Fragments (Partials Sequence #2)

Reviewer: Kelsey
Author: Dan Wells
Format: Hardcover
Pages: 564
Rating: 9 out of 10

**Spoiler Alert: Check out Partials First**

Summary (Goodreads version): Kira Walker has found the cure for RM, but the battle for the survival of humans and Partials is just beginning. Kira has left East Meadow in a desperate search for clues to who she is. That the Partials themselves hold the cure for RM in their blood cannot be a coincidence--it must be part of a larger plan, a plan that involves Kira, a plan that could save both races. Her companions are Afa Demoux, an unhinged drifter and former employee of ParaGen, and Samm and Heron, the Partials who betrayed her and saved her life, the only ones who know her secret. But can she trust them?

Meanwhile, back on Long Island, what's left of humanity is gearing up for war with the Partials, and Marcus knows his only hope is to delay them until Kira returns. But Kira's journey will take her deep into the overgrown wasteland of postapocalyptic America, and Kira and Marcus both will discover that their greatest enemy may be one they didn't even know existed.

The second installment in the pulse-pounding Partials saga is the story of the eleventh hour of humanity's time on Earth, a journey deep into places unknown to discover the means--and even more important, a reason--for our survival.

Thoughts: Firstly, I love (and hate/freak out about) the idea behind this story because, as I mentioned in the Partials review, it could really happen. I may have read the this book and really the whole series too fast. I will be reading them again before I read the third in the series.

One of the highlights of this book is that it can go from not a lot of action to the characters running for their lives or to something huge happening to them because they are in a dangerous, unknown place and there is a war going on. Something is always around the next corner. There is always another battle to fight or person to defeat. It makes for a very interesting story that always keeps your attention. 

I was also glad that the reader saw what was happening to more than just Kira, not that her part of the story isn't great. I like knowing what is happening in every part of the story. I like knowing what the other characters are doing when they are not with the main character. I'm just nosy like that.

Also, the science behind RM and the partials is great. It add so much to the story to believe it. Plus, who doesn't love a good conspiracy with all the creators adding secret back-up plans that foil everything. It remind me a bit of the television show Revolution. There are a bunch of secret plots and plans. There is always something new to learn about the story line. The story does however run the risk of becoming too complicated if the author isn't careful but so far Dan Wells hasn't gone overboard. He just keeps you thinking and trying to figure out the solution to the problems that exist. I want to fight just as hard as Kira does. Her strength and courage are amazing throughout the story. I love strong female roles!

Oh my god, the cliff hanger! I hate it so much. Talk about being left hanging...and not just from one point of view but from all of them. Every single part, Kira's, Marcus', and the friends/adoptive sisters' points of view, has a cliff hanger that makes you want to throw the book out the window! I believe that this is fitting:

Final: I really loved this novel! I read it right after the first one before realizing that the third in the series is not yet out. I almost cried when I found that out because now I have to wait to find out how it ends. It's going to kill me. I cannot wait until the third book comes out and I can find out what's happening to the characters. I think that if you like books like The Hunger Games or other dystopian novels, you should take a look at this series.

Dan Wells...Put out the next one!!!

The Fault In Our Stars

Reviewer: Kristen
Author: John Green
Pages: 313
Format: Hardcover
My Rating: 10 out of 10

Summary (Okay. Okay, Goodreads): Diagnosed with Stage IV thyroid cancer at 13, Hazel was prepared to die until, at 14, a medical miracle shrunk the tumours in her lungs... for now. 

Two years post-miracle, sixteen-year-old Hazel is post-everything else, too; post-high school, post-friends and post-normalcy. And even though she could live for a long time (whatever that means), Hazel lives tethered to an oxygen tank, the tumours tenuously kept at bay with a constant chemical assault. 

Enter Augustus Waters. A match made at cancer kid support group, Augustus is gorgeous, in remission, and shockingly to her, interested in Hazel. Being with Augustus is both an unexpected destination and a long-needed journey, pushing Hazel to re-examine how sickness and health, life and death, will define her and the legacy that everyone leaves behind.

