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REVIEW: Overexposed by Adrianne James

Overexposed by Adrianne James

Read: September 2015

Format: ARC Ebook (Kindle)

My Book Rating: 3.5/5 Stars

Genre: Contemporary YA

 

I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

 

Overexposed is the story of three friends (Vi, Ashley and Macy) who get more than they bargained for when they uncover something dark in their small mining community. While working together on a project for their high school photography class, they see something that will put their lives in danger.

Overexposed was a book where, upon beginning to read, I wasn’t sure I’d like. In the beginning, the characters all seemed to blend together, and we’re told that Vi is a big gossip queen but we’re not really shown. We’re told over and over again how she needs to watch herself, but I didn’t observe her really doing any gossiping. We’re thrown right into the thick of things instead, which isn’t a bad thing, but being that gossiping is such a big part of who she is, I wish I’d been shown this instead of just told. I feel like Ashley was a little more developed, she was sort of a wallflower artist chick, with cool hair (it changes frequently.) I would say Vi was the main character, Ashley was her sidekick, and Macy was along for the ride, so we didn’t get to know Macy as much but that was okay.

The second half of the book almost made me forget the lack of showing-not-telling in the beginning. There was action and drama and people that made me so mad! When a fictional character can have you wanting to punch them in the throat, you know you have a winner.

I really don’t want to say much for fear of giving away the plot. I will say that this was an enjoyable read and I’m glad I read it. It touches base on bullying in school and so much more. Aside from the character development that I felt was a little lacking, I would recommend this book and also read more from Adrianne James in the future.

REVIEW: Wishing For You by Elizabeth Langston

Wishing For You by Elizabeth Langston (I Wish #2)

Read: September 2015

Format: ARC Ebook (Kindle)

My Book Rating: 4/5 Stars

Genre: Contemporary Fantasy

 

I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

 

Tip for reading this book – do not begin immediately after reading book one, I Wish. Both books are told in first person, but two different characters. Book one is Lacey’s story. Book two is Kimberley’s. I had to keep reminding myself this was not Lacey narrating, this was Kimberley.

We first met Kimberley in I Wish, as Lacey’s new-to-town friend. A cancer survivor, one major lingering side effect from her ordeal is brain damage. Short-term memory loss to be precise. Kimberley has to carry around an iPad to record everything she does, otherwise she may not remember.

When Grant appears in a puff of smoke she is only mildy surprised to learn he’s a genie and there to grant her wishes. I honestly wasn’t sure how Grant could help Kimberley. Her challenges were so different from Lacey’s I couldn’t imagine where this would go. As it turned out, Grant was entirely beneficial for her.

Due to her disability, Kimberley relies very heavily on her parents, her mother in particular. Instead of helping her to be self-sufficient, they have kept her in a protective bubble. They drive her everywhere, she has no chores aside from keeping her bedroom clean, she doesn’t know how to cook or do laundry, the list goes on. With Grant’s help, she’s able to identify the reasons she should not do a particular task, and then find a way around that obstacle safely. Most importantly, Grant helps her become her own person and not just the person her family thinks she is.

Even though Grant was there to help her, that really wasn’t the main plot point of this book. Someone close to Kimberley has been diagnosed with cancer. She’s been there, she knows what he’s going through. Her friend is keeping mum, he asks her to not tell a soul (aside from her mom) and she agrees, because how could you let down your friend when he’s terminal?

The romance in this book was far superior to I Wish, in my opinion. It built slowly and realistically. There was no love triangle for Kimberley (thank goodness!)

What really makes this book memorable though is the friendship between Kimberley and her friend with cancer. Watching their friendship grow, only to end in heartbreak had me tearing up.

I have an idea of what will likely happen to Grant next, now that he’s completed his month with Kimberley, but I won’t say anything for fear of spoiling anything from this book.

Ultimately, I’d say this book was a little better than its predecessor and I do look forward to what book three will bring.

REVIEW: I Wish by Elizabeth Langston

This review is for book one of the I Wish series, a unique take on genies.
I would say this book is more of a contemporary fiction novel with a fantasy spin.

This was another I read via text-to-speech on my Kindle at work.


 

I Wish by Elizabeth Langston

Read: September 2015

Format: ARC Ebook (Kindle)

My Book Rating: 4/5 Stars

Genre: Fantasy Romance

 

 

I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

On the surface, I Wish is a paranormal romance about a human and her genie. But really, it’s more than that.

