Heartbeat by Elizabeth Scott

Pages: 240

Genre: Contemporary

Series: Standalone

Publisher: Harlequin Teen 

Release Date: January 28, 2014

Life. Death. And...Love?
Emma would give anything to talk to her mother one last time. Tell her about her slipping grades, her anger with her stepfather, and the boy with the bad reputation who might be the only one Emma can be herself with.
But Emma can't tell her mother anything. Because her mother is brain-dead and being kept alive by machines for the baby growing inside her.
Meeting bad-boy Caleb Harrison wouldn't have interested Old Emma. But New Emma-the one who exists in a fog of grief, who no longer cares about school, whose only social outlet is her best friend Olivia-New Emma is startled by the connection she and Caleb forge.
Feeling her own heart beat again wakes Emma from the grief that has grayed her existence. Is there hope for life after death-and maybe, for love?

I've been dying for Heartbeat since about June last year. It sounded sweet, it sounded heartbreaking, and I'm always one for a good girl/bad boy romance and contemporary standalone. And I tried to love the book, I really did. But I couldn't get past the hypocrisy and annoying character and thoughtless actions, no matter how much I wanted to love this story.

My main problem with the story was Emma. I just felt like she was so hypocritical when she kept going on and on about how Dan (her stepfather) didn't know what her mom would want while, at the same time, saying how her mother wouldn't have wanted this then going to "Well she can't do/say anything now. She's dead." It just made me want to slap her because how could she not realize how much pain Dan was going through? What made me want to slap her even more was that she hurt Dan as much as she could. Of course she couldn't just ignore him right? She had to give him even more grief about keeping his own son alive. 

I didn't really get her side. I did sort of understand how painful it must've been, but I just didn't understand why the hell she would think her mom would want the baby she sacrificed herself for to die? How could she think her mother would want the child to die and how could she think it was selfish of Dan to want to keep his son, her brother, alive. It made me so angry that she wanted the baby to die (at a certain point) and then suddenly contradict herself. Or at least, that's how it seemed to me.
There were times Emma seemed like an okay character, but that wasn't very often and she really just annoyed me.

The romance was...interesting. So I wasn't quite the biggest fan of it because I felt like it was really rushed--but I do think that for such a short story that it was pretty well paced, though I still wasn't wholly satisfied by it.

Despite all my misgivings though, Heartbeat seems to be a pretty well loved novel and the feel of the novel is actually pretty New Adult, so if you're a fan of NA, I definitely think this could be one of your next favorites!

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Waiting on Wednesday

Bright Before Sunrise by Tiffany Schmidt

When Jonah is forced to move from Hamilton to Cross Pointe for the second half of his senior year, "miserable" doesn't even begin to cover it. He feels like the doggy-bag from his mother's first marriage and everything else about her new life—with a new husband, new home and a new baby—is an upgrade. The people at Cross Pointe High School are pretentious and privileged—and worst of all is Brighton Waterford, the embodiment of all things superficial and popular. Jonah’s girlfriend, Carly, is his last tie to what feels real... until she breaks up with him. 
For Brighton, every day is a gauntlet of demands and expectations. Since her father died, she’s relied on one coping method: smile big and pretend to be fine. It may have kept her family together, but she has no clue how to handle how she's really feeling. Today is the anniversary of his death and cracks are beginning to show. The last thing she needs is the new kid telling her how much he dislikes her for no reason she can understand. She's determined to change his mind, and when they're stuck together for the night, she finally gets her chance. 
Jonah hates her at 3p.m., but how will he feel at 3 a.m.? 
One night can change how you see the world. One night can change how you see yourself.

Did I absolutely love Send Me a Sign and name it one of my Favorites of 2012? YES YES I DID. Does Bright Before Sunrise sound absolutely awesome? YES YES IT DOES. Can  I wait until it releases in like 3 weeks? NO NO I CAN'T. 
I seriously can't wait to read this because, honestly, Tiffany Schmidt is a genius and I really want to cuddle all her characters. And also, I cried in Send Me a Sign. SO OF COURSE I AM SALIVATING FOR THIS RELEASE. GIVE IT TO ME NOW I BID YOU. 

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Author Interview: Sarah Beth Durst

Hey hey! This is actually pretty late because I got these answers a while back, but this was the earliest slot I could find. SO MY APOLOGIES! But something you should know--After reading VESSEL, I fell SO in love with Durst's writing, so I definitely recommend her books! 

