Novel Review: In Honor by Jessi Kirby

Rating (Out of 5): ~3.5

Genre: YA Contemporary

Publisher: Simon & Schuster

Release Date: 2012

Spoilers?: No.

Buy it here: Amazon. Barnes and Noble. Book Depository. Powells.

Teaser Tuesday.

Goodreads Synopsis:

Honor receives her brother’s last letter from Iraq three days after learning that he died, and opens it the day his fellow Marines lay the flag over his casket. Its contents are a complete shock: concert tickets to see Kyra Kelly, her favorite pop star and Finn’s celebrity crush. In his letter, he jokingly charged Honor with the task of telling Kyra Kelly that he was in love with her.

Grief-stricken and determined to grant Finn’s last request, she rushes to leave immediately. But she only gets as far as the driveway before running into Rusty, Finn’s best friend since third grade and his polar opposite. She hasn’t seen him in ages, thanks to a falling out between the two guys, but Rusty is much the same as Honor remembers him: arrogant, stubborn . . . and ruggedly good-looking. Neither one is what the other would ever look for in a road trip partner, but the two of them set off together, on a voyage that makes sense only because it doesn’t. Along the way, they find small and sometimes surprising ways to ease their shared loss and honor Finn--but when shocking truths are revealed at the end of the road, will either of them be able to cope with the consequences?

The Cover:

I really like the cover for this book. I think it's pretty, and very true to the book. It shows the road trip part, which is important, the model for her is wearing what she does in the book (or at least very close) which I really appreciate, and on the back is Rusty, looking how I imagine he would.

Review:

When Honor’s brother dies, she decides to take his last letter as a request and goes on a road trip. Her brother’s best friend Rusty tags along, pretty much forcing her to take him with her. And thus starts an adventure, where she takes some chances, and where she learns something about her brother and herself.

I think the journey that these two go on is good for them. Honor needed to get away, and she needed to figure herself out just as much as learn about her brother. She goes on a couple unique experiences on her trip, but she also goes through her car breaking down and being towed away. I will admit, though, that the way Honor just angsts while letting others take care of stuff for her bothered me at the end, especially when she acknowledged it and then kept moping on the beach. I did believe her grief over her brother, though, and liked that she wasn't numb like most people in books like this are.

I like the journey she was on, and how it ended, though. I like how things ended between her and Rusty, how there were possible romantic feelings, but they ended things as friends, because that’s what they needed to be. I think she did the right thing for herself at the end of the book.

This was a fun book, and I enjoyed it, though there were parts near the end that were upsetting, when Honor had to face reality. But I liked it, and will be reading her next one.

Novel Review: My Life With the Walter Boys by Ali Novak

Rating (Out of 5): ~1

Genre: YA Contemporary Romance

Publisher: Sourcebooks Fire

Release Date: March 2014

Spoilers?: Not really.

Buy it here: Amazon. Barnes and Noble. Book Depository. Powells.

Teaser Tuesday.

Goodreads Synopsis:

My Life with the Walter Boys centers on the prim, proper, and always perfect Jackie Howard. When her world is turned upside down by tragedy, Jackie must learn to cut loose and be part of a family again.

Jackie does not like surprises. Chaos is the enemy! The best way to get her successful, busy parents to notice her is to be perfect. The perfect look, the perfect grades-the perfect daughter. And then...

Surprise #1: Jackie's family dies in a freak car accident.

Surprise #2: Jackie has to move cross-country to live with the Walters-her new guardians.

Surprise #3: The Walters have twelve sons. (Well, eleven, but Parker acts like a boy anyway)

Now Jackie must trade in her Type A personality and New York City apartment for a Colorado ranch and all the wild Walter boys who come with it. Jackie is surrounded by the enemy-loud, dirty, annoying boys who have no concept of personal space. Okay, several of the oldest guys are flat-out gorgeous. But still annoying. She's not stuck-up or boring-no matter what they say. But proving it is another matter. How can she fit in and move on when she needs to keep her parents' memory alive by living up to the promise of perfect?

