Book Review: Beware That Girl by Teresa Toten

Doubleday Canada
To be Published May 31, 2016
336 Pages

Kate O’Brien doesn’t have the easiest life. Her entire life is a setback and she is determined to get out of the whole she is in. Kate has a plan to move up the latter and land a position as a college student at Yale. When she befriends, Olivia, the wealthy and damaged it girl, Kate doesn’t believe her luck.

 But then enters, Mark Redkin; a man with a similar plan to advance his life. He poses a threat to everything Kate has been working for and threats to reveal the dark past Kate and Olivia are trying to hide.

I loved the premise of the book and I loved Kate. The idea that this girl, who isn’t necessarily the meanest thing in the world. is doing what she can to get ahead, I thought was pretty cool.

I also liked Olivia. The author did a really good job with character development; for all characters within this book. Toten also did an amazing job with twist and turns and things not being what they really seem. But there was a huge downfall to this book, which cased me to give it a low rating.

For most of the book, it was boring. It was hard to keep going because of this. I mean really hard. When things did pick up, I was happy but it was the about time happy. I understand the build up (I completely get it) but nothing was really happening and it was as if Toten was trying to feel things out as opposed to her characters.

When things got going, Toten did a great job turning events and moving a way better pace. She provided surprise and adrenaline that I was hoping for early on.  Although I thought this was a good read once I finished, it took too long for me to actually appreciate it.

Overall, I would recommend this book to people despite my own personal qualms because the story and character development was great.

2.5 Pickles

Graphic Novel Review: Exquisite Corpse by Pénélope Bagieu

First Second
Published May 5, 2011
124 Pages

Zoe doesn’t know what she wants to do with her life. With no hobbies other than smoking and staying under her good for nothing boyfriend, she doesn’t recognize “deceased” author Thomas Rocker, who has been faking his death to escape critics and to sell out his books.

Zoe doesn’t know she is sitting on a gold mine story but will that really matter when her heart is at stake. 

This book started off good enough but Zoe doesn’t amount to anything at the end of the book. I really don’t count ripping people off as doing anything.

Zoe is a bum. She doesn’t have much dreams or aspiration she really doesn’t want to do anything but eat, go out and have sex. Granted this is what the world wants but people work for it . . .  not Zoe. The moment she is able to stop working and attach herself to someone who has everything she does. Fast.

However, despite Zoe being a bum, the author was able to create a story in which you think something amazing is going to happen to Zoe. Every time the story gets a bit boring, it picks up a bit.

The author gets credit for trying to throw in a shock factor however, it wasn’t too far off considering how Zoe is. The only thing shocking was the editor/ Rocker’s ex-wife. But even then the story wasn’t amazing. It was simply okay.

The is my same impression of the art work as well. Simple, nothing too spectacular. I picked up the book because Zoe seemed really cool, active and interesting but she isn’t.

2 Pickles

Book Review: A Love Like Blood by Marcus Sedgwick

Hodder
Published March 25, 2014
320 Pages

1944, Charles Jackson see the unthinkable; a man drinking the blood of a dead woman. Seven years later, Charles sees that same man with a interesting looking woman.

Determined to find the truth of what he really saw, Charles follows the couple as they leave the restaurant, opening the door to something not even his nightmares could come up with. 

The thing about this book is I don’t see a rhyme or reason . . . even when it is established, which caused for a really dry read.

Charles doesn’t have much of a personality. He does things because it just happens to be there to do. Even when he joins the medical field there is no passion not even a love, especially compared to his friend. So when he decides he needs to do something/find the truth about this guy it is a shock because there is no why.

Yes, a why develops as the book goes on but again there is no passion no deep need to do any of this, which blows because the book had really great potential.

As I read this book I tried to find something I enjoyed; the writing style, the scenery, the characters . .  . something. The only thing I enjoyed about this book was Hunter, who is Charles best friend. There was the passion, there was the love in something you do. Hunter was really the highlight of this book.

Overall, I just didn’t enjoy the book. It was okay but nothing I will recommend or read again.

2 Pickles

 

NetGalley Review: Love, Edy by Shewanda Pugh

Razor’s Edge
Published June 24, 2014
310 Pages

Edy Phelps has fallen hard for her best friend Hassan but if those feelings aren’t complicated enough, due to family traditions Hassan will grow to marry the woman his family chooses and forget all about Edy. 

But what Edy doesn’t know is that Hassan can’t forget about her. Thus creating a whirlwind of issues for surrounding friends and their families who have been friends for generations. 

