Perfect Chemistry by Simon Elkeles

Goodreads Blurb

When Brittany Ellis walks into chemistry class on the first day of senior year, she has no clue that her carefully created “perfect” life is about to unravel before her eyes. She’s forced to be lab partners with Alex Fuentes, a gang member from the other side of town, and he is about to threaten everything she's worked so hard for—her flawless reputation, her relationship with her boyfriend, and the secret that her home life is anything but perfect. Alex is a bad boy and he knows it. So when he makes a bet with his friends to lure Brittany into his life, he thinks nothing of it. But soon Alex realizes Brittany is a real person with real problems, and suddenly the bet he made in arrogance turns into something much more.  In a passionate story about looking beneath the surface, Simone Elkeles breaks through the stereotypes and barriers that threaten to keep Brittany and Alex apart.

Perfect Chemistry was a perfect romance. Not only was their love breaking the “rules” of the society, they also broke through the bars of racism and stereotypes, and I think that’s one of the more important aspects of this book. Alejandro (Alex) Fuentes is part of the Latin Blood gang and is one of the bad boys, from the south side. Brittney is the all-popular Queen Bee of the school and captain of the cheer squad. Both are chemistry partners, and suddenly, despite their many, many, differences, they’re drawn to each other, even though they know that their being together will cause problems.  It’s a classic love story—except for one little bet: if Alex…end ups with Brittney he gets a car…a bit petty, isn’t it? He agrees with it, thinking it as a challenge only…until he starts falling—and hard. Cliché? It should be, shouldn’t it? But it’s not. Brittney has to pretend everyday to be perfect while her older sister sits at home, mentally delayed. Brittney loves her sister, but she can’t bring herself to tell her friends about Shelley. Alex saw his father murdered but can’t remember who murdered him and is stuck in gang-business to save his family from harm. So how can these unlikely people be together?

Simone Elkeles weaves this romance so thoroughly that you’re left with no questions asked. Danger lurks in Alex’s life and wariness in Brittney’s. “A thin line between love and hate” is shown in Perfect Chemistry. Alex and Brittney hate each other, and take a jab at each other whenever possible, but of course, start falling sooner than you’d think. Miss Elkeles doesn’t rush into the romance as in some books I’ve read, she takes it gradually as if Brittney and Alex were real people falling into a relationship. Told from both POVs, you get a feel for both their emotions, confusion, determination, and hesitation. Small things, you can expect in this story, but other things just hit me unexpectedly. The last…fifty pages? made  me just love the book even more.

This may be the oldest book I’ve reviewed, about three years old, but I’m definitely glad I read it. It was just amazing, full of romance, intrigue, and danger. It wasn’t “dark and dangerous” in any paranormal way, but it had its own sense of danger of its own way, one that sent shivers down my spine. Perfect Chemistry deals with some serious things as well, like being in a gang, racism, society, and anti-drug dealing, and, like I mentioned above, I think these are the most important things of this book. I think every teen should read this…if it wasn’t for the steamy scenes, that is!

All in all, it was a wonderful book and the epilogue with their son made me smile and laugh. I can’t wait to read book two, Rules of Attraction, starring Alex’s brother, Carlos, and yet another “snow-girl”. I’m sure it’ll be a bit cheesy, but those are the best kind of books.                              

Pages: 360

Series: Perfect Chemistry #1

Genre: Realistic/Romance

Rating: 5 stars

“’Assure me nothing’s going to happen to you.’ I can’t.”                           

Before I Fall by Lauren Oliver

Goodreads Blurb

What if you only had one day to live? What would you do? Who would you kiss? And how far would you go to save your own life?

Samantha Kingston has it all: looks, popularity, the perfect boyfriend. Friday, February 12, should be just another day in her charmed life. Instead, it turns out to be her last.

The catch: Samantha still wakes up the next morning. Living the last day of her life seven times during one miraculous week, she will untangle the mystery surrounding her death--and discover the true value of everything she is in danger of losing.

I am a giant fan of Lauren Oliver. Whatever she writes, I read. This was actually the book I read before Delirium, and when I discovered Delirium I was ecstatic that she had written another book! Now I'm anxiously awaiting my chance to buy Pandemonium, but this is a review of Before I Fall, not Delirium.

For a book of Lauren Oliver's I think this book is sadly overlooked because of the excitement of Pandemonium and Delirium. Yes, those books are amazing and are going to be amazing, but Before I Fall is just as good. It doesn't have the romance that Delirium has, but it still has that style of writing that makes you feel as if something more is going on, something that will make you think over life again. In a way, Before I Fall is realistic fiction, everything happening is possible; except for the one thing that makes this book so unique. Samantha reliving her death.

