Saturday, September 28, 2013

The Line (The Line #1) by Teri Hall

Synopsis:
An invisible, uncrossable physical barrier encloses the United States. The Line is the part of the border that lopped off part of the country, dooming the inhabitants to an unknown fate when the enemy used a banned weapon. It's said that bizarre creatures and superhumans live on the other side, in Away. Nobody except tough old Ms. Moore would ever live next to the Line.

Nobody but Rachel and her mother, who went to live there after Rachel's dad died in the last war. It's a safe, quiet life. Until Rachel finds a mysterious recorded message that can only have come from Away. The voice is asking for help.

Who sent the message? Why is her mother so protective? And to what lengths is Rachel willing to go in order to do what she thinks is right?
First look at the summery. Did that? Done? Okay now lets begin sounds like a pretty good summery right? That is what I thought and the reason I wanted to read it in the first place. Well honestly though it isn't much like the synopsis. I mean a little bit, yes but for the most part no. Most of the book doesn't even mention the Line or the tape recorder. Most of the first half of the book really seems to have nothing to do with anything.
I was really disappointed in a lot so lets make a list.
1. The book compared to the synopsis.  The synopsis piece is such a short part in the book it should have been a different synopsis or some things should have been left out of the book.
2. Unnecessary details. Most of this book was just unnecessary unless they were going to be important for the next book which brings me to another point.
3. Short. The book is about 219 pages but with all it's unneeded details it went nowhere it seems and feel really short. Maybe a longer book? Or just combining the next book in? Something!
4. Characters. Really under developed. I got to learn like nothing about any character really. Which made the story drag on and not make it easy to understand.
5. Was Teri Hall trying to follow one character at a time? It seems like it but also when more then one character was together it was just a mix up. I felt like she would follow one character for a minute then change and try another one which just did not work at all!
6. The back round story.  Okay back round stories to why things happened are usually nice and sometimes give you more understanding. This back round story was horrible in all way. How it come about and talked about was kind of boring for the story. It also just made things way more confusing then they were. I feel like it could have been done a lot better and that less detail should have been made about it.
7. The ending. So the ending threw out the book was hinted at. Well I shouldn't say hinted at it was almost told to you that the possibility could happen. So when the ending did come it was like *yawn* yeah I knew that would be in there. Some people might call it a cliff hanger but it was honestly to boring to be that for me.
8. I feel like the story is suppose to follow Rachel, like third point of view follow her and have a few other characters thrown in there. I think this cause the next book is Away so it makes sense that it would follow her but then I feel like it didn't it was poorly done.
Over all I just did not like this book. I mean I feel like it could have been a good idea, but it wasn't for so many reasons.
I only gave this book one out of five stars.

Tuesday, September 24, 2013

Just Listen by Sarah Dessen

Synopsis:

To find the truth, you've got to be willing to hear it.

When she's modeling, Annabel is the picture of perfection.

But her real life is far from perfect.

Fortunately, she's got Owen. He's intense, music-obsessed, and dedicated to always telling the truth.

And most of all, he's determined to make Annabel happy...

So i read this book mainly cause it was suggested to me by a few different friends.
So basically Girl doesn't like her life but doesn't speak out. She finds a guy who helps her start, but then fight happens and she pushes away from everything. Then she goes back to the guy starts talking and makes her life better. Better in every way that seems to matter. Also her and the guy seemed to be dating in the end.

So honestly not that different from a lot of books out there but it was good. I found a few parts funny, a few things touching too but it was just a normal life or a girl who doesn't like her life and needed someone to just listen to her while she got the courage to speak out. 

To be honest I'm not exactly sure what to say about this book. Other then it wasn't bad but like others books I have read.

Monday, September 23, 2013

Variant (Variant #1) by Robison Wells

Synopsis:
Benson Fisher thought that a scholarship to Maxfield Academy would be the ticket out of his dead-end life.

He was wrong.

Now he’s trapped in a school that’s surrounded by a razor-wire fence. A school where video cameras monitor his every move. Where there are no adults. Where the kids have split into groups in order to survive.

Where breaking the rules equals death.

