Post Reading: Danger, Sweetheart - MaryJanice Davidson

ABOUT THE BOOK

Title: Danger, Sweetheart

Author: MaryJanice Davidson 

Published: May 10th 2016 by Piatkus

Source: Publisher

Add it on Goodreads

This city boy's about to get a taste of country life . . .

Blake Tarbell has a town to save. Rich, carefree, and used to the Vegas party lifestyle, Blake is thrown for a curve when his former cocktail-waitress mother pleads he go back to her roots to save the town she grew up in. Blake's used to using money to solve his problems, but when he arrives in Sweetheart, North Dakota, this city boy has to trade in his high-priced shoes for a pair of cowboy boots - and he's about to get a little help from the loveliest lady in town . . .

Natalie Lane's got no time for newbies. The prettiest gal to ever put on a pair of work gloves, there's nothing she can't do to keep a farm up and running. But when a handsome city-slicker rolls into town with nothing but bad farmer's instincts and good intentions, Natalie's heartstrings are pulled. She's about to teach him a thing or two about how to survive in Sweetheart. And he's about to teach her a thing or two about love.

THE REVIEW

A literary trope is the use of figurative language – via word, phrase, or even an image – for artistic effect such as using a figure of speech. The word trope has also come to be used for describing commonly recurring literary and rhetorical devices, motifs or clichés in creative works.

We love them. We hate them. Literary tropes have been a point of debate among readers and reviewers alike over the years. Some see them as lazy writing and some simply adore them. And there are others who believe that plot and thematic tropes when done right, can be quite successful.

MaryJanice Davidson's Danger, Sweetheart is full of common tropes found in the romance genre. 45 of them, actually. Yes, you read that right.

Post Reading: Hero - Samantha Young

ABOUT THE BOOK

Title: Hero
Author: Samantha Young
Published: March 5th 2015 by Piatkus
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Alexa Holland’s father was her hero—until her shocking discovery that she and her mother weren’t his only family. Ever since, Alexa has worked to turn her life in a different direction and forge her own identity outside of his terrible secrets,. But when she meets a man who’s as damaged by her father’s mistakes as she is, Alexa must help him.

Caine Carraway wants nothing to do with Alexa’s efforts at redemption, but it’s not so easy to push her away. Determined to make her hate him, he brings her to the edge of her patience and waits for her to walk away. But his actions only draw them together and, despite the odds, they begin an intense and explosive affair.

Only Caine knows he can never be the white knight that Alexa has always longed for. And when they’re on the precipice of danger, he finds he’ll do anything to protect either one of them from being hurt again…  

THE REVIEW

The general consensus among the readers of Samantha Young's On Dublin Street series seems to be highly positive. I haven't had the opportunity to find out what the winning formula of this Goodreads Choice Award winning author is so I was pretty excited for Hero.

Post Reading: Get Even - Gretchen McNeil

ABOUT THE BOOK

Title: Get Even 
Author: Gretchen McNeil 
Series: Don't Get Mad 
Published: September 16th 2014 by Balzer & Bray
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The Breakfast Club meets Pretty Little Liars in Gretchen McNeil’s witty and suspenseful novel about four disparate girls who join forces to take revenge on high school bullies and create dangerous enemies for themselves in the process. 

Bree, Olivia, Kitty, and Margot have nothing in common—at least that’s what they’d like the students and administrators of their elite private school to think. The girls have different goals, different friends, and different lives, but they share one very big secret: They’re all members of Don’t Get Mad, a secret society that anonymously takes revenge on the school’s bullies, mean girls, and tyrannical teachers.

When their latest target ends up dead with a blood-soaked “DGM” card in his hands, the girls realize that they’re not as anonymous as they thought—and that someone now wants revenge on them. Soon the clues are piling up, the police are closing in . . . and everyone has something to lose. 

THE REVIEW

Mediocre. 

Review & Giveaway: Stripped - Brooklyn Skye

Title: Stripped
Author: Brooklyn Skye
Published: May 14th 2013
Format: ebook
Amazon : B&N
Synopsis:
“I like you.” His voice is low and soft, which I don’t deserve. I look away, down the rutted parking lot.
“Don’t... waste those words on me.”
He touches my cheek. “You just need someone to show you.”
“No.” I ease back again. “I don’t. So please, Torrin, stop trying to swoop in and save me. I don’t need saving.”

College freshman Quinn Montgomery will do anything to avoid the mistake her sister made—killing herself over a boy. But when she is forced into nude modeling at a local college to support her family after a bankruptcy, she begins to crack, just enough to let Torrin, the university’s top varsity oarsman, see that the real Quinn is not as feisty and unapproachable as she wants everyone to think. But letting someone in comes at a steep cost and, it turns out, Torrin is connected to Quinn’s family in more ways than she could ever imagine.

