Tag: Walker Books

Review: Hysteria by Megan Miranda

Posted January 22, 2013 by Rowena in Reviews | 2 Comments

Rowena’s review of Hysteria by Megan Miranda.

Main Character: Mallory
Love Interest: Reid
Series: None
Author: Facebook|Twitter|Goodreads

Mallory killed her boyfriend, Brian. She can’t remember the details of that night but everyone knows it was self-defense, so she isn’t charged. But Mallory still feels Brian’s presence in her life. Is it all in her head? Or is it something more? In desperate need of a fresh start, Mallory is sent to Monroe, a fancy prep school where no one knows her . . . or anything about her past.But the feeling follows her, as do her secrets. Then, one of her new classmates turns up dead. As suspicion falls on Mallory, she must find a way to remember the details of both deadly nights so she can prove her innocence-to herself and others. In another riveting tale of life and death, Megan Miranda’s masterful storytelling brings readers along for a ride to the edge of sanity and back again.

I enjoyed reading Fracture by Miranda and this book caught my eye as it sounded interesting. It’s not like anything I’ve ever picked up to read but I enjoyed Fracture enough that I wanted to check this one out.

This book follows Mallory as she transfers to her father’s old prep school, Monroe. Mallory is sent to Monroe because things have gotten pretty hard for her at home ever since…she killed her boyfriend, Brian. There are things about that night that Mallory can’t remember but she does remember that Brian is dead because of her. She knows that it was self defense but there are things from that night that are just outside her memory. Things with Brian weren’t all that great for Mallory, according to her best friend Colleen. Colleen wasn’t a fan of Brian and Mallory because Mallory wasn’t Mallory when she was with him and because of Brian’s violent history, the case was dismissed and Brian’s family was torn apart.

Brian’s mother went crazy and started harassing Mallory so much that Mallory’s parents had to get a restraining order and Brian’s brother Dylan was shipped to live with his father up in Massachusetts.

Dylan. The boy that should have been Mallory’s but he had a girlfriend. So Mallory moved on from Dylan…with his brother, Brian.

Dylan wasn’t too happy about it but what could he do? He was already in a relationship and so he passed on Mallory. Brian’s friends want to make sure that Mallory feels their grief and their anger so they give her a hard time, such a hard time that Mallory is shipped out.

Now, Mallory is miles away from the only home she’s ever known and she’s thrown into the mix that is Monroe Prep School. She doesn’t know anyone until she comes across someone she does know, Reid. Reid’s father and Mallory’s father were roommates back in their Monroe days and she used to see Reid every few years since they were little. The last time she saw Reid, she made a pass at him and he didn’t take it because well, they were at his father’s funeral. He was going through some stuff.

Now, it’s three years later and they’re going to school together. Reid wants to be her friend but Mallory is all kinds of messed up. She’s not sleeping and when she does sleep, she’s having nightmares about Brian. He’s haunting her every waking moment and she’s kind of taking a break from boys. Things at school aren’t going the way she’d thought they would because there are bullies here and one of those bullies seems to be out to get her. He makes her completely uncomfortable and he goes out of his way to make things hard for Mallory and to be honest, it didn’t fit with what I know about teens.

What I really didn’t understand is that Mallory killed Brian. She really did. She stabbed him and he bled out in her parents house. She’s dealing with the blood on her hands from that and she’s still getting bullied. Everyone that is bullying her, knows what she did and yet, they’re still bullying her. What’s wrong with this picture? You can bet your damn bottom dollar that if I knew that someone killed another person, in self defense or not…I would not be making fun of them, making things hard for them or anything. Unless, I wanted her to kill me too so why weren’t these kids afraid of Mallory?

It didn’t make sense to me.

I would think that it would be hard for Mallory to deal with this and the author did a really good job with making me feel Mallory’s pain and her issues but the whole thing with the kids and the bullying and the framing, I just couldn’t understand why they’d pick on someone who killed someone else.

Aside from the bullying, this book was interesting. It was really slow to pick up but before I knew what was what, I was invested in the story and even though I wasn’t completely satisfied with the way that things turned out (the whole thing with Dylan at the end gave me a total WTF moment) but still, I’m not sorry that I read this book. It was an enjoyable read and while it wasn’t perfect, it was still enjoyable. I enjoyed the romance between Reid and Mallory and the friendship between Colleen and Mallory. Those two are what friends are supposed to be like. Ride or die. That was those two and yeah, I liked this one.

