Book Review: More Than This by Jay McLean

Even now just thinking about everything that went on in this book makes my emotions exhausted.

Lets start with the plot.

On Mikayla prom night she discovers that her boyfriend of four years and her best friend since the fifth grade has been sleeping together behind her back for two years. On the same night she discovers this she meets Jake who see's everything go down and he ask's her if she would like to go to his school prom with him.

This book takes you on a roller coaster of emotions. So many life changing things happen to Mikayla in one night.

This book has two points of view Mikayla's and Jake which I like. I like knowing which each person in the relationship is thinking through out the book..

Mikayla,
So much happens to this character that I'm surprised that she isn't catatonic through the whole thing. Thank god she has Jake, he is as cliched as it might sound "her light in the darkness" watching their relationship unfold as you on edge wondering what could possibly happen next. No matter what happens she keeps on going and you have to admire her for that.

Jake,
He's not perfect. Sometimes he got frustrated because of her mix signals she's giving which stemmed from her own insecurities about not being good enough for him and also wondering if she had the right to be happy in the wake of the tragedy that as befallen her. I liked Jake and at first I though he was going to be "too perfect" which can be irritating in and of it self but he had some stuff in his past that crops up as well as his jealousy issues. Although they both had that at times. He never stopped fighting for them and I loved that about him.

I love Jake's circle of friend who just welcome her with open arms and who we'll apparently see later with their own books. I especially look forward to seeing what happens with Logan who I just felt for since he was the only single one and he was feeling like a 7th wheel plus you can just sense some turmoil going on with him under the surface. Also Lucy who was her Book Buddy was just adorable and sassy.

Now there is a LOT of drama in this book, some may to much but I quite enjoyed although once in a while I was like could you give the characters a break. Sometimes I got really frustrated with Mikayla but I calmed myself down by reminding myself about everything that had happen to her in such a short time.

It was fast pace and never boring and so much stuff went on and I don't want to spoil anything for you so I wont say much except this is a journey you must take yourself.

I gave it 5/5 stars overall.

Full Disclosure:

I received this book from Netgalley in exchange for my honest opinion.

Book Review: One Death, Nine Stories by Marc Aronson & Various Other People

This books follow nine different characters' stories that are affected - some small, some huge - by the death of a boy named Kevin.

We see a person who has never heard of Kevin, someone who only knew of him, old friends, current friends, new friends, and family.

"Could he have imagined the ripple effect it would have?"
-Pg.100 HC

We see people mourn and reevaluate their lives, even though they didn't know him.

As with most books with short stories, I feel like you're always going to like some stories better then the rest. However, the fact that it all ties together and follows many stories yet, at the same time one story, was really intriguing.

We glean information about Kevin in most of the stories - like pieces of a puzzle. We learn who he was and how life shaped him. Dead at 19 and some can't bring themselves to accept what is going on.

I loved some stories, liked others and only thought one or two were meh. I didn't hate any of the stories.

This book showed how far reaching death can be. Especially in this age of internet and social media.

"How does one deal with a friends death?" A brothers death? A child's death?

"He deserved a life. And who doesn't make mistakes? Just Once? Everyone makes mistakes. Just once."
-Pg.51
I didn't like all of the characters (one in particular) but at the end of the day we learned more about Kevin which was kind of the point.

""You used to work there?"
"Yeah".
"What happened?"
"Lots"."
-PG.133

I can't really say much without getting into spoiler territory. Which would be easy to do, since this is not only about how many people can be affected by one death or how people deal with death - there's also the mystery of how Kevin died. It was very ambiguous although I feel like after getting a few pieces of the puzzle you can put it together fairly quickly.

In the end I gave this book 4/5 stars. I got this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Book Review: The Martian by Andy Weir

This book follows Mark Watney an astronaut who is one of the first to walk on Mars and will be the first to probably die there. An unexpected dust storm comes he get injured and his crew is forced to leave him thinking he is dead but he miraculously survived. Not that it will do him much good being on Mars with a very limited food supply.

So in the synopsis on the book it says its a mix between Apollo 13 meets Cast Away and they should add the fact that this guy is FREAKING Macgyver (If You Don't Know Who That Is, I Weep For You) on Mars.

THIS IS Macgyver in action:

Need I show more? I think not.

If you wish to continue with the Richard Anderson (He Played Macgyver) theme then you can cross him with Jack O'Neill (Have You Not Seen Stargate either? The Horror. I Weep For You More) if only because of the space and actor connection.

