All posts tagged young adult

Truth or Dare – Jacqueline Green

15777797Title: Truth or Dare
Series: (Truth or Dare, #1)
Author: Jacqueline Green
Category: Young Adult

Goodreads

When a simple round of truth or dare spins out of control, three girls find it’s no longer a party game. It’s do or die.

It all started on a whim: the game was a way for Tenley Reed to reclaim her popularity, a chance for perfect Caitlin “Angel” Thomas to prove she’s more than her Harvard application. Loner Sydney Morgan wasn’t even there; she was hiding behind her camera like usual. But when all three start receiving mysterious dares long after the party has ended, they’re forced to play along—or risk exposing their darkest secrets.

How far will Tenley, Caitlin and Sydney go to keep the truth from surfacing? And who’s behind this twisted game?

Set against the backdrop of Echo Bay, an isolated beach town haunted by misfortune, Truth or Dare is a highly charged debut that will keep readers in suspense from beginning to end.

MY REVIEW

Imagine if someone knew all of your darkest secrets. And intended to use them against you, provided you do not do everything that person tells you to, including betraying your own friends.

When I first read the synopsis, I was so excited, because it was like Gossip Girl and Pretty Little Liars all over again. Trust no one. Even the people you think you know so well can be strangers. However, despite how awesome this came across to someone who loves GG and PLL and backstabbing drama (only in books!), my initial excitement to find a new series cataloging a vicious game of truth or dare quickly fell short when I discovered that this book was 99 percent slow-paced teen drama chock full of whining and moaning and characters talking about how attractive they are and blah-blah-blah.

Our blackmail victims come together in the eerie town of Echo Bay, where everyone knows everyone. Not to mention the curse of the Lost Girls – the story of three beautiful, wealthy girls in the prime of their life, each mysteriously dying in the ocean during Echo Bay’s fall festival just years earlier, before the town had elected to cancel the festival. With this years first fall festival since the events that led to the curse, everyone in Echo Bay is wondering if the ocean will claim yet another life, a fourth Lost Girl.

Every single one of the characters is, at some point, a suspect. However, during the shocking big reveal of who is blackmailing these girls – gasp! – once again falls short. Truth or Dare could’ve been thrilling and easily became a new guilty pleasure, but alas, it was remarkably dull. Oh, we get it. Sydney wants Guinness. Tenley wants Guinness. Caitlin wants to be perfect at everything. Boring. None of the girls being blackmailed spent much time worrying about it – not about some stalker out there following them around, sending them creepy notes. Instead, the group worries about everything but, like, oh, what to wear to seduce Guinness! And moaning about not being perfect!

And of course, the last twenty pages finally pick up, only to be left with a cliffhanger and barely any answers. And then the remaining girls went right back to being their obnoxious, underdeveloped selves, never mind that two people supposedly lost their lives.

Perhaps the next installments will be more thrilling and develop the characters more, but I don’t think I’ll be sticking around to read them.

3stars

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by Lillian Verlaine on October 13, 2013  •  Permalink
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Posted by Lillian Verlaine on October 13, 2013

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Dark Triumph – Robin LaFevers

10194157Title: Dark Triumph
Series: (His Fair Assassin, #2)
Author: Robin LaFevers
Category: Young Adult

Goodreads

Sybella arrives at the convent’s doorstep half mad with grief and despair. Those that serve Death are only too happy to offer her refuge—but at a price. The convent views Sybella, naturally skilled in the arts of both death and seduction, as one of their most dangerous weapons. But those assassin’s skills are little comfort when the convent returns her to a life that nearly drove her mad. And while Sybella is a weapon of justice wrought by the god of Death himself, He must give her a reason to live. When she discovers an unexpected ally imprisoned in the dungeons, will a daughter of Death find something other than vengeance to live for?

MY REVIEW

“Hate cannot be fought with hate. Evil cannot be conquered by darkness. Only love has the power to conquer them both.”

In the second installment of the His Fair Assassin series, we follow Sybella, mad and wild, locked in a castle with the cruel d’Albret, whom just so happens to be her father. Sybella, who we saw in Ismae’s story as a wild unruly girl, teethering on insanity. And here, we learn where the madness thrust upon Sybella was born.