My Thoughts

Stripped is a New Adult Contemporary about a girl, Quinn who has been dealt some 'not so great' cards by fate and how she overcomes these obstacles. 
Brooklyn's debut was not quite what I expected nevertheless it was a pleasant surprise. The protagonist, Quinn was not someone that I could relate to. Yet there was a part of me that was able to sympathize with her unfortunate situation. She goes through a series of tough stuff starting with her sister's death. The scandal that her dad was involved led to bankruptcy which lands Quinn in a position where she has to resort to nude modeling to make ends meet. For these reasons you could almost forgive her behavior. Almost.

Review: Flash - Barbara Morgenroth

 

Title: Flash
Series: Flash # 1
Author: Barbara Morgenroth
Published: September 29th 2011 by DashingBook
Format: ebook 
Website: Author's Goodreads Page
Source: Received a copy from the author in exchange for an honest review


When Kip “I lied about being 18 for so long, it seemed like the truth” Chanin, arrives in Los Angeles with her mother who wants to work in Hollywood, it doesn’t take her long to understand that this is a factory town and the product is an illusion. To help support her two-person family, Kip grits her teeth, puts aside being a news photographer and becomes a paparazzi.

 Kip’s first photo is of Alex Milne, the handsome and volatile young actor. That one photo changes both their lives. An evening being detained in the Beverly Hills Police Station expands Kip’s world and opportunities both wanted and unwanted confront her. To lasting shock and pain, Kip learns the identity of her father and she sets out to solve a murder that’s been gossiped about in Hollywood for the last 80 years, tainting the Milne family to the present day. 

 One thing Kip learns to her core is that life is real even in a city dedicated to creating illusions. 

 PG-13 Some mature themes

                                                                                                                   

My Thoughts

I've always wanted to know what was going on in the mind of a photographer. Especially when they capture beautiful pictures that just makes us want to stare at it all day.

Flash gave me that. And I'm glad that I got to know what Kip Chanin was thinking all throughout the book.

I admire the strength of the lead character, Kip. She was used to taking care of herself ever since, because her mother wasn't exactly the best mom that one can have. She's lying to people about her age, when in fact she was not really 18.

And here comes Alex, the actor who helped Kip have a job by just taking a photo of him. I was surprised when Alex contacted Kip and told her he wanted his pictures taken. And I loved the way Kip photographed Alex. That scene, where Kip acted that she was late and kept Alex waiting really got him over the edge and guess what? In that moment, he showed her the real Alex and that was what Kip wanted to capture and not the boy-next-door image that everybody else always sees.

There were times when I really believed that Kip was older because she is so mature and she knows what she wants. She has determination and she is independent. 

I was just quite confused with the mystery involved in this story, about Alex's family. And also, I think that the relationship of Alex and Kip was underdeveloped. They only knew each other for a short amount of time and they didn't have many 'moments' in the book, that's why I was not really into the romance part of it. There were also times where the author will surprise us because both characters have such strong personalities and they clash, but in the end, they always seem to complement each other even if they both have flaws.

One character that I also loved was Bay, because she was like the mother of Kip in this story. Yes, she is tough, but the author slowly unraveled her and in some way, she has still has this golden heart which makes her more passionate and caring. 

Another thing that I loved was the setting. It was in L.A. And we all believe that L.A. is a city where our dreams can come true, but I admired Kip for getting to see the downside in living there. 

The ending also got me thinking about what will happen next and I really want to know what Kip and Alex will do to save the relationship that they have.

Quotes that I liked:

"Being in your presence is like getting a flu shot."

"If we don’t have honesty, we have nothing,"

"One shouldn’t become too emotionally invested in such random circumstances."

"Being apart from him meant enduring the persistent sense of a blank space in my life."

" Everyone lives with pain. But people find the strength to deal with it,not give in."

"Do you know what the poet Rainer Maria Rilke said? Beauty is the first degree of the terrible. There’s an equation, a correlation, between the two and Kip captured it."

    My Rating 

Review & Giveaway : Prophecy Girl - Faith McKay

Author: Faith McKay

Title: Prophecy Girl

Series: Lacuna Valley #1

Published: November 20th 2012

Format: eBook, 248 pages

Website: Faith McKay

Source: Received an e-copy in exchange for a honest review

 “Yes,”she choked out the word. This was always the hardest part, giving her mother what she wanted —unquestioned obedience.

