"Waiting On" Wednesday is a weekly meme, hosted by Breaking the Spine, that spotlights upcoming novels that we're all eagerly anticipating.
Gimme gimme gimme noooow. I actually forgot about this for a while but while I was browsing through my to be read lists on Goodreads I re discovered this utter gem.
Series: Second companion to Anna and the French Kiss
Expected Publication: May 13th 2014 by Dutton
Summary (from Goodreads):
From the glittering streets of Manhattan to the moonlit rooftops of Paris, falling in love is easy for hopeless dreamer Isla and introspective artist Josh. But as they begin their senior year in France, Isla and Josh are quickly forced to confront the heartbreaking reality that happily-ever-afters aren’t always forever.
Their romantic journey is skillfully intertwined with those of beloved couples Anna and Étienne and Lola and Cricket, whose paths are destined to collide in a sweeping finale certain to please fans old and new.
Holy mother of STEPANIE PERKINS.. DO YOU WANT ME TO CRY?!
^what he said
This group of companion novels is just too awesome for words. It's a mix of cute writing, sweet romance, eccentric characters and amazing backdrops...WHAT MORE COULD YOU WANT FROM A CONTEMPORARY YA BOOK? EH? MY EXCITEMENT CAN ONLY BE EXPRESSED THROUGH CAPS LOCKS AND RIDICULOUS GIFS.
Anywhoo.. what book are you eagerly waiting for? What book are you just itching read right now? Feel free to leave your answers or if you have a blog, a link to your own "Waiting on" Wednesdays, in the comments. I love finding out about awesome books that I can't read yet (..). ;)
Bye for now! :)
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Summary (from Goodreads): STOP THE COUNTDOWN. SAVE THE WORLD… Leaving the beach, seventeen-year-old Janelle Tenner is hit head on by a pickup truck. And killed. Then Ben Michaels, resident stoner, is leaning over her. And even though it isn’t possible, she knows Ben somehow brought her back to life… Meanwhile, Janelle’s father, a special agent for the FBI, starts working on a case that seems strangely connected to Ben. Digging in his files, Janelle finds a mysterious device – one that seems to be counting down to something that will happen in 23 days and 10 hours time. That something? It might just be the end of the world. And if Janelle wants to stop it, she’s going to need to uncover Ben’s secrets – and keep from falling in love with him in the process…
Unravelling is enthralling, sweet and exciting.. in short, I would recommend it.
Having not read much sci fi novels before, the premise of multiple universes existing and the idea that if two of these many universes meet, mutual destruction is inevitable is just fascinating to read. Not only is the premise of Unravelling captivating, so is the execution of it. The story line of Janelle and her death life with her family and friends entwined with this premise is done incredibly well. I enjoyed reading this story through Janelle's eyes equally as much as I enjoyed reading a book about thousands upon thousands of universes.
Janelle is wonderful. It's been a while since I've read a book where I adored the protagonist. If she magically came out of the book, she's the sort of person I would love to friends with. Janelle does all she can to help her family and she works hard in everything she does. Normally it would irritate me to no end if a main character judges and labels people constantly but Janelle realises she is wrong about her presumptions and admits she is wrong and I respect that in a character. She is also bad ass and while I know not all women need to be written as bad ass to be great characters, there's something about a strong female who continually sticks up for herself and points guns at people to demand answers that is just awesome.
Unfortunately, while the Janelle is great, the secondary characters didn't quite hit the mark for me and a lot of them blended together. I couldn't actually distinguish between Ben's friends, Elijah and Reid, until I neared the end of the book which isn't that great considering they play a pretty significant part to the story line. Nick is just Janelle's ex boyfriend and Kevin, Nick's best friend, who really interested me with his surprising layers wasn't really mentioned again after Janelle and Nick split. Hopefully in the next book the secondary characters will be developed more wholly, including Katie (Janelle's ex best friend) and perhaps Kevin will make more appearances.
The romance in Unravelling was a little strange to be honest. It was weird how Janelle could go from never talking to Ben in so many years to being so in love with him, all within a couple of weeks. The connection is understandable, what with Ben bringing her back from the dead, but it was a little hard to accept that Janelle would so wholly fall for a guy who she knows has been watching and pining for her from afar for such a long time. Nonetheless, the two do have a lot of chemistry, they have very cute moments throughout Unravelling and the ending is heartbreaking.
Overall, I very much enjoyed Unravelling. I look forward to seeing where Norris takes the characters, the story line and the romance however... as much as I enjoyed this, I sort of wish there isn't a next book. The ending to Unravelling may leave a couple of questions unanswered but it's sad and bittersweet and pretty complete to me.
Music choice: The lyrics of Wherever You Will Go really sums up the loss and loyalty you see in Unravelling. I thought about using the original The Calling version but I think Charlene Soraia's softer version fits this book a little better so here you go... Wherever You Will Go by Charlene Soraia
Stuck In My Head is a new weekly meme that spotlights the songs you just can't seem to get out of your head.
Hello lovelies. :) My pick this week is most definitely the beautiful and soft sound that is Pieces by Cider Sky. I haven't been able to play this song without smiling. I discovered Cider Sky a while back when I heard the song We Are In Love (which is also awesome) but I never branched out and listened to any of their other songs then. Recently I was listening to a hipster playlist (ahahhah ;) ) on Youtube and Pieces came on and I just adored it.