The Cover:

I don't mind the cover. I think it looks a little too amateur, or maybe the people a little too average, not as pretty or crisp as it could be. But I think the title and the cover go together well, give the feel that they wanted, and it works.

Review:

I am so overwhelmingly disappointed with this book, I can’t even believe it.

I’ve heard so much love for this book. It won Goodreads awards, it was so loved, it seemed to take off before it was even published. It sounded like a fun read, possibly with a little serious. I did not expect… this.

I don’t even know where to start.

Jackie’s family dies, and she’s forced to move in with a friend of her mothers, whom she’s never met. And she finds out that it’s a family with eleven boys and one girl who acts like a boy (don't even get me started on that "twelve boys" statement). And they are all horrible.

Jackie, having gone to a private girls school, is very uncultured, and prim and proper. And immediately upon arriving, all of the children are terrible to her. The younger kids push her in the pool, the teenage boys harass and hit on her, two of the younger twins decide to video-tape all of her humiliating moments.

The amount of sexual harassment in this book astounds me. The boys are all huge dicks, with no sympathy for thinking that women are objects. They bet on her humiliation, making her leave the bathroom in a shower curtain and recording it. And then blaming it on her, which Jackie’s goes along with.

I tried not to, but I couldn’t understand where the parenting was. I have to be sympathetic that the mother, and the father, were clearly frazzled with so many kids, they could only do so much. But at the same time, it sure felt like the kids never learned how to be decent or courteous or polite.

Then there was the “romance”. At least one other boy likes Jackie, but she quickly falls for Cole. And Cole is not only a douche, but Jackie hates on him, while at the same time admiring his looks and liking his attention. I did not feel any attraction there, and pretty much hated them both the entire time.

Most of the other characters I never really felt anything for. There was only one other boy that stood out to me, and I didn’t really care for Jackie’s new friends. They just kept fanning over the boys and pushing Jackie on Cole.

Jackie’s family died, but I never felt her sorrow, her depression. She would mention and cry about it, but I never felt her feelings for it, it always seemed one-dimensional or pushed to the background. Not to mention that she had a sister, who was only mentioned a few times, like an afterthought.

I expected to enjoy this book, and am so disappointed with how bad it was. I don’t even think I made it halfway through before just skimming the rest of it, and it never got any better. I’m just done.

Novel Review: Second Chance Summer by Morgan Matson

Rating (Out of 5): ~3.5-4

Genre: YA Contemporary Romance

Publisher: Simon & Schuster

Release Date: 2012

Spoilers?: No.

Buy it here: Amazon. Barnes and Noble. Book Depository. Powells.

Teaser Tuesday.

Goodreads Synopsis:

From the Flying Start author of Amy & Roger’s Epic Detour, a powerful novel about hope in the face of heartbreak.

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.

The Cover:

While I personally don't love this cover, and I think maybe it's the color and the font of the title, I do think it works. I think the image portrays the summer feel, kind of showing the balance between summer fun but also the underlying sadness. I think it's fitting.

Quotes:

•  "'Your childhood friends are the ones that you should hang on to. They know you in a way that nobody else does.’” (Paperback, pg. 72)
• "But one thing that I was learning about what happened when you stuck around—it usually seemed that other people were willing to stick by you as well.” (Pg. 467)

Review:

While I did not love this one as much as Since You’ve Been Gone, I did still really enjoy it. And it did also make me cry a little.

Taylor is spending the summer with her family at their summer home, where they haven’t visited in five years. Only the last time they were there, Taylor ruined things between her best friend and her potential boyfriend. And now they’re back because her father is sick.

I really liked the friendship and romance in this book. I liked the friendship between Taylor and Lucy, and how they slowly started to make it right between them. The same with Taylor and Henry, who were super cute together. I also liked Taylor’s family, and how they weren’t all that close at the beginning, but by the end they were there for each other.

Taylor did annoy me a little, with her tendency to run away. The angst of it has left me a little annoyed, but it wasn’t that bad. And I liked where she was at the end.

