What Lies Around The Bend...

"Panic began as so many things do in Carp, a poor town of twelve thousand people in the middle of nowhere: because it was summer, and there was nothing else to do. Heather never thought she would compete in Panic, a legendary game played by graduating seniors, where the stakes are high and the payoff is ever higher. She'd never thought of herself as fearless, the kind of person who would fight to stand out. But when she finds something, and someone, to fight for, she will discover that she is braver than she ever thought. Dodge has never been afraid of Panic. His secret will fuel him, and get him all the way through the game; he's sure of it. But what he doesn't know is that he's not the only one with a secret. Everyone has something to play for. For Heather and Dodge, the game will bring new alliances, unexpected revelations, and the possibility of first love for each of them - and the knowledge that sometimes the very things we fear are those we need

WARNING: SPOILER ALERT: IF YOU HAVE NOT GOTTEN THIS FAR IN THE SELECTION SERIES, STOP NOW. DO NOT READ. THIS IS BOOK 3. FOR THE REVIEW ON BOOK 1, CHECK OUT THE SELECTION AND FOR BOOK 2, CHECK OUT THE ELITE . "The time has come for the winner to be crowned. When she was chosen to compete in the Selection, America never dreamed she would find herself anywhere close to the crown - or to Prince Maxon's heart. But as the end of the competition approaches, and the threats outside the palace walls grow more vicious, America realizes just how much she stands to lose - and how hard she'll have to fight for the future she wants." Review: A fantastic ending. Just like its cover, this book ended spectacularly; like fireworks. There was action and sadness, revolution and romance, all wrapped around a simple Five, who wore her story gracefully. Though I'm sad the story's over. I am unbelievably satisfied with the results. Celeste even surprised me! I am goin

WARNING: SPOILER ALERT: IF YOU HAVE NOT GOTTEN THIS FAR IN THE SELECTION SERIES, STOP NOW. DO NOT READ. THIS IS BOOK 2. FOR THE REVIEW ON BOOK 1, CHECK OUT THE SELECTION . "The Selection began with 35 girls. Now, with the group narrowed down to the Elite, the competition to win Prince Maxon's love is fiercer than ever. The closer America gets to the crown, the more she struggles to figure out where her heart truly lies. Each moment she spends with Maxon is like a fairy tale, filled with breathless, glittering romance. But whenever she sees her first love, Aspen, standing guard, she's swept up in longing for the life they'd planned to share. America is desperate for more time. But while she's torn between her two futures, the rest of the Elite know exactly what they want - and America's chance to choose is about to slip away." Review: I'm at the edge of my seat! This girl has some big cojones. She is gaining the public with her outlandish

"For thirty-five girls, the Selection is the chance of a lifetime. The opportunity to be swept up in a world of glittering gowns and priceless jewels. To live in a palace and compete for the heart of gorgeous Prince Maxon. But for America Singer, being Selected is a nightmare. It means turning her back on her secret love with Aspen, who is a caste below her, and leaving her home to enter a fierce competition for a crown she doesn't want. Then America meets Prince Maxon. Gradually, she begins to realize that the life she's always dreamed of may not compare to a future she never imagined." Review: I was pleasantly surprised by this book. Immediately I loved America. She was spunky and cute and had a mind of her own in a world where that's not proper. And even more so, I loved Maxon from the moment he let her out into the gardens that first night. I felt for America when her confusion and frustration seemed so impossible to untangle. I cannot wait

WARNING: SPOILER ALERT: IF YOU HAVE NOT GOTTEN THIS FAR IN THE BURN FOR BURN SERIES, STOP NOW. DO NOT READ. THIS IS BOOK 3. FOR THE REVIEW OF BOOK 1, CHECK OUT BURN FOR BURN AND FOR BOOK 2, CHECK OUT FIRE WITH FIRE ! "Lillia, Kat, and Mary. They only meant to right some wrongs. It was about getting even . Burn for Burn. But the fire they lit kept raging... Reeve ended up hurt, and Rennie ended up dead. Everything will turn to ash if they don't stop what they started. Do they even want to? Secrets drew Lillia, Kat, and Mary together. The truth might tear them apart." Review: Wow. That was extremely anticlimactic. I have been praising this series with its neck-wringing plot twists and I anxiously awaited this book. When I finished it, disappointed is an understatement. I was looking for the big bang to end this series with, but it was just a little fizzle, like a defective firecracker. I really don't have words for how disappointed I was. Want more J

