Mini-Reviews: Hooked by Liz Fichera; Play With Me by Piper Shelly and Shut Out by Kody Keplinger

Title: Hooked (Hooked #1)
Author: Liz Fichera
Published: January 29th 2013
Add It: Goodreads
Purchase: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | The Book Depository

When Native American Fredricka ‘Fred’ Oday is invited to become the only girl on the school’s golf team, she can’t say no. This is an opportunity to shine, win a scholarship and go to university, something no one in her family has done.

But Fred’s presence on the team isn’t exactly welcome — especially not to rich golden boy Ryan Berenger, whose best friend was kicked off the team to make a spot for Fred.

But there’s no denying that things are happening between the girl with the killer swing and the boy with the killer smile...

GET HOOKED ON A GIRL NAMED FRED.

I was really excited for this book. That cover was what initially caught my eye, but the story sounded great, too. I looked forward to reading about golf, rivals and romance, but when I was about 70 % through I finally realized that I would not like this book even if there would be a 5 star ending, which, unfortunately was not there. It’s my honest opinion that this book was a huge disappointment. I’m glad I didn’t get a paperback, because I only want to re-read books that are on my real shelf, not a virtual one, and this book did not do it for me. I found the characters lacking in personality department, the chemistry was off and it was just all over the place. The only reason it gets higher than 1 stars is because of the idea and that it featured a native American girl which I haven’t seen around that much lately.

Rating: 1.5 out of 5 stars

Meet the author

Website | Facebook | Twitter | Goodreads

Title: Play With Me
Author: Piper Shelly
Published: December 9th 2012
Add It: Goodreads
Purchase: Amazon

Ryan Hunter's parties are legend. And tonight she's going to be there.

Liza Matthews anticipates the return of her best friend and only love since kindergarten from soccer camp. But when Tony finally shows up, his mind is more focused on another girl. And worse, she's a soccer player. Fighting for the attention Liza craves, she's just a hairbreadth away from making a very stupid decision. But when extraordinary times call for extraordinary measures, she's prepared to play ball to get her man.

The tryouts are hell, the first match ends bloody, and the morning after the selection party she wakes up in the worst place possible—in the arms of the captain of the soccer team. The hottest guy in school. Ryan Hunter.

Play With Me is a cute novella of Liza, Tony and Ryan. Liza and tony are best friends and Liza has had a crush on him since forever. Ryan is Tony’s soccer teammate and a good friend. When Liza sees that Tony has eyes for another girl, she steps up her game and wants to join the soccer team. All of this becomes a hot mess. I loved Ryan. Ugh, he was such a sweetheart! I know he had a ladies man reputation, but he only had eyes for one girl. This book was cute. I liked it, but I didn’t love it.  I thinks most of it is Liz's fault, because I was just so confused by her, but in the end it’s a really short read with an awesome boy trying to win a girl who is in love with someone else. I advise you to read this one if you’re in a need of a short book while riding a bus or a train because it doesn’t need a lot of attention to understand and it moves on quickly.

Rating: 2 out of 5 stars

Meet the author

Website | Facebook | Goodreads

Title: Shut Out
Author: Kody Keplinger
Published: September 5th 2011
Add It: Goodreads
Purchase: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | The Book Depository

Most high school sports teams have rivalries with other schools. At Hamilton High, it's a civil war: the football team versus the soccer team. And for her part,Lissa is sick of it. Her quarterback boyfriend, Randy, is always ditching her to go pick a fight with the soccer team or to prank their locker room. And on three separate occasions Randy's car has been egged while he and Lissa were inside, making out. She is done competing with a bunch of sweaty boys for her own boyfriend's attention

Then Lissa decides to end the rivalry once and for all: She and the other players' girlfriends go on a hookup strike. The boys won't get any action from them until the football and soccer teams make peace. What they don't count on is a new sort of rivalry: an impossible girls-against-boys showdown that hinges on who will cave to their libidos first. But what Lissa never sees coming is her own sexual tension with the leader of the boys, Cash Sterling...

I read this book a while ago. Let me tell you a secret, I hate that after reading so many books I sometimes don’t even remember what a certain book was about. Sometimes I completely blank out when someone asks me about the characters or mentions a name from named book and I just stare like a total idiot. Well.. This book is rememberable! I liked the idea that girls stand up for themselves, boycott making out and giving their boyfriends the time of their day, because they want to make other things count and achieve their goals. This boys vs. girls war was so hilarious, romantic and fun, fun, fun! I enjoyed it thoroughly. The characters were great, their chemistry was sweet and at times sizzling. I really liked the storylines and temptations that they put each other through. It’s a fun story to spice up your day with laughter since it’s bound to make you laugh and smile. Even though I didn't enjoy DUFF, all of the other books I've read by Kody have been great and I'm really looking forward to her next ones.