…and that’s your scoop!

This book is available from Walker Children. This book was received from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.
Buy the book: B&N|Amazon|Book Depository
Book cover and blurb credit: http://barnesandnoble.com

2 Comments

Tagged: 3.0 Reviews, Contemporary, Megan Miranda, Netgalley, Reviews, Rowena's Reviews, Walker Books, Young Adult

Review: Breaking Beautiful by Jennifer Shaw Wolf

Posted April 18, 2012 by Rowena in Reviews | 2 Comments

Rowena’s review of Breaking Beautiful by Jennifer Shaw Wolf.

Main Character: Allie
Love Interest: Blake (highlight to see)
Series: None
Author: Facebook|Twitter|Goodreads

Allie lost everything the night her boyfriend, Trip, died in a horrible car accident—including her memory of the event. As their small town mourns his death, Allie is afraid to remember because doing so means delving into what she’s kept hidden for so long: the horrible reality of their abusive relationship.

When the police reopen the investigation, it casts suspicion on Allie and her best friend, Blake, especially as their budding romance raises eyebrows around town. Allie knows she must tell the truth. Can she reach deep enough to remember that night so she can finally break free? Debut writer Jennifer Shaw Wolf takes readers on an emotional ride through the murky waters of love, shame, and, ultimately, forgiveness.

This book turned out to such an intense read. I mean, I knew that it would be pretty intense but I wasn’t exactly prepared for the story that I got (if that makes any sense). This book was dark and it held secrets and I was anxious to uncover it all. You see, Allie’s boyfriend died in a car accident that should have killed her but didn’t. She was able to get away and everything would be okay if she could remember what happened the night that Trip (the boyfriend) lost control of the car and died but she can’t.

It’s like her mind has blocked out the unpleasant memory of that night and she either doesn’t want to remember or she’s hiding something. Turns out, it’s both. Trip Phillips was the most popular guy in school. He was the town sweetheart and everyone loved him. His father was rich and so everyone loves the rich guy, right? And when Allie first met him, she was already in serious like with another boy who wasn’t in town that summer and he missed out on her because the summer he wasn’t around was the summer that Trip Phillips came into her life and Trip was a whole lot of boy that she couldn’t resist.

Not everyone is happy about Trip and Allie being a couple. There’s Hannah, the girl that Trip dumped for Allie. She was used to being part of the golden couple and when Trip dumped her, that went out the window so it’s no big secret that she hated Allie but along with Hannah, there’s someone else that’s back in town that isn’t too thrilled about Trip and Allie as a couple. Blake. The guy that got left behind. Oh, and then there’s Allie’s twin brother, he doesn’t like them together either.

As Allie’s story unfolds, you realize just how big of a jerk Trip was. The Trip that everyone knew and loved wasn’t the guy that Allie knew. He was hurtful and abusive and just an all out asshat. I hated him and I was so glad that he was finally out of Allie’s life. I thought that Jennifer Shaw Wolf did a fabulous job of telling their story and getting the reader to see how it must have been to be Allie. Seeing the person she was and then seeing that person disappear day after day of being with someone like Trip. Their relationship did some serious damage to the way that Allie felt about herself and through it all, you can’t help but want things to get better for Allie.

This book was times frustrating because people couldn’t help Allie because she wouldn’t confide in anyone. There were times that I wanted to plead with Allie to tell someone, something. If only she had the confidence to step up and say something, the help she so desparetely needed was there for the taking but she was too scared to take it. I really grew attached to the characters in this book and with that, I was delighted when things went good for them but I was also bummed out when things happened that I would never want someone so young to go through.

Each character in this story played a different part for Allie and I appreciated the additions. From her family, wanting to be there for her and not knowing how to be to Blake and his Grandmother giving her something to do to inch slowly back into the world of the living to Blake being there for her, emotionally and physically. Even Hannah with her being such a stupid b word, forcing Allie to realize that they were never friends and would never be friends. I thought this was a well written novel about coming to terms with things that happened in your life and moving on. I’m glad that I was able to read it because I really enjoyed it.

I definitely recommend this book.

..and that’s your scoop!

This book is available from Walker Books.
Buy the book: B&N|Amazon|Book Depository
Book cover and blurb credit: http://barnesandnoble.com

2 Comments

Tagged: 4.0 Reviews, Contemporary, Jennifer Shaw Wolf, Netgalley, Reviews, Rowena's Reviews, Walker Books, Young Adult

Review: Tessa Masterson WILL Go to Prom by Emily Franklin & Brendan Halpin

Posted March 6, 2012 by Rowena in Reviews | 1 Comment

Rowena’s review of Tessa Masterson WILL Go to Prom by Emily Franklin and Brendan Halpin.