I Wish is Lacey’s story. She’s nearly eighteen and the primary caretaker of her family. Her father died when she was six and her stepfather died one year before the books events take place. Her mother is suffering from sever depression and Lacey is sure if she tries to get help there will be social workers who will take Lacey and her eight year old brother, Henry, away. She’s been in child protective services once before, after her father died. She doesn’t want Henry to have to go through that.

To support her family and pay the bills Lacey has a job at a bookstore and she’s been pawning the family valuables at the local flea market. She receives money from her dad’s military death benefits, and her mother and brother receive social security, but it’s barely enough to pay the mortgage. They are in dire need, late on bills and living on pasta.

When Lacey gets her hands on a beat up music box at the flea market she thinks if she can clean it up she might be able to sell it for more. So she takes it home, starts scrubbing the box, and in a puff of smoke, her genie appears. And he’s an extremely attractive teenage boy who tells her his name is Grant. He quickly explains that he is there to serve her, she is his mistress, and there are rules. Lacey will not receive 3 wishes, instead she will receive 30 wishes—one per day for the next 30 days. There’s a catch, while Grant has magic, he is only able to grant wishes that are humanly possible. No wishing for a million dollars or a new car.

Lacey, being the practical and responsible person she is, makes a list of everything Grant can help her with and soon he becomes her personal handyman. While he helps her fix up the house and find ways to make money to help support the family, she also learns some life lessons. Lacey does not like to accept charity, she’s doing just fine supporting the family. Grant helps her learn to accept help and realize she can’t do everything on her own. It was interesting watching Lacey grow.

One of the things I most enjoyed about the story were the letters from Grant to hiss Boss at the end of each chapter, outlining the wish he granted for the day and his overall feelings/observations. It was interesting watching him learn and grow.

Now, my one gripe with the story is the romance between Grant and Lacey. The whole story we’re building up a relationship between Lacey and her classmate Eli (who is also her brothers soccer coach) and then we’re thrown a curveball when Grant and Lacey fall for each other. Sure she’s been physically attracted to him from the get go, but he does not have a full range of human emotions, because he’s not human. He doesn’t think the way humans think. I sort of feel like the author was expected to have Grant and Lacey be together, so she made it happen. Ultimately, I don’t think it really added a lot to the story the way it was done. If the romance build had been more organic and less sudden, I would be more okay with it.

Even with that small gripe (that others may not share at all!) I still give it 4 stars and do recommend this book. The sequel Wishing For You releases October 13. Watch for my review on that book very soon!

 

 

REVIEW: The Unfortunate Decisions of Dahlia Moss by Max Wirestone

This one is for the gamers and geeks out there!

The publisher describes this book as: “for fans of The Guild, New Girl, Scott Pilgrim, Big Bang Theory, Veronica Mars, or anyone who has ever geeked out about something.”.

 


 

The Unfortunate Decisions of Dahlia Moss by Max Wirestone

Read: September 2015

Format: Ebook ARC (Kindle)

My Book Rating: 5/5 Stars

Genre: New Adult Mystery – humorous

 

I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

 

Confession: I used to be a World of Warcraft addict. It’s true. I participated in lan parties in my boyfriend’s apartment with his roommates and their girlfriends. We were cool like that.

What does this have to do with The Unfortunate Decisions of Dahlia Moss? Well, this book is ideal for anyone with basic knowledge of MMORPG’s. (That’s massive multiplayer online role playing game’s for those not in the know.)

This book is absolutely ridiculous in all the right ways. Everything that happens is so completely unbelievable, it’s believable.

Dahlia has been out of work for over a year. She graduated college with her fancy business degree, then proceeded to spend a year interviewing and not getting hired anywhere. Enter Jonah. He offers Dahlia $1,000 to find out who stole a digital weapon in the MMORPG he plays. Why? She has no background in detective work – save two days as a temp answering phones. She’s the worst (wo)man for the job, but she’s broke. So she takes his money and gets to work.

I can’t say too much about the plot without giving anything away, but it’s a ride. There’s murder, crazy people, gamers (another variety of crazy people – trust me, I know) and learning to deal with the cards life has dealt.

Another confession: I didn’t read this book, while working I used text to speech on my Kindle and it was read to me in a very robotic female voice which I now identify as the voice of Dahlia Moss. I believe this made the humor in this book a thousand times funnier. I actually had a moment where I had to stop working and stifle my laughter, which was turning to tears. It was hilarious. There are references to MMORPG’s (obviously), Pokemon, gaming conventions and so much more. One of my favorite parts was while in the game gathering clues, Dahlia discovers one of Jonah’s guild members is pregnant, and another guild member says said pregnant gamer will be leaving the game soon, because that’s what happens when female players have babies. Real life takes over and they quit their MMORPG’s. I laughed a lot, and shared this part with my husband, because when I had a baby I quite playing WoW.

