Review: The Rest of Us Just Live Here by Patrick Ness

Title: The Rest of Us Just Live Here

Author: Patrick Ness

Release Date: August 27th 2015

Source: Gift – Book Nerd Addicts

Genre: Fantasy, YA

What if you aren’t the Chosen One?
The one who’s supposed to fight the zombies, or the soul-eating ghosts, or whatever the heck this new thing is, with the blue lights and the death?
What if you’re like Mikey? Who just wants to graduate and go to prom and maybe finally work up the courage to ask Henna out before someone goes and blows up the high school. Again.
Because sometimes there are problems bigger than this week’s end of the world, and sometimes you just have to find the extraordinary in your ordinary life.
Even if your best friend is worshipped by mountain lions.
Award-winning writer Patrick Ness’s bold and irreverent novel powerfully reminds us that there are many different types of remarkable.

MY THOUGHTS

Patrick Ness is a popular author around the bookish community, and I’m both a little happy and sad to say this is my first book from him I read. The Rest of Us Just Live Here is a book I was excited to read. There are plenty of stories about “The Chosen One” or all the “Destined” people that have to defend the world and have life altering and epic journeys. But how many books have you read that are about the ordinary people, the characters that get one little scene –usually getting passed in the hallway at school as the “Chosen One” rushes by to save the day? That is one reason I was looking forward to reading this book, the uniqueness of the idea for the main plot.
Here are a few points that I liked about the story:

*The Chapter Headings. This may seem like a weird part to like, but that is only because you have not seen these headings. I was not expecting to get a complete story through the headings, but that is what Ness gave us. The main story is about the “ordinary” kids living their lives while the “Indie Kids” go though the typical fantasy story. To help give the readers an idea of what is going on, the main fantasy aspect of the story is told through the chapter headings. All the chapters are like this, and Ness had a fun way in tying both of these stories together. Sometimes it was hard to know if I was reading a fantasy book with Immortals and powers or if I was reading a contemporary. This was something unique to me and I really enjoyed getting both ends of the story. Here is an example to help give you an idea:

CHAPTER THE FIRST, in which the Messenger of the Immortals arrives in a surprising shape, looking for a permanent Vessel; and after being chased by her through the woods, indie kid Finn meets his final fate.

– The Cover. Not only is the cover lovely, IT GLOWS IN THE DARK!!!! Extra points for that!

– Non-Perfect Characters. It’s easy for authors to write characters that may have one flaw, but most of the time it’s nothing big and the characters always seem to be perfect. The four main characters in this story all have a huge flaw or problem and it has some sway in the story. You have a character with OCD, another with Anorexia, one that is half god/Jewish/gay, and one that is the daughter of Missionaries and want to move away to a country at war. All of these characters together helped make an interesting story.

– A Good Representation of Mental Illness. Two of the characters have a form of mental illness and Ness did a good job with describing what it is like for these main characters to live with mental illness and the way it has an impact on their lives as well as those around them.

– Being a Standalone. I have not read many standalones recently so it was nice to enjoy one. The story was able to have a neatly done ending so the reader is not needing another book to find out what happens, but there is still room for more to the story if the author wishes to do more. One point I didn’t like:

– Always Pointing Out The Main Characters Are Normal. The summary alone tells the reader that this story is about the “normal” characters in the story, but it was a bit annoying and repetitive to keep being told this over and over. There were several mentions of “indie kid this…” “Indie kid that…” “Indie kids are always making the school blow up…” after a few instances of this I get the point.

Overall this was a fun and entertaining story. I can’t honestly compare it to other Patrick Ness books since I haven’t read any others, but I have been told this was not his best work. I do admit I was expecting a bit more with all the hype this book was getting, but I did enjoy it. Over all I would probably give this story a 3. 5 or 4 stars.

Review provided by

– Lauren

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About the author

Patrick Ness, an award-winning novelist, has written for England’s Radio 4 and Sunday Telegraph and is a literary critic for The Guardian. He has written many books, including the Chaos Walking Trilogy, The Crash of Hennington, Topics About Which I Know Nothing, and A Monster Calls.
He has won numerous awards, including the Guardian Children’s Fiction Prize, the Booktrust Teenage Prize, and the Costa Children’s Book Award. Born in Virginia, he currently lives in London.

