Review: Love & Gelato by Jenna Evans Welch

Love & Gelato by Jenna Evans Welch

Publisher: Simon Pulse
Release Date: March 3rd/2016
Pages: 389
Type: Hardback
Rating: 5/5
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What It's About! 

“I made the wrong choice.”

Lina is spending the summer in Tuscany, but she isn’t in the mood for Italy’s famous sunshine and fairy-tale landscape. She’s only there because it was her mother’s dying wish that she get to know her father. But what kind of father isn’t around for sixteen years? All Lina wants to do is get back home.

But then she is given a journal that her mom had kept when she lived in Italy. Suddenly Lina’s uncovering a magical world of secret romances, art, and hidden bakeries. A world that inspires Lina, along with the ever-so-charming Ren, to follow in her mother’s footsteps and unearth a secret that has been kept for far too long. It’s a secret that will change everything she knew about her mother, her father—and even herself.

People come to Italy for love and gelato, someone tells her, but sometimes they discover much more.

Review

I absolutely LOVED Love & Gelato. It was the perfect mix of romance, secrets, friendships, and adventure! Once I started reading it, I could NOT put it down, it was just such a sweet and breezy read!

One thing I really liked about this story, was we got a small glimpse of her mother in the very beginning of the book, and we know her as the main character knows her. Or what she THINKS she knows. I loved how things didn't go how she thought they would, how they turned out BETTER than expected. I also loved the way she got to know her mom, about her past, and how certain people had come to be in her life.

The story takes place in Italy, and I have never really thought about going there, but after reading this book, it made me immediately want to jump on a plane and go! Honestly I didn't really have any expectations going into this book, and didn't really know much about it, so it was a very pleasant surprise by the time I got to the end of the book. I cannot say enough good things about Love & Gelato. However, if your looking for the perfect, easy, light summer read, this would definitely be it!

Consume

Consume (The Clann #3) by Melissa Darnell

Publisher: Harlequin Teen
Release Date: August 27th
Pages: 384
Type: ARC
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What It's About!

Tristan Coleman has survived the change from Clann magic user to vampire, much to Savannah Colbert's joy—and despair. By changing the Clann's golden boy and newly elected leader, even to save him from death, she has unleashed a fury of hatred and fear that they cannot escape.

As the Clann and the vampire council go to war, Tristan and Sav face a new threat—a fracturing of the all-consuming bond they share. To fight for peace, they must forge a new trust and risk everything to take down their deadliest enemy, even as they must run for their lives. Soon they will learn that some bonds are stronger than love—and some battles cannot be won without sacrifice.

Review

Having loved the first two books, I was really excited to get my hands on this one. However, it just didn't live up to my excitement. Compared to the first two books, Consume felt flat, drawn out, and rushed at the end. There was all this build up to a big war between the vampires and the descendants, just for it to be over in a chapter or two. It was really disappointing.

The whole book was basically Tristan and Savannah not getting along, they all go on the run, then a quick war and the books over. There was almost no chemistry in this book with the characters and the story.

Overall, I enjoyed it somewhat, probably only because I loved the first two books, but other than that, it just wasn't the big ending I was hoping for.

Rating

Crash Into You

Crash Into You (Pushing the Limits #3) by Katie McGarry

Publisher: Harlequin Teen

Release Date: Novemeber 26th/2013

Pages: 474

Type: ARC

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What It's About!

The girl with straight As, designer clothes and the perfect life-that's who people expect Rachel Young to be. So the private-school junior keeps secrets from her wealthy parents and overbearing brothers...and she's just added two more to the list. One involves racing strangers down dark country roads in her Mustang GT. The other? Seventeen-year-old Isaiah Walker-a guy she has no business even talking to. But when the foster kid with the tattoos and intense gray eyes comes to her rescue, she can't get him out of her mind.

Isaiah has secrets, too. About where he lives, and how he really feels about Rachel. The last thing he needs is to get tangled up with a rich girl who wants to slum it on the south side for kicks-no matter how angelic she might look.

But when their shared love of street racing puts both their lives in jeopardy, they have six weeks to come up with a way out. Six weeks to discover just how far they'll go to save each other.

Review

Each Pushing the Limits book that comes out, I love, get a book hangover, and curl up in a corner rocking back and forth like a crazy person until the next one comes out.

To say I loved this book, would not be enough. I loved this book times a trillion! This one was by far my favorite, which is really saying something, considering how much I freaking love the other 2 books in the series! I just LOVE how in each book we get to see the view of an old character from the previous books, and they all live in the same world but each book is so different. I'm not even really sure how to explain it, but I'm sure if you've read the books then you know exactly what I'm talking about. If not, YOU MUST READ THESE BOOKS, YOU WILL NOT BE DISAPPOINTED.

