Every Day by David Levithan

 Title: Every Day

 Author: David Levithan

 Series: Everyday #1

 Publisher: Knopf Books for Young Readers

 Date Published: August 28, 2012

 Genre: Contemporary, Fantasy?

 Pages: 338 (Hardcover)

Age Range: 12+




                                                                     Summary:

     Every day a different body. Every day a different life. Every day in love with the same girl.
     There’s never any warning about where it will be or who it will be. A has made peace with that, even established guidelines by which to live: Never get too attached. Avoid being noticed. Do not interfere.

     It’s all fine until the morning that A wakes up in the body of Justin and meets Justin’s girlfriend, Rhiannon. From that moment, the rules by which A has been living no longer apply. Because finally A has found someone he wants to be with—day in, day out, day after day.

                                                                       Review:

     From the flap, I was really interested in reading this book. That personal hype started around two years ago, and since then, it hasn't abated much. So, I read this book, aware of all the hype surrounding it, expecting (for once) to fall in love with this bit of hype, and get some amazing message to walk away with, and cherish in my heart forever. Instead, I was left with a bit of a sour taste, and a ton of lovey-dovey fluff that I didn't want anywhere near this story. I know the flap practically screams I'm a Romeo and Juliet kind of scenario but I was praying for something a bit more unique. What did I get? A Romeo and Juliet scenario.

     A's predicament was fascinating. Sure, it was never fully explained, it was kind of half thought out, and it had a plethora of rules that were just too convenient, but I liked it. I thought it was kind of original, and I wasn't that bothered by how convenient the rules were- well, I wasn't bothered at first. Then, I realized that we were never going to get a full background of this... traveling thing. And since I couldn't have that, I wanted everything to stop being so darned easy for A. Like, just because he finally meets someone he wants after about four hours of instalove does not mean that he can suddenly start screwing with rules that were set in stone before, just so he can stay near the object of his desires. All of that said, I did like A, and- dare I say it?- I actually felt pretty bad for him.

     Rhiannon, on the other hand... not so much. I'm just going to come straight out and say that I didn't feel as if she's good enough for A. A is actually a really good guy stuck in an unfavorable set of Life's Cards, and Rhiannon is a girl who sticks around her crummy boyfriend because she can. Honestly, we don't get a lot of character development for this girl, and what we do, is pretty negative. Her boyfriend isn't the best, but he also doesn't hurt her or anything, and sometimes he can actually be really great, and she's kind of an outcast because of her gloominess. Maybe I missed something with her, but I just din't feel like she was good enough for A.

     The plot was something that could have been shortened drastically, and had something of major relevance happen. Besides a weird outside threat, and a "will they, or won't they" kind of drama, nothing really happens besides some super cool body changing from A. I think something else that made this book drag its little feet is the writing. I actually thought the writing was very pretty, but a little too flowery in many parts. I feel like a bit more an action-packed writing style would've worked better.

    I don't even know what book two is about, so I don't know if I want to read it. I think I do, but if it's from Rhiannon's POV, or mainly about her, I'm passing. I want a lot more A in book two, and I want more background from his childhood.

                                                 

Everything, Everything by Nicola Yoon

 Title: Everything, Everything

 Author: Nicola Yoon

 Publisher: Delacorte Press

 Date Published: September 1st, 2015

 Genre: Contemporary

 Pages: 320

 Age Range: 13+









                                                                      Summary:

     My disease is as rare as it is famous. Basically, I’m allergic to the world. I don’t leave my house, have not left my house in seventeen years. The only people I ever see are my mom and my nurse, Carla. 
 
     But then one day, a moving truck arrives next door. I look out my window, and I see him. He's tall, lean and wearing all black—black T-shirt, black jeans, black sneakers, and a black knit cap that covers his hair completely. He catches me looking and stares at me. I stare right back. His name is Olly.
 
     Maybe we can’t predict the future, but we can predict some things. For example, I am certainly going to fall in love with Olly. It’s almost certainly going to be a disaster.