Under d’Albrets cruel rule over his household, Sybella fears of being discovered as an ally of the Duchess, Anne of Brittany. She also happens to be a handmaiden of death, and can trust no one except her brother, Julian, who is sometimes hinted as her lover.

Sybella lies in wait, waiting on word from the nuns at the convent that her dear father is marked for death. Waiting, and waiting, and yet confirmation is never allowed. Sybella is angry, for she was the one who wanted to see her father’s life drained by her own hand. Instead of recieving word to execute d’Albret, she is given the task of rescuing a loyal ally of the Duchess… the Beast of Waroch. It was great to have a hero’s appeal based on loyalty and the love for his country and the Duchess instead of beauty. Beast, as you can tell by his nickname, is no handsome knight.

Together, Sybella and Beast fight alongside one another as equals and return to the palace to warn the Duchy of  d’Albret’s plans. There is very little romance, and it felt a little unattended, especially when you compare their attraction to that of Ismae and Duval in Grave Mercy.

LaFever’s does a swell job at making you want to keep turning the pages in order to find out all of Sybella’s dirty little secrets. Also, I loved the real events in this that made it seem all the more real. There really was a d’Albret and Anne.

While this didn’t live up to Grave Mercy in terms of how much I loved it, I still give it four cupcakes.

4stars

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by Lillian Verlaine on October 5, 2013  •  Permalink
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Posted by Lillian Verlaine on October 5, 2013

https://averlaine.wordpress.com/2013/10/05/dark-triumph-robin-lafevers/

Shadow & Bone – Leigh Bardugo

10194157Title: Shadow & Bone
Series: (The Grisha, #1)
Author: Leigh Bardugo
Category: Young Adult
Rating: 5

Goodreads

 

The Shadow Fold, a swathe of impenetrable darkness, crawling with monsters that feast on human flesh, is slowly destroying the once-great nation of Ravka.

Alina, a pale, lonely orphan, discovers a unique power that thrusts her into the lavish world of the kingdom’s magical elite—the Grisha. Could she be the key to unravelling the dark fabric of the Shadow Fold and setting Ravka free?

The Darkling, a creature of seductive charm and terrifying power, leader of the Grisha. If Alina is to fulfill her destiny, she must discover how to unlock her gift and face up to her dangerous attraction to him.

But what of Mal, Alina’s childhood best friend? As Alina contemplates her dazzling new future, why can’t she ever quite forget him?

Glorious. Epic. Irresistible. Romance.

MY REVIEW

“I missed you every hour. And you know what the worst part was? It caught me completely by surprise. I’d catch myself just walking around to find you, not for any reason, just out of habit, because I’d seen something that I wanted to tell you about or because I wanted to hear your voice. And then I’d realize that you weren’t there anymore, and every time, every single time, it was like having the wind knocked out of me.”

Leigh Bargudo has created a very beautiful, albeit ravaged mystical world of Ravka where the Grisha (people with…supernatural abilities) serve the King and yield to the being named the Darkling.

Alina Starkov is an orphan, completely overlooked and unaware of what she is. She’s serving as a junior cartographer in the army, where her best friend Mal is serving as a soldier. As the army passes through the horrific darkness called The Shadow Fold, they are attacked by vocra, monsterous beings that make traveling through the Fold deadly. Mal is attached, and Alina unsurfaces her ability that she’s buried so far deep within herself, she never knew it existed. A sun summoner, the only of her kind, she is whisked away to the Little Palace by the Darkling to learn to hone her abilities and help him destroy the Fold.

Within moments, I was in love with the mystic, perilous world Bargudo has created, even pouring over the map of Ravka as I read the book to determine where our heroine was every moment. I devoured this book every little chance I had to sneak a moment to read. I was enticed by the Darkling, same as Alina. Even though I predicted what he would become, it didn’t stop me from loving him any less. Until he did it, then I was like:

And the relationship between Mal and Alina? Even if he wasn’t there for nearly half of the book, when they were together, you could see their connection. They were both orphaned, growing up in Kerazim, and their friendship was a natural bond that some authors have trouble showcasing it.

All in all, I can’t believe I left this unattended on my bookshelf for months. I was afraid to read it in fear of not liking it, but I am grateful it was such a good read, and once I tore through Shadow and Bone, I went and kindle’d Storm and Siege because I absolutely could not wait to go to the bookstore eventually and pick it up. Especially with that jawdropping cliffy. Definitely a 2013 favorite must-read!