The best part about the book is Dahlia herself. She’s gotten to the the point where she just doesn’t care. Nothing is working out, so she’ll just roll with the punches. If that means dying her hair pink, so be it. If that means planning a virtual in game funeral for the death of a real person? Why not. She’s surrounded by an oddball cast that are too insane not to be real. Like her roommate Charice, who has completely spontaneous theme parties in her apartment (which incidentally lead to Jonah showing up to offer Dahlia the detective job).

The mystery in this book is resolved perfectly. The clues are all there, though I didn’t have an inkling of ‘whodunit’ until nearly the big reveal.

Seriously, anyone who has ever submerged themselves in geek culture must read this book. It’s a healthy dose of Veronica Mars (though slightly less competent) and The Guild. In a movie, Felicia Day would play Dahlia. There’s simply no other choice.

If there’s a sequel I want to read it to find out what mess Dahlia will get herself into next!

REVIEW: My Secret to Tell by Natalie D. Richards

See, I knew NetGalley wouldn’t let me down! I found a gem this time. If you’re a lover of mystery and/or romance – this one is for you!

BONUS: Now through October 5 you can enter to win a print copy of this book from Goodreads!


 

My Secret to Tell by Natalie D. Richards

Read: September 2015

Format: Ebook ARC (Kindle)

My Book Rating: 4.5/5 Stars

Genre: Young Adult Mystery / Romance

 

I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

My Secret to Tell is the story of Emmerson (Emmie) May. She’s seventeen, smart, kind, driven… and completely in love with her best friends brother. Ever since her older brother, Landon, dropped out of college and abandoned the family, Emmie has put the pressure of living up to her mothers hopes on herself. While she really dreams of becoming a marine biologist, or maybe a veterinarian, her mother expects her to live the life she didn’t get when she got pregnant too young – by a boy who did not fit the mold her own parents wanted for her. So, in order to help Emmie live her mothers dream of her becoming a lawyer, she takes a job with her best friend Chelsea’s father’s business, helping out in the office.

All is good and well in her world until the day Chelsea’s brother, Deacon, shows up in her bedroom covered in blood. Years earlier, Deacon found his mother dead, ever since, the sight of blood has left him virtually catatonic. Emmie and Chelsea have spent years taking care of him whenever blood is involved.

Emmie soon discovers Deacon is the prime suspect in an assault that has left Deacon and Chelsea’s father in the hospital. Emmie knows that though Deacon has a tough exterior, there’s no possible way he would ever do something like this. Her parents tell her to stay away, the sherrif tells her if she sees him she must call him immediately, Deacon is a wanted man. But Emmie is a helper, she’s a fixer, she can’t just abandon her friend.

I honestly wasn’t sure whether I’d like this story or not when I requested it from NetGalley. I don’t read a lot of mysteries, but this book makes me want to read more. The characters were phenomenal. Richards did a great job creating two very likable and flawed characters with Emmie and Deacon. While Deacon takes his demons and lashes out at the world, driving too fast and dating too many girls, Emmie goes the other route, and at her brother leaving, becomes borderline OCD. Despite their flaws—or perhaps because of them— both are extremely charismatic and relatable characters.

The whole time I was rooting for Emmie and Deacon to end up together. The sexual tension was there, slowly building the entire story. The two made a great team trying to solve the mystery of Deacon’s dad’s assault.

Just when I thought I’d figured out the mystery, Richards threw a curve ball and I was second guessing everything. In the end, I was very satisfied with the conclusion of the story. Skeletons were revealed, characters grew, and I was left feeling satisfied with the story. This won’t be the only Natalie D. Richards book I will read, I think she has a new fan.

The only negative, which forces me to deduct half a star, is the formatting of this book. I’m really hoping that because I read an advanced copy, the formatting will be resolved prior to release day, but just in case it’s not, I would not feel right failing to mention it here.

Ultimately, this is a must read in my book. A very satisfying mystery, with excellent character development and enough romance thrown in for good measure.