In the beginning, I absolutely hated every single character in this book. Samantha, her friends, her boyfriend, the "loser", basically the entire bunch. Samantha seemed fake, petty, and selfish, her boyfriend was a total jerk (and not the good kind), her friends seemed cruel and empty (and like Samantha in that way), and Juliet seemed weak because she didn’t fight back. It’s only later on, I learned why. It’s later on that I realized why Lindsay acted the way she did, and why she seemed so fake—because she was.

In the beginning, Samantha is all looks and little substance. She thinks she’s crazy because she doesn’t “love” Rob, her all-popular boyfriend. Pshh. I sort of pitied Samantha at that moment, she didn’t know the value of her friends, her family, her life. It’s only when she loses all those things that she slowly realizes. There’s a lot of character development in Before I Fall, especially on Samantha’s part. Of course, I didn’t really realize it until near the end. Sam made a lot of mistakes, but slowly, slowly, she fixes them. Slowly, she’s finally getting her last day on Earth right. “Learn from your mistakes” and that’s exactly what she does.

Another plus is that Lauren Oliver played on the domino effect a bit. Samantha relives her last day again and again, so everything should be exactly the same, right?  No. Each word she said, each look she gave, each action she did, changed something. Secrets were exposed, friendships were ruined, lives were saved, lives were killed. But those were all variations of the same day. It’s amazing how Lauren Oliver did all that, but really, was there ever any doubt?

My absolute favorite parts were the italicized parts. They just sent a chill up my spine, which happens when I read a book that touches me. It was like Samantha had gone over her own story and added her comments, added her experiences to help us understand better. My favorite non-italicized parts, to be specific, were pages 419-420, 428, 438, and 468-470. These were the parts that made me cry my eyes out or just absolutely cheered for Samantha. It’s amazing how the small things she does makes the people she cared about, or the people who hated her, happy. Samantha is a great character that shows what it means to have second chances to redo everything. In the end, she sacrificed one of the most important things and didn’t hesitate. In short: Lauren Oliver’s writing will capture your heart and touch you. She shows how everyone makes mistakes in their lives; that we can correct them, and the sacrifices people have to make in the end.



Pages: 470

Series: Stand-alone

Genre: Realistic/Fiction (?)

Rating: 5 stars

“It’s too late.” She says. And I say, “It’s never too late.”



Spellcaster by Cara Lynn Shultz***

Goodreads Blurb

Finding your eternal soulmate - easy.
Stopping a true-love-hungry evil - not so much…
After breaking a centuries-old romantic curse, Emma Connor is (almost) glad to get back to normal problems. Although...it's not easy dealing with the jealous cliques and gossip that rule her exclusive Upper East Side prep, even for a sixteen-year-old newbie witch. Having the most-wanted boy in school as her eternal soul mate sure helps ease the pain-especially since wealthy, rocker-hot Brendan Salinger is very good at staying irresistibly close....

But something dark and hungry is using Emma and Brendan's deepest fears to reveal damaging secrets and destroy their trust in each other. And Emma's crash course in über-spells may not be enough to keep them safe…or to stop an inhuman force bent on making their unsuspected power its own.

This is book two of the Spellbound series and no, I have not posted the review forSpellbound yet. But I decided to post a review on Spellcaster simply because I feel as if book #2 is better the #1. I received this through NetGalley (amazing site!) and was so excited! I’m still not used to receiving eARCs or ARCs in general.  I can’t believe my blog is already 6-7 months old!

Away from nostalgia, Spellcaster made me realize why I loved Cara Lynn’s writing so much. Not only did she create a whole bunch of legends and “spells” that caught my interest. You never really read a lot of stories about witches, you know? I mean, paranormal worlds have been taken over by the one we all know and love/hate: vampires. So reading a book with witches is different because they have advantages that vamps don’t have, and disadvantages that vamps don’t have. It wasn’t disorienting, but you could notice the change in…creature? For me, witches just seem more fun, more human, because really, they are humans. Just with a few gifts. And witches are something you can twist into a “good” or “evil” whereareas vampires, for some reason, always stay “evil”.

I loved the new conflict even better than the old one, where instead of just realizing that she was a witch who had found her soulmate, she had to fight for her soul mate. She had to get used to her powers. She had to learn how to control her gifts. And she had to trick a (quite literally) bloodthirsty witch who was hell-bent on making Emma pay. And all this a new witch has to deal with! Pretty intense. But Emma deals with it, still making time to care for her cousin, to still hide her secret, and deal with Kristin. So maybe emma’s not as kickass as some other characters, but Emma is strong, in her own way. And I think that the way she deals with things is better than how she reacts with things. Emma is definitely badass in her own way.

