Once Was Lost by Sara Zarr, finished 3/1. This book is pretty realistic. It's not like that "one issue at a time" kind of thing. Everything just kinda blew up and Sam had to deal with it, much on her own. Which was more sad stuff than I really like handling in a book. (Ironic, really.) There's not really much else I have to say about it.
--> TL; DR Kinda sad but also somewhat eye-opening?
Hacking Harvard by Robin Wasserman, finished 3/2. I knew about Hacking Harvard for a few years; I avoided it because it was in the hands of a kid I didn't like. Petty, I know. But I wasn't really missing much. Hacking Harvard actually bugged me. It wasn't very believable (although I've overlooked that before, so no huge deal) and then at one point the perspective switched from third to first person and I got mad and wanted to throw the book. It was pretty uncalled for and I dunno, I just had problems with the book.
--> TL;DR I did not like.
Endure by Carrie Jones, finished 3/4. I liked the Need series. It was pretty cool. I have memories reading one of the books (I'm gonna guess Need) during a vacation, so it always had a pretty nice connotation in my head. Zara was also a nice character; she was good to a fault, and I liked that. She put others before herself and even though things screwed up she was willing to go through the effort to fix it. The love triangle is kind of iffy, although interesting. In Endure especially.
--> TL; DR I liked it but I may be a little biased.
The Story of Us by Deb Caletti, finished 3/9. Reading TSoU after a bunch of depressing books was actually a really good idea. It's fluffy but in a very good way. I could talk about how much that made me like it, but there'd be some major spoilers so I'll just leave it at this. The dynamic of Cricket's extended family also reminded me of my own. So there was that aspect of things being faintly familiar. Oh, and I also liked how it only showed Cricket's side of the emails. It bugged me a little bit at first, but then I realized it's actually kind of nice, in the sense that you're allowed to infer things.
--> TL; DR A very nice kind of fluffy.
Fox and Phoenix by Beth Bernobich, finished 3/10. Fox and Phoenix kind of fell flat for me. A lot of things weren't explained (like how did Kai even meet Lian? And anybody care to explain their "street rat" background?) and that really bothered me. Some stories can throw you into the plot and explain later, but Fox and Phoenix didn't even try that much to explain. There is apparently a short story prequel that explains it, but that would've been nice to know before reading...
--> TL; DR If the book is a sequel / continuation of something, tell me, dangit!
City of Swords by Mary Hoffman, finished 3/11. Let me start this off by saying I am completely biased: I love the Stravaganza series and I've been wanting this book since my birthday (when it was published) so to find it six months later in the library made it the best book out of the trip. Anyway, I loved City of Swords. There are a few things that can be irking, like the beginning or some of the details, but the book is also more marketed towards kids, which excuses them in my mind. I like all of the action and the potential "all hell breaking loose" stakes. And yes, as the 6th book in the series it's a little bit repetitive of the other ones, but again: it's a kid's book. Also, there were things related to recent news (but I won't spoil them), as well as my own life. And I liked that at some points there were lines that screamed to me that something was going to happen and then something else did instead.
--> TL;DR I LOVED. Although I am biased.
Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins, finished 3/12. AatFK has been sitting on the top of my goodreads to-read list since I made the account. Only on the account that it was one of the books I could've read for summer homework for English class (although I picked The Adoration of Jenna Fox instead). So finally I decided to deprive it of its #1 spot. And it falls along the same line of The Story of Us: very fluffy, but following some depressing books and reader's block it was a very nice way to recover. It was my school book so it took me longer to read than otherwise. The same thing seems to happen a few times, though. Love triangle, friendship problems, school sucking, such things.
--> TL; DR Good for if you need a fluffy romantic book with little plot and lots of romantic mushy stuff.
Princess of Glass by Jessica Day George, no exact finish day. I picked Princess of Glass from the library simply to have something to read. I didn't really like Princess of the Midnight Ball. (On an unrelated note, both books had sand in the library dust jackets. I thought it was glitter as part of the book cover until someone pointed out it was sand.) Glass was better than Midnight Ball for me, although I'm not entirely sure why. I didn't even realize it was supposed to be a retelling of Cinderella until about halfway through the book -- I guess that's just because I'm used to the Disney version. It was a pretty good deviation from what I was expecting. It just kind of... lacked a "wow" factor for me.
--> TL;DR It was ok.
Matched by Ally Condie, finished 3/14. I'd been looking forward to reading Matched for a while, and it sat pretty high up on my to-read list until I was able to find a copy at my school library. And it kind of fell short. I liked it at first; I liked how the background details to the story were set up. However, they're very similar to The Giver. Almost identical. So by establishing that within the first chapter or so, I knew how their society worked. That's not a good thing, though -- why would you want a book that is extremely similar to another, more well-known one? The characters were pretty flat, and while they did grow and get better over the story, they were still kind of boring. And there's that "obligatory love triangle" going on. And there wasn't any action. The entire plot revolved around the love story.
--> TL;DR The Giver with a teenage girl and a love triangle. Did not like.
The Assassin's Curse by Cassandra Rose Clarke, finished 3/20. Not really sure what I was looking forward to reading in this book. I checked it out because it was on my to-read list. And even at that point, I thought "this doesn't look like something I'd add," but I needed books to read. Whatever small expectations I did have, they were thrown out the window. TAC to me was very far from the goodreads description. I probably wouldn't have finished it if I wasn't desperate for books to read. It seemed all over the place for me -- maybe because I didn't understand the setting or culture, but also because the action jumped from one thing to another pretty suddenly. A lot of people on goodreads seemed to like the book; I was one of the ones that didn't.
--> TL;DR I was confused through most of the book while reading it.
Shades of Earth by Beth Revis, finished 3/22. My ratings for the Across the Universe series has gotten better as the books progressed -- Shades of Earth being my favorite. The first two books were very depressing for me, because I felt really bad for Amy. And some of the shipborns drove me crazy. The series definitely went out with a bang. I can't go into detail without spoiling, but those plot twists, man. I actually asked my friend to spoil some for me because I needed to know what was going on. I think what made SoE my favorite was that there were all these "lol nope, whatever you were thinking about this situation was WRONG" moments. When I got to the end of the book I really wanted to throw it, but in a good way, if that makes sense. The last few plot twists hit me so hard it solidified itself as my favorite in the series.
--> TL;DR Read the first two books before this one so things make sense, but SoE was awesome.
Nicholas St. North and the Battle of the Nightmare King and E. Aster Bunnymund and the Battle of the Warrior Eggs at the Earth's Core by William Joyce, both finished 3/31. These books are totally out of my reading level, I know. The age range on the cover is 7 - 11 years old. But I loved the movie Rise of the Guardians, so I wanted to read the books that it was based off of. And they were so incredibly cute! The stories are so creative and interesting. They're very different from the RotG movie but it does add some good insight. I haven't had time to sit down and read Toothiana's book yet.
--> TL;DR If you liked Rise of the Guardians, READ THESE.
I really need to post these on time.
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