To Be Perfectly Honest Review

To Be Perfectly Honest

Written by Sonya Sones
# of pages: 496

My Rating: 4/5

Read in August 2013

Summary according to goodreads

Her friends 
have a joke about her:
How can you tell if Colette is lying?
Her mouth is open.

Fifteen-year-old Colette is addicted to lying. Her shrink says this is because she’s got a very bad case of Daughter-of-a-famous-movie-star Disorder—so she lies to escape out from under her mother’s massive shadow. But Colette doesn’t see it that way. She says she lies because it’s the most fun she can have with her clothes on. Not that she’s had that much fun with her clothes off. At least not yet, anyway. When her mother drags her away from Hollywood to spend the entire summer on location in a boring little town in the middle of nowhere, Colette is less than thrilled. But then she meets a sexy biker named Connor. He’s older, gorgeous, funny, and totally into her. So what if she lies to him about her age, and about who her mother is? I mean, she has to keep her mother’s identity a secret from him. If he finds out who she really is, he’ll forget all about Colette, and start panting and drooling and asking her for her mother’s autograph. Just like everyone always does. But what Colette doesn’t know is that Connor is keeping a secret of his own.

http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17305095-to-be-perfectly-honest

My Thoughts

I recieved a copy of this book for review from Simon and Schuster, but that does not influence my opinion on the novel.

At the beginning of this novel I found this story to be slow and confusing, because there were many scenarios and most of them would be untrue. Having the plot be filled with lies from the very beginning, which I understand was the point was the point of the book, it made it hard to connect to the story and have an understanding for it. Throughout the story, things started to make a lot more sense, and it was a very enjoyable book.

I have mentioned before that I think character development is one of the most important things in a good novel. Colette went through a great deal of character development, which had a positive impact on this story. By the end, Colette was almost a totally different person, and I really enjoyed that. To talk about Connor briefly, he went through the opposite of character development, if that is possible.

There were many things going on in this story, which made it interesting and hard to put down. The reason that I didn't give this book five stars is because sometimes it would seem very cliche, and at times it was confusing. If it were not for the ending of this novel, I would have only given it three stars. While reading this book I had theories of how it would end, but I never expected what happened!

Overall, this book kept me on my toes and I loved every minute of it. This novel was written in verse which made it a quick and easy read. I would recommend this book mostly to young adult readers, and I regret putting off reading it for so long!

Lucy in the Sky Review

Lucy in the Sky

Written by Anonymous
# of pages: 267

Average Rating: 3.94/5
My Rating: 2/5

Read in August 2013

Summary according to goodreads

The author of this diary began journaling on her sixteenth birthday. She lived in an upper middle class neighborhood in Santa Monica with her mom, dad, and Berkeley-bound older brother. She was a good girl, living a good life...but one party changed everything. One party, where she took one taste—and liked it. Really liked it. Social drinking and drugging lead to more, faster, harder... She convinced herself that she was no different from anyone else who liked to party. But the evidence indicates otherwise: Soon she was she hanging out with an edgy crowd, blowing off school and everything she used to care about, all to find her next high.But what goes up must come down, and everything—from her first swig, to her last breath—is chronicled in the diary she left behind.

http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13259161-lucy-in-the-sky

My Thoughts

For reasons I don't understand, I enjoy reading novels that are drug or addiction related. Lucy in the Sky is not one of the best stories I have read from this genre. Since this was a short novel and written in diary form, I thought that this would be a quick read - sadly that was not the case. It took me a while to get into this story, which made it less enjoyable for me from the very beginning. 

I believe that character development is important in a good novel, but sadly I thought that this book was lacking it. There were times when I thought the main character would get her act together, but she ended up getting herself into more trouble. 

After having previously read Go Ask Alice by another "anonymous" author, I felt that this story was very similar. That being said, I am very hesitant to pick up the other books related to this one, such as Jay's Journal. Overall, this book was just okay for me. 

The Forgotten Land Review

The Forgotten Land

Written by Josephine Kelly
# of Pages: 284

My Rating: 4/5

Read in August 2013

* I recieved a copy of this book for review, but that does not affect my opinion on the novel. *

Summary (according to GoodReads)

A child prince of Egypt grows up far away from his land and suffers amnesia. But slowly, he remembers and starts a challenging journey back.


My Thoughts

This novel starts by talking about the life of 4-year-old Prince Liman and his life, as well as his mother dealing with the coming battle that could take their people into slavery. I found this story to be very descriptive in a way that makes you feel as if you are living in this world. This novel included some beautiful pictures and they added a lot to the story. Having these pictures showing the people, things the author was talking about, etc, made it easy to put an image to a provided description. It was a really great experience reading this book and it takes you on an adventure with the characters. 

