Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins

Title: Anna and the French Kiss
Author: Stephanie Perkins
Publisher: Dutton
Reading Level: YA, 14+
Publication Date: December 2, 2010
Pages: 372
My Edition: Hardcover
GoodReads

Cover Rating: C-
Book Rating: A

Plot - 19/20
Characters - 20/20
Writing - 18/20
Originality - 18/20
Entertainment - 10/10
Recommendation - 10/10
Total: 95/100

Summary:Anna is looking forward to her senior year in Atlanta, where she has a great job, a loyal best friend, and a crush on the verge of becoming more. Which is why she is less than thrilled about being shipped off to boarding school in Paris - until she meets Etienne St. Clair: perfect, Parisian (and English and American, which makes for a swoon-worthy accent), and utterly irresistible. The only problem is that he's taken, and Anna might be, too, if anything comes of her almost-relationship back home.
As winter melts into spring, will a year of romantic near - misses end with the French kiss Anna - and readers - have long awaited?

Review:

I was so not prepared for how much I was going to love ANNA AND THE FRENCH KISS. It was absolutely delightful. I honestly cannot say a bad word about it.

It started off really pleasantly; I was instantly titillated with Anna and why her dad was sending her off to Paris and I really wanted to see what Paris and SOAP were like. I truthfully just could not put the novel down from the very first page.

I had read LOLA AND THE BOY NEXT DOOR before ANNA AND THE FRENCH KISS so I was just counting the words until the amazing, gorgeous Etienne St. Clair came into the picture. Then he and Anna bumped into each other and I was instantaneously in unconditional love with Etienne St. Clair. He is just... ugh. I cannot say in words how much I loved St. Clair. He is so impeccable. From the very first part where Anna and St. Clair meet, he beat Owen Armstrong for the top position of swoon-worthy literary characters in my book. I found myself doodling his name in my notebook the day after I finished the novel. Nobody, real or fiction, has ever made me do that. So, in other words: I LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE Etienne St. Clair.

As for the other aspects of the novel, they were pretty darn close to being as impeccable as St. Clair is. I really loved Anna. She felt so real to me, I felt like I could relate to her. Her personality was so likeable and sensible. I probably would have done exactly what she had done in that situation.

Paris was amazing. I was so jealous that I will never be able to experience going to high school in Paris. The backdrop and most of the best scenes between Anna and St. Clair took place at such famous and romantic monuments in Paris that it just set the tone for the whole love story. It was not predictable. I didn’t know when they were going to get together at all. Perkins kept on getting close at times, and when they still didn’t it was really frustrating, but well worth the wait.

If any literary character, who wasn't created by Sarah Dessen, ended up beating Owen Armstrong in my list of Top Swoon-Worthy Literary Characters, well, they deserve a cookie. Stephanie Perkins rightfully should get a whole batch of homemade chocolate chip caramel cookies because Etienne St. Clair and her whole novel were incredible. This book deserves every single word of praise it’s received yet far. I cannot wait for ISLA AND THE HAPPILY EVER AFTER next year!

The Cinderella Society by Kay Cassidy

Title: The Cinderella Society
Author: Kay Cassidy
Publisher: Egmont USA
Reading Level: YA, 12+
Publication Date: April 13, 2010
Pages: 320
My Edition: ARC
Amazon Page

Cover Rating: C-
Book Rating: A

Plot - 19/20
Characters - 16/20
Writing - 17/20
Originality - 20/20
Entertainment - 10/10
Recommendation - 10/10
Total: 92/100

Summary:

When the Prom Queen becomes your fairy godmother…

Sixteen year old Jess Parker gets the chance of a lifetime: an invitation to join a secret society of popular girls where makeover fantasies become reality. But there’s more to membership in The Cinderella Society than meets the eye. Being a Cindy means reinventing yourself from the inside out, a concept lost on Jess as she dives tiara-first into creating a hot new look.

Be careful what you wish for.

Jess’s transformation wins her the heart of the Varsity quarterback and a shot at uber-popularity. Until the Wickeds–led by Jess’s arch enemy–begin targeting innocent girls in their war against the Cindys, and Jess discovers the real force behind her exclusive society. It’s a centuries-old battle of good vs. evil, and the Cindys in power need Jess on special assignment. When the mission threatens to destroy her dream life come true, Jess is forced to choose between living a fairy tale and honoring the Sisterhood… and herself. What’s a girl to do when the glass slipper fits, but she doesn’t want to wear it anymore?

