Reviews

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What I Lost — Alexandra Ballard

Elizabeth is proud of the forty pounds she's lost; after a lifetime of seeking her figure-obsessed mother's approval and failing to find it, she feels like she's finally what her mother has always wanted - even if she's not what her ex-boyfriend wants anymore. The ride is only beginning, when Elizabeth is packed up and sent off to a treatment center for girls with eating disorders. At the center, she must learn to come to terms with not only her own ghosts, but those of her beloved mother, as well. Things aren't all bad, though - Elizabeth finds new friends, comfort in her therapist, and most unexpected of all, packages from a secret admirer.

Lost Boy — Christina Henry (ARC Review)

First of all, this book upset me in a way that most books are never capable of doing. I know a lot of reviewers who will immediately up their rating for a book if it hits them hard, because they consider it a sign of a talented author, and while I can understand that point of view, I don’t agree with it for my own reviews. I DNF’d this at 60% but my general rule of thumb is that panning a book at 30%-onward...

The Raven Boys — Maggie Stiefvater

“She wasn’t interested in telling other people’s futures. She was interested in going out and finding her own.” All Blue’s life, she’s been surrounded by psychics: her mother, her aunt, her mother’s live-in best friends. Blue can’t predict anything, though – she’s just an energy amplifier for everyone (and everything) around here. Her future has been set in stone for years. She will fall in love, and she will kiss her first love, and he will die. It’s hard enough,...

Aftercare Instructions — Bonnie Pipkin (ARC Review)

Genesis did everything she could to prepare for the abortion, but nothing could steady her for how it would feel to walk out into an empty waiting room, without so much as a good-bye text from the boyfriend who left her there: alone, wounded, and sixty miles from home. He won't answer his phone, and rumors are flying that he's already moved on to her former best friend, Vanessa.

Living as a seventeen-year-old with a deceased father and an emotionally absent mother, life hasn't been easy, but this form of grief is all new territory for Gen, and she's going to have to find healing in any way she can get it: even if it means returning to the stage she never thought she'd have the strength to face again.

Now I Rise — Kiersten White (ARC Review)

"They had nothing better, nowhere else to go. They were loyal to her, and to the hope that perhaps she would find them a place in the world."

After leaving Mehmed's side to carve out her own path to the throne of Wallachia, Lada Dracul finds herself without allies, assistance, or power to speak of, besides the loyalty of her men. When she finds that Mehmed has not been entirely honest or beneficial to her cause, Lada's rage encourages her to finally embrace the cruelty of her nature and to seek out the throne via any means necessary.

Meanwhile, Radu helps Mehmed plot to overtake Constantinople, but the waters become muddied when Radu is sent into the city as a spy and begins to second-guess his own motives as well as the sultan's. Will Radu's love for his childhood friend be enough, or must he, too, find his own way?

Royal Bastards — Andrew Shvarts (ARC Review)

“Yeah, well, you basically don’t have emotions between ‘gotta kill’ and ‘yay, I killed,’ so that’s not really a surprise.” Life as a royal bastard is never easy, but for Tilla, it’s far from the lot she wants in life. She spends her days drinking away the hours with her half-brother, Jax, holding to a small, childlike hope that her father, Lord of House Kent, will someday legitimize her. Despite these problems, life is simple enough, until the Princess Lyriana...

The Waking Land — Callie Bates (ARC Review)

At five years old, Elanna Valtai is seized from her family at gunpoint and kidnapped by a powerful king who raises her as his own, in his palace, under one condition: her father is never to come and reclaim her. In her home land of Caeris, Elanna was loved and doted upon, warmly welcomed for her natural inclination to magic; in the royal city of Laon, however, despite the king's growing affections for her, she is subjected to prejudices for her darker skin, her Caerisian blood, and her family name. Worst of all, she must hide her magic at all costs, for the witch hunters would surely execute her if they found out her blood could wake the stones and the earth, and bring forth spirits of ancestors past.

When the king is poisoned and his daughter takes her place as Queen, she accuses Elanna of regicide, and thus begins an adventure that leaves Elanna running for her life - right into the arms of the family she was stolen from. They've got big plans for her and her magic, but will she be able to leave behind the life the kingdom gave her?

Thirteen Chairs — Dave Shelton

When Jack enters the old, dark house, he isn't sure what he'll find in these mysterious rooms, this long hallway with a sliver of candlelight beneath just one cold door. Jack is more curious than sensible, though, and allows himself into the meeting of twelve, each surrounding a table, each facing a candle. Each will tell a story, and in time, Jack must tell a tale of his own, too.

The Lightning Thief — Rick Riordan

Percy Jackson has always felt kind of... different. He has ADHD and dyslexia, struggles to fit in, and keeps finding himself kicked out of school. When he is admitted to his sixth school in six years, things seem to finally be working out for Percy, until a field trip goes awry and he kills (disintegrates?) his pre-algebra teacher.

Percy's mother, in a panic, sends Percy to Camp Half-Blood: a summer camp for kids like Percy, who are demi-gods, born to one mortal parent and one god parent. He finally begins to realize why things have never worked out for him like other, normal kids, but the wild adventure is only getting started.

Stalking Jack the Ripper — Kerri Maniscalco

“Roses have both petals and thorns, my dark flower. You needn’t believe something weak because it appears delicate. Show the world your bravery.” The year is 1888, and Audrey Rose is determined to go against everything that society expects of a young, British lady: rather than waste her time with tea parties and courting politicians, she sneaks out in the evenings to train under her uncle in the forensic sciences. She prefers slicing open corpses to being coddled and reprimanded,...