Review:Angel Star by Jennifer Murgia

Seventeen-year-old Teagan McNeel falls for captivating Garreth Adams and soon discovers that her crush has an eight-point star etched into the palm of his right hand-the mark of an angel.But where there is light, dark follows, and she and Garreth suddenly find themselves vulnerable to a dark angel's malicious plan that could threaten not only her life, but the lives of everyone she knows.Divinely woven together, Angel Star takes readers on a reflective journey when one angel's sacrifice collides with another angel's vicious ambition in a way that is sure to have readers searching for their own willpower.

My Review: Teagan McNeel falls for Garreth Adams, the new guy at school, who turns out to be an angel. The idea of guardian angels and their relationship to their human charges, often unknown to the humans, in this book was original (though at times the writing style tried to be a little too breathy and flowery for me), as was the idea of one of them seeking to take advantage of those bonds for his own gain. However, too many crucial parts of this book had me saying, "Really?" When Teagan's friend and others act completely out of character, instead of thinking maybe it had something to do with the bad guy, she wonders why everyone's acting so strangely. Also, when one truly bad thing happens (I don't want to give it away, so sorry for being vague) I thought Teagan's reaction was completely off. You can blame so much on being numb or focusing on concern for your boyfriend and the big picture, but an event that should have been the emotional equivalent of a punch to the solar plexus never had the impact on Teagan that I felt it should have. I also thought faceoffs with Hadrian were resolved too quickly and cleanly and, to me, the sudden infatuation with him seemed tacked on as an afterthought and wasn't believable. Teagan seemed to be swayed too quickly and easily, and for someone as strong as she supposedly is, I didn't think any of Hadrian's words or actions should have affected her as they did, especially when she's already found the love of her life. We already know there's going to be a sequel, so I won't totally write this series off, but I'm skeptical that there will be enough of an improvement in the second one to keep my interest.

Review:Still the One by Robin Wells

After Katie Charmaine's husband is killed in Iraq, all she has left is a closet full of his clothes, a few pictures, and fond memories. She not only lost her love, but her last chance to have the children she's always wanted. Until Zack Ferguson shows up in town . . . with the daughter Katie gave up for adoption nearly seventeen years ago.Zack Ferguson has never forgotten Katie, or the one magical night they spent together. Seeing her again brings up a tidal wave of emotions: regret over the way he left her, anger at the secret she kept, and desire he hasn't felt in years. But he's in town for Gracie. Their daughter is sixteen, angry at the world, and-worst of all-pregnant. She needs the love of her two parents now more than ever. Can these three forgive the hurts of the past and open their hearts to each other?




My review: Still the One is a very sweet romance book. It's very formulaic, right down to the misunderstandings and the circumstances requiring the main characters to 'get stuck' living together. However, I enjoyed reading it & was sorry when it was over. I loved the addition of a side-line love story involving forgiveness and second chances later in life. It seemed as though the character's feelings and emotions were probably pretty true to life. I loved that the author didn't diminish Katie's love for her late husband by word or deed. This book is the first one I've read by Robin Wells. Apparently she's written other books which take place in the same city but this book stood alone as a story. I won't race to pick up more of her books, but I wouldn't turn one down either!

Waiting on Wednesday 9/8/10

Waiting on Wednesday is hosted by Jill at Breaking The Spine.

This week I'm waiting for Rival by Sara Bennett Wealer (February 15, 2011).

The stage is set for a high-stakes duet between Brooke and Kathryn, two high school seniors preparing for the prestigious Blackmore singing competition. Brooke and Kathryn work toward the Blackmore with eyes not just on first prize but on one another, each still stinging from a past that started with friendship and ended in betrayal. With competition day nearing, Brooke dreams of escaping the in-crowd for life as a professional singer, but her scheming BFF Chloe has other plans. And when Kathryn, an overachieving outcast with an underachieving college savings account, gets an unlikely invitation to Homecoming, she suspects Brooke of trying to sabotage her with one last public humiliation.

