Tag: recommend

YA

Review: Dare You To by Katie McGarry

Andge @ Down the Rabbit Hole

Series: Pushing the Limits #2

dare you to -katie mcgarryRyan lowers his lips to my ear. “Dance with me, Beth.”

“No.” I whisper the reply. I hate him and I hate myself for wanting him to touch me again….

“I dare you…”

If anyone knew the truth about Beth Risk’s home life, they’d send her mother to jail and seventeen-year-old Beth who knows where. So she protects her mom at all costs. Until the day her uncle swoops in and forces Beth to choose between her mom’s freedom and her own happiness. That’s how Beth finds herself living with an aunt who doesn’t want her and going to a school that doesn’t understand her. At all. Except for the one guy who shouldn’t get her, but does….

Ryan Stone is the town golden boy, a popular baseball star jock-with secrets he can’t tell anyone. Not even the friends he shares everything with, including the constant dares to do crazy things. The craziest? Asking out the Skater girl who couldn’t be less interested in him.

But what begins as a dare becomes an intense attraction neither Ryan nor Beth expected. Suddenly, the boy with the flawless image risks his dreams-and his life-for the girl he loves, and the girl who won’t let anyone get too close is daring herself to want it all….

5 Drink Me Potions

Dare You To truly surpassed its predecessor, Pushing the Limits. I started the book with one thought: Biker Chick Beth is the protagonist and I have to be in her head now?? As a secondary character in Pushing the Limits, she wasn’t my favourite character at all. So, with that thought in mind, I was 100% dubious of what this reading experience would be like.

With that being said, I would like to TAKE THAT ALL BACK. Katie McGarry is truly one amazing author. I was taken into Beth and Ryan’s story. Beth is all sass and attitude, not afraid to dish it out to the guys. Ryan is the golden boy or Prince Charming stereotype of many YA novels; the kind of gentleman character that was missing in McGarry’s previous story. I must say, I do like sweet guys a little more than bad boys so you can see why I was drawn into this story more than Pushing the Limits.

McGarry continues with her amazing story telling and characterizations. Ryan feels like a real guy you may have met or known back in high school. Yes, he’s been raised to be a gentleman, but of course he still thinks like a guy and acts like one. As for Beth, she’s just as hard-edged as she was before but the development of her character throughout the story was beautifully done. Not only was it realistic in the way that she slowly tore down her walls for Ryan, but falling for each other wasn’t done in a way that made no sense. It was well-paced throughout the story, not rushing into their romantic feelings for each other until they started trusting each other more.

With both protagonists fighting their particular emotional battles, readers won’t be able to put down the book. I swear. I sure couldn’t. I think the ROMANCE here was a lot more entrancing, like a spell was cast over the story. Beth’s insecurities that a guy like Ryan would never fall for a girl like her was endearing, especially seeing how Ryan goes to great lengths to prove her wrong.

Overall Recommendations:
Beth and Ryan are both well-thought characters with emotional baggage that needs to be resolved. Although they may seem like opposites initially, as McGarry put it, they’re the perfect match for each other. Dare You To will NOT disappoint, with many heart-touching moments between the 2 protagonists as they slowly fall for each other (against their will initially, I must say) and learn to trust one another with their secrets. ROMANCE lovers, this is for YOU!
This is the “Prince Charming falling for the girl no one thought he should” kind of story. The 5 stars are well-deserved. If you enjoy cute love stories, give this is a shot and you won’t regret it.

YA

Review: Killer Instinct by Jennifer Lynn Barnes

Andge @ Down the Rabbit Hole

Series: The Naturals #2

killer instinct -jennifer lynn barnesSeventeen-year-old Cassie Hobbes has a gift for profiling people. Her talent has landed her a spot in an elite FBI program for teens with innate crime-solving abilities, and into some harrowing situations. After barely escaping a confrontation with an unbalanced killer obsessed with her mother’s murder, Cassie hopes she and the rest of the team can stick to solving cold cases from a distance.

But when victims of a brutal new serial killer start turning up, the Naturals are pulled into an active case that strikes too close to home: the killer is a perfect copycat of Dean’s incarcerated father—a man he’d do anything to forget. Forced deeper into a murderer’s psyche than ever before, will the Naturals be able to outsmart the enigmatic killer’s brutal mind games before this copycat twists them into his web for good?

With her trademark wit, brilliant plotting, and twists that no one will see coming, Jennifer Lynn Barnes will keep readers on the edge of their seats (and looking over their shoulders) as they race through the pages of this thrilling novel.

4 Drink Me Potions

Killer Instinct is what a follow-up sequel should look like. After reading The Naturals, it already amazed me at the high level of proficiency needed in creating all the twists and turns of a plot like that. This book does that justice, even taking the twists to a whole new playing field. Jennifer Lynn Barnes is one amazing author.

