Dating Down by Stefanie Lyons

Title: Dating Down

Author: Stefanie Lyons

Release Date: April 8th, 2015

Publisher: Flux

Add it: Goodreads

Synopsis (Goodreads): When a good girl falls for a bad boy

She thought she loved him. She thought she could change him. She thought if she just believed in him enough, his cheating and his drugs and his lying would stop, and she'd be his and he'd be hers and they'd love each other forever.

But for Samantha Henderson, X-the boy she will not name-is trouble. He's older, edgier, bohemian . . . and when he starts paying attention to Sam, she can't resist him. Samantha's family and friends try to warn her, but still she stays with him, risking her future and everything that really matters.

As moody and vivid as it is captivating, Dating Down is told in scenes and bursts of poetry that create a story filled with hurt, healing, and hope.

My Review

When I found out that this book was told in verse, I was ecstatic. Having read all of Ellen Hopkins' books, I had very high hopes for this one. While it did deliver some good points, I was still slightly disappointed. 

Verse books, in my opinion, are very character oriented. It's hard to have a very intense plot told completely in poetry. Thus, characters are a very important part of verse stories. I didn't feel a major connection to any of the characters in this book. Sam is our main protagonist, but I felt very distanced from her. I didn't feel any emotions toward her or her situation, which is something I look for in books told in verse. I also didn't get to know any of the other characters very well. The main event in this book is Sam's romance with X, and I felt really indifferent to him as a character. He was just kind of there. 

Plot in verse is always interesting, and I think Stefanie Lyons did a good job of showing Sam's relationship really well. One of my favorite things about books told in verse, is that they are quick reads, and this one was no exception to that. I read this really quickly, even though I felt that this book was pretty predictable. 

I applaud Stefanie for writing in verse, because it is truly an art form. She did a great job, with a new style on each page. I love books in verse, and the writing of this one was very well done. 

Rating: 3.5/5 worms

The Bottom Line: A nicely done verse book that tackles the subject of teenage relationships. 

Let's Get Lost by Adi Alsaid

Title: Let's Get Lost

Author: Adi Alsaid

Publisher: Harlequin Teen

Release Date: July 29th, 2014

Format: Hardcover

Source: Harlequin Teen Panel

Synopsis: Five strangers. Countless adventures. One epic way to get lost. 

Four teens across the country have only one thing in common: a girl named LEILA. She crashes into their lives in her absurdly red car at the moment they need someone the most.

There's HUDSON, a small-town mechanic who is willing to throw away his dreams for true love. And BREE, a runaway who seizes every Tuesday—and a few stolen goods along the way. ELLIOT believes in happy endings…until his own life goes off-script. And SONIA worries that when she lost her boyfriend, she also lost the ability to love.

Hudson, Bree, Elliot and Sonia find a friend in Leila. And when Leila leaves them, their lives are forever changed. But it is during Leila's own 4,268-mile journey that she discovers the most important truth— sometimes, what you need most is right where you started. And maybe the only way to find what you're looking for is to get lost along the way. 

My Review

The Legend of the Blue Eyes by B. Kristin McMichael

Title: The Legend of the Blue Eyes

Author: B. Kristin McMichael

Release Date: March 15, 2013

Publisher: Lexia Press

Source: Publisher 

Format: Paperback

Page Number: 256 

Synopsis (Goodreads): Arianna Grace liked her boring, Midwestern, teenage life where she ignored the many unanswered questions of her childhood. Why were her parents dead? Why did she not have family? Where was she raised until she was five? When someone offers to explain it all, Arianna thinks she’s just getting answers. Instead, she is thrown into a world of night humans who drink blood.

On Arianna's sixteenth birthday, her world is thrown upside down when she changes into a vampire. Night humans, or demons, as some call them, live in normal society. Learning all of the new rules of a world she didn’t know existed might be hard enough, but it's further complicated by two former-friends that now want to help her take her role as the successor to her grandfather. 

There is a war going on between the night humans. Sides have been taken and lines are not crossed. Four main clans of night humans are struggling for control of the night. Divided into two sides, clans Baku and Tengu have been at war for centuries with the clans Dearg-dul and Lycan. That is, until Arianna Grace finds out the truth; she’s the bridge of peace between the two sides. But not everyone wants peace. With the night humans divided, Arianna is now a pawn in the war between them. She must choose a side—her mother’s family or her father’s—and for once in her life, decide her own fate.

My Review

The Legend of the Blue Eyes was not just another vampire book. This was a vampire book with some bite (pun intended). I thought this book was an interesting take on the typical vampire novel. 

I really liked the plot in this book. I thought it was interesting to hear about two vampire clans at war. However, you don't really see any war in this book, which was disappointing. It was interesting to see all the different character relationships, and it was interesting to see how the main character acted. Some times in this book I felt the pacing was too fast, and I didn't really understand, and I sometimes I lost interest. However, the end of the book really picked up speed. 

I thought Arianna had some issues. I thought she was a little too trusting and a little too naive, especially for being thrown into a new scary situation. I thought she handled her new situation a little too well, because I know if it were me, I would be freaked out. I liked reading about all the breeds of creatures in this book. It was really interesting to get to read about all the characters, but I also thought the romance between them and Arianna was a little odd. 

I thought the writing style in this book was good. The way B. Kristin McMichael wrote was really engaging, and I could imagine the world that Arianna was living in. The book was very fast paced, and I thought that was good. 

Rating: 3/5 worms

Overall, I liked this book. I had issues with Arianna and sometimes I didn't understand what was going on, but I really liked the concept behind this book. 

My Life Undecided by Jessica Brody

Title: My Life Undecided

Author: Jessica Brody

Release Date: June 7, 2011

Publisher: Farrar, Straus, Grioux (BYR)

Format: Hardcover

Page Number: 320

Source: Own

 

Synopsis(Goodreads): PLEASE READ THIS! MY LIFE DEPENDS ON IT!

Okay, maybe that was a bit melodramatic, but I’m sorry, I’m feeling a bit melodramatic at the moment.

Here’s the deal. My name is Brooklyn Pierce, I’m fifteen years old, and I am decisionally challenged. Seriously, I can’t remember the last good decision I made. I can remember plenty of crappy ones though. Including that party I threw when my parents were out of town that accidentally burned down a model home. Yeah, not my finest moment, for sure.

But see, that’s why I started a blog. To enlist readers to make my decisions for me. That’s right. I gave up. Threw in the towel. I let someone else be the one to decide which book I read for English. Or whether or not I accepted an invitation to join the debate team from that cute-in-a-dorky-sort-of-way guy who gave me the Heimlich Maneuver in the cafeteria. (Note to self: Chew the melon before swallowing it.) I even let them decide who I dated!

Well, it turns out there are some things in life you simply can’t choose or have chosen for you—like who you fall in love with. And now everything’s more screwed up than ever.

But don’t take my word for it, read the book and decide for yourself. You’ll laugh, you’ll cry, you’ll scream in frustration. Or maybe that’s just me. After all, it’s my life.

 

My Review

With a synopsis like this one, I had very high expectations for this book. Brooklyn seemed like she would be an awesome character, and I thought I would laugh out loud at every page. But I was a little let down by this book.

 

I didn't like Brooklyn. She was a jerk and had no consideration for anyone else's feelings. She would say rather mean things and then not even feel bad about it. She got everything she wanted, and if she didn't, she would whine about it. If her blog didn't choose the right choice, she would try to convince her blog readers that they needed to choose the other option. She seriously frustrated me, and at the end, she said she developed at a person but I didn't get that at all. The other characters were just kind of flat for me, and I didn't really feel any emotions for them.

 

I thought the blog was a really nice touch. I haven't read any books about blogs, and I thought that was really cool. However, I felt that the rest of the plot was just kind of bland. There were a few interesting parts, but otherwise I didn't feel that it as a whole was the best. I liked the aspect of community service, and I thought that it was interesting.

 

Jessica Brody has a nice writing style. It has some nice descriptions and I enjoyed reading it. I thought she did a fairly nice job with creating her characters and settings, however, her love interest was flimsy and I didn't really care for the boy at all. All in all, I thought the writing style was good.

 

Rating: 3/5