ARC Review: Unspoken by Sara Rees Brennan

Unspoken by Sarah Rees Brennan
Published:  September 11, 2012
Publisher: Random House
Pages: 373
Series: The Lynburn Legacy #1
Source: Randombuzzers
My Rating: 4 of 5 stars

Kami Glass loves someone she’s never met . . . a boy she’s talked to in her head ever since she was born. She wasn’t silent about her imaginary friend during her childhood, and is thus a bit of an outsider in her sleepy English town of Sorry-in-the-Vale. Still, Kami hasn’t suffered too much from not fitting in. She has a best friend, runs the school newspaper, and is only occasionally caught talking to herself. Her life is in order, just the way she likes it, despite the voice in her head.

But all that changes when the Lynburns return.

The Lynburn family has owned the spectacular and sinister manor that overlooks Sorry-in-the-Vale for centuries. The mysterious twin sisters who abandoned their ancestral home a generation ago are back, along with their teenage sons, Jared and Ash, one of whom is eerily familiar to Kami. Kami is not one to shy away from the unknown—in fact, she’s determined to find answers for all the questions Sorry-in-the-Vale is suddenly posing. Who is responsible for the bloody deeds in the depths of the woods? What is her own mother hiding? And now that her imaginary friend has become a real boy, does she still love him? Does she hate him? Can she trust him?

My Review: After hearing so much praise about this book I finally gave in. I can't believe I let it sit on my bookshelf for this long. 

When I was younger I used to read the Nancy Drew books that my mother gave me. I don't remember what they were about anymore but I know that I loved them. I still love mystery books but I think that the YA genre is lacking in that department or I'm just not looking hard enough. Unspoken was the perfect combination of mystery and paranormal and I honestly wish there were more books like it.

The characters were probably what made this book and they were also what infuriated me the most. Kami was a strong and brave character, but I couldn't stand how she kept saying how she wasn't pretty and that Angela, Holly, and her mother were so much prettier than she was without even trying. I wanted to bang my head against the wall when she compared herself to these people. Other than that she was a hilarious main character and pretty awesome.

The other characters were very funny too and I cared for all of Kami's friends. I couldn't help but love Angela. Probably because her laziness attitude reminds me of one of my close friends. I also really liked Holly once Kami gave her a chance.

I knew there was a love triangle going into this book. The love triangle itself didn't bother me but I wish it hadn't taken up so much of the book. A good portion of the book was taken up by Kami's feelings about Jared and Ash. I definitely like Jared better, but he wouldn't even touch Kami and their relationship was so unstable. One moment everything would be fine and then the next they would be fighting. It was infuriating. Jared never gave a reason for not wanting to touch Kami either. I assume it was because he didn't want to hurt her or it was just too weird for him but neither make much sense to me.

All of the twists in the book were fairly predictable, except for the one at the end. I saw the one about Angela coming as soon as she became friends with Holly. It wasn't hard to guess what the Lynburns were either, but I only got part of the last twist correct.

Unspoken was a very enjoyable book and I'm definitely going to be looking out for other books that Sarah Rees Brennan writes because the dialogue between her characters made me laugh many times. I don't think I've laughed so much since I read The Mortal Instruments.

Now I can't wait for the squeal and I'm off to see if I can find some teasers because I can't believe how the book ended!

Review: Paper Valentine by Brenna Yovanoff

Paper Valentine by Brenna Yovanoff
Published: January 8, 2013
Publisher: Razorbill
Pages: 306
My Rating:  3 of 5 stars

Synopsis: The city of Ludlow is gripped by the hottest July on record. The asphalt is melting, the birds are dying, petty crime is on the rise, and someone in Hannah Wagnor’s peaceful suburban community is killing girls.

For Hannah, the summer is a complicated one. Her best friend Lillian died six months ago, and Hannah just wants her life to go back to normal. But how can things be normal when Lillian’s ghost is haunting her bedroom, pushing her to investigate the mysterious string of murders? Hannah’s just trying to understand why her friend self-destructed, and where she fits now that Lillian isn’t there to save her a place among the social elite. And she must stop thinking about Finny Boone, the big, enigmatic delinquent whose main hobbies seem to include petty larceny and surprising acts of kindness.

With the entire city in a panic, Hannah soon finds herself drawn into a world of ghost girls and horrifying secrets. She realizes that only by confronting the Valentine Killer will she be able move on with her life—and it’s up to her to put together the pieces before he strikes again.