"Anna is happy in Atlanta. She has a loyal best friend and a crush on her coworker at the movie theater, who is just starting to return her affection. So she's less than thrilled when her father decides to send her to a boarding school in Paris for her senior year. But despite not speaking a word of French, Anna meets some cool new people, including the handsome Etienne St. Clair, who quickly becomes her best friend. Unfortunately, he's taken - and Anna might be, too. Will a year of romantic near misses end with the French kiss she's been waiting for?" Review: I read another one of Stephanie's books, and I loved it. So my hopes for this book were high. It did not disappoint! I felt like I was in Paris, experiencing everything alongside Anna. So much so, I went school, thinking I just came back from Paris. I would start a sentence, about to tell my classmates about my experience, and I had to stop. I forgot that it was Anna, not me. This was an exception

"Heam is the hottest drug around. It smells like strawberries and looks like liquid silver. People say when you take Heam, your body momentarily dies and you catch a glimpse of heaven. I saw something else. I saw hell. Faye was only eleven when dealers forced Heam on her and her best friend, Christian. She survived; he didn't. Now she spends her days hiding her terrible secret and her nights training to take revenge on the men who destroyed her future and murdered her best friend. But life never goes the way we think it will. When a mysterious young man named Chael appears, Faye's plan suddenly gets a lot more complicated. He seems to know everything about her, including her past. As she gets drawn into his world, she starts to realize that things aren't as black-and-white as she first thought. But too many secrets start tearing her world apart: trouble at school, with the police, and with the people she thought might be her friends. Even Gazer, her guardian, fea

WARNING: SPOILER ALERT: IF YOU HAVE NOT GOTTEN THIS FAR IN THE WHITE RABBIT CHRONICLES, STOP NOW. DO NOT READ. THIS IS BOOK 3. FOR THE REVIEW OF BOOK 1, CHECK OUT ALICE IN ZOMBIELAND AND FOR BOOK 2, CHECK OUT THROUGH THE ZOMBIE GLASS ! "I have a plan. We'll either destroy them for good, or they'll destroy us. Either way, only one of us is walking away. In the stunning conclusion to the wildly popular White Rabbit Chronicles, Alice "Ali" Bell thinks the worst is behind her. She's ready to take the next step with boyfriend Cole Holland, the leader of the zombie slayers…until Anima Industries, the agency controlling the zombies, launches a sneak attack, killing four of her friends. It's then she realizes that humans can be more dangerous than monsters…and the worst has only begun. As the surviving slayers prepare for war, Ali discovers she, too, can control the zombies…and she isn't the girl she thought she was. She's connected to the wom

"Cath is a Simon Snow fan. Okay, the whole world is a Simon Snow fan... But for Cath, being a fan is her life - and she's really good at it. She and her twin sister, Wren, ensconced themselves in the Simon Snow series when they were just kids; It's what got them through their mother leaving. Reading. Rereading. Hanging out in Simon Snow forums, writing Simon Snow fanfiction, dressing up like the characters for every movie premiere. Cath's sister has mostly grown away from fandom, but Cath can't let go. She doesn't want to. Now that they're going to college, Wren has told Cath she doesn't want to be roommates. Cath is on her own, completely outside her comfort zone. She's got a surly roommate with a charming, always-around boyfriend; a fiction-writing professor who thinks fanfiction is the end of the civilized world; a handsome classmate who only wants to talk about words... and she can't stop worrying about her dad, who's lo

"He watched her, but never knew her. Until, thanks to a chance encounter, he became her savior... The attraction between them was undeniable. Yet the past he'd worked so hard to overcome, and the future she'd put so much faith in, threatened to tear them apart. Only together could they fight the pain and guilt, face the truth, and find the unexpected power of love." Content Guidance:  This series contains explicit content that is not suitable for readers who are under 18. This book also contains dark themes that may trigger some readers. Please read with care. Review: Alright, let me start by saying, the summary makes this book seem extremely cheesy, and it isn't, I swear! I think the summary fails to tell the audience the main theme of this book: rape. Yeah, that "chance encounter" was RAPE. This is something not to be taken lightly and I am so happy that an author has reached out to teens and young adults about a touchy subject. This top

"Two misfits. One extraordinary love. Eleanor... Red hair, wrong clothes. Standing behind him until he turns his head. Lying beside him until he wakes up. Making everyone else seem drabber and flatter and never good enough...Eleanor. Park... He knows she'll love a song before he plays it for her. He laughs at her jokes before she ever gets to the punch line. There's a place on his chest, just below his throat, that makes her want to keep promises...Park. Set over the course of one school year, this is the story of two star-crossed sixteen-year-olds — smart enough to know that first love almost never lasts, but brave and desperate enough to try." Review: This book was revered by my English teacher mother and shoved into my hands the moment she finished it, saying, "You just HAVE to read this!" Honestly, everyone I've talked to about this book has the same opinion: the ending was infuriating. If you had asked me my opinion on the book as soon as