Awesome cover. Seriously, beautiful cover and title. It leaves a lot to the imagination as if we will meet this amazing dancer who falls in love with her best friend.

Sadly to say there wasn’t much going on in the dancing world for Edy. The focus was less on dancing as it was to why she is constantly jealous of Hassan’s interaction with girls.

For once, it felt like I was reading a YA book. The entire plot was very childish and boring. There was no depth to Edy or Hassan. She was focused on Hassan and when she decided not to deal with it, she kept letting herself be trapped right back into it. Hassan was a selfish man. He liked Edy and couldn’t stand her not speaking to him or her speaking to someone else. So he would be extremely aggressive to get her attention or to make his point clear.

Edy was also a jerk herself which surprised me because for most of the book she was actually a nice girl boring but nice. But she proved to be almost like Hassan when it came to things she didn’t want to deal with or was frustrated.

I couldn’t stand the love triangle. It was forced and almost completely one sided.

What I liked about this book was the diversity. I cannot turn away from a book that actually shows someone other than a white female as the lead.

I wish the author took more time to develop personalities, excitement and not just a back and forth between kids.

Overall, this could have been so much better.

2 Pickles.

 

 

Book Review: Marina by Carlos Ruiz Zafón

Weidenfeld & Nicolson
Re-Published Sept. 26, 2013
299 Pages

15-year-old, Oscar Drai has vanished from his boarding school in the old quarter of Barcelona for seven days and nights. The year was 1980.

Before his disappearance, Oscar meets Marina and her father Germán Blau, a portrait painter. Marina, full of mystery, “takes Oscar to a cemetery to watch a macabre ritual that occurs on the fourth Sunday of each month.”

There they see a woman dressed in all black holding a rose on a grave marked by a black butterfly. Curious, Marina and Oscar follow this woman not realizing that they are stepping into dangerous mystery.

This would be the first book I read by Carlos Ruiz Zafon. I wasn’t too impressed with this book.

Oscar and Marina lack a spark in their personality. Both of them have a huge mystery surrounding them. The author explains Marina’s story and I am satisfied but even when things are explained I didn’t feel as if I knew Marina. Oscar has no back-story. You know nothing about his parents or why he is far from home.

I also didn’t like the “mystery” or the “creepiness” of this novel. It wasn’t done with much passion and it lacked interest. I wasn’t interested in the woman or the unknown symbol. It felt that Oscar and Marina was only interested because it gave nosy kids something to do.

However, despite this what I really loved about this book was the details (shocking right?). It was beautiful the way the author describe the scenery, the history and the culture. This was what kept me into the book.  If the author gave more time and detail into character development, I would have fell head over heels in love with this book.

Overall, I was expecting something better.

2 Pickles.

NetGalley Review: The Sign of the Black Dagger by Joan Lingard

Floris Books
Published Sept. 1, 2014
192 Pages

Will & Lucy’s dad is missing. In order for them to get their lives back, they begin to follow a set of clues found after finding a book from their ancestors 200 years ago hidden in their fireplace. 

Hoping that this book will lead them to the truth about their father, Will & Lucy embark on a journey that they cannot turn back from. 

I was so excited for this book. It gave the appeal of an age old mystery that is just waiting to be solved by nosy teenagers.

However, this wasn’t that type of book. It was boring. It lacked all the elements of a good mystery which are

1. Interesting characters:  Will & Lucy had no spark to them; no real personality that jumped at you and made you want to cheer them on.

2: Interesting story: by the time the father went missing I didn’t care. For literally, four days all that was talked about was where is dad? The mother was just blah; it was actually hard to describe their relationship. I felt and saw the love the parents had for their father but they took way too long to actually try to find him that I completely lost interest.

Finally 3: Passion. No one in this book seemed passionate about what they were doing. The author seemed to lack passion for the story as well. It was so boring. I cannot describe it any other way.

Overall, disappointed isn’t even the word.

1 Pickle

Book Review: Fiendish by Brenna Yovanoff

Razorbill
Published July 31, 2014
352 Pages

Clementine was raised in a town where the people hate magic . .  fiendish as they call them. But when she was seven, Clementine was locked in a cellar, bind by magic.

Ten years later, Clementine is freed by a boy, who carries a deadly power, that the townsfolk fear.

Now free to live and do as she pleases, Clementine is set to find out why she was trapped, by whom and what does the Hollow, a dwelling place for fiends, want with her. 

This cover screams creepy mess. It screams anger house, anger myths and heartbreak. But the book screams entitled 17-year-old who has her priorities all wrong.