Review:

The Cinderella Society was unlike anything I have ever read before. It was unique and deeply inspirational like Kay Cassidy herself. The Cinderella Society might be a novel about the mean girls taking avantage of the weak kids. But it was also a novel about a girl finding herself and living to the potential of herself and helping take the mean girls down. It was simply extroadinary!

The beginning was a very nice start to a series. It began excellent and was a nice start up for the rest of the novel; showing what a bit of what it was like for Jess at school and dealing with her arch-enemy Lexy, but it wasn't strung along. It was the perfect amount to see what it was like and then we were blown into the world of the Cindy's (the good girls). The Cindy's are pretty much a group of high school girls who are saints. But the Cindy's aren't just in this town the book takes place in. The Cindy's are worldwide. The Cindy's help the kids who aren't the apart of anything from the Wickeds (the mean girls). It's completely original and highly enjoyably.

The one little problem with The Cinderella Society is that I don't think we got to see Jess in her homelife enough. I think if we had we would of been able to really relate to Jess more and view her as more realistic and deep. So other then seeing a bit more in Jess's life and maybe some of the other characters, I really had no problem with the novel.

The writing was great, the plot was fantastic, it was original, entertaining, and deeply inspirational. A wonderful debut novel with encouragement to be the best you can possibly be, a very true novel that will be loved.

How to Say Goodbye in Robot by Natalie Standiford

Title: How to Say Goodbye In Robot
Author: Natalie Standiford
Publisher: Scholastic
Reading Level: YA, 12+
Publication Date: October 1, 2009
Pages: 288
My Edition: ARC
Amazon Page

Cover Rating: B
Book Rating: A

Plot - 18/20
Characters - 18/20
Writing - 19/20
Originality - 17/20
Entertainment - 10/10
Recommendation - 10/10
Total: 92/100

Summary:

New to town, Beatrice is expecting her new best friend to be one of the girls she meets on the first day. But instead, the alphabet conspires to seat her next to Jonah, aka Ghost Boy, a quiet loner who hasn't made a new friend since third grade. Something about him, though, gets to Bea, and soon they form an unexpected friendship. It's not romance, exactly - but it's definitely love. Still, Bea can't quite dispel Jonah's gloom and doom - and as she finds out his family history, she understands why. Can Bea help Jonah? Or is he destined to vanish?

Review:

Let me first say: I absolutely loved this book. It was just such a nice, refreshing novel that made me extremely happy to read. Natalie Standiford is a brilliant writer. She drew me into Bea's word incredibly quickly and I didn't want to stop reading!

I really adored the simple plot of this novel. It was cute and nice and I absolutely loved the radio show and the people, it was just extroadinary, the characters they are. Standiford was able to craft so many different and bizarre personalities in these characters that just made her a master-mind.

The writing was genuine, believable, and soft. It was natural and it was just gorgoues writing overall. I was happy how the end came about it, was happy, yet, it was sad. But it felt like it was the right ending.

How to Say Goodbye in Robot was a genuine, cute, and natural novel that I fell hard in love with. I can pretty much guarantee that you will too. I deeply recommend it.

Fire by Kristin Cashore

Title: Fire
Author: Kristin Cashore
Publisher: Dial
Reading Level: YA, 14+
Publication Date: October 5, 2009
Pages: 480
My Edition: ARC
Amazon Page

Cover Rating: A-
Book Rating: A(+)

Plot - 19/20
Characters - 19.5/20
Writing - 20/20
Originality - 20/20
Entertainment - 10/10
Recommendation - 10/10
Total: 98.5/100

Summary:

Fire, Graceling's prequel-ish companion book, takes place across the mountains to the east of the seven kingdoms, in a rocky, war-torn land called the Dells.

Beautiful creatures called monsters live in the Dells. Monsters have the shape of normal animals: mountain lions, dragonflies, horses, fish. But the hair or scales or feathers of monsters are gorgeously colored-- fuchsia, turquoise, sparkly bronze, iridescent green-- and their minds have the power to control the minds of humans.

Seventeen-year-old Fire is the last remaining human-shaped monster in the Dells. Gorgeously monstrous in body and mind but with a human appreciation of right and wrong, she is hated and mistrusted by just about everyone, and this book is her story.

***MINOR GRACELING SPOILER***

Wondering what makes it a companion book/prequel? Fire takes place 30-some years before Graceling and has one cross-over character with Graceling, a small boy with strange two-colored eyes who comes from no-one-knows-where, and who has a peculiar ability that Graceling readers will find familiar and disturbing...

