ARC Review: The F-It List by Julie Halpern

Pub. Date: November 12th, 2013
Publisher: Felwel & Friends
Hardcover
256 pages

Synopsis from Goodreads:

With her signature heart and humor, Julie Halpern explores a strained friendship strengthened by one girl’s battle with cancer.

Alex’s father recently died in a car accident. And on the night of his funeral, her best friend Becca slept with Alex’s boyfriend. So things aren’t great. Alex steps away from her friendship with Becca and focuses on her family.

But when Alex finally decides to forgive Becca, she finds out something that will change her world again--Becca has cancer.

So what do you do when your best friend has cancer? You help her shave her head. And then you take her bucket list and try to fulfill it on her behalf. Because if that’s all you can do to help your ailing friend--you do it.

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I trudged my way through The F-It List. I strongly disliked both Alex and Becca from the beginning, and my dislike for the characters quickly turned into a dislike for the story. The opening was very off-putting. We’re given a lot of background and asked to care about two girls, and their friendship, when I can’t imagine ever staying friends with someone who treats you near as badly as Alex and Becca treat each other. Becca’s actions may be more outright brutal, but Alex’s decisions and lack of a filter or common sense, are just as immature.

On My Wishlist: November 16, 2013

On My Wishlist is a weekly event highlighting a book that I really want to read. The book may be 20 years old, or the pub date may not be until next year, but either way I'm excited about it, and hopefully you will be too!

On My Wishlist: November 9, 2013

On My Wishlist is a weekly event highlighting a book that I really want to read. The book may be 20 years old, or the pub date may not be until next year, but either way I'm excited about it, and hopefully you will be too!

ARC: Foreplay (The Ivy Chronicles #1) by Sophie Jordan

Pub. Date: November 5th, 2013
Publisher: William Morrow Paperbacks
Paperback
320 pages

Synopsis from Goodreads:

Before she goes after the life she’s always wanted, she’s about to find the one she needs.

Pepper has been hopelessly in love with her best friend’s brother, Hunter, for like ever. He’s the key to everything she’s always craved: security, stability, family. But she needs Hunter to notice her as more than just a friend. Even though she’s kissed exactly one guy, she has just the plan to go from novice to rock star in the bedroom—take a few pointers from someone who knows what he’s doing.

Her college roommates have the perfect teacher in mind. But bartender Reece is nothing like the player Pepper expects. Yes, he’s beyond gorgeous, but he’s also dangerous, deep—with a troubled past. Soon what started as lessons in attraction are turning both their worlds around, and showing just what can happen when you go past foreplay and get to what’s real…

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I heard only praise about Foreplay from some of my favorite YA and New Adult authors. Even still, I was slightly apprehensive. The title alone makes the book seem decidedly more adult than NA, which kind of scared me off. I was also not that excited by the whole stereotypical bad boy/ good girl vibe that the synopsis alluded to. Here comes the huge but – but my pre-judgment was ridiculously wrong. Foreplay represents why I love contemporary novels. This novel has loveable and relatable leads, a swoon worthy romance, and a cast of thoroughly entertaining and developed secondary characters, all in addition to a perfectly paced storyline.

One of the things I loved the most about this novel was how subtly the baggage that Reece and Pepper

On My Wishlist: November 2, 2013

On My Wishlist is a weekly event highlighting a book that I really want to read. The book may be 20 years old, or the pub date may not be until next year, but either way I'm excited about it, and hopefully you will be too!

This Week On My Wishlist: 

Rating Scale Update

I've decided to switch up the Rating Scale. Up until now it looked like this:

1/10 - Hated it.
2/10 - Really didn't like it.
3/10 - Didn't like it.
4/10 - Not my favourite.
5/10 - Somewhat liked it.
6/10 - Liked it.
7/10 - Liked it a lot.
8/10 - Really liked it.
9/10 - Loved it.
10/10 - Absolutely LOVED it.

I just found I had given myself too many options, so from now on it will look like this:


5/5 - I Was Blown Away
4/5 - I Really Really Liked It
3/5 - I Liked It
2/5 - Not Horrible, But Not My Favourite
1/5 - Really Didn't Like It

Hopefully that makes the ratings easier to follow! Everything that I have reviewed up to this point will stay with the old Rating Scale, just because I don't think it is fair to re-judge/rate the books.

Happy Reading Everyone!

ARC Review: Backward Glass by David Lomax

Pub. Date: October 8^th, 2013

Publisher: Flux

315 pages

Paperback

I’m a chronic note taker when I’m reading something that I will review. A subconscious tell that I absolutely love a book, is when I become so engrossed, that I completely forget to take notes. I didn’t write down a single word while reading Backward Glass.

