Deadly Little Sins by Kara Taylor

Title: Deadly Little Sins
Author: Kara Taylor
Paperback: 288 pages
Pub Date: August 5, 2014
Publisher: St Martin’s Griffin
Rating: ++++

Summary from publisher:

t’s August and Anne is back in New York City for the summer, but she can’t escape the memories of the terrible things that happened at the Wheatley School last spring— and the possibility of being expelled looming over her. When an unexpected— and suspicious— turn of events gets Anne sent back to Wheatley, she’s determined to figure out what happened to her favorite teacher and only adult ally at the school: Ms. Cross.

After a shocking, gruesome murder with connections to the Wheatley School occurs, Anne is convinced there’s more to Ms. Cross’s sudden disappearance, and that her favorite teacher is in danger. But after an ugly breakup with Brent and a new, inexplicable distance between her and Anthony, Anne isn’t sure who she can trust. And even worse, someone at Wheatley knows the truth about what happened to Ms. Cross— someone who will stop at nothing to keep Anne from learning the truth in this engrossing, unputdownable read.

Review:

I liked the second book so much that I immediately picked up the last book in the series and read it the very next day!

The series really goes out with a bang – more murder, more sneaking around, some PTSD, and a LOT of suspense. You will be on edge the entire time you read this, but if you are like me, you will LOVE it.

While this book felt a little rushed at a couple points, it was still my favorite of the three, mainly because it had the best villains/people you think are the villains. That is my favorite thing about this series, you never really know who is bad, and who is just a little dumb and does some things they shouldn’t.

This book had the most realistic relationships between characters, Things aren’t easy, there are misunderstandings and fights. You want to yell at the characters to just talk to each other, but they don’t and people don’t. It can be frustrating, but humans are frustrating.

If you have not read this series yet, go get all three books and enjoy! It is one of my favorite under-rated series/author.

Wicked Little Secrets by Kara Taylor

Title: Wicked Little Sins
Author: Kara Taylor
Softcover: 304 pages
Pub Date: March 16, 2014
Publisher: St Martin’s Griffin
Rating: ++++

Summary from Publisher:

When Anne learns that her boyfriend Brent’s dad is one of the now-powerful Wheatley alumni who rowed crew with Matthew, and that the crew team continues to induct new members with a creepy-sounding ritual called “The Drop,” she knows further investigation could put her relationship with Brent in danger.

Determined to discover the truth, she reaches out to Anthony, Isabella’s townie brother, who helps her delve deeper into the secrets in Wheatley’s past. Secrets someone would kill to keep hidden. As the school’s Spring Formal—and its notorious afterparty—approaches, Anne sees the perfect opportunity to do some off-campus digging into the lives of Wheatley’s VIPs in this thrilling, unputdownable read—but if she’s not careful, she’ll be the next student who never comes back.

Review:

I really enjoyed the first book in this series, Prep School Confidential and realized I never read the other two books in the series and I have no idea why! So I changed that.

And I enjoyed this book as much as the first. It still has an amazing heroine. Anne is funny and inquisitive. She doesn’t give up, even when she totally should. She isn’t a bad person, and she is really trying to be better, but things get in the way, things like murder.

At times, mysteries like this can feel unrealistic, but for some reason I bought these ambitious people being capable of murder. It doesn’t go too far, like sometimes Revenge did, but it is what you think some rich and powerful people do.

I still felt like some of the romance was tacked on and I didn’t really buy the love triangle, but it felt like teenage romance that doesn’t always work.

This is a series that needs SO much more attention than it has because it is SO good!

Top Ten Tuesday: My Fall TBR List

Thanks to the wonderful people over at Broke and the Bookish for hosting! On my old work blog I did one of these posts in the spring and another in the summer and wow did I fail spectacularly!  I read two of those books. Total. Not counting the picture books because…well I read those but they are picture books!

So this fall, I hope not to fail quite as badly. I probably will, but I can always try. At my first thinking of this list, it was VERY literary, so I am going to throw in some more fun reads.

1. The Mark of Athena by Rick Riordan

This was on both lists. It is sitting on my table right now. I WILL read it this fall. After I get to my library books that is.

2. 11/22/63 by Stephen King

I have started this book! I really really love this book! Now just to finish this complete monster of a book.

3. The Marriage Plot by Jeffrey Eugenides

It’s part of my TBR challenge that I could actually complete this year. Plus everyone keeps saying i should read it.

4. The Litigators by John Grisham

Another book in that challenge that I just need to read already

5. The Day Before by Lisa Schroeder

The final book that I was to read this fall from that challenge! I can do this right? (Okay, there is one more, but my library doesn’t have it, so if I can’t find it, I still am claiming victory)

6. Little Princes by Conor Grennan

I need some nonfiction in my season.