                                                                         Review:

     I really like contemporary books. There's something about being able to lose myself in someone else's struggles without having to actually go through their struggles that is really nice. As a result, I've read a fair number of contemporaries, and I've read pretty much every plot out there with every character combination. That being said, this book had an original-ish plot, and I was pleasantly surprised about that, What I mean is that, yes, characters have some terrible illness and cannot be with whomever they want to be with. But never have I read a book about SCID before. SCID- bubble boy disease- is a fascinating facet to add to a story, but I felt like Nicola Yoon didn't use it to its true potential.
     The disease was very prominent for the first part(s) of the book, and then it became very important near the end(ish), but there in the middle, it was pushed aside for the romance. I love romance. I like living vicariously through characters to achieve the happily ever after, but I don't like romance over the plot or characters, and this book became its romance.
    The characters managed to be utterly cliched even while the book was different, but I actually liked Madeline a lot. She just clicked with me for some reason, and I felt really bad for her. Madeline's nurse was probably my favorite character, though. I loved the nurse and I wanted her to be in the story some more. Olly, oh Olly. I just couldn't love him. I liked him- he was fine- but I didn't love him as much as everyone else does. He was kind of flat, and just seemed stilted to me. Of course, their instant connection grated on my nerves, but since I felt like Madeline deserved some happiness, I was able to overlook this scenario.
     A plot twist is supposed to be super exciting, and come out of the blue with slight hints scattered throughout, but this "plot twist" was very predictable. Even though the twist was predictable, it was kind of enjoyable. It added a new level of depth to Madeline's kind of one dimensional mother, and let's face it, I love plot twists like that- where everything turns out to be a lie.

     Overall, the book was utterly cliched, tried too hard to break out of the mold, and had flat characters. The writing was nice though, and, at the end of the day, the book left a great feeling.

                                           

Noggin by John Corey Whaley

 Title: Noggin

 Author: John Corey Whaley

 Publisher: Atheneum Books for Young Readers

 Date Published: April 8, 2014

 Genre: Contemporary

 Pages: 352









                                                                          Summary:

     Listen—Travis Coates was alive once and then he wasn’t.
     Now he’s alive again.
     Simple as that.
     The in between part is still a little fuzzy, but Travis can tell you that, at some point or another, his head got chopped off and shoved into a freezer in Denver, Colorado. Five years later, it was reattached to some other guy’s body, and well, here he is. Despite all logic, he’s still sixteen, but everything and everyone around him has changed. That includes his bedroom, his parents, his best friend, and his girlfriend. Or maybe she’s not his girlfriend anymore? That’s a bit fuzzy too.
     Looks like if the new Travis and the old Travis are ever going to find a way to exist together, there are going to be a few more scars.
    Oh well, you only live twice.


                                                                           Review:

     I was very interested in this book from the flap, and I didn't realize that it is still relatively new until I started reading it. That being said, I was not disappointed by the book at all. The 3 star rating is because I didn't like some aspects of the book, but I was by no means let down by the content or writing.
     I really felt bad for Travis. After reading this book, I feel like it would've been a lot easier to wake up a thousand years in the future. The concept of this book is stellar, and I've never seen it done before, at least not in this way. While the concept was interesting, I felt like things could've moved along at a quicker pace. The book's pacing was pretty slow overall, and some things that were major weren't fleshed out enough, while things that I got tired of were really drawn out. This is where the book lost its five-star status for me.
     Travis was a great lead. He was funny, down to earth, and super relatable even though his plight isn't. The lineup of characters in this book were all pretty decent. No matter what, I never disliked any of them, and I felt that they all treated each other with the respect that they deserved (which was super nice). All of Travis' friends were characters that I appreciated and added some new level to the story.
     The book fell short because of some wonky pacing issues, and because of the ending. I understand that the ending was open, but that, ultimately, Travis had agreed to spend his life as a sixteen-year-old. That being said, I wanted more closure because I really connected with the characters. Maybe an epilogue where we could see into the future and see what had become of everyone? That's all I ask for.
     I was pleasantly surprised by this book, and besides a few minor issues, I thoroughly enjoyed it.



                                                     

Life and Death: Twilight Reimagined by Stephenie Meyer

Title: Life and Death: Twilight Reimagined
and also Twilight Special Tenth Anniversary edition

Series: Twilight saga #5

Author: Stephenie Meyer

Publisher: Little Brown Books for Young Readers

Date Published: October 6, 2015

Pages: 752 (hardback)




Summary


Celebrate the tenth anniversary of Twilight! This special double-feature book includes the classic novel, Twilight, and a bold and surprising reimagining, Life and Death, by Stephenie Meyer.

Packaged as an oversize, jacketed hardcover “flip book,” this edition features nearly 400 pages of new content as well as exquisite new back cover art. Readers will relish experiencing the deeply romantic and extraordinarily suspenseful love story of Bella and Edward through fresh eyes.


Review


I bought this book for 2 reasons. The first is because I wanted to feel the same things I felt while reading Twilight for the first time. The second was because it was a gender-swap and I thought it would be hilarious.

What ended up happening was that since this book has 2 novels wrapped into one, I ended up reading both Twilight and Life and Death at the same time to compare. I got more emotion out of re-reading Twilight for the possibly-fourth time than I got out of reading Life and Death.

