Dare You To

Dare You To (Pushing the Limits #2) by Katie McGarry

Publisher: Harlequin Teen 
Release Date: May 28th/2013 
Pages: 462
Type: ARC
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What It's About!

If anyone knew the truth about Beth Risk's home life, they'd send her mother to jail and seventeen-year-old Beth who knows where. So she protects her mom at all costs. Until the day her uncle swoops in and forces Beth to choose between her mom's freedom and her own happiness. That's how Beth finds herself living with an aunt who doesn't want her and going to a school that doesn't understand her. At all. Except for the one guy who shouldn't get her, but does....

Ryan Stone is the town golden boy, a popular baseball star jock-with secrets he can't tell anyone. Not even the friends he shares everything with, including the constant dares to do crazy things. The craziest? Asking out the Skater girl who couldn't be less interested in him.

But what begins as a dare becomes an intense attraction neither Ryan nor Beth expected. Suddenly, the boy with the flawless image risks his dreams-and his life-for the girl he loves, and the girl who won't let anyone get too close is daring herself to want it all...

Review

Wow. Just..wow.

I had read and loved Pushing The Limits when it had come out, so I was pretty sure I was going to love Dare You To also, but I didn't expect to love it this much! I loved it 10x more than Pushing The Limits. I don't know why, I think it's because I liked the characters more, like Ryan...*swoon*

The story of Ryan and Beth had started out from a dare and slowly it became more than a dare and eventually more than friendship. I loved how well paced Dare To You was, a lot of authors rush everything, but Katie McGarry really knows how to write so you feel like you can relate to the story and its characters. Ryan and Beth were so well developed as characters, that they felt like real people. I got so wrapped up in the world of Ryan and Beth that I almost went through withdrawals after I finished the book.

Everything the characters had to go through, all the obstacles they had to go around, truths and lies they had to discover, made the book really interesting and realistic. I love that about Katie McGarry's books, she knows how to bring words on paper to life like they're actually real. When the characters came to terms with something that they had been fighting against for the entire book, I felt like I did too. Dare You To was so amazingly good! I can't even think of anything else to say without giving anything/everything away for the people who haven't read it yet, so it'll just have to be a shorter review than I planned on! 

Rating 

Dance of Shadows

Dance of Shadows by Yelena Black

Publisher: Bloomsbury USA Children's Books
Release Date: February 12th/2013
Pages: 469
Type: Hardcover
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What It's About!

Dancing with someone is an act of trust. Elegant and intimate; you're close enough to kiss, close enough to feel your partner's heartbeat. But for Vanessa, dance is deadly – and she must be very careful who she trusts . . .

Vanessa Adler attends an elite ballet school – the same one her older sister, Margaret, attended before she disappeared. Vanessa feels she can never live up to her sister's shining reputation. But Vanessa, with her glorious red hair and fair skin, has a kind of power when she dances – she loses herself in the music, breathes different air, and the world around her turns to flames . . .

Soon she attracts the attention of three men: gorgeous Zep, mysterious Justin, and the great, enigmatic choreographer Josef Zhalkovsky. When Josef asks Vanessa to dance the lead in the Firebird, she has little idea of the danger that lies ahead – and the burning forces about to be unleashed

Review

The book itself got 3.5 stars, but I gave it 5 because the cover is so gorgeous. Especially when you see it in person, some of the rose petals are shiny :)

The first quarter of the book started out really good and totally sucked me into the world of ballerinas and dance and the whole mystery of the missing sister that turned into being a whole bunch of missing girls. I really thought this book had amazing potential, but the author just didn't quite seem to reach the stars when it came to the actual story. The whole idea of the well-known dance academy having girls going missing was really good. Then slowly, the story just sort of petered out like a flame that starts out really big and bright and slowly goes out until there's almost nothing left.

In the last few chapters things picked up again, but didn't really seem to totally fit with the mystery the story had started out with. It did, but it didn't at the same time, but maybe my expectations were too high..