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by Lillian Verlaine on October 1, 2013  •  Permalink
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Posted by Lillian Verlaine on October 1, 2013

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Origin – Jennifer L. Armentrout

13644052Title: Origin
Series: (Lux, #4)
Author: Jennifer L. Armentrout
Category: Young Adult
Rating: 5

Goodreads

Daemon will do anything to get Katy back.

After the successful but disastrous raid on Mount Weather, he’s facing the impossible. Katy is gone. Taken. Everything becomes about finding her. Taking out anyone who stands in his way? Done. Burning down the whole world to save her? Gladly. Exposing his alien race to the world? With pleasure.

All Katy can do is survive.

Surrounded by enemies, the only way she can come out of this is to adapt. After all, there are sides of Daedalus that don’t seem entirely crazy, but the group’s goals are frightening and the truths they speak even more disturbing. Who are the real bad guys? Daedalus? Mankind? Or the Luxen?

Together, they can face anything.

But the most dangerous foe has been there all along, and when the truths are exposed and the lies come crumbling down, which side will Daemon and Katy be standing on?

And will they even be together?

MY REVIEW

After Opal’s devastating cliffhanger, I was itching to get my hands on this and devour it. And it didn’t disappoint. The feels were so intense, I even had to take breaks to swoon and re-read some of Daemon’s dialogue. Origin presents us with Daemon’s point of view, and the book paralleled in the fact that we got both sides of the story: Katy, trapped with Daedalus, and Daemon going out of his mind trying to save her from becoming like empty eyed and tortured Bethany.

With some couples progressions throughout a series, the female protagonist usually loses her personality (if she ever had one) and instead of being utterly consumed with Daemon, Katy actually took time to miss her mom, blogging and reading. She suffers through horrible experiences yet her spirit didn’t break and she didn’t need to be coddled or saved like some damsel in distress. Yes, Daemon came for her. But the two of them worked together instead of what you see on those old raunchy novels the elderly lady at the drugstore swoons about, with the half dressed damsel hanging off the arm of some muscled viking.

The plot had some nice twists and whatnot, and there was betrayal from characters you actually liked and death of those you wished you didn’t like, and about fifty, “WHAT THE HECK?” moments. Not as bad as it’s predecessor, but I can’t wait for the next one.

If you haven’t already, read the Lux series! Especially if you swooned over Max and Michael from Roswell and itching to get a hot-alien fix.

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by Lillian Verlaine on September 27, 2013  •  Permalink
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Posted by Lillian Verlaine on September 27, 2013

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Half Blood – Jennifer L Armentrout

9680718Title: Half-Blood
Series: (Covenant, #1)
Author: Jennifer L. Armentrout
Category: Young Adult
Rating: 3

Goodreads

The Hematoi descend from the unions of gods and mortals, and the children of two Hematoi pure bloods have godlike powers. Children of Hematoi and mortals–well, not so much. Half-bloods only have two options: become trained Sentinels who hunt and kill daimons or become servants in the homes of the pures.

Seventeen-year-old Alexandria would rather risk her life fighting than waste it scrubbing toilets, but she may end up slumming it anyway. There are several rules that students at the Covenant must follow. Alex has problems with them all, but especially rule #1:Relationships between pures and halfs are forbidden.

Unfortunately, she’s crushing hard on the totally hot pure-blood Aiden. But falling for Aiden isn’t her biggest problem–staying alive long enough to graduate the Covenant and become a Sentinel is. If she fails in her duty, she faces a future worse than death or slavery: being turned into a daimon, and being hunted by Aiden. And that would kind of suck.

MY REVIEW

“Two people see each other across a room or their skin brushes. Their souls recognize the person as their own. It doesn’t need time to figure it. The soul always knows… whether it’s right or wrong.”

If you’ve heard of the Covenant series by Jennifer L. Armentrout, then you’ve probably heard that a lot of it resembled Vampire Academy by Richelle Mead a little too closely. I remained skeptical, not wanting to read this series for a long time because of my devotion to Mead’s series, but alas, I caved. There were a lot of similarities, but honestly, to me it wasn’t half as good as the Vampire Academy series.