When you are first getting into this story, there are a lot of characters to keep track of as well as a lot of world building. This can make it seem like the story is going by slowly, but it definitely picks up as the story progresses. 

What I really enjoyed about this book was the different aspects that were included. This novel had a romance going on, a lifelong grudge that needs to be confronted, battles, and, of course, a comedic relief. The ending grabbed my attention and could not let it go. Fingers crossed for a sequel! I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys fast-paced novels about history, because it is worth picking up. 

Check out the book on Goodreads here: 
http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17928112-the-forgotten-land---liman-prince-of-egypt

The Program Review

The Program

Written by Suzanne Young
# of pages: 408

Average Rating: 3.99/5
My Rating: 5/5

Read in August 2013

Summary

In Sloan's world, true feelings are forbidden, teen suicide is an epidemic, and the only solution is The Program. 

Sloane knows better than to cry in front of anyone. With suicide now an international epidemic, one outburst could land her in The Program, the only proven course of treatment. Sloane's parents have already lost one child; Sloane knows they'll do anything to keep her alive. She also knows that everyone who's been through The Program returns as a blank slate. Because their depression is gone - but so are their memories.

Under constant surveillance at home and school, Sloane puts on a brave face and keeps her feelings buried as deep as she can. The only person Sloane can be herself with is James. He's promised to keep them both safe and out of treatment, and Sloane knows their love is strong enough to withstand anything. But despite the promises they made to each other, it's getting harder to hide the truth. They are both growing weaker. Depression is setting in. And The Program is coming for them.

My Thoughts

Right off the bat, I want to talk about the only issue that I had with this book. Being someone who suffers from depression, I feel like she didn't portray the struggle in the right way. Dealing with something like this you need medications, doctors, therapy, etc. Depression cannot be fixed just by erasing the bad moments out of a persons memory.

James. Oh my goodness. One of the things that I loved the most about this book was surprisingly the romance. Normally I find romance in a dystopian novel to be annoying, but in this book I was loving it. James was portrayed as a very likeable guy with a sexy attitude, but the way he was around Sloan was adorable.

There were parts of this book that broke my heart and made me sick to my stomach. I didn't want to keep reading, but I also didn't want to stop. This book played with my emotions, but in the end I am glad I had picked it up.

Casting Call Saturday - The Program by Suzanne Young

So, this is the most amazing idea that I have ever heard. My friend Alyssa (all of her links will be below) came up with the idea of doing a "casting call" for some of our favourite books! I loved this so much that I knew I had to join in. 

For this weeks Casting Call Saturday, I decided to choose a book I just finished which was The Program by Suzanne Young. 

Summary According to GoodReads

In Sloane’s world, true feelings are forbidden, teen suicide is an epidemic, and the only solution is The Program.

Sloane knows better than to cry in front of anyone. With suicide now an international epidemic, one outburst could land her in The Program, the only proven course of treatment. Sloane’s parents have already lost one child; Sloane knows they’ll do anything to keep her alive. She also knows that everyone who’s been through The Program returns as a blank slate. Because their depression is gone—but so are their memories.

Under constant surveillance at home and at school, Sloane puts on a brave face and keeps her feelings buried as deep as she can. The only person Sloane can be herself with is James. He’s promised to keep them both safe and out of treatment, and Sloane knows their love is strong enough to withstand anything. But despite the promises they made to each other, it’s getting harder to hide the truth. They are both growing weaker. Depression is setting in. And The Program is coming for them.

Sloan Barstow (main character) - 

Sloan was a really hard character to pick an actress to play her. After thinking about it for a long time, I realized it was easy all along. The perfect person to match Sloan (looks and personality) is Liz Gillies. You may know her from the Nickelodeon show Victorious, movies, or her singing. I knew that Liz would be the perfect Sloan, because in the novel Sloan was very against the Program, and had a strong attitude - but was smart-assy and sweet with James. On Victorious, she played a girl named Jade who had the same personality. This shows me that Liz would measure up perfectly, and would be able to portay the same attitude that Sloan was giving off. 

James Murphy (love interest) - 

For James, this was the easiest decision I have ever made. I knew the Conor Franta was James Murphy, the minute he was described in the novel. For those of you who have been missing out on this gorgeous human being, Conor is a YouTuber that is kind of sassy, funny, and can have an attitude all while being adorable. In this book, it is repeated that James' eyes are heartstopping, and      

amazing, and blah blah - and Conor's eyes make me stop dead and just stare. They are so bright, and beautiful and ... I'm just gonna stop talking about how much I love him. But lastly, James is referred to as being extremely hot and kind of cocky ... *cough* Conor. 