WARNING: SPOILER ALERT: IF YOU HAVE NOT GOTTEN THIS FAR IN THE THRONE OF GLASS SERIES, STOP NOW. DO NOT READ. THIS IS BOOK 2. FOR THE REVIEW ON BOOK 1, CHECK OUT THRONE OF GLASS ! "From the throne of glass rules a king with a fist of iron and a soul as black as pitch. Assassin Celaena Sardothien won a brutal contest to become his Champion. Yet Celaena is far from loyal to the crown. She hides her secret vigilantly; she knows that the man she serves is bent on evil. Keeping up the deadly charade becomes increasingly difficult when Celaena realizes she is not the only one seeking justice. As she tried to untangle the mysteries buried deep within the glass castle, her closest relationships suffer. It seems no one is above questioning her allegiance - not the Crown Prince Dorian; not Chaol, the Captain of the Guard; not even her best friend, Nehemia, a foreign princess with a rebel heart. Then, one terrible night, the secrets they have all been keeping lead to an unspeaka

"In a world without magic, an assassin is summoned to the castle. She comes not to kill the vicious king who rules from his throne of glass but to win her freedom. If she defeats twenty-three killers, thieves, and warriors in a competition, she will be released from prison to serve as the King's Champion. Her name is Celaena Sardothien. The Crown Prince will provoke her. The Captain of the Guard will protect her. And a princess from a faraway land will befriend her. But something evil dwells in the castle - and it's there to kill. When her competitors start dying one by one, Celaena's fight for freedom becomes a fight for survival - and a desperate quest to root out the evil before it destroys her world." Review: I thought this book was very well done. My mother loved it so much; she's contemplating getting a portrait of Celaena on her body. I always love seeing women who are independent and overwhelmingly bad ass, and if I was a character in a fantas

"In one cataclysmic moment, millions around the globe disappear. Vehicles suddenly unmanned, careen out of control. People are terror stricken as loved ones vanish before their eyes. In the midst of global chaos, airline captain Rayford Steele must search for his family, for answers, for truth. As devastating as the disappearances have been, the darkest days may lie ahead." Review: Let me start by saying this book is centered on the Christian Rapture, so if your feelings or religious beliefs contradict what's within this book, don't shoot the messenger. I was introduced to this book through my father, who says this is his favorite book/series. Granted, he does not read, like, ever. So already I was skeptical of its quality. It took me an EXTREMELY long time to get into it. Honestly, overall, the book sucked. I obviously read a lot so my quality level in books is higher than others so I think my first critique of this book was its pace. I mean the first

WARNING: SPOILER ALERT: IF YOU HAVE NOT GOTTEN THIS FAR IN THE SUMMER SERIES, STOP NOW. DO NOT READ. THIS IS BOOK 3. FOR THE REVIEW ON BOOK 1, CHECK OUT THE SUMMER I TURNED PRETTY AND IT'S NOT SUMMER WITHOUT YOU FOR BOOK 2. "Her whole life, Belly has been in love with the Fishers. Susannah was like a second mother to her, Conrad was her first love, and Jeremiah was her first real boyfriend. Now, after two years, Jeremiah gets down on bended knee and offers Belly what she has always wanted... to be Belly Fisher. As Jeremiah and Belly head back to Cousins Beach to plan their wedding, Conrad comes home to tell Belly he made a mistake when he broke her heart. Now Belly must confront her feelings for Jeremiah and Conrad and face a truth she has possibly always known: She will have to break one of their hearts." Review: Really? Ugh, she goes with Jeremiah, unfortunately, he CHEATS on her, and she goes running back to Conrad. End of story. You don't need to was

WARNING: SPOILER ALERT: IF YOU HAVE NOT GOTTEN THIS FAR IN THE SUMMER SERIES, STOP NOW. DO NOT READ. THIS IS BOOK 2 . FOR THE REVIEW ON BOOK 2. CHECK OUT THE SUMMER I TURNED PRETTY ! "After spending every single summer at Cousins Beach, Belly's life is about to change. Since her brief relationship with Conrad fizzled out this past winter, she'll be staying home for the first time. Her best friend, Taylor, has lots of plans for them - boat parties and tanning by the pool and new boys to obsess over. But when Jeremiah calls and says that Conrad has disappeared, all roads seem to lead back to the beach house. Will Belly spend another summer chasing after Conrad, or will she finally be able to let him go?" Review: Let's begin by saying that the first book could have been a stand-alone book. For goodness sake, the second book is like the author is saying "Sike! Ha!" Conrad and Belly dated for a month and then GAVE UP?! WHAT?! I was rooting for her