Anywhoo, here it is, have a listen, it really is beautiful. :)
What about you? Any song that has been in your head for a while? Feel free to share your song(s) and share if your song(s) remind you of a book. I would love to discover new music and books to get obsessed with. :D
Summary (from Goodreads): Take it. Live it. F*** it. A new drug is out. Everyone is talking about it. The Hit. Take it, and you have one amazing week to live. It's the ultimate high. At the ultimate price. Adam is tempted. Life is rubbish, his girlfriend's over him, his brother's gone. So what's he got to lose? Everything, as it turns out. It's up to his girlfriend, Lizzie, to show him...
What surprised me to no end is just how British this book is. I have gotten so use to reading books set in America, I open up a teen book and expect to read about what to wear to high school, studying for SATs and going to college and malls... despite living in England. It was a shock for me to open up The Hit and recognise the dialect as what I tend to hear on the streets and that really made the characters feel that much more real.
Both Adam and Lizzie, and the secondary characters also, are extremely realistic and I applaud Burgess for being able to create characters that are not only interesting to read about, but also believable. Adam isn't exactly the most likeable of characters, what with his inability to really think about anybody but himself and Lizzie also, grated me due to her constant naivety but flawed, slightly irritating but realistic characters are better than perfect and unrealistic ones any day.
Similar to the characters, the romance isn't fiction perfect. Adam and Lizzie don't get together and unconditionally love each other after overcoming the problem of their social class difference. They fight, they both do things wrong, they don't communicate well so they often keep things bottled up inside and Adam, like most teenage boys, really wants sex to the point where he repeatedly nearly drives Lizzie away. What I liked about this romance is that even by the end of The Hit, all their problems aren't resolved and it isn't written as if the two are destined to live their whole lives together; it is a teen romance through and through.
The plot is probably the best thing about The Hit. The Hit is about Britain on the very cusp of a revolution.. it is truly thrilling to read. Emotions run high and loyalty runs deeper than blood. It is a world where the rich are simply getting richer and the poor seem to getting more poor by the day so people group together to really do something about it. This isn't a dystopian book where a group of rebels and outcasts are fighting a tyrannous government hundreds of years in the future... it is hundreds and hundreds teenagers who would rather live a week of bliss than their whole lives and it is every day people wanting more for themselves.. and it's something that could happen. I would have actually preferred more attention to the actual revolution to the romancing of Lizzie and Adam.
Nonetheless I enjoyed reading this book and the premise is both plausible and terrifying making for a fascinating read, especially for a teenager living in England. One thing is for sure, I will definitely be delving into the world of British YA literature much more after reading this.
Music choice: I thought at first what could be more British than Power To The People by The Beatles' John Lennon but I didn't really think that the song epitomised the anger and desperation of the Zealots in The Hit so... I've picked TWO QUEEN SONGS. One of which is We Are The Champions for the revolution side of things...
..and the other being Don't Stop Me Now for the insane high of Death.
Summary (from Goodreads): Mara Dyer doesn’t think life can get any stranger than waking up in a hospital with no memory of how she got there. It can. She believes there must be more to the accident she can’t remember that killed her friends and left her mysteriously unharmed. There is. She doesn’t believe that after everything she’s been through, she can fall in love. She’s wrong.
One thing I couldn't stop thinking about while reading The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer was why on earth Mara and her friends went to this old and abandoned asylum in the first place. I'm all for some thrills and living living life on the edge (sometimes I go for it and pick a book at random from my bookshelf without even looking at the title.. I am thrill seeker, my friends) but there is no reason for going to a scary building in the dead of night. I don't care how bored you are, walking into an abandoned asylum is like that girl in the horror movies who hears the noise in the basement and decides to open the door anyway. No, don't do that. Just run. Run.
Now that I've got that off my chest.. This beautiful looking (yes, I judge books by their covers, sue me) book is basically about a girl, Mara, who wakes up in a hospital to discover that her best friend, her best friend's friend and her boyfriend have died in a collapsing asylum that she survived virtually unscathed. Her whole family then relocate to Florida and she starts at a new school where she catches the eye of known womaniser Noah Shaw. There's also a string of sudden deaths, a couple of dead insects, some alligators, a handful of hallucinations and flashbacks on Mara's part and a kidnapping for good measure and it's all a bit random and mysterious.
If nothing else, this book is definitely different. The new mysterious girl falling for the bad boy has been done before but the plot is a fresh one that I enjoyed reading. The random occurrences and deaths were a little hard to follow at first but having never read a book where the main character is responsible for the mysterious deaths without really understanding how, I wanted to read on and find out how and why. Also, the unraveling of the mystery of the original deaths of her friends and her miraculous escape is really interesting to read because the reader finds out new aspects of that night at the same time as Mara gradually remembers them.
As much as I liked the overall idea behind this book and I enjoyed the flashbacks, the romance and the main characters really dragged this read down for me. At first Mara was a really cool protagonist who always had a witty response on the tip of her tongue but when I hoped Mara would investigate the murders, she was spending all of her time wondering if she should give Noah the time of day. It was disappointing that her whole world was about this guy now and she doesn't make any friends other than Jamie who appears a couple of times to help her with her homework and tell her not to date Noah and she doesn't do anything apart from draw Noah.
Overall, although I really liked the premise of this novel and a lot of the story line really appealed to me, I think the premise could have been executed better if there was less attention given to the romance and more to Mara really discovering herself and uncovering the truth. I wanted less romance and more Mara worrying and finding out why people are randomly dropping dead around her. If you enjoy angsty should-I-should-I-not teen romance with a little creepy thrown in, you will probably enjoy The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer but if you want more story line and characters actively trying to get shit done rather than romance... this probably isn't for you.
(P.S. The ending is surprising. Very.)
Music choice: I guess this is for Mara losing her best friend, Rachel. That moment when Mara asks about Rachel in her hospital bed is awwhr...