Half-Blood begins with seventeen year old Alexandria-but-call-me-Alex, a half blood, or a child that is born from a pure and someone of lesser blood. In this world, Alex, alike the rest of her half-blooded brethren, has two choices: hunt and kill daimons or become a slave to a pure. After her mother is taken by daimons and presumed dead, Alex returns to the covenant to continue her education, or risk a life of servitude.

Despite the many similarities to the VA series, it was not that that kept me disinterested enough to give it a three-star “it’s okay…” rating. The characters are just.. flat. The romance is flat. Everything is as flat as a girl before puberty hits. There were times Alex annoyed the hell out of me. Hunt daimons or basically become a slave. Given Alex’s choices, I was surprised that she kept getting out of line so often and didn’t seem to care that if she didn’t keep in line, she could potentially become a pure’s plaything and have no willpower to do anything ever again. I honestly couldn’t relate to her one bit, or any of the characters actually. The love interest Dimitri Aiden was dry and completely boring, and Seth goes from being disinterested to acting like he’s so in love with her by the end of the book. Give me a break.

I really wanted to like this book. I’m a huge fan of Armentrout’s Lux series, but this seems like something she wrote in her teens years before she started to write the Lux.

While I give this a nice three-stars, I will not be rushing to get the next books in the series anytime soon.

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by Lillian Verlaine on September 8, 2013  •  Permalink
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Posted by Lillian Verlaine on September 8, 2013

https://averlaine.wordpress.com/2013/09/08/half-blood-jennifer-l-armentrout/

Masque of the Red Death – Bethany Griffin

15745753Title: Masque of the Red Death
Series: (Masque of the Red Death, #1)
Author: Bethany Griffin
Category: Young Adult
Rating: 4

Goodreads

Everything is in ruins.

A devastating plague has decimated the population, and those who are left live in fear of catching it as the city crumbles around them.

So what does Araby Worth have to live for?

Nights in the Debauchery Club, beautiful dresses, glittery makeup . . . and tantalizing ways to forget it all.

But in the depths of the club—in the depths of her own despair—Araby will find more than oblivion. She will find Will, the terribly handsome proprietor of the club, and Elliott, the wickedly smart aristocrat. Neither is what he seems. Both have secrets. Everyone does.

And Araby may find not just something to live for, but something to fight for—no matter what it costs her.

MY REVIEW

“And I’m falling in love with you,” he whispers. “But I would throw you in the water and watch crocodiles tear you to bits, if I thought that doing so would accomplish my goals. Do. Not. Trust. Anyone. Especially me.”

Inspired by Edgar Allan Poe, this is a lovely work. I loved the gothic style mood, the streampunk, the haunting melody that flows within the pages. Bethany Griffin has taken a dark influence from Poe and created a similarly dark gothic adaptation.

Araby Worth is a teenager living in a world consumed by the plague. Haunted by the death of her twin brother Finn, she spends her nights with April attending parties, losing herself in the numbness that drugs provide. It is there she meets April’s brother, Elliot, the nephew of the evil Prince Prospero, and Will, who works at the Debauchery Club while trying to take care of his younger siblings. Araby is thrust into the real world, away from the careless that her drugs provide, and discovers that she may be able to help save countless lives from the plague and the villainous Prince Prospero.

Throughout the story, I was enchanted. I’ve never read much Poe, but I loved the darkness of this story, where no one has a shred of innocence and those who appear good do bad things. I loved the descriptions of the porcelain masks and the nights of debauchery and the constant threat of disease and death. Even the love triangle wasn’t obnoxious as they tend to be in countless YA novels. Will isn’t the perfect guy he comes across as, and Elliot isn’t entirely bad. Everyone is human, and there is both good and bad in them as they try to navigate the devastation in the city. Even April, who seems like the annoying best friend that doesn’t give a damn about anything but herself grows as a character for the little time she is present while still remaining herself.

I really loved the Masque of the Red Death and would definitely read the upcoming sequels. Even if you aren’t a fan of Poe, this haunting influence pays homeage to the original story without dwelling in it constantly. If you like slow but never boring stories and being thrust into a dark and enchanting world, look no further.