Main Character: Tessa, Luke
Love Interest: ??
Series: None

Lucas and Tessa’s friendship is the stuff of legend in their small Midwestern town. So it’s no surprise when Lucas finally realizes his feelings for Tessa are more than friendship and he asks her to prom. What no one expected, especially Lucas, was for Tessa to come out as a lesbian instead of accepting his heartfelt invitation. Humiliated and confused, Lucas also feels betrayed that his best friend kept such an important secret from him.

What’s worse is Tessa’s decision to wear a tastefully tailored tuxedo to escort her female crush, sparking a firestorm of controversy. Lucas must decide if he should stand on the sidelines or if he should stand by his friend to make sure that Tessa Masterson will go to prom.

This book was a surprising read for me. I went into it thinking that it was going to be a fluffy read but it wasn’t, not really. It was a book that made me stop and think. It made me evaluate the way that I treat others and the way that I want to be treated. While both Tessa and Luke drove me nuts in the book, I ended up liking their characters. I really felt that they learned a lot throughout this book and I enjoyed getting to know them. There were a few things that drove me crazy but I’m glad that I pressed through and kept reading.

Why wasn’t it okay for Luke to be mad at Tessa for not telling him that she was gay? I mean, was he supposed to read her mind? If they were best friends, why couldn’t she be up front with him? Why couldn’t she share this about herself with him? She didn’t have a lot of faith in him and in their friendship if she couldn’t trust him with this information. I get that it’s not something that you can just drop on something but they have been friends for YEARS, not once did she think he deserved the truth?

I would have sympathized with Tessa more if she would have come out and said something to Luke, instead of hurting him the way that she did. I guess when she instantly jumped to conclusions about what Luke was out telling everyone, it pissed me off. I mean, this is your best friend. You expected him to just know about you and give you the benefit of the doubt but you didn’t do the same for him? That was my big issue with Tessa’s thought processes. I wasn’t mad that she was gay, I wasn’t even mad that she turned Luke down. I was mad at how she just expected him to know everything about her when she didn’t tell him anything and then got mad at him for what she “thought” he was out saying or doing.

I mean, he’s heart broken because he had feelings for his best friend and when he comes clean about those feelings, she tells him she’s gay and just shrugs his feelings off. When we’re in her head, she doesn’t come across like she’s sorry that he’s hurt. She comes across as pre-occupied with the real Tessa coming out. She’s hid herself from everyone in her life and now she’s ready to come out and that’s all fine and dandy but you coming out of the closet came at the cost of your best friend’s heart. He misread everything about your friendship, he thought you felt the same way about him (and can you really blame him?) but he was wrong on all fronts and instead of being there for him, or bulldozing her way back into his life to be there for him, she was out shopping for a tux for prom. I didn’t get the feeling that she was worried about Luke and his broken heart…and it made me mad at her.

Then when she’s trying to come out to her parents, her brother comes in and spills the beans about everyone knowing about her buying the tux and going to prom with a girl and how Luke doesn’t look good and the first thing that comes to Tessa’s mind is, “OMG, I can just imagine what Luke is telling everyone.”

WTF? Seriously?

But then Luke goes and pisses me off too. He’s angry at Tessa for all the years of not coming clean about her sexuality and he’s angry because he’s heart broken but the way that he handled Tessa’s coming out at first, pissed me right off too. After all, Tessa was still his best friend. He cares for her and he’s likes her (like that too) but the way that he handled the situation of her buying two prom tickets made me want to kick him in the teeth. In the hallway, in the locker room. I wanted to kick him in the nads and make him cry like the baby he was.

His comments to the school newspaper writer made me want to punch him in the teeth because he came off as pathetic and stupid instead of, well, whatever he wanted to come off as.

The one person that I did adore was Danny. He was such a good brother to Tessa. He was generally a good person overall. He was the perfect brother and I applaud the way that he went after Luke the way that he did. The things he did were driven by love and I could never be mad at that. At first, Tessa was driven through the need to stop hiding and whoever got hurt because of that wasn’t really on her radar. Luke was driven by hurt and anger at Tessa which I didn’t agree with at all but Danny, Danny loved Tessa first and foremost and that was all that mattered to him. I adored that.