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Review: Blood and Salt by Kim Liggett

Title: Blood and Salt

Author: Kim Liggett

Series: Blood and Salt #1

Genre: Horror, Fantasy, YA

Release: September 22nd 2015

Publishing: G.P. Putnam’s Sons Books

Source: ARC from publisher

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Romeo and Juliet meets Children of the Corn in this one-of-a-kind romantic horror.
“When you fall in love, you will carve out your heart and throw it into the deepest ocean. You will be all in—blood and salt.”
These are the last words Ash Larkin hears before her mother returns to the spiritual commune she escaped long ago. But when Ash follows her to Quivira, Kansas, something sinister and ancient waits among the rustling cornstalks of this village lost to time.
Ash is plagued by memories of her ancestor, Katia, which harken back to the town’s history of unrequited love and murder, alchemy and immortality. Charming traditions soon give way to a string of gruesome deaths, and Ash feels drawn to Dane, a forbidden boy with secrets of his own.
As the community prepares for a ceremony five hundred years in the making, Ash must fight not only to save her mother, but herself—and discover the truth about Quivira before it’s too late. Before she’s all in—blood and salt

My Thoughts

Blood and Salt, was a fantastic literary roller coaster. All of the unexpected twists and turns lead to one moment- the end of the book. This journey wasn’t melancholy, it was full of excitement, and emotions. Kim Liggett creates a story unlike anything that I have ever read before. Ash and Rhys are normal twins living with their mother in New York, until their mother disappears leaving Rhys and Ash with very little idea of what really happened to their mother. Ash and Rhys takes a journey to the place that their mother grew up-Quivira, Kansas. Quivira is a cult that is completely surrounded by corn the corn is keeping everyone “safe” by trapping them. Ash and Rhys have to play along with the thoughts and beliefs of the native people. Ash has to choose between her destiny and her true love, Dane.

This book has left me wanting to know more about Ash and Rhys’s Journey. Blood and Salt “carved out my heart and threw it into the deepest ocean.” I absolutely love this story and can’t wait to read the next book!

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Review: Dumplin’ by Julie Murphy

Title: Dumpling

Author: Julie Murphy

Release Date: September 15th, 2015

Published By:Balzer + Bray

Genre: Contemporary, YA

Rating: 4 out of 5

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Self-proclaimed fat girl Willowdean Dickson (dubbed “Dumplin’” by her former beauty queen mom) has always been at home in her own skin. Her thoughts on having the ultimate bikini body? Put a bikini on your body. With her all-American beauty best friend, Ellen, by her side, things have always worked…until Will takes a job at Harpy’s, the local fast-food joint. There she meets Private School Bo, a hot former jock. Will isn’t surprised to find herself attracted to Bo. But she is surprised when he seems to like her back.

Instead of finding new heights of self-assurance in her relationship with Bo, Will starts to doubt herself. So she sets out to take back her confidence by doing the most horrifying thing she can imagine: entering the Miss Clover City beauty pageant—along with several other unlikely candidates—to show the world that she deserves to be up there as much as any twiggy girl does. Along the way, she’ll shock the hell out of Clover City—and maybe herself most of all.

With starry Texas nights, red candy suckers, Dolly Parton songs, and a wildly unforgettable heroine—Dumplin’ is guaranteed to steal your heart.

MY THOUGHTS

The Plot:

Self-proclaimed fat girl Willowdean Dickson (dubbed “Dumplin’” by her former beauty queen mom) has always been at home in her own skin. Her thoughts on having the ultimate bikini body? Put a bikini on your body. With her all-American beauty best friend, Ellen, by her side, things have always worked…until Will takes a job at Harpy’s, the local fast-food joint. There she meets Private School Bo, a hot former jock. Will isn’t surprised to find herself attracted to Bo. But she is surprised when he seems to like her back.

Instead of finding new heights of self-assurance in her relationship with Bo, Will starts to doubt herself. So she sets out to take back her confidence by doing the most horrifying thing she can imagine: entering the Miss Clover City beauty pageant—along with several other unlikely candidates—to show the world that she deserves to be up there as much as any twiggy girl does. Along the way, she’ll shock the hell out of Clover City—and maybe herself most of all.