P.S In case it wasn't obvious enough, I am a big fan of Conor's. 

Michael Realm (Sloan's friend in The Program)

Oh Michael ... Sweet, sexy, loving, sneaky Michael. How do I chose someone to measure up to you? Oh I know, pick the hottest bad boy-looking guy I know. If you don't know who Josh Golden is, he is a man with the voice of an angel WHO IS APPARENTLY ONLY 19! Yes that fact made me very excited. Josh has collabed with Andrew Garcia, Chester See, Andy Lange, and more - and I have bought all of his songs from iTunes. (If you haven't seen their cover of "We Can't Stop" open a new tab and watch it right now! Here's the link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2sgV00yzHSs). I would play Sloan in a heartbeat if these were my leading boys. Heck, I would do it for free if it meant I could be around them all day. 

I'm really hoping you guys agree with me on these picks, but if not let me know who you would have chosen! 

Alyssa

http://acreads.blogspot.ca

http://www.youtube.com/user/acreadsblog

https://twitter.com/AlyssaLunz

The Summer I Turned Pretty Review

The Summer I Turned Pretty

Written by Jenny Han
# of Pages: 276

Average Rating: 4.04 / 5
My Rating: 4 / 5

Read in August 2013

Summary

This book is about a 15 (almost 16) year-old named Belly, who spends every summer at Beck's beach house with her sons - Jeremiah and Conrad. Conrad is around 18 and is older than Belly's brother Steven by 8 months, who is older than Jeremiah by about a year. This makes Belly the youngest, and also the only girl among these guys. However, this summer changes everything. The boys don't see Belly as a little kid anymore as she has started developing into a woman, and things within each of their families are changing. This is a contemporary book about love and heartbreak, but also something in-between. How much can a friendship go though before it is broken?

My Thoughts

This book is the first in a trilogy that I have owned for a while, but have just started getting into. I don't really enjoy trilogy's (especially when they are contemporary) because I find they start to get repetitive and boring. However, I did not find that this was happening with this book, as the plot is so broad it can go anywhere, leaving many possibilites for the next two books.

In this novel there are flashbacks to other summers that Belly has had, and having those memories included added a lot to the story. Without having these flashbacks, you would not have known the whole history of her family or with the Fisher family, which wouldn't have made the story the same.

The only negative thing that I can say about this book was that I wasn't a dan of the character names. They were random like Belly, Laurel, or something along those lines, to average names such as Steven and Taylor. I don't mean to be rude when saying that, it was just having the main character's name being Belly made it harder for me to concentrate fully on the story, because I kept thinking about naming their child after a body part.

Overall, this book might be in my top five list of favourite contemporaries. At the beginning it seems like it might be very cliche, but it has many elements that you wouldn't expect. This book made me laugh, broke my heart, and made me want to go to the beach - but I enjoyed every second of it!

House at the End of the Street Review

Today I thought it would be fun if I read this book, watched the movie afterward, then did a review and comparison for you guys!

House at the End of the Street

BOOK

Written by: Lily Blake

# of pages: 188

Average Rating: 3.63/5

My Rating: 3/5

Read in August 2013

Summary

Elissa and her mom are moving to a new city, trying to move on from their past. Her parents separated and she hasn't talked to her dad in over a year, and her mom hasn't always been there for her. Elissa could not be less thrilled about moving, as she has to leave her current school and all her friends, and move into a house that is next to where a double murder took place 4 years prior. She is shocked to find out that the son involved in this now dead family is normal, and they soon become friends. Elissa's mom is not happy about this fast-forming relationship, as she has a bad feeling about Ryan (the son). Elissa is determined to prove to everyone that Ryan is normal and for people to stop judging him, but is it herself that will be proven wrong in the end?

My Thoughts

I felt that this story went by very quickly, and that everything flowed very well, however there were many faults that I found in this novel. In my opinion, there was not a lot of character development, character descriptions, or even setting descriptions. This made me feel that some aspects of the book were lacking in detail. With there being a lack of detail, it was a lot harder for me to create of mental image, which led to me hardly enjoying this book. 

Reading this, there were many moments in this book I could have done without, some parts were really boring, and there were also parts that didn't make sense to me. I would honestly rate this novel closer to a 2.75/5 instead of a 3, because I didn't enjoy it that much. The reason I cannot give it a higher rating, is because it wasn't a long enough book for me to critic it on the details and such. 

Overall, I was disappointed with this novel as I had high hopes and expectations. I was really hoping that the movie would be better, and restore my faith in thriller films. I didn't find this book to be scary at all, which could have been due to the lack of details and suspense, or just that the plot wasn't that interesting. 