It was really surprising to see the way some of the people in the town reacted to Tessa’s coming out. The things that were said and the way that she was treated surprised and horrified me. While I didn’t agree with how selfish she was with Luke’s feelings, she didn’t deserve any of the treatment that she received from the people in town. I really grew to hate that stupid Jennifer hag with her pink lipstick. I wanted to beat the crap out of her.

There were a lot of things that happened in this book that drove me crazy. The way that both Tessa and Luke were so wrapped up in their own selves didn’t leave much to be desired but as the story progressed, I really fell into their stories. Tessa was a courageous young woman who needed her best friend to understand where she was coming and Luke reacted too fast to the hurt that came from having feelings for your best friend and then finding out that the person you trusted with every part of you didn’t trust you the same way. Seeing the two of them find their way was an interesting way to spend a few hours.

This book opened my eyes to loads of things and I really enjoyed the ride. This book had me all over the place, there were highs and there were lows but I enjoyed the overall story here. I thought both Franklin and Halpin did a great job of telling this story. It’s the first book that I’ve read that covers the whole coming out of the closet read and I’m glad that I read it. It opened my eyes to a lot of what’s going on in the news these days. All of the bullying, all of the it gets better stuff, I got a better understanding of it all and I’m glad for it.

..and that’s your scoop!

This book was received through NetGalley and is available from Walker and Company.
Buy the book: B&N|Amazon
Book cover and blurb credit: http://barnesandnoble.com

1 Comment

Tagged: 4.0 Reviews, Brendan Halpin, Contemporary, Emily Franklin, LGBT, Netgalley, Reviews, Rowena's Reviews, Walker Books, Young Adult

Review: Fracture by Megan Miranda.

Posted January 24, 2012 by Rowena in Reviews | 4 Comments

Rowena’s review of Fracture by Megan Miranda.

Main Character: Delaney
Love Interest: Decker(highlight to find out)
Series: None
Author: Facebook|Twitter|Goodreads

Eleven minutes passed before Delaney Maxwell was pulled from the icy waters of a Maine lake by her best friend Decker Phillips. By then her heart had stopped beating. Her brain had stopped working. She was dead. And yet she somehow defied medical precedent to come back seemingly fine

-despite the scans that showed significant brain damage. Everyone wants Delaney to be all right, but she knows she’s far from normal. Pulled by strange sensations she can’t control or explain, Delaney finds herself drawn to the dying. Is her altered brain now predicting death, or causing it?

Then Delaney meets Troy Varga, who recently emerged from a coma with similar abilities. At first she’s reassured to find someone who understands the strangeness of her new existence, but Delaney soon discovers that Troy’s motives aren’t quite what she thought. Is their gift a miracle, a freak of nature-or something much more frightening?

For fans of best-sellers like Before I Fall and If I Stay, this is a fascinating and heart-rending story about love and friendship and the fine line between life and death.

I’ve been looking forward to reading this book and was happy when I finally picked it up. Delaney Maxwell fell into the lake and was under for eleven minutes before her best friend Decker was able to save her life.

Eleven minutes.

She should be dead but by some miracle, she didn’t die. She’s alive but she’s not exactly the same person that she was before the accident. She’s got a sixth sense for when people are going to die and her doctors and parents are starting to think that she’s crazy. She’s starting to think that she’s crazy.

Just like the lake fractured under her feet when she was trying to cross it, her life is fractured because everything is different for her now. She knows things, she sees things and she has no idea what to do about these things and the introduction of a new guy on the scene doesn’t really help matters.

He knows about her and he knows things that she knows and he’s got secrets but because she can’t really talk about anything with anyone else, she leans on Troy.

Lots of things pop off in this book that had me reading and reading and reading. The sexual (or teenage sexual tension I should say) between Decker and Delaney. All of the drama between Troy and Delaney. The stuff she was going through after the accident. Her parents thinking she was looney. Her doctor’s thinking the same thing. It all made for an interesting story and I was glad that I read this one but there were parts of the story that was hard for me to read.

Most of that was the back and forth between her and Decker. I’m all about the love interest. Romance between characters always gets me excited about reading a book. I don’t even mind love triangles as long as they’re written in a way that is believable and..right. So the romance between Decker and Delaney (if you could call it that) is very immature but still interesting. They’re best friends, you kind of know that he’s got a thing for her but you can’t be entirely sure because he’s very close mouthed about it.