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

Meet the author

Website | Facebook | Twitter | Goodreads

Review: A Midsummer's Nightmare by Kody Keplinger

Title: A Midsummer’s Nightmare

Author: Kody Keplinger

Published: June 5^th 2012

Add It: Goodreads

Purhcase: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | The BookDepository

Whitley Johnson's dream summer with her divorcé dad has turned into a nightmare. She's just met his new fiancée and her kids. The fiancée's son? Whitley's one-night stand from graduation night. Just freakin' great.

Worse, she totally doesn't fit in with her dad's perfect new country-club family. So Whitley acts out. She parties. Hard. So hard she doesn't even notice the good things right under her nose: a sweet little future stepsister who is just about the only person she's ever liked, a best friend (even though Whitley swears she doesn't "do" friends), and a smoking-hot guy who isn't her stepbrother...at least, not yet. It will take all three of them to help Whitley get through her anger and begin to put the pieces of her family together.

Filled with authenticity and raw emotion, Whitley is Kody Keplinger's most compelling character to date: a cynical Holden Caulfield-esque girl you will wholly care about.

A book about a young girl trying to fit in his fathers’ new life while having to deal with her parents’ break up, going to college, moving away from home, partying non-stop and being in love with a person she’s supposed to stay clear from. It’s a story of developing a strong backbone and fighting for your rights, trying to seek attention from your parents, growing up, finding yourself and dealing with jealousy and cruel curiosity from strangers. Welcome! Come inside and get to know life from a teenage girl’s point of view.

“While I'm sure this is going to be a fascinating story,' I interrupted. 'I don't care. I'm having a major parental crisis that sort of outshines your little tantrum, and frankly it seems like my dad agrees with you. I have a party to get ready for, can we do this later?” 

Characters.  Nathan (love that name, by the way, reminds me of Nathan Scott from One Tree Hill whom I absolutely loved and adored!). I liked that he was the calm one and I was really happy that the love interest in this book wasn’t the sarcastic, dangerous type I usually enjoy, but on the contrary, he was extremely sweet, supporting, funny, handsome and moral. He kept Whitley together and always tried to make everyone happy. I really liked him. No! Actually I didn’t like him, I loved him!

Whitley. She was a party girl with big daddy issues. Her Mom just hated his fathers’ guts and it’s kind of a personal topic for me, because even though my parents are still together, many of my friends’ parents have broken up after a long period of time spent together while happily married and when they break up, it affects their children the most. The fighting is the worst in addition to manipulating the kids to their side etc. It’s just horrible. Therefore, I felt for Whitley. However, it was hard reading about a young girl drowning her sorrows with alcohol and partying until she forgets everything.

Plot. This book wasn’t all about sad though. It was a lot of fun in addition to the family drama and the sexual tension between Nathan and Whitley. I enjoyed the bonding and the twists and turns it took for this novel to not reach the finish line on a sad note. I think the main thing I liked was probably these two families coming together as one and saving Whitley from her own destruction. Also, the chemistry between Nate and Whit was likeable and you can’t help but root for them. Oh, and it deals with gay issues as well and I think it's important to include this topic in YA and Kody has done a beautiful job with it. Harrisson was a helluva lot fun and became one of my favorite characters.

“I took Russian in high school,” Nathan said, climbing out of the pool. He’d decided to swim laps that afternoon instead of going to the gym.
“Did you?” Harrison asked, grinning at him.
“Yeah.” Nathan grabbed his towel from the little patio table and began dabbing at his face. “But the only thing I remember is, Mozhno li kopirovat vashi domashnie zodaneeye?”
“Let me guess,” I said. “You just asked me where the bathroom is, right?”
“No.” He scoffed, flicking his wet towel at me. “I was beyond that basic stuff. I took two years of it. Give me some credit.”
“Then what does it mean?” I asked.
“It means, ‘Can I copy your homework?'”

Overall, I enjoyed this novel very much. It's definitely a journey all on its own and if you enjoy reading about teenagers, young love, making friends, dealing with family issues and emotional rollercoasters, then I advise you to give this book a try.

Rating: 4 stars out of 5

Meet the author

Website | Facebook | Twitter | Goodreads | Tumblr