Fiction Freak: If you had the choice of being stuck in Vessel or Conjured's world, which would you pick and why?

Sarah Beth Durst: I loved writing about Vessel's world -- it's this beautiful desert with wolves made of sand that hunt inside storms, serpents made of unbreakable glass that fly through the sky, and gods who walk across the sand in human bodies. But Liyana's clan lives a nomadic lifestyle and has to worry about drought and invasion.
I like living in a house.
Also, I like not dying from drought.
Conjured takes place in a world like ours, but Eve isn't from our world. She doesn't know where she is from. Or who she is. All she knows is she's in the witness protection program, she has bizarre powers, and every time she uses her powers, she has terrifying visions of a creepy carnival.
The dangers in Conjured come more from Eve's situation than from the world itself. So I think I'd choose Conjured's world... so long as I'm just a random bystander with zero involvement at all in anything creepy or deadly.  

FF: You're first adult book is coming out in October right? How did you feel transitioning from YA to Adult? And do you think fans of your YA would love THE LOST?

SBD: The reason that I wrote The Lost as an adult novel is that The Lost centers on the theme of loss, and I wanted a heroine who had experienced some loss and was at a place in her life where her life felt empty and adrift. I do think readers who enjoy my YA books will also enjoy The Lost.
But I'm actually not so much transitioning to adult as doing both at once! Moving forward, I plan to write two books a year: one for adults and one for teens. My next YA (Mind Over Magic) will be coming out in fall 2014 from Bloomsbury/Walker.
Also, there has actually been a change to the pub date for The Lost. The publication schedule for the trilogy was recently re-worked such that the three books could come out in more rapid succession. The Lost, The Missing, and The Found are now scheduled to be released in June 2014, December 2014, and April 2015. More about this here: http://sarahbethdurst.blogspot.com/2013/08/big-changes-afoot-for-lost-trilogy.html

FF: You've mainly written standalones--why is that?

SBD: I love both standalones and series. With series, you don't have to say goodbye to the characters and world that you've grown to love, which is great. With standalones, you can have a complete experience in a single serving.
As to why I've mainly written standalones... It's merely due to the size of the stories that I've wanted to tell so far. I remember when I was in high school, I had a teacher who would assign essays and reports without giving any length requirement. When asked, she'd always say, "It should be as long as it takes." At the time, I found this immensely frustrating. But now... I get it. Every story has a certain natural length.

FF: What are some of your favorite lines from CONJURED?

SBD: "Lie. Lie to everyone until you know the truth."
"Don't be afraid, Eve. Not of this. You can be afraid of spiders or snakes or airplane crashes or a zombie apocalypse... but don't be afraid of yourself."
"Eve raised her hand toward the birds on the wall. 'Fly,' she whispered. The birds detached from the wallpaper."
"Her fingers wrap around my wrist, and she smiles at me. Then she plunges the sewing needle into my arm."

FF: If you shared some special ability with one of your characters, what character and ability would it be?  

SBD: I love all of Eve's abilities (and they include pretty much anything and everything -- shapeshifting, flight, fire-starting, telekinesis), but I wouldn't want any of them because the price is too high.

FF: What was the most fascinating piece of research you've found so far for your books?

SBD: When I was researching Ice (which is basically "Beauty and the Beast" meets Arctic adventure), I learned that if you cry at the top of the world, your eyelashes could freeze and break off. I love that detail.

FF: do you think your stories have grown from ICE to CONJURED?

SBD: Great question! And I have no idea. But I can tell you that I've become a much more efficient writer. In case there are any aspiring writers reading this... here's something that no one ever told me when I started writing: it gets easier! Never easy, but easier. Once you figure out your writing process, you're able to avoid a lot of the detours and pitfalls that slow things down.

FF: If you matched up each of your YA books' settings to a real place, what would they be?

SBD: A lot of my novels are set in real places... plus magic!
Into the Wild and its sequel Out of the Wild are about fairy tale characters living in secret in the real world... specifically in my childhood hometown of Northboro, Massachusetts, which is in the center of the state (about fifteen minutes outside of Worcester and forty-five minutes from Boston).
For Ice, I mapped out every step of Cassie's journey on a map of the real Arctic. There are GPS readings at the start of each chapter... at least until she goes east of the sun and west of the moon.
Enchanted Ivy is about getting into college... with talking gargoyles and stone dragons and were-tigers. It's set at Princeton University, and I took about 800 photos to get the location right.
Vessel is set in a harsh desert land with wolves made of sand that hunt inside storms and sky serpents made of unbreakable glass... It's a mix of several deserts, including the Sahara and the Gobi.
Conjured takes place in the Boston area, and I put Eve's house in Somerville, near where I lived for a number of years.
I guess this is my way of showing my love for a place... even if I often end up destroying it!