Reading Spellcaster  takes you to another one of Emma’s past lives, and I think I’m starting to see a pattern here even with only reading two books in the series: (a)We readers will see a short clip of Emma’s past lives through her dreams. (b) There will always be a story in Hadrian’s Medieval Legends that replays in the “present” and (c) Brendan and Emma will always be one of the cutest couples ever. So far, in both books all three have been proven true! Spellcaster was an amazing read that reminded why I first started reading. The thrilling good versus evil fights, the soul mates, the witches, all cliché, but all new in Spellcaster! They say sequels are a disappointment, but are they really? Well, maybe some, but Spellcaster? Not. At. All. If you say differently, please, I do not want to hear it. You can try, but I doubt you’ll convince me.

Pages: 384

Series: Spellbound #2

Genre: Fantasy/Romance

Rating: 5 stars

"There was just me and her on this roof. And she wasn't going to stop. And if she got her powers back, revenge would be the first order of business. She would kill Brendan. She would take him away from me, away from this world."

Author Interview: Jolene Perry

A Q&A with author Jolene Perry, author of Night Sky, an amazing contemporary romance!

Fiction Freak: Going with the classic question, what first made you think of writing Night Sky?

Jolene Perry: My husband and I were talking movies in the Taco Bell drive-thru, and I wanted to know what happened to the best friend who loved the girl, and didn't get the girl. That's the starting point for the book, and it was a fun place to start from - the story really starts with a bad ending, and then Jameson gets his good ending down the road.

FF: When writing, do you often get sidetracked? And by what?

JP: I get sidetracked by other ideas, and I get sidetracked a bit by blogging, but not too much. Writing time is precious, and when I really want to write, I can tune out almost anything.

FF: What is a book/series that you'd like to recommend to everyone YA reader?

JP: Anything by John Green. Wintergirls by Laurie Halse Anderson. The Sky is Everywhere by Jandy Nelson, The Summer Series by Jenny Han, and the Perfect Chemistry series by Simone Elkeles. This is sticking with Contemporary, and there's SO many more I love.

FF: If what you happened to meet someone who resembled your mental image of your character both physically and emotionally, what would you do?

JP: Give myself a pat on the back for creating someone real.

FF: What was your favorite pass time as a kid?

JP: I rode horses. All the time. I did lessons five days a week and show-jumped all through high school and a bit into college.

FF: If you wrote a biography, who would it be on?

JP: This may sound totally sappy, but I'd do one on my Grandma, who I'm named after, but didn't get to meet.

FF: Who was/is your role model?

JP: I don't have one. I see traits in the people around me that I'd like to emulate, but I sort of pick my favorite things about a lot of people.

FF: Since these never fail to make me laugh, what was the funniest moment in your life?

JP: We were out boating with my parents, and had anchored in this small cove where quite a few people were camped out (in the rain, looking frozen) on the beaches to fish. We were staying on my parents' boat.

Both Mike and I had been daring each other all day to jump into the ocean (not recommended, BTW, it really is FREEZING). We both changed into our swimsuits, walked out into 50 degree weather in the rain, and dove off the front of the boat into the water. We got a few stares from the people huddled over campfires on the shore . . .

I don't know that it's all that hilarious, but we had a blast doing it.

 (I live in Alaska - so, to give some perspective, this was in Alaska ocean. Not warm)

FF: Do you prefer HEAs (Happily Ever Afters) or the Ultimate Sacrifice in books?

JP: The ultimate sacrifice has this fabulous romantic quality to it - however, I read for escape, so I have to go with the HEA.

FF: If someone was to randomly appear in your house what would your reaction be? What would you do?Tell my husband to let them have a chance to explain before he shot him ;-O

FF: What is your favorite color, and why?

JP: Grey because it can be anything - warm, soft, hard, cold . . .

FF: What's some personal advice you'd give to an aspiring author?
JP: When you first start writing, learn the technical side BEFORE you spout that your voice is more important than rules. Once you know the rules, THEN you can break them. Also - Keep writing. It takes the right person, in the right place, at the right time, to sign your book.

FF: Were you surprised that you'd become an author, or did you always want to be one? And if not, what did you want to be?

JP: I was a high school teacher, and loved it. Being an author was always in the back of my mind, but it took me a long time to push forward and actually DO something about it. I'm glad it took me so long, because I'm sure my voice is much better now than it would have been. Also - writing tends to take over everything else.