***END MINOR GRACELING SPOILER***

Review:

How can a book be so outstanding? Kristin Cashore has done it again. I swear, I would do anything to get inside her mind, Graceling was phenomenal, Fire was outstanding, what else can we expect from her? Kristin Cashore is a writing goddess!

If you remember from my Graceling review, you might recognize that they have the same 98.5/100 rating, but for different reasons. In Graceling, the plot was .5 ahead of the characters. But for Fire, the characters got the .5 this time. If asked which one I love the most, I could not decide. Graceling had the fantastic plot that I favored over the characters, but Fire I favor the characters slightly more then the plot.

Fire was one of the most extroadinary characters I have ever seen. Her internal fight with herself about several things, was incredible. Her mind controling the humans, everything about her was incredible. It wasn't just her. I loved every single character in the book. I though Archer brought something great to the story. And Brigan was just fantastic too. Every character was just sensational.

The plot for Fire took a slower pace with not so much exciting scenes as Graceling had. It was a fine pace to it, and the characters really brightened the book up, but Fire was much more a character driven novel, with several suspense scenes that really made the novel. It was great, I loved the ending entirely too much.

Several things that were the same as Graceling were the astounding writing that of Kristin Cashore. The incredible originality of it all, the entertainment and my recommendation for it, were all the same. Fantastic, everything, it is definitely tied with Graceling for my favorite book read this year. Not one bad thing to say about Fire, it was amazing.

Graceling by Kristin Cashore

Title: Graceling
Author: Kristin Cashore
Publisher: Harcourt Childrens Books
Reading Level: YA, 14+
Publication Date: October 1, 2008
Pages: 480
My Edition: Hardcover
Amazon Page

Cover Rating: B+
Book Rating: A(+ even though my ratings don't agree :))

Plot - 19.5/20
Characters - 19/20
Writing - 20/20
Originality - 20/20
Entertainment - 10/10
Recommendation - 10/10
Total: 98.5/100

Summary:

Katsa has been able to kill a man with her bare hands since she was eight; she's a Graceling, one of the rare people in her land born with an extreme skill. As niece of the king, she should be able to live a life of privilege, but Graced as she is with killing, she is forced to work as the king's thug.

She never expects to fall in love with beautiful Prince Po. She never expects to learn the truth behind her Grace--or the terrible secret that lies hidden far away. . .a secret that could destroy all seven kingdoms with words alone.

Review:

This is quite possibly one of the best books I've ever read. It has recieved the highest rating on my blog yet (not counting Marley and Me because that was a memoir). Graceling was just phenomenal! From start to finish it was just an incredible book that I just didn't want to stop. I wished I could just keep reading it forever!

Kristin Cashore has possibly written the best debut book I have ever read before. And even better because she created almost everything from scratched. She created a kingdom, a new world, a new lifestyle. A way of speaking, crazy names! It was created brilliantly and put out even better. I can't possibly say one bad thing about Kristin Cashore's writing or the world she created, it was all excellent.

The plot was exciting. It took just a chapter or two to get me into it and get to know what was going on and how everything worked in that world, but after that, you couldn't pry me away from it. My hands were glued! I've always loved adventure/survival type stories and this one was just so marvelous. It had the perfect pace. It was exciting, sad, happy, suspenseful, and I could just keep going and going. It was amazing, period.

The characters were fabulous. I loved Katsa, and then Po, my gosh. Every character was so unique and interesting in their own way. I loved the point of view Cashore approached this book with . . .

Quite honestly, I loved pretty much everything about this book. It was fantastic, it is at the very top of my favorite books list, and I think everything by Cashore will be up there. Graceling was one exceptional, astounding, sensational book, one of the best I've ever read.

Hate List by Jennifer Brown

Title: Hate List
Author: Jennifer Brown
Publisher: Little, Brown
Reading Level: YA, 14+
Publication Date: September 1, 2009
Pages: 416
My Edition: ARC
Amazon Page

Cover Rating: B
Book Rating: A-

Plot - 18/20
Characters - 19/20
Writing - 20/20
Originality - 17/20
Entertainment - 7/10
Recommendation - 9/10
Total: 90/100

Summary:

it was just a list. nobody was supposed to die...

Five months ago, Valerie Leftman’s boyfriend, Nick, opened fire on their school cafeteria. Shot trying to stop him, Valerie inadvertently saves the life of a classmate, but is implicated in the shootings because of the list she helped create. A list of people and things they hated. The list her boyfriend used to pick his targets.