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by Lillian Verlaine on August 31, 2013  •  Permalink
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Posted by Lillian Verlaine on August 31, 2013

https://averlaine.wordpress.com/2013/08/31/masque-of-the-red-death-bethany-griffin/

Incarnate – Jodi Matthews

15745753Title: Incarnate
Series: (Newsoul, #1)
Author: Jodi Matthews
Category: Young Adult
Rating: 3

Goodreads

NEWSOUL
Ana is new. For thousands of years in Range, a million souls have been reincarnated over and over, keeping their memories and experiences from previous lifetimes. When Ana was born, another soul vanished, and no one knows why.

NOSOUL
Even Ana’s own mother thinks she’s a nosoul, an omen of worse things to come, and has kept her away from society. To escape her seclusion and learn whether she’ll be reincarnated, Ana travels to the city of Heart, but its citizens are afraid of what her presence means. When dragons and sylph attack the city, is Ana to blame?

HEART
Sam believes Ana’s new soul is good and worthwhile. When he stands up for her, their relationship blooms. But can he love someone who may live only once, and will Ana’s enemies—human and creature alike—let them be together? Ana needs to uncover the mistake that gave her someone else’s life, but will her quest threaten the peace of Heart and destroy the promise of reincarnation for all?

 

MY REVIEW

“Im not going to waste time being angry about things I cant control. If I only have one life, I should make the most of it.”

Ana is a newsoul, the first born in five thousand years. And since the day of birth, she has been both hated and feared. Other souls have been reincarnated over and over for the last five-thousand years, and Ana’s appearence and the disappearence of Ciana instills fear into many that she may be the beginning of the end.

Raised by a bitter mother who believed she was a “nosoul”, incapable of true emotion or feeling, Ana sets out on her eighteenth birthday for a journey in self discovery. She wishes to travel to Range and implore the library for any explanation there may be as to why she was born and replaced Ciana. Along her path to self-discovery, she meets Sam, who shows her that she isn’t the nosoul her mother claimed her to be, but a newsoul. Tensions rise when dragons attack, and everyone knows that one attack will lead to others. Many blame this sudden attack on Ana’s arrival in Range.

Overall, I had mixed feelings about Incarnate. There are many aspects I found creative, such as the world building and how Ana is the first soul born in five milennia. The narrative flowed well, and Ana is a fighter, but there were things I had a difficult time accepting. If these thousands of humans have been reincarnated and remember everything from their previous lives, why haven’t in five milennia have they came up with ways to dominate over the dragon and sylph that attack them so frequently? Even Sam has died thirty times by dragons, but no one has developped much of a defense system?

Not to mention, I often worried about the romance between Sam and Ana. No, not the fact he’s technically five thousand years old to her meagar eighteen years of existence. He’s been reborn over and over, and many have stated that he had lovers in the past, even Ciana, whom Ana replaced. It made me wonder if he only loved Ana because she’s the first new thing thats ever happened to him in several lifetimes. I won’t even go into the fact that reincarnation isn’t gender specific and Sam has been a woman in several lifetimes and everything is all wibbly wobbly.

Most of the book is spent on the romance building between Sam and Ana, rather than her trying to find things out. And the end was lackluster, as if that was the big reveal? That’s it? It feels like Jodi freaked out about her ending and had no great idea as to Ana’s background so she made it as simple as possible and leaves us with a boring resolution.

I grant this three stars for the world building and the beautiful cover. But honestly, it didn’t make me feel anything at all, really. I’m not sure if that’s worse than raving mad and hating it, because at least then I feel something toward it. It’s okay. I won’t be screaming in joy to read the sequel nor will I be ripping my hair out raving stark mad about how much it annoyed me.

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by Lillian Verlaine on August 25, 2013  •  Permalink
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Posted by Lillian Verlaine on August 25, 2013

https://averlaine.wordpress.com/2013/08/25/incarnate-jodi-matthews/

The 5th Wave – Rick Yancey

15745753Title: The 5th Wave
Series: (The 5th Wave, #1)
Author: Rick Yancey
Category: Young Adult
Rating: 5

Goodreads

After the 1st wave, only darkness remains. After the 2nd, only the lucky escape. And after the 3rd, only the unlucky survive. After the 4th wave, only one rule applies: trust no one.