But when Benson stumbles upon the school’s real secret, he realizes that playing by the rules could spell a fate worse than death, and that escape—his only real hope for survival—may be impossible


At one point I thought this would be a great book to read. Well let me just say it wasn't it was pretty bad. I mean it was okay but where was it trying to go? Nothing added up and I get that it wasn't suppose to but could they have made sense of anything?!?! It felt like the author didn't know what to do so he just made up anything. I mean maybe it was suppose to be like that, but a little explanation to one or two things would have made it easier to get threw this book. Make it feel less like a bunch of stuff just thrown together.
Also Benson was really boring. Some times I had to remember he was telling the story and not someone doing it from third person. He was really flat and I don't know there didn't seem to really be any conflicted for him with himself. He gets to this place then wants to go and that's pretty much it all he talks about is going going going going. That's all that seemed to be up with him. I was really sad with all the characters honestly I don't feel like we got to know any of them, which is something I would have really liked. 
It wasn't what I expected at all and I was really disappointed with this book.
Maybe the other books get better who knows, I really hope so but I may not decide to continue on with the rest unless I hear something at least half way promising on they get better

Sunday, September 22, 2013

172 Hours on the Moon by Johan Harstad

Synopsis:
It's been decades since anyone set foot on the moon. Now three ordinary teenagers, the winners of NASA's unprecedented, worldwide lottery, are about to become the first young people in space--and change their lives forever. Mia, from Norway, hopes this will be her punk band's ticket to fame and fortune. Midori believes it's her way out of her restrained life in Japan. Antoine, from France, just wants to get as far away from his ex-girlfriend as possible.
It's the opportunity of a lifetime, but little do the teenagers know that something sinister is waiting for them on the desolate surface of the moon. And in the black vacuum of space... no one is coming to save them.
In this chilling adventure set in the most brutal landscape known to man, highly acclaimed Norwegian novelist Johan Harstad creates a vivid and frightening world of possibilities we can only hope never come true.
This book was creepy! I mean you think these three kids have a chance of a life time going to the moon. How cool is that? They will be famous, well know and get everything they could ever want or hope for.
Once getting there though it's like 'they should have stayed home.' 
172 Hours on The Moon keep me on my toes and turning the page, and a book that must be read down to the very very last sentence.

Thursday, September 19, 2013

Taken (Taken #1) by Erin Bowman

Synopsis:
There are no men in Claysoot. There are boys—but every one of them vanishes at midnight on his eighteenth birthday. The ground shakes, the wind howls, a blinding light descends…and he’s gone.

They call it the Heist.

Gray Weathersby’s eighteenth birthday is mere months away, and he’s prepared to meet his fate–until he finds a strange note from his mother and starts to question everything he’s been raised to accept: the Council leaders and their obvious secrets. The Heist itself. And what lies beyond the Wall that surrounds Claysoot–a structure that no one can cross and survive.

Climbing the Wall is suicide, but what comes after the Heist could be worse. Should he sit back and wait to be taken–or risk everything on the hope of the other side
?


I really enjoyed this book. It was a good book.
Lots of the twist and things happening you could see coming. Which wasn't really bad I think because I felt like it covered up the cheesy-ness of the other things that happened. The things that just are usually cheesy and pretty common in books like this. Like finding a lost one or someone you don't expect or something being overly convenient. And I think that knowing that some things were going to happen, it made you look for the signs of what was going to happen missing other signs. It also miss how cheesy and over done some things were and how convenient one or two things seemed. So I believe it really worked out and it made this book surprisingly great.
I Like Gray's Character a lot! He is very curious and is has a lot of determination to look for answers and get what he wants.
Also let me say what a messed up situation they are in. All the places that have people taken away that is messed up but they don't really know how messed up. What Gray finds out is horrible and I really hate Frank's Character even though I kind of see why Frank is doing it. Still pretty twisted

The Scorch Trials (The Maze Runner #2) by James Dashner

Synopsis:
Solving the Maze was supposed to be the end. No more puzzles. No more variables. And no more running. Thomas was sure that escape meant he and the Gladers would get their lives back. But no one really knew what sort of life they were going back to.

In the Maze, life was easy. They had food, and shelter, and safety . . . until Teresa triggered the end. In the world outside the Maze, however, the end was triggered long ago.

Burned by sun flares and baked by a new, brutal climate, the earth is a wasteland. Government has disintegrated—and with it, order—and now Cranks, people covered in festering wounds and driven to murderous insanity by the infectious disease known as the Flare, roam the crumbling cities hunting for their next victim . . . and meal.

The Gladers are far from finished with running. Instead of freedom, they find themselves faced with another trial. They must cross the Scorch, the most burned-out section of the world, and arrive at a safe haven in two weeks. And WICKED has made sure to adjust the variables and stack the odds against them.
Thomas can only wonder—does he hold the secret of freedom somewhere in his mind? Or will he forever be at the mercy of WICKED?
This was a good second book. Very well done though I think a lot of it kinda just came off as boring. I mean Thomas was always asleep, it seemed. Like always going in and out of sleep for days. Which wasn't bad but I felt that it could have more details or something.
I sorta wish that book was done from two different views any one else probably would have worked. Like someone in group B or one of the other guys. It probably would have made it more interesting. But not a bad book hope the third one ends a little better though.
Also I think some parts where explained to much. Like way to much to let your mind try and figure it out for yourself. It was like telling you how to feel almost, well that's how I felt with it. It just kind of made me a bit angry I guess I wished it was more explained in other places and less in some places. But the book worked out! 