Now, after a summer of seclusion, Val is forced to confront her guilt as she returns to school to complete her senior year. Haunted by the memory of the boyfriend she still loves and navigating rocky relationships with her family, former friends and the girl whose life she saved, Val must come to grips with the tragedy that took place and her role in it, in order to make amends and move on with her life.

Review:

Before I started Hate List I had heard fantastic things of it, so my expectations were very high for it. Though it was a heartbreaking, amazing, incredible, etc. book, my expectations weren't met, though they were extremely close.

Let me first say that this is a very character-driven novel. The characters were impeccable and incredibly realistic. The writing was wonderful, Jennifer Brown is a fantastic debut author that definitely can write emotional books with great depth. Brown had an amazing voice to this novel.

The one problem I had in this novel is, that, I guess, it didn't really 'wow' me as I had expected. I don't really know what brought this to me, but I just didn't feel so amazed as other reviewers were.

Knowing that, though, doesn't change the fact that this novel is a marvellous novel that was just pitch perfect.

Ballads of Suburbia

Title: Ballads of Suburbia
Author: Stephanie Kuehnert
Publisher: MTV Books
Reading Level: YA, 14+
Publication Date: July 21, 2009
Pages: 368
My Edition: Paperback
Amazon Page

Cover Rating: A-
Book Rating: A

Plot - 17/20
Characters - 19/20
Writing - 20/20
Originality - 17/10
Entertainment - 9/10
Recommendation - 10/10
Total: 92/100

Summary:
Ballads are the kind of songs that Kara McNaughton likes best. Not the cliched ones where a diva hits her highest note or a rock band tones it down a couple of notches for the ladies, but the true ballads: the punk rocker or the country crooner telling the story of their life in three minutes, the chorus reminding their listeners of the numerous ways to screw things up. In high school, Kara helped maintain the "Stories of Suburbia" notebook, which contained newspaper articles about bizarre and often tragic events from suburbs all over and personal vignettes that Kara dubbed "ballads" written by her friends in Oak Park, a suburb of Chicago. Those "ballads" were heartbreakingly honest tales of the moments when life changes and a kid is forced to grow up too soon. But Kara never wrote her own ballad. Before she could figure out what her song was about, she was leaving town after a series of disastrous events at the end of her junior year. Four years later, Kara returns to face the music, and tells the tale of her first three years of high school with her friends' "ballads" interspersed throughout.

Review:

Ballads of Suburbia is an engaging book that you want to put down a few times while reading it, but can't. At least, that's what happened to me. I read Ballads in one sitting. And it was hard. I tried to put it down for a second, but I couldn't! It was begging for me to pick it up again. I had to know what would happen. I had to know, I just had to.

I cried. I laughed. Kara was such a believable character. All of the characters were so amazingly believable. The struggle they all went through was terribly realistic. I think it made it even more hard to read seeing Kara first when she was so young and then seeing her go through her life like that. It was devastating seeing Kara like that, and Liam too.

I don't think I need to say this, but, of course, Stephanie Kuehnert's writing was impeccable. Just brilliant. So realistic, so engaging. I just have to give her kudos for writing such a mortifying novel so excellent. She's really just a exceptional writer.

*Sorry for being so late Yan! Forgive me?*

Tricks by Ellen Hopkins

Title: Tricks
Author: Ellen Hopkins
Publisher: Margaret K. McElderry
Reading Level: YA, 14+
Publication Date: August 25, 2009
Pages: 627
My Edition: ARC
Amazon Page

Rating: A-
Plot - 18/20
Characters - 20/20
Writing - 20/20
Originality - 18/20
Entertainment - 7/10
Recommendation - 7/10
Total: 90/100

Summary:
Five teenagers from different parts of the country. Three girls. Two boys. Four straight. One gay. Some rich. Some poor. Some from great families. Some with no one at all. All living their lives as best they can, but all searching...for freedom, safety, community, family, love. What they don't expect, though, is that they can have all of these things when those powerful little words "I love you" are said for all the wrong reasons. Five moving stories remain seperate at first, then interweave to tell a larger, powerful story- a story about making choices, taking leaps of faith, falling down, and growing up.