FF: Has a character or plot twist ever surprised you? Or are all your books planned ahead of time?

SBD: I always outline.
And then I re-outline when that outline doesn't work.
And then I re-outline again and again, as often as needed.
Sometimes to stay true to the characters, you need change the story.
For example, when I was writing Enchanted Ivy, I needed my heroine to leave a certain room and go walk through a gate into an alternate world... but she wouldn't leave the room! I wrote the scene a dozen different ways, and none of them worked. So I finally put another character in a coma, and that ended the conversation. :)

Conjured Synopsis

Eve has a new home, a new face, and a new name—but no memories of her past. She’s been told that she's in a witness protection program. That she escaped a dangerous magic-wielding serial killer who still hunts her. The only thing she knows for sure is that there is something horrifying in her memories the people hiding her want to access—and there is nothing they won’t say—or do—to her to get her to remember. 

At night she dreams of a tattered carnival tent and buttons being sewn into her skin. But during the day, she shelves books at the local library, trying to not let anyone know that she can do things—things like change the color of her eyes or walk through walls. When she does use her strange powers, she blacks out and is drawn into terrifying visions, returning to find that days or weeks have passed—and she’s lost all short-term memories. Eve must find out who and what she really is before the killer finds her—but the truth may be more dangerous than anyone could have ever imagined.

Author Info

Sarah Beth Durst is the author of seven fantasy novels for teens. Her latest, Conjured, came out in September 2013 from Bloomsbury/Walker. Prior to that, she released Vessel, Drink Slay Love, Enchanted Ivy, and Ice from Simon & Schuster, as well as Into the Wild and its sequel Out of the Wild from Penguin. Her first book for adults, The Lost, comes out in June 2014 from Harlequin/Mira. She was awarded the 2013 Mythopoeic Fantasy Award for Children's Literature and has been a finalist for SFWA's Andre Norton Award three times. Sarah lives in Stony Brook, New York, with her husband and children. 

Find her: 

Website | Blog | Twitter | Facebook | Goodreads

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Perfect Lies by Kiersten White

Pages: 232

Genre: Action thriller

Series: Mind Games #2

Publisher: Harper Teen

Release Date: Feb 18, 2014

Annie and Fia are ready to fight back.
The sisters have been manipulated and controlled by the Keane Foundation for years, trapped in a never ending battle for survival. Now they have found allies who can help them truly escape. After faking her own death, Annie has joined a group that is plotting to destroy the Foundation. And Fia is working with James Keane to bring his father down from the inside.
But Annie's visions of the future can't show her who to trust in the present. And though James is Fia's first love, Fia knows he's hiding something. The sisters can rely only on each other - but that may not be enough to save them.

After reading Mind Games, I was bordering on desperate to read the sequel--with an ending like that, who wouldn't be? So when I was approved for it on Edelweiss (screw my eBook ban) I pretty much dropped everything and READ.
And oh my God. Perfect Lies was amazing. While it did have a bit of Sequel Syndrome, it nevertheless had that perfect Kiersten snark and style that made me fall in love with the story and our characters all over again!

And so, let's start this off with our lovely sisters will we?
Fia's story absolutely broke my heart at times, her voice so completely bitter and raw. Kiersten White does a brilliant job making Fia sound a bit crazy, a bit murderous, dangerous, and desperate, while still making us love her. Fia's a broken character that touched my heart, though I did sometimes want to slap her for being so dependent on James, who I started to...well, not trust. At all. But her brokenness and her inability to trust anyone made me hurt for her. (On another note, despite it all, Fia managed to maintain her wicked and dry humor, but for some reason that just made me hurt more.)
Like Fia seemed to be the main character the book was centered around, I felt like Annie was the star of the show in Perfect Lies. We learn more about our blind Seer and I sympathized with her so much, her ache for her sister, her longing to be stronger, and her wish for a future that wasn't so bleak. All Annie seemed to want was for her and Fia to make it out alive...whatever "it" was.

Their relationship, while we didn't get to see much of them together, was absolutely beautiful. They did whatever they could, destroyed whoever was in their way, just to protect each other and it's one of the best things about the book--the way White can flawlessly create a sister bond between these two characters. Without even letting them be together for more than a few pages!