MOVIE

Director: Mark Tonderai

Starring: Jennifer Lawrence, Max Thieriot, Elisabeth Shue

Genre: Horror, Thriller

Release Date: September 21, 2013

Average Rating: 5.4/10

My Rating: 6/10

Watched in August 2013

My Thoughts

I really enjoyed the opening scene as it followed the prologue of the story. This scene played out how I had imagined it would be. Some things in the other scenes were different, but they were only minor details - eating dinner before looking around the woods, some character lines here and there, etc. Unless you haven't read the book, or weren't paying much attention while reading it, you wouldn't have noticed. 

What I missed the most while watching this movie, was being able to read the characters thoughts. Elissa had a lot of thoughts in the book toward her mom and her dad, that were not addressed in the movie. In my opinion, the movie would have been improved if those thoughts could have been included somehow. 

I love Jennifer Lawrence, I think she is amazing, talented, hilarious, and beautiful with a sassy attitude. That being said, I hate to admit that I did not find this to be the best film she has done. 

Overall, this movie seemed to be just like the book, both in the plot, and the way they were slow and boring. 

The Statistical Probabability of Love at First Sight Review

The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight

Written by Jennifer E. Smith
# of Pages: 236

Average Rating: 3.79/5
My Rating: 5/5

Read in August 2013

Summary

Hadley is about to face the worst weekend of her life, as she is on her way to the airport catching a flight to London for her father's wedding. She hasn't talked to her father for a couple of years since he left her mom, and Hadley has yet to meet her future stepmother. After missing her flight, it seems her night is taking a turn for the better when she meets the perfect boy. His name is Oliver, he's British, and he just so happens to be sitting in the same row as her on the plane. Can their connection last longer than the flight? Or is it over once they get through customs? Love has ways of finding you when you're least expecting it.

My Thoughts

This book really made me want to travel! Reading about her being in the airport, on the plane, and travelling London made me envious and miss the experience of traveling. Since I love to travel, this book seemed to be the perfect contemporary fit for me, and I was not disappointed. Also, as I am planning some trips, I can't help but let it cross my mind that this coincidental romance might happen to me some day ... A girl can dream right?

I was wondering how the story would continue with the two main characters after the flight, but OH MY GOODNESS I was not expecting what happened. Once I had gotten about halfway through this novel, I already had an idea forming in my mind of where the story would go. To my surprise, I was wrong but I couldn't have been happier with what took place.

This book really played with my emotions. It made me bored, then excited, then frustrated, then bubbly, and finally I felt satisfied with what was happening. This might be my favourite contemporary that I have ever read. I don't know if it is the fact that the main characters were my age, or the fact that this seems more realistic and not so fairy-tale or far-fetched, but I loved it. I definiely swooned over this book, and found myself hugging it after I had finished it.

Overall, I would recommend this mostly to women/girls, but guys could read this for sure. I suggest girls because there is a lot of romance as well as father/daughter stuff that guys might not be able to connect to as well. I read this book in a day because I didn't want to put it down, but it was also a quick and easy read. If you guys read it, I hope you enjoy it as much as I did!

Casting Call Saturday - Crash by Lisa McMann

So, this is the most amazing idea that I have ever heard. My friend Alyssa (all of her links will be below) came up with the idea of doing a "casting call" for some of our favourite books! I loved this so much that I knew I had to join in.

Jules (main character) - Taryn Southern

For the main character of this novel, it took me a while to think of someone who would be a good fit. Eventually, I thought of Taryn Southern who is a YouTuber that does comedy and music videos. I am a fan of hers, and not only because she does videos with Chester See. I think Taryn is talented (she was on American Idol), and funny (have you seen her internet stalker video with Chester? Go watch it). Imagine Jules as a younger Taryn, and you will have a perfect match to     what I see. 

Sawyer (love interest) - Cole from IM5

Reading this book I imagined Sawyer as a sexy bad boy type, with dirty blonde hair and piercing dark eyes. Cole gives off the vibe of a preppy school boy, but also as a sexy badass/heartthrob. It was very easy for me to pick someone that would fit this mold quite easily - Cole from IM5. Am I attracted to Cole? Of course. Does that affect my decision about who I picked? Of course. But clearly I am not wrong in my choice, however if you disagree; let me know who you would pick down in the comments!

Trey (Jules' brother) -  Jim Verraros

Trey is Jule's older brother who happens to be gay, but is also the person who affects her decisions the most. These siblings are best friends and are close in age. Based on Jim's personality, and how the author portrayed Trey, I thought these two were the perfect combination. Plus he's hot and that is just an added bonus. 

Alyssa
http://acreads.blogspot.ca
http://www.youtube.com/user/acreadsblog
https://twitter.com/AlyssaLunz