Review:

Before I start, I just want to say that, in the ratings, I'm not sure if the Entertainment and Recommendation should apply. Tricks was a story of prostitution. (Something I didn't really realize until I started it.) It was entertaining, the novel. But it was not a happy entertainment. These stories are so hard to read and so hard to really enjoy. You can't enjoy it. But you can't stop reading either. The recommendation is hard too. How can I recommend something that is so terrible, so horrible (In the sense of the of the story.) but how can I not recommend something that is so amazingly crafted and incredibly written? How can I? Either way, I'm not going to fuss about the rating. This book was so horribly amazing and that is all you need to know for a rating.

Ellen Hopkins has such an amazing talent for writing verse novels and I can't ignore the fact that all of her novels tackle the most roughest, most terrible teen difficulties out there? The writing was incredibly done. The story was terrible to read, but it was also fantastic. What I'm trying to say is, the story, the lives of the five people in this novel and what happen to them is the most terrifying thing I have ever read. But Ellen Hopkins, she wrote it so well that it is just an amazing novel.

How Hopkins combines all of these stories together in the tiniest of ways. How these characters can do these things. How they each of the characters were so different and how each of their lives were so far from each other, but yet, they ended out the same way. How someone can do that just blows my mind. But she did it. And how she can write about these issues without having a mental breakdown herself, well, give her a million cookies.

I'm on the fence. As much she's a great writer, I don't know if I can handle reading another one of her stories, but I know, if I pick one of them up, I definitely won't be able to put it done.

Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater

Title: Shiver
Author: Maggie Stiefvater
Publisher: Scholastic
Reading Level: YA, 13+
Publication Date: August 1, 2009
Pages: 400
My Edition: ARC
Amazon Page

Rating: A
Plot - 17/20
Characters - 19/20
Writing - 19/20
Originality - 19/20
Entertainment - 10/10
Recommendation - 10/10
Total: 94/100

Summary:

For years, Grace has watched the wolves in the woods behind her house. One yellow-eyed wolf--her wolf--is a chilling presence she can't seem to live without. Meanwhile, Sam has lived two lives: In winter, the frozen woods, the protection of the pack, and the silent company of a fearless girl. In summer, a few precious months of being human . . . until the cold makes him shift back again.

Now, Grace meets a yellow-eyed boy whose familiarity takes her breath away. It's her wolf. It has to be. But as winter nears, Sam must fight to stay human--or risk losing himself, and Grace, forever.

Review:

From the first words in this novel, I was hooked. I instantly new that this would be my kind of book. And it was. To put it in a few short words: It blew me away. It was just brilliant.

I loved Grace. She just seemed like such a dynamic character. She seemed like someone anyone could be friends with. She had two sides to her. The side when she was with her friends, the simple, calm, nice, and smart girl. Then there was this other side to her, that came out when she was with Sam. She was michievious. She made me laugh. But, Sam was definitely a character I loved. There was just something about him. Whatever it was, Maggie made some fantastic characters that I can't wait to visit again in LINGER.

The writing was brilliant. It flowed so smoothly together, the alternating chapters. Sometimes when reading books with alternating chapters I sometimes wish to read one more then the other, but not here. There was just this gorgeousness to her writing that just hooks you in.

And that doesn't include the originality of the story. Or how much it entertains me. Or how much I would recommend it. I can't say how much I loved this story.

In the end, Maggie Stiefvater wrote a enganging and true to life love story that, with every little kiss Sam gave Grace, you wanted more. You needed it. It was just to gorgeous of a book not to.

And I must add this in here. It is not too often when a book is located in Minnesota. And this book was, and nonetheless, two and a half hours from where I live. I could totally relate to this novel, and I liked that.

Saving Francesca by Melina Marchetta

Title: Saving Francesca
Author: Melina Marchetta
Publisher: Knopf Books for Young Readers
Reading Level: Young Adult, 14+
Publication Date: May 9, 2006
Pages: 241
My Edition: Paperback, signed, Australian version
Amazon Page

Rating: A
Plot - 17/20
Characters - 20/20
Writing - 20/20
Originality - 16/20
Entertainment - 10/10
Recommendation - 10/10
Total: 93/100

Summary:
Francesca battles her mother, Mia, constantly over what's best for her. All Francesca wants is her old friends and her old school, but instead Mia sends her to St. Sebastian's, an all-boys' school that has just opened its doors to girls. Now Francesca's surrounded by hundreds of boys, with only a few other girls for company. All of them weirdos--or worse. Then one day, Mia is too depressed to get out of bed. One day turns into months, and as her family begins to fall apart, Francesca realizes that without her mother's high spirits, she hardly knows who she is. But she doesn't yet realize that she's more like Mia than she thinks. With a little unlikely help from St. Sebastian's, she just might be able to save her family, her friends, and--especially--herself.