Clementine doesn’t understand why things are the way they are. So she decided to impose her own thoughts and emotions on to everyone around her and then feel some type of way when they do not conform to what she wanted.

She was very childish and felt that her way was the right way no matter what. Also for the majority of the book all she cared about was a boy (SURPRISE). This made the book very difficult to read because when Clementine was found there was creepiness to it, there was a horror to it but then it ended very fast.

When things began to pick up, I completely lost interest. The writing, which wasn’t bad was focused not on the mystery but on the romance, which wasn’t what I wanted to read.

Overall, 2 Pickles.

NetGalley Review: Handpicked by Dani Oden

Published Aug. 5, 2014

Jill Holloway isn’t one of those stuck up girls at the sorority rush but despite that she gets caught up in the sisterhood despite the uneasiness she feels. 

Wasting no time, Jill begins looking for the truth and soon finds a secret so big it can bring the whole sorority down. Fearing for her life as well as her future in the sisterhood, Jill pushes forward to discover the truth in hopes that no one will push back.

This book was okay. It was only okay because it was misleading and boring.

Jill isn’t a loaner. She and her best friend from high school goes to the same college and ends up joining the same sorority.  Jill’s best friend has issues and doesn’t even feel like a best friend; just a know it all who can’t get rid of Jill.

I didn’t really enjoy Jill’s character. She was a pretty normal girl; a freshman in college  but something about her just didn’t sit with me. Maybe she was too normal or too nosy but I felt that if she wasn’t the main character she would not be missed.

The story was misleading in the sense that there was all of this build up but it really explode like expected. Also the fear that Jill had seemed to be a load of crap because if you are fearful of your life you wouldn’t sleep in the same house of someone you think will kill you.

There was too much down time; too much lets play it cool and not enough tension or mystery for the most part. Can I say I expected the outcome? No. But the ending felt as if the author just wanted to finish the book.

Overall, the book would have been better if there was more action, more secrets, and less downtime. 2 Pickles

NetGalley Review: The Hidden Blade by Sherry Thomas

Self Published
Published July 20, 2014
350 Pages

A young girl living in blissful ignorance during the last days of the imperial Peking, gets a rude awakening when she finds out she is the bastard of a English devil and a Chinese courtesan. What life is there for her? The only choice is to become a expert in martial arts which will help her gain her independence. 

A young boy living in England world changes when his family is torn apart due to the unexpected death of his father. Imprisoned in his own home by his uncle, he must find a way to escape and find his friend who is somewhere in China.

Little do they know, their lives are intertwined and change is the least of their worries.

This book gets a A for effort. But other than that I wasn’t too pleased with this read.

My biggest issue with this book was how slow it was. There is really nothing to say after that. It was very slow and that slowness in the story dipped into the personalities of the characters. They both were brats and felt not only entitled but they also were know it alls.

I could not stand either one of them however, I wanted to know more about where they end up which is why I kept reading.  I liked how the author drew me in with just a hint of what to come.

But ultimately that couldn’t save this book. Even the romance part of it . . .  just couldn’t save it.

Overall, this read was eh. 2 Pickles

Book Review: Vivian Divine is Dead by Lauren Sabel

Katherine Tegen Books
Published June 3, 2014
288 Pages

Teen celebrity Vivian Divine is on the run. When she receives a piece of fan mail that states how and when she will die, she jets off to Mexico to lay low. 

Soon she realizes that no amount of acting can prepare her for running for her life. But when she meets Nick, everything that Hollywood isn’t, she has hope that she can survive this and actually meet someone who understands the real her.

But Nick, is hiding a secret that can be deadly for both of them.

I had such high hopes for this book. The title is amazing! Such an attention grabber, you would be a fool not to stop to look at it.

However, the book was stereotypical, idiot rich girl who experiences love at first sight extremely too quickly.

The most annoying this about Vivian is that she constantly compares her difficulties to working on a zombie movie. “The zombie movie didn’t prepare me to be hungry.” Blah blah blah. Vivian is a rude girl who claims that she can handle her on but relies on a stranger after constantly insulting him. Seriously, she talks crap to him from the time they meet, sticking her nose up to the poor lifestyle she now has to endure.

Vivian didn’t have much depth. She as a one noted character, which caused me to lose interest fast.

I am very upset at this author because apparently in Mexico . . .tacos, and mariachi bands are the complete existence of Mexico, minus the churches. Also apparently because she is white people are either weary of her or they are praising her. -.-

Vivian falls fast for the guy she thought was beneath her for most of the book and he went right along with it. -.-

Overall . . . . yeah. 1 Pickle