This time around, we got to see Isaiah's and Rachel's point of view. I was ssssooo excited to read about Isaiah, since we had met him in a previous book (Dare You To, I believe?). Man, their chemistry was SO INTENSE but with such a simple and realness to it. I got so swept up into Rachel and Isaiah's world, I felt like I knew them as real people. Both of them grew, conquered and came together to conquer some more. They each had their own set of problems and love of cars, which made for such an exciting book. Rachel learned to ask for help and deal with her illness, and Isaiah came to finally realize he can trust people, and so on.

There was SO MUCH packed into this 3rd installment in the Pushing The Limits series, so I'm not sure what else to say without totally giving everything away to those of you who haven't read it. 

Rating

Shatter Me Tahereh Mafi

Shatter Me (Shatter Me #1) Tahereh Mafi

Publisher: Harper
Release Date: November 15th/2011
Pages: 338
Type: Paperback
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What It's About!

Juliette hasn’t touched anyone in exactly 264 days.

The last time she did, it was an accident, but The Reestablishment locked her up for murder. No one knows why Juliette’s touch is fatal. As long as she doesn’t hurt anyone else, no one really cares. The world is too busy crumbling to pieces to pay attention to a 17-year-old girl. Diseases are destroying the population, food is hard to find, birds don’t fly anymore, and the clouds are the wrong color.

The Reestablishment said their way was the only way to fix things, so they threw Juliette in a cell. Now so many people are dead that the survivors are whispering war– and The Reestablishment has changed its mind. Maybe Juliette is more than a tortured soul stuffed into a poisonous body. Maybe she’s exactly what they need right now.

Juliette has to make a choice: Be a weapon. Or be a warrior.

Review

If I could marry this book, I would. I can finally say that I fully understand why people have been SO obsessed over this book, it's completely off the grid amazing! I bought Shatter Me when it first came out but was afraid I wouldn't like it for my expectations were so high, what with everyone non-stop buzzing about it, but then I didn't read it because I didn't wanna have to wait for the second book to come out in case I DID love it as much as I wanted to. And I did, love it just as much as I'd hoped and thank god I waited until the second book came out so now I don't have to wait!

I had heard so many people talk about Tahereh Mafi's unique, poet, etc. writing style, so I wasn't completely sure what to expect going in, but actually I really loved her writing style. It was so easy to feel like you really got into Juliette's mind set. At first she did kinda seem like she was off her rocker, but slowly, as SHE realizes she's not crazy, so do you without even realizing it. I felt like I grew right along with her, as she discovered herself and realized there was more in the world than she thought.

This whole book was such a roller-coaster journey. It swept me up from the first chapter, right until the very end, and very few books can do that to me! I really liked how it started off as such a plain, black and white world (Juliette's and the actual world) but as I got further and further into the book, more secrets were uncovered, people were not who they originally pretended to be, and just so many things happening. One of my favorite things had to be Adam, Juliette's knight in shining armor. He was SO yum, there's just no other word for it. If you've read the book, you know what I'm talking about, and if not you'll for sure have to read Shatter Me otherwise your missing out BIG TIME :D 

Rating 

 

Gates of Paradise by Melissa De La Cruz

Gates of Paradise (Blue Bloods #7) by Melissa De La Cruz

Publisher: Disney-Hyperion 
Release Date: January 15th/2013
Pages: 355
Type: Hardcover
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 What It's About!

Schuyler Van Alen is running out of time. The Dark Prince of Hell is storming the Gates of Paradise, intent on winning the heavenly throne for good. This time he has his greatest angels by his side, Abbadon and Azrael—Jack and Mimi Force, as they are known in the Coven.

Or so he thinks. Even as Lucifer assigns Jack and Mimi the tasks of killing their true loves, the Force twins secretly vow to defeat the Dark Prince once and for all. But how far will Mimi and Jack go to conceal their real loyalties?

Meanwhile, former vampire Bliss Llewellyn has joined forces with Lawson, the greatest wolf of the underworld, to free his people from their imprisonment in Hell. As they struggle against impossible odds, an ancient message, woven into the very fabric of time, reveals just how much depends on the success of their mission.

Lucifer seeks the key to the Gate of Promise, and when Schuyler is taken captive and delivered straight to Hell, she must make an unthinkable choice—the same one the archangel Michael was forced to make during the Crisis in Rome. Will Schuyler find the strength to do what he could not?

The epic, heartbreaking Blue Bloods series comes to a close with this final novel about staggering courage, unbearable sacrifice, and the immortality of true love.

Review

"You made a sacrifice and Heaven rewarded you."-Gates of Paradise

I literally just put this book down and even though I loved it, I've been left a little unsatisfied and confused. Really Melissa De La Cruz, THIS is the LAST bluebloods book?!

Though many things came together, I was still left with questions and a big gaping hole.

*MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS BELOW*

First off, near the end of the "big battle", Oliver showed up all bloodied and wounded with a sword in his hand, Schyuler goes all "omg he's gonna die, he's only human, what is he doing here?". And that, my friends, is an excellent question that was never answered. I kept reading expecting to get some explanation as to what he was doing there and why he was all bloodied and carrying a sword, but it never came. It's the last book. Yes, I'm a bit miffed >:( Secondly, at the VERY END OF THE BOOK, Oliver is apparently now a freaking vampire. When. did. this. HAPPEN?! Seriously, this 'final book' better be a joke. There is no way any sane person can leave it at that with nothing else in a final book. Unless I completely missed something?!

I also felt like Melissa De La Cruz set up another possible story for Schyuler and Jack, it was probably supposed to be an end, but it sounded more like a beginning. So MAYBE Melissa plans on writing some sort of spin-off series with these three particular characters? I sure hope so. Then there was the "Great Battle". There was all this build up throughout the book about it, but it was only a few pages long, it was so rushed, I feel like it wasn't written with the care it should have been. I also would have liked to know more about what happened with the wolves during and after the battle, but maybe that will be in the second 'Wolfpact' book? Again, it was rushed, but mostly just the last half of the book.

Other than those points, I actually really enjoyed Gates of Paradise. The last few books have been okay, but this book really went back to it's original roots, having the same feel as the first 3 books, which were my favorites. The other books between the first 3 and this one felt more like filler books than anything. Overall I LOVE the Bluebloods series and I'm super sad that this is (supposedly?) the last and final book in this series. I really enjoyed how Melissa wrote about the wolves in this book, especially since I had read 'Wolfpact' a while ago, so I already felt like I knew these new wolf characters, and liked how they emerged into an already familiar world that Melissa had created with the Bluebloods series years ago.

Ugh, I'm just not ready to let this series go!

Rating 

Confessions of a Murder Suspect by James Patterson

Confessions of a Murder Suspect (Teen Detective Series #1)  by James Patterson & Maxine Paetro 

Publisher: Little Brown and Company 
Release Date:  September 24th/2012
Pages: 372 
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What It's About!

James Patterson returns to the genre that made him famous with a thrilling teen detective series about the mysterious and magnificently wealthy Angel family . . . and the dark secrets they're keeping from one another.

On the night Malcolm and Maud Angel are murdered, Tandy Angel knows just three things: 1) She was the last person to see her parents alive. 2) The police have no suspects besides Tandy and her three siblings. 3) She can't trust anyone—maybe not even herself. Having grown up under Malcolm and Maud's intense perfectionist demands, no child comes away undamaged. Tandy decides that she will have to clear the family name, but digging deeper into her powerful parents' affairs is a dangerous-and revealing-game. Who knows what the Angels are truly capable of?

Review

I love a good mystery story. Especially the fast-paced ones that leave you feeling satisfied when the mystery has been solved. Confessions of a Murder Suspect was definitely a fast-paced mystery, though it didn't leave me very satisfied.

The story itself was really good. Tandoori or "Tandy", and her brothers are the main, if not only, suspects in their parents murder, and the whole book is based on figuring out who the killer is. I was really intrigued by it and couldn't wait to find out if the killer was who I thought it was (it wasn't, lol). Even though the story was good, I found it really hard to connect with any of the characters, I just felt like I just couldn't get to know them very well and really get into their world. Tandy and her family were a bit strange, and there were more questions than there were answers by the end of the book. I kept waiting to get some real inside on their lives but I never really felt like I did.

With fast, short chapters, I finished it fairly quickly. Overall I enjoyed it and will probably pick up the second book when it comes out.

Rating

 

Unraveling by Elizabeth Norris

Unraveling (Unraveling #1) by Elizabeth Norris

Publisher: Balzer + Bray 
Release Date: April 24th/2012
Pages: 445
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What It's About!

Two days before the start of her junior year, seventeen-year-old Janelle Tenner is hit by a pickup truck and killed--as in blinding light, scenes of her life flashing before her, and then nothing. Except the next thing she knows, she's opening her eyes to find Ben Michaels, a loner from her high school whom Janelle has never talked to, leaning over her. And even though it isn't possible, she knows--with every fiber of her being--that Ben has somehow brought her back to life.

But her revival, and Ben's possible role in it, is only the first of the puzzles that Janelle must solve. While snooping in her FBI agent father's files for clues about her accident, she uncovers a clock that seems to be counting down to something--but to what? And when someone close to Janelle is killed, she can no longer deny what's right in front of her: Everything that's happened--the accident, the murder, the countdown clock, Ben's sudden appearance in her life--points to the end of life as she knows it. And as the clock ticks down, she realizes that if she wants to put a stop to the end of the world, she's going to need to uncover Ben's secrets--and keep from falling in love with him in the process.