Review:
I read this one directly after reading Jellicoe Road, so I had had my share of Melina by then and I got a glorious whiff of her style. So I was really excited to see how this novel compared to Jellicoe Road. It was really good. Extremely good. It had that raw, honest thoughts of a girl trying to survive High School while her mom is in depression and she also finds some love. It was amazing, but Jellicoe Road was really hard to beat. It just wasn't as clever. But still, this book was amazing.

The plot was something done a tons of times before, so it wasn't original. But that didn't matter. The plot was of a girl who is coming-of-age in Australia. Her mom is depressed. She has to keep her family together without her going insane. We've seen it before. But not before with such brilliance of writing and the development of characters.

Francesca was a great main character. She really was. I could relate to her so much, and it was just because she is what you would think of as the average high school girl, and pretty much everyone can relate to her. And we like that in a novel.

The writing was, obviously, so amazing. I just don't know how Marchetta does the things she does with her words? She is a brilliant writer. Period.

I really recommend this novel for everyone. It's a great read that will suck you into Francesca's story. The relationships between her family and Will is amazing. Just everything about the novel is great.

Along For The Ride by Sarah Dessen

Title: Along For The Ride
Author: Sarah Dessen
Publisher: Penguin
Reading Level: Young Adult
Publication Date: June 16, 2009
Pages: 382
My Edition: ARC
Amazon Page

Rating: A
Plot - 18/20
Characters - 19/20
Writing - 20/20
Originality - 17/20
Entertainment - 10/10
Recommendation - 10/10
Total: 93/100

Summary:
It’s been so long since Auden slept at night. Ever since her parents’ divorce—or since the fighting started. Now she has the chance to spend a carefree summer with her dad and his new family in the charming beach town where they live.

A job in a clothes boutique introduces Auden to the world of girls: their talk, their friendship, their crushes. She missed out on all that, too busy being the perfect daughter to her demanding mother. Then she meets Eli, an intriguing loner and a fellow insomniac who becomes her guide to the nocturnal world of the town. Together they embark on parallel quests: for Auden, to experience the carefree teenage life she’s been denied; for Eli, to come to terms with the guilt he feels for the death of a friend.

Review:
Oh, Sarah Dessen, have you ever not written a great novel?

Dessen's new novel, Along for the Ride, hits the spot of all her other fantastical novels she has written. This one, not as exciting as some of her others, but nonetheless, just as good. This novel starts out with the beginning of her summer after graduations. Auden doesn't have anything to do all summer, so she goes to live with her Dad and her step-mom, Heidi. But she gets a surprise when she realizes her dad is just busy with his book, Heidi is busy with her newborn, and she ends up getting a job, which changes the course of the novel.

Auden is smart, she's a loner, never really doing anything else but studying for school. Auden reminds me of one of Dessen's other characters, Macy from The Truth About Forever. I kept on thinking that she reminded me of Macy through the whole novel, but the were definitely some changes from her. But, really. Dessen's high point in her novels are her three-dimensional characters. She did not disappoint from that.

I still found the plot and the originality a bit of a downfall from the novel. I mean, everything was there. But I guess, I was just reminded of her other novels, like when Auden meets someone, get's close to him, then distances herself from him. Has that not happen in The Truth About Forever and Just Listen? It has, and I began to think of it as repetitive.

But other then that. Auden's discovery of herself and the person that she has always wanted to be was just as good as you'd imagine it. It's just as honest and deep as you'd expect from Dessen.

The plot was good, not great, as I've mentioned. The idea of Auden being an insomniac and going around town with Eli is what I really was looking forward to every time a chapter ended.

Okay, so you want a overall. Well, you got it. Overall: This novel was great, not a good as Dessen's other work, not at all, but nonetheless, this is Sarah Dessen, and any of her books are books not to be missed. You've got to read it.

**Much thanks to J. for this novel to me.

Jellicoe Road by Melina Marchetta

Title: Jellicoe Road
Author: Melina Marchetta
Publisher: Harperteen
Reading Level: Young Adult, 15+
Publication Date: August 26, 2009
Pages: 419
My Edition: Hardcover, signed, US edition
Amazon Page

Rating: A *New favorite*
Plot - 18/20
Characters - 19/20
Writing - 20/20
Originality - 19/20
Entertainment - 9/10
Recommendation - 10/10
Total: 95/100

Summary:
"What do you want from me?" he asks. What I want from every person in my life, I want to tell him. More.