7. Redshirts by John Scalzi

I love his blog and his twitter account and desperately want to read one of his books. This is the one we own, so this is the winner!

8. Night Owls by Lauren M Roy

Because I need to read some more genre fiction!

9. Crown of Midnight by Sarah J Mass

Since i loved Throne of Glass

10. Nantucket Blue by Leila Howland

I own both of these books and haven’t read either. I really should, since if I like them, I know exactly who to pass them on to!

 

Have you read any of these? Which should I make my priority? Can I say I completed my TBR challenge even if I can’t find the last book? Let me know in the comments!

Tabula Rasa by Kristen Lippert-Martin

Title: Tabula Rasa
Author: Kristen Lippert-Martin
Hardcover: Sept 23. 2014
Pub Date: 352 pages
Publisher: EgmontUSA
Rating: ++++

Summary from pub:

The Bourne Identity meets Divergent in this heart-pounding debut.

Sixteen-year-old Sarah has a rare chance at a new life. Or so the doctors tell her. She’s been undergoing a cutting-edge procedure that will render her a tabula rasa—a blank slate. Memory by memory her troubled past is being taken away.

But when her final surgery is interrupted and a team of elite soldiers invades the isolated hospital under cover of a massive blizzard, her fresh start could be her end.

Navigating familiar halls that have become a dangerous maze with the help of a teen computer hacker who’s trying to bring the hospital down for his own reasons, Sarah starts to piece together who she is and why someone would want her erased. And she won’t be silenced again.

Review:

I have mentioned that I am always looking for young adult thrillers, so when I saw “Bourne Identity meets Divergent” I was excited. I was hoping for a crazy fast-paced book with killer action scenes.

And that is exactly what I got. The book was so exciting. There were bad guys with guns. There were good guys with guns. There were crazy fight scenes and gun battles that had me on the edge of my seat and it was absolutely impossible to put the book down. I skipped lunch to finish that book.

Is the book perfect? No. There are a lot of plot devices, but it was so exciting that I did not even care. It was just like action movies – things have to be done or taken in x amount of time to add suspense and risk. And that is okay, it just took me out of the story for a second.

The hospital and what they are doing there is kind of mind blowing. The more I found out, the scarier it was. I could totally see some people trying to do it…and being manipulative with it to hurt people they didn’t like.

My only issue with the book was that the end felt like an info dump. Someone explains everything they did and how they did it, like it was a Scooby Doo cartoon. I think it could have been done a little better, but it didn’t ruin the book.

If you are looking for a fast-paced action thriller that will keep you guessing, pick this up!

Tut: The Story of My Immortal Life by P.J. Hoover

 

Title: Tut: The Story of My Immortal Life 
Author: P. J. Hoover
Hardcover: 320
Pub Date: Sept 16, 2014
Publisher: Starscape (Tor)
Rating: ++++

Summary from pub:

You’d think it would be great being an Egyptian demigod, but if King Tut has to sit through eighth grade one more time, he’ll mummify himself.

Granted the gift of immortality by the gods—or is it a curse?—Tut has been stuck in middle school for ages. Even worse, evil General Horemheb, the man who killed Tut’s father and whom Tut imprisoned in a tomb for three thousand years, is out and after him. The general is in league with the Cult of Set, a bunch of guys who worship one of the scariest gods of the Egyptian pantheon—Set, the god of Chaos.

The General and the Cult of Set have plans for Tut… and if Tut doesn’t find a way to keep out of their clutches, he’ll never make it to the afterworld alive.

Review:

If you like Rick Riordan and are looking for more books with mythology set in today’s world, look no further, especially if you are interested in Egyptian mythology! You should be interested in Egyptian mythology because it is really awesome.

The concept is really cool. King Tut did not die, but was made immortal. The problem? He is stuck as an eighth grader forever, so there is so much he will never experience, including high school. He doesn’t have many friends, since he nevers ages and moves around a lot. Sometimes, he doesn’t even go to school.

But being immortal isn’t all bad. He lives with his mentor Gil and a cat, that isn’t really just a cat. There is magic, adventures, and learning whatever he wants to.

That isn’t much of a story though, and the Cult of Set is after him along with the person who originally murdered him, because of course he isn’t dead either. There are so many great side characters on both sides of the battle and so much action that it was hard to put down.

If you are looking for a great middle grade novel with good characters, an exciting plot, and lots of information on Egyptian mythology, this is a book for you!

 

Top Authors I’ve Only Read One Book From But NEED to Read More

Thanks to the wonderful readers over at The Broke and the Bookish for hosting! Today’s topic is pretty self-explanatory, so let’s just start!

1. Susanna Kearsley

I read and LOVED The Winter Sea, so now I want more!