REVIEW: Ghost for Sale by Sandra Cox

I recently joined NetGalley, which if you don’t know, is a service that allows authors and publishers to offer their books to reviewers. Anyone can join, but you have a better chance if you’re a blogger. So, I joined. Then felt guilty because I started my full time job and didn’t think I’d have time to read any of the books I was approved for. Then I discovered I could use text to speech on these books and listen to them while working! I don’t feel so guilty now, because while text to speech narration is pretty terrible, at least I’m getting the reading done! (And my local library’s audiobook selection is severely lacking the type of books I want to read.)

Below is my review for the first book I received from NetGalley. Unfortunately, my first experience was not a very enjoyable one, but I have hopes that I’ll be approved for some books I will enjoy.

 


 

Ghost for Sale by Sandra Cox

Read: August – September 2015

Format: Ebook ARC (Kindle)

My Book Rating: 2.5/5 Stars

Genre: New Adult Paranormal Romance

 

I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Confession. I got about 30% through this book and didn’t think I could finish. Then, I realized I could use the text to speech feature on my Kindle and listen to the book at work. Multi-tasking at its finest. If not for text to speech, I probably would have quit this book.

When I saw Ghost for Sale on NetGalley I had to read it. I’m a huge fan of Meg Cabot’s Mediator series, about a girl who can see, hear, and touch ghosts. In Mediator, the heroine moves into an old house with her family and discovers a ghost from the 1800’s living in her bedroom. The romance is a slow build throughout the series and the characters have more to their lives than just thinking about how hot the other is. Like, mediating ghosts and helping them cross to the afterlife.

While Ghost for Sale starts out great, with our heroine Caitlin’s cousin/roommate, Marcy, receiving two test tubes in the mail, supposedly containing ghosts, and upon opening said test tubes only Caitlin can see said ghost. From there, it goes downhill.

For starters, despite being told multiple times that Caitlin’s cousin Marcy is so beautiful and rich and all the guy want her, every single male in the book asks Caitlin out. In the beginning, in the club, she dances with and is asked out by two guys, minutes apart, if that. She gets hit on by a cop who pulls her over. Don’t even get me started on the “not really her boyfriend” guy who dates her, while seeing other girls because he “has needs” and Caitlin won’t sleep with him. It was downright unbelievable that the author couldn’t add in a single male character who didn’t fall all over himself for Caitlin.

Caitlin herself was completely impossible to relate to. See previous paragraph, then add in how shallow she acts. One guy actually tells her something along the lines of “you act ditzy, but I know you’re actually very smart” – how??? How does he know this because she acts like an idiot for 98% of the book. As stated before, we’re told multiple times how beautiful and rich Marcy is, and how Caitlin’s family doesn’t have money like them, yet her parents can afford to buy her a custom pink VW Bug for her birthday? Maybe she’s not as well off as Marcy, but it was irritating to be led to believe she’s not rich when she is.

Then, let’s talk about clothes and coffee. On second thought, let’s not. It felt as though every other page Caitlin was drinking coffee or thinking about coffee or her ghost, Liam, was bringing her coffee. Every time she changed clothes we had to hear what she was wearing, down to her jewelry and nail polish choice. As well as every other character. I DON’T CARE WHAT YOU’RE WEARING! If it’s not relevant to the story, and doesn’t drive the plot forwards, why waste my time?

Speaking of the story, after the promising opening, it slowed. It didn’t pick up again until almost halfway through. The beginning was us being told how much Caitlin loves Liam despite him making sexist comments and basically kind of being a jerk in my opinion. All while she’s dating this AMAZING guy she met in the club, Patrick, who was sweet, kind, caring, fun and most importantly, ALIVE.

I don’t want to give the whole story away, so I’ll be vague here. Basically, everything is tied up all pretty with a bow with our heroine basically having to do nothing at all, things just fell into place. The “villain” backed down in about two seconds. And Caitlin reacted like Bella in Twilight when Edward left her. At least Bella had the excuse of having had an intense relationship with Edward, whereas Caitlin knew Liam about a week. She was a complete drama queen and I never bought the romance for one second.

The ending…. Let’s just say there’s suspense of belief in fiction, and then there’s scoffing at the absurdity of what the author wants us to believe.

In all, I feel Cox has potential as an author, but this story didn’t work. There wasn’t enough of a plot to work with – it actually felt like most of the beginning was added as filler to make the book longer—and though she tried to build a romance between Caitlin and Liam, it just didn’t work. I didn’t believe it. When the characters act one way and the other characters don’t react reasonably, it just doesn’t work for me.

Ultimately, I’d say skip this one. If another book by this author appears on NetGalley I’d give it a shot, but I won’t expect much.