Abandoned by her mother on Jellicoe Road when she was eleven, Taylor Markham, now seventeen, is finally being confronted with her past. But as the reluctant leader of her boarding school dorm, there isn't a lot of time for introspection. And while Hannah, the closest adult Taylor has to family, has disappeared, Jonah Griggs is back in town, moody stares and all.

In this absorbing story by Melina Marchetta, nothing is as it seems and every clue leads to more questions as Taylor tries to work out the connection between her mother dumping her, Hannah finding her then and her sudden departure now, a mysterious stranger who once whispered something in her ear, a boy in her dreams, five kids who lived on Jellicoe Road eighteen years ago, and the maddening and magnetic Jonah Griggs, who knows her better than she thinks he does. If Taylor can put together the pieces of her past, she might just be able to change her future.

Review:
Okay, I'm sitting here trying to think of a clever way to start this review. Honestly? I can't think of one. Someone tell me in the comments why it's always hard to start reviews. I really would like to know. But know I guess I'll just start this one, un-cleverly.

Jellicoe Road was amazing. There is no other way to put it. It is just a brilliant work of fiction. Marchetta wove this story into another story so perfectly. I just feel like standing up and giving Marchetta a round-of-applause.

Yes, this novel was a bit confusing in the beginning. It was different and strange. But the amazing writing, the wonderful characters, the astonishing setting kept me reading, and My Gosh! I am so very much glad I did. This is a new favorite of mine. A book everyone should read. You might have your doubts when you first start reading, but, do you trust me? If you do then you should listen to me when I say to keep going strong and finish it because it is such a complex and marvelous novel that I cannot express me feelings with enough gratitude. Honestly.

Taylor was such a fantastic heroine. You just could've help but like her ways. She is a strong and multifarious character. And she was not the only fabulous character in this novel either! All of them were! Every. Single. Character. I am not lying. They were all so stupendous and extensively three-dimensional.

The writing. Gosh. It was fantastic. Have I already said that? Well it was. Melina Marchetta just has this way with words. This scintillating way of words that you have to love. Her writing has this, this soothing, soft, but important, I don't know. It's just like . . . authoritative. Does that even make sense? You get what I'm trying to say. The words that vibe from her mind and strime through her fingers on a keyboard is the work of a genius. That's a good was to put it.

The plot. The fantasticly amazing plot. It's so, so, so very much complicated. But good. Not just good. Great. Glorious. It started without really giving the reader a hint of what's to come, no, the hints would come later. But I think that's just the reason it IS as brilliant as it is. The weaving of the two stories together was unbelievably impeccable. It was original in the littlest of ways. Maybe it was just because the story is Australian, but the littlest details (that you might know what I'm actually talking about if you have read the book, or not.) is what I think made it so original. The lifestyle of Taylor. The Cadets. The house on the river. The people. It was all original. And amazing.

Okay, it's pretty obvious what I think of this novel. So I think I won't use that word again or the synonyms of it either because it's probably worn out for tonight. But the verdict is: READ THIS NOW!

Sorry, I had a ton of trouble writing this novel. I tried to get the facts out, but I just couldn't stop saying how amazing it is. Sorry again!

Perfect Fifths by Megan McCafferty

Title: Perfect Fifths
Author: Megan McCafferty
Publisher: Crown
Reading Level: Young Adult, 15+
Publication Date: April 14, 2009
Pages: 272
My Edition: ARC
Amazon Page

Rating: A
Plot - 17/20
Characters - 18/20
Writing - 18/20
Originality - 20/20
Entertainment - 10/10
Recommendation - 10/10
Total: 93/100

Summary:
Old flames are reignited in the fifth and final book in the New York Times bestselling Jessica Darling series.

Captivated readers have followed Jessica through every step and misstep: from her life as a tormented, tart-tongued teenager to her years as a college grad stumbling toward adulthood. Now a young professional in her mid-twenties, Jess is off to a Caribbean wedding. As she rushes to her gate at the airport, she literally runs into her former boyfriend, Marcus Flutie. It’s the first time she’s seen him since she reluctantly turned down his marriage proposal three years earlier–and emotions run high.

Marcus and Jessica have both changed dramatically, yet their connection feels as familiar as ever. Is their reunion just a fluke or has fate orchestrated this collision of their lives once again?