Now, I was completely wrapped up in Twilight when I first read it, up until the movie for Breaking Dawn Part 1. I was pretty done at that point. Twilight was out of my system because I had read dozens of better YA books since then. Don't get me wrong, I still enjoy Twilight for many reasons--and I might name them at the end of this review--but there are many problems with it.

Life and Death just left me disappointed. The book started out exactly the same up until about chapter 8 or 9. I got bored because of the short sentences, Beau's ridiculous thought-process and because I was basically re-reading a dumber Twilight. I know, I said it was exactly the same as Twilight as it started out and it was, but with very short sentences. It was too choppy and boring.

In the beginning, Beau's thoughts were too much like Bella's, but as the book progressed, they started to progress and differ from Bella's. 
I was also having slight difficulty in puzzling together who all the characters originally were in Twilight--because there were too many names that started with "E"--but it became less confusing throughout the novel.

I found this book just as, if not more sexist than the original Twilight. I can understand why Stephenie Meyer felt the need to change some things, but she could have left others alone! Boy or girl, some of the original plot could have stayed! But I suppose Meyer thought we all didn't want to get bored and complain about how it wasn't any different from Twilight.

I feel like Stephenie took this book much too seriously when she should have written it as a joke kind of thing. Instead, she decided to shove this down our throats.

Now here are some spoilery/fun things:

When Edythe and Beau were about to leave the meadow: when Edythe wanted Beau to ride piggyback on her but he refused because she was tiny, I was laughing because it was ridiculous how she sped off to yank a boulder out of the ground to bring it back to Beau. I thought it was a funny, girl-power moment! 

I noticed something while I was reading. When Beau took the phone and Joss started talking to her, how could not hear her? Joss was telling Beau to follow her instructions while Archie was standing in the same room, and vampires are, evidently, supposed to have super hearing so how does this make sense? Same thing with the original Twilight. How could Alice not have heard it too??
There were several other plot holes but this was the one that hit me the most.

My favorite line in probably the whole book was when Joss and Beau were at the ballet studio. Joss was explaining how she'd manipulated him while Beau was wondering why she was bragging about outsmarting a "weak human." And then I busted out laughing at the next line: "Where was the glory in beating some weak human? I didn't feel the need to rub it in to every cheeseburger I conquered."

I liked how Stephenie Meyer did this big "what if Bella had left 5 minutes sooner" ordeal. It was very interesting in the beginning, then the ending became more scrambled than scrambled eggs. It was like all the Twilight books were wrapped up into one and it was just too much. Some of the information didn't even need to be there. If I was someone who hadn't read the original Twilight saga before this Twilight Reimagined, I would have been confused by all the new, overbearing information that was almost randomly thrown in there.

2.5 STARS


I would have been much happier if Stephenie Meyer had released Midnight Sun. And she had enough time to finish writing it; I don't care what she claims. She knew that the 10th anniversary of Twilight's release was coming up, and if she had enough time to think about and write Life and Death, she had enough time to finish Midnight Sun. I'm sure we all would have been happier. I'm not sure how much happier, but I'm sure it would have been better than what she ended up releasing.

Reasons why Twilight will always be kinda special to me: Stephenie Meyer's Twilight opened the door for YA fiction. The young adult genre is the most popular book genre now because Twilight blew up.
And Twilight was the first book I read and liked, and it encouraged me to read more. If it weren't for this book, I don't know if I would have gotten into reading, which would have led to me never trying out writing and falling in love with it.

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The Start of Me and You by Emery Lord

Title: The Start of Me and You

 Author: Emery Lord

 Publisher: Bloomsbury USA Childrens

 Date Published: March 31, 2015

 Genre: Contemporary, Romance

 Pages: 384 (Hardcover)

 Age Range: 14+






                                                                           Summary:

     It's been a year since it happened--when Paige Hancock's first boyfriend died in an accident. After shutting out the world for two years, Paige is finally ready for a second chance at high school . . . and she has a plan. First: Get her old crush, Ryan Chase, to date her--the perfect way to convince everyone she's back to normal. Next: Join a club--simple, it's high school after all. But when Ryan's sweet, nerdy cousin, Max, moves to town and recruits Paige for the Quiz Bowl team (of all things!) her perfect plan is thrown for a serious loop. Will Paige be able to face her fears and finally open herself up to the life she was meant to live?


