Review: Wither by Lauren DeStefano

Title: Wither (The Chemical Garden #1)
Author: Lauren DeStefano
Published: March 22nd 2011
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By age sixteen, Rhine Ellery has four years left to live. She can thank modern science for this genetic time bomb. A botched effort to create a perfect race has left all males with a lifespan of 25 years, and females with a lifespan of 20 years. Geneticists are seeking a miracle antidote to restore the human race, desperate orphans crowd the population, crime and poverty have skyrocketed, and young girls are being kidnapped and sold as polygamous brides to bear more children. When Rhine is kidnapped and sold as a bride, she vows to do all she can to escape. Her husband, Linden, is hopelessly in love with her, and Rhine can’t bring herself to hate him as much as she’d like to. He opens her to a magical world of wealth and illusion she never thought existed, and it almost makes it possible to ignore the clock ticking away her short life. But Rhine quickly learns that not everything in her new husband’s strange world is what it seems. Her father-in-law, an eccentric doctor bent on finding the antidote, is hoarding corpses in the basement. Her fellow sister wives are to be trusted one day and feared the next, and Rhine is desperate to communicate to her twin brother that she is safe and alive. Will Rhine be able to escape--before her time runs out?
Together with one of Linden's servants, Gabriel, Rhine attempts to escape just before her seventeenth birthday. But in a world that continues to spiral into anarchy, is there any hope for freedom?

I didn’t really plan on giving this series a try, but then suddenly most of the bloggers started to showcase the third book in this series – Sever – in their book hauls in youtube and around blogoverse and I have to admit, I became interested. Then I revisited the GR of the first book and re-read the synopsis. Guess what? I liked it. And I gave it a try.

“Tell freedom I said hello.”

The story. Wither follows Rhine in her journey of breaking free from a horrible situation she has landed in. Rhine and two other girls are brought to this incredible mansion to marry Linden. The guys in this world die at 25 and girls when they’re 20. Only the first generation lives longer than that. Linden’s Father turns out to be a horrible man and all Rhine can think about is escaping. She has to pretend happiness in this marriage based on polygamy and her days are only brightened by the other girls friendship when they care to offer it and this server Gabriel who shares her interest of being free and dreaming bold thoughts.

My emotions. I try to watch this interesting (Estonian) show every night that basically features intriguing stories as well as daily news around the world and about 6 months ago they showed this bride abduction (?) story where a bunch of guys took a girl from the street and forced her to marry their friend. And that’s how it happens with every single lady in that country. I don’t remember where it was though. This is basically the case here. I was thoroughly disgusted by all of this and it pains me that it really is like that for some people in this world. I didn’t think less of Linden as a character because he lives in this world and it’s not outrageous to have multiple wives to bed with one,but he's not aware how they made their way to the selection and how brutally they were treated. He's oblivious to all of it. I still hated this polygamous marriage he had with Rhine, Cecily and Jenna. Cecily, being the youngest – only thirteen!!! – it was just unacceptable for me that she got pregnant first and..  I just can’t tell you how much I wanted to vomit at that thought. It’s horrible. She was also annoying most of the time, but there were moments I wanted to hug her and I understood why Rhine was so protective over her. For me, the best part of the book were the relationships between the Sister wives.

On the other hand, I listened to the audiobook and I really, really liked the narrator who made every character different and I felt their presence and personality through her voice. The plot in general was good and Rhine as the MC was great. She’s a survivor by nature and her genuine concern about her sister wives was heart-warming. I became engaged in the story pretty quickly, but I think that not much happened in Wither in general, but at the same time as we already gather from the synopsis, most of it takes place in a house where Rhine is under watchful eyes – not that much can happen. I am team Gabriel since he cares about Rhine only, but Linden wouldn’t be bad to end up with. I just think his lifestyle and dreams aren’t suitable for Rhine and she has a better match in Gabriel. I hated Vaughn – Linden’s Father with pure passion. That man was creepy *hides*

Overall I think this world is intriguing and it’s an eye-opener in the sense that there are a lot of cases like this out there in the world. It was a mix between sci-fi and dystopian and I think there could have been a bit more to the history of this illness and how this world came to be. I will definitely see what’s next to come for Rhine. I think the narrator did an amazing job with this book. I hope the next one will be even better. On another though, I don’t think it’s exactly suitable for younger YA readers even if the book is supposed to be in the YA category.

Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

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Review: Just Remember to Breathe by Charles Sheehan-Miles

Title: Just Remember to Breathe
Author: Charles Sheehan-Miles
Published: August 30th 2012
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Alex Thompson’s life is following the script. A pre-law student at Columbia University, she’s focused on her grades, her life and her future. The last thing she needs is to reconnect with the boy who broke her heart.
Dylan Paris comes home from Afghanistan severely injured and knows that the one thing he cannot do is drag Alex into the mess he’s made of his life.
When Dylan and Alex are assigned to the same work study program and are forced to work side by side, they have to make new ground rules to keep from killing each other.
Only problem is, they keep breaking the rules.
The first rule is to never, ever talk about how they fell in love.

I have never read a romance book written by a male species representative. Haha, that sounded weird. Ok, I haven’t read a romance novel by a male author and boy was I ever surprised at how Mr. Sheehan-Miles pulled at my heart-strings and twisted them throughout the novel. I sure want to read the rest of the books in this series after having a good experience with Just Remember to Breathe.

“When I'm ninety, I want you to tell me that it's my turn to ask you a question, and if that miracle happens, then my question is going to be, 'Do you still love me?' and I hope that answer will still be yes.”

The story. We have a dual POV book with Dylan and Alex as our MC-s. Dylan is a young injured war veteran and Alex is his ex-girlfriend. These two are bound to meet again since they both attend Columbia University in NYC. Forced to work together on a project, they set rules to not talk about the past. Too bad neither of them can hold off too long and soon their past will come to haunt them in the most cruciating ways.

My thoughts. We, readers, get the story as they tell it to us, but Dylan and Alex’s feelings stay hidden from each other for quite some time. What bothered me the most was that in the beginning there was so much telling rather than showing and we get most of the story right away as they both explain it to us. It didn’t keep me from getting invested in their story though. I have met only one person in my life who has gone to war. I know it’s a big issue to people from the states and perhaps it’s an even more emotional read to people who have been through similar situations even as a by-stander. At first it was hard for me to get an understanding of who the MC-s were as persons, but as the novel progressed, they grew on me.

I especially enjoyed the side characters such as Kelly, Alex’s sisters and Dylan’s friend Sherman. Throughout the book we get to know them pretty well and I came to care about their storylines. Luckily Alex's sisters get their own companion novels. Nevertheless, the main focus is always on Dylan and Alex who are struggling to cope with their explosive break-up when he was in war and try to move on from the hurtful past. There are other storylines in addition to their romance, such as Dylan’s guilt over his dead friend, Alex’s crazy-strict and rule-following parents, a guy who wants to get some with Alex and stops at nothing to get what he wants. 

You know, I have had this book for such a long time. I don’t think it was the strongest New Adult book I have ever read, but it made me care and it definitely won’t be the last book I’ll read by Charles. I’ll get to the other two Thompson sisters’ stories soon and hopefully they’re just as good if not better. I shed quite a few tears during this story and the ending couldn’t have been any more perfect. You hear me? P-E-R-F-E-C-T!!! I think this novel is worth exploring. You would be surprised at how a man can write such a good romance novel of second chances. Read on!

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

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Excerpt and Giveaway: What Endures by Katie Lee

Today I'm excited to bring an excerpt and giveaway to you. If you've seen (or read) The Vow by Nicholas Sparks, you'll probably enjoy this one. I hope you enjoy the excerpt and be sure to participate in the giveaway:) Good luck, lovelies!

Title:What Endures
Author: Katie Lee
Published: August 1st, 2013
Genre: Contemporary New Adult
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Purchase: Amazon

Jason Kincaid is young, hot and successful.
An All-Star outfielder for the Seattle Mariners, he finally had everything he ever wanted, including a second chance with his high school sweetheart, Megan Williams. But their hopes for a ‘happily-ever-after’ are dashed by tragedy.

A horrific car accident wipes out most of Jason's memories. Unable to recall anything from the last fifteen years of his life, Jason is suddenly adrift, his once charmed life now in ruins. Megan finds herself in the untenable position of having to deal with the fact that the man she’s helping to rebuild his life may look, and even act, like her beloved fiancé, but in reality, isn’t any longer.