2. Jandy Nelson

I just reviewed I’ll Give You the Sun yesterday, and it is one of my favorite books of the year. I need to read her debut!

3. Sarah J Mass

I just finished the first book in her series and need to read the rest because she is fantastic!

4. Catherynne Valente

I read one of her books and it was magical, Must read more!

5. Patrick Rothfuss

The Name of the Wind was an incredible book and I need to read more – he has a way of writing that takes the reader completely out of their own world and into his.

6. Margaret Atwood

I have only read Surfacing, and while it was just okay, I thought the writing was very good and I will read at least three or four more of her books

7. Jennifer E Smith

I have only read one of her books (no ida how that happened), but plan on reading more.

8. Karen Finneyfrock

Starbird Murphy and the World Outside was a book that was SO written for me to love, so I need to see what else she has done

9. Huntley Fitzpatrick

I absolutely adored What I Thought was True, and have heard others liked her first book even more, so I need to read it.

10. Jennifer Lynn Barnes

The Naturals is exactly what I have been looking for in YA, so obviously I need to read more!

I’ll Give You the Sun by Jandy Nelson

Title: I’ll Give You the Sun
Author: Jandy Nelson
Hardcover:  384 pages
Pub Date: Sept 16. 2014
Publisher: Dial Books for Young Readers
Rating: ++++

Summary from pub:

Jude and her brother, Noah, are incredibly close twins. At thirteen, isolated Noah draws constantly and is falling in love with the charismatic boy next door, while daredevil Jude surfs and cliff-dives and wears red-red lipstick and does the talking for both of them. But three years later, Jude and Noah are barely speaking. Something has happened to wreck the twins in different and divisive ways . . . until Jude meets a cocky, broken, beautiful boy, as well as an unpredictable new mentor. The early years are Noah’s story to tell. The later years are Jude’s. What the twins don’t realize is that they each have only half the story, and if they could just find their way back to one another, they’d have a chance to remake their world.

Review:

I have not read Jandy Nelson’s first book and went in knowing nothing about her. Now i need to read everything she ever writes because this book was so fantastic.

I love that the reader sees two perspectives, but not two perspectives of the same story. You get to see Noah’s side of what happened years ago, and Jude’s side of what is happening now. It is a really creative way to split perspectives and it just worked, especially since the two of them are SO different three years later. The voices and times are so distinct that it was never jarring or confusing.

The details are slowly revealed, not it a way that anything is dragged out, but in a way that felt really natural, especially when the details and drama have to do with family. Some families are confrontational and loud, but many are like Noah and Jude, they keep things quiet and just let life go by so they don’t bring out the pain again.

Jude and Noah are both artists, which is something I am so jealous of. I am not an artsy person, but I love art.I especially loved the adult artist in the book. I felt like his wisdom on art applies to so much more than just art.  Readers will want to see the drawings and the sculptures. I hope talented fans do some fan art because it would be amazing. Nelson does an incredible job of making the reader feel like they can see the art through her descriptions, without the descriptions being too long or feel like they are taking over the entire book.

There are also a couple of great relationships in this book. They aren’t idealized and perfect, they are sometimes messy and a little raw, just like real relationships.

I absolutely adored this book and the only reason it didn’t get a perfect 5/5 is that the end wrapped up a little too nicely, but other than that, it is a really incredible book.

Top Ten Book Characters That Would Sit at My Lunch Table

Sorry this post isn’t pretty – I am writing it on my phone in the car on the way home from visiting my parents in Ohio.

Thanks to the wonderful people over at The Broke and Bookish for hosting!

This week’s top ten list is back-to-school themed! I am making one rule- only one character per book series, or it would be ten Harry Potter characters. And I can pick adults too So if I could have ten character at my lunch table, they would be…

1. Hermione Granger

Do I even need to say why?

2. Lizzie Bennett from LBD

She would be so fun to hang out with and we could do reenactments of things.

3. Macallan from Better off Friends

She would bring the best lunches to share.

4. Atticus Finch

I know, weird match with everyone else, but he would give great life advice.

5. Arya Stark

I would NEVER get on her bad side, but she would make out table a little dangerous and would teach us all to use needle.

6. Thursday Next from The Eyre Affair

She can jump into the stories of books. That is just awesome.

7. Georgie from Landline

She is incredibly smart and clever. I think we would get along really well and I want to know more about her job.

8. Beth from Attachments

While I was reading this book, I wanted to spend time with her and I think the lunch table would be more interesting with her there!

9. Isaac from TFIOS

We would really get along and he would be a good friend to have around. He would also compliment the others well.

10. Mia from the Princess Diaries

She is sweet, smart, and really funny I bet she would be a great lunchtime companion!!

Who would be at your lunch table?