Paper Valentine is a hauntingly poetic tale of love and death by the New York Times bestselling author of The Replacement and The Space Between.

My Review: The first couple pages were amazing. I mean ghosts and murder? Doesn't that sound interesting? Too bad it wasn't all about the murder.

The characters were kind of average, except for Lillian but I'll get to her later. I have mixed feelings about the main character, Hannah. There was nothing about her that made me dislike her, but I wasn't exactly rooting for her either. The not so average thing about Hannah is that she can see ghosts. This is never really explained, but that didn't really bother me too much. Basically Hannah is haunted by her dead best friend.

I feel like the romance was just not needed. Finny was the typical bad boy and of course Hannah falls in love with him.Their relationship didn't add anything to the story for me, it was just kind of there and I tolerated it...kind of. The murders were way more important than the romance, but guess which one trumped the other? That's right, the romance. 

But the romance didn't take center stage either. Instead I think that this book was mostly about Hannah dealing with the loss of her best friend, Lillian. Lillian had anorexia and Hannah did practically nothing to help her best friend get better. Even though Lillian's dead she still has a huge influence on Hannah and on their other friends.

I wish the murders had been more important to the story. The ending felt so rushed and it was really obvious (to me) who the murderer was. At first I had no idea who the murderer was, but when I started thinking about it I was able to figure it out pretty quick. 

Overall I I liked Paper Valentine but I didn't think it was anything special. I was looking for a murder mystery but instead I got something else.

Blog Tour Review: Walking in the Shadows by Cassandra Giovonni

Walking in the Shadows by Cassandra Giovanni
Published: October 19, 2012
Publisher: Self Published
Pages: 358
My Rating:  3.5 of 5 stars

Synopsis: Seconds seem like a lifetime when the life you lived is slowly drained out of you by those who care not what you felt, hoped, or dreamed. When the darkness comes it is all-consuming; there is no light and there is no pain. It is the never-ending loss of hope that now consumes me as I die in his arms.

This is Abigail Martin’s nightmare. After her parents become the first victims of a serial killer obsessed with the vampire saga, "Crimson Reign," Abigail does the only thing that she thinks will save her from her parent’s fate–she becomes some one else. As Vera MacIntrye, she falls in love with the very handsome Tad Knightley, and then walks into her first day at her new school to see him standing at the front of the classroom. He’s every teenage girls fantasy, but as he writes “Mr. Knightley: AP British Literature” across the white board Vera realizes the one person who filled the gaping hole in her heart will soon rip it wide open again.

Vera struggles to adjust to being a ‘normal’ teenager with very adult responsibilities like paying the rent, buying groceries and making sure that lights stay on, while being drawn time and time again back to her off-limits teacher. What’s worse is he is drawn to her too, and their worlds refuse to stay apart when Tad finds Vera screaming in terror in the parking lot after the winter formal. The murderer has struck again and is getting closer to the next target–Vera. Tad will do whatever he can to save her, even if it means losing his dream job, but will it be enough when the murderer is closer than anyone ever thought?

My Review: I don't think I've ever read about book about a student teacher relationship so as far as that goes I don't have much experience reading about them. I actually really enjoyed reading about Vera and Tad's relationship even though I thought it was a little too much for me at times. I guess that was because you didn't get to see them fall in love, you just saw them already in love.

So going into this book I had expected more mystery. I'm not exactly sure why because this isn't exactly a mystery book its like a romance book with murders. But that's not a bad thing because I actually really enjoyed Vera's relationship with Tad. I also loved Jaz. That girl was my favorite character. She was just an awesome friend to Vera when she needed someone.

The entire murder part of the book was actually very creepy. The murders were based off of the book Crimson Reign which is kind of like the Twilight of that world. I find it extremely creepy how someone would murder someone by draining their blood like a vampire if they weren't a vampire. Then that got me thinking well what if someone started basing murders off of the Twilight books? Now that would be scary. Imagine a sparkly vampire death...

I totally knew who the murderer was. It was very obvious and the murderer was a true psycho. It makes me shiver just thinking about how/why she murdered people. It was sick, but in a sort of sick way I like reading about that.

So overall I enjoyed reading Walking in the Shadows but it was predictable and  I wish there was more of a mystery.

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