Trying to protect herself, as well as Jason, Megan fights the attraction between them. . .to no avail. As their potent connection inevitably draws them closer, Megan wonders,
With the memories of their relationship gone, can love endure? 

Excerpt

“So is the interview over?” she asked lightly.
He grinned and she caught the mischievous twinkle in his eye which should have warned her that he had something up his sleeve. “Not quite. I do have one other question.”
The warning bells finally sounded in her head. “What question?”
His grin widened, as he leaned forward on the table. “When did you get that tattoo on your hip?”
She stared at him as her mind raced, trying to process what he had just said. He met her gaze calmly, as if waiting for her to put the pieces together.
“How’d you know. . .“ Was he remembering she wondered? Something about his expression, however, told her that this particular bit of knowledge was not the result of a recollection but something sneakier.
“Home movies.”
“Home mov-“ she started and stopped suddenly as the answer came to her. She looked at him with wide, questioning eyes and he nodded slowly in confirmation.
Suddenly, a mental image of the beach house popped into her mind and she realized much too late that the house was brimming with personal things of her. . of him. . .of them. And then she started to panic, doing a mental inventory of the collection of home movies that she and Jason had and how each one had been made. Which one of those had revealed her tattoo to him? For one brief, horrifying instant, she actually wondered if they had ever made one of those home movies. A part of her wanted to rush right out to the beach house that instant and start gathering up those DVDs.

All of the excerpts I read--one of was hot, one of them was the opening scene of the book (which I have already read, I did a sneak peek into the book when I got my arc for the blog tour which takes place in September. I'm keeping my fingers crossed I'll like this one since it's so promising. However, I picked this one because it's a little funny. The ending of it ;)

About the Author

Katie Lee has had a lifelong love affair with books. She fell in love with her first book in the second grade and hasn’t looked back since. She first took up writing as a hobby, wanting to craft her own magical adventures, and through the love and encouragement of family and friends, decided to get serious about writing and share her stories with the world.

She currently resides in Maryland in the United States. She works for the government during the day, and her spare time is devoted to writing. She gains inspiration from all sorts of things, but mostly from the fun and adventurous trips she takes when she can. She loves hearing from her readers so drop her a note!

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Review: Wolfsbane by Andrea Cremer

Title: Wolfsbane (Nightshade #2)
Author: Andrea Cremer
Published: July 26th 2011
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This thrilling sequel to the much-talked-about Nightshade begins just where it ended.Calla Tor wakes up in the lair of the Searchers, her sworn enemy, and she's certain her days are numbered.

But then the Searchers make her an offer,one that gives her the chance to destroy her former masters and save the pack and the man she left behind. Is Ren worth the price of her freedom? And will Shay stand by her side no matter what? Now in control of her own destiny, Calla must decide which battles are worth fighting and how many trials true love can endure and still survive.

I had a blast reading Nightshade and since I’m not a fan of wolves then it was a total surprise for me. I found Calla to be a strong heroine and both wolf packs – the Nightshades as well as the Banes – were full of awesome characters. The world was intriguing and a lot happened in the first installment. Unfortunately, the sequel somewhat suffered from the second book syndrome. Let’s get into detail, shall we?

“Staring at the wreckage of the life we could have had, I knew it wasn't about love or Shay or the Searchers now. It was about sacrifice and redemption, loss that could have new meaning.” 

The story. Sooo.. after what happened at the end of Nightshade we know Calla has to fight even more and in a new environment she has to cope with trust issues and dividing her heart between what she has and what she could have had. Even more secrets are revealed and absolutely nothing is as it seems. What Calla thought was right turns out to be a lie and it’s up to her to save the ones she loves.

My thoughts. Oh-kay.. So.. My favorite character was missing 95% of the book so I had to find new characters to enjoy. Well, hello Ethan, Connor, Adne and, surprisingly, Sabine! Never in my wildest dreams did I think I’d enjoy her character. I quite honestly disliked her throughout the entire first book, but now I see where she’s coming from and her relationship with Calla improved a ton. She became one of my favorites in Wolfsbane. Shay – the most boring “hot” love interest ever *yawns* I also wish Calla could have coped with her “feelings” a little better. She made her bed, now she has to lay in it. At times I wondered how come she’s an alpha if she didn’t think about her pack at all when all that jazz went down at the end of Nightshade. Hmh.. Giiiiirl, you better get you act together, is all I'm saying!

