Stacking the Shelves

Stacking The Shelves is meme that is hosted by the lovely Tynga over at Tynga's Reviews


Stacking the shelves, stacking the shelves, staaaacking the shelves! -hums a tune-

Hi guys! Sorry I kinda disappeared-ish. I've been busy with work and sleeping and just LIFE. Anyways. So this week, my mom took me to Barnes and Noble and bought me books to celebrate my new job, so I got a  major haul. These are the books I got:

My Life in Black and White by Natasha Friend
This Is Not A Test by Courtney Summers
The Summer of No Regrets by Katherine Grace Bond
Ten Things We Did (and Probably Shouldn't Have) by Sarah Mylnowski
Beauty by Lisa Daily
Zoe Letting Go by Nora Price
My Life Next Door by Huntley Fitzpatrick

and I got a new copy of In Honor because my original copy was missing pages. So I finally finished it, and review should be up by tonight.

I'M SO EXCITED GUYS

Waiting on Wednesday (2)

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly blogger event hosted over at Breaking the Spine that spotlights upcoming releases that we're eagerly anticipating. 


Small Damages
by Beth Kephart
Publication Expected: July 19th 2012
Philomel


It’s senior year, and while Kenzie should be looking forward to prom and starting college in the fall, she is mourning the loss of her father. She finds solace in the one person she trusts, her boyfriend, and she soon finds herself pregnant. Kenzie’s boyfriend and mother do not understand her determination to keep the baby. She is sent to southern Spain for the summer, where she will live out her pregnancy as a cook’s assistant on a bull ranch, and her baby will be adopted by a Spanish couple. 

Alone and resentful in a foreign country, Kenzie is at first sullen and difficult. She begins to open her eyes and her heart to the beauty that is all around her and inside of her.


This looks SO good to me. Just the premise of a girl getting pregnant and then sent off to Spain to have the baby and give it up seems like a great book. I love when characters go through internal change, and I really hope Ms. Kephart does it good. Can't wait! 

Waiting on Wednesday

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly blogger event hosted over at Breaking the Spine that spotlights upcoming releases that we're eagerly anticipating. 

Perfect Escape 
by Jennifer Brown
Publication Expected: July 10th, 2012
Little, Brown Books for Young Readers

Kendra has always felt overshadowed by her older brother, Grayson, whose OCD forces him to live a life of carefully coordinated routines. The only way Kendra can stand out next to Grayson is to be perfect, and she has perfection down to an art -- until a cheating scandal threatens her flawless reputation.

Behind the wheel of her car, with Grayson asleep beside her, Kendra decides to drive away from it all -- with enough distance, maybe she'll be able to figure everything out. But eventually, Kendra must stop running and come to terms with herself, her brother, and her past.

With undeniable grace and humor, acclaimed author Jennifer Brown explores OCD, the pressure for perfection, and the emotional highs and lows of a complex sibling relationship.

I loved her book Hate List, and I'm a sucker for any book that includes coming to terms with something in the narrator's life. Plus, I don't really know THAT much about OCD, so I feel like this could give a better insight. It just seems like a very interesting book to me. 

Second Chance Summer by Morgan Matson

Taylor Edwards’ family might not be the closest-knit—everyone is a little too busy and overscheduled—but for the most part, they get along just fine. Then Taylor’s dad gets devastating news, and her parents decide that the family will spend one last summer all together at their old lake house in the Pocono Mountains.

Crammed into a place much smaller and more rustic than they are used to, they begin to get to know each other again. And Taylor discovers that the people she thought she had left behind haven’t actually gone anywhere. Her former best friend is still around, as is her first boyfriend…and he’s much cuter at seventeen than he was at twelve.