Wednesday, September 11, 2013

Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher

Synopsis:
Clay Jensen returns home from school to find a mysterious box with his name on it lying on his porch. Inside he discovers thirteen cassette tapes recorded by Hannah Baker, his classmate and crush who committed suicide two weeks earlier.
On tape, Hannah explains that there are thirteen reasons why she decided to end her life. Clay is one of them. If he listens, he'll find out how he made the list.
Through Hannah and Clay's dual narratives, debut author Jay Asher weaves an intricate and heartrending story of confusion and desperation that will deeply affect teen readers.
Heart Breaking! This is one pretty sad book not going to lie. But it is a spectacular read. We follow Clay threw getting a tapes from a girl who commit suicide a few weeks before and the 13 reasons why. Threw this book we get to know what Hannah went threw and why she decided to do what she did. We learn a lot about her. Also about Clay but i'll get into that later. Threw these tapes we learn who she was and who she was seen as by other people and they are pretty different images. Which is sorta major to this book.
Now I have heard some people say they didn't get to know Clay as much as they would have liked to threw reading this book. Honestly though what is there to know, good guy, gets good grades. Blah blah blah honestly his life is probably pretty simple and we just don't get that. It is interesting though to see how he deals with the information on this tapes and the people around him while listening to these tapes.
Honestly this book was one of the best books I have ever read and it makes you think. I think lots of people should pick up this book and read it. Even if you don't think you will like it read it. If you read it and you hate it? I would like to know. Yes I know some of you will hate this book like any thing there is someone who will like it and someone to hate it, but read it anyways.
Tell me what you think of this book or even my review.

Sunday, September 8, 2013

Quarantine: The Loners (Quarantine #1) by Lex Thomas

Synopsis:
As original as The Hunger Games, set within the walls of a high school exactly like yours.” – Kami Garcia, New York Times best-selling co-author of the Beautiful Creatures novels

It was just another ordinary day at McKinley High—until a massive explosion devastated the school. When loner David Thorpe tried to help his English teacher to safety, the teacher convulsed and died right in front of him. And that was just the beginning.

A year later, McKinley has descended into chaos. All the students are infected with a virus that makes them deadly to adults. The school is under military quarantine. The teachers are gone. Violent gangs have formed based on high school social cliques. Without a gang, you’re as good as dead. And David has no gang. It’s just him and his little brother, Will, against the whole school. 
 
In this frighteningly dark and captivating novel, Lex Thomas locks readers inside a school where kids don’t fight to be popular, they fight to stay alive.

I liked this book but let me say it wasn't the greatest book I have read that was like this. I have read Lord of the flies, The Gone Series, Monument 14, The Maze Runner. Basically a lot of book where it is just kids with out adults. I don't think this one is great as it could have been or maybe I am just getting bored of this kind of book who knows.
What makes this book kind of the same to some of the other books I have read is, the government knows are starts this. They try to help people but end up giving up. Blah blah blah.
Differences are that this book is spread out a lot. Its hard to judge the time but over a year almost 2 probably you don't really know.
I would like to mention what I can gather it is set in Colorado. (Now should I be worried that I Live here?) 
Now this review: 
"Take Michael Grant's Gone and Veronica Roth's Divergent, rattle them in a cage until they're ready to fight to the death, and you'll have something like this nightmarish debut...Thomas' whirlwind pace, painful details, simmering sexual content, and moments of truly shocking ultra-violence thrust this movie-ready high school thriller to the head of the class." -Booklist (starred review)
Let me start off by saying it is pretty much true. You have children trapped like in Gone and you also have groups sorta like the fractions in Divergent. Some of it is violent but for the most part nah. This book wasn't as great as either of those books to me sadly to say but it was like if you put both of them together. 
Also one last thing. Didn't think it should be compared to The Hunger Games just didn't see it. Unless the Food and supplies that got dropped down every other week was like the Cornucopia in the Hunger Games and how people rushed after and killed people to get supplies and food. Other then that I just don't see the reference.
I will see how the next book turns out and let you know. :)

Saturday, September 7, 2013

Drought by Pam Bachorz

Synopsis:
A young girl thirsts for love and freedom, but at what cost? 
Ruby dreams of escaping the Congregation. Escape from slaver Darwin West and his cruel Overseers. Escape from the backbreaking work of gathering Water. Escape from living as if it is still 1812, the year they were all enslaved. 

