous streets of New Beijing. A deadly plague ravages the population. From space, a ruthless lunar people watch, waiting to make their move. No one knows that Earth's fate hinges on one girl.... Sixteen-year-old Cinder, a gifted mechanic, is a cyborg. She's a second-class citizen with a mysterious past and is reviled by her step-mother. But when her life becomes intertwined with the handsome Prince Kai's, she suddenly finds herself at the center of an intergalactic struggle, and a forbidden attraction. Caught between duty and freedom, loyalty and betrayal, she must uncover secrets about her past in order to protect her world's future. Because there is something unusual about Cinder, something that others would kill for." Review: So I have talked to numerous people who tell me how wonderful this book is and my mother has heard the same. So we decided to read it together as a mother/daughter bonding moment. We each had

"Sixteen-year-old Dusty Everhart breaks into houses late at night, but not because she's a criminal. No, she's a Nightmare. Literally. Being the only Nightmare at Arkwell Academy, a boarding school for magickind, and living in the shadow of her mother's infamy is hard enough, but when Dusty sneaks into Eli Booker's house, things get a whole lot more complicated. He's hot, which means sitting on his chest and invading his dreams couldn't get much more embarrassing. But it does. Eli is dreaming of a murder. The setting is Arkwell. And then his dream comes true. Now Dusty has to follow the clues - both within Eli's dreams and out of them - to stop the killer before more people turn up dead. And before the killer learns what she's up to and marks her as the next target...." Review: IT HAPPENED AGAIN!!! within the first 100 pages of the novel, I figured out who the killer was. However, unlike the last book I read, the roma

"When her boyfriend, Tristan, died, Ivy thought she'd lost everything, even her faith in angels. But now she's discovered that he's her guardian angel - his presence so strong that she can feel the touch of his hand, the beat of his heart. Ivy needs Tristan now more than ever because he knows she's in terrible danger. Only Ivy's guardian angel can save her, now that his killer is after her . But if Tristan rescues Ivy, his mission on earth will be finished, and he must leave her behind forever. Will saving Ivy mean losing her just when he's finally reached her again?" Review: This was approximately 690 pages of absolute crap. I hate it when you know exactly who did what in a mystery novel. It takes the fun out of everything! Halfway through the first book I knew everything that the main characters couldn't figure out until halfway through the last book. I was furious. Also, Even though Tristan was there, Ivy was completely oblivious! She

"Is Lenzi losing her mind? She must be. She hears voices and is having visions - gravestones, floods, a gorgeous guy with steel-gray eyes. She has got to be going crazy; just like her dad did. Her boyfriend, Zak, can't do anything to help; and the voices just keep getting louder, the visions more intense. Then Lenzi meets Alden, the guy from her dreams, and everything makes sense. Sort of, Lenzi learns she is a reincarnated Speaker, destined to guide lost souls into the afterlife with Alden as her Protector. But Lenzi must choose her own path - wisely. Because a malevolent spirit is quickly closing in. And time is running out." Review: This story began as any paranormal book does: with the main character feeling as though she's going crazy. T hen a guy with mysteriously shaded eyes comes along and "saves her" and helps her in her journey of becoming who she really is. This story was no exception. In fact, it fits the bill to the letter. I was

" I have a curse. I have a gift. I'm a monster. I'm more than human. My touch is lethal. My touch is power. I am their weapon. I will fight back. No one knows why Juliette's touch is fatal, but the Reestablishment has plans for her. Plans to use her as a weapon. But Juliette has plans of her own. After a lifetime without freedom, she's finally discovering the strength to fight back for the very first time - and to find a future with the one boy she thought she lost forever." Review: WOW. This book was absolutely fantastic and way better than I originally assumed it would be. From page one, I was reeled in and before I knew it, I reached the last page. I was laughing and screaming and crying and smiling with every turn of the page. Though I didn't know what to expect, I surely did not see coming the pure, overwhelming rapture this book gave to me. There is little more I can say about this book other than telling you to read it

"Since the Event, everyone is haunted.... Most days, the ghosts don't bother Veronica. Living in the aftermath of the Event means that seeing the dead is now a part of life. Then again, sharing a mirror every morning with a phantom teenage boy can be too close for comfort, and she wishes some ghosts could just move on. But the ghosts are gaining power. When Veronica and her friend Kirk investigate why, they stumble upon a sinister plot. One of Veronica's high school teachers is crippled by the fact that his daughter won't return as a ghost. He believes she just needs the right body. August has tried finding - and murdering - a live host for his Eva before, to no avail. But the more he follows Veronica, the more August knows she's a perfect match. And even if he's wrong, where's the harm in creating one more ghost?" Review: This is one of those books that you finish with more questions than answers. The title, for example, is a metaphor -