Now, it’s the dawn of the 5th wave, and on a lonely stretch of highway, Cassie runs from Them. The beings who only look human, who roam the countryside killing anyone they see. Who have scattered Earth’s last survivors. To stay alone is to stay alive, Cassie believes, until she meets Evan Walker. Beguiling and mysterious, Evan Walker may be Cassie’s only hope for rescuing her brother—or even saving herself. But Cassie must choose: between trust and despair, between defiance and surrender, between life and death. To give up or to get up.

MY REVIEW

“But if I’m it, the last of my kind, the last page of human history, like hell I’m going to let the story end this way. I may be the last one, but I am the one still standing. I am the one turning to face the faceless hunter in the woods on an abandoned highway. I am the one not running but facing. Because if I am the last one, then I am humanity. And if this is humanity’s last war, then I am the battlefield.”

Do you like alien invasions? What about intense action and mild romance? Or maybe you like apocalyptic novels? If you’ve answered yes to any of these questions (or all of them), then this is the book for you! Told in multiple pov’s ranging from protagonist Cassie to a broken soldier nicknamed Zombie, this story is compelling from each.

1st wave: Goodbye cell phones, cars, planes, television and electricit.
2nd wave: Adios coastal cities that are now underwater.
3rd wave: Sayonara to a hefty percent of whats left of the world’s population. Birds are spreading a horrific, epidemic disease.
4th wave: Trust no one. How do you rid the Earth of humans? Rid the humans of their humanity.
5th wave: Well… Read to find out?

Cassie Sullivan believes she very well may be the last person on Earth. She hasn’t seen another human being since her first kill of a gutted, dying soldier in a corner store outside of what was once civilization.

Unbeknownst to Cassie, she’s being hunted, stalked, by someone she called a Silencer. Silencer’s are those that were once as human as you or, well, you, (don’t stare at my third eye and tentacles, please), who were invaded by a silent intruder in the womb. A Trojan Horse, if you will. This Silencer has been waiting to pick off Cassie for a long time, hoping that her human survival instincts compel her to seek out other survivors.

Elsewhere, we have Zombie, whom once was just a teenage boy that harbored guilt that he left his baby sister to die. Now, he’s a soldier, training to eradicate the infected on the eve of the 5th Wave.

Other mentionables are Sammy, Cassie’s younger brother, who was taken, and sweet farmboy, Evan Walker, who nurses Cassie back to health and may be hiding a deadly secret.

The characters are so real and flawed, trying to survive and willing themselves to find something to live for, and none of them are willing to lay down and let the aliens win. Do yourself a favor and buy a copy or check this out at the local library! It’s even being optioned for a movie!

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by Lillian Verlaine on August 25, 2013  •  Permalink
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Posted by Lillian Verlaine on August 25, 2013

https://averlaine.wordpress.com/2013/08/25/the-5th-wave-rick-yancey/

Eleanor & Park – Rainbow Rowell

15745753Title: Eleanor & Park
Series: Standalone
Author: Rainbow Rowell
Category: Young Adult
Rating: 5

Goodreads

Set over the course of one school year in 1986, ELEANOR AND PARK is the story of two star-crossed misfits – smart enough to know that first love almost never lasts, but brave and desperate enough to try. When Eleanor meets Park, you’ll remember your own first love – and just how hard it pulled you under.

MY REVIEW

“Eleanor was right. She never looked nice. She looked like art, and art wasn’t supposed to look nice; it was supposed to make you feel something.”

1986. The Space Shuttle Columbia is launched. Voyager 2 makes its first encounter with Uranus. Eleanor, an overweight redhead steps onto a school bus and sits next to Park Sheridan.

Park is a half Korean boy who lives a fairly nice life, with two loving parents and doesn’t know what its like to go to bed hungry or share his bedroom. Eleanor Douglas shares her room with her three brothers and younger sister, living in a highly dysfunctional family in a small, run down home with no bathroom door.

While these two may live within walking distance of another, they come from different words. From the moment Eleanor stepped on the school bus for the first time, she was already an outsider, with her flaming red hair and odd thrift store clothes. When no one offers her a seat, Park angrily tells her to sit down next to him, and proceeds to ignore her for the duration of the trip. For days and weeks, the two ignores each’s existence despite sitting six inches from one another to and fro. One day, Park catches her reading his comics over his shoulder, and begins to lend her his comics. They bond over music, with Park making mixtapes for Eleanor to listen to. Eventually, they even begin holding hands on the bus.