My Thoughts: I admit, I went into reading The Fault in our Stars with a bit of a bias. Anyone who knows me knows I have an unfounded loathing of Looking for Alaska. I will spare you that rant, because that is one horse that has been beaten past recognition. I am angry at myself - you heard it right, angry - that I didn't just get over my Looking for Alaska bias, and pick this book up. There's a reason it's a New York Times best seller. The story is so hauntingly beautiful that I can only wish to write as effectively as John Green does. John Green does this story justice, and I doubt any other author achieve even a sliver of what John Green has. His pen (or computer, or type writer, or what have you) is the weapon that stabbed me in the heart, repeatedly. John Green wrote this story with such conviction, and he was so unflinchingly honest with the story, that I found myself in tears more than once. Both Hazel and Augustus are people that everyone, and I mean everyone, should strive to be more like them. They have their faults (hahahah get it?), but it just makes them feel real. Both Augustus and Hazel are characters that you feel like you know, that you feel as though you have spent time with them. I loved the constant underlying worry, almost, of what comes next. I loved that it was real. There was no sugar coating, the story was at times, brutally honest, which just made me want to push forward. I, admittingly, had to to put this down more than once because I didn't want to blubber like a child, but again, that's just a testament to what John Green has clearly accomplished. I'm so glad that I've finally moved it from my To Be Read pile, because it had been sitting there collecting dust for a while. This is, beyond a shadow of a doubt, one of my new favourite novels, and I look forward to reading it many times in the future. Seriously. Buy this. But beware, have some tissues (and by some I mean at least 3 boxes) beside you at all times. 

Final Thoughts: A beautiful portrayal of a harsh reality with the just the right amount of hope.

Walking Disaster

Reviewer: Kristen 
Author: Jamie McGuire 
Pages: 433
Format: Paperback
My Rating: 5 out of 10

Sequel to Beautiful Disaster

Summary (you da best, Goodreads): Can you love someone too much?

Travis Maddox learned two things from his mother before she died: Love hard. Fight harder.

In Walking Disaster, the life of Travis is full of fast women, underground gambling, and violence. But just when he thinks he is invincible, Abby Abernathy brings him to his knees.

Every story has two sides. In Beautiful Disaster, Abby had her say. Now it’s time to see the story through Travis’s eyes

My Thoughts: Okay, okay. I know. When you rate a book 5, it always looks bad. But, give me a moment to collect my thoughts and I will do my best to justify it. This book was, in all honesty, just okay. I didn't not like it, but I didn't really enjoy it either. Once I hit the last few pages, it felt like I was reading just to get it done, which is always disappointing with characters you love. And I do love them, but I think that love comes from Beautiful Disaster. I realize that Walking Disaster is a companion novel, but I thought there would be a lot more differences from the first book, because there was honestly so much more we could have learned about Travis. I don't know about you, but this novel kind of made me dislike Travis. And it kind of made Abby seem bi-polar. The attraction wasn't spelt out to you like it was in BD. At the risk of sounding like a nutcase, there was even one point in the book where Abby was saying something, and all the sudden it just felt like... words? The magic of the character was suddenly gone, and it felt like I was just reading singular words strung together in a way with little meaning. Suffice to say, that has never happened before, and I don't want it to happen again. My advice to you before picking this up is to read the BD, way in advance. I don't think I would have even finished it if I had read these back to back. Again, I know companion and blah blah blah. But it is literally the same story, with a few tweaks. The way things are described are even worded the same in each book. It was okay, but unsatisfyingly the same. Yet not entirely the same, because there were some events I thought crucial, that were just glazed over in WD! I don't get it, I really don't. I wish Jamie McGuire would have re-introduced us to characters again. She dived back into complicated story lines that the reader only would have understood had they read the first, and I did read the first; just a lonnnnnnnng time ago. I mean, for Pete's sake, I forgot who Shepley was. On more of a positive note, it was written really well. I loved how things were worded, and I honestly forgot that a male himself didn't write this book. It felt male, not like a female trying to idealize the inner workings of the male mind. Another positive, the cover is hot. Literally no other way to describe it.  

Final Thoughts: It was okay. Just okay. 

Follow Friday

Q: School is out! What is your favorite Summer Reading book?

Summer reading means any kind of reading for me! After all that studying (and by all that, I mean, I kind of sort of studied) I will read all the books that magically accumulated in my TBR pile while I was doing the supposed studying. My list right now, however, consists of titles like The Book Thief (which I love and only recently realized have never reviewed), Obsidian, Hopeless, The Fault in Our Stars (how far behind am I - seriously?!). What about you guys? Any of you have your automatic go to summer books?

- Kristen 

I don't have a certain book that I read every summer. I try to avoid buying new books and read the ones that I have sitting around waiting for me. I have a lot of classics or more difficult reads that I can't focus on during school. I read those books though so far I haven't been reading too much. I need to get into the swing of summer still.