For the romance, let's talk about Fia and James for a bit. I really really really (like, really) loved their relationship at first, how they acted around each other, but the more we got into the story...well, the less I trusted him. I wasn't so sure of his motives anymore, or his dedication to Fia. Where did his loyalties lie? Who would he die for? I don't think we ever did find out. 
Like I said, Alice takes the spotlight, and that means she finally finds a romance too! I really loved who she ended up with, even if it was a bit rushed, but their romance was so sweet in one of those hate/love ways.

The plot was just as amazing as Mind Games. It's completely thrilling and unbelievably shocking and, with Annie and Fia, I honestly had no clue what the hell would happen next! It's a roller coaster of twists and turns that I never saw coming and that left me hanging for more! I feel like the ending is absolutely perfect, but honestly--I so wish there was a book three!

There's really no end to how amazing Kiersten White's books can be! I've loved every single one so far, and I can't wait for her next one! Perfect Lies is a perfect companion to Mind Games, and I recommend the series to anyone who's loved her stuff before! (But I do recommend reading these two books back to back because of Reasons.)

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A Random Update

OKAY SO NO WEEKLY RECAP THIS WEEK BECAUSE EVEN THOUGH I GOT BOOKS LAST WEEK, I DECIDED TO DO A MONTHLY BOOK HAUL AND JUST DO A VIDEO. 

But guys I am so obsessed with KDramas. Not even Kdramas, just Heartstrings because that drama is so damn painful. 

I also officially have crushes on several KPop stars. My friends got me hooked on this I claim them as fault. 

I mean look at them. 

Jung Yong Hwa is my #1 favorite because REASONS. (AKA He's in Heartstrings.)

Yes I did make a collage. In my defense, one of my friends (the one who got me hooked made one too. It's the next one.) 

This is Kim Jong Hyun, my friend's object of obsession (and creeper tendencies.) Yeah he's cute too. 

OH DID YOU THINK I WAS KIDDING. NO SHE MADE ONE TOO. 

And here is Lee Hong Ki. 

Okay so I'm a little obsessed, STOP JUDGING ME ALREADY WILL YOU.

In other news, if you've made it this far, I'm in a bookish/blogging slump and if I could I'd totally take a blogging hiatus except if I did I'd have to do it in October or November. Yeah. I'm probably going to be booked until then because it is ridiculous how ahead I am on blogging (Plus we can't forget about GYDO now can we? Or moving to WP where my blog is going to be shut down for a week.)

ANYWAYS YEAH. Just wanted to say that stuff. And show y'all my new obsession. Slight (read: NOT SLIGHT AT ALL) obsession.

BOOKCEPTION

BOOKCEPTION. THE NOVEL. 

This is not a review because I did not read the entire thing. I read about 35%. I didn't DNF it because it was horrible. You'll see. I just wanted to share my reaction to this book. Also, this was before the official synopsis came out. So.

(CLICK TO EMBIGGEN ALL GRAPHICS)

Guys. I have no words. White Space was confusing in a way that you could still sort of understand, but just confused you when you read it and still confuses you. That makes no sense does it. Or does it? 

^That's basically what the book was like. 

Did I like it? Did I not? I have no idea. It was just...it was just. I have no clue how Ilsa J. Bick managed to write such a complicated thing, but guys, it must've taken her ages to plot. And worldbuild. And everything else. 

If there was one word to describe this book, it would be BOOKCEPTION. Because. It really was bookception. I even made a schmancy graphic of the first 35% of the book for you. Yes. Only the first 35%. 

(Click to enlarge)

Yeah. Basically. At least, that's how I read it. Maybe I read something wrong...? Maybe I didn't. But that. That is basically the general idea of the entire story. It was definitely interesting. And confusing. So...what?

I have no idea whether I would recommend this or not. Because I just can't even. I mean, it was definitely interesting, but my brain hurt a bit, but at the same time I wanted to know what the hell was going on. 

I never did find out because like I said. I lost the ability to think. So I decided to not finish it. 

HOWEVER. White Space was pretty creepy. So horror fans, you guys will love this. I think a few hardcore sci-fi may too. People who are easily confused and lose their will quickly? I'd skip this one. 

But dear God it was fascinating. 

Pages: 560

Genre: I don't even know

Series: Dark Passages #1

Publisher: Egmont USA

Release Date: Feb 11, 2013

Rating: EVERYTHING

I'm so disgruntled, I'm using my old format.

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