FF:  Are any of your characters based on someone you know?

JP: I'm going to cheat here and say all of them. BUT - my disclaimer is - just like I don't have any one particular person that I look up to, I also pick PARTS of people I know and put them in my characters. I will say that Jameson from Night Sky, is very similar to my husband in high school (yes, we knew each other in high school).

FF: Is there anything you'd like to say to us readers/bloggers?

JP: Just that book-loving people are the best kind of people to hang with.

FF: If you could go into any book and be any character, who would you choose, what book, and most importantly, why?

JP: I don't think anyone. Books are life with added drama. I have enough on my own ;-D At the same time, I feel like I get a chance to be each and every one of my characters as I'm writing their story, so maybe that's also an odd way to answer your question.

Thanks so much for having me!!!

~ Jolene

Night Sky Blurb:

After losing Sarah, the friend he’s loved, to some other guy, Jameson meets Sky. Her Native American roots, fluid movements, and need for brutal honesty become addictive fast. This is good. Jameson needs distraction – his dad leaves for another woman, his mom’s walking around like a zombie, and Sarah’s new boyfriend can’t keep his hands off of her.

As he spends time with Sky and learns about her village, her totems, and her friends with drums - she's way more than distraction. Jameson's falling for her fast.

But Sky’s need for honesty somehow doesn’t extend to her life story – and Jameson just may need more than his new girl to keep him distracted from the disaster of his senior year.

Short Author Bio:

Jolene grew up in Wasilla, Alaska. She graduated from Southern Utah University with a degree in political science and French, which she used to teach math to middle schoolers.

After living in Washington, Utah and Las Vegas, she now resides in Alaska with her husband, and two children. Aside from writing, Jolene sews, plays the guitar, sings when forced, and spends as much time outside as possible.

She is also the author of The Next Door Boys and the upcoming Knee Deep.

Contact Info:

Night Sky Website

Jolene Perry's Facebook

Jolene Perry's Twitter
Jolene Perry's Website
Jolene Perry's Blog
Jolene Perry's Goodreads

Tribute Books Blog Tours

Random Musings on: Picking a Book

So, everyone is always saying "never judge a book by its cover" right? I do. The covers just catch my eye. For example, one of the covers that absolutely caught my eye in the first place was:

That's right, Wither! And when I read the blurb, I added to my cart in Amazon, and bought it! The cover intrigued me, why use that particular design, and why was there a bird in a cage right there? And then, when I started reading it, I found that the circles are showing you the important parts of the book: her head, because the reason she was chosen was because of her eyes, and her hair; her hand, or more specifically, her ring because of her marriage, the one thing she didn't want; and the bird, because she was trapped, nowhere to run. On the back cover, you see an hourglass there, circled. That one's pretty obvious: she's running out of time. Don't judge the book by its cover? Hah, it's the cover that shows you what the book's about. A few other books that show things from their covers are:

The cover of Matched. It hows you that Cassia's safe and sound in a bubble that's the Society, being hidden form the outside world. She's trying to break free, but can she do it? Will she hesitate?

The cover of Iron King. Meghan is staring straight at you as if she wants to tell you something but she can't, as if it's something she still doesn't quite understand. What is it, and will she ever?

The cover of The Pledge. Charlaina is shrouded by the words of the Pledge. Supposedly the words are trapping her in. She's hiding. From what? And her eyes are searching for someone. But who?

Updates

HEY HEY HEY! You've found my Blogoversary Giveaway, hidden in time! ;D Glad you could make it! The prizes (in no order) are....
Winner 1) 2 books from the S&S pack, first choice
Winner 2) 2 books from the S&S pack, second choice
Winner 3) A hardback of  THE INNOCENTS and a mystery YA book
Winner 4) an ARC copy of EVERY DAY and 2 secret fairytale retellings!

You guys, this is US ONLY! I'm shipping all of these with my money, and INT shipping is just too costly! Sorry!

The S&S pack consists of the books in the picture below:

Old Magic
Surrender
Possession
Burn for Burn (ARC)
Lovely, Dark, and Deep (ARC)
Edit to add Touching the Surface
Unbecoming of Mara Dyer
Evolution of Mara Dyer (ARC)









EDIT: RAFFLECOPTER HAS ENDED MY GIVEAWAY AT LEAST A WEEK BEFORE IT SHOULD'VE. IT WON'T LET ME REOPEN IT, SO HERE'S A NEW ONE. I WILL BE PICKING TWO WINNERS FROM THIS AND TWO FROM THERE

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