As pressures mount, Brooke starts to sense that the person she hates most might just be the best friend she ever had. But Kathryn has a decision to make. Can she forgive, or are some rivalries for life?

Review:Mothers and Other Liars by Amy Bourret

Ten years ago, Ruby Leander was a drifting nineteen-year-old who made a split-second decision at an Oklahoma rest stop. Fast forward nine years: Ruby and her daughter Lark live in New Mexico. Lark is a precocious, animal loving imp, and Ruby has built a family for them with a wonderful community of friends and her boyfriend of three years. Life is good. Until the day Ruby reads a magazine article about parents searching for an infant kidnapped by car-jackers. Then Ruby faces a choice no mother should have to make. A choice that will change both her and Lark's lives forever.

My review:I loved this book and stayed up half the night reading the entire book in one sitting. Ms. Bourret has a very descriptive writing style that places you in the middle of each scene. I could almost smell pinon wood burning, feel the cool nights and see the deep blue skies of Santa Fe. Rarely does an author take the time to create such a rich background. In addition, her character development was well thought out, and I felt compassion for the main characters and wanted desperately for each person to receive the ending that they deserved. The plot definitely has twists and turns, but that is why you want to stay with the story to the end and why this book is a page turner. Ultimately, this book is an honest and heart-wrenching story of love. Whether portraying love between parent and child, between lovers or between friends, Ms. Bourret captures the fullness of complicated relationships and the fact that people who love each other can sometimes make different decisions based on that love. I definitely recommend Mother and Other Liars.

**This review is based on an ARCopy of the book**

Review:The Line by Teri Hall

Rachel lives with her mother on The Property. The good thing about living there is that it's far from the city, where the oppressive government is most active. The bad thing, at least to most people, is that it's close to the Line - an uncrossable section of the National Border Defense System, an invisible barrier that encloses the entire country. She can see the Line from the greenhouse windows, but she is forbidden to go near it. Across the Line is Away, and though Rachel has heard many whispers about the dangers there, she's never really believed the stories. Until the day she hears a recording that could only have come from across the Line. It's a voice asking for help.

My Review: The Line is a young adult dystopian novel set in the futuristic nation of The Unified States. Rachel lives with her mom Vivian on "The Property." A piece of land owned by Elizabeth Moore that borders the infamous "Line", an invisible and impassable defense border built by the government. The people that live on the other side serve as boogie man figures for children in the US and the media circulates stories of "the others" committing crimes.

While Ms. Hall managed to create an imaginative world and a fun book, there are flaws that ruined the experience for me. The first was the introduction and naming of Ms. Hall's world. We learn about The Unified States right along with Rachel as she is learning it from her mother. The information she is learning seems out of place, something she should already know. This introduction to an otherwise extremely interesting world is a cop-out by Ms. Hall. Also, naming the country "The Unified States" is a clear attempt to draw the reader to the similarities between the future she painted for her world and the realities of ours. Instead of driving this important point home, it cheapened it, taking out a lot of room for reader interpretation.

Another issue I had was with the characters. Rachel, the most dynamic of the characters, is a young girl whose motivations are not usually clear. Her transformation is shallow and a result of new information rather than any internal growth. Rachel's mother Vivian is even worse. It is clear she is hiding something for the entire first half of the novel and the reader is left with little doubt as to what the secret is. Elizabeth Moore is my least favorite character. Ms. Hall tries to give her an air of mystery by making her an aloof old woman, but leaves the reader with a cliche. I was not surprised to find that Ms. Moore really has a big heart.

I can, however, forgive those shortcomings if it wasn't for one thing. The ending. I know that this book is supposed to be part of a series, but come on. You can't make a series of novels by taking one long novel and cutting it into parts. There wasn't a story in this book; Hall left me hanging like a two-part television show where the next episode doesn't come out for a year. I am a firm believer that each novel needs to stand on its own. There needs to be an overreaching plot that spans the entire series, but each book needs to have enough plot so that I can pick it up, out of order, and enjoy it. Jeff is angry!