Characters:

Willowdean- First of all, this girl had a ton of nicknames lol. It almost became a game of trying to keep up with them all lol!! I loved how confident she was but at the same time did have moments of self doubt. She was just an ordinary teenager/human going through times when we nitpick everything about ourselves. Willow was a handful at times, the way she talked to her mother made me shake my head a few times. Deep down, she never wanted to hurt anyone and seemed to have a heart of gold.

Ellen- Ellen also had her bratty moments where I just wanted to literally shake her. She knew things that she was doing was hurtful to Willow but she pushed those thoughts aside and did what she wanted. Maybe its just a classic case of two teenage girls who love each other but still fight. There isn’t a perfect relationship out there folks! Ellen had her high moments too, I loved seeing the times when she did stand up for Willow and wasn’t ashamed of their relationship.

Bo- Bo is the “hot, athletic” type. He is the one that all the ladies swoon over, at least this was my impression of him. I loved how he was just an all around great guy. He didn’t care what people thought and he did what he wanted. I loved the interactions between him and Willow. Bo never seemed ashamed of Willowdean and I appreciated that.

Mitch- Ok, I loved Mitch. He was such a great guy!! He was so sweet and kind and just aww. Mitch was another guy who could care less what people thought.

Callie- Mean girl. That was Callie’s role in this story. She was the mean one who we all wanted to smack a time or two. I’m the type of person who automatically assumes that Callie has some deep down issues she needs to work on. Whether she was picked on as a child or has a crappy home life etc. I just tend to believe “mean girls/guys” have a reason for being the way that they are.

Quotes:

“I think maybe it’s the things we don’t want to talk about that are the things people most want to hear.”

“I’ve wasted a lot of time in my life. I’ve thought too much about what people will say or what they’re gonna think.”

Overall:

I loved this story! I loved how we had topics that aren’t really the “norm” in books. We have a plus sized girl who deals with body issues, being self conscious, the loss of a loved one, acceptance from her peers, etc. The list goes on and on. It’s nice to read about characters who aren’t cookie cutter and who aren’t what society tells us we should be. Willowdean isn’t a size 2 and she’s okay with that most of the time. It’s her peers, family members, etc. who have problems with the way she looks. If i’m not mistaken, in the book she said something along the lines of “We all have things we don’t like about ourselves.” That quote really hit me,the grass isn’t necessarily greener on the other side. We need to learn to be ourselves and accept who we are, as well as accept others for who THEY are. Who are we to judge someone else based on appearances? Everyone has feelings and everyone has a story, while we may think the beautiful, popular girl next to us has it all together, she may be the one with the most issues. I think we forget to stop and think about what someone else may be going through before we start judging them. This book taught me a lesson in that aspect, we need to stop the bullying/judging. This book was about a young woman finding herself and learning to be comfortable in her own skin. Willowdean did have her selfish, bratty moments but hey we all do. So if you take anything from this review/this book I hope that its you stop and think before spreading more hate. No one likes to be the butt of a joke and we’ve all been on the receiving end of this. This story really was special and I enjoyed it a lot. Do yourself a favor and pick this one up

Until next time,

Lucy

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These Broken Stars by Amie Kaufman and Meagan Spooner – REVIEW

Title: These Broken Stars

Author: Amie Kaufman and Meagan Spooner

Release date: December 10th, 2013

Published by: Disney Hyperion

Genre: Science Fiction, Fantasy, Romance, YA

Purchase: Amazon – Barnes & Nobles – BD

Luxury spaceliner Icarus suddenly plummets from hyperspace into the nearest planet. Lilac LaRoux and Tarver Merendsen survive — alone. Lilac is the daughter of the richest man in the universe. Tarver comes from nothing, a cynical war hero. Both journey across the eerie deserted terrain for help. Everything changes when they uncover the truth.

The Starbound Trilogy: Three worlds. Three love stories. One enemy.

MY THOUGHTS

When Helena offered me These Broken Stars for review on her blog, I jumped at the opportunity. So first, thank you, Helena, for allowing me the opportunity to read this utterly beautiful book!

To start off, I don’t read a whole ton of science fiction (unless you count dystopian as science fiction). Deep-space science fiction is a genre I have read little of. I mean, I’ve read Ender’s Game, Dune, and a few others, but it’s been a while since I’ve jumped back into this genre, particularly in the YA category.