As the summer progresses and the Edwards become more of a family, they’re more aware than ever that they’re battling a ticking clock. Sometimes, though, there is just enough time to get a second chance—with family, with friends, and with love. (Published by Simon & Schuester, May 8th 2012)

I am not afraid to admit that I cry a lot. It's a habit that I haven't been able to shake from when I was the baby of the family and I never got my way. Now, it's mostly at movies and at books that just stab you in the heart and twist. I cry, but it will only be tears streaming down my face and a little sniffle. I can count on one hand how many times a book has made me absolutely BAWL.


Second Chance Summer is one of those books. 


Second Chance Summer is a book where the ending is inevitable; you know it's coming and you know it will make you emotional. But good Lord, this book traumatized me. I needed to go grab the box of tissues in my bathroom because I couldn't even breathe right, my nose was all stuffed up and my eyes were hurting from my mascara and just GAH.


But this book does not just rely on the ending. It's the details that make this book great. Her family: her teddy bear father, her ballerina mother, her two exceptional siblings, they all shine and are three dimensional rather than being cardboard cutouts. Henry and Lucy and the drama that happened five years before are believable and allow Taylor to have a flaw that a lot of people can relate to. 


The slow rebuilding of Taylor and Lucy's friendship, and the romance between Taylor and Henry are all big parts of the book and Taylor as a character herself, but both plots take a back seat to the main plot of the book: family. The Edwards family starts off as distant from another, but as the book progresses, they slowly become a unit, working together. At the end, they are all able to support each other in a major time of need for support.

I try not to give five star reviews out readily, but this book deserves it. It's about romance, friendship, and the most important thing YA books should preach: family. I definitely recommend it to everyone, even if you're all like WAH I ONLY READ FANTASY. You must read this book. 5 stars.

Reunited by Hilary Weisman Graham

Alice, Summer, and Tiernan are ex-best friends.

Back in middle school, the three girls were inseparable. They were also the number one fans of the rock band Level3.

But when the band broke up, so did their friendship. Summer ran with the popular crowd, Tiernan was a rebellious wild-child, and Alice spent high school with her nose buried in books.

Now, just as the girls are about to graduate, Level3 announces a one-time-only reunion show.

Even though the concert’s 2000 miles away, Alice buys three tickets on impulse. And as it turns out, Summer and Tiernan have their own reasons for wanting to get out of town. Good thing Alice’s graduation gift (a pea-green 1976 VW camper van known as the Pea Pod) is just the vehicle to get them there.

But on the long drive cross-country, the girls hit more than a few bumps in the road. Will their friendship get an encore or is the show really over? (Published by Simon & Schuester,  June 12 2012)

What better way to start off the summer with a book about a road trip? Road trip books are always a favorite, because there's just something about the open road ahead of you, not knowing where you're going. Your relationship with the other travelers can change so much during the time on the road. 

But Alice, Summer, and Tiernan already decided where they're going: Austin to see Level3, the band of boys that they believe they will someday marry. Or who they used to believe. Four years have passed since the forsaken fight between the three, splitting up their friendship. Alice has her heart set on Brown despite her position on the waiting list, Tiernan wants freedom from her overbearing mother, and Summer? Summer doesn't know what she wants.

This book is exactly how it sounds...awkward. A lot of the parts were lost in translation for me, and the flip flopping of "we're best friends again" and "why am I here, why did I agree to this" was heavy, making it a little weary from time to time.

Some parts were funny (the dead squirrel scene, oh my god) or cute (Quintin), but most of it was awkward. I didn't really get a good attachment to any of the characters, because to be frank, some of the time they annoyed me. Summer was too wishy-washy, Alice was too much of a control freak, and Tiernan could be downright bitchy.

The author often yanked the dream of seeing Level3 from right under them a lot, from losing their tickets to even missing the show. But in the end, the girls were able to put aside their differences, hash out what had split them up in the beginning, and become friends in the end.

I did like the book, don't get me wrong. But it wasn't amazing. It was predictable and almost...forgettable. I liked it, but I didn't love it. 3 stars.

Oh hey

This is a blog.
That's weird.
Let's see how this goes.

Jenna