At first, I really liked the main character, Vanessa, though the deeper I got into the book, the more I disliked her. She was kind of flat and boring and didn't really use her brain much. There would be all these clues that practically painted a picture, and I thought I, as the reader, realized what was happening because she did, but then a few pages after she would finally put 2 and 2 together after asking a million stupid questions. It just really started irritating me by the time I was close to the end of the book. I think the only character I really liked was Justin. He felt the most realistic. Then there was Zep, the "bad guy", which was pretty much obvious right from the very beginning he would turn out to be a creep, but of course, Vanessa "had no idea" until the very end.

It's not a bad book, especially if you like ballet and not quite fully formed characters mixed with some mystery.

Rating 

Between The Lives

Between The Lives by Jessica Shirvington

Publisher: HarperCollins Australia 
Release Date: May 1st 2013
Pages: 336
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What It's About! 

Above all else, though I try not to think about it, I know which life I prefer. And every night when I Cinderella myself from one life to the next a very small, but definite, piece of me dies. The hardest part is that nothing about my situation has ever changed. There is no loophole.

Until now, that is...

For as long as she can remember, Sabine has lived two lives. Every 24 hours she Shifts to her ′other′ life - a life where she is exactly the same, but absolutely everything else is different: different family, different friends, different social expectations. In one life she has a sister, in the other she does not. In one life she′s a straight-A student with the perfect boyfriend, in the other she′s considered a reckless delinquent. Nothing about her situation has ever changed, until the day when she discovers a glitch: the arm she breaks in one life is perfectly fine in the other.

With this new knowledge, Sabine begins a series of increasingly risky experiments which bring her dangerously close to the life she′s always wanted... But just what - and who - is she really risking?

The Boyfriend App

The Boyfriend App by Katie Sise

Publisher: Balzer & Bray 
Release Date: April 30th/2013
Pages: 320
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What It's About!

In The Boyfriend App by Katie Sise, super-smart, somewhat geeky Audrey McCarthy can’t wait to get out of high school. Her father’s death and the transformation of her one-time BFF, Blake Dawkins, into her worst nightmare have her longing for the new start college will bring.

But college takes money. So Audrey decides she has to win the competition for the best app designed by a high schooler—and the $200,000 that comes with it. She develops something she calls the Boyfriend App, and suddenly she’s the talk of the school and getting kissed by the hottest boys around. But can the Boyfriend App bring Audrey true love?

♥Cover Candie of the Month♥

Our Song by Jordanna Fraiberg

Publisher: Razorbill
Release Date: May 2nd/2013
Pages: 352
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What It's About!

Olive Bell has spent her entire life in the beautiful suburb of Vista Valley, with a picture-perfect home, a loving family, and a seemingly perfect boyfriend. But after a near-fatal car accident, she’s haunted by a broken heart and a melody that she cannot place.

Then Olive meets Nick. He’s dark, handsome, mysterious . . . and Olive feels connected to him in a way she can’t explain. Is there such a thing as fate? The two embark on a whirlwind romance—until Nick makes a troubling confession.

Heartbroken, Olive pieces together what really happened the night of her accident and arrives at a startling revelation. Only by facing the truth can she uncover the mystery behind the song and the power of what it means to love someone.

COVER LOVE: Broken Wings

Broken Wings (Hidden Wings #2) by Cameo Renae

Publisher: Crushing Hearts and Black Butterfly Publishing
Release Date: June 1rst/2013
Pages: N/A
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What It's About!

Emma’s world is falling apart, and Kade, the only one who seems to hold her together, is missing. With death lingering right outside their door, decisions must be made before it’s too late.
The Midway has refused to send help, so they are left to seek out the only other who can stop Lucian.
A perilous quest sends Emma and a few Guardians into the Underworld, where the unimaginable abide, to beseech the Prince of Darkness himself. Lucifer.
Now, they must endure the deadly levels of Hell, which not one …mortal or immortal… has ever survived.
Prepare for love, loss, and the unexpected.