Ever since Samantha Winthrop's mother moved them to Lacuna Valley, supposedly in search of better weather, the list of strange questions she has no answers for has been growing out of control.

Does her little sister, Violet, have the ability to make things happen just by "praying" for them? Are Sam's dreams really predicting the future? Is she destined to marry the boy she just met, and what is the mysterious orb that he's guarding? Why does she get the impression that there are dangerous creatures watching from the woods?

While Sam should be focusing on answering those questions, there is one other that makes them seem almost irrelevant: Is her mother planning on killing her and Violet?

My Thoughts

There are lot of YA Fantasy books out there with the same cliche plots and cliche characters,honestly this cliche-ness does not bother me that much as long as the book is well written.But there are some books that come up with some completely different concept-Prophecy Girl was one such book.

Review : Innocent Darkness - Suzanne Lazear

Author: Suzanne Lazear

Title: Innocent Darkness

Series: The Aether Chronicles, #1) 

Published: August 8th 2012 by Flux 

Format: Paperback, 408 Pages

Website: www.aetherchronicles.com/

Source: Won in a Giveaway

"No, I'm in my room fast asleep like a proper young lady instead of up in a tree like a hoyden"

Wish. Love. Desire. Live.

Sixteen-year-old Noli Braddock's hoyden ways land her in an abusive reform school far from home. On mid-summer's eve she wishes to be anyplace but that dreadful school. A mysterious man from the Realm of Faerie rescues her and brings her to the Otherworld, only to reveal that she must be sacrificed, otherwise, the entire Otherworld civilization will perish.

 From Goodreads

My Thoughts

Bad Ass Cover. Sassy Protagonist. Steampunk. And Faeries.
I expected awesome-ness.

REVIEW : THE FOREST OF HANDS AND TEETH

Review : The Forest of Hands and Teeth

Author:  Carrie Ryan

Title: The Forest of Hands and Teeth

Series: The Forest of Hands an Teeth #1

Published:  Published February 9th 2010 by Delacorte Books

Format: Paperback, 308 Pages

Website: www.carrieryan.com

Source: Bought via Amazon

"My mother use to tell me about the ocean."

In Mary's world there are simple truths. 

  The Sisterhood always knows best. 

  The Guardians will protect and serve. 

  The Unconsecrated will never relent.

  And you must always mind the fence that surrounds the village; the fence that protects the village from the Forest of Hands and Teeth. 

But, slowly, Mary’s truths are failing her. She’s learning things she never wanted to know about the Sisterhood and its secrets, and the Guardians and their power, and about the Unconsecrated and their relentlessness. 

When the fence is breached and her world is thrown into chaos, she must choose between her village and her future—between the one she loves and the one who loves her. And she must face the truth about the Forest of Hands and Teeth. Could there be life outside a world surrounded in so much death?

                                            The Forest of the Hands an Teeth - Goodreads

The Trailer for The Forest of the Hands and Teeth

My Thoughts

The only zombie book I've read was The Hollow's Series by Amanda Hocking.I avoid all spooky books because I prefer not to have not to wake up in the middle of the night and creep down the hall with a baseball bat because I heard some ungodly noise!The Forest of Hands and Teeth was seriously creepy  like check-under-your-bed-for-zombies-every-night creepy!

But it was definitely worth it!Carrie Ryan's writing is beautiful and captivating and it's almost as if you are there with Mary.

The first 100 or so pages were a bit too slow for my taste-And then BAM! the story picked up and it was totally kick-ass!

At the beginning I was just plain pissed at Mary because she seemed selfish and she was totally obsessed with getting to the ocean.It seemed like all she did was whine and she couldn't even make up her mind about Harry and Travis!

But it was her unwavering belief in the ocean that helped her get out of the forest alive.

I liked Travis better than Harry but the romance in this book was one hell of a mess and absolutely frustrating!

The ending was so sad and I felt that ending was a little rushed too.There were a lot of questions that were left unanswered-Hopefully the sequel will be able to fill in the blanks.

Overall it was a good book despite all the flaws,I'd pick up the sequel too but not anytime soon.

"Who are we if not the stories we pass down? What happens when there's no one left to tell those stories? To hear them? Who will ever know that I existed?”

The Author

Carrie Ryan is the New York Times bestselling author of the critically acclaimed novel set decades after the zombie apocalypse: The Forest of Hands and Teeth.Carrie was born and raised in Greenville, South Carolina. During her time in high school she was: vice president of her class, a cheerleader, captain of the field hockey team and founder of the girls soccer team (she played on the boys team for a year until the school created the girls team).

My Rating