Carnelian by B. Kristin McMichael

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Carnelian by B. Kristin McMichael

Mari is looking forward to college and getting a brand new start. She doesn’t know what will await her there, but she doesn’t expect that a boy handsome enough to be an underwear model will fall asleep in her lap. She also doesn’t expect that she will fall for him and that this boy will turn out to be from the past, and that she will belong to two separate times.

I loved Mari. Unlike most characters in YA and NA novels she doesn’t fall in love with Seth right away. Yes, she thinks that he is amazingly sexy, but once she finds out that he might be a player than she tries her hardest not to fall for him. Seth has to work hard to convince her to actually go out with him. I also liked that Seth was actually a nice guy and he didn’t act like an angsty jerk which also seems to be popular in this kind of novel.

I also adored her best friend Sim. She was so funny and interesting and I loved every chapter that she was in. I was hoping that she would have a love interest also and I won’t tell if she does or doesn’t.

A problem I did have with this book is that it took about half the book to actually get to the part with time travel. Before it just concentrated on Mari’s relationship with Seth and her start at college. I didn’t find it to be that bad that it took awhile to get to the time travel part because of how good the author’s writing is, but really the plot should have come earlier.

Overall I would give this book four out of five stars. I very much enjoyed it and am looking forward to reading the sequel when it comes out.

The Last Human by Ink Pieper

I got this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

Clay always thought that things would work out and he would live happily with his two mothers. All that changes when they are taken away to a government concentration camp basically. Soon Clay is taken too and he is forced to go to the worst one and to try to survive their experiments and the other tortures that they inflict on him and the others who are there.

I’m not even sure what I think about this novel. It had an amazing concept even if parts of it were a bit unrealistic. I just found that it was a bit too dramatic when it came to the diseases and how the countries and the soldiers reacted to all of it. I also doubt that the government would be able to keep the power that they had for as long as they did. Still, I did like the idea of the plot quite a bit.

There are also some nice moments in the novel. Nice as in powerful, not nice as in heartwarming or anything like that. This novel can be very disturbing at time and makes you think about the horrible things that people can do to other people.

I didn’t much like the characters all that much. Clay was okay for the most part. He wasn’t my favorite character in the world, but he was a decent person and I didn’t mind his parts. I also loved Blondie. She was my favorite character in the novel. However, I didn’t like Lily at all even if I do love that name. I found that she wasn’t all that sympathetic. She annoyed me especially toward the end of the book.

The romance in the novel wasn’t all that bad. Even though this doesn’t seem like the type of book that should have a romance somehow it worked. It didn’t take over the plot even if the two characters did care for each other a lot.

Overall I would give this book three out of five stars.

Press Play by Eric Devine

Netgalley gave me this book in exchange for an honest review. Thank you!

Press Play by Eric Devine

Don’s high school has been close to hell. Ever since he made a video when he was younger that depicted many of his classmates in ways they didn’t like, people have been doing whatever they could to make his life miserable and is hasn’t helped that he is overweight. Greg is determined to make a video of himself losing weight in hopes he will be able to get in a good film school and escape, but then he realizes that some people on the sports team are being violently hazed.

This is a very powerful book. My high school experience was nothing like Greg’s and I’m sure that most people’s weren’t, but I’m also sure that there are people even today that are going through the kind of things that he did. Greg is a very strong character even if he is far from perfect. Despite how his classmates treat his he is determined to lose weight and try to make his life better.

The plot was also very strong. I found myself wondering what Greg would be able to do to both help himself and his friends but also help the people who were going through everything. I liked how all of his friends had problems of their own and their lives didn’t revolve around Greg’s. Sometimes in fiction, it seems like the friends’ only purpose is to go along with what the main character is doing. That is not the case in this book.

I do wish that some of the other characters have been more developed. Sure they might be bullies now, but there had to be something that caused them to be that way.

Overall, I would give this book four out of five.

Unexpected Legacy by Darlene Deluca

 

Netgalley gave me this book in exchange for an honest review. Thank you!

Matt Dalton thought that he had everything figured out until he was told that he not only had a teenage son that he had fathered when he was a teenager, but that his son had been in a horrible car accident. Matt didn’t know what to expect when he took his son in to live with him so he could have the best possible education and the chance to start over, but he wasn’t upset when he met Kate Austen (who I think has the same name as a character on Lost). However, no matter what he does, Kate doesn’t want to be more than friends. Matt however is determined to find a way into her heart.