When Kenny Maxwell’s home flipping parents buy the old Hollerith house – a home notorious for the disappearances of the kids that live there – an entire series of events that have both not happened, and that are decades old, are set into motion. In a broken down wall, Kenny finds a long deceased baby, along with a note written specifically to him. The note asks Kenny to change the past, by stopping Prince Harming from killing the baby. It takes a girl, from ten years in the future, to step out of the Backwards Glass – an old mirror that came with the house – for Kenny to get an idea of how he could possibly prevent a death that already happened.

Backward Glass is constructed the way a seasoned storyteller tells a story. With a clear voice, and engaging tone, you are instantly drawn in and kept in suspense about what will happen next. The entire time I read Backward Glass I was working overtime to solve a puzzle whose pieces were revealed in

Review: Forgiving Lies (Forgiving Lies #1) by Molly McAdams

Pub. Date: October 29th, 2013
Publisher: William Morrow & Company
368 pages
ebook

After a sexual assault, Rachel learns just how true the saying “blood is thicker than water” truly is. Unwilling to believe her cousin capable of rape, Rachel’s best friend Candice is convinced that Rachel has confused her attacker and savior. Worried that pushing the subject will cause a bigger rift between her and Candice, Rachel decides to try and forget the whole thing. For an entirely different kind of assault, career undercover cops Logan and Mase are reassigned to Texas from Florida. With the cover of bartenders, the two are assigned to help track down a serial killer. Logan tries to stay detached from everything while on the job, and Rachel initially is completely uninterested in any kind of relationship, but when the two fall into an easy friendship, they slowly break down their self-imposed walls. Only when their two worlds dangerously collide do they realize how little protection the walls offered.

After the first two chapters I did something I never do when reviewing – I read a bunch of reviews. I was legitimately convinced that I had been sent the wrong book to review, because the beginning of the novel was in no way represented within the synopsis. As a reader I was completely thrown. To make matters worse, I severely disliked everything about the first few chapters. So much happens. From instalove, to assault, I didn’t feel I had a chance to connect with any of the characters before they were polarized. The worst part of the early chapters was the worst representation of “best friends” that I have

On My Wishlist: Oct 26th 2013

On My Wishlist is a weekly event highlighting a book that I really want to read. The book may be 20 years old, or the pub date may not be until next year, but either way I'm excited about it, and hopefully you will be too!

On My Wishlist: Bridget Jones' Diary by Helen Fielding

Pub. Date: June 1st, 1999

Publisher: Penguin Books

271 pages

Paperback

Synopsis from Goodreads:

Meet Bridget Jones—a 30-something Singleton who is certain she would have all the answers if she could:

a. lose 7 pounds

b. stop smoking

c. develop Inner Poise

"123 lbs. (how is it possible to put on 4 pounds in the middle of the night? Could flesh have somehow solidified becoming denser and heavier? Repulsive, horrifying notion), alcohol units 4 (excellent), cigarettes 21 (poor but will give up totally tomorrow), number of correct lottery numbers 2 (better, but nevertheless useless)..."

Bridget Jones' Diary is the devastatingly self-aware, laugh-out-loud daily chronicle of Bridget's permanent, doomed quest for self-improvement — a year in which she resolves to: reduce the circumference of each thigh by 1.5 inches, visit the gym three times a week not just to buy a sandwich, form a functional relationship with a responsible adult, and learn to program the VCR.

Over the course of the year, Bridget loses a total of 72 pounds but gains a total of 74. She remains, however, optimistic. Through it all, Bridget will have you helpless with laughter, and — like millions of readers the world round — you'll find yourself shouting, "Bridget Jones is me!"

I'm especially driven to read this book now that book three in the series is being published this Fall. I absolutely love the movies, but I've heard the books are even better. So, what do you think? Is it one you'll add to your Wishlist? Or have you already read it?

ARC Review: Forever Innocent by Deanna Roy

Pub. Date: October 1st, 2013

Publisher: Casey Shay Press

Paperback

288 pages

For most people, walking into the first day of lectures may cause a little bit of anxiety. But walking into class and seeing your ex-fiancé, adds a little more pressure to the situation. The last memory Corabelle has of Gavin is his back, as he walked out the door at their son’s funeral without a good-bye. Best friends, first loves, fiancés and parents, Corabelle and Gavin’s pasts are inseparably interwoven. But even if they wanted to, can they learn to accept the people they have become, start living in the present, and move past the devastation they faced in the past?

Not only does this novel put a huge spin on what has become typical for New Adult, but it completely changes what a happily ever after means. There can’t be a typical easy breezy fairytale ending when you have faced the devastating experience of becoming parents, being told your newborn wouldn’t live, and then watching him die. The novel balances the lows of just how hard it would be to experience losing a child, with the highs of Corabelle and Gavin's relationship. The grief aspect is never completely consumes the story, which I think consistently makes the novel accessible for all readers. You truly hope that Gavin and Corabelle can learn to lean on each other again. Regain the trust and love they had, and together work through their grief. Their relationship is heartbreaking, but realistic, and one you can actually connect with and rally behind.