90% of the time it was all talk and only two action scenes. I mean, it’s book two and one should have more action going on. I understand that we basically saw the world from a completely different point of view considering where Calla found herself when Wolfsbane started, but still.. It should have been more action-packed, not a filler book to lead us to the final battle. The love triangle.. adjksfjafoaijisjaoisjia. Seriously.. I was just so mad at Shay and I just don’t like the dude at all so I found myself two new pairings to root for and one of them was Adne and Connor. I think they are my OTP of this series and I don’t think it’s a spoiler since you have to be blind if you don’t “see” the way Connor looks at Adne. They’re perfect, le sigh.

At the end of the day I liked this book, but I found Nightshade stronger. The dialogue is good and the characters, mostly, are pretty well written, however, I think this one could have been more action-packed. I had one I-didn’t-see-that-coming moment with Ren and his storyline, but other than that I didn’t find the rest of the revelations that surprising. I just expected more from this story. 

PS. By now, I've read the final book and my review will be up soon.

Rating: 3 out of 5 stars

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Review: The Lies We Tell by Elizabeth Dunk

Title: The Lies We Tell
Author: Elizabeth Dunk
Published: August 1st 2013
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*An ARC was provided in exchange for an honest review*

From the author of Arranged to Love comes a romantic story of forgiveness, secrets, small towns and second chances.
Ten years ago, Todd Lansing stood over his father’s grave, his heart thumping out curses on Sia Collins for causing his death. When he returns to Oberon and sees Sia again, his heart thumps with a different emotion, one he fights with all the anger he still feels.
Sia didn’t commit the break-in that ended up killing Mr Lansing, but to admit that would send her father to jail. She has rebuilt her life in the small town, atoned for her accused crime, and carved out a niche using her talent with paint to reach out to the community, raise funds, and support her family.
When Todd finds out the truth, he can’t understand why Sia won’t speak out and clear her name, and it threatens to tear them apart. With her relationship with Todd on the line, will Sia choose loyalty or love?

Snagged it from Netgalley and was excited to dig into an Aussie novel. I don't remember when was the last time I read something by an Australian author. About a year ago, perhaps? I was extremely pumped for this story since the synopsis sounded awesome and come on! These are the type of stories I like when it comes to romance novels.

 

"Todd." Paul touched his arm. Todd shook it away. "Bro, it was ten years ago. You've got to get over it."

"Not until Sia Collins suffers the way I have."

It was a vow.

The story. Sia is a young artist who has plead guilty to a crime she didn't commit. Why did she do that? Oh, let's see.. She was trying to protect her awful father. Tod was a friend of Sia's 10 years ago and they even had a hint of a romance between them. When Tod's dad died, he though it was because of what Sia did. The crime she didn't commit. Only Tod doesn't know she wasn't at fault in any of this so he begins to hate her and the hate hasn't gone anywhere when he returns to take care of his sick mother and their paths cross again.

My thoughts. Sia and Tod as characters were good and I enjoyed wtaching both of them grow. What I liked best in this story were the side characters--Sia's friends who were adorable and just the kind of friends everyone would love to have. Sia's dad was so intolerateable that I wanted to puke every time he came up. He beat Sia, bullied her verbally, was drunk most of the time throughout the novel and had 3 kids in addition to Sia who she had to raise. He even tried to sabotage her career by trying to set fire on her paitings. He was disgusting as a father figure and as a human being. Props for Ms. Dunk for making me loathe a character that much. I also liked the dual POV a lot.

What I didn't enjoy was how everything felt rushed. I think it was in ch. 3 when Tod realized the mistake he had done by accusing Sia in everything and the story got off to fast-speeding through the plot. I didn't have time to connect with the characters. I'm the first one to admit that fast-paced stories are good and I enjoy them, but sometimes slow build makes me care more. Some of the revelations didn't exactly make sense to me either, although I was taken aback by some of them. Oh, and the smexy scenes were hawwwttt!!! ;-)

All in all, it's a decent book with some flaws, but they can be easily repaired in future books by Elizabeth. I felt the potential she has in her as a writer and I will definitely pick up something more by her in the future. Her characters are imperfect, but redeemable, and the storyline kept surprising me. It's sad that I wasn't able to connect more with the characters, but better luck next time!

Rating: 3 out of 5 stars

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