That’s whats so great about this novel – there isn’t some insta-love between the characters that you find in your typical high school romance novels. These flawed characters are very much opposites and over time, develop an reluctant friendship that eventually leads to love. And even then, everything is not all lovey-dovey and cutesy, and the two fight and argue a lot and kiss and makeup, just like almost any other teenage couple.

Overall, I liked this, even if it didn’t have more plot than two teenagers falling in love despite all their differences and the world trying to keep them apart. If you’re looking for a realistic romance of high school and first love, look no further.

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by Lillian Verlaine on August 19, 2013  •  Permalink
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Posted by Lillian Verlaine on August 19, 2013

https://averlaine.wordpress.com/2013/08/19/eleanor-park-rainbow-rowell/

Tiger Lily – Jodi Lynn Anderson

7719248Title: Tiger Lily
Series: Standalone
Author: Jodi Lynn Anderson
Category: Young Adult
Rating: 5

Goodreads

Before Peter Pan belonged to Wendy, he belonged to the girl with the crow feather in her hair. . . .

Fifteen-year-old Tiger Lily doesn’t believe in love stories or happy endings. Then she meets the alluring teenage Peter Pan in the forbidden woods of Neverland and immediately falls under his spell.

Peter is unlike anyone she’s ever known. Impetuous and brave, he both scares and enthralls her. As the leader of the Lost Boys, the most fearsome of Neverland’s inhabitants, Peter is an unthinkable match for Tiger Lily. Soon, she is risking everything—her family, her future—to be with him. When she is faced with marriage to a terrible man in her own tribe, she must choose between the life she’s always known and running away to an uncertain future with Peter.

With enemies threatening to tear them apart, the lovers seem doomed. But it’s the arrival of Wendy Darling, an English girl who’s everything Tiger Lily is not, that leads Tiger Lily to discover that the most dangerous enemies can live inside even the most loyal and loving heart.

MY REVIEW

“Let me tell you something straight off. This is a love story, but not like any you’ve ever heard. The boy and the girl are far from innocent. Dear lives are lost. And good doesn’t win.”

Oh my. Where do I even begin? Jodi Lynn Anderson, you deserve all the awards. This novel is sheer brilliance – a novel in which we hear the tale of Tiger Lily, as told by Tinker Bell. While Tink herself cannot speak, as faeries have no language, they can sort of read minds and emotions. Tiger Lily has been part of Tinker Bell’s life for a long time. Tink is viciously loyal to Tiger Lily, even if she cannot speak and the outcast Tiger Lily never really acknowledges her, there are precious moments in which Tink is surprised by how Tiger Lily cares for her, even saving her when she becomes waterlogged.

When the lonely Tiger Lily meets Peter, the story delves into their friendship and eventually, their romance. After all, before Wendy came along, he belonged to Tiger Lily. This isn’t the cute rainbows and sunshine Disney Peter Pan, and there are instances of murder and suicide throughout the work. To the others in Tiger Lily’s tribe, Peter is a murderous and ruthless killer. Tiger Lily sees that these stories are in fact just that, stories. After their chance encounter, Tiger Lily seeks him out and the pair quickly fall in love. During the day, she lives her life in the village, where her impending marriage to Giant taunts her, while at night, she lives the life of the lost boys in the burrow.

As I hungrily devoured this book, I was led through a roller-coaster of emotions. It’s happy and sometimes joyful, but others make you cry and hate certain characters for being human and changing their minds. This isn’t the cutesy happy ending in fairytales. The characters you root for don’t get what they want, and people get hurt and people die.

Anderson’s Neverland is magical place, but it carries its weight of darkness that is filled with pain and heartbreak. However, happiness can be found, even in the darkest of times, if one only remembers to turn on the light. Yes, I just went Dumbledore there. Sue me.

1 Comment
by Lillian Verlaine on August 18, 2013  •  Permalink
Posted in Book Reviews
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Posted by Lillian Verlaine on August 18, 2013

https://averlaine.wordpress.com/2013/08/18/tiger-lily-jodi-lynn-anderson/

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