First Off I loved Mark. Even though he's in this difficult (Understatement Of The Year) situation. He manges to keep a sense of humor. There are moments of course where he can't help it but he refuses to let the darkness swallow him whole. He tries to hold on to hope no matter what.

And for fear of spoilers I can't say much more other then this is VERY fast paced there is always something going on and there's not really any dull moments. Unless of course you're not a Math/Science person. There are points where he's explaining stuff and I barely get it but it didn't ruin the enjoyment of the book for me.

All in all I gave it 5/5 Stars and For full disclosure I got this book for review in exchange for honest review from "Blogging For Books".
http://www.bloggingforbooks.org/

I hope you guys go get this book and read it and let me know what you thought if you've read or if you plan on reading it anytime soon.

Book Review: Black Ice by Becca Fitzpatrick

This book follows Britt. One day while she and her friend Korbie on their way to Korbie's parents vacation home in the mountains, it starts to snow unexpectedly. They get trapped on the road and decide to try and find shelter... which they do. But, the people who occupy the cabin are wanted fugitives and take them as hostages.

So let me start out with the pros of this book... Amazingly, I do have some.

1) The cover: I love it
2) I liked the writing style.
It was fast paced read in the way of a train wreck: you can't tear your eyes away from it. Those are basically the only nice things to say about this book.

Now for the cons:

The main character Britt, is a self-proclaimed daddy's girl, who expects the men in her life to do everything for her. It's quite annoying.

Britt is the absolute worst - I mean, she spent more time thinking about her love life then anything. I mean, it's not like she even really had one considering the fact that Calvin (her ex) who she kept dreaming about dumped her 7-8 months prior. I'm not saying that he's not going to rescue you but you need to be realistic. In between day dreams of Calvin, she begins falling for Mason - one of her kidnappers and I'm just like >_< How can you be so ready to start your life with this other guy and yet be oh so in love with this guy who you've known for a day and who kidnapped you and don't give me anything about "Stockholm Syndrome" okay because I think it takes more than one day to manifest and a whole lot more personal time with your kidnapper.

Don't even get me started on Korbie (who is Calvin's little sister and Britt's best friend), who I give the title of the Stupidest Character in this book and believe me that is quite the achievement considering all the stupid people in this book... Which is everyone. There is not one smart person.

Then there are the kidnappers: Mason and Shaun.

Let's start with Shaun, who may be one of the least stupid people but that's because he may be more unstable than stupid.

Then there's Mason who is Britt's quote-unquote love interest... Though with the way she was drooling over Calvin and flirting with Shaun, it's hard to find a guy in this book who is not Britt's love interest. Mason is just so stupid - which is nothing new. The most that I can say about him is that he runs hot and cold with Britt but considering he's a kidnapper and he can act pretty much anyway he wants, there's really not much I can say about him... Except that he seems to like Britt but he's trying to force himself not to like her. There's more going on underneath the surface but see, the thing that we should all remember is - Britt, he's a kidnapper so him liking you in a romantic way might not necessarily be a good thing for various reasons...

There is more that I have to say but I can't without having spoilers... so, I'll probably leave a link to my Good Reads so you can read my spoiler review(Whenever Its Up) if you wish. I gave it 1 star in the end and that's being nice.

GoodReads Link:
https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/2580135-ke-sha
__________________________________________________________

Bonus:

She talked about wanting the old Mason back more then she wanted Calvin when Mason was being cold to her.
*My eyes are rolling out of my head*

Book Review: The Chaos Of Stars by Kiersten White

This book follows this teenage girl Isadora. Her parents are the God and Goddess, Osiris and Isis respectively. While they are immortal beings she is not and this knowledge is basically the problem of the whole book. It's just teenage angst with some mythology thrown in.

That's not to say I didn't like the book or more accurately grow to like the book. I say that because the main characters is annoying and listening to her yap the whole book was no fun in the least.

Let's start with the world. Where in the modern world. It starts off in Egypt but most of the book takes place in America.

Isadora who feels like her parents don't love her or even care she exist. Desperately wants to leave and manages to do so when her mother is having a vulnerable time. She is I'm going to say once again. Annoying, Whiny, Self-centered, and at times arrogant. It's not like you don't see where she's coming from but at the same time it all could have been solved by I don't know actually talking to her parents but of course even though she's supposed to be smart this is a thing she actively avoids. Although the talking thing could be said about most plot lines in books in general but she really rubbed me the wrong way and I felt no sympathy for her. Her parents, siblings, and friends on the other hand I have massive sympathy for. Although how she even mange to get friends with that attitude is a miracle in and of itself.