For some reason this book was in the YA part of the Netgalley section which is why I requested it. It shouldn’t have been there since even though Brady does have a few PoVs, it is anything but YA. However, I don’t mind that I requested it. I found it to be a nice change from what I usually read. It kind of reminded me of the romance novels I read a lot of when I was in college.

The romance in this novel is very sweet. Even though it is probably the main plot of the novel, Matt’s main focus is his son. Even though he has just become a father he is determined to be a good one and that I liked about him. I also liked Kate but not quite as much at Matt. She was very determined to do whatever it took to keep her position in the school and she was worried that she might do something to ruin it. The minor characters of this novel also seemed very real and were compelling.

I didn’t see any grammar mistakes and everything seemed to flow nicely. It was a very fun book that was hard to put down. I don’t usually read as much on my days off but I couldn’t help but read this book late into the night. I wanted to know what was going to happen.

Overall I would give this book four out of five.

Pieces of Love by PJ Sharon

Netgalley gave me this book in exchange for an honest review. Thank you!

Pieces of Love by PJ Sharon

Lexi doesn’t want to do much this summer but what she doesn’t want to do is go on a cruise with her grandmother who she has hardly spent any time with. That is however what ends up happening. It doesn’t take long for Lexi to meet another person around her age named Ethan. She soon finds herself growing attached to him despite the fact that she thought that this summer wasn’t going to be fun at all.

First of all I would like to say that I didn’t actually know that the cruise was going be the main plot of the book. I didn’t even know there was going to be a cruise or maybe I did at one point and just forgot before I read the book. I did like that part of the book though and I found myself to be a bit envious of Lexi since I would love to go on a cruise of Europe or even just to Europe.

I loved how much Lexi grew as a person. She starts out as a rebellious teenager who has gone through a lot of things and is holding on a bit too much of the past, but as the novel goes on she grows up. The other characters don’t change quite as much as she does which is too bad not that they are bad characters. I loved her grandmother. She is amazing.

I also found that the issues that Lexi faced were very realistic. A lot of teens have to go through that kind of things. Lexi also reacts to them like many teenagers would.

Overall I would give this book four out of five. I very much enjoyed it.

One Man Guy by Michael Barakiva

Netgalley gave me this book in exchange for an honest review. Thank you!

One Man Guy by Michael Barakiva

Alek was almost sure that his summer would be ruined with his parents told him that he had to go to summer school in hopes that he would still be able to be part of advance classes in his sophomore year. However, soon he becomes friends with Ethan at summer school and even though he had only dated girls before now he is starting to wonder if maybe he should try to date Ethan.

This novel was very sweet. It is a coming of age story. There wasn’t a single character in this novel that I didn’t like. All the characters can be related to and are complex. I thought that Alek and Ethan were very sweet together, but I also found myself wanting Alek’s brother and his girlfriend’s relationship to work out especially when the two of them started to have problems because of something that neither of them could control later in the book.

I also loved the best friend Becky. She is hilarious and I loved every chapter that she was in. She is probably my favorite character in the whole novel.

I also loved the parts about Alek’s culture. It was fun reading about one that is different than mine. There is a recipe at the end of the book which might be interesting to try but I’m not really into cooking so I doubt I will try to make it even though I imagine that it is very good.

Overall I would give this book five out of five. I really liked it and think that a lot of other people will too.

Contact by Laurisa White Reyes

Netgalley gave me this book in exchange for an honest review. Thank you!

Contact by Laurisa White Reyes

Mira has already tried to commit suicide two times, but she has failed both times. She shouldn’t be depressed because of a drug that is supposed to prevent people from getting depression, but all that has managed to do was give her the power to see every part of people’s lives, which might sound amazing but has been so overwhelming to Mira. She wants to escape it and to not have that power, but when her mother is put in a coma after she starts to question her father about a trial that he is part of, Mira is determined to find out what is going on.

This was a pretty good novel. It was exciting and I don’t think that there was a dull moment throughout the whole time. Even though it is kind of normal for a main character to have powers and not like them, Reyes did a good job of making Mira’s seem believable. Her power really is often more of a problem to her than a good thing and it has made her life a lot harder than it used to be.

Mira and the main characters were handled all right too, except their were weird moments. Mira seems to recover from the things that happen to her much too quickly. Her mother is in a coma for awhile and she barely thinks about it. I understand that no one wants to read about a character who does nothing, but I would have liked if she had more of a reaction to that and what happened later to her mother as well.

Her romance also was a bit annoying at times, because I would have rather read about the main plot. I wouldn’t consider it bad enough to be a romantic tumor though.

There were some twists that I could predict but also some that were surprising.

This book did have flaws, but overall I still feel that it is an above average book and I am going to give it four out of five.

 

Elixir by Ted Galdi

Netgalley gave me this book in exchange for an honest review. Thank you!

Elixir by Ted Galdi

Sean isn’t just smart. He’s a genius and perhaps the smartest person on the whole planet. All he wants to be is normal though because it seems like all his brains do is get him in trouble and make it harder for him to fit in. However, eventually when the love of Sean’s life gets sick he must use his brains to do whatever he can to save her.

This novel… I’m not even sure where I should start on this novel. The characters are for the most part very complex. Even though Sean is smarter than most people would ever be, he feels things that all of us do. He struggles with the guilt from his parents’ deaths and he also struggles to figure out what he is going to do with his life. Sean is by far the most developed character, but I also liked his aunt.

Galdi was trying to fit way too much in this novel though. He has kidnapping, evil corporations, killer diseases, and so much more than that. I also had a problem the love at first sight that he had with his girlfriend especially since he had imagined that she would look just like her when he was a child. I find it very unlikely that people usually end up with people who looked like they imagined they would as a child.

There was also quite a bit of grammar mistakes in this novel. It was kind of ironic to me since the book is about a genius and yet it has these little problems.

Overall I would give it three out of five.

Anathema by Megg Jensen

More of my reviews can be read on my blog <a href=”https://reviewsforthelivingandundead.wordpress.com/”>Reviews For The Living And The Undead</a> . Feel free to follow me. I love when people follow my blog.

Netgalley gave me this book in exchange for an honest review. Thank you!

Anathema by Megg Jensen

Reychel is about to turn fifteen which would normally mean that she is of marrying age, but because she is a slave it means that she is going to be branded with her master’s mark. Reychel is very nervous, but it gets worse when she tells her master a story that leads to him freaking out and locking her up before she gets her branding. However, before she can get it she is recused and freed. But even after she is rescued her master won’t give up looking for her even after he has given up looking for the other escaped slave.

I did like the concept of this novel. I know I say that about most the novels that I review, but that is because I pretty much only review books that I do think that I will like. I thought the powers in this novel were also pretty interesting. Some of them were not what I would consider all that good of powers since the one to tell if someone is keeping something a secret (although I could see how that could be useful at times and it is in the novel), but other ones were pretty good.

One of the problems I had with this novel is it was really predictable. At the very beginning before powers were even explained I already could predict what Reychel’s was going to be just by how her master freaked out. I also had no problems predicting who he was going to marry. The only one that I didn’t predict was Reychel’s relationship with her master, but I’m also not surprised by it. I feel like I should have seen that coming.

I also didn’t like how Jenen handled a certain character. This character seemed like she was a nice person at first and then suddenly it’s like it was decided that she would be pure evil and not have any good traits to her. When this kind of thing happens in a novel it annoys me because it’s not realistic. I like when my villains aren’t pure evil and have some good things about them.

This is minor, but I also hated how the main character’s name was spelled. I wish the author would have just gone with Rachel. Reychel just looks tacky.

This book also had quite a few comma errors in it, which could be annoying at times.

Overall I would give this book three out of five.

Out of my Mind by Pat White

More of my reviews can be read on my blog <a href=”https://reviewsforthelivingandundead.wordpress.com/”>Reviews For The Living And The Undead</a> . Feel free to follow me. I love when people follow my blog.

Netgalley gave me this book in exchange for an honest review. Thank you!

Out of my Mind by Pat White

Catherine used to have a close to perfect life, but all that is ruined when she is hit by a car and suffers from a brain injury. Now she struggles to get through every day life and remembers things that used to come to her naturally. Things get even crazier when Catherine starts seeing the future. She doesn’t know what to do, but she knows that she must do what she can to stop people from getting hurt.

I sympathized with both Catherine and JD right away. They are both very complex characters who have both good and bad things about them. I couldn’t help but feel bad for both of them. I hoped that Catherine would be able to adjust to her life and her parents and friends would accept the new her.

I also loved the romance in the novel. It is very sweet, and I loved the two characters together. They truly cared for each other and they treated each other all right. It wasn’t like many YA romances when the male treats the girl like he hates her and for some reason she falls in love with him despite that.

Catherine’s ability was also handled well. I like how it was an important part of the story, but at the same time didn’t take over the story. It was a very good blend of fantasy and contemporary.

Overall I would give this book four out of five. It was very good.