I will tell you, I was a bit nervous, even though everyone around me told me how much I would totally adore this book.

But damn! I didn’t know how right everyone was. This book started off with a bang! Tarver was a hero that I could get on board with. He was real and so very male.

I love how they made him out to be a warm-blooded boy with thoughts that can verge on the inappropriate. It just made his character more realistic to me. The only character I found a tad more flat than I hoped was Lilac LaRoux. I felt like she was lacking in some way. I don’t know how, but I felt like she didn’t really come into her own until a situation caused her to act on her own outside of Tarver’s instruction, which didn’t happen till halfway through the book.

Despite this small problem, their romance was killer! I LOVED it! Tarver and Lilac complemented each other in ways that at first I didn’t think were possible, but Lilac has a backbone made of pride and sterner stuff that made me love their relationship.

The ending took me a bit by surprise because I felt like the climax went from 0 to 60 in 6 seconds flat, but then everything began making more sense. At the risk of giving away too much, I will stop there, but know that this book is SOOOO worth reading.

It’s a book that I will reread just for kicks. I even bought it on audiobook. That’s how good this book was. Also, it’s phenomenal! The guy who reads Tarver’s POV is fantastic… and his voice. Unf! If you are as late to the game as I was, I would encourage you to hop on this book train real fast! You won’t regret it!

I gave this book 5+ stars.

Thank you so much for reviewing “These Broken Stars” Amanda. I also loved and adored this book and it’s definitely a reread.

If you guys loved Amanda’s review, please check out her blog for more reviews!

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Review: Black Ice by Becca Fitzpatrick

TITLE: Black Ice AUTHOR: Becca Fitzpatrick RELEASE DATE: Oct 7th 2014

Brit Pheiffer has trained to backpack the Teton Range, but she isn’t prepared when her ex-boyfriend, who still haunts her every thought, wants to join her. Before Britt can explore her feelings for Calvin, an unexpected blizzard forces her to seek shelter in a remote cabin, accepting the hospitality of its two very handsome occupants;but these men are fugitives, and they take her hostage.

Britt is forced to guide the men off the mountain, and knows she must stay alive long enough for Calvin to find her. The task is made even more complicated when Britt finds chilling evidence of a series of murders that have taken place there and in uncovering this, she may become the killer’s next target.

But nothing is as it seems, and everyone is keeping secrets, including Mason, one of her kidnappers. His kindness is confusing Britt. Is he an enemy? Or an ally?

GENRE: Young Adult, Romance, Mystery, Contemporary

Black Ice follows the story of Britt Pfeiffer, a smart and spunky teenager that just wanted to escape the grip of reality for her spring break away from school. Instead of going to Hawaii to lay on the beach, Britt decides to take her friend Korbie on a 40 mile backpacking trip around the Teton Range in Wyoming. But Britt and Korbie are not going alone. Korbie is bringing along her boyfriend Bear, and her brother Calvin as a chaperone, who just so happens to be Britt’s ex-boyfriend.

But, on the way to their cabin in the woods, the weather gets dicey, and Britt and Korbie find themselves in a sticky situation. After waiting for hours, the two girls realize that no one is coming to get them – not Bear, Calvin or even their parents. After all, the plan was to meet at the cabin.

When the girls decide to try and find shelter for the night, they stumble upon an occupied cabin. Shaun and Mason are the two boys using the cabin for the weekend; but something is off, and Britt can sense it. Suddenly, these friendly guys might not be so friendly anymore.

The only information I knew about this book before I read it was the synopsis, the title, and the author. While some readers may know Becca Fitzpatrick’s name from her Hush Hush series, I was completely and utterly clueless. I knew nothing of her writing style, nor the characters she tends to create, so when this book started to receive low ratings, I was questioning reading the book or not.

I have to say I am very happy that I took the risk.

Britt, the main character in the story, is confident. She knows what she wants and how she can get it done. She is not afraid to stick up for herself or her friends. She also is not afraid of doing what she knows is right. But Britt is also easily frightened, scared and alone. She does not always know if she will walk out unharmed from a situation. She is indecisive, contradictory and manipulative. Britt has very different (and contrasting) personality traits, but this makes her believable, real, and relatable. Britt is not the perfect character, by any means. She has flaws, rather it be in her decision making or who she decides to trust as a friend, these flaws help to relate and connect Britt to the reader.