Although towards the end she kind of pulls her head out of her...you know where I was going. It still didn't excuse the first half of the book where all I did was hope she would find a cliff and walk off of it. As you can tell I had strong feelings.

Now she manipulates/convinces her parents to send her to live with her brother Sirius who's in his 30's and married. He seemed nice and had a good relationship with their parents much to her surprise. She seemed to think that just because she did not have a good relationship with her parents (her own doing) that all her siblings had to feel and act the same way she did.

I can't say to much about the other characters because while Isadora had a little character development the others had none really.

There was Taylor who she meets when volunteering at the museum. She was perky and nice. So was her boyfriend Scott.

Then there's the love interest Ry who was interesting as well. They didn't go much into detail with anyone though and while I love the snippets of learning of Egyptian Mythology. The book was rushed. There was a mystery of some sorts that was wrap-up fast and could have been done better. This was more like a teen drama with misunderstandings around every corner.

All in all I did like the book but didn't love it. It had a lot potential but fell short and that saddens me. I will be checking out the authors other books Paranormalcy & Mind Games because I loved her writing style and just some of the quotes I had to update my Goodreads were amazing and Occasionally I really liked Isadora's humour. Those moments of liking her happened more the toward the end of the book though.

In the end I liked the book, But it didn't really deliver on some of the things it promised. So 2/5 stars.

Book Review: Lover Unknown by Ellie Kincade

I would like to say that I got this from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

This book follows this girl, Hadley, who gets a invitation to a mysterious yet well known sex club called Club Q.

I don't have much to say about this book. It was short and it was okay.
As far as erotica goes, I've read better but the plot was interesting - just not well executed.

Hadley seems like she's fun, down to earth, and willing to try new things. So this club invite is perfect for her in a way.

But, when we get to the end, we learn something that had me rolling my eyes a little bit.

I do wonder how this will turn out in the end, since this is a first book in a series. However, I felt like it probably would have been better as a long stand alone novel.

In the end, I gave it 2/5 stars. Maybe, once all the installments are out, I'll read them back to back. But it's not a priority.

Book Review: How I Live Now by Meg Rosoff

This novel is set in an a slightly alternate and futuristic world. This world has been on the brink of World War Three for at least the last 5 years. In this book we follow Daisy, whose father sends her away to go stay with her Aunt and cousins from her mothers side. Daisy has never met this family because of issues she has had between her and her stepmother

Fifteen-year-old Daisy travels from upsate New York to the Engligh country side, where her phone can hardly get any reception. She's greeted at the airpot by Edmond, one of four new cousins, and he also later develops into her love interest. When I first read the synopsis it was very obvious to me that this would happen between them. If that sort of thing (romance between cousins) bothers you then you probably don't want to read this book. Although the author doesn’t put too much emphasis on the romance, there is a whole family for the reader to meet and fall in love with.

There is Edmond twin Issac who doesn’t speak to anyone, and is really good with animals. He is so passionate about animals that their surrounding neighbours will bring their animals to him to take care of. There is also the youngest of her cousins, Piper, who has a personality mix between Edmund and Issac. She is also very good with animals, but lacks in the way of being able to connect the same way to people.

Then there is Osbert, who is the oldest brother. He has an attitude that portrays him as one who is “all high and mighty”. This is a guy who feels as though he is too old to hang around with his younger siblings and cousin, but also feels he has the duty as the older brother to take care of them. Finally, there is Edmond and when I think of him the word mysterious comes to mind. He seems to have a strong sense of what is going on and what everyone seems to be thinking.

Daisy, is a little lost at the start which can be understandable going fron New York to England and to go from being a single child to now living with a big family. Then the war that had been threatening to start for years finally happened, and the children end up being left alone in their house. They were mostly cutoff from the outside world, that is until the war lands right on the front steps and they can no longer ignore it.

I liked Daisy because she was sarcastic, witty and strong no matter what happened. Yeah, she breaks down every now and then, but being in a war it is to be expected. She was always able to pick herself back up and keep going, which I liked. This novel started off kind of weird but interesting, and went on to completely capture me. That is all I am going to leave you with because it is so short and anything else might lead to spoilers.

I gave it a 5/5 stars and I’m hoping to see the movie soon because I heard good things about it. Just from watching the trailer I can see that there are going to be some changes made between the book and the movie, although with any adaptation I have learned to expect it.

Let me know if you have read this book and how you felt it about it, or if you plan on getting it. You can also let me know if you've seen the movie, what you thought, and if you now plan to read the book.

Trailer To "How I Live Now":

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RSaxm68PPT4