                                                                           Review:

     Was this book cliched? Yep! Predictable? Absolutely! Was it cute, heart-warming, and really nice to read? Undeniably.
     A little while ago, a little book called Open Road Summer exploded all over the place. It was immensely popular, and it also just happened to be written by Emery Lord. Confession time! I still haven't read ORS- I just haven't gotten around to it yet. I will read it, but I ended up reading this one first to see what the big deal about Emery Lord was all about. This book did not influence my decision to read ORS at all, and yes, I will still ORS.
     Now that is all out of the way, to the fun stuff! I walked into the book knowing that Max was going to end up being endgame, so I don't see why the Ryan/ Max thing was such an issue... I enjoyed Ryan's character, I liked getting to know him and I liked the flirty anxiety in the beginning, but after it dragged on for three-quarters of the book, I got a little tired of it because it meant less time being flirty and awkward with Max. Potential was wasted swooning over Ryan, because Ryan obviously had the hots for someone else.
     I thoroughly enjoyed most of the characters. Sometimes, though, I wanted to shake them for making stupid decisions. Like Paige and all of her PLANNING for pursuing Ryan, and Max making Paige go on the diving board. Paige's parents were existing, but absent. Their little twist didn't really add anything to the story for me.
     Besides those things, however, I enjoyed the book. The writing was easy, and had some really sweet lines. The characters were awesome, and I really liked the whole QuizBowl shenanigans. Ms. Pepper had me in stitches, and I wish we got some more of her in this book. I especially liked the array of best friends that we get to see.
     Besides a few things here and there The Start of Me and You was a pretty solid book- not bad at all. I will read Open Road Summer, I promise. I just have to get around to it.



                                                 

Seeker by Arwen Elys Dayton

 Title: Seeker

 Series: Seeker #1

 Author: Arwen Elys Dayton

 Publisher: Delacorte Press

 Date Published: February 10th, 2014

 Genre: Fantasy, Dystopian

 Pages: 448 (Hardcover)

 Age Range: 14+





                                                                         Summary:

     The night Quin Kincaid takes her Oath, she will become what she has trained to be her entire life. She will become a Seeker. This is her legacy, and it is an honor.
     As a Seeker, Quin will fight beside her two closest companions, Shinobu and John, to protect the weak and the wronged. Together they will stand for light in a shadowy world.
     And she'll be with the boy she loves--who's also her best friend.
     But the night Quin takes her Oath, everything changes.
     Being a Seeker is not what she thought. Her family is not what she thought. Even the boy she loves is not who she thought.
     And now it's too late to walk away.

                                                                          Review:

     Honestly, this book felt like it was going through second book syndrome, even though this is book one. Some things felt rushed, other felt too drawn out, some things left me scratching my head asking for some semblance of a explanation. This wasn't a bad book necessarily, but it was so all over the place that I'm wavering between giving it two stars, or one. That is not good.
     As usual, we'll start with the characters. Quin was just okay in the beginning. I didn't find her to be the kick-butt assassin type that I was expecting, but she also wasn't much of anything else. She didn't fit into any character mold that I've read of, but that's not a good thing in this story. Quin felt like a bad actor- someone just going through the motions. After stuff hit the fan, and Quin was... indisposed, I liked her a lot more. I actually liked watching her struggle to find herself. After that disgustingly long word vomit, we come to John. I never liked John, and, personally, I find him to be a lazy villain. He just spends time trying to convince people to follow his "evilness". John just got on my nerves. Shinobu was probably my favorite character. I actually really liked reading from his POV, and I found his story fascinating. All of the other characters bled into each other, I hated all of the Dreads, didn't give a single thought towards Fiona, and couldn't care any less about Briac of Shinobu's father.
     The plot was super jumpy, and I feel that this story would have benefited from chapter headings. I understood so little about the athame, and powers (are there even powers?), and, perhaps the worst thing, the ambiguous time frame of this book. There are buses and trains and planes, but people live off of the land like crazy people just for kicks. nothing really shocked me, but the plot was something that I enjoyed over-all. Nothing was wildly original, but I have hopes that book two will pick up.
      Now, we have to address the love shape in this book. I dislike love triangles- I just do. However, if a triangle is tastefully done, I can definitely get into it. This triangle, though, was pretty sloppy. John starts off being The One for Quin (not a spoiler, this established in the first chapter or so). Later, John gets a little flippy floppy, and Quin is just so, so lost without him. *facepalm* Shinobu is related to Quin (again, addressed in the first chapter or there abouts) very very very distantly, but this is mentioned so many times that I wanted to scream. If they're barely related, he's a love interest, and they may as well not be related for how much blood they share, then why did Arwen make them related? I UNDERSTAND NOTHING. I feel like this is gonna become a get-it-on-with-your-cousin thing-or-be-a-functional-person internal battle, OR that something magical happens to them because of their bond. More powers maybe??
     All told, this book is a 2.9, may as well be a three. I just don't even know anymore... Book two? Eh, may as well. I must be a glutton for self-punishment. *facepalm*