Told partly from Marcus’s point of view, Perfect Fifths finally lets readers inside the mind of the one person who’s both troubled and titillated Jessica Darling for years. Expect nothing less than the satisfying conclusion fans have been waiting for, one perfect in its imperfection. . . .

Review:
Boy, was I excited to read this book.

I have always loved this series mainly because Jessica is a character who we first meet as a sophomore is High School who feels alone and stressed after her best friend moves away. Between the last three books we see Jessica, a girl, whom one would depict as the average teenage girl, go from a immature teenager to a Columbia-bound confused college kid, so a girl who get's proposed to, and finally to a professional young woman. The journey in the five books was fantastic and I am terribly sad that it's over.

The summary doesn't do anything for the novel itself. It actually a terrible summer, in my opinion. We get a tiny glimpse of what will happen and then it tells us it's told partly in Marcus's point of view, that got me really worried, and my expectations were put down because of it.

But, nonetheless, this book was fantastic. I loved how the book was divided into sections that had it's on writing style. Totally original and unique. The writing was fantastic, as this was the first novel written in third person and those different writing styles, I think McCafferty did a great job.

The reader will get to see inside the minds of Jessica and Marcus, which is something you haven't seen before. That part made the novel even more enjoyable and anomalous. We get to see how Jessica has come in the past few years since college and what she is doing and how she has changed. It's really dainty knowing how Jessica has changes throughout the years.

The plot was actually my favorite part. Over the whole book it was 24 hours. At a airport. And a hotel. Jessica. Marcus. Together. Imagine for a second.

Yes, exactly. The concept, the idea, is impeccable. Scintillating. I loved every moment of it. Megan McCafferty is a genius for thinking of this plot for the last book in the series. It's pure genius.

Inclusive, this book was a fantastic, original, and genius (if I can say it again) ending to one of my favorite series. I do hope we see more of Megan McCafferty with a new series soon enough.

Strange Angels by Lili St. Crow

Title: Strange Angels
Author: Lili St. Crow
Publisher: Razorbill
Reading Level: Young Adult, 14+
Publication Date: May 14, 2009
Pages: 301
Amazon Page

Rating: A
Plot - 17/20
Characters - 18/20
Writing - 19/20
Originality - 19/20
Entertainment - 10/10
Recommendation - 10/10
Total: 93/100

Summary:
Dru Anderson has been “strange” for as long as she can remember. She travels from town to town with her father, hunting the things that go bump in the night and eat the unwary. It’s a weird life, but a good one–until it all explodes and a zombie busts into her new house.

Alone, terrified, and trapped in an icy town, Dru’s going to need every inch of her wit and training to stay alive. Can she trust the boy who is just a little too adult–and just happens to get bit by a werwulf? Or the strange blue-eyed boy who tells her she’s heir to a long-forgotten power? Can she even trust her own instincts?

Because Dru is not the first in her family to be killed by the darkness of the Real World. The monsters have decided to hunt back–and now Dru has to figure out who to trust, who to fight, and when to run. And not incidentally, she has to figure out how she’s going to get out of this alive.

And she has to do it in the next 24 hours, or it’s all over…

Review:
I was really excited to read this one. Paranormal. One of my favorite genres. I wasn't really sure what to expect of it, but maybe some action. I apprehended that it would be kind of like one of my favorite television shows, Supernatural, and it kind of was. Before I begin the actual review I just want to say this to all Supernatural fans out there: This is a novel for YOU!

Strange Angels started out with excitement. We got to know Dru and a little of what would probably come in the 300+ pages. My first impression of Dru was that she was a strong, smart, and impressive independent young woman. And in the rest of the novel, she proved right to me. I am a big fan of strong protagonists, and Dru was one. I loved seeing the Real World through her eyes. It was very interesting and exhilarating.

For those paranormal fans out there, this novel has everything you would want in it; zombies, werewolves (Werewulfen), vampires (Suckers), and freaky little [and sometimes big] monsters/creatures. It was very stimulating and vitalizing.

The plot was interesting and quite brilliant. St. Crow wove some many different things into one story and gave it something exciting. I don't want to spoil it, so I won't talk about it much anymore.

St. Crow is a master at words, she writes with intensity, emotion, and believability all in one. Her first young adult novel was unpredictable, intoxicating, and an acquisitive read. She led you in to a new world that is highly absorbing. I exceedingly recommend you buy this when it comes out on May 14th.