It was the scenes, and the feelings, between her and her father that made me cry. I can’t relate completely to that, but just the thought of it is horrible, especially with all the build-up. And then when it finally happened… Ugh, it was horribly sad and incredibly well written.

This was another excellent book, and I did really enjoy it. I look forward to her next one.

Novel Review: Wild Awake by Hilary T. Smith

Rating (Out of 5): ~4

Genre: YA Contemporary Romance

Publisher: Katherine Tegen Books (HarperCollins)

Release Date: May, 2013

Spoilers?: No.

Buy it here: Amazon. Barnes and Noble. Book Depository. Powells.

Teaser Tuesday.

Goodreads Synopsis:

Things you earnestly believe will happen while your parents are away:

1. You will remember to water the azaleas.
2. You will take detailed, accurate messages.
3. You will call your older brother, Denny, if even the slightest thing goes wrong.
4. You and your best friend/bandmate Lukas will win Battle of the Bands.
5. Amid the thrill of victory, Lukas will finally realize you are the girl of his dreams.

Things that actually happen:

1. A stranger calls who says he knew your sister.
2. He says he has her stuff.
3. What stuff? Her stuff.
4. You tell him your parents won’t be able to—
5. Sukey died five years ago; can’t he—
6. You pick up a pen.
7. You scribble down the address.
8. You get on your bike and go.
9. Things . . . get a little crazy after that.*
*also, you fall in love, but not with Lukas.

Both exhilarating and wrenching, Hilary T. Smith’s debut novel captures the messy glory of being alive, as seventeen-year-old Kiri Byrd discovers love, loss, chaos, and murder woven into a summer of music, madness, piercing heartbreak, and intoxicating joy.

The Cover:

I rather like this cover. The colors and the fact that it's artwork and the fonts all work well with the book. I think maybe the position or something bothers me, but overall I rather like it.

Quotes:

• "The Book’s cover shows a goth girl sitting against a brick wall, her kohl-rimmed eyes gazing out from beneath the edge of her tattered black hood. She’s holding—absurdly—a graphing calculator. Like she ran a few equations, found out the world is more effed than you can possibly imagine, and is just chilling by this brick wall, waiting for the zombies to arrive.” (ARC, pg. 3)
• "I hate that question. ‘Are you okay?’ It’s like asking someone if they think you look fat. You’re almost guaranteed to get a lie.” (Pg. 67)
• "'She said, “The soul has a house of its own, and I want to live in that one.”’” (Pg. 248)
• "I’d never realized how loud the world was, how filled with cold and impersonal noise. It’s a wonder we ever find each other at all in its clamoring thickets. It’s a wonder we still try.” (Pg. 248)
• "People are like cities: We all have alleys and gardens and secret rooftops and places where daisies sprout between the sidewalk cracks, but most of the time all we let each other see is a postcard glimpse of a skyline or a polished square. Love lets you find those hidden places in another person, even the ones they didn’t know were there, even the ones they wouldn’t have thought to call beautiful themselves.” (Pg. 282-283)
• "...that Sukey would have said any kind of pain is worth it if [it] makes you brave.” (Pg. 323)

Review:

This book was not quite what I expected. It took me on a journey that I was surprised by--in a good way.

I wasn’t expecting Kiri’s journey to go quite where it did. And I liked that.

I liked Kiri, and I liked watching her grow up, find out what happened with her sister, her parents, as well as learning about love a little bit. She struggled a lot, and there was some drug use, but it ended well. I liked her, and I liked Skunk a lot, too. Skunk is quiet and wary, but sweet, and really cares for Kiri. I really liked their relationship, how it started and developed.

This was a really good book. I really liked the writing, it’s thoughtful and portrays Kiri’s voice and what state of mind she’s in really well. It was easy and fun to read. It was thoughtful, it was surprising, and fun, and a little exciting, and very funny. I’m really glad that I picked it up, and am interested to see what Smith releases next.