The story focuses on a group of 5 teenagers with special abilities, called the Naturals. Now, who doesn’t like the sound of that? An emotion reader, lie detector, two profilers and a statistical genius? And this is all happens naturally to them. They are recruited by the FBI to help solve cold cases, but it always leads to participating in an active case. This time, there’s a copycat serial killer on the loose and it gets so much juicier from there!

Reading the story and trying to logically deduce who the killer was, I realized there is a lot of thinking required to throw red-herrings at the readers, and also have them make sense in the context of the plot. It was a very fascinating read with an ending that is not all that predictable.

I appreciated the friendships between the 5 main characters, as well as their individual personalities. Barnes writes in such a way that you can imagine what each person would say, a figure that’s coming to life right on the pages in front of you. They’re not just bland characters you see in every book. I will admit that Michael is the typical “funny” guy who makes the girl smile and can take things lightly, while Dean is the dark, quiet “brooding” guy in the background that intrigues the girl. There is the stereotypical characterization but through context and their character building, it becomes more than just a stereotype, for which I give kudos to Barnes.

There isn’t a lot of romance in this story, so romance lovers beware. However, I feel that romance and love triangles can get in the way of a good mystery story a lot, so I actually appreciated tamping down on hints of romance for most of the book. It allowed the focus to stay on the mystery instead of the drama between the 3 characters.

Overall Recommendation:
Killer Instinct stepped up to its predecessor’s reputation and more. A new intriguing mystery for our favourite Naturals, with suspense and unpredictable twists along the road. A definite read for those who want to know more than “who-dun-it”, and get inside a killer’s head to understand why they do it. Jennifer Lynn Barnes does NOT disappoint with her sequel, leaving you reading until the wee hours of morning just to know the answer. Criminal Minds? Pshh, this is definitely en par.

YA

Review: Since You’ve Been Gone by Morgan Matson

Andge @ Down the Rabbit Hole

since you've been gone -morgan matsonIt was Sloane who yanked Emily out of her shell and made life 100% interesting. But right before what should have been the most epic summer, Sloane just…disappears. All she leaves behind is a to-do list.

On it, thirteen Sloane-inspired tasks that Emily would normally never try. But what if they could bring her best friend back?

Apple picking at night? Okay, easy enough.

Dance until dawn? Sure. Why not?

Kiss a stranger? Um…

Emily now has this unexpected summer, and the help of Frank Porter (totally unexpected), to check things off Sloane’s list. Who knows what she’ll find?

Go skinny-dipping? Wait…what?

4.5 Drink Me Potions

I enjoyed this book a little more than I anticipated. As I kept reading, my rating went up a little more. Yes, Since You’ve Been Gone was rather a long read, and occasionally felt drawn out. There is a chapter titled for every item on the list that Emily wanted to complete to find her missing best friend, Sloane. However, I was kind of glad seeing that there was a whole chapter for each one, as it produced a progression for the summer in how Emily came to find herself.

Character development was one of my favourite things. Emily started off panicky, shy and alone as she found herself best-friend-less at the beginning of the summer. It’s understandable, especially if you have a shy friend like that. But slowly, with each item she crossed off the list, they challenged our protagonist to come out of her scared shell and for once, BE BRAVE. She had to face her fears for many of them. Like come on, she has a fear of horses but has to ride one. If I had to face my worst fear…..my goodness, it would not turn out as well.

I also liked the minor characters, like the friends Emily makes over the span of the summer as she goes through the list. They each had a personality that didn’t make them just mundane pieces to surround her with. This included her family as well. Her erratic playwright parents and adrenaline-junkie little brother were fun sides to the story, although they may not have directly impacted the central plot: follow list, finish list, find Sloane.

I’ll admit, I had hoped for more romance between Emily and Frank for more of the story. He’s had a long-time girlfriend for most of the story, which made it somewhat more bearable to wait. But if you’re looking for an amazing romance here, this is NOT the book for you, I’m sorry. I appreciated their growing friendship and under-the-surface feelings that gradually came. It wasn’t just physical chemistry between them. They were good friends too, and I like a relationship that’s based on more than just attraction between 2 people that may have nothing in common.

As for Sloane, I was very satisfied with the ending. For most of the book, I couldn’t understand why she left, or where she could’ve gone that would inhibit her from responding to Emily’s texts/calls. Hello, 21st century here. It’s not as hard to communicate with people over long distances. But I came to see her point of things and the ending left me with an emotional taste of their friendship that wasn’t just seen in Emily’s flashbacks. I surprisingly actually liked her by the end. Hoorah! She’s not a villain!

Overall Recommendation:
A mix of a fun and emotional read, Since You’ve Been Gone is a wonderful story on best friends and finding new friendships. With memorable characters and a protagonist with strong development over the course of the book, I swear, you’ll have a lot of fun following Emily and her friends as they complete the list. What an epic summer! Oh, and a bit of underlying romance thrown into there as well. It’s a complete package!