When Ruby meets Ford—an irresistible, kind, forbidden new Overseer—she longs to run away with him to the modern world where she could live a normal teenage life. Escape with Ford would be so simple. 

But if Ruby leaves, her community is condemned to certain death. She, alone, possesses the secret ingredient that makes the Water so special—her blood—and it’s the one thing that the Congregation cannot live without.

Drought is the haunting story of one community’s thirst for life, and the dangerous struggle of the only girl who can grant it



I enjoyed this book. 3/5 for how much I liked this book. It was fun to get into. Ruby wants to leave but really can't cause the Congregation can't live without her. It's cool to see how this book goes and what happens. I like where it ends the end doesn't tell much but it lets your imagination. Also while everyone seems against Ruby is she really to blame for the situation she is in? Shouldn't she be able to just leave her Congregation? If you ask me its not her fault. *Cough* Blame the mother *Cough*. Anyways enjoyed reading this book. Wondering what everyone else thinks though. 

Friday, September 6, 2013

Nerve by Jeanne Ryan

Synopsis:
A high-stakes online game of dares turns deadly

When Vee is picked to be a player in NERVE, an anonymous game of dares broadcast live online, she discovers that the game knows her. They tempt her with prizes taken from her ThisIsMe page and team her up with the perfect boy, sizzling-hot Ian. At first it's exhilarating--Vee and Ian's fans cheer them on to riskier dares with higher stakes. But the game takes a twisted turn when they're directed to a secret location with five other players for the Grand Prize round. Suddenly they're playing all or nothing, with their lives on the line. Just how far will Vee go before she loses NERVE?

Debut author Jeanne Ryan delivers an un-putdownable suspense thriller.

No question that this book is another one of my favorites and getting a 5/5. I couldn't put it down once I started. This book traps you in right away. It is suspenseful to say that least. It was nerve racking as I read threw it trying to figure out what was going to happen. I literally hated every time i turned a page cause there was half a second where I wasn't reading it was killer. It was not what I expected when I picked out this book but I loved it. With all the lies and the parts where the truth comes out. What length Vee goes to, to escape. Also the ending, well I loved that just loved it and im glad this book isn't part of a series. 
If you read this book I hope you enjoy it as much as I did. 

Thursday, September 5, 2013

Thumped (Bumped #2) Megan McCafferty

Synopsis:
Thumped, the sequel to Bumped, manages to be satiric, scary, and romantic at the same time. It continues the story of separated-at-birth twins, Melody and Harmony, girls as engaging as McCafferty’s Jessica Darling. These sisters are the most popular teen girls on the planet. To their fans, they seem to be living ideal lives. Harmony is married to Ram and living in Goodside, the religious community that once meant everything to her. Melody has the genetically flawless Jondoe as her coupling partner, which means money and status—and a bright future.

But both girls are hiding secrets. And they are each pining for the only guys they can’t have…. The biggest risk of all could be to finally tell the truth.
So this book turned out the be a lot better then the first book. Things made more sense. Not everything was explained as nicely as it should have been but it was still a good book. I liked where this book went. All the lies and secrets and how everything unravels. It was a great book with a good ending. I gave it a 3/5 meaning I liked it. I sort think it was worth reading the first book that I didn't like much at all. 

Wednesday, September 4, 2013

Sky On Fire (Monument 14 #2) By Emmy Laybourne

Synopsis:

Trapped in a superstore by a series of escalating disasters, including a monster hailstorm and terrifying chemical weapons spill, brothers Dean and Alex learned how to survive and worked together with twelve other kids to build a refuge from the chaos. But then strangers appeared, destroying their fragile peace, and bringing both fresh disaster and a glimmer of hope.

Knowing that the chemical weapons saturating the air outside will turn him into a bloodthirsty rage monster, Dean decides to stay in the safety of the store with Astrid and some of the younger kids. But their sanctuary has already been breached once. . . .

Meanwhile, Alex, determined to find their parents, heads out into the darkness and devastation with Niko and some others in a recently repaired school bus. If they can get to Denver International Airport, they might be evacuated to safety. But the outside world is even worse than they expected. 



This book is told by both Alex and Dean and let me tell you I LOVED IT. Just as great as the first book but now we know way more. We know what is going on in the outside world and what is going on in the store which is way more then i expected. I thought it was just going to be from Alex's point of view but it wasn't. I gave this book a 5/5 and I just loved it as much as the first. The ending was spectacular and I wouldn't be surprised if the books ended there. Great ending. But now there is going to be more? Can't wait to see how that turns out!