Anger aside, the book was entertaining. I tore through it like a tornado through a trailer park and became absorbed in the world Hall created. The Line is worth reading and I will be buying the second one.

**This review is based on an ARCopy of the book**

Review:Amy and Roger's Epic Detour by Morgan Matson

Amy Curry thinks her life sucks. Her mom decides to move from California to Connecticut to start anew—just in time for Amy's senior year. Her dad recently died in a car accident. So Amy embarks on a road trip to escape from it all, driving cross-country from the home she's always known toward her new life. Joining Amy on the road trip is Roger, the son of Amy's mother's old friend. Amy hasn’t seen him in years, and she is less than thrilled to be driving across the country with a guy she barely knows. So she's surprised to find that she is developing a crush on him. At the same time, she’s coming to terms with her father’s death and how to put her own life back together after the accident. Told in traditional narrative as well as scraps from the road—diner napkins, motel receipts, postcards—this is the story of one girl's journey to find herself.


My review: The plot wasn't something I'd seen before--a road trip across America that started out as a slog but turned into a journey of discovery. Morgan Matson made it all the more real with playlists, photos, ticket stubs and sketches, all extracted from Amy's travel diary. Amy was a completely genuine character that I really empathized with. Her pain felt very real to me, and it made her transformation much more profound. It seems like a lot of books I've read recently feature characters that change superficially or not at all. This was not the case with Amy. I was rooting for her throughout the book and Matson really delivered--it was one of those cases when you feel so, so happy for a character. Roger? Let me tell you straight out that before reading this I had a subconscious issue with the name Roger. Ever since I read Tamora Pierce's `Song of the Lioness' quartet when I was a pre-teen, I've always associated the name Roger with the evil sorcerer in those books, but happily, my opinion's been reversed. I think that Morgan Matson said somewhere that he was based on her idea of the perfect travel companion, and I completely agree. Roger was hugely different from all these scary but alluring heroes you get in a lot of YA these days; he was pretty calm, and it always felt like he sort of had things under enough control that something terrible wasn't going to happen. That said, I loved that he was still a teenage guy with his own quirks and issues that he had to resolve, and even though he was the perfect travel companion, he wasn't completely okay with himself. I know I always rant about how real characters feel and how they need flaws to achieve that realistic feeling, but it's so true: I've said recently that Lili St. Crow is, in my opinion, the master of this, but Morgan Matson's not so far behind. The secondary characters were well developed, and I got quite attached to them: Roger's excitable friend Bronwyn, the game-addicted Leonard, Lucien, and even Amy's destructive brother Charlie. I'm not going to say much about romance, because I don't want to spoil anything, but I will say that I got the biggest grin on my face and the happy buzz that's reserved only for extremely sweet moments. The best part of this book was that I learned a lot about the US--I can probably count the number of states I've been to on a little more than one hand, so the inclusion of so many quirky mottos, foods and state beverages was really fun for me. It hit home somewhere in the middle of the book that America is really big, and there's so much to see. I spoke to my mother right after I turned the last page, and informed her that a road trip is in my very near future. I adore the cover--it's perfect for the story, and the photographer in me appreciated the leading lines drawing your eyes up to the clasped hands. I think that particular element captures the story quite well: there's a nice theme of things coming together, not just between Amy and Roger but also that the shattered pieces of Amy's life are slowly fusing back into a single whole. In short? The title hits the nail on the head. `Amy & Roger's Epic Detour' really is... epic.

Rising Shadow Cover Contest!

I`ve decided to participate in this contest.Here`s my entry:

I would really really love to win because there are some great prizes (including SIGNED books and a character named after the winner in Jacquelyn's upcoming novel).What do you think about my cover??