From debut author Elizabeth Norris comes this shattering novel of one girl's fight to save herself, her world, and the boy she never saw coming.

Review

Unraveling was a great novel as the first in a series (or trilogy). Within the first few pages, we are introduced to Janelle, who ends up getting hit by a truck and Ben, a boy she doesn't know but recognizes from school, brings her back to life. This is just the beginning of several mysteries that all start linking to one big huge mystery, that becomes not so much a mystery by the end of the book.

Elizabeth Norris is definitely NOT afraid to kill off her characters. Maybe even main ones. Main ones THAT YOU LOVE FROM THE BEGINNING AND THEY DIE AT THE END. And there's no bringing them back once they're gone. How come Janelle can be brought back but no one else? Don't know. I'm assuming this will be another mystery touched on in the second book, which I am now dying to get my hands on!

A good first quarter of the book was pretty slow, seemed like a lot of filler, until you get a little further into it, and then things really start picking up and the book gets really eventful. One of the things I found a little different, was the way the author would have something going on, but then the chapter would end in the middle of whatever was happening and then the next chapter would be of some flashback or memory of Janelle's..like the kind of information that let's you get to know a character or characters better, but that sort of thing is usually all at the beginning, not scattered throughout the whole book.

Most of the chapters ended with some sort of cliffhanger and I was constantly sitting on the edge of my seat, it was so packed with really interesting events and problems the characters had to go through. It was SO good. When I got to the very end, I wanted to just throw the book out the window and crawl into a ball and die. The author strung my heart along and then ripped it out (you'll have to read it to understand why). If you even just LIKE sci-fi books, you'll definitely have to at least give this book a try. It reminded me of Fringe, the tv show, so if you like Fringe you might have to read this book too ;)

Rating: 

Impossible by Komal Lewis

Impossible (With Me #1) by Komal Lewis

Published on Createspace

Release Date: October 24th/2012

Pages: 254

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What It's About!

Ashton Summers is on her way to becoming the most popular girl in school and nothing—or no one—is going to stand in her way. Especially not Luca Byron, her freak neighbor, with his tattoos, loud music, and distracting green eyes.

Luca Byron has three goals in life: get through high school with a low profile, make sure his garage band becomes something more than a hobby, and try to forget about his insufferable ex-best friend, Ashton, who he can’t get out of his mind.

The last thing Ashton and Luca want to do is rekindle their friendship, but when Ashton takes a tumble down the social ladder, Luca—with his new makeover—is the only one who can help her rise up again by pretending to be her boyfriend. At first, being together is unbearable and annoying, but things start to change as Ashton and Luca discover the real reasons they drifted apart seven years ago.

Now, keeping their hands off each other seems impossible.

Review

This was a really quick read for me. I really wanted and TRIED to like it, only I couldn't. Both of the main characters, Ashton and Luca, whom both points of view are told, as well as some of the other sort of main characters, were all shallow and un-relate-able. Out of all of them, Luca was my favorite, even though he could get really repetitive. The first half of the book, every few paragraphs all he could talk about was how hot Ashton was and how bad he just wanted "to do her so bad". First time, no problem. Second, third, fourth time or so he mentioned it I was ready to choke him.

Ashton was just as bad, constantly complaining about what an emo, grungy bonehead he was, then one day he completely changes his appearance and she's all over him cause he's the "hottest guy in school". She was constantly putting him down just because he wasn't in with the "cool" kids, and it just got really annoying. Then there was the fact Ashton was one of the biggest bullies in school, humiliating other people when her so-called friends were watching then trying to be nice to them when the "friends" weren't around. She was especially like this with Luca.

Once Ashton gets to the top, with being one of the most popular girls and cheer leading captain, her so-called BFF basically overthrows her to get what she wants, which ends up putting Ashton at the bottom of the totem poll. Luca ends up being the only one there for her even though she's been awful to him throughout the whole book, which I just did not understand. Then again, they were both just as shallow as the other.

Things slowly turn around for both Ashton and Luca, until it doesn't, when Ashton's former BFF sees all the glory Ashton and Luca are getting and has to stir up trouble. Both Ashton and Luca were too stupid and blind to see what was so obviously going on, and going to happen.

Ashton and Luca had both started out as completely shallow idiots, but by the end of the book, they became more open, real human beings, that could see more than themselves for once. I never felt like I really got into the book, it wasn't one of those ones that I could get totally lost in, which was disappointing. The only reason I didn't completely give up on it is I wanted to see if the characters would grow at all and see their mistakes, which they did in a way, but not so much in others. I gave this book 2 stars (or in this case, butterflies) because it just didn't do much for me, I just couldn't quite get into it as much as I would have liked.

Rating