The same goes for Delaney. She swears nothing is going on with her and Decker but the minute he moves on, she flips the eff out. So that’s what I mean about the whole back and forth stuff with those two. It goes on like that throughout the entire book and toward the end, I was getting fed up with it. I wanted the both of them to just come out and deal with it. Saying that, the ending left me perplexed. Perplexed in the sense that I didn’t quite know how to feel about the way that the book ended. I wasn’t disappointed but I wasn’t exactly thrilled either. You’ll have to read it to find out what I’m talking about but the ending and the frustrating relationship between Decker and Delaney then the whole Troy thing tainted my enjoyment some and that’s why I’m giving this book the grade that I’m giving it.

I did enjoy the book, I did enjoy getting to know all of the characters in this book but there were times that I wished that Delaney would have let Decker be there for her. There were times when I wished that Decker would come out and say what was on his mind about his feelings for Delaney and I never fully warmed up to Troy for him to be considered a third part to a love triangle for Delaney. Despite all of that, I thought the story was told in a way that kept me interested in what came next so I didn’t feel like this was a waste of time reading. I just wanted more from some things and less from others.

..and that’s your scoop!

This book is available from Walkers Children.

Buy the book: B&N|Amazon|Book Depository
Book cover and blurb credit: http://barnesandnoble.com

4 Comments

Tagged: 3.0 Reviews, Contemporary, Megan Miranda, Netgalley, Reviews, Rowena's Reviews, Walker Books, Young Adult

Review: Mad Love by Suzanne Selfors.

Posted March 23, 2011 by Rowena in Reviews | 5 Comments

Main Character: Alice Amorous
Love Interest: Tony Lee
Series: None, that I know of.
Author: Website|Facebook|Twitter|Goodreads

When you’re the daughter of the bestselling Queen of Romance, life should be pretty good. But 16-year-old Alice Amorous has been living a lie ever since her mother was secretly hospitalized for mental illness. After putting on a brave front for months, time is running out. The next book is overdue, and the Queen can’t write it.

Alice needs a story for her mother-and she needs one fast.That’s when she meets Errol, a strange boy who claims to be Cupid, who insists that Alice write about the greatest love story in history: his tragic relationship with Psyche. As Alice begins to hear Errol’s voice in her head and see things she can’t explain, she must face the truth-that she’s either inherited her mother’s madness, or Errol is for real.

I received this book for review through the ARC Tours that Holly from Good Golly Miss Holly runs and I really enjoyed it. Alice Amorous has a lot going on in her life for a girl who’s only seventeen. Her Mom’s got a secret and it’s up to Alice to make sure that the secret stays just that…a secret. Alice’s Mom is Belinda Amorous and she is the Queen of Romance. She’s a romance novelist and image is important to her. She’s also in the hospital and doesn’t want anyone to know about it so while she’s in the hospital getting better, she left her entire world/life all in her seventeen year old daughter’s hands.

Alice does everything for her mother, she pays the bills, she holds off her mother’s publishing houses who want another book out of her mother and if they don’t get it, they’re going to stop all royalty payments and Belinda will have to pay back $100,000 that the publisher gave her. To put it bluntly, that’s a lot of crap to lie at the door of a seventeen year old.

Alice is trying to keep everything afloat while her mother is getting better in the hospital but then this crazy guy comes into her life and complicates her already complicated life. He’s got a story that she has to write and when she gets the crazy idea that she’s going to write that story for her mother to appease the publisher, crazy boy’s story becomes her story. Throw in another boy who she’s totally been eye stalking every day that he skates by her window and then sprinkle in some angry Gods and Goddesses and a dash of magic and you have the jist of this story.

This book entertained the socks right off of me and what I enjoyed most about it was getting to know all of the characters, even Alice. There were times that I wanted to smack Alice upside her teenage head but for the most part, I felt for her character. She had to worry about so many aspects of her Mom’s life, as well as take care of her Mom and then the added responsibility of trying to keep her Mother’s job for her was a bit much. But even with all of this going on, Selfors did a great job of sharing a story that was both interesting and charming.

Errol and the rest of the cast were wonderful additions to the story and I enjoyed getting to know Realm (or Lily, whatever) and the many people that made up Alice’s life. She had a great support group and they made the story just that much more enjoyable. This story made for an entertaining few hours and I would definitely recommend it. Also, Tony Lee rocked!

For all my Moms out there, I’d give this book a rating of: