The Book: Pretties, by Scott Westerfeld

The Story: This is going to have little spoilers from Uglies, so if you haven’t read it yet and plan to, do yourself a favor and do not read on!

So, this book starts with Tally being pretty… and really confused. She doesn’t remember clearly what happened to her to get her here and she is just kind of going with the flow: getting dressed up, going to parties, talking really stupid.

As time passes, she starts getting a feeling that something is wrong, that she was supposed to be DOING something. From several sources she gets clues as to what that purpose was and she starts to “unfog” a little bit.

The authorities know that she is rebellious though and now she has to decide if the truth is worth risking her life over.

What I Thought: Aw, man. I wish I would have reviewed this one earlier in the week, because I don’t want to end YA-week-and-a-half on a bad note….

But this book just didn’t do it for me. At all.

I was only half sold on Uglies, but I had a gift card to spend and decided to buy this one. Dang. I wish I would have listened to my gut, because this just did not get any better.

Before I bash it, here is the positive: The series as whole deals a lot with body image and intelligence and stereotypes. How all of this is dealt with is thought provoking and kind of fun. I was reminded of Mean Girls. Remember when they cut holes in Regina Geroge’s shirts as a prank, but then everyone does it and it becomes a little fad? At one point, Tally gets this tracking bracelet so they can keep better track of her, but then all the kids get them because they are “cool.” I think that that is a pretty good representation of how fads/fashion works sometimes and I liked how it was worked in. There were quite a few little clever bits like that popped up here and there. So there’s my positive.

The first real problem was how effing annoying language is in Prettyville or whatever it is called. Hearing “bubbily” and “pretty-making” and all their other slang made me want to punch myself in the face. I know he was kind of trying to make a point about how brainless these people were, but at a certain point it just became too much.

Beyond that, I just think that this book suffered from the same flaws that Uglies had. The pacing was kind of off. I felt like there were slow, boring part and then WHAM! all of a sudden there was this huge action scene. It made the book a slow read even though it was probably only a couple hundred pages. While this is just one issue, for me it kind of ruined the book.

I felt like Tally was this pretty weak female lead. This is a whole other post, but I get totally annoyed when women (fictional or real) make their every decision based on one boy or another. I wanted Tally to be gutsy and brave because she wanted to do what was right, but it always seemed like the “right thing” was secondary to whatever the boy wanted. I kind of wanted to smack her around a little bit.

Like I’ve talked about a little bit this week, the dystopian, love triangle, female lead thing is kind of really overdone right now. I think a book has to be pretty killer to stand out in the crowd, and this one just didn’t do it.

Conclusion: I’ve heard that this series gets a bit better, but I think I’m done. Two was enough for me!

The Book: Sweetly, by Jackson Pearce

The Story: Gretchen, her twin sister and their brother Ansel are out in the woods when they are chased by something fierce and horrible. Gretchen and Ansel make it home, but their sister is no where to be found. People search and search but no sign is ever found of her.

Years later, they are being kicked out of their house by their mean stepmother. Their father has died and the stepmother no longer wants to take care of them. They take off on a cross country journey and somehow end up in Live Oak, South Carolina.

Live Oak is kind of a strange little community. They are close knit, but the town itself is dying. Each year there are less and less jobs and people are getting depressed. A lot of their problems they blame on Sophia Kelly, the college-aged girl that runs the chocolatier on the outskirts of town. They claim that she is a witch and that she is driving the young teenage girls out of town.

Gretchen and Ansel become close to Sophia and even end up moving in with her. It is only then that Gretchen starts to think that something just isn’t right here and sets out to fix it before more girls disappear.

What I Thought: First off, oh my word. Whoever designed this cover needs some sort of prize. Her other book, Sisters Red, has a similar, amazing cover and it is what drew me to the books in the first place. The second thing was that my pal Ashely went totally, totally fangirl over Jackson and I thought it was adorable. So adorable, in fact, that I bought this book at DBF to be signed.

I had no idea what to expect, but I have to say that I was expecting something a little bit more literal. The veeeeery first part of the book- maybe 5 or 6 pages are a pretty literal retelling of Hansel & Gretel, but after that it was just very, very loosely based on the original story. There wasn’t even a witch in the book, so that was kind of weird for me.

That being said, I really did enjoy the book for what it was…. kind of this fantasy/mystery combo.

I thought that Jackson Pearce did a great job of building suspense. I really did read this quickly to find out what was going on. There were subtle little hints and clues all along that something creepy was brewing. Just little bits here and there that added up to an edge-of-your-seat read by the last 50 pages or so.

The characters were also really well written. I especially loved Gretchen and just who she became as a character. Watching her confront her fears and do things alone was pretty awesome. I love a good, strong female lead and this was no exception. I thought Sophia was a great, conflicted character too and I thought Jackson did a great job of getting us to be scared of her a bit but also feel a great deal of sympathy for her. That is not an easy task, but it was really well done.

The surprise werewolves? You know how I feel about werewolves, especially surprise ones. I could have done without them, but it really didn’t ruin my life that they took some roll in the book. Maybe I had just read so much YA at this point that I was beaten down beyond caring Seriously, man, YA authors love their frigging werewolves.

Anyway. I thought that this was a great story, but I maybe wouldn’t call it a re-telling of Hansel & Gretel. That is kind of stretch for me. I really do want to read Sisters Red, though, because I love me some Little Red Riding Hood!

Conclusion: A fun book, but don’t go in expecting a literal re-telling. This is more “loosely based” but that really doesn’t take anything away from the story itself. I really enjoyed this.

The Book: Lola and the Boy Next Door, by Stephanie Perkins

The Story: Lola is kind of the coolest girl ever. She has an incredible wardrobe of costumes and wigs. She has two great dads. She has a hot rocker boyfriend. She lives in San Francisco and kind of just does her own thing.

And then the Bell twins move back in next door. They had been Lola’s neighbors when she was younger but moved away so that Calliope could pursue her figure skating dreams. Lola and Cricket had kind of had a thing, so when they move back in, Lola is totally horrified.

When Cricket literally builds a bridge between their rooms, Lola is left to reconsider everything….

What I Thought: Oh Em Geee. I cannot even assemble my thoughts well enough to write this. I’m at a loss.

So I told you guys yesterday that I loved St. Clair and blah blah blah. For me, St. Clair pales in comparison to ol’ Cricket. Nothing does it for me like an awkward, bumbling, polite, nerdy guy (hello, Ron Weasley and also my husband!). I frigging loved him. To be honest, I didn’t hate first-30ish-pages Max and felt like when the time came, I was going to have a hard time giving him up. For Pete’s sake, he had a Max from Where the Wild Things Are tattoo… I thought he was alright. But then we met Cricket and also Max became a giant jerk. After Cricket showed up, it was absolutely no contest for me. Did I already say that I loved him?

I didn’t relate to the cool, fashion forward part of Lola, but I related big time to the “I am so embarrassed of my alcoholic parent” part of her. That love for them because they are your parent, the annoyance that they’ve done this to themselves and the utter fear of people finding out that THAT is what you come from…. and the constant thought that you could end up the same. I have talked to other people who have been raised by alcoholics and I think that these feelings are fairly universal. I think that Stephanie Perkins did a great job of handling this. There was dignity and grace here and I thought that the mother-daughter piece of this was really, really powerful.

Speaking of parents, I also thought that Stephanie Perkins did an amazing job of writing Lola’s two dads. I get annoyed when books have gay characters who are ONLY gay. That is their identification and they are stereotyped in this awful way. I’ve only read a handful of books that avoided that (let me know if you want a little list!) and this is one of them. They were above all fathers to Lola and I loved that.

And did I mention Cricket and my love for him? Let me just mention it again. I love Cricket. I was kind of waiting forever to find out why on earth his name was Cricket, but it was never mentioned. That was just his name. I thought that was kind of wonderful. And is it weird that it fit him perfectly?

Oh! And Anna and St. Clair are characters! In this book! Like… a lot! When they first popped up, I thought it was just a fun little cameo and I squealed. Nope. They pop up over and over. AND St. Clair and Cricket live on the same floor at school. Oh my. I need to be there.

Like with Anna, I feel like this book just captured a time in every person’s life and did it so, so well. I did not love high school and don’t think about it as the highlight of my life or anything, but this book kind of made me want to be 17 and all fluttery again.

And can I tell you a secret? My date and I wore chucks to prom. Stephanie Perkins, you know me all too well.

Conclusion: Is this really even needed? Read this. Now.

The Book: Anna and the French Kiss, by Stephanie Perkins

The Story: Anna is just a normal almost-Senior in an Atlanta high school. She has an almost-boyfriend and an awesome best friend. She’s looking forward to her senior year and bam! Her dad tells her that she’ll be going to a Parisian boarding school for the year. To put it lightly, Anna is ticked. Regardless, she packs her stuff up and hops on a plane to Paris.

Her attitude totally changes when she meets Etienne St. Clair. He is way hot, has an amazing accent and is incredibly fun to be around. He and Anna click right away, but there’s a little catch: he’s taken. Dang.

As the school year progresses, the two get closer and closer. They love spending time together, the flirting is off the charts, but still St. Clair hangs on to his girlfriend.

They orbit around and around each other until they (and all of their friends) know that they HAVE to make a decision: Go for it or let it go.

What I Thought: Ok. So writing the last two reviews was totally depressing. I really do try to write honest reviews, and writing a bad one isn’t hard for me, but two back to back? I hate that. And so I decided to review Anna.

Because here’s the thing: I have nothing bad to say.

This book is Amazing. That’s right. Capital A.

Anna is awesome. She is quirky enough to be real but not so quirky that she is annoying. She is a little bit snarky but she’s all heart. She is a loyal friend and tries to make decisions based on her gut. I totally love her.

But who do I love more? That’s right. Etienne St. Clair. Dude is a dream boat. I haven’t had such a book-crush for a long, long time. I was absolutely swooning over him from the very first time I read his name and imagined his accent. Oh my word.

The chemistry between the two is oh-so-real. There is this mild awkwardness that comes with becoming good friends with someone then progressing to a full-fledged relationship. That “on the fence” feeling was just absolutely perfect. I love how, as in real relationships, they had little rituals, little words that meant so much to them and to anyone else seem silly. A lot of times when authors try to relay that feeling it comes off as cheesy. Stephanie Perkins did a perfect job of giving these little rituals just enough weight to show their importance, but never overdid it. I think that that is what made my heart go pitter pat. It was never over the top and it was always just enough.

I am getting gushy, but seriously I loved it. Ashley commented that when she was done with this book she hugged it. I didn’t think to do that, but as soon as she said it, I just nodded. I totally get it. This is a very huggable book.

I loved getting to meet Stephanie and hear her talk about her experience writing Anna. She said that she has only been to Paris once and it was like a million years ago. She just researched her butt off, which is amazing because Paris pretty much becomes a character. She was another one of the authors at DBF who was really taking time to slow down and talk to everyone and take pictures. Seriously, so fun. If you have the chance to meet her or go to a signing, do it. So fun.

So that’s all I’ve got. And tomorrow? LOLA!!!

Conclusion: I kind of feel like I was the last person on Earth to read this, but if you have somehow not read it, GO GET IT!

The Book: I Am Not a Serial Killer, by Dan Wells

The Story: John Wayne Clever truly is not a serial killer. He has never killed anyone, in fact…. but that doesn’t mean he doesn’t think about it. A lot.

He is obsessed with serial killers, is likely a sociopath, and has rituals every day that stop him from acting out on his thoughts of hacking people to death for sport. To his mom (a mortician) and his one friend, he is a weird but lovable guy.

When people start showing up dead in his small town, most people flip out. As the bodies pile up, they assume it is the work of a serial killer. Because he has studied them closely, John realizes quickly that this is not a serial killer’s work. Something just seems “off,” so John kind of sets out on his own mission to find the killer… and what he finds out could not possibly be more shocking.

What I Thought: Ok. I cannot tell you what I thought about this book without spoiling it a bit. What I am about to tell you happens around page 120, so you really know about it for most of the book, but the description on the flaps never even hint at it… so… read at your own risk.

The book was cruising along just fine. In fact, I was enjoying it. I like morbid stuff and creepy people and John fit that nicely. Then… well… we find out that the “serial killer” is a monster. A monster/demon thing. Like… with claws and stuff. Let me say it again: John does not end up chasing after a serial killer. He ends up trying to figure out how to kill a monster.

I would have pitched the book across the room, but Isaac was in bed.

I hate that. I do sometimes enjoy a fantasy/sci-fi book, but I HATE when I am reading a book that should just be some crime-thriller and then all of a sudden we’re fighting monsters. That movie The Forgotten with Julianne Moore? Maddest I’ve ever been during a movie.

Talk about jumping the shark! This book did it in a big, big way. I cannot say enough how much it bit it. Have I said it enough? This book took a flying leap off of a cliff and it just never recovered.

This is just one of those books that had a great premise, a great start, an awesome main character…. but just couldn’t pull it off.

Conclusion:Teenage boys may love this. An adult woman? Not so much. Bleh.

The Book: Across the Universe, by Beth Revis

The Story: Amy was frozen in a box along side her family, put on a ship and flung into space. Seriously.

The plan was to wake them up when they got to their planet, but something has gone wrong and Amy was unthawed about 50 years too early.

After dealing with quite a bit of culture shock, she starts to think that her unfreezing wasn’t an accident but an attempt at *gasp* murder. She makes friends with connections and tries to work fast to solve the mystery before the killer strikes again.

What I Thought: This is another one of the books I read because I knew that I’d see the author at DBF. I talked about it a little bit on my first (and only) vlog. I asked on the vlog if this book was part of a series because I felt like it ended kind of suddenly and I was a bit confused. Turns out she is working on a sequel, so I got my answer to that.

Let me also say that I thought that Beth Revis was adorable during her panel about love across time or something like that. She was very passionate about writing and she had written something like 12 novels before this one, none of which sold. She said that this was her best work and you could tell that she was beyond stoked about it. Even cuter, her husband comes to all of her panels and signings and videotapes them and takes pictures. Please tell me that is not the cutest thing you’ve ever heard? I love it. She was wonderful when I met her and was one of the authors that was slowing down to talk with everyone and taking pictures. I wish her every bit of success.

However…. (Why does there have to be a however?! Just when I was getting mushy…) I was not in love with this book. I thought that it was alright. Just medium. The idea was kind of great. This big ship headed off into space, kind of doing its own thing, all full of science and drugs and stuff…. awesome. The ship? The fact that there was weather and rain and crops? Brilliant. I wanted to like it so, so much…. I just thought that it was executed kind of poorly.

I didn’t really feel a real connection to any of the characters. Even Amy was just kind of distant for me. It was written in the back-and-forth alternating points of view thing that authors sometimes try. When authors can pull it off, it really is amazing but I think that it very rarely ends up well. In this case I felt like it was distracting. I never felt like I got into Amy or Elder’s minds enough to really care about them and that makes it really hard for me to get into a book.

I thought that the writing itself was pretty decent, but overall I felt like maybe the plot was just too big. After finding out that this was part of a series I felt more positive because there was just so much left unresolved, but even in a series each book should have some sort of solid stand-alone storyline and I just didn’t find that here. I think that I’ll probably check out the sequel if I see it at a book sale, but I’m not going to be seeking it out.

Sorry, Beth. I think you’re great though!

Conclusion:I’m going to hold off on real judgement until I read the next book in series, but this was not the best thing I’ve read lately.

I guess part of it is that when I was a teenager (which I admit was not very long ago) there just wasn’t a YA section. There were middle grade books (oh, The Giver, how I love you) and Judy Blume, but there just weren’t dedicated YA books. I remember reading Stephen King and John Irving and Ayn Rand in high school. While I was in college I think that I was fairly oblivious to what was happening in publishing and I just grabbed books from the thrift store whenever I happened to be there. After I got married and moved to Akron, I became friends with a group of women who are as obsessed with books as me. It was thrilling.

When a few of the women- intelligent, witty, fully grown women- started going on about YA books I genuinely didn’t get it. Then they got passionate about YA books. One of the women was a high school English teacher (Hey, Jess!), so I let it slide, but the rest of them? Not high school English teachers… just grown women who loved reading books written for young adults. Huh? I was never vocal about my judginess, but let me be clear: I judged.

Here are the assumptions that I had drawn in my head: YA books are written in a “simple” way so that kids/teens don’t have to work to get through them. YA books are pretty much moral tales meant to “keep kids off of the drugs and the sex.” YA books are just middle grade books with a bit older characters.

No, guys. If you are a YA snob, listen up. None of those are true.

For a long time, I held out.

Eventually they suckered me into reading Harry Potter, which was obviously amazing, but I assumed that it was an exception. I was at a thrift store or a library sale and saw a couple Sarah Dessen books. Jessica was straight up obsessed with Sarah Dessen, so I figured I’d give it a go and if I didn’t like them, mail them to her to use in her classroom library. When I read the first one, I was shocked. Here is why: These were real teenagers, dealing with real issues, in real ways. Sure, it was kind of chic lit-y and a little predictable, but adult books are like that too sometimes. Sarah Dessen didn’t “write down” to teenagers, she wrote in a way that would make a teenager have to think, have to work through stuff in their head. I wasn’t totally sold, but I have to admit that I was much more intrigued and it was at this time I dropped the ‘tude. I started picking up YA books that sounded good to me, I started taking my friend’s recommendations and dabbling a bit.

I read LIbba Bray’s Gemma Doyle series and loved it. I read The Hunger Games and Catching Fire. I think that the book that finally got me to drop my YA snobbery all together was Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher. It is amazing and real and beautifully written. It deals with heavy, heavy issues in a really legitimate way and… just… wow. I realized that if that was on the YA shelves there were probably plenty of other books that would blow my mind, so I dropped the snobbery all together and dove in head first.

I started actively seeking YA books.

Yup. I’m now the adult scouring the YA shelves at the library and the bookstore. The one I used to roll my eyes at. It’s me.

I would still say that 75% of the books that I read are not from the YA section, but to go from 0% to 25%…. that’s a pretty big deal, right?

I just want to add: I have read YA books that have totally met the assumptions that I drew a long time ago. I have also realized that because YA is growing so quickly that once something sells, publishers pump out as much of it as they can, meaning that if you read the flaps of a few books that sound similar, chances are you are going to be reading the same book with different characters…. and love triangles are a big, big deal. Like… they are in almost every single book. Seriously. And the werewolf thing? Can I just say that I don’t get it? These things annoy me, but I also get annoyed at general fiction and mysteries and… you know… “grown up books” sometimes. Some YA books ARE written “down” for young readers, but I have to say that the majority of the ones that I’ve read are not at all.

One of my YA loving friends pointed out to me that really the qualifier to have a book promoted as YA is that the main character has to be a teenager. That’s it. Now I feel sort of stupid that for so long I dismissed an entire genre of books because I think I’m so grown up and awesome.

I mean, seriously…. I still use bubble gum bubble bath. How grown up did I really think I was?

The Book: Delirium, by Lauren Oliver

The Story: Lena Holoway is born into a world that has been totally rid of love. Scientists in the past realized that love was the reason that there was hurt, pain, anger, jealousy, and passion in the world. They developed a surgery that successfully rid people of Love and left them comfortably numb.

Lena is pretty much ok with the idea. She lives with her aunt and uncle and looks forward to getting assigned a mate, and getting her surgery when she turns 17.

Ninety five days before she is due to get her surgery, she falls head over heels in love. Whoops.

She has about 3 months to figure out what to do and how to do it. In those three months she is exposed to a whole world that she didn’t know existed and to a past that she never could have imagined.

What I Thought: Let me just say right off the bat that the premise of this book is totally out there. I’m sure that in the course of this trilogy we will find out the hows and whys of how this society started, but I had a real disconnect here. I understand that Lena and her peers were going through with the surgery because that is what is expected of them, but I just can’t imagine the first generation of “no love” or whatever. People just wouldn’t go for this. I know that any dystopian book requires us in some way to just trust the author and go with the flow, but for me there never came a time where this was believable to me.

Outside of that, I thought that this book was kind of amazing. I loved, loved, loved the writing. I thought that it was gorgeous. It was lyrical without being over the top and sounded like a teenager’s thoughts without getting too angsty. I thought that the flow and the pacing were spot on and I flew through this book because I could not wait to find out what happened next.

I thought that the relationship between Alex and Lena was totally believable and I was rooting for them from the second they laid eyes on each other.

My favorite relationship was the one between Lena and Hana. I love a good teenage friendship story and this one was incredible. There was a scene toward the end that made me squirmy with happiness. I don’t want to spoil anything so I can’t tell you even a single detail of the scene, but when you read it you’ll know. I would say that that is the scene that sold the book for me. I loved these girls.

My only real, real problem here is that there’s not much originality going on. I could not help but draw about a million billion similarities between Delirium and Uglies. I mean, seriously!? They are the same story, almost to a frigging tee. It was distracting for me. And like a lot of YA out there right now, there was a kind-of love triangle. And I couldn’t help but compare Lena and Katniss and… well… you see where I’m going. I don’t even read all the YA dystopian stuff out there and I can just see that this is not much different than other stuff being published right now. I know that this is what sells, but come on. I was a little let down by this. Lauren Oliver can write her butt off so I’m hoping that through the series that she just really comes on to some great story lines that blow my mind.

Conclusion: If you are into dystopian books, you will be all about this. Keep an eye out for incredible, lyrical writing and try to forget all that other YA dystopia-fun you’ve been having lately.

The Book: Hex Hall, by Rachel Hawkins

The Story: Sophie is a witch. She is also just a normal high schooler that lives with her non-witch mom. She came into her powers when she was 12 and really doesn’t know much about them… except that they work. On prom night, they may just work a little TOO well and as a result she gets booted to a boarding school for witches, werewolves and one lonely vampire.

Her roommate is, of course, the vampire. She quickly makes enemies with the most popular girls and develops a huge crush on a really hot guy.

She starts off at this huge disadvantage because all these other kids have been raised knowing about their powers. Some creepy, mysterious stuff starts happening to a couple of the girls on Sophie’s floor and her only friend is the prime suspect. She sets out to clear her friend’s name and in the process ends up in an all-out battle with a powerful coven of beautiful girls. Eek.

What I Thought: Can I be honest? I really just bought this because I knew I was going to see Rachel Hawkins at DBF. I had heard a lot about this book, but the YA paranormal romance thing generally isn’t my scene. Not because I’m a snob, but just because I know what I like. Werewolves? Not something I like. So I skipped it for a long time, but I did follow Rachel Hawkins on Twitter and kind of love her… so when I found out I was going to meet her, of course I bought her book to get signed.

And I ended up really liking it.

Here’s the thing: I still didn’t like the werewolf/vampire/witch thing. In fact, in one of the first scenes when a werewolf “changes,” I came dang close to putting the book down. I’m really glad I didn’t because there’s just so much more to this book than the paranormal. Or even the romance, which was actually pretty great.

What I really loved was this great female protagonist kicking butt! She was, of course, unconfident, confused and scared a lot of the time. She’s a teenage girl. But she was also snarky and funny and loyal and on this search for the truth. I absolutely love that. It is empowering to read about a girl who isn’t flakey and wishy washy and timid. No, Sophie gets out there and goes for it and I was rooting for her the whole way. I thought that Rachel Hawkins did a great job of making Sophie (even though she was, you know, a witch) very real and relatable. For me, that alone was enough to sell the book.

The story itself was alright. It was kind of like a paranormal Mean Girls at a boarding school. So sort of like Harry Potter (which is referenced more than once, actually!) plus Mean Girls. I was most intrigued by Sophie’s family’s unknown past and I haven’t read Demonglass, but I get the idea that that is explored a bit more there. I’ll keep my eye out for the sequel!

I must add: Rachel Hawkins was fabulous at her panel & signing. She is gracious and funny and you could just tell that she is absolutely in love with the idea that she gets to write books for a living. Her excitement kind of oozes off of her and it was so fun to see that in person.

I must also add: I also read Sweetly and The Phisck Book of Deliverance Dane recently (haven’t reviewed either yet) and they both have witches named Sophie/Sophia too. Isn’t that odd? Sophie never really struck me as a witchy name before, but now it’s all I think of when I hear it. Weird.

Conclusion: A really fun, quick read. Also some pretty steamy kissing in a magic-ish room. So. There’s that.

The Book: Shiver, by Maggie Stiefvater

The Story: When Grace is really young she is attacked by some wolves in the woods on her property.  One wolf- with beautiful, golden eyes- saves her and carries her back to her parents.  Since then, she has kind of harbored a love for this wolf and has watched him from her back patio nearly her whole life.

Sam is this wolf/kid thing.  During the summer, when it is warm, he is a pretty normal kid.  He goes to work, goes home, yadda yadda.  During the winter, he is a wolf… with stunning gold eyes.

Yup. Sam is Grace’s wolf.  One summer, he decides to finally talk to Grace when he is a human. Craziness ensues.

What I Thought: So I have a group of friends that is absolutely in love with this series. When Jessica had a giveaway of a signed copy, I jumped on that quick… and won! Woo hoo! So not only was mine free, it is all signed and beautiful. Neener neener.

First, let me say that the colored type was the greatest thing I’ve ever seen.  Seriously. It was love at first sight.  I’ve heard that the next one is green and the last one is… red? Is that right? Anyway, wonderful idea and a great first impression.

Second, the writing? Stunning. Beautiful. Outstanding. I frigging loved it.  The hot/cold imagery could have been cheesy and overdone, but it wasn’t.  It was magical and added this level of feeling to the story that I almost cannot describe.  The tension, the romance, the mystery…. Maggie can just frigging write.

Third, Grace & Sam? Smokin. What a perfect YA couple.  In real life, teenage couples are a little spastic, very impulsive, sugar sweet…. Sam & Grace are all that and more.  I love that they fight and make up and save each other and keep secrets.  It’s just this perfectly right teenage romance.

And here’s where I disappoint all of my friends who are crazy about this series: I seriously did not care about all the wolf stuff.  I know that “wolf stuff” is almost the whole plot, so that’s a pretty dumb way to put it, but you know what I mean… the wolf-drama and his wolf-family and stuff.  If you’ve been reading my reviews for long you know that fantasy/paranormal isn’t really my thing.  Maybe I just have trouble suspending my belief to that extent.  I don’t know, but the paranormal element of this story had me kind of rolling my eyes a little bit.

So I guess that in this paranormal romance, I enjoyed the romance way more than the paranormal.

If I see Linger at a book sale or something, I’ll get it, but I’m not going to go out of my way to continue with this series.

Conclusion: If you are way into the “Paranormal YA Romance” scene, read this if you have somehow missed it up until this point.  If paranormal isn’t your thing, this probably won’t be either.