- Kelsey

Seriously...I'm Kidding

Reviewer: Kelsey
Author: Ellen Degeneres
Format: Paperback
Pages: 241
Rating: 7 out of 10

Summary (Thanks Goodreads): "Sometimes the greatest things are the most embarrassing." Ellen Degeneres' winning, upbeat candor has made her show one of the most popular, resilient and honored daytime shows on the air. (To date, it has won no fewer than 31 Emmys.) Seriously... I'm Kidding, Degeneres' first book in eight years, brings us up to date about the life of a kindhearted woman who bowed out of American Idol because she didn't want to be mean. Lively; hilarious; often sweetly poignant.

What I Think: Let's get right to it. The first few chapters were the best. They made me laugh the most and I had to keep telling my mom what I was reading. I felt that she had to laugh with me. Mostly,  she just judged me for talking to her while reading but she had read it before me so I know that she enjoyed it too. I thought that as the book went on, I lost interest in it. I wasn't really that it wasn't funny, I was sick while reading it and it lost my attention. It really wasn't my sort of book. I think that in the future I'll just stick to her television show. If you are a real fan though, I think that you would enjoy this book a lot. I have to say that it wasn't what I expected. I thought that it would be more about her life but I think I assumed it was more of an auto-biography but it wasn't. It was more of a goofing around book. It wasn't even really a story. It was definitely just meant for a few good laughs. That's what it gives you so I guess it worked out in the end.

To Wrap Up: If you enjoy watching her television show than you should look into this book for sure. I liked it but think it's a one time read for me, you may think differently! 

Between the Lines

Reviewer: Kelsey
Author: Jodi Picoult and Samantha Van Leer
Format: Hardcover
Pages: 358
Rating: 7 out of 10

Summary (from Goodreads): New York Times bestselling author Jodi Picoult and her teenage daughter present their first-ever novel for teens, filled with romance, adventure, and humor.What happens when happily ever after…isn’t?

     Delilah is a bit of a loner who prefers spending her time in the school library with her head in a book—one book in particular. Between the Lines may be a fairy tale, but it feels real. Prince Oliver is brave, adventurous, and loving. He really speaks to Delilah.

     And then one day Oliver actually speaks to her. Turns out, Oliver is more than a one-dimensional storybook prince. He’s a restless teen who feels trapped by his literary existence and hates that his entire life is predetermined. He’s sure there’s more for him out there in the real world, and Delilah might just be his key to freedom.

     Delilah and Oliver work together to attempt to get Oliver out of his book, a challenging task that forces them to examine their perceptions of fate, the world, and their places in it. And as their attraction to each other grows along the way, a romance blossoms that is anything but a fairy tale.

Thoughts: A friend of mine recommended this book to me but in the beginning I wasn't too sure if I would like it. I read all the forward stuff, acknowledgments and such, and got the whole background of how this book came to be. I love the story behind the story, that's for sure. I agree with them, this was a great idea for novel! I enjoyed it.

The characters fit the story. They were both stereotypical and not at the same time. Of course the girl that reads wouldn't fit in at school and would dream of a much bigger world. I thought that same about the prince. Let's give a character everything but nothing all at the same time and show how hard he has to fight to get out of his world and into a bigger one. These are types that are used a lot but still work. I think this was one of the few places that this story was lacking. However, as I said, it does work for this book. I did think Oliver was pretty awesome though. He didn't want to fit into his story. Instead, Oliver fights for what he wants and he fights through the disappointment that he somethings has to face. He was a trooper.

The biggest problem that I had with this novel was the solution to the problem. All of these things they tried didn't work. I can't understand where the solution came from or how it could work when nothing else did. I just didn't believe the ending. I just didn't feel it. I think that a bit more thought could have gone into the solution or more time could have gone into explaining why it did work so well. Maybe with a bit more work on that, I could have believed and accepted the ending. 

Another thing to notice is the change in perspective. The story is told from Oliver's and Delilah's points of view but it also has full pages from Oliver's storybook. I enjoyed the points of view but not the storybook pages. It was a great idea but the reader is already given quite a bit of information about what Oliver goes though in the story, I didn't think that we needed to read from the story on top of that. Plus, I had a very hard time connecting why we were being given certain parts of the fairy tale during the story. I didn't really see the connections there. Maybe I needed to look a little bit harder.

Conclusion: I enjoyed this novel and I think that its worth a read. It's fast and easy to read, it doesn't involve a lot of thought or attention. Definitely something to read on a rainy afternoon.