Korbie is Britt’s best “friend”. Korbie is pretty much a stereotypical “mean” girl. While she can be extremely nice to Britt, everything Korbie does is pretty much in her own interest. This does not mean that Korbie does not like Britt, but she takes any opportunity to throw Britt under the bus. Korbie is always making everything a “competition” between her and Britt – who has the nicest manicure or who has the best legs. But when they were younger, nothing was a competition. It was always Korbie and Britt, all of the time. Korbie protected her, took her shopping, and was there to listen. It seems as though, as time goes on, they are becoming more enemies than friends. Personally, I thought that this divide in character and personality was an interesting backdrop to the story and actually helped me understand Britt’s reasoning for the actions she took.

The characters were not only the strong aspect of the story for me, but the mystery. With each chapter, I found myself trusting a different person, believing one perspective or one story more than another. It was quite difficult for me to set my mind on who I liked and who I trusted as a character. I really enjoyed this element of the story, it created a rift between all of the relationships in the story. Ironically, this “rift” in relationships actually helped to carry the story further. I loved all of the doubt I was feeling – it made me want to finish the book sooner!

Let me begin by saying that the plot of Black Ice is not everyone’s cup of tea. This book deals with a very sensitive (and can be a triggering) situation. There is a lot of death – and quite gruesome descriptions of the scenes – in this book, and for this reason I would definitely say that this is meant for older readers with a somewhat strong stomach. It was quite difficult to eat a meal with that on one’s mind!

While this book is a YA Thriller, there are also a lot of romantic aspects surrounding it. Personally, I did not understand the romance in this book. It is not that I found the romance confusing, I just did not understand the methodology behind it or why this romance even existed in the first place. I can see reason for the relationship to blossom, but at the same time, I can’t see any logical reasoning at all. This romance is not light and fluffy, and it is definitely not a typical romance story. If you are planning on reading this, I would definitely go into it with an open mind.

Overall, I would give this book a 4 out of 5 stars. I really liked the book and it was extremely difficult for me to put down. (I actually read the whole book in one sitting!). The cliffhangers and suspense at the end of the chapter encouraged me to speed through this book as fast as I could. I found the plot twists in this book to keep me on edge and on my toes at all times. However, there were elements like the romance that I found almost unnecessary or that I thought to be clouding the character’s judgement.

I would definitely give this book a shot. It may not be everyone’s cup of tea, but it is a survival story that will stick with me for a long time. Also don’t forget

Check out Black Ice by Becca FitzPatrick EXTRAS

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Reviewed by Sheridan.

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BNA Review Exchange Program

Welcome to the BNA Review Exchange!!
Want free books? Love to review?
if so please feel free to fill out the form below.

I came across this post from Of Spectacles and Books. About reviewing some of her books in exchange for an honest review and I thought what an awesome idea! But the best part about it was that you
YOU GET TO KEEP THE BOOKS!!!

That’s amazing! I mean you get free books and all you have to do is review. That’s a pretty awesome thing don’t you think?
Well

I have a lot of TBR books myself, that are just sitting on my shelves collecting dust. I feel extremely sad that I won’t be able to get to some of them. So, I’m going to take on this idea but with a different twist. So I present to you the
BNA Review Exchange
I’m going to run this review exchange program once a month if possible. To be considered for this program you must obey by the following rules.

You must have a blog of your own, at least 3 months old with active posting.
I must know you on twitter.
Select one book at a time and review it within a timely manner(2 Weeks)
Your review must be professional (as in don’t disrespect the book or author. You can dislike but no bashing of any kind please)
Your review must be at least 400 words long.
You can use GIF as well. and even youtube video review is acceptable.
US only for now. If all goes well, I may expand it international

Not that many rules, right? I just ask that you respect this idea and follow through and maybe become a regular. I will include your short bio at the bottom of your review with a direct link to your blog.

If interest, please fill out the questions below and email to
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Books from passed month!February Picks

Review for Black Ice by Becca FitzPatrick by Sheridan @ I Turn the Pages

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